[DTB] Team America (Aggro/Tempo Thread)

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Originally Posted by DerFern

Thank you for your feedback so far
The most problems have been with the Rb Goblin list. There are basically too many things that need to be destroyed/countered/handled. Maybe it was just bad luck that day, but when I had a quite good start (handling 1st turn Vial, wasting their land, Snuff Out on 2nd turn lackey) he just drew anything he needed and wasted three of my lands, dropped Lackey and beat the shit out of me. When I had a Goyf he played Weirding which I could not counter.
I tried 2xDarkblast main that day of which I drew not a single one (except against MUC-fail!) and Deed out of the board could never be played due to his wastelands. I´m still not sure what to do with Stifle. In the Rb list I guess I should stifle his fetches when I can handle Vial/Lackey, but then I got overwhelmed by Ringleaders and Matrons.
For Bazaar of Moxen, I guess I´ll play my standard list with a sideboard of
2 Pernicious Deed
3 Ravenous Trap
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Extirpate
1 Krosan Grip
3 Submerge
2 BEB / Hydroblast
1 Darkblast
That should give me a good matchup against this particular deck as well as a few more decks I expect quite a lot (Ichorid, Zoo, Reanimator). Any other suggestions?

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If you're having problems with Goblins, think about Chill; it plays into the mana denial theme pretty well and doesn't require you to sit around with mana open (unlike BEB/Hydroblast). Also seems like it could be all right against storm, making their red rituals cost more to slow them down; it's something to take your spot removal out for, at least, so you don't have to sit around staring at those Snuff Outs while they goldfish.

On a related note, unless one expects a fair amount of combo, I'd stay away from Hymn to Tourach. Something about it just doesn't feel right. I played in a small local tourney, went 3-1 with the deck playing against random jank (losing to Elves because I didn't think to put Perish in the board), and wasn't ever really happy to see it. I think I'd rather have either EE or Spell Pierce in that slot, depending on whether your meta is aggro or control. I love Hymn, don't get me wrong, but it just doesn't feel like flows well with the rest of the deck.

Hi,

1) What are the best matchups and what are the worst matchups for Team America in the current meta?

2) Whats the best meta for Team America and whats the worst meta for Team America?

3) What do you think about adding one Dreadnought? What would you cut for it?

4) Do you think, Eva Green would be a better choice in the current meta?

Thanks a lot,

royal

TA has good matchups vs. combo decks, decent vs. multicolored control, usually bad vs monocolor control.
Burn and goblins are average, I think zoo is about 50% as well, as is counterbalance (it was a lot better before everyone started playing noble hierarch)
Merfolk is pretty bad, but it is possible to address with enough SB slots.

Generally the more broken interactions a deck has, the better TA is against it because of its disruption package. The harder to disrupt it is, the worse TA is against it. So for instance a deck with all basic forests and elvish warriors would probably be a pretty bad matchup.

It seems like people are starting to gravitate towards more powerful decks in legacy, which would seem to make TA a better choice now than before.

I dislike adding a dreadnaught but another threat might be in order, since drawing more than 2 tombstalkers is kinda rough. I think terravore might warrant some consideration. I usually fetch out U sea, U sea, bayou as my lands but with some forethought it's easy enough to get a tropical island.

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Originally Posted by GtF

I dislike adding a dreadnaught but another threat might be in order, since drawing more than 2 tombstalkers is kinda rough. I think terravore might warrant some consideration. I usually fetch out U sea, U sea, bayou as my lands but with some forethought it's easy enough to get a tropical island.

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This weekend I tried 4 Goyf/3 Stalker/2 Clique/1 Sower and I loved it. Sower is a maindeck answer against Iona, which might be a good solution since Reanimator gaining popularity on and on. I usually fecth USea/Bayou/Tropical, so I can play anything in the deck on turn 2.

Here's what I'm thinking as a contender for a meta containing Combo, Stax, Goblins and Merfolk:

(Yes, I know I should probably play something else. It's just that I've developed a certain fascination with Tombstalker.)

3x Tombstalker
4x Goyf
2x Vendilion Clique

4x Brainstorm
4x Ponder
4x FoW
4x Daze
4x Stifle
3x Spell Pierce

2x Engineered Explosives
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Snuff Out
2x Smother

4x Wasteland
4x Misty Rainforest
3x Verdant Catacombs
2x Polluted Delta
4x Underground Sea
2x Tropical Island
1x Bayou

Sideboard:

4x Tormod's Crypt
4x Engineered Plague
3x Krosan Grip
1x Engineered Explosives
3x Blue Elemental Blast / Hydroblast

Taking a cue from Nitewolf's book, I'm removing the Sinkholes and maindecking two EE's. The 2 Inquisitions are lifeloss-friendly and act as pseudo-removal against Lackey/Goyf/etc. It's just too hard running 4 Snuff Outs so I'm trying a compromise solution with 2/2 split between Snuff Out and Smother.

Engineered Plague may be too slow without Ritual to power it out. But with this deck it's conceivable that I could get 2 on the board fairly consistently.

What do you guys think about running 2/2 split between Crypt and Yixlid Jailer? He's small, but still a "beater" (ha!). Only works against Dredge though, and not Reanimator.

hey guys im just starting to get back into legacy again! have you guys ever thought about mealstrom pulse either MD or SB it seems pretty good against goblins and merfolk?

I've tried it, it's ok. Generally I like engineered explosives more though. Not against goblins, but pulse doesn't seem amazing there either, usually it'll just be a 1 for 1 sorcery speed removal that kills something that either cost less than it did or gave them card advantage already.

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Originally Posted by char89

hey guys im just starting to get back into legacy again! have you guys ever thought about mealstrom pulse either MD or SB it seems pretty good against goblins and merfolk?

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Having played the Merfolk matchup, I'd say it's hard to do more than a 1:1 with Pulse. At least with Explosives you're killing a bunch of 3 CC lords.

3 mana to get rid of 1 creature is too much of a tempo loss in my opinion.

I know this might be annoying, but has anyone tried Jace, the mindsculptor in this deck? I tried it out the other day: Pitched it to force of will once and shuffled it away with brainstorm once. There were definitely situations where topdecking it would have been awesome though. Still, now that I've seen a deck do well with 3 portent, maybe I should just run that.

Anyone else excited to try out preordain in this deck?

Wouldn't Portent be better in a deck whose primary plan is to mana screw their opponent for a few turns? Seems like it to me, although it does sound appealing to have 12 "give me the card now" cantrips in a very streamlined build.

I guess I envision wanting to use the effect on myself more than my opponent most of the time. Also, waiting a turn to draw the card seems like it would hurt a lot more in this kind of deck than in counterbalance. Still, I haven't actually tried portent so maybe it is better than preordain. Hopefully I'll get some time to test out both, or if anyone else does, post your results to the thread.

I have a question for this forum. I've been playing Legacy for about 7 months now, and the only two decks I have experience with are ANT and Team America. Now that ANT is severely weakend by the banning of mystical tutor, I need to find something different to play in Columbus. Is Team America a legitimate Tier 1 deck to play? Has it been strengthened at all by the banning of MT? Are there any main deck changes you would recommend based on the shift in the metagame?

Thanks in advance.

I personally think with the loss of ANT, Team America is decently placed depending on the shift. I personally expect a large uptick in the Zoo decks... If I am wrong though Team America seems alright.

Personally IF I went to Columbus... and I might it is currently up in the air... I would prolly play either Enchantress or one of the SI variants. They both do a number on Zoo and are both solid against Lands!!!

So Team America does not have a good matchup with Zoo? Zoo's mana base is a bit greedy with 3 colors, so wouldn't it be easy to lock them down using wasteland, stifle, sinkhole? I've even considered maindecking 4x spreading seas. Seems to provide additional mana hurt for Zoo, Enchantress, and New Horizons while also cantriping. At that point the only weak matchups in my view are goblins and merfolk, which is where 4x Engineered Plagues in the sideboard come in handy. What do you think?

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Originally Posted by sigfig8

So Team America does not have a good matchup with Zoo? Zoo's mana base is a bit greedy with 3 colors, so wouldn't it be easy to lock them down using wasteland, stifle, sinkhole? I've even considered maindecking 4x spreading seas. Seems to provide additional mana hurt for Zoo, Enchantress, and New Horizons while also cantriping. At that point the only weak matchups in my view are goblins and merfolk, which is where 4x Engineered Plagues in the sideboard come in handy. What do you think?

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I had the same issues with Gobbo and Merfolk, so 4xPlague found the way into my sideboard as well. I agree that it is possible to screw Zoos manabase and I did not have that many problems with this matchup so far. Spreading Seas looks like a nice idea but I just can´t find any room to give it a try. Legacy has been a quite blue-dominated format so far, thus I don´t think it would be that effective. However, with a slight metashift due to the weakaning of ANT/Reanimator it might prove to be a solid choice. If you should try it, please report about your results!

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Originally Posted by DerFern

I had the same issues with Gobbo and Merfolk, so 4xPlague found the way into my sideboard as well. I agree that it is possible to screw Zoos manabase and I did not have that many problems with this matchup so far. Spreading Seas looks like a nice idea but I just can´t find any room to give it a try. Legacy has been a quite blue-dominated format so far, thus I don´t think it would be that effective. However, with a slight metashift due to the weakaning of ANT/Reanimator it might prove to be a solid choice. If you should try it, please report about your results!

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Thanks for the confirmation. I've tried the 4x spreading seas strategy once already and it was decent but didn't seem optimal. Then again, my matchups were Goblins, Countertop, and Elves so I didn't get maximum value from them. Spreading seas replaced my discard slot, which I'm still a bit unsure of. The deck is pretty tightly crafted, so the only flexible spots in my opinion would be in number of ponders (I'm considering 2), discard, and number of creatures (7-9). Doesn't yield a lot of room. I'll definitely provide a more detailed summary next time I try this.

Pros of spreading seas:
1. Emphasizes the mana-screw aspect of the deck
2. Cantrips
3. Makes goyf bigger (not many decks play enchantments)
4. Can be tossed for FoW

Cons of spreading seas:
1. They often get killed due to daze
2. They don't hurt blue decks as much
3. They don't destroy the land

I think the cons outweigh the pros for spreading seas.

As for the position of Team america, it is hard to say yet whether it gets better or worse.
On the one hand, reanimator and ant were both good matchups and those will presumably be played even less.
Zoo is in my opinion a pretty even matchup, you could probably tip it in TA's favor with the appropriate SB.
However the big deal is that if zoo gets more popular and combo gets worse, there is less of an incentive for people to play merfolk, which is by far the worst matchup among commonly played decks (maybe new horizons is worse, I haven't tested it). So the weakening of combo might end up being a good thing for TA.

Team America tournament report

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...ead.php?18290-[Report]-Delve-for-six-Alex-13th-Place-with-TEAM-AMERICA-at-the-Mirkwood-Cup

Went 4-2-0 over the weekend, hope you enjoy the report.

I still think with less Mystical Tutor to worry about, Sinkhole is probably a lot better than Spell Pierce