I contribute to Solider Stompy.
T1 Thalia- check
T1 Chalice - check
T1 Sup field - check
T1 new Thalia- check
T1 Preeminent Captain- check
-Cavern of souls x 4 - check
- Goblin style enlistment officer- check
New Thalia will take this deck to the levels of Dragon Stompy or the Goblin Prison deck that hit an SCG recently. But will it be strong in a Stax build- I see no reason why not.
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I played that Mono White World Queller Stax deck on Tuesday. I only finished 2-3, but had a blast and the games I lost were close.
Lands was a tough match up. He had everything he needed, as he needed it. Hard to sometimes beat the draws of your opponent. I did misplay a bit. But it fairness, first time running this build
Miracles was very easy. Turn 1 either Thalia is insane against them. Suppression Field isn't too shabby either.
Bant Stoneblade was a very tight match up. True name is still tough to beat if he is drawing enough fodder to throw into a smokestack or if I don't have a world queller to make him rid the nemesis.
Storm was laughable at best as per usual.
Aluren was a weird match up and I believe the loss came down to how well he drew, vs how well I drew. I was mana screwed a bit against him and that pretty much led to me not being able to resolve a trinisphere or smokestack.
It is always great to Stax, but frustrating to go 3-2 or 2-3 as it is only fine margins away from 4-1- we draw so badly off the top.
I have not done much beyond a few hours testing- my interest has been on Smokestacks and getting them back into the Geddon/Humility shell without losing the ground I have made up in running that shell, which was working well to an extent, and trying to square the circle of WW being hard but sol-lands essential (ironically Smokestacks help here a lot as they make more hands keepable being colorless).
So far I have managed to get two Stacks main, and two board as I indicated on the previous page. I feel much more confident v Miracles with Stacks on board, and from what I got in testing the Stacks are working better against delver decks than they did previously. They are still too slow for some matches on the draw, but that is Legacy.
board 4 Leyline of Sanctity (Burn, UR delver, most combo decks. some BUG lists, helm decks) 1 Timely Reinforcements (Burn, most Midrange, Tempo) 1 Trading post (I wanted to have a card that made dudes, gained life and drew cards- basically for Grindy matches and burn) 1 Phyrexian Unlife (Burn, affiity, many unfair decks eg Storm) 1 solemn offering (Burn - eidolons and S vortex, maybe Miracles?, D n T) 2 Spatial contortion (D n T, Maverick some Nic Fit lists) 1 Grafdigger's Cage (reanimator, manaless dredge, mana dredge, maybe Natural Order lists) 1 sphere of law (burn) 2 smokestack (Miracles) 1 Null broach (Miracles, some combo matches)
By increasing O ring effects and smokestacks I have more control cards that are less reliant on WW. The board is also less white now.
The second outpost had to go- it caused too many problems, it feels smoother without.
The Tutor works well at nabbing the Den every now and then, but mainly its about options if it is early. It is rare to clash with Crucible.
The 2nd Moat has gone as I felt I was still overly anti-critter.
That Trading post in the board seems to fill a lot of holes when it works. I would not want to run one main, but it does a bit of work and can also help vs Maelstrom Pulse.
Null Broach is just fab against decks with few outs.
It has taken a while to get to this build, it has been 2 steps forward and one back since I changed from bW, and in that time I have gone from being favoured in a match to not and back again. So much stax is build dependent.
I am running my list tomorrow again. I will say that running the 10 plains has been amazing to ensure the right amount of W sources. If you have humility perhaps you can forgo maze of ith and tabernacle for more plains. I have 14 white sources from lands currently plus the 4 diamonds and although I do miss Mishra's Factory I am loving always having the requisite amount of white mana at any given time for any given top deck. I also am only on 2 city of traitors since my new variant thrives of just 2 mana turn 1 rather than the usual 3 mana given that I have 4 Chalice and 4 Thalia guardian and having the six sol lands I do still often find myself with 3 mana turn 1 when I have a diamond.
I still don't know how I feel about your single e tutor in the main. I know you have corner cases where it shines, but overall when you already have chalice @1 it's a dead top deck, which is not where you want to be at all, as you are aware
Yes indeed to both.
I have 11 + the outpost and moxen, and although I can wasteland Flagstones and crucible them back it is pretty ugly. I am very much considering adding another plain somewhere....I would probably drop the Maze first. The extra plain always travels with me....). The question is how effective can my deck be without WW.
I am wary of the chalice nonbo. Touch wood it does not come up as often as I would have thought. E tutor probably fetches Chalice game 1 more than anything else, so Chalice is clearly the most important card and is normally set to 1 as we know. That said I do often set Chalice to two against burn game 2 (Leyline hits the targetted stuff, not Price, eidolon or Flame Rift), and against R/U delver chalice game 2 is often set to 2 (for Price, and Smash to smithereens). Against D n T the chalice is also often not set to 1 as well, and against some artifact decks it gets set to 0 sometimes.
Decks like BUG that inevitably kill chalice on 1 with decay, often the card gets back in business.
Now that I am running Stacks there is more liklihood of chalice for 1 not meaning the end of the Tutor's usefulness.
I will report back on it with more play.....
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Those are some fair points. Against UR delver I disagree with your chalice at 2. Only because the majority of their threats and spells are at 1. They may be able to sneak a stormchaser mage in, but you shut everything else off and humility is great at shutting that down.
I set chalice @ 2 sometimes for UR delver- again it depends on what hate I have down- if I get Sphere of law down early then Price of Progress, Smash to smithereens and Fireblast are their outs, plus Delver, who with the best will in the world is not the issue. If its t1 with nothing down then I concede that I should set it at 1, although Chalice rarely resolves that early...(
If have a life gaining artifact like the trading post then I do like to protect it if I can. A lot depends on if Leyline is down, with that down I worry more about 2 than 1 as I have a lot of Ghostly/Humility effects to nerf dudes. Two does hit daze, which is nice if I remember the trigger.
Burn at 2 with Leyline down is more straight forward, game 1 it is always one, game 2 its @2 unless they have built the deck oddly. I have even set one @ 3 before when the locks are on and I have one at 2 already.
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Also I ran my queller list today to a 2-1-1 result.
Round 1
2-0 vs burn.
Not even close. Between new and old thalia, plus Trinisphere both games. Game 2 I had leyline and I got to wasteland 2 fetchlands which was awesome.
Round 2
0-2 vs infect
He literally drew perfect both games. Game 1 early chalice at 1 after he had a noble down. He followed with inkmoth nexus, agent. Then double agent. Couldn't do much to stop that. No ghostly prison to be found.
Game 2 he flooded and drew viridian corruptor, seal of primordium, krosan grip lots of land, blighted agent and I just drew not a lot of relevance. New thalia couldn't stop his creatures, old thalia wasn't enough tax for how much mana he drew into. Eventually 2 Blighted agents and an inkmoth nexus got there.
Round 3
2-1 vs ANT
Game 1 I locked him out quickly and got both thalias plus queller down.
Game 2 I couldn't get enough going aside from leyline and he killed me after getting chain of vapor.
Game 3 I had every lock piece and he stuck in their hoping it would get better. Final board was his 2 land and 2 artifacts to my chalice at 0 and 1, 2 Trinisphere, 1 Crucible, leyline, 2 world queller.
Round 4
Miracles 1-1-1
Game 1 was long and grindy. After 2 stax I was left with Thalia in play, he had 0 permanents. Thalia got there after he topped a bit and then fetched realizing he had 0 targets left.
Game 2 it was quite a grind, but I couldn't get much going and he eventually entreated for 5 angels to kill me.
Game 3 we were close to time, and would have drawn but I scooped and we split his prizes.
Miracles is decent depending on draws. The more lands and crucible I can get wit stax on board obviously the better. I rarely seem to ever have both in a game. Deck is still really fun. Turn 1 new thalia is a delight in most every match up.
This is a pretty strong result considering how established the opponent's decks are.
Infect is one of those decks- its very good against most decks, and punishes any stalls or lack of development harshly- I personally think its the most underrated deck in the format. I guess it has one bad match up out of the common decks that puts people off playing it...Miracles perhaps?
I guess you could board into suppression field for Infect....that would slow it.
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The infect opponent was literally just one turn ahead of each hate piece that I dropped in game 1 and game 2 he got what he needed, plus plenty of land.
I did a 3 rounder last night. Nothing useful to report.
Went 2-1 but all the decks were not standard.
Lost 2-0 to my own soldier stompy that the D n T player borrowed for a change. I used to do well against it, but now it has 4 new Thalia, 4 old and 4 Preminent. They hit first turn and although in one game he passed on the draw, his second turn was preminent. I did not have O ring, and preminent was joined by a new Thalia and old thalia next turn (t3), and on t4 a Captain of the watch came in for GG.
Next game he hit t1 Thalia (old) t2 Thalia (new) and that is bad news for City of Traitors starts. I perhaps took a dodgy hand, but in the friendlies a t3 moat was answered by O ring and swing with Preeminent for Captain of the watch, and in another a t1 Ghostly still did not get there thanks to a pair of Thalias and sol lands. I managed one win in 5. Ouch. New Thalia is good, but in a deck that can power her out t1.....nuts.
Mental note - go up to 3 Spatial contortion in the board. And then some.
R2 I played Blue reset High Tide without the candelabra's.
G1 I mulled to a Chalice start, hit 2 chalice and 3 sphere, 2 geddons too.
G2 I got 2 chalice @ 1 and 2 through some Force action that took a 3 sphere, got a 2nd 3 sphere but since there were no more geddons or stacks I was vulnerable. He assembled wishes into Wipe Away and Hurkyls, but I resolved a Leyline that stops the Hurkyls targetting me meaning the two bounce spells can't do it thanks to Chalice.
R3 Parfait- won 2-1.
G1 Chalice did the job and Elspeth/Geddon soon after.
G2 I lost from what looked like a nuttily strong position. His t1 land tax and rip was strong, we had o ring and moxen arms races, but the Kjeldoran Outpost he runs mean that I had to set a key Stack to and not 1, which eventually cost me. Had RIP not been down Geddon would have won it, but the RIP ate the Flagstone trigger.
G3 I won scarily tight despite his mull to 5, this time I won the arms race, and had to cast 'geddon to make sure a RIP/Helm combo did not happen. Trading post came in and did loads. In turns I dropped humility and geddoned and with a goat token from t0 and soldier from an active Elspeth I get the concession - 8 life and 0 land.
so not much useful information, I wanted to play Miracles, D N T and other common decks but hey ho. I won't be Staxing for a while I guess, may just fiddle with the plain count (up 1) and do a bit of testing with that. I may try a trading post main.
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I played my stax build last night for my first terrible run with it for a 1-3 record. Was supposed to be 6 rounds, but after a horrible misplay my fiance made for a loss and lost any prize contention we decided to leave.
Round 1
Vs Sneak and Show + Omni 0-2
I know he is usually on this or miracles so I think my turn 1 chalice at 1 is good enough.
Game 1
His turn 1 was city of traitors, petal, petal, show and tell. I put in smokestack, the puts in sneak attack. Crack Petal for Emrakul and swing. I am at 3. I then draw a New Thalia on my turn 2... Bit late.
2 Turns later I play out the 2 plains I had in my opener and cast Thalia, Guardian. I don't see another land for several turns and he begins to draw lands and dig. After 6 turns of Thalia attacking I have trinisphere, crucible, both Thalias. He end of turn casts Intuition for 3 emrakul and activates sneak attack on his turn for the kill.
Game 2
My initial start I get 3sphere, Chalice @1, Ghostly Prison, New Thalia, Old Thalia. He was able to Pyroclasm away both Thalias. He ends up casting show and tell putting in Griselbrand to my O-Ring. He draws 7 cards and we play draw go for a while. He casts Wipe Away on O-Ring and gets an attack in before I redeploy it. He then casts Show and Tell and drops in Omniscience I put in the land in my hand. Next turn he pays 3 mana to cast emrakul through 3sphere. I scoop.
0-2 in what I feel is usually a decent match. No karakas and no Humility have changed that. Very frustrating
Round 2
Vs Grixis Delver 0-2
Game 1
I am a bit slow on disruption and he has the countermagic for everything I try early. I get a Smokestack online and slowly dwindle both players boards. He gets young pyromancer so smokestack ends up at 3 and leaves me with 1 plains and him with nothing. He begins to continue land drops and gets an angler and deathrite out before I can do much and my remaining 12 life disappears.
Game 2
I was able to early get a trinisphere but not have much else to do for a bit. He uses ancient grudge to kill it, then bolts the Thalia that I followed up with. He get young pyromancer on board and I eventually fall behind not really having any good top decks to get to.
0-2 in what seems like another good match up.
Round 3
vs Elves 0-2
Game 1
The Old Thalia, plus 3 sphere and Ghostly Prison just aren't enough and he eventually gets a craterhoof after my ancient tomb dealt enough damage to where the lone trampling attacker for 12 was enough.
Game 2
Similar to Game 1 except I get a very hateful start with Chalice, Ghostly Prison, both Thalias. He ends up with 9 creatures in play, 2 symbiotes which are playing Pong with his Reclamation Sage wrecking my board. He ends up get craterhoof and although it enters tapped, he has 5 creatures untapped.
0-2 another match I usually feel better about... Missing Humility.
Round 4
vs Grixis Delver 1-2
Game 1
I get turn 1 Smokestack off a double diamond start. I only tick up to 2 to wipe his board and leave myself with double diamond and a plains. I then follow up with Elspeth and start jumping tokens at his face.
Game 2
Drew a lot of land and didn't resolve anything past a single thalia and he eventually overwhelms me.
Game 3
Another quick start with Thalia, into trinisphere, into smokestack and he quickly concedes after he floods out and his 1 spell a turn can't keep up,
This is more how I envisioned this match.
After that Round I actually ended up dropping with my fiance and going home. Still think the deck is awesome. Just some draw issues as usual not having card advantage. Find myself missing the power of Humility. Card is just so busted. Still love the deck, but I will likely move on for a couple of weeks to try and revive Psychatog!
Well back in the land of FNM.
22 players, just 3 miserable rounds sadly.
My usual list
smokestacks-2
geddon-3
humility 4
crucible 3
trading post main and side
big elspeth and 2 small ones.
all the rest as expected, although of course 3 sphere is not a 4 of.
R1
Turbo depths.
G1 on the draw after a mull
- lose crucible and stax to t1/2 discard
- use a wasteland t2 and an oring t3 on a bird to keep mana down
-top deck humility and t4 get the scoop
G2 take a white light hand with humility and leyline.
he makes the dude for a t3 attack and I kor haven it with 3 sphere down- he can't hexproof it (although he tries) as I have him on 2 mana. I buy a turn and its not white, so can't drop Humility.
G3 on the play
Put a Chalice back in for Nature's claim.
Mull to 6 get a Leyline and set up a wastelock t3 after Wasting t1.
2-1 3 points
R2
Played my own Enchantress list and lost again.
G1 Cast an early crucible and Stack and he has 2 of the 3 removal enchantments in hand. Cast geddon but without either on the board he combos some time later- my last 3 draws being Ghostly prison and 2 lands. See 0 or the 3 or ing effects.
Game 2 - epic game. Cast a boarded Catastrophe and have about 15 turns of back and forth. Trading post is awesome- draw and recur the killed 3 sphere. Need to draw a 'geddon in the middle turns for a win as he has almost no lands left and a weak board with no green left if I 'geddon where sanctum. But I don't. Have increased rule of law to 1 and will play main deck catastrophe in future over my e tutor slot.
R3 Miracles. Scry away a chalice and gets the lock. MY t2 Humility resolves. T3 Stack gets hit by Jace. Get ultimated but play on with Goat tokens to kill the jace and bring him down. 4 blank land draws where he left stuff on the the top hurt.
G2 Win via t1 Chalice t2 3 sphere and a scoop as he has a bunch of 1cc stuff.
G3 Win easiliy t2 stack, t3 sphere, t4 crucible with some waste action. Have stack at 1 and keep the Stack fed with Flagstones recurring whilst he has zero permanents. Mtg as Garfield meant it....)
2-1
Changes upcoming- Rule of Law up to 3 in the board- too good for me to not use at 3 of- I have Enchantress and High Tide in my meta, plus Storm and Elves in the one last night. Not sure if it is any good vs Reanimator, probably not. Catastrophe main over the Tutor- I want 4 geddon effects, and also have Elspeth Sun's for mass removal. May go up to another board 'Geddon to make 5. Should change one 'Geddon to Ravages too- for Surgical Extraction defense!
Another FNM- I needed to play a deck I know backwards.
Went 3 and a draw.
Usual list with the odd change since last time in the board- 3 Rule of Law now.
R1
Storm
Managed to win game 1 via Chalice t1. He did not reveal what he was on, hoping for a misboard, trying to give the impression of a Temur deck locked out by his careful discarding.
G2 I took a triple Leyline hand, and set up well with prison permanents, including Phyrexian unlife and 3 sphere. Sadly I could not set up the win or 'Geddon lock whilst he was vulnerable under 3 sphere, and he removed stuff at the right time mid game to get a bunch of goblins. I could not draw the Tabernacle or Ghostlies I had left in for such things.
Game 3 was more of a lockout- I got the Rule of Law t2, Leyline t0, trinishphere T1, and then Leyline number 2. Chalices hit later too. I aggressively Wasted stuff and recursed. A chain of Vapor from him left him with 1 land and a lotus petal in hand under 3 sphere. Got the Trading and Ghostly too post too to get some drawing in but no win con. I drew the big elspeth in turns nearly unopposed.....1-1 Good games, needed 5 mins more or the late wincon to be a Opaescence, which I don't and have never run....(
R2 Infect
This was a budget version, and despite a horrible series of draws game 2 the match was actually easy. Moat, Chalice, Humility MVPs as ever. Death by Elspeth rather than 1/1 Humble goat.
4 points
R3
High tide.
Lost game 1, chalice for one resolved, but triple remands via snappies on my 4cc stuff hurt, I spent too many turns drawing land- rebuild wrecked my board for long enough to get him the win, despite a fizzling of his combo due to reset not turning up.....
Game 2 I powered in 3 sphere, got it Forced but resolved Rule of Law, 3 sphere, and Chalice. I may have Leylined too.
Game 3 was similar to game 2 without the force. I think a 'Geddon resolved here. Death by Goat was on as I kept Humility in for Snappy.
R4 Elves
Lost game 1 despite t1 Chalice, Ghostly, 3 sphere, 3 sphere, crucible and 'geddon. Rec sage multiple times hurt.
Needed Humility!
Game 2- t1 3 sphere and later Humility.
Got Crucible down, and then a Humilty/geddon combo. May have had a Rule of Law. Elspeth I think resolved with Wastelock for concession.
Game 3 - lost Chalice Therapy, dropped 3 sphere, lost humility to a flashbacked Therapy for 3 mana, where he lost a Arbor. Got a Peacekeeper, got another Humility and got golden with Rule of Law, Ghostly. Keeper meant that if Humility went he could not attack next time, unless he was already attacking.
An extra Humility but i was taking beats from 3 1/1s, and had to waste his mana. Two wasted Cradles later and I am on three but with Peacekeeper able to block, before laying and activating Trading post. 6 Life and the game is mine came, he scooped before the Goats got him under Wastelock.
10 points from 4 rounds.
The next thing is can I put a quick win card in the board- when boarding in an Opalescence could just be GG in a turn, for example.
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Played a 24 player fnm with White Humility Stax tonight.
Went 2-2.
Lost to Miracles, my own (the only deck I loaned out). He drew badly in terms of fetches, and had to fetch non basics. My T2 3 sphere got countered, t3 crcuble looked good as he was non basic heavy. Sadly I did not draw one Wasteland the whole game, I dealt with Jace and CB via O ring, and he eventually assembled the combo some 20 turns later. Died to Jace TMS number 2 with 6 lands in hand.... game two was worse, mull to a ok 6 and just got mentored, Chalice and Ghostly dying to wear//tear. Was due to lose against Miracles at some point having beaten it a few times recently.
Beat a cascade BUG ish deck with Bloodbraid(!)....horribly one sided despite 3 hymns resolving g1. Finished game 2 with 2x3 sphere, stack on 1, flagstones in play being sac'd fpr 1 alongside 8 land, 2 humility, trading post+ 6 goats, 2 crucibles with wastelock, and he had nothing for 6 turns unable to land stuff due to Stack .....
Beat storm, which stax generally does but more so as I run 3 Rule of Law. Knowing it was Storm pre match really helps..)
Lost 2-1 to Nic fit, winning my game well with goats and Elspeth II and some Geddon action. Lost g1 with stupidly poor draws, was never in it despite some decent later stuff, game 3 I thoght I had cleared the board with Catastrophe in Wrath mode, only for Grave titan to hit.....(
Am looking at removing a Ghostly or even all of them as RUG is weak in my area now and perhaps fiddling with a second Moat in the board....might look at sweepers/permanent control too, the mix is good but not quite right. I can move the current solitary Moat to the main over Ghostly, and make way for a second Moat in the side. I may reduce anti burn cards a bit now that I have two Trading Post main. I can also go up to 3 Smokestacks- a card that seems to be better for me in my matches nowadays. I probably need to find space for one more flexible removal card in the board, and one more sweeper of dudes in the 75.
I like catastrophe as a card for midrange- it can wipe the critters or land, and is thus never going to be bad (except that on Friday I could not cast it the turn I needed it v Miracles due to 3 sphere preventing me laying a Mox to wipe the board.....grrr)
EDIT At the moment I run a Solemn Offering, a P. Unlife. a Sphere of Law in the side specifically for Burn type matches, with Unlife coming in also against any RUG style tempo match and Storm. The Sphere and especially Solemn Offering seem a bit wasted- I had SO because it gives me 4 life and will take out a large number of targets in the burn match, but a general Council's Judgement would be better in general.
The winning deck was a brown legendary MUD/POST deck....
Well the new Gideon looks like a good fit for Humility Stax- the reset ability makes a strong dude, and the defensive ability plus 3 drop nature looks interesting. The 4/4 would not work well with Moat, of course.
My current build has been sharpened a bit to remove some of the cards I mentioned in my last post, I shall post it when I have a bit more time.
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The effect would be awesome if you could protect him easily in White Stax. Even with Humility, you need the Moat to protect him. I'm not sure it's strong enough without it. 3 damage is too easy to deal to remove the Gideon planeswalker. Ally of Zendikar would certainly be stronger.
Its about the casting cost though. 3cc is taking the place of an O ring type card, in a deck that uses a fair bit of 'geddon-ing. I guess some testing is in order.
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To me, Stax is more about power level than CMC. 3cc is fine as long as the power level is there.
I'm interested in this, though...
3WW Angel of Sanctions
Flying
When Angel of Sanctions enters the battlefield, you may exile target nonland permanent an opponent control until Angel of Sanctions leaves the battlefield.
Embalm 5W
3/4
An Oblivion Ring which can attack looks interesting...
Not for me. I run Humility Stax, which makes this a nonbo for me.
We have a lot of powerful options in 4cc and above slots already- Geddon, Smokestacks, planeswalkers like Elspeths (big and small) and, of course, Humility for me, so there is a lot of competition. The Embalm is the most attractive aspect, providing the card does not go farming there is some good stuff there. Oring effects work well with Smokestacks with careful management, of course- often taking out stuff early when needed and later when control is established getting sacrificed to the chimneys knowing that the stuff it brings stuff back will be munched next turn, but that does not really generate card advantage, just smoothing the game.
Flexibility is key, and this card does fulfil two functions, but I would want more to drop an Elspeth.
The main issue with mono white Stax is that the creatures it offers at the top of the tree are not as good as some of the the other colours and colourless, so the deck as Angel stax or whatever is always worse than Dragon Stompy or Dragon Stompy Prisons, MUD or the more controlling Eldrazi builds. White offers Geddon, Humility and permanent control, and they are strong aspects, but the creatures it gets normally lack a little.
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Did a 3 round event last night, having 3 tight matches.
R1 Sneak/Show
Lost game 1, took a reasonable hand, but the t2 Show enabled me to put in an underwhelming
Stack, rather than Humility.
It was not a bad hand to take, but if I had known for sure he was on the deck I would have shipped it.
Game 2- the deck worked as the deck works. I had a horrible discard of Karakas to Mox to get a city/mox down and 1st turn 3sphere made me happy but not safe. Crucible hit after, and show then Smokey....his window to win was short, to say the least I later had humility in hand but never cast it kept it back to ride Show and Tell. It was not needed as I kept smokey on 1, fed it goats, constructed a ludicrous board state (2 3sphere and Chalice plus Trading Post) and he conceded eventually unable to cast another spell- waiting on my win con was frustrating for both of us I guess.
Game 3 - a pleasing win again- this time he Showed Grisselbrand to my Humility, and he then needed Echoing Truth to do much. I plopped down Smokey and Elspeth finished the game.
R2 UR delver
Game 1 I mulled to 5, played a mox and Tomb for further discadvantage, discarding city. I damn nearly won the game too, resolving 3 sphere and Humility.
Game 2 I got my Leyline, it was very one sided once Humility hit. I used my Timely reinforcements to be out of range. I set my second Chalice to two, after the first was destroyed on 1. His list was basically burn for game two, and Price, Smash are far more threatening than a bunch of burn spells that can't target.
Game 3 I mulled to 6, no Leyline sadly, cast geddon on 13 life to lock him after resolving Elspeth (next turn its 3 sphere for me), taking 2 to take me to 11- he had exactly 11 damage in hand via Price/Bolt/Fireblast.
Frustrating.
Finally Elves, which tends to go with die roll.
G1 - kept a slightly risky hand with humility/moat plus mox, land, land, failed to draw land for 3 turns, which is all you get v Elves.
G2 on the play- 1st turn 3 sphere via mox/mox/land is risky as hell but works a treat- he has a 1 land/dorks hand, its GG pretty quickly as a prison is established.
G3- really tight back and forth, but on the draw I am thus disadvantaged. I get the 3 sphere t2, he blows it, I oring a drs t3, and t4 have a peacekeeper down- he has not boarded in Decay/hand destruction etc. as he knows my deck and simply can't disrupt it enough as I have a lot of redundancy. He only has one out- shaman of the pack [most elf lists don't run them but they do wonders] but has zero black. He searches for Birchlore and shamans me twice. He gets me next turn- I have Humility in hand the whole game, but no WW.
Thoughts- my matches are always close! There is still no deck outside of Maverick that I fear. I still leave quite a large percent of my board unboarded over the last 6 months, and as ever the mulls can hurt the deck.
I may add an extra white source into the deck, an extra Karakas perhaps as utility is always good and Thalia is a pain, its decent vs ranaimator too. I am not happy a all with the number of 0-3 cc spells in the 75, I have the 4th Stack in the board and a Moat, and extra catastrophe etc. All very expensive, a couple of cheaper options might come in useful..Grafigger's cage maybe covers a lot of bases, it would be a decent high impact t1/2 card in some matches- ranimator and elves, for example. I may turn the second catastrophe in the board into a wrath- the ability to reach that t2-3 is pretty strong vs BUG, NIc Fit et al. . The main is basically fine, it may need an extra white source, which may mean just 1 tabernacle in the 75, the board just needs a bit of cheapening.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
People with belligerent signatures are trying to compensate for something....
T1 Thalia- check
T1 Chalice - check
T1 Sup field - check
T1 new Thalia- check
T1 Preeminent Captain- check
-Cavern of souls x 4 - check
- Goblin style enlistment officer- check
New Thalia will take this deck to the levels of Dragon Stompy or the Goblin Prison deck that hit an SCG recently. But will it be strong in a Stax build- I see no reason why not.
Lands was a tough match up. He had everything he needed, as he needed it. Hard to sometimes beat the draws of your opponent. I did misplay a bit. But it fairness, first time running this build
Miracles was very easy. Turn 1 either Thalia is insane against them. Suppression Field isn't too shabby either.
Bant Stoneblade was a very tight match up. True name is still tough to beat if he is drawing enough fodder to throw into a smokestack or if I don't have a world queller to make him rid the nemesis.
Storm was laughable at best as per usual.
Aluren was a weird match up and I believe the loss came down to how well he drew, vs how well I drew. I was mana screwed a bit against him and that pretty much led to me not being able to resolve a trinisphere or smokestack.
I have not done much beyond a few hours testing- my interest has been on Smokestacks and getting them back into the Geddon/Humility shell without losing the ground I have made up in running that shell, which was working well to an extent, and trying to square the circle of WW being hard but sol-lands essential (ironically Smokestacks help here a lot as they make more hands keepable being colorless).
So far I have managed to get two Stacks main, and two board as I indicated on the previous page. I feel much more confident v Miracles with Stacks on board, and from what I got in testing the Stacks are working better against delver decks than they did previously. They are still too slow for some matches on the draw, but that is Legacy.
4 City of Traitors
6 Plains
1 Ancient Den
4 wasteland
3 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Kjeldoran outpost (up for debate)
1 Karakas
1 Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Maze of Ith
4 mox Diamond
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Trinisphere
3 Ghostly Prison
4 Humility
1 Moat
1 Blinding Light
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Crucible of Worlds
2 Smokestack
3 Armageddon
board
4 Leyline of Sanctity (Burn, UR delver, most combo decks. some BUG lists, helm decks)
1 Timely Reinforcements (Burn, most Midrange, Tempo)
1 Trading post (I wanted to have a card that made dudes, gained life and drew cards- basically for Grindy matches and burn)
1 Phyrexian Unlife (Burn, affiity, many unfair decks eg Storm)
1 solemn offering (Burn - eidolons and S vortex, maybe Miracles?, D n T)
2 Spatial contortion (D n T, Maverick some Nic Fit lists)
1 Grafdigger's Cage (reanimator, manaless dredge, mana dredge, maybe Natural Order lists)
1 sphere of law (burn)
2 smokestack (Miracles)
1 Null broach (Miracles, some combo matches)
By increasing O ring effects and smokestacks I have more control cards that are less reliant on WW. The board is also less white now.
The second outpost had to go- it caused too many problems, it feels smoother without.
The Tutor works well at nabbing the Den every now and then, but mainly its about options if it is early. It is rare to clash with Crucible.
The 2nd Moat has gone as I felt I was still overly anti-critter.
That Trading post in the board seems to fill a lot of holes when it works. I would not want to run one main, but it does a bit of work and can also help vs Maelstrom Pulse.
Null Broach is just fab against decks with few outs.
It has taken a while to get to this build, it has been 2 steps forward and one back since I changed from bW, and in that time I have gone from being favoured in a match to not and back again. So much stax is build dependent.
I still don't know how I feel about your single e tutor in the main. I know you have corner cases where it shines, but overall when you already have chalice @1 it's a dead top deck, which is not where you want to be at all, as you are aware
I have 11 + the outpost and moxen, and although I can wasteland Flagstones and crucible them back it is pretty ugly. I am very much considering adding another plain somewhere....I would probably drop the Maze first. The extra plain always travels with me....). The question is how effective can my deck be without WW.
I am wary of the chalice nonbo. Touch wood it does not come up as often as I would have thought. E tutor probably fetches Chalice game 1 more than anything else, so Chalice is clearly the most important card and is normally set to 1 as we know. That said I do often set Chalice to two against burn game 2 (Leyline hits the targetted stuff, not Price, eidolon or Flame Rift), and against R/U delver chalice game 2 is often set to 2 (for Price, and Smash to smithereens). Against D n T the chalice is also often not set to 1 as well, and against some artifact decks it gets set to 0 sometimes.
Decks like BUG that inevitably kill chalice on 1 with decay, often the card gets back in business.
Now that I am running Stacks there is more liklihood of chalice for 1 not meaning the end of the Tutor's usefulness.
I will report back on it with more play.....
If have a life gaining artifact like the trading post then I do like to protect it if I can. A lot depends on if Leyline is down, with that down I worry more about 2 than 1 as I have a lot of Ghostly/Humility effects to nerf dudes. Two does hit daze, which is nice if I remember the trigger.
Burn at 2 with Leyline down is more straight forward, game 1 it is always one, game 2 its @2 unless they have built the deck oddly. I have even set one @ 3 before when the locks are on and I have one at 2 already.
Also I ran my queller list today to a 2-1-1 result.
Round 1
2-0 vs burn.
Not even close. Between new and old thalia, plus Trinisphere both games. Game 2 I had leyline and I got to wasteland 2 fetchlands which was awesome.
Round 2
0-2 vs infect
He literally drew perfect both games. Game 1 early chalice at 1 after he had a noble down. He followed with inkmoth nexus, agent. Then double agent. Couldn't do much to stop that. No ghostly prison to be found.
Game 2 he flooded and drew viridian corruptor, seal of primordium, krosan grip lots of land, blighted agent and I just drew not a lot of relevance. New thalia couldn't stop his creatures, old thalia wasn't enough tax for how much mana he drew into. Eventually 2 Blighted agents and an inkmoth nexus got there.
Round 3
2-1 vs ANT
Game 1 I locked him out quickly and got both thalias plus queller down.
Game 2 I couldn't get enough going aside from leyline and he killed me after getting chain of vapor.
Game 3 I had every lock piece and he stuck in their hoping it would get better. Final board was his 2 land and 2 artifacts to my chalice at 0 and 1, 2 Trinisphere, 1 Crucible, leyline, 2 world queller.
Round 4
Miracles 1-1-1
Game 1 was long and grindy. After 2 stax I was left with Thalia in play, he had 0 permanents. Thalia got there after he topped a bit and then fetched realizing he had 0 targets left.
Game 2 it was quite a grind, but I couldn't get much going and he eventually entreated for 5 angels to kill me.
Game 3 we were close to time, and would have drawn but I scooped and we split his prizes.
Miracles is decent depending on draws. The more lands and crucible I can get wit stax on board obviously the better. I rarely seem to ever have both in a game. Deck is still really fun. Turn 1 new thalia is a delight in most every match up.
Infect is one of those decks- its very good against most decks, and punishes any stalls or lack of development harshly- I personally think its the most underrated deck in the format. I guess it has one bad match up out of the common decks that puts people off playing it...Miracles perhaps?
I guess you could board into suppression field for Infect....that would slow it.
Went 2-1 but all the decks were not standard.
Lost 2-0 to my own soldier stompy that the D n T player borrowed for a change. I used to do well against it, but now it has 4 new Thalia, 4 old and 4 Preminent. They hit first turn and although in one game he passed on the draw, his second turn was preminent. I did not have O ring, and preminent was joined by a new Thalia and old thalia next turn (t3), and on t4 a Captain of the watch came in for GG.
Next game he hit t1 Thalia (old) t2 Thalia (new) and that is bad news for City of Traitors starts. I perhaps took a dodgy hand, but in the friendlies a t3 moat was answered by O ring and swing with Preeminent for Captain of the watch, and in another a t1 Ghostly still did not get there thanks to a pair of Thalias and sol lands. I managed one win in 5. Ouch. New Thalia is good, but in a deck that can power her out t1.....nuts.
Mental note - go up to 3 Spatial contortion in the board. And then some.
R2 I played Blue reset High Tide without the candelabra's.
G1 I mulled to a Chalice start, hit 2 chalice and 3 sphere, 2 geddons too.
G2 I got 2 chalice @ 1 and 2 through some Force action that took a 3 sphere, got a 2nd 3 sphere but since there were no more geddons or stacks I was vulnerable. He assembled wishes into Wipe Away and Hurkyls, but I resolved a Leyline that stops the Hurkyls targetting me meaning the two bounce spells can't do it thanks to Chalice.
R3 Parfait- won 2-1.
G1 Chalice did the job and Elspeth/Geddon soon after.
G2 I lost from what looked like a nuttily strong position. His t1 land tax and rip was strong, we had o ring and moxen arms races, but the Kjeldoran Outpost he runs mean that I had to set a key Stack to and not 1, which eventually cost me. Had RIP not been down Geddon would have won it, but the RIP ate the Flagstone trigger.
G3 I won scarily tight despite his mull to 5, this time I won the arms race, and had to cast 'geddon to make sure a RIP/Helm combo did not happen. Trading post came in and did loads. In turns I dropped humility and geddoned and with a goat token from t0 and soldier from an active Elspeth I get the concession - 8 life and 0 land.
so not much useful information, I wanted to play Miracles, D N T and other common decks but hey ho. I won't be Staxing for a while I guess, may just fiddle with the plain count (up 1) and do a bit of testing with that. I may try a trading post main.
Round 1
Vs Sneak and Show + Omni 0-2
I know he is usually on this or miracles so I think my turn 1 chalice at 1 is good enough.
Game 1
His turn 1 was city of traitors, petal, petal, show and tell. I put in smokestack, the puts in sneak attack. Crack Petal for Emrakul and swing. I am at 3. I then draw a New Thalia on my turn 2... Bit late.
2 Turns later I play out the 2 plains I had in my opener and cast Thalia, Guardian. I don't see another land for several turns and he begins to draw lands and dig. After 6 turns of Thalia attacking I have trinisphere, crucible, both Thalias. He end of turn casts Intuition for 3 emrakul and activates sneak attack on his turn for the kill.
Game 2
My initial start I get 3sphere, Chalice @1, Ghostly Prison, New Thalia, Old Thalia. He was able to Pyroclasm away both Thalias. He ends up casting show and tell putting in Griselbrand to my O-Ring. He draws 7 cards and we play draw go for a while. He casts Wipe Away on O-Ring and gets an attack in before I redeploy it. He then casts Show and Tell and drops in Omniscience I put in the land in my hand. Next turn he pays 3 mana to cast emrakul through 3sphere. I scoop.
0-2 in what I feel is usually a decent match. No karakas and no Humility have changed that. Very frustrating
Round 2
Vs Grixis Delver 0-2
Game 1
I am a bit slow on disruption and he has the countermagic for everything I try early. I get a Smokestack online and slowly dwindle both players boards. He gets young pyromancer so smokestack ends up at 3 and leaves me with 1 plains and him with nothing. He begins to continue land drops and gets an angler and deathrite out before I can do much and my remaining 12 life disappears.
Game 2
I was able to early get a trinisphere but not have much else to do for a bit. He uses ancient grudge to kill it, then bolts the Thalia that I followed up with. He get young pyromancer on board and I eventually fall behind not really having any good top decks to get to.
0-2 in what seems like another good match up.
Round 3
vs Elves 0-2
Game 1
The Old Thalia, plus 3 sphere and Ghostly Prison just aren't enough and he eventually gets a craterhoof after my ancient tomb dealt enough damage to where the lone trampling attacker for 12 was enough.
Game 2
Similar to Game 1 except I get a very hateful start with Chalice, Ghostly Prison, both Thalias. He ends up with 9 creatures in play, 2 symbiotes which are playing Pong with his Reclamation Sage wrecking my board. He ends up get craterhoof and although it enters tapped, he has 5 creatures untapped.
0-2 another match I usually feel better about... Missing Humility.
Round 4
vs Grixis Delver 1-2
Game 1
I get turn 1 Smokestack off a double diamond start. I only tick up to 2 to wipe his board and leave myself with double diamond and a plains. I then follow up with Elspeth and start jumping tokens at his face.
Game 2
Drew a lot of land and didn't resolve anything past a single thalia and he eventually overwhelms me.
Game 3
Another quick start with Thalia, into trinisphere, into smokestack and he quickly concedes after he floods out and his 1 spell a turn can't keep up,
This is more how I envisioned this match.
After that Round I actually ended up dropping with my fiance and going home. Still think the deck is awesome. Just some draw issues as usual not having card advantage. Find myself missing the power of Humility. Card is just so busted. Still love the deck, but I will likely move on for a couple of weeks to try and revive Psychatog!
22 players, just 3 miserable rounds sadly.
My usual list
smokestacks-2
geddon-3
humility 4
crucible 3
trading post main and side
big elspeth and 2 small ones.
all the rest as expected, although of course 3 sphere is not a 4 of.
R1
Turbo depths.
G1 on the draw after a mull
- lose crucible and stax to t1/2 discard
- use a wasteland t2 and an oring t3 on a bird to keep mana down
-top deck humility and t4 get the scoop
G2 take a white light hand with humility and leyline.
he makes the dude for a t3 attack and I kor haven it with 3 sphere down- he can't hexproof it (although he tries) as I have him on 2 mana. I buy a turn and its not white, so can't drop Humility.
G3 on the play
Put a Chalice back in for Nature's claim.
Mull to 6 get a Leyline and set up a wastelock t3 after Wasting t1.
2-1 3 points
R2
Played my own Enchantress list and lost again.
G1 Cast an early crucible and Stack and he has 2 of the 3 removal enchantments in hand. Cast geddon but without either on the board he combos some time later- my last 3 draws being Ghostly prison and 2 lands. See 0 or the 3 or ing effects.
Game 2 - epic game. Cast a boarded Catastrophe and have about 15 turns of back and forth. Trading post is awesome- draw and recur the killed 3 sphere. Need to draw a 'geddon in the middle turns for a win as he has almost no lands left and a weak board with no green left if I 'geddon where sanctum. But I don't. Have increased rule of law to 1 and will play main deck catastrophe in future over my e tutor slot.
R3 Miracles. Scry away a chalice and gets the lock. MY t2 Humility resolves. T3 Stack gets hit by Jace. Get ultimated but play on with Goat tokens to kill the jace and bring him down. 4 blank land draws where he left stuff on the the top hurt.
G2 Win via t1 Chalice t2 3 sphere and a scoop as he has a bunch of 1cc stuff.
G3 Win easiliy t2 stack, t3 sphere, t4 crucible with some waste action. Have stack at 1 and keep the Stack fed with Flagstones recurring whilst he has zero permanents. Mtg as Garfield meant it....)
2-1
Changes upcoming- Rule of Law up to 3 in the board- too good for me to not use at 3 of- I have Enchantress and High Tide in my meta, plus Storm and Elves in the one last night. Not sure if it is any good vs Reanimator, probably not. Catastrophe main over the Tutor- I want 4 geddon effects, and also have Elspeth Sun's for mass removal. May go up to another board 'Geddon to make 5. Should change one 'Geddon to Ravages too- for Surgical Extraction defense!
Went 3 and a draw.
Usual list with the odd change since last time in the board- 3 Rule of Law now.
R1
Storm
Managed to win game 1 via Chalice t1. He did not reveal what he was on, hoping for a misboard, trying to give the impression of a Temur deck locked out by his careful discarding.
G2 I took a triple Leyline hand, and set up well with prison permanents, including Phyrexian unlife and 3 sphere. Sadly I could not set up the win or 'Geddon lock whilst he was vulnerable under 3 sphere, and he removed stuff at the right time mid game to get a bunch of goblins. I could not draw the Tabernacle or Ghostlies I had left in for such things.
Game 3 was more of a lockout- I got the Rule of Law t2, Leyline t0, trinishphere T1, and then Leyline number 2. Chalices hit later too. I aggressively Wasted stuff and recursed. A chain of Vapor from him left him with 1 land and a lotus petal in hand under 3 sphere. Got the Trading and Ghostly too post too to get some drawing in but no win con. I drew the big elspeth in turns nearly unopposed.....1-1 Good games, needed 5 mins more or the late wincon to be a Opaescence, which I don't and have never run....(
R2 Infect
This was a budget version, and despite a horrible series of draws game 2 the match was actually easy. Moat, Chalice, Humility MVPs as ever. Death by Elspeth rather than 1/1 Humble goat.
4 points
R3
High tide.
Lost game 1, chalice for one resolved, but triple remands via snappies on my 4cc stuff hurt, I spent too many turns drawing land- rebuild wrecked my board for long enough to get him the win, despite a fizzling of his combo due to reset not turning up.....
Game 2 I powered in 3 sphere, got it Forced but resolved Rule of Law, 3 sphere, and Chalice. I may have Leylined too.
Game 3 was similar to game 2 without the force. I think a 'Geddon resolved here. Death by Goat was on as I kept Humility in for Snappy.
R4 Elves
Lost game 1 despite t1 Chalice, Ghostly, 3 sphere, 3 sphere, crucible and 'geddon. Rec sage multiple times hurt.
Needed Humility!
Game 2- t1 3 sphere and later Humility.
Got Crucible down, and then a Humilty/geddon combo. May have had a Rule of Law. Elspeth I think resolved with Wastelock for concession.
Game 3 - lost Chalice Therapy, dropped 3 sphere, lost humility to a flashbacked Therapy for 3 mana, where he lost a Arbor. Got a Peacekeeper, got another Humility and got golden with Rule of Law, Ghostly. Keeper meant that if Humility went he could not attack next time, unless he was already attacking.
An extra Humility but i was taking beats from 3 1/1s, and had to waste his mana. Two wasted Cradles later and I am on three but with Peacekeeper able to block, before laying and activating Trading post. 6 Life and the game is mine came, he scooped before the Goats got him under Wastelock.
10 points from 4 rounds.
The next thing is can I put a quick win card in the board- when boarding in an Opalescence could just be GG in a turn, for example.
Went 2-2.
Lost to Miracles, my own (the only deck I loaned out). He drew badly in terms of fetches, and had to fetch non basics. My T2 3 sphere got countered, t3 crcuble looked good as he was non basic heavy. Sadly I did not draw one Wasteland the whole game, I dealt with Jace and CB via O ring, and he eventually assembled the combo some 20 turns later. Died to Jace TMS number 2 with 6 lands in hand.... game two was worse, mull to a ok 6 and just got mentored, Chalice and Ghostly dying to wear//tear. Was due to lose against Miracles at some point having beaten it a few times recently.
Beat a cascade BUG ish deck with Bloodbraid(!)....horribly one sided despite 3 hymns resolving g1. Finished game 2 with 2x3 sphere, stack on 1, flagstones in play being sac'd fpr 1 alongside 8 land, 2 humility, trading post+ 6 goats, 2 crucibles with wastelock, and he had nothing for 6 turns unable to land stuff due to Stack .....
Beat storm, which stax generally does but more so as I run 3 Rule of Law. Knowing it was Storm pre match really helps..)
Lost 2-1 to Nic fit, winning my game well with goats and Elspeth II and some Geddon action. Lost g1 with stupidly poor draws, was never in it despite some decent later stuff, game 3 I thoght I had cleared the board with Catastrophe in Wrath mode, only for Grave titan to hit.....(
Am looking at removing a Ghostly or even all of them as RUG is weak in my area now and perhaps fiddling with a second Moat in the board....might look at sweepers/permanent control too, the mix is good but not quite right. I can move the current solitary Moat to the main over Ghostly, and make way for a second Moat in the side. I may reduce anti burn cards a bit now that I have two Trading Post main. I can also go up to 3 Smokestacks- a card that seems to be better for me in my matches nowadays. I probably need to find space for one more flexible removal card in the board, and one more sweeper of dudes in the 75.
I like catastrophe as a card for midrange- it can wipe the critters or land, and is thus never going to be bad (except that on Friday I could not cast it the turn I needed it v Miracles due to 3 sphere preventing me laying a Mox to wipe the board.....grrr)
EDIT At the moment I run a Solemn Offering, a P. Unlife. a Sphere of Law in the side specifically for Burn type matches, with Unlife coming in also against any RUG style tempo match and Storm. The Sphere and especially Solemn Offering seem a bit wasted- I had SO because it gives me 4 life and will take out a large number of targets in the burn match, but a general Council's Judgement would be better in general.
The winning deck was a brown legendary MUD/POST deck....
My current build has been sharpened a bit to remove some of the cards I mentioned in my last post, I shall post it when I have a bit more time.
I'm interested in this, though...
3WW Angel of Sanctions
Flying
When Angel of Sanctions enters the battlefield, you may exile target nonland permanent an opponent control until Angel of Sanctions leaves the battlefield.
Embalm 5W
3/4
An Oblivion Ring which can attack looks interesting...
We have a lot of powerful options in 4cc and above slots already- Geddon, Smokestacks, planeswalkers like Elspeths (big and small) and, of course, Humility for me, so there is a lot of competition. The Embalm is the most attractive aspect, providing the card does not go farming there is some good stuff there. Oring effects work well with Smokestacks with careful management, of course- often taking out stuff early when needed and later when control is established getting sacrificed to the chimneys knowing that the stuff it brings stuff back will be munched next turn, but that does not really generate card advantage, just smoothing the game.
Flexibility is key, and this card does fulfil two functions, but I would want more to drop an Elspeth.
The main issue with mono white Stax is that the creatures it offers at the top of the tree are not as good as some of the the other colours and colourless, so the deck as Angel stax or whatever is always worse than Dragon Stompy or Dragon Stompy Prisons, MUD or the more controlling Eldrazi builds. White offers Geddon, Humility and permanent control, and they are strong aspects, but the creatures it gets normally lack a little.
Did a 3 round event last night, having 3 tight matches.
R1 Sneak/Show
Lost game 1, took a reasonable hand, but the t2 Show enabled me to put in an underwhelming
Stack, rather than Humility.
It was not a bad hand to take, but if I had known for sure he was on the deck I would have shipped it.
Game 2- the deck worked as the deck works. I had a horrible discard of Karakas to Mox to get a city/mox down and 1st turn 3sphere made me happy but not safe. Crucible hit after, and show then Smokey....his window to win was short, to say the least I later had humility in hand but never cast it kept it back to ride Show and Tell. It was not needed as I kept smokey on 1, fed it goats, constructed a ludicrous board state (2 3sphere and Chalice plus Trading Post) and he conceded eventually unable to cast another spell- waiting on my win con was frustrating for both of us I guess.
Game 3 - a pleasing win again- this time he Showed Grisselbrand to my Humility, and he then needed Echoing Truth to do much. I plopped down Smokey and Elspeth finished the game.
R2 UR delver
Game 1 I mulled to 5, played a mox and Tomb for further discadvantage, discarding city. I damn nearly won the game too, resolving 3 sphere and Humility.
Game 2 I got my Leyline, it was very one sided once Humility hit. I used my Timely reinforcements to be out of range. I set my second Chalice to two, after the first was destroyed on 1. His list was basically burn for game two, and Price, Smash are far more threatening than a bunch of burn spells that can't target.
Game 3 I mulled to 6, no Leyline sadly, cast geddon on 13 life to lock him after resolving Elspeth (next turn its 3 sphere for me), taking 2 to take me to 11- he had exactly 11 damage in hand via Price/Bolt/Fireblast.
Frustrating.
Finally Elves, which tends to go with die roll.
G1 - kept a slightly risky hand with humility/moat plus mox, land, land, failed to draw land for 3 turns, which is all you get v Elves.
G2 on the play- 1st turn 3 sphere via mox/mox/land is risky as hell but works a treat- he has a 1 land/dorks hand, its GG pretty quickly as a prison is established.
G3- really tight back and forth, but on the draw I am thus disadvantaged. I get the 3 sphere t2, he blows it, I oring a drs t3, and t4 have a peacekeeper down- he has not boarded in Decay/hand destruction etc. as he knows my deck and simply can't disrupt it enough as I have a lot of redundancy. He only has one out- shaman of the pack [most elf lists don't run them but they do wonders] but has zero black. He searches for Birchlore and shamans me twice. He gets me next turn- I have Humility in hand the whole game, but no WW.
Thoughts- my matches are always close! There is still no deck outside of Maverick that I fear. I still leave quite a large percent of my board unboarded over the last 6 months, and as ever the mulls can hurt the deck.
I may add an extra white source into the deck, an extra Karakas perhaps as utility is always good and Thalia is a pain, its decent vs ranaimator too. I am not happy a all with the number of 0-3 cc spells in the 75, I have the 4th Stack in the board and a Moat, and extra catastrophe etc. All very expensive, a couple of cheaper options might come in useful..Grafigger's cage maybe covers a lot of bases, it would be a decent high impact t1/2 card in some matches- ranimator and elves, for example. I may turn the second catastrophe in the board into a wrath- the ability to reach that t2-3 is pretty strong vs BUG, NIc Fit et al. . The main is basically fine, it may need an extra white source, which may mean just 1 tabernacle in the 75, the board just needs a bit of cheapening.