I cannot describe how excited I am for Time Spiral Remastered. Easily one of my favorite sets and it can possibly bring two of my all-time favorite cards to Arena. Looking forward to it!
Edit: TSR isn't coming to Arena, my day is ruined, thanks WotC.
Glad you liked the latest issue! I can totally agree with Thassa being better in Azorius with Yorion as the latter is overall a stronger flicker commander in my opinion, as well as giving access to another color always being a strong selling point.
As for the cards mentioned, A lot of them are great but fall short in some way or another and were essentially the reason why they weren't included.
Gadwick is a great source of card draw once since we cannot continue to pay for X on his reentry. While him triggering once is still typically good enough, it is also a fairly big mana sink and in my testing, I usually had other things I wanted to spend my mana on.
Brazen Borrower was originally in the deck because it's a great tool for interaction and the body is pretty nice, but ended up dropping it in exchange for Essence Scatter since I was running into matchups where the body was not useful and the bounce effect was not worth running on its own.
Arcanist's Owl has two main issues, at least for this version of the deck. The first being that it is fairly light on artifacts and enchantments and so it would whiff on it a fair amount, and the second being that hybrid mana is weird and despite it being able to run in a mono-blue deck, it is considered to be blue and white. I can definitely see it doing work in an Azorius flicker deck if built in a specific way, but unfortunately, it cannot be in a deck with Thassa at the helm.
Solemn Simulacrum is great, already in the deck, and is an absolute powerhouse. He's one of my favorite cards in Commander and is definitely one of them here.
And yeah, hopefully, the set brings along a whole bunch of new tools to mess around with. Despite not enjoying this deck as much as I originally thought I would, I still absolutely love flicker decks and would be ecstatic if the archetype got more support in the upcoming set.
Absolutely! I'm going to see if there's any Commanders that are rotating out soon and cover them first, but if there's none that interesting, I'll make sure to cover Thassa before the new expansion drops.
While I love aggro decks a ton, I can definitely relate to trying to play in a meta that doesn't favor the type of decks I want to play. Probably the biggest example of this was when KFT launched and the only viable class was Druid for the most part. If the meta isn't something you enjoy, the best advice I can give is to take a break from the game for a bit and when nerfs happen or the meta shifts to being something different, try jumping back into the game. Taking breaks is perfectly fine in my opinion, especially when playing the game starts to feel like a chore instead of a fun activity.
As a quick sidenote, the meta still hasn't really stabilized yet either and there are a few decks more focused on control kicking around as well, such as Big Warrior which has been doing pretty decently at higher ranks. Not to mention both highlander priest and mage have been doing decent. Personally, I think it's too early to already pack in for this season, but ultimately its up to you to decide whether its worth your time or not.
After taking a bit of time to test out the newer cards, there were a few that felt pretty decent. Channeled Force felt very strong, as being able to somewhat wheel our hand as well as removing a planeswalker is very good in the deck, Two other cards that I spent a decent amount of time testing out were Niambi, Esteemed Speaker and Chevill, Bane of Monsters. Niambi is pretty neat as she lets us play Niv again without having him die and then pay an additional 2 mana for commander tax. Chevill on the other hand is occasionally overkill, but I've felt that it does a fairly solid job at making sure we don't run out of gas when we cannot rely on Niv to draw 3-5 cards. Oh and cultivate, card is solid and is essentially just better Circuitous Route for our deck.
For the changes, I'd probably do...
+Channeled Force
+Chevill/Niambi (both essentially do the same in the long run, I'd go with whichever you already have/want to play)
WotC plans bannings every month or so on Monday so if your planning on spending a lot of wild cards on a new deck, I'd recommend waiting until after the announcement. It's a bit questionable that they banned these cards so late in their standard lives but any archetype that dominates a format for such a long time is always on the menu of getting hit.
So glad to see T3feri gone. Easily up there as apart of my least favorite cards ever made. With ramp losing a good portion of its support, it might bring me to play more standard again after taking a fairly big hiatus.
At the time of writing the review I was fairly certain of Glide being better than Skull of Gul'dan is just cheaper and faster to cast. However, once Voracious Reader was revealed, every class has a lot better reload and so Skull allowing you to dump your hand out faster afterwards to still get the effect of the reader seems like it could be pretty valuable. I still think Glide has a place in some deck, but it's definitely not as black-and-white as it was before.
I'm not sure on how consistently you can get this card activated on turn three but if it turns out you can do it somewhat consistently, I can see this card putting in a lot of work. It's a pretty decent card in zoo but I'm not sold on the Soul Fragments being sold on the idea yet.
9 mana with no impact on the board seems really sketchy. This combined with the fact that there isn't any good ways of cheating it into play and that Zephrys is literally the most played card in every format, I don't have any expectations for this card.
[Hearthstone Card (Dark Bomb) Not Found] was a decent removal tool back when GvG was in standard and this is almost strictly better than that. My issue with this though is that I'm not sure where exactly you would want to run it. Obviously in a dedicated Soul Fragment you'd run them but I don't see Demon Hunter ever wanting to include this since they can just use weapons/Twin Slice and their hero power and in Control Warlock decks, the ability to target spells face is pretty important and I don't think you'd cut a card just to give yourself a bit more healing.
Master of Ceremonies wasn't even that bad of a card to be honest. The issue mainly boiled down to the fact there was so little spell damage minions that could come down turn 2 that it was near impossible to get it to be a 3 mana 6/4 on turn 3. I remember making a deck ages ago with two of her and two Arcane Blast and when the stars aligned and I got to activate her battlecry, the deck could actually work decently.
Here's hoping that this time around there's enough spell damage support to make the whole package work.
As much as I enjoyed playing this list, a lot of the cards are rotating out so it might not be the best investment to build up to. Hopefully WotC will put in a "Friendly Brawl" (or just call it by Historic Brawl since thats what it is) so then the deck can get more mileage.
I stayed up until 3 am for this card to be revealed only for it to be a return of my least favorite mechanic in the entire game. Fairly easy to say I wasn't a huge fan of it. That being said it looks pretty sweet with Lake Thresher and Twilight Runner as a little package you just throw into a deck. It also makes any future beasts printed a lot more interesting as there is a reasonable chance they can be cheated out now.
I love this card so much. I've always been a huge fan of spell-focused shaman decks and this card helps enable that so much. I'm not sure how viable this card will be, but it seems decent in spell druid to help make them faster. It'll be interesting to see what this card enables.
Seem's kinda slow but it curves out really nicely with Scavenger's Ingenuity for a 3 mana 3/4 that makes a 4/4 when he dies which is pretty cool. Fetching Zixor is still probably better, but it's not the worst combo. in standard.
I'm not sold on this card. The minions are significantly less impactful as their Animal Companion counterparts. The 2/1 charge can be pinged down unlike Huffer, who often forces the opponent to use some form of removal/trade in a creature to deal with, the 2/2 taunt gets contested by almost every one drop that sees play, as well as running horribly into Bonechewer Brawler, and the 1/2 attack buffer isn't a good one drop as a 1/2 trades horribly with almost every single one drop that sees play. The bset one is probably the 2/2 taunt but at that point I don't see why you wouldn't just run Blazing Battlemage over it for the consistency of having good one drop.
Huge fan of this card. Libram Paladin has already been putting work in standard and this is a great card for the deck. I mentioned it in the past but this is basically just Thing from Below for a class that historically can't do massive tempo swings,. As for priest, this card still feels fine. [Hearthstone Card (Sethekk Spellweaver) Not Found] is going to help a lot but I still struggle to see this card being below 3 mana. Granted 4 mana 4/5 divine shield taunt is still strong but I'm not sure if you'd want to include a card that has a bit of a setup to make good in Priest.
I cannot describe how excited I am for Time Spiral Remastered. Easily one of my favorite sets and it can possibly bring two of my all-time favorite cards to Arena. Looking forward to it!
Edit: TSR isn't coming to Arena, my day is ruined, thanks WotC.
Glad you liked the latest issue! I can totally agree with Thassa being better in Azorius with Yorion as the latter is overall a stronger flicker commander in my opinion, as well as giving access to another color always being a strong selling point.
As for the cards mentioned, A lot of them are great but fall short in some way or another and were essentially the reason why they weren't included.
And yeah, hopefully, the set brings along a whole bunch of new tools to mess around with. Despite not enjoying this deck as much as I originally thought I would, I still absolutely love flicker decks and would be ecstatic if the archetype got more support in the upcoming set.
Who could've seen this one coming.
Absolutely! I'm going to see if there's any Commanders that are rotating out soon and cover them first, but if there's none that interesting, I'll make sure to cover Thassa before the new expansion drops.
While I love aggro decks a ton, I can definitely relate to trying to play in a meta that doesn't favor the type of decks I want to play. Probably the biggest example of this was when KFT launched and the only viable class was Druid for the most part. If the meta isn't something you enjoy, the best advice I can give is to take a break from the game for a bit and when nerfs happen or the meta shifts to being something different, try jumping back into the game. Taking breaks is perfectly fine in my opinion, especially when playing the game starts to feel like a chore instead of a fun activity.
As a quick sidenote, the meta still hasn't really stabilized yet either and there are a few decks more focused on control kicking around as well, such as Big Warrior which has been doing pretty decently at higher ranks. Not to mention both highlander priest and mage have been doing decent. Personally, I think it's too early to already pack in for this season, but ultimately its up to you to decide whether its worth your time or not.
After taking a bit of time to test out the newer cards, there were a few that felt pretty decent. Channeled Force felt very strong, as being able to somewhat wheel our hand as well as removing a planeswalker is very good in the deck, Two other cards that I spent a decent amount of time testing out were Niambi, Esteemed Speaker and Chevill, Bane of Monsters. Niambi is pretty neat as she lets us play Niv again without having him die and then pay an additional 2 mana for commander tax. Chevill on the other hand is occasionally overkill, but I've felt that it does a fairly solid job at making sure we don't run out of gas when we cannot rely on Niv to draw 3-5 cards. Oh and cultivate, card is solid and is essentially just better Circuitous Route for our deck.
For the changes, I'd probably do...
+Channeled Force
+Chevill/Niambi (both essentially do the same in the long run, I'd go with whichever you already have/want to play)
+Cultivate
-Leyline Prowler
-Ravager Wurm
-Circuitous Route
WotC plans bannings every month or so on Monday so if your planning on spending a lot of wild cards on a new deck, I'd recommend waiting until after the announcement. It's a bit questionable that they banned these cards so late in their standard lives but any archetype that dominates a format for such a long time is always on the menu of getting hit.
So glad to see T3feri gone. Easily up there as apart of my least favorite cards ever made. With ramp losing a good portion of its support, it might bring me to play more standard again after taking a fairly big hiatus.
At the time of writing the review I was fairly certain of Glide being better than Skull of Gul'dan is just cheaper and faster to cast. However, once Voracious Reader was revealed, every class has a lot better reload and so Skull allowing you to dump your hand out faster afterwards to still get the effect of the reader seems like it could be pretty valuable. I still think Glide has a place in some deck, but it's definitely not as black-and-white as it was before.
I'm not sure on how consistently you can get this card activated on turn three but if it turns out you can do it somewhat consistently, I can see this card putting in a lot of work. It's a pretty decent card in zoo but I'm not sold on the Soul Fragments being sold on the idea yet.
9 mana with no impact on the board seems really sketchy. This combined with the fact that there isn't any good ways of cheating it into play and that Zephrys is literally the most played card in every format, I don't have any expectations for this card.
[Hearthstone Card (Dark Bomb) Not Found] was a decent removal tool back when GvG was in standard and this is almost strictly better than that. My issue with this though is that I'm not sure where exactly you would want to run it. Obviously in a dedicated Soul Fragment you'd run them but I don't see Demon Hunter ever wanting to include this since they can just use weapons/Twin Slice and their hero power and in Control Warlock decks, the ability to target spells face is pretty important and I don't think you'd cut a card just to give yourself a bit more healing.
Master of Ceremonies wasn't even that bad of a card to be honest. The issue mainly boiled down to the fact there was so little spell damage minions that could come down turn 2 that it was near impossible to get it to be a 3 mana 6/4 on turn 3. I remember making a deck ages ago with two of her and two Arcane Blast and when the stars aligned and I got to activate her battlecry, the deck could actually work decently.
Here's hoping that this time around there's enough spell damage support to make the whole package work.
I'm glad you enjoy the series!
As much as I enjoyed playing this list, a lot of the cards are rotating out so it might not be the best investment to build up to. Hopefully WotC will put in a "Friendly Brawl" (or just call it by Historic Brawl since thats what it is) so then the deck can get more mileage.
Oops, thanks for catching that, it should be working fine now if you are still interested in the decklist.
Also glad to hear your a fan! I have no signs of stopping anytime soon so hopefully I can keep bringing out articles you enjoy!
I stayed up until 3 am for this card to be revealed only for it to be a return of my least favorite mechanic in the entire game. Fairly easy to say I wasn't a huge fan of it. That being said it looks pretty sweet with Lake Thresher and Twilight Runner as a little package you just throw into a deck. It also makes any future beasts printed a lot more interesting as there is a reasonable chance they can be cheated out now.
I love this card so much. I've always been a huge fan of spell-focused shaman decks and this card helps enable that so much. I'm not sure how viable this card will be, but it seems decent in spell druid to help make them faster. It'll be interesting to see what this card enables.
Seem's kinda slow but it curves out really nicely with Scavenger's Ingenuity for a 3 mana 3/4 that makes a 4/4 when he dies which is pretty cool. Fetching Zixor is still probably better, but it's not the worst combo. in standard.
I'm not sold on this card. The minions are significantly less impactful as their Animal Companion counterparts. The 2/1 charge can be pinged down unlike Huffer, who often forces the opponent to use some form of removal/trade in a creature to deal with, the 2/2 taunt gets contested by almost every one drop that sees play, as well as running horribly into Bonechewer Brawler, and the 1/2 attack buffer isn't a good one drop as a 1/2 trades horribly with almost every single one drop that sees play. The bset one is probably the 2/2 taunt but at that point I don't see why you wouldn't just run Blazing Battlemage over it for the consistency of having good one drop.
Huge fan of this card. Libram Paladin has already been putting work in standard and this is a great card for the deck. I mentioned it in the past but this is basically just Thing from Below for a class that historically can't do massive tempo swings,. As for priest, this card still feels fine. [Hearthstone Card (Sethekk Spellweaver) Not Found] is going to help a lot but I still struggle to see this card being below 3 mana. Granted 4 mana 4/5 divine shield taunt is still strong but I'm not sure if you'd want to include a card that has a bit of a setup to make good in Priest.