Lands is one of the tougher matchups out there. I think the actual toughest is Mono Red prison with Fiery Confluence. But lands is still difficult. Thankfully they recently printed sorcerous spyglass, which allows you to play both Chalice and Pithing Needle now. The 2 CC is the most relevant part of Spyglass.
IN:
1x Coercive Portal
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Diabolic Edict
4x Leyline of the Void
2x Sorcerous Spyglass
OUT:
4x the abyss (although I have boarded one back in before to kill Tireless Trackers in a Game 3 that I won. I don't know if my opponent sideboarded correctly to be honest.
2x toxic deluge
1x lodestone golem
If you find them switching to the tireless tracker or some other creature package, lodestone golem is the card that gets cut. It costs the most mana, so it is hard to cast against them, and it is just as easily maze of ith'ed as any other creature would be. The one upside it does have is the ability to survive a punishing fire, while making them pay more for them.
This matchup post board is all about trying to get a leyline of the void, so aggressively muligan for it. There are other servicable hands, and anything with spyglass and mana should probably also be kept.
Crucible and Coercive Portal are very good cards in this matchup. You could debatably play warping wail over the remaining 3 lodestone golems as well to counter Gamble and Life from the Loam, but generally I would rather have the upside of still playing Lodestone Golem and being aggressive than holding back a counterspell that doesn't do a whole lot. If they play some sort of wacky build with more sorceries, thenit becomes a better option.
Vs. Turbo Depths
-2 Toxic Deluge
-4 the abyss
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Diabolic Edict
2x Sorcerous Spyglass
3x Warping Wail
depending on how aggressive the opponents decklist is, you could debatably put in a coercive portal and sub out a scrap trawler on the play, or a lodestone golem on the draw. But I think the above sideboarding choices make the most sense.
Crucible of Worlds and Blinkmoth Nexus give you an endless string of blockers.
Grixis Delver:
-1 sorcerous spyglass
+1 umezawa's jitte
The deck has been optimized to beat delver lists by playing many cards like the abyss #3 and #4, as well as both toxic deluges main deck.
TES:
Chalice, Lodestone Golem, and Phyrexian Revoker are all amazing main deck cards against TES. From the sideboard, Warping Wail is Great. The abyss obviously does nothing.
-4 the abyss
+3 warping wail
You can look at removing the toxic deluges from the main deck, or you can keep them in as an out to an empty the warrens. The problem is there are not a lot of good sideboarding options left to board in. So the next best card is Sorcerous Spyglass, just to get information and maybe hit a fetchland (OR TWO OR THREE!).
+1 sorcerous spyglass
Obviously, if the storm deck tries to interact with their graveyard, then Leyline of the Void is simply crushing. I have had Leyline, Chalice 0, and Chalice 1 on a board that my opponent let me know was an unwinnable game state for him.
Vs. Checkpile
I must confess I haven't actually played this matchup.
Baleful Strix sure makes the abyss look bad, but you have walking balistas to clear the path for your other creatures. I would obviously board in Jitte. I'm looking at the warping wails and thinking they might actually be good. Night's Whisper, Painful Truths, and Ponder can also get countered by them. It also exiles SnapcasterMage, Deathrite Shaman, and baleful Strip. Wail has 4 abilities on the card, as generating a mana is another ability. I'd cut down the number of the abyss from 4 to probably 2 or 1. cut spyglass, although its debatable you should find a way to play all 3 spyglass. Since I would play the warping wails to kill cards like deathrite shaman, I think you can board in crucible of worlds and try to wasteland lock that 4 color list.
So I think I would board like this:
-3 the abyss
-1 sorcerous spyglass
-1 mox opal
+3 warping wail
+1 crucible of worlds
+1 umezawa's jitte
It's possible that this sideboarding isn't right, and that playing sorcerous spyglass may be the better route.
Man, I sure cut the Abyss a lot....it still wins so many matchups, and you will be happy to see it game 1 vs. Death and Taxes, Delver decks, Jund, Maverick, Eldrazi, and Show and Tell.
Death and Taxes is actually a very interesting sideboard plan. Since you have so many good cards against them sitting in your board, you actually cut Chalice of the Void main deck against them:
-4 chalice of the void
-1 sorcerous spyglass
1x Coercive Portal
1x Umezawa's Jitte
3x Warping Wail
Many death and taxes players will also board out mother of runes, which happens to be very good vs the abyss. It’s either a mistake on their part, or if you play a great game 1 and concea that information you are in the bonus. Just mention cranial playing or something to give them an excuse to think the black mana is for something other than the abyss. If you plan on casting an Abyss in the game, be sure to kill the mothers with warping wail, toxic deluge, or walking ballista. It’s nearly impossible for them to beat a resolved abyss.
Lastly, whenever you have the abyss in play, instead of saying “go” or “pass” say “I would like to advance to your upkeep. When that happens, follow up by saying trigger.” Since it’s an old card, I’ve also had opponents miss drawing a card off of Leovold with it. Be sure you don’t cheat, give them exact information, “my trigger, you choose the target” that is honest and potentially confusing to amateur players.
Last edited by gkraigher; 02-07-2018 at 05:53 PM.
Wow! This is really a great guide! Very well thought out!
You have inspired me to try The Abyss again.
Just picked up 1 Abyss here in Phoenix, and will order the other 3 online this week.
I should be able to try this by next week, and will let you know how this goes.
Thanks!
Keith
Played the stock man of steel list against this past sat. Went 4-1. Lost to Grixis Delver, beat Grixis Delver, UB reanimator, Sneak/Show and TES.
From the two tournaments (yeah, huge sample size right!!) I've played the deck in, it seems like this deck wins way more games when a Thorn has resolved compared to a Chalice on one and I've had a lot of games where SofI is just stuck in my hand because there are too many Thorn effects and I can't cast it.
For the next tournament, I think I'll try out these changes:
Main:
-1 Sword of Fire and Ice, -1 Phyrexian Revoker, -1 Vault Skirge, -1 Lodestone Golem
+4 Foundry Inspector
Side:
-1 Sword of Fire and Ice
+1 Lodestone Golem
I want to try out the Foundry Inspector as I feel if I ever get the chance to go wide even with just one turn, it'll make a lot of difference as I've had so many hands where I've got 2-3 mana sources but every card in my hand is a 2 drop so the deck is not taking advantage of its low curve.
I'm willing to cut the Revoker and Skirge as there were hands where I've had multiple copies of just the Revokers or Skirges in the opening hand and I had to mull them as the Revokers are really bad blind and in multiple copies with nothing else to support them and the Skirges force you to take too much damage for too little return.
I tried the Abyss version gkraigher created in a tournament Sunday.
This version has 4x The Abyss main deck.
I don't know how meaningful the results were though, as I was consistently mulling down to 4 or 5, getting either no land hands or a lone wasteland.
This is statistically improbable with a 22 land deck, and it really skewed the results.
When The Abyss worked, it worked very very well.
The deck in general seems a bit slow.
I think it is also desperately missing some sort of Lifegain. The version Amadeus runs has 6 sources of life gain between Inventor's Fair and the Vault Skirges.
I also added in a Hangarback Walker, which performed quite well. It won me one game against Dragon Stompy and his Stormbreath Dragon, as I ended up with a swarm of flying thopters.
My thought at the moment is to add something old school like Zuran Orb to solve part of the life gain issue.
It is 0 casting cast, would allow me to gain two life off any City of Traitors I had to sacrifice, turns on Mox Opal Sooner, and would keep me alive long enough for the rest of the deck to function better.
In addition, I am going to put the Jitte in Mainboad, instead of sideboard. I can always use the counters gained for life if needed.
I really miss the ability for any library manipulation to smooth out the draws and land better. The deck seems clunky at times.
I am going to continue to play this for awhile, hopefully learning the sequencing a bit better, and tweaking with it a bit too.
Keith
Last edited by ksesler; 02-20-2018 at 05:31 PM.
Since none of the versions of the deck floated on this thread have any draw engines (except for SOFI in some), and many of your oppenent's do, would there be value in adding Chains of Mephistopheles in the sideboard to level the playing field?
Obligatory long time lurker, first time poster, blah blah blah, yada yada yada. Finally broke down and made an account because I've had this idea bouncing around in my head for the better part of a year and the MBH and MKM finishes finally lit a fire under me to get involved.
Here's the version I jammed the last couple of weeks at our weeklies.
Artifakt Schtompi: My List
Maindeck (61)
2 Hangarback Walker
4 Walking Ballista
4 Arcbound Ravager
2 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Steel Overseer
4 Vault Skirge
3 Lodestone Golem
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Lotus Petal
3 Mox Opal
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
3 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Sword of Fire and Ice
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Karakas
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Wasteland
Sideboard (15)
1 Dismember
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Helm of Obedience
4 Leyline of the Void
Thoughts are as follows:
- SoFI was a powerhouse when it hit the battlefield even if it only got in for 1 hit; That said, there were several times it got stranded in my hand so I think I'm less inclined to play 2.
- Vault Skirge, while iffy on paper, actually holds its own in practice and gives some much-needed lifegain. We have a VERY painful manabase.
- The helm in the board was because of the 4 leylines, but I never found myself in a position where I wanted it over any other card, even when boarding in the leylines. Its a definite cut.
- I want some number of foundry inspectors. The card is very powerful in ravager shops in vintage and I'd like to try it out.
- I don't own 4x The Abyss so I think that version is out for me.
- Looter Scooter sounds like a damn good addition to the deck and a good card filtering engine. I definitely want to try that out.
#FreeNedLeeds
Professional Pain-in-Lincoln's-Ass, Team Topdecked
Decks:
Modern: Affinity
Legacy: Steel Stompy/"Dos Equis", SnS, Mono-R Sneak, Dragon Stompy, Infect, Eldrazi Aggro
Vintage: Shops, JacoDrazi
93/94: mono-b, BRUD
Hi:
I have been playtesting with the Abyss version of this deck and have come to the conclusion that 4x The Abyss is too many. I was playtesting with 3, which seemed fine, but am going to try 2, plus one in the sideboard.
There is a big tournament Sunday 2-25 (probably 60 or so people) I will be at, so I would like feedback on the deck I am planning to play, and any suggested changes in the main or side.
This deck is a bit of a combination between the different versions out there.
It has 6 fliers (3 Blinkmoth and 3 Vault Skirge), and 7 when Smuggler's Copter is included.
Smuggler's Copter has been a solid addition to the deck, as it helps filter through the deck, and is solid on attack or defense.
I now have 3 creature sources of life gain, and the Jitte if needed as well.
I added a Thorn of Amethyst to go along with the 3 Lodestone Golem, for extra prison effect.
The 2 Foundry Inspectors help me get creatures out faster.
Questions: I would LOVE to be able to fit in a Ghost Quarter as an extra way to mana screw people, but am not sure what to cut. Advice?
What do you think of the 3 Blinkmoths and 2 Mishra's? I love Mishra's ability to turn into a 3/3 on defense.
Any suggestions on sideboard improvements? I had a Coercive portal in there, but feel the 2 ensnaring bridges are better against Show and Tell and other decks with big creatures (even medium creatures once my hand is depleted).
Is there any reason to move Crucible of Worlds main deck and focus on mana screwing fragile manabases?
Suggestions/advice is highly appreciated.
Thanks!
Keith
Land (22) 4x Ancient Tomb 3x Blinkmoth Nexus 3x City of Traitors 1x Karakas
1x Swamp 4x Vault of Whispers 4x Wasteland 2x Mishra’s Factory
Enchantment (2) 2x The Abyss
Instants(1) 1x Warping Wail
Creature (22) 4x Arcbound Ravager 3x Lodestone Golem 1x Phyrexian Revoker 1x Scrap Trawler
4x Steel Overseer 3x Walking Ballista 1 Hangarback Walker 3 Vault Skirge 2 Foundry Inspector
Artifact (13) 4x Chalice of the Void 2x Mox Diamond 3x Mox Opal 1x Sorcerous Spyglass
1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Smuggler’s Copter 1x Thorn of Amethyst
Sideboard (15) 1x SOFI 1x Crucible of Worlds 4x Leyline of the Void 1x The Abyss 2x Ensnaring Bridge 1x Engineered Plague 1x Dread of Night 1x Warping Wail 1Toxic Deluge 1x Diabolic Edict 1x Grafdigger’s Cage
On Sunday I got into finals in tournament with 37 players with the following list:
4 Walking Ballista
4 Lodestone Golem
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Steel Overseer
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Vault Skirge
3 Mox Opal
4 Lotus Petal
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Karakas
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Mishra's Factory
2 Inventor's Fair
4 Wasteland
Sideboard:
2 Spellskite
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Ensaring Bridge
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Sorceress Spyglasses
2 Ratchet Bomb
Previously I have been playing the original Men of Steel list with 2 hangerbacks and 2 golems, I have Jitte in sideboard instead of second SoFI, because I don't own a second one and I thought Jitte can be very good also and I have seen it played in similar lists. In the tournament morning I decided to add more golems, because they have been so good when I have played this deck. I believe it was a right choice at least for this tournament.
I had played three tournaments with this deck before with results 3-1, 2-2 and 1-3.
Tournament started with 37 players, with following decks:
7 Grixis Delver
2 Miracles
2 UWx Stoneblade
2 BUG Delver
2 Burn
2 DnT
2 BR Animator
2 Moon Stompy
2 Turbo Depths
UR Delver
Junk
Jund
Merfolk
Infect
TES
UB Animator
Grixis Ctrl
Lands
Dark Maverick
Sneaky Show
Steel Stompy
Shardless BUG
RUG Delver
R1 Grixis Delver 2-1
Tournament begins with my first mistake at turn two in the first game :), I play skirge using two mana taking black from opal to save two lifes, and it gets dazed, my reasoning was that I was expecting grindy matchup and thought that 2 life could be valuable, and don't remember that this isn't modern tournament. :) Luckily this stupid move doesn't cost me the game. At the end game of game one he taps out for true-name nemesis, I use inventors sphere at the end of turn to get the sword, and play it to evade TNN to victory.
Second game he has two wastelands. My mana is wasted, and I cannot draw more lands fast enough, easy victory for him.
Third game he mulligans, and has only two mana. Ground gets stuck, but my two skirges are able to beat him as he has ancient grudge, but spellkite absorbs it, and he has no mana to cast it again.
side: Have no memories what I took out. One opal and? + 2 spellkites, jitte.
R2 Grixis Control 2-1
First game I cannot find answer to gurmag, and my guys are way too small to beat a big fish.
Second game I have overseer in play, play golem, use overseer to give counters to protect it from bolt. And golem wins the game.
Later my opponent told he drew bolt right after the golem got into play. :)
Game three he mulligans to five, and cannot find enough lands. In the end game I am blind and count that I can deal only seven damage with ballista, but doesn't realize that I have mana to bumb ballista before combat, so I give him extra turn, but he draws nothing.
side: - opal, - revoker + 2 spellkite (can't remember if there were something else)
R3 RUG Delver 0-2
I know this should be ok matchup for me, however in both games hungry pack of tarmagoyfs kill me and I draw way too many amethysts.
side: -4 revokers + 2 spellkite +2 rached bombs.
R4 Miracles 2-0
In both games golems and thorns ruin his draw spells and I don't know if he had other ways to win in addition to mentors, since I didn't see Jace or angels in the games.
Game two start with T1 chalice, Force of Will, surprise. I play golem and overseer, a turn later, for some mysterious reason I decide to play revoker at the second main after using overseer, he has scalding tarn and two island, he doesn't want to fetch as he knows there is a terminus at top of his deck, but he remembers revoker wrong, and thinks it can name Scalding Tarn. So he forces it and exiles ponder for force. Then he plays terminus, but I have two more creatures in hand, and soon there is again a situation where I know only another terminus topdeck can save him, and I have no answers to that, but luckily no terminus. My golem army with overseer in command win the game.
side: - Opal - Overseer + 2 Sorceress Spyglasses (can't remember if there were something else)
(maybe bridges could have been the way to go against mentors, now I only sideboarded glasses against Jace)
R5 Sneaky Show 1-2
In the First game he plays show and tell with four mana, he gets a grisselbrand and I get revoker naming it, he has grisse agains my army of Metal men. But then comes days biggest misplay by me, I don't realize I can shoot my own skirges with ballista, so he couldn't gain life, and I had won easily. But I don't see it, my opponent doesn't see it. :) I am 100% sure I had realized to sacrifice those to ravager before damage, but walking ballista isn't playing in modern affinity, so I am just blind and stupid and die.
In game two he plays sneack attack from five mana, but realizes that he played wrong land (volcanic island instead of ancient tomb) and has no mana to use sneak attack in the same turn and passes turn. I have no cards in hand, topdeck revoker. He scoops.
Good and quality magic, from both of us. :)
Game three, he playes show and tell with four mana in turn three, omniscience, emrakul, griselbrand and I die thousand times. I had hand with revoker, and thorn, so I didn't mulligate to find a bridge.
side: - Mox opal, - 2 steel overseers, - sword, - 2 skirge
+2 Sorcerious Spyglass, +4 Ensnaring bridges (didn't see any of bridges)
(I was pretty unsure what to take out, I took skirges because I thought that I most likely just die if he has creature in play so evasion is no use)
I am at 10th place before the last round, so a small change to top8 remains.
R6 Burn
I think this was the easiest round in the tournament. I didn't have to use ancient tombs much, and his resources were spent on killing my creatures.
In game one I play sword, and equip it to ravager, he fireblasts the ravager in response sacrificing all his lands. I ask him "do you have mana in your pool?" as he could have taken two red into his pool. He answers "No" and I sacrifice all artefacts except the sword to ravager making it 5/5 and it takes the fireblast, sword equipped and 7/7 ravager hits two times and the game is over.
In game two I look my hand with lands, mox opal, sword, ravager... If I find second two mana producing land I will have turn two equipped ravager, but I don't find more lands in the whole game, but I am not even close to dying, he burns few creatures, but overwhelming wave of metal mens just beat him to dead, game ends with two ballistas, overseer and ravager against two mountains and one card in hand. I think both of us played little badly in this match, but maybe I was too much ahead to optimize things.
side: - mox opal, - revoker, - steel overseer + jitte + 2 spellkites.
2-0
I am 4-2, in the previous big tournament (modern with 117 players), I was at 9th place with resistance difference of 0.006, so I was already assuming that I am at 9th again,
but this time gods of Metal are with me, and I am 8th.
Quarterfinals RUG Delver 2-0
This is the same RUG Delver player that I played against in swiss, he has won the swiss undefeated, 4-0-2 (two IDs).
First game he mulligans to five, dies imitating old grandma voice "everything is so expensive these days" when there is two golems and amethyst in play.
In second game I am losing the race when there are two delvers and flipped one and one normal. I draw ratched bomb, and know this is a way of turning the race, but I also know there is a Force of Will in his hand, since delver flipped from that last turn. I have four mana and opal, So I feed ballista for one to the force, and get the bomb resolved. :) Bomb takes the delvers, and game is turned. Later I have two golems and he has only mongoose with six cards in graveyard, nothing more is needed than just attack, but no, I am stupid, and try to play chalice, it is countered, and now I have to trade golem for mongoose. But luckily, he draws nothing, and remaining golem hits for lethal next turn.
side: -4 revokers + 2 spellkite +2 rached bombs.
Semi-finals: MonoR Stompy 2-0
After quarterfinal game a friend asks me "are you ready to die for metal?" I say "yes" and assume that we have next game. I know he is playing monored stompy, we have both lot of dead cards, however I also know there is lot of fiery confluences and other "Destroy everything" cards in his deck if he gets to four mana.
He starts the game T1 tomb, simian spirit guide to mana, trinisphere. I look my hand, tomb, karakas, wasteland. I play wasteland and waste him. Everyone around us are laughing. He is able to play magus of the moon using another SSG, and my plan is ruined a little since now I have only two mana in hand. But after few rounds I find third and fourth lands and he doesn't. A golem with sword of fire and ice say "This is the end".
Second game he mulligans to six, and starts with tomb, chrome mox I play wasteland, and waste his tomb. Next turn he doesn't have a land, and I play revoker to chrome mox, he takes mana to mana pool uses SSG to play sudden shock to revoker, and in his turn plays another chrome mox, but no lands. He dies to flow of Metal men (including steel overseer) with four drops, sudden shock and volcanic fallout in hand.
side: - 4 chalices, -1 amethyst + 2 Sorcerous Spyglass + 2 Spellkite + Jitte
(not happy with all cards after sideboard, but I felt I had nothing more good on sideboard.)
Finals
We split prizes.
(report in Dark Depths thread :) )
Overall this is very nice deck, thanks to Man of Steel for original list and sideboarding videos. :)
I'm wondering if Thought-Knot Seer has a home outside of Eldrazi Stompy. If yes then a deck like this could be it, because it has enough colorless sources.
Or is a turn 3 TKS too slow?
Was just mentioning tks in this deck last night. I imagine it's been tested but it's a great card overall. Probably improves some matchups, but just speculation. Can't sac to ravager, doesn't contribute to mox opal, and no benefit from steel. Hard to say! I like the card regardless.
-rob
For the lands matchup, I've always found Darksteel Citadel to help a lot in MUD; worth an include here? Or are the karakas/inventors' fairs that valuable? Bonus points for artifact synergy!
Lands, MUD, Stax, and Miracles.
Am I a horrible person for wanting to play Phyrexian Scriptures in this?
I just saw a deck like this do pretty good in the last Legacy Challenge.
Congrats guys!
''The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.'' Lord Eddard Stark - A Game of Thrones
-Adsum
-ChrisMeister on MTGO
#FreeNedLeeds
Professional Pain-in-Lincoln's-Ass, Team Topdecked
Decks:
Modern: Affinity
Legacy: Steel Stompy/"Dos Equis", SnS, Mono-R Sneak, Dragon Stompy, Infect, Eldrazi Aggro
Vintage: Shops, JacoDrazi
93/94: mono-b, BRUD
Me too. That's why instead of playing citadel I replaced them with 4 Vault of Whispers and slammed a playset of Dark Confidants in the deck.
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