MTG Salvation

Redtwister was referring to Revoker and just typo'd. I am experimenting with a Metamorph in the 75. It's likely "win more," but it opens up some really odd lines of play.

And yeah, I'm not sure about what I'm doing either. I'm going to show up to an IQ today with about 90 cards and just build whatever looks good based on the room.

Quote from Medea »

Redtwister was referring to Revoker and just typo'd. I am experimenting with a Metamorph in the 75. It's likely "win more," but it opens up some really odd lines of play.

And yeah, I'm not sure about what I'm doing either. I'm going to show up to an IQ today with about 90 cards and just build whatever looks good based on the room.

Good luck!

Good luck!

Played against Lands this week. Sanctum prelate at 2 won game 1 when I had 1 land in play and a vial. Note though game 2 they board in Molten Vortex.

As to Pokken's suggestion of Basilisk Collar, I like it vs goyf and eldrazi decks. First strike with death touch and lifeline wins combat no matter how big goyf is.

Tournament Report.

Really enjoy the new article! One question for you all. I am playing in this small tournament of about 20 people. There will be a lot of miracles and goblin stompy, 4 of each for some ungodly reason. There will be 1-2 Nic Fit, 1 Jund, 1 burn, 1 12-post, and unknown decks. given this, what should I bring in for the goblin deck? I cannot find much information on it. 8 blood moon effects do nothing against basic plains, but chalice and trinisphere could be less than fun. The win seems to be Krenko, Mob Boss, Siege-gang Commander, or Goblin Rabblemaster. Would something like Holy Light work for mentor tokens and goblin tokens?

@tristin183
If you are expecting Burn, Jund, and four (!) red stompy decks, then Absolute Law might be pretty darn good for your weekend. As far as the Goblin Stompy matchup goes, bring in cards that interact with permanents like Council's Judgment and Pithing Needle. A tutorable Leonin Relic-Warder probably wouldn't hurt. The deck doesn't really have a ton of "business" cards, so if you get your opponent off balance and answer 1-2 threats, you probably just win. I'm not sold on Holy Light personally; I've tried it, but it seemed clunky to me while also eating Revokers.

Quote from tristin183 »

Really enjoy the new article! One question for you all. I am playing in this small tournament of about 20 people. There will be a lot of miracles and goblin stompy, 4 of each for some ungodly reason. There will be 1-2 Nic Fit, 1 Jund, 1 burn, 1 12-post, and unknown decks. given this, what should I bring in for the goblin deck? I cannot find much information on it. 8 blood moon effects do nothing against basic plains, but chalice and trinisphere could be less than fun. The win seems to be Krenko, Mob Boss, Siege-gang Commander, or Goblin Rabblemaster. Would something like Holy Light work for mentor tokens and goblin tokens?

I've tried Holy Light in the sideboard when I knew elves was in my meta. Never drew it when I needed it so as a one of it feels like a wasted slot in the 75. Holy light also doesn't work on the white monk tokens.

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=107585

Another top 16 finish with 2 Serra Avengers in the main.

@mrjumbo03
I interviewed him last night and asked about his deck and thoughts. I'll be writing that up either today or tomorrow. We had a really great conversation about some deckbuilding and metagame stuff.

Quote from tristin183 »

Really enjoy the new article! One question for you all. I am playing in this small tournament of about 20 people. There will be a lot of miracles and goblin stompy, 4 of each for some ungodly reason. There will be 1-2 Nic Fit, 1 Jund, 1 burn, 1 12-post, and unknown decks. given this, what should I bring in for the goblin deck? I cannot find much information on it. 8 blood moon effects do nothing against basic plains, but chalice and trinisphere could be less than fun. The win seems to be Krenko, Mob Boss, Siege-gang Commander, or Goblin Rabblemaster. Would something like Holy Light work for mentor tokens and goblin tokens?

If you're sure there will be that many goblins, I sort of want to suggest Tivadar of Thorn. He's Recruitable, but awfully narrow, so I'm not sure if it's actually worth it. First strike and pro-red does make him decent against burn and maybe playable against Jund.

Without Elves in that list, Marrow Shards might be better than Holy Light if you want that kind of effect. As far as I know the Stompy decks don't run any lord effects, so they actually attack as 1/1s.

Just a note on metagame and this top 16:
2 Storm
2 Belcher
1 Mono-R Sneak Attack

3 Colorless Eldrazi
1 Affinity
1 Burn

1 W Eldrazi and Taxes
1 Grixis Delver
1 Maverick
1 Miracles
1 Lands
1 DnT

I am not inclined to pay much mind to Mono-R Sneak Attack or Affinity as they are neither common nor particularly good, but over the haf the decks are really aggro (Storm and Belcher are just aggro-combo, still looking to win the the first few turns), except for (Thalia) Maverick, DnT, Miracles, Eldrazi and Taxes, Delver, and Lands. That's 10 out of 16 aggro decks, with 5 combo, 4 stompy, 1 Burn.

However, except for Burn, Eldrazi, Affinity, and Maverick look kind of bad for Prelate (she's too slow for Affinity), but good for Thalia, Heretic Cathar and Serra Avenger (you need a clock blocker.) Mom seems so-so since out of the aggro decks, she is only really good against Burn and that is to protect Thalia and Prelate. Obviously, Mom is great against the slower fair decks, but if those are less represented...

Don't know what this says about the meta in general, though I am inclined to say that since it seems that outside of the mid-Atlantic in the U.S., Florida has one of the highest percentages of excellent Eternal formats players, and therefore this might be important and indicative which way the wind is blowing. In Baltimore, you will see more Lands and Miracles players because, well, the mid-Atlantic, and I would expect more Shardless and Bant/Esper Stoneblade instead of Affinity/Mono-R Sneak Attack.

I look forward to Medea's report on his discussion and also I would love input from other people actively engaged with the meta and how they see it shaping up.

Interview with Don Donelson

Great interview Phil,
It's really interesting to see the constant flux of numbers as everyone tries to settle on what is best for the deck.
I might try something more like Don's this week, I was initially opting for 3 recruiters just to get the test reps in.

@llculto
If you aren't sure or haven't done a ton of testing, I'd err on the side of playing Avengers.

I'd also recommend Avengers if you don't have a replacement in mind as it gives you evasion, a blocker for delvers and a bit of tempo off vial. At this point the deck has numerous utility creatures but very few ways to get through a ground wall and we need something that can hold its own/race without equipment.

Avenger can also be the key to beating elves in game 1. Symbiote and quirion make getting jitte counters on the ground very difficult, a flier with a jitte who can attack AND play defense (without having to pay 2 mana to switch the jitte to someone else post combat) is going to increase your odds of winning from low 20s to high 70s.

(This is how I beat elves game 1 on Sunday actually).

I am new to the forum here, but I thought you all may enjoy seeing the most recent iteration of my deck.

@wake4law_cane4life
*whistles* Looking good!

@Cubing
Actually, I've found it to be very positive in my testing. They struggle with the mana denial portion of our deck quite a bit, and the Blood Moon/Chalice/Trinisphere plan doesn't hinder us all that much in comparision to other decks of the format. Revoker shuts off Sneak Attack, the quickest way for them to get an actual kill, and THC effectively time walks them, as they will need to cheat in a creature during your end step rather than on their own turn. You can mulligan pretty aggressively in this matchup, and especially in the post-sb games when the Containment Priests come in, you're likely in pretty good shape.

So I am looking for alters for Flickerwisp.. It seems like every card (New Vial art!!) is getting promo prints. But I think that Flickerwisp needs something! Does anyone have neat alters or anything special for them?

If Serra Avenger is always "incredibly nuts :)" when you play it, why cut it even if its not tutorable? It may not have the same potential highs as the other options but its consistently good and does not suffer from the other options' lows. I still play 3 in my version.

Quote from redtwister »

I am not inclined to pay much mind to Mono-R Sneak Attack or Affinity as they are neither common nor particularly good

I was reading the MTGGoldfish article which featured a new Mono-Red Sneak build found here, and man... Madcap Experiment makes that deck pretty good IMO, at least something to watch out for. It's essentially a 1-card combo, which for Legacy is pretty awesome. Now of course, DnT has tools to beat Blightsteel Colossus and Wurmcoil Engine, but *****, they can insta-win with the right combo of cards off of Combustible Gearhulk, OR you have to give them a free Ancestral Recall. Just don't take this deck lightly if you see it. Mono-Red Sneak's problem was always a low abundance of win-conditions and no anti-permission, but a deck with win-cons out the wazoo is, well... pretty good. I think that a build like that perhaps has DnT in mind, as it cuts Griselbrand in favor of options that plain wreck our day.

I'm also playing 3 of Recruiter. Its an amazing tool that I'm never unhappy having as long as the game goes past turn 3.

@SwordsToTimeshares
Yeah, I saw that deck. It's much better than the earlier versions of Mono-R Sneak Attack, but I'll have to play it to know if it is a problem match. I won't be dropping under 3 Karakas, that's for sure.

Yep, also never unhappy to see a Recruiter. I'm sure if I ran 4, it'd be redundant now and then, so that's the sign of a card that you don't want to "overstay its welcome". Also check this: Dunno how you've all been in your tourney matches and testing, but since going to 2x Cavern of Souls and utilizing Recruiter, I've yet to drop a match to Miracles. You don't even need Vial in your opener anymore. Likely they will have such a headache dealing with your uncounterable Thalia sisters that they shuffle away Counterbalance, so if you do draw a Vial later, it's more likely to land.

I've been having pretty good matches against formerly difficult matchups since the inclusion of Recruiter and Prelate. Been destroying Infect (sanctum at 1), Jund (Sanctum at 2) and Lands (Sanctum at 2), several times as early as turn 4 with mom turn 1, thalia turn 2, sanctum/recruiter turn 3. Had my Eldrazi matchup improve significantly with the Recruiter into Flickerwisp, getting Flickerwisp multiple times. Haven't played against Miracles yet but I'm also playing 2 Caverns and I'm not having as many problems vs. Counterspell decks.

Edit: I'm been playing a greedy Recruiter SB list with Magus of the Moon and Pontiff. Haven't had a chance to use them to any great effect but I've noticed I rarely, if ever, have issues casting them between having 4 vials and 2 caverns.