I'm getting pretty close to taking out 1-2 SFM and a BSK. I draw BSK in my opener or as a dead draw in 30% of games I swear. That fucking thing homes in on my games and kills them. I lose so many games because of natural BSK. I know a lot of people think it's right, but maybe swapping to real beaters rather than the extra 1-2 SFM and BSK would speed up the clock and make openers less awkward. I come from a BGw world (Junk) where it was normal to have some beaters, 2-3 SFM and 2-3 equips. It just feels terrible every time BSK just draws into my hand while I need action or lands. I may have to try SoLaS or SoBaM next to a pair of Stalkers or Anglers again. The other issue with Skull is the 5 mana; if you ever have to cast it you lock yourself out of protecting it. I know it sounds crazy to some in here but I've played other midrange decks where it worked well. I'll wait on going too crazy here, but it's on my mind.
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I tried 2 Ponder, 2 Charm, 3 Plow, and feel pretty good about it. Went 3-2 a minute ago:
0-2 BUG Delver (mulled to death g1, mulled to 5 g2. I swear mtgo just lives to fuck you)
0-2 Titi Control (mull to 5 g1, mull to a bad 6 g2 (3 lands, 2 force, Cage...) because I didn't want to mull to death again..)
2-1 Storm (ANT) (G2 was close, drew 3 DRS while trying to cantrip into stronger action, but he was held off a bit because he went off into a Force, I think expecting me to screw up, then got locked by Canonist as he went to build up again. G3 he takes my canonist T2 but RiP keeps him from going anywhere for a bit, then Queller does the job until I Tutor into a Canonist and beat him to death while constantly holding up two stutters (was going to aim down the first two rituals since his life was low.)
2-0 Storm (TES) (G1 was a god hand of Charm, Stutters, Queller, Force; perfect curve out game where DRS into disruption stops him from doing anything. G2 was a reasonable hand of Canonist, Quellers (who stop a rending volley btw!), Chill, and eventually other stuff. He compliments me on the weird deck as he gets locked; and seemed to mean it! He was being mentored by Bryant on a twitch which I chatted in for a few minutes afterwards.
2-0 Burn (G1 I eat a bolt, Force an Eidolon, and start dropping SFMs that he desperately kills to keep BSK off the table, leaving my HP total high. That all said, I also pulled out Jitte, and if I replaced BSK, it's be with SoLaS probably, so I think the result was mostly the same. G2 I kill the swiftspear, Force Eidolon again, draw a bolt to a DRS to save my HP, then we draw go for a couple turns. I drop an extra Queller to start beating his life total since I have Charm, Queller, Stutter up. I draw an E Tutor and get a Chill. Funny enough, I added a second Chill to the side and eventually get both online with all my dude-counters up. Pretty hilarious to watch someone pay 5 mana to a bolt and lose it to a stutter.)
SB at the moment online:
The second Chill is a result of Grixis Control and UR Delver being shown as mediocre or bad MUs so far. It would seem that maybe Ponders and Charms have helped the Storm MU a bit. I think I'll stop doing leagues for a couple days 'til it restarts since I don't want to have everyone abandon it partway through a league and lose play points (which I currently almost have a buffer of 3 screw ups!)
Originally Posted by Nestalim
So the only issue I've been having is that the threats feel anemic. What are your thoughts on Elspeth, Knight Errant? It was in the winning stone-blade list at a local win-a-mox and I liked the idea behind it. Jump&Pump a guy, make a dude to hold an equip. Seems reasonable. Also, I've been using seal of cleansing instead of disenchant and have like it.
Once you go Legacy...
@tescrin
try without ponder but with 61 cards, and 21 lands (61st card being wasteland). If that doesn't work, it's got to be mtgo screwing with you.
Another way you can test this theory out is to go on cockatrice and just randomly generate hands and see if you can hit your first 3 land drops in 100 trials.
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as for disenchant/seal, I tried both out and I'm okay with both. Seal is tutorable, and can be cast preemptively, although your opponent would then ind a solution to it first before dropping his 'haymaker' artifact/enchantment. Disenchant can be snapcaster fodder when you get to 4 mana, so that's another plus for disenchant.
Regarding elspeth, I'd rather have Gideon to go wide, with 2/2 tokens at that. Blowing himself up for the emblem also negates opposing ZP/eplague/DoN effects, which is not irrelevant.
I originally ran a pair of Elspeth, and she's alright. The issue is the high-costing sorcery speed thing. Most games I lost were with her in hand, or her being a turn too late, or similar. Originally I ran 3 SFM and realized that the games I had Elspeth in hand and lost would've been won with a card like Ponder or SFM; so I lowered the curve. The deck started by running Tombstalkers, with the only issue being the BB casting cost. I didn't move to Angler because he gets trumped by TNN anyway and I want my threats to be meaner than TNN. That said, I haven't had issues with TNN decks really, so I think having Anglers would be Ok. Elspeth was also actually an anti TNN card, being a big clock and flying; but again; in practice it didn't pan out IMO.
I think the issue is you can't have it all. You can't have Flash + Reasonable CMC + high Power + always useful; the closest one being VClique (which may also be worth trying in the Snap-Slots.) There's a lot of interesting cards that have potential, though I think the issue becomes "Do i really want 4 mana cards in my deck?" Probably not. I tried it and you'll find when you lose games you'll be staring at that 4 CMC card like I have been at BSK. Interestingly enough, those cases are "natrual CDA", which is frustrating.
I think if someone wants to get beaters, the best way to go is to trim a card here and there, move the DRS mana over to mostly-green, and have Blossom as the splash. Run 3-4 Goyfs and enjoy a gigantic threat on the back of Blossoms. The only black card in the core of the deck is blossom and it's worth the splash; but it's that much better if we get to take advantage of it's drawback with Goyf. Additionally, the green side of DRS is much more useful with Blossoms. I'd also note that Bant Charm is ideal for the deck, if you went that route (creature kill, counterspell, and gets rid of equips.)
Such a list may look like:
2 ? (Ponder/Bant Charm/Snapcaster)
-19/8-
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Spell Queller
3 Tarmogoyf
-6/0-
3 Bitterblossom
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
-15/11-
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Brainstorm
3 Stifle
4 Force of Will
-20-
3 Wasteland
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Marsh Flats
3 Flooded Strand
1 Underground Sea
2 Tundra
1 Bayou
2 Tropical Island
1 Savannah
1 Plains
1 Island
Should have a much quicker clock in general, and Goyf is a nice "answer me" card that the Stutters/Quellers can protect. The mana is almost the same, with the disadvantage of having Two off-color lands instead of One, and the loss of a basic for another support Dual. Originally I looked at something like this and it just felt too greedy. This is something I really want to do, but require a kick in the ass to do it because it just looks like it doesn't work on paper haha. It may be prudent to drop a 3rd equip going this route, for a 4th Goyf (either BSK or SoFaI, and depending on how you go with that, some number of SFM.) In this vein, I could also see a large change like: -2 SFM -1 BSK, +2 GSZ, +1 Arbor; giving more ramp opportunities and Dryad being a psuedo-flash dude, but arbor in hand is almost as bad as BSK in hand and why I dropped it when I was in bant colors.
Given that the deck wants to play as a Big Tempo deck, maybe this is what it really wants to be; but as dumb as it sounds it seems safer to run dumb cards like DCharm. Arg. Decisons decisions. As I think about it though, I bet Goyf is the correct answer to the beater problem. The synergies are ridiculous and he drops at the ideal time for Queller/Stutter to take over afterwards. His clock is un-ignorable and it makes answering Blossom a liability.
Just spitballing. The goyf version could certainly become the thing that makes the most sense and would massively improve the BUG Delver MU and a couple aggro MUs, while probably mostly weakening the deck against D&T and Moon decks; maybe control decks too but hard to say.
Maybe I'll try this version in paper on Thursday.
EDIT: Another version interesting to try would be swapping DRS for 3 or so Mother of Runes, making Stutter/Queller that much more powerful, and potentially making blocking easier. I find it's pretty rare to get DRS -> Queller in a meaningful time anyway, and it would allow us to drop the Swamp for a Dual, another Island or Plains, or a Fetch. I'm also considering the merits of Tower of the Magistrate as a 21st land. Being able to unequip anything not a TNN seems pretty good, and the occasional uses elsewhere may come up. It may force decks to fight us on the stack rather than with kill spells, and the stack is where we have our biggest advantage. Not sure if I'll give this any testing for awhile, but it may be a good variation to check out.
Last edited by tescrin; 07-03-2017 at 03:38 PM.
If you play with the goyf list please let me know how it goes. I have a feeling the manabase needs work. 3 goyf is a nice number because you don't need to deploy him early, so you don't need to go to 4. I would try to make room for a singleton misdirection somewhere; now that your threats hit harder your opponent is going to want to find answers to those threats, and a well timed misdirection onto their TNN/blocker could end games quickly.
Had another 4-1, could've been a 5-0 but I lost to the timer one match.
M1 - UWr Stoneblade
G1 - Super grindy, but I win through his TNN with all the equips. I do punt because I could've had queller be big enough to equip everything but tapped my mana and passed; thus meaning that he can shoot down my guys who go to equip with a jitte. Playing around that equipped to a BSK and not dying is what eats my clock. Still. I got out of it!
G2 - I run out of time but it was looking good...
M2 - Storm
G1 - His deck is unkind and he hits me with a lot of discard, but nothing else. He dies
G2 - He goes for a therapy and I stutter it to bluff Force. Whether or not he bought it, I drew force via one of the brainstorms I had in hand, as well as a second stutter. I get ready to stutter but he goes straight for AN, so I just force it. I ponder a RiP and Force so I leave the force on top, RiP, hold up stutter, and stutter a cantrip. I force another cantrip hardcasted, then waste him when I untap, putting DRS on the field since he's at 3 cards. He "goes off" into a Ponder and calls it. I think he may have forgotten he casted his AN.
M3 - UWr Stoneblade (same guy somehow)
G1 - He gets murdered very hard with a mull to 5, unable to resolve basically anything.
G2 - A little better for him, but ultimately he can't keep anything on the table or resolve anything interesting; blossom and stuff kill him with 15+ minutes on my clock..
M4 - Storm. HAHA
G1 - I get got by a very large number of T2 goblins after he sees a hand of slower countermagic.
G2 - I cast a brainstorm T1, shuffle T2, cast DRS and ponder into a Force. I have Force, Quellerx2, Dimir Charm, Waste at that point. He, probably seeing weakness via the double cantrip, goes off right into the Force and concedes.
G3 - I have STifle, ETutor, Stutter, ponder 2 lands. I put down Tundra and know I can stifle his trigger or I can Tutor canonist. I get the canonist out and he kills it immediately, but I have Stutter + Stifle up for his next turn. He takes my stifle but now I have a force in hand. I Sprite his first LED to pinch his mana, and he must've assumed weakness there too, because he goes off into that force as well. He mentioned he accidentally fetched swamp so it slowed him down to kill canonist? Not sure it'd make a difference, but thems the breaks I guess.
M5 - Storm (Bryant)
G1 - He goes off T2 with my Island open. I have stifle and he puts out a pair of goblins. This actually becomes interesting though. I put out jitte + a dude and kill his goblins, gg right? Well, he goes off again trying to get Tendrils, but between his draws and mana, it's not quite cooperating. He grapeshots my board (and me) for a total of 21, and I gain a bunch of Jitte life to make sure he doesn't aim it all at me. I kill him shortly after with my next dude.
G2 - He goes off pretty quick and Tendrils for at least 28
G3 - I keep Stifle, ZP, Force, 2 lands DRS. I cast DRS and end up holding up queller, but i cast it to put him on a clock so he doens't just get a super-hand. I get him to 9 or so and he kills the queller and has an odd problem. He has double discard vs my Force, 5 mana, and Queller, but not enough mana to do everything and go off. He casts Duress, probably to get me to tap out for queller so he can go off but I don't buy it. He casts Therapy and then grapeshots my guys and me for 8 total, but I get another dude and finish the job.
Storm is feeling a lot better as I get used to it, especially with the Charms and Ponders. I think this is now like 7-3 or 6-4 against storm online.
How similarly does this function to DnT? This seems a lot more well-suited to my meta. Also, what might your current list be?
Emptying the Warrens: So YOU don't have to!
His list is updated on the first page. He updates it pretty often. My list changes week on week but hopefully I can settle on at least the MD 60 within a month.
Current list is the core list on the first page with 1 Zealous Persecution, 2 Dimir Charm, 2 Ponder in the Flex slots (and 61st card since i don't mind stuff like that.) [4 DRS, 4 SFM, 3 Equips, 4 Sprit, 4 Queller, 3 StP, 4 Force, 3 Stifle, 4 BS, 3 BB, 20 lands)
Sideboard has changed a tiny bit. I may go back to a Dread of Night in the humility slot as I got crushed by some Mentor deck that looked like Topless; but didn't play like topless haha:
I added the second chill since I noticed that REB decks seem to have decent sideboard game against us; and UR Delver felt shaky. I'll say that resolving Chill is always entertaining haha! People also forget they have to pay the taxes on it sometimes, so they'll kill queller and get nothing for it.1 ZP
2 ETutor
2 CPriest
2 Canonist
2 Chill
2 Needle
1 Rip
1 Eplague
1 Cage
1 Humility
An interesting problem I've had is losing to EE now and then. Probably bound to happen, but I think fetching SoFaI is prudent if you think they're backing EEs, as I've lost Jitte + Blossom + random dudes to it a few times.
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Also, yeah it's kinda like Blue D&T. You get a bunch of CA where you're not expected to, and you poke the guy with mediocre dudes until they die. It's often intricate play between how to manage your mana and understanding which spells which cards will hit and making your plays based on that. Stifle is easy to get greedy with, but I'm almost of the mind that saving Stifles for the later game is what the deck usually wants to do, since any SFM/Snap deck will eventually have its lands anyway. Stifle is great to screw Delver if you get lucky since it doesn't have a lot of jobs in that MU, but for the control decks and whatnot it can eat the cards that beat you. I leave it in for D&T now, at least a couple copies, just for SFM, Jitte triggers, BSK trigger, and Flickerwisp if it's an important trigger.
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I think there will always be those flex slots honestly; RUG has the same 4 flex slots almost a decade later lol, and it's way more tuned. I an pretty happy with the 2 ponders making more hands keepable and finding interaction, but there are some MUs that make me feel I need to swap a few of the core cards to deal with. I actually played Enchantress the other day in a tournament. UGH. I lost G1 handily. Got him G2 with Canonist slowing him down, he had Worship but I had ZP. He ded. G3 I got him to 4 and could swing passed any single big dude he got. The problem was he got that 5-mana Angel maker, and a Worship. I needed DRS and never found him.
That said, it certainly seems to have game against decks that actually hold share; being great against Grixis Delver, Elves, Storm, Lands, decent against D&T and Midrange decks; it seems that it ticks the right boxes and I just have to live with it having some bad MUs haha. But maybe the sideboard is hedging against the wrong kinds of things here and there, and I should focus on cards that answer nasty permanents like Judgement, Vindicate, or similar. (I sold my EEs when they went high.. kinda sad because I'd love to have 1-2 in the side.)
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EDIT: went 3-2 this morning/late last night. Lost to Lucksack Mentor (topless that got immediate mentors with boatloads of value out the gate.) Lost to Enchantress (as expected, but explained above)
Beating
- Grixis Delver 2-1 (we each get manascrewed in each game, so all three were just super greedy keeps that didn't pan out)
- Jund 2-1 (mostly manascrew stuff g1, G2 he gets Lily + PFire + giant goyf after we grind a bit, G3 it's close but a Queller sits on one of his guys all game and I swing for 3 a turn and get a blossom online to hold him off. It's a close game though.
- Turbo-Depths 2-0 - I knew what he was on because my player chart actually hit! I kept Plow, Force, Waste, a land or two, Stutter, queller? I force a Thougtseize to keep Plow, and stutter a thing or two. He gets a safekeeper, I waste a depths, we each attack for 1 for awhile. He casts a Visionary and I eat it with a queller and the safekeeper with a sprite. I then Quell something and force something else and he's dead. G2 he mulls to 4, goes Bayou->TSeize, sees I have Stifle, Stifle, Wasteland, land, land, Stutter, Dimir Charm. He concedes immediately.
Last edited by tescrin; 07-06-2017 at 01:11 PM.
I'm beginning to really consider maindecking Canonist, maybe as 3 of, in place of Stifles or flex slots. The more I get Canonist + 100 counterspells in hand, the more it feels like the most brutal lock ever.
Opponent attempts to remove canonist? counter it with no response. Opponent kills Queller? They don't get their spell back (99% of the time.) The tempo is really crazy and Canonist is such a nonchalant lock piece that it's too late for your opponent if they don't remove it immediately. Maybe she goes in the flex slots instead of some of the other things and we just get an even more gross tutor board. She's quite good in fair MUs if you get to chain CSPs and we're often just trying to play ~1 spell a turn anyway; with activated abilities eating the rest of our mana. The "I'm doing a thing and you don't get to respond" nature of it is great, the synergy is great, and you can even bait things like "Cast Jitte", opp Counters, you counter back with no response, making it even more one-sided.
I may have to start looking for more artifact synergies if going that direction to make her that much more abusable. The Queller synergy, I don't think I can exclaim how good it feels every time to say "No", then untap with another counter in hand, swinging for 4+. The fact that she's so dangerous and looks like an accidental sideboard just makes it so brutal. Maybe adding a land, some Canonist, and maybe even some revoker or something. Not sure how crazy I'll go yet, but that seems like an interesting path that would skyrocket Storm, Infect, and another MU or two, while probably not hurting us too bad in others. Doing that, I could see a couple of heavy-handed answers to permanents (namely equips) working really well. Opening up room for Gusari and possibly something else.
This is an interesting idea, but somehow I can't get it out of my mind that this feels a little too cute. I hope to be proven wrong though, and I want maindeck canonist to work.
My concern is the times where you are stuck with multiple canonist (while not having stutter or queller) and thus durdle. The thing is that SS and SQ are both fine on their own, but canonist is not where you want to be at on its own.
Even if you go for a situation where you have canonist in hand on T2, and let's say you are in magical christmasland where you also have stoneforge and bitterblossom, which would you rather land first?
As mentioned earlier I hope to be proven wrong, but these are relevant points to consider. You will win games where canonist would have been a good sideboard card, because its just absurd that canonist on its own were already good against those decks + the synergy with our deck, but you'l win those games because canonist was already good on its own against those decks, not because of the synergy...which is why I still think canonist belongs in the sideboard.
Sometimes we do need to brainstorm to find a force of will or a queller in response to an opponent playing a big spell, this is a corner situation where a canonist effect might hurt.
Just throwing it out there, keep the updates coming.
Also, I'm trying to think whether we might need any reinforcements from HOU for the sideboard. Solemnity and Mirage Mirror are both up for consideration, but I haven't thought about these too deeply yet.
I like this deck, but I am curious to how it fares compared to the Bant Deathblade deck that's seeing play now. Would be an interesting take to get an experienced pilot in here to weigh the pros and cons of both decks. I've played Quellblade for a few weeks and I'm going to try Bant for a bit.
That being said, does Nimble Obstructionist fit into Quellblade? At first glance to me, it does everything we want in a creature in our deck. Disruption+Evasion at instant speed. Holds Swords well and has 3 power on its own. Thoughts?
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Once you go Legacy...
3 mana is the top end of the curve. I feel that while it's not a bad card in a vacuum it just doesn't add up in our deck. It is strictly worse than stifle in that it can't stifle our own SQ on the way out or Dsphere, or our own bitterblossom (in desperate situations). If i want to be holding 3 mana up it would be for SQ only, and having extra cards to hold 3 mana up for is very taxing, the effect has to be extraordinary for me to be willing to do that.
0 ponder, 0 charm, 4 plow, 3 waste, 3 stifle, 1 misdirection.
3-2
Grixis delver
G1 strange game as we trade wastelands but eventually he doesn't have lands, I win.
G2 bitterblossom vs TNN in a straight up race, he was winning that race until I landed DRS. He ponders next turn into a lightning bolt to my face which he wanted to use to finish me off, which I redirect to his TNN. He fatal pushes my deathrite. I need to survive one more turn to alpha and win, but I am at 1 life. I brainstorm into stifle, stifle my own bitterblossom trigger and he doesn't have the counterspell so I win.
Eldrazi
G1 chalice on 1, I durdle and lose
G2, chalice on 1, chalice on 2, T3 detention sphere exiling both, TKS removes plow, I don't see anything relevant and he lands another TKS. I lose.
Storm
G1 I lose to fowcheck.
G2 He makes a bunch of goblins on his t1. at his t2 eot I tutor for dsphere on the top of my deck and eat all the goblins on T3. I win.
G3 He duresses and takes the only card he can take in my hand: stifle. I play deathrite go. He plays some cantrips and decides after a moment that he would wait another turn. I untap and play a fetch and say go. He duresses again, sees no countermagic or brainstorm and became trigger happy saying 'I win' prematurely. When he goes for his tendrils for some big number, I calmly fetch, tap 2 lands and my deathrite to snapcaster (he already saw it with duress) the stifle in my gy and that was it. Probably a huge facepalm moment for him.
Merfolk
G1 3 TNNs and I dont maindeck ZPs
G2 He kept a 1 cavern hand with 2 aether vials. I promptly Dsphere the aether vials before any of them tick up to 2. By the time he found his 2nd land and cast a silvergill to dig for stuff, I was ready with spell queller. He resolves another aether vial which I did not have permission for. I hold the advantage and attack with dorky flying creatures while leaving mana up. He has 2 TNNs out but is facing lethal from my stutter and 2 spell quellers. He tries to echoing truth my 2 spell quellers, but walks right into my singleton misdirection which I redirect to his 2 TNNs. Ouch.
G3 He stomps over me with chalice on 1, 2 lords and 2 TNNs. ZP came too late as the TNNs were no longer X/1s. My opening hand had 2 plow and no permission so that was a little brutal.
Sneak show
G1 I lose to a godhand
G2 T3 show and tell. He shows in emrakul, I show in Dsphere. He tries to REB it, I stutter the REB, He tries to flusterstorm, I point out that he can't do that to stutter. eventually I keep mana up with quellers in hand and fow backup, and managed to queller a jace tms on the way to a win.
G3 T2 containment priest beatdown and he couldn't find an answer with his cantrips. Eventually he tries to go sacrifice 4 lotus petals, tap ancient tomb and 2 lands for griselbrand. I fow, he fows back. Griselbrand resolves but his hand is empty. He tries to draw 7, I stifle it. He can't draw 7 again because he doesn't have enough life. He passes. I plow the griselbrand and continue the beats. I start to aggressively spellstutter/queller cantrips he draws off the top and that was it.
I am prepared to accept that we lose to chalice decks. If you want you can have a EE in the sb, but I suppose it would replace Dsphere, and Dsphere has been pretty kind to me.
Sounds like a nice evening! My testing will be back at a sane pace again. I got back out of mtgo after a long series of bad luck on Friday implied I'd have to spend more, so we'll see if Thursday grabs me.
I think a lot of Chalice decks aren't a problem any more than their normal deck (Goblins, D&T, Moon decks) where it's more about how everything lines up anyway. I think I played Gobbos with chalice and it got exactly 1 Plow that game as I had Stutters, SFM, and Blossom. The issue, afaict, is a mix of Eldrazi specifically, or just a few specific aggro decks. UR Delver seems to be bad since they can put out a lot of threats.
I was considering trying a couple anglers somewhere for a quick, no-frills clock that leaves our mana mostly open. Maybe 2 Angler, 2 Clique would be enough to really ramp up the aggression? I'm pretty happy with where the deck is at in paper for the most part, just looking for advantages to be gained elsewhere.
Anyway, i'll report in a few days I think.
[on mtgo]
- The clock- Mtgo kept stealing a lot of my clock due to, I think, wifi lag. Clicking "ok", and waiting for several seconds while it eats my timer is hugely obnoxious; and an almost purely reactive deck implies that I have to walk through every step.
- slow-play where someone tanks for 5 minutes being a thing. It's hard to tell if you're still in a match or if the guy rage quit. Whatever out they do find, if they do, is totall illegal in a normal tournament
- Dumb things like tapping a land for a wrong mana can happen and even though there's an undo button, it only works if you haven't clicked like.. anything else. For instance, I tapped a USea for DRS, but made blue, couldn't get it to make black, had to pass without casting him. Other instances of "I want to do something on my upkeep but forgot to hit the unlock and set symbols" or "whoops, I left bad steps locked/unlocked and missed my chance to counter stuff" and similar. The little edges you need are difficult to manage in a deck that is entirely about timing.
- it seemingly land screwing me a lot more than the math dictates
- I think the deck plays better in person anyway since there are a lot of edges to be gained by body language and whatnot. Being able to bluff, being able to see how confident or not your opponent's hand is, that gives you a lot of information about how to prepare your mana I think.
- Another issue is that there are no draws. Going through a grindy 30 minute equipment fest and having mildly less time than your opponent basically means that even though I often won the grind, I'd lose the match because I was eating more clock than the opp (which again, doesn't tend to happen for reasons within my control.)
Misdirection performed well and I would give it a go in any fairdeck meta. If UR delver is bad misdirection helps out with that as well. Dsphere is also good at eating a pack of stormchaser/delvers although not so good against swiftspear postboard (they can reb it and the swiftspears have haste). I don't really like a 2nd chill in the sb as it is very narrow.
I don't know, it's good against TES, Sneakshow, UR Delver, Burn, Grixis, and anything with PFire in it. I bring it in for Lands/ALoam, Jund, etc.
I think the worst matchups we have side in REBs for the most part, and making REB expensive (or used against Chill) seems alright. I'm not married to it, and the consistency of UR Delver seemed to ignore it anyway.
I already have 1 in the sideboard, I do recognize that Chill has its uses.
Here's what I think based on my games so far
TES - it acts as another psuedo-ethersworn canonist, verdict: great
Sneakshow - it slows down a lot of their sideboard stuff, verdict: great (but we're already wrecking them most of the time)
UR Delver - too consistent, verdict: bad unless you have it out early
Burn - see UR delver, bad unless you have it out early
Grixis - slows YP and bolts and some postboard nasties such as fire covenant, their manabase is fragile enough that this matters, however its not saving you if they already have YPs out - verdict: OK
PFire decks (Jund/A loam/Lands) - decent as it hits a lot of things in jund and A loam, but if this is lands, I think we're OK with wastelands and SQ to combat the Pfire engine, if it comes in too late might probably already be in a bad spot and this doesn't save you - verdict: great for Jund and A loam, bad for lands unless you have it out early
Other decks with heavy red (mono red sneak/painter stone) - great (obviously), barring stupid things like T1 sneak or lock piece that you don't have fow for and things like that
and since you mentioned that we have the worst matchups versus side in REBs...
Other random decks that splash for REB - now this is where I feel like this is way too narrow. If you have it early, you're wasting a turn where you could have left mana up for stutter/SQ, if you have it out late, they probably have no problem tapping 3 to kill/counter your something. If we're talking about those control decks with snapcaster and drs, then I would rather fit another rest in peace over a 2nd chill. This stops them from getting multiple uses out of the reb via snap. If you're playing against topless miracles, then just roll with the punches and eat rebs in the graveyard with your drs. You could try hydroblast here or even surgical extraction (which I like a lot better because you can remove all the rebs at one go), but I would put in more testing first before I come to the conclusion that this is necessary.
I've played with this deck a lot, but I still think its not nearly enough for me to make conclusive statements on things, the above is merely my opinion on how things have gone for me so far.
Hi. Regarding to Chill I think you will have better time against Ur Delver if you swap it to Hydroblast. Maybe better in other matcups as well.
Not sure if this belongs here, but I've been doing a lot of testing over the past few weeks with the below, with very positive results.
Land (19)
4x Flooded Strand
2x Island
1x Karakas
1x Plains
3x Scalding Tarn
4x Tundra
4x Wasteland
Artifact (7)
4x Aether Vial
1x Batterskull
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Umezawa's Jitte
Creature (18)
4x Ethersworn Canonist
4x Mother of Runes
4x Spell Queller
4x Stoneforge Mystic
2x Vendilion Clique
Instant (16)
4x Brainstorm
4x Daze
4x Force of Will
4x Swords to Plowshares
Sorcery (1)
1x Ponder
61 cards total
Testing has been mostly against Czech pile, grixis pyromancer, goyfless bug delver, and DnT (haven't really had a chance to test against any combo yet). The fair matchups seem to be in my favor, especially DnT (played about 12 game 1's last week with my buddy who has played DnT for years and I didn't drop a game with this).
Doesn't have a SB as of yet, as I haven't tested against enough things to develop one, but I'm slowly working on it and can provide my findings here if there is interest.
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