Originally Posted by
jrw1985
On the Zoo match: Don't be afraid! You don't need to make beating Zoo the be-all and end-all of your sideboard. Zoo isn't that bad of a match. Start off by eating the first 10 points of damage while you build your horde. Then start using your gempalms to burn out his guys and double or triple block his attackers to put creatures in his graveyard. It doesn't matter if you're getting 2 or 3-for-1ed because you will draw a shit-ton of cards from your Matrons, Ringleaders, Gempalms, seige-Gangs, and MWM. Zoo can't draw cards so you will win the battle of attrition. Just make sure you don't dip too far below 10 life. Zoo can easily burn you out if you're at 7 life or less. When I sideboard against Zoo i usually take out Piledrivers and side in removal (Pyrokinesis, Perish). Piledriver is always a removal magnet, so just siding him out is a pretty easy choice. MWM shines against Zoo because it pumps your Gempalms and puts a lotta chumpers into play to keep you above that critical 10 life. Pyrokinesis is also awesome against Zoo because it can blast Lavamancer, Kird Ape, Loam Lion, Figure of Destiny... you know, guys Perish is useless against. So it's not all a Perish party, and I think you shouldn't rely so completely on that one card.
Earwig Squad- I've gone back and forth. I initially thought it was great againt combo, but then it dawned on me that he can't hit cards in hand. That makes him pretty useless against ANT/TES. He's also pretty slow. Best case scenario, you play him turn 2 (Lackey, Warchief, Earwig prowl). That makes him pretty bad against Belcher too. He really shines in control matchups though, when he strips their deck of Moat, E Plagues, or Jitte. Unfortunately, that's a pretty conditional application. Since he only hits 3 cards you can't really strip their deck of an essential combo anyway, so it makes him of limited usefulness against decks like Show and Tell, Painter's Servant, Aluren and what-have-you. So I don't feel the need to run him anymore. I'd rather just have the Chalices to guarantee locking out the free artifact mana on T1.
In summation:
Chalice good
Pyrokinesis good
Perish ok
Earwig ok
MWM good