well as fair as the slime goes venser can do all that plus more
and i feel the demon is a weak seven drop
come on ur in bug colors gotta think bigger more obnoxious
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Well if you're running gifts/intuition intent + ewit + grim harvest is a hilarious, if not overly powerful, combo.
I like this new Kiora Planeswalker. Not as good as Jace but she seems to be a nice support for him in a Planeswalker heavy BUG list. 4 Decays, 3-4 Deeds and a lot of PWs.
She also has some advantages like an easier casting cost and the ability to win the game much faster (which is something that Planeswalker BUG sometimes has problems with).
Meh. Don't get me wrong. I love explore. But she just seems underwhelming when she hits the board. I think I'd rather play Gary Wildspeaker.
I just can't see running Kiora in a BUG Walker list. After maxing out Jace and Lili, the next thing I want is Ashiok #2 or 3 and Vraska #3. Ashiok helps you stay ahead when you are, and Vraska helps you pull out of non-swarm situations. Kiora is almost 100% durdle, and basically only decent when paired with other walkers on your board - in a vacuum, Jace, Lili, Ashiok and Vraska are all better, as are various Garruks.
BUG POD:
I've really struggled to beat Merfolk because the combination of 12 lords, Islandwalk and Mutavaults, and VE can be a liability here because it accelerates them too. My only strategy has been to mull into Pernicious Deed, avoid Islands at all costs, and try to grind them out.
I've also found there are some matches that I simply cannot grind out without Recurring Nightmare giving me continuous value from something - usually Thragtusk, or having a second big threat to Pod into. I'm considering adding a 2nd RN, but also am evaluating Frost Titan, Oona and Tradewind Rider. The Rider would require a Qurion Ranger or Scryb Sprite, but would give me an alternative way to grind out games, while both Frost Titan and Oona give me a different way to mess with my opponent.
I'm also really interested in this Junk list: http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/dec...7&iddeck=91069. I've always like that white offers Sun Titan, Reveillark and Academy Rector, and this seems to take advantage of 2 of these well. Not sure if Recycle and Debtors' Knell are too cute, but the biggest appeal of this list is that it solves my BUG Pod problems above, which is that it has better ways of getting Recurring Nightmare, and has varied threats at the high end to close out games post-Deed wiping. I will admit that I've come to love the disruption that blue offers, with Pilferer and Negate/Envelop/Flusterstorm plus discard very strong, and that Junk lists are going to have poor matchups against Storm and the like (maybe adding a Leyline of the Void and Leyline of Sanctity so its fetchable by Rector? but that probably can't come out fast enough).
she is durdle if she has nothin to do but shutin a batterskull or a tar pit down wich barth are nic fits biggest problem cards keeping them on a lock it all part of control
IO feel like at that point I'd rather just have Tamiyo though
Debtor's Knell is cute in Rector Fit but not overly useful. Also, Recycle is insane in the grindy matchups and in-fact the easiest way to beat all of the blade variant decks and is decent against shardless IF you have a top to go with it to get out of Hymn problems. The only questionable cards for me in that list are the primeval bounty (as the card seems like overkill with recycle already present, and in my testing didn't do as much), only having 2 tops (as the typical Rector build tends to shuffle its deck at least once if not twice a turn), and having 0 marsh flats. Finally, if you can afford it, moat is a godsend for that particular build.
On a side note, I took my rector build to a local tournament with 16 players and eeked into top 8.
Round 1: Sneak and Show W 2-0
Game 1: He never finds a show and tell or a sneak attack and double explorer ramp puts me into eventually having both kukusho and sun titan in play. Not going to lie this game was pure luck.
Game 2: Another rather lucky spree, despite his insane top deck. On the draw I therapy him naming show and tell and see both sneak and griselbrand. He then casts the sneak on turn 2 and passes. I quickly fetch my lone dryad arbor to flash therapy back and hit the griselbrand only to have him rip emrakul the very next turn. Fortunately he proceeds to brick for about 4 turns not finding another big dude and thalia and ooze beats get him.
Round 2: Merfolk L 0-2
Well my luck ran out in this match from earlier sadly
Game 1: I keep a decent starting hand with deed and rector on the draw and proceed to get punched in the face by various fish and he happens to have the force for the turn 3 deed after landing his true name. He then untaps, phantasmal images his true name and I die readily.
Game 2: Another decent hand this time I deed away his entire board with a thragtusk in play and him being hellbent after this. He then proceeds to rip a true name off the top and slammed it into play. I then play ooze and make him a 9/9 while not finding a single out with top in play the entire time though the last turn I could have done something I punted as I had enough mana to spin top see the third card down on my draw step and then crack a fetch to find another deed, however I don't take the opportunity and the third card down is indeed a deed where I the proceeded to facepalm myself. Had I not misplayed game 3 most certainly would have come about.
Round 3: Deathblade W 2-1
Game 1: I lose the die roll mull to 6 and keep a lose one lander as I'm a bit tilted from the last match. He opens with deathrite to which I proceed to thoughtseize and see jace, true name, stoneforge mystic, and the lands to cast all of them. Needless to say I lost this one.
Game 2: This one goes long with me eventually landing sigarda and beating face with it while memoriciding his stoneforged batterskull, after this it was all downhill for him.
Game 3: My opponent apparently kept a lose hand as he was now on tilt to which my decent hand of carpet and vet with a sac outlet ramped me into t3 huge dudes. This was also aided by the fact that after forcing my t1 carpet I ripped a second one and slammed it into play. I believe he saw at least 3 FoW this game but my threats just got there.
Round 4: Reanimator L 0-2
Game 1: I die to a griselbrand suited up with an animate dead on it. Ooze showed up a turn too late and it was all downhill from there.
Game 2: I keep a decent hand of thoughtseize and ramp and am rewarded by snatching his entomb to his reanimate and exhume hand, However, I eventually stall out on 5 lands and am unable to cast kukusho or anything of relevance at this point and eventually die to another griselbrand. Hedging my board against storm and show and tell has definitely hurt my gy matchups.
Top 8
Shardless Bug L 0-2
Game 1: This is a long slugfest and eventually resulted in my sigarda and moat vs his jace, lili and deathrite. I lost by 1 turn's worth of damage when his jace found a second deathrite and his last card in hand was the FoW for the green sun's I had ripped trying to find thragtusk. All in all, it was a very tight match and I believe slight misplays ended up losing the game for me.
Game 2; I nut draw into turn 2 5 mana and resolve my garruk relentless killing his deathrite. However, He then proceeds to play all 4 of his baleful strix in a row and I eventually deeded them away though most of my resources in my hand became dead. I then memoricde him naming jace and see that he had boarded them out, which was fantastic however, he then dropped a goyf and blind cascaded into a visions with an agent, lots of sick rips this tournament. I then dropped my moat and proceeded to have it charmed away which then put me dead in the water.
Overall the deck felt pretty good though I may move the thalias out for some extripates again, dryad arbor once again pulled his weight for me and, I saw approximately 1 therapy all day which is both unusual and particularly bad.
True, but she can draw cards, keep any non walker permanent locked down, and her ultimate will win any grindy game
What do you mean doing damage? Like Sulfuric Vortex or a planeswalker? Kiora dies to TNN/Lightning Bolt even after using her +1 ability. I mean that is not to say Tamiyo is amazing or anything, but I feel like her +1 is almost always going to be better, plus she starts at a much higher loyalty level. And comparing planeswalker ultimates is almost always useless. I mean sure, unchecked, Kiora is better at ending the game, but you really can't judge planeswalkers by their ultimate
[QUOTE=Megadeus;777822]What do you mean doing damage? Like Sulfuric Vortex or a planeswalker? Kiora dies to TNN/Lightning Bolt even after using her +1 ability. I mean that is not to say Tamiyo is amazing or anything, but I feel like her +1 is almost always going to be better, plus she starts at a much higher loyalty level. And comparing planeswalker ultimates is almost always useless. I mean sure, unchecked, Kiora is better at ending the game, but you really can't judge planeswalkers by their ultimate[
WOOPY SHIT ALMOST EVERY PLANS WALKER GETTS THERE ASS TURNED INSIDE OUT BY BOLTS AND TNN POIN IT SHE HAS ABILITIE TO KEEP THINGS IN CHECK IF U PLAY HER RIGHT AND SHE HAS MORE UTILITY THEN TAMY CUZ I HAVE RAN TAMI AND SHE IS OK AT BEST I DO NOT THINK SHE IS THE END ALL BEAT ALLL BUT SHE HAS TESTING ROOM IN BUGG]
I mean yes, but with Tamiyo/Jace, you can at least +1 them to survive the bolt/attack, then next turn slam a way to protect them. Whereas with Koria (is that even her name?), even if you +1 her she dies. And if you -1 her just to get value out of her, then great, you cast a 4 mana explore. I just don't see her being very good. Like I said, feel free to test her out and prove me wrong. I love Explore. I just don't think she is worth it, and in theory (I havent tested either) I would test Tamiyo before I tested her.
i tested tamiyo especially in my build koria would be the best option but u can slam proctection for jace against tnn any ways
the best u can do is stop a bolt with something so that a very weak back up . Like every torny i play and i have seen mckee play we each have the same cards in fair match up that give our decks problems its tar pits and batter skullls and she can put them on a lock
I mean I see what you are saying, but how is Koria better vs Tar Pit and BSkull than Tamiyo? Like you said, Tamiyo was underwhelming, so what do you really expect with Kiora?
koria one is cheaper for starters
plus the ability to hit more then one land drop and draw cards with that still not horrible
realistically ther all at the same level as far as what they do u can use either to shut down creatures koria givein me lands drops and a chance a 9/9 every turn
I see what you are saying. My point being though, that if Tamiyo wasn't worth it, then Kiora probably won't be either. I like her abilities, I just think the loyalty is too low unfortunately.
Unfortunately it does matter... For example, Nissa Revane has an actually solid +1 ability to "create" a 2/3. Unfortunately during that time in standard Lightning Bolt was a very highly played card and she was completely unplayable. Between Bolts and TNN, I'm just not sure if Kiora is worth it. Please. Prove me wrong. I would love to play her knowing she is good. I just don't think that she is any good
Does anyone play with Oracle of Mul Daya? That's the best comparison I can think of, and short of some Turbo Eldrazi lists, no one runs it
Her biggest problem is of course that unlike Jace her carddraw is worse AND that she can't draw a card every turn and that is why Jace will still be the best PW for BUG but she has a couple of things going for her that make me want to play her, too, maybe in a 3/2, 4/1 or 4/2 split with Jace.
- For the comparison with Oracle of Mul Daya: Oracle only has one of the abilities of Kiora, the Draw/Explore part. But it can neither deal with a Batterskull/Delver/Goyf nor can it pump out 9/9 tokens.
- For the vulnerability to Lightning Bolt: it can be a bit annoying but I honestly don't think it is a big deal. Usually I just Brainstorm with Jace against Bolt decks anyway because I am far more worried about losing it to Bolt + surprise damage (Clique/Snapcaster) without getting any value. If I get a Brainstorm and a card from my opponent's hand that is usually all I ask for in this type of matchup. I would imagine Kiora is the same, I will just -1 her against Bolt decks.
- Tamiyo is similar to Kiora but one Mana is a huge difference.
- Kiora gives good protection while +1ing into a very relevant and fast ultimate which seems like a very nice combination.
- Kiora's +1 is also nice with Deed because it might force the opponent to play another threat into Deed.
She also has the ability to shut down valacut in the scape vs bug list see we hqve the ability to stop the scape she cqn have the bility to make the grind fest of them have the valacut out and slow burning u to death wich is very frequent
My biggest concern isn't whether she's good or not, but rather the slots she's trying to compete for. Outside of BUG Walker Fit, I have no reason to run her at all over Jace 2.0, let alone something like one of the Garruks or Liliana 2.0.
If she can make the cut, then yes: she has a ton of potential.
BUG Walker lists need something besides Lili and Jace, because you need to continually apply pressure and mess with your opponent while building to ultimate, and usually that means a 3rd walker, since Deed becomes bad and you're creature-light. I still think that Vraska and Ashiok are the best options, along with Karn.
ToF - as soon as you mentioned Liliana Vess, you basically confirmed to everyone that you're just looking for more pet walkers. Please explain how a singleton Liliana Vess is better than the firmly established superior options of Jace and Liliana of the Veil?
I know what the planeswalkers do. I just don't understand why you are running 1-ofs. If you have 2 powerful planeswalkers out at the same time and you don't win, you've done something wrong. So why not run 3, 3, 1 (garruk, maybe, as he's a house if you can get him to stick for 2 turns) I guess what I'm asking is why you need ALL the planeswalkers?
To whoever asked about my junk list here it is.
Maindeck: 61 cards
4x Veteran Explorer
4x Cabal Therapy
4x Green Sun's Zenith
3x Academy Rector
3x Pernicious Deed
3x Sensei's Divining Top
3x Verdant Catacombs
3x Marsh Flats
3x Forest
2x Baneslayer Angel
2x Thoughtseize
2x Windswept Heath
2x Plains
2x Swamp
2x Phyrexian Tower
1x Recurring Nightmare
1x Moat
1x Recycle
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Kukusho, The Evening Star
1x Sun Titan
1x Eternal Witness
1x Fierce Empath
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Varolz, The Scar-Striped
1x Thragtusk
1x Vindicate
1x Maelstrom Pulse
1x Garruk Relentless
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Bayou
1x Savannah
1x Scrubland
1x Dryad Arbor
Sideboard: 15
3x Carpet of Flowers
2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2x Golgari Charm
1x Rest in Peace
1x Exclusion Ritual
1x Nether Void
1x Humility
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Ashen Rider
1x Cranial Extraction
1x Memoricide
And yes, deck registration completely sucks with this list with 19 singletons main. If anyone wants to pick my brain feel free. And if anyone has a suggestion as to what to cut in the main deck for a 23rd land I would appreciate the help!