4 Card Blind: The Silkster Seasons

[FTW]

Silkster: Gemstone Mine, Magus of the Vineyard, Shriekmaw, Rotten Reunion, comment: more fun than calendar
6-0, magus is too strong.

Magus is too strong for both players! It pays for Calendar, then you double calendar every turn, which wins in about 10 turns (much faster than Magus's 20 anyway).

Magus was good tech against Calendar & Rhystic Cave, something I was trying to troll with Energy Vortex that you can only pay for on upkeep.

[dte]

Magus is too strong for both players! It pays for Calendar, then you double calendar every turn, which wins in about 10 turns (much faster than Magus's 20 anyway).

Magus was good tech against Calendar & Rhystic Cave, something I was trying to troll with Energy Vortex that you can only pay for on upkeep.

True, I edited my post. Smart move Silkster!

I should really have stayed on cave/Helix :/

[tirrit]

Tirrit: Keldon Halberdier, Grove of the Burnwillows, Grove of the Burnwillows, Signal Pest, comment: I think this is legal? Also, I'm prepared to lose to all of the rhystic cave shenanigans you guys have come up with this week.

In defense of my deck's legality: On the play I win pretty easily since I have an extra 5 life to work with. On the draw, my goal is to keep opp's life at 0mod5 (so 20, 15, 10, 5) I can do this because opp must play baloth and lose 1 life, and I must play halberdier and give opp 1 life, leaving opp at 20. After this I can simply give opp 1 life any time they tap mana confluence. Before opp is at 5 I attack always with signal pest so that opp loses life in chunks of 5 as well. They can never block without chumping so their only avenue until they are at 5 life is to race.

Once opp is at 5, on their next turn they can either attack and put me at 5 or hold baloth back to block. If opponent attacks, then I will attack with halberdier, leaving signal pest back to chump.

If opponent puts themselves to 4 to cast blazing hope I will give them one life, countering the spell and causing them to take 4 and fall to 1 life. Then if they attack I will chump and win with the halberdier next turn. If they block I will still have signal pest so that they are just chumping for 1 turn. If opp takes 4 then they will never be able to cast blazing hope without dying to mana confluence so the result is the same.

If opponent tries to block at 5 life, I will attack with both creatures since I have 10 life so I will not die to a baloth attack. Opponent will go to 4 to cast removal and I will give them 2 life to counter it. They can't profitably block so they fall to one, and because they can't kill me in one hit they will be forced to chump next turn.

Wrath of Pie: Fountain of Cho, Patchwork Automaton, Pull from Eternity, Pull from Eternity, comment:
6-0 pull beats halberdier

dte: Pull from eternity, The Millennium Calendar, Feldon's Cane, Veldt, comment:
6-0 pull beats halberdier

Reeplcheep: Leyline of Sanctity, Mox Tantalite, The Millennium Calendar, Pull from Eternity, comment:

Silkster: Gemstone Mine, Magus of the Vineyard, Shriekmaw, Rotten Reunion, comment: more fun than calendar
6-0 shriekmaw beats halberdier

FTW: Saprazzan Cove, Energy Vortex, Repudiate, Noxious Revival, comment: Needs more Subtlety
6-0 repudiate beats halberdier

GoblinSmashmaster: City of Brass, Goblin Balloon Brigade, Order of the Stars, Sunscorched Desert, comment: Flying goblins![/QUOTE]

6-0 order of the stars blocks halberdier and goblins fly over

[Wrath of Pie]

Wrath of Pie: Fountain of Cho, Patchwork Automaton, Pull from Eternity, Pull from Eternity, comment:

dte: Pull from eternity, The Millennium Calendar, Feldon's Cane, Veldt, comment: - WW
Reeplcheep: Leyline of Sanctity, Mox Tantalite, The Millennium Calendar, Pull from Eternity, comment: - WW
Tirrit: Keldon Halberdier, Grove of the Burnwillows, Grove of the Burnwillows, Signal Pest, comment: I think this is legal? Also, I'm prepared to lose to all of the rhystic cave shenanigans you guys have come up with this week. - WW - This is actually clever, and probably is the secret to making Flailing Soldier/Ogre legal this round that I tried to look for because I was too tied to Pull from Eternity as the Baloth answer.
Silkster: Gemstone Mine, Magus of the Vineyard, Shriekmaw, Rotten Reunion, comment: more fun than calendar - DD - It's the 1/1 staredown!
FTW: Saprazzan Cove, Energy Vortex, Repudiate, Noxious Revival, comment: Needs more Subtlety - WW
GoblinSmashmaster: City of Brass, Goblin Balloon Brigade, Order of the Stars, Sunscorched Desert, comment: Flying goblins! - DD - Turns out a 1-drop 1/1 is way too good unless it does something clever. A shame Backbuild is hostile to Goblin strategies.

4d = 4 points

Who knew a 2-drop 1/1 could be too good?

[GoblinSmashmaster]

GoblinBalloonMaster Results for Round "Goblins smash again!"

Wrath of Pie: Fountain of Cho, Patchwork Automaton, Pull from Eternity, Pull from Eternity, comment:
Goblin stare DD

dte: Pull from eternity, The Millennium Calendar, Feldon's Cane, Veldt, comment:
Goblin smash! WW

Reeplcheep: Leyline of Sanctity, Mox Tantalite, The Millennium Calendar, Pull from Eternity, comment:
Goblin smash! WW

Tirrit: Keldon Halberdier, Grove of the Burnwillows, Grove of the Burnwillows, Signal Pest, comment: I think this is legal? Also, I'm prepared to lose to all of the rhystic cave shenanigans you guys have come up with this week.
Goblin smash! WW

Silkster: Gemstone Mine, Magus of the Vineyard, Shriekmaw, Rotten Reunion, comment: more fun than calendar
Goblin stare DD

FTW: Saprazzan Cove, Energy Vortex, Repudiate, Noxious Revival, comment: Needs more Subtlety
Goblin smash! WW

GoblinSmashmaster: City of Brass, Goblin Balloon Brigade, Order of the Stars, Sunscorched Desert, comment: Flying goblins!
1/1 too good, 5/5 too weak :(

4 goblin points

[dte]

tirrit, that is a truly elegant way to deal with blazing hope and baloth while putting you vulnerable to all baloth hate. Well done!

[silkster]

Wrath of Pie: Fountain of Cho, Patchwork Automaton, Pull from Eternity, Pull from Eternity, comment:
The 1/1s stare down. My decaying zombies sit there useless like an off-colour bishop in a king-bishop-pawn vs king-bishop endgame.
2-2
dte: Pull from eternity, The Millennium Calendar, Feldon's Cane, Veldt, comment:
This deck was the first one I came up with (Reclaim instead of Cane). I was torn between variants of this or using Helix Pinnacle with Rhystic Cave. In the end, I went with the wackier build.
I also briefly had Shade of Trokair instead of Calendar to try to lose to the Pulls. I think I thought the pump ability would get me through Blazing Hope, but it really doesn't. I'm not sure why I didn't pursue other suspenders.
6-0

Reeplcheep: Leyline of Sanctity, Mox Tantalite, The Millennium Calendar, Pull from Eternity, comment:
Yay, Calendar!
On first sight, I thought you were just delaying your clock by an irrelevant 3 turns, but you were opening yourself up to Pull. Very clever.
6-0

Tirrit: Keldon Halberdier, Grove of the Burnwillows, Grove of the Burnwillows, Signal Pest, comment: I think this is legal?
Boo, a creature I can Shriekmaw.
0-6

Silkster: Gemstone Mine, Magus of the Vineyard, Shriekmaw, Rotten Reunion, comment: more fun than calendar

GoblinSmashmaster: City of Brass, Goblin Balloon Brigade, Order of the Stars, Sunscorched Desert, comment: Flying goblins!]
I'm too powerful against creatures, but I still can't get through.
2-2

FTW: Saprazzan Cove, Energy Vortex, Repudiate, Noxious Revival, comment: Needs more Subtlety

Silkster: Gemstone Mine, Magus of the Vineyard, Shriekmaw, Rotten Reunion
T1 1/1 is much faster than my threat. LL 6-0

Much faster? Excuse me! This match is so close! You hit me for 3 on turns 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23. I kill you on turn 21. But you're still right that it's 6-0 for you.

[silkster]

Wow, it looks like the Halberdier swept the whole round! These floor rounds have been quite wild.

We are now trying to build the strongest possible deck that loses 0-6 against that pesty halberdier.

It now becomes relevant that our trailing bans only look back 2 rounds. Banned are:
Keldon Halberdier
Grove of the Burnwillows
Signal Pest

Mana Confluence
Duress
Durkwood Baloth
Blazing Hope

Thassa's Oracle
Laboratory Maniac
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
Strip Mine
Ghost Quarter
Wasteland
Volatile Fault

Grief just to highlight it because I would have missed this.

[Wrath of Pie]

Much faster? Excuse me! This match is so close! You hit me for 3 on turns 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23. I kill you on turn 21. But you're still right that it's 6-0 for you.

It's faster than that, you have 2/2 decayed Zombies and he gets an accelerated Energy Vortex cast thanks to Magus.

[FTW]

It's faster than that, you have 2/2 decayed Zombies and he gets an accelerated Energy Vortex cast thanks to Magus.

Magus makes Vortex cast 2 turns faster, but doesn't speed up the counters. Then I also have to slow down around the land. I can either:

- always do Vortex 1 counter every 2 turns. Silk pays 1 the first 2 times, wasting 4 of my turns for 0 damage.

- charge more mana so I can do Vortex 2 counters while Silk still has a land. Then Silk can choose to not pay and take 3, so I wasted turns putting on extra mana. Near the end Silk makes a 2/2 with Gemstone Mine's last counter (EOT after I chose to add 2 counter on my upkeep), accelerating Silk's clock by 2 turns while slowing mine down 1

I guess it's close but silk still wins the race.

[silkster]

The zombies don't make a difference because each mining counter either contributes 2 damage worth of zombies or prevents 2 turns worth of Energy Vortex, thus buying the Magus 2 more attacks. What ridiculous decks these are!

I was counting turn 11 as the start because I was paying for the Vortex on turns 7 and 9.

[silkster]

Locking in. 89b4404ad0f76b261f55da31c5090db04507706593a634b8a8b58817f568ec6e

[silkster]

Round 4 - Ceiling

GoblinSmashmaster: City of Traitors, Lotus Petal, Magus of the Moon, Goblin Cadets, comment: Goblin smash!
Tirrit: Swamp, Wretched Banquet, Inkmoth Nexus, Corpulent Corpse, comment: I just know you all are going to be playing hymn, blood moon, channex, etc.
dte: Hex Parasite, Flailing Soldier, Mockingbird, Volcanic Island, comment:
Wrath of Pie: Undiscovered Paradise, Ivory Giant, Sea's Claim, Inquisition of Kozilek, comment:
FTW: Swamp, Corpulent Corpse, Dark Ritual, Pox, comment: Nether Spirit blocks too well
Silkster: Swamp, Blackmail, Corpulent Corpse, Chancellor of the Annex, comment: charge lands too complicated
Reeplcheep: Swamp, Inkmoth Nexus, Bandit’s Talent, Blackmail, comment:

[silkster]

GoblinSmashmaster: City of Traitors, Lotus Petal, Magus of the Moon, Goblin Cadets, comment: Goblin smash!
4-1. On the play, I take one of your mana sources. On the draw, you can pay for petal the play Cadets and your turn 11 clock is faster than my turn 12 clock, so I stay back to block.
This is a nice use of Goblin Cadets being a lot of fast damage against suspenders while losing to Signal Pest.

Tirrit: Swamp, Wretched Banquet, Inkmoth Nexus, Corpulent Corpse, comment: I came up with so many neat decks this week, but I'm playing this instead lol. I just know you all are going to be playing hymn, blood moon, channex, etc. and the fun decks are too soft to that.
0-6. Suspend lets you play around Chancellor, and you have just the right mix of 3 cards to beat 2.

dte: Hex Parasite, Flailing soldier, Mockingbird, Volcanic island, comment:
6-0. I can always Blackmail the soldier and race the other.
For a moment I worried that you confused what round it was when I saw the backbuild all-star.
I almost played Hex Parasite this round too. I thought the best deck would be a charge land deck, but I didn't have

Wrath of Pie: Undiscovered Paradise, Ivory Giant, Sea's Claim, Inquisition of Kozilek, comment:
3-3. Both of my turn 1 plays are winning on the play, but I can't stop your equally fast clock on the draw.

FTW: Swamp, Corpulent Corpse, Dark Ritual, Pox, comment: Nether Spirit blocks too well
4-1. I can clear the way on the play, but not on the draw.
A more modern Nether Spirit would have entered tapped. :(

Silkster: Swamp, Blackmail, Corpulent Corpse, Chancellor of the Annex, comment: charge lands too complicated

Reeplcheep: Swamp, Inkmoth Nexus, Bandit’s Talent, Blackmail, comment:
6-0. I can always Blackmail a land.

My first thought this week was: is Death's Shadow + City of Brass legal? And it took me a while to realize that the answer is yes, even if my other cards answer the Signal Pest. Unfortunately, Death's Shadow loses specifically to the double Grove of the Burnwillows, so it couldn't be paired with Blackmail. In the end I was afraid that Death's Shadow might draw too many matches that it "looks like" it should win. If it had vigilance, I think I would have played it.

I had a silly moment of panic right before submitting when I accidentally searched scryfall for "f:legacy o:chancellor" and I thought 3 of the chancellors had been banned in legacy. Oops.

[Reeplcheep]

Reeplcheep: Swamp, Inkmoth nexus, Bandit’s Talent, Blackmail, comment:
Magus and blackmail seemed like the strongest things left, and magus was boring.

GoblinSmashmaster: City of Traitors, Lotus Petal, Magus of the Moon, Goblin Cadets, comment: Goblin smash!
Cadets to lose to pest is very clever. WL

Tirrit: Swamp, Wretched Banquet, Inkmoth Nexus, Corpulent Corpse, comment: I just know you all are going to be playing hymn, blood moon, channex, etc.
I block corpse with inkmoth and win the race with bandit. WW

dte: Hex Parasite, Flailing soldier, Mockingbird, Volcanic island, comment:
Apparently levels aren’t counters. So I win the race after trading two things. WW

Wrath of Pie: Undiscovered Paradise, Ivory Giant, Sea's Claim, Inquisition of Kozilek, comment:
Inkmoth races giant, so you need to inquisition blackmail. But then bandit races a delayed giant. WW

FTW: Swamp, Corpulent Corpse, Dark Ritual, Pox, comment: Nether Spirit blocks too well
If you yolo pox I can win with 2 cards. If you suspend first I shrink corpse and race. WW

Silkster: Swamp, Blackmail, Corpulent Corpse, Chancellor of the Annex, comment: charge lands too complicated
I need both my lands. LL

9W 0D 3L for 27/36

[FTW]

FTW: Swamp, Corpulent Corpse, Dark Ritual, Pox


GoblinSmashmaster: City of Traitors, Lotus Petal, Magus of the Moon, Goblin Cadets
OTP suspend Corpse. If you play 1 creature, I Pox it and leave you unable to cast the other. If you do nothing, I wait until the turn before Corpse resolves to Pox. You could keep Petal+Cadets, but now too slow to race the 3/3.
OTD you play T1 Magus. If I suspend Corpse, you play Cadets and attack me to 18, then I Pox (12-13) killing Cadets, but Corpse takes 4 more turns so your 2/2 would race me. So I T1 Pox to draw instead.
WD 4-1

Tirrit: Swamp, Wretched Banquet, Inkmoth Nexus, Corpulent Corpse
Worst case I can always wait to Pox your Corpse + 1 land, stopping both threats to draw.
Can I win?
OTP if I suspend Corpse, you'll suspend next. Then there's never a window to Pox your creature when mine's still suspended. Pox can kill Swamp & discard a card, stopping both Banquet & Nexus, but our 3/3s will still trade.
OTD if you suspend Corpse first, then I have a window to win. I can suspend later, wait for yours to resolve, then Pox away your land + Corpse + removal and win. So instead you wait to suspend after me.
DD 2-2

dte: Hex Parasite, Flailing soldier, Mockingbird, Volcanic island
OTP suspend Corpse. If you play a creature, I Pox it & your land. If you do nothing, I wait until the turn before Corpse to Pox. You discard 2 cards, keeping land + 1 creature, too slow to race the 3/3 fear.
OTD you play T1 soldier. If I suspend Corpse, you attack for 2, play a 2nd creature, then I Pox you down to just the Soldier (12-13) but your 2/2 will race me. Same as GSM. Instead I T1 Pox to draw.
WD 4-1

Wrath of Pie: Undiscovered Paradise, Ivory Giant, Sea's Claim, Inquisition of Kozilek
OTP suspend Corpse. You can IoK or Sea's Claim to take me off Pox, but my fear 3/3 will race your delayed 3/4. If you suspend the Giant, Corpse still wins the race.
OTD you suspend Giant first, otherwise you get raced by Corpse. Because of IoK, I can't punish you with Pox for suspending your creature first, and Giant wins the race.
WL 3-3

Silkster: Swamp, Blackmail, Corpulent Corpse, Chancellor of the Annex
Smart! Didn't bother playing around Chancellor this time.
OTP I suspend Corpse, you can Blackmail me off Pox, but then Swamp can pay for Corpse and it trades with yours.
OTD you Blackmail first, I hide Swamp, you take Corpse, then Chancellor stops Pox.
DL 1-4

Reeplcheep: Swamp, Inkmoth nexus, Bandit’s Talent, Blackmail
OTP suspend Corpse, you Blackmail me off Pox, but then your 2 clocks don't help each other so Corpse wins the race.
OTD you Blackmail first, I hide Swamp. You take my creature, so I Pox to draw.
Edit: Inkmoth can block & shrink Corpse to 2/2, slower than Bandit's Talent. LL 0-6

14 points (3 wins, 5 draws, 4 loss)

I thought of Corpse + Duress, Corpse + Hymn, Corpse + Pox, or Smallpox tricks. Pox seemed best of those, since Duress misses too much. But forgot about Corpse + Blackmail! Bandit's Talent was a nice find from the new Bloomburrow set! (legal last month)

[Reeplcheep]

Reeplcheep: Swamp, Inkmoth nexus, Bandit’s Talent, Blackmail
OTP suspend Corpse, you Blackmail me off Pox, but then your 2 clocks don't help each other so Corpse wins the race.
OTD you Blackmail first, I hide Swamp. You take my creature, so I Pox to draw.
WD 4-1

Inkmoth is an artifact creature and so can block & shrink your creature to a 2/2. So I win once I stop your pox.

[FTW]

Inkmoth is an artifact creature and so can block & shrink your creature to a 2/2. So I win once I stop your pox.

Oh, wither counter is a smart way to race 3/x suspends without racing the 4/1 first strike!

[dte]

GoblinSmashmaster: City of Traitors, Lotus Petal, Magus of the Moon, Goblin Cadets, comment: Goblin smash!
4-1 OTD you moon, I play soldier, you attack and play cadet, I attack and play parasite. We're locked. Otp same with a flyer.

Tirrit: Swamp, Wretched Banquet, Inkmoth Nexus, Corpulent Corpse, comment: I just know you all are going to be playing hymn, blood moon, channex, etc.
0-6. You just know better than me :)

dte: Hex Parasite, Flailing Soldier, Mockingbird, Volcanic Island, comment:
Me, preying on the lands with counters. Oops.


Wrath of Pie: Undiscovered Paradise, Ivory Giant, Sea's Claim, Inquisition of Kozilek, comment:
4-1 I think?
There might be many lines. What I see is otd, you discard my flyer.
8

FTW: Swamp, Corpulent Corpse, Dark Ritual, Pox, comment: Nether Spirit blocks too well
1-4
9

Silkster: Swamp, Blackmail, Corpulent Corpse, Chancellor of the Annex, comment: charge lands too complicated
0-6

Reeplcheep: Swamp, Inkmoth Nexus, Bandit’s Talent, Blackmail, comment:
0-6, I didn't know bandit's talent, quite a card in our format!

[FTW]

0-6, I didn't know bandit's talent, quite a card in our format!

Like Mockingbird, it's been 4CB legal for just a month! Many new sets coming out lately to pay attention to.