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    Aes Sídhe
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    [Primer] Nic Fit

    Sensei's Divining Top was just banned this morning (4/24/17). Please bear with us while we reinvent ourselves to not use the card. All of today, all of the below lists are historical and anecdotal, and should not be copy/pasted without examining and replacing cards. Thank you. Ari.

    “You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”
    ― Friedrich Nietzsche


    Definition of Nic Fit: "A GBx hybrid ramp-control deck which strives to abuse the Veteran Explorer / Cabal Therapy interaction."

    Table of Contents:
    I. Introductions
    II. (Some) Card Selections
    IIIA. Historical Notes
    IIIB. Naming Conventions
    IV. Cabal Therapy Guide
    V. The Primary Variants
    VI. The Second Variants
    VII. The Tertiary Variants
    VIII. Coverage Matches

    I. Introductions:

    Welcome to the Nic Fit community here on Source!

    You should play this deck if you like:
    -) Your opponents wailing and gnashing their teeth while you unleash cards that they never want to play against upon them
    -) A unique hybrid midrange ramp-control style of play that is only really found in us
    -) An archetype with a lot of undiscovered potential and space for individuality and brewing (2016 brought no fewer than 5 sub-archetypes to the fold, several of which had always existed but were yet undiscovered)
    -) You're coming to Legacy from Standard or Modern. This isn't a budget deck (and can be hilariously anti-budget in some cases), but a lot of its optimal choices are things that you may already have from newer formats or have been recently reprinted (Deed, Zenith, etc).

    You shouldn't play this deck if:
    -) You are harshly critical on what's playable / "real" and not -- Nic Fit can surprise you! Grinder mentality is not welcome here. That said, don't be an idiot and assume that your favorite 10-mana edh artifact is viable.
    -) You're unwilling to put a lot of time into learning to play this deck. And I mean, a -lot-.

    Yup. Those are really the only reasons not to play this deck. Within its deep annals, there is really something for everyone. There are combo variants, hard control variants, Stoneforge variants....you name it, we've got it. And, we're expanding our variants all the time. Come contribute!

    It's been generally agreed upon amongst the long-time Nic Fit pilots that you can reasonably expect to sink a year of your life into this deck before you will be able to reliably top 8 events. This number can fluctuate based on your playtime (every weekend + during the week vs once a month) and also based on your experience with 'similar' decks in other formats. It's important to keep in mind, though, that Nic Fit is a very, very challenging archetype to play. You need to sequence your plays several turns in advance, while still being flexible enough to respond to both your own deck and your opponents' decks changing your plans. You need to learn how to use Cabal Therapy effectively, which involves a massive amount of format knowledge and the ability to pay attention to every little detail and shred of information that is offered to you.

    It's very easy to become discouraged in yourself and in the deck after a few months of not putting up results. You just have to stick with it -- and we're here to help!

    My name is Kevin "Arianrhod" McKee, and I've been playing Nic Fit since early summer 2011. I've put up a lot of pretty reasonable results (somewhere north of three thousand dollars in winnings at this point, I believe, although not from any GP-level events) with a couple different versions of the deck, and I'm here to offer opinions and advice to all.

    Now, with the introductions out of the way, let's talk about the deck itself!

    II. (Some) Card Selections:

    Things We Do Run and Why:

    * Pernicious Deed

    It has been theorized in the past that you can run Deedless. It's a bad idea. Depending on the situation, your opponent will oftentimes get the benefit from your Explorers (if they get any at all) before you will. Being able to untap and reset the board while still holding your threats in hand, or, ideally, leaving them in play, is pretty huge.

    Dropping Deeds / running 1 copy in the past. My sincere recommendation would be: don't.

    This has changed somewhat since the introduction of Toxic Deluge. Some versions can get away with running more Deluges and fewer Deeds. This is a debatable point and depends on the specific version that you are playing. I personally will bias more towards Deed, but there are people who have gone deep on Deluges and been rewarded for it, so I wanted to mention it as a possible consideration.

    * Green Sun's Zenith

    The only times that we don't run at least 3 of this card is when there's either some number of Birthing Pods present in the list, or when most of the creatures are nongreen. It's basically the most powerful creature tutoring option currently available. It also acts as Explorers 5-8, and connects most of our card advantage together. One of the reasons to play the deck.

    * Eternal Witness

    The green Snapcaster. Before Return to Ravnica, we would commonly run 2-3 copies of this card. Unfortunately, Deathrite Shaman has arrived and is the fun police. She's still good enough that you should almost always run a singleton. Another problem with running multiple Eternal Witnesses these days is that despite the power and popularity of Miracles, legacy has become a much faster format overall than it was several years ago. While powerful, Eternal Witness is slow.

    * Sensei's Divining Top

    The gold standard for non-blue card filtration and quality. Doesn't die to our Deeds, and we can use it as many times per turn as we have shuffles (which can be a lot). Most versions run 3 copies, although blue versions usually shave to 1-2 due to the addition of Jace and Brainstorm.

    Although I do not agree with the idea of such, we need to be prepared for the possible event of a Top banning (thanks Miracles). Nic Fit is fairly well situated to survive without Top, although it would be very hurtful blow for sure. Oath of Nissa and Night's Whisper are the two most likely replacements -- both are notably weaker than Top, but will fulfill the same role.

    * Phyrexian Tower

    This unique land leads to some of Nic Fit's most broken opening sequences, with its crazy synergy with Veteran Explorer. In 2011-2012, Rector versions used to run 2 copies of this land, due to the added focus on sacrifice outlets. Now, (Starfield of) Nyx Fit is picking up Rector's mantle, and typically runs up to 3 copies. Every other version only runs a 1-of, however -- with some versions opting not to run it at all to improve that mana stability at the cost of explosive hands. Tower+Vet leads to 5 mana on turn 2, which enables a wide variety of broken sequences depending on the specific version.

    * Volrath's Stronghold

    Volrath's Stronghold is typically only run alongside both Phyrexian Tower and Primeval Titan, which generates an engine that Nic Fit players affectionately refer to as "the Two Towers." The Two Towers is a powerful engine for grinding that is also one of our best ways to fight Miracles. However, it usually requires running Primeval Titan to be "worth" it, which limits the amount of play Volrath's sees a fair bit.

    * "Combat" Planeswalkers

    This category includes planeswalkers which make tokens or buff creatures. Combat planeswalkers tend to be very good at beating opposing planeswalkers (consider Elspeth, Knight-Errant & Sun's Champion; Sorin, Lord of Innistrad; Garruk Relentless; Gideon, Ally of Zendikar; Nissa, Vital Force). One of Nic Fit's weaknesses tends to be to opposing planeswalkers because Pernicious Deed does not kill those like it does everything else. Combat planeswalkers can help shore this up by contributing board presence or sudden damage steroids to kill opposing walkers.

    * Deathrite Shaman

    Deathrite has varied in number since inception, but is typically played at 0-2. Generally, the more consistent and grindy your deck, the less you need this card. Faster versions with a strong combo (like Sneak) benefit from the extra acceleration and frequently run two copies. One or two copies are also common across the various Atraxa builds, which benefit from the rainbow mana production.

    * Tireless Tracker

    Tracker is run as a 1-2 of in most builds. Ideally you want to draw him as opposed to Zenith for him, but there will certainly be times where he can just take over a game state and tutoring for him is okay.

    * Meren of Clan Nel Toth

    Some people are opposed to Meren, others favor her. I personally love Meren, and since I'm writing the primer, I get to put her in this section :D Just note that there are strong arguments against her, usually based on the power level of other, more blunt-force cards. Meren is like Yawgmoth's Will in vintage: you need to sculpt the game state around her. If you engineer a game to where she's your last bomb in the sequence, she will absolutely take over an entire game. If you run her out early or play the deck more aggressively, you typically won't see as good of results with her. I play much more controlling, though, and typically sequence in a way that allows her to capitalize on the game.

    * Atraxa and Leovold

    Both of these cards are new to the archetype, but have proven themselves capable contenders so far. Generally seen together, both legendary creatures amplify the power of Green Sun's Zenith in unique ways, with Leovold being an unusually powerful anti-combo piece that is still strong against fair decks.

    * Siege Rhino

    I'm personally much lower on Rhino than many other people are, however it is impossible to deny Rhino's power as a 1-of or 2-of. Many run him as a 3- or even a full 4-of, which I tend to believe pushes the deck too far down a midrange aggro path that the archetype is ill-suited to execute effectively. Again, though, I highly recommend a 1- or 2-of in basically any white-splash build.

    * Abrupt Decay

    We generally only run a pair of Decays, sometimes with a third in the board. While this may surprise some, it is because we want a diverse removal suite as opposed to a powerful one, and being able to run a backup removal spell that affects our coverage in good ways is worth more than only jamming the set of Decays with room for one or maybe two other options. Examples include Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares (contingent largely upon number of Rhinos played) for exile removal or Punishing Fire for planeswalker control. Maelstrom Pulse and Vindicate both show up every once in a while as well, for a hyper flexible 1-of.

    * Thragtusk

    Thragtusk is basically always included as a 1-of in my lists, and has historically been a 2-of at times. The card generates too much value for us to ignore, and becomes especially toxic to our opponents when combined with one of our recursion engines (Meren or Volrath's/Phyrexian; Nightmare if you happen to still be playing it).

    These are just some of the possible card options -- I wanted to provide a brief overview of the most commonly played Nic Fit cards to provide some context on the type of card that you should be looking for. Generally it has to be a very individually strong card that also generates a lot of value or has other intrinsic synergies with the rest of the deck.

    Things We Don't Run and Why:

    * Dryad Arbor

    -) Dies to your own Pernicious Deeds, Deluges, etc.
    -) Usually better in all situations to sandbag the Zenith and Zenith@1 for Explorer or Deathrite instead of @0 for Arbor.
    -) Occupies a spell slot, and even then, it will sometimes screw your mana development with its very presence.
    -) Natural Order is not currently used in Nic Fit -- this would be the only scenario in which I would support Arbor.

    Addendum: while this has changed somewhat with the introduction of Meren of Clan Nel Toth, Arbor is still an unpopular choice, though it does appear from time to time. I personally still view Arbor as unplayable, but am less severe when criticizing others about it.

    * Liliana of the Veil

    -) Notable Exception: Punishing Nic Fit, although PFire has declined greatly as a version.
    -) Most of the problem with Liliana is that our cards are generally much better than our opponents' on a 1-for-1 scale. Bleeding our hand is usually something that is effective against us, and therefore it doesn't make any sense to do it to ourselves.
    -) Liliana isn't actually that effective against the decks that we want her to be effective against. Our clock is too slow to kill combo while Liliana keeps their hand low, she's not Show and Tellable, and she does nothing to Sneak Attack, little to Painter, even less to Elves, etc.

    * Maindeck Thoughtseizes & Hymn to Tourachs

    -) Too many dead cards in the late game.
    -) Doesn't actually kill the opponent.
    -) The 2 lifeloss can actually matter in a lot of matchups, because Nic Fit tends to use its life as a resource pretty aggressively.

    * Random EDH / Cube Garbage

    -) If you're running a card in Nic Fit, you need to have a specific reason for doing so. Don't think that just because Nic Fit "looks like a cube draft" that means that you can jam anything that you want.
    -) Nic Fit variants are very carefully constructed and each card present in them is there for a reason.
    -) This is even more true as of this updated writing (1/6/17). Nic Fit has a tremendously large playable card pool -- several orders of magnitude larger than any other legacy deck. As a result, it has taken Nic Fit a long time being the butt of a lot of jokes before it's begun to crystallize into truly competitive decks. Now, this has finally begun to happen, which makes card selection even more important. We've winnowed down to the best of the best, and a card needs to be very specific or very powerful to justify its inclusion. Nissa, Vital Force comes immediately to mind as something that's rapidly joined the ranks of the elite.

    * Sylvan Library

    -) See also Thoughtseize on why life loss is bad. Even in matchups where you think your life total is safe, like Miracles, it does end up mattering, especially if they're on a heavy Mentor build or are running multiple Entreats.
    -) Dies to your Deeds and you can't save it like you can with Top.
    -) Usually better options exist. I generally play Painful Truths before Sylvan Library, although sometimes I split Top with Library in a 2-1.
    -) Note that Library's stock is poised to go up for Nic Fit if Top ever gets banned due to Miracles abuse.

    * Gaddock Teeg

    While some players favor Teeg, even in the maindeck, I personally find him more problematic than he's worth. He shuts off our Zeniths and our planeswalkers, which in my opinion are two of the main reasons to run the deck. I understand that generally you're bringing him out against decks that are hurt worse than we are -- but sometimes you draw your 1-ofs instead of tutor them, and it can make draws very awkward -- especially for planeswalker-heavy or non-creature heavy builds like I favor.

    * Most "utility" planeswalkers. Liliana of the Veil is a good example of a utility planeswalker: one which does not generate board advantage. A good rule of thumb is that if a planeswalker generates a token as a plus, or an especially strong token as a minus, it's probably worth considering. Otherwise, it is very hard for a planeswalker to break through to being played in Nic Fit. Kaya, Ghost Assassin is a noteworthy exception to this rule.

    IIIA. Historical Notes:

    Tao created the Source thread for Nic Fit in late May of 2011, and the thread quickly attracted the attention of deckbuilders due to the interaction formed between Veteran Explorer and Cabal Therapy. Speaking personally, I had discovered the interaction separately around the same time due to the printing of Veteran Explorer in one of the Commander box-sets. Previously, I had no idea the card existed, but I quickly thought of Cabal Therapy and came to Source to investigate if anyone else had thought of the same thing. I was pleasantly surprised to discover the fledgling thread, and have been working on the deck ever since.

    The deck remained underground for several months, despite putting up sufficient numbers at local tournaments to keep our interest up. It probably helped that the deck is so much fun to play, as well. Fast forward to July 31st, 2011 -- the Starcity Games Open in Pittsburgh, PA. I was able to get a car around to play in the Legacy Open, and while none of us did that well, my deck attracted the eye of Caleb Durward, who was playing not far from me. We talked about the deck briefly, and he said that he'd seen people playing it on Workstation online, but that he hadn't seen it at an actual event before (paraphrased due to nonexact recollection). Although I ended up at something dismal like 4-3-1, apparently some interest had been sparked.

    At the SCG Invitational in Charlotte, in December 2011, Nic Fit got to steal some limelight as Caleb Durward piloted a straight G/B version of the deck to an impressive top 8 finish, and snagged a Deck Tech on the way. Over the next few months, the deck periodically bounced in and out of the Decks to Beat forum on the Source, which signifies a tier one deck. Despite these periodic jumps, the deck has remained a strong tier 1.5/tier 2 contender for much of its life, largely due to a complete lack of true masters and professional players that actually run the deck, as Caleb has continued to experiment with other archetypes after playing Nic Fit to decent finishes several more times.

    Since then, the archetype has fragmented into various sub-versions, all with a unique style and personality all their own. Each version can have wildly different matchups, although most share at least a few core similarities. Most of the high-placing finishes for the deck will be categorized with their attending version in section V. While we have yet to win any notable, large-scale tournaments, we have appeared in many such top 8s, and our pilots have pocketed dozens of dual lands and other high-level prizes. The overall archetype's best/most prestigious finish so far is a 10th place by BUG Pod at GP Paris, in February 2014.

    IIIB. Naming Conventions:

    Our deck's name is so weird and off the beaten path that I feel I must address it in its own section. We don't actually know entirely where Nic Fit came from, before anyone asks. A lot of people assume that it came from a typo....that it was originally supposed to be "Nice Fit." Whether it did or not, however, is questionable, and probably impossible to prove. Caleb Durward noted that he believes the name to refer to the interaction between Explorer and Therapy in his Deck Tech.

    Whatever it may have once signified, Nic Fit has come to be synonymous with Therapy/Explorer, although some casters in particular still try to call the deck Explorer Rock, or even more simply, "that Veteran Explorer deck."

    Each subset of the deck tends to go by either its shard/wedge name or the name of the specific plan or backup engine that it is abusing. Scapewish comes from Scapeshift + Burning Wish, Punishing Fit as per Punishing Fire, Sneaky Fit from Sneak Attack, Nyx Fit from Starfield of Nyx, etc. At the same time Junk Planeswalker Control (or Abzan Planeswalker Control) is also a perfectly viable name, as is 4c Atraxa: it's succinct and tells you exactly what it's doing at a glance.

    IV. Cabal Therapy Guide:

    Proper Cabal Therapy names are one of the most important aspects of playing the deck. While the following guide is far from perfect, it can be used as a general purpose training tool for when you're just learning the deck and just starting with Therapy. If you have no idea what to do, this is for you. As you get more experienced and more advanced with the deck, some of these calls will change based on a wide variety of factors...but this is a good starting guide.

    * Miracles

    Play: Sensei's Divining Top
    Draw: Counterbalance

    Top is the most important card in their deck, and on the play it's the obvious name. On the draw, try to snag their Counterbalance to shut down their virtual card advantage and keep your early developmental plays clear.

    * Shardless:

    Play: Brainstorm
    Draw: Shardless Agent or hold until t2-3 for Jace, or hold until you want to resolve something and name Force
    Postboard Play: Hymn to Tourach
    Postboard Draw: Hymn to Tourach

    On the draw, Therapy isn't that great in this matchup. Frankly, Therapy isn't that good in general, but especially on the draw. Hymn to Tourach is their best card vs you, but they usually only have 1 or at most 2 copies maindeck, so it's generally not worth naming. On turn 2 (if they have DRS) or turn 3 it can be correct to name Jace, but even still they only usually have 1-2 copies of him now as well. It can be wisest to just hold it until you need to resolve something and then slam it on Force of Will. Postboard, adjust to Hymn to Tourach, because they'll be bringing in extra copies of it and actively looking for it in their opening hand.

    Generally speaking, you want to sideboard out Cabal Therapy in this matchup, but if you happen to have to leave some in, those are your best names.

    * Stoneblade/Deathblade

    Play: Brainstorm
    Draw: Hold.

    If you're on the play, try to disrupt a shaky keep by taking Brainstorm, which also makes your future Therapies better. If you're on the draw, you want to hold your Therapy so that you can either use it after they Stoneforge for an equipment, or on turn 3 naming Jace TMS.

    * RUG Delver

    Play: Stifle
    Draw: Stifle

    It's our number one enemy in this matchup. If they don't have it, congrats, you have information and the go-ahead for Explorer to ramp past their tempo. Also keep in mind that they give you information on their hand from Delver. Write it down.

    * BUG Delver

    Play: Stifle
    Draw: Stifle

    Same as RUG here, really. You can make a strong argument for calling Hymn to Tourach, but Stifle is usually more devastating if they happen to run it.

    * TES and ANT

    Play: Dark Ritual
    Draw: Dark Ritual

    Ideally you want to name mana on the call, and then business on the flashback. Doesn't always work that way though...be prepared to be flexible here. Dark Ritual gets the nod as the initial name because most of their 'broken hands' involve sequences containing Dark Ritual, and it's probably the ritual that they are most likely to keep in their opening hand, vs something like LED that needs a lot of pieces to go with it and is fairly fragile.

    * Elves

    Play: Natural Order
    Draw: Natural Order

    Natural Order is their pathway to their fastest kill, and it's the first priority to name as a result. Note that there are debates for Glimpse of Nature -- especially if they have a fast Nettle Sentinel or Birchlore.

    * Reanimator

    Play: Reanimate
    Draw: Exhume

    Reanimate is the 'faster' reanimation spell, but it does hurt them badly. Exhume is arguably more dangerous because it doesn't cost them life, meaning they get 7 more cards to defend their Griselbrand with. Worst case, don't forget that you can play around Exhume by Therapying yourself to discard Venser, Frost Titan, Rector, or any other creature that you want to get in play.

    * Sneak/Show

    Play: Show and Tell
    Draw: Griselbrand

    Show and Tell is their fastest kill. Likewise, Griselbrand is probably the more dangerous thing for them to Sneak Attack because they can draw a million cards to hit Petal + Emrakul and just kill you in one shot.

    * Death and Taxes

    Play: Vial
    Draw: Phyrexian Revoker

    Deed is our best card here. We know and they know it, and Revoker is their answer to it. Shut it down. Vial is still better to name on the play, though, because sometimes you can catch them keeping the 1-lander+Vial hand, and punishing that when possible is good. Vial also lets them break timing with Flickerwisp. Vial has become even more critical as time has passed, due to the presence of Recruiter of the Guard (which combos with Flickerwisp to give Death and Taxes an actual lategame now). Note that sandbagging Therapy activations can be very strong here, as you can wait for them to fetch an equipment with Stoneforge or tutor a Flickerwisp with Recruiter.

    * Burn

    Play: Lightning Bolt
    Draw: Fireblast (or Price of Progress, depending on your draw)

    If you have a lot of nonbasics in your draw, name Price -- otherwise, name Fireblast. On the play, call for Lightning Bolt because it's their best burn spell and usually the one they're happiest to have in-hand. That being said, it's a royal crap shoot to hit anything vs burn. All of their cards are basically the same, just with different names.

    * Infect

    Play: Invigorate
    Draw: Invigorate

    Invigorate is their most powerful pump spell by a mile. If you have a hand that's heavy in spot removal, it can be correct to target Vines of the Vastwood instead.

    * Eldrazi

    Play: Thought-Knot Seer
    Draw: Thought-Knot Seer

    Reality Smasher is the only other monster we care about here, and generally TKS is more important because it comes down much earlier and takes our best card.

    * Grixis Delver

    Play: Brainstorm
    Draw: Young Pyromancer

    Grixis isn't playing Stifle anymore, but if you have inside information and you know the pilot is on an old list, audible that to Stifle for sure. Young Pyro + Cabal Therapy is their most powerful interaction against us, and it's what we need to target on the draw. On the play, stripping their Brainstorm can make the difference since most of their cards are individually junky and need to be tied together, plus it can slow the flipping of Delver and is a blue card for Force in a deck which runs a lot of nonblue cards.

    * Lands

    Play: Exploration
    Draw: Crop Rotation

    Gamble is another powerful name, but you need to evaluate the board state and see if they would still have it in their hand, or if they'd have fired it off already.

    * Nic Fit Mirror

    Play: Sensei's Divining Top
    Draw: Green Sun's Zenith

    Top is the most powerful card in the mirror, but Zenith is a card that is very frequently something we want in our opening hand. Both are fine names on play or draw, but I typically favor the above.

    * Unknown

    Play: Brainstorm

    If you're in the dark and you're on the play, name Brainstorm. It's the most played card across the most archetypes, and blue players are notoriously greedy with their opening keeps -- they will frequently keep loose hands because they have a Brainstorm, and stripping that from them can sometimes cost them the game on the spot.
    Last edited by Arianrhod; 04-24-2017 at 01:09 PM.

  2. #2
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    Re: [Updated Primer] Nic Fit

    V. The Primary Variants:

    Sneaky Fit

    Arianrhod's List (1/6/17)

    4 Veteran Explorer
    2 Deathrite Shaman
    1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
    1 Eternal Witness
    1 Fierce Empath
    1 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
    1 Thragtusk
    1 Primeval Titan
    1 Inferno Titan
    1 Woodland Bellower
    1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

    4 Cabal Therapy
    4 Green Sun's Zenith

    3 Punishing Fire
    2 Abrupt Decay

    4 Sneak Attack
    3 Pernicious Deed

    3 Sensei's Divining Top

    1 Nissa, Vital Force

    3 Grove of the Burnwillows
    1 Phyrexian Tower
    1 Volrath's Stronghold
    3 Bayou
    1 Taiga
    1 Badlands
    3 Forest
    2 Mountain
    1 Swamp
    4 Verdant Catacombs
    2 Wooded Foothills

    sb::
    3 Surgical Extraction
    1 Reclamation Sage
    2 Thoughtseize
    2 Pyroclasm
    2 Slaughter Games
    1 Tireless Tracker
    2 Carpet of Flowers
    2 To the Slaughter

    Finishes:
    Kevin McKee - 4th - Mythic Games 2k - 7/23/16
    Sam Higgins - Top 8 - Gaming for Gains - 11/19/16

    Summary:
    Sneaky Fit was created in mid 2016 after, I'll admit it, a really, really sweet cube deck that involved Meren of Clan Nel Toth and Sneak Attack. It got me thinking if there was the possibility for a Sneak Attack fueled Nic Fit, so I started tinkering. Before long, I knew I had something. Since, I've done very well with the deck, and others have enjoyed success as well. I believe this to be the best version of the deck currently: it is perfectly what Nic Fit is to me. It has a strong, linear combo plan that is capable of securing wins against unsuspecting opponents and random nonsense, while also having a very powerful control element and a reasonable beatdown plan. If you're in the market for a true hybrid deck, I can't recommend this list highly enough. Just note that it's a hard deck to play and has a lot of flexibility and tricks that make up percentage where you wouldn't expect to find it.

    Strengths:
    -) Linear, fast combo kill that can easily steal games against combo decks when backed by good Therapies.
    -) Strong control element with lots of quality removal. Punishing Fire gives the deck an edge against opposing planeswalkers, as does Sneak Attack itself.
    -) Stage III planning. The deck can -- and will -- hardcast Emrakul given enough time. Volrath's Stronghold + Phyrexian Tower + Meren allows for an awful lot of recursion in the lategame. Killing someone with PFire is also a possible angle of attack as well.
    -) Jund colors allow for very strong sideboard options. Pyroclasm gives the deck one of the best Elves matchups across all versions.
    -) Excellent Miracles matchup. While not impossible to lose by any stretch, Sneak boasts a very positive win rate vs Miracles.

    Weaknesses:
    -) Sometimes fast combo happens. This is true for most Nic Fits, but Sneak has fewer lines of defense than blue or white versions.
    -) Burn can be more problematic than for most other versions. Sneak only really has room for the one Thragtusk for lifegain, and the Grove engine means we sometimes have higher nonbasic count draws, which can punish us with Price of Progress.

    Matchups:

    Miracles:

    Most of this matchup revolves around making trade-offs to resolve Sneak Attack. If it means allowing them to resolve a Jace, so be it. At the point at which we have a Sneak Attack in play, we can usually close the game because we end up demanding they have StP / Terminus every turn until they die. Volrath's Stronghold + Phyrexian Tower is also insanely strong here, and Primeval Titan is one of your best cards as it both ties together that engine while also fueling your Punishing Groves, which forms an engine that Miracles really doesn't appreciate.

    Postboard, you gain Slaughters and Surgicals to disrupt them in various ways, along with Carpets to ramp harder and To the Slaughters to kill off their Jaces, which makes the matchup even more in our favor.

    Shardless:

    The plan here is much the same as it is in other Nic Fits: get out as many Vets as possible, accelerate way past them, and do something stupid to keep up with their card advantage. Punishing Fire helps a lot here as well, as long as you keep it safe from Deathrite.

    BGx:

    Focus on landing your card advantage, and the win will come with time. It's very hard for these decks to pressure us sufficiently through our removal before we kill them, and even our value plan is very hard to keep up with.

    Storm:

    Storm for Sneaky Fit basically comes down to disrupting them until you go off -- it plays a lot like a combo mirror, because you need to play to the combo half of your deck in order to win. Your goal is to Therapy them enough and slow the game down enough to assemble Sneak Attack + monster. Emrakul is ideal, but Inferno Titan is oddly good here as well due to the large burst of damage, which can either flat kill them if they've been aggressively Probing, or at least put Ad Nauseum out of their reach. Postboard we bring in all of the combo hate and take out all of our control or beatdown elements: we basically become a combo deck ourselves after sideboarding.

    Death and Taxes:

    Death and Taxes is fairly simple -- we have a bucket of removal, both spot and sweep, and a strong clock. If they Revoke Deed, we Sneak them. If they Revoke Sneak, we blow up the world. Remember to step through combat with Sneak so that they can't Karakas you out, and watch out for Vial+Flickerwisp.

    Eldrazi:

    Meren wins this matchup more than any other, but generally the thought process is that you just need to live long enough to assemble Sneak+Emrakul. Eldrazi rarely has more than 6 permanents in play, which allows Big Momma to clean up after her children very effectively. Zenith is one of our best cards here, since it allows us to get Vet out through Chalice of the Void, and Eldrazi doesn't really have a clean way of disposing of Vet -- Warping Wail is the only one, and the number of Wails each list runs varies, plus some pilots don't board them in. To the Slaughter can help clean up Smashers postboard.

    BUG Atraxa

    Arianrhod's List (1/6/17)
    4 Veteran Explorer
    2 Deathrite Shaman
    3 Baleful Strix
    1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
    1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
    1 Tireless Tracker
    1 Eternal Witness
    1 Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
    2 Siege Rhino
    1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
    1 Thragtusk
    1 Dragonlord Dromoka

    4 Cabal Therapy
    4 Green Sun's Zenith

    3 Brainstorm
    2 Abrupt Decay

    1 Nissa, Vital Force

    3 Pernicious Deed

    1 Sensei's Divining Top
    1 Umezawa's Jitte

    4 Misty Rainforest
    4 Verdant Catacombs
    3 Bayou
    2 Underground Sea
    1 Tropical Island
    1 Savannah
    1 Mana Confluence
    3 Forest
    2 Island
    1 Swamp
    1 Plains

    sb::
    2 Vendilion Clique
    2 Thoughtseize
    1 Glen Elendra Archmage
    2 To the Slaughter
    3 Surgical Extraction
    1 Gaddock Teeg
    2 Toxic Deluge
    2 Fatal Push

    Finishes:
    Philip Bergeman - 3rd - Mythic Games 2k - 3/5/16
    Philip Bergeman - 6th - Mythic Games 2k - 4/17/16

    Summary:
    This deck is basically the revised version of Ultimate Fit -- a 5-color deck that was designed to feature the best parts of every Nic Fit. Sideboarding into Slaughter Games isn't really good enough to justify splashing for in the current metagame, but the rest of the concept is still valid: BUG has a strong shell with lots of card advantage and value plays, but then doesn't have the necessary power to close the game. White, on the other hand, has power in abundance, so splashing white for wincons helps BUG out. The goal of this deck is to be an updated form of The Rock: super solid and flexible against any opponent, but not necessarily super strong against any one particular deck. BUG, which generates infinite value, has historically struggled with having enough power to actually close out games. The white splash gives the deck that extra boost of power needed to close out games quicker. Sigarda is possibly too greedy in this list, and could be another Nissa, Vital Force.

    Strengths:
    -) BUG shell offers consistency and value, while white splash adds power.
    -) Runs Brainstorm.
    -) Strong Zenith options main and postboard allow for a variety of choices vs aggro, control, and combo.
    -) Powerful defensive options with Baleful Strix, Atraxa, and Jitte.

    Weaknesses:
    -) Manabase is occasionally troublesome, especially against recurring Wastelands.
    -) Lots of close matchups can be very skill-intensive and pilot draining over a long day. Requires a good amount of mental stamina to play in a 5+ round event, for sure.
    -) Can still lack a bit of power against particularly removal-heavy opponents, especially those with Karakas in their deck (UWR decks come to mind).

    Matchups:

    Junk Atraxa

    Arianrhod's List (1/6/17)
    4 Veteran Explorer
    1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
    1 Eternal Witness
    1 Tireless Tracker
    1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
    1 Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
    1 Siege Rhino
    1 Master of the Wild Hunt
    1 Thragtusk
    1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
    1 Dragonlord Dromoka

    4 Cabal Therapy
    4 Green Sun's Zenith

    1 Garruk Relentless
    1 Kaya, Ghost Assassin
    1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
    1 Nissa, Vital Force
    1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

    3 Sensei's Divining Top
    1 Umezawa's Jitte

    3 Pernicious Deed

    3 Path to Exile
    2 Abrupt Decay

    3 Verdant Catacombs
    3 Windswept Heath
    3 Bayou
    2 Savannah
    1 Scrubland
    1 Tropical Island
    3 Forest
    2 Plains
    1 Swamp
    1 Island
    1 Mana Confluence
    1 Phyrexian Tower

    sb::
    2 Painful Truths
    1 Celestial Purge
    1 Toxic Deluge
    1 Blessed Alliance
    2 Fatal Push
    2 Thoughtseize
    3 Surgical Extraction
    1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
    2 Ethersworn Canonist

    Summary:
    This deck is an example of a Junk Control shell splashing for Leovold and Atraxa. I made day 2 at 7-1 at GP Columbus with something similar, and view it as the other half of what Rector used to be -- a heavy-hitting, bomb-dense ramp-control deck with hard to answer threats in the form of planeswalkers. The Zenith package compliments the planeswalkers and provides another angle of attack, and it's all tied together by a quality removal suite and a flexible sideboard.

    Strengths:
    -) Bomby, fun to play, and capable of stealing wins through asking the wrong question for your opponent's answer.
    -) Flexible sideboard that can be tuned to beat almost anything, with the grind well under control for game one.
    -) Lots of planeswalkers allow you to ignore most traditional removal, while the creature complement punishes opponents who ignore the field.

    Weaknesses:
    -) Glacial clock can make winning games in a timely manner challenging. Strong mechanic skills are necessary for this deck.
    -) Hard to tune it to beat everything, even if it can beat anything. This makes knowing your metagame paramount, as well as knowing the decklist well enough to know that you can get away with changing.

    Matchups:

    Rhinos

    Mitchell Stephenson's List (1/6/17)
    4 Veteran Explorer
    1 Scavenging Ooze
    1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
    1 Eternal Witness
    4 Siege Rhino
    1 Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
    1 Sigarda, Host of Herons

    4 Cabal Therapy
    4 Green Sun's Zenith
    1 Vindicate

    3 Path to Exile
    3 Abrupt Decay

    3 Pernicious Deed

    3 Sensei's Divining Top

    2 Kaya, Ghost Assassin
    2 Nissa, Vital Force

    4 Verdant Catacombs
    4 Windswept Heath
    2 Bayou
    1 Savannah
    2 Scrubland
    2 Forest
    1 Island
    1 Tropical Island
    2 Plains
    1 Swamp
    1 Phyrexian Tower
    1 Volrath's Stronghold

    sb::
    3 Thoughtseize
    3 Lost Legacy
    2 Surgical Extraction
    1 To the Slaughter
    1 Golgari Charm
    1 Toxic Deluge
    1 Painful Truths
    1 Gaddock Teeg
    1 Qasali Pridemage
    1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

    Finishes:
    Davide Galli - 6th - Roe Volciano Olympus #1 - 11/15/15
    Daniel Sharpy - 6th - AzMagicPlayers 2016 Gilbert City - 1/9/16
    Michael Znidar - 6th - Win a Dual Open 17 Tuebingen - 3/20/16
    Carey Ng - 8th - ChannelFireball Game Center 3k - 3/27/16
    Sean Griffith - 6th - SCG Classic Baltimore - 4/10/16
    Shafer Hanson - 7th - SCG Classic Milwaukee - 5/1/16
    Mitchell Stephensen - 11th - SCG Classic Knoxville - 11/20/16

    Summary:
    Ever since Siege Rhino was spoiled, everyone in the Nic Fit community knew that it would be relevant. While the numbers of Rhinos in lists were initially low, it was quickly realized from standard that simply chaining Rhino into Rhino into Rhino was oftentimes enough to win games, which resulted in today's 3x and 4x Rhino lists. Despite the popularity of Rhino, it has struggled a bit to put up the numbers that everyone expected of it. Most of this, I believe, is that including 3-4 Rhinos in a deck pushes the deck to be more of a midrange aggro deck, which is a role that, in my opinion, Nic Fit is ill suited to adopt. Regardless, heavy Rhino builds continue to be popular, and do put up finishes -- even if they are perhaps less frequent than advocates of Lord Rhino would wish.

    Strengths:
    -) Tons of reach to back up occasionally very aggressive starts.
    -) Focused game plan without lots of random bullets to drag you down.
    -) Quality removal suite, capable of killing or exiling a wide variety of permanents.

    Weaknesses:
    -) Little flexibility: the deck is frequently forced into an aggressive position, which can make games where you want to be the control role more challenging.
    -) Dependant on a creature to win, which can make a deck like Miracles challenging.

    Matchups:


    As written by Echelon:

    Miracles:
    40/60 at best. Lost Legacy does a lot of work out of the sideboard. Planeswalkers are your best bet for a kill condition.

    Shardless:
    Very good MU, about 70/30. They don't have a quick clock and don't mess with your stuff too much. Find creatures with CMC > 3 to blank their ADs.

    BGx:
    Grindfest which you're well equiped to handle. 50/50 or better.

    Storm:
    G1 you're shit out of luck. G2/3 get to be about 50/50, or rather 60/40 for G2 and 40/60 for G3. The bulk of your sideboard should be focused on this. Board out Rhinos, Sigarda, creature spotremoval and any other expensive stuff to accomodate the SB. For CT name Infernal Tutor vs. ANT, vs. TES your best bet is Dark Ritual.

    D&T:
    50/50 MU. Their biggest threat is Batterskull. Get rid of that and you're golden. Pernicious Deed is a star here, and so is Sigarda.

    Eldrazi:
    No experience so far, someone else needs to fill that in.

    SE Fit

    Brael's Junk List (1/7/17)
    4 Verdant Catacombs
    4 Windswept Heath
    2 Bayou
    1 Scrubland
    1 Savannah
    3 Forest
    2 Plains
    1 Swamp
    1 Cavern of Souls
    1 Phyrexian Tower
    1 Volrath's Stronghold
    1 Dryad Arbor

    1 Endless One
    4 Veteran Explorer
    2 Deathrite Shaman
    1 Sylvan Safekeeper
    1 Scavenging Ooze
    1 Qasali Pridemage
    2 Dark Confidant
    2 Monastery Mentor
    1 Eternal Witness
    1 Courser of Kruphix
    2 Tireless Tracker
    1 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
    1 Ranger of Eos
    1 Sigarda, Host of Herons

    4 Cabal Therapy
    4 Green Sun's Zenith
    3 Path to Exile
    2 Abrupt Decay

    1 Pernicious Deed

    4 Sensei's Divining Top

    sb::
    1 Cavern of Souls
    2 Deathrite Shaman
    1 Noble Hierarch
    1 Carpet of Flowers
    2 Faerie Macabre
    1 Gaddock Teeg
    1 Shriekmaw
    1 Knight of the Reliquary
    2 Tidehollow Sculler
    2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
    1 Pernicious Deed

    Probable changes with Aether Revolt are Knight of the Reliquary over Monastery Mentor (or possibly the new 3/2 for 3 guy), Hope of Ghirapur over Sylvan Safekeeper, and a Nissa over Sigarda.

    Summary:
    SE Fit is the name given to Systems Engineering Fit, a specific sub-archetype that was originally developed as a thought experiment: if you took the Nic Fit concept and applied systems engineering mathematics to it, what would the math suggest as a deck? It turned out that the result was close enough to reality to be worth exploring, and SE Fit was developed. With a number of solid finishes in local events and online leagues, SE Fit is a strong approach to a more mathematical way of looking at the deck.

    Strengths:

    -) Consistency is SE Fit's biggest single draw. Packed with card advantage and removal, SE Fit is capable of keeping up with nearly anything in cards, including Shardless BUG.
    -) A good mix of power and flexibility.

    Weaknesses:
    -) Very, very creature oriented, which can result in the deck walking into similar problems as Maverick used to, especially against decks like Miracles.

    Matchups:

    Miracles:
    Slightly favored. Very long, very grindy. They're the faster deck in the match, so be prepared to win game 1. You're favored, so with normal and even fast playing speed, Miracles is really playing to draw in game 2. Cavern is big here if you get it, because they can't really remove it and it makes a joke out of the Counter/Top lock. They use mana better than you, so be careful about accelerating with Vets. Postboard they're favored but only slightly, even without a timer you should be able to win 2 out of 3. Watch out for Venser locks because it trumps Cavern.

    Shardless:
    Very favored. They'll almost certainly pull ahead in the early game, but as long as you keep Goyfs under control you should be able to catch up and eventually take the lead. Don't be afraid if they pull ahead early, generally as long as they cast 3 Ancestral Visions or less you'll win. If they get all 4 you'll probably lose.

    BG/x:
    Very favored. It's basically the same as Shardless. They have more removal with Punishing Fire, but less actual CA. They'll likely pull ahead early with discard, but there's enough CA to catch up. Ideally you're both top decking and you pull ahead with SDT.

    Storm:
    Near autolose. Hope for a fizzle or a poor hand. We don't generally have enough interaction to stop them. The gameplan here is disruption plus a clock.

    D&T:
    Very favored. Watch out for 3 mana Thalia. Otherwise, they don't really interact on any axis you care about. Mana denial can be a pain, but as long as you avoid that with some Vet triggers and fetching basics things usually work out. Remember that you need an extra green source for your deck to function against them, since they'll tap down one of them.

    Eldrazi:
    Slightly favored. White Eldrazi will ruin your day with Thalia/Displacer. Colorless Eldrazi isn't much of a threat. Cavern is great at messing with an early disruption plan like Chalice. Trade aggressively, don't be afraid to 2 for 1 yourself or chump block. Your #1 priority is to keep their board clear, if you can do that you'll eventually pull ahead in CA and win the game. Use your best cards first so TKS doesn't get a chance to take them.

    Scapewish

    Nicola Guidi's List (1st place at Ovino Spring 2016, 4/24/16):
    1 Eternal Witness
    1 Obstinate Baloth
    1 Primeval Titan
    1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
    1 Scavenging Ooze
    1 Thragtusk
    1 Thrun, the Last Troll
    2 Wood Elves
    4 Veteran Explorer

    3 Abrupt Decay
    3 Punishing Fire

    2 Scapeshift
    3 Cabal Therapy
    3 Green Sun's Zenith
    4 Burning Wish

    3 Pernicious Deed

    3 Sensei's Divining Top

    1 Mountain
    1 Phyrexian Tower
    1 Stomping Ground
    2 Bayou
    2 Swamp
    2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
    3 Forest
    4 Badlands
    4 Grove of the Burnwillows
    4 Taiga

    sb::
    1 Cabal Therapy
    3 Carpet of Flowers
    1 Damnation
    2 Duress
    1 Innocent Blood
    1 Maelstrom Pulse
    1 Scapeshift
    3 Slaughter Games
    2 Surgical Extraction

    Finishes:
    Kevin McKee - 2nd - Mythic Games - 7/21/12
    Kevin McKee - 4th - Jupiter Games - 8/11/12
    Eric Warns - 7th - SCG Open Minneapolis - 9/2/12
    Luigi Lescarini - 4th BBC #1 Roma 9 - 9/9/12
    Louis Soloman - 4th - Jupiter Games - 11/3/12
    Juan Miguel Carrascosa - 1st - Mishra's Factory Open - 11/17/12
    Sam Castrucci - 12th - SCG Open Baltimore - 12/2/12
    Kevin McKee - 4th - Jupiter Games - 12/15/12
    Kevin McKee - 13th - SCG Open Columbus - 1/6/13
    Kevin McKee - 7th - Mythic Games - 1/12/13
    Evan Flynn - 5th - Mythic Games - 1/12/13
    Dario Moreno - 6th - 1 LML 2013 - 1/12/13
    Eugenio Arano - 3rd - Cerberus Open 3 - 1/20/13
    Kaarle Tukia - 3rd - GPT Strasbourg / Kuukkacon - 3/2/13
    Evan Flynn - 8th - Mythic Games - 3/9/13
    Roberto Geada - 5th - GPT Strasbourg / 3 LML Madrid - 3/16/13
    Kevin McKee - 8th - Mythic Games - 4/13/13
    Ludovico Pagliughi - 4th - MLL#12 Milano - 6/9/13
    Sam Higgins - 8th - Jupiter Games - 6/22/13
    Pablo Montoya - 6th - 6 LML 2013 - 6/29/13
    Pagliughi Ludovico - 6th - MLL#1 Piacenza - 9/22/13
    Kevin McKee - 5th - Mythic Games - 11/9/13
    Gianluca Barbati - 2nd - GBLL Tappa 3 - 11/17/13
    Ludovico Pagliughi - 5th - Nebraska's War / Viareggio - 12/7/13
    Kevin McKee - 10th - Tales of Tales of Adventure - 12/7/13
    Manuel Torres - 7th - Legacy Open IV / Cantrabria - 12/14/13
    Adrian Perez - 6th - GPT Paris / Barcelona - 1/11/14
    Romain Van Der Daelen - 4th - GPT Paris / Paris - 1/25/14
    Giacomo Befani - 6th - T1.5 T#8 / Pisa - 3/16/14
    David Rice - 8th - Tales of Adventure 40 Duals - 3/30/14
    Juan Miguel Carrascosa - 4th - 7 LML 2014 - 9/7/14
    Lorenzo Tarocchi - 2nd - T1.5T#1 - Scandicci - 9/28/14
    Ludovico Pagliughi - 4th - Milano MLL#2 - 10/19/14
    Iago Rodriguez - 2nd - V Ferrol Cidade do Mar - 11/8/14
    Eugenio Guarnaschelli - 4th - Milano MLL2016A#3 - 11/8/15
    Ludovico Pagliughi - 5th - Top European Series Milan Legacy Main Event - 2/13/16
    Jordi Vidal - 9th - LCL 2016 #2 Ingenio - 2/20/16
    Nicola Guidi - 1st - OvinoSpring Milano Legacy Main Event - 4/24/16
    Dan Mortensen - 6th - Mox Boarding House 1K June - 6/18/16
    Ludovico Pagliughi - 8th - MLL#10 2016 - 6/26/16
    Carlos Roca Guardo - 9th - Impact Returns - 7/23/16

    Summary:
    Scapewish is the archetype with perhaps the highest pedigree amongst Nic Fits. In addition to the above major finishes (events with over 32 players), it has a large host of smaller event finishes which I opted to not include. The original seed idea came from a pair of small European event finishes from Summer 2012 merging the Nic Fit core with a Scapeshift aesthetic. These lists were very nascent, using multiple copies of Primeval Titan, Foratog, and some other choices which in today's world seem bizarre. I took this core idea and revised the list, refocusing it a bit -- this led me to a string of finishes over the next 6 months, which attracted a lot of other players to the archetype. While Scapewish has fallen off in popularity a bit recently, it's still very alive and worth considering moving forward.

    Scapewish originally functioned as a midrange beatdown deck, presenting powerful creature threats like Huntmaster, Thragtusk, and Stormbreath Dragon. However, these creatures, while respectable and certainly capable of winning the game on their own, are primarily smoke and mirrors. The creature plan serves to mask the true looming threat: a combo kill with Scapeshift searching up Valakuts and mountains. Here's how the Scapeshift kill works:

    -) Scapeshift (resolves) sacrificing 7 lands, fetches Valakut + 6 mountains. Valakut sees all 6 mountains entering play at the same time, which means each mountain counts as the "6th mountain" which will trigger Valakut. This deals 18 damage.

    -) Scapeshift (resolves) sacrificing 8 lands, fetches 2 Valakut + 6 mountains. This will deal 36 damage.

    -) Scapeshift (resolves) sacrificing 8 lands, fetches Valakut + 7 mountains. This is how you beat onboard Wasteland. Add a mountain for each untapped Wasteland.

    Coupled with the Burning Wishes, Scapewish plays a total of 7 effective copies of Scapeshift, not counting any that get discarded or countered, which turns on Eternal Witness + 4 Zeniths as further 'effective copies'. The Scapeshift kill is very redundant -- given enough time, it WILL happen. This means that many games end up being race scenarios where your opponent may not even realize that you're racing.

    The Burning Wishes can do a lot more than just fetch Scapeshift, of course. They also present a great deal of utility, enabling the pilot to fetch additional discard, sweepers, spot removal and the powerful anti-combo disruption of Slaughter Games. Innocent Blood, while also removal, enables you to Wish for a sacrifice outlet to off a struggling Explorer. Burning Wish can gain further utility postboard, as you can sideboard out a Green Sun's Zenith for grindy matchups to increase your midgame threat density even further.

    Unfortunately, one of the main problems that Scapewish has had moving forward is a lack of power creep being placed on Jund colored monsters. This has led to the remaining successful lists moving more towards combo/control, as opposed to midrange/combo. Beyond the ramp core and a couple of utility creatures, Scapewish barely runs threats outside of the combo at this point, opting instead for more card advantage and spot removal.

    Strengths:
    -) A strong, linear plan which is good against random decks and redundant enough to be very hard to stop
    -) Some of the better anti-combo sideboard options Nic Fit has to offer
    -) A solid plan B which is sometimes good enough to get there on its own
    -) Can steal game 1 vs combo with discard + a fast Scapeshift

    Weaknesses:
    -) Fairly unstable manabase that can be easily attacked early in the game, /especially/ if you're on the newer versions that include Punishing/Groves
    -) A complete lack of lategame power -- after turn 10, this deck becomes pretty unfavored against current decks
    -) Scapewish has moved into a purely midgame role: it is weak in both the early game developmental stage and also in the late game. That being said, it is still incredibly strong during those middle turns, say turns 5-8.

    Matchups:

    Note: this section is anecdotal. I haven't played this version in close to three years at this point, and as such my opinions about the current lines of play are basically meaningless.

    Miracles:

    Cointoss game one, slightly favored game 2-3. Some games you'll get out underneath them, drain their resources with Thragtusks and Stormbreaths, and then wombo them from nowhere. Some games you'll get turn 3 Entreated, they'll Force your Deed, and you'll die. Postboard you gain Slaughter Games, Decays, and Red Elemental Blasts -- all of which are superb in this matchup. You also board in a lot of the Burning Wish targets for the Wishes themselves, since the Wishes can be Hydroblasted and are easily Counterbalanced.

    How you win:
    -) Slaughter their Jaces and park a Deed in play. Without their Jaces, it's much harder for them to countertop Scapeshift, which taxes their resources heavily. Deed stops Entreat.
    -) Slaughter their Entreats. If game one took a long time, consider going after Entreat before Jace, because Entreat is a typically faster wincon.
    -) Slaughter their Force of Wills. If you have a lot of ramp / a Scapeshfit and they don't have CB/Top online, it can sometimes be correct to just rush the combo.
    -) Slaughter their Terminuses and go dudebro beatdown. Without Terminus, Stormbreath Dragon is very hard for Miracles to effectively shut down. Without Terminus in their deck, they also cannot CB/Top Zenith@5 or Primeval Titan, both of which can be relevant if you're on the dude plan.

    How you lose:
    -) Early, unanswered CB/Top (turn 2 assembled) locks you out of your early game development.
    -) Counterspells + Snapcaster + Clique tempos you out of the game.
    -) Fast Jace starts fatesealing immediately while they ensure that they can protect it.
    -) Fast Entreat + they have a counterspell for your Deed.
    -) Long, grindy 10+ turn game in which they bury you in cards and/or assemble Clique/Venser/Karakas.

    Delver (RUG, BUG, UWR):

    All of these matchups play out roughly the same, so I'll group them together, noting specific differences as I come to them. Scapewish is generally favored vs all three, however all three are perfectly capable of stealing games out from under you. In general your dude plan is less effective here, although Thragtusk in particular is a beating for all versions of Delver. Pernicious Deed is the best card in your deck; Stifle is your opponent's best. Veteran is pure value here, and necessary to help you escape their conditional, soft countermagic.

    How you win:
    -) Thragtusk.
    -) Even better, double Thragtusk.
    -) Pernicious Deed + a beefy body to stabilize the board.
    -) A midgame Scapeshift when they're out of resources.

    How you lose:
    -) The Delver pilot correctly identifies the important of Sakura-Tribe Elder and Wood Elves. They're usually good about stopping Explorers, but sometimes decide that Sakura-Tribe isn't worth Dazing or Wood Elves isn't worth Stifling. They are.
    -) Double Delver + Wasteland + Stifle + Daze + Force hands. We've all been there. It's as good vs us as it is vs any other deck in the history of the game.
    -) BUG Delver Hymn to Tourachs you clean out of the game and then makes a Tombstalker.
    -) UWR Delver assembles TNN+equip and you don't have an answer / your answer gets countered.
    -) RUG Delver gets you low early and then goes triple Lightning Bolt.

    Shardless BUG:

    This matchup is really strange and feels very draw-dependent. I've had games where it feels like the matchup is a bye...going both ways. They play a lot of planeswalkers, which we're typically ill-equipped to fight adequately, and Thragtusk in particular is pretty questionable in the matchup. We usually end up playing more to our combo side than our midrange side here, because if we play like a midrange deck, we lose pretty badly. By contrast, they generally only have 3-4 Force of Wills to actually stop us from killing them with Scapeshift.

    How you win:
    -) Stall until you can Scapeshift safely (care of Wastelands). This usually involves casting / Zenithing for as many Explorers as possible as quickly as possible.
    -) Pernicious Deed is pretty good here as well, but you NEED to have a Thrag or Stormbreath to follow it up or they'll just rebuild. Deed not killing their planeswalkers is particularly bad here.

    How you lose:
    -) Hymn to Tourach happens.
    -) They clock you down before you can really do anything. This usually involves multiple Tar Pits and either discard or a Force of Will for Deed.
    -) Turn 2 Liliana, when backed up appropriately, can be very bad.
    -) They resolve multiple Ancestrals, which allows them to rebuild right past your Deeds.
    -) Meddling Mage can be a threat, although you should generally be able to answer it with a backup sweeper.

    Elves:

    This is a poor matchup for us, with Elves generally favored in all stages. Symbiote can save their elves from sweepers, and they're fairly redundant to discard since they can just topdeck another threat pretty easily. They also get value from the first Explorer, which can turbocharge them depending on their draws. All you can really try to do is disrupt them as much as possible as often as possible. Don't be afraid to sweep even if you'll only get 2-3 elves. Keep it as clear as you can and hope that you kill them before they kill you.

    How you win:
    -) Multiple board wipes into Huntmaster. Huntmaster's flips can devastate Elves if you run them out of resources.
    -) Discard + 1-2 sweepers into a fast Scapeshift can steal some games.
    -) Slaughter Games on Craterhoof can be pretty good, but keep in mind that Slaughter Games doesn't actually deal with any resolved threats on board.

    How you lose:
    -) They goldfish you while you draw noninteractive cards.
    -) You sweep them, but they Glimpse off afterward.
    -) They Thoughtseize the crap out of you and then goldfish you.
    -) They make a Progenitus and you can't find an answer (read: Deluge).
    -) They combo Deathrite Shaman with multiple untaps and drain you out.
    -) They assemble Visionary + Symbiote in a grindy situation.

    Stoneblade/Deathblade:

    This is usually a pretty favored matchup, but you do need to respect some of their draws. In general, though, their cards are fairly low powered compared to yours, and they fall into the same camp as Shardless in that they don't have enough counterspell backup to effectively protect themselves from Scapeshift. Respect their sideboard options, for they are many and diverse. Also remember that True-Name with equipment is a beating, and that they do play some quantity of planeswalkers depending on the pilot.

    How you win:
    -) A midgame Scapeshift, Burning Wish, or sometimes Green Sun off the top.
    -) Primeval Titan is a pretty good plan here, as is Stormbreath Dragon.
    -) Deed away their board.
    -) Sandbag a Therapy until they play Stoneforge Mystic and take their equipment.
    -) Burning Wish for Massacre can really catch these decks with their pants down and sweep them unexpectedly when they think you don't have the mana to wrath them.

    How you lose:
    -) You get kolded by some random weird sideboard option.
    -) TNN + equipment happens and you can't find an answer.
    -) Turn 2 Liliana can be problematic depending on your draw and theirs.
    -) You get ground out by Lingering Souls.
    -) They curve out and have just enough disruption to keep you off-balance while they aggro you out.

    Sneak and Show: Less good now than when the Slaughter Games were maindeck. If they have Leyline of Sanctity you probably just lose -- if they don't, your discard and Slaughters can rip them to shreds with REB backup. Prioritize Emrakul and then Griselbrand with Slaughter Games.

    Storm: Again, less good than it was -- but also less popular. If vs TES, prioritize Burning Wish with Slaughter Games. Vs ANT, you may be able to just name Ad Nauseam and win on the spot.

    Reanimator: Stone unwinnable. Seriously, they can mull to four while drinking absinthe with one hand tied behind their back and they will beat your best possible 7.

    Death and Taxes: This is pretty good for you. Respect the possibility of Mirran Crusader + equips, but otherwise you just have too many redundant sweepers for them to stop you. Your manabase -can- shit on itself and enable them to steal, though.

    GBx midrange (junk & jund): Play to your combo half, because your beatdown plan is not good enough here. This is simply a struggle for you to stay alive until you can make them dead. Watch out for stray Wastelands, and if they're running Knighto f the Reliquary, keep that threat in mind as well.

    Nyx Fit (nee Rector)

    Navsi's latest list (1/5/17):

    2 Forest
    2 Plains
    2 Swamp
    3 Verdant Catacombs
    3 Windswept Heath
    2 Marsh Flats
    2 Bayou
    1 Savannah
    1 Scrubland
    3 Phyrexian Tower
    1 Cavern of Souls

    4 Veteran Explorer
    4 Academy Rector
    1 Eternal Witness
    1 Courser of Kruphix
    1 Eidolon of Blossoms
    1 Doomwake Giant
    1 Sigarda, Host of Herons

    4 Green Sun's Zenith
    4 Cabal Therapy

    3 Sensei's Divining Top

    1 Nissa, Vital Force

    2 Abrupt Decay

    3 Pernicious Deed
    3 Sterling Grove
    2 Starfield of Nyx
    1 Living Plane
    1 Faith's Fetters
    1 Parallax Wave
    1 Nether Void

    Sideboard:
    3 Leyline of the Void
    3 Carpet of Flowers
    2 Leyline of Sanctity
    2 Surgical Extraction
    2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
    1 Humility
    1 Curse of Death's Hold
    1 Seal of Primordium

    (Rector) Finishes:
    Elias Klocker - 5th - Legacyturniers - 4/30/2011
    Michael Thiel - 4th - Legacyturniers - 8/27/11
    Matthias Frauenschlager - 3rd - GPT Amsterdam / Nurnberg - 10/1/11
    Andrea Ciotta - 4th - PCLL#3 / Piacenza - 12/18/11
    Stephane Roumanille - 7th - Legacy Cachan - 1/15/12
    Angelo Cortazzo - 2nd - GA Vimercate LRS2012#1 - 2/12/12
    Chris Higashi - 8th - SCG Open Phoenix - 4/15/12
    Peter Venema - 7th - SCG Invitational Qualifier - 6/3/12
    Marco Lazzazzara - 8th - Finale BBC - 6/10/12
    Kevin McKee - 6th - Jupiter Games July - 7/14/12
    Juan Jose Valero - 5th - Genshiken Duals Tournament - 8/25/12
    Steve Thompson - 12th - SCG Open Providence - 10/14/12
    Roberto Turriziani - 4th - KMTG#3 - 11/25/12
    Kevin McKee - 6th - Mythic Games - 7/20/13
    (Starfield) Finishes:
    TBA

    Summary:
    This particular version is one of the oldest versions of the archetype, second only to the (now outdated* except possibly for Brael's brew) straight GB versions. While it looks quite a bit different than it did 'back in the day,' the core philosophy remains the same: a rock-inspired approach involving a fair amount of spot removal + efficient sweepers coupled with some card advantage (usually in the form of recursion), some toolboxes, and powerful, efficient creatures.

    Rector, as such, has been dead dreaming since approximately Deathrite Shaman was printed. Now, however, it's gotten a new shot in the arm by way of Starfield of Nyx. Starfield is an incredibly powerful engine when assembled with Pernicious Deed and Sterling Grove, in a way very reminiscent of Sun Titan in the Rector decks of yore. First suggested by Ulysses95 in May 2016, Starfield has taken a while to really take off or be appreciated, however it is putting up decently good results in testing without being fully tuned yet, and as such is a welcome addition to the arsenal.

    Strengths:
    -) Highly explosive due to (usually) 3x Phyrexian Tower
    -) Engine can be incredibly hard to disrupt depending on opponent. Starfield is already hard to remove, and recursive Sterling Groves makes it even worse.

    Weaknesses:
    -) Somewhat reliant on Academy Rector for powerful plays, which opens a vulnerability to Deathrite Shaman and other graveyard hate.
    -) Flexible to the point of causing issues based upon the individual list for the day -- a very slight card choice change can wildly affect matchups.
    -) Not fully tuned: there are a ton of playable enchantments that can alter the feel of the deck and its matchups, but that aren't completely explored yet.

    Matchups:

    (As written by Navsi)

    Miracles:
    They have trouble interacting with most of our permanents - Starfield and Deed are all stars here since Starfield let's you dodge the only way they interact with you (on the stack) and Deed means they can't go under you and kill you with Mentor or Entreat. Spirit of the Labyrinth is great out of the side, especially if Sterling Grove gives it shroud.

    Shardless:
    We don't really care about anything they do. Watch out for early Goyf aggression, as that's the most likely way for you to lose. Deed is great again. None of their removal exiles, Rector is basically Moat against them if you can keep them off Deathrite.

    BGx (I assume you mean Loam, Jund, Maverick, other Nic Fit):
    Dont get run over by Tarmogoyf. Slam haymaker enchantments till they lose. Often they're slow enough you can aim for Living Plane + Doomwake, but recurring Deed usually ends the game too. Deathrite can prevent Rector trigger, but doesn't do shit against Starfield.

    Storm:
    Therapy is God. I normally name LED since it's the card that's most likely to result in your death before you can get established. Hopefully you have a Dovescape or Nether Void or Leyline of Sanctity maindeck, because if you don't Rector triggers don't actually pressure them much. Leyline helps a lot post SB, especially with Sterling Grove. Side out your spot removal and slow spells but keep a couple sweepers in for Empty the Warren's.

    D&T:
    Doomwake is important. His cost isn't reduced by Thalia, remember. You can often just Sterling Grove for him eot, then untap and slam him. Deed is every important. You don't have many early blockers, but if you can resolve a Rector trigger they probably lose.

    Eldrazi:
    Hope they don't have Thought-Knot. Doomwake is amazing again, kills Mimic and blocks Smasher. If they're prevalent in your area, putting a Ghostly Prison or two in your sideboard helps a lot. They have little CA and no answers to enchantments, so if you can stabilize at all your probably just run them over.

    A Note About Grixis Delver:
    Incidentally one thing I realized - Grixis runs Deathrite, but often doesn't have an early green source which means they still get wrecked by Rector since they often can't exile him even if they have the Deathrite.

    Sultai Pod

    Jack Hesse's list (4/9/16):

    1 Acidic Slime
    1 Entomber Exarch
    1 Eternal Witness
    1 Glen Elendra Archmage
    1 Grave Titan
    1 Liliana, Heretical Healer
    1 Merciless Executioner
    1 Murderous Redcap
    1 Reclamation Sage
    1 Scavenging Ooze
    1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
    1 Sower of Temptation
    1 Thragtusk
    2 Deathrite Shaman
    4 Baleful Strix
    4 Veteran Explorer

    2 Abrupt Decay
    4 Brainstorm

    4 Cabal Therapy

    1 Recurring Nightmare
    2 Pernicious Deed

    3 Birthing Pod

    1 Island
    1 Underground Sea
    2 Bayou
    2 Swamp
    3 Forest
    3 Misty Rainforest
    3 Polluted Delta
    3 Tropical Island
    3 Verdant Catacombs

    sb::
    1 Deathrite Shaman
    1 Kitchen Finks
    1 Loaming Shaman
    1 Massacre Wurm
    1 Shriekmaw
    1 Viscera Seer
    1 Pernicious Deed
    1 Brain Maggot
    1 Flusterstorm
    1 Force of Will
    1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
    1 Vendilion Clique
    2 Maelstrom Pulse
    1 Thoughtseize

    Finishes:
    Leo Maros - 8th - Knightware GPT DC - 10/13/13
    David Gleicher - 6th - SCG Open Milwaukee - 10/13/13
    David Gleicher - 13th - SCG Open Indianapolis - 10/27/13
    Ruben Martinez - 4th - 5 torneo Team-o - 12/7/13
    Michael Rusch - 3rd - MKM Legacy / Nurnberg - 12/14/13
    David Gleicher - 10th - SCG Open Indianapolis - 1/5/14
    Sveinung Noding - 10th - Grand Prix Paris - 2/16/14
    Federico Benini - 5th - IMT SuperSide / Milano - 2/22/14
    Vuolo Umberto - 4th - Kingdom Legacy 6 - 3/2/14
    Russo Manfredi - 2nd - Kingdom Legacy 6 - 3/2/14
    Sean Thielman - 1st - ChicagoFinal Legacy Open - 3/16/14
    Kyle Weaver - 12th - Tales of Adventure 40 Duals - 3/30/14
    Vuolo Umberto - 8th - Kingdom Legacy 7 - 3/30/14
    Niccolo Stopponi - 6th - T1.5T#9 / Scandicci - 4/13/14
    Federico Benini - 7th - FRLL#8 - 4/13/14
    Philipp Dinnus - 2nd - Trader-Liga Legacy - 4/13/14
    Mineri Claudio - 1st - Raffa Olympus #4 - 5/4/14
    Niccolo Stopponi - 7th - AZMagicPlayers.com Legacy Series - 5/31/14
    Zachary Schulz - 14th - Tales of Adventure Eternal Extravaganza - 8/2/14
    Daniel Gomez Nofuentes - 12th - LCL 2014 September - 9/24/14
    Gianluca Barbati - 8th - Bologna GBLL#6 - 2/15/15
    Alex Sowieja - 10th - SCG Premier IQ Milwaukee - 9/20/15
    David Gleicher - 7th - SCG Premier IQ Milwaukee - 9/20/15
    David Holker - 8th - MKM Series #3 Prague - 10/16/15
    Jack Hesse - 7th - SCG Invitational Qualifier - Milwaukee - 4/9/16
    Jonas Zimmerman - 6th - MKM Series Frankfurt Main Event - 5/15/16

    Summary:
    As the name implies, Sultai Pod is focused entirely around Birthing Pod and the abuse thereof. Among its other accomplishments, this version has achieved a 10th place finish at a Grand Prix, which is something that none of the other versions can boast of. This version was pretty much unknown until David Gleicher had back-to-back high placing SCG finishes, and then it kind of took off from there. While not incredibly popular, it has put up a respectable number and quality of finishes since its creation, and it has continued to perform through 2014 -- which thusfar has been a rough year for Nic Fit.

    The deck operates basically by just valuing the opponent out. It has various hateful creatures along the Pod chain, along with potent threats and finishers. It also gets to run a Trinket Mage to Pod up, which enables it to take up fewer deck slots with redundant Sensei's Divining Tops.

    Notably, BUG Pod gets to run Brainstorm, although the number of Brainstorms is a question that has yet to be answered. Some prefer the full set, whereas some only run it as a 3of or even a 2of.

    Unlike most other Nic Fits, BUG Pod stands to gain a lot moving forward, as every green, blue, or black creature yet to be printed may have a place in this deck. It's much harder for new toys to find slots in other versions -- but Pod's raw power and selection is pretty much unrivaled at this point.

    Strengths:
    -) An online Birthing Pod is absolutely monstrous against most of the format.
    -) Toolboxes within the toolbox enables redundant flexibility even when Pod isn't online.
    -) Good mix of hateful, disruptive creatures and powerful threats.
    -) Blue-colored Nic Fit means that strong anti-combo measures like Force of Will and Flusterstorm are available postboard.
    -) Highly customizable for any given metagame.

    Weaknesses:
    -) Pod deck. Sometimes Pod won't be online, and even with the extra toolboxes, the deck is notably worse without its namesake.
    -) Pod deck. All of your "spells" need to be creatures in order to take advantage of Birthing Pod. This can limit deck construction harshly because there are only so many playable "spell creatures" in existence.
    -) Harder to play than the average Nic Fit list (which is already fairly hard).
    -) Very difficult to build correctly. I firmly believe that we have yet to see the best version of this deck, just because of the sheer number of possibly viable pod chains and things that it can do.

    Matchups:
    Last edited by Arianrhod; 01-16-2017 at 10:06 AM.

  3. #3
    Aes Sídhe
    Arianrhod's Avatar
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    397

    Re: [Updated Primer] Nic Fit

    VI. Secondary Variants:

    Classic Straight GB

    Caleb Durward's Invitational List (12/11/11):
    Creatures [17]
    1 Deranged Hermit
    1 Dryad Arbor
    1 Kitchen Finks
    1 Wall of Blossoms
    1 Wickerbough Elder
    2 Eternal Witness
    2 Grave Titan
    2 Scavenging Ooze
    2 Thrun, the Last Troll
    4 Veteran Explorer

    Instants [3]
    1 Go for the Throat
    2 Dismember

    Sorceries [14]
    3 Hymn to Tourach
    3 Maelstrom Pulse
    4 Cabal Therapy
    4 Green Sun's Zenith

    Enchantments [3]
    3 Pernicious Deed

    Planeswalkers [1]
    1 Liliana of the Veil

    Artifacts [2]
    2 Sensei's Divining Top

    Lands [21]
    1 Phyrexian Tower
    1 Wooded Foothills
    3 Swamp
    4 Bayou
    4 Forest
    4 Misty Rainforest
    4 Verdant Catacombs

    SB::
    1 Nihil Spellbomb
    1 Tormod's Crypt
    2 Faerie Macabre
    1 Kitchen Finks
    2 Extirpate
    4 Mindbreak Trap
    1 Gaddock Teeg
    2 Liliana of the Veil
    1 Damnation

    Finishes:
    Caleb Durward - 5th - SCG Invitational 2011 - 12/11/11
    Bernd Fritsch - 4th - WPN Qualifier LegacyTurniers - 12/28/11
    Robert Lippmann - 6th - WPN Qualifier Legacy Turniers - 2/25/12
    Borja Ceberio - 3rd - 3 LLG 2012 - 3/11/12
    Kabelis - 1st - Magic-League Legacy Trial - 8/15/12
    Matt Bevilaqua - 4th - DHG November Buncha Duals - 11/10/12
    Alessio Papi - KING 4 / Roma - 12/16/12
    Kurt Madouse - 3rd - Philadelphia Legacy Series #3 - 8/31/13
    Ivan Cominelli - 2nd - Olympus #2 / Raffa - 2/9/14
    Ivan Cominelli - 8th - Olympus #5 / Moniga - 6/1/14

    Summary:
    This is pretty much what started it all. The original successful lists where straight green/black. While they've since fallen out of favor, they do put up some modest results still -- mostly in Europe at smaller events.

    One of the biggest draws of this version was that you got to run Hymn to Tourach, which opened some incredibly strong opening lines where you could Therapy/Explorer/Therapy/Hymn to Tourach all by the end of your turn 2, essentially emptying the opponent's hand. Your mana was also so strong that you could run manlands (usually Treetop Villages), which synergize well with Primeval Titan.

    The biggest struggle for GB Nic Fit was always ending the game. The deck had a lot more dead draws lategame than most other versions, and it had few actual wincons, relying on Green Sun's Zenith to tutor them up. Once it found a wincon, it did had the "Two Towers" engine to abuse -- using Phyrexian Tower and Volrath's Stronghold, you can simulate Recurring Nightmare's effect to keep recurring your threat. As the metagame has moved to Snapcaster+Swords to Plowshares decks, coupled with the advent of Council's Judgment, this style of deckbuilding is falling out of favor. Deathrite Shaman didn't do it any favors, either.

    BG SE Fit

    Brael's List (1/7/17)
    1 Ash Barrens
    3 Bayou
    1 Dyrad Arbor
    5 Forest
    1 Maze of Ith
    1 Phyrexian Tower
    2 Swamp
    4 Verdant Catacombs
    1 Volrath's Stronghold
    3 Windswept Heath

    1 Chameleon Colossus
    1 Courser of Kruphix
    4 Dark Confidant
    2 Deathrite Shaman
    1 Eternal Witness
    1 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
    1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
    1 Scavenging Ooze
    2 Tireless Tracker
    4 Veteran Explorer

    3 Abrupt Decay
    4 Cabal Therapy
    2 Crop Rotation
    2 Diabolic Edict
    4 Green Sun's Zenith
    1 Pernicious Deed
    2 Sensei's Divining Top

    1 Garruk Wildspeaker
    1 Liliana, the Last Hope
    1 Nissa, Vital Force

    sb::
    1 Carpet of Flowers
    1 Crop Rotation
    3 Dark Depths
    2 Deathrite Shaman
    1 Karakas
    2 Lost Legacy
    1 Pernicious Deed
    1 Reclamation Sage
    1 Sensei's Divining Top
    2 Thespian's Stage

    Summary:
    As written by Brael:

    This is really just another version of SE, it's following all of the same deck building principals. Lots of CA, lots of selection, low curve, and lots of ramp in order to maintain a high velocity. Unlike the Junk version though, this has much less of a tribal bend (not that Junk requires tribal, it's just a useful coincidence). The idea here is to out value your opponent and do a bunch of things each turn. In the SB is a combo plan to shift your plan of attack. The Dark Depths plan works very well with the CA this deck generates to find the pieces. It's potent and unexpected which is a generally successful strategy to steal games.

    Crop Rotation is what enables most of the SB plans, either with DD or for extra utility like Karakas. Don't be afraid to bring in lands.

    Matchups:

    As written by Brael:

    Miracles:
    Even. You rely on CA a lot more than in the Junk build. If you can maintain some CA though you'll do well. The DD plan lines up pretty poorly against their StP/Terminus path of attack, but Karakas fights the Legend builds well and Lost Legacy is good for removing win conditions. Last, all 3 of your PW's stack up well against them.

    Shardless/BGx:
    Favored. Goyf is harder to kill (until Fatal Push releases) but they do poorly against Deed, and you'll find Deed easily. Chameleon Colossus laughs at black based decks. Like usual though, they'll pull ahead early and you'll be playing catchup.

    Storm:
    Not favored. Better than Junk due to Lost Legacy. If you can accelerate into it on T2, you can usually buy yourself a couple turns to hit them. In line with the acceleration plan (especially a Vet/Rotation/Tower opening) Chameleon Colossus can usually kill them in one hit after you strip a win condition away. You won't always win, but there's definitely hands that beat their hands. It's also very possible to DD combo on T2 or T3.

    D&T:
    Even. You're more reliant on GSZ and PW's in this build, which makes you more vulnerable to taxes. On the other hand, you can Maze of Ith away equipped attackers which really slows them down. It comes down to a grind. There's not many Deeds in the list but they'll win the game for you. This is again, a poor matchup for DD.

    Eldrazi:
    Favored. Same idea as with Junk. Trade aggressively, then make up your CA later. You have a better end game here because Marit Lage breaks board stalls and the pieces dodge TKS.

    4c Atraxa (River Rock)

    Navsi's List (1/6/17)
    4 Verdant Catacombs
    1 Misty Rainforest
    1 Polluted Delta
    1 Windswept Heath
    1 Marsh Flats
    2 Bayou
    1 Underground Sea
    1 Tropical Island
    1 Savannah
    1 Scrubland
    1 Tundra or extra basic/fetch
    2 Forest
    2 Swamp
    1 Island
    1 Plains
    1 Phyrexian Tower

    3 Veteran Explorer
    2 Deathrite Shaman
    2 Baleful Strix
    2 Stoneforge Mystic
    1 Scavenging Ooze
    1 Eternal Witness
    1 Tireless Tracker
    1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
    1 Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
    1 Thragtusk

    4 Green Sun's Zenith
    4 Cabal Therapy
    3 Brainstorm
    2 Abrupt Decay
    2 Pernicious Deed
    2 Swords to Plowshares
    1 Sensei's Divining Top

    1 Garruk Relentless
    1 Nissa, Vital Force
    1 Liliana, the Last Hope

    1 Umezawa's Jitte
    1 Sword of Fire and Ice
    1 Sword of Light and Shadow

    sb::
    2 Surgical Extraction
    2 Carpet of Flowers
    2 Thoughtseize
    2 Pithing Needle
    2 Lost Legacy
    2 Golgari Charm
    1 Gaddock Teeg
    1 Batterskull
    1 Sigarda, Host of Herons

    Summary:
    The first true 4-color Nic Fit, as opposed to a shard or wedge splashing for a couple of cards, 4c Atraxa is largely untuned, but everyone knows will be good. The problem is that, like Nic Fit itself, the deck has a bit of a problem with having too many possible cards and too many possible directions. At the same time, it gets to run the best cards of four colors, and once the deck crystallizes a bit more, will doubtlessly be very strong.

    BG<>

    Arianrhod's List (1/6/17)
    4 Veteran Explorer
    1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
    1 Tireless Tracker
    1 Eternal Witness
    1 Fierce Empath
    2 Obstinate Baloth
    1 Oracle of Mul Daya
    4 Thought-Knot Seer
    2 Reality Smasher
    2 Primeval Titan
    1 Kozilek, the Great Distortion
    1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

    4 Cabal Therapy
    3 Green Sun's Zenith
    1 Gaze of Granite
    1 Maelstrom Pulse

    2 Abrupt Decay

    3 Pernicious Deed

    3 Sensei's Divining Top

    3 Bayou
    4 Verdant Catacombs
    1 Llanowar Wastes
    4 Forest
    2 Swamp
    1 Wastes
    2 Cloudpost
    4 Glimmerpost
    1 Eye of Ugin
    1 Phyrexian Tower

    sb::
    4 Leyline of the Void
    1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
    1 Krosan Grip
    1 Toxic Deluge
    1 Golgari Charm
    2 Trinisphere
    2 Thoughtseize
    1 Wurmcoil Engine
    2 Snuff Out / Dismember

    Summary:
    This version hasn't been under active development for a while, mostly due to the arrival of Sneaky Fit as a version. That said, I do still firmly believe that there is something here. Thought-Knot Seer is an incredibly stupid card, and the ramp shell works well with the Eldrazi package. There are a large number of questions with this version that need to be answered before it's really 'ready,' however -- even on a basic level, like which land package is correct: Cloudpost vs Tron vs Eldrazi Temple. Regardless, testing and a couple of events played has shown that this is worth working on. Unfortunately, it's been pushed to the back seat at the moment.

    Strengths:
    -) Powerful endgame, as hardcasting Eldrazi Titans is about the strongest thing you can do short of combo-killing.
    -) Thought-Knot Seer gives the deck unexpected reach against combo decks, as, when coupled with Therapy, you can absolutely annihilate their hand.

    Weaknesses:
    -) Far from tuned or finalized.
    -) Wasteland can be a huge problem to the endgame focus of the deck if we stay on Cloudposts, although it becomes less so if we move on to Temples or Tron.
    -) Sideboard options leave a lot to be desired.

    Abzan Pod

    Paul Ewenstein's SCG Open List (5/6/12):

    Creatures [19]
    1 Academy Rector
    1 Acidic Slime
    1 Birds of Paradise
    1 Bone Shredder
    1 Eternal Witness
    1 Grave Titan
    1 Reveillark
    1 Scavenging Ooze
    1 Sun Titan
    1 Thrun, the Last Troll
    1 Wickerbough Elder
    2 Kitchen Finks
    2 Strangleroot Geist
    4 Veteran Explorer

    Instants [2]
    2 Swords to Plowshares

    Sorceries [8]
    1 Inquisition of Kozilek
    3 Green Sun's Zenith
    4 Cabal Therapy

    Enchantments [4]
    2 Pernicious Deed
    2 Recurring Nightmare

    Planeswalkers [2]
    2 Liliana of the Veil

    Artifacts [4]
    2 Birthing Pod
    2 Sensei's Divining Top

    Lands [21]
    1 Karakas
    1 Marsh Flats
    1 Phyrexian Tower
    1 Scrubland
    2 Forest
    2 Plains
    2 Savannah
    2 Swamp
    3 Bayou
    3 Verdant Catacombs
    3 Windswept Heath

    SB::
    2 Ethersworn Canonist
    1 Phyrexian Metamorph
    1 Scavenging Ooze
    2 Choke
    1 Pernicious Deed
    1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
    1 Enlightened Tutor
    2 Extirpate
    1 Swords to Plowshares
    1 Gaddock Teeg
    1 Maelstrom Pulse

    Finishes:
    Tomas Bilek - 5th - Czech Legacy Series - 1/14/12
    Tomas Bilek - 2nd - Pohar cerneho rytire c.3 - 3/22/12
    Alan Gerevini - 4th - PCLL#7 / Piacenza - 4/15/12
    Jordi Roca Lacostena - II Torneo Liga Foro - 5/4/12
    Paul Ewenstein - 2nd - SCG Open Providence 5/6/12

    Summary:
    While still able to be a thing, this deck combination has proven to be fairly unpopular -- surprising, given that it would be an easy jump for modern Melira Pod players. In 2012, it had a handful of major event finishes and a host of <32 player top8s -- but since 2012, it has basically disappeared from the hierarchy. I believe that this is primarily due to the relative popularity of the more rock-styled lists and the more junk-styled lists.

    Still, white has some pretty impressive pod targets -- capable of making nice chains with Restoration Angel, and it gets a lot of randomly hateful creatures, like Orzhov Pontiff -- which wrecks Elves and Death and Taxes, or can pump your team for an alpha strike. There's lots of possibility here, in my opinion.

    Punishing Fit

    HoneyT's latest list (9/11/14):

    // Deck: P-Fire Nic Fit (60)

    // Lands
    2 Badlands
    2 Bayou
    1 Bloodstained Mire
    3 Forest
    4 Grove of the Burnwillows
    1 Kessig Wolf Run
    1 Mountain
    3 Swamp
    1 Taiga
    4 Verdant Catacombs
    1 Wooded Foothills

    // Creatures
    1 Broodmate Dragon
    2 Eternal Witness
    1 Huntmaster of the Fells
    1 Primeval Titan
    1 Scavenging Ooze
    1 Thragtusk
    1 Thrun, the Last Troll
    4 Veteran Explorer

    // Spells
    3 Abrupt Decay
    4 Cabal Therapy
    4 Green Sun's Zenith
    3 Liliana of the Veil
    1 Maelstrom Pulse
    3 Pernicious Deed
    3 Punishing Fire
    4 Sensei's Divining Top

    // Sideboard
    SB: 1 Choke
    SB: 1 Golgari Charm
    SB: 1 Krosan Grip
    SB: 3 Red Elemental Blast
    SB: 2 Slaughter Games
    SB: 3 Surgical Extraction
    SB: 3 Thoughtseize
    SB: 1 Toxic Deluge

    Ralf's latest list (8/28/14):

    1 Bloodstained Mire
    1 Mountain
    1 Savannah
    1 Wooded Foothills
    2 Badlands
    2 Forest
    3 Bayou
    3 Swamp
    4 Grove of the Burnwillows
    4 Verdant Catacombs

    1 Huntmaster of the Fells
    1 Scavenging Ooze
    1 Thragtusk
    2 Eternal Witness
    4 Veteran Explorer

    1 Garruk Relentless
    3 Liliana of the Veil

    1 Batterskull
    3 Sensei's Divining Top

    3 Pernicious Deed

    2 Diabolic Edict
    3 Abrupt Decay
    3 Punishing Fire

    2 Thoughtseize
    4 Cabal Therapy
    4 Green Sun's Zenith

    SB: 1 Reclamation Sage
    SB: 1 Gaddock Teeg
    SB: 1 Kitchen Finks
    SB: 1 Dryad Militant
    SB: 1 Toxic Deluge
    SB: 1 Golgari Charm
    SB: 2 Slaughter Games
    SB: 3 Red Elemental Blast
    SB: 2 Surgical Extraction
    SB: 2 Thoughtseize

    Finishes:
    Alexander Podeschwa - 1st - IS-MAGIC - 4/22/12
    Alain Martin - 2nd - 6 Torneo LLG - 6/2/12
    Alain Martin - 8th - 7 Torneo LLG - 7/28/14
    Juan Garcia Pardillo - 5th - Torneo Evolution-Sevilla - 8/26/12
    Bota Varzquez - 3rd - TLA Torneo 6 - 11/11/12
    Juan Garcia Pardillo - 1st - 1er Torneo Navidad Evolution-Sevilla - 12/8/12
    Michael Pilz - 4th - Sunday Legacy Wien - 12/16/12
    Louie Funelas - 6th - Manila Legacy Wars 6 - 2/3/13
    David Clark - 20th - SCG Open Atlanta - 2/3/13
    Tim Wilson - 8th - SCG Open Kansas City - 3/24/13
    Claudio Mineri - 7th - Stargate Mantova - 5/12/13
    Claudio Mineri - 7th - Verona Evil#10 - 6/9/13
    Claudio Mineri - 4th - Olympus#5 - 6/30/13
    Daeva Tommaso - 4th - KING 1 Roma - 9/8/13
    Jakob Peschel - 6th - MKM Legacy Turniers in Nurnberg - 12/14/13
    Borja David Palachio - 4th - Legacy Open IV / MTG Cantabria - 12/14/13
    Jakob Peschel - 7th - MKM Legacy Turniers in Nurnberg - 12/21/13
    Giacomo Befani - 6th - T1.5T#8 / Pisa - 3/16/14

    Summary:
    This variety is one of the hardest/purest control lists amongst the archetype. You kill everything, and what you can't kill, you make them sacrifice. This is the only version that can effectively / happily run Liliana of the Veil, due to her synergy with Punishing Fire meaning that you aren't just eating cards out of your hand. Perhaps the most common finisher in this version is ThrunRun: Thrun + Kessig Wolf Run. Some prefer to eschew the ThrunRun plan in exchange for Phyrexian Tower + Volrath's Stronghold. Still others prefer to use grindier threats like planeswalkers and Batterskull. Whatever your win condition, though, it's slow and ponderous -- as with most true control decks.

    Sultai (bug) Control

    Arianrhod's latest list (9/10/14):
    4 Veteran Explorer
    3 Baleful Strix
    2 Vendilion Clique
    1 Eternal Witness
    2 Notion Thief
    1 Venser, Shaper Savant
    2 Glen Elendra Archmage
    1 The Mimeoplasm
    1 Thragtusk
    1 Consecrated Sphinx
    1 Frost Titan

    4 Cabal Therapy
    1 Green Sun's Zenith
    1 Diabolic Intent

    2 Brainstorm
    2 Abrupt Decay

    2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

    3 Pernicious Deed
    1 Future Sight
    1 Recurring Nightmare

    2 Sensei's Divining Top
    1 Sword of Fire and Ice

    3 Underground Sea
    3 Tropical Island
    2 Bayou
    2 Forest
    2 Island
    2 Swamp
    3 Verdant Catacombs
    3 Misty Rainforest
    1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
    1 Phyrexian Tower

    sb::
    1 Bribery
    1 Haunting Echoes
    1 Batterskull
    1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
    1 Abrupt Decay
    2 Krosan Grip
    2 Flusterstorm
    2 Thoughtseize
    1 Cranial Extraction
    2 Toxic Deluge
    1 Golgari Charm

    Finishes:
    Jonas Kozak - 1st - Czech Legacy Series 6 - 11/10/12
    Tao - 5th - Magic-League Legacy Master - 12/30/12
    Kyle Weaver - 7th - Tales of Tales of Adventure - 12/7/13
    Kyle Weaver - 4th - Bazaar of Moxen Qualifier - 2/22/14

    Summary:
    The idea of putting blue in the original GB Nic Fit is as old as the archetype, and throughout its history, generic BUG-colored control lists have shown up on and off. Generally speaking, these lists are "gimmick" free, although they may have a package of cards that has a subtheme. In my list above, for example, I have a strong blue-anti-blue subtheme, with the Notion Thiefs, ConSphinx, Glen Elendras, and Mikokoro present.

    Usually, BUG Control oriented Nic Fits will run some number of planeswalkers, but it won't be the list's focus. Instead, these decks run some of the powerful Ux creatures -- where many of which do very unique things and are the best at what they do. Soem number of Baleful Strix is almost always present. Additionally, due to the higher density of blue-based, non-green creatures in these lists, Green Sun's Zenith is often de-emphasized for either more raw card advantage or for alternate tutoring options, like Living Wish.

    One of the big draws of putting blue in your Nic Fit list is that you get to play with some impressively broken cards. It's very hard to lose a game after 2+ turns of Future Sight being alive. Likewise, you gain perhaps the best Sneak and Show matchup of any variant, courtesy of Clique, Glen Elendra, Venser, and Frost Titan -- not counting your "traditional" postboard hate options like Flusterstorms and Thoughtseizes.

    Strengths:
    -) You're Shardless BUG's literal worst nightmare. You give them more waking-up-suddenly-screaming-and-palms-sweating moments than Burn does, even.
    -) Brainstorm is the most played / arguably most broken card in legacy. While you don't want to run too many of them yourself, you can greatly punish others for doing so.
    -) Cliques and Glen Elendras shore up everything that Baleful Strix doesn't, presenting a fairly robust plan against most decks.
    -) Lots of card advantage, both literal and virtual.

    Weaknesses:
    -) A lot of your threats are seriously underpowered. Your creatures tend more towards the utility side of things, and oftentimes you win by pure value, not by having any really potent threats.
    -) You can struggle with Burn, which is normally a positive matchup for basically every other version.
    -) Largely unproven on the grand scale. While it does have some pedigree, most pilots have opted for Punishing, Rector, and Scapewish historically, and neglected blue versions.
    -) None of the backup tutoring options are as good as Green Sun's Zenith, but Green Sun is pretty bad for you.

    Matchups:

    Miracles

    This matchup is insanely grindy. Honestly, your core plan is to win game one, and thus the match. Be aware of the clock, as it may behoove you to scoop early in game one to preserve time and try to win the next two. Your sideboard has strong options here, but your maindeck is already set up pretty well to win the long game. Take out CB when possible, but be wary of Entreat the Angels, as they can steal the game out from under you. A resolved Glen Elendra is big game, especially if you can get to her before they drop a Jace. Cliqueing Miracle triggers is very good for you, and Notion Thief can mess up a lot of their card filtering and attempts at instant-speed miracle-ing.

    How you win:
    -) Notion Thief blowouts. Oftentimes Notion Thiefing a Brainstorm (or, even better, a Jacestorm) won't outright win you the game -- but it will put you massively ahead.
    -) Consecrated Sphinx is your last bomb. Use everything else first if at all possible...suck up as much of their removal as you possibly can before playing Sphinx. With luck, you can then ride Sphinx the rest of the way.
    -) Early pressure Glen, Thief, and Clique...ideally in that order (Glen covers Thief, Thief shuts down their card draw, and Clique is a flying, cantripping Thoughtseize).
    -) A resolved Future Sight or Recurring Nightmare loop. Either one will generate so much value so quickly that Miracles will crumple.

    How you lose:
    -) You aren't protective enough of your bombs. Know what matters in the matchup. Always, always be careful of the possibility of EoT Entreat for a million, kill you.
    -) They get out ahead early with a protected Jace.
    -) They randomly Blood Moon you, Thopter Foundry you, or do something else unexpected from their sideboard. Note that I wouldn't expect them to board in Blood Moons vs Nic Fit, but respect the possibility.

    Delver

    The Delver matchup is a little different for BUG Nic Fit. You don't generally have space in your sideboard for Carpet of Flowers, so you can't lean on that. Instead, you have Baleful Strix to slow the game down, and Abrupt Decays to help smooth things out. Coupled with Cliques and Glens, you have a lot of flying creatures that can block and kill a Delver. Instead, focus on the ground threat. Deter their Goyfs by leaving Veteran Explorers in play when possible.

    Be judicious of your life total and how much of it you can safely afford to use as a resource. Goyf grows very large, very quickly in these matchups. Playing the tempo game is 100% acceptable -- odds are, you won't need to use Jace to Brainstorm as much in this matchup, so just using him to unsummon and reset opposing creatures is fine. Notion Thief blowouts won't happen often, but if it happens even once, you likely win on the spot. This matchup is so tenuous for Delver that they can't afford Recalling and double Time Walking you off of a Brainstorm. ConSphinx and Frosty the Snowman are both bigger than their everything, and Frosty can keep Goyfs under control easily.

    How you win:
    -) The usual Nic Fit plan: get ahead on mana, get ahead on cards, and crush them with superior power.
    -) Pretty much any Nightmare loop.
    -) Lots of tempo. With Thief, Clique, Venser, and Jace, you can realistically out-tempo the tempo deck if you survive your developmental turns intact.
    -) Getting Sword of Fire and Ice online is particularly devastating here.

    How you lose:
    -) Delver bullshit hands.
    -) Getting Hymned/triple Bolted/TNN'd out of the game.
    -) Having your developmental turns really screwed with can sometimes put you far enough behind that they can close before you can recover, mostly due to the sheer strength of Goyf.

    Shardless BUG

    Seriously, you're their worst nightmare. Veterans and Strixes stabilize the game while you develop, while the threat of Notions and ConSphinx looms large. Deed is as good vs them as it is in any other version. If you untap with Future Sight, you'll bury them in cards. Sword of Fire and Ice is also rather strong here. Postboard you gain Haunting Echoes, which will exile approximately 2/3 of their deck on average. Kiora is also quite good here.

    How you win:
    -) Play Magic.

    How you lose:
    -) I have no idea.

    Elves

    This is a hilariously awkward matchup for both decks. Game one you'll probably die, but if you manage to string together enough disruption and ramp and if they stumble at all, you can stabilize. Notion Thief is oddly fantastic against them, as shutting down Glimpse and Visionary is pretty huge. Glen Elendra stops Green Sun's and Natural Orders effectively. Sword of Fire and Ice can help shoot down elves one-by-one in a stalled board state.

    Postboard you gain a pair of Deluges and a Golgari Charm to help out with the sweeper duty, along with more generic combo hate. If you're feeling adorable you can also side in the Bribery to take one of their Hoofs (or possibly Progenitus). While none of this makes Elves a favored matchup, you're a little less colossally screwed here than most versions are.

    How you win:
    -) Hit enough disruption to stall the board state, and then draw into things that stop you from dying. From there, try to clock them as best as you can.
    -) Chain together multiple sweepers postboard.

    How you lose:
    -) They rip your hand apart with Thoughtseize, taking your hate.
    -) You don't draw the appropriate answers at the right times.
    -) They just draw well.

    Stoneblade

    Stoneblade is a peculiar matchup. Stoneblade is generally classified as a blue midrange deck, which makes this something of a mirror. All of the cards you would expect to be good here are -- Thief and ConSPhinx blowouts happen fairly regularly, and you can Clique away equipments in response to the Stoneforge trigger. You also gain the pair of Krosan Grips postboard, which helps ease the equipment problem, along with your Therapies.

    At the same time, True-Name can be an issue...at the very least until Toxic Deluge comes in out of the board, and sometimes even with a Deluge. They can also just bury you in value with Snapcaster and removal/discard. That being said, all of the usual control-breaker tech applies. Survive their midgame aggression intact into the late game and you'll be fine.

    How you win:
    -) Thief blowouts.
    -) Starving their resources and then slamming a control breaker.
    -) Kill / discard all of their equipment to keep their utility creatures non-threatening.

    How you lose:
    -) Find all of your lategame cards too early and get them Thoughtseized out of your hand.
    -) They get the perfect curve with discard into threats into protection. Depending on the threats and the protection in question, you can really struggle with their curve.

    Sneak and Show: Show and Tell is very dangerous for them, as you have any number of things that they very much don't want to see. If Glen Elendra resolves, she's basically unbeatable for the opponent. Postboard you gain an array of nasty things, including Bribery, which they want nothing to do with.

    Storm: You aren't in as much trouble as other versions are, since you at least have interaction. Glen Elendra is, again, an all-star -- and if you can set up Notion Thief in the early game while they're cantripping and trying to set up their kill, you can punish them very harshly. Still not favorable, but you at least have tools.

    Reanimator: Oddly favorable. Baleful Strix is a pain in the ass for them, and, as with storm, you have a fair amount of interaction. They can't realistically move to the Show and Tell plan postboard, as well -- you only have one angle to worry about, and while it's still definitely a hard matchup, I believe us to be (albeit slightly) favored.

    Death and Taxes:
    Tricks. You need to know tricks. Venser and Mimeoplasm are very powerful here, since you can take a lot of unexpected lines. Revoker is public enemy #1, and if you can solve him, you probably win because Deed is just so unbelievably strong in this matchup. Postboard you gain a couple more sweepers (ones that can't be revoked, at that). Favored.

    GBx Midrange (Junk and Jund): The grind is real. These decks don't really have a lot of card advantage, so Notion Thief isn't that great here -- although ConSphinx is still fine, and your cards are on average better than theirs, so cold Mikokoroing is acceptable. Future Sight is your plan here, with Frost Titan and ConSphinx doing overtime. If you can keep their Deathrites under control, Mimeoplasm will serve you very well, too.

    Sultai Superfriends

    David McDarby's latest list (3/29/14):

    1 Baleful Strix
    4 Veteran Explorer

    4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    2 Karn Liberated
    3 Liliana of the Veil

    1 Forest
    2 Island
    3 Swamp
    2 Bayou
    3 Misty Rainforest
    4 Polluted Delta
    2 Tropical Island
    2 Underground Sea
    3 Verdant Catacombs

    4 Pernicious Deed
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Cabal Therapy
    4 Gitaxian Probe
    3 Hymn to Tourach
    4 Innocent Blood
    1 Ponder

    Sideboard:
    2 Ensnaring Bridge
    2 Notion Thief
    2 Flusterstorm
    4 Force of Will
    1 Negate
    2 Surgical Extraction
    2 Vendilion Clique

    Finishes:
    David McDarby - 7-1 or better at SCG Invitational - 3/29/14
    Miscellaneous SCG Open top 64s, small event finishes

    Summary:
    This version is, so far, unique to David McDarby -- an SCG columnist who to my knowledge is unaware of the Source. Despite this, he has put up some pretty solid finishes with the deck, and he's made very few changes as per his articles over the last few months on it, which would suggest that he's fairly happy with where it's at and considers it mostly a finished product. Note that I disagree with this assessment.

    That being said, I question how much of an effect the printing of Council's Judgment has had on this list in particular. Regardless, people have been attempting to build superfriends-style lists with the Nic Fit shell for quite a while now, and his is the first to see any real semblance of success.

    This version is all-in on its planeswalkers. It is 100% reliant on Jace and Karn to actually finish the game. That being said, it's also very good at enabling these two to carry the game. It plays more removal and discard than basically any other version, and that's not counting that Karn and Jace can also serve as removal engines if the game state so requires.

    Strengths:
    -) Good luck to any creature deck thinking that it's going to get through that.

    Weaknesses:
    -) Very unpolished decklist in my opinion, as McDarby is the sole voice in the wilderness working on it.
    -) Solely reliant on its planeswalkers to win the game, with no plan B. This leads to an enormously slow clock when it comes to actually winning games, especially vs combo.
    -) Lots of deckslots taken up by relative do-nothings like Gitaxian Probe.

    Matchups:

    TBD

    VII. Tertiary Variants:

    These variations are mostly theoretical at this point, and have either never been fully developed or have very, very few results.

    GB Scapeshift:


    It has been theorized that a GB Scapeshift list could exist, using Ob Nixilis and other landfall cards. In addition, you could possibly combine this shell with a Cloudpost core. The biggest problem here, in my opinion, is how you untap the lands post-shift...you basically either have to somehow give Scapeshift flash, or run something like Amulet of Vigor or Candelabra of Tawnos.

    GB Turbo:


    Culling the Weak exists. A turn 1 Explorer into turn 2 Culling yields 7 mana on turn two: enough for a Therapy+Titan or GSZ->Titan sequence. The issue here is the lack of stability. This version would likely be very Belcherish -- when the stars align, it would be extremely deadly. However, the volatility of this shell likely scares everyone away from developing it.

    GBx Doomsday:

    A gentlemen by the name of Vacrix developed this initially: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...lorer-Doomsday -- a Veteran Storm deck. He's tried it with both an ANT shell and a Doomsday shell, but I haven't heard anything further on it for quite a while.

    Jund Pod:

    Birthing Pod has seen success in the other color combinations, but so far, Jund Pod has been relatively unexplored. There was some conversation on it in the old thread, but to my knowledge, it never went anywhere. Highlights include Olivia Voldaren, Flametongue Kavu, and Kiki-Jiki. You also gain the Redcap->Kiki+Conscripts infinite combo. There's probably something here.

    Abzan OmniRector:

    This was a popular variant in the Netherlands, particularly, a few years ago. The idea was to max out on Rectors and Diabolic Intents, and fire off an Intent on a Rector to tutor Omniscience into play + Emrakul into your hand. You used Scroll Rack as a pseudo-Brainstorm to keep combo pieces out of your hand. This version is more of a historical anecdote than anything else -- I don't believe that this list could exist in today's metagame.

    Sultai Gifts:

    Every few months, a group of us get bored and try to make Gifts Ungiven work. Unfortunately, every few months, we fail. The closest that we've gotten at this point is to acknowledge that the deck needs to be primarily Reanimator-oriented with the option to value-gifts on the side. Putting something fat into play is really the only thing that's powerful enough for Gifts to do currently, as we do not have the equivalent of a Vault-Key-YawgWill-Snapcaster (Regrowth) pile in legacy.

    Crack the Earth and Perilous Research variants:

    It's been theorized that Crack the Earth and Perilous Research could function as a non-black enabler for Veteran Explorer, opening up straight Gruul lists as well as Temur and Naya. That said, no development has really been done on any of these, and it's very unclear as to whether there's even anything here.

    Natural Order:

    Natural Order is a card that seems like it should be a decent option for Nic Fit, but it's never been able to work really -- about the best we've been able to manage is to use it as a sideboard plan in very graveyard centric lists. Still, this is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

    Reanimator:

    Likewise, running a Reanimator plan is something that is potentially in Nic Fit's wheelhouse, especially with the printing of Collective Brutality.

  4. #4
    Aes Sídhe
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    Re: [Updated Primer] Nic Fit

    VIII. Coverage Matches:

    Chris Higashi (Abzan Rock vs RUG Delver & Stoneblade) -- Rd 7 and Rd 8 of SCG Open Phoenix (4/15/12)
    Rd 7: http://blip.tv/scglive/scgaz-leg-rd-...ueseke-6096615
    Rd 8: http://blip.tv/scglive/scgaz-leg-rd-...igashi-6096748

    Bruce Mills (Abzan Rock vs Hive Mind) -- Quarterfinals of SCG Open Birmingham (4/22/12)
    http://blip.tv/scglive/scgal-lgc-top...-mills-6111223

    Paul Ewenstein (Abzan Pod vs RUG Delver, Goblins, AggroLoam) -- Quarters/Semis/Finals of SCG Open Providence (5/6/12)
    Quarters: http://blip.tv/scglive/scgri-leg-qua...nstein-6136815

    Semis: http://blip.tv/scglive/scgri-leg-sem...node-1-6137404

    Finals: http://blip.tv/scglive/scgri-leg-fin...nstein-6136718

    Steve Thompson (Rector vs BUG Delver) -- Rd 6 of SCG Open Providence (10/14/12)
    http://blip.tv/scglive/scg-prov-lgc-...ompson-6402089

    Juan Miguel Carrascosa (Scapewish vs RUG Delver) -- Finals of Mishra's Factory Open (11/17/12)
    Game 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVZjajy96y4
    Game 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEIrg7yqekQ

    Kevin McKee (Scapewish vs Mono-blue Nivmagus) -- Rd 6 of SCG Columbus (1/6/13)
    http://blip.tv/scglive/scgcol-leg-rd...e-gunn-6496269

    Tim Wilson (Punishing Fit vs Reanimator) -- Quarterfinals of SCG Open Kansas (3/24/13)
    http://blip.tv/scglive/scgkc-leg-qua...wilson-6558983

    David Gleicher (BUG Pod vs Shardless BUG and BUG Delver) Rd 3 & Rd 5 of SCG Milwaukee (10/13/13)
    Rd 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AITzKpdassY
    Rd 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_RZmriarss

    David Gleicher (BUG Pod vs BUG Control) -- Rd 5 of SCG Open Indianapolis (1/5/14)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ4_7arwBpI

    David McDarby (Veteran Planeswalkers vs Death and Taxes) -- Rd 5 of SCG Knoxville (5/11/14)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvBuGXGcMw4

    David Malafarina vs Ari Lax (BUG Fit vs Deathblade) - Rd 1 of Legacy Champs 2014
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjT6W_azzlU

    Sam Castrucci vs David Tipton (Scapewish) - Rd 5 of Legacy Champs 2014
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz1XWtShGMU

  5. #5
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    Re: [Updated Primer] Nic Fit

    Reserved 4 of 5

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    Re: [Updated Primer] Nic Fit

    Reserved 5 of 5. Continue talking while I upload!

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    Re: [Primer] Nic Fit

    I play two in the side because he is still the best, along with nissa, against miracles. In the main I'd rather have the second nissa

  8. #8

    Re: [Primer] Nic Fit

    Here is my current list...

    4 Brainstorm
    4 Green Sun's Zenith
    4 Cabal Therapy
    4 Natural Order
    3 Abrupt Decay
    3 Pernicious Deed
    1 Fatal Push
    1 Painful Truths

    4 Veteran Explorer
    3 Deathrite Shaman
    1 Fauna Shaman
    1 Scavenging Ooze
    1 Eternal Witness
    1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
    1 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
    1 Thragtusk
    1 Progenitus

    4 Misty Rainforest
    4 Verdant Catacombs
    3 Forest
    2 Swamp
    2 Island
    2 Bayou
    2 Tropical Island
    1 Underground Sea
    1 Phyrexian Tower
    1 Dryad Arbor

    Sideboard:
    3 Thoughtseize
    2 Carpet of Flowers
    2 Choke
    2 Surgical Extraction
    1 Garruk Relentless
    1 Reclamation Sage
    1 Toxic Deluge

    The OP's quote is very fitting in response to the various takes on the build, I frankly love the addition of Natural Order and wouldn't dream of cutting it: “You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”

    The build is meant to be hyper aggressive. Once it reaches 4 mana, it's game over for your opponent thanks to the unblockable, unkillable 10/10 coming for their face.

  9. #9

    Re: [Primer] Nic Fit

    Quote Originally Posted by Captain Hammer View Post
    Here is my current list...

    The OP's quote is very fitting in response to the various takes on the build, I frankly love the addition of Natural Order and wouldn't dream of cutting it: “You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”

    The build is meant to be hyper aggressive. Once it reaches 4 mana, it's game over for your opponent thanks to the unblockable, unkillable 10/10 coming for their face.
    Honestly adding blue makes that NO list look very spicy. Best looking one I've seen proposed. I especially like Fauna Shaman + Meren although it is likely to be fairly disruptible in a lot of matchups. I'd only try to add a Nissa VF. Perhaps (I'll get flack for this) cut a single GSZ? With 3 DRS you won't feel as much need to GSZ for a Vet early, and you have fetchland -> arbor if you need a green creature to sac for NO. I think that GSZ, at least a full playset of GSZ, is not so needed if you have excess DRS and lack any 6+ cmc green dudes. I'd say that Tracker is missing as well, but Leovold covers that spot similarly.

    Mind you that I haven't played anything but Sneak Fit in a while, just throwing out ideas.

    With a Leovold in the deck, how about a Mindbreak Trap in the side?

  10. #10

    Re: [Primer] Nic Fit

    Great suggestion, I'll add 3 Mindbreak Trap to the sideboard. I'm also considering cutting the Fatal Push and Painful Truths to play a Collective Brutality and Liliana of the Vess maindeck. Collective Brutality combos great with Cabal Therapy (lets you peek at your opponents hand), Veteran Explorer (lets you kill an Explorer in a pinch) and both cards even let you get rid of a drawn Progenitus.

    I hadn't considered Nissa VF. What purpose would it add to the list. It's 5 mana and there's no way to tutor for it so it clearly isn't essential to the deck's functioning. Is it a way to allow you to blow up the board with Deed while still letting you maintain dominance? Because Progenitus already serves that role very well.

  11. #11

    Re: [Primer] Nic Fit

    Quote Originally Posted by Captain Hammer View Post
    Great suggestion, I'll add 3 Mindbreak Trap to the sideboard. I'm also considering cutting the Fatal Push and Painful Truths to play a Collective Brutality and Liliana of the Vess maindeck. Collective Brutality combos great with Cabal Therapy (lets you peek at your opponents hand), Veteran Explorer (lets you kill an Explorer in a pinch) and both cards even let you get rid of a drawn Progenitus.

    I hadn't considered Nissa VF. What purpose would it add to the list. It's 5 mana and there's no way to tutor for it so it clearly isn't essential to the deck's functioning. Is it a way to allow you to blow up the board with Deed while still letting you maintain dominance? Because Progenitus already serves that role very well.
    Nissa does several things in (I currently believe) every Nic Fit list. I had stuff written down but I think I can summarize her easily in that...she works wonderful along any range of aggro-grind-control that nic fit can find itself depending on both matchup and current gamestate. Fast clock, check. Recurs permanents that save from troubling situations, check. Out-grinds any game that goes long, check. She has to be answered and on a slightly different level than your creatures, and in turn answers stuff that nic fit often has trouble with (Jace in particular). I would still recommend trying her out as a Plan B/C. I can see a large number of games winning due to the 10/10, but Nissa has the chance to better guarantee those while also allowing wins without a successful NO. She, in a similar vein as Tracker and Leovold, is a different threat that simply has to be answered. I don't see how adding a second 5-drop would in any way be problematic for this deck.

    Also, I spent time earlier in the year with NO Rug. I loved having Elderscale Wurm available as an NO-target. That deck struggled to survive against small creatures, so it made more sense there, but having an instant-win against Dredge, Burn, any damage combos, and giving you plenty of time in the lands matchup to find another NO for Progenitus was all very nice. It's a thought - nic fit has better board control so perhaps a separate NO target isn't as necessary (ruric thar in the side could keep NO as a game-winning play vs storm for instance).

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    [Primer] Nic Fit

    With nissa you can make a quick emblem (-->win against non combo decks) and then regrow her with the second copy of nissa. This is so powerful.
    Garruk is strong, but not as much as (the second) nissa. She is that good.
    I have also been questioning the real purpose of any garruk in the deck. Of course he is good but doesn't threaten any meaningful ultimate and he is slow. Against non miracles deck I'd play just another 5-6 cmc bomb instead. Against miracles I am finding the 2-2 split between nissa and big Sorin very strong.
    Vindicate a 3-6 loyalty jace with sorin, regrow him with nissa. That happened a non insignificant number of times and it's such a strong combination of cards, even if they aren't in your hand together you can chain them due to their card draw capabilities.
    I really suggest all the 8🦏 players to try the two nissa in the main 2 big sorins in the side configuration.

  13. #13

    Re: [Primer] Nic Fit

    I also am recommending 2x Nissa VF in the main. Gal does some real work, I have a very hard time thinking of a situation where i'm not happy to see her in hand. I've got probably around 25 matches in with 2x main in my sneak list but so far seems great.

    Miracles game 1 feels better. Last night I was against the new bug Leovold list and a single Nissa saved me - provided extra protection due to a Deed in the yard, caused 15 damage, and stabilized a board presence by returning E Witness which returned DRS. I can't think of any other singular card that can do so much.

    (If that list continues to pick up steam, then I'll probably adjust my sideboard with 2x Golgari Charm, removing a Pyroclasm. I'm currently on 2 Pyroclasm 1 Golgari Charm. The charm is also handy against some number of increased Omnishow which I've been seeing more of online. I also swapped the Slaughter Games for 2 Lost Legacy but haven't seen them come up much so far.)

  14. #14

    Re: [Primer] Nic Fit

    Quote Originally Posted by square_two View Post
    I also am recommending 2x Nissa VF in the main. Gal does some real work, I have a very hard time thinking of a situation where i'm not happy to see her in hand. I've got probably around 25 matches in with 2x main in my sneak list but so far seems great.
    I'm also leaning in this direction. Garruk does some work at times, but Nissa is stronger overall.

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    [Primer] Nic Fit

    So, isn't there anyone here who plays a BUG value list with push strix tracker leopold meren and walkers (jace nissa)?
    I'd love to shift from jund to try the new bug deck, but since it is a slow process and a pricey commitment I want to hear opinions from you guys before.
    No one is brewing podless bug?

  16. #16

    Re: [Primer] Nic Fit

    Quote Originally Posted by rubblekill View Post
    So, isn't there anyone here who plays a BUG value list with push strix tracker leopold meren and walkers (jace nissa)?
    I'd love to shift from jund to try the new bug deck, but since it is a slow process and a pricey commitment I want to hear opinions from you guys before.
    No one is brewing podless bug?
    Jace isn't very impressive right now - we don't protect him as well as Miracles does and he's pretty bad against any unfair matchup, and only good against fair decks as a followup to a sweeper. He's the only real reason to stick to BUG rather than run four colours with Atraxa IMO. I did some brewing with it but I think 4C value is just better than BUG for us. Having Atraxa and swords and a couple white creatures (SFM, Rhino, or whatever) makes our aggro matchups way better where they can go under BUG sometimes.

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    Re: [Primer] Nic Fit

    Speaking of Atraxa, she is good of course, but I'm starting to think she is a win more type of card. We stomp creature decks already with rhino, and Atraxa is worse than Sigarda in the control match up.
    The blue seems to be better only for the counters we have access to in the sideboard, but even then I don't know if U is the absolutely best splash we can do. Leovold instead of tracker n 2 is nice but I'm not spending 35 for a single splash card

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    Re: [Primer] Nic Fit

    Quote Originally Posted by rubblekill View Post
    Speaking of Atraxa, she is good of course, but I'm starting to think she is a win more type of card. We stomp creature decks already with rhino, and Atraxa is worse than Sigarda in the control match up.
    The blue seems to be better only for the counters we have access to in the sideboard, but even then I don't know if U is the absolutely best splash we can do. Leovold instead of tracker n 2 is nice but I'm not spending 35 for a single splash card
    Seconded! It's a close call though. Vigilance is pretty damn good, and lifelink makes it even less attractive for your opponent to attack into Atraxa.
    Quote Originally Posted by cavalrywolfpack View Post
    DAMMIT ECHELON

  19. #19

    Re: [Primer] Nic Fit

    Quote Originally Posted by rubblekill View Post
    Speaking of Atraxa, she is good of course, but I'm starting to think she is a win more type of card. We stomp creature decks already with rhino, and Atraxa is worse than Sigarda in the control match up.
    The blue seems to be better only for the counters we have access to in the sideboard, but even then I don't know if U is the absolutely best splash we can do. Leovold instead of tracker n 2 is nice but I'm not spending 35 for a single splash card
    If you're playing a Rhinos build you've already sacrificed your control and combo matchups, might as well make fair deck matchups even better.

    Atraxa isn't Sigarda. She isn't there to kill control - she's there as a Baneslayer that you can Zenith. She should (IMO) be replacing your Rhino slot/s as a creature that stabilizes better and kills more reliably due to the flying/vigilance/lifelink keyword soup.

    IMO the #1 reason to play blue in Nic Fit is Baleful Strix. Great against a lot of the unfair decks (trades w/ Griselbrand, blocks Marit Lage), and is relevant against miracles while putting you up a card which is pretty huge. Also carries equipment very well which is relevant. Leovold is naturally amazing too, but if you don't want to spend on him that's reasonable.

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    Re: [Primer] Nic Fit

    Quote Originally Posted by Navsi View Post
    Atraxa isn't Sigarda. She isn't there to kill control - she's there as a Baneslayer that you can Zenith. She should (IMO) be replacing your Rhino slot/s as a creature that stabilizes better and kills more reliably due to the flying/vigilance/lifelink keyword soup.
    I'm not yet sure that she should. Both Rhino and Atraxa have their strong points under different circumstances. I've been testing her in a straight Junk list for some time now and am still unable to decide whether I like her in the list or that I'd rather have Rhino #4.

    Maybe I just have to ditch my Diabolic Intent and go 4 Rhino AND Atraxa.
    Quote Originally Posted by cavalrywolfpack View Post
    DAMMIT ECHELON

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