[This is a more budget-friendly version of my normal Linessa deck (http://www.mtgvault.com/jre47/decks/delusions-of-grandeur-linessa). This deck was stripped down for the Spellflinging Budget Challenge taking place at http://www.mtgvault.com/couch312/decks/spellflinging-challenge; I removed the very budget-UNfriendly Snapcaster Mage to make it fit the criteria.]
Grandeur: one of those fun Future Sight abilities that hasn't gone anywhere...at least, not yet. To date, only one card in each color uses it. But that doesn't mean we can't try building around it!
Blue's Grandeur champion is Linessa, an heir of the famous fellow Zephyr Mage, Alexi. (Just check out her staff.) Her abilities make this tie clear:
"{X}{U}{U}, {T}: Return target creature with converted mana cost X to its owner's hand.
Grandeur — Discard another card named Linessa, Zephyr Mage: Target player returns a creature he or she controls to its owner's hand, then repeats this process for an artifact, an enchantment, and a land."
Both effects bounce stuff. The latter can be devastating...I think it kind of speaks for itself.
But even the former is fantastic if you exploit it a little. What if you can often make X a 0? Two blue mana to bounce a creature, each turn, ain't bad at all.
We can do this with an idea I used for another deck: replacing opponent's creatures with (0-costed) token creatures. That's right, it's time to Pongify! (And Rapid Hybridization, too.) Then Linessa's first ability reads: {U}{U}, tap Linessa: Exile target creature." Now THAT is power.
Better still, how'd you like to exile enchantments, instants, and sorceries? With Swan Song and Linessa, you can!
If Pongify/Hybridization won't work on a particular creature for whatever reason, you can still get rid of it permanently by bouncing with Linessa and then either countering it when they try to replay it or forcing them to discard it from their hand with Piracy Charm.
Your wincon is then something unusual for blue: beating face. Linessa can swoop in herself, or hit them with Hunted Phantasm (and between Linessa and Echoing Truth, you know what to do about those token creatures he gives the opponent). Equip them with a Runechanter's Pike and it can be over very quickly.
One other card of particular note is Minamo, School at Water's Edge. It is SO good with Linessa, letting you use her ability and untap to attack, or use her ability twice in a turn. Tolaria West can tutor for it (or Cavern of Souls, if you need that).
The sideboard has a ton of counterspells to pull in if needed, Venarian Glimmer to force more discarding, and Curse of the Swine to token-ify mass creatures.
What do you think? Anything you can think of to boost Linessa even further, or make her Grandeur ability more reliable? Any constructive comments will net you +1 rep points. Thanks in advance!
If you like this idea, check out my other Grandeur decks:
Green: http://www.mtgvault.com/jre47/decks/delusions-of-grandeur-baru
Black: http://www.mtgvault.com/jre47/decks/delusions-of-grandeur-korlash
White: http://www.mtgvault.com/jre47/decks/delusions-of-grandeur-oriss
Red: http://www.mtgvault.com/jre47/decks/delusions-of-grandeur-tarox