[Deck] Death and Taxes

And I'm totally convinced that mana-wise 3c is 100% viable, I just don't actually know that there's a pay-off card that makes it worth it. Teeg might have been before Mentor, but it's not now. I've tested w/ 2 Bobs main, and while I've won a few games off them, it's mostly

a. 'When Bob comes into play, sacrifice Bob, opponent discards removal spell'
b. never something you actually tutor for, because you want a guaranteed Stoneforge in the fair matchups or a guaranteed hatebear in the unfair ones.

I don't see the appeal of Bob, since you already have better CA in form of Recruiter and SFM.

Blue has some interesting things, namely Phantasmal Image, Geist of Saint Traft and Meddling Mage, but what match-ups would they improve compared to pure R/W?

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Originally Posted by iatee

I'm pretty convinced that the R/W version is miles ahead of the other versions in consistency and power at the moment.

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Agreed. I can't bring myself to go back to playing Mono-white after having played R/W. Whether you're starting the chain with Recruiters against miracles (nice Terminus brah) or tutoring for specific cards, the power level of R/W is just through the roof comparatively versus mono-white imo.

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Originally Posted by iatee

Miracles is probably 55-45 in our direction but would be 75-25 w/ this naya list if only mentor didn't exist.

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Play a sharpshooter somewhere in your 75. It is just an absolute beating against Mentor + Infect.

Ha, well Bob's appeal is that he's a sweet 2 drop with creature type 'human' and I wanted to push the tribal angle as far as it can go. But while not actively-bad you're right in that it doesn't feel necessary. I don't think geist or meddling mage have enough universal application and mage is kinda a terrible hatebear compared to thalia/ethersworn anyway because it doesn't stop a combo deck from getting their anti-hatebear card, which is part of any post-sb gameplan. I think clique is honestly the only amazing disruptive blue creature in the game, that card does everything, but obviously it's way outside of our mana. 1UU seems rough even for the uw lists floating around.

I actually really like the idea of izzet staticaster vs pyro decks, elves, infect, lingering souls and the mirror but yeah I'm also willing to admit that double non-white probably pushes it out of being reasonable.

Yeah I'm willing to believe you're right about sharpshooter as a reasonable replacement, I'm gonna get one. At the very least it has some game against d+t, infect, elves, etc. But I still think any half-decent miracles player will learn to just play around sharpshooter after seeing it once.

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Originally Posted by iatee

Yeah I'm willing to believe you're right about sharpshooter as a reasonable replacement, I'm gonna get one. At the very least it has some game against d+t, infect, elves, etc. But I still think any half-decent miracles player will learn to just play around sharpshooter after seeing it once.

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It's quite nice when they bend themselves over backwards to try and play around a creature you may not even have in your hand, so your suited up dudes/dudettes can get through uncontested.

And when they play into it... it's beautiful.

It obviously has weaknesses and I'm probably a bit too obsessed with Goblins but "dies to bolt" isn't really a good enough argument for me.

Hi,

thoughts about Stillmoon Cavalier http://deckbox.org/mtg/Stillmoon%20C...?printing=4126? I like him, but he haven´t made the cut yet. Is he playable in the R/W Toolbox?

I don't Sharpshooter dies to bolt is the issue...Pyro decks are the only ones where that matters anyway. I just think the answer to Monastery Mentor probably kills Mentor itself instead of just buying time (and not even, if they held up mana.) But it seems like it has application elsewhere so I'm gonna start testing with one and compare it to Cunning Sparkmage - which can't blow up a whole board but can kill an active Mother of Runes, isn't shut off by an Invigorate, etc.

I don't see wanting to tutor for Stillmoon very often, even vs w, b or w/b decks it doesn't seem like a game breaking card in very many situations. Like, it would be sometimes convenient to have a pro-STP dude out vs miracles, but it's not better than Imperial-Squadron-Hawking as you won't kill them with it before they find a Terminus. Vs. D+T you'd still rather get Stoneforge going.

Well, I managed to cash Eternal Weekend. Didn't quite get top 32, but 41st isn't terrible. Played a ton of Delver, which is always good. I was playing a pretty stock mono W D&T list:

4x Mom
4x Thalia
4x Stoneforge
4x Flickerwisp
3x Vryn's Wingmare
3x Serra Avenger
2x Revoker
2x Mirran Crusader
4x Aether Vial
4x StP
1x Jitte
1x SoFaI
1x Batterskull
10x Plains
4x Rishadan Port
4x Wasteland
3x Karakas
2x Flagstones of Trokair
SB:
2x Cataclysm
2x Rest in Peace
2x Ethersworn Canonist
2x Council's Judgment
2x Kor Firewalker
2x Wilt-Leaf Liege
1x Manriki-Gusari
1x Pithing Needle
1x Enlightened Tutor

I had played the Crusaders maindeck because I expected a fair amount of BUG, which seemed to have paid off. I'm also just not comfortable cutting out all of our 3 mana beaters, but that's probably wrong on my end, so whatever. If I could do it again, I'd probably have kept the maindeck the same and cut the Wilt-Leaf Lieges from the board for something else. I'm not even sure I saw a Liliana or Hymn all day. I do not remember my matches well enough to do a write up, but I can at least mention what I played against.

Round 1 vs Omnitell (2-0)
Round 2 vs BW Helm Combo (2-0)
Round 3 vs Omnitell (0-2)
Round 4 vs Lands (0-2)
Round 5 vs Bug Delver (2-1)
Round 6 vs Miracles (2-1)
Round 7 vs 4c Delver (2-0)
Round 8 vs Bug Delver (2-1)
Round 9 vs Infect (2-1)
Round 10 vs Grixis Pyromancer (2-1)
Round 11 vs Twelve Post (0-2)

All in all, I feel pretty alright about how I played. The Wingmares definitely won me some games. They're better than I thought they would be. I still feel more comfortable playing classic D&T than R/W or G/W, but I'm not certain it's correct.

What about thopter engineer as a one of in red splash? Human. Makes a haste flier that can suit up and bash immediately, esp if coming out of a vial

Also gives you aggro phyrexian revokers and can be flickered for a little value. But it seems way too low power level to justify any cut though, and it's not much of a trump card in any post-sb match.

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Originally Posted by iatee

Also gives you aggro phyrexian revokers and can be flickered for a little value. But it seems way too low power level to justify any cut though, and it's not much of a trump card in any post-sb match.

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Ya likely. Any interest in maindeck 1x of mangara or mirran or silverblade? Lot of dnt mono white loading up on fliers so having a double strike flicker seems good since red runs considerably less

Yeah, I think I'm probably putting crusader back in main over a wingmare.

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Originally Posted by iatee

Yeah, I think I'm probably putting crusader back in main over a wingmare.

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I used to play red splash but haven't in awhile. Gonna try it out again. Ever try REB? I was thinking about trying 1 or 2 copies. Counter SNT, DTT or blow up omni, jace

I've tried a copy in my sideboard previously but have never actually drawn it yet. It can't be that terrible in today's meta, but it feels like it might be hard to have the red mana up (or 1R) precisely at the best moment, especially if you have a port or two out. It's worth testing as the card (in theory) hits a lot of our biggest problems at once, and people tend to side out their counter magic g2/3.

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Originally Posted by iatee

I've tried a copy in my sideboard previously but have never actually drawn it yet. It can't be that terrible in today's meta, but it feels like it might be hard to have the red mana up (or 1R) precisely at the best moment, especially if you have a port or two out. It's worth testing as the card (in theory) hits a lot of our biggest problems at once, and people tend to side out their counter magic g2/3.

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I like the 3 caverns with humans but only 2 plateau does make it rough to make REB work. Any plans to adjust mana? I'd use yours except cut savannah for plains. No teeg

Yeah there's no way you can play REB w/ the 3 cavern list, and even if you're on a list w/ 7 fetches it's a stretch to play too many non-creature red spells. I would be interested to see how someone w/ the right mana base and a large # of sb blasts does vs omni and the other t1 blue decks though.

Realistically speaking, how often do we have off-color mana open, especially when we add Thalia to the equation?

I'm not saying that it's bad, but I think it might clash with our strategy a bit too much.

That's more or less how I feel, REB is an incredibly powerful card, especially in today's legacy, but it doesn't work w/ D+T's general strategy, and it doesn't sync particularly well w/ what the red splash is doing. I would like to verify this regardless though, as omni remains a pretty annoying matchup.

Especially since no Omni player would think about making sure to have countermagic to protect their Show against a deck of white creatures. The surprise factor might be worth it for a little bit.