Boil has been insane every time I drew it. You gotta play it smart though. You can't just fire it off as soon as you can. Remember, it's an instant. So it will either destroy their mana base turn 4 and later or it'll get countered and clear the way for you to drop a real threat. If not walking ballista, then what would be better in those slots? I don't think affinity is a favored match and it really shines there. I do find eldrazi Tron to be a match that's extremely hard to deal with and the red green land destruction deck is unwinnable. Ballista helps in both of those matches. Now storm....I don't know what to say there. Feels like chalice in two or bust. Games two and three that doesn't even work. I'm always looking for better options....hell, I even tested orcish librarian and flip Chandra. I do think that keeping the 4 drops to 6 or less is where we wanna be. So, back to the question. I hear ya about ballista, so what would we play in it's place? The value I saw couldn't be imitated with anything else. I did think about maindecking eidolin and freeing up some sideboard slots.
What a tidy deck and tournament report. For fear of throwing too much praise back and forth, it's heartening to see a brand new poster have mastery of meta-adjusted Pyro Prison. Sure there are some varying opinions on spell selection, (and Proxxy makes a good point about getting over-enthused on Walking Ballista), but I totally agree on the deck base (53) and your choice of swing slots (7) accurately targeted the tournament competitors on the day - making the win feel automatic.
WALKING BALLISTA
With Walking Ballista, I have written in the past: Tron / Elf / Infinite Mana need only apply. Proxxy said it best on 'already favored' matchups, but it's still a decent 2-drop on occasion [kill a dork / dark confidant] and a pretty good late drop, plus an assist on ducking under the bridge in emergencies as a 0-drop. I'm cool with a 1-of.
WITCHBANE ORB
You have left behind Witchbane Orb? Woah. That's my safety blanket against Burn and Scapeshift and Ad Nauseam, Hurkyl's Recall, plus it protects me and my planeswalkers from Eldrazi Tron creature damage, Snapcaster/Bolt decks, as well stopping Liliana of the Veil ultimates...I can't do it, Papabear. And, does gifts/storm really play around the Orb that easily?
FAVORED DECKS
Decks mentioned in your post that I think need to be clearly clarified as favored matchups are Humans, Infect, and Green/Red Ponza. You said Ponza was unwinnable, and I disagree. I chat with a player of the deck at my LGS often. Our mana acceleration and selective sweeps come through, plus that deck - like ours - can befall the 'wrong half' draw since it has no filter/scry/draw and its selection of spells need to be sequenced in a certain order.
BOIL
Lastly, Boil? How many islands are usually getting killed when it's cast? Blue decks tend to run a lot of land, scry/dig, and dual lands. So, I might lean towards that molten rain. Just to take a little edge off, I have been screwing around with a single dragon's claw in the sideboard for Burn. Claw wouldn't slow a Gifts/Storm grapeshot win at all, would it?
Just an FYI....I put pryo prison on the deck sheet. The local game store only upload the list and SCG gives it a name.
As far as witchbane orb, yes, the matches you referenced are already answered by other cards. Blood moon is the same as witchbane vs scapeshift, chalice and blood moon lock out burn, and blood moon, shattering sorry combines with spyglass stop ad nausem. As far as hurkyls recall is concerned, blue green Merfolk is definitely better than mono blue. Blue green does NOT play recall and uses nature's claim instead. Chalice in one stops that cold. Blood moon helps stop lily from hitting in the first place and spyglass can assist with the eldrazi creatures. To be honest, I've found eldrazi tron an exceptionally hard match. For storm, it's useless. They usually side out gifts ungiven for pieces if the puzzle and in the course of them casting a million spells, a shattering spree or wipe away or both will decimate your board then you take 535 damage to the face. No, you cannot lock storm out game two. You need to apply pressure and throw speed bumps in the way. Emma handy wrote N article about beating storm a while back. Rabblemaster is your best card in the match game two. Chalice on two is game over in the first gsme, but you need to apply pressure in the post board games.
Lastly, boil is nuts. It's an instant, so it can clear the way for a bigger spell. If blood moon doesn't come down, it can do serious damage. In comes in vs EVERY deck that plays islands except for those bant inight decks. We're talking Merfolk, UW control, jeskai tempo, and grixis shadow. Gamenyoe, your opponent always fetches a basic island first, making blood moon less effective. If you can hit boil woeither before or after moon, you will win that game.
I'll test further, but walking ballista felt like such a house, I can't see another card being better. The games I lose are usually due to not drawing enough lands or sticking a bridge and not being able to clear my hand fast enough. I though about running a 22nd land, but figured ballista scales with the game. Kill a mana dork or minus with and create a late game 5/5 pinging machine. Oh, it also kills thalia on schedule, no extra mana required.
In all the leagues that I went 1-4 or 2-3 with this deck, it was because I couldn't cast the cards in my hand. So I'm confident that loading up on 4 drops is a recipe for disaster. Yes, when you get mana, it feels awesome, but with only 21 actual lands, it doesn't happen all the time. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
alright, after going 5-0 on mtgo in a friendly league, I decided to try another competitive league....same list
Round 1, Affinity
Game one, abrade plus slagstorm plus walking ballista enables me to stabilize at 4 life. Two turns later, a chalice on one, then on two, then a bridge seal the win.
Game two, I get blown out in classic affinity style
Game three, Walking ballista for the win. An early ballista with two counters (turn two) tags a steel overseer, then two turns later, it add one, pings one...adds one, ping one...so good. WIN
Round 2, affinity
Games one and two, See above. This was deja vu all over again. and again, Walking Ballista does serious work.
Game three, I manage to get a chalice on one and a bridge. Draw spyglass and think about it for a long long time, then play it, naming ghirapur aether grid (i haven't seen it yet). He scoops immediately. NICE! WIN
Round 3, bogles,
Game one, let him pump a creature to 5 power, then slam bridge.
Game two, chalice on one, then on two, then bridge and he's done. WIN
Round 4, Merflok....mono blue style
Game one, major style points here. on the draw, I play land, 2 spirit guide, pyretic ritual, splice a desperate ritual, play a desperate ritual, play koth AND a magus of the moon. empty handed, turn one blood moon effect and KOTH. all that work, undone by a single echoeing truth....booooooo....i lose that game
Game two, turn one chalice on one, turn three chalice on two. I abrade a merfolk betowwn those and he's completely locked out. Can't cast anything.
Game three....remember my last post when I said the games this deck loses are when you can't empty your hand? well, here it is....turn two chalice on one gets countered by ceremounious rejection., turn three, have to ritual for a bridge. turn 4, no land, another chalice on one, this one sticks, turn 5 get the land, play a blood moon. I have 5 cards in hand, he make a few lords and pummels me with several 4/4 and 5/5 dudes. If I have even one more land, I would have been able to shrink my hand and bridge would have done work. For the record, I was staring at pia and kiran nalaar in my hand. feels like whenever I can't get under bridge, they are involved. maybe they feel pity on my prison opponents....who knows.... LOSS
Round 5....Death and taxes
Game one, rabble master followed by rabble master followed by rabble master makes a LOT more tokens than the several lingering souls I saw. Eventually they all dies and I have to win another way, by my opponent making a misplay. With two thought-knot seers back to block and sitting at 12 life, I attack with my 4/4 walking ballista with 7 mana untapped. He chooses not to block and I pump, hit for 5, ping for 5 then slagstorm for the win. This was the ONLY time in my past 10 games where slagstom's ability to hit players was revlant. I'm not saying that sweltering suns would have been better those other times, because who knows what you cycle into, but the three damage enabled me to steal a game. the opponent knew about it from an earlier discard spell, which is why I said it was a misplay. But still, being able to do 13 damage in a single turn felt good and its something this deck doesn't do often.
Game two,
Torpor orb for the win. nuff said. TKS doesn't tag a card on the way down and he gives me a card on his way out. and early bridge backed up by some chalices stall for a while until Chandra joins the party. WIN
Overall, 4-1 and I would make any changes to the deck except MAYBE Sweltering suns over slagstorm....maybe. there are lots of times when I want the card out of my hand because of bridge, but don't want to cycle because of bridge and don't want to cast it because of magus of the moon. This is a big win for Slagstorm because it allows me to get rid of it without nuking m team. I didn't draw boil or shatter spree in my merfolk or affinity matches. I didn't side in eidolin or hazoret at all this league. Torpor orb was amaxing ans as long as storm is a deck, death and taxes will be popular, so keep those torpor orbs handy. jusr remember to side out pia and kiran when torpor orb come in. Walking ballista once again has been fantastic. I hear the criticism about the card, but so far, it's the reason i'm 9-1 in my last 10 MTGO league games, with being really close to a perfect 10-0.
Would anybody be interested in a sideboard guide for this deck? I could write one up if there's interest. just let me know. anyway, hope everyone is well and doing as well as I have been!
Another Tournament Report. Competitive League, Magic online.....spoiler alert, this one is 5-0. that's 14-1 in my last 15 league games on MTGO.
Here we go....
Round 1 vs hollow one with gumag angler, deaths shadow and that phwonix.
Game One; Bridge and chalice locks the game down while walking ballista ticks up and up and up....
Game Two: Chalice on two stops all his artifact removal and then a bridge stops all his attackers. Chandara ticks all the way up.
Round 2 vs Storm
Ah storm, this is our worst match. Game one, I g with a turn one bridge on the play. Fearing a thought seize could strip it away, so I play it early. Too bad he's on storm. He has a crap hand, but it doesn't matter. I lose with literally 9 mountains in play. I play three spells the whole game, bridge, rabblemaster, then, after he got me to three life, I finally resolve a chalice on two. too late though, he has enough mana to play three spells into it, then use the storm trigger to deal the final three.
Game two he keeps a one lander and is looking at a turn two rabblemaaster followed by a turn three chalice on two.
Game three, on the drew, we get gemstone caverns. our turn, we just play a land and keep abrade up. he plays land go, i play land #3 and pass. on his turn, he plays two cantrips, plays an untapped land and passes, and I play a chalice on two. I've been holding it the whole time and the patience here really paid off. he kills it with a shattering spree on his following turn, which then allows me to play the cage i've been holding and the eidolin i just ripped off the top. he's at 17 life, so this game is not over yet. he plays an electromancer (take 2) and I attempt to abrade it, remand (take 2). play abrade again, attack for 2. down to 11 life. next turn, attack before I do anything, then deploy chandra, and tick up for two danmge. 7 life left. he cracks a fetch to go to 6 and casts gifts ungiven. He reveals boral, gifts, bolt, shattering spree. Bolt and spree go to the yard and he can keep boral and gifts. he untaps and conceeds by casting a noursing shoal and taking 4 in the process to go to 2 life. Can;t belive we beat storm, but eidolin and luck were good.
Round 3 vs affinity.
game one: Bridge plus walking ballista.
Game two: Aether grid pings everything to death, inclusing me, while I sit behind a bridge.
Game three: Slagstorm and Anger come out to play. So does shattering spree, FINALLY!!!, Eventually, I get a blood moon, bridge, and a chalice on one, two, and three to just completely lock him out.
Round 4 vs amulet titan.
Game one, I start on the play with a chalice on one. he start by suspending two lotus blooms. premature chalice. turn two blood moon didn't matter. Those blooms came down, titans jined the party and bridge was nowhere to be found despite going about 20 ccards into my library that game.
Game two, this wasa slugfest. I'm playing moons and bridges and hes countering them with that counterspell that makes a bird, killing them with elves that tag an artifact and engineered explosives. Eventually, he runs out of answers and bridge sticks around. He then palys that big stupid dude that make you take 6 everytime you cast a non-creature spell. alright, we can do this, few turns later, walking ballista. that's a creature, right?
Game three: turn one chalice on zero gets killed by the elf, he then preemptively puts an engineered explosives on three leaving exactly one mana up. so, what's a red mage to do but cast a spyglass namin explosives. the elf and two explosives are his only three answers. with elf used and explosives useless, a bridge sealed this game up.
Round 5 vs dredge.
Game one, I lock down the creatures with bridge and he eventually kills me with conflaguate. Blood moon helps slow that kill down a LOT, but when you are 25 cards deep into your deck and you don't see a single planeswalker, it's a problem.
Game two, early spellskite followed by a turn 4 anger followed by a chandra forces my opponent to use TWO conflagurate to kill chandra and spellskite. chandra #two comes down and eventually a bridge to seal this up.
Game three, turn one cage. turn two, rabblemaster. Turn 4 concession.
perfect 5-0 in a competitive league. if not for getting mana screwed vs. merfolk in my previous league, it would be 10-0 in competitive leagues. either way, this is the list I would go with and I wouldn't change a card. I'm 14-1 in my last 15 league matches. If that was a grand prix, I've be the number 1 seed going into top 8. Oh, and Pia and Kiran Nalaar are not pulling their weight and might be replaced by a walking ballista. they better start doing some works and fast. No slackers on the mountain top!!
Sure, basically it's been a lot of of humans, affinity, and taxes. Affinity used to be unfavored, but moving to abrade and walking ballista changed that. Only one match vs storm, and nothing vs eldrazi Tron or rg land destruction, which are our worst matches. Humans have been keeping our bad matches under the radar, so this deck is well positioned right now. Like, seriously, you gonna run storm when there's a high chance to run into meddling mage game one? The big change was the move towards abrade and ballista. The three damage vs two from magma jet has been huge. Also, you read my tournament reports. Walking ballista has been the beat card in a lot of matches and I'm considering going up to three and dropping mom and dad....I'm not there yet, but getting close
When you say mono color, what are we talking about? So far, the hardest matchups I've had are storm and eldrazi Tron. Honestly, even with major side board, both seem pretty unwinnable. Let us know what your looking at and we can develop a plan.
Right now the following are popular at my LGS:
Elves (Mono Green) (about 2 players)
Meerfolk (Blue, not the UG version) (about 2 players)
Mono Black Devotion Control (1 player)
Affinity (3 players)
Skred Red (1 player)
Lantern Control (1 regular, 1 every so often)
Soul Sisters (1 non regular player)
Along with some of these:
Titan Shift (1 + myself if I run scapeshift, not a fan of titan shift though)
Grixis Death Shadow (2 players)
UW Control (1 player)
BR Moon Rat (1 player)
With one of the 'other' decks even trying to do its own Blood moon, the regulars are these. That being said, blood moon feels relatively bad against, well, as you can see something like 60% of my shops local meta. Before I showed up with Pyro Prison we had the 4c Coco, some Sultai stuff, and other things. Essentially in September, I watched and played a budget deck. In October I came to each FNM with Pyro Prison. In the month of November the meta has shifted to mono color decks due to the bloodmoon hate from myself and Rat and Skred (from the board never knew why he was running it in the board).
As such, November has been literally Moon on 1, into just watching basics being played
Next time I'm in front an computer, I'll answer you in more detail. Skred and UW control are tough matches in general And the addition of walking ballista should help with a few of those matches you mentioned. Tonight, I'll be extremely thorough with a side board strategy for those matches.. Stay tuned.
When you say mono color, what are we talking about? So far, the hardest matchups I've had are storm and eldrazi Tron. Honestly, even with major side board, both seem pretty unwinnable. Let us know what your looking at and we can develop a plan.
Right now the following are popular at my LGS:
Elves (Mono Green) (about 2 players)
Meerfolk (Blue, not the UG version) (about 2 players)
Mono Black Devotion Control (1 player)
Affinity (3 players)
Skred Red (1 player)
Lantern Control (1 regular, 1 every so often)
Soul Sisters (1 non regular player)
Along with some of these:
Titan Shift (1 + myself if I run scapeshift, not a fan of titan shift though)
Grixis Death Shadow (2 players)
UW Control (1 player)
BR Moon Rat (1 player)
With one of the 'other' decks even trying to do its own Blood moon, the regulars are these. That being said, blood moon feels relatively bad against, well, as you can see something like 60% of my shops local meta. Before I showed up with Pyro Prison we had the 4c Coco, some Sultai stuff, and other things. Essentially in September, I watched and played a budget deck. In October I came to each FNM with Pyro Prison. In the month of November the meta has shifted to mono color decks due to the bloodmoon hate from myself and Rat and Skred (from the board never knew why he was running it in the board).
As such, November has been literally Moon on 1, into just watching basics being played
I'm going to try to go in order here. as a general rule, you have to be very aware of the role you play in a certain match or game. Control decks will do control better than you and aggro decks will do aggro better than you. If you mistake your role, you will lose. so, I'm going to approach the matches in terms of what role you should play and then plan accordingly.
Elves: You are the control player in these matches, so the first thing that I look to go are the rabblemasters and the magus of the moons. You should be siding in 2x Anger of the gods, 1x spellskite, 2x spyglass, 2x grafdiggers cage, 1x torpor orb. Take out the 6 creatures I mentioned and 2 blood moon. If you KNOW they are literally 18 forest and a bunch of elves, then take out all the moons and leave in two rabblemasters. You're not going to win with an x/2 creature vs a hoarde of elves, so rabblemaster is not the best card here. I think post board, you should be favorite. 2x walking ballista, 2x abrade, 4 wrath effects and 4 bridges should be enough to get the job done. remember, if they play an elf lord, that could help you with a bridge, so you gotta asses whether it's worth it to kill the lord. sometimes it's correct to leave them hanging out.
Merfolk. Almost everything I said for elves applies here, only you don't need cage. same sideboard except don't side in cage and instead side in boil. mono blue merfolk....one sided armageddon, i'm in. once again, walking ballista, abrage and 4 wrath effects are huge. combine that with 4 bridges and chalices to negate some spells and you're good. Chalice in this match is funny. on one, you can stop aether vial and post board, dispel (for abrade) and ceremonous rejection. So, if you have a brige in hand and need it to resolve, chalice on one first. If you have a bridge in play and need to protect it, chalice on two. Most merfolk lists play non-islands, like muta vault, that UW land, and cavern of souls. Chalice does little to stop the creqtures when Cavern is in play, so I usualy leave all 4 blood moons main. take out the 6 creatures, and side in 2 spyglass (for aether vial, smugglers copter, mutavault in a pinch, 1/1 dude that counters spells), 2 anger, and a single shattering spree.
Mono Black Devotion. I got nothing here. I haven't played this match, but I would assume you CANNOT play the control role. Unlike the previous two matches, this is a deck that plays creatures and you start losing life immediaetly. You cannot sit back behind a bridge becuase you'll just die to ETB effects. So, magus comes out, moons come out. eidolin comes in, haxoret comes inander the gods comes in. exile means that unearth doesn't happen. turn one rabblemaster should do a lot of work here. torpor org should also do a lot of work. actually, if you get a torpor orb out, then the bridge plan will work, but with only one orb, it's not often that happens.
Affinity. This match has recently swung wildly in our favor. I'm played it three times since making the changes and i'm 3-0 against it. you are the control player here.....no if ans or buts about it. If you attempt to even think about going aggro, you will lose. walking ballista plus bridge is your best combo here. On the play, drop a chalice on 0. ALWAYS. you stunt their best draw and force the game to go longer, which is exactly where you want to be. then, go up from there. next chalice is on one, then two. Chalice on one is super important. not only does it stop signal pest and galvanic blast, but more importantly, it stops sprigleaf drum. What, you say, sprigleaf drum? yes, the drum is a problem. No Drum, no instant speed equip of cranial plating. blood moon turns all their lands into mountains and the only way they are getting two black is opal and drum. you can have 14 drums in play, but only one opal. sideboard is simple. take out the 6 creatures (rabble and magus) and a single blood moon for 2 anger, 2 spyglass, 2 shattering spree, and a spellskite. remember, you can redirect ravagers graveyard ability to spellskite. now your deck is just stacked. There's literally one card that is bad in you deck, and it's koth. Everything else it either good or great against them. Unless they have the nut draw, you should win this match.
Skred Red. This match is extremely hard to close to unwinnable. It falls in the same caragory as the RG land destruction deck. I play with Berard Libertari at my local Game store. the bernard that took his RG land destruction deck to a perfect 8-0 finish in modern during the last invitational....yes that bernie. I played him to practice around 8-10 games in a row and I lost EVERY ONE of those games. Here's the problem. Bridge does a great job of shutting down the creatures, but they have more planeswalkers than you. You can't stop the planeswalkers and since chandra is a big part of that package, you can't exactly spyglass that either. another challange is your mana acceleration is on time use while theirs are evles that stick around turn after turn. i'm getting off topic, but the decks are similar. I think with Skred, you are the aggro player. game one you are the control player, but games two and three, you gotta be aggro. they are going to be coming at you with the artifact removal and theres nothing you can so about it. shattering spree gets through chalice and shatterstorm just destroys you. sitting back behind chalice and bridge is a recipe for disaster. chalice on one cn disrupt just enough for rabblemaster to do some work and eidolin can finish the job....maybe. stupid 3/3 that keeps coming back is anotuher problem. Skred is one of those few decks where everything we are trying to do doesn't line up well against them. sideboard, 4 moon out, 2 magus out, one abrade out 3 eidolin, one hazoret, 2 spyglass, and one spellskite in.
Lantern control. Try to stick a chalice on one. then, your next chalice should be on one. then your next chalice should be on one. get the point. their answer for chalice is abrupt decay. make them draw multiples. Abrade, walking ballista are great here. they have CONTROL in their name, so we are the aggressor. out: 4 bridge, 1 pia and kiran nalaar, 2 slagstorm, 2 blood moon. in: 3 eidloin, 1 hazoret, 2 shattering spree, 2 spyglass, 1 spellskite.
Soul sisters. No freaking way rabblemaster goes the distance here. nope, not happening. side out all 6 creatures and 2 moon and side in 2 cage, 1 torpor orb, 2 anger, 1 spellskite, 2 spyglass. remember, spyglass can name proclamtion of rebirth.
titanshift. You are the aggressor here, but not by much. Game one, a bridge and a moon and they cannot win. board. 2 abrade, 2 slagstorm, and a Pia and kiran nalaar out. 3 eidolin, spellskite and a torpor orb in. set chalice on zero and one game two. zero stops summoners trap and one stops natures claim.
Grixis shadow. this is the anti grixis shadow deck. You have to understand what makes that deck so good to draft an effective game plan. this deck only plays 17-18 lands. that meand that as you are drawing lands as the game progresses, they are drawing gas. they inly have 6 lands that produce mana, so we need to use this to our advantage. our locks need to negate as much crap as possible, so, turn one chalice on one is correct on the play and if they fetched a basic land during their turn. If they fetched a dual, maybe try to get them with a blood moon. try to play arounf stubby D if you can, but sometimes you just gotta go for it. if you can stick a chalice on one or a blood moon, the game swings wildly in our favor. if you can't get wither one to stick, then you'r in trouble. to good news is they do a lot of damage to themselves, so even two tokens from pia and kiran can get the job done. sideboard: 2 abrade and two slagstorm out, 2 walking ballista out. 3 eidolin and a spellskite, a hazoret, and a boil in. Boil hits 4 of their six lands that produce mana. even tagging three of there is devestating. use it at the end of their turnto bait out a counterspell if you can.
UW control. this is another hard matchup. basically, any deck that either doesn't care about what we are doing (RG land destruction) or can counter our spells (blue anything) poses a problem. Blood moon is not that big here. I remember during regionals, I dropped a turn one blood moon and my opponents first six lands were all basics. BOIL is the best card here. it's literally lights out. spyglass is also huge to stop the planeswalkers, and there are a lot of the, sideboard. out: 2 abrade, 2 slagstorm, pyretic ritual, 4 bridge. in: 3 eidloin, 1 hazoret, 1 boil, 1 spellskite, 2 spyglass, 1 torpor orb. try to stick a chalice on one. that will stop path to exile and help keep your dudes alive. an early eidolin is big trouble for that deck.
BR pack rat. I have never played this match, but I have to assume that you need to be the aggressor. Walking Ballista and abrade should do some serious work here. Keep the rabblemasters. Drop the moons and the magus and one bridge. put in spellskite, 2 spyglass, 3 eidolin and a hazoret. I honestly don't know enough about this match, but being agressive seems to be the right way to go. Slagstorm can clean up the rats if you're behind or finish the job if your ahead, so it stays.
I hope this helps. as you can see, the sidebaord strategy really depends on your role. don't confuse it. Keep in rabblemaster vs merfolk and you'll lose. Keep in bridges vs UW control and you'll lose. be smart, assess the role you need to play and sidebaord accordingly. you'll notice that many of the matched i do an even swap, 4 bridge out, 4 creature in. the rest is flexible, but know your role and you'll be fine. You won't always win because they'll be times you won't draw enough land, which happend a lot, but it's not often and this should give you trhe best shot. Good luck out there. Let me know how you do!
Great results Russ! And excellent write-ups as well, you show an exceptional understanding of the deck in a fairly short time.. many kudos to you, sir!
Thank you sir. I'll be piloting this deck at the invitational. Shame standard is up first because I can see going 4-0 and maybe getting some camera time if modern was up first.
Thank you for the sideboard break down Russ. I definitely like the idea of approaching each match by evaluating which role you should take (aggressive vs more controlling). Continued information about other match ups would also be really appreciated. Even the seemingly easy sb plans such as against storm (duh, bring in eidolons right?). It's relatively easy to figure out what should be brought in from sb but what you side out can be a bit more tricky, which brings us back to role evaluation. And your explanation really helped there.
Do we need those rabbles and Mama/Papa here?
Do we need to just focus on our lock by pulling out threats and then simply wait longer on our fewer win cons against X deck?
Are blood moons worth it against so and so deck? If yes, should some be trimmed? And at which point, would you rather have a magus to be aggressive or blood moon for the safer lock?
Ensnaring bridge valid but not paramount to the match? How many should be removed?
How many sweepers should I bring in here in order to not negatively impact my own game plan?
These are the kinds of questions I start asking myself when I'm looking at my sb. And if one learns why something is weaker or stronger in a match up, there is no need to memorize lists. You will also play better if you know exactly what you should be focusing on. (Race? Lock Asap? Dig for removal?) So great points there!
I think the best way for people to really learn what to swap is by knowing why you do it, not just memorizing a static sb plan from a meta list. The choices could certainly be static at times, but if people know why they are taking something out for another card, it could bring about some new innovation as some people may come up with new sb strategies (new combinations of what to remove, what to bring in.) Potentially even new sb cards. Great job on your write up and grats on your success so far.
Thanks, and you are right, which is why i took time to make sure I detailed the match to give context as to why I sideboarded like I do. Assessing the role is of utmost importance. A static sideboard strategy doesn't help because in three weeks, something new will be printed and this whole strategy goes out the window. Basically with this deck, you have to figure what role you need to play, then swap out all the cards that don't play that role. If you need to be aggressive, the defensive cards like bridge come out and the creatures come in. If you need to be defensive, then the rabbles come out and the removal comes in. Sometimes, you need to play a hybrid role, like vs shadow. In those matches, you just have evaluate your weakest cards and swap them for more impactful stuff. for grixis shadow, it's the slagstorms and abrade and replace them with eidolins and hazoret (they can't remove hazoret and he blocks forever). Remember, if a deck wants to win by turn three (affinity), then you need to make the game last longer. if a deck wants the game to end on turn 15 (UW Control), then you need to end the game as quick as possible. What makes this deck so different than others is that it's not just a case of removing bad cards and replacing them with good ones. This is a role changing deck, which very few decks can pull off effectively. Oh, and a side note, when faced with turn one rabblemaster or moon, always go with rabblemaster vs an unknown opponent. You never know if moon will be effective, but a turn one rabblemaster says: "deal with this NOW or you lose". While they are dealing with that, they are probably fetching nonbasics and not leaving up countermagic, which opens the door for all sorts of crap.
Has Jaya Ballard, Task Mage ever been a consideration for the deck? Similar to Hazoret the Fervent. Major downside in the lack of indestructible, but it is in the 3 cmc slot, has cheaper discard outlets, and actually has some game against blue decks. Though if the point behind Hazoret is the nuking behind the lock, then it's understandable if she's just too fragile as she's on the same level as Rabblemaster in terms of surviving.
I thought about her but never pulled the trigger. Damage behind the bridge was way too slow, which is why I moved hazoret to the board. He comes in when bridges come out or vs decks that cant get rid of him, like grixis shadow. Jaya is worse in both of these situations, which is why I never tried her. I tried flip chandta for a while for the reasons you mentioned, but even that was too slow and usually got killed. I do like where your head is at and I think we can collectively always improve on the deck.
Sharp commentary, Russ. Your deck list didn't come through on those pics - heads up. Eager to check it out.
The newest 'pivot' card has been Eidolon of the great Revel. For example, Where once we had to lean back on a bridge in UW control matchup (for lack of an effective clock), now we can more efficiently toggle between control and aggro. It felt lousy to go late game vs. UW Control whilst relying on a Bridge - sure - but, it did stop their only way of winning (attack).
Other evolution is Walking Ballista. It's scaling ability is the only card I've seen that could replace tormenting voice. I don't want to prematurely accept a new card as gospel. As we've said, it's been tried here before. But, metas do change. What I like the most about Ballista is a pretty simple quality: it's a threat. You can't kill an opponent with a tormenting voice, now can ya?
Are you attached to Spellskite in SB? Do you believe Boil X1 is superior to Eidolon X4? Lastly, I laughed riotously when you said that Pia and Kiran Nalaar may not be pulling their weight - no room for slackers on the mountain top. Love it! But, hang tight on The Parents...
Lastly, as for discussions on our Maximum Capacity for 4-CMC spells, my formula is (6) without any Tormenting Voice and (7) with [2] Tormenting Voice. Again, Ballista's scaling ability does offer an interesting curveball.
Overall, I'm just pleased to see, as I often remark, 'more spears' and 'less shields' in the latest developments.
I've been playing the same list as the last one I posted. I've been trying to get eidolin #4 in there and boil might be the card to go. It's so devestating when it hits, but a 4th eidolin in it's place can really turn up the juice on the aggro plan. I'm driving to the invitational tomorrow, so maybe I'll hop in a league online and try out the 4th eidolin before I go.
As far as spellskite, yes, yes, and yes. You can thank affinity for this because EVERY deck has artifact hate in their board. After your opponent loses to bridge and chalice, you can bet all the hate they got will be coming in. You notice I side it in with almost 100% of my matches. Also, it's an 0/4 blocker that survives anger. It's really really good and forces your opponent to have two removal spells. Plus, it's auto win vs infect bogles, and sometimes ad nauseum.
Walking ballista has been absolutely nuts in this deck. I didn't mention it before, but that card plays control AND aggro equally well. It's the perfect card for this deck and I'm real close to cutting mom and dad for a third one.
Ray, any chance you trecking to Virginia for the invitational this weekend? Would love to shake your hand and say thank in person for this miserable masterpiece of a deck. I don't k ow where you're from, so I don't know if it's feasible for you
Here's Russ' deck formatted out. As for Virginia, that's a nope - I'm outside Boston, MA. Let's save that handshake for an upcoming Pro Tour
O.K. on spellskite - Agree. It's been in and out so many times, for me. As for Eidolon, it will be hard to maintain the (1) mutavault, if we go to four Eidolon, so I don't like that prospect. And, yes, testing with Boil has been surprisingly effective. Boil is like Shattering Spree where it comes over the top with such motherhumpin' power to outright capture a win: it's hard to say no to its inclusion.
Alrighty, so I'm studying your list and get hit with a lightning bulb above the head - boomshanka. I'm seeing (11) spells in the main that carry [counters] on them [chalice/chandra/ballista/koth]. What about Tezzeret's Gambit? I have played this card to winning success more than once in my Hammer's Slammer variant. It can even work against your opponent when it comes to persist counters - Kitchen Finks If I had to choose a card to drop, it would be the 2nd abrade or Walking Ballista. Now - overall - it's probably not a wise choice at this exact moment due to Storm / Affinity. But, hold onto this idea for the future.....
In the spirit of "More spears and less shields", would Smuggler's Copter be an effective substitute for Tormenting Voice? Solid filtering for a lot of our redundant cards, same cost as voice, evasive clock, and dodges our sweepers. My only concern would be the lack of crew targets and that it's slower than voice in terms of starting the filtering right when you need it. Though copter can end up doing more filtering overall if it's allowed to. Drawing before the discard decision might also be relevant. I would have suggested Phyrexian Revoker as another spear on the level of spyglass, but I don't think that's the type of lock piece that you want vulnerable to creature removal.
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Also, we just learned that on August 22nd, Russ put up a Top 8 finish at a StarcityGames IQ (wrong deck name classification in the attached link, but that's purebred P.P.)
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=115157
What a tidy deck and tournament report. For fear of throwing too much praise back and forth, it's heartening to see a brand new poster have mastery of meta-adjusted Pyro Prison. Sure there are some varying opinions on spell selection, (and Proxxy makes a good point about getting over-enthused on Walking Ballista), but I totally agree on the deck base (53) and your choice of swing slots (7) accurately targeted the tournament competitors on the day - making the win feel automatic.
WALKING BALLISTA
With Walking Ballista, I have written in the past: Tron / Elf / Infinite Mana need only apply. Proxxy said it best on 'already favored' matchups, but it's still a decent 2-drop on occasion [kill a dork / dark confidant] and a pretty good late drop, plus an assist on ducking under the bridge in emergencies as a 0-drop. I'm cool with a 1-of.
WITCHBANE ORB
You have left behind Witchbane Orb? Woah. That's my safety blanket against Burn and Scapeshift and Ad Nauseam, Hurkyl's Recall, plus it protects me and my planeswalkers from Eldrazi Tron creature damage, Snapcaster/Bolt decks, as well stopping Liliana of the Veil ultimates...I can't do it, Papabear. And, does gifts/storm really play around the Orb that easily?
FAVORED DECKS
Decks mentioned in your post that I think need to be clearly clarified as favored matchups are Humans, Infect, and Green/Red Ponza. You said Ponza was unwinnable, and I disagree. I chat with a player of the deck at my LGS often. Our mana acceleration and selective sweeps come through, plus that deck - like ours - can befall the 'wrong half' draw since it has no filter/scry/draw and its selection of spells need to be sequenced in a certain order.
BOIL
Lastly, Boil? How many islands are usually getting killed when it's cast? Blue decks tend to run a lot of land, scry/dig, and dual lands. So, I might lean towards that molten rain. Just to take a little edge off, I have been screwing around with a single dragon's claw in the sideboard for Burn. Claw wouldn't slow a Gifts/Storm grapeshot win at all, would it?
As far as witchbane orb, yes, the matches you referenced are already answered by other cards. Blood moon is the same as witchbane vs scapeshift, chalice and blood moon lock out burn, and blood moon, shattering sorry combines with spyglass stop ad nausem. As far as hurkyls recall is concerned, blue green Merfolk is definitely better than mono blue. Blue green does NOT play recall and uses nature's claim instead. Chalice in one stops that cold. Blood moon helps stop lily from hitting in the first place and spyglass can assist with the eldrazi creatures. To be honest, I've found eldrazi tron an exceptionally hard match. For storm, it's useless. They usually side out gifts ungiven for pieces if the puzzle and in the course of them casting a million spells, a shattering spree or wipe away or both will decimate your board then you take 535 damage to the face. No, you cannot lock storm out game two. You need to apply pressure and throw speed bumps in the way. Emma handy wrote N article about beating storm a while back. Rabblemaster is your best card in the match game two. Chalice on two is game over in the first gsme, but you need to apply pressure in the post board games.
Lastly, boil is nuts. It's an instant, so it can clear the way for a bigger spell. If blood moon doesn't come down, it can do serious damage. In comes in vs EVERY deck that plays islands except for those bant inight decks. We're talking Merfolk, UW control, jeskai tempo, and grixis shadow. Gamenyoe, your opponent always fetches a basic island first, making blood moon less effective. If you can hit boil woeither before or after moon, you will win that game.
I'll test further, but walking ballista felt like such a house, I can't see another card being better. The games I lose are usually due to not drawing enough lands or sticking a bridge and not being able to clear my hand fast enough. I though about running a 22nd land, but figured ballista scales with the game. Kill a mana dork or minus with and create a late game 5/5 pinging machine. Oh, it also kills thalia on schedule, no extra mana required.
In all the leagues that I went 1-4 or 2-3 with this deck, it was because I couldn't cast the cards in my hand. So I'm confident that loading up on 4 drops is a recipe for disaster. Yes, when you get mana, it feels awesome, but with only 21 actual lands, it doesn't happen all the time. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Round 1, Affinity
Game one, abrade plus slagstorm plus walking ballista enables me to stabilize at 4 life. Two turns later, a chalice on one, then on two, then a bridge seal the win.
Game two, I get blown out in classic affinity style
Game three, Walking ballista for the win. An early ballista with two counters (turn two) tags a steel overseer, then two turns later, it add one, pings one...adds one, ping one...so good. WIN
Round 2, affinity
Games one and two, See above. This was deja vu all over again. and again, Walking Ballista does serious work.
Game three, I manage to get a chalice on one and a bridge. Draw spyglass and think about it for a long long time, then play it, naming ghirapur aether grid (i haven't seen it yet). He scoops immediately. NICE! WIN
Round 3, bogles,
Game one, let him pump a creature to 5 power, then slam bridge.
Game two, chalice on one, then on two, then bridge and he's done. WIN
Round 4, Merflok....mono blue style
Game one, major style points here. on the draw, I play land, 2 spirit guide, pyretic ritual, splice a desperate ritual, play a desperate ritual, play koth AND a magus of the moon. empty handed, turn one blood moon effect and KOTH. all that work, undone by a single echoeing truth....booooooo....i lose that game
Game two, turn one chalice on one, turn three chalice on two. I abrade a merfolk betowwn those and he's completely locked out. Can't cast anything.
Game three....remember my last post when I said the games this deck loses are when you can't empty your hand? well, here it is....turn two chalice on one gets countered by ceremounious rejection., turn three, have to ritual for a bridge. turn 4, no land, another chalice on one, this one sticks, turn 5 get the land, play a blood moon. I have 5 cards in hand, he make a few lords and pummels me with several 4/4 and 5/5 dudes. If I have even one more land, I would have been able to shrink my hand and bridge would have done work. For the record, I was staring at pia and kiran nalaar in my hand. feels like whenever I can't get under bridge, they are involved. maybe they feel pity on my prison opponents....who knows.... LOSS
Round 5....Death and taxes
Game one, rabble master followed by rabble master followed by rabble master makes a LOT more tokens than the several lingering souls I saw. Eventually they all dies and I have to win another way, by my opponent making a misplay. With two thought-knot seers back to block and sitting at 12 life, I attack with my 4/4 walking ballista with 7 mana untapped. He chooses not to block and I pump, hit for 5, ping for 5 then slagstorm for the win. This was the ONLY time in my past 10 games where slagstom's ability to hit players was revlant. I'm not saying that sweltering suns would have been better those other times, because who knows what you cycle into, but the three damage enabled me to steal a game. the opponent knew about it from an earlier discard spell, which is why I said it was a misplay. But still, being able to do 13 damage in a single turn felt good and its something this deck doesn't do often.
Game two,
Torpor orb for the win. nuff said. TKS doesn't tag a card on the way down and he gives me a card on his way out. and early bridge backed up by some chalices stall for a while until Chandra joins the party. WIN
Overall, 4-1 and I would make any changes to the deck except MAYBE Sweltering suns over slagstorm....maybe. there are lots of times when I want the card out of my hand because of bridge, but don't want to cycle because of bridge and don't want to cast it because of magus of the moon. This is a big win for Slagstorm because it allows me to get rid of it without nuking m team. I didn't draw boil or shatter spree in my merfolk or affinity matches. I didn't side in eidolin or hazoret at all this league. Torpor orb was amaxing ans as long as storm is a deck, death and taxes will be popular, so keep those torpor orbs handy. jusr remember to side out pia and kiran when torpor orb come in. Walking ballista once again has been fantastic. I hear the criticism about the card, but so far, it's the reason i'm 9-1 in my last 10 MTGO league games, with being really close to a perfect 10-0.
Would anybody be interested in a sideboard guide for this deck? I could write one up if there's interest. just let me know. anyway, hope everyone is well and doing as well as I have been!
Here we go....
Round 1 vs hollow one with gumag angler, deaths shadow and that phwonix.
Game One; Bridge and chalice locks the game down while walking ballista ticks up and up and up....
Game Two: Chalice on two stops all his artifact removal and then a bridge stops all his attackers. Chandara ticks all the way up.
Round 2 vs Storm
Ah storm, this is our worst match. Game one, I g with a turn one bridge on the play. Fearing a thought seize could strip it away, so I play it early. Too bad he's on storm. He has a crap hand, but it doesn't matter. I lose with literally 9 mountains in play. I play three spells the whole game, bridge, rabblemaster, then, after he got me to three life, I finally resolve a chalice on two. too late though, he has enough mana to play three spells into it, then use the storm trigger to deal the final three.
Game two he keeps a one lander and is looking at a turn two rabblemaaster followed by a turn three chalice on two.
Game three, on the drew, we get gemstone caverns. our turn, we just play a land and keep abrade up. he plays land go, i play land #3 and pass. on his turn, he plays two cantrips, plays an untapped land and passes, and I play a chalice on two. I've been holding it the whole time and the patience here really paid off. he kills it with a shattering spree on his following turn, which then allows me to play the cage i've been holding and the eidolin i just ripped off the top. he's at 17 life, so this game is not over yet. he plays an electromancer (take 2) and I attempt to abrade it, remand (take 2). play abrade again, attack for 2. down to 11 life. next turn, attack before I do anything, then deploy chandra, and tick up for two danmge. 7 life left. he cracks a fetch to go to 6 and casts gifts ungiven. He reveals boral, gifts, bolt, shattering spree. Bolt and spree go to the yard and he can keep boral and gifts. he untaps and conceeds by casting a noursing shoal and taking 4 in the process to go to 2 life. Can;t belive we beat storm, but eidolin and luck were good.
Round 3 vs affinity.
game one: Bridge plus walking ballista.
Game two: Aether grid pings everything to death, inclusing me, while I sit behind a bridge.
Game three: Slagstorm and Anger come out to play. So does shattering spree, FINALLY!!!, Eventually, I get a blood moon, bridge, and a chalice on one, two, and three to just completely lock him out.
Round 4 vs amulet titan.
Game one, I start on the play with a chalice on one. he start by suspending two lotus blooms. premature chalice. turn two blood moon didn't matter. Those blooms came down, titans jined the party and bridge was nowhere to be found despite going about 20 ccards into my library that game.
Game two, this wasa slugfest. I'm playing moons and bridges and hes countering them with that counterspell that makes a bird, killing them with elves that tag an artifact and engineered explosives. Eventually, he runs out of answers and bridge sticks around. He then palys that big stupid dude that make you take 6 everytime you cast a non-creature spell. alright, we can do this, few turns later, walking ballista. that's a creature, right?
Game three: turn one chalice on zero gets killed by the elf, he then preemptively puts an engineered explosives on three leaving exactly one mana up. so, what's a red mage to do but cast a spyglass namin explosives. the elf and two explosives are his only three answers. with elf used and explosives useless, a bridge sealed this game up.
Round 5 vs dredge.
Game one, I lock down the creatures with bridge and he eventually kills me with conflaguate. Blood moon helps slow that kill down a LOT, but when you are 25 cards deep into your deck and you don't see a single planeswalker, it's a problem.
Game two, early spellskite followed by a turn 4 anger followed by a chandra forces my opponent to use TWO conflagurate to kill chandra and spellskite. chandra #two comes down and eventually a bridge to seal this up.
Game three, turn one cage. turn two, rabblemaster. Turn 4 concession.
perfect 5-0 in a competitive league. if not for getting mana screwed vs. merfolk in my previous league, it would be 10-0 in competitive leagues. either way, this is the list I would go with and I wouldn't change a card. I'm 14-1 in my last 15 league matches. If that was a grand prix, I've be the number 1 seed going into top 8. Oh, and Pia and Kiran Nalaar are not pulling their weight and might be replaced by a walking ballista. they better start doing some works and fast. No slackers on the mountain top!!
Right now the following are popular at my LGS:
Elves (Mono Green) (about 2 players)
Meerfolk (Blue, not the UG version) (about 2 players)
Mono Black Devotion Control (1 player)
Affinity (3 players)
Skred Red (1 player)
Lantern Control (1 regular, 1 every so often)
Soul Sisters (1 non regular player)
Along with some of these:
Titan Shift (1 + myself if I run scapeshift, not a fan of titan shift though)
Grixis Death Shadow (2 players)
UW Control (1 player)
BR Moon Rat (1 player)
With one of the 'other' decks even trying to do its own Blood moon, the regulars are these. That being said, blood moon feels relatively bad against, well, as you can see something like 60% of my shops local meta. Before I showed up with Pyro Prison we had the 4c Coco, some Sultai stuff, and other things. Essentially in September, I watched and played a budget deck. In October I came to each FNM with Pyro Prison. In the month of November the meta has shifted to mono color decks due to the bloodmoon hate from myself and Rat and Skred (from the board never knew why he was running it in the board).
As such, November has been literally Moon on 1, into just watching basics being played
I'm going to try to go in order here. as a general rule, you have to be very aware of the role you play in a certain match or game. Control decks will do control better than you and aggro decks will do aggro better than you. If you mistake your role, you will lose. so, I'm going to approach the matches in terms of what role you should play and then plan accordingly.
Elves: You are the control player in these matches, so the first thing that I look to go are the rabblemasters and the magus of the moons. You should be siding in 2x Anger of the gods, 1x spellskite, 2x spyglass, 2x grafdiggers cage, 1x torpor orb. Take out the 6 creatures I mentioned and 2 blood moon. If you KNOW they are literally 18 forest and a bunch of elves, then take out all the moons and leave in two rabblemasters. You're not going to win with an x/2 creature vs a hoarde of elves, so rabblemaster is not the best card here. I think post board, you should be favorite. 2x walking ballista, 2x abrade, 4 wrath effects and 4 bridges should be enough to get the job done. remember, if they play an elf lord, that could help you with a bridge, so you gotta asses whether it's worth it to kill the lord. sometimes it's correct to leave them hanging out.
Merfolk. Almost everything I said for elves applies here, only you don't need cage. same sideboard except don't side in cage and instead side in boil. mono blue merfolk....one sided armageddon, i'm in. once again, walking ballista, abrage and 4 wrath effects are huge. combine that with 4 bridges and chalices to negate some spells and you're good. Chalice in this match is funny. on one, you can stop aether vial and post board, dispel (for abrade) and ceremonous rejection. So, if you have a brige in hand and need it to resolve, chalice on one first. If you have a bridge in play and need to protect it, chalice on two. Most merfolk lists play non-islands, like muta vault, that UW land, and cavern of souls. Chalice does little to stop the creqtures when Cavern is in play, so I usualy leave all 4 blood moons main. take out the 6 creatures, and side in 2 spyglass (for aether vial, smugglers copter, mutavault in a pinch, 1/1 dude that counters spells), 2 anger, and a single shattering spree.
Mono Black Devotion. I got nothing here. I haven't played this match, but I would assume you CANNOT play the control role. Unlike the previous two matches, this is a deck that plays creatures and you start losing life immediaetly. You cannot sit back behind a bridge becuase you'll just die to ETB effects. So, magus comes out, moons come out. eidolin comes in, haxoret comes inander the gods comes in. exile means that unearth doesn't happen. turn one rabblemaster should do a lot of work here. torpor org should also do a lot of work. actually, if you get a torpor orb out, then the bridge plan will work, but with only one orb, it's not often that happens.
Affinity. This match has recently swung wildly in our favor. I'm played it three times since making the changes and i'm 3-0 against it. you are the control player here.....no if ans or buts about it. If you attempt to even think about going aggro, you will lose. walking ballista plus bridge is your best combo here. On the play, drop a chalice on 0. ALWAYS. you stunt their best draw and force the game to go longer, which is exactly where you want to be. then, go up from there. next chalice is on one, then two. Chalice on one is super important. not only does it stop signal pest and galvanic blast, but more importantly, it stops sprigleaf drum. What, you say, sprigleaf drum? yes, the drum is a problem. No Drum, no instant speed equip of cranial plating. blood moon turns all their lands into mountains and the only way they are getting two black is opal and drum. you can have 14 drums in play, but only one opal. sideboard is simple. take out the 6 creatures (rabble and magus) and a single blood moon for 2 anger, 2 spyglass, 2 shattering spree, and a spellskite. remember, you can redirect ravagers graveyard ability to spellskite. now your deck is just stacked. There's literally one card that is bad in you deck, and it's koth. Everything else it either good or great against them. Unless they have the nut draw, you should win this match.
Skred Red. This match is extremely hard to close to unwinnable. It falls in the same caragory as the RG land destruction deck. I play with Berard Libertari at my local Game store. the bernard that took his RG land destruction deck to a perfect 8-0 finish in modern during the last invitational....yes that bernie. I played him to practice around 8-10 games in a row and I lost EVERY ONE of those games. Here's the problem. Bridge does a great job of shutting down the creatures, but they have more planeswalkers than you. You can't stop the planeswalkers and since chandra is a big part of that package, you can't exactly spyglass that either. another challange is your mana acceleration is on time use while theirs are evles that stick around turn after turn. i'm getting off topic, but the decks are similar. I think with Skred, you are the aggro player. game one you are the control player, but games two and three, you gotta be aggro. they are going to be coming at you with the artifact removal and theres nothing you can so about it. shattering spree gets through chalice and shatterstorm just destroys you. sitting back behind chalice and bridge is a recipe for disaster. chalice on one cn disrupt just enough for rabblemaster to do some work and eidolin can finish the job....maybe. stupid 3/3 that keeps coming back is anotuher problem. Skred is one of those few decks where everything we are trying to do doesn't line up well against them. sideboard, 4 moon out, 2 magus out, one abrade out 3 eidolin, one hazoret, 2 spyglass, and one spellskite in.
Lantern control. Try to stick a chalice on one. then, your next chalice should be on one. then your next chalice should be on one. get the point. their answer for chalice is abrupt decay. make them draw multiples. Abrade, walking ballista are great here. they have CONTROL in their name, so we are the aggressor. out: 4 bridge, 1 pia and kiran nalaar, 2 slagstorm, 2 blood moon. in: 3 eidloin, 1 hazoret, 2 shattering spree, 2 spyglass, 1 spellskite.
Soul sisters. No freaking way rabblemaster goes the distance here. nope, not happening. side out all 6 creatures and 2 moon and side in 2 cage, 1 torpor orb, 2 anger, 1 spellskite, 2 spyglass. remember, spyglass can name proclamtion of rebirth.
Grixis shadow. this is the anti grixis shadow deck. You have to understand what makes that deck so good to draft an effective game plan. this deck only plays 17-18 lands. that meand that as you are drawing lands as the game progresses, they are drawing gas. they inly have 6 lands that produce mana, so we need to use this to our advantage. our locks need to negate as much crap as possible, so, turn one chalice on one is correct on the play and if they fetched a basic land during their turn. If they fetched a dual, maybe try to get them with a blood moon. try to play arounf stubby D if you can, but sometimes you just gotta go for it. if you can stick a chalice on one or a blood moon, the game swings wildly in our favor. if you can't get wither one to stick, then you'r in trouble. to good news is they do a lot of damage to themselves, so even two tokens from pia and kiran can get the job done. sideboard: 2 abrade and two slagstorm out, 2 walking ballista out. 3 eidolin and a spellskite, a hazoret, and a boil in. Boil hits 4 of their six lands that produce mana. even tagging three of there is devestating. use it at the end of their turnto bait out a counterspell if you can.
UW control. this is another hard matchup. basically, any deck that either doesn't care about what we are doing (RG land destruction) or can counter our spells (blue anything) poses a problem. Blood moon is not that big here. I remember during regionals, I dropped a turn one blood moon and my opponents first six lands were all basics. BOIL is the best card here. it's literally lights out. spyglass is also huge to stop the planeswalkers, and there are a lot of the, sideboard. out: 2 abrade, 2 slagstorm, pyretic ritual, 4 bridge. in: 3 eidloin, 1 hazoret, 1 boil, 1 spellskite, 2 spyglass, 1 torpor orb. try to stick a chalice on one. that will stop path to exile and help keep your dudes alive. an early eidolin is big trouble for that deck.
BR pack rat. I have never played this match, but I have to assume that you need to be the aggressor. Walking Ballista and abrade should do some serious work here. Keep the rabblemasters. Drop the moons and the magus and one bridge. put in spellskite, 2 spyglass, 3 eidolin and a hazoret. I honestly don't know enough about this match, but being agressive seems to be the right way to go. Slagstorm can clean up the rats if you're behind or finish the job if your ahead, so it stays.
I hope this helps. as you can see, the sidebaord strategy really depends on your role. don't confuse it. Keep in rabblemaster vs merfolk and you'll lose. Keep in bridges vs UW control and you'll lose. be smart, assess the role you need to play and sidebaord accordingly. you'll notice that many of the matched i do an even swap, 4 bridge out, 4 creature in. the rest is flexible, but know your role and you'll be fine. You won't always win because they'll be times you won't draw enough land, which happend a lot, but it's not often and this should give you trhe best shot. Good luck out there. Let me know how you do!
Russ
Do we need those rabbles and Mama/Papa here?
Do we need to just focus on our lock by pulling out threats and then simply wait longer on our fewer win cons against X deck?
Are blood moons worth it against so and so deck? If yes, should some be trimmed? And at which point, would you rather have a magus to be aggressive or blood moon for the safer lock?
Ensnaring bridge valid but not paramount to the match? How many should be removed?
How many sweepers should I bring in here in order to not negatively impact my own game plan?
These are the kinds of questions I start asking myself when I'm looking at my sb. And if one learns why something is weaker or stronger in a match up, there is no need to memorize lists. You will also play better if you know exactly what you should be focusing on. (Race? Lock Asap? Dig for removal?) So great points there!
I think the best way for people to really learn what to swap is by knowing why you do it, not just memorizing a static sb plan from a meta list. The choices could certainly be static at times, but if people know why they are taking something out for another card, it could bring about some new innovation as some people may come up with new sb strategies (new combinations of what to remove, what to bring in.) Potentially even new sb cards. Great job on your write up and grats on your success so far.
Sharp commentary, Russ. Your deck list didn't come through on those pics - heads up. Eager to check it out.
The newest 'pivot' card has been Eidolon of the great Revel. For example, Where once we had to lean back on a bridge in UW control matchup (for lack of an effective clock), now we can more efficiently toggle between control and aggro. It felt lousy to go late game vs. UW Control whilst relying on a Bridge - sure - but, it did stop their only way of winning (attack).
Other evolution is Walking Ballista. It's scaling ability is the only card I've seen that could replace tormenting voice. I don't want to prematurely accept a new card as gospel. As we've said, it's been tried here before. But, metas do change. What I like the most about Ballista is a pretty simple quality: it's a threat. You can't kill an opponent with a tormenting voice, now can ya?
Are you attached to Spellskite in SB? Do you believe Boil X1 is superior to Eidolon X4? Lastly, I laughed riotously when you said that Pia and Kiran Nalaar may not be pulling their weight - no room for slackers on the mountain top. Love it! But, hang tight on The Parents...
Lastly, as for discussions on our Maximum Capacity for 4-CMC spells, my formula is (6) without any Tormenting Voice and (7) with [2] Tormenting Voice. Again, Ballista's scaling ability does offer an interesting curveball.
Overall, I'm just pleased to see, as I often remark, 'more spears' and 'less shields' in the latest developments.
As far as spellskite, yes, yes, and yes. You can thank affinity for this because EVERY deck has artifact hate in their board. After your opponent loses to bridge and chalice, you can bet all the hate they got will be coming in. You notice I side it in with almost 100% of my matches. Also, it's an 0/4 blocker that survives anger. It's really really good and forces your opponent to have two removal spells. Plus, it's auto win vs infect bogles, and sometimes ad nauseum.
Walking ballista has been absolutely nuts in this deck. I didn't mention it before, but that card plays control AND aggro equally well. It's the perfect card for this deck and I'm real close to cutting mom and dad for a third one.
Ray, any chance you trecking to Virginia for the invitational this weekend? Would love to shake your hand and say thank in person for this miserable masterpiece of a deck. I don't k ow where you're from, so I don't know if it's feasible for you
O.K. on spellskite - Agree. It's been in and out so many times, for me. As for Eidolon, it will be hard to maintain the (1) mutavault, if we go to four Eidolon, so I don't like that prospect. And, yes, testing with Boil has been surprisingly effective. Boil is like Shattering Spree where it comes over the top with such motherhumpin' power to outright capture a win: it's hard to say no to its inclusion.
Alrighty, so I'm studying your list and get hit with a lightning bulb above the head - boomshanka. I'm seeing (11) spells in the main that carry [counters] on them [chalice/chandra/ballista/koth]. What about Tezzeret's Gambit? I have played this card to winning success more than once in my Hammer's Slammer variant. It can even work against your opponent when it comes to persist counters - Kitchen Finks If I had to choose a card to drop, it would be the 2nd abrade or Walking Ballista. Now - overall - it's probably not a wise choice at this exact moment due to Storm / Affinity. But, hold onto this idea for the future.....
17 mountains
3 gemstone caverns
1 Mutavault
5 rituals
4 simian spirit guide
18 lock pieces:
4 ensnaring bridge
4 Rabblemaster
4 Chalice of the void
4 Blood Moon
2 Magus of the moon
5 Planeswalkers:
4 Chandra, torch of Defiance
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 walking Ballista
2 abrade
2 Slagstorm
2 anger the gods
2 Shattering Spree
2 Sorcerous Syglass
2 Grafdiggers Cage
1 Spellskite
1 Torpor Orb
1 Boil
1 Hazoret the fervent