[Primer] Nic Fit

[square_two]

Is there also a more standardized version of the deck, so i can at least determine what base cards i need to buy to build this? And i notice that the Starfield of Nyx version has fallen out of flavor?

What I've been on for a while. Feel free to sub Pushes for Swords if you want more ways to kill Rector. I don't think they are that necessary and I've liked being able to handle Anglers and Marit Lages with Swords.

22
2 Phyrexian Tower
3 Forest
2 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Bayou
1 Savannah
2 Scrubland
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath

10
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Veteran Explorer
1 Eternal Witness
4 Academy Rector

28
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Mirri's Guile
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Collective Brutality
3 Evolutionary Leap
2 Sylvan Library
3 Lingering Souls
2 Pernicious Deed
1 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Dovescape
1 Cruel Reality
1 Overwhelming Splendor
3 Green Sun's Zenith

side:
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Thoughtseize
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Lost Legacy
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Choke
2 Carpet of Flowers

IMO, Starfield of Nyx just didn't ever feel needed to me, not after we got Overwhelming Splendor and Cruel Reality/Sandwurm printed. Beating fair decks used to involve Deed recursion but Splendor does such a better, simpler job. Again, opponent's don't have answers game 1, so at best it'd be a sideboard card. When were were slower and running with Groves and killable enchantment creatures (Doomwake, for instance), it felt much more necessary.

Sandwurm could be tried instead of Cruel, they cover very similar situations but I've enjoyed immediately killing Jace's with Cruel.

[Bobmans]

What I've been on for a while. Feel free to sub Pushes for Swords if you want more ways to kill Rector. I don't think they are that necessary and I've liked being able to handle Anglers and Marit Lages with Swords.

22
2 Phyrexian Tower
3 Forest
2 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Bayou
1 Savannah
2 Scrubland
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath

10
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Veteran Explorer
1 Eternal Witness
4 Academy Rector

28
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Mirri's Guile
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Collective Brutality
3 Evolutionary Leap
2 Sylvan Library
3 Lingering Souls
2 Pernicious Deed
1 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Dovescape
1 Cruel Reality
1 Overwhelming Splendor
3 Green Sun's Zenith

side:
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Thoughtseize
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Lost Legacy
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Choke
2 Carpet of Flowers

IMO, Starfield of Nyx just didn't ever feel needed to me, not after we got Overwhelming Splendor and Cruel Reality/Sandwurm printed. Beating fair decks used to involve Deed recursion but Splendor does such a better, simpler job. Again, opponent's don't have answers game 1, so at best it'd be a sideboard card. When were were slower and running with Groves and killable enchantment creatures (Doomwake, for instance), it felt much more necessary.

Sandwurm could be tried instead of Cruel, they cover very similar situations but I've enjoyed immediately killing Jace's with Cruel.

The build looks very clean. I am going to give it a spin. Thnx.

Edit: probably going to cut the Collective Brutality and Abrupt Decay for Plow#4, Vindicate and Deed #3. For the rest, i like it as is.

[Navsi]

The build looks very clean. I am going to give it a spin. Thnx.

Edit: probably going to cut the Collective Brutality and Abrupt Decay for Plow#4, Vindicate and Deed #3. For the rest, i like it as is.

Note that swapping Brutality out for spot removal makes your spell-based combo matchups significantly worse.

[Lobo]

Note that swapping Brutality out for spot removal makes your spell-based combo matchups significantly worse.

It also ignores the escalation synergy Brutality has with Lingering Souls and Cabal Therapy. "Cast Collective Brutality, escalate pitching Lingering Souls, kill your Deathrite, discard your Hymn, flashback Lingering Souls" is a turn well spent. Having played a list very similar to square_two's at Eternal Weekend, I'm looking to make more room for Brutality, not less.

[Bobmans]

It also ignores the escalation synergy Brutality has with Lingering Souls and Cabal Therapy. "Cast Collective Brutality, escalate pitching Lingering Souls, kill your Deathrite, discard your Hymn, flashback Lingering Souls" is a turn well spent. Having played a list very similar to square_two's at Eternal Weekend, I'm looking to make more room for Brutality, not less.

Brutality lacks reach, I can also just cast a Plow and the spell i was gonna escalate. I want to improve the Matchups i can beat, not weaken them by trying to improve already bad matchups.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G935F met Tapatalk

[square_two]

Brutality lacks reach, I can also just cast a Plow and the spell i was gonna escalate. I want to improve the Matchups i can beat, not weaken them by trying to improve already bad matchups.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G935F met Tapatalk

You may be surprised by the ability of the deck to handle combo and obscure matchups, but I will leave that up to your own testing. Quite a number of times I've been able to squeak out Dovescape game 1 against storm. Personally I do enjoy having more 1-drops (see the added Guile), but Brutality has been very good to me. It's about the only reason I've ever beaten Burn with Nic Fit. Either that or Thragtusk.

[Memories of the Time]

You may be surprised by the ability of the deck to handle combo and obscure matchups, but I will leave that up to your own testing. Quite a number of times I've been able to squeak out Dovescape game 1 against storm. Personally I do enjoy having more 1-drops (see the added Guile), but Brutality has been very good to me. It's about the only reason I've ever beaten Burn with Nic Fit. Either that or Thragtusk.

^Agree.
As said, i've switched spot removal for 4 Brutality and it has been one of the best choice in this deck. Now we can even have an almost good g1 vs combo and Burn, the only bad mu for this deck.
Really, this deck it's so streamlined and strong.

[TLK]

^Agree.
As said, i've switched spot removal for 4 Brutality and it has been one of the best choice in this deck. Now we can even have an almost good g1 vs combo and Burn, the only bad mu for this deck.
Really, this deck it's so streamlined and strong.

What's your build look like?

[Memories of the Time]

What's your build look like?

// 60 Mazzo
// 10 Creature
4 Veteran Explorer
1 Eternal Witness
4 Academy Rector
1 Dryad Arbor

// 14 Enchantment
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Evolutionary Leap
1 Dovescape
1 Sandwurm Convergence
1 Overwhelming Splendor
3 Mirri's Guile
2 Ground Seal

// 22 Land
4 Windswept Heath
2 Bayou
2 Savannah
2 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Plains
1 Scrubland
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Phyrexian Tower

// 14 Sorcery
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Collective Brutality
4 Lingering Souls


// 15 Sideboard
// 6 Enchantment
SB: 2 Carpet of Flowers
SB: 1 Circle of Protection: Red
SB: 3 Leyline of the Void

// 2 Instant
SB: 2 Swords to Plowshares

// 7 Sorcery
SB: 2 Toxic Deluge
SB: 3 Thoughtseize
SB: 2 Timely Reinforcements


I'm trying Ground Seal instead of scroll rack. They're the only 2 slots i'm unsure about.
For the rest, i'm very happy about this build, i've won an unbeliavable amount of g1 against Storm, Reanimator and S&T thx to Brutality and the deck structure. I'm so happy and confidant that i'll join mtgo for the first time and build this list =) on cockatrice i've like 95% of win? But it's not so reliable ^^

[Ulysse95]

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...82#post1028082

Report is up.

Going to do a postmortem on my decklist and cover some brief sideboarding things quickly.

4 Veteran Explorer
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
2 Tireless Tracker
1 Regisaur Alpha
1 Thragtusk
1 Primeval Titan
1 Carnage Tyrant

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

2 Abrupt Decay

2 Nissa, Vital Force

2 Sylvan Library
3 Pernicious Deed

4 Badlands
4 Taiga
2 Bayou
3 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Mountain
2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wooded Foothills

sb::
1 Scapeshift
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Pyroclasm
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Innocent Blood
1 Lost Legacy
2 Slaughter Games
2 Lightning Bolt
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Pulse of Murasa

2 Steve: This deck is a bit top-heavy in both fair and combo plans, so you really want some extra acceleration alongside the Vets. Steve plays very nicely with Tracker, as well -- he puts you into Tracker + clue quicker, or represents a block and a clue if drawn later.

Nissa, VWS: Your goal is to get to 7 lands quickly anyway, so her condition for flipping is already met. She's super easy to flip -- basically any time you want to Zenith for her, you're probably flipping her. She also flips in response to removal by way of fetchlands, which a cool trick. Once she flips, her card draw and her token protector are both relevant, as well. She has continued to be very good for me.

2 Tracker: Tracker is fine here due to the large land count (24) and amount of ramp spells -- again, turning a lategame Steve into a cantrip is perfectly fine. He also lets you draw a bunch of cards off a Scapeshift if you can't kill them with it for some reason (leyline of sanctity or whatever). He also grows to tangle with Gurmags quickly, and pressures combo while drawing into more disruption.

Regis: Regis & Kelly successfully killed a couple planeswalkers on the day, although I never played against something like Czech pile, which is where the card shines in particular. Good value guy, good aggression, and threatens a nasty turn with Carnage Tyrant if Regis sticks around.

Carnage: He's the biggest, dumbest idiot and sometimes you need a big, dumb idiot. He beats everything except the largest Goyfs (and Goyf is super out of favor atm). Like I said in my interview (https://go.twitch.tv/videos/183919079 at 3:31), the best thing most decks currently can hope to do to him is throw a Strix in the way, in which they're still taking 6 on the block. Hexproof is important, as is trample. Uncounterable matters less, but does come up sometimes.

Primeval Titan: A plan unto himself, plays well with both Valakut and also with the "lands as cards" theme of Tracker and Vital Force. He's not always relevant, and he does get boarded out a lot, but he's an insane bomb when you need him.

Discard suite: This became industry standard towards the end of Scape's previous life cycle, and seemed fine on the weekend as well. Sometimes I boarded out the Thoughtseizes to improve my topdeck quality, but they were nice to have in the maindeck to get more information or have slightly more protection against combo or control.

2 Decay: I do kind of still wish I had room for another removal spell or two maindeck, but the deck honestly feels pretty tight at this point. Decay was definitely the right call -- Chalice of the Void is on the upswing, and while we don't typically need to kill Chalice all the time, sometimes it does matter if our hand is choked on 1s vs Eldrazi or some such. I also blew up a random Trinisphere from the Cloudpost deck, and being uncounterable is great vs Delver, as we all know.

2 Vital Force: This card is bananas in the metagame right now in general and Scape, in particular, uses it very well. Every mode on this card is important, and knowing when to off her for her emblem is challenging but rewarding when you get it right. Don't forget that if you have her Emblem and you play a Fetchland, you can hold priority in response to the Emblem trigger and fetch, which will result in you drawing 2 cards after your fetch resolves.

Manabase: felt about as stable as it ever does in this deck. Sometimes you run into awkward draws, especially against an opponent who is determined to screw with your manabase, but in general it's pretty robust and holds up to even a pair of Wastelands pretty well. Again, don't forget to priority fetching for basics unless you know the coast is clear. The deck runs off a basic Forest pretty well -- that basic Forest is your first goal, and then from there you can spread outward.

Wishboard: Everything felt pretty solid. I still hate the Innocent Blood, but I know that as soon as I take it out, I'm going to have to deal with a bunch of Show and Tell nonsense. I still wish there was a 1B -2/-2 pyroclasm variant :(

Sideboard: Everything was good here, too. The Pulse of Murasa could potentially be a 3rd Surgical, but I liked having the Pulse -- it performed well for me a couple times on the day when I needed it to.

Brief sideboarding notes:

Vs Grixis/RUG Delver:

-2 Nissa Vital
-1 Primeval Titan
-1 Regisaur

+1 Pyroclasm
+1 Pulse of Murasa
+2 Lightning Bolt

Pretty standard. You kinda want both Pyroclasms in postboard against Grixis if they're high on Pyromancers, but that means you need to cut an additional card, which is tough. Vastwood Seer is /probably/ the 5th cut if need be, but you're going to definitely have times where you miss it.

Vs Czech:

-1 Pernicious Deed
-2 Thoughtseize
-1 Green Sun's Zenith
-1 Veteran Explorer

+2 Surgical Extraction
+2 Lightning Bolt
+1 Pulse of Murasa

This matchup is mostly about making your draws better because this game is going to go long. Surgical comes in to "counter" Snapcasters at important junctions, and you take out a Zenith in order to Wish for one. Czech frequently has some amount of Invasive Surgery, so being able to protect a Zenith from that is also important -- aside from just increasing your bomb density (4 Zeniths to functionally 7). If you don't want to cut a Vet, you can cut a Steve or a Bayou or a Forest or something instead. You just need to cut /a/ mana source, it doesn't matter too much which one it is.

Vs Storm:

-1 Carnage
-1 Primeval
-1 Regis
-2 Nissa Vital

+2 Slaughter Games
+1 Cabal Therapy
+2 Surgical Extraction

You're trying to lean down your deck. Vital Force is actually decent against storm, but you need cheaper cards. Discard and Surgicals go after their support cards -- either mana or gas -- while Slaughter Games or BW->Lost Legacy goes after their actual win conditions; tendrils first, since forcing them on to Empty is actively good for us, and then Empty for the final blow.

Decay stays in because storm pilots will frequently try to park an LED or a Petal in play in order to protect it from our discard, and then we can nuke it from orbit. Deed has the same role, but also protects us from Empty to some degree.

--------

Hopefully that gives you some idea or insight into what I do -- should be able to extrapolate from that. Generally speaking you're looking to bring in like 3-5 cards and adjust your maindeck to the speed you need it to be as well as adjusting the plans that you have available to you.

Hi !

First of all: GG for your results !
I've tried it wednesday on a middle event (5 rounds top 8). I finished at 3/2. Every game was winnable, but I had some issues with flood essentially, and not enought discard to go throught the counter magic. Or sometimes opponent discard plan alone sort of killed me.

R1

Grixis delver 2-1
I won on additionnal turns thanks to scapeshift

R2

Grixis delver 1-2
Each game was sharp and it was a close win.

R3

Aggro Loam 2-0

R4

Eldrazi/Thalia stompy 2-0

R5

Death shadow UB 0-2
I kept a bad first hand and made a bad choice on the second game, only due to tiredness I hope :D


So, I feel that even if it would have been better with more practize, I would kept on to much luck issues and think that's a diamond that still can be sharped.

So I customised it a bit to give it an other try tonight ;)
My best shot on it I think is to give it back 4 cabal main and put a tendrils of despair in the cabal side slot (most of the time, I fetch for it essentially to kill a vet anyways, and mid/late game, tendril effect should be better and get througt stp).

[Ralf]

So, I feel that even if it would have been better with more practize, I would kept on to much luck issues and think that's a diamond that still can be sharped.

So I customised it a bit to give it an other try tonight ;)
My best shot on it I think is to give it back 4 cabal main and put a tendrils of despair in the cabal side slot (most of the time, I fetch for it essentially to kill a vet anyways, and mid/late game, tendril effect should be better and get througt stp).

Any words on the beatup backup plan (especially those dinos...)?

[Ulysse95]

Any words on the beatup backup plan (especially those dinos...)?

I didn't see them a lot actually :/
Except for Tyrant that I've seen often to early, dirtying my hand with the 6 ccm of his...
I casted it like two times, too late or in hand like an overkill program.
But Regis was truly ok when I saw him, I time top deck killing a Liliana against agro loam was golden!

So I'm lowering the curve, adding a tracker.
Let's see how it goes for me...

[Bobmans]

@Brael, Talking about lowering the curve, what does your list currently look like?

Aside of the talk about Nyx Fit, I am still comparing builds and haven't discided yet what to build/focus on.

[TLK]

// 60 Mazzo
// 10 Creature
4 Veteran Explorer
1 Eternal Witness
4 Academy Rector
1 Dryad Arbor

// 14 Enchantment
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Evolutionary Leap
1 Dovescape
1 Sandwurm Convergence
1 Overwhelming Splendor
3 Mirri's Guile
2 Ground Seal

// 22 Land
4 Windswept Heath
2 Bayou
2 Savannah
2 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Plains
1 Scrubland
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Phyrexian Tower

// 14 Sorcery
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Collective Brutality
4 Lingering Souls


// 15 Sideboard
// 6 Enchantment
SB: 2 Carpet of Flowers
SB: 1 Circle of Protection: Red
SB: 3 Leyline of the Void

// 2 Instant
SB: 2 Swords to Plowshares

// 7 Sorcery
SB: 2 Toxic Deluge
SB: 3 Thoughtseize
SB: 2 Timely Reinforcements


I'm trying Ground Seal instead of scroll rack. They're the only 2 slots i'm unsure about.
For the rest, i'm very happy about this build, i've won an unbeliavable amount of g1 against Storm, Reanimator and S&T thx to Brutality and the deck structure. I'm so happy and confidant that i'll join mtgo for the first time and build this list =) on cockatrice i've like 95% of win? But it's not so reliable ^^

Thanks! Pardon me if I'm missing something blatantly obvious, but I have a question about an interaction. So I understand that Dovescape counters noncreature spells and then Sandwurm Convergence renders those creatures useless, but then doesn't Overwhelming Splendor negate this by taking away the flying? Or I'm assuming if you already have the Dovescape/Convergence lock you just don't play Splendor?

[Brael]

@Brael, Talking about lowering the curve, what does your list currently look like?

This is off of memory, I needed some cards for Modern so the deck isn't really assembled at the moment.

Land 23
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
3 Bayou
5 Forest
2 Swamp
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Karakas

Creatures 19
1 Walking Ballista
4 Veteran Explorer
2 Deathrite Shaman
4 Dark Confidant
1 Eternal Witness
1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
4 Tireless Tracker
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Carnage Tyrant

Spells 18
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Crop Rotation
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Diabolic Edict
2 Collective Brutality
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Pernicious Deed

Sideboard 15
2 Deathrite Shaman
2 Carpet of Flowers
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Mirri's Guile
1 Duress
1 Crop Rotation
1 Maze of Ith
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Walking Ballista
4 Lost Legacy

Here's what I would like to build though, the list is untested, and I'm pretty far away from being able to assemble it.
Land 25
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Badlands
4 Taiga
1 Bayou
3 Forest
1 Swamp
2 Mountain
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Karakas
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1 Dryad Arbor

Creatures 19
1 Walking Ballista
4 Veteran Explorer
2 Deathrite Shaman
1 Dragonmaster Outcast
1 Sakura Tribe-Elder
3 Dark Confidant
2 Imperial Recruiter
3 Tireless Tracker
1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1 Huntmaster of the Fells

Spells 18
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Crop Rotation
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Collective Brutality
1 Burning Wish
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Diabolic Edict
2 Scapeshift

Sideboard 15
2 Deathrite Shaman
1 Carpet of Flowers
4 Lost Legacy
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Maze of Ith
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Collective Brutality
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Scapeshift

[Memories of the Time]

Thanks! Pardon me if I'm missing something blatantly obvious, but I have a question about an interaction. So I understand that Dovescape counters noncreature spells and then Sandwurm Convergence renders those creatures useless, but then doesn't Overwhelming Splendor negate this by taking away the flying? Or I'm assuming if you already have the Dovescape/Convergence lock you just don't play Splendor?

Dovescape, Splendor and Convergence are 3 cards (+deed, sometimes) that resolves 99% of the cases. Playing leap, sac a rector to grab a Dovescape and then play another rector for Convergence is just the top interaction, but in the majority of the games you win just slamming one piece ^^
Really, that's not a problem you have to concern about =D

[ObligatoryReference]

Hey all,

So I played in the ChannelFireball 4K last weekend, and finally got some time to do a quick writeup.

Nyx Fit (which I've started calling Curse Fit, since there's no Starfield of Nyx in the deck and all the lock pieces are either Curses or might as well be)

2x Bayou
2x Savannah
1x Scrubland
3x Forest
2x Plains
2x Swamp
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
2x Phyrexian Tower

4x Veteran Explorer
2x Eternal Witness
4x Academy Rector

3x Swords to Plowshares
4x Cabal Therapy
2x Collective Brutality
3x Evolutionary Leap
2x Sylvan Library
1x Abrupt Decay
4x Lingering Souls
2x Pernicious Deed
2x Green Sun's Zenith

1x Curse of Death's Hold
1x Dovescape
1x Cruel Reality
1x Overwhelming Splendor
1x Sandwurm Convergence

Sideboard

2x Stony Silence
2x Curse of Exhaustion
3x Leyline of Sanctity
3x Surgical Extraction
4x Leyline of the Void
1x Helm of Obedience

Yes, that is Helm of Obedience in the sideboard. There is really no reason for it to be there, other than that winning even once would be worth it (spoiler alert: I did).

The Games

Match 1 - Grixis Delver

G1: My opponent goes T1 Deathrite Shaman, T2 DRS+Delver, and I'm stuck with nothing really relevant. Fortunately, I get a couple of good topdecks - Deed to clear the board, then Rector + Phyrexian Tower to tutor up an Overwhelming Spendor. After a few turns of nothing, he concedes.

G2: Similar to game 1, he starts quickly but I sweep with Deed and run out Spendor. This time, though, he drops a few more creatures and starts beating me down with 1/1s. I'm at 6 when I finally find a Vet, which I Leap into a Rector into Curse of Death's Hold, and it's game over. 1-0

Match 2 - Some BUG variant

Lost my notes for this one, so this is by memory.

G1: My opponent mulls, and I keep a questionable hand which unfortunately gets ripped apart with Hymn to Tourach. He gets a Tarmogoyf out and I can't find anything relevant.

G2: My opponent mulls again. Fortunately, this time I have action and return the favor by ripping apart their hand with Vet+Therapy. He fiddles around with a DRS, but soon enough I find Rector and win.

G3: He starts with DRS into Hymn to Tourach, which fortunately(?) hits Lingering Souls. I beat down with spirits for a bit until I find Rector. 2-0

Match 3 - Stoneblade

G1: We both mull to 6. After a T2 Stoneforge Mystic, I Therapy away the Jitte and see 2 True-Name Nemeses (which I fortunately am able to hit on the flashback). After that, it turns into a topdeck war, which he wins with a JaceTMS.

G2: Probably my worst mistake of the day. I board in Leyline of the Void + Helm, and keep a sketchy hand with Leyline. After some back and forth, it's my Sylvan Library vs his JTMS. Unfortunately, one fateful turn I forget my Library trigger (too much practicing on MTGO and not enough on paper :p). On my opponent's turn he fateseals with Jace, does a double take, and puts it to the bottom. I end up not finding anything else. After I concede, he reveals that he had seen Helm. Welp. 2-1

Match 4 - Lands

G1: We go on a mulligan spree - him to 4, me to 5. I had played 4 straight matches against a similar deck on MTGO the night before, so I had a good idea of an approach to take when I see T1 Taiga + Gamble. He recovers from the mulls pretty quickly, but I still had enough time to drop Leap, then go Vet -> Rector (Sandwurm Convergence) -> Rector (Cruel Reality).

G2: A nice quick match. I start with Leyline of the Void, then go T1 Vet -> T2 Cabal Therapy, hitting a Crop Rotation first and Krosan Grip on the flashback. A couple turns later, I hit Helm with enough land to activate it immediately. 3-1

At this point, I feel that the day has been a success no matter what. This is good, because the next two rounds are pretty bad.

Match 5 - BUG Delver

Both games are almost exactly the same - I drop a Vet + Therapy, hit nothing first and 1 card on the rebound, then fail to find anything relevant the rest of the game. I eventually lose to a Goyf G1 and a Tombstalker G2. 3-2

Match 6 - ?

I was pretty tired at this point, forgot to take notes, and remember only that I lost quickly to another Delver-type deck. 3-3

There was still 30+ min left on the clock, and with nothing on the line I decided at this point to drop and get some sleep rather than wait 45 min for a final round.

Final Thoughts

I'll probably make some tweaks to the deck - I put Curse of Exhaustion in the side mostly to be cute, but Ethersworn Canonist is probably just better. Abrupt Decay was OK, but every time I got it I would have rather had another Deed. On the other hand, Collective Brutality was awesome, especially when I could Duress + take out an opposing Deathrite Shaman, and I might consider dropping an Eternal Witness or something to make room for another. The frequency of mulliganing was also a little concerning, but I'm not sure how to handle that.

All this aside, this deck is a blast to play. Even when I was losing, the fact that I could be one topdecked Rector away from victory means there was a big incentive to constantly process whatever information I got. I can also tell that I need more practice with the deck, especially on paper - I punted at least one game because of a missed trigger and might have been able to do better in the last two matches if I could have kept more focus. I did get lucky in not seeing any combo other than Lands, a matchup I think isn't really too bad assuming a half-decent draw. On the other hand, I got horrendous card luck in a couple of my losses, and most of my wins didn't feel particularly close.

Also, let's be serious - one of the best feelings in Legacy is playing a card and seeing the opponent furrow his brow and lean over to read it.

TL;DR: Lots of fun, need more practice, 10/10 would play again

Thanks for reading!

[Ulysse95]

Hey all,

So I played in the ChannelFireball 4K last weekend, and finally got some time to do a quick writeup.

Nyx Fit (which I've started calling Curse Fit, since there's no Starfield of Nyx in the deck and all the lock pieces are either Curses or might as well be)

2x Bayou
2x Savannah
1x Scrubland
3x Forest
2x Plains
2x Swamp
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
2x Phyrexian Tower

4x Veteran Explorer
2x Eternal Witness
4x Academy Rector

3x Swords to Plowshares
4x Cabal Therapy
2x Collective Brutality
3x Evolutionary Leap
2x Sylvan Library
1x Abrupt Decay
4x Lingering Souls
2x Pernicious Deed
2x Green Sun's Zenith

1x Curse of Death's Hold
1x Dovescape
1x Cruel Reality
1x Overwhelming Splendor
1x Sandwurm Convergence

Sideboard

2x Stony Silence
2x Curse of Exhaustion
3x Leyline of Sanctity
3x Surgical Extraction
4x Leyline of the Void
1x Helm of Obedience

Yes, that is Helm of Obedience in the sideboard. There is really no reason for it to be there, other than that winning even once would be worth it (spoiler alert: I did).

The Games

Match 1 - Grixis Delver

G1: My opponent goes T1 Deathrite Shaman, T2 DRS+Delver, and I'm stuck with nothing really relevant. Fortunately, I get a couple of good topdecks - Deed to clear the board, then Rector + Phyrexian Tower to tutor up an Overwhelming Spendor. After a few turns of nothing, he concedes.

G2: Similar to game 1, he starts quickly but I sweep with Deed and run out Spendor. This time, though, he drops a few more creatures and starts beating me down with 1/1s. I'm at 6 when I finally find a Vet, which I Leap into a Rector into Curse of Death's Hold, and it's game over. 1-0

Match 2 - Some BUG variant

Lost my notes for this one, so this is by memory.

G1: My opponent mulls, and I keep a questionable hand which unfortunately gets ripped apart with Hymn to Tourach. He gets a Tarmogoyf out and I can't find anything relevant.

G2: My opponent mulls again. Fortunately, this time I have action and return the favor by ripping apart their hand with Vet+Therapy. He fiddles around with a DRS, but soon enough I find Rector and win.

G3: He starts with DRS into Hymn to Tourach, which fortunately(?) hits Lingering Souls. I beat down with spirits for a bit until I find Rector. 2-0

Match 3 - Stoneblade

G1: We both mull to 6. After a T2 Stoneforge Mystic, I Therapy away the Jitte and see 2 True-Name Nemeses (which I fortunately am able to hit on the flashback). After that, it turns into a topdeck war, which he wins with a JaceTMS.

G2: Probably my worst mistake of the day. I board in Leyline of the Void + Helm, and keep a sketchy hand with Leyline. After some back and forth, it's my Sylvan Library vs his JTMS. Unfortunately, one fateful turn I forget my Library trigger (too much practicing on MTGO and not enough on paper :p). On my opponent's turn he fateseals with Jace, does a double take, and puts it to the bottom. I end up not finding anything else. After I concede, he reveals that he had seen Helm. Welp. 2-1

Match 4 - Lands

G1: We go on a mulligan spree - him to 4, me to 5. I had played 4 straight matches against a similar deck on MTGO the night before, so I had a good idea of an approach to take when I see T1 Taiga + Gamble. He recovers from the mulls pretty quickly, but I still had enough time to drop Leap, then go Vet -> Rector (Sandwurm Convergence) -> Rector (Cruel Reality).

G2: A nice quick match. I start with Leyline of the Void, then go T1 Vet -> T2 Cabal Therapy, hitting a Crop Rotation first and Krosan Grip on the flashback. A couple turns later, I hit Helm with enough land to activate it immediately. 3-1

At this point, I feel that the day has been a success no matter what. This is good, because the next two rounds are pretty bad.

Match 5 - BUG Delver

Both games are almost exactly the same - I drop a Vet + Therapy, hit nothing first and 1 card on the rebound, then fail to find anything relevant the rest of the game. I eventually lose to a Goyf G1 and a Tombstalker G2. 3-2

Match 6 - ?

I was pretty tired at this point, forgot to take notes, and remember only that I lost quickly to another Delver-type deck. 3-3

There was still 30+ min left on the clock, and with nothing on the line I decided at this point to drop and get some sleep rather than wait 45 min for a final round.

Final Thoughts

I'll probably make some tweaks to the deck - I put Curse of Exhaustion in the side mostly to be cute, but Ethersworn Canonist is probably just better. Abrupt Decay was OK, but every time I got it I would have rather had another Deed. On the other hand, Collective Brutality was awesome, especially when I could Duress + take out an opposing Deathrite Shaman, and I might consider dropping an Eternal Witness or something to make room for another. The frequency of mulliganing was also a little concerning, but I'm not sure how to handle that.

All this aside, this deck is a blast to play. Even when I was losing, the fact that I could be one topdecked Rector away from victory means there was a big incentive to constantly process whatever information I got. I can also tell that I need more practice with the deck, especially on paper - I punted at least one game because of a missed trigger and might have been able to do better in the last two matches if I could have kept more focus. I did get lucky in not seeing any combo other than Lands, a matchup I think isn't really too bad assuming a half-decent draw. On the other hand, I got horrendous card luck in a couple of my losses, and most of my wins didn't feel particularly close.

Also, let's be serious - one of the best feelings in Legacy is playing a card and seeing the opponent furrow his brow and lean over to read it.

TL;DR: Lots of fun, need more practice, 10/10 would play again

Thanks for reading!

Hi!

Nice deck!

My concerns: I think you're heavy on big enchants, aren't you? How many games where screwed by to many of them forcing mulligans or as soon dead cards in hand? Just to know

If it was me, I would remove at least one among cruel reality/sandwurm

Also I would had 1GSZ to find more easily those veterans and 1 Dryad has been really relevant for me as ever fetchable leap sacrifice.

Your feeling?

Ah! Yes! Question: on the reading I see a lot of DRS. Did your opponnents often forgot to deal rector with it too?

[Memories of the Time]

Hi!
Nice deck!
My concerns: I think you're heavy on big enchants, aren't you? How many games where screwed by to many of them forcing mulligans or as soon dead cards in hand? Just to know
If it was me, I would remove at least one among cruel reality/sandwurm
Also I would had 1GSZ to find more easily those veterans and 1 Dryad has been really relevant for me as ever fetchable leap sacrifice.
Your feeling?
Ah! Yes! Question: on the reading I see a lot of DRS. Did your opponnents often forgot to deal rector with it too?

Same questions for me too =D
I'm happy that you agree with me about the incredible flexibility of brutality in this deck, and i'll suggest you to try the 4x cutting a big ench (for me, Sandwurm is >>>>>>>> Cruel).

[Brael]

Yes, that is Helm of Obedience in the sideboard. There is really no reason for it to be there, other than that winning even once would be worth it (spoiler alert: I did).

I'm actually pretty interested in using the Helm combo. Just need some better ways to tutor it.