[Deck] Death and Taxes

[Medea_]

This is where I'm at after a couple of days:

4 Wasteland
2 Rishadan Port
2 Ancient Tomb
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Flooded Strand
4 Windswept Heath
3 Plains
2 Plateau
2 Karakas
Creatures
4 Mother of Runes
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Recruiter of the Guard
2 Magus of the Moon
2 Flickerwisp
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Palace Jailer
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Aven Mindcensor
Other Spells
2 Blessed Alliance
4 Aether Vial
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
Sideboard:
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Containment Priest
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Banisher Priest
2 Cunning Sparkmage
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Manic Vandal
1 Manriki-Gusari
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Palace Jailer

I went 9-1 in games tonight against BUG Delver (5-0 pre, 4-1 post). I wanted to try out Blessed Alliance over Dismember to help out the Burn matchup a bit and try to make that salvageable. It ended up being very good, and I might can the Banisher Priest from the sideboard for a third.

I didn't draw Ancient Tomb once tonight in ten games and I didn't miss it; that may mean that the deck can function as is without it. Chalice is still a very good turn two play, and many times you want to run out a Vial or Mom anyway on one. I'm not quite sure how many wins the Tomb has gotten me that I couldn't have gotten otherwise. The probability of getting Chalice plus Cavern in an opener is somewhat low anyway. The turn two Magus is disgusting though, provided you have access to white mana from the rest of your hand (or a Vial).

Aven Mindcensor is still a bit loose of a slot. I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. That slot was Restoration Angel yesterday, but I wanted to try lowering the cmc a bit for those times when mana is tight.

Mirran Crusader may be unnecessary in the board; I like him as a generic dude to board in when things need to come out, but the BUG matchups are going to be just dominated by Magus anyway.

[sarpedon]

Great writeup! It was fun to watch :) And yeah, I can vouch: the CT artifacts match was intense. The G2 Sanctum Prelate on 4 into Phyrexian Revoker on Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast into Seal of Cleansing to Surgical Extraction his Ensnaring Bridge was kinda like this: http://gph.is/ZZbCro

Hit up a GPT on May 7th, field was somewhat soft, but still ended up coming out ahead and getting my byes for GP Vegas.

The list again

10 Plains
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
3 Karakas
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Horizon Canopy

4 Aether Vial
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte

4 Mother of Runes
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 flickerwisp
2 Serra Avenger
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Sanctum Prelate


Sideboard

1 Pithing Needle
2 Path to Exile
2 Containment Priest
2 Council's Judgment
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Seal of Cleansing
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Mangara of Corondor


So quick list things. Went back to the mono white variant and I completely agree that Cavern can be a liability in certain matchups, particularly against delver variants. So I went for the highest basic plains count I could while still fitting in one cavern, occasional value from this against blue decks but it isn’t important, and a horizon canopy, flood hedging. I lost one game to the horizon canopy doing enough damage to make an exalted tnn lethal, but it was otherwise pretty good. Overall record for the evening was 6-1 in rounds, 13-6 in games

Round 1: Dave Trie on UR Delver 1-2
Game 1: He mulled to 5 and had a hand of all lands and a vortex, I quickly kill him when it comes down to the race
Side In: 2 Path to Exile, 2 Council’s Judgment, 2 Ethersworn Canonist
Side Out: 1 Vial, 3 Revokers, 2 Mirran Crusader
Cut boltable non flying threats and a card that does nothing, wasn’t sure what else to cut, but all the non creature spells makes a vial a bit worse
Game 2: He has a very creature heavy start and I’m removal light so I get run over pretty fast
Game 3: A lot like the second game, he has a very creature heavy draw, I have not enough creatures and removal to get me to the end

Record 0-1

Round 2: Trevor Smith on Grixis Delver 2-1
Game 1: He only has cantrips and soft permission. It’s actually pretty funny, due to the turn one cabal on thalia, I thought he was on storm. I had double swords double crusader, so I removed all of his threats and killed him pretty quickly
Side In: 2 Path to Exile, 2 Council’s Judgment
Side Out: 3 Revokers, 1 Serra Avenger
Cut on the cards that do nothing for for removal, cut an avenger as I’d rather have something that can block angler
Game 2: The board gets super stalled as I take some hits from 2 Gurmag anglers and he eventually manages to drain me with drs for game
Game 3: I play a vial on turn 2 after top decking it, and it enabled me to dump my entire hand of prelate, crusader, and SFM fairly easily and lets me attack through completely unabated as he reveals the 2 bolts in his hand stranded by the prelate

Record 1-1

Round 3: Harry Takenaka on Sneak and Show 2-1
Game 1: Mull a reasonable 7, but needed more direct interaction as we both knew what we were playing. I get a quick soft lock with revoker and karakas and he dies needing to top deck a show and tell for his omniscience.
Side in: 2 Containment Priest, 1 Pithing Needle, 1 Mangara of Corondor, 2 Council’s Judgment
Side out: 4 Swords to plowshares, 1 jitte, 1 stoneforge mystic
Cut some of the slower cards for things that shut him out faster. Removal is pretty bad, so it also gets cut
Game 2: he forces my turn 1 play then shows a turn 2 omniscience into griselbrand. Finds emrakul and I die
Side in: 2 Ethersworn canonists
Side out: 2 mirran crusader
Dying to show and tell omni sucks
Game 3: I manage to get a canonist in play for the omniscience line, then drop a revoker to deal with the sneaks. He plays a moon on turn 2 which I let happen. He follows with a sneak, which I judgment to be safe. He plays another which I judgment again to be safe. I manage to kill him by hardcasting the batterskull to get me exactly lethal

Record 2-1

Round 4: Chris Kapica on Bant blade 2-1
Game 1: He mulls to 5, but unfortunately a jace bounces my mirran crusader which was holding back his jitte’d deathrites and I end up dead in a few turns as a result after he eventually finds a TNN and with DRS Drains I die
Side In: 2 Council’s Judgment, 1 Pithing Needle, 1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, 2 Path to Exile
Side out: 2 Swords to plowshares, 1 flickerwisp, 1 Mother of Runes, 1 Prelate, 1 Aether Vial
Some of this is due to us knowing each other’s list because we test together, I know he’s not on basics, but I don’t want to overload on removal due to TNN and having few answers
Game 2: Starts of very poorly as my equipment get thoughtsiezed and I have a super limited clock. I manage to eventually assemble a board of SFM, thalia, mirran, and flickerwisp. A risky attack from Chris’ TNN lets me crack back and put him to 6. He finds his jitte using stoneforge, puts it into play and connects putting me to 8. I top deck path to exile. Due to his being choked on mana, his board looks like tapped SFM, tapped TNN, tapped Noble, untapped DRS and no untapped lands. I have 3 lands in play, the path to exile gets me exactly lethal damage due to it not being swords, leaving him at 6 and making it so that the jitte counters can’t prevent 6 damage from coming through using any of the modes.
Game 3: He keeps a reactionary ish hand with dread, double drs and double ZP. It kills my thalia, several of my SFMs, a crusader, and a revoker. He thoughtsiezes my Council’s which I was going to use to exile dread. Luckily I was able to put batterskull into play and beat down till he hits 9 life at which point he finds a TNN, but I’m able to emblem a Gideon and finish the game in the air with flickerwisps. Was fortunate he was unable to find a faster clock besides draining with DRS

Record 3-1

Round 6: Dustin (can’t remember the last name) on Elves 2-0
Game 1: He mulled to 5 and only drew lands, while I had t2 stoneforge and got it active early to kill his things
Side in: 1 Pithing Needle, 2 Path to Exile, 2 Containment Priest, 2 Ethersworn Canonist
Side out: 4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, 1 Sanctum Prelate, 1 Wisp, 1 Batterskull
Cut a wisp, and the generally bad cards for things that help me not die immediately in the matchup, but I’m basically still just hoping I get insanely lucky.
Game 2: He keeps 7, but plays dryad arbor and passes. I play a vial and pass back. He plays out DRS plus visionary using a cradle. I tick up vial and play mystic fetching jitte with the intention of holding it until I can play and attack with it in one turn. He destroys my vial using decay after I bluff an activation then pushes my mystic. This leads me to take a risk, play out a second mystic and another vial after which I pass. He untaps and natural orders for craterhoof, but due to only having the 3 creatures can only put me to 4 after I chump with mystic. I untap and play a needle on DRS and pass, porting cradle in upkeep. He goes for an attack where I path his craterhoof and go to 2. He then plays nettle and passes. I now need to top deck a creature to pair with the avenger in my hand to not die. I draw the perfect creature in Containment priest. He attacks. I activate vial to put in avenger, flash in priest, block DRS and nettle sentinel and go to 1. I untap cast and equip jitte and manage to stabilize the board. He shows my 2 GSZ’s in hand after he concedes to the jitte.
I was incredibly fortunate that he decided to go for my vial with the decay and also push my mystic. If he had fetched another dryad arbor and ignored my vial, there was no way I was going to be able to win that game.

Record 4-1

Going into top 8, I get third seed, the seeds in order are

UR Delver (Dave)
4c Artifact stuff (I’ll explain later but played by CT)
DnT (Me)
Grixis Delver (Michael g)
Sneak and Show (Michael B I Think)
Dragon Stompy (Andrew Son)
UR Delver (Seth Y)
UR Delver (Prince Cortez Jr)

We all split prizes and decide to just play for the byes

So I get to play dragon stompy round 1 of top 8
Quarterfinals: Andrew Son on Dragon Stompy Intentional Concession
Andrew has byes already and was willing to concede to me, so I definitely owe him and I appreciate the gesture immensely.

Semifinals: CT Barnham (2nd Seed) on 4c Artifact jank 2-1
Ok, let me explain. CT and I both scrubbed out at Fire and Dice yesterday, so we were just having fun messing around with the homebrew he brought. The deck is insane. He plays 4 lotus petals, 4 mox diamonds, 4 mox opals, 4 tombs, 1 of each artifact land minus green, and his plan is to get turn 1 3 or 4 drop as often as possible, sometimes casting day’s undoing once he establishes his mana. The win cons are cards such as new Daretti, Dack, Ajani Vengeant, Nahiri, and Agent Tezz. Additionally he mainboards several lock pieces like ensnaring bridge and humility. Needless to say, I was not excited, as he often gets to the board well before I can slow him down. I forgot to take notes on the games so some of this isn’t perfectly accurate, due to how stressful the game was, but this was definitely the most difficult set I won, partially on sheer luck.

Game 1: He gets a turn 1 Tezz, followed by a daretti. I’m able to eventually clear both and the several 5/5s that were spewed out, but unfortunately he draws into dack fayden, steals my jitte, finds another daretti, then a bridge. I’m promptly locked out as he ultimates daretti to get 5 copies of ensnaring bridge into play.
Side In: 1 Pithing Needle, 1 Mangara of Corondor, 2 Council’s Judgments, 1 Seal of Cleansing, 2 Surgical Extractions
Side out: 4 Swords to Plowshares, 1 Mirran Crusader, 1 Mother of runes, 1 Jitte.
So the seal I’m super glad I brought with me today even if not for this matchup. Same for the mangara. I wanted ways to deal with artifacts and other assorted permanents. He plays very few creatures so I cut some of that interaction. He also plays very little removal, so a mom cut is fine here.
Game 2: I play land go. He plays land go. I drop a Thalia, then I drop a Prelate on 4. He plays daretti and makes a dude, I revoke daretti immediately. He plays bridge, I seal surgical bridge and just beat in with thalia and a bear, and eventually a flickerwisp as prelate on 4 locked him out of most of his more powerful actions
Game 3: He plays ancient tomb, lotus petal, mox opal, but no action. I play land mom. He makes a land drop and passes the turn. I play a land and due to knowing his deck, I decide to cast a pithing needle. There were 3 things I was concerned with, tezz, daretti, and bridge. I choose to needle fair as revokers can’t hit them, but he was fairly far from metal craft, so in hindsight I should have named daretti. He end steps a mindcensor. He plays another land and casts Daretti and pluses, still one artifact from metalcraft. I untap and council’s judgment his daretti. I start playing out my creatures, landing a revoker on grid to be safe and flickerwisp beats get me there as he runs out of action.


Grand Finals: Prince Cortez Jr. on UR Delver 2-0
Game 1: He keeps a super controlly hand. Forces my vials, Kills my first mystic and mom, forces my second with the bskull in hand. He finally finds a threat and flips it to a fireblast. I take the opportunity to waste one of his two mountains in play. At this point I was able to get a flickerwisp and crusader into play. In order to keep himself alive he trades his delver with my wisp and blasts my crusader leaving only the one island. I eventually find a creature to equip jitte to and win the game
Side In: 2 Path to Exile, 2 Council’s Judgment, 2 Ethersworn Canonist
Side Out: 1 Vial, 3 Revokers, 2 Mirran Crusader
Same as before
Game 2: I have batterskull in hand with a mystic and some other lands so I keep. He has turn 1 delver which blind flips. He has to bolt my mom, my mystic, and dazes my thalia. His delver manages to hit me to 8 before I top deck and avenger which lets me block and play around daze and I trade with his delver. I then play a flickerwisp to trade with swiftspear. I play a thalia and hard cast a batterskull the following turn as he only had the 2 lands and couldn’t cast a smash. I attack with a jitte’d thalia, leaving up 3 mana to save bskull if something goes wrong. He chain lightnings my thalia which I let happen, and batterskull is able to carry me out.

Final Thoughts:
I’ve been testing the various splashes for the last few weeks and while they all felt powerful and did powerful things, there was a level of consistency I missed in having basic plains to back up on, especially when trying to cast batterskulls, which happened several times throughout the day. Serra avenger put in a ton of work every time I drew it, just being another flying threat to carry equipment was huge. Mangara wasn’t drawn or tutored for at any point, but it was mostly there for when the mirrors get super grindy as there were at least 2 other dnt players in the room. Overall, I was super happy with the performance of the mono white variant and everything felt super consistent

[redtwister]

@Medea_
Manic Vandal?

Played about 10 games against Grixis Delver yesterday, went pretty much 5/5. Did not like Restoration Angel, and I definitely wanted something with bigger bodies and preferably colorless. 24 lands was a bit much. I definitely need to limit non-human double white, but I was wishing I had Serra Avenger the whole time. I am going to test Displacer because it would be amazing overall in this match.

I was also not aggressive enough with Magus. If they don't have Bolt to kill it and /or DRS to make non-R mana, they, they also can't really do anything. 4C or not, this card is a blowout. Pontiff was amazing. Sanctum Prelate was amazing, especially with Mom out. I got to eh live the dream in the last match by having turn 1 Vial, turn 2 Mom, turn 3 SfM, turn 4 cast Prelate with Cavern forcing him to try and destroy the Chalice on 3, activate chalice and put in Prelate #2 on 1, with the other Prelate resolving on 2. With Mom, he had exactly one out: Dismember, which Mom blanks.

Lands 23
4 Wasteland
4 Cavern of Souls
2 Rishadan Port
2 Flooded Strand
2 Windswept Heath
1 Arid Mesa
3 Plains
2 Plateau
3 Karakas

Creatures 26
4 Mother of Runes
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Flickerwisp
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Recruiter of the Guard
2 Magus of the Moon
2 Eldrazi Displacer
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Sanctum Prelate

Other Spells 11
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Aether Vial
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull

Sideboard: (15)
2 Faerie Macabre
2 Containment Priest
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Rest in peace
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Cunning Sparkmage
1 Sanctum Prelate
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Path to Exile
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Palace Jailer
1 Pithing Needle

[Medea_]

@Redtwister
The opposing equipment can be rough without a bunch of Revokers. That was my solution along with Manriki-Gusari.

I think it is understandable to want a little more bulk. I was considering THC for that reason to keep with a Human with a single white cost. I don't love that card, but it might be fine. I never got a Displacer activation when I tried it out last week as a one of, and I tended to keep it in my hand either because Magus was out or because I had better things to do.

[Finn]

I want to update the opening post.

Can someone post either an agreed upon Wr list or something that has placed since Top got the axe?

[Farone]

just incase anyone wants to see my MKM Frankfurt match vs Tezzeret, here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AUOcRBIldQ
I'm at like 2h28m in.

[redtwister]

@Medea_
Okay, I get that. I think I prefer the Manriki-Gusari because it is fetch-able, but yeah.

I have to say, I am really unsure what I want in those spots however you build Wr. Displacer is a nonbo with Magus out, but then again a colorless 3/3 for 2W is also fine and most decks want to kill Magus, and if they can't can't, I feel like we win anyway if we can keep deploying threats. Given the Pontiffs in my build, alongside SfM and Flickerwisp main and PJ and Pi and Kiran sideboard, Displacer is a really nice effect when you do get to use it.

Maybe the deck just wants the Serra Avengers, but then I think the 2 Rishadan Port or 2 Cavern of Souls have to go to have enough white sources.

@Finn
I don't know if there is an agreed upon Wr build and not enough people are playing it atm to put up numbers, except for iatee's list from Worcester. Not sure if he is still on Wingmare + SotL. Certainly not the worst, though that deck get's kind of crushed by Dread of Night and Sulfur Elemental. Not sure how much those two cards were good for him or if it is just that he is a good pilot and he dodged those cards.

Creatures (26)
2 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Flickerwisp
2 Magus of the Moon
1 Mirran Crusader
4 Mother of Runes
1 Palace Jailer
2 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Sanctum Prelate
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Vryn Wingmare
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

Lands (23)
3 Plains
2 Arid Mesa
3 Cavern of Souls
3 Flooded Strand
1 Plateau
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
3 Karakas

Spells (11)
4 Aether Vial
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte

Sideboard
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Cunning Sparkmage
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Sanctum Prelate
1 Rest in Peace
2 Path to Exile
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Council's Judgment

[gh0st_b1rd]

More often than not the way people build their Wr builds is often based on their Monowhite builds. I have never played less than 4 Phyrexian Revokers maindeck and usually my Wr build will reflect that as well.

Speaking of which, Palace Jailer looks appealing in the maindeck of Wr to me at the moment. Back then I jammed Pia and Kia because of the excess of Miracles and BUG decks that preyed on Miracles in my meta. Miracles was the primary concern but is less of a concern for me now. I look forward to creating my own Monarch token.

[iatee]

@Finn
I don't know if there is an agreed upon Wr build and not enough people are playing it atm to put up numbers, except for iatee's list from Worcester. Not sure if he is still on Wingmare + SotL. Certainly not the worst, though that deck get's kind of crushed by Dread of Night and Sulfur Elemental. Not sure how much those two cards were good for him or if it is just that he is a good pilot and he dodged those cards.

I lost playing for t8 to a Sulfur Elemental (but mostly to mana screw.)

I'm not even sure what I'm on but I think using the last list is fine. The defining cards of the red splash are Magus, Pia/Kiran, Cunning Sparkmage, Caverns - the rest is up in the air. So any list with the typical red cru is probably representative enough.

As for those x/1s - they are easy to side out vs fair decks playing hate, and vs unfair decks I think the win equity you're getting by playing them is worth more than what you're giving up when they occasionally have their Dread of Night. e.g. my list has so many cards that are highly relevant vs Storm (4 Thalia, 1 Wingmare, 1 Sotl, 1 Prelate, 2 Revoker + 2 Recruiters to find this crap) that you're much more likely to naturally open with cards that wreck them and steal g1 instead of losing while you stare at a bunch of fair creatures.

I'm actually more concerned about how the deck fares vs fair non-blue (or light blue) decks that don't really care too much about all the hatebears. That's where you really feel bad when you play such a hate-heavy version. If they have hate for your SotL it's generally because that card is wrecking them otherwise. When your SotL is actually just an Oreskos Swiftclaw it feels pretty bad.

[Moctzal]

This is where I'm at after a couple of days:

2 Blessed Alliance

I went 9-1 in games tonight against BUG Delver (5-0 pre, 4-1 post). I wanted to try out Blessed Alliance over Dismember to help out the Burn matchup a bit and try to make that salvageable. It ended up being very good, and I might can the Banisher Priest from the sideboard for a third.

I like Blessed Alliance, but it doesn't kill Deathrite Shamans that don't swing. What would you think of a Warping Wail or 2 in the 75 (in addition to Blessed Alliance)? It can exile 1/x or x/1 creatures, Counter sorceries (board wipes are the big ones, but there are other key cards it can hit like Glimpse of Nature, Green Sun's Zenith or Infernal Tutor to name a few), it can also make you a sword carrier or ramp you. The deck has 12 colorless sources if you're on 4 Cavern of Souls as well, so it's not any harder to cast than Blessed Alliance.

[redtwister]

Ah, if only Sword of Light and Shadow was good... Creature died? Don't care, it's coming back and I am gaining life.

[Medea_]

@Gh0st_b1rd

I've liked the Jailer as well recently.
P+K is still also insane, even with Miracles gone. It's good inevitability for the fair matchups.

@Moctzal

I more want something that can eat any *threat.* DRS is annoying, but Magus eventually beats it. I'm more worried about losing to flipped Delvers, Goyf, and TNN than I am to losing to a random sorcery. I think Warping Wail is a fine card, but maybe not in the main.

[Emurian]

Ah, if only Sword of Light and Shadow was good... Creature died? Don't care, it's coming back and I am gaining life.

IMO this card is underrated. I played with sword of light and shadow last week in my deadguy ale list, managed to score a shared first place with lands that day at our local tournament.

The sword was largely relevant throughout the day, lingering souls + sword to block marit liege, recycling DRS and Kambals, blocking gurmag anglers. Even won a game off the sword due to my opponents board being SFM Bskull DRS whereas my Bskull with sword allowed me to attack for free + being the defense vs his bskul.

I did build my sideboard around the sword a bit with sanctum prelate, kambal, canonist, teeg etc. Mostly hate creatures that I could recurr.

I was torn the day before if I should take sword of fire and ice or the light and shadow, moved the F&I to SB in intitial draft and finnaly removed it for COP Red as I get salty as hell when I lose from burn. [I also figured when running 4 dark confidants the card draw is less relevant, whereas the lifegain is more usefull for the deck I was running it in]

Next time I will be including a fire and ice in my SB just in case I run into TNN stoneblade again while keeping LS mainboard, but can't say I regretted taking LS over FI. In hindsight, I think the LS was the correct choice for that day.

Haven't tried the card ever in DnT because the thing that makes us want the fire and ice is the carddraw. A friend of mine that borrowed my RW DnT said that next time he would like to test LS aswell after seeing me using it with succes. (Spice of his list that day was a Gisela 4/3 flying lifelinker main over a serra -which didn't live up to the expectations- and Spellskite SB -Which DID prove its worth multiple times that day. People just DON'T expect the card in DnT.-)

[Barook]

I more want something that can eat any *threat.* DRS is annoying, but Magus eventually beats it. I'm more worried about losing to flipped Delvers, Goyf, and TNN than I am to losing to a random sorcery. I think Warping Wail is a fine card, but maybe not in the main.

The only card that can hit Delver, Goyf and TNN is Council's Judgment. Not exactly the easiest card on the mana, especially if you splash.

Edit: Have people tried out Walking Ballista in their 75? It seems like a sweet control card/tutor target for Recruiter/mana sink, even if you can't Vial it in for profit. At worst, it's a colorless Mogg Fanatic for .

[zebhillard]

I'm putting serious thought into using Sphere of Resistance in the SB instead of additional creature-based taxing effects like Wingmare. Has anyone else tried this recently, or do you think it will just provide more targets for the inevitable artifact hate that's running around and will be brought in from the board in SB games?

[iatee]

Walking Ballista is cute but it's not gonna be good against anything but the mirror and maybe like, Infect. Not the greatest w/ Aether Vial.

Sphere doesn't attack for 2 or come in for 0 mana off Aether Vial. The reason why this deck is powerful is that our lock-pieces attack for 2 and come in for 0 off Aether Vial. Fair decks can win past a Sphere without pressure - our biggest problem vs the unfair decks that can't win past Sphere isn't that we don't have a good 2 drop to play, it's that we don't always reach turn 2.

In any case if you are gonna play a Stompy lock-piece it should be the best one, which is Chalice. I don't like Bahra's WR Chalice build because there are just too many dis-synergies but Chalice is 10x more powerful than Sphere. PS Chalice is a terrible card for Magic and should obviously be banned.

[gh0st_b1rd]

Also Karakas. Thalia loses little utlity after your opponent starts drawing the right lands.

My friend once said that a component of this deck is also that of a Karakas-abuse deck among other components.

[Medea_]

I still don't think SoLaS is really playable.

Ballista on 1 or 2 was pretty solid in Food Chain, I can tell you that much. I don't think Walking Ballista is going to do more than Cunning Sparkmage, Orzhov Pontiff, or Palace Jailer in our deck though. I'm veering away from Ancient Tomb at the moment. I really like Ballista, but without some extra mana production (DRS, Sol Lands, etc) I'm not sure I dig it; it doesn't have the upside of a combo finish in our deck, and it doesn't play well with Vial.

I agree with Iatee regarding Sphere.

[Warden]

@redtwister: I think your decks have great upside at the expense of a very greedy manabase (both recently posted lists). IMO, 3 plains begs for problems in a deck hoping to place Magus of the Moon on the table. Should Magus actually arrive, what do you do? I think this is an important question for Wr taxes to ask itself. Magus alone doesn't warrant a concession from the opponent -- especially with DRS so prevalent. I think Magus lists need upwards of 5 basics to ensure they can keep pumping out threats (and decrease aether vial dependency). There are quite a few WW (flicker, prelate, mirran) to cast.

[Medea_]

@redtwister: I think your decks have great upside at the expense of a very greedy manabase (both recently posted lists). IMO, 3 plains begs for problems in a deck hoping to place Magus of the Moon on the table. Should Magus actually arrive, what do you do? I think this is an important question for Wr taxes to ask itself. Magus alone doesn't warrant a concession from the opponent -- especially with DRS so prevalent. I think Magus lists need upwards of 5 basics to ensure they can keep pumping out threats (and decrease aether vial dependency). There are quite a few WW (flicker, prelate, mirran) to cast.

Three has been working out for me without too much difficulty. You usually fetch a basic with the first one, as your Caverns tend to be your primary red source in most hands. A fourth would be dandy, but in the matchups where you aggressively slam moon man, it's often a KO punch. I'm going to be cutting my two Ancient Tomb for two other lands at some point, one of which might be Plains four.