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Thread: Thalia Stompy

  1. #461
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    Re: Thalia Stompy

    Congrats guys, seems some off you do well even at the "new world" meta (and yes i think this deck should do well enough even without miracles).

    It seems we still have some different directions: some play sfm, some play copter, some have maindeck c.priest, some try some more aggressiv lists etc. I feel it settles down to personal preference, playstyle and obviously local meta.

    I currently test some other decks but i liked the "new" idea of iostream with more aggressiv beaters (have played all of the above directions in the past).

    I adjusted his latest list with some personal options:

    // 60 Maindeck

    // 9 Artifact
    4 Chalice of the Void
    3 Mox Diamond
    2 Umezawa's Jitte

    // 26 Creature
    4 Eldrazi Displacer
    4 Thought-Knot Seer
    3 Endless One
    3 Reality Smasher
    3 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
    4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
    2 Palace Jailer
    3 Walking Ballista

    // 25 Land
    4 Ancient Tomb
    4 Cavern of Souls
    2 City of Traitors
    4 Eldrazi Temple
    2 Karakas
    5 Plains
    4 Wasteland

    // 15 Sideboard
    SB: 2 Thorn of Amethyst//Ethersworn Canonist
    SB: 2 Containment Priest
    SB: 2 Orzhov Pontiff//Holy Light etc.
    SB: 2 Rest in Peace//Faerie Macabre
    SB: 2 Blessed Alliance
    SB: 3 Swords to Plowshares
    SB: 2 Disenchant//Forsake the Worldly//Cast Out

    I finally cutted copters because with Ballista and Endless one you have enough colorless manasink and t1 opener and i don't want to crew a copter with high Power creatures. I decided to also go with 2 Palace Jailer, because they can still be great and together with Displacer and Ballista you get some nice amount of maindeck removal that can a) beat, b) combo and c) provides manasink. Ballista really helps Displacer/Jailer to aim the bigger for bigger targets, add in Jitte and you have some impact against creature decks.

    Without Revoker some combo matchups suffer, but we can also argue that more beaters can race the opponent and against elves ballista feels stronger than Revoker and overall the deck is stil very solid vs combo decks. Ballista will improves the Grixis and DnT Matchup and i really like that direction.

    Sideboard is my basic version, i miss enough playtesting with this different build to evaluate the SB slots - it maybe to much removal etc.

    Has anyone tested Ajani Steadfast? (No joke^^) cc4 and 3W seems right, all of his abilities are usefull and should help to keep up the pressure, break stalled fields or stabilize at life his biggest downside is that he is useless alone (Copter, Jitte etc.) i thought about him as a take up iostream list.
    TEAM MtG Berlin

  2. #462

    Re: Thalia Stompy

    Thanks Ghost and TTX!

    I have a love hate relationship with the deck in that it has those fringe spots. But its nice that it can flexible depending on the meta.
    I like Containment Priest for better game ones against some of the bigger contenders that can run over the deck with cheating in creatures. Its also fantastic with Displacer out in the long games.
    I actually love copter, but I just cant find the room or it, as well as Jailer.

    The sideboard package is also great. Multiple cards are able to come if for a variety of matchups. Most of my opponents became wide-eyed as I would have 5-7 cards to board in when the deck was already very strong.

    I also want to thank everyone in this thread so far for all of the helpful insight and data thats been shared.

  3. #463

    Re: Thalia Stompy

    Haven't had much success in the new meta..Went 2-2 and 0-2 drop last week.UGH, serious retooling/rethinking happening now...

  4. #464
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    Re: Thalia Stompy

    Looking at the last Starcitygames classic results you’d think the format was wide open, with 14 different decks in top 16(!)
    But don’t be fooled... it’s more of the same - delver domination now featuring deathrite.

    Even though grixis appears to be on top, I’d simply attribute this to the amount of people playing it.
    I’m pretty sure BUG is the best deck in the format, with 4 fatal push in the 75.

    I think Thalia Stompy’s best look is just the standard build:

    // 25 Land
    4 Ancient Tomb
    4 Eldrazi Temple
    4 Cavern of Souls
    3 Karakas
    1 City of Traitors
    5 Plains
    4 Wasteland

    // 24 Creature
    4 Thought-Knot Seer
    4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
    4 Reality Smasher
    3 Phyrexian Revoker
    2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
    4 Eldrazi Displacer
    3 Stoneforge Mystic

    // 10 Spells
    4 Chalice of the Void
    4 Mox Diamond
    1 Batterskull
    1 Umezawa's Jitte
    1 Dismember

    // 15 Sideboard
    2 Thorn of Amethyst
    2 Containment Priest
    3 Rest in Peace
    4 Swords to Plowshares
    2 Forsake the Worldly
    2 Blessed Alliance


    While the above list is just the aggregate of the decks which have placed in different event, I still think the deck has a ton of flex spots. Just to prove this point I've put together a short list of cards which are considered playable in this deck. I kinda sorted them by best-worst. Let me know if you think I've missed any.


    // Creatures
    Palace Jailer
    Ethersworn Canonist
    Aven Mindcensor
    Vryn Wingmare
    Walking Ballista
    Orzhov Pontiff
    Endless One
    Selfless Squire
    Eidolon of Rhetoric
    Vizier of Deferment
    Sanctum Prelate
    Spirit of the Labyrinth
    Mangara of Corondor
    Lodestone Golem
    Stonecloaker
    Blade Splicer
    Hero of Bladehold
    Phyrexian Metamorph
    Spellskite
    Faerie Macabre
    Mirran Crusader
    Leonin Arbiter
    Restoration Angel
    War Priest of Thune
    Glowrider


    // Artifacts
    Smuggler's Copter
    Ratchet Bomb
    Trinisphere
    Sphere of Resistance
    Pithing Needle
    Crucible of Worlds
    Tsabo's Web
    Winter Orb
    Coercive Portal

    // Instants & Sorceries
    Holy Light
    Disenchant
    Path to Exile
    Warping Wail
    Mindbreak Trap
    Spatial Contortion
    Council's Judgment
    Armageddon
    Cataclysm
    Declaration in Stone
    Austere Command

    // Enchantments
    Leyline of the Void
    Seal of Cleansing
    Leyline of Sanctity
    Suppression Field
    Cast Out
    Oblivion Ring
    Ghostly Prison

    // Planeswalkers
    Elspeth, Knight-Errant
    Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
    Gideon of the Trials

  5. #465

    Re: Thalia Stompy

    Quote Originally Posted by contra View Post
    Looking at the last Starcitygames classic results you’d think the format was wide open, with 14 different decks in top 16(!)
    But don’t be fooled... it’s more of the same - delver domination now featuring deathrite.

    Even though grixis appears to be on top, I’d simply attribute this to the amount of people playing it.
    I’m pretty sure BUG is the best deck in the format, with 4 fatal push in the 75.

    I think Thalia Stompy’s best look is just the standard build:

    // 25 Land
    4 Ancient Tomb
    4 Eldrazi Temple
    4 Cavern of Souls
    3 Karakas
    1 City of Traitors
    5 Plains
    4 Wasteland

    // 24 Creature
    4 Thought-Knot Seer
    4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
    4 Reality Smasher
    3 Phyrexian Revoker
    2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
    4 Eldrazi Displacer
    3 Stoneforge Mystic

    // 10 Spells
    4 Chalice of the Void
    4 Mox Diamond
    1 Batterskull
    1 Umezawa's Jitte
    1 Dismember

    // 15 Sideboard
    2 Thorn of Amethyst
    2 Containment Priest
    3 Rest in Peace
    4 Swords to Plowshares
    2 Forsake the Worldly
    2 Blessed Alliance


    While the above list is just the aggregate of the decks which have placed in different event, I still think the deck has a ton of flex spots. Just to prove this point I've put together a short list of cards which are considered playable in this deck. I kinda sorted them by best-worst. Let me know if you think I've missed any.


    // Creatures
    Palace Jailer
    Ethersworn Canonist
    Aven Mindcensor
    Vryn Wingmare
    Walking Ballista
    Orzhov Pontiff
    Endless One
    Selfless Squire
    Eidolon of Rhetoric
    Vizier of Deferment
    Sanctum Prelate
    Spirit of the Labyrinth
    Mangara of Corondor
    Lodestone Golem
    Stonecloaker
    Blade Splicer
    Hero of Bladehold
    Phyrexian Metamorph
    Spellskite
    Faerie Macabre
    Mirran Crusader
    Leonin Arbiter
    Restoration Angel
    War Priest of Thune
    Glowrider


    // Artifacts
    Smuggler's Copter
    Ratchet Bomb
    Trinisphere
    Sphere of Resistance
    Pithing Needle
    Crucible of Worlds
    Tsabo's Web
    Winter Orb
    Coercive Portal

    // Instants & Sorceries
    Holy Light
    Disenchant
    Path to Exile
    Warping Wail
    Mindbreak Trap
    Spatial Contortion
    Council's Judgment
    Armageddon
    Cataclysm
    Declaration in Stone
    Austere Command

    // Enchantments
    Leyline of the Void
    Seal of Cleansing
    Leyline of Sanctity
    Suppression Field
    Cast Out
    Oblivion Ring
    Ghostly Prison

    // Planeswalkers
    Elspeth, Knight-Errant
    Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
    Gideon of the Trials
    I think you may be correct. I'm Playing at the Beaded Dragon win a mox this weekend and spent 2 days coming up with what i think is the best list for the expected meta and my list was 3 cards off from yours, even had the one Dismember . I'm trying Stoneforge mystic because i think in a creature heavy meta Stoneforge shines .
    One card i won't be playing this weekend is Rest in peace. I'm playing 3 faerie macabre . My reasoning is that B/R Reanimator can be to fast for Rest in peace and for dredge i will have 3 containment priest post board and that combined with revoker and 3 faerie should be enough to stop them and containment priest is great against SnS and B/R Reanimator and elves.

  6. #466
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    Re: Thalia Stompy

    Quote Originally Posted by metronome2charisma View Post
    One card i won't be playing this weekend is Rest in peace. I'm playing 3 faerie macabre . My reasoning is that B/R Reanimator can be to fast for Rest in peace and for dredge i will have 3 containment priest post board and that combined with revoker and 3 faerie should be enough to stop them and containment priest is great against SnS and B/R Reanimator and elves.
    I think if you're worried about reanimator/dredge you should drop the faeries and a priest and just run with 4 leylines. Faerie is just too narrow. I'd even run surgical next to chalice before faerie. I don't worry about those turn 0 wins as their few and far between and you'll hurt your other MU too much.

    RIP is better against BUG and storm + we've already got a good game against gy decks with chalice, Thalia, karakas, revoker etc.

  7. #467

    Re: Thalia Stompy

    Quote Originally Posted by contra View Post
    I think if you're worried about reanimator/dredge you should drop the faeries and a priest and just run with 4 leylines. Faerie is just too narrow. I'd even run surgical next to chalice before faerie. I don't worry about those turn 0 wins as their few and far between and you'll hurt your other MU too much.

    RIP is better against BUG and storm + we've already got a good game against gy decks with chalice, Thalia, karakas, revoker etc.
    I think Faerie is fine. It's not as good against things like Loam or Punishing Fire as Surgical is, but I think it's close enough since we close out the game reasonably quickly fast. I've tried Leyline before and this deck really doesn't want to have to mulligan to it precisely because we have so many other tools, as you mention.

  8. #468
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    Re: Thalia Stompy

    New versions of dragon stompy are running 3-4 copies of ensnaring bridge next to multiple bloodmoons/magus', chandras, and fiery confluence which makes the matchup super scary for us. I think running additional artifact hate in forsake the worldly is useful in a lot of the matchup we have trouble with. I'm also really liking thc in the new meta.

    // 25 Land
    4 Ancient Tomb
    4 Eldrazi Temple
    4 Cavern of Souls
    3 Karakas
    1 City of Traitors
    5 Plains
    4 Wasteland

    // 24 Creature
    4 Thought-Knot Seer
    4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
    4 Reality Smasher
    4 Eldrazi Displacer
    3 Phyrexian Revoker
    3 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
    3 Stoneforge Mystic

    // 10 Spells
    4 Chalice of the Void
    3 Mox Diamond
    1 Batterskull
    1 Umezawa's Jitte
    1 Dismember

    // 15 Sideboard
    2 Thorn of Amethyst
    2 Containment Priest
    2 Rest in Peace
    4 Swords to Plowshares
    3 Forsake the Worldly
    2 Blessed Alliance

  9. #469

    Re: Thalia Stompy

    Quote Originally Posted by contra View Post
    New versions of dragon stompy are running 3-4 copies of ensnaring bridge next to multiple bloodmoons/magus', chandras, and fiery confluence which makes the matchup super scary for us. I think running additional artifact hate in forsake the worldly is useful in a lot of the matchup we have trouble with.
    I think the correct response to a matchup with that much potent hate against us is probably to concede. There's no way one extra Forsake the Worldly is going to turn that matchup around. Legacy is big, and sometimes you have to dodge!

  10. #470

    Re: Thalia Stompy

    Quote Originally Posted by iostream View Post
    I think the correct response to a matchup with that much potent hate against us is probably to concede. There's no way one extra Forsake the Worldly is going to turn that matchup around. Legacy is big, and sometimes you have to dodge!
    I have to agree with you here. The matchup is nearly unwinable, and I don't plan on diluting my board to still lose to this.
    I played several games against it and its hard to race before they get an ensnaring bridge out. They almost always have a turn one moon effect witch shuts out your top end. I only one one game. He locked me out with 1 life left, and I put a chalice on 4 and he had no win conditions that could be played after that. I had more cards in my library so he decked himself first.
    Dragon Stompy makes a case for walking ballista to be in the 60, but i feel like stoneforge is better vs all of the matchups you have a realist chance at winning against.

  11. #471
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    Re: Thalia Stompy

    Quote Originally Posted by kratos View Post
    I have to agree with you here. The matchup is nearly unwinable, and I don't plan on diluting my board to still lose to this.
    I played several games against it and its hard to race before they get an ensnaring bridge out. They almost always have a turn one moon effect witch shuts out your top end. I only one one game. He locked me out with 1 life left, and I put a chalice on 4 and he had no win conditions that could be played after that. I had more cards in my library so he decked himself first.
    Dragon Stompy makes a case for walking ballista to be in the 60, but i feel like stoneforge is better vs all of the matchups you have a realist chance at winning against.
    I heavily disagree in case of dragon stompy - i won nearly all matchups against it with Thalia Stompy (and BigEldrazi) because (both) decks can ignore moon to some degree. For Thalia Stompy you will need a min. amount of 5 plains and 3 mox - but keep in mind that you can also lay down stuff turn 1/2 before your opponent is able to put down a moon (they not always start the game and put moon down first turn). All your creatures should be able to put down more pressure against dragon stompy creatures because you either have first strike or bigger creatures.

    Hidding behind a bridge is more or less the same like good old moat etc - you need answers for it or you must accept to die against that hate stuff. So you can add more artifact hate or (my solution) use some stuff that can ignore bridge to some degree.

    My latest build (30 testmatchups so far ~70%wins)

    // 60 Maindeck

    // 9 Artifact
    4 Chalice of the Void
    3 Mox Diamond
    2 Umezawa's Jitte

    // 26 Creature
    4 Eldrazi Displacer
    3 Reality Smasher
    3 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
    4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
    4 Thought-Knot Seer
    4 Walking Ballista
    2 Containment Priest
    2 Palace Jailer

    // 25 Land
    4 Ancient Tomb
    4 Cavern of Souls
    2 City of Traitors
    4 Eldrazi Temple
    2 Karakas
    5 Plains
    4 Wasteland

    // 15 Sideboard
    SB: 2 Thorn of Amethyst
    SB: 2 Phyrexian Revoker
    SB: 2 Orzhov Pontiff
    SB: 2 Rest in Peace
    SB: 2 Disenchant
    SB: 2 Blessed Alliance
    SB: 3 Swords to Plowshares

    I experiemented a lot and always try to find some ways to put in fringe stuff like triskelion, selfless squire, ajani steadfast or proven solutions like stoneforge etc. but overall i like clean solutions, no one offs - and even the "2" off cards needs to overlap with other cards (like RiP and Priest) so they add up in numbers.

    Biggest change for me is Walking Ballista - i clearly underestimated the card for this deck because i wished for a card like triskelion/jailer to enable abuse with Displacer but now i have tested Ballista enough and go from 2 to 3 and now to 4 - for me the card feels perfect for this deck because if you look back we always had a low amount of maindeck removal and all the sideboard cards are spell based which means we had to reduce creatures which means less threats and this deck will simply lose if you can't keep up the pressure (traditional weakness without cantrips/card filtering etc.).

    As you can see i cutted the reworkers for it, because without miracles you don't have enough good blind calls, yes you might find enough targets but naming stuff like Deathrite, SfM etc will always result into the situation that you reworker can't attack too. Ballista can be cast turn 1 (with solland/mox) as a 1/1 so you have something to put on the field (and with a playset you don't need to hold back with it), it can be bigger if the game goes on in both ways, either if you hardcast it or if it is on already on the battlefield so its never a bad topdeck. You can respond to removal with it, can shoot down Walkers too and close games with it with pseudo-haste-shoot or fire over walls like TNN/Bridge the last points of damage. We are in legacy so most utility creatures are X/1 which is the reason the format also likes -1/-1 or lavamancer pingers etc. Bonus points, it will work under Blood Moon too (see Dragon Stompy). At my testgames i had numeros games which i was able to 2:1 with it (trading against two unflipped delvers is more or less "GG" etc.), going ballista into ballista is also hard for most creature based decks. For me it greatly improves the grixis delver matchup, but it also has some huge bonus against DnT, Elves etc. It will also ensure that stuff like Displacer, Jailer and Sideboard-Spell-Removal will be a better, because you can hit other important (bigger) targets with it. If you look at my list above you will see a high amount of creatures and removal options compared to other list that will improve some Game 1 situations against creature decks and still can do some work against nearly creaturless-decks/situations.

    Yes you can still change the numbers, add a 4th Smasher, cut Priest for Stoneforge etc. but overall for my playstyle and my testmatchups this config worked fine, cause i still try to balance the cc across the board, which means if i run 4 Smasher i dont want other cc4-5 like Jailer, CPriest as a cc2 also is good and still works as a surprise flash-body (and improves G1 against Elves, Reanimate, Sneak&Show etc.).

    @Boarding against Dragon Stompy with the list above:
    -4 Chalice, -3 Smasher, -2 C.Priest
    +2 Thorn, +3 Swords, +2 Revoker, +2 Disenchant
    (if you aren't fear bridge you can take a risky approach and keep some smasher copies)

    Smasher is dead once they land moon (or Bridge), same is true for TKS but casting wise TKS is in most cases one turn faster and a T2 TKS maybe still is fast enough to come down before Moon and offers not only nice disruption (can also catch bridge) a 4/4 body is also not bad vs Dragon Stompy. Swords is here to counter fast Magus etc. Besides TKS all Creatures are castable under moon if you also get white mana. I tend to save Disenchant for a critical Bridge. Thorn+Thalia can also make it hard for your opponent to cast stuff because they have more non-creature spells including cc3-4 stuff and weaker mana base (less lands, more all in moves with spirit guide etc.). Revoker is here against Chandra and overall another colorless body.
    TEAM MtG Berlin

  12. #472

    Re: Thalia Stompy

    Well after starting out 3-1 i ended up 3-3 . I was "in the zone" for the first 3 rounds (one of which i lost) and then i started to get a headache (i'm a migraine sufferer )and my results suffered. On the plus side it didn't turn into a "2 day long ,can't get out of bed or open my eyes headache" so that was GREAT. I took a chance and ran hero of blade hold yesterday and it was great,both times i cast it it killed my opponent . All my matches were really close games except for storm. I played against
    b/r reanimator 2-1 Game three my opener is Displacer x2, Faerie macabre x2 ,city of traitors, Chalice,cavern of souls . I snap keep.
    dark maverick 2-1
    esper deathblade 1-2
    storm 2-0
    bug delver 1-2
    bug control 1-2
    This is the list ill be testing for the next couple weeks . i upped the white sources by adding a Caves of kilos to help support the 2 Hero and the 2 pontiff out of the board. I know Hero seems strange but he's just another must answer threat, on par with Reality smasher and Hero doesn't die to abrupt decay or bolt and Fatal push has to be "turned on". For what its worth i LOVED this list.

    10 artifact
    4 Chalice of the Void
    4 lotus petal
    2 Umezawa's Jitte

    25 Creature
    4 Eldrazi Displacer
    4 Reality Smasher
    4 Thought-Knot Seer
    3 Walking Ballista
    2 phyrexian revoker
    3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
    2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
    2 hero of blade hold
    1 Containment Priest


    25 Land
    4 Ancient Tomb
    4 Cavern of Souls
    2 City of Traitors
    4 Eldrazi Temple
    3 Karakas
    5 Plains
    2 Wasteland
    1 caves of koilos

    15 Sideboard
    2 Thorn of Amethyst
    1 Phyrexian Revoker
    2 Orzhov Pontiff
    2 Disenchant
    3 Swords to Plowshares
    1 ratchet bomb
    3 faerie macabre
    1 containment priest

  13. #473

    Re: Thalia Stompy

    Thanks for the notes, metronome! The list is interesting, but I have one concern: is Orzhov Pontiff castable with Petals instead of Diamonds?

    I also 3-3'd that tournament, but I have nothing really interesting to say about it; my deck crapped out in some matches, I misplayed a bit, not really the deck's fault.

    But looking at my tournament notebook over the last month or so, it seems like we might want to rethink the "standard composition" of the deck a bit since the metagame really has shifted dramatically since Top's banning. When you think about how dramatically decks like D+T and Dragon Stompy (which share certain features with Thalia Stompy) have been evolving in recent weeks, it kind of makes you wonder whether or not we are falling behind somehow. It could be the basic skeleton of the deck is already refined, or it could be that we really ought to be testing bigger changes.

    Specifically: Legacy, at least in the mid-Atlantic USA, seems to me like it's becoming "polarized" between very fast unfair decks like BR Reanimator and very grindy fair decks like Portent Miracles. How does this affect us? I can think of at least three things we'd like to consider.

    1) Thalia, Heretic Cathar seems like it is becoming worse and worse positioned. Is she still good enough? Very fast unfair decks either don't care about big Thalia or can get underneath her. Very grindy fair decks overload on cheap control elements, so you can't easily cash in the tempo gain from big Thalia. Portent Miracles is a great example of a deck of the second type; in addition to running a pile of Swords and Terminuses, they don't play many nonbasic lands or creatures to begin with! I think you still want some of this effect somewhere since it really is one of your best tools against Grixis Delver and Elves, but by and large she seems less relevant than in the past.

    2) Very fast unfair decks don't run Wasteland. Very grindy fair decks often don't run Wasteland. Which makes one wonder: if there is really less Wasteland floating around, should we be greedier? Examples of greedier choices: playing more unstable mana bases with more City of Traitors/Lotus Petal, playing "bigger" with cards like Endbringer, playing splash colors to access more flexible options, and so on. 2 and 3-color versions of D+T are doing exactly this, and I think this is one reason why it's not stupid to consider.

    (aside: Maybe Lotus Petal specifically is better now even if you don't want to be greedy. Since people seem to be converging around Ballista, there are just fewer white cards in the deck, so we might not need the stability that Mox Diamond provides?)

    3) Is Ethersworn Canonist maindeckable now? Abstractly it seems like a better positioned tax nowadays than Containment Priest in a "polarized" metagame. It obviously screws over the fast combo decks more or less uniformly, but imagine how Portent Miracles or Czech Pile must feel playing against it...

  14. #474

    Re: Thalia Stompy

    Quote Originally Posted by iostream View Post
    Thanks for the notes, metronome! The list is interesting, but I have one concern: is Orzhov Pontiff castable with Petals instead of Diamonds?

    I also 3-3'd that tournament, but I have nothing really interesting to say about it; my deck crapped out in some matches, I misplayed a bit, not really the deck's fault.

    But looking at my tournament notebook over the last month or so, it seems like we might want to rethink the "standard composition" of the deck a bit since the metagame really has shifted dramatically since Top's banning. When you think about how dramatically decks like D+T and Dragon Stompy (which share certain features with Thalia Stompy) have been evolving in recent weeks, it kind of makes you wonder whether or not we are falling behind somehow. It could be the basic skeleton of the deck is already refined, or it could be that we really ought to be testing bigger changes.

    Specifically: Legacy, at least in the mid-Atlantic USA, seems to me like it's becoming "polarized" between very fast unfair decks like BR Reanimator and very grindy fair decks like Portent Miracles. How does this affect us? I can think of at least three things we'd like to consider.

    1) Thalia, Heretic Cathar seems like it is becoming worse and worse positioned. Is she still good enough? Very fast unfair decks either don't care about big Thalia or can get underneath her. Very grindy fair decks overload on cheap control elements, so you can't easily cash in the tempo gain from big Thalia. Portent Miracles is a great example of a deck of the second type; in addition to running a pile of Swords and Terminuses, they don't play many nonbasic lands or creatures to begin with! I think you still want some of this effect somewhere since it really is one of your best tools against Grixis Delver and Elves, but by and large she seems less relevant than in the past.

    2) Very fast unfair decks don't run Wasteland. Very grindy fair decks often don't run Wasteland. Which makes one wonder: if there is really less Wasteland floating around, should we be greedier? Examples of greedier choices: playing more unstable mana bases with more City of Traitors/Lotus Petal, playing "bigger" with cards like Endbringer, playing splash colors to access more flexible options, and so on. 2 and 3-color versions of D+T are doing exactly this, and I think this is one reason why it's not stupid to consider.

    (aside: Maybe Lotus Petal specifically is better now even if you don't want to be greedy. Since people seem to be converging around Ballista, there are just fewer white cards in the deck, so we might not need the stability that Mox Diamond provides?)

    3) Is Ethersworn Canonist maindeckable now? Abstractly it seems like a better positioned tax nowadays than Containment Priest in a "polarized" metagame. It obviously screws over the fast combo decks more or less uniformly, but imagine how Portent Miracles or Czech Pile must feel playing against it...
    Its crazy that i've been thinking about the exact same things. i'll elaborate more tonight.



    1) As you may have noticed i went down to 2 Thalia 2.0 . My main reasoning being that i noticed it did little if i was behind and was getting stuck in my hand because i would have multiples or would get bounced with my opponents Karakas. it is really good in a bunch of match ups if you're ahead or on the play but other wise was just SLIGHTLY underperforming. I can't see me not playing it but then again who knows.

    2)i have been thinking about running 2 wasteland and another caves (to help cast that pontiff out of the board) and 2 factories but with so much delver and lands n the format i am having a hard time pulling the trigger. it would also help to cast those bigger creatures you mentioned Endbringer specifically . i'm not sure how good oblivion sower would be but it is very powerful.( i know you didn't mention sower i was just thinking out loud)

    As far as splashing colors goes the options are nearly endless as long as we're playing 4 ancient tomb 1 city and 3-4 temples the rest of the mana base is pretty flexible One thing I've been thinking of trying out is something with 4 lodestones 2-3 canonist because they slow down EVERYTHING and instead of 4 smasher maybe go 2-3 hero of bladehold
    The reason i like hero and lodestone together is because lodestone taxes EVERYTHING so it pretty good against delver ,combo and most creature decks while Hero cost 4 mana instead of 5 ( yes i understand that temple helps cast smasher) and when attacking alone over 2 turns only does 3 less damage than smasher and after 3 turns does 2 more, but when attacking with any other creatures is insane, not to mention dodges most common removal other than STP, just another way to "get em dead".

    3) As i mentioned above i agree that Cononist is maindeckable rite now. I would miss the interaction of displacer and priest but i definitely think your head is in the rite place.
    This is just random rambling.
    Last edited by metronome2charisma; 06-05-2017 at 11:20 PM.

  15. #475

    Re: Thalia Stompy

    I can definitely see Canonist in the main, but do love the Priests. It really helps with the show and tell matchup, reanimator and dredge, where as I feel that the storm matchup is already really favorable for us. However Canonist would add to the elves matchup.

    I played in a small 23 person tournament this past weekend and lost in the semi-finals taking 3/4th. I used the same 75 as previously posted.

    Round 1: Bye - was fine with this but looking to test.

    Round 2: Sneak and Show 2-0
    Played T1 Karakas into T2 little Thalia into T3 Revoker naming Griselbrand and scooped. Game 2 he stalled me for a bit with Blood moon on T2. Found the disenchant to get colorless and displace his Griselbrand to swing in for the win.

    Round 3: Lands 2-1
    Still a super rough match. Won a grindy game one and misplayed game two. Ended up pulling off the game 3 by just a turn.

    Round 4: Lands.. again.. 1-2
    Game one he had the double punishing fire with groves and I drew lands for 7 turns. Ripped a Smasher off the top and he wasted my Karakas. Forgot to play the other in my hand before swinging in and he made the token. Drew another smasher for what would have been the win had my first one survived. Game 2 I mulled to 5 and pulled off the win. Game 3 he had an early engine with double wasteland on loop and couldnt find lands to stabilize.

    Round 5: Portent Miracles 2-0
    This matchup was really won on the back of Cavern. Non of my creatures could be countered and he really couldnt feed his Mentor.
    Both games went very smooth but were long and involded heavy decision making.

    Cut to top 4 because the store had no idea what they were doing, and upset quite a few players.

    Semi-finals: Infect 0-2
    I mulled both games. Game 1 I was on the draw and he had the near nuts opener and I was dead on his 3rd turn.
    Game 2 I lost the race to double exalted triggers on an Inkmoth. Couldnt find answers.

    Overall I was still happy with the decks performance. The change I am surely making for the GP is cutting to 3 Wasteland and going up to 4 Cavern. Its an extra white source and of course helps avoid all of the counters.

    I can also see cutting down to 2 big Thalia, but it is such a powerhouse against delver, lands, colorless eldrazi, and sneak and show.
    I would Love to test with Lodestones and or Hero of Bladehold.

  16. #476

    Re: Thalia Stompy

    Quote Originally Posted by kratos View Post
    it is such a powerhouse against [...] sneak and show.
    I've never fully understood this. Big Thalia doesn't stop Show and Tell, and they can activate Sneak Attack during our endstep to attack the following turn. I have definitely lost games to Sneak/Show where I cast a turn 1 Big Thalia...

    As for maindeck Priests, I've found them pretty anemic in matchups where the ability isn't relevant by itself, but I guess it's ultimately a metagame call. Canonist has pretty much the same issue. This is one reason why I keep going back to Endless Ones, since even though they're not disruptive, they are great at shortening the clock, which I think improves your percentages similar to a tax bear by forcing your opponent to "have it" faster.

    Hero is interesting as the stats and cmc are basically perfect, but my main concern as always is the WW in the casting cost, but I'm certainly interested in testing it!

    I'm a lot less thrilled about Lodestone since I think taxing our own top end might be too much of a drawback. Also, I can tell you from Vintage experience that Lightning Bolt on Lodestone is a huge tempo loss; on top of that Lodestone can't swing through Delver. This makes me fearful that this will make the Grixis matchup considerably worse.

    More general thoughts:

    I'm also going to Vegas, and my gauntlet is the same as Phil Gallagher's gauntlet. For those who can't click, his top 4 decks are Grixis Delver, ANT, Sneak/Show, and Elves, and the other decks on his radar are Portent Miracles, D+T, "a BUG deck" (probably BUG Delver imo), Deathblade, and Dragon Stompy. This is roughly what one would conclude from the MTGO metagame, which I think is a fair assessment of how a gigantic tournament like Vegas will probably be.

    As is typical in Legacy, all of those decks are going to have metagame share in the 5%-ish range. Maybe Grixis will be like 10%, maybe Portent Miracles will be 10% off hype, but I don't see any other deck being so prevalent. This is sort of why I'm always so nervous about running things like Canonist or Priest in the maindeck, since while each of those cards do hit two of the top decks on those lists, they are close to a miss versus everything else. There are obviously other matchups besides these, but they are much rarer (e.g. Reanimator, Dredge). I think the expected number of times you will play against Dredge at GP Vegas is close to zero.

    But there are some obvious things I think this gauntlet suggests:

    - Play the 4th Cavern. The format is becoming bluer again.
    - Come prepared for equipment, and in particular, True Name. Grixis, BUG, Deathblade can all run the 3/1 in varying numbers. Bring those Disenchants and Blessed Alliances! I think it may be advisable to run a maindeck out to True Name which has other applications - i.e. something like Sword of Fire and Ice, not something like Orzhov Pontiff.
    - Although... Orzhov Pontiff looks like a really good sideboard card against that gauntlet! I just hope it's castable... I might code up some simulations to see. This might be a reason to play a fourth Petal or something.
    - Endbringer seems like a terrific MD flex slot option in this metagame. I think I'd be thrilled to have it play against literally all of those decks except Storm. In particular, it's another thing that is good against Show and Tell in that it's a genuine out if S+T resolves. Oblivion Sower does not look so hot.
    - THC actually doesn't look so bad, I think my poor experiences in recent tournaments might just be a local metagame thing, but obviously Vegas is not going to have the same metagame as New Jersey
    - This seems like the tournament to cheat on GY hate a bit. This makes a bit of sense since DRS is king of the format. I think only Dredge can really play through so much DRS.

  17. #477

    Re: Thalia Stompy

    I didnt think about that line of play, but it seems like neither have my opponents.

    Ill admit that the priests are not great in several matchups, however the interaction with Displacer is nice and I feel like SnS will be something Id rather be maindeck prepared for at Vegas.
    I am thinking of putting 2 Canonist in the board in place of the Thorns as they will hold the same role and will come in against the same matchups and much more like Aluren, Miracles, and Elves. I just cant find anything else to cut besides the Priests or 1 THC/Revoker I cant bring myself to cut down the numbers on those after testing.

    Im again at a crossroads with finding a place for SoFI in the main, and would probably see cutting a revoker for it if I decide to play it.

    The 4th Cavern has been helpful with a little more consistency of color/uncounterable threats.

    I am also not sure if I should play 2 RIP and 2 Surgicals, or go with 4 Leylines. The Leylines are much better for the BR Reanimator match, however the other cards provide some flexibility in other matchups. Its a tough call. Has anyone had experience playing Leylines and found them to be better?

  18. #478

    Re: Thalia Stompy

    Leyline requires a deck that's decent at mulliganing, which this deck would rather not do. You also basically give yourself 4 dead draws if you keep a hand without it.

    If you're worried about BR Reanimator, play Faerie Macabre. Surgical shouldn't be played in Chalice decks. I play 2 Containment Priest main and 3 RIP board and though I sometimes lose to a quick BR Reanimator hand I feel like I have good chances vs all other gy decks.

    You could also consider Tormod's Crypt.

  19. #479

    Re: Thalia Stompy

    I just built this, and am enjoying it quite a bit.

    http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=15408&d=293779&f=LE

    My decklist is pretty close, I took out 2 lodestone golems for Thalia, Heretical Cathar, quite a bit of Sneak and Show in my meta, and a Sword of War and Peace instead of F & I.

  20. #480

    Re: Thalia Stompy

    Quote Originally Posted by Kaono View Post
    Leyline requires a deck that's decent at mulliganing, which this deck would rather not do. You also basically give yourself 4 dead draws if you keep a hand without it.

    If you're worried about BR Reanimator, play Faerie Macabre. Surgical shouldn't be played in Chalice decks. I play 2 Containment Priest main and 3 RIP board and though I sometimes lose to a quick BR Reanimator hand I feel like I have good chances vs all other gy decks.

    You could also consider Tormod's Crypt.
    THIS! I'm going to play 3 r.i.p. and the 2 priests . i was playing 3 faerie 2 priest but more lands and less reanimator means i should be playing r.i.p.

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