The Long Forgotten Light at the End of the World. Top8 at NoVA Legacy Draft.

So, just like to say, this means I'm totally alive again. With the next win, expect a giant finger to all of the bastards that doubted me before.

I decided to play "It's the Fear" for this tournament. Dan (nitewolf9) and I have been working on this list for awhile now, and it felt pretty solid. However, the list of choices was pretty long. Threshold, Goblins, MossNought, and Landstill were all options I was considering. I decided on "It's the Fear" in the end, because the deck is pretty solid, and shows a great deal of promise. Here's the list, with some modifications that I'm planning at the bottom in parentheses.

4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Counterspell
3 Counterbalance
1 Life from the Loam
4 Intuition
3 Pernicious Deed
2 Vedalken Shackles
2 Psychatog
1 Eternal Witness
4 Force of Will
2 Engineered Explosives

4 Polluted Delta
4 Tropical Island
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Tundra
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Academy Ruins

(Recommended maindeck changes: -1 Psychatog, + 1 Meditate, -1 Swamp, +1 Flooded Strand)

Sideboard
1 Counterbalance
3 Krosan Grip
3 Yixlid Jailer
4 Engineered Plague
4 Blue Elemental Blast

(Recommended sideboard changes: -3 Yixlid Jailer, +1 Krosan Grip, +2 Meditate ((more about this later)))

Round 1 Jon Ruscieki playing RBG Vial Goblins

Game 1: Jon gets a slow start with Fanatics. The crux of this game is this scenario; Jon has 2 Mogg Fanatics, a Goblin Lackey, and a Goblin Matron has just resolved. I have an active Shackles and a Tarmogoyf. 'Goyf is a 4/5 currently, and Jon searches up a Gempalm Incinerator. He cycles the Incinerator and in response, I activate Shackles targeting his Mogg Fanatic. He thinks for awhile, lets it go, and I promptly shoot the Lackey with the cycle trigger still on the stack. Fanatic and Lackey die, the (now 5/6) 'Goyf takes 2 points of damage, and Jon draws a card. That's going to be a lose.

Game 2: Jon gets a weird start with a bunch of Vials, but no action. I proceed to drop Plague and slow him down even more. Jon's draws are pretty awful, but he's been managing to keep me from having any action for awhile. I sit on the second Plague in order to get him to play a creature. Finally, he goes for it and I steal it with Shackles. I ride that guy for awhile until Jon goes for his alpha strike. He drops double Warchief, Piledriver, Wort. I Swords both of his Warchiefs and proceed to steal Wort on my turn. With that, the game proceeds downhill (at a very slow pace) until I finally kill him.

Round 2: Kenny Mayer playing Aggro Loam

Game 1: Kenny draws 3 Wastelands. He uses them many more times than that.

Game 2: In Kenny's top 15 cards, are 4 Wastelands. He uses them many more times than that.

7 Wastelands in two games will seal the deal. He ended up Wastelanding me about 16 times total. Regardless of how it looks, the manabase is surprisingly stable.

Round 3: Zach Tartell playing Enchantress

Game 1: Zach mulligans to 5. I keep a decent opener with Intuition, Explosives, land, and a Brainstorm. Zach proceeds to draw enough Enchantress effects to keep me from blowing them away (I used Intuition to search up triple Deed which was a mistake) and lands a (maindecked!) Choke on me when I was tapped low.

Game 2: Counterbalance seals it. That card is so stupid.

Game 3: Same thing. Krosan Grips and Counterbalance are fucking stupid.

Round 4: Mark LaBelle playing RBG Vial Goblins

Game 1: I keep a questionable opening hand that will win if he opens with Vial, but loses to Lackey. Unfortunately, I lose to his Lackey opening.

Game 2: Mark draws rather poorly, and I manage to drop Plague and 'Goyf and just go to town.

Game 3: Mark draws exceedingly poorly, and I manage to get this one off of Plague and 'Goyf.

Round 5: Nick diTizio playing Dreadstill

Game 1: It takes Nick awhile to do anything. When he finally gets things situated and drops a Standstill, I'd just played Life from the Loam. He draw-go's for awhile, while I make my land drops. Finally, when he's about to discard, I break Standstill and make him discard. On my turn, I draw-pass. On his turn, he plays Dreadnought and Stifles it. My hand is thus; Force, Intuition, Engineered Explosives, Pernicious Deed, Pernicious Deed, Swords to Plowshares. So, on my turn, I drop Explosives at 1, he Forces, I drop Deed, he Forces, I drop Deed, he Forces. That leaves him with NO cards in hand. Then, I Swords it. That basically seals it for him.

Game 2: Nick mistakenly sideboards, and his Grips aren't enough to stop my engine and Counterbalance. Additionally, his Dreadnoughts can't stick because of my Grips.

All around, this was a miserable matchup for Nick. I have entirely too many answers for his limited countermagic base, and my threats are very powerful.

Round 6 Kevin Kehoe playing Survival

We draw.

Top 8 Kenny Mayer playing Aggro Loam

Game 1: FUCK. He was literally the only player in the top 8 I didn't want to play against. That said, there was no way for me to win this game. I should have mulliganed, but unfortunately my logic failed me. Just to clarify, here's my line of thinking. I opened a hand with four or five land, Counterspell, and other irrelevant cards (one of which was a Shackles). I think to myself, that his primary (and best) plan is to manascrew me. Thus, with a heavy land plan, after surviving his initial assault, I'll still have some left. Additionally, one of them was a fetchland, which means that I could get an Island that would be waste-proof. Poor logic here. Counterbalance (in this deck) will trump EVERYTHING. Mulliganing for Counterbalance was a significantly better plan than trying to passively let him accomplish his game plan. Anyway, I don't mulligan and lose.

Game 2: This can all be summed up in one series of plays. After dealing with his 'Goyfs, I drop a Counterbalance. Looking at the top 3 I see a Swords (that I can't cast), a Deed, and an irrelevant card (possibly a Counterspell, but I DO know that it did NOT cost 3 mana). Now, I had been pretty observant before this, and noticed that he'd been sitting on two cards previous to this. After blowing away his two 'Goyfs, he passed the turn. His board is Diamond, Wasteland, Taiga. That's enough mana to cast everything except for Seismic Assault. Thus, the likelihood is high that those cards are Krosan Grips (which I had seen before in the rounds). Unfortunately, I don't time it correctly, and logic myself into the corner that I should draw the Swords instead of setting up the Deed. This is a judgement call. It was made on a slightly flawed premise, but I DO know that it could have gone either way. Had Kenny decided to do it on the end of my draw step (which is when I like to do it), I'd have walked him right into it. However, he did it immediately on my end step and I logic'd myself into a stupid corner. I then lose the game after furiously Top'ing into 7 lands after 3 shuffle effects. Frown.

So, I lose to Kenny... AGAIN. Don't get me wrong, he's a great guy, but that's a bit frustrating.

Thoughts on the deck.
Very powerful. Very synergistic. Capable of adaptability. Psychatog blows donkey dick though. The new list cuts him down to a one-of in favor of adding a singleton Meditate. The reasoning behind this is simple. Landstill can out card advantage you. Standstill and Fact or Fiction are rather large hurdles. With Meditate (and it's potential re-usability with Witness/Stronghold) you can out card advantage THEM.

Also, 8 fetches. That's remarkably important. Besides smoothing a four color manabase, fetchlands are what makes Loam as good as it is in this deck. Also, the fact that Intuitioning for Loam/Ruins/Stronghold is ridiculous. I would like to note that I NEVER cast Psychatog ALL DAY. The ONLY time he was relevant was when he was a three casting cost spell on top of my library. I never pitched him to Force either.

I've also decided that playing grave-hate may not be the best plan. Ichorid and the like are highly underplayed and are rather inconsequential blips on the radar. I feel like Jailer actually encouraged worse play against Aggro Loam than if I had had a less relevant card (like Meditate). I can't tell for certain that it would have made a difference (as he swept me 2-0 in the rounds and Top8), but I feel like Meditate is going to be a better call as Landstill is a difficult matchup that sees more play than graveyard based decks. Obviously, this is only opinion. However, with there being only two Ichorid decks, 1 Cephalid breakfast, and 2/3 Aggro Loam decks there, I didn't really feel like it represented as much. Especially because Meditate is more versatile than grave hate. I could be wrong, and I will definitely analyze it, but that's my current interpretation of the metagame.


The deck is named (tentatively so far) "It's the Fear" for two reasons.

1) It's a very badass song from Within Temptation.

2) Counterbalance puts the fucking FEAR OF GOD into your opponents. ESPECIALLY when you have cards that cost 3 mana in your deck.

THAT'S the reason behind the name. Also, Nightmare stole the idea for Meditate from me. Just want to clarify that. Mine. Not his. Idea stealing jerk. :)

Props
Kenny, for not playing Doran
Dan, for being way more right than me
Zuhair for running a spectacular tournament
Akki, for judging a spectacular tournament
Anwar, for showing up in Middle Eastern robes
Me, for doing well

Slops
Me, for taking so goddamn long to win something
Dan, for not getting there
Dan, for not convincing me that he was way more right than I thought he was
Zuhair for NOT showing up in Middle Eastern robes
Kenny, for beating me TWICE
Calosso, on principle
Dave Price, also on principle
Copenhaver for being a fucking retard that proves that euthanasia should not only be legal, but encouraged (I fucking hate this kid)

All in all, it was a great time. I always enjoy seeing the New Yorkers (where were you Nightmare?) and the other people as well. Good times were had by most, and Cody's a fucking lightweight. Drunk on 8 oz. of Kahlua? Are you serious? Please tell me you're not serious. God, what a 'tard.

Still though, good times. Even Cody. But not Copenhaver. Fuck that kid.

Also, totally still alive. Just you wait for the next tournament that I go to. That should be a good time. :)

P.S. I get it. "Bring back Solidarity!" "Why aren't you playing Solidarity?" "Where's Solidarity?". Shut the fuck up. That was mildly humorous the FIRST time. After the 50th or so time, it gets stupid. Fuck off. I'll play the deck when I'm damn well ready. Not before. Stop trying to be clever. You're not.

Congrats on the finish!!!

Also, have you tested high tide?

Yea man, sorry about those games. I drew extremely well against you (I think I had Mox turn 1 all four of our games, and always had Wastelands early on). I really do like your deck though, as Intuition seems very powerful with cards like Academy Ruins and Stronghold available, and of course the Top/Balance combo is always saucy.

-Kenny Mayer

So this is the Chase Rare Control port we were waiting for.

DAVE GEARHART! Nice job figuring out how to win at legacy again. I'll have to try this deck out some time in the very near future.

The Fear is also the hiccups you get when you're drunk.

Nice deck. I still hate Counterbalance and Deed in the same deck, but hey, it looks like it worked ok here.

Also, I needed a weekend off from travel/Magic. Sorry to dissapoint.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by legacyplayer0

DAVE GEARHART! Nice job figuring out how to win at legacy again. I'll have to try this deck out some time in the very near future.

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PHIL STOLZE! Why didn't you come down? Also, I definitely recommend the deck. It's pretty solid.

@Nightmare: You know, fair enough. I can understand that. Also, hiccups are gay.

Aww, thanks for the kind words Gearhart, good to know youll be playing Solidarity again someday, hopefully soon! :wink:

Nice work and good finish, I'm glad we were able to come up with something that ran psychatog and could do well, even though I think between the two of us in 3 tournaments he was cast once. That's a shame, he is so freaking cool.
At least intuition is kind of like gifts...if you squint really hard.

And yeah, I need to draw better against control decks apparently :frown: Be mad at Anwar as well, he failed to avenge me against Dave price. Although to be fair, Dave Price was avenging himself on me...so I guess Anwar needs to do some avenging in the near future.

Wasteland is a bitch in multiples I guess...but more playing of counterbalance against aggro loam in the future. You are on notice.

I'll keep this brief as I don't exactly play control as an archtype very well, however, Congrats and very interesting deck. I'm glad someone played even 1 Tog in this format as he is one of my favorite creatures, even if he sucks ass in this environment.

Also, If I could award lesbian points or pinders to people, Gearheart would definitely be awarded a bunch for excellent use of both a WT song title, and lyrics from "The Islander."

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CorruptedAngel

I'll keep this brief as I don't exactly play control as an archtype very well, however, Congrats and very interesting deck. I'm glad someone played even 1 Tog in this format as he is one of my favorite creatures, even if he sucks ass in this environment.

Also, If I could award lesbian points or pinders to people, Gearheart would definitely be awarded a bunch for excellent use of both a WT song title, and lyrics from "The Islander."

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HUZZAH! VICTORY! Man, <3 Nightwish and Within Temptation.

@Nitewolf9: You know, you're probably right about the Counterbalance thing. Although, I may have come to that conclusion as well. :). Also, less need for vengeance and instead win. I think that's a better plan. :).

Congrats on the Finish David.

+1 counterbalance, -1 other bad card. I hear this is a good plan. Also, -56 bad cards, +56 gagomy cards. Only add 56 though since goyfs are already in the deck. lol.

Grats on the finish though, glad you had a good time.

Oh, damn! How could I have forgotten. GAGOOOOMEEEEE!

Incidentally, the second Counterbalance is usually a dead draw. Three is a good number.

Congrats on the finish, Dave.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Deep6er

Incidentally, the second Counterbalance is usually a dead draw. .

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Not with the soon to be one of psychotog. I call this, tech.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Deep6er

Game 1: FUCK. He was literally the only player in the top 8 I didn't want to play against.

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:/

I think I would've taken you. MD Choke + Lots of MD dead cards for you + Lots of cards that Ground Seal shuts off = Seems good.

Being alive is scrumptuous.

Dave, you know you already have my undivided (except for Zach) love, so why did you decide to play Psychatog in Legacy? I promise I didn't doubt your awesomeness!

PS - I would have gladly sent you the Cookie Monster himself if you had asked :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SpatulaOfTheAges

:/

I think I would've taken you. MD Choke + Lots of MD dead cards for you + Lots of cards that Ground Seal shuts off = Seems good.

Being alive is scrumptuous.

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I think you're underestimating the value of Counterbalance (with cards that cost 3). Plus, Krosan Grip is way more relevant than Yixlid Jailer. Also, a fair number of sweepers tends to help in dealing with Ground seal (which only shuts off 4 cards).

The real point is that he'd already beaten me. I didn't want to walk into that kind of disheartening beating again.

@Ebinsugewa: If I had gotten my way, Psychatog wouldn't even be in the deck. You need to give props to Dan (nitewolf9) for 'Tog being here. Also, I am awesome. This is just more confirmation. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Deep6er

Ground Seal totally decimates me.

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God. Dave. Stop drooling over Ground Seal for like, five minutes.

dude nice deck. and congrats on the top 8
just wodering if the MD 'tog ever helped or swung
-Kevin Kehoe

Once. When he was a three casting cost card on top of my library. Just as an interesting aside. There was in fact ANOTHER 3 casting cost card on top of my library. I just didn't want my opponent to know that I was going to draw Deed. He was NEVER relevant. Didn't pitch him to Force or anything.

@Matt: Vewy cwever Doctah Wenchur.

just more proof that goyf is truly the best creature ever

Quote:

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Originally Posted by beastman

just more proof that goyf is truly the best creature ever

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Right. Because we needed more of that, somehow.

Grats on the t8, Dave. I need to spend too much money randomly flying to a big East Coast tourney so we can randomly sit next to each other in pairings again.

Good times.

Absolutely. Then, I can tell your opponent that he's about to get "HAMMER'D"! It'd be amazing. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Deep6er

Absolutely. Then, I can tell your opponent that he's about to get "HAMMER'D"! It'd be amazing. :)

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Then you could sign my Korean Cities.

Then your mom could sign my... hm, probably should have thought more about this before I started. How about this... your mom... should sign... your FACE! Booyah! Grandmother!

Wow, that sounds awful. Man, I wish somebody would invent a delete button. Or maybe a "backspace" button. That way, when I make a retard of myself, I could go back and change it. Oh well, the river of time flows in one direction, and this time, it flows in the direction of PWNT! :(

The correct response was 'Maybe I will sign your mom's face!'. Since it's a forum of non-retards, there would be no need of adding an explanation of the methods of said signing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pinder

Right. Because we needed more of that, somehow.

Grats on the t8, Dave. I need to spend too much money randomly flying to a big East Coast tourney so we can randomly sit next to each other in pairings again.

Good times.

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Wtf, you came out? Would have totally liked to meet you. Although, if I did and wasn't impressed then don't worry about it.

They sat next to each other in Columbus.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Deep6er

Incidentally, the second Counterbalance is usually a dead draw. Three is a good number.

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If the first CB wins you the game, then who cares if the 2nd CB is a dead draw?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by xsockmonkeyx

If the first CB wins you the game, then who cares if the 2nd CB is a dead draw?

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I think adding the 4th counterbalance is probably fine. You really want to see that card in almost every matchup and having 4 makes it easier to force through opposing counter magic and discard.

By the way, I just lost the game.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nitewolf9

By the way, I just lost the game.

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FUCK!

And yeah, I suppose Columbus isn't really East Coast as much as it is Midwest. But all those guys trucking over here for the 29th really makes me want to throw caution to the wind and see if I can't get up there for some New York-style Legacy sometime (maybe that thing on the 12th of July?)

Come to think of it, you might be right about the 4th Counterbalance Sock Monkey. I'll certainly think about it and see what I should cut to put it back in.

Listen, when Star City holds another Duel for Duals (hopefully) you should totally come out here for that. My track record at those is pretty good, and it's always fun to have "The HAMMER" around when I'm doing well. :)

EDIT: Seriously, you should look into getting a job for the Mafia. With a name like James Hammer, you were fucking born to do it. Holy fuck that'd be cool. Well, up until you either died, or went to jail. Or maybe killed me. That'd be unfortunate. You know what though? Still cool. After all, my tombstone could say "LOL, HAMMER'D to Death". Under that, it would say "- Beatings". That'd be pretty cool.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Deep6er

Come to think of it, you might be right about the 4th Counterbalance Sock Monkey. I'll certainly think about it and see what I should cut to put it back in.

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Well, I kept seeing in your report "Counterbalance wins the game, due to retardedness". I would probably want as many of those in my deck as I could get anyway.

(ALso, you play deeds)

BTW: Tog can probably go, if you need a slot.

Yeah, I guess that makes sense.

Also, you're probably right about the 'Tog. He's not really been pulling his weight. Like ever.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Deep6er

Yeah, I guess that makes sense.

Also, you're probably right about the 'Tog. He's not really been pulling his weight. Like ever.

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Yeah, I'd like to hear Dan's thoughts on putting him in there.

Congrats on the deck and on the result.

In your opinion, could the deck lose the white splash and use Shriekmaw + Stronghold?

Also, if you were to include and evasive beater to go through ground stalls, what would it be? Tombstalker?

I am about to play a large tournament in Brazil and the field is predicted to be Tresholds and randomness. Is this deck a good choice?

Thanks in advance.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ebinsugewa

Yeah, I'd like to hear Dan's thoughts on putting him in there.

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Curiosity. I was trying to figure out if tog was still as good as he used to be. Turns out he really isn't. Tarmogoyf has sped up the game too much, especially versus threshold. Tog might be situationally ok but usually he is either win more, beating in when a mishra's factory would do the same thing because your opponent has 0 chance of winning, or just outclassed by tarmogoyf. He also eats your yard which is bad in this deck considering the almost deceptively huge power of its recursion engines. I was weary about the number of win conditions in the deck, but according to Dave shackles, goyf, and even the lonely witness do just fine. I think he's right. Intuition is really what makes this deck in my opinion. That and playing retardedly powerful cards (deed, counterbalance, vedalken FUCKING shackles...stupid damn shackles, god I hate that card so fucking much).

As far as ditching the white splash I wouldn't. Splashing for swords alone is more than worth it. The deck was originally Ubg but having conditional removal was a huge problem (namely because of tombstalker and mystic enforcer). There really is no replacement for STP.

Swords is too powerful. Shriekmaw costs too much to recur.

Honestly, I've never felt the need for an evasive beater. Deed + Swords means that you're opponent will have a difficult time keeping large numbers of creatures on the board. Then, you have time to finish him off with recurring Tarmogoyfs.

If the field is projected to be Threshold and randomness, I would say that "It's the Fear" is a decent choice. You can still lose to Threshold (as can every deck in this format), but with tight play, you can definitely come out ahead.

However, Ichorid is going to be pretty bad for you. Unless you board Leyline, you're going to lose to them. However, my advice here is to really think hard about how much Ichorid is going to show up. If the field IS going to be a lot of Threshold, then it's likely there will be a decent showing on Ichorid because Ichorid's first game against Threshold is amazing. Unfortunately, it could also mean that a fair bit of Landstill will show up which means that you want a board that's similar to what I'm playing now (I'll include that at the end).

You have a strong game against a fair bit of random decks. Swords, Deed, Shackles, Counters, Tarmogoyf and ways to search them up usually will make it fairly difficult for random decks.

Depending on the splash of Threshold, it could mean certain things. The white Threshold builds usually have Swords and Mystic Enforcer which are irritating, but usually the easiest to deal with. The red splash usually means Blood Moon (or possibly Thrash) which can easily be a problem. The Black Splash means Thoughtseize, which can disrupt Intuition. All of them have particular strengths. I would never say that this deck is HEAVILY favored against Threshold, but I would say that's it's mildly favored. More like a 60/40 kind of deal. That's assuming that you play well. The deck's nature (in addition to Threshold's) can easily screw you on bad plays.

The sideboard that I play now is this:
4 Engineered Plague
4 Blue Elemental Blast
4 Krosan Grip
1 Meditate
1 Eternal Witness
1 Haunting Echoes

The three one-ofs are for Landstill and other control decks. These means that the card advantage war can easily be won with multiple Meditates and recurring Meditates. It also means that an Intuition pile of Witness, Witness, Haunting Echoes is going to be really bad for them.

I board as follows for certain decks.

Landstill:
-3 Pernicious Deed
-2 Engineered Explosives
+1 Eternal Witness
+1 Meditate
+1 Haunting Echoes
+2 Krosan Grip

Krosan Grip isn't awfully useful here. However, if I saw Crucible or Counterbalance or something like that game 1, then I would keep Explosives and board out Swords instead. The point is that Krosan Grip is one of those things that you might need.

Threshold:
-4 Swords to Plowshares
-2 Counterspell
+4 Krosan Grip
+1 Eternal Witness
+1 Meditate

With all of the creature control elements that you're playing, Swords is a little much. Especially considering that it can't hit Mongoose which is the primary concern of the deck. Like most other Counterbalance based decks, you MUST destroy Counterbalance. Thus, four Krosan Grips in addition to the Deeds and Explosives in the main. The two one-ofs are for stabilizing the game and then re-establishing control. If they're playing Blood Moon, add Blasts in as well. Which would mean taking out 3 Intuitions. You do this because that game will hinge on whether or not Blood Moon sticks. You can't really worry about anything beyond that.

Goblins:
-4 Counterbalance
-3 Counterspell
-1 Pernicious Deed
+4 Engineered Plague
+4 Blue Elemental Blast

Pretty simple. Counterbalance isn't terribly useful here since it often requires too much mana to properly account for Krosan Grip. Instead, Intuition up Shackles and give them so many targets that they can't beat it. Plus, with so much spot removal, they'll have a hard time sticking anything.

Ichorid:
-3 Counterspell
-2 Counterbalance
+4 Engineered Plague
+1 Haunting Echoes

This one is pretty bad. I won't go into much detail here. Play Plague, hope to get to Echoes. That's it. Cross your fingers. Theoretically, if you added in Leyline (which I don't think is a good idea unless you KNOW there will be a lot of Ichorid), I'd keep the Counterbalances in order to lock them out if you stick a Leyline (hopefully).

The others should be pretty obvious. Blasts for Dragon Stompy, Krosan Grip and Plague for Enchantress, and so on.

I recommend this deck because it's so versatile. There's an answer for many situations, and it gives you the ability to really make strategic long-term decisions. Outplaying your opponent is a huge plus.

However, on the downside, you could easily outplay yourself. Watch out for the Danger of Cool Things. Make sure you keep a level head and don't let yourself get frazzled. It's easy to fuck shit up and then lose a game you had locked.