Shardless BUG in today's meta

[Higgs]

Hi all. I saw this article on SCG today:
http://www.starcitygames.com/article/28184_No-Shards-No-Problem.html
(http://www.starcitygames.com/article/28184_No-Shards-No-Problem.html)
It's talking about why Shardless BUG is still a good choice in today's meta. I had a couple posts about this in the B/R discussion thread a while ago.


Catmint's post reminds me, I don't get why Shardless BUG turned into Team America after the introduction of TNN. I think Shardless has better game against StP decks and still buries any SFM based aggro-control deck in card advantage.


with 3-4 maindeck Lilianas and turning into an even more controllish deck post board with Charms and Deluge I think Shardless is still a good choice to fight fair grindy matches.

Any other Shardless proponents out there, how are people testing with BUG against the current meta?

[wcm8]

It doesn't fare very well against Show and Tell and other fast combo. Team America is better positioned against these sort of decks.

Also, since this deck isn't really trying to win games quickly, I wonder if it could drop some/all Tarmogoyfs for Scavenging Ooze and/or True Name Nemesis. Ooze has more utility and is useful in a deck that plays a midrange strategy, and TNN is difficult to kill and plays defensive just as well as Tarmo. Both also don't care about Rest in Peace, which is one of the big weaknesses of the BUG creature base.

[JanoschEausH]

The only downside to TNN is, that you can't cascade into it with Shardless Agend.

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

I like the deck, the miracles MU feels decent (compared to Team's miracles mu which is ten kinds of miserable preboard, and grindy as shit post board), in the few times I've gotten to test it, and probably favored against team.

Although I've had very little opprotunity to play the deck beyond some light testing and getting roflstomped at 50 person event two rounds in a row by blood moon (Elves and Sneak/Show, literally did not see the first one coming)


It doesn't fare very well against Show and Tell and other fast combo. Team America is better positioned against these sort of decks.

Also, since this deck isn't really trying to win games quickly, I wonder if it could drop some/all Tarmogoyfs for Scavenging Ooze and/or True Name Nemesis. Ooze has more utility and is useful in a deck that plays a midrange strategy, and TNN is difficult to kill and plays defensive just as well as Tarmo. Both also don't care about Rest in Peace, which is one of the big weaknesses of the BUG creature base.

TNN you can't cascade into (mentioned above I believe) and in a deck that is typically playing some combination of Golgari Charm/Toxic Deluge either in the main or in the side, you want x/2 or something like baleful strix that replaces itself.

Team is probably a safer deck overall unless you simply anticipate more fair decks than combo, and even then, Team (like any delver deck really) can get strong delver starts and tempo you out of the game altogether

[Worldslayer]

I wound up cutting my Walkers for TNNx4 awhile ago and haven't looked back. You don't get to durdle as much, but you tend to be able to steamroll much better. There might be better cuts, (I'm still running strix, for example), but Ive been happy with it so far.

No, you can't cascade into it, but neither can any other deck, so I don't really get that argument. You can't cascade into pulse or Lilly either, but I regularly see those in lists. You already have enough cascade targets and they're all good. Stop worrying.

I've taken to running volraths stronghold also, as recurring Strix, Shardless are good enough but having infinite tnn in some matchups is brilliant. This could be a carry over to the sweeper happy among you, as it breaks the wrath symmetry.

[Final Fortune]

I like to run Shardless Bug as sort of a slower, more card advantage centric Team America where I take the time to curve up into Vendilion Clique instead of Delver of Secrets and use Shardless Agent instead of Tombstalker and Liliana of the Veil. I think the trick to the deck is getting the number of accelerants right, as I prefer X Birds of Paradise, Elves of Deep Shadow or Noble Hierach to X lands so I can curve up to 3 faster and in the case of Noble Hierarch break Tarmogoyf dead locks. The problem is you weaken Shardless Agent the more mana Elves you add to the deck so there's a fine balance.

[Arsenal]

I wound up cutting my Walkers for TNNx4 awhile ago and haven't looked back. You don't get to durdle as much, but you tend to be able to steamroll much better. There might be better cuts, (I'm still running strix, for example), but Ive been happy with it so far.

No, you can't cascade into it, but neither can any other deck, so I don't really get that argument. You can't cascade into pulse or Lilly either, but I regularly see those in lists. You already have enough cascade targets and they're all good. Stop worrying.

I've taken to running volraths stronghold also, as recurring Strix, Shardless are good enough but having infinite tnn in some matchups is brilliant. This could be a carry over to the sweeper happy among you, as it breaks the wrath symmetry.

Something like this? http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=13226&iddeck=97075 He cuts the Shardless Agents for TNN (both 3cc creatures that create card advantage) while retaining a stronger control element with the Walkers.