Right now I’m running a completely blue deck with Kiora, consisting of:
Creatures:
Rattlechains
Startled Awake (got both this and Rattlechains from a single purchase when the angels/spirits/vampires(?) themed packs were available!).
Nebelgast Herald
Spells:
Crush of Tentacles
Imprisoned in the Moon
Anchor to the Aether
Supports:
Prism Array
Oath of Jace
Retreat to Coralhelm
Sphinx’s Tutelage
It’s ok, but I want to improve it and I’m not making use of any green cards. Part of me also wants to try out Dovin and a U/W deck, but I don’t have much that works with his abilities so far, while Kiora’s are more generic.
Here’re my blue rares/mythics that aren’t currently in play:
[spoiler]* Bring to Light
Docent of Perfection
Dreadwaters
Forgotten Creation
Geralf’s Masterpiece
Prized Amalgam
Ugin’s Insight
Wharf Infiltrator
Willbreaker[/spoiler]
Green rares/mythics:
[spoiler]* Bring to Light (I tried this, but it could be a liability when Crush of Tentacles was pulled)
Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen
Emrakul’s Evangel
Heron’s Grace Champion
Managorger Hydra
Silverfur Partisan (I used to run a deck with this and a ton of spells, but things went wrong too frequently for my liking)
I would replace Sphinx’s Tutelage, Oath of Jace and Retreat to Coralhelm with Nissa’s Pilgrimage, Fertile Thicket and Reclaiming Vines / Creeping Mold.
More ramp and gem conversion to trigger Prism Array. And a way to deal with supports if you’re finding them a problem. If you’ve no issues with supports I’d say leave Sphinx’s Tutelage for mana denial or Oath of Jace for draw. Retreat to Coralhelm is pretty redundant with Prism Array around.
Thanks for the suggestions! Am testing them now, looks pretty nice. You make a very good point about the mana ramp vs more draw.
May drop Reclaiming Vines out though, for me it seems that either there’re very few supports that matter, or I get utterly swamped with them (Investigate and Fabricate, I’m looking at you…).
Glad to be able to help! You’re missing quite a few of the Green rares and mythics that can help push your deck to the next level. Stuff like Seasons Past, Nissa’s Renewal, Part the Waterveil, Animist’s Awakening or other mass conversion / ramp cards.
Although if I may suggest, drop Rattlechains and slot in Desolation Twin. Kiora can afford the 6 mana for Startled Awake quite easily and her second ability is much more useful when it fetches a Desolation Twin than a Rattlechains.
Yeah,that’s a good idea, forgot about you still having that card in the deck. You could probably slot in Mantle of Webs to take less damage in matches as the Twins do rather well as defenders.
(Protip: Always cast Mantle of Webs on the token Twin as the AI prioritises removal on creatures over tokens when the stats are similar.)
Since you mention it though, is there a full list of how the AI prioritises creature removal? The rule of thumb I’ve come up with is rarity then stats, but I haven’t gotten any more granularity than that.
I would like to know this as well. I can cast a Gisela, Decimator and Haunted cloak on Gisela, resulting in a 12/12 flying first strike berserker with lifelink, haste and vigilance (Gisela) and a 12/12 berserker with haste (Decimator) and the AI will kill the Decimator first, every time. Gisela is obviously the bigger threat, so you would think she would be first priority to remove.
Unfortunately I don’t think there’s a list. There seems to be some ratio for power before the AI decides to kill a token over a non-token creature. Rarity as you guys pointed out seems to matter also. I’ve seen the AI remove my Startled Awake over other bigger but lower rarity creatures.
Abilities do not seem to matter for determining which one gets removed. My guess (and this is purely guesswork) is that for creatures of the same rarity and power, the tiebreaker is their mana cost.