[Deck] Nic Fit (GBx Explorer Zenith Control)

Yesterday I played a small instore tourney (22 players, 5 rounds, no top4-8 playout) in The Netherlands. Diverse meta with one other NicFit player.
Eventhough the playlevel wasn't really that high I was still pleased with my performance splitting 1 for the prizes (just Avacyn Restored boosters though... which contained jank :()

The list
3 bayou
2 savannah
1 scrubland
4 forest
2 plains
2 swamp
3 windswept heath
3 verdant catacombs
1 phyrexian tower
1 dryad arbor

4 veteran explorer
2 eteral witness
2 scavenging ooze
1 thrun, the last troll
1 sun titan
1 banslayer angel
1 sigarda, host of herons
1 qasali pridemage
1 batterskull

3 sensei's divining top
4 cabal therapy
4 green sun's zenith
2 maelstrom pulse
3 thoughtseize
3 pernicious deed
3 swords to plowshares
2 liliana of the veil
//
4 leyline of sanctity
3 carpet of flowers
3 exirpate
2 diabolic edict
1 gaddock teeg
2 ethersworn canonist

Before the tournament started I bought a Sigarda at the shop which replace a 2nd Baneslayer Angel I had been running. I was trying to get my hands on a Kodama of the North Tree in the week before but failed and descided to run Batterskull in that slot instead. Thoughtseize was a switch I made the evening before replacing Duress, which in hindsight was a poor swap. The rest is basically stock list, I guess.

R1 Bant
My opponent tells me he hasn't been playing for 4 years. I thought I would run into only older cards but he still had a complete Bantlist. Nothing special thought.
I loose game 1 when he counters my deed I needed to wipe the board. Goyf makes short work of my lifetotal.
Game 2 I'm again with my back against the wall even after clearing the board with Deed. He has a Hierarch and a Pridemage equiped with Sword of Feast and Famine in play where I have a top and a Thrun with 4 lands. I rip a GZS and fetch Pridemage as the Sword is too much for me to handle and I would rather loose Thrun instead.
He predictably attacks with Pridemage so in responce I destroy the Sword and block with Thrun. For some reason he pops his pridemage and targets my top. Thanks for the gameturning misplay :) It's basically smooth sailing afterwards.
G3 I just wipe the board and zenith for Sigarda. GG.


R2 WelderMUD
G1 he does what is to be expected from the deck. Tomb->Monolith->Metalworker, play Mox Opal and Welder, go. I play a land and deside not to play my thoughtseize as I dont want to give welder a target. He reveals petal and Wurmcoil Engine and plays the latter. GG.
G2 I go with turn 1 Therapy for metalworker (miss), he goes from Great Furnace, welder. I get turn 2 Explorer, sac, therapy something play deed. I eventually deed his board and get Sun Titan going with deed in the grave and double swords and a pulse in hand.
G3 see G3 but he tries to get Painter+Grindstone going with me holding enough removal.

R3 Canadian Thresh
G1 Therapy+Explorer+Deed+Sun Titan = GG
G2 Therapy+Explorer+Deed+Sigarda = GG

R4 Burn
G1 I win on the back of Sigarda and Ooze (lifegain FTW)
G2 he drops Sufuric Vortex the turn after I drop Batterskull (while being at 5) In the end I'm one turn short of killing him with Skull and Explorer when he's at 5. I hate Vortex.
G3 I get Leyline turn0 with a 2nd in hand (in case he plays Anarchy which he doesnt)
He still gets my lifetotal down to single digits with dudes and non target burn (flame rift/PoP). Luckily the Flame Rifts have lowered his lifetotal allot as well, so after clearing a Vortex I kill him with Sigarda.

R5 SneakyShow
We're the only players with 12 points so we split the prizepool for 18 boosters each.
We still play for fun eventhough we both know how that's going to end. He has quite some experience playing against Nic Fit as 2 of his teammates play it.
I keep an okay-ish hand and get wrecked on turn 3 by Emrakul.
G2 I have an edict for the first Emrakul and white untapped with plow in hand in case he has a Griselbrand. He happens to have a 2nd Emrakul :(


All in all I'm quite happy with the list eventhough there is still room for improvement.
MVP - Sigarda. She alone is a reason to run white as the 3rd color.
Deed has also been doing wonders as always.

Slops - thoughtseize should have been Duress. Ususally you just dont really care for any creatures the opponent plays besides some fast beaters like Delver.
Liliana hasn't been doing much yesterday. I used her 1 time for get rid of a creature so I could attack for allot. But I didnt want to follow up with discards as I didnt have cards in hand that I wanted to discards. I felt more comfortable with lots of removal in hand than having my opponent discard some useless cards. Next time I will probably run Garruk, Primal Hunter instead.

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=46058

8th Place last night. Not even calling it Explorer Rock. Now it's just JUNK.

Standard list, 2 ooze, 2 thrun, no sigarda. + Deranged hermit.


Edit:

Any way we can deal with SNT/Griselband??

putting a needle on griselband works if they bring him out, but not emrakul. O-ring works on either, but they still get to draw 14 cards and we don't have the slots just for that. shriekmaw-like creatures work but they still get to draw 14 cards.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Star|Scream

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=46058

8th Place last night. Not even calling it Explorer Rock. Now it's just JUNK.

Standard list, 2 ooze, 2 thrun, no sigarda. + Deranged hermit.


Edit:

Any way we can deal with SNT/Griselband??

putting a needle on griselband works if they bring him out, but not emrakul. O-ring works on either, but they still get to draw 14 cards and we don't have the slots just for that. shriekmaw-like creatures work but they still get to draw 14 cards.

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Preemptive answers are our best options. Pinpoint discard + Extirpate/Surgical Extraction etc. We can also just accept that it's one of our few bad matchups and move on.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HoneyT

Preemptive answers are our best options. Pinpoint discard + Extirpate/Surgical Extraction etc. We can also just accept that it's one of our few bad matchups and move on.

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what about 3x phyrexian metamorph in the board?


3 mana for the following problems:

Clique
Mangara
Opposing thrun/sigarda
jitte killer, Batterskull/sword grabber
wurmcoil engine
kills anything from reanimator, and gets past iona naming black, white, or green
emrakul AND Griselband (Still doesn't stop sneak attack, but teeg can help against that or slow them down?)


Also, when could you not use another:

Eternal witness
pridemage/elder
titan
fierce empath
dryad arbor


I think I'll start testing it in my carpet of flowers spot.


EDIT: Also I don't think that it's a good strategy to resign to failure against a deck that just got a huge increase in power level in the past 2 weeks (Griselband).

@XdeckX

Hi, nice report.

I love your decklist, matter of fact, I just bought the missing cards from your list to try it out myself. I still think liliana is very good and should be at least a 2-off.

I'm wondering though, have you done any testing against Reanimate? Seems like it could be a tough matchup

edit: Also, why are you not running Karakas?

@litenkatt I've played a similar list against Reanimate before. The matchup is not that bad tbh. A quick Ooze solves allot. As does running Swords to Plowshares. Perhaps replacing the Extirpates in the board with Surgical Extractions might be better. There's only so much we can do to cover the bad matchups. I worry allot more about TES and SneakyShow than I worry about Reanimate.

With my list the TES matchup is descent after boarding but the SneakyShow matchup is still abysmal. I have no clue on how to improve that. Perhaps Star|Screams suggestion (adding Phyrexian Metamorph) might be the way to go.

In regards to Liliana: I do like her allot and love to bring her back with Sun Titan. But in the last tournament she didnt turn up often and when she did I only used the 'sac a dude' ability as I didnt want to discard the great cards I had in hand.
I currently don't own any Garruk Primal Hunters but I'm really eager to test him. I love to draw 3+ cards. That ability alone makes him worth considering.

Garruk, Primal hunter is great if you have a dude out or can wait a turn. He can protect himself better than lily The only issue is the GGG if you're splashing white (which I think we should be, for sigarda, swords, and leyline/teeg in the sb)

Edit:

Day of judgement over Damnation in a white-centric build? I wonder if the trade-off of needing WW (which, if sun titan can be run, why can't this?) is worth the times you'll be able to save a thrun from your own board wipe... Also it's not supposed to matter, but to me it does: Each one is $18 cheaper than Damnation

Perhaps there is a way to minimize the black splash and utilize more white. Being heavily invested in green is not optional IMO. The deck functions with the early access to green and black mana but having access to more green scales in the mid-late game with Ooze, Witness, and potentially Garruk. The only staple of Nic Fit that is heavy in black colored mana is Liliana. She skews how you build your manabase early on and really can't be substituted by any other card without diminishing returns since her abilities are so widespread (e.g. playing 3 Thoughtseize + 3 Innocent blood to make up for 4 Lilianas).

I will restart working on a GBW Nic Fit list by reducing heavy black and green colored cards in favor of white ones. However, I am not entirely sold on StP being an upgrade to Innocent Blood. Blood goes through protection, shroud, puts creatures in graveyards (Ooze), serves as an outlet for Explorer, and requires black mana (crucial in sculpting your 3 first lands, you don't want a plains on T1). Hell, it even enables the Witness/Volrath engine without the Tower (I've done it once in a major tournament). The duality of this card has always been an advantage and rarely been a disadvantage for me. A 2/2 split between Blood and StP is probably the wisest choice. Here is what I mostly see in splashing white:

Kodama becomes Sigarda
Primal Hunter becomes Relentless + Elspeth
Pulse becomes Vindicate
Wickerbough becomes Qasali
Prime Titan becomes ??? another Titan? 6 drops are an abomination in any Legacy deck and if you don't play with a Nightmare/Rector/Pod engine, don't even bother with playing any amount of copies of any non-GSZ-able 6drop, it will bite you in the ass. However, there is always the possibility that splashing white makes the deck quicker and offers more quality cards at a lower cost, therefore nullifying the necessity for a 6drop altogether (Sigarda > Titan being a potential example).

On an ending note, what interrests me the most in a white splash is the prospect of having multiple quality Planeswalkers on the board (forget Sorin), Better sideboard options, and a less passive deck with more pinpoint, early answers.

I will try to post a detailled GBW Nic Fit list in the following weeks after proper testing.

I've tested Sorin briefly, but not perhaps enough to see him crap out but i'm wondering why you think he's not quality? Is Elspeth's Jump that much better than Sorin's team-pump? They both work to end the game quicker. My reasoning for his inclusion are two-fold: easier to cast (:w::w: being more strict), and allows you to have removal against other Planeswalkers.

Yes, the Elspeth jump is much more important than the Sorin Emblem. I rarely make more than two tokens with Elspeth and prefer putting pressure on my opponent. The fact that both of Elspeth's abilities add counters is also very important. Reaching the ultimate is common with Elspeth + removal.

Elspeth actually is very interesting. Could definitely see her replacing garruk.

@Qweerios
I look forward to your report!

I think that Garruk is more effectiv against Maverick and uw/x Blade.

You folks see this http://www.channelfireball.com/artic...nament-report/ ?

Seems interesting, the side board is an absolute shambles, and definitely needs a loam in it. Other then completely overhauling the board, how feasible does it seam?

I went 4-0 at my local on Tuesday. I played a fairly stock list. I beat mono-block vampires (2-0), Zoo (2-0), Dredge (2-1), and Lands (1-0-1).

is this creature list is good at a BGw color nic fit? or am i missing something?

1 dryad arbor
1 grave titan
1 gaddock teeg
1 sigarda host of herons
1 qasali pridemage
1 thrun the last troll
2 eternal witness
2 scavenging ooze
4 veteran explorer

any suggestions?

@ryn: Sun Titan. Can return deeds, recurring nightmare, liliana etc :)
And isn't Gaddock Teeg more like a SB card?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jobdevries

@ryn: Sun Titan. Can return deeds, recurring nightmare, liliana etc :)
And isn't Gaddock Teeg more like a SB card?

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thanks jobdevries! yeah i moved teeg from MD to SB just got a lone copy of sun titan :) so this is my list


1 dryad arbor
1 grave titan
1 sun titan
1 sigarda host of herons
1 qasali pridemage
1 thrun the last troll
1 kitchen finks
2 eternal witness
2 scavenging ooze
4 veteran explorer

I'm not going to say much about last Saturday's NELC@Jupiter, because it was a train wreck for myself and everyone else in my fair that was playing a fair deck. The event was much smaller than usual, at 60-odd players, and of that a full 1/3-1/2 were playing combo decks of various types. There were at least 8 Sneak and Snow decks, one Eldrazi Post, 3-4 High Tide, 3-4 ANT/TES, multiple dredge decks, painters, and so on. I expected another Maverick/Thresh meta, since that's par for the course up there, and planned my board accordingly -- apparently, since it was the last one of the season, nobody felt like playing their real decks, though, and I summarily got ****** repeatedly by combo decks without any hate my board.

Now, for something a bit more interesting. I tested my Red Frontiers list at a local legacy event. For reference,


4 Veteran Explorer
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Eternal Witness
3 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Broodmate Dragon
1 Primeval Titan
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Scapeshift
4 Burning Wish
4 Pernicious Deed
1 Recurring Nightmare
3 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
2 Verdant Catacombs
3 Forest
1 Swamp
2 Mountain
2 Bayou
4 Taiga
4 Badlands
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Stomping Ground
1 Phyrexian Tower
SB: 1 Virtue's Ruin
SB: 1 Tsunami
SB: 1 Damnation
SB: 1 Cranial Extraction
SB: 1 Haunting Echoes
SB: 1 Maelstrom Pulse
SB: 1 Scapeshift
SB: 1 Wandering Stream
SB: 1 Seeds of Innocence
SB: 3 Hymn to Tourach
SB: 1 Innocent Blood
SB: 2 Red Elemental Blast


The event was smaller than usual (12 people) due to work conflicts and summer traveling, but it was still fairly competitive. I played vs Burn, Thopters, Esperblade, Bant, and then Thopters again in the top 4.

Burn was randomly a really good matchup. Game one I flatout raced him with Explorer, Top->Explorer, Zenith for Explorer, Scapeshift win. He got me to 2 in response to the Scapeshift, with a Vortex out, but he couldn't finish me before dying to angry mountains. Game two he didn't have Vortex, and Wandering Stream + Huntmasters did work. I ended the game at something cushy like 16 life.

Thopters had a very, very lucky but inexperienced player. We had a solid match regardless. He got game one, but g2 I blew him out hard with Tsunami, and then g3 Pernicious Deed did its thing at a perfect time and I Cranial'd his Sword of the Meek. He tried to keep me Humble throughout the match, but my Pulses did their work all match.

Esperblade saw my deck just flatout dig in its heels and refuse to work, as all Explorer decks can sometimes do. I mulled hard both games, and even though I managed to stabilize both times, I just sat there and spun my wheels while he drew into more gas. Also, Sword of Feast and Famine is a bitch when you can't find any of your 3 Pulses, 4 Deeds, or 4 Burning Wishes. Awkward.

Bant got molested by Huntmasters. There isn't really too much more to say about that. Game one took something like 35 minutes, as he had Clique + Karakas active and proceeded to sculpt my hand every turn with it, while developing his board state with a few dorks and a huge KotR. Meanwhile, I had Huntmasters that I kept toggling, generating enough value to keep up. Eventually I found a Deed and boomed his board, then a few turns later I drew into Scapeshift after Therapying him to check for Force. Somehow I'd only played four mountains the entire game. Weird. Game two he had Leyline of Sanctity, which eventually got Deeded away, and then he died to Primeval Titan.

Top4 was a rematch vs Thopters. This match played out very similarly to the earlier match in the swiss, although he was careful to play around Tsunami this time. Game three I proceeded to not draw a land in something like 9 turns (note that the red list runs 24 lands). He assembled a quick Thopter/Sword while I stared angrily at a gorgeous hand sporting multiple Deeds, Witness, Primeval Titan, and 2x Scapeshift. Eventually I hit a few lands and then an Explorer, which enabled me to Scapeshift with 6 lands in play, killing off his 5 Thopters. He made more, but it bought me a turn. In the end, I was one mana short of being able to Deed for his everything. In retrospect, there actually may have been an out involving the 2nd Scapeshift, whereby I Scapeshift again to get rid of his Thopters again, drop E. Wit to return Deed, then next turn drop and crack Deed for his board. The thought of Scapeshifting a second time didn't even enter my mind at the time, though, unfortunately. Still cracked a Cavern of Souls + 20 dollars in store credit = good day.

I'm definitely going to make some changes to the list, but it is in fact very, very viable. Recurring Nightmare was absolutely ass in this deck. I never got to set up a Witness loop, and even though I was usually able to find it if I really wanted to, there wasn't anything for me to abuse with it. That's definitely getting cut for the future. The Hymn to Tourachs in the board were also awful, although I think I'll leave one in the board for a Wish target vs combo. That'll open up 2 more board slots, which I think I'll dedicate to blue decks. One of the things that I love the most about my White list is that it absolutely crushes blue, and I'd like to share that trait across each different colored list.

Huntmaster was a total allstar, although I don't think I'd bump him to a 4-of. He was flipping and flipping back all day. There's also a neat trick you can do with him and two Tops to control his toggling. He has also stained his hands with many planeswalkers, especially vs the Thopter player. Big fan of this guy. Also: Red Elemental Blast. It's actually hilarious because blue decks want board their Forces out vs this deck, which makes REB all the more dangerous for them. As someone who never really plays red, I have to admit that REBing their Jace feels awfully good.

I've got a few GPTs for Atlanta coming up, as well as that event itself, so I'm going to focus on my primary (white) list for a while again. That said, the red list is definitely powerful, and I'm definitely going to keep working with it in the future.

I'll conclude by noting that I don't really like the one that Caleb put up in his article. It's decent, I guess, but it's too all-in on Valakut for me. IMO, Valakut should be an engine to be utilized, but not relied upon. Also, 3x Primeval Titan? Really? That feels absolutely awful to me. I'm not saying that Valakut isn't powerful, because it definitely is -- it's powerful enough to pull you out of some really nasty situations, and it can win disturbingly quickly. But I feel that putting all of your deckbuilding eggs in one basket with any Explorer deck is a recipe for disaster. Explorer decks are hybrids, and we should embrace that rather than trying to become more linear.

went 8th this past 20 men side event legacy from a GPT standard in Manila, Philippines

for reference
1 dryad arbor
1 sun titan
1 grave titan
1 sigarda, host of herons
1 qasali pridemage
1 kitchen finks
1 thrun, the last troll
2 eternal witness
2 scavenging ooze
4 veteran explorer

4 cabal therapy
2 inquisition of kozilek
4 green sun's zenith
3 maelstrom pulse

4 swords to plowshares

3 pernicious deed
1 recurring nightmare

2 sensei's divining top

2 liliana of the veil

3 bayou
1 scrubland
1 savannah
3 forest
2 swamp
2 plains
4 verdant catacombs
2 windswept heath
1 phyrexian tower
1 volrath's stronghold

sb
1 pernicious deed
2 perish
2 choke
3 duress
1 gaddock teeg
1 ethersworn canonist
3 surgical extraction
1 tormod's crypt
1 grafdigger's cage

*i will go directly on situation that gave me a win

R1 vs UR delver
G1: sun titan+finks=win
G2: deed for this delvers and grim=FTW
1-0

R2 vs punishing maverick
G1: he won by scavenging ooze beatdown
G2: deed blowed his field
G3: i deed' this board and even he surgical my deed i managed to drop a thrun and GSZ for sigarda=win
2-0

R3 vs UR delver
G1: double KO, both of us died from price of progress
G2: deed his board and GSZ for finks=win
G3: i managed to drop a sigarda from GSZ, sun titan and infinite blockers from my sun titan but time is up
result for this match 1-0-1
3-0

R4 vs hightide
G1: he combo out
G2: insane sideboarding plans i made in this game, i put 10 cards hate from my sb but down to 5 cards mulligans a single bayou and a gaddock teeg and canonist and cabal but few turns my deck didnt gave me lands :( so even i cast my gaddock teeg he wiped it away and combo off
3-1

R5 vs fauna maverick
G1: MoM gave him the win, i drew nothing but lands :)
G2: i deed his board sadly he surgical my deeds :( from there he recovered and tutor for elesh norn and its game
3-2

any comments/suggestion? :)

@Arianrhod

I like the idea of a red splash in this deck, but I do not think you want to muddle your mana with Valakut. If you want to be casting a 4 mana "I win" card, it seems as though Natural Order would be an easier route. You could still wish for it and win quickly without having to run duals that don't produce green mana.

If you're satisfied with the Scapeshift engine, then I definitely think you're on the right track. Huntmaster and Broodmate Dragon both seem sick, and I agree that you probably don't want Recurring Nightmare.

How did you like 3 GSZ? That card seems pretty essential to the deck, and I was wondering if you ever missed having the 4th copy.