Printable View
Really awesome! I like his two maindeck cliques. I also thought they were great when I ran it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Manipulato
I a bit curious about the trinket package though. I the main it only fetches ballista. And in the board it fetches needle, chalice and crypt. I kinda like crypt eventhough it's a card that kind of have been outdated, but Crypt can be fetched, played and activated on turn two with a T1 DRS. That's something relic or spellbomb can't - Very neat. But why no EE?
Yeah I really like the 2 Vendilion Clique in the MD too and after the Top banning I wanted to add 2 Thoughtseize + 2 Vendilion Clique to the MD just to fight Elves & combo decks but I had no space to add both and didnt want to cut the 2 Leovold for the Cliques, so I gave the more cheap Thoughtseizes the place in the MD.
He had a really strong run, 9:1 at 1st place in the swiss, then 2:0 vs the Elves master himself Julian Knab and then he lost to a god draw of his BR Reanimator oponent in G3 with T1 Reanimate + Chancelor, well happens I think.
I personally dont think that the 2 Trinket Mage are worth the 2 MD slots because now it really just finds Ballista and that's it.
Marius Hausmann scrubed I think, he also played Food Chain and I will chat with him later what his thoughts are. Will keep you guys updated.
Great and I agree on all you say.: Clique is good but TS is less clunky, space is hard in this deck, 2 trinket should be coupled with a serious SB package.
I've seen Julien beat 3 food chain in a row. Did it just work out for you or what was your plan
Sent from my SM-G925W8 using Tapatalk
Note that Dalibor is still playing 4 Abrupt Decay main as his only removal, instead of switching to Fatal Push as some have suggested. He's also down to 2 Griffins.
I like 4 decay. Not sure I like cutting the third griffin. But on the other hand I didnt like adding Eternal Scourge as 4 exile-guys felt unnecessary.Quote:
Originally Posted by dull
maybe subistituting the Scourge for a griffin is right. Maybe scourge is superfluous now that miracle is no longer.
Played Food Chain to a 3-5 finish at the Axion event in Birmingham, UK yesterday.
Lost to UR Delver, Burn, Turbo Depths, Painter, and Infect.
Pretty bummed out as I suffered one of the worst runs of luck i've ever had at a tournament :(
UR Delver 0-2 I drew 3 lands in about 15 turns across both games
Burn 1-2 Won G1 on the draw somehow, but then had about 7 turns to draw a land for the win across the next 2 games and saw nothing
Infect 1-2 I had the combo with double force back up in G3 but my opponent had triple invigorate and berserk to kill me through the forces the turn before i could go off
Turbo Depths 1-2 Had my opponent dead on board but he had exactly triple crop rotation and the ESGs to cast them to win with his marit lage token
Painter 0-2 G1 I thoughtseize one of 2 bloodmoons, decay the second, and my opponent plays the magus she topdecks the next turn. I never draw the third land to cast my scourge. G2 I get T2'd through a force.
Looking at the field between rounds (we had 137 players for one of the biggest UK legacy events for a long time!) the top 40% of tables were pretty much all fair decks while the rest was a real mix of mostly unfair creature-combo. I think if i'd won my first round i'd have run into the fair decks and posted a much better result. Losing the first round meant I was stuck in a swamp of aggressive combo decks and, coupled with my poor luck, didn't have the deack or the ability to claw myself out.
I played with a pretty much stock list, cutting a ballista for a trinket mage, 2 decays for 2 thoughtseize, and a fetch for a fatal push. The drop to 19 lands (even with 3 ponders) was a mistake i think. I lost about 5 games to just not hitting my land drops. Rest of the tournament was my opponents just having everything they needed - having someone play through double FoW when you're poised to win the match is horrible never mind it happening twice! - or me thoughtseizing their threat away only for them to draw the exact same card next turn :(
Though luck. 19 lands have been ok for me.
@ J.Black: reading your report i can see just unlucky draw for you / very good draw for your opponents. Believe in the deck and play it. :laugh:
@ Other guys: as I written, I'm a 4x Balista standard (Hausmann) player. Now Marius Hausmann list of mkm's super finals bring in some changes in main and side:
Main: -1 Ponder 1- Abrupt +2 Thoughtseize
Sideboard: -1 Surgical +1 Grafdigger's Cage -1 Pithing Needle +1 Golgari Charm
Are this changes right in this moment?
Imho maindeck Seize are very strong right now, discard effect are too strong without Top, and in add to this, vs combo, he can bring 4 Thoughtseize total (2 main + 2 side).
I'm not sure about -1 Ponder because this card is too strong imho.
The Sideboarding seems very good, with 1 Golgari who resolve Pyromancer.deck and Elves (2 of the great tier now) and Taxes (all in add to 2 Engineered Plague).
Maybe just right now, Pithing are no strong as always, because maybe Lands and Taxes are not relevant in number, and the change make a lot of sense.
Imho changing the 3rd Surgical with 1 Grafdigger's Cage have a similar impact vs Reanimator but a very strong relevance vs Elves and Zenith decks.
Thoughts?
I like Grafdigger's Cage replacing a Surgical -- could also be useful against these 4x snapcaster decks that are running around. Just one though, since it doesn't affect loam at all.
I've been playing 2 TS main (-1 decay -1 ponder) like you mentioned, but I replaced the TS in the board with Duress rather than more TS. This has made burn a better MU.
Right now my SB is:
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Engineered Plague
2 Hydroblast
2 Duress
2 Flusterstorm
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Abrupt Decay
Recent success with the deck includes two GPT T8s, one of which I went undefeated.
Grafdigger also shuts down zenith which is nice. I also play duress after the first two thoughtseizes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaono
Last night I thought I'd change it up and played Grixis Delver to a 1-3 result. Next week I'm back on Griffins.
I'm also a big fan of the two Cliques in the main, they're amazing to snipe some interaction from the opponent then untap and combo. I've already made the change of -1 Ponder -1 Decay +2 TS and am really liking it. Not sure what else could be shaved in the MD? Maybe a Griffin?
Totally agree on TS and Cage, still wondering if Hydroblasts are needed. I got something different in mind, such as switching Clique from SB to MB and lowering the number of Ballista, adding a Sylvan Library:Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaono
Creatures:18
3 Walking Ballista
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Baleful Strix
1 Eternal Scourge
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Vendilion Clique
3 Misthollow Griffin
Spells:23
4 Brainstorm
1 Fatal Push
2 Ponder
2 Thoughtseize
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Manipulate Fate
1 Sylvan Library
4 Food Chain
4 Force of Will
Lands:19
1 Bayou
1 Forest
2 Island
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
3 Verdant Catacombs
Sideboard:15
1 Duress
2 Fatal Push
1 Flusterstorm
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Pithing Needle
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Null Rod
2 Engineered Plague
2 Mindbreak Trap
Is Sylvan Library really needed? The deck can grind against anything already, seems overkill to me honestly.
Hydroblasts are amazing at the moment, there's lots of big red decks, TES and TNT (ANT with BWish), SnS, Burn is coming out of the cracks etc. I've been really happy with them. The Mindbreak Traps in the board have been clutch too.
Null Rod in the board is a bit of a nonbo with Ballista, do you only bring it in vs decks where you side it out (Storm is all I can think of)
I dont think we should overeact to the top banning. I've never been as consistent as with the 3 ponder 4 decay build and 4 combo finnishers. And I've played up to 4 discard, cliques and snapcasters main for a better combo matchup. Sure, try other configurations if your local (or modo) meta requires. But cutting a Ballista feels wrong. Before we were force into 3 combo finnishers as the pay off cards were so bad on their own. Now that we actually can play 4 i think we should.
In this meta, with a lot of elves and a lot of Pyromancers, have no sense, imho, to cut a Walking Ballista.
This piece of combo is great because is a versatile cards who can, especially in this meta, give us the time to setup our game plan (other than win).
Thoughtseize in 4x is anyway, a great inclusion in this meta, as Hydroblast.
Instead, I don't know if Abrupt Decay total count of 4x (MD + SB) are right or no.
Anyone have data on mtgo regarding the length of time required to combo off? Is the deck playable at all?
Sent from my SM-G925W8 using Tapatalk
I'd like to know this too if anyone has tried? Considering buying into the deck.Quote:
Originally Posted by mcbain
Also, I think the storm (and other fast combo in general) matchup is quite bad, even with the Thoughtseizes and Mindbreak Traps. Has anyone considered a white splash for Meddling Mage? Discard plus hatebears plus countermagic is incredibly powerful.
I'll be trying
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Baleful Strix
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Eternal Scourge
2 Misthollow Griffin
4 Walking Ballista
4 Food Chain
2 Ponder
2 Thoughtseize
2 Manipulate Fate
4 Brainstorm
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Force of Will
2 Island
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Scrubland
2 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
SB//
4 Meddling Mage
2 Containment Priest
3 Mindbreak Trap
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Hydroblast
2 Thoughtseize
Meddling mage is indeed a great substitute for Baleful Strix against combo. But my feeling is, whatever we do, combo will always be bad matchups against us, it's a fact as of now. But I guess there will be a point where Gitaxian probe will be banned, given the high prevalence of Grixis delver, Storm and Show and Tell in the current meta. This is probably too fast for Control now, so I'm not sure if Wizards really wants to go that far in shutting down Control in Legacy (I hope not). Gitaxian probe is also now banned in Modern and restricted in Vintage, so I don't see it remaining legal in its last format forever. If this would happen, I guess Food chain would be back in force at least to the level it was promised at the Miracles times.Quote:
Originally Posted by Whitefaces
It's a lot of clicking. Wouldn't be so bad if you could just click on the Griffins in exile and select cast, but then you have click on the floating mana 4 times even if you only have 1 color floating.Quote:
Originally Posted by mcbain
So you have to click on food chain, click exile creature for Blue mana, click the Griffin, then click the Griffin again in exile, click cast, then click the floating mana 4 times to gain 1 mana.