[Deck] Dreadstill - Enter the Fist

[syfilisx]

Thank you.
We talked with Yan last night and agreed that Divert is good sideboard or even main deck option instead of 1 Spell Pierce if meta is heavily infested with BUG & Jund.

[Maagler]

Thank you.
We talked with Yan last night and agreed that Divert is good sideboard or even main deck option instead of 1 Spell Pierce if meta is heavily infested with BUG & Jund.

So mainly against hymn? I have never been a huge fan of divert. It is great early but later I'm the game it gets harder to gain value out of, making it a horrible top deck.

I have also found the people who run it have the few situations when it is incredible stick out I'm their mind rather than the Times when you shuffle it away our have it stick in the hand.

For a deck like this it might be a better option to have an all around solid card like spell pierce rather than a card that is sometimes amazing sometimes completely dead.



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Tapatalk

[Yan]

So mainly against hymn? I have never been a huge fan of divert. It is great early but later I'm the game it gets harder to gain value out of, making it a horrible top deck.

I have also found the people who run it have the few situations when it is incredible stick out I'm their mind rather than the Times when you shuffle it away our have it stick in the hand.

For a deck like this it might be a better option to have an all around solid card like spell pierce rather than a card that is sometimes amazing sometimes completely dead.

There is also a card called Abrupt Decay in those mentioned decks, which is "kind of a killer" against this deck. Spell Pierce is only a good fodder for Misdirection in that situation. I don't suggest anyone to put Divert in your main deck in an unknown meta, but if you know for sure that you'll be playing against various BUG and Jund decks, then I could accept it. This deck also has Stifles and Wastelands, which makes mana denial a very potential plan, so it's highly likely that both Spell Pierce and Divert maintain their value through the midgame too.

I'm not currently playing Divert in the board, because I'm mostly testing for unknown meta games and I don't feel it's part of that configuration.

[Scrum]

4 Wasteland
3 Mishra’s Factory
3 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest

4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Grim Lavamancer

4 Standstill
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
3 Daze
3 Spell Pierce
4 Stifle
2 Trickbind
4 Lightning Bolt

SB:
3 Engineered Explosives
3 Pithing Needle
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Misdirection
1 Divert
1 Grim Lavamancer
2 Sulfur Elemental
3 Pyroblast

Played basicly Yan's list (who's been mentoring me bit with a deck in my transition from UR Nivmagus into FIST) in local event for 4-0, only change is third sulfur elemental into Divert since in my shop people tend to play some decay & hymn.

Round 1: Burn
G1: I keep hand with T2 Naught on the draw, he pounds me with goblin guide, but Naught & Factory make it so that I just win with a misdirection & blue card still in my hand for his fireblast if he tries funny stuff.
G2: I mulligan into 6, get reasonably fast naught while disturbing him. Lose to him having two fireblasts and not playing a land for some punty reason and not able to spell pierce the other one and FOW the other.
G3: I mulligan again into 6, cantrip and permission. Manage to cantrip into standstill and play it for value since he has Rift Bolt Suspended. Get a naught and just win from there by protecting it from his Smash to Smithereens.
Sideboard: -2 Stanstill +Divert +Misdirection

Round 2: Dark Maverick
G1: On the draw T1 Grim Lavamancer T2 Naught - No Answer from him, plays two Confidants over the game, doesn't block Naught, dies to Confidants.
G2: He goes T1 Mother of Runes. I smirk at my hand with EE and Bolt, decide against bolting since I have only 1 fetch and wasteland could wreck me. I play fetch go. He goes Wasteland + Tseize, I fetch basic and brainstorm to hide my EE, hit like 3 lands, that's cool. He takes Stifle from my hand, leaving me with bolt and not much more than lands. I go land go, since I thinked Quasali Pridemage is more likely than another Tseize. He goes land third mother of runes, I am about to blow up. My T3 when I am about to bank on explosives I draw Sulfur Elemental, ok so game over. I play Sulfur Elemental on his end step to kill all three of hi mothers and start hitting, he play Knight T4, but because of Sulfur Elemental it's only 5/3 and I bolt it away. I land Standstill and opponent scoops it up. One of the 3 lands was factory too.
Sideboard: -4 Delver -3 Spell Pierce -2 Daze -2 Trickbind +2 Sulfur Elemental, +1 Grim +1 Misdirection +1 Crucible +3 EE +3 Pithing Needle

Round 3: Punishing Jund
G1: I knew the player was only lending deck and was kind of new to it, he grunted while keeping his 7 on the play so that I sensed that there was something wrong with that hand. I FOW T1 Deathrite and Waste Bayou after. He does not have colored mana T2, only wasteland BINGO. I play my dual to bait wasteland and drop delver. He takes the bait, and goes again T3 Wasteland. I flip delver, play island and pass. He draws grove, I spell pierce his bolt. I play factory and attack again with Delver, he plays punishing fire to Delver his next turn, which I daze, I get in for 5 with factory and delver. He plays third wasteland and gets rid of factory but I have double FOW to keep him from firing delver since recovering was full turn operation for him because of mana problems.
G2: He taps out for confidant T2, I tap out for Dreadnought. He does not have answer, only red cards in hand, could have kept open pyroblast and wasted me, but chose otherwise, which may or may have not been smart.

Sideboard: -4 Delver, -4 Force of Will, -2 Daze, +3 EE, +3 Pithing Needle, +1 Crucible +1 Misdirection, +1 Grim Lavamancer +1 Divert

G3 Bug Delver
G1: I go Lavamancer into standstill on the draw, he kills Lavamancer. I miss land drops under standstill, he breaks it with Hymn few turns later, I misdirect hymn and we go force of will fight over that. I am victorius and he ends up with very few cards in hand so I just manage to drop threats and get him.
G2: Epic game, he manages to win though crucible + wasteland after much card advantage for me by dropping 6/7 Goyf and me not drawing answer to that. I have him dead with bolt & Mishra, but cannot pay the daze that was his last card. Could have maybe tried to block with factory to draw something, but I chose against it since all his 4 wastelands were still in the deck in addition to few disfigures that would kill me instantly or second goyf.
G3: I play all my colored sources on table with crucible, chain 3 standstills and drop naught with 2 factories on board against his Liliana on 4 and Goyf. That was enough for him. In early game I got his goyf with decay when he tried to rid me of Crucible and I Divert, he FOWS, I Misdirect, that was huge turn for me.

Good tournament and good feeling about deck.

Cheers,
Jani

Congrats on your finish and thanks for the post. Would you mind sharing the rest of your board plans?

[syfilisx]

Complete Sideboarding plans are Yan's intellectual property and I don't feel comfortable sharing them all to the world, also you need to play exactly 75 that Jan plays to get value out of it. I believe you can ask him for them and then he's up to decide.
Saturday smaller GPT at Jyväskylä Finland was dominated in Swiss 5-0 by this same list, the Yan's deck, played by his friends.

But now we are off to tell story about bad beats and 6 round GPT for bit disappointing 3-3 record. My list is same than last time few posts ago, except -1 Divert, +1 Sulfur Elemental sideboard, -1 Spell Pierce +1 Divert main, because I was excepting lot of decay.

Round 1 - Death & Taxes
G1: Aggressive Delver beats got hosed after second Delver won't flip in like 5 turns. I counter two stoneforge mystics, but 2x Serra Avengers wind me down, only drew one bolt and had to use it on his mother he played when having two avengers.

G2: I play Grim Lavamancer & Delver, opponent has great anwers like Ratchet bomb & Jitte, but I Needle them both. Sulfur Elemental takes two for 1, and I kill him with few creatures and factory.

G3: Long and grindy game, where he may have make slight mistakes by his own words, Lavamancer is all star again and Sulfur elemental comes to make a visit to turn game to me.

Sideboard: -4 Phyrexian Dreadnoughts, -2 Spell Pierce, -1 Divert, -1 Misdirection, -2 Trickbind, -1 daze on the draw/-1 Force on the play. +3 Sulfur Elemental, +3 Pithing Needle, +3 EE, +1 Grim Lavamancer, +1 Crucible

Round 2: RUG Delver
G1: I go T2 Dreadnought with misdirection protection, he has daze & force of will, I was maybe a bit hasty and didn't draw anything but lands after that. Slight mistake, good luck for him.

G2: I get 3 Dreadnoughts along the game, first one gets EE (who plays that in RUG?), second one gets Krosan Grip and third one just isn't enought when he has two 6/7 goyfs. He draws all the answers, I draw none of permission, not really a fair game.

Sideboard: -3 Grim Lavamancer, -4 Bolt, +3 EE, +1 Crucible, +3 Pyroblast/Red Blast

Round 3: MUD
G1: I hit him to three, I have lethals on board, he has only 1 out in deck when I ran out of permission, of course he draws it and gets in a wurmcoil hit. I still have one out myself too, one of my four lightning bolts, but I don't draw it or brainstorm to look for it.

G2: Chalice for 1, I have brainstorm and force of will, but I am reluctant to pitch brainstorm since I have no good action in my six, I brainstorm but don't hit blue card. Next ten cards are not any use, I lose. (I got to play standstill or two to dig, since I had factory and he had no beaters)
Sideboard: -3 Grim Lavamancer, -3 Spell Pierce/Divert, -1 Misdirection. +3 Pithing Needle, +3 EE, +1 Crucible

Round 4: TES
G1. He has no Tutor and I disrupt him just enough for him not to find it, before Delvers kill him. I chain two standstill to draw more disruption and waste him very tight on mana.

G2. Grindy game where we both mullingan, I keep him of action with 3 dazes and few wastes, ending up into situation where he has carpet of flowers and I have 3 volcanics in my hand and beat face with factory that I activate with wasteland. He draws into ten goblins, but I rip one of my 3 EE's to kill them off after 1 hit and land Delver + Standstill, that's game.
Sideboard: -3 Grim Lavamancer, -1 Bolt, -1 Misdirection, -1 Divert, +3 EE, +3 Pyroblast

Round 5: Esper Blade with Strixes
G1: I thought he was on Bug Delver, I kept hand with few wastelands, mandland & 2 Delvers. I draw third Delver, just beat his face with 1/1 Delvers, because EE on Zero came down early, when confident that I can afford losing one delver I flip one, so he destroys that one, I play third one and flip both to kill him fast. He was struggling to get to mana's with two wastes and one stifle I think.

G2: He has everything, like 2 Stops, 1 Strix, Snapcaster and discard. GG... I have needle for his jitte, but doesn't really help

G3: He has 3 Stops & Snapcaster. What a joke :) I didn't have any change against these draws g2 & g3.

Sideboard: -1 Misdirection, -4 Phyrexian Dreadnought, -2 Trickbind, -1 Force of Will, -3 Daze/-3 Force of will, depending on play/draw.
+1 Crucible, +1 Grim Lavamancer, +3 Pyroblast, +3 Sulfur Elemental, +3 Pithing Needle

Round 6: Dark Maverick
G1: I hit him with Delver, counter some key spells, then bolt him to face. My life: 20, 19, 20, 17, 13, 12 (He stops Lavamancer), his life 20, 19, 18, 17, 14, 13, 10, 7, 4 - Dead. I played this game mostly on one dual land, but he didn't have wasteland.

G2: Kind of epic Grind, involving all my three EE, Pithing Needle, Crucible, Factory & 3 Lavamancers.
I end game on 2 life, when I had calculated how I survive his gigantious Knight hitting turn after turn, I get to stabilise when he runs out of wastelands and just chump with factory every turn while Lavamancers grind away his life.

Sideboard: -4 Delver, -2 Spell Pierce, -3 Daze, -2 Trickbind, +3 Sulfur Elemental, +3 EE, +2 Pithing Needle, +1 Misdirection, +1 Crucible, +1 Grim Lavamancer

Overally I was happy with deck and my plays, but bit disappointed that few of the opponents had better luck than me today. :)

Cheers,
Jani

[jtos84]

I haven't played dreadstill in a long time (like 6 or 7 years), but I thought it might be a decent choice right now. I have been testing it, and it actually did way better than I though it would. I went 7 and 2 in testing. The first loss was against patriot. I should have countered the turn one delver in game three. I had a naught in play, and we were both on three life. It was close. The second loss came from the lands deck that focuses more on dark depths as opposed to the traditional forty some lands build that came in first in the last open. In this match I should have used the surgical extraction to get rid of the life from the loam. Here is the list I have been running. I would feel pretty good bringing it to a tournament (possibly a few changes), but that doesn't mean I would do really well. I haven't tested it enough to know how it will perform.

I beat dream halls combo, TES, painters combo, rug delver, u/r delver, miracle control, and burn. I need to play against esper deathblade and Team America still. Here is my list.

Lands
3 Mishra's Factory
3 Wasteland
4 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Island
1 Volcanic Island

// Creatures
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
3 Dark Confidant

// Spells
3 Standstill
3 Daze
3 Counterbalance
1 Spell Snare
3 Spell Pierce
4 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Thoughtseize
1 Trickbind
4 Stifle
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm

// Sideboard
SB: 1 Thoughtseize
SB: 3 Surgical Extraction
SB: 2 Flusterstorm
SB: 2 Dread of Night
SB: 2 Divert
SB: 2 Diabolic Edict
SB: 1 Toxic Deluge
SB: 2 Red Elemental Blast

To be fair, I was not running reb and volcanic island when I lost to patriot. I am wondering what a better s/b might be. I had gilded drakes and edicts, but I never faced show and tell. I had four thoughtseize main, so I know this deck's s/b can be made to better combat the meta because I never used half of it.

[jtos84]

After thinking about the s/b more, I think this may be what I am looking for:

// Sideboard
SB: 3 Surgical Extraction
SB: 2 Flusterstorm
SB: 2 Dread of Night
SB: 2 Divert
SB: 2 Echoing Truth
SB: 2 Engineered Plague
SB: 2 Torpor Orb

The torpor orbs may be good against Death and Taxes, and possibly have some application against Team America. Hopefully, today I can find some people to test these decks against me, plus a few others that might be typically played against in a tournament.

I was also wondering if anyone had tested this yet, and what your thoughts might be. I would also be interested in opinions in general or advice.

[Yan]

Okay, back from Paris with quite a bit of disappointment. Not with the deck, but with myself. The list was the same as few pages ago, so I just jump in to the action.

I had two byes, so I used the time I had to cruise around the hall. I saw a lot of BUG Delver, D&T, S&S and Storm. A lot more tribal decks than I expected too. I noted myself that I didn’t see any Jund, which I was more than happy about. I didn’t take many notes so this will only include the main points.

Round 3: Punishing Jund (2-1, 3-0)
Opponent starts the game with Badlands into DRS. I have removal for his threats and manage to put up a decent fight but his engines are just too much. Second game I get to draw some cards with Standstill and counter or burn his threats. He has 5 cards in hand when I go for the desperate Dreadnought, I have only FoW and no other cards after that. He cast Thoughtseize and I’m pretty sure this game is over, but after that he passes. I attack, he draws and we are off to game 3. I can’t understand how lucky I got. Game three I keep a cool hand with 3 Wasteland, Misdirection, Standstill, Brainstorm and Spell Pierce. He goes just dual pass. I draw Dreadnought and waste him. He plays fetch and I draw my Volcanic. Next turn he plays another land and lands a Goyf. I draw Stifle and keep wasting him. Next turn he misses a land drop and I waste him again back to 0 lands. Next turn I land my Dreadnought and the turn after Standstill. He finally finds land to crack my Still with discard, but only sees double Misdirection with loads of blue cards, which he can’t beat.

Round 4: Merfolk (0-2, 3-1)
He tells me he had 3 byes, so I put him on one of the Delver decks, thinking he probably isn’t a regular legacy player. Turns out I was right about him being not that into legacy, but his choice was even more streamlined. First game he just runs over me, nothing I could have done. Second game I punt big time. He starts with Adept into Lord of Atlantis. I go for the Dreadnought with Trickbind. Next turn he casts Reejerey and attacks with both fishes. For some reason, I don’t block the lord. After the game, I tell him about that and he admits that he thought it granted islandwalk for every merfolk. I’m pissed at myself.

Round 5: Belcher (2-0, 4-1)
Match against a fellow Finnish player and I know what he’s playing. This isn’t a fair match, because I can safely mulligan to 5 to find my FoW. Next game I do the same and this is over quickly.

Round 6: BUG Delver (0-2, 4-2)
I draw really bad both games and just die to random creatures. I can’t even remember how it went exactly, but my deck just refused to deliver. Nothing I could do about this, so it was pretty easy to put this one behind me.

Round 7: BUG Delver (2-1, 5-2)
He beats me in game 1 the same way the last guy did. I do the same boarding, but this time the games go according to the plan. Game two I remove all his guys, resolve 3 Standstills and him with Delvers and Lavamancers. Next game I do pretty much the same, except he manages to remove my threats too. I get him empty handed and finally go for the Dreadnought. He has only 2 Goyfs, which are too small. Next turn I double waste him to one land and he shows me the Decay from the top of his deck and extends the hand.

Round 8: ANT (2-1, 6-2)
I don’t remember if I won game 1 or 2, but those were the kind of games that they usually are. Third game though, was quite epic. I beat him with factory for few turns, but I’m drawing blanks after blanks. He has many lands in play, so my tempo counters are useless. Then he goes for it and plays rituals into double LED, discard Past in Flames and cast it. I brainstorm but only find one Stifle and EE. I put the EE back on top and let it resolve. He starts casting his rituals again and I just drop my cards on the table and say “ok” to everything. I do this, because I see clearly that he has 2 Tutors in his grave and he has the game if he plays correctly. Luckily he doesn’t and plays exactly into my trap. He cast tutor and I go “yea yea” and then he slams the Tendrills on the table. I Stifle. Then he casts the second tutor and goes for 36 Goblins. He passes and I show him the top card of my library. I ask if he has any win cons left and if he wants me to beat him down with the factory or not and he scoops. Again I was drawing terribly bad in this match, but it feels almost impossible to lose to any combo deck.

Round 9: Sneak and Show (1-2, 6-3)
First game he goes for quick Show and Tell and drops a Sneak Attack with no mana up. I waste his red source. Then I stifle his fetches for 2 turns but he still manages to find another one. He sneaks in Emrakul and I sack all my permanents and go to 3 life. He is at 13. I play Factory and start the beats next turn. He misses on 1 ponder and draws blanks while I beat him to death with my 2/2. Third game he shows in Emrakul with double back up. Third game I make my second punt of the tournament. I have 2 lands on my second turn, 2 needles in hand, Brainstorm and a REB and some irrelevant cards. I think I reason with myself, that if I cast one of the needles now, I’m safe from everything else except for Emrakul. This is of course the most stupid idea ever. He goes for second turn show into Emrakul and has the FoW for my REB. I can’t know if Brainstorm would have given me one of my 9 outs, but I certainly should have given it a chance. I'm pretty mad at myself after skrewing up such a good matchup.

Sorry for not making it this time, at least I learned some lessons again. I’m also pretty sure I’ll be playing this in the next European legacy GP/BoM that I attend. Nothing is as fun as playing this deck.

Also sorry for my sloppy writing.

[Scrum]

// Lands
4 [IN] Island (1)
2 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
4 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
3 [R] Volcanic Island
3 [JGC] Wasteland
4 [AQ] Mishra's Factory (2)

// Creatures
4 [M12] Grim Lavamancer
4 [MI] Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 [ISD] Delver of Secrets/Insectile Aberration

// Spells
1 [MM] Misdirection
4 [FNM] Brainstorm
3 [NE] Daze
4 [JGC] Stifle
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [OD] Standstill
2 [VI] Vision Charm
3 [MMA] Spell Snare
3 [B] Lightning Bolt

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [MM] Misdirection
SB: 3 [4E] Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 [FD] Crucible of Worlds
SB: 2 [PLC] Rough/Tumble
SB: 3 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
SB: 3 [NE] Submerge
SB: 2 [M10] Pithing Needle

I got 7th in a local SCG qualifier. I played against the following:

rd 1: burn 2-0

I will both games off the back of standstill. pretty easy matchup.

rd 2: enchantress 2-0

game 1: i get an early nought. he has solitary confinement. he eventually runs out of cards and i am able to attack for the win.

game 2: i play a turn 1 delver. he casts o ring, i stifle it. on my turn 2 i play lavamancer and he plays another o ring, i stifle it. he turn 3's solitary confinement and runs out of cards to fuel the discard.

rd 3: jund depths 0-2

game 1: i play turn 1 delver. he has grove plus punishing fire. turn 2 i play standtill. he rips 3 wastelands in a row. I struggle the rest of the game.

game 2: i play turn 1 delver. i protect delver with snare. i play crucible and factories. he gets dark depths plus stage. i have a submerge but he doesn't have a forest in play.

rd 4: goblins 2-0

game 1: he turn 1 plays vial. i turn 1 delver. he plays land an passes. i flip delverand play lavamancer. he plays piledriver. i end up double lighting bolting him for the win.

game 2: i play turn 3 nought into rough.

rd 5: ID

quartfinals mono red stax 1-2

game 1: he plays turn trinishpere. i never get to 3 lands

game 2: i play turn 1 delver into turn 2 standstill. i am able to spell snare his mizzum mortars. i play another delver and win from there.

game 3: he is on the play and i see: island, scalding tarn, wasteland, nought, vision charm, spell snare, brainstorm. i end up mulling because i am scared of his turn 1 trinispere or chalice for 1. i mull to 5 and keep a hand with one land and turn 1 delver but no fow. he turn 1 plays mountain and passes. i turn one delver. he turn 2 plays chalice for 1. i feel that i should have kept my opener.

overall the deck was awesome. i think that a made a mistake in quarter finals, not keeping my opener. any thoughts or critiques are welcome.

[syfilisx]

Well, your sideboard is pretty badly equipped to deal with Chalice/Trini-type of decks, since you have no artifact hate and Chalice just wrecks us.
I feel that your reasoning was right on the draw, even if your opener was kind of nutty, but it would have not helped if he had Turn 1 Chalice, you would just have lost. Don't know if I had gambled in that situation and just won if he had not T1 Chalice.

About the list I am bit worried about 4 maindeck Grim lavamancers, but no basic red source, few wastelands can do good job on turning off lavamancers.

[JPettie]

I would like to get some input on the list I have been developing as of late. I am curious as to if 4 of Dreadnought is ever a problem for you guys, you seem to all run 4 and I find that I don't always have the stifle and it can be a pretty bad top deck sometimes. I want to play it because I find it is a very good board position against a TNN, but I don't know if 4 seems to be the right amount for my deck. Hopefully you guys have some information that will sway me, and opinions on my deck as a whole.


4x Delver of Secrets
1x Grim Lavamancer
2x Phyrexian Dreadnought
2x Snapcaster Mage

4x Standstill
1x Engineered Explosives

4x Brainstorm
4x Daze
1x Dismember
1x Misdirection
4x Force of Will
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Spell Pierce
2x Spell Snare
4x Stifle

2x Island
3x Mishra's Factory
4x Misty Rainforest
1x Mountain
4x Scalding Tarn
3x Volcanic Island
3x Wasteland

Sideboard

2x Faerie Macabre
1x Flusterstorm
2x Pyroblast
1x Red Elemental Blast
2x Rough // Tumble
2x Smash to Smithereens
2x Spell Pierce
2x Submerge
1x Swan Song

[Yan]

@JPettie

Your list look solid, or at least acceptable. Quite different from what I or few others are playing, but I don't doubt it still works. I would personally go with 4 noughts, even in your list, maybe also adding additional 1-2 of your personal preference on ways to cheat it in (charm, trickbind, torpor orb). I do like snapcaster too, but it is competing with lavamancers for the slots, so at least for me it's a clear choice. I feel it will mostly be flashing back Bolts anyway, so might as well be playing the guy which doesn't need the bolt in the grave. Okay, it might be more versatile card, but that is the thing that you mostly want from him. Having 4 Dreadnought main also allows you to easily board out some or even all of them in certain matchups, where they don't do enough. Mainly against those decks that will surely take the 2:1 that you are offering. Game 1 it is usually a surprise so baiting removal with other threats usually does it, anyway no-one is going to expect seeing dreadnoughts these days.

From your board, I would suggest EE or Shattering Spree over the Smash. EE has wider aplications (Rough f.e. kills most of our dudes too, so I don't like it that much) and Spree can dig you out of bigger holes against those artifact decks. Other that, pretty solid.

Ah, and for your question. Of course it happens that sometimes you have Dreadnought and no way to cheat it in, but that's what you get when playing a 2 card combo. I still like to maximize my chances of drawing both in the first game, or the games that I really need them. Sometimes it's a blowout and sometimes it just sits in your hand. Then if you want to look at something more "solid", you can always try Trinket Mages with only 1 Nought ;) I would so love to see that work again :)

[jtos84]

I was wondering what other Dreadstill players think about this deck. I have been working on it for a while now.

// Lands
5 Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Wasteland
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Volcanic Island
1 Academy Ruins

// Creatures
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
3 Delver of Secrets/Insectile Aberration
1 Trinket Mage
3 Grim Lavamancer

// Spells
2 Spell Pierce
4 Stifle
4 Daze
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Torpor Orb
2 Counterbalance
2 Misdirection
3 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Blood Moon

// Sideboard
SB: 1 Torpor Orb
SB: 1 Flusterstorm
SB: 2 Surgical Extraction
SB: 2 Pyroclasm
SB: 3 Shattering Spree
SB: 2 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 3 Standstill
SB: 1 Swan Song

Excluding man-lands while playing with top eliminates most of the off color mana draws while allowing for blood moon to be played. Grim Lavamancer is a must because of deathrite shaman. The standstills are only good against combo without man-lands, so I put them in the s/b. The torpor orbs are good for getting a nought in play while shutting off triggered abilities caused by creatures entering the battlefield. Torpor Orb also frees up your stifles. The academy ruins and trinket mage help to keep the noughts coming. The s/b has shattering spree which is good against equipment. Let me know what you think.

[Madmankevinx]

Has anyone ever tried out the b/u list with Tombstalker and vision charm? I have gone x-1 with it both random times I decided to run it for fun. I'm starting to think it might just be a real deck. To clarify a bit for those unfamiliar, vision charm is an awesome card in the deck since it can put cards in the yard for Tombstalker or act as that stifle you don't have if you want to play the tempo game (daze/stifle/wasteland) and are essentially pretending to be rug delver, which my list actually does quite well. I can post a list if anyone is interested. Anyways I was just wondering how ya'll felt.

[Lord Seth]

I've been playing Vision Charm in the UR Version. I think it's good as a 1-of, because it's another Stifle as well as a way to defend the Dreadnought, which is always useful in this post-Abrupt Decay world.

[Madmankevinx]

Going with a more tempo-plan here. I wanted to adopt some of the RUG Delver gameplan, but with Tombstalker as a form of mid-late game damage. Vision charm is awesome here. It protects Dreadnaught from STP/Abrupt Decay and it enables turn 2 Tombstalker and it is Stifle 5,6 and 7 for the Dreadnaught trigger. Comments?


4 Delver of Secrets
4 Phyrexian Dreadnaught
3 Tombstalker

4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Brainstorm
4 Stifle
3 Spell Pierce
3 Vision Charm
2 Gitaxian Probe

4 Ponder
4 Thoughtseize

4 Wasteland
4 Polluted Delta
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Underground Sea
1 Swamp
1 Island

[bryanzoll]

Hey guys, so I am going to try and revive this thread. I am a long time legacy player and played dreadstill a few years ago and loved it while it lasted. Looking to put it back together to play in my local gauntlet and some regional tournaments. After reading almost every page on this thread, there are a few topics I wish to provide my insight on.

UR vs UB
Ghastly Demise was a great card when black creatures weren't flooding the format. Since Bob and DRS are in quite a few decks now, it just doesn't make sense to run black when red gives you bolt, lavamancer, and sideboard tech (will discuss below). I know there are arguments for discard effects and other removal effects such as diabolical edict, however I just feel red is strong at this point.

Vision Charm (VC) vs Misdirection(MD)/Diver vs Apostles Blessing (AB)
If I had to rank these, it would go AB > VC MD/Divert. AB saves all your creatures at the cost of 2 life, VC is great as an extra stifle effect, however is extremely linear, and MD/Divert while have multiple uses, just aren't the right cards to save your dudes. Keep in mind there has to be another permanent on the battlefield to MD abrupt decay to.

True Name Nemesis
We have a 12/12 trampler....I don't see a problem here. In any event, you can stifle its ability. Enough said.

I want to comment on Yan's list. I think for the direction he takes the deck, that is as optimal as you are going to get and kudos to Yan. However, this deck is capable of very quick kills and I am going to try and take the deck in a different direction. UR Delver is a real legacy deck and just recently played 2nd at SCG L.A. Having a somewhat transformative sideboard to UR delver can completely catch people off guard and can run through so many decks.

If I were to pick a list to play, I would choose Yan's list with the following changes:

-change all MD effects to Apostle Blessings

Run this as a sideboard:
1 crucible of worlds
2 surgical extractions
3 pyroblast
2 price of progress
3 goblin guide
2 apostles blessings
2 sulfur elemental

With this sideboard, you can go from fast, to faster and take games before your opponents cam react. I am going to be running this deck over the next few weeks and will post results from local play and tournaments.

[JPoJohnson]

True Name Nemesis
We have a 12/12 trampler....I don't see a problem here. In any event, you can stifle its ability. Enough said.

You can stifle what ability exactly?

[Yan]

@bryanzoll:
Thanks for the heads up and kind words, always feels great to hear that I might be doing something right with the deck :) Also sorry to all that I'm not really active on the writing side here on the source. Well, also nothing much to add, the deck as it is, is a work of many years and I feel something big has to happen to the general metagame for me to change my list. I'm totally fine with one AP instead of Misdirection though, because this kind of nuances don't really change the basic concept, only reinforce those little specific moments that you want to shine in. Definitely like Apostle's Blessing though, just I personally like Misdirection even more ;)

Transformational sideboard might be great if you are expecting a lot fair/midrangy decks. Have to probably test something close to that myself too if I can find the time. At least I'll do some brainstorming how it would work against various other decks.

One note though, Stifle doesn't really interact in any way with TNN, but we don't really care anyway. 'Nought tramples, Delver flies and 'Mancer shoots.

But anyway, thanks for everything and keep us posted with your results. I think Jani (syfilisx) went 4-0 again with the list a while ago, just heard about it briefly though.


EDIT: saw your PM Bryan, answered :).



Also, out of context, I'm very close to finishing the whole deck in German :P, missing only 3/75.

[syfilisx]

Yes, Went 4-0 in local tournament with 20 people.
Matchups were:
Sneaky Show: 2-1
I lost game 1, since 2 standstills draw into lands and my only clock is 2x Grim Lavamancers, he's at 2 when he Emrakuls me. G2 & G3 I show him what this deck is about.

Bug landstill 2-1
My friend playing our deck, pretty bad matchup, but he manages to flood out g1&g3

Rug Delver 2-0
I waste him out of colored mana each game and fetch basics, there's nothing he can do. G1 I cast only nought of the day.

Tes 2-0
Opponent goes for goblins both games, i stifle g1 and have EE G2. Also have hands loaded with counters, which opponent compliments me both games when probing.

I felt pretty pumped about deck, matchups were pretty good though.