Re: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Cire_dk
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:
It does get confusing pretty quickly, I'll grant. That said, it's fairly easy to keep track of the people that only play one version....it's mostly those of us who have access to multiple versions that cause this problem. I always try to define which version I'm talking about, but I'm not sure I always do the best job of that.
Grave Titan is perfectly fine if you're not running Moat. If you are, then you probably don't want him.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Claymore
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.
What's your threat base look like? I used to have the same problem you had where I'd run out of steam after Deeding away their everything, and just be unable to close the game. Now, though, I've got Koku+Sun Titan, Sigarda, a pair of Baneslayers, Thragtusk, and a pair of Elspeths...sometimes I feel like I clog on big drops a little, but I don't have any kind of inability to close the game.
One of the reasons I've been playing the Red version more than the White version lately is because the Red is better vs Maverick, while the White is better vs RUG....and in my general meta, Maverick is played a lot more than RUG is. For some reason, the White version has a lot of trouble with Maverick, which neither of the other splashes do. I haven't been able to figure out why yet, and lord knows I've been trying. While I like Kokusho's killing power, I might test Yosei in that slot instead, because he seems better vs Maverick. If they have the stupid Ranger out they can still play magic under a Yosei-lock, I guess, but it'll still hurt them pretty badly. I don't really know, honestly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
HoneyT
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.
HoneyT nailed it on all accounts. As long as you don't play like a chump, lands is easily winnable...especially with Kokusho. If you don't have Kokusho, try to build up lethal on board, then Vindicate the Chasm for an alpha strike. Deed is actually amazing here, because you can blow up all their lock pieces. Fetters on Ruins will buy you a turn, but good lands players will just Wasteland their own Ruins and then recur it.
Rector = 2 Phyrexian Towers. This gives you another outlet for Rector, but it also increases the number of "nut" openers you'll see (t1 Explorer t2 Tower -> 5 mana), which is important because Rector costs 4.
Jarad may well be standard or modern playable, but I don't see it in legacy, and it won't be in this deck. He's too specific and he doesn't do enough. If you're throwing Kokusho at people, just run Nightmare instead. It's much better.
Quote:
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.
/Barn. I've got Unearth in the Gifts build I've been messing around with, and it's pretty nutty.
/\\//\\//\
So I got new sleeves that don't feel cheap and actually show off my foils nicely, which led me to want to play the Rector version on Saturday to show off. My tournament went as follows:
R1, I'm paired with my friend that is playing my Gifts version. As is our usual course of action in such circumstances, we ID and do lunch.
0-0-1.
We scout the room a bit after eating, and see a pretty favorable meta....more so for Gifts than Rector, because there's a few combo decks in the room, but it's not that big of a deal. Rector can play vs combo.
R2, I get paired against the one Maverick player in the room. I keep a decent 7 with three lands, a Zenith, Moat, and two random cards. I figure I can Zenith out Explorer to ramp / stall, then drop Moat and as long as he doesn't have his 1-of Elspeth, I'm fine. Naturally he has his Elspeth, and I summarily die.
Game two I mull to 5. Two lands, Zenith, and two randoms. I Zenith out Explorer, fail to draw a third land, and he makes a Mom + KotR. He proceeds to pro-green his dude and swing for the trees while I fail to find a 3rd land the rest of the game. Awesome.
0-1-1.
R3 god rewards my diligence with Merfolk. I Deed away his everything, then drop Moat and kill him with Baneslayer. Game two is almost exactly the same, except with more Carpet of Flowers. Note that this is the only game that I drew Eladrami's Call, which proceeded to fetch the Baneslayer I won the game with. Never even saw it the rest of the day.
1-1-1.
R4, dredge. He mulls to oblivion game one as only dredge can do, gets shitty dredges when he finally keeps (I think he kept his 4), and I quickly destroy him with Sigarda and Baneslayer. Game two is a lot closer...he mulls again, but then opens up a pretty nutty opening sequence with LED, Ceph Coliseum, and Faithless Looting. He dumps something like 2/3 of his deck into his graveyard turn two, but can't kill me. I sac an Explorer, poofing all of his bridges, and drop a Deed. He brings back his two Ichorids, makes some Narcos via dredge, swings, and DRs a Grave-Troll. Now, I misplay my turn horrifically, and am put into the position where I need to jedi-mind-trick my way to victory as a result. I crack Deed for 5 on his turn after be brings back his Ichorids. He doesn't realize he can use his City of Brass to regenerate the Grave-Troll. I fail to find an Extirpate with my Top, drop another Deed, and pass. He brings Ichorids back again, swings, drops me to 4, and DRs another Grave Troll. I Deed away his troll, finally hit an Extirpate, nuke his Ichorids, and he has no way to win the game with like two cards left in his library. I still like my chances if the game had gone to three, but I'm perfectly fine with him not knowing that he could regenerate his Trolls out of Deed.
2-1-1.
R5, god rewards my renewed confidence with RUG. Game one I deed away double Delver, then eventually make a Sun Titan and push his face in. Game two is more of the same, but with double Explorer into Thragtusk.
3-1-1.
Top 8: ANT. Game one he has a disruption heavy hand, and we both end up playing draw-go for a few turns as a result. Eventually I hit a therapy/Explorer, make a Baneslayer, drain him for five, then make a Tusk, representing lethal on board. He rips Ad Nauseum off the top like a champion, with no cards in hand. Ad Nauseums down to 2, and easily kills me from there.
Game two I open a hand of like land, land, Extirpate, Mindcensor, Carpet of Flowers, Curse of Exhaustion, which I snapkeep. I drop the Carpet, he Duresses me, taking the Extirpate. I drop Mindcensor, strip-mining one of his fetches. He then Therapies for Curse of Exhaustion. At some point an Explorer goes off, which naturally one of his two basics in deck was in the top four. I Witness back Extirpate, nuking his Cabal Rituals, and he scoops.
Game three I mull to 6. It's like Memoricide, Explorer, and four lands. I keep like an idiot. He opens with Therapy naming Therapy. I fail to be good at magic (aka draw therapy). I make a land and an Explorer, then ship it back. Then goes ritual, ritual, Ad Nauseum, draws like 30 cards, and easily storms me out. The really irritating thing is that the literal only thing I could have even done was rip Therapy off the top, and I would have had to blind hit on top of it (to be fair, I probably would have named Dark Ritual, but still). I probably should have mulled to 5, as well.
Thoughts at this point -- Rector still has an unreasonable amount of trouble with Maverick. I'm legitimately thinking that the problem is just that the deck doesn't have a backup ramp engine vs nonblue. Its curve is a little on the clunky side, which is one reason I love playing against blue decks with Rector....Carpet of Flowers fixes any mana issues. Maverick is almost like RUG without islands, so not having Carpet can really hurt when they're on the mana denial plan. The Red version has Wood Elves, and the Blue version has Coiling Oracle. Carpet of Flowers is good and all, but it's only effective vs islands, which Maverick doesn't run. I dunno -- it's just a theory at this point, but I suspect it's what's going on. The annoying thing is that I don't know what I would even put in. I think that ideally I'd like a Farhaven Elf that costs two mana, but that doesn't exist to my knowledge.
Mindcensor probably isn't good enough. It has more synergy with the deck that I at first gave it credit for, but after three/four events with the birds in my board, I haven't been sufficiently impressed by them.
Curse of Exhaustion is filler until I get a Nether Void. Preliminary testing has shown Void to be the desired Rector target to end all Rector targets vs stack-based combo. Dovescape is amusing, but it requires you to keep your Deeds in vs stack-based combo, which seems poor. It also means you have to Rector in a Deed when their birds get out of control, and Dovescape is not castable off the turn 2 Explorer-Tower nut draw, whereas Void is (with Therapy backup, even). Also, triple white.
I was keeping an especially close eye on the singleton Swords to Plowshares during this event, and about all it did for me was be in my opening hand g2 vs RUG...he led with Delver, I swordsed it, and we moved on with our lives. Not sure how the game would have gone without that Swords. I had it once against Merfolk, but he had Kira, so it didn't matter. I like the mise Swords a great deal, but I think that if I can figure out the desired backup ramp engine, the Swords will get cut for it, with the floater spot making a second copy of whatever I choose. Eladrami's Call wasn't atrocious by any stretch, but I think that the deck needs a backup engine more than it needs more tutors.
I feel that Rector has the potential to be one of the most (if not -the- most) solid versions, but its poor Maverick matchup is standing in its way. Until I get that fixed, I wouldn't recommend running it if your meta has a lot of Maverick floating around. The Valakut Red version seems the most stable at this juncture, of my lists anyway. If you've got a lot of RUG and Stoneblade around, then by all means Rector is what you want...but not Maverick.
Anywho, those are my thoughts for the moment. I'm going to spend some quality time with Gatherer this afternoon and see what I can dig up.
Re: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)
If you want a backup engine, Collective Voyage or Cultivate seem decent. Collective Voyage only searches up basics just like Explorer.
Re: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)
Collective Voyage...interesting. I wish it was "each player pays X/Y and then searches for how many lands they paid for", otherwise it seems like an odd New Frontiers that gets around Gaddock Teeg...and its much harder to Daze or Pierce, since you don't have to go all in on your mana. I may try that out in my GB Ritual Fit, but I imagine it doesn't really help Rector as a back up engine because it needs mana on the field already, and an opponent likely won't help you get lands out.
In almost all of my Maverick loses, I lost simply to Scavenging Ooze. The deck can be built to be too dependent on the graveyard, and Ooze will hurt it. Other graveyard hate can be dealt with, but an Ooze with Mom backup has the unique blend of a clock as well as the hate engine. The tournament had like 4 Mavericks show up, so it wasn't going to go well for me, haha.
Quote:
What's your threat base look like? I used to have the same problem you had where I'd run out of steam after Deeding away their everything, and just be unable to close the game. Now, though, I've got Koku+Sun Titan, Sigarda, a pair of Baneslayers, Thragtusk, and a pair of Elspeths...sometimes I feel like I clog on big drops a little, but I don't have any kind of inability to close the game.
My threats have gotten much lighter since I've been tuning the deck to be more control-oriented (discard and removal) since my LGS is a Show and Tell and burn meta. I roll with Koku, Sun Titan, Sigarda, Thragtusk, Finks, and then the usual weenies with 4 GSZ.
As far as the backup engine, x2 Sakura-Tribe Elder or Viridian Emissary fits in the 2cc slot. Viridian goes along with the sac outlets that Rector is built around but is as vulnerable to Exile effects as Explorer.
Re: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)
Wait a second. Your meta is Sneak and Burn based, and you AREN'T running Baneslayer? Pro demons means pro-Griselbrand, and obviously lolburn is obvious.
Collective Voyage is actually better than I thought it was at first, but I still don't think it's good enough. I guess if you draw it mid-late you just get all the rest of your basics out and don't have to worry about drawing them later...but what benefit are you really going to get out of it? You can't ramp at all t1, and you can get one land on turn two. Note that I'm assuming your opponent isn't going to chip in. But yeah -- to reach the same level of an Explorer trigger you'd have to sink 3 mana into it -- at which point it'd be better to just run Cultivate (which also seems bad).
From Gatherer trolling, it looks like Sakura-tribe and Emissary are the choices. I'll probably try one copy of each for the moment to see which one I like better. They each have different strengths....STE can't be sacced to Therapy if you want ramp, which is a problem, but it also doesn't require a sac outlet to function like Emissary. Blegh.
Ooze can be a serious problem, but I've never straight up lost games just to it alone. Since you're not running with Moat, you might want to consider taking Qweerios's advice and bumping up to 4 Deeds. That'll help with that problem. It seems like Maverick is basically just sweep, sweep, and more sweep. Nothing else seems to work vs them, at least from the Rector perspective. =/
Re: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)
Haha, well Baneslayer isn't exactly pro-Annihilator. My build has a good match up against Burn due to Finks and previously mainboarded Ooze, but now also has Thragtusk. I did some testing against SnT with Baneslayer before but wasn't thrilled, but I'll test it again.
Re: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Claymore
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.
I ended up keeping in all three 6-drops over the weekend. The pain of doing so was not lost on me as I sat there looking at a hand w/ Kokusho, STitan, and GTitan. Of course the real problem was not that I couldn't cast them, but that I knew my opponent had a Plowshares in hand. I waited and waited for either a PTower or a Cabal Therapy that never did arrive. In hindsight I probably should have baited out the Plowshares w/ the STitan to clear the way for GTitan.
That was the fair matchup (mono-white Stoneblade). I also ran into mono-blue Cephalid Breakfast and Reanimator. Didn't see a single Deed (I run 3) or Rector (2 of) in all my games. Was pretty bad all around.
Re: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)
If you draw all three fatties all you need to do is keep one on the field for a few turns. You don't need them all!
Re: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)
@Arianrhod,
If you want GBW Nic Fit to work against Maverick a little more, try the rock version and drop Rector altogether. The whole rector package coupled with 2 Elspeth and your threat package (5+ 5-6drops?) looks incredibly heavy. I would be led to believe that recurring removal with a single Sigarda would be enough to seal most games considering I've been sealing mine primarily with Thrun, Witness, Ooze, and Thragtusk (Grave never comes out for me).
If you do choose to stick with Rector (ofc you will...), I think that you really don't need to go above 5 cmc to ride your deck to victory. Baneslayer Angel, Bloodgift Demon, Sigarda, Host of Herons, and Abyssal Persecutor is all the fat and utility you need to ride a Moat to victory. Kokusho and Nightmare are perfect examples of win-more cards in a deck packed with 4-6 cmc bombs.
Re: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)
I like bloodgift cause even if you get locked out of combat, he's still a 20 turn clock
u mad?
:cool:
Re: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)
Haha, of course not -- you know me too well I think, Qweerios. I'm actually in agreement with you, though. It might be that running without Sun Titan in a white splash will just be too heretical...I dunno. But I have been boarding out the 6-drops + Empath for a while now to see how it plays, and it's not that bad. I might keep Kokusho in, and trim out Titan and Empath...or try to switch him with Yosei and see what happens. I'm not sure yet -- but I am thinking at this point that the deck is just too top-heavy to function properly against non-blue opponents. I've been crutching on Carpet for too long. Regardless of where I go with it at the moment, Rector needs a good rebuild.
While Rector's in the garage, I'll be running Scapewish.
@Slik -- you definitely should have just ran one of them out there, let it eat the Swords, and then dropped the next one.
Re: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)
I have been reading this thread periodically due to the fact I have been helping my friend test/tune his build and a card that we have found that really shines in the maverick matchup is birthing pod. Having a way to get chain up to rector and start buying back your removal with suntitan/eternal witness has been amazing against them. I understand that most lists run pridemage and ooze but if you use your stp's wisely it isnt that bad.
Re: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)
@Arianrhod
I don't think the Maverick matchup is that unfavorable. Tough and grindy to be sure, but I don't think it would take more than a few cards to turn the tides. Humility and the 4th Deed would go a long way. Scavenging Ooze is a problem for Rector so maybe a couple extra pieces of spot removal would help. I think some minor tweaks should be good to go.
On another note, I played a small tournament at the LGS tonight with my G/B list. Just 4 rounds of swiss.
2-0 against Maverick
2-0 against RUG Delver
2-0 against U/B Tezzeret Control
One of three 3-0's going into the last round
1-2 against R/B Budget Reanimator
G1 I mull to 5 and cast turn 1 Explorer. He casts turn one Dark Ritual, Entomb, Exhume Griselbrand. He draws cards, plays some Lotus Petals and Entombs and Reanimates an Iona and names green (wtf?). I obviously don't draw and answer and still lose.
G2 I Duress away his reanimation spell, cast a Scavenging Ooze, keep up green and he has zero outs.
G3 He casts turn 1 Putrid Imp and Lotus Petal. I Duress and see Griselbrand, another fatty, Animate Dead, Dark Ritual and a land. I take the Animate Dead. He discards his Griselbrand during his upkeep (wtf?) and draws. He casts the freshly drawn reanimate and I lose to the same creatures from game one. Iona named green again? I lose to 16 power of flying creatures =/ oh well. Them's the beats I suppose.
Anyway, still get second on tie breaks cuz I had the pair-down. The reanimator player gets fifth. Justice!
Re: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)
I don't think that the way to combat Maverick is with spot removal. That puts us to the same playing field as every other deck in the format, and Maverick already has Mom to deal with that problem.
The awkward thing about boarding in Humility in the Maverick matchup is that they run Jitte (and other equipment), Elspeth, and just piles of 1/1s. Equally awkwardly, you can't Rector out Curse or Moat to combokill them, because Rector gets shut off by Humility!
I suppose the 4th Deed isn't a horrible idea. I just resist it because of Moat...in most matchups, Moat serves the same purpose that the 4th Deed does. It's just when they have those awkward draws where they happen to have their Elspeth readily at hand, or Scryb + exalted and equipment, or Mindcensor. And for some reason they're just more effective in general than something like Merfolk is....Merfolk still dies to Moat, and they have Coralhelm and Phantasmal Image to work with. For some reason, though, Maverick seems to be the exception. It's pretty frustrating.
I don't think that a MAJOR change is necessary, but I can see switching some cards around. I think that I'm going to take the Rector build offline aside from local events until Ravnica hits, though. RtR will probably have something we want, and I'd rather be ready to incorporate it than be locked into a fresh build that hasn't even been tested yet. I think that Qweerios is right, and that the Rector build probably doesn't want 6-drops. It can lean on Sigarda especially (but Baneslayer too) a lot harder than the rock versions can. I think that what the deck needs is 5-drop (or cheaper) flyers that interact favorably with Nightmare, and/or a green tutor for creatures with flying (or a Fierce Empath for 5-drops, lol). I've considered sticking in a random Rune-Scarred Demon without Empath, and maybe putting in a Fauna Shaman or something, but I don't feel like the Rector build has the creature density to take advantage of Fauna Shaman. It only runs something like 16-18 creatures....more than most Nic Fit, but probably not enough.
Re: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)
I'm currently testing Mwonvuli Beast Tracker as a fetcher for Abyssal Persecutor. The upside is that it can also fetch Thrun, the Last Troll and Grave Titan. The latter two could ofcourse be searched via other means (GSZ and Fierce Empath). The big downside of the card is ofcourse that it doesn't net you card advantage like the Empath does. Although I've found that downside to actually be a bit of an advantage when playing with or against Liliana, and against discard heavy decks in general. It also works great with Top.
The downside of Abyssal Persecutor is mostly irrelevant when you're playing enough sac outlets (I can only remember one or two games where I really couldn't get rid of him) and then he just becomes a 6/6 body that flies and tramples over anything for just four mana. Yes, he dies to removal, but then again so do most creatures.
Re: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)
Call and Intent are both cards that are deserving of a lot more attention than they've been getting. That said, what I'm looking for specifically is a green creature that can grab Baneslayer and Rector, similar to Fierce Empath. Definitely going to be testing the only one that exists (apparently): Brutalizer Exarch. It tutors when you want it to tutor, and it nukes a noncreature permanent when you want it to do that. Having a Green Sun-able way of getting rid of Jace seems awfully good. I'm not sure how good it ACTUALLY is, note, but it's worth exploring. While working on the Rector version, I'm starting by drawing up a list of all of the roles that I want cards to fill in the deck. Exarch does check two of them off the list: GSZ tutor for non-green, and Nightmare-loopable advantage generator. I do wish that it actually put the card into your hand, though, instead of just on top.
Re: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)
Arianrhod, you got any updates on the mana base of scapewish?
I tend to have strange opening hands more often than I'd like...f.e. only lands are valakut and badlands (or worse: mountain swamp etc etc)
other than that the deck is great
@brutalizer exarch: I think it's just another clunky expensive creature and would rather play the Beast Tracker
Re: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)
I loaned my Gifts Fit deck to a friend for tonight's event, so I have no results to post. He did go undefeated with a 1-0-3 score. He timed against Goblins, Enchantress, and Miracle while I was masturbating with High Tide in front of kids playing Legacy for the first time.
Re: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)
Lol, I guess that's technically undefeated. Pretty uninspiring though =P Although it does bring to the forefront an interesting point: if you're just starting out with the deck, expect to go to time constantly. My friend who has been learning the archetype is drawing like nobody's business, and I almost never draw. I honestly think it's just learning curve related. The experience required to play this deck effectively is pretty daunting.
As for my local, I went 4-0 last night with Scapewish for some supplies and cash, as the store we were at didn't have anything I actually wanted with my credit.
@Alexeezay specifically (but also everyone interested in Scapewish in general): for what it's worth, the two games I lost all night were because I was a moron and kept amazing 7's without green mana. Naturally my deck proceeded to not find any green mana (one game I had a Top out, too =.=). So it does still have that problem a little. I haven't changed anything from my list that Top 4'd Vestal, but I am heavily considering cutting the Volrath's Stronghold for another green source. I am not sure -what- green source, but I think that just one more will make the deck that much more consistent. I think I've used Stronghold literally once since I put it in the deck, so it can likely afford to come out. At this point I'm waffling between another basic Forest or a 2nd Stomping Ground, as that increases my mountain count and gives me another green source....but I'm not sure I want a second shockland, because there are games where that's just as irritating at being color screwed. That said, I DO think that the deck could handle the 2nd Shock, by virtue of not running fetches. Normal legacy decks do 2-5 damage to themselves over the course of a game through fetchlands alone, so if we take 2 off of a Shockland, it isn't the end of the world. It's as though we were playing fetches, I guess.
But yeah....other than that minor change, I'm really, really happy with how Scapewish is coming along. There's obviously a ton of flex room in the board for meta concerns, but I feel it's pretty solid as is.
As for Brutalizer....yeah, I would RATHER play Beast-Tracker too....if Beast-tracker actually got useful creatures =/ That thing is the biggest disappointment for me out of all of the recent sets....the concept is exactly what we want, but it's just too restrictive. Reach? I mean, seriously? I guess it tutors up our Arachnus Spinner...? Such a waste...
Re: [Deck] Nic Fit (GBW Explorer Zenith Control)
Quote:
He timed against Goblins, Enchantress, and Miracle while I was masturbating with High Tide in front of kids playing Legacy for the first time.
That reminds me of at the last event I went to, the TO was playing and assumedly had just gotten his wife back into Legacy. They got matched against each other and she was playing Affinity and he was playing Goblins, so naturally he sided in Pulverize for game 2, lol.
--
My only problem with running the Brutalizer is that it does continuously horrendous things to the mana curve. A GSZ for Beast Tracker or Empath at least costs 4, making a decent early play in preparation for a Titan later, whereas Exarch requires you already have considerable mana out, and if drawn does nothing for you until 6 mana.
If Empath wasn't being run, I would rather run a card advantage or utility creature in that slot, rolling around 2-3cc. Quick search doesn't bring up anything obvious. There's always Relentless :P
