List

 First draft of what I think the list looks like on Thursday, when Zendikar Rising comes out on Arena. 

Link

A couple posts ago I said that I'd be annoyed if they only printed six of the Pathways, and only the red/green one for us, and guess what, they did and I am. Not a huge deal though, I'm not really certain that I would play them anyways. I think the mana is pretty reasonable here, and we'll try out the Kazandu Mammoth and see how it goes. I could honestly see any number 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 being right on those and also having no clue how to decide if they're good or not.

I'm lowering my count of 2-drop creatures to just 9 and I honestly don't love it. I think it's really important to have the ability to just establish something on the board early so we don't waste mana if our opponent doesn't have anything that needs answering. The most important things that I would say we are missing are the last two Gifted Aetherborns and a 1-of Klothys, which I've liked a lot.

I also am back on my Angrath bullshit, as you can see. It's such a house against Uro, which is just about the most popular card in the format. Beyond that, it's a great threat against control decks, and at worst steals and kills our opponents' best creature, since most decks aren't playing anything more than three mana. At the moment, I feel like Angrath is the best 5 drop for how the format looks right now, but I'm also interested in lowering the curve in total, so who knows. Thragtusk is on the chopping block.

We also have gotten to a place where Maelstrom Pulse isn't in the deck anymore, and that could certainly be wrong. We cannot destroy an artifact or enchantment in the main deck, and while that's kinda scary, sometimes you gotta just let Thoughtseize be enough security against that kind of thing. I'm excited to try out these other removal spells in its place, like Inscription and Bloodchief's Thirst, but if those don't line up well with what's being played in the format, well, Pulse always lines up.

Also, a whole separate issue: at some point it might be right to *gasp* cut red? Between Eliminate and Bloodchief's Thirst, and Disfigure out of the board, we kind of have enough cheap removal in Black to make up for what Red's really good at in the deck. That's an issue for later, but Bonecrusher Giant's utility sure has gone down now that all the best decks with small creatures play Village Rites, Phyrexian Tower, and Woe Strider, and it doesn't kill the two of the most important creatures, Mayhem Devil and Dreadhorde Arcanist. That said, no other removal spell can just yolo as a three mana 4/3 when you wanna clock em. It's an incredible card.

This boy is so exciting to me and it makes me pretty sad that I just can't see it being right to play it. I love Sprouting Thrinax, but Historic in general does not seem to be about this kind of thing right now. This card is phenomenal at the things that it actually does, like getting into combat on the ground, one-for-one removal, giving yourself wrath protection. I keep talking about how Claim the Firstborn is going to wreck this thing, but I mean, if those decks were to drop in popularity, Grakmaw isn't especially good against Uro or Ugin, either, whereas something like Nighthawk Scavenger is pretty solid against everything in the format right now. I think there's a world where printings, bannings, and just trends transform the format into something where Grakmaw can shine, but we certainly aren't there right now. Keep this one on the back burner.

I'll know more about it by the weekend, but Thursday afternoon should be some fun. I'm hoping to fire up the stream when the new set's out but may have to wait until Sunday to actually get a good session in.