Under no circumstances would I ever cut Gaea's Revenge.. for the exact reason you cited (weakness to Languish). The card has be an absolute all-star.. breaking the back of the opposition and putting them on their heels game after game. It might be the best card in the deck.

Here's where I am with the list. I cut the Telling Times, Chandra's Ignition and switched the mana around a little bit. It's 31 creatures now, 4 noncreature spells, 25 land. This thing is kicking ass left and right.. the only games it has ever lost were the two in my 10-in-a-row where I didn't know how to play it that well. I'm changing the name too.

Deal With This!

2x Perilous Myr
4x Gatecreeper Vine
4x Elvish Visionary
2x Evolutionary Leap

3x Thopter Engineer
1x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1x Reclamation Sage
3x Bounding Krasis
2x Exquisite Firecraft

3x Whirler Rogue
2x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2x Zendikar's Incarnate

2x Outland Colossus
1x Conclave Naturalists (the second Sage I wanted but better)

1x Woodland Bellower

2x Gaea's Revenge

2x Island
4x Mountain
4x Forest
2x Rootbound Crag
2x Hinterland Harbor
2x Sulfur Falls
2x Gruul Guildgate
2x Simic Guildgate
1x Izzet Guildgate
4x Evolving Wilds

I don't care what anyone says.. this deck is God tier. It can compete with anything. Mill is sort of a bad matchup.. and Gruul Monsters can go toe to toe with it.. but that's it. Everything else gets crushed. I wrecked so many rank 40s with this tonight.

I'm proud

Hey Mega! Thanks for the kind words, I don't consider myself a good deck builder, but you can learn a lot of stuff just by netdecking and playing ;-)

I'm a fan of 3 colored decks, as I feel they have more versatility than the 2 color ones (although you often loose mana reliability with the current pool), so after seeing your Temur Thopters I really liked the idea, although I didn't agree with some of you card choices (most of them you cut already). I went a different route than you did, here's my list which is a work in progress:

4 x Perilous Myr
4 x Gatecreeper Vine
4 x Alchemist's Vial
2 x Evolutionary Leap
4 x Twin Bolt
3 x Thopter Engineer
1 x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
3 x Whirler Rogue
2 x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
3 x Zendikar Incarnate
2 x Thopter Spy Network
2 x Outland Colossus
2 x Chandra's Ignition

24 x Land


My thought process:
Alchemist's Vial + Thopter Spy Network - the standard thopter draw engine in case I don't have an evo leap active
Twin Bolt - to take care of aggro and aura decks
No Elvish Visionary - Vial serves as draw, evoleap draws me only value creatures (not counting Gatecreeper and Myr)
No Gaea's Revenge - can't target with Chandra's Ignition and Whirler Rogue, sometimes gets chumpblocked for ages, but as you said - puts the opponent on back foot
Chandra's Ignition - I don't really care if I wipe my board as thanks to evoleap and Spy Network I can rebuild easily or have card advantage and usually I ignite when I'm in an unfavorable board position or need it as a finisher.

Things I'm considering:
Gaea's Revenge, Exquisite Firecraft, Elvish Visionary, Reclamation Sage, Woodland Bellower. Things I could drop Alchemist's Vial, Thopter Spy Network maybe Twin Bolt and Chandra's Ignition if I went more in your deck's direction. I'd have to test more if the Thopter draw engine is really needed or if I need the other cards as all of them can bring something positive to the deck.

Back to your new list - I REALLY like how it looks. I actually like it a lot more than my list :-) I'll definitely take it for a spin and come back with results.
Only change I'd make is replacing Conclave Naturalists with Reclamation Sage just in case one of them gets milled by Sphinx's Tutelage and you can tutor the 2nd one with Woodland Bellower.

The more I play, the more I kinda want some burn.. just for aura decks. I played vs a bunch of aura decks last night, and I beat them all except one (bc I made a mistake) but dealing with Voltron creatures was annoying. I could chump them, go wide, and eventually go tall.. but things like flying vigilant 4/9 Graveblade Marauder are annoying lol (granted, Twin Bolt wouldn't have solved that problem either, but I did win that game). The game I lost was bc dude had a voltroned Bottle Gnomes and had brought me down to 3.. I had lethal +1 with an Exquisite Firecraft in my hand. He had so many auras on it I forgot it was a Bottle Gnomes, so he sacced it, survived and got me on the back swing with his board (if I hadn't screwed up I could have left a few thopters behind). Now that I look at that scenario too.. Twin Bolt wouldn't have helped there either. Sigh.

@Annuj: I had the second Reclamation Sage in there, but I didn't end up wanting another 2/1 body. Naturalists attacks and blocks very well. I know for sure that I want a second artifact/enchantment removal dork in the deck.. they (both of them) have been great in about 80%+ of games. I ran into Thopters and Zendikar's Roil a lot last night, as well as aura decks. I'm unsure of Vial's usefulness.. but Spy Network has been on my radar for some time now.. let me know how it does for you. Firecraft is a card that has just been stellar as both removal and a face finisher. The deck has to have at least a few answers to stuff like Willbreaker, Kird Chieftain, opposing Zendikar Incarnates, unflipped planeswalkers, etc. and Firecraft does the job nicely.

I can't wait to hear your deck's results!

The Exiled One suggested cutting the two Myrs for Embermaw Hellions.. I'm gonna try that tonight. He also suggested cutting Naturalists for the 3rd Incarnate, but I when I had all 3 in earlier.. I found it performed poorly in multiples.. and Naturalists was very good all last night.. so I'm gonna keep it in for now.

0-1 vs Golgari Ramp - mwonvuli, evoleap, big black and green creatures. Couldn't take care of Liliana and later Kothophed. I drew out the game and got him to 5 life but in the end got overpowered. I took out 2 evoleaps with Sages. I really missed Chandra's Ignition, it would've won me the game a few times. Bounding Krasis was useless ;-)
1-1 vs Boros Auras - he casts 2x Myr and Goblin Arsonist, Flaring Flame-Kin and Blessed Spirits, but no auras. He wipes my board with Tragic Arrogance, but other than that I have an upper hand all the time. Once again Krasis sits dead in my hand and I'd kill for Chandra's Ignition. I had something to cast all the time, woodland bellower in hand but I had better creatures available.
1-2 vs RDW - he had a very good start with Foundry Street Denizen and Infectious Bloodlust, topdecked a twin bolt vs my Pia and Kiran Nalaar, and finished me off with some Exquisite Firecraft + 2 Myrs to the face, even though I had a steady stream of chump blockers.
2-2 vs Boros Auras - Myr chumpblocked until I could cast Sage to remove nimbus wings, the I chumpblocked some more till I had Gaea's, Bellower and Colossus on board.
3-2 vs Golgari Ramp - this game Krasis actually helped me to survive as I delayed my opponent till I could finish him off in the air.

I feel that this deck has a lot of potential but needs some tweaks.
It doesn't really fit my playstyle, as I like flashy spells like chandra's ignition, big bombs and not some pecking and delaying with thopters and Krasis ;-)))

I'll test:
-1 land
-1 visionary
-3 Krasis
-1 Naturalists
+1 Reclamation Sage
+2 Myr (vs aggro)
+2 Chandra's Ignition (much needed removal)
+1 Zendikar Incarnate

I don't like the suggestion to drop myrs and add helion - RDW owned me, and it would be even worse with no myrs.

I'm used to playing the removal game.. as it's my favorite playstyle (removal into bombs) but I've been able to trade vs attackers.. even RDW the few times I faced it. Krasis was good vs RDW, allowing me to tap an aura'd up Glory Chaser and play something to gang block it with on my turn. Ignition might be the right call ultimately.. but I personally haven't needed it.

After building the variant deck with Zendikar Incarnates instead of Gaea's Revenge (huge mistake), I went on a 6 match downswing, getting beat by pretty much everything including the slowest most painful match I've played against Abzan Control.

Every. Single. Loss. was due to not being able to interrupt the opponent's plan. No significant removal gets you in trouble, and it's really easy to fall behind. I'm going to try Auunj's suggestion of including Chandra's Ignition. We need something to reset, even if it means clearing our own board. This deck can chump block for a really, really long time but chump blocking isn't a great winning strategy. I've really noticed this deck struggles to deal with planeswalkers in particular. You need either Pia and Kiran on deck with a couple of thopters to burn (that aren't being used to create an unblockable attacker via whirler rogues, or chump blocking) or myrs to sac to evo leap. That's why I'm really reluctant to take out the twin bolts, but I'm willing to try anything to bring this deck into the stratosphere.

I think a board wipe works in our favor a lot of the time because we can replenish so quickly with a couple thopters and evo leap. Plus, we create the opportunity for a huge swing in a single turn with Zendikar Incarnate or Colossus ready to attack after we serve up Chandra's Ignition. I also like Auunj's idea of Thopter Spy Network and did actually try to incorporate that into an earlier version of the deck. It's just a bit of a mana hog and adds 2 more 4 mana cards, but I'm going to make room for it again to see if it works. Thopter Spy Network is a great card that creates a lot of pressure on the opponent to remove it. Worst case scenario, it eats a Reclamation Sage to help keep our evo leap safe, since most decks are running only one or two enchant removals.

Here's the updated version I'm going to try. I'll post results later.

3 x Perilous Myr
4 x Gatecreeper Vine
4 x Elvish Visionary
2 x Evolutionary Leap

3 x Thopter Engineer
1 x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1 x Reclamation Sage
2 x Exquisite Firecraft

3 x Whirler Rogue
2 x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 x Zendikar Incarnate
2 x Thopter Spy Network

2 x Outland Colossus
2 x Chandra's Ignition

1 x Woodland Bellower

2 x Gaea's Revenge

2 x Island
3 x Mountain
5 x Forest
2 x Rootbound Crag
2 x Hinterland Harbor
2 x Sulfur Falls
2 x Gruul Guildgate
2 x Simic Guildgate
1 x Izzet Guildgate
4 x Evolving Wilds

I tested a -2 Myr +2 Ignition swap last night and it was pretty good. Conclave Naturalists was a solid target.. helped me wreck an RDW deck. I could've cast it on turn 5 but I feared Twin Bolt and Fiery Impulse would've wrecked my turn 4 Rogue.. which it did (end step Twin Bolt took out my Thopters). It was good in another game too. I had a loss vs Gruul Monsters where he went back to back Gaea's Revenge. I had a Gaea of my own but couldn't target it.. sigh.

Overall.. it can be a game winning play, it should probably be in the deck.

my changes were:
- 2 myr
+1 incarnate
+1 land

Losing faith in the deck.

Got stomped a few more times - red aggro, boros chumps, mill, sultai. Win rate is still above 50% when I look at all the matches played, but of the last dozen matches, it's been about 2-10. I think the deck is getting too heavy and cumbersome, I'm going to revert back to the deck that was running @ 22-2. I think twin bolt is a huge part of the deck's success because it really does a great job at eliminating the early threats, especially red aggro and boros where nimbus wings / call of the full moon / infectious bloodlust show up constantly and wreck our winning plan.

-2 Thopter Spy Network
-2 Zendikar Incarnate
-2 Chandra's Ignition


+3 Twin Bolt
+3 Bounding Krasis

Krasis has been all I've needed vs fast starts.. but if you're seeing THAT much aggro in your meta, then you gotta build to your meta and run Twin Bolt. I ran into two rank 40 RDW guys last night and they brought the pain. One of them went:

On the play
Turn 1 Foundry Street Denizen
Turn 2 Foundry Street Denizen, swing for two
Turn 3 Double Goblin Arsonist, swing for six
Turn 4 Dragon Fodder.. then I flashed a Krasis and traded with a Denizen.. played Whirler Rogue on my turn
Turn 5 He Twin Bolts my two Thopters, swings, I trade the Rogue for the Denizen..

After that I stabilized and won. The other game a different opponent went

T1 Arsonist
T2 Mage Ring Bully, swing for 1
T3 Bloodlust on Bully, swing for 6
T4 Dragon Fodder, swing for 5. I flash in Krasis again attempting to trade and he Fiery Impulses it to save his bully
T5 I flashed in a second Krasis and got the bully.. then stabilize with Chandra's parents

Twin Bolt would've certainly helped in these matches, and if I keep seeing them.. I might switch. But Twin Bolt won't help vs T1 Glory Chaser, T2 aura.. which is the God opener for RDW. Only turn 1 Mountain, hold up Fiery Impulse can handle that start. You can tap it on turn 3 with a Krasis, but it'll get you for 8-10 damage before that (if its on the play, 4-5 if it's not).

I really don't think we need Spy Network. It just makes a slow deck slower, and I rarely need more draw. I'm keeping the two Zendikar Incarnate though.. they've been decent. Ignition was slightly above average last night.. it was the play that won that first RDW game (Ignition on Naturalists).

This deck is sick mega i'm loving it

Glad you like it bro. Currently I'm running -2 Myr +2 Chandra's Ignition different from the list you posted. The other Steam guys in the thread are pretty high on Twin Bolt.. apparently they face RDW and other fast starting decks often and feel they need it to survive early aggression. Me personally, I haven't lost to fast-starting aggro yet with this list.. but I could see how some of their better openers, on the play would punish me.. but I don't know if they could finish me without the right burn spells. Anyway.. enjoy the list.. I'd love to have your feedback.

I hope covert gets up and running, plays this deck and shares his thoughts today.

Me too.. but I'm not holding my breath. The iOS situation is pretty deflating.

Why don't you try it BB?

yeah, you're right, I should try it. I like seeing track records before taking something out so I can have confidence playing it. Otherwise, I assume the deck isn't optimal and I don't give it a fair shot. Some of the decks I tried out from these forums were ones were builders were claiming 20-0 or 25-0 win streaks. So I took those for a spin and wrecked opponents. Typically for me to try a deck, I need to see at least a 10-0 win streak to be interested. I already got 9 decks on the go and haven't found reasons to get rid of any of them yet. I'm getting close to scrapping the Elves deck. It's so not Tier 1.

The only exception was in 2015 when you and I were chatting and you had me build decks live (that mono-black one being the most memorable). I played that deck forever afterwards, it was a total blast.

why worry about the statistics of the deck? if a deck is good the playing of the deck will reveal that even if it isn't totally refined. User error and bad matchups will always occur.

That's why I never include statistics with my decklists. If I do talk about games when I play a deck I talk about why I won or didn't win.

Because he's a hardcore Spike who only cares about winning.