[Deck] BUG "Shardless" Control

[Mkr]

First time playing Legacy since I T4'd Super Sunday Legacy at GP Kyoto - got myself a nice Tundra by taking down a local tourney last weekend. Still using Lejay build; thought about replacing Leyline with a Containment Priest, but stuck with the basic list. Shardless is really strong right now multiple tops in 100+ attendance tournaments recently (but just not a FotM deck atm for some reason haha).

Round 1 vs Chalice Affinity (W 2-0)
First game Decays made sure that he was not able to get Ravager and Plating online which resulted in my Goyfs taking over. Post board Null Rod gave me a pseudo turn 2 win.

Round 2 vs Miracles (W 2-0)
I had all the answers (and then some) due to my insane CA. Second game I had a disruption heavy hand of two discards and a Needle. Stopping Top that early plus some Shardless Agents appearing equals an easy win.

Round 3 vs BUG Gro (L 1-2)
This is basically BUG Delver except using old school Gro star Quirion Dryad instead of Tarmogoyf, trading consistency/immunity to bolts for potential (Also had a pair of Lorescale Coatls - I would have liked to see some Chasm Skulkers though!). All three games I was down on lands due to timely Wastes. I made a mistake in life calculation during the third game which cost me the match. For some reason I thought I still had two more turns if I take 4 from Sylvan. Dumb haha.

Round 4 vs UWR Blade (W 2-1)
Two wins was due to Visions just ramping me way ahead. Lost a game to TNN going all the way and Library not being able to find me an answer.

Round 5 vs BUG Delver (W 2-1)
Unable to draw in, had to play this one out. First game he wins the Wasteland battle and I am unable to find a Decay to stabilize. Next two I basically Visioned him out of the game. I actually was able to cast 4 Visions on the third game (thought one was Forced and another one was on garbage time)!

Qf vs RUG Delver (W 2-1)
First game I took some early Delver beats but he didn't have a bolt so Deathrite went to work. Second game was classic RUG - I never even got to two mana. Third game he had a lot of disruption but no early clock - once I got to three mana safely it was all but over.

Sf vs BUG Gro (W 2-0)
Rematch! First game Quirion Dryad quickly grew bigger than my Goyf to 6/6 but got decayed. My Goyf got decayed too but I was able to CA him out. Second game was epic. I was able to snipe his tech Kira using Thoughtseize and he sniped back my Maelstrom Pulse - which was extremely relevant as he had 3 DRS out by the third turn! By the time he ran out of DRS damage fodder I was down to 8 life with my Goyf just dancing between 1/2 and 2/3. I wasn't able to do much due to Wastelands stranding walkers in my hand. I decay one DRS which brings me down to 6. Another blue cantrip was used and now I'm at 4. I had a decay in my hand but it was not yet time to use it. Luckily we both drew lands for two turns. Still not enough black mana for Lily but I was able to cast Jace. Did some bouncing around to make sure one DRS is summoning sick (if he topdecks a cantrip at that point I am likely dead). I decay the other DRS. With Jace now down his last loyalty counter I was finally ably to topdeck a fetch for the second black mana. Lily kills the last DRS and then Jace (fate)seals me the game.

F vs Elves (W 2-1)
First game I made a game ending misplay by being a zombie and suspending a Visions which made my Force impotent. Died to Natural Order two turns after. Second game Meddling Mage was able to stop Natural Order then NoSB + Toxic cleans it up. Third game I had a facepalm moment - my T2 he has Forest, Cradle, DRS, Heritage. My plan: Waste his Cradle, Needle the DRS. I play my land. Look down and see a fetchland instead. Wtf. Good thing I had a Force for his T3 NO kill. I waste his Cradle afterwards and then Goyf stomps.

[Whitefaces]

I've run that way and it doesn't make a huge difference. Ponder does help hold the manabase together in a way that Dig can't though.

Ponder is taking the place of the 23rd land, which Shardless does want (especially if you're running 4 waste), I wouldn't consider library or DTT to take that slot. I mentioned it earlier in the thread but I'll say it again, I've put Life from the Loam in this spot maindeck and it's worked wonders.

[I_Hate_Counterspells]

Does anyone know Tristan Polzl? Depending on which website you go to, his winning deck at Ovino had either 21 lands and a 13th creature (Moroii) or a 22nd land (Swamp) and the 12 usual suspects.

http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=9680&d=255646&f=LE (without Moroii)

http://www.mtgdecks.net/decks/view/232473 (with)

21 lands seems a little risky/greedy?

[Baum]

It's a swamp. AFAIK he wrote is deck list in French. Swamp means marais in French and weird typos happened.

[I_Hate_Counterspells]

An essay on Baleful Strix.... http://www.reddit.com/r/MTGLegacy/co...shardless_bug/

A friend of ours?

[Whitefaces]

I don't agree with the article, Strix has great synergy with Toxic Deluge. Assuming we are only talking about creature matchups here it makes your opponent use a removal spell or try and go around it by overextending. It's also lovely curving Strix > Deluge > Jace.

The reason Strix isn't seeing much play at the moment is because the top decks are (arguably) Omni, Miracles and Storm, which it's pretty awful against. If I was playing at an SCG open I'd happily play 2-3 as I'd expect a lot of Delver decks, but in Europe or Japan it's a coin flip on whether you'll face one of those decks or Delver/Infect (which it's great against, obviously).

On another note I came 9th on breakers at the UK Eternal Legacy Championship (roughly 100 players), slightly annoying but it was a fun tournament. A friend came first with Infect. I'll try and find time to write up a small report and decklist.

[dionykos]

I'm surprised to see no mention of True-Name Nemesis in this article. Before the rise of TC/DTT and Omni, the merfolk was the reason why Strix started to see less play.

[kiad]

Hi guys, I'm new enough to Legacy but I've been playing variations of Shardless for about the last 6 months or so. I'm loving reading back through this threads to see all the different lines of play. I would however like to throw out one card I have been playing in this deck recently enough that has been working quite well for me and that's Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver. It's quite a troublesome card against multiple types of decks. First off it comes out as early as turn 2 and immediately goes to 5 loyalty, which is no joke. Secondly her mill ability, while great against creature decks, can also severely disrupt combo decks by taking their win-cons or by negating their Brainstorms. As a 1 of in the Ponder/Library slot this little planeswalker has never not swung games in my favor and while I've not been able to use her to cast an Emrakul yet....it is a very real possibility.

[hobart]

I played in one Legacy side event at GP Las Vegas. I decided on Shardless. Tinkered a bunch with the list in the weeks leading up, and ended up making a last minute change of removing Tasigur and adding a Sylvan Library. It's not that Tasigur was terrible in testing, it just hardly seemed better than any other gas I could draw, and did sometimes either be uncastable or get bounced by a Karakas. A while ago I moved the Baleful Strixes to be board and I'm liking them there. They are great against delver, and pretty good against midrange mirrors, but I'm seeing less and less of those lately, and more combo and Miracles, so I ditched them to make room for some thoughtseizes.

Creatures: 12

4x Shardless Agent
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Deathrite Shaman

Spells: 22

4x Ancestral Vision
4x Brainstorm
4x Abrupt Decay
4x Force of Will
3x Thoughtseize
1x Toxic Deluge
1x Dig Through Time
1x Sylvan Library

PlanesWalkers: 4

2x Liliana of the Veil
2x Jace, The Mind Sculptor

Lands: 22

4x Polluted Delta
2x Misty Rainforest
4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Underground Sea
2x Bayou
2x Tropical Island
3x Wasteland
1x Swamp
1x Creeping Tar Pit

Sideboard: 15

2x Hymn to Tourach
1x Surgical Extraction
1x Grafdigger’s Cage
1x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Golgari Charm
2x Chill
1x Null Rod
1x Pithing Needle
1x Submerge
1x Liliana of the Veil
2x Baleful Strix
1x Toxic Deluge

Round 1 vs Burn: 2-1
Super lucky here, between both game wins he only drew one PoP and it got forced. Super low both games, and had to fade a draw step at 2 life to win one of them. I lose this 80% of the time at least.

Round 2 vs DnT: 1-1-1
He had all the right lock pieces, including his singleton Spirit of the Labryinth which happened to shut off about half the cards I saw game 1. At the start of game 2 I thought we were falling behind on time and I told him we should pick up the pace. He disagreed and continued to play game 2 and 3 slow as balls, leading to the draw. I despise draws, and with BUG I'm always in a dominating board state when they happen.

Round 3 vs BUG delver: 2-0
He gets off to a quick delver + confidant start, but can't keep me that backed up on mana and I stabilize at 2 life with a Toxic Deluge and a winning counter war. Roll over him game 2. This matchup is cake.

Round 4 vs Merfolk: 2-0
Another easy matchup, plus he had slower than average starts for his deck. I never really felt threatened in either game.

Round 5 vs Omnitell: 2-1
Game 1 he gets a turn 3 Show and Tell for Emrykul with force backup, gg. Game 2 I land a hymn that gets Show and Tell, then I surgical it, then he concedes. Game 3 I land another hymn that gets a critical land of his, mana screwing him such that a goyf is able to get there.

So, I pretty much crushed this event going 4-0-1 and I was damn pleased. 3 out of 5 decks I played being fair is way enough to justify playing this "king" of fair decks. I got real lucky against burn and combo, but really any deck I was even considering to play would have gotten crushed by burn just as bad. I think I settled on the right build for me.

[Kirika]

Ran this at my local event this past weekend going 3-0-1 split top 4. Beat High Tide, Mono Red Sneak and Reanimator and IDed with Jeskai Delver.

Trying Thoughtseize instead of the 4th Force and 4th Visions which was a good decision this week as played all combo.
Run Basics because of mono red sneak and painter with bloodmoon and burn decks.
Might add Dig through Time back instead of Sylvan to raise blue count but I really didn't like it shrinking my Tarmogoyfs and eating my Deathrite food when Sylvan Library has better synergy with the deck with the ability to set up cascades and improve card quality.
Dunno if I like 2 Tar pits might make the second one another Fetch since opening with 2 tar pits is pretty terrible but they are good alternate threats and help out if choke resolves.

Black (7)
2 Hymn to Tourach
2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Thoughtseize
1 Toxic Deluge

Blue (12+5 multi color)
3 Ancestral Visions
4 Brainstorm
3 Force of Will
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Green (5)
1 Sylvan Library
4 Tarmogoyf

Multicolor (14)
4 Abrupt Decay
1 Baleful Strix
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Shardless Agent

Lands (22)
1 Bayou
2 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Forest
1 Island
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wasteland

Sideboard
2 Arcane Laboratory
2 Chill
2 Disfigure
1 Golgari Charm
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Night of Souls' Betrayal
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Null Rod
1 Pithing Needle

[Krimson Viper]

4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Baleful Strix
4 Shardless Agent

4 Ancestral Vision
4 Brainstorm
2 Thoughtseize
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Hymn to Tourach
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Force of Will
1 Dig Through Time

4 Polluted Delta
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Bayou
1 Creeping Tar-Pit
2 Wasteland

2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Duress
1 Golgari Charm
2 Null Rod
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Toxic Deluge
2 True-Name Nemesis
2 Arcane Laboratory
1 Force of Will
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

This is what I plan on running for my next deck. My stores are filled with Infect, Miracles using Stoneforge Mystic, version(s) of Storm(usually one player with different builds), Esper Stoneblade, Tezz Control, and BUG Delver decks. I'm not sure how to build my deck or its sideboard, so I went with a very basic build. Any and all help will be appreciated.

*made some changes since last night

[jim111589]

So I just switched to this from jund and I'm about ready to try it in a local tournament. Which version of this would do well against a field of omni, miricles and bug delver?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Holiday]

@krimson the list looks solid. Aside from the Storm deck, your meta looks like a bunch of "fair" decks which should be good for you. I would probably want a second Liliana in my maindeck.

I like the double Null Rod in your SB. Having a Pithing Needle might also help your SB. I would bring it out against the Stoneblade, Miracles, and Tezz control.
What decks do you board in the TNNs and Jitte against? What do you take out?

[Krimson Viper]

@krimson the list looks solid. Aside from the Storm deck, your meta looks like a bunch of "fair" decks which should be good for you. I would probably want a second Liliana in my maindeck.

I like the double Null Rod in your SB. Having a Pithing Needle might also help your SB. I would bring it out against the Stoneblade, Miracles, and Tezz control.
What decks do you board in the TNNs and Jitte against? What do you take out?

Jitte would be for the random Burn deck that shows up every now and again. He switches between Junk, Esper Stoneblade, and Burn. There's a random Jund deck there as well, which is what TNN would come in against, but TNN was just a random thought. I saw Jund shred Shardless BUG in a match because Punishing Fire and Abrupt Decay kept the board clear.

I saw some talk about Tasigur being used, but I don't see the conclusion? Maybe I'm blind, but it seems OK-great against fellow control decks. I could drop it for a Needle or additional Storm hate.

[Holiday]

I tested Tasigur in Shardless. The problem with him is his delve cost competes with Goyf and DS for graveyard resources. On paper it looks like it wouldn't be a big deal but in practice he ended up shrinking goyf and DS fuel.

Jund is a pain in the butt. Bring in Surgical Extraction and target their Punishing Fire when they can't respond. Burn is another pain in the butt. You can try to run Chill but personally I rather have the SB slots devoted to other more winable macthups.

[Whitefaces]

The biggest problem I found with Tasigur is he's pretty bad vs goyfs. Because we have agents goyfs are usually 5/6 or bigger which he doesn't stack very well up against.

[Kirika]

Past weekend went 2-0-2 split top 4 with the same list I posted earlier.
1-1-1 Draw vs Death and Taxes
Don't like death and taxes the match up can be pretty grindy and can be just annoying with them locking you out on mana or mother of runes blanking your removal and you dying in short order. Disfigure and Golgari charm help but is pretty grindy all around. Mirran Crusaders are a problem. Might want a second Deluge.

Win 2-1 vs Infect
Needle really helped against Inkmoth after board. Games went longer and no turn 2 kills. One game he got me with an Inkmoth the turn before I had lethal. Gets much better after board with Disfigure and Needle for Inkmoth.

Win 2-0 vs BG loam Pox
Was able to keep hitting lands, drawing cards and win eventually. 3 basics plus 2 Spell bomb were MVP. Although cursed scroll almost got me one game.

ID with Grixis Delver.
We played for fun and I won game 1 and he won game 2 burning me out. seems pretty even with edge going to who ever got first turn. He has a problem killing Goyfs while we have issues killing Angler/Tasigur. Extra Pulse in board is good here but isn't the easiest to resolve.

Split Top 4.

I tested Tasigur in Shardless. The problem with him is his delve cost competes with Goyf and DS for graveyard resources. On paper it looks like it wouldn't be a big deal but in practice he ended up shrinking goyf and DS fuel.

Jund is a pain in the butt. Bring in Surgical Extraction and target their Punishing Fire when they can't respond. Burn is another pain in the butt. You can try to run Chill but personally I rather have the SB slots devoted to other more winable macthups.

I found I did not like Delve spells in Shardless at all be it Tasigur or Dig Through Time. If your opponent is using delve spells as well this leads to some small goyfs and limited deathrite food. Tasigur's ability can be good in long drawn out games though. Tasigur is pretty embarrassing against any decks running Karakas where you delve to play Tasigur and he just get bounced.

So I just switched to this from jund and I'm about ready to try it in a local tournament. Which version of this would do well against a field of omni, miricles and bug delver?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Versus Omni you want maindeck discard like Thoughtseize/Hymm to Torach with more discard and Arcane Lab or the white splash for Meddling Mage on Show and Tell in the board.

Miracles you want Sylvan Library, Creeping Tar Pit (kills Jace) and Maelstrom Pulse (kills jace and their angels) main deck and both Null Rod and Pithing Needle side board (stops Sensei's Divining Top) . Deck is pretty good against miracles with abrupt decay to kill counter balance and so much card advantage.

BUG Delver you really want disfigures in the board to kill Delver and Dark confidant and having the full 4 Ancestral Visions and Sylvan library for more card advantage is good. Creeping Tar Pits are kinda bad here so if you see lots of bug delver might want to run no Tar Pits but if you see Miracles Tar pit is good so maybe run just one. I been running 2 and might go back to just one.

4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Baleful Strix
4 Shardless Agent

4 Ancestral Vision
4 Brainstorm
2 Thoughtseize
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Hymn to Tourach
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Force of Will
1 Dig Through Time

4 Polluted Delta
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Bayou
1 Creeping Tar-Pit
2 Wasteland

2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Duress
1 Golgari Charm
2 Null Rod
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Toxic Deluge
2 True-Name Nemesis
2 Arcane Laboratory
1 Force of Will
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

This is what I plan on running for my next deck. My stores are filled with Infect, Miracles using Stoneforge Mystic, version(s) of Storm(usually one player with different builds), Esper Stoneblade, Tezz Control, and BUG Delver decks. I'm not sure how to build my deck or its sideboard, so I went with a very basic build. Any and all help will be appreciated.

*made some changes since last night

Your list seems pretty solid. Looks like someone else likes basic lands other then me.

I would run a Pithing Needle instead of a second Null Rod or Tasigur. Pithing Needle stops planeswalkers and Inkmoth Nexus and is playable turn 1 versus Miracles turn 1 top.

Skeptical about True-Name Nemesis in the board. True-Name is fairly underwhelming without Equipment or Lords. Don't think it is particularly good against Jund because they run Liliana and Golgari Charm in the board. What other match up would you board in True-name?

I found Chill to work better then Jitte against the burn match up since the burn player can burn the creature you equip Jitte to unless it is Goyf. Also some burn players bring in Smash to Smitherings to hit your Shardless Agents which also hits Jitte. Burn is very winable with Chill and you have 3 Basics to fetch and get early Goyf really helps. Chill also is good versus Mono Red Sneak Attack.

Nihil Spellbomb is good versus Punishing Fire while also hampering Delve spell playing opponents and dredge. Surgical is better against Punishing Fire specifically since it gets rid of all of them but is less good against other decks.

[Krimson Viper]

I have been looking at DTT and questioning whether I should be running it or having the fourth Force MD instead of the board to combat combo some more. Even running just a singleton, I already have so much card advantage from Ancestral and Brainstorm. Maybe that DDT slot can be a second Jace or Lili? What do you guys think?

I see your point about TNN not being great against Jund. I don't know what else to use it against, so I guess ill take him out for two Chill? Doesn't Arcane Lab sort of replace Chill though? I kind of want to keep the Null Rod at two because there's two Tezz and an occasional Affinity player. It also helps battle against Storm by stopping LED, Petal, Belcher and acts as a catch all for them. TNN removal for Pithing?

I like the thought of Jitte in the deck. It can come in against D&T to kill any creature with an active Mom if there's counters on it. It helps my Goyf eat other Goyfs, closes out the games faster when attached to Agent. Am I wanting to live a dream here?

I also like the thought of Tasigur. Against other grinding games, he produces more CA, and can bring back miser copies. Against control, I feel as though it also allows me to stay as the aggressor. I think I will keep Tasigur and Jitte in and make the rest of your suggestions and see how the deck performs so I can have a feel for it. Thank you guys!

[Fox]

Given ETB of Stryx and cascade of Shardless, isn't Rite of Undoing a better fit than DTT? Doubles as Murderous Cut (hitting any nonland perm) with any discard effect as well.

[ironclad8690]

DTT finds things you need. The only condition is that you must have some cards in your yard. Rites of Undoing usually only helps when you are ahead anyways (with a Shardess on board, for example). Returning a Goyf or DRS to your hand isn't backbreaking or anything like that, but Rites isn't quite on the same level of power that DTT is.