Article sent in to Mythic -- should be going up tonight. I'll post a linky when it's good to go.
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Article sent in to Mythic -- should be going up tonight. I'll post a linky when it's good to go.
I've been disappointed with Thragtusk lately as well - didn't realize it until other people said something and then I cast him the other night - well, without a way to recur him, he's just underwhelming. (I don't run Volrath's or Recurring Nightmare in my P-Fire list.) I was thinking of replacing Thragtusk with Batterskull, but not being able to GSZ for him makes me a bit nervous. So I'm considering going to 61 with two Batterskulls and this also makes me nervous. I haven't gotten around to testing yet, the soonest I can play is Friday, but does anyone have any thoughts?
http://mythicgameselmira.com/article/article.html
Article isn't linked directly yet, so it might be kind of a pain to read. Sorry bout that =|
Great article. Pod is certainly fun to play, I'm glad you're considering it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Arianrhod
- One thing I'm not fond of in pod lists is putting too many tops and deeds. I've actually cut deed entirely and put 4 abrupt decay. But that's my decision...I do run 4 Deathrite, 3 wall of blossoms and 2 strangleroot. I usually have too much stuff in play to want to deed. My walls, explorers, undying/persist guys are enough to hold off stuff until I get to late game. At first I was like bleehhh wall of blossoms. Turns out, late game it's just a cantrip instead of a random 2 drop which I don't want to see. Deathrite speeds up pod so much! I also wanted more dudes to pressure planeswalkers like jace and liliana (was sick of these sticking too long).
- I still think primeval bounty should be considered. It makes sense to have two targets for rector. Nightmare dies to discard and decay sometimes which is annoying. Bounty has been outperforming it recently making every fetchland 5 life, every creature comes in with a 3/3 and drawing a therapy late game gives something +6+6. It's like a green jace lol. If you play top I would put it to 2 as birthing pod is kind of the same role: finding good stuff.
Can anyone confirm this:
If I activate spikefeeders -1 counter +2 life ability while having Archangel of Thune in play and my opponent stp Thune, I cant activate the spike ability in response because hes going to the gy before im gaining life and adding a counter from thune? (well I can but I can't combo off)
Spike feeder will be put into the graveyard upon activation of the second instance of that ability before any player receives priority, correctQuote:
Originally Posted by litenkatt
Thanks for a very nice article. I love when the deckbuilder explains his choice card by card as you did.Quote:
Originally Posted by Arianrhod
Definitely have to get my hand on Archangel of Thune and get the party started!
The list looks good. Glad that Living Wish is gone. It is much better and more focused than what it was previously. I like pretty much everything about it.
One thing you could consider is switching Carpet of Flowers for Abrupt Decay in the Sideboard. Decay is great in all matchups in which Carpet would come in. Has been good for me because Deed + Carpet is horrendous against Shardless and Blade and can even cause problems against RUG. I don't mind though if you keep it this way. Nothing big.
But - and excuse the rant - this really bothers me:
I can't understand how everyone ignores Sylvan Ranger. It is a great card that does exactly what you want to do when you tutor for a land searcher 2-drop (unless you play Scapewish in which case of course Tribe Elder is better or if your meta is for some reason infested with Dredge). The point is that if you tutor for Tribe Elder you likely won't have many land drops anyway so he won't accelerate you. So you might as well just get Sylvan Ranger and have a creature AND a land instead of only one which is especially important in a Birthing Pod deck.
But Tribe Elder is fine, people don't get it with Tribe Elder, and I gave up on that and I can live with it. It is certainly wrong but Tribe Elder was a big thing in Standard once and Sylvan Ranger not and people play what they are used to and don't think too much about it. But Virdian Emissary... are you kidding me? This is so far worse than Sylvan Ranger, it is as bad as people playing Path to Exile over Swords to Plowshares in this deck. Viridian Emissary is better than Ranger exactly when all of this combined happens: a) you have a sac outlet, b) you have a land drop for the turn you sac it, c) you have a land drop for the next turn and d) you can use your mana exactly next turn.
What if you don't have the land drop this turn? Then you GSZ for Emissary, flash back Therapy and get a tapped land. And if you have Ranger in that place you get an UNTAPPED land and can use it for Top or another Therapy. Same thing with Tribe Elder btw.
Land drop this turn but no land drop next turn? Same card.
Can't use your mana completely next turn? Same card.
And, most importantly, what if you don't have a sac outlet or if you plan to chump but it gets Sworded? Then you just die a painful mana death.
I've liked the article good job (formatting was terrible though...). I've always liked to have some more things to do T1, considering Therapy isn't a T1 play. For that reason i'd go 3 GSZ, 2 Pod, or i'd play some more discard maindeck. 15-16 possible T1 plays at least is imho where u want to be. If you go lower than that, it can be a little awkward when you play legacy and don't do anything T1 :D
As noted in the article, I've been waffling on Emissary vs Ranger a lot. But these are pretty good points.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tao
Sold.
As for Carpet of Flowers, yeah, it's a nonbo with Deed, which tends to be good against decks that you want Carpet vs (exceptions being High Tide, Omni/Sneak/etc -- incidentally, Decay is useless vs these decks). However, the real reason to play Carpet of Flowers in my opinion is to fundamentally change the axis of the game against planeswalkers. Yes, it's helpful vs tempo decks because it invalidates their conditional counters. Yes, it's good ramp vs Ux combo decks.
But consider your standard planeswalker deck. Shardless or Esper -- either one works. Both have some chunky planeswalking flesh backing them up, and dealing with board control + planeswalker is one of the harder things for Nic Fit to do historically. You can crack an Explorer, and Esper will drop a planeswalker. Depending on if the particular Shardless list runs basics, they very well might, too. Or you might not have an Explorer and they just curve out into a t3 Jace via DRS. One of the best ways to answer this problem is to have a threat already in play, so that if they deploy their Jace, it represents a 4-mana Brainstorm and then dies. Carpet is a very good way to do this. Consider:
t1 Carpet
---------
t1 DRS
t2 (3 mana) -> Kitchen Finks; Spike; Pod; Zenith for more ramp; Vet + Therapy + any of the mentioned
---------
t2 (3 mana) -> Liliana (sac a dude? she dies to persist; discard keeps her alive, barely)
t2 (3 mana) -> Goyf + Brainstorm
t2 (3 mana) -> blind Shardless -> Visions
t3 (5+ mana) -> Pod + stuff; Archangel; Tusk; multiple 2-3's; Zenith for something; etc
---------
t3 (4 mana) -> Jace
By the time they get to a turn 3 Jace, assuming 2 turns of an active Deathrite, we're tremendously far ahead on board position, and Jace is guaranteed to die, along with Liliana along the way. The Triad (DRS -> Lily -> Jace) is the scariest curve that Shardless has, and Carpet singlehandedly dismantles it. Yes, it dies to Deed -- but by the time you're Deeding against one of these decks, you have enough lands in play anyway, nine times out of ten. Carpet is to gain tempo and get board development ahead of your opponent.
------------------------------
By the by, regarding the whole, Spike Feeder, in response kill [something], chain. You can actually play around this and set up to beat a spot removal if you expect it -- Scavenge something onto Spike Feeder, which puts additional +1/+1 counters on it. That way you can safely go infinite through spot removal.
Nevermind!
I agree about the carpet. However for the miracles matchup Choke is strictly better imo.Quote:
Originally Posted by Arianrhod
Hello, I am back. I just moved and got internet hooked up today. I am still playing Rector, I have been trying to read back on posts that I missed but there is just too many. I am going to get a trial version of camtasia and record a few games in the near future.
On birthing pod, I started out with that version and everyone was telling me the rector version was superior. Maybe at that time they were right, but pod has always been strong. Recovers a lot faster from board wipes and when I play tested vs burn it was down to who played first most of the time. But I have always found 4 pods way to much. If I can find my old deck list I will post it.
After a few days of testing - finally got all four Jaces - here are some thoughts on BUG (without Birthing Pod):
- I sorely missed having recurring removal like P-Fire.
- It's not as fast as GBW and it doesn't have the board control of GBR
- Doesn't control the stack as well as other blue decks.
BUG honestly feels like it's stuck somewhere in the middle - can't control the stack well enough (G2,G3), can't control the board well enough. I don't feel like my combo matchup improved that much compared to P-Fire except for the random Force of Wills that saved me once over five rounds. BUG doesn't feel like it does anything special that the other builds can't accomplish. Casting Jace is great, having Brainstorm is great too, but I honestly don't see the reason to run this version over P-Fire. Is Birthing Pod the trick? It could just be the way I built the deck, so here's a list for reference.
60 Cards Total:
2 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Veteran Explorer
3 Baleful Strix
1 Primeval Titan
1 Thragtusk
1 Deathrite Shaman
2 Eternal Witness
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Brainstorm
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Liliana of the Veil
2 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Thoughtseize
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Bayou
2 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Island
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Polluted Delta
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Volrath's Stronghold
SB: 4 Negate
SB: 3 Force of Will - Tried Envelop but there are two storm players in my meta and I can't win G3 without turn zero disruption.
SB: 1 Thoughtseize
SB: 2 Golgari Charm
SB: 1 Scavenging Ooze
SB: 2 Surgical Extraction
SB: 1 Memoricide
SB: 1 Cranial Extraction
Greetings nic fitters! I am helping a friend break into the format and it Nic Fit is one of the decks he has his eye on, however I am not overly familiar with the deck. He is interested in the punishing fires engine and likes to drop haymakers but were not sure exactly what is a nonbo here and we want to be sure before he springs for the cards hes missing.
Can PF engine be included along with birthing pods or another engine or is the deck pretty much limited to 1 engine (pod/PF/rector/wish etc)?
Also is natural order viable in nic fit? VE + GSZ seems ideal for consistantly dropping T3 order.
Lastly is there a place for wurmcoil engine or similarly high powered artie creatures here? It seems to fit the decks plan and would work well with academy ruins but there must be a reason only certain cc5+ bombs make the cut. I would appreciate any insight here and thanks in advance.
Edit- forgot to add, is there any reason rector builds dont run eldrazi conscription? Seems like dropping one of these onto an archangel of thune would be pretty decent.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tombstalker
PF engine is great. I have had little sucess with it. The scapewish list, however, has been awesome for me: List
People have tried PF engine with pods, wishes, scapeshift, etc. They have all been terrible. Its good on its own. GSZ provides enough utility.
Natural order has been pretty bad for everyone thats tried it. I would highly recommend staying away from it.
Wurmcoil isnt terrible, but grave titan is usually the better option. In a Jund PF list, the only 6 drops really worth considering is Primeval titan, and optionally Broodmate Dragon. Bombs need to be immune to removal, provide an awesome ETB ability so its ok if they remove it and then the most important consideration be green so you can have 5 of the bombs in your deck, but have a low chance of drawing a 6 drop when you dont want it.
Eldrazi conscription just opens you up for getting 2 for 1ed and also, rector has been really really really bad since printing DRS and rest in peace. I would not recommend playing rectors if you want to play a competitive deck.
Hey thanks for the reply brother, kinda what I figured on the wurmcoil and rector too I suppose. The engines being mutually exclusive I still dont get but then I havent played the deck.
@Arianrhod Is there any reason your current GBW deck runs no spot removal?
I think its because he wants to have creatures you have to answer rather than you have creatures he has to answer.Quote:
Originally Posted by pfiremc13
I just went 3-1 on MTGO daily event with Rector. I'll post more information tomorrow. I am dead tired and I have to get up in 4 hours.
But nic fit isn't meant to be aggro...Quote:
Originally Posted by CRich3