I guess the most relevant thing for Traverse is that it can get Strix or utility lands like Tower where Zenith cannot, but then most of the time you'd want a Strix like effect is post board against Eldrazi, and for that you have Glissa anyway. Glissa even has the upside that it dodges warping wail.Originally Posted by Navsi
Might be worth considering adding in Glissa into your board, since she has some really nice interactions with Strix as well (kill two dudes, bring back your dude, draw an extra card as well).
Deck looks super sweet though. I'm going to try out Sneak n Fit first, but this also looks like a lot of fun.
I was originally running Glissa in the board, but ended up dropping her. There isn't much Eldrazi in my meta, so it's not worth playing her here IMO. If I do happen to run into someone, I've still got Batterskull in the board which is great against them, and most of my planeswalkers are great against their deck.
Traverse is really good because this is a creature toolbox deck but it doesn't provide anything that can't already be provided in the deck. The worst match ups are fast combo and chalice on one. Traverse doesn't help too much until later turns, unless you are just trying to grab an early land at which point you might just want to play a land, so the fast combo game is out. And chalice on 1 locks it out. Sure, you can set up turns where you abrupt decay the chalice and set up delirium and then tutor something sweet to finally cast it but it seems at that point I would rather just go back to a pod build.
For the record I want this to work as it is super sweet, but I have yet to get it go work well against my local play group which involves eldrazi, miracles, D&T, and dredge.
That begs the question, are you having any success with Nic-Fit against your local Eldrazi, Miracles, D&T, and Dredge oppo's? Which version?
It's interesting you ask that question, I just finished a Legacy event against those very decks. My version which is SE has good Eldrazi, Miracles, and D&T matchups. I don't know about Dredge, it's probably less than stellar (no games against it since I started playing this version) but not impossible. I suspect manaless is worse than regular.
The trick to Eldrazi is pretty simple. They don't really have a way to refuel, so if you blunt the assault and trade aggressively you'll pull ahead. Miracles is more of a grindfest, it's rare I finish a Miracles match 2-x it seems like it's either a 2-0 or a 1-1-1, but I definitely feel favored. It's possible this feeling against Miracles could change if I were playing opponents that day 2'ed a GP. Miracles has a high skill cap.
Last edited by Brael; 11-18-2016 at 10:12 AM.
Well, apparently zero stores near me have a copy of the Atraxa commander precon, so it looks like I'm gonna be on Sneak Attack after all, I'm afraid guys. There's another event coming up in early December that I'll try and take Planeswalkers to.
And noone is selling the card seperately?
nooo.. it is not that expensive, no chance to get it somewhere? I was so curious to read your winner report :)
A lot of stores won't crack commander precons this early for singles since they just came out. Any singles they would have would be people trading into the store. It just doesn't make sense from a business standpoint to open deck product that you could be selling.
Atraxa is the highest and most playable of the decks out of the box. I'm grateful that I was able to use my prize tickets from Columbus to get it and Kynaios/Tiro. Even then, while the latter was 100 tix, Atraxa was 170 tix.
She's definitely the most popular deck, followed by Breya.
@volrathxp: I just checked the inventory of 4 of the stores I usually go to for singles. 4 out of 4 have multiple copies of Atraxa in stock, so it doesn't seem that farfetched.
I said "a lot of" stores, that doesn't mean they all will. Some will crack open boxes if they think they can move the singles faster. A lot of times though the value is really only in a few cards like the face commanders and it usually isn't worth it when you could sell the deck at MSRP or higher (especially when you know that sheer virtue of just sticking the deck on your shelf it will sell). It really ultimately depends on how much product a store gets of all five decks.
Honestly I wouldn't blame them. A lot of places around my area had relatively few singles from c15, including Meren, because those decks sold out so quickly and they didn't want to crack a box on a deck that sold well.
Not sure where you live, but why not try overnight shipping from one of the card stores? Overnight for an Atraxa is cheaper than buying the entire commander box anyways. Alternatively, bring your trade material (and maybe some cash) and try to get one on site from another player.
Looks like I might be able to borrow one, so we may be back on for Maximum Greed™.
On a related note, ever since I bought a copy of Living Plane online, the online stores keep trying to advertise to me with awful Enchantment-Matters trash from Theros block.
I am going to just make up numbers for g1 statistics to give my interpretation of things.
Mana Dredge/Manaless Dredge (90%)- The decks can be very fast but GSZ to scavenging ooze can single handily win you the game. DRS is also really good, and at least alleviates enough pressure to get a deed out in case they try to overwhelm with zombies. Along with Explorer and sac outlets bridge is kept under control a lot of the time and the match up has been mostly positive. Sometimes they stick a ton of zombies and you cannot find deed, but I have come to accept the inevitability of the zombie apocalypse.
D&T (40%)- Main deck abrupt decay/pridemage is awesome in the match up although I do find myself struggling a little. I used to run 2 deeds and 0 maelstrom pulses. Every time I play this though I find myself wanting a 2/1 or 3/0 split. I can usually handle every threat but then end up dying to something like air force beats. So for right now I have added a third deed pre-board, although maybe I just want the third in the sb and win games 2/3 more reliably.
Eldrazi (~50%)- MD Glissa and MD Nissa have helped tremendously. It will be a rocky start but if I find a way to stabilize then I feel incredibly comfortable. This used to be a much worse match up but I've been following this thread for a little bit now and the two aforementioned cards really put me back into someplace preferable.
Miracles (-20%)- I have seen this person the least and have the least amount of testing on this match up. Further, I can't stand miracles because I am coming from a combo deck. I do need more work on this match up as I never seem to sneak by a solid pilot with this deck. But that is too be expected somewhat, I am still kind of new to this deck and so it will just take time.
Vs Miracles try playing a single Taiga in the main with 4 blasts in the SB. ~3 slaughter games helps as well. Side out all your explorers and cabal therapies. Might be important to note that I'm playing 4 Deathrite, 4 Tops and 3 Deeds maindeck. Deathrite adds tons of reach in this matchup.
Maybe siding is my problem in the miracles match up, I usually don't cut the explorers/ therapy package. I'm not sure if I want the REB's, although I get how they are useful. Above all else, I really just need to become more familiar with my list and playing it.
On a side note, how do you find 4 DRS? Seem's like a lot in the face of a chalice deck.
4 DRS is fantastic, I wouldn't run the deck without access to all 4 between MB and SB.
This is SE rather than whatever you're playing but perhaps you'll find it useful. Here's my list and how/why I sideboard the way I do for various matchups. I'll cover Eldrazi, D&T, and Miracles since those are the ones mentioned a couple posts prior. Even if you're not playing my 75, some of it might be applicable to you.
There's a few changes I want to make to my list, but I'm in the middle of a really long paper league right now, so I can't change in the middle.
Mainboard 61
Lands 22
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
2 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Savannah
3 Forest
2 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Volrath's Stronghold
Creatures 21
1 Endless One
4 Veteran Explorer
2 Deathrite Shaman
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Dark Confidant
1 Qasali Pridemage
2 Tireless Tracker
1 Courser of Kruphix
2 Monastery Mentor
1 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
Non Creatures 18
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Path to Exile
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Pernicious Deed
Sideboard 15
2 Faerie Macabre
1 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Shriekmaw
2 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
2 Deathrite Shaman
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Carpet of Flowers
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Cavern of Souls
Sideboarding:
Miracles:
The theory is to remove cards that accelerate them, but maintain your own ability to accelerate. Try to play cards that require more specific answers so that eventually the answers in their hand line up poorly for the threats you're presenting.
In the difficult to answer category you want to bring in Cavern of Souls and 2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
In the acceleration category bring in 2 Deathrite Shaman, 1 Noble Hierarch, and 1 Carpet of Flowers
As for what you take out, you remove 4 Veteran Explorers, 1 Volrath's Stronghold, Scavenging Ooze, and Courser of Kruphix. Explorers and the land for Cavern/others is a straight swap. The Ooze/Courser are for your Sorins. I think Ooze is generally pretty poor in this match because there's very little to eat. It can shut off Snapcasters, but it will still probably just trade with a Snapcaster. Sorin on the other hand will kill a Snap and live to provide additional advantage. Courser is because Miracles thrives on perfect information, and due to the nature of the Counter/Top lock it's a bad idea to tell them what CMC's they need to keep available and how to sequence their plays.
Optionally you can bring in Knight of the Reliquary to tutor Cavern. Being a 3 drop, Knight is very hard to Counterbalance so it will resolve through anything but a Force. I've found that if it survives to tap you can take away a counter top lock but usually you need your cards to have a quicker payoff than that in the matchup.
Other notes - Sequence your Mentor plays so that you always play a Mentor and trigger prowess that turn, this is most easily done with Tops, but is another place where a GSZ for 0 can thrive. If you play a Ranger of Eos, try to pair it with a non tutored threat. That way you can either double DRS or Endless One/Safekeeper after the Terminus. Basically, treat Ranger as the pressure and the cards you gain as a followup threat. Probably most notably, I don't bring in Teeg. It's not that he's bad but rather that I just haven't identified another cut for him. There's too much to bring in and not enough to take out. One possible solution here is to go up to 63, don't side out the Stronghold, and just bring Teeg in.
Eldrazi:
The theory is that Eldrazi has no library manipulation. They have a bunch of big things and the acceleration to power them out but no ability to play a long game (exception being white Eldrazi, they can play the long game). Your main goal here is to not get mana screwed. If they open on a Chalice for 1 you're going to have problems.
You want to mitigate the effect of Chalice by bringing in a 5th human manadork with Hierarch, and removing a DRS. Also you obviously bring in the second Cavern to go along with this. After that you want extra removal so bring in Shriekmaw. Discard is actually pretty potent against Eldrazi because they have few removal spells and no real CA so Tidehollow Sculler is alright. Bonus, it's discard that dodges a Chalice on 1. Last, KotR has a body that can tangle with even the biggest Eldrazi's and it sets up Stronghold loops.
For these 5 cards you want to remove your Phyrexian Tower because you win this match by card advantage rather than quality and it's your slot for Cavern, 1 Monastery Mentor because it doesn't accomplish enough on blocks so the KotR gets better. My other 3 cuts are usually Sylvan Safekeeper, Meren, and Deed. Meren just isn't big enough for the cost, Deed doesn't hit the big threats, and Safekeeper doesn't protect you against much.
A small playstyle thing I've noticed is that you almost always want to let Matter Reshaper live. It will trade with most of your blockers and it's one of their weaker cards. Almost anything it finds is an upgrade. Just take the 3 per turn and figure out how to race it. Followup Explorers are great blockers for it. This goes double when you're setting up for lethal, there's nothing worse than blocking a Reshaper only to give them a blocker.
D&T:
I play against this one a little less, but it's still around. The big thing here is that they're going to attack your mana which is our weakest point. The theory here is that you want to insulate your manabase a bit and try to play your early turns so that you have ways around the taxes.
I actually go very threat light against D&T and instead just ensure that I can play what I do draw. This means 2 DRS, Hierarch, and Cavern come in alongside Shriekmaw and Sorin. The Shriekmaw because it's versatile and kills most of their cards, and the Sorin because it turns anything into a threat. After you make 2 emblems anything is lethal (or alternatively, you -6 after blocking a bit). Save your removal for the 3 mana cards, and try to trade your board for the rest. 3 mana Thalia and Mirran Crusader (especially Crusader, though it's fallen out of favor a bit) are what will kill you.
You don't need as much CA here because you won't have the mana to play it all so remove mana sinks like Tireless Tracker, Dryad Arbor can go because it makes an active Jitte that much worse for you, and Mentor because you won't have the mana to use it. I also like removing my Ranger of Eos package (Ranger, Endless One, Safekeeper) because it lines up so poorly against Thalia. Deed #2 should come in over SDT #4.
This applies more to paper than online, but try to get a read on your opponent with their opening hand. One of the big things to look for is to figure out if they're evaluating a land light+Vial hand. If you can correctly determine this, it has major implications for Pridemage and Abrupt Decay. But you need to be good at reading people to pull it off (this same advice applies to the Jund vs Merfolk matchup in Modern... something I play a lot of). Don't fall into the trap of fetching basics in this match. If you fetch basics to play around Wasteland, you'll play right into Port. It's better to have a Bayou available because you got 2 basics and they Wastelanded you than it is to have just a Swamp because you got Forest/Swamp and one is on permanent lockdown. Also, try to save a Therapy, not only are they great to answer Stoneforge Mystic, but if they have a Vial on 3 Flickerwisp is the biggest threat in their deck, so you either need to strip it or make them use it before you run into it. It is extremely risky to do anything when they're representing this.
Finally, as it stands right now after 2 months of experience with my list, here's the 75 I would put together for SE Fit today (and what I'll be playing in Louisville):
Mainboard 61
Lands 22
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
1 Ash Barrens
2 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Savannah
3 Forest
2 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Volrath's Stronghold
Creatures 21
1 Endless One
4 Veteran Explorer
2 Deathrite Shaman
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Dark Confidant
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Courser of Kruphix
2 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
Non Creatures 18
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sylvan Library (alternatively the 4th SDT, I'm torn on this point)
3 Path to Exile
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Pernicious Deed
Sideboard 15
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Shriekmaw
2 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
2 Deathrite Shaman
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Carpet of Flowers
1 Noble Hierarch
Interesting list!
And finally someone who understands playing 4 tops is great.
Note about Nic Fit vs Eldrazi - Don't cut Deed- it's a golden card if you resolve it and crack for 4-5 it's mostly a game. Deed can clean up also chalice which is also very important. Deed for 0 can kill chalice & Endless One.
To crack deed for 5 it means you need to live to the point where you can spend 8 mana on the card. Deluge is much better in the match than Deed is if you want a sweeper. It's easier to just 2 for 1 yourself trading with Eldrazi. If you can kill 4 creatures of theirs, you've pretty much won the game. Deed works against this, because the easiest way to kill their creatures is to have your own board presence, which would be swept away alongside theirs with the Deed.
Chalices are annoying. Make sure you can handle them, I've constructed my list in such a way that I'm pretty resilient to Chalice. If you don't do that, you probably want to add a few more Abrupt Decays.
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