Telefonmann
03-25-2009, 10:12 AM
http://www.deckcheck.net/stats.php?id=68778&saved=true
Lands:
5 Plains
5 Swamp
4 Scrubland
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Windswept Heath
1 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
1 Dust Bowl
1 Kor Haven
Manipulation:
3 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Enlightened Tutor
How should I call this… bulwark?
2 Moat
2 Humility
Removal:
4 Vindicate
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Smother
Finisher:
2 Ajani Goldmane
3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Bitterblossom
Disruption:
4 Thoughtseize
4 Hymn to Tourach
2 Extirpate
Sideboard:
3 Pithing Needle
2 Isochron Scepter
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Engineered Plague
3 Orim's Chant
1 Haunting Echoes
I used to call the deck „Bittermane“, but Ajani Goldmane isn’t as important as it used to be in the early versions. Right now I tend to „Bitter Blossom” (not Bitterblossom), which is referring to the way of playing this deck. Bitter like gloating and malicious, Blossom like blossom time. Since you need time to prepare you could call the midgame the blossom time, that’s when you can see your opponent suffering from small, most likely 1/1 critters.
I also considered „Bitter Critters”, Bitter like biting, and Critters like, well, critters. Guess that name also underlines many, small and annoying creatures.
Game plan:
Kinda simple, disrupt the opponent, stay alive via removal until you successfully play Moat or Humility – or even both to stop your opponent’s attacks and gain a few turns to set up your own game plan.
Both, Bitterblossom and Elspeth can win the game while either Moat or Humility is in play. If it’s Humility you just need more time, but in most cases the lifeloss from Bitterblossom is not a serious problem. If you have Moat and Humility in play it grants quite an amount of safety, since you can’t be attacked. You can still win with Elspeth’s 2nd ability (layers).
Not self-explanatory choices:
Ajani – great with tokens, especially with Humility. In some cases Bitterblossom causes a bit too much lifeloss, well, Ajani solves that problem.
Hymn, Thoughtseize - You have to survive until you play the keycards and removal can’t handle everything.
SDT - The deck tends to slow down the game a lot, which means, you would be topdecking a lot. SST + Fetchlands are quite nice to manipulate your draws.
Extirpate - Maybe the most arguably slots, I really like them here. The list plays 8x discard, 6 removal (incl. Vindicate), imo that’s more than enough to play Extirpate. Remember, Vindicate and Dust Bowl can destroy nonbasics, you may be able to cut of your opponent’s splash. Moreover it’s nice to get rid of Chalice, Counterbalance and Grips for the rest of the game.
Dust Bowl - Imo I can’t run 4 Wasteland, they would just fuck up my manabase, so I tried this one. Since the deck doesn’t rely on landdestruction it’s still a nice to have.
Kor Haven - Saved my ass more than once. While Moat is in play and Tombstalker is played often, you are still vulnerable. Maybe it’s just bad luck, but I never had Swords when my opponent played Tombstalker.
Sideboard:
Scepter - works great with Smother, Chant, Swords and Extirpate.
Chant – vs. Combo, maybe I swap it with Abeyance.
Echoes – vs. Control and very useful in the lategame.
Ideas:
Aura of Silence, maybe Seal of Cleansing
Eternal Dragon
Shriekmaw, bad with Humility. Guess still a nice SB-card.
Runed Halo
Decree of Justice
Matchups:
Though I finished the list on 30.12.2008 I must admit, that I didn’t have much time to test. Studying Computer linguistics, Chinese Studies and Classical Chinese is rather time-consuming :frown:
Control – Good, Planeswalker are mostly unaffected by your opponent’s spells, the keycards have cc 4, which means they are quite save from Counterbalance and Chalice.
Combo – 8x discard, 2nd game Scepter and Chant, still a bad MU.
Aggro Loam – Dreams are awkward, apart from that we run Moat, Humility, discard for Wish and SB: Relic. Should be nice without Dreams.
Goyf Slight –Ajani and much removal sounds good, Price of Progress shouldn’t be a big problem.
Gro Balanced – The keycards are beyond CBs reach. Humility, Moat, removal, discard and Relics should make this easy.
Gro StifleWaste – See above and 10 basics.
Team America – don’t know, I’ll quote an acquaintance “Sinkhole's a bitch. Kommen wir auf 4 Mana sollten wir gewonnen haben. Zwei ist auch ok. Top ist hier das MVP. Relics sind...interessant, falls sie vor Stalkern kommen, sonst eher unnütz.“
Short: 4 lands = win, Top = MVP, Relics before Tombstalker are interesting.
Landstill: I hate that MU, because my counterpart ALWAYS has an answer to my plays :(
It should be ok, Planeswalker, discard, stuff to destroy permanents and tokens.
Aggro in general – Should be good. 10 Removal, Humility + Moat, lifegain and tokens which can block.
Lands:
5 Plains
5 Swamp
4 Scrubland
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Windswept Heath
1 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
1 Dust Bowl
1 Kor Haven
Manipulation:
3 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Enlightened Tutor
How should I call this… bulwark?
2 Moat
2 Humility
Removal:
4 Vindicate
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Smother
Finisher:
2 Ajani Goldmane
3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Bitterblossom
Disruption:
4 Thoughtseize
4 Hymn to Tourach
2 Extirpate
Sideboard:
3 Pithing Needle
2 Isochron Scepter
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Engineered Plague
3 Orim's Chant
1 Haunting Echoes
I used to call the deck „Bittermane“, but Ajani Goldmane isn’t as important as it used to be in the early versions. Right now I tend to „Bitter Blossom” (not Bitterblossom), which is referring to the way of playing this deck. Bitter like gloating and malicious, Blossom like blossom time. Since you need time to prepare you could call the midgame the blossom time, that’s when you can see your opponent suffering from small, most likely 1/1 critters.
I also considered „Bitter Critters”, Bitter like biting, and Critters like, well, critters. Guess that name also underlines many, small and annoying creatures.
Game plan:
Kinda simple, disrupt the opponent, stay alive via removal until you successfully play Moat or Humility – or even both to stop your opponent’s attacks and gain a few turns to set up your own game plan.
Both, Bitterblossom and Elspeth can win the game while either Moat or Humility is in play. If it’s Humility you just need more time, but in most cases the lifeloss from Bitterblossom is not a serious problem. If you have Moat and Humility in play it grants quite an amount of safety, since you can’t be attacked. You can still win with Elspeth’s 2nd ability (layers).
Not self-explanatory choices:
Ajani – great with tokens, especially with Humility. In some cases Bitterblossom causes a bit too much lifeloss, well, Ajani solves that problem.
Hymn, Thoughtseize - You have to survive until you play the keycards and removal can’t handle everything.
SDT - The deck tends to slow down the game a lot, which means, you would be topdecking a lot. SST + Fetchlands are quite nice to manipulate your draws.
Extirpate - Maybe the most arguably slots, I really like them here. The list plays 8x discard, 6 removal (incl. Vindicate), imo that’s more than enough to play Extirpate. Remember, Vindicate and Dust Bowl can destroy nonbasics, you may be able to cut of your opponent’s splash. Moreover it’s nice to get rid of Chalice, Counterbalance and Grips for the rest of the game.
Dust Bowl - Imo I can’t run 4 Wasteland, they would just fuck up my manabase, so I tried this one. Since the deck doesn’t rely on landdestruction it’s still a nice to have.
Kor Haven - Saved my ass more than once. While Moat is in play and Tombstalker is played often, you are still vulnerable. Maybe it’s just bad luck, but I never had Swords when my opponent played Tombstalker.
Sideboard:
Scepter - works great with Smother, Chant, Swords and Extirpate.
Chant – vs. Combo, maybe I swap it with Abeyance.
Echoes – vs. Control and very useful in the lategame.
Ideas:
Aura of Silence, maybe Seal of Cleansing
Eternal Dragon
Shriekmaw, bad with Humility. Guess still a nice SB-card.
Runed Halo
Decree of Justice
Matchups:
Though I finished the list on 30.12.2008 I must admit, that I didn’t have much time to test. Studying Computer linguistics, Chinese Studies and Classical Chinese is rather time-consuming :frown:
Control – Good, Planeswalker are mostly unaffected by your opponent’s spells, the keycards have cc 4, which means they are quite save from Counterbalance and Chalice.
Combo – 8x discard, 2nd game Scepter and Chant, still a bad MU.
Aggro Loam – Dreams are awkward, apart from that we run Moat, Humility, discard for Wish and SB: Relic. Should be nice without Dreams.
Goyf Slight –Ajani and much removal sounds good, Price of Progress shouldn’t be a big problem.
Gro Balanced – The keycards are beyond CBs reach. Humility, Moat, removal, discard and Relics should make this easy.
Gro StifleWaste – See above and 10 basics.
Team America – don’t know, I’ll quote an acquaintance “Sinkhole's a bitch. Kommen wir auf 4 Mana sollten wir gewonnen haben. Zwei ist auch ok. Top ist hier das MVP. Relics sind...interessant, falls sie vor Stalkern kommen, sonst eher unnütz.“
Short: 4 lands = win, Top = MVP, Relics before Tombstalker are interesting.
Landstill: I hate that MU, because my counterpart ALWAYS has an answer to my plays :(
It should be ok, Planeswalker, discard, stuff to destroy permanents and tokens.
Aggro in general – Should be good. 10 Removal, Humility + Moat, lifegain and tokens which can block.