[Deck] Nic Fit (GBx Explorer Zenith Control)

[EpicLevelCommoner]

1 Dryad Arbor
4 Veteran Explorer
2 Coiling Oracle
2 Eternal Witness
1 Fierce Empath
2 Venser, Shaper Savant
2 Thragtusk
1 Wolfir Silverheart
1 Deadeye Navigator
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Brainstorm
1 Diabolic Intent
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Pernicious Deed
2 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Bayou
2 Tropical Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Forest
2 Swamp
3 Island

4 Force of Will
4 Negate
2 Mindbreak Trap
2 Leyline of the Void
3 Carpet of Flowers

Notes:
-Wolfir Silverheart is basically a GSZable Batterskull with more power and less longevity.
-There is no point in running Mystic Snake over Venser 1.0. It'd be a different case if GSZ was an instant, but it ain't.
-Blue count G2: 20 to 22.
-Mindbreak Trap over Leyline of Sanctity as Mindbreak Trap is better against Storm as a whole.

Anyhow, quick question: what is the crucial choke-point for countering Storm-based combo? My guess would be at whatever would give them four mana for Empty or Tendrils OR their Burning Wish/Infernal Tutor after activating LED (if they have done so).

[sherko7]

Just got back from play GB Nic Fit in a 4-3 performance at a 60-70 something player tourney. Lost against Zombardment (1-2), U/R Delver (1-2), Sneak Show (0-2). Won against UW RiP Helm (2-0), Zombardment (2-0), Merfolk (2-0) and Reanimator (2-1). The losses to Zombardment and U/R Delver were a bit disappointing. They were mostly due to really bad draws (mull to 5 in 4 of the games in those 2 losses). In the 2 of the 3 games against U/R Delver, I had to keep a hand with 1 land and just SDT as I was already 2 cards down. The Reanimator game was just plain epic! Might post a tournament report if I feel like it tomorrow.

I'm really contemplating on splashing blue. I was originally planning to go white but I think white only improves most of our already good match ups. Anyway, will be staying straight up GB rock until I can make up my mind on what color to splash. Will need time to acquire the cards though.

The deck I played:

3 Bayou
4 Forest
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Phyrexian Tower
3 Swamp
2 Treetop Village
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volrath's Stronghold
2 Eternal Witness
1 Primeval Titan
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thragtusk
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 Veteran Explorer
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Hymn to Tourach
2 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
2 Deathrite Shaman
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Kitchen Finks
2 Innocent Blood
SB: 3 Carpet of Flowers
SB: 2 Duress
SB: 2 Engineered Plague
SB: 2 Memoricide
SB: 2 Obstinate Baloth
SB: 2 Extirpate
SB: 2 Ensnaring Bridge

[TheArchitect]

Anyhow, quick question: what is the crucial choke-point for countering Storm-based combo? My guess would be at whatever would give them four mana for Empty or Tendrils OR their Burning Wish/Infernal Tutor after activating LED (if they have done so).

You usually want to counter their tutors/wishs (or abviously AdN). Sometimes they will get past in flames and then your counters only slowed them down a turn or 2. Hit their tutors after they blow a bunch of mana and they will take longer to recover. They wont walk into counterspells though. They will see your hand and play around them, discard them, or silence you. So you might find yourself having to counter duresses/silences.

[Karang029]

So I took Rector to a small event for a polluted delta first place, and store credit for 2nd. I went 3-1 then went cut to top 4(small event sadly)

Round 1: Bye yup I was disappointed

Round 2: UR Painterstone
Game 1: I got comboed turn 5 after using therapy on both his stones and his servant, but he got welder out and I couldn't draw a removal.

Game 2: Took a gamble of no land Leyline of Sanctity and enough good stuff to make it worthwhile. Gamble paid off and I rode Sigarda to a win.

Game 3: Mulled to 6 and had a therapy, leyline, explorer and verdant catacombs. I kept. I ended up dropping a Rector since I knew he had an emrakul in hand and I knew he had the Show in his deck as a plan B. So I kept the Rector and the tower open to Fetters Emrakul when he dropped it. I dropped Sigarda and 6 a turn did the job(explorer joined in)

Round 3: Goblins 2-0
Game 1: My explorer holds his lackey at bay. He gets some guys and I deed wiping him off. Thragtusk and win. I

Game 2: He drops a Blood Moon, and a Warren Instigator. Why he'd side Blood Moon in is beyond me. I turn 2 Sigarda and poop on him.

Round 4: Combo Elves 0-2
Game 1: He goes off I die.

Game 2: see no hate and I slow him down with a deed but he goes off with an emrakul in my face.

Top 4: Reanimator: 2-1
Game 1: I win the roll and go turn 1 Deathrite into FoW. He goes Iona turn1 off a dark rit. I try to words it, but he has the FoW3

Game 2: Leyline slows him down, and I end up Yosei Locking him out for several turns and kill him.

Game 3: Leyline, Deathrite, and Savenging Ooze hit the table and he just scoops.

Top 2: Combo Elves. 0-2
Game 1: Turn 4 Combo is gg.

Game 2: This game took 45 minutes. I was able to deed him 5 times, but he got a Regal Force and was able to go off from it the next turn and I couldn't do anything.

Sorry for the short report. I'll fix it up and post the list when I get home.

[Arianrhod]

Okay, time for some updates.

I've been in an "other things" mood lately, and haven't been playing as much Nic Fit in general -- it's nice to use some of the other cards in my collection periodically =)

That does not mean that I've stopped thinking and updating my lists, though, and I will be jamming some Explorers again soon...not sure about Mythic at this point, but more on that later.

Rector:

My Drive list (in my sig) was slightly out of date maindeck, so that's been fixed now. The maindeck change was -1 Master of the Wild Hunt +1 Green Sun's Zenith, which gives the deck the full set. I think that this is primarily of important for fighting against Jund, because Zenith is a bit more important there (both to get Explorers early to ramp past their tempo, and to get Sigarda later on).

The sideboard is a peculiar beast. The meta right now is primarily nonblue control/combo, and there is a very small blue presence overall. The primary blue decks are RIP Miracles and Esperblade, with a few BUG decks floating around. I do think that the meta is poised for a resurgence of RUG Delver, in particular, with tempo in general being strong right now. The control decks have started to get a bit too inbred, and I think that they will soon be punished for that with an increased aggro presence. Maverick, likewise, is well-positioned but largely underground currently. Mother of Runes and Sylvan Safekeeper are still fantastic answers to Abrupt Decay, and Maverick's bevy of hatebears makes it surprisingly good at fighting combo when tuned to do so. Additionally, Dredge and Reanimator are both the best-kept secrets in the format. I've been feeling this for a while now, and Jupiter's top 8 proved me correct, sporting 2 copies of Dredge and a Reanimator (with several more in attendance throughout the top 16 and lower).

The fixtures:

1x Humility
1x Nether Void

These are the "bombs" for their respective matchups. You still can't leave the house without either of these.

Screw your turn 0 kill:

2x Leyline of Sanctity
3x Mindbreak Trap
1x Chalice of the Void

Leylines are strong vs Hymn decks, Liliana decks, and most storm-based combo. Mindbreak Traps are obvious. Chalice of the Viod goes with Enlightened Tutor, which will appear in the next section, and is strong against any and all Chrome Mox decks: Belcher, TES, Spy, and other traditionally very fast decks. Chalice has a secret second mode, though, too: Chalice@1 vs combo Elves.

For the Fairest:

2x Enlightened Tutor
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1x Batterskull

Here's some experimental stuff. Enlightened Tutors increase your internal stability when Rector is in danger, as well as turning on Chalice sooner vs unfair decks, and acting as extra copies of Pernicious Deed or Humility when you really need them, vs Elves and Show and Tell respectively. It can also find Top in grindier matchups where the filtering is at its most important, like Jund, for example. Elspeth is still the best 'walker for the deck. Garruk might have slightly more synergy, but he has less of an endgame: usually he flips off of a Rector (+ synergy), and then gets Abrupt Decay'd because he's one of the 3 cards in the deck they can hit with it (- because suck). Elspeth goes well with Moat, is effective at keeping Jace in check, and gives you a way to unbalance your opponent's Humility (which sucks monkey balls). She also generates a solid stream of annoyances for ground-pounder decks like Jund, and builds to a devastating ultimate which makes Deed into Beastmode while shutting off our opponent's removal. Batterskull is purely theoretical. I wanted an artifact bomb that plays well with Enlightened Tutor and creates back-breaking plays against control decks, who have a hard time getting rid of it effectively. Not sure if Skull is what I want or not, but that's what the "slot" is for, at the least.

Miscellaneous hatred:

1x Blind Obedience
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Engineered Explosives

Blind Obedience is surprisingly awesome. It's good vs Sneak Attack, obviously, but it's also good against things like Combo Elves, TinFins, Dredge, TES, fringe vs Spy, and, perhaps most important, it's good vs control! This one might not make sense, since they rarely have artifacts or creatures, but it does have another ability: Extort. Like with Recycle, it triggers on spell cast, not resolution. We have plenty of mana to throw into it, and it makes it surprisingly easy to drain someone out -- even through something like a Leyline of Sanctity, say. With Recycle, 2 Tops, and Obedience (not a hard setup to imagine vs control), you can engineer the following setup:

In response to a Recycle trigger, draw off of Top A. Trigger resolves, draw Top.
Cast Top for 1B/W, Draw trigger, Drain trigger. Hold priority, draw off of Top B.

Essentially, you're paying 2 mana to drain for 1, which vs a control deck is not a horrible thing, at all. It gives us a legitimate inevitability.

I won't say that its applications vs Control are the REASON to board it, as it is obviously better vs combo decks of various stripes, but the fact that it has applications vs control is a bonus.

Tormod's Crypt is self-explanatory.

Explosives is an extra sweeper, specifically for Empty the Warrens tokens, Combo Elves, and RIP Miracles. As with most of the cards in the board, though, it does have applications elsewhere.

Astute readers will notice that Leyline of the Void is not in this 75 anymore. There is a reason for this: there is only room for Leyline cards as a 2-of in the sideboard. Sanctity is better on t0, but playable and useful later. Void, however, is not. With Void, you either hit it on t0, or it's useless (because they will have already gotten a lot of crap into the graveyard by the time you hit it, and it doesn't RIP-style exile when it comes into play). Leyline IS very good right now, but I'm unwilling to run 4, and I believe that you need to run 4 copies of Void for it to be actually useful. Also, blue cards help when you're jamming Void, because blue can then protect the Leyline (more on this later).

You'll also notice that the Cranial twins are gone. This pains me a lot to cut them, but I think that for the current meta, it's the correct call. When blue control reasserts its grip on the metagame, as is inevitable, the Cranials and Carpets will likely come back. For now, though, the Cranials are too slow and too weak to opposing Leyline of the Voids. They're solid vs RIP Miracles (naming RIP if there isn't one in play, or Helm if there is), but I'm oddly not as scared of that matchup as I probably should be.

So, the final sideboard:

1x Humility
1x Nether Void
2x Leyline of Sanctity
3x Mindbreak Trap
1x Chalice of the Void
2x Enlightened Tutor
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1x Batterskull
1x Blind Obedience
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Engineered Explosives

ScapeWish

Scapewish is undergoing some renovations, so I'll copypasta the full list rather than just enumerate changes:

4 Veteran Explorer
2 Sakura-tribe Elder
1 Viridian Emissary
2 Wood Elves
1 Eternal Witness
3 Huntmaster Of The Fells
2 Thragtusk
1 Primeval Titan
1 Avenger of Zendikar

3 Pernicious Deed
3 Sensei’s Divining Top

4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun’s Zenith
4 Burning Wish
2 Scapeshift

4 Forest
3 Mountain
2 Swamp
4 Taiga
3 Badlands
3 Bayou
2 Stomping Ground
1 Phyrexian Tower
2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

SB:
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pithing Needle
3 Slaughter Games
1 Pyroclasm
1 Reanimate
1 Thoughtseize
1 Scapeshift
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Innocent Blood
1 Virtue's Ruin
1 Ruination

Maindeck: -2 Olivia, -1 Blitz Hellion; +1 Avenger of Zendikar, +2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
Sideboard: -1 Sowing Salt, -1 Tsunami, -1 Red Elemental Blast; +1 Ruination, +2 Pithing Needle

Olivia was good when she was good, but she wasn't good enough often enough, and she lost to Karakas. Hellion, as mentioned, was getting cut regardless. He was cute, but he wasn't good enough.

Avenger provides a solid lategame bomb, while also allowing for a backup Scapeshift kill, should Valakut be disabled somehow. Like, if you're under a Blood Moon, let's say...you can still Scapeshift, make a bunch of like 7/8 plants, and just crash in. I've felt for a while now that Scapewish needs -one-, and exactly one, more bomb card. There've been plenty of times where I'm just sitting there with a pile of 8 or 9 lands in play, and nothing to do with them. Avenger is my latest attempt at fixing that problem (Olivia was the previous one). We'll see if he succeeds where she failed.

The Tribe-Elder/Emissary slots are a nod to the big sideboard change, while providing additional early game ramp and fixing. More 2-drop ramp dudes represent a large increase to the consistency of the mana base, which is necessary to keep everything in check, while the Tribe-Elders also provide a fog for a Goyf or some other large attacker. The 1-of Emissary is primarily for Green Sun purposes, so that you can Zenith up a 2-drop ramp dude that you can use to flashback Therapy. I always feel derpy when not getting an Explorer in this situation, but I acknowledge that there are enough situations where you want to control your Explorers going off to where having an Emissary isn't a bad idea.

The major sideboard change, as mentioned, is the Ruination. Ruination combines the best aspects of Tsunami and Sowing Salt into one card. It CAN hurt you as well, however, which is why I placed an extra emphasis on basic-fetching guys. Just be careful with your land count and make sure that you aren't shutting yourself off of Scapeshift -- or that if you are, the Ruination will be truly....ruining #puns4life.

The fusion of Sowing Salt and Tsunami opened up a sideboard slot, and while I was originally going to use it for Disturbed Burial, as a Wishable recursion engine, I decided that Pithing Needle is vastly too good in the current metagame. The only time that Scapewish struggles with Jund is when they land a fast Liliana of the Veil, and Needle will help with that problem. Sure, they can Decay it -- but then they aren't saving that Decay for a Huntmaster, which will end up doing more damage to their gameplan than a Needle will any day. Needle also provides a help vs 12-post, Sneak Attack, Spy (naming Undercity Informer....or Azami if you think you're a badass. I wouldn't recommend it, though), and a range of various other annoyances.

At this point I'm examining how often I actually wish for Reanimate to steal -their- guys, vs how often I would be able to use a Wishable recursion engine (Disturbed Burial). Jury's out currently -- Burial is better vs grindy matchups whereas Reanimate is better vs unfair decks (they Dredge Griselbrand, or Careful Study a fatty, or you Therapy Show and Tell naming Griselbrand, or whatever). Reanimate also lets you play Solar Flare vs Liliana decks -- you discard something big, then BW->Renimate it. I'll probably end up sticking with Reanimate, since Burial is better vs decks that we're already good against. But it's worth consideration.

Deadeye

I did some heavy mental lifting with the Deadeye deck while I was at Jupiter. I looked around the room, and thought to myself what I would like for this deck to do. I was spot-on correct with the metagame, as I previously stated, and I was like...."okay, if I had been able to know that I was 100% right about the meta, what would this deck have looked like."

I'll reiterate the original intent:

Rector is strong vs aggro/combo.
Scapewish is strong vs aggro/control.
Deadeye SHOULD be strong vs control/combo.

Obviously Rector isn't just dead to control (though the games tend to take 8 years), and nor is Scapewish dead to combo (it's winnable, if miserable). Those are just their specialties.

Here's what I came up with. As you can see, I ended up de-cute-ing it a lot.

4 Veteran Explorer
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Coiling Oracle
2 Eternal Witness
1 Fierce Empath
2 Venser, Shaper Savant
2 Master Biomancer
1 Thragtusk
1 Acidic Slime
1 Deadeye Navigator
1 Prime Speaker Zegana
1 Primeval Titan

4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith

2 Force of Will

3 Sensei's Divining Top

3 Pernicious Deed

3 Tropical Island
3 Bayou
1 Underground Sea
3 Forest
3 Island
1 Swamp
3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Volrath's Stronghold

SB:
2 Force of Will
2 Mindbreak Trap
2 Blue Elemental Blast
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Dinrova Horror
2 Sower of Temptation
2 Jace Beleren

So. Here's what's NOT here:

Brainstorm. I'm angry about this, but there's no room. If I could have more room, either Brainstorm or Ancestral Visions would go in. As it is, we'll have to be content with having every card in the deck being at least a 2-for-1. Literally.

Palinchron. I thought about this long and hard. I DO think that if the meta shifted, Sarah-Palin-chron would be a fine choice as a sideboard option, for slower/removal light opponents. However, by the time you reach lategame, you should have sufficient resources that you can go big ENOUGH, without having to go infinite. Smart Deadeye usage should just be good enough.

Jace, TMS. As I said before, I would rather have more dudes that do things. If I want to play a Jace deck, I'll either play a Jace Fit, or I'll play BUGStill. Personally, I don't think that Jace is well-positioned in the metagame right now. I'm fully aware that I'm slaughtering sacred cows all over the place, and I frankly don't give a damn. I refuse to be blinded by the notion that Brainstorm and Jace are the best cards in the game. In traditional Magic, yes, I'll grant you. But Nic Fit operates by changing the rules of the game. Over time I've gone from being angry about the EDH comparison to actively embracing it. Nic Fit wins games by playing powerful cards over efficient ones. It looks at your opponent's Tarmogoyf, and says here's a Sun Titan. It actively changes the base metric by which you judge a card to be good or bad. Very, very few EDH decks play Jace or Brainstorm, because they simply aren't powerful enough effects. You can't build Esperblade-the-EDH-deck very effectively, or RUG Delver, for example. Goyf is a horrible EDH card. It is likewise a bad Nic Fit card.

Again, just to stress, I'm far from saying that Brainstorm and Jace are bad cards.....even for Nic Fit. What I am saying, is that I will consider them before putting them in, and not just auto-DERPBLUE, THEREFORE BRAINSTORM/JACE.

And I think that if I had the space to try to squeeze in Brainstorm, I actually would have opted for Visions instead. I'd rather Draw 3 than pretend to draw 3.

What IS here:

Force of Will x2 maindeck. Force actually plays a lot better with Nic Fit than one might assume. I was watching an Esperblade player at one point as he laughed about hardcasting Force in his ludicrously lategame board state, and I was thinking to myself....you know, Force is better than we think is. It protects you early game against the stupid shit, but then mid-late game (which of course comes faster for Nic Fit), it's still a fine option to just hardcast it. Hell, if we really wanted to, you could go Explorer + Tower pass, then on their turn, sac Explorer to Tower, get your lands, then hardcast Force. On turn 2. As a 2-of maindeck, I think that it gives a respectable chance at hitting one (via mulls+Top, obviously) game one against combo, but it's not like you're drowning in them unless you need to be. The Forces here were vying with the V-Cliques for inclusion, and I'm still not sure that Force should get the nod or not, but I THINK that it's correct. I'd love to have a pair of Cliques, but, space is again a problem.

Spellstutters. As mentioned earlier, these guys are awesome. They play well with Explorer/Therapy because you'll always have Spellstutter mana up after setting off an Explorer, and you can sculpt your opponent's hand with Therapy into them wanting to play a 1-drop (ie, leave them Top, then counter it anyway). They are also highly effective against combo of all non-Show and Tell varieties, as well as Miracles (can't Pierce that, brah). Furthermore, they play well with our bombs: they flicker nicely with Deadeye, and become 3/3 fliers with Biomancer, while protecting both from Swords to Plowshares.

Speaking of Master Biomancer, I'm rapidly becoming convinced that this guy is the Huntmaster for the blue version. The problem with a Deadeye deck is that all of your dudes are small, because Enters-battlefield-trigger-guys are traditionally physically underwhelming to balance for their trigger. Biomancer lets your guys hit a respectable size. Spellstutters and Vensers also both have flash, so it's easy to see a world where your opponent swings, you soak it, then flash in a couple of guys EoT and just kill them. The presence of an active Biomancer also makes Green Sun a legitimate bomb, because at WORST, it's going to get you to a 3/3 Explorer. Also note that Biomancer is a 2/4, which means he dodges Lightning Bolt, and he's a 4-drop, so he gets around Abrupt Decay. Swords is the only effective commonly-played removal that gets rid of him. Zegana also plays very, very nicely with Biomancer, as she gets 2 counters from Biomancer AND counters for whatever the biggest thing is. With just a Biomancer out, she draws 5.

Primeval is a nod to the lack of Sarah Palin. Deadeye is a mana-hungry little fucker, and having some kind of big ramp is probably useful. Titan into 2 Towers also enables a legitimate recursion engine, which can protect Deadeye and Biomancer in the lack of a Spellstutter or active flicker mana. Primeval does make me with that Gaea's Cradle tapped for blue, but I guess I'll settle for getting two blue-producing lands a turn.

As for the sideboard, we return to Leyline of the Void. This deck can actively protect Leyline, which makes it a much better choice here. It also has the room for, and a desire for, the full 4 copies.

It's no secret that I'm high on Blue Blast right now. It deals with Sneak Attack, Burning Wish, burn-as-a-deck, Red Blasts, Blood Moon and a bunch of corner cases.

Mindbreak is extra Force of Wills, but it also serves as an answer to 12-post when they try to hardcast space monsters. In fair matchups, it will usually replace the maindeck Force of Wills (if you want countermagic in the matchup). Even in slower combo matchups, like Sneak and Show, it's a very castable extra counterspell that might occasionally have upside.

Sower is extra Show and Tell hate, but is also strong just as a sideboard card, to take a Delver or a Goyf.

Dinrova...you got me, and I'm angry about it. He's a castable nuisance that can solve both a creature AND an Omniscience off of Show-and-Tell, and he's Empathable, so you can just stick him in your hand and dare them to Show you their goods. I can imagine him being a decent extra bomb in control mirrors, as well.

Jace Beleren is my sole legitimate nod to control mirrors. He can come down on t2 after Explorer/Therapy, and starts drawing you cards while making your opponent mad as they stare at their useless $100 bill in hand. I've been liking Beleren a lot lately, including BUGStill and vintage Tezzerator, as a way to get a leg up on the Jace mirror. Obviously those decks have their own Mindsculptors as well, but a pair of sideboarded Belerens has been doing good work for me elsewhere, and I think it's worthy of being tested here. If the Belerens fail, the Cliques are probably the go-to slot here, though, I still really wish I could fit the pair of Cliques maindeck =(

Final note: Force blue card count maindeck: 15 (with 2 Forces). Post-sideboard count at least 19, with some additionals depending on the type of combo (not counting Blue Blast, Beleren, Dinrova, or Sower....which totals 7 more blue cards all combined).

So yeah. I'm not sure at this point whether I'm going to play the Deadeye version at Mythic, or 12post (the guy who usually borrows my 12post can't go, which means I actually would get to use it for once if I wanted to). We'll see as we get closer.

Also, a question: do you guys think that Spellstutter, Biomancer, and Venser are sufficient wizards for Riptide Lab? I'm thinking that they aren't....also, Riptide would be a 3rd colorless land. I was considering it originally, and it got cut when I removed the Cliques. Not sure at what point it becomes good enough.

[TheArchitect]

@Scapeshift Changes:
- Ruination I like. But 12post is still going to shuffle their GY eventually and just glacial chasm us again. But it does give us a narrow window to instakill them.

- After almost cutting reanimate and then using 3 times in 4 rounds, I changed my mind once again. It can stay, like I have said before though. All it is a way to turn BW into a dead huntmaster. The discarding prime titan off a lily, or stealing dredges griselbrand only happen like 1 in 100 games and aren't justification to play it.

- Avenger is obviously good in this deck, not sure if its needed though. Usually huntmasters, thrags and primetime are bomby enough. Ill try it though and see if it improves any matchups.

- More mana dorks. Yes! I have 2 Abrupt Decays in that slot and really like them there, but mana dorks might be able to replace them with the pithing needles in the SB. Decay usually decays hit KotR>wastelock, lily, equipment, and T2 delver flips.

- Pithing needle might be better than decay though though, it can be used proactively (with decay lily still 2 for 1s every time for example), lets us run more mana dorks, and stops wasteland. I will miss not being able to disrupt tempo decks when they get the nut hands that are like Island, delver, brainstorm, waste, daze, fow, stifle/thoughtseize, but hopefully the mana dorks will help with that. Needle can also help against, jace+top decks, belcher and even dredge (name dread return). Most decks SHOULD side out abrupt decay against us game 2, but a lot of people wont.

- 3rd Bayou why not run a fetch land? Its going to be better than a 3rd bayou 99% of the time.

- 3 Slaughter Games, I dont think this is needed. At least in the mythic/jupiter meta where we need to interact turn 0-1 against combo decks. 4 BW + 1 SB slaughter games I think should be more than enough.

- Pyroclasm/virtue's ruine/persish/damnation: Why virtue's ruin over perish or damnation? I think going from 2 to 3 board wipes is right, but I think Id rather do Pyro+perish. I use damnation/perish a lot to wipe a board of goyf+drs+kotr for 5 mana. Virtues ruin I think I would use a lot less.

What I would use:
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Mindbreak trap
2 Pithing Needle
1 Slaughter Games
1 Pyroclasm
1 Reanimate
1 Thoughtseize
1 Scapeshift
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Innocent Blood
1 Perish
1 Ruination

[Arianrhod]

@Scapeshift Changes:
- Ruination I like. But 12post is still going to shuffle their GY eventually and just glacial chasm us again. But it does give us a narrow window to instakill them.

- After almost cutting reanimate and then using 3 times in 4 rounds, I changed my mind once again. It can stay, like I have said before though. All it is a way to turn BW into a dead huntmaster. The discarding prime titan off a lily, or stealing dredges griselbrand only happen like 1 in 100 games and aren't justification to play it.

- Avenger is obviously good in this deck, not sure if its needed though. Usually huntmasters, thrags and primetime are bomby enough. Ill try it though and see if it improves any matchups.

- More mana dorks. Yes! I have 2 Abrupt Decays in that slot and really like them there, but mana dorks might be able to replace them with the pithing needles in the SB. Decay usually decays hit KotR>wastelock, lily, equipment, and T2 delver flips.

- Pithing needle might be better than decay though though, it can be used proactively (with decay lily still 2 for 1s every time for example), lets us run more mana dorks, and stops wasteland. I will miss not being able to disrupt tempo decks when they get the nut hands that are like Island, delver, brainstorm, waste, daze, fow, stifle/thoughtseize, but hopefully the mana dorks will help with that. Needle can also help against, jace+top decks, belcher and even dredge (name dread return). Most decks SHOULD side out abrupt decay against us game 2, but a lot of people wont.

- 3rd Bayou why not run a fetch land? Its going to be better than a 3rd bayou 99% of the time.

- 3 Slaughter Games, I dont think this is needed. At least in the mythic/jupiter meta where we need to interact turn 0-1 against combo decks. 4 BW + 1 SB slaughter games I think should be more than enough.

- Pyroclasm/virtue's ruine/persish/damnation: Why virtue's ruin over perish or damnation? I think going from 2 to 3 board wipes is right, but I think Id rather do Pyro+perish. I use damnation/perish a lot to wipe a board of goyf+drs+kotr for 5 mana. Virtues ruin I think I would use a lot less.

A well-timed Ruination should hurt 12post enough that it'll be a long while before they can recover enough. It'll probably leave them with like 1 Island in play, if they're lucky. To shuffle their gy in, they'd have to build up to 8 cards in hand and then discard a space monster -- and THEN they could get Bog back. That's gonna take a while. Probably at least 4-5 turns, by the time we land Ruination.

Corner-cases on Reanimate seem to happen to me a good bit. But, fair point is fair. Reanimate has been for me Innocent Blood for Devin -- whenever I cut it, I regret it. So it probably stays.

You can't name Dread Return with Needle, as flashback isn't an activated ability, it's a cost. Belcher is a good one, though -- we can deal with Goblins. It's the Belcher itself that's scary.

I don't like Fetches in Scapewish. Any marginal help that they provide is offset for me by having a lower land count, which hurts Scapeshifting. I used to run with 2 Bayous, actually, and sometimes it ended up causing problems. Having a 3rd Bayou is good for Wood Elves, primarily -- it also increases your chances of having a G/B land in your opening hand, although a fetch would accomplish the same thing. I certainly wouldn't replace it with any NON-Fetch land.

Slaughter Games...eh. Mindbreak is reaching the point of saturation to where it isn't as good anymore. Increasing the mana dorks increases the chances of casting Slaughter Games in a timely manner. The Games are definitely weak slots, but I'm not sure what I want to replace them with. Extirpate is a legitimate consideration.

It's a matter of overlaps. Virtue's Ruin basically wraths Maverick and Death and Taxes (which perish does nothing to). Perish hits Elves (but Pyroclasm is better), and....Tarmogoyfs. Which, if they have Goyfs, you're basically chumping/waiting for a BW->Pulse or a Deed, or just killing them. KotR and Teeg are both the biggest things we want to be sweeping away with the slot, and both get hit with either Perish or Ruin. I think that Virtue's Ruin is marginally more useful since it also takes out pests like Mother of Runes, Thalia, Stoneforge, Elspeth tokens, and Meddling Mage. But, it's definitely very close, and if you'd rather have Perish, I'd certainly understand.

[Siiig]

Corner-cases on Reanimate seem to happen to me a good bit. But, fair point is fair. Reanimate has been for me Innocent Blood for Devin -- whenever I cut it, I regret it. So it probably stays.

I cut reanimate from my list the morning of Jupiter (for 2 mind break traps, or something like that), and as it goes, had a chance where I could have BW + Reanimate'ed a SnT's Grizzlebrand (I don't remember how it got in there, but it happened).

That being said, I think for the time being and with the meta how it is at Jupiter and locally, I'll be shelving (<-SP?) scapeshift for a bit. I have Sam Black's Zombies! Almost ready to go, and I'm going to pursue Jund Fit in the mean time (basically the equiv of Rector to Junk Fit). It'll be nice to run fetch lands with top, and Rubble Hulk has been calling my name since he was spoiled.

[Arianrhod]

I cut reanimate from my list the morning of Jupiter (for 2 mind break traps, or something like that), and as it goes, had a chance where I could have BW + Reanimate'ed a SnT's Grizzlebrand (I don't remember how it got in there, but it happened).

That being said, I think for the time being and with the meta how it is at Jupiter and locally, I'll be shelving (<-SP?) scapeshift for a bit. I have Sam Black's Zombies! Almost ready to go, and I'm going to pursue Jund Fit in the mean time (basically the equiv of Rector to Junk Fit). It'll be nice to run fetch lands with top, and Rubble Hulk has been calling my name since he was spoiled.

Zombies seems like a terrible choice for that metagame. Agreed that Scapewish should be shelved overall, if you have the ability to do so...at least for a month or two until things settle down a bit. PFire seems better than straight Jund IMO, if you have the ability to rock that. If you don't have, I have 3 Groves and the PFires I can usually loan out -- not sure what other differences there would be. Get brewin' and we'll have a look.

[Star|Scream]

Arianrhod did you play the blue nic fit this weekend?

[Arianrhod]

Arianrhod did you play the blue nic fit this weekend?

I wasn't happy with the list I had built at that point, and I was also short a few of the more random cards. I'm still not sure I have a Dinrova Horror anywhere, but I should be able to find one in time for this weekend. Worst case I'm sure I can pick one up for like a quarter at the shop. I played Aggro Loam instead -- did manage to go Bayou Diamond Hymn into a 2nd Hymn against Belcher, which was good times. Also managed to get mana screwed in my 27-land deck several times, and I bricked like 80% of my Countryside Crusher triggers, which sucked dick. Still went 3-3, though, and it was my first time ever playing the deck. I think it was a good choice for the meta...but my inexperience and bad luck definitely hurt me. Pretty sure I built my sideboard poorly, too -- had like 3 slots that I think were awful.

But anyway.

No, I didn't =)

[MrIggins]

I really like the updates to both decks, the Deadeye list is very exciting but I'm still not sold on Biomancer. I'll have another look at both lists and try both and get back before I say more but he just doesn't look like he does enough. I look forward to being proved wrong because I like him a lot.

The Avenger of Zendikar I'm also pretty unsure of, I definitely get why he's there if you felt the need for another threat but I wonder whether he's the right man (Plant?) for the job. What makes him better than Hornet Queen (blocking Emrakuls and Demons all day) or other cheaper options like Thrun, Deranged Hermit, Rampaging Baloths, Wolfir Silverheart?

[Tom4ik]

Hey All,

I'm just getting back into Magic. I started back in Tempest and left around mirrodin so I'm still trying to learn all the new decks/cards. I ended up buying a bunch of cards that made a deck similar to what I used to play (Rec-Sur). Anyway, I Top 4ed at my first tourney with it on Saturday and a guy there pointed me to this deck/site. I am looking to make some changes and get back into it. I kind of just threw the deck together but it fared better than I expected. Here is the list I used:

Creatures:
4 veteran explorer
1 sylvan ranger
1 wall of blossoms
2 deathrite shaman
2 thragtusk
1 primeval titan
3 eternal witness
2 vampire hexmage

Spells:
4 abrubt decay
1 maelstrom pulse
2 pernicious deed
4 cabal therapy
2 duress
1 diabolic intent
4 green sun zenith
1 garruk primal hunter
3 sensei diving top
1 recurring nightmare

Land:
4 bayou
4 verdant catacombs
2 wooded foothills
1 phyrexian tower
1 volrath stronghold
1 dark depths
5 forest
3 swamp

Sideboard:
3 tsunami
3 memoricide
2 nihil spellbomb
2 surgical extraction
2 extirpate
3 innocent blood

I lost my first match to goblins. game 2 he had a goblin that made his unblockable by tokens and I had marit lage and couldnt stop enough damage.

Won against ANT 2-1
Won againt Pox 2-1
Won 2-1 against a deck that puts its library into graveyard and then wins by not being able to draw a card.
Beat the goblins deck i had previously to make it to Top-4 and lost to some blue, green, black deck that pretty much smashed me.

The deck seemed fun to play, and after taking a look at some decklists here I would like to continue with this style.

Tom

[vilnico]

@Tom: Welcome here, in this part of the multiverse where we do not considered ourselves as a Pariah :D

@Arian: Thx for you big post. I believe you really do a great job with your regular updates/explanation on your lists !!
I like the de-cuted Dead-eye version. And the Master Biomancer thing sounds really nice.

Just a question the Rector sideboard. Are you happy with only 2 Leylines ?
I am currently tweaking mine and realize that Trap/LL/Void are quite too redundant. With LL and Trap I am tempted to let the Void go away, and to reduce to the number of Traps to maximize LL in starting hands.
I am also surprised to not find Gaddock Teeg. Did you consider it to be too expected to be worth ?

My SB is at the moment:

1 Abrupt Decay
1 Pernicious Deed

2 Chains of Mephistopheles
3 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Nether Void
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Gaddock Teeg

1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Extirpate
1 Surgical Extraction

In its current state, I could side-in almost all my SB against Storm. Actually I would board 13 cards, as I would certainly find 13 ugly cards to side-out.
But this feels like not right at all. Like finding some space for Needles or O'ring would be great.

[Arianrhod]

@Tom: Welcome here, in this part of the multiverse where we do not considered ourselves as a Pariah :D

@Arian: Thx for you big post. I believe you really do a great job with your regular updates/explanation on your lists !!
I like the de-cuted Dead-eye version. And the Master Biomancer thing sounds really nice.

Just a question the Rector sideboard. Are you happy with only 2 Leylines ?
I am currently tweaking mine and realize that Trap/LL/Void are quite too redundant. With LL and Trap I am tempted to let the Void go away, and to reduce to the number of Traps to maximize LL in starting hands.
I am also surprised to not find Gaddock Teeg. Did you consider it to be too expected to be worth ?

My SB is at the moment:


In its current state, I could side-in almost all my SB against Storm. Actually I would board 13 cards, as I would certainly find 13 ugly cards to side-out.
But this feels like not right at all. Like finding some space for Needles or O'ring would be great.

So.....did you move Sigarda main? Because she should definitely be in your board if she's not main.

2 Leyline of Sanctity has always felt like the right number for me. This is because oftentimes, it is just as useful to Rector for or just hardcast as it is to open on t0. Consider the matchups that we board it in vs:

Jund: Opening t0 shuts off Thoughtseize and Hymn, which is +++. However, the primary reason we want it in the matchup is for the dual purpose of shutting off their Punishing Fires and their Lilianas. Leyline turns Liliana into a +1-only card, and stops her from making us sacrifice creatures or popping her ultimate. PFire is one of the very few ways Jund has to win through a Moat, which is our plan A against Jund (Moat into Sigarda = win). Opening Leyline to kill Thoughtseize/Hymn is just a bonus.

Storm/Belcher: Again, opening hand it's a bonus, because it kills their discard and forces them to G.Probe themselves, which means they don't have information on whether we have a Trap or not. However, it's still fine to have as a Rector target. If you're sneaky / lucky, you can bait them to Belch you or Tendrils you, and in response crack Rector for Leyline. Obviously all of this precludes you having the time to get a Rector onboard...if they just t0 you, then you're screwed, but that's why you have 5 t0 cards + 5 t1 cards (Chalice and 4 Therapies. I count ET->Chalice as a t2 option, which is not preferred, but is possible when they mulligan to 5).

There's some other fringe matchups like Pox where the Leylines come in, but again, it should be fine as a 2-of. Now, for your Omni version, the 3rd Leyline might be slightly more important than the 3rd Trap, because you suffer to discard a bit more. That's a decision you need to make. But for myself, I haven't had an issue with a 2-of Leyline not coming up enough.

Teeg is closer to being playable than he was, now that I've taken the Cranial twins out. However, if you consider Rector's sideboard:

1x Humility
1x Nether Void
2x Leyline of Sanctity
3x Mindbreak Trap
1x Chalice of the Void
2x Enlightened Tutor
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1x Batterskull
1x Blind Obedience
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Engineered Explosives

The following cards are uncastable through Teeg:

1x Humility
1x Nether Void
2x Leyline of Sanctity
3x Mindbreak Trap
1x Chalice of the Void
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1x Batterskull
1x Engineered Explosives

That's moderately horrifying. Leyline, Nether Void, and Humility can all be Rector'd into play (Humility can be Shown), but if you draw them, you're screwed. Not being able to Chalice@0 or Mindbreak Trap against something like TES is a serious problem. I mean I guess that they probably have to bounce/kill Teeg at some point while going off, which makes Mindbreak at least active again....but ehh. I don't like shutting off my sideboard.

Looking at your sideboard, I would 100% replace the Nihil Spellbomb and Pernicious Deed with Enlightened Tutors. If you think about it, Enlightened Tutor is an extra copy of Pernicious Deed already, and the same with Tormod's Crypt. By putting in a pair of Tutors, you increase your Pernicious Deed and Crypt count by 2, which gives you 3 Crypts and (assuming 3 Deeds main), 8 Deeds (counting Rector). A pair of ET would also let you cut one Chains.

Actually, Vilnico, you should probably repost your full list here soon, so that we can get you all tuned up for the GP. I'm assuming you're going to Strasborg (probably spelled that wrong)?

@Tom4ik

Welcome! You came to the right place -- I definitely consider this deck to be the descendent of Rec-Sur. As you can see from the thread, there's a wide variety of different versions here, so once you figure out what direction you want to go in with the archetype, we'll be ready to give you any advice / answer any questions you need =)

[blindspotxxx]

Just got back from play GB Nic Fit in a 4-3 performance at a 60-70 something player tourney. Lost against Zombardment (1-2), U/R Delver (1-2), Sneak Show (0-2). Won against UW RiP Helm (2-0), Zombardment (2-0), Merfolk (2-0) and Reanimator (2-1). The losses to Zombardment and U/R Delver were a bit disappointing. They were mostly due to really bad draws (mull to 5 in 4 of the games in those 2 losses). In the 2 of the 3 games against U/R Delver, I had to keep a hand with 1 land and just SDT as I was already 2 cards down. The Reanimator game was just plain epic! Might post a tournament report if I feel like it tomorrow.

I'm really contemplating on splashing blue. I was originally planning to go white but I think white only improves most of our already good match ups. Anyway, will be staying straight up GB rock until I can make up my mind on what color to splash. Will need time to acquire the cards though.

The deck I played:

3 Bayou
4 Forest
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Phyrexian Tower
3 Swamp
2 Treetop Village
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volrath's Stronghold
2 Eternal Witness
1 Primeval Titan
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thragtusk
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 Veteran Explorer
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Hymn to Tourach
2 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
2 Deathrite Shaman
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Kitchen Finks
2 Innocent Blood
SB: 3 Carpet of Flowers
SB: 2 Duress
SB: 2 Engineered Plague
SB: 2 Memoricide
SB: 2 Obstinate Baloth
SB: 2 Extirpate
SB: 2 Ensnaring Bridge

You fought 2 Zombardment decks? What? Was the other the Lotleth Troll variant?

[vilnico]

@Arian: No I did not have Sigarda in my main
Actually the big thing about the Jund MU is more or less about Discards during the 3 first turns. If I can protect myself from that, I do not really need a Sigarda, soon a Veteran or a Rector shows up and virtually makes a Moat until a get them sacrificed to get closer to the win.
So if Jund goes T1 DRS, I can't be happier. On the other hand, Thoughtseize gives them a huge advantage.
I played a Jund on sunday, I lost game 1 on Mull 5, I win game 2 on slow start from him (DRS), and game3 Leyline just raped the game.

And as you ask for it, here is my updated list

MAIN DECK 61
2 Bayou
1 Savannah
2 Phyrexian Tower
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Swamp
1 Plains
5 Forest
4 Verdant Catacomb
3 Windswept Heath

3 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Scroll Rack

4 Veteran Explorer
4 Academy Rector
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fierce Empath
1 Starved Rusalka

3 Abrupt Decay
2 Pernicious Deed

1 Pattern of Rebirth
3 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Diabolic Intent

4 Cabal Therapy
3 Inquisition of Kozilek

3 Garruk Relentless

1 Emrakul the Aeons Torn
1 Omniscience
1 Take Possession

SIDEBOARD 15

1 Abrupt Decay
1 Pernicious Deed

2 Chains of Mephistopheles
3 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Nether Void
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Gaddock Teeg

1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Extirpate
1 Surgical Extraction

So MD is not locked yet. I would say I have 2 floating slots at the moment, aka Take Possession and Scroll Rack. They used to be Eladamri's Call, which is the tutor I hate to play the most in this list.
Take Possession just entered the build as a test, which actually deals with everything, Jace, Emrakul, spoilers...
And as that made me 3 dead draws, I figured that having back the Scroll Rack was nice. But those 2 could move out again.
The list has a nice B plan with Pattern of Rebirth, in case where Omniscience is in hand. I have been very happy so far with earlier version that did not run Scroll Rack.
I could play MD the 4th Decay and the 3rd Deed to free 2 sideboards slots, but I am not really fan of that.

About Leylines, as you mentionned I am more keen on having it Turn0, as I am sensitive to discard. And I guess a Turn 0 Leyline is as good as a Trap.
About the fact that Leyline can get boarded through Rector, I think you point the very thing that makes Nether Void Obsolete. I mean, if you want to have a killer Enchant to stop Storm, Leyline and Void do exactly the same job. That is why I am seriously thinking about getting the Void of for another LL.
And I guess you're right about Gaddock, maybe I should go for a slow Thalia or a Canonist better.
Been thinking also about the cute Dumbo-stodon, nice Rebirth target, nice drop on S&T, and "playable" ^^...
Nice SB would be Needle and O'Ring.
About E.Tutor, I don't really know. I already play 3 Intent which is the best tutor this list want to have. Maybe a 4th in SB ? But I get your point on the 4th grave hate, will be thinking on that.

If any of you have any thoughts, I am happy to hear about it ! Help me show the Multiverse at GP StrasboUrg that Nic Fit is The-Deck-To-Play :D

[Arianrhod]

@Arian: No I did not have Sigarda in my main
Actually the big thing about the Jund MU is more or less about Discards during the 3 first turns. If I can protect myself from that, I do not really need a Sigarda, soon a Veteran or a Rector shows up and virtually makes a Moat until a get them sacrificed to get closer to the win.
So if Jund goes T1 DRS, I can't be happier. On the other hand, Thoughtseize gives them a huge advantage.
I played a Jund on sunday, I lost game 1 on Mull 5, I win game 2 on slow start from him (DRS), and game3 Leyline just raped the game.

And as you ask for it, here is my updated list



So MD is not locked yet. I would say I have 2 floating slots at the moment, aka Take Possession and Scroll Rack. They used to be Eladamri's Call, which is the tutor I hate to play the most in this list.
Take Possession just entered the build as a test, which actually deals with everything, Jace, Emrakul, spoilers...
And as that made me 3 dead draws, I figured that having back the Scroll Rack was nice. But those 2 could move out again.
The list has a nice B plan with Pattern of Rebirth, in case where Omniscience is in hand. I have been very happy so far with earlier version that did not run Scroll Rack.
I could play MD the 4th Decay and the 3rd Deed to free 2 sideboards slots, but I am not really fan of that.

About Leylines, as you mentionned I am more keen on having it Turn0, as I am sensitive to discard. And I guess a Turn 0 Leyline is as good as a Trap.
About the fact that Leyline can get boarded through Rector, I think you point the very thing that makes Nether Void Obsolete. I mean, if you want to have a killer Enchant to stop Storm, Leyline and Void do exactly the same job. That is why I am seriously thinking about getting the Void of for another LL.
And I guess you're right about Gaddock, maybe I should go for a slow Thalia or a Canonist better.
Been thinking also about the cute Dumbo-stodon, nice Rebirth target, nice drop on S&T, and "playable" ^^...
Nice SB would be Needle and O'Ring.
About E.Tutor, I don't really know. I already play 3 Intent which is the best tutor this list want to have. Maybe a 4th in SB ? But I get your point on the 4th grave hate, will be thinking on that.

If any of you have any thoughts, I am happy to hear about it ! Help me show the Multiverse at GP StrasboUrg that Nic Fit is The-Deck-To-Play :D

Ahhhh, but you're missing something. Leyline is bounceable and destroyable. Nether Void, essentially, is not. TES plays so few mana sources that an active Nether Void is basically immortal, and it's functionally impossible for them to go off through it. Consider Leyline. Leyline stops Tendrils, but not Empty the Warrens (which we're more okay with because of Deed / Pulse). Chain of Vapor is a common sideboard card, and if they go Ad Naus -> cards, they're probably going to hit a Chain, which means they just Tendrils you out.

Think of it a different way.

You want Leyline on t0 ideally, but it's a fine draw. However, you RARELY Rector for it. It just isn't good enough as a Rector target, because it doesn't shut down enough. I mean sure, there's corner cases where you sac Rector to Tower to get Leyline to blank their Tendrils, or stop their Belcher, or make their Liliana ult fizzle, or whatever. But, like saccing Rector to Fetters an Emrakul, it's a corner case. It's not going to happen often.

Nether Void is what you WANT to Rector for, because it's absolutely devastating. Leyline can situationally save your ass once they're comboing off, but Nether Void stops them from even trying. Void is 100% still necessary, even if you're on the triple Leyline plan.

Now, for the rest of the list...

-) Your land count seems low -- 21 including Arbor =/

-) Arbor...? How's he been? Not sure if there's some kind of secret voodoo art to Arbor in this list where he's better or something. Usually if you want to use Zenith to ramp, getting Explorer is just better.

-) I love Scroll Rack, but I hate Take Possession. If you want enchantment removal to Rector for, go for Faith's Fetters. TP is funnier, but not being castable is a serious problem. Also, the +4 life on Fetters has saved my ass more times than I really care to admit.

-) Pattern seems really solid as a 1-of.

-) No Tribe-Elders :O -- Tribe-Elder seems like he'd be the nut high for your deck. He plays well with the Pattern plan (Pattern on Tribe Elder, then sac him to get land, triggering Pattern), and he ramps from 2->4. This allows you to t1 Therapy, t2 Tribe-Elder, t3 Rector/FB Therapy into Omni into stupid crap.

-) Garruk Relentless seems patently unnecessary, at least as a 3-of. I'd sooner see Innocent Blood (although I.Blood might replace Decay).

-) For what it's worth, I think that if I were building a version of this deck, I would cut out the Inquisitions and Garruks for more creatures. Like, that would give you six slots...which could get you, say, 3 Tribe-Elders, a Sigarda, a Thragtusk, and a 6-drop threat -- probably not Sun Titan because you don't have much for him to bring back really, and probably not Primeval because you don't have utility lands. Not Yosei because no Nightmare. Not sure what, but I'd want a secondary Empath target.

Note that this is just my opinion, and your mileage will vary. If you like how it runs at the moment, then that's certainly fine -- but I'd definitely want a backup plan or two.

Actually. Why -not- Nightmare? If you have Omni out, Nightmare goes infinite, which means if you have something like a Yosei or a Kokusho, they lose infinite untap steps / get drained for infinite. Eternal Witness gets back every card in your graveyard. Just a thought.

-) Sideboard we already talked about. Depending on your meta, considering the concerns that this list has, dropping Mindbreak Trap completely might be correct. You might want the 4th Leyline of Sanctity, and then you gain a sideboard slot for whatever.

@the European contingent in general, what are you guys thinking that the metagame is going to be like at Strasbourg (hey, I was close the first time :P )? I know there's usually a higher percentage of combo decks over there, but what is the usual means of fighting combo? Is there also also a lot of Miracles, or RUG, or what? Wondering if Carpet of Flowers would be a wise decision.

[sherko7]

You fought 2 Zombardment decks? What? Was the other the Lotleth Troll variant?

Yeah, did I play against you? :D I am not familiar with everyone's MTGSource names lol


OT: I know this question might have already been asked a lot, but what is THE best option for straight up GB against SnT decks. I've completely given up on that matchup, I've never won a game. I've tried MD Innocent Blood, boarding out Titans and boarding in Ensnaring Bridges, more discard, etc... Really hard.

I'm still pondering over what color I should splash. I do not have any other dual lands besides Bayou right now, and I could use your opinion. Our meta is quite diverse. Of course, Jund is in the limelight right now, but Stoneblade and SnT come close 2nd. Aggro decks such as Goblins, Burn, U/R Delver are still quite popular too along with U/W Miracles and Stoneblade variants. Basically, which Nic Fit splash deals best with a wide open meta?

[vilnico]

@Arian: Thanks for comments

I do understand everything you say about Nether Void. I do still wonder in how many corner cases, sac'ing a Rector for target in response to combo Void is really better than LL. Ok it LOCKS instead of giving me Hexproof.
But Nether Void in hand is opening hand *bleeh*.
So they do overlap, with their own advantages and inconvenient I would say.

Land count: I've been happy so far with 21, except for mulligans. I could think about the 22th land, but I have to admit I would prefer a spell there.

Arbor: I do play it, because I play Pattern of Rebirth essentially. This basically means that any Fetch is a holder for PoR and virtually increase my number of creatures. Otherwise there would be no reason to play PoR, there are too few creatures in this build. And believe me, I take quite a few games thanks to that Dryad with PoR.
I sometimes use it for GSZ@0 to ramp T1, but that is very rare.
I sometimes open it in hand, and have to play it T1, which is *over-bleeeeh*
I am happy of it, but it is clear that without Pattern in the list, there is no need for the Dryad.

Scroll Rack: I did already explained myself on that, it is here because of TP. Would I play Faith's Fetter instead of TP, Scroll Rack would go out definitely. I want to test TP not because it is fun/cute/cool/dangerous, but because it can give you games where Fetter can not. This is especially on the situation when you have Rector on board, and Emrakul Annihilating you. Fetters only stops Emrakul, where TP steals it, and punishes the S&T player immediately.
The difference of raw power between those two is clearly balanced by the fact that TP in uncastable. But hey, I already play Omniscience ^___^
So why not a second unplayable enchant ? But that's just testing so far, reason might make turn back on Fetters.
On corner cases, TP steals a Jace (and this list hates Jace as much as any GBw builds)
Scroll Rack on its own is only useful if you have Omni to reshuffle, and to some extent if you have LL post board. But apart from that it is ALWAYS a bad Top. You never have enough card in hand to make it a valuable recycler.

PoR: just :D

Sakura: I never had the need for it. I mean, the deck is mid-range combo. I don't need to get on Rector turn3, or being faster. The build is at the moment fast enough to take on any mid-range MUs, and I can't compete with Combo in terms of speed that is a fact.
So gaining 1 turn is cute, but not enough for me to play it. About Pattern it is a nice holder for it, as would be Tinder Wall, Wild Cantor and stuffs. But Pattern is only a B plan, I don't feel it necessary to strengthen it.
Though it is clearly an option.

Garruk: I did not expect it in the beginning, but he is a gameplan on its own. I can't count the number of games when its presence on board puts me back in the game just because of tokens.
The thing is that it is highly synergic with the need to kill my Explorers or Rectors, but also, it kills DRS that I can't ignore. Those are 3 good reasons to play Garruk.
Well ok nobody knows that DRS stops Rector from going combo... but still I need to be able to kill it. I think it would be absolute non-sense to ignore DRS, all the more on a GP.
Innocent Blood is not good in killing DRS. Though I could play Disfigure instead of Blood. It kills DRS, Explorer and Rector (well if the opponent agrees, but same for Blood).
And DRS is actually the reason why I play Decay.

Actually in a meta without DRS, I would play maybe only 2 Garruks, and maybe no Decay at all.
But Ravnica came back to change the story.

Nightmare: What you describe is to me overkill and a too heavy machine to set up.
2 Enchatments (which means 2 Rector not going for Deed), and 1 killer-creature. You would need at least 2 tutors to assemble this, and I do not see this viable or way too slow if you prefer.
Or as a basic mechanics: Intent sac'ing Rector, fetching for Omni and Nightmare on Intent, then go nuts (if you have a creature to do so, that you still have to find).
But how is this any better than getting Emrakul on Intent, and just Time Walk/Annihilate ?
Anyway Nightmare needs way more valuable creature to make it a win (yosei, kokusho). This would turn the build into some BGw Rector-creature based, playing Omniscience as a nice toy. I've seen few lists doing that and that just looked like *meeeeh*. I mean, BGw has enough mana to play all its spells, and can setup Nightmare into a dreadful weapon, even without a Yosei-loop. Most of the time 2 activation of Nightmare gives you the game. Why make it an overkill weapon ?

IoK is also 3 slots replacing creatures from BGw builds. Playing combo makes it valuable to have some discard here in my opinion (ok it could be Thoughtseize...), when it is not necessary in regular BGw lists.
So builds between this *thing* and BGw Rector look alike, but do not work the same in terms of win-condition.

Just as a reminder, I play this over BGw because BGw is long to play and may lead to draw because it leads to slow situations. The Omni list does not want to go there, it wants to use the raw power of the combo to win in reasonable amount of time, and it happens that this combo it perfectly do-able in Nic Fit.