Last time I played against ANT the opponent had 3 Dread of Nights in his sideboard.
Yep, I've had more than one occasion where 2 hit the board. Not cool. But, if they are using time and resources to play those, they certainly have less combo pieces. Tutor up an Eidolon.
So 23 land, 16 staple creatures, 8 Vials and Plows, 2 Sylvan Libraries, and 3 equipment leaves 8 slots for a Green Splash build.
This is the rest of what I'll be trying in some side events at Seattle, and taking to the main event unless something turns out critically broken. As I wrote before, it's a mix of StT's baller build and Medea's more conservative design.
I'm interested in trying the Smiters as a hedge against discard and bolts, so they're taking the place of some Crusaders for now. My sideboard is 16, and might not include some useful cards given the expected DTBs, so recommendations are welcome! (In particular, a single non-tutorable Pridemage may be insufficient to kill Dreads of Night and other Disenchantables, so a Seal or Grip may be worthwhile.) Medea, you had 3 Containment Priests in your green splash side. Is that not overkill, and what makes sense to remove from my sideboard if you wanted to fit a second Priest?
Bonus question: how would a deck like this sideboard against Shardless BUG?
EDIT: Are two pro-red swords and two bolt-proof buddies enough to switch out Absolute Law for a CoP: Red? I don't have byes and am expecting a ton of burn.
Bonus question: how would a deck like this sideboard against Shardless BUG?
EDIT: Are two pro-red swords and two bolt-proof buddies enough to switch out Absolute Law for a CoP: Red? I don't have byes and am expecting a ton of burn.
As a consequence of the 2x Library, 2x Resto Angel, 2x Smiter, and the Choke main, I'm not bringing in a lot against BUG Cascade; it's geared well for it already. I think I usually just do +2 Rest in Peace, +1 Enlightened Tutor, then -1 Mom, -1 Thalia, -1 Flickerwisp. Just slim down on x/1s. I pick those because sweepers make Mom less potent, 15+ creatures in their deck is enough to cut a Thalia, and Wisp is another x/1 that's not exceptionally evasive given they have Baleful Strix.
Far as cutting Absolute Law for CoP: Red, yes. I have 4 bolt-proof creatures in my build so that version is probably more favorable in general, but I'd still rather hate on Burn than Punishing Fire even with Avengers like you are thinking of running.
@curby
Yeah, three Containment Priest plus two Teeg is probably excessive. That's really a carry-over from when I was playing mono-white and really liked the third priest.
I've been loving the 3/3 split of revoker/avenger. At the same time I've really been impressed with revoker and think it may be time to go back to 4. It has application in nearly every matchup and hoses certain strategies.
Magus seems to be like Cataclysm or Standstill, in the sense that it affects both players, so whoever comes out ahead is dependent on gamestate. If you can influence gamestate to be in the favor of the card, then the card is good. But if you can do that, I have to ask if you can influence the gamestate to be in your favor without using that card.
By the way, people don't seem too impressed by my Savannahs. They often seem to Waste my Ports. Hmm.
Good luck to everyone playing in the GP tomorrow. I won a trial and earned two byes with a list nearly identical to eternal extraganza. I hope for good things to report soon
@f10yd3
I don't think anyone would fault you for playing the 4th Revoker. It's great against Miracles and Storm while having game one applications against Shardless.
@axman
I think Magus of the Wheel is unplayable. I don't know what matchups you actually want it in enough that you would be willing to pay five mana for the symmetrical draw effect. I also don't think we have a great way to break the symmetry unless we have multiple Vials. It doesn't synergize well with the deck, imo, and you can't really even get cute the way you want with SotL or anything. If memory serves, it also has three power, meaning it is not tutorable.
@axman
I think Magus of the Wheel is unplayable. I don't know what matchups you actually want it in enough that you would be willing to pay five mana for the symmetrical draw effect. I also don't think we have a great way to break the symmetry unless we have multiple Vials. It doesn't synergize well with the deck, imo, and you can't really even get cute the way you want with SotL or anything. If memory serves, it also has three power, meaning it is not tutorable.
I have a friend who plays RUG Delver and he was testing days undoing in his list. I loved when he would cast that. Especially when there was an Aether Vial involved. We don't really get card advantage like that and although our opponent is filling their hand as well this gives us the chance to continue making land drops and dropping taxes and drawing into answers for anything they may have. In a build with moon effects magus of the wheel may actually be a fine way to continue to grow our board and close out a game while our opponent chokes on mountains. I agreed it likely isn't a top option, but I also doubt it is unplayable. Your memory serves you correct about its power.
A friend of mine recently built 12-post, so we were playtesting yesterday with me on GW taxes. It seemed that the only cards that were relevant for me in the matchup were wasteland (to take care of cloudpost) and sword of war and peace, if i could get it going fast enough. Since he played pithing needle main, he just named wasteland with the first, and sword if he got a second one. Taxing with thalia was largely irrelevant, and often hurt me more than him. Port isn't very good, since the the other posts still tap for increased mana. Didn't really have anything in the board for this match either.
Anyone here have experience with this matchup, and have any tips?
Coincidentally I playtested against UG Post this very afternoon, with my mono-W list. Dust Bowl was the MVP, and certainly the main Needle target for my friend who was piloting the deck. All I needed was keep a hand with Dust Bowl and then wait for the mana flood to happen.
GW doesn't run Dust Bowl so your options are more limited, as the deck also runs less Revokers which are pretty relevant here. Revoker on Top or Expediton Map can win you the game as the deck is land heavy and prone to bricking.
If you can't get enough Wastelands to get rid of their Posts, then try to keep them off double green. Often all they have is a bunch of colorless mana and no way to get business spells as their Prime Time into Eye of Ugin is stuck in hand because you keep porting their green mana away every turn.
A fast hand with equipment and fliers is also pretty backbreaking, Ports are also very relevant because they often only have one green source in play so you can Port it EOT to turn off their Moment's Peace. Even if they get a fatty into play they can't win immediately, so there's often a buffer turn to get the last few points of damage, so every single point matters.
Commit to the board early, use wastelands when you see posts if you can hold off on dropping them, port green early and posts later to restrict mana. Getting a clock going is probably your first priority. Against mana denial they keep in show and tell so bring in priest as a hedge for that. You don't want to get blown out by show and tell primeval titan. They will catch up quick that way even if you are ahead.
Edit: also unless you need to close a game out, save Flickerwisp for end of turn vial out Chasm if they have it so you can deal damage and add 3 extra points the following turn. Flicker is great for spending a turn using wasteland or getting through the last few points of damage
lost to sneak and show after he blindly topdecked 3 pyroclasms, 4 griselbrands, and an emrakul
lost to sneak and show again
lost to miracles because **** monastery mentor
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: Modern is Bad
Legacy:WDeath and TaxesW W45-L16-D11 8 Top 8s 15th Scg Oakland
Current Kiln Fiend Count: 153 Please message me if you want to trade me or give me some.
Commission Rezombied to alter some cards, he's awesome!
Mentor is quite the annoying part to the miracles plan these days. Just not quite the same match up. Luckily sword of fire and Ice can still ping it if they haven't had any prowess triggers on your turn and jitte becomes more relevant. The nice part is that they are more apt to hold off on a terminus and possibly playing less copies which means they lose some blowout potential
thank you. how do you generally feel about staying mono white? I see a lot of people are splashing red or green but i wish to remain mono w as well. Do you feel that orizon canopy is not worth it? how is SoWaP and the moat working for you?
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Vintage-Shops/BUG/Dredge Legacy-Death and Taxes/Nic Fit
Thanks to Heroes of the Plane Studios for the amazing sig!
You'll notice that there's a little bit of spice in the main. I tried out two maindeck Pithing Needle today. I was expecting a decent amount of unfair combo based around Gbrand, Miracles, Stoneblade, and Infect. Needle is pretty respectable against all of those, and I wanted to be "preboarded" against my most common matchups, so that was my rational for that decision. This is not a change that I suggest making for your event; this is a call that I made specifically based on the expected turnout of a small event. This is not something that I will do next weekend at my next event.
The rest of the deck is somewhat stock. I wanted to try out Surgical Extraction, so those took the place of Containment Priests for this event. Since I was loading up on Pithing Needles, I tried out Armageddon over Cataclysm since it seemed like a better fit to my gameplan in the Miracles matchup.
The report is going to be a little less detailed this time, as I left my notebook at the store.
R1: 2-0 vs Lands.
R2: 2-0 vs Burn
R3: 1-2 vs Miracles
R4: 2-0 vs ANT
R5: ID with Elves
Quarterfinals: 2-1 vs Burn
Semifinals: split
The Lands matchup was laughable. In the second game, I Surgical Extraction'd Life from the Loam and played a Needle on Stage. Then I played RiP. Then I played another Needle on Stage and a Needle on Helm. Then I Surgical Extractioned my opponent's Krosan Grips (he had four). My opponent died to seven hits from a Serra Avenger.
The burn matchup was pretty silly. I Flickerwisp'd an opposing Ensaring Bridge to get a pair of counter on Jitte in game 2, and that was that. When people ask why you play Flickerwisp, it's for things like that.
I lost my match against Miracles because I played Armageddon over Cataclysm. Well, more correctly, I would have been likely to win. I needed to clean up some Angel and Monk tokens which were threatening to kill me in two turns. If I had cataclysm, I would have been on a five turn clock instead of two, and I just would have needed a creature to seal the deal. This is the second time (of two times attempting) that I have regretted playing Armageddon. In this round, I missed two points of damage in what was a very clear error on my end involving a Mishra's Factory attack.
My ANT matches were pretty easy. My opponent just failed to go off on turn two either game, and lost to various bears. Notably, SoWaP made an appearance and closed the game in two turns instead of 4 or 5 turns.
I lost game one of my top 8 round vs Burn to a double mulligan into mana flood. The other two games were close, but my deck just did its thing and Thalia plus Stoneforge got there both times. Notably, I should have gotten a GRV for trying to bounce a Batterskull while a Null Rod was in play and then for trying to equip said Batterskull...I couldn't actually see the Null Rod over my over library, so I was an idiot there for not moving that card the first time around. My opponent absolutely should have called a judge for both of those, but did not.
My opponent also got a favorable ruling over a very clearly missed Eidolon trigger. The opponent knew it was a missed trigger, everyone watching knew it was a missed trigger, but the judge did not have a very good understanding of the way missed triggers work at comp REL. I made my case and asked the judge to make a decision. He ruled against me. C'est la vie. I just played a Baneslayer Angel.
After winning that round, I just top 4 split so that I could have time to run to Sam's Club before it closed. Yes, that was really my reason for splitting. I was up against a pretty favorable matchup (Painter), but there was still an Elves deck on the other side of the bracket, so splitting for like $128 in credit seemed fine to me.
thank you. how do you generally feel about staying mono white? I see a lot of people are splashing red or green but i wish to remain mono w as well. Do you feel that orizon canopy is not worth it? how is SoWaP and the moat working for you?
I personally think the list does very well against matchups where traditional DnT has struggled a little bit, like Shardless BUG and Miracles, by going bigger, while still keeping most of the same tools of normal mono-W builds in the same quantities. It tackes the same problems GW and RW are designed to do, but in a different direction. GW and RW for example attack the manabase of BUG decks by using Choke/Magus, but here I use Dust Bowl and go more midrange to better withstand their removal. The Dust Bowl engine is very land heavy, so I have to go up to 24 lands, which enables me to play big CMC4 spells like Restoration Angel, which is amazing in all of the fair matchups.
I would say that when it comes to fair, midrange matchups this is by far the best version, but it generally has slow starts (against combo it has the same tools, namely 4 Thalia 4 Waste 2 Canonist as other DnT builds) as you can't simply dump your hand on the table in the first 3 turns and then beat face with it, although in 99% of the cases you won't do such a thing anyways, due to the prevalence of sweepers in the format. The deck is very resilient against most common sweepers, including Dread of Night, which usually means autolose once resolved against smaller versions of DnT, as there are no ways to remove it (GW does run Qasali Pridemage in the maindeck, which is another angle to combat decks like BUG and Jund).
Having Flagstones redundancy on top of the high number of lands also makes this build probably the best at reliably exploiting Cataclysm, and you can board that card in against a lot of matchups where Cata wouldn't normally go.
I had to cut Canopy as the manabase is very tight, 5 Plains is the lowest I'm comfortable going since I fetch them using the Flagstones, and I also really wanted to fit 2 Cavern of Souls because the card is simply great for naming Angel and ensuring those Avengers and Restos resolve so they can provide a reliable and hard to remove clock. You can also jam Restos against Delver with 4 lands and not worry about Daze.
SoWaP has been discussed here before, by other people, and I generally agree it's a better Game 1 tool than Batterskull when it comes to closing games quickly. I also like the card a lot in this list in particular, because I run a lot of fliers and they benefit the most from SoWaP since protection from Bolt and STP is great when it comes to protecting your often lone threat, but the Sword provides subpar evasion so equipping it on fliers is the ideal situation.
The Moat is also great against fair decks, and even some unfair ones like Elves and Reanimator, because the deck runs 10 flying creatures and the opponent will most likely than not run 0. It's just a great card to have in this partiular list, it provides an insurance to your life total and stops some really annoying and hard to deal creatures, like TNN and Goyf.
I play the green splash too, but right now I'm more comfortable with this list. Wasteland is very strong in this meta right now, and what better than to have access to potentially 20 Wastelands in your maindeck?
@Medea
So it seems like you really liked Surgical Extraction in the Lands match, but do you think you would play it overall? How do you think your Elves match would look -2 Containment Priest? What matches were you looking to Surgical in?
@redtwister
Since I was expecting Tin Fins and multiple copies of ANT, I hedged against those decks and made a concession to the Elves matchup. It was the right call for the event I was playing in, but not the right call more generally. It was a tactical ploy to lower the average cmc of my hate. When I play the Win-a-Mox in MD next weekend, I might just play Surgical again given the overall density of Lands and ANT there. More generally, Containment Priest is probably correct for the percentage points against stuff like Sneak and Show.
@Dissolution
Thanks for posting this here. Congrats on your finish; though you didn't make day two, your results (especially when you look at your game win percentage) were quite good. Your round two opponent was likely on a deck known as Shardless Bant, a value-oriented Bant deck that runs the Thopter/Sword combo, the Shardless Agent/Visions combo, and a couple of cool tutor targets to fetch with Etutor. Paul Lynch top 8'd or top 16'd an open with it maybe 6 months ago and put the deck back on the map, but it never really caught on. Most people believe that either going more in the direction of Shardless BUG or more in the direction of Miracles ends up with a more stable and consistent deck.
I still favor Cataclysm, if only because it deals with planeswalkers. Stuff like Liliana and JTMS on a stabilized board are very hard to get rid of, and even if you blow up all their lands they can still win with it. Cata can also be used as a board wipe against the mirror and Merfolk.
This is the rest of what I'll be trying in some side events at Seattle, and taking to the main event unless something turns out critically broken. As I wrote before, it's a mix of StT's baller build and Medea's more conservative design.
2 Loxodon Smiter
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Serra Avenger
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Qasali Pridemage
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Rest in Peace
1 Absolute Law
1 Armageddon
1 Batterskull
1 Choke
1 Containment Priest
1 Council's Judgment
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ratchet Bomb
I'm interested in trying the Smiters as a hedge against discard and bolts, so they're taking the place of some Crusaders for now. My sideboard is 16, and might not include some useful cards given the expected DTBs, so recommendations are welcome! (In particular, a single non-tutorable Pridemage may be insufficient to kill Dreads of Night and other Disenchantables, so a Seal or Grip may be worthwhile.) Medea, you had 3 Containment Priests in your green splash side. Is that not overkill, and what makes sense to remove from my sideboard if you wanted to fit a second Priest?
Bonus question: how would a deck like this sideboard against Shardless BUG?
EDIT: Are two pro-red swords and two bolt-proof buddies enough to switch out Absolute Law for a CoP: Red? I don't have byes and am expecting a ton of burn.
TIA!
2) Use the right number of each card.
3) Know your probabilities.
4) Print your deck lists; make yourself and your judges happier.
Far as cutting Absolute Law for CoP: Red, yes. I have 4 bolt-proof creatures in my build so that version is probably more favorable in general, but I'd still rather hate on Burn than Punishing Fire even with Avengers like you are thinking of running.
Yeah, three Containment Priest plus two Teeg is probably excessive. That's really a carry-over from when I was playing mono-white and really liked the third priest.
Modern
TasitwinURB
UWRb ControlUWRB
Death and TaxesWW
Legacy
Death and TaxesWW
I'm not sure if it even has a place in imperial taxes... but it's "interesting".
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
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By the way, people don't seem too impressed by my Savannahs. They often seem to Waste my Ports. Hmm.
2) Use the right number of each card.
3) Know your probabilities.
4) Print your deck lists; make yourself and your judges happier.
I don't think anyone would fault you for playing the 4th Revoker. It's great against Miracles and Storm while having game one applications against Shardless.
@axman
I think Magus of the Wheel is unplayable. I don't know what matchups you actually want it in enough that you would be willing to pay five mana for the symmetrical draw effect. I also don't think we have a great way to break the symmetry unless we have multiple Vials. It doesn't synergize well with the deck, imo, and you can't really even get cute the way you want with SotL or anything. If memory serves, it also has three power, meaning it is not tutorable.
I have a friend who plays RUG Delver and he was testing days undoing in his list. I loved when he would cast that. Especially when there was an Aether Vial involved. We don't really get card advantage like that and although our opponent is filling their hand as well this gives us the chance to continue making land drops and dropping taxes and drawing into answers for anything they may have. In a build with moon effects magus of the wheel may actually be a fine way to continue to grow our board and close out a game while our opponent chokes on mountains. I agreed it likely isn't a top option, but I also doubt it is unplayable. Your memory serves you correct about its power.
Anyone here have experience with this matchup, and have any tips?
GW doesn't run Dust Bowl so your options are more limited, as the deck also runs less Revokers which are pretty relevant here. Revoker on Top or Expediton Map can win you the game as the deck is land heavy and prone to bricking.
If you can't get enough Wastelands to get rid of their Posts, then try to keep them off double green. Often all they have is a bunch of colorless mana and no way to get business spells as their Prime Time into Eye of Ugin is stuck in hand because you keep porting their green mana away every turn.
A fast hand with equipment and fliers is also pretty backbreaking, Ports are also very relevant because they often only have one green source in play so you can Port it EOT to turn off their Moment's Peace. Even if they get a fatty into play they can't win immediately, so there's often a buffer turn to get the last few points of damage, so every single point matters.
Thanks to Heroes of the Plane Studios for the amazing sig!
Edit: also unless you need to close a game out, save Flickerwisp for end of turn vial out Chasm if they have it so you can deal damage and add 3 extra points the following turn. Flicker is great for spending a turn using wasteland or getting through the last few points of damage
lost to sneak and show after he blindly topdecked 3 pyroclasms, 4 griselbrands, and an emrakul
lost to sneak and show again
lost to miracles because **** monastery mentor
Legacy:WDeath and TaxesW W45-L16-D11 8 Top 8s 15th Scg Oakland
Current Kiln Fiend Count: 153 Please message me if you want to trade me or give me some.
Commission Rezombied to alter some cards, he's awesome!
4 Mother of Runes
3 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Restoration Angel
4 Serra Avenger
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Aether Vial
1 Moat
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of War and Peace
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Dust Bowl
4 Flagstones of Trokair
3 Karakas
5 Plains
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
1 Batterskull
2 Cataclysm
1 Scroll Rack
1 Disenchant
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Manriki-Gusari
2 Containment Priest
1 Pithing Needle
2 Rest in Peace
2 Wilt-Leaf Liege
Thanks to Heroes of the Plane Studios for the amazing sig!
6 Plains
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Mishra's Factory
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
4 Flagstones of Trokair
3 Karakas
Creatures
3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Flickerwisp
2 Mirran Crusader
4 Mother of Runes
3 Serra Avenger
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Æther Vial
1 Sword of Fire and ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of War and Peace
2 Pithing Needle
3 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Council's Judgment
2 Rest in Peace
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Baneslayer Angel
2 Armageddon
1 Pithing Needle
1 Batterskull
1 Path to Exile
You'll notice that there's a little bit of spice in the main. I tried out two maindeck Pithing Needle today. I was expecting a decent amount of unfair combo based around Gbrand, Miracles, Stoneblade, and Infect. Needle is pretty respectable against all of those, and I wanted to be "preboarded" against my most common matchups, so that was my rational for that decision. This is not a change that I suggest making for your event; this is a call that I made specifically based on the expected turnout of a small event. This is not something that I will do next weekend at my next event.
The rest of the deck is somewhat stock. I wanted to try out Surgical Extraction, so those took the place of Containment Priests for this event. Since I was loading up on Pithing Needles, I tried out Armageddon over Cataclysm since it seemed like a better fit to my gameplan in the Miracles matchup.
The report is going to be a little less detailed this time, as I left my notebook at the store.
R1: 2-0 vs Lands.
R2: 2-0 vs Burn
R3: 1-2 vs Miracles
R4: 2-0 vs ANT
R5: ID with Elves
Quarterfinals: 2-1 vs Burn
Semifinals: split
The Lands matchup was laughable. In the second game, I Surgical Extraction'd Life from the Loam and played a Needle on Stage. Then I played RiP. Then I played another Needle on Stage and a Needle on Helm. Then I Surgical Extractioned my opponent's Krosan Grips (he had four). My opponent died to seven hits from a Serra Avenger.
The burn matchup was pretty silly. I Flickerwisp'd an opposing Ensaring Bridge to get a pair of counter on Jitte in game 2, and that was that. When people ask why you play Flickerwisp, it's for things like that.
I lost my match against Miracles because I played Armageddon over Cataclysm. Well, more correctly, I would have been likely to win. I needed to clean up some Angel and Monk tokens which were threatening to kill me in two turns. If I had cataclysm, I would have been on a five turn clock instead of two, and I just would have needed a creature to seal the deal. This is the second time (of two times attempting) that I have regretted playing Armageddon. In this round, I missed two points of damage in what was a very clear error on my end involving a Mishra's Factory attack.
My ANT matches were pretty easy. My opponent just failed to go off on turn two either game, and lost to various bears. Notably, SoWaP made an appearance and closed the game in two turns instead of 4 or 5 turns.
I lost game one of my top 8 round vs Burn to a double mulligan into mana flood. The other two games were close, but my deck just did its thing and Thalia plus Stoneforge got there both times. Notably, I should have gotten a GRV for trying to bounce a Batterskull while a Null Rod was in play and then for trying to equip said Batterskull...I couldn't actually see the Null Rod over my over library, so I was an idiot there for not moving that card the first time around. My opponent absolutely should have called a judge for both of those, but did not.
My opponent also got a favorable ruling over a very clearly missed Eidolon trigger. The opponent knew it was a missed trigger, everyone watching knew it was a missed trigger, but the judge did not have a very good understanding of the way missed triggers work at comp REL. I made my case and asked the judge to make a decision. He ruled against me. C'est la vie. I just played a Baneslayer Angel.
After winning that round, I just top 4 split so that I could have time to run to Sam's Club before it closed. Yes, that was really my reason for splitting. I was up against a pretty favorable matchup (Painter), but there was still an Elves deck on the other side of the bracket, so splitting for like $128 in credit seemed fine to me.
I personally think the list does very well against matchups where traditional DnT has struggled a little bit, like Shardless BUG and Miracles, by going bigger, while still keeping most of the same tools of normal mono-W builds in the same quantities. It tackes the same problems GW and RW are designed to do, but in a different direction. GW and RW for example attack the manabase of BUG decks by using Choke/Magus, but here I use Dust Bowl and go more midrange to better withstand their removal. The Dust Bowl engine is very land heavy, so I have to go up to 24 lands, which enables me to play big CMC4 spells like Restoration Angel, which is amazing in all of the fair matchups.
I would say that when it comes to fair, midrange matchups this is by far the best version, but it generally has slow starts (against combo it has the same tools, namely 4 Thalia 4 Waste 2 Canonist as other DnT builds) as you can't simply dump your hand on the table in the first 3 turns and then beat face with it, although in 99% of the cases you won't do such a thing anyways, due to the prevalence of sweepers in the format. The deck is very resilient against most common sweepers, including Dread of Night, which usually means autolose once resolved against smaller versions of DnT, as there are no ways to remove it (GW does run Qasali Pridemage in the maindeck, which is another angle to combat decks like BUG and Jund).
Having Flagstones redundancy on top of the high number of lands also makes this build probably the best at reliably exploiting Cataclysm, and you can board that card in against a lot of matchups where Cata wouldn't normally go.
I had to cut Canopy as the manabase is very tight, 5 Plains is the lowest I'm comfortable going since I fetch them using the Flagstones, and I also really wanted to fit 2 Cavern of Souls because the card is simply great for naming Angel and ensuring those Avengers and Restos resolve so they can provide a reliable and hard to remove clock. You can also jam Restos against Delver with 4 lands and not worry about Daze.
SoWaP has been discussed here before, by other people, and I generally agree it's a better Game 1 tool than Batterskull when it comes to closing games quickly. I also like the card a lot in this list in particular, because I run a lot of fliers and they benefit the most from SoWaP since protection from Bolt and STP is great when it comes to protecting your often lone threat, but the Sword provides subpar evasion so equipping it on fliers is the ideal situation.
The Moat is also great against fair decks, and even some unfair ones like Elves and Reanimator, because the deck runs 10 flying creatures and the opponent will most likely than not run 0. It's just a great card to have in this partiular list, it provides an insurance to your life total and stops some really annoying and hard to deal creatures, like TNN and Goyf.
I play the green splash too, but right now I'm more comfortable with this list. Wasteland is very strong in this meta right now, and what better than to have access to potentially 20 Wastelands in your maindeck?
So it seems like you really liked Surgical Extraction in the Lands match, but do you think you would play it overall? How do you think your Elves match would look -2 Containment Priest? What matches were you looking to Surgical in?
Congrats, btw, $128 ain't bad!
Modern
Whir Prison
Legacy
5c Humans
"I'm a lead farmer... !" Quote ruined due to policy.
Since I was expecting Tin Fins and multiple copies of ANT, I hedged against those decks and made a concession to the Elves matchup. It was the right call for the event I was playing in, but not the right call more generally. It was a tactical ploy to lower the average cmc of my hate. When I play the Win-a-Mox in MD next weekend, I might just play Surgical again given the overall density of Lands and ANT there. More generally, Containment Priest is probably correct for the percentage points against stuff like Sneak and Show.
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Barely missed day 2.
Tech Manager at MTGOSS <- I make MTGO bots!
Thanks for posting this here. Congrats on your finish; though you didn't make day two, your results (especially when you look at your game win percentage) were quite good. Your round two opponent was likely on a deck known as Shardless Bant, a value-oriented Bant deck that runs the Thopter/Sword combo, the Shardless Agent/Visions combo, and a couple of cool tutor targets to fetch with Etutor. Paul Lynch top 8'd or top 16'd an open with it maybe 6 months ago and put the deck back on the map, but it never really caught on. Most people believe that either going more in the direction of Shardless BUG or more in the direction of Miracles ends up with a more stable and consistent deck.