[DTB] Sneak Attack

[nonja]

Very interesting deck placed in top8:
http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/deck.php?id=5661&iddeck=40959

[TheShaun]

Very interesting deck placed in top8:
http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/deck.php?id=5661&iddeck=40959

This is quite interesting as it seems much more resilient than our standard version. 12 real "cheat" cards vice our 8. Lack of blue obviously hurts protection, if any blue mage were playing against this deck there are exactly 12 spells in the whole thing that need to be countered. I feel like losing Intuition also might hurt for the longer matches where you have one kill piece but lack the other, this deck will just sit there and topdeck until it happens. Overall I do really like this strategy, I'd just be hesitant to try it in a blue heavy meta.

[zerzab11]

Top 8ed in a local tournament (62 people) with Trials for BoM with the following:

4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Blightsteel Colossus

4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Intuition

4 Force of Will
4 Daze

3 Seething Song
3 Lotus Petal

3 Volcanic Island (i don't own a 4th)
4 Ancient Tomb
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Island
1 Mountain

SB:
4 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Bloodmoon
3 Firespout
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Submerge

Round 1: Big Zoo 2:1
G1: I get a turn two Show and Tell into Emrakul.
G2: I should have had mulliganed, because I don't find a blue manasource, after pondering from a Lotus Petal and he beats me to death with Knight.
G3: I force his Knight and win next turn with a sneaky Emrakul.

Round 2: MUC 2:0
Not much to say here, due to his really slow clock I win both games with Show and Tell and Counterprotection.

Round 3: Mono R Goblins 2:0
G1: He annoys me with two Rishadan Ports and Piledriver beats, but I manage to stabilize and win via Sneak Attack and Emrakul.
G2: He gets a really fast start with Lackey and double Piledriver and beats me to 2. Then a sneaky Colossus enteres the battlefield and he is quite surprised^^

Round 4: UG Infect Rush 2:0
G1: I counter his Invigorate and he can't handle my Emrakul.
G2: After pondering for some Protection a sneaky Colossus takes this one home.

Round 5: Tempo Bant 1:2
G1: A Show and Tell into Emrakul gets the job done.
G2: I kept a pretty bad hand and lost to Tarmogoyf and Knight.
G3: This was really close and I caught him by surprise with a Submerge for his exalted Tarmogoyf but a Knight joines his team and my hasty Colossus isn't enough any more.

Round 6: Death and Taxes I.D.
This one would've been quite hard, with Mangaras and Oblivion Rings on my opponents side.

4 : 1 : 1

Top8: Tempo Bant 2:1
G1: After some counters a Show and Tell'ed Emrakul flyes to victory.
G2: I decide to attack with my Emrakul when I'm at 3 life and he has got Tarmogoyf, Predator and six lands...obvious pretty bad play from me.
G3: He taps out for Tarmogoyf. On my turn I play Blood Moon and he scoops.

Top4: TES (Opponent doesn't want to play in Annecy so he kindly gives this to me)

Final: DDFT 2:0
G1: After some cantrips and a doomsday he tries to go Ritual, Ritual, Infernal, but I have got the Force.
G2: A really unfair sneaky Colossus shows what he can best, win...

So I got 8th after Swiss and 1th in the Top8 and won a Plateau and two Trials for Annecy. Overall I was really happy with the deck and with Blightsteel Colossus. He caught my opponents by surprise and won more then 3 games for me over the day. Of course I would put in a 4th Volcanic Island for an Island, if I had one.

Sorry for mistakes, wrote the report from memory.:cool:

Comments Suggestions ?!

[TheShaun]

The biggest question I have regarding this build is in relation to Blightsteel. How many times was he just not enough. Meaning attacking with Emrakul into a full board is totally fine, because you're still blowing up 6 permanants and 15 damage minimum. I feel like with Blightsteel you sneak him in and attack, they block with something that has 2 toughness and end up winning the game with 9 poison counters. Did you run into situations like that where you really just wished that he did normal damage?

[zerzab11]

Yeah once this was a problem where he had just played a Knight and I had to attack via Sneak Attack due to low life and it wasn't enough. But more than three times Colossus won me the game. With Sneak Attack he's absolutely broken and sometimes even better than Emrakul.(e.g. vs all sorts of combo) Normally my opponents don't leave any creatures for blocking at home, and if they do that's fine as well, because we get time to set up Emrakul. Another point is, that he caughts the opponent by surprise all day, and if my opponent didn't see him G1 for example; he will surely board out his outs vs Colossus (e.g. Swords, Path). Moreover Colossus can't be hit by Karakas which is a major concern in my meta. I recommend trying him out :)

[Justin]

From your report and comments, it seems that Blightsteel Colossus is good when your opponent is not expecting it (is boarding out spot removal and not leaving blockers) and not so good when your opponent is expecting it. It could be good for large tourneys such as the one you played in because it's not on most Sneaky Tell lists. For someone who plays in small tourneys at his local gamestore, he might get away with the one-shot robot the first time, but then local players will start to make the appropriate adjustments.

[zerzab11]

That's right for smaller local tournaments I would go with either Progenitus or Ulamog, but for big tournaments I love the surprise 'got ya' factor, that Colossus gives us.:smile:

[TheSleeper]

Don't forget Colossus can't be exile to FoW like Progenitus can. Also I like being immune to StP/Path, something Colossus aint. I can't see the surprise factor being that great - if someone got killed by Colossus the whole room would know about it soon enough! (at least at my store).

[dave8]

Congratulations.

@ zerzab - how good was leyline of sanctity? you borded it how many times and agains what decks?

[zerzab11]

@TheSleeper: Yeah Colossus doesn't pitch to FoW but there quite a few decks that can't neither handle Colossus nor Progenitus (Canadian and other *****-variants, Combo, Burn, etc.) and in many cases a sneaked Colossus just wins asap while Progenitus just makes 10 damage. And when your opponents leave mana open for swords/path that makes him slower and gives you time to setup Emrakul or wait for the moment they're outtapped. Moreover he's immune to Karakas and you can sneak in 2 in a round (ok that's not happening very often) which is quite important in my meta.
Anyway I think the second/third creature in SneakyShow comes down to personal preferences, meta and playstyle, I'll test further with Colossus and post my results :smile:

@dave8: Thank you. This time I didn't board it once. But in our meta there some Burn players, where I absolutely hate losing against, so I played with them. They're also pretty good vs. Rock discard lists, AnT or The Gate, some of our weaker MU's...

[TheSleeper]

I've noticed for the protection builds, some opt for SSG+REB while others go with Petal+Pierce. What drives this decision (card availability, meta, resiliency)? I suppose Pierce is better vs Team America with REB being better against Bant. Amirite?

[rgripp]

I like the Pierce better because it's more versatile. It counter's a first turn Vial versus Merfolk so you won't get owned by hand Cursecatchers. It stops Oblivion Ring, Sensei's Divining Top, Thoughtseize, Hymn to Tourach, even pesky Ensnaring Bridges if you're on the Draw.

It's like, while REB will protect your spells when you're playing them, Spell Pierce will work on counters wars just as well, and eventually on hates that could be played before you resolve a Show and Tell or Sneak Attack.

Besides, if your metagame includes a lot of Wastelands, you'll get to treasure your red mana for the Sneak Attack, while, if you play Pierce, you get value from those islands you had to fetch to cantrip on the first turns.

And there's the added usefulness that Pierce works on Game 1 against a much broader specter of decks.

But really, if you play against a LOT of blue, you can keep a number of REBs to bring in for your Dazes if you won the G1.

[JustPAT4]

I agree with rgripp. Currently, Spell Pierce seems to have a wider range of applications than REB effects have for the reasons he states.

I would like to get some discussion rolling on the possibilty of including Misdirection in Sneak Show to help combat the current meta. Obviously Misdirection can function as additional Force of Will's in counter wars, but I'm wondering, with the influx of junk type decks utilizing 8-10 card discard packages, if Misdirection has even greater utility now.

Hand disruption is one of the easiest ways to cripple this deck. Misdirection at least offers the possibiilty of turning Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Hymn to Tourach, and Gerrard's Verdict back on the caster. Lots of Junk lists and B/W lists also run Vindicate, another reasonable Misdirection target. It also has other relevant applications: against TES you can Misdirect Orim's Chant to stop your opponent in his/her tracks for a turn; if they get sloppy and stop at 10 storm and you're on 19 or 20 you can Misdirect one copy of Tendrils of Agony (pretty limited I realize); against Dredge you can Misdirect Dread Return (if they run it) giving them Golgari Thug instead of the desired target; it can also hit Cabal Therepy, if they decide to target you with it; of course you can hit things like Lightning Bolt against Burn, Zoo, or Next Level Threshold; it would also be pretty savage to turn Blue Sun's Zenith around against Spiral Tide for the win (not that they'll go off without protect very often, but hey); it can help to improve our matchup against The Gate; it can neutralize edict effects such as Diabolic Edict or Consuming Vapors, which see limited play out of sideboards in decks like Team America; and while mostly dead against Goblins, it could reverse a pesky Warren Weirding at a critical moment.

It can always pitch to Force of Will, it's relevant against (pretty much) anything packing blue, it's spicy against staple discard spells not named Duress, and it has some kind of useful application against the vast majority of the field.

I'm considering running a 9 to 10 card counter-package with X2 Misdirection. This is what I'm playing aound with:

4 Force of Will
3 Spell Pierce
2 Misdirection

Anyone have considerable experience using Misdirection in this deck and care to share? Anyone care just to speculate on the overall usefulness of the card in the current environment?

[TheShaun]

I've considered it in the past but not to the extent you just did. I actually really like this potential. Here's another example, though it's probably more of a corner case: if you're holding it in a tempo matchup, wait to break a fetch in response to them breaking one, then misdirect their stifle to their own land. Unlikely to ever happen but if I did that in a tournament and then lost every other game I'd still go home happy. I'm strongly considering this card though.

[rgripp]

I was considering placing some on my sideboard, mostly to fight against Rock style decks.

Eventually, I decided for a set of Leylines of Sanctity. The thing I hate about Misdirection is that it's too much card disadvantage. Excluding multiple Progenitus or Show and Tell, you got cantrips and counters to remove, all of them could be more useful than two for twoing an opponent.

[TheSleeper]

Hey all,

Not much action in this thread lately. Anyways what are some good sideboard options for this deck? I am running a standard petal/pierce/daze MD. This is the SB I have penciled in at the moment, as well as my reasoning:
2 REB, 2 Pyroblast -> This is mainly for Merfolk/any deck with Jace or Sower
3 Blood Moon -> To slow down greedy non-basic heavy decks, Lands - wondering whether its worth the slot though
3 Hurkyll's Recall -> Help ensure Affinity is positive matchup post-board
3 Divert -> I think this card is underrated in general. Living the dream is Diverting a Hymn to Tourarch, something that is going around a lot lately. Can also be used as a Spell Pierce as you can redirect opponents counterspells onto themselves.
2 Hibernation -> Another iffy slot however there are a few NO Bant / Elves decks in my meta

Has anyone tested Jace in the SB (or main?) The other cards I was considering was Echoing Truth as a catch-all, however what would we *really* need to bounce? If its something like Ensnaring Bridge, H-Recall can get it already. Also for my Aggro heavy meta, Propaganda looks like it could buy a lot of time vs Merfolk/Dredge/Goblins etc.

[JustPAT4]

@ TheSleeper: Propaganda indeed seems strong in an aggro heavy meta. Although I personally prefer Firespout, Propaganda will usually be better against Dredge I guess.

If you do see a fair amount of Dredge, you can put the grave hate back into your board. Some number of Tormod's Crypt, Ravenous Trap, Relic of Progenitus, or Extirpate should go a long way.

I'd love to throw more advice your way, but I need more info about your meta to avoid spouting unhelpful nonsense in a vacuum.

By the way, Divert is highly underrated. That Misdirection effect is very strong and helps to shore up our weakness to hand disruption strategies.

[TheSleeper]

Our meta is basically Goblins, Merfolk, lots of Zoo, Team USA, Rock, NO Bant, sometimes Lands and Elves - rarely pure combo.

[JustPAT4]

Our meta is basically Goblins, Merfolk, lots of Zoo, Team USA, Rock, NO Bant, sometimes Lands and Elves - rarely pure combo.

I think you can safely cut Hurkyl's Recall in that case. Until you see a demand for it, keep it in reserve. That matchup should be alright as is. They can probably outrace a Progenitus, but they pretty much fold to Emrakul. Countermagic can be saved for Cranial Plating, Master of Etherium, or Glimpse of Nature (depending on the build). Myr Enforcer is another potential Force target (or Daze target since they typically tap out for it).

With that meta I insist on Firespout. Just such a house against the 3 main aggro strategies and is a devastation against elves.

Here's what I'd recommend against that field:

3 Firespout
3 Blood Moon
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pyroblast
3 Divert
2 Propaganda

This should give you 5-7 cards against the decks you mention, with no cards specific to any one matchup.

Zoo: Firespout/Propaganda (Blood Moon optional)
Merfolk: Firespout/REB/Pyroblast (Propaganda optional)
Team America: Blood Moon/Divert (which serves double duty as spell pierce backup in the counter war here)
Rock: Blood Moon/Divert
NO Bant: Blood Moon/REB/Pyroblast
Goblins: Firespout/Propaganda
Elves: Firespout/Propaganda
Lands: Blood Moon (should be enough, although some grave hate would be nice here too)

It sounds like Propaganda > Hibernation in your meta. I think it's a versatility thing. Propaganda is good against every aggro strategy and even, as you say, against Dredge. Matchups like NO Bant and Rock where, theoretically, Hibernation is good, you have more important things to side in already and you'll have difficulty siding more than 7 cards anyway. Pretty savage against Elves and solid against Zoo, but you should have good matchups there anyway, especially with the addition of Firespout game 2.

Rock decks (especially those with maindeck Karakas plus Knight of the Reliquary) are a huge problem for this deck. Divert is one possibility (could also be Misdirection). Try it out-- I'd like to hear how it works out for you in your next event.

The other option that seems viable in that matchup is Leyline of Sanctity, which turns discard (including Duress, which misdirection/divert miss) into mush. It also has the added benefit of being a beast against ANT (who probably left the chain of vapors in the board) and pretty darn decent against TES (yeah yeah they just go for Empty the Warrens, but you never get touched by Duress or Orim's Chant or Silence, which should clear the way for you to counter Infernal Tutor or Burning Wish) On the other hand, if I have an otherwise strong hand, I'd be hesitant to try to mull into Leyline. Plus any that you don't start with are dead, though I suppose Brainstorm plus fetch can help mitigate that crappiness.

[TheSleeper]

Cheers for the replies guys - really helpful. Next thing is what to side out I suppose. For example vs. Aggro, you might want to side in 3 Firespout/2 Propaganda. Which 5 cards to cut? -1 Prog, -1 Petal, -1 Brainstorm, -1 V Clique, -1 Daze?

[TheShaun]

I like to run my sideboard in 3's because of Intuition, though for Leyline it doesn't really matter I guess. I've been running:

3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Pyroblast
3 Firespout (card is amazing)
3 Blood Moon
3 Echoing Truth or Chalice of the Void, depending. Truth is better for a bunch of combo or Humility, Chalice great for heavy Zoo, Merfolk, or burn types. Also good against combo.

[TheShaun]

Stupid site...

[JustPAT4]

Cheers for the replies guys - really helpful. Next thing is what to side out I suppose. For example vs. Aggro, you might want to side in 3 Firespout/2 Propaganda. Which 5 cards to cut? -1 Prog, -1 Petal, -1 Brainstorm, -1 V Clique, -1 Daze?

Post your current list and I'll throw my 2 cents in sometime tomorrow. Let me know what matchups you're looking at specifically.

For me, against Zoo (assuming they aren't greedy enough to run Wasteland) I would side this way on the draw: -1 Mountain, -2 Spell Pierce, - 2 Daze

[TheSleeper]

For reference, what I've been testing with:

4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Intuition
4 Force of Will
3 Spell Pierce
3 Daze
4 Lotus Petal

4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Progenitus
1 Vendilion Clique

2 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Volcanic Island
3 Island
1 Mountain

You said the SB provided has 5-7 options for each matchup depending, so I guess I'm after the most cuttable cards for those matchups. Specifically Zoo, Merfolk, anything with thoughtseize/hymn.

[The Colonel]

anyone tried Ancestral Knowledge for a digger? It's amazing. I've been running it for awhile now. It has great synergy with BS. Dig 10 cards deep, exil what ever you don't need and put the best three back on top in any order. Brainstorm putting the three cards you need into your hand and put to crap cards back on top. Then don't pay the upkeep on AK and shuffle the crap away. If you can't find something you need 10 cards deep try another deck.

[dave8]

@thesleeper
here is my current list very similar to yours (with which I managed to win BOM5 Trial last weekend btw)

4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Intuition
4 Force of Will
2 Reb
3 Daze
3 SSG
2 Echoing truth

4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Progenitus
1 Vendilion Clique

4 Ancient Tomb
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Volcanic Island
3 Island
1 Mountain

my sideboard for reference:
4 leyline
3 blood moon
3 firespout
2 reb
3 crypt

here is what I side in/out:
Merfolk; -3 daze (slows you down and does nothing if they started with vial); -2 intuition (too slow for this matchup); +3spout +2reb
Zoo; -2 reb -1vendillion; + 3 firespout (kills everything except for goyf and kotr)
Decks with thoughtseize/hymn - dark horizons and team america
Dark Horizons; -2Reb,-1vendilion,-2ssg,-2 echoing; +4 leyline,+3blood moon
Team America; -3 daze,-3ssg,-2echoing,-1vendilion; +4 leyline,+3blood moon,+2reb

Has anyone ever tested fire ice in this deck????

[Lejay]

Fire/Ice is very appreciated in France by the group of players playing this deck. I cannot give any feedback though since I'm not one of them.

[TheShaun]

I take out FoW and Daze/Spell Pierce for Zoo also, since they don't have any single big threat that is a concern. Turn 1 Blood Moon is game over for them unless they're lucky enough to draw one of their basics, but even then they're putting you on like an 8 turn clock. Discard heavy decks like Rock are actually extremely tough matchups, in these your best bet is typically getting a Progenitus out quick and preventing them from casting Perish or Diabolic Edict. Goblins you want to keep Vial off the table, as I've had way too many experiences with them vial-ing in a Stingscourger to bounce Emrakul.

[The Colonel]

I'll take that as a no that no one has tried Ancestral Knowledge for a digger. I don't like Ponder, I've found it to be less than stellar. I run 3 AK instead.

[Omni]

What do you think about using Magus of the Moon instead of Blood Moon against decks with sacrifice effects? It could protect your big guys from Edicts/Innocent Blood/Gatekeeper/Smallpox. Also other decks probably sideboard out their spot removal anyway so Magus could be pretty safe from StoP/Path/etc. Plus it can't be taken away with Duress or be countered by Spell Pierce (as someone mentioned earlier)... And finally it's also a body so it can be used to attack the enemys life to 15 and under (Emrakul 1 hit range) or block big creatures if yer in a pinch and it doesn't hurt that much to draw multiples of them compared to Blood Moon... On the downside it dies to Lightning Bolt etc. which might not be sided out by Zoo and other such decks... And it doesn't like your own Firespouts either...

[JustPAT4]

@The Colonel: Ancestral Knowledge is certainly worth consideration, though I've never tried it. The synergy you mention with Brainstorm is the main appeal. A card that reads: 1UU, "look at the top ten cards of your library and put three of the those cards into your hand, then put two cards from your hand on top of your library in any order. At the beginning of your next upkeep, pay 1 or shuffle your library." Pretty sick I must say.

Shit if I could guarantee the Brainstorm in hand it would be a no doubter. I'll have to try it. Cool idea. Nice innovation. I love to see ideas like this so the discussion doesn't become stagnant or inbred.

@TheSleeper: I worked out some sideboard strategies for your meta. It's a little tedious though because I find that I sideboard differently on the draw than on the play. Sideboarding is also highly dependent on one's play-style (while I might cut conditional counters in the tempo matchup you might prefer to cut cantrips or acceleration).

I'll try to get some of what I worked out later--now I'm on the run

Cheers

[The Colonel]

I've play tested both. 3 of each off the board. The problem with Magus is they can be hated out by so many decks running any number of damage/removal effects. Including our own. Every time i've landed a magus it got blown up some how. 7 times out of 10 when I land Blood Moon it sticks and wins. As for discard the one deck (Gate) which gives us the hardest time also runs TS so it doesn't really matter. It's nice that maguses attack but ultimatly irrelevant. Go with the moon. It's safer

[The Colonel]

@JustPAT4

That's the other great thing about AK... almost no ones heard of it. I play it, they give me a strange look, take the card in hand, read it 4 times, shrug their shoulders, and say: Okay. I've never even had it dazed. They see the upkeep and figure it will take care of it's self. BS is what makes it powerful. I wish you could always guarantee having a BS in your hand when you play AK but chances are you'll find one in the top ten from AK. Put BS on top and what ever other 3 cards you want. Draw BS next turn (yes unfortunatly you have to pay 1 for the upkeep) but hell now AK is giving you 4 cards you need then gets rid of 2 crap cards and gives you a free shuffle. Try her out let me know what you think.

[TheShaun]

Magus is solid, I honestly think there are very few reasons that Blood Moon is actually better. They will certainly be packing enchantment hate post board on top of whatever they have maindeck. AK is interesting, I'm just a tiny bit concerned with being "cute". I'll try to dig up a couple of them and play around, though I am honestly a big fan of Ponder in this deck and it'll have to be pretty awesome to make me happy.

[Omni]

I have decided to cut all Seething Songs (had 2 of them, added 1 Lotus Petal and 1 Ponder), even if they sometimes work very nicely on the 1st turn. But in my opinion the first turn Emrakul with haste doesn't outright win you the game, because you still need to find another creature. Opponent can usually recover from losing 1 land and maybe 1 other permanent. I think that hasted 3rd or 4th turn Emrakul gives you much more time to find what you need considering that on the 3rd or 4th turn the enemy probably still has 6 or less permanents and once they get wiped out, you have pretty much time to find anything you need... I also like the chance to cast Show and Tell (which is my primary goal almost always) on my first or at least second turn more often, and thats why I added the 4th Lotus Petal.

My build is pretty usual. I like Intuition for finding me the stuff I need, and I have been tryin to balance the build between speed and consistency.

Here's my current list for reference:

2 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Volcanic Island
3 Island
1 Mountain

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Intuition
4 Lotus Petal

4 FoW
3 Spell Pierce
3 Daze

4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack

4 Emrakul
4 Progenitus

SB:

3 Firespout
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Tormod's Crypt (not so sure about this slot, could be -1 Echoing Truth + 4 Leyline of Sanctity for those nasty discard decks...)
3 Magus of the Moon (still testing)
3 Echoing Truth

[rgripp]

Just played a list to top 2 swiss on a 38 player tournament. Feels OK, but I dodged a lot of hate on the pairings (stuff like Humility and Ensnaring Bridge).

The list:

4 Ancient Tomb
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
2 Island
3 Volcanic Island

3 Blightsteel Colossus
3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Progenitus

4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack
4 Lotus Petal
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
3 Intuition
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce
1 Echoing Truth
1 Wipe Away

SIDEBOARD
3 Blood Moon
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Pithing Needle
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Echoing Truth
1 Wipe Away

I'm not a person with a good memory for details, so I'll post a mini report with the stuff I do recall. If you have any questions, just hit me up, we can remember.

First round - Rb Goblins
G1 We both mulligan, I keep a had with creatures and cantrips, and a FoW. He plays mountain go, I play a land and pass, he goes Piledriver, I mistakenly FoW it. He passes, I play another cantrip, find nothing. He plays a Warchief, next turn he plays War-marshall and Piledriver, I die.

G2 I come really quick and after a really unfair Show and Tell, not much he can do. He puts a recruiter into play hoping to draw a second Warren Weirding, doesn't find it. My turn he tries the bounce goblin, I have a FoW for it and we're off to G3.

G3 I mulligan to 5. Keep a poor hand out of fear of what the 4 would be. He plays a Mountain and a Vial, I play land Pithing Needle naming Vial. He plays some lands and a Piledriver, and when he's on 3 lands he taps out for a Chieftain instead of keeping Rishadan up. This give me an out since I had 2 lands in play, a petal and an Ancient Tomb in my hand, and a Blightsteel Colossus. But I didn't draw the Sneak Attack, and he plays another Piledriver. He attacks with everything, I go to 3 life, which means I couldn't play an Sneak Attack anymore or I'd die to tomb and fetch, I draw a Show and Tell, but it wasn't enough to save me.

0 - 1 (1-2)

Second Round - Fetchland Tendrils
G1 I keep a fast Sneak Attack hand and the Colossus connects, he can't really do anything about it.

G2 I play a turn 2 Intuition fetching Emrakul, turn 3 Show and Tell (with a Petal in game - gotta love those tombs). He dumps his hand and when he got 2 cards left, tries to Burning Wish. I counter it and the last card in his hand is another Wish. He got like 7 storm, so not enough to kill me and I had a FoW in the grave, so he couldn't get IGG. He wouldn't be able to race me with goblin tokens, so he tries a Diminishing Return. I draw a land with double FoW, but never need them cause he fizzles anyway.

1 - 1 (3-2),

Third Round - Landstill
G1 I keep an unfair hand with Show and Tell Progenitus on turn 2, with FoW backup after a mulligan. I resolve it, and he loses just like that.

G2 This game was really exciting. I had 2 lands and 4 Petals, and I try to Sneak Attack on turn 3 (with 6 mana and 2 Progenitus in hand). He counterspells the Sneak Attack, I Pierce the Counterspell and he FoWs it back, leaving me with double Progenitus in hand and 2 lands. He resolves a Jace next turn and starts Fatesealing me. Eventually he draws and plays a Humility, and I got a Show and Tell for a Progenitus. Somehow, between he fatesealing me, I get 2 Wipe Away in my hand. When Jace goes to 13 counters, I bounce the Humility and hit him in the face for 10. Next turn he ultimates the Jace, my library becomes a Progenitus and another Wipe Away. Next turn I draw the Wipe Away and bounce the Humility again, killing him. I guess the right play for him was bouncing the Progenitus when Humility was in play, but I dont think he saw it as a threat.

2 - 1 (5 - 2),

4th Round - Monored Goblins

G1 I keep a FoW and Pierce hand. He tries to Vial, I Pierce it, he plays a Matron on turn 3, I play a Show and Tell with 3 lands and Emrakul comes to the rescue, finishing the game quickly (and the bouncing goblin didn't show up :D)

G2 He got a Pithing Needle naming Sneak Attack and a lot of goblins, but no Piledriver. I resolve a Sneak Attack, he taps out bringing me to 6 life. Next turn I bounce his needle, play a Colossi of Sneak Attack and he kicks himself for tapping out, but he wasn't really expecting the Colossus).

3 - 1 (7 -2)

5th Round - Faeries

G1 He watches as the Progenitus comes on turn 2 and I ride it to victory.

G2 Game drags on, he plays a Needle naming SA, I play a Blood Moon locking him out of Blue. He plays a Bitterblossom and start the beatdown, I have to Wipe it Away to get some time. Eventually, I play a Sneak Attack, and bounce the Needle with another WA at his end of turn. My turn, I had 2 Colossus and an Emrakul. I hit him with both the Colossus and the Emrakul, he sacs 5 lands and the Bitterblossom, leaving him at 2 lands. He chumps the Emrakul with a token, and the Colossus with 2. Next turn, he plays another land, another Bitterblossom and replays the Needle. I draw a Show and Tell, put the venomous colossus into play, he puts nothing (he punted here, he had a Tombstalker but didnt put it into play). It wouldn't matter because I had an Echoing Truth anyway, next turn, he puts another token, I bounce the tokens with the ET and hit him to victory.

4 - 1 (9 - 2)

At this point, I could draw myself into the top 8, but I got paired with someone who was at 3 - 1 - 1, and he wouldn't go in with an ID. I consider conceding the match to put him in, but my tiebreakers were horrible and I would get off the top 8, so no deal and let's go crush some dreams.

6th round - Aggro Loam

G1 I counter a Loam that would get him to reuse a Wasteland, and manage to put a Progenitus in play in that window.

G2 Nothing he could do at turn 2 Blood Moon, keeps locked on red. He didn't draw the forest he needs to break the Moon and use his Maze of Ith to null my Colossus.

5 - 1 (11 - 2)

The tournament prizes were distributed on the Swiss rankings, and I was second, getting a nice store credit prize. We played the Top 8 for 2 invitations to a big Legacy championship on November.

Quarterfinal - PRO Bant

G1 I put an Emrakul and win, just like that.

G2 I get a turn 3 Sneak Attack, blow a Petal for a red mana. He tries to trick me with a Krosan Grip in response to the Lotus ability, I say "no can do, mana ability" and sneak in an Emrakul without passing priority. I take him to 5 and blow 4 lands and 2 goyfs. He plays a Dryad Arbor and starts beating me while I dig for a Show and Tell or Sneak Attack, eventually the lowly arbor becomes a mighty Progenitus and I get to experience being on the other side of the big monster cheated in situation.

G3 I'm on the play, my hand is: Ancient Tomb, Lotus Petal, Volcanic Island, Emrakul, Show and Tell, FoW and Intuition. GOD HAND inc, turn 1 SnT with FoW backup? Yay! I go for it, and of course he had a Sower of Temptation which I didn't even know he had in his SB in his hand, putting a very anticlimatic end to my lucky day.

[xMethodicalx]

Does anyone else like using Kokusho, the Evening Star ?

[TheSleeper]

rgippp -> congrats on your finish, would you change your deck in any way? The best card in the card (imo) is Emrakul.. I'd be scared to run < 4..

Also why did your opponent not K-Grip on the Sneak Attack instead of the Lotus Petal? Or what happened here, I'm confused..

[rgripp]

He Krosan Gripped the Sneak Attack. It was like that:

I play a petal, I play a Sneak Attack without the petal mana. Without passing priority, I blow the petal and use it's mana to activate the Sneak Attack. He tried to destroy it with the Krosan Grip in response to me using the petal, but he can't, cause the petal is a mana ability. The way it was, he can only do it in response to the activation, but it goes to the stack anyway. So the Grip resolves, destroy the Sneak Attack, and then I put a giant monster from my hand into play.

About Emrakul, while it shines on a Sneak Attack and is amazing in certain games, I'm always afraid to put it in via Show and Tell. My opponent can put an Oblivion Ring, a Sower of Temptation, a Shriekmaw, the Bounce Goblin, a Knight of the Reliquary if he got a Karakas in the deck and other less common permanent hate that work on Emrakul but does not work on Progenitus. Given the choice, unless I'm behind on the board, I'll always Show and Tell the Progenitus. I made a 3/3/3 split cause all monsters shine in different situations, and having 3 of each means I can Intuition for whichever is best.

What I missed on my deck was Pyroblasts. I removed them from my side because last tournament at the same venue had few Merfolks, and while I didn't really got screwed for not playing them until the very last game of my very last match, it offers an out to a lot of tricky situations. But then again, I took them out because when I sided them in, I had to either side out Dazes and have fewer blue cards to pitch to FoW, or FoWs which is kinda beyond the point. And there are hands where you can't really spare a Red mana at the first turns, like, if you sided Blood Moon, you got to fetch Islands before resolving it, so I don't really know if would be that good anyway.

And Methodical, the reason I never tried Kokusho is cause she's a Progenitus that eats Swords to Plowshares on the Sneak Attack, and if you use a Show and Tell instead of a one turn clock like the colossus, or a opponent-only obliterate two turn clock with protection like Emrakul or an untouchable 2-turn clock like Progenitus, you'd give your opponent 4 turns to dig up an answer or just race it.

[Nekrataal]

Probably he tried to Krosan Grip Sneak Attack in response to sacrificing Petal. But since this doesn't count and priority hasn't been passed he can't get inbetween the Mana generation and consumption by Sneak Attack. Only after the trigger is on the stack which means that it will resolve most likely (except for Stifle) Krosan Grip resolves and destroys Sneak Attack.

*Yeah I was too slow*

[menace13]

@RGrip- Congrats on the top 8 and Hope that was not a random singleton Sower or it's bad beats.
Nice list. How was E.Truth performing compared to Wipe Away, why the 2/2 split over 3/1 Wipe Away and tutor off Intuition?

Reb/Pyro are some of the best cards in the deck. Sideboarding out Daze and FoW is something i am not comfortable doing. Daze on the draw can still be of use and keeping 1 or 2 is fine for me, but FoW never leaves my deck in any match up. More room can be made by siding one of each Petal, Ponder or Preordain, Sneak Attack out vs most Blue decks.

The sneak Attack incident is funny and once resolved there is nothing most any card can do. As long as you have 2 red sources Karakas can bounce once and taps down, even Trickbind can be played around by activating Sneak twice and not passing priority.

[VikTheSlick]

I won a Legacy tournament on Saturday with SneakShow, this was my list:


4x Force of Will
4x Brainstorm
4x Ponder
4x Show and Tell
3x Intuition
3x Daze
2x Echoing Truth
1x Wipe Away
4x Sneak Attack
3x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3x Progenitus
3x Blightsteel Colossus

3x Lotus Petal
4x Volcanic Island
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Misty Rainforest
1x Flooded Strand
3x Island
1x Mountain
4x Ancient Tomb
1x City of Traitors

Sideboard:
3x Blood Moon
3x Firespout (MVP for sure)
3x Tormod's Crypt
2x Spell Pierce
1x Pyroblast
1x Massacre Wurm (weird tech, but very effective - won me a game against Goblins all by itself, could be the 4th Firespout but it was awesome)
2x Woodfall Primus


I normally run 4x Emrakul, 4x Progenitus and 1x Clique/Primus main, however for some reason today I decided to go with a 3/3/3 split. I guess me and RGripp were in the same mindset! It was very, very awesome. Blightsteel is amazing at stealing wins that you would have normally lost, especially against aggro, simply because your opponent taps out their creatures/board trying to kill you. He's also not legendary which is amazingly useful. Previously I would find games where I need to drop two creatures in one turn to win and I couldn't because they were both Emrakul/Proggy. With only 3 of each of them now and another, different wincon, that doesn't happen all that often. It also makes Intuition that much stronger now you that have more lethal targets and still can get 3 cards with the same name. Overall it was a blast - I dropped a game apiece to the same Goblins player in regular rounds and T8 but otherwise I went undefeated in matches.

Round 1 - Hypergenesis (!!!)

G1: I see him doing nothing but laying out fetches for the first 3 turns of the game, so I wait and set up a Sneak Attackl. Since he wins the roll, on his third turn he cracks all three for various duals and plays Violent Outburst (!). Obviously Cascade puts Hypergenesis on the stack. My hand is full of sick creatures, but I play it safe and Daze it. I untap, drop and Ancient Tomb and 2x Lotus Petal, use 5 mana total to play Sneak Attack and Blightsteel kill him.

G2: I sided out all my Show and Tells, ha! I bring in Blood Moon and extra counters. I get an early Blood Moon and lock him out of the game. Then I take my time sneaking in an Emrakul + Progenitus.

1-0 (2-0)

Round 2 - Goblins

G1: I resolve an early SnT for Progenitus and basically ignore everything he does before that, despite getting hit by a Lackey dropping in Warchief. I FoW his Warren Weirding and win faster than he can (although it was damn close, effing Piledrivers!!!)

G2: He beats me to death with lots of Goblins as I get mana screwed horribly despite 2 Ponders and can only star at my hand of Sneak Attack + all 3 monsters.

G3: "I'll play first. Ancient Tomb, Lotus Petal, Show and Tell, Emrakul. Go."

2-0 (4-1)

Round 3 - Elves (Combo)

G1: I get T2 Progenitus, and he can't combo off fast enough and dies in two swings.

G2: I Firespout him early when he has a Llanowar and Heritage Druid. Turns out he was sandbagging a Cradle and Glimpse and I screwed him horribly. Heh. He plays some more dorks, taps Cradle for 2 and goes for Glimpse with a mana up. I Force it. Sneak Attack with Blightsteel ends it.

3-0 (6-1)

Round 4 - Zoo (Classic, no GSZ)

G1 and G2 were the same thing. He did a bunch of nothing with kitties and Emrakul or Progenitus ripped his face off. The only interesting moment was in G2 where he was trying to resolve a Qasali Pridemage with Sneak Attack in my hand. I let it resolve, Firespout anyway and then next turn SnT instead, with Proggy. He draws, looks at his hand and concedes.

4-0 (8-1)

Round 5 - GSZ Bant Aggro

G1: He T1 GSZ's for Dryad Arbor. I play Fetch, go. He plays a Stoneforge Mystic with one up to pay for Daze; it resolves and he gets Jitte. I SnT Emrakul into play the next turn; he tries to Spell Pierce it with the open mana but I Daze it, and he Forces and I Force back. Bam.

G2: He plays much tighter this time and takes advantage of my digging for action to push through Natural Order for Progenitus. That would be great but with all that digging, I've found a Sneak Attack and play it with a mana open. He goes to swing and I Sneak in Progenitus, killing both. I untap and kill him with a Blightsteel.

5-0 (10-1)

Round 6 - ANT (we intentionally drew but played it out for fun; this was funny, as I nut drew T1 Petal/Tomb/SnT/Emrakul both games, lawlz)

T8 - Goblins

G1: Same player from before, and this was an awesome and long match. G1 I get a real early SnT Blightsteel, but he has blockers and I only get 8 poison on him. He then resolves a Warren Weirding. End of turn I Intuition for 3x Blightsteel and with no action I draw...a Ponder! It gets me the SnT I need to win, as he can't Matron for Weirding and cast it in the same turn.

G2: This was a LONG game, that was back and forth and at one point I had a Sneak Attack in play and needed one dude to finish it off. I didn't get there and Warchief, two tokens and double Piledrivers finish me off.

G3: Another tough one, as I Firespout him twice in a row, and get a Sneak Attack in play. He rebuilds with 5 dorks, naturally. I untap, Sneak in Massacre Wurm (!!!), Wrath his board and dome him for 10 and use my last red to Sneak in Proggy for the win. Hooray Massacre Wurm!

T4 - Team America

G1: He drops a second turn Goyf on the play, tapping out to do so. I am sure that he has a Daze or Force in his hand, and play around it. He gets some Goyf beats in, and sure enough I get him to bite on an EoT Intuition when I already have everything I need in hand. He Forces it, next turn I drop SnT for Emrakul while he drops Tombstalker. He draws for turn and concedes.

G2: Again, having Team America built really helps me as I carefully play around Daze and Stifle while assembling Sneak Attack + protection. He taps out for Jace, which was foolish really - yeah it might help me but if he had counted my mana he would have known I had enough to drop Sneak Attack and double activate if I had Ancient Tomb in hand. I do, and kill him with Emrakul + Proggy.

Final - Junk and Taxes

G1: He didn't get early discard pressure and it wasn't close, with T2 Emrakul on the draw. Game two I had to fight through a resolved Hymn and he drew Edict after the first SnT into Proggy...so I dropped Sneak Attack and Blightsteel killed him in the same turn!

It was good times, and I like the build now, even though it is a bit wonky. And I really wish I could fit Spell Pierce back in the main as a two-off, maybe I will copy RGripp's list for my next tourney. Are you ever manascrewed RGripp? BTW, Massacre Wurm was suggested by a pro player that I know and it was fantastic. Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated. Also, I won packs, a gift certificate and a Snow Mercy, it was cool.

[rgripp]

@Menace
the 1/1 MD and 1/1 SB split betweien Echoing Truth and Wipe Away is just so I get some game on g1 vs. both counterspell heavy decks and aggro decks. Echoing Truth is easier to cast if you drew an Ancient Tomb, and it's a huge tempo loss for aggro decks, which buys you time to get a Sneak Attack off. After sideboard, those 4 cards are the ones that see more action, cause I might want to go with double WA against counter-heavy deck, I might want to go with double ET for aggro decks and I might bring one or both in against decks packed with hate, so I can Intuition for one of them, or increase my chance to draw one.

@VikTheSlick
I really like your Sideboard. I mean, really like it. As for me getting mana screwed, sometimes I freeze at two land, but usually that's enough. Just got to mulligan correctly and you'll be fine. And I'll be sure to try the Massacre Wurm tech.

[Nekrataal]

@VikTheSlick: Congratulations on your finish. Massacre Wurm sounds like fun especially it can provide the needed life loss after 2-3 fetches plus one attack via Progenitus / Sneak Attack or Emrakul were the opponents is at around 5 life. I am especially interested in Blightsteel Colossus. Reading your report I didn't find evidence for a game where Blightsteel Colossus has been necessary to win in one turn as has been stated before by rgrip. No doubt that there can be situation where this is needed however they are potentially rare in my opinion. What was your impression? Was it better than having Primus? (More fun I can approve). I personally still prefer Woodfall Primus because in my build he serves as nasty permanent removal freeing the deck from 3 ET/Wipe Away slots (I just play 1 max 2 Wipe Away).

[VikTheSlick]

@VikTheSlick: Congratulations on your finish. Massacre Wurm sounds like fun especially it can provide the needed life loss after 2-3 fetches plus one attack via Progenitus / Sneak Attack or Emrakul were the opponents is at around 5 life. I am especially interested in Blightsteel Colossus. Reading your report I didn't find evidence for a game where Blightsteel Colossus has been necessary to win in one turn as has been stated before by rgrip. No doubt that there can be situation where this is needed however they are potentially rare in my opinion. What was your impression? Was it better than having Primus? (More fun I can approve). I personally still prefer Woodfall Primus because in my build he serves as nasty permanent removal freeing the deck from 3 ET/Wipe Away slots (I just play 1 max 2 Wipe Away).

Thanks for your comments. I tested with Blightsteel a little bit when MBS came out, but this tournament was really my first real experience with him in a competitive setting (in Legacy, anyway - I have Architect control built in Standard and hardcasting him in a monoblue deck is too funny). I wouldn't say he is strictly necessary; but there were games where I felt I needed to win immediately and he got the job done. One game against Goblins I was under a lot of pressure and he made the mistake of trying to alpha strike me; I dropped Echoing Truth and then Blightsteel killed him. He brings a different function to the deck and also is trickier to play with, but can be very rewarding. It's also a meta call; at this particular tournament I saw a lot of aggro and some combo floating around and Blightsteel punishing both for different reasons - he insta-kills combo and hurts aggressive decks that overextend trying to kill you. If you expect more control or are in a meta with heavy Ensnaring Bridge/Moat or other annoying permanents then maindeck Woodfall is fine. The only thing with Primus maindeck is that my meta has a lot of decks with Humility running around, and he is useless there. In my current setup, the 3x bounce effects main seem like enough, hence why Primus was shifted to the board.

To get a bit more detailed about the pros and cons of Blightsteel, here's how I evaluated him when I changed my build:

-definitely the worst guy to SnT because he can be dealt with much easier than Proggy or Emrakul; I almost always try to Sneak him in.
-really really good at stealing games against unsuspecting opponents, especially if they are just swinging with everything all the time. G1 he is often the MVP for this reason alone - nobody sees him coming even if they put you on SneakShow.
-really really bad at mixing with the others for a combined kill, since he doesn't deal damage obviously. Still, this drawback is much mitigated by the fact that he is not Legendary and can combine with other Colossus for a poision overload kill.
-Amazing against Team America; unless they are running Jace maindeck, they can't deal with him in any meaningful way. Of course this is also true of both Emrakul and Progenitus in that matchup, to be fair.
-Weak against decks featuring StP
-Strong against decks relying on Karakas to save them from Emrakul; Blightsteel just ignores that and one-hits them.
-Biggest strength (and the reason I want to keep him in the deck) - he makes Sneak Attack that much better. While I still would say I get SnT kills more often, Sneak Attack is now not nearly as difficult to set up a kill with, since instead of trying to multi-hit them with an Emrakul, Proggy and Primus you can just end it with a single activation.

I will also add that I went up to 2x Massacre Wurm in the board against aggro; it was THAT good and also combos especially well with Blightsteel against straggling blockers. Clearing the path and then Phage touch, who could ask for more? Between 3x Firespout and 2x Massacre Wurm I feel like my aggro matchups are practically unbeatable and I can ignore even swarms of Goblins, Merfolk or Zoo animals and set up at my leisure.

Sorry for the rambling response, but I hope any of that helped, and I'm curious as to what RGripp's reasoning was as well. He is really quite good but not nearly as straightforward to use as it might seem. Still, I love the big lug and yes, the fun factor is through the roof! ;-)

[The Colonel]

@Theshaun as far as bloodmoon versus magus goes... of coarse they will bored in enchantment hate game two but odds are they won't have enough stop sneak attack and the moon. Making them go to the bored for enchanment hate is better than facing down main deck creature removal.

Ponder Vs. Ancestral Knowledge well the thing is I used to run ponder and I can't tell you how many times I've hard a beater but no way to cheat him into play or visa versa I cast Ponder and see two land and a Daze... no help AK lets you dig 10 cards deep. Even without a BS you can still get that one card way quicker than waiting to top deck it after a failed Ponder. With BS AK is just redic. Get three of you best top 10 cards and get to shuffle away the junk. With AK, BS loses that next two turns dead draw effect.

I'm not a beleiver in Blightsteel. To many decks run StoP and PtoE Primus can get 11 damage or more and 2 pesky perms *cough* Karakas *cough* off the table. The other great thing about Primus is when you run 3 you can Intuition for them Sneak them and they eliminate the need for bounce in opinion. Bounce was less than stellar when I was running it. Though I do have to admit it would be fun blasting opponent away in one turn. Kokusho just isn't good enough. Rather have Angel of Despair

I've also found that Pyroblast and REB just don't cut it. They're only useful 50% of the time. Opponent not playing blue = dead card. And red can be a little hard to come by when your running 2 Mountain and only 4 red fetch. I like Spell Pierce here. it's useful against 98% of the decks in the field. Sure it can't get creatures but still... other than Sower of Temp. how often do you want to counter a blue creature spell with Pyro or REB.


Congrats to everyone on their finishes!

I'll post my deck a little later critiques would be very welcome.

[TheSleeper]

VikTheSlick: Regarding Massacre Wurm, is it really that bonkers against aggro, in particular Zoo? Everyone has agreed Firespout is great, but that is just one card. Massacre Wurm obviously needs you to have SnT/Sneak to enable it. Compare this to another anti-aggro card in Propaganda, which is easily cast, slows Aggro down (even if they rebuild after a Firespout) and is a single card solution.

Don't get me wrong I want to live the Massacre Wurm dream against Elves but I'm just curious whether its worth its slot.

[rgripp]

So, considering putting an Underground Sea in the deck and taking the Dazes off for Thoughtseizes. It's easy enough to splash, gives me access to Lim-Dul's Vault. The targetted discard makes Show and Tell much better, because you can actually know what to expect and won't get any nasty surprises. Thoughts?

[VikTheSlick]

VikTheSlick: Regarding Massacre Wurm, is it really that bonkers against aggro, in particular Zoo? Everyone has agreed Firespout is great, but that is just one card. Massacre Wurm obviously needs you to have SnT/Sneak to enable it. Compare this to another anti-aggro card in Propaganda, which is easily cast, slows Aggro down (even if they rebuild after a Firespout) and is a single card solution.

Don't get me wrong I want to live the Massacre Wurm dream against Elves but I'm just curious whether its worth its slot.
I think so; my meta is primarily infested with lots of Elves and Goblins players so it really excels. It isn't great against Zoo but then again you don't really need it against them either; Firespout is enough and they are usually too slow. Any Vial aggro deck or creature-based combo deck though, that's where it's awesome.

It's a meta call, but he is VERY good and especially with Sneak Attack he has some amazing applications. But if you are fine with Firespout alone then I wouldn't suggest that you need to switch it up. I do think everyone should try him in the board because I felt during the tournament that everytime I had him in my hand that it was going to be a total blowout. He also enabled an easy Blightsteel kill for me, eliminating 3 potential blockers.

The other advantage over Firespout is that it is usually an instant-speed sweeper in this deck, which helps against quite a few decks where Firespout is not going to be relevant. Again I do like him but don't need you have to accomodate him, still it is worth testing a bit more IMHO (my first experience with it was in the tournament itself).

[TheSleeper]

I know what you mean about instant speed - sometimes Elves looks like it has nothing, then they go off and win the next turn, and Firespout can't help you. Obviously Massacre can only help you in the same situation if you have Sneak + R mana up, but its something to consider. Has anyone considered Fault Line or Starstorm for their instant utility?

[rgripp]

Well, to kill 3-toughness creatures, as Firespout, 3RR seems kinda steep, besides, getting double R could be tricky. If you're looking for an instant option, I think Volcanic Fallout would be better, cheaper and can't be countered, could be used against Thopter decks to buy time and draw a bounce spell, or Faerie Stompy decks if you manage to get to 1RR.

[TheSleeper]

Hey guys thought I'd post a tourney report here for anyone thats interested. Monthly Legacy, 16 people, 5 rounds and a cut to Top 4; I finished 1st. List follows:

4 Emrakul
4 Progenitus
1 V Clique
4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Fow
3 Daze
3 Pierce
2 Intuition
4 Lotus Petal
2 City of Traitors
2 Ancient Tomb
4 Volcanic Island
3 Island
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Misty Rainforest

SB:
3 Firespout
3 Propaganda
3 Divert
3 Shattering Spree
2 Echoing Truth
1 Massacre Wurm

R1 - Mythic Conscription brew (2-1):
G1: Take some early beats while I have Sneak Attack and hit for 10 with Progenitus. Opponent casts Sovereigns of Lost Alara which would have won him the game that turn. I have FoW, unfortunately the only blue spell in hand is another Progenitus. He has lethal on board for next turn regardless. I have to rip a creature off the top.. and slam Emrakul.

<+3 Firespout -2 Intuition -1 Vendilion Clique>

G2: Turn 3 I SNT into Progenitus. Unfortunately he drew his only copy of Eldrazi Conscription and put it on a now angry Lotus Cobra. He attacks and I sacrifice two lands, blocking with Prog. I can attack for 10 next turn but upon his next attack I have to sac Prog, so we go to Game 3.
G3: I force a T2 Pridemage and play T3 Sneak into T4 Emrakul ftw.

R2 - Mono U Merfolk (2-1):
G1: Opponent mulls to 5 and I get Sneak Attack->Emrakul going in short order.

<+3 Firespout +2 Shattering Spree -2 Intuition -1 Vendilion Clique -2 ??>

G2: Kept a decent hand with SNT/Sneak Attack but fail to find a creature and get beat down pretty quickly. I cast a Shattering Spree on his Vial; I brought it in in case he had Pithing Needle. After this game I didn't see a Needle and sided it back out again.
G3: I get a T2 SNT->Progenitus, he Forces but I have a Daze for it.

R3 - GBW Junk/Rock (1-2):
G1: Opponent recently won a PTQ so I know I'm in for a tough match. I deflect early hand disruption (seize + hymn) with Pierce and Daze, however a Rishadan Port is keeping me from going off. A KotR gets a second Port, and I get beat downin short order.

<+3 Divert -3 Sneak Attack: I wasn't sure how to side here, but I figured he had Pridemage and would bring in Krosan Grip or Pithing Needle and didn't want dead cards>

G2: Got an early SNT->Prog/Emrakul and went to game 3.
G3: He played an early Bob. I had a Force but wasn't sure if he was baiting for something harsher like Hymn. I let it resolve which was possibly a mistake. I had a Firespout anyways so I figure I could remove it. Unfortunately my lands get Wasted and I can never cast it. Finally get my mana back online and find a Prog but its too late and die to Goyfs. Blood Moon would have been huge here every land he had was non-basic and it could have turned off Waste/Port. Unfortunately I decided pre-tourney not to run it.

R4 - GB False Cure (1-2):
G1: I keep a hand with 2 Sneak, Ponder and a Brainstorm. He gets two early Bobs online and starts beating me down. I slowly get beat down but he is taking massive damage from the Confidants. I never find a creature but have a slim to chance to win: he needs to survive two Confidant activations with 4 life. Unforunately he only takes 2, and I lose.

<can't remember what I sided in here - I believe it was +2 Echoing Truth -2 Intuition, as I wanted to be able to bounce a large Kavu Predator>

G2: I get an early Sneak Attack however he casts a Nature's Claim and I have no protection. Sad times.
At this point we are told you probably need to be 4-1 to make Top 4, however a 3-2 might have a chance. My opponent is 3-1 and asks me to ID/scoop him in. I came to play and the matchup seemed good so we shuffle up.

R5 - Zoo (2-1):
G1: I get a T4 Sneak Attack and activate with Emrakul ftw.

<+3 Firespout -3 Spell Pierce>

G2: I get a T3 Show and Tell, with 3 creatures in hand to choose from: Emrakul, Progenitus, Massacure Wurm. I was greedy and went with Emrakul, when Progenitus would have got there. He dropped a KotR. Next turn he used it to fetch a copy of Karakas, bouncing Emrakul. I died shoon after, regretting a lost chance...
G3: He drops an early Karakas, I get a Sneak Attack into play. I had two Emrakul in hand but was waiting for a Progenitus to avoid Karakas bounce. Couple of turns later I realised I could play Emrakul; if he bounced pre-combat I could replay it, if he bounced post-attack then he still had to sacrifice 6. Bit of a noob mistake but it didn't prove costly as I get in there with both an Emrakul + Progenitus.

With a bunch of people on 3-2, somehow I'm the lucky one to go through on breakers to Top 4. Top 4 consisted of myself, BUG Prog, Rock & Merfolk.

Semi final - BUG Progenitus? (2-1):
Opponent has a great rating and I haven't beaten him before in a tournament (great guy too). These games were EPIC and very memorable. Wasn't sure his exact deck, was NO with a black/blue disruption shell, GSZ + NO etc.
G1: We trade spells but eventually I land a SNT-> Progenitus. His only out is to rip a Natural Order off the top to reset the board: and he gets it! I die to Goyf shortly after.

<+3 Divert -2 Intuition -1 Vendilion Clique>

G2: He Thoughtseizes me but I have my tech: Divert! He takes his own Force of Will, but I note he has a Diabolic Edict. I have SNT/Emrakul in hand but will have to play around his answer. Turn 2 he Hymns me but again - but I have a second Divert! 3-for-1 is certainly living the dream. He has one mana open after a Natural Order for Progenitus. I Show and Tell an Emrakul into into play. He plays Edict but Divert has him sac a Noble. He scoops.
G3: I take early beats, get a Sneak Attack and he gets a NO->Prog which will be lethal next turn. I have to rip Prog/Emrakul to have a chance. I windmill slam... a Ponder. I check the top 3, 3rd card being an Emrakul. I power it into play ftw.

Merfolk beat Rock so we're headed for a rematch of Round 2.

Final - Mono U Merfolk (2-1):
1st place is worth $60 with 2nd being $40. This is the same opponent as Round 2. I offer a prize split so we can both take $50; he agrees and we play it out for glory.
G1: He again mulls to 5 (I was cutting decks like a ninja all day). I get a Turn 4 Sneak Attack with Emrakul and we go to G2.

<+3 Firespout -2 Intuition -1 Vendilion Clique>

G2: I played a little slowly here, probably getting nervous. I had SNT, Sneak and Emrakul in hand. I was afraid that if I SNT'd and he had Sower of Temptation, I'd have no outs. I spend a few turns trying to find Progenitus meanwhile he gets some creatures going. I eventually cast Sneak but he counters it. I cast SNT next turn but its too late and I die.
G3: He gets early double Cursecatcher and a Lord but I have Firespout (only kills 2 Curse as he sacs them to counter). Next turn I Firespout again to get the Lord. I cast SNT->Emrakul which pops a Standstill - he draws a Spell Pierce but I have a FoW and thats GG. I'm super amped about winning and spend most of the money on a huge order of Indian take away.

Just wanted to say cheers those guys on here that replied earlier about my sideboard. I should have heeded the advice for Blood Moon as a number of opponents had 1-2 basic lands *total* in their decks. I didn't really use the Propaganda or Shattering Spree, but didn't come across Dredge/Goblins/Affinity (no-one played them today actually). Firespout was the bomb as was Divert. I never cast the misers Massacre Wurm so the jurys out on that - didn't need it on the day anyway. MD was fine, I never saw V Clique but its usually solid.

Next time I'd probably rock the following SB:
3 Firespout
3 Blood Moon
3 Divert
2 Echoing Truth
2 Shattering Spree
2 Propaganda

[rgripp]

Why play both Propaganda and Firespout? I mean, don't they do the same thing in principle? Only difference I can think is that Propaganda works on beefier creatures, but Firespout gets to kill Gaddocks and Qasalis...

[TheSleeper]

It may be a little overkill but we have an aggro heavy meta - particularly with Dredge popping up lately. In testing Propaganda was great against both Dredge and Goblins, since they have so many haste creatures that Firespout simply doesn't stop.

[krogen]

I was thinking of putting this deck together and i would like some advice as to how to design it properly. Im currently looking at the multi color version running Enlightened Tutor but im not really sure which way i should go.

[rgripp]

I never really played with the white splash, but be sure to play both Blightsteel Colossus (for the Sneak Attack - in multiples) and the Akroma Sphinx (for the Show and Tell- just one would do, I think) to tutor for.

On what to cut, since you're playing tutors, you can probably cut the Intuitions and some Dazes for the tutors. Also, one problem I faced when I was considering splashing, is that 3 colors make it harder to run your back up plan. If you're going for an early Show and Tell, and get a Volcanic Island with a fetch, you're denying yourself the mana to tutor. If you get a Tundra, you'll be short of red mana for the Sneak Attack if the SnT doesn't get there. And if you get a Plateau, you can't really do anything with it, like playing cantrips and Spell Pierces.

Also, I expect that Enlightened Tutor makes Sneak Attack much better, so you could probably fit some Simian Spirit Guides or Seething Songs to capitalize on that plan.

Looking forward to see a list if you put one together...

[krogen]

CREATURES (8)
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Progenitus
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
ENCHANTMENTS (4)
4 Sneak Attack
SORCERIES (6)
2 Ponder
4 Show and Tell
INSTANTS (19)
4 Brainstorm
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
2 Daze
1 Echoing Truth
4 Intuition
4 Force of Will
ARTIFACTS (2)
2 Lotus Petal
LANDS (21)
3 Island
1 Mountain
4 Volcanic Island
2 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
SIDEBOARD
3 Meddling Mage
2 Spell Pierce
2 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroclasm
1 Pithing Needle
3 Blood Moon


This is the current list i have been thinking about :)

[IsThisACatInAHat?]

You can cut an Intuition and the maindeck Echoing Truth for an extra 2 Ponders. I think I suggested the same when I t8'd with that version last November (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?19270-Sneaking-into-top-8-Attacking-for-15-Showing-up-in-Boston-Telling-you-all-about-it). In hindsight they seem like intuitive cuts. You only ever really want to see 1 Intuition in an average length game, since tutoring for 2U is slow as hell and that's about the time you want to be casting your first SnT against most decks. E. Truth is a maindeck out to sideboard cards and more often than not is either dead in hand or FoW bait.

I also changed the maindeck's Pyro/REB to Spell Pierces, but that's personal preference. Yes, the red cards are stronger against your worst popular matchups (Thresh garbage, Merfolk) but they also require early red mana which is difficult because you're usually fetching a basic first and you really want it to be blue so you can start cantripping to assemble the combo. It's also an out to Aether Vial on the play, which tends to be a significantly better target to counter early on. The taxing effect vs. hard counter usually doesn't come into play since you like to wait for them to tap out anyway before you try to go off, or at least do it early enough that they just don't have 2 mana open.

Anyway, those are just some basic guidelines on cleaning it up. Feel free to PM me about my current UR(x) list/s for more in-depth stuff. I'm not going to post any of my current projects publicly because I'll be playing them (or something very close) in Boston and Providence, but can share a certain amount more over PM.

[Chikenbok]

Well I guess now is as good a time as ever to get involved and throw up my version of the build. I've been testing it for the last 2-3 months quite extensively and I've finally settled on the build that I find most stable, consistent, and able to destroy on turn 2/3

4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Intuition
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
4 Lotus Petal
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Progenitus
4 Ancient Tomb
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Volcanic Island
3 Island
1 Mountain
4 Spell Pierce
1 Woodfall Primus
SB: 2 Blood Moon
SB: 2 Firespout
SB: 2 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Pyroblast
SB: 2 Echoing Truth
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Wipe Away
SB: 2 Propaganda


I kinda like it.. a lot

[TheSleeper]

Question for discussion: Is Blightsteel Colossus worthwhile to play against NO/Bant decks? (say out of SB). Does it trump Progenitus? (Im asking - don't know the answer).

A couple of examples to get talk going (not exhaustive):

Colossus pro scenario:
You SNT Colossus, they put in a Goyf. On their turn, they NO (sac a Dryad) for Prog. You're now in the box seat as you can bash (they block with Prog and it dies, or chump with Goyf, eat poison, bash you with Prog, and you swing again ftw).
Colossus con scenario:
They already have a Prog in play, you SNT a Colossus. Assuming they have 2-toughness of non-Prog creatures, they can attack first, chump you and win.

Prog pro scenario:
They only have a Prog, and you can reset by putting into play your Prog.
Prog con scenario:
You board reset them but they still bash you with Goyf(s). Or they board reset you and do the same.

Another thing to complicate things re: Colossus, is that you could catch them off guard with both Sneak Attacking Colossus, or bouncing their (non Dryad) chump blockers with Echoing Truth. On the flip side, they can exile Colossus.

Another question for discussion:
What would your meta have to look like for you to include Form of the Dragon (main or SB). Why doesn't this card get love anymore and should it?

[Chikenbok]

Question for discussion: Is Blightsteel Colossus worthwhile to play against NO/Bant decks? (say out of SB). Does it trump Progenitus? (Im asking - don't know the answer).

A couple of examples to get talk going (not exhaustive):

Colossus pro scenario:
You SNT Colossus, they put in a Goyf. On their turn, they NO (sac a Dryad) for Prog. You're now in the box seat as you can bash (they block with Prog and it dies, or chump with Goyf, eat poison, bash you with Prog, and you swing again ftw).
Colossus con scenario:
They already have a Prog in play, you SNT a Colossus. Assuming they have 2-toughness of non-Prog creatures, they can attack first, chump you and win.

Prog pro scenario:
They only have a Prog, and you can reset by putting into play your Prog.
Prog con scenario:
You board reset them but they still bash you with Goyf(s). Or they board reset you and do the same.

Another thing to complicate things re: Colossus, is that you could catch them off guard with both Sneak Attacking Colossus, or bouncing their (non Dryad) chump blockers with Echoing Truth. On the flip side, they can exile Colossus.

Another question for discussion:
What would your meta have to look like for you to include Form of the Dragon (main or SB). Why doesn't this card get love anymore and should it?

I tested with Blightsteel and felt that it was simply just a reason for my opponent to keep the StP/Paths in their hand. It comes down, it eats removal, I keep on playing. Sure it's always fun to drop it t2 against another combo player and swing for the game but even a bounce spell has it sitting back in your hand - I'd much prefer it to be a prog/Emrakul any day.

Against NoBant, You've got 8 cantrips to make that Blightsteel you're sneaking in an Emrakul instead - swinging with one of those... Shuts a progen up. Hell, even dropping in a progen to pop em both off the field can swing a game in your favor - Letting them resolve a Natural Order into Progen is sometimes not worth starting a counter war over if you're holding the combo pieces in your hand with your own 40 headed monster + another beast.

Regarding Form of the Dragon - the card simply can't make the cut. It can't be snuck in, only shown, and I don't want to develop my combo plays around a 4 of card over what essentially becomes an 8 of (only being able to sneak it in over sneaking OR showing it in).

My main concern is toying between the MD Clique vs. a MD Woodfall Primus (which essentially becomes a wasteland in most matchups). The primus can really come in hand sometimes (any moat effects, etc) but the clique.. well.. I can cast it without needing a combo piece to put it in - seems good.

[rgripp]

Except on those games where you Sneak in a Progenitus, swings for 10, the guy doesn't die and then wins the game. The Colossus forces your opponent to play around it (if he knows you have it in your deck) or punishes your opponent for tapping out.

[Chikenbok]

Except on those games where you Sneak in a Progenitus, swings for 10, the guy doesn't die and then wins the game. The Colossus forces your opponent to play around it (if he knows you have it in your deck) or punishes your opponent for tapping out.

I very much understand that, but with an open meta right now full of removal, aggro, and things to chump block I personally am happy with people *thinking* I might have a blightsteel in hand, rather than having one. Perhaps there is a way to throw 3 of them in the SB because as of right now, I can't justify putting 3 of them, even 2 of them in MD.

I completely understand that swinging for 10 doesn't always do the job, but neither does swinging for less than 10 poison.

Just my 2 cents.

[The Colonel]

@The Sleeper... Blightsteel is neat but that's pretty much it. There is to much removal out there for him. Sure, no one want to sneak a Prog into play (unless your sitting on two of them) but it's almost guaranteed at least 10 damage if you SnT him in. Then unless they are playing mass removal (which few are) or sac effects he's there to stay.

As for Form of the Dragon. Personally I love this card. I used to use 3 off the board I liked it so much. Stops dredge, stops elves, stops gobs, and (insert any random agro deck) The prob is that you are taking the risk of getting in 5 damage at you and you shut down your own creatures. Not to mention it also requires you to go SnT. Because agro and other creature based decks multiply so fast I've taken to running Novablast Wurm instead. Sneaking him in is best cuz you get a targeted Wrath of God and they take 7. I've gotten him in against agro and they ussually start beating their head against the wall or the smelly dude sitting next to them. Yes he can eat removal but after you show the opponent Emily and Progy game 1 they ussually side out removal. They never see Novablast comming. He's good as gold against non-white decks anyway.

Not a huge fan of Clique. I know he's good but his ability just doesn't hold a candle to Primus IMO. I've had a lot of games where sneaking him in is game over. They lose two key permenants and then you can block most of their threats away with your 5/5


So: Prog over Blightsteel
Primus over Clique
Novablast over Form

[Chikenbok]

@The Sleeper... Blightsteel is neat but that's pretty much it. There is to much removal out there for him. Sure, no one want to sneak a Prog into play (unless your sitting on two of them) but it's almost guaranteed at least 10 damage if you SnT him in. Then unless they are playing mass removal (which few are) or sac effects he's there to stay.

As for Form of the Dragon. Personally I love this card. I used to use 3 off the board I liked it so much. Stops dredge, stops elves, stops gobs, and (insert any random agro deck) The prob is that you are taking the risk of getting in 5 damage at you and you shut down your own creatures. Not to mention it also requires you to go SnT. Because agro and other creature based decks multiply so fast I've taken to running Novablast Wurm instead. Sneaking him in is best cuz you get a targeted Wrath of God and they take 7. I've gotten him in against agro and they ussually start beating their head against the wall or the smelly dude sitting next to them. Yes he can eat removal but after you show the opponent Emily and Progy game 1 they ussually side out removal. They never see Novablast comming. He's good as gold against non-white decks anyway.

Not a huge fan of Clique. I know he's good but his ability just doesn't hold a candle to Primus IMO. I've had a lot of games where sneaking him in is game over. They lose two key permenants and then you can block most of their threats away with your 5/5


So: Prog over Blightsteel
Primus over Clique
Novablast over Form

In regards to novablast over form are you talking about MD or simply SD tricks against people boarding out removal - I guess the real question is, do you have a list we can take a look at? I mean Emrakul already does what Novablast does but hits.. well.. everything.

[rgripp]

Hm, there's not too much removal for the Colossus out there. The only stuff that hits the Colossus but does not hit the other fatties is Swords and Path. Granted, there's a lot of people playing white for Swords, but there's also a lot of people playing Perish that would get a SnT Progenitus. Against non-white decks (like Team America, for instance), a Colossus is way more relevant than a Progenitus, which they can just ignore. At least with the Colossus, they have to leave a guy up for blocking and they just can't tap out.

[The Colonel]

Yeah sorry bout that... everytime I post I'm in a hurry and never get around to posting my deck:


4 Force of Will
3 Daze
3 Spell Pierce
4 Brainstorm
2 Ancestral Knowledge
3 Intuition
4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Progenitus
3 Woodfall Primus
4 Lotus Petal
3 Volcanic Island
2 Mountain
3 Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Ancient Tomb


On the SB I run


3 Blood Moon
3 Novablast Wurm
3 Energy Flux
3 Firespout
3 Llawan, Cephalid Empress


Now for my card choices except obvious things:

If you want to question Ancestral Knowledge just look back at my prior posts for its synrgy with Brainstorm. I don't always run it, depends on what I think the meta will be so I may put 3 Ponder in over it and drop the Intuition back to two, depends on how I feel that day. That's really the only surprising MD card. Now the SB: I like Moons over Magus... it's a personal choice about what I think is easier to get rid of. Novablast is on the SB because my Meta is clogged with aggro, so I run that and Firespout. If I can't find one then I'll find the other. The problem with relying only on Emily for aggro is that if you don't blast them with her by turn 3 or is your lucky turn 4 she only gets 6 perms. So they lose random Llanwar Elves or Matron. Blah... the Wurm completely and utterly whipes them out. And don't forget about Fish... you might be starring down a blue 4/4 army... Even spout can't deal with that. Wurm? They ussually pick up their cards and go home. Energy Flux is a big time meta call. LOTS of people enjoy abusing artifacts around me: MUD and Affinity. Decided I was tired of that. Last 80 man tourny I went to Flux won me two rounds outright. As for llawan, she's the ??? I will take her out if I don't think Fish will be everyware and put Echoing truth on the SB instead. Turns out I was right to play her last month since I ran into 2 fish deck... they scooped. When I don't run her Fish always give me such a hard time. Anyone know of a better card for llawans slot? Vials get around her but they're ussually to slow and I go off and kill them before they recover from llawan. But that will happen when your cheating fatties into play. Oddly enough the last tourny I played I lost to 12 post and Elves combo into Emily. Everytime I SnT they dropped her too and were able to go off faster again. Let me know what you think.

[krogen]

CREATURES (9)
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Progenitus
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Woodfall Primus
ENCHANTMENTS (4)
4 Sneak Attack
SORCERIES (8)
4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell
INSTANTS (17)
4 Brainstorm
2 Enlightened Tutor
2 Spell Pierce
2 Daze
3 Intuition
4 Force of Will
ARTIFACTS (2)
2 Lotus Petal
LANDS (20)
2 Island
1 Mountain
4 Volcanic Island
2 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
SIDEBOARD
2 Blood Moon
2 Firespout
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
2 Echoing Truth
2 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Wipe Away
3 Thoughtseize


This is my current list that i am testing right now =). I find that in the combo matchup i rather have Thoughtseize then soft counters like Daze. I run the Enlightened tutor package because i like the improvement of Sneak Attack it gives and it gives the option of having a tutorable creature target like Sphinx =).

[TheSleeper]

@krogan: that list looks interesting, E.Tutor could be nice. I haven't tested that list, but from my own experience with UR I'm not sure I'd personally want to splash into a 3rd colour in a deck running 2-mana lands.

Has anyone seen the 'unofficial but complete' New Phyrexia spoiler (http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=317624)? Just pondering over a few cards and whether they will impact the deck (either being tools for us or against us). Note when I say {ph-U} I mean 2 life or 1 blue mana.

Gitaxian Probe {ph-U}
Sorcery (C)
Look at target player's hand.
Draw a card
->This is kind of cool. Pay 1 life, draw a card, check their hand. That kind of knowledge would be great; enabling unprotected SNT plays or informing you to get more permission etc.

Mental Misstep {ph-U}
Instant (U)
Counter target spell with converted mana cost 1.
->Pay 1 life to counter a Spell Pierce/Cursecatcher/Thoughtseize/Duress/Noble Hierarch/Cabal Therapy/the list goes on? Intriguing!

Jin-Gitaxias 8UU
Legendary Creature - Praetor (M)
Flash
At the beginning of your end step, draw seven cards.
Each opponent's maximum hand size is reduced by seven.
5/4
->Probably a fringe creature for us, but drawing 7 cards is no small advantage.

Phyrexian Metamorph 3{ph-U}
Artifact Creature - Shapeshifter (R)
You may have Phyrexian Metamorph enter the battlefield as a copy of any artifact or creature on the battlefield, except it's an artifact in addition to its other types.
0/0
->I have already seen this guy being touted by other threads as an answer to Emrakul/Progenitus. Something we may run into.

Omen Machine 6
Artifact (R)
Players can't draw cards.
At the beginning of each player's draw step, that player exiles the top card of his or her library. If it's a land card, the player puts it onto the battlefield. Otherwise, the player casts it without paying its mana cost if able.
->No doubt some creative deck builders will try to break this, whether they succeed or not I don't know. Being able to cast Emrakul is nothing to sneeze at. Ancestral Knowledge into Omen Machine anyone? :)

[dave8]

@krogan: that list looks interesting, E.Tutor could be nice. I haven't tested that list, but from my own experience with UR I'm not sure I'd personally want to splash into a 3rd colour in a deck running 2-mana lands.

Has anyone seen the 'unofficial but complete' New Phyrexia spoiler (http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=317624)? Just pondering over a few cards and whether they will impact the deck (either being tools for us or against us). Note when I say {ph-U} I mean 1 life or 1 blue mana.



Phyrexian mana is to pay 2 life or mana not 1.

From all the cards that you mentioned above I think that Mental Misstep is an auto-include option for us.
It is so nice and it conters endless number of cards.
I think that it doesn't make sense to play daze in this deck anymore.

[TheSleeper]

Sorry I've edited my post re: 2 life.

The problem I've always had with Daze and Pierce in this deck is that Daze hampers your mana development and I often don't have the spare U for Pierce. Not to say that haven't saved my ass before as well. Its hard to rate how good Misstep will be in this deck and what it could replace.

[AriLax]

Mental Misstep is possibly better in this deck than anywhere else. The main problems I've seen this deck have are 1) Daze sucks when you are trying to get to 5, 1) Thoughtseize/Duress are more obnoxious when you have 8 dead cards and 3) sometimes they lead on Nacatl/Lynx and kill you. This solves all of those.

[Chikenbok]

Mental Misstep is possibly better in this deck than anywhere else. The main problems I've seen this deck have are 1) Daze sucks when you are trying to get to 5, 1) Thoughtseize/Duress are more obnoxious when you have 8 dead cards and 3) sometimes they lead on Nacatl/Lynx and kill you. This solves all of those.

Misstep will without a doubt be replacing the daze spot in the deck for me - but is there a way we can shoot it upto a 4 of rather than a 3 of? It no longer sets us back the mana as does Daze so seeing 2 in a game might not be the worst thing. Also, intuitioning for a free counter never hurts.

[The Colonel]

Misstep is definatly going to be a 4 of for me. Daze=Gone and Spell Pierce=Down to 2.

@TheSleeper... I love the synergy that the Machine has with Ancestral Knowledge.
Turn 1: Play Island and drop Petal then Ponder or BS
Turn 2: Play Land (Preferably ancient tomb) Cast Ancestral knowledge: Lets see SnT or Machine goes on top depending on which I already had in my hand then I'll put Emily second
Turn 3: Pay one for AK draw either SnT or Orb, drop land, SnT orb.
Turn 4 Oh look Emily is on top... cast her for free, take your extra turn and win.

Def going to pick up that card and try her out.

Not to mention the later game antics you can start doing if you have THE MACHINE out alread and then cast AK



As a side note: Playing yesterday and I had 3 available mana (Island-Ancient Tomb) and a Petal turn two.... so I SnT Sneak Attack into play, sac the petal to activate Sneak and blast them with Emily turn 3. Guy pooped himself.

[death]

4x Misstep? this lil' devil deserves a come-back celebration:

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/2751/hellcarvedem.png

[krogen]

I find Misstep to be very intresting though i have a hard time fitting the 4th one since im only running 2 spell pierces 3 daze. I might go down to 1 Spell pierce 4 misstep but we will see, ill have to test the card first. Just have to mention that before this month is over my Show and Sneak deck will probably be complete and then the real hard testing will start (I hate playing magic online so i tend to only get a few games of testing in online).

[luudes]

so I ve been testing with this deck/ strategy since the early dreamhalls decks. I had been trying a stock list when I decided I think chant effects may be better than FOW.

4 show and tell
4 sneak attack
4 emrakul
3 progi
1 terrastodon
4 brainstorm
3 orims chant
1 silence
4 spell pierce
4 senseis divining top
3 lotus petal
2 Dispel
2 seething song
1 wipe away

4 ancient tomb
4 scalding tarn
2 flooded stand
4 volcanic island
2 tundra
3 island
1 mountain

So I whipped this together. Havent tested too much hence no sideboard but I did play about 5 games against team america in testing and went 4-1, winning through various hymn effects. Top is just better at rebuilding the hand. Maybe another fetch is needed for more shuffle effects. Dispel is really very good and I have been rather happy with seething song. The biggest problem with FoW is that it requires two cards. It is easier to have an extra blue for dispel pierce than an extra card for FOW. Am thinking about going to a 3/3 split with pierce dispel because dispel has been so awesome in testing. I was wondering if anyone has thought about or tested with something like this. comments are appreciated.

[KubaM]

In my opinion Mental Misstep doesn't fit in this deck the main goal we trying to achieve is to resolve fatty ASAP and gg. In order to do so we want to resolve Sneak or Show and protect the elements of combo with counters. MM doesn't help with this goal a lot imho.
Yes, we can counter discard, but as well we have cantrips to hide cards we need. You want counter tutor fetching for Moat - like above - keep counters (FoW, Daze, Spell Pierce), without trying to remove something for MM

[death]

You want to resolve a fatty fast, except your Dazes can be played around and so are Spell Pierces which costs :u:. MM on the other hand is a hard counter to protect your combo or win conditions against stuff like discard, Stifle, Spell Pierce, Innocent Blood, REB and Pithing Needle post board even when you are tapped out. It's the card you'd want against Thoughtseize/Duress/IoK when you don't have Brainstorm. You want to stop E. Tutor fetching Ensnaring Bridge, Meekstone, Moat or Humility. MM does it virtually for free, like Force of Will.

[krogen]

I have to agree with death here i find that its the thing that its a hardcounter that is really relevant. People have learned to play around daze and pierce but MM is a hard counter and it is free if u want it to so thats my reason for liking it.

[KubaM]

Well, before plytests I don't want to argue and definitely I'll give it a shot. There is no doubt that there are targets for MM (Stifle,BEB,Needle,Tutor etc.etc.) so I'm not saying it's not good at all, I'm saying it's not good enough. The huge advantage is, that MM is "free", but on the other hand Pierce counter any spell. We will see which one is more suitable for this deck in few months. The main reason I will try MM is possibility of countering white tutor I guess.

[krogen]

Isn't anyone running any tournaments with the deck that can post short reports in this thread ? =) I want to hear some opinions about what u like and dislike about interactions and card choices.

[AriLax]

I actually really like the idea of Top in this deck. You just have cantrips to blow mana on and are planning on going till turn 4. Every time I've watched this deck curve out it always has random mana floating around. Seems like it could get good value.

[Justin]

This is a really good point. The deck often does generate excess mana. Top plays really well with Ancient Tomb. You can play Top and manipulate the top of your library on turn one, all while avoiding Daze. My question is where do you fit Top in and what do you cut? Ponder, maybe? Intuition?

[krogen]

I would rather cut Ponder then Intuition, intuition has won me so many games compared to what ponder has and. Ponder and top also has the same area of use so it would be ponder in that case that i would cut.

[Tokobotenkai]

I run 2 Tops with 4 Ponder, 4 BS and 2 Intuition, but I don't run stuff like Seething Song though.

[TheSleeper]

Just wondering what reasons you guys have for playing this deck over Natural+Show or Doomsday+Shelldock. What pros and cons does this have compared to them? I've only just started playing around with DD. You get discard, a way to cast Emrakul and some strong SB options (leyline, plague). You avoid one of the weaker win conditions which is Sneak+Prog. You're probably more open to land hate in the form of Wasteland and Karakas. Lately in testing I've felt Sneak Attack to be a little clumsy and very susceptible to discard. Love to hear some opinions.

[Tokobotenkai]

Just wondering what reasons you guys have for playing this deck over Natural+Show or Doomsday+Shelldock. What pros and cons does this have compared to them? I've only just started playing around with DD. You get discard, a way to cast Emrakul and some strong SB options (leyline, plague). You avoid one of the weaker win conditions which is Sneak+Prog. You're probably more open to land hate in the form of Wasteland and Karakas. Lately in testing I've felt Sneak Attack to be a little clumsy and very susceptible to discard. Love to hear some opinions.

I'm not familiar with NO/S&T which is probably the green version with goyf. DD refers to DDFT which is more of a storm combo deck (there's a variant without the storm wincon) which of course is much harder to play.

[krogen]

Just wondering what reasons you guys have for playing this deck over Natural+Show or Doomsday+Shelldock. What pros and cons does this have compared to them? I've only just started playing around with DD. You get discard, a way to cast Emrakul and some strong SB options (leyline, plague). You avoid one of the weaker win conditions which is Sneak+Prog. You're probably more open to land hate in the form of Wasteland and Karakas. Lately in testing I've felt Sneak Attack to be a little clumsy and very susceptible to discard. Love to hear some opinions.

I personally am playing this deck because i want to avoid the Doomsday decks because of the level of playtesting that is needed to be able to play it optimally is immense. The no/show deck i find quite booring because i hate playing with tarmogoyfs and going quite mainstream like that. I like going a bit rogue and this is and established rogue deck with a couple of good finishes that is also fun to play in the long run and building it gives playsets of alot of good legacy cards :).

Edit:I want to edit this and say that i own tarmogoyfs so that is not the reason for me not wanting to play with them :P

[AriLax]

NO Show: No Show's secondary combo (NO) makes a Progenitus. Sneak and Tell's secondary (Sneak) makes a hasted Emrakul.

DD Emrakul: In order to get a "hasted" Emrakul, that deck needs to not be Wastelanded or Karakas'ed. This deck does not.

DDFT: Force of Will is in this deck. It is not in that deck.

[Chikenbok]

NO Show: No Show's secondary combo (NO) makes a Progenitus. Sneak and Tell's secondary (Sneak) makes a hasted Emrakul.

DD Emrakul: In order to get a "hasted" Emrakul, that deck needs to not be Wastelanded or Karakas'ed. This deck does not.

DDFT: Force of Will is in this deck. It is not in that deck.

What he said. Disruption doesn't bother this deck nearly as much as it does most others. If it hits a fatty, we recycle it back in find it again, the opponent is always hoping you don't rip (something) off the top. If they hit a cheat effect, we've got intuition. As we've all seen, Doomsday is an incredibly powerful deck in the hands of.. I guess one of the only two people in the US who can play it well however the Shelldock version simply loses to Stifle and/or Wasteland.

Speaking of stifle, I've been trying to figure out how to squeeze 3/4 into the MD here without much success, I might throw them in the board.

[The Colonel]

stifle on the board? All I can say about the last 9 blah posts...



Sometahms ah guess there just aren't enough rocks




now lets get back to some posts about beating Jace's face in with Woodfall Primus

[TheSleeper]

For those that plan to run Mental Misstep, will running non-shroud creatures become more viable? Guys like Ulamog pack a pretty decent punch and when you have a hard (free) counter for the inevitable StP, he could be an option. Note I'm not talking about replacing Emrakul, but possibly the 4th Progenitus or just upping the creature count into the 9-10 range.

[dave8]

For those that plan to run Mental Misstep, will running non-shroud creatures become more viable? Guys like Ulamog pack a pretty decent punch and when you have a hard (free) counter for the inevitable StP, he could be an option. Note I'm not talking about replacing Emrakul, but possibly the 4th Progenitus or just upping the creature count into the 9-10 range.

I thinked about it. The problem with replacing Progenitus is that your Knight of the Reliquary matchups will get much worse due to Karakas and I dont think its worth it. There is also no place (in my build) for increasing the amount of creatures. 8 is enough.

[krogen]

I dont think i will use any non shroud creature in the deck even though we get MM. It just seems too much of a risk.



On a completley different note can anyone link to the NO/SHOW forum thread. I want to inspect that deck and see what the guy earlier in the thread was talking about.

[menace13]

I dont think i will use any non shroud creature in the deck even though we get MM. It just seems too much of a risk.



On a completley different note can anyone link to the NO/SHOW forum thread. I want to inspect that deck and see what the guy earlier in the thread was talking about.

http://tinyurl.com/6z3lb2d

[Chikenbok]

http://tinyurl.com/6z3lb2d

<3

[krogen]

REATURES (10)
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Progenitus
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
ENCHANTMENTS (4)
4 Sneak Attack
SORCERIES (6)
2 Ponder
4 Show and Tell
INSTANTS (17)
4 Brainstorm
2 Enlightened Tutor
2 Spell Pierce
2 Daze
3 Intuition
4 Force of Will
ARTIFACTS (4)
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
2 Lotus Petal
LANDS (20)
4 Island
1 Mountain
4 Volcanic Island
2 Tundra
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
SIDEBOARD
3 Blood Moon
3 Firespout
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
2 Echoing Truth
2 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Wipe Away
1 Massacre Wurm

Toying arond this new list with 61 cards to fit the full 10 creatures :P Oppinions?

[JustPAT4]

@Krogen:

First off the list shows 62 maindeck cards, just by the way. (21 lands)

Secondly, with e-tutors I'd think about running a singleton Blightsteel Colossus, possibly over the Woodfall Primus. Personally I find the 6 double colorless lands to be somewhat excessive, considering you really never need or want more than 1. I also think that the Brainstorms and Sensei's Tops are less effective with only 4 fetchlands.

Other than that, you might consider playing around with the board a bit more because of the flexibility afforded by enlightened tutor. You have access to things like Oblivion Ring, Ethersworn Canonist, Engineered Explosives and Null Rod. Maybe 2 Blood Moons becomes enough. Obviously it's all meta dependent, but being able to run them as one-ofs out of the board is nice.

Just my gut-check responses.

Cheers

[JustPAT4]

Double post--how I loathe thee

[krogen]

@Krogen:

First off the list shows 62 maindeck cards, just by the way. (21 lands)

Secondly, with e-tutors I'd think about running a singleton Blightsteel Colossus, possibly over the Woodfall Primus. Personally I find the 6 double colorless lands to be somewhat excessive, considering you really never need or want more than 1. I also think that the Brainstorms and Sensei's Tops are less effective with only 4 fetchlands.

Other than that, you might consider playing around with the board a bit more because of the flexibility afforded by enlightened tutor. You have access to things like Oblivion Ring, Ethersworn Canonist, Engineered Explosives and Null Rod. Maybe 2 Blood Moons becomes enough. Obviously it's all meta dependent, but being able to run them as one-ofs out of the board is nice.

Just my gut-check responses.

Cheers

Well im just toying around with this list atm havn't really set it in stone exactly but ye im gonna try to make something more fun out of my board with E-tutor thats what im working on right now. I find that 6 colorless lands havn't been bad for me yet actually. I watched the SCG open yesterday and the show and sneak deck that was featured actually contained Grim Monolith and thats a card i have been thinking about for a while now if it wouldnt fit into this deck. About the fetchlands, i know they ain't as good but right now im just trying it with 6 colorless lands, i have considerd to take out some basics and increase more fetchlands. 62 cards sounds strange have to go over it again then...

[The Colonel]

So I just ran the deck at a local 50 man tourny, didn't do to well. 3-3. After thinking about what went wrong it dawned on me that I only made one change to the deck... I ran ponder over Ancestral Knowledge. Won't make that mistake again. Had about 7 failed ponders throughout the day. Got home and ripped them out of the deck. Now, I'm going to playtest a slight black splash. I'm not sure if this has been talked about but I want to try Lim-Dûl's Vault I worry that the splash will muddy the deck and I am sort of worried about Wasteland (God I hate that card). Has anyone had experiance with a black splash for vault in the deck? here's how I'm going to try it. Daze was also very frustrating putting me a turn behind to stop discard. Can't wait for Mental Mistep.


4 Force of Will
2 Daze
3 Spell Pierce
4 Brainstorm
3 Lim-Dûl's Vault
3 Intuition
4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell
3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Progenitus
3 Woodfall Primus
3 Lotus Petal
3 Volcanic Island
1 Underground Sea
2 Mountain
3 Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Ancient Tomb


On the SB I run


3 Blood Moon
3 Novablast Wurm
3 Energy Flux
3 Firespout
3 Llawan, Cephalid Empress


I loved my SB for the tourny the problem was consistantly getting my right SB card out cuz PONDER SUCKED. Vault does such a good job of finding what you need and has great synergy with Brainstorm like AK does and it's and INSTANT. Any suggestions are welcome.

[TheSleeper]

Colonel: is it as simple as saying 'Ponder sucked'? What were your matchups? Just wondering because most Sneak decks run it and like it, maybe you just had bad beats on the day.

It sounds like discard was a thorn in your side; it's definitely a PITA for this deck. I cant wait for Misstep either but until then the best anti-discard tech Ive used is Divert. It really can give you a fighting chance. The othe idea I was toying with was adding more threats, namely Blood Moon MD. Most popular Thoughtseize decks (Junk, Team USA) have very greedy manabases. So you'll either shut them down or offer too many threats for a single discard to wreck you. That's the theory anyways.

[TheSleeper]

Grr double post

[mishrazz]

This list got me to the finals in a local Legacy tourney. (17 players)
Game 1. against Goblins 2-0 Game 2. against Team Italia 2-0 Game 3. against countertop 2-0
Game 4. against Merfolk 2-1. With 12 points i was secured top.4
Semifinals against.GWU Natural order. 2-1.
Final match against countertop 0-2

CREATURES (11)
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Woodfall Primus
1 Progenitus
1 Blightsteel Colossus
2 Simian Spirit Guide

ENCHANTMENTS (4)
4 Sneak Attack

SORCERIES (8)
3 Show and Tell
3 Ponder
2 Burning Wish

INSTANTS (15)
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
2 Intuition
1 Enlightened Tutor

ARTIFACTS (5)
4 Lotus Petal
1 Sensei’s Divining Top

LANDS (17)
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Volcanic Island
3 Ancient Tomb
1 City of Traitors
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Flooded Strand
1 Plateau
1 Mountain
1 Island

SIDEBOARD
2 Spell Pierce
3 Firespout
2 Echoing Truth
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Pyroblast
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Show and Tell
1 Energy Field
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Innocent Blood

This was my first Legacy deck, and i'm constantly trying to make it better. I run 5 tutor spells wich has given the deck a better consistancy.
The 2 burning wish in main to normally fetch a show & tell is also great when a firespout is needed. (goblins, merfolk)
The latest addition of Enlightened tuor and Blightsteel Colossus won me a very important game. Opponent beats with 3 dudes, and i'll be dead
next turn with only two permanents on the board. Sneak attack and a fetch. End of his turn i fetch a Plateau, play E.tutor for Blightsteel.
My turn, win! I had 2 cards left in hand. A FOW and another blue. I just love playing tis deck!

[TheSleeper]

mishrazz: Congrats on your success and glad you're enjoying the deck.

What lists have you guys been testing post-NPH? Here is my test list with differing card choices reasoned after:

4 Emrakul
3 Progenitus
3 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack
3 Seething Song
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
1 Intuition
4 Force of Wil
3 Mental Misstep /37
4 Lotus Petal
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
3 Island
1 Mountain
4 Volcanic Island /23

Seething Song:
This was seen in some earlier versions of the deck. I never tested it then but have been loving it lately. Sneak Attack can be very clunky at times, casting on turn 3/4 and having no impact on the board. Usually I dreads going to 'plan B' as it was often a close race with your opponent. Not so with Song. Sneak becomes a 2nd 'plan A' and is often better than SnT. The other realization I had was this is a combo deck, not a control deck. We don't have countermagic to be controlling. The longer we take to go off the more chances they have to draw disruption. Song speeds the deck up by 1-2 turns IMO. Yes if they counter your Sneak after Song it's card disadvantage - but like Belcher what are you going to do, not go for it? You also have FoW/MM. As a flow-on effect, improving Sneak Attacks use make me want to up the creature count, since you (usually) need two dudes to get the kill.

Mental Misstep:
Not much to say here really, free counter for some of our worst enemies: thoughtseize, duress, therapy, glimpse, cursecatcher, spell pierce. And when adding non-shroud creatures, swords/path.

Blightsteel Colossus:
While this guy may not have been ideal in the past, the previous two inclusions strengthen an argument for him. Song+BSC enables a turn 1 kill! Obviously thats a god-hand scenario but he does bring a lot of power. Not every deck plays a 2/2 on turn 1 either (you can also misstep a Nacatl), so this opens up turn 2 kills etc. If you SNT him he's a bit like a not-as-good Progenitus (due to exile/maze of ith), but can still kill in 2 swings. Yes he dies to StP. People have been running Woodfall Primus who dies to more removal (albeit with persist in some cases). I think WFP is great and has some nice utility (Jace, Karakas, Maze of Ith, Bridge, Moat). I will say though there have been games where they have me dead on board, where Primus would do nothing, and a hasty BSC has stole the win. I probably will go back to test WFP as well, as I think Song makes him better (a T2/T3 double-Stone Rain could be much more damaging than later on, when your opponent already has decent board presence).

Regardless of the 3rd creature I stick with (Novablast also intrigues me as it has a nice come-from-behind ability), I think Misstep and Song are solid additions. I'll report when I can run it in an event.

[krogen]

mishrazz: Congrats on your success and glad you're enjoying the deck.

What lists have you guys been testing post-NPH? Here is my test list with differing card choices reasoned after:

4 Emrakul
3 Progenitus
3 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack
3 Seething Song
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
1 Intuition
4 Force of Wil
3 Mental Misstep /37
4 Lotus Petal
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
3 Island
1 Mountain
4 Volcanic Island /23

Seething Song:
This was seen in some earlier versions of the deck. I never tested it then but have been loving it lately. Sneak Attack can be very clunky at times, casting on turn 3/4 and having no impact on the board. Usually I dreads going to 'plan B' as it was often a close race with your opponent. Not so with Song. Sneak becomes a 2nd 'plan A' and is often better than SnT. The other realization I had was this is a combo deck, not a control deck. We don't have countermagic to be controlling. The longer we take to go off the more chances they have to draw disruption. Song speeds the deck up by 1-2 turns IMO. Yes if they counter your Sneak after Song it's card disadvantage - but like Belcher what are you going to do, not go for it? You also have FoW/MM. As a flow-on effect, improving Sneak Attacks use make me want to up the creature count, since you (usually) need two dudes to get the kill.

Mental Misstep:
Not much to say here really, free counter for some of our worst enemies: thoughtseize, duress, therapy, glimpse, cursecatcher, spell pierce. And when adding non-shroud creatures, swords/path.

Blightsteel Colossus:
While this guy may not have been ideal in the past, the previous two inclusions strengthen an argument for him. Song+BSC enables a turn 1 kill! Obviously thats a god-hand scenario but he does bring a lot of power. Not every deck plays a 2/2 on turn 1 either (you can also misstep a Nacatl), so this opens up turn 2 kills etc. If you SNT him he's a bit like a not-as-good Progenitus (due to exile/maze of ith), but can still kill in 2 swings. Yes he dies to StP. People have been running Woodfall Primus who dies to more removal (albeit with persist in some cases). I think WFP is great and has some nice utility (Jace, Karakas, Maze of Ith, Bridge, Moat). I will say though there have been games where they have me dead on board, where Primus would do nothing, and a hasty BSC has stole the win. I probably will go back to test WFP as well, as I think Song makes him better (a T2/T3 double-Stone Rain could be much more damaging than later on, when your opponent already has decent board presence).

Regardless of the 3rd creature I stick with (Novablast also intrigues me as it has a nice come-from-behind ability), I think Misstep and Song are solid additions. I'll report when I can run it in an event.


I have been a bit off and on with the song cause its so good in certain situations and so bad in others :P. I watched a SCG legacy open i think it was about 2 weeks ago and there was a show and sneak deck with Grim Monolith in it. As i saw this i started to think about the pros and cons between monolith and song, but i would like to hear others opinion on Monolith.

[mishrazz]

mishrazz: Congrats on your success and glad you're enjoying the deck. Thanks!

My original version ran seething song, but after a while i realised that it too often is a "dead" card. It's no good with FOW, and when you want that third mana to play show and tell you don't want this song. Intuition is a great replacement, it works well with FOW and really helps you find your combo pieces at instant speed. I also added 2 simian spirit guides, (i know.. but hear me out) Simian works in many ways. It's that third mana to play S'n t first round with land and petal. When you are tapped out after casting your combo piece, it provides that mana to your opponents Daze. Or turn two Ancient tomb, volcanic and petal=Sneak attack. Your opponent thinks you are done, but remove simian from your hand, and here comes Emrak!
Simian cannot be countered. And after Emrak has done his sneaky thing, you can hardcast simian and beat him for his last 5 lives. Or it provieds as a blocker when you need to survive an extra turn. I have learned to love that red little monkey.

As for mental misstep. looks awsome, but only some thorrough playtesting will reveal if it is worthy that MD slot. Or if it SB material..

I would also consider cutting a ponder for a SDT. SDT in round one with ancient tomb isreally great. One mana xtra for opponents daze or use the top. I also love the tap and draw xtra card ability. Comes in handy with counterspell on top, or a backup creature.

Good luck with the deck, and hope to hear how it did in an event.

[dameus]

I loved my SB for the tourny the problem was consistantly getting my right SB card out cuz PONDER SUCKED. Vault does such a good job of finding what you need and has great synergy with Brainstorm like AK does and it's and INSTANT. Any suggestions are welcome.

I don't mind 3-color mana bases and LDV is a great card. But if that's the only reason you're splashing black and prefer a rock-solid 2-color base, consider Intuition as a tutor. It pitches to FoW, too.

[TheSleeper]

I don't mind 3-color mana bases and LDV is a great card. But if that's the only reason you're splashing black and prefer a rock-solid 2-color base, consider Intuition as a tutor. It pitches to FoW, too.

Did you even read his post? He is playing 3 Intuition.

[menace13]

2 Sneak Shows made top 8 in Bazaar of Moxen, lists should be up by tomorrow.

[JustPAT4]

And another 1 in the top 8 of Jupiter Games final North Eastern Legacy Championship qualifier. Deck-lists to come.

[Tokobotenkai]

The lists for the BoM are there: http://www.eternal-central.com/?p=1512

[JustPAT4]

Thanks Tokobotenkai-- I'm just going to post the lists for the sake of simplicity of discussion.

These are the two Sneak Show decks that made the top 16 out of the 633 player field at the Bazaar of Moxen:

Sneak and Show, by Johannes Gutbrod (zerzab11) – 12th place Bazaar of Moxen
Business (41)

4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Progenitus
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
2 Echoing Truth
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Intuition
2 Seething Song
3 Lotus Petal

Lands (19)

4 Ancient Tomb
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Volcanic Island
3 Island
1 Mountain

Sideboard (15)

3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Divert
3 Blood Moon
3 Volcanic Fallout
3 Trinisphere


Sneak and Show, by Rodrigo Togores – 7th place Bazaar of Moxen
Business (41)

4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Progenitus
4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection
2 Echoing Truth
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Intuition
2 Seething Song
3 Lotus Petal

Lands (19)

4 Ancient Tomb
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Volcanic Island
3 Island
1 Mountain

Sideboard (15)

2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pyroblast
2 Wipe Away
3 Blood Moon
3 Volcanic Fallout
3 Trinisphere


It seems likely that these two players worked together on their decklists. The only maindeck differences are Misdirection vs. Daze (2 polluted delta over 2 misty rainforest would be merely a quibble). Other than that the main boards are card for card identical. In the sideboard both players play 3 copies each Trinisphere and Volcanic Fallout. Volcanic Fallout seems very compelling in a Merfolk infested meta. I'd love to know in what matchups, other than combo, Trinisphere came in from the board. Togores mentioned in an interview that Trinisphere was his best card out of the board for the tournament.

Other notes: Neither player runs Mental Misstep which I have been really liking in my testing. I also really like the 19th land that both players play. In a post-Mental Misstep environment, it seems dangerous to me to keep the land count down and rely on brainstorm and ponder to dig for lands. Misstep on a cantrip could give away games.

[JustPAT4]

Sorry about the double post gang.

Here's the list that made the top 8 at Jupiter Games last North American Championship qualifier. I think there were 106 players:

Tim Sussino
playing U/R Sneak and Show

Main Deck

3 Lotus Petal
4 Sneak Attack
4 Brainstorm
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Intuition
3 Mental Misstep
3 Spell Pierce
4 Emrakul, the Aeon's Torn
4 Progenitus
4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell
3 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Mountain
4 Ancient Tomb
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Volcanic Island

Sideboard

2 Magus of the Moon
2 Blood Moon
2 Propaganda
3 Echoing Truth
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Submerge
2 Firespout


This list is much heavier on counter-magic than previous lists (13 pieces total) and does run Mental Misstep. None of the 3 successful lists uses any kind of split with City of Traitors and Ancient Tomb, preferring to run only Ancient Tomb x4.

[Griselpuff]

Hmm... How strong is Misdirection/Divert?

[zerzab11]

Got 12th at BoM with the posted list, although mine looks quite identical to the other one, we didn't talk to each other :wink:

Anyway here's a short tournament report, as I don't remember that much:

Round 1,2: Byes

Round 3: 12-Post 2-0
G1: I win quite safe with a sneaky Emrakul, and an Intuition for another one.
G2: At one point I have to play Show and Tell. He puts a card very fast and I was shocked. Anyway he reveals Kozilek and I Emrakul (I had four lands already^^)

Round 4: Punishing Fire/Loam/Lotus Cobra 2-0
G1: I Show and Tell an Emrakul and bounce a Knight with Echoing Truth.
G2: Don't know anymore, guess he scoops to Emrakul.

Round 5: Merfolk Mono U 2-1
G1: He is too fast and has some more counters than I have.
G2: I sneak a Progenitus for the win.
G3: When I resolve a Show and Tell and have Progenitus and Emrakul in my hand, I think for a long time: If I put Emrakul and he puts Sower, I lose. If I put Progenitus and he puts Llawam I lose. I decide to put Progenitus because I have some more outs to Llawan. He just puts a Silvergil Adept :smile: After the game he showed me that he boarded one Llawan and one Sower! (Cool guy and cool games :))

Round 6: MUD 2-0
G1: I resolve a Sneak Attack and win from there.
G2: I get really lucky as he makes a mistake and draws the card from the Top, he sacced, before the Forgemaster trigger resloves; he draws his one of Duplikant :tongue:

Round 7: Mirror (same as Top 16) 0:2
G1: There are no speakers in the room behind, so I don't get the beginning of the round :mad: --> Gameloss for tardiness.
G2: I stupidly put him on painters after he showed me mountain and Tomb. I play a Show and Tell for Emmy, he puts Sneak Attack and has Emrakul and double Progenitus :frown:

Round 8: Zoo 2:0
G1: I have Emrakul turn 3.
G2: He really can't do anything, this MU is just that positive for us.

Round 9: I.D.

Top 16: Mirror 0:2
G1: At some point I have to go all in with Show and Tell, but he has Sneak Attack and creatures again.
G2: I have a Sneak Attack turn 3 but don't draw any creature in 10 turns and ALL my cantrips are red blasted :frown:

Overall I liked the deck very much and think it's a very strong choice in the current meta. I didn't board the Trinisphere once, and the Dazes and Diverts were weak all day and will be cuttet for Misdirections (make the mirror and hard control MU that much better) and Tormod's Crypt (can't see another way to surely beat Dredge without grave-hate)

Greetings Johannes Gutbrod

[JustPAT4]

@Zerzab11: Nice report man, thanks for posting. Congratulations!

Out of curiosity--how was Seething Song for you in the tournament? It seems a lot of people have moved away from it in favor of more counters or acceleration in the form of Petals and Spirit Guides. I've found that it tends to improve the aggro matchup even more.

I know what you mean about Daze, it really can be underwhelming. It often sits there either a) dead, or b) whatever you can Daze isn't even worth your time to counter if it has to set you back a turn. I really am a believer in Mental Misstep in this deck, but looking at your matchups it doesn't look like MM would've been terribly strong for you either. Although it looks like you probably would've boarded out Misdirection in every matchup except the Mirror and maybe Merfolk, so perhaps Spell Pierce makes a bit more sense.

On the maindeck Echoing Truths. How relevant were those overall? I saw the one time you bounced a KoTR after SnT into Emmy. Does that mean you had 5 mana open? Did you side out E-truth most of the day?

I am surprised you guys hadn't talked (although clearly you're from different countries) your lists were just so similar!

More curiosity--what was your prize?

Congrats and cheers,

Pat

[rgripp]

If you're going into a 7+ Swiss rounds tournament, I really recommend playing bounce in the MD. It might take aways some of the "Oops I win" hands, but will give you a fighting chance against a bigger chunk of the ambient...

[zerzab11]

@JustPAT4:

Thank you very much. :)
Before the tournament I always played 3 Songs to have the possibility to Intuition for them (it's been relevant sometimes) now I cuttet one and one Daze for the two Echoing Truth. I don't like Simian as acceleration, cause it doesn't synergize with Show and Tell. I think two Songs are perfect cause they often enable a win from a bad board position or less mana. I boarded them out quite often anyway and think that they are one of the weaker cards in our main 60.

The Echoing Truth were my MVP card the whole tournament I just sided them out in the mirror. Yeah I think I had 5 mana available when I bounced that Knight. This card does so much it's incredible: bounce creatures to buy us time, bounce Ensnaring Bridge, Humility and other cards we autoscoop to withouth them, and so much more...

Yeah, the problem with daze has been for me, that the good players know how to play around it, and what you already mentioned the backsetting is really bad for us.
I don't think MM to be a strong card in our deck, because it doesn't do a relevant issue like helping us cheating fatties into play. The Pierces are an alternative I will surely test, although I think Misdirections will be stonger, because they can't be hit by MM (so our opponent has some dead cards; yeah he can hit Ponder and BS but this is not so relvant imo) they can be played when tapped out, they really improve any control MU, being the 5., 6. and 7. FoW (Landstill,TA, etc) and can randomly misdirect a Hymn to Tourach :rolleyes:

Yeah thats been really funny when I saw the lists.^^ :smile:

I won a playset revised Tropicals :cool:

[Tokobotenkai]

I really like the Jupiter Games list, might be trying it out.

Might be better than the green splash I added for Xantid Swarm.

@zerzab11:

The issue I found about Misdirection was the increase in card disadvantage we have. What do you think about it?

Also, what do you think about Sensei's Divining Top as additional cantrips? Or are they unnecessary?

Lastly, why not the City of Traitors/Ancient Tomb split? 2 Life from Ancient Tomb hurts in faster games.

[JustPAT4]

The issue I found about Misdirection was the increase in card disadvantage we have. What do you think about it?

Also, what do you think about Sensei's Divining Top as additional cantrips? Or are they unnecessary?


While it's true that Misdirection is an increase in card disadvantage, in my experience that's rarely much of an issue for this deck because we are attempting to do something more "unfair" than our opponent. What I mean is--we'll trade card advantage or all of our cards to put Emrakul on the table. In some matchups Misdirection will be effectively dead and it'll be easy to side out. In the control/merfolk matchup it's really nice to have Force of Will's 5-7 and against Junk, Dead Guy, Team America it's pretty nutty to not only be able to stop Hymn/Thoughtsieze, but to also reverse them on the opponent. All in all, I'd say card disadvantage, generally speaking, is a moot point if you're winning.

I like Sensei's Divining Top in the deck. I'm not sure how to measure "necessary," but if you're having consistency issues, it's definitely an option. If you find that you're often missing a combo piece or a counter when you need it and Ponder/Brainstorm/Intuition just aren't cutting it, finding space for 2 tops seems pretty reasonable.

Cheers

[Griselpuff]

Hmm... have either of you considered Gitaxian Probe?

I've also tested Misdirection, and I have not been super impressed because of the card lost. Even if it's just a cantrip, that can make the difference. To me, Divert seems stronger against discard, which is what I've been siding it in against anyways. Of course, if they're also playing blue, then misdirection is stronger because it can't get misstepped. But, the discard decks I'm thinking of (Junk, Rock, Team America), would probably not have Missteps for game 2 and game 3.

[krogen]

Im running Show and sneak with white splash and i might say that top is quite nice to have in this deck :). I have also purchased Grim Monoliths to playtest with, i saw a list at som SCG in a feature match a while back that was running them and i have to try them out.

Anyone tried Grim or Top earlier? What are your feelings for them?

[Tokobotenkai]

Im running Show and sneak with white splash and i might say that top is quite nice to have in this deck :). I have also purchased Grim Monoliths to playtest with, i saw a list at som SCG in a feature match a while back that was running them and i have to try them out.

Anyone tried Grim or Top earlier? What are your feelings for them?

I love top helps with certain hands with Ancient Tomb/City of Traitors stuck in them, helps to dig continuously too =)

I haven't tried Grim though. Though we have enough ramp I feel.

But do note that both doesn't pitch to FoW though.

I ran 2 previously but I'm now trying out a heavier control list with lesser cantrips, might want to switch back for more consistency.

[dameus]

Anyone tried Grim or Top earlier? What are your feelings for them?

I've been running 2x Grim Monoliths and have been quite happy with them.

[Shax]

Would the new card Chaos Warp that was spoiled for the Commander decklist have a spot here? Being able to flip a Eldrazi would be win more.

[rgripp]

Doesn't work. Gotta shuffle the permanent into the library, then flip the top card. Can't possibly expect to find a monster, and can't pre-stack the top with a Brainstorm, cause you gotta shuffle the library as a resolution to the Chaos Warp.

[The Colonel]

Okay folks, so we need to be prepared for Monday... Now there's been a lot of talk of possibly banning Brainstorm so JUST IN CASE; what could we use if this does get banned? I was thinking Stifle. Why? Well think, one of the major draw backs of this deck is that the opponent can establish quick board control. Now, yes, Emmy can swing that back very quickly but I know we've all had matches where Emmy can't bring the game back because they drop to many perms. Stifle on turn one fetch can drastically slow them down and can buy us at least one extra turn, especially when we are on the play. Also, say they aren't playing fetches becaus ethey are mono color or something, Stifle can be an easy side out. Also, I HATE wasteland and stifle can solve that prob easily.


So what do you all think? more counter, more diggers, more creatures? what?

Again this is only in case they ban brainstorm, which they may not, but it never hurts to be prepared.

[Koby]

It's fairly simple to replace 4 Brainstorm with 4 Portent or 4 Serum Visions. The deck will still need a critical mass of cantrips to make the pieces fit together. That being said, I don't anticipate Brainstorm becoming banned this soon.

[menace13]

Decks like this(Hive Mind,Dream Halls) rely on Bstorm much more than most other decks, infact I couldn't play this without Bstorms. Sure Intuition, Tops and Ponder/Preordain can be maxed out, but the sheer amount of dead cards that need to be sent back and replaced will increase the inconsistency making the deck slower and a lot of hands will do nothing.

I wouldn't worry about Brainstorm getting Banned, ever.

[TarmoRhox]

I used to take 3rd place on our Russian Legacy Championship at the beginnig of spring. I like to play more control variant with 8 main counters + 3 side spell pierces link (http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/deck.php?id=5700&iddeck=41259)

What do you think about Jace, TMS in this deck? I'm testing more control variant and results are interesting. Jace can be used as a search for combo part, as a removal (2 + 1 Echoing truth is a good variant for Intuition in critical moments) and as alternate win condition if our big creatures are locked by, f.e. En... Bridge.

My variant. v 1.1


// Lands
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
2 [UNH] Island
1 [UNH] Mountain
3 [ON] Polluted Delta
4 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
4 [U] Volcanic Island

// Creatures
4 [ROE] Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 [CFX] Progenitus

// Spells
4 [FNM] Brainstorm
4 [NE] Daze
1 [DS] Echoing Truth
4 [AL] Force of Will
3 [TE] Intuition
4 [TE] Lotus Petal
4 [M10] Ponder
4 [US] Show and Tell
4 [US] Sneak Attack
2 [WWK] Jace, the Mind Sculptor

// Sideboard
SB: 3 [DK] Blood Moon
SB: 3 [SHM] Firespout
SB: 1 [B] Red Elemental Blast
SB: 3 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
SB: 2 [IA] Pyroblast
SB: 3 [SC] Stifle

[Solar Ice]

What do you think about Jace, TMS in this deck?

The probem with Jace in this deck is that you have no way to protect him, unlike in a control deck like Stoneblade, Dreadstill or Landstill. In most cases he will be a 1 shot sorcery speed Brainstorm for 2uu.

[TarmoRhox]

We have enough counters and 3 firespouts in side. Perhaps, Jace is a good side option, depending on metagame, but in this deck we can cast it on turn 2 which some time will turm him not only to brainstorm with 4cc cost

[lordofthepit]

Apparently, a Show and Tell deck with Through the Breach but not Sneak Attack won the last SCG Legacy Open. That card feels much worse to me than Sneak Attack, that it requires :4::R: rather than :3::R::R: to go off, and I suppose it avoids the rarely played Pithing Needle/Phyrexian Revoker.

I think someone on this thread said that he'd eat his Black Lotus if Sneak Attack ever won a major tournament. He got really lucky that Through the Breach was played instead of Sneak Attack!

[[sic]]

I think someone on this thread said that he'd eat his Black Lotus if Sneak Attack ever won a major tournament. He got really lucky that Through the Breach was played instead of Sneak Attack!

That would be majikal. And yes, Sneak Attack > TtB.

[menace13]

Through The Breach has 2 benefits one being a single Red mana and the other is it can use Boseiju to trump counters.

[TarmoRhox]

Can you post a list of this deck? I can't find decklists on SCG.com

Thanks!

[[sic]]

Show and Tell, by Erik Manooshism
1st place at StarCityGames.com Legacy Open on 08-14-2011

Artifact Creatures
2 Blightsteel Colossus

Instants
4 Brainstorm
3 Force of Will
3 Intuition
2 Mental Misstep
1 Misdirection
3 Spell Pierce
4 Through the Breach

Legendary Creatures
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Planeswalkers
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Sorceries
4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell

Basic Lands
8 Island
1 Mountain

Lands
4 Ancient Tomb
2 Misty Rainforest
3 Scalding Tarn
4 Volcanic Island

Legendary Lands
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All

Sideboard:
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Counterspell
1 Force of Will
1 Mental Misstep
1 Misdirection
2 Pyroblast
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Surgical Extraction

[lordofthepit]

Through The Breach has 2 benefits one being a single Red mana and the other is it can use Boseiju to trump counters.

That makes sense now; I overlooked the fact that he was running Boseiju.

Otherwise, I thought the benefits of Sneak Attack (can break up mana over two turns if necessary, reusable, immune to Dispel/Cursecatcher, can be cheated with SnT to get multiple creatures, etc.) would have otherwise outweighed those of TtB.

[menace13]

That makes sense now; I overlooked the fact that he was running Boseiju.

Otherwise, I thought the benefits of Sneak Attack (can break up mana over two turns if necessary, reusable, immune to Dispel/Cursecatcher, can be cheated with SnT to get multiple creatures, etc.) would have otherwise outweighed those of TtB.
I have not tested TTB with Boseiju. On another note Sneak Attack made top 8 same event.

[TooCloseToTheSun]

I got 2nd at a 40 person tournament with a list close to the winning deck from Richmond. Here is the list I was running:

Main Deck:
2 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Intuition
2 Mental Misstep
3 Spell Pierce
4 Through the Breach
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell
4 Island
1 Mountain
4 Ancient Tomb
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Volcanic Island
2 Tropical Island
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All

Sideboard:
3 Ancient Grudge
3 Firespout
3 Red Elemental Blast
1 Missdirection
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Surgical Extraction

I ended up with an underground sea and a plateau after drafting the 10 duals that were the prizes (I scooped the finals after the guy said he didn't want the underground).

The swiss went down like this:
U/B Reanimator - 2-1
Hive mind (the guy I scooped to in the finals) - 0-2
Ichorid - 2-1
Merfolk - 2-0
T.E.S. - 2-0
Aggro Loam - I.D.

Top 8:
Enchantress - 2-0
Top 4:
U/W Control - 2-0


Ancient Grudge would have been more useful if I had played against more stoneforge decks. Firespout won me a game against merfolk. All in all the light green splash was worth it as I didn't see many wastelands all day.

[nonja]

A classic build has won a local tournament:
http://thecouncil.es/tcdecks/deck.php?id=6734&iddeck=48845

[nexus blue]

okay, been lurking in this thread for a few weeks. I thought I had a sweet idea regarding Grim Monolith and Power Artifact , with Emrakul as one of the wincons. But this is a much more stable and resilient build and I've come to fully embrace it. Also, as a frequent reader of Magic ideas but only a casual, part-time player, decks like this and Elf Combo make it easy for me to show up to a tourney, not having played in a few weeks or months, and bat .500 and have a good time.

So my questions/thoughts as I build my own version of this:

Personally undecided about Seething Song . It's been great, it's been worthless. When it hits, it HITS. When i want something else, I could rip the fucker in half.

Around page 9 or 11 or somewhere back a ways there's a report of this deck doing well at some German Legacy event, the chap who gave us his decklist and a brief rundown of his games never replied to questions. But I was struck by the statement he made about how much Annihilator as a mechanic kicks ass. And honestly, I can see what he means - why drop a 10/10 when you can drop a 10/10 that also wipes out 4 pieces of the board? I mean yes, I know it's vulberable to StP, but I've never been one to play a card because it has an answer - I mean that's the fun of this, right? Coming up with ideas and replies and tactics to make an opponent's answer null and void?
So is anyone out there running fatties with the Annihlator mechanic apart from Emrakul?

Definitely a fan of a split with Ponder and SDT. I udnerstand you may want the shuffle from Ponder, but between 7 fetches and 2 ponders, plus Intuitions and the big creatures, you shuffle the hell out of this thing.

Are there any builds that run Counterbalance? It seems too slow, but I had some lying around as I've been testing variations. Figured I'd ask.

Jace 2.0 isn't so bad, someone pointed out he's more controllish and he is, but he's not a defenseless schlubb, either. He's something that has to be answered, and if the opponent is answering him, he's not goign to also answer an Emrakul from a SnT or whatever. But could be too cool for his own good I guess.

Any recent personal tournament successes? I won't be having much to add, the ones I play in are 20-30 people, but there's some pros/skilled pilots/varied meta where I play, so it'll at least be competitive.

What about new matchup analysis? the opening post has some great info, but what about some of the more popular decks that aren't mentioned? I'm thinking Maverick in particular.....

Lastly in this long ass post, thanks to all of you who have contributed to this thread and made it concise and varied. I've read through it several times as I've come to embrace this deck. Ya'll rock.

[Trentemoller]

It's been quite a while since somebody posted in this thread! I just won 3 byes for GP Amsterdam using this deck (with mental misstep legal). I'll write a short report and then write some things about the deck.

List:

// Lands
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Polluted Delta
3 Island
1 Mountain
4 Ancient Tomb
2 Volcanic Island

// Creatures
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Progenitus

// Spells
4 Lotus Petal
3 Misdirection
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Daze
4 Intuition
4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell
4 Force of Will

// Sideboard
SB: 3 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 3 Firespout
SB: 3 Echoing Truth
SB: 3 Spell Pierce
SB: 3 Vendilion Clique

My memory is slightly hazy so I won't know everything correct, sorry if I'm mistaken!

1st round I played against a guy I played several times before, he usually plays something different every tournament but usually with 4 pretty foil stifles in them. This time it was in a Dark ***** variety. Both games he was kind of stuck on mana and declined to play any threats early in the game allowing me to develop my mana and build up counters. Game 1 we have a pretty big counterwar over my Sneak Attack (he has discarded several times at the end of his turn now) and he tapped for a creature. On my turn I have 8 cards and I play my Sneak Attack. He has 3 FoWs but I have 2 FoWs and a Misdirection plus blue cards and an Emrakul. Game 2 he punts because we fight over an eot intuition. He has a 4/5 Goyf and I'm at 6 life. I saw a misstep earlier game 2 which lead to an important play on my part. He forces my intuition and my hand is something like this:

FoW FoW Misdirection REB Emrakul Ponder

I have 3 mana left after the intuition. I decide to Misdirect his fow instead of REBbing it and it pays off. He FoWs back removing Misstep. I slam REB on his FoW and he goes to frown town. He FoWs for third time and I FoW back. I get 3 Sneak Attacks feeling very safe with 6 mana (1 Ancient Tomb) in play, Sneak Attack and Emmy on hand. I proceed to draw a card (REB) and slam down Sneak Attack. He Spell Pierces while I have 2 red mana left over. Luckily I drew the REB and smash his life total and his permanent count to 0. Had he let the Intuition resolve and done the countering over my Sneak Attack I would not have had enough mana.

Round 2 I play against Reanimator which matchup I haven't tested a lot (to be honest I have played approximately 40 games with this deck of which 30 were in the two GP Trials I played) so I am uncertain how to board against it. Game 1 was funny. I win the roll and I know he's on Reanimator, he does not know what I'm playing obviously because when I pass the turn he draws a card, goes to discard step and discards Elesh Norn :) I couldn't help myself and laughed a bit and decided that he probably would not even play Angel of Despair in his maindeck and that he would have discarded Jin-Gitaxias if he had it in his opener so I slammed turn 2 Show and Tell for Emrakul (it's pretty rare for me to do it). He had nothing and Emmy got there. Games 2 and 3 came down to him being able to reanimate Iona on blue, which I was pretty cold to. One of the two games I had one turn to topdeck Emrakul and I had a fetchland in play. I decided my odds would be better when I shuffled so I looked on top and obv Emrakul was there. After the shuffle, no more unfortunately. My teammate watched me play and told me afterwards I made a mistake early in game 3, I had played a Ponder and the third card was Ancient Tomb. I shuffled it away with a fetch while I had 2 FoWs in hand, while it would have allowed me to hardcast them if neccesary. Obviously my opponent immediately punished me for it because he topdecked a 4th exhume or something and I lost because of the Iona.

Round 3 I play against Dark ***** again but I cannot really remember what happened besides me playing around Daze and Stifle and that deck not pressuring me enough to punish me for it. I Sneak Attack Emrakul both games. Daze was an all-star this match I think.

Round 4 I play against a greedy 4 color Junk deck (that's the way I like it!) he's splashing blue for Mental Misstep and Brainstorm. I don't remember much of this round. I do remember that I open a strange hand which is 4 lands (including Ancient Tomb) 2 Sneak Attack and Emrakul. I have pondered over this hand for over a minute, because it would get wrecked by a Thoughtseize or something but decide to keep it, figuring he will run at most 4 discard spells in his Brainstorm Junk. He has some wastelands and a Pridemage while I'm at 11. I tap out for Sneak Attack and he has to get rid of it with pridemage leaving him with no pressure. Next turn I Emrakul him.

Round 5 I ID against another Dark ***** player.

Quarterfinals: Same player as round 5, at the beginning of game 1 he signals Stifle in a very obvious way, something like land go, land ponder go. I just drop lands and he starts fetching, in response I fetch and he stifles which I misdirect to his fetch. Unfortunately he has the Misstep for his own Stifle but it was a nice stack nonetheless! At one point there is an interesting spot. He taps two of his three lands for Confidant, leaving Wasteland untapped. I have a Daze which I could use but besides the daze I only have FoW backup. I want to cast Intuition in his turn fetching either part of the combo but I'm one mana short if he wastes my volcanic. In that case I need to rip a land to Emrakul him in my turn with double protection. I could daze his Confidant, which could result in three scenarios. He counters my daze which results in a counter out of both our hands which is fine. He can pay which leaves me with enough mana to combo next turn with 1 protection spell or he can just let Confidant get countered and still waste me, leaving me with less protection, still needing to rip a land but him having no pressure whatsoever. I decide to let it resolve and to try and rip a red source, which there are approximately 12 left off. I get there and he only has 1 counter.

Semifinals: Against Junk. First game I stumble on mana a bit. He tries to punish me with Vindicate but I misdirect it to his Bayou. He floods out a bit while I keep looking for mana sources. He finds Goyf and Scavenging Ooze with 0 creatures in the graveyard while I untap with Sneak Attack in play along with Mountain, Island, Island. He is at 15 while I'm at 6. I have two Intuitions, Emrakul and a Misdirection in hand but I'm in a very awkward spot since he has 6 lands (including wasteland) and Goyf + Ooze. I tank for a full two minutes because if he sees it he can sacrifice 5 lands and goyf while floating a green mana to remove the goyf out of the graveyard with Ooze netting him a life. I could Intuition for 3 fetchlands grabbing a Volcanic to get in with Emrakul but if he sees this play I'm getting beat down for 3 dropping me to 2 life and this makes Ancient Tomb a non-out at that point. I thought at that point that that also left me to a lot less outs in case he has thoughtseize but this doesn't matter obviously because he would go to 1. I decide I just need to get "lucky" ripping one of my manasources, fatties or cantrips into fatties or Ancient Tomb and go for it. He just scoops them up, not seeing the play, which I can understand had I just gone for it immediately but after tanking for two full minutes and then coming up with using the Emrakul in my hand is suspect.

Game 2 is silly as we both mull to 6 and I misdirect his turn 2 Hymn and we both struggle for mana and hand size. At one point he has Confidant, Top and 2 lands in play, I have 4 mana (1 Island, 1 Mountain, 1 Ancient Tomb) and I have Sneak Attack and something I can't remember in hand and I draw Brainstorm. I weigh my options and decide to Brainstorm and Brainstorm into the nuts, Show and Tell, Progenitus and Daze. I know one of his outs is Metamorph with E-Tutor but he only has two mana. I go for it, with Bob trigger on the stack he tutors for metamorph dropping him to 15 or so. He fails to draw a land, passes turn, Progenitus says hello and I pass. He draws a land plays Metamorph but I have the Daze and I win.

We were finished relatively early (we started earlier as well) so we get to see the other semifinals. It's Faerie Stoneblade against BUG Counterbalance control with maindeck Edicts, The Abyss, a ton of 3 and 4 drops (including 4 jaces) so that seemed like a horrible matchup. In the semifinals the CBalance player played against a dutch pro who doesn't know a lot about legacy. In game 3 CBalance has 2 Engineered Plagues in play, one on Faeries (shutting down Clique and Spellstutter Sprite) and one on Soldiers (against Elspeth) and my teammate bets me that Blade player will activate Mutavault, thus losing it, I take the bet and three seconds later I lose one beer. Later in the game The Abyss comes down and Blade reads the oracle several times, making sure how it works. He has Elspeth at 9 counters and since Abyss destroys creatures ultimating Elspeth is good. His opponent has Jace in play too though but fortunately hero has SoFaI. He sees the play, plays Batterskull, equips SoFaI and ultimates Elspeth and two turns later it's done. I'm relieved at that point, Blade is a fairly good matchup and against a very inexperienced legacy player.

Finals: We decide to give the winner of the match the byes and the loser the travel money, to leave the loser with a less sour taste. I win the roll and I snap mulligan to 5. I was getting worried that this would be one of those matches but I kept a decent hand, something like Fetch Tomb Emrakul Misdirection Ponder. I fetch for Island altho I was pretty sure he didn't play any wastes and play ponder. Next turn I play Tomb and it gets wasted. I draw another Tomb and slowroll it in case I draw SnT and he has another wasteland. I draw Sneak Attack and play my land. Next turn I play another land and I play Sneak Attack with Misdirection backup (with Prog in hand). He brainstorms in response and he amazingly lets it resolve. He plays stoneforge and I get so excited that I do not even sneak in Progenitus. Game 2 he has a force for my Sneak Attack but I have counters too and that's that, Dzy has earned 3 byes!

I like the list, I want to get two or three Echoing Truth in the maindeck and perhaps some Relics sideboard. I didn't board in the Cliques any time but they were mostly there against other combo decks or control with edict effects. I'm going to test Ancestral Knowledge, it seems like it could be good.

[PaRa]

Even though that i was quite happy with my old list i will test this build from now on.

Main: (61)

(8)
4 Progenitus
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

(34)
2 Echoing Truth
3 Misdirection
3 Intuition
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Ponder
4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack
3 Blood Moon
3 Lotus Petal
2 Sensei's Divining Top

(19)
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Mountain
3 Island
4 Volcanic Island
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn

Board:
3 Firespout
3 Reli of Progenitus
3 Trinisphere
3 Spell Pierce
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Echoing Truth

[jace247]

I have been playing this deck sine july 1st and in my area its seriously like a scg tournament top 8 always almost there is alway everybody packing one of each top tier deck, but seriously the only tough matchup that i have is Red deck wins cause we have 2 players that always play that cause they like it so my board options change when they do show up, but ever since getting the sneak attacks and playing this deck i have only done bad once and that was cause i played the red guys twice and then a fish player that i never say anything but lands which sucked. But anyways here is my list before MMS got banned and also MMS was pretty good in my opinion for the deck.


1 Blightsteel colossus
2 progenitus
3 emrakul
4 show and tell
4 sneak attack
4 ponder
4 brainstorm
4 mental misstep
4 force of will
2 seething song
3 lotus petal
4 intuition
3 daze

lands
2 ancient tomb
2 city of traitors
4 scalding tarn
2 misty rain forest
2 mountain
2 island
4 volcanic island

but my sideboard has been changing lately depending on what i see,
so the usual things in my board are
3 pyroblast
2 jace the mind sculptor
3 spell pierce

then it all depends but my last sideboard options were along with those was.
3 divert
1 misdirection
3 echoing truth

also what are peoples answer going to be since we dont have MMS anymore?

[zerzab11]

Hey guys,

I won 3 byes for GP Amsterdam yesterday piloting the following:

4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Progenitus

4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Intuition
2 Sensei's Divining Top

4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection

2 Echoing Truth

3 Lotus Petal

4 Volcanic Island
4 Ancient Tomb
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Island
1 Mountain


Sideboard:

3 Extract (Tech against DD, which is tier one in Germany)
3 Bloodmoon
3 Volcanic Fallout
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Trinisphere

About fifty people were at the tournament, which meant 6 rounds of Swiss with cut to Top8, first and second winning three byes.

Round 1: Goblins RB 2:1
G1: He starts off with Lackey and I don't have a force. When I Show and Tell into Emrakul he already has double Piledriver and a bunch of other creatures and overruns me.
G2,G3: These wen't quite the same with me attacking with Emrakul and misdirecting his Warren Weirdings.

Round 2: Doomsday (the German list :)) 2:1
G1: He takes my Force with Duress, third turn I Show and Tell into Progenitus, but he already hast the kill.
G2: I keep the following: Force, Intuition,Progenitus,Emrakul,Show and Tell, Petal, Extract...gg ;)
G3: He doesn't expect me going turn three over a sneaky Emrakul which seals the game.

Round 3: RockLoam 2:1
G1: He opens with Thoughtseize, after some turns I can stabilize with Top and win shortly after.
G2: I stupidly board into Blood Moon, I misdirect his turn one Thoughtseize taking his only business, a Mox diamond. I begin with turn one Blood Moon. While he draws two Moxes and begins casting spells, I never find a Sneak Attack or a blue mana source while looking in my Sensei.
G3: He mulls down to 5 cards. Later he has Maze but Annihalator of Emrakul triggers and a Progenitus seals the deal shortly after.

Round 4: TES 0:2
G1: He duresses my turn one Show and Tell and wins protected turn two.
G2: I mull and he destroys my hand with duress, winning with tutor chains.

Round 5: GW 2:1
G1: My opponent is quite unhappy with playing vs Combo, so I do my best bouncing his Mindcensor, Intuition for Sneak Attack and winning with Emrakul.
G2: He get's down turn two Choke, which is basically the game.
G3: I try to avoid Show and Tell, due to Knight shenanigans and win over sneaky creatures.

Rounds 6: Merfolk I.D.

I'm fourth after swiss winning a Korean (Chinese?) Jace the Mind-Sculptor

Top 8: The Merfolk player kindly scoops for me, because he won't go to Amsterdam.

Top 4 and basically final: TES (the one from Round 4) 2:1
We're both tired but really want the byes so it becomes a quite insane fight.
G1: He proceeds to rip my hand and win protected some turns later.
G2: I win quite fast with sneaky Emrakul while hoping he wont go for it the turn before, which he doesn't.
G3: I find a non duressable turn two Trinisphere in my turn one Ponder. Turn 3 he taps out for Burning Wish, so I Intuition into Sneak Attack and put him down to 1 and no permanents with Emrakul. Over ten turns I keep drawing lands or useless cards, while he can't use his Fetchland and his City of Brass. When he ends his turn "I don't know", I say loud I wish the next draw is Emrakul, get's fulfilled...

The deck felt quite strong and I think I will tweak it and bring it to GP Amsterdam.

:wink:

[PaRa]

gratz to your finish and nice list by the way ;)

Have you tried the maindeck Blood Moons over the 3rd and 4th Ponder and going to 61 cards? Its a blast vs several decks and frees up 3 more SB slots.

I really like it and never missed the extra Ponders

I'm also note so sure about the Volcanic Fallouts. They for sure wreck Merfolks with one lord and Gobos, Dredge an so on... but what about Zoo? Nacatl, Kird, Lion will still survive. Thats why i play Firespout in that slot. If you expect more Merfolk than Zoo ofc your choice is ok even though i don't like the RR on the Fallouts :)

Also i think you need at least one more Bounce spell in the SB so you can Tutor for them with Intuition after boarding.

[JPA]

Hi,

I have been reading along this thread for quite a while and played Sneak Show in a variety of tournaments (the biggest ones were 80 and 85 people, I finished 10th and 22nd).
The list I've settled on is basically the same as zerzab's, except that I play Blightsteel Colossus instead of Progenitus, since Progenitus is just to bad to be sneaked in.
I found out that 2 seething songs are an absolute must and that I really want to play 3 petals. The main echoing truths are very good as well.
Still, for reference, here is my latest list:

Show and Sneak
JPAnghelescu
Legacy

Main Deck:
4 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

4 Brainstorm
2 Echoing Truth
4 Force of Will
3 Intuition
3 Lotus Petal
3 Misdirection
4 Ponder
2 Seething Song
4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack

4 Ancient Tomb
1 Arid Mesa
2 Flooded Strand
3 Island
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Volcanic Island

Sideboard:
3 Blood Moon
3 Firespout
3 Spell Pierce
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Wipe Away

Especially with Storm on the rise again, the Colossus is a very, very good creature and also has the bonus of not being expected. If they sword him, you get 11 life and therefore enough time to assemble your combo pieces again. Also, your opponents will be tapped out most of the time, since they want to kill you before you kill them, and in a situation like this, he is just the best creature to be put into play via Sneak Attack.
Still, I might switch back to Progenitus, since he never really let me down; I just think the Blightsteel Colossus is a little better, even though more risky to be removed or Jace-bounced.
Woodfall Primus is a cool creature with Sneak Attack, but we have the echoing truths to do the job of getting rid of things like Humility or Sower of Temptation. And the Primus is just really, really bad via Show and Tell.
About Main Blood Moon: I think it's not necessary and I really want to play at least 8 1 mana cantrips.

A little tournament report about my last tournament on Saturday. I don't remember exactly how the game went, but it's also interesting to see that all of my matchups were blue decks...

Round 1 vs Counterbalance

G1: An early Show and Tell gets countered, and he plays Counterbalance on turn 2 or 3. EOT Intuition when he is tapped out shows me that his top card is a land and my 2nd Show and Tell into Emrakul goes off savely.
G2: T3 Seething Song into Sneak Attack into Blightsteel Colossus

1-0 (2-0)

Round 2 vs Counterbalance (yay!)

G1: Early Show and Tell... That's it. ;)
G2: My Clique shows me that he is manascrewed, revealing Jace, Force, Force, Stoneforge Mystic and some blue stuff with only 1 land in play. I let him keep everything, but my clique gets sworded. He plays a Clique himself, I hide the important stuff with Brainstorm. I play a Show and Tell shortly thereafter, with counter backup and surprisingly, he lets it resolve, because he thought a Metamorph could copy my Blightsteel Colossus. :D The metamorph has to copy his own Clique, he gets to see my hand again, Clique and Metamorph die due to their legendary status. He plays he Stoneforge Mystic on his next turn, fetching up some equipment and says go. I draw Echoing Truth and have Misdirection backup and attack with the Colossus. He declares Mystic as blocker, I play echoing truth, he lets it resolve, because he thinks, the 2 toughness are still taken into account at the damage billing. Unfortunately, after calling a judge, he finds out he gets 11 poison counters and we shake hands.

2-0 (4-0)

Round 3 Hive Mind (hate that matchup...)

G1: Counter war, he wins
G2: Counter war, I win
G3: Counter war, he wins

2-1 (5-2)

Round 4 I get paired up vs German Thresh (Grixis Thresh, new archetype, 1st after 7swiss rounds)

G1: I lose because I play a sneak attack while already having Emrakul on the board, using my ancient tomb and giving him the opportunity to kill me with a Lightning Bolt after stifling the annihilator.
G2: I totally mess up, don't wanna talk about it (kept the worst hand ever; never keep hands with Ancient Tomb and petal and without Show and Tell!!!!)

2-2 (5-4)

Round 5 I get paired up again vs Hive Mind

G1: Counter war, I win
G2: He mulls to 5, keeps a no-lander, I cant play Show and Tell though, win via Sneak Attack (and after counter war ;))

3-2 (7-4)

Round 6 Merfolk

G1: He is too fast.
G2: Turn 2 Emrakul, and he doesn't find his Sower of Tempation.
G3: I play Emrakul on turn 3, which is too late, unfortunately (and misplay Firespout, 1 turn too early).

3-3 (9-5)

Round 7 GUW Counterbalance (3rd time, yay!)

G1: Early Show and Tell
G2: Early Show and Tell

4-3 (11-5)

22nd of 84

I will probably play the deck in Amsterdam and am quite happy with my list, just unsure about Blightsteel Colossus.

Greetz,
Jonathan

[dave8]

I play a Show and Tell shortly thereafter, with counter backup and surprisingly, he lets it resolve, because he thought a Metamorph could copy my Blightsteel Colossus. :D The metamorph has to copy his own Clique, he gets to see my hand again, Clique and Metamorph die due to their legendary status.

What do you mean by Metamorph has to copy his own clique??
Why?

[Trentemoller]

Clone effects entering the battlefield through Show and Tell are unable to clone the other S&Ted creature, as it tries to enter the battlefield as a copy, but because it wants to enter as a copy it cannot see the other creature that is Showed yet because it has not hit play yet.

[dave8]

Ah OK it wasn't written clearly this way.

Thanks.

[JustPAT4]

Hey gang! Been quite awhile since I've posted here--grad school has kept me out of competitive legacy for a couple of months now.

Glad to see people still finding success with the deck. It's definitely a contender in the current meta, one of the few, true combo control decks.

My sparse primer could definitely use quite a bit of filling in, especially in the Matchup Analysis section as much of the info from over a year ago is dated. Anyway...

With regards to card selection, there are a couple of areas deserving of further discussion I feel. One is Jace, TMS, which will often take the place of Echoing Truth. I've been testing one vs. the other and I can't make a coherent decision. Jace is good, for sure. He costs more, but he soaks up damage on the ground which is not irrelevant, he Bstorms, and in niche situations makes you feel like a boss if you're forced to SnT while the opponent is packing Knight of the Reliquary. So Jace definitely serves multiple functions. However, I don't think it will win games on it's own for us like it does for other decks because A) he has no protection and B) how often are you really gonna be fate-sealing, especially if there's pressure to assemble the combo. Still the second and third abilities could be good enough, in important addition to being an out to opposing Jace's, which can be devastating.

So I don't know, but I'd love to get more feedback.

The other card selection questions involve creature choices, and counter package.

I'm a strong proponent of 7-9 creatures and 7+ pieces of counter magic in this deck. Personally I love to start 9 creatures (though I frequently pull back to 7 post-board) and it's been about a year since I've run fewer than 9 pieces of counter-magic. It seems that many of the lists posted recently are running packages of 4 Fow 3 Misdirection. I personally love Misdirection. I haven't started fewer than 2 since February. Sure they often get boarded out, but they shore up one of the decks biggest weakness, decks running Hymn to Tourach, and they help to win counter wars like nobody's business.

Another reason I love Misdirection is because it can protect creatures like Blightsteel Colossus and Jin-Gitaxias if you decide to go those routes. For the record, both creatures are nutty against Storm based combo, although I'd give the edge to Jin, especially if you're on the SnT plan. In the right environment, Blightsteel/Jin is definitely correct over Progenitus, but in an unknown larger meta, I typically feel safer with the Hydra-god.

Here's my current list for reference:

Main:

4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell

4 Force of Will
3 Spell Pierce
2 Misdirection

4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
3 Intuition

4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Progenitus
2 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur

2 Echoing Truth

3 Lotus Petal

4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Volcanic Island
3 Island
1 Mountain
2 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors

Side:

2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Blood Moon
2 Submerge
3 Firespout
2 Propaganda
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
1 Echoing Truth


Propaganda is brutal against Dredge and very effective against any aggro strategy. Submerge (along with E-truth) can provide help against KotR shenanigans.

I have always liked Spell Pierce; it's counterbackup, plus hit's thoughtsieze, hymn, duress, and Natural Order effectively. Strong against combo. Just a personal preference thing.

And Jin-Gitaxias, other than simply being an unbelievable amount of fun, is incredibly strong. It's biggest weakness is of course it's susceptibility to spot removal. But you can do some neat things with him, including Sneaking him in during the opponents end-step, making them discard to zero, taking your turn, attacking, then drawing 7, gg. Generally though, it's correct simply to Sneak him in on your own turn and draw the 7 before your opponent gets a chance to respond to Sneak Attack. Drawing 7 is ridiculous for this strategy. Pretty nasty with SnT as well. Although he sometimes fails to win a ground battle even with a Tarmogoyf, it's mostly irrelevant because if you draw 7, your opponent will likely be discarding his hand due to the permission you've drawn, then you're very likely to go off again the next turn (when SnT has never been sweeter).

While this is a relatively linear strategy, there is still much to discuss. I look forward to hearing from you guys.

Cheers,

Pat

[Trentemoller]

New Liliana is a bitch :( she's popping up in all kinds of previously decent to good matchups making them a lot less good. I'm still thinking about whether I want to rock this deck at the GP (with 3 byes, gotten with this deck). I feel like Jin-Gitaxias is unnecessary, basically a bit win-more. I feel like 7 creatures is more than enough, I play 10 counters (4 FoW, 3 Misd and 3 Daze), the full 8 cantrips and 4 intuition.

Our team (2-3 people will probably play our list at the GP) are trying a small green splash for the SB at the moment, basically for Beast Within (and flying Firespouts) which gets rid of a couple of annoying permanents (Needle, Ensnaring Bridge, Liliana, Humility, Blazing Archon, Iona on blue). The decks weakest matchups are basically faster combo decks (TES, ANT and Reanimator). This is where we built our sideboard around. It currently looks like this:

3 Trinisphere (solely for Storm matchups and Elves)
3 Vendilion Clique (good against combo, edict effects and control)
3 Beast Within (good against permanent hate, can also mop up your opponent after triple lava axe + eating 6 permanents)
3 Spell Pierce (against control and combo)
3 Firespout (against zoo, merfolk for buying you time, goblins, affinity, but depends on list)

Show and Tell is one of the weaker cards in the deck and I'm actually thinking about cutting back to 3. I almost always want to go for Sneak Attack (altho quite often via Show and Tell, nabbing a free Knight eaten by Emradaddy).

[JustPAT4]

@Trentemoller: New Liliana is totally a bitch when on the SnT plan. It remains to be seen how popular she'll ultimately become in the overall Legacy meta, but it's safe to say that she is going to see play in certain strategies for the foreseeable future.

I have to disagree with you, though, that Jin-Gitaxias is "basically a bit win-more." IMO, there is a strong case to be made that it's simply better than Progenitus on the whole. It's entirely matchup/meta dependent, however. In my experience, Jin can often be the difference between winning and not winning, but doesn't fall in to win-more range. It's an argument of redundancy vs. variety in card selection, and, in terms of approach, one of aggressiveness vs. conservation.

I think that sb you're promoting makes tremendous sense in a storm/combo happy environment. Beast Within makes sense to me as well against permanent hate.

I've been tweaking my white splash list to hopefully deal both with the annoyance of Liliana's edict effect as well as the perceived resurgence of storm, post MM.

This is the track I'm on:

4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Progenitus
1 Blightsteel Colossus

4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
2 Enlightened Tutor
3 Intuition

2 Spell Pierce
2 Misdirection
4 Force of Will

1 Oblivion Ring

4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack

3 Lotus Petal

2 Island
1 Mountain
3 Volcanic Island
2 Tundra
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors

Sideboard

3 Meddling Mage
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
3 Firespout
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Trinisphere
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Blood Moon
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Propaganda


Enlightened Tutor helps to emphasize the Sneak Attack route in light of Liliana and also helps us to make use of bullets in the board to help in particular matchups. Additionally, white allows access to Meddling Mage against combo and Oblivion Ring for permanent based hate.

[lordofthepit]

Clone effects entering the battlefield through Show and Tell are unable to clone the other S&Ted creature, as it tries to enter the battlefield as a copy, but because it wants to enter as a copy it cannot see the other creature that is Showed yet because it has not hit play yet.

He could have simply chosen to have the Metamorph enter as a 0/0 artifact creature as printed on the card, so that only the Metamorph dies but the Clique survives. That seems to be the right call unless using the Clique's cycling trigger was that important to him.

[JPA]

He could have simply chosen to have the Metamorph enter as a 0/0 artifact creature as printed on the card, so that only the Metamorph dies but the Clique survives. That seems to be the right call unless using the Clique's cycling trigger was that important to him.

A x/0 creature dies immediately. :)

I really like the white splash, gives the deck more consistency and more possibilities. And Blightsteel Colossus is just brutal.
Yuuki Ookubo, who top 4ed the Eternal Festival in Tokyo last year (and Sam Roukas) played a RUWB version with access to Extirpates and Perishs; I liked that one, too.

[JustPAT4]

I really like the white splash, gives the deck more consistency and more possibilities. And Blightsteel Colossus is just brutal.
Yuuki Ookubo, who top 4ed the Eternal Festival in Tokyo last year (and Sam Roukas) played a RUWB version with access to Extirpates and Perishs; I liked that one, too.

There are legitimate arguments for splashes in every color, although maybe black is lowest on the totem poll presently. Depends one's meta and play-style I suppose.

The e-tutors do offer consistency and versatility, but at the expense of some (not much, but some) speed and redundancy.

When Ookubo top 4ed the Eternal Festival pretty much everyone piloting this deck was running the black splash for Extirpate because it was the era of Vengevival, after all. On the whole, I don't feel there is a need for Perish at the moment and I'd probably start with Surgical Extraction before tossing in U-Seas for Extirpate if I wanted that effect against combo/snapcaster decks.

[JPA]

The e-tutors do offer consistency and versatility, but at the expense of some (not much, but some) speed and redundancy.


That's very true and also the reason why I will stick with the UR build. I just want Sneak Show to be brutal and fast. :-)

What do you guys think about Simian Spirit Guide? He can be a blocker, can pay for a Daze and is immune against Counterbalance (unlike Lotus Petal); and he can deal the lethal 2 damage. ;) The list I am currently testing for Amsterdam splits petal/song/spirit guide 2/2/2 and feels very good.

[JustPAT4]

What do you guys think about Simian Spirit Guide? He can be a blocker, can pay for a Daze and is immune against Counterbalance (unlike Lotus Petal); and he can deal the lethal 2 damage. ;) The list I am currently testing for Amsterdam splits petal/song/spirit guide 2/2/2 and feels very good.

I do really like the spirit guide. Personally I go with the petals because I like my deck to have potential for the "God Hand" (Force/Misdirection, Ancient Tomb/City of Traitors, Lotus Petal, Show and Tell, Creature, Blue Card, X). I know some people, though, who insist on SSG because (especially) of the surprise factor of countering Daze, allowing for a surprise Sneak Attack activation, mostly being the same as petal after Turn 1, and being a random body to soak up damage or nullify an edict effect on occasion.

The split seems fine to me. Nice and aggressive.

[JPA]

That's exactly how I feel.

So here is my (main) deck for Amsterdam:

4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Progenitus
2 Simian Spirit Guide

4 Brainstorm
3 Daze
2 Echoing Truth
4 Force of Will
3 Intuition
2 Lotus Petal
4 Ponder
2 Seething Song
4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack

4 Ancient Tomb
3 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Volcanic Island

I would like to play 19 lands but don't know what to cut. 1 Intuition?

[bfeingersh]

How many fatty slots do most Sneak and Show lists usually run? I played against the deck at a tournament this past weekend and my opponent was playing Woodfall Primus and Ulamog in addition to Emrakul and Progenitus. The Primus in particular was really annoying.

[The Colonel]

Primus used to be good, kind of gone away now, I know I took it out of mine, I run 4 Emmy and 4 Proggy.


JP, you may want to reconsider Daze, Spell Pierce is a better way to go for this deck, you lose a whole turn when you Daze somthing, and that's unacceptable for this deck. Spell Pierce is where it's at, along with Misdirection and Force. Think about it, there aren't really that many non-creature spells you want to counter, especially pre-board. KotR is really the only one. You can camp a force for him. You're more concerned about things that stop you're creatures from attacking and things like dicard and counterspells on your S&T and Sneak Attack. Spell Peirce deals with discard and counters. Emmy deals with their creatures very nicely. So I would suggest cutting Daze for Spell Pierce, you'll thank me for it later.

[JPA]

JP, you may want to reconsider Daze, Spell Pierce is a better way to go for this deck, you lose a whole turn when you Daze somthing, and that's unacceptable for this deck. Spell Pierce is where it's at, along with Misdirection and Force. Think about it, there aren't really that many non-creature spells you want to counter, especially pre-board. KotR is really the only one. You can camp a force for him. You're more concerned about things that stop you're creatures from attacking and things like dicard and counterspells on your S&T and Sneak Attack. Spell Peirce deals with discard and counters. Emmy deals with their creatures very nicely. So I would suggest cutting Daze for Spell Pierce, you'll thank me for it later.

I thought about that and decided to play 3 Spell Pierce in the Sideboard and I like them there. I might play Misdirection instead of Daze, though. I found out that I rarely want to wait for 1 more blue mana to have the option for spell pierce, but post board I can adjust accordingly and get more controllish.

My current sideboard:

3 Blood Moon
3 Firespout
1 Wipe Away
3 Spell Pierce
2 Vendilion Clique
3 Tormod's Crypt

I know many players like to play 4 Leylines of Sanctity, but I really don't know what to cut... What do you guys think about my sideboard in general, facing the metagame at GP Amsterdam?

About Woodfall Primus: In my opinion he is just to bad via Show and Tell and the things he does are done by Echoing Truth just as well, even better, since they stop Dredge and Enchantress. I was quite convinced by Blightsteel Colossus, but Proggy and Emmy are the safest way to go.

[The Colonel]

JP, I like your board. Can't tell you how many games Blood Moon has won me. The other guy never sees it coming and the other nice thing about it is that since it's so dangerous to many of the 3 color deck in the format they may pass over making you discard a S&T to get rid of blood moon. The moon also draws out counterspells allowing us to get our beefy spells through. Crypt is a must, I run relic, just a preference thing since relic nuders Goyf better and he's EVERYWHERE again. I also like firespout, once Misstep got banned everyone broke out their aggro decks again. Just played at 100 man tourny last weekend, Storm and Aggro were everywhere. (I didn't play this deck though) Now before I get into my board I should prolly post it.


3 Blood Moon
3 Relic of Proggy
3 Firespout

Now this is where we split apart

3 Stifle
3 Massacre Wurm

Stifle is currently in my "move around" slot. I like it cuz it's great against storm triggers and SFM triggers. Both of which are everywhere. Can also be used against Wasteland, fetch, etc etc...

Now, Massacre Wurm... this guy is my secret which I am sharing with you. People never ever see him comming. Elves, Gobs, Zoo, Death and Taxes, Enchantress, Dredge... you sneak him in to play in their declare attackers phase or show and tell him into play when they think they have the game won. Their jaws hit the table when he comes into play. You can slam someone for 16 life loss before he even attacks so it doesn't matter if he gets STPed (if they even kept STP in post bored).

Blightsteel is a liability at best. The main problem with this deck is that we invest an entire game into geting one creature on the battlefield so it better be one that sticks till the end. You can piss a game away with Blightsteel.

[JustPAT4]

How many fatty slots do most Sneak and Show lists usually run? I played against the deck at a tournament this past weekend and my opponent was playing Woodfall Primus and Ulamog in addition to Emrakul and Progenitus. The Primus in particular was really annoying.

A minimum of reading could answer this question...or just scoping out the OP. Generally speaking the answer is 6-10, though most lists start 8-9. It sounds like the deck you played against was emphasizing redundancy in creature form (perhaps even in business form, if he was running Through the Breach in addition to Sneak and Show). Standard lists have moved away from Primus these days mostly because more devastating options exist (in the form of Blightsteel and Jin).

@JPA

I'm certainly in favor of the 19th land. I know you're on the speed plan, but you don't lose hardly anything if you cut the Seething Songs for +1 Petal/SSG and +1 Fetch.

Also, I know it's a very minor point, but I just don't think that the full playset of Volcs is necessary. Having the basics is so clutch. You can actually play the deck without any worry with just 2 duals. I only fetch a Volc if absolutely necessary or if I'm dead certain that my opponent doesn't have even a 1 of wasteland in his/her list. Mana denial is one of the easiest ways to cripple this deck. You could legitimately lose a game because that Volc you drew wasn't an Island, but almost never the other way around. I'd suggest -1 Volc, +1 Island. Just my opinion though.

[JPA]

Thanks for your answers, guys. I will cut the Seething Songs for 1 land and 1 Petal then. They are just too situational and I boarded them out everytime. I will decide about the sideboard during my trip to Amsterdam. ;) Maybe I will even change the complete deck last-minute, who knows.

Colonel, how many counters do you play main? Because I feel that I want some more counter power (in form of spell pierces or REB) post-board against counter-heavy decks; not to counter their threats, but to counter their counters. Stifle is cool, it can even stop Hive Mind for one turn.

[JustPAT4]

This past Sunday I played in my first sanctioned legacy event since fucking July. Also my first since moving to Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

A fellow sourcer turned me on to Sci-Fi Genre and Games, which is the only store in this region that runs a weekly legacy event.

I had a blast, the staff was helpful, prices were reasonable, and the players were friendly, inviting, and fun.

The tournament had 10 players, most of them fucking ringers, which was perfect for me. A small, but highly developed, super-competitive meta.

These were the registered decks: ANT, Team America, Dredge, Reanimator, U/B counterbalance, U/W Blade Control, U/W/r Blade Control, Bant Aggro, NO Bant, and of course me with Sneak Show.

My list was the U/R one I posted earlier on this page (with -1 e-truth and +1 crypt in the board).

I ended up going 4-0, never dropping a game.

Here's a tournament report:

Round 1 Vs. Kyle w/ U/B Counterbalance

Jaces, Lilianas, Bobs, Delvers, Hymns, Counters, black spot removal, and counterbalance/top.

Game 1: Fast and bloody. (Starting hand was SnT, Emmy, Force of Will, Echoing Truth, Ponder, Fetch, and Ancient Tomb.) On the play I fetch an island and ponder into Misdirection/Jin/Land. I decide to keep the order. He plays U-Sea into Sensei’s Top and passes. I untap, draw Jin, drop the tomb, and cast SnT. He Forces, I misdirect pitching Jin and plop Emmy on the field while he plops another U-sea. On his 2nd turn he drops a land and casts Liliana (GASP!), but my last two cards in hand are FOW and e-truth, gg.

Game 2: He sets up Counter-balance/Top on his 3rd turn and passes. I’m not too concerned with counterbalance at this point having already cantriped twice and ready to plop down Sneak Attack next turn. I cast Sneak Attack my turn 3, tapping out to do it, but again I have Force + Misdirection and double blue card in hand. He forces, I misdirect, Sneak Attack lands. He casts a Bob next turn and passes. I throw and angry Emrakul at him on my turn and reveal my hand of Jin, Intuition, FOW. GG.

1-0 (2-0)

Round 2 Vs. Jeff w/ Team America

This can be a pretty brutal matchup especially on the draw if they leave mana open for stifle. Playing around wasteland is a must.

Game 1: I keep an awkward hand of Sneak Attack, Brainstorm, E-Truth x2, Island, Fetch, Tomb. He’s on the play and opens with T1 Inquisition of Kozilek taking Brainstorm. I draw SnT on my turn, play fetch, crack getting Mountain and pass. He plays a turn 2 Delver of Secrets and passes, leaving a wasteland untapped. I draw Ponder on turn 2 and cast it revealing Progen, Progen, Misdirection. I put Misdirection on top, draw it and pass. His delver fails to grow, but he does ponder during his turn, plays a second wasteland, and pokes me for 1. My turn 3 I draw Progen, play Tomb cast SnT. He thinks for awhile, asks for the oracle text on Sneak Attack, lets it resolve. I share Progen with the class, he brings a lowly Tarmogoyf. He scoops during his turn.

Game 2: My starting hand is Fetch, Fetch, Petal, Sneak Attack, REB, Ponder, FoW. He starts with Turn 1 Delver. I draw Brainstorm, play/crack fetch for island, cast lotus petal, cast ponder revealing Misdirection, Blood Moon, Sneak Attack. I scarf up the Misdirection and leave Blood Moon on top. On his turn 2 he casts Hymn to Tourach. Living the dream, I misdirect it (pitching BS, but maybe should have been FoW) evoking groans from the entire room. He loses a goyf and a fetch to his own Hymn. On my 2nd turn I draw Blood Moon, play/crack fetch getting a mountain, and decide to go for Blood Moon, figuring he would’ve countered the Hymn if he had it. Blood Moon resolves and is devastating for him. He’s cold to it. 0 basics. His hopes and dreams are pinned on his Delver of secrets, which grows and swings for 3. Of course I’m still gripping the REB, which spikes Delver on my turn 3 and then I have infinite time to draw land, cast Sneak Attack, draw creatures, win.

2-0 (4-0)

Round 3 vs. Russel w/ Bant Aggro

I knew Russel was on Bant, but wasn't sure if he was running the Natural Order package. I did know he was packing KotR, but not too sure about Karakas. Still, if I had the time, I had to play around the potential KotR blowout after SnT into Emmy.

Game 1: I open Ponder, SnT, Emmy, Spell Pierce, Island, Fetch, Petal. On the play I drop the island and Ponder (digging for Progen/Sneak Attack/Intuition) and I whiff, after the suffle I draw Ancient Tomb. Russel starts with a trop and a Noble Hierarch. I draw intuition on my turn and have a decision to make. The line of play I decide on is to Intuition during his EOT for Sneak Attacks, which will open me up to Clique, but seems safer. Maybe not, but I don't want to get blown out by KotR shenanigans. So I play my tomb and petal and pass. Russel decides to Clique me during his main phase (lucky me), which I'm OK with since the Intuition gives me the redunancy I need. He takes the Intuition after some thinking, which gets replaced by Progenitus (awesome). On my turn I draw another spell pierce, play my fetch and cast SnT. He Forces, I spell pierce, SnT resovles I put in Progen, he puts in goyf. I win the race with ease.

Game 2: He mulls to 5 on the play (His 5 turns out to be Spell Pierce, Snapcaster, Tarmogoyf, 2x land, not too bad). This one's pretty quick, though. I SnT turn 3 into Progen. He Spell Pierces and I Misdirect it.

3-0 (6-0)

Round 4 vs. Florian w/ NO Bant

I saw Florian playing between rounds and knew he was a solid, deliberate payer and that he was running NO Bant with V-Cliques, KotR and Karakas. A pretty upsetting matchup on paper.

Game 1: Was epic and awkward. I will try to do it some justice. On the play I keep a hand of x2 SnT, Brainstorm, Ponder, Island, Fetch, Tomb. I open with Island, Ponder and see a bunch of mana and another SnT. After the shuffle, I draw Sneak Attack. He plays a forest and a GSZ for 0, I make him stop and think for a moment, trying to bluff the Daze, then tell him it’s fine. On my turn 2 I draw another Tomb, play my fetch and pass. He fetches up a trop, pokes me with his tree-man, and passes. I brainstorm EOT and manage to draw Show and Tell, Sneak Attack, Misty Rainforest. I’m not quite sure why my deck is donkey punching me in the nuts all of the sudden, but I put back a SnT and a Tomb, then insta-fetch. On my turn I draw my basic Mountain like a champion, run it out, and pass. His turn 3 he brainstorms, plays a fetch, cracks it, and pokes me again with the man land. Back to me, I draw another Misty, making my hand Sneak, Sneak, Show, Show, Misty, Misty, Tomb. I run out the tomb then try to bait out some counter magic by casting a Sneak Attack. It just resolves, which indicates to me that he’s dry. He Cliques me on his turn, looks at my mess, tells me I can keep it, runs his tree into me, and GSZ for 0 again. He now has 7 permanents. On my turn I draw Intuition—fuck yes. I ask him twice if all his lands are tapped, he says yes both times, I’m not sure why the arbor he just Zenithed for is tapped, but partially based on that I make an intuition pile of Emrakul, Emrakul, Jin-Gitaxias. (My thinking is this: I’m on 14, if I blow him out with Emrakul this turn he’s gonna save his V-Clique and I’ll get 4 draws to find another threat before I die to faerie beats. Considering how badly my deck has been shitting on me, even though statistics are in my favor, I decide that after Jin draws me 7, I’m more likely to just win next turn. This was probably a mistake, but it was pretty awesome nonetheless.) Of course he gives me Jin, I Sneak him in, enter my attack step, and Florian then untaps his Dryad arbor, offering "oh this is untapped." I was a little annoyed (the arbor plus the Clique = 4 damage meaning Jin can't swing), but considering that the Arbor was not legally allowed to tap for mana, I just had to suck it up. I skip to the end step, and draw 7 cards which include Intuition, Jin, Brainstorm, x2 Misdirection, double fetch. Bad, but not abysmal. On his turn he Natty Orders up Progen (uh-toh) and it’s do or die time. I untap, brainstorm hoping for Progen or Emrakul before I Intuition, but instead draw E-Truth, Lotus petal, island. That’s ok, now I’ve got a path to victory. I’m at exactly 10 at this point and he still has 7 permanents. I run out the petal and a fetch, Intuition a pile of Emmy’s, E-truth the Clique (the only legal target on his side), and crash in with Emrakul wiping him out. Needed all 7 mana I had open for that ridiculousness.

Game 2: A bit more reasonable. He starts with a Heath and passes, I ponder into Force, Blood Moon, Emrakul (I already have show and tell and mana in hand), I draw the force, and keep the blood moon on top. He plays karakas as his land for turn and passes. I play a fetch and pass. He plays a trop, passes, and I brainstorm during his EOT. Next turn I cast Blood Moon, and I force his force. The turn after that I SnT into Emrakul.

4-0 (8-0)

Props to Jeff for running a solid tournament, giving me a ride home, and inviting me to his poker game that night.

Cheers,

Pat

[Einherjer]

Hi am pretty new to this archetype and I was wondering how good this deck is in the modern meta? And is it stronger than Reanimator?

[The Colonel]

@ PAT
Nice work with the deck, especially against Team America. Anything America is a very tough match-up for us. Some luck is ussually needed.

@JP
hmmm... counters. MD I run 4 FOW, thats a given. I also run 3 Missdirection and 4 Spell Pierce. I run 4 Spell Pierce because it's good against the two things we have the most dificulty against: counters and discard. An opening Duress or Thoughtsieze can be game over for us. Just leave your one island open if you were on the play. If you were on the draw and you only have one out then you need to FOW it or Missdirection it. I know, it sucks, but lossing a FOW and a blue card is better than them taking the one S&T in your hand. With counters you just have to wait an extra turn to S&T. Give yourself that extra Island so you can cast Spell Pierce on their FOW. Waiting an extra turn could save you from having to top deck another out. In my experiance, Spell Pierce is pretty much a hard counter 95% of the time. When you're planning to put Emmy into play, you can afford to wait 1 more turn. People will play around Daze, but not Pierce. Daze is just awful in this deck, half the time it is dead and it ALWAYS sets you 2 turns behind if you bounce and island turn 1. I don't like REB. I used to run them but dropped them. They were good against Fish in the long game but this deck doesn't want to take 20 minutes to win a single game. And red mana is a pemium in this deck. You almost always want to fetch out an island. I'm guessing 7 times out of 10 you never have more than 1 red producing source on the table? Good call on lotus petal though. That will help the deck be more consistant. I personally run 3. The only counter on my bored is Stifle, like I said it works against almost all decks. REB does not. Daze sucks. Spell Snare? ummm... other than Hymn, I don't ussually run into cards that cost 2 that mess with the deck. That leaves Spell Pierce. And I would main deck it if I were you. My total counter package is 11 MD, 14 with the board. Remeber: ONLY counter card that mess with us going off. Keep and eye out for KotR though.

@Philipp
This deck is very strong in the current Meta. After MM got banned everyone started back into aggro and Combo has made a big come back. Game 1 against aggro you need a quick show and tell; which is fairly easy to do with this deck. And the very fast aggro decks (Gobs, G/W) don't run counters so you should feel safe resolving your business spells. You can build your sideboard to help against aggro games 2 and 3, i.e., Firespout, Form of the Dragon, Propaganda, Massacre Wurm. I devote 6 sideboard slots to deal with aggro. And the other fast deck? storm? well we play blue, just need to counter the right spells.

We are definitly stronger than reanimator. I've beat them 8 out of 9 times. Sure, they can put a fatty into play off our S&T but it won't be as good as Proggy or Emmy. Just counter their entomb, or their reanimate or their opening dark ritual or their self-targeting discard spell. Reanimator is a glass house, throw one FOW shaped rock and it comes crashing down. Reanimtor wants to have the game locked up by turn 3, we can stop that very easily. Plus we have hate post-board. Team America is the one deck you really need to watch out for.

[JustPAT4]

@Philipp:

This deck is a fine choice in the current meta.

Reanimator is a very similar strategy with a bit more versatility in terms of the specialized creature package. Both decks are combo/control in which the critical turns are 2-4. Reanimator tends to be a bit more resilient because of the redundancy it runs in terms of reanimation effects, but also a lot easier to hate out right now (most everyone is packing grave-hate with Dredge, Reanimator, and Snapcaster based decks running rampant). Sneak Show is most easily hated out by edict effects and stuff like meddling mage, which is less common on the whole, but still a presence. As a general statement, Sneak Show's creatures are more devastating in a vacuum.

One of the few advantages is the access to red mana, opening up the possibility of Blood Moon, Firespout, and REB/Pyroblast. Red provides some sideboard choices that can really shore up close to subpar matchups.

Other than that, I think it comes down to play-style and the perceived hate in a particular environment. Oh, and flavor. The real question you need to ask yourself is this: are you a brilliant necromancer raising specialized monsters from the earth in order to dominate a particular Planeswalker? Or are you a mage overwhelmed with internal conflict, between the urge to know and the urge to act, between careful scheming and reckless destruction, and who lives for the moment he can create a dimensional breach in the Blind Eternities and call forth gods to consume his enemy?

I think that pretty much sums it up.

Cheers,

Pat

[Einherjer]

Yeah thank you guys - I think ill take SneakShow as my next deck - thats the decklist I came up with:

4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell

4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection
3 Spell Pierce

3 Intuition
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm

4 Emrakul
3 Jin
2 Progenitus

3 Lotus Petal

4 Ancient Tomb
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Arid Mesa
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Volcanic Island
4 Island
2 Mountain


Remember, this is my first approach to this deck - but I realized - during a few tests - that one dual is enough - and why help our oponents get their wastelands better?

Greetings

[JustPAT4]

Philipp: List looks fine to me. I'd probably bump up to 2 volcs, though. It won't be relevant often, but it does come up that you need 1 and 1 got wasted. -1 mountain, +1 Volc is my suggestion. Mountains are kinda, "meh." I always side my mountain out if my opponent isn't running wasteland.

Also, as you come up with a board you might consider 1 more Proggy. In some matchups he becomes the ideal intuition target. I'm looking at you Karakas (aka I've got lots of eyes these days)!

[Trentemoller]

I'm day 2 at GP Amsterdam, report will follow later! :D

[Einherjer]

I'm day 2 at GP Amsterdam, report will follow later! :D


GREAT - I really hoped some would do that with my new petdeck(not taking it negative) - I friggen love this deck - even though Ive just been playing it since a few days but its so cool :)
GOOOD LUCK

[Trentemoller]

I went from 5-2 to 13-2 and lost the win and in for top 8, got 15th, 500 dollar and qualified for PT Honolulu. Not bad. My buddy Erwin played almost the exact same list and he got 16th :D

Small report will follow later, way too tired now. I hardly made any notes though :(

List:

4 Scalding Tarn
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Polluted Delta
3 Island
1 Mountain
2 Volcanic Island
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Lotus Petal
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack
4 Emrakul
3 Progenitus
4 Intuition
4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection
3 Daze

Sideboard:

3 Trinisphere
2 Spell Pierce
2 Vendilion Clique
3 Echoing Truth
2 Firespout
3 Tormod's Crypt

[JustPAT4]

Congrats on Qing for Honolulu. It was a field of nearly 1,900? 15th seems awfully respectable.

I'll look forward to what you can remember.

Cheers,

Pat

[Einherjer]

Gratz, another great finish :) I think I decided right to take this deck as my 3rd deck:P
Im looking forward to your report aswell :)

3 fast questions:

No Volcanic?
Are 7 creatures enough?
Hows Daze going?

Edit: What I was wondering:Hows our Spiraltide MU?

[Trentemoller]

Yeah there were 1878 players, so 15th is pretty good :) I forgot to add the volcanics on my list here. Unfortunately I don't know every round but I will tell about the ones I do remember.

R1-R3 bye (won a trial with this deck)

R4 Merfolk

My opponent won the die roll and I had a slow hand, I show and telled Emrakul out around turn 4 and he could outrace it. Game 2 I had a sick opener of something like:

Fetch
Ancient Tomb
Show and Tell
Force of Will
Daze
Spell Pierce
Ponder

And I felt very good. I did however not find ANY creatures in like the 10! turns my opponent gave me. This was probably my most unlucky game of the tournament.

So I started 0-1, feeling terrible already.

R5 UW Stoneblade

Don't know what happened exactly but it's a bye matchup.

R6 UW Stoneblade

Same.

R7 BUG (with Snapcasters, Hymns etc)

In my eyes there are 3 popular decks that are quite bad matchups. BUG Control, Dredge and Reanimator. Round 7 showcases that pretty well, game 1 was pretty close but his goyfs got there after some counterwars which I won but he had his 1-off diabolic edict. Game 2 was a sick blowout and I still lost. My opponent mulled to 5 on the draw, went for turn 2 hymn and I misdirected, and I still lost... he just got there with the 2 goyfs his hymn missed.

R8 Maverick

Finally a near bye matchup, you just have to watch out for Knight into Karakas. Game 1 I ride an early progenitus into victory. Game 2 I show and tell a Progenitus into play pretty early, he drops Knight (with mother and dryad arbor in play) with 2 lands in his GY. I have Fow backup and I'm at 16 life. He GSZ for x=1. I had to think about that one for a long time but next to Spore Frog (which I'm sure he didn't play) there wasn't anything I could imagine losing to, so I let it resolve. He found Quirion Ranger which allowed the Knight to use it's ability for a fetch, untap it and give it protection and attack for 6. Next turn he could do it again and swing with the team and attack for lethal but I wasn't winning without attacking with the Mother of Runes in play, so I smashed him for 10. He took nearly 5 minutes to figure his turn out and he could hit me for 11 which he did, but that was a mistake, he shouldn't have attacked with his Mother in case I had echoing truth. Unfortunately I didn't so he won. Game 3 I can't remember but I won pretty easily.

R9 No clue

I can't remember anything.

So I barely made day 2 with a pretty mediocre 4-2. Glad I did make it, I was just praying to make some money the following day.

R10 Dredge

I win the roll and I go turn 1 Ponder or something into turn 2 SnT into Emradaddy. I smash him for 15 the following turn and I have Intuition, Daze, Progenitus in hand. He has some zombies from Bridges and 1 Narcomoeba and quite a big GY (from Coliseum activation turn 2) but he didn't dredge a lot of good things. He therapies and I think for a while (he doesn't have lands) and decide to let it resolve, he names FoW and whiffs. He thinks for a bit and flashbacks a second therapy. I ask him if he has any other flashback cards in his graveyard and I heard him say NO but he was french so I could be wrong. I daze the therapy and he immediately flashbacks dread return. I call a judge and explain the situation and the judge says he did nothing wrong which is just not true (if he indeed said no) but I decide to let it slip because I was winning anyway (very terrible of me). I intuition for fows and pitch progenitus to counter his Dread Return and win.

Game 2 he keeps a hand with Unmask and Therapy, an imp but no Dredger. My hand is kinda slow (I mulled to 6 I think) and he takes my enabler. We both durdle around a bit, he therapies me a couple of times but my brainstorms keep owning him, he knew my hand when he therapied (outside of another land I drew) and I had fetch in play. I brainstormed into 3 more lands and shuffled my hand and put two lands back. He whiffed and I fetched away my lands. He found a dredger and I lost two turns later.

Game 3 he keeps a very similar hand but I'm on the play and pierce his Unmask. His therapy whiffs and all his other therapies whiff because of my brainstorms. Emrakul gets there.

I will do the other rounds tomorrow, my English is getting very poor because I am very tired and need to sleep.

[JustPAT4]

Alright man get some sleep. Congrats again. :laugh:

Hopefully in the next few days you'll share the rest of the story and some of your impressions about the deck and how certain card choices worked out at the GP.

@Philipp: Sneak Show has a slightly positive Spiral Tide matchup in my experience. It's definitely a matchup a Spiral Tide player would avoid given the option. They must go the Blue Sun's Zenith route because of Emrakul (not that big a deal for them). We often pack nearly 10 pieces of countermagic and we get REB/Pyroblasts and/or Trinisphere's from the board.

[JPA]

Congrats on your finish! Unfortunately, I forgot my Sneak Show deck at home in all the chaos :(((, and had no time to borrow anything so I had to play FoW-less Reanimator (don't ask me how it went...). Really, really bad weekend for me, but nice event anyway.
Looking forward to the rest of your report, Trentemoller, congratulations again.



No Volcanic?
Are 7 creatures enough?
Hows Daze going?


In my opinion you should at least play 2 Volcanics, at least 8 creatures (7 worked obv fine for Trentemoller though :P).

About Daze... I like it, you need as much free counters as possible, that's why I like Trentemoller's 4/3/3 split of Force/Misdirection/Daze.

[Einherjer]

Im struggling abit with Merfolk G1... Is this normal or just me being a new pilot of this deck?

[JustPAT4]

Im struggling abit with Merfolk G1... Is this normal or just me being a new pilot of this deck?

Normal. Lots of posts all the way through the thread address it (including OP). It's the reason Firespouts/Volcanic Fallouts are mainstays in the board. REBs rock here too.

[The Colonel]

@Phil

I figured I'd post my deck see if will help you at all.


3 Volcanic Island
2 Mountain
3 Ancient Tomb
4 Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
20

3 Lotus Petal

4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell

3 Intuition
3 Ancestral Knowledge
4 Brainstorm

4 Progenitus
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

4 Spell Pierce
4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection
40


Sideboard


3 Relic of Progentius
3 Firespout
3 Massacre Wurm
3 Stifle
3 Blood Moon


Things I would change about your deck:

+1 Spell Pierce--I liked that you took my suggestion on this card. Trust me, Daze will make you pull your hair out of your head

-4 Ponder,+3 Ancestral Knowledge
This needs more explaining. Trent posted that he sat there looking for a creature for 10 turns, AK fixes that. One of the major weeknesses of this deck is that you need an enabler, a monster, land, and counter back up preferably. Very often you'll find yourself in the situation where you need 1 thing and since you don;t have that one thing the deck stalls out. AK digs 10 deep, yes, I said 10 deep! Sure, it costs 2 and takes a turn to work, but it digs 10 deep! You will find what ever you need from AK. Ponder as let me down so many times. I hate ponder. Now lets examine the synergy between Ancestral Knowledge and Brainstorm: Turn 2, play AK. You see a Brainstorm 2 counters and a show and tell along with 6, thats right 6, other cards. So you put the brainstorm back on top and under it you put 2 counters and a show and tell. pass turn. turn 3. You pay the 1 pittly mana to keep AK on the board and draw brainstorm. then you cast brainstorm that turn or on your opponents turn. you get the 2 counters, the s&t and you dump 2 dead card out of your hand. turn 4. don;t pay for AK, you just shuffled away the two dead cards and have everything you need to explode on your opponent. For as long as I've play AK i've never once had it countered. The opponent sees the upkeep and figures it will take care of its self and lets it resolve. Little do they know that they just lost.

Forget Jin dude. just play 4 Prog and 4 Emmy. They are no nonsence win the game creatures. Jin is a flavor of the month thing

I would also think about going up to at least 2 Volcanic. 4 Tomb gets very painful and we're already going to be taking enough damage from our opponents before we beat their face in. I like 2 mountain though

Fish is tough for almost every deck, your best bet is to play S&t fast with counter back up. You can always put Llawan, Cephalid Empress on your board if your meta is fish heavy.


@Trent congrats with the tourny man

[Trentemoller]

I like Ancestral Knowledge (I even tested it) but it really sucks that it turns your opponents Spell Snares on, which matters a lot more than it seems on the surface. Usually Stoneblade plays like 8 dead cards maindeck (4 Spell Snare and 4 Swords to Plowshares) and that allows game 1 to be very good. That's a big reason why I don't like Jin-Gitaxias as well, it turns on more of your opponents cards, one of the reasons why I played this combo deck over TES, ANT and High Tide is blanking as much of your opponents cards and hate. Most combo hate is not that good against you (Cannonist, Teeg is decent but not extremely good, Trap is bad, Chalice is not that good, Flusterstorm is still pretty good).

I will type the rest of my report on friday, I have another test I have to study for.

[Einherjer]

Okay thank you very much for all this inputs :)
Now im standing with this list

5 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Ancient Tomb
2 Arid Mesa
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Volcanic Island
2 Mountain
/21

4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection
3 Spell Pierce
/10

4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell
4 Emrakul
4 Progenitus
/16

4 Brainstorm
3 Intuition
/7


Makes 6 more cards to go...
At the moment Im playing Ponder and Preordain at this spot... But I dont know....
Maybe:
a) 3 Áncestral Knowledge 3 Lotus Petal
or b) 4 Ponder 2 Preordain
or c) 3 Lotus Petal 3 Ponder

I just dont know... Thank you again for all your inputs - in all the others threads I was never that welcome as a newcomer :) :)

[Nameless Two]

Hey Trentemoller, I never knew you as the type of person who studies for exams...
Congratulations on your finish in Amsterdam!

I still hope to be able to put Timesifter into play when my opponent Show and Tells. (although Progenitus and Emrakul do beat the average Krosan Tusker-ish cycler in mana cost)

And now for my contribution to the thread (having skipped most of the earlier pages I hope this hasn't been mentioned yet):

Don't you ever face an Emrakul on the other side? When you Show and Tell on turn 2 and put a Progenitus into play only to have them build an Emrakul?

Maybe Seal of Removal or something like that could help out in such cases? It should also help against most reanimator targets. (And they'll have to counter it early if they think it'll cause too much trouble, giving up options later on)

It might be just a silly idea but I can't just use this board-space to congratulate Trentemoller.

[Trentemoller]

Yes, having your opponent stick Emrakul into play via Show and Tell sucks. I fortunately haven't played a single mirror yet but the best plan in the mirror is just drawing as much Emrakuls as possible and winning via Sneak Attack (drawing as much Emrakuls as possible again). The only other decks that play Emrakuls either play one (like Elves sometimes), are Hive Mind (which you never want to S&T against anyway, unless it's to get Sneak Attack into play with R to haste Emrakul, not a bad matchup with Dazes and Petals in the deck) and TurboEldrazi (which is Unfortunately not a real deck). There are worse problems with SnT, mainly Ensnaring Bridge, Humility and Peacekeeper.

@Nameless Two: Gerben? :p

@The Colonel: I would play bounce somewhere in your 75. I don't like it either but this way you are cold to Ensnaring Bridge and Humility, your only out against Peacekeeper is Firespout and that's not really the card you want to bring in against Peacekeeper decks.

[Nameless Two]

@ Trentemoller, who else ?

And Echoing Truth over Wipe Away? (Oh well I guess they boarded out their Spell Snares already)
It's worse against a bunch of goblins, agreed. But it gains on decks with access to Karakas (to some extent anyways).

And what do you bring the clique in against?

[Trentemoller]

Wipe Away is harder to cast than it looks, you are usually fetching basics and you are almost certainly unable to do anything else blue that same turn. It's worse against counter decks that do not play Wastelands but better against the rest, and you board it in against hate bear decks which do not play hymns or counters. It's also a lot better against Reanimator (where 2 vs 3 mana is a big difference). Versus Zombie tokens (from Bridge from Below) and Goblin tokens (from Empty the Warrens) Echoing Truth gains a lot of value, and Wipe Away does nothing against Karakas, you are boned if you go for SnT -> Emrakul and they have knight for karakas or karakas itself (Truth is better in the Knight case, since you can bounce Knight for 2 mana instead of 3) but Karakas isn't a big problem. This deck has 4 ways to win, namely SnT -> Emrakul, SnT -> Progenitus, Sneak Attack -> Emrakul, Sneak Attack -> Prog, 2nd Prog (and a second turn ofcourse). Karakas is very good against plan 1, terrible against plan 2, very mildly annoying vs plan 3 (you can just activate Sneak Attack again, you do need double red which can be annoying since most Karakas decks play wastelands) and terrible against plan 4 again.

Clique is for the combo matchups, very good against BUG decks (it gets rid of disruption and can catch an edict, it can attack Liliana profitably and can trade for their Clique) and is decent against other control decks (like against Stoneblade you don't need the speed so you can ship the Petals for additional disruption).

I'll explain my other sb cards. Firespout is for timewalking goblins and slowing down Merfolk (which is not a good matchup), Crypt (should be Surgical Extractions I think) are against Dredge and Reanimator (extraction is better against reanimator, crypt better against Dredge) and Trinispheres are against faster combo decks. Spell Pierce are great against combo decks and control decks, and I wish I had room for them main, but Daze is just better G1.

[Nameless Two]

Ah yes, ofcourse. Total lack of experience here. I've never played decks that suffered from wasteland for lack of duals. And dredge zombie tokens, yeah echoing truth is definetely the better one there.

And daze seems better than spell pierce even if only for the fact that intuition for 3 dazes can be necessary at times.

If plan 4 actually used wouldn't it be better to run that 4th progenitus? (even if only in the sideboard for when the show and tell plan isn't such a good idea?)

[Einherjer]

Remember I´m new but still I dont see Daze being superior to Spell Pierce - Yeah its free but its actually half as good as Spell Pierce...
And doesnt it set you back from lands?

[rgripp]

I played this deck for the majority of 2010 and at least back then, you wouldn't want Daze because you don't want it to set you back lands.

Your game winning spells cost 3 and 4. What's the chance that when you cast a Show and Tell or a Sneak Attack, your opponent will be tapped out (or tap out) to make a Daze in your hand useful?

And against your opponent plays in the first turns, when you'll get to counter a spell, you're getting a full turn behind, giving your opponent time to maybe cast a Jace (which would bounce Emrakul).

While, with Spell Pierce, you can safely counter early Hymn, and when you're first, Vials and Seizes while you amass mana for the Intuition or cantrip.

[slaydo]

Isn´t Flusterstorm strictly better than spell pierce or daze in the MD. I see spell pierce as a great SB card and Flusterstorm to combat combo decks that are faster than us and double as counters against removal for our fatties such as edict and such???

just my $0.02

[JadeOberg]

Isn´t Flusterstorm strictly better than spell pierce or daze in the MD. I see spell pierce as a great SB card and Flusterstorm to combat combo decks that are faster than us and double as counters against removal for our fatties such as edict and such???

just my $0.02

I have spell pierced a Jace, Divining Top, and a Sword of Fire and Ice with this deck.

[The Colonel]

@Trent

I'll be honest with you man, I used to run bounce... but after showing up to a years worth of events and never once boarding it in, I just took it off.

As far as Ancestral Knowledge goes. True, it can fall to Spell Snare but like I said, I've never had it countered by anything. The fact that it has the Cumulative Upkeep makes people pass it over. They figure it takes care of its self so they don't mess with it. Then they lose cuz I just rigged the top 10 cards of my deck.

And to all... I gave up on Daze for this deck long ago. The reason:

Turn 1 me: Play Island, go
Turn 1 them: Play swamp, Thoughtsieze
DAZE
Turn 2 me: rinse and repeat turn 1 (GOD I HATE DAZE)

you can't always rely on having a brainstorm to hide cards and Daze costs us games, sets us to far behind
I'll just spend the 1 blue to play Spell Pierce and then get to do somthing productive on my turn 2, like this card that lets me rig the top 10 cards of my deck.

[Einherjer]

How do you guys think that the banning of brainstorm WOULD influence this particular deck, is ponder and preordain good enough?

Greetings

[The Colonel]

We discussed this very thing earlier in the thread and the general opinion of everyone seemed to be: Brainstorm will not get banned

[Einherjer]

..hopefuly

Ok, guys, if all my cards arrive Ill take this deck the first time to the locals this sunday, but I need some advice from you experts :)

Thats my deck atm:
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Arid Mesa
2 Volcanic Island
4 Island
2 Mountain
4 Ancient Tomb
//20

4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell
4 Emrakul
4 Progenitus
//16

4 Intuition
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
//12

4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection
3 Spell Pierce
//10

4 Lotus Petal
//4

= 62

Sideboard:
3 Trinisphere
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Echoing Truth
2 Pyroblast
4 Red Elemental Blast

Its pretty hard to cut this deck to 75... So ill stay with 77 until I got a good idea myself I guess.


And at my locals there are always the same decks, Im not gonna ask you how to beat Esperblade, Maverick or Deadguy but more like hard decks or decks Ive never tested against:


HighTide: This sounds like an easy MU - I just have to kill them before they reach their 4th landdrop, and I still got 4 Force + 3 Misdirection if they start to timespiral so they could fizzzle somewhere there I guess.

UW-EnlightenedTutorCounterThopter: Thats my horror-MU - Ive played against it 3 times and lost all of them. With the E-tutor hes getting Humility, Ensnaring Bridge, O-Ring, Phyrexian Metamorph - this is the MU where I beg you to gimme some tips:)

Thanks for accepted me, as a newcomer, it wont take more than a few weeks until I can discuss with you at the same level - Thanks

Greetings

[DragoFireheart]

Would it be possible to have enough room to run Daze and Spell Pierce?

[The Colonel]

Okay Phil, first of let me say you're going to have a lot of fun playing this deck... also a side note... WIN THE DIE ROLL. This deck has problems winning off the draw.


Now; too things you actually have control over...

These are just my opinions from running the deck for so long:

Land Base:

-Like 4 Tarn
-Don't like the 2 Misty and 2 mesa, you're going to be very dissapointed with the mesa. You NEED blue. Red is pretty much only for sneak attack. go up to 4 Misty. I run 4 delta but what ever. Use the mistys to fetch nothing but islands and if you can, save the tarns for the one mountain you need
-I run 3 volcanic and you may want to go up to 3. Seems to be the general thread concensus.
- +1 Island and -1 Tomb. Tomb rocks but when you have 2 in play thats going to get painful. Because of the deck you're playing you're going to take damage from the opponent from the get go and be able to do nothing about it. So you don't want to help them out by damaging yourself. Oh and it sucks drawing nothing but 2 tomb in your opening hand, your screwed.

Spells:

-You have all the staples and good call on 4 Prog and 4 Emmy. Stick to those no-nonsense creatures that stick until the end.

Searchers:

-got to have 4 BS
-Intuition rocks but you may want to cut it down to 3
-I HATE PONDER, I run 3 ancestral Knowledge, read my previous posts on the card. I love it

(by the way that will get you to 60 MD)

Counters:

-all perfect, Daze freakin sucks in this deck, trust me

4 Lotus petal rules, lets you win on the first turn


Your board:

This is where you going to run into a lot of trouble

-Surgical Extraction is fine, I'm looking at it myself
-6 red counters? thats way to muh overkill. I don't run any... why? Well they're not good against every deck so they could be dead and that could be 6 dead sideboard slots for you. The other reason is... what do you side out for them? 1 of this, 1 of that? now you're making Intuition less valuable. 3 of somthing? 4 of somthing? nothing in the MD is worth taking out for REB or Pyro. Ditch them and put BLOOD MOON IN. 3 blood moon is so good, they win games and eat up counters to pave the way for S&T or Sneak Attack. That's also another reason why I said +1 Island -1 Tomb. You always want to fetch basics if you can.
-Truth is fine
-Trinosphere is fine for your storm matches

Instead of the 6 red counters look at Massacre Wurm, so good against mass creature decks which are everywhere right now and you NEED firespout on your bored. I can't stress that enough NEED FIRESPOUT.




That's what I have for you. Good luck man, have fun and let us know how it goes.

[JPA]

I just found the report by Trentemoller's friend Erwin Sneek (the name fits) who finished 16th at Grand Prix Amsterdam. Just thought I'd share it with you, a very good read. http://www.teamadhd.nl/wp/?p=145

[Hopo]

I just found the report by Trentemoller's friend Erwin Sneek (the name fits) who finished 16th at Grand Prix Amsterdam. Just thought I'd share it with you, a very good read. http://www.teamadhd.nl/wp/?p=145

The rest of us found it already two weeks ago from the tournament reports section of this forum.

[JPA]

The rest of us found it already two weeks ago from the tournament reports section of this forum.

:frown: Didn't know that

[slaydo]

Hi Guys,

Worlds 2011 is over and one of the finalists in the team championship was playing Sneak&Tell with a rather unusual build. Here it is for reference:

4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Progenitus
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Intuition
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
4 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Mountain
3 Ancient Tomb
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Lotus Petal
3 Spell Pierce
2 City of Traitors
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
SB: 3 Blood Moon
SB: 2 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Surgical Extraction
SB: 2 Vendilion Clique
SB: 2 Pyroclasm
SB: 4 Leyline of Sanctity

I have been testing this online and it amazes me. It's still very consistent however I am shocked that it doesn't run any bounce. I like the alternate win con with Jace 2.0 a lot. I agree on the 2 City of Traitors because Sol Lands are exactly what makes this deck OP. T1 or T2 emmy/proggy.

Regarding the SB I would change the Blood Moons to Magus of the Moons because removal is still boarded out G2 against us. I am not sold on the leylines though. Having no bounce really hurts when fighting hate such as ensnaring bridge. I understand the need to cut 2 Intuition and 2 Lotus Petal for the 20th land and the 3 jaces.

Opinions?

Slaydo

[The Colonel]

I can not stress this enough... just because you run blue does not mean you need Jace. Cheating Emmy/Proggy into play is more devestating than anything Jace is going to do. Taking an Intuition out to run Jace just makes the deck less consistant. I think in the long run, say out of 100 games, you'd see that having an extra Intuition will make the deck more consistant.


Blood Moon Vs. Magus of the Moon

It's not a guarantee that your opponent will take out swords or path. Blood Moon is just the safer way to go. No, it doesn't attack for 2 but it's ost likely going to stick far better than magus. And don't forget, with SFM and nasty equipment rolling around (Jitte, Sword Fire/Ice) your maguses become much more vulnerable.

[Togores]

After playing one full year the deck, since december 2011 i Just started to play another deck (doomsday) but thats the last list i played. With Show & Sneak i toped a bunch of events like bazar of moxen (top8) and a lot of others here in spain so i let my last list here for anyone interested. I will still play the deck but now with so much team america running liliana in my zone its realy hard to play it.

4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Progenitus
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Intuition
4 Force of Will
3 Missdirection
4 Volcanic Island
3 Island
1 Mountain
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
4 Lotus Petal
3 Echoing truth

SB: 3 Blood Moon
SB: 2 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Faerie Macabre
SB: 3 Volcanic Fallout
SB: 2 Pyroblast
SB: 3 triniesphere

Changes that i make sometimes in sideboard depending on the meta:
+1/2 Faerie macabre
+2/3 Divert
+2/3 Energy flux
+2/3 Tormods Crypt
+1/3 Whipe Away

[Setherial]

Hi Guys,

Worlds 2011 is over and one of the finalists in the team championship was playing Sneak&Tell with a rather unusual build. Here it is for reference:

4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Progenitus
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Intuition
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
4 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Mountain
3 Ancient Tomb
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Lotus Petal
3 Spell Pierce
2 City of Traitors
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
SB: 3 Blood Moon
SB: 2 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Surgical Extraction
SB: 2 Vendilion Clique
SB: 2 Pyroclasm
SB: 4 Leyline of Sanctity

I have been testing this online and it amazes me. It's still very consistent however I am shocked that it doesn't run any bounce. I like the alternate win con with Jace 2.0 a lot. I agree on the 2 City of Traitors because Sol Lands are exactly what makes this deck OP. T1 or T2 emmy/proggy.

Regarding the SB I would change the Blood Moons to Magus of the Moons because removal is still boarded out G2 against us. I am not sold on the leylines though. Having no bounce really hurts when fighting hate such as ensnaring bridge. I understand the need to cut 2 Intuition and 2 Lotus Petal for the 20th land and the 3 jaces.

Opinions?

Slaydo

I'm no combo player but I tested this deck yesterday just for fun and it's nuts, I love it, I might just jump archetypes to play this. I'm used to running Jace as a control player and I think it's very powerful in this build. It's brainstorm, it's bounce (not get rid of Teeg bounce but turn 2 Jace bounce knight isn't bad by a long shot), it's alternative win when you resolve Blood Moon/Magus of the Moon.

The only thing I wasn't sure about were the Clique's in Side. Why do they play Clique? The mirror? Clique is pretty good against SHow and Tell but to play it as a Show and Tell player and only 2 instead of instead of 3, hmmm... I don't see it.

[menace13]

Jace is amazing in the deck. Have been testing this online and there are so many situations where Jace either wins outright or baits counters allowing SnT/Sneak to resolve. The Cliques are for combo and control match ups.

[useL]

Ran into Gatekeepers and Ensnaring Bridge yesterday. WTS Sneak Attack x4...

[Einherjer]

Thats why I think that HiveMind is superiour due to its second(main) win option =HiveMind!

[gamer4life]

Playing Sneaky Show. My main board is solid, not so sure about the side board tho.
4 Surgical
3 Blood moon
4 L.O.T.S
4 Red blast

The only card im sold on is Surgical Extraction. I feel the others could be somthing better,not sure what tho.

Thoughts ?

My main is

4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell
2 Jace,the mind sculpter
2 Intuition
4 F.O.W.
3 Spell Peirce
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Daze
2 lotus Petal

4 Emrakul
2 Progen
1 Woodfall Primas

8 Fetch
4 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 mountian
3 Tomb
2 City
1 Boseiju,Who Shelters All

[gamer4life]

Went 5/1 at my local event last night with the list above.

[TheMinel]

good result, here in Italy a sneak show deck won a sizeable tournament last weekend, with pretty much the list of the Jap world champion, although from his report it sounds like he was rather lucky in his draws really, in 11 of his games in the 6 rounds he won in his very first turns with show & tell :D

[gamer4life]

I had a ton of fun,lots of turn 1 and 2 wins. I love the look on peoples faces when they relized they had know outs.
Ofcours there is kinda some luck invovld,but at the same time the only worry against StoneBlade is ForceOfWill. All there other cards are dead.
I would love to see what your tornaments/metas are like,so any links would be appreciated.

[xfxf]

Does anyone know who Danny Batterman's Eureka list lost to in SCG LA to end up in the 16th place?

[Setherial]

I had a ton of fun,lots of turn 1 and 2 wins. I love the look on peoples faces when they relized they had know outs.
Ofcours there is kinda some luck invovld,but at the same time the only worry against StoneBlade is ForceOfWill. All there other cards are dead.
I would love to see what your tornaments/metas are like,so any links would be appreciated.

I had trouble against aggro (goblins and the likes, going 2-2-0 in a small tournament). It's not a problem if you have it all in your starting 7/6/5 but my experience turned out differently. It's painful to see dedicated aggro decks goldfish against you and swarm you the turn you drop emrakul with no way to slow them down.

[TheMinel]

I had a ton of fun,lots of turn 1 and 2 wins. I love the look on peoples faces when they relized they had know outs.
Ofcours there is kinda some luck invovld,but at the same time the only worry against StoneBlade is ForceOfWill. All there other cards are dead.
I would love to see what your tornaments/metas are like,so any links would be appreciated.

there you go

http://www.tipo1.it/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27484&start=0


checked on TC decks but not uploaded there as far as I can see

[gamer4life]

My only loss was to 1 drop Zoo. It was horrible,seeing slow hands is not what you want against aggro. In my final match i played against Mavrick. I won the first game. Lost game 2, after casting a firespout and killing Geist, Noble,Pridemage he just casted a Knight and i lost slowly after. So i agree aggro can be a problem.
The Firespout was last min. My board was
2 Firespout
3 Red blast
3 Surgical
4 L.O.T.S.
3 Blood moon
Do to the Aggro problem,next week im going to play 3 firespout.
I must say i havent been impressed with Red blast. I think the main board Peirce do its job just as good.
@ The Minel Thanks, I like the one of Through the Breech. It worms my hart to see 2 Sneaky Show list top 8.

[TheMinel]

i think the guy admitted to play 1x TTB only because he ddin't manage to find the 4th sneak attack ahaha

:D

[useL]

My only loss was to 1 drop Zoo. It was horrible,seeing slow hands is not what you want against aggro. In my final match i played against Mavrick. I won the first game. Lost game 2, after casting a firespout and killing Geist, Noble,Pridemage he just casted a Knight and i lost slowly after. So i agree aggro can be a problem.
The Firespout was last min. My board was
2 Firespout
3 Red blast
3 Surgical
4 L.O.T.S.
3 Blood moon
Do to the Aggro problem,next week im going to play 3 firespout.
I must say i havent been impressed with Red blast. I think the main board Peirce do its job just as good.
@ The Minel Thanks, I like the one of Through the Breech. It worms my hart to see 2 Sneaky Show list top 8.


Firespout is great but doesn't deal with Delver of Secrets and Vendilion Clique which both are in fact a threat in todays meta. I would suggest Pyroclasm instead of Firespout. It misses a few guys (Kird Ape, Loam Lion, early goyf etc) but Delver is played in every second deck it seems.

[Togores]

Firespout is great but doesn't deal with Delver of Secrets and Vendilion Clique which both are in fact a threat in todays meta. I would suggest Pyroclasm instead of Firespout. It misses a few guys (Kird Ape, Loam Lion, early goyf etc) but Delver is played in every second deck it seems.

After some time plaing firespout and pyroclasm i ended plaing volcanic fallout.

it kills delver, venidlion, tegg, canonist all goblins and merfloks, also kills the factorys and the mutavaults and pacekeeper.

And the most important thing is THAT IT CANT BE COUNTERED

aginst merfolks and goblins is a double time walk and specialy vs goblins he will usualy summon his goblins before atacking due his haste and the lords in merfloks too due the +1+1 then for example if u firespout in your turnr vs goblins he can easy summon warchief and piledriver and some other goblin due to aether vial and kill u. the same with a lord and mutavault.

Ando some time more than expected i have kill with fallout my oponent, like 1 emmy atack due to sneak atack and no more creatures but fallout and he is at 15+ 2 or 3 fetches +1 fow and u kill him.

usualy in each 6+ round events i winn one game with fallout.

[useL]

After some time plaing firespout and pyroclasm i ended plaing volcanic fallout.

it kills delver, venidlion, tegg, canonist all goblins and merfloks, also kills the factorys and the mutavaults and pacekeeper.

And the most important thing is THAT IT CANT BE COUNTERED

aginst merfolks and goblins is a double time walk and specialy vs goblins he will usualy summon his goblins before atacking due his haste and the lords in merfloks too due the +1+1 then for example if u firespout in your turnr vs goblins he can easy summon warchief and piledriver and some other goblin due to aether vial and kill u. the same with a lord and mutavault.

Ando some time more than expected i have kill with fallout my oponent, like 1 emmy atack due to sneak atack and no more creatures but fallout and he is at 15+ 2 or 3 fetches +1 fow and u kill him.

usualy in each 6+ round events i winn one game with fallout.


I was up against elfball yesterday and I have to say that if I had volcanic fallout instead of pyroclasm he would have won that match. Now I had Trinisphere and Pyroclasm (both can be dropped on round 1/2 pending Lotus Petal) which did the job and won the match.

[gamer4life]

Probally a bad idea,but thinking of playing Impulse and Chalice over Ponder and Brainstorm.
Considering it because Chalice for 1 could screw over Zoo,Rug Tempo and Reainimater.

[Togores]

i think the chalice idea is realy nice, but without tomb or city of traitors it loses power.
and depending on the meta. if its full of this 3 decks and burn its ok, but if ur paired vs gw zenith or sth like that it only slows u down. and the power of brainstorm is to good.

[gamer4life]

I ended up keeping Ponder and Brainstorm. I went 2/2,lost to B/R Delver and B/W controll. My B/W opponent had double Force game 1. Game2 i went turn 1 ponder turn 2 Show and Tell when i Show and Telled he Surgicaled my ponder seeing i had him out FoWd. Game 3 I took out Blood Moon because he is smart enough to play around it. I walked into Surgical Extraction by playing Intuition,my threats got counterd from there wile he was attacking me.He just had all the answers:(. Games 2/3 against B/R Delver were kinda hard. My early Blood Moon game 2 ended up being dead, do to him having his other 2 basic in his hand. Game 3 i just got screwed, i went land go he went land /Goblin Guide attack trigger on the stack i Brainstorm hitting no lands. When i finally got anouther land it didn't matter anymore he had me.
Blood Moon only seems good as a suprise and now everyone knows i play it :(. So im going to test Trinashper in its slot.
Now that i know B/R Delver is threat im going to try Pyroclasom over Firespout. Pyroclasom just seems faster,and will kill Delver.

[useL]

I ended up keeping Ponder and Brainstorm. I went 2/2,lost to B/R Delver and B/W controll. My B/W opponent had double Force game 1. Game2 i went turn 1 ponder turn 2 Show and Tell when i Show and Telled he Surgicaled my ponder seeing i had him out FoWd. Game 3 I took out Blood Moon because he is smart enough to play around it. I walked into Surgical Extraction by playing Intuition,my threats got counterd from there wile he was attacking me.He just had all the answers:(. Games 2/3 against B/R Delver were kinda hard. My early Blood Moon game 2 ended up being dead, do to him having his other 2 basic in his hand. Game 3 i just got screwed, i went land go he went land /Goblin Guide attack trigger on the stack i Brainstorm hitting no lands. When i finally got anouther land it didn't matter anymore he had me.
Blood Moon only seems good as a suprise and now everyone knows i play it :(. So im going to test Trinashper in its slot.
Now that i know B/R Delver is threat im going to try Pyroclasom over Firespout. Pyroclasom just seems faster,and will kill Delver.

It seems you have come to the same conclusion as I have. Pyroclasm and Trinisphere in board. 5 slots in total. Oh, and did you keep a onelander there against one of the quickest decks in the format? I never keep a onelander unless it is against control or I have the nuts.

My board is:

2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pyroblast
3 Surgical Exctraction
3 Trinisphere
2 Pyroclasm
3 Echoing Truth

I have been contemplating removing the reb/pyroblast and replacing with Boseiju to avoid the countarwars entirely.

[Koby]

Defense Grid is kind of nice too against the Counter-decks.

[useL]

Defense Grid is kind of nice too against the Counter-decks.

Yeah, but the problem with control decks is that they seldom lack the mana to be able to FoW even if it costs 3. I have considered a green splash for small cute green animal to silence, but I am not sure its the right way to go. Even though most decks remove their removal g2.

[useL]

Dead thread =(

So, I went and dominated my last local event going 4-0 and now I hear alot of players talking about Ensnaring Bridge again. Do I have to go Woodfall Primus route or is there a better solution? Maindeck bounce?

[gamer4life]

:( Here to,it is a dead thread.
But the deck is awesome,the best part about it is it doesn't care about the meta. I went 4/0 just this thursday,i lost in top 4. It was horrible game 3 we both mulled to 4 his 4 was just better. Iv been top 4ing every thurs with it tho and iv won a couple times to.
If you think about it you always want to S/T in Progenitus or Emrakul. Woodfall Primus is only really good with Sneak Attack later in the game.
I play 4 FOW, 3 Daze,4 sneak and 3 Spell Peirce in the main. My plan would be to win through Sneak Attack and just counter the E Bridge.
In order to take full advantige of Ensnaring Bridge you have to alter your deck for it. None of the decks in the current meta can do that.
If you dont like what i think than theres always Echoing Truth for the board.

Congrats on your wins :)

[useL]

:( Here to,it is a dead thread.
But the deck is awesome,the best part about it is it doesn't care about the meta. I went 4/0 just this thursday,i lost in top 4. It was horrible game 3 we both mulled to 4 his 4 was just better. Iv been top 4ing every thurs with it tho and iv won a couple times to.
If you think about it you always want to S/T in Progenitus or Emrakul. Woodfall Primus is only really good with Sneak Attack later in the game.
I play 4 FOW, 3 Daze,4 sneak and 3 Spell Peirce in the main. My plan would be to win through Sneak Attack and just counter the E Bridge.
In order to take full advantige of Ensnaring Bridge you have to alter your deck for it. None of the decks in the current meta can do that.
If you dont like what i think than theres always Echoing Truth for the board.

Congrats on your wins :)


Well the problem I run into is that they let the SnT resolve and then put Ensnaring Bridge into play with the SnT. Then if you dont have maindeck bounce you are fakked. So.. I have to come up with a solution, I run 3 E.T. in board but I'd hate to feel that I must board it in every game after sideboard.

[gamer4life]

Don't Show and Tell the Sneak Attack just cast it. Then from there just counter the Bridge.

[zerzab11]

Hey Folks,

any recent success with this deck?

I've been playing SneakAttack on and off the last year. I played it just two times in 2012 one time 7-2 to a 13th place finish with about 190 players the other time 4-0 to a 1th place finish at a small local tourney with about 15 players.

Just for reference here's what I played:

4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Progenitus

4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Intuition
2 Sensei's Divining Top

4 Force of Will
3 Flusterstorm

2 Echoing Truth

3 Lotus Petal

4 Volcanic Island
4 Ancient Tomb
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Island
1 Mountain


Sideboard:

3 Faerie Macabre
3 Bloodmoon
3 Volcanic Fallout
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Trinisphere

I think the deck is really strong, but so boring , anyone else having the same problems? How to make this deck more fun to play, splash a colour? :cry:

[JPA]

@ zerzab11: The 13th place was at Win a Lotus in Hanau right? How was the Meta like? Can you maybe write a little report if you made any notes or remember anything :smile:

How did the Flusterstorms work for you? I guess best case they are 1 mana counterspell, even though Misdirection seems more versatile to me, since it improves our matchup against discard, which is usually our worst one.

About making the deck more fun: You could try it with the White splash for Enlightened Tutor and 1-of Blightsteel Colossus or Sphinx of the Steel Wind. The feeling of Eot-ing the Tutor for Colossus and sneaking him into play without any blockers on the opponents side is definitely pleasant - plus, it can catch your opponent off guard and can turn games around where Emmy or Proggy wouldn't be enough. :wink:

[useL]

Or start playing Through the Breach for more explosiveness. I havent played more than 3 Progenitus lately, in so many matchups he is just too slow.

[Bobboviking]

I just won a 30~ person tournament with this deck and despite this thread beeing abit dead the deck is still good and people dont seem to expect it (at least where i play).
The list i played:

3 Island
1 Mountain
3 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Ancient Tomb

4 Emrakul
3 Progenitus

4 Brainstorm
4 Intuition
4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection
3 Spell Peirce

4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell

4 Sneak Attack

4 Lotus Petal

SB:
4 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Blood Moon
3 Pyroclasm
3 Pyroblast
2 Vendilion Clique

I went 3-0-2 (id the last two games) in the swiss and went all the way in the top 8 playing against (in the swiss) Team Italia, UW-Blade, Naya-Loam, (top8) Maverick, Zoo and then the same Naya-Loam in the finals. I lost a couple of rounds here and there due to random reasons (mostly Karakas -> Emrakul) but overall i felt the deck was a really good choice and it performed well with consistent r3 Show and Tells. I dident really get to use Sneak Attack that much cause i kept drawing SnT's.

Blood Moon is pretty much the best card ever as it shuts down alot of the decks out there and is especially good vs people that dont expect it / are greedy. Parhaps best of all is that it shuts off Karakas that my opponents kept peeling from the top.

Progenitus is quite often abit of a letdown but i found him useful a few rounds where my opponent had Karakas in play and i couldnt find a Blood Moon or Sneak Attack. I wish they would print something new just as powerful as Emrakul. ;)

As for the deck beeing boring, well it can be yes but if you dont play it all the time i find it quite funny to grab it and play in the local tournament from time to time. But its not a deck that i would like to spend all my time playing.

[zerzab11]

@Bobboviking: Congrats man, deck is surely still strong.

@JPAngelhelescu: How did you know? :)
I don't know very much just that I lost my first round against a Stoneblade player who had his one of Karakas in both games :( I was very much on tilt then and concentrated for the next seven hours like I never do in university ;)
I won against Canadian in three intense matches with a lategame Trinisphere and a Flusterstorm.
I won 2 times against Maverick (please people don't Show and Tell into Emrakul, that's nearly always wrong as the MU is so easy and we can win in other ways).
I won against Turbolands, involving a difficult decision in letting his "sac all lands serach for four lands and bring them into play tapped" spell resolve and saving my Brainstorm for the following (last) turn for me, where I did find the E-Truth for bouncing his Needle.
Then I was 7-1 and the only one unluckily getting paired down, and I knew that I would lose (sometimes I just have that feeling^^). I was paired against Stoneblade, who of course had his legendary superland and Cliqued me with it to death (I never saw a RedBlast). I think thats one of the most difficult MU's if the opponent knows how to play his deck.

The flusterstorms are better than the Misdirection imo, never making carddisadvantage, and being a very effective hardcounter against Discard!!

Thank you all for your fun-suggestions I will surely try some out. For me as well this deck is what I play if I want to win and the fun ist not so important...;)

[Bobboviking]

@zerzab11 Thanks! Id like to hear your opinion on a couple of things. For how long have you been testing Flusterstorm instead of the Misdirections (and have they ever been disappointing, if so how)? And how do you feel about your 2 maindecked Echoing Truths?

[menace13]

The deck has been putting up good results past few months consistantly. Mcdarby top 8'd last night at the Charlotte 5K and The deck also top 8'd at the Cincinatti 5k before that.

Another 2 top 16's at Richmond, and DC 5k's. With 2 6-1 records placing seventh and eighth out of 300+ at the SCG Invitational in October as well. A 1st place at Worlds for Team Legacy and 2 top 16's in GP Amsterdam.

[Togores]

Yesterday i got 3rd in a +60 man event with my new version of S&T with SA.

I lost 5th round becuase i didnt counter a elpsth because i was one land away from wining and he had only 2 noble hierarch on table. i was a 16 and i forgot the exalted so from having 5 turns i got only 3 and i lose. to the final winner of the event

but the deck was runing perfect, the changes i made to beat reaminator and liliana went like i thought.

i played

reanimator 2-0
bug control 2-1
stoneforge 2-1
countertop 2-0
bant 1-2
WB woth sorin 2-0

Here is the decklist i played:

puting in the SDT is great agaisnt control becuase it gives you better draws and one extra card when u combo and vs discard gives a big edge. i usualy side them out vs agro.

3 Island
1 Mountain
4 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Ancient Tomb

4 Emrakul
4 Progenitus

4 Brainstorm
2 Intuition
1 Echoing Truth
4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection
3 Sensei Divining Top

4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell

4 Sneak Attack

4 Lotus Petal

SB:
2 Echoing truth
3 Blood Moon
3 Volcanic fallout
2 Pyroblast
2 Red elemental blast
3 Gravedigger Cage

[(nameless one)]

This doesn't really help the thread but I noticed that its name changed. Why not just change the name to Sneak Show all together? It's a catchy name and is relevant.

[death]

Sneaky Show sounds raunchy, only in SCG do I recall hearing that term. Besides the current thread title is apt for this archetype plus you wouldn't want to disappoint those hoping to find something raunchy inside this thread so.

[Bobboviking]

I have always named my deck "Sneaky Man" cause i feel sneaky when i play it :)

[Justin]

I've heard it called "Sneak and Tell" or "Sneaky Tell." I prefer the latter, actually.

[Ozymandias]

I've started calling it Sneakerboxxx/The Show Below.

[Ramirez777]

I vote we call the deck, Attack of the Show. Makes sense to me.

This is the list I will be playing at GP Dallas on March 11th. I will let you know how it fares. Hope to see many of you there.

Attack of the Show
2x Chrome Mox
2x Mox Diamond
1x Sensei's Divining Top
4x Sneak Attack
4x Show and Tell
4x Brainstorm
3x Ponder
4x Force of Will
3x Daze
4x Spell Pierce
2x Intuition
4x Emrakul
3x Progenitus
4x Ancient Tomb
3x City of Traitors
4x Volcanic Island
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Flooded Strand
2x Island
1x Mountain
Sb:
2x Shattering Spree
3x Bloodmoon
2x Mind Harness
2x Pyroblast
1x Red Elemental Blast
2x Submerge
3x Tormod's Crypt

[The Colonel]

I miss Mental Misstep :cry:

[jace247]

This deck i have played for a very long time, here recently i havent played it because i am playing T.E.S. I enjoy the deck but HOLY CRAP there is so many differant takes on this deck. So here is my list that has done me very well.

4 Show and tell
4 Sneak attack
4 Force of will
3 Daze
3 spell snare
4 intuition
4 Lotus petal
3 or 4 Emrakul the aeons torn
3 Progenitus
2 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Seething Song

I know the lands aren't how i would like them but i don't like switching them between my T.E.S deck every time i want to platy it.

Lands:
2 Volcanic Island
2 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
4 Islands
1 Mountain
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
3 Arid Mesa

sideboard:
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Angel of Despair
1 terastadon
4 pyroblast
3 Surgical Extractions
3 Spell Pierce
2 Divert