[Deck] Solidarity

[Hereticfire]

@ Cjva: I'll probably play a 1/1 split. 3 hate cards for 1 MU seems excessive, especially since the staxx players have other decks.

@ Dark Ritual: I never said I was having trouble with the matchup, I only needed to know what pwns their deck harder. It mattered because I'm ordering stuff for my sideboard.

And GoldenCid is correct, the staxx players in my town normally run Baneslayer or something to that effect.

[Vacrix]

White stax should be a cakewalk MU I don't know what you're doing wrong but rebuild as a 1 of wish target beats that deck. They rarely can/will chalice on 3, and that has to be backed up with chalices at 1 and 2. And we can always time walk them with remand. And if you're playing mono blue, they can't waste you. Only card that causes us problems if it resolves is armageddon and even that is beatable because they lack a fast clock most of the time since their whole deck is lock pieces plus a handful of win cons. And if the win con is beating with a magus or a factory, you have 10 turns to set up which isn't that hard. Really, this MU is the one you want to see. I personally run 1 hurkyl's recall and 1 rebuild in the board as wish targets. There isn't a need for more except in rare corner cases.

This match won't always be a cakewalk actually. It really depends on what kinds of lands they draw. I've been ported out for the whole game not drawing any lands and unable to cantrip.

Otherwise, you should crush Stax with Rebuild. Lock pieces can't stop Cunning Wish unless they can somehow get Chalice on 3 and know to get Chalice on 3 (most don't).

[Silent Requiem]

I recently attended the ManaLeak Christmas tournament. Unlike our usual fortnightly tournaments, which split the entry fees among the winners, this tournament had a number of dual lands up for grabs. Four for 1st place, and two for 2nd.

These additional prizes attracted an even wider range of players than usual, including a fair number PTQ grinders.

I ran my standard Solidarity list with a sideboard that had not been updated since the banning of Survival. My hope was that everyone had been as lazy as I was over the holidays and that the meta would not have changed too much.

Land

13 Island
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Flooded Strand
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Tropical Island

Mana/Untap

3 High Tide
3 Turnabout
4 Reset

Draw

3 Meditate
2 Flash of Insight
4 Impulse
4 Peer Through Depths
4 Brainstorm

Protection

4 Force of Will
1 Cryptic Command
2 Remand

Other

2 Brain Freeze
4 Cunning Wish

Sideboard

1 High Tide
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Meditate
1 Brain Freeze
1 Rebuild
1 Hibernate
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Echoing Truth
2 Hydroblast
1 Hunting Pack
1 Ravenous Trap
3 Faerie Macabre

The tournament ran 5 rounds, with a cut to top 8.

Round 1 – Cephalid Breakfast

Game 1: I win the dice roll and keep my hand, while he mulls to five. I play Island-go, while he drops a Nomads en-Kor. I’ve never faced this type of deck before, but I knew at once it had to be some kind of combo deck. I drop another Island, and on his turn I Brainstorm in response to a turn 2 Meddling Mage, finding the Force I needed.

On turn 3 he plays the Cephalid Illusionist, so I Peer Through Depths and come up with an interesting choice. I have High Tide, Meditate and Island in hand, and I can choose between Reset and Force of Will from the Peer Through Depths. If I take the Force I eviscerate my hand, and have to rebuild. If I take the Reset, and survive the turn, then I am able to win next turn. And I still have no idea what his deck actually does.

In the end, I decide on the Reset, mostly because I’m really curious to see how his combo works. He responds by decking himself and getting 3 Narcomebas to Dread Return a Sun Titan and Psychatog with Anger in the graveyard. A very cool deck and a well earned game for him – coming back from a mull to 5 is not easy.

Game 2: I remand a turn 2 Meddling Mage, but he decides to transmute for the Illusionist on turn 3. Personally, I think that was a mistake because it means that he tries to go off on turn 4, which is too late. If he had dropped the Meddling Mage again he would have forced me to go off on turn 3, which would have been very difficult (although not impossible).

Game 3: He leads with Meddling Mage on turn 2, but I have the Force. He then draws loads of nothing, and I am able to go off on turn 6 or so.

1-0-0

Round 2 – Merfolk

With Survival dead (how’s that for irony?), Merfolk is back on the rise. My opponent was a really excellent player, and he had a strong understanding of my deck – apparently he play tests against Solidarity regularly. Who does that?

Game 1: A very close game which I lose by getting too clever for myself. I want to kill him with his own Silvergill activation, but that meant leaving a Meditate on the stack beneath the Silvergill trigger. Without the extra draw, I lose the counter war.

Game 2: A ridiculous game that I won through a very convoluted stack and 2 Curscatchers and a couple of Forces. The game winning card? A hard-cast Mindbreak Trap.

Our games took so long that we did not have a game 3 – the match was a tie.

1-1-0

Round 3 – Aggro Loam

I had never played against Aggro Loam before, but I have played against this pilot, and he favours savage aggro decks (such as StifleNought and Survival), so I know this will be rough.

Game 1: I win the roll and keep a risky hand. It has two lands but no land dig (2 PtD). It does have a Remand, though, and since I am on the play I bet I can stall him out long enough for me to see three more cards, one of which ought to be a land. Unfortunately, his turn 1 play was Land, Mox Diamond, Goyf, and there was no land in the top 4 cards of my deck.

Game 2: He has another fast start, but this time with Lotus Cobra. I don’t remember the details, but I do remember that I lost.

1-1-1

Round 4 – Death & Taxes

I need to start winning again if I want a shot at those dual lands. D&T has been doing well this tournament; he has been paired down against me.

Game 1: Aethersworn Cannonist hits the table early, but Cunning Wish for Rebuild fixes the problem. I am surprised to be comboing off quite so early in the face of lethal damage, though – I had thought this deck was slow!

Game 2: My opponent drops a Leyline of Sanctity, and then brings in 2 Aethersworn Canonnists in the early turns. That’s alright, though, as I have Echoing Truth in hand. However, when I try and bounce the Cannonists in response to lethal, my opponent bounces the targeted Cannonist himself, leaving the second Cannonist in play. I lose.

Game 3: This time I don’t mess about, and I go straight for Rebuild. I have to bounce Leyline before I deck him, but that was not too much of an issue.

My first match against D&T, and I have to say that the deck had more depth than I had anticipated. It’s also a sign of how our meta is growing that I have played 3 decks that I have never faced before in the first 4 rounds of the tournament. This part of why Legacy is so awesome.

2-1-1

Round 5 – Goblins

I’m 7th in standings right now, and I’m on 7 points. If I win this match I make top 8.

Game 1: He does not know what I am playing and keeps a slow Aether Vial hand. I go off quite comfortably, despite the fact that his Earwig Squad removed both of my maindecked Brain Freeze.

Game 2: As if to make up for the first game, he gets a savage Lackey start and wins before I can go off.

Game 3: My opponent is a very disciplined player, and he understands that only a fast start will get him into the top 8 (he was on 6 points, but his tiebreakers put him at the top of the 6 point bracket). He mulls for the Lackey, but at 5 cards he is forced to settle for a (surprisingly decent) Aether Vial hand. It’s not enough.

3-1-1

Quarter finals – Aggro Loam

Same player as before, but now we are playing for a shot at dual lands!

Game 1: (which you can watch on the ManaLeak website if you want) I don’t know it, but his hand is a slow one. Remembering how fast he was last time I faced him, I went off on turn 4 with a Hunting Pack kill.

Game 2: An absolutely epic game. He drops a Chalice for 1. I wish for Rebuild, and I am ready to cast it on turn 4 to go off on his turn 5. He hits me for something like 13 with a Goyf and a Knight, however, and then gets me down to 1 life with Punishing Fire and a Grove of the Burn Willows.

I know that as soon as he untaps he will recur Punishing Fire to kill me, so I have no choice but to go off on my own turn. This is not something that I even practice doing. Somehow, I manage to deck him, but I can’t kill him before his draw step. For about 20 seconds I’m convinced that I’ve lost the game; at 1 life the FoW I drew while comboing is useless. Then, however, inspiration strikes, and I pass the turn. He recurs Punishing Fire in his upkeep, but in so doing brings me to 2 life. This brings FoW back online, and I counter his burn. He dies in his draw step.

4-1-1

Semi Finals – UWb Control

Game 1: This game weighs heavily in my favour, because he has so many dead cards in game 1. I take advantage of this by going off early with a Hunting Pack kill, despite his attempt to Extirpate my High Tide.

Game 2: We both spend time sculpting our hands and dropping lands. He finally cycles Decree of Justice, putting pressure on the table. I go off, and he tries to stop me. The only thing I care about resolving either or both of the Brain Freezes in my hand, however, and the counter war gives me the Storm I need to make it lethal.

It is worth noting that while Flash of Insight in increasingly less popular these days, it is easily the most valuable card in the deck against control, giving me an effective hand size of 9 cards.

5-1-1

Finals – prize split

Exhausted, I agree to a 3-3 split of the dual lands, and I walk away with a Tropical Island, a Tundra and a Volcanic Island.

5-2-1

-Silent Requiem

[ScatmanX]

Report

Nice to see this deck doing well again. Congratulations.
But now, go change your SB! No need for those 3 Macabre anymore...

Question: Did the Tropical ever made a diference against oposing Wastelands? (Goblin, Merfolk, Loam...)

[ScatmanX]

So, I want to begin to put some situations here, to see if my playing is correct.
What do you guys think of this:
Situation 1:
My board: 6 Islands.
My Grave: 3 Fetches, 1 Remand, 1 Brainstorm, 1 Opt.
Exiled: 1 Cunning Wish.
My hand: 2 High Tide, 1 Reset, 1 Meditate, 1 Mindbreak Trap.
At 4 Life.

Opp Board: 5 Islands, 2 Silvergil, 2 Cursecatcher.
Opp grave: Nothing.
Opp Hand: 5 Cards (1 Coralhelm).

It’s his turn, and he’s ready to attack. What would you do?

What I did was:
1- High Tide. Opp Sacced 2 Cursecatcher, and used a Daze. I payed for everything. He FoW.
2- I cast 2nd High Tide, leaving 1 land open. He FoW.
3- I MB. Trap, Reset, and proceed to win.

If Reset was Turnabout, was there a way we could pull this off?
Hope this situations come to help everyone.


Situation 2:
My board: 5 Islands
My Grave: 2x Impulse, 1 Opt, 1 PtD, 1 Repeal, 2 Fetchs.
Exiled: 1 C. Wish
My Hand: 2x Gigh Tide, 1 Reset, 1 Turnabout, 1 MB. Trap, 1 FoW, 1 FoI.

Opp board: 2x Atlantis, 2x Reejery, 2x Vial (@2 and 3), 1 Island, 1 Waste.
Opp Grave: 1 Standstill.
Opp Hand: 7 cards (select the follow to see which ones): 3x Daze, 1 FoW, 1 Cursecatcher, 1 Coralhelm, 1 Island.

Is this one, I was really thorn, specially on thinking how many mana to use to pay for FoI.

[Julian23]

With 2 FoW and 5 Islands open, I think I had fought over your business spell (read: Meditate) if I was him, especially because I could have easily harcastet the Force. Sacing the Cursecatchers + Daze to fight the High Tide seems right.

[GoldenCid]

I'd you to give me some situations when "stack" is needed. I mean freeze you in order to get card advantage. It's so risky but so powerful at the same time. Could you give me any?

[TheShaun]

I'd you to give me some situations when "stack" is needed. I mean freeze you in order to get card advantage. It's so risky but so powerful at the same time. Could you give me any?

I really don't understand this question. Are you asking when is best to use Brain Freeze on yourself?

[Dark Ritual]

For situation one I would have responded to daze with the 2nd high tide. And if he FoW's it fine then you pay for daze and when he FoW's the original MB trap. If he's stupid and FoW's with daze still on the stack then you gain 2 mana due to not having to tap the land before the original high tide resolves. But yeah, when he goes to declare attackers I would start the spell chain. If reset was turnabout, you would have to tap his team and hope for a reset next draw. Turnabout it really no good here with 2 cursecatchers though and the daze because when he counters it he swings in FTW.

[GoldenCid]

I really don't understand this question. Are you asking when is best to use Brain Freeze on yourself?

Exactly.

[Taurelin]

I think the opening post answers that question very well, doesn't it?

Brain Freeze:

The main purpose of Brain Freeze is the use as winoption to mill your opponent. But if you have no carddraw in hand, Brain Freeze can be played on yourself in order to mill Flash of Insight, flashback that and stack your library (Flash of Insight allows you to choose the order of the cards on bottom). A rare tertiary use is milling few cards in the early turns of the game either to get rid of two bad cards from a Brainstorm or of a card which your opponent got with a topdeck Tutor.

[cjva]

Since the unbanning of Time Spiral, several of people in my local meta have started to play different Spiral decks (me to) but Im thinking about switching back to play Solidarity more actively thanks to this shift in the meta.

In the green splash I'v been playing Krosan Grip in order to fight counterbalance better, but when doing other stuff I saw a pile of draft cards I have laying around, and on top of that pile was a Slice in Twain.

Could that be a card worth playing over K-grip. How important do you guys feel that cantripping is?

Slice

Pros:
cmc 4 (harder to hit then 3 in many cases, and experienced Cb pilots try to have a 3 on top in case of k-grip/wipe away)
cantrips.

Cons:
GG. This would force us to play more then 1 tropical for the splash
cmc 4: A bit hard to cast early in the game, but I dont know how big the difference between 3 and 4 mana is in actual gameplay.
Can be countered by regular counterspells.

[Silent Requiem]

Nice to see this deck doing well again. Congratulations.
But now, go change your SB! No need for those 3 Macabre anymore...

Question: Did the Tropical ever made a diference against oposing Wastelands? (Goblin, Merfolk, Loam...)

Not in this tournament. In fact, I think it has only made a difference once or twice, even in testing. If Wasteland is on the table, I'm still running (effectively) a 19 land build.

-Silent Requiem

[ummon]

So I'm going to play in the SCG San Jose Open but I still can't afford Forces, so right now I've got 4 Remands and 3 Repeals MD for control (I can't afford Trops either, so I'm going mono-blue). I could replace those Repeals with Mindbreak Traps or something. I expect to see lots of CB and Merfolk here. Any suggestions?

[Rune]

So I'm going to play in the SCG San Jose Open but I still can't afford Forces, so right now I've got 4 Remands and 3 Repeals MD for control (I can't afford Trops either, so I'm going mono-blue). I could replace those Repeals with Mindbreak Traps or something. I expect to see lots of CB and Merfolk here. Any suggestions?

A different deck? :x

[ummon]

A different deck? :x

Aside from the obvious, I mean. And in my experience, the only other deck I have, Burn, is no better against those matchups (and boring as hell).

Perhaps I should switch the Repeals out for Mindbreak Traps to make the Merfolk matchup better and hope I don't run into Counterbalance? Personally I think Mindbreak Trap and Pact of Negation are far superior to Force of Will when played against a Merfolk deck. It's against Counterbalance, Meddling Mage, Goblin Lackey, Chalice of the Void, etc., that Force shines.

[deviant]

buy forces, then sell them after the open if you really cannot afford to keep them?

It's not like FoWs are hard to move these days..

[Dark Ritual]

Spell snare is the best substitute. It counters hate bears, counterbalance, and counterspell. Along with tarmogoyf against aggro. Really, it is probably the best option along with a lot of wipe away's in the SB. I suggest you get forces though because it is the best counterspell in the game for good reason. Mindbreak trap is awful if they know you're playing it and they only play 2 spells or something when you attempt to combo.

[ummon]

I was pretty apprehensive about having to survive 8 rounds with the hardest deck in legacy anyway, so I decided to go with Burn and see if I can improve the merfolk matchup.

[GoldenCid]

Guys, i'm having many many troubles with the lands...i usually get flooded or i have many lands top decks during the combo. I'm playing with 19 lands, 3 Repeal and 3 Remands.

Do you consider correct cutting 1 land for the fourth remand??
I'd be running: 4 Fow 4 Remand and 3 Repeal. Although i don't like so much (i'd prefer running 3 opt instead repeal) it's the last chance for repeal to show it power.