Opponent gaining life is roughly nothing. Opponent gaining a basic land is not approximately nothing. Why would we care if our opponent gains life? Going on the offensive is one of our last priorities. We run creatures, but that's just because it so happens in legacy right now creatures are better control spells than control. I mean yes, it literally says 1/3, 2/2, 4/4, 3/3 etc. on our creatures but you should think of it as more approximately:
Instead of usual draw spells, we run creature draw spells.
Instead of usual mass removal, we run jitte
etc. etc.
Once you get beyond the expectation that creatures have to be 10/10s or whatever, it'll be easy to see why this deck succeeds.
Is there room in the land-base for Maze of Ith? With the tutoring power of Wayfarer, NG should be able to find it fairly consistently without running too many copies.
Tutoring Maze of Ith usually isn't a good play. When we have an active Wayfarer, we try to play fewer lands than the opponent, and Maze of Ith gives us less flexibility and performance than a land would most of the time. It gives you the ability to let them trade a creature on offense for a land. Unfortunately when we have active Wayfarer, they would almost always try to trade a Goyf or something for the ability to play a land if they could.
Against mono-colored decks when you don't have Wasteland access as easily, it's still not that great, because many mono-colored decks use swarm-style offenses, and removing one attacker generally isn't as good as playing a land that lets you catch up.
There are times when I might want to tutor it up, and it was a good idea (tested a while back), but it's too niche to be worth all the times that we'd end up drawing it.
Hello
I would like to ask something about Fathom Seer and his interaction with Aether Vial (again). Hum... I play MUC or Stasis. In my testings, I tried to replace Ophidian by Fathom Seer. In MUC, it doesn't work because it ruins my lands drop when I use fathom's ability to draw the 2 cards. In NoGoyf, I understood that bouncing 2 islands wasn't a probleme because you want to use the wayfarer or save a Tundra targeted by a nasty Wasteland or something else. I was wondering if Ophidian (with the so loved "Mom's" support) was better than Fathom Seer. It costs 3 manas like a morphed Fathom (that costs 2 to cast face up), can makes you draw cards too, can be drop with vial for three counters on it (instead of 2 for the Fathom, bad thing ?) but still makes you draw if you give it evasion with Mom (protection I mean).
So my question is : Ophidian or Fathom ? Don't be afraid to answer. I have no idea about that. I just want to know your feeling about that choice. I mean I won't fight for a choice that can be based on tests or tastes ;) (XD My first english joke!!)
Another point about Vial. It "gives" flash in some way your creatures. Have you ever tested Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir ? With the omnipresent Mom, all your creatures are safe if Teferi joins the team. No way for the opponent to cast before Mom's protection resolves. Yes, it cost 5 manas and I don't know if your deck can produce 5 manas before Teferi becomes a "winmore". Better than Vial (in late game) ?
The last question is : Any room for Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir ?
4th: 293/363
5th: 82/434
Vi: 159/167
Wl: 100/167
Te: 318/335
St: 132/143
Ex: 136/143
US: 235/335
3/8 Sealed boosters
1/8 Sealed boosterboxes
Only 632 cards left for a full Korean set, over 69% done (last update 05/27)
Always looking for sealed product!
Yes, you're right; Augury Adept is better than Ophidan. I forgot this card. I don't know why people would still want to play Ophidian... maybe because they forget Augury Adept. I don't play Ophidian anymore... but yes, in a blue/white deck, Augury Adept is better. Even in a blue XD. The only thing is that the adept reveals your card but the life gain can compense maybe. I really don't know...
The question becomes : Augury Adept or Fathom Seer ?
You know what, Atwa ? Let's the NoGoyf players decide ! I am too noob with NoGoyf to pretend to know what might improve the deck... Hey dude, we both were wondering ! XD
4th: 293/363
5th: 82/434
Vi: 159/167
Wl: 100/167
Te: 318/335
St: 132/143
Ex: 136/143
US: 235/335
3/8 Sealed boosters
1/8 Sealed boosterboxes
Only 632 cards left for a full Korean set, over 69% done (last update 05/27)
Always looking for sealed product!
Have a few questions:
Creature slots, specifically Serra Avenger and Court Hussar - do these numbers stay pretty static for you or do you modify them depending on the expected meta? I'm not sure how often you'd want to see multiples of either, but they both seem like they'd be pretty solid carrying a jitte.
Is this deck playable on less than 4 tundra? I'm in the process of building it - but I probably won't have 4x tundra for a little while (unless things go really well in my fantasy football leagues). It seems like it's pretty crucial for your lands to all be islands for daze and fathom seer.
I have played the deck a few times (the version from a year or so ago) with only 2 tundra, and it worked pretty well. Just remember to have 8 fetches, which can get plains, as plains is heavily needed for wayfarer and Swords
Recently Avenger/CH has been constant. I really want to add more Avengers, but you can't add any without cutting blue (the white spells are all better), and you can't cut blue because Force of Will would get hard to cast.
Court Hussar might go up in really controllish metagames, but it would have to be a crazy control meta to do that, and I don't really think those exist (most are undeveloped aggro metas).
2 Tundra would probably be playable. I guess you'd replace the other two with a third plains and a second Island. 3 is definitely playable, you just replace one with either a plains or fetchland. Especially if there isn't that much Wasteland in your metagame, you can get away with fewer tundras.
The big play you want to be able to make that two tundras would miss is bouncing two Tundras to hand, and then cast Knight for a Tundra.
Also after getting double wasted, you still want to be able to Fathom Seer later in the game. If you just have two tundra, it might be fairly difficult to Fathom Seer at all, and people noting that could exploit that factor (generally land destruction doesn't work at all against this deck). With only two tundras, you need to add a second basic island, which generally isn't good.
I'd like to keep the blue count at or above 18 or so, but it'd be convenient if we could cut ancestral vision and court hussar. These three are easily the worst three cards in the deck, and some things on the list Matt and I came up together: (This is really a union of lists, we didn't both agree to everything on the list yet.)
Divert
Spellstutter sprite
Sower of temptation
Threads of disloyalty
Vendillion Clique
Counterbalance/top
He's currently testing divert and I'm currently testing counterbalance top. Any other suggestions? Phoenix has suggested mimeomancer but it seems like clique is better at instant speed and with the disruption/extra information it reveals. (Or perhaps the ability to ditch one of your bad cards.) In extended, this typically enables meddling mage, but in legacy this is somewhat slow.
We'll be keeping our eyes open when Worldwake comes around.
// Lands
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
4 [A] Tundra
3 [ON] Windswept Heath
4 [TE] Wasteland
2 [9E] Plains (1)
1 [BD] Island (3)
// Creatures
4 [ON] Weathered Wayfarer
2 [CS] Jotun Grunt
4 [DD2] Fathom Seer
4 [UL] Mother of Runes
1 [DIS] Court Hussar
3 [ALA] Knight of the White Orchid
// Spells
4 [BD] Brainstorm
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [OV] Swords to Plowshares
3 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
2 [DS] AEther Vial
3 [NE] Daze
2 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
2 [CS] Counterbalance
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [CS] Jotun Grunt
SB: 3 [10E] Aura of Silence
SB: 2 [LRW] Thorn of Amethyst
SB: 4 [LRW] Burrenton Forge-Tender
SB: 1 [FNM] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 2 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
SB: 2 [MI] Enlightened Tutor
Is the list I've been playing. Hussar stayed to keep the creature and blue count up, but ancestral visions were cut. Avengers were also cut; we've agreed that 4 is too many because they can't be cast until turn 4 and Matt likened having them or AVs to "mulligans until turn 4/5 respectively."
I think this justifies their complete removal, though, even though mom with avenger is such a tight combo, as well as jitte with avenger.
Counterbalance top lets us equip jitte with confidence that we won't get tempod by swords/lightning bolt, or whatever other removal. We have an awesome curve for it, and it also increases our TES/ANT MU even more.
Maybe future versions of this deck will make room for some avengers. Vigilance really was a pretty big deal against goblins. I think our goblins MU improvement was already on diminishing returns since we were beating it pretty hard with 4 moms, 4 BFT, and we cut cards that were horrid against goblins in the first place for the new cards as well. (AV)
Anyway, hopefully Matt will chime in with his thoughts on divert. We'll be testing the new cards. Both and the rest of the list are all possibilities so we will see. As an aside, in case anybody thinks of this I have thought about using scroll rack with counterbalance instead so we can ditch our extra lands as well. However, it's much more clumsy with counterbalance since you must maintain a hand with the variety of casting costs you want, and you must use it twice to restore the original state of affairs. Also, you can only guarantee one counter per turn.
I liked Looter Il-Kor in testing. It provided an offensive way to charge the Jitte and not be put in danger by tapping mom for it. Also removes excess lands from your hand which is a plus. I saw it as a way to cut visions while keeping creature and blue counts up, while still having a cantrip in the deck. Aether vial gets used more at 2 then as well. Obviously 4 would be too many.
Divert is bad maindeck. I haven't tried it in this deck but I have in merfolk and you won't hit it often enough against good enough spells to actually include it. You also have to keep mana open, which sparked your original tirade. If anything spell pierce should go here, as that card is freaking amazing.
Spellstutter Sprite is a pretty good tempo play, and probably better than the random 2-of Counterbalance. In my experience, Counterbalance really needs to be an all or nothing deal since late-game Counterbalance lock is pretty much irrelevant, so not having both components very early on makes Counterbalance in particular much worse. Top is pretty much always good, but I don't see it being something this deck necessarily wants. Sprite stops Swords/Path, most relevant burn, Top, Grim Lavamancer, Spell Snare, Vial, Chant/Silence, etc - and that's just the first one, as subsequent Sprites will be able to stop bigger and bigger spells. If you go with four of them, you end up with a counter suite of 4 Sprite, 4 Force, 3 Daze, which is pretty brutal.
Sower is a bit above this deck's curve, but it might be worth testing.
Divert seems pretty mediocre. I'd play Spell Pierce or Stifle before I played Divert. I mean, seriously, what spells are you desperate to redirect in this format?
Without Avenger though, the deck is pretty much entirely reliant on Jitte, and I think the tiny size of the guys was already a problem (they function fine as control elements, but relying on 1 power dudes who get outclassed if they get sneezed on in combat relies too much on complete control of the game from trying out the list...)
QFT/What I have been arguing. Jeff made it sound like I wanted to cut Angel, for whatever reason, but I've actually been running three copies recently.
A lot of times it boils down to trench warfare when they can't attack profitably and you can't attack at all. Then Angel wins the game. It's definitely the one card you want to see against: Landstill and Threshold.
This is a good card, probably worth testing if I had more time. With only two vials, though, and playing this deck, it's pretty hard to keep two untapped, and your opponent might play into two drops anyway.Spellstutter
I guess that's the same argument vs. Divert.
It has been good so far, but not as good as I'd hoped, so I cut it. The thing is you don't have to stay open for Divert the whole game, because there are only small timing windows where your opponent is looking to remove your guys or play a Hymn or Sinkhole. There are situations like where you have Jitte or you vial in an endstep mom where you know your opponent will try to spot up the removal, and getting a Divert in under those circumstances is almost always game-winning as it nets you a 2:1 with incredible tempo.Divert
I dunno, it might go in the board as a 1-of, it was just incredible against Zoo, which is our toughest common matchup.
I've been more happy with Spell Pierce, which is better than Force against Storm and control and also pretty good in most matchups.
I may play at the legacy tournament on the 3rd. I will not play at the Extended PTQs on the second because baneslayers, duals, are cards that have no long term value, but cost a lot right now.
So I'm going to reveal the list I probably would have played. If you're interested in playing nogoyf in a format where it's dominating instead of only good, look into extended. (It's why I looked into extended.)
// Lands
2 [ZEN] Arid Mesa
1 [BD] Island (3)
4 [DIS] Hallowed Fountain
4 [9E] Plains (1)
1 [DIS] Azorius Chancery
2 [DIS] Ghost Quarter
1 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
2 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
2 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
1 [M10] Glacial Fortress
// Creatures
3 [ALA] Knight of the White Orchid
4 [DIS] Court Hussar
4 [ARB] Meddling Mage
2 [CS] Jotun Grunt
3 [MOR] Vendilion Clique
4 [9E] Weathered Wayfarer
3 [M10] Baneslayer Angel
// Spells
4 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
4 [CFX] Path to Exile
2 [TSP] Return to Dust
1 [TSP] Ancestral Vision
2 [DIS] Condemn
4 [TSP] Careful Consideration
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [CS] Jotun Grunt
SB: 2 [TSP] Return to Dust
SB: 2 [DIS] Condemn
SB: 1 [FNM] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 4 [MR] Chalice of the Void
SB: 4 [SOK] Kataki, War's Wage
SB: 1 [LRW] Burrenton Forge-Tender
Beats zoo because of 6/8 removal after board, beats affinity and thopter because of return to dust main and return/kataki side. Condemn also comes in vs. affinity, beats midrange aggro because it can draw into and protect baneslayer much easier than the other deck can. (If it even has baneslayer at all.) Also careful consideration is awesome.
It beats combo because the combo decks of the format are fragile. Mage stops them, and then if they resolve, half the time they're not even lethal. (Like hypergenesis.) Sometimes hypergenesis even leaves the board state at parity if you have baneslayer and other stuff, with like 1 removal spell.
Well, I went to a pretty fun local/pickup tournament in SD. The decks overall were pretty competitive, but only 7 people so :-(. Whatever that's worth.
Placed 2nd with outdated decklist. Here's what I played:
//Creatures
4x Serra Avenger
4x Mother of Runes
4x Weathered Wayfarer
4x Fathom Seer
1x Court Hussar
2x Jotun Grunt
//Spells
3x Daze
4x Force of Will
4x Brainstorm
3x Ancestral Vision
4x Swords to Plowshares
//Other
2x Aether Vial
3x Umezawa's Jitte
//Lands
3x Wasteland
4x Windswept Heath
4x Flooded Strand
4x Tundra
2x Plains
1x Island
Round 1 vs. Charlie on Dreadstill Ugr:
I win the roll and we both take one mulligan each. I get out a Vial + Wayfarer going.
He Stifles an early Wasteland and I think he might be Tempo Thresh, since I don't really know his deck, but I decide to play more aggressively when I see the Top. He plays a Counterbalance quickly after, but he can't assemble the lands to toplock me completely out. I continually wasteland him, keeping him on 1-2 lands so he can't effectively top or even play spells. To compound the problem, he started missing land drops after his fourth or fifth land, and I was even able to resolve a Facedown underneath CB/Top noting that he missed his land drop.
He decides to dig out two Islands just to try to get something going, but Dreadstill functioning as MUC doesn't work out too well.
I end up beating him down with 1/1s and a 1/3 until I get Angel out. I end up with Mom, Wayfarer, Fathom Seer (face up), and Serra Avenger. He rips and plays Dreadnought/Stifle, but it's one turn too late. I have more than 12 life and he only has 10. I swing him for 5 down to 5. Dreadnought can't even attack (the crack back is barely fatal), and Angel takes the game home as Charlie's top lets him down.
With just UU on the table and looking for lands, I don't think there are any outs that could have saved him (Angel flies over 2R for Firespout), but he apparently forgot to draw a card the turn before his last draw step after musing over a top activation for a while. The game was pretty long (like turn 15 or so). I offered to count up all the cards to see, but Charlie decides to scoop in the interest of time, since maybe he knew there weren't any outs left for him.
Game 2 goes to time. Actually way over time.
Again he ends up with CB/Top lock, but Wayfarer makes CB/Top more or less a push. This tends to lead to an extremely drawn-out game as he tries to maneuver anything onto the board without losing the lock and I try to sculpt a play that can put a game-winning threat onto the board. Highlights included an early Firespout going 4:1 but leaving me up on cards because the stuff he killed was like Fathom Seer and Weathered Wayfarer. Time is called and it's a draw.
Round 2, Max on Dragon Stompy:
I hate Dragon Stompy. I've tested it a lot, and it's a positive matchup, but it always makes you feel like you don't have any control whatsoever as to your fate.
Game 1 I win the roll and a Jitte hand, so I win the game. Turn 1 Mother of Runes outpaces turn 1 Chalice @ 1, then turn 2 Jitte. He has I think Blood Moon. W/e. I already tutored basics out. I swing with Mom and charge up Jitte.
On his turn, he plays Seething Song. Ok. Then he plays Arc-Slogger into Daze. GG. He also had Rakdos Pit Dragon, but by then Mom had 2 counters already and could just run Rakdos over.
Game 2 I see no land and mulligan. Then I see: Vial, Burrenton Forge-Tender, Daze, Jitte, Tundra Tundra. Pretty much the best hand I could hope for, I only lose to one piece of hate: Chalice @ 1, (3 sphere is about a push, but this hand totally rapes Blood Moon), and then he has to follow it with more disruption or I'll win off of Jitte as soon as I see a creature.
Sure enough, he goes: turn 1 Chalice @ 1, turn 2 Magus (Guiding my Daze), turn 3 Changeling guy, and I get beat down going on the hopeless quest for a creature. Dragon Stompying me.
Game 3 against Dragon Stompy. Fortunately, Max Dragon Stompies himself this game and takes a mulligan whereas I draw double Force of Will opening hand and soon win.
Finals vs. Sean on Merfolk:
We talk about how I feel about the NoGoyf matchup and I say it's like 60-65% against Non-Jitte Merfolk. He says that my creatures don't do anything, but I kinda feel the opposite is true, and that the game just comes down to the Jitte, which I have and they usually don't have.
So with the stakes raised up, we begin.
Game 1: No land, Mulligan. No land, Mulligan. Fuck. Keeping Vial, Angel, Land, Land, Swords. Pretty much the best possible five, but I topdeck two land over the next two turns while Sean is Vialing in Silvergills and Lords. I keep it close when I set up a 3:1 play off of Swords on a Lord of Atlantis, but he has the Force, then the Force for my Force and I'm out of cards. GG.
Game 2: Nobody mulligans, and I open with Vial. I never see a Jitte (sucks). Still, the fact that any given turn, I could rip Jitte and win makes him play aggressively into a Vial @ 2 and it rapes him twice (once on a 3:2 play where two swords took out his Lord and then Angel kills his muta) and then later Jotun Grunt came in to kill a 3/3 Lord and seal the game up. Angel beats him down and eventually he scoops.
Game 3: No land, Mulligan. No land, Mulligan. Double fuck. Keeping 2 Tundra, Plains, Fetchland, Force of Will. Yeah. Thanks, deck. I do topdeck Mother of Runes and then Serra Avenger, two very nice draws, but then my deck feeds me two land and a daze, and I scoop with more nearly twice as many lands as business spells when he casts Vedalken Shackles.
Postgame Exhibition Matches
We did play 3 games afterward, just for funsies. I didn't mulligan any of those (and in one case told him to just take 7 after a mulligan) and swept 3-0, including one interesting play:
I have Mother, Fathom Seer, Weathered Wayfarer, Serra Avenger, Vial @1. He has a sick Silvergill and sick mutavault and 4 guys not sick attacking me (cursecatcher, Silvergill, 2x lord of atlantis, Merrow Reejerey). I have no islands in play through use of Fathom Seer. I choose to double block the 4/4 Reejerey with Seer and Avenger, using Mom to protect the highest in the damage order, taking damage down to 2 life. Endstep I use a fetchland for plains to reduce my land count in order to tutor a Wasteland with Wayfarer. So yes, I'm at 1 life.
I tick Vial to 2, play the wasteland, and pass. He doesn't topdeck anything relevant and swings with the team.
I wasteland the mutavault, and Vial in Grunt to block LoA (3/3), Angel blocks the other lord, Fathom Seer, Wayfarer, and Mom each block the rest of his now one-toughness squad. Mom gives protection to Angel and I end the turn with Grunt Angel against his nothing. My topdeck is conveniently Umezawa's Jitte to lock him out of the game.
So I basically traded: Mom, Fathom Seer, Wayfarer for: Cursecatcher, Silvergill x2, Mutavault, Lord of Atlantis x2, Merrow Reejerey and stabilized on 1 life. Maybe it was a play mistake to have attacked the turn before, but trading a Merrow Reejerey for 17 damage doesn't seem too bad.
Analysis
I've played NG in tournaments before, so everything was more or less what I expected (except for slops for the turnout -- it was fucking POURING rain, so a lot of people bailed -- Thanks, Sean, btw for the lift back after beating my ass).
There wasn't any surprise factor since I was talking to people about the deck beforehand and everyone there had played me or Jeff before. I think in a larger tournament, you get some surprise edge which can get you some freebie games, but all my opponents knew what to do against Wayfarer, knew that the morphs were all Fathom Seers, etc. Made the games more interesting, at least.
The deck performed really well, despite being a pretty outdated model and generally worse than the new builds. The only games lost were mulligan games. I did mulligan way more often than usual (usually you should mulligan to six around 15-20% with this deck, but I only played 8 games and mulled 6 times). I can chalk part of that up to very old, dirty sleeves and not paying enough attention during shuffling. Even drawing 7 cards is pretty difficult because the brand making my sleeves apparently installed some tiny velcro strips on the edges.
Yeah running MWS statistical package reveals we actually mull like 10% of our 7 cards. For an estimation, we probably mull 20% of our 6 cards.
It's interesting to note that even with Matt's draws, 2-1 is approximately the overall ratio that we claimed against any reasonable meta: ~2/3 win.
It's the same in big tournaments as in small ones, so if there's any truth to this deck performing "worse" in big tournaments, it's only because everyone "performs worse" if the metric is getting first place, since there are more people by definition of "big."
In a big tournament you'd want to increase the variance of your matchups across various decks. This deck has matchups ranging from about 40 to 80%, not the highest amount of variance, but a reasonable amount. Also, as the number of rounds increases, the decks that are well suited for playing in tournaments of that given number of rounds benefit because in more rounds, one if using a statistical model, can reduce the deviations from the expected performance. (I mean relative to everybody else, I think fewer people is still better at maximizing your chance to win!)
As far as I understand, Matt and I will be participating at the SCG 5K in LA. Hope to see you there.
Someone else had mentioned Spellstutters as a potential card in this deck. Has anyone looked at trying to run them, as well as a singleton Riptide Lab in the deck?
With Wayfarer able to tutor up the Lab, stutter could be a great tempo play early, a nice evasive jitte carrier, and possible recurring countermagic in the late game - all while still being pitchable to FoW.
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