yeah thanks for the link i just posted in that Thread.. what questions did you have ?Originally Posted by Fatal
k_omega here is the current list ive been testing. Im happy to explain any of the card choices.
1 Emrakul, the Promised End
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Warping Wail
2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
2 Expedition Map
3 Forest
4 Cloudpost
4 Glimmerpost
2 Vesuva
3 Crop Rotation
1 Eye of Ugin
2 Ancient Tomb
4 Windswept Heath
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
3 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Savannah
3 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Tireless Tracker
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Karakas
4 Primeval Titan
1 Glacial Chasm
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Veteran Explorer
3 Swords to Plowshares
2 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Krosan Grip
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Sphere of Resistance
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Ghostly Prison
2 Rest in Peace
1 Bojuka Bog
I do have a few questions:
1) I run 3 maps and 4 Crop Rotations, because with fewer copies it's noticeably harder to find Cloudposts and to hold up Wasteland protection. Do you find yourself having that problem using only 2 and 3 copies of those cards?
2) I also find it strange that you have zero needles and yet shaved a copy of Crop Rotation, further with no sideboard Surgical to extract Wastelands. I guess the idea is to just take whatever the opponent dishes out?
3) How often do you GSZ for Oracle or Tracker?
4) When I played a similar list, I found 3 Thought-Knots to be cluttering up my hand when I wanted to be casting other spells. Was that a problem for you as well?
5) How do you like Ghostly Prison?
Thanks!
a.k.a. Eddy Viscosity
1.) I've run 4 crop rotations for a while but I had to shave cards to squeeze in Swords to Plowshares. I had a knack for drawing multiples, which often didn't seem ideal to me. Decks running wastelands usually are too fast for you to play maps as well. I often feel like I don't have time to take 2 turns off against an wasteland agro deck. Let alone they are awful to draw when staring down a chalice. I do agree, miracles can't beat map...so the more the better.
2.) I had merfolk wasteland me 4 times in one game. {They copied my primetime and got of them.} Usually it's the 3rd wasteland that gets me. I do want to bring some number of surgicals back to board to help with the graveyard strategy matchups. My only issue is if I remove a creature, I can't surgical the remaining.
3.) I always go for primetime if I have 7 mana, if I don't with my current hand, I have been searching for either of them. Oracle is better if you have multiple lands in hand, tracker is good if you just have one. I'm still trying tracker, so theres a chance something else is better in this slot. It's weird because if you want instant value out of tracker with GSZ, it's a turn 5 play. If it lives through the next untap, it's been great.
4.) I've been using TKS as my thoughtsezie effects. If I have 4 mana and one in hand, I'm prioritizing that over anything else. I haven't hit a point where I TKS instead of durdled and it cost me the game.
5.) So it's what I'm trying for the agro matchups. I've used it to greatly slow down eldrazi to try to buy time. I can't get behind the dawnstrider because its a 1/1 that dies to anything. If delver has a FoW, they will force it, everytime. Unfortuantely, they can also just abrupt decay it, which is relavant.
New decklists for Titan-Post don't show up on MTG Top 8 very often, but I just found this three-color list from Joe Barry:
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Eye of Ugin
1 Island
1 Karakas
1 Plains
1 Savannah
1 Tundra
1 Windswept Heath
2 Forest
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Tropical Island
2 Vesuva
3 Flooded Strand
4 Cloudpost
4 Glimmerpost
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Kozilek, the Great Distortion
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
1 Veteran Explorer
4 Primeval Titan
4 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sylvan Library
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Brainstorm
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Show and Tell
4 Terminus
Sideboard:
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Meddling Mage
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Swan Song
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Krosan Grip
2 Flusterstorm
2 Hydroblast
2 Rest in Peace
1 Surgical Extraction
Source: http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=13633&d=280235&f=LE
Does he post here? Anyone know him? What do we think of this?
Last edited by cwcomposer; 10-27-2016 at 11:59 AM.
Played at a local event this last Saturday which had about 35 people in attendance. My matchups were okay, but I had a lot of fun. Omniscience is my boyfriend
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Tropical Island
1x Forest
1x Island
1x Glacial Chasm
1x Eye of Ugin
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Karakas
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Thespian Stage
2x Vesuva
4x Cloudpost
4x Glimmerpost
4x Primeval Titan
1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1x Emrakul, the Promised End
1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
1x Platinum Emperion
2x Omniscience
4x Brainstorm
4x Crop rotation
4x Show and Tell
2x Force of Will
2x Flusterstorm
4x Sensei's Divining Top
2x Candelabra of Twanos
2x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
SB:
2x Surgical
2x Pithing Needle
2x Flusterstorm
3x Krosan Grip
1x Tabernacle
1x Maze of Ith
2x Blue Elemental Blast
2x Trickbind
Round 1: ANT
I recognize this player and he recognizes me. I don't interact with him much in real life, but he's on the list of people I snapchat tournament results to. He absolutely knows what I'm on.
G1:
I dork around pretty hard, represent Crop Rotation and all that while spinning a top. Top of my deck is not thrilling. I've got a force and a flusterstorm, but they eat it to some hand removal. He goes off with three LEDs in play and I'm pretty sure I'm just_dead.dec but instead of tutor chaining me to death, he makes 14 goblins. Tabernacle is burning in my sideboard, but I feel like I still have a chance here. With glimmerposts I'm at 29 life, so I'm not exactly worried. Honestly, I point out while I'm taking my turn that I should be just_dead.dec and why. I find Emprion with top, then Crop Rotate into the prerequisite Cloudpost to cast. He hits me for 14 then kinda balks when Emprion hits the table. We keep playing for some reason (I guess he was hoping I'd attack?) but after a few turns of draw go I stick titan and that's enough to scoop.
G2:
I keep a pretty spicy hand with a cloudpost, a couple trops, a force, fluster and trickbind. He t1 ponders, then passes. I draw surgical, play the trop and pass back. He plays a fetch, then duresses me, which I Flusterstorm. Then he cracks the fetch and in response to that (so he doesn't get the priority to cast another) I surgical his Duress. He's actually got 2 more in his hand and he's a bit salty about this. A couple turns later he blows a load into an infernal tutor, which I counter and he's done at that point. We talk for a bit and he comments that he's quite rusty with the deck, but still enjoys playing it.
Round 2: Bant Humans? 1-0
This deck really caught me by surprise. Apparently it placed somewhere recently but I had no idea. My opponent knows who I am thus knows what deck I'm on and I play accordingly.
Game 1: I mulligan and he plays first. He casts a meddling mage turn 2 and I feel like I have to force it, so I do. He just sticks another though and names Crop Rotation, which he's seen with Gitaxian Probe. I almost cast it in response, but I'm positive he'll counter it (which after the game he said he would). I end up just spending the whole game trying to make land drops with top and he eventually runs me over with 2/2s. I never saw a wasteland, but it's hard for me to accept that it's not coming out the sideboard or something.
Game 2: He mulligans now, and I keep a strong show hand. He probes then therapy's me on turn 2, and I cast a Brainstorm off with Top and hide my snt pieces. There was actually a second show and tell in the top three which I leave in my hand (and he names) thus making it seem like I've messed up the SnT plan. I cast a show and tell turn four that's protected with a flusterstorm that nabs a force from him. I put in prime time and power out an eldrazi in a couple of turns. Still no wastelands, but I leave in all the crop rotations and bring in needle anyways.
Game 3:
This is a bit more rough for me. I have a top in my opener, which he sees, but I don't cast it turn one because I also have a fluster storm and crop which might be relevant. However, he just casts meddling mage and names top, which is very hard for me. I've got a show and tell -> omni -> ugin though, and I feel like if I make it to turn 4 he can't really beat that. However. He has another meddling mage, so I force pitching flusterstorm. I go for the show and tell, but it gets forced. Not too worried since I've got another, but he actually has Sanctum Prelate, which absolutely isn't something I can beat. He's beating down hard, so I get a Tabernacle, which isn't actually correct. Should have gotten Eye and just tried to rip cloudposts. He eventually kills me with 2/2s. I feel like if I knew more about this deck, I would have been a lot more successful in this matchup, as I played very loose in game 3.
Round 3: U/R Delver 1-1
Never seen this guy in my life, so I don't know what to expect. We greet eachother and he seems in pretty good spirits. I'm a bit down on myself from playing so poorly the last game, but we laugh and joke a bit.
Game 1: He goes foil snow covered island into ponder, so I figure he's on miracles or something. I just play cloudpost go and he's like "Aaah, here we go" untaps, casts Storm Chasermage and probes/BS. I play another cloudpost, top and spin. I've got the goods on top. The omni for the SnT in my hand, and an ugin. He uplays monastary swiftspear, delver, bolt and a probe. I slam the show and tell, put in omni, wipe his board with ugin, then cast primetime for a chasm and an eye, saccing my trop I had just played. He just concedes there and we get on with sideboarding.
Game 2: I expect to see a price at some point here, but who knows. He mulls, then goes mountain swiftspear. I play a karakas into top and pass. He bolts me twice, cracking for three. I spin and see i'm set up to SnT omni again and play bojuka bog. On his turn he shrugs, then bolts me, and attacks. I'm at six now, he's got one card in hand and two volcanics untapped. I've got SnT, omni, platinum emperion and two primetimes. My land is a misty. I think about it for awhile and realize I pretty much just have to go for it (also that if I get basic, he can't snap kill me with a price) so I show, and he has nothing. Cast all my spells and kill him. He apparently had boarded out Daze (which I told him was incorrect) and the last card in his hand was a force with no matching blue card.
Round 4: Jeskai Nahiri
This guy and I have played a bunch of times and he's always got a spicy brew. I've sat next to him every round so I know he's got wastes and standstills.
Game 1: We play land go for awhile, he wastes me, I crop rotate, he wastes me again (a tropical island while I have 2 cloudposts??), but eventually he casts Nahiri with five lands, which I decide to force even though I've got Newmrakul in my hand, just because she seems like a lot to deal with. He doesn't force back, which I take as a green light, and crop rotate into cloudpost then cast Newmrakul. He reads it and is like "Whatever~" so I draw his card for the turn. His hand is like, JtMS, Scalding Tarn, Engineered Explosives and Swords. I counter his own jace with the counterspell he draws, then cast EE for zero. On my turn, he tries to Swords the Emrakul and I have him read the card again. He laughs a bit and we go to game 2.
Game 2: He wastes me a bunch of times (three? Felt like five) and I've got three lands in play and a top. He's beating down hard with a Containment Priest and a mishra's factory, and I'm running out of options. I've got SnT, Omni, prime, prime in hand, but I feel like it's just not going to resolve. My top card is a misty, so I decide to act like there are no lands on top (A little huff and puff, idk.) and then crop rotate to try and bait the counter. He counters it, I draw the misty then cast the SnT. He doesn't seem worried about this because of Containment Priest, but I put in Omni and cast all the primetimes. He just gets run over by them and the match is done.
After the match, he tells me that acting like I didn't have any lands on top was 'sleezy' but if he doesn't counter the crop rotation I have no way to win. I'm the kind of person who has a negative poker face and I constantly hemorrhage information. He knew this and acted on that info. I feel like it's within my rights to leak false info. Was that sleezy?
Round 5: R/W painter 3-1
We draw and I go get a burger. Ghost pepper chipotle sauce, pepperjack and chipotle bacon. Absolutely an all star burger.
Top 8: Bant good stuff: Semis
I'm totally in the zone for this and smile through the whole shuffling part. I've sat next to him and know he's got stifles and wastelands. I feel like I play super tight in this whole match.
Game 1:
He's the higher seed and starts us off with a little land go. I play cloudpost, then trop, then cloudpost and a top. He wastes the first cloudpost on his third turn and I protect it with a crop rotation. Then he wastes the trop and I couldn't care less. I play another trop. He still hasn't comitted anything to the board. I cast a Candle on my turn, then roll that right into casting Ulamog on 2/3 of his land. He tries to stifle it, and but I've got flusterstorm, so he floats a white and loses his lands. Swords my guy and I gain 10. He plays a True Name at some point, but I eventually find eye, then emrakul him.
Game 2:
He like, actually casts spells this game, with a library, deathrite and stoneforge among them. I play lands or whatever it is my deck does. I don't remember a lot of this game, but I know at one point I got omniscience into play but had nothing else until I could top the next turn and he was able to Council's Judgement it. He got to put True Name in off of my SnT, which gave him a pretty threatening clock. I ended up staring down lethal with almost no options. He had a trop up and I was positive that he had the stifle. But I was backed into a wall, so I cast Ugin, which resolved, and then -4 him. My opponent pauses, and then says 'ok' which shocks me. However, he takes no further action, so I just read Ugin's text outloud. He's like "oh dang, I thought it was one thing! I want to stifle it." I tell him he had said okay very clearly. The judge who was watching agrees and all his board presence is gone. Eventually I just bolt him to death (He stifles one of the bolts) as he had gotten quite low from the Library. I felt kinda bad after this, but it was very clear he had acknowledged the card's ability.
Quarters: R/W Painter
I know this guy is on painter, but I don't mulligan correctly and never cast a colored spell in either game. Across both of our games, he cast like, 7 blood moon effects and ReB'd all my attempts to beat them. Alas! I forgot the Cardinal rule of this matchup which is: Mulligan to a basic!
Ended up with a Force of Will for my troubles (*Throws it in pile of fourteen forces*)
Thanks for reading! <3
Some Fear the Dead
Thanks for the Report!
Many things i would like to comment, but i'll stick to a few thoughts about the build.
In general i feel that cavern of souls in mapless builds doesn't shine as it should - it's2random without maps. Most of the time you don't want to crop rotate 4 it against control? I'd rather have another basic 4 redundancy sake or tabernacle or maze in your case? In 4x crop + 4x SnT builds i feel that you need 1x ancient tombs. If nothing else you shore up your "fair" e.g. no counter match-ups by a large margin. The speed is sometimes just silly, especially if you run something like moxD. Currently i'm fooling around with omni in a casual build with impulse and ponder.
Ancient Tomb is just not good in my opinion. I've tried playing it for the sake of turning Crop Rotate into ramp, but there are just too many times where the damage it deals far outweighs the benefits. I would say my 'fair' matchups are absolutely my best, and I'm not going to make my worst matchups harder in order to shore up a matchup I was already winning.
I was just messing around with the Maze in the sb, but I do want a second Island. Either in the sb or somewhere in the main.
Cavern of Souls is absolutely amazing. I cut the maps right before the event to try something else, and you're right, it doesn't shine as bright. Crop Rotating into it is still an option, but instead of cutting it, I'll probably run a second. When the card is helping you cast titan it's dumbfounding and game changing.
Ponder seems find in a Omni-oriented build, but Impulse isn't strong enough in my opinion.
Thanks for your opinions.
Some Fear the Dead
At first I was like how the heck did all this end up in a deck, then I realized its 62 cards maindeck. I proceeded to move on.
About the sleazy..you're there to win. If people are being jerks, you have the right to reciprocate it back at them. You opponent has no room to talk, since he wastelanded you three times, without loams or graveyard recursion. This is like the time where someone cast cabal therapy against me and was like that "big green giant that will kill me." I just stared them back with a poker face and said, "and the card name is?" After a minute, I called a judge. He blanked, I seized the opportunity and won with it. In the same regard if I know someone is on miracles and they don't know I'm on 12post, I will turn 1 cloudpost them and dead-eye stare them.
Thanks for the vote of confidence! Sometimes I feel like I play too serious and don't want to be known as an 'angle shooter' but you're right, I wanted to win and I did what it took.
Haha, on the subject of playing against miracles, once I played a guy and he went tundra into top, so I followed with Island into Candle. He puts me on combo and forces it, so the next turn I play cloudpost map and he's like "uuuh." Poor miracles opponents :( I hope they never ban Terminus.
Some Fear the Dead
That would be me. I wrote a tournament report on page 289 (post # 5774). NorthWestDork has done well with the (virtually) same list it a couple times before me.
Hrm... this deck looks eerily familiar.GJ on your Top 4
Edit: Just to add context, it seems this deck does fairly well in the Seattle area. Ive piloted it twice myself to strong finishes in the same Seattle Event Series.
http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=12777&d=274098&f=LE
http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=12500&d=272031&f=LE
And yes, my sideboard is all over the place.The list I used is not being reported correctly on that website. I can assure you that it does not have more than 60 cards in the maindeck.
Last edited by Saab93; 10-28-2016 at 05:11 PM.
I've been experimenting a little bit with Tireless Tracker and Counterbalance in the sideboard.
Tireless Tracker: comes in against Blood Moon decks, combo (where he's a quicker clock than ramping up to Eldrazi), Eldrazi, and Delver. His increased value against combo is marginal in that he's still a 3 drop, but all of the other uses are totally legitimate. I like having a nice, proactive threat that can go wide against Blood Moon and land disruption. He's almost as good in this deck as he is in Lands.
Counterbalance: often dismissed because of mana issues, it's actually not that bad if the deck is tweaked slightly for a little more blue. Obviously intended for combo, but fine for Delver as well where it can prevent being burned out. Repeal gets better with this out as well.
I really wanted to run Chalice of the Void, but with so many 1 drops, I don't see it working. This is a one-sided Chalice... kind of. Put those 1 drops to work!
Anyone play test with Coercive Portal yet? Seems like great early game card advantage and constant pressure later on.
Nice to see finally some more of you try out Tireless Tracker. I haven't played on xmage for a while, but i did systematically test a lot of different versions of my build against Tier 1-2 decks, going in a few different directions. One of those directions was the idea with Enlightened Tutor i wrote about a few pages back, but that didn't really work out the way i wanted to. In short: It's marginally stronger against some combo decks, Miracles and Delver, but against every non-blue midrange deck it fell completely apart (as in: turning 70% matchups into 30% matchups). It might still be an option at some point, but i really don't think the meta right now i ideal to try that. So no Enlightened Tutors any more in my current build, instead back to the Gwb version i had before, but with some changes.
Current list:
Lands:
4 Cloudpost
4 Glimmerpost
2 Forest
2 Bayou
1 Savannah
5 green fetchlands
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Dark Depths
1 Maze of Ith
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Eye of Ugin
1 Karakas
1 Vesuva
1 Bojuka Bog
Creatures:
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Eternal Witness
1 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Tireless Tracker
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Titania, Protector of Argoth
2 Primeval Titan
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Spells:
3 Mox Diamond
2 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Crop Rotation
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Grapple with the Past
1 Sylvan Library
2 Warping Wail
2 Toxic Deluge
Sideboard:
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Krosan Grip
1 Golgari Charm
2 Thoughtseize
2 Lost Legacy
2 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Surgical Extraction
Going over all my changes:
1. Lands:
- I got rid of the Ghost Quarter (or Wasteland). I just didn't use it often enough, and it does nothing for the ramp plan. Sometimes i miss it against Infect or Lands, but otherwise this is completely fine.
- I got rid of the Tabernacle. Didn't really need it. It might hurt against Delver, but overall i think the Delver matchup is not worse than before, maybe even better, because of some other changes. And Tabernacle also doesn't help the ramp plan. Budget concerns had nothing to do with the cut, but cutting the cost almost in half is a nice side effect.
- I added Cavern of Souls. With 2 Titans it can do some work against Miracles on Giant, and against other decks i often put it on Humans, because most of my other creatures are actually Humans. I have been happy with it, even without Expedition Map and without 4 Titans it randomly wins a lot of games against blue decks and can be manafixing otherwise.
- Got the colored sources in order: 1 Savannah is enough, i only want it for the Knight or in sideboarded games when i bring in other white cards. But i only bring those in against decks that usually don't play Wasteland, so one source is enough. I need 2 Bayou, because black is more important in other matchups and against Wasteland decks. That leaves room for 2 basics, and that's fine.
2. Creatures:
- I added the 2nd Titan. Testing with more traditional builds has shown me the advantages of having access to a backup Titan if they get rid of the first one or if one is just not enough. However, i'm more than happy with just 2 - i tried playing 3 in one build, but overall that leads to more clunky hands.
- I readded the Titania, after i cut it for the Tutor build initially. Tried many builds without Titania, after cutting her for the 2nd Titan. Those did better than those with just one Titan, but those with Titania were even stronger. Especially against Liliana decks this is just very important to have.
- I settled on 3 Tireless Tracker. Whenever i went down to 1 or 2, the winrate dropped. Instead of a 4th one i like additional bullets instead.
- I went down to just 1 Knight. Knight needs to live to do something, and he doesn't, there is a good chance the 2nd won't either and i usually prefer other creatures in that case. So just one is enough.
- I added 1 Eternal Witness. With Grapple with the Past, you sometimes mill something you need later on, but either can't get with Grapple or don't want to get right now with Grapple. That's enough added utility to make Witness good enough, she isn't bad anyway.
- I added 1 Scavenging Ooze. That's still not settled, but i like the additional graveyard hate - Deathrite can deal with combo decks just fine, but against fair decks using the graveyard, Scooze is much stronger - it can actually keep Goyfs and Knights under control, and is still good against many combo decks.
3. Spells:
- I cut the Crucible of Worlds. That hurts a bit against Lands, but overall it was just often too slow and not impactful enough. I have enough recursion effects with Grapple, Witness and Titania, i don't think i really need infinite recursion.
- I settled on 3 Grapple with the Past. The lists with 3 instead of just 2 always performed better, especially after i made some changes to improve it. I really don't find the room for the full 4, and there is still the risk of running into RiP or Leyline of the Void, so 3 it is.
- I settled on 4 GSZ. The lists with just 3 were performing significantly worse, so no more cuts on that card.
- I settled on 3 Mox Diamond. Playing 4 didn't improve the deck, and after reading in the Reanimator thread about them playing exactly 3 Lotus Petals, i realized the same arguments are probably true for Mox Diamonds for me: I want exactly 1 in my opening hand, but i really don't want to see 2 or more.
- Toxic Deluge over Engineered Explosives. Explosives is more flexible, but Deluge is better at the main application - keeping the board clean. I wouldn't mind playing Explosives Main in addition, but Deluge is the more important card.
- 1 Sylvan Library over the 3rd Top. Both cards are similar, both cards are better in different situations. While i still think Top is more often the better card, there are a lot of situations where i like drawing extra cards with Library - basically against every deck that isn't very aggressive. Also, i'm not playing Ugin or All is Dust, so it's unlikely i kill my own Library as colateral damage.
4. Sideboard:
- I cut the additional Warping Wails and Crop Rotation. Both cards are fine maindeck choices, but there are better sideboard cards for the matchups where i would board them in (against combo mostly), and some combo decks where those 2 cards just don't do enough or even anything relevant (thinking about Aluren for example).
- I added Gaddock Teeg and 2 Ethersworn Canonist. I guess you have to see both sides of a match to really see the value of those creatures, at least for me that changed my rather negative opinion. Also, having 3 anti-combo creatures in the deck (even more if you count Scooze, Knight and Deathrite) makes Grapple with the Past actually a good card postboard against combo decks.
- I tried out 2 Lost Legacy, and i like them. Against almost every combo deck, there is something to name to cripple them, sometimes to win on the spot. The BB casting cost makes it sometimes hard to cast on curve, but in testing it was still better than Memoricide, in short because a 50% chance to cast it on turn 2 or 3 is just better than a 80% chance to cast it one turn later, if that's the turn you die.
I tested my builds against many different Tier 1-2 decks, and i also tested some other (more traditional?) builds against those decks, and this build (and similar builds that were just 2-3 cards off) outperformed everything else by far over a decent samplesize.
Went undefeated yesterday in weekly magic with a somewhat standard list:
// Lands
4 [MR] Cloudpost
1 [LG] Karakas
1 [WWK] Eye of Ugin
4 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
4 [SOM] Glimmerpost
1 [WWK] Bojuka Bog
2 [TSP] Vesuva
1 [AVR] Cavern of Souls
1 [IA] Glacial Chasm
2 [ST] Island (1)
4 [A] Tropical Island
// Creatures
1 [ROE] Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 [M11] Primeval Titan
1 [BFZ] Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
// Spells
4 [UL] Crop Rotation
4 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
4 [FNM] Brainstorm
2 [AQ] Candelabra of Tawnos
3 [10E] Pithing Needle
2 [JGC] Show and Tell
2 [NPH] Dismember
3 [GP] Repeal
3 [TSP] Trickbind
2 [FRF] Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
// Sideboard
SB: 4 [NPH] Surgical Extraction
SB: 3 [TSP] Krosan Grip
SB: 3 [CMD] Flusterstorm
SB: 1 [NPH] Dismember
SB: 2 [THS] Swan Song
SB: 2 [OD] Moment's Peace
I've been testing with a heavy trinket mage build and also with this build. i think they are both viable and are simply meta calls.
Matchups were: Eldrazi Aggro (2-1), Tezzerator (2-1), Cephalid Breakfast (2-1), ID. Weird matchups for sure, but the deck still got a good testrun.
Do you have a list for the Trinket Mage version?
Also, what role does Dismember serve in this deck?
12-post Discord: https://discord.gg/QxYVg3g
Trinket mage Version is close to this:
// Lands
4 [MR] Cloudpost
1 [LG] Karakas
1 [WWK] Eye of Ugin
4 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
4 [SOM] Glimmerpost
1 [WWK] Bojuka Bog
2 [TSP] Vesuva
1 [AVR] Cavern of Souls
1 [IA] Glacial Chasm
2 [ST] Island (1)
4 [A] Tropical Island
// Creatures
1 [ROE] Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 [M11] Primeval Titan
1 [BFZ] Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
4 [FD] Trinket Mage
// Spells
4 [UL] Crop Rotation
4 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
4 [FNM] Brainstorm
2 [AQ] Candelabra of Tawnos
3 [10E] Pithing Needle
2 [JGC] Show and Tell
2 [FRF] Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
2 [FD] Engineered Explosives
2 [ZEN] Expedition Map
// Sideboard
SB: 3 [NPH] Dismember
SB: 4 [NPH] Surgical Extraction
SB: 4 [TSP] Krosan Grip
SB: 4 [CMD] Flusterstorm
Dismember is pretty straightforward. Deals with problematic creatures. Nearly every deck has some that are annoying. DRS, pyromancer/mentor, metalworker, tks/reality smasher, delvers. Rather than clocking yourself, you just kill it. You can always gain life back later.
The Trinket mage version was originally focused on abusing Aetherflux Reservoir, but I kept trimming the AEtherflux Reservoirs until i was down to zero, but the Trinket Mages were still great. TM(Trinket mage) version is better versus a slow meta not filled with combo. The Trickbind/Repeal build is to combat random combo and is less meta-specific.
I guess no-one has posted yet about SCG Baltimore but there were two 12post decks that made day 2.
k_omega and into_play I believe on GW and UG respectively. Both k_omega & myself ultimated our opponents Liliana oTV over the course of day 1 and made our respective opponents choose the pile of nothing.
I, of course got soul crushed again in round 9, game 3 for a record of 5-4 on G/W post. :-(
Losses on the day:
- BUGw Aluren in Round 2
- This matchup seems unwinnable. I got a sphere of resistance to stick and I ended up getting slow-rolled with the combo. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to Krip Aluren or Parastic Strix. I've faced this matchup online a bunch and it feels like everything I try doesn't work.
- Grixis Delver in Round 3
- Jammed a Primetime into a Daze in game 3. I was on the play and he left all 4 in, his reseasoning was he didn't have anything better in SB?
- I wanted to hedge against eldrazi so I ran 1 blessed alliance over a 3rd STP. It was awesome when it killed a flipped delver and I gained 4 life to boot!
- Grixis Delver in Round 5
- Game 3 on the draw I faced a turn 1 delver, blind flip on turn 2. Turn 2 delver, blind flip FoW on turn 3. Sometimes you just don't get to play magic I guess?
- Shardless BUG in Round 9
- Game 3 with day 2 on the wire, my opponent over the course of the game goes Pithing needle #1: SDT, Pithing needle #2: Eye of Ugin, Null Rod.
- We hit the point where we both had 0 cards in hand, he had a liliana and a tarmogoyf, while I had Maze of Ith was holding of the goyf while we were both drawing cards. I drew multiple primetimes and bogs & padded my life total. If I would have been playing a kalini heart garden or dryad arbor, primetime would have lived and I would have won the match.
- It was a topdeck war basically. He hit thoughtsieze, land, goyf into goyf; while I drew useless cards: land, Top, Candelabra (I left one in), land into land. I haven't calculated the odds, but I had plenty of live draws: Ugin (x2), Rec Sage/GSZ (x4), Eldrazi Titans (x3).
Another large event, another failure at the end. The story of my life with this deck. :-P
I haven't played much against Aluren, but on xmage i was 3-0 against it and testing against myself the winrate is also positive. I think this matchup isn't that bad, probably 50/50 for me, but not much worse for other builds either.
Their combo is basically a 2-card combo. They need Aluren and they need Recruiter (or Cavern Harpy and Parasitic Strix, but those are 1-ofs usually). If they have that, i think your only chance is Grip on Aluren. They have Eternal Witness, so this will only buy you 1-2 turns, but it's something. If you Grip the Strix, they just get Witness and you don't even get another Turn.
With my current build, i don't even have that much interaction against them:
1. Discard. 2-3 Thoughtseize in the board to take whatever combo piece they already have. I'm thinking about playing some copies maindeck even, it's good against combo and useful enough otherwise. (You have TKS i think. I don't like it, because it's too slow against other combo decks, but it should often be fast enough against Aluren.)
2. Ethersworn Canonist (and maybe Trinisphere). They have to get rid of it to combo, either with Abrupt Decay or with a RecSage to tutor up (so it doesn't stop the combo, but slows it down).
3. Gaddock Teeg. They have to get rid of it to play Aluren, and the usually only have Abrupt Decay for that job.
4. Lost Legacy, usually naming Aluren.
(Not a good option: Leyline. They should have RecSage in their deck, and no problem to search it up during the combo to blow it up.)
But i often win without using any of the combo hate, because they are not that consistant at assembling the combo: They don't have any way to search for the combo pieces, and far less cantrips than other combo decks. They usually survive long enough with creatures like Baleful Strix to make attacking really unprofitable, but if we play a fast Titan, we should be able to have Emrakul in play fast enough to beat them if they stumble a little bit.
If they have the combo on Turn 3 or 4, we will usually just lose, but from my experience, that doesn't happen that often, and i think we should win most of the time if they don't.
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