[Deck] Death and Taxes

Well first of here is my list that I have been running and proving to be pretty effective.

Death
3x mother of runes
4x sfm
4x serra avenger
3x jotun grunt
3x revoker
3x flickerwisp
3x mangara

Spells:
4x vial
4x swords
1x jitte
1x batterskull (good against control)
1x Sword of fire and ice
1x Sword of light and shadow
3x mental misstep (very good in this deck)

Taxes:
3x karakas
4x port
4x wasteland
11x plains

SB: TBA

I have found this list to be pretty good however I need more testing against control decks. From the primer it says that D&T has trouble against landstill decks. I was wondering what new tools can be used against control decks?

Erbs: I have not made a SB because it really depends on the meta. Would you mind explaining why you chose the cards you did for your SB.

i am sceptical about mental misstep, can you please describe why it should be good in this deck, and be played, aside of the obvios tempogain, and little help against combo

personally I don't think that it belongs in the main board, and that sideboard would be personal choice... I don't play any missteps in my 75 nor do I plan to.

i think as well that it does not really belong in this deck, though sticking a mother of runes and being able to protect it with misstep is nice

but we are no blue tempodeck that needs to stick one of their few creatures and protect it, we are a vial-based tempo deck which means we run about 20+ creatures and in that case i think we should only really fear mass-removal, or recurring removal IMO and in both cases mental misstep is of no use

in our case i think it really only could improve the combo matchup a bit, but with the meta as it is right now, i do not think improving the combomatchup is necessary, since combo, aside of hive-mind and painter-stone, is non-existent

Misstep has been amazing. The combination of mm and mom stomps zoo, protects are vial, counters entomb and reanimation (some) spells, stops discard, slows down gsz decks when they try to zenith for zero, counters most 1 cmc burn, can even counter cantrips. You should play test misstep, I do not think anybody esle has tested aside from me. It is good and has a place in the main. Also one big thing is it also feeds grunt, makes reanimator match up much better giving us another turn or so that we get control of the board. In other words it makes all of our average matchups better.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AggroSteve

i think as well that it does not really belong in this deck, though sticking a mother of runes and being able to protect it with misstep is nice

but we are no blue tempodeck that needs to stick one of their few creatures and protect it, we are a vial-based tempo deck which means we run about 20+ creatures and in that case i think we should only really fear mass-removal, or recurring removal IMO and in both cases mental misstep is of no use

in our case i think it really only could improve the combo matchup a bit, but with the meta as it is right now, i do not think improving the combomatchup is necessary, since combo, aside of hive-mind and painter-stone, is non-existent

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In my meta combo and painter is quite prevalent. If 1 cmc was not so prevelant I would not play it. But since I feel protecting the vial is so important I will continue to play it.

I used to have it in my sideboard, but then I noticed I would side in any other card and never the missteps, so they got cut, I run mono white, so I am able to do a few more shenanigans that other builds, but I stand by what I said earlier, that I personally do not believe that Mental Misstep has a place in this deck.

Hey Fry, have you tested with the Grand Abolishers lately? Still on my exam week so I can't really test them but I'm about to get a Foil playset later!

I haven't had the oportunity to test with them yet, I'll probably try 2 or 3 main board at some point, but I haven't figured out yet what slot to put them in I was thinking of trying them over one of my leonin arbiters and perhaps the 2 oblivion rings, I'm just going to do some testing with it, and if I don't have time I'm not going to try it out at large tournament, but perhaps a smaller one.

Unfortunately my legacy play group lives about 30-45 minutes away from my place and I don't drive a car.

Played two tournaments with Death & Taxes over the weekend - a 28 player and a 38 player. Went 6 out of 28 (no cut to Top 8) and 10 out of 38, missing Top 8 in the second tournament on resistance. My first tournaments with this deck that were 4 or more rounds (4 rounds for the first, 6 rounds for the second). Good times.

The deck ran really well, I had a lot of fun. I will write a report later, so people can give me some help with sideboard, which I wasn't complete satisfied with. What I will say now is that Mental Misstep was insanely good, and caught everyone by surprise when I played it. It won me Round 6 against Hive Mind because every time he cantripped I could counter it. It won me Merfolk by countering his Vial while I resolved my own. It won me a match against Painter's Servant countering a Red Elemental Blast in Game 3 when I was swinging for lethal when he would have drawn a Llawan the next turn to bounce my board. I played it as a 3 of in the main, and I loved it. I would recommend everyone test it and run it if you like how it plays. But I'm on the bandwagon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pandaman

Played two tournaments with Death & Taxes over the weekend - a 28 player and a 38 player. Went 6 out of 28 (no cut to Top 8) and 10 out of 38, missing Top 8 in the second tournament on resistance. My first tournaments with this deck that were 4 or more rounds (4 rounds for the first, 6 rounds for the second). Good times.

The deck ran really well, I had a lot of fun. I will write a report later, so people can give me some help with sideboard, which I wasn't complete satisfied with. What I will say now is that Mental Misstep was insanely good, and caught everyone by surprise when I played it. It won me Round 6 against Hive Mind because every time he cantripped I could counter it. It won me Merfolk by countering his Vial while I resolved my own. It won me a match against Painter's Servant countering a Red Elemental Blast in Game 3 when I was swinging for lethal when he would have drawn a Llawan the next turn to bounce my board. I played it as a 3 of in the main, and I loved it. I would recommend everyone test it and run it if you like how it plays. But I'm on the bandwagon.

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hello, as for the MM yeah i have the same sentiments with you but i feel its much more of a SB card as a main.., bec the more i play DT i have come to realize that its very very dependent on vial and it provides anti land screw which is quite common in this deck and its the heart and soul for DT's tricks.

@grand abolisher
well i've been testing him and i feel it really deserves a slot in the main deck and is very potent when paired with cataclysm, but the problem i've always been faced is that with abolisher on board as compared to grunts or arbiters is that you need double white, and DT has a quite high land screw rate, and i only ran 7 colorless lands out of the 22 land count i use.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pandaman

Played two tournaments with Death & Taxes over the weekend - a 28 player and a 38 player. Went 6 out of 28 (no cut to Top 8) and 10 out of 38, missing Top 8 in the second tournament on resistance. My first tournaments with this deck that were 4 or more rounds (4 rounds for the first, 6 rounds for the second). Good times.

The deck ran really well, I had a lot of fun. I will write a report later, so people can give me some help with sideboard, which I wasn't complete satisfied with. What I will say now is that Mental Misstep was insanely good, and caught everyone by surprise when I played it. It won me Round 6 against Hive Mind because every time he cantripped I could counter it. It won me Merfolk by countering his Vial while I resolved my own. It won me a match against Painter's Servant countering a Red Elemental Blast in Game 3 when I was swinging for lethal when he would have drawn a Llawan the next turn to bounce my board. I played it as a 3 of in the main, and I loved it. I would recommend everyone test it and run it if you like how it plays. But I'm on the bandwagon.

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Nice man congrats on the finish. I also agree misstep deserves a place in the main in the current meta imo. It is okay if people say other wise bc that is an opinion. What did you cut for mm? I have never been a fan of blue in general and never played it in a tournament until mm came along. I am glad you tested and did well. I am going to say this and receive serious criticism but I cut mother of runes. I am ready to feel the heat and explain why I cut it.
@fry: hey bro I did not see you at jupiter. Also are you going next month? If you are are you playing D&T?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mrjumbo03

Hey Fry, have you tested with the Grand Abolishers lately? Still on my exam week so I can't really test them but I'm about to get a Foil playset later!

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I have been testing grand abolisher and have found him to not be impressive imo. That does not necessarily mean that it does not deserve a place in the sb for certain matchup. Also maybe its my meta as to why it was not impressive in my deck. It is amazing with cataclysm though

I wanted to go so badly, but I couldn't get off work, and it;as not worth calling off for in case I do actually get sick, which is what call offs are for anyway. I will be there in August and September though, got the requests off approved. I don't know what I'll be playing yet, at least not for sure, though if I can't decide D&T is pretty much always my fall back deck now.

Timmy, my list was:

Main (60)

4 Aether Vial
3 Mother of Runes
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Mental Misstep

4 Serra Avenger
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Jotun Grunt
1 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Phyrexian Revoker

4 Flickerwisp
3 Mangara of Corondor
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow

4 Karakas
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
11 Plains

Sideboard (15) (for the first tournament)

4 Enlightened Tutor
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Null Rod
1 Serenity
1 Pithing Needle


Sideboard (15) (for the first tournament)

3 Wing Shards
4 Enlightened Tutor
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Serenity
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Phyrexian Metamorph

So I cut (from the standard list) 1 Oust, 1 Jotun Grunt and 1 Mother of Runes for 3 Mental Misstep.

Worked out well. Before the second tournament I changed the sideboard, removing Thorn of Amethyst for combo hate, to then run into 4 combo decks (TES, Kuldotha Forgemaster, Four Horsemen, Hive Mind)... boo. Still went 4-2 :P

How did 2 grunt work out for you? How was mother of runes for you in this deck?

Mother of Runes is always excellent to have. I love it. However, I played four combo decks one tournament, including that Kuldotha artifact deck, so she got boarded out a lot.

Jotun Grunt is good when you see lots of creature decks with Tarmogoyf. I didn't see those decks so he wasn't that good. However, a fat creature is good sometimes - if he comes down mid/late game and you have a Flickerwisp to reset him he's an excellent clock, given by that time you usually have at least one piece of equipment on the board.

Still, although the above cards weren't useful in some matchups, I wouldn't run the deck without either of those two cards in it.

Having said that, I would love a fourth Revoker maindeck... that card is really good.

I ran a very different lists from yours, but i do use mental misstep and jotun grunts on the SB as i feel they are SB card more of a main. I use grand abolisher in those spots

As for jotuns, having it main is so so as tarmo is still the most common creature in legacy but i feel if you want to main deck it 2 is the magic number drawing him early is a a bit crappy.

As for mental missteps in the main deck..., well it also has its ups, but for me i would rather be it on the SB. What i really like mm on the MD is that you have protection from 1cc removals and MM for your vial, which is very important in any DT deck, having your vial countered will backtrack and slow you down.

I run 4 mm on my SB, what i cut for SB are 1mom 1serra avenger 2 depends on what im up against. normally i put in mm for decks that packs tons of 1cc removal and a fellow vial user aswell.

my current list is as follows and it has proven itself to me time and time again

Main Board:

3 Flickerwisp
2 Jotun Grunt
3 Leonin Arbiter
3 Mangara of Corondor
4 Mother of Runes
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Serra Avenger
3 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 AEther Vial
3 Phyrexian Reovoker
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Umezawa's Jitte
9 Pains
4 Karakas
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland

Side Board:

3 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Flickerwisp
2 Jotun Grunt
1 Oblivion Ring
3 Runed Halo
3 Wing Shards
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Sword of Body and Mind

i was using sword of feast and famine as well and its power surprised me quite a bit, specially against any green deck

first attacking and thanks to pro green into player, than thanks to ability re-equipping for defense is quite awesome, making the opponent lose cards all the time, thus making him uncapaple of answering it once it got startet

the tempo-boost it provides is awesome, but as i haven't got enough space in MD right now and prefer sword of fire and ice, and sword of light and shadow in the maindeck i moved feast and famine to the sideboard

I like the feast and famine mainly because it allows me to play stuff, then untap my lands so I can port them and/or stoneforge on their turn.

I am thinking of trying out 2 grand abolishers at Jupiter this Saturday in my main board over the two main grunts, put one of the grunts into the side(which will put 3 there) and remove one of the wingshards to make room for it.

With that change my list looks like this:

Main:
3 flickerwisp
2 grand abolisher
3 leonin arbiter
3 mangara of corondor
4 mother of runes
2 oblivion ring
4 serra avenger
3 stoneforge mystic
4 swords to plowshares
4 aether vial
3 phyrexian revoker
1 sword of feast and famine
1 sword of fire and ice
1 sword of war and peace
1 umezawa's jitte
9 plains
4 karakas
4 rishadan port
4 wasteland

side:
3 ethersworn canonist
1 flickerwisp
3 jotun grunt
1 oblivion ring
3 runed halo
2 wing shards
1 phyrexian revoker
1 sword of body and mind

lately i have been more and more dissapointed with flickerwisp, i am thinking of cutting them completely for a set of mirran crusader

this would mean less tricks but more beats and a slightly faster clock

the next thing i am thinking about is the 4th sword i am running in MD (jitte, fire/ice, light/shadow have owned their place), i do not know if i should play body/mind or feast/famine, specially if i will run 4 crusader

what do you guys think?

@ abolisher: i thought about the same thing of cutting the jötun grunts for abolisher, but i think abolisher will just be a removal-target and nothing more actually, at least agaist controll-decks, i could see him being strong against bluebased tempodecks, but jötun grunt is strong against as well, and is bigger, so i will stick with grunt for now, until someone proves that abolisher is "sick-shit"^^

lately i have been more and more dissapointed with flickerwisp, i am thinking of cutting them completely for a set of mirran crusader

this would mean less tricks but more beats and a slightly faster clock

the next thing i am thinking about is the 4th sword i am running in MD (jitte, fire/ice, light/shadow have owned their place), i do not know if i should play body/mind or feast/famine, specially if i will run 4 crusader

what do you guys think?

@ abolisher: i thought about the same thing of cutting the jötun grunts for abolisher, but i think abolisher will just be a removal-target and nothing more actually, at least agaist controll-decks, i could see him being strong against bluebased tempodecks, but jötun grunt is strong against as well, and is bigger, so i will stick with grunt for now, until someone proves that abolisher is "sick-shit"^^

hey guys im going to an event soon and i've never play death and taxes..but my buddy said to brew up a list because he has the deck minus the wastelands and ports..this is what i came up with, what do you guys think?
4 karakas
4 mishras factories
13 plains
2 enlightened tutors
1 phyrexian revoker
4 mother of runes
4 serra avenger
4 stoneforge mystic
3 mangara of w.e.
2 flickerwisp
2 jotun grunt
3 mirran crusader
2 oblivion ring
4 swords to plowshares
4 aether vial
1 jitte
1 sword of light and shaddow
1 sword of fire and ice
1 batterskull
sideboard
3 mental misstep
2 tormods crypt
1 ethersworn cannonist
3 phyrexian revoker
1 jotun grunt
1 serenity
1 runed halo
2 enlightened tutor
1? another sword maybe?

It's hard to critique because we don't know what you have access to. In general, going towards Finn's list in the OP is a good idea. Things that might be cheap enough for you to find locally and easily may include Flickerwisps, as they're the backbone of a lot of the tricks in the deck, as well as additional sword carriers. Also, consider emulating Finn's toolbox a little more closely. Singletons in the deck can decrease your consistency.

Missing the land disruption is going to hurt a lot.

I just got a wacky idea. I wonder if going towards a Angel Stompy deck with some tricks (i.e. more aggro than control) would work better in the end. You're already moving in that direction with Crusaders. Just a thought.

14 plains
4 karakas
4 mishra's factories
4 serra avenger
4 mother of runes
4 aether vial
3 flickerwisp
3 mirran crusader
4 swords to plowshares
2 oblivion ring
3 jotun grunt
4 stoneforge mystic
3 mangara of corondor
1 sword of fire and ice
1 batterskull
1 sword of light and shadow
1 umezawa's jitte
aideboard
3 mental misstep
2 tormods crypt
1 ethersworn cannonist
3 phyrexian revoker
1 oblivion ring
1 serenity
1 runed halo
3 enlightened tutor

here's the list i ended up on..i wanted to go more aggro because of the whole no land hate..i didnt realize there was an angel stompy list i'll look into that now thnx

I 3-0'ed with a more mana denial build yesterday. Won't post the full list right now, but it contained notably:

1 x Isamaru
4 x Leonin Arbiter
3 x Aven Mindcensor

In a metagame that is becoming even greedier in search effects ( NO, Entomb, fetches, enlightened tutor, stoneforge mystic), these cards are finally paying off.

My latest list:

10 Plains
4 Wasteland
2 Rishadan Port
2 Mishra's Factory
3 Karakas

1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
2 Mother of Runes
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Jotun Grunt
4 leonin Arbiter
2 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Serra Avenger
3 Phyrexian Revokers
3 Aven Mindcensor
3 Mangara of Corondor
3 Flickerwisp

1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Aether Vial

3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Dismember

Overall decent list. I especially enjoyed the jotun grunt + sword of body and mind t3ch, eventhough it was unintentional. Pro-goyf, pro-jace, pro-merfolk. Affects the board, mills opponent's outs and basics making his fetches even more worthless. Dismember to not totally die to chalice-type stuff or to the always present mental misteps.

I would probably change a sword for a batterskull main, but i think I mostly need the batterskull for the landstill matchups, because of the recur ability vs. humility. So if he downs one guy, I can just replay, re-beat, etc. Another thing about mindcensor is he still has the flash ability under Humility which is greatly appreciated. Coupled with sword of body and mind, you can actually stand a chance if you get WOG'ed.

I know sfm doesn't totally work well with arbiter, but you won't always have arbiter in play. He's kind of a lightning rod vs. most decks (aside merfolk and stompy-type decks).

i went with the 2 port 2 factory split because you sometimes need to sneak a factory in there before ppl standstill you, otherwise you get crushed under heavy card advantage. Ports also allow you to not get factory/mutavautl beats (as do wastelands).

I thought about maybe path to exile over swords to plowshares due to the search screw effect...still not convinced. Also, thought about scrapping a dude for a 4th mindcensor (those guys are gaining value in a search-heavier meta).

Vial has been good, eventhough it sometimes gets mistepped. Not playing to scrap it anytime soon. The creatures don't rely on vial as much as before (except for flickerwisp, which becomes godly)

Let me know what you guys think.

PS: i don't have my deck on hand, so no Sidebaord posted ATM.

why isamaru?, and why only 2 mother of runes?

this are the only things i do not really understand, since mother is asways awesome, and isamaru is well a 2/2 for 1 mana but no utility and no disruption

Because he usually can down the opposing 1 drops. He can infinite chump with karakas.
This is relevant because we don't always have man's to drop mangara and chump bounce. Obviouslywhen he's sick. Also he puts slower control decks on a smaller clock. A lot of time I find mom doesn't even attack on turn 2 because she has to tap protect. I hate that.

There is also the surprise factor, especially with a vial at and an attacking lackey. Usually he can gempalm your mom b4 blocks. Not so with the legendary dog.

He is also not dead to a random engineered plague naming clerics. Finally I have to admit, its mostlya question of taste. I like to aggro real early.it was actually supposed to be a figure of destiny, but the man's base doesn't properly suupport its level up ability. I also considered 8.5 tails...but double white is deg a prob,same for grand abolisher.

i have been missing isamaru a lot, i have to admit that, and maybe i will retry him, but i do not see him being that good anymore, other creatures are just better, even for the same manacost

i think i will try adding isamaru as a 2-off again, just to try, cause the eternal chump-block was an awesome thing back when i still used him

Ok, throw out the format. Time to go about completely dominating Merfolk again...in exchange for a more complicated combo sideboard.

I was just starting to like my Mental Missteps in this deck... back to the drawing board! Can somebody cut and paste a list from circa 12 May 2011?

In all seriousness thought, what to put in sideboard for combo? More Ethersworn Canonist and Thorn of Amethyst with Enlightened Tutor? Or Mindbreak Trap?

There's not a lot of room in the board, unfortunately. (In other words, note my sig.) Add to this the problem of the cards from the new set, most notably Nevermore. Banning MM makes Enlightened Tutor stronger though, so adding multiples of existing cards doesn't seem like the thing to do.

I'm thinking I might have to remove some Arbiters from my board, since I never seem to side them in for my meta. For those in more developed/modern metas, I'm not sure what the heck you guys will take out. =)

EDIT: Here's an idea: how often do you guys side in four Tutors anyway? I seem to remember siding in 3 a lot of the time, and occasionally 2. Dropping a Tutor may be a solution/necessity as the sideboard gets even tighter.

I don't think I have ever sided in less than four. I urge folks to try to keep a diverse tutorable sideboard. E Tutor is so unfair for sb tech. It would be a miserable shame not to take advantage of it.

kirbysdl, noted. Here's the rationalised version. Thorn and Canonist work better with ETutor, Mindbreak Trap is sort of a wierd inclusion because it doesn't have much synergey with the other things your sideboard is trying to do.

I agree with Finn, I always love 4 Enlightened Tutors when I play this deck. Gives you the best chance of opening with a 2 Tutor hand postboard, which without Mental Misttep in the format means a really high chance of getting your hate online ASAP.

My assumptions about the changes to the metagame that may happen once Mental Misstep is gone:

Storm combo is more widely played;
Merfolk is more widely played;
Counterbalance is played again, though not widely;
Goblins is more widely played;
High Tide is played again, with and without Candelabra;
Dredge will still be played;
Landstill and dedicated control doesn't get played much anymore.[/LIST]

With that in mind, my maindeck would be:

4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
4 Karakas
11 Plains

4 Aether Vial
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Mother of Runes

4 Serra Avenger
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Jotun Grunt
1 Umezawa's Jitte

4 Flickerwisp
3 Mangara of Corondor
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow

and my sideboard would be:

4 Enlightened Tutor
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Wing Shards

Against storm and High Tide, Tutors Revoker, Canonist and Thorn come in. Against Goblins, Wing Shards comes in (may need more stuff for Goblins if it gets popular again). Against Dredge, Tutors, Relic and Tormod's come in. Against Counterbalance, Revoker on Top, but probably without the Tutors?

Thoughts?

You don't need to bring much in against Goblins. Only thing I don't like in your sb is the Wing Shards, I'd much rather put in Ghostly Prison which is a. tutorable, and b. has some uses against dredge, etw tokens etc. And I don't even run Ghostly Prison in mine. I run Ensnaring Bridge in its slot which solves a lot more problematic matchups. The new card Nevermore should probably be in there in the spot of one of the Thorns. Just be sure to name the engine and not the kill and you'll be set, this was something that Runed Halo could not do.

Contingency plans and brainstorming are good, but D&T's board is perhaps even more meta-dependent than most decks', and it's hard to say just what the ideal choices are without a little more insight into what you expect to face. Of course, I'm more used to smaller events since I'm in a small town, so perhaps in a large event, you do more "macro" rather than "micro" metagaming. I'm usually thinking about specific problem matchups vs. particular builds and pilots.

Anyway, I've always liked Cataclysm, and currently run them in your O-ring slots. IMO we've got quite a lot of point removal already, but sometimes I just need to reset. Notably, they should help a ton against Goblins. I know that Finn runs three Arbiters in the side... I'm interested to see if Arbiter gets generally less used with the new printings. As you said, there's less and less room for anything that can't be tutored up.

Took 2nd (out of 22) this past weekend with the following list:

8 Plains
3 Flagstones of Trokair
3 Karakas
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port

3 Mother of Runes
4 Serra Avenger
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Aven Mindcensor
4 Flickerwisp
3 Mangara of Corondor
2 Mirran Crusader

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Aether Vial
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Thousand-Year Elixir
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull

2 Oblivion Ring

Sideboard:
4 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Grand Abolisher
2 Jotun Grunt
1 Manriki-Gusari
2 Peacekeeper


Round 1 vs. Stoneforge Zoo

Game 1: He has a turn 1 Lavamancer but that gets StP'd. He has lots of removal for my stuff, but its mainly Path so I get ramped without losing anything major. I have removal for his stuff in the form of O.Ring and StP. I end up getting there despite him having Library.

Game 2: I mull to 5 and keep the following: Karakas, 2x Aether Vial, 2 creatures (think Avenger and Stoneforge). That ended up being the best possible hand as he kept a real good hand with a few 2 drops, but his 2nd land was Karakas. He never drew the 2nd land by the time I killed him. Inadvertant LD ftw.

1-0; 2-0

Round 2 vs. Team America

Game 1: Nothing too special, but I eventually got there with an Aven Mindcensor. He scooped when he had no removal for the Bird and I had a lonely Batterskull on the field with mana to equip it to the bird next turn for lethal.

Game 2: Very long game and we went to turns. I wasn't drawing much land and start getting beat down by a Clique. He gets Jace to 13 counters and I mise an O.Ring and he whiffs on 2 Brainstorms in response. Clique gets me down to 3 and I mise a Karakas to hold it off. I make an error on 2 Clique triggers and discard (without drawing no less) instead of doing the correct ability for Clique. He also though he could target himself (legal) and cycle his land (not legal) at one point, but I caught that one at least. Time is eventually called and we go to turns. He gets a Deed but he never gets a Wasteland to deal with my Karakas so we draw that game. I also had Mindcensor as backup in case. Very close game.

2-0; 3-0-1

Round 3 vs. Fish

Game 1: My Vial resolves turn 1 surprisingly. I resolve Elixir on turn 3 after he thinks about it for a minute. Next turn Mangara hits the board and removes his Lord and Reejerey thanks to Elixir. JustAsPlanned.jpg He doesn't really recover.

Game 2: His deck decides to work and he has the counters when he needs them and I lose fast.

Game 3: Similar to game 1 but he counters Elixir this time which was the right play since I had Mangara in hand (no Vial though this time). Stoneforge for Batterskull ends up getting me there.

3-0; 5-1-1

Round 4 vs. R/B LD
We're the only remaining undefeated players.

Game 1: I get a good start and get Batterskull active early. He hits once then Damnation hits. Burning Wish for Shattering Spree (ended up killing Vial and Batterskull) was next as I eventually go down to 0 lands. From there it was Burning Wish > Rhystic Tutor > Trinisphere. Then Burning Wish > Call the Skybreaker which killed me.

Game 2: I keep a decent hand with 2 lands and 2 drops. Her turn 1 (on the draw): Rishadan Port, Mox Diamond. I never hit 2 mana between that and Wasteland.

3-1; 5-3-1

The LD deck was very interesting. Cards I remember not mentioned above:
Stone Rain
Earth Rift
Smallpox
Sinkhole