Cold Killer

So I was just flipping through some of the newer sets looking for new cards that may be abused when I stumbled upon Cold-eyed selkie. Its u/g u/g 1 to cast, is a 1/1 with island walk and whenever you deal combat damage you get to draw cards = to that amount. Ultimately, the casting cost seems a little prohibitive in that its 3 for a 1/1 that doesn't win the game immediately. However, in the right shell, I think that this card has a chance at a tier 2 slot. Primarily, Think of adding a SoFi with this card which, since most decks run blue, means you get to draw 4 cards and either deal 5 damage to the opponent or deal 3 damage to the opponent and kill an annoying creature! Aka its a two card draw engine that draws 4 cards every turn (1 card if seperate) that adds a clock and serves as protection for 8 mana (2 of which are blue)... To compare, Intuition/ak engine = uu4 to cast (the same) which nets 3-4 cards (7 if you have another AK in hand)... Obviously intuition is a better/more diverse card than Cold Eyes, but never-the-less, Cold Eyes does make for an intersting card choice for the proper deck. The following ideas/decklist are merely theoretical used to spurn ideas and see how to best break this card.

So to begin, Cold-eyes requires that a deck either include blue or green in the list. Naturally, Blues strength is primarily its ability to control and sometimes help spurn different combo decks. Since Cold-eyed selkie is not a combo piece, this naturally means that the deck will probably be more controllish making my primary choice blue as it is generally a better color than green. With that in mind, there are 2 different other basic factors to consider: 1. How to control the game (counters or lock pieces) 2. What colors should be included?

1. To control the deck, blue has two main options: counters and Lock pieces ie mana drain vs. arcane lab, back to basics, or IteoC. Depending on personal preferences and the sacrifices one is willing to make, this deck can run FoW in both builds. Mana Drain seems an amazing option as Cold Eyes + SoFi are best played in the late game and require a ton of colored mana to set up. Additionally, this is ideal since you generally run out of steam mid-late game and these two cards help replenish this incredibly fast. This strategy, however, relies on one gaining control of the game early which these two cards hinder... (usually these cards are dead since Cold-eyes doesn't offset its cc until SoFi gets into play). Thus, the counter strategy needs some way to filter these cards out similar to TfK etc...

The other strategy is the Lock strategy. To lock the opponent, blue has two main focuses, mana denial and limiting spells being cast. In terms of Mana Denial, Blue sports B2B, Mindlock (denies fetches), In the Eye of Chaos, all of which have different focuses and prefer different colors. B2B prefers a 1-2 color max strategy limiting the colors down to a counter/bluecentric deck. A B2B strategy may work really well with Root Maze and Cold Eyes since this is part of the color theme. Mindlock and In the Eye of Chaos both have had success in Stax type decks. This seems like an Ideal draw engine to compliment a stax type deck except for the prohibitive cost of Cold Eyes when one wants to also play workshops.

In terms of colors, that largely depends on what strategy you will take. The deck will include blue automatically, but the alternatives depend on preference beyond that.

The strategy that I preferred was the BSB strategy, This strategy is versatile and takes full advantage of some of the less commonly played but ultimately useful cards that these colors have to offer.

Chilling land

3x B2B
3x Root Maze

3x Chalice of the Void

4x Tarmogoyf
3x Cold-Eyed Selkie

4x Force of Will
4x Mana Leak
2x Disrupt

1x Ancestral Recall
1x Brainstorm
1x Ponder
3x Impulse
3x Sword of Fire and Ice

9x Islands
7x Forests
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Saphire
1x Mox Emerald
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine

Side Board
3x Trygon Predator
4x Arcane laboratory
4x Energy Flux
4x Tormod's Crypt

Obviously this is just a rough sketch. However, the idea is clear... You try to limit the amount of mana the opponent has access to while countering the spells that they finally manage to cast.
Card Choices

Back to Basics -- This card shuts off so many frequently played cards... Bazaar, Workshops, duals, and creates a virtual lock when root maze is implemented since most decks only pack a few basics and rely upon fetches to find them.

Root Maze -- This card drastically slows the game down and gives you an additional land drop on the opponent offsetting the fewer number of artifact mana that you run due Chalice. This effect is ampliefied when the opponent is using fetch lands (which almost every does) or you have B2B. This card is not a win card, but definately serves a purpose in this deck.

Chalice of the Void -- With the unrestriction of Mox Diamond, Chrome mox, etc... CotV @ 0 has never been so valuable. This is in addition to shutting down cards at all cc which Chalice @ 1 is incredibly useful for this deck.

Tarmogoyf -- I'm opting to run green. This is the most powerful green creature printed. This guy is kind of an auto-include

Cold-Eyed Selkie -- This is kind of the focus of the deck. Beyond that, this guy serves as an important draw card that allows me to maintain the pressure. He is similar to Ninja of the deep hours except he is a little harder to cast. However, he is unblockable for the majority of decks out there and can net many more cards than ninja.

FoW -- Obvious

Mana Leak -- Since I am runing a lot of green, this card is easier to cast than Mana Drain. Additionally, since I don't have any major bombs, Drain mana is not as important. Finally, since this deck is about mana denial, 3 mana is hard to come by which means counter target card for U 1.

Disrupt -- This serves as an additional turn 1 protection that can make players play more conservatively on turn 1 or, with root maze out, turn 2 as well. This card catches people by surprise and forces people to play even tighter with their limited resources making this card invaluable for the psychological effect it can have. Additionally, this card at worst is a cantrip allowing me to cycle through my deck.

Impulse -- This card is great at digging deep to find that needed FoW, SoFi for your Cold Eyes, B2B etc... Honestly this was the shadiest decision... I am still trying to decide what the draw engine beyond SoFi/Cold Eyes should be.

Ancestral/Ponder/Brainstorm -- Blues three favorite draw spells

SoFi -- This card is great at creating an even faster clock on Goyf, protects him from the most common hate (bounce), destroys annoying creatures (welder, canonist, confidant, etc...) and provides draw. When combines with Cold Eyes, this card is insane because it allows one to draw 4 cards! Finally, it prevents Cold-Eyed from REB's which definately helps.

The Sideboard was just thrown together completely on the spot but here it goes...
Trygon Predator -- With Shards release I'm expecting a lot of artifacts to be played. This card is great with SoFi and helps destroy pesky artifacts... it also helps with oath which is a huge plus for this deck.
Arcane Laboratory -- Since this is a slower deck, combo is a huge pain. obvsiously the mana denial helps tremendously with this, but is not always sufficient to stop combo. Lab coupled with counters stop combo.
Energy Flux -- This shuts down Stax which can overpower this deck w/o B2B to shut down Workshop and to stop decks built around the Shards release
Tormod's Crypt --I need someway to stop the graveyard decks out there and this is the best one for my color scheme

Another strategy is the Fish style deck

Fish Eyes

4x Cold-Eyed Selkie
3x Dimir Cutpurse

4x Null Rod

2x Duress
4x Thoughtseize
4x Force of Will
3x Stifle
2x Negate

1x Ancestral Recall
1x Brainstorm

1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Imperial Seal

3x SoFi

1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Jet
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mox Ruby
4x Polluted Delta
2x Flooded Strand
4x Underground Sea
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
4x Island
2x Swamp

This deck not only attacks the mana base via stifle, null rod, and strips, but it also employs a ton of discard/counters to ensure that you survive until little men can beat. The men are not truly scary, but do provide draw which help keep your hand fueled. To help with this, I included SoFi to beef up the creatures and to provide its own form of protection, disruption, and draw...

Obviously both decklists are incredibly raw and untested. I merely through them together to illustrate some of the variations that Cold-Eyed Selkie can spurn. Like I said, he probably will not generate a tier 1 deck, but that does not mean he cannot do some very interesting things. Even him coupled with blood lust could be fun as a draw 5 (not feasible, but interesting regardless)... The primary engine I found was SoFi, but I am curious as to what other cards people can think of that interect well with Cold Eyes and what deck ideas can be generated.