Fathom Mage is fairly splashable (especially with the reaches), and has a similar role as ninja, its not as good with pandemonium, but I dont think we have a great pandemonium deck right now anyway. And I like the point about green being open if we want to move into it, especially if we get fixers.

Bolas is tempting...oh so tempting.

Bolas.

Damn these frickin ties.

I LIKE ties.

The ninja is not nearly strong enough to beat taking a removal spell, so that's a no.

If we wanted to splash green would it be better to take the rubblehulk over the fathom mage?

I would advocate splashing nicol bolas if he only had a single black in his cost, but he would be too hard to cast in our deck.


So I'm going with the safe and simple Resounding Thunder

Guess I'll play tiebreaker. But before I do, I want to look at what we have. We started with what I felt was a push toward control. Manticore, Flamebreak, and Thoughtflare all work well in those scenarios. But our late grab of playable weenies pushes the numbers more toward an aggro or fish style of deck. Resounding Thunder and Rubblehulk both feel like interesting options in that shell. I feel like they should have gotten more consideration.

As for the three cards tied, Bolas is such a fun idea to choose, but I feel that our deck has begun to navigate away from a strong long game in favor of aggro and tempo. For that same reason, Fathom Mage seems like a weaker addition, working better with a midrange shell. Ninja of the Deep Hours works with our multple one-drops, has interesting applications with Hellspark, and can sneak through on Looter's back. It might even give us extra triggers with Ruinblaster if that gets into our deck. Thus, it's my choice.

Ninja of the Deep Hours - 3
Fathom Mage - 2
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker - 2
Resounding Thunder - 1





p2p3
Resounding Roar
Lightning Greaves
Aether Adept
Mana Leak
World at War
Ulamog's Crusher
Corrupt
Parasitic Stryx
Slash Panther
Somber Hoverguard
Unburial Rites
Goblin Arsonist
Electrolyze

Cantrippy Removal seems good, and I always 'ed Electrolyze.

A case could be made for the Aether Adept though...

I'd like to be super greedy and try to wheel the electrolize hoping no one else plays ru, but someone might decide to splash for it, so I'll play it safe and pick it now.

Electrolyze is strong, but I think it might be better to take Ulamog's Crusher

Electrolyze!

Crusher because bombs are bombs and pandemonium is pandemonium.

Are 8 drops still 8 drops?

World at War

If we're leaning stompy aggro now, then I'd rather be dropping creatures during as many turns of the early game as I can, not spells, and have finishers at 5-6 CMC in order to end the game before beats get dropped. We have a good one with the Manticore, but for a more reliable deck, we want more things that can close the game early.

We want creatures for our low-CMC drops if we're going to press. We already have Turn//Burn, which I would run over Electrolyze any day. And Thoughtflare is already our refill if we run out of gas too fast. I feel like Electrolyze is something that counters us more than it synergizes with us. Having Geists, Turn//Burn, and Spellbomb already, I probably wouldn't even run Electrolyze unless we plan on going back to midrange?

And if we're going aggro, then Crusher is past our top-end. We kill whoever picks it before they can cast it. No matter how much I want to run the Pandemonium build.

Here's another tie for you Rush.

Crusher, because one can dream of using Cackling Counterpart on it.

I guess it's up to me to break the tie. I'll go with Electrolyze.

Electrolyze - 4
Crusher - 3
World - 1





p2p4
Overgrown Tomb
Blightning
Knight of Infamy
Blackcleave Cliffs
Mecurial Chemister
Slippery Karst
Gnaw to the Bone
Kiln Fiend
Painsmith
Rootbound Crag
Evil Twin
Beacon of Immortality

How strong does a cube have to be before mercurial chemister stops being a complete bomb?

Chemister and hope kiln fiend comes around...but with 3 duals i don't find it likely.