Hello! Been lurking too long at Magic Storyline that I didn't notice this. Tried to do BotS myself in the past up to Avacyn Restored, it's great to see this revived!
Have some opinions on some of the decks, but mostly due to personal preference. Keep up the good work!
Hello! Been lurking too long at Magic Storyline that I didn't notice this. Tried to do BotS myself in the past up to Avacyn Restored, it's great to see this revived!
Have some opinions on some of the decks, but mostly due to personal preference. Keep up the good work!
Thank you
I'm always interested in alternative decklists, especially for newer sets, so feel free to post them
On the coming matches, Coldsnap vs Zendikar is going to be a stomp. Most excited about Apocalypse vs Champions of Kamigawa!
I thought about a UG build for Urza's Legacy, and i think it's a good one. In the end, I thought that White offered more - especially Mother of Runes, but not only that. Legions was truly surprising, though. It's true that Slivers deck tends to do well against deck that aren't strong on removals, so that was sort of a favorable matchup for Legions.
Judgment featured the Brushhopper in previous iterations of BOTS I played. I always found it... good, but not that good. The deck is heavily focused on phantoms, and I like to have as many of those as I can. I can understand why someone would prefer the Brushhoper, though.
Planar Chaos... I don't think mana issues are a problem for the deck (usually). It's more a mattr of design - the monogreen version would probable be more solid all-around, but GR I feel it's more explosive. It might be worth to do some more playtesting with the two versions.
Regarding Worldwake, I tried the UB version, and found the UG definitely better. While the UB brings some good things to the table, I've found that it doesn't truly shine at anything. The UW is better if you want a more controling, anti-aggro build. The UG has the best finisher among the three, and in the end it's probably what the deck needs the most.
It's still early in the tournament and the level of the decks is still different - some of the matches are going to be very onesided indeed. Apocalypse and Champions are two of my favorites, so I'm looking forward to that one as well - too bad one of the two has to leave, though. The other match I've got my eyes on is Dragon's Maze vs Oath of the Gatewatch. I just get the feeling it's going to be brilliant, as they're both midrange, brutal decks.
I think some of the weaker set decks can be improved (and I would like to see that to make the matches more diverse and less predictable).
For example, you said Alara Reborn (the multicolor set) has no dual lands. That's not quite true. How do you think 3-color Limited decks worked? Borderposts. They're the mana-fixing of ARB, alongside the double-landcycling commons. Borderposts unfortunately make it a lot easier to play an ally Wedge (Naya or Jund) than an enemy wedge (Junk). Turn 1 Borderposts also make Turn 2 Blades much better, making all the Blades not only playable but strong 2-drops. Also, Cascade is one of the most broken mechanics in Magic. The borderposts do make cascade worse, but it might still be worth it to run Bloodbraid Elf.
Unfortunately Blightning isn't in the set, otherwise this would just be Standard Jund. Anathemancer punishes greedy manabases like the Antiquities deck. Thought Hemorrhage shuts down the more degenerate combo/lock decks. Terminate + Maelstrom Pulse gives you some of the best removal ever printed in the history of Magic. Bloodbraid Elf + Bit Blast should keep the cards coming.
Or maybe -4 Naya Hushblade, +4 Trace of Abundance to help ramp to the 4-drops.
Knight of New Alara and/or Behemoth Sledge make your 2-drops and Twinclaws into huge fatties. Colossal Might does a lot of work pushing through damage and helping trade up even when you don't have a pump effect. The deck has better attackers than Jund but worse answers.
Distortion Strike obviously combos with Kiln Fiend to deal at least 10 unblockable damage over 2 turns, but it also works well with Surrakar Spellblade to draw you a couple cards.
The deck can theoretically goldfish on turn 4 (T2 Kiln Fiend, T3 Distortion Strike with some additional spells) though it lacks the draw power to make that happen consistently. On the other hand, I don't think any other set has this much cheap burn and a Fog Bank, so there should be no need to race the aggro decks.
Play 9 lands. Upheaval, floating mana, cast Psychatog. Hope the control spells are enough to keep you alive until 9 lands. Otherwise, maybe ditch the Upheaval plan for Traumatize+Haunting Echoes instead.
Hello FTW1987, thank you for the lists. Some of these look really interesting, in particular the Rise of Eldrazi one. Going for an Eldrazi deck seemed the reasonable choice, considering the theme of the set, and the monogreen ramp is definitely not a bad one... but I think that your UR build is really interesting and definitely worth some playtesting.
I'm not sure about the Odissey alternative, on the other hand. The threshold deck was tried in previous iterations of BOTS (by Alfred, here on MTGS), and if I remember correctly, was totally destroyed. That's why it was proposed the Mirari + Time Stretch build. Not that good, but can at least work efficiently against some opponents - getting Mirrodin right away was sheer bad luck. Odissey is a deck we all would like to become a contender, but unfortunately it always seems to lack something. I don't think the builds you proposed are an improvement over the current one, but I'll give them a go.
Regarding Alara Reborn, I've tried the pure Jund build, but in the end I preferred the current one. Similarly, the Naya build lacks Maelstrom Pulse, that can be a real game winner. Still, I'll do some playtesting for the Naya one, see how it performs.
Opening up the quarterfinals with an interesting matchup: Invasion's Domain against Innistrad's graveyard-themed deck. Both decks are built to deal with aggressive decks, meaning that none of them can easily shut down the opponent. Innistrad is potentially the most powerful deck among the two, but it doesn't pack anything to remove the best defensive card from Invasion: Collective Restraint.
Game One
Innistrad gets first turn, and starts with a turn two Avacyn's Pilgrim followed by a turn three Deranged Assistant. On its third turn, Invasion plays an Harrow and passes. On the following turn, Innistrad taps for five and plays a Kessig Cagebreakers! Even though there are currently no creature in its graveyard, this card will become dangerous very quickly, unless Invasion manages to find an answer.
On its turn, Invasion completes its Domain and plays an Ordered Migration to put 5 bird tokens in play – that should hold Innistrad at bay, at least for now. Innistrad plays an Armored Skaab, getting one creature in the graveyard, then it's forced to pass. Invasion simply draws and passes. Innistrad plays a Splinterfright, then flashbacks a Dream Twist from its graveyard. There are now 4 creatures in Innistrad's graveyard – the deck is approaching a critical mass. But for now, Innistrad just passes. End of turn, Invasion shows a Fact or Fiction, revealing a Global Ruin, Collective Restraint, Tribal Flames and two lands. This is definitely not good news for Innistrad. The two piles are: Global Ruin, Tribal Flames and a land, Collective Restraint and the other land. Invasion needs the Collective Restraints right now, and chooses it.
On its turn, Invasion plays the Collective Restraint, attacks with one bird token, then passes. At the moment, Innistrad can only attack with one creature. For the current turn, though, it decides to just play a Spider Spawning to block the bird tokens, and passes. Invasion draws and passes. Innistrad gets another creature in the graveyard thanks to the Splinterfright, for a total of five, then taps the Deranged Assistant to try and get to six... but not yet. The elemental could only trade with the tokens, right now. So, the Splinterfright is kept on the defensive while the mana is used to allow the Cagebreakers to attack. Five wolf tokens are spawned, attacking, but Invasion shows a Tangle. End of turn, Invasion also plays a second Fact or Fiction, revealing a Probe, Ghitu Fire, Harrow, and two lands. The two piles are: Ghitu Fire, Harrow on one; Probe and the two Lands on the second. Invasion chooses Ghitu Fire and the Harrow.
Invasion draws, plays the Harrow, then a Probe, and finally passes. The Cagebreakers is still tapped, and only five creatures in the graveyard for now. Innistrad plays another Deranged Assistant, then flashbacks a Dream Twist, finally getting two more creatures in the graveyard, for a total of 7. Innistrad then passes, and Invasion shows another end of turn Fact or Fiction. And this is a good one: Rout, Tangle, Elfhame Sanctuary, Collective Restraint and a land. The second Collective Restraint is particularly bad news for Innistrad, that puts it in a pile alone, with the other four cards in the remaining pile. Invasion picks up the single Collective Restraints, then plays it on the following turn. The fortress is now complete, and for the moment, impossible to attack for Innistrad.
The game slows down as the two decks face each other. Invasion snipes down Innistrad's mana creatures with Tribal Flames and Ghitu Fire, until it can play a Global Ruin and practically seal the game. In just a few more turns, Innistrad runs out of cards to draw, and it's game over.
Game Two
Luck doesn't smile on Invasion, that has to mulligan twice. Innistrad, on the other hand, starts well with a turn one Avacyn's Pilgrim followed by a turn two Deranged Assistant. Still nothing from Invasion, then Innistrad plays a Dream Twist (two creatures in the graveyard) followed by a Splinterfright (one more creature thanks to the tapping Assistant). Invasion can finally play something: a Harrow. Innistrad can still smile, as the momentum of the game is swinging in its favor. One more creature goes in the graveyard thanks to Splinterfright's passive ability, then Innistrad turns the growing elemental to attack, before adding a Boneyard Wurm to its side of the board and passing.
Invasion decides to play a Probe and hopes to draw some kind of answer, but again, luck is not on its side. As Innistrad attacks for 12, bringing its opponent down to 1 life points, it's clear that not much can save Invasion... especially not the Harrow that it's about to draw in its turn. Innistrad wins game two.
Game Three
It's Innistrad's turn to mulligan this time, while Invasion starts well with a turn two Elfhame Sanctuary. Innistrad answers with a Mulch, getting one Forest in hand and two creatures, plus a Dream Twist, in the graveyard. Invasion fetches a Mountain with the Sanctuary, then plays a Harrow, and looks now quite close to completing the Domain. On its side, though, Innistrad is ready to get serious: a Splintefright is played, and it promises to grow quickly.
Invasion completes the Domain, then plays a Probe, quickly followed by a Tribal Flames to remove the dangerous Splinterfright. Innistrad's offensive is now much slowed down, so it just plays an Armored Skaab and passes. Invasion just draws and passes. Innistrad gets another Skaab in play, followed by a Deranged Assistant – there are now 7 creatures in Innistrad's graveyard! Time to do something with them. Invasion again passes without playing anything.
Innistrad is ready to shake up the match: after attacking with the two Skaabs, flashbacks a Dream Twist, then plays a Spider Spawning to put 8 spider tokens in play. But Invasion doesn't look worried, as it plays a Rout at instant speed to clear the board! On its turn, Invasion draws and passes. Innistrad, instead, is ready for more action: an Unburial Rites is flashbacked to put the Splinterfright again in play... except it's a 10/10 this time!
This time, Invasion finally plays something, too: an Ordered Migration. Then, it's once again Innistrad's turn. The Splintefright is turned to attack again, but it just meets a Tangle. Then, Innistrad adds a Deranged Assistant to the board and passes. Invasion draws, turns its birds to attack and passes. The two decks are now at 15 life points each. The Splinterfrighe is still tapped, so Innistrad “just” flashbacks a Spider Spawning to put 13 (!) spider tokens in play.
Invasion draws, attacks with its bird tokens, and passes. Innistrad starts its turn by declaring the Splinterfright and the tokens as attackers... and Invasion shows a Rout to clear the board again. Then Innistrad flashbacks a second Spider Spawning to put another 14 tokens in play, and it's again Invasion's turn. Invasion for the moment can only play an Ordered Migration and pass. Innistrad attacks with its tokens to bring its opponent down to one life points, then flashbacks a Gnaw to the Bone to gain 28 life points and get out of reach for Invasion's damage output.
And then... Invasion draws an Harrow! That's it. Game three goes to Innistrad.
Game Four
Invasion starts, but the first play is from Innistrad with a turn one Avacyn's Pilgrim. Invasion then gets an Elfhame Sactuary in play, while Innistrad answers with a Mulch (two creatures in the graveyard) and turns the Pilgrim to attack. Invasion fetches a land, plays it, then passes. Innistrad gets an Armored Skaab in play, then attacks with the Pilgrim, and passes. Invasion fetches another land and passes again. Innistrad plays a Mulch, reaching a total of five creatures in the graveyard, then attacks with the Skaab and plays a Deranged Assistant before finally passing. Invasion, again, fetches a land and passes.
Innistrad attacks again, then flashbacks an Unburial Rites to get a Kessig Cagebreakers in play, then finally passes. Things are starting to get troubling, but Invasion calmly smiles as it shows a Rout on its turn, and passes again. Innistrad suddenly finds itself with not much to do, so it plays a Gnaw to the Bone to gain 16 life points, and passes. This pause of respite is much welcomed for Invasion, that decides on its strategy – in the end, it just passe again!
Innistrad draws and plays a Boneyward Wurm, getting threatening again. Invasion answers with an end of turn Fact or Fiction. The two piles are: on one side, Elfhame Sactuary and Ordered Migration, on the other a Harrow, a land and a Tribal Flames. Invasion chooses the first pile, then draws and plays the Ordered Migration, before passing. Innistrad draws, attacks with the Wurm (chump-blocked by a token), then passes.
Invasion draws, then shows a Global Ruin as it finally moves to get the upper hand in the game. Then, it attacks with three bird tokens, and passes. Innistrad draws, plays a land and then a Gnaw to the Bone, flying to 49 life points – clearly, the road is long for Invasion to kill its opponent. The Wurm is again chump-blocked by a bird token, and Innistrad passes. Invasion plays a second Elfhame Palace, attacks with two tokens, then passes. Innistrad gets another land and a Deranged Assistant in play, then attacks (a bird chump-blocks again) and passes. Invasion draws, attacks with one token, then passes again. Innistrad draws, plays a Dream Twist, attacks with the Wurm (chump-blocked again), then passes.
Invasion fetches two lands with the Sanctuaries, then plays another Global Ruin, and passes. With only one bird token in play, Innistrad shows a Silent Departure to remove it and open the way to its creatures to deal 10 damage to Invasion, that falls down to 5 life points. Then, Innistrad passes.
Invasion draws, plays an Harrow, then a Rout. Finally, the board is clean again. No creatures for its opponent, and only two lands. Invasion can looks satisfied at the devastation it has caused. Then, it passes.
The game slows down again, then finally Invasion gets two Collective Restraint in play. With its deck slowly disappearing, Innistrad is forced to face another defeat. The two decks move on to the fifth and decisive game.
Game Five
Innistrad starts and gets the first play with a turn two Mulch, getting two creatures in the graveyard. Nothing from Invasion, then Innistrad plays an Armored Skaab and passes. Still nothing from Invasion, so Innistrad plays a Dream Twist, getting two more creatures in the graveyard, then attacks with the Skaab and passes.
And finally it's Invasion's moment to shine: a Collective Restraint. Innistrad's nemesis is once again in play. But until it's only one... all hope is not lost. Only four lands in play for Innistrad, that is unable to attack. So, it plays an Avacyn's Pilgrim, followed by a Deranged Assistant, then passes.
Invasion plays an Elfhame Sanctuary and passes. Innistrad plays a Kessig Cagebreakers, getting ready to launch a solid attack on the following turn.
But that's not meant to happen, unfortunately... as Invasion shows a second Collective Restraint! Again, Innistrad is locked by its opponent. And as Invasion gets a third Collective Restraint in play a few turns later, followed by a Global Ruin... it's over! Invasion shows again the power of its Domain deck and eliminates another dangerous opponent. Invasion moves to the semifinals of Group A!
Invasion 3 - Innistrad 2
Coldsnap vs Zendikar
Wwll, what to say? Little poor Coldsnap stands in the way of powerhouse Zendikar. A one-sided slaughter incoming? Probably, but never say never. BOTS is always full of surprises.
Game 1
Coldsnap starts, but the first play is a Goblin Guide from Zendikar, that's immediately turned sideways (Coldsnap reveals a Surging Æther on top of its deck). Coldsnap draws and passes, so Zendikar can attack again with the Guide (Coldsnap draws a Mouth of Ronom from the top), before playing a Plated Geopede – Coldsnap shows a Rune Snag to at least slow down Zendikar's onslaught. Comes Coldnsap's turn, and the control deck just draws and passes.
Zendikar plays an Adventuring Gear, but again... Coldsnap shows a second Rune Snag. The Guide then attacks for two more (revealing a third Rune Snag on top of Coldsnap's deck!), and finally Zendikar passes. Coldsnap is stuck at three mana... with only one blue mana source. For the moment, then, is forced to pass. End of turn, Zendikar shows a Punishing Fire, perhaps trying to force the Rune Snag, but Coldsnap decides to take the damage.
Zendikar plays a second Goblin Guide, this time forcing its opponent to spend the Rune Snag, then attacks again with the Guide in play... revealing another Surging Æther. Coldsnap needs to draw a land, and could activate a Scrying Sheets to search it, but so far it was forced to keep countering its opponent's threats, rather than activating the snow land. And in the meanwhile, Coldsnap is down at 10 life points, and forced to pass once more.
Zendikar attacks again with the Guide, revealing... a Snow-Covered Island. Finally Coldsnap gets to draw a land, and one more from the activation of Scrying Sheets. Meanwhile, Zendikar passes without playing anything else. Coldsnap draws and passes, and Zendikar dishes in two more damage with an end of turn Punishing Fire.
Zendikar draws and attacks with the Guide, and Coldsnap shows a Surging Æther to bounce it back on Zendikar's hand. The aggro deck doesn't look worried as it plays it again, along with a Steppe Lynx. Coldsnap just draws and passes.
Zendikar draws, plays a Plains, and attacks with both creatures – a second Surging Æther flies to bounce back the Lynx, and Coldsnap falls to 4. The Lynx is immediately played again. Coldsnap finally gets its sixth land on the board, and plays a Phyrexian Ironfoot and a Vexing Sphinx. The defensive line is finally set... will it last? Unfortunately not. Zendikar draws and plays a fifth land, followed by a kicked Burst Lightning to end the game. Zendikar also shows a Journey to Nowhere plus Kor Hookmaster from its hand, subtly stating: “I can kill you anyway I want”. Still, Coldsnap has shown that countering the early threats from Zendikar can go a long way towards granting survivability. The control deck can at least fight with honor.
Game 2
Coldsnap starts with a Martyr of Frost, and Zendikar answers again with a Goblin Guide, immediately turning to attack (and revealing a Rimewind Taskmage on top of Coldsnap's deck). Coldsnap draws and passes. Zendikar draws, attacks with the Guide (revealing a Surging Æther), then passes. Coldsnap draws, plays a Vexing Sphinx, and passes. Luck is not smiling on Zendikar this time around, and the aggro deck is forced to shot two Burst Lightning at the sphinx to remove it and clear the way for the Guide (Coldsnap also gets a land this time around). Then the aggro deck passes).
Things are not going bad so far for Coldsnap, that plays a Rimewind Taskmage and passes. Zendikar draws, then plays a second Goblin Guide. Coldsnap thinks for a few seconds, then sacrifices the Martyr, revealing a hand of Rune Snag, Rimewind Taskmage and two Surging Æther. Zendikar can't pay four, and the Guide is countered. But the aggro deck is not done yet: a Kor Hookmaster also joins the battle, tapping out the Taskmage. Then the Guide attacks for two more damage – Coldsnap is at 12.Coldsnap plays another Taskmage, then a Martyr of Frost, and finally passes.
Zendikar attacks again with both creatures, and Coldsnap chumps-block the Guide with the Martyr, taking two damage and falling to ten. The Guide reveals a Commandeer on top of Coldsnap's deck. Zendikar then passes without playing anything. Coldsnap just draws and passes.
Zendikar gets ready to attack, but the two Taskmage taps to block the offensive. Zendikar then plays a Kor Skyfisher and passes. Coldsnap is stuck at five lands again, and passes.
Zendikar first plays an Adventuring Gear. This is bad news for Coldsnap, that thinks for a second about Commandeering it, then decides not to. The equipment is attached to the Skyfisher, then Zendikar plays an Arid Mesa (without activating it), and attacks with all its creatures. Two of them (including the Skyfisher) are tapped by the Taskmage, and Coldsnap is forced to take in two damage. Coldsnap manages to draw a land from the Guide, though. On its turn, the control deck plays its sixth land and passes.
Zendikar draws and again attacks with all its creatures. This time around Coldsnap can tap two of the opponent's creatures, and then play a Surging Æther to bounce back the third one (the Guide), completely shutting down Zendikar – at least for this turn. The bounced Goblin Guide is immediately replayed, then Zendikar passes.
Coldsnap gets its seventh land in play, and it's finally ready for a big move: a Rimefeather Owl! Will Coldsnap be able to snatch a game from the powerhouse Zendikar? We will see.
For the moment, Zendikar plays an Arid Mesa, then attacks with all its creatures. Now, Coldsnap has a trouble. The Skyfisher is a 4/5, and there are two unactivated Arid Mesa in play – that means that it can easily gro up to 8/9, while the Owl is “only” an 8/8! Coldsnap has underestimated Zendikar's incredible capability of hitting you from unforeseenable directions. Furthermore, it has no mana open to tap the Taskmages. Crying tears of blood, Coldsnap announces that the Owl will block the Skyfisher. Regarding the other two creatures, Coldsnap decides to assign two Taskmages to block the Hookmaster, trading one for one and taking two damage from the Guide. Still, a terrible turn for the control deck. To make things worse, Zendikar plays another Skyfisher, bouncing back a land.
Coldsnap is still in PTSD, and plays a Martyr of Frost before passing. Zendikar draws, plays a land, and attacks with all its creatures. The equipped Skyfisher is tapped by the Taskmage, the Martyr chump-blocks the Guide, and a Mouth of Ronom is sacrificed to kill the remaining Skyfisher. Zendikar shrugs and throws in a Punishing Fire for two more damage, before passing.
Coldsnap draws, plays a Vexing Sphinx, then passes. Zendikar draws, considers the situation, and decides to pass. Could it be, that Coldsnap has finally stabilized the game? On its turn, Coldsnap draws and passes. Zendikar daws, plays a land, then another Skyfisher – but Coldsnap shows a Controvert. The Skyfisher is tapped by the Taskmage before it can attack, and Zendikar is forced to pass.
Coldsnap doesn't pay the upkeep for the Sphinx, then draws and plays a Phyrexian Ironfoot before passing. Zendikar draws and plays an Adventuring Gear, and Coldsnap shows a Rune Snag. Zendikar pays the additional mana... then Zendikar shows a second Rune Snag! This time, Zendikar can't pay, and the equipment goes straight to the graveyard. Zendikar passes again. Coldsnap draws and passes.
The game slows down at this point, with both decks waiting to draw something good. A second Taskmage enters the battlefield, then Zendikar draws and plays a Plated Geopede – but Coldsnap is ready again with a Controvert! But, as usually happens, Zendikar laughs last – with almost all Coldsnap's mana tapped out, and only two cards in hand, Coldsnap can't play its Commandeer. Zendikar then shows a Journey to Nowhere, removing the Taskmage.
“How many turns have you been keeping it aside?”, asks Coldsnap.
“Since the Guide showed that Commandeer on top of your deck”, answers Zendikar with a smile.
Coldsnap draws and passes, while Zendikar can finally get a Steppe Lynx in play. End of turn, Coldsnap activates two Scrying Sheets, drawing a land (a Mouth of Ronom!) and revealing a Controvert. Comes Zendikar's turn, and it plays a Teetering Peaks, boosting the Goblin Guide, then declares an attack with all its creatures. The Skyfisher is tapped by the Taskmage, the Mouth of Ronom flies to kill the Lynx, and the Guide trades for the Ironfoot.
And then it happens: Coldsnap draws and plays a second Rimefeather Owl! Can Zendikar answer, this time around? It seems not, as it only gets a Plated Geopede in play, before passing (the Taskmage is still tapping out the Skyfisher).
And from then it's quickly over – just two turns of the Owl attacking, with Zendikar kept at bay with a Phyrexian Ironfoot and a Surging Æther. The aggro deck only draws a Plains, and quite incredibly, Coldsnap snatches a game from the juggernaut Zendikar! Might be, there are more surprises to come? Let's find out!
Game Three
Zendikar starts fast with the usual Goblin Guide(revealing a Scrying Sheets), while Coldsnap answers with a Martyr of Frost. On the following turn, it's two more damage from the Guide, while Zendikar adds a Plated Geopede to the board. Coldsnap plays another Martyr of Frost and passes.
Zendikar plays an Adventuring Gear, equips it to the Guide, then plays a Scalding Tarn (without activating it), and attacks with both creatures. Coldsnap, wisely, decides to chump-block both.
On its following turn, the control deck plays a Vexing Sphinx and passes. This time, though, Zendikar's onslaught is ready to hit in full force. The Scalding Tarn is activated to fetch a third basic land, then a Kor Hookmaster joins the battle to tap the Sphinx and allow the other two creatures to hit for seven damage. Coldsnap is at nine life points and suddenly in a bad, bad position.
Coldsnap draws, plays two Rimewind Taskmage, and passes. Luckily for the snow deck, Zendikar is short on lands to activate, but it can still show a Journey to Nowhere and a Burst Lightning to remove the two Taskmage, before attacking for five more.
The situation is not good for Coldsnap. It has managed to keep the Sphinx alive, but now it only has a Surging Æther in hand, and four life points. It can only pass, at the moment, and hope to survive one more turn. Luckily for Coldsnap, Zendikar is still not drawing lands, so it plays a second Plated Geopede and Adventuring Gear, then passes. End of turn, one of the Geopedes is bounced by Surging Æther.
The Vexing Sphinx must be sacrificed now, and Coldsnap draws... three lands and a Rimefeather Owl! And with that, the snow deck is completely defenseless against Zendikar. The aggro deck easily wins game three!
Game Four
Coldsnap is forced to mulligan and starts with a Martyr of Frost, while Zendikar answers with an Adventuring Gear. Turn two, Coldsnap draws and passes. Zendikar tries to get a Plated Geopede in play, but the creature is countered by a Rune Snag. Coldsnap draws, gets a third land in play, plays a second Martyr, then attacks with the first one and passes. Zendikar draws and passes.
Coldsnap draws, then turns the two Martyrs to attack – Zendikar shows a Punishing Fire to kill one of the two. The spell resolves, and Zendikar takes one damage. Zendikar smiles as it draws a Goblin Guide, immediately playing it. Zendikar has two lands open, Coldsnap three cards in hand... are all three blue? Apparently not, as the Martyr is not sacrificed, the Gear enters the battlefield and Zendikar can equip it to the Goblin, before playing and activating an Arid Mesa and attacking for six (another Martyr is revealed on top of Coldsnap's deck).
Coldsnap draws the Martyr, fails to play a land, then gets a Phyrexian Ironfoot in play and passes. Zendikar draws, then plays a Journey to Nowhere to remove the Ironfoot... and that's when Coldsnap plays a Commandeer to take control of the Journey! Zendikar is paralyzed for a second, as the Journey removes the Guide from the battlefield. But that's only for a second. On the bright side, Coldsnap's hand is now entirely empty, and its opponent is stuck with three lands in play. Zendikar plays a Kor Skyfisher, bouncing a land back, then passes. Coldsnap draws, attacks with the Ironfoot, then passes.
Zendikar plays a second Adventuring Gear, equips them both to the Skyfisher, then plays a Mountain and attacks for six more. Coldsnap is ow at 8. End of turn, Coldsnap untaps the Ironfoot, then on its turn plays another Island and attacks with both its creatures. Zendikar is at 8 life points as well.
Zendikar shows a Scalding Tarn to Coldsnap. The question is: “do you have a Surging Æther?”. The answer is no. The Skyfisher grows up to 10/11 and launches itself towards Coldsnap. Game over! The control deck fought with honor, but that's it. Zendikar is still the unstoppable force, and is set to meet Invasion in an interesting matchup in the semifinals. Stay tuned!
I'm not sure about the Odissey alternative, on the other hand. The threshold deck was tried in previous iterations of BOTS (by Alfred, here on MTGS), and if I remember correctly, was totally destroyed. That's why it was proposed the Mirari + Time Stretch build.
Odissey is a deck we all would like to become a contender, but unfortunately it always seems to lack something.
Ah, OK. I was just wondering why you went for the slow Mirari combo instead of the more obvious Threshold or Psychatog builds. If you already tried them and they underperformed, that makes sense. Not having the discard payoff like Circular Logic, Basking Rootwalla, Wonder and Deep Analysis probably hurts. It seems like there should be a good build somewhere, but I can't find it.
Regarding Alara Reborn, I've tried the pure Jund build, but in the end I preferred the current one. Similarly, the Naya build lacks Maelstrom Pulse, that can be a real game winner. Still, I'll do some playtesting for the Naya one, see how it performs.
Have you at least tried using Borderposts to help with the manafixing? As long as you have a basic land in your opener, they function as turn 1 tapped duals. Even in your GWB deck, you can run 4 Wildfield Borderpost. That has to be better than solely relying on basics and Trace of Abundance. You must be losing games to mana issues. One advantage of the Jund (or Naya) builds is that they'll have much smoother mana, so even if the power level of the spells is a bit lower, you'll lose fewer games to variance.
Regarding Alara Reborn, I've tried the pure Jund build, but in the end I preferred the current one. Similarly, the Naya build lacks Maelstrom Pulse, that can be a real game winner. Still, I'll do some playtesting for the Naya one, see how it performs.
Have you at least tried using Borderposts to help with the manafixing? As long as you have a basic land in your opener, they function as turn 1 tapped duals. Even in your GWB deck, you can run 4 Wildfield Borderpost. That has to be better than solely relying on basics and Trace of Abundance. You must be losing games to mana issues.
Yes, that's reasonable. The deck is more of a GWb, as black is more or less a splash, but I will try out the borderposts and see how they work out
OK, even though this is inconsistent, the possibility for turn 1 wins (and the possibility for drawing 2 new hands into a turn 1 win) would probably break the format.
Just for Limited/Unlimited, you could impose the Vintage restricted list. Then you could get a strong control deck with broken mana acceleration, but it would be kept in balance by the win conditions sucking.
You'd have to win by decking...
Use Howling Mine + Island Sanctuary to hold off nonflying attackers without missing a draw step. Use your remaining spells to answer any other way the opponent might try to win. Hope to deck him, since you are drawing fewer cards thanks to Howling Mine. Braingeyser on opponent can help. Hope he doesn't have Eldrazi.
Or by vulnerable creatures like Serra Angel, Mahamoti Djinn, Hypnotic Specter...
Accelerate into an early Mind Twist knocking out the opponent's entire hand. Use control spells to control the game from there. Use Braingeyser to refill your hand. Once opponent's hand and board are empty and you have Countermagic back-up, try to slap him to death with Serra Angel.
By default, BOTS does not consider restricted/banned lists. There are more than a few issues with Alpha and Beta in an environment like BOTS, but simply put: I don't think they would make the event more fun to fo follow.
A similar reasoning also applies for core sets, from IV to X - simply uninteresting. I started considering them from M10 on, since they started including unique cards, or just being more interesting.
A similar reasoning also applies for core sets, from IV to X - simply uninteresting. I started considering them from M10 on, since they started including unique cards, or just being more interesting.
The older core sets include unique combinations of cards though, a mix of reprints from different sets. Just because the old creatures sucked doesn't mean there are no fun decks. The powerful decks are mostly spell-based, not aggro.
Revised edition could field quite fair but competitive control decks with the loss of P9.
Balance + cheap artifacts = Wrath of God + Mind Twist
The idea is to accelerate into a big Mind Twist or dump your hand and use Balance to empty their hand. Then win with The Rack while Disrupting Scepter keeps their hand empty. Hand refilling care of Braingeyser and Jayemdae Tome.
Set up the Island Sanctuary + Howling Mine soft lock, but you also have Ivory Tower lifegain and Millstone to help kill them faster, so the deck should be more interactive than the powered Limited/Unlimited version.
4th edition lets you play Stasis... OK maybe that would be unfun
Stasis + Kismet lock. Mana Short and Power Sink support. Strip Mine now included!
5th edition lets you play with cards like Necropotence, Drain Life and Hecatomb. Seems like fun monoblack potential.
Something like this. Basically you use Necropotence to draw cards and Drain Life to refill your life. If you can get 4 creatures on the board (e.g. Sengir Autocrat), then you can just win with Hecatomb.
6th edition gives you access to the Mirage Tutors, Doomsday, Infernal Contract, Summer Bloom and Early Harvest, though there doesn't seem to be a way to actually win with those enablers. (I guess you could draw and cheat out a ton of basic Swamps, drop Sengir Autocrat into Hecatomb, then ping opponent to death fueled by early Harvest). But there's not even Dark Ritual or a decent draw engine like Necropotence or Necrologia.
In 7th edition monoblack control actually starts to look strong (Duress, Ostracize, Necrologia, Corrupt) but there's no Hecatomb, no Dark Ritual, and the anti-aggro defense sucks other than Ensnaring Bridge (which is hard to work with). I guess you could splash white for Wrath of God, but the manafixing is weak.
8th edition adds some interesting stuff like Tron, Worship, Intruder Alarm, Fecundity, Grave Pact, Phyrexian Arena, Ambition's Cost, Plow Under, Underworld Dreams. Plus they reprinted useful control cards like Mana Leak, Wrath of God, Inspiration, Pacifism, Ensnaring Bridge, Vicious Hunger, Dark Banishing. A monogreen Plow Under Elves deck with Might of Oaks finisher is possible.
I don't see why these decks would be inherently less interesting than some of the other sets. Because they kept reprinting countermagic, removal, and Wrath of God for so long, adding core sets probably opens up a lot of control decks to help combat the dominant aggro decks and degenerate combo decks.
I could see some of these control decks potentially slaughtering some of the decks that keep dominating BOTS, while being weak to other decks in the format. That might change up the power structure a bit. The biggest thing it would do is add more decks with 4 Wrath of God and/or counterspells, which would help keep some explosive decks in check.
And each core set would still add a different deck. Even though the garbage commons kept getting reprinted, the power rares are mostly different in each core set, so they all have a unique flavor (in terms of Battle of the Sets -- opening packs still sucked).
What I meant with uninteresting is that old core sets were all reprints, while from M10 onwards you can find new cards. The Titans, for example. Destructive Force, that is the staple card for M11. Even new legendary creatures. And much more.
I thought it would be a pity to not see these cards in BOTS. The power level of these core sets seemed right, and I added them in. Besides that, I stayed faithful to the old BOTS - no core sets.
But hey, it's not written in stone. Once I'm done, if you want, you can make your own BOTS and add in the old core sets. I'll be sure to jump in and follow the event
What I meant with uninteresting is that old core sets were all reprints, while from M10 onwards you can find new cards. The Titans, for example. Destructive Force, that is the staple card for M11. Even new legendary creatures. And much more.
I thought it would be a pity to not see these cards in BOTS.
Well, up to Revised Edition they are not really reprints. Those are the original cards in the game. Without including any core sets up to M10, you can never play with old staples like Wrath of God, Armageddon, Crusade, Lord of Atlantis, Island Sanctuary, Black Vise, Winter Orb and much more. They don't exist in any expansions.
IMO, it's a pity to see BOTS dominated by aggro and 0 decks able to play the classic Wrath of God, even if some of the newer versions are being played.
The older core sets have unique flavor too. There is no other expansion where you can see some of those card interactions. The formats are just more spell-based than creature-based.
Anyway, it's too late to change the decks now. I look forward to hearing the latest matches.
Innistrad plays an Armored Skaab, getting one creature in the graveyard, then it's forced to pass. Innistrad simply draws and passes. Innistrad plays...
Goblin Guide gave Zendikar great information against Coldsnap, especially the Commandeer reveal. Nice games!
On the topic of other sets, what about Commander? I have no idea how it plays in 1v1
Ironically, Coldsnap put up a much better fight than the powerful Onslaught against Zendikar. Life is strange.
Commander, huh? That might be worth checking out, altough there might be cards that are fine if played 1x in a 100 cards deck, and not 4x in a 60 cards deck. Especially when relating to BOTS power level. Thinking for example 4x Sol Ring plus 4x Fact or Fiction plus God only knows what else.
Unless you only allow cards that were specifically printed for Commander, but then it would probably suck.
The Land Leeches attack and are blocked by Planeshift's two creatures, trading for the Battlemage
Aside from Land Leeches attacking into 2 bears and trading being a terrible play, it seems both players forgot Witch Hunter has a 2nd ability.
After the double block, The Dark should bounce the Familiar to have Leeches slaughter Battlemage and survive! And Planechase shouldn't even double block, fearing that play.
Luckily The Dark topdecked Preacher to win, but he easily could have lost otherwise. I hope against Mirrodin Beseiged that The Dark remembered how to use Witch Hunter properly! It's not just a 4-mana Goblin Fireslinger.
The Land Leeches attack and are blocked by Planeshift's two creatures, trading for the Battlemage
Aside from Land Leeches attacking into 2 bears and trading being a terrible play, it seems both players forgot Witch Hunter has a 2nd ability.
After the double block, The Dark should bounce the Familiar to have Leeches slaughter Battlemage and survive! And Planechase shouldn't even double block, fearing that play.
Luckily The Dark topdecked Preacher to win, but he easily could have lost otherwise. I hope against Mirrodin Beseiged that The Dark remembered how to use Witch Hunter properly! It's not just a 4-mana Goblin Fireslinger.
Mhh yep, good call. I think the Witch Hunter was being used by The Dark to ping at that moment, since he probably thought to stall the game long enough to win that way. That's why he didn't think about the second ability, I guess. We made a few mistakes early on with cards we're not really familiar with, especially because we played with Magic Workstation and missed a few things. We were more careful later on. Thanks for pointing that out, luckily The Dark won in the end, so it's all fine
I don't like Urza's Saga that much, since it plays on a different level than most decks in BOTS, and doesn't make for interesting matches. Still, when it can finalize the combo, there's not much the opponent can do, and that means that Saga is a strong contender in the tournament. Mirrodin Besieged doesn't have a single card that can be used to disrupt its opponent's game, and it's not a particularly fast deck, so only a large amount of good luck can save it.
Game 1
Urza's Saga starts, but has to take a mulligan. Only lands in the first couple of turns for the combo deck, while Mirrodin Besieged gets an Inkmoth Nexus in play in the first turn, then a second one during the second turn (!), and attacks to give Urza's Saga its first poison counter. Urza's Saga draws and plays a Windfall, discarding four and drawing seven, then passes. Mirrodin Besieged attacks for one more poison counter, then passes. Urza's Saga gets one more land in play, a tapped Remote Isle, then plays two Voltaic Key and pass. Things don't seem to be going exceptionally well for the combo deck so far.
One more land in play for Mirrodin Besieged, that can now attack with two animated Nexus. Urza's Saga is now on a clock: three more turns until Mirrodin Besieged can deliver the killing blow. Still, the combo deck just can't get its engine going. One more tapped land in play, and one more cycled to draw something useful – but luck it's not shining on Urza's Saga. One more Windfall the following turn, and Urza's Saga can finally get a Worn Powerstone in play. The Powerstone is untapped with a Voltaic Key and then used to play a Turnabout. All lands are untapped, plus again the Powerstone with the second Voltaic Key – all to fuel up a Temporal Aperture. A final gamble to save a very unlucky game... what will be shown on top of the deck? A second Worn Powerstone. Nothing left to do. Game one goes to Mirrodin Besieged.
Game 2
Urza's Saga opens up with a Blasted Landscape and passes. Once again an Inkmoth Nexus from Mirrodin Besieged, then the ball goes back to Urza's Saga. The combo deck plays a second Blasted Landscape, then a Voltaic Key, and passes. A second Inkmoth Nexus again for Mirrodin Besieged, and the first poison counter on Urza's Saga. Still, this time things are going to be different, as Urza's Saga finally shows a Tolarian Academy! First the other two lands are tapped to play a Temporal Aperture, then the Academy taps for a second Temporal Aperture. Mirrodin Besieged must move quickly – this time around Urza's Saga is stacking up mana quickly.
But Mirrodin Besieged plays only a Sword of Feast and Famine, and passes. Urza's Saga draws and plays a Claws of Gix, then a Thran Turbine, and finally a Time Spiral. Is it ready to combo out? Let's find out. Urza's Saga adds a Fluctuator, then a Voltaic Key, and finally a Turnabout to untap all lands and play a Stroke of Genius to draw seven cards. So, it's not comboing out – yet.
Mirrodin Besieged animates one of the Nexus, equips the Sword to it, and attacks for three poison counter, before passing (Urza's Saga discards a Worn Powerstone). Urza's Saga gets a Fluctuator in play, then a Worn Powerstone, and finally plays another Time Spiral.
The new hand is not particularly lucky: four Island, one Remote Isle, one Voltaic Key and one Turnabout. The Remote Isle is cycled... for another Island. Urza's Saga needs to make something happen – quickly. So it taps all its lands for a total of 13 mana, then plays Turnabout, then taps them again for a total of 22 mana. With only lands in its hand, Urza's Saga can only activate a Temporal Aperture and hope. A Island. 17 mana remaining, and one more activation. A Claws of Gix – in play. 12 mana remaining. A Voltaic Key untaps one Temporal Aperture, and one more activation. A island! And finally, the second Key untaps again an Aperture, for a final try... a Time Spiral!
Urza's Saga can keep going. The new hand is two Windfall, one Stroke of Genius, one Voltaic Key, one Island, one Blasted Landscape and one Remote Isle. The two lands are immediately cycled for a Turnabout and an Island, then Urza's Saga gets to work.
This time, Urza's Saga can gather lots of mana with the Turnabout, then refill its hand with Windfall and keep going until it has more than twenty Artifacts in plat, and draws another Time Spiral. The new hand has a Stroke of Genius and three Turnabouts. Game over for Mirrodin Besieged. The two decks move on to game three.
Game 3
No Inkmoth Nexus for Mirrodin Besieged this time around, while Urza's Saga starts with a turn one Claws of Gix plus Thran Turbine. Still nothing from Mirrodin Besieged, then Urza's Saga cycles a land on its upkeep before playing a Tolarian Academy, a second Thran Turnbine and a Temporal Aperture. Still nothing from Mirrodin Besieged. Urza's Saga cycles two lands, then gets a second Temporal Aperture in play, taps the Academy for five mana and activates it. The revealed card is a Windfall, and Urza's Saga gladly plays it.
Mirrodin Besieged finally gets a Phyrexian Vatmother in play, and passes. Urza's Saga has drawn two Turnabout, and uses them to gather up tons of mana, but it's stuck with nothing useful to draw more cards, and no Time Spiral. So, it starts activating again the Temporal Aperture – three times. But this time, it's not lucky: one Voltaic Key, and two Island. Then, it's forced to pass.
Mirrodin Besieged gets an Inkmoth Nexus in play, then attacks with the Vatmother and passes. Urza's Saga gets a Voltaic Key in play, and starts activating the Temporal Aperture again. An Island, then a Fluctuator. Then Urza's Saga gets another Tolarian Academy in play, sacrifice the first one to the legendary rule, and taps the new one for mana. This allows Urza's Saga to untap an Aperture with a Voltaic Key, and activate it again – but it's just another Fluctuator. Urza's Saga is forced to pass, and things don't look promising.
Mirrodin Besieged attacks to give five more poison counters to its opponent – for a total of nine. Last chance for Urza's Saga. The combo deck draws an Island, then gets the Temporal Apertures going again. A Remote Isle,then a Windfall! Urza's Saga can now draw five, and a Time Spiral! This time, there's nothing preventing Urza's Saga from comboing out and securing game three. Mirrodin Besieged feels powerless, but it knows that with some luck... and some bad luck for Urza's Saga... it can still do it.
Game 4
Mirrodin Besieged starts, but the first play is from Urza's Saga: a Claws of Gix + Voltaic Key. Mirrodin Besieged gets a Sphere of the Suns in play and passes. A Fluctuator in play from Urza's Saga, then the combo deck passes. Mirrodin Besieged plays a Phyrexian Crusader and passes. Urza's Saga needs a third land, and has none in hand. Luckily, it draws a Remote Isle. It will have to wait one turn, but it's better than nothing. After the land, it also adds a Temporal Aperture to the board, and passes.
Mirrodin Besieged attacks, then plays a Sword of Feast and Famine before passing. Urza's Saga is slightly worried at the moment, but is ready to turn things around playing a Windfall. Unfortunately, all the cards draws are lands! Incredible! This allows Mirrodin Besieged to attack for four poisons counter – and Urza's Saga is now facing impending doom.
As it draws a Worn Powerstone, there's only one thing Urza's Saga can do: activate the Temporal Aperture and cross its fingers. The card reveales is... an Island! 2-2, and the two decks move on to game five.
Game 5
Urza's Saga has to mulligan once, but looks satisfied with its second hand, starting the game with a turn one Voltaic Key. Mirrodin Besieged gets an Inkmoth Nexus in play and passes. On turn two, a Tolarian Academy and a Fluctuator for Urza's Saga, while Mirrodin Besieged attacks with the Nexus and passes. Urza's Saga gets a Worn Powerstone in play, and passes. Mirrodin Besieged plays a Phyrexian Crusader, and passes.
Urza's Saga is finally ready to shake things up, showing a Time Spiral. Mirrodin Besieged grimaces as it gets ready to spend the following five minutes watching its opponent do things and shuffling its deck. Urza's Saga draws: a Remote Isle, a Blasted Landscape, a Fluctuator, a Temporal Aperture, a Thran Turbine and two Worn Powerstone. The two lands are cycled to draw a Turnabout and a Stroke of Genius. Things are about to become interesting for Urza's Saga, but not yet. This turn, it adds a Fluctuator, a Temporal Aperture and a Worn Powerstone to the board, then passes. The coming turn will be the good one.
There's not much Mirrodin Besieged can do except attack for three poison counter and pass. Urza's Saga is ready. 20 mana are gathered thanks to Turnabout and Tolarian Academy, then the Stroke of Genius is played to draw seven. Urza's Saga spots a Time Spiral and smiles... and from there, it's just a matter of time. Urza's Saga begins its crazy series of plays, and in a matter of minutes, the match is sealed. Once again, Urza's Saga showed its unstable power, getting very close to being eliminated, but finally managing to combo its way to victory. Urza's Saga advances to the semifinals of Group A.
In M10 vs. Shards of Alara, Ajani Vengeant illegally targeted pro-white Black Knight, but that one didn't matter.
Thanks for doing this. I love the idea, have enjoyed every match, and always look forward to the next post.
Mmmhh definitely mixed up the two artifacts. I've removed the match for now and will replay all the games involving the Lens - which might be all of them, will have to check it out. Thanks for pointing that out, and I'm glad you're liking this BOTS
As it goes further, the combo player should remember that Turnabout has multiple modes other than untapping lands. If the deck is ever mana-flooded but runs out of things to do and Windfalls into a hand with multiple Turnabout again, it can use the "untap artifacts" mode to untap all Voltaic Key and Worn Powerstone and Temporal Aperture and try to Aperture into more things. In a pinch, a redundant Turnabout can even TAP OUT the opponent's attackers to buy you a turn against aggro. Turnabout fixes whatever your bottleneck is, either mana (untap Academy) or things to do (untap Aperture + Key) or turns (tap all creatures). It's a lot better than just Peregrine Drake.
Where are the other Group A Quarterfinal matches? I only see one.
The Urza's Legacy list seems to be much worse than the other Urza block decks, just because the hurr-durr Might of Oaks stompy strategy pairs up poorly against the newer power sets. Have you considered a U/R artifacts deck with 4 Goblin Welder, 4 Tinker, 4 Grim Monolith, 4 Memory Jar, Palinchron, Miscalculation and other goodies? I have a hard time seeing 4 Tinker + 4 Memory Jar ending badly. At the very least, it would be fun as hell to play and fit the degenerate nature of the block.
Turnabout was used as a land untapper because with the Academy and 8+ artifacts, it was always the most efficient way to stack up mana (and there were always enough Voltaic Key for the Temporal Aperture).
If I remember correctly, a UR deck for Legacy lacked a proper winning condition. If you want to assemble a list, feel free to post it
This coming weekend I should be able to post a few games, probably. Stay tuned
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Have some opinions on some of the decks, but mostly due to personal preference. Keep up the good work!
Thank you
I'm always interested in alternative decklists, especially for newer sets, so feel free to post them
Urza's Legacy: Was surprised that it got knocked out by Legions. What do you think of the original UG deck?
Judgement: Anurid Brushhopper is a must IMO. The body is great, and the blink is situationally useful with dead Ray of Revelations in hand.
Planar Chaos: I think that going monogreen helps with mana issues. Fatal Frenzy on Groundbreaker requires 2RGGG, and IMO Radha doesn't do much. In exchange G offers Uktabi Drake, Mire Boa and Seal of Primordium.
Worldwake: What do you think of UB with Abyssal Persecutor? It comes down fast and works well with Jace IMO. Black has Smother and Creeping Tar Pit too.
On the coming matches, Coldsnap vs Zendikar is going to be a stomp. Most excited about Apocalypse vs Champions of Kamigawa!
I thought about a UG build for Urza's Legacy, and i think it's a good one. In the end, I thought that White offered more - especially Mother of Runes, but not only that. Legions was truly surprising, though. It's true that Slivers deck tends to do well against deck that aren't strong on removals, so that was sort of a favorable matchup for Legions.
Judgment featured the Brushhopper in previous iterations of BOTS I played. I always found it... good, but not that good. The deck is heavily focused on phantoms, and I like to have as many of those as I can. I can understand why someone would prefer the Brushhoper, though.
Planar Chaos... I don't think mana issues are a problem for the deck (usually). It's more a mattr of design - the monogreen version would probable be more solid all-around, but GR I feel it's more explosive. It might be worth to do some more playtesting with the two versions.
Regarding Worldwake, I tried the UB version, and found the UG definitely better. While the UB brings some good things to the table, I've found that it doesn't truly shine at anything. The UW is better if you want a more controling, anti-aggro build. The UG has the best finisher among the three, and in the end it's probably what the deck needs the most.
It's still early in the tournament and the level of the decks is still different - some of the matches are going to be very onesided indeed. Apocalypse and Champions are two of my favorites, so I'm looking forward to that one as well - too bad one of the two has to leave, though. The other match I've got my eyes on is Dragon's Maze vs Oath of the Gatewatch. I just get the feeling it's going to be brilliant, as they're both midrange, brutal decks.
I think some of the weaker set decks can be improved (and I would like to see that to make the matches more diverse and less predictable).
For example, you said Alara Reborn (the multicolor set) has no dual lands. That's not quite true. How do you think 3-color Limited decks worked? Borderposts. They're the mana-fixing of ARB, alongside the double-landcycling commons. Borderposts unfortunately make it a lot easier to play an ally Wedge (Naya or Jund) than an enemy wedge (Junk). Turn 1 Borderposts also make Turn 2 Blades much better, making all the Blades not only playable but strong 2-drops. Also, Cascade is one of the most broken mechanics in Magic. The borderposts do make cascade worse, but it might still be worth it to run Bloodbraid Elf.
4 Putrid Leech
4 Jund Hackblade
3 Grixis Grimblade
3 Anathemancer
3 Sanity Gnawers
4 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Defiler of Souls
4 Terminate
4 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Thought Hemorrhage
3 Bituminous Blast
//Mana: 24
4 Veinfire Borderpost
4 Firewild Borderpost
4 Mountain
5 Forest
7 Swamp
Unfortunately Blightning isn't in the set, otherwise this would just be Standard Jund. Anathemancer punishes greedy manabases like the Antiquities deck. Thought Hemorrhage shuts down the more degenerate combo/lock decks. Terminate + Maelstrom Pulse gives you some of the best removal ever printed in the history of Magic. Bloodbraid Elf + Bit Blast should keep the cards coming.
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Jund Hackblade
4 Naya Hushblade
4 Marisi's Twinclaws
4 Knight of New Alara
4 Mycoid Shepherd
2 Blitz Hellion
4 Colossal Might
4 Intimidation Bolt
2 Behemoth Sledge
//Lands: 24
4 Wildfield Borderpost
4 Firewild Borderpost
6 Mountain
6 Plains
4 Forest
Or maybe -4 Naya Hushblade, +4 Trace of Abundance to help ramp to the 4-drops.
Knight of New Alara and/or Behemoth Sledge make your 2-drops and Twinclaws into huge fatties. Colossal Might does a lot of work pushing through damage and helping trade up even when you don't have a pump effect. The deck has better attackers than Jund but worse answers.
It gets to run some incredible burn spells that should shut down the top aggro decks.
4 Flame Slash
4 Forked Bolt
3 Distortion Strike
3 Deprive
2 See Beyond
4 Staggershock
4 Goblin Arsonist
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Kargan Dragonlord
4 Surrakar Spellblade
4 Guard Gomazoa
4 Evolving Wilds
10 Mountain
6 Island
Distortion Strike obviously combos with Kiln Fiend to deal at least 10 unblockable damage over 2 turns, but it also works well with Surrakar Spellblade to draw you a couple cards.
The deck can theoretically goldfish on turn 4 (T2 Kiln Fiend, T3 Distortion Strike with some additional spells) though it lacks the draw power to make that happen consistently. On the other hand, I don't think any other set has this much cheap burn and a Fog Bank, so there should be no need to race the aggro decks.
Is there a reason why you didn't just go with something more traditional like Threshold or Tog? Did they not perform as well in your meta?
Examples:
4 Entomb
4 Innocent Blood
4 Ghastly Demise
4 Careful Study
4 Syncopate
4 Rites of Refusal
4 Predict
3 Zombify
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
3 Psychatog
1 Iridescent Angel
1 Kamahl, Pit Fighter
//Lands: 20
4 Darkwater Catacombs
2 Cabal Pit
7 Swamp
7 Island
Play the control game, or Entomb + Zombify into a fatty (unfortunately the options aren't amazing)
4 Peek
4 Ghastly Demise
4 Innocent Blood
4 Syncopate
4 Words of Wisdom
3 Concentrate
3 Upheaval
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
4 Psychatog
//Lands: 26
2 Cabal Pit
2 Cephalid Coliseum
4 Darkwater Catacombs
9 Island
9 Swamp
Play 9 lands. Upheaval, floating mana, cast Psychatog. Hope the control spells are enough to keep you alive until 9 lands. Otherwise, maybe ditch the Upheaval plan for Traumatize+Haunting Echoes instead.
4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Werebear
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Call of the Herd
4 Roar of the Wurm
4 Careful Study
4 Predict
4 Rites of Refusal
4 Aether Burst
4 Standstill
10 Island
10 Forest
Play early threat then drop Standstill. (or just use countermagic like Syncopate in place of Standstill)
I'm not sure about the Odissey alternative, on the other hand. The threshold deck was tried in previous iterations of BOTS (by Alfred, here on MTGS), and if I remember correctly, was totally destroyed. That's why it was proposed the Mirari + Time Stretch build. Not that good, but can at least work efficiently against some opponents - getting Mirrodin right away was sheer bad luck. Odissey is a deck we all would like to become a contender, but unfortunately it always seems to lack something. I don't think the builds you proposed are an improvement over the current one, but I'll give them a go.
Regarding Alara Reborn, I've tried the pure Jund build, but in the end I preferred the current one. Similarly, the Naya build lacks Maelstrom Pulse, that can be a real game winner. Still, I'll do some playtesting for the Naya one, see how it performs.
Opening up the quarterfinals with an interesting matchup: Invasion's Domain against Innistrad's graveyard-themed deck. Both decks are built to deal with aggressive decks, meaning that none of them can easily shut down the opponent. Innistrad is potentially the most powerful deck among the two, but it doesn't pack anything to remove the best defensive card from Invasion: Collective Restraint.
Game One
Innistrad gets first turn, and starts with a turn two Avacyn's Pilgrim followed by a turn three Deranged Assistant. On its third turn, Invasion plays an Harrow and passes. On the following turn, Innistrad taps for five and plays a Kessig Cagebreakers! Even though there are currently no creature in its graveyard, this card will become dangerous very quickly, unless Invasion manages to find an answer.
On its turn, Invasion completes its Domain and plays an Ordered Migration to put 5 bird tokens in play – that should hold Innistrad at bay, at least for now. Innistrad plays an Armored Skaab, getting one creature in the graveyard, then it's forced to pass. Invasion simply draws and passes. Innistrad plays a Splinterfright, then flashbacks a Dream Twist from its graveyard. There are now 4 creatures in Innistrad's graveyard – the deck is approaching a critical mass. But for now, Innistrad just passes. End of turn, Invasion shows a Fact or Fiction, revealing a Global Ruin, Collective Restraint, Tribal Flames and two lands. This is definitely not good news for Innistrad. The two piles are: Global Ruin, Tribal Flames and a land, Collective Restraint and the other land. Invasion needs the Collective Restraints right now, and chooses it.
On its turn, Invasion plays the Collective Restraint, attacks with one bird token, then passes. At the moment, Innistrad can only attack with one creature. For the current turn, though, it decides to just play a Spider Spawning to block the bird tokens, and passes. Invasion draws and passes. Innistrad gets another creature in the graveyard thanks to the Splinterfright, for a total of five, then taps the Deranged Assistant to try and get to six... but not yet. The elemental could only trade with the tokens, right now. So, the Splinterfright is kept on the defensive while the mana is used to allow the Cagebreakers to attack. Five wolf tokens are spawned, attacking, but Invasion shows a Tangle. End of turn, Invasion also plays a second Fact or Fiction, revealing a Probe, Ghitu Fire, Harrow, and two lands. The two piles are: Ghitu Fire, Harrow on one; Probe and the two Lands on the second. Invasion chooses Ghitu Fire and the Harrow.
Invasion draws, plays the Harrow, then a Probe, and finally passes. The Cagebreakers is still tapped, and only five creatures in the graveyard for now. Innistrad plays another Deranged Assistant, then flashbacks a Dream Twist, finally getting two more creatures in the graveyard, for a total of 7. Innistrad then passes, and Invasion shows another end of turn Fact or Fiction. And this is a good one: Rout, Tangle, Elfhame Sanctuary, Collective Restraint and a land. The second Collective Restraint is particularly bad news for Innistrad, that puts it in a pile alone, with the other four cards in the remaining pile. Invasion picks up the single Collective Restraints, then plays it on the following turn. The fortress is now complete, and for the moment, impossible to attack for Innistrad.
The game slows down as the two decks face each other. Invasion snipes down Innistrad's mana creatures with Tribal Flames and Ghitu Fire, until it can play a Global Ruin and practically seal the game. In just a few more turns, Innistrad runs out of cards to draw, and it's game over.
Game Two
Luck doesn't smile on Invasion, that has to mulligan twice. Innistrad, on the other hand, starts well with a turn one Avacyn's Pilgrim followed by a turn two Deranged Assistant. Still nothing from Invasion, then Innistrad plays a Dream Twist (two creatures in the graveyard) followed by a Splinterfright (one more creature thanks to the tapping Assistant). Invasion can finally play something: a Harrow. Innistrad can still smile, as the momentum of the game is swinging in its favor. One more creature goes in the graveyard thanks to Splinterfright's passive ability, then Innistrad turns the growing elemental to attack, before adding a Boneyard Wurm to its side of the board and passing.
Invasion decides to play a Probe and hopes to draw some kind of answer, but again, luck is not on its side. As Innistrad attacks for 12, bringing its opponent down to 1 life points, it's clear that not much can save Invasion... especially not the Harrow that it's about to draw in its turn. Innistrad wins game two.
Game Three
It's Innistrad's turn to mulligan this time, while Invasion starts well with a turn two Elfhame Sanctuary. Innistrad answers with a Mulch, getting one Forest in hand and two creatures, plus a Dream Twist, in the graveyard. Invasion fetches a Mountain with the Sanctuary, then plays a Harrow, and looks now quite close to completing the Domain. On its side, though, Innistrad is ready to get serious: a Splintefright is played, and it promises to grow quickly.
Invasion completes the Domain, then plays a Probe, quickly followed by a Tribal Flames to remove the dangerous Splinterfright. Innistrad's offensive is now much slowed down, so it just plays an Armored Skaab and passes. Invasion just draws and passes. Innistrad gets another Skaab in play, followed by a Deranged Assistant – there are now 7 creatures in Innistrad's graveyard! Time to do something with them. Invasion again passes without playing anything.
Innistrad is ready to shake up the match: after attacking with the two Skaabs, flashbacks a Dream Twist, then plays a Spider Spawning to put 8 spider tokens in play. But Invasion doesn't look worried, as it plays a Rout at instant speed to clear the board! On its turn, Invasion draws and passes. Innistrad, instead, is ready for more action: an Unburial Rites is flashbacked to put the Splinterfright again in play... except it's a 10/10 this time!
This time, Invasion finally plays something, too: an Ordered Migration. Then, it's once again Innistrad's turn. The Splintefright is turned to attack again, but it just meets a Tangle. Then, Innistrad adds a Deranged Assistant to the board and passes. Invasion draws, turns its birds to attack and passes. The two decks are now at 15 life points each. The Splinterfrighe is still tapped, so Innistrad “just” flashbacks a Spider Spawning to put 13 (!) spider tokens in play.
Invasion draws, attacks with its bird tokens, and passes. Innistrad starts its turn by declaring the Splinterfright and the tokens as attackers... and Invasion shows a Rout to clear the board again. Then Innistrad flashbacks a second Spider Spawning to put another 14 tokens in play, and it's again Invasion's turn. Invasion for the moment can only play an Ordered Migration and pass. Innistrad attacks with its tokens to bring its opponent down to one life points, then flashbacks a Gnaw to the Bone to gain 28 life points and get out of reach for Invasion's damage output.
And then... Invasion draws an Harrow! That's it. Game three goes to Innistrad.
Game Four
Invasion starts, but the first play is from Innistrad with a turn one Avacyn's Pilgrim. Invasion then gets an Elfhame Sactuary in play, while Innistrad answers with a Mulch (two creatures in the graveyard) and turns the Pilgrim to attack. Invasion fetches a land, plays it, then passes. Innistrad gets an Armored Skaab in play, then attacks with the Pilgrim, and passes. Invasion fetches another land and passes again. Innistrad plays a Mulch, reaching a total of five creatures in the graveyard, then attacks with the Skaab and plays a Deranged Assistant before finally passing. Invasion, again, fetches a land and passes.
Innistrad attacks again, then flashbacks an Unburial Rites to get a Kessig Cagebreakers in play, then finally passes. Things are starting to get troubling, but Invasion calmly smiles as it shows a Rout on its turn, and passes again. Innistrad suddenly finds itself with not much to do, so it plays a Gnaw to the Bone to gain 16 life points, and passes. This pause of respite is much welcomed for Invasion, that decides on its strategy – in the end, it just passe again!
Innistrad draws and plays a Boneyward Wurm, getting threatening again. Invasion answers with an end of turn Fact or Fiction. The two piles are: on one side, Elfhame Sactuary and Ordered Migration, on the other a Harrow, a land and a Tribal Flames. Invasion chooses the first pile, then draws and plays the Ordered Migration, before passing. Innistrad draws, attacks with the Wurm (chump-blocked by a token), then passes.
Invasion draws, then shows a Global Ruin as it finally moves to get the upper hand in the game. Then, it attacks with three bird tokens, and passes. Innistrad draws, plays a land and then a Gnaw to the Bone, flying to 49 life points – clearly, the road is long for Invasion to kill its opponent. The Wurm is again chump-blocked by a bird token, and Innistrad passes. Invasion plays a second Elfhame Palace, attacks with two tokens, then passes. Innistrad gets another land and a Deranged Assistant in play, then attacks (a bird chump-blocks again) and passes. Invasion draws, attacks with one token, then passes again. Innistrad draws, plays a Dream Twist, attacks with the Wurm (chump-blocked again), then passes.
Invasion fetches two lands with the Sanctuaries, then plays another Global Ruin, and passes. With only one bird token in play, Innistrad shows a Silent Departure to remove it and open the way to its creatures to deal 10 damage to Invasion, that falls down to 5 life points. Then, Innistrad passes.
Invasion draws, plays an Harrow, then a Rout. Finally, the board is clean again. No creatures for its opponent, and only two lands. Invasion can looks satisfied at the devastation it has caused. Then, it passes.
The game slows down again, then finally Invasion gets two Collective Restraint in play. With its deck slowly disappearing, Innistrad is forced to face another defeat. The two decks move on to the fifth and decisive game.
Game Five
Innistrad starts and gets the first play with a turn two Mulch, getting two creatures in the graveyard. Nothing from Invasion, then Innistrad plays an Armored Skaab and passes. Still nothing from Invasion, so Innistrad plays a Dream Twist, getting two more creatures in the graveyard, then attacks with the Skaab and passes.
And finally it's Invasion's moment to shine: a Collective Restraint. Innistrad's nemesis is once again in play. But until it's only one... all hope is not lost. Only four lands in play for Innistrad, that is unable to attack. So, it plays an Avacyn's Pilgrim, followed by a Deranged Assistant, then passes.
Invasion plays an Elfhame Sanctuary and passes. Innistrad plays a Kessig Cagebreakers, getting ready to launch a solid attack on the following turn.
But that's not meant to happen, unfortunately... as Invasion shows a second Collective Restraint! Again, Innistrad is locked by its opponent. And as Invasion gets a third Collective Restraint in play a few turns later, followed by a Global Ruin... it's over! Invasion shows again the power of its Domain deck and eliminates another dangerous opponent. Invasion moves to the semifinals of Group A!
Invasion 3 - Innistrad 2
Coldsnap vs Zendikar
Wwll, what to say? Little poor Coldsnap stands in the way of powerhouse Zendikar. A one-sided slaughter incoming? Probably, but never say never. BOTS is always full of surprises.
Game 1
Coldsnap starts, but the first play is a Goblin Guide from Zendikar, that's immediately turned sideways (Coldsnap reveals a Surging Æther on top of its deck). Coldsnap draws and passes, so Zendikar can attack again with the Guide (Coldsnap draws a Mouth of Ronom from the top), before playing a Plated Geopede – Coldsnap shows a Rune Snag to at least slow down Zendikar's onslaught. Comes Coldnsap's turn, and the control deck just draws and passes.
Zendikar plays an Adventuring Gear, but again... Coldsnap shows a second Rune Snag. The Guide then attacks for two more (revealing a third Rune Snag on top of Coldsnap's deck!), and finally Zendikar passes. Coldsnap is stuck at three mana... with only one blue mana source. For the moment, then, is forced to pass. End of turn, Zendikar shows a Punishing Fire, perhaps trying to force the Rune Snag, but Coldsnap decides to take the damage.
Zendikar plays a second Goblin Guide, this time forcing its opponent to spend the Rune Snag, then attacks again with the Guide in play... revealing another Surging Æther. Coldsnap needs to draw a land, and could activate a Scrying Sheets to search it, but so far it was forced to keep countering its opponent's threats, rather than activating the snow land. And in the meanwhile, Coldsnap is down at 10 life points, and forced to pass once more.
Zendikar attacks again with the Guide, revealing... a Snow-Covered Island. Finally Coldsnap gets to draw a land, and one more from the activation of Scrying Sheets. Meanwhile, Zendikar passes without playing anything else. Coldsnap draws and passes, and Zendikar dishes in two more damage with an end of turn Punishing Fire.
Zendikar draws and attacks with the Guide, and Coldsnap shows a Surging Æther to bounce it back on Zendikar's hand. The aggro deck doesn't look worried as it plays it again, along with a Steppe Lynx. Coldsnap just draws and passes.
Zendikar draws, plays a Plains, and attacks with both creatures – a second Surging Æther flies to bounce back the Lynx, and Coldsnap falls to 4. The Lynx is immediately played again. Coldsnap finally gets its sixth land on the board, and plays a Phyrexian Ironfoot and a Vexing Sphinx. The defensive line is finally set... will it last? Unfortunately not. Zendikar draws and plays a fifth land, followed by a kicked Burst Lightning to end the game. Zendikar also shows a Journey to Nowhere plus Kor Hookmaster from its hand, subtly stating: “I can kill you anyway I want”. Still, Coldsnap has shown that countering the early threats from Zendikar can go a long way towards granting survivability. The control deck can at least fight with honor.
Game 2
Coldsnap starts with a Martyr of Frost, and Zendikar answers again with a Goblin Guide, immediately turning to attack (and revealing a Rimewind Taskmage on top of Coldsnap's deck). Coldsnap draws and passes. Zendikar draws, attacks with the Guide (revealing a Surging Æther), then passes. Coldsnap draws, plays a Vexing Sphinx, and passes. Luck is not smiling on Zendikar this time around, and the aggro deck is forced to shot two Burst Lightning at the sphinx to remove it and clear the way for the Guide (Coldsnap also gets a land this time around). Then the aggro deck passes).
Things are not going bad so far for Coldsnap, that plays a Rimewind Taskmage and passes. Zendikar draws, then plays a second Goblin Guide. Coldsnap thinks for a few seconds, then sacrifices the Martyr, revealing a hand of Rune Snag, Rimewind Taskmage and two Surging Æther. Zendikar can't pay four, and the Guide is countered. But the aggro deck is not done yet: a Kor Hookmaster also joins the battle, tapping out the Taskmage. Then the Guide attacks for two more damage – Coldsnap is at 12.Coldsnap plays another Taskmage, then a Martyr of Frost, and finally passes.
Zendikar attacks again with both creatures, and Coldsnap chumps-block the Guide with the Martyr, taking two damage and falling to ten. The Guide reveals a Commandeer on top of Coldsnap's deck. Zendikar then passes without playing anything. Coldsnap just draws and passes.
Zendikar gets ready to attack, but the two Taskmage taps to block the offensive. Zendikar then plays a Kor Skyfisher and passes. Coldsnap is stuck at five lands again, and passes.
Zendikar first plays an Adventuring Gear. This is bad news for Coldsnap, that thinks for a second about Commandeering it, then decides not to. The equipment is attached to the Skyfisher, then Zendikar plays an Arid Mesa (without activating it), and attacks with all its creatures. Two of them (including the Skyfisher) are tapped by the Taskmage, and Coldsnap is forced to take in two damage. Coldsnap manages to draw a land from the Guide, though. On its turn, the control deck plays its sixth land and passes.
Zendikar draws and again attacks with all its creatures. This time around Coldsnap can tap two of the opponent's creatures, and then play a Surging Æther to bounce back the third one (the Guide), completely shutting down Zendikar – at least for this turn. The bounced Goblin Guide is immediately replayed, then Zendikar passes.
Coldsnap gets its seventh land in play, and it's finally ready for a big move: a Rimefeather Owl! Will Coldsnap be able to snatch a game from the powerhouse Zendikar? We will see.
For the moment, Zendikar plays an Arid Mesa, then attacks with all its creatures. Now, Coldsnap has a trouble. The Skyfisher is a 4/5, and there are two unactivated Arid Mesa in play – that means that it can easily gro up to 8/9, while the Owl is “only” an 8/8! Coldsnap has underestimated Zendikar's incredible capability of hitting you from unforeseenable directions. Furthermore, it has no mana open to tap the Taskmages. Crying tears of blood, Coldsnap announces that the Owl will block the Skyfisher. Regarding the other two creatures, Coldsnap decides to assign two Taskmages to block the Hookmaster, trading one for one and taking two damage from the Guide. Still, a terrible turn for the control deck. To make things worse, Zendikar plays another Skyfisher, bouncing back a land.
Coldsnap is still in PTSD, and plays a Martyr of Frost before passing. Zendikar draws, plays a land, and attacks with all its creatures. The equipped Skyfisher is tapped by the Taskmage, the Martyr chump-blocks the Guide, and a Mouth of Ronom is sacrificed to kill the remaining Skyfisher. Zendikar shrugs and throws in a Punishing Fire for two more damage, before passing.
Coldsnap draws, plays a Vexing Sphinx, then passes. Zendikar draws, considers the situation, and decides to pass. Could it be, that Coldsnap has finally stabilized the game? On its turn, Coldsnap draws and passes. Zendikar daws, plays a land, then another Skyfisher – but Coldsnap shows a Controvert. The Skyfisher is tapped by the Taskmage before it can attack, and Zendikar is forced to pass.
Coldsnap doesn't pay the upkeep for the Sphinx, then draws and plays a Phyrexian Ironfoot before passing. Zendikar draws and plays an Adventuring Gear, and Coldsnap shows a Rune Snag. Zendikar pays the additional mana... then Zendikar shows a second Rune Snag! This time, Zendikar can't pay, and the equipment goes straight to the graveyard. Zendikar passes again. Coldsnap draws and passes.
The game slows down at this point, with both decks waiting to draw something good. A second Taskmage enters the battlefield, then Zendikar draws and plays a Plated Geopede – but Coldsnap is ready again with a Controvert! But, as usually happens, Zendikar laughs last – with almost all Coldsnap's mana tapped out, and only two cards in hand, Coldsnap can't play its Commandeer. Zendikar then shows a Journey to Nowhere, removing the Taskmage.
“How many turns have you been keeping it aside?”, asks Coldsnap.
“Since the Guide showed that Commandeer on top of your deck”, answers Zendikar with a smile.
Coldsnap draws and passes, while Zendikar can finally get a Steppe Lynx in play. End of turn, Coldsnap activates two Scrying Sheets, drawing a land (a Mouth of Ronom!) and revealing a Controvert. Comes Zendikar's turn, and it plays a Teetering Peaks, boosting the Goblin Guide, then declares an attack with all its creatures. The Skyfisher is tapped by the Taskmage, the Mouth of Ronom flies to kill the Lynx, and the Guide trades for the Ironfoot.
And then it happens: Coldsnap draws and plays a second Rimefeather Owl! Can Zendikar answer, this time around? It seems not, as it only gets a Plated Geopede in play, before passing (the Taskmage is still tapping out the Skyfisher).
And from then it's quickly over – just two turns of the Owl attacking, with Zendikar kept at bay with a Phyrexian Ironfoot and a Surging Æther. The aggro deck only draws a Plains, and quite incredibly, Coldsnap snatches a game from the juggernaut Zendikar! Might be, there are more surprises to come? Let's find out!
Game Three
Zendikar starts fast with the usual Goblin Guide(revealing a Scrying Sheets), while Coldsnap answers with a Martyr of Frost. On the following turn, it's two more damage from the Guide, while Zendikar adds a Plated Geopede to the board. Coldsnap plays another Martyr of Frost and passes.
Zendikar plays an Adventuring Gear, equips it to the Guide, then plays a Scalding Tarn (without activating it), and attacks with both creatures. Coldsnap, wisely, decides to chump-block both.
On its following turn, the control deck plays a Vexing Sphinx and passes. This time, though, Zendikar's onslaught is ready to hit in full force. The Scalding Tarn is activated to fetch a third basic land, then a Kor Hookmaster joins the battle to tap the Sphinx and allow the other two creatures to hit for seven damage. Coldsnap is at nine life points and suddenly in a bad, bad position.
Coldsnap draws, plays two Rimewind Taskmage, and passes. Luckily for the snow deck, Zendikar is short on lands to activate, but it can still show a Journey to Nowhere and a Burst Lightning to remove the two Taskmage, before attacking for five more.
The situation is not good for Coldsnap. It has managed to keep the Sphinx alive, but now it only has a Surging Æther in hand, and four life points. It can only pass, at the moment, and hope to survive one more turn. Luckily for Coldsnap, Zendikar is still not drawing lands, so it plays a second Plated Geopede and Adventuring Gear, then passes. End of turn, one of the Geopedes is bounced by Surging Æther.
The Vexing Sphinx must be sacrificed now, and Coldsnap draws... three lands and a Rimefeather Owl! And with that, the snow deck is completely defenseless against Zendikar. The aggro deck easily wins game three!
Game Four
Coldsnap is forced to mulligan and starts with a Martyr of Frost, while Zendikar answers with an Adventuring Gear. Turn two, Coldsnap draws and passes. Zendikar tries to get a Plated Geopede in play, but the creature is countered by a Rune Snag. Coldsnap draws, gets a third land in play, plays a second Martyr, then attacks with the first one and passes. Zendikar draws and passes.
Coldsnap draws, then turns the two Martyrs to attack – Zendikar shows a Punishing Fire to kill one of the two. The spell resolves, and Zendikar takes one damage. Zendikar smiles as it draws a Goblin Guide, immediately playing it. Zendikar has two lands open, Coldsnap three cards in hand... are all three blue? Apparently not, as the Martyr is not sacrificed, the Gear enters the battlefield and Zendikar can equip it to the Goblin, before playing and activating an Arid Mesa and attacking for six (another Martyr is revealed on top of Coldsnap's deck).
Coldsnap draws the Martyr, fails to play a land, then gets a Phyrexian Ironfoot in play and passes. Zendikar draws, then plays a Journey to Nowhere to remove the Ironfoot... and that's when Coldsnap plays a Commandeer to take control of the Journey! Zendikar is paralyzed for a second, as the Journey removes the Guide from the battlefield. But that's only for a second. On the bright side, Coldsnap's hand is now entirely empty, and its opponent is stuck with three lands in play. Zendikar plays a Kor Skyfisher, bouncing a land back, then passes. Coldsnap draws, attacks with the Ironfoot, then passes.
Zendikar plays a second Adventuring Gear, equips them both to the Skyfisher, then plays a Mountain and attacks for six more. Coldsnap is ow at 8. End of turn, Coldsnap untaps the Ironfoot, then on its turn plays another Island and attacks with both its creatures. Zendikar is at 8 life points as well.
Zendikar shows a Scalding Tarn to Coldsnap. The question is: “do you have a Surging Æther?”. The answer is no. The Skyfisher grows up to 10/11 and launches itself towards Coldsnap. Game over! The control deck fought with honor, but that's it. Zendikar is still the unstoppable force, and is set to meet Invasion in an interesting matchup in the semifinals. Stay tuned!
Coldsnap 1 - Zendikar 3
Ah, OK. I was just wondering why you went for the slow Mirari combo instead of the more obvious Threshold or Psychatog builds. If you already tried them and they underperformed, that makes sense. Not having the discard payoff like Circular Logic, Basking Rootwalla, Wonder and Deep Analysis probably hurts. It seems like there should be a good build somewhere, but I can't find it.
Have you at least tried using Borderposts to help with the manafixing? As long as you have a basic land in your opener, they function as turn 1 tapped duals. Even in your GWB deck, you can run 4 Wildfield Borderpost. That has to be better than solely relying on basics and Trace of Abundance. You must be losing games to mana issues. One advantage of the Jund (or Naya) builds is that they'll have much smoother mana, so even if the power level of the spells is a bit lower, you'll lose fewer games to variance.
Yes, that's reasonable. The deck is more of a GWb, as black is more or less a splash, but I will try out the borderposts and see how they work out
4 Ancestral Recall
4 Wheel of Fortune
4 Timetwister
4 Braingeyser
//Mana: 32
4 Black Lotus
4 Sol Ring
4 Mox Ruby
4 Mox Sapphire
4 Mox Emerald
4 Volcanic Island
4 Tropical Island
4 Taiga
4 Fireball
4 Channel
4 Time Walk
OK, even though this is inconsistent, the possibility for turn 1 wins (and the possibility for drawing 2 new hands into a turn 1 win) would probably break the format.
Just for Limited/Unlimited, you could impose the Vintage restricted list. Then you could get a strong control deck with broken mana acceleration, but it would be kept in balance by the win conditions sucking.
You'd have to win by decking...
Use Howling Mine + Island Sanctuary to hold off nonflying attackers without missing a draw step. Use your remaining spells to answer any other way the opponent might try to win. Hope to deck him, since you are drawing fewer cards thanks to Howling Mine. Braingeyser on opponent can help. Hope he doesn't have Eldrazi.
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Balance
//Control Spells: 23
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Counterspell
4 Disenchant
4 Wrath of God
4 Power Sink
2 Braingeyser
1 Nevinyrall's Disk
4 Island Sanctuary
4 Howling Mine
//Mana: 25
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Sol Ring
4 Tundra
4 Underground Sea
4 Scrubland
4 Island
4 Plains
Or by vulnerable creatures like Serra Angel, Mahamoti Djinn, Hypnotic Specter...
Accelerate into an early Mind Twist knocking out the opponent's entire hand. Use control spells to control the game from there. Use Braingeyser to refill your hand. Once opponent's hand and board are empty and you have Countermagic back-up, try to slap him to death with Serra Angel.
1 Fastbond
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Balance
//Control Spells: 23
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Counterspell
4 Wrath of God
4 Mind Twist
4 Braingeyser
3 Power Sink
3 Serra Angel
//Mana: 30
4 Dark Ritual
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
4 Tundra
4 Underground Sea
4 Scrubland
2 Bayou
2 Savannah
2 Tropical Island
Worth including something?
A similar reasoning also applies for core sets, from IV to X - simply uninteresting. I started considering them from M10 on, since they started including unique cards, or just being more interesting.
The older core sets include unique combinations of cards though, a mix of reprints from different sets. Just because the old creatures sucked doesn't mean there are no fun decks. The powerful decks are mostly spell-based, not aggro.
Revised edition could field quite fair but competitive control decks with the loss of P9.
Revised adds win conditions like The Rack and Millstone, as well as Ivory Tower.
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Demonic Tutor
4 Disenchant
4 Balance
4 Mind Twist
2 Braingeyser
1 Wrath of God
4 The Rack
4 Sol Ring
4 Mana Vault
2 Meekstone
2 Disrupting Scepter
1 Jayemdae Tome
4 Underground Sea
4 Tundra
4 Scrubland
4 Plains
4 Swamp
Balance + cheap artifacts = Wrath of God + Mind Twist
The idea is to accelerate into a big Mind Twist or dump your hand and use Balance to empty their hand. Then win with The Rack while Disrupting Scepter keeps their hand empty. Hand refilling care of Braingeyser and Jayemdae Tome.
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Counterspell
4 Demonic Tutor
4 Wrath of God
3 Power Sink
3 Disenchant
4 Island Sanctuary
4 Howling Mine
4 Ivory Tower
2 Millstone
//Mana: 24
4 Sol Ring
4 Scrubland
4 Tundra
4 Underground Sea
4 Island
4 Plains
Set up the Island Sanctuary + Howling Mine soft lock, but you also have Ivory Tower lifegain and Millstone to help kill them faster, so the deck should be more interactive than the powered Limited/Unlimited version.
4th edition lets you play Stasis... OK maybe that would be unfun
4 Stasis
4 Howling Mine
4 Kismet
2 Island Sanctuary
2 Meekstone
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Counterspell
4 Boomerang
4 Power Sink
3 Wrath of God
2 Mana Short
4 Strip Mine
14 Island
8 Plains
Stasis + Kismet lock. Mana Short and Power Sink support. Strip Mine now included!
5th edition lets you play with cards like Necropotence, Drain Life and Hecatomb. Seems like fun monoblack potential.
Something like this. Basically you use Necropotence to draw cards and Drain Life to refill your life. If you can get 4 creatures on the board (e.g. Sengir Autocrat), then you can just win with Hecatomb.
4 Black Knight
4 Knight of Stromgald
4 Nether Shadow
3 Sengir Autocrat
4 Paralyze
4 Terror
4 Drain Life
4 Necropotence
2 Hecatomb
//Mana: 28
4 Dark Ritual
24 Swamp
6th edition gives you access to the Mirage Tutors, Doomsday, Infernal Contract, Summer Bloom and Early Harvest, though there doesn't seem to be a way to actually win with those enablers. (I guess you could draw and cheat out a ton of basic Swamps, drop Sengir Autocrat into Hecatomb, then ping opponent to death fueled by early Harvest). But there's not even Dark Ritual or a decent draw engine like Necropotence or Necrologia.
There is a lot of land destruction though...
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
4 River Boa
4 Elvish Archers
4 Balduvian Horde
4 Shock
4 Stone Rain
4 Fallow Earth
3 Pillage
3 Creeping Mold
2 Hammer of Bogardan
4 Karplusan Forest
4 City of Brass
7 Forest
5 Mountain
In 7th edition monoblack control actually starts to look strong (Duress, Ostracize, Necrologia, Corrupt) but there's no Hecatomb, no Dark Ritual, and the anti-aggro defense sucks other than Ensnaring Bridge (which is hard to work with). I guess you could splash white for Wrath of God, but the manafixing is weak.
8th edition adds some interesting stuff like Tron, Worship, Intruder Alarm, Fecundity, Grave Pact, Phyrexian Arena, Ambition's Cost, Plow Under, Underworld Dreams. Plus they reprinted useful control cards like Mana Leak, Wrath of God, Inspiration, Pacifism, Ensnaring Bridge, Vicious Hunger, Dark Banishing. A monogreen Plow Under Elves deck with Might of Oaks finisher is possible.
I don't see why these decks would be inherently less interesting than some of the other sets. Because they kept reprinting countermagic, removal, and Wrath of God for so long, adding core sets probably opens up a lot of control decks to help combat the dominant aggro decks and degenerate combo decks.
I could see some of these control decks potentially slaughtering some of the decks that keep dominating BOTS, while being weak to other decks in the format. That might change up the power structure a bit. The biggest thing it would do is add more decks with 4 Wrath of God and/or counterspells, which would help keep some explosive decks in check.
And each core set would still add a different deck. Even though the garbage commons kept getting reprinted, the power rares are mostly different in each core set, so they all have a unique flavor (in terms of Battle of the Sets -- opening packs still sucked).
I thought it would be a pity to not see these cards in BOTS. The power level of these core sets seemed right, and I added them in. Besides that, I stayed faithful to the old BOTS - no core sets.
But hey, it's not written in stone. Once I'm done, if you want, you can make your own BOTS and add in the old core sets. I'll be sure to jump in and follow the event
Well, up to Revised Edition they are not really reprints. Those are the original cards in the game. Without including any core sets up to M10, you can never play with old staples like Wrath of God, Armageddon, Crusade, Lord of Atlantis, Island Sanctuary, Black Vise, Winter Orb and much more. They don't exist in any expansions.
IMO, it's a pity to see BOTS dominated by aggro and 0 decks able to play the classic Wrath of God, even if some of the newer versions are being played.
The older core sets have unique flavor too. There is no other expansion where you can see some of those card interactions. The formats are just more spell-based than creature-based.
Anyway, it's too late to change the decks now. I look forward to hearing the latest matches.
Goblin Guide gave Zendikar great information against Coldsnap, especially the Commandeer reveal. Nice games!
On the topic of other sets, what about Commander? I have no idea how it plays in 1v1
Ironically, Coldsnap put up a much better fight than the powerful Onslaught against Zendikar. Life is strange.
Commander, huh? That might be worth checking out, altough there might be cards that are fine if played 1x in a 100 cards deck, and not 4x in a 60 cards deck. Especially when relating to BOTS power level. Thinking for example 4x Sol Ring plus 4x Fact or Fiction plus God only knows what else.
Unless you only allow cards that were specifically printed for Commander, but then it would probably suck.
(before this, both sides had empty boards)
Aside from Land Leeches attacking into 2 bears and trading being a terrible play, it seems both players forgot Witch Hunter has a 2nd ability.
After the double block, The Dark should bounce the Familiar to have Leeches slaughter Battlemage and survive! And Planechase shouldn't even double block, fearing that play.
Luckily The Dark topdecked Preacher to win, but he easily could have lost otherwise. I hope against Mirrodin Beseiged that The Dark remembered how to use Witch Hunter properly! It's not just a 4-mana Goblin Fireslinger.
Mhh yep, good call. I think the Witch Hunter was being used by The Dark to ping at that moment, since he probably thought to stall the game long enough to win that way. That's why he didn't think about the second ability, I guess. We made a few mistakes early on with cards we're not really familiar with, especially because we played with Magic Workstation and missed a few things. We were more careful later on. Thanks for pointing that out, luckily The Dark won in the end, so it's all fine
I don't like Urza's Saga that much, since it plays on a different level than most decks in BOTS, and doesn't make for interesting matches. Still, when it can finalize the combo, there's not much the opponent can do, and that means that Saga is a strong contender in the tournament. Mirrodin Besieged doesn't have a single card that can be used to disrupt its opponent's game, and it's not a particularly fast deck, so only a large amount of good luck can save it.
Game 1
Urza's Saga starts, but has to take a mulligan. Only lands in the first couple of turns for the combo deck, while Mirrodin Besieged gets an Inkmoth Nexus in play in the first turn, then a second one during the second turn (!), and attacks to give Urza's Saga its first poison counter. Urza's Saga draws and plays a Windfall, discarding four and drawing seven, then passes. Mirrodin Besieged attacks for one more poison counter, then passes. Urza's Saga gets one more land in play, a tapped Remote Isle, then plays two Voltaic Key and pass. Things don't seem to be going exceptionally well for the combo deck so far.
One more land in play for Mirrodin Besieged, that can now attack with two animated Nexus. Urza's Saga is now on a clock: three more turns until Mirrodin Besieged can deliver the killing blow. Still, the combo deck just can't get its engine going. One more tapped land in play, and one more cycled to draw something useful – but luck it's not shining on Urza's Saga. One more Windfall the following turn, and Urza's Saga can finally get a Worn Powerstone in play. The Powerstone is untapped with a Voltaic Key and then used to play a Turnabout. All lands are untapped, plus again the Powerstone with the second Voltaic Key – all to fuel up a Temporal Aperture. A final gamble to save a very unlucky game... what will be shown on top of the deck? A second Worn Powerstone. Nothing left to do. Game one goes to Mirrodin Besieged.
Game 2
Urza's Saga opens up with a Blasted Landscape and passes. Once again an Inkmoth Nexus from Mirrodin Besieged, then the ball goes back to Urza's Saga. The combo deck plays a second Blasted Landscape, then a Voltaic Key, and passes. A second Inkmoth Nexus again for Mirrodin Besieged, and the first poison counter on Urza's Saga. Still, this time things are going to be different, as Urza's Saga finally shows a Tolarian Academy! First the other two lands are tapped to play a Temporal Aperture, then the Academy taps for a second Temporal Aperture. Mirrodin Besieged must move quickly – this time around Urza's Saga is stacking up mana quickly.
But Mirrodin Besieged plays only a Sword of Feast and Famine, and passes. Urza's Saga draws and plays a Claws of Gix, then a Thran Turbine, and finally a Time Spiral. Is it ready to combo out? Let's find out. Urza's Saga adds a Fluctuator, then a Voltaic Key, and finally a Turnabout to untap all lands and play a Stroke of Genius to draw seven cards. So, it's not comboing out – yet.
Mirrodin Besieged animates one of the Nexus, equips the Sword to it, and attacks for three poison counter, before passing (Urza's Saga discards a Worn Powerstone). Urza's Saga gets a Fluctuator in play, then a Worn Powerstone, and finally plays another Time Spiral.
The new hand is not particularly lucky: four Island, one Remote Isle, one Voltaic Key and one Turnabout. The Remote Isle is cycled... for another Island. Urza's Saga needs to make something happen – quickly. So it taps all its lands for a total of 13 mana, then plays Turnabout, then taps them again for a total of 22 mana. With only lands in its hand, Urza's Saga can only activate a Temporal Aperture and hope. A Island. 17 mana remaining, and one more activation. A Claws of Gix – in play. 12 mana remaining. A Voltaic Key untaps one Temporal Aperture, and one more activation. A island! And finally, the second Key untaps again an Aperture, for a final try... a Time Spiral!
Urza's Saga can keep going. The new hand is two Windfall, one Stroke of Genius, one Voltaic Key, one Island, one Blasted Landscape and one Remote Isle. The two lands are immediately cycled for a Turnabout and an Island, then Urza's Saga gets to work.
This time, Urza's Saga can gather lots of mana with the Turnabout, then refill its hand with Windfall and keep going until it has more than twenty Artifacts in plat, and draws another Time Spiral. The new hand has a Stroke of Genius and three Turnabouts. Game over for Mirrodin Besieged. The two decks move on to game three.
Game 3
No Inkmoth Nexus for Mirrodin Besieged this time around, while Urza's Saga starts with a turn one Claws of Gix plus Thran Turbine. Still nothing from Mirrodin Besieged, then Urza's Saga cycles a land on its upkeep before playing a Tolarian Academy, a second Thran Turnbine and a Temporal Aperture. Still nothing from Mirrodin Besieged. Urza's Saga cycles two lands, then gets a second Temporal Aperture in play, taps the Academy for five mana and activates it. The revealed card is a Windfall, and Urza's Saga gladly plays it.
Mirrodin Besieged finally gets a Phyrexian Vatmother in play, and passes. Urza's Saga has drawn two Turnabout, and uses them to gather up tons of mana, but it's stuck with nothing useful to draw more cards, and no Time Spiral. So, it starts activating again the Temporal Aperture – three times. But this time, it's not lucky: one Voltaic Key, and two Island. Then, it's forced to pass.
Mirrodin Besieged gets an Inkmoth Nexus in play, then attacks with the Vatmother and passes. Urza's Saga gets a Voltaic Key in play, and starts activating the Temporal Aperture again. An Island, then a Fluctuator. Then Urza's Saga gets another Tolarian Academy in play, sacrifice the first one to the legendary rule, and taps the new one for mana. This allows Urza's Saga to untap an Aperture with a Voltaic Key, and activate it again – but it's just another Fluctuator. Urza's Saga is forced to pass, and things don't look promising.
Mirrodin Besieged attacks to give five more poison counters to its opponent – for a total of nine. Last chance for Urza's Saga. The combo deck draws an Island, then gets the Temporal Apertures going again. A Remote Isle,then a Windfall! Urza's Saga can now draw five, and a Time Spiral! This time, there's nothing preventing Urza's Saga from comboing out and securing game three. Mirrodin Besieged feels powerless, but it knows that with some luck... and some bad luck for Urza's Saga... it can still do it.
Game 4
Mirrodin Besieged starts, but the first play is from Urza's Saga: a Claws of Gix + Voltaic Key. Mirrodin Besieged gets a Sphere of the Suns in play and passes. A Fluctuator in play from Urza's Saga, then the combo deck passes. Mirrodin Besieged plays a Phyrexian Crusader and passes. Urza's Saga needs a third land, and has none in hand. Luckily, it draws a Remote Isle. It will have to wait one turn, but it's better than nothing. After the land, it also adds a Temporal Aperture to the board, and passes.
Mirrodin Besieged attacks, then plays a Sword of Feast and Famine before passing. Urza's Saga is slightly worried at the moment, but is ready to turn things around playing a Windfall. Unfortunately, all the cards draws are lands! Incredible! This allows Mirrodin Besieged to attack for four poisons counter – and Urza's Saga is now facing impending doom.
As it draws a Worn Powerstone, there's only one thing Urza's Saga can do: activate the Temporal Aperture and cross its fingers. The card reveales is... an Island! 2-2, and the two decks move on to game five.
Game 5
Urza's Saga has to mulligan once, but looks satisfied with its second hand, starting the game with a turn one Voltaic Key. Mirrodin Besieged gets an Inkmoth Nexus in play and passes. On turn two, a Tolarian Academy and a Fluctuator for Urza's Saga, while Mirrodin Besieged attacks with the Nexus and passes. Urza's Saga gets a Worn Powerstone in play, and passes. Mirrodin Besieged plays a Phyrexian Crusader, and passes.
Urza's Saga is finally ready to shake things up, showing a Time Spiral. Mirrodin Besieged grimaces as it gets ready to spend the following five minutes watching its opponent do things and shuffling its deck. Urza's Saga draws: a Remote Isle, a Blasted Landscape, a Fluctuator, a Temporal Aperture, a Thran Turbine and two Worn Powerstone. The two lands are cycled to draw a Turnabout and a Stroke of Genius. Things are about to become interesting for Urza's Saga, but not yet. This turn, it adds a Fluctuator, a Temporal Aperture and a Worn Powerstone to the board, then passes. The coming turn will be the good one.
There's not much Mirrodin Besieged can do except attack for three poison counter and pass. Urza's Saga is ready. 20 mana are gathered thanks to Turnabout and Tolarian Academy, then the Stroke of Genius is played to draw seven. Urza's Saga spots a Time Spiral and smiles... and from there, it's just a matter of time. Urza's Saga begins its crazy series of plays, and in a matter of minutes, the match is sealed. Once again, Urza's Saga showed its unstable power, getting very close to being eliminated, but finally managing to combo its way to victory. Urza's Saga advances to the semifinals of Group A.
Urza's Saga 3 - Mirrodin Besieged 2
Mmmhh definitely mixed up the two artifacts. I've removed the match for now and will replay all the games involving the Lens - which might be all of them, will have to check it out. Thanks for pointing that out, and I'm glad you're liking this BOTS
As it goes further, the combo player should remember that Turnabout has multiple modes other than untapping lands. If the deck is ever mana-flooded but runs out of things to do and Windfalls into a hand with multiple Turnabout again, it can use the "untap artifacts" mode to untap all Voltaic Key and Worn Powerstone and Temporal Aperture and try to Aperture into more things. In a pinch, a redundant Turnabout can even TAP OUT the opponent's attackers to buy you a turn against aggro. Turnabout fixes whatever your bottleneck is, either mana (untap Academy) or things to do (untap Aperture + Key) or turns (tap all creatures). It's a lot better than just Peregrine Drake.
Where are the other Group A Quarterfinal matches? I only see one.
The Urza's Legacy list seems to be much worse than the other Urza block decks, just because the hurr-durr Might of Oaks stompy strategy pairs up poorly against the newer power sets. Have you considered a U/R artifacts deck with 4 Goblin Welder, 4 Tinker, 4 Grim Monolith, 4 Memory Jar, Palinchron, Miscalculation and other goodies? I have a hard time seeing 4 Tinker + 4 Memory Jar ending badly. At the very least, it would be fun as hell to play and fit the degenerate nature of the block.
If I remember correctly, a UR deck for Legacy lacked a proper winning condition. If you want to assemble a list, feel free to post it
This coming weekend I should be able to post a few games, probably. Stay tuned