[Primer] Nic Fit

[Bobmans]

For the Rhino slingers out there, currently i have settled for the following 75. Pushing real hard to stay on 60 cards main.

Hits:
2x DRS for Compensating for 21 lands and not being bad against reanimator, storm and the likes.
1x Karakas, to be randomly awesome vs SnT and Reanimator
1x DLD, just to to present a big lifelink endgame.
2x Sylvan and 2x Truths, the cards are just straight gass, flattening the build a bit the game should make it more straightforward and not durdling around. We might lose Library to Deed, but at least we can draw some extra cards out of it if needed (and if possible).
1x QPM, cus screw Stoneblade and DnT.
2x Abrupt Decay, since we have Vindicate and QPM as well.
4x Path to Exile, (and 1x Vindicate). This is probably the best configuration i have played against RG Lands. Ramping into basics while keeping of Marit Lage until we start pushing with Sigarda (dodges Maze) and Siege Rhino (drain life). Vindicate on Maze can also ensure to push thru some damage. Using Deed and Decay on Mox/Exploration/Molten Vortex is fine to. Therapy can call Crop/Gamble. If they are tapped out Crop is a better call, but with untapped mana i'd rather call Gamble. Discard is not ideal against RG Lands, but at least there are targets to call for Therapy. Plus we need the sac outlet's for Veteran Explorer anyway. Eating Veteran Explorer and DRS when you go for Scooze (aiming at 5 toughness) can also be very strong vs Lands. That way they can't PFire the Scooze and you eat all their shit from the grave. Postboard Surgical, Extirpate and Pithing Needle. Hitting PFire or Dark Depths drastically increase chances to win the MU. Choosing which one to hit first really depends on how the game develops. Surgical on PFire into DRS can be really strong. But sometimes you gotta bait out the Loam dredging DD into the yard. In cornercases i have hit Loam when they open to greedy. Also postboard i leave in Deed, but board out Decay. If they have Molten Vortex out a deed can save your life, plus hitting Mox, Exploration and Manabond will slow down the game for them. After some intense nights of testing against a friend of mine he confirmed that this deck (Pre ban) was one of the most difficult decks to play against.

Kicks:
Courser, since that card was really awesome with Top, it might as well be with Library. But i don't believe we could hold either one of them for that long on the field. And i am done durdling around.
Thragtusk, i think we have enough life-gain in the build. With Miracles gone the LtB ability might not be that interesting anymore.
Meren + Dryad Arbor: no more durdling.

Misses:
Lost Legacy, this one i am not sure. It might help against combo, but i don't know. Also i do not own them (yet).
Progenitus, or at least, a solid answer against the card. I really think that Elves is gonna jam the read, reading the Elves thread. Blessed Alliance was mentioned, but the question is, can we keep the board clear for the card to work?
21 Lands, can i get away with it? The consensus was cutting Volrath's Stronghold and with it, Primeval Titan. On the other hand, 4 Veteran Explorer and 2 DRS also carry their weight.

In the end, not all that "different" from what it was, but just some tweaks to improve the aggressiveness. I really want to push the mid-range game with this build and try to avoid going long. So i have cut all the durdly cards as much as possible. The only card still in there is Eternal Witness (and Nissa to a lesser extend), but there has been so many occasions where GSZ into Witness, into some non-creature card has been vital to stay in the game or force a hole in the defense, with other words, turning a GSZ into say Surgical Extraction can be all we need in situations.


4x Veteran Explorer
2x Deathrite Shaman
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Eternal Witness
1x Tireless Tracker
4x Siege Rhino
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Dragonlord Dromoka

4x Green Sun's Zenith
2x Painful Truths
2x Sylvan Library

4x Cabal Therapy
3x Pernicious Deed
4x Path to Exile
2x Abrupt Decay
1x Vindicate

1x Nissa, Vital Force

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

//Sideboard
1x Containment Priest
2x Ethersworn Canonist
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Extirpate
2x Surgical Extraction
3x Thoughtseize
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Golgari Charm
1x Toxic Deluge
1x Damnation
1x Pithing Needle

[Luthiereisfun]

4x Veteran Explorer
2x Deathrite Shaman
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Eternal Witness
1x Tireless Tracker
4x Siege Rhino
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Dragonlord Dromoka

4x Green Sun's Zenith
2x Painful Truths
2x Sylvan Library

4x Cabal Therapy
3x Pernicious Deed
4x Path to Exile
2x Abrupt Decay
1x Vindicate

1x Nissa, Vital Force

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

//Sideboard
1x Containment Priest
2x Ethersworn Canonist
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Extirpate
2x Surgical Extraction
3x Thoughtseize
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Golgari Charm
1x Toxic Deluge
1x Damnation
1x Pithing Needle

I really like the list. One thing I might consider is 1 kaya ghost assassin and switching to rec sage. Kaya in Rhino Junk has been amazing. Recurring rhino-witness-rec sage are great. It does also make the case for trying to fit tusk in but you don't need tusk to make Kaya great. Kaya's CA early is great and I have found the drain to be effective when trying to pressure hard with rhino.

[Bobmans]

I really like the list. One thing I might consider is 1 kaya ghost assassin and switching to rec sage. Kaya in Rhino Junk has been amazing. Recurring rhino-witness-rec sage are great. It does also make the case for trying to fit tusk in but you don't need tusk to make Kaya great. Kaya's CA early is great and I have found the drain to be effective when trying to pressure hard with rhino.

So i have heard about Kaya, Ghost Assassin. Never tried the card, but perhaps it deserves a shot. What is your suggestion to switch for it?

Edit: what i like about it in contrast to say Recurring Nightmare (since i already talked about Volrath's Stronghold), is that it dodges the graveyard and has "other" things to do when there are no creatures to bounce and it can help you win.

[Luthiereisfun]

So i have heard about Kaya, Ghost Assassin. Never tried the card, but perhaps it deserves a shot. What is your suggestion to switch for it?

Edit: what i like about it in contrast to say Recurring Nightmare (since i already talked about Volrath's Stronghold), is that it dodges the graveyard and has "other" things to do when there are no creatures to bounce and it can help you win.

I would probably take a path or Dragon Lord. I think your remaining top end should be more than fine for closing games. In its own right once you get some Rhino ETB triggers DRS activations and they fetch etc..even kaya starts to pose as a game ending threat.

I think 3 path and 2 abrupt decay should be good for early spot removal to get to deeds and start dropping rhinos on them.

[Bobmans]

I would probably take a path or Dragon Lord. I think your remaining top end should be more than fine for closing games. In its own right once you get some Rhino ETB triggers DRS activations and they fetch etc..even kaya starts to pose as a game ending threat.

I think 3 path and 2 abrupt decay should be good for early spot removal to get to deeds and start dropping rhinos on them.

In my experience with 4 PtE you really get a solid removal package that deals with the big dudes as well. Especially the ability to hit Gurmag, Marit Lage, Griselbrand, etc, makes that the junk colors can compete in the big league. I suppose that DLD being the slowest card is the one that makes most sense. Still i really want some kind of Umpf.. when the game goes long, we go big.

[Memories of the Time]

That seems odd to me. Extra removal can almost always find a use.

I've switched to 4 Swords, 2 Decay, 2 Brutality. -1 Swords +1 Brutality is something I may consider later - Brutality is great against Stifle since you can Duress + give your Vet/Rector -2/-2. I want to be guaranteed to kill early stuff through taxing effects (Thalia/Daze). Lifegain is zero concern. Deck is going to lose vast majority of the time by drawing clunky and uninteractive hands imo. I mean, a single opposing Deathrite (with green mana) completely shuts us off Rector, so we really can't afford to let them live for long. Opposing Deathrites also eat up Lingering Souls which makes me sad.

More souls is something I've considered, though I'm already at 3. Card is so very good right now. I like 2 Evo Leap so far, but I hate the idea of adding more and seeing multiples in hand or drawn be completely useless.

Edit: I'm on 2 Sylvan Library btw.

Not always, that's the point. And spot removal is often nearly-dead in many MU, especially StP.
Moreover, i can't understand why rising again about removal when midrange/tempo decks are our best MU and combo our worst one. It doesn't really sounds logical to me: i'm a big fan of C. Brutality for its flexibility, but 4 stp? The only MU that it improves (about the ones we care) is Elves, being totally dead against most of the others and not so usefull against Burn, anyway.
btw: i've reached like 100 games with the deck, and i've lost against a deck with DRS only once simply screwing to death.

[Arianrhod]

I would like to take a moment to remind everyone that Baneslayer Angel has a long and glorious history of racing Progenitus in multiple formats. Probably not enough to bring her back into the limelight between the power creep of the 5-drops we've gotten lately and/or the existence of Atraxa, but it's worth remembering that one of the best answers to Progenitus is just racing the damn thing if you can't blow it up somehow. The only edict that I think is a good idea is Tariff -- beyond that, they're not going to realistically hit it, and even if you do somehow, they're just going to NO it up again unless you can slam the door on them quickly.

I'm actually proxying up Elves momentarily. I want to jam some test games with it and try to pick apart how the deck loses, to see if there's anything we can take away and try to adapt to our purposes.

[Bobmans]

I would like to take a moment to remind everyone that Baneslayer Angel has a long and glorious history of racing Progenitus in multiple formats. Probably not enough to bring her back into the limelight between the power creep of the 5-drops we've gotten lately and/or the existence of Atraxa, but it's worth remembering that one of the best answers to Progenitus is just racing the damn thing if you can't blow it up somehow. The only edict that I think is a good idea is Tariff -- beyond that, they're not going to realistically hit it, and even if you do somehow, they're just going to NO it up again unless you can slam the door on them quickly.

I'm actually proxying up Elves momentarily. I want to jam some test games with it and try to pick apart how the deck loses, to see if there's anything we can take away and try to adapt to our purposes.

Honostly, i innitially had 2 Bananaslayer Angels in the list instead of 1 DRS and 1 DLD. But i wanted more pressure lower on the ground on one side with some added ramping capabilities next to the 21 lands and on the other side i wanted something beefy, DLD is basically a Zenithable Banana Angel. I really like Atraxa (and Leo), but i do not want to splash a fourth color.

Something i am not sure of, is Proggie vulnerable to Damnation? (even if so, it would be pretty freaking lucky to get Damnation on Proggie and push thru our own lethal damage.

Elves is really hard to not to lose from since it has so many angles to attack from. Plus the wirewood/quirion tricks are too much. Either they just squeeze thru combat with wheenies, or Hoofderp, or Proggie on your head, or bounce the Shaman of the pack until you die. A friend of mine runs Worldspine Wurm and catches A LOT of people off guard. But PTE makes it much better to deal with.

To beat Elves i always do something like: Cabal Therapy into NO > GSZ > Glimpse. Catching the T2/3 NO with Therapy is often enough to ensure Deed has the time to be setup. Spot removal keeps the board clear of the crucial creatures: Wirewood > Quirion > Elvish Visionary , until we can sweep the board. After that it is all about keeping the board clear and holding up the pressure.

Edit: Totally forgot Council's Judgment, which can also deal with Proggie.

[Ulysse95]

I'm on this right now:

4 Veteran Explorer
1 Eternal Witness
1 Recruiter of the Guard
4 Academy Rector
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons

4 Cabal Therapy
3 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Collective Brutality
1 Painful Truths
2 Lingering Souls
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Swords to Plowshares

3 Pernicious Deed
2 Evolutionary Leap
1 Sylvan Library
1 Nether Void
1 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Cruel Reality
1 Sandwurm Convergence
1 Starfield of Nyx

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

Sideboard:
1 Living Plane
1 Humility
1 Chromanticore
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Golgari Charm
2 Lost Legacy

Curse maindeck without Humility/Plane is a bit awkward, but if Elves, D&T and Young Pyromancer are all going to be more prevalent I think it's probably worth it. Chromanticore is there pretty much 100% for Burn, since you can sideboard out Leaps and other garbage 5-drops for him and Sanctity.

Starfield remains in the deck for three reasons:
- Deed is looking really strong right now, and if we use one, Rector into Starfield becomes a hard lock.
- Collective Brutality is a great card and I want to be able to use it well - being able to confidently pitch haymakers like CReality and Convergence helps. Also makes it easier to play Chromanticore.
- I want more recursion than just a singleton Witness, especially when there are a few 1-ofs which are critical in some matchups. Between Starfield and Nissa, I think Starfield has more upsides (mainly because we have other ways of killing JTMS now).

I'm not convinced by Cruel Reality anymore since I found Sandwurms convergence strictly better (it always does something on it's own and become stupid with other enchant where CR is board dependant).

My current list goes that way:
1 [R] Bayou
1 [AVR] Cavern of Souls
1 [FUT] Dryad Arbor
1 [UNH] Plains
1 [R] Savannah
1 [R] Scrubland
1 [CS] Snow-Covered Plains
2 [US] Phyrexian Tower
3 [UNH] Forest
3 [UNH] Swamp
4 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
4 [] Windswept Heath
1 [] Eternal Witness
4 [UD] Academy Rector
4 [] Veteran Explorer
1 [ISD] Curse of Death's Hold
1 [DIS] Dovescape
1 [] Sandwurm Convergence
1 [5E] Sylvan Library
2 [] Pernicious Deed
2 [] Starfield of Nyx
3 [] Evolutionary Leap
4 [] Cast Out
1 [C13] Toxic Deluge
2 [] Collective Brutality
3 [MBS] Green Sun's Zenith
3 [DKA] Lingering Souls
4 [JU] Cabal Therapy
SB: 3 [M11] Leyline of the Void
SB: 2 [BNG] Spirit of the Labyrinth
SB: 1 [TE] Humility
SB: 2 [US] Carpet of Flowers
SB: 3 [M11] Leyline of Sanctity
SB: 1 [PLC] Seal of Primordium
SB: 2 [] Lost Legacy
SB: 1 [TE] Diabolic Edict


I like dovescape better than before since we got curse and convergence that goes well along.
I'd like to put in at least 1 replenish, but not sure were.
Since we don't have top anymore, I try to stic to 60.
Cast out seems really nice as a can trip and hard spot removal.

[square_two]

I admit I could be wrong playing 4 Swords (my next league run probably will have 3), but I can't fathom not running any at all.

Nyx Fit is a control deck. We don't care about opponent's life. Our gameplan revolves around resolving a 4-drop, and getting its death trigger off so that we can get some bogus enchantment into play that gives us a win. I simply can't imagine this deck working without having some early interaction, and I think you have to have some incredibly good reasoning to not be playing the best removal spell in the format. Creatures we need to deal with didn't just vanish with Top's banning, quite the opposite...

[Memories of the Time]

I admit I could be wrong playing 4 Swords (my next league run probably will have 3), but I can't fathom not running any at all.

Nyx Fit is a control deck. We don't care about opponent's life. Our gameplan revolves around resolving a 4-drop, and getting its death trigger off so that we can get some bogus enchantment into play that gives us a win. I simply can't imagine this deck working without having some early interaction, and I think you have to have some incredibly good reasoning to not be playing the best removal spell in the format. Creatures we need to deal with didn't just vanish with Top's banning, quite the opposite...

Again, we have far more effective ways to deal with creatures. Probably it's because i'm running Humility maindeck, but as said i've lost against a non-combo, non-burn deck only once in my testing. It's just seems so easy to wipe board and broke their gameplan and any hope with Humility, Deed ecc.

Moreover, i can't understand why we have to improve already awesome MU while adding dead cards against 80% of our bad ones. I'm totally playing 3 Brutality before the fist stp, for example. And i don't see Nyx Fit as a control deck, rather a prison one: we don't have to care about creatures after a certain point (when they are useless 1/1 tokens, in my case). Moreover, the vast majority of creature based decks aren't aggro like Zoo (where having Stp is a good move), but rather midrange that can't simply manage us

[Warden]

I would like to take a moment to remind everyone that Baneslayer Angel has a long and glorious history of racing Progenitus in multiple formats. Probably not enough to bring her back into the limelight between the power creep of the 5-drops we've gotten lately and/or the existence of Atraxa, but it's worth remembering that one of the best answers to Progenitus is just racing the damn thing if you can't blow it up somehow. The only edict that I think is a good idea is Tariff -- beyond that, they're not going to realistically hit it, and even if you do somehow, they're just going to NO it up again unless you can slam the door on them quickly.

I'm actually proxying up Elves momentarily. I want to jam some test games with it and try to pick apart how the deck loses, to see if there's anything we can take away and try to adapt to our purposes.

For 5 mana go sneak attack -> spaghetti monster.

In all seriousness, Baneslayer is a forgotten/overlooked gem. I'm just nervous she lacks shroud.

[Luthiereisfun]

For 5 mana go sneak attack -> spaghetti monster.

In all seriousness, Baneslayer is a forgotten/overlooked gem. I'm just nervous she lacks shroud.

I think the lack of shroud and not being GSZ'able makes her a little awkward. I think white already has good access to life-gain with Rhino and Sigarda takes the cake in terms of being a hard to deal with evasive 5/5....

that said running Baneslayer Angel sounds dreamy and fun

[sobakasu510]

I love how Baneslayer can block Griselbrand!

Quick question because I'm an idiot and can't figure it out myself: do Atraxa and Leovold likely become better or worse post-Miracles meta? I'm trying to determine if I want to drop the blue splash for a more consistent mana base for my rhino build, but can't really decide. I feel like having room for more Tireless Trackers might be nice since we lost tops.

Sent from my XT1097 using Tapatalk

[failor4ever]

after a little testing with a friend of mine, who playes elves, i ended up using this Deck:

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

Enchantments
3 Pernicious Deed
1 Sylvan Library

Instants
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Path to Exile

Sorceries
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Night's Whisper

Planeswalkers
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Kaya, Ghost Assassin
1 Nissa, Vital Force

Creatures
1 Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Eternal Witness
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
3 Siege Rhino
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Thragtusk
1 Tireless Tracker
4 Veteran Explorer

Sideboard
SB: 2 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 2 Fatal Push
SB: 1 Golgari Charm
SB: 2 Lost Legacy
SB: 1 Qasali Pridemage
SB: 1 Reclamation Sage
SB: 1 Scavenging Ooze
SB: 2 Surgical Extraction
SB: 2 Thoughtseize
SB: 1 Toxic Deluge

It's still a realy bad matchup, but in my opinion the Deck was a little bit faster as before the bannings and still good enough equped to handle other Matchups.
Also Atraxa and Leovold are doing wonders. Maybe the second leovold is a bit too much, we have too see.

[mstephenson]

It's still a realy bad matchup, but in my opinion the Deck was a little bit faster as before the bannings and still good enough equped to handle other Matchups.
Also Atraxa and Leovold are doing wonders. Maybe the second leovold is a bit too much, we have too see.

I like the second leovold and love seeing the kaya, she is gas.

[Bobmans]

After some rather quick testing against a friend of mine playing a Deadguy Ale variant i have made some conclusions.

First, Dragonlord Dromoka: The be short, there has never been a moment where i actually wanted to Zenith or draw the card over either Siege Rhino or Sigarda.

Verdurous Gearhulk: I am on the fence with this card. Pulling out this card with a Sigarda or Siege Rhino was pretty nasty. But it felt like win-more most of the time. It did not actually improved the board-state.

Kaya, Ghost Assassin: i was actually surprised by the utility this can provided. Strangely enough, it showed up every game i played. While her abilities never felt impressive, it did improve some maneuverability. So far this card proved to be most promising and thus it will stay in the deck.

For Kaya i replaced QPM for RecSage main. Moving QPM fully out of the deck, which frees up a SB slot. This slot, plus possibly the 3rd Thoughtseize are going to be replaced by Council's Judgment (Progenitus), until a better alternative is found OR some other MU needs improvement.

Finally, there have been numerous of situations where i had a Rhino or Sigarda out, but was facing a larger presence on my opponents board. I felt like i am missing a zenithable creature that immediately makes impact to the board. I searched down every Gx creature with "Enters the battlefield", but nothing came up. Does anyone have a suggestion?

[pettdan]

Finally, there have been numerous of situations where i had a Rhino or Sigarda out, but was facing a larger presence on my opponents board. I felt like i am missing a zenithable creature that immediately makes impact to the board. I searched down every Gx creature with "Enters the battlefield", but nothing came up. Does anyone have a suggestion?

No new or great ones, but... Titania, Protector of Argoth usually puts about 20 power on the battlefield over the next turn, with card advantage, but that is in a deck with KotR's. She needs to be built around in a Nic Fit shell so probably not worth it. Unless you figure out that KotR would be well positioned, which is probably not the case. Glissa, the Traitor does bring a defensive impact but it's probably not worth it. Scavenging Ooze can be that card if the board consists of Goyfs and Deathrites, not very likely. Sorry, no better suggestions.

Or actually, maybe Knight of the Reliquary really is well positioned in Nic Fit. Sneak and Show is popular and that is the obviously good matchup. Apart from that SDT's need to be replaced and with some mix of Tireless Tracker, Courser of Kruphix and maybe Vizier of the Menagerie KotR actually becomes rather synergetic, providing extra shuffling, extra mana, thinning the library, extra landfall etc. That would make Titania pretty good. She usually makes a huge impact when I resolve her... Throw in Sylvan Safekeeper and Scryb Ranger and it's a deck.

[rubblekill]

I'll post a quick update on what I'm playing at the moment.
I think that the ban of top hurts combo versions more than fair version of the deck, therefore I think Rhino could be in a good place right now; BUG just replaces 3 tops with 3 brainstorms. This is the main reason I'll be focusing more on Rhino - BUG instead of GB Fit, because GB cannot run brainstorm or Painful truths (the best draw spell available to us, and maybe in the entire format?).
Overall as you can see both my sideboards are very oriented to fight combo/unfair decks, as they should: no more BS like 3 choke or random 6 cmc Walkers in the sideboard thanks to miracles being only a distant nightmare.

Rhino Fit




This is a version of rhino I'm testing, where I "imported" the crop rotation package from my experience with the GB version.
What does crop rotation give in rhino fit? Rhino is the fairest nic fit in existence, and a 1 mana answer to unfair strategies is very very helpful (bog or Karakas); with 4 leylines in the board I feel very secure in the gy matchups. If I know I'm playing a fair matchup and I know the opponent hasn't got any countermagic in hand I can always turbo ramp a crop rotation into tower into veteran.
This version of rhino is focused on exploiting as much as possible the rhino trigger: to achieve that I play 3 (!!) painful truths.
I'm not sure if 3 is too much (probably), but I want to play at least 2 because this allows to reload after the opponent exhausted all their countermagic/discard.
The win conditions in this deck are very straight forward: rhino or nissa/sigarda. No random creatures like reclamation sage, master of the wild hunt or scavenging ooze here: without top I want to have as much consistency as possible, therefore I want to reduce the situational cards I can draw in the mid to late game. Top mitigated the "GSZ-nature" of the deck, allowing us to avoid drawing very specific cards: without top rhino has to rely on draw spells. The draw spells can either draw me lands, more CA, removal or straight up gas (rhino/Nissa).
With rhino I feel that 2T combo is kinda of a necessity: the combo gives us MORE rhinos (the only reason to play junk in my opinion, outside Nyx fit) and improves our inevitability. The problem is that I don't want to play prime time (the only deck where I like PT is sneak fit, but with miracles gone PT becomes a sideboard option at best even in that version of the deck), because I don't want any more 5-6 mana win conditions, the format is going to be faster now therefore I want to play only a few big bombs. Without any ways to tutor 2T I wouldn't even consider playing them, so Crop rotation helps here as well: in the late game it isn't a dead card because it assembles 2T.
In a 3 color deck I feel I cannot afford to play a Maze in the main, so it is in the side for fast glass cannon match up like BR Reanimator.


BUG Fit




The version less damaged by the ban of top: brainstorm is a decent card.
I'm very happy to have included perilous research: the card means ca AND ramp.
No utility lands here because the mana requirements for the cards are quite hard on the mana base (strix/decay mana on T2); 2T combo is needed less because this version plays less win condition creatures: here the creatures are the basic structure of the deck, around which the rest of the deck is assembled. GSZ means basically ramp (VE), life gain (ooze or tusk) and wall to defend our walkers (thrun).
Baleful strix is the reason to play this deck, nothing more to say here.
So the main win condition of the deck are not the creatures, but the walkers. This deck plays the BEST walkers printed in their colors: I'm alone here, but I strongly believe that Liliana of the Veil is devastating in a controlling version of the deck, even without PFire or stuff like lingering souls. She immediately pressures the board or their hand, and she is the only "good" walker against combo.
Nissa is the best walker in the deck in my opinion, as she regrows her dead friends from the graveyard (fuck you DRS, you cannot eat walkers). Jace is a decent magic card.
No random walkers like Ob Nixilis or Garruk. EVERY walker in this deck (Nissa, Lili, Jace) impacts the board immediatly, and defends itself: Jace bounces (nice combo with CT in the very late game, where CT is otherwise dead); Lili edicts; Nissa summons reality smasher and the turn after regrows her walker friends.
The only problem of this deck is very very fast aggro, like burn or UR delver: I played 3 Murasas in the side and they did their job, but I want to focus more on the combo/gy matchups because those decks are going to be very prevalent in the upcoming metagame in my opinion.
This version of the deck is very close to what I want to do in BUG colors: the only change I'd make is -1 Jace +1 Leovold. Leovold would be nice to have but I don't play him only for budget reasons, as he is currently 30 tix right now. I don't feel like without leo this deck cannot operate, though.


I'm sure I forgot something, I'll edit the post later if I remember something else.

[Ganfar]

@rubbelkill.


Rhino Fit seems to have many 3 mana cards but every few 2 mana. 3 Painful Truth seems to be one too many.

Why not replace one with Night's Whisper ?