New Store, New Style

Updating this a good bit, blowing the dust and the cobwebs off.

So, for the time being I'm managing Magic for a new LGS! Super interesting, and apparently some of the regulars are even checking out this deck. Hey fellas, thanks for looking around.

... and no, I try not to play this on the clock. That would be rude.

As for these changes, they were decided mostly by changes in my new meta, my own observations, or discussions with a certain Archwizard. I've also decided to, once again, merge the online list with the physical. Making changes is significantly harder when you have to sift through the deck as you have no real point of reference.

I won't list how the physical list differs from the list on here in this section, so I'll just state which changes I've made to the physical list and be done with it.

Out:

"Wha!? How do you cut Lab Man? Do you even win anymore?" - You

Don't worry, I've added more win conditions to compensate. Lab Man is an adorable card with a fantastic win con. The issue is, he's essentially banned at my store. I could go on and on about my disdain for house-ruling certain cards out of the local meta but I'm not going to waste my time on that. Besides being essentially banned, he is also a very very dead draw if I'm not ready to go off just yet. Too dead, in fact. My goal here is to try and get more gas in the deck so it can work slightly better when independent of Arcanis. Lab Man is a super feels-bad card to draw when you're out of gas, and that's why he's being cut.

"Okay, he's lost his mind."

Well yeah, but that isn't why I cut MoM. With the cutting of Lab Man, MoM was an obvious cut. It's a very powerful engine, but the main thing I've noticed is that a lot of the time I will have to spend an entire turn casting either it or Arcanis, and like I mentioned about Lab Man before, it's awful to draw when you're not ready. It being one of the most cost-intensive cards in the deck also helps with that.

Eugh, I hate cutting rocks. This was a difficult one, but you know I had to do it to 'em. Everflowing is a very mediocre rock. Plain and simple, really.

This one kinda hurt, I hate to cut a counterspell (and a hard counter at that) but it was for the greater good. Arcane D gives my opponents resources, drawing them two cards. If it were just strictly better Dream Fracture for two, then sure I'd do it. But if the cost is drawing my opponent two cards, then that cost is too damn high. Man, just in time for the new foil printing too. Damn.

In:

Does this make sense at all? No? Okay, well, think about this. Paradox Engine. Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal. Mill my opponents, don't even need Arcanis. But there are other benefits to running it, such as recurring cards such as Timetwister and the following card.

Yes, I've spoken about the card before and my disdain for it. I decided it was time to reevaluate it after swapping over to a much better source of infinite mana generation. One of my new win conditions is to generate infinite mana and continually cast Stroke using things like Timetwister and Codex Shredder to get it back in my hand. Overall it takes longer to accomplish than Lab Man but seems to be more cost effective and efficient.

Speaking of reevaluating cards I dismissed, I realized I haven't given this bad boy a chance since Temporal Arcanis. It removes the biggest downside to Arcanis, and allows an extra activation to boot. This should significantly speed up Arcanis turns and even give the potential to win a turn earlier, but it will paint a rather large target on my head. Let's see how it does.

That's about it for now. Oh, and in case anyone wonders, I've decided to do away with the video updates. I'll leave the previous one up but it takes way more effort than I'm able to put in these days.

Until next time!