3rd at Eternal Extravaganza 2 with UBr Tezzeret!

Let's get one thing out of the way first - I am not a Spike. I play Legacy mostly because, well, it's probably the best format for playing with sweet cards. It's not that I'm opposed to playing with stuff in the DtB forum, but I'd rather just play something like Tezzeret or TinFins and enjoy myself in the process. So, after missing out on Eternal Weekend and the first Eternal Extravaganza last year, I decided that there was no way I was missing this one. I was going to be there, and I was going to be casting Chalices.

I've been tuning the three color Mox Diamond Tezzeret variant since around the time that True-Name Nemesis was spoiled. I needed a way to kill it, and Engineered Explosives on 3 was the easiest way to accomplish that. I'd already been playing Mox Diamond in a straight UB version to add some explosiveness to the deck, so it wasn't that much of a leap to add some Tropical Islands to my manabase and some Golgari Charm to the sideboard. The biggest problem with the deck, though, was that Mox Diamond sucked to draw outside of your opening hand. Jace helped some with that, but this deck's manabase construction doesn't allow for many fetchlands. I'd put them back on top of my deck, then I'd draw them again the next turn.

Then, everything changed when the fire nation attacked Dack Fayden was spoiled.

I had often thought that I would play a 3 mana enchantment that allowed me to loot on my upkeep, and Dack was so much more than that. He dumped bad cards out of my hand the turn he came into play, he put Sword of the Meek into my graveyard for that sweet Baleful Strix value, and best of all, he had other abilities too. Given a few months of testing and reasonable finishes at GP:NJ, SCG events, and local tournaments, I arrived at this for EE2:

UBr Tezzeret (affectionately called Dack in Black)

http://i.imgur.com/rMaH8dV.jpg?1

Code:

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4 Baleful Strix

3 Dack Fayden
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

4 Force of Will
2 Transmute Artifact
1 Dig Through Time

4 Chalice of the Void
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Sword of the Meek
3 Thopter Foundry
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Ensnaring Bridge

4 Mox Diamond
2 Dimir Signet

1 Academy Ruins
4 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
2 Island
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
2 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
3 Wasteland
60 cards

SB:
1 Ensnaring Bridge
2 The Abyss
1 Chains of Mephistopheles
1 Whipflare
2 Toxic Deluge
1 Misdirection
1 Helm of Obedience
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Lodestone Golem

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R1	Erik with Infect (2-0)	Record: 1-0
	Game 1: Erik wins the die roll, and leads off with Tropical Island into Glistener Elf to let me know what he's on. I take a few unpumped swings from it until I establish Thopter/Sword, which ran away with the game over the course of a few turns. His only infect creatures this game were Elf and Inkmoth Nexus, and my Wastelands and Thopter army were able to handle those. Game 2: This game was a bit of a blowout. He didn't have an answer to my turn 1 Chalice, and though he did resolve a turn 2 Blighted Agent, that didn't match up very well against my turn 2 play of The Abyss. The Abyss and my Wastelands ended any hopes he had of ever sticking a creature, and a few Strixes and a 5/5 were able to take him down.	http://i.imgur.com/BxV7cVP.jpg?1
R2	Eddie with MUD (2-1)	Record: 2-0
	Game 1: Once again, I lose the die roll, but this game starts off a bit better for me when my opponent immediately mulligans to 5 cards. Even those hopes are dashed pretty quickly though when he leads off on a sol land into Grim Monolith, and I'm stuck looking at a Chalice hand. He plays a Kuldotha Forgemaster that I didn't have an answer to, and though I counter the next thing he played with the FoW I drew immediately after he cast the Forgemaster, he eventually plays another artifact and kills me with a Blightsteel Colossus. Game 2: With my Chalices now out of my deck, I open on a hand with mana and a Dack Fayden, and smile when my opponent casts Steel Hellkite as his first spell of the game after playing a few Cloudposts. Dack convinced the dragon to work for me in short order. He cast Ugin on the following turn and was forced to -3 it to kill Dack and my Baleful Strix, but after my new dragon friend took care of Ugin I had enough mana to use it's X ability to take care of everything else he played. Game 3: On the play, he starts off with a (normally) strong play of a turn 2 Coercive Portal. Unfortunately, Dack arrived when I untapped with the help of a Mox Diamond, and I coerced his portal into drawing me some cards instead. He had a few threats come down over the course of the game, but the overwhelming card advantage found me more copies of Dack to convince his army to fight against him.	http://i.imgur.com/IDOpigY.jpg?1
R3	Anuraag with Miracles (2-1)	Record: 3-0
	Game 1: After having a nice discussion with Anuraag about The Source, I win my first die roll of the tournament. He leads off with a few typical Miracles plays, but I'm able to resolve an early Thopter Foundry. I eventually find the other half of my combo, and my token army is able to kill him over the course of two turns without much resistance. Game 2: I keep a reasonable hand with some lands and spells in this game, but I don't have any fast mana. Unfortunately for me, he is able to assemble CounterTop with a two on top with hard countermagic for anything else, and eventually casts a Jace to lock me out of the game. Game 3: The hand I keep in this game has a sol land and a Diamond, and I lead off with a turn 1 Sword of the Meek followed by a Tezzeret on turn 2. I immediately turn it into a 5/5 creature and begin to attack him, and though he does manage to resolve a Jace to bounce it eventually, my Tezzeret ultimate is able to finish him off.	http://i.imgur.com/HS5UXn8.jpg?1
R4	Eric with Miracles (2-1)	Record: 4-0
	Game 1: I'm on the play again, and we both start the game off with a mulligan leading into one of the strangest games against Miracles I've ever played. We both play our first land, then... Well, then we moved to our discard steps for awhile. Neither of us managed to draw any lands or anything to actually do for a few turns. I eventually draw another land, and manage to resolve a Thopter Foundry. I eventually assemble my combo, and my tokens take it down. Game 2: This game was extremely long and very grindy, which is a situation that usually favors Miracles. With both of our boards mostly empty, he casts a hardcast Entreat the Angels for 2 which I have no answer for. Two attack steps later, my life total hit zero. Game 3: I play out some Baleful Strixes fairly early in this game, and have them get to work on Eric's life total. I resolve a Tezzeret and tick it up, and pass the turn with a hand full of artifacts. My opponent decides not to attack his Vendilion Clique into my Thopter Foundry with mana untapped, so when my Strixes bring his life total to 14 the next turn, I'm able to unload my hand of mana rocks and such to Tezzeret ultimate him for lethal.	http://i.imgur.com/zmvZ0hx.jpg?1
R5	Sam with Miracles (2-0)	Record: 5-0
	Game 1: The hand I keep this game is very threat dense, so I'm able to chuck spells into his countermagic until I'm eventually able to land a Thopter Foundry to go with the Sword of the Meek I'd played earlier in the game. Unable to really interact with my plan, my tokens take down the game a few turns later. Game 2: Once again, I open on a very threat-dense hand - this time with both copies of Lodestone Golem. He struggled to find an answer other than Jace to my Golems, and they end up beating him to death in tandem with my Tezzeret 5/5s.	http://i.imgur.com/xMdyl5i.jpg?1
R6	Jon with Ad Nauseam Tendrils (2-1)	Record: 6-0
	Game 1: I open on a reasonable hand with Strix, Tezzeret, and a Force alongside some lands, so I'm less than excited when my opponent's first play is a Duress to take my Force of Will. I play out the Strix and put it into the red zone, and draw into another Force of Will and some more land during that time. On turn 3, I take a gamble and play out Tezzeret and activate it's plus ability. I looked at the top of my deck trying to find one of ten cards (either a Chalice or another blue artifact), but end up failing to find anything and die after I pass the turn. Game 2: I keep a sick hand with a some lands, a Chalice, and a Lodestone Golem, and my opponent immediately concedes after I lead on turn 1 Chalice at 1 followed by the Golem on turn 2. Game 3: I mulligan to a 6 card hand with a Chalice, a Tezzeret, and some other cards, but with only a Volcanic Island as a mana source. I'm on the draw, so I take the gamble and keep the hand. He Probes me and cantrips on his first turn, and like a master, I rip Ancient Tomb, Lodestone Golem, and another two lands over the next few turns. My Golem and a 5/5 Chalice of the Void quickly drop his life total to zero.	http://i.imgur.com/q3lT3XO.jpg?1
R7	Kevin with Lands (2-0)	Record: 7-0
	Game 1: My opponent knows what I'm on as we've been sitting around the same area for the last few rounds, and he gives away what he's on as well when he casts Gamble off a Grove on his first turn on the play. I land Tezzeret, find Thopter/Sword, and ultimate him for lethal the turn after I untap with it. Game 2: I manage to live the dream in this game by mana screwing the lands player. He leads on a turn 1 Mox Diamond into Gamble, but when he discards his only land to that spell, he's left passing the turn. Though he does find another land 2 turns later, I untap and cast Dack Fayden off my own Diamond, take his Mox, and Wasteland his only remaining mana source. I eventually hardcast a Leyline of the Void and Transmute for Helm to kill him.	http://i.imgur.com/NcqQXWw.jpg?1
R8	ID	Record: 7-0-1
R9	ID	Record: 7-0-2 (2nd seed overall)
T16	Joe with Sneak and Show (2-1)	Record: 8-0-2
	First, I'm really sorry for forgetting your name. I can't access my PWP page right now either apparently, so I can't even look it up. If WOTC decides to bring their password reset page back up, I'll edit it in. Thanks, guy from Reddit! Game 1: I have a reasonable idea of what most of the people in the top 16 are playing, so when I sit down across from the only matchup that I didn't want, I started to think that my run was over. I keep a hand with a turn 1 Chalice followed by a turn 3 Tezzeret, but with no Force of Will. The Chalice keeps my opponent from doing anything but passing after playing an Island on turn 1, but that doesn't stop him from playing another Island, a Lotus Petal, and a Show and Tell for Emrakul on turn 2. My draw step doesn't show me a Bridge or Transmute, so I scoop it up. Game 2: I open on Leyline, Signet, Transmute, Force, Strix, and some lands, and decide to keep it. He once again has a turn 2 Show and Tell, and he has the Force of Will to back it up. Fortunately, he shows me an Emrakul to match up against my Signet, and concedes when I resolve Transmute for Bridge after I untap. I don't have access to the decklists as I write this, so I'm not sure if he didn't have anything to remove the Bridge at all or if he just forgot to board it in. Game 3: Excited after winning game 2, I open on a hand with Leyline, Transmute, Force of Will, and a turn 2 Lodestone Golem. My Golem resolves, and puts on the beatdown over the next few turns. His mana is very restricted by LSG and some Wastelands, and he is eventually forced to tap out to Ice the Golem at 7 life. I move to my postcombat main phase, and LSG prevents him from responding to my Transmute for Helm of Obedience.	http://i.imgur.com/fCO4erE.jpg?1
T8	Ryan with UW Stoneblade (2-0)	Record: 9-0-2
	Game 1: We fight a bit over some of our early plays, but I'm able to assemble Crucible/Wasteland to keep him off of his mana. Eventually, he manages to resolve a True-Name Nemesis on a mostly empty board. Over the next few turns, another TNN and a Sword of Fire and Ice join the party, but I'm eventually able to resolve a Transmute for Ensnaring Bridge to stop his guys from attacking me. Tezzeret arrives a few turns later, and, ultimates for his life total after I untap. Game 2: He takes a mulligan on the play, and once again I begin the game with a few copies of Wasteland. I play out Chains of Mephistopheles to constrict his ability to filter through his deck, but he immediately draws into Stoneforge Mystic finding Batterskull and passes the turn with 2 cards in hand. Unfortunately for him, I have other plans for his equipment. I untap, cast Dack, and activate his plus ability targeting my opponent for a makeshift Mind Rot. A few turns of milling him later, Thopter/Sword comes down to end the game.	http://i.imgur.com/kEkG7FN.jpg?1
T4	Kellen with Death and Taxes (0-2)	Record: 9-1-2
	I was exhausted by this point, so I didn't bother to write up any game summaries after the match. This is just what I remember. Game 1: He does his thing with creatures and a Sword of Fire and Ice, and puts me to 4 life before I can assemble both halves of Thopter/Sword. With a lot of mana at my disposal, my opponent sees the writing on the wall and concedes the game. Game 2: This was an extremely interactive game of magic, and also one that I happened to play extremely poorly. At one point in the game, he has a board of two Mother of Runes, two Phyrexian Revoker, and a SFM equipped with Sword of Fire and Ice, all of which have beat me down to 8 life. I do have Thopter/Sword on board (rendered useless by the Revokers), so I'm pretty excited when I topdeck Toxic Deluge. Unfortunately, I decide for some reason that it's better to only Deluge for 1 rather than for 4 because I could untap and cast The Abyss to kill his Stoneforge Mystic and get back into the game, but another Revoker and the usual mana disruption suite prevents that from happening. Game 3: This one was not so interactive. I keep a sketchy hand with only one colored mana source and lead off with a Sol Land plus Mox Diamond into Bridge, emptying my hand a bit to allow the Dack in my hand to live after I would cast it. My first draw step doesn't yield another colored mana though, and his Revoker on my Diamond followed by Wasteland, Thalia, and Aven Mindcensor for the Polluted Delta I did eventually draw put the game away in short order.	http://i.imgur.com/VKfgdTb.jpg?1

I had a great run with the deck, and looking back, I'm not sure that I would have changed anything about it. I feel as though the 75 I played was pretty close to the perfect 75 for this tournament, and the deck performed wonderfully. Dack Fayden was (and continues to be) an all-star in this deck, casually turning excess Mox Diamonds into gas and creating random blowouts when my opponents decide to cast artifacts of their own. It is entirely possible that I want a spell in the deck to give me the ability to target something, as Dack gets to ultimate range more often than you might expect. Likely, though, it's just better to continue to activate his plus ability like I have been doing to find a way to kill my opponent on my own terms.

This event was very well run and the prizes were great. I look forward to attending the next one!

Cool list, beautiful deck. Congratulations on your performance!

This makes me miss playing Tezz so much...

Really thorough report and a beautiful deck, congratulations on 3rd place!

Always great to know Tezz is still kicking ass in legacy.

That deck looks hella fun. What specifically makes Dack better than Jace to you? Congrats on the finish, that's awesome, and I'm sure facing so many Miracles decks felt good.

Also, +1 for posting a huge finish with a beautiful deck like that.

Yes, you're favored against Miracles. However, crushing 3 Miracles is still something impressive.

I am not sure about splashing for Dack instead of just running JtMS, but obviously it has worked for u.

Thanks everyone.

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Originally Posted by Dat_Gentleman

That deck looks hella fun. What specifically makes Dack better than Jace to you? Congrats on the finish, that's awesome, and I'm sure facing so many Miracles decks felt good.

Also, +1 for posting a huge finish with a beautiful deck like that.

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Copy/paste from my other reply to you:

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The main advantage to my list is that it's a lot more explosive. Mox Diamond adds another four ways to get to two mana on turn 1, allowing for more turn 1 Chalices and more early planeswalkers. The downside to this is that the deck has more dead draws. Mox Diamond forces you to play more lands to make it work consistently, and Diamond itself is a bad draw in the late game (though the same can be said for Talisman). I've done my best to mitigate that disadvantage by making those extra lands (Wasteland) be 'spells,' and Dack Fayden does a lot of work by switching those out for other cards.

It plays a bit differently than the usual UB lists, so give it a shot if you get a chance.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by twndomn

Yes, you're favored against Miracles. However, crushing 3 Miracles is still something impressive.

I am not sure about splashing for Dack instead of just running JtMS, but obviously it has worked for u.

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I don't have any hard numbers to back it up outside of this tournament, but this deck's record against Miracles is pretty impressive. Beating 3 Miracles in a row is not out of the ordinary. Counterbalance only very rarely hits anything out of this deck if you're playing correctly, and their win conditions have a hard time beating my own.

Dack and Jace actually serve a very similar role, one which I think Dack does just a little bit better. I kind of get into it at the beginning of this thread, but Dack does a better job of getting rid of dead cards in your hand barring any shuffle effects and also comes down a turn earlier than Jace in draws not containing a sol land.

Awesome list!

Congrats!

Nice Job!!!
Can you give your sideboard plans to the matchs?

Fourth Round Opponent Here:

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Game 2:
This game was extremely long and very grindy, which is a situation that usually favors Miracles. With both of our boards mostly empty, he casts a hardcast Entreat the Angels for 2 which I have no answer for. Two attack steps later, my life total hit zero.

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You cast a transmute artifact this game sacrificing a mox diamond getting sword of the meek, but I had a pithing needle in play on thopter foundry. Why didn't you just sacrifice the foundry and get an ensnaring bridge to stop the angel beats?

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Originally Posted by saum-nunca

Nice Job!!!
Can you give your sideboard plans to the matchs?

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That's not something that I ever write down unfortunately since I tend to change it a bit depending on the specific build of whatever I happen to be playing against, but if you want a general idea of how to sideboard against a given matchup send me a PM.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pigeon

Fourth Round Opponent Here:

You cast a transmute artifact this game sacrificing a mox diamond getting sword of the meek, but I had a pithing needle in play on thopter foundry. Why didn't you just sacrifice the foundry and get an ensnaring bridge to stop the angel beats?

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Ensnaring Bridge was in my sideboard at that point, so I was pretty dead to your angels. I just transmuted for the combo piece as more of a bluff than anything else.

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Originally Posted by Tormod

Awesome list!

Congrats!

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only in this thread to hype tezzies. (get while they cheap still)

Well done :)

Hey there, I have lurked a little on these forums here and there but finally made an account just to post on this thread.
I have always loved killing people with our favorite agent of Bolas since he was printed and after having Metalworker not metalwork for me very well, I decided to sell of some other cards and finally grab some seas and sleeve this deck up.
I played 72 of the same cards in the Syracuse PIQ as I just don't have the capital after the seas to buy the prices reserve list enchantments in the sideboard. I placed those with 1 Notion Thief, 1 Grafdigger's Cage, and 1 Mindbreak Trap last minute because I wasn't entirely sure what to add in those spots.
The deck was insanely fun to pilot and it felt like it had play against everything I faced. I went 5-2 and took 22nd place, although there were 15 pointers all the way up to around 10th or 12th I believe. I took my first loss in round 1 to NO Bant, due to what felt like a combination of poor draw steps and keeping worse hands from a lack of experience with the deck.
I won the next four in a row. I faced the Energy Field - RIP deck round two piloted by my buddy that drove me there and beat him in two. Chalice for 1 on the play locked his hand out, and game 2 I brought in the helm and his own RIP made him die on turn 3.

Round three and four were both miracles. Round three was won off of a big tezz ultimate both games, while round 4 was a little more involved. I got thopter/sword assembled in the mid game just before he resolves an entreat for 4 angels, but he realized after a turn or two that with me on 6 mana, I'd overrun his angel and he casts a couple of terminus before conceding. Game 2 I end up sniping a Jace brainstorm for the first time in my life, although a play happened that I didn't noticed at the moment couldn't have happened. He drew for turn and had 2 cards, and goes to brainstorm with Jace. I stop him and cast the Notion Thief and he responds by flipping top and miracle casting entreat for 2 angels, which I noticed after the fact that he couldn't have done because he already drew for the turn. I missed that at the time because I was very focused on my Thief resolving. It did, and I drew three, picking up a transmute artifact while he put his hand on top of his deck. I take my turn and transmute a random strix into E.E. for zero and use it to kill his illegal angels and attack Jace dead, which he concedes to.
I will also say in both miracles matches, I was able to use Dack to force them to put Top on top of their deck so I could stick a 2 cost spell through counterbalance. That felt pretty neat.

Round 5 I played against RUG Delver, and it felt very one sided in my favor. Early chalice for one resolved game one, followed by a resolved sword, which I transmuted into thopter founder and just sac'd the chalice to get the sword engine going as I figured they just can't beat the combo game one and I was right. He did stifle the sword returning to play trigger at one point but I just played out a strix and got it back. The second game he didn't pressure me much and countered some chalices, and I ran out a couple of strixes and made one huge with Tezz, which just killed him after I forced his pyroblast on it.

Round 6 I get a deck check and me and my opponent both receive game losses, him for random cards in his deckbox and me for writing 1 ensnaring bridge twice instead of 1 ensnaring bridge and 1 engineered explosives, so we still played a 3 game match. He was on Jund and his sylvan library and courser engine pulled him very far ahead of me while I got wastelanded around 3 times I think. Our second game I opened with leyline in play and one volcanic, whipflare, and an ancient tomb with some other good spells. I kept but probably shouldn't have, thinking if I drew another blue source I would be good and I could sweep away bobs, deathrites, and BBE if he played them. He missed a 2nd land drop, then hit it and played deathrite, so I used the flare, but he went on to play another and then a BBE into bob so I felt pretty silly. I didn't draw another land until I was very far behind and it was a wasteland so I lost that game as well. Had I won this match, I think I could have drawn and either barely made top 8 or definitely top 16 for more prizes and having the list posted on the site.

Round 7 I faced the 4-color stoneblade deck with deathrites, stonfore, goyf, etc. I get wrecked game one where he let's tezz resolve and vindicates it then does the batterskull thing while I drew air. Game 2 I mull to 5 and play a turn 2 Dack Fayden, which resolves but I want to keep my last card, a wasteland, so I leave him be. I pass and he gets abrupt decayed. I draw another Dack on my turn and jam him into play, then waste my opponents tropical island. My opponent is stuck on lands and I get to loot with dack a bunch to find action, and win the game with a Dack that has 8 or 9 loyalty on him. Game 3 was intense and had us trade forces and some resources but I had a chalice on 1 and a strix in play, where he vindicates my academy ruins after I wastelanded and used an EE on deathrite and he jams a Liliana. We are both empty handed and I feel like I'll just lose to Lili, but I draw crucible and start wasting him every turn while keeping Lili down to 2 counters. I eventually draw more strixes and a transmute which I use to eat chalice and find thopter foundry where I start looping a strix into a thopter, then to the top of my deck with academy ruins while he just upped Lili and passed, although he eventually drew a couple of lands but never got back into the game.

So all in all, I loved the deck and will keep playing it. Thanks for the list, and I made sure to put the deck name as Dack in Black in hopes of making top 16 and having it posted like that, but I didn't make it in :( I do agree that I had a few times where my opponents looked very worried about Dack's ultimate but I didn't have a way to capitalize on it. Maybe something like Flame Jab to steal all the creatures or Pyroblast to steal random non-blue things would be good in some amount? Although I don't know what the cut would be for that. Flame Jab also has the bonus of being tossed away with Dack while upping him but still being castable against non-Deathrite/Scooze boards.

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Originally Posted by Phelix

only in this thread to hype tezzies. (get while they cheap still)

Well done :)

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Thanks :)

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Originally Posted by ConsumeTheMeek

Tournament Report

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Awesome job man. I'm happy to see that you enjoyed the deck! Jund is without a doubt one of the worst matchups you could have run into. The combination of all of their B/G permanent hate, Liliana, and Punishing Fire make it very difficult for this deck to assemble a win. It's an expensive card, for sure, but this kind of matchup is exactly what The Abyss is there for. As for Dack's ult, while he does often manage to get high enough to be able to use it, I have yet to find a card that can effectively capitalize on it. Flame Jab is probably one of the better options, but that still runs itself into Chalice and suffers from the lack of red sources in the deck necessary to make the spell useful outside of a Dack emblem. Even the Grixis Control lists that play the card only play spells that generally end up killing whatever they target, so I don't think that it's a huge deal that we can't make use of that ability. I've found that it's usually good enough to continue to use his plus ability to filter your draws until you find the card that actually does end up killing your opponent.

Also, thanks for keeping the deck name. :cool:

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Originally Posted by Undomian

Also, thanks for keeping the deck name. :cool:

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I had to! It was one of the best deck names I've heard in a while. And perhaps the next time I feel inclined to sell cards or just spend more than I should, I'll pick up some of those old sideboard cards. Although now I may be addicted to Notion Thief, that felt way too dirty to be legal.

Good deck!
Thank you for sharing!
And lots of Chinese cards.