MTG Deals Legacy Tournament 7/17/11 *5th* (Painter's Stone)

I guess I should start by introducing myself. My name is Tony Avakian, and I have been playing Legacy for a little over a year. I have an affinity for combo decks, mostly because I'm terrible at magic and need to play unfair decks to level the playing field. But also because winning with them is similar to putting together an elaborate puzzle; each combo piece is like a puzzle piece, and any unprepared instances of disruption from your opponent is not dissimilar from being stumped by the puzzle.

When you lose with combo, you lose to no one but yourself.

Of course this is not a steadfast truth: there will always be times when you're playing dredge and your opponent has infinite Crypt activations with his Goblin Welder, or times when your opponent missteps both of your Duress's then Stifles your Tendrils, or maybe your opponent drew 8 removal spells for all of your Illusionists and En-Kors. These things happen. There are some games that are simply out of your reach. But there are ALWAYS ways to help prevent these instances from occurring! Did you mull until you found a Leyline of Sanctity, or did you keep your "insane hand" because you had the perfect Careful Study into Breakthrough turn 2 win? Did you get restless and try to combo off early against control even though they were not advancing the board in any way? Did you walk your combo pieces into removal without having a backup plan? Did you not bring an exceptional sideboard plan against your worst match-up, hoping you would just dodge it?

And most of all, did you misplay? It doesn't matter how small of a misplay it was, think to yourself - did you misplay???

The answer is yes, you did. Combo as an archetype in Legacy is almost impossible to play perfectly, and unless you have a rating of 2100+ and have played in multiple Pro Tour level events, I guarantee you misplayed as little as 3 times or as many as 20 at the last real tournament you went to. I know this because my combined sanctioned record over the past month is 17 - 4 - 3 and I guarantee I misplayed in at least half of those games.

The most important thing to know is that you do not need to play perfectly or be an intellectual genius to be a great magic player, all you need to do is learn from your mistakes. It's really that simple.

My deck of choice for this report is my favorite Legacy deck of all time - Painter's Stone:

4 x Painter's Servant
4 x Goblin Welder

4 x Grindstone
4 x Sensei's Divining Top
3 x Mox Opal
1 x Lyon's Eye Diamond

4 x Brainstorm
4 x Intuition
1 x Transmute Artifact

4 x Force of Will
4 x Mental Misstep
2 x Red Elemental Blast
1 x Pyroblast

3 x Volcanic Island
3 x Seat of The Synod
3 x Great Furnace
4 x Scalding Tarn
3 x Ancient Tomb
2 x City of Traitors
1 x Island
1 x Mountain

Sideboard:

3 x Sundial of The Infinite
2 x Pyroblast
2 x Llawan, Cephalid Empress
2 x Firespout
2 x Tormod's Crypt
1 x Relic of Progenitus
1 x Engineered Explosives
1 x Pithing Needle
1 x Ensnaring Bridge



As you can see, most everything here is standard, akin to the Caleb Durward / Alexander Kwon archetype. The main difference in my list is the sideboard, which does not include the Show And Tell into Emrakul plan, which has never really worked for me.

The first thing you probably noticed here is "3 x Sundial of The Infinite". If you haven't decided to stop reading yet, allow me to continue to destroy my credibility and tell you that it is THE BEST CARD IN THE SIDEBOARD. Let me just touch base with a few of the things it does for this deck:

For one extra mana, it blanks instant speed removal on your turn. IE: Activate Grindstone - Response: Bolt your Servant, is now a thing of the past. They now have to use their removal spells on their turn (if they get the chance), allowing you to use your mana optimally.

It blanks all counter-spells pointed at your combo pieces.

It blanks Hivemind, widely considered to be your worst matchup. IE: Response to Pact upkeep trigger, activate Sundial.

AND MOST OF ALL, it blanks public enemy #1: Emrakul, The Auto Loss. That's right, you now get a legitimate sideboard card that just so happens to also beat Emrakul's shuffle effect. You no longer have to sideboard in Tormod's Crypt against opponents that don't give a shit about their yard. If you understand the deck well, then I think you get just how big the implications of this really are.

Also of note, most players do not understand the interactions that the Sundial provides, which means it is very very easy to get an unknowing opponent to misplay into it. The card may not seem like much, but it is exactly the kind of trump card this deck was looking for. And it works with Goblin Welder to top it all off(OBV).




Round 1 VS Aggro Loam

G1 - I win the die roll. My hand is strong as it has both parts of the combo, 2 Blasts, Top, and 2 mana sources. I instantly keep. I go turn 1 Grindstone while my opponent plays a Taiga and passes. Having no fail-safe bet on what he's playing, I tap out to play a Painter turn 2, while my opponent plays land - Mox Diamond - Seismic Assault, and proceeds to throw his otherwise irrelevant duals at my Servant's head. He soft-locks me a turn later by getting the Loam engine running and I'm literally on zero outs. This deck cannot beat a resolved Seismic Assault.

+ 1 Engineered Explosives + 1 Ensnaring Bridge + 1 PIthing Needle + 2 Tormod's Crypt

- 1 Lyon's Eye Diamond - 1 Mox Opal - 1 Pyroblast - 2 Red Elemental Blast

Notes: Mental Misstep may seem like it's something you want to sideboard out here, but you have to assume that they are bringing in any number of 1 cc removal spells, Red Blasts of their own, and possibly 1 cc discard spells. You may want to keep in your blasts as a resolved Bob could just spell doom for you, but they are simply not consistent enough vs the absurd amount of removal your are up against. Ancient Grudge is their best card post-sideboard, and unfortunately we do not have a good answer to it.

G2 - I have a slow hand with disruption, a Top, a couple lands, and an Intuition. My opponent mulls to 6. I fetch for a basic mountain (you want to find as many basics as you can against this deck) and play the Top. My opponent plays a land and passes. I upkeep Top and find some land and a Welder. I play a land and the Welder. EOT Opponent Bolts the Welder but I have the misstep for him. He untaps and plays Bob, which resolves. I play Intuition during my main phase to ensure I will get at least one activation from the Welder. I find 2 x Grindstone and a Painter's Servant. My opponent misplays by giving me the Grindstone, then proceeds to brick on his next draw phase and we're off the game 3.

G3 - This was a very long drawn out game involving multiple removal spells and an adequate amount of pressure from my opponent. I find a late Goblin Welder and manage to protect it, which is usually all the deck needs to win . . . seems unfair if you think about it = )

Perceived Matchup Percentage: 55 - 45 in Loam's favor. If this is a popular deck in your meta, I would suggest having a better sideboard than I do for it.

1 - 0


Round 2 VS Natural Order RUG

G1 - I Lose the die roll. He plays Heirarch, I Misstep it, he Dazes. I play Servant, he Bolts it, I Blast, he Forces. He Natural Orders, I Force it. He Cliques me during draw step and puts Intuition on the bottom, I draw Blast and point it at the Clique. Wash, rinse, repeat. I eventually find an Intuition for 3 Tops and bury him in card quality.

+ 2 Pyroblast + 1 Ensnaring Bridge

- 1 Lyon's Eye Diamond - 1 Mox Opal - 1 Grindstone

Notes: As you can tell, the sole LED and Mox's are very expendable cards in the deck. Some of you may not agree at all with my choice of siding out Grindstone, but multiple Grindstones are something you almost never want to see, especially considering all the redundancy we have in searching / reanimating them. I wouldn't side out any of your other cards in this matchup, as they are all very relevant.

G2 - He opens with a Zenith for one which gets Misstepped. I drop a Top off a Seat of Synod which gets Dazed, but I have another in hand so I don't fight over it. He plays a Heirarch on his turn. I draw an Ancient Tomb and unload Grindstone / Welder / Top in that order. The order is important, as you want the Grindstone to get Misstepped over the Welder, and you don't care if the Top gets Dazed as long as they don't Bolt the Welder. All of it resolves, and I pass. He Bolts the Welder on his turn, and I'm left with an interesting decision. I have Force and Intuition in hand, and an unknown card on top of my library. The Intuition is probably more important than the Welder as I have a Grindstone in play, but my opponent has 4 cards in hand and I can't count on the Intuition resolving. If I'm able to find a Painter's Servant with the Top then my opponent is straight up boned, as long as he doesn't have a way to remove BOTH the Servant and the Welder. I flip the Top to see if I can find a blue card and draw a Mox Opal. This means that I am no longer in fear of getting my Intuition Dazed, so he has to have a Force AND a blue card in order to stop the Intuition from resolving. I choose to let the Bolt resolve and then he drops a Tarmogoyf, which is fine by me. I draw the Top and drop the Mox and decide to cast Intuition on my turn, which I believe is the correct thing to do vs a deck with a high density of counterspells. I find three Servants and pass. He plays Natural Order on his turn, and I rip a land which is just enough to resolve a Servant and Grindstone him.

Perceived Matchup Percentage: 55 - 45 in NO RUG's favor. Without Bolt, I believe this matchup would be even, or even slightly in Painter Stone's favor.

2 - 0


Round 3 VS UW Landstill

I do not remember much of this game.

G1 - I lose the die roll (I think?) and keep at 7 while my opponent mulligans. I lead with Volcanic into Grindstone and my opponent has a Tundra. He draws and passes and I drop a Painter off an Ancient Tomb that immediately catches a Sword. He plays a Standstill and it appears that I'm in trouble, as I have no more lands. We play draw go until I have 8 cards in hand with 2 land and he has 5 cards in hand with 5 land including a Factory. It does not appear that I am going to be able to make him discard from the Standstill anytime soon so I just drop a Servant and pray. He Forces the Painter and I Force back, and it resolves (at least thats what I think happened). He Swords again and I Misstep it, then he Dismembers it. On his turn he drops a Crucible and passes. Stuff like this happens for a few more turns until I'm able to fight through his card advantage with a Welder, which wins me the game.

+ 2 Pyroblast + 2 Sundial of The Infinite

- 1 Lyon's Eye Diamond - 1 Mox Opal - 1 Grindstone - 1 Transmute Artifact

Notes: Your game plan should be to drop a Sundial early and attempt to blank all of their counterspells and Standstills.

G2 - He mulls again and I keep a hand with both combo pieces, a Welder, and a Top. if I remember correctly this game wasn't very close, as he disrupted the combo pieces and didn't have an answer for the Goblin Welder. As you can tell, this happens a lot. Against any kind of control deck, this is your best bet at winning. Bait your Servant / Grindstone / Top into removal / counterspells, then drop the Welder when you think the coast is clear. I did not get a chance to test out the Sundial this game, but I'm sure it would've been pretty damn good.

Perceived Matchup Percentage: 50 - 50 with Painter's Stone having a very slight advantage. Of course, if the opponent is a very good control player (like Gerry Thompson status), then I'm sure it would be in their favor. But I don't know anyone who actually knows how to play Landstill optimally, and you probably don't either.

3 - 0


Round 4 VS Merfolk (Mono U with Dismember)

G1 - I Lose the die roll and keep at 7 while my opponent mulligans. They lead with an Aether Vial off a Mutavault, which I have the Misstep for. I basically win the game from the Misstep, as my opponent does not have any islands.

+ 2 Pyroblast + 2 Llawan, Cephalid Empress + 2 Firespout

- 1 Lyons Eye Diamond - 1 Mox Opal - 1 Transmute Artifact - 1 Grindstone - 1 Force of Will - 1 Brainstorm

Notes: This matchup is pretty easy, what with our 5 Pyroblasts post-board. Just remember that Silvergill Adept doesn't seem like much, but it is easily their best card. Do not 2 for 1 yourself with Force unless you have to, and try your best not to pitch Intuition to it. Never cast Intuition if they have an untapped Aether Vial at 1 and you do not have enough to pay for Cursecatcher. Above all, try to read your opponent on whether or not they have Daze. If you are highly against cutting Brainstorms (which I would be in any other deck besides this one), then you can cut an extra Force or Misstep. Ensnaring Bridge and Sundial aren't bad cards to bring in, but they really aren't necessary.

G2 - I keep a hand with a single City of Traitors as my only land, with the combo present and 2 Tops. I personally think this is a snap keep, but some seem to disagree. He goes turn 1 Vial and I drop a Top and spin it. I see 0 mana sources. I continue to Top during all of my upkeeps and never see a single land despite having 5 draw steps. So much for siding out Mox Opal.

G3 - I keep a hand with more than one mana source and my opponent mulls to a precarious 5. Despite my card advantage, my opponent manages to hang in there and we have a fairly long, attrition based game. I eventually resolve an Intuition finding me my remaining 3 Servants. I know if he counters my last Servant I could be in trouble, so I wait until I sculpt a decent hand through some help from a Top (his pressure was a sole Cursecatcher). I drop the Painter with double Blast backup, and proceed to get my Grindstone activations Stifled for three turns. Stifle isn't exactly the best sideboard card verse Painter's Stone, especially with little to no pressure.

Perceived Matchup Percentage: 60 - 40 in Painter Stone's favor. It could be a little less against the versions with both Swords and Dismember main.

4 - 0


Round 5 VS Hivemind

I get paired down, and my opponent insists on playing it out.

G1 - I lose the die roll. Your only game plan during G1 is to drop as many dorks as you can and hope they have multiple Ancient Tombs in play. I have done it before, but it requires that you draw nearly all of your disruption and they draw nothing. Of course this does not happen, and we're off to game 2.

+ 2 Pyroblast + 3 Sundial of The Infinite + 1 Ensnaring Bridge

- 1 Lyon's Eye Diamond - 1 Mox Opal - 4 Mental Misstep

Notes: This could be the deck's worst matchup, but if you come prepared; you have a very good shot at winning games 2 & 3. The plan is to resolve an early Sundial and find your Ensnaring Bridge as soon as possible, which will create a sort of "soft-lock". You can side out a Grindstone and a Brainstorm instead of the full set of Mental Missteps as their is a good chance that they are sideboarding in their own Missteps, the card definitely isn't irrelevant otherwise but it probably has the least relevance of everything in the deck. If you are on the Show and Tell Emrakul plan, you can sideboard it in but it is VERY risky.

G2 - I keep a land heavy hand and hope my opponent doesn't have much action. Luckily he doesn't, and we both screw around for the first 4 turns doing nothing of particular note. Eventually he plays a Show and Tell, and he Forces my Force, so I Blast it. I misplay pretty hard here, as I cast Intuition at the end of his turn and get 3 Sundials (much to the amusement of everyone watching) while I have a Goblin Welder in play. If I had gotten Sundial, Grindstone, Servant, the game would be over. But my fear got the best of me, and I decided to make the most conservative play possible. I cast the Sundial during my next turn and my opponent laughs at me. He plays a Pact of The Titan and decides to go on the beat down plan. I find an Ensnaring Bridge shortly thereafter and the game is locked. He has no way of interacting with the lock so I take my sweet time to find the combo and win.

G3 - There's 3 minutes on the clock as we start, so I'm aware that we're going to time. I had a Sundial in play and a grip in hand, so I would've easily won this game had the second game not taken forever. It doesn't matter much to me, as I'm now a lock-in to top 8.

Perceived Matchup Percentage: Without Sundial / Ensnaring Bridge sideboard: 90 - 10 in Hivemind's favor. With Sundial / Ensnaring Bridge sideboard: 60 - 40 in Hivemind's favor. An otherwise un-winnable matchup, I might go as far to say that Sundial of The Infinite puts games 2 and 3 at a level playing field.

4 - 0 - 1


Round 5 VS Elves

We obviously choose to draw.

4 - 0 - 2


Top 8 Semifinals VS Junk

G1 - I win the die roll and mull to 6 while my opponent keeps. I have a good hand with Grindstone, Welder, Intuition, Top, and lands. I lead with Top and my opponent does nothing on his turn. I then drop Welder and pray he doesn't have removal so I can set up the Intuition plan on my next turn. It's Junk so of course he has a removal spell, as Top doesn't find me a Misstep. I Intuition for 3 Servants and he plays Bob on his turn, which gets Forced. I drop the Servant and pass. He plays a Knight and kills the Servant. I play Grindstone and pass. He plays a mainboard Quasali Pridemage (just my luck), and I realize that my chances of winning this game are now slim to none. Some other shit happens and I lose.

+ 2 Firespout + 1 Pithing Needle + 1 Engineered Explosives + 1 Ensnaring Bridge

- 2 Red Elemental Blast - 1 Pyroblast - 1 Mox Opal - 1 Brainstorm

Notes: This is the correct sideboard plan . . . which I chose not to follow, as it was my first time playing the matchup. I kept in 2 Blasts instead of the Firespouts, which I definitely regret. Firespout obviously isn't that good of a card in this matchup, but you NEED something to kill their Pridemages and Confidants. Like I said in the Loam matchup, you just can't count on your Servant living vs Junk, so Red Blast is going to be a dead card more often than not. Pithing Needle is almost always for Pridemage, though hitting a Knight or Top isn't terrible. Your best shot at winning is assembling the entire combo in one turn with enough mana to activate Grindstone with Force of Will backup (easier said than done), thus the inclusion of Lyon's Eye Diamond. If you have the Show and Tell plan, this is the matchup to side it in against.

G2 - I mull again and he keeps. I keep a very very shaky hand of Intuition, Force of Will, Red Blast x 2, and two lands. I drop a land and pass. He Thoughtsiezes my Intuition, and I realize this game is probably over. I peel a Top and have a moment of false hope, which is immediately crushed as he Duresses my Force and Hymn's my remaining 2 cards off a Mox Diamond. Top reveals nothing of note, and I'm left with a very anticlimactic ending after he beats me to death with various undercosted threats.

Perceived Matchup Percentage: 60 - 40 in Junk's favor. I am not certain if it's actually that bad, but they have something like 20 disruption spells main. If there's one thing Painter's Stone hates besides Eldrazi, it's removal. And between Swords, Vindicate, Diabolic Edict etc. - it appears to me that this matchup is rather difficult. Who knows, I might've punted it multiple times without realizing it = /



Shai (Junk) hymned his way to the finals and won it, so congrats to him. I ended up coming in 5th and managed to get the last set of duals with blue in them, Volcanic Islands. That counts me up to 6 of them, if anyone's interested.

I would not change anything to the maindeck for my metagame. Although Transmute Artifact is absolutely interchangeable with Trinket Mage, as they both have their advantages and disadvantages, so don't sweat it if you can't find one. If you wanted you could run a Sundial or Crypt main over the third Blast, to help game 1's against various decks with Emrakul. I have seen other versions with Ensnaring Bridge main, which isn't a terrible idea either. Really all it comes down to is making your own metagame call. There are quite a few blue decks in my area, so I like having 3 Blasts main. Maybe your meta has a lot of aggro and you want Explosives main. Maybe your meta has a lot of combo and you want more unconditional counterspells. Really its up to you, I do not think my list is correct by any means and you shouldn't either.

As far as the sideboard goes, I was not particularly impressed with Firespout or Llawan. Llawan does not seem necessary as Merfolk is already a good matchup, and I felt like Firespout was a do-nothing card throughout the entire tournament. It is not good enough to be a trump card against Zoo (a TERRIBLE matchup), and it is unnecessary against Goblins and Merfolk. On top of that, a good late-game 'Spout is liable to blow up your own board as well as there's. I can see it being ridiculously strong against Elves, but I know nothing about that matchup so I'm not sure if it's necessary.

The card I felt was missing throughout the tournament was Misdirection. There were quite a few times when my opponent's cast a removal spell on my dorks when they had their own creatures in play (usually much better creatures than mine). It also seems like it could be a trump card in the Junk matchup as it hits: Swords, Thoughtsieze, Vindicate, and Hymn To Tourach. And from my perspective, this deck definitely needs a strong sideboard card for that matchup. I do not think you can cut any of the Sundials, as there will be games where you need to Intuition for 3 of them, as much as I would rather just run 2. If I were going to play in a tournament tomorrow, my sideboard would look something like this:

3 x Sundial of The Infinite
3 x Graveyard hate cards
2 x Pyroblast
2 x Misdirection
2 x Ensnaring Bridge
1 x Pithing Needle
1 x Llawan, Cephalid Empress
1 x Engineered Explosives

It would be nice to have something in here that was good enough to help you win the Zoo matchup, but I haven't found a card that adequately does that yet (any suggestions?). Like I said before, I do not feel that Show and Tell + Emrakul is a real sideboard plan, and unless it is some kind of crazy meta call, I would stay away from it. Some people are advocating Blood Moon as a sideboard option, but I disagree. It makes Mox Opal very difficult to turn on, as it blanks 6 - 7 of the decks artifacts, and it makes casting Intuition (the decks most important spell) nearly impossible.

Overall I felt that I played well but definitely not to my full potential. As you probably noticed my opponents mulled a lot more than I did, and I was drawing well throughout most of the day. Most of my matchups weren't good at all, and had a few of my opponents known my deck better, I wouldn't be writing this report right now. Still, I top 8ed and that should be worth something.

If you read this far thank you, and if there is anything you want to know about the deck, criticism on this article (be it good or bad), or any kind of suggestions - please leave me a comment below.

First off, congrats on the finish!

Re: Sundial:

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It blanks all counter-spells pointed at your combo pieces.

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The other two points make sense, but I don't see how it works against counterspells.

You: Cast combo piece.
Opponent: Cast Counterspell.
You: Activate Sundial ending the turn.

Result: Combo piece and Counterspell are both exiled. So your spell is still countered.

Quote:

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Some people are advocating Blood Moon as a sideboard option, but I disagree. It makes Mox Opal very difficult to turn on, as it blanks 6 - 7 of the decks artifacts, and it makes casting Intuition (the decks most important spell) nearly impossible.

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Just a note, Seat and Furnace are still artifacts under Blood Moon.

Just quick notes: I didn't have Diamond in my deck, and playing knight and removal turn 3 sounds wrong too. Of course, I barely remember anything so I can't correct you on anything else.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony Avakian

G2 - I keep a land heavy hand and hope my opponent doesn't have much action. Luckily he doesn't, and we both screw around for the first 4 turns doing nothing of particular note. Eventually he plays a Show and Tell, and he Forces my Force, so I Blast it. I misplay pretty hard here, as I cast Intuition at the end of his turn and get 3 Sundials (much to the amusement of everyone watching) while I have a Goblin Welder in play. If I had gotten Sundial, Grindstone, Servant, the game would be over. But my fear got the best of me, and I decided to make the most conservative play possible. I cast the Sundial during my next turn and my opponent laughs at me. He plays a Pact of The Titan and decides to go on the beat down plan. I find an Ensnaring Bridge shortly thereafter and the game is locked. He has no way of interacting with the lock so I take my sweet time to find the combo and win.

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I don't believe this was a misplay on your part at all. Your opponent is almost definitely running Emrakul, the Aeons Torn (which aside from the 'win-condition' factor is bad for you in other obvious ways), so you going for the Sundials to lock him out of a combo win with Show and Tell on the stack or a Pact on the stack is the ideal play. You wouldn't want him to give you the single Sundial you wanted to with the Painter and Grindstone pile as he might have the counter-magic necessary to stop it for a turn or two (which is huge against Combo).

You could obviously Weld it back into play, but I'm quite sure nailing the inevitability factor down was a key play here. Also, how do you feel personally about Academy Ruins? In a Control-heavy general meta, it just seems stronger overall.

What happens in the following scenario?

Active player activate Grindstone, targetting the opponent with Painter in play. Deck is milled.
Emrakul triggers. Active player activates Sundial, ending the turn.

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Originally Posted by rukcus

What happens in the following scenario?

Active player activate Grindstone, targetting the opponent with Painter in play. Deck is milled.
Emrakul triggers. Active player activates Sundial, ending the turn.

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Emrakuls never resolve, Emrakul player has no library.

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Originally Posted by lorddotm

Emrakuls never resolve, Emrakul player has no library.

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Sweet. Found my new deck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Whippoorwill

You: Cast combo piece.
Opponent: Cast Counterspell.
You: Activate Sundial ending the turn.

Result: Combo piece and Counterspell are both exiled. So your spell is still countered.

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This. Can you explain?

Also, you should try out Spellskite. It's great against removal heavy decks like Junk and Zoo, and is especially tasty with Welder in play, since they protect each other. I would take out the Llawan, EE, and one graveyard hate card in your sideboard to fit them in.

Personally, I play a Transmute Artifact based list with maindeck Grim Monolith, Ensnaring Bridge, and Wurmcoil Engine. As you said, Bridge is a soft lock versus a lot of decks, and Wurmcoil is very effective as a secondary win con when your opponent has Needle or Null Rod or G1 against anything with Emrakul. Transmute makes it considerably easier to tutor up those silver bullets, plus Sundial, Needle, and even Duplicant (usually with the help of Monolith) out of the board.

Way to go Tony, nice work rocking the Painter Stone.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by keys

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Whippoorwill

You: Cast combo piece.
Opponent: Cast Counterspell.
You: Activate Sundial ending the turn.

Result: Combo piece and Counterspell are both exiled. So your spell is still countered.

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This. Can you explain?

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The Sundial specifically says "exile all spells and abilities on the stack". So if both spells are on the stack, well they get exiled.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PanderAlexander

The Sundial specifically says "exile all spells and abilities on the stack". So if both spells are on the stack, well they get exiled.

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Right. I was hoping Tony had some other use in mind, and if so, could explain.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony Avakian

For one extra mana, it blanks instant speed removal on your turn. IE: Activate Grindstone - Response: Bolt your Servant, is now a thing of the past. They now have to use their removal spells on their turn (if they get the chance), allowing you to use your mana optimally.

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Probably this, Tony brought up Sundial at FNM and we ended up discussing about that scenario. Unfortunately for any counter-war scenario it does not work.

congrats on your finish!
sundial will soon have a place in our world.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hollywood

I don't believe this was a misplay on your part at all. Your opponent is almost definitely running Emrakul, the Aeons Torn (which aside from the 'win-condition' factor is bad for you in other obvious ways), so you going for the Sundials to lock him out of a combo win with Show and Tell on the stack or a Pact on the stack is the ideal play. You wouldn't want him to give you the single Sundial you wanted to with the Painter and Grindstone pile as he might have the counter-magic necessary to stop it for a turn or two (which is huge against Combo).

You could obviously Weld it back into play, but I'm quite sure nailing the inevitability factor down was a key play here. Also, how do you feel personally about Academy Ruins? In a Control-heavy general meta, it just seems stronger overall.

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Looking back on this I do still think it was a misplay, but only because 1 of the 3 cards I searched for off of Intuition was not Ensnaring Bridge, as my opponent would basically have 0 outs at that point. Had I not found the sole Bridge during my next turn, I would've almost assuredly lost this game.

I have run Academy Ruins both main and sideboard in past tournaments, and have had limited success with it. I chose to run a basic mountain over it because I was having some problems losing to Wasteland.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Whippoorwill

First off, congrats on the finish!

Re: Sundial:


The other two points make sense, but I don't see how it works against counterspells.

You: Cast combo piece.
Opponent: Cast Counterspell.
You: Activate Sundial ending the turn.

Result: Combo piece and Counterspell are both exiled. So your spell is still countered.



Just a note, Seat and Furnace are still artifacts under Blood Moon.

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Yeah I double checked all this and it's 100% true. I read somewhere that Sundial is tech against counterspells and never double checked to make sure it was actually true. I still feel that Sundial is a very strong sideboard card for this particular deck though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by keys

Right. I was hoping Tony had some other use in mind, and if so, could explain.

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Like I stated earlier: its primary use is to Stifle Emrakul's shuffle effect.

On top of that, it is a very strong sideboard card VS Hivemind and makes it so your opponent has to use removal on their own turn.

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Originally Posted by 2Rach

Just quick notes: I didn't have Diamond in my deck, and playing knight and removal turn 3 sounds wrong too. Of course, I barely remember anything so I can't correct you on anything else.

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Yeah I don't remember game 1 at all, though I'm pretty sure what I have written is somewhat accurate.

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Originally Posted by keys

This. Can you explain?

Also, you should try out Spellskite. It's great against removal heavy decks like Junk and Zoo, and is especially tasty with Welder in play, since they protect each other. I would take out the Llawan, EE, and one graveyard hate card in your sideboard to fit them in.

Personally, I play a Transmute Artifact based list with maindeck Grim Monolith, Ensnaring Bridge, and Wurmcoil Engine. As you said, Bridge is a soft lock versus a lot of decks, and Wurmcoil is very effective as a secondary win con when your opponent has Needle or Null Rod or G1 against anything with Emrakul. Transmute makes it considerably easier to tutor up those silver bullets, plus Sundial, Needle, and even Duplicant (usually with the help of Monolith) out of the board.

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I really like the idea of Spellskite as a sideboard option, and I will definitely include at least 2 at the next tournament I go to.

I'm not a big fan of the whole robot plan, because it requires that you draw a Welder and he doesn't get Misstepped / Bolted / etc.