[Deck] Nic Fit (GBx Explorer Zenith Control)

[TheArchitect]

I was thinking the same thing. She is exactly what we need a creature: evasion (flying), GSZ target, 5/5 and immune to almost all forms of removal.

I might have to start splashing white.

[hyperchord24]

Yeah, I didn't know if I should mention anything because I didn't know if a lot of people splashed white. It's definetly an upgrade over baneslayer simply because it has shroud and is GSZ-able, but I don't know if it takes her spot. White lists with rector seem very tight.

[Philipp2293]

This might be the reason for me, along with Elspeth, to reconsider a white splash.

[novatinhu]

My new list after AVR release:


// Lands
4 Forest
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Windswept Heath
2 Bayou
2 Swamp
2 Plains
2 Savannah
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Scrubland
1 Dryad Arbor

// Creatures
4 Veteran Explorer
3 Eternal Witness
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons

// Spells
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Thoughtseize
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Garruk Relentless or Elspeth, Knight-Errant or Sorin, Lord of Innistrad


White or NO white splash?

[hyperchord24]

I think GSZ-ing into this new angel is just about the strongest move this deck can make with large amounts of mana available. It seems to me that all the rector tricks pale in comparison to putting this angel in play(assuming a white splash).

[Qweerios]

...Kodama has been surpassed

Another good reason to splash white.

[eq.firemind]

I finaly was able to test Abyssal Persecutors and it was impressive. Flying creatures gave me troubles, but the demon solved it all at once (Good luck hiding behind Lingering Souls).

After that I started to search for some way to reliably get rid of it since loosing to horde of zombies or huge Tendrils while trying to kill your own creature was frustrating. Then I found a card that was discussed at early pages of this thread: Diabolic Intent. Since I was not completely satisfied with both Green Sun's Zenith and Living Wish due to tutor restrictions, Intent took 2 slots in my BG list adn GSZ was out.

Then I noticed that after turn 1 Explorer, turn 2 Intent I often wanted something to put immidiate pressure on opponent's life total. The thing is that opponent usualy knows what deck is he playing against, so he can easily adjust his role. That pressure can mess his initial evaluation and force him to play unoptimal.
To make story short short, I was in need for 2-mana beater.

The obvious choice is Tarmogoyf, but this deck can't afford to have just dumb big beater since it is too easy to answer. Then I remembered a card that glanced somewhere in this thread, but was dismissed without actual testing.
The card is Strangleroot Geist and it was bingo for me.

So, whad does Geist do in this deck?
1) It comes down at turn 2, which fits curve perfectly.
2) It chumpblocks 2 times.
3) It immideately swings for 2 and due to deck's nature it usually swings for 3 on turn 3. 5 potential damage on turn 3 is pretty nice for 2 mana investment and unexpected from this deck.
4) It survives Deed and strikes right into opponent's sweeped board.
5) It enables lots of cards with sacrifice costs and becomes stronger in process.
The only real trouble was double green cost, but I saw IBA's list with Twilight Mires and it was it.
So with Geists and without GSZ my curve becomes smoother (yeah, one more thing I don't like about Zenith - it screws your curve if you don't have fast Explorer start), so I cut some expensive finishers and a land to include more options for Diabolic Intent and upped its count to 3 (so now I have no trouble to kill Persecutor in due time).
Then I made some tweaks here and there and there's the result:

Lands:
4 Forest
3 Swamp
4 Bayou
2 Twilight Mire
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Windswept Heath
1 Phyrexian Tower

Creature that can (and usualy should) be sacrificed:
4 Veteran Explorer
4 Strangleroot Geist
1 Kitchen Finks
2 Eternal Witness
3 Abyssal Persecutor
1 Deranged Hermit - This could be Grave Titan or anohter token generator, but I like to keep the top of curve at 5 mana
1 Batterskull
Other creatures:
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thrun, the Last Troll

Hand control
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Cabal Therapy
Removal:
2 Innocent Blood
1 Tragic Slip - Nice with Intent and still kills relevant 1-drops.
2 Shriekmaw - Removal spell that dodges both Spell Snare and Spell Pierce, can wipe board with Nightmare and just plain beats (planeswalker's) face due to evasion. Can't hit Dark Confidant or Phyrexian Revoker (on Deed), but Tragic Slip covers that.
2 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Pernicious Deed
Stuff
3 Diabolic Intent
1 Recurring Nightmare
2 Garruk Relentless/Garruk, the Veil-Cursed

Sideboard
1 Choke
1 Tsunami
2 Krosan Grip
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Thoughtseize
1 Tendrils of Despair - Replacement for Innocent Blood versus control and combo
1 Memoricide
2 Darkblast

This list can play more aggressive early game with Geist and Persecutors (4 mana is not late game for this deck) and due to lack of restrictions on Diabolic Intent's target you can set up right engine or grab sideboard card. Give it a spin, it feels a little different compared to regular Nic Fit.

Oh, and that Sigarda looks unkillable.

[Tao]

Sigarda seems solid indeed. Like Thrun but the Evasion make her better at killing Planeswalkers and she blocks Delver. 5 Mana instead of 6 for a Dragon is nice.

But as long as opponents can use the new Time Walk thing I can't see Nic Fit being a viable choice -_- Not tested but I don't see how the matchup against Jace, Time Walk, Time Walk is winnable.

[Arianrhod]

I don't see Mastery seeing much play, honestly. Even if it does, you can always just surgical them after the first one, or Memoricide/Cranial them. It doesn't really help blue decks against Maverick, and that's the one matchup they really, really need to shore up right now. Maindeck Teeg laughs at Mastery. I think that some decks, like Thopter/Sword especially, can get a lot of value out of the card. But I definitely don't think it's going to turn into a "decks start with 4 Walk and 4 Brainstorm" scenario. I certainly wouldn't worry about it now. It'll be several months before people manage to break it, if in fact it can be broken.

I'm unconvinced that Sigarda is better than Baneslayer, but I'll certainly be testing her. I had the same knee-jerk reaction to her, but the more I think about it, the more I remain unsure. The fact that she's a zenithable flying hexproof beatstick is fantastic, don't get me wrong. At the same time, being green opens her to Perish and other Maverick hate, by the time you're dropping a 5-drop angel you've probably got your opponent out of removal anyway, and I have won literally countless games between legacy and standard by racing stupid things with her. I mean, she straight up races Progenitus. Not many cards can ay that. As for Sigarda's ability, I guess it might have fringe utility. Most of the time, by the time you're getting punched by an Emrakul, you won't have had the mana to play Sigarda anyway (Sneak/Show comes to mind here, combo elves too). I suppose shutting off Lilianas and edicts is a good thing, but the format isn't very black right now. I guess I'd be more excited about it if more of the old Jacestill decks were running around with their 80 million sacrifice effects. Sigarda will -definitely- be tested, but I'm not going to give her a ringing accolade before that point. She'll have to work for it.

[mordraid]

I don't see Mastery seeing much play, honestly. Even if it does, you can always just surgical them after the first one, or Memoricide/Cranial them.

You can't since miracle cards must be exiled after being casted.

[Arianrhod]

You can if you hit them with a Therapy...=P

I'll admit I forgot about that. But it doesn't change my opinion on their viability. There will be decks that will use them, but it's not going to devolve into a Misstep scenario.

[TheArchitect]

You can surgical their brainstorm/ponder (or a fetchland if they are using top) to shuffle away their time walk after they put set it up on top of their library to draw on their turn.

[Star|Scream]

You can surgical their brainstorm/ponder (or a fetchland if they are using top) to shuffle away their time walk after they put set it up on top of their library to draw on their turn.

*Trollface*

The only concern is how do you know they brainstormed their timewalk to the top?

Could you instead surgical after a delver reveal?

You can also surgical after a personal tutor.

Then they have to decide to hymn themselves for 2, or use their mana to spell pierce, or worse, daze it.

[guelahpapyrus]

@eqfiremind

I did some testing with Geist, granted not with your build, and I wasn't that impressed. I use 2 Diabolic Intent MD (alongside 3 GSZs) and even so, Geist was just such a miserable top deck anything after turn two. I would so much rather have more answers than the additional aggression offered by Geist. I prefer Dungrove Elder to put pressure on my opponent because (a) it's only one slot, leaving more room for answers and (b) Elder scales better from early to late game.

Also, why no Dryad Arbor when you have Diabolic Intent?

[Kich867]

@eqfiremind

I did some testing with Geist, granted not with your build, and I wasn't that impressed. I use 2 Diabolic Intent MD (alongside 3 GSZs) and even so, Geist was just such a miserable top deck anything after turn two. I would so much rather have more answers than the additional aggression offered by Geist. I prefer Dungrove Elder to put pressure on my opponent because (a) it's only one slot, leaving more room for answers and (b) Elder scales better from early to late game.

Also, why no Dryad Arbor when you have Diabolic Intent?

I dig the dungrove elder idea. He'd actually be rather large pretty fast--as fast as a 4/4 hexproof on turn 2.

[RKPW]

Here's the list I've been testing for a while now. I feel really good about this list, I've mostly tested against Maverick, U/R Delver, G/B jank, and Burn.

Honestly though, the only match that feels unwinnable is burn most of the time. I don't really have any hate out of the board, other than loading up on discard+extirpate.

3 Abyssal Persecutor
1 Broodmate Dragon
1 Eternal Witness
2 Grave Titan
1 Kodama of the North Tree
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 Veteran Explorer

2 Liliana of the Veil

4 Cabal Therapy
3 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Innocent Blood
2 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Punishing Fire
3 Sensei's Divining Top

1 Badlands
2 Bayou
4 Forest
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Mountain
1 Phyrexian Tower
3 Swamp
1 Taiga
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wooded Foothills

sideboard

2 Deathmark
4 Duress
2 Extirpate
2 Pithing Needle
3 Planar Void
2 Tsunami

Personally, I feel that Punishing Fire is great, and when it comes online, it usually just hoses most matchups. Kodama has been pretty good in testing, the trample damage is way good, and he's another shrouded beater which is something I like. Just when you need that endgame creature to stick amidst removal but can't GSZ for Broodmate. Speaking of that guy, I absolutely love riding Broody to victory. Really good finisher.

Liliana is really solid in this build. And once again, she's just nuts along side punishing fire. If your opponent is ever hellbent when you land a Liliana, chances are you can mark that as a "W."

Persecutor remains strong in this deck, although, I would like a way to deal with Maze of Ith in the mainboard, but there's just no room. Occasionally I wish the Innocent Bloods were spot removal, but most of the time they do what they're supposed to do.

Only thing in the sideboard I would change is the deathmarks to either perish/virtue's ruin or dread of night. Just don't have them currently.

I've also consider running a Night of Souls' Betrayal just not sure how good it would be as a miser.

[Koby]

Kitchen Finks and Hymn to Tourach help out the Burn matchup tremendously. I run 2 Finks main with 2 more in the side. It's good against many decks right now, and I bring it in against any deck packing red.

This is the list I'm testing right now - and by no means is it optimal. Karn is just for fun - it could be an extra Liliana or even any version of Garruk right now (likely 2nd or 3rd iteration). I like the mix between spot removal with Swords and the recurring inevitability with Sun Titan. Fierce Empath is somewhat weak when it only gets Sun Titan, but I feel this is more of a Sun Titan deck which is why it includes Fleshbad Marauder - who's a house against RUG Tempo and even the occasional Show & Tell deck. Obv the combo matchup is really weak, which is why the SB is dedicated to many of those answers.

4 Cabal Therapy
2 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Pernicious Deed
2 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Recurring Nightmare

1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Karn Liberated
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Sun Titan
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Fierce Empath
4 Veteran Explorer
2 Eternal Witness
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Fleshbag Marauder

1 Dryad Arbor
2 Bayou
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Phyrexian Tower
2 Swamp
2 Plains
3 Forest
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard
2 Duress
2 Hymn to Tourach
4 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Kitchen Finks
3 Nihil Spellbomb

[Kich867]

Went to the Jupiter Games NELC event today. I went 2-3 and dropped, overall it was kind of a rough day. I made a few misplays, but overall, my play was really solid. Some games, I just couldn't get there--I wasn't in a bad position, I just kept drawing terribly until I lost.

Here's the list I ran (and intend to change):

//Creatures: 13
4x Veteran Explorer
2x Eternal Witness
2x Abyssal Persecuter
1x Grave Titan
1x Primeval Titan
1x Wickerbough Elder
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
1x Scavenging Ooze

//Spells: 25
4x Cabal Therapy
2x Maelstrom Pulse
3x Pernicious Deed
3x Hymn to Tourach
3x Innocent Blood
2x Go for the Throat
4x Green Sun's Zenith

2x Sensei's Divining Top
2x Liliana of the Veil

//Lands: 22
4x Verdant Catacombs
2x Misty Rainforest
2x Polluted Delta
2x Bayou
2x Treetop Village
4x Swamp
4x Forest
1x Phyrexian Tower
1x Volrath's Stronghold

//Sideboard: 15
3x Tormod's Crypt
3x Duress
3x Surgical Extraction
2x Choke
2x Obstinate Baloth
2x Krosan Grip

Round 1: Turtle with Spiral Tide: 2-0

The game starts, I see him play island, ponder. I put him on spiral tide. I cabal therapy like a boss for high tide and hit it. I'm right. Turn 2 is veteran explorer, sac cabal therapy for time spiral, hymn to tourach. Turn 3, I hymn to tourach again and pass. He has no hand, top decks a candelabra, and I drop Wickerbough Elder. I kill the candelabra, swing. He draws a card and passes. I drop a thrun and swing for 4 with elder. He meditates EOT, so I take another turn, I put him to 8 with lethal on the board, his meditate got him there.

Game two, I don't even really know how I got there, but I did. I cabal therapied, whiffed on high tide. I sac veteran explorer next turn and hit merchant scroll. Nothing really happened, but, somehow my discards here and there hit the right stuff and eventually a Grave Titan dropped. He probably should have forced it, didn't, and it got him in the end.

Game three, I mull to 5, he mulls to 4. He plays island go. I top deck surgical extraction, my hand is Duress, Hymn, Veteran Explorer, Land, Land. I duress, hit time spiral, extract it, and that seals the game after I top deck a sac outlet for Explorer and after hymn he can't recover.

1-0

Round 2: Bryant Cook with TES, 0-2

Game one: I mull to 3 trying to find some discard--any discard. I drew into 4 hands with strictly fatties and little land, or land flood and fatties, or land and kill, but no discard. I keep Cabal Therapy, Swamp, Veteran Explorer. I die turn 2.

Game two: I die turn 2 after boarding in Surgical Extractions and Duresses--I never saw any hand hate except for a single cabal therapy after mulling to 5.

Bryant is a very chill guy, it was cool to meet him in person. It was pretty damn impressive watching him play TES.

1-1

Round 3: Dredge, 1-2

Game one: Weird shit happens, Scavenging ooze gets down somehow, he just can't actually kill me as I slow-roll pernicious deeds to wipe his tokens. Scavenging ooze has to die to get rid of the bridges. Eventually grave titan got down (what the fuck?!) and I ripped stronghold to get scavenging ooze back to wipe out the rest of the ichorids, no more threats!

Game two: I board in crypts and extractions. I mull aggressively to find them, don't, and lose.

Game three: I mull aggressively to find them, don't, and lose. This was very confusing to me, I never saw anything useful out of any hands. I didn't see any deeds, crypts, or surgicals in any of those hands.

1-2

Round 4: Joe with Maverick, 0-2

Game one: I have a hand of 2x Innocent blood, gftt, eternal witness, a fetch, forest, and cabal therapy. I fetch for bayou, because I need the double green to play eternal witness later--terrible idea. I cabal therapy, whiff, he wastes my bayou. He never draws another land and beats me. If I got a swamp, I control that game. His first 3 creatures all die and with only 1 mana and no accel he sits dead in the water.

Game two: I keep a solid hand, but he randomly boarded in Leyline of Sanctity. This proves to be surprisingly strong. Long story short, the game state devolves into this weird position where he has an enormous knight and an enormous ooze, I top deck almost every single discard in my deck in a row while I sit on 5 lands with grave titan in hand. If I had a 6th land, the game was over--I could swing all out over and over with zombie chumpers. Even if he traded with grave titan, it was over.

1-3

Round 5: Lloyd with American Tempo, 2-1

Game one: He drops volcanic and plays delver. I put him on UR Delver. I cabal therapy for goblin guide, see Geist / Clique / Swords and land. I pass. Shortly thereafter I get blown out.

Game two: I was proud of myself this game. I cabal therapy for jace, no jace. I see force, daze, clique, bolt, and some land. I pass. He plays land pass. Through a series of events, I ended up getting a veteran explorer out, sac it to therapy, hit force, and drop choke knowing there was only a daze in his hand that I played around. The rest of the game is pretty straightforward, though long, as I have to dig hard to find a creature to win with.

Game three: We both mull to 5. I keep a one lander, he keeps a 3 lander. He mentions this as one point, which means he only had 2 cards that weren't land in his opener. I aggressively kill explorer, as more land shouldn't help him here. He cliques me and sees Pulse, Liliana, and Innocent Blood. He bottom deck's pulse. I innocent blood his clique, drop liliana, and lock the game out from there. I slow rolled into pernicious deeds and blew up whatever he played

2-3

-- My ride at the time wants to bounce, the rest of my friends are bouncing, I bounce with them.

Thoughts:

- Abyssal Persecuter rarely performed, ever. Not like I had particularly good showings for it, but he felt very bad throughout.
- Grave Titan is fucking awesome but is often way too hard to cast. I don't like 6 drops in this deck. You don't always get there, at least in this list, and not being able to find him can be brutal.
- Primeval Titan felt like a win-more. The only time I got him was strictly to actually kill the opponent as the game was already over. This felt kind of dumb. I never want to see a 6 drop in my opening hand, it feels like I already mulled.
- I'm not sure how I feel about Hymn. It was good, but not stellar.
- The deck -probably- should be abusing Recurring Nightmare in some amount. Liliana and Recurring Nightmare can make some pretty maneuvers.
- I feel like the white versions are much stronger, but I may look into testing with red + punishing grove combo and Burning Wish since I already have the mana base and I'm actually quite fond of the jund color scheme.
- Cabal Therapy is really, really hard to play on turn 1.
- My sideboard is bad. Rectifying that upon getting other cards.

[Arianrhod]

I was also at the NELC, and did a bit better. Upon reflection, I made one crucial mistake that cost me top 8, and it wasn't actually a play error. More on that later.

The list I ran:


4x Veteran Explorer
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Fierce Empath
2x Eternal Witness
3x Academy Rector
2x Baneslayer Angel
1x Sun Titan
1x Kokusho, the Evening Star

3x Garruk Relentless
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant

3x Pernicious Deed
1x Recurring Nightmare
1x Moat
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Faith's Fetters

4x Cabal Therapy
2x Green Sun's Zenith
2x Maelstrom Pulse
1x Vindicate

3x Sensei's Divining Top

3x Verdant Catacombs
3x Windswept Heath
3x Bayou
2x Savannah
1x Scrubland
3x Forest
3x Plains
2x Swamp
2x Phyrexian Tower

//SB:
1x Night of Souls' Betrayal
1x Pernicious Deed
2x Perish
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Curse of Exhaustion
2x Tsunami
3x Carpet of Flowers
2x Leyline of Sanctity


R1: Michael with NO RUG.

Game one he leads Trop->Hierarch into t2 Clique, and after a therapy on my end, I put him on Bant. Flashback Therapy takes his Jace, and he deploys a Sylvan. I Deed away the world and stabilize at 8 with arbitrary fatties. Before he dies, he dropped a Volcanic Island, which clued me in that he was not actually Bant, but rather NO RUG.

I don't remember my board outs exactly, and I didn't jot them down for this event. I can say that I boarded in the Perishes, the Tsunamis, and the Carpets.

Game two went on for a while, and saw me have to dig my way out of a very bad situation. I blind therapy on my turn 1, naming Natural Order, and get a hit. he proceeded to go on Clique beatdown while Jace fateseals. I land an Arena, which along with my Top negates his fatesealing, but am rapidly running out of time from exalted Clique beats. I finally manage to crack a Rector, but don't have the mana available afterward to blow up Deed. I contemplate Fettering his Jace, but then I would die to my own Arena. I settled on Fettering his Clique, which would buy me a turn if he bounced it with Jace, and got me a bit of life for Arena draws. IIRC, he chose to brainstorm with Jace as opposed to bouncing his clique, and then he resolved Natural Order. This let me drop the Perish I'd been sandbagging in my hand the whole game. He then bounced his Clique, but I drew into a Pulse to get rid of Jace. When he recast Clique, he saw a hand of something like Night of Souls, Deed, card, card. He took the Night, I remember, and then I removed his board (and my Arena) with Deed. Shortly thereafter I landed a Baneslayer, and she does what she does.

Of note: Kich867 was actually playing my friend next to me, which alerted me to the fact that there was actually another Vet player at the event. I tried to keep track of him throughout the day and we talked shop a bit. I'd later actually see a 3rd deck as well, playing another friend of mine in r6. His was also straight GB.

R2: Dave with Canadian RUG.

He drops Trop->Goose and I smile. I proceed to go Veteran->Tower->stupidity. The game ends on the wings of Baneslayer a few turns later.

In: 3x Carpet of Flowers, 2x Tsunami.

Game two I therapy him, seeing Force, Submerge, Bolt, Forked Bolt, Spell Pierce. I rip his hand apart, drop a Baneslayer, and do what I do. He complains audibly about his deck, noting that today was the first time he'd ever touched it and that he could totally outplay me. I just smile and nod and move on my way. Bryant Cook later apologized on his behalf (Cook had been sitting next to us, playing Kich, ironically), which I tried to accept as gracefully as I could. It's also not the first time I've seen this player behave in this way, though, and the idea that he thought he could outplay me when I've been playing this deck for almost a year and he literally just picked his up that day is laughable.

R3: X with Imperial Painter

I failed to jot my opponent's name down for this one, sadly.

I mull to 4 game one, finally keeping something like Veteran, Therapy, Deed, Therapy. I rip a Savannah off the top, while my opponent fetches for a basic mountain EoT, but fails to lightning bolt me. Next turn he drops a Top and an Ancient Tomb, and my spider senses are tingling. I continue to rip like a champ, drawing into a fetch. I grab a black source and therapy him, naming Painter's Servant on a hunch. I whiff, but I see REB, Gamble, Welder, and lands. I flashback for his Gamble, and take his Welder too with my second therapy. Next turn sees a Baneslayer, and his top can't show him the win before she kills him.

Surgicals and Leylines came in here, along with the 4th Deed.

Game two is barely worth mentioning, as he does what Imperial Painter sometimes does and just straight up kills me on turn two/three. I had the Deed in hand, and could have played it the turn before he activated, but I didn't have any mana to crack it, so I just died.

Game three I had some bullshit like Veteran + Tower + double Therapy. I keep, rip his hand apart, and make a Baneslayer a few turns down. He tries to top his way to victory, but once again he doesn't find anything.

R4: Jesse with Maverick (GW).

3-0 and over halfway to IDing into top 8. I want to see more Canadian, but instead my opponent goes Savannah->Hierarch. Sadface.

We have a long slugfest of a game one, going back and forth and back and forth. He overextended slightly into a Deed, and I proceeded to punish him pretty severely for it. Eventually a Baneslayer happens that he doesn't have an immediate answer for, and she does her work. I believe that I had finished setting up Kokusho/Nightmare this game, but it proved not to be necessary, and I didn't want my opponent boarding in a lot of graveyard hate.

In: Night, Deed, Perish x2

Game two he sees a fast Thalia backed up by double Wasteland, and she actually hurts me for the first time ever. I have Deed in hand, ready to wipe his board, but the extra one mana from Thalia coupled with the wastes set me back enough that he's able to get there fairly quickly.

Game three he makes a weenie board presence with multiple Moms and a Thalia. I build up enough mana to drop Night of Souls, wrathing his board except for a 4/4 Terravore. He lands a Metamorph, making a second Terravore, and crashes in. Unfortunately, I'm forced to spend my next turn dropping an Explorer to grab two plains to go with the Baneslayer in my hand, which would have stabilized me. His deck has other plans, though, and he rips a fetch off the top like a champion to do exactly lethal. These were really good, close games, though, and I came away from them feeling like the changes I made to my sideboard definitely helped against Maverick. I think I still might want to put another card or two in, but it feels much closer now.

R5: Adam with Canadian.

Game one is slightly awkward, as a fast Therapy shows my opponent sitting on Force, Goose, and five lands. He deploys his Goose, and I do my thing while he punches me in the face for one over, and over, and over again. The damn Goose got me to 7 by itself, with only one hit of that being thresholded. While I sit on a Deed, stopping the Goyf that's sitting in his hand from being played, Adam continues to flood out. I drop a Baneslayer, and he brainstorms into Forked Bolt + Lightning Bolt. Awkward. Luckily for me, I had the second already in hand, and he can't find an answer to her.

In: Tsunamis, Carpets.

Game two he leads with triple Delver. I lead with Pernicious Deed, followed by Sun Titan. 'Nough said.

R6: Rion with Maverick (GW).

Every time I've seen this guy play, he's been on some version of Bant or Maverick, and my suspicions are confirmed here. Game one I suffer the Maverick curse, and die to a HORRIFICALLY overextended board. He dropped everything as soon as he had it, and, guess what, I couldn't find a Deed even with Top going almost the whole game. Goddamnit.

In: Night, Deed, Perishes

Game two I go into serious mode. This is my win-and-in, and beyond that I'm determined not to lose to this guy, as he's a very grinder-ish person, a trade shark, and tilts really, really easily. He comes out really fast, but I blow up a Deed and buy myself some time. As he tries to rebuild his board I have the answers, with Pulse, Vindicate, and eventually Sun Titan->Deed.

Game three is another iteration in the long series of awkward maverick board states. I have an early Therapy, for the first time this round, and call Knight of the Reliquary. My thought process was that Knight comes down earlier than GSZ->Knight, and he also had a Teeg out, so GSZ is dead anyway. It turns out to be a good call, and I hit a pair of Knights blind, noting a Gideon in his hand. That summarily gets flashback removed, as I don't want to see that at all. I land a Perish for his Teeg, but he finds Scryb Ranger and starts to get really, really obnoxious with Ranger+Mom, as I stare at the two Garruks in my hand and fume. I'm pretty much digging for a Deed at this point, and he subtly over commits as time is almost up in the round. I finally find my Deed as we hit turns, blow up his world, and begin to stabilize. He GSZ's for a Scavenging Ooze on turn three of turns (he gets turn 5), obviously planning to eat creatures, give it pro my blocker with the Mom he also played that turn, and win that way. I drop Garruk and point at his Ooze (which has no green mana available to grow), as he begins to scream fuck at the top of his lungs. My hand was something like E.Wit, Garruk, Empath with Top active.

And that was my own fuck-up. While I played the match at the best of my ability, I made one bureaucratic error. Rion had called for the judge twice in game one, the first time engaging in a lengthy question -- away from the table, mind -- about stacking Sylvan Library with Horizon Canopy. Then a few turns later he did it again with a question about Scavenging Ooze. I should have asked the judge for a 5 minute extension, since the two judge calls took at least that long between them. This is standard procedure, but I was so focused on the game that I didn't even think of it then...or honestly until last night when I got home at quarter to 1 AM. If I'd had five minutes...hell, even two more minutes, I would have been able to finish him off, since he was completely out of gas and neither my Titan nor Kokusho had been used yet, to say nothing of the fact that he was at 11 from being reckless with Sylvan Library to try to end it in time.

R7: Jim Higgenbottom with Canadian.

We're at a win-and-in for both of us, and I know he's on Canadian Thresh, which is exciting. What's less than exciting is that he proceeds, by his own admission, to draw like a god both games. Multiple times, I therapy only to have him draw the card I name off the top of his deck the turn after. He has everything he needs game one. Game two sees a turn one Carpet from me, which was pretty awesome and actually led to him wastelanding his own Volc at one point to try to stop me from getting too much mana. I turn the stabilize with a Baneslayer, he rips a Submerge and kills me with a Goyf and a Goose. On the bright side, it was at least a friend that knocked me out of top 8, so I was a bit less sad than I otherwise would have been.

Until Jim walked up to me later and told me that he got 9th from being screwed on breakers. Apparently one X-1-1 didn't make it to top 8, and Jim got the short stick, which was pretty shitty. The sad thing is that I think that if we had known that, he probably would have scooped me and I would have made it, since my breakers were better than Jim's; such is life and magic, though. X-2-1 was good for 20th place, AKA nothing. It was all in all frustrating to come so close and fail, but at the same time it's far and away the best I've done as a player so far, which is important to me. I'm confident that I have a powerhouse of a decklist, but I've always had the problem of being a better deckbuilder than a player, which has hindered my creations. I'm confident that my list is better than most, but I don't have the play skill of someone like Caleb Durward, so I can't get word out that this deck is actually the real deal. Still, Vestal remains a harder meta than most GPs, and doing well at a Jupiter event is a big deal.

I'm not sure what I'm going to cut, but I do want to open up one spot in the deck for Sigarda. Baneslayer is not going to be that card, because Baneslayer won me most of my games at this event. That said, there were definitely times -- against Maverick in particular, where I want a flying hexproof body to go with my Moat. Sitting there until I set something up is a thing, but I'd rather actually kill somebody rather than give them infinite time to draw into an out. The fact that she's GSZable is gravy. Honestly, as heretical as this is, Scavenging Ooze hasn't been doing much for me. It's square in Deed range, and while the ability is stupid good, I'm not sure it's better than Sigarda would be vs the major decks in the format. I also rarely have the excess green mana available for it, since my list is tricolor. Ooze is a lot better in a straight GB list, I feel, especially since my list is fairly heavily white (same number of Plains as Forests, etc). At any rate, it'll need testing before any change is made. I don't particularly enjoy stalling out, though, and I've found myself wanting one more serious threat for a while now.

[Qweerios]

1st place at a 64 man 1k tournament at l'Imaginaire with the following list:


Creatures (11)
4 Veteran Explorer
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Eternal Witness
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Kodama of the North Tree
1 Primeval Titan

Instant/Sorcery (15)
2 Darkblast
2 Innocent Blood
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Maelstrom Pulse

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

Planeswalkers (6)
4 Liliana of the Veil
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter

Lands (22)
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Treetop Village
3 Bayou
3 Swamp
4 Forest
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Misty Rainforest

Sideboard (15)
1 Duress
3 Thoughtseize
2 Damnation
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Extirpate
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Obstinate Baloth


Round 1: 2-0 Jund
Round 2: 2-0 RUG Tempo
Round 3: 2-0 Stoneblade
Round 4: 2-0 RUG Tempo
Round 5: Draw with 4-0
Round 6: Draw with 4-0-1

Top 8:
2-1 GWru Punishing Maverick (same as R5)
2-1 High Tide (same as R6)
2-0 RUG Tempo (same as R4)

Highlights:
-Ooze was great
-Primeval Titan has been insurmountable every time I've landed one
-Thrun keeps on being dissapointing
-Treetop keeps on shining
-Nihil Spellbomb is worthless even against Dredge and PiF. Extractors combined with discard have much wider application
-Darkblast may not be maindeck material

It has been my second top 8 appearance in a non-local tournament with Nic Fit since I have started playing straight GB. I stand by my conclusion that a 3rd color is not needed.