Innistrad type 2

Yesterday, I've been trying to come up with a new deck. I wasn't really successful with it but I learned some things. Here follows something like a summary of my yesterdays attempts. Note that I wasn't really into building any deck but rather something that stays in Grixis colors.

There are few cards I wanted to try in testing (testing is a too strong word...playing on MWS is one, playing against the same control decks is the second).

Snapcaster Mage
Liliana of the Veil
Forbidden Alchemy
Think Twice vs Ponder
Invisible Stalker

My first deck was a Invisible Stalker-Blade with Snapcaster Mage. (The decklist can be Caw Blade with few Snapcaster Mages and Geist of Saint Traft or whatever). I learned my first lesson here - Invisible Stalker is not enough. It's not Squadron Hawk that can actually win the game (without the Sword). Having just Invisible Stalker on the table is nothing that will save you nor win you the game. You need more creatures to defend this creature against Liliana's Edict (and sacrificing Inkmoth Nexus is not the way to go)and the Sword is more likely to be hit by Acidic Slime anyway. Thus I needed to increase the number of Swords in the deck and also the number of creatures (Snapcaster Mage) which wasn't something I liked. Could be Hero-Blade with the Stalker, but well I would still rather equip Inkmoth Nexus with it.

After this I decided to completely abandon this idea and wanted to try something different. Something like this came to my mind.

UR experiment^^

3x inferno titan
2x chandra, the firebrand
4x azure mage/grim lavamancer
3x ponder
2x slagstorm
2x shock
4x Mana Leak
2x dismember
4x chandra's phoenix
1x devil's play
4x incinerate
4x snapcaster mage

This deck tried to survive the early game, dealing some damage on the way with the blue creatures (*wide smile*) and Chandra's Phoenix. In the end it should kill with Inferno Titan or Chandra. It was fun to play but I abandoned this. Here I found out that Snapcaster Mage actually falls rather in the aggressive part of the deck. The deck shifted into something more like this:

UR Aggro

4x Grim Lavamancer
4x Snapcaster Mage
4x Stormkirk Noble
4x Azure Mage -> Phantasmal Bear
4x Stormblood Berserker -> 2x Lord of the Unreal/2x Phantasmal Image
2x Hero of Oxid Ridge
2x Brimstone Volley
4x Incinerate
3x Shock
4x Mana Leak
2x Ponder
2 lands/Phantasmal Image

I tried figuring out what the best card to replace Azure Mage was and the ideal card for that is Phantasmal Bear^_^. The illusions theme is actually something that could work wonders. Phantasmal Image included in this deck can copy opponent's big creatures, can get rid of annoying Thran or can copy your Hero that is good against Timely Reinforcements. The fact that the illusions die easily can be used to your advantage - Brimstone Volley is there to deal five damage. But well yeah, it would need a card like Lord of the Unreal, but is it worth it? How many of them would be good so your Phantasmal Image wouldn't die so easily?

UB Draw Go

4x despise
4x mana leak
4x think twice
3x snapcaster mage
3x doom blade
1x grave titan/1x Black Sun's Zenith
2x consecrated sphinx
3x solemn simulacrum/2x Dissipate and 1x Black Sun's Zenith
1x batterskull
1x karn liberated
4x liliana of the veil
2x forbidden alchemy

So back to something more usual. I wanted to see what Liliana can do and I have to say that Liliana costing 3 mana is really crazy. It does change a lot and needs to get a bit used to it. She just gets there and either kills one of your creatures you tried to get through, or is there so you can't use her as an edict (when dealing with some reanimated creature) or discards a card when it really is bad for you. That's also a reason why I would actually play Forbidden Alchemy and Think Twice. Playing ponder in my more red decks worked better (ok it was primarily - look for burn and feed lavamncer) but having the possibility to play these cards from graveyard (and thus just discard them) proved to be good. Anyway these cards work pretty well, remember the times where you wait with your counterspell and your opponent does nothing? Now it's time to draw a card!

I added batterskull to the deck to deal with aggro decks. Another one would be in sideboard. It's cheaper than Wurmcoil Engine and you can blink it. I got used to this card when playing Modern Superfriends and I don't think it's a bad idea.

Anyway at first I played Solemn Simulacrum, but the card does not really do what I need in this build. I had 2x Grave Titan and 2x Consecrated Sphinx, but I needed more card draw and counterspells. So I guess I'll keep Solemn Simulacrums for my Grixis deck

I'm not entirely sure what spot removal to use either - Doom Blade or Go For the Throat? That's probably also a reason why I stick to despise. But this card hits only walkers and creatures. Reanimation on the rise it might not be wise to discard creatures and usually I can deal with those. Nowadays I wish there would be Duress available, but in more black deck Distress could become viable. But who knows.

The following deck is something I would not recommend to anyone^_~. There are many cards that could form a base for a deck or a deck could be build around it. In Grixis colors it could be Heartless Summomning or Burning Vengeance.

Grixis Titans

4x Ponder
4x Incinerate
3x Shock
4x Mana Leak
3x Dissipate
2x Slagstorm
2x Doom Blade
4x Despise
1x Batterskull
3x Solemn Simulacrum
2x Grave Titan
1x Inferno Titan
2x Consecrated Sphinx

Well, so what to play? Either UB Draw-Go or UBw with some Unburial rites package or....this

Burn

3x Chandra's Phoenix
4x Brimstone Volley
3x Shock
3x Incinerate
4x Stormkirk Noble
4x Furnace Scamp
2x Hero of Oxid Ridge
4x Shrine of Burning Rage
2x Tezzeret's Gambit
4x Stormblood Berserker
3x Grim Lavamancer
2x Arc Trail
3x Gut Shot

I'm not really sure if Tezzeret's Gambit is a good thing. I would want to play Spikeshot Elders as well as I encountered a problem of not having enough 1 drops and this one does quite a lot in late game. Brimstone Volley showed to be even better in this deck then in the UR one.