Ive always liked the percy/therapy concept, but I've been burned by it before as well. Its more aggressive than is my preference, but mentor/therapy/souls can get out of hand. My biggest issue with mentor in a deck like this though is how low the instant count is. Makes it less rattlensake-y. Still intrigued how it does.
Mini-tournament report:
Went 0-3-drop because sleep is the best at my LGS last night. Replaced the silly demons from the previous list with 2x Kaya as mentioned previously and swapped Isareth and another card for hymns. Played against Maverick, Lands, Grixis Control.
Maverick 1-2: got run over by a KotR and a double exalted qasali in the 2 games i lost. Won on the back of equipment amd souls tokens in the game i took. Pretty standard fare.
Lands 1-2: lost to a crazy good draw g1 where he dumped his hand and depthed t2. Game 2 i had bitterblossom, soulsx2 and equipment and just ran over everything. Game 3 I held off lage for probably about 10 turns with a judge familiar/mom combo forever until i eventually got ghost quartered out of the game. Kaya did some work that game but eventually got pfired away late. Card is awesome though. I had 7 outs in my deck, and all were in bottom 10 cards when the game ended. Most unfortunate.
Grixis Control, 1-2 (notice a pattern?)
Grindy matchup was grindy. Usually both ended up hellbent and praying for haymakers. SoFi, souls, souls, bitterblossom runners got me mine, empty board jace and jace/lili last hope got him his.
All the matchups felt winnable but slightly less than 50% preboard. Thinking of trying Drana since shes great with go-wide strategies and plays nice with jitte.
Since the bannings, my record is 14-13. Deck is very meh right now. And some of those wins, I won because I had the nuts in my opener hand. IE. Relic game 1 turn 1 vs lands or Leyline, Faerie Macabre, Karakas and Needle vs Reanimator.
I figured there would be less Kologhan's Commands and more Combo decks. Not so far. My build is still fine vs combo decks, pretty much the same as before. However, against fair decks, not doing so well. Plus I flood out quite a bit more. Probably should cut a land but I'm worried I'll be stuck on 2 mana sources and 3 drops in my hand.
Taking a break from the deck atm. I suppose the build could be a black death and taxes but that just feels like a worse version of Death and Taxes. Hoping they print something(s) in Ravnica in October.
I've run into the same problems with the deck, I actually ended up cutting the chrome moxes and had a little more success. I think the biggest problem is that there really isn't a good way to alleviate flood, previously you could just rely on DRS to drain your opponent for a while till you draw something to finish them off but we can't do that anymore. I wonder if it's worth finally exploring a red splash or maybe going down the route of that dega pyromancer deck.Originally Posted by Wilkin
Im not a fan of chrome mox at all right now. This deck goes 1-for-1 a lot and relies on being able to outlast your opponents initial onslaught. Chrome mox gets you casting spells faster, but also leaves you hellbent faster and costs you action cards. This is especially bad vs brainstorm/jace decks where you end up amplifying their card advantage. I can see boarding chrome mox in vs combo where you want interaction as fast as possible and more cards are dead, but vs fair decks it feels like a trap to me.
Im testing out a modified list at ChannelFireball today. We'll see if my modifications help. Report to follow.
Thanks for the shout-out waaay back! I've been lurking on these forums but never took the time to make an account. If I remember right I went 5-3-1 drop that day with *almost* Wilkin's exact list. (1-2 sb changes and couldn't find any local shriekmaws)
As to the drs ban, I've had a few ideas bouncing around.
1. Myth Realized - has anyone tried this? It doesn't ramp, but with as few as 8 creatures in the deck, there's a lot of room for spells to turn it on. Even Mox makes it bigger.
2. Dryad Militant - hurts our lingering souls, but also turns Snapcaster into an ambush viper. Eats a plow or carries equipment just fine.
3. Grim Lavamancer - offers reach and removal. While it doesn't offer the grave hate that drs did, Removal On A Stick could open up a few slots to fill that need. Can be fueled fine by Lilly and Collective Brutality. Splashing red could also give us Kolaghan's Command in the main and Pyroblast in the side.
4. Noble Hierarch - it's a deeper green splash than drs...and it doesn't offer all of the utility that drs did...or the same degree of Mana fixing....but darn does a turn two Gideon of the trials just seem fun.
There seem to be a number of healthy ways to develop this deck post drs, but it might require a bit more commitment to single line of play like Wilkin suggests a few posts ago.
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Yeah, the way the meta is, with it being fair and so many kologhan's commands running around it is probably better off with no Moxes. But ugh, turn 3 at latest for Liliana sucks.
Trying to go down to 21 lands and 3 mox for now. I'm stubborn. Added a Gurmag Angler. Looks good in goldfishing so far.
Im curious how angler goes. Been wanting to jam one into my list but scared of it and Bob interacting.
Disappointing 1-3-1 at Top Deck Games today. I'm going to collect my thoughts and edit this with matches and hindsight.
EDIT
Round 1 was a draw against D&T. I was playing catch-up to his plan while he very very slowly sealed the game. I thought about just conceding to move to game 2 faster, but the game didn't feel the hopeless to just give up. Game 2 I covered all angles and closed it fast, but not before time was called in our opening turns. We both felt confident in our board states, no way to know how it would have played out.
Round 2 was a loss against Moon Stompy. Kept a hand of 2 fetches on the play, so when Blood Moon came down I could only get a single Plains, and never saw the ability to make black mana before the tide of goblins murdered me. Game 2 I missed a critical 3rd land drop that would have allowed me to answer his Mogg Catcher before it came online, but a turn late meant he had access to all the artifact removal and board sweepers he needed to end the game.
Round 3 was a win against UW Stoneblade. Keeping him off TNN, and one point running Vindicates to his running Islands made for a whole lot of dead cards in hand when he died. The only time in the day when the deck was full of gas.
Rounds 4 & 5 were both losses to Grixis Control. Both were highlighted by how much better they were at controlling the game with Plainswalkers, how good Snapcaster is, how back breaking KCommand is. Wilkin is right, having threats that are live against opposing Liliana the Last Hope was a large oversight. Not sure what the game plan is going forward against Grixis; they're just so much better at 2-for-1 advantage until we're hellbent and we lack haymaker topdecks like JTMS to seal it up.
I've had success at the local shop, going 3-1 on average, but somehow felt really under prepared for these matchups.
Last edited by PirateKing; 09-10-2018 at 08:50 AM.
Won an Eternal weekend trial today. A round 1 bye at eternal is nice to have. 14 players, 4 rounds cut to top 8.
4 Dark Confidant
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Remorseful Cleric
1 Shriekmaw
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Gurmag Angler
3 Thoughtseize
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Hymn to Tourach
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Vindicate
1 Unexpectedly Absent
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
3 Lingering Souls
3 Chrome Mox
4 Scrubland
3 Swamp
1 PLains
1 Karakas
1 Shambling Vent
4 Wasteland
4 Marsh Flats
2 Polluted Delta
1 Verdant Catacombs
Side: 1 Leyline of Sanctity, 1 Leyline of the Void, 1 Surgical Extraction, 1 Faerie Macabre, 1 Engineered Explosives, 1 Zealous Persecution, 1 Toxic Deluge, 1 Pithing Needle, 1 Liliana, the Last Hope, 1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation, 1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, 1 Tsabo's Web, 1 Ob Nixilis Reignited, 1 Dismember, 1 Humility
Round 1. Burn. Win 2-0
Early Batterskull and Jitte game 1. GG.
Had Batterskull and Jitte again Game 2. Had the Shriekmaw equipped to a Batterskull and Jitte FTW. People had a good laugh seeing Kambal hit play. He did die quickly from a Chain Lightning but that ok, I still got value out of him.
Round 2. Reanimator. Win 2-0
I had the discard to stop combo and Bob and Gurmag to clean things up.
Game 2 I mulled to 4. Cleric, Mystic, swamp, wasteland. Ugh. He had a turn 1 Dread of Night and thoughtseized me, taking the Cleric. Which was the turning point since by the time he was able to bring in a griselbrand, I had a Skull, Sword of Fire and Ice, Mystic and Bob. So he was at 5 life, so he felt it too risky to swing at me, because of the crack back.
Round 3. ID
ROund 4. ID.
I'm the 3rd seed going in. We split and play it out. Luckily my next round opponent isn't going to eternal so I got the win.
Round 5. Win. Opponent conceded since he wanted to leave and isn't going to Eternal
Round 6. Reanimator Win 2-1
Game 1, I had early discard and bob to get there. He killed my Remorseful Cleric early but couldn't follow it up.
Game 2, Mulled to 4, had no action and promptly got stomped.
Game 3. Mulled to 4 or 5. But had the turn 1 Remorseful Cleric, via a Chrome Mox. Cleric did a few beats before I had to sac it to get rid of Griselbrand in the yard.By that time I had Mystic into Batterskull to cause pressure. He reanimated a Grave Titan later on but I was able to plow it (I had to plow it twice as the first one was countered). Another Cleric created some beats for the win.
Round 7. Grixis Delver. Win 2-0
Game 1. I had the turn 1 Stoneforge Mystic into Batterskull. I think he had all brainstorms as he didn't counter anything or kill anything until late in the game. I was able to resolved another Mystic 2 turns later to get Sword of Fire and Ice. He has 2 Flipped Delvers but it's a race I was able to win.
Game 2. We trade cards for a while until I land a Liliana, the Last Hope. He didn't have to the removal or the creatures to deal with it. She ultimated. GG.
Notes; had about 4 turn 1 Chrome Mox plays today. Not too bad.
-Cutting down to 21 lands kinda hurts at times but I really don't want to get flooded.
-Gurmag Angler was pretty decent. Of course, i probably won't be saying that when I flip it to Bob. But it necessary now to have a threat that doesn't immediately die to Liliana, the Last Hope.
-didn't get a turn 1 Leyline of Sanctity or Void in any of my games.
-Lol, stoneforge feels a lot better when there aren't as many Kologhan's Commands running around.
-Remorseful Cleric was pretty good. Insane vs Reanimator even as a beater as well as an answer. In other matchups, having evasive threat was nice.
-I'm now 21-14-2 with Deadguy post ban. 59% win rate. Fairly close to what I was before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvKeRSO32qw
Here's the video of the legacy tournament, the Eternal Trial I won.
Notes:
-No sound unfortunately
-it's VERY choppy. I think when it gets to the top 8 it's fine but it's painfully choppy before that.
-I did ID my rounds vs Canadian Threshold and Sneak show but we played for fun anyway on camera.
It seems like you have enough of a "toolbox" to warrant running the white recruiter. What do you think about that?
I think I would need to run a lot more creatures to make that work. PLus I think the build would be more of a death and taxes version dead guy.
And, I can't find Gurmag Angler, Hero of Bladehold or Kambal with recruiter.
Went 3-3 at Legacy monthly. Lost to Grixis Control twice and Burn. Beat Pox, Death and Taxes and Turbo Depths. Swiched out the Ob Nixilis Reignited for a Gideon, Ally of Zendikar.
I'm now at 25-20-2. Meh. It around 55%. Not awful but not great either.
But if I were to try something like Dark Death and Taxes it would probably look like this....
4 Dark Confidant
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Mother of Runes
1 Orzhov Pontiff
3 Flickerwisp
2 Remorseful Cleric
2 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Aether Vial
2 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Jitte
1 SOFI
1 Batterskull
23 lands.
Is Plaguecrafter worth considering for this deck?
Lots of games against Grixis Control came down to dueling Liliana the Last Hope in a race to Emblem first.
Would be interested in more capable pilot's thoughts.
I think Plaguecrafter can be in this deck. Too be able to kill a Jace with dude is totally worth it.
Deadguy ale Primer: http://articles.mtgcardmarket.com/br...n-deadguy-ale/ (Jeff did it before me)
To the slaughter/vindicate seem like better answers and it's pretty easy getting to delirium when the blue rock deck is making you discard/killing your creatures. This card doesn't really look that good in that matchup to me, against grixis i've found that the board always get clogged with strixes and snapcasters. It looks like it'd be decent against the UWx control decks.
Hello everyone,
I played at some big event (52 players) last weekend with my deadguy ale version.
I enjoyed playing the deck and I thought it would be nice to share my list and some thoughts I had.
Here's the list:
Land
1x Polluted Delta
4x Marsh Flats
6x Swamp
4x Wasteland
4x Scrubland
1x Karakas
3x Plains
Planeswalker
1x Gideon of the Trials
4x Liliana of the Veil
Instant
4x Swords to Plowshares
Artifact
1x Batterskull
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Umezawa's Jitte
Creature
2x Remorseful Cleric
2x Tidehollow Sculler
3x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Dark Confidant
Sorcery
3x Hymn to Tourach
3x Lingering Souls
3x Vindicate
3x Thoughtseize
2x Sinkhole
Sideboard
1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1x Zealous Persecution
1x Cataclysm
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Ensnaring Bridge
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
1x Kaya, Ghost Assassin
1x Engineered Plague
2x Dread of Night
1x Toxic Deluge
1x Rest in Peace
1x Humility
Tourney mini report
The tourney had 6 rounds with a cut for top 8.
I ended with 4-1-1, finishing in 7th.
I lost in the first round to reanimator, I could not find grave hate in any of the three games.
In the following rounds I won against two D&T, one UR elver and eldrazi aggro, every game was 2-0. While some games were closer than others, I did not face any major issues to control the board. I did have some issues with threats, sometimes it took a while to find a creature or the ones I had lacked evasion.
I drew in the last round against miracles due to time. We had a close game 1 which lasted nearly 35mins (which I lost), and another close game 2 which I won, without any time left to play a 3rd game.
In the top 8 I played my first match against burn, on the draw. I lost the first game, but I managed to win the match with the gideons, on both games.
The second match in the top 8 was against monored goblins, on the draw, and I lost 1-2. I felt I could win this match if my curve were lower. My list has multiple cards costing 3 without any cheaper options in the sideboard, which really hurt in this case.
On the following day I played again, at the smaller tournament (~20 players), finishing 2-1-1. I lost to UW stoneblade, beat burn and ur delver and drew with goblins (due time). Same list, except for a extra zealous persecution in the sideboard replacing cataclysm. I had to mulligan every single game, sometimes down to 5, but the deck played well.
Thoughts
- The 3 drop curve is too crowded. I have replace some of the 3 drops for cheaper alternatives, either in the main, the side or both.
- The deck needs more with evasion. I would rather not increase the creature count, but I definetely want more flyers. Cleric is good example of what I want in this deck: it's cheap, has evasion and it can disrupt.
- The deck needs more proactivity. Cheap creature removal (push, path, dismember) and discard (iok, seize) could help with this while also lowering the mana curve.
- My sideboard should address more strategies. I have little to no experience in the format and I built mine expecting lots of aggro, especially D&T.
Single card thoughts
- Tidehollow Sculler: I liked him a lot, but sadly he lacks evasion and dies easily, since he's also an artifact. Maybe Kitesail Freeboter could replace Sculler, the disruption is worse but he has evasion.
- Sinkhole: It felt nice playing with sinkholes and vindicates. I sided them out on most of my matches, but I liked having some hate against basic lands.
- No Moxes: To be honest I built my list without mox because I don't own any. I could tell that they would have helped against goblins, but I don't think I would replace anything in my list for them.
Maybeboard
- Kitesail Freebooter: maybe he's a good addition to deck or maybe he can replace on or both of the scullers.
- Bittlerblossom: extra resources with evasion. Can be good on offense and defense.
- Collective Brutality: flexible card with low cost, could help lowering the mana curve.
Thanks for reading everyone!
If you any suggestions on my list, please let me know :)
Itsvan, I *love* the number of basics in your list. Thank you for sharing your experience! A few comments, questions:
Aside from your burn matchup, did you see Gideon at all? How did he feel? I currently run a 3 Veil/2 Trials split in the main. I like Gideon's hard clock.
Can you go into more detail at all on your eldrazi matchup? What were your key sideboard cards?
Cutting 3 Mana spells is hard...they are all high value threats and answers. Who doesn't love blowing up a basic on turn 3? I think this is partially where Mox is so helpful - 21 lands / 3 Mox can help you hit the threes. In my mind, Mox also gives you more options on T1 than discard or "leave Mana open to plow a delver."
Tidehollow Sculler is a conditional 2-for-1 that dies two different ways to Kolaghan's command. One of my pet cards since alara. That being said, I don't think the ability to hit a creature is as relevant as flying or 3 toughness. Freebooter still grabs show and tell or a reanimate spell. Just my two cents.
Bitterblossom has been popping up in the main of grixis control/delver recently to deal with the mirror. I think having 2+ in the main can be great - it's solid defensively, tokens can hold swords, and man can it turn the corner.
A few general questions for the forum:
You have Bob, Stoneforge, and hymn in hand, land and Mox in play for turn 1. Which would you play first blind? Does it change if you're on the draw?
If you play a Stoneforge t1/t2, would you rather drop a Batterskull or a Planeswalker on the next turn? Does it depend on the matchup?
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In the dark i'd imprint the hymn and play the bob, he has the highest upside in surviving on the play. I usually imprint either extra discard spells or the most expensive card in my hand usually. I think you really would play bob in most situations. If you are playing against tempo on the draw it's best to just play around their soft permission. If you see that they are on combo/control i'd be a little more inclined to not pitch the hymn. Against something weird like dredge i'd play the SFM first since there is no way you are going to beat that deck game 1 and need to kill them asap.
The planeswalker question is a little hard to answer, i'd say play it by ear. I think that against control decks i'd want my walkers down as soon as possible or if they are getting forced at least you are cutting them off a bit of resources early but I think that forcing them to answer 1 threat then slamming another after is an equally good approach. When it's obvious e.g. last hope vs elves, d&t and maverick i'd 100% slam the walker.
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