Discussion Forum

- Momentary Blink is the best blink spell ever printed

- Why do you play Grand Abolisher? It's a good creature when you are a combo deck and you want to protect your combo as it shuts down interaction. If you can Vial it in for instance the turn you're about to combo out. If you're not playing a combo deck it's an inconvinience for your opponent at best but most of the time it's just a Grizzly Bear.

- why 3 of everything. Play cards you want early on (low casting cost) 4 times and decrease the count of cards you need mid game or late game. At mana cost 6 you don't need 3 Captain of the Watch for instance.

- Leyline of Sanctity is a typical sideboard card, you only need it against certain decks and most of the time it's just a dead card. And If you need it you'll need 4.

- Ice Cage can be replaced by journey to nowhere which is just better. Path to Exile is probably even better.

- I don't understand why you play Thought Scour

- Instead of Alchemist's Apprentice you could play Augury Owl or simular creature with a come in play effect. If most of your creatures have come in play effects you can maximize your flicker theme.
Personally I like a creature like Mnemonic Wall (maybe there are better alternatives by now) that can reuse stuff like path to exile, blinking it every turn can do crazy shit. For instance With venser in play blinking Mnemonic Wall and reusing Time Warp taking infinite turns if you're opponent is out of spot removal the turn you play it.

- another great spell in blink decks is Aethermage's Touch which seems to have been forgotten. It's really powerful combined with momentary blink, come in play effects and or really fat nasty creatures.

So what about this: http://www.mtgvault.com/whynotnonsense/decks/peekaboo/

I really appreciate the suggestions and I think that this is ultimately a better deck than before...

better but I think you run to many blink effects, it will result in dead cards. Try to maximize the options blinking gives you. If you have multiple creatures in play that give you a come in play benefit it gives you many options.

- Wall of Omens for instance instead of Angelic Wall nets you a card and provides a blink target

- Mulldrifter can be a Divination when you really need it to be and is absurt with something like Cloudshift. You evoke it for 2:manau:, then respond to the trigger with Cloudshift resulting in a 2/2 flying body that stays in play and you draw 4 cards.

- a Reveillark or two gets your creatures back from the graveyard and with Body Double creates a nice hard to break combo. Add Mirror Entity to that and you can create an infinite loop. Mirror Entity is also a great overrun.

- Cloudgoat Ranger is a cheaper version of Captain of the Watch

...

I agree.
I could probably do without Nephalia Smuggler don't you think?

So far I have all the cards except venser and I've realized that I need a way to kill. Because when I play-tested this deck it did a great job at holding its own against oncoming forces but it's left without a viable strategy to kill or to cause a threat. So i think I'm going to spend some time on that aspect.

I really like those suggestions (I'm definitely adding a couple Mirror Entity) And truly appreciate such detailed, constructive feedback!

And would Talrand, Sky Summoner be a good card to add? or do I not have enough instants for it to be effective? Or maybe someTalrand's Invocation to add some more bodies, plus it would work nicely with mnemonic wall. Just a thought

I always build with the following guidelines in mind (for casual play, for tournament play I can build to a less open meta and it's easier to predict my opponents)

- if I play a good creature my opponent will destroy it so it must be either gamechanging if he can't destroy it right away or it needs a come in play or leaves play trigger so that even if he destroys it I will have a benefit from having played it (think Stoneforge Mystic, Primeval Titan, Solemn Simulacrum, Kitchen Finks etc...). A third strategy is punching through removal by redundancy but it's not a strategy I like to use as it's a typical aggro strategy and it suffers from a lot of drawbacks mid and late game.

- If I have a superior board presence my opponent will sweep (wrath of god effect) and if he has a superior board presence I need to be able to sweep.


These are great controlish building guidelines and the last one solves your I need a win condition problem. Wrath of God is a 7$ card, Day of Judgement a 3$ card, Supreme Verdict a 7$ card and for control players it's a gamechanger. Aggro decks are faster then control decks, they are playing creature after creature while we try to survive and build up our mama base/recourses. Once we get to the turning point we sweep and take over the game with superior cards. A superior card doesn't mean it needs to cost a lot of money.
Lyev Skyknight for instance is a superior card/creature, it has evasion, a great aggresive body and most important it takes out a creature of your opponent for 1 turn. If you can blink for free with Venser for instance that 1 turn can become every turn.
Captain of the Watch is another superior card, it's expensive and on an already cluttered board not all that great but if you can Wrath of God, pass the turn, Your opponent is out of cards, he top decks and plays a mighty Tarmogoyf and passes the turn and you follow up with Captain of the Watch now that's card advantage. That Goyf isn't going to do much for at least 4 turns and that's what control decks are all about. Time isn't an issue, it's the incremental advantage they gain over fast decks as the game progresses.

Currently you play a creature heavy version of your blink control deck. I used to play a 3 color esper (:manaw::manau::manab:) version of this archetype. Early game I used Mana Leak, Swords to Plowshares, Shriekmaw (evoked for 2 mana so I could use it as a terror) and Aven Riftwatcher to stay alive. Then I played wrath of God to reset the board and gain card advantage and I took over with Mulldrifter (card advantage), Reveillark and Body Double (soft lock and graveyard reccurance) and even Angel of Despair or Skeletal Vampire as one offs to overpower my opponent. Blinking these creatures gives so much value and it's such a great archtype with so many building options and variations.
The mana base could be as cheap as 4xEsper Panorama, 4xArcane Sanctum and basics or a few pain lands or something.


As for your creatures I would play maybe 1 Nephalia Smuggler as his ability is only useful late game. Mistmeadow Witch is a simular creature from Lorwyn block but superior as it doesn't require you to tap it for its ability. If you have 6 mana you can play it and blink the same turn.

Talrand, Sky Summoner is good if it doesn't get removed and you can make ik work but if not it's just 4 mana for a bear which is expensive. I would again only play 1 for late game crazyness and I only see it as good after a wrath of God.
Talrand's Invocation is totally not waht your deck is about unless you start abusing Mnemonic Wall and that but then you could play better sorceries. In fact I think reccuring something as simple as Sleep would be better.

What about a card like frost titan?

I could sweep, then play captain of the watch, then next turn play frost titan and swing. Just a thought of a bigger card with benefits. I was thinking about adding 2, then putting in 1 Talrand, Sky Summoner to add to the bigger hitters.

I replaced angelic walls with wall of omens and reduced my blink effects to create what seems to be a more solid deck with a bigger punch. Also thinking about throwing in some mull drifters but not sure what to take out yet..

http://www.mtgvault.com/whynotnonsense/decks/peekaboo/

yeah Frost Titan is a beast, I love it. It's perfectly in line with what you are trying to do but like you said a mana cost like that in a deck that doesn't ramp requires a boardsweep to recover from a fast opening by your opponent.

You bringing up Frost Titan made me think of Cackling Counterpart. A spell that I initially wrote off as bad until someone compared it to a blink spell with an edge. It's an overcosted Momentary blink but it gives you an extra copy. Being Mna cost 3 I would only play 1 or 2 but it's worth concidering. It would be great on your finishers like Captain of the Watch and Frost Titan.

I see you now play negate, Can I ask why? What do you hope to negate? Is it a meta choise?

Mnemonic wall, concidering it's cost of 5 is something you can safely cut to 2 slots instead of 4. Solemn Simulacrum would be great in those slots,

Something I now notice is that you're at 20 lands. 20 lands without acceleration will have you cast spells of CC3 but everything above that will be very hard to cast, you won't have the mana.

I would probably start with 4xSolemn Simulacrum, 4xAzorius Signet, 22 land and start tweaking those numbers by playtesting. Early game I would stall my opponent with guys like Wall of Omens to stall, once I have the mana let the big guys take over. Do bear in mind that if you play a lot of land and some acceleration it will create a situation where you have the mana but not the cards so you need a means to draw more cards. Something like Concentrate or Fact or Fiction (instant being far better in your deck then sorcery) or whatever...
A creature that draws cards would be nice but they are usually expensive (mana cost wise). There's a creature called Slithermuse that draws cards but it's more of a multiplayer card. In one on one chances are you'll have more cards at any given time then your opponent (or at least you should being the control player).

I originally had negate when my deck didn't really have a clear purpose but for some reason left it in my deck when I took mana leak and a couple other pointless instants out..

I agree that Solemn Simulacrum and Azorius Signet would be quite useful in this deck as well as land giving cards.

When you bring up not getting the cards, isn't that where Augury Owl comes into play quite nicely? Or would it be even better to combo him with a divination or possibly it would be a good pairing with mulldrifter...

Another thing was that when I play tested it might have just been poor shuffling but even with over 8 different cards that utilized the blink effect I still wasn't drawing any spells and was therefore killed off pretty quickly. Do you think this was just a bad draw?

http://www.mtgvault.com/whynotnonsense/decks/peekaboo/

probably not, control builds are terrible at topdecking, they really need to sculpt their draws. That's why in legacy tournaments brainstorm is concidered the best spell ever printed (and legacy legal), we abuse the synergy of looking at the top X cards (brianstorm, Jace, Seinsei's Divining Top), select what we want and shuffle the rest back in the deck using something that triggers a deck shuffle (fetchland, knight of the reliquary, Land Tax...).
Every turn is a fight to get the right answer, get it and the game continues, miss it and you're dead.

In your case, in casual play, there is less pressure but you still need to sculpt your draws. If you can select what you draw almost each turn you need less land and less redundancy of key cards.

Augury Owl is indeed very good but if it were to net you a card it would be perfect, as it is you're still suffering from card disadvantage. For instance if your opponent plays a Goyf and you an Owl you will both have spend 2 mana but your owl will die blocking the goyf and as such your opponent is a card a head of you. Your benefit is stalling him for 1 turn and sculpting your next draw. This is why I like Solemn Simulacrum so much and why I think it's one of the best creatures ever printed. It stalls your opponent by providing a body that can block, and meanwhile it accelerates your landbase, fixes your colors and when it blocks and dies nets you a card. It's the perfect control creature.

There are alternatives to Augury Owl, my old school weapon of choice is Raven Familiar. The new critter in this category is Augur of Bolas at 2 mana and sort of netting you a card but not always and you don't sculpt your deck. Court Hussar is a nice one as well but he can't be blinked without killing him. Sea Gate Oracle is another such creature.

Anyway, the more cards you have that sculpt your draws or at least just draw you a card the less land you'll need and the less redundancy of spells.