MTG Salvation

Hey, thanks for the feedback! You're right about Vials, they were just my go-to cuts when I didn't know for sure what else to bring out because I was pretty scared about topdecking them. I haven't really thought it through completely; your reasoning makes sense though, I will review my sideboard plans for future tournaments

As for the mirror, I wanted to bring in Batterskull because I wanted to have more outs in case I fell behind in life total and needed to catch up quickly (especially with Library where I might lose chunks of life trying to grab cards to catch up on board). SoFaI should probably have come out, and yeah Containment Priest was in my consideration but in the end I decided against it because I didn't want to randomly lose games where I'm ahead and my creatures just get flickerwisped away (additionally it's a bit of a crapshoot to me because it's slightly a vial war). Essentially I won game 2 because my opponent drew a bunch of vials against me while I just drew gas off library.

I think your reasoning makes sense for equipment, I frequently got stuck with too much equipment in my hand when I naturally drew ones I didn't want. However in the mirror because I believe the mirror is just about card quality I decided to keep in 4. It's a fairly grindy matchup as the ground gums up and the main priorities (in my view) are equipment, airforce, and Revoker/Pridemage. Against Delver I like SoFaI because it lets me attack past Delver/YP and let me shoot down their Delver or YP, though I am likely overestimating just how big of an issue Delver of Secrets actually is. It just feels as though every time I lose to a Delver deck it's because a flipped delver just hits me 7 times and I don't draw a way to kill it (thus why I started to like the increased count in Serra Avengers, where I am likely overzealous with snap trading it off against an Aberration). You're right in SoWaP though, it can chunk a Delver player quite hard as well as catching you back up.

I agree with your insight with cutting Library though, I was too excited to play that card and didn't think that it was mainly there for grindy matchups and it's too slow for the faster MUs.

In the video, I wasn't quite sure whether to get SoFaI or SoWaP at the beginning but I thought my hand was a little weak and wanted to try and draw more cards to shield myself against getting 1 turn comboed (which, as far as I'm aware, is the only way I lose in that matchup). He didn't have many cards in hand so I felt SoWaP was only a couple points of damage extra and not actually faster in terms of turn clock. Also a weird interaction that I'm not certain about, if Painter is on Blue I actually cannot equip SoFaI as far as I know because the equipment falls off due to SoFaI being blue lol.

Thanks again for your advice though! I'll definitely have to go over my SB plans again; I'm fairly new to D&T and GW in particular so I'm still learning a lot of ins and outs and theory behind the deck. Cheers

Okay, here's the first of two posts about Charlotte. This one will purely be raw data and match results. The next one will be more a tournament report and look forward for Columbus.

Game Night: 3-1 in rounds; 6-2 in games.
2-0 vs Shardless
2-0 vs D&T
0-2 vs Omnitell
2-0 vs Shardless

LC #1: 2-2 in rounds; 5-5 in games
2-0 vs Reanimator
2-1 vs Eldrazi
0-2 vs Infect
1-2 vs D&T

LC#2: 2-1-1 in rounds; 6-3-1 in games
2-0 vs Miracles
2-0 vs Dredge
1-2 vs TES
1-1-1 vs D&T

LC#3: 3-1 in rounds; 7-4 in games
2-1 vs Burn
1-2 vs Eldrazi
2-1 vs ANT
2-0 vs Burn

LC#4: 3-1 in round; 6-2 in games
2-0 vs Painter
0-2 vs Maverick
2-0 vs Tezzerator
2-0 vs TES

LC#5: 3-1 in rounds; 6-2 in games
2-0 vs MUD
2-0 vs Dredge
0-2 vs Punishing Jund
2-1 vs UW Stoneblade

LC #6: 2-1-1 in rounds; 5-3-1 in games
2-0 vs Miracles
1-1-1 vs BUG Lands
2-0 vs Jund
0-2 vs Siege Rhino Nic Fit

Match total 18-8-2
Match win percentage: 64%
Match win percentage ignoring draws: 69%

Game total: 41-21-2
Game Win percentage: 64%
Game win percentage ignoring draws: 66%

For the second part of my event report, I'd like to talk about certain interesting situations, great plays, and mistakes rather than writing up all of those rounds.

vs Eldrazi in LC #1
Flickerwisp had the option of either reseting a Chalice of the Void on 1 while I had a StP and Vial in hand OR blinking a 7/7 Endless One. My board position was very strong at the time and I had a fist full of good cards, though I only had three lands. I opted to press my current advantage by killing the Endless One immediately. My opponent drew Reality Smasher off the top followed by a Thought-Knot Seer. I drew another StP and another Vial. I probably miss-evaluated my role here. I likely could have taken a hit from the Endless One (or chump blocked) in order to play both Vial and StP next turn. My board was strong, my hand was solid. I just needed to get those cards into play.

vs D&T in multiple Legacy Challenges and the game night
This weekend I tried boarding out all four Vials for two Fiend Hunters and two Containment Priests, both of which I normally leave in the board. I lost two games of the mirror due to not drawing a second white source. That may be indicative that the Vials are needed, as we do skimp on white sources, or it may be poor variance. I'm a little unsure. That needs more testing.

SoWaP was constantly impressive, and I won nearly every game where it hit play. I drew one round of the mirror with lethal on board because there was no round clock and I didn't know we were close to time, and my opponent played a Warping Wail in one game to chump block my Mirran Cruasder wielding SoWaP. I lost on the back swing.

Vs ????
My opponent mulligans to 3 while on the play. He keeps, scries to the bottom, and passes his turn. I play Plains and Mother of Runes. My opponent concedes. How do you sideboard?

I deduce that my opponent is likely an unfair deck of some nature. Pretty much any fair deck with keep a shady hand at 5 or 4 if it has any lands. I'm not 100% sure, so I opt to cut all four of my StP to bring in three Canonists as well as a Council's Judgment. This hedges against combo while also having an out to "the weird crap" or a problematic creature. Turns out my opponent was on dredge, and my Canonist bought me enough time to take the game.

vs Burn
I am at 8 life. My opponent passes the turn after playing a Grim Lavamancer. My opponent has one card in hand and is at ten life. I have a Flickerwisp and a Vial at three. I have two Serra Avengers in play. I can A) Vial in the Flickerwisp at his end step, putting my opponent to one with an attack for 9. This would prevent the opponent from fetching to thin his deck or fetching to get a landfall trigger for Searing Blaze. Or B) Do nothing now. Vial in Flickerwisp on my end step to give his Grim Lavamancer summoning sickness again.

I opt for B. My opponent Fireblasts me, Bolts me, and fetches. He goes to activate his Grim Lavamancer when I kindly remind him it has summoning sickness. I win at one life.

Vs ????
I see the following cards from my opponent in game one: Simian Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, Mountain, Blood Moon, City of Traitors, City of Traitors, Ensnaring Bridge, Koth of the Hammer. How do you sideboard? I suspect my opponent is playing All-in Red, but they could be playing Painter as well. I board in cards that overlap with the two sideboarding plans (e.g. Needle, Council's Judgment) and split the difference with cards I take out. I am rewarded for my plan, as he was actually playing Painter.

Vs TES
I brought in a pair of Pithing Needles, intending to name Polluted Delta. My opponent plays a Gitaxian Probe on turn one, seeing my Pithing Needle as well as an assortment of hate bears. He reads Pithing Needle a few times, reads a card in his hand a few times, and then passes the turn after playing a Bloodstained Mire. I read this situation as: my opponent thinks that I am going to try to Pithing Needle his LED, which will not work. I am correct in my assumption, and my opponent does not respond to the Needle. I snag his Bloodstained Mire and get a Time Walk for one colorless mana.

Vs Siege Rhino Nic Fit
I swords my opponent's Veteran Explorer, and my opponent does not make any plays on turns 2, 3, and 5. My opponent plays a Siege Rhino on turn 4, and I Swords it as well. I have beaten my opponent down to five life. My opponent plays a Sigarda and passes. I attack with a Mirran Crusader through the Sigarda, threatening lethal with any two attackers connecting. I make the alpha strike the next turn, and my opponent casts and Abrupt Decay as well as a Path to Exile on my board. My opponent gets a third creature by blocking with Sigarda. #blowout The only way I did not win that turn was if my opponent had double removal spell. My opponent opted not to destroy my Vial or remove any of my creatures all game, so I felt like it was safe. It was not.

I keep the next hand on the strength of a Council's Judgment, Mom, and Jitte. I can extend into the board early and Council's Judgment away a Pernicious Deed when my opponent taps out for it. Sure enough, it happens, and I continue my beatdown train. My opponent taps out again the next turn for another deed, and I get crushed by the stream of Rhinos that come afterwords.

GPLA Legacy Showdown, 7 rounds and top-8

Round 1 vs Deathblade, 0-2

Game 1 he had a Batterskull and a TNN, but they aren't that bad by themselves. Then he equipped BS to TNN and that was rather hard to deal with.

Game 2 he Stoneforged for Jitte, but when I revoked Jitte he Stoneforged Batterskull into play. I had an air force but his life swings were bigger and he eventually got it.

Round 2 vs Shardless BUG (his deckbox was labeled "Robots"), 2-0

Game 1 I got three active equipment on the board, which is enough for the win.

Game 2 I opened on two Wastelands and a Vial. I eventually saw a Karakas but never a Plains. I kept him off lands as well as I could, and killed some Deathrites with Jitte counters. When he died he showed me the Massacre in his hand. Whew!

Round 3 vs 4C Delver, 0-2

Not a lot of notes here. In the second game I used Council's Judgment to kill a Needle on Mom instead of the Delver that was killing me. The Delver killed me.

Round 4 (opponent didn't show up), 2-0

Round 5 vs Mono-white D&T, 2-1

First time I played the mirror. When he came to the table I think I muttered some four letter thing because I knew he was on D&T. He was a cool guy though, like all of my opponents this weekend.

Game 1 I guess I developed a better board. He scoops at 17 life. He gets game 2. We go to turns on game 3 but he gives it to me because I would have killed him on turn 6.

Additional notes. In the third game I sided out my Vials for 2 Priests and two Needles trying to foil his Vial tricks, but I never drew them. I also got rid of a Manriki Gusari instead of a Batterskull and ended up having the Batterskull kill me G2. A better player would have taken that match 2-0.

Round 6 vs NO Elves

Game 1 Elves happens, and I die to tramply elves.

Game 2 I mull [2 SFM, Mom, 2 Wasteland, Revoker, Plains] in search of better hate. Was that a good mull? Elves happens, but I actually survive a Craterhoof swing. Yeay! Then I survive a few more turns until he Zeniths for the second Craterhoof. Boo!

Note in both games he hardcasts a Craterhoof. Containment Priest wouldn't have helped.

Also, at one point I try to Wasteland a Bayou with active Quirion Ranger. Ugh.

Also, I met SwordstoTimeshares playing his black splash on the next table. Nice to meet you!

Elves guy was also a D&T pilot, and recommended taking out the other two Flickerwisps for two Pithing Needles. Doesn't work against Heritage Druid, Birchlore Rangers, and arguably the most useful ability of Deathrite Shaman, but still great against Symbiote, Quirion Ranger, and parts of Deathrite. I was keeping the 2 Flickerwisp in for other Jitte carriers but I guess 4 Avengers and 3 Crusaders is enough to get past Symbiote/Ranger block+bounce tricks. Any thoughts?

Round 7 vs Aggro Loam, split

I split with my opponent. He needs Planeswalker points and has better tiebreakers. He ends up 31st (top 32 gets prizes).

We end up playing a game anyway. At first I think he's on Punishing Jund because I see the Punishing Fires combo and Jund colors, but he's actually on loam. When I cast a second Mom and am able to use a Flickerwisp to save the active Mom from Decay+Fire removal, he scoops saying that it's unlikely he'll ever get enough removal to handle two active moms.

After two days of shoddy piloting, I end up with a Cavern of Souls and two Wooded Foothills. I was hoping for Scrublands, Lilianas, or Restoration Angels but the prize wall was pretty picked through by Saturday evening.

@Medea

Some thoughts :

If I see Simian Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, Mountain, Blood Moon, City of Traitors, City of Traitors, Ensnaring Bridge, and Koth, I'm assuming that he's on Painter. All in red is possible, but Painter is far more common, and all those cards belong in Painter's maindeck with the exception of Koth as a bit of a peculiar choice, but not unheard of. Needles and Judgments come in. I'd cut SoFaI, and probably shave Crusaders. Fiend Hunter would probably also come in if you're running it.

About your Dredge match...I think you're right to assume combo. They'll mulligan more heavily than a fair deck and maintaining some mystery helps them more than something fair. It could conceivably be something like MUD as well. And thinking about it some more, what Combo deck is most likely to completely abandon the game one DnT match? Sneak/Show or Reanimator? I don't think my mind jumps to Dredge here although this deck to mulligan harder than other combo decks. I think I would have brought Canonist in as well. Maybe Needle as a fairly safe hedge once we see what we're dealing with. I'm not sure if I'd have been ballsy enough to bring in RIP for the chance of ANT/Dredge/Reanimator. It might not be wrong. Council's Judgment would probably replace StP as a catch all that leaves us with something for Reanimator or a fair match.

I think the line of blinking the Lavamancer is correct. Getting them down to 1 does have some appeal as you said, but Lavamancer is guaranteed two damage, and you don't reduce your clock to take that line.

Is pulling Vials in the mirror all the rage now? I don't think I'm ready to get on board with that. Getting ported or wasted out of the game is a concern in the mirror, and maybe I'm crazy, but I don't see Containment Priest and Vial as mutually exclusive. Vial is still your best turn one play, and I don't want to pull it for fear of them blanking it. And if it gets revoked, that's one less thing that targets your Jitte, Sword of War and Peace, or Mom - give your opponent more targets and the chance to name incorrectly. If I play a Priest, it's on my terms, and a boardstate where it is more beneficial to me.


@Curby
An opener with only colorless mana and a vial is asking to be punished by Shardless in my opinion. I'd have mulled that. Abrupt Decay is real, and it can ruin your day.

The elves decision is tough. On the draw, it's a toss. A little more tempting on the play. Mom -> Revoker on Wirewood is decent. Ideally you'd like to see something else to slow them down to get a Jitte connecting.
Needle stops ALL parts of Deathrite Shaman, although that is rarely what you will use it for here. It's usually right to put Wirewood Symbiote on lockdown first, and Quirion Ranger is usually also a better name than Deathrite. Needle is ok, and worth consideration to bring in. If you're running 4 Avengers, and 3 Crusaders, you could afford to trim a couple Flickerwisp if you wish. Remember that Mom can force and attack through if need be, but beware of their shenanigans with Birchlore Rangers. They will play that guy morphed (colorless), block, flip it, and bounce it to get around your protection from green in a pinch.

@AntiquatedNotion
I don't know if pulling the Vials is actually good. I understand the argument for wanting to decrease your number of dead late-game draws, but tempo does matter to a certain degree in this matchup. Pulling the Vials also decreases the appeal of Flickerwisp slightly.

I really considered boarding in RiP. I figured that the downside of being wrong was likely worse than the upside of being correct.

@Curby

I'd probably pitch that double colorless vial hand. That would have felt really bad in the face of an Abrupt Decay and/or Deathrite Shaman.

Needle is fine against Elves. I bring it in sometimes depending on what my deck configuration looks like and how my opponent plays. If it seems like my opponent is going to try to grind me out, Needle is great at stopping the draw engine.

for what it's worth, your Rhino NicFit opponent sounds like he played phenomenally. It takes a ton of patience to make the play that he made.

In both DnT mirror I played this weekend I was surprised that my opponent opted to name something different than Jitte with the second Revoker when I was known to have it in play or in hand rather than doubling down.

From what my friend and I played, it seemed like Charlotte had a ton of bug, lands, and dnt...

PS - nice to meet you, Medea

@Nihils
I always love getting to put a face to the names I always see posting. I love shooting the bull about this deck. The metagame there was really weird. Almost no Delver, tons of D&T and Lands. Lands is always popular in this area, but the presence of that much D&T was unprecedented. We were probably talking something like 12% Lands and 12% D&T, which is an enormous share of the metagame for a Legacy field. I don't really think that's indicative of what is to come at Columbus, but it is worth pointing out.

@Atenpls

I originally thought that my opponent was just playing badly by not playing out a removal spell. In retrospect, I realized that if he rips a Deed off the top, he gets like a 7 for one and then has two pieces of removal leftover to clean everything else up. Alternatively, he may have been in such a bad spot that the only way he can win is IF I alpha, assuming he has nothing. I wish I would have talked to him more at the time to figure that out. I might need to spend 20 bucks or so $53 to put that deck together so that I can get a better feel for the other side of the matchup. I hadn't played against Nic Fit since Siege Rhino was printed, and that definitely changes the matchup significantly.

I feel that Rhino Nic Fit is an easier matchup for DnT than it used to. They no longer run top ends like Sigarda which used to be extremely problematic to deal with, not to mention Thragtusk. Often the curve just ends at Rhino and a 1x Titania, both creatures that aren't too threatening. Keep in mind that I haven't seen versions with Meren and Gitrog Monster but seeing that those are legendary and Nic Fit doesn't run Wasteland they should fold to Karakas.

I see Sigarda with all the nic fit at my local meta in every list. She's soo good, anyone not running her in that deck is making a mistake

Yeah Sigarda is a huge pain in the ass and singlehandedly destroys Death and Taxes once she hits the battlefield. I know a couple Nic Fit players but they all seem to say that Sigarda isn't as good in the current meta as she used to be, as the format isn't too conductive to a 5/5 dumb beater for 6 mana (off GSZ) even though she has hexproof. Liliana is also much less common than when Jund used to rule the format. Rhino lifegain seems to be better for matchups like Delver right now.

Sigarda seems pretty nutty to me. I always try to jam one in any GW deck I play if I can justify it. I'll be picking up all the cards for it this evening, so I'll let you all know what I think after I have an event or two under my belt with it.

My local meta for Tuesday nights is odd at best. There are something like 2 bant decks, food chain, Goblin stompy, 12 post, aggro loam, lands, ant, tes, omnitell, sneak and show, BR reanimator, merfolk, occasional miracles and delver. Last night there were 3 nic fit decks and they all had rhino and sigarda. One of them had gitrog and titania which was sweet.

So what is happening with DnT these days. Last time I had a look it was looking like Dark and Taxes was being piloted, now we've got Eldrazi Displacer and Fiend Hunter, as well as the GW and RW variants I see around.

I'm attending an event in Melbourne in a couple of weeks and it's the only chance I really get to play Legacy competitively, and so I have no idea what the meta will be like. Last year it was something like: 3 Landstill, 2 MUD, 4 D+T, a fair bit of delver - at least 2 BUG at least 2 UWR and some number of UW, a few Miracles. So I know there's going to be at least one Elves (my friend), and he could be on the Chaos Elves route, he's undecided. So basically I just want to get some advice as to what I should change/keep with this current list to account for the changes in decks over the last year, and the addition of Eldrazi.



Do I -1 Serra Avenger +1 Fiend Hunter MB? The sideboard is currently built for a bit of everything as I'm really unsure as to what I'll see different from last year.

Hopefully I'll be able to pilot something decent, and come back with a bit of a report if I can remember it!

@lolsplash
You are like two cards off from my 75. You're probably in a good place. I wouldn't go so far as to mainboard the Fiend Hunters, but they are pretty solid against Eldrazi.

Well that's nice and close and makes me feel a bit better about my deck. I think I'll run it as is because I know the deck in this formation. Thanks!

With the influx of people playing D&T after Eternal Masters, are there any thoughts about how this will affect the deck, both MB and SB? Will we be seeing more Manriki-Gusari in preparation for the mirror? I'm interested in what others' thoughts are.

Pithing needle and sword of light and shadow or war and peace seem ideal for the mirror. Manriki-Gusari definitely isn't bad. I generally have 1 in my board, but I feel as thought sword of light and shadow just gives us a ton of freedom in the red zone.

I think the best way to never ever lose to the mirror is to just play the GW version. Maindeck Pridemages are pretty brutal.

Quote from Frenadol »

I think the best way to never ever lose to the mirror is to just play the GW version. Maindeck Pridemages are pretty brutal.

This. You actually pretty much can never lose the mirror except to a really nutty draw from your opponent in combination with miserable draws from your own deck. Pridemage deals with equipment easily, Library makes sure all your topdecks are nuts, and maindeck SoWaP pretty much means you win if you can resolve an attach.


So yeah, EE4 and GP Columbus are coming up! I feel really really good about GW taxes, Frenadol's list has been treating me extremely well and I've top 8ed basically every major cash event I've taken it to. However, there is still a certain appeal about mono W that makes me want to fall back on it for the GP (since it IS a larger event). I've never been to a legacy GP/Open before, so I'm not quite sure what to expect... but my guess is a decent portion of just about everything. Will burn be prevalent enough to make mono W that much better of a choice? The flexibility of GW seems too good to pass up. Curious what you guys think the better option for these specific tournaments would be, as well as why!

For reference:

GW LIST -


I cut 1 WLL and 1 Qasali Pridemage from Frenadol's board to squeeze in 2 Fiend Hunters for Eldrazi, dunno if that's the direction I want to go but those are the two cards I use least when it comes to shoring up my bad matchups.

If I were taking mono W to a large event, I'm fairly certain it would look 70-72 like Medea's. I'm a huge fan of Horizon Canopy, so probably:

-1 Plains
-1 Canonist
+1 Canopy
+1 Gideon AOZ

Just on instinct though, haven't extensively tested mono W in recent times.

Having pro-W critters in your 75 also goes a long way to win the mirror. I used to run Stillmoon Cavalier for that purpose.

In the mirror, the RW deck leverages Sudden Demise and Magus of the Moon together, along with something like Cunning Sparkmage or Goblin Sharpshooter. I also use my 1-of Warping Wail to deal with Mother of Runes in particular.

Quote from esplanades »

With the influx of people playing D&T after Eternal Masters, are there any thoughts about how this will affect the deck, both MB and SB? Will we be seeing more Manriki-Gusari in preparation for the mirror? I'm interested in what others' thoughts are.

Hopefully I will not need to adjust for the mirror. This deck operates best when it is under-the-radar. It is not too hard to hate it out, so if it becomes more popular, then more -x/-x effects appear.
One approach which is often overlooked for the mirror is to add in +x/+x effects. I have tried it many times, and it is very significant to have bigger monsters than your opponent. As most DnT players know, a Tarmogoyf or a Gurmag Angler that you can't answer will often end the game. Big Goblins, big Merfolk are the same story. Having your creatures be bigger than theirs is pretty clutch.
I am running two Honor of the Pure in the side at this time.

J

What is your reasoning for Honor over Wilt-Leaf Liege? I imagine the speed is a factor, but you probably don't have a huge army to protect from a sweeper on turn 2, and Thalia pushes the cost pretty close to that of Liege. At the same time, you lose the splash damage against Hymn and Liliana.