Nice block deck! I would probably only change a couple things. First, I think it could be very useful in block to run at least 3, if not 4, Contagion Clasps because it's "unblockable" poison. Plus, it works well with Tumble Magnet and another card I think you should try - Sphere of the Suns. It seems like it might be almost needed in block multicolor decks because the mana fixing is soo bad! Haha. If you did add it, it may even pay off to add Tezzeret, honestly as you'd have enough artifacts to make him useful and he can make Inkmoth Nexus an incredibly fast clock for a land. Nice deck overall.:)
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You should add Phyrexian Metamorph! Infinite life combo with Relic-Warder if you have one of your hoes out too. Haha. Honestly, I love these kinds of decks. They're really pretty fun to play with at times.:)
Honestly, I'm not even sure. I've kinda given up on this deck for now. Was just an idea to toy around with before NPH came in.
Ok, jw... what do you side Beast Within in against? Seems like a fine card, though I'm just not sure what it'd be worth sideboarding it for... I think I'd maybe almost prefer another Spellskite instead. Then you get potentially 10 cards plus a swamp that you could sideboard in against Splinter Twin. Other notable observations... Why the one-of Inkmoth Nexus? Seems a bit random for this deck. Also, what happened to Gideon? I still think the card is sick and against Splinter Twin (Assuming he lands) you can just +2 him until you need him to attack for a final turn for lethal damage. (+2ing him will ensure you don't get comboed out against and you can follow up that next turn and hopefully attack back for lethal (against a smart opponent though isn't likely I admit) or have an extra turn to draw into a way to stop the combo.
Well, basically... Play the best white cards to slow the game down using removal and such. Tumble Magnet and Everflowing Chalice are great with Contagion Clasp (as is Inkmoth Nexus). All is Dust seems to have been forgotten but is sick against most decks. The deck was pre-NPH, though and I don't see it as terribly viable anymore (especialy as is). If I were to update it (doubtful), I'd definitely work in a nice Stoneforge package.
Haha, yeah... I'd considered BSZ but I feel like Consume the Meek may have become slightly better now with the addition of Splinter Twin as it is an instant. Plus, it's basically the same price as BSZ is to kill most creatures that are on the top end that BSZ would want to wipe - think sworded hawks or Mystics... I feel like Consume the Meek can lead to more potential blowouts, although being able to cast BSZ at 3 mana is huge in some matches... It's a tradeoff either way and I can totally see the argument for either side. The one thing about the spellbomb that I do like is that even in just one slot, it can easily be sided in but can be played as a virtual 4-of with the 3 Trinket Mages. Siding in 3 Extractions won't do quite as much against Vengevine I think as if you draw multiples it doesn't help much. However, I could definitely see running Extraction over Spellbomb simply because it can rape the Splinter Twin deck if you just disrupt one piece of the combo! As for Act of Aggression, I'm still honestly not sure. I feel like there are certainly going to be matches where it just isn't what you want to draw (aka against a red deck when you're under 10 health - putting yourself close to bolt range never seems like the best plan...) though many games it could be amazing. Idk. I'm certainly going to try sideboarding at least a couple in several of my decks and see how it goes from there.
Haha, see! It's always the stupid red decks.;) Yeah... they're maybe not "True" red decks but they don't win without red, right?! Yeah, I still think a single Nihil Spellbomb seems ok against Vengevine decks, though they aren't terribly common, but do show up. Against the Splinter Twin deck, I still like my idea of Act of Aggression (which also actually seems fine against Valakut as you can search up a couple Tectonic Edge and shoot down their titan after attacks with your own Doom Blade or something. Another card that seems fine is a single Consume the Meek. Mental Misstep could be fine against the Grixis Twin decks with a bunch of hand disruption. Another interesting option could be Blood Seeker as in order to combo you out they need to land 21 guys (20+ 1 that gets blocked) which is conveniently over their health limit. Spellskite is probably much more versatile though and maybe just better overall anyways I feel like the Valakut matchup should be fine overall for a deck like this. 4 Flashfreeze just increases your game against them. So yeah, overall I'd say cut the Ratchet Bomb like you were thinking for Spellskite. The rest looks decent overall but if you could fit in 1 Consume the Meek, 1 Nihil Spellbomb, and a couple Act of Agression, I think it'd be almost perfect.
You turn them into creatures using the Lattice and March of the Machines... Complicated but neat process.
You didn't specify... And I'm just pointing out that it is actually part of the rules, that's all... Interestingly enough, however, paying the morph cost on a facedown creature is not an activated ability (not that it's entirely relevant, but just some bonus trivia).
That's like saying cards with enters the battlefield effects aren't triggered abilities because they don't say triggered on the card. Loyalty abilities are a form of activated abilities that are activated through loyalty counters. They're activated abilities but by stating that they are a specific kind (loyalty), it negates the need for additional text such as that it is only sorcery speed abilities and such as it is then implied by being a loyalty ability. The following is a link to the magicthegathering website page discussing the general rules for planeswalkers. Take notice of the first sentence under the heading of "Planeswalker Abilities." It says, "Each planeswalker has a number of activated abilities on it." Seems pretty clear to me... Here's the link: http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=magic/rules/planeswalkers
I'm liking it. Nice to see you back in your original element.:) I have just a few small things I'd like to mention though. 1. I feel like you should maybe have just 1 or 2 other 1-drop artifacts in the deck for Trinket Mage. There will be matchups where Hex Parasite is simply not that great so you should at least have something else to find (Elixer, Effigy, or Chalice are my top picks I think, though there may be some other NPH card I've overlooked or forgotten at the moment). Plus, if you really just want the Parasite that bad, why not just run 4 instead of having "3" that cost 4 mana instead of 1 (I do realize the Mage helps in sideboarding a bit too...) Nice idea though. Just could be slightly expanded. Maybe cut 1 Trinket Mage if you don't go this route ("5" Hex Parasites is a bit excessive). 2. I'm not sure Dismember is really the best removal spell you can use as it can't hit titans, and in black you already have Dismember for small stuff and GftT and Doom Blade for anything else. That being said, it is nice in that it's fairly versatile so as a 1-of it would probably be fine, but I don't think I'd want more than that if you're running this much black. 3. Despise is a great new discard spell, but I'm not sure it's truly better than Inquisition at the moment. The biggest problem is that it can't hit swords or countermagic (to help force your threats through). Because of this, I'd probably actually want to swap the numbers around and maybe work in a 6th discard spell in the form of Duress (it's the one discard spell that can hit Batterskull and Splinter Twin - may soon be very relevant). So, that would mean something more like a 3-2-1 split going IoK, Despise, Duress. 4. Your deck is built quite nicely overall (I mentioned a few minor tweaks is all that I'd make), but I would probably work on fixing the sideboard a little as Caw-Blade is still a major threat. Your sideboard really doesn't have a ton of ways to really address that issue (IMO). Surgical Extraction is really only mediocre against them and Nighthawks are ok except that they can now get pro-black equpiment and rebuyable "Baneslayers" that can trade all day long. I'd probably want another Jace Beleren in the SB and maybe a couple more Tumble Magnets for a start. Because of cards like Birthing Pod and the green Chancellor, Fauna Shaman decks with Vengevine are picking up again so a 1-of Nihil Spellbomb could be very nice in the SB as well that can be searched with Trinket Mage. I really like some of the new ways that NPH is allowing this deck to make a comeback and hope this does well for you! It looks really solid overall. Hope I could help with a few possible tweaks.:)
Wow... I feel really stupid for that last post with all the ideas for standard.. I even knew it was block before but I guess forgot and haven't checked on this deck for like 2 weeks.:P Ha, sorry I still don't have much to go off then...
See.. You're actually kinda wrong there. As was pointed out by Jellow3579, rule 606.3 clearly states that Loyalty abilities are for permanents, not exclusively planeswalkers so this combo does work, but only once per turn. It's kind of like how when a card says "X: *Cardname* gets flying until end of turn," the Kraj can still use that ability for itself, even though it doesn't share the same name. The rules basically allow it to work as "this permanent" instead of *cardname*. Hope that kind of makes sense...
Yeah... Guess I forgot to change it before. Oops... Haha.
Where you're getting confused is that cards that deal direct damage to players (aka Lightning Bolt) don't say it can deal damage to Planeswalkers. When 'walkers were printed they cleared up this problem by stating that to hit the 'walker with a Lightning Bolt, you have to target the player who controls it and then choose to redirect the damage to the 'walker. However, cards like Beast Within or Vindicate can still directly hit the Planeswalker because it says "target permanent."
If you read the comment above it explains this. Misty Rainforest is still pretty cheap I'd say - a bit over $10 compared to the UB fetch from Onslaught block which is over $30. As for the Jace, they are obviously not budget but they are the only 2 cards worth over $15 and I already happened to have a couple through trades so I figured I may as well play them. So if you remove the Jaces (which are now down in price considerably and roughly equal to Force in value) the deck is pretty easily under $200. Keep in mind that your average top 8 Legacy deck is probably closer to $2000! Plus, even most of the better standard decks cost over $500 now days (probably closer to $300 if you remove the Jaces). So all in all, I feel like I can pretty safely say it's budget. If you don't have JtMS, you can easily swap them out for other cards. I don't even think this is the best deck for him, but like I said, if you got him you may as well use him...
So... Then you can't go infinite with this... Doesn't that kind of make the whole thing pointless in a way then? I mean, I guess after going through all that trouble you then get to virtually have 2 of any planeswalker down at once...
Yeah, it's expensive, and yes, people hate to play against it, and yes it's way overpowered... blah blah blah. But I can't seriously be the only person who thinks Jace, the Mind Sculptor looks unbelievably BA in that art! It just so epic! Other than that, I've always been a sucker for the art on lands. My favorite are probably Hallowed Fountain, Godless Shrine, Watery Grave, Scalding Tarn, and the Zendikar Island by Véronique Meignaud. That's a lot, I know... If I had to narrow it down, I'd say Jace, the Island and Hallowed Fountain though it's really tough.:/
Ravnica did indeed have all the best lands, because they had such a variety of awesomeness! Zendikar lands were really cool, when full body, but Ravnica lands (all of them, really) were just sweet without need to be full body art!
Interesting... Please explain more about this damage limit deal... How do you measure your damage limit? I feel like this deck would have a very hard time dealing 41 damage by turn 4 when your opponent can DoJ the board, combo off with Splinter Twin, or Pyroclasm, Slagstorm, etc. 20, maybe, but 41? I'm thinking not. I think you're seriously underrating the power Kor Firewalker has against red decks. It's not hard to imagine Caw-Blade to rush it out on turn two at all and when they do, it WILL mean trouble for you. It means you can't attack nearly as effectively, your burn almost sucks, and they're that much more likely to hit their Jace, DoJ, Gideon, or w/e they need. Idk man. I need more explaining about this damage limit before I can fully agree with you. I did do a few sample hands (about 7 or 8) and never did see a turn two kill, or even turn 3 for that matter.:/
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