As square_two has noted, I've been on this same plan on Sneak of cutting P-Fire/Grove for Bolts. Am not looking back.
Honestly, it feels better. P-Fire is pretty slow, and as stated, Leovold is gaining in popularity. Having another way to answer him beyond just Decay in 1 card is pretty good. Having cheap effective removal at the beginning of the game, very good. Still having reach to end a game out of nowhere if your opponent is at 3 life, still really good.
In all the games I've played with the list, I've found Punishing Fire to just be too slow to deal with things like it should be. We're not a Punishing Fire deck, the engine is slow and it takes time to set up properly without any disruption. And if you get disrupted, it really slows you down. Bolt lets you deal with that thing you needed to quickly, and does so on 1 mana.
@Brael: Yeah, I can see that list having trouble with Manaless Dredge. The lands package in your SB takes up a lot of room. I wonder if it's worth it.
Also, why the 2 DRS in the SB? If you need GY hate, you need it to be fast. As in preferably free. Like Surgical Extraction, or Tormod's Crypt.
The DRS isn't really there for GY hate, while that's a potential benefit it's actually there so I can bring in mana ramp when I need to take Explorers out.
The DD package has won me a lot of games, it's very useful against the medium speed combo decks but it's weak enough against Miracles and other STP decks though that I don't feel comfortable having it MB.
The Bojuka Bog should go a long ways towards fixing it. Combined with Crop Rotation that gives me 3 ways in G1 and 4 ways in G2/G3 to fully wipe the GY at instant speed. At least against most builds, the local manaless includes FoW in their build (SB only though). It's got implications for decks like BR Reanimator too.
Last edited by Brael; 01-21-2017 at 04:20 PM.
Anyone else playing with Pharika, God of Affliction in Nyx Fit? Seems to synergize pretty well with a lot of what the deck does.
- You can tutor for it with GSZ (it's only not a creature on the battlefield) or Sterling Grove
- Devotion is pretty easy to trigger with all our double-color enchantments and such, and then you have a 5/5 beater (or indestructible blocker if that's needed)
- You can make deathtouch snakes out of your spent Veteran Explorers
- Those snakes are also enchantments, so you can trigger Constellation with them at instant speed
- It's indestructible, so most enchantment removal is useless against it (it becoming a creature does open it up to StP, but by then you'll probably have a Grove out too)
I rather just Liliana, the Last Hope as the walker of choice to pick off small critters as she is easier on mana than Chandra and comes a full turn earlier which is critical if you want to emblem.
It's hard to kill, but it doesn't actually do anything.
- Zenithing for value is better as Eidolon of Blossoms. Zenithing for pressure is better as Sigarda.
- Rector and Sterling Grove is better for Starfield, unless you need stabilization immediately, in which case it's better for Doomwake
- You don't actually have many creatures go to the graveyard - it's pretty much just Vet and Witness, since Eidolon etc you want to keep there as Starfield targets, and Rector exiles itself.
- Enchantment removal is gonna be used on more relevant targets than a vanilla 5/5.
- If you have Starfield it's just a 3/3.
I'm looking to build this deck and saw this particular 5-0 list from MTGO.
http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=14127&d=284061&f=LE
Is this a good place to start? What would we want to adjust right off the bat? I'm targeting this particular list as I have almost all of these cards in my collection and wouldn't have to invest heavily right away.
Thinking of giving a BUG pod list a shot with Trophy Mage to search up some utility artifacts. In particular, she fetches Staff of Domination which I'm sure can be set up to do something powerful in this deck. Maybe Pod a recurring 2-drop (Bloodghast?) into Trophy Mage and Selvala, Heart of the Wilds?
I've been thinking about Trophy Mage for awhile, I have that list of interesting artifacts in a post in the previous thread. My main concern with Trophy Mage right now is that it really clogs up the 3 slot. Not only do you have the Mages, but you have what they fetch. I think pod in particular is better off using Trinket Mage because that plays better as a 1 of.
I really like the Bloodghast idea though.
I've been trying to get Bloodghast working properly for ages, ever since the Contamination builds we tried to make work a few months ago. I think with Fatal Push around it might be more feasible to give a shot to a build that's heavier on the black mana, running Contamination, Recurring Nightmare, Grave Titan etc. Could probably manage to splash a third colour if necessary, but it might be interesting to try and put something together.
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Veteran Explorer
3 Deathrite Shaman
2 Bloodghast
2 Ophiomancer
1 Eternal Witness
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Academy Rector
1 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Grave Titan
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Diabolic Intent
2 Fatal Push
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Birthing Pod
1 Nissa, Vital Force
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Contamination
3 Swamp
2 Forest
1 Plains
3 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Savannah
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Marsh Flats
2 Windswept Heath
2 Phyrexian Tower
1 Volrath's Stronghold
Might do some testing tonight. White for Rector also expands sideboard options quite well. Gray Merchant seems good with Recurring Nightmare but might just want to be Thragtusk.
Hello All,
I've been playing Rhino Fit for a little while and find it appreciable with the updated primer. However, and not that I doubt the people who've posted before me, but I have found that naming chalice in the blind is most effective, as opposed to brainstorm. And when playing Eldrazi, or Big Red, or Loam, I will always name chalice. It just shuts off too much of what I want to do. Cuts me off of top, vet., Dr. Shaman, therapy, StP, PtE.
Yes, I can GSZ for pridemage, or draw an abrupt decay, at some point, I will probably end up too far behind.
I can see the argument for naming brainstorm in the dark, it is probably the most played spell in legacy, but BS doesn't shut down my game plan like chalice does.
Thoughts? I'd appreciate the feedback, either in agreement with me or the primer, but I am a little curious as Therapy involves equal parts skill, luck, and brazenness.
If you really have no clue what your opponent is on, just wait until their first landdrop. That should give you enough to work with.
The point of the blind Brainstorm is that Brainstorm sees more play than CotV, hence giving you a better chance of hitting rather than whiffing. On the flipside, your opponent not having what you name with CT is usually a very good thing, so there's that.
I normally pretty much always drop Explorer first if I'm on the play. It opens him up to removal but that's not necessarily a problem, and it means you have more information before using Therapy.
- Against Miracles you don't particularly want Vet to trigger anyway so Swords isn't a problem
- You'd like to get the trigger against most D&T hands, but at the same time if they Swords veterans on turn one they aren't making Vial or Mom which are way worse for you
- If they make Chalice you'd rather have cast Vet than Therapy since if Explorer is already on the board you can cast Therapy into the Chalice to get the Explorer trigger anyway, which gives us better odds of being able to do something useful.
I actually really like the Explorer trigger vs. D&T. Pretty much instantly gets you out of their mana denial plan, and you benefit more from the mana than they do. For T1 plays vs. a completely unknown opponent it's probably SDT > GSZ for X = 0 if the rest of my hand is good enough > nothing > CT > Veteran Explorer.
If your opponent plays blue (generalizing here) or white, it's CT/SDT > Veteran Explorer.
If your opponent plays something without Stifles/StP that isn't Storm it's Veteran Eplorer > Cabal Therapy > SDT.
Or something along those lines. I tend to play very defensively.
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