Breathing Down Your Neck

The replacements for Safe In Mind were initially easy; the familiars should become mana of some kind. Dimir Signet was an easy choice and I think a pretty good one, upping the consistency. It still allows me to play Dark Suspicions on turn 3, Seizan on turn 4, if everything lines up.

Next up was dabbling in the Sea of Madness; Alms of the Vein came in to replace Vex.

My first run of games against Fuz and Lauriel felt like I was on the right track. The extra mana from the Signets didn't put a huge dent in my ability to do things and Alms is a very good card to discard to Sickening Dreams or Rites of Refusal. It isn't much life but it's part of the chipping away strategy that Safe In Mind does while helping extend my own life total just a little bit against the ravages of opponents or Sickening Dreams.

Games against Noah didn't go quite as well. As you can see, my Urborg Emissary is facing down a gang of dudes and things are not going to end happily for me.

On the other hand, while I did not emerge victorious in most of my games against Noah, he told me that I frequently presented interesting board states for him to have to deal with. I take this as a very good sign! Getting my friends to have to contemplate a board, creating interesting situations, these things mean that I'm on the right path, I think.

I told Noah that I was having issues with really aggressive decks and was considering Aetherize as an answer to that. However, after games where I was transmuting Clutch of the Undercity, leaving me open to Noah's Cabal Therapy, I realized the issue with that: my opponents can see it coming and will just attack with one creature. 

"You know what would also go well in that deck?" Noah suggested, "Whelming Wave."

Hmmmmmm....