Hello every, my names is Nyles. I went to the SCG Legacy Open in Milwaukee today (10/13) and took 5-2-2 despite finding out about the tournament only a couple days prior have having played in a legacy tournament maybe twice the past half a year or longer. I like writing up reports for some reason, so hopefully some people find this report interesting to read. I must first make a disclaimer that I don’t remember my matches exactly perfectly, as all these matches are from memory except for the game life totals. So if there are things that seem to slightly contradict each other, that’s probably why; however, I generally remember the key points of them, so you should still get a good flavor for the games. I wish I could take better notes, but there’s not always time with a control deck (especially when I’m rusty). So first, let me introduce you to my deck:
// Lands (23)
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
1 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
3 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
4 [R] Tundra
1 [LG] Karakas
5 [5E] Island (3)
2 [A] Underground Sea
1 [WWK] Creeping Tar Pit
1 [IN] Plains (2)
1 [R] Volcanic Island
// Creatures (7)
3 [MOR] Vendilion Clique
4 [PC2] Baleful Strix
// Spells (23)
4 [AL] Force of Will
3 [WWK] Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 [AVR] Entreat the Angels
4 [MM] Brainstorm
4 [CS] Counterbalance
3 [AVR] Terminus
4 [4E] Swords to Plowshares
4 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
2 [7E] Counterspell
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [7E] Counterspell
SB: 3 [ALA] Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 2 [ARE] Enlightened Tutor
SB: 2 [RTR] Rest in Peace
SB: 1 [DDG] Oblivion Ring
SB: 1 [DDK] Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
SB: 3 [LRW] Thoughtseize
SB: 2 [CH] Blood Moon
Before my report, I’d like to put a few thoughts about my list and some choices. I think control is very powerful, but something that I struggle with is having the right cards to deal with both “fair” and “unfair” decks. So, I tried to use the most cards that could be useful against both. For example, this is why I have the full 4 forces and balances in the main, as well as 2 counterspells and Vendilion Cliques; these are probably your best cards that are both effective against fair and unfair decks.
4 Baleful Strix: This guy is incredible for this deck, in my experience. Against any decks that want to win with creatures, he’s just a beating to your opponent. He’ll almost always generate you advantage against decks where he’s most relevant, and either cantrips or pitches to force when he’s “less useful.” He fits a very crucial role, in my opinion, as 2cc (for both CB and for having smoother playing hands), generating card advantage, impacts the game immediatel when played, can’t be spell pierced or flusterstormed or stifled (like miracle triggers), plus brings your blue count to 24! All these things make him incredibly valuable, and I wouldn’t replace him for anything now.
3 Vendlilion Clique: I choose to run 3, because he is a very real clock, let’s me play things at instant speed for blocking tricks, gets rid of dead cards, or keeping mana open for counterspells, clears the way for Jace/Entreat, and is good vs. basically every type of deck. I was not unhappy with Clique at all during the day. This card just does so many things, and having flash gives you tons of options.
1 Creeping Tar Pit: I wasn’t going to play this, but some friends at the center said I should. I didn’t see him much, but the drawback was definitely easily to play around, and his ability to turn into a creature was relevant every time he came up. This is also the third black source, so I’m pretty happy with this guy and will keep trying him out.
For the sideboard, I was gearing up mostly against the unfair decks. There are 9 cards to bring in against them (+Oblivion Ring for Show and Tell), which post board gives you a ton of ways to interact with them. I really wanted to add some other cards in the board, like the 4th terminus, but really didn’t feel like I could find much room, but as always this depends on what you expect to face. Thoughtseize is particularly great in a lot of matchups besides unfair ones when you want some proactive and not all reactive cards. Also, Sorin is really strong. He helps you stabilize while being able to protect himself and pressure other walkers himself, and is much better than a 4th Jace or an Elspeth in my opinion.
Anyway, to the matchups!
Round 1 vs. Merfolk (Draw, 0-0-1)
G1: I think we were both warming up, so we both made many mistakes and didn’t play incredibly quickly. That’s more my fault though because Merfolk is always a pain to do combat math for. I didn’t know what I was up against though, so I kept a hand with multiple fetch lands, countertop combo, and strix. But he leads with a first turn vial. I play strix, but he gets the two different island walker lords(which by the way, the second islandwalk lord is a real pain now). Fortunately, I’m able to cleanup with a terminus and a force on his force for it. He stalls out for a bit while I gain advantage through top, and a second strix preventing attacks. At the end of one of his turns I entreat for 3 tokens, stupidly not making 4 because I wanted to play around daze (I knew he didn’t have pierce, because he didn’t use it on Jace earlier). However, he already used two dazes, so this line was just stupid. I actually thought I could win with just the three tokens, but he chained creatures and did too much damage for me to race. Oh well.
SB:
Counterbalance, unsurprisingly, is pretty awful here. Counters are also not amazing, but I don’t have a SB for really heavy creature decks this time around. Thoughtseize is actually very good to protect my high value spells from counters; either from the information of their hand or taking the spell itself. This is especially true on the play.
-4 Counterbalance
-1 Counterspell
+1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
+1 Oblivion Ring
+3 Thoughtseize
G2: Unfortunately I don’t remember this game pretty well; I was actually fairly nervous at the beginning of this tournament. My life notes show that I lead with a thoughtseize, getting a lord, but I took a few beats before clearing the board with a terminus. Jace got into play shortly after, but I was still pressured quite a lot by his creatures. Fortunately, I stabilize at 6 life by getting an Entreat on his turn for 3 tokens to block two of his creatures, kill them, and then finish out the game in the next two turns. This is why Entreat is just the best.
SB:
Unfortunately there was only a couple minutes left in the round. I knew I had no hopes of winning in time, so I decided to resideboard. One to waste time, which is a terrible reason, but I wasn’t intentionally slow playing. I just knew I had to change my configuration for the final game to not end up with a loss for the round. So I took out my Jaces for canonists, just to have more creatures to block up the board.
-3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
+3 Ethersworn Canonist
G3: He leads Cursecathcher. I play a land and pass. He plays a merfolk lord, and on attacks I try to swords it, but he sacrifces the catcher. I play a canonist and pass, then we move to time (turn 0) during his turn, where he plays corralhelm commander so can’t attack into canonist with his lord of atlantis. (Turn 1) I don’t have many plays, so I get a top down and pass. (Turn 2) He draws into another islandwalk lord, so I take 7 damage, going to 10, then drops a mutavault. (Turn 3) I top into a swords, and am able to hit one of his lords. (Turn 4) He can only hit me to 6 this turn and (Turn 5) we draw the round because of time. I feel slightly like a dick for sideboarding there, but I really wasn’t intentionally trying to stall the game out for a single turn like that. Always play to not lose!
Round 2 vs. Enchantress (Win, 1-0-1)
G1: Not sure what he’s playing, I’m on the draw and I keep a hand of force of will, Baleful Strix, Counterspell, Top, three land. I lead with top, and he casts forest, utopia sprawl. Man, this was a great keep against him. I play a land and pass. He tries for Argothian Enchantress, which gets good old fashioned counterspelled, and he plays Mirri’s Guile. I draw go, he then plays a sterling grove, which I let go because I know I can counter anything he gets with it. I top for some stuff, fetch to shuffle, and see a jace on top. I play him and then brainstorm right away. He shows me a counterbalance. My opponent searches for Enchantress’s Presence, but that gets force. I play balance next turn, counter a couple of his spells from things on top, and he concedes.
SB
I skip my two RIPs because I don’t think it’s worth it just for Replenish. Canonist can really slow them down, but also can pressure their life, so I think it’s worth it. I didn’t bring tutor in because I figure they have answers for balance, so I don’t want the card disadvantage.
-4 Baleful Strix
-4 Swords to Plowshares
+3 Ethersworn Canonist
+1 Counterspell
+3 Thoughtseize
+1 Oblivion Ring
G2:
I keep a hand with Clique, top, counterbalance, Entreat, three lands. He lays a forest, says go, and I play my top. Next turn he plays an argothian enchantress. I draw, lay down balance, and he plays another argothian but no land. So after his Upkeep I decide to clique him, seeing Replenish, Mirri’s Guile, Sterling Grove, Solitary Confinement, and something else. I have to think about this awhile, but take the guile to prevent him from drawing. He draws into a third argothian and plays that. I untap, play a land, swing with Clique to bring him to 17, and pass. He says draw go. I bring him to 14, and say go. He tries for utopia sprawl, but I counter with counterbalance trigger. He still draws three, but is unable to get a land. Next turn I bring him to 11, then Entreat for three during his turn, and the game is over.
Round 3 vs. Uwrg(?) delver (Loss, 1-1-1)
G1: I win the roll and keep a hand of Force, Counterspell, Jace, 1 creeping tar pit, and three fetches against an unknown opponent. I play fetch and pass (there’s an argument to fetch now, but with so many lands stifle isn’t a huge deal and this way I leave him guessing what I’m playing). He plays a land and says go. I draw a land, play a fetch and pass. Next turn he tries to go for delver, cast my counterspell, to which he doesn’t respond. I draw another land and pass. He goes for another delver, which I can’t answer. Next turn I miracle into a terminus, which goes uncountered and pass. Then he plays a Giest of Saint Taft, I die to it in three turns by him wasting tar pit, and then only drawing lands. Yep, 4 spells and 9 lands. I guess it happens.
SB
I hate the RUG matchup honestly, and I don’t think this build is particularly great against it. I bring in moon to gain a huge advantage, but not tutor because if moon gets countered that’s horrible for me. While force is useful for tempo, it’s pretty awkward to lose cards against delver decks since you get destroyed by cheap counters early. I like thoughtseize for information/protection for big spells (at least on the play), and elected not to bring in RIPs since he was on 4 colors.
-4 Force of will
-2 Counterspell
+2 Blood Moon
+1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
+3 Thoughtseize
G2: I mull a hand of 5 land + Entreat (after a 9 out of 13 land game?), then mull a hand with a single underground sea, no top or BS, and some white spells, and keep a 5 hand of Clique, two lands, strix, swords. I get delver T1 with swords then play baleful strix, drawing Sorin. Next turn I play a top. He uses swords on strix, then plays geist on his turn. I see a terminus in my top three, but it gets stifled. I try to thoughtseize him next turn, but see two pierce + stifle, so I take the stifle. Facing a 3-turn clock, I top and fetch twice looking for a strix—my only out against his hand. Fortunately I get one. He passes without attacking, I get a little breathing room but don’t have enough mana to pay for Sorin around pierce. He then gets a swords, kills my strix, and has another stifle for a miracle trigger. I then lose.
Round 4 vs. Death and Taxes (Draw, 1-1-2)
G1: She leads with plains into aether vial. I lead with top, and my opponent doesn’t seem too happy. Not really sure why, I don’t think this is necessarily a bad matchup for her. Anyway, she vials in a mother of runes. I consider swordsing, but figure I need to wait for terminus. She doesn’t attack and ticks vial to two, putting Thalia into play. I get out a baleful strix, but can’t block Thalia because of first strike, so I go down to 18. On my turn I pass, and during my instep she vials in Flickerwisp to exile baleful strix. This seemed silly, but it does let her swing for 5, putting me to 13. I have a fetchland in play, so with the strix draw on the stack I do some fetchland stuff to get a second swords, but no terminus. During her turn she gives flickerwisp pro-black, and attacks. I toss strix in front of Thalia, but take a flickerwisp. I desperately look for a miracle, so do some shuffling with fetches and find my terminus! During her turn I clear her board and have breathing room…for now. End of turn she vialed in Mangara and during her turn she just passed, I passed too. She mangara’d a tundra, then used Karakas to bounce, but my swords cleaned it up. She draws and says go, with a bunch of lands in play. A batterskull sees a hardcast, and gets counterespelled, then after that I find a Jace and begin fatesealing to victory.
SB:
My SB is horrible against DnT, but I have a few things. I like thoughtseize here on the play, because I get a ton of information and it’s more creature removal early.
-4 Force of Will
-1 Counterspell
+1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
+1 Oblivion Ring
+3 Thoughtseize
G2: She has to mulligan to 6, leading with canopy. I thoughtseize her first turn, getting rid of a stoneforge mystic, seeing 3x Port (!)and a mirran crusader as well. That was scary. Next turn I get my land ported, but play a top. Next turn she drops a pithing needle. I respond by tapping my top, then she names top with it. In my upkeep she ports me, so I can’t do anything on my turn three. She plays a second canopy and draws with it. I get ported in my upkeep again, but in response I play Clique, targeting myself to get rid of my now-dead top. Clique starts beating her down, but she starts getting creatures. Unfortunately I don’t have enough mana because of ports, and can’t see cards from tops, so she ends up just slightly racing me.
G3: Unfortunately we’re low on time, so I know we need to play fast. I play a top, then she follows with revoker on it, then I play a strix. She keeps the revoker back, then a Thalia. I take two and drop a Creeping Tar Pit. Pithing needle comes into play on Tar Pit, and she passes. I get ported turn three, but use that mana to get revoker and start topping again. She ports me on turn 4, so I can’t play my Jace yet, so I just keep filtering with top. Next turn she plays a crusader, which gets swords end of turn. On turn 5 I play jace and brainstorm. Unfortunately she follows up with Revoker (Jace) + Thalia. I find a swords in my top three, and have an Oring in hand. During my turn I have 6 land and swords Thalia first, to save mana to ORing Revoker, with then one mana left to top. And Jace brainstorms into Sorin. We’re almost at time, and she has nothing next turn, so I play sorin, make a guy, then brainstorm with Jace to keep finding cards. Remember I still have a strix, so he’s been doing a couple damage, she’s currently at 19. She plays another creature, which I swords, putting her back up to 21...and this is time in round when she starts her next turn (Turn 0). I don’t remember the end sequence exactly, but it was pretty unfortunate, basically leading to a situation where I made 4 angel tokens, she was able to answer two of them, and even with two sorin emblems + Strix (3/1) + 2 Angels (6/4), I could only bring her from 16 to 1 life, and that was time in round.
Round 5 vs. Shardless BUG (Win, 2-1-2)
G1: Again, against an unknown opponent, this time on the draw. I keep a hand with terminus, brainstorm, strix, top, swords, land, land. He plays land go, I play top. He brainstorms EOT, then turn two fetches it away and casts tarmogoyf. I debated awhile whether I should play strix or swords, but decided to go for strix and try to save swords for a dark confidant. He abrupt decays strix and swings for 4 (that artifact creature…). Fortunately, I am able to swords it next turn. He brainstorms EOT, then during his turn plays shardless agent into baleful strix (one might even say he stacked his deck to do so). I have a terminus on top, so I draw it with my top to clear his board, then follow up with Jace. I brainstorm, seeing entreat, and next turn he has a deathrite shaman, but is out of gas otherwise and Entreat seals the deal.
SB
As my first time against this deck, I was unsure exactly how to board, since everything seems so useful against them. In the end I decided having threatening spells and no card disadvantage was more useful than counters, although I have no idea what is right against them.
-4 Force of will
-2 Counterspell
-2 Vendilion Clique
+1 Oblivion Ring
+2 Enlightened Tutor
+2 Rest in Peace
+2 Blood Moon
+1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
G2: I start with top, Sorin, three fetches, brainstorm, and a strix. He plays draw go, I play top, then he plays strix, which I follow up with my own strix. His turn three is a tarmogoyf, and then we trade strixes. I swords his goyf turn three, but he suspends ancestral vision and plays shardless agent into deathrite shaman after. Fortunately top finds a terminus, which I cast on that turn. Sorin then comes down on my turn 4. He plays a goyf and passes with no other business. Sorin starts makes another token, building up to 5 and I play a counterbalance. It dies to a golgari charm (oh man, that charm), but I didn’t really care since Sorin is still building and goyf can’t break that wall. I find a Baleful strix, and make even more blockers, although he finds a strix too. I find a Jace and have planeswalker buddies, with jace getting a terminus. I use it his next turn. He pulses it though. I keep looking for cards, but then his visions goes off, getting him a shardless agent and two deathrite shamans. I find a blood moon in my top three, so he just concedes after that.
Round 6 vs. Lands (Win, 3-1-2)
G1: I know the guy that I’m playing against, but I don’t know the deck he’s playing. I start with Jace and a mix of answers and lands, so my hand was keepable. I lead with a top, and then I quickly find out he’s playing Lands, basically impossible for me game 1. On turn 4 I get Jace, then begin fatesealing myself (5 counters) I know Jace ramping up is about my only hope. He tries for Intuition but I force it (pitching strix). He tries to rush for stage-depths, using Tolaria west to get his depths, but both were in his yard so he could only play one land at a time with no accelerants. Jace goes to 7, then gets hit by punishing fire back to 5. If he used Tolaria West to get grove, could have stopped me from winning, but he didn’t do this. He then tries to do Stage-Depths repeatedly, but I keep stopping it by using top and the fatesteal from Jace to find more and more answers. He even almost got there after Jace ultimate, but I countered his loam to get academy ruins back from his graveyard to prevent himself from decking.
SB
I don’t feel great about this MU post board, but I have 6 cards that can dominate the game, so I don’t feel terrible. A lot of people are surprised at me bringing canonists in, but realistically my clock is so slow I need ways to just pressure a lands player’s life total, and I feel that Canonist can do that. Punishing fire does stay in, but the more cards you get that they have to deal with (moon, balance, a creature, walker, etc.), the more cards they need to find to not lose. I force is terrible, since basically my other blue spells post board I don’t really want to pitch anything. Counterspell is at least counterable and come in at crucial times. I don’t know this matchup well enough yet to come up with a better sideboarding plan, which I’m sure there is though.
-4 Force of will
-4 Baleful Strix
-3 Terminus
+2 Rest in Peace
+2 Blood Moon
+2 Enlightened Tutor
+1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
+3 Ethersworn Canonist
+1 Counterspell
G2: I have an opener that is great: blood moon, top, island, fetch, volcanic island, Jace, Clique. He plays land go. I draw a tundra, then play my top off island. Turn two he plays Sphere of Resistance, which is a huge pain for this hand now. I play my fetch and pass. He plays a port and casts loam targeting nothing. I looked at my top and see 2x canonist, and a counterspell. With sphere, port, no lands on top, and volc in my hand I’m in a really awkward situation. If I don’t try to ramp up immediately, I’ll probably never play my blood moon. Then again, playing my only red source is hugely risky since he has a port out. I decided I had to play my only volc into the port he had, just so that I could cast Canonist to have a clock and to play blood moon if he ever tapped his port. Sure enough, he went for loam and because of sphere didn’t have enough mana to port. On my next turn I got a land, and cast blood moon, even though he had already found a basic forest (how unfortunate to naturally draw it). Canonist attacked him to 11 while we built mana, but after that he found punishing fire for it. After that we played draw go for about 10 turns or so, because all my win-cons were UU and I only had a basic island + plains under moon. Eventually he plays krosan grip on moon and can do things again. When it goes to me, I was only able to play one spell because of ports, but it was counterbalance, so it was a good one. I shut him off loam for a little bit, which prevented him from getting the stage-depths pieces from his yard. He gets another grip after a couple turns though, which he used on his main phase, so I’m able to sneak Jace in because he can’t port me enough. Fortunately we’re going to time and he’s unable to kill me with stage-depths fast enough because I have two swords + clique to stop him from winning. Win this round by 1-0-1!
Round 7 vs. Esperblade (Loss, 3-2-2)
G1: I had to mull to 6, but was on the play. However, he has double stoneforge + Jace + force, so I’m just unable to prevent all these from sticking because I saw mostly lands and few spells. I was so behind because of these draws that he even cast Inquisition on me without realizing my hand was empty, and he still was easily able to win.
SB:
This is a nightmare matchup for me, but I try to bring a little more control. I’m not exactly sure what’s best for sideboarding here.
-4 Baleful Strix
-2 Terminus
+1 Oblivion Ring
+1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
+3 Thoughtseize
+1 Counterspell
G2: I had to mull to 6 because of a zero land hand. These mana draws, I tell you. I’m on the play and thoughtseize, seeing 4 lands, brainstorm, counterspell, stoneforge mystic. I had a counterspell, so I wasn’t quite sure what to take, but I took the counterspell, since I could try and counterspell his Stoneforge. In turn 2, that’s happens. In turn three after he draws I clique him, and see stack control and Jace, but no removal. He then draws into a dark confidant, which really sucks for me. I figure since I’m down cards and that I didn’t have a way to answer Confidant immediately (let alone with the cards in his hand to stop me) that my main line of play would be to try and deal lethal with Clique + bob damage. He went from 19 to 16 to 13 from attacks, revealed force to go to 8, then to 5 from Clique, then revealed lingering souls to go to 2, then stabilizes with Lingering Souls stopping my Clique and a Jace to handle his Dark Confidant life loss.
Round 8 vs. Goblins (Win, 4-2-2)
G1: He mulliganed and had a very weak hand, using a skirk prospector as mana to cast goblin matron, which I forced. He couldn’t find any business goblins though, so I entreat for 2 on turn 4 and kill him.
SB
So many creature decks today. Normally I prepare for the creature decks a ton, but this time I thought I should go against more unfair decks. Thoughtseize is quite good here to stop their value goblins early, even if it hurts me. Canonist is also actually good, just as a blocker, and I have plenty of things to come out. Force is strong but also awful; usually I don’t want to give up my blue cards (would be siding out a ton anyway), so I think counterspell is the safer card. They do have vial, but because of diverse casting costs you usually will have targets still.
-4 Counterbalance
-4 Force of Will
+1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
+3 Thoughtseize
+1 Counterspell
+3 Ethersworn Canonist
G2: Canonist was an early blocker for a piledriver, and by all means I should have not won this game, but my opponent playing 5 goblins on the board into a terminus (even vialed in Krenko before an attack, even though it didn’t have haste), so what can you do. I did have to fetch like three times with top to find it though, and it was the third from top then. Even with this though, I almost lost because of all the card advantage and aggressiveness of the goblins early that I couldn’t deal with. However, I got Sorin on any empty board, and even though I was at 2 life (!) he was able to completely stabilize the game for me, bringing me back up to 6, and then stealing three of his creatures after he drew into more of them.
Round 9 vs. Nic Fit (Win 5-2-2)
G1: I was on the draw, but had no idea what he was on and had to mull my first hand. He leads with a blind therapy turn 1, not hitting anything. I play a top, then get hymned, losing a Jace and tundra. But I still had strix + the fetch I needed to play it in hand, so I did that turn 2. I slap him in the air with a strix. He passes and kills the strix with an abrupt decay EOT, then draws into a goyf. I answer it with a swords, but am stuck on three mana. He finds a veteran explorer though, sacs it to therpy (he wanted my Jace), but I respond by brainstorming, after getting my basics of course, showing him two lands. He passes to me, and I get to untap and lay down Jace with my new mana. He brainstorms for me, and while he gets killed by a maelstrom pulse next turn, setup an entreat for me. Next turn I entreat for 3 tokens, which make short order of my opponent.
SB
Force is awful with all the discard, as is balance with the diverse curve.
-4 Force of will
-4 Counterbalance
+3 Thoughtseize
+1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
+2 Rest in Peace
+1 Oblivion Ring
+1 Counterspell
G2: Even though this is my last game, I don’t remember it all that well. I think his hand was pretty weak though, and I baited him into casting + using a pernicious deed on two strixes + my top, then using a brainstorm to Miracles for four angels to kill his Thrun and other creature.
Wow, that was a long report. I guess I’m pretty long-winded when it comes to this sort of things. So, hopefully somebody found this interesting; it certainly helps me reflect on what I should be doing in each matchup, and I like doing it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
This should not be possible with Ethersworn Canonist in play. Still, nice report :)Originally Posted by Valtrix
It probably didn't happen that way then then :P I wrote up all these matches from memory, with only life totals to remind me, so there are mistakes there like that which (likely) didn't happen exactly as I wrote.
Anyway, thanks for your response, I appreciate it!
I also played miracles in a big tournament this year, and I got the same result that you 5-2-2 . This deck is very dangerous for big tournaments because you can draw matches very easily.
This deck is difficult to play because you cant spend lot of time thinking, one advice is to play 3 entreat the angels, at least 2 in main deck and other in the sideboard that we will put in maindeck on second or third game if we have few time remaining...
Now Im thinking about sleeping again miracles with 3 entreat the angels in main deck and playing it like a pseudo combo deck, controlling the game in the first turns and trying to put some angels in turn 5 or turn 6.
I agree that the deck can be difficult to play. You can go to time if you play too slow, but really this should only happen if you're not practiced and need to think quite a bit. In general, I'm not the fastest player, and in my case, having not played much legacy, I was very rusty so my moves were much slower than they should have been. As such, several games too me longer than they should have. Yet, even with that I still finished almost all my games in a reasonable time frame, the two draws I had were because 25 minute game 1s in which neither of won very quickly.
As an example, I know somebody that's only played Lands for like 3 or 4 SCG opens now, and he's only gone to time once, because he knows the deck very well and plays very quickly. The third Entreat is certainly strong, and I know I considered it. I hadn't actually gotten to use Entreat much in the past (since I never drew it), so I didn't fully understand just how powerful it was, which is why I ran 2. After this tournament though, I do want to find room for the third one somewhere.
I advocate Black for Engineered Plague for a while now. You took it for strix and thoughtseize, which I respectfully disagree. Whatever float your boat I guess.
As to your report, I am not surprised about Ethersworn Canonist. This card is being under-appreciated right now, I have them in my SB. Do you find a need for Misdirection? I had to save my cannonit from Abrupt Decay using Misdirection before.
I think plague is pretty weak right now, unless you expect to go against merfolk, goblins, and death and takes all day. I guess it can stop delver, which is useful, but in general I'm not super happy with a 3cc answer to a single card, if they happen to have it, against a delver deck. Strix on the other hand is useful against most all creatures, and actually can create card advantage, and isn't disadvantage if your opponent doesn't happen to have the type of creature you named.
Canonist is amazing. I don't think I ever want less than three, and I had 4 up until I decided to play the second blood moon. It's one of the main tools you have to fight dekc that need to play multiple spells in one turn (storm, omniscience, enchantress). Against decks that need one crucial spell it turns into a lockpiece, making it easy to keep a counterbalance lock, or making it so that they can't counter your counters (of which you have 7 post board in my list, quite a lot). It has usefulness against small aggressive decks when it can block too. Mostly goblins, but occasionally other decks. Plus, it gives you a desperately needed clock whenever you bring it in, and I've been known to side it in against slow decks that might side out all their removal (like the mirror for example).As to your report, I am not surprised about Ethersworn Canonist. This card is being under-appreciated right now, I have them in my SB. Do you find a need for Misdirection? I had to save my cannonit from Abrupt Decay using Misdirection before.
It's very powerful, versatile, and I bring it in quite a lot too.
this was reason enough for me to stop playing UWr miracles. running into the fringe control decks (Lands, Nic Fit) or the control mirror all day in a big tournament? no fun. draws are as good as losses up until the last round (or two) of a major event.
@warfordium on twitter.
I mean, time is only an issue if you don't have enough practice, in my experience. Like, even though I've hardly played much the past while, I finished basically all my matches in time (both of my draws would have been decided on one more turn after time, but we were like 30s too slow). Had I played more at all I could have easily finished in time. It's all about knowing your interactions, and not wasting time when you don't need to with top and such. Plus, Entreat gives the deck a very fast win condition, and has greatly improved the control archetype in my opinion.
Grats on the 5-2-2 record, I totally bombed out at SCGMKE, but always fun to push another open!
Primary legacy deck High Tide primer
I find your comment ironic, since your report suggested that you drew against Merfolk and DnT. EP, if resolved, can hoses opponent's entire deck, it's not just CA like Verdict/Terminus, it's continuous CA, since their route to winning has been slowed, until they find an answer. Strix is 2 for 1 at the best, actually, Strix cannot even block if Merfolk Islandwalk you.
I mean, I'm going to base my opinions based on what I observe to be played the most right now; DnT and Merfolk seem to be played in pretty small numbers. To be fair, I did have the win against Folk and Death and Taxes, but I misplayed against folk G1 and lost, then went to time, and against DnT I played slightly too slow and was one turn away from killing her when last rounds of time ended.
Plague is also not a mainboard card, whereas strix is (in my opinion). As such, it's pretty difficult to compare the two, though there's really nothing stopping you from running both. While I think Plague is weak right now, it's only because of the quantity of decks out there where it's only okay. It certainly does have its merits though, I don't deny that, so I it is useful if you expect the right types of decks. I just checked all the styles of delver lists, and I did overlook how useful Plague is actually against most of them--Humans stops delver, young pyromancer, grim lavamancer, and dark confidant even.
Being in that bracket, she may well have drawn with another Miracles player before your match. I like Miracles as a deck, but it is very slow, and any interesting game that goes back and forth usually dooms your chances for squeezing in a Game 3. I sometimes wish rounds were longer, because the longer games can be fun, almost like the players' emotional investment in them grows simply with the turns that pass.
I call shenanigans on the bolded part.
I would suggest keeping engineered plague away from your deck if your plan for it is to beat merfolk and death and taxes; generally, the death and taxes matchup is pretty good, and against merfolk plague does basically nothing. Against merfolk, I've found supreme verdict to be pretty great and would suggest more of those in the board if you're concerned with the matchup.
Yeah, I totally feel like my board was a little bit overprepared for unfair decks. I think I have a reasonable amount of ways to handle such decks, and adding a few more answers to creatures to the board probably would have been a bit smarter. That probably would also help vs. tempo decks too. While I didn't really get to test or play against them (Unless you count mull to 5 and 9 lands/4 spells games), I imagine I could probably have appreciated some extra help here as well.
lol..., and what would supreme verdict do against Mutavault? basically nothing, like you said. Goblins run close to 30 creatures, other vial decks are stacked with creatures as well, how many mass removal can you continuously trade, when you are stretching out the game into war of attrition.
I would much, much rather ply more verdicts and i'll play dread of night all day, all night over plague atm.
merfolk/goblins are an awesome m/u aleady.
Merfolk is beatable, but it can still stuck if they get the right draws. However, Goblins is basically only winnable if you can follow up a terminus with an entreat the angels, otherwise you'll lose basically every game against Goblins. I've played against them quite a bit, and they just will recover too many cards over the course of the game. That said, going into a random meta I wouldn't specifically prepare for either, but having some extra creature hate in the board is always nice. I do have to say that strix did help me out quite a bit in regards to creature decks (which is why I elected to not run more specific creature hate in the board), and I was very happy with what he did for me in this tournament.
What does plague do against mutavault? I think I would take my supreme verdicts missing 4 cards in their deck rather than plague doing nothing against their 12+ lords and mutavault. I mean, if you're looking to 1-for-1 naked cursecatchers and silvergill adepts, plague seems like a hell of a card. As for verdict doing nothing against goblins, they play infinite cards that reward them for committing a bunch of stuff to the board. Yes, they can rebuild with ringleader, but you've got to start somewhere. Against exactly goblins I'll agree that plague is better, but against every other creature deck I'd rather have Verdict.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Reply With Quote