[Deck] The Rock

@damion: thanks for the vidz! i'll be watching this today after a long hell of work finally i got my free day :laugh:

@36/43 lands: this match isnt bad at all cuz we had good disruption and GY hate package, btw luckily in our country only 3 players pilot land.deck but 2 of them are not active anymore so there is a high chance of probability i never encounter them :smile:
(building a 36/43 lands in my country is so difficult due to duals, fetches, utility land prices and availability so many players are not so engage to build one)

@miracle control: this past sunday a major legacy tourney fired (w/c i failed to participated due to my work sched) 3 miracle decks and 1 punishing fire nic fit made it to the top 4, and i never played against miracle deck and i felt like this is a bad match up cuz those decks are better control than ours.

I'm thinking of this cards against them:

1) choke-----sure hit

2) chains of mephistopheles----is this card really worth against miracle decks? i know they do lots of library manipulation and cantrips, and there miracle triggers are from drawing stuffs. Lemme know your thoughts :smile:

3) krosan grip---somewhat classic card vs counterbalance

4) gaddock teeg, thalia, guardian of thraben--this guys are really good but miracle decks run karakas and stp i have the feeling that is cards are short against them.

Lemme know your thoughts! :smile:

Gaddock Teeg is pretty much a must. Ooze lets you gain advantage against Snapcaster. Choke is a must, as is Thoughtseize.

Krosan Grip would definitely be good against Counterbalance, Top, and Shackles, as would Pridemage.

The main problem with facing Miracles is you need enough creatures on board to apply pressure when facing many Swords to Plowshares, but you can't go all-in because Terminus X-1's you. That's the main problem, but also the nice thing about playing Goyf and Knight. Lots of pressure, few actual threats.

Garruk is also good for token generation, as would Elspeth. Hymn also wouldn't be too bad here, since pinpoint discard is good, but knocking out many cards would also be fine. It also begs to be Spell Pierced, leaving you available to push stuff like Pulse through.

Chains of Mephistopheles could be interesting again, for sure, especially if they're running 4 Storm and 4 Ponder, along with the times they're drawing off Top and Jace.

-Matt

Hi guys!!! Yesterdey I attended to a tournament at the local store, but I used a totally different rock-based deck, just for a change. After pondering, thinking about some lists, putting all the cards I like in front of me, I scrambled this:

Lands:
4 verdant catacombs
2 marsh flats
1 scrubland
2 bayou
4 wasteland
4 mishra's factory
2 barren moor
1 tranquil thicket
1 forest
4 swamp

Instants:
1 darkblast

Sorceries:
4 innocent blood
4 smallpox
3 cabal therapy
2 inquitition of kozilek
1 thoughtseize
3 life from the loam
3 lingering souls
1 worm harvest

Artifacts:
3 mox diamond

Enchantments:
3 pernicious deed

Creatures:
4 bloodghast

Planeswalkers:
3 liliana of the veil

Sideboard:
3 oblivion ring
1 darkblast
1 the abyss
2 e. tutor
1 pithing needle
2 e. plagues
2 duress
1 extirpate
2 surgical extraction

I assembled it a few minutes before the tournament, hence some funny cards. A few remarks:
No pulse?!?! -> I figured that if I dredged a pulse I would make a bad poker face, and dredging a lingering souls could lead me to victory. The quantity of tokens is usually ok to hurt planeswalkers, and deed kills everything else. O-rings on the side because of show & tell and also as an "universal removal".
The abyss -> toooooooo slow.
Tutors -> didn't know what to put, alas I would be happier if I used 2 needles and 3 plagues.

I finished 3/2. Quick report:

Round 1: Goblins
Game 1: he wins the rol, plays lands and passes (no vial, no lackey.... ), I cast seize, remove a matron, then I play mox, and cabal therapy the instigator. He draws a lackey, I cast smallpox, he draws and passes, I cast liliana, he draws nothing again, I dredge into lingering souls and he concedes.
Game 2: he opens very fast and beat the living s**** out of me, I scoop at round 3 after he had a lackey and was about to cast the second thorn of amethyst.
Game 3: I start with discarding his thorn, innocent blood to remove a lackey, then plague. He gets a chieftain and a piledriver. For no apparent reason, he attacked with the chieftain and I blocked on my mishra. I start punishing him, but he finds nother cheftain and cast krenko, then proceeds on muitiplying his gobbos. However I had enough tokens and 2 mishras, so he wasn't attacking (he should, I'd probably lose), giving me enough time to dredge into a darkblast that hit his chieftain and cleaned the board again leaving me open to swing for lethal.

Round 2: esper
Game 1: I had a nice start controlling the board (he kept a crappy hand, tho). However he managed to put jitte on the field, Had a force to my pernicious deed, and not even liliana and worm harvest could stop his lingering souls tokens from winning.
Game 2: he cast 3 extirpates on me (WTF?!?!?!??!?!?!?) forcing me to scoop.

Round 3: elfball:
Game 1: I cast deed on turn 3, but it was the same turn he managed to cast ezuri and roll me over with elves (he had mana to activate his ability 2 times)
Game 2: Darkblast and a cyce land helped me to kill every elf he cast down, then I drew a liliana, and flashbacked lingering souls, and he scooped.
Game 3: I commited a stupid technical error attempting to darkblast a heritage druid totally forgeting symbiote's ability. needles to say, the next turn emrakul visited me.

Round 4: merfolks
Game 1: he opened a poor hand, with few threats. I quicly cleaned his hand, cast liliana, worm harvest, and I proceeded to cast a worm harvest each turn (after the third time I cast worm harvest he ralized he could not get through the dozens of tokens.
Game 2: I do mulligan to five, he had 2 lords. End.
Game 3: pretty much a replay of game 1, except it was bloodghast, mishra and lingering souls instead of worm harvest. Even after he cracked relic of progenitus on me, I simply found more threats and continued on the beating.

Round 5: monoblack (the gate, maybe?)
Game 1: A missed therapy revealed ritual, hymnn to tourach, and removals. he does ritual into hymn, and discard a loam and a darkblast. Nice. I start to dredge it all, cast a deed, find a liliana, he has to sacrifice his obliterator, attempts a bitterblossom that helps me kill him with my 2 bloodghasts and a mishra.
Game 2: Pretty much a replay of game 1 - he cast plague aiming at spirits (shits down ghast and souls) but I calmly attacked with mishras and then cast a deed to get rid of some unwanted things (plague included). He attempted to cast bob twice, but darkblast was in my graveyard already. From then it was sjust swing.

I ended 3-2 with a deck that was totally assembled a few minutes before the tournament. I liked it, and I realize a few things: 1) I need to learn how to paly, because I make A LOT of technical mistakes 2) With the esception of extirpate effects, grave hate does not hinder this deck (provided you paly around it, of course) 3) Sometimes I wish I could bring dredged cards back to me, I must be careful since there's no Top and I never know what I'm going to dredge 4) I need a different win con that is less grave-depended on the side.

Well please give comments, suggestions, complains, and remarks about this (please just do not come and say "you're cold losing to burn", this I already know)

Anyone interested, the match I lost to LSV was recorded on channelfireball.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by damionblackgear

Anyone interested, the match I lost to LSV was recorded on channelfireball.

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Is it just me, or does LSV come off a tiny bit arrogant in the comments on your match?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mister M.

Is it just me, or does LSV come off a tiny bit arrogant in the comments on your match?

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meh, its fine either way. Mulling to 5 helps a lot. Also, 4-0'd today's daily (recorded it because my first round opponent typically does so i figured we'd get both side... he didn't. They'll be up when I'm around a better upload speed.

Allright then. Looking forward to the new vids!

Congrats on 4-0 today!!!

Also, I don't wanna be annoying, but I'd like comments on that pile I scrambled for last wednesday... ideas, remarks, anything.... I mean, I wonder if is worthwhile to put some effort in turning that into a deck?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sughayyer

Congrats on 4-0 today!!!

Also, I don't wanna be annoying, but I'd like comments on that pile I scrambled for last wednesday... ideas, remarks, anything.... I mean, I wonder if is worthwhile to put some effort in turning that into a deck?

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At first glance I thought you recreated the Truffle Shuffle. I've never played something like it so I don't think I'd be a good source of advice for the deck but, I know that there are a bunch of people who have (Trisomy 21).

the promised 4-0 Daily

I'll post about it later on.

-Matt

Quote:

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Originally Posted by damionblackgear

the promised 4-0 Daily

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Round 4: Minute 25:30

After persecuting the mom you probably should have equipped your Bird via Knight to activate Jitte and kill his board. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BlackStarDeceiver

Round 4: Minute 25:30

After persecuting the mom you probably should have equipped your Bird via Knight to activate Jitte and kill his board. :)

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There were no counters on Jitte to give bird an attack power. I should have held the persecution until his EOT so I could've gotten any other x/1's that my opponent played as well.

Just dropping in a troll with my updated Loam list. I have given up on Armageddon (not great), worked in 1x Liliana (probably need 2) and after testing 4 maindeck deeds I have dropped to 3.


4x Knight of the Reliquary
2x Terravore
1x Tarmogoyf
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Birds of Paradise
1x Eternal Witness
1x Kitchen Finks

4x Duress
3x Raven's Crime
3x Swords to Plowshares
3x Pernicious Deed
4x Life from the Loam
3x Maelstrom Pulse
1x Liliana of the Veil
3x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Profane Command

3x Tranquil Thicket
3x Barren Moor
3x Wasteland
2x Bayou
1x Savannah
1x Scrubland
1x Dryad Arbor
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Marsh Flats
1x Treetop Village
1x Nantuko Monastary
1x Forest
1x Swamp
1x Bojuka Bog

Sideboard

2x Kitchen Finks
2x Crop Rotation
1x Bojuka Bog
4x Leyline of Sanctity
4x Tidehollow Sculler
2x ???


I'm still really curious about getting in 1-2x Sylvan Library. Not sure what I would cut, probably some number of Pulse/Deeds.

Basic plan is to play disruption/control, ride Loam for card advantage, toolbox threats with GSZ. I was warned (thankfully!) about the danger of putting too many things into the deck. I think focusing on those three elements is where I want to be. I have done well in testing (online, MWS) and I actually played (and beat!) Aggro-Loam due to Leyline of Sanctity g2-3. I can hard-cast somewhat reliably so I if the first gets Pulse-ed or destroyed, I can play another turn 3-4.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by damionblackgear

There were no counters on Jitte to give bird an attack power. I should have held the persecution until his EOT so I could've gotten any other x/1's that my opponent played as well.

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Well, you played Persecution :D

I'll give rock a shot for tomorrow if i make it to our local.

@Mr Safety

I wouldn't play library in a loam deck. I think top would be better for 2 reasons: 1) you will know when to dredge or not, since you can actually see what is going to grave and 2) you can activate it's second ability to do another dredge (don't know if that would be actually relevant).

Btw I was playtesting a list that used no goyf, but lingering souls and sfm package. Didn't play it a lot, but seems nice

Tried the following list:

4 dark confidant
4 tarmogoyf
4 knight of the reliquary

4 thoughtseize
4 hymn to tourach
4 maelstrom pulse

4 swords to plowshares
2 liliana of the veil
1 pernicious deed

3 sensei's divining top
3 mox diamond

2 bayou
2 scrubland
2 swamp
1 forest
1 plains
4 verdant catacombs
4 marsh flats
4 wasteland
1 karakas
1 maze of ith
1 bojuka bog

SB
2 pernicious deed
2 perish
2 diabolic edict
2 choke
2 duress
2 grafdigger's cage
1 tormod's crypt
2 extirpate

Came up with a local tourney result: (4-1)

Rd 1: Burn 2-0
G1: I went down to 6 but he ran out of gas while Goyf beats face.
G2: Land, Mox, Hymm. Then duress after. He never recovered.

Rd 2: RUG Ctrl 0-2
G1: I mull to 5.
G2: I got stuck on 3 lands. Sensei wasn't much of a help.

Rd 3: UW mill deck(?) 2-0
This deck runs with herdon crab, archive trap and other mill spells.

G1: Played Mox, and fetched, which he responded with 2 archive traps. Goyf lands at "7/8", then KOTR at "12/12". He smiled in dismay. OH YEAH!!!
G2: Some early disruption on his wall creatures and I let him mill my deck. KOTR lands at 8/8, then Goyf at 6/7. They made short work of him.

Rd 4: Reanimator. 2-0
G1: I managed to land a Goyf and resolve a liliana. Early edict abilities delayed him and I landed a 2nd liliana as well after the first one ran out of loyalty counters.
g2: I mulled to 6 then got a tormod's and grafdiggers.

Rd 5:Dredge (phantasmagorian build) 2-0(play for sweep)
G1: My opening hand was too slow for him as he got his engine going.
G2: 2 Thoughtseize on his 2 street wraiths and an extirpate on his golgari grave troll slowed him down. KOTR and Goyf starts to beat face.
G3: I opened with 2 moxes, 3 lands, KOTR and Tormod's. During the course of the game, I drew 3 fetches, STP and duress. I popped my tormod's when he binned his 1st bridge. Then 1 duresed his second bridge to keep him from having 7 cards in hand. Then I responded to fetch with bojuka bog through KOTR when bridge's triggers were on the stack. The female Knight at 8/8 went all the way.


thanks for reading.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by damionblackgear

At first glance I thought you recreated the Truffle Shuffle. I've never played something like it so I don't think I'd be a good source of advice for the deck but, I know that there are a bunch of people who have (Trisomy 21).

the promised 4-0 Daily

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Thanks for the vids, I´ve been watching these and the other you linked. I play your list and have been doing so for a while and i really like it. Tested against RUG, Dredge, Maveric (tried Infest in SB against Mav and that was a blast : ) today and it went very well. Also tested against UW Miracle but that was harder. Dont exactly know what to do against them and SB, I guess Choke, Thalia is good. Whats the plan in this matchup?

@Aljichiban
Albeit I'm currently testing with different decks, that build you used is mine and ryn_ball's (if I'm correct) list of choice. Congratulations!

@Aljichiban

Congrats with your finish!!! i like the list pretty looks similar to mine only differ was the SB i'm currently running e-tutor package but yeah your SB is good too very well fitted in your meta (i guess :smile:)

@Sughayyer

What build[s] do you want atm? :smile:

@damion

Nice videos!! you ate maverick like a boss! :smile:. Btw in your 3rd game Round 1 vs maverick in the situation the maverick player played only karakas i think you should waste it before playing your bodies (cuz they were STP'ed via karakas) so that he will be left behind the game but so be it he was left behind :smile:

@Ian

Thanks for streaming the Maverick MUs.