We got a horse in this race boys! Go Dega Go! Hopefully we get some stream time. Really interested to see his decklist.
Also it does seem like nobody plays this deck but it puts up good results in every tournament. (seems to top 8 all the time even though it appears like nobody plays it) I don't get why people stay away from the deck, maybe its harder to play than average?
He has what appears to be a great matchup for him, hes playing vs boros in the quarters and is on the play.
The deck seems to top 8 quite often especially in comparison to the % it seems to get played. It just seems like it hasnt had a big FIRST place finish.
No, pro white works for you and your opponents spells. Pro white is kind of like shroud, but for white. You can't and they can't target using white, same for black.
As for siding blood baron, I think it's a mistake. He is integral in stemming aggro and stabilizing. He also happens to blank everything in MBD(monblackDevotion) minus sack outlets. He is too important a card. If you want more removal, I would startby cutting Helix. It gains life, sure but it rarely kills PW's, it can't kill demons or dragons and it can't kill jack in RG monsters. SB the Helix for aggro MU and swap them in the MB for more dreadbore, Hero's downfall or devour flesh.
While on the topic of MBD, it is indeed a hard MU. Pack rat is an absolute menace. Aside from Baron, not much sticks with their removal being so oppressive, almost to the degree we play removal. I have a few ideas for the MU...
Erebos-Needs to be there to prevent them from gaining life. If they can't gain life, they loose, especially with burn.
Purphoros- Indestructible is good and the static also helps, but the devotion may never happen.
Heliod- Indestructible as well and can be used to make an army.
Pithing Needle- I am seriously considering running 3 in the SB just for so many MU beyond MBD's obvious applications. Stops reaper of the wilds, aetherling, pack rat, PW's, underworld.
Wear//tear- also helps with equipment and enchantments of MBD.
thanks for actually responding to the MBD matchup, i also have decided to add more pithing needles to my SB, had just 1, now upping to atleast 2, almost feel like i need 3 in my meta.
I also have the 2 wear//tears, and erebos was an idea had as well. i also i can usually hit them a few times then they bleed themselves with connections, they are usually low but i cant finish them. So stopping the lifegain seems good.
Heliod was a card i have been looking at for a while, seems decent vs control i would think it would be a must d-sphere target. The thing about the gods is they will pretty much 90% never be active. Heliod also seems like he could potentially be good against mbd though as they cant remove him and he can give you a steady stream of guys even if they have removal you can run them out of it. Not sure about heliod though.
Beat GW twice (same opponent) , Mono Blue devotion, Grixis control, random UB deck, Mono Red, and two different boros aggro decks.
I tried to hedge the main deck toward beating control because i feel like we have a good matchup against aggro in the first place. Easier to win 2 sideboard games vs aggro than it is to be down 1 and try to win 2 against control.
who is to say that in the finals Miorelli didnt' lose game 1 against control (no thoughtseize) only to come back in the last 2 games with thoughtseize postboard?
im interested in teh discussion regarding desecration demon or alms beast
i think its pretty relevant depending on the meta.
Alms beast
+easier on mana base
-doesn't fly
-gives lifelink
Desecration demon
+flys
-can be tapped down
Did anyone actually get to watch morelli play? Or are we just making guesses based off the decklist?
I noticed his list was lacking Aurelia, which i totally agree with (seems slow and usually overkill when played)
I asked earlier if the format was slow enough for rakdos keyrune, well with the recent lists showing results it does appear so. Which in turn having keyrune to me, makes rakdos return better, which i was questioning including.
Another small note was both lists that showed up and did well, neither had temple of triumphs anywhere in them, thoughts on this? All the lists i see here posted seem to have them. I will say during my limited testing running 3 triumph and 3 silence i have never had an issue on turn 5 needed an untapped land. I figure that is the reason for more basics, but it doesnt seem neccesary from that angle so maybe i am missing something.
To me, i really think we want a turn 4 play almost every game. Either to stop there attackers, or to apply pressure on Control.
Alms beast vs Desecration demon is a valid debate.
Alms beast is a way more relaible blocker and attacker. In all my gamers last night he was essential in holding down the fort when it got to a board stall. In any of the games he was a DesDemon i would of lost. Plus the "combo" of Erebos is icing and way to build the deck around. The other bonus is WB is much easier to get on turn 4 than BB.
The only time i want Desecration Demon over alms beast is against a storm breath dragon and an empty board. Other than that give me the beast.
I decided against hand disruption just to deal with what they play. Also i was hedging on more aggro and mid range for night.
Would be cool to check you AND joe's list out if you guys could post them. Im having so much trouble deciding if desecration demon is worth playing, i dont get to play test at all so im going into fnm totally blind. my meta is usually heavy aggro though
So, how slow is this format? I ask because in the previous format, when I tested rakdos key rune I never wanted to tap out on turn 3 for it. It was always way to slow I needed to be doing something else instead. So I ended up taking it out.
I also never really liked rakdos return either, it always seemed to slow without a way to ramp into it. If key rune is more playable now I can see running it, but without some kind of ramp I still don't like it much.
My LGS is draft on FNMs, but many are constructed. The OP didn't state it was a $7/draft. If it was, I think it'd be worst than at cost for the store, so my guess is it is a constructed tourney.
Our drafts used to be $10. And we'd re-draft the rares/foils. This allowed for people to draft best deck, as opposed to most $ card. People complained.
Now our drafts are $15, keep what you draft, 8 person pods. 3-0=4 packs, 2-0-1= 3 packs, 2 wins = 2 packs, 1 win = 1 pack.
I miss the re-draft, even tho I didn't do well, I learned far more at that time than I do now.
Thanks for all the feedback guys, and the format is STANDARD if it was draft for 7$ i would not be questioning anything that would be a great deal..
As far as the TO thing what exactly would i have to do to become this, is it even an 'official' position. I was basically running everything because they had no idea what they were doing anyway, i was on the computer entering everything in.
I obviously knew the payout was out of whack but needed some people to back me up so i could have something to potentially show them. I just felt out of place as your 'average joe' trying to speak up and tell them me, and others felt as though the prices/payout were not adding up.
The store I played at most recently had $5.00 buy in, and top 4 payed out a total of 100 bucks in credit.
It varies a ton from store to store, so if you don't like their payout, tell them to change it or they won't get your business anymore.
Get some of your friends together to say the same thing for extra impact
This is what we are planning on doing, nothing aggressive or over the top just mention that the price/payout doesn't seem right, but we just want to know that we are in fact right.
We kinda just wanted assurance that we were right in thinking the payout didn't seem right.
Ok so my city finally got a LGS, the problem is they know absolutely NOTHING about magic. Tonight was our first 'fnm', it had 14 entrants. They charged 7$ entry fee and paid 1st 3 packs and 2nd 2 packs. This doesn't seem to add up to many of the players that have gone to other stores that were there tonight. I am 100% sure it wasn't because the LGS wanted to rip us, they just dont know what they are doing. Some players mentioned the 7$ entry seemed high and the payout might not have been where it should have been. Thoughts?
I guess my first question is, how bad was the pay out? The second question would be what kind of pay out would you suggest for about a 14 player fnm that costs 7$?
Edit:
Format was standard
14 players x $7 = $98
Payout 5 packs total = ? (retail $4 each)
I guess what I'm trying to say is that even though stalling+making land drops is good, it doesn't win you the game. Goyf + Liliana in their hand is too threatening and you can't let them go unanswered.
Also, I feel the deck isn't taking advantage from the tempo gain (in the case of Remandx2 and T4 Cryptic). Sure, we stopped them from playing a spell (this turn in case of Remand), but the deck isn't taking advantage of it (no creature to attack with).
The deck is just stalling into...more stalling...
Maybe I'm playing the deck wrong?
This happens to me pretty often playing the deck, i dont question the decks power i definatly win a lot of games with it. But sometimes i literally have no threats for entire games and lose. End up going defensive w/ the burn and just dragging the game out, by the time i find a creature its to late. Though that is why i like having 1 slayers stronghold, sometimes u can top deck something late and just win.
If i have a batterskull with the 0/0 germ and i attempt to equip it to another creature, but my opponent kills that creature in response to the equip. Does my germ die ? Or does the equip fail and it stays on the germ so it stays alive.
Also it does seem like nobody plays this deck but it puts up good results in every tournament. (seems to top 8 all the time even though it appears like nobody plays it) I don't get why people stay away from the deck, maybe its harder to play than average?
He has what appears to be a great matchup for him, hes playing vs boros in the quarters and is on the play.
go team dega! lol
edit:
Won the match vs boros aggro 2-1, he is now 8-1.
thanks for actually responding to the MBD matchup, i also have decided to add more pithing needles to my SB, had just 1, now upping to atleast 2, almost feel like i need 3 in my meta.
I also have the 2 wear//tears, and erebos was an idea had as well. i also i can usually hit them a few times then they bleed themselves with connections, they are usually low but i cant finish them. So stopping the lifegain seems good.
Heliod was a card i have been looking at for a while, seems decent vs control i would think it would be a must d-sphere target. The thing about the gods is they will pretty much 90% never be active. Heliod also seems like he could potentially be good against mbd though as they cant remove him and he can give you a steady stream of guys even if they have removal you can run them out of it. Not sure about heliod though.
1 Aurelia, the Warleader
2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
2 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
4 Boros Reckoner
2 Sin Collector
3 Desecration Demon
Spells
3 Dreadbore
2 Hero's Downfall
3 Anger of the Gods
3 Thoughtseize
2 Rakdos's Return
2 Chained to the Rocks
1 Whip of Erebos
Planeswalkers
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
25 land
4 Blood Crypt
4 Godless Shrine
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple Of Silence
4 Temple of Triumph
3 Mountain
2 Swamp
2 Wear//Tear
2 Warleader's Helix
2 Doom Blade
2 Lifebane Zombie
2 Slaughter Games
2 Mizzium Mortars
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Pithing Needle
1 Thoughtseize
edit: added current decklist/sideboard
havent got to play it much, so not sure if its a good/bad matchup for us. It kept me from first at FNM so im looking for some info on the matchup.
1 Aurelia, the Warleader
2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
2 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
4 Boros Reckoner
2 Sin Collector
3 Desecration Demon
Spells
3 Dreadbore
2 Hero's Downfall
2 Anger of the Gods
3 Thoughtseize
2 Rakdos's Return
2 Chained to the Rocks
2 Underworld Connections
1 Rakdos Keyrune
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
25 land
4 Blood Crypt
4 Godless Shrine
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple Of Silence
2 Temple of Triumph
2 Rakdos Guildgate
4 Mountain
1 Swamp
2 Wear//Tear
2 Warleader's Helix
2 Doom Blade
2 Lifebane Zombie
2 Slaughter Games
2 Mizzium Mortars
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Pithing Needle
1 Thoughtseize
Beat GW twice (same opponent) , Mono Blue devotion, Grixis control, random UB deck, Mono Red, and two different boros aggro decks.
I tried to hedge the main deck toward beating control because i feel like we have a good matchup against aggro in the first place. Easier to win 2 sideboard games vs aggro than it is to be down 1 and try to win 2 against control.
Did anyone actually get to watch morelli play? Or are we just making guesses based off the decklist?
I noticed his list was lacking Aurelia, which i totally agree with (seems slow and usually overkill when played)
I asked earlier if the format was slow enough for rakdos keyrune, well with the recent lists showing results it does appear so. Which in turn having keyrune to me, makes rakdos return better, which i was questioning including.
Another small note was both lists that showed up and did well, neither had temple of triumphs anywhere in them, thoughts on this? All the lists i see here posted seem to have them. I will say during my limited testing running 3 triumph and 3 silence i have never had an issue on turn 5 needed an untapped land. I figure that is the reason for more basics, but it doesnt seem neccesary from that angle so maybe i am missing something.
Would be cool to check you AND joe's list out if you guys could post them. Im having so much trouble deciding if desecration demon is worth playing, i dont get to play test at all so im going into fnm totally blind. my meta is usually heavy aggro though
I also never really liked rakdos return either, it always seemed to slow without a way to ramp into it. If key rune is more playable now I can see running it, but without some kind of ramp I still don't like it much.
Thanks for all the feedback guys, and the format is STANDARD if it was draft for 7$ i would not be questioning anything that would be a great deal..
As far as the TO thing what exactly would i have to do to become this, is it even an 'official' position. I was basically running everything because they had no idea what they were doing anyway, i was on the computer entering everything in.
I obviously knew the payout was out of whack but needed some people to back me up so i could have something to potentially show them. I just felt out of place as your 'average joe' trying to speak up and tell them me, and others felt as though the prices/payout were not adding up.
This is what we are planning on doing, nothing aggressive or over the top just mention that the price/payout doesn't seem right, but we just want to know that we are in fact right.
We kinda just wanted assurance that we were right in thinking the payout didn't seem right.
I guess my first question is, how bad was the pay out? The second question would be what kind of pay out would you suggest for about a 14 player fnm that costs 7$?
Edit:
Format was standard
14 players x $7 = $98
Payout 5 packs total = ? (retail $4 each)
This happens to me pretty often playing the deck, i dont question the decks power i definatly win a lot of games with it. But sometimes i literally have no threats for entire games and lose. End up going defensive w/ the burn and just dragging the game out, by the time i find a creature its to late. Though that is why i like having 1 slayers stronghold, sometimes u can top deck something late and just win.