WRB Vial Humans

[ThoSha]

Hello dear Sourcers!
Today i present to you: A ridiculously good choice for this metagame.

Let me get some facts straight.
A couple years ago I was running a WR Moonblade list containing Aether Vials, SFM, MoR, Grim Lavamancer, Mirran Crusader and... MAGUS OF THE MOON!
Yeah, you read that right. Aether Vial, Mother and Magus in the same deck. The list was a metagame choice when greedy manabases ran rampant, and I rode this deck to quite some success.
Not only did it contain raw power in form of SFM package and Mirran Crusader, but also extreme potent disruption with Magus of the Moon, Wasteland, Rishadan Port and 8 pinpoint removals in form of Bolt/StP. The beauty of it was the hybridization of Death and Taxes and Dragon Stompy. Back then, Cavern of Souls wasn't a card and counterspells were quite hard to come buy. You had to board REB/Pyroblast to really stand a chance against Tempodecks and Controldecks. It had good matchups against all the fair midrange decks and fast aggro, but combo and control used to be problematic.
Back then cards like Aven Mindcensor and Ethersworn Canonist helped the issue quite a bit, but it just didn't feel THAT great.

But 2 years passed and in this heavy BGx meta i feel like we got a shot again.
Certainly the latest cardpool offers new branches to this deck. Cavern of Souls and Thalia got printed, so got Deathrite Shaman and Abrupt Decay.
While the first 2 went to Death and Taxes, and the latter in BGx, we wont be running any combination of these, rather we want to beat them both.

Cavern of Souls provides some uncounterable manafixing to this shell, which wasn't imaginable 2 years ago. This opens the opportunity to splash black into the list, still leaving us open to do our thing pretty reliable. The only downside is to dedicate on a tribe, which is human in this case. Since our best cards were human anyway, this isn't quite a drawback. To run it more stable, we just need to cut Stoneforge Mystic and Aven Mindcensor to leave the synergy at its full potential. I always felt that this deck was complimented by the Equipment that the SFM Package provided, but other then Jitte it was just a cute toolbox. Also, there was a huge desire for card advantage since even if we can do fine with merely 2-3 creatures on board, the steam might run out at some time.
So the obvious replacement for SFM was Dark Confidant for me. So how can we make up for weakening the Mirran Crusader, which is still a bomb against BG? Think about straight adding Jitte, the strongest equipment ever printed without tutor in this deck.

So this is what i came up with so far:

22 Lands
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Marsh Flats
3 Arid Mesa
3 Plains
2 Badlands
1 Plateau
4 Wasteland
2 Rishadan Port

20 Creatures
4 Mother of Runes
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Dark Confidant
4 Mirran Crusader
4 Magus of the Moon

11 Instants
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Apostle's Blessing

7 Artifacts
3 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Aether Vial

SB:
4 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Rest in Peace
1 Relic of Progenitus
4 Mindbreak Trap
3 Red Elemental Blast
1 Oblivion Ring

I went undefeated for 3 days now with this list, while still in development.
Decks i faced were: Goblins, Merfolk, Junk, Death and Taxes, Jund, Shardless BUG, UW Miracles, Affinity, Zombies, Maverick variants, Esperblade and various randomdecks.

Matchup analysis so far:

Goblins: equal to favourable
It all comes down who gets the grip in the game first. A Mirran Crusader with Jitte and Protection can wreck them really fast.
Mother of Runes staying alive and getting an active Lavamancer here is key. Your other removal will do the trick most of the time either, if you know how to use it correctly.
Magus of the Moon is sadly a very poor card in this matchup. Ringleader also isn't a great pleasure to see, since a lucky Ringleader can steal the game easily.

Merfolk: highly favourable
Its easy. Dont worry, if you dont mulligan to 4 you will win most of the time. Not very common right now tough.
Lavamancer and Removal eat fish all day. Not to mention the Jitte.

Maverick Variants: favourable
This is easy as long as you kill their Mothers on sight. Mirran will block or slice trough their Knights all day and hold a Jitte in the best case. Qasali Pridemage targeting Jitte is answered by Apostle's Blessing.
Magus can do some work for their Manabase as long as they dont see it coming. Removal will most likely go to Mother or Thalia early in the game. Quite a good pairing.

Jund: favourable
There are only 3 things in here to watch out for: Discard, Liliana and Bolt.
Their creature suit is worse then ours and will be answered appropriate. Just make sure that you wont be that guy that sacs his lone Mirran Crusader to a timely spawned Liliana.
Magus and Mirran are the obvious MVPs here.

Shardless BUG: equal
Quit similar to Jund, but much better performance in the lategame. Make sure they dont overwhelm you with massive card advantage, kill them in time and everything will be fine.
Pyroblast/REB out of the board comes quite in handy in this matchup. The difficulty in here seems to kill them in time without overextending yourself into a sandbagged Pernicious Deed.
Resolve a Magus with protection or when they are tapped out, and its GG for most of the time. You can also try to lure their Abrupt Decays into something not so important like Bob.

UW Miracles: unfavourable
Well, we got something here that is not to underestimate. Terminus wrecks us and so does Entreat the Angels.
The trick here is to have a clock of 4 to 5 on the table without overextending too much. Like in the Shardless BUG you need to find the right balance here. It can work for you to win, but its not easy.
Fair to say is that most pilots of the deck are quite miserable at what they are doing, its the pro players of this deck you have to watch out for. Not so common anymore i guess.

Esperblade: equal
Now this is interesting. Many builds today revolve more around Deathrite Shaman than Lingering Souls, which is actually good for us.
Lingering Souls is a really annoying card that can stall the game to the point of no comeback. Mother of Runes or Apostle's Blessing might help to get your Mirran Crusaders trough stalls and.. yeah you guessed it, get some Jitte counters going. An important fact that seems not so well known anyhow, is that Batterskull's Germ token is Black, so it can be blocked/bypassed by Mirran or Protection from Black in general. Outside of Jace and Discard there are not so many things to watch out for. Keep in mind, that their deck is not really packed with Countermagic except Force and a single Counterspell most of the time. Pinpointing removal on important threats or bolting a Jace seems really easy here.

RUG Delver/BUG Delver Variants: favourable
I have to admit here, their taxing counters are pretty good. If you get to stick a vial tough, or holding a Cavern back to throw a Mirran Crusader in front of them, its easy. Mirran blocks 8 of their 12 threats forever and can stall until you overpower them. Delver is a 4of which will be taken care of with your 8 removals or Lavamancer. If you tend to start a game without Cavern/Vial, try to play around Daze/Spell Pierce and Stifle, even if you dont DO anything in the first turns at all. Without a clock on their side, you are good with landdrops every turn. Keep in mind that Bolts can kill you.
BUG is quite the same matchup, but discard is a pain. Tombstalker is flying, which is the only upside for them compared to RUG. Try to Grim/Bolt Delver and save a sword for this fatty.
Sidenote to both matchups: Even IF they get to handle every single card you start with, your topdecks may really make up for it. This deck topdecks pretty good, and provides a high threat density.
Magus of the Moon really shines here.

Show and Tell Variants: horrible
Still need to work on this one. I mean you can board Canonists, O-Ring and REBs, sure. But this matchup is still so horrible that I dont see many ways of improving it.
If your meta is heavy on Show and Tell, you can add up on sideboard hate like Angel of Despair, but honestly, dont play this deck at all.

So this is what I've got so far. Mind to share your thoughts with me or test it yourself?
I was to lazy to add Cardtags right now, but I might change that in the future. I'm quite sure most of you recognize the cards I've mentioned.

[Nihil Credo]

What made you cut Thalia?

[Bed Decks Palyer]

What made you cut Thalia?
I guess the quite high number of non-creature spells. But I don't think it's THAT high. I'd play her.

I don't like the list much. There are interactions I don't get, like Port+Magus, even Wasteland+Magus. Not only those lands don't work under moon, but also: what do you want? To destroy their lands or play the Magus asap? I know you may play turn1 Vial, then annoy them with LD and finally tap Vial for Magus, but it'll happen on turn4. I'd either choose to play consistent Magus or consistent mana-denial, not both.
Cavern+Magus, otoh, is a nice tech. They can't counter your dude and if you Vial/Cavern him when they are tapped out, their only chance is Bolt. I like it.
I'd cut the Ports. You play just two of them and they do nothing under Magus. Then I'd think about adding one Mountain (in case you fail to stick Magus for whatever reason and while simultaneously been cut of red... but this won't happen), or maybe one Plains. Or, you know what - maximize the number of Arid Mesa. So or so, I'd play 21 lands only, because Vial.
Your three-mana slot is quite clogged, but as the Crusader is really strong, I'd hesitate to cut him. However, why not try just three of him?
Apostle's Blessing and Jitte as three-of... Well, you have no way how to tutor Jitte, so yes, it's reasonable to play three. Same goes for AB, you need to have it when you need to have it. Still, I'd try to take one out.

With -1 land, -1 Crusader and -1 Apostle's Bl., you have your three slots for Thalia. Is there any reason why you don't play her?

From your testing: you didn't met any combo. ANT will crush you without Thalia. You can't hope that you Moon/Waste them fast enough. And even with Magus, they may start the combo just from LED, LED, Mountain, LP, IT. Your Magus isn't quick and reliable enough (like in Dragon Stompy) to cut them of those two or three important cantrips that sculpt their turn3 kill.

What am I missing?

[ThoSha]

Thanks for your insight.
Actually, there is no great reason at all why Thalia isn't in.
Probably because the deck is tight and I really didn't want to cut anything.
The obvious selfbugging with the removals and AB didn't make me all that exited about her tough.
Testing will be required, at least as a sideboard choice. Is she better than Canonist against combo?

About the manadenial shenanigans you are wondering about:
There is a need of buying time until you can comfortably grab your 3 drops that matter.
If you do that with removals, setting up Grim, or waste and port while Vial ticks up depends from game to game.
One thing to note is, that IF Magus hits the board unanswered, the Ports fulfilled their purpose in letting this happen at all. And they make up for the lack of Mountains greatly after that.
I never felt that this provides any antisynergy and thus shouldn't be played together.

Mirran Crusader can't be cut at all, since he is the bread and butter in this BGx heavy meta, making this deck viable.
Before I cut 1 Mirran, I'd rather cut 1 Magus. He is just that good.

[Squirrel]

Legion's Initiative is also a card to consider. its good against plaque on human, and against mass removal and control.

I Tested a similar decks years ago, and i called it Mystic Recruiter. i never played the deck because i don't own any recruiters. As Recruiters are now a bit more viable, you can test them, too.

[gwarfreak]

I played a match against this today. It was solid against BUG delver. He was more focused on an aggro prison take including Thalia and Stun Sniper. It did a good job blanking my counters, stalling my creatures, and gaining card advantage from a Mother protected Confidant. Does this deck benefit from Banisher Priest?

[ThoSha]

Yeah squirrel, i remember your list.
He seems very good and versatile, i would even cut 3 Magus of the Moon just to fit 3 Recruiters in.
But its really frightening considering budget(which should never be considered in such a thread, i know), so I'd like to go in another direction instead.
If anyone actually has Recruiters and likes to share his results in testing, I would be very pleased to read about it.
Legion's Initiative might be something for the sideboard, thats a good one for Terminus/E.Plague.

gwarfreak,
Stun Sniper has been tried in the Bob slot, but feels very mediocre. While a good choice against Sneak and Tell, there isn't so much use for him otherwise.
We have lots of removal available and Bob drawing more removal is by far better. Banisher Priest could be a nice one-off indeed, maybe cutting a Magus is right.
I am not surprised that he did well against BUG Delver, as its a quite favourable matchup.

[ironclad8690]

What about imposing sovereign vs show and tell? I think she is even a human.

[HPB_Eggo]

Only thing Sovereign hits is the ability to win with Sneak Attack, which makes it a very narrow card. Omintell doesn't care about it at all and Sneak and Show can just win without resorting to Sneak Attack.

If you want to do well against either deck, having REB/Pyroblast in the SB is a must, and you might also look to play some number of Oblivion Ring. Both of which you already have in your given list, making the deck work out all right. You might consider adding a Karaks or two to the MD just to see how much it helps, but without a reliable tutoring method I don't think you're going to get a lot of mileage out of it, tbh.