How about Enlightened Tutor 2-3x MD with 1-of Moat and 1-of Humility MD?
I remember trying Enlightened Tutor, though as a 1-of. I thought it was cute (to grab a CMC to flip to CB) but didn't really like it, at least not over the card(s) it took the slots of.
Got a technical question: when to play out your second Top when to hold it? Mentor is not a factor in this particular question.
My philosophy is, against any deck with access to Abrupt Decay (specifically because it's uncounterable), play the second so that you're not blown out by an EOT Decay when you're floating a Terminus/ETA/STP/FoW/any card you'd need at a moment's notice. But others have told me that in certain situations there's no point in playing the second one/no benefit. What situations would they be talking about?
I always play the second, simply in order to have access to a 1 CMC with Balance, still with a top in play. The 3rd is usually useless, though, and is often brainstorm fodder.Originally Posted by CutthroatCasual
Putting the second Top into play also gives you another way (besides Brainstorm & Jace) to convert it into another card. Works best with a fetch follow-up, of course. This is what I most often find myself doing with extra Tops, if I have no Mentor in sight.
Shouldn't Abrupt Decay decks be holding their AD's to deal with Counterbalance in almost all scenarios? (Barring a potential blow-out play where sniping a top would ensure a lethal attack)
I can think plenty of reasons to play the 2nd SDT, so I won't go into it from that direction. Rather I'll just mention the situation in which you want to hold 2nd SDT in your hand.
1. You really don't want it, hence you're just waiting for Brainstorm + fetchland to shuffle it away.
2. You want to pitch it to Liliana, in order to protect other cards in your hand.
3. When Revoker already named SDT and your 1st SDT is already on the battlefield, no point playing 2nd one.
Best thing about second top is that you are free to Predict more without having to put useless lands into play or discard to handsize. :)~~~
I've tried Tutor a few years ago. Beside that it's generate card disadvantage it tends do fill your deck with clumsy expensive and situative cards. And I don't see a need in the format to find a hate card asap.
I just went 3-0 at a local store (same list as last time), beating Team America, Infect and ANT 2-0. Looking forward to the next big tournament :)
Have to agree, the Eldrazi MU is incredibly awkard to play. At this point, I think Miracles had to evolve again. Between Cavern of Souls out of several decks, Chalice out of AggroLoam and Eldrazi, Boseiju out of Sneak Show and the reemergence of Shardless BUG I get the feeling that playing the reactive deck is pretty badly positioned at the moment. Don't get me wrong, I know there's still the Delver decks, storm and also the mirror in which the general gameplan is as solid as ever. But for a great part of the meta, I get the feeling that Miracles is not working correctly.
I've grown to really like Predict and I guess I'll start building a more tempo oriented list, the thing the deck currently needs are imho 4 Monastery Mentor. Maybe something with Ancient Tomb and Gitaxian Probe to have an aggressive gameplan against the matchups where you need it. But I'll have to tinker a bit. That being said, I really don't like Ponder at the moment. While it's good in the mirror, against almost every other deck there is no time to waste with cantrips, even if it's a good one as Ponder.
Just my two cents, I'd be interested in how you think about the current format.
I agree with your first couple sentences, as in, the meta has certainly shifted.
Now, I suspect you have a personal agenda to point out Predict and Mentor as the solution. There's no evidence supporting your claim that running Mentors and Predicts would allow you to consistently defeat Eldrazi, Aggro-Loam, or Sneak and Show. Point me to some YouTube recordings if you are aware.
As an alternative, one can certainly go after the non-basic Mana Base. You can certainly try to run more Basic like Red Duke, maybe MD Back to Basic or Blood Moon, using Enlightened Tutor package if necessary. I would experiment in that direction first, before anything else.
No personal agenda. But Mentor was very, very good against the Eldrazi menace. So for me it was the most logical conclusion. It's either lock them out for good - with Blood Moon as you said, or go aggressive with Mentor or RiP / Helm (won't propose that, just as an example).
I am cutting some Counterbalance ;)
I am playing Jace, Top, Terminus, Supreme Verdict and 2+1 CB for Delver and Storm matchup
Anyway: the 4 Mentors plan without Ponder sounds like a nonmbo.
At the time of the 4 Mentots people were playing Daze, Dig Through Time and Pyroblast main for a total of 7+ cards..
Aggro Mentor calls for Jeskay Ascendancy style
Last edited by Poron; 02-27-2016 at 07:50 PM.
Mentor is definitely an all-star against them. But Predict? Yes, spend 2 mana to get effectively nothing accomplished. It's an aggro deck, not a midrange/control deck (against which Predict allegedly shines).
Played a couple games with my friend on Eldrazi. Found out that:
1) Blood Moon is an absolute beating, so much so that I even want to go to 2 in the board just so we don't need to mull as aggressively to get it in our opener.
2) Moat is pretty much autowin against anyone not running World Breaker, which most lists aren't. The ones that are, it costs enough mana where Clique can take it out of their hand the turn they would be able to cast it.
3) The MU isn't unwinnable, but we need to stymie their early pressure enough to land our lock pieces. Sometimes they just curve out, sometimes they don't. Nothing we can really do about that. I'd rate the MU 30/70 pre, 40/60 post, maybe as good as 45/55 if our 7 is 3 lands, Blood Moon, FoW, blue card, something else (Top is best). Though once Blood Moon hits, it pretty much becomes 90/10 practically unloseable.
4) In terms of win-cons: I believe that none of our regular win cons are good enough. Jace is a tad too slow, Mentor requires too many turns after he lands that we don't have, ETA doesn't come down early enough to make a different. The goal, from my perspective, is to land a lock piece first, protect it, and then go for our regular win-cons. One game in playtesting, I had a t3 Blood Moon, then just flashed in a Snapcaster and Clique and beat face. To do this, I used Mentor in a defensive role so that I could draw into one of my 2 locks (Moat and/or Blood Moon.)
So those notes being said, I've changed my SB:
1x Containment Priest
1x Moat
2x Monastery Mentor
1x Rest In Peace
2x Flusterstorm
1x Vendilion Clique
1x Venser, Shaper Savant
2x Blood Moon
2x Pyroblast
0x Meddling Mage (OUT)
2x Wear // Tear
Blood Moon also just seems better in this meta since Lands and Shardless have super-favorable Eldrazi MU's (so their numbers will likely increase), and Blood Moon is a beating against those 2 decks as well. Everyone wins!
The purpose of any moat is to impede attack. Some are filled with water, some with thistles. Some are filled with things best left unseen.
Blood Moon is great against Lands and Shardless; but are they so dumb in the SB games such that they will not fetch a Basic land before Blood Moon gets on the stack? To hose these non-basic lands deck, Blood Moon and Back to Basic appear to be the choice for permanent hate while Ruination and From the Ashes are the spell hate. One small difference is that you can recover from discard cards like Hymn by flashback spell hate using Snapcaster.
Since Lands MU was on the SCG coverage multiple times, some of them appear to run Boseiju + Boil while some run permanent (i.e. chalice) hate, an interesting note.
If it slows them down enough, it's worth it. Thanks for the tip about Boil, though (didn't catch too much of the stream.) Will be playing around that more aggressively against RG Lands.
The purpose of any moat is to impede attack. Some are filled with water, some with thistles. Some are filled with things best left unseen.
LOL, personal agenda? What does that even mean here? You think he's hoarding copies of Predict and Monastery Mentor and trying to drum up demand?
FWIW, my personal agenda is to win games.
Let's not kid ourselves, if you lose to eldrazi it's mainly because of Chalice one, since if you are allowed to actually play magic miracles just demolishes non aether vial creature decks. In case you are really scared of the matchup, maindeck 1-2 EEs (probably in the slot of the 4th counterbalance since it's easily your worst card in the matchup) and board a pair of blood moons.
I think Ensnaring Bridge is just fine. It gains you tempo enough to build your board with Jace and Mentor or to draw your Meddling Mage.
Lists which play Ulamog don't play Worldbreaker and viceversa.
You name the one they are playing with Meddling Mage and gg..
Both are not affected by Chalice of Trinisphere.
If you keep your Bridge safe, you have inevitability with Terminus, Jace and Clique.
Blood Moon is always great in this meta.
Every deck but those which have DShamans suffer it a lot.
Also us if the timing is it is played by the opponent at a bad time.
I think what we really have to fear is Chalice/Sphere.. and that will just require more Disenchant
I would advise you to play against that deck a few times before you get to a conclusion like this. While Chalice 1 is their strongest play against us, it's not the only game winning one.
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