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Contrite Cleric
2/1 flyer.
Sacrifice: exile all cards from Target player's graveyard.
We can tutor for it with Recruiter of the Guard, but just getting a one time use out of Contrite Cleric makes me skeptical. Faerie Macabre can't get countered and is 0 mana instant speed without Vial, Rest in Peace is a continuous effect, and Grafdigger's Cage comes down on turn one. Definitely good enough to test, just too slow and not high enough impact.
Fucks me up royally. That is a card slower graveyard decks are going to be a dog to.
It is better to ask and look stupid then keep your mouth shut and remain so.
Originally Posted by Spam
I hope your afterlife is filled with eternal torment.
Fuck. Which one of my quotes do I drop for this?
This is what we should be concerning ourselves with, as it is quite scary imo.
uhhhhh.This is what we should be concerning ourselves with, as it is quite scary imo.
I hope that is a fake.
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."
"Politicians are like diapers. They should be changed often and for the same reason."
"Governing is too important to be left to people as silly as politicians."
"Politicians were mostly people who'd had too little morals and ethics to stay lawyers."
It's not. It's part of a cycle.
It is better to ask and look stupid then keep your mouth shut and remain so.
I hope your afterlife is filled with eternal torment.
Fuck. Which one of my quotes do I drop for this?
This Horse is not going to be more concerning then every other piece of -1/-1 effects or sweepers. Dread of Night is much better, Marsh Casualties is and a lot of other cards are better then this Horse...Its not going to ruin DnT imo
For the love of Thalia I hope you are correct...
We're the only people dumb enough to play 3 drops in legacy.
Idk, Kolaghan's Command seems popular enough...
I think Remorseful Reverend is the real deal. It's a 2-mana, 2-power flyer, which was already a viable flex option (see Selfless Spirit). While it's not the most powerful disruption, it is reasonable for a large number opponents in game 1. While RiP would have been better than Crypt, the reality is that a RiP-Bear's survival time would not likely have been long anyway in the removal-dominated format that is Legacy, and so the difference between the two is not quite as large as one might think. It's not an SB card, it's a 1-3x MB card in the same vein as Revoker: reasonably useful weak-disruption on an acceptably-sized body.
As for Death Pony, that card will clearly be unpleasant for us, but probably not more so than many of the other things out there. Unfortunately, this one actually does work against Shalai, but that's not likely to be too relevant. Most decks will keep playing Deluge, Marsh Casualties, and Massacre.
I've been waiting for RiP-Bear for a long time now. It's not even spoiled in English yet and it's got a spot on my sideboard. The fact that it has flying is icing on the cake.
You waited for a rip-bear, they give you a tormod's bear, and you are still happy...?
It's an over-costed rest in piece of crap...
Still happy with Tormod's Bear. I'd be happier with First-striking RiP-Angel at 2 or 3 mana, but this is the best so far.
What if we take this as a base, with Brightling and Remorseful Cleric (RC hereafter) as new includes that seem very strong. I'm going to go with some points Medea_ made on his stream this morning and then add a few thoughts.
Creaturesc 23 (2-3 slots open)
4 Flickerwisp
4 Mother of Runes
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Recruiter of the Guard
2 Brightling
1 Remorseful Cleric
Spells 8
4 Aether Vial
4 Swords to Plowshares
Equipment 3
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
Lands 23 (0-1 slots open)
12 white
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
3 Karakas
Sideboard
2 Cataclysm
2 Canonist
2 RiP
2 Surgical/Faerie
2 Path to Exile
2 Council's Judgment
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
2 Other (Containment Priest, Gideon, Sanctum Prelate, Pithing Needle, etc.)
WARNING: WALL OF TEXT INCOMING
Meta decks Medea_ focused on:
Grixis Delver, 4c Control, Miracles, Sneak and Show, Mono-R Prison, Lands, Reanimator, DnT, Eldrazi Stompy. (I would add in ANT; Elves isn't getting better in either case.)
The New Cards
1. Brightling seems very strong against the current Tier 1 meta: lifegain is relevant, being able to adjust P/T is relevant, bounce to evade is relevant, and vigilance isn't bad sometimes too. However, it also has a bit of a logic of it's own that it exerts on the deck building.
a. 1WW with a lot of W for effects means lands not making W are less and less welcome. Shapeshifter also makes Cavern pretty bad. The result is that we want maximum true W sources, making Horizon Canopy and possibly Flagstones the only really viable alternatives to Plains + Karakas as we currently stand.
b. Brightling may or may not make Batterskull less important. Lifelink is the first obvious similarity, but so is the ability to bounce it, and for W instead of 3. Brightling can be Vialed in but not tutored for. Brightling can also become a 5/1 or 1/5 depending on what you really need.
c. Does this become the new way to race TNN, despite the lack of offensive evasion (bounce is strictly defensive evasion)?
2. RC is a 2/1 flyer for 1W that exiles from target player's graveyard on sac. Those are not bad stats and effects.
a. Strong against Delver, ANT, and 4C in general, great against Reanimator, and Lands. Probably not hugely relevant against Mono-R Prison, Eldrazi Stompy, Elves and Sneak and Show.
b. Seems like it would wear a sword well and will come down reliably on turn 2, unlike the better tank known as Serra Avenger which is a slot it would fight over.
c. Does not necessarily wreck Tarmogoyf or DRS since it only hits one graveyard. Just saying.
d. Not taxed by Thalia and comes in off of Vial, which are important attributes.
Questions about choices if we are using Brightling main
1. Deck space gets tighter because the flex slots more or less have been 5-6 slots currently taken up by Serra Avenger, Mirran Crusader, Palace Jailer and to a much lesser extent, Shalai.
2. Probably makes a very strong case for 24 lands so you can have 16 white sources.
3. I don't think RC changes the deck as much as Brightling, since there are still plenty of situations in which we want RiP and Surgical/Faerie in the side.
Trying to Get Out of the Box (I lay no claim to making new claims here, I am just trying to assemble some thoughts i have had and ideas I have heard)
1. Do we need Batterskull if we have 1-2 Brightling?
a. Option 1: -1 SFM,, -1 Batterskull
b. Options 2a-c: -1 Batterskull, +1 Other Sword. 2a: This is potentially interesting because Sword of War and Peace is both another source of life gain and a very good card against Miracles and DnT. 2b: However, with the abilities, maybe Sword of Feast and Famine is interesting for the untap after combat, though I think it pairs less well with Crusader and does less for us in general. 2c: If lifelink and one-sided graveyard hate is relevant, maybe Sword of Light and Dark is a consideration?
2. Is Cataclysm worse if consistent access to W mana is increasingly important?
a. Cataclysm is very good versus Lands and Miracles, but would any of the above alter that math?
b. Would something like Gideon come back or even Elpseth, Knight-Errant? (No, the new 4 mana Ajani isn't good enough, but I thought about it for a couple of seconds.) Elspeth in particular has some nice synergies here.
3. If 24 lands and a very consistent W manabase is back on the table, are Palace Jailer and Shalai back on the menu? (For lots of players, Jailer never went away.)
I will be going to local Legacy event (60-100 players) this saturday. I got my 2 Brightlings but not realy much time to test them. I made some theoretical thoughts about my decklist and came up with:
Lands (23):
1 Cavern
3 Karakas
4 Port
4 Wasteland
11 Plains
Creatures (26):
1 Sanctum Prelate
2 Brightling
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Recruiter
3 Revoker
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 SfM
4 Mother
4 Flickerwisp
Others (11):
4 Vial
4 Swords
1 Batterskull
1 SoFaI
1 Jitte
Sideboard:
1 Relic-Warder
1 SoWaP
1 Containment Priest
2 RiP
2 Extraction
2 Canonist
2 Path to Exile
2 Judgement
2 Cataclysm/Gideon
I played the "4 Crusader" WW DnT Stocklist for quite a while and this is very similiar to it imo. Hard to handle threats but now with diversity. Brightling is better against Miracles and Crusader against 4C for example. I will not be playing Avenger + Brightling due to the strix weakness. I realy love to play at least 1 Shalai but the Brightlings will stretch the 23 Lands Manabase already. I went up to 3 Revoker again to have more outs to multiple DRS and stuff.
What do you guys think about the Cataclysm or Gideon question in this kind of build. I'm leaning more towards Cataclysm but I dont know realy why....
Any other suggestions?
Concerning the Cataclysm/Gideon trade-off:
I did some heavy testing with Cataclysm against 4C Control lately, and turns out Cataclysm was way too often awkward. I'd say cataclysm is strictly better than Gideon only in Monored Prison Matchup. Versus lands, it can be a dead card if you cannot first deal with Loam/PFire (RiP/Surgical), but is still better than Gideon in the matchup. Versus Miracles, actually Gideon is as good as Cataclysm, since they have a very difficult time dealing with PW's. And well, versus 4C Control Gideon is definitely better im my opinion. Gideon in general is more reliable, as you can also cast it versus Maverick, DnT (if you find space for it after side), Stoneblade variants (even if TNN is an issue, it's still a lot of board advantage), whereas you'd never board in Cataclysm... If you have a metagame full of Control decks, I'd go for Gideon. If you expect a lot of MonoR/Lands and random stuff that rely heavily on Lands (Nic Fit, 12Post ...), then Cataclysm is better. But in general, even more so with your plains-heavy build, Gideon is better in most of the tier1 matchups.
Note: I understand your positive feeling about Cataclysm. The card is just so much fun. But yeah, at some point we'll have to admit that Gideon is just more reliable and performs more consistently, thus, is better ='D
I'm pretty interested in Elspeth, although it's only because of Brightling. I still believe the soldier token a turn is too weak to matter, and I don't think the ultimate is strong enough either. I suspect Gideon or Shalai in the board as a 2-of is correct, or perhaps a 1/1 split. I do not think Cataclysm is powerful enough often enough for the effect to be good enough with the inclusion of Brightling.
Because I enjoy janky things once in a while, I did pick up a JP Bladed Pinions just to make my Brightlings even funnier. I expect it to be terrible, but I want to mess with my play group a little bit.
Cataclysm tends to crack Prison and Miracles decks in half, and does a decent number on a bunch of other control decks (including Pile). Gideon applies some pressure, but it's just not powerful enough in those matchups. It doesn't deliver the Earth-Shattering Kaboom (TM) that you really want on dropping a 4-mana spell. Elspeth is a bit more interesting and probably more synergistic with our 3-drops, but I don't know if that's quite enough. Most importantly, while they both can lock up a game that you're winning, they do not bail you out of one that you're losing.
Yes, I know Cataclysm does not get along well with Brightling, but that doesn't matter if casting Cataclysm just wins the game instantly. And that happens a lot more with Cataclysm than it does with Gideon.
I've been trying to figure out the answer to "What should my anti-control sideboard plan be?" for a while now, here are my thoughts:
Cataclysm has been rotating in and out of my sideboard for over 2 years now. I even registered it for a GP, and have literally never resolved it for value. Do other people feel like they actually resolve it enough to warrant inclusion? I can sit back and see the logic of "yeah this is usually good vs miracles, and you just have to set it up a little vs pile, and it has some other random utility" but when it comes to actual play, it just never happens for me. When I watch other people play or tune into Phil's twitch stream, I still never see it live up to the hype. I don't want it in my sideboard anymore.
I've also been really down on Gideon's power level recently. I've played multiple games across multiple archetypes (dnt, stoneblade, miracles) where I set up Gideon and resolve him to put me ahead on board and on resources, then just watch him be completely blanked by something vaguely strong like mentor + a couple cantrips or equipping a sword onto something. Not to mention how awkward it can sometimes be to set up vs pile through hymns and removal. There have been games where Gideon is good too of course, but I feel like I expect a lot more from a card that's taking up valuable sideboard space specifically to be anti-control.
So I don't really want to play either Gideon or Cataclysm. I'm hoping that Brightling is sticky and threatening enough to make a Gideon-esque "bomb threat" of the board unnecessary, and we can just use things like more recruiters, pro-W swords, extra crusaders, etc. out of the board instead. Or, if we're playing 24 lands with 16 W sources for Brightling anyway, maybe the WWW cards like Benalish Marshall and Devout Lightcaster are playable? That would be really exciting if that mana worked out for D&T.
I've resolved a Cataclysm 22 times according to my spreadsheet. Of those, I won 18 of the games after it resolved. That's the best I can give you as far as data goes.
I can see revisiting Cataclysm as a sb card now. Honestly, is a third Brightling out of the board insane in one of those slots? The matchups where you *really* want it do go quite long, mitigating the fact that they aren't the best in multiples.
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