True. It wouldn't work vs Reanimator, if they get Griselbrand into play they'll get Tidespout/Ashen Rider, but could work vs Snt and Eldrazi too. Just about crazy enough to try!
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Ensnaring Bridge is also on my short list of cards I want to try. I really liked it in the SB of Mentor Miracles, when all the Entreat lists were playing Moat against the then new Eldrazi deck.
Regarding general boarding plans: Against Sneak Show and ANT, I tend to take out some Lotus Petals. We can't win the race anyway, so reducing speed for more disruption seems reasonable. Though I wouldn't cut too many against Reanimator because of Chancellor.
Against UB Shadow, after some testing against a friend of mine, I board down to 2 Mentors and cut the Spell Pierce for Removal. I still like all the combo pieces and discard in that matchup. I basically try to play ANT against them. Buying time until soft counters don't matter anymore and I have discard for Surgicals and Forces. In about 10 matches, the matchup felt quite positive, which my testing partner agreed with. I just found it to be easier to force through the combo than trying to cast a Mentor + several spells in the same turn. With the Pyromancer lists, that should be easier, but on the other hand Pyromancer doesn't feel like a reasonable win condition against Delver. It can buy a lot of time, but probably won't kill them. At least not without a Liliana helping out.
I have yet to test against Grixis Delver. Shadow is probably the easiest Delver deck for us, because our combo one shots them a lot of the time.
Against Reanimator, I would keep in the Combo. Of course our combo is slower than theirs, but hitting them for 9 effectively shuts off Reanimate after we disrupted their first attempt, which is huge.
I think this is correct, which is sort of how I ended up wondering if Phoenix was actually the weak link in this deck :/ Mentor into two spell off Petal is insane, and Petal makes Daze easier to use...
More and more I'm starting to see this be the case. Crypt is better with Mentor than YP which definitely makes it more correct in the W build.
I think this is important to keep in mind. Legacy has a lot of variables at the moment -- tempo is so important and board cards that are good on the play may not be on the draw and vice versa.
Keep in mind I'm doing this while experimenting with the Force board plan. If we are playing force, that's less cards to trigger Phoenix, not to mention playing more reactively -> less spells cast on your turn. I may try a different plan at some point where the goal will be to turbo out a win, but right now, I want my cards to be answers to the combo to force the game into topdeck mode and then clean up with a YP or hardcast Phoenix.
Against Reanimator, I haven't had as much success as you, but I also haven't flipped my board plan to be heavier on Crypt yet. (I also lost one match to UB reanimator which plays quite differently -- had my buried alive dazed in a G1 for example). However, one reason to board out Buried Alive there is so we don't end up in a line where we set up a trigger for next turn and then they reanimate all our Arclights themselves.
lol, I went back and watched this. I got Aigis and Aerim mixed up and played the first turn game 1 like they were on red prison. Then game 2 got lucky but I would've been happy to go to a game 3 on the draw. Saw Negator77 in the chat -- pretty funny -- my reward for getting lucky in that second game was going to the next round against him and having no lands in 7, 6 or 5 against a terrible mu anyway. :)
I should be clear that I think truth is a great card for us and clearly has excellent applications. I was just saying, that if force plan is correct, maybe a more horizontally good U card there -- especially one with S&T applications against show-Emrakul. However, I don't find S&T that difficult because they are an A+B combo where both parts have to be in hand (vs. reanimator where only one part has to be in hand and if they can get a creature into the GY they have far more topdecks).
FWIW, I think Force is not good in the Mentor build because you have access to more hate cards in W and you have Petal as a way to be more explosive that isn't at 1cmc nor a nonbasic land. But against Grixis not only is Chalice brutal, but a T1 moon can be as well. Getting to play Kambal in W is great (I love Kambal and hope he can find a home) and of course you'll get Lavinia soon (I hate this card as you know but good is good, getting one of these down off a petal turn 1 is going to be insane :tongue:). If the Forces weren't in my Grixis build, I'd be playing 2 Abrades and another Fluster. None of these hit moon...
Sorry I wasn't clear -- I board in the U package vs Chalice decks, but don't board out the combo. I forget exactly what it is, I think I just bring in 5-6 U cards and trim from the margins -- couple discard spells, one ritual/buried, a preordain, maybe a planeswalker. Serenity is so insane vs these decks though :smile:
I don't think I've ever won a match against Negator77, but I sure play him in every league. #WhyINever5-0
I think you keep that hand so you can T1 and 2 thoughtseize to keep them off anything threatening. You're hoping to draw a cantrip on turn 1 or 2 so you can TS + cantrip on that turn, and you have so many. Also, if you draw a Lotus Petal on 1 or 2, you can T1 thoughtseize their t1 play, t2 play mentor, if they don't answer, you untap on turn 3 with at least a thoughtseize and hopefully a cantrip/some more gas to get ahead of them.
However, 3x mentor vs a deck where removal isn't really a thing is tough, I agree that it's close.
lol, when we did the Paragon 24 hour stream we played against this deck, I called what it was immediately after we got Blood Sunned into Thought-Knot Seer and everyone thought i was crazy/stupid. They're right, but that's only because I tried the exact same thing when Blood Sun was printed. It didn't really work out.
I'm having a lot of fun working on this deck honestly -- I love Phoenix and Therapy and Mentor, all these cards speak to me.
alright guys wow a lot of new information and everyone is on hard testing, great!
i try to talk now more deeply about the combo match up no one is really sure what's wrong or right. Like still here its a lot possible and we have to look at each combo match up differently.
Reanimator UB and RB: i think the same plan is fine here. I agree with you whitefaces, maybe i'm also wrong and we just need to pressure them in g1 and 2 a lot. so actually maybe to take out 4 mentor is not completely wrong.
basically we can still having the fast combo and play a crypt/fluster/discard after for example. But also i have to say i have to test this way and also the way without the combo and more hard control. but maybe is exactly here the problem that they can discard mentor and even reanimate it. What happens with the phoenix maybe aswell but we will not have just 1 phoenix in the gy so maybe we can go and reanimate them again and block the other one for example. i think it could really be the better way also because we pressure them more. what happens with mentor is that if you have mentor+crypt is that it's also nice but maybe we used already gas for answers. with the combo we are probably going of faster and use the disruption and cantrips differently. i'm now on 3 surgical and 2 crypt. i have to test now more with this configuration but 5 is a lot and i think 4 hate peaces with all the other stuff is too much and we don't want to overboard in a way. that's why i would just play 2 surgical and 2 crypt. crypt is probably better in the deck. i would like to find room for a second kambal.
what's also important they play a little less gy hate than the most other decks. i mean even the most ant list's playing 2 surgical today's on.
ANT/TES
here i prefer the control route a lot more. of course they play discard but they also play more cantrips to find more hate and go off to kill us directly. so just gy hate and combo gets less efficient. for example i found 2 ee for really nice to handle put down led's and maybe empty. the mentor therapy way is just strong even it's a 3 mana card. i mean we will come to that mana mostly and play control. mentor can kill quickly aswell. also with my idea of adding 1 kambal more make the whole plan better. with petal we can it t2 and protect him with fluster or discard. that's are my thought's here.
Sneak and Show/ Mono U Show.
I played actually just mono u show so far, don't know why but i lost it twice but it was when i startet to play magic again at saturday, also with a complete new deck so i really had a mix between combo and mentor what's not really the plan.
i figure against bouth version i would choose also the same route as with ant. Its probably the slowest deck of all the 3 i mentioned so far. Leyline is a treath and i even play my 2 Disenchants here, they take omni sneak attack and random blood moons aswell. Also if they not resolve leyline of sanctity, they rather just get therapies. sneak and show is probably a little bit better. i still think it's the easiest match up the 3 combo decks i mentioned.
Dark Depths
To be honest i never played it yet. i figure the best way is just disruption and the t1 or t2 combo and be a little lucky. I don't think it's worth to concider ensnaring bridge because they probably keep decay specially after the decks develops more.
but if its really this bad i would rather just play it like that with the combo and take cards in like fluster. i mean if someone await it like hardly, then sure we should go for a hate. though i like the idea path to exile over stp more because to give life is really not great with this deck.
Mirror
yes it happened, i played the mirror and its some random shit. lost it 1:2 g1 i was on the win with disruption he has nothing and drews BS into combo...
Now some notes to the Delver Decks i found also really interesting
UB Shadow, I played it sometimes now and i felt quit positive. Here i tried to find a balance between the combo and mentor. First to board out some of the mentor is really wrong because a resolves mentor is really hard to handle for them, specially if we disrupt them aswell. i don't have clear boarding plan yet here. i usually board 1 phoenix 1 alive 1 or 2 therapy 1 or 2 petal (not sure yet what's better but probably 2 petal)for 3 fluster and 2 EE.
Grixis Delver
I also did not played it. it's probably a more tough one specially after boarding. let's see what happens. maybe i'm wrong.
RUG Delver
basically the same as with Grixis, probably a little bit easier because we can play around stifle but still the plan is quit mana denial plan is quit strong against ester phoenix if we can not go off really fast. i think the combo here is the right way.
Greets Pascal
Strix decks are generally very positive match-ups, but Elves and D+T can be tough IMHO. Elves can race 3 Phoenixes pretty well and discard isn't that great at stopping their combo since they're generally drawing a lot of cards each turn thanks to Glimpse/Visionary shenanigans. D+T's a better match-up than Elves, but Thalia and/or equip are good against us, especially if they have an active Vial to play around Therapy.
Played Esper last night:
Czech Pile WW
Czech Pile WW
Lands LL
Grixis Delver LL
Depths WLL
Wasteland was a huge factor in those middle games, even with Petal.
Esper at the weekly (in paper!)
esper midrange (no sfm) 0-2
Bant Delver 2-1
Eldrazi 2-1
Humans 2-1
So a nice night. My hands in the first round were horrendous though, no landers into whiffing on cantrips.
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BTW-gm 3 vs Humans on the play
Petal x2
Ponder
Brainstorm
Preordain
Mentor
Delta
Is everyone 100% slamming Mentor t1? What do you fetch with delta knowing they have Wasteland? I did island petal petal mentor, but cantrips whiffed for multiple turns and it was a bit dicey. However I think aggro mentor here is the right move, but curious if anyone is digging for Phoenix combo instead.
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Hello everyone, I've been playing this deck at my last few local weeklies to pretty good success and have been having a lot of fun with the build. Thanks Whitefaces for the primer and continued work on the deck!
Last night I actually played the mirror, and I was wondering what people's thoughts are on sideboarding strategy, and if it is play /draw dependent.
My list for reference:
4 Phoenix
4 young pyro
2 liliana last hope
2 liliana of the veil
4 brainstorm
4 ponder
4 preordain
4 thoughtseize
4 Cabal therapy
4 dark ritual
4 buried alive
2 lightning bolt
18 land
1 island
1 swamp
3 underground sea
3 volcanic island
1 badlands
4 scalding tarn
4 polluted delta
1 bloodstained mire
Sideboard
3 tormod crypt
2 surgical extraction
2 echoing truth
2 spell pierce
1 flusterstorm
2 Abrade
1 goblin cratermaker
2 bitterblossom
Against the mirror, almost all the sideboard cards seem good in some way! I ended going with
-2 lotv
-1 buried alive
-1 Phoenix
-2 preordain
-1 Cabal therapy
+ 2 echoing truth
+ 3 tormod crypt
+ 2 Bitterblossom
My opponent went more in the direction of siding out discard and bringing in permission. I think being proactive with discard is the right way to go, and surgical seems bad because you can just wait and get it with discard whereas crypt can just hang out on the board.
Looking back, I think maybe echoing truth should not have been brought in, or only bring it in on the draw perhaps. If you need to use it, you're probably not doing well in the match anyway. I'm also thinking bringing in Abrade to kill their crypt or to kill a pyromancer is a good idea. Maybe even cratermaker too (in general he should maybe just be another Abrade honestly) . I don't think Bitterblossom was a good sideboard choice, that should have stayed out probably, too slow. I also think sideboarding out a basic land might be correct. Boarding out preordain I think was wrong too. Maybe this would have been better :
-2 lotv
-1 Phoenix
-1 buried alive
-1 swamp
-1 Cabal therapy
+3 tormod crypt
+2 abrade
+1 flusterstorm
Let me know your thoughts everyone!
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Sorry for the lack of replies and updates everyone, I've been quite busy recently and not as much time to play. I plan to get back to all of you though, as well as post current thoughts on the deck and update the primer, especially talking about Grixis and Esper and what pros and cons they both have.
Current esper list??
For me its still the same as i posted above. You can take a look at it. In the Main board there is not really much to change atm. The sideboard changed -1 surgical +1 kambal
Went to a local tournament (35 ppl)today with the esper list. Got 4-2 in the end. i'm playing this list for the first time, and pretty happy about result.
round 1 vs scapeshift nic fit: 2-1, 3 phoenix and cabal therapy finished the game pretty quickly. The lost is because he got two explorer and reaps my hand with two therapy.
round 2 vs Grixis delver: 2-1 game 1 i went turn 2 therapy ritual buried 3 phoenix, attack for 3 turns and win. game 2 i thoughtseized a blue elemental blast instead of a fish cause I mistaken it with
brainstorm, and then i died to a fish. game 3 i use a sword on young pz and bated a FOW pitching a daze at the end of his turn. Then i go with the combo into 3 phoenix. He killed two phoenix with blue blast and bolt, but i keep getting them back, so he couldnt find a flipped delver to block and died. After the game, he said he pitched the daze instead of blue blast is because i discarded it in game 2 so he thought its important to counter a looting, otherwise he could have won the counter war. I said, oh what, i thought that was a brainstorm, oops:laugh:.
round 3 vs bule-white stoneblade: 0-2 game 1 i discarded his hand and drew six lands in a row, and died. game 2 couldnt find answer to the batterskull and couldnt win the counter war, and died pretty fast.
round 4 vs dredge:2-0 game 1 he didnt dredge into nacros to block, so i killed him with 4 phoenix. game 2 i surgicaled his bridge and Ichorid on turn 3 and turn 4, and win with 3 phoenix.
round 5 vs eldrazi stompy: 1-2 game 1 I managed to win through a turn 1 chalice on 1 with a mentor and 3 phoenix(hard cast buried alive and bring them back next turn). game 2 & 3 his hand is like god. turn 0 leyline turn 1 chalice turn 2 TKS turn 3 TKS. Couldnt find daze or spell pierce for the chalice. I disenchant the chalice but can not win the race without the phoenix.TKS+TKS+ Smasher is the nuts:cry:
round 6 vs black-white smallpox: 2-0 he got lingering souls out pretty early both games, but i turn 2 combo him both games. Though phoenix trades with the spirit 3 times, i can easily bring them back with therapies, so he couldnt block forever.
My 4-2 record should give me a seat in top 8 but i got to leave early, so I gave the chance to my last round opponent.
Thoughts on this deck so far:
1. Esper list is more powerful than the grixis list. with petal u can protect ur turn2 combo against the daze, and I kept a lot of a one land one petal one discard hands and still combo off on turn 2 with protection.
2. 4 mentors maybe too much. I think the 4th could be a planeswalker, maybe a LotV is good.
3. 4 dazes might not be enough to fight the turn 1 chalice decks, against other decks, drawing it after turn 4 feels really bad. but i dont like putting FOW in this deck, cause the card disadvantage is huge. next time I think i will put 2 daze and 2 other counter spell or EE in the mainboard.
4. i put a lavania in the sideboard today, but didnt see any storm or SNT, so I dont know how good it could be yet. maybe turn 1 lavania against those turn 1 chalice deck is good option too is we r playing first.
5. I do think that putting two ensnaring bridge in the sb in order to board out the phoenix combo and focus on the mentor aspect is worth considering, especially after the lost to eldrazi.
Anyway, esper phoenix is a pretty cool deck, and I think it has more potential in legacy than in modern. I'll keep practicing it and see how it goes. Cheers!
Nice results, I am going to play the grixis version at a tournament on Sunday. I kind of like the idea of ensnaring bridge in the sideboard. Not only would it be good against Eldrazi, but Sneak & Show, Depths, and maybe even Reanimator. It does cost 3, but it could be cast on turn 1 with a dark ritual.
Hei guys
I went to a weekly( 4 rounds with esper phoenix) list above somewhere.
I did 3:1. Matches where:
2:0 Eldrazy stompy, He founds twice no chalice, g2 i disenchant leyline and ee him the clock. G2 mentor is reallly strong.
2:0 Burn i think the way to go here is just race him with a fast phoenix. Kambal+fluster helps. Dont forget to board disenchant for the enchantments.
1:2 UWr Miracle i really believe its a good match up. G3 was the important point i keept a test hand 4 Lands, daze, Ponder, Ts, i should have mull here. I think my idea was to get everything together because i got the time and i dont lose to CA with mull to 6. The Ponder went shuffle into more lands.
At one point i can disrupt his hand and he end with to useless cards and i have the lili. With the last tick he finds the creature and has his bs+outs from the top too. After that i drew basically my whole mana base and i can not win anymore.
2:1 UW Standstill Even more favered. He plays a more greedy manabase than miracle and that can punish him. Mentor is really strong here aswell. I made also a big mistake with not boarding disenchant. I should have boarded at least 1 because i had no clue what me awaits. Still a mentor wins me the race because his clock was quit slow.
Well i'm happy with the results and i gonna play that deck on saturday on a 1k tournament. Also i will write a more detailed report with sideboard choices;)
Greets Pascal
Alright, so I've started writing some changes to the primer. Mostly just updating information with what we've learnt since the deck started, though the core has pretty much stayed the same still. And I'll talk about the Esper build too.
Vs ANT and SnS I would be keeping all Petals personally, without Force of Will we need all the tempo we can get I think. As well as cantripping into disruption to play the same turn/get off a faster combo. While they are a faster combo deck than us, it doesn't mean we should slow ourselves down then because we, usually, can't win on that axis. From Esper it lets you play a faster Kambal too.
Nice post! Again, sorry I've been so absent here lately.
Reanimator: I agree with what you're saying. I've gotten to play it more and more since posting last and I think combo is the way to go over Mentor. I've had them Reanimate a Phoenix and that's fine, we get our own, they need to block then it comes back etc. But if you do get to test with Mentors > combo I think we'd need a lot more permission spells. It's possible, but with how the deck is now I think combo is better. The other thing to keep in mind is if you're on Grixis or Esper, as in Mentor is really scary for them to Reanimate, YP a bit less so.
ANT/TES: I actually still prefer the combo side I think, but it has to be in conjunction with the Tormod's Crypt 'plan'. If you are not playing enough Crypts/heavy GY hate then this doesn't work. The way I build decks to fight ANT is by attacking two of their 'pillars'. They have 3 avenues to win usually, they are PiF which is the most common, Ad Nauseum and tutor loop. I like to attack two of these. Those are in order of ease for them to pull off, by having Crypt we (most of the time) take away the PiF kill. By getting a quick combo and hitting them for 9 Ad Nauseum is usually off, especially considering their md configs, that leaves them usually with the tutor chain option which more often than not requires multiple threshed Cabal Rits and LEDs, it also needs a density of spells in hand which we attack with discard. So with all that said, that's my plan vs ANT currently, I'm very positive in the matchup while going for this. I lose almost every single game one, then win post board unless I whiff on Crypt.
SnS/Omnitell: These have been really high variance matchups for me, it's often just come down to how good both our hands are. The matchups are winnable but I think we're slightly unfavoured, especially if they have Leyline of Sanctity, that just takes away our main interaction and not a whole lot more to say on it. I like to bring in ETruth/Disenchant vs all versions, so there's at least that. I prefer YP/Mentor over the combo in these matchups usually because they have Pierce/Flusters which can disrupt our combo, and our discard usually can't afford to take reactive cards.
Mirror: Yep, mirror is a bit nuts. Crypt also shines here imo, since they can't discard it and stops them comboing. But still have to respect YP/Mentor too, it's high variance. That's the power of this combo too, you can go off from basically nothing.
Shadow: I agree it's the easiest one, have been getting good results vs it with both versions.
Grixis Delver: This is the matchup that really put me off Esper since it's quite popular online especially, the difference between trying to resolve 3cmc threat vs 2 is the world of difference. In the matches I played it just felt like there were too many things to discard, and Wasteland was more backbreaking than usual. Not sure though, maybe I need to try it more.
RUG: Like Shadow I've found this a lot easier than Grixis, as long as you don't get mana screwed by stifle waste etc you should be able to pick apart their hand and combo.
I would Mentor off Island, yeah. Wastelanding into an on board Mentor seems maniacal, but they're so far behind already they might figure they need to get lucky.
Hey, glad you're enjoying the deck!
I've only played a couple of mirrors so far, so take it with a grain of salt, but I like what your opponent did. It's like a weird Jund mirror where you want to maximise topdecks, so I'd be taking out all Thoughtseizes and probably some Therapy. I also don't like Flusterstorm or Spell Pierce so much because of looking to get better topdecks.
I would go
-2 Lili Veil
-4 Thoughtseize
-1 Cabal Therapy
+3 Tormod's Crypt
+2 Surgical
+2 Abrade
Maybe the second Surgical is a bit too heavy boarding vs the combo and you should just bring in 1 and keep a TS or the last Therapy, not sure there.
Nice one, 4-2 is good for a first time with this deck!
Funny match two! That's how I've lost to Stoneblade before too, kinda sucks when the deck is full of cantrips but happens. I would play more if there were more good ones honestly.
1. It's certainly got a higher ceiling, though I think it's less consistent than Grixis. I've been back on Grixis recently for that reason, but there are certainly pros and cons to both.
2. Makes sense, I could see trying trimming down on a Mentor, they can be bad in multiples.
3. Try Spell Pierce, I've tested 1-2 in the main in both Grixis and Esper and they were pretty good.
4. Interesting. I don't like the card generally, but let us know if it performs OK.
5. Definitely, I still haven't gotten round to trying bridge, but in theory I like it.
Nice one! Promising results, I think Miracles is a pretty good matchup too. Good luck at the 1K, and please do!
On Esper, some people have suggested and are trying Dark Confidant. I think it has potential since it bridges the gap of the deck where we want some more powerful plays with fast mana, as well as raw card advantage. I think the damage it might take flipping Phoenixes/Buried/Mentor etc is fine. Something I'll be testing too.
And after all that, back to what I've been up to with the deck!
Like I said a little above, I've gone back to playing with Grixis since I think the consistency is important for the deck, though the idea of Dark Confidant has really spurred my interest in Esper again.
With Grixis I've played it at my last two weeklies and gone 3-1 both times, losses to ANT and Moon Stompy. And I played it at our London Monthly tournament on Sunday and went 4-0 double ID into top seed of the swiss, but then lost to Elves in the quarters, unfortunately it was the only matchup in the top 8 I feel like the deck is unfavoured vs. I had 1 E Plague and 2 Lili Last Hope, but they weren't enough/didn't draw the Plague. Still was happy with the result, the matchups previously were
2-1 vs Grixis Control
2-0 vs Esper Mentor
2-0 vs UB Shadow
2-0 vs SnS
Tombstalkers have been an addition from some friends online also playing the deck (Cartesian and ewlandon) which has been excellent. These going tall, YP going wide and the combo being gy centric really makes it hard for the opponents to sideboard, all their answers are so situational so with discard we're able to pick things apart.
List from Sunday
3 Young Pyromancer
4 Arclight Phoenix
2 Tombstalker
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Thoughtseize
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dark Ritual
4 Buried Alive
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Daze
2 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Tormod's Crypt
2 Goblin Cratermaker
2 Echoing Truth
2 Abrade
1 Engineered Plague
1 Spell Pierce
1 Flusterstorm
2 Liliana, the Last Hope
Just for the record: I tried out Thing in the Ice and it wasn't great. It's ok against decks like Eldrazi, but a real liability against control decks. Whitefaces suggested as much when we briefly talked about the deck in the Depths Discord. He was right ;)
Last Sunday, I played a local 45 person event with Grixis (3 Pyromancer, 3 TITI) and the best thing TITI did was providing a sac outlet for a therapy flashback. I played against a lot of control decks and sided it out all the time. I went 4:2 in the swiss rounds:
*
2:0 UB Shadow
0:2 Czech Pile (I could have won G1, had I played better)
2:0 UW Stoneblade
1:2 Grixis Control (Phoenix getting hit by a T2 Hymn and then extracted is slightly unfortunate :D)
2:0 Burn
2:0 UW RiP / Helm
Then I got slaughtered by Eldrazi & Taxes in the Top 8. T1 Chalice, T2 Thalia followed by Eldrazi are a beating.
The next card I'm going to try in Grixis is Counterbalance. A friend suggested CB when we were brainstorming ideas for the MD flex slots that are currently Tombstalkers or Lilianas. I was looking for a "threat" that's good against both fair blue and combo. I've got no idea if it's actually good, but it sounds nice in theory. Fun fact: Our Counterbalance curve is probably better than miracles against Sneak Show. Lots of threes and fours :D
This is the 75 I'm going to try next. There are a couple of experimental cards I want to try out:
4 Arclight Phoenix
4 Young Pyromancer
2 Counterbalance
4 Buried Alive
4 Dark Ritual
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Thoughtseize
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Daze
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Echoing Truth (I needed to free up SB slots)
4 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Bloodstained Mire
3 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
1 Badlands
1 Island
1 Swamp
Sideboard:
2 Flusterstorm
3 Surgical Extraction (maybe I'll go back to more crypts, but I'm sick of getting T1ed on the draw. If we ever get a turn, crypt is much better ofc)
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Rakdos Charm (It's probably too slow, but I wanted both 5 things that get rid of chalice and 5 pieces of gy hate)
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Echoing Truth
2 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor (maybe Jace is not necessary, but I wanted to have a payoff when I hide behind a bridge)
2 Ensnaring Bridge
Another question: How is the Death & Taxes matchup? I rarely see the deck at events and none of my local testing partners has it built, so I'm lacking practice.