Llanowar Elves
This card, however, is unlike all the other cards in the format because it dictates how you build the entire rest of your deck. It became clear to me that this wasn't going to be a Llanowar Elves deck when I decided that I wanted Rekindling Phoenix and Bedevil. The extra green mana from the elf isn't that big of a help, and you also need to warp your land base to be able to cast it on the first turn. It's certainly powerful, but we also aren't losing games because we draw Llanowar Elves in the late game when we need to draw action, and we aren't losing games because our opponent had removal for our land-light elf-heavy hand.
Dire Fleet Daredevil, Thorn Lieutenant
I like both of these cards because they are early game plays that scale up in power as the game goes on, so they are good topdecks late but can also help put on pressure or play defense early. However, the biggest reason that I cut them is that mono-blue decks are all the rage right now and they don't do enough to either help you hit land drops and cast your big stuff or fight their flying attackers. All the other creatures in the deck do that, kind of. I think that, as the metagame fluctuates, these two cards might find their way back into the 75.
Incubation Druid, Growth Chamber Guardian
Growth Chamber Guardian was pretty bad. We're tapping out early and often and turning a 2/2 into a 4/4 isn't really worth spending our mana on in the early game. Not to mention, if you play one of these you kind of have to play four, which I don't want to do. Incubation Druid ran into same problem that Llanowar Elves did, in that it's a boost but only if your opponents want you to have it. The adapt ability costs a lot of mana, so it doesn't really come into play too often.
Wildgrowth Walker
The reason I don't have Wildgrowth Walker in the list is because I play District Guide over Jadelight Ranger. I would probably change the list a lot otherwise, because right now Walker is a pretty good plan, although that doesn't always seem to be the case in this format.
Jadelight Ranger
This card is really really good, but the problem is the mana requirements. Similarly to the Llanowar Elves land situation, it's tough to guarantee that we can have 1GG on turn three of the game. Additionally, Jadelight Ranger doesn't always let you hit your land drops, while District Guide does, and it gives you the color you're missing 100% of the time. You can hit two lands off of Jadelight Ranger but also still miss the black source you're missing for Chupacabra.
Lava Coil, Cast Down, Assassin's Trophy
Honestly Assassin's Trophy shouldn't even be in this category since you really don't want to cast it on turn two, but sometimes you have to. The thing I want to avoid with this deck's removal suite is to have cards that are dead against Esper Control. Bedevil at least answers their planeswalkers, Carnival/Carnage is Blightning if you want it to be, and Rakdos Firewheeler is a pretty solid aggressive creature. If I was going to play one of these cards, it would be Cast Down, since the instant speed is really important against Mono Blue. Assassin's Trophy isn't really that much of a consideration since I don't want to cast it early against aggro decks anyways.
Legion Warboss, Gruul Spellbreaker
These two cards I actually kind of like, but they fit with the theme of the deck a little less than Midnight Reaper and the other stuff we've got going on. Spellbreaker is solid enough against Red and White aggro, but not against Blue. Warboss is fine if you get to your combat step, but the 1/1 creature has to suicide attack a lot of the time, and the Boss itself doesn't block well at all. While I like these cards, the room for slots is tight and they just don't quite fit the theme well enough of hitting land drops and letting us cast planeswalkers and two-for-ones.
Ripjaw Raptor
I think there's a version of this deck that's a little different and plays this, Carnage Tyrant, and Regisaur Alpha, maybe even Ranging Raptors, and then Thunderherd Migration. It's pretty bad, but I just so badly want to play with Thragtusk, y'know? Anyways, Ripjaw Raptor might be a consideration if people were still playing red in their control decks instead of black, but the difference between Cast Down and Justice Strike on this is huge. Plus, the aggro decks nowadays aren't all just ground creatures and burn spells, it's flying creatures that Ripjaw Raptor does nothing against.
Vraksa's Contempt
We've got Bedevil, and I very rarely run into opposing Rekindling Phoenixes and Seraph of the Scales.
Regisaur Alpha, Siege Gang Commander, Biogenic Ooze
The problem with these cards is how soft they are to Kaya's Wrath (and Cleansing Nova, et al). Granted, they pretty much require a wrath by themselves, but when you get your board wiped and follow up with a planeswalker, you're way ahead. If you do that with one of these but then get wrathed again, you're kind of nowhere.
Doom Whisperer, Skarrgan Hellkite
I think an interesting situation has come up where Vivien Reid is so good against big flying creatures that people don't want to play them, but Mono Blue Tempo is so good against the absence of big flying creatures and it might be right to play them again. When I was playing 50% Vivien mirrors, these cards seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. At this point in the metagame, it might be time to give them a spin again. However, that means cutting some cards, specifically the more expensive ones in the deck like Vivien or Angrath, which are basically the best cards you have. I could see Skarragan Hellkite being a really good option if the format gets flooded with Mono-Blue, more so than it is now.
Carnage Tyrant, Vraska Relic Seeker
Six mana is just too much to fight the aggro decks in the format. Carnage Tyrant was originally in the list pretty much to fight other Carnage Tyrants. Midrange mirrors devolved into a battle of Carnage Tyrants, getting them back with Memorial to Folly and Find/Finality, and just bashing them into each other until someone forgot to cast a Carnage Tyrant for a turn and died. Now that everyone is doing Hydroid Krasis, Carnage Tyrant doesn't really work anymore and we don't need it. Vraska is better than Carnage Tyrant right now, but in this format, it doesn't seem to be worth playing a six-mana card. Even the midrange mirrors have Disdainful Stroke!
Find/Finality
This is a more recent cut, because I had it in the deck for a long time but eventually experimented with shaving a few and didn't miss it. While it's awesome against white aggro, if it's not good against Red or Blue, why is it in the deck? It's a card that's undeniably powerful, but requires a lot of setup to get value out of either side that you either don't draw the required resources for or don't have time for.
Memorial to Folly
This one's tough, because I really miss it, but I think we're better off without it. This particular Standard format has taught me a lot about hitting land drops, having them untapped, and just being able to cast your stuff on time. That hasn't always been the case for me in Standard, I'm always a little greedy trying to get some juice out of my lands. Some of the time, though, the best mana fixing is the value lands, like Temple of Malady or Hissing Quagmire. That's definitely not the case in this format, where you are stretched to cast three colors of spells, try to squeeze value out of your lands, and play enough basics to play around Assassin's Trophy and Field of Ruin. It's tough, but in the format as it exists right now, you don't have enough time in lots of your matchups to make use of Memorial to Folly anyways, and in those matchups in particular, the entering tapped is a huge cost.
Getting to this point has been a fun process. I still don't think I'm done with this deck, because let's face it, I never am done with tinkering and trying new stuff out. But I like where it's at and I'm going to try to grind some rankings with it this month. Stay tuned for that, I'll be doing a bunch on my Twitch channel and on Youtube. Thanks for reading!
