MTG Salvation

New PTQ season. What are you thinking about playing now?

i'm going with Other. Delver seems to be the deck to beat but i don't like it much personally. i'd rather brew something with a good delver matchup.

i suppose i could play Ramp with Huntmaster and cheap removal, but i'm not entirely comfortable with that deck for various reasons. mostly because its just too easy to metagame against it. Flashfreeze is still a card.

It might be a while yet before I get to play at one, but I'll probably play delver.

If possible though, I might try and dig up a deck that's solid, gets hated out easily, yet is unexpected. I like the nice combination of fun odd deck, and surprise factor, if you do it right it can work out just as well as playing a top deck. 'Course I don't think I'll actually find anything that fits the bill, but it's worth a try.

Meta, I was watching a CFB video the other day talking about the worst deck choices LSV has ever made and what you said reminded me of it:

http://www.channelfireball.com/home/magic-tv-top-8-of-the-week-lsvs-worst-deck-choices/

I'm trying to find the exact spot, but he mentions something about "this was a phase where we tried to beat the best deck, instead of just playing the best deck". It stood out at me.

Something to think about anyway.

If there's one nearby that I can play at, probably Tempered Steel.

Quote from SyntheticDreamer

If there's one nearby that I can play at, probably Tempered Steel.

Why would you play TS?

agreed. i really feel like ts stopped being a deck when lingering souls and huntmaster joined the party.

Quote from CorpT

Meta, I was watching a CFB video the other day talking about the worst deck choices LSV has ever made and what you said reminded me of it:

http://www.channelfireball.com/home/magic-tv-top-8-of-the-week-lsvs-worst-deck-choices/

I'm trying to find the exact spot, but he mentions something about "this was a phase where we tried to beat the best deck, instead of just playing the best deck". It stood out at me.

Something to think about anyway.

yeah, i watched that video too. of course you're right that its almost always correct to play the best deck (if its obvious which deck actually is the best), but there are exceptions.

the mistake LSV made in that tournament (playing mono-red artifact destruction to try and hate out Tempered Steel in scars of mirrodin block) was that the deck he chose to play was actually not good on its own merits. its true that it had a good matchup against TS but it did not have a good matchup against anything else.

i wouldn't brew a pure hate deck against delver. i'd try to brew a deck that was good on its own merits and ALSO had a good matchup against delver. not worth making your delver matchup good by playing hate cards. worth making your delver matchup good by playing good cards that are particularly good against delver. such as Huntmaster of the Fells. this is why i said i might just play Ramp and forget the brewing, since it already basically does what i'm looking for. however, i'm interested in brewing a deck that has those elements of ramp that i like (good creatures) but not the elements i dislike (vulnerability to countermagic).

Totally agree. It just stood out it me because I realized it is something that I have been guilty of myself. It's a pretty fine balance between the two. I'm struggling with playing something without Ponder/Thought Scour. It sure seems to make consistency a lot less of an issue.

Anything with strangleroot geist. This guy is by far my pick for best creature in standard. 2 most played decks contain lingering souls and delver.

Mono green has a great match up against both. The card it is even soft to is phyrexian obliterator and it has ways to handle that. Ramp is a good match up too. Crushes RDW.

None of the creatures in mono green can be killed profitably and board wipes do not work. You might kill dungrove elder and some mana dorks but you leave behind strangleroot and vorapede with a clear path to beat you in the face.

I'm really liking Kibler's Naya Aggro/pod amalgamation. With 4x Thalia post board, it seems to be a great anti-delver deck right now (especially considering midrange aggro decks like Naya are usually easy wins for Delver).

That being said, the Wolf Run match-up needs work. Slagstorm wrecks the deck pretty badly. This might warrant cards like Angelic Destiny and Hero of Bladehold in the sideboard, but either way the match-up isn't completely unwinnable.

Naya Pod. It has a good matchup vs the other aggro decks and Delver and the SB can be tooled to be the Ramp and Frites matchup. Not to mention the deck can be easily tweaked to fit any metagame.

I'm delving for secrets, not sure what exact list yet though.

Haven't really decided yet, but its a toss up between RG Aggro and Humans. I play Delver occasionally but it makes for some very grindy 7+ rounds.

Probably something like Naya pod, without the Pod. Haven't decided if I prefer GWr or GRw better. There are so many good threats and answers in these colors. Still finding the right balance.

I'd play my RUG Huntmaster deck I've been working on for the last few weeks. It's basically the RG Huntmaster deck with blue thrown in for snapcasters. Fun Times.

imma show up to them drunk with goblins it will be pretty cool

Quote from Madding

I clicked Wolf Run, but I mean RG aggro-esque, not Ramp.

so no Prime Time? or do you mean a build RG aggro that runs a curve all the way up to 6?

im stuck between Naya Pod and Delver.

Delver rewards testing and skilled play, and is a LOT more consistent, however is weak to Elesh Norn and Curse, however they can be countered/removed

Naya Pod is more powerful and when going can't be stopped. it CAN beat any deck, however it loses to it own inconsistencies. Plus, the UW Deck that my teammates are playing crush it so thats not going to be very good. Im finding Sweepers hit that deck hard, and if anyone can find a good deck with Day AND Grafdigger's Cage and get both out gainst me, its hard to catch up.

Working hard to figure out which is better for my play style, but for me its Delver. I hate losing games that i had no control over. I'd rather lose a close game or a game i lost to my own accords than due to not having double white to cast a fiend hunter to win...

Humans is good but is getting very bad day-by-day. Atm i can't find a list that i like at the moment.

So actually its between Delver, Humans, and Pod but Delver and Pod are ahead

While playing the best deck is certainly a good strategy there's also something to be said about playing to your strengths. I feel like the meta is open enough right now that you can get away with playing something that may not be greatly positioned but that you're very familiar with unlike Caw Blade standard where you really were at a disadvanage if you didn't play the best deck. A deck like Delver takes a lot of time to learn how to play correctly and there's often a ton more tuning that has to be done for it to be optimized to the meta. I couldn't really fault someone for sticking with something that might be slightly worse positioned but that they're much more familiar with.

Anyways I think if you're unsure of what exactly to expect then U/W Humans is probably the best deck to take to a PTQ. While there's certainly some tuning that can be done a stock Humans list will still be very competitive against the general field.

I think any of Delver, Wolf Run Ramp, Humans, or R/G aggro are all fine choices right now though. Maybe Zombies as well. I don't consider Pod to be a very good deck and I'd be quite happy if my opponents were playing it.

If you want to play control U/B is where it's at, but I would be quite cautious about taking U/B to a tournament because in spite of how fast you might play you can still end up going to time and getting stuck in the draw bracket. Especially if you lose game 1.

I'd probably play R/G aggro if I had an event this weekend. It's got a great aggressive curve and a lot of reach as well. I would say out of the pure aggro decks it's probably the most well-positioned at the moment.

Still in the process of play testing, but I'm really liking my current Ghostrider build (Wbr tokens w/ Hellrider). If I can get everything ironed out I'm going to try to pilot it.

I will be tweaking my Death and Taxes deck and playing it. I've playtested it against all the major decks and feel like it has a decent matchup while being very consistent.