BW is way too tough for this deck to cast reliably. You'd be better off with Make Obsolete, which is 2B, or Orzhov Pontiff, which can at least be cast off a Cavern of Souls if you don't need to name Eldrazi with it.
Printable View
Orzhov is cute but if I were to run it I would change 4/5 plains to Caves of Koilos which would be a hindering to every other match you would play and running on 8 sources of black(4 of which have more value on Eldrazi) means your are only 66% to have one on turn 3 if you call Human so that would be considered very very very bad. You might as well run Holy Light and hope you don't have a Revoker unless you wanna run Caves. And if I am starting to splash then I would just fully splash and get max value out of those colors I was adding and add a 1-2 like Diabolic Edicts which is also good vs TNN and Eldrazi alike among other cards off the top of my head (Vindicate/Pontiff/BOB/Tidehollow) look Displacer would make things like Pontiff really good and I can see that being positive in a lot of MU's which is why we are running this deck for the most part, well I also have even love for Chalice/Thalia.
The logic they have 4 decays also has a rebuttal that you will play more things than they can decay over a course of the game and if they are decaying a Sword over a Chalice/Thalia etc.. this is likely Favorable or even for us. You can still equip a Batterskull on a Smasher and do it that way as well or just keep turning the Smasher sideways.
Look in the end we will not have a 100% viable option but I want what options I do have I want them to be on time most of the time.
I am going to stand corrected and think Pontiff is correct but am right on playing it with only 8 black sources. I have been messing with a minor black splash and so far its been stellar:
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Eldrazi Displacer
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Reality Smasher
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Mox Diamond
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Dismember
2-3 Plains
3-4 Caves of Koilos (right now on the 2/4 plan)
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Wasteland
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Karakas
Sideboard:
4 Faerie Macabre
3 Swords to Plowshares
2 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Bearer of Silence
2 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Reality Smasher
1 Vindicate
So I should start by saying I tried 4 Bobs as he was human and liked it a lot as it made the Mox Diamonds better in the longer game and the deck only had 7 cards 4 or higher over and tested with the SFM package and without. But this required a 100% non-basic mana base which I did not like use of Aether Hub over the basic Plains. But this route was not terrible and brings back the BOB or SFM debate.
Bearer of Silence would be lights out if you could use it with Temple but still this card has been pure gas. I want to add a 2nd to the board but I like the split of him and Diabolic.
Diabolic is good in the meta right now and Pontiff has just been pure value.
Vindicate just upgrades over a disenchant and doubles over against decks like Lands.
I won a game with Macabre cause I could actually cast it now, that was fun.
Will be testing more with this.
@Main: not sold on the config - but at least i would trim one Revoker/Smasher for the 3rd Thalia 2.0 - This deck can Start with Thalia on Turn 1 and in some cases this will result into "GG, next". Note that Thalia 2.0 also protects you from decks with hard manadenial. Rest is ok, your Main clearly aims for more "fair matchups" (Stoneforge/Removal Main) - but overall you miss great stuff like Palace Jailer (C.Priest) and overall Displacer interaction.
@Side:
Bearer of Silence - a card i have tinkered around since i have Eldrazi - sadly Wizard designed it way to safe (no Temple/Eye abuse, no EtB for Displacer etc...) so overall for 4 Mana the card isn't good, i would play Palace Jailer over it in any case. TNN is more or less the only creature you can't target with Jailer, but Bearer is only better in this case IF TNN is the only creature your opponent has on the field. Otherwise Jailer offers a card draw engine and displacer-combo for the same mana and idea: Removal on a Stick.
Faerie Macabre - Playset sounds like overkill, yes Br Redanimator is currently a Tier 1 deck (it will fade once meta pack enough/right GY hate) but cards like Containment Priest are so good here (castable Turn1, cavern=humans, Displacer combo) and will work against many other situations (Sneak, Elves, Vial etc.). At the current meta, if you really fear Reanimtor, i would go with 2 C.Priest (i have them main) and 3 Faerie Macabre as GY-Hate (Paired with our other hate permanents we have a lot of nasty stuff).
Diabolic Edict - yeah good card, but overall i would stick with more non-spell solutions becaus like any other stompy-shell you need enough gas to close the game.
Vindicate - solid spell, but i would ensure that you have at least 3 cards that can deal with lock out pieces like Moat, Bridge etc. i for myself will never skip a game because my opponent stick his one off solution. I currently run, 2x Disenchant, 1 Elspeth for this reason, but i can also see C. Judgment or in your BW case stuff like Vindicate or Kaya at Side - but only one copie is (for my taste) far to random as a solution.
@BW Splash: I would at least test Kaya, Ghost Assassin as a Tech, it is an out if the field is locked (Bridge/Moat/TNN or other stalls like Gofy/Strix), a way to draws two card a turn, locks enemy creatures out with Thalia 2.0 or C.Priest.
As an owner of both DnT and Eldrazi, I took the plunge and bought my 4 Mox Diamonds today!
I've been playing MikeBrav's (Phil's bro?) list on cockatrice undefeated after 10 or so best of 3s - which may say more about the users on cockatrice than the deck, but they were all using competitive lists.
//25 Lands
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Karakas
1 Mishra's Factory
5 Plains
4 Wasteland
// 24 Creatures
4 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Reality Smasher
3 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Thought-Knot Seer
// 11 Spells
1 Dismember
1 Batterskull
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Mox Diamond
1 Umezawa's Jitte
// 15 Sideboard
1 Disenchant
1 Dismember
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Path to Exile
1 Reality Smasher
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Thorn of Amethyst
Here are some cards I've considered including in the 70:
Blade Splicer
Palace Jailer
Sword of War and Peace
Sword of Fire and Ice
Blessed Alliance
Spellskite
Lodestone Golem
Here's how I'm siding in a few popular matchups - it may not be optimal so I'm looking for some constructive criticism:
Death and Taxes
Out
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
In
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Path to Exile
1 Disenchant
1 Dismember
Miracles
Out
4 Eldrazi Displacer
In
1 Disenchant
1 Reality Smasher
2 Thorn of Amethyst
Reanimator
Out
3 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Dismember
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
In
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Thorn of Amethyst
BUG (fucking Leovold :mad:)
Out
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Phyrexian Revoker
In
1 Dismember
2 Path to Exile
1 Reality Smasher
4 Swords to Plowshares
Went to two legacy tournaments over the weekend. Brought the following list for the Saturday tournament:
6 Plains
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Wasteland
2 Karakas
1 City of Traitors
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Eldrazi Displacer
3 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Restoration Angel
2 Sanctum Prelate
1 Palace Jailer
4 Mox Diamond
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Warping Wail
3 Swords to Plowshares
2 Faerie Macabre
2 Rest in Peace
2 Containment Priest
2 Orzhov Pontiff
2 Disenchant
2 Suppression Field
Quick results:
Round 1 - Deadguy (Draw)
Round 2 - RB Goblins (Loss)
Round 3 - BUG TNN (Win)
Round 4 - Esper Stoneblade (Win)
Round 5 - Grixis Delver (Win via Concession)
I made a ton of mistakes in the first two rounds which is why I kind of deserved not winning round 1 and lost in round 2. Forgot my Chalice triggers and also tapping the wrong lands so I couldn't cast multiple threats per turn. Playing against decks that have Lingering Souls was also super frustrating as the deck can't really handle threats that go wide. Suppression Field was great today, it just slowed my opponents down and allowed me to stay in the game. Boarded them in against Deadguy and Stoneblade and they just couldn't properly craft their gameplan.
As I mentioned before I really disliked Warping Wails so for the Sunday tournament, I decided to replace the Warping Wails with a Umezawa's Jitte and a Sword of Fire and Ice. Again, I'm not sure if this is right but at least the equipment helps us buff our small creatures to push through for damage.
Sunday results:
Round 1 - Painter/Grindstone but has a Welder reanimation package of Wurmcoils, Noxious Gearhulks and Sundering Titan. (Win)
Round 2 - White Aluren (Win)
Round 3 - UR Delver (Win)
Round 4 - Grixis Delver (Loss)
Round 5 - Deadguy (Loss)
Round 6 - D&T (Loss)
Round 4 was a bit frustrating as both games he was able to land a turn 1 delver and was able to disrupt me so that he killed me right before I was able to kill him. I think I made a mistake in a scenario where I'm at 5 life and I have a Thought-Knot, Thalia 1.0 and a Revoker naming deathrite and he's at 12 life with a flipped delver, deathrite and two volcanics in play and he's empty handed. I realized that if he drew a bolt that I would just die but for some reason I didn't attack with everybody and just attacked with the throught-knot alone and then I just died two turns later as he was at 8 life and I could only attack for 6 damage.
Game 3 of Round 5 had an interesting mulligan scenario as I mulliganed my opening 7 as I felt like I could do a lot better and my 6 was 5 lands and an Eldrazi Displacer. I thought about this hand for like a minute before deciding to mulligan since I felt like living off the top of my deck against a deck that has discard and can blow up permanents at will seems really bad. My 5 ended up being Thalia 2.0 x2, Eldrazi Displacer, Restoration Angel and Cavern of Souls and I decided to keep since if I drew a sol land, the hand immediately becomes active and if he has a hand with a lot of discard effects, he doesn't have a lot of good options to take. I decided to not to mull to 4 since what's the chances of you getting more than 1 land in a 4 card hand that's also relatively competitive? The game ended up being a farce as I just didn't draw another land in the first 3 draw steps and he just ended up vindicating my land and every other land I drew afterwards got wastelanded. Oh well, maybe the 6 would have been a better keep?
Suppression field was amazing against D&T as it make it really hard for them to port, waste, vial, activate stoneforge, equip stuff, etc.. Game 3 was kind of frustrating as I drew all the Thalias and he had multiple Karakas. He was also playing with this 2WW 2/2, flash, split second, flying crusade guy which made my pontiffs utterly useless. Well done. Have to revise my sideboard plans and will probably need to board out more
thalias and keep the more mediocre creatures like Sanctum Prelates.
After the tournaments were over I realized that having Suppression Field and multiple equipment (especially Jitte) is just really bad so maybe the deck should have just 1 Jitte, 1 Sword of Fire and Ice and something else?? I have Phyrexian Metamorph in mind in the flex slot as you can keep on changing what it can become if you have a displacer in play but I'm not too sure if it's too cute.
Suppression field is really awkward with Eldrazi Displacer. I can't imagine they can exist in the same 75, and as you mention, the equipment is also a tough mix. If you want to play suppression field, you likely have to take out all equipment and the dispalcers. Eldrazi Displacer has been one of the main reasons to roll with plains over the colorless eldrazi version, but it's probably worth testing a version without displacer and more of a commitment to prison.
Yeah i get that there's a nombo there but I think in the matchups where I want Suppression Field, the pros outweigh the cons.
Against miracles, it delays fetchlands, top activations, EE activations, jace activations which are all way more backbreaking for them.
Against lands, it delays fetchlands, stage activations, dark depths activation, cycling, maze, wasteland, ghost quarter, port, molten vortex and clue activations.
The way I want to play the deck is just to delay them long enough for me to kill them and Suppression Field has proven that it's really good at doing that and if the downside is that it's a bit more expensive to activate displacer, so be it. Displacer is not the greatest in the matchups I where I want Suppression Field anyway.
Miracle is already a good matchup - you have Thalia(s) + Karakas to protect them, you have a very fast game plan thanks to Sollands, you have uncounterable creatures, you have big Eldrazi like TKS and hasty Smasher, you have Displacer to protect everthing against Swords, you have Displacer+TKS to prevent any Miracle-Card (and WWail), you have Thalia 2.0+Wasteland to attack their manabase, you have Palace Jailer against any creature or simply out-draw-them, you have Chalice to prevent most things they can do against you. You have Revoker to prevent SDT or Jace stuff. Unless you are unlucky (and/or your Opponent have Maindeck Moat) you should win Game 1 very easily. Game 2 is more or less the same, you will see more removal, answers for Chalice&Co, less counterspells, maybe Blood Moon (not so hot against this deck) and Moat as a superior Wall (and as i mentioned a lot, you need at least 3 answer against it). You need no SField here, it's kind of overkill and: a) it can't beat your opponent dead b) its killed from Wear//Tear (a very common card at Miracle Side).
Displacer is totally underrated here, together with TKS he will prevent any Miracle, he can keep Mentor or Entreat-Token in check (not easy against Mentor but it can help to race unless you face double SDT-chains). Displacer can also protect other creatures against Swords, if you have 2 Displacer your opponent better find a terminus. Body with 3/3 is also very solid against Miracle.
Lands is not a common deck at current meta - but Eldrazi&Taxes have a lot of tools to fight back - have i mentioned Displacer?! Mox, Basics prevent some ugly Waste into Loam plays, Rest in Piece is really strong against Loam-Engine, Karakas can bounce Marits Avatar, Chalice at 1 is ok, Chalice at 2 is even better, you have your own Wastelands to delay stuff like Maze or DDepths Combo. All Eldrazi are big enough against PFire and can win quickly. Thalia 2.0 really shines against Lands. If needed you can also bring in cards like Aven Mindcensor or Crucible.
Lingering Souls have i mentioned Displacer? :wink: Overall 1/1 token aren't great against First Strike Humans or big Eldrazi (Smasher is golden here), Pontiff really shines here and your own Jitte can also be quite good against weak Deadguy Creatures. For me the tactic would be to attack the manabase, Wastelands, Thalia 1+2 are really good here, if your opponent takes control with slow cc3 WB Spells something has gone wrong.
http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=14604&d=287639
Taking some influence from our Vintage cousins - Walking Ballista? How do we feel about this as a flexible mana sink? Pretty mediocre against flickerwisp and other Displacers, but surely dominates Delver.
Came in 2nd place last night with the list I posted a few comments up. Still seems very powerful, but I'll be making some changes.
My matchup were
Reid Duke's Leovold BUG with 2 fatal pushes 1-2
Blue White Prison (aka the spice) 2-0
Sneak Attack through the breach 2-1
Death and taxes 2-0
I'm not loving Stoneforge in this deck as it just doesn't have an impact on the board when it lands. While batterskull sometimes wins games, it's often too slow and can't be protected with displacer. I'm thinking blade splicer as a 2-of is better as it helps gum up the battlefield and has some nasty synergy with displacer.
The BUG matchup is pretty tough with the printing of fatal push, so I'm going to run 2 copies of blessed alliance (1 main 1 side), the full play set of smashers, +1 city of traitors, -1 mishras factory and +1 wail -1 displacer . Testing will determine if the curve is too high.
Here's where I'm at:
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Karakas
1 City of Traitors
5 Plains
4 Wasteland
3 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Reality Smasher
2 Blade Splicer
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Thought-Knot Seer
1 Warping Wail
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Dismember
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Mox Diamond
1 Umezawa's Jitte
// Sideboard
2 Seal of Cleansing
1 Blessed Alliance
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Path to Exile
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Thorn of Amethyst
The Duke deck is a tough Matchup no matter how you spin it. I don't like making so many changes for 1 deck thats already a semi-bad 4/6 Matchup Your wasting slots thats should make your 5/5's better or cards that are good in a abundance of Matchups. Push is at most a 2 of in Legacy and we still got Chalice.
Just run Pontiff in the board and hope you draw better game 1 which is completely possible.
Here is what I have been running for a while. Haven't changed anything for a bit:
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Containment Priest
4 Eldrazi Displacer
3 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Reality Smasher
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Mox Diamond
2 Dismember
1 Umezawa's Jitte
5 Plains
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Wasteland
4 Cavern of Souls
2 Karakas (I might cut a plains and go back to 3) but with the priest's in the deck its value is less needed.
2 Caves of Koilos
Sideboard:
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Faerie Macabre
1 Rest in Peace
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Batterskull
1 Disenchant
2 Orzhov Pontiff
2 Thorn of Amethyst
Pontiff is good in a lot of Matchups and has won me many games as people play into it because its not expected and comes in vs a multitude of decks and again with Displacer locks people out.
The Containment Priest's are also strong and better than Splicer because unlike Modern where you can play a 3 drop like Splicer in Legacy the Priest cost 2/has flash and does help in a format where decks like B/R reanimator exist/among others and I would not cut the SFM package as its very good at what it does but you don't need 4 SFM or even 3. I love me some Blessed Alliance *have it in my Soliders Stompy board* but its not good in this deck and situational. Just run Dismembers over the Situation cards like Blessed and Wail. Wail is reactive, this deck ties up its mana and its easy to have 1 for Dismember than 2 open at any given point. Plus Dismember hits cards like DRS on turn 1 which is very important.
For the most part your decks looks like my version before this one except Pontiff helped me in the TNN MU's and Priest's give you a stronger Displacer game than Splicer does by just exiling anything not named TNN along with being good vs cards like Natural Order/Reanimator etc... And I would not run less than 4 Displacers.
I agree that Blade Splicer isn't optimal, but only after testing it. I also agree that displacer is definitely a 4 of. I don't, however, want to run containment priests or Pontiff- I've played DnT at literally every tournament I've been to and I can tell you flickerwisp is good enough as is and while Pontiff can certainly cause blowouts, there just aren't enough black sources. I'm moving as far away from Caves of Koilos as I can.
This list is feeling very streamlined:
25 Lands
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Karakas
6 Plains
4 Wasteland
14 Spells
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Mox Diamond
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Dismember
2 Warping Wail
21 Creatures
4 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Reality Smasher
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Thought-Knot Seer
SB: 2 Thorn of Amethyst
SB: 1 Reality Smasher
SB: 4 Leyline of the Void
SB: 2 Seal of Cleansing
SB: 4 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 2 Blessed Alliance
Hi all! First, thanks to all that have been playing the decks and commenting their experience with single cards and builds. It had helped a lot to understand optimal choices. I've been playing the deck since November and it's been a great experience, I find the deck very favourable in my meta (TES, 4 color delvers, miracles, sneak & tell, lands, other rogue decks). The most problems I've faced with the deck is drawing lands when you need more fuel, or drawing moxes without land, thus I added a couple of copters as it was suggested before.
Lands (25)
4 Wastelands
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
2 Karakas
5 Plains
Artifacts (11)
4 Mox Diamonds
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Smuggler's Copter
Creatures (22)
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Containment Priest
4 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Thought-Knot Seer
2 Palace Jailer
2 Reality Smasher
Instants (2)
2 Warping Wail
SB:
2 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Disenchant
1 Batterskull
2 Blessed Alliance
3 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Sanctum Prelate
3 Tsabo's Web
The most even decks I've been playing are miracles and delver variants, although I've faced trouble with delver god hands. I've faced reanimator yet, but I would likely replace Tsabo's Web in the SB for 3 Faerie Macabre if that is the case.
In the more creature-centric meta I face priests MD have been very solid, even with new players not very familiar with the displacer interaction. I'm willing to add an additional Smasher for a Thalia 2.0 (making 3/3 split). What would you suggest to improve delver matchup (4 color variant).
When Delver was more popular here, I favored Swords to Plowshares over Chalice of the Void. I also liked a configuration playing Chalices and Declaration in Stone. Copters give you fliers, so that also improves the matchup. The easiest way to lose to Delver is one or more Delvers cast on the first two turns. As long as you can block or kill them, you should prevail. Stoneforge Mystic into Batterskull is a strong plan, too, and you have that in your sideboard. I don't like Warping Wail preboard. I play Spatial Contortion over it in any heavy colorless deck I play. Once Delver flips, Warping Wail is a big do-nothing. For me, the versatility of Warping Wail has never really paid off. I like it as a sideboard card in certain matchups, such as against Storm, since Storm pilots usually board out discard spells vs. Chalice decks.
My latest pile. Dropped wastelands for cities and additional copies of the most OP land in magic - :w:! Piloted this in about 20 games and haven't lost yet. I noted that every time I drew a city I was happy with it not being a wasteland. I also dropped bad thalia, brought back SFM package (with sword of F&I which has been over performing), and added two council's judgements in the sideboard which I've been able to reliably cast every time with the extra plains. It doesn't seem like a lot of people are playing this deck, but it's got a good game against most tier 1 decks.
// 25 Land
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Karakas
2 City of Traitors
8 Snow-Covered Plains
// 24 Creature
4 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Reality Smasher
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Thought-Knot Seer
// 11 Artifact
1 Batterskull
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Mox Diamond
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
// 15 Sideboard
2 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Sanctum Prelate
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Council's Judgment
1 Blessed Alliance
Been playing the deck for a couple weeks now with not so great results ,but the deck feels like its almost there and it fun as hell so i'm gunna rock it for a minute. Played at the Bearded Dragon 2.5k E.E. satellite yesterday went 2-3 drop..after 3-1 ing the night before at Stomping grounds, but it is what it is . I'm thinking about 2-3 norns annex in the board against t.n.n. and eldrazi decks . i know it sounds wonky but I've played the card with success before.
4 Ancient Tomb
3 Cavern of Souls
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Karakas
2 City of Traitors
5 Plains
3 wasteland
1 ghost quarter
4 Eldrazi Displacer
3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Reality Smasher
3 Thalia heretic cathar
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Thought-Knot Seer
1 phyrexian metamorph
1 containment priest
4 Chalice of the Void
4 lotus petal
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 dismember
2 thorn of amethyst
2 disenchant
3 Swords to Plowshares
2 rip
3 fearie macabre
1 pithing needle
1 ratchet bomb
1 winter orb
1 smokestacks
1 spatial contortion.