Just trying to end with a positive note for all. None lost their first game, and 1 game doesn't give me enough info to start trashing them in any meaningful way. Only Skip Bayless and Black Barney do garbage hot takes like that

I wanted to devote a days playsession to each deck (especially since it would work perfectly with 7 decks), and give each one 4 games (1 vs AI, 3 vs Ladder) but I'm not confident I can play every night and give each an equal share of games that way. After I finish AI round 1, I'll go one by one playing 2 games on ladder (hopefully doing 2 decks per session), then do a round of finals with the best performing, if time permits.

These flicker games take a while. Feeling like it would be nice to do an aggro challenge next week just so the testing will go faster, lol

OK I watched the first 2 games but I have to ask why on earth did you not sac or chump block with the 0/1 in game two it was driving me nuts watching you not sac it when you could get two 2/2 instead

Built all 7 and goldfished em each once vs AI. All 7 decks won - 2 with mulls to 6. Bant Willbender won the most handily (AI was mana screwed - got Tamiyo + Willbender combo on curve and just owned the game), Orzhov Tokens came the closest to death with just 2 life (I gambled vs red Hulk going from 13 to 5 and then topped Unmaking) but was one of the mull-to-6 decks, Temur Fog was probably the funnest to play (and was the other mull-to-six game).

I'll try to play them each on the ladder at least 5 times if I can (play time is never a given) and post thoughts on each deck after their trial by fire.

FWIW, all the input from everyone is pretty awesome.

I have to agree with vert, this is more entertaining than the showdown/fightclub.

Didn't get to test any of the decks last time and now I'm workin on going through each of them, I'll update this post as I go

Esper Revolt: this one stuck out to me probably because I'm a weirdo and this deck does some weird things. Played maybe 5 games and won all five (vs AI) it was clunky at times but there are some very interesting interactions such as the Roc and the blue servo pooper. Coming across a good stockpile deck has been a chore and I'd count thus among the few good stockpile decks

Bant Willbender: like a lot of you I was skeptical about Willbreaker in this deck but after a handful of games I'm a believer. This one, thus far, has been the most consistent. Even when you are not bouncing and blinking you can hide behind all wall of high-quality cards. Possibly my favorite list

Temur BlinkBurn: this one is deceptive, I won most of my games by the skin of my teeth often thinking for long periods about what the best line would be. I really like nonlinear decks like this and I bet this deck may have the highest skill floor and ceiling among any of the contenders. Reminds me somewhat of geistramp without the bare board. Another in the running for my favorite list

Orzhov GoWide: another very fun, very consistent pile. Great colors bring great removal, lifegain and wide hard to deal with boards. Didn't lose a single match with this deck and I'd dare say it may be ready for the wild(versus) definitely a solid contender

Grixis ShadowCopters: I like what this deck is trying to do and the problems I had with it are it seldom does any of it in a quick fashion. Of course this wouldn't be a problem if I had any way to defend myself for the first 2 creatureless turns. I'd probably recommend dropping the curve down some and maybe adding another fireweaver and some other 2 drops. I did have one really memorable game involving Saheeli, 2 Fireweavers and pia/Kieran. Cool interactions but slow to get going

Grixis Hulks: sometimes slow to get going but the mid and late game is pretty solid. As with ShadowCopters the early game is pretty rough at times making it difficult to make it too the turns where this deck shines. This one could use some polishing though it is a great time when it goes off

Bant Draw Your Entire Deck: last and certainly not least, the reason I tried this last is because this is the list I looked at and could definitely see it's vast power. Maybe less imaginative but leagues away from the other decks in terms of card advantage and outrageous shenanigans. This deck overwhelms opponents with value and its the only deck I felt confident going straight to ladder matches. Ending this shameless gushing over this deck I say this absolutely gets one of my votes

This concludes my initial analysis of the flicker decks with one vote for Bant Tempo and one vote to be determined

Final edit: after a few more games with orzhov and willbender I've sided with orzhov as my 2nd vote, great job guys it was entertaining

I'm trying to think of the right way to approach talking about the decklists, because if my own is the only one I don't suggest 2-3 changes, it'll be obvious. But I don't want to pointlessly suggest changes to my own list I don't agree with, because if I did, I would've changed it during testing previously. So maybe I'll just avoid suggesting changes to any deck.

Yeah, there was another turn I should have bounced and recast the Whale for extra energy too. The turn I burned his 1/2 card advantage dork, I should instead have attacked first, then bounced Whale to hand, recast, and then tower burned the 1/2 - so I'd have had some energy reserves left afterwords. Probably didn't need to burn that dood at all, as it needs at least I other artifact to be able to draw (was mistakenly thinking it could tap itself to dig one). I blame it on being tired and slightly tilted from UI bull****ery. Seriously, did you happen to catch the turn I Gearhulked fog, me spending rest of opps turn trying to view my goddamned exiled Fog (to remind myself of text differences b/w it and festivities) and the game kept pulling my curser away!?! I mutter something under my breath about 'oh god, just let me look at the card'

Hella fun game tho. Was a blast trying to hold on with such little life, and cool the deck gave me the tools to do it.

I mentioned in game how normally I don't care about what happens with the 0/1 body, but in flicker decks I prefer to keep it around if possible to blink for extra servos. If I'm recalling the situation you're referring to correctly, I was holding several 4 mana spells while stuck on 3 land - was thinking if I top decked a flicker spell I wanted the 0/1 around to target. Felt I had the luxury to do that as I was managing the board state well enough without sacing the Enthusiast. Was worried it might be short sighted to trade it for 2 Stockpile tokens, when a top decked Flux would give me 4 thanks to fabricate and Stockpiles. Maybe overly conservative, but in the end the deck pulled it off. Really impressive for how long I was stuck on 3 land. If this was the Revolt challenge it would be one of my front runners already.

I wouldn't call it "pointlessly suggest changes to my own list I don't agree with" - I'd call it "craftily suggest changes to my own list that I don't agree with".


3 games into the first deck (Bant Flicker). Game 1 was vs Izzet Prowess: My opp got swapped with AI right as the game started, which is a shame - he had the cards to put up a tough fight, but AI sux at piloting Prowess. Easy win.

Game 2 was vs Rakdos Eggs (I think). Opp derped out and missed his 2nd turn and immediately conceded. I played it out anyway but it was effortless.

Game 3 was vs Izzet Burn. Finally a player who actually played and played well. This was a tight, long, grindy match. I think I misplayed early (playing Gideon T4 into 3 untapped mana instead of just biding my time and waiting for him to play something. He countered and dropped Chandra on HIS T4 and then proceeded to kill my creeps as soon as I played em while racking up CA and getting Chandra to ult range. I staved off disaster by rescuing a Rec Sage that he tried to kill using Displace (no value for Sage tho) and pinged her down to 5. After that he tried over and over again to kill that little Sage and grind me down and I kept topping flicker effects to keep him alive. Aethersphere saved my bacon, too, giving me life and flying over his Thermo dude. Finally we got to the point where we were both topdecking and I hit the jackpot first with Bellower. He conceded at 20-9 life

Alas, that's all my time for now.

Nah man, I want your suggestions on mine, and interested in your comments on others. Just comment on cards that were last cut from yours. Builders gonna be revealed after it's over so peeps will know then your possible "improvements" were just subterfuge...

I'm going so far as to pretend idk which cards are all in mine.

I already have changes I want to make to my deck so this won't be a problem for me at all.

Ah that would be me watching without sound then That deck only has 5 flicker spells though so it is barely a flicker deck and I wouldn't count on those spells at all when playing it. It is more of a revolt deck so sacing the 0/1 is its main play


This is the reason I like playing flicker, games that make you really think about the lines and even if you make the wrong call like with Giddeon into a counter you can hang on and recover ftw!

Played 6 games with Bant Tempophonic. Went 5-1.

While the deck won, it was due to playing grindy games where the repeatable value just about edged it. If I'd had been against faster decks (surprisingly I didn't encounter aggro) I would have lost more games. The curve is way off and I'd tempted to add another land working with 3 colours and Displacer, even if it does have a lot of draw.

I'd be looking at removing a Displace and Refiner (I know Bant often works out as 3 drop.dec but even so the 3 drop slot is too overcrowded), replacing DiS with Blessed Alliance and a cut into the top end, but I'd have to play around to decide what that cut is. Add another land. I'll play around to see what else I'd like to add in and report back.

EDIT: I think Westvale Abbey might need cutting too - I don't have the number of sources I want.

Yeah, I've been a fan of flicker decks ever since the original Ravnica block. Chord of Calling, Ghostway, Coiling Oracle, Mulldrifter, Eternal Witness! IIRC, there was a blink deck that was wrecking Standard at the time that used Chord to find some combo piece or something.

So, I finished my five games with "Bant Tempophonic".

Game 4 vs. Bant Tempo:
Despite early mana issues (starting hand had EW, Abbey, and Hub + Visionary, Whirler Rogue, Displacer and Displace) and in the face of such nasties as 2x Reflector Mage, Sylvan Advocate, Woodland Bellower, Gisela, and Tracker, the deck never once felt like it wasn't in complete control of the game. I think my opponent could have been a bit more aggressive - he seemed discouraged by all my thopter tokens or something. Ended up winning with 20 life.

Game 5 vs. Golgari Good(ish)stuff:
Again early mana issues (this time I had EW, Forest, and Abbey, but just the top end of the creature curve). My opp was sort of durdly and didn't do much for the first few turns - just played the 1-drop legendary that makes servo tokens and used her to poop tokens. He conceded when I dropped Aethersphere Harvester T5. The AI did a decent job of playing in his place, using the servos to Improvise Herald of Anguish (which I Reflectored) then Languish, and then Bellower getting Rec Sage and taking out my Harvester. But I was able to recover from the Languish with Cloudblazer, Angel of Invention, and a few Displaces.

5-game Verdict:

Cut the abbeys and add a Wastes - you go up in colourless sources due to Wilds but also end up with less clunky hands. You can also add another or source depending on your build/requirements.

That's a really good break-down of the deck, I wonder if you can do the same thorough job for all 7.
Good job!
I won't have a PC for several days, so playtesting is impossible for me, but its great to see others taking it so Seriously.

Ok, I played the last 3 decks and completed round 1 of testing. I was pretty burned out from the day by the time I was able to play, and my games had some bone headed errors. Despite not being mentally sharp, all 3 games were very one sided this time.

G5: Grixis Flameshadow Fireweavers. In video, after introductions my dialogue doesn't come back on until near the end of the match. I was feeling really spent so I was just planing to play silent after introductions, but I had some fun options to discuss at the end so I put mic back on and kept it going until the end of the sessions. In this game I was really looking forward to seeing how Flameshadow would do, but unfortunately I never drew it. Deck had a very slow start, not casting anything until T4 - but I was on the play and AI had a bit of a slow start itself so I didn't get punished as much as I could have. After T4 the deck took over pretty quickly. T6 I dropped the Gearhulk, refilled my hand, and had 2 primary ways to win afterwords. Option 1 was to cast a 2nd token generator and hold up blink to make more tokens before end of opps turn, then flip Abbey for the win. Option 2 was to cast Saheeli and copy Gearhulk to draw more cards (or mill burn) for fun. What I failed to notice because I didn't take a second to math is that I had lethal on the board with the hasty Gearhulk copy, and just needed to Unlicensed Disintegration the only blocker in my way (that AI ended up tapping to crew a tapped vehicle anyways ) - or I could have cast Enthusiast with Saheeli, Fluxed it and used the 4 servos with Whirler Rugue to make both Gearhulks unblockable and attack with them plus a thopter for lethal (6 million ways to win, so I chose one). It's Ormendahl's fault for being so sexy and distracting me from mathing! At any rate, one thing I've gleaned from the flicker decks that run Gearhulks, is that they are absolutely boss to flicker.

G6: Orzhov Control Tokens. This deck featured 1.5 games, as I had a glitch that froze the game around T4/5 the first time I tried. It also featured another error by me, but this time it was a result of building the deck - I had a wrong land in place of 1 copy of Evolving Wilds. Didn't hurt me in the games, but was def a goof on my part. The 2nd attempt saw me get Ormendalh flipped T6, and despite AI playing that angel who refills your life if you would get lethaled, and some other lifegain spells - it simply delayed the inevitable. Ormendahl is beast, and it's very easy to see why all the decks that can flicker token generators run Westvale Abbey.

G7: Bant Humans. This game featured another error on my part (perfect 3 for 3, bitches!). At one point I was intending to cast Avacyn during AIs endstep, but I was talking about something and missed my window, wasting a full turn. I was looking forward to the prospect of Willbreaker fun (after seeing peeps hype it in test reviews), but I didn't draw any. Didn't really matter tho, the game was never in doubt. Ending was fun, when I was able to cast Reflector Mage and then Flux it twice to bounce all creatures from opps side (needlessly, but it was fun anyways) and swing for lethal.

Hard to pick special highlights (i.e. participation awards) that stood out for each deck, as they were all straightforward easy victories - no challenging matches like part 1. Deck 5 and 7, I didn't draw the cards I was most looking forward to seeing in action, but decks handled business so can't really complain. Next stage will be games on the ladder.

Video of the end of round 1 testing:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/125556172

ok so tonight is the first night of 2 that I'll be able to test. i really hope I can get lots of games in.

This is great. Awesome way to wrap up reviews!