[Deck] BUG "Shardless" Control

Has anyone tested a Shardless-less Bug list with Nemesis? I have played Team america with Nemesis a little but Delver/Daze feel like the worst cards sometimes.
I was thinking that if you slot the nemesis in the shardless position and cut the visions.

The basic shell would be:
4 DRS
4 Goyf
4 Strix
4 Nemesis
4 thoughtseize
4 force
4 brainstorm
4 abrupt decay
4 lilliana
2 jace
22 land

But you probably want to cut some strix for more anticombo measures like hymn, depending on the meta...but then you need more blue cards. Any thoughts on this shuffle?

I'm fairly certain Pierre Sommen had success with a similar shell in teh main event of BoM.

Another interesting idea is to keep the shardless agent, cut the visions, and some of the plainswalkers, add some jittes and discard adn play more of a fish style:

4 DRS
4 Strix
4 Goyf
4 TNN
4 Shardless
4 brainstorm
4 force
4 decay
2 hymn/lilliana
4 thoughtseize
1 jitte

This is kind of appealing to me.

-IJ

The problem that you run into when you take out shardless and visions is that the deck no longer has any true card advantage outside of strix/jace. Liliana becomes way worse due to the inability to discard extra cards that you dont need. If you want to do nemesis instead of shardless, I think you need to load up on snapcasters and loam as another way of card advantage. Problem then is that rip just COMPLETELY hoses your deck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by somethingdotdotdot

The problem that you run into when you take out shardless and visions is that the deck no longer has any true card advantage outside of strix/jace. Liliana becomes way worse due to the inability to discard extra cards that you dont need. If you want to do nemesis instead of shardless, I think you need to load up on snapcasters and loam as another way of card advantage. Problem then is that rip just COMPLETELY hoses your deck.

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I agree. The whole point of the deck is to abuse Shardless as much as possible.
Pierre Sommen did indeed play BUG with Nemesis at the BoM (I was his opponent in round 13), but Shardless BUG generally just beats other BUG strategies. For me this is another reason to stick to the Shardless version without the Nemesis. I think people will expect Nemesis in BUG lists so they might sideboard against even if they do not see the card in the first game. Another slight advantage.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by martijnend

I agree. The whole point of the deck is to abuse Shardless as much as possible.
Pierre Sommen did indeed play BUG with Nemesis at the BoM (I was his opponent in round 13), but Shardless BUG generally just beats other BUG strategies. For me this is another reason to stick to the Shardless version without the Nemesis. I think people will expect Nemesis in BUG lists so they might sideboard against even if they do not see the card in the first game. Another slight advantage.

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I concur as well.

I am not sure if Nemesis belongs in either of the BUG decks (Shardless or BUG Delver). I think he's more suited for Stoneblade and UR Delver. There are two problems I see with Nemesis in Shardless BUG: 1. He's a 3-drop. We already play at least 4 three-drops with Shadless Agent. Usually we play a few more with main deck lilis or pulse. Sure, we have Deathrite Shaman to make three drops less clunky, but you can't always rely on him sticking. Overall, I think for a secondary three drop Liliana is better for what the deck is trying to do than nemesis. 2. He nonbos with Golgari Charm and Toxic Deluge, which are among the best sb options for us.

Also, people often say that Shardless BUG doesn't have enough threats so I can see why you might want to try out Nemesis. But I've never had trouble closing out games with this deck. You draw so many cards that you will see more Goyfs than any other Goyf deck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by somethingdotdotdot

The problem that you run into when you take out shardless and visions is that the deck no longer has any true card advantage outside of strix/jace. Liliana becomes way worse due to the inability to discard extra cards that you dont need. If you want to do nemesis instead of shardless, I think you need to load up on snapcasters and loam as another way of card advantage. Problem then is that rip just COMPLETELY hoses your deck.

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I agree to some extent and that's why I was wondering if it had been tested. The shardless plan is tried and tested but the deck hasn't been performing that great for me. Honestly though, Lilliana is a house in jund and they don't have a draw 3. Most of the time I find myself discarding av early or hymn in the late game. Strix and jace are significant card advantage and there is substantial advantage to an invincible blocker for your plainswalkers. Often the best part about the agent is he chumps for jace and then pumps goyf.

The second idea would be to keep agent. A deck w agent strix goyf and nemesis would clog the board extremely well.

I'm finalizing plans for gp dc and I'll prob run midrange if I think delver and stoneforge will be prominent, and team America if there is a lot of sneak show. My testing w nemesis has been that he is the single most important card in non combo matchups as he is functionally removal and action, so I'd like to fit him in one of these shells.

-ij

Here is my strategy the most popular decks. What do you think?

My list

22 lands
2 creeping tar pit
4 polluted delta
4 verdant catacombs
3 misty rainforest
3 underground sea
2 bayou
2 tropical island
2 wasteland

2 Jace TMS
2 Liliana of the veil

4 tarmogoy
4 deathrite shaman
4 shardless agent
2 baleful strix

4 brainstorm
4 ancestral vision
3 force of will
2 hymn to tourach
2 toughtseize
1 maelstrom pulse
4 abrupt decay


Side
2 baleful strix
2 desfigure
2 golgari charm
2 thoughtseize
1 fow
2 spell pierce
2 nihil spellbomb
1 notion thief
1 umezawa's jitte


RUG/
+ 2 baleful strix +2 desfigure -3fow -1jace
-> The match is very very grind. They
->For me Baleful Strix is insane against them.We need to reach the late game and she is perfect for that.
-> Stifle is insane agains us. Sometimes we need to force them in our fetch lands because we have ancestral vision ticking or shardless/liliana in hand.
-> Fow will be dazed or pierced
-> Jace costs 4 mana. Bleh.
->

UWR
+ 2 baleful strix +2 desfigure -3fow -1jace
-> I prefer keep my thoughtseizes and use after an stoneforge. Batterskull is gg agains us.
-> Baleful strix again shines. But we need to keep them of lavamancers.

Sneak and Show
+2 thoughtseize +2spell pierce +1fow +1notion thief +2 golgari charm
-4 abrupt decay -4ancestral visions: visions as too slow and abrupt blank
-> I dont cut shardless because they are clock!! And we have only 2 pierces to being hit.
-> golgari charm enters agains blood moon, sneak atack and leiline.
-> We need to have a fast clock (read tarmogoyf) as soon as possible. Because of that i prefer goyf rather then hymn on turn 2.

Shardless (Mirror)
+2 baleful strix +2desfigure +1notion thief + 1jitte
-3fow -2seize -1hymn to tourach

-> creeping tar pit our mvp and thats why i'm using 2 of them
-> notion thief is a huge blow out, oponents card advantage and cannot be killed with abrupt decay
-> i don't like discarts because the game tend to be very grind.

Reanimator
+2 thoughtseize +1fow +1pierce +2nihil
-2 abrupt -2baleful -2hymn
-> I like to keep some abrupt agains the ever present pithing needle

Quote:

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Originally Posted by infiniteJ

Honestly though, Lilliana is a house in jund and they don't have a draw 3.

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Jund gets its card advantage from Punishing Fire recursion (which also combos with Liliana), Bloodbraid Elf, Sylvan Library, and Loam.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@topazwarrior: I tried the Jitte a few times. It is really good, so it has earned the spot in de sb :)

I made a few adjustments to my list. Currently running these 75.

4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Polluted Delta
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Bayou
1 Swamp
3 Wasteland
1 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Shardless Agent
2 Baleful Strix
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Brainstorm
4 Abrupt Decay
3 Hymn to Tourach
2 Thoughtseize
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Force of Will
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Liliana of the Veil

2 Force of Will
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Disfigure
2 Golgari Charm
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Baleful Strix
1 Umezawa's Jitte

A quick question about the sideboard.
What's better?
Surgical Extraction or Extripate?

And is really good trade the nihil spellbombs for those?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by skaterajfst

A quick question about the sideboard.
What's better?
Surgical Extraction or Extripate?

And is really good trade the nihil spellbombs for those?

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Well, I don't think either Surgical Extraction or Extirpate are in the same league as Nihil Spellbomb in this deck. There are three main reasons for this. One is that in the current metagame it is usually better to exile a whole graveyard, which both instants can't do. The second reason is that Extirpate and Extraction are pretty afwul to cascade into. You usually want to use those cards in response to something. Nihil Spellbomb is pretty good to cascade into. Third and very important, Spellbomb draws you a card and that is what this deck is all about.
So, unless you have a very specific local meta, use Spellbombs.

Tournament Report
sdematt's Vancouver Legacy Fall Classic

As a new Legacy player this event was a lot of fun and any comments/suggestions are greatly appreciated to help up my game!
I started off with the list from the latest GP top 8 and made a couple of adjustments. My final list looked like this:

4 - Misty Rainforest
4 - Verdant Catacombs
2 - Polluted Delta
3 - Underground Sea
2 - Bayou
2 - Tropical Island
2 - Creeping Tar Pit
1 - Island
1 - Forest
1 - Swamp
4 - Shardless Agent
4 - Tarmogoyf
4 - Deathrite Shaman
1 - Baleful Strix
4 - Brainstorm
4 - Ancestral Vision
4 - Abrupt Decay
4 - Force of Will
2 - Hymn to Tourach
2 - Thoughtseize
1 - Maelstrom Pulse
3 - Liliana of the Veil
1 - Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Sideboard

3 - Golgari Charm
2 - Thoughtseize
2 - Baleful Strix
2 - Flusterstorm
1 - Nihil Spellbomb
1 - Grafdigger’s Cage
1 - Massacre
1 - Toxic Deluge
1 - Disfigure
1 - Duress

I opted to have the 3rd Liliana instead of the 2nd Jace, because I wanted more ways to kill True-Name Nemesis in game 1 that were still effective in other match-ups. It’s worth noting that if I had the mana base I would probably have played Polluted Delta over Misty Rainforest as a 4 of because having double black is essential. Also I would play a Nihil Spellbomb over the Grafdigger's Cage.
I liked having basic lands in my deck as opposed to 2 copies of Wasteland. With basic’s the deck isn’t entirely cold to Blood Moon if you can cast an early Deathrite and cast Abrupt Decay through the Blood Moon. That being said I would consider taking the Island out all together. More often than not if I naturally drew the Island it was hindering my ability to cast my double black spells.

Round 1

Marcel on U/W/R Delver
Game 1 - Marcel leads off with an early Stoneforge getting Jitte as I’m playing some Tarmogoyf’s with Daze protection from my Deathrite’s. Marcel removes 2 Goyf’s with some Swords to Plowshares, but then makes the fatal mistake of playing a second Stoneforge instead of putting his Batterskull into play. I play a Jace while Marcel has no pressure and it puts the game away.
SB: -2 Thoughtseize - 4 Force of Will, +1 Massacre +1 Disfigure +2 Baleful Strix +1 Golgari Charm +1 Toxic Deluge
Game 2 - Marcel has an early Delver and I suspend Ancestral and pass the turn. Delver flips, he hits me and plays Stoneforge getting Batterskull. I Abrupt Decay the Delver on his turn, then play Tarmogoyf on my turn. He Plows Goyf and hits me with Batterskull and plays a True-Name Nemesis. I Brainstorm on my turn revealing another Goyf and a Massacre. I Massacre his board, play my Goyf. He follows with another True-Name but I have the Liliana for it and my Goyf takes me to 1-0. Good Games Marcel! ( Ayyyyaaaaaaa )

1-0

Round 2

Brendan on Imperial Painter
Game 1 - I don’t know what he’s on but he plays Ancient Tomb then passes. At this point I put him on Sneak and Show so I Thoughtseize instead of playing Ancestral Vision. I see that he’s on Imperial Painter and I take Blood Moon. We grind for a little while with some Tarmogoyfs and a suspended Ancestral on my side and Chandra Pyromaster and Sensei’s Divining Top on his. He taps out with 2 cards in hand and passes the turn. I draw 3 off of Ancestral and play a Shardless Agent with 2 mana up for Abrupt Decay, and I Cascade into Hymn to Tourach taking his Imperial Painter and Grindstone in hand. After that I hold up mana for Abrupt Decay and win with Tarmogoyf and Shardless Agent.
SB: -1 Baleful Strix -1 Jace, +2 Thoughtseize
Game 2 - Brendan mulligans to 6 and tries to cast turn 1 Blood Moon but I have the Force of Will. I thoughtseize him to reveal 3 lands and I play a Tarmogoyf next turn to put him on a clock. He plays Ensnaring Bridge after I’ve hit him a couple of times but a pair of Deathrite’s seal the deal.
Good Games Brendan!

2-0

Round 3

James on BANT
Game 1 - James plays turn one GSZ getting Dryad Arbor and I play turn 1 Deathrite. He plays Stoneforge getting Sword of Feast and Famine and the grind has begun. I Thoughtseize getting Batterskull and I have Abrupt Decay’s for his SOFAF and his Jitte, so I play Tarmogoyf and pass. We go through removal left and right and get to a point in the game where a True-Name is beating me down when I’m at 6 but I have a Deathrite Shaman in play. He has Sylvan library but he whiffs for a couple of turns while I play Tarmogoyfs that will kill him so that he’s forced to leave True-Name back. Eventually I have a removal spell for his Stoneforge and the Liliana for his True-Name and a pair of Goyf’s take me there.
SB: -4 Force of Will -2 Thoughtseize, +1 Toxic Deluge +1 Massacre +2 Baleful Strix +2 Golgari Charm
Game 2 - James casts Sylvan Library turn 2 and passes, I play a Baleful Strix. He plays a Loxodon Smiter and passes. I cast Baleful Strix and he follows up with Master of the Wild Hunt. I cast a Toxic Deluge for 4 and hope he doesn’t have a Daze. He doesn’t! We grind out again but I’m too far ahead on cards. Good Games James!

3-0

Round 4

Chad on ANT
Game 1 - Chad knows what I’m on but I have little idea what he’s on so I keep a Deathrite hand with some Goyf’s and Abrupt Decay. I play turn 1 Deathrite and pass and he casts Preordain and passes. I’m thinking he’s on ANT so I hit him for one and play a Goyf. He cantrips some more and passes. I hit him with Goyf for 4 down to 13 ( he’s taken some Fetchland damage ) leaving up Deathrite Shaman. He goes for an Ad Nauseum with 0 in his mana pool and whiffs on rituals until he hits 2 life and then concedes.
SB: -1 Baleful Strix -1 Jace -1 Maelstrom Pulse -4 Abrupt Decay, +2 Thoughtseize + 2 Flusterstorm + 1 Nihil Spellbomb +2 Golgari Charm

Game 2 - I play a turn 1 Deathrite and Chad Cabal Therapy’s my FOW. I don’t have much left so I play a Tarmogoyf and pass. Chad starts can tripping and I start draining his life with Deathrite. He has Carpet of Flowers, hits me with a Xantid Swarm and then tries to go off with Ad Nauseum. He misses again and I go to 4-0. Good Games Chad!
4-0

Round 5

Doug on Affinity
Game 1 - He has a fast Arcbound Ravager and a Cranial Plating to follow up but I have Abrupt Decay and he makes his Ravager bigger by sacrificing Plating and some lands and hits me low. I play a Tarmogoyf and he switches all of his counters to an Ornithopter to get me dead.
SB: -1 Jace -2 Thoughtseize -2 Hymn to Tourach , + 1 Disfigure +1 Golgari Charm +1 Toxic Deluge +2 Baleful Strix

Game 2 - He plays Ancient Tomb into double Vault Skirge turn 1 and I play Deathrite with Maelstrom Pulse in hand. He attacks for 2 and plays Ravager and Ornithoper and passes. I cast Maelstrom Pulse and pass and he plays Cranial Plating and attacks. I Abrupt Decay the Cranial Plating and start removing his other creatures. He starts to draw more lands and soon a Tarmogoyf takes the game for me.

Game 3 - He starts of with some ornithopters and then a Ravager on turn 2 which I Abrupt Decay, so he moves the counters to an Ornithopter and I Abrupt Decay that as well. He gets a Cranial Plating on his last Ornithopter and hits me a couple of times but I’m hitting him right back with a Tarmogoyf. He draws a second plating to put me down to 1 and I draw a Liliana and make him sacrifice his Ornithopter. He bricks on a couple of draw steps and I take the game away. Good Games Doug!

5-0

Round 6 - Top 8

Brett on THE EPIC STORM

Game 1 - I mulligan to 6 with no Discard spell. Risky Business. Brett makes 14 Goblins on turn 1 and kills me that way.
SB: -1 Baleful Strix -1 Jace -2 Abrupt Decay -1 Maelstrom Pulse - 2 Ancestral Vision, +2 Thoughtseize +2 Flusterstorm +1 Nihil Spellbomb +2 Golgari Charm

Game 2 - I mulliganed to 6 again keeping a hand with a FOW but no blue card. Brett casts Probe revealing no disruption and he makes 16 Goblins turn 1 and gets me! Good Games Brett!

Sidenote: I should have sideboarded my Abrupt Decay’s out in favour of keeping an Ancestral Vision and putting another Golgari Charm in. I had Abrupt Decay in my hand in the second game so if it had been a Vision or a Charm I might have had a better chance at winning.

I’m really happy with how the tournament turned out and I had a lot of fun playing Legacy. I really like Shardless BUG because I don’t feel like I have any 100% unwinnable match-ups and I feel I get rewarded for playing tight. I do feel like the 3rd Golgari Charm was unnecessary as I never boarded it in. Maybe 2 is just the right number. I also really like Baleful Strix and would move up to a 2nd in the main if the metagame is full of fair decks. Anyways, thanks for reading and if you have any suggestions I’d love to hear them as I’m new to the format!

Congrats on your performance, Trentianoo! Well done.
A few questions on your list: you seem to be playing a lot of sweepers. You already mentioned that the third Golgari Charm was extensive. I'm currently at 3 in the sideboard. How do you feel about Massacre? Did it perform ok? Secondly, you have a lot of discard. I'm curious why you brought the single Duress, since you didn't bring it in.

You board pretty much like I'd do against most of the decks. In your R1 I would side out the Jace as well since the chance of it ever hitting the table is pretty low. And even if it hits they probably boarded in REB or Pyroblasts. Perhaps for a second Golgari Charm, because Nemesis is their most difficult to deal with card.
In your R3 I'd want to keep as many Thoughtseizes as I can. Two reasons: Nemesis en Stoneforge. It is always good value when you opponent goes turn 2 Mystic into Batterskull and you play Thoughtseize in your turn to snatch it away. You only get to do this postboard against midrange Stoneforge decks though, because UWR delver is too fast of a clock to consider taking damage yourself as well.
Why didn't you side in Duress in Rounds 4 and 6? Against storm you really want to maximize your counters and discard.

Well, that's all I got. Again, well played and keep it up.

I'm currently trying out tnn in this deck. I've cut a couple of shardless agents because of their competing converted mana costs. Furthermore, shardless agent has been underperforming lately--it often flips over irrelevant cards w/o setup and even if it cascades into a creature, it doesn't really protect your jace/life total as well as it used to given how many tnn's there are running around. On the other hand, tnn just completely blanks most ground assaults by himself and lets you potentially race if they don't have equipment attached to theirs. Here's my current list:

Creatures (15)
4x Deathrite Shaman
4x Tarmogoyf
3x True-name Nemesis
2x Baleful Strix
2x Shardless Agent

Spells (23)
4x Abrupt Decay
4x Ancestral Vision
4x Brainstorm
3x Thoughtseize
3x Force of Will
3x Liliana of the Veil
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Lands (23)
4x Underground Sea
3x Bayou
2x Tropical Island
1x Swamp
4x Polluted Delta
4x Verdant Catacombs
2x Misty Rainforest
1x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Sunken Ruins

No more wastelands because I felt like they were really weakening my manabase with very little profit. I think having more colored lands and a volrath's stronghold is superior most of the time. I was considering changing the tar pit into another stronghold, letting you recur your creatures. 4 of them basically are an engine w/ stronghold (strix/shardless) and tnn's usually ends up going to the gy (countered, discarded, swept)

SB:
1x Force of Will
2x Vendilion Clique
2x Flusterstorm
2x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Golgari Charm
2x Toxic Deluge
2x Pithing Needle

Considering dropping the 2 cages for 1 surgical and 1 golgari charm/toxic deluge.

Right now i'm toying with a list with 4x Probe paired with 2/3 C-Therapy. Maybe is my bias of ANT player but is doing well, and catch off guard most of the time.
As a side note: i play no JTMS nor Tarmo.

- L

Went Undefeated at my LGS today, details tomorrow 4-0 split in finals, here is list.


1 Baleful Strix
4 Shardless Agent
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Deathrite Shaman

4 Abrupt Decay
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
2 Hymn to Tourach
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Thoughtseize

2 Bayou
2 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
2 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wasteland

Sideboard
2 Baleful Strix
2 Disfigure
2 Golgari Charm
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Swan Song
2 Thoughtseize
1 Vendilion Clique

Done two tournaments in the last couple of weeks. One was the Dutch Open Championchips where I went 4-2-1 after a 0-1-1 start (Punishing Fire decks... bleegh).
R1: Punishing Jund 1-1-1 (0-0-1)
R2: Grixis Pyromancer control 1-2 (0-1-1)
R3: UW Miracles 2-0 (1-1-1)
R4: Tezzerator 2-0 (2-1-1)
R5: Goblins 2-1 (3-1-1)
R6: BUG Delver 1-2 (3-2-1)
R7: Team America 2-1 (4-2-1)

The other tournament was a GPT for Paris where I went top 8, but failed against Patriot.
R1: MUD 2-0 (1-0)
R2: BURG Delver 2-1 (2-0)
R3: Tezzerator 2-0 (3-0)
R4: MUD ID (3-0-1) we played for fun and I won this one 2-0.
R5: RUG Delver ID (3-0-2)

Top 8: Patriot Delver 1-2. I lost due to a screw in the second game where I never found a second land after mulliganing to six. The third game I find altogether too much land without cantrips.

My list is simmilar to Darkness's list except that I play 2 Strixes main and 3 Fow's. In the manabase in play 3 waste and 1 Pit and I cut a fetch for a Swamp.
The SB is currently:
2 Golgari Charm
2 Flusterstorm
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Force of Will
1 Disfigure
1 Baleful Strix
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Thoughtseize

I'm a little concern with the manabase:
1) two wasteland seem a little bit random, to be relevant and not dies to variance wastes needs to be 3 at least IMO
2) 2 tar pit are debatable, i love the card and i play as a one-of, just because in the first 4 turns without a DRS a tapped land is very relevant in a fast-paced format
3) no basics, i always played at least 2 swamp, 1 forest and 1-2 island just because i hate to lose to wasteland, seeing how much is popular right now, so i'm genuinely curious on how it goes.

- L

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Looooooooo

I'm a little concern with the manabase:
1) two wasteland seem a little bit random, to be relevant and not dies to variance wastes needs to be 3 at least IMO
2) 2 tar pit are debatable, i love the card and i play as a one-of, just because in the first 4 turns without a DRS a tapped land is very relevant in a fast-paced format
3) no basics, i always played at least 2 swamp, 1 forest and 1-2 island just because i hate to lose to wasteland, seeing how much is popular right now, so i'm genuinely curious on how it goes.

- L

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I agree about the manabase. After the first tournament I played with the deck I switched one Tar Pit for a Wasteland en never went back. Two wastelands is, as you rightfully say, insufficient. And I had a Tar Pit in my opener way too often.
The deck doesn't easily lose to wasteland. The deck usually recovers pretty well from being land light in the first turns. The real trouble when you're not playing basics is Blood Moon! I play a single Swamp in my 75 because of Blood Moon. That gives you an out with Deathrite Shaman (either as a wincon or to cast Decay). I can't really afford to play more basics because it is a very greedy deck.

I was playing with a basic Forest and a basic Swamp. These let you Decay a Blood Moon, and/or cast a Deathrite under one, and offer some resilience to Wasteland. I dropped one of the Tar Pits and either a fetch or an Underground to support this (I've since broken the deck apart to play Esperblade).

Maybe sticking an Island in is possible but I'm doubtful, unless you're willing to drop the Wastelands. The Wastelands are useful though, especially against matchups with Maze of Ith or Dark Depths, and with all the filtering and card advantage you get, not at all random.

With Deathrites, I don't think you need the same basic land count as say for Esperblade (which is typically 4), and given the variety of colors in your spells, I think you'll suffer a lot of color choking if you go much beyond 2-3.

Basic would choke the mana base a lot less than wastes.
I'm on the basic side (w/o Wastes) because i think that running basics, with the pros numbered before, in the long term would win you far more matches than wastelands.
We have ton of card advantage that could end in removals/disruption/threats/counters and i would count on this much more than a random land denial (i cut blackhole for the same reason after some testing).

- L