Bizarro Stormy (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Griselbrand)

Played a short, 3 round FNM last night and went 1-2 vs Bant Knightfall (0-2) UR Delver(2-0) and Maverick Depths (1-2) with a Spellseeker list. Small sample size, especially since my Bant opponent drew every piece of countermagic and hate and even with a t2 combo drawing 21 I still fizzled, my Delver opponent drew nothing to stop me, and the Maverick opponent was able to t2 Teeg into Kambal both games. Sometimes you run roughshod on people, sometimes you get runover. That being said, I do have some thoughts on Spellseeker, as well as a sick line that unfortunately didn't get there.

List (adapted from above):
4 Marsh Flats
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
1 Island
1 Scrubland
1 Tundra
2 Underground Sea

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder

2 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
3 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal

4 Thoughtseize
2 Collective Brutality
1 Cabal Therapy

3 Griselbrand
1 Magus of the Mind

1 Past in Flames
4 Shallow Grave
4 Entomb
2 Corpse Dance
1 Mastermind's Acquisition

2 Flex Slots (SpellSeeker and Unburial Rites)

Sideboard:
1 Chain of Vapor
2 Massacre
2 Silence
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Serenity
3 Silent Gravestone
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Disenchant
1 Swords to Plowshares

SB changes: I realized that with Spellseeker, it might not be a bad idea to diversify up some SB cards to include a few niche spells that could be tutored by it, so I swapped a Silence for a StP, and a Chain for a Hurkyl's.

G2 Against my Bant opponent, I had both Griselbrand exiled due to surgical, 3 Entomb, 3 Shallow in the GY, 1 Cabal Ritual, a handful of lands, an LED, and some Brainstorm. 3 Lands in play, with LED, Brainstorm, Thoughtseize, Past in Flames, Cabal Therapy, Mastermind's Acquisition and something else. I fire off thoughtseize (at 4 life down to 2), snag his Force (Kotor, Retreat, Land in hand). Brainstorm, draw Dark Ritual, SpellSeeker, and Disenchant. I tank for a bit, then put back Disenchant and the other random card. Play LED, Ritual, crack LED for Red, Flashback PiF, FB Rit+Cabal. Shallow Grave Spellseeker, grab other cabal ritual. Cast Ritual. Sac seeker to Therapy, reanimate with Shallow Grave, grab Dark Ritual. Realize I'm 1 mana short of getting MA+Tendrils. Lose in 3 turns. EDIT- I didn't have Petal, that's why I had to crack LED for R and have BBBRRR floating with PiF in yard.

Might be worth having another Cabal Ritual in a Spellseeker build.

Random other thoughts: it's really awkward to stare down Kambal, since it has 3 Toughness and doesn't get answered by Massacre. I don't think it's worth running a Virtue's Ruin, but it's always worth considering if your meta is infested with swarms of white creatures that all don't get cleanly answered by Massacre. I did run into a scenario where I was at 1 life vs Maverick that I wanted to fire off discard to name Swords, but only had Thoughtseize. Dude had Crop Rotation for Bog (I had entomb afterward to reanimate) but he did have the StP, since he drew himself down to 5 with Sylvan Library. It's probably still correct to run mostly Thoughtseize, but it definitely felt bad in that one situation.

Primer updated with a link to Caleb Scherer's stream from a few days ago with Burning Wish Bizzaro Stormy:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/281515571

The burning wish build is interesting, I might play around with that. I guess it's a question of if that's better, or carpet is, because the mana probably isn't good enough to get red and green with all the wastelands I expect to see now.

Only had time to watch three of the matches so far, but definitely worth checking out. There were some awesome lines there that I definitely would have missed.

Made 3-1 in local FNM with this list.
The only loose was 1-2 against TES. Game 1 he killed me on turn 1 and game 3 I keep a greedy 6 cards no land hand, but with ponder, brainstorm, petal and business. Scry : no manasource. Draw : no manasource. Petal + ponder : no manasource, shufle : no manasource. My opponent killed my 3-4 turn laters, the turn before I was finally able to combo off.

All others games went 2-0.
I believed that only 2 of the kills were due to the Magus, the other were either attack of griselbrand + natural tendrils, or double entomb onto tendrils 1 PiF, or the opponent just scooped at some point (knowing the combo).

My victory were against sneak & show, stoneblade and bant. The transformative sideboard came in a handy a few times, but not too much.
If you want to use this kind of sideboard, I believe that the right thing to do is to keep a little bit of combo pieces after boarding.
I don't say it is the most efficient sideboard, but my god it is fun.


1 Badlands
4 Brainstorm
2 Cabal Ritual
2 Collective Brutality
2 Corpse Dance
4 Dark Ritual
4 Entomb
3 Griselbrand
1 Island
3 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
1 Magus of the Mind
2 Marsh Flats
1 Past in Flames
4 Polluted Delta
4 Ponder
2 Scalding Tarn
4 Shallow Grave
1 Swamp
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Thoughtseize
1 Tundra
1 Unburial Rites
2 Underground Sea
2 Unmask

//Sideboard
2 Echoing Truth
2 Flusterstorm
4 Monastery Mentor
1 Scrubland
2 Serenity
4 Thing in the Ice

This is my first iteration after the banning of Gitaxian Probe:

Good inspiration from my Doomsday sideboard. Haven't tested the Spellseeker yet, got the urge to test it seeing Acclimation's BW draft. We had a discussion on the Discord about it as well. Turns out it would be a fantastic top-deck mid to late-game.

- It tutors whatever business card we're missing pre-combo
- It's a creature with regards to Cabal Therapy
- Isn't really messing with graveyard order, since if you do reanimate it, you get an extra copy of Shallow Grave with it anyway
- Tutors possible sideboard cards in G2 and G3

1 Badlands
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Island
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Scrubland
1 Swamp
1 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
4 Brainstorm
3 Burning Wish
2 Cabal Ritual
2 Cabal Therapy
1 Chrome Mox
2 Collective Brutality
2 Corpse Dance
4 Dark Ritual
4 Entomb
3 Griselbrand
3 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
1 Magus of the Mind
1 Past in Flames
3 Ponder
4 Shallow Grave
1 Spellseeker
3 Thoughtseize

Sideboard:
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Consign // Oblivion
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Massacre
1 Meltdown
1 Pyroblast
2 Serenity
3 Silent Gravestone
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Tendrils of Agony

@Matsaya I was on the man plan right before the ban but was using Dark Confidant instead of Thing in the Ice, had a Cavern of Souls as well. It's pretty insane versus Miracles, especially when you have the Cavern. However there are plenty of other common matchups at my locals that makes the 5 remaining available cards pretty lacking in number to face their hate.

Played in a small-ish cash tournament over the weekend with like 32 people (ugh). 5 rounds, cut to Top 8…. Here is what I brought:

1 Badlands
1 Bayou
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
4 Brainstorm
3 Burning Wish
2 Cabal Ritual
2 Cabal Therapy
1 Collective Brutality
2 Corpse Dance
4 Dark Ritual
4 Entomb
3 Griselbrand
3 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
1 Magus of the Mind
1 Past in Flames
4 Ponder
4 Shallow Grave
3 Thoughtseize
Sideboard:
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Carpet of Flowers
1 Consign // Oblivion
2 Echoing Truth
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Reanimate
1 Massacre
1 Meltdown
1 Reverent Silence
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Thoughtseize

Very short tournament report…

Round 1 - Sneak and Show.

G1. He played islands, a ponder, and then flusterstormed my CoBru on Turn 2. I then played a lotus petal, dark ritual, and killed him.

G2. He mulled a bit, cast show and tell and put in Emrakul, and I put in Griselbrand. I won.

Round 2- BR reanimator.

I lost the die roll. He made a griselbrand T1 and cast Unmask - I had a mediocre hand so I just scooped in response.

Game 2, I had a pretty decent hand with discard. I thought seize him and take his reanimate. Leaving him with animate dead, chrome mox, and land. He of course rips entomb and kills me. Cool.

Round 3 - Steel Stompy.

I’m pretty sure this is our worst matchup. I had a really good 7, but lost the die roll. He casts Chalice on 1. Then Chalice on 0 and Steel Overseer. Then Steel Overseer and Chalice on 2. I’m dead.

Game 2 he starts with leyline into chalice on 1. I have Echoing Truth and have to make a decision as to what to bounce. I honestly don’t remember anymore, but I didn’t have enough answers overall and got stomped.

Round 4 - Miracles.

This was a cool match. We played a grindy game 1, going back and forth with disruption, and eventually I combo out and kill him. He played Back to Basics at one point, which I answered with Burning Wish for Reverent Silence. Good times.

Game 2 started off similar to game 1 - I had a bunch of choices to make with what to entomb for when I had openings, as well as Burning Wish. I’m positive I made a couple mistakes here, as there were so many lines I could have taken. I eventually get to a point where I have entomb, some rituals, and burning wish in hand (with a full stocked graveyard with discard, cantrips, and rituals), but I know he has a Force in hand. I also have a burning wish in hand, so I could wish for discard and try for it next turn. However, he was low on cards with a Jace in play, so I didn’t want to give him the opportunity to start burying me in card advantage. In my upkeep, I cast entomb - intending to get Griselbrand if that resolves. This gets force of willed. He’s down to 1 card and tapped out, so I cast rituals, burning wish, and cast Empty the Warrens for 10 goblins.

Go to his turn - he casts Mentor. Shit. He makes some tokens after brainstorming with Jace. I attack him down a bit (and leave Jace in play), and if he bricks on his next draw and brainstorm, I can win with exactsies. Possible I should have attacked Jace here, but I didn’t. Pass back to him, he remakes some tokens and passes. I top deck Entomb - which likely wins the game here. So, I attack him with 7 goblins, forcing his play - he casts swords on a goblin, snapcaster, swords, and takes 0 damage while trading snapcaster and a token for my team. Then, now that he has an empty hand, I entomb for past in flames, cast all of my rituals, ponder, entomb for griselbrand, and flash back Empty the Warrens for 20 more Goblins. This likely seals the deal unless he top decks a terminus, but leaving griselbrand in the yard gives me an out of top decking reanimation in case he does. Turns out he didn’t have terminus anyway, so I won the game.

Was a really interesting game with lots of interesting decisions.


Round 5 - Miracles

This one was also interesting - but I don’t remember the details all that well. If I can piece together what happened in my notes, I’ll update this. I remember it being an incredibly close match. I believe I lost game 1, won game 2 by paying for a Flusterstorm with a storm count of 12 (thanks Carpet of Flowers!) and then continuing to combo from there. And I lose game 3 to… something.

Overall, I did like my list a lot - I think I got a little unlucky in my matchups. I was missing Ground Seal/Gravestone vs. Miracles a little bit - but I honestly don’t know what else I would have taken out for them, as I was already boarding in 3 Carpets and 2 Decays vs. them. Consign // Oblivion I think was a poor choice given the other answers I was already running, but I’m not positive on what I would replace it with as of yet. Could possibly go -1 Carpet, -1 Consign//Oblivion, +2 Gravestone, and swap Reanimate back to Exhume. I really liked the main deck configuration though. I could see swapping the Therapy and Collective Brutality counts.

I also am really liking Burning Wish right now, as there is wide diversity in hate other decks are bringing in against us. This gives us flexibility with being able to answer the variety of hate.

Do you guys think the recent banning would lead to much stronger GY hate than what we encountered most of the time?

I'm asking this because it feels like the Silent Gravestones now don't do enough to protect me come Game 2 as they did prior to the bannings. What would you suggest as replacements?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mistervader

Do you guys think the recent banning would lead to much stronger GY hate than what we encountered most of the time?

I'm asking this because it feels like the Silent Gravestones now don't do enough to protect me come Game 2 as they did prior to the bannings. What would you suggest as replacements?

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Yes, graveyard hate is more diverse now, which makes it more difficult to combat as diversity takes more sideboard slots to answer. That's actually the reason I've switched to the Burning Wish list above - you can support a variety of answers that way, along with an orthogonal line that doesn't use the graveyard in Empty the Warrens.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by .dk

Yes, graveyard hate is more diverse now, which makes it more difficult to combat as diversity takes more sideboard slots to answer. That's actually the reason I've switched to the Burning Wish list above - you can support a variety of answers that way, along with an orthogonal line that doesn't use the graveyard in Empty the Warrens.

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I like this tech!

One of the biggest discussions we've had on the discord over the last 2 weeks is what sort of anti-hate should we be packing, and what graveyard hate are other decks playing. Since it's been about 2 weeks post ban, I did an informal data collection yesterday (June 19th) to see what the top decks were, and what hate are they packing. I only looked at cards that target graveyards, as well as Containment Priest since it hoses reanimation as well. Using the metagame function of tcdecks, I looked at the latest 10 lists (or as many lists post banning an archetype had posted), and got an idea what blend of hate and what range of cards to expect from each archetype. This list will likely be out of date in a month or two, since graveyard strategies have a huge target on their back, but it should give us an idea what to expect from each match-up.

(Note, big wall of text, but at the bottom I do have a summary)

First, here are the list of decks that comprise the meta game, from both Paper and MTGO events. I also tracked how many hate cards these decks played, listing the max hate I saw in a list, the least amount of hate in a list, and the average number of hate cards. I also noted whether or not a deck played a maindeck hate card as well. For some of the archetypes, I lumped them together, so Storm is both ANT and TES, Grixis is both Pyromancer and Control, BUG is all BUG control variants, and so on, as they all tend to have similar plans and play the same hate cards.

The big take away is that most decks are running 3-5 graveyard hate cards. There are a few decks that run 1 piece of MD hate, and those are all obvious decks that I'll point out below.

Deck	# of Tops	%	Avg # hate cards	Min GY hate	Max	# MD hate
Miracles	20	12%	3	2	5	0
Death & Taxes	18	11%	5	4	6	1
RUG	16	10%	3	2	4	0
Grixis	15	9%	3	2	3	0
Sneak	12	7%	3	2	7	0
Storm	11	7%	2	0	3	0
Stoneblade	11	7%	4	3	5	0
Lands	9	5%	1	1	1	1
Eldrazi	8	5%	4	4	5	0
BR Reanimator	7	4%	4	0	5	0
Dragon Stompy	8	5%	4	4	6	0
Burn	5	3%	2	2	4	0
Turbo Depths	6	4%	2	2	5	1
Maverick	4	2%	5	3	5	1-2
Elves	4	2%	5	3	5	0-1
UB Reanimator	2	1%	3	0	3	0
BUG	3	2%	5	3	5	0-1
Dredge	3	2%	4	0	6	0
Bant	2	1%	4	4	4	1

The next table contains the hate cards each deck is playing. Most decks are playing a range of these cards. The ones marked with an asterix * denote uncommon/rare hate cards for that archetype (meaning, 1 random list played the card)

Deck	Surgical	Leyline	RiP	Faerie Macabre	Containment Priest	Grafdigger's Cage	Nihil Spellbomb/Tormod's Crypt/Relic of Progenitus	Remorseful Cleric	Scavaging Ooze	Bojuka Bog	Random Other Targeted Hate	Extirpate
Miracles	0-3	0	0-2	0	1-2	0	0-1	0	0	0	0	0
Death & Taxes	0-3	0	0-2	0-3	0-2	0-1	0-1*	1	0	0	0	0
RUG	2-3	0	0	0	0	0-1	0	0	0-1*	0	0	0
Grixis	2-3	0	0	0	0	0-1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sneak	0-2	0-4*	0	0	0	0-4	0	0	0	0	0	0
Storm	0-3	0	0	0	0	0	0-2*	0	0	0	0	0
Stoneblade	0-3	0	0-3	0	0-2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Lands	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Eldrazi	0	4	0	0-1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BR Reanimator	0-2	0-4	0	0-1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1*	0
Dragon Stompy	0-2	0-4	0	0-4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Burn	0	0-4*	0	0-4	0	0	0-2	0	0	0	0	0
Turbo Depths	0-2	0-4	0	0	0	1	0-2	0	0	1	0	0
Maverick	0-4	0	0	0	0	0	0-1	0	1	0-1	0	0
Elves	0-4	0-4	0	0-4	0	0	0	0	0-1	0	0	0
UB Reanimator	0-1	0	0	0-2	0	0	0-2*	0	0	0	0	0
BUG	2	0-3*	0	0	0	0-2	0	0	0-1*	0	0	0
Dredge	0	0-4	0	0-2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Bant	0	0	0	0-3	0-1	0-1	0	0	1	0	0	0

The big takeaways (to me):

• Surgical Extraction is the most popular hate card, as it appears in almost every deck. Most decks play it as a 2 of, some as a 4-of.
• Containment Priest is played as a 2-of in almost every white deck on the list.
• Grafdigger's Cage is almost always played as a 1-of, and often alongside 2-3 copies of Surgical Extraction. One Sneak Attack deck played it as a 4 of.
• Leyline of the Void is almost never played in blue decks, except in 2 instances where a Sneak Attack deck and a BUG deck played it as a 4-of and 3-of, respectively. When it does show up, it's a 4-of (outside of the BUG deck).
• Rest in Peace is played in every white list, usually as a 2-of. Many Miracles decks play it even if they have Snapcaster main.
• Tormod's Crypt is played surprisingly often, showing up in random things like storm and Burn. I lumped the card in with Nihil Spellbomb and Relic, since they all function similarly and target a player (or target nothing).
• Faerie Macabre tends to show up in non Force decks. It's usually played alongside other hate cards as a 2-of, but some lists played 4 copies.
• Death and Taxes is almost always playing 1 Remorseful Cleric maindeck.
• Scavenging Ooze is played MD as a 1-of in every Green Sun's Zenith deck. 1 RUG and 1 BUG deck played the card as a 1-of.
• Bojuka Bog is always MD as a 1-of in a deck playing Crop Rotation, and sometimes in lists playing Knight of the Reliquary that splash black. Lands relies more on Sphere effects over GY hate.
• Random other refers to a random BR deck that was playing Coffin Purge.
• Nobody is playing Extirpate.

To break things down a bit more, I tried to order things as best I could from the "Most played cards" list, and counted how often it popped up. I also added what sort of anti-hate deals with the card.

Most played cards July	% of decks	# copies	Gravestone stops	Bounce/Destroy	Activated ability	Flusterstormable	Instant speed from hand
Surgical	84%	2	Y	n	n	y	y
Leyline	25%	4	n	y	n	n	n
Faerie Macabre	35%	2	y	n	y	n	y
Containment Priest	31%	2	n	y	n	n	y
Grafdigger's Cage	44%	1	n	y	n	n	n
Rest in Peace	23%	2	n	y	n	n	n
Spellbomb/Crypt/Relic	10%	2	n	y	y	n	n
Scavaging Ooze	6%	1	y	y	y	n	n
Bojuka Bog	13%	1	n	n	n	n*	n*
Remorseful Cleric	11%	1	n	y	y	n	n*
Other		1	y	n	n	n*	y

The * denote special scenarios, such as Aether Vial for Cleric and Crop Rotation for Bog.

I have Flusterstormable as a column since most of our lists that run countermagic run Flusterstorm over any other counterspell.

Leyline is always a 4-of, so while it shows up in less decks, there's usually more copies of it because it's a 4-of.

In summation, this is my baseline expectations for each archetype:

• Miracles: 4 cards, usually 2 Surgical, 2 Priest or 2 RiP 2 Priest
• Grixis/BUG/RUG: 3-4 cards, usually 2-3 Surgical, 1 Cage
• Show and Tell: 3 cards, usually Surgical, sometimes 2 Surgical 1 Cage, sometimes 3 Cage
• Death and Taxes: 5 cards, 1 Remorseful Cleric Maindeck, 2 Containment Priest side, then either 2 Faerie, 2 Surgical, or 2 RiP
• Reanimator decks: 3 cards, usually Surgical or Faerie.
• Storm decks: 2 cards, Surgical
• Chalice decks: 4 cards, Leyline. Sometimes 2 Surgical+2 Faerie, or 4 Faerie.
• Lands: 1 card, Bog Maindeck, but they run 4 Crop Rotation
• Turbo Depths: 4 cards, a Bog main with 4 Crop Rotation, and usually 1 Cage and either 2 Surgical or 2 Faerie in the side.
• Maverick: 5 cards, 1 Scooze Maindeck+3-4 GSZ, usually 2 Surgical, sometimes 4 Surgical. Expect 1 Bog if they run Knight of the Reliquary and are in black. Sometimes you see Tormod's Crypt.
• Burn: usually 2 cards but sometimes 4. Usually Faerie Macabre if only 2, but if they play Leyline, then they are only running 4.

Silent Gravestone still gets a lot of mileage, as Surgical is still the most played gy hate spell, and usually it's the primary spell for most of these decks. Faerie gets played quite a bit as well.

The wrinkle is that most of the decks that play Surgical also play either 1 copy of Cage or Crypt or 2 Containment Priest, which Gravestone doesn't stop. Bounce does take care of these spells, although be wary with Priest as it has flash. Obviously, it's hard to board in too many cards when people are bringing in 1 card that doesn't get hit by Gravestone, and have no other good uses for a bounce spell.

To me, I think you can still get away with 3 Gravestone+2 Bounce spell as a baseline, and diversify from there. It might also be worth playing something like Mentor+Bob or Empty the Warrens until people stop trying to hate out reanimator decks again.

Lastly, always pay attention to decks in your meta. Some people hate gy decks and will jam 4 Leyline in anything, or will bring in 9 hate cards. YMMV, but this should provide an adequate baseline.

Acclimation bringing the heat today! What a great post and summary!

One thing to note - these are the TOP decks from tcdecks. So, putting that in GP terms - you're looking at a Day 2 type breakdown.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by .dk

Acclimation bringing the heat today! What a great post and summary!

One thing to note - these are the TOP decks from tcdecks. So, putting that in GP terms - you're looking at a Day 2 type breakdown.

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I hinted at that near the end, but yes, this is a very important caveat: this is top decks, so your day 2/mtgo undefeated decks.

I know for my meta, I almost never see Delver decks, but will see more chalice and combo decks. I'll go to another store and play against a lot of Death and Taxes and Lands.

Always be mindful of your personal meta.

Great work!

Wow, really nice work, thank you!
I Just think you forgot to say that Turbo Depths is also playing 1 Bog main (+ 4 Crop), alongside with the hate you mentionned.
But again, really great & interesting job! =)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darkgobs

Wow, really nice work, thank you!
I Just think you forgot to say that Turbo Depths is also playing 1 Bog main (+ 4 Crop), alongside with the hate you mentionned.
But again, really great & interesting job! =)

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Looks like I did miss it. Fixed that section to mention Bog+Crop.

Thanks!

Some more thoughts on this Monday morning.

• The above analysis didn't consider things like extra discard, Leyline of Sanctity, extra counterspells, or taxing hate like Thorn/Sphere/3ball/Chalice. For the most part, it shouldn't be too difficult to fight through the extra hate with discard and PiF and any bounce spells you might board in, but it's still something to consider.
  
• If Death & Taxes and Miracles end up being the top 2 decks for the foreseeable future, decks that require big dudes going across the redzone to win (Reanimator, Depths, ISZ, Sneak Attack) are going to have a much harder time when the most played removal spell is Swords to Plowshares. Luckily for us, this deck doesn't need Griselbrand to connect, just to draw 7-14 cards to get going, and since Magus sacrifices itself as part of the cost, it shouldn't get hit by removal.
  
• I'm wondering if RiP+Helm decks will see a resurgence. One placed 2nd at the Legacy Classic over the weekend, and 4 maindeck RiP backed up by countermagic is rough. Time will tell.
  
• Steel Stompy didn't show up in my analysis, but it should pack a hate package similar to Eldrazi and Moon stompy- 4 Leyline or Faerie+Cage/Surgical.

Someone on the discord recently asked about sideboard plans, and I decided to get my notes and decisions down on paper.

A few disclaimers first:

• This was written for a white splash list based on mine (linked below). It's simple enough to port to a BW or Green build, as you replace white spells with the similar niche spells from either list, or replace bounce as necessary.
• I didn't include any exact numbers on what to take out, because I usually remove the same cards in every match-up (-1 Griselbrand -1 LED; -1 Unburial Rites when Gravestone comes in, -1-4 Ponder if speed is an issue, -1-2 Collective Brutality if none of the modes are relevant (Moon stompy), a Thoughtseize if the life loss is relevant (burn), a Therapy if I need to shave another slot, Cabal Ritual if fast mana isn't useful, a Corpse Dance). Apologies if you have to think, but sticking to an exact plan is bad value considering that people like to tweak their decks with personal twists.
• I try to keep my sb plans to less than 6 cards, as cutting slots weakens the deck. Most decks are playing hate that's answered by bounce, discard, or Gravestone, so there's no need to overboard.
• There are other niche cards in my lists that I like to run (Disenchant, Swords to Plowshares), so if you have similar cards, feel free to substitute those in bounce slots as needs be. Similarly, Flusterstorm and Silence perform a similar function, and Carpet of Flowers overlaps with Silence in non Storm match-ups.
• This is all in flux, and can change based on sb tweaks and as the meta progresses. I could also be wrong in a few cases. But this is what has been working for me so far, and is my general thoughts against the following archetypes.

Archetype	In	Notes
RUG Delver	+3 Silent Gravestone +2 Chain of Vapor (or other bounce spells)	Might consider taking out an extra 1-2 discard spells for Silence, since Silence is solid against RUG
D&T	+2 Massacre +1 Chain/Truth	Hurkyl's Recall is also good here, but Chain/Truth deal with the random RiP that show up. Also worth considering Swords
Miracles (no RiP)	+3 Silent Gravestone +2 Bounce	Expect Surgical+Containment Priest. Could also be worth boarding in Silence over Gravestone, but Gravestone shuts off their Snapcasters
Miracles (RiP)	+2 Bounce +2 Serenity +1 Silence	They still might have Surgical, but Gravestone is less needed when they have RiP, so plan around trying to blow it up at all costs
Show & Tell	+2 Bounce +2 Silence	Expect lots of countermagic and Surgical and Cage. Need to leverage discard and Silence to slow them down, and be wary of Cage.
Storm	+2 Silence +2 Gravestone	Expect mostly Surgical Extraction. Gravestone isn't necessary, but considering that these matches turn into Discard slugfests, it's worth throwing down so you can Entomb openly. Silence can be game winning if used in response to Tutors to disrupt their combo
UW Stoneblade	+3 Gravestone +2 Bounce	They run Containment Priest and then Surgical or RiP. If they don't run Surgical, it's worth dropping the Gravestones for Serenity
Lands	+2-3 Bounce	They run Sphere of Resistance and 1 Bojuka Bog as hate. You can consider running Serenity if they have more Sphere effects, but you don't want to dilute too much
Turbo Depths	+2 Gravestone +1-2 Bounce	Usually run 1 Cage, 2 Surgical, and a MD Bog. Bounce deals with Marit Lage, but you can opt not to run it.
BR Reanimator	+3 Gravestone +2 Bounce	In my experience, they're going to be faster, so it's worth bringing in a bounce spell or Swords to deal with their first guy, especially if it's Chancellor or Iona. You can out grind them since we have cantrips
UB Reanimator	+3 Gravestone	It might be worth bringing in Silence, since they do run FoW+Fluster. Not worth bringing in removal since it's harder to fight through their countermagic for Chain
Maverick	+2 Massacre +1-2 Bounce	A lot of these lists run Surgical and Scooze, but I'm not a fan of Gravestone since they have QP (which does get boarded out occasionally). Bounce is necessary to deal with Teeg. Don't want to board too much, since we should be faster
Grixis	+3 Gravestone +1-2 Bounce	Pretty much all of these decks run 2-3 Surgical and 1 Cage. They will somehow always t1 Cage you despite it being a 1-of
BUG	+3 Gravestone +1-2 Bounce	BUG is pretty much the same as Grixis, 2-3 Surgical and 1 Cage, but bounce has a bit more utlity because of Leovold
Eldrazi	+2 Serenity +1-2 bounce	In addition to Chalice+Prison pieces, they run 4 Leyline
Steel Stompy	+2 Serenity +1-2 bounce	In addition to Chalice+Prison pieces, they run 4 Leyline
Moon Stompy	+2 Serenity +1-2 bounce	In addition to Chalice+Prison pieces, they run 4 Leyline
Burn	+2 Bounce	SB hate is a bit scattered here. Bounce is usually good, since they run Eidolon and sometimes Cage and Ensaring Bridge. You might see Faerie Macabre and Surgical. Bad burn players play Leyline
Aluren	+2 Bounce	Expect varied hate. I would assume 2 Surgical 1 Cage, potentially Containment Priest if they're in white.
NyxFit	+2 Serenity +1-2 Bounce	I expect them to run things like Cage or Leyline, and Serenity can also function as a rattlesnake if you know you need to fade a turn of them playing Dovescape before going off. Some lists might run Surgical, but you should leverage discard

List for reference:


4 Marsh Flats
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
1 Island
1 Scrubland
1 Tundra
2 Underground Sea

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder

2 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
3 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal

4 Thoughtseize
2 Collective Brutality
1 Cabal Therapy

3 Griselbrand
1 Magus of the Mind

1 Past in Flames
4 Shallow Grave
4 Entomb
2 Corpse Dance
1 Mastermind's Acquisition

2 Flex Slots (SpellSeeker and Unburial Rites)

Sideboard:
1 Chain of Vapor
2 Massacre
2 Silence
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Serenity
3 Silent Gravestone
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Disenchant
1 Swords to Plowshares

Based on the complete lack of discussion around these 2 detailed posts, I'm just going to assume that Acclimation has solved the deck. Thread CLOSED.

But seriously... I need to get some time to make some much needed primer updates, and link to some of these posts.

I dont think you should draw any conclusion at all from the lack if posts. For me i was drawn to the deck during the DRS era as a way to exploit the metagame of DRS and surgical. I was using this deck as my third lr fourth choice after the more serious Grixus Delverus, Miracle and the less serious RectorFit. Now with the banning the primary draw went away IMO and the second draw, brewing, can he found in all the decks affected by the bannings. I'm currently brewing on regulator storm. I'm following the thread however seeing as i have the cards and are curious about the development. I dont have any brewing or results to contribute with though. I guess other posters have their personal reasons for not posting.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by .dk

Acclimation has solved the deck. Thread CLOSED.

---

I started the deck and I ended it. Alpha and the Omega.


Side note, I played a Death Wish build last night for giggles:

14 Lands
3 Death Wish
2 Griselbrand
1 Spellseeker
1 Children of Korlis
1 Magus of the Mind
5 Reanimation Spells
8 Cantrips
6 Discard (2 Cobru 3 Seize 1 Therapy)
8 Mana rocks
6 Rituals
4 Entomb
1 PiF

sb:
1 Tendrils
3 Gravestone
1 Massacre
1 Serenity
3 Silence
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Hurkyl's
1 Disenchant
1 Corpse Dance
1 Emrakul
1 Cabal Therapy

Went 2-2, lost to ISZ & Elves, beat 4 Horseman (Sidisi version) and Doomsday. Got to Death Wish for Emrakul twice versus 4 Horseman and cast it.

Death Wish is cool, and I likely need a better sideboard for it, but I did wish for Serenity, Swords, Hurkyl's, Corpse Dance, and Emrakul throughout the night.

Burning Wish is probably definitely better, but this was fun to play, and people's eyes pop when you cast Death Wish.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JackaBo

I dont think you should draw any conclusion at all from the lack if posts. For me i was drawn to the deck during the DRS era as a way to exploit the metagame of DRS and surgical. I was using this deck as my third lr fourth choice after the more serious Grixus Delverus, Miracle and the less serious RectorFit. Now with the banning the primary draw went away IMO and the second draw, brewing, can he found in all the decks affected by the bannings. I'm currently brewing on regulator storm. I'm following the thread however seeing as i have the cards and are curious about the development. I dont have any brewing or results to contribute with though. I guess other posters have their personal reasons for not posting.

---

lol I was more joking than anything else. :)

Also, minor primer update coming with a link to a really sweet article that a Discord member (ManaT) wrote regarding hypergeometric probabilities of comboing out with Magus of the Mind in a version of this deck. Check it out here:

https://medium.com/@a_manatee/4c14a5131b83