Haven't tested but I've almost posted several times. It seems terrible IMO
* it filled his beater slots (including BSK) which seems incorrect. If anything it seems like you'd replace your equips/SFM and go for a more aggro version of the deck, letting this top you out; as it fills a similar role to equipment (note: it's worse than equipment, so I'm not advocating this). Unlike Crusader/Avenger you can't just attack through Gurmags/Goyfs/Elves, and instead stalemate with them until they are even bigger nasties; or they crack you while you're a 1/4 and you maybe crack back for 3. Crusader stops the bleeding (much like a TNN would) and then allows you to be offensive on your own terms.
* is bad in board stalemates (say, against TNN.) The reason being that the opp can still just block, but can grow their threat to be a 2-hit kill or some such. If they do, they get to hit first since you can't attack through the TNN in such a stalemate.
* abysmal vs token-producers (mentor, pyro, blossom) because they can chump you all day while you grow one of (or several of) their threats
* it's terrible in the mirror (they can wisp your dude too and let you grow their 'x')
* it's disproportionately bad against Jace. Since you "invest" in your guys, jace's -1 becomes much more irritating
I'm sure it's good in a variety of specific situations too, but I would hazard that the feel-bads will come up a lot more than one would expect.
I was in the middle of building mono white dnt, and came across warping wail.. is that something that’s possible against terminus? Being able to really go for it with protection seems useful against stoneblade and miracles. Thoughts?
Also, I’ve been looking at various equipment, and was considering Masterwork of Ingenuity. Has anyone gotten good mileage from it?
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Legacy decks: mono U painter, strawberry shortcake, imperial painter, solidarity, burn
EDH decks: zedruu voltron, rakdos the defiler, persistent petitioners, blind seer
Warping Wail possible? Yes. Good enough? Most probably not. You don't beat Terminus on the stack, you beat it by playing intelligently, all while remembering that you cannot _always_ win against it. ;)
Masterwork of Ingenuity: I'd rather play Phyrexian Metamorph, if only copying random things were good enough. You'll be better off playing actual equipment in its stead.
Warping Wail was frustrating to play for me even in the “right matchups” from the board. It made me not want to disrupt with my Ports as I might need that mana for Wail, and it made me not want to play aggressively since I MIGHT NEED THAT MANA for Wail.
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."
"Politicians are like diapers. They should be changed often and for the same reason."
"Governing is too important to be left to people as silly as politicians."
"Politicians were mostly people who'd had too little morals and ethics to stay lawyers."
Currently, what would you say Death and Taxes worst matchups are?
Played a 61 man tournament today and went 4-2 just short of top 8.
List:
Land (23):
4 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
1 Windswept Heath
2 Scrubland
2 Cavern of Souls
3 Karakas
3 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
Creatures (27):
3 Mother of Runes
1 Judge's Familiar
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Remorseful Cleric
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
1 Serra Avenger
3 Flickerwisp
2 Recruiter of the Guard
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Sanctum Prelate
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Palace Jailer
1 Walking Ballista
Other (11):
4 Swords to Plowshares
34 Aether Vial
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
Sideboard (15):
2 Council's Judgment
1 Path to Exile
1 Rest in Peace
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 War Priest of Thune
1 Plaguecrafter
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
1 Sanctum Prelate
1 Ethersworn Canonist
R1: Humans 2-1
G1: His turn 2 play was a Meddling Mage on path to exile, which made me consider a lot of rogue decks doing weird things, until he said he meant plow and had played too much modern the day before. I let him retcon it and it was relevant as I had two plows in hand. But I also had a ballista, and the broken artifact grinded out the game.
G2: He does play wasteland apparently and mana screws me with it + containment priest for my vial.
G3: Very grindy monarch game, due to his palace jailer. Jailer on a wisp is very awkward of course and the monarch soon flickers between the two of us. After I pontiff, he has the line of imperial recruiter into pontiff, but he has only five mana and can't cast it immediately. I attack with wisp, familiar and pontiff next turn, and he makes the mistake of blocking my pontiff. This causes him to lose his recruiter, disables him from becoming the monarch next turn and forces him to dismember my familiar in response of the haunt trigger. In my next turn, I can afford to let him become the monarch for a turn in exchange for gaining an active mom and it all goes downhill for him from there.
R2: UWR wizard midrange 2-0
G1: Turn 3 uncounterable sanctum prelate locks him out of the game.
G2: Another very grindy monarch game, with judge's familiar putting in a lot of kingmaking work and prelate also pulling its weight warding off plows and making cantrips worthless. The critical turn involves me playing recruiter for ballista to kill his clique, which allows me to attack with thalia into jace on 2 and with familiar to regain the monarch.
R3: D&T 2-0
G1, G2: He has a turn 2 ballista in both games, but I have a turn 1 vial in both games, which allows me to play around it. Game 1, I win on Sword of Fire and Ice and game 2 on jitte. I SFM'd for SOFI game 1 because I figured there was a small chance he was on miracles or esper instead and if he were on d&t, my gameplan was just as good with SOFI.
R4: Infect 1-2
G1: My hand is very meek: vial, mom, 5 lands (incl port). Barely a keep, but it's on the play. Fortunately, he banks on a sylvan library and it blanks, while I get to sequence vial (fow'd) into mom into thalia into SOFI for the win.
G2: My hand is crusader, mom, wisp, 4 lands, incl port again. Reluctant keep and I fail to see any interaction afterwards, mostly more lands. I bluff plow for a few turns, but in the final turn before I would aggro him, he obviously has to go for it and I have yet to draw anything relevant.
G3: Very similar to game 2, except that I did plow and path two major threats in the early turns. After that, I fail to draw anything relevant beyond a jitte, which he needles. And, again, the turn before I would aggro him with crusader and flyers he can win with a simple pump on an agent. I did have pontiff, but no black mana. Notably, I hadn't fetched this game either: I just didn't see any black source and my vial had been krosan gripped very early.
R5: UR delver 2-0
G1: He has a delver start, but fumbles when he says OK to me casting jitte. When I announce my jitte equip, he's like "wait, you cast it? wait" and I'm like "too late dude". I didn't even have a stoneforge in play. Jitte takes over the game.
G2: He starts with double delver, but the second one doesn't flip and dies to pontiff. The initial one then gets council'd and we go into the grind. I flood out, but this allows me to get batterskull in. With port back-up, I can dodge abrade (revealed with delver) for a turn to gain 4 life and bounce it in response to it. It runs into a force afterwards, but that's still massive card advantage. Eventually, thalia + karakas comes out on top.
R6: Grixis control 1-2
G1: I am on the play and have the stone-cold nuts when he can't fow my vial and I sequence thalia + mom into port and double wisp.
G2: I mull and have a shitty hand with double vial and jailer as the only creature. Jailer manages to avoid getting hymned, but as I vial him in, I also cast spirit of the labyrinth as my opponent was evidently mana screwed and I wanted to restrict his cantrips. I immediately realize my stupidity and the spirit possibly costs me the game, nullifying the monarch for three turns. I do doubt I'd have stood a chance if I hadn't played the spirit, given the way things turned out. I was banking on him being manascrewed, but he drew three lands in a row in the next few turns. Without spirit, I also wouldn't have any clock to speak of. Still, spirit also prevented me from porting him in his nex turn, which allowed him to K-command my vial and my jailer. That in particular makes me think it was a mistake.
G3: Mull again and I keep a one-lander (with double sfm and a scry land to the top), getting mana-screwed as I fail to find a third land before turn 6 so game over.
In retrospect, I can't really complain, losing to one of my worst match-ups (which was quite rare in the room) and to a more or less even match-up due to poor draws. Extra spot removal would have definitely helped against infect, but seems so weak against the format overall. It also became evident again that you really can't reliably splash for pontiff without sufficient black sources.
Played in a 25 people tournament, with basically the same list I posted a few weeks ago. The list is the same I used, i just traded a Spirit of the Labyrinth for a Judge's Familiar:
4x Wasteland
4x Rishadan Port
3x Karakas
5x Plains
5x Snow-Covered Plains
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Horizon Canopy
4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Flickerwisp
4x Orzhov Advokist
3x Mother of Runes
3x Phyrexian Revoker
1x Palace Jailer
1x Judge's Familiar
1x Recruiter of the Guard
4x Aether Vial
4x Swords to Plowshares
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
2x Council's Judgment
Side
2x Ethersworn Canonist
2x Faerie Macabre
2x Rest in Peace
2x Sanctum Prelate
2x Path to Exile
2x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2x Containment Priest
1x Pithing Needle
Got 4-0-1, which ended in 1st place! (just 2 people 4-0-1)
Match 1: Mirror (2-0)
G1: Don't remeber, sorry ;(
G2: I keep on 1 land and a vial, and I dont draw another land for like 6~7 turns. Just the vial alone wasnt enough....
G3: Super, super grind, a battle for the monarch! But Orzhov starts to grow and punchs really hard, I won on the last turn of the 5 turns....
Match 2: Miracles (2-0)
G1: Keep was: 3 basic plains, 1 vial, 1 orzhov. I did not know which deck he was using. I keep and he comes veryyyy slow, I topdeck Thalia and 2~3 revokers, and shutdown the deck.
G2: He missed his 3rd land drop for 3~4 turns, and when draws the land, I was too far ahead. He even tries a Terminus, but Sanctum on 6 got him!
Match 3: BUG Food Chain (1-1)
G1: I won, very hard game, topdecked Sword of Fire and Ice for the win!
G2: Very grind, couldnt keep with ballist and leovold was a pain (didnt draw karakas...). He kills me on the last turn of the 5 turns (deja vu)
Match 4: Mirror again (2-0)
G1: I have plow for the mother, he goes gaga for batter and put it on the battlefield, but I manage to sneak a Jitte and equip for the win.
G2: He draws just 2 lands and 3 vials, I put revoker on Vial, the did not have the removal, I put billions stuff into play (gaga, jitte, fire and ice, gideon, etc) and he scoops.
Mathc 5: Maverick Food Chain
G1: Mother > Thalia > Flicker+Wasteland > Flicker+Wasteland, he couldnt keep up with the pressure + land destruction.
G2: Basically:
He: Noble
Me: Plowshares
He: Dryad arbor, go.(2 lands in play, one is dryad)
Me: Gaga for jitte.
He: Gaeas Cradle, fierce empath, search for a gigant bomb.
Me: Mother of runes, plow, plow.
He: No land, pass.
Me: Equip jitte, next turn equip fire and ice, win!
Again, Orzhov Advokist was amazing.
I’ve been trying to make dnt to work for me, but it’s been a bit inconsistent and not as oppressive as I’d like. My build is a lot more grindy, with a pretty all in land destruction slant.
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Batterskull
1 crucible of worlds
4 Flickerwisp
3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Aether Vial
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Mangara of Corondor
3 Mother of Runes
3 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Sanctum Prelate
4 Mishra's Factory
2 Ghost Quarter
1 field of ruin
2 Karakas
4 Wasteland
4 Snow-Covered Plains
3 flagstones of trokaire
1 dust bowl
4 Rishadan Port
Those factories do some seriously good work. The general strategy is to get the mangara-karakas, dust bowl-flagstones of trokaire, ghost quarter/field of ruin-Aven mindcensor, wasteland-crucible, then win via some form of beat down.
It’s slow, (even if I nuke all lands, their board is still problematic. Best I’ve done is recruiter for mangara, then mise-draw into karakas) and eventually gets there when given time, but unless I’m allowed to grind, I usually fall too far behind. My assumption is that 4 basics is too few, and there’s not enough main deck to catch up when falling behind.
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Legacy decks: mono U painter, strawberry shortcake, imperial painter, solidarity, burn
EDH decks: zedruu voltron, rakdos the defiler, persistent petitioners, blind seer
You're trying an "old build", more control and less agressive. And unfortunately the metagame is too fast for that.
There's also the fact that you're only using 9 white sources, which is too low. The consensus is something like 13~14 white sources.
The problem with this kind of build is that you're trying too acomplish to much, and in the end you can't do what you're supposed to do. D&T is not a full control strategy, you must buy just enough time to kill your opp before he/she get out of the soft-lock you present.
Trying to "recruiter of the guard into some sort of lock", like with mangara or sanctum is not eficient and consumes much time and mana. Karakas can be easely "wastelanded" and you only have 2. So you cant lock your opp unless you draw the other karakas or the crucible, which will cost 4 with Thalia, and maybe will be even harder to cast if you spend ghost quarter/wasteland to slow your opp.
The deck seems great agains slow decks like miracles and other slow strategies, but even then you're going to have a hard time against delver, TNN, mirror, and other decks.
If you like the "land destruction" strategy, i would say that you remove the crucible, the mindcensors, the dust bowl, and put at least 13 white sources, keeping just ghost quarter/wasteland/rishadan and the mangara combo, which I would increase to 2 copies, and 3 karakas.
EDIT: and i would put the 4th Mother of Runes to protect the mangaras, so that your opp cant disrupt the combo with a removal spell.
The vast majority of what you said makes sense (and i assume you also meant for me to take out the dust bowl + flagstones and just replace them with plains?), but are you sure about crucible? in those long and grindy games, it feels like it wins games by itself. even against some really grindy decks, keeping them down to nothing seems pretty good. But ill test a crucible-less list for now and see how that goes.
In taking out the dust bowl-flagstones engine, i'll need to drop the land count down, right? It's really weird, but the ghost quarter is great against players who just go fetch all their basics, and the factories can put in some sneaky hits here and there. If i had the money for it, i'd splurge out for caverns. Maybe there's an argument for adding some fetches into the deck so i can remove the dead-cards for the long game.
[deck]
2 Mishra's Factory
1 Ghost Quarter
3 Karakas
4 Wasteland
7 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Arid Mesa
1 Flooded Plains
1 Marsh Flats
4 Rishadan Port
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Batterskull
4 Flickerwisp
1 Manriki-Gusari
3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Aether Vial
2 Mangara of Corondor
4 Mother of Runes
3 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Sanctum Prelate
[/deck]
A quick summary; my local meta's gone nuts for stoneblade and BW DnT (no idea if there's a special name for it..). so a main deck manriki-gusari seems a good idea. I'm also wondering if there's space for a single cursed scroll or something here, since opposing mother of runes are really irritating. Or maybe i should also splash black myself and get myself one of those pontiffs too.
It doesn't feel like this list jives very well with me, though it's most definitely a pilot thing, and nothing wrong with the deck itself. It always feels like i'm unable to out grind everyone. Maybe i just need to eke out more value out of everything i do. Just playing the deck, it certainly feels like i always have a good chance, and it's very easy to just 'autopilot', but i always find little lines that aren't always so obvious that can eke out more value.
I think you are getting too cute with your mana base. I run 7 & 6 Split Plains with 2 Karakas and sometimes i still wish i had more white sources... the fetches might thin your deck, but it also makes it less likely to draw those plains if you are short white mana.
Just my 2 cents... too many tweaks to the deck. Try moving back to a stock list and improve your win rate, then adjust.
My Current Mana Base:
7 Plains
6 Snow-Covered Plains
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
2 Karakas
1 Mishra's Factory
Manriki-gusari is fairly narrow. If you want maindeck hate against DnT and its variants, I'd recommend Walking Ballista or Sword of War and Peace, both of which have multiple applications besides beating on DnT. Manriki-gusari makes a fine sideboard card, if you feel your meta calls for it.
Why are we in the established decks???!!!
We're third this month!! I understand tghat dice box doesn't love D&T, but...
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."
"Politicians are like diapers. They should be changed often and for the same reason."
"Governing is too important to be left to people as silly as politicians."
"Politicians were mostly people who'd had too little morals and ethics to stay lawyers."
New tournament report! 6-0! 31 players (yes, 6 rounds, even though were 31 players)
List:
4x Wasteland
4x Rishadan Port
3x Karakas
5x Plains
5x Snow-Covered Plains
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Horizon Canopy
4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Flickerwisp
4x Orzhov Advokist
3x Mother of Runes
3x Phyrexian Revoker
1x Palace Jailer
1x Judge's Familiar
1x Recruiter of the Guard
4x Aether Vial
4x Swords to Plowshares
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
2x Council's Judgment
Side
2x Ethersworn Canonist
1x Faerie Macabre
1x Rest in Peace
2x Sanctum Prelate
2x Path to Exile
2x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2x Containment Priest
1x Pithing Needle
2x Surgical Extraction
Match 1: UR Delver (2-0)
G1: Dont know what he was playing. Keep a hand with gaga, thalia and 2 plow. He plays lands go, e play land em pass. He plays pyromancer, and I plow, and he Fow the plow. Then, I wasteland his only red source, and he never draws another one.
G2: Sanctum for 1 + sword of fire and ice were enough to race a TNN
Match 2: Enchantress Bloom (2-0) (I knew he was on enchantress, did not know this version, thought it was a "normal" version). For those of you (like me) who doesnt know, this is the list: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles...antress-legacy
G1: He keeps a hand with 3 argothian enchantress and.....nothing more. He draws literally 7 forests in a row and die easy.
G2: Canonist + Thalia + sanctum on 3 (for solitary confinement), and a few turns later I won. Then, my opp showed me the deck. Interesting to know that our revoker can name the Cadeverous Bloom to stop the combo!
Match 3: Goblins (2-0)
G1: Mull to 5. Keep 4 lands and a Mother of Runes. FLickerwisp on top. Keep. I play mother, he plays lackey. I port him, and turn 3 flickerwisp. he comes slow, and I topdeck palace jaile, and that was enough, too much CA.
G2: I played this veryyyyyyy control. Played around Pyrokinesis all game (he does not have the card in his 75...), and a flickerwisp 7/5 + orzhov advokist pumping him, were enough.
Match 4: Monored Prison (2-1)
G1: He win the dice and plays trinisphere turn 1. I have enough lands, but he comes very fast, with chandra, fiery confluence, and the indestructible god. If I were on the play I would have won, had turn 1 vial.
G2: Gaga + fire and ice and a few removal on his goblins were enough.
G3: He keeps and mountain go. I play mother of runes, and he chandra turn 2, killing the mother. My turn 2, I play vial and a pithing needle on chandra. By this time he had used too much resources to put the chandra into play, and a few creatures after I won.
Match 5: BG Depths (2-0)
G1: I won the dice, played thalia turn 2, and he plays BoB turn 2. My turn 3 were gaga for fire and ice and wasteland his bayou. On his turn he attacks with bob, and I trade with gaga. Then I noticed he hadn't enough lands, and I win easely (dont understand why he attacked with bob if he was with few lands)
G2: He sideboard to much and dilute his game plan. He uses 2 surgical extraction, and remove all my wastelands and plowshares, but I have path in hand. He even have dread of night, witch did nothing agains gaga + fire and ice.
Match 6: Death and Taxes (2-0)
G1: Connect jitte first, gg. Dont remeber much
G2: Orzhov + Gideon + jitte closed out the game relatively easy.
Very happy with the result, Orzhov Adokist, as always, being amazing.
Orzhov Advokist sounds pretty weird. One thing I'd like to know: How is it when combined with Walking Ballista? Supercharging it for creature control or reach sounds pretty good in theory. It should also be quite the clock since each counter can do double duty with attacking and then pinging for the win.
That DOES sound weird. I don't think even i'd do that, and i'm a pretty horrible player.
I also have been pretty impressed with the advokist, but ONLY if my opponent doesn't play TNN. at that point, it's a dead card in hand (since the only out i have against those are 2 pontiffs, and those sit on my board).
I was just curious; is big thaalia out of favour right now? i was messing about testing all sorts of different lists, and i came across tsabo's web. That plus big thaalia means that it blanks all opposing fetches, right? and opposing ports, karakas, and any other land that also happens to have some non-mana producing effect. is there a reason it's not being played right now? at worst it cycles, which isn't the worst thing in the world.
Have to caveat that i'm trying to make a very land-disruption heavy DnT build that is probably not the right way to go. But magic is a 0-sum game, and i want to have all the fun.
The high thoughness is great. It is a wall against lots of decks, and in combination with flickerwisp, i won easely, for example, the 2 games against goblins. Mirran, for example, in those matches would been good, but not amazing because it would be easly killed/blocked.
The report is just a summary of the matchs, a lot of stuff that happended I didnt write about.
The match that I thought orzhov would be bad is the mirror (because of opp flickerwispss), but i was wrong. It's great in the mirror, you just arent afraid of equipments anymore.
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