[Deck] Czech Pile

[MorphBerlin]

Not sure if this has been asked before, for those who are playing 2 hymns in the main and 2 in the side, how would you approach the reanimator matchups with your discards. I know it depends on the game state, if drs is in play, if you had previously thoughtseized the opponent. Just would like to hear the general consensus.

I would advise to only play Hymn after they allready put stuff into their GY so you can hit the reanimation spells or you have enough interaction (FoW, Drs, Surgical, Fluster) as backup to prevent a reanimation spell.

[mike1987]

I would advise to only play Hymn after they allready put stuff into their GY so you can hit the reanimation spells or you have enough interaction (FoW, Drs, Surgical, Fluster) as backup to prevent a reanimation spell.

Thanks. But i guess the only problem is that usually they will reanimate the creature the turn they dump it into the GY. Either via EOT entomb or looting/brutality. That renders hymn not as effective.

[MorphBerlin]

Thanks. But i guess the only problem is that usually they will reanimate the creature the turn they dump it into the GY. Either via EOT entomb or looting/brutality. That renders hymn not as effective.

Thats why you have 4 FoW, 3 GY Pieces, 2 Flusterstorms, 2 Thoughtseizes postboard

[rei-vax]

Hello, I'm back to mtg after a break of one and a half year.

To begin "sorry for my poor english" I'm from belgium and i try to do my best!

I played bug delver in the past and by returning I discover this deck.
I find it really good and I want to play him.
Having looked at many list, read the primer and after test, I arrived at this list which is not really of me but more a net deck slightly modified.


1 Tropical Island
1 Badlands
1 Bayou
2 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Bloodstained Mire
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta

2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
3 Baleful Strix
4 Deathrite Shaman
3 Snapcaster Mage

1 Abrupt Decay
1 Diabolic Edict
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Liliana of the Veil
2 Fatal Push
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 Toxic Deluge
4 Brainstorm
2 Hymn to Tourach
2 Thoughtseize
1 Lightning Bolt
4 Ponder
4 Force of Will

Sideboard
2 Diabolic Edict
2 Hymn to Tourach
1 Darkblast
1 Marsh Casualties
2 Flusterstorm
1 Ancient Grudge
3 Pyroblast
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Nihil Spellbomb

My question turns around the mana base.
Many lists play only 4 polluted delta to find the basic swamp.
In my list I have 2 hymn in the main and 2 more in side. So playing 1 bayou and cut 1 tropical is a good or bad idea? the scalding tarn can't find this bayou and the basic swamp
So I opted for this mana base :

dual (8) : 1 Tropical Island / 1 Badlands / 1 Bayou / 2 Volcanic Island / 3 Underground Sea. Fetch (10) : 1 Verdant Catacombs / 1 Bloodstained Mire / 4 Misty Rainforest / 4 Polluted Delta Basic (2) : 1 Island / 1 Swamp

It's maybe very bad... :-p
Your opinion and your advice interests me a lot.

Ps: even if I won every time, karakas is a little problem with this list. but i think running wasteland is to hard with this 4colors deck.

Thank you.

[Secretly.A.Bee]

Pithing Needles in the board are a more versatile way to combat Karakas whilst still being useful in other matchups.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

[potatodavid]

Has their been any thoughts of running Kess, Dissident Mage as a 1 of? She seems pretty powerful as a finisher or to help stabilize.

[MorphBerlin]

Has their been any thoughts of running Kess, Dissident Mage as a 1 of? She seems pretty powerful as a finisher or to help stabilize.

I don't see what she does, that jace doesn't do better tbh

[rei-vax]

Pithing Needles in the board are a more versatile way to combat Karakas whilst still being useful in other matchups.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

Simple and efficient. Thx. :-)
And about mana base (fetchs and duals), does anyone have an idea, advice, or advice?

[MorphBerlin]

Simple and efficient. Thx. :-)
And about mana base (fetchs and duals), does anyone have an idea, advice, or advice?

I recently changed to 1 bayou and 1 trop and like it better, if you play 2 hymn and 2 side.

I still have 4 Delta, 4 Tarn 2 Misty, the only problem is getting the swamp, I rarley ecounter a situation where I can't get the color I want with a dual.

Maybe swapping 1-2 msity vor verdant might be better because of this

[mgrinshpon]

I've been trying to jam Dack Fayden and Punishing Fire in terrible decks for a while now, but I think this one is actually kind of good. Now that the meta is grinder than ever and RG are able to be (gently) shoe-horned into control colors, Punishing Fire is a good card-advantage engine that neatly addresses small creatures, some medium creatures (Leovold, for example, is not great), and a few others. This is where my deck currently sits:

// Deck: 60
// Lands: 21
2 Badlands
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
// Creatures: 12
3 Baleful Strix
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Notion Thief
3 Snapcaster Mage
// Instants: 17
4 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Fatal Push
4 Force of Will
1 Kolaghan's Command
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Murderous Cut
3 Punishing Fire
// Sorceries: 5
1 Collective Brutality
3 Ponder
1 Toxic Deluge
// Planeswalkers: 5
3 Dack Fayden
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

// Sideboard: 15
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Flusterstorm
1 Hydroblast
1 Invasive Surgery
1 Pulse of Murasa
2 Pyroblast
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Pernicious Deed

// Maybeboard:
1 Sultai Charm
1 Gurmag Angler
1 Tombstalker
1 Abrupt Decay
3 Leyline of the Void


The deck uses the extra mana (21 lands as opposed to 19) very effectively through the Punishing Fire engine but I've found that 22 is just a bit too many. Legacy-wise, the greatest thief in the multiverse is greatest here- finding the right answer at the right time through looting, acting as a great finisher with Leovold or Notion Thief in play, and able to steal Strixes, Moxen, Equipment, and sometimes everything else.

I'd like some thoughts on the following:

1. Ideally, I'd like some additional ways of handling Chalice, Blood Moon, and opposing Leyline of the Voids and am unsure as to where I should cut cards. Sultai Charm handles all of those save Blood Moon quite neatly, and Abrupt Decay handles all of them well, but the problem with both is that they're expensive, kind of clunky cards.
2. With the extra mana present in the list, plus the added Delirum benefits against Combo, Lands, and Loam (Dack Fayden +1 pitching Leyline), is cutting 2x Surgical and 1x Nihil Spellbomb for 3x Leyline of the Void worth it, or is the added flexibility of Surgicaling and Bombing my own Punishing Fires better against opposing Surgicals?
3. Should the Duress in the sideboard instead be another Collective Brutality or is that too slow for combo?

[meite]

Went 3-0 in small 8man tournament with following list, first time ever I played this deck:


1 True-Name Nemesis
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Baleful Strix
4 Deathrite Shaman

1 Lightning Bolt
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Counterspell
2 Fatal Push
2 Kolaghan's Command
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will

1 Toxic Deluge
2 Thoughtseize
4 Ponder

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Badlands
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Verdant Catacombs
2 Volcanic Island
3 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn


Sideboard
2 Chill
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Diabolic Edict
2 Swan Song
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Fire Covenant
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Umezawa's Jitte


R1 vs DnT
G1: really miserable first game with this deck. I keep a land light hand, he plays Thalia, Wastelands me and starts porting my blue source.
SB - OUT: 4 FoW, 2 Counterspell, IN: Jitte, Deed, Clique, Fire Covenant, 2 Edict
G2: I keep land heavy hand and then the Kommand + Strix value train starts working and I end up having TNN equipped with Jitte versus his empty board.
G3: Value game works again, this time I mainly beat with Strix+Jitte

R2 vs Merfolk
G1: Islandwalking merfolks makes my Strixes look stoopid...
SB - OUT: 4 FoW, 2 Counterspell, 2 Thoughtseize, 1 Strix, IN: Jitte, Deed, Clique, Fire Covenant, 3 Edict, 2 REB
G2: He keeps a slow hand and I draw enough removal to get rid of his fishes before they group up. I wipe Chalice and 2 merfolks with Deed at some point.
G3: Extremely tight game, last turns included he having 2 TNN on table and me having one TNN and flashing back 2x Snapcaster just to get enough aggro. I find Diabolic Edict with Ponder, make him sac one TNN and manage to win the game. I end up being at 2 life before I get lethals in.

R3 vs Burn
G1: I have a very good hand and first rounds starts with removal spells, DRS and several counters. My clock is still too slow and he just kills me.
SB - OUT: 2 Thoughtseize, Deluge, IN: 2 Chill, Jitte
G2: Long game, he floods somewhat. I stabilize at some point after killing lots of his creatures. Top decked Chill seals the game.
G3: He gets stuck on 2 lands. I manage to stabilize with Leovold which keeps his Guide from attacking and he does not really want to cast burn spells at me. I find Chill with Ponder and then start draining his life totals with 2 x DRS. Round time runs out and I am ONE damage short with the DRS damage. I need to draw something relevant from the top during my last extra turn. I fetch a land, opponent cuts my deck and I draw.... a Lightning Bolt! GGs!

2 x Chill is definately a meta call for me, because I face a lot of Burn, Sneak&Show and also occasional Storm and Dragon Stompy.

TNN felt very good every time I drew it, I am thinking to replace maybe one Strix with another TNN.

I think it is strange that people seems to be playing Tasigur in this deck, or in Legacy at all, since DnT is so popular deck and it runs Karakas.

[Agrippa91]

Hi guys!
Does anybody want to play against a more Canadian Grixis Delver deck? It's really hard to find enough practice against Czech Pile online unless you play tons and tons of leagues. That sucks since I'm still not entirely sure how to sideboard against it.

Like should I keep in some number of Forces? I do and did against Miracles. One of the reasons is that my many soft counters can be dead sometimes, so I can "upgrade" them to a FoW.

On the other hand Thoughtseize could be decent at getting answers out of Czech Pile's hand since TNN and Angler require very specific ones. Also Snapcaster when I have an active DRS or K-Command when there's no targets on the BF or Czech doesn't have enough mana open.

I toyed with the idea of Surgical. I've never been a fan of it against Miracles though some people swore it is good, even Bob Huang aka Griselpuff. It seems to do the job "countering" a snapcasted spell or getting all the strixes Czech tries to recur with K-Command, but I don't know whether it's really worth it.
Marsh Casualties seems better than Push or Bolt, but I might just bite my ass those times when I face Leovold.

I know Winter Orb is a good sb card, but I'm not to big a fan of this card since it doesn't do much in other matchups. So far I have a decent record against czech and would rather dedicate my flexible sb-slots to fight stompy and bg depths which are the really bad matchups in my experience.

You can add me on MtGO, name is Agrippa91 there as well. When I'm online it's around the time of this post going forward.

[FZA]

Hi guys!
Does anybody want to play against a more Canadian Grixis Delver deck? It's really hard to find enough practice against Czech Pile online unless you play tons and tons of leagues. That sucks since I'm still not entirely sure how to sideboard against it.

Like should I keep in some number of Forces? I do and did against Miracles. One of the reasons is that my many soft counters can be dead sometimes, so I can "upgrade" them to a FoW.

On the other hand Thoughtseize could be decent at getting answers out of Czech Pile's hand since TNN and Angler require very specific ones. Also Snapcaster when I have an active DRS or K-Command when there's no targets on the BF or Czech doesn't have enough mana open.

I toyed with the idea of Surgical. I've never been a fan of it against Miracles though some people swore it is good, even Bob Huang aka Griselpuff. It seems to do the job "countering" a snapcasted spell or getting all the strixes Czech tries to recur with K-Command, but I don't know whether it's really worth it.
Marsh Casualties seems better than Push or Bolt, but I might just bite my ass those times when I face Leovold.

I know Winter Orb is a good sb card, but I'm not to big a fan of this card since it doesn't do much in other matchups. So far I have a decent record against czech and would rather dedicate my flexible sb-slots to fight stompy and bg depths which are the really bad matchups in my experience.

You can add me on MtGO, name is Agrippa91 there as well. When I'm online it's around the time of this post going forward.

I'd be happy to help you test against Pile. Unfortunately I'm usually only available weeknights after around 9 PM Pacific Time, which I know is not really convenient for people who live on the east coast or Europe...but if that works for you, just let me know.

[apistat_commander]

Does anyone run Czech Pile in a combo heavy meta? Most of the Czech Pile lists I see seem to be more geared towards grinding out fair decks, with limited G1 interaction against Combo. My meta is super heavy on BR Reanimator, Elves, Burn (UR and R), Storm, Hex Depths, and Dredge. DRS helps with a number of those, but I feel like I'm a little lacking in disruption for the others. Any suggestions on how to build out my flex slots to address that? Below is a list that I have drafted up but have yet to play.

Creatures (14):
4 Deathrite Shaman
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Baleful Strix
2 Gurmag Angler
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest

Instants (17)
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Kolaghan’s Command
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Lightning Bolt
2 Fatal Push
1 Counterspell

Sorceries (7)
4 Ponder
3 Hymn to Tourach

Planeswalkers (2):
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Lands (20):
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Tropical Island
1 Badlands
1 Bayou
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard:
3 Flusterstorm
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Hymn to Tourach
2 Pyroblast
2 Marsh Casualties
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Sylvan Library
1 Hydroblast

[bigbobbobber]

I find Turbo Depths manageable after SB with multiple Edicts, BR Reanimator is always a SB an opening hand check-deck, and Storm and SnS are favorable both pre- and post SBing. Dredge, Burn, and UR Delver are miserable, and I don't know how to fix it. Elves I find 50/50, but Marsh Casualties helps a lot. I'm considering Grafdigger's Cage to combat Elves, BR Reanimator, and Dredge, despite how bad it is with Snapcaster. Might just have to bite the bullet on this one, but I think it would be worth it.

I am interested in hearing how others manage the Burn and UR Delver matchup. The only thing I can thing of is either loading up on blue blast effects or Chill. Anyone have thoughts on this?

[JackaBo]

I find Turbo Depths manageable after SB with multiple Edicts, BR Reanimator is always a SB an opening hand check-deck, and Storm and SnS are favorable both pre- and post SBing. Dredge, Burn, and UR Delver are miserable, and I don't know how to fix it. Elves I find 50/50, but Marsh Casualties helps a lot. I'm considering Grafdigger's Cage to combat Elves, BR Reanimator, and Dredge, despite how bad it is with Snapcaster. Might just have to bite the bullet on this one, but I think it would be worth it.

I am interested in hearing how others manage the Burn and UR Delver matchup. The only thing I can thing of is either loading up on blue blast effects or Chill. Anyone have thoughts on this?

Burn and UR: Maybe a jitte? Good against elves and a bunch of other decks. Strix carries it well. Playing a deck with a slow clock i feel chill isnt enough to beat burn, nor is a miser hydroblast, eventhough it help for sure. Perhabs pulse of murasa? It negates two bolts and brings back a strix.

Grafdiggers cage. I think it's fine. If they blow it up your SCM are live. If they dont you're winning.

[orientalmarket]

Anyone have a rundown on what I should do in the lands matchup? It honestly feels so miserable that I just check out of the game when I know they're on it.

[Rekk]

Anyone have a rundown on what I should do in the lands matchup? It honestly feels so miserable that I just check out of the game when I know they're on it.

blood moon and basics is what i've seen from some lists. Maybe leyline of the void can help but really blood moon seems to be the most effective solution

[hoernchen]

Anyone have a rundown on what I should do in the lands matchup? It honestly feels so miserable that I just check out of the game when I know they're on it.

Usually Jace does a very good job in killing Lands.

[Fgi_88]

Hi Guys! Today i've played for the first time 4c Leovold in a real tournament.
My list is Megucci's one on CFB live deck Tech.

R1 Turbo Depths 2-0:
g1 won thank to Deathrite eating multiple copies of Hexmage. I was able to survive to Merit Lage.
g2 won topdecking a JTMS that bounced a Merit Lage, i was dead on board but once again shaman saved me gaining 2 important life points.

R2 BR Reanimator 2-0:
g1 t1 Shaman won the game
g2 t1 Grafdigger Cage...
This was my opponent's first legacy tournament so he kept ugly hands

r3 ANT 2-1:
g1 he won thanks to probe+cabal therapy
g2 I was at 16 life when my oppo went for the combo: 8 triggers of Tendrills but i had leovold in play who drew me 8 cards and 2 FOW for the win
g3 t1 Seize, t2 Tourach won the game

r4 & r5 ID

Top8 Infect 2-0:
g1 Multiples Push and KCommand for the win
g2 t2 Liliana the last hope and easy win

Top4 ANT (same guy of the R3) 2-0:
g1 he wasted the victory: i had nothing relevant in hand but an Online Shaman, he goes for the combo but LED put Tendrills in the Graveyard. His mistake was to cast a burning wish for PIF so i was able to eat Tendrills and win the game. Was better for him to take Empty the warrens
g2 t1 Seize, T2 Seize + Grafdigger's Cage for the win

FINAL ROUND UR Omnitell 2-1:
g1 Show t2 + FOW backup
g2 He drew bad all the game and i won the game dealing 20 damage with Shaman...
g3 t1 Seize, t2 Tourach, t3 LOTV won the game