Currently working on a build for the combo, added green for the extra layer of protection not to sure how I feel about it yet. Wondered if anyone who's been playing this more had any inputs.
Currently working on a build for the combo, added green for the extra layer of protection not to sure how I feel about it yet. Wondered if anyone who's been playing this more had any inputs.
Green here just for Sterling Grove? I'm not sure how I feel about that. For one, the primary concern for the deck, I've found, is Countermagic, not enchantment removal. RUG plays no enchantment removal and infrequently runs K Grip side. Stoneblade and Miracles maybe run a few D Spheres, but runs a lot more countermagic. Omni-Tell runs countermagic but no removal. Goblins runs neither (though Pyroblast/Red Elemental Blast from board plays either role). Maverick is really the only deck that runs removal and no countermagic, and I'd rather just go get Pithing Needle naming Qasali Pridemage against them.
In the meantime, you've made your manabase extra vulnerable to Back to Basics and Wasteland, while also eliminating the possibility of running Mishra's Factory.
Thanks for the reply after further testing I think I may get rid of the sterling groves for more counter magic.
The way I could see the Sterling Grove strat working is if you slot this into an Enchantress shell. But then you're adding a third color to Enchantress and weakening the Replenish back-up plan in order to run a slightly-more-secure but less powerful Solitary Confinement.
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Yeah I think it was just old habits (being and enchantress player) that had me auto lean towards grove. I've got a new list i'm kinda kicking around (still hammering out a couple slots in the main) i'll pop a list up here when I think i've got it the way I like it. Also why are people running a singleton Seat of the Synod just wondering.
Yeah I think it was just old habits (being and enchantress player) that had me auto lean towards grove. I've got a new list i'm kinda kicking around (still hammering out a couple slots in the main) i'll pop a list up here when I think i've got it the way I like it. Also why are people running a singleton Seat of the Synod just wondering.
I imagine so e tutor can find a blue source.
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That was my only guess. Think ill try it out and see if the risk of wasteland is worth the reward of another search target. Almost finished on my cleaned up counter/top version.
I just 4-0'd a Legacy Tourney tonight with the list I last posted.
Round one vs budget Aggro-Enchantress
This was basically a bye. I had no idea what he was playing, putting him on budget Maverick when I saw Temple Garden and Sunpetal Grove. Then he dropped a Silhana Ledgewalker and slapped Etheral Armor on it. I responded by Energy Field followed shortly by Rest in Peace. He realized he left his O-Ring sideboard and scooped after drawing through half his deck.
Game two, boarded in Jace came down on turn four, Fatesealed away his Ledgewalker, and let him draw a string of creature auras with no creatures in play, eventually exiling his deck. Jaced.
Round two vs RUG Delver
Well, here it comes. Delver. After I lost to Delver last time I ran out this deck, I was dreading this matchup. All three games were very close. Game one, I eventually manage to land the RIP-Field and he scoops (he also whiffed about 6 consecutive Delver flip triggers this game). Game two, he gets early aggro going and uses Pyroblast to keep me off of Counterbalance and Field, and ground me out - at the end, I try to Vedalken Shackles to steal his lethal Goyf, and he goes Daze, Daze, Spell Pierce to put me off of mana to resolve and activate it. I let it be countered and try and survive one turn with Energy Field, but he Ponders into a Wasteland to close it out. Game three, he punts by Krosan Griping a Sensei's Top in response to its draw trigger - not realizing that I was using it to draw a Vedalken Shackles to steal a Goyf and block his other goyf. RIP and then Helm come down, and that's all she wrote.
Round three vs RUG Delver
Deja vu! Yet another RUG Delver player. This time, the games are even more one-sided in my favor. Early Counterbalances bait counters, letting me freely resolve RIPs. RIP Field makes him scoop game one, and Helm follows up RIP to close out game two.
Round four vs BUG Delver
Jesus Christ Delver. This is even more of a nightmare for me, since he also runs Abrupt Decay. And game one, he hits three of them, clearing back-to-back Counterbalances and then a Rest in Peace. A second RIP makes his Green dudes all but useless, especially when Factories come down to block and chip away life. Eventually grind into Helm and it takes his head.
Game two, I board in 2x Misdirection 2x Divert to help with Decays, but he never sees any. Instead, he has two very early Delvers putting me on a very tight clock. I drop a turn 3 Energy Field to stabilize for a turn at 9 life and Supreme Verdict the next turn, praying for no Decay. Instead, he happily walks into the Verdict by adding a goose to the field. Grind grind grind, and RIP-Helm closes it out again.
The tricks to playing against Delver seem to be:
Slow roll as much as possible. Your best possible scenario is them dropping a turn one Goose and hoping to ride it to victory, as you'll easily be able to set up a RIP before it can get big. Worst scenario is something like T1 + T2 Delver, or Delver into Goyf, combined with early flips/lots of cantrips for stocking the yard. If this happens, your hope rests on either you drawing or being able to tutor into your silver bullets (Vedalken Shackles, Porphyry Nodes, Detention Sphere) or their hand ONLY being dudes and cantrips, with not enough countermagic to keep you off of RIP-Field.
If they give you the time, lead by trying to set up Counterbalance. They'll either fall over themselves trying to counter it, or resolving future spells just got that much easier. Either way, it's a win. Post-board this should also bait any Pyroblasts that would otherwise be used on your Energy Fields. Rest in Peace is your actual most important card to resolve, as it blanks Goyf and practically blanks Goose. Sometimes, I've seen them board out Goyf after seeing RIP, which is still a win for you. RIP-Field is an auto-win G1 against all but the oddest RUG delver decks. Games 2 and 3 you have to worry about Pyroblast/Red Elemental Blast and the occasional Krosan Grip, but if you can get them to focus on the Field, you can keep RIP in play, keeping Goyf/Goose down and threatening a Helm win.
Play around Daze and Spell Pierce as hard as you are able to. There's no shame in playing CB turn 3 and RIP turn 4, especially if Goose, unflipped Delver, or middling Goyf are picking away.
Take advantage of every Shuffle effect you can. If you're cracking a fetch or casting E Tutor without knowing that your top 2-3 cards are iffy, there better be a darn good reason for it. You can gain a huge amount of virtual card advantage this way.
If you draw Pithing Needle, using it on Wasteland gives you a marked advantage. Not enough that it's worth E Tutoring for, but it's still a nice bonus when it happens.
Don't be overeager to go for a Helm Win. If you've got board control, there's no harm in tanking for a few turns to find enough lands to potentially play around multiple Daze/Pierce, or to look for more countermagic of your own to deal with Force. Supreme Verdict is your number one sideboard card against RUG. Just be careful that its mana cost can be a little difficult to obtain through Stifles and Wastelands. Try and crack your Strands, when you can safely, for at least one basic Plains, and hold your Tundras as long as possible. With 2x Island and 1x Plains, any fetch or Tundra in hand can play Verdict.
When you're banking on Verdict, feel free to try for a RIP-less Energy Field. You're going to want to be playing around Wasteland anyways, and Field can get them to over-commit to to the board. They know that eventually you're going to have to play something they can counter to break the field, after which they think they'll be able to kill you. What (you hope) they don't know is that when you do play a spell, it will be Verdict.
I just 4-0'd a Legacy Tourney tonight with the list I last posted.
Great matches and tips, can you provide your sideboard?
Actually I'm building one, but not yet have the duals (Hallowed Fountain instead) And not FOW and Fetches also.
For now, for lands I think the basic ones are the best option since I don't think any huge improvement with another non-basic land in this deck (I don't have Karakas also, yeah I'm saving... ) .
Divert really works? Or a simple Spell Pierce can be better? I never got a Decay without a lot of mana in the other side..
You got some Liliana of The Veil? She ruins the deck.. I'm looking for Leyline of Sanctity maybe.
Great matches and tips, can you provide your sideboard?
Actually I'm building one, but not yet have the duals (Hallowed Fountain instead) And not FOW and Fetches also.
For now, for lands I think the basic ones are the best option since I don't think any huge improvement with another non-basic land in this deck (I don't have Karakas also, yeah I'm saving... ) .
Divert really works? Or a simple Spell Pierce can be better? I never got a Decay without a lot of mana in the other side..
You got some Liliana of The Veil? She ruins the deck.. I'm looking for Leyline of Sanctity maybe.
I'd probably trim the BtB the next time I get a chance to play it, as I didn't find myself boarding it in even in the matches where I included it to board against (RUG Delver, for example). I might add a second Pithing Needle board, that card was definitely an MVP (shutting down Wastelands vs Delver decks and almost never being dead).
I haven't had much of a problem with Liliana. We run basically nothing that her -2 effects. Her +1 can be a bit annoying, but ends up being more or less symmetrical, and a lot of our plays are sorcery speed, so it's not that big of a deal. Just use top to avoid drawing Countermagic that she can strip, and use it to draw that countermagic in an emergency to counter something. Needle, Factories, and Detention Sphere all also answer her fairly well. Leyline of Sanctity would only stop her Ult really. But Leyline is something that's worth considering because it can shut down targeted discard, many Storm wincons, Burn, etc. But this deck already walks all over Storm and Burn.
Basic lands are key in this deck, as you want to avoid being Wastelanded a lot. Your first acquisition should probably be Flooded Strands, and then a few other blue (and maybe a few white) Fetches, then one Tundra. The fetchlands are so important to shuffle away bad cards you see with Brainstorm and Sensei's Divining Top, as well as being pseudo-duals that can get you either color of mana without resorting to Wasteland targets.
mystic gate is nuts as a mana fixer. if you are running miracle cards it makes it that much better to play becasue of double white that gets fixed.
Gate is definitely an acceptable card. It lets you cast Counterbalance off of it + a Plains, and it helps with the mana of things like Entreat the Angels or Supreme Verdict, which can otherwise be tricky. As an added bonus, it can't be shut down by Choke.
However, the shuffle advantage granted by Fetches is way too big to pass up.
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I want to make a financial comment in regards to the original post.
Magic.tcgplayer.com has financial data on energy field dating back to september 16, 2010. Tcgplayer uses the adjusted average price (de- weights outliers) from over 30 stores.
Energy field was $4 (+-$.50) from before Sept. 2010 until may 20th 2011. I don't know what caused the spike then, but it went up to a $14 card overnight.
It maintained price for about 4 months, before slowly tailing off. On september 11th (don't worry, this isn;t a conspiracy theory) 2012 it reached its lowpoint at a medium price of $7.04.
When the OP started buying them up, it was still a $7 card. It has since spiked up to $18 (+-$2) and has maintained price for a full month. It has yet to substantially trend down.
It is quite likely that $18 is the new norm for Energy Field. It could be that it has reached its zenith and will only go down from here, but since it has found a place as a 2-4of in a tier 1 deck it is unlikely to go below $12.
Shortages/winning tournaments could cause energy field to go up, but probably by less than $10. rares from Urzas block such as sneak attack and show and tell have hit the 30-50 range, but i think this is unlikely for energy field. Other cards from a similar time period, such as Misdirection, have remained stable at around $18.
I believe that Energy field has reached peak price. Still, at an $11 gain per card for the normal english version (OP said he was investing in foils/foreign cards) it was one heck of a good buy.
For anyone interested in tangential financial advice, buy deathrite shamans. Now. As a $10 card it is criminally underpriced. Rather than comparing it to Noble Hierach, which is a minimum $20 card, I think it is comparable to Dark Confidant, a $40 card.
Reasons: it is a 4 of in both tier 1 legacy and modern decks. It's lax color requirements let it fit in any deck. Being established in legacy means that its price is fairly ban proof, as it may be banned in either format but is incredibly unlikely to be banned in both. Also, wizards likely realizes that it was a mistake to print it, so it is unlikely to be reprinted in the foreseeable future. Even though RTR will be a extremely well opened set, Deathrite should only increase in value.
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YMTC: We need a spikey red enchantment. My creations:
RR
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Just 2-1'd at a small local legacy tournament. Only 8 guys showed up. 2 Goblins, 1 Burn, 1 Infect, 1 Combo Elves, 1 Reanimator, 1 Omni-Tell, and myself.
Round one was paired against Infect. Mulled to six, kept an okay hand. EOT tutored for an Energy Field. After reading the card, he was confused and thought I was casting it then, and tried to Force it. I explained I was just putting it on top of my deck. Knowing he had the Force, I passed the second turn, ate 7 infect, and tried to resolve the field turn 3 with Spell Snare backup to get blown out by Force into Daze. Distortion Strike brings me to nine poison, but I manage to drop a Mishra's Factory and a Snare on the rebound to trade with the elf + berserk. He then drops Blighted Agent and I'm out of answers. Game two and three, I resolve an early Energy Field, and he reveals that he moved the Nature's Claims out of his board recently, so has no outs.
Round two I get paired against Omni-Tell. Game one, I pretty well punt. I blank on what to Pithing Needle against Omni-tell (deciding he's not playing Sneak Show so I don't need to name Sneak Attack, but not thinking of what I should be naming and passing the turn), and the very next turn he Show and Tells in a Griselbrand, and I've got an extra mana up at the end of the exchange. The Porphyry Nodes I Show and Told in myself take care of the demon, but not before he draws a fresh hand to Show and Tell in Emrakul the next turn. I dump out a Helm of Obedience, knowing full well I don't have access to a Rest in Peace. So I do the only thing I can - Helm him for 3 and pray I hit an Emrakul of my own. Whiff, and that's game.
Game two doesn't go much better. I wish for a Detention Sphere early, but he rips it from my grip with a Thoughtseize before going off. The only thing I can find to field against him is an Ethersworn Canonist, hoping to see Omniscience across from me, and he ends up going the Emrakul route.
Round three, Burn. I'm pretty sure I can't lose to Burn. Counterbalance + Top shuts him down super hard, and I have it turn two both games. Game two I bring in Diverts and Misdirections, and redirecting a few burn spells to the face puts him in Factory range pretty quickly.
My big takeaway from all this is that I need more against Omni-Tell in my Sideboard. Arcane Laboratory, the second Ethersworn Canonist, the second Detention Sphere, Ensnaring Bridge, and the redirection spells for his countermagic just isn't enough. I'm thinking Vendillion Clique might help, probably over the Jaces, who I have yet to bring in except for one match that didn't really count anyways.
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Hello! I currently play this combo in my UW Miracles deck, but would like to dedicate a whole deck to it. I'd like to know if you could let me know what do you think of my first shot at this deck. Many thanks in advance.
1) You should take advantage of your Enlightened Tutors more. Having access to four of them lets you toolbox your deck to an insane degree. Your only real targets outside of RIP-Field and CounterTop are Detention Sphere and Humility. Both of these are good, but you can be doing more. My maindeck E Tutor one-ofs are Detention Sphere, Vedalken Shackles, Pithing Needle, Porphyry Nodes, and Ethersworn Canonist.
Needle is especially important as it lets you shut down a lot of outs to RIP-Field, like Qasali Pridemage vs Maverick, Mangara of Corondor vs Death and Taxes, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor vs BUG Control, Miracles, and Stoneblade.
Canonist makes Elves and Storm trivial, and can really put the hurt on Omni-Tell.
Nodes is great against RUG Delver and anyone running Mom, as it gets around protection and Shroud.
Shackles is a beating against any creature-based deck.
D Sphere is pretty obvious.
2) Jace is not very good here. You actually have a fairly low number of ways to protect him, as your primary protection comes from RIP-Field, which does not protect him. With no maindeck Mass Removal or Swords to Plowhares, he's rarely going to be more than a 4-mana Brainstorm + Healing Salve. I've tried him SB as something to bring in when I bring in my mass removal, but even then he's not great. It can also be difficult to hit 4 mana, especially against Wasteland decks, and especially with only 20 lands.
3) Mishra's Factory. I run two of them, and they're great. Against aggro, they can hold off or trade with a lot of threats. Against Combo and Control, they apply pressure and provide an uncounterable wincon. You should definitely get your land count up, and your first two additions should be two of these.
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Just a random thought here. Has anyone tried putting Misthollow Griffin in the sideboard as a silly transformational? Once Rest in Peace is on the battlefield, I think only Terminus does anything to it permanently. With slightly different control elements, it may be an option. Supreme Verdict over one of the Detention Spheres for starters. Bring in more of them and add Wrath of God and those blue-based aggro-control decks will have such a hard time competing.
So, the post-RTR changes have certainly had an interesting effect on the metagame. Using this link (http://www.mtgtop8.com/format?f=LE&meta=39), we can get a good picture of what the meta has been looking like. There are some big things to note:
RUG Delver is no longer the top deck. That honor falls to BUG Threshold (aka "Team America"), approximately half of which run Delver. The Delver decks also usually run some Tombstalker. The other half run more control-based with some combination of Snapcaster Mage, Tidehollow Strix, Dark Confidant, Vendilion Clique, Shardless Agent, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and Liliana of the Veil. The common cards throughout the builds are Deathrite Shaman, Tarmogoyf, Abrupt Decay, Brainstorm, Force of Will, Hymn to Tourach, and Ponder.
Now, on the surface, you might think that BUG Delver is just going to be a worse matchup for us than RUG Delver, due to the presence of Abrupt Decay. However, this is not entirely true. For one, BUG Delver has largely eschewed Stifle, which makes our mana much more consistent against them. Additionally, they appear much less likely to run Spell Pierce and/or Spell Snare, which reduces the counters we have to deal with to merely Daze and Force of Will. In return, we have to deal with Hymn and maybe Thoughtseize effects, but between Brainstorm, Enlightened Tutor, and Sensei's Divining Top, we do a pretty good job at mitigating these.
Additionally, they lack Lightning Bolt, which can be used to keep us from sealing out a game, and their Delvers flip less frequently. On average, they run 20 lands to RUG's 18, and they average about 3 additional non-sorcery, non-instant cards (between running a fourth creature slot and things like one-of Sylvan Library). 5 cards difference may not seem like a ton, but that's an 8% difference in blind-flipping Delver, and it increases the chances of a "whiff" Ponder (no instants/sorceries in the three cards) from ~12.5% to ~19.8%. Combined with the fact that Deathrite is likely to be doing less early beating than Mongoose and Tombstalker comes down later, and BUG Delver is much less likely to have enough early aggression to pressure us into a corner.
There is the matter of Abrupt Decay. Decay kills all of our main combo pieces - RIP, Counterbalance, Field - as well as most of our silver bullets. But that's the thing. There are so many targets for their Abrupt Decays that it is extremely easy to stick the important things. Rest in Peace neuters them just as hard, if not harder, than it does against RUG, turning Goyf into a vanilla 0/1, DRS into a vanilla 1/2, and making Tombstalker all but uncastable.
Now, non-Delver BUG is a different beast. There is no consistent build right now, so it is difficult to pinpoint what exactly you will be playing against. Shardless Agent builds appear to eschew cheap countermagic like Pierce/Snare/Daze entirely, due to them being bad Cascade flips, relying instead on more Thoughtseize effects plus possibly Force of Will. Fewer counters plus the slower clock that comes with not having Delvers/Tombstalkers around makes this variant a bit more comfortable, giving us plenty of time to establish board control and combo out. Dark Confidant builds naturally shy away from Force of Will, which is even better for us. Snapcaster Mage gets hosed by RIP, and Clique is just another Thoughtseize effect, though sometimes a little harder to play around.
Few if any appear to be packing Maelstrom Pulse or Pernicious Deed to back up their Decays, but the big thing to be concerned about against these builds is going to be the Planeswalkers. Jace straight-up kills you with his ult, while Liliana can crack your RIP-Field to allow a board to kill you. With only Factories and maybe Shackles, it can be very difficult to keep Planeswalkers from going off, with the only answer cards being Detention Sphere and Pithing Needle, which are both one-ofs and vulnerable to Decay. If you suspect a lot of non-Delver BUG, definitely consider packing Leyline of Sanctity into your sideboards, which stops both of these from ulting, as well as stopping Hymn/Thoughtseize from being useful.
The other newcomer to the top tier scene is Jund. Personally, I see Jund as a bad version of Shardless BUG, trading Shardless Agent and Jace for Bloodbraid Elf, maybe a few Grim Lavamancer, and Lightning Bolt. Otherwise, the decks are pretty similar. DRS, Goyf, Confidant, Liliana, Abrupt Decay, Hymn, Thoughtseize are all common players.
With no countermagic and no Brainstorm effects, they're going to have a harder time stopping you than the BUG variants do. Slap down a RIP to turn off DRS/Goyf/Lavamancer, Field keeps Bloodbraid out of your hair, and Pithing Needle on Liliana sews the whole thing up.
After that comes Stoneblade, which has been continuing to post good numbers, overtaking Miracles again as the Terminus-weak builds (Goblins/Maverick) slip further down in viability. Like non-Delver BUG, their main plan of attack (swinging with dudes) gets hampered by Energy Field, and Rest in Peace hurts them by neutering Snapcaster Mage and Lingering Souls. They also run fewer outs to RIP-Field than the Decay-heavy BGX builds, packing only an average of 2 outs maindeck, spread between Engineered Explosives, Vindicate, Detention Sphere, and Disenchant (in that order of frequency). These are also counterable, where AD is not, which is especially relevant against EE which will frequently be cast with X=2 to blow up RIP/Field/CB, and 2 is one of the easiest CB numbers to hit (though a savvy opponent can pay an extra with a color already being used to reduce this chance).
Also, like BUG, you need to contend with Jace. Needle is our best out here.
Next comes RUG finally. I've spoken a bit about playing against RUG. They run a lot of disruption but very little board interaction. Go for early Counterbalance to draw out counters, then resolve Rest in Peace to seal the deal unless facing down Delvers. They can't break RIP-Field game one, and it's still tough for them game two.
Next is Miracles. I haven't played against them much at all, but here are my thoughts on the Matchup. They provide next to no pressure. Needle on Jace shuts down their Primary wincon, and Entreat can be Pierced or ignored with RIP-Field. Against versions packing RIP-Helm, you run a lot more E Tutors and combo pieces than they do. Let them play RIP, and then tutor your Helm to kill them. Ethersworn Canonist is good here to let you win the counter war over Helm.
Last in the top tier, we have Show & Tell. I spoke about playing against them last time. Their combo is very hard to beat, and you need to pack the right answers. Ideally, you can tutor a Detention Sphere to the top of your deck, and keep it there with Top until you need it (dodging Thoughtseize if they run it), when you can pop it into play to counteract their S&T. Also, keeping it on top gives you a good CB 3-cost card.
Sneak Show is harder for you than Omni-Show, as Canonist does nothing against Sneak Attack. Try to Needle Sneak Attack if you suspect Sneak Show, otherwise Canonist is one of your top tutor targets, letting you counter their S&T without response while also applying pressure.
It's also important to note that Goblins and Maverick have further declined in popularity. Goblins was a great matchup, but Maverick was not as much (Thalia and Pridemage give us trouble). Burn (which is all but an Autowin) has not even placed T8 in the past 2 months.
Just a random thought here. Has anyone tried putting Misthollow Griffin in the sideboard as a silly transformational? Once Rest in Peace is on the battlefield, I think only Terminus does anything to it permanently. With slightly different control elements, it may be an option. Supreme Verdict over one of the Detention Spheres for starters. Bring in more of them and add Wrath of God and those blue-based aggro-control decks will have such a hard time competing.
I'm using one Griffin and I think he is great, if he appears nothing can stop them effectively.
I really like them, but I'm use only one, I don't think the usage of two of them. Since I don't have a Vendillion he is my beater.
Ran this deck this past weekend at the SCG Open. Won my first 5 matches, but then lost three in a row. Still took 63rd, but the first half of the event made me think I was going to take the whole thing. My list was:
Round 1: Mono-U Show and Tell (Omniscience, Enter the Infinite, Dream Halls).
Game one I get stuck on lands. I cast Rest in Peace but that's my only real play. He casts Dream Halls, I have Force, he Forces Force, I have a second Force, but he has Dream Halls #2 next turn. Exile ETI to cast Omni, cast Emrakul, cast ETI. I scoop it up.
Game two I bring in my dudes and start pressuring. I've got a Counterbalance but no Top. I know my top cards are bad because of a Brainstorm, so I do the only thing I can and Fetch-shuffle into a Blind Reveal in response to his Show and Tell. Geist on top says no and turns my pressure into a serious clock, finishing him off before he sees another Show and Tell or enough lands for Dream Halls.
Game three, I E Tutor into D Sphere early, then set up a clock. The turn before he dies, he can Show and Tell into Omni, but can't cast anything meaningful before D Sphere exiles it.
Round 2: Goblins.
Game one, I set up RIP-Field early and there's nothing he can do.
Game two, I again set up an early RIP-Field, but he's got an answer this time. Anarchy clears my RIP, leaving him looking for a way to pop the shield. Chalice of the Void on 2 keeps me off of fixing up my defenses, so I'm using Vendilion Clique + Karakas to filter bad cards out of my hand, beat down, and keep him from tutoring Tuktuk Scrapper to kill my Pithing Needle. Chalice on 3 shuts that down too, and he manages to find and resolve Scrapper to pop my Shield. I activate a RIP-less Helm for Mogg War-Marshall, giving me enough blockers to stay alive, but I'm 2 damage short from finishing him off on my turn.
Game three is over pretty quick. RIP-Field once again shuts him down, and helm follows soon after to end it.
Round 3: Smallpox
Game one, I draw a ton of lands, which sounds bad, but it lets me get to Helm mana before he gets his Liliana to ult, despite his LD. Early RIP shuts down a lot of his stuff (bloodghast/crucible/Geralf's).
Game two, I start with leyline, but it doesn't help me much. He gets two Lilianas and a ton of LD to just keep me down
Game three, he's stuck on Swamp + 2x Wasteland, and at the end of the game shows me a hand with 4x Hymn + 3x Smallpox. With his only real play being a Cursed Scroll, he doesn't get very far.
Round 4: FEATURE MATCH - Storm
Not a Televised Feature Match, but that's probably for the better considering it was a pretty boring match.
Game one, he plays Scalding Tarn into Undeground Sea, Ponder turn one, making me think BUG Delver. Turn two, he plays Volcanic Island, casting Preordain and Brainstorm. I put him on Storm, tell him so, and EOT E Tutor for Ethersworn Canonist. He scoops it up, having no maindeck outs.
Game two, spreadsheets the game. He has a couple of early Discard spells to rip my Counterbalances. He goes off on turn three, carefully tracking his mana, storm count, and the cards in my hand, deliberating for several minutes. He decides he can't win with Past in Flames and goes for Ad Nauseam. As soon as he finds it, he realized he mis-read his own handwriting and had one additional mana so could have gone PiF, but he's already committed. He casts AN, hitting Past in Flames and a few other cards, bringing him down to two life. He deliberates for several more minutes on whether to take another card (hoping for a petals or Dark Rit) or stop at the safe 2. He stops, unable to win this turn, but strips my hand - this took so long that I forget I had an E Tutor to play in response to his first Cabal Therapy. This gives him a couple more turns breathing room, and he's able to go off with Past in Flames and a yard full of rituals.
Game three, I set up a clock with Factory, Clique, and Geist. He's dead on the board unless he can go off. He knows I have one force, but what he doesn't know is my EOT Fetch into Top activation at the end of his last turn put another force into my hand with a second pitch card on top. I counter LED and he thinks he has me, but the second force hits Infernal and that's that.
Round 5 - Jund
Game one, he sets up a pretty fast clock with Bob, Liliana, Bloodbraid into Bolt. I stumble a little and he takes it.
Game two and three, I just walk all over him. RIP and Energy Field turn off so much of his deck. Leyline game two shuts out a lot of his disruption. Helms come down for the win and there's little he can do. Divert at one point shunts a Maelstrom Pulse from RIP to Garruk Relentless. He complains that my deck just hates on his too hard.
Round 6 - Esper Stoneblade
This is a matchup that I never got the opportunity to test. No one in my playgroup has it together, and the guy I was supposed to test against online never had his schedule mesh with mine. Not making excuses, but I really did not know how to sideboard here or the intricacies to look out for.
Game one: IOK into Snapcast IOK strip two Counterbalance. I E Tutor for RIP, but it's a little late at that point. Snapcaster beats down, joined eventually by spirit tokens.
Game two: Jace really seals this one for him. Brainstorms from Jace give him enough fuel to counter all of my attempts to not lose, as well as tucking a few possible answers. I die to Souls and Clique and a Batterskull before I can stabilize.
Round 7 - RUG Delver
This one I feel even worse about losing. RUG has been generally favorable in my testing, as they have no outs to RIP Field game one and rarely game two.
Game one: My deck feeds me a line of bricks. I literally Fetched away 3 lands into a land + 2 tops, and fetched that away into 3 more lands. I see one RIP and no E Tutors, and my one RIP meets Spell Snare. On six, facing down a Goose, him with no Red, I decide not to play a Field. He finds his Tarn off the top and has bolt to finish me. I could have activated Helm for ~5 to maybe find a blocker, but I don't know if that would have worked out if I did.
Game two: Again, my only RIP meets a Snare. Snare has been much less popular in recent months, but he apparently has them and they're wrecking me. I do get a Field down with Needle on Wasteland, and his own Sulfuric Vortex shocking him down, but he finds Ancient Grudge for the Needle to kill me.
Round 8 - BUG Delver
Again, like RUG Delver, BUG is pretty favorable. However, he sees an Abrupt Decay for literally every RIP I find except in game two, with one more in his favor taking out Counterbalance game three, and my redirection effects nowhere to be found. I do manage to take game two with Counterbalance revealing Misdirection on top to stop his Force on my Helm.
Moving forward, I'm considering the following changes:
1) Vendilion Clique main. This guy was a house every time I saw him. I'm definitely strongly considering having them main instead of side. It means trimming Detention Spheres and silver bullets, or maybe the fourth Counterbalance.
2) Divert over Spell Pierce main. I definitely feel like I need more redirection effects, as only 4 has been insufficient to see them in the matchups I need them in. Moving some from side to main gives me more room in the side for Misidirections. They're good pretty much everywhere, only really being lackluster against Goblins (where Pierce is pretty mediocre too). They're worse against Jace/Liliana and Show and Tell, but they still let me counter counterspells in those matchups. They're slightly worse against Storm cards, but they're stronger vs early discard.
3) Supreme Verdict side. All three of my losses came against decks with creatures plus counter backup. Having an uncounterable answer is worth more than I gave it credit for.
4) Maybe +1 Leyline side. They're great when I see them, but I feel like the chances of that with 3 copies are too low.
I'm definitely liking this setup, but there's a few changes I may make for next time, namely losing Misdirections to try some sideboard Jace, the Mind Sculptor for creature-light matchups, and swapping Ethersworn Canonist out for Ensnaring Bridge. Canonist has been pretty good, but I've been able to walk all over Storm without it, and Bridge helps me shut down Elves pretty well anyways.
Anyhow, quick tournament report:
Round 1: Merfolk
Game one, I open with Top into Counterbalance as he drops some Vials. Mishra's Factory and Clique stem the tide until I get Rip Field online, and then a second Clique ticks him to zero.
Game two, I never see a Field the entire game. I do a good job stemming the tide with Porphyry Nodes, but once the board is clear, my life is low and I can't find a Field to stop Vault from killing me. On 1 life, I scoop on his attack phase, then look at the three cards I could have topped into and see Clique as the bottom-most one. Oops.
Game three, I establish Rip Field pretty much right away. He blows an Echoing Truth to get a small attack through, but it's not enough to finish me off. Shackles thins his ranks, and it's pretty much just me toying with him until I find Helm.
Round 2: Zoo
Game one, he opens with Lavamancer into Goyf. It's pretty slow as not many instants or sorceries have gone flying yet. I establish CounterTop, then Sphere away his Goyfs when he plays a second one. Force on a Nacatl buys me the time to set up Rip Field, and he scoops, not having Pridemages main.
Game two, he mulls, then keeps a hand of 2x Goyf, 2x Dual, 2x Pryoblast (or so he tells me later. RIP comes online almost instantly to blank the Goyfs, and Helm shows up quickly as well to put him out of his misery.
Round 3: 4c Delver
Game one, it looks mostly like he's playing RUG Delver. I see Delver and Goyf, but I establish Rip Field and he scoops.
Game two, it seems like he's playing an entirely different deck. Thoughtseize into Bob, Abrupt Decay, it overall does not go well for me, and he kills me before I can stabilize.
Game three, I have RIP to stem the tide from Goyf and DRS, and Clique stops a Delver and rips a FoW from his hand, but he's ticking me down with guys and Sulfuric Vortex and I can't find a Field. On the last possible turn, I manage to find Helm and knock him out.
Round 4: ANT
Game one, I open with Top into RIP as he plays cantrips. He tries Duress on me t3, and I respond with Clique to see Therapy, rituals, PiF, AN, and Infernal. I rip his AN and he takes my forces. He's forced to waste time casting a worthless Past in Flames to be able to turn on his Infernal, during which time I find another Force, so when he tries to go off I stop him.
Game two, Leyline of Sanctity turns off his discard, and I establish an early clock with Factory, Canonist, and Clique, plus his own Bob revealing Dark Ritual after Dark Ritual. He kills the Canonist and tries to go off, but I have the Force to stop him, and he dies to Bob revealing the fourth Dark Rit on his upkeep.
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2 Helm of Obedience
1 Pithing Needle
4 Sensei's Divining Top
Enchantments
3 Counterbalance
2 Detention Sphere
3 Energy Field
1 Luminarch Ascension
3 Sterling Grove
1 Oblivion Ring
4 Rest in Peace
Instants
4 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce
5 Island
2 Plains
1 Forest
Lands
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Tundra
2 Tropical Island
Legendary Lands
1 Karakas
1 Pithing Needle
2 Meddling Mage
2 Aura of Silence
1 Back to Basics
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Prophyry Nodes
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
2 Supreme Verdict
Green here just for Sterling Grove? I'm not sure how I feel about that. For one, the primary concern for the deck, I've found, is Countermagic, not enchantment removal. RUG plays no enchantment removal and infrequently runs K Grip side. Stoneblade and Miracles maybe run a few D Spheres, but runs a lot more countermagic. Omni-Tell runs countermagic but no removal. Goblins runs neither (though Pyroblast/Red Elemental Blast from board plays either role). Maverick is really the only deck that runs removal and no countermagic, and I'd rather just go get Pithing Needle naming Qasali Pridemage against them.
In the meantime, you've made your manabase extra vulnerable to Back to Basics and Wasteland, while also eliminating the possibility of running Mishra's Factory.
If you do go this route, though, definitely run Misty Rainforest over Scalding Tarn.
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The way I could see the Sterling Grove strat working is if you slot this into an Enchantress shell. But then you're adding a third color to Enchantress and weakening the Replenish back-up plan in order to run a slightly-more-secure but less powerful Solitary Confinement.
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I imagine so e tutor can find a blue source.
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2 Helm of Obedience
2 Pithing Needle
4 Sensei's Divining Top
Enchantments
4 Counterbalance
2 Detention Sphere
3 Energy Field
1 Luminarch Ascension
1 Oblivion Ring
4 Rest in Peace
1 Humility
Creatures
1 Ethersworn Canonist
Instants
4 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce
1 Seat of the Synod
Basic Snow Lands
5 Island
2 Plains
Lands
2 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
2 Scalding Tarn
3 Tundra
Legendary Lands
1 Karakas
2 Misdirection
2 Meddling Mage
1 Aura of Silence
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Back to Basics
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Porphyry Nodes
2 Supreme Verdict
Round one vs budget Aggro-Enchantress
This was basically a bye. I had no idea what he was playing, putting him on budget Maverick when I saw Temple Garden and Sunpetal Grove. Then he dropped a Silhana Ledgewalker and slapped Etheral Armor on it. I responded by Energy Field followed shortly by Rest in Peace. He realized he left his O-Ring sideboard and scooped after drawing through half his deck.
Game two, boarded in Jace came down on turn four, Fatesealed away his Ledgewalker, and let him draw a string of creature auras with no creatures in play, eventually exiling his deck. Jaced.
Round two vs RUG Delver
Well, here it comes. Delver. After I lost to Delver last time I ran out this deck, I was dreading this matchup. All three games were very close. Game one, I eventually manage to land the RIP-Field and he scoops (he also whiffed about 6 consecutive Delver flip triggers this game). Game two, he gets early aggro going and uses Pyroblast to keep me off of Counterbalance and Field, and ground me out - at the end, I try to Vedalken Shackles to steal his lethal Goyf, and he goes Daze, Daze, Spell Pierce to put me off of mana to resolve and activate it. I let it be countered and try and survive one turn with Energy Field, but he Ponders into a Wasteland to close it out. Game three, he punts by Krosan Griping a Sensei's Top in response to its draw trigger - not realizing that I was using it to draw a Vedalken Shackles to steal a Goyf and block his other goyf. RIP and then Helm come down, and that's all she wrote.
Round three vs RUG Delver
Deja vu! Yet another RUG Delver player. This time, the games are even more one-sided in my favor. Early Counterbalances bait counters, letting me freely resolve RIPs. RIP Field makes him scoop game one, and Helm follows up RIP to close out game two.
Round four vs BUG Delver
Jesus Christ Delver. This is even more of a nightmare for me, since he also runs Abrupt Decay. And game one, he hits three of them, clearing back-to-back Counterbalances and then a Rest in Peace. A second RIP makes his Green dudes all but useless, especially when Factories come down to block and chip away life. Eventually grind into Helm and it takes his head.
Game two, I board in 2x Misdirection 2x Divert to help with Decays, but he never sees any. Instead, he has two very early Delvers putting me on a very tight clock. I drop a turn 3 Energy Field to stabilize for a turn at 9 life and Supreme Verdict the next turn, praying for no Decay. Instead, he happily walks into the Verdict by adding a goose to the field. Grind grind grind, and RIP-Helm closes it out again.
The tricks to playing against Delver seem to be:
Slow roll as much as possible. Your best possible scenario is them dropping a turn one Goose and hoping to ride it to victory, as you'll easily be able to set up a RIP before it can get big. Worst scenario is something like T1 + T2 Delver, or Delver into Goyf, combined with early flips/lots of cantrips for stocking the yard. If this happens, your hope rests on either you drawing or being able to tutor into your silver bullets (Vedalken Shackles, Porphyry Nodes, Detention Sphere) or their hand ONLY being dudes and cantrips, with not enough countermagic to keep you off of RIP-Field.
If they give you the time, lead by trying to set up Counterbalance. They'll either fall over themselves trying to counter it, or resolving future spells just got that much easier. Either way, it's a win. Post-board this should also bait any Pyroblasts that would otherwise be used on your Energy Fields.
Rest in Peace is your actual most important card to resolve, as it blanks Goyf and practically blanks Goose. Sometimes, I've seen them board out Goyf after seeing RIP, which is still a win for you. RIP-Field is an auto-win G1 against all but the oddest RUG delver decks. Games 2 and 3 you have to worry about Pyroblast/Red Elemental Blast and the occasional Krosan Grip, but if you can get them to focus on the Field, you can keep RIP in play, keeping Goyf/Goose down and threatening a Helm win.
Play around Daze and Spell Pierce as hard as you are able to. There's no shame in playing CB turn 3 and RIP turn 4, especially if Goose, unflipped Delver, or middling Goyf are picking away.
Take advantage of every Shuffle effect you can. If you're cracking a fetch or casting E Tutor without knowing that your top 2-3 cards are iffy, there better be a darn good reason for it. You can gain a huge amount of virtual card advantage this way.
If you draw Pithing Needle, using it on Wasteland gives you a marked advantage. Not enough that it's worth E Tutoring for, but it's still a nice bonus when it happens.
Don't be overeager to go for a Helm Win. If you've got board control, there's no harm in tanking for a few turns to find enough lands to potentially play around multiple Daze/Pierce, or to look for more countermagic of your own to deal with Force.
Supreme Verdict is your number one sideboard card against RUG. Just be careful that its mana cost can be a little difficult to obtain through Stifles and Wastelands. Try and crack your Strands, when you can safely, for at least one basic Plains, and hold your Tundras as long as possible. With 2x Island and 1x Plains, any fetch or Tundra in hand can play Verdict.
When you're banking on Verdict, feel free to try for a RIP-less Energy Field. You're going to want to be playing around Wasteland anyways, and Field can get them to over-commit to to the board. They know that eventually you're going to have to play something they can counter to break the field, after which they think they'll be able to kill you. What (you hope) they don't know is that when you do play a spell, it will be Verdict.
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Great matches and tips, can you provide your sideboard?
Actually I'm building one, but not yet have the duals (Hallowed Fountain instead) And not FOW and Fetches also.
For now, for lands I think the basic ones are the best option since I don't think any huge improvement with another non-basic land in this deck (I don't have Karakas also, yeah I'm saving... ) .
Divert really works? Or a simple Spell Pierce can be better? I never got a Decay without a lot of mana in the other side..
You got some Liliana of The Veil? She ruins the deck.. I'm looking for Leyline of Sanctity maybe.
Thanks
The sideboard I used, I believe, was
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Detention Sphere
1 Ethersworn Cannonist
2 Divert
2 Misdirection
2 Supreme Verdict
2 Humility
1 Arcane Laboratory
1 Back to Basics
I'd probably trim the BtB the next time I get a chance to play it, as I didn't find myself boarding it in even in the matches where I included it to board against (RUG Delver, for example). I might add a second Pithing Needle board, that card was definitely an MVP (shutting down Wastelands vs Delver decks and almost never being dead).
Divert has been fine so far. Against countermagic, it's just as good as Spell Pierce. Against Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, and Hymn to Tourach, it's actually stronger.
I haven't had much of a problem with Liliana. We run basically nothing that her -2 effects. Her +1 can be a bit annoying, but ends up being more or less symmetrical, and a lot of our plays are sorcery speed, so it's not that big of a deal. Just use top to avoid drawing Countermagic that she can strip, and use it to draw that countermagic in an emergency to counter something. Needle, Factories, and Detention Sphere all also answer her fairly well. Leyline of Sanctity would only stop her Ult really. But Leyline is something that's worth considering because it can shut down targeted discard, many Storm wincons, Burn, etc. But this deck already walks all over Storm and Burn.
Basic lands are key in this deck, as you want to avoid being Wastelanded a lot. Your first acquisition should probably be Flooded Strands, and then a few other blue (and maybe a few white) Fetches, then one Tundra. The fetchlands are so important to shuffle away bad cards you see with Brainstorm and Sensei's Divining Top, as well as being pseudo-duals that can get you either color of mana without resorting to Wasteland targets.
Gate is definitely an acceptable card. It lets you cast Counterbalance off of it + a Plains, and it helps with the mana of things like Entreat the Angels or Supreme Verdict, which can otherwise be tricky. As an added bonus, it can't be shut down by Choke.
However, the shuffle advantage granted by Fetches is way too big to pass up.
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Magic.tcgplayer.com has financial data on energy field dating back to september 16, 2010. Tcgplayer uses the adjusted average price (de- weights outliers) from over 30 stores.
Energy field was $4 (+-$.50) from before Sept. 2010 until may 20th 2011. I don't know what caused the spike then, but it went up to a $14 card overnight.
It maintained price for about 4 months, before slowly tailing off. On september 11th (don't worry, this isn;t a conspiracy theory) 2012 it reached its lowpoint at a medium price of $7.04.
When the OP started buying them up, it was still a $7 card. It has since spiked up to $18 (+-$2) and has maintained price for a full month. It has yet to substantially trend down.
It is quite likely that $18 is the new norm for Energy Field. It could be that it has reached its zenith and will only go down from here, but since it has found a place as a 2-4of in a tier 1 deck it is unlikely to go below $12.
Shortages/winning tournaments could cause energy field to go up, but probably by less than $10. rares from Urzas block such as sneak attack and show and tell have hit the 30-50 range, but i think this is unlikely for energy field. Other cards from a similar time period, such as Misdirection, have remained stable at around $18.
I believe that Energy field has reached peak price. Still, at an $11 gain per card for the normal english version (OP said he was investing in foils/foreign cards) it was one heck of a good buy.
For anyone interested in tangential financial advice, buy deathrite shamans. Now. As a $10 card it is criminally underpriced. Rather than comparing it to Noble Hierach, which is a minimum $20 card, I think it is comparable to Dark Confidant, a $40 card.
Reasons: it is a 4 of in both tier 1 legacy and modern decks. It's lax color requirements let it fit in any deck. Being established in legacy means that its price is fairly ban proof, as it may be banned in either format but is incredibly unlikely to be banned in both. Also, wizards likely realizes that it was a mistake to print it, so it is unlikely to be reprinted in the foreseeable future. Even though RTR will be a extremely well opened set, Deathrite should only increase in value.
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Fires Rf Salvation
Round one was paired against Infect. Mulled to six, kept an okay hand. EOT tutored for an Energy Field. After reading the card, he was confused and thought I was casting it then, and tried to Force it. I explained I was just putting it on top of my deck. Knowing he had the Force, I passed the second turn, ate 7 infect, and tried to resolve the field turn 3 with Spell Snare backup to get blown out by Force into Daze. Distortion Strike brings me to nine poison, but I manage to drop a Mishra's Factory and a Snare on the rebound to trade with the elf + berserk. He then drops Blighted Agent and I'm out of answers. Game two and three, I resolve an early Energy Field, and he reveals that he moved the Nature's Claims out of his board recently, so has no outs.
Round two I get paired against Omni-Tell. Game one, I pretty well punt. I blank on what to Pithing Needle against Omni-tell (deciding he's not playing Sneak Show so I don't need to name Sneak Attack, but not thinking of what I should be naming and passing the turn), and the very next turn he Show and Tells in a Griselbrand, and I've got an extra mana up at the end of the exchange. The Porphyry Nodes I Show and Told in myself take care of the demon, but not before he draws a fresh hand to Show and Tell in Emrakul the next turn. I dump out a Helm of Obedience, knowing full well I don't have access to a Rest in Peace. So I do the only thing I can - Helm him for 3 and pray I hit an Emrakul of my own. Whiff, and that's game.
Game two doesn't go much better. I wish for a Detention Sphere early, but he rips it from my grip with a Thoughtseize before going off. The only thing I can find to field against him is an Ethersworn Canonist, hoping to see Omniscience across from me, and he ends up going the Emrakul route.
Round three, Burn. I'm pretty sure I can't lose to Burn. Counterbalance + Top shuts him down super hard, and I have it turn two both games. Game two I bring in Diverts and Misdirections, and redirecting a few burn spells to the face puts him in Factory range pretty quickly.
My big takeaway from all this is that I need more against Omni-Tell in my Sideboard. Arcane Laboratory, the second Ethersworn Canonist, the second Detention Sphere, Ensnaring Bridge, and the redirection spells for his countermagic just isn't enough. I'm thinking Vendillion Clique might help, probably over the Jaces, who I have yet to bring in except for one match that didn't really count anyways.
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If wizards would print a green, black and white version of Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast Painter could be done in every color.
RRImperial PainterRR
UUUUMonoOmniTellUUUU
BGURWDredgeWRUGB
Some comments from experience:
1) You should take advantage of your Enlightened Tutors more. Having access to four of them lets you toolbox your deck to an insane degree. Your only real targets outside of RIP-Field and CounterTop are Detention Sphere and Humility. Both of these are good, but you can be doing more. My maindeck E Tutor one-ofs are Detention Sphere, Vedalken Shackles, Pithing Needle, Porphyry Nodes, and Ethersworn Canonist.
Needle is especially important as it lets you shut down a lot of outs to RIP-Field, like Qasali Pridemage vs Maverick, Mangara of Corondor vs Death and Taxes, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor vs BUG Control, Miracles, and Stoneblade.
Canonist makes Elves and Storm trivial, and can really put the hurt on Omni-Tell.
Nodes is great against RUG Delver and anyone running Mom, as it gets around protection and Shroud.
Shackles is a beating against any creature-based deck.
D Sphere is pretty obvious.
2) Jace is not very good here. You actually have a fairly low number of ways to protect him, as your primary protection comes from RIP-Field, which does not protect him. With no maindeck Mass Removal or Swords to Plowhares, he's rarely going to be more than a 4-mana Brainstorm + Healing Salve. I've tried him SB as something to bring in when I bring in my mass removal, but even then he's not great. It can also be difficult to hit 4 mana, especially against Wasteland decks, and especially with only 20 lands.
3) Mishra's Factory. I run two of them, and they're great. Against aggro, they can hold off or trade with a lot of threats. Against Combo and Control, they apply pressure and provide an uncounterable wincon. You should definitely get your land count up, and your first two additions should be two of these.
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RUG Delver is no longer the top deck. That honor falls to BUG Threshold (aka "Team America"), approximately half of which run Delver. The Delver decks also usually run some Tombstalker. The other half run more control-based with some combination of Snapcaster Mage, Tidehollow Strix, Dark Confidant, Vendilion Clique, Shardless Agent, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and Liliana of the Veil. The common cards throughout the builds are Deathrite Shaman, Tarmogoyf, Abrupt Decay, Brainstorm, Force of Will, Hymn to Tourach, and Ponder.
Now, on the surface, you might think that BUG Delver is just going to be a worse matchup for us than RUG Delver, due to the presence of Abrupt Decay. However, this is not entirely true. For one, BUG Delver has largely eschewed Stifle, which makes our mana much more consistent against them. Additionally, they appear much less likely to run Spell Pierce and/or Spell Snare, which reduces the counters we have to deal with to merely Daze and Force of Will. In return, we have to deal with Hymn and maybe Thoughtseize effects, but between Brainstorm, Enlightened Tutor, and Sensei's Divining Top, we do a pretty good job at mitigating these.
Additionally, they lack Lightning Bolt, which can be used to keep us from sealing out a game, and their Delvers flip less frequently. On average, they run 20 lands to RUG's 18, and they average about 3 additional non-sorcery, non-instant cards (between running a fourth creature slot and things like one-of Sylvan Library). 5 cards difference may not seem like a ton, but that's an 8% difference in blind-flipping Delver, and it increases the chances of a "whiff" Ponder (no instants/sorceries in the three cards) from ~12.5% to ~19.8%. Combined with the fact that Deathrite is likely to be doing less early beating than Mongoose and Tombstalker comes down later, and BUG Delver is much less likely to have enough early aggression to pressure us into a corner.
There is the matter of Abrupt Decay. Decay kills all of our main combo pieces - RIP, Counterbalance, Field - as well as most of our silver bullets. But that's the thing. There are so many targets for their Abrupt Decays that it is extremely easy to stick the important things. Rest in Peace neuters them just as hard, if not harder, than it does against RUG, turning Goyf into a vanilla 0/1, DRS into a vanilla 1/2, and making Tombstalker all but uncastable.
Now, non-Delver BUG is a different beast. There is no consistent build right now, so it is difficult to pinpoint what exactly you will be playing against. Shardless Agent builds appear to eschew cheap countermagic like Pierce/Snare/Daze entirely, due to them being bad Cascade flips, relying instead on more Thoughtseize effects plus possibly Force of Will. Fewer counters plus the slower clock that comes with not having Delvers/Tombstalkers around makes this variant a bit more comfortable, giving us plenty of time to establish board control and combo out. Dark Confidant builds naturally shy away from Force of Will, which is even better for us. Snapcaster Mage gets hosed by RIP, and Clique is just another Thoughtseize effect, though sometimes a little harder to play around.
Few if any appear to be packing Maelstrom Pulse or Pernicious Deed to back up their Decays, but the big thing to be concerned about against these builds is going to be the Planeswalkers. Jace straight-up kills you with his ult, while Liliana can crack your RIP-Field to allow a board to kill you. With only Factories and maybe Shackles, it can be very difficult to keep Planeswalkers from going off, with the only answer cards being Detention Sphere and Pithing Needle, which are both one-ofs and vulnerable to Decay. If you suspect a lot of non-Delver BUG, definitely consider packing Leyline of Sanctity into your sideboards, which stops both of these from ulting, as well as stopping Hymn/Thoughtseize from being useful.
The other newcomer to the top tier scene is Jund. Personally, I see Jund as a bad version of Shardless BUG, trading Shardless Agent and Jace for Bloodbraid Elf, maybe a few Grim Lavamancer, and Lightning Bolt. Otherwise, the decks are pretty similar. DRS, Goyf, Confidant, Liliana, Abrupt Decay, Hymn, Thoughtseize are all common players.
With no countermagic and no Brainstorm effects, they're going to have a harder time stopping you than the BUG variants do. Slap down a RIP to turn off DRS/Goyf/Lavamancer, Field keeps Bloodbraid out of your hair, and Pithing Needle on Liliana sews the whole thing up.
After that comes Stoneblade, which has been continuing to post good numbers, overtaking Miracles again as the Terminus-weak builds (Goblins/Maverick) slip further down in viability. Like non-Delver BUG, their main plan of attack (swinging with dudes) gets hampered by Energy Field, and Rest in Peace hurts them by neutering Snapcaster Mage and Lingering Souls. They also run fewer outs to RIP-Field than the Decay-heavy BGX builds, packing only an average of 2 outs maindeck, spread between Engineered Explosives, Vindicate, Detention Sphere, and Disenchant (in that order of frequency). These are also counterable, where AD is not, which is especially relevant against EE which will frequently be cast with X=2 to blow up RIP/Field/CB, and 2 is one of the easiest CB numbers to hit (though a savvy opponent can pay an extra with a color already being used to reduce this chance).
Also, like BUG, you need to contend with Jace. Needle is our best out here.
Next comes RUG finally. I've spoken a bit about playing against RUG. They run a lot of disruption but very little board interaction. Go for early Counterbalance to draw out counters, then resolve Rest in Peace to seal the deal unless facing down Delvers. They can't break RIP-Field game one, and it's still tough for them game two.
Next is Miracles. I haven't played against them much at all, but here are my thoughts on the Matchup. They provide next to no pressure. Needle on Jace shuts down their Primary wincon, and Entreat can be Pierced or ignored with RIP-Field. Against versions packing RIP-Helm, you run a lot more E Tutors and combo pieces than they do. Let them play RIP, and then tutor your Helm to kill them. Ethersworn Canonist is good here to let you win the counter war over Helm.
Last in the top tier, we have Show & Tell. I spoke about playing against them last time. Their combo is very hard to beat, and you need to pack the right answers. Ideally, you can tutor a Detention Sphere to the top of your deck, and keep it there with Top until you need it (dodging Thoughtseize if they run it), when you can pop it into play to counteract their S&T. Also, keeping it on top gives you a good CB 3-cost card.
Sneak Show is harder for you than Omni-Show, as Canonist does nothing against Sneak Attack. Try to Needle Sneak Attack if you suspect Sneak Show, otherwise Canonist is one of your top tutor targets, letting you counter their S&T without response while also applying pressure.
It's also important to note that Goblins and Maverick have further declined in popularity. Goblins was a great matchup, but Maverick was not as much (Thalia and Pridemage give us trouble). Burn (which is all but an Autowin) has not even placed T8 in the past 2 months.
Currently Playing:
Legacy: Something U/W Controlish
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I'm using one Griffin and I think he is great, if he appears nothing can stop them effectively.
I really like them, but I'm use only one, I don't think the usage of two of them. Since I don't have a Vendillion he is my beater.
1 Ethersworn Canonist
Instants - 15
4 Brainstorm
4 Enlightened Tutor
3 Spell Pierce
4 Force of Will
Artifacts - 7
1 Pithing Needle
4 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Helm of Obedience
Enchantments - 15
4 Counterbalance
4 Rest in Peace
4 Energy Field
2 Detention Sphere
1 Porphyry Nodes
4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Karakas
2 Mishra's Factory
5 Islands
2 Plains
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Misdirection
2 Divert
3 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Vendilion Clique
2 Detention Sphere
Round 1: Mono-U Show and Tell (Omniscience, Enter the Infinite, Dream Halls).
Game one I get stuck on lands. I cast Rest in Peace but that's my only real play. He casts Dream Halls, I have Force, he Forces Force, I have a second Force, but he has Dream Halls #2 next turn. Exile ETI to cast Omni, cast Emrakul, cast ETI. I scoop it up.
Game two I bring in my dudes and start pressuring. I've got a Counterbalance but no Top. I know my top cards are bad because of a Brainstorm, so I do the only thing I can and Fetch-shuffle into a Blind Reveal in response to his Show and Tell. Geist on top says no and turns my pressure into a serious clock, finishing him off before he sees another Show and Tell or enough lands for Dream Halls.
Game three, I E Tutor into D Sphere early, then set up a clock. The turn before he dies, he can Show and Tell into Omni, but can't cast anything meaningful before D Sphere exiles it.
Round 2: Goblins.
Game one, I set up RIP-Field early and there's nothing he can do.
Game two, I again set up an early RIP-Field, but he's got an answer this time. Anarchy clears my RIP, leaving him looking for a way to pop the shield. Chalice of the Void on 2 keeps me off of fixing up my defenses, so I'm using Vendilion Clique + Karakas to filter bad cards out of my hand, beat down, and keep him from tutoring Tuktuk Scrapper to kill my Pithing Needle. Chalice on 3 shuts that down too, and he manages to find and resolve Scrapper to pop my Shield. I activate a RIP-less Helm for Mogg War-Marshall, giving me enough blockers to stay alive, but I'm 2 damage short from finishing him off on my turn.
Game three is over pretty quick. RIP-Field once again shuts him down, and helm follows soon after to end it.
Round 3: Smallpox
Game one, I draw a ton of lands, which sounds bad, but it lets me get to Helm mana before he gets his Liliana to ult, despite his LD. Early RIP shuts down a lot of his stuff (bloodghast/crucible/Geralf's).
Game two, I start with leyline, but it doesn't help me much. He gets two Lilianas and a ton of LD to just keep me down
Game three, he's stuck on Swamp + 2x Wasteland, and at the end of the game shows me a hand with 4x Hymn + 3x Smallpox. With his only real play being a Cursed Scroll, he doesn't get very far.
Round 4: FEATURE MATCH - Storm
Not a Televised Feature Match, but that's probably for the better considering it was a pretty boring match.
Game one, he plays Scalding Tarn into Undeground Sea, Ponder turn one, making me think BUG Delver. Turn two, he plays Volcanic Island, casting Preordain and Brainstorm. I put him on Storm, tell him so, and EOT E Tutor for Ethersworn Canonist. He scoops it up, having no maindeck outs.
Game two, spreadsheets the game. He has a couple of early Discard spells to rip my Counterbalances. He goes off on turn three, carefully tracking his mana, storm count, and the cards in my hand, deliberating for several minutes. He decides he can't win with Past in Flames and goes for Ad Nauseam. As soon as he finds it, he realized he mis-read his own handwriting and had one additional mana so could have gone PiF, but he's already committed. He casts AN, hitting Past in Flames and a few other cards, bringing him down to two life. He deliberates for several more minutes on whether to take another card (hoping for a petals or Dark Rit) or stop at the safe 2. He stops, unable to win this turn, but strips my hand - this took so long that I forget I had an E Tutor to play in response to his first Cabal Therapy. This gives him a couple more turns breathing room, and he's able to go off with Past in Flames and a yard full of rituals.
Game three, I set up a clock with Factory, Clique, and Geist. He's dead on the board unless he can go off. He knows I have one force, but what he doesn't know is my EOT Fetch into Top activation at the end of his last turn put another force into my hand with a second pitch card on top. I counter LED and he thinks he has me, but the second force hits Infernal and that's that.
Round 5 - Jund
Game one, he sets up a pretty fast clock with Bob, Liliana, Bloodbraid into Bolt. I stumble a little and he takes it.
Game two and three, I just walk all over him. RIP and Energy Field turn off so much of his deck. Leyline game two shuts out a lot of his disruption. Helms come down for the win and there's little he can do. Divert at one point shunts a Maelstrom Pulse from RIP to Garruk Relentless. He complains that my deck just hates on his too hard.
Round 6 - Esper Stoneblade
This is a matchup that I never got the opportunity to test. No one in my playgroup has it together, and the guy I was supposed to test against online never had his schedule mesh with mine. Not making excuses, but I really did not know how to sideboard here or the intricacies to look out for.
Game one: IOK into Snapcast IOK strip two Counterbalance. I E Tutor for RIP, but it's a little late at that point. Snapcaster beats down, joined eventually by spirit tokens.
Game two: Jace really seals this one for him. Brainstorms from Jace give him enough fuel to counter all of my attempts to not lose, as well as tucking a few possible answers. I die to Souls and Clique and a Batterskull before I can stabilize.
Round 7 - RUG Delver
This one I feel even worse about losing. RUG has been generally favorable in my testing, as they have no outs to RIP Field game one and rarely game two.
Game one: My deck feeds me a line of bricks. I literally Fetched away 3 lands into a land + 2 tops, and fetched that away into 3 more lands. I see one RIP and no E Tutors, and my one RIP meets Spell Snare. On six, facing down a Goose, him with no Red, I decide not to play a Field. He finds his Tarn off the top and has bolt to finish me. I could have activated Helm for ~5 to maybe find a blocker, but I don't know if that would have worked out if I did.
Game two: Again, my only RIP meets a Snare. Snare has been much less popular in recent months, but he apparently has them and they're wrecking me. I do get a Field down with Needle on Wasteland, and his own Sulfuric Vortex shocking him down, but he finds Ancient Grudge for the Needle to kill me.
Round 8 - BUG Delver
Again, like RUG Delver, BUG is pretty favorable. However, he sees an Abrupt Decay for literally every RIP I find except in game two, with one more in his favor taking out Counterbalance game three, and my redirection effects nowhere to be found. I do manage to take game two with Counterbalance revealing Misdirection on top to stop his Force on my Helm.
Moving forward, I'm considering the following changes:
1) Vendilion Clique main. This guy was a house every time I saw him. I'm definitely strongly considering having them main instead of side. It means trimming Detention Spheres and silver bullets, or maybe the fourth Counterbalance.
2) Divert over Spell Pierce main. I definitely feel like I need more redirection effects, as only 4 has been insufficient to see them in the matchups I need them in. Moving some from side to main gives me more room in the side for Misidirections. They're good pretty much everywhere, only really being lackluster against Goblins (where Pierce is pretty mediocre too). They're worse against Jace/Liliana and Show and Tell, but they still let me counter counterspells in those matchups. They're slightly worse against Storm cards, but they're stronger vs early discard.
3) Supreme Verdict side. All three of my losses came against decks with creatures plus counter backup. Having an uncounterable answer is worth more than I gave it credit for.
4) Maybe +1 Leyline side. They're great when I see them, but I feel like the chances of that with 3 copies are too low.
Currently Playing:
Legacy: Something U/W Controlish
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The list I'm currently running is:
4 Flooded Strand
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
5 Island
2 Plains
4 Tundra
1 Karakas
2 Mishra's Factory
Creatures (4)
3 Vendilion Clique
1 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Enlightened Tutor
3 Divert
Artifacts and Enchantments (19)
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Counterbalance
4 Rest in Peace
4 Energy Field
2 Helm of Obedience
1 Detention Sphere
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Supreme Verdict
2 Misdirection
1 Pithing Needle
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Back to Basics
3 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Porphyry Nodes
I'm definitely liking this setup, but there's a few changes I may make for next time, namely losing Misdirections to try some sideboard Jace, the Mind Sculptor for creature-light matchups, and swapping Ethersworn Canonist out for Ensnaring Bridge. Canonist has been pretty good, but I've been able to walk all over Storm without it, and Bridge helps me shut down Elves pretty well anyways.
Anyhow, quick tournament report:
Round 1: Merfolk
Game one, I open with Top into Counterbalance as he drops some Vials. Mishra's Factory and Clique stem the tide until I get Rip Field online, and then a second Clique ticks him to zero.
Game two, I never see a Field the entire game. I do a good job stemming the tide with Porphyry Nodes, but once the board is clear, my life is low and I can't find a Field to stop Vault from killing me. On 1 life, I scoop on his attack phase, then look at the three cards I could have topped into and see Clique as the bottom-most one. Oops.
Game three, I establish Rip Field pretty much right away. He blows an Echoing Truth to get a small attack through, but it's not enough to finish me off. Shackles thins his ranks, and it's pretty much just me toying with him until I find Helm.
Round 2: Zoo
Game one, he opens with Lavamancer into Goyf. It's pretty slow as not many instants or sorceries have gone flying yet. I establish CounterTop, then Sphere away his Goyfs when he plays a second one. Force on a Nacatl buys me the time to set up Rip Field, and he scoops, not having Pridemages main.
Game two, he mulls, then keeps a hand of 2x Goyf, 2x Dual, 2x Pryoblast (or so he tells me later. RIP comes online almost instantly to blank the Goyfs, and Helm shows up quickly as well to put him out of his misery.
Round 3: 4c Delver
Game one, it looks mostly like he's playing RUG Delver. I see Delver and Goyf, but I establish Rip Field and he scoops.
Game two, it seems like he's playing an entirely different deck. Thoughtseize into Bob, Abrupt Decay, it overall does not go well for me, and he kills me before I can stabilize.
Game three, I have RIP to stem the tide from Goyf and DRS, and Clique stops a Delver and rips a FoW from his hand, but he's ticking me down with guys and Sulfuric Vortex and I can't find a Field. On the last possible turn, I manage to find Helm and knock him out.
Round 4: ANT
Game one, I open with Top into RIP as he plays cantrips. He tries Duress on me t3, and I respond with Clique to see Therapy, rituals, PiF, AN, and Infernal. I rip his AN and he takes my forces. He's forced to waste time casting a worthless Past in Flames to be able to turn on his Infernal, during which time I find another Force, so when he tries to go off I stop him.
Game two, Leyline of Sanctity turns off his discard, and I establish an early clock with Factory, Canonist, and Clique, plus his own Bob revealing Dark Ritual after Dark Ritual. He kills the Canonist and tries to go off, but I have the Force to stop him, and he dies to Bob revealing the fourth Dark Rit on his upkeep.
Currently Playing:
Legacy: Something U/W Controlish
EDH Cube
Hypercube! A New EDH Deck Every Week(ish)!