Originally Posted by
hobart
YO, I just got 3rd-4th place last weekend at a decent sized event!
SCG IQ, 46 players
6 rounds of Swiss and cut to top 8
Shardless Sultai: 60 cards
Creatures: 14
4 Shardless Agent
4 Tarmagoyf
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Baleful Strix
Spells: 18
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Brainstorm
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Force of Will
2 Toic Deluge
PlanesWalkers: 5
3 Liliana of the Veil
2 Jace, The Mind Sculptor
Lands: 23
4 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Underground Sea
2 Bayou
2 Tropical Island
3 Wasteland
1 Swamp
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
Sideboard: 15
3 Thoughtseize
1 Surgical Etraction
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Golgari Charm
2 Chill
1 Null Rod
1 Pithing Needle
1 Notion Thief
1 Submerge
Let me explain some choices. My meta is mostly fair decks with a plethora of Delver, Deathblade, DnT, Maverick, and Miracles archetypes running wild. I chose this deck because I believe Shardless (with it's gluttony of removal and capability to run bombs like Toxic Deluge maindeck) is especially equipped to handle any creature based strategies. In my testing I noticed that I just won so many games on the back of Liliana of the Veil, and I really didn't like discard spells with Lili. I much preferred to be creating board control, possibly get hellbent before my opponent, use her +1 on a controlled board to gain straight card advantage, and wait for a suspended Ancestral to resolve or a topdeck Shardless or Jace to leap way ahead in the game. Force of will also supported this plan, hence the 4 of main. It controls early threats until I can get my card advantage bombs online. The fact that it also hedges slightly against combo was nice as well. I knew there was a decent chance I would run into some combo along the way, so I dedicated large portions of my board to help even up some of those matchups.
report (from memory):
0-0-0
Round 1 vs Imperial Bomberman:
This is a pretty fantastic and fun rogue deck that this guy plays around town. It's based on the Auriok Salvagers/LED combo and it runs tutors in the form or Trinket Mage and Imperial Recruiter. I'm lucky to know his deck pretty well before the match begins, as it's a beating if you're not ready. I'm not so scared of his combo since I can remove all the creatures, but he does run Magus of the Moon maindeck and tutors for it so I have to be careful.
Game 1 - I have a nice hand of removal, visions, shardless, and mana. He derps around with top and developes mana as I drop threats, waste his lands, and make planeswalkers on the board. Suddenly, around turn 5 or 6, he drops LED, then drops Imperial Recruiter, it resolves (I have no force), cracks LED in response to trigger, finds Salvagers, has enough mana to play salvagers and activate getting LED and infinite mana, and with Pyrite spellbomb in the graveyard he combos me out that turn.
Sideboard: yay a combo deck, time to board in a bunch of cards!
-1 Volrath's Stronghold
-2 Baleful Strix
-2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
-2 Abrupt Decay
+3 Thoughseize
+1 Surgical Extraction
+1 Nihil Spellbomb
+1 Null Rod
+1 Pithing Needle
Game 2 - My hand is spicy with disruption. Null Rod, Pithing Needle, Thoughtseize, and who cares that else. I thoughtseize turn 1, taking something pretty scary like a Magus or a recruiter, then he plays top off of an ancient tomb on his turn. I'm pretty sure he's hurting for land so I waste his land and pass. He manages to find another land to drop and passes. I drop the Null Rod which turns off at least half of his deck. He drops another sol land and plays imperial recruiter and searches up Mangara of condor. I know have time before that will be active so I get some threats going. He drops Mangara, I drop needle naming him, and then proceed to beat face in quickly to end the game.
Game 3 - My hand has both nihil and surgical, which will break up his combo, and an abrupt decay, which I am determined to hold up mana and use for a bloodmoon effect. He gets some tutors going, I get the spellbomb down and still hold up decay mana. He drops an LED on an early turn, and I consider abrupt decaying it and surgical to just remove the combo from deck, but I think better of it as I still want the decay for bloodmoon and I can just surgical when he tries to combo. A few turns later He attempts to combo off with salvagers in play and he has lots of mana going, I spellbomb his graveyard in response to the salvagers activation, he responds with spending the rest of his mana on salvager activations trying to get as much of his yard back as possible, i respond with surgical on LED, and end his chance of comboing. Unfortunately, he still has utility artifacts like spellbomb going with salvagers so I can't seem to stick a threat for long. We draw due to time because I can't do the last point of damage for like 10 minutes. Oh well.
0-0-1
Round 2 vs Elves!
This is a buddy of mine. He is a young player but a very competent elves pilot. I've tested with him and feel great after board, and probably close to 50/50 game 1 due to the 2x Deluge.
Game 1 - I lose the die roll, and he mulls to 6. This has got to be my biggest misplay of the tourney, as I keep what figures to be a good hand against an unknown deck, but his deck is known and my hand was bad against it: Visions, visions, deathrite, decay, wasteland, lands. He starts off doing his elf thing, with quirion ranger and Elvish Visionary and friends. I decay a symbiote I think on my 2nd turn. On his third turn he glimpses and drops a heritage druid makes like 5 more creatures keeping his hand full. I desperately drop a liliana on my next turn and 3 mana edict him for something irrelevant. He drops cradle and casts behemoth and attacks me for about 30 damage on his next turn.
Sideboard: I am forced to board in a shit ton of cards.
-1 Volrath's Stronghold
-1 Creeping Tar Pit
-2 Baleful Strix
-2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
-2 Ancestral Visions
+3 Thoughtseize
+2 Grafdigger's Cage
+2 Golgari Charm
+1 Submerge
Game 2 - I'm giddy as I spread an opener with Grafdigger's, thoughtseize, deluge, and stuff. I drop the cage turn 1 (turning of GSZ), he playes deathrite. I thoughtseize turn 2 and I believe I took something like a thoughtsieze. He doesn't like the implication of that at all. I drop threats as he drops elves. I land a pretty nice deluge and easily coast with goyfs.
Game 3 - A medicre opener but not too shabby, especially with him on the play and a mull to 5. I have double grafdiggers, thoughtseize, goyf, brainstorm, and lands. He drops quirion, I do a cage. He drops visionary, I brainstorm, make it "perfect" by throwing away the extra cage and fetch a land to thoughtseize. His hand is kindof scary, as he has NO, GSZ, and a few of the good elves, including that hot new reclamation sage that will kill my precious single cage! So ofcourse I take that. He starts making great things happen with mana elves, visionary, and symbiote. I'm throwing removal at the scariest threats, but I haven't drawn any sweepers, and I notice he's got a full grip and I'm down to nothing but a goyf on board (at least I've been swinging for a few each turn, and he's been missing land drops), but i'm getting scared. This is from his mull to 5 on the play remember. So I realize I'm probably dead real soon as he can continue to draw several each turn from the visionary tricks with a druid and nettle in play. But my deck loves me, as I topdeck toxic deluge with no cards in hand, sweep his board (except a bounced visionary ofcourse), and swing with a weakened goyf for 3 damage dropping him to 5 life. He misses a land drop again on his next turn and plays visionary and passes. I topdeck an abrupt decay on the next turn and remove his dude to swing for exactsies with my goyf. He reminded me the rest of the day how lucky I was to topdeck that deluge.
1-0-1
Round 3 vs UWR Delver:
This is a regular at my LGS and I know what he's on. Finally one of the good matchups I've mainboarded for. The least threatening of the delver decks. I basically get to keep any hand with lands and spells.
Game 1 - I win the die roll and lead with a suspended visions. He leads with Delver. Delver doesn't flip for a few turns so I feel no pressure. I play a goyf, then it get's swordsed and I'm thinking sarcastically "Oh noes the aggro deck has me down to 21 on turn 4 and I have a visions about to resolve, what will I ever do ?" I believe I then get a Lili pierced. Next turn We have a force of will war over the ancestral which I win and get to draw some cards, then I just have all the things as he bricks on topdecked lands. He finally gets an SFM going but it's too late I can just do stuff like decay things, Force the batterskull when it gets hardcasted and win shortly after.
Sideboard:
-4 Force of Will
+2 Golgari Charm
+1 Null Rod
+1 Pithing Needle
Game 2 - He leads with Grim Lavamancer this time and I follow up with a suspended visions. He then plays delver, and on my next turn I land Golgari charm to blow him out. I have more gas and he can't keep up, easy win.
2-0-1
Round 4 vs RUG Delver:
At this point I'm very happy I've dodged the spellbased combo decks around the room and the burn, omg so much burn. Multiple burn players at my same table this round and I'm so happy I'm not playing against one of them.
Game 1 - He wins the die roll and lead with Tropical into Ponder. I kindof recognize this guy and I have a read that he's on Canadian thresh, so I'm mindful to fetch all my lands when he's tapped out for the rest of the match and it really pays off, I don't think he lands a single stifle on one of my fetches. I believe I get a deathrite going turn 1. He is unable to kill it but plays out delver with wasteland. I land goyf and eventually get abrupt decay for his goyf. I somehow resolve a Jace and he gets way behind. I felt almost no pressure and I drew enough lands to withstand his wastelands. Easy win.
Sideboard: this is one of the only fair decks I don't board out Forces for, I need the help against early pressure and denial. If I can survive to mid-late game I should definitely win.
-1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
+1 Submerge
Game 2 - He plays fetchland go. And i feel so lucky that I just happen to have 2 actual dual lands in my hand, so I will be able to evade stifle. I drop underground and suspend visions. He fetches tropical and plays out a mongoose and passes without playing land. I play a Baleful strix which he refuses to attack into for several turns. Next turn he wastelands underground and surgical extractions it. Now, I ended up getting surgicaled twice in the tourney, and I feel like it's a terrible card against us, is it pure desperation that people are boarding it in against me? Anyway, he hits the two other undergrounds in my deck, but it's not like he's taking me off of anything there, so I'm really not worried about it. So, he has tapped trop and mongoose in play, I draw a wasteland. I wasteland targeting his trop, and in response he submerges my strix only to respond by dazing his own submerge to pick up the trop. Desperate times call for desperate measures I suppose, but overall I still feel great about the situation. He drops another mongoose and passes. I drop a goyf and pass. He plays some cantrips to dig for land, finally drops one, and then he walks away to talk to a judge for a long time I'm guessing to ask if he can stifle my visions. Meanwhile I'm just looking at the board state and the cards in my hand (I believe it was double decay, deluge, and shardless, and lands) and I was pretty sure he could not win this game. Sure enough he passes, stifles my visions, and then I proceed to crush him with goyfs and card advantage and mana advantage
3-0-1
Round 5 vs Belcher:
I tested a bunch with him but not with Belcher, but I know what he's on. I think its' a bad matchup for me, but at least I have forces and deluge so let's see.
Game 1 - I win the die roll, and pretty much snap keep with Deluge in hand an the mana to cast it. I'd rather have a force ofcourse, but with deluge at least I blank 60% of his win conditions. He has to mull twice. There is a bit of mindgames here because he knows that I know what he's on, and he's gotta figure if I snap keep there's a good chance I have force of will, so he's a little afraid to go all in on Belcher (if he even has it). I suspend visions turn 1, he makes 12 goblins, I drop goyf, he swings, I block one, and go to 8. I deluge his everything on my next turn, and win with goyfs 2 turns later.
Sideboard:
-1 Volrath's Stronghold
-1 Creeping Tar Pit
-2 Baleful Strix
-2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
-2 Ancestral Visions
-1 Abrupt Decay
+3 Thoughtsieze
+2 Golgari Charm
+1 Null Rod
+1 Pithing Needle
+2 Chill
Game 2 - He mulls twice, and I mull twice since I get two hands with no disruption at all. I don't love it but I keep a 5 hand with a lone golgari charm for disruption and no draw spells, but at least his mulls are always terrible for him. He gitaxian probes and passes, I drop a land and play something irrelevant like a deathrite shaman. He just draws and passes, I do something irrelevant again on turn 2. His turn three he topdecks an initial mana source in Elvish spirit guide, plays it and goes off with tinder walls and LED with enough mana to cast Belcher and then LED to activate Belcher to naturally belch me and flips like 50 cards before hitting his land.
Game 3 - Neither of us mull, but I get to keep a 7 card hand with Force of will, blue card, and Null rod, fantastic! I play fetchland go. He probes on his turn to see all the hate, groans, moans, and then just plays a lotus petal and passes. I drop my null rod turn 2 and I'm feeling very confidant. He draws and plays a Land grant for taiga and plays tinder wall and passes. I rip a thoughtseize, and see that he's a got a just a bunch of mana and goblin charbelcher. He ends up doing nothing the whole game and by the time its over I've got 2 Forces and blue cards just in case. I was his only match loss of the day.
4-0-1
Round 6 vs top seed and we ID
Top 8
I get paired vs a local player that is on U/G Turbo Eldrazi. I haven't really tested this matchup at all but I can tell he's very confidant as he knows my exact list.
Game 1 - I'm on the play from being the 4th seed. I like my hand with a wasteland, a couple visions, and Lili. I suspend some visions, wasteland a cloudpost and develop my board with Lili and Jace. He gets top down, spins it around a lot and makes land drops but doesnt accelerate. By late game he's stayed alive but at reasonably low health due to tarmagoyf, and I've been Jacestorming for like 4 turns which enables me to find all 3 of my wastelands over the course of the game. Eventually he is able to show and tell in a Primeval Titan and I have nothing to drop. Because of his low health he's forced to get a glacial chasm and Cloudpost. I'm able to lili edict his big dude and just keep brainstorming with jace. He bricks out and chasm alone cannot save him. If i didn't have the jace he could just primeval out a Dryad arbor but he knows with double planesalkers creatures alone won't save him.
sideboard:
-2 Baleful Strix
-2 Toxic Deluge
-1 Abrupt Decay
+3 Thoughtseize
+1 Null Rod
+1 Pithing Needle
Game 2 - He drops glimmerpost into Top, THen I thoughtseize to see a cloudpost, trinket mage, brainstorm, Glimmerpost, and pithing needle. I grab pithing needle as I happen to get the double wasteland opener and I realize he doesn't currently have any colored mana. He spins top and gets some colors of mana but I waste his cloudposts and get a reasonably early lili. I'm like plus plus plus with lili and there's not too much else going on. On some mid game turn I have lili at 6, and a tarmagoyf if play and he has about 2 or 3 cards in hand. His board is glimmerpost, cloudpost, Tropical, Tropical, Island, Top. I decide that if I just ultimate Liliana I should be able to just win with the goyf in a few turns no matter what, as I plan to leave him with the colorless mana or the colored mana, so I do it. He responds by spinning top but does not flip. I stick top in with the colorless mana and do my piles. He tanks for a long time but eventually realizes he just needs the colors too bad. He is unable to find an answer for goyf within the next few turns and that's gg.
Top 4
I'm paired against the top seed, the guy I IDed with in the final round of Swiss, and he says he's on some kind of BUG midrange deck. So I naturally assume (somewhat incorrectly) that it's one of the popular BUG control lists you see placing at the big events.
Game 1 - I keep an opener on the draw of 2x Force of Will, Deathrite, Tarmagoyf, and lands. He turn one plays a deathrite and I force of willed it pitching force. I really wanted to be king of the deathrites this game and I had no removal in hand, but in hindsight I really questions this play as it may have been very bad. I play deathrite on my first turn. He decays my deathrite. I play goyf. He plays TNN. I play shardless into Ancestral Visions but stil can't find an answer for TNN. He plays goyf. We each end up with a couple deathrites in play but he's still swinging with TNN. I find no answers in time and lose.
Sideboard:
-4 Force of Will
+2 Golgari Charm
+1 Notion Thief
+1 Submerge
Game 2 - I have decent opener with Deathrite, visions, jace, Golgari charm, and lands. I open with suspended visions, he opens with land go, I play a deathrite, he plays another land go. I decide to tap out for a Jace, probably walking into a pierce, but instead he hard casts a Daze, very unexpected. but hey I've got visions about to resolve soon and I'm sure he boarded out the forces. Nothing else really happens and then I attempt to cast Visions, and them BAM, Misdirection! Totally out of left field, this guy is just getting me at all the right times and I'm left with no gas. I was so hoping I had drawn that Notion thief at any point during this game. He gets a Jace online and I'm unable to do anything about it for way way too long. He's not really pressuring me at all, I have the answer for his eventual TNN, but it just doesn't matter as I can't draw enough gas to get anything going. At some point he surgicaled my Jace as he had said it's the only topdeck he feared, but again I really didn't think it was that good since all he really did was spend a card to get a card out of my deck. But the guy had the right plays at the right time and deserved the win even though I think that just looking at the lists I may have been favored.
I felt really comfortable with this deck all day, and I gone back and read this entire thread over the last few weeks in preparation for this tournament so I really appreciate the posts! I realize this post is very long but I wanted to include as many details as I could remember.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated as I plan to continue running this awesome deck!
