[Deck] Nic Fit (GBx Explorer Zenith Control)

Sick write up on the Therapy choices, some small issues where I would choose differently. (From a non-blue Nic Fit pov.)

Belcher: I always name Belcher there, since we actually have a fighting choice against EtW, but we're just dead to Belcher.

Mirror: I think that have active top selection is huge in those long, grindy games which the mirror often turns into, so on the play I usually name top.

Sidenote: Was too lazy to sleeve up BUG, so I played the Rector version to a mediocre finish at my locals, partly due to punts, or to sick topdecks from my Sneak and Tell oponent (see a trend there? :D ;) )

Generally speaking I'd rather try to stop their ability to go off at all, then take Belcher/EtW at our leisure. The other issue is that in my experience they rarely have Belcher or EtW in their actual hands....they're more likely to just have mana and draw. On that note, would Manamorphose be a better name, as it fixes their colors and cantrips?

Top was an oversight on my part. On the play, you should definitely name Top vs Nic Fit.

And yeah, Sneak seems to thrive on sick topdecks more than Miracles, even :|
The Rector list can be annoyingly hard to pilot sometimes, too. From what I've heard of your meta, it definitely feels like taking the effort to sleeve up a different version would be a good idea....doesn't sound like Rector is working out there.

@Arianrhod - Thanks, that is a really handy guide for Therapy! Awesome work. I printed it to read it during the roadtrip tomorrow.

Right now, I'm at this list:


4 Veteran Explorer
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Innocent Blood
1 Ghastly Demise
4 Brainstorm
3 Baleful Strix
3 Coiling Oracle
1 Fierce Empath
3 Eternal Witness
4 Pernicious Deed
1 Recurring Nightmare
2 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Fact of Fiction
1 Thragtusk
1 Grave Titan
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
2 Green Sun's Zenith

3 Forest
2 Island
2 Swamp
3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
3 Bayou
1 Phyrexian Tower

SB
2 Flusterstorm
2 Thoughtseize
3 Extirpate
2 Force of Will
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Go for the Throat
1 Gilded Drake
2 Counterspell
1 Consecrated Sphinx


No Gifts.
It might be the more powerful card, but I am not able to learn the ins and outs of it in mere hours. I'm also hesitant to modify my list to accomodate Gifts. Plus, you get to choose the pile you get, that can be pretty handy, since it can be a little faster than Gifts. In short, I have pragmatic reasons to FoF. In the long run, I'll test Gifts more extensively.

21 Land.
I really want to play a 22nd land, but I don't know what to cut. Nightmare is weakened without Gifts, even if I shoehorn Gifts in (in place of the FoF). However, I don't see myself cutting the card, since it's rebonkolously good.
All other cards seem to have the exact number I want.

The Sideboard.
I definitely want Extirpates, Forces, Flusterstorms, Thoughtseizes and the Ooze. For the rest, I'm not so sure. I think the Mana Leak > Negate point is valid, but Mana Leak does not feel optimal for this slot. Sphinx could be awesome if they board GY hate. I may want a second Innocent Blood in the SB, since it overperformed in Testing, but I'm hesitant to cut GftT. Gilded Drake may well be garbage... Any advice would be appreciated. A few cards to consider would be a third Jace to strenghten the Deed/Jace plan, a Dosan the Falling Leaf or Xantid Swarm to Zenith for, a Gifts to bring in when I really want to search for the Nightmare... On the wilder side, a Mimeoplasm since it would allow ridiculous "Steal your Griselbrand" stuff.

EDIT: Just noted that the MB is 61 cards. Oops. More trouble :-/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Amazingxkcd

As for negate, it does sound better in the late game than mana leak, but really, how much more does negate do than mana leak? Most legacy decks are not going to be equipped to pay for mana leak, nor is any deck going to be like "Its nic fit! They run counters in sideboard!". Mana leak hits creatures as well. That can and will be very relevant in many games, like against maverick, RUG, and so on. There will be situations where mana leak will suck because they already have like 10 lands, and if they already have 10 lands, so do you. You won't need a mana leak nor negate at that point because you will have the resources to fight otherwise. IMO, the only case where negate beats mana leak is against High Tide due to the nature of High Tide itself. If we are playing High Tide at that point, then we already are bringing in the flutterstorms and the FoWs in. Adding negates to that mix or even mana leaks does dilute our deck alot more than we would like. I'll stick with mana leak for now.

---

Uh? You side in counters against Maverick and RUG? The only matchups I want to see counters are the ones where my opponent doesn't cast creatures. In every matchup I board counters in, they are hard counters for 1U except for Miracle where they can still Clique and Snap, which is not what I am aiming to counter anyway. Also, having enough lands to invalidate Mana Leak (which is about 5-7 really) doesn't mean you have tools to deal with a Jace, a Show n Tell, a Sneak Attack, an Entreat, a Tez, a Terminus, a Burning Wish, etc... Against control, you can also hold on to that Garruk or Jace until you have enough lands to back it up with a Negate and if you used an ounce of discard prior, you know it will go through.

I have done more testing with BUG Fit and have tested Top > BS. The difference is akin to light and day. I have limited blue to a splash and it has been much better. I know I splash blue because of Gifts, Oracles, and SB counterspells. Those changes allow me to fight back Combo and Control decks magnificently. Jace, however, is extremely powerful in his own right but he is also imposing limitations on the deck.


Creatures (14)
4 Veteran Explorer
4 Coiling Oracle
2 Eternal Witness
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Shriekmaw
1 Thragtusk
1 Grave Titan

Spells (23)
2 Gifts Ungiven

4 Cabal Therapy
2 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Life from the Loam
2 Maelstrom Pulse

4 Pernicious Deed

3 Sensei's Divining Top

2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter

Lands (23)
1 Wasteland
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Cabal Pit
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Bayou
2 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
2 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Island

Sideboard (15)
4 Thoughtseize
2 Innocent Blood
3 Extirpate
4 Negate
1 Karakas
1 Scavenging Ooze


As good as Jace is, he has been restricting my manabase with his double U mana cost. Because of him, I have to keep the double basic islands in the deck, and being on the play with a basic island is about as sad as a Wasteland/Tower/Volrath. Making double blue availlable has also caused me to miss out on double black or tripple green for Lily, Witness, and Garruk. Being this greedy is leaving me extremely vulnerable to Wasteland. Furthermore, Primal Hunter is better than Jace because his abilities have more raw power and also because Jace loses a lot of his appeal without counterspell backup and/or with an active Top. The only things I really love Jace for is the Brainstorm (duh...), the bounce coupled with Lily/Therapy, and the preemptive Jace removal (legend rule). Garruk lays down threats and sturdy blockers and draws 3+ cards within the first two turns he has been active. For these reasons, I am contemplating the following changes:

-2 Jace
-1 Island
-1 SB Ooze

+1 Primal Hunter
+1 Ooze
+1 Forest
+1 SB Innocent Blood

That way I can play around Wasteland and Islandwalk much better and I get to free up valuable deck space.

Alright, let's see if we can get you ready here.

First up, there's nothing wrong with being 61 in Nic Fit. In fact, most lists I've seen have been (all of mine are, I know). We think out deck so much with Explorer that the extra card doesn't really bother us, and since we tend to be toolbox-y control, I'd rather invest that 1 extra spot into an extra target than obsess about minutiae of opening hand percentages. I've actually noticed that the deck runs BETTER when it's 61 than when it's 60, and I've actually tested that theory in actual tournament play.

I agree RE Gifts, as noted earlier.

Mimeoplasm is a terrible idea, lol. Just run Reanimates if you want to do funny things and jack their shit.

Dosan and Xantid are bad, because you're usually going to be on the defensive, not the offensive.

How have the Counterspells have been working out mana-wise? They invalidate the Leak vs Negate debate, if they're working.

If they board graveyard hate, you sit there and either Jace them out or punching them with Grave Titan until they cry mommy. The graveyard is a really powerful zone for this deck, but it's not mandatory at all. You can function just fine without it. If your opponent has brought in a lot of gy hate, reboard for g3 and take out like a Witness, the Nightmare, etc.

Have you heard anything about the meta over there at all? Is it basically just supposed to be Atlanta 2.0? I know Europe usually has a higher density of combo players than America does.

I'd try to squeeze in the 3rd GSZ before a 22nd land. As long as you aren't pants-on-head retarded with how you fetch/the hands you keep, 21 should be fine in a deck with 6 cantripping two-drops and 4 Brainstorms. Maybe trim out the Ghastly Demise, since you went up to 4 Deeds?

How's this for a sideboard:

2x Force
2x Flusterstorm
3x Extirpate
1x Ooze
2x Thoughtseize
1x Jace TMS
1x Ghastly Demise
1x Krosan Grip
2x Counterspell/Mana Leak/Negate

I think the 3rd Jace is better than the Sphinx, because you just play Deed/Jace control.dec if there's gy hate. Ghastly moves to the board, and we add a K-Grip so that you have an additional out to Phyrexian Revoker when it's protected by a Mom, because I see that causing problems if there's a lot of Maverick running around. Maybe the Ghastly is just unnecessary and it should be 2 Grips. I guess a lot of comes down to what you're scared of, and then we can shape it around that a bit better. What do you think you're going to play against, and what are you afraid of playing against?

This is for Qweerios, because he posted while I did.

Random thought: does Thragtusk (and maybe a Finks) provide enough lifegain that we could try City of Brass? I feel like Jace is too good to cut, but I agree that the restrictions he places on the mana base is bad for what you want to do. I feel like if we had a few non-island blue sources to put into your deck, it would fix a lot of problems. Maybe something like -1 Verdant -1 Island +2 City of Brass?

@Qweerios. I don't, but I was just trying to make a point.

@Arianrhod, if you play loam and Gifts, I don't see why not. This is also assuming that you can get the Nightmare engine rolling with Thragtusk.

Another Brainfart idea, probably the stupidest one I ever had

Reassembling Skeleton Against control decks. Thoughts?

Edit: Yes, I'm stupid, though this card is hilarious against BUG control

@Arianrhod,

Even with Brass, fetching 2 blue with Explorer to cast a Jace is still a common play. I also don't think Brass is an option because it costs life and is susceptible to Wasteland. All this doesn't exactly help in the matchups I am currently struggling with (matchups that I otherwise walk over).

I tested Counterspell, it doesn't work. You cannot cast anything blue during your turn (AKA: Oracle) and hope to leave enough blue mana open to counter.

@Amazingxkcd,

As Arianrhod eloquently put it, if a card is in your deck, it has to serve a purpose. I don't think it serves to prove a point to demonstrate how Mana Leak is more relevant than Negate in matchups that you wouldn't side in counters for. Sorry if I sound a bit raw, but as a SB card, Negate is strictly superior to Mana Leak unless you play against a lot of Splinter Twins. The counters it should compete with are Flusterstorm and Spell Pierce because of their mana cost and inevitability differences. FoW is junk unless you expect a lot of Belcher.

@Arianrhod:

My meta consists of an absurd density of Esperblade (I've heard from some people they played 4 esperblade in a row at the GPT), Maverick was underplayed for a long time, but lately more people are picking it up, people haven't discovered Miracles yet, (Stormbased) combo is dead, and there is little Sneak and Show/Reanimator, I've just got paired against the one Sneak player at last 2 tourneys.

Oh, there's always the guy playing affinity/dredge/burn.

When I was on Jund coloured Nic Fit I've had decent success, but that deck felt quite a bit easier to play.

What version would you propose?

Makes sense RE Counterspell.

I don't think I'm going to dignify Reassembling Skeleton with a response. Wait -- I just did. Crap.

@Phillipp -- Honestly for that meta it does sound like the Rector build would be the best, since it shreds Stoneblade. I'm actually not sure how the Red does vs Stoneblade...I just know it eats maverick alive. You could try going long with Blue -- it still embarrasses Maverick, and if you don't have a lot of like Fish or RUG in your meta, the Blue doesn't really have any other natural predators that we've found yet.

I'd say if Rector isn't working out for whatever reason, try switching to a Blue build. Gifts or FoF is up to you....I don't think we've reached a solid consensus on that yet. My gut tells me that eventually the Gifts build will go 4cc because white just offers too much with Gifts, and then FoF will remain the true "BUG" version, favored over Gifts due to its stability. That's just my gut instinct...obviously there's a lot of R&D on both versions before we get there.

I'm planning on running my Red version tomorrow at Mythic Games in Elmira. Last time I was up there, the meta was literally like mono-Maverick, so we'll see how that goes. I made some pretty heavy changes compared to the last list I posted (which I know was like yesterday or the day before...been working on it a lot since I want to play it). I'll be sure to post a report once I'm back.

Also, best of luck to Wortwelt at Ghent! Will be eagerly awaiting a report.

I'll be registering the Rector version @ the gp tomorrow, hope me expecting alot of rug pays off :p

According to Twitter Wortwelt isn't doing too well :/

Hello Guys, Im an BGW Nicfit player and my meta have: Maverick's, Affinitys, belcher, Sneak and Show and Dredge.

Im having some troubles to organize a sideboard and main deck against them, I like to have some advices.

My current list is:




Lands

4 Forest
3 Windswept Heath
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Bayou
2 Savannah
2 Swamp
2 Plains
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Scrubland
1 Volrath's Stronghold

Creatures

4 Veteran Explorer
2 Eternal Witness
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Sun Titan
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Grave Titan
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Deranged Hermit

Spells

4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Pernicious Deed
2 Vindicate
2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Recurring Nightmare

Sideboard

1 Spike Feeder
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Damnation
2 Duress
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Path to Exile
1 Tormod's Crypt

(Missing 1 card)

Thanks

Went 1-2 at the monthly 8-man, beat enchantress thanks to 3 mainboard Deeds, lost to Show and Tell 0-2 but stayed in the game thanks to mainboard Oblivion Ring, where I rectored for one with emrakul flying at my face and then showed it game 2 to remove Griselbrand turn 1 followed by extracting his show and tells...although he still had the Sneak attack in game one to kill me soon after and game 2 he recovered when I drew about 12 lands all game.

Lost an embarrasing match next to what amounts to Primal Surge and otherwise focused on 7+cc spells...which doesn't help when I'm ramping them at the same time with explorer.

Top 4 was 3 show and tell decks of different strategies and Merfolk, with dream halls and hivemind splitting the win.

Took 2nd at Mythic Games today -- will post a report tomorrow sometime. I played my Red version with Valakut.

Scrubbed out hardcore @GP gemt going 1-2-3 drop with 4 games going to time. Ive come to the conclusiOn the rector build doesnt suit my playstyle as much as a GBw build with Gravetitans. Going to play some games with the blue version today.

I'm playing the GBw Rector build for a while now (I'm testing the blue version but didn't get good results for now).
Is there a place for Restoration Angel in this deck?
It's single white mana is not a problem and it has great synergies with main board cards we run : Thragtusk, Fierce Empath, Eternal Witness, Titans, not to mention she can flash-protect our creatures from StP. And, she's a flyer out of Bolt range, can stop an activated Delver... I'm considering adding one (instead of Sigarda for example). The bad thing is that she's not tutorable. Thoughts about it?

Hej everyone,
i almost made day 2 going 0-0-1 -> 0-1-1 -> 6-1-1 and losing the 9th round ending up at a still pretty decent 6-2-1 using the Rector build.
I'll make a report this week as soon as i find time :)
MU's were:
WB Blade 1-1-1
GBw Nic-Fit 0-2 (he had all the cards that are good in the mirror :( )
Esper Blade 2-0
RUG Delver 2-1
Merfolk 2-0
Goblins 2-1
High Tide 2-1
Zoo 2-0
Miracles 0-2

Went to GP Ghent with a straight G/B list and ended up with 3-6-0. Not really a great result, but considering it was my first ever Legacy tournament and that several losses were really close, I feel like I did fine. The only games I really felt like were unwinnable were ANT and the standard version of Sneaky Show. Faced Maverick twice and, apart from one game, won both quite easily with 2-0. RUG Delver felt like it was a good matchup, but it really comes down to getting rid of their Stifle. Walking around the area, I saw quite a lot of Nic Fit players with various lists (pretty sure I even saw Arianrhod’s GBw list with maindeck Moat) and several of my friends faced Nic Fit during the GP. Unfortunately, not a single Nic Fit deck made it to the second day.

The list I played was:


//Main:

5 Swamp
5 Forest
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Bayou
2 Phyrexian Tower
1 Volrath's Stronghold

4 Veteran Explorer
2 Eternal Witness
1 Fierce Empath
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Abyssal Persecutor
1 Thragtusk
1 Grave Titan
1 Wurmcoil Engine

4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Innocent Blood
2 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Hymn To Tourach
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Pernicious Deed
1 Recurring Nightmare
2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter

//Side:

3 Faerie Macabre
3 Extirpate
3 Carpet of Flowers
2 Duress
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Viridian Shaman
1 Obstinate Baloth


Report:

Round 1: An odd version of Sneaky Show with Fog Bank, Foil and Miscalculation. I’m also not sure if he played Griselbrand or not, but I didn’t see him.

Game 1: He plays a basic island and am not sure what to place him at (thinking Merfolk or SnT, seeing as RUG doesn’t often play basics). I try to Therapy him, with calling brainstorm in mind, but he counters it. Turn two he drops Scalding Tarn and fetches Volcanic Island and I put him at Sneaky Show, which is confirmed by a turn 3 Emrakul (I think I hymned him T2 which he Foiled, because after playing SnT and dropping Emrakul his hand was empty). On my T3 I drop Liliana, making him sacrifice Emrakul. Liliana completely locks him out of the game while I beat him down with Thrun and a Fierce Empath.

I side in 2 duress, 1 cranial extraction and 3 extirpates.

Game 2: He plays a land, and says go. I therapy, which resolves, and I call SnT (because I think that he would’ve brainstormed in response if he were to have one). He shows me a hand with FoW, Ancient Tomb, Volcanic Island, Fog Bank, Miscalculation and Intuition. On his turn he draws brainstorm, plays it and proceeds to draw SnT and an Emrakul, which he plays the following turn. Not much else to say really.

Game 3: I T1 Therapy him, it resolves and I call brainstorm. He curses silently and shows me a poor hand containing Foil, Brainstorm, Miscalculation, Lotus petal, Progenitus and an Island (I think he mulled). Unfortunately I can’t stabilize due to mana screw (I had 2 Liliana’s in hand), and he counters my two GSZ. He eventually draws a SnT and drops Progenitus while I drop Grave Titan. Still not drawing into any lands I end up losing the race.

Round 2: RUG Delver.

Game 1: He T1’s a Delver, which flips the next turn. He swings in a few times, and he gets another Delver and a Tarmogoyf in play. I end up at 13 life, play deed and blow his board away (after I got rid of his stifle via Therapy). I play Abyssal Persecutor and completely go to town with him.

I side in Carpet of Flowers (which has been a true allstar versus most blue decks, which is the vast majority of decks I faced) and duress.

Game 2: He has a hand full of business, gets a Goyf and Mongoose down and beats me down while I can’t stabilize due to counters/stifle.

Game 3: Very tense game, even though he stifled two of my explorers! His Sylvan Library really won him the game via drawing 3 extra cards, in which he drew another stifle and enough counters to keep me from stabilizing. I eventually end up at 4 life with a Percy in play versus his 3 life with two Nimble Mongoose in play, but he topdecks Submerge and we shake hands.

I feel like this matchup largely revolves around Stifle and recommend getting rid of that card via discard as soon as possible.

Round 3: RUG Delver.

Game 1: I T1 Therapy, which he forces. He ends up with two Goyfs in play, which I deed away. I get Percy and Eternal Witness into play and beat him down. I also finally ended up getting Thragtusk into play (unfortunately he came when the game was already won).

I side in Carpet of Flowers and Duress.

Game 2: He plays Delver, which transforms. He hits me once and Chain Lightning’s me. I innocent Blood his Delver and Duress a FoW away. I end up with Thrun into play, which keeps off his Goyf, even though I end up at 7 life. I play Garruk, Primal Hunter and he easily wins me the game.

In neither games did my opponent draw a Stifle, which made the matchup a lot better.

Round 4: ANT with Past in Flames. Joy.

Game 1: Never played against a storm combo deck and I have no idea what to put him on when he plays Bloodstained Mire. Turn two he plays an Underground Sea, says his deck is treating him exceptionally well and wins on the spot (he had 3 lotus petals, a few rituals and an Infernal Tutor in his hand).

I side in 2 Duress, 3 Extirpate and 1 Crianial Extraction and hope I can actually end up playing something the next round.

Game 2: Pretty much the same as Game 1. I Hymn to Tourach him, which he removes with Surgical Extraction. The turn after he goes nuts and wins.

Never really felt like I could do anything versus his deck. Perhaps replacing the raw power of Hymn to Tourach for some more finesse discard like IoK or Duress would have made this matchup a little bit better, but I still felt that even with 9 discard spells I couldn’t do a whole lot. Perhaps I should have mulled more aggressively into more discard, I’m not sure.
Edit: I probably should have boarded in the Faerie Macabre's seeing as he used Past in Flames in both games to win.

After this round I knew I wouldn’t make it to day 2 (never really thought I would, but still). I continue playing as I wanted to gain more experience, and I was simply having a lot of fun playing.

Round 5: Maverick. Finally! I had previously never played against Maverick, so I was curious to see if the matchup really was all that favorable as I had read.

Game 1: He plays an Ooze which I eventually kill with Liliana. He EoT’s a Mindcensor and kills Liliana. He swings in with the Mindcensor and a Thrun for a few times and I end up at 10. I deed his board, painfully forgetting the regenerate part of Thrun (and I even play him!), but still kill a few of his other dudes. I play Thragtusk and the turn after I GSZ for a Thrun to legend rule his one away. I hit him a few times with Thragtusk and end up with a Grave Titan in play to go in for the kill.

I side in a Viridian Shaman because I know he will either side in Needle or Revoker.

Game 2: This game was very grindy and was the only time I ended up going to “time”. We end up going back and forth a bit with him getting a Revoker into play, naming Deed and another one naming Top. He also had a Thalia, an Ooze (which was getting alarmingly big), a few Hiërarchs and two Mom’s. I had two Wurmcoil Engine tokens (my Engine died to his Knight), Wickerbough Elder and a Grave Titan (and some other things I’m really not sure of, I didn’t really write a lot down this match). I can’t get rid of his Revokers due to his Mom’s protecting it (even though I never saw a deed the whole game) and I eventually end up at 7 life with him attacking with a two times exalted Thalia with protection from green and black (I think he Qasali’d at least one of my tokens at one point). I draw into two Liliana’s and make him sacrifice 3 creatures this way (which halted his attack with Thalia). The third creature he sacrifice’s is the Revoker naming Top. His next turn is the active turn in which the “time” countdown starts. I EoT use Top, see my singleton Maelstrom Pulse and Pulse his Mom’s away (they were tapped because he attacked with Thalia I think). His board is rather diminished at this point and he shakes my hand, giving me the win (both of us were playing just for fun seeing as we both had 1-3 anyway).

Round 6: Merfolk.

Game 1: I T1 therapy for Brainstorm and see what I’m up against. I had tested this matchup before, and knew it really all came down to Pernicious Deed. He reveals an average hand containing Mutavault, two Islands, a Cursecatcher and a Phantasmal Image. He swings in a few times with a Cursecatcher and a Master of the Pearl Trident. I get a Thragtusk into play, which he copies with Phantastmal Image. I blow the rest of his board away and swing in with Wurmcoil Engine and Thragtusk and take the game.

I side in Carpet of Flowers.

Game 2: I mulligan and get an even worse 6 cards (but containing several deeds and a Liliana). It fortunately contained a Carpet of Flowers and I end up keeping. I get manascrewed and really just live off of the Carpet, getting a deed into play (after getting my Liliana countered). I’m eventually forced to deed his board, and my source of mana away. He then plays another Lord and beats my face in with two Mutavaults.

Game 3: He has a great hand and I end up drawing nothing but land. He got in for lethal on T3 or 4, I think.

So, yet another round in which I took the first win, but lost the next two games.

Round 7: Maverick.

Game 1: He T1 plays Cavern of Souls, calling human and plays Mom. I Innocent Blood her away. The next turn he figures out I’m Nic Fit and his face drops a little. He ends up hitting me a few times with a Scryb Ranger while I take out his hand (I Hymn him, after which he plays a Stoneforge Mystic and I then Therapy the Sword away). I end up with a Grave Titan into play, while ending up at 10 life, and kill him.

I once again only side in a Viridian Shaman, in case of Needle or Revoker (which he sided in, but never found).

Game 2: I knew what was in his hand and kept him off his white mana by killing his Noble Hiërarchs (he had 2 forests and 1 Maze). He finally finds a white mana source and begins to spew out his hand. I end up with a Garruk and Liliana into play and Garruk, once again, wins the game for me.

Round 8: BU control with a metric fuckton of discard (Hymn, IoK, Thoughtseize), Snapcaster, Jace (first time playing against this monster), Liliana of the Veil and Tombstalkers (and Brainstorm and FoW’s and whatnot).

Game 1: He T1 thoughtseizes me and takes Veteran Explorer. Never really could stabilize afterwards and he shreds my hand with Hymn -> Snapcaster -> Hymn. He then plays a Liliana and a Jace and keeps Fatesealing me. He eventually drops a Tombstalker into play and proceeds to beat me with it. I draw a Top (he didn’t Fateseal it away, god knows why) and I start digging, finding 3 lands on the first look. The turn after I draw a fetchland and look again, seeing 3 lands. I play the fetchland and fetch. I look again, see 3 lands and I scoop.

I think I sided in 2 duress, 1 cranial extraction and 3 extirpates, but I'm not sure.

Game 2: Kind of the same as the previous one. I don’t draw into anything useful and we Hymn each other. He plays Ancestral Visions, Hymn’s my last 2 cards away and beats me down with Snappy and Tombstalker.

Didn’t know what to do versus this matchup. It felt like it was really, really bad.

Round 9: the last game of a very tiring day…versus a standard version of Sneaky Show.

Game 1: he plays three Lotus Petals, sacrifices one for a brainstorm, finds a Scalding Tarn and fetches a Volcanic Island. I put him at Sneaky Show. I Therapy him, it resolves and I name Sneak Attack (because he had 3 mana, so I thought he wouldn’t have a SnT). He reveals a hand with a Ponder, FoW and a Griselbrand. He topdecks a SnT and plays Grisel, while I once again can’t SnT anything into play. I try killing grisel with a Liliana, but he draws 7 cards, ponders and then counters her. Not much I could do afterwards.

I side in 2 duress, 1 cranial extraction and 3 extirpates.

Game 2: I think I either Hymn or Duress him, but he counters it. On his T2 he SnT’s and puts an Emrakul into play. I draw my next card, and we shake hands.

All in all, I quite liked how the deck performed, but I feel like the 6 manacost creatures were win more in certain matches (although they were great in several other ones). I’m going to try out more Garruk, Primal Hunter and Abyssal Persecutor because they really did a lot. The Hymn’s MD will probably be replaced with IoK or Duress and I might end up putting in one more Witness and a Flesbag Marauder and Shriekmaw. Just to make the early game go smoother, and having more answers to Sneaky Show. This might make the deck a bit faster (mainly relying on discard and removal to make way for Abyssal Persecutor and Thragtusk). This way I might also end up making more use of the Volrath’s Stronghold and Recurring Nightmare, seeing as they did next to nothing the matches I had them (I never found any Witnesses in those matches). I also never had any problems with Wastelands with this list, and I never really got colorscrewed. All in all, it was a great first experience.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nihilis

. Walking around the area, I saw quite a lot of Nic Fit players with various lists (pretty sure I even saw Arianrhod’s GBw list with maindeck Moat) and several of my friends faced Nic Fit during the GP. Unfortunately, not a single Nic Fit deck made it to the second day.

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Yeah that probably was me :p That moat won me alot of matches tho! It's a shame my R9 opponent drew his fows/COunterspells all the time whenit was the only card in his hand i didnt know and had to do stuff thst got countered:(