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Scrying for free on land is very powerful, is smooths out mana flooding and mana screwing. Scry 1 on lands that gives 2 diffrent colored mana is way stronger then it looks. Thought probly not legacy viable anyway! But still gonna test!Quote:
Originally Posted by Wilkin
The problem is, at least for me, that I splashed green and cannot afford another B/W land. Itīs 4 Scrubland, 2 Bayou for me, since I wanna have some basiclands in my deck.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rizso
Thinking of adding Sorin, Lord of Innistrad in the sideboard. Most likely, I'm probably gonna use Elspeth but wondering have any of you tried Sorin? What do you think of him?
I play him instead of Hero twice mainboard. Sometimes he just seals the deal by pumping a horde of 1/1 Spirits and at his worst he stalls by pumping out a token each turn. Also a nice source of jitte carriers in late game. I only had the pleasure to ultimate him twice during tournament situations, but usually itīs a win against creature based decks. Itīs priceless to see the face of a designated aggro player when he realizes, that he cannot stop you from grabbing his precious goyf. Granted, that happens rarely, but I found him versatile enough to make him my second planeswalker aside lili.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wilkin
Edit: Dont forget his -2 stacks, is permanent and affects creatures which enter the field after.
I did play with sorin as soon as him and lingering souls go released, he was in the deck with Elspeth but later removed Elspeth. Sorin is easier to cast and has better synergy with lingering souls thought Elspeth got more synergy with her pump abiltiy with the small dudes of the deck. The Emblem making of Sorin is very strong when everything in the deck has such a low power. Making 1/x into 2/X or 3/x increases the clock with very large %.
Cards i have thought trying out is:
Lifebane zombie, with deathrite it comes down rather fast, Green and white creatures are quite common after all. And even if you dont get a card you have a 3/1 with evasion for your equipments.
Sin Collector same as the zombie, its one of thoes 2 for 1 creature that I like. Thought got stiff competition from Tidehollow Sculler wich seem to be a very strong card.
Taking the deck with some diffrent aproach with Flagstones combined with Dustbowl. Why this? Flagstones does kinda work like fetchlands with the new legendary rule and using it with dustbowls means they will do 2 for 1.
As for new cards in theros not much looks to be intersting except agent of fates when using Dark Blast with him. Ashen Riders for the board against Show and Tell. Also testing out the scry lands. Many cards will get scrapped of the list.
The lifebane zombie's ability is too narrow in legacy. Even against creature heavy decks, you still have low chance to hit early threats, like shaman, goyf and mongoose.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rizso
And we have many way to deal with green(and white) creatures. When you could perish their whole board, exile one is not that awesome.
If it says "white or green card", it may be our perfect "Black Clique",with 3 power, evasion and disruption...unfortunately, it says "white or green creature card".
Won a GPT for Washington. Getting 2 byes is pretty sweet. Beat Sneak attack, Death and Taxes twice, Maverick and BUG Tempo. Only loss was to Belcher.
Zealous Persecution was the sideboard MVP by far. A potential 2 mana Plague Wind vs Death and Taxes..pretty good. Tried a singleton Elspeth in the board...put it in against BUG Tempo and Maverick, never saw it, probably gonna take it out.
Still got strange looks from seeing Shriekmaw. Lol, that wasn't the weirdest card out there that day. One guy I saw played Jin-Gitaxias, Dark Confidant and Inkmoth Nexus.....in the same deck. Wtf? There was also a Stiflenought deck and a Cephalid Breakfast deck out there. Suffice to say, I didn't see any of those guys in the top 8.
Definitely going to up Persecution to 2. Seems to be more Death and Taxes around in my meta. And Elves too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wilkin
i've been running a singleton elspeth in my list too and she's like sooooo good... she shines against decks like bug and maverick and have loved her when paired with liliana, her giant growth ability is awesome since most of the creatures we run are on the weeny side... turn two mirran crusader into turn three elspeth against bug is just ridiculous lol. you know your list better then i do though, im just saying i think she pulls work as a one of
ps great job on the finish!!! i love seeing deadguy do well
Wilkin, would you mind posting your current list, i.e. the list you won the GPT with? Especially your sideboard would be interesting for me. Or is it just the last list you posted somewhere in the thread?
The main is the same as I posted before...except it's 3 Shaman and 3 Vindicate now....Quote:
Originally Posted by Valech
sideboard always varies....here's what it was at the GPT...
2 Thalia
2 Revoker
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Rest in Peace
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Golgari Charm
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Humility
1 Mangara of Corondor
Went a disapointing 4-2 to place 14th in a 40 person or so tournament. Just finishing out of prize (top 12 get duals).
Round 1 Belcher 0-2.
I know what he's playing as he was my only loss in my GPT. I thoughtseize him to get rid of belcher. I can't follow that up with anything and Empty the Warrens wins.
Game 2. I therapy away CharBelcher only to lose to top deck Empty.
Round 2. MUD 1-2.
My Batterskull and his mana screw wins game 1. Game 2, I didn't have a Sword to Plowshares for his Metalworker....wurmcoil pukage ensues. Game 3, I mull to 4 and see no lands so I pack it in.
ROund 3. bye
Round 4. RUW Helm 2-0
Overwhelm him with Soul Tokens game 1. Game 2, I ultimate Liliana.....so I separate his permanants into Volcanic, Island, Plains in one pile. Tundra, Counterbalance and Blood Moon in the other. He chooses to keep his 1 land, counterbalance and blood moon. A bit surprising to me. Also he made a bit of a mistake. In game 1, he has counterbalance with Top out and is tapped out. I cast Deathrite expecting him to draw with top and put top on top. Nope, it resolves. Got a few activations with deathrite before it gets Terminus.
Round 5. Omnitell 2-0
Game 1, I Therapy and Blind name Show and Tell...taking 2 of them. Sweet. Game 2, he has 2 Leylines of Sanctity out. After a Surgical on one of his cards I see he's got Show and Tell, Omniscience and Enter the Infinite in hand. He has 2 lands in play so I start Vindicating his lands...a single sol land and It's GG. He doesn't get his land...so I bought enough time to kill him.
Round 6. BUWG. 2-0
Good stuff.dec. Had Delver, Stoneforge, Deathrite as the creature package. Game 1, we traded stuff 1 for 1 and go into top deck mode. I top deck Lingering Souls and the 1/1 beatdown ensues. Game 2, he opens with Delver off of a Tundra. I end up casting a Bob with Jitte on it and waste his only colored land. He's a bit mana screwed and Bob with Jitte was enough to take it down. It was a Strange Brew indeed, 4 colors and it had basic lands and Wasteland. Seems kind of bad for the manabase.
May have to pack some Leyline of Sanctity or Mindbreak Trap to deal with silly Storm Shenanigans.
hey everyone. longtime lurker and first time poster. i took my list of deadguy to a big local the other day. Our playgroup has been getting massive lately and last week we had 14 people show up for our tuesday night magic local tourni. Pretty decent turnout, i used to rock dredge a lot in the meta but my deadguy list is my pet deck i've been piloting a lot over the past couple months outside of big tournaments. I ended up going 3-1 taking 3rd in the event.
my list
Creatures (19)
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Dark Confidant
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Thalia
3 Mirran Crusader
1 Aven Mindcensor
Goodstuff (15)
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Lingering Souls
2 Vindicate
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Elspeth, Knight Errant
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Inquisition of Kozileck (need to be thoughtseize)
Artifacts (4)
1 Jitte
1 Batterskull
2 Chrome Mox
Lands (22)
4 Scrublands
4 Marsh Flats
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Bayou
4 Wasteland
3 Swamp
3 Plains
Sideboard
1 thalia
1 lilliana
1 engineered explosives
1 kataki's war's wage
2 Rest In Peace
2 Surgical Extraction
1 duress
2 oblivion ring
2 phyrexian revoker
1 path to exile
1 perish
our group's been gearing up for the GP and tonight was no different as everyone tries to squeeze in some last minute testing.
Round 1 vs Burn
They lead off with a goblin guide, it attacks revealing a therapy on top and im at 18. I play a plains and pass. They play a land, bolt me, and attack, i plow the guide in response and they play a grim lavamancer and pass. I fetch a swamp, cast my first therapy naming sulfuric vortex as it's honestlythe scariest card for me in the whole deck, they reveal a hand of lavamancer, flamerift, and some other nonsense. I play a bob and pass, and my burn opponent kills it with grim lavamancer, gets me to near red zone on their turn and is now hellbent with two lavamancers and not enough cards in the graveyard to activate either. I stick a stoneforge mystic, and my burn opononent topdecks a land and proceeds to die to batterskull.
Game two
+2 O-Rings
+1 Duress
+2 Phyrexian Revoker
+1 Thalia
-2 Chrome Mox
-1 Inuisition
-2 Lingering Souls
-1 Elspeth
They open with goblin guide and swing, i get a swamp off the top and they pass. I play my swamp and cast cabal therapy naming sulfuric ortex again, they reveal a hand of two lava spikes, two rift bolts, and one flamerift. On their turn they play a land, followed by a guide they topdecked and spike me and swing for four, i get one land off the top. I draw a swords, cast another therapy I had in my hand for rift bolt and rip both from their hand, and then play a plains. They topdeck a land, swing with both guides one dies to swords to plowshares and i slowly take over the game by getting stoneforge into batterskull.
Round 2 vs Merfolk
I've been building merfolk lately so i'm getting used to this match up. Their mana is horrible and they are over reliant on aether vial, as long as i play around daze and force and expect the aether vial shenanigans i feel the match up is greatly in our favor.
I lose the die roll and he goes first. My hand is like two fetches, a swords to plowshares, stoneforge, liliana, confidant and chrome mox. He drops an island and plays an aether vial. On my turn i draw a mirran crusader, I'm looking at a turn one stoneforge and decide to just slow roll it. I play my fetch and pass. he ticks his vial up to one, plays a land and casts silergil adept revealing a reejery, and draws a card then passes. I draw a vindicate, play my second land , fetch twice and cast bob trying to bait out a daze or force, bob resolves and i'm at this point just certain he has neither. On his turn he plays a land, his vials at 2, hard casts a reejery and vials in a master of the pearl trident. He swings for four, i let it go through and he passes. On my turn bob reveals a land and i draw a mirran crusader. I play the chrome mox exiling crusader, cast the stoneforge getting batterskull and hold back a swords to plowshares. On his turn he keeps ial at two, vials in a silvergirl, and plays master of the pearl trident and swings for a lot, i plowed one of the lords and take some damage. On my turn bob flips another vindicate. But stoneforge and batterskull soon take over this game and i wrap it up.
Game two
+1 Path to Exile
+ 2 Phyrexian Revoker
+ 1 Liliana
+1 oblivion ring
- Aven Mindcensor
- 2 chrome mox
-2 inquisition
Me and my oponent are joking about how this deck is a new try for him. He normally plays a deadguy/junk list like myself but he said he wanted to try out merfolk tonight and he started joking about how horrible he was doing lol. We began talking about the decks mana issues and he says he hopes it won't affect him this game. He elects to go first and we draw our opening hands. He mulligans and my opening seven is fetch, fetch, sword, revoker, wasteland, path to exile, stoneforge. I say im def keeping mine and he says he is reluctantly going to try his and laughs it off. He starts by playing wasteland, aether vial and passing.... i look at his board realize he's going to get mana screwed sooooooo hard and laugh along with him as we both know he can't hard cast anything in his hand. He passes, i play a fetch land and pass the turn. He draws, laughs, plays a second wasteland haha, and another aether vial 0.o.... i'm looking at the baord look at him and say i hope u hae a force of will, on my turn i play a land and play revoker on aether vial... he vials in a cursecatcher in response and is throughouly blown out the rest of the game lol. in hindsight path to exile i'm not sure if i like in this match up or not... i'm not keen on giving a deck with horrible mana a free basic.
Round 3 vs Maverick
One of the better players in the group, me and her usually have pretty good games. Sadly i get steamrolled hard by her both games. Not much to report, other then that knight of the reliquary made me her bitch both games. My opponent here wound up winning the whole local so i'm not too dissapointed about the result.
Round 4 vs Deathblade
Game i keep a sketchy hand with like swords to plowshares, a cabal therapy, batterskull, elspeth and some lands. He lead's off by thoughtseizing me and taking batterskull. I respond by therapying him for stoneforge, nail one and he reveals like a bob another thoughtseize and a brainstorm and some lands. He thoughtseizes me again and takes elspeth. On my turn i draw a deathrite and play it. he plays bob, i plow it. I soon get double deathrite going and start getting into the red zone with both. we eventually get into a board state where i have two deathrites and an unactive jitte on baord and he has a deathrite. He top decks a batterskull and plays it and im like hella fucked unless i can top deck an asnwer. I top a liliana, swing with my euiped deathrite, kill his shaman then make him sack the batterskull token and take over the game from their.
- 2 inquisition
-2 chrome mox
+2 oblivion ring
+2 revoker
Game two his plays go deathrite, stoneforge, play batterskull where as my plays just don't get there lol. my attempt to vindicate his batterskull got spell pierced and my only out to the game then was gone. i manage to stall for fie or ten minutes with soul tokens but eventually just concede.
Game three, my opening hand is deathrite, mindcensor, crusader and some business. I lead with deathrite and pass. He apparently had kept a one lander, played his land and brainstormed, smiled as he found more land and passed. On my turn i play a second fetch and pass, he plays a fetch land, cracks it and in response i flash in aven mindcensor. Mindsensor keeps him land and on my turn i play mirran crusader and bash for two in the air. His turn he draws a fetch, cracks it and fails to find a land again and passes. My turn i play a second crusader, bash for six and pass. He top decks a land and plays stoneforge mystic, batterskull isn't in the top four and he see's the writings on the wall. I bash again and he takes six, blocking one of the crusaders. he draws then concedes.
Hmmm.......Thalia maindeck with Lingering Souls, Liliana and Elspeth. Interesting. Not a fan of it though.Quote:
Originally Posted by ragamuffinvb
How do you find it? I play Thalia's only in sideboard. I find paying 4 mana for a Lingering Souls or Liliana to really suck. I only put in Thalia vs decks that play even less creatures than me and it's fine.
Also for sideboard, I'd recommend Zealous Persecution somewhere. True Name Nemesis will be everywhere, plus it's great vs some decks like Death and Taxes, Elves etc.
in theory it does seem pretty clunky, but i don't really notice an issue half the time. i look at her as anti-removal/lightning rod, as sticking a bobor stoneforge is of much greater priority. Deathrite shaman and chrome mox help with mana taxing as well to an extent. i run her main deck for the simple reason as she's really annoying for control decks like bug and deathblade to deal with and every now and then two of our players in our group come with T.E.S to storm people out. Overall it's just a personal preference i guess running her main deck. i will acknowledge it does not look or sound efficient in any way shape or form, but i'm ok with it lol... thalia just has her uses.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wilkin
Regarding zealous persecution, i completely agree. I used to run two in the board actually, but they came out for engineered explosives and kataki as affinity was giving me some problems. Now that the affinity players have moved on to decks with true-name nemesis im definitely putting them back in.
Since Dnt and Elves have won some main tropies in recent months, and Progenifish becomes hot topic today
I recall the days we packed zealous persecution maindeck. In that days mavrick flooded everywhere.
Went to GP Washington. 1698 players. Placed 45th with a record of 11-3-1. Playing....Deadguy Ale of course, I suck at playing tier 1 decks....the only other decks I can even do ok with is janky combo homebrews.
Decklist.
4 Dark Confidant
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Deathrite Shaman
2 Shriekmaw
2 Hero of Bladehold. Yes, hero of bladehold
3 Thoughtseize
1 Cabal therapy
3 hymn to tourach
3 Liliana of the Veil
3 Vindicate
4 Swords to PLowshares
2 Chrome Mox
3 Lingering Souls
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull
4 Scrubland
1 Bayou
3 swamp
1 plains
1 Karakas
4 wasteland
4 Marsh flats
2 verdant catacombs
1 Bloodstained mire
SIDE. 2 Humility. 2 Engineered Explosives. 2 Zealous Persecution. 2 Phyrexian Revoker. 2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. 2 Surgical Extraction.
2 Rest in Peace. 1 Duress
Round 1. BYE. GPT trial Oshawa
Round 2. BYE GPT Trial Oshawa
Round 3. 2-1 vs Sneak and Show. Herndon.
He gets a game 1 loss for showing up late. Game 2. He show and tells in sneak attack and Emrakul....GG. Game 3, I apply pressure with Batterskull and lingering SOuls.....he casts Show and tell. I put in Humility....he puts in Emrakul. He immediately concedes since he didn't board in bounce vs me.
Sided in.....2 humility, 2 revoker, 2 thalia, 2 surgical and 1 duress.
Round 4. 2-0 vs. blue black storm. Michael.
I have way too much discard for him to handle and then in game 2....a RIP seals the deal.
Round 5. 1-2 vs UR Delver. Raymond.
I'm ok with these matchups but sometimes they can ride the delver to victory. Key play for him is game 3, he flips bolt to delver (he pondered turn before), allowing him to kill bob and Liliana. Boo urns.
Round 6. 0-2. Dark Maverick. Jacob.
Didn't have a chance here. He had too many threats for me to handle. Knight of Reliquary with mom and SOFI. Uh.....yeah.
Round 7. 2-0. RUW Delver. Li.
Delver game 1 beats me down to 8. Tried Swords...counter. Vindicate....counter. Vindicate....counter. Finally Liliana. resolves. Bout time. Able to stablize. Game 3 key play was we both had Batterskull out....but Bob flips and gives me a Vindicate. At this point, my sideboard plan for these delver decks is completely overload with removal. So in goes EE, and Zealous Persecution and RIP vs the goyf and goose decks and out goes Hymn to Tourach and a Hero. Stifle and wasting me sucks but with no dudes applying pressure I can survive.
Round 8 2-1 Elves. Francis.
Game 1, He has enough for Craterhoof Overrun. Game 2 and 3, I kill every creature on board. Shriekmaw, EE, Jitte, etc. etc. Got him with Humility game 3.
Round 9. 2-1 MUD. Joe.
He plays a buried ruin....so I put him on mud and I cabal therapy him naming Metalworker. I nab it and see 2 thran Dynamo. He had to mull to 5 so with not much action I get him. Game 2. Wurmcoil beats. Game 3...
OK, so he's got a Chalice on 2. He casts a Grim monolith....we both miss the trigger....the monolith allows him to cast a Wurmcoil engine. To his credit he realizes the error and we call a judge. Judge rules that he gets a warning but he keeps the monolith and Wurmcoil in play. I appeal. But nothing. I did have the Swords to plowshares in hand but still. I'm able to pull it out with 4 Lingering Soul tokens and vindicating mana sources so he can't cast another fatty.
7-2 record. Pretty tense since I had to go 3-0 to get there.
DAY 2
Round 10. BYE. 235 players made day 2. So one of us gets a bye. It was me.
Round 11. 2-0 RUG Delver. Justin.
I have too much removal for him to handle. Winning play in game 2 was.....I had rest in peace out. He just cast goyf as a chump blocked for my Mystic with a SOFI on it. I topdeck Zealous Persecution to not only allow me to kill Goyf but give me +1/+1 to win.
Round 12. 2-1 Reanimator. Ken.
He scoops a bit early game 1. Funny thing was he has no lands in play and when I cast Hymn to tourach on him, a griselbrand was pitched. I have a Mystic out that just got a Batterskull. I try and Thoughtseize him and he scoops, saying he doesn't want to reveal what he is playing. :)
Sided in 11 cards. lol. only things I didn't put in were Zealous and EE.
Still, he's able to show and tell Griselbrand out game 2.
Game 3. I have a Liliana, 2 Deathrite, 1 bob and Humility out. On 2 occasions he calls a judge to talk to him privately. Ken later tells me that he asks how creatures like Elesh Norn, Ashen Rider and Tidespout are afffected by Humility. He realizes his only out is to bounce Humility, which he doesn't find in time.
Round 13. 2-0 Merfolk. Eric.
Game 1. Turn 1 thoughtseize I see. 1 island, 2 lords, 2 vials, 1 adept and 2 true name. I take a true name. And take the other True-name with another thoughtseize, turn 2. I'm able to bring out a stoneforge mystic that tutored for SOFI and already have a hardcast Jitte in play. He does have 2 mutavaults so he's able to double block and kill stoneforge. his other lords were killed by removal. so we go into top deck mode and brick on lands until I land Bob....and then GG>
Game 2. Key play was I'm able to kill 2 True-Name Nemesis with Zealous Persecution. Felt great. Soon after I have Humility out with a Batterskull. Funny thing was he casts a 4mana creature and laughs since it's pretty useless with Humility out. I go...oh yeah? On my turn I cast Shriekmaw for 5 mana (I might add the only time I cast him for 5 mana the entire tournament).
Round 14. 0-2 Shardless BUG. Ted, who would go onto top 8.
I can't beat Shardless BUG. Only time I ever beat that deck was when I cast bob first turn and flipped nothing but wastelands. Too much value in Shardless for me to deal with. Apparently there were like 4 Shardless in the top 16, so I'm fortunate to avoid the matchup for the most part.
Round 15. ID. Hugo
I want to place in top 64 badly. I was 50th going in. Opponent offers the draw, I accept. Plus I was getting really tired, didn't sleep much since I was so jacked up from knowing I made day 2.
All in all, very happy with the result. My goal was to make day 2 and I did. And record was as good as 11-2, which at that time was 26th place I think. LOL, pretty sure I was only guy who was playing Hero of Bladehold. I never got to cast her AT ALL. Either didn't see her or couldn't cast her. Maindeck MVP was Bob. Sideboard MVP was Humility. It beat Sneak, Reanimator, Elves and Merfolk.
Probably guessing I was one of only a few Deadguy players there. Speaking of which, I saw Chris Pikula quite often walking around. No, he wasn't playing Deadguy lol. Think he was on RUG Delver.
Nice report!Quote:
Originally Posted by Wilkin
What cards would you like to tweak, after the GP experience?
Hmm....May make it 1 Hero and 1 Mirran Crusader. But i don't know. Lightning Bolt still annoying.
May take out Thalia's so that I'm not destroyed by -1/-1 effects. But most of list is alright. Thought about playing Toxic Deluge in the board but found Humility, Engineered Explosives and Zealous Persecution to kill or neuter creatures to my liking. Humility was insane. It won me 4 matches.
Was able to deal with the new boogeyman of the format in True Name Nemesis. Might add a Manriki-Gusari in board if it becomes popular. 3 damage a turn is manageable....3 damage a turn with Jitte on it....not so much.
Should really get them Ensaring Bridges they are very strong atm. With Liliana its quite easy to control it, most creatures in the deck are 1 or 2 power anyway.
Have increase the land count in my deck to 23. Testing it out.
4 Scrubland
1 Bayou
4 Marshflats
3 Polluted Delta
1 Fetid Heath
2 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Wasteland
1 Dust Bowl
2 Swamps
1 Plains
4 Deathrite Shamans
4 Dark Confidant
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Jitte
1 Batterskull
4 Thoughtseize
3 Inquision of Kozilek
3 Lingering Souls
4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Disfigure
1 Zealous Persecution
board
3 Abrubt Decay
1 jitte
1 Pithing Needle
3 Surgical Extraction
1 zealous Persecution
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Ashen Riders
Last card not chose atm :P Might be a massacre.
Reason for increase mana is quite simple i rather be flood and have something to do with the extra land then not be able to play my spells or having to muligan to much. Disfigure is quite good atm. Takes folk lords, flipped delvers, DRS and other fast dropps while being only 1 color and 1 mana. The decays are mainly for Counter Balance. Persecutions and Pontiff has their use against dnt and ofc true name.
Mana base is a test out for flagstones with Dust Bowl. Dust Bowl is also a way to get rid of unwanted lands when flooded. Karakas and chains of Meth are cards considering in the main as well, 1 of each.
Oh....right, that's why you play Flagstones of Trokair. With Dust Bowl. Hmm.....how late do your games go usually? I used to play Dust Bowl a long time ago. It's ok, but only really effective in the long grindy matchups. IMO, I wouldn't bother.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rizso
I would also suggest a Sword of Fire and Ice main. Being able to swing through a True-Name Nemesis is fairly relevant. Worked wonders at the GP for me. Not a huge fan of Ashen Riders for our deck because of flipping it to Bob. Couldn't you have another Humility and/or Oblivion Ring in those spots? And you can realistically hard cast those if needed.
The Pontiff.....I like. Zealous Persecution on a dude, well close enough. LOL, what's better than giving your opponents creatures -1/-1? Doing it again with the same card.
Also, not sure if your mana base can handle 3 Abrupt Decays. I know you have Deathrites and 1 Bayou, but not sure it's enough. Is it mostly for Counterbalance? Might be ok there, since that deck usually doesn't have wasteland.