I think if you are going to splash R for Blood Moon. It is better to go more 4C.
4 Veteran Explorer
2 BOP -> 1 STE + 1 Jitte/Sword/EE
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger -> 1 blood moon
1 Knight of Autumn
1 Eternal Witness
1 Shalai -> 1 Marchesa
3 Siege Rhino -> 1 Huntmaster of the wells
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons -> 1 troll Thrun /Nissa Vital Force
1 Thragtusk
1 Carnage Tyrant
3 Pernicious Deed-> 1 toxic deluge
3 Assassin's Trophy -> 1 Path to exile
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Path to Exile
4 Green Suns Zenith
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Sylvan Library
1 Painful Truths
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Enlightened Tutor
I do not like BoP, I do not think the bird is useful enough in late game. Maybe 2 STE will be beneficial in this build. The enlightened tutor gives you a lot of flexibility. You might even want a big Enchantment instead of a creature. I am not a big fun of AT, but it is more of a meta call. Delvers and Gurmags are still the best creatures in the format. I would like to see you mana base. Just for curiosity.
I tried BOP after the DRS ban, and I *hated* them. Before I shelved the deck I only had 1 copy, then I dropped that as well. I ended up with 4x Vet and 1x Dryad Arbor for mana-ramping, and that was plenty. I ended up putting Thoughtseize into those slots, which was a lot more useful.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
Been on Arena Rector build ever since she was released, been loving it. Since GP Milwaukee was in my backyard, I played in 3 Friday events, walking away with 1.5 boxes at the end of the day. Felt pretty good about my matches, def the correct meta call as I was anticipating lots of fair and was rewarded. Skeletal Scrying has been MVP over the last couple months, I've drawn a metric ton of cards off it and has def overperformed for me.
1-2 (D&T, Red Prison, Lands)
2-0-1 (UB Shadow, Grixis Control, prize split)
2-0-1 (Oops All Spells, Enchantress, prize split)
This is what I sleeved up for all 3 events:
Main
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Veteran Explorer
4 Arena Rector
1 Karn Liberated
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
1 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
1 Nissa, Vital Force
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Sylvan Library
3 Pernicious Deed
2 Skeletal Scrying
2 Fatal Push
3 Assassin’s Trophy
3 Green Sun’s Zenith
3 Collective Brutality
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Plains
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Marsh Flats
2 Phyrexian Tower
2 Bayou
3 Forest
3 Swamp
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
Side
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Choke
1 Surgical Extraction
4 Duress
4 Leyline of the Void
Prior to Arena Rector, I was on the Academy Rector build for a long time. Essentially, Arena build is much, much better at coming back from a bad boardstate whereas Academy build is better at closing out games when there is parity or you're slightly ahead. The lulz factor of Arena was too good to pass up and I don't see myself going back to Academy build unless we get another swath of busted enchantments.
I am having a lot of fun playing Ali Aintrazi's build from a couple months ago. It feels like it's missing something...a little card advantage, maybe. However, I'm not changing anything at the moment, since the deck runs 62 cards.
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Hi all another battle report.
My list:
2x Bayou
1x Savannah
1x Scrubland
4x Forest
2x Swamp
2x Plains
8x Green Fetch
2x Phyrexian Tower
1x Dryad Arbor
4x Veteran Explorer
4x Academy Rector
2x Ground Seal
1x Curse of misfortune
1x Overwhelming Splendor
1x Sandwurm convergence
1x Cruel Reality
1x Dovescape
1x Curse of death’s hold
3x Evolutionary Leap
2x Sylvan Library
2x Pernicious deed
2x Abrupt decay
2x Collective Brutality
1x Diabolic edict
1x Innocent blood
4x Cabal Therapy
3x Living wish
2x GSZ
Side:
1x Carnage Tyrant
1x Thragtusk
1x Rec sage
1x Fearie Macabre
1x Eternal witness
1x Fleshbag marauder
1x Karakas
1x Surgical extraction
2x Lost legacy
2x Hallowed Moonlight
1x Massacre
1x Dread of Night
We were 19 players.
My Meta:
2x S&S (both on 2 or 3 omniscience)
2x D&T
2x Painter (Red and Grixis)
2x Reanimator (UB and RB)
1x Loam
1x Grixis control
2x Goblins (mono red)
1x infect
1x Esper Blade
1x Eternal garden
1x NicFit(me)
2x don’t remember (I think D&T and S&S)
Battle 1 (Esper blade)
I am pared against my friend Ruben who always is on Bant Blade, so I buy a pint and we play.
Game 1
He mulls to 5, I keep a 7 with GSZ, therapy and 2 Explorer.
He starts with Island +ponder.
I go CT, name Brainstorm and hit. He has no lands in hand. In the next turn, I go GSZ for Arbor and Explorer (do not sac for value). Turn 3 beat down and another explorer. I put him on 10 with my 3 creatures drawing only lands for multiple turns. He finally plays a TNN and starts to attack, I put him on 5 he kills my explorer and ramp. I swing again he goes to 4 and fetch. I put him on 2 and play Academy rector. He surrenders. Explorer 10+ dmg in one game achievement unlocked.
Game 2
He has the nuts. I have no disruption and slowly ramp. He double thoughseize me, then SFM into batterskull, he naturally draws his equipments, I surrender to Batterskull equipped with Jitte and Sofia.
Game 3
I go turn 1 GSZ for arbor. turn 2 CT + 1dmg+ land. Turn 3 academy rector into Curse of misfortune. Fetch a cruel reality first. After taking 5 from my curse and drawing a land without creatures and cantrips, he surrenders.
1-0
Battle 2 (UB Reanimator)
A new person, I do not know him (Mark)
Game 1
He goes island + ponder. My turn 1 I lead with bayou + CT on BS, hit. I see what he is playing, he has a slow hand with no protection, so I cast Ground Seal to lock his GY in turn 2. We keep playing. I finally draw a rector and curse him. 3 turns later he surrenders to cruel reality, Splendor and curse of death.
Deck check. He is a little bit tilted after seeing ground seal main. So I go for a pint and he goes for a smoke to relax a little.
Game 2
He starts with careful study. I try turn 2 Brutality and meet a FoW. He plays his 2nd land and exhume Iona naming Green. He finishes me in 3 turns.
Game 3
I go turn 1 explorer. He ponders, I fetch a savannah and leave mana open. He plays Careful study reanimate ashen rider, in response I cast hallowed moonlight. He reads the card. All spectators laugh at my fringe deck. Next turn I draw Evo Leap and combo at the end of his turn into Rector. Curse of misfortune him next turn. He tries to cantrip into echoing truth. I Living wish for Big Dino. He extends the hand.
I was very happy to see the non glass canon Reanimator again, some fresh air.
2-0
Battle 3 (S&S)
I do not go for a third pint because I am on diet, so I become I little bit grumpy. Last time I played against Tim, he was extremely tilted, because when we have played in march I think, I won the blind therapy contest and unlocked the achievement: Blind Cabal Therapy of the year 2018. (I turn 1 blind CT name BS and hit 3 copies on the play against unknown opponent). So he is here to take a revenge.
Game 1
Turn 1 he ponders, I play a land and pass. My turn 2 brutality meets a Fow, he plays 3 BS, then Sneak attack Grizzly and Emi the following turn.
Game 2
I resolve a rector and fetch the Wurm Machine to lock his flyers. Next turn he Show & Tell into Omniscience and Cunning wish for a burn spell for 20. GG. He took his revenge.
I do not know how to play and win against this match up. I probably could go for Dovescape in the last game, but with all the cantrips he might kill me faster with birds.
2-1
Battle 4 (RB Reanimator)
I do not know Connor, nice guy, first time playing a legacy tourney.
We roll dice.
Game 1
He goes first -> badlands, dark rit, entomb, exhume sire of sanity.
Game 2
I manage to go bayou + explorer. He unmask his Elesh Norn and animated dead him. Cool, I ramp with my dead explorer. I cast diabolic edict in my turn, he Exhume again, I ramp more. Next turn I naturally draw academy rector and throw her under Elesh Norn -2/-2, curse him. I survive at 5 life.
Game 3
He plays a land, pass. Great I am alive, so bayou into CT, he responds with entomb for sire of sanity. I name reanimate, so if he is stuck with one land I can survive another turn. He show me a hand of land, exhume, animated dead.
Another difficult match up. I had in my hand a land and hallowed moonlight to punish him, I just needed another turn. No luck against combo.
I am sad and go for a pint, fuck the diet.
2-2
Battle 5 (D&T)
New guy he started playing 6 month ago, I see him the first time. I was off because family stuff.
Game 1
He does the D&T stuff. Turn 1 Cavern into vial. Turn 2 Port and Mom from vial. Turn 3 Thalia from vial and Pro G/B dude. I draw blanks. I surrender before he realize I can combo.
Game 2
I stabilize at 7 life after resolving a pernicious deed, then rector fetch Cruel reality and next turn. I living wish into Big Dino.
Game 3
I have the nuts and explorer + Evo leap. I have all my basics on turn 3 and hard cast the Wurm machine and massacre his board. Next turn Rector fetch the curse of death, which is enough to close the game with wurms.
3-2
I am 9th on tie breakers and miss top 8. Overall the deck is still very powerful.
I played three terrible match ups and lost 2 of them so it was expected. My meta is weird and very combo oriented.
Collective brutality is very versatile and I recommend to try it. I should go back to drink a pint each round.
I am not a big fan of Ass trophy. I play AD as a secure kill.
I was tempted to build a PW rector deck, but I will not play it in my meta. After a couple of tests it is definitely very stronk against fair and control decks, super grindy. I might try the mixed version Classic WBG with 3 arena rector instead of Rhino and 2 or 3 PW. I will probably play 4CT, 3 Brutality and a IoK/thoughseize in the main to combat combo. This Friday I will have a break from NicFit for the first time in 2 years and I will play Punishing Maverick at an FNM, just to see how it feels in the meta. Then I go back to NicFit. I would like to build SneakFit, but still missing the key card and Emi. So probably after Xmas.
Any question I will be happy to answer.
Nicely done :)
Dovescape is imo way better than people give it credit for. You are afraid of dying to opp spending 1 card to get 1 bird? At least that's what typical cantrip is going to be. Even FoW is effectively 1 card = 2.5 birds (5/2 cards) Meanwhile you have an abundance of cards that turn into multiple birds. Find one GSZ and suddenly you can match whatever they have been spending multiple turns to produce. Even Decay is effectively 3 birds since you get 2 and can still destroy one of theirs.
IMO I like your list but would still advise someone running it to slim further on enchantments and be able to have either more interaction or Lingering Souls. (Souls value shoots up with Dovescape). Then again I've never tried the Living Wish version. Seemed like it only was used to grab Carnage in that run?
Yes, after I was writing this report I have realise that Dovescape will be game winning in this case. So it was a punt from my part. But the match up is still very difficult. It is possible to win against a resolved Emi or Grizzlybrand from S&T, but not against Omniscience.
So I was on the Lingering souls plan before i tried Living wish. Souls are great as a fodder for Evo Leap, but i think the card is better against a fair metagame. You can have 2 blockers turn 2/3 and you can feed CT if needed. So it is great against any D&T, Delver, Blades, Stompy. I think I prefer Living wish in my metagame so i can turn 2 go for a Karakas, Fearie macabre, Marauder or Rec sage. And hope to survive a turn. It is still 3 copies of each of your sideboard crit/land in the main. I was testing a version with Thespian stage + crop rotation main and living wish for Dark depths but it is too clunky.
On the other side in late game Lingering Souls is only 4 power. When with Living wish you can slam Big Dino or trade Thrugtusk to Zombie fish which is 10 life. So it is a better top deck late game. Unfortunately in the whole tourny i was able to draw it twice always in late game. And the Big Dino was the needed nail in the coffin so it has worked very well for me.
After playing AcademyFit and testing ArenaFit. I think both decks are great and have a good potential, but something is missing to move the deck to a more competitive level. I dont know exactly what, but probably a lock piece for the Curse version or a spell to slow the opponent more. Overall i think both decks have great core and in the future maybe in 2 or 3 sets some cards might elevate the deck to a new level.
We just have to observe what is around. With the BS quantity at 50% i will not be surprise if WotC finally make a move here.
Btw, collective brutality is an amazing card. Very versatile.
I have choosen Nic Fict to be my second competitive deck in the format (and, yeah, i understand all the problems of the deck but i really like strong BGx Midrange decks in any format) and have some questions. I have stoped on classic BG version for some reasons. Well.
1) How divide your removal options correctly? Is decay still good or outclassed by trophy? How many deeds do we need to play? Currently i am using 2 decays, 1 trophy, 1 edict and 3 pernicious deeds.
2) Is wasteland playable in this deck or ghost quarter is absolutely better option?
3) Is new Vraska, golgari queen good planeswalker for Nic Fit? Now i am playing lili the last hope (tremendously love her) and Nissa, vital force (flex slot?).
I've seen the new Vraska in Arena Fit and it seems like it's decent. It's a sac outlet for Vet and Rector and kills some things, and is easy to cast.
4 Veteran Explorer
1 Dryad Arbor
1 BOP
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Knight of Autumn
1 Eternal Witness
1 Shalai
3 Siege Rhino
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Wilt-Leaf Liege
1 Thragtusk
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Assassin's Trophy
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Path to Exile
4 Green Suns Zenith
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Sylvan Library
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Enlightened Tutor
Board
2 Blood Moon
2 Choke
2 Thoughtseize
2 Pithing Needle
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Zealous Persecution
I'll be piloting this monstrosity for the next bit to see how the format is. I read your kind suggestions, and I'll give this a shot.
So they went and put Birthing Pod on a creature that can be Green Sun Zenithed for...
I will be trying this come Feb...
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Bayou
1 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Island
2 Forest
2 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Veteran Explorer
3 Baleful Strix
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Eternal Witness
1 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
1 Titania, Protector of Argoth
1 Elderscale Wurm
1 Progenitus
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Pernicious Deed
3 Assassin's Trophy
3 Natural Order
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Brainstorm
Last edited by Captain Hammer; 01-05-2019 at 11:17 AM.
What about just cutting NO here?
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Phyrexian Tower
2 Bayou
1 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Island
2 Forest
2 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
21
4 Veteran Explorer
3 Baleful Strix
2 Noble Hierarch
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Eternal Witness
1 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
2 Prime Speaker
1 Thragtusk
1 Carnage Tyrant
1 Grave Titan
20
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Garruk Relentless
2 Pernicious Deed
3 Assassin's Trophy
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Brainstorm
There is no need for 2 Prime Speaker. It’s only advantage over Pod is that it can grabbed with a GSZ. So 1 is enough. The second one should be a Pod imo.
Not sold on Carnage Tyrant or Garuuk Relentless (what purpose does it serve?)
But I absolutely love the inclusion of Thragatusk and Grave Titan.
Cards with good ETB or leave the battlefield effects make the most sense to abuse with Primespeaker.
Veteran Explorer, Baleful Strix, Reclamarion Sage/Eternal Witness/Renegade Rallier/Kitchen Finks and Thratusk are perfect in that regard. Is there anything similar at 4cc? If so, I would slot it in place of Garruck Relentless.
Also maybe a light white splash so we could play the improved Reclamation Sage, and the situationally stronger Eternal Witness (Renegade Rallier) makes sense, since Noble Hierarch makes white anyway.
Edit: Birthing Pod + White means that Academy Rector/Arena Rector is a must play, would slot in at 4cc perfectly. The deck should play 3 Pod, 1 Prime Speaker to grab with GSZ, both Rectors and a bomb enchantment and 1 Jace and 1 Ugin Planeswalker.
I'm not so sure. Being a creature definitely comes with a few drawbacks, but it has some benefits as well.
First, it's blue, which dramatically increases it's usefulness in a Pod deck as you can more likely enable FoW.
Second, creatures have a bit more interaction as you can use cards like Melira for recursion.
Third, while forcing blue would normally be a drawback, BUG pod seems to be the most value oriented already, so it's probably not that bad.
Fourth, you can turn GSZ into finding both early Vets and this creature.
Fifth, it dodges more counterspells, such as getting around Spell Pierce.
That said, it does have considerable drawbacks as well. It's a turn slower due to the mana cost, it's vulnerable to Karakas, it's a turn slower due to summoning sickness, it's vulnerable to many more removal spells than Pod is once it resolves, and you can't string multiples together. But, I would argue the GSZ tutor being a turn slower is not a drawback, because any tutor for Pod (which has more limited options) slow you by a turn as well.
I think the Karakas issue is the only issue that's really worth bringing up, unfortunately it is also a big one. It's not Legacy playable, though it might be modern playable.
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