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Thread: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBx Explorer Zenith Control)

  1. #41
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    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    After seeing Veteran Explorer for the first time in the Commander precon, I started working with something like this too -- my first thought was Cabal Therapy. My second was Lotus Cobra. I'm on my second or third draft of a list now, and have been testing it a bit throughout development. Here's my current incarnation:


    1 Batterskull
    1 Sword of Feast and Famine
    1 Sword of Fire and Ice

    2 Pernicious Deed

    2 Baneslayer Angel
    2 Sun Titan
    1 Grave Titan
    2 Eternal Witness
    3 Knight of the Reliquary
    3 Lotus Cobra
    2 Stoneforge Mystic
    4 Veteran Explorer

    2 Gifts Ungiven
    4 Swords to Plowshares

    4 Cabal Therapy
    2 Diabolic Intent
    1 Promise of Power
    1 Regrowth

    1 Bayou
    3 Forest
    1 Island
    3 Marsh Flats
    3 Verdant Catacombs
    2 Windswept Heath
    1 Maze of Ith
    1 Phyrexian Tower
    2 Plains
    1 Savannah
    1 Scrubland
    2 Swamp
    1 Volrath's Stronghold


    After crafting the core of the deck, I realized that I was going to have a lot of mana at my disposal, and that I should probably have something to do with that mana. After a while, I decided on Batterskull as my primary mana sink. It's a good sized recursive beater/blocker that once you hit 8 mana becomes very hard to stop without Krosan Grip. Promise of Power has been nothing but amazing. Since I'm running Batterskull and Baneslayer, I usually don't care about the five life lost, and drawing five cards is exactly what this deck wants to do. The triple black is rough, I'll admit, with Sun Titan and Baneslayer also hanging out, so I either need to find a better way to deal with that problem or switch out some of my threats. I run Titan Oath in vintage, so I knew going in that Sun Titan + Pernicious Deed was going to be one of the primary engines of the deck. That is just brutally unfair once you get it rolling.

    I can't speak enough praise of Lotus Cobra. Granted, it doesn't always survive. But it mandates immediate removal, or things are going to get stupid. Two landfall triggers + the lands coming into play untapped off of Explorer is pretty silly, and can lead to some just broken starts. Sequences like t1 Explorer t2 Cobra t3 Therapy, sac for flashback, fetch land, Sun Titan (or insert bomb here) are fairly common, and a lot of decks just crumple under that.

    Grave Titan is not working at all, for me. At this stage I'm contemplating a Wurmcoil Engine in its place, as I want another big bomb of some kind, but 3 Sun Titans or 3 Baneslayers just feels unnecessary. The mana base in general needs some help...probably cutting some of the 1-ofs and working from there is a good idea.

    Gifts is questionable. A singleton island + cobra shenanigans makes getting the blue mana a joke, so that isn't a problem...and with Explorer, I'm not really hurting my mana base for it either. Gifts DOES feel gross when it resolves. Making piles like E. Witness, Cabal Therapy, Regrowth, Sun Titan is pretty brutal, because this deck makes enough mana to where it doesn't care if you have to regrow a Titan. I had a singleton Maga, Traitor to Mortals in the deck in its initial iteration, which along with Volrath's Stronghold and an Urborg (which I since cut, but will probably find its way in again), enabled a Gifts-powered late wincon. In the end it felt clunky, though, so I trimmed it out for a bit more beating power. At the same time, though, I feel that if I put in a Wurmcoil or two, I have enough lifegain that I should just smooth my mana base out entirely and put in another Promise of Power or two. The fact that Gifts is an instant while Promise is not is holding me back a bit -- blocking with an Explorer to get two lands and trigger two landfalls off Cobra lets me Gifts during their turn, even when completely tapped out previously, which is pretty hot.

    I thought about Green Sun's Zenith...it was in here originally, and then I took it out. The reason is that green doesn't have many great wincons...and especially not when compared to Sun Titan or Stoneforge Mystic, both of which it is unable to get. Green Sunning for Explorer, Cobra, Knight, and Witness are all still pretty sweet, don't get me wrong. I'm going for more of a Big Rock type of feel, though, and frankly the other colors just offer better finishers in my opinion. Since I'm running Stoneforge (and Volrath's Stronghold), I'd rather have more actual creatures as opposed to the virtual copies that GSZ enables, and since with Cobra I burn through mana a lot quicker than non-snake versions, I'd rather have genuine card draw as opposed to topdecking and praying. Although I will note that this deck topdecks pretty well, as a result of the massive land thinning through Explorer + fetches.

    Thoughts and comments are appreciated.

  2. #42

    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    This is a pretty interesting list, and I don't wanna judge it without testing, but I also feel the Grave Titan is not needed there, how about replacing it with a third deed? 2 feels a bit light to me.

  3. #43

    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    Quote Originally Posted by Tao View Post
    No he isn't. If you'd care about the opponent's Mana you wouldn't run Veteran Explorer in the first place.
    What does that even mean? You are not playing an otherwise good creature that has great synergy with (what seems to be) the key card in your deck. "Not caring" about your opponents resources is a great way to get run in legacy. In addition to the synergy with the Veteran the Mindcensor stops Stoneforge Mystic (she occasionally hits the board in legacy), fetchlands (also sometimes played), and some corner cases (combo, tutors, merchant scrolls, etc.).

  4. #44
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    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    I really like promise of power and may end up trying that out. It seems pretty good.


    I initially had 12 spots in my sideboard dedicated to the UW control matchup. I was running 3 vindicates, 3 choke, 4 hymn to tourach and 2 thrun. Somehow this still wasn't enough. One matchup I had the UW player on a choke lock down but he had enough swords to plow/path to exile to keep my board clear while being able to beat down with mishras and so forth it was disturbing that he won that game.

    Lately my game plan against the heavy control decks has been to board in bitterblossoms. My new plan is to take out 4x vet explorer, 1 sun titan, 3 deeds and put in 3 bitterblossoms, 3 duress, and 2 thrun. I haven't had a chance to try this out, but i'm pretty sure they can't beat bitterblossom. STP stays in because it takes out mishra and stoneforge if they play it. Deed isn't very good in this matchup unless they are playing heavy stoneforge plan.

    @Arianrhod: I like your list it has some fresh ideas that I may try out. I really don't like the stoneforge mystic plan though because you're running deed. One of the strongest points of this deck is being able to deed all of the time, and i really mean all of the time. Gifts though just seems too cute and pretty difficult to consistantly pull off, to me not worth splashing.
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  5. #45

    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    So, I've tested a little, and have to agree that the Mystic Package was kinda average. On the other hand I was surprised in a positive way with Gifts, I've been able to pull it off most of the times, resulting in some backbreaking piles. I would definitely consider upping the landcount, I had to mull quite a few times.

    Cutting the Stoneforge's allows for 5 more slots, I would consider running 2 more lands (maybe 1 is enough) and 1 more witness (just can't have enough), which leaves 2/3 more slots open, which could either go towards more discard, the 4th deed or another wincon(why hasn't elspeth been considered so far?), maybe even a recurring nightare.

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    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    I like that you mention Elspeth. I initially had her in the deck becuase of the synergy with deed, but I found her to just be too clunky and more of a card that is a "win-more." It was kind of cool to have a flying Titan though.
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  7. #47
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    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    I'm currently testing this, now:


    4 Pernicious Deed

    2 Elspeth, Knight Errant

    2 Baneslayer Angel
    2 Sun Titan
    2 Eternal Witness
    3 Knight of the Reliquary
    4 Lotus Cobra
    4 Veteran Explorer

    2 Gifts Ungiven
    4 Swords to Plowshares

    4 Cabal Therapy
    2 Diabolic Intent
    2 Promise of Power

    2 Bayou
    3 Forest
    1 Island
    3 Marsh Flats
    3 Verdant Catacombs
    2 Windswept Heath
    1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
    1 Phyrexian Tower
    2 Plains
    1 Savannah
    1 Scrubland
    2 Swamp
    1 Volrath's Stronghold


    Have yet to see Elspeth in a game. Promise of Power continues to impress, and is up to a 2-of, now. I'm also up to the full 4-deeds, and I'm trying a bit more Rock-ish approach as opposed to the Junk version that I started with. I don't think more hand distruption is really necessary main deck...the Therapies are doing pretty good work. Elspeth might be a pretty good call -- theoretically, it can not only provide blockers and a win condition of its own, but it can also provide sacrificial lambs for flashback and Intent. I'll post again once I've got some more legwork in with this version.

    RE: Aven Mindcensor: I like the idea of it, but I'm not sure how good it would be in practice. If you try a Mindcensor version, you'd probably want both Wastelands and Path to Exiles in your deck somewhere -- the problem, of course, is that you're getting a bit dependent on the Mindcensor sticking around.

  8. #48

    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    I really like the way your list is shaping up. Some further points (yeah, I know I'm picky, but it has been quite some time since a deck caught my interest as much as this):

    -) I'm not too sure the split between cobras and witnesses is right, I think with the full playset of cobras the deck is shifting too much towards mana development while becoming too gas light.

    -) I don't like the Urborg. I think any G-based dual should be fine there, maybe even one Tropical Island to have access to U via fetchies (might not be needed).

    -) I don't think you need 2 Promise of Power: You don't want to draw it too early, you usually want to resolve it once a game, and you have some ways to tutor it up.

    -) Where did the Regrowth go? I like the piles which were Witness - Regrowth - Bomb - Bomb :(

    -) How about somehow squeezing 1 Pulse or 1 Vindicate into the MD to have a catch-all answer for Gifts piles or as Diabolic Intent targets?

  9. #49
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    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    That's fine -- I'm also pretty interested in this archetype, so the discussion is greatly appreciated!

    -) At the same time, though, Cobras have an extremely low life expectancy. Many legacy players know Cobra from times when it did degenerate things in either Standard or Vintage, so they aren't going to make the mistake of letting it live. Extras can help, if you need them, and worst case scenario are lightning rods for removal. Also, Witness is recursable by Sun Titan. So even though there are only two Witnesses, I think that is enough -- you can sac them and bring them back for extra value. Also, I'm a little skeptical of making the deck too reliant on the graveyard. It's walking a fine line between using the graveyard and being really hurt by graveyard hate out of the board.

    -) Urborg was in at first, then it was out, now it's in again. The value that I like with Urborg is that you can burn out of fetchable lands in a real hurry in this deck. Urborg lets you still get value you out of them, in addition to smoothing over the mana costs between Baneslayer/Titan and Promise. At the moment I'm pleased with it, but that's subject to change. I'm always wary of cards that come and go in my lists a lot.

    -) (Combining these) The Regrowth became the 2nd Promise of Power. I agree that you want one to resolve per game. More than that is usually overkill/dangerous. And besides, if you can't win after drawing 5, there's probably something else seriously wrong. In my experience, though, I just haven't been finding it as a one-of. Two feels like the right number. You usually want to use Diabolic Intent for other purposes, although frankly I could see bumping Intent up slightly to a 3-of, since I never seem to find it either, although that may just be RNG messing with me. Also, in my experience thusfar, drawing it early isn't really a detriment. Promise can happen on turn two if you get the right hand -- you aren't necessarily getting full value out of it, but you can always discard extra fetches and the like.

    Regrowth is a sick card that enables broken piles. The problem that I have with it is that at the moment, Gifts is just here for sheer value, as a card advantage machine that can do silly things with Sun Titan and enable opponents to make mistakes. I've been steadily leaning more and more towards cutting it, in fact, rather than making it better. The problem is that I don't know what other good draw spell I'd want. Maybe Harmonize? That would then allow the Island to become a dual and smooth out the mana base a bit better. Alternatively, if something degenerate can be done with Gifts, then I'm all for that. I love Gifts (and Intution) as a card, and I love doing backbreaking things with it. But without some kind of combo to be enabled, it feels really lacking. Maybe that's just because I'm too used to Vintage and doing piles like Time Vault - Voltaic Key - Regrowth - Yawg Will.

    -) I like this idea a lot actually. I haven't had the dreaded Jace problem arise yet in testing, but I know that it's out there lurking and waiting to be a problem. I'd probably go Vindicate if I had to choose, since Deed already wipes out token piles, and Vindicate can get rid of troublesome things like Maze of Iths, which as a Wasteland-free deck, we are ill-equipped to deal with otherwise. At the same time, I'm leery of putting in a 9th removal spell -- I would probably cut one Deed for a Vindicate if anything. I'll test it and see what I think.

    At this point, I really feel like I want one or maybe two more bombs main deck, probably Wurmcoil Engines, because this deck can make the mana to drop it and it completely wins games by itself. At the same time, I wouldn't mind running 5-drops instead, since 5 is a very convenient number for Lotus Cobra. After doing some more testing, I can also say that I like Elspeth. She came down a few times playing against a friend, and flying 10/10 knights are a pretty solid way to win a game. She's also another way to get around Moat, which is an annoying card to deal with (although Deed helps).

    I'm starting to give some thoughts to the sideboard, as well. Mainly I think control, storm/high tide, and generic answer cards is the way to go. This deck has a pretty sick matchup against a lot of the field -- my friend and I are testing on Cockatrice, so he's just building archetype after archetype and throwing them at it. Fish has a hell of a time beating this deck -- they can get close sometimes, but it takes them long enough that I have time to get out a bomb, and they can't really answer Baneslayer or Titan/Deed. For that matter, they have no way to interact with Lotus Cobra, which we quickly found was -huge-. Merfolk HAS to counter Cobra, or they just die. This deck will pump out bomb after bomb if they don't, and fish cannot keep up. Explorer is also rather a house -- it's amazing how few decks have how few basics to get. It's not as much of a group hug card as it looks like on the face of it, although I still wouldn't run Wasteland. He's also tried U/W Tempo against it, and 12 counters main isn't enough to reliably hold this thing down. That said, I remain concerned about the GerryT/Levin style control decks with a whole pile of counters. We're set up for Thrun, but he's known technology that, while they have a hard time, they are learning how to deal with.

    For now, I'm going to start with something like the following:


    4 Thoughtseize
    3 City of Solitude
    3 Pithing Needle
    2 Thrun, the Last Troll
    3 Rule of Law


    It's rough and ugly, but in my experience so far it should answer the problems.

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    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    I'm not sure rule of law is a good thing against ... any deck really. It's especially bad against blue decks. I'm down with the city of solitude though, could be pretty good. The more I look into the intiution/gifts portion of the deck it leads me to whole different deck. GWU Titan Gifts... lots of broken things can be done with it.
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  11. #51
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    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    oh my. I ... LOVE ... Gifts Ungiven.
    I played Gifts for Therapy and Witness a couple of times but totally forgot it existed. Props for bringing it up. Also note that Gifts on Recurring Nightmare + Witness + Regrowth + (Sun Titan, Meloku, Wurmcoil) is a big game. Your list looks interesting and I am sure brewing with this has a lot of potential.

  12. #52
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    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    Had a big reply typed up but I lost it because I'm not used to my Naga yet. Oops. Here's the five minute version as opposed to the 15:

    Gifts is back in. I tested Harmonize instead, and it felt terrible.

    Haven't tested Recurring Nightmare yet. Looks like a bad Sun Titan, but I feel I should test it before deciding that.

    Built a bant Titanic Gifts deck to test out the concept. Quickly realized that it turns into a sort of Mythic Conscription deck from a year or so back, and that Explorer is useless in it. Exploration, on the other hand, may prove useful, especially on concert with Cobra, which, since you wouldn't run Deed, could in theory work. I'll also point out that both halves of Thopter/Sword are reanimate-able with Titan and fetchable with Gifts/Intuition. Food for thought. If you want to develop it, keep me posted...my attention will be here for the moment, though.

    Team Italia is an even to bad matchup, due to mass hand obliteration and effective spot removal. This deck doesn't mind topdecking, but I'm finding that hand destruction in the t1-3 range is devastating, because it can stop you from using what business you have. Worried about RUG Thresh and NO RUG for the same reason (although removal + counter is probably better for us in the long run, with Thrun out of board).

    I still don't feel like the bomb configuration is right. I tweaked a few numbers and am currently running 3 Baneslayers/2 Titans. Both bombs being white is seriously annoying me, since the deck wants green early and black late, with white as a splash color. Ideally I think I would want a 2/2/2 split of three different types of bombs. Baneslayer and Titan are both amazing in this deck, but I don't know what the other two should be. Part of me wants to say Abyssal Persecutor...god knows we have the sacrifice outlets for him, but I'm not sure if just a 6/6 flample beatstick is good "enough." I think that we want techy dudes more than beatsticks (although granted Baneslayer and Titan aren't exactly anemic).

    Also, Elspeth is amazing. I foresee some matchups where she'll get boarded out, but she's a house against aggro and a viable wincon in and of herself. Plus, she's a four-drop, which is easily manageable with Cobra + Explorer trigger.

    That's all for now -- I didn't get much testing in today due to having jury duty all day. Going to proxy up my latest build and take it to FNM to bash skulls with against some of the local legacy heads. I'll let you guys know how that goes -- if anyone has ideas in the meanwhile, I'll be checking periodically throughout the day tomorrow.

  13. #53

    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    One thing that could be considered in the game ending slot is Vampire Hexmage + Dark Dephts. Both are in black, both are recurrable with Titan, Hexmage obviously has use on it's own. Might turn out to be utter crap though.

    Please keep us updated on how your testing goes.

    On the Bant Titan build: In this case you could very well include now the Stoneforge package, I might work on that too :)

  14. #54
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    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    Alright, I got some more testing in online today, and I'm pretty much done tweaking for the day before my testing-fest tonight at FNM. For reference, here is my most up-to-date list that I will be playing tonight:


    2x Baneslayer Angel
    2x Sun Titan
    2x Kokusho, the Evening Star
    4x Lotus Cobra
    4x Veteran Explorer
    2x Qasali Pridemage

    3x Pernicious Deed

    2x Gifts Ungiven
    4x Swords to Plowshares

    2x Elspeth, Knight-Errant

    2x Promise of Power
    3x Diabolic Intent
    4x Cabal Therapy

    1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
    1x Phyrexian Tower
    1x Volrath's Stronghold
    1x Scrubland
    1x Bayou
    1x Savannah
    3x Verdant Catacombs
    3x Marsh Flats
    2x Windswept Heath
    1x Island
    3x Forest
    2x Swamp
    2x Plains


    I did a little trolling of Gatherer, and it reminded me that Kokusho exists. I don't think we could ask for a better bomb for this deck (other than Titan, obv). It's a massive evasive flyer, and we run more than enough sac outlets to pop it and drain for lethal (or to stay alive). With the third pairing of bombs in the deck, Gifts feels a -lot- better now.

    I'm testing going Knight-less at the moment, and I'm trying Qasali in those spots instead. I think that it is probably going to be a mistake, but has pretty good synergy with Sun Titan and I think it's worth testing. If I don't like it, I'll go -2 Qasali, +2 Knight and worry about where to squeeze in the third later. The list is getting a lot tighter now. I'm still dicking around with the sideboard. At the moment it looks like thus:


    2x Thrun
    3x City of Solitude
    3x Extirpate
    4x Thoughtseize
    3x Innocent Blood


    Innocent Blood seems like it would do good work against reanimator or show/tell or NO -- it both annoys them and advances our own position at the same time...even against standard aggro decks, it might be useful.

    On the Bant Titan side of things, I sketched out a preliminary list for that. I'm not sure if I should put it in here or not...it's going in a pretty different direction and probably deserves its own thread, in all honesty.

  15. #55
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    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    Speaking of Kamigawa dragons, Yosei, the Morning Star + Recurring Nightmare just locks the hell out of your opponent. I think you should squeeze one of each into your list (Gifts and Intent can both tutor Nightmare).
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  16. #56
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    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    Greater Good may be a good way to get the chain started too, or Ashnod's Altar.

    I really like the Lotus Cobra starter chain. Have we considered Birthing Pod yet? It's really slow, but it has the potential to be really amazing.
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    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    Quote Originally Posted by eq.firemind View Post
    Speaking of Kamigawa dragons, Yosei, the Morning Star + Recurring Nightmare just locks the hell out of your opponent. I think you should squeeze one of each into your list (Gifts and Intent can both tutor Nightmare).
    I never even thought of this. Brilliant. I'll spend the next little bit trying to work that in before I head out...I'll let you know what I take out for it before I leave.

    Well that was easy. I took out 1 Kokusho and 1 Eternal Witness. That drops me to 1 Witness in my deck total, but Nightmare does similar things, and Nightmare + Witness seems good. May change it later, but for the moment I'll run this and see how it goes.

  18. #58
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    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    WAY back in the days I won the Source Tourmanent with Nightmare/Yosei as the main kill. The deck was really goo back then but Survival was legal so you can't copy much from it.

    http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...ll=1#post90518

    I still think I want to rather play this in a control shell but I am also very curious how your more combo-ish approach goes.

  19. #59
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    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    If you are playing Gifts, Deep Analysis as a 1of seems a good choice for drawing extra cards. Is it worth ?
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  20. #60
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    Re: Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)

    @Kiblast -- I think that is going a little too much into blue. I'd rather keep it just as a very slight splash and not try to go four color.

    @Tao -- I think that's actually pretty analogous. Granted that Survival was a very powerful engine, but through abusing Diabolic Intent and Gifts, this deck has a lot of the same vibes. I missed the Rec Sur era, unfortunately (I think I would have loved the deck), but I did get my roommate hooked on Bant Survival for a year or so until the banning, and played it when he couldn't make an event. This deck definitely has a lot of the same feel to it as playing with the Survival engine. I don't view my list as more combo-oriented...that said, I certainly don't complain about having a combo finish for random unfair wins.

    @rukcus -- I think that the Pod is way too slow for this. Although, I'll grant that I didn't give Recurring Nightmare full consideration either, and it took me trying it to be completely sold on the idea. Build one up and try it out; I'd love to hear the results.

    -----

    I played probably 6-8 games of legacy between rounds at FNM tonight, vs U/G Vengevine, Burn, and Berserk Stompy. Not exactly the best gauntlet, but that's what people brought with them...and they're all faster decks which is better in-between rounds. I dropped 1 of those 10 games. Titan + Deed won me several of those singlehandedly, and the rest of the time Baneslayer + removal was good enough. I did win one game off of flying beats followed up by saccing Koksuho to flashback Therapy, which seems like a good synergy. With Rec going, too, Kokusho suddenly gets very scary, as he is entirely capable of Draining an opponent clean out of the game. Obviously that's a very late-game tactic, while Yosei wins much faster, but it is a very powerful tool and worth keeping in mind.

    The Qasalis were absolutely terrible. I'm currently +1 Gifts (to 3) and +1 E. Witness (to 2) because I wanted to emphasize the combo slightly more, and because I still find myself running out of gas sometimes. Also, Witness + Rec is just effing dirty. No other way to describe it...it's grossly unfair. A 2nd Witness definitely feels right...I'm less certain about the 3rd Gifts at this point. I'd love to have room for 3 Knights and maybe 2 Finks, but I don't see that happening at this point. Currently, my threats are -all- clustering at the 5/6 spot, and while I like having a good number of bombs, I worry that I'm becoming TOO dependent on the upper end of the curve. At the same time, I do also like the fact that my dudes are all vastly more powerful than everyone elses'. Usually it seems like I can rely on Therapy, spot removal, and Deeds to successfully hit late game, at which point I can just take over. That said, though, I would definitely feel better if I had some more early-game oomph to tide me over till the late game. It seems to be working at the moment, though, so I guess I probably shouldn't worry about it.

    At this point I'm planning on trimming the 3rd Gifts for a Knight of the Reliquary, and potentially finding room for a second/third if at all possible. Beyond that, I think the mana base needs a little work, and the sideboard needs to exist beyond theory. I'm fairly comfortable with the maindeck of my list, though, and I would encourage you to try it and see how it works...I definitely have some preconceived biases, so outside opinions are greatly appreciated.

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