Printable View
Hey guys, I just started with this deck and its loads of fun! I was just wondering what things people typically boarded out against Reanimator? Assuming I have something like 2x Grafdiggers Cage, 2x Tormod's Crypt and some number of Echoing Truths and Pyroblasts in the board as relevant cards.
Cheers
In my last version with sdt i boarded
In
3 cage
2 echoing
3 reb
Out
1 misdirection
1 show and tell
1 progenitus
1 sdt
2 ponder
2 petal
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attac...1&d=1322024869
Too bad Cascade doesn't trigger with Sneak Attack or Show and Tell
Any thoughts on the Eureka version posted here: http://www.westcoastlegacy.com/press...top-16-report/
It's interesting, especially how Eureka enables you to windmill slam multiple permanents, including things like Nicol Bolas to deal with JaceTM.
The Eureka version is definitely more exciting. ;-) I just like Sneak Attack more because the red splash gives you access to a really strong sideboard.
Besides that, I just took Sneak Show to a 4th place finish (4-1) at my local legacy tournament (27 players). I played the following list:
Main Deck:
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Progenitus
2 Woodfall Primus
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Intuition
3 Lotus Petal
3 Misdirection
4 Ponder
4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack
3 Spell Pierce
4 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
2 Island
1 Mountain
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Volcanic Island
Sideboard:
3 Blood Moon
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Pyroblast
2 Shattering Spree
4 Tormod's Crypt
And I just noticed how overpowered this deck is against the now popular decks. And even though it is now in the DTB-section (which it should have been for so long in my opinion xD) I encountered no hate cards today.
I rediscovered my love for this deck. :-) Might write a little report later.
Hey JPAngelescu,
how come you play the deck without any Pyroclasm? And why do you choose Shattering Spree instead of Echoing Truth? Dont you find that it is quitehard to win against delver-decks without removal?
My least favourite start is nowadays from can.thresh-decks. Preboard they have a short clock, postboard they have 4 pyroblast on top of their daze, fow, spell pierce and delverswings
Well I am back to report on how my sneak and show did at my local game store we had a tourney where first and second each got a dual 1st was a tundra and second was a tropical island. I got first! I played against mono red round 1, affinity round 2, ascension round 3, i drew round 4 with esper blade do to me not hitting a fourth land in game 3 :( then in round 5 we just id to get in the top 8. Round one of top 8 i played the guy with affinity again, then i played an out of town guy with esper blade game 3 went to me with turn 2 emrakul! haha and then in the finals the guy i played just looked at me and said i know i cant beat you and you can have first he was playing affinity also just like the guy i played both times earlier. So anyways here is the list i used.
Spells:
4 Show and tell
4 Sneak attack
4 Force of will
3 Daze
3 spell snare
4 intuition
4 Lotus petal
3 Emrakul the aeons torn
3 Progenitus
2 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
2 Seething Song
Lands:
4 Volcanic Island
2 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
2 Islands
1 Mountain
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
sideboard:
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Angel of Despair
1 terastadon
4 pyroblast
3 Surgical Extractions
3 Spell Pierce
2 Misdirection
Below is a short report from GP Dallas, that was held on March 11th. If it wasn't obvious due to the top 16 deck placings I didn't make it in. Don't despair, there is much better news to follow.
Here's the deck list that I played at the event:
Attack of the Show
2x Chrome Mox
2x Mox Diamond
1x Sensei's Divining Top
4x Sneak Attack
4x Show and Tell
4x Brainstorm
3x Ponder
4x Force of Will
3x Daze
4x Spell Pierce
2x Intuition
4x Emrakul
3x Progenitus
4x Ancient Tomb
3x City of Traitors
4x Volcanic Island
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Flooded Strand
2x Island
1x Mountain
SB:
2x Shattering Spree
3x Bloodmoon
2x Mind Harness
2x Pyroblast
1x Red Elemental Blast
2x Submerge
3x Tormod's Crypt
Round 1: Nicholas with Mono White Soldiers (2-1)
G1: On the play, 1st turn S&T in to Emrakul. He put the soldier with the ringleader effect in to play. I proceeded to annihilate him. Final life total; 20 to 0.
G2: On the draw, turn 3 Sneak Attack, while he played soldiers. Had a counter war on the Sneak Attack as he proceeded to play out two disenchants, and got it on the second disenchant. Turn four I top deck another Sneak Attack, and he disenchants again. I was crushed by soldier advantage. Final life total; 0 to 20.
G3: On the play, turn 2 S&T Progenitus. I swung away to victory right before he would have had me at lethal the following turn. Final life total; 11 to 0.
Round 2: Shane with RUG (2-0)
G1: On the play, I mulled to 5; him to 6. Third turned S&T Progenitus through a counter war. He beats me down with a Goyf, while I swing for more. Final life total; 9 to 0.
G2: On the draw. Found a S&T by 3rd turn, and 4th turn I S&T Emrakul in to play, with him putting Goyf in to play. I Mind Harness Goyf, and it's all over from there. Final life total; 8 to 0.
Round 3: David with Merfolk (1-2)
G1: On the draw. I play S&T Emrakul on second turn, and I get blown away when he puts Phantasmal Image in to play, and then proceeds to win with lots of Merfolk. Final life total; 0 to 20.
G2: On the play. Third turn S&T Emrakul, and he has no answers. He does beat me up with a lord and a Mutavault in the interim. Final life total; 11 to 0.
G3: On the draw, I mull to 5 with a no lander. Although, I had a Ponder, Brainstorm, Force of Will, and two Spell Pierce in hand. It was a bad idea, I proceeded to draw my first land by turn 4, and it was an Ancient Tomb. I got beat down by Mishra's Factory’s under a Standstill. Final life total; 0 to 20.
Round 4: Joe with Burn (2-0); Featured match
G1: On the play. By turn four I had Sneak Attacked and Emrakul in to play, and then two turns later I swung in with a Progenitus via Sneak Attack. He played out a lot of burn against me, but didn't have enough to finish me through efficient counters. Final life total; 6 to 0.
G2: On the draw. I think this round I took a bunch of burn and Ancient Tomb damage until I assembled S&T Emrakul by turn three or four. He couldn't recover, but it ended close again with him sitting with no Mountains and drawing a Chain Lightning. Final life total; 4 to 0.
Round 5: Matt with Re-animator (0-2); I could have won both games /facepalm
G1: On the play. I first turned S&T Progenitus on the field, while also having Emrakul in hand. At the time I didn't know what he was playing, so it seemed the better play. It wasn't. We flip and he reveals Jin Gatixis, and proceeds to block Progenitus with a continually re-occurring Empyrial Archangel. Final life total; 0 to 10.
G2: On the draw. I turn three S&T Emrakul with a Pyroblast in hand in case he attempts to counter, and he Brainstorms. I allow the Brainstorm, and he find Angel of Despair in his top three to seal the deal against Emrakul. I didn't Pyroblast the Brainstorm in case he put Jin Gatixis in to play, or attempted to counter. Another game I could have won. I also had a Tormod's Crypt in play since turn 2. Final life total; 0 to 18.
Round 6: Kaider with BUG (2-1)
G1: On the play. I play out S&T Emrakul on the third turn, and he puts a Goyf in to play. I proceed to win in two turns. Final life total; 16 to 0.
G2: On the draw. I can't assemble much of an assault through discard, counters, Dark Confidant, & Goyf on the field. I get rolled over by turn 6 or 7. Final life total; 0 to 11.
G3: On the play. He taps out to play out some creature on the board. I follow that up with a Blood Moon, and it seals the deal until I can get Sneak Attack with Progenitus/Emrakul online. Final life total; 14 to 0.
Round 7: Addison with Re-animator (0-2)
G1: On the draw. I try to fight off many reanimation spells, and eventually he lands a Reanimation on Iona, calling Blue after a little hesitation. It was the right call on his part. I proceeded to get Iona stomped with all blue cards in hand. Final life total; 0 to 9.
G2: On the play. I didn't take any notes on this game, not sure why. I think I got blown out with a Buried Alive on Jin Gatixis, and then stomped by card advantage. Final life total; 0 to 17.
Their was a Round 8, but after three losses, I would not be in contention, so I dropped.
Regarding the Sideboard:
I'm taking out one Mind's Harness and a Shattering Spree to put in two Echoing Truths. We need this card, and there are many times I wish I had it; especially against Re-animator
The rest of the sideboard performed well, and I wouldn't change anything else at this point of time.
Pro's:
1. Super nice people all day long at the event, and hung out with a group from Wichita Falls on Sat. & Sun.
2. Crushing RUG with style.
3. Planning ahead and bringing food.
4. Laughing in the face of Spell Snare.
Slops:
1. Getting owned by Re-animator, my worst match up.
2. Having to mulligan more than I thought I would.
3. Not having Echoing Truth in the Sideboard.
4. Arriving at the tournament 5 minutes before it started, due to the time change. Thank you Toyota Corolla for the great gas mileage at 95 to 100 mph all the way there; and no cops.
5. Selling off the rest of my MTG Collection to SCG. The $7k was nice though.
@Rameirez, just a few comments. I've been playing this deck for about 2 years now and love it just as I did on day 1. your list:
Lets start with mana
-Chrome Mox? You're creating a lot of card disadvantage here. Not a good idea when you're playing a deck that needs at least 2 critical cards and protection to win.
-Mox Diamond? Unessessary. Your land base looks really weak to begin with. What happens when you draw opening chrome mox and one other land? Again here I would say you're making the deck shakier. You're sacrificing consistancey for cuteness. We all love turn 1 wins but at the end of the day 4 turn 3 wins look better than 1 turn 1 win
-4 Ancient tomb is to much. Forget about the gobs of damage they deal out but you NEED NEED NEED an island
-City of Traitors. I know some people like running 2 but not 3 and certianly not with 4 Tomb your land base is just to sketchy here.
-Volcanic Island I'v found that you only need 3 but I know a lot of people run 4. You don't want to go all in on Volcanic for your colored source only to get it wastelanded. Speaking of which your land base is very susceptible to blood moon and wasteland.
suggestions: -2 Chrome, -2 Diamond, -1 Volcanic, -2 Tomb, -1 City
+2-3 Island, +2-3 Lotus Petal, +1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All, +2 Strand
Diggers
-Top. The problem I found with Top was that it's to mana intensive for the deck. It's nice that it's reusable but you need that mana for other things like Spell Pierce and Flusterstorm
-Brainstorm and Ponder counts are fine, I run 4 Ponder though
-Intuition is a must have but i'd run 3 or 4 if I were you. They are just so important and they allow you to keep hands with one peice of the combo missing and find protection.
Suggestions: -1 Top, +1-2 Intuition
Counters
Let me see... you're running a counter package of... 11 preboard. Good number. I like 12 better. I run 2 of Daze because it's free ability sets us so far behind especially when we are running it mainly to counter discard. 4 FOW is a must. I Run 3 Spell Pierce and 3 Flusterstorm. Flusterstorm is so amazing, trust me. And it's you're only great stop button for ANT TES etc...
I think if you make these moves you'll find that the deck is much more reliable and consistant. Let me know what you think
@ everyone else
Just played this deck at GP Indy and a few thoughts on some issues.
Misdirection-This card was such a let down. I boarded it out almost every game. Came in hand twice all day I think. Everytime I needed to stop them from doing somthing I couldn't because it was a creature or one of their FU to me cards like Lilliana. Most blue players are running Spell Snare right now which we could care less about.
Shattering Spree sucked for me never had enough red to do anythign great with it.
MASSACRE WURM is the shit. I decimated Elves and Affinity with him. He can turn the tables against agro better than emmy can. I was playing against affinity round 5 and he had like 13 perms out so I cast S&T and he didn't care because emmy wouldn't set him back far enough to win me the game so when I show him MASSACRE WURM his jaw hit the table. The two dudes playing to our left stopped their game and they were just yelling in disbeleif lolol. All totalled he lost 12 life and then took leathal from it 2 turns later.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Colonel
hey can you post a list of yours? Also i agree with the stuff on the moxes and some of your other stuff i am really gana have to try out the wurm never thought of it at all really. Also snare is pretty good but if i was going to a gp or something i might switch it out to the peirce, but it all depends .
Ummmm.... Yeah I can post my deck, not right now though, just way to tired. I wanted to comment on Spell Snare for our deck before I pass out. Spell Snare Vs. Spell Pierce for our deck. Spell Pierce is far more versitle for us. When I talk about this deck I describe counterable spells as "breaking my tolerance threshold". What do I mean by that? Well, this deck can tolerate a lot of stuff (storm combo exlcuded when a Dark Ritual might be the right thing to counter) that other decks can't. For example: very few decks can tolerate ghiest or SFM... we on the other hand can. We put emmy or proggy into play and more often than not we win. So cards that break our tolerance threshold are things that stop us from putting out fatty into play. If the opponent plays somthing that doesn't mess with us cheating a 15/15 into play let it slide. Emmy and proggy just kill them quicker. What kind of cards break our tolerance most often and wth the greatest degree of success? Instants and Sorceries (counter magic and discard) most of which don't cost 2. So Spell Pierce is just the better option for us. The most heavily played card that breaks our threshold that Spell Pierce can't touch is Knight which Spell Snare can't touch either.
Alright, so as promised, and in an attempt to get some discussion going on this thread (come on folks we're DTB now!) here's my deck.
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Progenitus
4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Intuition
4 Force of Will
3 Flusterstorm
3 Spell Pierce
2 Daze
2 Lotus Petal
3 Volcanic Island
2 Ancient Tomb
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta
5 Island
1 Mountain
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
Sideboard
3 Blood Moon
3 Massacre Wurm
2 Pyroblast
3 Pithing Needle
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Firespout
I run Firespout because the 3 damage is far more relevant than the 2 damage from Volcanic Fallout or Pyroclasm. I mean, sure it's not counterable and costs 3 but how many super fast agro decks run counterspells? 1 maybe? Bant? Massacre Wurm is so nutty against elves, gobs, Affinity, and it can get quite a few dudes in Maverick and Zoo as well.
When I was at GP Indy I was still running Misdirection and it was so disapointing. Flusterstorm is nutty. I only run 1 Boseiju because you never want more than 1 and we don't really need it for protection. But when you do get it it's great stuff. Needle is key for us now because Jace and Lilliana are everywhere. When I'm going against heavy blue decks I will board out the 2 Petals for Pyroblasts.
Questions? Comments? Complaints? Lets hear em'
Running a miser's Boseiju might be kind of awkward is some instances where you would need a land source and it comes into play tapped. I think if you tailor your defense suite tightly you should have no problems getting off a Show and Tell or Sneak Attack without having to worry about needing that extra land to make it happen. The protection is nice, but is it really worth setting yourself back a turn and giving your opponent a golden opportunity to capitalize on the loss of tempo?Quote:
Originally Posted by The Colonel
Also (and I'm not sure anyone else has considered this), but doesn't Progenitus seem much more viable right now given Maverick is everywhere - including Karakas? I suppose with Sneak Attack it's rather moot, but with Show and Tell it's really a blowout. Your opponent can also accelerate a land off SnT and cast Jace, too; I've seen it happen.
@Hollywood
Beseiju isn't really awkward at all. Look, if you can't play an Island first turn you can't keep the hand. So if I draw Boseiju in opening hand and keep it I have an island first turn allowing me to Ponder/BS. Second turn I drop Boseiju tapped. What can we do on the second turn? hard cast Daze? we still have the original Island to ponder/BS again. Then turn 3 comes, untap Boseiju play Island number two cast an uncounterable S&T and win. Don't look at Boseiju as a mana source. Look at it as a free, reusable counterspell.
You can't really compare Progenitus and Emrakul. Apples and oranges. Bottom line is they are both Swords/Path proof. Sometimes Proggy is better and sometimes Emmy is better.
I see it in a different light.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Colonel
Boseiju is ultimately only marginally effective if you open hand it or naturally draw into it turn two - when you would want to ideally drop it anyways. It really doesn't do anything more than your counter-magic already does except set you back a turn and expose you to tempo strategies looking to pin down your mana base. You're already dependent on Tomb and City to power out one of your cheat mechanisms, and awkwardly drawing into Boseiju can really change the dynamic of the game - and not necessarily in a good way. I understand its utility, but is it really worth dedicating a slot for it when you can perhaps increase your filter or draw? I'm assuming you're not using this specifically as a land but rather a "virtual spell."
Actually, you kind of can and have to compare them. Both cards fill the same role for the slots they've been relegated to, so the question arises whether or not you require four Emrakul/three Progenitus, or vice-versa. Emrakul right now is actually kind of bad when you consider the large amount of Karakas in the format - namely in Maverick (arguably the most popular deck at the moment with EsperBlade, which also runs one next to multiple Jaces).Quote:
You can't really compare Progenitus and Emrakul. Apples and oranges. Bottom line is they are both Swords/Path proof. Sometimes Proggy is better and sometimes Emmy is better.
Additionally, Force of Will is incredibly important in being able to protect your investment and it might be better for you to consider ramping up to four Progenitus as not only can it plow through every defense, it can also be pitched to protect another investment entering the battlefield. Emrakul's application is solely dependent on either Show and Tell or Sneak Attack, but at least Progenitus has an alternative use. It's also probably the more effective choice of the two at the moment because it is generally definitive when it comes to dealing damage.
You're still running Emrakul, obviously. I'm simply insinuating that perhaps four Progenitus is a better number than three. Generally, Progenitus is better off Show and Tell, and Emrakul is better off Sneak Attack. It's more likely you'll resolve a Show and Tell before the latter due to its cost, and you don't want the blowout where your opponent drops Knight into play - you want to win as fast as possible.
So I've been lurking around these forums for a long time now, but since our deck has moved to [DTB] I guess it's time to start contributing. I've been playing Sneak & Tell for about a year, so I'll start by posting my current decklist and then provide a few thoughts about some of the recent topics.
Main
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Progenitus
4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Intuition
4 Force of Will
3 Flusterstorm
3 Spell Pierce
2 Daze
3 Lotus Petal
3 Volcanic Island
2 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
3 Island
1 Mountain
Sideboard
3 Blood Moon
3 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
2 Echoing Truth
Beater Selection:
Progenitus: I agree with Hollywood that Progenitus is currently worthy of four-of status. Karakas is significant in my meta, and I almost universally find that I'm boarding out tentacle-dude so that I can keep "Protection from EVERYTHING".Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite: I've tried Massacre Wurm, and found it useful, but I think Elesh is a better choice in this position. Many of the super-fast weenie decks you mentioned at least think about board wipes and have some plan to deal with them, either through recursion or re-accelerating (Glimpse of Nature for example). The damage from the Wurm is cute, but we're playing with big enough fatties that establishing multi-turn board control through Elesh is more relevant.
Sideboard:
Echoing Truth: I've found this card to be extremely important in the board. Important enough that I've occasionally mained it. Notable cards that it deals with are Humility, Ensnaring Bridge, Ghostly Prison and Propaganda, all of which can pose significant challenges to winning.Red Elemental Blast: Should be used over Pyroblast as Misdirection can point Pyroblast to a non-blue spell (ex: Sneak Attack) and cause a fizzle. Red Elemental Blast's target must be blue. I run a one-of Pyroblast just in case they remove my REBs (ex: Extirpate)
Other Cards:
Boseiju, Who Shelters All: This card is amazing in the Through the Breach build of this deck, but, as with Daze, I find the one-turn hit for something that is really only useful for Show and Tell too much of a hit to justify.Pithing Needle: A very strong card that I've run until very recently and am currently trying to find room for again. I agree that it's probably necessary in the current meta.
I'm very open to criticism, so please let me know what you think!
Alright, now this is what I'm talking about....constructive discussion.
@Hollywood
As far as Boseiju is concerned... I see it about maybe 1 out of 7 games. So, rarley does it impact the game. When it does get drawn it always impacts the game in a positive way for me. I love going against tempo decks becuase they are so slow and have no answer to us dropping emmy or proggy. They may slow us down for a couple turns but they don't capitalize on it like an aggro deck can. Mono black tempo is the one tempo deck I fear. ie: sac effects, discard
Emmy Vs. Proggy... eh, you have to take risks with combo decks like these. Sure they might drop a knight or a karakas off S&T and be able to bounce Emmy but if that's the beast in your hand you have t take that risk. We can both give each oher a million different senarios where one is better than the other. Thats why I say there's no point in comparing them. And being able to pitch proggy to FOW what if Proggy is the only s&t target in your hand? you still want to pitch him? no. But yes you're right you can pitch him to FOW if necessary.
@Cyrandir
Our decks look nearly identicle with a few minor details in land base. Our board is where we really differentiate. Elish Norn is alright, but Massacre Wurm is strictly better I think. Take your average aggro deck we're using these 2 creatures for. On average we cheat a beater into play on turns 3 and 4. By that time super aggro deck ussually have about 5 creatures in play on average. So say they have 5 creatures in play you put the Wurm into play. They lose 10 life and now they're two attacks from death by wurm. Whats that you say? They put 3 more creatures in play? Well even after wurm comes out they still lose 2 life for every creature they lose. So that's a guaranteed loss of life every turn. Norn is better if you power him out turn 1 or 2 but on average I think the Wurm will get to the finish line quicker. Not to mention is you use sneak attack here the wurm is just stricktly better than Norn. You can get 18 damage with the wurm from on sneak attack activation. You get 4 with Norn. That's why I say Wurm is the better choice. Better synergy with Sneak Attack.
@Boseiju: Totally worthless, comes into play tapped, not useful for half of our business spells and limits us to turn 3 action instead of t2. T2 you want either island+fetch or island+brown for intuition. Not island+tapped useless land for non-shuffle and non-intuition.
@Massacre Wurm/Iona: I run Pyroclasm, it can ALWAYS be cast on t2 which is very relevant when up against Elves for instance. It takes care of things faster than finding 2 cards to sweep and can be protected easier from hate than for instance Iona that gets bounced by karakas.
@Lands: I'd say its a metacall, right now I run 19 with 7-8 fetch, 3 island, 1 mountain and 3 volcanics. I would never go to 2 volcanics to increase fetch because I am too afraid of stifle. 6 brown is probably right, but I am not sure that 4 Ancient Tomb is always the solution (for instance against burn)
@I run 7 creatures (4 emra, 3 prog) and I find that sufficient. I have tried Woodfall Primus and other solutioncreatures but always find that a good sideboard handles things better than getting a guy in play that gets sworded and then you are back to square 1.
@Sideboard: I have played this deck in about 30 4-match tournaments weekly. My meta is quite diverse and I have tried everything from full defensive sideboard (pyroblasts, flusterstorm, misdirection, leyline of xxxx) to aggro sideboarding (blood moon, woodfall primus, delver/bolt-transform) and I come back to the same 12 cards: 3 Red Elemental Blast, 3 Pyroclasm, 2 Echoing Truth, 4 Leyline of the Void). Now after this you can go whatever your meta calls for, either you go with Blood Moon or you go with Flusterstorm/more red blasts/combohate such as Trinisphere. Btw, when talking sideboard, a t4 Massacre Wurm is NOT enuf to win against aggro decks if the player you are up against know what they are doing. Elves win t2-3, thresh doesnt let you get enough lands for it, zoo (if played) gets you down with bolts after you clear the board so there its not relevant.
@Intuition/Jace/Cute tricks: I tried 4 Intuition but found it too dependant on land drops and often very slow to fire the trigger. Double JaceTMS was cute with the bounce, good with the brainstorms but in the end it was a Unsummon+Brainstorm that always died the turn after and could easily have been another better 4 cmc spell. At the moment I run Gitaxian Probe x2. So many times I feel the need to KNOW if I have another turn or if I need to pull the trigger. If I should SnT in Progenitus or Emrakul. If my opponent has a Knight of the Reliquary or not. It never gets countered, it draw another card and if you are low on life, you tap a blue and draw a new card which seldom is a disaster. The best thing with it is to see opponents hand plus draw two from the ponder. Which can be very relevant in this deck.
I agree that against super-aggro decks Massacre Wurm may be better, but we need to plan for an entire meta, not just elves/gobos/affinity. Here are a couple more reasons that I think Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is better.
1) Elesh clears blockers beyond the first turn. Say Massacre Wurm comes into play and wipes their board. They lose some amount of life, probably between 2 and 10. As there is no continual effect keeping the board clear, it becomes profitable for them to continue to play weenies and block if possible (2 life vs 6 damage). As they are playing weenie, they can play chump blockers each turn and slowly rebuild (or not so slowly, if glimpse is involved). Also relevant, if they're playing Bitterblossom, they get chumpies every turn. Assuming they lost 10 when the Wurm came in and they don't have any lifegain play, they're on a 6 turn clock (1 Wurm, 5 blockers). Alternatively, Elesh comes into play and wipes their board. They are unable to play their chumps and Elesh wipes them out in 5 turns.
2) Non-aggro disruption Because she lays down a continuous effect, Elesh is better at controlling mid-range and other decks. You are much less likely to score a big damage hit with the Wurm against these decks, and keeping relevant dudes like Dark Confidant, Mother of Runes and Stoneforge Mystic off the board past the first drop is also very relevant. If they can get a Mom or a Mystic + SoFaF or SoLaS on-line, your Wurm does you no good whatsoever. Elesh prevents these from ever becoming relevant again. Dead cards in your opponent's hand are good.
3) Vigilance. Vigilance is one of the more broken mechanics out there. Not only can you swing for beats, but you can block the annoyingly large Knight/Tarmogoyf/whatever that they're swinging back with. The 7 toughness means that it can block bigger, as well.
4) Sneak vs Show. This deck is all about getting a few big dudes out way sooner than anyone has a right to do. Given both the curve of the deck and the implied unreliability of drawing a threat, I'd much rather plan for Show and Tell to be my win con with a backup of Sneak Attack than the other way around. I get more mileage out of my dude if I get to keep him for more than one turn. If I do get to keep them for more than one turn, Elesh has a bigger effect on the board state.
I guess in summary I'm arguing that it's important not to get starry-eyed over the potential big hit from the Wurm coming into play. It's cool when it happens, but focusing on fundamentally good play (maintaining board control, creating bad cards in opponent's hands) results in a more consistent deck and in more wins.
I just came back from my first tournament with this deck and figured I might as well post my small report here, hopefully to get some criticism and to get even more discussion going in the thread.
I play in a well developed meta where many if not most archetypes are present, from enchantress to U/W Stoneblade and so on. We also get some beginners who bring very casual decks to the tournament, that rarely happens twice though, even if we encourage them to come back and maybe borrow a deck from someone.
Anyway, first tournament with Sneak & Show. My Decklist was as follows
4 Show and Tell
4 Sneak Attack
4 Force of Will
3 Intuition
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
3 Daze
3 Misdirection
3 Spell Pierce
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Progenitus
4 Lotus Petal
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Island
1 Mountain
2 City of Traitors
SB: 3 Blood Moon
SB: 3 Pyroblast
SB: 3 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 Pyroclasm
SB: 1 Wipe Away
SB: 1 Echoing Truth
SB: 1 Chain of Vapor
Should've played 2-3 Volcanics but I sleeved it up a few minutes into the first match and I didn't want to be a bother.
Round 1 - W/B Clerics
Game 1: What I said about well developed meta doesn't go for this deck, faced a new magic player on his second tournament ever (and first legacy). I kept a hand of 1 Show and Tell, 1 Emrakul, Ancient Tomb, fetch, Force of Will and some blue draw. I lost the die roll (didn't win one for the whole night), he played plains into Benevolent Bodyguard, I played island and passed the turn, he played swamp and the next turn I Show and Tell'd into Emrakul and promptly won. He was quite distraught when he realized what Emrakul did.
Game 2: Much the same as game 1: Show and Tell into Emrakul round 2, nothing relevant from his end. Didn't sideboard anything as it was a pretty easy game 1
1-0
Round 2 - Zoo
Game 1: Lost the die roll, he played fetch and passed the turn. I had kept a hand with 1 sol land, 1 fetch, S&T and Emrakul and a counter. I played the fetch on my turn and fetched in response to his fetch as I suspected he could be RUG tempo and didn't wanna get stifled. He fetches a Taiga and plays a Plateau on his turn and plays a Tarmogoyf. I Show and Tell Emrakul on my turn and he puts in another Goyf; 2 rounds later it's over.
Game 2: I boarded in the bounce in case he brought some random hate, didn't know what Zoo might have against me; boarded out 3 Spell Pierce. Had a slower start, no sol lands, and he played a Steppe Lynx and hit me once before I Show and Tell'd another Spaghetti Monster to finish him. He had apparently brought chokes, but as I only need to resolve 1 spell that requires blue that wouldn't have been too effective.
2-0
Round 3 - Pox
Game 1: Rolled 16 and felt pretty confident in starting until he rolled 19 =(. I knew he played pox so I kept a very land heavy hand and 1 FoW and 1 S&T (in retroperspective it was a bit too ballsy). After some digging for a creature for my S&T to no avail he played a Hymn and snagged my S&T. At this point I felt pretty desperate as he started beating on me with a Mishra's Factory and I essentially had jack shit. I drew a Sneak attack which I managed to get out before he destroyed my only red source with his Dust Bowl. with 1 sandbagged land in my hand and 4 life left I topdecked a brainstorm that drew me a red source, Emrakul and something random (yay :D), I promtly snuck Emrakul into play and slammed him to 1 life and 0 permanents; a few rounds later I intuition'd after another Emrakul and killed him. Close one!
Game 2: I managed to get out a Progenitus through S&T with 1 FoW to protect it, sadly he had 2 Smallpox. After it died I was out of wincons for quite some time, and had to dig for both combo pieces. Luckily I misdirected a Hymn from him which robbed him from some wincons and I also forced a Liliana. I eventually found a Show and Tell and Intuition which found me Emrakul whom I rode to victory. Pox proved to be the hardest match-up this night, having several ways to make me sacrifice my win cons and could simultaneously destroy my lands and wreck my hand. Misdirection proved effective against discard (which is also 1 of the two reasons I brought them) I didn't sideboard anything since I didn't feel I had anything in my board that was benefitial to the match-up.
3-0
Round 4 - U/W Stoneblade
Game 1: I watched the end of the game between this deck and the reanimator he faced, hoping for the Stoneblade to win as I hate facing Reanimator. I was lucky. I kept a strong hand with S&T and Emrakul, FoW, Fetch, Island, Ponder and some other card. He played a Flooded Strand and passed the turn, I drew a Lotus Petal but decided to not play it as he though I was playing U/R Delver or U/W Stoneblade myself. I played my Fetch and got my second basic Island, figuring I might as well go mono-blue as I didn't have a Sneak Attack and keep him in the dark about colors and deck. He Spell Pierced my Ponder and after I passed the turn he played a wasteland and Brainstormed before passing the turn. On my second turn I drew an Ancient Tomb but decided to play the island and slow roll into more counters to protect my S&T. Luckily he didn't have another land and even played a Snapcaster, in an attempt to be the beatdown, thinking I also had problems with mana. After a few rounds of preparation I played my Show & Tell and we had a small counter-war over it before it resolved and I got my Emrakul and he got his Sword of Feast and Famine. He promptly scooped.
Game 2: I sideboarded in 3 Pyroblast and removed 1 S&T, 1 Ponder and 1 Intuition. I kept a somewhat iffy hand of island, fetch, 2 emrakul, progenitus, fow and Sneak Attack. I drew into a third emrakul and some lands and counters. He managed to resolve 2 Stoneforge Mystics (I didn't bother countering them, I only needed to resolve my Sneak Attack to win anyway) fetching SoFaF and Batterskull. After saving up the mana to protect my Sneak Attack (round 5 or something) I played it, won the counter war and passed the turn. He didn't manage to find an answer and Emrakul snuck in the next turn, beating for a bunch. Game, Set and Match.
4-0
I know I kept hands I probably shouldn't have kept and did some bad sideboarding and that it was a small field (and I only really faced 3 real decks) but the deck feels quite powerful in the meta. It has a whole bunch of counters and Intuition is also massively useful. Misdirection was very useful in the U/W match-up and against pox, so I'm quite happy about bringing them.