UB Ratstill

[josh_ae]

@wiley It's been a while, you're probably more accurate than I was in remembering.

A third copy of Psionic Blast seems reasonable, which is weird to say. I was thinking the deck could use an extra land. I'll test with those concepts and the ones I had (extra Jace, extra Crucible)

My hope is to be comfortable enough with the list to take it to Champs this year, hoping to get more feedback going in this thread to make the list as tight as possible.

[fsecco]

I don't think there's anything UB that does what Psionic Blast does. The closest thing is Dismember. =/

I don't like having 2 Tar Pit on the deck. It comes into play tapped and costs a lot of mana to activate. I almost never use it, except against planeswalkers. The fact that it comes into play tapped is a big problem to me. Maybe, if you want to add another land, Cabal Pit could be a good choice?

And taking out Ashiok for a 3rd Psionic Blast could be good. I would use that slot for a Dismember, though. Although, in this deck, I have yet to test the quality of having non-restricted 1-ofs. Only 1 Tutor makes every 1-of a little worse. So maybe 3 Blasts is better than 2 Blasts + 1 Dismember.

[JPoJohnson]

I suppose it depends on whether you need to handle purely creatures with that removal spell or you want it to be flexible enough to deal with resolves planeswalkers on the other side of the table as well.

[WhiteLotus]

4 jaces or 3 minimum instead of ashiok seems the way to go, creeping tar pit is pretty bad since it likely takes you off mana drain. cabal pit is strong, maybe a second crucible. The way i see it though demonic tutor is crucible n°2 as well as being toxic deluge n°2 and landstill number five, ....

It may well be true that psionic blast is good, but only because UB lacks anything else to do the same thing like fsecco suggests.

[wiley]

4 jaces or 3 minimum instead of ashiok seems the way to go, creeping tar pit is pretty bad since it likely takes you off mana drain.

Creeping tar pit is one of the best t1 plays if you don't have a mox, and it is the best man land in a stalled board state against anything with creatures.

A 3rd jace does seem like the right call, I didn't notice he only had 2.  I don't think cabal pit is good enough in the current meta as it bricks against shops and gets eaten/turned off by deathrite decks.  It is best against confidant control and maybe rug, both of which I would feel just fine with another psy blast instead.

[fsecco]

4 jaces or 3 minimum instead of ashiok seems the way to go, creeping tar pit is pretty bad since it likely takes you off mana drain.

Creeping tar pit is one of the best t1 plays if you don't have a mox, and it is the best man land in a stalled board state against anything with creatures.

A 3rd jace does seem like the right call, I didn't notice he only had 2.  I don't think cabal pit is good enough in the current meta as it bricks against shops and gets eaten/turned off by deathrite decks.  It is best against confidant control and maybe rug, both of which I would feel just fine with another psy blast instead.

I disagree. A fetch is much better than Tar Pit hehe. And Tar Pit is probably the worst turn 2 play if you have no other land. Playing with 2 of them just makes this easier to happen. I would play with more than one "comes into play tapped" land in, maybe, any Vintage deck. Even on turn one, it shuts down your 1 mana counters for the early game.

About Cabal Pit: recurring it is cool and all, but for me the inclusion should be counted as a creature removal spell. If you can recur it, nice, but it's not the main point. It kills several importante creatures in the format. It is true that it's best against blue and almost useless against Shops. Although it does kill Revoker, Metalworker, Welder (who knows) and if you're lucky a Factory. Also, in a very sub-optimal way, it can put Kuldotha on Psi Blast range.