After doing a full week of this Daily thing, I just want to say that I have a newfound respect for those people who do it on a more regular basis than me, particularly Ben Bleiweiss and Adam Grydehoj (and Geordie Tait, back in the day). Five articles in five days is hard.
One hard part of it was my own doing: I volunteered for a week in which I would not yet know any Saviors cards when I started playtesting, but by the time the articles got posted everyone would want Saviors cards in the decklists. So, first I’d like to address some suggestions that appeared in the forums this week, most of them focusing on Saviors cards.
“Wave” suggested that Goryo (or is it the Goryo?) should contribute, by having a Splice deck with Footsteps of the Goryo. Footsteps would serve as both a Reweave vessel and a chance to bring back guys who have been sacrificed to Reweave for another go-round. I like it, but as Zvi pointed out here, Footsteps inexplicably does not give the creature haste. As much as I like to have the Dragon-based graveyard effects in my deck, I also want there to be a chance for me to attack with my Dragons, so I didn’t really consider it. Plus, it’s a sorcery, so you don’t really have any tricks other than your Dragon graveyard effects. Wave also suggested Goryo’s Vengeance, but that card requires you do play around its remove-from-game effect, so it was a non-starter in my mind. If you can make that work, more power to you.
“ToiletDuk” asks, “what about adding Iname, As One as one of the fatty tutor targets?” S/He points out that although you don’t get Iname’s comes-into-play trigger off of Reweave, you do get its leaves-play ability when it’s sacrificed to Reweave, which could then put two Dragons into play for double the triggering fun. Again, it’s interesting, but one requirement for the creatures I chose for the various decks is that they could be cast if I drew them. It’s not 100% necessary, I guess – the Reanimator deck worked in Extended, right? – but I did not want to risk it in this format.
With respect to difficult-to-cast men, The Unspeakable that was in yesterday’s deck was as far as I was willing to go (and yes, I did hardcast Mr. U in a game against White Weenie, which the Reweave deck won). Plus, Iname’s graveyard ability is also a RFG effect, so he seems too fancy for just one activation.
ToiletDuk had another suggestion, but I in fact had written down a list for that one as soon as I got home from the Saviors prerelease, where I had a 7-0-1 record in two separate flights with W/B spiritcraft decks that included my favorite Saviors common: Spiritual Visit. Ironically, the Visit appears to make the deck I announced on Monday, which I had then called a “steaming pile,” viable again:
Spells (53)
Yes, the sideboard would include Final Judgment, and probably Consuming Vortex to save your men from opposing Judgments.
I have not been able to test this deck, or any other ideas I suggest today; this build is simply the first one I sketched out as soon as I saw Spiritual Visit. It may turn out that some of this deck’s assumptions are flat-out wrong.
The format may eventually dictate that you don’t need countermagic, for example, but I just figured that there are certain spells, such as Thoughts of Ruin and the Epic spells, that you have no other answer for. Similarly, Candles’ Glow may need to be another card-drawing spell such as Eerie Procession or Ideas Unbound, but I figure that the Glow is never a dead card, since you can cast it targeting yourself and splice something onto it if needs be.
That’s not the only way you have to go about playing Spiritual Visit. Two holes in the U/G/W splice deck I suggested yesterday is that it often didn’t cast Reweave on itself for a long time, and that the Journeyer’s Kite seemed stainsy because it didn’t accelerate you and it wasn’t Arcane. The Visit solved one of those problems, and I encountered a card in my prerelease winnings that might solve the other:
Creatures (5)
Lands (3)
Spells (52)
You might be asking yourself where Elder Pine of Jukai is. He’s not present because I hate Reweaving a Dragon Spirit and turning it into a 2/1 non-flier (Some of my other lists this week would Reweave a Dragon into a Sakura-Tribe Elder, and it would make me want to vomit). Don’t worry, though, I’m gonna get to the best Green common in Saviors in a second.
Seek the Horizon doesn’t accelerate you any more than the Kite did, but it’s less mana than the Kite and at least you can splice something onto it. This deck just seems strictly better than yesterday’s because it can go aggro-Reweave a lot sooner thanks to Spiritual Visit. However, it doesn’t have any answers for Epic spells, Thoughts of Ruin, or any other bombs that might have caused the format to speed up with the introduction of Saviors; that’s why I listed the U/W deck first.
Finally, I’d to give you a post-Saviors Block list that originally had Reweave in it, before I realized that it could go without:
Creatures (24)
Spells (36)
If you don’t have Pithing Needles in the sideboard to beat Eight-and-a-Half-Tails, then Rending Vines or Yuki-Onna could at least stop a White Weenie deck’s Jittes. It might also be better for the maindeck Haru-Onna to be Kami of the Tended Garden; only testing will tell.
After the Saturday prerelease events, when I saw Haru-Onna abused in one of my opponents’ Green decks, I went home and sketched out a list that was designed to Reweave multiple Haru-Onna into play. However, at a Sunday prerelease event I opened a deck in which I found out how very, very amazing Elder Pine of Jukai is. It was an R/G deck loaded with spiritcraft, where my double EPJ ensured that my double Okina Nightwatch would always be 7/6 and my Sokenzan Spellblade would always be a killing threat.
I immediately threw the Blue out as too slow; instead, I aimed to go beatdown with Glitterfang and South Tree. I cannot imagine a better card to combo with the EPJ than Thoughts of Ruin; if that’s not enough, then Spiraling Embers to the face is a good backup plan. Both Red cards simply become amazing with all of the land that is filling up your hand.
Thanks for reading me this week. I hope you enjoyed the ride and maybe came away from this with a decent decklist or two to tweak on your own.