The mainboard is good. (its same as mine) The manabase is as everyone else seems to play it, but I would like to hear your opinion about the sideboard....
If you dont want to play Leyline, thats fine, but why 4 Relics? They cost! And for this
Here is my reasoning behind relic: I've played both reanimator and dredge, cage slows you down but is by no means a blowout. Playing either of those decks I would rather have seen cage over any of the other forms of hate. Other decks that utilize the grave yard in a different way are also on the rise ie nicfit and aggro loam. Being able to target your own grave in response to surgical extraction is the biggest reason. I've read alot of people saying that getting extracted cost them the game.
Why is leyline so important?
Anybody have any experience with Top in here?
So, here is what I played at the BoM after seeing that I had to beat Sneak Show and Tempo RUG in order to achieve something:
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Show and Tell
4 Through the Breach
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Intuition
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
2 Misdirection
2 Spell Pierce
2 Lotus Petal
2 Gitaxian Probe
2 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
4 Volcanic Island
4 Island
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest
SB:
3 Boseiju, who shelters all
4 Stifle
3 Echoing Truth
2 Firespout
3 Grafdigger's Cage
I guess I have to explain. ;-)
So, this is definitely the slower version of Sneak Show, but more consistent and kind of a rogue attempt at a Show and Tell deck. I played only 2 Petals and 20 lands, with only 4 Sol-lands, because I wanted to be on the less brutal and fast and more safe side for this tournament.
When you are playing against Tempo RUG, the only problem is to resolve your Show and Tell / Through the Breach, after that you have basically won. In order to make this easier, I played a strong countersuit main and Boseiju/Stifle (vs wasteland, karakas, Maze, etc.) in the sideboard.
It worked very well and I especially loved the situations where my opponent played a Needle game 2 on turn 1 naming "Sneak Attack". I pretended to think about it, then let it resolve and saw how my opponent's face brightened. 3 Turns later a hasted Blightsteel Colossus killed him. :-)
The Colossus is also great against Storm and creatureless decks in general while being very bad vs Goblins (one of my losses in the 2nd tournament on sunday).
The maindeck Gitaxian Probe is for the Sneak Show matchup so Show and Tell doesn't turn into a dead card there. And it also gave me important information against other decks, to know if I can go off without getting countered. To top it off, a Turn 1 Probe into Volcanic Island into Ponder makes your opponent always think you are on storm combo. Next Turn you lay the City of Traitors and play Show and Tell, awesome feeling.
So basically this Show and Tell version was designed for this special event, after I played the classic Sneak Grisel in the trials on Thursday.
My only losses were to Junk with maindeck edicts and Merfolk, both of them I didn't expect at all.
So here is what I played against:
Saturday Main event:
Round 1 vs Junk
In game 1 he just scoops it up after I resolve Turn 2 Emrakul and misdirected an Inquisition of Kozilek.
+ 4 Stifle
- 2 Gitaxian Probe
- 2 Intuition
Game 2 I get an early Emrakul again, but he has 2 Edicts in 1 turn. I can counter 1 of them, the other one resolves.
Game 3 I get a Blightsteel Colossus online in turn 3, but he has Liliana, who wins the game for him.
0-1
Round 2 vs Merfolk
Game 1 he wins the roll and starts with Cursecatcher... So strong vs Show and Tell. Turn 3/4 Emrakul isn't enough and I get overrun by the blue men.
+ 3 Firespout
+ 2 Echoing Truth
- 2 Intuition
- 3 Daze
I don't board Boseiju, because Merfolk is way too aggressive and I need my action at turn 2 if possible.
But... This deck isn't designed to beat Merfolk, so I lose game 2 similarly. :-)
0-2
Round 3 vs Zoo
Ahhhhh a free win, finally!!! My opponent is new to Legacy and I feel bad when he plays a Chain Lightning at 3 life and shooting it back...
Game 2 I daze his Pridemage so my Colossus can 1 shot him.
I boarded the Firespouts and Echoing Truths, taking out Misdirection, Spell Pierce, 1 Probe. Or something like that. xD
1-2
Round 4 and 5 vs Maverick
Well, both rounds went the same and I was motivated to win everything after my bad start. So, my opponents mull to hands with Knight, take out their Swords to Plowshares and die to Hierarch vs Blightsteel Colossus fight. I took out the Misdirections, Pierces, Intuiton, Probes and boarded 2 Echoing Truth, 2 Firespout, 4 Stifle.
3-2, getting better!
Round 6 vs UG Vengevine Fauna Elves
Game 1 he overruns me, I cant counter his 3rd turn Glimpse and he wins through Emrakul.
+ 3 Echoing Truth
+ 2 Firespout
- 3 Daze
- 2 Misdirection
I probe him on turn 1, seeing that he plays Blue (1 Spell Pierce, 1 Intuition). He does some crazy Elf action on his turn 2 and I resolve a Turn 3 Show and Tell into Blightsteel Colossus after a little counterwar.
Next Turn I attack him, he chumps with a Nettle Sentinel, putting him on 9 poison. He intuitions for Metamorph EOT and plays it, copying my Colossus, while my hand is Island, Fetchland. He puts me on 4 life in this turn and has the Colossus copy and about 10 other elves on the battlefield.
I topdeck.... a Firespout! Not only do I wipe his whole elf army of the board, but also his Colossus gets 3 damage, going to 8 toughness, so I can attack with my trampling monster for the lethal poison. Awesome game.
Game 3 is also very close, but I have 2 Force of Wills for his 2 Glimpses in 1 turn. Very exciting games, my longest match that day.
4-2
Round 7 vs Tempo RUG
Finally :-)
Game 1 I probe him on Turn 3, after only playing lands for the first 3 turns. I have double counterbackup for his 2 counters and Emrakul seals the deal.
+4 Stifle
+3 Boseiju, who shelters all
-2 Intuition
-3 Daze
-2 Gitaxian Probe
I keep a hand with Boseiju, he doesn't have a Wasteland and a hasted Colossus ends it on turn 3.
5-2
Round 8 vs Loam
Game 1 he topdecks a Karakas before Emrakul can kill him, but the Colossus follows shortly thereafter, and he has no answer.
+4 Stifle
+2 Echoing Truth
-2 Misdirection
-3 Daze
Game 2 I hastly annihilate him on Turn 4 but don't get a second chance to put a fatty into play (that's where Sneak Attack is better) and his 10/10 Knight kills me on Turn 10 or something. xD
Game 3 I stifle his Maze and the Colossus kills him.
6-2
Only 1 more round and I might make it to Top 64
Round 9 vs Lands piloted by the Russian Legacy Champ
Lands is generally a pretty nice matchup, especially for my build, because it applies no pressure at all. I win game 1 very early, and game 2 with Stifle.
7-2
Yay, I finish 51 of 723 and win a Badlands (better than nothing).
On sunday, I play the other Big Legacy (99 players) and finish 10th, losing to Goblins and GW (he has Maze, Karakas in his starting hand), winning a Bayou; played the same list as on saturday, to test it more.
After watching the Vintage finals on Sunday we drove all night from France to Germany, my buddies dropped me off at a station 2 hours away from where I live and I arrived completely exhausted and with a nasty, nasty cold at 10 am. So excuse me if I made mistakes in my report.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I liked playing something slightly different from Sneak Show and enjoyed how my plans sometimes worked out just as I imagined.
Does it work like that? I'm not sure if its toughness goes down due to damage.Originally Posted by JPAnghelescu
With trampling creatures, you only have to assign lethal damage to the blocker before you can assign the rest to the defending player.
So the Blightsteel had 11 toughness with 3 damage on it, he could assign 8 damage to the blocking Blightsteel (which is lethal to it), and then assign the remaining 3 to the defending player.
This is also hilarious if you have a Deathtouch Trampling creature.
Oh I see. Brainfart on my part, he just made a shortcut in his explanation. Awesome tourney by the way, what with starting 0-2 and ravaging through the rest of the matches to finish top 64.
I tried Top for a while, but I eventually dropped it in favor of more cantrips. Top can be nice off a turn 1 Ancient Tomb because you can cast it and look during the same turn. However, you generally don't want to drop Tomb first unless (1)you know your opponent is not playing Wasteland or (2) you don't have a Daze (with Daze it's better to drop an island, obviously). Top seems best in control and mid-range decks. For a "combo" deck like this that wants to drop a fatty within the first few turns, Top is too slow. I prefer to just run cantrips and draw a card right away for U mana.
I see more than others do because I know where to look.
I'm surprised no one mentioned the 2nd place finish this deck also made at SCG this past weekend?
Hopefully it'll push the deck back to DTB status.
Brainstorm >>> Top because it's brainstorm...
Ponder >> Top because you can shuffle.
Preordain > Top because I play 4 FoW, 3 Misdirection and very often Pitch a cantrip as my last blue card to have double counter backup.
Top is surely better in the control matchup, but I rather play the 1st Preordain than the 1st SD.top. Also Ponder/Preordain are often 1 turn faster. Not relevant in grindy matchups where Top is good but in all the aggro/burn/combo matchups where ever turn counts.
Also blue count is an issue imo. I do not have any math calculation but playing 7 "FoW" I am careful cutting any of my 23 blue cards.
Currently playing: Elves
I'm working on this deck, and i really like it, but i have to ask You a question
Guys, do you think that show and tell could be banned in near future for some reason? We all know that show and tell is enabler, and it's not played only in this deck. Plus - griselbrand boost show and tell, so is there any chance that this deck survives if S&T gets axe? Is there any other option to play then beside sneak attack ?
I am pretty sure that show and tell won't get banned in the near future, these decks are nice and do broken things but they are not 100% consistent and can be beaten.
to me it does not sound imbalanced so you can easily buy them. ;-)
Well, this is kinda reliefI want to say, if we are in constant fear of printing of powerful permanent which may break show and tell, then i don't know what it could be and is it possible to be better than griselbrand... :D
sry for bad grammer
Grissle is just a dumb card. Even if SNT starts to dominate top 8's, WOTC has shown that they will take their time to ban. So, we get a few months to play and sell.Well, this is kinda relief
sry for bad grammer
They usually ban things after a few months of huge non stop placings. Survival and Misstep both took at least 3 months.
I want to add that I think with Grissle there becomes even less things than before that the deck has to counter. Misdirection might be correct to max out on now since a counterspell on SnT/Sneak is the only thing that matters. Not like this is new or recent change with how the deck plays, but Grissle drawing and Lifelink on a finisher is so over the top that Spell Pierce most likely isn't needed.
I took this deck for a spin recently and went 4-0, dropping one game to the mirror. The non-mirror matches lasted less than 5 minutes if you didn't count shuffling and mulliganing. It was fun trash talking to my friends and being done early, but I didn't feel like I was playing Magic.
I don't think the deck puts up enough numbers to warrant any bannings, but Show and Tell is simply a busted card that is probably on the DCI's watch list to begin with. Between this deck, Hive Mind, and Dream Halls, there is a possibility that these decks will put up more Top 8s, although RUG Delver makes many of the other options less attractive.
That being said, there are many ways to fight this deck, and I personally think the format will adjust just as it did with Reanimator.
I wouldn't worry about the ban hammer at all. This deck may get popular but it's not overpowered. I mean think about it... our entire deck pretty much gets funneled through one card. Counter (which is everywhere) S&T and you shoot the deck down for at least 3 turns. The if you Extract (which is EVERYWHERE) S&T it's pretty much over for the deck. Yes you have Sneak but S&T is the primary wincon. DCI bans cards that are not only broken and detremental to the format state but also these cards have redundancies. S&T isn't detrimental to the format state OR redundent. Meaning it can't protect it'self like Survival could. So go ahead and spend your160 bucks on a playset. You'll be able to use them 5 years from now and they'll still be good 5 years from now. Also I could see S&T going up to 60 bucks 5 years from now. So it'll be a good investment. I bought mine at 25 a peice X amount of years ago. I like my return
I picked mine up about a year ago for $22-25 per so when I picked up a Japanese one recently and found out that I could trade my extra copy in to a store for $31 in credit I was pleasantly surprised.I bought mine at 25 a peice X amount of years ago. I like my return
Anyway, in case of banings, what would be the best replacement for show and tell? something like fold into aether or something else? Is there any chance this deck survives if banings happens?
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