[Primer] Nic Fit

Hey guys. Just finished Top 8 at Gaming for Gains (Charity Legacy Tournament) with this pile. Shoutout to Sam Higgins for helping me out with the list.

22 Lands
4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Windswept Heath
2x Bayou
2x Scrubland
1x Savannah
3x Forest
2x Swamp
2x Plains
1x Phyrexian Tower
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Karakas (oops)

17 Creatures
4x Veteran Explorer
1x Deathrite Shaman
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Tireless Tracker
1x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1x Eternal Witness
3x Siege Rhino
1x Thrun the Last Troll
1x Thragtusk
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Dragonlord Dromoka


10 Sorcery
4x Cabal Therapy
4x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Night's Whisper
1x Vindicate

6 Instant
3x Path to Exile
2x Abrupt Decay
1x Abzan Charm

4 Enchantment
3x Deed
1x Sylvan Library

1 Planeswalker
1x Kaya, Ghost Assasin

15 Sideboard
1x Abrupt Decay
3x Thoughtseize
1x Golgari Charm
1x Pithing Needle
1x Choke
2x Surgical Extraction
1x Extirpate
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Melira
1x Ashen Rider
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Toxic Deluge

Round 1 vs Pox.
In game 1, I keep a double veteran explorer with a cabal therapy against his 2 sinkhole, 2 smallpox hand. He is never able to cast his sinkholes nor keep me off mana, so we sit there each with 4-6 lands trying to draw relevant cards. Eventually he lands a LOTV, but I rip Decay off the top. I eventually resolve a Sigarda, which makes it incredibly hard for him to win. Game 2, I hit no Vets, get savagely sinkholed down to two lands and he casts Ob Nixilis Reignited against me. Not the best game. In game three he keeps a one lander while I go DRS, into Tracker, into Rhino, into Thrun. He eventually hits the 2nd lands for a Smallpox, but ends up taking 15 on the swing back.
(1-0) (Phantom Tiger)

Round 2 vs Post-MUD.
In game 1, I double therapy, double veteran explorer his hand into oblivion and resolve Dragonlord. It's good enough to kill him. In game 2, he gets off to a fast start with Chalice on 1, Lodestone, and Wurmcoil. I manage to trade off my Scooze with his Lodestone allowing me to go Nissa, Flip her, Rec Sage his Chalice, Path your Wurmcoil. He then goes Platinum Angel, Chalice on Three, Kuldotha. I respond my finding Kaya, Path, and Abrupt Decay. Kaya+Rec Sage means no fun for MUD, but he was at a healthy 32 from Wurmcoil+Batterskull. Batterskull was eventually removed by the Kaya -2 and I managed to ultimate Nissa Vastwood to swing in for 40+. Planeswalkers are strong man.
(2-0) (Zombie Mob)

Round 3 vs Eldrazi-Post.
I therapy away his major threats, while his Eldrazi Scion cowers in the face of my Siegeing Rhinos. In game 2, I end up mulling to 4. End up going thoughtseize into a Rhino. He goes Ugin and later a Chalice on 4. Ugin>Rhino for some reason. I then run Kaya into another Rhino off the TOP. He Ugin -4s to 1 loyalty. I pass. He bolts me. I slam a Scooze. He -2 Ugin for some reason and I draw the greatest GSZ known to man. Managing to nimbly ignore his Chalice, I find my last Rhino and he has no answer. AHA UGIN, TAKE A RHINO TO THE FACE. Pernicious Deed was also clutch here, being able to take out his Thran Dynamos and Grim Monoliths as well as Eldrazi Scions.
(3-0)

Round 4 vs BR Reanimator/Storm.
T2 Iona,I concede. Game 2, t3 empty for 10. I block, and eventually stabilize at 4 with a Swagtusk. He top decks lotus petal, tendrils. Er. What. Yup.
(3-1) (Aphetto Exterminator)

Round 5 vs Enchantress.
Game 1, I end up one sided board wiping with a P-Deed, while also drawing cards off of Nissa Vastwood Seer. Siege Rhino not doing damage, but not targeted life drain was clutch. He ends up casting Emrakul, but loses on his upkeep to my Siege Rhino under his Parallax Wave. Rhino>Spaghetti. Game 2, I end up Thoughtseizing and Therapying away most of his relevant cards while he drew a lot of Lands. A pair of Rhinos combined with a key Golgari Charm managed to trample over his 0/1s.
(4-1) (Dan Dan)

Round 6 vs Lands.
OH BOY. A fast 20/20 forces a Path out of my hand. He then does it again. Jesus Marit Lage, won't you stay exiled? Abzan Charm deals with that. Aaaaaand another one. Welp. I GSZ for Scooze to stop him from Loaming. Then I slam Kaya to go to 22. He 20/20s on my end step and oh goody here she is again. I fall down to 2, eat my vet with my scooze and Kaya away his slightly larger than usual creature. He then savagely rips it again (by savagely rips I mean crop rot into it), but it's on his main phase. I'm at 1, he's at 3. WHAT'S ON TOP OF THE DECK. E-wit for Path. Oh that's nice. For game 2, things were slightly less exciting. I end up pathing his first 20/20. Surgical his Thespian Stage (he had a depths on board). I then hit him for increments of 2, because he kept Mazing my Rhino. Eternal witness did close to 14 damage that game and a GSZ for Rhino sealed the deal.
(5-1) (Yavimaya Ants)

5-1 is good enough for a first place seed into top 8!

Round 7 vs Food Chain
Game 1, I didn't find enough Rhinos and lose. Game 2, I get crushed. Oh Well. (Note: I did get to name Sarpadian Empires, Vol. VII against him. Which makes me the real winner here)
(5-2) (Myojin of Night's Reach)

I am now a divine spirit from Kamigawa, which was enough for 5th place at Gaming for Gains.

I really like Kaya in the main. It seems good against any form of prison/control.
Teeg never got to come in, but I did manage to dodge SnS and Storm all day.
3 Surgicals and 3 TS were mad clutch.
Top 8 was Aluren, SnS, Pox, Storm, Food Chain, B/R Reanimator/Storm, U/R Delver, and of course Rhino Fit.

Good job on the T8, and Great write up. Was truly fun to read. I did count 21 lands in the list.

Totally forgot Abzan Charm is a card to.

4x Veteran Explorer
3x Deathrite Shaman
2x Qasali Pridemage
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Eternal Witness
1x Tireless Tracker
4x Siege Rhino
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
15

4x Green Sun's Zenith
2x Painful Truths
2x Sylvan Library
1x Night's Whisper
9

4x Cabal Therapy
3x Pernicious Deed
3x Path to Exile
3x Abrupt Decay
1x Vindicate
14


2x Phyrexian Tower
2x Forest
2x Plains
2x Swamp
2x Bayou
2x Savannah
1x Scrubland
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
21



//Sideboard

2x Ethersworn Canonist
1x Gaddock Teeg
2x Surgical Extraction
3x Thoughtseize
2x Lost Legacy
1x Zealous Persecution
1x Toxic Deluge
2x Pithing Needle
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons

Going to be trying this. Only change was getting rid of tracker, and just upping my Shaman and Qasali count.

Or if people were thinking of running Atraxa, then you could also nut other people out and just run 2-3 Llawan in the sideboard for the lols. Nice Leovold/TNN/Meddling Mage, suckers. T2 Llawan off of Veteran is clutch, right?

-Matt

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Originally Posted by sdematt

Or if people were thinking of running Atraxa, then you could also nut other people out and just run 2-3 Llawan in the sideboard for the lols. Nice Leovold/TNN/Meddling Mage, suckers. T2 Llawan off of Veteran is clutch, right?

-Matt

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Fetch, Fatal Push, go. But seriously, pulling that of would be Sweet, yet I'd rather have Deluge or w/e mass removal in that spot as it also takes care of DRS and the likes. All of which is more useful in other MU's as well. Maybe an answer against misthollow griffin?

Llawan works great vs Aluren as well with Baleful Strix, Coiling Oracle, Shardless Agent and Parasitic Strix. Nice find, I like it!

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Originally Posted by Bobmans

Good job on the T8, and Great write up. Was truly fun to read. I did count 21 lands in the list.

Totally forgot Abzan Charm is a card to.

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Ah totally forgot the Karakas.

Karakas is either the most impactful land or the least impactful land. Sometimes it kills 20/20s. Other times it's this non fetchable basic plains and gets wastelanded.

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Originally Posted by Yutao

Ah totally forgot the Karakas.

Karakas is either the most impactful land or the least impactful land. Sometimes it kills 20/20s. Other times it's this non fetchable basic plains and gets wastelanded.

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This. It (has the potential) improves some of our worst MU's. And at least it providers mana. So it is never dead. When it is nog relevant and eats a waste it is fine to.

I was also at Gaming for Gains yesterday, playing the following. We had 61 players, so 6 rounds with a very good record required to make top 8.

4 Veteran Explorer
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fierce Empath
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
1 Thragtusk
1 Inferno Titan
1 Woodland Bellower
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Toxic Deluge
3 Night's Whisper
2 Diabolic Intent
2 Lightning Bolt

2 Pernicious Deed
4 Sneak Attack

4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Dryad Arbor
3 Bayou
2 Taiga
2 Badlands
3 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Mountain
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Phyrexian Tower

sb::
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Lost Legacy
1 To the Slaughter
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Blood Moon
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Pithing Needle
2 Engineered Plague
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Surgical Extraction


Round 1: Eric with Merfolk- 2-0 win
Game 1, I have the nuts. Turn 1 Veteran, turn 2 Tower, sac Veteran, Therapy away your Force of Will, slam Sneak Attack. Turn 3, spaghetti. Turn 4, Zenith for Empath for more spaghetti.
Game 2 is interesting, he has a slowish draw but keeps me off colors with a Tidal Warrior for a couple turns. I eventually get up to Wurmcoil Engine and am able to race his two lords. Inferno Titan comes down to seal the deal after a couple turns of that.
1-0

Round 2: Roger with Sneak/Show- 2-1 win
Game 1 he has turn 2 Show and Tell and I concede to conceal information.
Game 2, I get in some early damage, Therapy away his Sneak Attack leaving a hand full of monsters. He finds Show and Tell off the top, his Emrakul vs my Bellower + Veteran. I know he has no counters, so I am able to Intent away the Veteran and kill the eldrazi with To the Slaughter. I hit him for 6 and he cantrips, then finds another Show and Tell. He has another eldrazi, I have Eternal Witness for another To the Slaughter. He dies.
Game 3 I'm on the draw and I keep the following 7: Forest, Taiga, Night's Whisper x2, Therapy, Sneak Attack, Emrakul. My reasoning is, this hand beats a Show and Tell every time, and I have outs to hit black mana in a turn or two before he can get Sneak online. It's a little greedy but I'm happy with the keep. Anyway, he casts Show and Tell on turn 1 and immediately concedes to my Emrakul. Justice.
2-0

Round 3: Harlan with BUG Delver- 2-1 win
Game 1 is brutal, he has turn 2 Hymn, turn 3 Hymn+Delver, turn 4 Delver and I die without doing much.
Game 2, I take some early damage from a Goyf before Veteran comes down. Wurmcoil Engine shows up not long after, and Diabolic Intent for Pernicious Deed seals the deal.
Game 3, we go back and forth for a bit, his hand is light on action after I Bolt his turn 1 Deathrite. He sticks Liliana, forces my first Blood Moon, but I'm able to fetch up Dryad Arbor to keep Lili off her ultimate and resolve the second Blood Moon. I eventually find some action while chipping away at Liliana with a 1/1 mountain, and he dies.
3-0

Round 4: Michael with ANT- 0-2 loss
Game 1, he Probes me and sees a Therapy, Ponders and passes. I Therapy blind and name Dark Ritual, assuming he'd have played out his artifact mana because he saw the discard spell. He has an LED, and Dark Ritual is the top card from Ponder. He untaps and kills me.
Game 2, I mulligan to 4 but am able to make a game of it because he just doesn't find action. End up getting him to 3 after he has to use Chain of Vapor to stop Tireless Tracker from killing him. He finds Infernal Tutor on the last turn and has just enough to chain tutors and Tendrils me out. Womp womp.
3-1

Still live for top 8 if I win out.

Round 5: Adam on Lands (this was Yutao's round 6 opponent) - 0-2 loss
Game 1, I keep a land-light hand but Zenith for Arbor and follow up with a Tribe Elder. I end up being a turn too slow on Sneak->Emrakul as he plays Dark Depths as his eighth permanent. He floats mana on the trigger, makes a 20/20, and I die.
Game 2, neither of us have much going on. I keep a hand on the back of Deathrite, Surgical and Lost Legacy but don't find a third land after I get Wasted. I'm able to set up Sneak but have to pass the turn because he has Karakas in play, so I need a second activation to stick Emrakul. He has Krosan Grip. Welp. Eventually Deed away his Tireless Tracker and Surgical that, trying to keep him off action and just hope to topdeck better. I see a hand of 2x Loam with nothing going on. Then I punt, and Lost Legacy away his Loams. I'm too used to Slaughter Games and forgot that LL lets him draw cards if I take cards from his hand. What I should have done was taken away his Crop Rotations. Anyway, the 2 cards include Depths to go with the Stage already on board, and I die. Not a mistake to make again. Not a guaranteed win if that hadn't happened, but at least we get to keep playing.
3-2, dead for top 8

I play Round 6 anyway to try and get some more games. Opponent is playing Zoo, which it turns out still loses to Pernicious Deed. So much for useful testing.

Finish 4-2 in 12th place.


Thoughts on the deck and on the day:
-Diabolic Intent is still really, really good. Being an un-interactable sac outlet for Veteran came up a couple times against Delver.
-Dryad Arbor has me convinced. I never played it in Scape but this build wants it and loves it.
-Meren was -fine- never really mattered much though
-Very light on sideboard cards for storm, but I don't really want Thoughtseizes in the sideboard either. We have some options of course, but space is tight.
-Blood Moons were a good choice even if they didn't come up much.
-Night's Whisper was fine, I'm pretty happy with 3
-Tireless Tracker was pretty lackluster honestly, surprising because I'm very high on the card usually.
-Stronghold came up exactly once. Depending on whether the newer UW control decks start popping up, this could make its way out of the list for a second Phyrexian Tower or something, just trying to be more explosive. I'm fine with it for now, but it's on the watch list.
-Bolt could have been Push in all scenarios except against Storm, where it stayed in the deck due to too few sideboard cards, and was a live draw to win in game 2. Still fine with that choice, since I'm bringing in Decays against Delver decks anyway to supplement them.

My Sneak list looks similar but in place of the wurmcoil i play Rune scarred demon. Pretty good in all it does. I like him much.

How are your expieriences with the wurmcoil? Is it not too soft to swords? In theory it seems amazing.

Is Nissa out of style since the ban? I testet Vital Force and vastwood seer but can not decide if she still has a place

...and i am still not sold on nights whispers. I do not know, but painful truth seems so much better.

Nevertheless congrats in your Finish.

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Originally Posted by Dalton!

My Sneak list looks similar but in place of the wurmcoil i play Rune scarred demon. Pretty good in all it does. I like him much.

How are your expieriences with the wurmcoil? Is it not too soft to swords? In theory it seems amazing.

Is Nissa out of style since the ban? I testet Vital Force and vastwood seer but can not decide if she still has a place

...and i am still not sold on nights whispers. I do not know, but painful truth seems so much better.

Nevertheless congrats in your Finish.

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Wurmcoil was very good, and contributes really well to the fair matchups. Either snuck in or hardcast, Wurmcoil can outright beat most fair plans or at least keep them busy for long enough for you to find another threat to close.

It is weak to Swords, I'll grant that. My metagame is really BUG-heavy, where Wurmcoil is insane, and it's comparable to most other monsters we could be playing in unfair matchups.

I like Rune-Scarred Demon as well. Flying lets it ignore TNN and beat up Delvers. Both cards help in the fail case of Sneaking in a monster, hitting once, and that just not being enough. Sometimes you need to sneak in a threat and having it leave some lasting value (another monster in the case of the Demon, 6 life and some tokens in the case of Wurmcoil) is really good.

To that end actually, I've been considering trying out Grave Titan in place of Inferno Titan since Death and Taxes seems to have fallen totally off the map in my area. Elves exists somewhat and Inferno is obviously better there but in a room full of Leovolds and Tarmogoyfs, I would much rather have Wurmcoil and Grave Titan than anything else (besides Emrakul, obviously).

Painful Truths is an objectively more powerful card. I won't argue that. Night's Whisper costing 2 mana has mattered a lot, though. Much easier to play through Daze, much less often that you have a turn 1 Vet/Deathrite/Zenith for Arbor get countered or Plowed or something and so your turn 2 is really weak. I've just found more openings to fit in Night's Whisper than I initially expected. Also a lot better at helping you fight through an early Wasteland. Give it a shot, it's possible a split is right but I've been very satisfied with it thus far.

RE: Nissas- if Woodland Bellower could fetch her, I'd most likely be on flip Nissa instead of/in addition to Tireless Tracker. Nissa Vital Force could easily find her way back into the equation as well, she's obviously great, but it's hard to find slots for power over slots for consistency in this deck IMO. The deck slots are tight and I'd rather focus more on getting to our mid/late power plays than having another one, as powerful as it is.

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Originally Posted by MrIggins

RE: Nissas- if Woodland Bellower could fetch her, I'd most likely be on flip Nissa instead of/in addition to Tireless Tracker. Nissa Vital Force could easily find her way back into the equation as well, she's obviously great, but it's hard to find slots for power over slots for consistency in this deck IMO. The deck slots are tight and I'd rather focus more on getting to our mid/late power plays than having another one, as powerful as it is.

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Have you thought about Wood Elves? It has a worse ceiling than Flip Nissa, but it does ramp you and at worst can be sacked to D-Intent.

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Originally Posted by Yutao

Have you thought about Wood Elves? It has a worse ceiling than Flip Nissa, but it does ramp you and at worst can be sacked to D-Intent.

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I've played a lot of Wood Elves in the past, big fan of the card in general (fetch Bayou, cast and flashback Therapy was one of my favorite things to do in Scapewish). Could be better than STE in this list for Intent considerations. I don't know what else the cut would be but it's a good suggestion. I love STE but this might fill the niche a little better.

@matt: Night's Whisper over a third Painful Truths. How's that working out for you?

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Originally Posted by Echelon

@matt: Night's Whisper over a third Painful Truths. How's that working out for you?

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Not as bad as I would have thought, considering I've definitely Painful Truth'd for 2 before...

Would you ever consider going down to all Night's Whispers? I mean, speed & manacurves are a thing.

I'm just back from an 8 turns tournament in Italy with Nyx Fit, with many sad stories and some thoughts.
I've ended 3-2-3:

T1 UWR Control with Nemesi by a good player: He somehow steals the g1, i won the g2 and there's no time for g3... He said that he has been lucky for the draw

T2 Deathblade: The only italian player of Deathblade who plays 4 basic lands, obv. But the real problem is g1, when after have destroyed his hand with 2 cabal he had only a SFM and topdeck, in a row, Batterskul and Jace (not bad), g2 mana screw for me and i never seen the 4° land even with Library, nice.

T3 Patriot: Very fun and interesting MU, i won 2-1 losing a game under humility for not finding ANYTHING under library for just... 10 turns? And being overcomed by his creatures, lol.

T4 WB: Lol, no words: won g1, g2 and g3 he make Seize-Sculler-Rip or something like that... again, can't find any of the 10 outs in time and i died beaten by sculler, lol.

Then i've won against Grixis, Team America, draw with... i don't remember, and lost from Reanimator at the last turn.

I didn't think that Top was so important for this deck, but it's a very big loss. Except for Reanimator, i've only lost for variance and stuff, in a very bad way... And i don't know how to manage this problem =/ i was playing 3 Library 3 Truths yesterday.

Hasn't Nyx Fit also lost its most important prey, with the banning of SDT?

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Originally Posted by Echelon

Hasn't Nyx Fit also lost its most important prey, with the banning of SDT?

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I don't think that's a big reason : almost no deck had a really good mu against a great miracle player. I still strongly believe that nyx is the strongest version of the deck (i haven't tried sneak anyway), obv with the usual downside of not playing brainstorm ^^

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Originally Posted by Memories of the Time

I don't think that's a big reason : almost no deck had a really good mu against a great miracle player. I still strongly believe that nyx is the strongest version of the deck (i haven't tried sneak anyway), obv with the usual downside of not playing brainstorm ^^

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Nyx has the most raw power, probably tied with Sneak, but it's too vulnerable to variance in my opinion now. Going to be giving Vessel some more testing, but beyond that I don't think there are any options that are solid enough.