Sweet. Be nice to see that list.Quote:
Originally Posted by jbone2016
Beat dark maverick. 4-2.
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Sweet. Be nice to see that list.Quote:
Originally Posted by jbone2016
Beat dark maverick. 4-2.
Beat enchantress. 5-2.
Lost to punishing jund. 5-3
The bug pod won round 8. Maybe top 8'ing? Just checked. David was 3rd going into this round.
Beat rug delver. 6-3. Should money.
Funny story: I had someone today say "Nic Fit isnt a deck anymore." With Pod Fit Top 8'ing, I'll just say that the results say it still can show up and do well.
So I guess Pod is a thing now. Top8 but lost to Sneak and Tell. Some of his choices make me think he read this thread and I would be glad to hear from him about the tournament.
Here is the list for reference.
3 Forest
1 Island
2 Swamp
2 Bayou
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
3 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Phyrexian Tower
3 Deathrite Shaman
4 Veteran Explorer
4 Baleful Strix
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Bone Shredder
1 Wood Elves
1 Eternal Witness
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Acidic Slime
1 Thragtusk
1 Shriekmaw
1 Grave Titan
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Birthing Pod
2 Pernicious Deed
2 Recurring Nightmare
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Brainstorm
1 Green Sun's Zenith
Sideboard
1 Notion Thief
1 Sadistic Hypnotist
1 Pernicious Deed
2 Golgari Charm
3 Mindbreak Trap
3 Swan Song
1 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Thoughtseize
Why doesn't the deck play MElira? It seems handy to have recurable life/damage/negate effects.
Sorry, if this has been answered already.
Melira is also really good with the phyrexian tower. I think it would be a good idea, if only as a 1-of gsz target.
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Two brief reports from Saturday Jupiter, and Sunday local. I was going to do one for my Thursday local, as well, but decided that there really wasn't anything interesting that happened other than the Scape mirror, which isn't even really all that interesting -- it's entirely draw-dependent.
I'm bolding the sections of this post so people can skim through what they want to skim through and skip the rest.
Jupiter:
Round 1: UWR Delver
I get the impression upon sitting down that this is someone who wants to grind SCG points, and put him on something in the RUG, UWR, Shardless quadrant. I blind Therapy Brainstorm, and miss -- but see UWR cards. I proceed to ignore everything he does for the rest of the game while on the way to angry mountains. The turn I Scapeshift, I blind Therapy calling Stifle and hit one, then proceed to the kill phase. I don't think he was pleased.
Game two I continue to ignore his deck and he goes down without much of a fight.
Round 2: UW Miracles
Game one I can't assemble basically anything. I wish for a Slaughter and nuke his Entreats, but he still has Jace and RIP/Helm. I've got a Top going the whole game and can't find a Decay or a Deed (or a Witness, GSZ, another Wish, or a Scapeshift). That's a whole lot of outs, but he still gets there before I do, and RIP/Helms me.
Game two I keep pressuring him with Huntmasters and Thragtusks that he can't just remove easily. He eventually dies to a Shift. He doesn't do a whole lot this game.
Game three he goes for the classic "turn 4 Jace, fateseal" plan. I have double Shift in hand, so I'm actually okay with this -- all I need to do is make land drops, since I'm reasonably sure that he boarded out at least two of his Forces. At some point I Therapy him, seeing a second Jace and a Back to Basics. I use my basic lands for a few turns to keep doing little stuff, hoping that I would get the 8th land to kill him (he was at more than 18, so 7 wouldn't finish the job). I had the line where I could've Shifted, dropped him and Jace a bit both, and then Shifted again to kill him -- but the Back to Basics, ironically, ended up really sucking -- I knew that if I shifted and it wasn't lethal, he would slam B2B, and I would basically lose on the spot (basic Forest isn't a Mountain, and my 3 were in play already anyway).
I delay at long as humanly possible to try to find the 8th land. We're in turns, and Jace is at 12. I decide that it's now or never, so I unload a Shift, kill Jace, and nug him for 6. He has a Rest in Peace in play already, and a pile of lands (some of which were nonbasic). He has 3 lines of play. Two of them involve him losing, the third ends in a draw. He could go for Helm and play it, but wouldn't have enough mana to activate it and kill me this turn -- he would have had to wait for turn 5. He could play Jace (his worst option, for sure), or he could play Back to Basics, and guarantee that the match ends in a draw (he didn't have enough basic lands to play and activate Helm). Either of the other two options see me play my second Scapeshift and win on the spot.
Unfortunately, he takes the Back to Basics line. He then proceeds to try to get me to scoop to him, showing me the Helm + Jace in his hand (he would've had the land to play + activate next turn). I refuse to scoop him, because 1. he's playing Miracles; 2. he was taking forever on all of his top decisions; 3. I didn't feel he deserved the win; and 4. he was a random person I didn't know.
Round 3: Evan (Architect) with Esperblade
We're both in the draw bracket thanks to Miracles (his was a different player, though). We commiserate a bit, and get to work. Game one and two are a blur for me -- he may have more insight. I can't even actually remember which one of them I won. I think it was game two. Either way, the one that I won, I Shifted to wrath him + kill Jace (or damage him, one or the other), then a turn or two later I shifted for the rest of the mountains to actually kill him. The one I lost, he was flying by the seat of his pants, but managed to have just enough countermagic at just the exact right moments to get there.
Game three wasn't even a game of magic. I kept a reasonable 4-land, 3-spell hand, and proceeded to draw 2 non-land cards between my first step and then point at which Jace sculpted my mind. Really disappointing.
Round 4: Bryant Cook with TES
I knew Bryant was on TES going in, which made my mood all the better. Game one I mull to 5 looking for interaction. Therapy on LED, miss. He draws the card he needs and kills me immediately.
Game two I Therapy LED on the play, and hit. My hand isn't super amazing, but it at least has a Therapy + Explorer, and then I think a Slaughter Games to curve into. He draws an Infernal Tutor for his turn, which provided him with the last mana (via Chrome Mox) that he needed to cast the Ad Nauseum that was in his opening hand.
Welp.
Round 5: Adam with BUG
Adam scoops me, because he wants to play vintage.
Round 6: no idea
The round starts while I'm playing in a Vintage side event, and I decide that 1 SCG point for top 16 isn't worth me getting up. Especially since my BUG Fish opponent with t1 Bob, flip Decay, Decay your Oath, triple Wasteland you while playing a Trygon Predator.
Yeah. That was the kind of day my Saturday was.
---------
Sunday local:
Round 1: Jund
He keeps a "discard your hand" hand, and gets into a topdeck war with me. You know, topdeck war. Against Nic Fit. That's smart, right?
Game two he opens t1 DRS, t2 Hymn you (hits both of my green sources) + Grafdigger's Cage (nullifying the Zenith in my hand even if I do draw a green source AND the Therapy in my graveyard) -> t3 Liliana + Thoughtseize -> t4 Bob + Goyf. Or something equally absurd. Either way, I never even had a chance this game.
Game three I casually ramp into Primeval Titan and kill him. He can't do anything to stop me.
Round 2: Miracles
This is vengeance for Saturday (different player, obviously, but I was angry at the deck in general still). The Decays were Abrupt, my Deeds were Pernicious, and my mountains were fucking livid.
Round 3: ID with Omni into top 4 (it was an 8-man event)
Top 4: 4-color Deathrite.dec
I have a really hard time deciding if he has Force of Will or not, after how he was playing game 1. A timely Clique g1 saves him from a craggy assault, and I end up succumbing to Batterskull + Jitte + Goyf + Jace.
Game two he never does anything of relevance, and I curve into a combo kill after he's forced to bottom / discard 2 Pernicious Deeds. This leads me to the (correct) conclusion that he doesn't have Force of Will in his list, and I just jam the kill.
Game three: See also Game 2.
Finals: Omni
Unfortunately the Miracles player from r2 was not victorious, and I have to deal with the fruits of his failure.
Game one my opponent goes Ancient Tomb, pass. I'd mulled to 5, and kept a bad/dumb hand of double Therapy, Explorer, and no black source. I play my guy, and pass the turn after not drawing a black source. He passes his turn without doing anything, telling me that he kept a 1-lander which means that I'm dead the moment he draws an island. I fail to draw a black source, poke, and pass. He rips Island, Show and Tell, spaghetti. I still have potential outs in Burning Wish for Blood, but I don't draw a Wish either, and I just die to the Tentacular Spectacular.
Game two we both sit there for forever. I Therapy away a Show and Tell, but fail to find any further hate through Top + ~6-8 shuffle effects. No REBs, no Seizes, no more Therapies, no Slaughter Games, no Wishes, nothing. I die. Super disappointing.
I'm still second seed in the FTV draft, but that's kind of meh since first seed is a $120 bill and second is like.....$20. I pick up the Hymn, the Wall of Blossoms, and the Gilded Lotus for trade bait, and walk away a little sad. At least I didn't get the Char.
---------------
Scapewish thoughts:
I'm increasingly starting to think that the correct blind call against Storm (ANT and TES both) is not LED, but is in fact Dark Ritual. Dark Ritual seems to determine hands that they keep more often than not, and for LED to actually do a damn thing, they need to have the rituals to actually get the storm started. LED is strong once you're rolling, but if they can't get that initial kick, LED is dead. Furthermore, not calling LED might actually pave the way for some periodic blowouts from Decay / Deed, at least in game 1 scenarios (obviously), because it would encourage the Storm player to play their LED or lose it.
Interested if people agree or disagree with this.
The Decays were lackluster on Saturday, but I think that's mostly because I didn't draw them. On Sunday I did, and they were great there.
I finally tried out Evan's suggested -1 Mountain +1 fetch, which ironically ended up slightly screwing me over when I played against him -- I had a Tribe Elder with an active Valakut which I could've used to kill an attacker if I had more than 2 basic Mountains. Other than this incident, the 2 basics vs 3 fetches never came up.
I will say that I am fully on board with the 2-of (at least) fetchland in Scapewish at this point. There are times where I want the 3rd Bayou in particular, but Primeval Titan into double fetchland with an active Top basically guarantees a Scapeshift (or whatever else you want) next turn. It gives a massive burst of card quality exactly when you want it. The smoothing out of the mana base in general is pretty nice, too.
--------------
Pod Thoughts@SCG
Deck is way too cube-like, and needs some healthy trimming. Bone Shredder in particular is offensive.
That being said, I'm not surprised that it's got a top 8 under its belt, now. I felt that Caleb gave up on the idea way too easily, and even if I disagree with some of the card choices (like the 2nd Nightmare), I think that the version is a solid idea.
Things I don't like specifically:
- No Tops
- 2nd Nightmare
- Bone Shredder
- Grave Titan
- Wood Elves (what role does it serve in this list, when you have 4 Vet 3 DRS)
- Basic split (3/1/2? wtf)
- Only 21 lands
- Singleton Jitte in the board
- Not sure that the 4th Strix is necessary -- 3 is probably sufficient
I'm really starting to wonder if a 4-color Pod list is actually the solution to the Pod problem and the Thune problem simultaneously. Expect another post from me later today after I've pondered the issue.
Regarding therapy vs. Combo:
For TES, having an LED isn't quite as important as it is in ANT due to Burning Wish. Given enough mana they can just go off with Ad Nauseam. However they need double black to cast it, which is hard to do without rituals. So maybe dark ritual is the correct call on the play. They should anticipate you bringing in additional discard, so they really should be playing out their artifacts as soon as possible. Once they do, it becomes a no brainer to name ritual.
ANT really needs LED to go off, especially with a PIF kill. Sure they can rit, rit, cabal rit, volcanic island, but for that they need threshold, which takes time. Also if there's a land or cantrip stuck in their hand, it's gonna be difficult.
tl:dr In my opinion, perhaps you should only name LED against ANT on the play, otherwise Dark Ritual is correct.
ANT and TES (correctly) play out all of their artifact mana on turn 1 if they are against discard. They will keep chrome mox in hand, and sometimes, if they are fine on rainbow lands, they keep a petal in their hand for later storm count. I still think LED is right on the play, rit on the draw seems good. Dont forget, they also have rite of flame, and ANT also has cabal ritual. They don't need ritual necessarily, but it is definitely their best mana spell besides LED.Quote:
Originally Posted by Star|Scream
Game one was the one where I kept drawing exactly enough countermagic to stop your shenanigans and I won. G2, you had a lot of pressure with huntmaster but I stablized with a EE for zero and then SFM+bskull. But it didnt matter because a few turns later you shifted me for leathal while I had no countermagic. G3, the first 3 turns I think I cast 4 discard spells between IoK, 2 thoughtsieze and Snapcaster, then turn 4 jace and just sealed out of the game. At one point you were able to GSZ for prime titan, but I just bounced it with jace and therapied you. To say the least, the games were fun and I think those games drew more of crowd than any other game that happened that day (that I saw).Quote:
Originally Posted by Arianrhod
Also, my next round opponent was the same miracles player who also drew with me. Fun. I am pretty sure he did not actually have winning as a goal because at one point I resolved a jace on my empty board/hand, to his board of Back to basics, top, CB, jace and 3+ cards in hand. And won without ever resolving another spell because I just started fatesealing and he did nothing for 10 turns.
Coiling Oracle at 2? Only 2 fours seem a little low. Maybe a metamorph?Quote:
Originally Posted by Arianrhod
You probably thought as much but I approve of these changes :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Arianrhod
- We had a guy in this thread who played this deck in tournaments and he said Shredder was amazing and now someone Top8s with it. There also is no other 3 Mana kill creature in these colors, only bounce, and killing stuff might be an important thing to do at 3 mana. On the other hand, Echo creatures and Pod just seem awful together and there are quite a lot of good black/artifact creatures in the format. I am thinking of good old Man'o'War.Quote:
Originally Posted by Arianrhod
- I agree that Wood Elves should be a land. I don't think that a deck with 4 Strix, 3 Forest and a Tower can consistently get away with playing 21 lands.
- Grave Titan seems fine as a finisher. Great against BUG and Jund. Not so much vs white decks but you have the Nightmares for those decks.
- I would like a third Deed. The card seems amazing against pretty much everything and it doesn't kill Pod.
Buh? He's running 4 Strix, 1 Ooze, 1 P.Image (only counts as half of a 2-). I think that shaving out 1 Strix (probably for the 22nd land, I think that's the most important of my gripes) is reasonable -- shouldn't hurt the pod chains significantly.Quote:
Originally Posted by jbone2016
Can someone explain to me which role plays Mourderous Redcap in the BUG Pod list? I thought Redcap was good for comboing with Melira. But the list is missing a reusable sac outlet and Melira itself. I'm confused...
Redcap's been generally accepted among Pod lists as just a generically good guy. He comes in off of Pod, kills a Deathrite Shaman or a Bob, or pokes down a planeswalker, and then sticks around to turn into a Thragtusk or a Shriekmaw or something later. He doesn't need to actually combo with anything to just be a solid critter.Quote:
Originally Posted by JanoschEausH
My list from this weekend. 6-3 (50th)
Creatures-14
4 Veteran Explorer- Boarded one as a wish target at times.
1 Gaddock Teeg-Awesome as usual.
1 Sylvan Ranger-Helped smooth the mana base. Good addition
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Eternal Witness-Went up to 2. boarded one out sometimes as a wish target
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Sigarda
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Thragtusk
1 Sun Titan
Spells-24
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green sun's Zenith
2 Thoughtseize-Seems like a good number.
1 Swords to Plowshares-Kept in list for Dark Depths and random duders
3 Sensei's Diving Top
3 Living Wish
1 Diabolic Intent-Was awesome as usual.
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Deed
1 Maelstrom Pulse
Lands-22-I'm pretty set on this. I wouldn't mind a stronghold but not sure what to cut.
3 Windswept Heath
3 Verdnant Catacombs
2 Phyrexian Tower
1 Karakas
2 Bayou
2 Savannah
1 Scrubland
3 Forest
3 Plains
2 Swamp
Sideboard
2 Carpet of Flowers-Solid as usual.
2 Mindbreak Trap-No storm, brought in against enchantress.
1 Nether Void-Same as traps.
1 Primeval Bounty-Was a dissapointment. Probably want a batterskull instead.
1 Ashen Rider-Killed hypergenesis/show&tell
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Extripate- Did work vs show&tell
Wishboard
1 Faerie Macbre-Never used. probably will replace with a Bojuka Bog
1 Karakas-hitting a land drop is big sometimes.
1 Fleshbag Marauder-Never used but would have vs show and tell with progentius
1 Qasali Pridemage-Sided in a few times
1 Phyrexian Revoker-Never used. Only saw a few planeswalkers. Considering a hexmage.
1 Ethersworn Canonist-did work vs enchantress
Quick question, would you keep this hand on the play vs ANT?
Scrubland
Plains
Veteran Explorer
Cabal Therapy
Leyline of Sanctity
Gaddock Teeg
Green Sun's Zenith
Yup.Quote:
Originally Posted by CRich3
You have Leyline protection on turn 1, a Cabal Therapy for a relevant card like Infernal Tutor, and a decent chance of drawing a G/x land
I don't think you could get a much better hand than that against ANT with a GBW nic fit deck.Quote:
Originally Posted by CRich3
Fleshbag Marauder:smile:Quote:
Originally Posted by Tao
True. If you have no other creatures, it stalls your pod chain.Quote:
Originally Posted by kiblast
Man-o-war is good for tempo. Deceiver is also an option of course.
After watching the round 3 match vs shardless bug....this durdles a lot.
Ok, because I kept it and drew deed, swamp, rector. And then proceed to lose to empty the warrens. Was just curious if I should have mulligan since I didn't have green mana.Quote:
Originally Posted by mini1337s
Yeah, I would've kept this hand, too (and in fact kept one very similar to it and lost to TES after not drawing a green land). Despite these bad experiences, from a theoretical standpoint, I still agree with making that call -- it's going to work out more often than not just by simple statistics.Quote:
Originally Posted by CRich3
Hey, this is the guy who top 8'd the scg open with the deck on Sunday. I have indeed read some of the thread and found it helpful. I talked to Caleb before this tournament and was pretty set on running Pod, it just looked too awesome not to try. He advised against it, but I played a few matches and found it to be alright. With some advice from him about card choices (2nd nightmare and 1st GSZ approved), I sleeved it up. I probably had the most fun playing magic on Sunday that I've had in years.
Some responses to ideas about the deck:
Bone shredder - Yeah I kinda agree this guy might not be good enough. He was actually decent on the day, but the echo cost is really rough if you aren't immediately sacrificing him to pod. Also killing Tarmogoyf isn't even that impressive because the rest of the deck is so well set up to fight Goyf anyway. I am thinking of replacing it with Fleshbag Marauder or Sower of Temptation, leaning towards Sower. It's an extra mana but it's a very powerful card, and you can sacrifice their creature right away to pod or therapy which is pretty awesome.
Grave Titan - This card is insane and should not be cut. Don't know what else to say. People are not prepared for it in legacy.
Melira - Related to Grave Titan, but there's just no need to play a card this bad on its own when you can just win normally and more reliably with Grave Titan and/or random beaters. You'd also have to play Viscera Seer (or something like it) which just isn't a great card (though better than Melira for sure).
Mana Base - I was a little worried about the mana but it turned out surprisingly well. I had basically no mana issues at all for the whole tournament. If I added Sower I could see maybe cutting a forest for an island, but the mana was really great. Deathrite shaman and veteran explorer really do wonders. Oh and wood elves.
Wood elves - Very nice when you need to pod baleful strix away for a land. It's not a super high impact card but I was pretty happy with it. Just smooths out the deck to make sure you can do your thing once pod gets going. The deathrites aren't always reliable for mana in the midgame since the yards get eaten quickly.
2 Recurring Nightmare - This card was amazing but it's true that it's not useful until later in the game. I could see cutting one but I would cut it for a brainstorm so you can find it later on in the game if you need to.
Number of Pernicious Deeds - I had 2 main, 1 board. I boarded the third one in sometimes but not that often. I could see adding another main but unsure what I'd cut. Because you have brainstorms in this list to find them, I think I'm ok with 2 for now.
Sensei's Divining Top - Again, it seems like a fine card but I'd be unsure what to cut. Brainstorm seems like the most likely candidate and I think I like Brainstorm better. I could see playing one top though maybe.
One of Jitte - Seems weird but it was really good vs any creature deck. I guess the questionable part is why only 1? Basically 1 feels like enough with all the card drawing, library manipulation, and ability to grind the game out. It was really good though so maybe 2 is correct.
On the day I beat
"Oops, all spells" (2nd place guy)
Dredge
Death and Taxes
Shardless BUG with red
Esper Blade
Jund
BUG Delver
One intentional draw and lost to
Reanimator in the swiss (guy in T8)
Sneak and Show in the T8 (eventual winner).
The combo matchups need some shoring up. Which is convenient because my SB was pretty bad so there's plenty of room to work with. Sadistic Hypnotist is unplayable, and mindbreak traps would be better off as something else. Right now I'm debating between Headhunter, Nezumi Shortfang, Cabal Inquisitor, or Tarmogoyfs. Suggestions are welcome.
Congrats on the finish!
Looks like you got pretty lucky with your matchups in the swiss, except Oops, All Spells! How did that match go? How do you think the matchup is vs. show and tell & storm? What would you change for those matchups?
How were the 3 pods? Did you ever feel like 3 was too many?
Report time:
Round 1: Goblins
Game 1: I didn't seem to be under much pressure and won fairly easily. Out: Teeg, Witness In: Pridemage, Bounty
Game 2: He mulls to 5 for a vial hand. I keep a hand that has a 2nd turn baneslayer. I start to race. But a piledriver hits plays and packs a wallop. I dig for deed but I can't find it. But I do find an intent (sacing the angel) to find the deed and deed for 3 (He was at 4 after the attack but his swingback is lethal) Wipes his board minus a ringleader. I'm at 11. He topdecks fairly well and kills me.
Game 3: He assembles Warchief and Krenko and kills me quickly.
0-1 (1-2, 0 mulls)
Round 2: Shardless Brug with punishing Fire
Game 1: I blind name shardless agent after he plays a fetchland and deathrite. I see a bloodbraid. And pretty much just lose from there. In: Surgical/Extirpate?
Game 2: I stabilize after some damage with a deed and sigarda/karakas combo. I get him down to 9 but fire finishes me.
0-2 (1-4, 0 mulls)
Round 3: Hypergenesis
Game 1: Ends quickly at the tentacles of the FSM. In: Surigcal/Extripate/Ashen Rider/Canonist? Out: Thrag, Baneslayer, Finks?
Game 2: He never finds a third land to show/cascade and I extripate the FSM when he discards it. I rip his hand apart while beating down.
Game 3: I keep a hand with a Rider and at least one discard. I Therapy naming FSM? don't hit but see the show, grisel, guide and prog. He shows in the Griselbrand which meets the rider.
Beatdown continues. I play a tower just in case. I also have a wish in hand to get marauder/karakas if needed.
1-2 (3-5, 1 mull)
Round 4: Delver Blade (uwr)
Game 1: I rip his hand apart while never going below 19. In: Bounty?
Game 2: Pretty much the same as one.
2-2 (5-5, 1 mull)
Round 5: BUG Delver
Game 1: Sigarda makes quick work.
Game 2: Early discard by him and a wasteland quickly ends the game with me having one land at the end.
Game 3: He hymns away my hand but I have a top along with a thrun/Karakas/Carpet in play. I green sun for 5 into a double daze that I knew he had. We still stare at each other.
I have a deed, thrun, ooze, top, carpet vs his bob and goyf. I top into another Carpet. I blow deed for 2. Play carpet. Get finks via GSZ and stabilize.
3-2 (7-6, 2 mull)
Round 6: Dark Depths Maverick
game 1: I mull to 5 (5 lander, then none) while he plays some little dudes. I strip an early mystic from his hand which was huge. I dig for a deed while getting a finks and a tusk. I find it and blow up his world. He sticks a KotR for a turn before titan lock comes out. I deed to kill the mystic to force dark depths combo when I swords hits that token. He gains 20....but I'm attacking for 6 every turn. In: Pridemage?
Game 2: He gets some early beats in before deed hits. I win with a tusk and finks on board.
4-2 (9-6. 4 mull)
Round 7: Enchantress
Not a deck I expected to see.
Game 1: He quickly ramps and I die to a FSM. Out:Tusk, Angel, Ooze? In: Traps, Nether Void, Pridemage
Game 2: Early discard and a deed sets him way back. I win with Teeg.
Game 3: Early discard sees a mistcutter hydra?!? I hold a GSZ for 2 until I hit my fourth land since he had words of war out. Looks like sigarda finished the game.
5-2 (11-7, 4 mull)
Round 8: Punishing Jund
Game 1: Bloodbraid/lily/goyf Wrecks my face.
Game 2: Game goes long...while I discard 2 BBE he topdecks another into a lily. And takes the last card out of my hand which was a wish. I die soon after.
5-3 (11-9, 4 mull)
Round 9: RUG Delver
Game 1: Sigarda doesn't get countered and takes over.
Game 2: Early teeg stops stops force/submerge. At one point I'm down to 4 and have a swords in hand. I'm missing a 2nd white for my Baneslayer, so I wish for the karakas play it and pass. I have to use the swords on the witness because he wastes the karakas. Luckily, I top deck the white source and the Angel closes it out.
6-3 (13-9, 4 mull) 50th overall. 2nd cash in a row.
Going back to the original junk build feels pretty solid. Having the wish board is still awesome to have. Needs a couple of changes still.
High tide matchup still scares the crap out of me. Mono-red sneak attack seems icky too. BBE/agent are both hard to deal with. Thoughts?
List is here: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...l=1#post757951
@Jbone -- not too many comments for you, but I did notice one thing in particular that I think was a misplay:
If the game is going this long, and you're sandbagging a wish, try to keep a land or two in your hand to protect against this. Yes, he can still rip a Hymn or a Seize and you're sad anyway. But, if you keep 1 land in your hand, you have Liliana protection, at least.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jbone
In games 2 and 3 vs any deck, do you show PFire before having a Grove in play? My thinking is I don't want to be caught with my pants down and have my PFires Surgically extracted.
Also, I've been testing a lot against Death and Taxes and games 2 and 3 are so goddamn tough. Rest in Peace is a tremendous wrench in my gears, and Batterskull is really not easy to beat. I'm considering putting a Nature's Claim in my SB to help against equipment. Does 3 REB and 1 Nature's Claim make sense to anyone?
Virtue's Ruin and Infest will serve you much better, I think. Some artifact hate of some kind wouldn't be a bad idea, though -- perhaps Destructive Revelry?Quote:
Originally Posted by hymntotourcock
With all the hubub about the new Pro-Everything Merfolk, I'm sure glad that my deck of choice has 4 Pernicious Deeds MD. :cool:
How good is the blue splash? Is Strix that much of an improvement over any other two drop?
Quote:
Originally Posted by hymntotourcock
- Usually I don't do this because it is too costly to do this over the entirety of a game because you need a second Grove in play and leave it untapped at all times when there is a Fire in your graveyard to do it. If you can kill a SFM or a Bob on turn 2 you should certainly not wait. If they Surgical Fire it is not the end of the world. They are down a card and Titan can still get Wolf Run and Stronghold so your late game still has power and if they play Jaces you have Red Blasts for him because it is post board.
But if you have the resources to play around Surgical and the matchup comes down to attrition it is a good play to not expose yourself unnecessarily.
- For the Sideboard, against D&T, Golgari Charms! Don't cut them, they are important, and this matchup is one of the reasons why!!! Charm basically wipes their entire board (Mother of Runes, Phyrexian Revoker, Thalia, Aven Mindcensor, Mangara, Flickerwisp) for cheap at Instant speed. It could get Rest in Peace, too, but usually the -1/-1 mode is just better. The biggest worry in G2/G3 is Cataclysm.
Oh I'm definitely not cutting Golgari Charm. I'm just thinking of ways to make your (Tao) SB better suited to my meta. The list I've built is basically a carbon copy of yours (-1 SDT +1 Decay).
Another point I'd like to make: sometimes I really wish I had a 3cmc GSZ target that destroys an artifact (Elf thing, Uktabi Orangutan) or even an Acidic Slime to take out a problem card later on. I may cut 1 Witness to fit either Slime or Orangutan in the MB.
The Junk player above mentioned Ashen Rider. Would it benefit us to play out-of-color cards in the SB to shore up the SnT matchup? You've said it's one of our hardest, and I know for a fact people will be playing it at Atomic Empire this weekend. I know goblins players sometimes board 4 Angel of Despair solely for Show and Tell, and I would feel better having a similar surprise for my most hated combo players.
I also feel that 2 Surgical is really light. It's our only bit of graveyard hate in the entire deck. Expecting to draw 2/60 cards when they're desperately and immediately needed seems ludicrous. Would a SB Loaming Shaman be worth looking into? He fits the GSZ toolbox, but that's a really slow play which doesn't thrill me.
Wasteland has also been a thorn in my side. Which makes me want to reconsider cutting a Witness. Rishadan Port is scumland and it makes me weep for the days of yore when i was loaming wastelands every turn.
Unrelated response to an earlier post I made: I traded in a fat stack of cards and now am the proud owner of 1 Badlands 1 Taiga 1 Foothills. feelsgood.dec
Acidic Slime and Viridian Shaman are both good cards if they are right for your meta. Shaman can be a blowout and Slime is super flexible. But like you said, cutting things is really hard. Can't help you with that.
For Ashen Rider: In a format as wide as Legacy I want my SB cards to target as many decks as possible. I think Charm, Thoughtseize, Red Blast, Surgical and Slaughter Games do a good job at that. If you play for example 4 Ashen Rider for Show and Tell and 3 Mindbreak Traps for Storm, that is less cards total for either of those matchup but most importantly both are dead against other popular combo decks like Reanimator, Dredge and Painterstone.
For the yard hate: There is a Scavenging Ooze maindeck that is your most important yard hate and there are also the 2 Slaughter Games in the SB which are useful against Graveyard based decks. I wouldn't mind a third Surgical or an Extirpate but I think the other cards are more important.
I think my logic there was to get the Rider with the Wish but that's a lot of mana. Canonist might have been a better play? Stops his cacade from the BBE then trades. I know I sacced a non vet to flashback therapy to get the BBE out of his hand. Jund has a lot of value that we need to deal with.Quote:
Originally Posted by Arianrhod