[Deck] Nic Fit (GBx Explorer Zenith Control)

@jbone2016

Lands is tough. You need to fire off Explorers quickly and Deed/Pulse away their Manabonds/Explorations/Crucibles as soon as possible. Thrun gets around their Mazes. Game one is super hard. If you get locked game one, just scoop. You're more favored post-board when you get Extirpates/Surgicals for their Loams. It's one of those matches that you have to play very quickly or it will go to time.

I don't know why you put a Pendlehaven in the deck. Care to explain your reasoning? All it does is pump your Explorers and you want them to die anyway.

@Megadeus

I think Damnation is just better. Goblins plays a lot of high CMC cards. And you cast it a turn sooner. The instant speed isn't that relevant in my experience.

@Qweerios

Have you tested Stoneblade and or Miracles with the new BUG list? If so, how is it? It seems like the Gifts packages would help alot in that regard.

Regarding the BUG lists running Gifts, have you guys tried out a singleton Unearth to solidy your piles? I think it's almost always an inclusion, even if a large portion of your dudes can't get recurred.

You guys are underestimating your lands matchup. you have tons of relevant disruption and infinite basics. you guys are heavily favored barring nut draws like 3 ghost quarters per turn while you don't have access to an ooze.

@Lands: Sideboard realm razer like I do. It's an, expensive, bomb-y zenith target and a good recurring nightmare target. If you need your lands back you can flashback therapy to kill it, then cast recurring nightmare again and bring it back to keep him in a lock. Lands come back tapped, but at least you get to crush his new lands this way.

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Originally Posted by HoneyT

@jbone2016

Lands is tough. You need to fire off Explorers quickly and Deed/Pulse away their Manabonds/Explorations/Crucibles as soon as possible. Thrun gets around their Mazes. Game one is super hard. If you get locked game one, just scoop. You're more favored post-board when you get Extirpates/Surgicals for their Loams. It's one of those matches that you have to play very quickly or it will go to time.

I don't know why you put a Pendlehaven in the deck. Care to explain your reasoning? All it does is pump your Explorers and you want them to die anyway.

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Overthinking with a humility/fierce empath in play. Seems pretty bad. What would you suggest for another utility/manland?
Leyline of the void worthwhile at all vs lands?

@HoneyT I understand that damnation is just better than consume, it's just my budget replacement for the time being.

Anyone think the new Jarad would be any good? Or am I overthinking things a bit? Him plus Kokusho seems nasty, and if nothing else he is a big fatty

Agreeing with cuthberrthecat here. Lands isn't that bad especially to warrant something like Realm Razer in the board.

@jbone2016

In the Rector version that you're playing I wouldn't even worry about another utility land. They lose value unless you're playing Primeval Titan. If I were you, I'd play the second Phyrexian Tower. With Rectors you want more sac outlets

@Megadeus

Sorry, I didn't realize you were under budget constraints. As for Jarad, I don't think he's worth it. He's pretty narrow to just use with Kokusho, I'd just rather Nightmare loop. I'm not gonna dismiss him entirely yet, but I don't forsee him being worth it.

Went to a decent tournament and got completely fucked by my deck. It didn't even buy me dinner, the tramp. Went 0-2 in matches against Maverick (really, against Scavenging Ooze) and then managed to get 2 buys...which ironically got placed ahead of one of the players who beat me and I 5th place, good enough to get my entry fee back as a prize, haha.

One game I got far ahead on card advantage thanks to Deeds and discard with a Top in play, but could not draw into absolutely anything at all over probably 30 minutes of the round and eventually died to a giant Ooze. I don't remember the rest of the match but I died as my deck shits the bed. A Grave Titan instead of Kokusho would have won one of the games to stabilize against giant KotR. At one point Rector is eaten by Ooze and he has triple Mother.

Next match is a grinder but eventually I'm staring down a tapped out Ooze/massive KotR and have Sun Titan and Explorer in play with Kokusho in the graveyard with the opponent at 10 with Recurring Nightmare in hand and a PTower plus 6 lands on the field. I promptly tap out my black mana sources to cast Nightmare and recur Kokusho, then stare at the table after realizing my horrible play. Opponent wins a few turns later when I can't find any Deeds after eating my Titan and Kokusho.

That game also took forever, and the opponent quickly scoops game 2 after he mulls to 5 and I go Therapy - Therapy - Witness targetting Therapy. Game 3 I keep a sketchy 2 land hand with a bunch of 3 drops (Deed, ORing), Rector, Faiths Fetters, Fleshbag. Of course, I never draw another land and opponent gets a nut draw.

Regardless, the big finding I had was that a Rector deck with both Kokusho and Sun Titan is massively susceptible to graveyard hate in the form of Scavenging Ooze since both of your 6 drops rely on the graveyard to have advantage, since really I was only beat by Ooze (and myself) today. I may put Grave Titan back in to have pure killing power.

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Originally Posted by claymore

i may put grave titan back in to have pure killing power.

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Amen!

@HoneyT,

Stoneblade is pretty good and Miracle is about even.

Grave Titan seems too good to not play. I don't know how many games I have lost when I resolve him, but the number is very low.

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Originally Posted by Megadeus

Grave Titan seems too good to not play. I don't know how many games I have lost when I resolve him, but the number is very low.

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Agreed, I run him as a 2 of right now. He's a two turn clock against a board without creatures, and if your opponents board does have creatures hes probably doing even better

I have a split between Grave and Broodmate Dragon. I like having a green sunnable finisher that can fly. May cut the dragon for the second Titan though because I'm running a Thragtusk now.

Being fairly new on this forum and getting to know Nic Fit I sometimes find it difficult to find out what version people are talking about. Discussing something like Grave Titan will obviously depend on your build. Some of you play one version but others play different versions which makes it even more difficult. So I wonder if we could once in a while remind which build we run. Or should I just read all your posts better and get to know you all? :laugh:

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Originally Posted by Claymore

One game I got far ahead on card advantage thanks to Deeds and discard with a Top in play, but could not draw into absolutely anything at all over probably 30 minutes of the round and eventually died to a giant Ooze. I don't remember the rest of the match but I died as my deck shits the bed. A Grave Titan instead of Kokusho would have won one of the games to stabilize against giant KotR. At one point Rector is eaten by Ooze and he has triple Mother.

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In these cases a moat by sacrificing rector after the block is very helpfull but they are so expensive :frown: Also I noticed that when you need it there is no tower around to save the day.

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Originally Posted by Uncoordinated

Regarding the BUG lists running Gifts, have you guys tried out a singleton Unearth to solidy your piles? I think it's almost always an inclusion, even if a large portion of your dudes can't get recurred.

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Yes, I have and it is absolutely insane, not just with gifts, but on its own as well. Especially chaining witnesses is funny (cast unearth on witness, return unearth, cast on second witness, returning unearth again). Had it a couple of times last saturday, of which I will post a report later this day. Never leave home without Unearth if you play Gifts.

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Originally Posted by UseLess

Yes, I have and it is absolutely insane, not just with gifts, but on its own as well. Especially chaining witnesses is funny (cast unearth on witness, return unearth, cast on second witness, returning unearth again). Had it a couple of times last saturday, of which I will post a report later this day. Never leave home without Unearth if you play Gifts.

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We used to play with Unearth as well. Although it's very nice with witness, it takes up a valuable slot in the deck. At the moment, I cut it, as I think the biggest issue of the decklists posted in this thread is that it has a lot of situational chaff or uncastable cards. My biggest issue with Unearth is that it doesn't make the deck any less prone to graveyard hate.

I'm still unsure whether or not this card belongs in the deck, but as of right now, I'm playing without it. That said, I am fairly certain that my intuition build is much more competitive than the Gifts Ungiven builds posted in this thread. The three reasons for this statement are:
1) Gifts gets shut down by Gaddock Teeg
2) It is a turn slower than intuition, legacy is in a combo centric meta right now.
3) Gifts Ungiven doesn't win the game upon resolution.

I am still waiting for 2 cards to arrive before I can make a picture of my deck and explain the list. >_< Intuition generally ends the game on turn 3.

If I had to pick a Nic Fit build, it would be:
1) Intuition build
2) Valakut build / Rector Build
3) Gifts Ungiven build

The reason for Valakut over gifts is that, at least, Scapeshift wins on resolution.



I'd like to discuss GSZ / Rector / Gifts / Reanimation targets a bit more.

I've been thinking about a few more fringe GSZ targets that I haven't actually tested, but can imagine are some good:
GSZ
Heartwood Storyteller (Against U/W control. Plow or Terminus will gain you a card.)
Cold-Eyed Selkie (Better splash against Merfolk, still as good against U/W control unless immediately plowed. Sadly, only Lord of Atlantis pumps your Cold-Eyed Selkie. Master of the Pearl Trident and Coralhelm Commander don't give +1/+1 to the opposing merfolk.)

Rector
Confiscate Against Omniscience you can steal his Emrakul, Griselbrand or Omniscience after he SnT's. Good to have in your hand when SnT resolves. If he has Karakas in play, you can also steal his Karakas and bounce his creature if he's not SnT'ing Omniscience but Griselbrand/Emrakul.

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Originally Posted by Cire_dk

In these cases a moat by sacrificing rector after the block is very helpfull but they are so expensive :frown: Also I noticed that when you need it there is no tower around to save the day.

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Moat actually wouldn't have done much, sadly. This player realized the crucial weakness behind Rector's ability as I was attempting to resolve it - that Rector can be removed from the graveyard in response to her trigger. Otherwise, he was also running Pridemage.

The reason why I wasn't running GTitan was because I had three 6 drops and, after seeing people post on it in here, realized that sometimes my hand would get clunked up with excessive high drops. I don't remember what I replaced him with...I think the Russian Thragtusk I picked up. I'll be putting him back in one way or another now though.

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Rector
Confiscate Against Omniscience you can steal his Emrakul, Griselbrand or Omniscience after he SnT's. Good to have in your hand when SnT resolves. If he has Karakas in play, you can also steal his Karakas and bounce his creature if he's not SnT'ing Omniscience but Griselbrand/Emrakul.

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Do you mean its good to have Confiscate or Rector in hand with SnT? You can't show a Confiscate to steal whatever they cheat into play...like how I managed to lose against SnT when I found I couldn't use Phyrexian Metamorph to Legend Rule whatever they cheated as well, haha.

It does bring up the interesting question of off-color tutor targets, like either Broodmate Dragon (GSZ) or Confiscate (Rector) in GBW or other builds. If the card is powerful enough, is it worth the risk of drawing it when we can tutor it into play from the library? Its something probably everyone has thought of with Form of the Dragon.

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Originally Posted by bruizar

We used to play with Unearth as well. Although it's very nice with witness, it takes up a valuable slot in the deck. At the moment, I cut it, as I think the biggest issue of the decklists posted in this thread is that it has a lot of situational chaff or uncastable cards. My biggest issue with Unearth is that it doesn't make the deck any less prone to graveyard hate.

I'm still unsure whether or not this card belongs in the deck, but as of right now, I'm playing without it. That said, I am fairly certain that my intuition build is much more competitive than the Gifts Ungiven builds posted in this thread. The three reasons for this statement are:
1) Gifts gets shut down by Gaddock Teeg
2) It is a turn slower than intuition, legacy is in a combo centric meta right now.
3) Gifts Ungiven doesn't win the game upon resolution.

I am still waiting for 2 cards to arrive before I can make a picture of my deck and explain the list. >_< Intuition generally ends the game on turn 3.

If I had to pick a Nic Fit build, it would be:
1) Intuition build
2) Valakut build / Rector Build
3) Gifts Ungiven build

The reason for Valakut over gifts is that, at least, Scapeshift wins on resolution.



I'd like to discuss GSZ / Rector / Gifts / Reanimation targets a bit more.

I've been thinking about a few more fringe GSZ targets that I haven't actually tested, but can imagine are some good:
GSZ
Heartwood Storyteller (Against U/W control. Plow or Terminus will gain you a card.)
Cold-Eyed Selkie (Better splash against Merfolk, still as good against U/W control unless immediately plowed. Sadly, only Lord of Atlantis pumps your Cold-Eyed Selkie. Master of the Pearl Trident and Coralhelm Commander don't give +1/+1 to the opposing merfolk.)

Rector
Confiscate Against Omniscience you can steal his Emrakul, Griselbrand or Omniscience after he SnT's. Good to have in your hand when SnT resolves. If he has Karakas in play, you can also steal his Karakas and bounce his creature if he's not SnT'ing Omniscience but Griselbrand/Emrakul.

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Can you at least list what your intuition pile does to end the game on the spot?

Also if you SNT an aura you can't target a permanent that your opponent just SNT'd. It has to already be on the battlefield beforehand.

anyone keep playing with BUG list? what's the best version?

Cya