[Primer] R/G Lands

[Chatto]

So, with the rise of Eldrazi and DnT we have two decks that can take down Storm-based combo. That made me thinking: can we cut some SoR? And by doing so make room for a sweeper, say Kozilek's Return?

EDIT: I'm thinking about Inferno Titan.

[heckler]

I just went 5-0 again in the MTGO competitive legacy league while only losing one game.


round1 was against a stax deck. He actually would have won if he were allowed infinite time as in game 3 he had me locked out with a chalice on 2 and 3 and a bridge in play; his turns took 30+ seconds each so he clocked out with about 5 left on mine.

round 2 and 3 were against the same eldrazi player: wasteland lands out with tabernacle in play.

rounds 4 and 5 were against the same 4 color delver player and wasteland carried it again. he surgical'd depths in game 2 in the final round but I was lucky and he attacked me to 2 and I wasted both his lands and dropped a tabernacle, killing off V clique and a pyromancer. he never found a red source and a bolt to kill me and it took about 10 turns for Pfire.

[heckler]

truthfully, I haven't faced a storm opponent in competitive or league play on MtGO for quite a while.

[Whitefaces]

Has anybody tested GQ > Port further? The more I think about it the better I like it at the moment. Very strong vs Miracles, Eldrazi and Delver.

[Layalouhamesh]

Has anybody tested GQ > Port further? The more I think about it the better I like it at the moment. Very strong vs Miracles, Eldrazi and Delver.

Yup, just won a small local tournament with the 4 GQ build. However, I didn't like it at all.
Local meta turned out to be heavy in basic lands, and attacking the manabase didn't really help at preventing show&tell to be cast, while I could have ported blue mana.

[Skyl3lazer]

So, with the rise of Eldrazi and DnT we have two decks that can take down Storm-based combo. That made me thinking: can we cut some SoR? And by doing so make room for a sweeper, say Kozilek's Return?

EDIT: I'm thinking about Inferno Titan.

I cut the Spheres for 2 trinishpheres + 2 kozi's return, but to be honest at the current moment the meta is so hostile towards lands I'm just playing 4c Loam. Current lands SB is as so:

2x Trinisphere
2x Chalice of the Void
3x Krosan Grip
1x Back to Nature
1x Karakas
2x Kozilek's Return
2x Tireless Tracker
2x Boil

Playing against Miracles, our grips get overloaded by CB + RiP + Blood Moon that I've swapped one for a Back to Nature, hoping generally to cast it through Boseiju. Boils, same story, hoping to make uncounterable. Trinispheres/Chalice are much more impactful in most games than a single Sphere is, and if I'm going to draw a single denial piece from my SB, I want a more impactful card. Kozi's Return kills prelate, etc, and usually prelate is set on 2 so you can still cast it. Plus, Devoid so Mom doesn't stop it. Karakas is SB for me, Bog/Boseiju are both main.

[Croprot]

Current side board for the meta is
3 trini
3 chalice
2 choke
4 grip
1 bojuka bog
2 prime time.

Boseiju and karakas are both main with a single molten vortex. Trinisphere and chalice have been doing excellent work for me in the combo match ups like in fact and storm. Prime time is just unreal every time I side it in. Only slots I'm not wilde about are the chokes. Considering switching them out for boil but not sure if it's worth it or not since I've seen a down tick in wear tears.

[Ciubulu]

Yup, just won a small local tournament with the 4 GQ build. However, I didn't like it at all.
Local meta turned out to be heavy in basic lands, and attacking the manabase didn't really help at preventing show&tell to be cast, while I could have ported blue mana.

i'm a huge fan of the 4gq build (i like to have a lot of free wins against decks with 2 to no basics) but i do agree with you, in my current meta there's a lot of basics lately expecially in our worst mu's and the firsts 2/3 ghost quarters are almost always tempo loss that sometime costed me the game. I'm trying a 3/2 split (3 ports 2quarters).

[Sibelius]

i'm a huge fan of the 4gq build (i like to have a lot of free wins against decks with 2 to no basics) but i do agree with you, in my current meta there's a lot of basics lately expecially in our worst mu's and the firsts 2/3 ghost quarters are almost always tempo loss that sometime costed me the game. I'm trying a 3/2 split (3 ports 2quarters).

The tempo loss is the biggest problem I have with the GQ build. If you are not getting ahead on mana or recurring the GQ's they are distinctly worse than Ports.

Sib

[filln]

Has anybody tested GQ > Port further? The more I think about it the better I like it at the moment. Very strong vs Miracles, Eldrazi and Delver.

I tested out 4 GQ, 0 Port build last night at our weekly 3-round. Previously I had been running GQ as a 1-of before bumping up to a 3/2 Port/GQ split for the past three weeks. I really liked the 4 GQ build, but to be fair the matches I played it against were quite suited to it: Miracles, 4C Loam, and Grixis Delver. Opponents were caught off-guard by the number I ran and I was almost able to lock Miracles out of white mana but a timely Rest in Peace foiled those plans.

Other random spice I'm testing out: main deck Barbarian Ring (along with a 3/2 PF/MV split), sideboard options of Chandra Flamecaller, Nissa Vital Force, Kozilek's Return, and Song of the Dryads. Also plan to try out Anarchy once it comes in. Against Miracles last night I attempted to cast both Nissa and Song of the Dryads (on Jace) and both were countered via FoW but I think it would have been pretty devastating if either had stuck. Haven't been able to play D&T recently to see if the MD Barbarian Ring helps enough.

[Domri Rade]

Does this guy have sideboard potential?

[Sibelius]

Not in this deck.

[GiveMeYourOil]

Domri Rade ... That card is horrible in this deck.

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

Haven't been able to play D&T recently to see if the MD Barbarian Ring helps enough.

I've done a little bit of testing (School, Work and the occasional hangover have successfully stopped me from playing magic lately ), but it's been fine imo. Against a configuration with 2 Recruiters/2 Prelates, killing one is usually enough as they are reliant on drawing the other one at that point and you can certainly sandbag it until they play another Prelate.

[lavafrogg]

I played for fun at a local on Tuesday for some practice against a guy that is at the card shop every day....

Lets just say that he was the in person equivalent of an internet troll. All of his decks were home brews and each of them had main deck hate for as much of the format as possible i.e. enlightened tutor into blood moon, rest in peace, winter orbs.... all game one.

In addition to me drawing/playing like crap the whole night I can say it was a pretty terrible experience.

I look forward to some good games this weekend.

[Skyl3lazer]

Man, Jarvis is on Delver this weekend, RIP

[Ricardio]

I built the deck online and i have been getting brutalized by surgicals from EVERY deck. What should I do about it? Diversify threats? Faerie Macbre?
I am playing portless quarter version atm.

[chaosjace]

I have been thinking about Pull from Eternity, the deck is very resilient as it is. We have access to white already with Mox and riftstone, could swap a thicket or two back to horizon canopy. I haven't dealt with extraction effects enough to know how bad or not it is.

[lavafrogg]

It seems like everyone is playing hate specifically at lands similar to the way people over boarded against dredge years ago. Considering the list of cards you can attack the lands player with is fairly large I think it is easy to create a hostile environment for the lands players.

You can play around certain hate, like surgical, to a point, but when cards like surgical, counterbalance, rest in peace, blood moon (and to an extent Karakas/Deathrite/Wasteland) sometimes you just have to shelve the deck and go to your second choice.

[Layalouhamesh]

It seems like everyone is playing hate specifically at lands similar to the way people over boarded against dredge years ago. Considering the list of cards you can attack the lands player with is fairly large I think it is easy to create a hostile environment for the lands players.

You can play around certain hate, like surgical, to a point, but when cards like surgical, counterbalance, rest in peace, blood moon (and to an extent Karakas/Deathrite/Wasteland) sometimes you just have to shelve the deck and go to your second choice.

I think the hate is mostly directed at reanimator that gains interest those times since it is good versus Miracles, and Lands is merely a collateral damage. An answer to surgical extraction is also surgical extraction :) You can remove the target of your opponent's spell, check the deck and declare to find nothing to remove, since it's a hidden area for the opponent.