[Deck] Nic Fit (GBx Explorer Zenith Control)

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Originally Posted by Fizzeler

Deadeye Navigator seems sweet, only card I dislike is Chameleon Colossus I think I would just have Thrun in that slot.

As far as 6 drops goes would Prime Speaker fit with the Deadeye? Not sure what to cut for it possibly Sphinx.

I have not delved much into a non-pod BUG variant seems like there is a lot of room for exploration

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i have had this build for quit awhile 1) the colossus is better then thrune as far as his combat he beat batterskull and gets through most of jund and bug decks i tried he is a way to finish the game especially when u can make him a 1024/1024 which can happen i have done it yes thrun is protected against more but colossus is just a power beats and he has come through time and time again.

2) prime speaker sucks for what this deck does con is a way to keep ur hand filed and plus con doesnt need another creature to be good remember she is only a 2/2 if u have nothing else out were con can put the game on a complete different track espically versus a clique with a sword attched i have already tried the prime speaker route

right now my side bored is my biggest problem trying bunch of different routes on it to make it better, the spots im not happy with are the mindbreaks and the reaper right now im looking at trying nath and havinghoul to see how they play

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Originally Posted by tons of fun

right now my side bored is my biggest problem trying bunch of different routes on it to make it better, the spots im not happy with are the mindbreaks and the reaper right now im looking at trying nath and havinghoul to see how they play

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If you're looking for combo help, I've been pretty happy in the BUG Pod version with Riptide Pilferers (I run Force of Wills as well but you wouldn't necessarily need to run both). Glen Elendra Archmage is of course really awesome as well.

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Originally Posted by tons of fun

i have had this build for quit awhile 1) the colossus is better then thrune as far as his combat he beat batterskull and gets through most of jund and bug decks i tried he is a way to finish the game especially when u can make him a 1024/1024 which can happen i have done it yes thrun is protected against more but colossus is just a power beats and he has come through time and time again.

2) prime speaker sucks for what this deck does con is a way to keep ur hand filed and plus con doesnt need another creature to be good remember she is only a 2/2 if u have nothing else out were con can put the game on a complete different track espically versus a clique with a sword attched i have already tried the prime speaker route

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Fair on both accounts, colossus does beat quite hard

I probably should have assumed since you we're trying reaper that you tried Prime Speaker and found it to be lackluster

I can see testing various cards in reapers slot

I am struggling what to run between Master Of The Wild Hunt, second Restoration Angel, and other 4 drops

I also have been testing Blood Baron and it has been quite solid

Good Morning guys ;)
im thinking about BGW...i found this list and thinking that its present version or anyone of you have more fresh list?
4 Veteran Explorer
2 Archangel of Thune
2 Spike Feeder
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fierce Empath
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Sun Titan
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
1 Yosei, the Morning Star
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Scavenging Ooze

1 Diabolic Intent
3 Living Wish
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith

1 Primeval Bounty
1 Recurring Nightmare
3 Pernicious Deed

3 Sensei's Divining Top

1 Scrubland
2 Phyrexian Tower
2 Savannah
2 Swamp
3 Bayou
3 Forest
3 Plains
3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Windswept Heath

SB: 1 Viscera Seer
SB: 1 Karakas
SB: 1 Volrath's Stronghold
SB: 1 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 Phyrexian Revoker
SB: 1 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 1 Qasali Pridemage
SB: 1 Angel of Despair
SB: 3 Carpet of Flowers
SB: 2 Nevermore
SB: 1 Batterskull
SB: 1 Archangel of Thune

Brief report from the ToA 40 duals / 40 fetches event on Saturday.

Note: this event was streamed here: http://www.twitch.tv/talesofadventure

My match vs Bertoncini r2 is there, as is my interview thereafter, and then I pop in later for game 3 vs Shardless in round 7. Pretty sure Kyle's match vs Mike Cutrone in the semifinals is also in there somewhere.

I don't have my notes with me, so I'm going to be pretty brief. If anyone has questions about anything in specific, I'll consult my notes later and respond with the information.

R1: Death and Taxes

My opponent is nervous and flips a basic plains out of his deck while shuffling. He notes that he's a friend of a friend of mine, and I realize that he's playing my friend's Death and taxes deck because of the art of the basic that he flipped. I call SFM blind on Therapy and hit one. He Revokers Deed, but otherwise doesn't do anything of relevance and dies.

Game two he god-hands the shit out of me. T1 Port+Vial, t2 pass, port you, vial in mom, t3 port you, vial in Thalia, waste you, t4 port you + stoneforge + vial in serra avenger, t5 second port, etc etc. You can see how this went.

Game three he made a board state, I massacred it, and then I killed him.

R2: Bertoncini on camera vs Deathblade.

As soon as I saw the pairing go up on screen, I knew it would be a feature match. The irony was too strong for it not to be.

You can see the matchup for yourself in the stream. It was a pretty textbook crushing. He didn't draw a black source (with 3 thoughtseizes in hand) for a number of turns....but as it turned out, if he had drawn that black source and thoughtseized me, he would have died later (and not had things to shuffle away to a powerful lategame Brainstorm), so.....bleh. He Wasted both of my valakuts, which meant I couldn't shift him out...luckily Scape's aggro plan is pretty strong. Slaughter Games was a 4-mana Duress to take out his Stoneforged-for Batterskull, which was fine. I had to Deluge for 10 at one point to wipe his board, which SUCKED. Thanks, Jitte, you fucker. Thankfully I had the life to spend.

Game two I had one of the sweetest sequences I think I've ever done with the deck, at like storm 5. I was dead on board, with 5 lands + carpet + top in play and Shift in hand. Drew Vet for turn, saw Wish with Top, drew Wish, played Vet, Wished for Innocent Blood, cast it, Shift, kill you.

R3: Bugstill

He mulls to 6. He doesn't do anything relevant, and I kill him.

Game two: he mulls to 5, doesn't do anything relevant, and I kill him.

R4: Punishing Jund

See above without the mulligans. Had to fight through some skanks (lilianas), but otherwise was pretty easy both games. Primeval Titan killed him game 1.

R5: RUG Delver

He wins the die roll. It doesn't matter, and I kill him.

Game two he mulls to 3 to find a land. The result is as expected by both of us.

R6: Elves

He makes some elves. I Explorer / Therapy. Blind call on Natural Order, hit, flashback for his Craterhoof leaving him with 0 cards in hand. Next turn I can Wish->Pryoclasm, and be firmly in the driver's seat with an eye towards winning in 1-2 turns. He draws his 2nd Craterhoof and kills me.

Game 2 I mull to 5 looking for interaction. I eventually keep Explorer, Slaughter, 3 lands. I literally draw a land every turn for the rest of the game until I die (he Thoughtseizes my Games, to add insult to injury).

R7: Shardless BUG

Game one he goes nuts and kills me.

Game two I go nuts and kill him. He Forces my Shift, but I have REB.

Game three is on camera. Apparently someone in the stream chat thought that I was kind of shady when I executed the kill. To be fair, I already had everything sequenced out in my head, and didn't really think that he actually had interaction. My opponent was very zoned-out and non-responsive, so I just autopiloted. It's also the third time that we've played, and as most people who've met me know, I'm pretty friendly and laid back -- if he'd said slow down or indicated that he was going to respond to anything, I would've backed up if at all possible to allow it. Hell, when I flashbacked the Therapy, I couldn't even remember what the last card in his hand was -- he just flipped it into the graveyard. I never even actually named, lol. I think we both realized about the same time that he actually DID have interaction and could have stopped me from winning that turn, but it was way too late by then.

Also, if he did exile my Therapy as he should have done, I was floating a Deed on top of my deck, so it's not like I was exactly worried. He pointed out afterwards that his Visions was going to to go off in a turn or two, which would've got him back in the game, but I'm less convinced. There's a pretty strong chance that he would've just drawn discard or lands, and it wouldn't have mattered.

Ryan also remains the only person who has ever beaten me with Shardless when I'm on Scapewish. I've never figured out what it is that he does differently than the average Shardless player that makes it actually a challenge vs him. -shrug-

I'm 6-1 at this point, and can safely draw in.

R8: Bryant Cook with TES

Unfortunately for me, Bryant and my Elves opponent from earlier had agreed that if they ID'd in round 7, they would both play Round 8 so as to secure the play/draw in the to 8. So, Bryant decided to play it out.

Game one his hand was pretty mediocre, so he decided to go into Diminishing Returns. His Returns shit on him pretty hard, giving him a subpar hand including two fetches while exiling the only other fetchable land in his deck. He Silence-walked me for a few turns, but eventually ran out. I Therapied him, and then stole a page from his book and showed him the Scapeshift.

Game two I punted. I had a Thoughtseize, and chose correctly. He had a slow hand that used multiple Infernal Tutors to get multiple Rite of Flames, to go into Past in Flames. I had a Burning Wish, and could have resolved it, but I made the crucial mistake of -not- sideboarding out a Cabal Therapy like I virtually always do. This meant that my Wish couldn't find disruption (I'd boarded in the thoughtseizes). If I'd been able to wish for Therapy to hit his Rite of Flames, it would've bought me at least 2-3 turns, which would have likely been all I would have needed.

Game three I mulled to 4 looking for interaction / lands. I kept Therapy, Therapy, Explorer, Wood Elves. Far from wonderful, but if I hit a bayou or a fetch, I was in business. He Probes me, and draws the card he needed to kill me on turn 1. The top card of my deck was a Verdant Catacombs.

That loss knocked me into 10th place, good for a Taiga and a Foothills.

Sucked to run that well and then not get top 8 for it, but such is life (my life, in particular, it seems). At the end of the day, though, I can't blame anyone else for the loss against Bryant but myself. If I'd sideboarded correctly, I would've been fine and probably taken the match 2-0, securing a very high seed in the top 8.

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For this event I cut the From the Ashes and the Reverent Silence, in favor of a pair of Massacres to help shore up the various UWx True-Name decks just a tad, while also having a splash impact on Death and Taxes and other, fringier decks like Maverick that aren't usually a problem anyway.

While being able to Wish for Massacre was sweet, not being able to board it in vs Elves and it not being relevant vs TES did not help for the two times where I needed it the most. This means that the 2 Massacres are probably going to get trimmed down to 1, with the free slot possibly becoming a third Thoughtseize. Could also be a miser Golgari Charm, but that doesn't help vs storm. There's a chance that there's some wish target that I'm missing that it could be. There have been a few times where I've wanted the Reanimate back in the board, but I don't think that we're there yet. I'm much more worried about putting in an extra card for vs combo.

Not sure if you guys saw the statistics article on Channelfireball or not, but the author listed 11 archetypes as composing 75% of the metagame at the moment. We're favored against 9 of the 11, and the other two (Elves and ANT) are winnable based on their version, our version, and each decks' draws/hand even if they aren't favorable. It's a very, very good time to be playing Nic Fit of any variety.

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Originally Posted by Fizzeler

Fair on both accounts, colossus does beat quite hard

I probably should have assumed since you we're trying reaper that you tried Prime Speaker and found it to be lackluster

I can see testing various cards in reapers slot

I am struggling what to run between Master Of The Wild Hunt, second Restoration Angel, and other 4 drops

I also have been testing Blood Baron and it has been quite solid

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try havinghoul lich it seems pretty functional with having the ability to recast all ur shit from ur grave

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Originally Posted by Arianrhod

I played exactly the list that I posted a page back before the event. I'll copypasta it forward in the interests of expediency for readers.

4 Veteran Explorer
2 Sakura-tribe Elder
2 Wood Elves
1 Eternal Witness
3 Huntmaster Of The Fells
2 Thragtusk
1 Primeval Titan

3 Pernicious Deed

3 Sensei’s Divining Top

4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun’s Zenith
4 Burning Wish
2 Scapeshift
2 Slaughter Games

3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wooded Foothills
3 Forest
2 Mountain
2 Swamp
4 Taiga
3 Badlands
2 Bayou
2 Stomping Ground
2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

SB:
3 Carpet of Flowers
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Thoughtseize
1 Rakdos's Return
1 Slaughter Games
1 Pyroclasm
1 Scapeshift
1 Reverent Silence
1 Innocent Blood
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Maelstrom Pulse

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Arianrhod did you applied any other changes to your list except adding two massacres in the sideboard in place of Reverent Silence / Toxic Deluge? What about this Rakdos's Return. Do you still use it?

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Originally Posted by kubalonek

Arianrhod did you applied any other changes to your list except adding two massacres in the sideboard in place of Reverent Silence / Toxic Deluge? What about this Rakdos's Return. Do you still use it?

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Deluge was still present, and won't be leaving anytime soon.

Return got cut a while back.

I updated the list in my sig for Scapewish -- it's up to present day, although I made note of the 1 open slot in the sideboard since I'm not convinced that the 3rd Thoughtseize is really what where we want to go.

i dont think the seize is what u want kevin

I've liked 1 Massacre in the board over my 2nd Pyroclasm. If we think Reverent Silence is cuttable then I'll probably replace it with the 2nd Pyroclasm again- as you mentioned, having access to Massacre against TNN is awesome, it's generally a pretty good card in the metagame and I don't think it's bad to have, but not being able to bring it in vs Elves is a beating. Pyroclasm continues to be impressive, and I'm still really liking the plan of bringing them in against creature decks while still being able to Wish for Deluge (and Massacre in some cases). Who knows. I don't really think the 3rd Thoughtseize is where we want to be but it's never going to be useless and I don't have anything better in mind. However I do think the 2nd Pyroclasm is going to be better than the 1st Golgari Charm.

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Originally Posted by MrIggins

I've liked 1 Massacre in the board over my 2nd Pyroclasm. If we think Reverent Silence is cuttable then I'll probably replace it with the 2nd Pyroclasm again- as you mentioned, having access to Massacre against TNN is awesome, it's generally a pretty good card in the metagame and I don't think it's bad to have, but not being able to bring it in vs Elves is a beating. Pyroclasm continues to be impressive, and I'm still really liking the plan of bringing them in against creature decks while still being able to Wish for Deluge (and Massacre in some cases). Who knows. I don't really think the 3rd Thoughtseize is where we want to be but it's never going to be useless and I don't have anything better in mind. However I do think the 2nd Pyroclasm is going to be better than the 1st Golgari Charm.

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Not going to lie. One of the main reasons I don't want to add another Pyroclasm is because I don't think that I'll ever find another 7th edition German foil Pyroclasm. Ever. =(

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Originally Posted by Arianrhod

Not going to lie. One of the main reasons I don't want to add another Pyroclasm is because I don't think that I'll ever find another 7th edition German foil Pyroclasm. Ever. =(

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That is a valid reason. German Portal is on ebay though, obviously it's not as nice but it's still pretty cool.

But yeah I definitely get that.

So I randomly have gotten the itch to play this deck again and incidentally also just won a trop on eBay. For BUG pod lists, is force a necessity?

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Originally Posted by EpicLevelCommoner

While I agree with ya on this in regards to fair decks, I believe simplifying the math behind bounce into '0 for 1' is misleading.

Any removal's card advantage value can be approximated using the following formula:

I.0 + I.1 / 1

Where I.0 is equal to the initial investment to play the creatures preremoval and I.1 is equal to the post removal investment to play those creatures again. StP a Misthollow Griffin is the same deal.

Against fair decks, its obvious bounce doesn't help a bit. But unfair decks, that require heavy initial investment in the first place, it does help.

Tldr: Truth bad against fair decks, good against unfair decks.

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If you want a card that's only good against combo deck, run good combo hate. The echoing truths are really not going to do very much against a tendrils for 20.

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Originally Posted by tons of fun

right now my side bored is my biggest problem trying bunch of different routes on it to make it better, the spots im not happy with are the mindbreaks and the reaper right now im looking at trying nath and havinghoul to see how they play

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Describe how the mindbreaks have been working. What are they good at? Why don't you like them?

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Originally Posted by HardBrain

Good Morning guys ;)
im thinking about BGW...i found this list and thinking that its present version or anyone of you have more fresh list?

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There's a more updated thune fit list here:

http://mythicgameselmira.com/article/updatingthune.html


There are other potential routes you could take with GBW. Non-pod, pod without thune combo, etc. I'd be happy to work with you on thune fit; otherwise you can talk to other people who might know more about other versions of GBW.

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Originally Posted by Megadeus

So I randomly have gotten the itch to play this deck again and incidentally also just won a trop on eBay. For BUG pod lists, is force a necessity?

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Forces are nice but I don't think they're completely necessary. A mixture of discard and more Glen Elendra Archmages could probably do the trick a good percentage of the time. You could also try Mindbreak Trap or Arcane Lab.

I'm trying out a slight white splash tonight in BUG Pod, I'll let you know how it goes.

nice report, already watched rd2.

i like my 1-of massacre in the wishboard, as reverent silence gave me some turn-arounds against sneak/show and omni-tell, killing their leylines and against countertop managing to take down rest in peace and counterbalance.

Has either crovax been explored since tnns printing kills explorers and the white ones lord effect could be relevant in thune pod lists

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Originally Posted by Arianrhod

Brief report from the ToA 40 duals / 40 fetches event on Saturday.

Note: this event was streamed here: http://www.twitch.tv/talesofadventure

Report

Not sure if you guys saw the statistics article on Channelfireball or not, but the author listed 11 archetypes as composing 75% of the metagame at the moment. We're favored against 9 of the 11, and the other two (Elves and ANT) are winnable based on their version, our version, and each decks' draws/hand even if they aren't favorable. It's a very, very good time to be playing Nic Fit of any variety.

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Very nice report, sad to hear you got Cooked :frown:

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Originally Posted by tons of fun

try havinghoul lich it seems pretty functional with having the ability to recast all ur shit from ur grave

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If I was running BUG I would definitely consider it, but being Junk kinda throws it out

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Originally Posted by pfiremc13

http://mythicgameselmira.com/article/updatingthune.html

There are other potential routes you could take with GBW. Non-pod, pod without thune combo, etc. I'd be happy to work with you on thune fit; otherwise you can talk to other people who might know more about other versions of GBW.

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ok i am glad that i can work with you to build competitive BGW thune list. I think there are many interactions which are enough to get easy win. I like this deck because we have many answers against combo like gaddock (GSZ) or Cannonist (Wish). in this mix of colour we can reach many combo or answers in deck so we are able to make huge edge. hope that we will build sth c0mpetitive:)