Yeah, Merfolk Lords was the rationale. It was never an issue either way in this tournament. Either card would have served the same purpose.
flier's rant typically that much of a problem except for delver and maybe vendillion. i think the bigger issues are things like goyf because 1 goyf is normally 5-6 dmgOriginally Posted by B.C.
Play 4 Card Blind!
Currently Playing
Legacy: Dark Depths
EDH: 5-Color Hermit Druid
Currently Brewing: [Deck] Sadistic Sacrament / Chalice NO Eldrazi
why cards are so expensive...hoarders
Sneak & Show
Overview
"Sneak Attack with Show and Tell," or "Sneak & Show," or whatever you want to call it, is a combo-control deck that primarily operates by trying to resolve one of the aforementioned spells as early as possible and cheating the best fatties in the format's history into play: Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Griselbrand
I consider the deck to be a strong choice because it has the speed to keep up with aggro strategies, the control to hold back other combo strategies, and the ability to consistently shape a hand and ram through one key spell against other control oriented strategies. It's other major advantage is that it's tremendously easy to pilot and, unlike other combo decks, it's much less susceptible to typical forms of combo hate. The simple goal is to resolve a Sneak Attack or a Show and Tell, turn monsters sideways and pray that you've won.
Introduction
Sneak & Show is a U/R combo control deck. Its game-plan is to resolve either a Show and Tell or Sneak Attack as soon as possible while protecting this combo with a strong countersuit. With one of these spells it cheats in an unfair creature like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or Griselbrand that usually ends the game by itself.
The deck exists since mid-2010, when the release of Emrakul, the Aeons Torn made cards like Show and Tell, Eureka and Sneak Attack rise drastically in price.
At GP Columbus, Korey Age piloted a list with 4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and 4 Woodfall Primus to a Top 8 finish which made the deck more popular.
The next half-year Sneak Show was a present contender in the Survival-metagame. At that time, lists with Black and White splashes for Extirpate vs. Survival of the fittest and Enlightened Tutor for consistency were the ones with the greatest success.
When Mental Misstep joined the Legacy metagame in May 2011, Sneak Show's position increased since its cards were unaffected by the little counterspell, while its addition to the deck helped it to fight against popular cards like Thoughtsieze and Stifle which can hinder the strategy.
Two very similar lists played by Rodrigo Togores and Johannes Gutbrod made Top 16 at the Bazaar of Moxen that year. While Mental Misstep continued to alter the format, after Grand Prix Providence, Hive Mind became extremely popular, arguably THE Deck to Beat in Legacy. For the next few months, Sneak Show hid behind the other popular Show and Tell strategy, since the Sneak Show/Hive Mind matchup was 40-60 for Sneaky Tell, mainly because Hive Mind + Pact wins on the spot, while an Emrakul or Progenitus needs 2 attack steps.
With Mental Misstep banned, the format sped up slightly to the advantage of Sneak Show.
While only 1 Hive Mind appeared in the Top 16 of Grand Prix Amsterdam, double the amount of Sneak Show decks did. They were piloted by Dutch natives Jan van der Vegt (15th) and Erwin "Sneak" Sneek (16th) who played the exact same maindeck and had worked on the deck together. Their creature configuration of 4 Emrakul 3 Progenitus was considered standard back then.
Since the misstep banning, Sneak & Show's position in the metagame has continued to improve the more popular decks like Maverick and Stoneblade variants have become, and the less popular Merfolk has become. In early 2012, there was almost always a Sneak Show deck in the Top 16 of the SCG Open or any other big tournament.
With the printing of Griselbrand, Sneak & Show became THE combo deck to beat. Whereas before you could only hope to have a counter in hand for an opponent's answer to one of your fatties, you could now draw into your counters after putting the flying Bargain into play. It also made the Sneak-plan a lot better, since it could be activated cheating Griselbrand into play, drawing enough cards to find another mana source and an Emrakul to end the game on the spot.
The success of the deck spiraled upwards drastically, winning two SCG Opens in 2012 in the hands of Jonathan Hickerson and Richard Centanni, as well as Chris Bergeson taking down the Legacy Champs at GenCon.
In 2013, Sneak & Show won five more SCG Opens (Jared Boettcher even stomped the whole SCG Providence Legacy Open without losing a single match), Top 16d (Chas Hinkle) and Top 8d (Jared Boettcher) GP Washington, D.C. as well as Christopher Brunner making Top 8 of of the European GP 2013 in Strasbourg.
Even pros like Hall of Famer William "Huey" Jensen started playing the deck, appreciating it's raw power.
After Brain Braun-Duin established the Gitaxian Probe version, Sneak & Show saw an incredible hype among pro players at the SCG Invitational Indianapolis, eventually putting four of them into the Top 8 with Brad Nelson taking it down in a finals mirror match against Huey Jensen.
Ways to build the deck
The deck consists of 5 different parts that comprise the maindeck:
1. Enablers
Sneak Attack: One half of the name-sake, no card in the history of magic more effectively cheats creatures into play for such value…again and again.
Show and Tell: The other half of the equation, Show and Tell enables all the broken spells at the cost of 2U. Note that you can use it to put in Sneak Attack, saving one red mana.
2. Fatties
Since the printing of Griselbrand, there is no room for discussion about the main deck fatty configuration. 4 Griselbrand/ 4 Emrakul are set.
3. The Search Engine
Brainstorm: In case you haven't heard, this card turns out to be quite strong in strategies with access to Blue mana and fetch lands.
Ponder: Next best after Brainstorm, Ponder is preferable to Preordain in this strategy because it digs a card deeper and the deck craves the pieces of its 2 card combo.
Intuition: Provides versatility within the maindeck and sideboard. Most often it grabs the most effective combo piece or creature for a given situation, though other times it grabs counter-magic or a specific sideboard piece. Intuition gets blown out by Surgical Extraction post-board, so it gets boarded out a lot.
Preordain: Offers more redundancy.
Sensei's Divining Top: Another effective card filtering option, Top is especially effective in the mid-game and against heavy-discard strategies.
Gitaxian Probe: This probably belongs more in the "Protection"-paragraph, but it does some minor cantripping as well. Probe is a nice card to support Sneak & Show's main game plan - resolving a Show and Tell or Sneak Attack as fast as possible. Against Tempo, it shows you how many counters your opponent has that you need to fight through. Against Death and Taxes, you can see what hate you need to play around. In the mirror and against Reanimator you might even catch your opponent at a point where you can just win via Show and Tell into creature.
More experienced Sneak & Show players might be able to read their opponent well enough to know how many counters / hate he has, but fact is that you can't ever be 100 % sure. Gitaxian Probe dispenses with the need to "guess" and makes everything easier by just showing you what's up.
Generally, you want to cast it in the turn you go off. If you don't know what you're playing against, casting it right away is the better choice, since it allows you to make decisions like whether or not playing around cards like Stifle and Wasteland, leaving mana open to cast your Spell Pierce, etc.
4. Protection
To be able to protect the combo against control decks and discard, and to counter opposing cards that would stop the creatures from attacking like Peacekeeper, Moat, Humility, Blazing Archon, and Ensnaring Bridge, as well as taking the control-role against other combo decks, Sneak & Show utilizes a strong counter-suite that consists of:
Force of Will: Nothing to argue about here; we play a blue deck that needs protection so we play a playset of Forces.
Misdirection: Really strong against UBx strategies, since it can act as another Force of Will in a counterwar while being excellent against discard.
Daze: Opinions differ a lot whether or not Daze fits into Sneak & Shows counter-suit. It is another free counterspell to protect your combo, but it does set you back a whole turn if it doesn't result in an immediate win or has to be used defensively. This is especially tough for this deck, because you want to get to 3/4/5 mana as fast as possible.
Spell Pierce: Ultra efficient and versatile. Counters everything that worries the Sneak & Show player, from an opposing Red Elemental Blast, over a Thoughtseize to a Liliana of the Veil.
Flusterstorm: Some prefer Flusterstorm over Spell Pierce because it's more effective against storm strategies and Reanimator. However, the fact that it doesn't hit Planeswalkers and other non-instants/sorceries like Aether Vial can be relevant.
Swan Song: The best counter you can have in the mirror match. Moreover, Swan Song is a Force of Will for U against counter-heavy blue decks, even though the Bird token can increase the clock significantly, especially against Tempo decks.
Other than that, it is similar to Flusterstorm; very strong against other combo decks).
5. Acceleration and lands
Recommended stock mana configuration:
4 Scalding Tarn
3 other blue fetchlands
5 sol-lands (3-4 Ancient Tomb and 1-2 City of Traitors)
3 Volcanic Island
3 Island
1 Mountain
4 Lotus Petal
This can be customized to fit one's own playstyle of course, but this is considered the stock manabase. Simian Spirit Guide is another playable accelerant, blanking an opponent's Daze and enabling a surprise Sneak Attack activation on your opponent's turn.
Main Deck Construction Guideline
Ultimately, this is what the stock shell currently looks like:
16 combo pieces (4 Emmy, 4 Grisel + 8 Sneak & Show)
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Force of Will
9 Flex-slots (Gitaxian Probe, Spell Pierce, Misdirection, Daze, Swan Song, Flusterstorm, Sensei's Divining Top are possibilities)
6. The Sideboard
There is a huge amount of options in the deck's colors. I will try to list the ones most relevant in the current (December 2013) metagame.
Blood Moon: The best permanent answer to Karakas as well as an almost complete lock-out against many of the format's most popular decks (RUG Delver, UWR Delver, Team America, Shardless BUG, Basicless Deathblade, etc.).
Leyline of Sanctity: A clunky answer to Storm- and discard-strategies. If you don't have it in your opening hand, the already high number of dead cards increases by 3/4. If you have it, it's often very good and can win the game alone by buying a lot of time. However, most Storm players are prepared for it, boarding in some numbers of bounce along Xantid Swarm who doesn't care about Leyline.
Red Elemental Blast / Pyroblast: Very versatile and especially good against Delver decks, where it can act as both a counterspell and a removal for Delver of Secrets to buy some time. Also strong against cantrip-reliant combo-decks and Jace-decks like UWr Miracles and Shardless BUG.
Defense Grid: The best card we have against Tempo(Delver)-decks' huge amount of counters post-board. If you decide to play with Defense Grid, only board it in against Tempo; it's not worth it against decks with less than 8 post-board counters.
Swan Song and Flusterstorm: Both a main deck and sideboard card. See above for explanation.
Through the Breach: Functioning as a one-shot instant Sneak Attack, Through the Breach can work as a supplement providing further redundancy to the creature cheating strategy as well as replacing Show and Tell in the mirror match, against decks that can abuse S&T's symmetry (Reanimator/Belcher) or vs hatebear-decks like Death and Taxes that have a lot of answers to Show and Tell / Sneak Attack.
Pyroclasm: The best answer against Death and Taxes' huge amount of hatebears. Tribal-strategies, especially the nowadays very popular Elves!, also get hit pretty hard by it. Pyroclasm is also very good against UWR Delver, hitting all of their threats and Meddling Mage post-board.
Grafdigger's Cage: Reanimator and Dredge are some of the more difficult matchups. Cage is great against Reanimator and ok against Dredge, while also blanking both Natural Order and Green Sun's Zenith against Elves and Past in Flames vs Storm.
Surgical Extraction: Even better than Cage against Reanimator, since it can't be bounced. Great in the mirror against Intuition and at extracting a countered Sneak Attack.
Echoing Truth and Wipe Away: Bounce against permanent-hate like Ensnaring Bridge, Humility and Pithing Needle. Echoing Truth is also very good against Empty the Warrens decks like TES and Belcher or the Entreat the Angels tokens of UWr Miracles. Wipe Away can bounce a fatty against Reanimator and is generally better against UWr Miracles than Echoing Truth, because it can't be countered. Note that it should also be boarded against Storm; bouncing a land in response to a hellbent Infernal Tutor is really nice.
Progenitus: Even with bounce, Through the Breach and Pyroclasm, there are some post-board games you can't win against Death and Taxes. Show and Tell into Progenitus on the first few turns always beats them. UWr Miracles also has a tough time dealing with the Hydra. Downside is that he's terrible via Sneak Attack.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor: In the matchups you board him in (mirror, slow combo, creaturelight control) you will often be able to win the game with Jace alone. Especially in the mirror, it gives a huge edge and lets you play the control-role really easily.
Vendilion Clique: A very good card against other combo-decks, creating a clock while being disruptive as well. Obviously great in the mirror, but also good against control-decks that board out their spot-removal.
Matchup Analysis and how to play Sneak & Show
The way you want to play the deck differs from matchup to matchup, so the MU-analysis and the how-to fall together.
Even though Legacy is a very diverse format, I won't cover non-Tier strategies, since those are not as relevant. Questions about specific matchups against less popular decks are welcome to be asked in the thread.
The sideboarding advice only includes the cards I listed in the sideboard-section above.
RUG Delver 50:50
One of the classic matchups. Your only goal here is to resolve either Show and Tell or Sneak Attack, because they have no answer to your creatures (except maybe Stifle) and can't race them. The RUG Delver's tools to stop you from doing that are counterspells (Force of Will, Spell Pierce and Daze main deck, with Flusterstorm, Red Blasts and sometimes Envelop in the board) and mana-denial (Stifle and Wasteland).
You can render their mana-denial-plan almost useless by playing around Stifle and fetching basic lands as long as you can.
Pre-board you generally want two extra mana open and one hard-counter to protect your combo before you go off. Post-board you might even want to wait until you have two counters.
That changes if they make the mistake to tap out for a Tarmogoyf or something. Then you can go more aggressively for the combo, as long as you have mana to play around Daze.
Another possibility is that your hand is full of enablers, where you don't have to wait for / cantrip into a counter, but can fire off one after another.
Also note that you can wait to sculpt the "perfect" hand if they don't get down an early threat.
Important: You NEVER want to activate Griselbrand against them - if you don't have to - just because you might find another combo to seal the deal. They can't race a 7/7 flying lifelinker.
Defense Grid is your best card against them. Blood Moon can be devestating if it comes down early, but most of the time they put one threat down early and Blood Moon only negates more threats, Spell Pierce, Daze and Flusterstorm, while Defense Grid stops Force of Will and REB, too.
Cards you want to sideboard against RUG Delver: Blood Moon, Red Elemental Blast, Defense Grid, Swan Song
UWR Delver 50:50
This plays out pretty much like RUG, except that they are less likely to have Stifle in their list. Post-board they have access to hate-bears like Meddling Mage, even Ethersworn Canonist can be very annoying, because you can't counter their counters anymore. Defense Grid and Pyroclasm are very good against them.
Cards you want to sideboard against UWR Delver: Blood Moon, Red Elemental Blast, Defense Grid, Swan Song, Pyroclasm
Esper Blade 60:40
A rather positive matchup, especially pre-board where they have a lot of dead cards. Their advantage is a widespread hate-suit against us, ranging from countermagic in the form of Force of Will and Spell Pierce over discard to permanents like Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Meddling Mage, Vendilion Clique, Karakas and sometimes even Humility. Thus, remember to have mana open to pay for Spell Pierce, don't just cast a blind Show and Tell Emrakul and keep discard-redundant openers.
Without Stoneforge Mystic, even with her, they usually have a very slow clock; take your time to sculpt the right hand to go off.
I don't think Leyline of Sanctity is worth to board in here, but I won't blame you if you decide it is.
Even though they usually play 4 basics, Blood Moon is still pretty good, turning off Karakas, forcing them to fetch basics and sometimes randomly blowing them out if they tapped out for a Stoneforge Mystic after fetching up Tundra and Underground Sea.
Cards you want to sideboard against Esper Blade: Through the Breach, Pyroclasm, Red Elemental Blast, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Blood Moon, Vendilion Clique, Echoing Truth, Wipe Away
Shardless BUG 65:35
One of the easiest matchups. They have no way of interaction in their main deck except 4 Force of Will, 3-6 discard spells, and about 6 planeswalkers (Liliana of the Veil and Jace, the Mind Sculptor). The rest of their deck is pretty much dead, Ancestral Vision can be Misdirected, which is even bigger than a misdirected Hymn!
Since they have a very slow clock, you have enough time to assemble Sneak Attack or Show and Tell Griselbrand; Show and Tell Emrakul is only safe if you have counter-backup for their Liliana/Jace.
If you know that you are up against Shardless BUG, always try to keep hands with cantrips to hedge against their discard.
Post-board they might have additional discard and Golgari Charm for your Sneak Attacks, some even play Sower of Temptation. So you should try to win via Sneak Attack withopen or a counter for their Charm.
Your sideboard cards against them are even better than theirs against you. Blood Moon often causes an instant concede if they didn't get their Deathrite Shaman down yet, Leyline of Sanctity does a lot of work against Liliana of the Veil's Sacrifice-ability, Jace's fateseal / ultimate and all of their discard.
Cards you want to sideboard against Shardless BUG: Leyline of Sanctity, Blood Moon, Through the Breach, Red Elemental Blast, Vendilion Clique, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, if you see Pithing Needle in game 2 you should board bounce in game 3.
Jund 65:35
Jund is very similar to Shardless BUG. They don't have Force of Will, but Red Elemental Blast post-board comes pretty close. Jund lists usually play slightly more discard than Shardless BUG, so your cantrips and Misdirections / Leyline of Sanctity post-board are what you should look out for when deciding over mulligans.
Just like Shardless BUG, the best card they have against us is Liliana of the Veil; be wary of and prepared for her!
You don't really want Blood Moon here, they play 2 basics at least and will have the opportunity to fetch them up in response to Moon or draw them naturally.
Leyline usually beats them alone post-board, mulliganing for it is reasonable (if you don't have the perfect cantrip-filled hand).
Cards you want to sideboard against Jund: Leyline of Sanctity, Through the Breach, Echoing Truth, Wipe Away, Vendilion Clique
Death and Taxes 35:65
This is probably the toughest matchup and alongside Reanimator the only negative one of the tier decks. Pre-board they need nothing more than Karakas + Revoker to completely lock us out of the game. Post-board they have additional Revoker-effects in Pithing Needle.
I played against D&T in the magiccardmarket.eu tournament some weeks ago. After losing game 1 to Karakas+Revoker, I opened G2 on the play with a Gitaxian Probe; it showed me:
Karakas
Plains
Oblivion Ring
Mangara of Corondor
Pithing Needle
Phyrexian Revoker
Stoneforge Mystic
My frantic cantripping couldn't find me one of the 2 Progenitus I had boarded in. Most lists would just instant-scoop to a hand like this, which shows how ridiculously bad the matchup is.
Pyroclasm, Through the Breach and Bounce are still good weapons to fight their hate; Progenitus, Massacre Wurm and Sulfur Elemental are more dedicated anti-D&T sideboard options. Blood Moon helps against the Karakas and mana-denial plan with Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Rishadan Port and Wasteland.
Cards you want to sideboard against Death & Taxes : Progenitus, Blood Moon, Echoing Truth, Wipe Away, Through the Breach
Show and Tell mirror 50:50
The mirror (or pseudo-mirror against Mono U Omniclash) is really topdeck-dependant and often feels kind of stupid. However, there are some guidelines you can follow to improve your chances.
Your best role here is the hard control-role. Doing nothing proactively for as long as possible should be your goal until you draw the 8th card for your turn. You should only go off when you have at least two hard-counters to protect your combo or when your opponent has resolved a Sneak Attack with no mana open and you will likely die on the following turn.
Gitaxian Probe is obviously really good in the mirror and allows you to leave 1-2 Show and Tell in after boarding. If you are very eager to never lose the mirror, Vendilion Clique, Swan Song Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Through the Breach should all be in your sideboard.
Cards you want to sideboard in the mirror/pseudomirror: Through the Breach, Vendilion Clique, Red Elemental Blast, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Wipe Away, Flusterstorm, Swan Song
Reanimator 40:60
A very tough matchup. Their combo is faster, they have disruption in the form of Thoughtseize, Force of Will and Daze alongside sideboard cards like Pithing Needle, Ashen Rider, Blazing Archon and Swan Song.
We also can't ever cast Show and Tell into creature against them without information from Probe.
Try to keep hands with a lot of countermagic to survive the explosive first turns Reanimator usually has and wait until you have at least one hard-counter until you go off yourself.
Cards you want to sideboard against Reanimator: Grafdigger's Cage, Surgical Extraction, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Vendilion Clique, Wipe Away, Swan Song, Flusterstorm, Red Elemental Blast. Boarding in Leyline of Sanctity is only necessary against the Tin Fins version.
Ad Nauseam Tendrils 55:45
A very even matchup. Pre-board your goal should be to get Griselbrand into play as fast as possible. As long as you are at a healthy life total you can't really lose from there. Show and Tell Emrakul after Turn 2 often just results in dying on your opponent's turn, so you should only go for it if it's the only thing you can do.
Spell Piercing or even using Force of Will on a Ritual can be necessary, so keep an eye on the amount of cards in their hand and think how much mana they could still generate. Letting a Dark Ritual resolve might just blank your Force of Will because of a Duress or Cabal Therapy cast after the resolved Ritual.
They will never go off without at least one form of protective disruption against you, so if they cast a Duress on Turn 2 and start Ritualing on Turn 3 while you drew a Force of Will after their Duress, you can definitely save that counter for their Infernal Tutor.
If they didn't cast a discard spell yet and only have one- producing land in play countering the Ritual they cast with that land is often the right way.
This matchup needs a lot of practice and you definitely need to know how ANT operates.
Post-board the matchup gets a lot better for you if you have Leyline of Sanctity and a lot better for them if they have Xantid Swarm. The insect is the reason that Show and Tell Griselbrand is no definite win anymore, so boarding in Pyroclasm can be a good choice even against the non-Burning-Wish/Empty the Warrens version.
Use Red Elemental Blast to counter their cantrips aggressively.
Cards you want to sideboard against Ad Nauseam Tendrils: Leyline of Sanctity, Flusterstorm, Swan Song, Wipe Away, Vendilion Clique, Surgical Extraction, Grafdigger's Cage, (Pyroclasm)
The same applies for TES, just remember they are a lot faster and you definitely need to board in Pyroclasm and Echoing Truth to deal with Empty the Warrens.
UWr Miracles 55:45
An annoying, but overall positive matchup. They have a lot of hate and games get really grindy once they have their countertop engine online. The big upside however is that they present absolutely no clock, which gives you all the time you need to sculpt the perfect hand. Still, the best-case scenario is an explosive
start with an early Sneak Attack, because later it can get difficult if they have a 3- and a 4-drop on top of their deck alongside Countertop.
Like against the other Karakas / Jace - decks you don't want to blindly go for Show and Tell into Emrakul if you can avoid it.
Bounce-spells are very important against Miracles, in anticipation of Pithing Needle, Ensnaring Bridge, Humility and sometimes even against Counterbalance or Entreat the Angels tokens.
Cards you want to sideboard against UWr Miracles: Through the Breach, Red Elemental Blast, Echoing Truth, Wipe Away, Vendilion Clique, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Progenitus
Elves! 60:40
Elves! is a fine matchup, getting a lot harder post-board where they board in Cabal Therapy and sometimes Pithing Needle, Oblivion Ring or Harmonic Sliver.
Similarly to Storm, they can kill you easily on the back-turn after you put Emrakul into play via Show and Tell. It's less likely though.
Save your Force of Wills for their Glimpse of Nature, Natural Order and Green Sun's Zenith for 9.
Post-board, Grafdigger's Cage and Pyroclasm are really huge against them.
Cards you want to sideboard against Elves!: Grafdigger's Cage, Pyroclasm, Wipe Away, Echoing Truth, Through the Breach and Flusterstorm/Swan Song are fine as well
Note that even the 50:50 or negative matchups can be won easily thanks to the raw power of Sneak & Show. With a little bit of luck and tight play, it destroys everything; most of the times it loses to itself and bad/dead topdecks.
Stock Decklists
If you need a list for some initial testing before you make tweaks of your own, I recommend Jared Boettcher's as the more explosive Probe-version and Huey Jensen's as the more counter-heavy Daze-version:
Sneak & Show by Jared Boettcher
2nd at GP Washington, D.C.
1st at SCG Legacy Open Providence
Maindeck:
Artifacts
4 Lotus Petal
Enchantments
4 Sneak Attack
Instants
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Intuition
1 Misdirection
3 Spell Pierce
Legendary Creatures
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Griselbrand
Sorceries
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell
Basic Lands
3 Island
1 Mountain
Lands
3 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Volcanic Island
Sideboard:
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Sulfur Elemental
2 Blood Moon
2 Divert
1 Flusterstorm
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Swan Song
2 Through the Breach
2 Pyroclasm
Sneak & Show by William "Huey" Jensen
2nd at SCG Legacy Open L.A.
Maindeck:
Artifacts
4 Lotus Petal
Enchantments
4 Sneak Attack
Instants
4 Brainstorm
2 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
3 Spell Pierce
Legendary Creatures
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Griselbrand
Sorceries
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
4 Show and Tell
Basic Lands
3 Island
Lands
3 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Volcanic Island
Sideboard:
3 Blood Moon
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Echoing Truth
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Through the Breach
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Pyroclasm
Sample Sideboarding Guide
As it is with probably every deck, there is no 100 % correct way to board with Sneak & Show. It's especially important that you construct your sideboard in a way that it is not clustered against a certain archetype, since you can seldom afford to board out too many cards without making your main game plan worse.
However, here are some guidelines, using a random sample list I did some testing with:
4 Griselbrand
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Lotus Petal
4 Brainstorm
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack
4 Force of Will
3 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
3 Island
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Volcanic Island
3 Spell Pierce
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Misdirection
1 Intuition
SB: 1 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 3 Progenitus
SB: 2 Defense Grid
SB: 2 Pyroclasm
SB: 2 Vendilion Clique
SB: 1 Wipe Away
SB: 2 Blood Moon
I am playing Vendilion Clique instead of Through the Breach because TTB and Progenitus would both be boarded against Death and Taxes and UWr Miracles, but have a TERRIBLE interaction.
RUG Delver:
-3 Gitaxian Probe
-1 Intuition
-1 Spell Pierce
+2 Defense Grid
+2 Blood Moon
+1 Red Elemental Blast
Even though Gitaxian Probe does a nice job showing you how many counters you have to fight through, your high impact sideboard-cards in Defense Grid and Blood Moon make (almost) all of his counters obsolete, anyway.
UWR Delver:
-3 Gitaxian Probe
-1 Intuition
-3 Spell Pierce
+2 Defense Grid
+2 Blood Moon
+1 Red Elemental Blast
+2 Pyroclasm
Since most lists don't play Stifle, you don't need Spell Pierce as much as against RUG.
Esper Blade:
-1 Intuition
-2 Gitaxian Probe
-2 Force of Will
+1 Red Elemental Blast
+2 Vendilion Clique
+2 Blood Moon
If you know or see game 2 that they have something like Humility, you definitely want Wipe Away as well.
Shardless BUG
-4 Force of Will
-1 Gitaxian Probe
+1 Red Elemental Blast
+2 Vendilion Clique
+2 Blood Moon
You don't really want Force of Will against their discard-heavy game plan. Spell Pierce, Misdirection and REB is still enough to fight their 4 own Force of Will. They never play Surgical Extraction, so you can leave Intuition in for additional consistency against their discard.
Jund
-2 Force of Will
-2 Gitaxian Probe
-1 Intuition
+2 Through the Breach
+1 Wipe Away
+2 Pyroclasm
You want to leave in some number of Force of Wills against their 4 Liliana of the Veil, which they often power out on Turn 2. Dark Confidant getting double the amount of discard and REBs can become a problem, so Pyroclasm is a fine answer to that.
Death and Taxes:
-2 Misdirection
-3 Spell Pierce
-1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
-1 Griselbrand
-1 Force of Will
+3 Progenitus
+1 Wipe Away
+2 Pyroclasm
+2 Blood Moon
Show and Tell Progenitus is the main plan here. If you don't find it you still have a lot of answers to their hate to win via your classic creatures.
Show and Tell mirror:
-1 Mountain
-1 Lotus Petal
-2 Misdirection
+1 Red Elemental Blast
+2 Vendilion Clique
+1 Wipe Away
You don't need explosivity here, so boarding out mana sources is fine. Misdirection only counters their counters, so I don't like it that much here.
Reanimator:
-1 Gitaxian Probe
-2 Misdirection
-2 Show and Tell
-1 Mountain
+2 Grafdigger's Cage
+1 Wipe Away
+2 Vendilion Clique
+1 Red Elemental Blast
You can basically board out the Mountain in every combo-matchup.
Ad Nauseam Tendrils:
-2 Misdirection
-3 Gitaxian Probe
-1 Mountain
+1 Wipe Away
+1 Grafdigger's Cage
+2 Vendilion Clique
+1 Red Elemental Blast
+1 Pyroclasm
As I wrote in the matchups-section, Xantid Swarm is a huge problem for us, so you definitely want to board at least 1 Pyroclasm.
UWr Miracles:
-2 Misdirection
-1 Intuition
-1 Griselbrand
-1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
-2 Lotus Petal
+1 Wipe Away
+1 Red Elemental Blast
+3 Progenitus
+2 Vendilion Clique
Note that there are some more counter-heavy versions with Flusterstorm/Swan Song in the sideboard. Against those, you can consider cutting 2 Gitaxian Probe for 2 Defense Grid.
Elves!:
-3 Gitaxian Probe
-2 Misdirection
+2 Grafdigger's Cage
+2 Pyroclasm
+1 Wipe Away
Further reading
http://www.starcitygames.com/article...e-The-Way.html
http://www.starcitygames.com/article...-Surprise.html
http://www.starcitygames.com/article...l-At-GPDC.html
Would you guys accept this as the new primer or is there anything else I should add / elaborate on?
Last edited by JPA; 12-10-2013 at 06:09 PM.
I would rename the above section to something like " Manabase and Fixed deck slots" . Manabase and acceleration only covers half of what you discuss in that section.
Also, I would add a very brief section titled
7. Problem cards
with a list of cards that give the deck problems.
karakas
venser, shaper savant
pithing needle
ensnaring bridge
spine of ish sah
humility
This is great and maybe time permitting the other established decks could be added to "Matchup Analysis and how to play Sneak & Show". There are tons of them I realize but maybe focus on the more dominant ones like Rock, MUD, The rouge Hermit, Belcher, Merfolk and other very likely decks to run into in a well established meta. Over time they could all be added.
Finally with those additions I feel like this format/layout should be the basis for ALL of the decks that have a primer. This kind of layout makes it very easy to understand everything relevant about the deck without sifting through 100 pages of tournament reports and speculative comments. It makes it very easy to identify relevant information because anything widely accepted by the community would be added to the primer, everything else would be speculative.
I'm not sure if this can be added to the first page but it would be great to have this resource easily found there. There could be a timestamp of when it was last updated so that people coming here for the first time would know it was an up to date primer.
Play 4 Card Blind!
Currently Playing
Legacy: Dark Depths
EDH: 5-Color Hermit Druid
Currently Brewing: [Deck] Sadistic Sacrament / Chalice NO Eldrazi
why cards are so expensive...hoarders
Yes, the second part of the section you quoted was supposed to be wrap-up of the main-deck section. Thanks for letting me know.
@ Problem cards: I don't really see the use there. All the relevant hate-cards are mentioned in the matchup-section. As soon as I add other matchups like MUD I might mention fringe hate-cards like Spine of Ish Sah.
I don't think JustPAT4 is still active here. If everyone is happy with the primer as a start, I might open a new thread for the deck.
It would be just a list of what's been mentioned already mainly for easy reading and visibility. Its a quick read of cards to look out for. I know my wife and other beginners would probably be able to make good use of a list like this. Also it's something I wish I had for all all of the decks in the DTB section because when I brew i want to know what the weaknesses of decks are to exploit common cards.
Play 4 Card Blind!
Currently Playing
Legacy: Dark Depths
EDH: 5-Color Hermit Druid
Currently Brewing: [Deck] Sadistic Sacrament / Chalice NO Eldrazi
why cards are so expensive...hoarders
One of the mods should be able to insert it and/or transfer control over the opening post.
"Never argue with a fool, people might not know the difference."
As a new legacy convert I appreciate the time and effort it takes to do one of these. Plus for me the info is invaluable.
It's funny, I have been into the game since M12 and have a decent collection and know a lot of the cards, but knowing how to play against them is a whole different story.
It appears the hardest thing for new players is knowing what deck your opponent is on. I haven't really seen much on why Gitaxian Probe isn't an auto include in the core cards, making the core 54/55 instead of 61. All it does is cantrip and give you info. Even if you top deck it when you need an answer you have at least one more card coming. Seems win win to me.
Is there a reason why people don't like the card?
Some people view it as a "filler" spell which doesn't directly help your plan. The flex-slots are the most valuable area in the decklist when it comes to metagaming, and that's why people scorn it.
I totally appreciate that answer and can see the logic. I would think up to the minute info regardless of what you are playing against would still be beneficial in almost any situation. The fact that it replaces itself just means you are getting deeper into your deck, thus blindly furthering your own game plan (which isn't as ideal as setting it up properly).
I don't know, it's hard not to like the card.
Yup, and I totally agree. I skip out on Probe when I play Omnitell, but I don't think I ever want to leave it out in SneakShow. Some people just prefer to run more counters or additional Intuitions/Misdirs instead, I guess.
Another question for the guys who play this deck. If you are in a very open meta where no one archetype dominates and all the top decks are represented equally, how do you run your side board. I currently run an almost identical list to Boettcher GP win in Providence.
Anyone with any tips, or am I just going to have to slog through it and make some tough decisions?
Thank you for the primer. Very well made.
A few constructive words: I almost never take out force of will. Against something like BUG or esper, I usually take out petals instead. How do others feel about taking out fows in those matchups (or almost any matchup for that matter)?
I also really dislike the three progenitus on side. They are no part of any stock list I know of and it feels like a pet card of yours. I would replace them with another bounce spell, pyroblast and pyroclasm, although two ttb are an option as well.
I would also take out two show and tells in the mirror, even if you play with probe and have no ttb. I would also mention in the mirror matchup that show and telling into sneak attack into emrakul can be an awesome play, even if you have no information about their hand.
The sideboarding guide is my take on it, it is by no means set in stone. Was just meant to be a guideline, there are many different right ways to board with the deck, depending on your sideboard.
I almost never take out FOW, either. I've heard that you should take them out against RUG in favor of 1cc counterspells (Blasts, Spell Pierce, Swan Song, Flusterstorm), but I don't know how I feel about that.
Usually, Probes and Intuitions get cut. Then I move on to Petals and possibly Misdirection (I cut Misdirection first if I am playing against a deck like Death and Taxes (a deck without discard and without counterspells)). Against BUG, I keep FOW in, because it stops Hymn (I would rather pick my 2 than lose 2 at random) and Liliana.
I like the sideboarding guide. I run my sideboard a little bit differently, so all the switches don't apply to me. I learned a few new things (like removing Mountain vs. combo decks - makes perfect sense).
"Never argue with a fool, people might not know the difference."
RE: Gitaxian Probe
Perhaps its just the anecdotal evidence of my play experience, but the card has never shined. I don't think its necessarily bad, but the exact information you get isn't always as helpful as it sounds. There are times when you peek into your opponents hand and see that you can't win a counter war, so you don't play out your hand. But is that silent victory actually a victory? I mean, its not as if your opponents hand is going to get worse as you try to draw your outs, and its not as if casting Gitaxian Probe will pull you back into the game. Eventually you'll take a bunch of damage and then go off out of desperation, but the opponents counters won't have gone anywhere. In this scenario (which is a large part of why people opt to play the card), Probe is just low impact. It pushes you to rely on the top of your deck rather than giving you control over what you draw, which cards like Preordain achieve. There are also other times when you peek into your opponents hand and see that they have a permanent you might not want them to sneak into play. I guess its helpful in this situation, but I feel like a proper understanding of the meta and a proper understanding of what cards are played in each deck should be more than enough to predict what decks its safe to cast S&T against. I read Huey's article on Sneak and Show and something very important I gathered was that a good pilot of this deck must be able to discern what the opponent is playing within the first or second turn (so as to sculpt a better game plan, identify if casting S&T or Sneak Attack is better, etc). I feel like this genre of playstyle, where you use established knowledge of decks and the metagame to calculate the game, is far more valuable across 12 rounds than using Probe to play around the opponent's hand perfectly. Why? Because its our burden as competitive players to assume worst-case scenarios. The fact that Probe reveals a hand you can't beat shouldn't be a counterargument - you should already be playing to beat that stacked hand. The fact that Probe reveals a hand you can beat shouldn't be a counterargument either - you should be making reads from the moment your opponent sits down on the other side of the table to the point that when you're opponent can't fight back, you'll know. The latter claim is actually very difficult to get a good grasp of. I'm definitely not capable of it. But playing Probe doesn't exactly teach me how to get better, does it? I know I harped on this a bit earlier, but if we assume that we're doing things optimally and making reads to the best of our ability, Probe just reads "Pay 2 life: Draw a card". That's low impact and not where we want to be with this deck. I'd much rather have a card that gives me more vision to sculpt future turns or is a business spell like Misdirection, Daze, etc.
Technicolor Mage, if I may suggest as an exercise: Try playing a few games without Gitaxian Probe. You've identified that you have trouble figuring out what decks certain people are playing, and I understand that its hard (I myself am relatively new to Legacy and I slip in judgment all the time). To get better at this, instead of playing Probe, write down all the turn 1 plays you run into through your games and try to think (post-game) what possible decks would make that turn 1 play. Hopefully that kind of introspection will help you develop what I think is a huge skill in Legacy - being able to pinpoint what your opponent is playing as early as turn 1.
Please continue discussion in the new thread with updated primer: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...Sneak-and-Show
@ AnziD and Technicolor Mage: I will add a brief "how to identify you are playing against x" for every matchup in the matchup-section.
Did you PM a mod about inserting/exchanging the OP? No need to start a new thread and lose 103 pages of information.
"Never argue with a fool, people might not know the difference."
I can't call for a mod everytime I want to edit something in the original primer. It's much easier this way, a link to this thread is in there.
True but you can't just repost a thread like this.
Please contact Zilla or other mods, as I'm sure they can find a suitable solution.
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