4 Card Blind: The Silkster Seasons

[FTW]

Missing jfb1337 and FTW, but I think it makes sense to post anyway, which I will do in about 30 minutes after I get a few other things sorted out.

Almost forgot it was today. Sending something in a few minutes.
Edit: Sent

[silkster]

Season 14: Round 15 Lists

1. silkster: Luminarch Aspirant, Thought Erasure, Psychic Strike, Disrupting Shoal
2. Dooey: March of Otherworldly Light, Darksteel Citadel, Ensoul Artifact, Withering Boon
3. Asthereal: Grapeshot, Helm of Awakening, Sensei's Divining Top, Sensei's Divining Top
4. dte: Trickbind, Dread Fugue, The Mycosynth Gardens, Phyrexian Dreadnought
5. Wrath of Pie: Despise, Ajani Vengeant, Bottomless Vault, Garruk Relentless
6. GoblinSmashmaster: Priest of Gix, Nether Void, Delay, Wasteland
7. jfb1337: Obscura Interceptor, Blazing Rootwalla, Fury, Dwarven Hold
8. FTW: Saprazzan Cove, Hypnotic Sprite, Dack Fayden, Liquimetal Coating

Salted entry: Luminarch Aspirant, Thought Erasure, Psychic Strike, Disrupting Shoal, mana sources are overrated

[silkster]

1. Luminarch Aspirant, Thought Erasure, Psychic Strike, Disrupting Shoal
When Force of Will was played, it caught me off guard. Then Force of Negation surprised me. Then Foil surprised me. But not this time!

2. Dooey: March of Otherworldly Light, Darksteel Citadel, Ensoul Artifact, Withering Boon
I can't stop all 3 of your spells, so I stop the threat.
DD

3. Asthereal: Grapeshot, Helm of Awakening, Sensei's Divining Top, Sensei's Divining Top
I actually thought about this for a moment and I was satisfied with WD, but I found a new line. I let you Helm, and play out the first Top. I Psychic Strike the second one. Then I can play Aspirant and you can't get enough Grapeshots. And if you don't go for the combo on turn 1, I Thought Erasure the Grapeshot to clear the way.
WW

4. dte: Trickbind, Dread Fugue, The Mycosynth Gardens, Phyrexian Dreadnought
That is so many Dreadnaughts. You manage to dodge Disrupting Shoal, so this becomes "Discard mirror is WL".
WL

5. Wrath of Pie: Despise, Ajani Vengeant, Bottomless Vault, Garruk Relentless
Oh, Despise isn't Distress. You aren't playing 2cmc or 3cmc either! On the play, I can win on turn 6, but you'll have enough mana for both planeswalkers on turn 5. But then you have to spend every turn either keeping the Aspirant tapped or chump blocking.
DL

6. GoblinSmashmaster: Priest of Gix, Nether Void, Delay, Wasteland
Disrupting Shoal lines up against Delay, so I can counter 2 things and win.
WW

7. jfb1337: Obscura Interceptor, Blazing Rootwalla, Fury, Dwarven Hold
Interceptor meets the Strike, then you have to evoke Fury against the Aspirant.
DD

8. FTW: Saprazzan Cove, Hypnotic Sprite, Dack Fayden, Liquimetal Coating
Dack making me discard is scary, so I need to counter Dack, which I do using Disrupting Shoal, and you don't have turn 1 mana for Mesmeric Glare. Then Aspirant wins. If you wait (or I'm on the play), Thought Erasure gets Mesmeric Glare (possibly leaving you with the Sprite on an adventure), but Shoal will still catch Dack.
WW

From about round 3, I wanted to play Chromium the Mutable. But there kept being infinite combos with some protection, and it was costing me too much to use all of my mana and 3 cards (dragon + 2x spirit guides). And I couldn't get anything out of the last card. When I finally thought it might be time, I discovered that both spirit guides were banned. I thought about playing it with Crystal Vein, but that means Chromium doesn't get ahead of discard. I almost played a modal deck of (Dark Ritual + Chromium) + (3 mana counter + 2 mana threat), but that made Chromium weak to counters, but it didn't even force out your counter, so you would get to counter one spell from the other half of my deck too. When I discovered that Blood Baron of Vizkopa single-handedly beats Dread Fugue, Prohibit, Swords to Plowshares, and Durkwood Baloth, I couldn't resist. I had really high hopes for that round, but people did not play the 3-or-4 cheap spells decks that I was expecting. I also thought about playing Dark Ritual + Gutteral Response + Dark Ritual + Chromium to really force it through on turn 0, but it felt a bit too narrow for a deck that still lost to all combo decks.

The other win condition that I was hoping to play from round 3 was Gideon of the Trials in combination with Glorious End. The issues were: 1) you have to commit a card to making W on turn 1, which also meant that the fourth card wouldn't be very good; and 2) Glorious End is a very hard counter, but it doesn't help you resolve Gideon against a counter. I was close to submitting Glorious Gideon with Savannah and Tamiyo's Safekeeping in about round 9, but the fact that Safekeeping couldn't protect Gideon until the next turn meant that it still couldn't protect against planeswalker removal like Assassin's Trophy.

The other deck that got away was Swamp + Thoughtseize/Therapy + Reanimate/Animate Dead + Colossal Skyturtle. It's elegant, but it loses to combo and mass discard on the draw.

[FTW]

8. FTW: Saprazzan Cove, Hypnotic Sprite, Dack Fayden, Liquimetal Coating

I think I picked the wrong land. Can't make 1 mana until turn 3.

1. silkster: You play Erasure, I counter it, you can counter back with Shoal X=3. That would remove my creature & then you also discard Dack and resolve Aspirant. If I try to play Dack without a counter up, you can Shoal X=3 Dack, then Thought Erasure my creature and play Aspirant. LL 0-6

2. Dooey: March and Boon can't target Dack. So I just play T1 Dack, make you discard any unplayed cards, steal the 5/5 if you make it, and then cast my creature once your hand is empty. WW 6-0

3. Asthereal: I can counter Helm. Otherwise I just store up mana until I can play Dack with 2U up, discard your hand, then make my creature. WW 6-0

4. dte: OTP Dack+. If you discard 2 (Fugue+Trickbind/Gardens), you can make 1 Dreadnought but then I steal it. If you Trickbind the ability, you keep your cards but can only make 1 Dreadnought. I can steal it. But you can Dread Fugue my creature to draw.
OTD you Dread Fugue. If you Cleave to threaten Dack, you have 3 mana left. If I counter, you play Dreadnought + Trickbind that turn, and I can't cast Dack till my turn 3 (too slow). So I have to let Fugue resolve. If you discard Dack, I can counter Dreadnought, so you never play it and I can't play Sprite, and we draw.
Edit: Instead you can Dread Fugue for B and discard Sprite (cmc=2). Then use you can use RW on Dreadnought + Gardens to make a 12/12 and still hold up UG for Trickbind to counter Dack's steal.
DL 1-4

5. Wrath of Pie: OTP I play Dack & Coating, make you discard 2. You could resolve 1 PW, but neither can kill Dack in 1 turn and then I steal it and win. So it's better for you to discard both walkers and Despise my creature to draw.
OTD you Despise me. If it resolves, you take Dack and then I can't counter the Walkers, so I must counter it. Then you play land & Ajani. Ajani locks me out of charging my land so I can't play anything else. DL 1-4

6. GoblinSmashmaster: Not fair! No goblins. If I play Dack, you Delay and then Nether Void + Waste my land. If I do nothing, I can threaten to counter Priest but you Delay me, then Waste my land and win. LL 0-6

7. jfb1337: I can't counter Obscura or Fury, due to CMC. If you play Obscura, I can stealing all your stuff with Dack, but as long as its in hand I can't play Dack. Eventually you cast Fury and I can't counter or race with Sprite. LL 0-6

14 points (4 wins, 2 draws)

I really wanted to play Dack + Coating one of these rounds but could never find the right mana + support/wincon. Because it's the last round I wanted to play it anyway, but would have done better with one of my "good but boring" ideas.

I had a variation that was Dack Fayden, Liquimetal Coating, Tolarian Academy (lolbo with Coating), Ensoul Artifact. It had the advantage of being able to play everything in one turn and having a faster clock, but I was nervous to play no counters. I chose the 3cmc one for Windfall, the Helm/Grapeshot deck, the Monolith/Power Artifact deck, enemy counterspells/discard (to protect Dack), and potential goblin combos. It misses Soul Spike though.

Other decks I had on the table...
T0 Discard: Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Tourach, Dread Cantor
T1 Discard: Windfall, Swords to Plowshares, Corpulent Corpse, Flip the Switch
Combo: Collective Brutality, Serra's Emissary, Unburial Rites, Bottomless Vault (or Dark Rit/Peat Bog or Eiganjo+Resurrection - different advantages for each)
Discard3: Godless Shrine, Mind Swords, Roc Egg, Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage
Fair jank: Dryad Arbor, Bloodhall Ooze, Valki, God of Lies, Make Disappear

[dte]

1. silkster: Luminarch Aspirant, Thought Erasure, Psychic Strike, Disrupting Shoal
3-3 discard mirror
3

2. Dooey: March of Otherworldly Light, Darksteel Citadel, Ensoul Artifact, Withering Boon
6-0, discard counter and 2 dreadnough vs 1 removal and a smaller creature. Trample matters here.
9

3. Asthereal: Grapeshot, Helm of Awakening, Sensei's Divining Top, Sensei's Divining Top
6-0. Where trickbind shines.
15

4. dte: Trickbind, Dread Fugue, The Mycosynth Gardens, Phyrexian Dreadnought
Me, thinking that this is a nice level of disruption and threat. From round 1 I thought I always wanted to play for the last round 2 x Chancellor of the dross, soul spike, Hidetsugu's second rite, a nice T0 reminder of the last season, but the scores are too close on the season to risk not playing what I thought was the best deck.

5. Wrath of Pie: Despise, Ajani Vengeant, Bottomless Vault, Garruk Relentless
3-3, discard mirror
18

6. GoblinSmashmaster: Priest of Gix, Nether Void, Delay, Wasteland
3-3.
21

7. jfb1337: Obscura Interceptor, Blazing Rootwalla, Fury, Dwarven Hold
6-0
27

8. FTW: Saprazzan Cove, Hypnotic Sprite, Dack Fayden, Liquimetal Coating
4-1. I agree on draw when I am OTD. when I am OTP, I discard your sprite for B (it only costs UU, so no need to cleave), play and copy dreadnought for RW, and I do have UG to trickbind dack steal.
31.

Turns out being more brave and playing chancellor / soul spike / Hidetsugu would be 30, so almost identical result.

[GoblinSmashmaster]

GoblinSmashmaster Results for "Final Round"

1. silkster: Luminarch Aspirant, Thought Erasure, Psychic Strike, Disrupting Shoal
2 counters :( 0-6

2. Dooey: March of Otherworldly Light, Darksteel Citadel, Ensoul Artifact, Withering Boon
Darksteel smash :( 0-6

3. Asthereal: Grapeshot, Helm of Awakening, Sensei's Divining Top, Sensei's Divining Top
Into the void 6-0

4. dte: Trickbind, Dread Fugue, The Mycosynth Gardens, Phyrexian Dreadnought
Into the void, then discard 3-3

5. Wrath of Pie: Despise, Ajani Vengeant, Bottomless Vault, Garruk Relentless
Into the void 4-1

6. GoblinSmashmaster: Priest of Gix, Nether Void, Delay, Wasteland
That's me, mixing it up from Goblins

7. jfb1337: Obscura Interceptor, Blazing Rootwalla, Fury, Dwarven Hold
Into the void 2-2

8. FTW: Saprazzan Cove, Hypnotic Sprite, Dack Fayden, Liquimetal Coating
Into the void 6-0

Total: 21 points?

[Dooey]

2. Dooey: March of Otherworldly Light, Darksteel Citadel, Ensoul Artifact, Withering Boon

1. silkster: Luminarch Aspirant, Thought Erasure, Psychic Strike, Disrupting Shoal

You stop my threat, I stop yours. DD

3. Asthereal: Grapeshot, Helm of Awakening, Sensei's Divining Top, Sensei's Divining Top

March any of your permanents. WW

4. dte: Trickbind, Dread Fugue, The Mycosynth Gardens, Phyrexian Dreadnought

Can keep you on 1 nought, but it has trample. LL

5. Wrath of Pie: Despise, Ajani Vengeant, Bottomless Vault, Garruk Relentless

I make scissors but can't attack. You hold your planeswalkers until you can play both. If I attack, you play ajani and lock down my scissors then win with garruk. If I don't, you play garruk, and make a blocker. If I don't march it and kill garruk, you make another one and I'm really screwed, so I do that. Then you play ajani and lock down my scissors until you have arbitrary loyalty on ajani. Then you start -2ing ajani, and your 6 point swing per turn beats my 5. LL

6. GoblinSmashmaster: Priest of Gix, Nether Void, Delay, Wasteland

You don't have a line to stop my threat, and my threat is good. WW.

7. jfb1337: Obscura Interceptor, Blazing Rootwalla, Fury, Dwarven Hold

Make scissors. You intercept, I counter, I outrace. WW

8. FTW: Saprazzan Cove, Hypnotic Sprite, Dack Fayden, Liquimetal Coating

My interaction is bad against yours and yours is good against mine. LL

6W2D

Was expecting indestructible to be a lot more relevant than it was. Still did win some games though.

[Asthereal]

Asthereal's scores for the final round:

1. silkster: Luminarch Aspirant, Thought Erasure, Psychic Strike, Disrupting Shoal LL
Shoal my Helm, Erasure my Grapeshot, any wincon will do.
2. Dooey: March of Otherworldly Light, Darksteel Citadel, Ensoul Artifact, Withering Boon LL
March my Helm, any wincon will do.
3. Asthereal: Grapeshot, Helm of Awakening, Sensei's Divining Top, Sensei's Divining Top <-me
I had to play a turn 1 kill, seeing it still legal by the final round. Probably a bad call though.
4. dte: Trickbind, Dread Fugue, The Mycosynth Gardens, Phyrexian Dreadnought LL
Trickbind the Grapeshot storm trigger, any wincon will do.
5. Wrath of Pie: Despise, Ajani Vengeant, Bottomless Vault, Garruk Relentless WW
No interaction, so I get to go off.
6. GoblinSmashmaster: Priest of Gix, Nether Void, Delay, Wasteland LL
Delay my Helm, then Nether Void stops me entirely, and any wincon will do.
7. jfb1337: Obscura Interceptor, Blazing Rootwalla, Fury, Dwarven Hold WW
I have two mana to spare in my combo, so I can recast my Helm and still go off. Bouncing a Top does nothing, and of course bouncing Grapeshot is just silly. So I get to go off.
8. FTW: Saprazzan Cove, Hypnotic Sprite, Dack Fayden, Liquimetal Coating LL
Sprite counters my Helm. I fI wait to go off, you make many manas with the Cove, and drop Dack in order to eat my hand. After that, the Sprite will murder me.

Total: 12 points

[dte]

3. Asthereal: Grapeshot, Helm of Awakening, Sensei's Divining Top, Sensei's Divining Top <-me
I had to play a turn 1 kill, seeing it still legal by the final round. Probably a bad call though.
...
Total: 12 points

I was wondering why you had much less than the 30 I calculated for the T0 kill I wanted to play and whether it was T1 vs T0. Answer is, because I got most MUs wrong :/

[jfb1337]

7. jfb1337: Obscura Interceptor, Blazing Rootwalla, Fury, Dwarven Hold

1. silkster: Luminarch Aspirant, Thought Erasure, Psychic Strike, Disrupting Shoal
DD - Several variations of the order of cards played, but ultimately strike trades with interceptor and pitchcast fury trades with aspirant

2. Dooey: March of Otherworldly Light, Darksteel Citadel, Ensoul Artifact, Withering Boon
LL - I can't beat or stop scissors through boon

3. Asthereal: Grapeshot, Helm of Awakening, Sensei's Divining Top, Sensei's Divining Top
LL - This combo works through interceptor

4. dte: Trickbind, Dread Fugue, The Mycosynth Gardens, Phyrexian Dreadnought
LL - I can't stop a dreadnaut

5. Wrath of Pie: Despise, Ajani Vengeant, Bottomless Vault, Garruk Relentless
??
this is pretty complicated, still figuring out all the lines

6. GoblinSmashmaster: Priest of Gix, Nether Void, Delay, Wasteland
DD - You preist + void, I pitch fury on priest, which you can't delay.

8. FTW: Saprazzan Cove, Hypnotic Sprite, Dack Fayden, Liquimetal Coating
WW - I'll trust your workings

Total: 2W4D = 10 + whatever I get from WoP

[silkster]

4CB - CEILING SEASON

Every round there will be a "ceiling deck", and all submissions must lose 0-6 to this deck. After round 1, the ceiling deck will be the lowest scoring deck* of the previous round, which I will declare a few days after the decklists are posted. This will be locked in, so if scores are corrected, it won't change the ceiling deck. If results aren't yet full, I'll just make my best guess.
*Exceptions will be made at my discretion if this makes no or vanishingly few legal decks.


Legality: paper vintage, thus excluding Alchemy and other online-only cards.
Additional Bans: Unfinity, Shahrazad, dungeons and other cards from outside the game.

We will play 9 rounds, getting round points each round, and in the end we'll take the sum of the top 7. This was approximately how we graded math quizzes in university and it saved so many headaches of people missing for this reason or that reason. I kinda think an entry or two might be found to be illegal after the fact, so this seems like a good safety net.

I'm sometimes really bad at making arbitrary choices, so we'll have a bit of a warm-up pre-round. For the pre-round, submit any deck. For this round only, the deck with the median score will be chosen as the ceiling deck for round 1. So just submit whatever you feel like. This is also a good opportunity for me to test out using google forms. Entries for warm-up round are open.

Ceiling Season Entry Form

Decks will be posted on Tuesdays at 11:00 am EDT (New York time). The plan is to choose the next ceiling deck around Thursday (at which point you can submit), I'll try to lock in my deck on Friday or Saturday, and I'll do my best to verify legality of submitted decks on Sunday or Monday. You can change your deck by submitting a new one any time before the lists posted.

[dte]

Sounds very fun, entry submitted!

[FourDogsinaHorseSuit]

Suggestion: the Ceiling of the previous round must score a win.
Use case: I submit Wastes Wastes Ancient tomb Wastes

[dte]

Suggestion: the Ceiling of the previous round must score a win.
Use case: I submit Wastes Wastes Ancient tomb Wastes

Suggestion2: the Ceiling of the previous round must be able to score a win.

[Wrath of Pie]

I look forward to Asthereal submitting Thalakos Lowlands.

I would also change the dungeon ban to simply cards from outside the game, that way everything is covered, even potential new mechanics.

[FTW]

Suggestion2: the Ceiling of the previous round must be able to score a win.

Be able to score a win against what? The deck I submitted is capable of winning... against very specific decks.

[dte]

Be able to score a win against what? The deck I submitted is capable of winning... against very specific decks.

I think Silkster can evaluate and decide that, and chose the hand that will bring constraints yet leave some possible diversity.

Taking a deck that had a win immediately shows a legal contender (the deck it won against).

[silkster]

Be able to score a win against what? The deck I submitted is capable of winning... against very specific decks.

I think dte is saying that the real issue that comes up is that if the ceiling deck is 4 basic lands, then there will literally be no possible legal submissions that week. So a deck like Rushwood Grove, Vesuva, Wolfcaller's Howl, Reality Smasher technically passes because it beats something. I don't think this is likely because people should be submitting decks that are actually trying to win, but in order to safeguard against this I have assigned myself the power to veto decks if I want.

I haven't looked at the submissions yet, nor have I submitted my own, but I think I'm glad for how I ran this pre-round. I was having a really hard time choosing a deck, and I considered taking votes or suggestions, but it's a bit awkward because you can't compromise halfway between decks. By choosing the median, we're basically voting on the power level.

It's probably not important, but I'll specify that if there is an even number of entries, I'll go with the lower median. And if scores tie, I'll go with the earliest submitted deck. By declaring this now, I relieve myself from potentially having to make a judgment.

[FourDogsinaHorseSuit]

How are we on new cards? Like the mh3 spoilers which will be happening the whole time this is happening

[silkster]

How are we on new cards? Like the mh3 spoilers which will be happening the whole time this is happening

Oh, that's a good point. I haven't followed new sets in a few years now, so I forgot about this. I think introducing cards mid-season is fine (in a banathon it's a bit strange to add cards that would have been banned much earlier had they been legal). So I'm going to say that legality for the upcoming week is checked when the lists of the previous round are posted. So legality for round 1 is checked on Tuesday, May 7.