[Deck] Nic Fit (GBx Explorer Zenith Control)

[Tao]

@Arian:
First of all try a Faith's Fetters as a Rector target! They swing the game around against Aggro. Getting a Delver and neutralizing their next Bolt can win games that no other card could.
But they also get problem cards like Elspeth, Jace TMS and Riptide Laboratory in the control matchup. They get protected stuff like Emrakul, Batterskull and Mother of Runes which is a nice bonus. If you search Fetters from your library they would have to react to the Rector trigger and most of the times they either don't know they have to do that or they just can't. And unless they have Removal for the Fetters which almost no one has they lock the permanents down on the battlefield so they can't get Batterskull back with Academy Ruins and they can't play another Jace. I am 100% sure that Fetters will improve the deck. You can easily cut a Deed for it, two are enough with Rector plus they have been disappointing for me recently, usually it is an overpriced Damnation that can die to Pridemage, Pithing Needle and Stifle.

I am not 100% sure but I feel like your deck might want 2-3 Swords to Plowshares in the maindeck because they make the life so much easier against most decks. With 13 cards with CMC 4 or higher (plus Mana sinks like Fierce Empath, Deed, Witness and GSZ) you are imo a bit too heavy on the high end of the curve. I'd say cut 2-3 of the more expensive cards for Swords.

I am unsure about this but I have recently cut Hymn altogether from my GBw and so far I don't miss them. I just play 2-3 Inquisition of Kozilek to supplement the Therapies. The advantages are that it lowers your curve, it improves your mana (you could replace Urborg with a Fetchland) and that it makes Spell Snare a dead card for them.

[bowvamp]

About the list on the previous page: Vampiric Tutor = banned.

[D. Watta]

@bowvamp // @ arianrhod

Note that list is from old extended.

@thread

The initial GBR list posted reminds me of surviveteran. I've also thought of FTK before and it certainly has merits over skinrender, such as having 4 power instead of 3, shooting for 4 dmg instead of 3 -1/-1 (which becomes more important if you are utilizing recurring nightmare) and demanding only one red as opposed to two black.

Interested to see what testing shows before deciding a red splash is worthless. Let's remember people were turning their noses up at Blue Zoo for weeks before it was finally embraced.

[Greenpoe]

Red gives Burning Wish, which means you can wish for Damnation, a win-con like Call the Skybreaker, or answers to almost anything.

In other news, I've been testing a 2nd Dryad Arbor, mainly to get fetched by fetchlands for use with NO (even with the low green creature count, NO is still insane as an "oops I win" type card), but it's also useful to surprise block a Confidant, come out in response to Liliana's -2, or grab it to just chump block when they think there's no blockers. I've also been testing out Glissa, the Traitor as a 1-of GSZ target, just because first strike+death touch can make them really not want to attack, then they have to overextend, which makes Deed insane.

[Arianrhod]

@Tao -- It's funny, because I was originally running Fetters and promptly forgot that it existed when I was sifting through my binder last night trying to find my O-Ring. Oops. I've also come to the conclusion that I need to speed the deck up a little. Jupiter didn't go the greatest today, with the exception of actually meeting and playing against someone else from the thread, running the GB Abyssal version. I'm sorry that I didn't get his Source name, but I'm sure he'll turn up somewhere. Knell did nothing for me, and I think that the meta has shifted enough at this point that it just isn't good anymore, as much as it pains me to say it, since I have won many games off of it. I've also been looking at Hymn with increasingly distrustful eyes, although I worry a lot about our combo matchup without it. It may be that we should adopt the stance the Rock thread is currently taking, by dropping Hymn for more 1cc discard -- that seems much better against Stoneblade, which is rapidly becoming a problem again after disappearing for a little while.

I'll submit a full report (and I took notes on sideboarding this time...mostly!) sometime tomorrow or Monday, after I've passed out and had a chance to detox.

One parting shot: I am just as firmly convinced as ever that Garruk Relentless is the planeswalker of choice for this deck. If you doubt me on this, I beg you to test it. I'll admit that he'll be less impressive in a straight G/B version w/o rector, but whether shooting Vets, Delvers, SFMs, Cliques, Hierarches, etc etc etc, or whether it's Bitterblossoming or tutoring up whatever creature you need at the moment, he's just freaking amazing in here.

[Tao]

@bowvamp // @ arianrhod

Note that list is from old extended.

@thread

The initial GBR list posted reminds me of surviveteran. I've also thought of FTK before and it certainly has merits over skinrender, such as having 4 power instead of 3, shooting for 4 dmg instead of 3 -1/-1 (which becomes more important if you are utilizing recurring nightmare) and demanding only one red as opposed to two black.

Interested to see what testing shows before deciding a red splash is worthless. Let's remember people were turning their noses up at Blue Zoo for weeks before it was finally embraced.

I didn't mean to dismiss the idea. I just wanted to compare Red with White for the deck. Bolt plus Red Blasts plus maybe some other stuff might very well be better.
But anyway. FTK is straight up worse than Skinrender. 4/2 and 3/3 are similar P/T stats. The easier mana cost is on FTKs side but that is by far outweighed by Skinrender being better against big creatures. He dominates a 4/5 or 5/6 Goyf and also buys a lot of time against Tombstalker while FTK is doing nothing against them.

[Qweerios]

@Arianrhod
One of the reasons I stopped playing GWb Mav in favor of Nic Fit was to play Hymn. It is the most broken card black has to offer, and I do not say that lightly. Although, as a general guideline, I try to stay away from it as much as possible in 3-colored decks because it probably won't land on T2 with no alternate cost. Hymn is extremely efficient but loses its appeal when it puts a strain on your manabase. Also, Hymns are extremely synergetic with board sweepers, they force your opponent to overextend in the midgame rather than play around Deed.

On another note, I brought the deck to a couple of small events (20-30 ppl) and did fairly well. At my greatest dissapointment, I don't own any Lilianas yet but I am glad the deck has been performing well for me. I have also adopted the 4/2 split with Pulse/Deed for the following reasons:

-Jace > Nic Fit, playing against a deck landing a jace and packing enough counter/removal is akin to running into a wall.
-Deed has narrower application than Pulse, sweepers aren't great against every non-storm deck. Deeds are also deathly slower against decks that can answer them.
-Board sweepers are best kept in the sideboard.

As far as the Artifact destruction GSZ target dilemma goes, I have settled on Zealot for now and won't look back at Wickerbough. Having a silver bullet against artifacts, to me, is not about creating an opportunity for card advantage, it is about getting rid of Batterskull ASAP. My opponent is putting pressure on me with a T3 Bskull, I don't want to let him untap. If I am relying on Wickerbough to answer Bskull, I have to:

-get my skull battered for 2 turns, then;
-trump Bskull to be able to remove him, while I;
-hope my opponent doesn't play anything else to kill me while I take my sweet time.

The main difficulties I have been facing in the last weeks and that I'd like to improve on have been:

a) Jace, 1/1's can't pressure him and having your opponent brainstorm every turn is troubling to say the least;
b) Dark Confidant, when played on T2, his ability snowballs extremely fast, especially when he is preceded by a T1 Thoughtseize/Mom.
c) Geist of Saint Traft, backed by removal and counters, he can generally close the game in 3 swings. However, I can attribute some of my difficulty answering Geist to my lack of Lilianas.
d) Sword of Feast and Famine/Mirran Crusader, very difficult for strict G/B to deal with...

On an unrelated note, Consuming Vapors has been performing extremely well. I have been more satisfied with Vapors than Damnation for two excellent reasons:

1. It is 1 sided.
2. It is backbreaking against U/R Delver.dec, Tempo Thresh, Team America, and Zoo.

On the topic of adding a third color, I think red definitely has more to offer than white. I don't think StP, Vindicate, and Qasali Pridemage support a white splash on their own (StP being the only important addition). Red, however, offers Pyroblast/Red Elemental Blast, Lightning Bolt, Terminate, Artifact Mutation, andDestructive Flow for instance. Cards definitely worth exploring. I probably wouldn't play Lightning Bolt > Terminate because the burn reach isn't all that useful for this deck and Bolts can't get rid of a Percy. Artifact Mutation sounds like a neat way to get rid of Batterskull and Swords of X and Y. Destructive Flow is also an interresting way to abuse a high basic land count.

[somethingdotdotdot]

Red also adds rolling earthquake, which could be a way to get rid of planeswalkers + swarms.

[Arianrhod]

I think that comparing Hymn to something like Necropotence or Yawg Will is a little bit of an overestimation. The only time I could agree is when you land a turn 1 Hymn through Rituals or Moxen -- at that point, Hymn does have the potential to just straight up win games. Hymn on turn two or three is far less impressive, however, since blue decks have the option to Snare or Brainstorm in response, and everyone else has probably already done something. Hymn is one of the few ways we have to interact with what our opponents are doing with Explorer mana, however, which is definitely important -- at the same time, Hymn doesn't always get what you want, whereas targeted discard can sculpt their line of play very nicely to what you want it to be.

DFlow seems very counter to the intentions of the deck. I recognize, certainly, that most decks don't run enough basics, and it would indeed hurt them. But for those decks that do run basics, it seems poor to give them the very lands that Flow wouldn't kill. Also, if you're having tons of trouble with Jace (which the archetype as a whole does), then I would certainly play Bolt over Terminate, since Bolt lets you hit Jace. I guess it depends on what you're taking out for them, but I'd imagine that you should have plenty of answers for getting rid of your Percy.

Note that I will defend Rector and Sun Titan until I no longer play this deck. Swords/Vindicate/Pridemage aren't the only reasons to play white; indeed, I don't think they're the main reason to play white.

Of course, at the end of the day, it all comes down to your personal paradigm. This deck is very Nietzschean -- "there is no right or wrong way, only a way. This is mine, what's yours?" I personally love Rector and the broken things that it lets me do. Other people, such as yourself, prefer Percy for the rapid kills it can generate (I'm assuming, since it's a much faster list). Still other people like the flexibility of Birthing Pod. Etc, etc. I don't think arguing for a "best version" is where the thread should go. Instead, I think that it would be far more productive if everyone supported everyone else and helped to make everyone's personal lists the best their individual paradigms can be. These are my feelings; mileage may vary.

[Rafa]

I think that comparing Hymn to something like Necropotence or Yawg Will is a little bit of an overestimation. The only time I could agree is when you land a turn 1 Hymn through Rituals or Moxen -- at that point, Hymn does have the potential to just straight up win games. Hymn on turn two or three is far less impressive, however, since blue decks have the option to Snare or Brainstorm in response, and everyone else has probably already done something. Hymn is one of the few ways we have to interact with what our opponents are doing with Explorer mana, however, which is definitely important -- at the same time, Hymn doesn't always get what you want, whereas targeted discard can sculpt their line of play very nicely to what you want it to be.

DFlow seems very counter to the intentions of the deck. I recognize, certainly, that most decks don't run enough basics, and it would indeed hurt them. But for those decks that do run basics, it seems poor to give them the very lands that Flow wouldn't kill. Also, if you're having tons of trouble with Jace (which the archetype as a whole does), then I would certainly play Bolt over Terminate, since Bolt lets you hit Jace. I guess it depends on what you're taking out for them, but I'd imagine that you should have plenty of answers for getting rid of your Percy.

Note that I will defend Rector and Sun Titan until I no longer play this deck. Swords/Vindicate/Pridemage aren't the only reasons to play white; indeed, I don't think they're the main reason to play white.

Of course, at the end of the day, it all comes down to your personal paradigm. This deck is very Nietzschean -- "there is no right or wrong way, only a way. This is mine, what's yours?" I personally love Rector and the broken things that it lets me do. Other people, such as yourself, prefer Percy for the rapid kills it can generate (I'm assuming, since it's a much faster list). Still other people like the flexibility of Birthing Pod. Etc, etc. I don't think arguing for a "best version" is where the thread should go. Instead, I think that it would be far more productive if everyone supported everyone else and helped to make everyone's personal lists the best their individual paradigms can be. These are my feelings; mileage may vary.

Dude you are my hero!

[Tao]

Nic Fit Top8ed the German 242 man "Win a Lotus" Legacy tournament. Lists are not out yet, hope they come soon.

[Qweerios]

I think that comparing Hymn to something like Necropotence or Yawg Will is a little bit of an overestimation.

Well, by that logic, why not compare it to Demonic Tutor, or even Black Lotus... its name does contain the word "black" after all. What I should have said was:

"Hymn to Tourach is the most broken legacy-playable card that the color black on the Magic: the Gathering color wheel has to offer."

About splashing a third color for this deck, I think I will try it at the next event I attend this week. Putting the difficulties I encountered in perspective, I think a light red splash for Pyroblast/Red Elemental Blast would fix the Delver/Jace/Snap problem. Substituting a forest for a mountain and 2 Bayous for a Badland and a Taiga is such a minor change to the manabase, it looks harmless. Here is what I intend to play:


Creature (14)
4 Veteran Explorer
3 Eternal Witness
3 Abyssal Persecutor
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Viridian Zealot
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Deranged Hermit

Instant/Sorcery (18)
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Terminate

Artifact/Enchantment (6)
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Pernicious Deed

Land (22)
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Bayou
1 Taiga
1 Badlands
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Forest
3 Swamp
1 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Pyroblast
3 Red Elemental Blast
1 Artifact Mutation
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Kitchen Finks
2 Damnation

[from Cairo]

Is Vithian Renegades not better than Viridian Shaman in the Red splash builds? I guess there are a few Enchantments that it can be nice to answer if your meta has the GBw Rector build or Enchantress, but one does have Pulse and Deed too.

[Arianrhod]

Well, by that logic, why not compare it to Demonic Tutor, or even Black Lotus... its name does contain the word "black" after all. What I should have said was:

"Hymn to Tourach is the most broken legacy-playable card that the color black on the Magic: the Gathering color wheel has to offer."

Well, technically you should say that it's the most broken legacy-legal card, since playable has a different set of meanings within the context, and I'm pretty sure that Necropotence is strictly playable. But I'm not here to argue semantics =) That's my last word on the matter.

As per my statement RE that we should be making everyone's individual decks better rather than arguing:

-) I reiterate that I feel that Bolt is probably superior to Terminate. It answers Jace better main, when you don't have REBs/Pyros to work with. Also, I'm inclined to think that it's a better spot removal in general due to the prevalence of Spell Snare, and the fact that it opens up your spot removal to a second color of protection from:'s when it doesn't need to be. If you have to deal with an untransformed Delver equipped with a Feast/Famine, I think you're going to be a little unhappy with Terminate. I'll grant that it may not come up that often, but being able to have the extra damage to planeswalkers (not just Jace btw; Elspeth 1 can be a bitch to deal with, too), and dodging Snare are probably sufficient reasons to make the switch.

-) I approve of Pulse. That's a card that I haven't been running, that I'm looking at squeezing in. If Terminate becomes Bolt to deal with smaller early threats before their respective decks have a chance to get set up, I think this is the perfect number. Not having any 1cc spot seems risky.

-) I'm not a fan of cutting Recurring Nightmare at all, since it's the primary reason that this archetype can literally out control a control deck. It's another sac outlet for Percy, and being able to recycle Witnesses and Hermit is worthy of a 1-of include on its own. On the other hand, you do have Volrath's Stronghold, which serves a little of the same use. I'd run them alongside each other, personally -- that improves your late game without costing you your draw step, but also gives you a backup option which is more than capable of taking over a game on its own.

-) The 1-of Artifact Mutation in the board feels forced. It's your only artifact spot removal, it's Spell Snare-able, and it also doesn't hit enchantments -- people are fond of bringing in Leyline of the Void against us if they have it, and it can be important to kill that. Turning off your Cabal Therapy flashbacks can be brutal, especially for a version that wants to win off of Percy.

-) I don't know what your local meta is like, but I feel that you have a little too much graveyard hate for an average meta. This deck eats dredge alive without any help necessary, although reanimator is a problem. If reanimator is an issue (or even in general), then I would suggest the following:

2x Surgical
2x Extirpate
2x Pyroblast
2x R.E.B.
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Finks
1x Damnation
2x Krosan Grip
2x Beast Within

I feel that something like this gives you a lot of play against everything in the format, including answers in two colors to Iona. They'll almost certainly name black, if they can fight through surgicals and extripates, which, with REB/Pyros as backup, you should be fine forcing them through. I don't think you need so much hate -- just a touch should do it.

Without a Reanimator presence, I would cut the Pates and +1 Surgical, and then +1 whatever else you want.

-) Everything else seems solid. Regardless of our disagreements, best of luck running it!

[Qweerios]

I tested the red splash and experimented with sideboard nearly all day in preperation for a local tournament. I came to the following conclusions:

-Artifact Mutation is indeed too cute. Arianrhod was right about it being spell snare-able. It is an issue, and Krosan Grip is simply better.

-Pyroblast/REB are amazing. They solved all of my problems. Coupled with discard, 1CMC Counterspells/Vindicates are absolutely devastating against any blue-based deck. They also solved the issues I had with Delver, Jace, and Snapcaster. I upped the count to 6 in the sideboard.

The reason for all the GY hate is because I took CalebD's sideboard as a reference when I started playing the deck. I think that the general premise was that Nic Fit would trump any non-dredge/combo decks in the meta and that sideboard space should mostly be dedicated to those matchups. Reanimator is practically a Bye with Terminate, Therapy, Pyroblast, REB, Crypt, Spellbomb, Extraction, and Ooze. Dredge, however, can be difficult if you are solely relying on Ooze.

When playing Percy, Lightning Bolt isn't an option. I understand that it can't be Spell Snared, it can take out a Jace after a brainstorm and burn a T1 Delver/Mom, or burn a T2 Bob on the draw, but it cannot destroy Percy. The tricky part about playing around Percy's drawback is to have an overabundance of ways to remove him. If you have a good amount of outlets (say 12 for 3 Percy), siding out therapies/deeds becomes a headach. The more outlets, the better. Besides, Terminate does a fine job at removing Goyf, KotR, and Tombstalker.

Current Sideboard:

1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Pyroblast
2 Damnation
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Gaddock Teeg


Which is better between Vapors and Damnation?

-They both answer Emrakul and Progenitus;
-Damnation is better against Elves and decks with Mom;
-Damnation is immediate;
-Vapors is 1 sided;
-Vapors gains you life against Tempo Thresh and Zoo.

[Greenpoe]

My build is similar to yours, but I run Natural Order. I'm currently trying it with no Progenitus at all and Gaea's Revenge as the maindeck target instead, since she has a reasonable casting cost if you draw her or just GSZ for 8 instead of using NO. If you resolve NO, you're probably going to win anyway, and sometimes she is actually better than Prog, too. Having no dead cards has definitely helped, and sometimes I've even used Natural Order when I had Gaea's Revenge in hand. Using Gaea's Revenge is like Proggy in so many ways (can't be hit by Swords, Bolt, Dismember, etc.), but the haste can make NO feel like a burn spell. It can catch your opponent off guard for the instant-kill. Haste rocks.

To help support NO, I run 3 E-Witness, 1 Kitchen Finks, 1 Ohran Viper, and 1 Glissa, the Traitor (along with Thrun+Dryad Arbor of course). Finks, Glissa and the Viper serve excellently as my GSZ toolbox, too, and I'm always happy to draw any one of them.

I'm surprised you put Kitchen Finks in the SB. Gaining life means the game goes on longer. 3 power is pretty decent for pinging away at them/blocking&killing or just double-block to stall. Plus, living through Perish/Wrath of God/Liliana's -2 is definitely useful.

I think you should consider Glissa the Traitor. You mentioned needing a GSZ target to fight Batterskull, but Glissa is great at that. Dying to bolt/StP is annoying, but she's absolutely fantastic at slowing the game down, which is what this deck wants to do. First strike and deathtouch is an insane combination since their creature dies before combat damage. One Glissa can hold back a couple Goyfs and KotR because they don't want to lose an army all to one creature. Glissa can be pretty nuts as a GSZ target.

Viper is kind of like a green Confidant. 3 toughness is great, deathtouch rocks, and the CA it gives you works wonders. I realized that since I use Maelstrom Pulse so often just to kill creatures, might as well just add deathtouch creatures.

[Alexeezay]

Just tested Gaea's Revenge because you suggested it...and I must admit it's awesome!! Best finisher ever, what will they do about it? :)

[Whippoorwill]

I played the BG version tonight (2-2) and tried out a different finisher I haven't seen suggested:

Rampaging Baloths

Works quite well with Fetchlands and Explorers and can be searched out with Zenith. Trample can also be nice.

Just something worth trying out.

[Arianrhod]

If I were to play a 7-drop that isn't Debtors' Knell (which is almost never actually a 7-drop), Revenge is what I would play, no question. I've considered things like Vish Kal and even Sheoldred in the past, but I've never brought myself to actually play a 7-drop creature when I have 3 6's already.

RE: Dredge. I'll grant that Dredge isn't a matchup that I've tested much (or at all). However, there are certain facts about dredge that I know from playing vs my roommate's vintage dredge: they don't like it when you kill your own creatures, at all, and they cannot win if Pernicious Deed is in play/if you have a creature in play larger than 3 toughness. G1 they will probably just explogasm all over the board unless you land a fast deed or a Moat, in which case you're probably fine. G2/3, I would assume that Surgicals on their Dread Returns and Ichorids should shut them completely down, along with the aforementioned goodies. But, I'll reiterate that I really just don't know. It isn't a matchup I worry about much, regardless.

My report from Jupiter:

For reference, my list:

4x Veteran Explorer
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Fierce Empath
2x Eternal Witness
1x Master of the Wild Hunt
3x Academy Rector
1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
1x Yosei, the Morning Star
1x Sun Titan

4x Cabal Therapy
3x Hymn to Tourach
3x Green Sun's Zenith

2x Sensei's Divining Top

3x Garruk Relentless
1x Elspeth, Knight Errant

1x Moat
1x Oblivion Ring
3x Pernicious Deed
1x Recurring Nightmare
1x Debtors' Knell

3x Forest
2x Plains
2x Swamp
1x Phyrexian Tower
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3x Bayou
1x Scrubland
1x Savannah
3x Verdant Catacombs
3x Windswept Heath
1x Dryad Arbor

//SB
1x Chains of Mephistopheles
1x Choke
1x Swords to Plowshares
2x Innocent Blood
2x Kitchen Finks
3x Surgical Extraction
2x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Memoricide
1x Gaddock Teeg


Round 1: James Rynciewiciez - whose last name I have mangled horribly.

I knew going in that this was going to be bad, but I was feeling on the okay side of bad. The last three Jupiter events, I'd seen him playing High Tide. Game 1 is miserable, but G2/3, High Tide is almost unloseable for me.

I therapy on t1, naming Brainstorm. He reveals Brainstorm, Dryad Arbor, Force, Clique, Daze, Tundra, Misty. Welp. That isn't High Tide at all.

I do a few things and he makes a Progenitus off a ripped NO, to compliment his Clique. I have Garruk and Rector in hand, and could land Moat at 1 life...and then die to the Clique. I take a chance on hitting a Therapy/Tower on top of my deck, shooting Clique with Garruk, and hoping to find a sac outlet for Rector to live. I didn't get there.

Out: 2x Garruk, 2x Hymn, Kokusho, Knell. In: Choke, 2x Innocent Blood, Teeg, 2x Memoricide

G2 is very uninteresting. He makes a turn 3 Progenitus, again off of a NO on top of his deck as opposed to in his hand, and I manage to Choke him before I die. Whoop di do.

Round 2: Mike Van Tosh with Zoo

Last time I played Mike, he was running a tempo deck. I'm ehh about that, but my mood improves considerably when he goes land, Nacatl, go. I love byes...I mean...zoo.

He makes a bazillion cats, and I can't find a Deed or a Rector to save my life. I start to get worried that I might lose my first ever game against zoo, but my luck has other things to say about it, as he fails to draw a burn spell or a land for his Steppe Lynxes for two turns. That gives me time to drop to 1, land a Sun Titan -> Scav Ooze, and then proceed to gain life off of the Ooze, then drain him for 5 with Kokusho. #Winning.

Out: 1 Hymn, Knell. In: 2 Finks

G2 is amazingly unremarkable. I land a Moat, then a Garruk, then proceed to play Survival post-ban. He dies to dragons very quickly. I found out after the game that he actually boarded out his Pridemages, and didn't bring in any Grips -- not seeing Deed or Moat g1 actually helped, amusingly enough.

Round 3: Carson Yeager with UW Stoneblade

I hadn't seen any of the old guard blue decks yet, so I figured that I was due. He drops a pair of fast Delvers and goes to down. I try to fight back, and get counter walled and swordsed into oblivion.

Out: Moat, 3 Hymn, Knell (see a pattern?). In: Choke, Swords, 2 Bloods, Chains

I don't know this at the time, since my Therapies were hiding, but I find out later that is opening hand is something like Land, Land, Delver, Swords, Swords, Swords; with a Jitte on top. You can probably guess where this goes. I do a few inconsequential things while he drops a Delver, which naturally flips. Then I drop Chains, and I go through the usual 5 minute process of explaining to blue mages that Brainstorm is now the worst card in their deck. He accepts this, then loots for a Ponder. Eventually Jitte happens, with every creature I have played by this point having been Swords'd. I have one last chance to stabilize, with a Deed...which gets met with the last two cards in his hand being Force-blue card. Rage.

Round 4: Andrew with the mothereffing mirror.

We chat for a while before the match, and he explains that two of his three rounds so far have been Reanimator. I commiserate, thinking of my own problems with that deck. It doesn't occur to me that it might be a mirror. Like, the concept never even entered my mind.

He leads with basic Swamp -> Top, go. My thoughts are Deadguy, so I accordingly name Dark Confidant with my first Therapy. He reveals Eternal Witness, Abyssal Percy, and 2 Veteran Explorers. Jigg is up, now. As I drop my Explorer, the realization that this is a mirror really sets in for both of us. We chat a lot throughout the match, and I know he recognized me from this thread, although I didn't think to ask for his Source name. I'm guessing he'll turn up at some point. He drops a Percy, which I Deed away. Then he drops another Percy, but I have Sun Titan -> Deed, and start going broken. I think I actually hit Nightmare this game naturally, too, but I don't remember that well.

Neither of us has a bloody clue of what we're doing with our sideboards. I do the following: Out: 3 Hymn, Qasali. In: 2 Bloods, 2 Leylines.

G2 is much more of a blowout. Garruk does some serious work here, as does Master of the Wild Hunt. He drops a Hornet Queen, which gets shot with Master and then the tokens get Deeded away. Garruk quickly takes the game over from there.

Round 5: Will with WUR Stoneblade

I don't even feel like going into detail on this one. I just got ripped wide open by this deck. I wasn't even really close at any point, and at this point, I had people clamoring at me to drive them home because I was the last one still in. I also didn't take sbing notes for this matchup.

At this point, I'm looking at taking out Hymn completely, in favor of more 1cc discard. I'm also moving one Finks maindeck, because I've wanted to do that for a long time, and just never had the space. I'm hoping to squeeze in something like 2x Pulse, 2x Swords. The various Delver/Stoneblade decks are just mandating some kind of spot removal maindeck now. Debtors' Knell is coming out again, and probably staying out this time. I remain content with most aspects of the deck, though...I just need to adjust it towards Stoneblade a bit. I'll be posting an updated list at some point in the next day or two with these changes in mind.

[Qweerios]

@Arianrhod

I am very curious as to why you would side out Hymn against NO Bant, UW Stoneblade, and Nic Fit. What was your reasoning behind these choices?

Aside from that, it seems to me like you had some pretty good matchups. Going 5 rounds without facing combo is unheard of around here.