MTG Salvation

Haven't seen Port yet. I have seen that Horizon Canopy is in Iconic Masters.

More likely in 25th anniversary. Nothing for iconic masters.

I was hoping that the white Legendary Enchantment/Land flip card would be good, but it requires you to attack with 3 creatures to transform it :\

@PhyrexianProvoker
Running a similar list, but a ton of Czech Pile at my local, so I went back to 2x Serra Avenger. Love GQ in the main, so amazing. Might, oddly enough, go back to trying Brimaz, King of Oreskos.

I've been putting in a ton of reps with EldraziPost and I haven't had a chance to playtest extensively against Czech, but it seems like one of the most skill intensive matchups DnT has.

Brimaz gets stronger with less Abrupt decay in the format right? Fatal Push still requires the Revolt activation to hit him, and there are less tarmogoyfs in the format to blank brimax tokens. Deathrite's big butt is still around unfortunately, and although he seems especially good against czech, it is not enough of an impetus for me to add him back to the 75. I've noticed that Czech Pile doesn't run Dread of Night because of the extensive removal package they have against the rest of the format that impacts this matchup also, which I think is good for us. If there is a lot of Czech I'd suggest running both an Aven Mindcensor and a Wingmare. It's almost a free win if you get mom+thalia+wingmare in the first three turns.

Prelate seems questionable in this matchup. Push on 1 Decay/edict on 2 and Deluge/K command on 3 makes it kind of a guess, but I think I almost always name 3. How does everyone find SFM to be in this matchup? I'm sure SOFAI is Amazing, but the possible 2for1 with K. Command seems really bad for Death and Taxes.

Finally, we are definitely the aggro beat down deck @navigator. Czech Pile is the new Shardless in terms of grinding you by 2 for 1 value, the longer the game goes the worse it gets for us. I think landing an early Thalia and putting power on the board asap is important without over extending into Toxic Deluge.

What are your ideal sideboard cards to fight Czech atm @RedTwister?

@PhyrexianProvoker
Thought about it after this build.

I'm curious if Eiganjo may come back into style given that it effectively turns off the value of K Command. I'm intrigued by the idea of 3 Spirits in the mainboard, as it can effectively turn off Elves, which is scarily prevalent here in the Bay Area. I really dislike Cavern in that list though because the 3 WW creatures don't share a type. The catacylsm + Flagstones combo is cute, but I don't think dropping to so few basics without the addition of aggressive utility lands is worth the danger of other Wasteland, Bloodmoon, and PoP decks.

I think if you're really scared of Czech, you might think about running either SoFaF or SoLaS. Maybe SoFaF is better if Rest in Peace is going to be so important in the match up. I think it really comes down to whether you're more scare of Rock Decks or Plowshares decks in your meta.

I slowly evolved from old school Shadowclysm to DnT over a matter of decades. It has taken me a long time to realize that there are actually very few decks that we want Cataclysm in the deck. Out of the SB, I want either Armageddon or Dawn, if I play any 4-mana sweeping sorcery at all.

Flickerwisp can save your creatures and equipment from removal, blink Recruiter to grab another Flickerwisp, reset batterskull, deny an opponent a land for a turn, blink a Marit Lage token, reset your own Revoker or Pithing Needle, negate an opponent's Revoker or Needle for a turn... Flickerwisp's utility is endless. Plus he provides a fast clock in the air to get over things like TNN and he blocks Delver of Secrets.

@Travolter
Flickerwisp has universal uses, but also Aether Vial-based tricks, so it becomes much stronger with Vial in play.

Driemer84 mentioned
- save your creatures and equipment from removal
- blink Recruiter to grab another creature
- reset batterskull
- deny an opponent a land for a turn
- blink, i.e. kill, a Marit Lage token (or any other token, for that matter)
- reset your own Revoker or Pithing Needle
- negate an opponent's Revoker or Needle for a turn
- blocks Delver of Secrets
- provides a fast clock in the air to get over things like TNN

Now, alongside all of that excellent utility, Flickerwisp also
- Flips a Delver back to a 1/1
- Can blink a resolved card off of Show and Tell to buy you a turn or evern win you the game
- Take a threat out of combat
- removes a resolved Ensnaring Bridge or the annoying combat/damage stopping lands in the Lands deck long enough for us to punch through
- Combined with Oblivion Ring it can be a way to permanently exile a permanent with stack tricks. Also works with Mangara of Corondor to allow Corondor to be used more than once. These you don't see as often since O-Ring and Corondor aren't really competitively playable these days.
- ETB and blink a land to leave up Karakas or a Plains or Wasteland. Basically, it's worst use is to effectively cost 2 and leave up mana for StP.

If Flickerwisp isn't the most skill-intensive piece of tech in your deck - your flying 3/1 toolbox of utility - then you aren't using it right.

Don't forget blinking Stoneforge for more equipment, or blinking a land to save it from Wasteland, or blinking a land to keep up Port mana, or blinking a mox diamond to essentially naturalize it, or blinking a Chalice to essentially naturalize it, or blinking a planeswalker to reset the counters.

@AbzanCoCoLadies
I've found the greatest amount of success against Miracles running a list with Vryn Wingmare, 2x Spirit, and 1 aven mindcensor. I also run a second Prelate in the board. Get a mom down, and then get a Prelate down on 6 and its very hard for them to come back. You can also put Prelate on 1 and hope they just have a hand of plows and cantrips.

@PhyrexianProvoker
Yes and yes again!

See, Flickerwisp is your endless toolkit for all manner of things. It has nearly limitless value.

Tournament report for 15th place at EW.

Tournament report for 35th at EW.

I really love that high-offense build.

I went 4-0 with this meta specific deck
2-1 Elves
2-0 Ad Nauseam
2-0 Grixis Delver
2-0 Ad Nauseam

Quote from AbzanCoCaLadies »

Congrats on 4-0.

Kinda like the 4/2 thalia/ wingmare with the maindeck Chalice! Thats some real taxes!
U use the 4 tomes to cast chalice faster?

How did the 1x THC play?

Thalia, Heretic Cathar is Great on Turn 2 stops enemy fetches. its also great paired with normal Thalia to block Gurmag Angler and Reality Smashers. also one of the better cards against Elves, slows down alot of different shenanigans they do with glimpse and Heritage Druid. I would like to add another somehow maybe 4 recruiter is a bit much

4 Recruiter does seem a drop high. I was also surprised to see no Crusaders.

Quote from mo3mon3y »

I went 4-0 with this meta specific deck
2-1 Elves
2-0 Ad Nauseam
2-0 Grixis Delver
2-0 Ad Nauseam

I could see a couple of Cavern of Souls because a 2nd or 3rd turn (or later) Aether Vial stuck in your hand is bad enough, but late Mother of Runes can still turn the game around. It's a good card anyway.

J

Quote from Togaras »

It is hard to search 650 pages for the answer, so I might ask it over again:
Since I am new to that deck, can someone please explain me, the usage of the Equipments?
I see Batterskull, Sword of Fire and Ice and Umezawa’s Jitte in the mains and Sword of War and Peace in the side.

When to search for which one?
When to board SoWaP in?

Batterskull is usually the best one to go search up, and you do it if you're reasonably sure you can get it onto the table (ie: you think you can protect SFM long enough to use the ability). SoFaI is extremely powerful, especially with a Crusader, or against Red and Blue, but doesn't gain life, is a bit more mana intensive, and not as "adjustable." Jitte can knock off several low-toughness creatures with ease, as well as boost your life total. SoWaP comes in when your opponent is playing Swords to Plowshares.

Quote from Togaras »

... When to search for which one?
When to board SoWaP in?

It's a big topic.

Jitte is also great in the mirror, because it ends Mother of Runes (as well as the rest of our creatures); Jitte is good against us.

If I know my opponent has no countermagic at the time, I might get Jitte if I have two mana open and hardcast it to get it online fastest of the three.

Frequently I find Jitte is vulnerable in the sense that it is usually the Equipment my opponent gets first (for the above reason) and so I frequently have to "Revoker" it, causing me to wish for a different Equipment of my own.

Though some people differ, I also go for Sword of Red and Blue against Delver. I love to shoot Delvers first. It gets past an otherwise blocking TNN, and provides card advantage in a matchup where the opponent is drawing zillions.

Sword of Red and Blue is often my first choice against Deathrite because it kills DS just as successfully as Jitte does, but for the above reason, I might be Revokering Jitte in that matchup, or I value the card advantage (ergo I might like SoFaI if I have previously been getting Thoughtseized or Hymned). Jitte kills at Instant speed, which is sometimes good if the opponent is going to grab a Stoneforge Mystic and fetch business before you have time to intervene with Sword of X. Jitte is a must for Infect for instance. You can respond to their business, a la Inkmoth Nexus for instance.

Batterskull is pretty skill-intensive in my experience. If you can reliably protect SM, it is usually solid, but it doesn't straight up kill problem creatures on the other side. On grindy matchups it shines, because the opponent has inevitability, and BS forestalls that.

I have, on not necessarily rare occasions, tried to bait removal by fetching a Batterskull. Opp is going to kill Mystic, leaving the creatures in my hand more safe. BS becomes a wasted card, but it sometimes pays off.

There are other advocates here for Sword of Red and White. I like it of course to protect from those colors, but it shines where the opp needs time to set up, such as with Miracles 2.0. They try to survive the short game to get into a setup with Jace, or Angel tokens, or finding Terminus, and this opp has a mitt-full of cards. SoWaP makes a quick clock in that case.

PS I like Sword of Light and Shadow but I recognize it has serious deficiencies.


J

There are four playable swords (Sorry SoBaM); each with their own pros and cons.

Swords of War and peace - sowap
Sword of Fire and Ice - sofai
Sword of Light and Shadow - solas
Sword of Feast and Famine - sofaf

Sowap - Sowap doesn't see as much play as it used to in the miracles era. Often seen as the best sideboard option against miracles, it survives pyroclasm and protects from swords and mentor+cronies. While obviously every sword is grossly broken on Crusader, it allowed crusader to literally one shot hand heavy miracles players. 6 cards + Crusader damage = 20. It still sees play in plenty of sideboards as an answer to decks like Czech Pile and the mirror.
The major con of SoWaP is its lack of incremental value compared to all the other swords. Yes gaining life and dealing damage can win games, but it doesn't put you ahead on board or in your hand.

SoFai - SoFaI is the go to mainboard sword. Its versatile in its ability to protect from cards like lightning bolt and pyroclasm, but it also provides immediate card advantage when it connects. Not only does it draw you a card, but it also allows you to ping the most annoying creatures in the format (I'm looking at you Deathrite and Delver). It often can win you the game on the spot if the delver player can't answer it before you connect. It becomes a 2 for 0 every turn. Its most understated important quality to SoFaI is that it allows you to get past that damn wall of 3 True-Name Nemesis your opponent happened to top deck 3 turns in a row. Matchup wise its great against All Delver variants, the mirror (kills every creature in the deck), Miracles, Czech Pile, and 4 color control.

SoLaS - SolaS is the sword that was just not quite ever good enough. Some DnT players play it for the mirror match, but with every creature getting swordsed it seems the white black ability is pretty useless. Obviously it's pretty impossible to beat a mirran crusader with and sword on it, especially one that protects it from your only removal available in DnT. It rolls over DnT, Deadguy Ale, Pikula, and that's about it. I'd only really sideboard this card if you were in a DnT heavy meta, and at that point why aren't you just running Manriki-Gusari instead?

SoFaF - SoFaF has historically been a great choice for DnT. However it has seen significantly less play with the rise of Mirran Crusader and the fall of abrupt decay in general. It doesn't stop bolt or swords which are two of the most commonly seen removal cards in the format, which makes the sword very hard to connect with. The abilities are good, but untapping lands is not something that DnT really cares about all that much. The discard is much stronger, but I'm not sure it wins you the game like SoFaI does.

Then there are three additional equipment.
Batterskull - BS
Umezawa's Jitte - Jitte
Manriki-Gusari - Gucci man

BS - BS is the big boy of equipment. The fifth grader who comes down and just starts smacking the kindergartners on the playground around when the teachers aren't looking. At a whopping five mana it does seem daunting to cast it in a deck that runs 4 wasteland 4 port, but its often the case that it happens sooner or later in grindy matchups, Its often a guaranteed fetch against rock decks because of their general inability to answer that gross lil germ, decay and push having little effect on the soul sucking battering ram. While it certainly isn't fetched first in the mirror, the fact that it makes a black creature is relevant against mom-based hands. BS represents two things for DnT players, a recurrable clock, and a significant deck knowledge test.

Flickerwisp+BS is one of the iconic synergies in DnT for good reason. It represents 7 power, 4 four which is lifelink and 3 of which is flying.

Knowing when to cast it or cheat it in, knowing when to spend the mana to equip or bounce instead of wasteland/port, and knowing when to fetch for it over the big daddy make BS one of the more challenging equipment to use.

The main cons to BS are twofold. Obviously five mana is a lot in a deck that runs 8-9 land denial lands, 23 lands, and no cantrips to find more. Additionally, its a very, very slow card that is answered easily by cards like JTMS.

Jitte - The only reason Jitte isn't the most broken equipment to ever be printed is because Skullclamp is like a top 5 mistake from Wizards. If BS is the 5th grader beating up the kindergartners, Jitte is High school senior coming to the local elementary school with an aluminum baseball bat. No one ever understands how unbelievably broken this card is until they win an entire game off a Jitte equipped 2/1. If I had artistic capabilities and wrote magic related poetry I'd surely write an ode to Jitte, but I don't, so I won't.

Jitte has three abilities, Equipped creature gets +2/+2, target creature gets -1/-1, and you gain 2 life. I'm not going to argue and say any of these abilities are undervalued because everyone recognizes how insane every part of this card is. +2/+2 essentially makes whatever equipped creature unkillable because it creates a potential 4 toughness at instant speed to win combat or avoid bolt/deluge kills. The damage+toughness buff makes blocking it a nightmare also, if you block it they buff it, if you don't block they use the counters to snipe your creatures, it is madness. -1/-1 is probably the most broken part of this card, there is no reason a card should be able to disfigure a creature every turn for an initial 2 mana investment, but it can, so we use it.

The only real con of this card is that it doesn't save your creatures from static stat reduction like Dread of night or Engineered Plague, nor is it always fast enough to be a legitimate answer to delver, it also takes two turns for it to generate lifegain whereas BS can generate it on the opponent's turn when they attack. It can also be abrupt decayed, which is another reason you fetch BS against rock decks.

Gucci Man - Gucci Man is the ultimate mirror card. it is especially strong if you're running a flier heavy build with serra avengers. If you prefer to play creature vs creature games then Gucci Man is the card for you. Obviously Gucci Man is fairly weak if they aren't on the equipment plan, and it can often feel like a dead card in hand until they draw someone for you to kill off, but if you are not playing a good mirror matchup list I think it is definitely a card worth playing in the sideboard.

@togaras

I wrote this awhile back.

Report for Baltimore.

Quote from Medea »

@togaras

I wrote this awhile back.

Yo this blog has a bunch of awesome stuff in it! Keep it up!