While a decent combo, I'm pretty sure Invisible Stalker + Sword = game. No need for Spare from Evil (although it is a good card). This is my U/W Aggro/Control deck (sort of like Pokechamp's new Caw deck, but more aggressive):
4x Snapcaster Mage
4x Invisible Stalker
4x Geist of Saint Traft
3x Hero of Bladehold
2x Sun Titan
4x Ponder
3x Mana Leak
3x Dissipate
2x Sword of Feast and Famine
2x Day of Judgment
2x Dismember
2x Gideon Jura
2x Moorland Haunt
4x Inkmoth Nexus
4x Seachrome Coast
4x Glacial Fortress
And the last 11 cards are basics.
Sideboard consists of Timely Reinforcements, more Dismember, Flashfreeze, etc.
I like it, nice draw, very nice control consistency (Snapcaster really makes control consistent, play a counterspell, get it back.)
Nice offensive power, my only worry would be being stuck topdecking at some point, a problem that many control decks had and will always have.
I think you hit the nail on the head, nabby. It looks to be the new control deck in my mind. Consider Mindshrieker, however. It's a great evasive creature, in my mind. It's ability gets even more amazing when you equip something with a Sword of Feast and Famine, giving you extra mana to mill your opponent/power up the Shrieker.
Edit:
PokeChamp's Blue-Black Zombies
4 Darkslick Shores
8 Island
4 Nephalia Drownyard
8 Swamp
24 Land
4 Dream Twist
4 Liliana of the Veil
8 Other spells
The strategy for this one is pretty simple. Just beatdown your opponent with zombies while milling yourself so turn three you can play a Stitched Drake or a Skaab Ruinator.
I will see if I can fit Mindshrieker in somewhere.
I like the deck, Armored Skaab is very good here. I have only a few suggestions:
1) Cut Dream Twist. It nets you a -1, and you already have good milling with Armored Skaab, and discard with Liliana, so it's not that hard to play Ruinators and Drakes.
2) Cut at least one, maybe two Skaab Ruinators. They can be cast from your Graveyard, and with more than two in the deck they can get clogged up.
3) Cut Ghoulraiser. You have too many creatures, and the random element makes this inconsistent. I'd add some draw in it's place, Ponder or Forbidden Alchemy.
4) You might want to cut 1 or 2 Drownyards. They don't help you with mana, and you usually don't want more than one out at a time.
5) And finally, Call to the Grave is awesome! It wins games for you. I'd run 1 or 2, unless you really don't like it.
I just wrote an article/primer on Heartless Summoning decks, so I might build one of those - they seem pretty fun.
2 Call to the Grave
4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
14 Other spells
I'm not sure how well "Call to the Grave" will work, it has a high casting cost and therefore I may end up cutting in favor of some other utility spells. But I'll try it out nonetheless. I also added some copies of Ponder and Mana Leak because frankly, if you play Blue, you need to be playing those spells. Overall I think it's improved one whole grade. It's a much better deck now.
Also, Heartless Summoning is amazing. I'll try and build something with.
Looks good. Yeah, Heartless Summoning is pretty awesome. I'll post my list sometime. However, I've been working on a White Weenie deck lately - I think it looks pretty good.
4x Champion of the Parish
4x Elite Vanguard
4x Elite Inquisitor
4x Cloistered Youth
2x Porcelain Legionnaire
4x Mirran Crusader
3x Hero of Bladehold
2x Angelic Overseer
4x Honor of the Pure
3x Midnight Haunting
3x Oblivion Ring
2x Dismember
Not enough lands. You probably won't be able to cast Angelic Overseer at all before the game ends, and you'd have to draw a really good hand to play the Hero of Bladehold. In my mind, cut the Angelic Overseer for two basic plains will do the trick.
Okay, kind of a dissapointing prerelease. I didn't get any bombs, or expensive cards. Best card I got was Heartless Summoning. However, I made a nice White/Green deck with double Avacyn's Pilgrim, a Traveler's Preparations, and a bunch of Flying Spirits. I won my first 2 games, and then got paired up with a guy who had just returned from barely missing the cut to make Worlds. Needless to say, he beat me (although I won game 1). I then lost my next games, 2-0 and then 2-1 in succession. So 2-3. Not too bad, but not very good either. I just missed the cut for packs, but I had fun, and my parents said I can go to the Launch Party next week as well (!), so that's a plus.
Overall a fun day, and I really enjoy the Innistrad limited format.
For your current budget, that's probably the best Tempered Steel deck you could possibly make. The only obvious changes (Moxi, for example) are expensive ones.
Nice prerelease report! 2-3 in Magic is a pretty good record, I'd love to try my hand at limited sometime, I'm a beast at those.
Yeah, all I needed were the Cloistered Youth, and my last opponent of the day gave me the 3 he had pulled. Also, he has the coolest extended deck ever.
4x Treasure Hunt
1x Zombie Infestation
4x Reliquary Tower
51x Island/Swamp
He beat my Tempered Steel deck on about turn 5. Basically he mulls until he gets a Treasure Hunt in his opener. Turn 1 he plays and Island, then turn 2 a Reliquary Tower, and draws like 15 cards with Treasure Hunt until he hits another Treasure Hunt. Then he does it again, and again, until he hits Zombie Infestation. Then, end of my turn, he discards his hand to play like 20 Zombies and attacks for the game.
I agree RDW lost a lot, but I think it can still win games relatively quickly. Although, I cannot defend the loss of Goblin Guide. That is going to hurt the strategy a lot, and Stromkirk Noble, in all its wonder, is nowhere near as effective unfortunately.
3x Incinerate
3x Arc Trail
4x Brimstone Volley
4x Shrine of Burning Rage
3x Koth of the Hammer
23x Mountain
So, um, yeah, interesting list. Lots of one and two-ofs.
Also, a couple Tempered Steel lists in the top 32 (6th, 7th, 18th, and 32nd). Three of them played three copies of Spined Thopter, and the one who got sixth played Leonin Relic-Warder maindeck.
And to make things even better, Cloistered Youth hasn't been testing very well, so there's four empty lots in the deck. In addition, I went to the launch party and traded for a Mox Opal and an Inkmoth Nexus (I went 3-2 by the way).
Some interesting stats to note about the Steel decks:
- One of the lists (32nd) played a White-Red variant, with 3 Curse of Stalked Prey and 4 Galvanic Blast.
- Two of the lists played 2 Mikaeus, the Lunarch.
- One of the lists had 20 lands, two of them ran 21, and one ran 19.
- All of the lists ran 2 Mox Opal, with the 32nd place White-Red variant playing a third one.
- All of the Mono-White lists played a removal suite of 4 Dispatch and 2 Dismember.
- Two of the lists ran 4 Hero of Bladehold, the others ran none.
- Not a single copy of Contested War Zone was played in any of the lists.
- Only two of the lists ran Porcelain Legionnaire, and they only ran 2.
- No lists played Etched Champion at all.
With all that in mind, here's my new Tempered Steel list!
4x Memnite
4x Signal Pest
4x Vault Skirge
2x Glint Hawk
3x Spined Thopter
2x Porcelain Legionnaire
3x Etched Champion
2x Hero of Bladehold
1x Mikaeus, the Lunarch
