4 Card Blind: The Silkster Seasons

[Asthereal]

[B]As general commentary, I think not having a banlist is working out fine for this season. If people are up for it, I'd do another 9-round season of the same thing with a banlist of maybe 10-20 cards.

It's a fun season so far for sure. And despite the power level dropping, we still see some powerful cards this deep in. Perhaps we can go on for longer than 9 rounds.

PS. Just sent in something real quick. Probably terrible but I was away for several days.

[silkster]

Round 7: Black Lotus, Black Lotus, Persecute, Kitesail Freebooter

GoblinSmashmaster: Mountain, Goblin Lackey, Pyrokinesis, Goblin Settler, comment: Goblin smash!
FTW: Razortide Bridge, Cavern of Souls, Thassa's Oracle, Meddling Mage, comment: Not subtle this time
dte: Thassa's Oracle, Thassa's Oracle, Saprazzan Skerry, Saprazzan Skerry, comment:
Silkster: Mistvault Bridge, Cavern of Souls, Thassa's Oracle, Strip Mine, comment: feeling low on innovation
Wrath of Pie: Thassa's Oracle, Thassa's Oracle, Cavern of Souls, Razortide Bridge, comment: Chronomaton is too good
Asthereal: Chancellor of the Annex, Mental Misstep, Wasteland, Dryad Arbor, comment: Hasty entry after a festival :)
Reeplcheep: Duress, Swamp, Burglar Rat, Strip Mine, comment: Last minute

PS: weigh in if you would like to ban Oracle, Lab Man, and Jace WoM for the last two rounds.

[silkster]

It's a fun season so far for sure. And despite the power level dropping, we still see some powerful cards this deep in. Perhaps we can go on for longer than 9 rounds.

I'm glad you're enjoying it, even if you don't have much time to go deep! I do think we're now swirling around the Oracle-LabMan circle, though there has definitely been some incredible innovation around it.

My plan would be to finish this after 9 rounds, then either switch it up with an FTW season, or jump into Ceiling Season Redux: Now With a Banlist (or possibly banathon, though I think I prefer a static banlist).

Or we might want to ban Oracle, LabMan, Jace, WoM for the last two rounds.

GoblinSmashmaster: Mountain, Goblin Lackey, Pyrokinesis, Goblin Settler, comment: Goblin smash!
WW

FTW: Razortide Bridge, Cavern of Souls, Thassa's Oracle, Meddling Mage, comment: Not subtle this time
WL

dte: Thassa's Oracle, Thassa's Oracle, Saprazzan Skerry, Saprazzan Skerry, comment:
WL

Silkster: Mistvault Bridge, Cavern of Souls, Thassa's Oracle, Strip Mine, comment: feeling low on innovation
Turn 2 Oracle seemed to be the way to go.

Wrath of Pie: Thassa's Oracle, Thassa's Oracle, Cavern of Souls, Razortide Bridge, comment: Chronomaton is too good
WL

Asthereal: Chancellor of the Annex, Mental Misstep, Wasteland, Dryad Arbor, comment: Hasty entry after a festival :)
WW - My first deck was CotA + Strip Mine. It seemed so ridiculously good. Then I realized that it lost to good old indestructible land + cavern.

Reeplcheep: Duress, Swamp, Burglar Rat, Strip Mine, comment: Last minute
WW

Even in hindsight I don't think I could have done much better. There are 1-mana spells that answer the indestructible lands, but then your land is vulnerable to Strip Mine. There are answers to Oracle's trigger, but they don't do well against the 1/3 that's left behind.

[Asthereal]

I'm glad you're enjoying it, even if you don't have much time to go deep! I do think we're now swirling around the Oracle-NotOracle circle, though there has definitely been some incredible innovation around it.

My plan would be to finish this after 9 rounds, then either switch it up with an FTW season, or jump into Ceiling Season Redux: Now With a Banlist (or possibly banathon, though I think I prefer a static banlist).

Whelp, yup we need to get rid of that bloody Thassa's Oracle for sure. This is getting stupid.
I didn't have time to figure out how to play it and sent something that would surely be legal, and that means I lose to all Oracles.

[Wrath of Pie]

Turns out the format is really about figuring out how to legally play Thassa's Oracle or Laboratory Maniac, with the occasional Strip Mine appearance.

[FTW]

FTW: Razortide Bridge, Cavern of Souls, Thassa's Oracle, Meddling Mage, comment: Not subtle this time

It was hard to find a deck that beats 2-mana creature ETB trigger that doesn't also beat Kitesail Freebooter. Chancellor+Strip Mine was the biggest contender, but this beats that. Didn't want to play it but couldn't come up with anything that beat it, or even a relevant 4th card to win on the draw. Should have played Chancellor to WW vs dte's version.

GoblinSmashmaster: Mountain, Goblin Lackey, Pyrokinesis, Goblin Settler
T2 Thassa WW 6-0

dte: Thassa's Oracle, Thassa's Oracle, Saprazzan Skerry, Saprazzan Skerry, comment:
OTP I play T2 Meddling Mage naming Thassa, then beat down with Grizzly Bears.
OTD you Thassa me. WL 3-3

Silkster: Mistvault Bridge, Cavern of Souls, Thassa's Oracle, Strip Mine
OTP I play T2 Meddling Mage naming Thassa, then beat down with Grizzly Bears.
OTD you Thassa me. WL 3-3

Wrath of Pie: Thassa's Oracle, Thassa's Oracle, Cavern of Souls, Razortide Bridge, comment: Chronomaton is too good
OTP I play T2 Meddling Mage naming Thassa, then beat down with Grizzly Bears.
OTD you Thassa me. WL 3-3

Asthereal: Chancellor of the Annex, Mental Misstep, Wasteland, Dryad Arbor, comment: Hasty entry after a festival :)
T2 Thassa WW 6-0

Reeplcheep: Duress, Swamp, Burglar Rat, Strip Mine, comment: Last minute
Discard Meddling Mage to the rat, T2 Thassa WW 6-0

27 points (9 wins, 3 loss)

@GSM: I'm surprised you didn't play City of Traitors, Mox Ruby, Blood Moon, RR goblin. That beats all our Thassas but still loses to the Ceiling deck.

[dte]

Even in hindsight I don't think I could have done much better. There are 1-mana spells that answer the indestructible lands, but then your land is vulnerable to Strip Mine. There are answers to Oracle's trigger, but they don't do well against the 1/3 that's left behind.

In indsight, FoV, rhinos, shambler, indestructible green land would have done the full sweep.

Otherwise I have the exact same scores as Silkster despite very different strategies except the T2 oracle. So nothing else mattered, was a bit 2CB. So totally fine with banning oracle, labman and black lotus, or to chose plains plains squire squire as next ceiling deck. I have not seen the power level drop at all in any round.

[FTW]

In indsight, FoV, rhinos, shambler, indestructible green land would have done the full sweep.

Force of Vigor can't destroy indestructible artifact lands. That deck also beats the ceiling deck on the play.

[dte]

Force of Vigor can't destroy indestructible artifact lands. That deck also beats the ceiling deck on the play.

Damn, I somehow thought it exiled things :/
But it doesn't beat the ceiling deck OTP, or I don't see how?

[FTW]

Damn, I somehow thought it exiled things :/
But it doesn't beat the ceiling deck OTP, or I don't see how?

T1 suspend Rhinos, go.
Races 1/2 flyer.
Edit: Unless you mean green tapped land? Not clear from description

[dte]

T1 suspend Rhinos, go.
Races 1/2 flyer.
Edit: Unless you mean green tapped land? Not clear from description

Yes I did. Are there indestructible lands that produce G and come into play untapped?

[FTW]

PS: weigh in if you would like to ban Oracle, Lab Man, and Jace WoM for the last two rounds.

Sure I'm happy to have those banned too. The format's stagnant.

Re: Strip Mine. Banning doesn't make sense unless you also ban Ghost Quarter (functional equivalent) and Wasteland (close).

[Asthereal]

Sure I'm happy to have those banned too. The format's stagnant.

Re: Strip Mine. Banning doesn't make sense unless you also ban Ghost Quarter (functional equivalent) and Wasteland (close).

Same here

[Wrath of Pie]

Sure I'm happy to have those banned too. The format's stagnant.

Re: Strip Mine. Banning doesn't make sense unless you also ban Ghost Quarter (functional equivalent) and Wasteland (close).

Volatile Fault, Field of Ruin, and Demolition Field might be close enough as well, especially if we're keeping Lotus around.

[dte]

I think black lotus is more obnoxious than strip mine/ghost quarter.

[silkster]

I think black lotus is more obnoxious than strip mine/ghost quarter.

I find Black Lotus quite interesting because you can power out a turn 1 threat, but you still have to lose on the play to something, so playing Lotus heavily restricts the other cards that you can play. The number of Lotuses per round has been: 3, banned, 2, 2, 7, 2, banned. And being banned means that one of them in the previous round scored very little. I think I'll leave it for now, but would maybe do another season like this without it.

I put the scores in and hopefully they're right. We'll go with

Next ceiling deck: Duress, Swamp, Burglar Rat, Strip Mine

with newly banned: Thassa's Oracle, Laboratory Maniac, Jace, Weilder of Mysteries, Strip Mine, Ghost Quarter, Wasteland, and Volatile Fault, in addition to Duress and Burglar Rat for this round. Swamp is not banned.

I think the 2-mana cost of Field of Ruin and Demolition Field is enough that they aren't free additions to most 3-card packages, so I'll leave them in for now.

[Asthereal]

I think black lotus is more obnoxious than strip mine/ghost quarter.

It might have been if the ceiling decks weren't trying to win with 2 mana 1/1s.

[FTW]

I think black lotus is more obnoxious than strip mine/ghost quarter.

I think Lotus balances out LD and increases creativity.

Otherwise we quickly fall into 1cmc.dec:
- 1 mana LD (Sea's Claim)
- 1-mana discard
- 1 mana removal
- most efficient 1 mana threats

We've done so many seasons of that. Lotus opens up more creative high cmc strategies that didn't exist before (as long as degenerate wins like Thassa are banned).

Lotus is balanced by having to lose to the ceiling deck. You can't turn 1 things that beat the ceiling deck on the play. I played double Lotus turn 1 discard and scored 5 points. Even Lotus+Gray Ogre beats this ceiling deck, too good.

[silkster]

46ead3ae6ed632256f39b2e1c3b6d0f7acfdca6765e5c111a509e19e59cf9858

Checking now.

[silkster]

One PM was sent a little while ago to Wrath of Pie. I'll wait about 3 hours I think, while I do some other things.

While I'm here, I'll mention that next week I'll be travelling on Tuesday, so deadline will be Wednesday the 10.