Land Destroy, lock, control, with Braids cabal minion

[Choux]

Hello guys,

I am French so sorry if there is mis-translation.

Well, here I wanna share a deck I made, it purpose is to put early game advantage into middle game survival/disrupt into end game lock and kill. To achieve this the deck have 8 accelerator ( mox diamond + dark ritual ) and good 3 mana spells like Trinisphere, Phyrexian Arena and Crucible of worlds, then on the disrupt/survival side we have 4 sinkhole, 4 vindicate, 3 wasteland, 4 Rishadan port, 4 Vampire nighthawk, 3 gatekeeper of malakir, 2 Kher keep. Then to finish/lock, we have 3 Braids, cabal minion, 2 Ajani vengeant, 1 Bloodline keeper/lord of lineage.




I DECK LIST :



Artifact:
2 Crucible of Worlds
4 Mox Diamond
3 Trinisphere
tot:10

Creature:
3 Braids, Cabal Minion
3 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Bloodline Keeper
tot:11

Enchantement:
2 Phyrexian Arena

Instant:
4 Dark Ritual

Planeswalker:
2 Ajani Vengeant

Sorcery:
4 Sinkhole
4 Vindicate
tot:8

Land:
2 Badlands
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Kher Keep
3 Marsh Flats
4 Rishadan Port
3 Scrubland
2 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Wasteland
tot: 24

Side Board:
Artifact:
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 nihil spellbomb
Creature:
1 Jotün Grunt
3 Kataki, War's Wage
Instant:
2 Extirpate
1 Surgical Extraction
Sorcery:
4 Hymn to tourach
2 Thoughtseize



II DESCRIPTION



1°)Style of deck

This deck is a control deck with some good synergies/combos, mainly with braids and crucible and/or kher keep, but also with trinisphere which allow a very good cover.

The fundamental purpose is to lock ( in the long run and undeniebly ), with Braids and Trini, with some recursion item, like crucible, kher keep, bloodline keeper, or Phyrexian Arena ( a poor semi-recursivity, but it work ok for some turns ). To achieve this goal, we have a lot of acceleration and disruption :
-4 mox + 4 dark ritual;
-4 rish, 3 waste, 4 sinkhole, 4 vindicate ( not usually for mana disrupt but can be ), 2 Ajani ( if necessary )

The deck is awesome the more the game long : Crucible, Arena, Braids, Ajani, Bloodline keeper, lots of lands with abilities ( 9 of them, 10 with urborg, 17 with fetchs ), Trini + hard land destruction/disruption, and in some case hawk that can be pain in the ass for beast with 2 or less strength.
To survive to this point, in the short term, we have 3 gatekeepers, 4 Night hawk, 2 Ajani, 4 Vindicate, 2 Kher keep, also Trinisphere if the opponent have few stuff on the board.

Also, to help survive, each card have multiple purposes or is always useful : Ajani, Braids, Rish, Gatekeeper, Vindicate, Hawk, Kher keep, Crucible, Bloodline, Wasteland, Trini have multiple purposes ( Trini slow, virtually discard, lock etc ... ) Or cards that are always useful : Sinkhole, Mox, Dark Ritual ( almost always useful ... ), Phyrexian Arena, Urborg, Swamps, Biland, Fetchs ( can be multipurpose with Crucible )


In the early game ( turn 1/2 ), the deck is very good : Turn 1 Trini/Arena/Crucible, or turn 1 Mox + Sinkhole/Rishadan comes often. (We get 1- 52*51*50*49*48*47*46/60^7=0.759132737 chance of having at least one mana accelerator)
We also have turn 2 Sinkhole/Rish which is very usual, so in average, we ends up turn 2 a 1/2 mana prod/turn lead.

In the mid game ( turn 3/4/5 sometimes 6 ), the deck is weak : we only put one card per turn but with high mana cost ( 3 or 4 ), so we can sometimes be overrun, but most of the time we can deal with threat with vindicate/gatekeeper/hawk/kher keep until we reach 4 or 6 mana prod to put a spoiler or 2 card per turn, also with 5 land it's possible to play one card and deny one land at the same time. At this point if we had put a braids we will often not be that great ( because opponent can sac 1 or 2 turns without loosing too much pressure power )

In the late game ( turn 5 and after ) we get stronger and stronger : Braids/Ajani/Bloodline being more and more awesome, the opponent board empty more and more ( braids, vindicate, hawk, gatekeeper, sinkhole, recursive wastes ... ), hawk give us more and more life, our lands become overpower compare to opponent's ones, we can produce lots of mana and/or disrupt and/or put kobolds having as close as optimal prod each turn while our opponent have or too much land ( we focussed on his creas etc ... ) or not enough lands ( Braids, focus against land, Trini etc ... ) and it's closer and closer to the win.

2°)Choice of cards

- Braids vs Smoke stack :
Braids is fast : works at next opponent upkeep
Braids is a creature, it can be sworded but can chumpblock or give the final blows
Braids is legendary, but it wil often not matter.

Smoke stack is slow ( 1 turn doing nothing )
Smoke stack can be charged ( better than Braids after more than 3 turn )
Smoke stack allow us to sac Arena ( to not die sometimes, so we could remove maybe one or two hawk etc ... ), but also allow opponent to sac enchant ( against enchant we prefer the opponent to sac an enchanted land than the enchant ^^ )

Let's do a compare of both :

Turn Braids SS
2 Risky but hardcore ( need kher keep, moxes, and/or crucible ) Perfect
3 Perfect A bit Slow and "sac" the turn 3
4 Correct pressure amount Slow ( and sac turn 4 )
5 Kinda safe .. Very slow
X Instant pressure ( good with our massive killing/restricting stuff deck ) Slow but can put huge amount of pressure in 3/4 turn
Also, allowing one more turn to opponent can let him put a chrome mox ( under trini to sac next turn) or doing something to not being locked while with Braids this doesn't occur

Gatekeepers of malakir vs Sword/doom blade/diabolic edit etc ... :
Gatekeeper is a creature, so if the opponent doesn't play any creature he can always be an aggressive token, it provide a CA, and it's sac with Braids, can tempo by blocking, it synergize better with Trini and Bloodline than a sword.

Hawk vs else :
Lifelink helps survive Arena, tempo as hell, can kill small beast or sac to kill an emrakul-like, fly to help defend and attack, beefy with his 3 toughness, he can survive zombies tokens, punishing fire etc ...

Bloodline keeper vs Arena vs Crucible :
In a ideal world, before inistrad, we'll want to have 2.5 Crucible and 2.5 Arena, but cutting cards in half is not yet legal, and then comes inistrad with bloodline keeper which does both what we want from crucible and arena : some recursivity, some very hardcore end game pressure. It also synergize with our vampires. Not only that but having 3 cards of the above 2/3 Crucible + 3/2 Arena will not sound that great, but having one of each + bloodline keeper seems a bit better :), the problem of bloodline keeper being a creature isn't really big because it comes late in the game, so it will or cover braids from a sword, or be awesome.

Ajani vs Espelt/else :
Ajani is a mini-vindicate that adjust each turn which is nice for control but also he synergize well with hawk ( cleaning medium size beast ), he counter arena loose of life and have a very synergize ulti. Espelt in the other hand can tempo a bit ( but we have kobold that are doing the same ) and is usefule with braids in game, but when braids is in game, it's nearly win, so not that good ...
Ajani vs Else : -1°) Ajani is a PW so our opponent can ( and have to ) attack it, he will have to "overattack" it to kill it if we have potential blockers, if he doesn't we can just block and lock the big creature, or block and kill the weak; if he does, then we can either block small creas or don't block and make opponent waste a wave of attack.
-2°) Mini vindicate adaptative that can either lock with Trini or prevent from a big threat.
-3°) It can snipe little/medium creas which is good with gatekeeper ( sniping noble hierarch before gatekeeper tarmo etc .. ), thus win life which give insane tempo combine with 1°).
-4°) If the game is quiet, Ajani can prepare his nice ulti ( especially with Trini/Braids etc ... )

Trini vs Chalice :
Trini lock/semi-lock the whole curve from 0 to 2, slowdown crazyly, doesn't counter our cards, combo good with us killing/disrupting opponent lands ( he rarely reach more than 3 lands ), one trini is nearly equal to 2 to 3 CotV, it also allows to "counter" FoW and the like, it's nice with dark ritual, also CotV require 4 mana to counter 2 mana spells which is just too high.

Arena vs Bob :
Dark ritual synergize very well with Arena, and the most important thing is that we need to control our life decrease, loosing 7 life in two turns hurts a bit too much ^^, also we win life by a ratio of 2/turn ( hawk ) or 3/3turn ( Ajani ) which fit really well. Bob is a creature, we have only 2 draw engine ( exepting crucible+Fetch ), we can't have a draw engine sworded ... The aim of few draw engine is to put huge pressure ( turn 1 or 2 ) or to not be here doing nothing. With our deck high mana curve, Arena or Bob should be placed very fast or very late ( to not waste 1 turn of not putting something to survive the overrun ) This said, the mana cost difference isn't very important at theses points.

Kher keep vs Volrath's stronghold :
Kher keep is always good, while Volrath's is kinda slow ... Even if Volrath's can save us from millstone. And Volrath's will bring back high cost creature, so why not draw instead of paying 3 and sac the turn ( no more mana to cast the drawed dead creature )

Mox Diamond vs Chrome :
We have lots of lands, Diamond provides us an anycolor mana prod, each card we have is very essential, so we don't want to exile them ... Crucible + Mox = kinda free acceleration.

9vs10 uncolored mana base :
We can't afford to have a not-2 colored mana prod hand.


3°)Synergizes :


Tini+Braids: Very good lock and clock, with anything recursive like Kher keep, crucible or bloodline, even phyrexian arena it's nearly a win ( which allow more lands and can find recursive things )

Braids+Crucible: Nice clock, give more and more advantage throughout the game.

Crucible+Trini : Good with Wasteland and fetchs, it manage to have very much lands and to slow down hard the game, also, rishadan port and any land destroy can block the opponent production for a while, allowing us time to have what we need.

Braids+Arena : Kinda recursive sac, and can give us some destructing spells like gatekeeper of malakir/vindicate/sinkhole which reduce the clock for our opponent or find something recursive or land etc ..

Braids+Kher keep : Very awesome, we can have more and more lands, when our opponent tend to have less and less everything. We can also have more chumpblocking stuff and sac lands instead of kobolds, if our opponent is near lock and have dangerous creatures.

Braids+Gatekeepers : Allow a "double-kill" by force sac to opponent, and by having a "2/2 token" sacrifiable.

Dark ritual+Arena/Cruci/Trini : kind of awesome turn 1

Mox+Rish/Sinkhole : Same

Crucible+Fetch/Waste/Mox : Recursive fetching or wasting, also mox providing us an increase of our mana productionn while there is a Braids+Crucible in play.

Ajani+Rishadan : Lock one land.

Ajani+Trini : Block most of our opponent capabilities, and we can quietly lock one permanent, and with one rish, if opponent cannot kill us or Ajani, he then need 5 Land to play in main phase, and we can put pressure with Ajani ulti.

Trini+XRishadan : Our opponent now need 3+X lands/mana to play a non-instant spell.

Ajani+Hawk : Ajani kill medium size creatures, when the hawk kill the small or big ones.
( the hawk don t want to be killed by a 3/3, he prefer to be killed by a 12/12 )

Bloodline+Trini : Put awesome pressure on the board.

Bloodline+Hawk/gatekeeper : 1°)Bloodline boost our vampires with +2/+2, 2°) Our vampires make Bloodline need less token to return itself.

Arena+Ajani : Allow us to not loose from hp : Ajani do +1; +1; -2; then we have -1hp; -1hp; -1hp+3hp; =-0hp

Arena+Hawk : Allow us to not loose from hp : -1hp; +2hp.


4°) How to play


I will put the first thing to do first :

Turn 1 : - fast Trini/Arena/Crucible
- mox + sinkhole/mox + Rish
- waste an ancient tomb/underground sea ( no other land, or maybe tundra/bayou )
- Put a land

Turn 2 : - Gatekeeper ( with mox, if any crea on the board )
- Hawk ( if blue to try to force counter )
- Trini
- Crucible/Arena ( a bit too soon but can force a counter )
- Vindicate ( only if it must )
- If no mox, see Turn 1 with mox

Turn 3 : - Braids ( if sustainable ) Ajani ( if odds are it will not being countered )
- If no mox, see Turn 2 with mox

After it's adaptation.

Against aggro Trini must be put ASAP, exept if the opponent have 3 lands and 2 card in hands ...
Against combo, put Trini ASAP, and disrupt the land until you can put a Braids/Ajani, lock/cripple is the key, don't put Braids unless 1°)Your opponent will win next 1/2 turns if you don't 2°)You have recursivity.
Against control that counter, you want to play like a mangoose ( not the card ) vs a snake : Put a medium threat to force them make a bad choice : overreact ( waste a counter ) or underreact ( not counter ) in either of both, you will have, or free reign for bigger cards, or a long term advantage :
For example, if a Hawk/Arena/Crucible hit the board, it's game if you wait to the card having the time to be awesome, if it is countered, put another medium threat, until you have a trini or 2/3 FoW wasted, then put the big guys. ( Trini + Rish can lock stroboscopally opponent by tapping at his upkeep and rettaping at our draw step ) Not to mention than more often than not you are daze proof.

Crucible should be put as late as possible because it waste us a critical turn and we play almost one spell per turn, so put it only if you have wasteland ( with something to kill ) Fetch ( and no colored mana you need ) your opponent have a lot of discard ( hymn/smallpox etc ... ) so you can discard lands.

What to mox ? Wasteland, Kher keep, and fetch are the best choices : Wasteland because we want to have as much mana prod as fast as possible, slowing both us and our opponent isn't worth furthermore if he have put a bird or something. To resume Wasteland is very often better in grave than in play, so be it unless you have like 4 lands +1sink+1 trini + mox hand-like. Kher keep is rarely useful before turn 4/5 so, just throw it to the grave until a crucible or another kher keep comes, and fetch if you have enough colored production. ( give virtually +1 life ) You very rarely will mox a rishadan, because the start mox + rish is crazyly good, and also because you will very often have another colorless land to throw or often 2 colored lands.

Tips and tricks : How to put 2 kobold/turn : Have Braids + Crucible + Kher keep, at upkeep put a token then sac kher keep, then reput kher keep and a token.
How to abuse Ajani + Trini : Have Ajani + Trini + some Rish ( optionnal ) + an "immobile" board ( opponent can't attack or threat us yet ), then lock lands and increase Ajani counters, while you'll reach the 7/8 counters and maybe before, your opponent will start to keep land in his hand, so don't use the ulti until he puts other lands ( he either don't play anything, then it's good, or put one more land and release the armaggueddon :) ), then use ulti and be ready for a second, using the same strat( not release it until it's needed ), your opponent will need 5 land ( with 1 rish ) every 8 turn to break the contain, and you have some sinkhole/vindicate/other rish to prevent him to doing so if he run as good as drawing 5 land in so few cards.


5°) Threaetning cards


- Big threats :

-Loam : It "counter" Braids, Sinkholes
-Stoneforge : Kinda difficult to deal with, it gives a 1/2 token, and a batterskul or worse a jitte, how to deal with : Vindicate the equip, sinkhole to hope nothing will come out, gatekeeper, kher keep the batterskull.
-Hymn to tourach : Hurt very much, cause us to discard or lands ( very bad, how can we play with 3 mana cards in hand ) or stuff ( very bad we don't have very much of them ), but a dead card in middle end game.
-Umezawa's jitte : The card that hurt, it kill everything ( token include ^^ ), the only thing we can do is vindicate, sinkhole/rish before it's equip or kill all creatures before they are equiped.
-Delver of Secrets : 3/2 flying, countered effectivelly only with gatekeeper ( if there is only delver ), or a 2/2 flying token, else, it's a pure horrible card to play against : We must sacrifice one hawk or one vindicate to a U mana cost thing .... And this crea is nearly always with Fow, Daze and bolt ( control way focused ), which hurt so damn hard with our deck ...

- Medium threats :

-Fow : It can stop a very good outgoing, but do a card disadvantage.
-Daze : It can prevent sinkhole, also counter good stuff, but, it also put the guy very far behind in land, we usually have 1/2 more, after daze, it's 2/3.
-Brainstorm : Can protect from hymn ( sideboard ), can deal with sinkhole (searching lands), find FoW, make the hand 3 cards higher ..
-Cucible : Not vindicate-proof.
-Weather wayfarer : Can be a little pain in the ass, but slow down opponent very much also.
-Scavenging ooze : Can be boring, but counter just our 2 crucible ... Also requieres a lot of mana to be effective which is pretty hard against us and slow down hard opponent ( not to mention that a 2/2 is less frightening than a tarmo .. )
-Wasteland : Can color death us, and recursive Waste if we don't have crucible is nearly GG.
-Thoughseize : Can cripple a good hand.
-Blood Moon/Magus of the moon : Kinda hard to deal with, but one mox and one swamp deal the trick. ( also it's often in stompy deck, which are a delicious prey for our massive anti-beast deck )
-GSZ : Turn one Dryad is bitch, also in the long run finding easily a Tarmo/KotR/Quasali is pretty bad ..
-Noble Hierarch/Bird etc .. : Reduce very much the power of fast sinkhole/rish/trini, and can be sac for a gatekeeper.
-Quasali : Kill every support card ie: trini/arena/cruci.
-Bitterblossom : put early pressure, deny braids, but kill the guy slowly, how to deal with, hawk, Ajani, and attack ( force the opponent to choose between race or defend ), an hawk kill faeris one by one winning us HP, use Ajani -2 on the opponent put him close to death and win time ( one attack ) and life, we can also vindicate ...
-Bob : Put pressure on us, kind of deny our Braids, give many cheap answers ...
-Lightning Bolt : It's or a big threat ( played with control ) or a low threat ( burn ) because, it can kill every creature we have, but, also it's kinda bad to kill us because of sinkholes/trini etc ...

- Low threats

-Vial : Too slow, it's a card disadvantage. Can be deal with Vindicate/Ajani/Braids ( but we very oftenhave better things to kill ). It also cannot decrease the amont of counter on it. We are an anti-aggro deck so no problem dealing with vial-creature deck or vial-nocreature deck ( ??!?! ) lol.
-Standstill : If there is too much in game : 1°) WTF ? 2°) We loose but we'll probaly loose anyway. Else, it's very good for us, because we have lot's of land that deal easy with manland : Kher keep, rish, waste, we also have a lot of land in our deck, so we will rarely discard first if no-one plays, and our lands are good and multi-purpose while opponent is often just waste+mish or muta. Standstill+Vial is not a problem, it's a -2 card - turn1 - turn 2 into +3 card ...
-Jace : It's very rare to see a Jace hit the board, even if it comes, every creature we have that can attack counterbalance her +2 ( ie we have at least 2strengh creas ), Vindicate does the trick... Fetch counter her +2 ability on us.
-Pernicious deed : We don't often have very much stuff in game against control, our stuff cost 3+ exept token and mox (gatekeeper = 2/2 token), it can't kill Ajani, opponent doesn't have very much lands, and it's hard to cast because of the colors needed, which are susceptible of waste, not an instant card, so rish deny from putting it on board, it will never be able to be in game and the same turn activate at 3 or more.
-Extirpate : boring on Braids/Trini or Gatekeeper/Hawk, but that's all ...
-Tarmo/Beast without Trample : Vindicate, Hawk, Kher keep, Ajani, sometimes gatekeepers, sometimes Braids.
-Oblivion Ring : Countered by vindicate.
-Vindicate : Harder than OR to cast.


6°)Post-side


Pre-side the deck is very good against aggro, good+ against aggro-control, combo and bad against control and aggro-combo.
Then post side, it's good against control and good to very good against aggro-combo grave and affinity.
Why don't play Hymn/Thoughseize main deck ? Because they synergize bad with Trini ( 3 mana Thoughseize is high ), we don't want to loose life against aggro, it's kinda dead card in mid-game while Trini is always useful/good, hymn can also help some decks. Trini does discard better than hymn ( Trini discard the whole hand at split second rate if opponent can't play, and also it slows fast hand while hymn just discard )

What to unside and in which case : -Sinkhole : Against deck that doesn't need land/mana, which are from my knowledge Dreadstill Dredge and aggro Delver
-Phyrexian Arena : Very rarely, against deck that kill very fast let's say belcher or decks like that ( I didn't ever played against one, not so common in France ), may be against some Burn, but I really like 2 Arena, very good first turn against nearly every MU.
-Vindicate : Against high tide like, whitout Candelabras.
-Trini : Against Trini decks, against slow control decks, like pernicious Jace ( but having 1 or 2 trini left is never a bad idea ), against Dredge, against afinity if we don't start etc ..
-Dark ritual : Against Control/Aggro-control, if we have time, no need to have card disadvantage and bad top decks.
-Gatekeeper : Easy one.
-Bloodline : Against Combo, or very fast aggro control sometimes.
-Braids : Always good to have one or two, but can be remove against deck with very few land/moxes, and very fast.
-Ajani : Same as Braids.
-Hawk : Can remove 1 or 2 against Control without creas, or Combo, but having 2 of them is the minimum ( they protect from Arena, and put a little clock against tendrills like ( can't put 30 damages easily ) or control deck etc ... )
-Moxes : Can remove 1 or 2, like Dark ritual, but in general Mox>Dark ritual for post-side because Dark Ritual is or good (very fast) or bad (card disadvantage) while Moxes aren't that much card disadvantage (Crucible, and if we don't start, it's like if we started and both us and opponent had mulli once, it also fix mana issues), removing mox can be done with removing also Crucible.
-Crucible : 1 is really minimum, but against certains MU, only speed matter, so it can be cut.


What to side : -Extirpate : Against Loam, Graveyard combo, FoW, Wasteland sometimes, Decks that relies on only few cards to kill/lock/do one major thing, and that thing goes often to the grave.
-Surgical Extraction : Same as Extirpate but don't necessarily against FoW and counter decks; it depend. For example not against Delver aggro decks, because they don't care about counter if they have to, because counter for them is "free", and they just need some turns to kill us. It's better against deck that goes fast with grave, due to the freeness of the spell.
-Hymn to Tourach : Against any relatively slow deck ( cannot kill/"win" before turn 5/6 without being disrupted ) that play some card advantage stuff ( for example merfolks/Bants ), and obviously against most of control/combo decks especially if they counter/sword ( counter must stay in hand ... so hymn is always useful ), it purpuse here is to protect our cards from being killed effectively.
-Thoughtseize : Good against Combo and Control, but not against Aggro-Control.
-Kataki : Discutable slot, can be replace. Mostly against affinity but I guess this deck doesn't exist, may be it's good against MUD ( compare to other side ...) but I don't know how I stand against MUD and if I need to side against it, also affinity doesn't look so much frightening...
-Grunt : Very good against Loam, Dredge, and delver+lavamancer, good beast. Nice
-Relic/Nihil : I don't take tormod's, because I often don't have anything to play Turn 1, and, if it's not emergency, I can play normal, if it is, then I play Nihil or relic, it's also nice against decks that play 3+ loams/grave tools, because it's a free removal ( we can draw 'freely', with our mana base, it's very feasable )



III MATCH-UPs


I played over 500 games on cockatrice so the stats are significant :)

-Merfolks :
Against U merfolks (which I played the most by far), it's 80/20 for the overall match-up ( being 70/30 G1; 70/30 G2; 70/30 G3 ). What hurt from us : Hawk ( if not 2 lord, it's very hardcore ), Braids ( merfolks need Mana/Vial to play, if opponent don't increase his number of lords, he can't overrun and is dead ), Kher keep ( "free" chumpblock ), Gatekeepers ( Can be chumpblock or better + edict ), Vindicate ( Sniping a lord is always nice ), Ajani ( if not 3 lord, it's horrible for them : free sniping + lock ), Bloodline keeper ( can be or insane or put chump each turn, but when the tide turn, it's huge ), Sinkhole slow them even more, Hymn is good post side.
What don't hurt from Merfolks : Vial ( very slow : need 3 turn at least to put a 2 mana cost beast, plus it's a card disadvantage ), Standstill ( very good for me 80% of the time, okay 15% and very bad 5% ), the deck is slow, creas need to be in large number to be effective, with a little constant killing they fall. Merfolk can't kill before turn 5 even with nuts hand. It doesn't have enough counters, and creas to be threatning, fewer than 2 lord alive turn 5/6 is nearly always game for us.
I didn't played against white or black version, I guess sword and dismember hurts a lot, but, I guess it goes to like 65/35, and may be 60/40 if opponent play Jitte ( which they nearly never sided I don't know why ), to an overall 70/30 match up.

-Dredge :
Against fast dredge it's 30/70 pre-side and 75/25 post side, against slow, it's 35/65 and 75/25. Hawk, gatekeeper, Kher keep, Braids, Bloodline and Ajani, hurt so hard the tokens, and the 6 anti grave finish the work. ( Grunt is insane in this MU )

-Loam terravore :
Very long game, but the lack of aggressivity of the opponent let us do what we want, if we kill all his beast, it's game, also we can put a lot of blockers with Kher keep and gatekeeper/hawk/vindicate which each kill a terravore, Ajani can lock, plus kher keep can stack lots of blocker, to try to millstone sometimes. Post side we are very good. 60/40 pre-side and 70/30 post-side ( just extirpate the kills )

-Aggro Loam :
Never played against, but I guess the RRR enchant hurts me a lot, but is very hard to put because of waste, rish and sink, and when put, vindicate can snipe it...

-Jace :
Doesn't looks good, but in fact it is okay, Jace itself does often nothing ( don't often hit the board ) and the deck needs hard mana, so opponent is caught between two stools ( I guess it's a good translation, tell me if not ) : Defending himself, or stopping the lock ... There is some archetypes : with stoneforge or confident, any of both hurts, but they have often standstill that helps me. Very often, the game is like : Board nothing but lands, and if I can get Trini/Braids/Ajani/Arena/Bloodline/Crucible+Waste, it's game, doing the trick with Ajani and trini is very needed ( up counter until opponent put too much land, then and only then ulti, and restart this thing again and again ). Pre-side it's 45/55 and post-side it's 55/45.
Pernicious Jace also exist, and it's pretty tricky to play : put 1 thing on the board, then use it, then force opponent to use pernicious ( or lock him if it's possible ) and put something else etc ... Ajani is not affected by this, but theses games often ends on millstone and I can't tell you stats on this MU.

Green sun zenith decks :
Theses MUs are very "who start have an huge advantage" because zenith allow turbo starts, and is nearly always couple with dryads+birds and/or noble. After they have Quasali, Ooze, Tarmo, KotR etc.. Most of the time, it depend of our hand, because zenith give stability, and their fast start put us on the backfoot, but we have a lot of answer, Kher keep being one very good as Braids, Bloodline, Vindicate and Hawk, Ajani/Gatekeeper not so much, and Sink/Trini being kind of bad if we don't start. Their weekness is the long run, their strenght is turns 4/5/6, when we start to shine. ( so if we survive the next 4/5 turn, it's very often game )
It's 45/55 (+5% for who start) pre-side, and 55/45 (+5% for who start) post side ( with -4sinkhole +4 hymn if we start and -4 dark ritual if we don't start )

Delver Aggro :
This MU is so imbalance, we can't do anything, delver bypass Kher keep and gatekeepers(if they aren't sacrified), they force us to vindicate or sac an Hawk ... They have support of free counterspells which are FoW Daze ( daze is insane, it doesn't slow them because they don't have lands ^^ ) some spell snare/pierce, and control lightning bolt : we are very dead, overwhelmed by one or two alone creatures, with disrupt blocking us. Pre-side 20/80, Post-side 35/65 ( we get grunt against lavamancer, and extirpate + hymn to try to remove FoW and/or delver and/or bolt ) Unside 4 sinkhole 2 Dark ritual 2 Trini side 4 hymn, 3 extirpate 1 grunt.

Burn :
Trini = GG, fast Sinkhole = GG, Hawk = Bolt catcher, Ajani is rude, Rish can tempo nicely, well, we are very nice against burn. Exept of course Price of Progress ! All in all, we have 60/40 pre-side ( if they have price in main ) and 65/35 post-side ( +4 hymn, -3gatekeepers, -1Bloodline keeper ) but Shattering spree or smash to smithereen hurts.

Gob :
Gatekeeper fast is so awesome, as hawk, Ajani and Braids if not so much token on Gobs board, it's very good. Kher keep block pieldever, Lackey is can be deal with turn 1 Gatekeeper ( kicked or not ), Turn 1 hawk, etc ... We don't fear their denial because their waste are not recursive. 70/30 pre and post side.

Storm :
We get stuff to slow things : Sink, Rish, Aggressive waste, Aggressive Braids, Ajani, to wait for Trini or Crucible (+ Waste); hawk can also put a "semi-clock" by putting us out of sight of their tendrills, especially with the low ressources opponent will have. post-side : +4 hymn +2 thoughtseize ( -3 gatekeeper, -1 Bloodline, -2 Hawk ) Pre-side it's 60/40, post-side : 65/35.

Affinity :
Gatekeeper/Braids/Sinkhole are nearly useless, Trini is or useless or very good. Pre-side : 30/70 Post-side : 70/30 ( Kataki is imba, but I played this MU so few times that stats aren't that much accuracy )

Enchantress :
Braids kill this deck so much ! It only got lands to sac ... Trini is okay to slow things, and Sink/Vindicate so huge on enchanted lands, also gatekeeper kills enchantress, Ajani can lock lands ( okay not that great ^^ ) Solitary confinement is quite dangerous with the gatekeeper ... 70/30 pre and post side. ( seal can be somewhat effective ) I guess -2 Hawk -1 Trini/Crucible -1 Waste ( if only forest/plain +1 random serra sanctum ) to +4 hymn.

Elf ball + Emrakul :
Trini, Sinkhole, fast Gatekeeper, Braids ( fast ) destroy this deck. But if the deck lauch itself then it's dead. 70/30 Pre-side 65/35 Post-side if he have Krosan Grip.

Elf ball + Staff of dominance and/or Glimpse of nature ( especially with Titania priest ):
This deck kills me because cheap, produce mass mana without lands, draw crazily, have lots of permanents, but this deck is weak to aggro, aggro control or combo, so it's not to be fear. 30/70 pre and post side.

UG infect :
60/40 pre-side and 65/35 post-side. This deck is weak because it often have or too much of creas or too much of spells. Blighted Agent is the only real threat, also unstable mutation if played, because it's pretty good under trini. Well, almost everything our deck have kill this deck. We only fear crazy start from them like turn 1 elf turn 2 kill or turn 1 noble + turn 2 blighted turn 3 invigorate +exalt+ berserk but we can still do gatekeeper or vindicate sometimes hawk/Ajani snipe etc ... Braids is very good because they have mostly instants so it direct hurt or mana base or creas.

Zoo :
Easy MU, if they don't have good lands it's free win, else, Hawk, Gatekeeper, Ajani, Braids ( killing lands make beast weak, killing beast make ... no more beast ... ), Vindicate (killing the right stuff be it land or crea), Sinkhole, Bloodline, Trini etc... does very well. 65/35 pre and post side.

Rock :
The mass hymn, gerrard verdict, swords, vindicate hurts very much I guess but I never played against, I guess I am underdog like 40/60 40/60.

Bants :
Countertop and Jace are dead cards, but I never played against this deck so I wont speak about it, my guesses are 60/40 pre and post side.

Bonus :

I put you guys some of the good starts the deck can do :

- 2 Dark ritual, 1 Fetch, 1 Braids, 1 Cruci, 1 X, 1 Y. Turn 1 fetch + dark ritual + crucible; Turr 2 Fetch(with crucible)+ dark ritual+Braids.

- 1 Dark ritual, 1 Trini, 1 Sinkhole, 1 Rishadan, 1 Fetch/swamp/etc..., 1 Kher keep, 1 Braids/Ajani, 1 Fetch/badland ( 8 cards necessary turn 4 ). Turn 1 Swamp + Dark ritual + Trini, Turn 2 Rish ; Turn 3 Badland + Sinkhole ; Turn 4 Kher keep + Braids.

- 2 Mox, 1 Trini, 3 Lands, 1 Crucible/Kher keep, 1 Braids ( 8 cards necessary turn 2 ). Turn 1 2Mox+ Land + Trini, Turn 2 Kher keep + Braids or Land(drawed)+Braids or Crucible+Land(crucibled), Tour 3 Crucible or Braids.

- 1 Mox, 1 Fetch, 2 Dark Ritual, 1 Trini, 1 Crucible, 1 Braids, 1 Sinkhole/vindicate/Rish ( 7 cards really necessary, with the sinkhole/vindicate/rish in bonus if we don't start ) Turn 1 Mox + 2Darkritual + Crucible + Fetch + Trini, Turn 2 Rish ou Fetch + Sinkhole/Vindicate, Turn 3 Braids.

- 1 Dark ritual, 1 mox, 2 land(with 1 fetch/biland/swamp), 1 Trini, 1 Rish, 1Kher keep/Rish, 1 Braids/Ajani ( 8 cards Turn 3 ) : Turn 1 Mox(discard of the useless land) + Swamp/biland(fetched are not) + Dark ritual(daze proof) + Trini (daze proof); Turn 2 Rish; Turn 3 Kher keep+Braids/Rish+Ajani

[mistercakes]

consider smokestack

[Choux]

I tried it but it s too slow, it work on turn x+1, and is equal to Braids at best at turn x+2, so too slow, and if we put 2 counter or more it's start to hurt a bit too much. ^^

Also if the opponent doesn't kill Braids immediately, then he have to sac something at upkeep anyway.

And Braids can be an alternate way of kill ...

[Mystical_Jackass]

That was a good write up, with some interesting synergy but:

3 Trinisphere. That's all you have for lock/disruption, in a battle of attrition with deck packing many counters and removal you're gonna get rocked.
One thing is your mana base, I think even with Mox it's a little fragile to wastes itself, which is ironic since you're trying to mana screw them. The other is that you have all these explosive Dark Ritual/Mox into Braids plays but if those get StP'd or disenchanted you're pretty much screwed. You're essentially putting all your chips in for only a handful of spells to win it, and if those get countered or destroyed you're probably gonna fold.

The fundamental problem I have is that the deck is that if you're gonna run Sinkhole, Wastes, Vindicate, Braids/Trini lock and pack Mox/Rituals for sorta an explosive all-in lockdown, I don't understand why you'd want to do that AND go control at the same time with Arena/Ajani/Gatekeeper etc. I'd simply run Chalice of the Void, Sol lands, or go more disruption with Hymn to Tourach and hope to completely mana screw them in a few turns then drop Braids to seal the victory. Mentioning the synergy, like "Ajani + Arena so you don't die from Arena" is cute but I've played a lot of Black Stax and Braids control decks in past and you'll usually know if you're dead or won long before that. That's all I got.

[Choux]

Hello,

I m a little bit vulnerable to waste ( i mean, 2 waste in a row or recursive waste ) but, they also slow the opponent ...

The aim of my deck is not to combo lockdown the opponent, I mean, obviously it is, but it s not an all-in belcher-like, it's more a "multipurpose"(google translate) version. The cards like Ajani/Gatekeeper/Phyrexian arena purposes is to gain time, and the more time we get, the more chance we will win, because of cards like Ajani, Kher keep, Rish, Crucible, wasteland ( to be use only with crucible ), Braids, Bloodline keeper, Hawk (very good when few cards in game because lifelink or killing stuff one by one) that abuse the time they are here to kill something or put something in the board, or having a very good recursive effect.

Also, I putted a very oriented side-board : My main deck is anti-aggro oriented, with good anti combo (anything slowing down); and my side is very anti-control ( 3extirpate-like, 4 hymn to tourach, 2thoughtseize ) and quite nice versus combo ( 4 hymn + 2 thoughtseize + maybe hate )
Against control deck, I do -4 dark ritual, ( no need to hurry and to have card disadvantage ) -0/2 mox, -3 gatekeeper, -1/2 hawk, -0/1 Trini then the deck is pretty OK versus most of Fow/counters deck/StP etc ..


The big problem with being too much explosive is that it works very well, or just very bad, so I want the deck to be as stable as possible, also if their is something on the board, I wanna be able to do something about it ( not just wait until the opponent have 0 permanent ^^ )


The good thing with Ajani is it is very multipurpose ( I consider it as a mini-vindicate that ajust each turn, and also snipe some creas and kill every land :) ) Ajani is good against any type of deck, aggro, combo or control and it fit something that braids can't, I mean, braids is like the "quantity" killer, and Ajani, the "quality" locker ...

Also Ajani is a instant game breaker against aggro : when it comes it can snipe something and then next turn lock something ( if it's protected ) and else, it give us 3 hp, kill something and waste an attack ! :) While in the other hand, Braids is kinda slow effect pressure. So both are complementary.

My deck is like, ~15/20 card=stuff multipurpose, ~10/15 cards=stuff anti-something(very good or kinda useless, but note that in my main, gatekeeper can be a 2/2 token), so it's easy to de-side "bad" stuff" and to side "very good stuff"


So why I aim anti-aggro first, just because my deck is relatively slow in mid game ( curve = 3 mana ) so I don t want to be overwhelmed, then it's relatively OK against other MUs because of land disrupt and trini ( I mean 1 rish and trini cover anything from Fow if opponent havn't more than 4 land untapped at his EOT, because I can : rish his EOT, rish at my upkeep, then he can't do anything ), and the deck is ok vs combo because of the lot of mana disruption and the fact that if I see nothing on the board and only ponder etc ... , I'll put a fast braids even without recursivity to lock it, then it's very likely a win.

[Jofiel]

I play Braids, Cabal Minion until Odyssey. I've love her.
Generally Braids need a very specific stuff in our deck...

I like, when Braids deck is monocolored.

//Lands: (You could be suprised, but I use only basics in this deck)
18 Swamp

//Mana Source:
4 Dark Ritual

//Creatures:
3 Braids, Cabal Minion
4 Bloodghast
2 Tombstalker

//Land/Creature Control:
4 Sinkhole
3 Rancid Earth
2 Smallpox

//Discard / Alternative Kill:
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Duress
2 Cabal Therapy
3 The Rack

//Support Tools:
3 Death Wish (we allways can have Braids)
4 Tainted Pact

SIDEBOARD:
1 Braids, Cabal Minion
1 Tombstalker
1 Cabal Therapy
3 Surgical Extraction
1 Haunting Echoes
3 Ghastly Demise
1 Perish
1 Smallpox
3 Powder Keg


I will be waiting for questions & comments :)

[mulder]

Needs more Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and That land that lets you search a plains when it goes to the graveyard. Ideal for saccing to Braids.

[Choux]

.

[Choux]

Hello guys,


@ Jofiel: Your deck look nice but I doubt there is some curve unsteadiness, playing 3 smallpox and Braids with only 18 land seems a bit tight to me. Also, I feel like loosing half of hit point is a bit much for a tutor ^^
I also suggest you to add undiscoverded paradise and to go to at least 21/22 land with some things to draw a little more.

@ Mulder: I don't know if your post is for me or Jofiel but I tried Flagstone of trokair and I didn t tried Tabernacle, ( I also tried god's eye to the reïkai), and it shown mana instability : The deck need 2 colored mana for anything exept Trini and Crucible, so Tabernacle is just impossible ( no tutor, no mana production, can be useless and counterproductive ), Flagstone have just 3 land to "fetch" and work only with braids, the white mana is useful with only 6 cards, god eye give us a total of 10 colorless land, which is too much, we need at least 15 colored land + 4 moxes + 4 dark ritual, is a good balance ( tested over 500 games ).

I really prefer Kher keep for the sac purpose, because, it allow us to up our mana capabilities turn by turn and to survive without Crucible, while other lands will just let us survive one more turn or do nice stuff with crucible + braids. Also Kher keep allow us to chump block which is very useful against mishra or tarmo/knight etc ...

[Choux]

Hi, I updated the main post. I have done some translation from the original one. You have now :

- The concept of the deck
- The full description
- The reasons of choosing one card rather than another
- The "How to play that's stuff"
- And more ...


I'll update it with MUs tomorrow or after ...


Cya.

[Choux]

Hey guys, I updated the log with the MUs and add in some precisions.

Feel free to comment and/or suggest :)


In particular for the katakis, I guess it can be better side against explosives decks, might be sword or I don't know but I don't really like this sideboard card, because bad synergize with Moxes and Trini and too specific.


Ty

[Choux]

Well for those who read, I made an update for my sideboard being :

1 nihil spellbomb
1 reliq of progenitus
2 ethersworn canonist
2 grand abolisher
1 jötun grunt
2 extirpate
2 consuming vapor ( easyly casted with mox/dark ritual against fast decks or without against slow decks )
4 hymn to tourach
and maybe2 Rule of lawinstead of ethersworn ?


I am searching for good side against control and combo eventually, but I don't know every little fancy cards, so if someone have a good idea, feel free to share it.

[Jofiel]

Hi. I tested Braids Deck and I think it needs some modyfication.

I thought that Death Wishes will be working good but it wasn't true.
They gives in game only small card advantage. This deck needs strong draw.
Options to change this situation (with stay in monoblack) are two:

1.) Use Sensei's Diving Top with Dark Confidants (but they are cratures easy to kill)
2.) Run to Phyrexian Arenas

Next reflection is a lot of decks have strong card advantage and The Rack isn't working as well as supposed. Is important to decide, which is better to use:
1.) Vampire Nighthawk - good for any other creatures and gives lifes for arena.
2.) Underworld Dreams - I think it could be great against combo ect.
3.) Hypnotic Specter - Maybe with this guys it's possible to play with 2 x The Rack or Liliana's Caress as alternative win condition.
4.) Nether Void

Smallpoxes don't work too, so I removed them. If you want to use them - it's possible without Braids.

BRAIDS v2 I want to test:

//Lands:
9 Swamp
9 Snow-Covered Swamp

//Mana Source:
3 Dark Ritual

//Creatures:
4 Braids, Cabal Minion
4 Bloodghast
3 Tombstalker
3 Vampire Nighthawk / Hypnotic Specter

//Land/Creature Control:
4 Sinkhole
2 Rancid Earth

//Discard:
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Duress
3 Cabal Therapy

//Creature Control:
4 Victim of Night (is better than "Go for the Throat" in this Deck and in Legacy I suppose. It could slash Painter's Servant for example)

//Draw:
3 Phyrexian Arena
2 Tainted Pact or other tutor (for ex. Infernal Tutor)

SIDEBOARD:
3 Extirpate
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Powder Keg / Ratchet Bomb (I suppose second is better, because could destroy enchantments)
2 Geth's Verdict (better than Diabolic Edict in this deck)
3 Pithing Needle
2 Underworld Dreams / Nether Void / Trinisphere - I must to test it and choose the best.

The another question is Inquisition of Kozilek will be better option to replace Duress?
Other option is to play with for example 2 Blackmail, or 2 Tendrils of Despair (if another 3 creatures find place in this deck).
Playing Thoughtseize without Vampire Nighthawk sounds a little bit risky for me.
And maybe Deck should run with one copy of Unmask?



So, what do you think?

[Malchar]

Tainted Pact is pretty random. You might be better off using Infernal Tutor. If you really want to use tainted pact, you should use fetchlands and some snow-covered swamps to cut down the number of normal "swamps" in the deck.

[Jofiel]

Tainted Pact is pretty random. You might be better off using Infernal Tutor. If you really want to use tainted pact, you should use fetchlands and some snow-covered swamps to cut down the number of normal "swamps" in the deck.

Yeah that's Perfect Idea :D. What do you think about using Nether Void? :)

[Malchar]

Nether Void or Trinisphere would be good because even if you destroy a lot of their land, they could still play 1 land and cast something right away, like a grim lavamancer or swords to plowshares on the braids. This way, you can get a hard lock.

[fourleafedmonkey]

Braids is one of my pet cards and I have been trying to put her to use for some time now. I've found that she is less of a lock card than a tempo card. A rolling boulder from Indiana Jones kind of tempo when paired with good sac outlets. Recently I have only had trouble keeping up with current decks with me often losing the turn before I'm about to win.
It has made me question whether to use Chrome Mox (or Diamond?) or not.

Without further adieu:

Lands:
2 Plains
4 Swamp
3 Flagstones of Trokair- 4 is too many. The Saccing of FOT to Braids is a huge bit of Card Advantage.
4 Scrubland
4 Marsh Flats
3 Wasteland- Very color hungry in this deck
1 Karakas- Can also be used on Braids.
2 Fetid Heath- Lot's of BB and WW in this deck, but easily changed.

Creatures:
3 Braids, Cabal Minion- Only 3. You don't need to draw more than one or two- especially with Bob.
4 Dark Confidant- Painful, but oh so necessary. Top and Finks help a lot, plus it can be sacc'd to Braids if necessary.
4 Tidehollow Sculler- I am in love with this card right now.
4 Mother Of Runes- Great first turn play to protect your Braids, Bobs and Scullers.
4 Kitchen Finks- Much needed life gain and double permanent sac. Yes please.

Etc:
3 Vindicate- 3 might be a bit much.
1 Umezawa's Jitte- will randomly win you games
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Hymn to Tourach- sooo good.
1 Gerrard's Verdict- Used for random Lifegain and ease of casting.
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Duress- TS hurts wayy too bad.
2 Sensei's Divining Top- helps with Bob and serves as another permanent.
2 Bitterblossom- fliers or a -1 life upkeep for braids. It's a win/ win either way.

SB
Engineered Explosives- Pretty good maindecked too, if not using BB.
Perish- The best creatures are green.
Jotun Grunt- Also great maindecked. A lot of permanents go to the GY.

I would also advise an Enlightened Tutor Box for:
Ethersworn Canonist
Ghostly Prison
Wheel of Sun and Moon
Phyrexian Revoker
Tormod's Crypt

Engineered Plague
Surgical/ Extirpate

Other Notable Cards I've considered:
Crucible of Worlds- I'd rather have disruption or a threat. Especially at 3 mana, like...
Aven Mindcensor- Heavily considered and playtested in place of Kitchen Finks, but Bob and BB hurt a lot. Hurts combo and possibly helps with Land Destruction. Probably worth another test.
Sinkhole- Sometimes so powerful and sometimes so not. Right now I don't think it is.
Tombstalker- Great, but doesn't play well with Bob.
Stoneforge Mystic- Tried, tried, and tried again. But, it just required too many spots. Show's great promise though. I'd suggest Sword of Light and Shadow or Sword of Body and Mind (or both) if you do choose to go that direction.
Dark Ritual- Proved disadvantageous because of card advantage reasons and was axed early. If you want to play ritual, i'd suggest the gate and use Phyrexian Obliterator instead of Braids. Which also rules out...
Gatekeeper of Malakir- Great in theory, but not in practice. Not enough black sources.
Elspeth- Great, both compliments and competes with Braids.
Mirran/ Phyrexian Crusader/ Stillmoon Cavallier- Cute, but not part of the plan.
Aether Vial- Would cause the deck to up the creature count, but fun when paired with Draw Step Tidehollow or maindeck instant Revokers.
Volrath's Stronghold- this deck needs all the colored source it can get.
Trinisphere- See crucible of worlds.

Untried Cards:
Blade Splicer- Looks sound. Maybe in place of Kitchen Finks?
Vampire Nighthawk- Could work.

And honestly, never tried out Bloodghast.


Side note:
I also tried a fun little D&T for a while with Weathered Wayfarers, Mangara and more Karakas. It had some tricks, but nothing worth noting.

[Malchar]

The black/white list looks cool. I never considered using karakas to bounce the braids. Using stoneforge mystic would be good since you get to search up another permanent and get automatic card advantage. Batterskull also seems great because you can sacrifice the germ each turn and keep bouncing it to generate card advantage in a pinch. Sword of light and shadow is also great because both abilities are amazing for the deck, and it negates all removal spells except for burn.

Using two colors makes it really hard to use the sol-land, which would have sped up the deck considerably. You also pretty much lose the option of dark ritual. I had thought a lot about making a monoblack version, but after seeing all the synergies you get from white, it would be criminal to not use white in this deck.

[Jofiel]

I think white black and mono black versions of Braids have some advantages and disadvantages.

When I was creating monoblack I had idea to create some alternative for pox and the gate, but resignation with vindicates was very hard decision :), advantage of black is it has immune to Wastelands, Price of Progres ect. and I could use Bloodghasts which are perfect target to sacrafice. In late game drawing a lot of lands isn't good so I reduced them. :)

[mistercakes]

sorin's a good add here! i guess start out as a 2 of? maybe 3 of?