is anyone still splashing red or black?
i've been playing with a small black splash for a while and I like it. The mirror gets pretty easy with bob + pontiff, but I really dislike the manabase, especially running fetchlands. can anyone provide tested input on how to correctly build the manabase when splashing a colour? While definitely depending on the amount of black cards we actually play, i think we still have to go pretty deep on black mana even if we run few actual black cards - given that we dont play any real card selection. I'm unsure whether its better to play just ~ 2 Scrublands and more fetches compared to maxing out Scrublands and trying to minimize the amount of fetches.
I'm currently on 3 Scrubland 4 Fetches (2 Caverns) for 3 maindeck, 2-4 sb black cards.
I play both splashes off and on and my default setup is 5 fetches 2 duals 3 caverns w/ only humans as the splash creatures. If you count Vials, which you should, that's 14 sources, which means you'll have one in your opening hand 90% of the time. With WR if you're not playing Pia/Kiran main you can get away with one Plateau. Fetches are way better than duals in your opening hand and you want your first land to be a Plains against Wasteland decks.
Mana situation is harder if you want to actually play colored spells. Like, Thoughtseize is a great card, but you want to cast it t1, now you only have 7 sources with the above manabase. Even if you stretch it to 10 sources by giving up Caverns and some Karakas that's not gonna be a reliable t1 Thoughtseize. So my answer has just been 'don't play non-human splash cards.'
I play same configuration as iatee - 3 Plains, 5 fetches, 3 Karakas, 3 Caverns, 4 Wasteland, 3-4 Ports, 2 duals. I prefer fetches against wasteland decks, on the other hand fetches feed Deathrite Shaman. But basic Plains is the best land in deck and we need single Plains to be able to fully operate. I was toying with cutting 5th fetch and play only 22 lands and 4th Stoneforge or another two drop, but I am not 100% convinced.
My last WB configuration was tuned to beat 4c midrange, Miracles and hopefully mirror. Aggressive Delver strategies with Shamans became more difficult. Combo is mostly same.
4x Wasteland
3x Rishadan Port
3x Karakas
3x Plains (I run out of plains to fetch sometimes :/)
5x Fetches
2x Scrubland
3x Cavern of Souls
4x Mother of Runes
4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3x Phyrexian Revoker
3x Stoneforge Mystic (do not remember R.Port/Mystic split)
4x Dark Confidant
1x Recruiter of the Guard
3x Flickerwisp
3x Mirran Crusader
1x Sanctum Prelate
1x Serra Avenger
4x Swords to Plowshares
4x Aether Vial
1x Sword of War and Peace
1x Umezawa's Jitte
Only black cards in SB were Pontiffs (humans). SB was also very light on double white cards. Gideon is great, but Confidants grind a lot and dodge white hate which became common my meta.
Originally Posted by ESG
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. That is a great point regarding budget choices, particularly for local Legacy events. Perhaps my chart would run more true at major events. Maybe looking at the spells rather than looking at lands is a better litmus test (i.e., if you encounter fatal push or hymn you are likely playing against a fair deck.)
Oh wow. I missed that one. Yeah, worth experimenting with in this slot.
@Medea, I agree we're seeing a substantial increase in Sultai decks, I feel like I've lost super hard to Punishing Fire more often than I'd like, which is why I'm seeking something with protection from red in that slot. I definitely agree that Mirran Crusader is still good when it isn't great.
Thanks for your thoughts!
I have been on 5 fetches, 2 Plateaus, 2 Caverns and 4 Vials. Takeaway is that with this mana base you might be better off splashing for only creatures. I tried playing Sudden Demises and/or Pyroblasts out of the board for awhile and the best compromise I could make was cutting either a basic Plains or a Cavern for another fetchland.
Nice to see this in DTB again!
I'm planning on taking D&T to SCG Worcester in a few weeks and I would like to create for myself a sideboard guide to keep in my deck box, as my sideboarding on-the-fly often isn't that great.
Ignoring the super fringe matchups I'll likely see at least one or two of, what should I be focusing on? So far I'm thinking to make lists for:
Miracles
Sneak & Show
4-Color Delver
BUG Delver (tempo and Hymn/Lili version?)
Shardless BUG
TNN BUG
Lands
BR Reanimator
UB Reanimator
Aluren
Food Chain
Also considering some others, like Burn, UR Delver, Dredge, Mono Red Sneak Attack.
Should I worry about decks that used to be powerhouses like Eldrazi and Storm that seem to have lost momentum lately?
I think Infect, Elves and Grixis Delver should be expected matchups as well. However, Elves is as everyone knows, well...let's say hard :).
Craig Wescoe's guide here http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/articl...edate=2-3-2017 is extremely nice. I am certain these SB plans were worked out with Thomas Enevoldsen as he shipped Wecsoe the list before the GP, so that should be solid. There are just a few minor things that I would not agree with, but overall this should be very helpful for you.
And mind that it relates to the GP list.
Team SPOD
<Der_imaginäre_Freund> props:
Adan for being the NQG God (drawer)
@Adan
Take that sideboarding guide with a grain of salt. I disagree with a ton of choices in there, though it is a nice starting point if you have nothing to go on.
Obviously, nothing's set in stone here, but it gives you an idea of what you can or should do - conceptually - against a certain MU. I'll never cut SoFaI against Grixis Delver, and I also would not cut Revokers against Nic Fit due to Pernicious Deed (although the idea in that case could be that Gideon is immune to Decay/Deed).
Anyway, I'm excited to play some Legacy tonight again, it will be a medium sized tournament tonight capped to 4 rounds. Maybe I'll report.
Team SPOD
<Der_imaginäre_Freund> props:
Adan for being the NQG God (drawer)
Hello Medea, is there a place where you have sideboarding guides for other MUs than the ones on Thrabenuni?
I'd love to have another quick sheet indicating general guidelines in some MUs not listed on your website.
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Tournament report for EE6.
"You won’t find a sideboarding guide on this site. I’m a big believer that sideboarding guides are a crutch to your development as a player. Sideboard guides also become obsolete quickly, as changing a single card often completely changes what you want to do in a given matchup. You’ll find plenty of discussion about how to sideboard in the matchup section of the site, but even there, I don’t always provide exact numbers for you. I hope to teach your what you should be doing, not exactly which cards and how many copies should come in and out. Understanding what you should be doing in a matchup is much better for you in the long run than a decontextualized sideboarding guide. Truth be told, I often sideboard the same matchup drastically different depending on the playstyle of my opponent!"
That being said, if you have any questions about a specific matchup, just post about it here and everyone will give you some input.
My feeling here is that jamming the second Canonist is what I would do, because if they do have double Petal and Decay (for the Needle), they still can't go off (Canonist) and they are still mana neutral, but minus three cards. Double Canonist puts them at having to play two spells over two turns, with the opportunity for a turn of your own in between (where you can draw something like Thalia).Game 3 was interesting. I used a Pithing Needle and hit Polluted Delta. My opponent had a double Delta opener, so this bought me a pretty considerable amount of time. Unfortunately, I had only two lands myself and was unable to put up much pressure. My opponent has been cantripping and missing land drops. I’ve deployed a Rest in Peace and an Ethersworn Canonist
Eventually, I am faced with a pretty difficult decision. My opponent has a tapped Tropical Island that they used to Ponder, and a Flooded Strand they found off the Ponder. I can either play a second Canonist or Wasteland and drop a Vial. My opponent doesn’t have any lands, I’m relatively sure of that based on the previous few turns. If I play the Wasteland, I keep my opponent from casting an Abrupt Decay on my Canonist or Needle unless they have a Lotus Petal; they can’t start going off unless they have an additional Lotus Petal to boot. If I play the second Canonist, I stop my opponent from going off next turn unless they have something like a Massacre or Echoing Truth, but I open the window for my opponent to Decay the Needle and unlock two mana.
Given that my opponent’s mana was already choked due to the Needle (and indirectly due to the RiP neutering Cabal Ritual), I opt to stick to the mana denial plan. As odd as it sounds, getting the Vial in play at the cost of one of my lands is a trade I’m willing to make; I can’t really progress my board aggressively with just two lands, and even if I drew another, I might be hesitant to play a Plains to try and play around Massacre. My opponent had two Lotus Petals and managed to combo off. C’est la vie. I’m not 100% sure if the line I took was right or wrong here. I talked it over with a few players, both Storm and D&T, and I got very different answers and reasoning from various people.
Keeping on the mana denial is often correct, but in my mind your opponent has been structuring his plan around that, so as the game goes on, it is often getting less and less effective, because they are sculpting their hand to beat it. In that moment, it is unlikely he is looking to beat double Canonist. You don't have a Plains for Massacre to matter in this case, so there are only so many outs to your board, namely exactly one IMS and double "removal." Your line puts him needing two IMS and one "removal." Given that, off the top of my head, there are more IMS in his deck than "removal" I feel that Canonist is the "right" line.
Having double Canonist also increases your clock, which against ANT isn't meaningless either.
While I agree that landing Vial is good, honestly the chances are that the ship has sailed on Vial being relevant in this game. He can either beat what you have on the board, or he can't. Unfortunately you have to respect them being able to go off at any time, so I'd add hate to the board until there was no more in my hand. Easy to say after the fact, of course.
Just my thoughts, from someone who has never won anything of any consequence ever.
EDIT: To clarify, IMS is Initial Mana Source.
"The Ancients teach us that if we can but last, we shall prevail."
—Kaysa, Elder Druid of the Juniper Order
Needle vs ANT? Is that just because you have so many cards to take out?
Yeah, it was discussed many pages ago. I mean, it's one of those long shot things, but I guess maybe it's better than Mirran Crusader or something.
"The Ancients teach us that if we can but last, we shall prevail."
—Kaysa, Elder Druid of the Juniper Order
It's not a great card in the matchup, but it is one of the few things we can do to interact before turn 2. Once we make it to turn two, our odds of winning start ticking up very quickly. I don't hate trimming something like a Flickerwisp to bring it in.
It makes sense, and I do enjoy your MU guides a lot more than just some sideboarding guidelines.
However with the latest meta trend in Europe I am opposed to some new regular decks.
The main one I'm interested in being BigRed: we see 2 variants, one very explosive with sneak attack and inferno titans.
And the other one a bit more control oriented that fights with Chandra and Koth.
I've had various level of success against them and I'm unsure as to how to improve against this (these?) Decks.
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Those decks are build to cheese wins off fast Chalices and Blood Moons, neither of which is particularly good against DnT. They are also soft to mana denial, the SfM package, Phyrexian Revoker...I mean they are soft to like, every single card we play. It is a really, really favorable matchup, like comparable to Elves vs us.
Bring in generic removal stuff (Path, Council's Judgment, etc.), any additional Disenchant effect you have, obviously Containment Priest if they're Sneak. Revoker is probably the most generically good card against these decks (Chrome Mox, Sneak, Chandra) so if you want your main to be better, play more Revokers.
Watch out for fiery confluence! It's a beating.
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