Thats crazy talk, the prince is a big wincon in this type of deck which can quickly get five 1/1s on the board.

Bant tempophonic has been a ton of fun! I'd swap one of the Abbey's for a single waste (so you can tutor for it with EW) and swap one of the displacers for a vexing scuttler. The displacers are essentially late-game cards, having 1 is great, having 2 feels pretty bad. The scuttler can come out almost as fast as a displacer, has a better body, and creates a lot of nice synergy.

Espere Revolt:
Game 1 vs Sultai Emerge:
My opponent tried to get me to underestimate him with his handle of "Bad Player", but the Emrakul avatar and Harmless Offering deck sleeves gave him away... I knew it would be a fight.
I drew one flicker spell (LRH) and ended up using it on one of HIS creeps (5/5 demon Priest of the Blood Rite token) so that was fun. Then I made the mistake of playing into his Yahenni's Expertise by blocking his Filigree Familiar with Aethersphere Harvester. I lost Whirler Rogue, Harvester, and tokens. I had Stockpile down tho and was able to rebound with Roc and a Weaponcraft Enthusiast. I scried with Stockpile and saw Herald of Anguish, which I put back (6 lands + tokens down). He played Lashweed Lurker saccing a Treasure Keeper and putting my Roc on the topdeck and revealed Push which he aimed at my Enthusiast. I responded by sacking Enthusiast to Stockpile and buying the Roc so I could draw Herald since he was tapped out and only had 1 card in hand. Herald forced him to discard Grafwidow (whew!) and after that we both were in topdeck mode, trading damage. I was able to chump his Lashweed tho, thx to my tokens and ultimately beat him down.

Game 2 vs Izzet Control:
Mulled 2 1-landers and kept a meh hand with Hub, Plains, Aether Swooper, Vengeful Rebel, LRH, and Call for Unity. My opponent played an early Weaver of Lightning and then dropped Docent of Perfection, both of which were just out of range for that Rebel. I thought about swinging into his Weaver and Docent the turn Docent dropped, hoping that he'd block with Docent and I could finish it with Rebel, but figured he'd have to be silly to not just take the 1 damage and that I'd be better served blocking his Docent with Swooper and then LRHing it to stall for an extra turn. I did manage to get Call for Unity down, along with a Hidden Stockpile, but he burned out my board, flipping Docent. I got Angel of Invention down and managed to keep it alive for one turn with Essence Flux, but he killed it the following turn and swung for lethal. Shame, too - Unity was up to 3 counters and I almost had enough tokens to flip Abbey. Was hella frustrating having that Rebel in hand all game and not having anything to use it on.

Game 3 vs Boros Vehicles:
Mulled a 2 lander into another 2 lander and decided to keep rather than risk diminishing returns. Hand would have been awesome if I had a swamp (Island, Plains, Master Trinketeer, Harvester, Enthusiast, Push, and Aether Poisoner). Alas, I drew an Island and nothing else. Opps game went Mountain, Mountain/Smug, Plains/Thopter Engineer/swing for 4, Mountain/Veteran Motorist/swing for 6, Plains/Renegade Freighter, Swing for 9, Plains/Skysovereign/swing for win. My game went Plains, Island, Island/Harvester, Trinketeer/block Smug with Harvester/2nd Harvester and concede to Skysovereign. This deck is having some mana issues...

Game 4 vs Boros Vehicles:
Finally a 3 land hand and a hand full of lower CC spells. Opp goes first and drops Toolcraft Exemplar. My hand is Hub, Shambling Vent, Isolated Chapel, Vengerful Rebel, Weapon Enthusiast, Essence Flux, Gideon, and Angel of Invention and I draw Aether Swooper on my first turn. I realize I might be in trouble since I don't really have any plays till T3 and my opp has a fast deck. He plays Smug on T2 and my misgivings deepen. T3 he doesn't play anything and I think I might be able to stabilize after dropping Enthusiast, but then he plays Fleetwheel and I don't top any land. The rest of the game was short and brutal. I get Master Trinketeer down but he plays Thopter Engineer and goes over my head, taking me to 2. Then I draw Push and think I might be able to squeeze one more turn in. Pia and Kiran disagreed. Maybe I'm keeping hands that I should mull? If I'd have known it was Boros cars again, I'd prolly have fished for a faster hand...

Game 5 vs Naya Zoo?:
I Have another funky mana hand with Hub, Plains, and Abbey and a bunch of cheapish blue and black spells. I almost mull it but realize Aether Swooper will give me more energy for Hub and keep. My opponent plays Veteran Motorist on T2 and I'm like ****ing Boros Vehicles AGAIN?!. I top an Island and have Essence Flux in hand so I decide to swing with Swooper and make a token. Then for whatever reason he swings with his Motorist into my token. I sense a trap but block anyway and he just lets his motorist die. ...huh? Then he drops a 2nd Motorist. By this point, I have Aethersphere Harvester down and play Tezzeret and minus him to kill the Motorist. Then he dropped Nahiri, but I already had Unmaking in hand and with no pressure from him, I have no qualms about erasing his one last shot at drawing out of his predicament. He discarded a Greenbelt Rampager to Nahiri, cluing me that he is prolly having serious mana issues. I can only imagine his hand is full of fat and green spells and he's stuck at 4 mana, all red and white. Oh well... I'm glad I could end this deck's round of tests on a high note, even if my opp was not the most inspired.

Five game verdict:

Temur fog was lots of fun. I'm 1-0 so far but it's good fun, good for quests.

Hope fully I'll get to play lots tomorrow

Finished the first wave of R2: ladder. Commentary to follow tomorrow (also another day feeling spent so no dialogue in vids; just feeling like enjoying silence), but stream of games linked. Twitch split in two, not sure why...

Played 2 games each Classic Bant and Revolting Esper. Played 1 game Grixis Gearhulks. Won all 5. The last game (Grixis Gearhulks) is epic AF. Played against a decent Esper control deck, rank 39 or 40 opponent IIRC, so quality competition. Game splits off at the end of video 1 and ends video 2. If this is your deck and I'm not just bluffing because it's mine - you'll prob get a kick out of watching it.

Vid 1:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/125787593

Vid 2:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/125795189

Did Bant tempophonic already

Won without problem against the AI 3 games in a row. 2-3 loss against humans in the ladder

Taking a glance over the list at first I didn't realized its issues, which are several

Cons:

First, the U mana is acceptable, but W is low for t4 Gideon, a play that many times you want to make. A bit on the low side, overall. Also, what's unforgivable is no Waste to fecth with the EWs, being the Displacers the most important creature of the deck, probably..that was a nice brainfart hehe

Second: 4 Displace is absurd...1 (allowed by the competition rules) maybe 2 at most would have been way better

Third: ultralow 2 CC creature count, just 3 Visionaries...imho, no deck that isn't full control or have a lot of card selection can survive with that low count of early creatures

Dubious elections: AoI and CfU make more sense when you have a lot of cheap critters

Pros:

Great ETB creatures, double Sage which was nice several games, DROWNER (sometimes forgotten, when he's still a powerhouse, more so with flicker) overall power of the cards, full Reflectors...it comes close to the best you can do in Bant + Displacers

If you manage to keep a couple of bombs alive, then Displace becomes the best card ever

In the middle of my personal classification for now...which surprised me a bit, I was expecting more punch from this one, but the mentioned issues took their toll in the playtesting

You seem to have come to many of the same conclusions as me maggit.

I'm thinking Copter should be in the 2 drop slot. It may not have an ETB trigger but an evasive, somewhat resilient early threat that loots sound like enough advantage to me to warrant inclusion. Duskwatch doesn't seem like a terrible option either given the creature count.

Exactly...I'd totaly include the 2 Copters and 2 Duskwatch, who are really good to leave mana open for the Displacers, among other things...and even more, probably I'd cut a Visionary and add the Advocates+Falls package, always good...Hexproof is better than ever

Maybe when the poll is closed I'll post, in a fit of pretentiousness my version of every of the submited decks, that can be fun

Gonna disagree strongly with this, Displace is the build around card in the deck it is your CC, Draw, Artichant Hate, buff etc etc. Yes it sucks if you have no board but that is extremely unlikely in this deck. If you want more control you can start adding the tap guys but I dont think they are needed. I reckon you could drop the cloudblazers and maybe 1 displace to get in more 2 drops but I still think you need 2 westvale abby as the prince is often the way you win.

The Temur Fog Burn deck is really cute with the displaces and stuff. You get any two of Rogue, Visionary, Pilgrim's Eye on board and you can keep repopping them on the board after you block with them to draw into more fogs and generate more energy for your towers and turrets to totally decimate the opponent's life. It's wonderful. My first game I was incorrectly targeting creatures with the Tower and generating energy with the Turret. Now i see that i can very quickly reduce the opponent to zero while getting huge card advantage.

Recaps

G1: Bant Classic vs Orzhov Auras. Matched against a low level opp, who at least had some decent cards unlocked. Decks that run Auras are doomed against decks that run Reflector Mages tho - particularly ones that can flicker 'em. In the round of AI matches, I flooded out a bit with this deck, and game 1 of the ladder round saw a repeat of that. Didn't matter in the end, Gearhulk, Reflector Mage, and some flicker spells were enough to win.

G2: Bant Classic vs Esper IDK (odd mix of aggro, tempo, and sweepers). Another low level opp, who at least had some decent cards unlocked. Ended up drawing a bit more land than I wanted, but not a flood like the other two. Reflector Mage and flicker stole the show again, with rec sage doing some work (killing a Flagship that would otherwise have been a problem), Gearhulk making another appearance, and Tamiyo ultimating for a grand finish.

G3: Revolting Esper vs Golgari Elves. 3rd low level opp in a row, but at least this one had an easily identifiable theme. We both went wide, but opp never found a 2nd source to cast the elf lord (of which they dumped both copies to GY for the -x/-x elf's ability by games end), while I was able to get Angel of Invention out with Flux backup to dodge the -x/-x elf's trigger and swing for a big attack. Opp was able to kill AoI on their 2nd attempt, but I top decked Westvale Abbey, and Ormendahl swung for lethal. Likely would have won without Abbey, but would have taken a couple more attacks.

G4: Revolting Esper vs 4c IDK (curious mix of Weaver of Lightning, Mirrorwing Dragon, Aetherwind Basker and Dynavolt Tower - with Savage Alliance and Pulse of Murassa being the only other spells I recall seeing). This was my 1st opp who was at my rank, but they disconnected for whatever reason early T3 and it was AI piloting the rest of the way. I believe I would have lost this game if not for AI takeover - AI kept attacking with doods that should have been chilling on defense to stop me from attacking - especially since I was flooding out and not being able to add to my board presence near the end. I basically won thanks to Aethersphere Harvester and Shambling Vent, pulling off many attacks with the hilarious (mental image of a) man-land piloted vehicle. Absolutely would have lost if not for the 20 or so life I was able to gain between Vent and Harvester.

G5: Grixis Gearhulks vs Esper Control. This was my toughest match of the night, and the only other game with an opp at my rank (2 out of 5 games). I should call the deck Grixis Crain, because I never drew a Gearhulk (despite digging 3 times w/ Crain hoping to hit one). Crain came down T2 and dug up a Caravan. Opp was obviously holding up a counterspell so I just kept attacking w/ Crain and passing turn. Bated out the counterspell T5 with Caravan and tried to cheat in baby Jace, but opp had removal for him anyways. Spent much of the game playing around counterspells opp might not even have had (at one point Pushing his Vent away while pretty sure he had counter mana open but he "let" it resolve). I took advantage of every turn he tapped out to cast a planeswalker/bomb, and was able to manage the threats effectively. Crain did at least 5 damage, dug past several spells that were poor for the matchup while hitting the vehicle on 1st dig, and then chipped in with Vengeful Rebel to take down Avacyn. The Little Bird That Could, motha****ers! Man-Lands, Crain, and Whirler Rogue were enough to take the win in the end (also can't ignore the importance of a well timed Unlicensed Disintegration that helped me deal with both a flipped TITI and Gideon). Definately the match of the night.

Next session I will do G2 Grixis Gearhulks, and try to complete R2 of the next two decks in line. When R2 is complete, I'll do deck reviews (unless I have time to get in a R3 with my favorites at that point).

No, the problem is that with almost no 1-2 CC critters, isn't "extremely unlikely", imo...even less when 1/3 of your creatures are 5+ CC

U see, Displace is a card that needs another two cards in the field to get good/efficient. In my book, no card of 3 CC with that requirements deserves to be maxed...but ey, that's me

Grixis Hulkology:
Game 1 vs Bant Control:
I'm on the draw and have a delicious hand of 4 mana, Glimmer, TT, and Caravan. What could go wrong? Opp puts me on a clock with T2 Lambholt Pacifist which he flips on T3. I draw and play baby-Jace on T2, and play Caravan on T3. I draw Disintegration but he leaves his mana up so I bait his Spell Shrivel with Glimmer at his eot and then Disintegrate that pesky pup on my turn along with a Glint Nest Crane which wiffs. But Jace draws me red-hulk and flips. Opp plays Tamiyo and uses her plus on my Crane (only target on the table) hoping I'll be forced to either let him draw cards while pinging her back down or let her build up loyalty for ult. Alas for him, he only has 2 mana up - not enough to counter Hulk so I play it and redirect the damage (blindly - game wouldn't let me check my GY to see what it added). Turns out I had Push, land, and Glimmer - exactsies! After that he never managed to stabilize and I cruised to victory. Always fun sticking it to the counter decks. (and I say this as a veteran player)

Game 2 vs White Weenies:
Mulled a no-lander into Swamp, Mountain, Caravan, TT, Harnessed Lightning, Unlicensed Disintegration, and Displace. Not ideal, but at least I have Lightning and if I top a land, I should be fine. I'm first so I just drop the Mountain. Opp plays Expedition Envoy. I draw baby-Jace and drop the swamp. Opp swings and I take the hit, holding Lightning for his 2-drop. He plays Consul's Lieutenant which I promptly burn. At this point there's a moment of lag and he gets replaced by AI. I draw EW and crack it for an Island. Things are looking up. Then he drops another Envoy and a Topan Freeblade. I top Combustible Hulk. At this point, I can either A. Disintegrate the Freeblade, B. Play the Caravan, or C. Telling Time for a land and hope I get another source so I can also drop baby-Jace. I opt for C. seeing Dragonskull Summit, UD, and Vengeful Rebel. I take the land and put Rebel on top thinking it will let me activate Caravan and then I can Displace it and block something else. Obviously that was a misplay - I should have gone plan A. Opp plays Lantern Scout and swings for 6 taking me to 10. Renown gives him 10 damage exactly on his next swing. I play Caravan and baby-Jace, hoping to stall long enough to Baral's or something, but opp has Make a Stand, pumping his unblocked damage to 10 anyway. Misplays on my part, but also the kind of matchup that should give this deck a hard time.

Game 3 vs Abzan Revolt:
Mulled a 1 lander into Swamp, EW, EW, Vengeful Rebel, Whirler Rogue, Aethersphere Harvester, and Displace. Slow, but at least I can fix my mana early. Opp goes first playing Forest and Unbridled Growth. I top a Mountain and play/crack EW for Island. He drops a plains and passes (goody, he's slow!). I top Caravan and almost fetch another Island, but decide to play the Swamp instead so that I can use EW to trigger Vengeful Rebel if I need to, later. He plays land, sacks Growth for a card, and plays Renegade Rallier, geting his Growth back. I top Telling Time, drop the Mountain, and play Caravan. He plays Quagmire (my first and only indication that his deck is Abzan) and swings for 3. I top Push, play EW and crack for Island, and then play the Rebel, killing his Rallier. Then I swing for 5 with the Caravan. He plays Aid from the Cowl and triggers revolt with his Growth. Cowl reveals... Bruna!! Ouch! I top a land, play Whirler Rogue and decide that since the life totals are 15-17 and I have Harvester in hand, why not push damage, so I crew the Caravan again, and use Whirler/Thopter tokens to make it unblockable, taking him to 10. He plays Fleshbag, taking out one of my tokens. I think he forgets that Bruna has vigilance and neglects to swing. Cowl reveals Dead Weight which he uses on my Whirler. Dang! I was looking forward to Displace on Whirler/Rebel. I top another Caravan, crew and swing into Bruna. He blocks and I Displace my Rebel, putting Bruna down. Then I play Caravan, leaving up 2 mana for TT. He must not have any Revolt triggers so he just drops Gifted Aetherborn. I TT getting Harnessed Lightning and boring stuff (map/TiTI). On my turn I Push the Aetherborn out of the way and swing for 6. He plays another Fleshbag and Cowl reveals a manland. Caravan cruises in for the win.

Game 4 vs Boros Vehicles:
Man, what an awesome starting hand! Island, Dragonskull Summit, Renegade Map, Push, Lightning, UD, and Baral's Exp. The TiTI I topped on my first draw was icing on the cake. I push his Inventor's Apprentice, and then Lightning his Gearshift Ace. UD takes down a Fleetwheel. Alas, he hits my TiTI with Chandra Flamecaller when it was one counter away from flipping. I had Baral's into Whirler next turn, too. I just Whirler instead and crew a Caravan to take out Chandra. I must have somehow offended the shuffler gods because they decided I was a sinner in need of flooding and my opponent was like, "Yo, I'm Noah and this is my Ark, b*tch!". I think I hit a run of like 5 lands, then baby-Jace, and then one more land. Opp had troubles, too. He played Dreadnaught but his only crew was a Needle Spires which couldn't quite crew anything. But then he got Fleetwheel and used it to crew the Flagship, taking me to 6 and knocking out one of my 2 tokens. I drew baby-Jace cast it off of Baral's but he just nuked it with Flagship next turn. Then he played Fleetwheel, and, just to show how awesome he was, he also played the Start Your Engines he must have just drawn. Nyah. Oh well. No deck can win if the shuffler gods are feeling spiteful.

Game 5 vs Esper Control:
We both start off dropping TiTI. My opp drops a 2nd one while I drop a baby-Jace that I'd just topped. I get 2 loots in with Jace before my opp plays Yahenni's Exp + Unmaking on my wall. I Essence Flux the wall and UD one of HIS walls while he's tapped out (no artis for burn tho). Then we get into a sort of waiting game. I keep topping lands at first but then I hit Combustible and Torrential Hulks on consecutive draws. I just KNOW he's holding counters tho and he finally breaks the standoff with Big Jace, leaving up mana for a counter. I ty to bait his counter with Push on his other wall, but he doesn't bite. So then I play Torrential. THAT gets a Shrivel. Oh well, joke's on you sucker, cuz I got REDHULK! YEAH!!! He opts to take the burn off Hulk and I aim it at Jace hitting Glimmer and UD. 7 damage vs 6 loyalty works. I even have mana up for another Essence Flux which comes in handy the following turn. He Glimmers and then tries to Skywhaler's Shot my Hulk. Alas, he doesn't have enough mana left over to counter my flicker and concedes. I play it out vs AI the rest of the way and it actually could have been a pretty tight game. AI lets me draw but I get 2 land and a Vengeful Rebel (meh). I swing with Hulk and a Fumarole and next turn AI drops Sorin (uhoh) which it promptly drains FIVE loyalty from to hit my hulk (haha, stupid AI!) before playing Liliana (Ooooh SNAP! SMART AI!) which, alas, it "forgets" to use (STUPID STUPID AI!). IDK how the game would have ended up if it had finished off Hulk with Lili. I don't take any chances and kill both PWs next turn (AI at 11 health so I couldn't quite finish it off that turn). I go back to flooding and AI has 2 Shambling Vents and an Essence Drain so it takes a while to finish it off, but ultimately, the Hulk carries the game.

Five game verdict:

Tried Blinkphonic tonight on the ladder.

I've only got An hour left to play test and then that's it. Joker, if possible for the next one , can we do two weeks of voting and testing? It's really fun and i want to do these decks justice. I've only had time to play Temur Fog and I'm loving it. Still undefeated. I think Torrential Gearhulk might be a mistake but who cares. These mages that fetch the towers are great.

Gearhulk could set up like the candyland scenario of flashing back every flicker effect in your yard in succession, which would be tons of energy with a tower. And then ending with a good old fog effect.

Oh wow, nice

Anyway the deck went 2-1 losing to Selesnya Artifacts. Can't do anything when they Thopter Arrest my tower. I really don't flicker Rogues enough

Round 2: Ladder Day 2

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/126013994

Recaps tomorrow. Grixis Gearhulks part2, 2 games each Temur Fog Tower and Grixis Fireweaver, Orzhov Control Tokens part1. Went 3-3, but had a crappy night in general. Apologies in particular to the builder of Fog Tower; in both matches I kept 2 land hands with Visionary in the hopes of drawing into more, but struggled to get more than 3 lands both times. Just some ugly stuff. A little embarrassed to post it TBH...

Two weeks seem a lot especially if i choose a theme not very exciting, but i can consider to add more days if more people need it. Maybe 2 days for every submitted decklist?

Perhaps a little fluidity on timescales? If a certain contest is proving popular and generating a lot of interest (much as this one seems to be) then maybe allow it run until it dies down a little?

I guess you then run the risk of contests running indefinitely which obviously can't happen. Maybe keep to the 1 week timescale with a provision for an additional week should it prove popular? You retain a set timescale but allow for breadth of interest.

I don't know. Maybe it's just best to stick to a single week to keep things rolling.