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Thread: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

  1. #21
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Hello everyone! First of all thank you very much @pettdan for this immense work you have done.
    I think this primer is really complete, and can give a good general idea to those who do not know the archetype and want to look out for the first time.
    In the coming weeks I will also resume playing, so that I can contribute to the discussion.

    Ever since I started playing this deck I have always been a supporter of the @Stinner list, and in part you agree with the "core" of the deck you tried to write.
    some points that I find in disagreement are:
    -we can not play deathrite shaman, we need a great deal of mana in the first rounds, we can not be bound by not having land in the graveyard or by a shaman in the opponent's battlefield, so our manadorks are necessarily Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch.
    -after having tried the FoW in side for some time I have come to the conclusion that I want to play 4 MD always unless I go to a tournament where I know the metagame perfectly and can move them to the side, for this reason I approve the stinner rule, all CC > 3 must be blue.

    But, different fron stinner I am in the group of those who play vial, it is not synergistic with scrib / quirion but it has a remarkable intrinsic strength and helps a lot in "friction matchup" to be clear, it saves us in all those games where we would lose from wasteland + bolt and in many other situations.
    It is not a perfectly suited card in the bottom strategy of the deck, so I can understand well if someone does not want to play, but I find myself really well and I think you should try it.
    Most at any cost

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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Quote Originally Posted by shaden View Post
    Hello everyone! First of all thank you very much @pettdan for this immense work you have done.
    I think this primer is really complete, and can give a good general idea to those who do not know the archetype and want to look out for the first time.
    In the coming weeks I will also resume playing, so that I can contribute to the discussion.

    Ever since I started playing this deck I have always been a supporter of the @Stinner list, and in part you agree with the "core" of the deck you tried to write.
    some points that I find in disagreement are:
    -we can not play deathrite shaman, we need a great deal of mana in the first rounds, we can not be bound by not having land in the graveyard or by a shaman in the opponent's battlefield, so our manadorks are necessarily Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch.
    -after having tried the FoW in side for some time I have come to the conclusion that I want to play 4 MD always unless I go to a tournament where I know the metagame perfectly and can move them to the side, for this reason I approve the stinner rule, all CC > 3 must be blue.

    But, different fron stinner I am in the group of those who play vial, it is not synergistic with scrib / quirion but it has a remarkable intrinsic strength and helps a lot in "friction matchup" to be clear, it saves us in all those games where we would lose from wasteland + bolt and in many other situations.
    It is not a perfectly suited card in the bottom strategy of the deck, so I can understand well if someone does not want to play, but I find myself really well and I think you should try it.
    Hi! :)
    Forgot to wrote the part on DRS (access to mana must to be certain), obv totally agree.
    Vial: one of the cards i really like, try continuously to put in the deck... and have a big problem. Vial need to be played in 4x and in this deck 4x slots are really many (specially if we have also the problem of the blue count for FoWs).
    "Life is fight"

    Emanuel Lasker

  3. #23
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Thanks Shaden! Looking forward to hearing how your testing goes! I'll actually try to play it a little more too.

    Regarding Deathrite, it has its advantages and disadvantages, I'll add some on that topic to the primer. Probably in a 14 lands and 0 vials version the unreliable mana production is more of an issue, while in a 16 lands 3-4 Vials version it is less severe because you are not as vulnerable. There is also the issue that Deathrite Shaman is the only manadork that survives a Golgari Charm or Zealous Persecution, so how common these are at present will affect how many Deathrites you want to play. I think they were very present when I started increasing the amount of Deathrites in my versions, as it was close to True-Name Nemesis being released, but maybe now is a good time to have a second look at that. Considering these aspects together, and a couple of other that I will adress (most notably having a "free" t1 answer to Loam/Crucible) I think it's apparent that you can have different opinions on how many Deathrites you want to play. Another argument, very weak, in favor of Deathrite is that it's perhaps the strongest creature in the format. This may not convince anyone but I think it can help raise the awareness that the card should not be disregarded so easily.

    In my opinion, the choice between Vial or not is a, card by card, trade-off between how much utility and robustness (offered by Vial) you want and how much explosiveness and synergy (offered by mana dorks and GSZ). Every copy of Vial you play over a mana dork or GSZ brings you more of the related features and away from the others, there is no synergy (that I'm aware of) encouraging an all or nothing approach. People often think that cards need to be played as 0 or 4 of and anything in between is a mistake, but this cannot be assumed. I suggest an easy test to verify what the case is: if you can play 8 copies of the card, would you? I surely wouldn't play 8 Vials if I could. So then you realize that the optimal number is somewhere between 0 and 8 copies, not at all necessarily the maximum number of 4. I think it's more a question of how much you like the card, if you like it a lot you want 4, if you don't like it you want 0, for me I appreciate the values of both sides of that trade-off and want to find an optimal balance between them which should help me get good matchups across the meta. The substantial presence of Kolaghan's Command and relative absence of Miracles speaks for less Vials, relatively. But it's not that easy to say, there are more factors and in the end only testing can say what seems to be right.

    I think questions like Deathrite or Vial take up a lot of energy of the discussion. It's quite enjoyable with this type of deep discussion, and it's even appropriate now due to shaping the primer. I think after all arguments have been listed to the primer we should try to settle for just playing what we want in our versions, discuss it from time to time when the meta changes or for synergy reasons in your version, but other than that maybe focus on other aspects of the deck. Discussing Deathrite and Vial is like discussing religion.. ;)

    One more thing, if someone wants to discuss some specific card, synergy, package or similarly, try to write down a comprehensive discussion and I'll add a link to your post in the primer. Also, small comment only, I think it's a good idea to update old posts with edit comments (like this "[edit: bla bla bla]") to enrich old arguments rather than making a lot of new posts, this is not how posting on the forum is generally encouraged to be but I think it makes for much easier reading. As arguments are spread over several posts they become very hard to read and follow, especially at a later point in time when you want to go back and revisit arguments. This needs to be done with great care of course to not ruin subsequent discussion, and maybe I'm just wrong about this..

  4. #24
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Quote Originally Posted by pettdan View Post
    This has been a non-survival deck since at least 2011 it seems so "trying" is a bit misinformative. But I guess you can see it that way.

    I ask because this is a deck where history is important. Rofellos and wall of roots value for example depends on the goal you are after. It helps me to give informed suggestions.
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Quote Originally Posted by Weapon X View Post
    I ask because this is a deck where history is important. Rofellos and wall of roots value for example depends on the goal you are after. It helps me to give informed suggestions.
    I see, well for me Survival of the Fittest is not a consideration, I'm not trying to imitate those old style decks. I started with a Fauna Shaman version of the deck and all my choices are based on that, I don't spend much time looking at old Survival lists. Maybe that answers your question better?

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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    4 fauna shaman
    3 deathrite shaman
    2 birds of paradise
    1 quirion ranger
    1 wirewood symbiote
    1 scryb ranger
    1 dryad arbor

    3 green suns zenith
    1 reclamation sage
    1 scavenging ooze
    1 deranged hermit
    1 spellstuter sprite
    1 qusali pridemage
    1 phyrexian revoker
    1 glen elendra archmage
    1 stone forge mystic
    1 umezawa's jitte
    1 batterskull
    3 rhox war monk
    2 swords to plowshares
    4 brainstorm
    1 squee
    1 wonder
    1 true name nemesis
    1 trade wind rider

    I think I might use something like this as a starting point for myself. There's a few ideas for routes I'd want to go, meren being my favourite possibility; but some concepts need to be played to be judged. Derevi is also a route I'd be curious about.
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    @Weapon X: Test whatever you feel like, I'm guessing as you play the deck you'll start making changes towards what some of the rest of us are playing. But maybe you'll develop a separate version that stands on its own merits.

    I'll offer a few suggestions:
    - You're low on mana sources, also you only listed 39 cards. Add 3-4 Aether Vials and 16 lands (or 14 lands and 2 mana dorks). You then have 1-2 further slots to add. I think FoW could be nice, you run very few hatebears. On that topic, Leovold is extremely useful.
    - I don't think you have enough elves synergy cards for Wirewood Symbiote useful, but you can try it. A Coiling Oracle or Leovold would help motivating it.
    - 3 Rhox War Monk is a lot, it seems your aggro plan is to use these with Wonder to fly over and win any damage race. Which means you need to have answers for Deathrite. You have 2 stp and 1 revoker so that's a good start. Some more may even be desired. Most are red though, which may be too high a cost if you play no other red cards..
    - Consider if Squee has any advantage over Meren [edit: well you don't have to play it, that's an advantage].
    - I would consider Derevi only if you plan to play Winter Orb, Stasis, similar lock pieces, or a couple of cards that benefit from tapping multiple times (you can put all Derevi triggers as untap effects on that card and tap it in between).
    - Spellstutter Sprite encourages you to run a second Scryb Ranger over the first Quirion Ranger, it also likes Vendilion Clique which is a generally useful vard, you could play it over the TNN.

    Well, start testing and practicing and you'll come up with a lot of changes by yourself. Looking forward to hearing about your experiences!
    Last edited by pettdan; 03-02-2018 at 08:50 AM.

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  9. #29
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Well it looks nice but it is probably better without Fauna Shaman, just guessing. Welcome back when you feel like trying MOST again! Or well, you're welcome here with that list too, of course. But probably the Aluren thread will provide you with better input.

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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Played the deck at MKM Rome this weekend, made top16 of the main event going 6-2 and it was incredibly enjoyable to play as always :)

    Decklist:

    1 Dryad Arbor
    3 Birds of Paradise
    2 Deathrite Shaman
    3 Mother of Runes
    4 Fauna Shaman
    2 Scryb Ranger
    1 Phyrexian Revoker
    1 Gaddock Teeg
    1 Scavenging Ooze
    1 Spellstutter Sprite
    1 Qasali Pridemage
    2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
    1 Orzhov Pontiff
    1 Renegade Rallier
    1 Spell Queller
    1 Sanctum Prelate
    1 Vendilion Clique
    1 True-Name Nemesis
    1 Glen Elendra Archmage
    1 Atraxa, Praetors' Voice

    4 Aether Vial
    4 Brainstorm
    3 Green Sun's Zenith
    2 Abrupt Decay
    1 Umezawa's Jitte

    4 Misty Rainforest
    4 Windswept Heath
    2 Bayou
    2 Tropical Island
    2 Savannah
    1 Tundra
    1 Forest

    SB:
    2 Faerie Macabre
    2 Sanctum Prelate
    1 Gilded Drake
    1 Merieke Ri Berit
    1 Big Game Hunter
    1 Meddling Mage
    1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
    1 Thrun, the Last Troll
    1 Tireless Tracker
    1 Wilt-Leaf Liege
    1 Reclamation Sage
    1 Ethersworn Canonist
    1 Mirran Crusader


    Here's what I remember from my matches:

    Friday trial: 3-1, won 1 bye for the main event.
    R1: vs. Czech Pile 2-0
    Friend of mine. Close G1, he lands a good Hymn to Tourach and we both mostly run out of stuff. I draw a Leovold pretty quickly that makes his topdecks worse by enough to win me the topdeck war. G2 I just chain must-kill threats (Mother, Fauna Shaman, Leovold, ...) and end up with a Scryb Ranger and a Tireless Tracker left over which is easily enough to outvalue him.
    R2: vs. RUG Delver 2-0
    Another friend of mine. G1 I survive long enough to vial in Atraxa with double Mother up and he can't beat it. G2 was pretty incredible with a pair of delvers not flipping for a bunch of turns, however the first time they didn't flip he drew Pithing Needle vs. my double Vial basic Forest draw so not much happens for a long time...but long games vs. Delver are almost always favored for this deck so I eventually just out-stuff him.
    R3: vs. UR Delver 2-0
    He had Stifles and Wastelands...G1 I made it super complicated for myself by playing around Price of Progress with Scryb Ranger all the time and he didn't actually have it in hand...eventually won with Atraxa. G2 he had a removal heavy hand, killing 2 Vials and a few creatures. Eventually ended up with a TNN, a Deathrite and a Scryb Ranger vs. a Pyromancer and a bunch of tokens...but Scryb+Deathrite clock is incredibly fast, plus both attacking and blocking with TNN using Scryb feels like cheating.
    R4: vs. Infect 0-2
    This matchup still feels hard. It feels almost impossible to beat their good draws. G1 he kills me T3 with a lethal Blighted Agent, G2 I end up in a complicated board state with an Orzhov Pontiff already in play, a Jitte on 2 counters (after attacking) attached to a Spell Queller that stopped his lethal Invigorate the turn prior and some other stuff vs. triple Noble Hierarch and Blighted Agent. My opponent has 1 mana up and 2 cards and I try to figure out what he could have. I'm dead next turn since I'm on 6 Poison, I end up shooting my Pontiff with Jitte, haunting a Hierarch and shooting said Hierarch and lose to Blossoming Defence. I thought of Vines and I forgot that since Blossoming Defence only works on friendly creatures I should have haunted my own Dryad Arbor and killed that with the Jitte to get the second Pontiff trigger which would have played around his 1 Blossoming Defence...ah well, lesson learned ^^


    Sunday main event: 6-2, 1 point off top8
    R1: bye
    R2: vs. Czech Pile 2-0
    He takes a Mulligan G1. Kills my DRS and then my Fauna Shaman lives. I play the protect it and build a board game and end up more or less locking him out with a Mother+Scryb+Glen board and mana up all the time. G2 I land a Leovold. Didn't realise how good it actually was until I Cliqued him in his draw step 2 turns later, revealing Brainstorm, Sylvan Library, Jace, Baleful Strix and Scalding Tarn. Draw-step Clique with Leovold in play also feels really dirty btw...won pretty easily from there.
    R3: vs. Sneak & Show 1-2
    Lose G1 to T3 Show -> Omniscience -> Emrakul. G2 I win by vialling in a Gilded Drake when he Sneak attacks an Emrakul and taking it. G3 I get Pyroclasmed twice and lose.
    R4: vs. BR Reanimator 2-1
    G1 he shows me a Chancellor, then goes Chrome Mox, land, Unmask himself, Animate Dead Chancellor. It takes me a few turns to get my things into play, I take a couple of hits and eventually trade Atraxa with the Chancellor. At this point I have an Ooze in play so he concedes. G2 He makes T1 Sire of Insanity. I discard my hand, draw Bayou, play it, draw Big Game Hunter and feel amazing when I get to Madness it off of his Sire in my endstep to kill the Sire. Feel less good when he draws another Reanimate the next turn. He kills me with Sire. G3 I have a Faerie Macabre which I hide from Discard with Brainstorm, he ends up not finding any good way to ditch his own cards after though and reanimates my DRS. I play some stuff including Vial, Scryb and Fauna Shaman, he eventually double Rituals out a Chancellor. I endstep get Merieke, vial it in, untap, use Scryb+Merieke to take both his (my) DRS and his Chancellor and kill him from there.
    R5: vs. Mono Red Prison 2-1
    G1 he has T1 chalice on the play, locking out my mana dorks. The game goes on for a long time, but the only lands I ever find are the 2 I kept: Forest and Savannah. I die to Pia & Kiran after discarding to hand size multiple times with plenty of answers in hand but no mana to cast them. G2 Goes really long. We end up at a boardstate where he has Bottled Cloister, double Bridge and Spyglass on DRS vs. my DRS, Fauna Shaman and Vial. I tutor up removal for Cloister, then get 2 Sanctum Prelates on 3 and 4. He eventually gets cards stuck in his hand due to the Prelates and also can't kill them since his sweepers cost 3 and 4 so I eventually get under the Bridge to kill him. G3 I have a T2 prelate into T3 Teeg hand which looks good but I just get my T2 board killed by Fiery Confluence and 2 turns later lose board again to a Volcanic Fallout. I eventually end up with a Dryad Arbor and a Jitte that kills him after blowing up his Bridge.
    R6: vs. Burn 0-2
    G1 I keep basic Forest, double Birds, DRS and stuff. He goes T1 Swiftspear into 2 Searing Bloods and Searing Blaze on my 3 mana creatures and I never get to cast a relevant spell. G2 I mulligan and have to keep a rather slow hand. This is the only match all weekend that felt like I couldn't win.
    R7: vs. BUG Delver 2-1
    G1 I don't remember much. I won pretty quickly. G2 He Hymn to Tourachs twice, hitting Leovold+Mirran Crusader followed by Leovold+Fauna Shaman and then follows that up with a Lily the last Hope. I lose. G3 I go T1 birds, he goes T1 Bayou, DRS. Since Bayou doesn't let him Daze I get to T2 Leovold. Again, don't realise how good it was until I Clique him on T4 revealing double Ponder and Brainstorm among better cards. My T3 play was Scavening Ooze and he's stuck on 2 lands so turning off his Deathrite with Ooze ends up being enough to kill him pretty quickly.
    R8: vs. Grixis Delver 2-0
    G1 involved a Scryb Ranger doing a lot of work and a Sanctum Prelate on 1, with Fauna Shaman eventually finding Atraxa which ended the game. G2 I remember Orzhov Pontiff killing his True-Name, me tutoring my own TNN to handle his Gurmag Angler and Glen Elendra locking up the game.



    Deck felt really good. Also met a bunch of people who were facinated by it so maybe I inspired some of them to give something like this a shot. Can't promise anyone wins but I can promise fun, that's for sure :D I definitely still made some small mistakes here and there but the deck is very complicated to play perfectly so I'm happy slowly progressing towards said perfect play ;) Every card in the maindeck pulled it's weight, the standouts being Aether Vial, Scryb Ranger, Orzhov Pontiff, Fauna Shaman and Atraxa. In the SB, I never ended up needing Thrun. Meddling Mage felt sort of weak, Prelate just does a better job usually. Wilt-Leaf might be too cute but I've been able to tutor it in response to discard before and it usually just ends the game when that happens so depending on how many Hymn to Tourachs, Lilianas and Kolaghans Commands I expect it'll be able to keep it's slot. Satisfied with not having played Force of Will in the 75 as well. I'll probably be experimenting with a few different sideboard cards now but the MD will stay as is for the foreseable future.

  11. #31
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    That's awesome, thanks for posting! I'm going to have to test some of the stuff you are doing, it's pretty similar to what I have been playing but skipping taiga and red for a tundra and then a few brainstorms could probably help me.

    Edit: One question for you, I've felt that when playing vs Czech Pile everything I play is just removed, then removed, then Snapcaster-removed, then Kolaghan's Command-removed taking my Vial in the process. Even the supposed MVP Leovold has just been a Strix in this matchup, i.e. play him, he eats removal, I get to draw a single card and then he's gone. And vs such an attrition-heavy strategy a change is needed. And I've been thinking that a good approach could be Recruiter of the Guard, Flickerwisp, Ranger of Eos, Hangarback Walker. Using a single card, recruiter, brings you 5 cards in this case, with the Hangarback Walker multiplying into several which they have a hard time dealing with efficiently. Maybe just play several Hangarback Walkers instead. It has good synergy with the Rangers. Of course, if a Mother of Runes survives until end of turn a lot is won, but with their amount of removal and cantrips this seems like a very unreliable approach. I was thinking of using Concordant Crossroads to ensure Mother survives, but it's hard to find a 1-of enchantment. Pile is very popular locally so it cannot be ignored for me.
    Last edited by pettdan; 03-20-2018 at 05:57 AM.

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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Czech Pile doesn't actually play that much removal...usually something like 1 Decay, 1 Edict, 2 Push, 1 Bolt, 2 Kolaghans...and 3 Snap...we have a good amount of things they have to kill immediately (e.g. Mom, Leo, Fauna, Prelate), a few things they have to kill to be able to use Snaps (DRS, Ooze) and most of our things they have to kill eventually...so what I'm trying to say is we have a larger density of things they need to kill than they have removal. And them cantripping to find more removal isn't always enough since they can't usually let you untap with Mom or Fauna for example. Plus I find a lot of Pile players are just willing to hurl removal at most things I play early on...so sequencing creatures to try and get an important one to survive makes a big difference. If I have a Vial, trying to force them into playing main phase removal also helps since it often lets me untap with a Mom/Fauna that you vial in on endstep.
    Of course you can very easily lose when they just remove your first few good plays but that requires them having a rather good draw imo. But I've definitely had that feeling you describe of "everything I play just gets removed" vs. them before. In general I feel like the main swing points in the matchup are how many Hymns they play and how well they hit, plus whether or not they run/draw MD Toxic Deluge.

    This is the matchup where I really want a value engine like Meren, but their DRS just turn it off :/ The creatures you mentioned should be solid against them, I wouldn't run Concordant Crossroads personally though.

  13. #33

    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    @Demonic Pact: Clap clap for you, happy to see any version of this deck played to top 16 at a big tournament =)

    Nice list, i obv approve Vial, Brainstorm and no Force, still unsure about single jitte, revoker and pontiff in the maindeck, impressions about Sprite?
    And ambitious manabase too, with only 3 "real" dorks, but with 3 gsz and 2 drs, made possible thx to Vial obv, and 16 lands... seems risky to me. 2 scryb ranger and no quirion also? How
    about it?

    Anyway, really interesting and congrats again, will test more in the next days!

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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    On the topic of Scryb Ranger, I have been playing two as well for the past I think 1,5 years, most of the time, since they are just much better and I don't have the 14 land manabase. So that part makes sense to me.

  15. #35

    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Quote Originally Posted by pettdan View Post
    On the topic of Scryb Ranger, I have been playing two as well for the past I think 1,5 years, most of the time, since they are just much better and I don't have the 14 land manabase. So that part makes sense to me.

    Me too, my opinion is that when you have 3 gsz the flexibility of having 1 Quirion and 1 Scryb is better than 2 scryb. That's all.

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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Quote Originally Posted by Memories of the Time View Post
    Me too, my opinion is that when you have 3 gsz the flexibility of having 1 Quirion and 1 Scryb is better than 2 scryb. That's all.
    That's what I was talking about, I play 3+ GSZ usually and in that context I still prefer the better value of Scryb Ranger. I think I would prefer a Quirion if playing 14 lands, but I've been playing 16+Dryad. Since I tested moving to 2 Scryb Rangers I never regretted it, at least that I recall, but it's a tough decision so the testing results need to guide the decision.

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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    @Memories of the Time: Here are my opinions on the cards you mentioned, obviously we're talking about the flexible singleton slots here so these will always depend on the metagame you anticipate and end up facing. And I have decent experience playing them, but am still subject to personal opinions and sample size issues, so whatever my opinion on them may be is just my opinion, not necessarily correct/fact...

    Jitte: It's just a really, really good card. That's all. It's not a specific answer I feel like I need to tutor up hence I don't run SFM. Let's run through the hypothetical situation where I have an active Fauna Shaman and am getting SFM -> Jitte to answer a specific problem: If I need to kill some X/1s, say some elves, I'll just get Orzhov Pontiff as a more efficient way to do so. If I need to gain life I can just get Atraxa. If I need to kill them quickly, I'll get TNN/Atraxa/DRS+Scryb depending on the situation. Jitte isn't really part of the toolbox, but it's also just never bad. I could almost certainly cut it and I wouldn't feel like I was missing it. But it's always really good when I have it...

    Revoker: This has been in and out of my MD a few times. It's easily one of the most underwhelming cards in the MD right now, but it has its uses. Can't fault anyone for not running one though, almost all the things it does can be replicated with other cards.

    Pontiff: I really love this card (as you can probably tell by now ^^). Maybe I've just played against too many TNNs, but it just seems to be excellent. TNN, Mom, Pyro and Tokens, Mentor Tokens, Snaps, Strixes, basically all of Elves, half of DnT, unthresholded Mongeese, unflipped Delvers, Dark Confidants, Goblin tokens, etc. It kills so many things and removal is one of the hardest things to come by in this deck in my experience. You could run it in the SB instead. There are some matchups where it's dead, I'll probably always run it MD but it obviously depends on your metagame.

    Sprite: This is a pretty nieche card I've come to like. It's main use is to counter a Plow, Push or Bolt on an important creature. But even just at 1 it also hits Brainstorm and other cantrips, Delver, Mongoose, DRS, Mom, Reanimate, Entomb, Petal, LED, Moxes, etc. I've been quite impressed by it. And in my list, countering spells that cost more than 1 happens relatively often. 2 Scrybs, Vendilion and Glen are the other Faeries in the deck...a line that comes up often enough is when you use Fauna Shaman to tutor for Scryb, crack a fetch for Dryad Arbor, bounce Arbor to untap Fauna, tutor away the Arbor for a Sprite and play it for X=2.

    Manabase/Dorks: Definitely not sure I'm running the correct configuration. It feels good right now but that's about all I'm going on ^^ Please remind me what Manabase you advocate, iirc it's something like 14 land+Dryad, 6 dorks without DRS, 3-4 GSZ and Vials? I may be getting things mixed up here so please let me know :)
    If it is indeed what I mentioned above, you're basically running 2 less lands than me but an additional 1/3 dorks (depending on whether we count DRS...I sort of do count it but I'm aware that it doesn't always work)? IMO that sounds more risky since it's easier to lose to Wasteland in particular...

    Scryb/Quirion: Must admit I've never tried Quirion. Scryb is easily one of the best cards in the deck. All 3 keywords you get for the additional mana vs. a Quirion are very, very good. It straight up wins some games by creating blowouts that are only possible because it has Flash. Pro blue is incredible, especially combined with Flying. And flying allows it to chip in at life totals/planeswalkers very often. Still, should probably try a Quirion because of the flexibility you mentioned with GSZ.

  18. #38
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Quote Originally Posted by pettdan View Post
    That's what I was talking about, I play 3+ GSZ usually and in that context I still prefer the better value of Scryb Ranger. I think I would prefer a Quirion if playing 14 lands, but I've been playing 16+Dryad. Since I tested moving to 2 Scryb Rangers I never regretted it, at least that I recall, but it's a tough decision so the testing results need to guide the decision.
    Of course Scryb taken as single card is absolutely > to Quirion, BUT...
    Take for example my list: the presence of the Qurion in a deck with 4 GSZ, allows this very good (and solid) start: turn 1 land+ dork, turn 2 GSZ for Qurion, untap, play the land and play 2xcc1 or a cc2... and after passed the turn I'm in virtual coverage of Spell Pierce.
    "Life is fight"

    Emanuel Lasker

  19. #39

    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Quote Originally Posted by Stinner View Post
    Of course Scryb taken as single card is absolutely > to Quirion, BUT...
    Take for example my list: the presence of the Qurion in a deck with 4 GSZ, allows this very good (and solid) start: turn 1 land+ dork, turn 2 GSZ for Qurion, untap, play the land and play 2xcc1 or a cc2... and after passed the turn I'm in virtual coverage of Spell Pierce.
    Yep that's the important point about flexibility of Quirion: the difference bw cc 1 and 2 in the first 2-3 turns are incredible and it's often an important point to establish our gameplan.

  20. #40
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    Re: M.O.S.T. - Merieke, Opposition, (Survival), Tradewind Rider

    Had another good result with the deck last Saturday, playing at a local 78 player Legacy tournament and going 5-1-1 into top8. Lost in Quarterfinals.

    http://blog.gameplace.ch/3k-legacy-at-lock-and-load/

    I ran the same 75 i did in Rome...

    Here's what i remember from my matches:

    Round 1: 0-2 vs. Czech Pile
    Game 1 was close for a long time, i thought through a Liliana the Last Hope which is annoyingly good against the deck...eventually got a reasonable board into play (3-4 creatures) but lost it to Toxic Deluge. He followed up with Jace and ran away with the game.
    Game 2 felt brutal, he had Push, Push, Bolt, Golgari Charm, Decay, Kolaghans, Kolaghans, Diabolic Edict as his first plays without playing a single blue card...needless to say that this amount of removal is basically unbeatable.

    Round 2: 2-0 vs. Esper Deathblade
    Game 1 I get a good board position with a Vial on 3 and a Fauna Shaman as well as some other stuff including DRS. I already had Pridemage blow up his Batterskull and he had SFM, DRS and TNN left. He goes to Abrupt Decay my Aether Vial with 3 mana left open and 2 cards. I really want to keep my vial and tutor Spell Queller to protect it since my life total is still very high and I'm not under immediate threat from his TNN. But if his last 2 cards are Jitte+Land he'll connect with Jitte which kills my tutor. My hand however is very strong with both 4drops which become (temporarily) uncastable if I lose vial and I figure even if he has it I have a good chance of fighting through TNN+Jitte. So I get Queller for the Decay. He then has Land+Jitte so it connects on TNN and kills my Shaman. I start racing the Jitte with Atraxa and Queller in the air and find a Leovold which makes his Jitte activations awkward. About two turns later he has to use his Jitte to survive and either gain life and hope to draw into STP or kill Atraxa with the Jitte through my Leovold. He opts for the second and I get to draw 4 cards. He finds another TNN but I now have Queller and Glen hitting him. I get him to 2 after Jitte activations and win the deathrite war by flashing in Scryb Ranger to kill him.
    Game 2 he keeps an awkward 7 with some mana issues. I get off to a quick start, when I clique him on T3 I take his Zealous Persecution which he can't yet cast because he doesn't have white mana in play. He draws the white but ends up too far behind to catch up.

    Round 3: 1-1 vs. Big Eldrazi
    Friend of mine, we've played a bunch of times so we both mostly know what to do. Game 1 I land a Teeg early which protects my board from All is Dust and Ugin while hindering some of his other cards (Dynamo, Portal)...he however has double Endbringer which I try to fight through for a long time but can't and eventually lose. Perhaps should have conceded sooner to conserve time...
    Game 2 he has a TKS, a Sower and an Endbringer fairly early. I take the Endbringer with Gilded Drake. It doesn't do that much for me, but it just destroys me if he has it...he finds another TKS but not much more in the following few turns, I have a fairly big board too and the game is sort of stalled...I take some damage from the actual Gilded Drake though which gets through my Scryb Ranger thanks to Walking Ballista. I have a Leovold, so his Ballista is sort of awkward...I force his hand on the ballista with a Rec Sage before it gets big enough to just outright kill me...he opts to shoot leovold and then most of my board, which draws me a bunch of cards and I land a Fauna Shaman. His next turn he swings 2 TKS, the Sower and the Drake into my board of Fauna Shaman, Clique, Scavenging Ooze and Endbringer (and Aether Vial). I figure a game plan, block/chump in a way to survive and keep Fauna Shaman alive. I go to 1, draw and pass (this is extra turn 1). He attacks with the remaining creatures, I discard Big Game Hunter to Fauna Shaman and cast it with Madness to kill the Sower, get Atraxa, vial it in and block the Drake and survive while killing most of his board. My remaining 2 attack steps are enough to close the game and draw the match.

    Round 4: 2-0 vs. Grixis Delver
    Game 1 I resolve a Vial but lose both my lands to double Wasteland...however while ticking up Vial I get a DRS and a Fauna Shaman into play. In the meantime he flips a Delver and gets an Angler. i get and vial in a TNN to stop the Angler and then get and vial in Atraxa to eat the Delver. From there I kill him pretty quickly. Atraxa is good <3
    Game 2 we both mulligan, don't remember everything but he died with Marsh Casualties in hand which would have been excellent but I was able to play around it by denying him double black by using my DRS to turn off his.

    Round 5: 2-0 vs. Enchantress
    Not gonna lie, I had very little idea on how his deck works...Game 1 I figured Leovold turning off the draw was good so I Zenithed that on T3 Game 1. I then blew up a pair of Elephant Grass and managed to kill him with some random creatures...
    Game 2 I had Turn 2 Ethersworn Canonist which hurt him a lot. I then had Fauna Shaman find me removal for Moat and Solitary Confinement and a Spellstutter for an Enlightened Tutor since that was surely have gotten something bad (Humility or another Moat or whatever)

    Round 6: 2-1 vs. Grixis Delver
    Game 1 I managed to keep enough lands and dorks in play to cast spells (yay). End up at 5 life vs. a flipped Delver and untap with a Fauna Shaman, a birds, a DRS and 2 lands. I get Scryb main phase to save mana and deal with the Delver. He draws bolt which I counter by searching up Spellstutter. He draws another bolt which I stop by getting Queller and close out pretty easily from there.
    Game 2 I get destroyed by DRS into double Daze, double Wasteland. I'm sure I can never beat draws like these from Delver decks :/
    Game 3 I mull to 6 and he mulls to 4. He only has one land and a DRS which is turned off by my Ooze so he doesn't get to cast too many spells. I kill him fairly straightforwardly. Mulligan was really rough for him...

    Round 7: 2-0 vs. Dredge
    I somehow win Game 1 with T1 Vial, put in Dryad, T2 Zenith for Ooze, T3 have 4 mana to use it. His start is good but not super good and he only has 6 Zombies when I untap with the Ooze so the Ooze is enough to survive and turn off everything further he can do.
    He then concedes Game 2 to me because he's a friend and he's on 12 points and I'm on 13. So he couldn't make top8 and I was very likely to make it with a win. Thanks :)

    I then do make top8, everyone with 16 or more points ended up making it so my breakers didn't end up mattering (they were pretty poor having my loss in Round1...)

    Quarterfinals: 1-2 vs. BUG Midrange
    Game 1 I have a Mother killed, a Fauna Shaman forced, a Rallier get back Mother which gets killed again, etc. He ends up with DRS, Leovold, Strix vs. my Leovold, Birds, Rallier, however he has no or 1 card left and I have 3 or 4...He draws another DRS and I zenith for an Ooze to turn them both off. I decay his Leovold on his upkeep to deny him the extra draw due to my Leovold which opens the door for attacks and I kill him quickly from there.
    Game 2 I mulligan to 5 and get Thoughtseized twice. I end up with one land (basic Forest), active Mother of Runes and a Vial which eventually puts a Leovold in. He kills my Vial. He has a Goyf and a DRS and I use Mother to block the Goyf so he gets to remove my Leovold. I draw into DRS of my own and eventually a second land. I somehow manage to get back into the game due to the incredible mana generation of Scryb with a dork...so I end up with Mother, Mother, Scryb, DRS, Fauna vs. Triple Strix, TNN, Goyf, DRS (or something like that). I go to 5 off the TNN however. My line has me get Orzhov Pontiff on his end step, untap and get the 4 for 1 and stop the TNN which would win me the game. However, when I go to search for the Pontiff it isn't there. I check my sideboard and sure enough I boarded it out. Honestly no idea what I was thinking, it should never be taken out but that sideboarding mistake cost me the game and later the match :(
    Game 3 he had a Sylvan library just find him more and more removal. He also found a Jitte and a kicked Marsh Casualties killed what I had left and the Jitte closed from there.


    Another fun tournament :) I feel like I played pretty well throughout except for the sideboarding error in the Quarterfinals which left me feeling like an Idiot ^^ I have absolutely no idea what I was thinking, while playing Game 2 the thought that I might have boarded out Pontiff never even entered my mind until I was tutoring for it and couldn't find it, because it's so obviously wrong to take it out ^^ but what's done is done...Happy with the top8 :)

    Going to keep playing and want to test the Quirion Ranger as well as some sideboard stuff...suggestions and comments are obviously always welcome :)

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