Sylvan Plug (or whatever splashed Green stompy)

[Octopusman]

I went 1-2 last night.

Round 1 mulled to 6 both games and was completely flooded both games basically not doing anything.

Round 2 I was derping along also being quite flooded and then lost both games to the 5/5 delve zombie fish.

Round 3 was vs. Miracles and although I made some extremely embarrassing rules violations, it was won with choke & sigarda respectively. I did have a loss due to an incredibly amount of countermagic/snapcaster, plows, and termini.


Despite the flood, the deck was extremely fun to play. Thanks for the tips. Looking forward to playing it again next week.

Kind regards,

[TLK]

Went 4-0-1 and took 1st at my LGS' weekly Legacy event. 20+ people.

This deck is crazy good against blue decks. I was expecting a lot of blue, and the meta didn't disappoint.

Round 1 vs Miracles. Choke pretty much sealed the deal here. Not much to say. I won 2-0.

Round 2 vs RUG Delver. Chalice on 1 was huge. Not a close match. I won 2-0.

Round 3 vs Junk. We go to turns game 3. I figured this deck was a little weaker to other green-based midrange strategies, and I wasn't wrong. 1-1-1 draw.

Round 4 vs Shardless Bug. Sigarda was great in this matchup. Lost game 2 only because I mulled to 4. Still made a game of it. Highlight was me plopping into play a Baloth when he +1 Liliana. I won 2-1.

Round 5 vs BUG Delver. Lock pieces huge again. Sylvan Library was the all star all night, particularly in this match. Titania put in lots of work creating roadblocks for huge Goyfs until I had enough tokens to overrun his board. I won 2-0.

Let me know if you'd like more details. All stars were Sylvan, Chalice, Choke, Sigarda. On the fence about Baloth (considering Siege Rhino instead). Courser was OK.

[MD.Ghost]

Went 4-0-1 and took 1st at my LGS' weekly Legacy event. 20+ people.

Gratz! Nice run

I am glad you tried Sigarda too - she was always a very good choice for me in various postboard games. You are right, BGx Matchups (but you won the ones with blue!) aren't so easy. The key is flexible sideboard with stuff like Sigarda to overwhelm them G2+3 without the bunch of useless prison cards.

Can you post your list?

-------------------
My latest thoughts about the deck:
-Maybe cut the 4th Trinisphere (Side), no Omnishow anymore
-Maybe cut the 3rd Toxic Deluge (Side), no Grixis Delver anymore
+add stuff like 2nd Diabolic Edict (good vs all the BGx Decks with Gofy etc. and Sneak&Show)
+add stuff like Containment Priest (Sneak&Show; Elves etc.)
=or simply wait until the meta is reformed and adjust to the new DtBs.

EDIT: Trust me, the Baloths are good enough. I liked Rhino too, but the mana can be hard to achieve and after the DTT we'll see a lot of more Hymn+Liliana=Baloth Time!

[TLK]

Disclaimer: This was my first time ever playing this deck. I have played prison strategies before (White Stax) and decks that abuse Knight shenanigans (Maverick/Junk), but never in conjunction. I had a blast. My deck list was as follows:


1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Courser of Kruphix
1 Titania, Protector of Argoth
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Obstinate Baloth

4 Green Sun's Zenith

4 Mox Diamond
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Trinisphere

4 Sylvan Library
3 Choke

4 Abrupt Decay

2 Forest
2 Savannah
4 Windswept Heath
1 Karakas
2 Bayou
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Wasteland
2 Ancient Tomb
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Maze of Ith


Sideboard was not very good to be honest. I will definitely be making some changes.


3 Leyline of the Void
2 Faerie Macabre
1 Giant Solifuge
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Massacre
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Tower of the Magistrate
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Scavenging Ooze


Sigarda, Solifuge and Maelstrom Pulse were great. I would perhaps like to up the amount of removal for things like Gurmag and bigger Goyfs. Perhaps Dismember. I wasn't a fan of Massacre (barely any white decks, so it's likely a meta call). I'd maybe rather replace that with Golgari Charm. Macabre was worthless all night as well. Just never felt it was needed. I was considering maybe adding something crazy like an Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath to help in those grindy midrange matches.

As for the main, I'll likely be cutting one Sylvan and maybe a fetch for a third Ancient Tomb. I'm also considering other beaters like Desecration Demon to really close games out quickly.

Of course, I'm open to suggestions. I do agree that Baloth is likely a wise choice at the moment. I just didn't care for how it was outclassed by 4/5+ Goyfs, Tasigur and Angler. Siege Rhino's additional health would help in the case of those first two issues. I will probably keep Baloth, though.

[TLK]

So I top 4'd a GPT going 3-1-1 in Swiss. Same main as above except I cut a fetch for a third Tomb and I cut the 4th Library for Maelstrom Pulse. Cutting the Library was a mistake, and I'll definitely go back to a full playset.

Round 1: Bye.

Round 2: Mono red. Turn 3 Trinisphere was too slow as he already had Guide and Eidolon on board. This match seems fairly dependent on getting Chalice. Might need some sideboard help for this matchup. Lost 0-2.

Round 3: Junk. Removal for his threats and Titania again showed up big here. I won 2-0.

Round 4: BUG Delver. We go to turns game 3. Pretty grindy matchup. Angler is an issue.

Round 5: Mono red. Chalice on 1 in both games seals the deal. I won 2-0.

Top 4: Shardless BUG. I never really felt in this match. Shardless Agent just provides so much card advantage. I lost 0-2.

Deck is still awesome to play. I really need to tune the sideboard. Leyline of the Void was just awful. Truly miserable. I need another grave hate card to battle the G/x Goyf/Deathrite/Angler decks.

[Seraphix]

So I top 4'd a GPT going 3-1-1 in Swiss. Same main as above except I cut a fetch for a third Tomb and I cut the 4th Library for Maelstrom Pulse. Cutting the Library was a mistake, and I'll definitely go back to a full playset.

...

Deck is still awesome to play. I really need to tune the sideboard. Leyline of the Void was just awful. Truly miserable. I need another grave hate card to battle the G/x Goyf/Deathrite/Angler decks.

Really like your list.

Can't you just jam RIP in the board? Also, could Leyline of Sanctity be warranted for the BGx decks?

[Memories of the Time]

http://deckstats.net/deck-7974027-ee...be73b3635.html

This is the list i would bring tomorrow in a tournament. Without Chalice, as i said before.
I'm also thinking about a Jund list, expecially for:

Scorched Earth
Kessig Wolf Run
Slaughter Games

We'll lost hatebears and Kotr, of course, and Punishing Fire isn't synergic with Trinisphere...

[TLK]

Really like your list.

Can't you just jam RIP in the board? Also, could Leyline of Sanctity be warranted for the BGx decks?

I've considered RiP, but it renders our own Knights as permanent 2/2s. Could still be worth it. As for Leyline, it only really stops Thoughtseize and Lili's minus, but maybe? It does help the burn matchup too.

[Octopusman]

Thanks for your report TLK.


I've been playing friendlies at home vs. my girlfriend and found that this deck can be pretty soft to blood moon.
Worst case scenario, she drops one turn 0 when I have no mox or basic forest. I'm usually desperately trying to GSZ for Pride-Mage or Reclamation Sage.
With only two mox and one DRS, I found that I often had a hard time even getting the mana necessary to Decay. Brutal.

It had me thinking why Mistys instead of Heaths and it was because there were no Plains. I found not having access to a basic Plains pretty back-breaking many times. I cut one forest from Ghost's list and put in a plains. It helped. No one else? If I were to add another Mox, I'd want to add another land, but I think enough has been cut already.

Sigarda is a boss and I would definitely never cut her, especially since she ignores Jace. Even after adding the Plains, I haven't been able to hard-cast her yet.

Library seemed good to me as a 3 of, but I need a larger sample size of games.

Thanks to everyone for their work on this deck. Extremely fun!

[pettdan]

Here is a long tournament report, I hope it pleases someone to read. I really like reading the reports of others' so... I played this list in a 65-70 player tournament in Stockholm, Sweden, this Sunday. I went 2-3 and then dropped. I made a few mistakes which may have lead to two of the losses.

I played the list below and have played this deck a few times around March this year and then more recently in the first local weekly tournament (at Dragon's Lair, Stockholm) after the DTT ban. Also I was considering it for GP Lille but went with Dark Maverick instead. I'll start this post by commenting on a few of my changes to the list. During that last tournament I played mostly blue decks and still only went 2-2, three of the game losses were to Jace the Mind Sculptor so I decided to put some Jace/Liliana/BUG/Miracles hate in the main deck: Sigarda left the sideboard and became the 61st main deck card. I also swapped one Baloth for a Thragtusk, since the 3/3 token is another potential Jace killer. I have felt threat light in games this spring, so adding a few points of CMC to the creature suite felt like a natural change. Opposing Jaces are also the reason for two Maelstrom Pulses in the sideboard, and I expect them to be valuable for killing Tarmogoyfs, Gurmag Anglers, Monastery Mentors, Batterskulls and Lilianas.

Like I mentioned above I have felt threat light when playing this deck. If the opponent stops a threat, plays Liliana or [Jace] I have a hard time finding my way back. And other times I only find lock pieces. For this reason Batterskull was added and I liked it so far, as an endurable threat and a great lifegainer. I'm considering testing a list with two Stoneforges and two Batterskulls. The opponent pretty much has to kill [Stoneforge], if it's a fair matchup, and we can easily hardcast [Batterskull] once Stoneforge has been removed.

The fourth deck I played against last week was Death and Taxes, I had problems getting cards out through Port + Thalia so I upped the amount of sideboard Golgari Charms to two. I preferred it over Massacre since I have lost games to elves due to the unfortunate Gaddock Teeg/Massacre interaction. But Golgari Charm turns out to have its disadvantages too, as you'll find out below.

Another change to the list I made from last week's play was changing one of the three maindecked Chokes into a Tsunami. It was disappointing to play against Miracles and have 2 Chokes and a Chalice Wear/Teared with use of Snapcaster. Also since opponents seem to always find a way around the Chalices (Jace fatesealing, FoW stopping Chalice, Abrupt Decays from Storm decks and Shardless, Wear/Tear from Miracles, Vial and/or Flickerwisp from Death and Taxes) I'm also considering cutting down on them, just to test it. Maybe swapping one piece into a Pulse/Garruk/Threat or changing all of them for 1 each of Trinisphere, Crucible, Ghost Quarter and Deathrite.

Lock pieces (10):
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Choke
1 Tsunami
2 Trinisphere
1 Crucible of Worlds

Card selection/draw (9):
3 Sylvan Library
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Courser of Kruphix

Creatures (9 + 4):
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Titania, Protector of Argoth
1 Thragtusk
1 Batterskull

Removal (7):
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Toxic Deluge
1 Qasali Pridemage

Mana sources (26):
2 Mox Diamond
3 Ancient Tomb
4 Wasteland
1 Karakas
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Bayou
2 Savannah
3 Forest
1 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Windswept Heath
1 Misty Rainforest

Sorry, forgot the sideboard:
2 Null Rod
2 Leyline of the Void
2 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Golgari Charm
1 Giant Solifuge
1 Gaddock Teeg

Below sideboard cards are under consideration:
1 Choke (may turn into a Tsunami)
1 Trinisphere (for extra lock pieces in combo matchups)
1 Engineered Plague (for Elves, TNN, D&T etc)
1 Oblivion Ring (for Show and Tell and Jaces, but may be too much)

I was in a hurry when putting the list together so there may be a land too many. I think I only suffered from this once during the tournament, when having a starting hand with 7 mana sources. But that hand wouldn't have been playable regardless. Also like I mentioned I increased the amount of expensive threats. On that topic I may try a basic plains too.

R1: BURG control, 2-0
G1: First game I think I open with Chalice and some other card which he FoW's, exiling Vendilion Clique. For some reason (Trinisphere perhaps or a second Chalice) he never uses a land so I only see fetches and assume it's BUG something. Choke goes in.
G2: He plays an early Sensei's Divining Top, Grim Lavamancer and Dark Confidant, quite puzzling. I think I Deluged the Lavamancer to be able to get Deathrite into play for acceleration into the many beasts I had in my hand. I forgot most details but the crucial game play is when he, with SDT and Confidant out plays Zur's Weirding to potentially deny me of any further card drawing. The strategy backfires as I'm happy to play from my hand Sigarda, Thragtusk and Titania/Batterskull/Whatever and deny him of half of his card drawing.

R2: Shardless BUG, 0-1
I arrived just in time for the tournament and was quite stressed when writing the decklist, missing four Abrupt Decays as it turned out. I noticed between rounds and informed the judges, getting a game loss for R2.
We only play one game which he wins.
G1 I win the die roll and open with a land I think. He goes fetch, Deathrite. I play Sylvan, he untaps and Brainstorms into a Decay on Sylvan. I think I have the option of wasting his blue mana source and Abrupt Decaying the Deathrite to leave him on one land but instead go for a Choke. He Decays the Choke. I'm not sure exactly what happens next (I decayed a Goyf or two), but he suspends a Visions, I drop a Chalice for 0 and he manages to topdeck the third Decay just in time to profit from the Visions. I play Trinisphere, he goes Shardless into another Visions I believe. Trinisphere was good at preventing him from utilizing the Visions fully. He's hitting me with Agents and Strixes, I go down low on life but clear the board with a Deluge. I get Crucible out and start wasting lands, but it's a bit late. I think he gets out a huge goyf and that I draw Ooze to start gaining life and shrink the Goyf. He draws his fourth Decay to clear the Ooze I believe. Every copy of Decay he drew in this game felt important. I may have gotten rid of the goyf then, but according to my notes he gets out Jace and Strix while I think I topdecked two lands.

R3: ANT(?) 1-2
G1: I think he wins the first game, I had no idea what I was playing against and kept a hand with 3-4 lands and creatures IIRC. He wins before I get anything relevant out.
G2: I put out some lock pieces and win. Btw I really like that Null Rod is good vs Storm, MUD, Miracles and Death & Taxes.
G3: I put out some lock pieces like Chalice @1 but he pulls something like 3 Abrupt Decays and can go off the turn before I would have won.

R3: Legends Miracles, 1-2
G1 I start but mulligan a hand of 7 lands. He wins somehow, I'm forgetting the details. I think I'm playing against a Counterbalance + Jace not getting much through. I've actually upped to 4 Decays in the main to break Counterbalance locks more easily. Unfortunately not in this game.
G2 I'm accellerating properly into Giant Solifuge, Sigarda and stuff but he finds three Terminuses to get rid of all my threats consecutively. With some luck GSZ would have pulled them back, but that was not the case. I think this was also the game where three Wear/Tears (or 2 plus Snapcaster) destroyed a Chalice and two Chokes, or similarly.
G3 I think he gets a Clique-Karakas lock on me and hits me down low on life before I find a Wasteland for Karakas and a way to kill the Clique. Then Snapcaster beatdown. I finally get Sigarda into play race his Snapcaster + some other creature. It's looking promising but when he hits for lethal [lethal - 1 more precisely; I wanted to trade with Snapcaster] I look twice in my graveyard before fetching for Dryad Arbor... I fail to see it lying in the graveyard and die with him at 7 and me at 5, me with Sigarda. Seemed like good odds but whatever, my mistakes were not forgiving ones.

R4 Dredge, 2-0
G1 he wins the die roll and opens with LED into faithless looting flashback and dredges 10 cards or so. I'm guessing the game is lost but do my best, playing a t1 Scaving Ooze utilized by Mox Diamond. His turn he somehow dredges another couple of times, gets 3 Narcomoebas into play, a bridge in the graveyard and a Dread Returns. He flashbacks a Cabal Therapy on something I don't have (namely Cabal Therapy) and then returns an 8/8 Grave Troll to play. My turn I play a Deathrite (since I had a swamp in play) and use Ooze to exile the Bridge and a dredger. In the end I manage to play enough blockers to chump until Ooze is a 9/9 which happens after me having reached 1 life; it was quite a close one.
G2 I mulligan for some quick interaction and settle for a perfect four card hand with Deathrite, fetch, Chalice and Leyline of the Void. The mulligan scry shows a second land. Very nice.

R5 Death and Taxes, 0-2
G1: I think I mulligan and he wins the die roll, opening with Aether Vial. I only have 1 fetch and 1 Ancient Tomb but it looks promising with probably a Deluge in hand. I make a horrible mistake by opening with Chalice instead of a Deathrite. I think he Rishadan Ports my forest for the next couple of rounds, I fail to draw more lands and he continues with Jitte, Thalia, Wingmare.
G2: After two mulligans I settle for a hand with I think two fetches and a Golgari Charm. Great, come on Thalia, Wingmare and Port, I'm ready for you! He goes Stoneforge, Batterskull and then kills me with it and a Flickerwisp having reset my Chalice to zero. I think I fail to draw Maelstrom Pulses or Toxic Deluge in time. Qasali Pridemage was stuck in my hand since I couldn't find a white mana source. I think I made a mistake in fetching for lands actually, going for two Bayous early on next to my Tomb to have redundant black mana and to be able to play a Deathrite or some black card with my last mana during one of the early turns.

[TLK]

I'm wondering what other threats to run as well. I've considered tons of things:


Thragtusk
Thrun, The Last Troll
Gurmag Angler
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Desecration Demon
Tombstalker
Batterskull
Baneslayer Angel


Not really sure what to run. The non-green ones are a bit tougher to include since we can't search them up via Zenith, but they're still castable given our mana base.

I'm also not sure what cards I would cut to make more room for more threats. I definitely think 4 Library is the right call. It was nice and day between Thursday's weekly event (running 4) and the GPT (running 3) how often I saw Library.

[lilevo]

Why are some of you guys so hellbent on playing Sigarda?

[TLK]

She has been very good whenever I've cast her.

[lilevo]

I tried her a couple of times when I rotating threats I went through an extra KotR, thrun, huntmaster and Sigarda, then eventually I just went back to playing more baloths. The biggest problem I had with sigarda was the WW in the casting cost which in a way was similar to the problem I had with Huntmaster and the one R, in a way you have to make your land drops every turn but also have to be careful and not get exposed to wasteland.

[TLK]

I tried her a couple of times when I rotating threats I went through an extra KotR, thrun, huntmaster and Sigarda, then eventually I just went back to playing more baloths. The biggest problem I had with sigarda was the WW in the casting cost which in a way was similar to the problem I had with Huntmaster and the one R, in a way you have to make your land drops every turn but also have to be careful and not get exposed to wasteland.

You can always grab her with Zenith for an extra mana. I've done that plenty of times. How many Baloths are you running?

[Octopusman]

Why are some of you guys so hellbent on playing Sigarda?

A few posts up I mentioned that she ignores Jace. Being unbounce/unplowable is pretty good.
Again, I'm happy I added a basic plains to fetch, but I have had trouble hardcasting her. I expect to have an easier time with the plains though.

Also, any thoughts on whether or not to include a Scrubland?
With colorless lands, seems not bad to have a Scrubland because black and white never compete in any of the cards' casting costs.
For example, you can cast knight off wasteland, forest, scrubland. You can also use those same lands to cast Toxic Deluge.
Please share thoughts on this. Getting green is not hard.

[phazonmutant]

I ported this deck to a Modern no ban list tournament (modern, but with all cards legal), swapping Painful Truths for the Sylvan Library. Painful Truths was unexpectedly great all day - 3 mana and 3 life for a huge burst of cards is fantastic. It might be worth thinking about adding one or two instead of Sylvan Library in the legacy version. Sylvan Library is cheaper and has better selection, but the per-card rate is much higher and is bad in multiples.

[Barook]

I ported this deck to a Modern no ban list tournament (modern, but with all cards legal), swapping Painful Truths for the Sylvan Library. Painful Truths was unexpectedly great all day - 3 mana and 3 life for a huge burst of cards is fantastic. It might be worth thinking about adding one or two instead of Sylvan Library in the legacy version. Sylvan Library is cheaper and has better selection, but the per-card rate is much higher and is bad in multiples.

How does the deck even work without accelerants?

[phazonmutant]

How does the deck even work without accelerants?

Chrome Mox and Green Sun accelerate, and a Chalice for 1 on turn 2 is usually fine.

[bakofried]

Green Sun is not legal in modern.