Sunday i ended up 5th with my sower/kira build. Tournament of 31 people.
Was kind off a good day of testing for the upcoming Legacy nationals. Had an undefeated swiss standing of 4-0-1.
Few changes i made since my mol tournament
Increased my land count by 1
Main deck propaganda 3x
Increased spell snare count by 1
Force spike count decreased by 1
Echoing truth Gone
Forbid gone
So my list
23x Island
3x Kira great glass spinner
4x Sower
2x Morphling
4x Force of Will
3x Force Spike
3x Spell Snare
4x Counter spell
3x Back to basic
3x Propaganda
2x Powder keg
2x Vedalkan shackles
4x Fact or fiction
My Sideboard
3x Tormod's Crypt
3x Chalice of the void
3x Stifle
3x Declaration of Naught'
1x back to basics
So my match ups.
First round 1 vs ANT
Game 1: I manage to survive 2x chant and a duress (2x fow on chant). Eventually i am out of juice and top deck a spell snare. In the meanwhile i had a kira clock going on. He goes off and resolves ANT. Draws allot, untill he reaches 4 life. I look at the cards and see 2 tutors, 1 wish, allot of mana acceleration but no kill. I look at my hand and see that i can spell snare his tutor and go for the win. He thinks he won and says, ritual> mox > etc i play tutor and tendrils you for storm 8. And i reply but you have to have it first to do that ;).
Sideboard: Shackles, powder keg, propaganda and 1 back to basics out (though in the end he did say he play Empty the warrens as alternative kill)
In: Declaration of Naught, Chalice of the void and Stifle
Game1: My opponent mull to 6 and i keep an awesome hand with chalice and 2x stifle and a counter spell. But then i knew if he went turn 1 off, i was owned but it was a chance i took and most of the times i like taking chances in Magic :).
Turn 1 , i think he played a cantrip and passed the turn, which gave me an inner smile. My turn follows with an Island and chalice on 0 and go. During the match up he tries to go off but i had 2 stifles and eventually a chalice for 2 , so he couldn't look for answers anymore and that was my first win.
Round 2 vs 3c ThreshThreshThreshThreshThresh UGW
Game 1: My opponent mulls twice i think. But what i could remember form the game was he never countered anything. So i was like screw it, this guy plays just aggro with some permanent control thing. So i resolve B2B turn 3 and Morphling turn 5 and won very quick.
Sideboard: An additional Back to basics in.
Game2: Because i had the impression he played no counters, i resolved back to basic turn 3 again. Few turns later he tried to resolve a mongoose but it got force spiked. I resolve again a morphling turn 5 and win.
So i asked the person. Do you play any Fow or Dazes? He replied with yes but he just never saw any in both matches,. so.lucky me :D. I hate daze! It makes me try to resolve stuff a turn later.
Round 3 vs a good friend of mine with White Stax
Game1: When I saw the pairing that i had to face him, i was a bit down. I really hate these underdog deck match ups. But i set up a game plan before the round started and decided to stop my land drops after 5 lands.
I remember i started and eventually casted a Kira. He was already at 12 or so due the ancient tombs. I had to see 2 Ghostly prisons resolve. It is a card i can't waste counters on but I do hate it! He tries to resolve a Crucible of Worlds but i counter that. Because of my Kira clock, he had no choice but playing Armageddon. I had no counters but 3 lands in my hand and said sure. He had no flagstones or crucible and was stuck at one land. I dropped 4 lands in 4 turns and continued my Kira beat down till he died.
Sideboard: Propaganda out, Decleration of Naught in.
Game 2: I kinda lost there. Mana screw ;/ Was stuck on 3 mana i think or less. Anyway Magus killed me :D
Game 3: Fun match! i think he played a Trinisphere on turn 2. And even when i could have countered it, i decided not too. I looked at my hand and decided to just keep dropping lands till 5 and counter crucial cards from him. I still managed to use a 3 mana spell snare for his Defence grid and turn later I counter his Crucible of Worlds. Turn later I drop a declaration of naught naming geddon and a turn later I believe a Kira was dropped for the beat down. Luckly his Ancient tomb tapping made him lose some life. Then he casted 2 oblivion rings to remove my creature, which was very amusing to see but I just casted a second one and took the remaining 4 life.
Round 4: It’s the fear
Game 1
I win the dice roll and decided to start. I was thrilled facing this deck, since I read some about it on the forum. And I don’t think it is a deck that is being played allot in the Dutch scene (first time I encounter it so far). Regarding that, I still did not have much information about the deck, besides knowing that it tries to resurrect every threat and the intuition engine.
Knowing that I played the game with resolving a back to basic. My opponent couldn’t do much after that. I think he played a deed and it went off. But my Kira and Sower stealing the goyf were enough to seal the game.
Sideboard: Was kind off lost on this. First time I encountered the deck. Not sure if I needed to board in crypts or not and was thinking how useful is Force spike on the draw. And i was also wondering about propaganda. Either way, I boarded in needles x2, 1x back to basic and boarded out 3x propaganda.
Game 2. Well I can be very short about it. I think I dropped 15 lands and had 3 spells. That was after I made a mulligan to six.
Game 3. I kept a poker hand and I was the one who started. It was 2x Force spike, 2x Force of Will, 1x Back to basic, 1x Kira and one Island. :D
I did not want to mulligan again like last round and decided to keep it, due the amount of counters and the swiss-standing position I was in.
My first draw was not a land, but the 3 after those were lands. So I eventually I try to resolve my back to basic vs his none basics being tapped but a Force of Will stopped me from doing that. A kira received a Force of Will as well and after I used a fact or fiction, I managed to pick up a Back to basics from the piles which he split it in to 4 good cards vs 1 back to basics.
I looked at his graveyard and noticed 2 Force of Wills. I took the gamble of the back to basic in the hope he had no Force of Will. It resolved and it was game over, because he had a tapped out none basic mana base. I think a sower stealing something was enough to end the match. He then said he did have the third Force of Will, just 0 blue cards to use hehe
Round 5 4c gifts still
I wanted to play, even though we were both in the top8. It didn’t matter, I lose or he loses or just ID. But the reason I did want to play is to try my deck. It is a very tough match up. He can clean the board every time. He has gigapede game 2, which is one the most annoying creatures ever made vs MUC. And also grips to deal with. But I knew that game 2 , I will have my fourth back to basic and crypts and needles to help
Game 1
I am not going in to detail of this game. At some point his Garruk had a 20+ counter on him. But there was a standstill in play and my shackles and one Mishra. My game plan was to try to wait during standstill and pick up as many counters as I can and try to resolve a back to basic, while he is heavily tapped out due some situation. But after Garruk reaching 2 counters and a second Mishra coming in to play and tokens started being made. I decided just to go for it. Doing an end of turn Fact or fiction to draw a little more. Cracking his Standstill though. I try to cast a Back to basic and a heavy counter war starts and I lose it. So we went to game 2.
Game2
I play it aggressive, resolving a turn 3 Kira. I remember him playing a deed, which I try to needle the next turn. A counter war starts and I win it. He was forced to play an EE for my needle, which I could not counter. He blew up my needle and then used deed for 3. After that I resolved a back to basic and won from there. We decided to draw the final game, due time.
Quarter Finals
I was matched to a good friend from the scene. I was pondering on what he could play but couldn’t really remember. I knew he played Goyf Sligh, but he changed from that.
Game 1
Because me, not knowing what he was playing I kept an opening hand of 5 land, a kira and a sower. I started with land go. He went a turn 1 thoughtseize, taking out my Sower ;/
He went on turn 2 dark ritual > Hypie. I was like!!! Eva green, oeps. So I lost horrible to hypnotic spectre.
Sideboard Boarded in Naughts, out Propaganda.
Game 2
so I knew I was going to lose. Choke being in boarded. I hardly win game 2 vs Eva green or 3. However on the crucial moment I had to mulligan of course. This game did not go as expected though. Due the mulligan I kept a hand without a FoW. In short. He went turn 1 hypie. I kept dropping land every turn.. Every time the hypie attacked though , the random discard effect did not grab my sower!!. He even dropped a choke on turn. So on turn 4 I tap out and play sower and managed to get the hypie :D. And I won by beating him down with that lol. He didn’t draw much good after that hypie, besides a second hypie. But he was at 4 life so it was done after few turns.
Game 3.
Can be very short about that. I got 3 thoughtseizes in 4 turns and then a 6/7 goyf beat me in 3 turns :D
Well I still have no idea what to do or change in the deck for the nationals, where the expected player amount will exceed 110-120 people. I think Combo and goyf/control based decks will be played allot. I Am very much thinking of removing propaganda out of the main board again and maybe playing stifles main board.
Good report. The thresh match was hilarious. I usually go for the slow roll against thresh and just run them out of steam, but fast morph beats works. While b2b is obviously extremely viable in the matchup I was still pretty surprised that it locked him out so badly: a lot of ugw thresh lists that I have seen rock b2b in the main, so they can operate under one not so badly. Either way it worked out well for you though =D
If you are expecting lots of Eva, you might want to up force spikes or look into squeezing disrupt in or something. I haven't played muc extensively lately, but I really liked having disrupt against pikula and sui black, so Eva wouldn't be much of a stretch at all: you cantrip on their discard that can wreck a hand you would have mulled without the card that got snagged.
People have discussed md stifles on here before, but I'll kind of paraphrase that and say that stifle is better-suited to an aggressive deck. While it is ridiculously awesome, I don't think that it really fits into a muc deck's main.
Moar keg and moar spell snare strike about the list, but I didn't see any complaints in that department in the report, so that is probably just my own preference speaking there. Declaration seems pretty tech. I am not entirely sold on chalice though. You might want to maybe try to squeeze in an extra land or two. Twenty-three is solid, but with sowers especially you will want hit a drop every turn and minimize mulls. I used to be infamous amongst people that I playtested with for including a sixty-first land in muc. I don't do that anymore really, but your deck looks really tight for slots, so that might be a plan.
Nice report! After game 2 I read the decklist again and thought someone else copied your list. It was until I read the name 'Magus' that I figured out it was you writing this article, haha.Originally Posted by Soulles
I saw you playing Propaganda's main this time. Why is that? When I played your deck in Utrecht last time (same meta) I played them main too, but would not do that again for sure.
Anyway, you were wondering about what to play if you expect Combo and goyf-control. I'd say get rid of Propaganda and put in extra counters. I would play a 4th Spell Snare and 3 Shackles.
So I suggest (mainbord): -3 Propaganda, +1 Spell Snare, +1 Vedalken Shackles, +1 Force Spike/BtB
I am definitely thinking of playing a third shackles. Having some additional card to deal with big threats is prolly better than a mainboard propeganda.
I just wanted to retry the card main board again. I did not expect much from it and much it did not give during the tournament.
I am scared of elf decks and affinity. There is a good chance the Dutch Nationals (which will have a visit from our German friends as well) will have a few of these decks. The elfball (i think that is how they call it) showed in Extended that it can dominate a t8. And it has good potential to be a legacy deck with the needed modifications.
For Affinity i have no sideboard i think. Don't think i can permit using 3 slots for Rebuild.
Disrupt is really an intresting choice. I never tried it, but the way i imagine the card is being to situational. But i could be wrong.
Disrupt is quite situational. You need to know that you will be facing lots of first turn discard and burn before you bother with it. If you are afraid of affinity, just run flux. I think that affinity can actually come back from a rebuild, but energy flux flat out destroys them. Affinity gets one chance for a big alpha strike after it lands on the table and after that, they're done.
Energy Flux is also relevant versus stax type decks because of their dependence on artifacts.
Verbal warning for terrible post (no caps, punctuations, etc.) Please see our Site Rules on writing skills. - Bardo
Unless they have a disciple... or a ravager + 2 mana.
I've never had too big a problem against affinity. It's fast, but a turn two Powder Keg for 0 usually wrecks its day and they cannot recover. Especially if you hit a turn shackles on your next turn and steal the best creature they managed to get in play. Just make sure to counter the annoying cards, like Ravager (especially if Disciple is in play) and Cranial Plating if you don't have the Keg.
In summation, cards that wreck Affinity: Powder Keg and Vedalken Shackles.
End of turn...Morphling
Team OMRIAIGTWYFEWARTCAE
Media: So explain what you mean exactly with your reply...do you mean them having two non-artifact sources of mana out? Because them having two non-artifat mana sources out versus all of their permanents going to the bin, plus the presence of powerkegs and or explosives seem to make a fairly solid case for flux imo.
I played several times against affinity with stack-oriented build and I got to say that this is a favorable match up, even if it might look like that at the first look.
Snare and Force their dangerous T2 plays (plating and ravager / atog), keg away their 1/1 beaters and save some counters for their fatties - they will soon be out of gas and shackles just destroys them when you cath their first beater and start chump blocking them out of attackers.
Note - Repeal is too funny against their flying X/2 Ornithopters, you'll love this :D.
B2B when they're tapped out on T3 is just pwnage, too; I'd take the 5 damage they might deal with a big ravager next turn und just lock them out of the game in return, fair trade ;).
I guess the match up for perm based MUC is even better since every bomb they drop destroys them, too.
conclusion: you really don't need any flux or other targetted artifact hate in SB.
What? Back to Basics and Propaganda. Powder Keg and Shackles are terribly slow.
Team SPOD
<Der_imaginäre_Freund> props:
Adan for being the NQG God (drawer)
I dunno, 2 mana to destroy all their lands and thopters seems good to me. They cry, you pose...it all seems good.
They still have Citadels, Springleaf Drum, Ancient Tomb and sometimes Glimmervoid. Not a big deal.
@ Doks
MUC vs. Affinity isn't as positive a matchup for MUC as you might think (post-boarding, Vial Affinity has the winning odds actually). Vial and MoE are very bad news (not that MUC doesn't have answers). Vial is obvious, but MoE is less obvious. He's goyf on crack. When I play affinity, I rarely have to swing with MoE more than once. With SoA, Affinity has hit the theshold requirement of bombs to make it a tough match for MUC (regardless of your build).
After sideboards though, including cards like Winter Orb and Needle, MUC does not have a positive matchup.
I think this matchup is one we are less concerned about because Affinity is rarely played by good magic players, and so we can often count on low-play skill against Affinity decks. Optimized affinity decks with good pilots, however, are very difficult matches for MUC. Before shards I would be inclined to agree with you, but since MoE, this is actually a negative matchup in our testing.
@ Adan
Speaking as someone who plays both decks way too much, let me tell you: Shackles and board clearing (Keg or Disk) are how you win the match. You control through permission/bounce until you can resolve a board control bomb, and then you win.What? Back to Basics and Propaganda. Powder Keg and Shackles are terribly slow.
B2B and Propaganda definitely slow Affinity down, but not by as much as you seem to think. Affinity is similar to goblins in its ability to play with next to no mana, and mana-denial alone is a patent mistake against affinity. B2B + Propaganda is still a winnable game for Affinity. Shackles + Disk/Keg is nearly an auto-scoop for affinity.
As an affinity player I can still play spells through B2B and I can swing with one huge creature through your propaganda(s), but I will lose to the attrition wars of Shackles, I lose to my own disciple triggers when you take them, and I lose my board when you Disk/Keg. A blown disk/keg is like 4-5 time walks against affinity, and it seals the game usually.
MoE has changed this matchup, but Shackles and Board Clearing are still the best answers to this deck.
peace,
4eak
I agree with everything you said in the post; I haven't actually played against any legacy Affinity decks that are using Shards. I have played against some solid Extended legal Affinity decks in casual play and I do agree Affinity has gained ground in the new set. Powder Keg + Shackles is the way to go in defeating Affinity, but Master of Etherium is hotness that will wreck anyone's day.
End of turn...Morphling
Team OMRIAIGTWYFEWARTCAE
For the finisher discussion for pure Control builds: I think Call the Sykybreaker is the best finsiher available together with Morphling. Unless you plan to play Morphling with none or only one free Mana it does not cost more Mana than Morphling.
Call the Skybreaker
Sorcery, 5UU
Put a 5/5 blue and red Elemental creature token with flying into play.
Retrace (You may play this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)
+
- big and flying
- turns land draws into 5/5 flyers in the late game
- immune against Counterbalance
- immune against Mass Removal
- immune against targeted Removal
- immune againt Moat
-
- can be temporarily handled by Spot Removal, E. Explosives or Bounce with Tempo Loss
- vulnerable against Yard-Hate
I like the suggestion but, Morphling is also big and flying, has also shroud and is also immune against Moat making the positive list a bit smaller. Actually, there are two big advantages: it turns late-game lands into 5/5 flyers (which can be good) and you can effort to let one die, which you can't with Morphling most of the times. On the other hand, you only cast Morphling when you have the situation under control OR if you have to because of an opponent's clock. In both cases Morphling > Call the Skybreaker.
because?
But anyway. That is irrelevant because I meant Call the Skybreaker not to replace Morphling but to replace the 2nd Finisher (Efreet, Meloku, Oona or Teferi).
Oke, I would play 2 Morphling, but as a third killer this is an interesting option..
Call the Skybreaker is a sorcery, so I think that makes it unplayable in (perm-based) MUC; it conflicts with the role of MUC as a reactive deck. Plus, it's 7 cc. Way too expensive.
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