[STD] Grixis Delve

Grixis Delve

4 Bloodsoaked Champion

4 Monastery Swiftspear

4 Frost Walker

4 Flamewake Phoenix

2 Shaman of the Great Hunt

3 Tasigur

4 Tormenting Voice

4 Treasure Cruise

4 Stoke the Flames

2 Roast

2 Crater’s Claws

4 Shivan Reef

4 Bloodstained Mire

4 Polluted Delta

4 Evolving Wilds

3 Mountain

3 Island

1 Swamp

So this here brew is a little something I have been working on for a while. The power of Tsigur cannot be uinderstated, and lately I have been  trying to fit Forst Walker in every deck I make…. since the red decks are falling somewhat out of favor, it just trades incedibly well – eityher with a courser, fleecemane, seeker, or with a more expensive removal spell. It also turns on ferocious, and hits for 4.

The main synergy in this deck is pitching a Flame Wake Phoenix/Bloodsoaked Champion to a Tormenting Voice, basically netting you a card, while also fueling the delve cards.

The recurring threats are the main reason to play this deck, as it gives an inevitability that most other decks lack. Treasure Cruise adds to this inevitability, and the combination of cheap spells and ancestral recall sure is a potent one.

In the SB, Studdorn Denial and Duress provide the oomph to make the good mathcup agianst control decks even better, while couring sands and arc lighting keep the red decks in tune. Extra Roasts and Self-Inflicted Wound round out the SB, giving a good and versatile strategy to battle the top tier decks.

All in all the deck sometimes feels a bit awkaward, when your bloodsoaked champion is facing off against a courser or your turn 3 Flame-Wake Phoenix is negated by a Siege Rhino. However, those times when your opponent is Hero’s Downfalling that same phoenix just to have it come back swinging in for 2 next turn is a good trade-off – and it is definitely confirming my suspicions that the phoenix is a grosly underestimated tool for the budget deck builder. And a turn 3 Tasigur is emminently doable when playing 12 Fetch Lands. In principle, this is an aggressive deck that trades off some early-game momentum for mid-game advantages. It is definitely the closests I have come to playing a competetive mid-range deck on the cheap.

Potential additions could be the Thunderbreak Regent and/or Ashcloud Phoenix. Then one is left with I think a strictly better and cheaper alternative to the more mid-rangey “Big Red’ dekcs making a splash a few weeks ago, with great sideboard options and added power.

NExt up: Dragon Tempest Combo!

[STD] Naya Heroic

Turn 3 kill in STD; sounds good? I know it sure does sound like a plan to me!

The deck is sub-50 tickets, but again, most of it is in the mana. Windswept Heaths and Wooded foothills; Battlefield forges are +/- 2 now. Mana Confluence… well, lets say thats real-estate for people whom are not us.

Dromoka’s Command, However, is in the realm of possibility, although pricey still. I am playing a list without, since its to rich for my blood and my recent run of dailies after my departure from U/W Heroic has been less then stellar.

At any rate, Naya gives the deck access to Temur Battle Rage and Become Immense, and it plays akin to (what I imagine) playing infect in modern feels like. Well, besides the fact that every creature has the possibility to become pretty immense with the two aforementioned spells.

4 Satyr Hoplite
4 Favored Hoplite
4 Monastery Swiftspear

4 Ajani’s Presence
4 God’s Willing

4 Defiant Strike
4 Dragon Mantle (should be Dromoka’s Command!)
4 Temur Battlerage
4 Become Immense
4 Giant Strength

20 Lands
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Temple of Triumph
4 Battlefield Forge
2 Plains
2 Mountain
1 Forest

SB:
4 Lagonna Traiblazer
2 Mortal’s Ordar
4 Seeker of the Way
2 Return to the Ranks
3 Coordinated Assault

All in all, this deck has been A LOT of fun, and as you can see, it is extremly explosive; and surprisingly, not too inconsistent… well, within reason of course.

[STD] Grixis Delve

I love Treasure Cruise. Yet few decks in standard actually harness it’s power, often choosing the double blue casting Dig Through Time. I’d like to change that.

This deck is based on the same logic as the Temur Cruise deck. Cheap spells, aggressive creatures, and Delve spells to gain the power to close out the late game against more midr-range/control decks.

Kolghan’s Command is a peculiar card. Although on first notion, the under-powered Blightning might not seem to be good enought to merit an inclusion, the fact is that Frost Walker dies often and often trades on early with the likes of Fleecemane Lion/Courser Of Kruphix is a definite reason to include it I think, although not as a four of.

Although Thoughtseize is not the most budget friendly card, it would absolutely SHINE in this deck. Duress in the Sb makes a reasonable impression against Esper Dragons Black also allows Tasigur, the Golden Fang to be played, which adds a body big enough to handle Rhinos, Monsterous Fleecemanes and Coursers, while often costing just a measly black mana. 4 of them will set you back 15-16 tickets, which is a good investment – this card sees so much play, it is not going to get cheaper any time soon. It is also a great play after a board wipe – quickly letting you get back into the game, with the ability to get cards to boot.

Shaman of the Great Hunt and Brutal Hordecheif are both solid game-enders, and its hard to see which one is better. The Shaman hits the moment it comes into play, whereas the Hordechief can seriously destroy the creature based Den Protector decks found now in standard. Just imagine the curve – Swiftspear, Fodder, outburts, Hordechief, t5 activate – unopposed, a curve that deals a whopping 35 Damage. There’s enough leeway there to account for a Courser or Rhino. Because of Esper Dragons, I prefer the Shaman because it hits instantly, although the Hordechief could potentially see some play in this style of deck as well.

The List:
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Frost Walker
3 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Shaman of the Great Hunt

4 Dragon Fodder
4 Hordeling Outburst
4 Wildslash
4 Stoke the Flames
4 Treasure Cruise
2 Kolghan’s Command
2 Ultimate Price

23 Land
4 Polluted Delta
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Shivan Reef
4 Mountain
2 Island
1 Swamp

SB
3 Negate
2 Disdainful Stroke
1 Island
2 Outpost Siege
2 Ultimate Price
1 Brutal Hordechief
4 Duress

An alternative to this would be straight up U/R Cruise, utilizing some more evasion and recursion:

4 Monastery Swiftspear
2 Lightning Beserker
4 Frost Walker
4 Dragon Fodder
4 Hordeling Outburst
4 Flamewake Phoenix
3 Shaman of the Great Hunt
2 Ashcloud Phoenix

4 Wildslash
4 Stoke The Flames
2 Treasure Cruise
2 Dig Through Time

23 Lands
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Shivan Reef
4 Saltwater Cliffs
7 Mountain
4 Island

Of course, Thunderbreak Regent would be a great addition, but also sort of costly at 4 tickets a pop. Alternatively, Dragon Whisperer could make a solid addition to the deck – The mana seems up for it, and it’ll give you something to do late-game. But most importantly, Flamewake Phoenix is just such a solid card, its hard to see why its played so little. It comes back against control, hits the moment it lands, and evades early blockers; and its a great fit for a deck that wants to get the opponent life-total low enough untill winning isnt an if but a when.

So whichever list you take for a cruise, I certainly will be delving to draw three in an aggressive shell, hopefully leading to some packs in the dailies.

[STD] Temur Cruise

All right people, I did it again: I independently came up with a deck that the moment I started testing 4-0’d a daily in the hands of another. Well, I guess the upside is that I will be spared the testing .

Combining Treasure Cruise with token making spells is nothing new, and neither is the idea . However, the Mono Red splash Blue deck never really caught on, and that’s just a damn shame. Playing Mono Red, you play with a minisucle margin of error, where single points of damage can decide  whether you win or lose. Playing with such a small margin also means that you often lose to variance draws where you get a a few to many lands, a few to little creatures, a few to many burn spells and so on. One way to ensure you get the right cards, is to make sure you get more cards, and Treasure Cruise allows you to do just that for a minimal cost. Being able to restock a hand to get thos last few points of damage in seems just like what the deck needs – it just never really caught on.

After DtK’s release, Atarka’s Command was released, and R/g Atarka Sligh became the dominant deck.

Budgetwise however, this option is not the most attractive, since a decent manabase cost money. Temple of Epiphany is expensive, Mana Confluence is expensive, and playing taplands for a single splash is not somethign an agro deck such as Sligh wants to do. But if they fuel two powerful splashes…. perhaps that wopuld be worth it.

So why either/or? Why cant both Treasue Cruise and Atarka’s command be in the same deck, I mused as the minutes were (very slowly) passing at work. And so I wrote down the following deck list:

4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Frost Elemental
4 Savage Knuckleblade

4 Wild Slash
4 Lightning Strike
4 Atarka’s Command (6)
4 Stoke the Flames (6)

4 Dragon Fodder
4 Hordeling Outburst
4 Treasure Cruise
1 Become Immense

4 Evolving Wilds
4 Frontier Bivouac
4 Wooded Foothills (14)
4 Shivan Reef (12)
3 Mountain
1 Island
1 Forest
(21 lands)
SB
4 Searing Blood (4)
3 Destructive Revelery
3 Disdainful Stroke
2 Harness by Force (2)
2 Outpost Siege (2)
1 Negate

Gone were the variable draws, I hoped, and hello to a much higher powerlevel. By adding more cards that are strong threats on their own, and inclding both Atarka’s Command and Savage Knuckleblade, the deck would have the ability to both go wide AND big. I also added a single Become Immense, because that card can just steal games. The sideboard now also allowed Disdainful Stroke and Negate to be included, while mainboard Crater’s Claws were a possibility if I would be looking for a stronger burn plan.

Then I checked mtggoldfish and I saw a surprisingly similar URG list – user nui__ posted some good results with an almost similar deck!

Foiled again! The list might be using the same idea, but are also notably different; the linked deck has a much greater focus on burn, even playing some Searing Blood in the main. My list however is a bit more creature based, using Frost walker as a de-facto burn spell, that can hit multiple times, and especially against control it is a killer-card. Against Green based decks, it pairs up well against Caryatid and Courser of Cruphix – problem cards in general for Mono-red. Savage Knuckleblade is also very well positioned, and able to smash through Siege Rhino’s and Ojutai’s alike, if they’d be so foolish to get in its way.

For around 45 tickets, this deck thus offers quite a bit of oomph and a different playstyle then mono-red, so give it a whirl.

[Modern] Mono-G Stompy

Hey guys,

sorry for laying dormant for such a long time, but I haven’t really had any awe-inspiring ideas for budget decks. After increasing frustration with the U/W Heroic deck, and Bant Heroic not being so budget friendly (hint: those Mana Confluences are not optional). This left me to play, for the first time this year, to try out Mono Red, which so far has not .

I also really liked Jeskai Ascendancy combo, the fact it that online it is just TOO hard to play – killing any pleasure I have in the game, and not even giving me a myriad of wins either, as with the right draws, almost any deck can beat you. So it was nice to have three 3-1’s in a row and feel like I broke the format, but then the format broke me.

What I do have to share is a newfound budget champion in Mono-G Stompy – both in modern as well as in standard.

These two (here and here) decks 4-0’d a modern daily, whereas in standard the numbers speak for themselves:

(Here a link to a specific list).

I’ll be trying to get a few practice games in here and there and see if it can work out favorably.

As a p.s., i recently found out that foils on MTGO are actually sometimes cheaper then the normal versions – so take a look at some of your desired cards and the foil price; its worth a shot.

[MODERN] Izzetclops, aka pauper RULES

So, I guess even the best decks can lose, and even the worst decks can get lucky! A pauper staple, Izzetclops uses Kiln-Fiend and Nivix Cyclops  to create HUGE threats in an instant. In Modern, this 9 ticket deck 4-0’d a daily event even. Using the many cheap spells modern has to offer, and using a myriad of protection spells (Apostle’s Blesing, Dispel, Stubborn Denial), games can be finished very, very quickly. Obviously could the deck would benefit from the inclusion of Gitaxian Probe, and with MM2015 just around the corner, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Probe will drop significantly when reprinted. all in all, it just goes to show that money DOES NOT have to be the deciding

shot addendum: My Jeskai Ascendancy Combo deck has been put to sleep again. I 3-1’d 3 events, but lost 2 more deciding matches to the clock. The total counter in 10 daily events stands at 13-17. So not a HUGE loss, but nothing to write home about either. All in all, the MTGO clock is NOT kind to combo players as those extra wins would’ve pulled the deck even. Finally, it just really isn’t much fun to play combo online – going off is such a mentally tiring and cumbersome process, I caught myself hoping the opponents would actually finish me off before I would have a chance to win!

Green Devotion

Short post here: I as looking at the dailies with DtK, and this list popped up. i think its a great pick-up for the new standard, as it is extremly consistent and can be completely nuts in the way you draw. Servant of the Scale into Avatar of the Resolute into Revernt hunter is a total of 10 power on turn 3, and with a Surrak and some damage in on t2 a clean turn 4 kill! I really like decks with these big creatures, since RDW is the deck to beat online (because its so cheap, its seriously overplayed). 4 Nylea’s Disciple is just something I’d love against RDW, and  your creatures are just so much better it should be a great anti-budget-deck budget-deck 🙂

Ascendancy madness!

As I mentioned earlier, DtK is a farily underwhelming set when it comes to constructed play. Besides some Thunderbreak Regent’s and Dromoka’s Command, it largely remains out of the picture. But Anticipate…. oh boy, that got a lot of people excited, and for good reason! It inspired me to go back to an old project: Jeskai Ascendancy Combo, and that extra card selection is absolutely BONKERS in this style of deck

Here’s my list:

Creatures (11)
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Rattleclaw Mystic
2 Voyaging Satyr
1 Den Protector

Set-up (14)
4 Dig Through Time
4 Twinflame
4 Anticipate
3 Commune With the Gods

Combo (10)
4 Jeskai Ascendancy
4 Retraction Helix
2 Briber’s Purse

Utility (4)
4 Dragon Mantle

Lands (20)
Comes-Into-Play-Tapped (10)
4 Mystic Monastery
1 Frontier Bivouac
2 Temple of Mystery
2 Temple of Triumph

Untapped (11)
3 Wooded Foothills
2 Flooded Strand
2 Windswept Heath
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain

While DtK brings anticipate to the table, Twinflame is the piece of the puzzle this deck has been missing. It simply speeds to deck up a turn. Imagine a hand containing a mana dork, a Jeskai Ascendancy, and a Twinflame. T2 you cast the dork, T3 the Ascendancy, T4 you untap, Twinflame the mana dork, and start netting mana; in principle, winning the game. Every spell will net you mana or break even, you will start looting, and eventually loot through enough cards you can start netting cards with a Dig Though Time, or finding the Retraction Helix/Bribery’s Purse Combo, or just clear the Opponents board, and so on. The Den Protector is a nice safeguard to retrieve any

On average, this deck is looking for a turn 5 kill. This includes playing a mana dork on Turn 2, being able to fire off one or two spells to find your Ascendancy on Turn 3, playing it on Turn 4 (and with Twinflame start the engine right then and there), and untapping and winning on Turn 5.

The downside of the deck is that potentially, you CAN brick while going off by just being terrible unlucky with drawing lands and creatures rather than instants or sorceries. Turn 5 on the draw also might not be fast enough against RDW, so a decent amount of cards in the SB should be dedicated to that match-up. Nyx-Fleece Ram, with most of the RDW decks not playing Hammerhand anymore, should grant enough time to find the three mana pyroclasm DtK has given us, and from there the deck can win fairly easily.

A note of caution is that this deck is REALLY hard to play. The main opponent online might be the timer, as 25-minutes is enough to get two full-combo playthroughs, but might not be enough for three complicated sequences. It might be worth it though, as the amount of people caught off-guard by this list is HUGE.

I just 3-1’d a Daily with it, and besides a fairly hopeless match versus RDW, I had an fairly decent time comboing off against Sultai, Abzan Midrange and G/W Surrak, The Hunt Caller agro (Surrak is a SICK card, btw!). The last match came down to him starting with an Elf and a T2 Deathmist raptor; to no avail, as I went Caryatid, Ascedancy, Briber’s Purse and Twinflame to draw cards until I found a Dragon Mantle, drawing my deck and attacking for 60+. Turn 3 kill, yay!

Heroic Ascendancy

Another interesting take on ascendancy combo is the Jeskai colored Heroic version. With a curve lower than that of RDW, this deck does not try to combo off by untapping mana dorks, but rather uses a Retraction Helix – 2 creatures of any kind – Springleaf drum – Jeskai Ascendancy combo. As this requires more pieces then the regular combo, it is much harder pull off – however, the deck pays this back partially by providing the opportunity to just smash face with a humongous Heroic creature. As such, it is a less linear play-experience than the regular Ascendancy Combo,and the opponent is currently kept off-guard by second guessing whether its safe to play a threat or lose to the combo next turn. The lack of Mana-Confluence, however, is a great downside to this budget version – somewhat mitigated by the Springleaf Drum, it still feels shaky. It is INCREDIBLY fun to play, however!

Here’s the list:

Creatures (12)
4 Favored Hoplite
4 Lagonna Trail-Blazer
4 Akroan Crusader

Card Draw (6)
2 Dig Through Time
2 Treasure Cruise
2 Anticipate

Utility (12)
4 Defiant Strike
4 Dragon Mantle
4 Gods Willing

Combo (12)
4 Retraction Helix
4 Jeskai Ascendancy
4 Spring-Leaf Drum

Land (18)
4 Flooded Strand
4 Temple of Triumph
2 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Mystic Monastery
1 Island
1 Mountain
2 Plains

Anyhow, that’s all folks, and I’ll be back soon with an U/B Delve/Exploit brew that’s looking very promising!

Rounding up: Pre-DtK Standard

So, it is time to say goodbye to my good old friend U/W Heroic. This budget deck has served me well, but its time has passed; it has to pay the ultimate price, it is roasted out of the meta-game. This post will look back at my latest run with the deck, showcasing that one CAN successfully grind value online with a budget deck. After I threw out the Seeker of the Way’s and Heloid’s Pilgrim in favor for more protection and at least 2x Treasure Cruise in the main, I had a pretty good run with it.

It’s funny that I wrote that last part of the sentence because conversely, I was doing really badly with the Pilgrim Version just as FrF was released. The huge amount of R/W and Mardu based decks was a seriously god-awful meta-game to be a Hero. Then G/W Devotion came, swept them all away, and our Hero’s time had come yet again, partially due to the fact that the decks good against G/x strategies (U/B Control, RdW, Abzan Agro) were also pretty decent matchups. In fact, depending on the draw, RdW was a cakewalk.

This last season I played 8 Dailies, and posted a 22-7 record in total: 3x 4-0, 3x 2-2, 1x 3-1 & 1x 1-2. My match losses in three of the 2-2 dailies were against RdW, and mostly due to the shuffler, mulligans, and some nut-draws. It is somewhat of a polar-opposite of this deck; extremely consistent but somewhat underpowered. I think in hindsight, I’ll have to scrape the RDW matchup as a Cakewalk. If you count up all of the entry fees (8*6= 48) and the amount of packs I won (33 for 4-0 and 6 for 3-1, so at 2,5 tickets a pack that is a total of 97,5 – 48= 49,5 tickets profit). Not bad for an initial investment of give or take 40 tickets (I bought the Hero of Iroas’s at bulk, the flooded strands at 7 each, and I ran only 2 temples which ran me 5 apiece). And of course, this is excluding all of the other events I won (In four months, the deck got me +/- 35 Qualifier points, only from dailies). Oh, and you know, entertainment! It’s a game after all (although don’t tell me that when I just lost to an RdW nut draw after Mulling to 5 being stuck on 1 Land…. *sigh*).

As far as my winnings go, I invested those in KtK fetch (they are so low! Get them while you can!) and Tasigur’s when they were down all the way to 4.5. They’ll star in a new brew I am working on called ‘The Exploitables’.

So, lessons to take home:

• It IS possible to play on a budget and win consistently!
• U/W Heroic is most likely dead as a doorknob, but it might still be worth an update. I have been thining specifically about
• Roast has gotten a lot of attention as red’s Hero’s Downfall, and with that in mind U/W/R Control might just have gotten the piece it needed to threaten U/B as the best control deck in the format!
• Be prepared for the little red men. With DtK they became faster, stronger and more resilient. If MTGO Goldfish is to be taken at face value, it was 20% of the online meta, and that’s not going to change anytime soon.
• Also, Thunderbeak Regent is a thing. And I still can’t believe Shaman of the Great hunt hasn’t found a deck yet!

DtK Standard: 3 Brew Special!

Budget Decks in DtK Standard

All right, I have been pretty underwhelmed with the power-level of DtK atm – no single card that really ‘pops’ out power-level-wise. Narset Transcendent is cute and can possibly play a role in a Jeskai Token build. I think there’s two thing wrong with DtK when considering standard play: Many cards utilize the turn down mechanic (Such as Hidden Dragonslayer and the like) and I think whenever I see an opponent play a 2/2 facedown creature on Turn 3, I’ll be very very happy. Secondly, a lot of cards just cost a metric shit-ton of mana, or have hard color requirements. I’d play the new Sarkhan for (1)(U)(R)(G), (2) is just one too many to make it really impactful with the power cards from KtK still around. That being said, Arashin Foremost has me most excited right now:

DtK Warriors

4x Mardu Woe-Reaper
4x Bloodsoaked Champion
4x Mardu Shadow-Spear
4x Chief of the edge
4x Bloodchin Rager
4x Battle Brawler
4x Arashin Foremost

4x Thoughtseize
4x Bile Blight
1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor

23 Lands
A list such as this can build on the excellent Mono B lists that came to light a few weeks ago, and this deck can really hit hard fast. A Turn 1 Bloodsoaked Champion, followed by a T2 Chief of the edge (3 damage) and T3 Arashin Foremost  (doing 9 damage, putting the opponent on 8) makes a turn four kill not just a possibility, but a probability. Even if they at that point kill Arashin Foremost , they are as good as dead; A dashed Shadowspear able to finish the job. Brutal Hordechief, the criminally underplayed 2-ticket Mythic Rare from FrF  could serve as a Curve topper, although I think for that card to be excellent perhaps some copies of Mardu Strike Leader (the not quite Rabblemaster) should be considered. Thoughtseize could be substituted by Duress, as its main job is to get rid of Mastery of the Unseen, Ugins, removal and sweepers before they can disrupt you; as such, removing most of the costs of this deck. Although honestly, get those Thoughtseizes now before they start costing a gazillion euros/dollars again.

Besides Arashin Foremost , not too many stand out to me as incredibly powerful. Foul Renewal could perhaps see play; I love the cardadvantage it provides, as well the tempo. Just imagine having 5 mana, Using foul renewal to get back a Tasigur, killing a Siege Rhino in the process, and then casting your Tasigur to follow up. Well worth worth the trouble, and undeniably powerful. In the Howlbeater deck I posted last, this might be a 3-off.

Besides that it is mostly the utility spells that get me excited. Think Radiant Purge, Ultimate Price, Anticipates, Roast, and so on. The reason for this is that they can easily substitute more expensive cards, such as Hero’s Downfall, at little cost moneywise. Some of these cards might arguably even be BETTER than the more expensive alternative.

But I am actually most excited about an uncommon:

Silumgar Sorcerer.

U Robot
21 Land
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Polluted Delta
4 Temple of Deceit
2 Swamp
7 Island

4 Ornithopter
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Jeskai Sage
4 Silumgar Sorcerer
4 Cloudform
4 Master of Waves
24 Creatures

4 Springleaf Drum
4 Ensoul Artifact
3 Ultimate Price
2 Ghostfire Blade
2 Treasure Cruise
15 Spells

A list like this would gain some nice recurring threat over U/R Robots in the form of Bloodsoaked Champion, while building devotion for Master of Waves with Cloudform and Silumgar Sorcerer (Which can be used to sack a Bloodsoaked Champion, basically 3-for-1’ing the opponent). The spot removal helps too, although it can be argued that black does not enough to warrant the cut. Replacing the Bloodsoaked Champions with Hypnotic Siren’s and the Ultimate Price’s with extra Ghostfire Blades and Anticipates would do the trick to make it Mono U.

I am also excited for Surrak, The Hunt Caller as he can really help to make Temur good again. I mena, a Polukranos with haste’d be pretty good, and this one will be only a fraction of a price! I am imagining a low curve Temur Smash deck likes this:

4 Elvish Mystic
2 Rattleclaw Mystic
4 Heir of the Wilds
4 Frost Walker
4 Savage Knuckleblade
4 Flamewake Phoenix
4 Surrak, The Hunt Caller
26 Creatures
3 Stubborn Denial
3 Atarka’s Command
3 Crater’s Claw
2 Barrage of Boulders
11 Spells

4 Shivan Reef
4 Yavimaya Coast
4 Frontier Bivouac
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Forest
2 Mountain
2 Island
23 Lands

The main cost of the deck is the manabase, which unfortunately is super costly even without the Mana Confluences. It also doesn’t help that it basically means your starting Life Total is practically 15. If the Flamewake Phoenixs are too color intensive for your tastes with this mana base, you can try replacing it with 2 Rattleclaw Mystics, 1 Barrage of Boulders and 1 extra Crater’s Claws.  Barrage of Boulders is great against anything that plays creatures, and can cause some real blow-outs.

Anyhow, I hope I gave you some ideas and just under a week and we can start exploring the new standard!