Has anyone ever thought about running 4 Nimble mongoose? Also, why does this deck run 4 Tombstalker? isnt that too many?
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Has anyone ever thought about running 4 Nimble mongoose? Also, why does this deck run 4 Tombstalker? isnt that too many?
One of the main differences TA - CT is that you run actually bigger critter in form of Tombstalker.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kanabo
If you want Mongeese - play CT.
How many Tombstalker would you want to play?
4 is the right number you want mainly to win with those. Tombstalker have evasion and thus are the main threats.
If you draw some copies you don't need then just shuffle those away with Brainstorm.
Well, I feel like this deck should make better use of the green splash. i dont feel that we are using the green splash to our fullest abilities.
Anyone else feel this way? the only thing we currently splash for in the MD is Goyf, even though there are many other green cards we could add.
The only other green card I've played with main has been 1 trygon predator, which was ok (I should note it is also blue). But that's a metagame call.
One card I'm gonna try out is maelstrom pulse, I have heard great things about it and I think it would help with some of the decks problems. I'm not sure how to find room for it though. No other green card really seems worth including to me.
As for the EE v. plague argument, EAD basically covered it. I don't think plague is much better against merfolk, if at all (both kill a limited number of creatures, but at least EE can kill any of the ones they may have out at the moment, which makes up for them being able to stifle it imo). It is also better overall against a wider variety of decks. Goblins is a good matchup already so you don't need plague for that, and goblins is horribly positioned in the metagame to boot, so plague seems like a waste of SB space, whereas EE is good against a ton of stuff. I think the best solution against merfolk is more spot removal, and of course counter their vials and standstill if necessary. If you can get it to a cursecatcher and a lord staring down a tombstalker and a goyf, I like your chances. This is why I want to try out maelstrom pulse since it is more mana efficient than deed and also deals with multiple types of permanents.
You can't play mongoose in this deck. It doesn't make any sense bc stalker eats your yard, and mongoose is really quite awful if you don't have threshold. This is the main reason I like this deck so much more than canadian threshold. If you cut some tombstalkers for them or something you are really losing the most powerful component of this deck and making the deck work against itself. Just play canadian if you love mongooses so much. :P
I have considered cutting 1 tombstalker and 1 other card for 2 other creatures, because every once in a while I will have a tombstalker I can't play and won't be able to shuffle it away. But about half of those times, I get to play it a little bit later, and it is still awesome. No creature packs the punch tombstalker does, the only candidates in my mind are trygon predator and vendilion clique. I've played trygon and it was fine, but most of the time it just got pitched to FOW cause I didn't need it to win...because I had tombstalker beating down. I think having 2 predators in the board and boarding out 1 stalker if you expect to face leylines post-board is an ok plan though.
I'm interested to hear how nitehawk is finding the cliques. It's also too bad you aren't finding spell pierce to be good. It maybe has to do with matchups, I didn't play against zoo or folk, but I liked spell pierce a lot.
Even though I do think this, itīs not the point of the discussion. The point is wheteher it is relevant enough to deserve being played main. I do think it does, but this surely depends on a meta and from the experience in the played matchups. Playing maindeck Sinkhole increases your chances to win worse matchups like Zoo a little, but on the downside it does not improve your merfolk matchup (which Spell Pierce does not improve, either).Quote:
Originally Posted by Yesmilord
So I personally made the experience that Sinkhole won me so many games, just because I could screw my opponent from one of his colours (white for StP or PtE mainly).
Basically you "only" need to kill their lords, which are 4xcmc2 and 8xcmc3, so EE on 3 might win you games. Getting rid of Vial and Cursecatcher with EE1 will also be okay every now and then. I tried Infest (in addition to 2 Deeds) in my board against merfolk and it did quite nothing. I will get back to EE in this slot or tryQuote:
Originally Posted by 1rakete
Yeah, looks like we got a candidate for our sideboards. I wasnīt impressed by pulse so far as I looked at it like some sort of removal, which mostly does not trade good for us (kill our own Goyfs for example), but I guess it improves those bad matchups like merfolk. Definitely worth trying!Quote:
Originally Posted by GtF
I think his point was Mongoose instead of Stalker, but the result is the same: donīt play mongoose in this deck! Since CT is definitely a DTB and Mongosse is their most annoying critter, decks have been constructed to handle this. Even though you can drop mongoose on turn 1 you donīt want it most of the time. So you want to play him turn 3 or 4, when his manabase was mutilated and you gained control of the board. At that time you can play Tombstalker as well and heīs got a way bigger body and evasion. Thois should be our choice in this deck.Quote:
Originally Posted by GtF
I am really satisfied with three of them and adding 2 Cliques. I tried 4 Stalker / 4 Goyf but died a lot of games without drawing a creature, so I dies often with 2 Stalkers in hand. Even though I do admit that raising your card quality with Brainstorm is a big part of playing the deck, there are several times where you just need to brainstorm to get a threat or an answer. So there will often be times where you just canīt shuffle one of them away. There have not been many games so far where I haven been able to get tweo Stalker on board, so most of the time I did not want to draw another one. Three are fine. Really.Quote:
Originally Posted by EaD
The absense of Sinkhole could in fact have made Spell Pierce a bit weaker, so perhaps focusing back on the mana denial aspect could be strong. I will try testing this list with Sinkhole and Pierce:
4 Tombstalker
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Spell Pierce
4 Stifle
3 Sinkhole
3 Snuff Out
3 EE
4 Wasteland
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
I'd rather have the 4th Pierce than the 4th Sinkhole, as the former is stronger in the early game and helps set up plays with Stifle. I have also cut a land (fetchland) to see how the deck operates. With EE in the main and Spell Pierce you also have more reliable answers to Vial, which is kinda good vs low land count Merfolk decks that rely on that artifact to hit their 3cc dudes. Sinkhole also helps mitigate multiple swords effects from Zoo, but it could still be too slow. The one thing I like with EE and Sinkhole is that you can trap Zoo players into playing out their one drops while you focus on mana denial, and sweep the creature horde in a single swoop that would have previously eaten you alive. Something to consider.
One thing I'm also happy with is Trygon Predator (3 right now) in the board, along with Jitte (2). Seems to be the only really effective answer to Merfolk while also being a bomb in some corner cases (Dreadstill, Stax, Dragon Stompy). If anyone tests this let me know how it turns out. Bant counter/top is an annoying matchup but it has been close to 50/50 in testing. Noble hierarch is public enemy #1 there.
So I am procrastinating doing work and decided to make everyone's favorite, an excel spreadsheet. The question of cutting a land from the deck has been raised, and so I figured I'd use Canadian threshold (the most similar deck probably, and one that runs 18 land ubiquitously) to see if it's a good idea. Things like engineered explosives and tombstalker (variable mana costs) make it tricky though. For ease of reference I used nitewolf's list from a the last post. For Tombstalker I used mana costs of 2 2 3 3 based on what I estimate I pay on average over the course of a tourney. For EE I used 3.5 for each, factoring in activation costs and figuring that you'd usually pay 2 but sometimes 1 to play it. It's a rough estimate, I put those in the last columns so people can mess with them if they want easily. The columns are all labeled with what card it is and everything.
For the CT list I used Sam Blau's list from LA because it plays v. cliques instead of lavamancers, which raises the mana cost: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=30745
I'll post the .xls but the bottom line is:
CT avg mana cost: 1.09
TA avg mana cost: 1.23
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?...GTXpHTHc&hl=en
So what to conclude from this?
One way to look at it is this: 1.09/18 = 1.23/X, where X is the number of lands TA should play with that average mana cost. We may have our issues with CT but I think we all agree the mana is pretty good. Granted, its wastelands aren't always used as mana producing lands, but team america is in the same boat there so for comparative purposes it's fine.
Doing that equation yields a land count of 20.3. So it would seem that with that list you should play 20.3 lands. Now if you want to bump down the value of EE or tombstalker mana costs you'll get a different result.
Even though I do respect the work you invested, I donīt like this general conclusion, that TA needs to play 20 lands. CT is a quite tight deck with only 2 flexible slots, which are both @cmc3. TA on the opposite side is a deck where a lot of slots are being discussed right now. Choosing a cmc of 2,5 for Tombstalker and 3,5 for EE seems a little too random for me. Nontheless, a more scientific investigation of the mana base might be a good idea. As a conclusion of my feeling and personal experience, 18 lands have been fine for me... but this, too, might be a result of different playstyles.Quote:
Originally Posted by GtF
Tonight Iīm gonna test my version of TA again, which got me great results recently.
No doubt, there are issues with the EE and tombstalker and I pointed that out. I'm not trying to say 20.3 is the lands that everyone should play, I'm just saying that there's a relationship between the spells in your deck and the number of lands you should run. I made it for myself mostly and then figured I might as well post it and if other people want to use it that's fine, just change the values based on what's in your deck. I recalculated it for my own version and my avg mana cost ended up lower than CT's (at 1.08). So I'm definitely not saying it's wrong to cut a land or two, but it does matter based on what you are playing.
i play this TA avg mana cost : 1,12
CT avg mana cost: 1.09
TA avg mana cost: 1.12
>> 19 lands : the deck works very well with 19 lands
Quote:
// Lands
4 [TE] Wasteland
3 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
3 [ON] Polluted Delta
2 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
4 [R] Underground Sea
2 [R] Tropical Island
1 [R] Bayou
// Creatures
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
4 [FUT] Tombstalker
// Spells
4 [M10] Ponder
4 [CST] Brainstorm
4 [DD2] Daze
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [SC] Stifle
4 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
3 [LRW] Thoughtseize
3 [MM] Snuff Out
1 [ON] Smother
2 [FD] Engineered Explosives
So I realize that this has been gone over in this thread, but I am going to pose my question as it regards a slightly different build of TA.
What if you were to cut Daze and Sinkhole and Snuff Out and replace them with 3 Trinketmage, 1 Dreadnought, 1 Tormod's Crypt, 1 Relic of Progenitus, 1 Sensei's Divining Top, 2 Engineered Explosives, 3 Pernicious Deed.
Also, I have been running 4 Ponder, 4 Thoughtseize, and 2 Duress (no brainstorm).
Will somebody please talk some sense into me? I realize that I am making sub-optimal card choices, but I am unfamiliar with the deck.
Thanks
Update on this deck:
I played it at the 5K in indy, trying out a bunch of different and new cards. I ended up lucky 16th (7-2) after swiss, here's what I played and my conclusions:
Artifacts
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sensei's Divining Top
Creatures
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Tombstalker
Instants
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Force Of Will
3 Snuff Out
3 Spell Pierce
4 Stifle
Sorceries
4 Ponder
1 Reanimate
4 Thoughtseize
Lands
1 Bayou
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
2 Tropical Island
4 Underground Sea
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
Sideboard:
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Dark Confidant
2 Trygon Predator
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Hydroblast
1 Ravenous Trap
2 Smother
So I tried out 19 lands and a top as an extra brainstorm/ponder type effect. I almost cut it before the tournament for the 20th land but kept it in after drawing a practice hand while they were collecting decklists (very scientific I know). I drew it a TON during the day, even though there's only 1, so I got a good idea of how it is in the deck.
First off, top is a really really good card. This is obvious to anyone who's played with it a lot, I hadn't before this. It almost makes me want to switch to counterbalance.
In team america however, it has its issues. I'm sure you can guess what these are: You are playing 19 lands and with a normal draw, don't have a lot of mana to spare messing around with top. Doing so makes you lose tempo and tempo is this decks biggest strength. However, when I got flooded or got to the midgame, top really was incredible. Especially in postboard games where I boarded in dark confidants (I'll get to those in a bit). The thing was, it was only incredible because I had a bunch of lands in play to use it and also play other spells. Therefore, if you play top, you don't want to cut a land for it, you want the full 20 lands, especially the 9th fetchland.
I personally am going back to 20 lands after this tournament. I don't like having to mulligan with this deck, and I ended up mulling a lot of 0 or wasteland only hands in this tourney. Getting flooded is a problem, but getting choked on mana early is a bigger one.
What I want ideally is a card that is both good early, blue, and helps stop you getting flooded late-midgame by either regulating your draws or trading excess lands (in play or in hand) for other cards. Top would be decent at doing this. Another card that I thought of is sylvan library. These would both work well with bob in the board. Other suggestions are very welcome, if anyone has tested opt or slight of hand, I'm interested to know how they were. A few notes on other MD cards:
Reanimate: OK, I've played 2 tournaments with this main and I can finally admit that it is more cute than good. It's really not necessary, and the format is diverse enough that you aren't guaranteed to hit a tarmogoyf deck where it will be really good (or a reanimator, which is already a good matchup). This is going out next time, either to the board or gone completely.
EE: Still a solid card, I can't decide if I want it main or board. It is worth having 2 for sure somewhere in your 75.
Ok, on to the SB
3 Dark confidant: These were incredible all day, and I boarded them in against Ad Nauseum, Enchantress, Belcher, Landstill, reanimator, dream halls, and BW control. I don't know about you, but most of the time I could care less about taking 8 against any of these decks. The theory is that all your MD cards are so good (except snuff out, which comes out), that all you want to do is draw more of them. He does that. Especially good if you keep playing top. He was really was the all star in my board during the day and won me the above matches except Landstill (where I got no green mana or 3rd land forever) and BW control (where I never drew him).
The rest of the board is pretty standard. Never boarded in my crypt/trap but still wouldn't cut them. Might change the trap to extirpate for the lands matchup. Even though bob is amazing I could see going down to 2 if you move EE to the board.
I will probably play the same deck but with 20 land and trying something else out in those pesky 2 slots that does what I talked about before.
I should note a version made T4 that was running the 2 clique 3 tombstalker configuration. I may try that out as well.
GtF: nice build. How did you find 4x Thoughtseize? Did you find Thoughtseize critical vs. decks like combo/reanimator?
Also, did you face Merfolk or Zoo in your matches? Curious how those matches went, and if 2x EE in your 75 was enough to handle that matchup?
GtF, nice finish, and I'm glad people are still trying to make this deck work. I don't agree with many of the choices in the top 4 list, but I do want to know what you thought of the maindeck Spell Pierces. I don't think Confidant is necessary in your board and I think you drew the same conclusions on top that I would have said. Library was tested and was pretty good, but I don't know if that spot is better as more removal or not. I cut Thoughtseize a while ago as I wanted to focus more on tempo generating plays, but I would also be curious about how they ran for you.
I am testing a newer list of this deck and I'll post it here, as I'm mainly working on Reanimator right now, for people to play with and share thoughts on. You might like it:
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Tombstalker
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Stifle
3 Spell Pierce
2 Spell Snare
3 EE
2 Snuff Out
2 open, either Library or Smother/Diabolic Edict (Maelstrom Pulse could also be interesting)
4 Wasteland
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
Board:
4 Submerge (spot for zoo that is also versatile, can be BEB as well)
2 Coffin Purge
2 Ravenous Trap
3 Trygon Predator (for merfolk, with many auxiliary uses)
2 Umezawa's Jitte (also for merfolk, also with aux uses)
2 Krosan Grip
Engineered Explosives has gotten much better than Snuff Out as removal lately, with Merfolk and Zoo being the main concerns of this deck. I used to run 2 copies in the main and 1 in the board but have since moved all 3 to the main. The card is not very efficient alot of the time but is extremely versatile and solves a lot of problems. The only real way I have found to boost the Merfolk matchup is with a combo of Trygon Predator and Jitte post board, coming in for the Spell Pierces and a couple of Dazes (Submerge obv coming in vs Green splash as well). Did you play vs any Merfolk that day? Also, Dave Gearhart had a great point about Spell Snare and really justified it as a 2 of in this deck. The card can be unreliable, but maintains value throughout the game, so I feel it is acceptable to run it as a sort of "filler" to supplement the counter suite. I think this build gets a lot more mileage out of Stifle as well as it can hold mana up more often.
Hey I'm new :) and excuse my english but it's a long time that i didn't use it (shame on me :( )
I tried Team America 2 weeks ago and I wasn't particulary happy with this deck... Sinkhole wasn't interesting and it never helped me, so I decided to cut them for more control.
This is the list I played last saturday
4 Tarmo
4 Tombstalker
2 Vendilion Clique (8 isn't enough for me... I need some more kill :))
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 FOW
3 Daze
4 Spell Snare
4 Spell Pierce
3 Doom Blade
2 Smother (Black Metagame so it's difficult to use snuff out or doom blade)
1 Darkblast (Metagame Aggro with plenty of Elves Dark Confidant Grim...)
2 Engineered Explosives (Mass Removal)
4 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
4 Wasteland
3 Polluted Delta
3 Misty Rainsforest
1 Island
I cut sinkhole Thoughtseize & Stifle because I would like to play more control than mana denial. What do you think about this option ? I would like to put STifle and cut 2 EE, 1 Smother & 1 Tombstalker or maybe Darkblast ?? Good idea or not ?
I really like this deck and Sinkhole but it's too weak.. Two weeks ago, I played against Ichorid, Merfolk with VIal, WW with VIal & Landstill... What can I do with my sinkhole ??? except slowing down the guy but never enough ?
Thanks guys. First off, I never played against merfolk or zoo (nor did I at the last 5K). This is pretty lucky, although the BW control deck I played in round 1 had more removal spells than I had creatures in my deck and SB combined, so that was pretty much an autoloss.
Based on the decks I listed as having played against (the other 2 were goblins and NO countertop), I think you can guess that the thoughtseizes were really good, and they were. I love this card and I will not ever be playing less than 3 unless the metagame gets seriously warped. Yes, they aren't AS good against decks that actually plop down creatures and attack you, but they are still serviceable. Meanwhile against the decks I played against, and many others, they are amazing. They don't generate tempo but they don't lose you much either since they cost only B, and there are certain cards that give this deck a really hard time and I think it's worth it to be able to get those and also to see what your opponent has so you know what to do, what to brainstorm away, etc etc.
Snuff out was dead and got boarded out a lot, so yeah it might be worthwhile to run a 2-2 split of them and EE. Generally speaking if you are EEing for 2 it's decent, 1 or 0 it's amazing, and 3 or more it's pretty bad.
I keep meaning to make a list of all the cards that spell snare counters in legacy. Once I do that I'll have a better idea if it's something this deck actually wants. In the limited amount I've played with it, I really have not liked it, often it sits in my hand doing nothing, and this deck already has enough cards that can do that.
nitewolf: you don't board out stifles against merfolk? Also I'm not sure we came to the same conclusion on the Top. I still think 1 could be fine as a way to help your draws in the lategame, as long as you play the full 20 lands. Sylvan library seems appealing as well. Any reasons why you prefer the library to top?
Also I forgot to post my original reason for the bobs, which was to board into against any deck that is boarding leylines against you. Getting an 8 mana tombstalker stuck in your hand can be devestating, and in legacy you can pretty well guess which decks board leylines and which don't. It just so happened that vs the decks I played against, I wanted both (I usually boarded out 1 stalker if I was boarding in 3 bobs but not always). It might not be strictly necessary but it really was very good during the day.
Just some thoughts on reading this discussion. The last 3 times I played this deck, I won all 3 tournaments with it. Never once did I run spell pierce.
The first few turns I am using sinkhole/wasteland/stifle to give me tempo or ponder/brainstorm to build up to a turn 3-4 tombstalker.
You guys say that Sinkhole is unexciting but it is possibly one of the best cards in the deck. Any deck not running counters and gets sinkholed on turn 2 is in a lot of trouble. Even if they Force it, I will gladly take a 2 for 1 with that card. Force is a great card, but unless you are stopping a game-winning spell, it is so average.
Snuff out- This card could be the one to be changed. Smother is looking more and more inviting with Bobs running around.
Only qualms I have about this deck is the lack of kill options. 8 is just not enough sometimes. Another problem is the 50-50 matchup with zoo and the bad matchup against merfolk. Here is my gauntlet for GP Cbus testing:
Aggro:
Zoo
Merfolk
Goblins
RDW
Control:
43 Land
UW Thopter
Ctop Survival
Ctop NO
Landstill
Stax
MBC
Combo:
ANT
Reanimator
Charbelcher
Looking at that list, it isn't as exciting as it was before when Goblins and C-top decks where the majority of the field.
If you're light on threats, have you thought about maybe playing...
3 Phyrexian Dreadnought
2 Vision Charm/Trickbind (the latter only if a very large portion of your meta consists of fetchlands and storm decks).
to supplement your deck.
Dreadnought lets you race Goblins easily and even race combo decks like Reanimator, Ad-Nauseum or Ichorid when combined with all your countermagic. It can both be played, and protected with Stifle and Vision Charm. Hell it can even be played to bait a counter (if your opponent thinks you play Trickbind) and sacced to give your Goyf +2/+2 or feed your yard for Tombstalker (though I don't see myself using it like that). It seems like a terrible waste of a 12/12.
When Vision Charm isn't being used to either cast Dreadnought, or to serve as protection for a Dreadnought already in play, Vision Charm reduces Tombstalker's cc by 5, letting you play multiple Tombstalkers per game. It can also serve as a Giant Growth for Tarmogoyf messing your opponents combat damage. On the key turn where you are about to swing for lethal, you can use Vision Charm to cut your opponent off from their removal color.
And the absolute worst case scenario, you can either shuffle it away with Brainstorm or pitch it to FoW.
You can always side out those 5 cards for all your sideboard hate right as you opponent bring in all their enchantment/artifact destruction giving you virtual card advantage game two (you dont play many artifacts).
Hell, if you end up loving Dreadnought. You could even go up to...
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
2-3 Vision Charm
1-2 Trickbind
All your low threat count problems solved.
The reason I am hesitant to remove Sinkholes and/or Stifles is that LD powers up Daze/Spell Pierce.
Howdy all,
Haven't posted in awhile but since I pilfered your decklist and I've been getting consistent top 4's here in Rochester that past month or so I feel obliged to post. First, my list:
4 Tombstalker
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
4 Stifle
4 Spell Pierce
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Thoughtseize
3 Snuff Out
2 Pernicious Deed
3 Polluted Delta
2 Verdant Catacombs
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Flooded Strand (don't ask)
4 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
4 Wasteland
SB:
1 Hydroblast
1 Snuff Out
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Submerge
2 Pernicious Deed
3 Krosan Grip
4 Blue Elemental Blast
I'll list a few cards here that are still negotiable and add my thoughts:
Spell Pierce - So far working pretty well although my meta is becoming less combo heavy so it may get cut down to a 3 of soon. There's only a few matchups I've hated seeing this guy against and most of the time it just gets boarded out in those anyways : - )
Thoughtseize - I'm slowly starting to doubt this card but in general it's helped make some amazing plays for me. I'm probably still going to run it for a few more tournaments to see how it fairs before deciding to cut or not.
Snuff Out - I have no intentions of cutting this card to fewer than 3 due to the massive tempo I get out of it. It rarely gets boarded out and the life loss really hasn't made much of a difference in most of my matches.
Pernicious Deed - I prefer this over EE for my meta as there's a lot more oddball decks that dump out massive amounts of creatures with varying casting costs. As an example I played against 2 different "Red elemental" theme decks the past 2 weeks and Deed was definitely superior to EE for those matches. If the meta picks up a bit I might try working with the EE's, or possibly try them over Thoughtseizes.
As far as my board goes, the BEB's and Hydro's are in because I'm seeing a lot of burn/gobbo/red aggro in my meta and that's something I don't feel confidant the deck can handle without some decent SB support.
Submerge unfortunatley hasn't done jack for me yet but that's most likely because there's one Bant Survival and one Pro-Bant in the meta so I don't always have the opportunity to use it.
Grip is in there for the random Scepter/Chant deck that pops up here and there and in support of the extra deeds to handle the Stax and Enchantress decks that rear their ugly heads here and there (I played in a meta with 3 Stax decks a few weeks and Grip/Deed really helped).
Relic is in there since I feel there's enough early counter to make it so I don't need to have a 0 drop to deal with graveyard decks and I think being able to ping off reanimate/loyal retainer targets consistently is more useful than a graveyard dump.
I haven't used Trygon because I don't consistently see Enchantress and Stax and Deed handles them when I do in addition to helping with random aggro. I'm finding Gobbos is still a tough matchup for me even after boarding in 5 BEB effects and another Snuff Out so I'm thinking of trying to find 1-2 other options that I can try out.
So far I haven't gone under 3-1 in a tournament and we usually get around 20-24 players here in good ole Rochester, NY.
My questions to everyone:
1) Are some of your maindeck choices (EE, Trygon, Smother) more dictated by your meta or just because those cards seem to work better for you in general?
2) What kind of meta are you running your list in and what modifications have you made to your maindeck and board to adjust?
3) What are you seeing as your worst matchups?
Let me know whatcha think. Thanks!!!