Sharding Sphinx almost turns into an instant win if your deck only has artifact fliers, so that's why I like adding black.
Traveler's Amulet is suprisingly decent in the artifact deck, as you have a cheap card to return to Esperzoa and something to return with the Sanctum Gargoyle.

My Esper deck is Blue/Black splashing White for both Gargoyles, which are both 4-drops.
The deck still has a lot of card advantage built in, so it can win a longer game while still being able to apply a lot of pressure early.

Hello everyone. I'm interested in building a "Caw Go" deck for DOTP2015. Any input or comment is appreciated.



It's essentially just a UW Control deck. I haven't seen many opponents playing Squadron Hawk, to my surprise. It's quite a powerful creature, allowing you to essentially draw 3 cards.

I wanted to keep the mana base simple and consistent, so I kept it to 2 colors. The downside is that, unlike the awesome Ink Treader list by Hakeem and Monk, UW can seem lacking in removal as far as the early game goes. I don't have Shocks, Angers and Ground Assaults. To that end, I use Wall of Omens, Squadron Hawk, and Nullify to have a plan against aggro.

Baneslayer and Brimaz are just too awesome not to play. Brimaz is actually a great way to control the board against aggro decks, but can be an efficient beater backed up by counterspells on his own. Baneslayer is what it is, and can be a great way to recover from early damage from faster decks.

I'm not thrilled about running Arrest, but it's pretty versatile removal for 3cc. This means it can be a useful tool against aggro, while also being able to deal with heavier hitters later in the game. The downside is that it doesn't come at instant speed, has creatures it can't deal with well (Talrand, Rabblemaster, Young Pyromancer, etc.), and that it can be played around. Still, it's about as close to Oblivion Ring as I've got access to in Dotp.

Edict is great as a versatile 1:1 removal spell, and exile is relevant (Kozilek, Masked Admirers, Bloodghast, etc.) It's great that it can hit relevant enchantments like Angelic Accord and Beastmaster's Ascension.

Planar Cleansing completes the removal package.

I wanted a lot of draw, and I'm still not sure it's enough. 4 Think Twice and 4 Inspiration to start with, plus the occasional Wall of Omens and Obelisk are what keep the engine running.

The counterspy package is 3 Dissolve, 3 Nullify, 2 Traumatic Vision. I'd really like to play a full plates of Traumatic Vision, but at the moment I'm more afraid of aggro decks and want to sure up the early game with the 2cc counter.

Elixir can recycle your deck, which gives you a big advantage in the late game. You can recycle your Squadron Hawks and dig them out again. You'll have tons of mana and access to Inspiration with counter backup, and the deck is more dense with spells since all your lands are already in play.

Obelisk is just a versatile and powerful card here. I primarily use it to loot through my deck with the blue ability, but you can also gain life in response to a would-be-lethal Banefire or something. Having Arcane Sanctum allows me to incidentally use the -2/-2 ability, which is huge as well. I only added 1 Seaside Citadel because I didn't want more than 4 tap-lands. If you draw it, great, you can give your Hawk +4/+4. If you didn't? No big deal.

If you test this deck, I'd be interested to see your feedback.

I would add another win condition or two. An angel or something. Also, Vapor Snag is very cheap.

@drunkslono Thanks for the comment. After some testing, I agree with both your suggestions. Here's where my testing took me:



The primary thing I wanted to do was to bring down the curve of the entire deck. The concept is that you can get your Hawk up on T2, then continue to play Hawk + Vapor Snag, Wall + Cloudshift, Nullify + Cloudshift, etc., giving you an advantage over the opponent.

Chump block with your Wall of Omens, and if it's going to die, cast Cloudshift on it to keep it alive and draw a card. The point is to constantly be seeing cards.

Talrand + Cloudshift backup is my new win condition, and it can go up as early as T5. After that, continue to protect Talrand with Cloudshift and counters for a few turns.

Cloudshift can also be used to save your Brimaz/Baneslayer from removal. Think of it like a counterspell for W in such situations.

Bident is a nice tech I found. Often I have games where I just play T2 Hawk, T3 Hawk + Vapor Snag, T4 Hawk + Hawk. It's nice to throw up a Bident behind 3-4 flyers and start getting some massive card advantage. Bident's activated ability is relevant too, forcing attackers into you so that you can get through for damage in the air and draw cards off Bident.

I'm using all basic lands because I can't really afford to have any lands come into play tapped. The deck wants to be proactive and use all of its mana every turn.

just some quick tips that I don't know if you know or not. seeing that your have talrand and cloudshift in the deck already, adding archeomancer can complete a deadly combo that you are halfway through. cast archeo, return cloudshift, cloudshift archeo, return cloudshift. repeat until you cant anymore . also a small nifty combo with squadhawks is using it in conjunction with elixir of immortality. chump blocking with birds keeping one in hand. elixir them back into you library and then fetch them again with your saved bird. you could reduce your mana count by 2 and still be fine imo. that would open room for one or the other.

Solid advice. It's great to have your input, I really enjoyed your Boros aggro deck from the T16 series.

I've seen the Archeomancer/Cloudshift combo deck, and I recall having some success with it. I'm very happy with the addition of Talrand, and I see how Archeomancer can take the deck to another level. My original concern with it was the high mana cost, but it could be worth it for the sheer disgusting power that the Talrand-Archeomancer-Cloudshift combo adds to the deck.

I've thought about Elixir to recycle dead Hawks. When Caw Blade was popular in Standard, Jace performed the same function for that deck, reshuffling Hawks into the deck for additional value. I can see Elixir in this deck as well, but I'm more excited about Archeomancer and would rather make space for that first.

What do you think about Planar Cleansing at this point? The Pro for Planar Cleansing is that it's nice to have a complete board-wipe, as a reset button against fast decks or insurmountable board states. It's especially useful vs Token decks. However, the Cons are the extremely high cost for a deck like this, and the fact that I could often have a better board than my opponents. I don't always want to blow up my own board + Bident. I feel like I'm trying to keep the board in the early game with Creatures + Snags, and am reluctant to cast the board wipe.

What do you think about Quicken? It could make the deck tighter. Just to have something to cast on turn 1, or any time you have 1 mana open, to dig 1 card deeper into my deck and get to the Talrands and combo pieces. Quicken is nice with Talrand, and could sometimes surprise my opponent with Quicken + Planar Cleansing to get the most value from my board wipe.

Thoughts on Stoneforge Mystic? I feel like the equipment is just not good enough. The best piece is Avarice Amulet, but it's still sorta expensive to cast and equip, and very risky. I feel like I'd rather just cast an Inspiration and get the cards right away at instant speed with no risk. On the other hand, it's a 2-drop that fishes a card out of my deck, so that's pretty good.

I was considering Righteous Blow in this deck. I like having instant-speed spells for 1 in this deck, and 2 damage is pretty relevant in this meta. (Surprise kill on Kiln Fiends, Young Pyromancers, Rabblemasters, Pioneer, Visionary, Necro Assistant, and various 1/2-drops that are popular in the meta. However, it's just so situational and could often become a dead draw.

Wassup everyone I'm no pro at deck building at all. So to make things interesting I try and challenge my self to building Theme based decks that are allot of fun This is a fun i been having fun with called...
.."YOU MAY NOT PASS"...


Lands 23

3 Arcane sanctum
3 Seaside Citadel
8 Planes
9 Islands



Creatures 19

2 Mentor of the meek
2 Banisher Priest
2 Quiclling
2 Frost Lynx
2 Pestermite
4 Archaeomancer
2 Surrakar Banisher
3 Skymark Roc


SPELLS 18

4 Cloud Shift
4 Vapor Snag
4 Void Snare
4 Voyage's End
2 Inspiration



The theme is pretty simple just keep sending stuff back to there hand with your Gandalf Voice ....LOL while attacking its a blast and allot of fun still play testing t...

I know I have far too many creatrures. But even in this state I have a good win percentage against all Decks. Against Mono Red the Wall of Omens is perfect and the single swift justice is good for an Alphastrike with Brimaz or the Skulker. The Tri Lands are just an distraction. As the Manabase in this game is terrible, they make no difference to the Guildgate. And of corse you are always smilig when you go against 5Color "Controll" or anything that tries to kill creatures. The Counterslash can be a big blowout if your opponent tries to play his big guys. Remember that you can use it on Terastomper as well. He cant be countered but you still can cheat Kozilek in play from the trigger.

Of corse I tried UR or Jeskai after the Pyromancer got released. But I felt like the Pyromancer cant handle bigger Controll (ish) Decks and Red doesnt give you anything worth the trouble. Although its no Supreme verdict, Quicken + Planar Cleansing can blow out any opponent that plays creatures pre-Combat.

New DLC therefore new theorycrafting! Just tossed this together in the hopes that Artifacts can be a viable thing now



I put in Adventuring Gear but that could easily be a Darksteel Axe too (not sure if something like Traveler's Amulet is worth it for bouncing or not and if this does go Esper, it'd actually help with fixing).

I'm not sure it's worth going into Esper but it could be for Tidehollow Strix, Glaze Fiend and swapping Esper Cormorants for Tower Gargoyle


elk

Elk I wouldn't cut out black. The synergy between Glaze Fiend and Myr Smith is outrageous. Tower Gargoyle is badass too.. and Strix. That's a ton of evasive damage being left off the table.

I still think this is worth exploring. 2 colors vs. 3 is a lot easier to manage and curve out which is why I started there. It also allows me to include some removal/protection/interaction that typically the Artifact decks lack.

Glaze Fiend is a potentially strong card based on your hand (and as you pointed out, got stronger with the addition of Myrsmith) but you do need to keep casting to get the benefit out of either. Generally that shouldn't be hard but it is still conditional and does fall off in late games (unless you have Esperzoa in play). Strix is one I'm disappointed to miss out on. It's a great card in our pool and would be awesome to have in the early curve. It's just the cost means I have to hit both colors (most likely not on curve in a 3 color deck) but that could still be worth it down the testing road (could cut the Adventuring Gear although they've been fun so far). Tower Gargoyle is yet another cost that you need to hit all of and because of it, can't reduce below that 3 cost so I'm not too upset there (and fine with Esper Cormorants).

If this does go 3 colors though, it'll probably require some dilution to include mana fixing (Traveler's Amulet, Armillary Sphere, Darksteel Ingot) which slows the deck down and takes up valuable space.



elk

I too think azorius might be stronger for artifacts with the new cards. Not entirely sure though, and it feels tough to give up on the strixes. Glaze fiend is still a nice card, but I feel it's much more useful if you build with pure aggro in mind. Tower Gargoyle is also an amazing card in this meta, and cormorants are not nearly a half-decent replacement.. But there's just so many cards fighting for spots now, so I think pure azorius thopter-control is probably the strongest way to do artifacts now. But guess we can only play, test and wait.

I'm a huge fan of the darksteel ingots though, and see no reason not to include it, even just in UW, as it's the 3rd best ramping mechanic in the game after cultivate and pioneer elf, and fits nicely in with sculptors and all the other artifact synergies.

I think Azorious thopter-control was the strongest way to do artifacts even before the new cards came out. They just made it even better. However, I think Esper artifacts went from bad to pretty-good-but-still-not-as-good-as-azorious Pretty excited to do some playtesting once I can hook up my computer.

I've already cut 1 Adventuring Gear for the 2nd Bident of Thassa just for frequency (lawl at the game I just had with a bazillion tokens and dropped Thassa to almost deck myself). I may bump the other 'Gears' at some point too. They're a lot of fun and good for beats but I'm sure this spot could be used better. I'm also fine with 2x Esperzoa. It's fine for beats and the cycling 'combo' but it's slow and I do not want more than 1 in a game. That will open up a potential 4 spots to play with. Could be more utility or other white/ blue good stuffs.

Oh and Mega - I spent some time with the added to the deck (looks like a lot of the Esper decks are very similar to mine but stuffed with the couple cards I had mentioned above for Esper considerations) but the mana is just atrocious. It is tough to curve into cards and I was often behind on plays because of it. Tower Gargoyle was great when I could get there but awkward to cast at times. I also forgot about how Glaze Fiend has no value other than beats (it's the same problem I'm having with Adventuring Gear). There were a couple games where I had 1 or 2 of them on board and it came down to racing and made me wish for the Tidehollow Strix option. Strix definitely was fine but I'm just not sure the mana/ tap lands are worth splashing just to fit this card into the deck. I'm still not discounting the Esper option but I think Azorius will have a better/smoother time playing this theme.




elk

Just an update - I played Vapor Snag in the 'open slots' I was talking about above and it's been working well. Similar to Gods Willing it's both offensive and defensive so definitely getting good mileage.

elk

I'm not sure the tokens are consistent enough to consider it (Myrsmith & Sharding Sphinx) but the games where I end up with an abundance of 1/1's has me considering Blasting Station. Any thoughts to adding that into the mix? Would give the deck some reach and another route to go.

elk

I am a fan of blasting station. I like it a lot in conjunction with spells like raise the alarm and krenko's command as it makes them a nifty twin bolt thus increasing its value. especially as your in white instant speed is nice. also galvanic juggernaut has been a favorite of mine working side by side with blasting station. I haven't played the deck so im a little lenient on making suggestions but is wandering gear doing anything. to me its always been a "meh" card but I could be wrong. I suppose its a cheap artifact to bounce and replay in conjunction with myrsmith. if it were me I would take out the gear and add a station and either the juggernauts or alarms.

The list isn't updated but have been talking about changes I've been making in posts. Gear is gone and is currently Vapor Snag. Esperzoa is gone too (for the time being) and could be the 2 Stations.

Juggernaut w/ Station was always nice and could be even better in this shell.

elk

So this bit made me think and try out a couple of things. You seem to have a solid deck and find yourself with an abundance of tokens. Blasting Station is one solution to all those little myr you need to be rid of but let me suggest another I've been tinkering with. Ya see you're already running blue and there are so many more things you could be doing with an overabundance of tokens. You never know what you might stumble across.

This is a decent fliers deck that generates enormous card advantage. I'd appreciate suggestions for improvement.