Sorcerous Spyglass is definitely superior. Thing is, the consistency of playing them earlier is quite small since I don't run City of Traitors.
I think everyone will agree that lands being destroyed earlier, like in turns 2 and/or 3 is quite daunting. Much worst if manarocks are not around in the early turns. Yes, an early Pithing for Wasteland is not always a good play but it will make sure that you'll come up with other threats in an earlier time provided with an absurd amount of mana.
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As what've Tucane said, Trinisphere is only good if played early or in turn 1. Other than that, then it's of no use anymore since they already landed a threat. Safe to say, it is good every now and then, but it won't be in the mid-game or the latter part of the game since your opponent can just move around it.
Trinispheres and Chalices are definitely good, but there are just games that you don't have much need of them.
Also, I am found of adjusting the deck every tournament. I don't play the same list twice. What I know for a fact in our meta is that there are a few people who plays decks that have a higher win rate against ours ( ex. Combo / Burn ) so why do I have to bother coming up with a strategy that will beat a few troublesome decks rather than focus on the flexibility of the deck to beat the other majority?
For now, this is just me adjusting to the meta here in our country and probably if I'm overseas then I might adjust to the default shell. ;)
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Question for everyone- How important is Grim Monolith here? I've seen some lists do well without it (Like http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=18296&d=313434&f=LE), but I'm not sure if they just couldn't afford it or what.
The list you linked is just Eldrazi Stompy with a minor Eye of Ugin/ramp plan to solve problems down the line. Eldrazi Stompy doesn't usually run Monolith 'cause it curves out at 5-6 and has a large number of 2-4 drops so it focuses on threats rather than ramp. Eldrazi Ramp is about ramping and dropping bombs. The only early plays the deck can make are accel, lock pieces or some defenses and the gameplan involves getting to ~7-10 mana and dropping enough nukes for the enemy to go down. This is why it's so different.
Last edited by Eldariel; 02-08-2018 at 07:06 AM.
I'm thinking of trying out mox diamond as a replacement for basalt or Dynamo. It ups the odds of 2 mana on turn one, opening up Monolith, chalice, and sphere openings. It's a terrible draw after the fact but speed.
Thoughts?
I also tried using Mox Diamonds for this deck. Yeah, most of the time you get an explosive play (1st turn Trinisphere) Also, there are a lot of times that you don't have a need for the Mox Diamond and you'd rather play the land instead of pitching it to the artifact.
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I have tested Mox D as a 3-of, but it often felt subpar or awkward.
Example hand; E.Temple, Cloudpost, Glimmerpost, Mox D, TKS, Chalice, Ulamog
Here we can have turn 1 chalice into turn 2 Tks, but it will likely cost us our Cloudpost and stunt our lategame mana. We could also turn 1 chalice into turn 3 TKS to keep the Cloudpost, still losing a 2-Mana Eldrazi land in the process.
Except for excess Eye of Ugin's, our lands are often too valueable for these 1 for 2 shenanigans, also we don't play crucible or other means of land-recursion.
I just got another Top-8 with my build in a Legacy Challenge. I played 3 Azor's Gateways to test them out and they were pretty solid. I flipped it once but the filtering effect was pretty valuable even when I didn't get to "ultimate" it.
I only lost in the last round of the swiss to a punishing fire/deathrite shaman deck after making a mistake of exiling Ulamog and keeping Kozilek at the end when I should have kept Ulamog and dying to Ob Nixilis ultimate (lol).
And I lost in the Top-8 to classic Grixis Delver Daze/Spell Pierce/Force/Wastelands. I lost G1 and won G2 and had a shot to win G3 but he had double Wasteland and I got greedy by playing Cloudpost #1 and Cloudpost #2 back-to-back when if I had baited out the second Wasteland with an Ancient Tomb I probably would have had a good shot to win the game because I had Ugins in hand and he only won the game with Delver/2xDRS on the board.
- 'Pathy' on MTGO
- Eastern PA player
Sometimes it was efficient for getting ahead early (trinisphere), others it felt like it didn't make any difference at all. Was fine vs Wasteland but it didn't help much vs multiple waste, as we cant cast much off Land+Diamond. I would rather play Key or Spyglass or both.
Petal has been a consideration, as has Spirit Guides which answer Daze efficiently, like in Eldrazi Stompy.
I will test it soon, but i have a feeling that losing a card isn't worth it.
I really don't like Petal except in combo decks or fast aggro decks that don't mind the card disadvantage...
And I really don't like Mox Diamond except in decks that can recur lands from the graveyard (either with Life from the Loam or Crucible of Worlds). If you include Crucible of Worlds it can work but then you're kind of building a different deck, imho.
- 'Pathy' on MTGO
- Eastern PA player
No, Coercive Portal is strictly a sideboard card.
Azor's Gateway has the potential to be a maindeck mainstay... still need to test more to really determine.
Coercive Portal is too slow to be maindeck - it only really is worthwhile vs. grindy controlish decks. Whereas Azor's Gateway lets you filter cards immediately in a deck that lacks card quality/card advantage. And of course, the "ultimate" payoff when you flip it.
- 'Pathy' on MTGO
- Eastern PA player
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