If you cut Claustrophobia you can swap an Island for a Plains. I would also look at trimming at least one Rogue's Passage for another Plains. Irregulars are that awesome and you have a lot of T2 .

Yeah you could swap to 1 anchor and 2 suppression bonds (those still combo with breaker if you target a dude with triggered abilities), and swap some islands for plains.
Since you said claustrop isn't generally a turn 3 play supression bonds being more expensive might not be a big deal?

I'll do it as soon as I see some permanent removal that lets my guys through. That's why I'm not high on Celestial Flare.. because my damage still gets fogged. That costs me precious renown counters and card draw. If something else can.replace the function of the spell.. I'm all ears. I hate to say this.. but.. try it out. If the Claustrophobia feels too hard to cast when you need it.. then cut it. But please don't cut it based on theorycraft. Believe me when I tell you that it's not an 'on curve' play.. it's like a turn 4+ play.

If I was gonna do anything to the mana, I'd cut two islands for the other two Guildgates. Rogue's Passage hasn't had to be used yet.. it was something that got put in when the deck was originally made. The synergy with Willbreaker is the only reason it's still there.

Edit: ..and yes, Irregulars are that awesome. The card is borderline busted.

i believe you Beast! I'll try it out as-is and give my impressions of Claustrophobia

So is supression bonds The thing that we should start asking then is at what point on the curve the 3 cmc of claustro becomes relevant insofar that you can play 2 spells a turn where you would be limited to 1 by bonds.

more plains means more irregular activations soonerer. that is also a factor.

This is a forum. Theorycrafting is what we do, sir. Just kidding, will test when I can

The 3cmc matters as soon as turn 5.. because I have a lot going on that costs two mana (Irregulars ability, two drop creatures, Grasp of the Heiromancer, leaving open mana for the bounce spell).

Did a quick couple of testruns:

I would go :

12 Plains
7 Islands
2 Azorious Guildgate
2 Glacial Fortress
1 evolving wilds

(23,5 land)

-3 claustro, -1 river marshall OR -1 knight of the orchid OR -1 luitenant

+2 suppression bonds, +1 anchor to the aether.

This will pretty close to guarantee you can drop thief/lynx/aether turn 3.
It will NOT guarantee you drop luitenant on turn 2, but it should be pretty reliable to hit irregulars turn 4.

There should be even MORE white sources, but currently I don't see how would be the best way to achieve it.

Ok.. here's a common scenario:

Turn 2 i play a two drop, so does the opponent.
Turn 3 i play Grasp of the Heiromancer or Frost Lynx, getting in to trigger renown. The opponent also plays a creature.
Turn 4 I play Claustrophobia on one creature, tap the other with Grasp and get in again.

Opponents take turns off too.. like casting Nissa's Pilgrimage, or not having another cheap creature, or something that doesn't affect the board like Acid Moss or an enchantment.

I think you will like Anchor if you try it. Scry and draw denial are potentially better than a permanent solution because you're trying to win quickly. Whenever you draw Claustrophobia just ask yourself what Anchor would do in that spot.

I've been thinking about one Evolving Wilds but I'd never go to 24 land. I have two 4-drops and two 5-drops. We can totally play 23 land here. Flooding out kills decks like this IMO. I especially can't get behind cutting our tempo cards. Maybe Knight of the White Orchid if your OCD dogma says you MUST RUN 24 LANDS in everything except Goblins Lol.

We can go back and forth about the removal all day. It's pretty much whatever works for you in those 3 spots.

I can do the 'ask myself' test. That's usually a pretty decent way to judge these debates.

You misunderstand my intention. I didn't change the manabase because of OCD, I did it in an attempt to MAXIMISE the likelihood of this decks early agressive plays and power cards to come into effect. You wanna have that luitenant/freeblade connecting asap. You wanna draw cards of thief. You wanna slap down irregulars on curve 90% of the time.
I didn't cut any tempo cards, I cut the rogue's passages. and that's a 5 mana play (see? you run 4 5 drops), which hurts your OWN tempo. you could do a tempo play at 5 mana and add to the board at the same time instead. Or drop willbreaker when your opponent is on the ropes and has exhausted his removal dealing with your smoothly working curved out early tempo beats. Dropping one more island in favour of 1 rogue's passage is ok too. or go 13/6 for even more consistency. I think i'd like that best maybe.

The evolving wild is not an entire land, since when you use it, you take a land out of the deck. In my suggested modifications you will have 4 4drops and 2 5 drops. We can totally play 23,5 land there.

I am very convinced that my suggestions will smoothen the decks play considerably.

But you are right, could go back and forth all day

you're making a good argument, yall.

He did test run the deck too, Beast, so you gotta give him that. I think I'll do the build based on his tweaks to see.

I haven't finished unlocking, I am still in the grind phase. The decks in my head are pure theory. You mentioned my Rakdos deck Beast, take it with a grain of salt because I built it as a grind deck against the AI and it performs very well at that role. But it isn't MP tested.

I like the idea of white weenies with some blue tempo plays added. I also really like Anchor to the Aether - its a powerful card but it often doesn't have a home. I think this sort of tempo deck is the perfect place for it. Draw denial is pretty subtle because you will never know for sure what cards you denied your opponent, but in many circumstances its stronger than an outright cantrip.

Yeah pretty much. It's mainly because he wanted pemanent solutions that I upped the curve a bit and added an evolving wilds and supression bonds. If he wouldn't be so icky about anchor it would be fine to go 3 aether instead of claustrophobia and stay at 23 land with a 13 plains /6 island base /shrug.

Icky!! I'm not icky!! I just don't like playing a bunch of bounce as my only interaction. It's sorcery speed too..

I finally unlocked my second Tragic Arrogance and started messing around with white control, and I have to say that Rogue's control artifact/mill archetype is a monster. I'm still missing some of the cards that would make it better, but it's been great even with some sub-optimal cards.

I'll be testing it out over the next few days as I complete my collection. The first change I would suggest is that calculated dismissal, which can often end up as a dead card in longer games, should not be a 4 of. A smaller number of them could be reliably looted away if the game goes that long, but I don't want to be looking at multiple dismissals in my hand when I don't have time to activate Tutelage. I don't think I'd run over 1 or 2.

Disciple of the Ring seems like a good fit in the deck, probably better than the second Hixus. I'm not sure the first Hixus is even necessary.

I'm still not sold on a full set of countermands over bone to ash. Currently I'm running 3 Countermand and 2 Bone to Ash but that ratio is always up to personal preference.

Solemn offering is great in the meta, I'm currently running 2.

I've had a lot of success with Knight of the White Orchids in similar decks. Great defensively, they help dig you out of a hole if you're stuck on land or on the draw. They would also allow you to play Archangel of Tithes. I don't have the angel unlocked though so I'm not here how good she is in the meta.

Hopefully I unlock my Thopter Spy Networks soon, because that card seems great here.

Mega I have been running a ghetto version of your list, missing a few key cards but it is performing well. 3 packs away from finishing my collection!

3 more packs!! Hell yeah bro. It'll be great to have you with a full library helping us brew!

Glad the deck is serving you well.

Okay, I played this a few times now and it's excellent. Question: why not Anchor to the Ether over Claustrophobia? A) I think anchor is about as good for the deck, b) you don't have as steep mana requirements with it, c) tempos your opponent and denies them a draw. Or if it has to be a permanent removal, why not the white enchant instead which also handles walkers?

I don't think this deck can have sufficient blue sources for claustrophobia, this isn't me saying I don't think the card is good. Fwiw.

Edit: nvm... I'm way late to this party, lol. Read the thread 0045, read the damn thread.