Cobbled together a list for our Thursday night Legacy, just for the hell of it.
4 Young Pyromancer
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Tasigur
1 True Name Nemesis
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Jace, the Mindsculptor
4 Dig Through Time
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Force of Will
2 Counterspell
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Forked Bolt
1 Pyroblast
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Island
1 Mountain
3 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
SB was an assortment of stuff I pulled out of my box last minute, something like:
2 Pyroblast
2 Flusterstorm
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Forked Bolt
1 Electrickery
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Jace
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Murderous Cut
1 Pithing Needle
1 Thoughtseize
1 Fire Covenant
Despite the deck being a complete pile, it worked out decently, and was a lot of fun. I only lost to DnT, which was probably due to the sideboard basically having no answer to equipment. 3 basics helped a lot, and Staticaster did a surprising amount of work, but the 2 games I lost were to Therapying the Batterskull he tutored up and not being able to flashback to hit the Sword he drew naturally.
I'll definitely be picking the deck up here and there, especially on the weeks where the local meta is 50% Miracles.
How do you guys like the Strixes in the deck? I don't own any, nor have I ever played it in a tournament, so I don't have much of a feel for the card.
Sooo we had a legacy FNM in our local store an I did come to this event with grixis again.Originally Posted by Lightless
I just swaped out the fire // ice for the 4th Dig and thats the list I was playing then.
1st Round Death'n Taxes
Was actually a lot of fun. The games where not one sided at all but I managed to grab his jitte with Dack in game 1, resulting in a pretty severe beating.
Game 2 Pithing Needle locked his Aether vial and Massacre killed 3 of his early creatures.
1-0
2nd Round VS Mud(12-Post Variant)
In both games I mulled to 6 to get a chance at force but didn't see any at all, so sadly he was able to resolve Chalice on 1 in both games.
The first game was pretty close nontheless. I got a young Pyro turn 2 and produced 5 Tokens beefore suiciding him into a metal worker.
I was able to counter his only big Creature a Wurmcoil and started to reduce his life total.
Sadly one turn before i was able to finish him he resolved Platinum Emperion
Game 2 was onesided even though he made some big mistakes I was not even close to wining.
1-1
3rd Round VS ANT
We know each other verry well, so the game was rather casual in terms of tight plays.
Game 1 he made a grave mistake.
He allready made his landdrop this turn and cast an ad nauseam, no mana up no cards in hand...
He flipped cards over counting were like 4 rituals, a petal, gitaxian probe, an infernal Tutor and two lands. He stopped and to be honest I thought I was dead.
He started chaining petal and rituals and I was thinking...
*okay okay now he casts infernal searching for Tendrils and I'm... wait...*
"Hey can I see your hand again?"
He shows m gitaxian Probe 2 lands and infernal. Like I said we know each other verry well.
"How do you plan to search anything up with that tutor when you got 2 lands in hand?"
game 2 went rather one sided again i drew enough control cards to have his combo in check and an early pyromancer provided enough pressure
2-1
4th Round VS Pox
Another Player I knew rather well. And I was fully aware of this beeing a favorable matchup for me in the past, sadly he played 2 night of soul's betrayal in his mainboard this time.
Again game 1 force didn't show up and he resolved one turn 2. Not a good start for me. So i started chaining cantrips to find tasigur or dack fayden to mill him out.
I found dack, but he had a cursed scroll on board and a mishra's factory, so milling him out was not an option. I took his cursed scroll hoping to hit his factory.
But he didn't attack the vunerable dack but rather me. He attacked him not a single time. He got a nether void on the board when dack went ultimate so i was pretty happy with pointing a lightning bolt at the factory only to let it be countered. And from there on it spiraled downwards for him.
Game 2 was not that exciting but i got him with tasigur and 2 strixes.
So I went 3-1 only loosing to the winner of the FNM, I was rather happy with my prformance that evening.
I will tune the sideboard a little bit, before I will pilot this deck in Lille.
@Kael: I'm a pretty huge fan of Baleful Strix. When resolving he allways gets a 2 for 1 because of the card drawn. He blocks all the big guys profitably.. looking at you tarmogoyf. And because of the value he creats resolving, it's okay to sac him for therapy.
If only you could have drawn Dack Fayden against the mud player XD
What are the deck's worst matchups, cards and situations to face?
I'm in the mood of trying a new deck and since the OP does not state it well I would like to know more of this decks weaknesses.
Thanks!
Ignorance is strength
This deck is very good against the top dogs of the format currently, which are Omni and Miracles. Ample countermagic, hand disruption, and a fairly heavy clock are good against these somewhat durdly decks.
It has a fair matchup against most other popular blue-based decks. In fair matchups, this is mostly due to the ability to Bolt annoying creatures like Delver and Stoneforge and stonewall Tarmogoyf with Pyromancer tokens. (Cabal Therapy is also a beating for Stoneforge decks.) In other combo matchups, like Storm, discard + countermagic + clock works well.
This deck is bad, however, against non-blue, threat-dense decks with mana denial. Death and Taxes in particular is the most brutal popular matchup. I have also head my head caved in by Deadguy Ale and MUD. When you are running 14-16 cards that do nothing but draw other cards, and are trying to stick them through Wastelands and pressure from bears, life gets really ugly fast. Aether Vial is a nightmare, and godspeed if they're running a Moon effect. I currently run one Dread of Night in my sideboard and I'm considering adding a second and/or a Sulfur Elemental.
The only non-blue matchup I've had success in is one of the more all-in Dark Depths decks, but I run Surgical in the sideboard and DRS main. That's a unique deck in that it doesn't present Chalice or an early clock, and unless they have natural Marit Lage there are lots of places you can stop them (hit their loams with counter-DRS, Wasteland on board, countering Crop Rotation). That deck isn't very popular at the moment though.
If I was going to play in an average competitive Legacy metagame:
-4 out of 5 decks I'll play are blue
-2 of those 4 are Miracles or some sort of combo
I would take this deck. Shredding their hand with Cabal Therapy is fun, Lightning Bolt is always live, we get to dig through time a ton. Hell, my local meta has a lot of non-blue decks, but I still bring this deck because I don't have time to build another right now and the practice is good. Sideboard should really be centered around beating D&T and variants though. Teferi's Response might honestly not be the worst.
Thank you for the answer. Going deeply on the bad matchups analisys, how is the BUG-shardless matchup? What are their most threatning cards?
Ignorance is strength
I haven't played it, but I imagine we are somewhat behind. Briefly, I think our goal is:
-Get off to a fast start
-Don't let them have an active Deathrite
-Therapy as much as possible to prevent them from dropping bombs
-Try to win before they resolve Ancestral Visions
The one advantage we do have is that we are strong vs. Abrupt Decay.
Perish seems like an important card postboard, as it's a way to reclaim card advantage. Extra blasts hit Visions nicely, also Jace. I like playing charms so Dimir Charm would come in as extra DRS killing/counters Visions/Deluge/Pulse/Hymn. It's probably a close matchup.
Cards we don't want to see: DRS, Jace, Hymn (though that seems less popular at the moment), and probably Shardless Agent, since it's just always value and occasionally a blowout.
4 Young Pyromancer
2 Snapcaster mage
2 Baleful Strix
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Dig Through Time
4 Force of Will
2 Counterspell
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Terminate
1 Echoing Truth
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Keranos, God of Storms
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
3 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
1 Mountain
//sb
1 Negate
1 Electrickery
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Swamp
1 Slaughter Games
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Batterskull
1 Perish
1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Fire Covenant
1 Terminate
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Flusterstorm
Testing this tonight. I've been on this deck for a couple of locals and a ~30-person daytrip, all of which have gone various degrees of me learning how not to have basic forest in my deck (the other nic fit players in this thread will likely appreciate this, which I see there are quite a few of us here).
Still definitely trying things out and learning what works, what doesn't work, and what problems the deck has that need attention with the available slots. I'll have some more in depth thoughts upon my return tonight.
Took first, but it was a 3-rounder and I had a round one bye, so not exactly hard. Lots of people were either sick from the weekend's pptq plague or on vacation. Oh well.
Regardless, I will present some thoughts partially to write them out for my own benefit and partially to try to incite some discussion in this thread, because it seems pretty quiet in here (although, I am used to the nic fit thread, which moves quickly).
Card by card analysis:
Young Pyro:
Mid-level threat and value engine. Opponents have been very scared of this card, and I'm not -entirely- sure that is correct to the extent of the reactions I have seen. Sure, it can snowball a game. I beat Death and Taxes tonight through triple Mother of Runes by going double Pyromancer into spells -> zerg you. These games seem uncommon. More often she makes a couple bros and passes beyond the veil. I consider Pyro to be a mid-level bomb, in that I do not expect to win games with her, but I do expect her to suck up opposing removal options, constrict their lines of play, and leave behind a little value.
Snapcaster:
I sometimes want more Snaps, but that is usually a symptom of using a spell poorly in my experience. If I need another Echoing Truth, it's probably because I used the first one incorrectly. I think two is a good number for this guy, but I do want to test him as a 1-of at some point because I have noticed that he clogs sometimes, depending on my hand and the board state (usually mana related).
Baleful Strix:
This card has been an all-star for me in a lot of decks since its printing, and when looking through lists I saw that Eric English was running a pair, so I gave them a spin. They are no less impressive here. I've had issues dealing with large threats, like Goyfs or Tasigurs, and Strix is very effective at solving this problem while also providing you with another cantrip. He's also not an unreasonable body for Cabal Therapy flashbacks, which is something I ran into problems with in my earlier builds. I would want to flashback a Therapy, but I wouldn't have anything laying around to do it with.
Cantrip shell (Brainstorm, Ponder, Probe):
Nothing to say here, really. Probe hurts a LOT and I frequently shave one or two when sideboarding, but I've realized that no matter how much pain it can cause, siding them all out is never correct because of the deck's low land count. The cantrip part of that card is very important, and it may come to pass that as I gain experience with this deck I will end up not even shaving it and just trying to play around the life loss as best I can.
Dig Through Time:
I am very unsure of how many copies of this card is correct. I've seen anywhere from two to four. I thought and still kind of think that 4 is a little bit much, but I'm also not on the Dack Fayden that might help with that plan. I've been fairly happy with 3 -- worst case I can always pitch one to Force, and they do come online surprisingly quickly. I could try the 4th copy out, but someone would have to sell me on it.
Removal Suite (Bolts, Terminate, Truth):
Bolts are bolts, nothing to say there.
Terminate was a response to my issues with dealing with opposing large creatures. Bouncing into Therapy via Jace or Truth is an option, but I wanted a hard removal spell. I originally tried out a pair of Terminates, but decided after testing and a local that the second copy was a little much maindeck since there are enough decks in the format that just don't run / care about creatures right now. At the same time, I don't think it is something you can reasonably skimp on because Angler, Goyf, Tasigur, etc -- or even just a random utility dork that needs to go away. I play my version a little more control than most builds I've seen have tended, so I favor this slot.
I do not run Murderous Cut because I don't want to counteract my other delve cards // my snapcasters, and I don't want to lose to any random spontaneous graveyard hate like a maindeck Nihil Spellbomb or some such. I would rather run a sure thing at 2 mana than a chance at 1 but equal chance at 5.
The Echoing Truth was adopted after seeing Rich Shay rave about it. I could see the tempo gains of resetting a delve creatures as an obvious application, but the card actually has a lot more utility than something as obvious as that -- the aforementioned bounce->therapy comes to mind, and is a good way of solving problem enchantments that can otherwise be a major problem.
Jace:
People seem very divided on Jace. I presume much of this is mana cost related, but I personally can't see going back under two copies. I started with 0, then moved to a 1-1 split with Dack, then decided I really just wanted another Jace, and put him in. I haven't looked back. He clunks sometimes in some of the aggressive matchups or the mana denial matchups, but in anything where your mana is not being screwed with he's just fantastic -- and sometimes even then, if the game goes grindy, which this deck has a tendency to encourage by virtue of its 1-for-1 nature.
I mean, he's Jace. He's a wincon, he's a backup card advantage engine, he's hard removal with Cabal Therapy or tempo without. Sometimes he resets a Snapcaster or gives a Strix vigilance while cantripping. He's a swiss army knife in this deck more than most, and I firmly endorse two copies in this style of deck (tempoier builds need not protest).
Jitte:
I still don't like it. I didn't like it when it was in my deck initially, and I didn't like it after giving the card another try tonight. Jitte is very good at parity, same as Tasigur. It's not good if you're either winning or losing, and this deck feels like it's -always- either winning or losing. I can't say that I've had more than a tiny handful of situations where it's felt like I'm at parity with my opponent and needed something to break it. This is probably the next change that I make. Even with the extra bodies in the deck, it just has not impressed me after multiple chances.
Keranos:
I freely admit that I come from // partially popularized Nic Fit, and this has left me something of a tendency to run eccentric / expensive cards. This is just something I'm saddled with.
However, Keranos.
I partially based my original list off of Brian Coval's SCG list, since Coval is a good friend of mine whose opinion I trust, and Coval's list was the slightly bigger version with True Names. I quickly realized upon jamming some games, though, that True Name is kind of awkward. It died to most of the hate that my opponents were boarding for Young Pyros anyway, and while it was never worse than average, it was rarely better for me. Some of this might have been because I was playtesting a lot against Miracles and Death and taxes, or it might have been because of how my personal playstyle / low experience level was piloting the deck. Regardless of the reason, I felt the card wasn't getting the job done that the slots were given to it for.
This is a hard control deck, in my opinion, and I play it as such. In that style of deck, I want a win condition, Morphling-style. I want something that comes down, and gets the job done. Something super hard to deal with verging on impossible when backed with counters -- the difficulty of removal mattering more to me than the speed of the clock. I was reticent to go higher than 5 mana, but I'd hard cast enough Forces to feel that 5 was okay. Keranos was being sideboarded in a couple of lists that I'd seen already anyway, so I made the decision to move him maindeck, and he's been great. Knowing that he's in the deck somewhere, and that I have the draw power to find him lategame when I want him, allows me to craft boards such that my other win conditions can be more expendable and I can accrue more utility and value from them as a result. I can afford to jam a tempo Pyromancer on turn 3 with a Ponder to gain initiative and dictate the pace of the game, because I don't NEED that Pyro to win the game with later. I can afford to Brainstorm with Jace or use him for removal/tempo rather than just jamming him as a win condition.
Lands:
18 lands, as befitting my bigger / controllier style. I was originally running a Swamp maindeck over the Mountain, but got chastised recently by Coval on that, so I made the swap and it's been better for sure. I experimented with going to 19 lands, but definitely felt that was a little too many. I do sometimes (in some matchups) feel like 18 is a little light, however, so I'm sideboarding a Swamp as a 18.5th land for the matchups where I want it, in addition to helping me dodge Blood Moon/Back to Basics/Choke. I like being able to cast my spells, and coming from Nic Fit, did not realize just how many people aim hate at blue mana bases, outside of the Waste/Stifle plan that everyone has to deal with. I've periodically considered running a mise Wasteland either main or side to deal with problematic lands that sometime arise, but I've not been able to bring myself to spend the slot on it.
Sideboard:
15 one ofs for the moment. I like singleton sideboards with overlapping utility in this style of deck. A couple things might end up getting bumped up over time as I become more accustomed to the deck and engage in more dialogue over it, but for now, I'm just trying things and seeing what I like / don't like.
I'm sure the Ashiok is raising a lot of eyebrows, but in truth I really want to maindeck it, it's been so good. It has ripped apart so many matchups just by coming down. It's a strong clock against something like Miracles, it provides extra bodies in matchups like DnT where that can matter, it is VERY good against green decks, and the opponent generally has to spend a sizable amount of resources on her in order to effectively deal with her, especially if she's been around for a turn or two. I can't adequately say enough good things about this card, but I acknowledge that you probably just have to experience it to understand, since she looks pretty awful on paper.
Tasigur is in the sideboard for my build, and I think I like him there. He hasn't impressed me in this style of deck nearly as much as he has in the more Delver oriented decks, where he's pressure alongside a grind advantage / parity breaker. There's a lot of Karakas in the format at the moment, as well. He does, however, earn a sideboard slot as an effective non-red, non-blue win condition who dodges all X elemental blast effects that are incredibly commonplace right now. Keranos is not -quite- as reliable postboard due to the blast effects, and I frequently dedicate a sideboard slot or two to bombs to go over the top of other fair decks. For this purpose, Tasigur has been fantastic -- but I did not like him maindeck at all.
I think most of the rest of the sideboard mostly speaks for itself, although it does also change on a per-event basis -- one of the wonders of singleton sideboards is their raw flexibility, which is emphasized even harder by virtue of the card selection in this deck.
I will also note in closing that I am not on the Blood Moon plan that many lists are on. I believe most of the reason for these Blood Moons is for Lands, as a targeted nuke. While I can appreciate the sentiment, I do not believe that it is worth trying to fix that matchup, and am content just throwing it whenever I run into it in order to shore up my other matchups across the board. I would rather run versatile cards with narrow modes, such as Rakdos Charm or Nihil Spellbomb -- things that splash on to Lands, sure, but aren't -only- good against that deck.
The only real matchup content that I have to mention is that I feel pretty comfortable against Death and Taxes. I might want like one more option in my sideboard just to feel certain, but overall I don't think I've lost to DnT yet. My area has a long history of DnT players, though, so I might just have more experience in that matchup in general -- I don't know. I can see on paper how the matchup -should- be bad, but it just never plays out that way.
Anyway, looking forward to starting some dialogue here.
Don't forget the Golgari Charms =(
Cabal Therapy is a demanding mistress!
I ran this deck to a 3-1 finish last night: 2-0 UR painter, 2-1 Imperial Taxes, 0-2 UR Omnitell, 2-1 TES
Painter: budget build, so I don't want to go too into detail. He shocked himself both games and I have Lightning Bolt and Deathrite Shaman in my deck.
Imperial Taxes: same player I had lost to a few weeks ago that led me to deem the matchup unwinnable. At the time I was playing a Delver version with Tasigur and no DRS. Having Gurmag Angler (no Karakas issues) and Deathrite Shaman to produce extra mana, especially against this version with fetchlands, makes it a lot easier. He beat me game 1, but I took both post-board games, shredding his hand game 2 with probe-therapy and getting both Null Rod and Dread of Night down in game 3.
Omnitell: I still think we are heavily favored despite my result. Lost game 1 when I had a nice hand of FOW, Brainstorm, Therapy, Bolt, Waste, 2 fetches. He probed me turn 1, played island-preordain. I therapied, blind-named S&T and hit. He would've had the combo in hand if not. He cantripped his turn 2, I played a fetchland and cast brainstorm, looking for more blue cards to pitch and some supplementary action. I found three lands. Uh oh. I fetched and passed repping pyroblast/spell pierce, he cantripped and passed to me, and I drew.... wasteland. Ugh. The worst. I drew another land and a deathrite shaman, tried to flashback therapy which got double-pierced, then he went for S&T and I brought Tropical Island to class.
In game 2, I extracted his Burning Wishes and Scalding Tarns off a Snapcaster, but couldn't find any countermagic despite boarding in a lot of it and died meekly when he topped S&T. When I probe-therapied his Wish, his hand was Strand, 2 tarn, 2 omni, some nothing card. So it might not have been right to just take his tarns for no reason, since it didn't mana-screw him, but I wanted to get him on a clock, and Snapcaster was my only option at the time. Plus I figured it made Brainstorm worse. I dunno. Tough match. I was a little tilted from my shitstorm in game 1 and starting to fade a bit (2 young kids have me up and going at 5 every day and this round was at about 9:30), so that might have influenced my decision making.
TES: I know he's probably playing storm and keep a decent 7 with DRS, snapcaster, spell snare, ponder, leading on DRS. He mulls to 6 and does land go. My turn I ponder and pass. He duresses my spell snare and passes. I snap-ponder and I think I'm dead if he has it but he ad nauseums himself to death.
Game 2 I didn't get to take a turn. Storm, amirite?
Game 3 I am on the play again with Force of Will, Brainstorm, double Deathrite and some other stuff. I lead Deathrite, he plays a delta and ships, I brainstorm and find probe-therapy-surgical. Can't get much better than that. I probe him to see:
Brainstorm, Burning Wish, Cabal Therapy, Infernal Tutor, Dark Ritual, and something else I can't read. Yikes.
I therapy. He brainstorms. It resolves. I name Cabal Therapy. He reveals close to the same hand. I flashback for BW and extract them in his draw step in case he hid an extra wish on top... but he had hidden LED on top. What a mess. He goes for it, but I have Force of Will for his tutor. I plink away with DRS to an eventual victory.
My list was slightly different. I played 3 Force main, 2 Gurmag Angler, 2 Snapcaster, no TNN. Sideboard was -Dimir Charm, E-plague, TNN; +Force of Will, Terminate, Sulfur Elemental. Rest is here: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...l=1#post888220
Arianrhod, I like your build, seems more like hard control than the tempo-control build I'm running. I don't like 3 Wasteland though and might cut one for the 4th probe. Probe is a card I always want in my opener, it is a beating with Therapy obviously but also informs our Ponders/Brainstorms. I do want to keep wasteland in to feed Deathrite and also because there are definitely annoying lands we want to be able to hit like Boseiju, Karakas, Port, Depths/Stage, Tabernacle, Cradle, etc. And sometimes you go Deathrite into Waste-Pyromancer.
What advantages does Echoing Truth have over any other spell that could be in that slot? What do you and Shay like about it?
I don't think boarding out TNN is necessarily the best choice against Miracles as it forces them to find the Terminus. I also dislike boarding in Hydroblast just for some Pyroblasts/REBs. Against BUG I'd rather have Flusterstorms than Blasts to be able to fight the discard. For RUG I'd also much rather have Flusterstorm than BEB.
Anyway, played a slightly changed list this Sunday for a 3:1 swiss record (0:2 Miracles [Einherjer aka Schönegger], 2:0 Burn, 2:0 UR Delver, 2:0 Omnishow) followed by a loss in the semifinals against Miracles 0-2 (Einherjer again).
Lands
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Island
1 Mountain
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Underground Sea
4 Volcanic Island
Spells
4 Brainstorm
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Counterspell
3 Dig Through Time
1 Terminate
4 Force of Will
1 Forked Bolt
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Spell Snare
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Ponder
1 Pyroblast
Creatures
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 True-Name Nemesis
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Young Pyromancer
Sideboard
1 Grafdiggers Cage
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Smash to Smethereens
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Darkblast
1 Electrickery
1 Deathmark
1 Pithing Needle
1 Null Rod
1 Hydroblast
2 Pyroblast
2 Flusterstorm
The list felt very strong, except for the Miracle MU. Couldn't beat those flips. ;)
I went back to two Cliques and they were expectedly bonkers against Omnishow. The Terminate was there to have a maindeck answer to Goyf.dec, but there weren't any at all, so it could have been anything. Null Rod and Engineered Explosives is still a dangerous combination, despite being a necessary evil sometimes. I'll probably switch the Rod for a second Needle, so I can safely board in both.
How do you guys board vs the Jeskai decks? I have been having some trouble with Miracles (they are all playing Izzet Staticaster now) and UWr Blade (idk what I am doing wrong but I don't think this should be that bad of a MU), as well as the Mentor version of Miracles.
Here is my mainboard:
4 Young Pyromancer
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 True-Name Nemesis
1 Dack Fayden
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Preordain
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Murderous Cut
1 Echoing Truth
4 Force of Will
2 Counterspell
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dig Through Time
4 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Island
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
Sideboard:
2 Pyroblast
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Shattering Spree
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Forked Bolt
1 Blood Moon
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Flusterstorm
1 Null Rod
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Perish
1 Innocent Blood
1 Marsh Casualties
Still kind of new to the deck, but if anyone can give me tips I would appreciate it!
You really need to get a clock on them, which is why I think this deck needs DRS.
I appreciate wanting to jam 4 digs and Preordain and Murderous Cut but it's a little too durdly. Gurmag Angler is excellent as well against them since it can't be counterbalanced. Yes, Terminus/STP, but we have our own counters (especially games 2+3) plus probe-therapy. They will also STP Deathrite/YP
I also dislike Murderous Cut since the only thing it really deals with that you can't just nail with Lightning Bolt is Tarmogoyf, and I don't see a lot of Goyfs right now. I board a Terminate in case I play against a creature deck and try to go wide with Pyromancer or underneath with Deathrite Shaman game 1.
Blade decks can be problematic if they get their equips down. Therapy is our only real defense. Null Rod is great postboard, especially if you can kill the germ token somehow (elemental/bolt is my favorite, but it looks like echoing truth is good for that in your deck)
Stoneblade is one of the easiest MU for this deck, especially if you run Dack Main. With your list, I would suggest something like :
-1 Echoing truth -1 Cut -3 Bolt -2 Force
+2 Pyroblast +1 Marsh +1 Fluster +1 Artifact hate (your choice is very poor -shattering spree?? You need an instant, like charm or command) +1 Jace +1 Clique
You don't need Rod post board since you already have dack.. If they play Mentor/Souls, Dread of night/Sulfur Elemental is very good.
But your list needssome fixing.
Miracle is another problem since it plays CB and top. This MU is difficult if the opponent knows what he s doing. You'd better have something special for them MD or SB.
Jemand musste Joseph K. verleumdet haben, denn ohne dass er etwas Böses getan hätte, wurde er eines Morgens verhaftet.
You really board out Bolts against Stoneblade?
Cabal + Artifact hate already deal with sfm. Or maybe you're afraid of a 1/2 ? I won't keep bolt if they don't play delver.
Jemand musste Joseph K. verleumdet haben, denn ohne dass er etwas Böses getan hätte, wurde er eines Morgens verhaftet.
If your Therapy can't get there (Counter, Discard, not drawn) you only have 3 removals + 1 DackF left. Sounds pretty susceptible to me. I'd probably cut a mixture of Preordain/FoW with that list. Depends on the opponent's list though, of course.
Would it be possible to tweak this to a more midrange-oriented version with less countermagic/discard and more removal? I know the combo and miracle matchups would suffer a bit, but I have been struggling against many of the fair decks of the format. Here is a thought:
10 Creatures:
4 Young Pyromancer
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Baleful Strix
1 True-Name Nemesis
1 Tasigur, The Golden Fang
31 Spells:
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Dig Through Time
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Force of Will
3 Gitaxian Probe
3 Cabal Therapy
2 Terminate
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Forked Bolt
1 Counterspell
19 Lands:
4 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Bloodstained Mire
Sideboard: 15
2 Flusterstorm
2 Pyroblast
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Kolaghan's Command
1 Perish
1 Marsh Casualties
1 Blood Moon
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Null Rod
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Grafdigger's Cage
Also, has anyone ever experimented with an Academy Ruins/Engineered Explosives/Strix/Jitte type version of this deck? EE solves the Chalice problem as well as giving a quick answer to opposing YP tokens or flipped Delvers. With Dack, artifacts that you mill could have late-game value. It seems like explosives could be a powerful addition to this deck if the recurring engine aspect doesn't put too much of a strain on your dig through time resources.
Last edited by ironclad8690; 06-27-2015 at 06:24 PM.
So played in a daily event today with a new list similar to Maharis's. Lost to mentor miracles in round 1 0-2, game 2 was super close I had a DRS on board and he was at 2 life, but I couldn't block his single monk because he had an elspeth and he found a wear tear for my Pithing Needle which had named SDT at exaclty the time he needed to, as well as the 2 tops to do the prowess thing. I am putting Sulfur elemental in my board to try and deal with this in the future, as Sulfur is harder to stop with Countertop lock than Dread of Night. Anyone else have a similar experience vs mentor miracles? Very frustrating
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