UGrw Thresh

[Rehallek]

Alright, here is the UGrw deck I ran to win the Hadley tournament. There was a heated discussion about the land base about how I was running 3 Wastelands and 15 colored mana sources in a 4 color deck. It was for the most part right. I got relatively lucky to not get mana screwed and only face one deck with wasteland in it all day. First change I made was dropped the Wastelands for one more Tropical Island, one more Polluted Delta and one more Lightning Bolt.

3x Tropical Island
3x Volcanic Island
2x Tundra
4x Flooded Strand
3x Polluted Delta
3x Wasteland

4x Nimble Mongoose
4x Tarmogoyf
2x Wee Dragonaut

4x Force of Will
3x Daze
2x Counterspell
3x Stifle
1x Misdirection

4x Swords to Plowshares
3x Lightning Bolt
3x Fire//Ice
1x Engineered Explosives

4x Serum Visions
3x Brainstorm
1x Fact or Fiction

Sideboard
4x Echoing Truth
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Misdirection
2x Pithing Needle
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Krosan Grip
2x Pyroclasm


With the amount of fetches that are being run getting the right colors is never really a problem. You need the green to cast your creatures then depending on if you have swords or burn in your hand you fetch up red or white first. It's fairly simple.
What I found with just the white splash of thresh was that the fast aggro decks were harder to take out, but swords is just too good of removal not to run.
With the red splash if they resolve a big creature it's hard to burn off the table without sideboarding in like Control Magic for instance.
With this you get swords and burn.

First off revised decklist:
4x Tropical Island
3x Volcanic Island
2x Tundra
4x Flooded Strand
4x Polluted Delta

4x Nimble Mongoose
4x Tarmogoyf
2x Wee Dragonaut

4x Force of Will
3x Daze
2x Counterspell
3x Stifle
1x Misdirection

4x Swords to Plowshares
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Fire//Ice
1x Engineered Explosives

4x Serum Visions
3x Brainstorm
1x Fact or Fiction

Sideboard
4x Echoing Truth
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Misdirection
2x Pithing Needle
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Krosan Grip
2x Pyroclasm


Card Choice:
Nimble Mongoose and Tarmogoyf are fairly self explanatory.
Wee Dragonauts: I wanted to have a non-graveyard dependant beater in the deck and this seemed like the best option in my choice. With Serum Visions, Brainstorms, and burn it is easy to be swinging in with 5 or 7 damage. It also evades with flying. It's blue so it pitches to force as well if need be. Wee Dragonauts has won me games so don't knock it.

Counterspell, Force of Will, and Daze are pretty standard. In a single splash color I would use three counterspells, but two seems to do fine with the swords to remove creatures instead of countering them sometimes.

Misdirection: Here is a preference card. This card is amazing against anything running spot removal more or less. Bouncing burn or a swords back to kill one of their creatures in a close game is back breaking. It's a reactive force of will in the counter wars as well. It's only a one of in the maindeck, so it's not too big.

Stifle: Maindeck Stifles are very good as well. Whether it be for countering fetches or for the ever neccesary countering wastelands. When running all non-basics and blue I think it's a must.

Swords to Plowshares = best removal in format. It warrants splashing white just for this spell.

Lightning Bolt: Removal and sometimes the finishing damage on a dying opponent. Allows you to eek by wins you might not neccesarily have won.

Fire//Ice: I run this because it is further removal and it pitches to Force. I use Ice almost as frequently as fire as well. Usually it seems to be good for tapping down Tarms while digging for a Tarm of your own or a swords. 2 for 1 potential as well is always good.

Brainstorm doesn't need explanation.

Serum Visions: I choose this over Portent because I prefer to draw the card that turn. It also goes better with Wee Dragonauts. This is a preference card though. Maybe Ponder from Lorwyn may be good enough to replace it.

Fact or Fiction: I find the one of to do the job of refilling a hand rather well. Too expensive to run more than one, but resolving the only one always seems to help.

Engineered Explosives: The one of main deck will randomly come to use as well as pumping Tarm. Not neccesary, but I like it.


Match-ups:
Goblins: Should be almost an auto-win. Plenty of maindeck removal as well as god knows how many answers to a turn 1 lackey. Sideboard more than two Pyroclasms if you expect to face a lot of goblin decks and just watch out for wastelands.

UGr Thresh: You should have a good match-up just because of swords. Just stick a Tarm and ride it to victory.

UGw Thresh: Should play much the same way, but a little harder. Still in your favor. Just play smart.

Update on this in the future after more testing. What I have is pretty bad, but I'm trying.

[Belgareth]

While you say brainstorm doesn't need explanation, It clearly does as you only have 3.
Surely 4 brainstorm and 3 Serum visions would be wiser.
Fact of fiction is too expensive in threshold in my opinion.
I really don't think cmc should be greater than 2 (FoW excluded).

[Rehallek]

Ah, I didn't think about why I run 4 Serum Visions and 3 Brainstorms.
- Tarmogoyf likes sorceries to be in the graveyard.
- Brainstorm is better with fetches, but when you don't have the fetches it defintely loses some power. Serum Visions is good either way.
- Serum Visions allows for me to play a one land hand a lot of times if it's really good otherwise. It digs through three cards then you get a fourth.

It's just a preference thing really, but I like Serum Visions.

As to Fact or Fiction. I've found there are no serious ways of getting more than just replacing the cards selves and I like it as a one of just to refill my hand sometimes in the late game. Wouldn't put in more than one because it does cost four.

[Nihil Credo]

As to Fact or Fiction. I've found there are no serious ways of getting more than just replacing the cards selves
Predict.

[Rehallek]

Predict.

I'm not a huge fan of Predict. In order for it to be really good you need to set it up with a Serum Visions, or a Brainstorm, or a Portent. I'd rather not have to wait to chain two spells. Further I'm only running Fact or Fiction as a one of, it's not really a big part of the deck it's just good sometimes.