Well, there have been a lot of Keeper discussions floatin...

[Ultima]

If its any consolation, timetwister obviously already saw play in keeper before rather recently, Hint Hint.

[Jakedasnake]

Yeah, obliviosly. What's the 'Hint, Hint' supposed to mean? I never really thought about it when I was testing this version, but it does seem pretty effective with a Chalice down.

[rozetta]

I recently tested a Timetwister in Chalice Keeper. The theory behind it is good - if you attain board position through wastes, mox monkeys and chalices, you're in a good position to twist. However, I found a couple of problems in testing:

1) There's hardly a deck out there I'd really want to twister against, even with board position.

2) You end up with random cards which might be already shut down by the chalice.

At the point where you have a chalice or two locking down the opponent, they're slowed down, as are you, and at that point, the twister acts as an emergency panic button. In this case, I'd rather just dig for an answer with scrying or cast something more game-sealing like Future Sight.

[Jakedasnake]

I was thinking along those lines as well, but I never really got down to testing.

[wollblad]

In general in Keeper of today, most are running Balance, 2 Decree and of course Yawgmoth's Will, all cards which ar best drawn at sertain oscessions. Couldn't it be an idea to move Balance, 1 Decree and Yawgmoth's Will to the sideboard replacing them with 3 Burning Wish. The space could easely be found. With virtually 3 Balance you don't need for example The Abyss and probably not Diabolic Edict either.

I have sort of tested it running The Shining and really liked the power of Burning Wish. Problem is that it might combine badly with Chalice of the Void. Got any comments to the suggestion?

[Abbadon Khaine]

I've tried Burning Wish, and it didn't really work out. I had to dilute my sideboard a little too much for my liking, running both wishes, and the mana base was slightly overstressed.

[Jakedasnake]

Quote In general in Keeper of today, most are running Balance, 2 Decree and of course Yawgmoth's Will, all cards which ar best drawn at sertain oscessions. Couldn't it be an idea to move Balance, 1 Decree and Yawgmoth's Will to the sideboard replacing them with 3 Burning Wish. The space could easely be found. With virtually 3 Balance you don't need for example The Abyss and probably not Diabolic Edict either.

In theory, it sounds REALLY excellent. The problem is, if you want to use them quickly, spending a turn to get them is a real problem, especially when some deck has you by the balls; spending two mana to search for an answer you might not be able to play next turn is kinda risky. Long can manage because it has an explosive mana base, ways to replay all there stuffs, and the ability to draw into more cards when they are going off. Combo Keeper can use Burning Wish because it gets into the semi-late game, wishes for a Yawgmoth's Will, and ups the storm count to play a Tendrils.

Keeper isn't an aggro strategy; it's a slow control deck. They drop threats, we find answers. Burning Wish finds threats, but this isn't in the strategy. Early on we need the Mana Drain mana open, or the ability to Swords to Plowshares, or draw cards at the end of turn.

Combo Keeper and Long can basically ignore the opponent, so Burning Wish works well.

Also, what Abbadon Khaine said, the sideboard becomes very tight; you'll lose Cunning Wish targets, and will probably weaken your sideboard altogether.

[Jakedasnake]

I saw this really cool tech: Force of Will on the sideboard. I'm definitely NOT advocating this, but it seems like if you were in a non-combo heavy environment it might be pretty effective. A little more tutor/flexibility at the loss of a pre-turn counter.

Thoughts?

[cssamerican]

Quote (Jakedasnake @ Nov. 11 2003,12:33)

Quote In general in Keeper of today, most are running Balance, 2 Decree and of course Yawgmoth's Will, all cards which ar best drawn at sertain oscessions. Couldn't it be an idea to move Balance, 1 Decree and Yawgmoth's Will to the sideboard replacing them with 3 Burning Wish. The space could easely be found. With virtually 3 Balance you don't need for example The Abyss and probably not Diabolic Edict either.

In theory, it sounds REALLY excellent. The problem is, if you want to use them quickly, spending a turn to get them is a real problem, especially when some deck has you by the balls; spending two mana to search for an answer you might not be able to play next turn is kinda risky.

This is the worst reasoning not to play a card in Keeper I have ever seen! If that is the case take Demonic Tutor out of your decklist, because you can't spend two mana to find a broken card.

Quote (Jakedasnake @ Nov. 11 2003,12:33)
Keeper isn't an aggro strategy; it's a slow control deck. They drop threats, we find answers. Burning Wish finds threats, but this isn't in the strategy.

This is second worst reasoning not to play a card in Keeper I have ever seen! Balance is not an answer? Playing Yawgmoth's Will and gaining superior board position in not part of Keepers strategy?

I am not saying the Burning Wish idea is the right path, heck I don't even play Keeper. But I will say that it seems worth looking into, especially if these are the reason Keeper players are not playing Burning Wish.

Edit: Force of Will on the sideboard is a bad idea no matter what IMO.

[BuboniC]

2 Skeletal scrying and 1 read the runes is not a "hidden tech" as someone said, it is suboptimal, here are some suggestions:
-2 Skeletal scrying
-3 Wasteland(not needed ion the heavy control envirement of keeper- I could be proven wrong about this- but when Crucible of Words comes out these little suckers will be house.)
-1 Read the Runes
-1 Decree of justice(SB it)
-1 Circle of protection red(SB)

+4 Duress
+2 Isochron sceptor
+1 Fire/Ice
+1 Cunning Wish

[Klep]

Quote (BuboniC @ Nov. 13 2003,14:37)2 Skeletal scrying and 1 read the runes is not a "hidden tech" as someone said, it is suboptimal, here are some suggestions:
-2 Skeletal scrying
-3 Wasteland(not needed ion the heavy control envirement of keeper- I could be proven wrong about this- but when Crucible of Words comes out these little suckers will be house.)
-1 Read the Runes
-1 Decree of justice(SB it)
-1 Circle of protection red(SB)

+4 Duress
+2 Isochron sceptor
+1 Fire/Ice
+1 Cunning Wish

Let me get this straight. You think he should cut 3 mana sources and his X-draw as well as one of his win conditions and a large portion of his sligh defense to add a card that has been found suboptimal in Keeper (Duress) and use both Scepter and Chalice in the same deck, a strategy that has been found to be poor.

These are horrible suggestions.

-David 'Klep' Kleppinger, Raving Lunatic

[Mike D]

Yeah, i agree with kelp. There is no need for you to bring up sugestions that have been proven to be horid. Then you dont give any reasons to support your evidence. Are you serious when you wrote that post? Or were you just playing around with all of us, cause that is ridiculus.

As for your deck jakedasnake, as I said before I really dont like chalice main deck in keeper, i tihnk its suboptimal than the allmighty scepter.

As for read the runes, One of your reasons for running it is to fuel your grave, for a good will. You can just play the game, and in a late game just will and it will plently good enough to win.

[BuboniC]

Did you just discover the word suboptimal? you seem too like it alot, i wasnt joking at all, scepter keeper has won the last 3 five proxy tournaments and is a massive source of card draw, also, with the adding of cunning wish Ghitu fire or some  goes too SB, making the slot still there, and with all the the tutors and card draw- if you have a problem getting anything you should be shot. Duress hoses long(or atleast stops it for 2-3 turns, trust me ive played both decks) sceptor is a massive source of card draw, and with the Fire/Ice sceptor and chalice you should never, ever lose too sligh- wasteland is not a mana source, its a disruption- whith all the two blue and 3 blue (future sight) keeper doesnt need it as a mana source. Burning wish is very invalid for this deck- keeper is about responding too spells, and all burning wish does is giver you more Balance, yawg wills and decrees. Decree you need one of only- you have 3 recurance spells and enough counter too get rid of any threats too the tokens. Duress also has a very slim chance of not being usefull- but maybe 3 would be good in replacement for another fire/ice. If you dont want too listen too me and not play sceptor- than be my guest, but im warning you- People will want too play you without the threat of it.

Also: ya because who would play chalice, the most dominant controling card in T1 in the "alllmighty keeper". Please use common sense.

[Crater Hellion]

IMO, a soon to be proven optimal keeper deck going into an unknown field will use 2-3 scepters maindeck, and 3 chalice SB. 5 strip effects are definitely needed. Right now, I don't think duress is a good choice for keeper.

edit: i think bubonic thought you were trying to say not that chalice and scepter are "suboptimal" cards when used in conjunction in keeper( which is what I gathered from your post), but that each card is bad by itself, which is simply not true obviously. BTW Klep, I think X draw spells suck more and more all the time in this evolving t1 metagame.\n\n

[Jakedasnake]

Regarding Burning Wish:

Quote This is the worst reasoning not to play a card in Keeper I have ever seen! If that is the case take Demonic Tutor out of your decklist, because you can't spend two mana to find a broken card.

This is just downright stupid. Demonic Tutor plays a completely different role in Keeper. Like I said, Burning Wish is more of a bomb tutor. Searching for a Balance during your main phase with Burning Wish just doesn't work; you're not going to be able to use it most of the time until NEXT turn, which seems kind of pointless. Cunning Wish works because you can Wish at the end of turn, then destroy whatever during your turn or during their turn. Basically, Wishes slow you down a turn quite often, so wasting a 2 main phases for an answer that might come too late is just sub-optimal in my opinion, but if it works for you...

As for Demonic Tutor: when it's used to find answers, you're almost always going to search for a Balance or Swords to Plowhsares, in which case it is pretty similar. But that won't happen all the time. Demonic Tutor is SO versatile, where Burning Wish just isn't; you have less targets and therefore less versatility. Burning Wish just doesn't fit in a deck that can't just win.

Quote This is second worst reasoning not to play a card in Keeper I have ever seen! Balance is not an answer? Playing Yawgmoth's Will and gaining superior board position in not part of Keepers strategy?
I am not saying the Burning Wish idea is the right path, heck I don't even play Keeper. But I will say that it seems worth looking into, especially if these are the reason Keeper players are not playing Burning Wish.
Edit: Force of Will on the sideboard is a bad idea no matter what IMO.

Balance IS an answer, but it isn't if you wait a turn to play it. Yawgmoth's will DOES gain superior board advantage, but it doesn't allow the Keeper player to WIN right now, like Combo Keeper and Long can do. Yawgmoth's Will is awesome, and it often leads onto the path of victory. But without tons of cheap mana sources (LED) playing it the turn you play a Burning Wish and getting a large effect out of it just isn't probable.

As you may know, the fundamental turn is Turn 2. I wouldn't want to be wasting my second turn finding an answer for next turn, and I wouldn't want to have three of cards such as these in my deck; I wouldn't want to draw them early.

It is quite obvious you don't play Keeper, and that obviously affects what you know about the deck. Try playing it.

As for Force on the Side, I meant 1, if that wasn't clear.

As for Scepter; I've exhausted myself on this too much, I won't start this circular argument again.

Read the Runes acts like a cycling effect when you have a Chalice in play (like I've mentioned before). It allows me to discard cards I can't play, and replace them with new ones. Or I can destroy my Chalice and put it back into play next turn with a Yawg's Will, for example.

Edit: X spells aren't terrible. Sure, early you will just cycle them. But if you survive to the late game (which is Keeper's strategy) then you will have a huge advantage: having a full grip while your opponent is top decking. This is a pretty integral part of Keeper's strategy.

[BuboniC]

X spells+sceptor is horrible, X spells+sphere is horrible- and are dumb- you dont need too "set-up" a better yawg will! you need too set up a better lock, disruption and then beatdown- you want cycling use renewed faith  or hell cycling lands(im kidding) Read=mega weak too everything, and you definently dont want too run in skeletal scrying- you cant afford the life- and it "doesnt set up" the yawg will.

[Toad]

Skeletal Scrying is incredibly strong because it laughs at Chalice of the Void and draw cards at instant speed. Face Welder MUD and see how a first turn Chalice for 2 will smash you.

[VideoGameBoy]

Question for you all - has the jury come in yet whether Scepter or Chalice is better maindeck in Keeper?

I would really like your input on this, Jake.

The main reason for this is because I originally took a lot of shit in this thread for saying Chalice maindeck in Keeper is not as good as maindecking Scepter.

As for Burning Wish, I use it to fetch Balance, Mind Twist, and Timetwister, the positively most situational Keeper "staple" sorceries.  Primitive Justice could be cool in the side, as well.  Casting Balance the same turn as Burning Wish is a non-issue, also.\n\n

[Jakedasnake]

I believe I've said this quite a bit before on your thread, but I'll say it again:

Chalice is better when in a properly tuned Keeper deck. Chalice basically shuts down a key strategy of the opponent, whether this is Draw/Search or Creature/Burn or acceleration, it doesn't really matter. What it comes down to is the fact that Chalice allows the Keeper player to completely ignore one aspect of the opponents strategy. An example:

A Chalice for 0 against Hulk:
-Shuts down their moxen development, which effectively speeds you up, as you can drop whatever your holding then play a Chalice for 0. This really makes it easy to get into the long game.

A Chalice set for 1 against Hulk:
-Kills Brainstorm and Ancestral Recall, which is much more important in Hulk than in Keeper
-Shuts down Berserk, which means a Decree for basically anything goes a long way.
-Shuts down Duress. This is pretty awesome, as it allows the Keeper player to keep answers in their hand without the risk of having them Duressed followed by a threat ('tog).
-Gets rid of Vampiric Tutor and Mystical Tutor, which means keeping the Chalice in play is much easier.

It does to the Keeper player:
-Kills Brainstorm. This is not as important in Keeper because I still have 3 Impulse and 3 X draw spells. Plus, in most cases I will play the Brainstorm first.
-Ancestral, Vampiric, Mystical, Swords to Plowshares: Losses, but then again, when I really need to use them, I can get rid of the Chalice through a Gorilla Shaman or Read the Runes.

Chalice is also effective because I decide what to set it at. I have the option of playing it whenever I want, to the maximum advantage.

It is often misunderstood. Chalice in Keeper allows one to slow the game down to the point where Keeper wants it. Plus, it is basically effective against any deck other than Workshop.dec, but hey, maybe Workshop will be restricted  

Chalice is a very finess card, and it takes precision to use effectively. But when used correctly, it is awesome.

As for Isochron Scepter: The card is good. I agree, but Keeper isn't the deck to run it in. If you agree the fundamental turn is turn 2, you wouldn't want to spend that turn imprinting a card that you won't be able to use until next turn, effectively leaving it and yourself open to whatever the oponent decides to do (sans Force of Will). This basically means that you won't play Isochron Scepter early UNLESS you have an instant to imprint, plus a Force of Will PLUS a blue card in hand. I don't know about you, but this doesn't happen very often.

Sure, if you can get it to work, it's very effective. But that's the problem. With the inclusion of many more artifacts, you better count on more artifact destruction. Losing two cards and a turn isn't very ideal in my book.

So, basically, Scepter can't be played without risk until you have 4 mana sources. However, by that time you might have already used a couple of these instants to stay in the game, and finding a effective Imprint source could be difficult.

Sure, Cunning Wish helps you do this, but you're losing even more tempo.

Basically, Chalice lets one slow the game down to the maximum effect because the person playing the Chalice makes the choice. Scepter isn't effective until you have 4 sources of mana and an imprintable instant.

[jpmeyer]

Just cast your X CC spells before you drop Chalice for X.  That's all.  Going land, Mox, Chalice on turn 1 is a fine play

[Klep]

@BuboniC:

I've known about suboptimal for a long time.  I used it because I thought it fitting.  It is a fine word, is it not?

Now, in order:
1)  I also believe that Scepter is a fine card, and I use it myself  I think that both Scepter and Chalice are very good choices for Keeper, and I don't think it is conclusively resolved which is better in The Deck.  What I do know is that having both in the main as you suggest is horrible, as you have to tune the deck around either.  If you try to tune the deck around both, you will have a mess.

2)  If you take out the X-draw, you force Keeper to rely on winning top-deck wars in the late game.  For a deck that seeks to have total control of the game at that point, this is stupid.  Keeper should at this point have a full, solid hand and the X-draw lets you acquire that much better than anything else.

3)  Wasteland is a mana source.  In fact, I use it far more often for mana than anything else. Keeper is a very mana-hungry deck that hates missing land drops and needs as much mana as it can get.  If you take the Wastelands out of jadedsnake's build, that drops him down to 23 mana sources, which is far too few.  Over a year of testing since the advent of the fetchlands has resolved that the optimal amount of mana sources is 26, including strip effects.  In addition, a large part of Keeper's early game strategy is mana base disruption thanks to Mox Monkey and the strip effects.  If you remove the Wastelands, you are making Keeper worse in the early game than it already is, which is, again, stupid.

4)  I agree. Burning Wish is bad for Keeper.

5)  I'd like to know how you're getting 3 recursion spells out of Yawgmoth's Will.  More than one Decree is necessary because you want to be able to cycle one early to do things like provide blockers against Sligh or sacrificial lambs against prison decks.  In addition, having 2 greatly reduces the chances of things like Fact or Fiction giving a split where you have to take your sole win condition, and the occasional Extract played by a Fish player.

6)  Duress is effective, and a good card, just not in Keeper.  Keeper is a heavily reactive deck, and Duress is not a reactive card.  With Keeper you want to be hunting out and using answers in response to threats.  That is the philosophy of the deck and the idea the deck is based around.  Duress does not mesh with that philosophy, and therefore is a poor fit.  I used to run Duress myself, and I was never pleased with its performance.


@CraterHellion:

I'd like to see that, but I think it may be difficult to effectively utilize the Chalices in a deck tuned for Scepter.  Still, I'm waiting to be proven wrong.

X-draw may not be the best of what's out there, but everything better that fits in the deck Keeper already uses (Ancestral, Brainstorm, FoF, Library).  Scrying is good because its an instant, so you can use it at the end of your opponent's turn, and though I'm not sold on Read the Runes, it also has that advantage.   Both are better than Future Sight currently.

-David 'Klep' Kleppinger, Raving Lunatic

[rozetta]

Chalice is almost necessary in Keeper if you're going first against a Workshop deck. It greatly improves your chances, since their first turn cannot be as explosive. If you're going second, I'm still not sure whether it's better to side them out. I'm leaning towards siding them out, though, since chalice is almost useless once they've dropped their moxes. However, sometimes they'll keep moxes in hand to have a more explosive second turn with metalworker, so you can catch them off guard in that respect. It's a tough call, since you have so much that can be sided in against them (disenchant, rack and ruin, swords).

As far as scepter versus chalice goes, I've found chalice to be far better in the current metagame. It's a big improvement over Keeper without chalice. I've found scepter to be slow, a little conditional and easily hosed by a lot of common maindeck cards such as mox monkey, null rod and chalice. However, I haven't tested it too much, since initial impressions weren't too favourable.

[cssamerican]

Jakedasnake: I want to clear this confusion up. I did not mean to sound as if I was for promoting Burning Wish in Keeper, I even said I do not even play this deck. What I was saying is that the intial reasons you gave for not playing it was poor. Your follow up reasoning was not that good either let me quote you.

Quote Searching for a Balance during your main phase with Burning Wish just doesn't work; you're not going to be able to use it most of the time until NEXT turn, which seems kind of pointless.

So how does it work for Demonic Tutor?

Now if your reasoning would have more along the lines of:
A Balance in the opening hand has saved my ass so many times it is not even funny, and by putting it in this side I lose the ability to have it in my opening hand which can weaken my position against fast Aggro like Madness.
and/or
Putting all my power spells in the side does look good at first. However, this weakens Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Mystical Tutor to the point were they become sub-optimal to run. So the question becomes what would I rather have a deck based around Burning Wish or a deck based around cheaper and more versitile tutors?
Then I beleive your argument has merit.

Like I said I was trying to say Burning Wish is a great card in Keeper. I was trying to say if someone like Wollblad gives a suggestion your reasoning for refuting his/her suggestion should be better than what you gave. Especially when the whole community does not feel as you do, V.G.B. and Matt the Great I beleive have both been playing around with it in Keeper, and it is very possible when people like Wollblad give a suggestion like this it is because they have seen respected members of this community playing with that card in this type of deck. I just felt that someone needed to say, if that was your sole reasoning for not running Burning Wish it wasn't very convincing.
Sorry for the confusion.

[Jakedasnake]

@cssamerican: It's hard to make a good argument at 11:00, but I agree I did miss some key points.

Having Burning Wish maindeck might not be bad, but just slipping out a couple of cards isn't the way to go. Most decks that use Burning Wish can just win, but Keeper can't. Although it advances board position, one maindeck will do the same thing.

It's also quite true that all your main deck tutors become weaker, I think Matt went down to only demonic.

I think it's just better to keep you sideboard open for the variety of decks in the current metagame, instead of filling it with Cunning and Burning Wish targets.

[Matt The Great]

Well I still had Mystical but it's not been very impressive lately. I may switch it for the sideboarded Vampiric.

My Burning Wish-Keeper deck had the following reasoning behind it: I wanted to always be able to Chalice for 1, so I needed to cut down on my 1cc spells. This meant that I would need more sweeping answers, so I wanted easy access to Balance. So I needed Burning Wish. Voila. I think the deck is not quite good enough right now, but it needs only a little more acceleration. There's almost enough acceleration that you can afford to add 1R to your answers. Almost, but not quite. So for now, I do not think Burning Wish is workable in a control deck, but it's a powder keg waiting for a match.\n\n

[wollblad]

I have done some playtesting and have experienced that moving Decree of Justice to the sideboard wasn't such a great idea. It's much like Jakedasnake pointed out, it is too slow. On the other hand, fetching Balance or Yawgmoth's Will, I was allways able to play them the same turn and that gave me a superior matchup against for example aggro decks. Yes, it weakens Demonic Tutor slightly, but not as much as strengthen the deck to be able to choose between playing Balance and Yawgmoth's Will. It is also very comfortable to know that you cannot get your lone Yawgmoth's Will duressed away.

The greatest problem though was the mana base.  Except for Tolarian Academy (where I have an Island instead), it is the same as Jakedasnake's. It  was not the amount of mana, but rather the lack of correct colour that was the problem, just as Abbadon Khaine mentioned. The use of Burning Wish calls for a lot of mana acceleration and that weekens the mana base.

The big issues for using Burning is thus which cards that are taken out and how the mana base is built.

[Jakedasnake]

Usually, when playing a high tier deck, a Balance needs to be played ASAP, for example against mask. 4 Mana is kinda slow, with Cunning Wish you can at least pay 3 eot, then swords during his turn. With Burning Wish (unless you have wished before, which is pointless because you would need counter mana open if available) you have to spend four mana, because it's all done during your turn. If you don't have four mana, you're going to be taking a large hit.

[jazzy kat]

Hello, I mised jake's build, bastardized it (I didn't have full power) and won a very small tourney with it. I really LOVE cotv, infact I ...., well let's not go there. Anyway, I have questions:

First off, let me say that I am a bad keeper player and am not afraid of bad decks no matter how random they are (I am deathly afraid of them with my chalice black, I just lose to random shit) or what type of jank they run. I know that the mirror involves making better plays and using the SB correctly.

My questions are:
how the hell do you deal with long and workshop (I will proxy these decks up sooon so my friend can play against me, but I still don't know how to react to certain cards)?

vs. Long I know, you set COTV =0 or 1 depending on if they sided in overloads. Then someone like steve M still wins on turn 2 with his 8 gazillion draw sevens and fast everythings.

If MUD drops tanglewire first turn, what do I do? Scoop?

Also, what are the unsituational must counters in these matchups?

Thank you, wise players of the keeper.

Also, chalice for 1 against budget decks normally destroys them, but everyone already said that.

[Jakedasnake]

how the hell do you deal with long?
If going second, it is probably wise to mull into a hand with Force of Will, but in most cases you don't want to go under 6 cards unless the 6 card hand is shit. When going first, a Chalice for 0 (first game) is the correct play, but second game a Chalice for 1 is about 8 times better; they can't remove it, they have only 0cc cards to up the storm count, etc. It slows them down enough, and they can't deal with it.

and workshop?
The main cards to counter are the Welders, unless you have removal in hand. With a Welder in play, you basically can't remove any of the artifact threats. Force of Willing a turn 1 Tangle Wire/Sphere/Worker is very important, because if they resolve a Tangle Wire early, they can drop threats for a couple of turns un-hindered. Smokestack isn't that key, as they will be hurt almost as much, but in the long run you're going to wish it wasn't there. Sphere is HUGE to counter. It effectively slows you down a turn, makes it so you can't drain until turn 3, and you can't destroy/wish for artifact removal until much later. Sphere is a huge threat early.

Never fold to a first turn Tangle Wire, it's pretty easy to fight out of. However, if they start recurring it with a Welder...

I don't know, I don't usually fold unless it is COMPLETELY hopeless, because there is always the chance they get mana screwed/mana flood, etc.

[Jakedasnake]

I've been doing some more testing with Read the Runes. The card is crazy, some times it absolutely shines, especially mid-game. However, early on it just sits and sits in your hand. I'm testing another Gorilla Shaman, but I really want to fit in a second Swords to Plowshares to combat dragon. I was thinking -1 Read the Runes +1 Swords. That way I still have a Vampiric Tutor to hunt out the Shaman if it gets desperate.

Thoughts?