If you're expecting Naya Zoo, then you should also probably swap those K Returns for Firespout. I don't think Naya Zoo is really a deck nowadays, that's why I like K Returns, but the cards is not good at all vs Zoo, I'd probably not even bring it in. It doesn't Kill Nacatls, Kird Apes nor standard sized Experiment Ones. It might be worth it just cause you can counter a Ghor Clan activation, but seems like holding up 3 mana every turn is quite a hefty cost.
Here's what I'm on right now. Recently replaced Tracker with Thrun. I think I'm somewhat weaker to Affinity compared to the Walking Ballista list, but I've just found I can race them and it's about a coin flip anyway. My only 2 losses in the last few weeks were against Death's Shadow (had the temur battle rage) and Merfolk (tapping down Titan with Merrow Reejery or bouncing with Harbinger was strong).
4 Titan
4 Summoner's Pact
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Amulet of Vigor
4 Lotus Bloom
3 Azusa
2 Explore
2 Pact of Negation
2 Serum Visions
1 Hornet Queen
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Thrun
1 EE
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Swan Song
2 Kozilek's Return
2 Nature's Claim
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Mortuary Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Ruric Thar
1 Ramunap Excavator
I think the only constraints Mirrorpool places is having a good colorless land. Crumbling Vestige/Aether Hub is likely the most powerful. And taking out one land, in this case Tolaria West. It's definitely not perfect and dependent on the Meta. I finally decided Thrun and Baloth were just in a sweet spot, blocking a lot of aggressive decks, chumping/delaying against Shadow, being castable with the same 4 mana as pact, and offering extremely powerful abilities. Thrun has felt a lot better than trying to play Cavern of Souls main. I might try Hive Mind out at some point, the fact that it's good against Storm is very compelling.
daviusminimus, fpawlusz, thank you for suggestions. Knowing 'vs Naya Zoo is a tough game' make me feel much more peaceful now, I didn't expect it and lost a local-store (the biggest MTG store in Beijing) semifinal to it so so so quick last weekend.
I feel Chalice is not good here, considering I have no SSG in my deck, turn-2 Chalice looks not so charming.
After the reading, my new thought of sideboard maybe:
-1 Cavern, -1 Bog, -2 Relic, -1 Ballista
+1 Baloth, +1 Thragtusk, +1 Queen, +1 Rec Sage (vs Eidolon) +1 EE
Sometimes I feel K-return like a dead card in this game... And I wish I can keep Pact of Negation to deal with Deflecting Palm. I don't know whether I can board in Ruric Thar, seems it's too slow... I guess the key point of this game is adding some life as soon as possible...
Aww, PuntThenWhine is playing but not streaming. Saw him crush the TeamLotusBox guys on twitch.
I went 3-0-1 tonight drawing with W lifegain and beating U/W control, B/W Eldrazi, and Elves. Brief match reports if anyone is interested:
The W lifegain deck I assumed was just Soulsisters and didn't really play against it optimally. G1 I got him with multiple Titans on T4 while he was stuck on 2 mana. Traded an Azusa and a Lotus Bloom for 2 Koz Return. G2 he had a Serra Ascendant out T1 into T2 Martyr Of Sands revealing a Hand full of Oblivion Rings and Path to Exile. The 6/6 life linker beat on me for a bit until I got Hornet Queen out with the help of a Lotus Bloom and started swinging back. I couldn't decide between trying to win or just stalling the round. Eventually he Wrathed the board and then Played 3 Squadron Hawks and started beating on my meager 2 life. A few Radiant Fountain bounces kept my life total reasonable but 4 Path's were incredibly tough to fight through. Even with one Titan out I could only swing for 22 damage before he hit me for lethal with 30 seconds left in the round. We drew a couple openers and I mulled down to 4 looking for something that could kill on or before T3. No luck and his deck had no way to get me before then so it was a draw. I was definitely not focused enough in the second game and thought I should just run away with things after the first Titan.
U/W control seems like a matchup that might pose some troubles, especially before SB. I lost the first game to 3 mana Gideon beats with tons of Path, Snaps, and Field of Ruin. In came Cavern of Souls, Mortuary Mire, Bojuka Bog, and Ramunap Excavator. G2 I drew my second Amulet on T3, and played it into a Mana Leak which I then Pact of Negation'd. With an Explore, Gruul Turf, and Titian in hand that was lethal (assuming Mirrorpool). G3 I transmuted for a Cavern on T2 and then he used Detention Sphere on my Amulet. I wasn't playing the Thrun tonight because I thought no one was on control. I believe I EE'd a Search for Azcanta that was about to flip. After that an uncounterable Tracker into an uncounterable Azusa drew a bunch of cards and I basically knew the game was over. A Titan was played, followed by a Wrath, followed by gratuitous use of Mortuary Mire and eventually 2 Titans and a Tracker getting hit by Settle the Wreckage (keep this card in mind!). Another Summoner's Pact was in hand along with Slayer's on the field and that was enough for lethal.
B/W Eldrazi is a deck that feels like it can rarely win. Our 6/6 just towers over all their creatures. Their best hope is T2 TKS into Smashers and Path. My opponent never had that god hand and I played a fairly benign T4 Titan choosing to get more Summoner's Pacts and just worked through all his removal. I think the second game was double Amulet in my opening hand with the requisite pieces and I swung for 27 on T2.
Elves scared the ***** out of me. In G1 my opponent basically dumped his hand on T2, then cast running Collected Company. Multiple Shaman of the Pack hits took off 8 and 9 chunks of life and then creature beats finished it. In came the Kozilek's Return... G2 I played EE for 1 on T1 then my opponent Thoughtseized my Azusa away. That was confusing. Next turn I just developed my mana with an Explore and my opponet played out two mana dorks (I assume he was baiting my EE explosion which I happily obliged). I ripped a Tracker off the top and played that and started drawing cards while my opponent rebuilt. A Turn later I had Azusa, and another turn later I drew a Summoner's Pact and had about 6 clues in play. Chaining a couple 6/6's while drawing extra cards was enough to finish the game. In the final game I kept a Kozilek's Return, Tolaria West, Temple of Mystery, Crumbling Vestige + 2 Titans and a Summoner's Pact. My plan was to get the Kozilek's Return off on T3, hopefully before a second lord had made it out. Temple of Mystery kept a Gruul Turf on top, and I played it T2 to avoid being reliant on Crumbling vestige for my colors. My opponent ended up Chording for an Archdruid which was likely the wrong play as it also prevented him from attacking while leaving his guys at 2/2 and I untapped and wrathed his board. 2 Turns later I had a Titan out and cruised to another win. Not a single amulet was drawn in this round.
I really want to buy the deck online. I'm something like 18-2-2 over the last few weeks at my LGS but obviously a few of the opponents aren't playing solid T1 decks. Having said that, I've had my share of matches and practice against Storm, Death's Shadow, Affinity, Burn, ETron, etc. and all feel strongly to slightly in our favor in a 3 Game match. I've beaten Burn roughly 5 times in a row now. Affinity/Death's Shadow/Storm are the closest to 50/50 and should probably comprise the majority of our sideboard decisions. Dismember feels reasonable against all of them and I may be putting it back in the SB (for a while I simply thought that anything dismember could kill could also be blocked by a Titan, but that's obviously not the case against Evasion, creatures that never attack, and creatures that grow huge very quickly). Baloth has continued to impress in the main, delaying games where life is needed and sniping Lili's and Thoughtseizes when the opportunity presents itself. It's still hard to say what the flex slots should be between Slaughter Pact (creates certain land requirements), Ballista (slow but insane in some games), Tracker (usually feels total unnecessary but super fun). Baloth and Hornet Queen are imo MB slots that just win games over and over. Upping Serum Visions/Explore helps with finding pieces while executing the gameplan (get lands into play), but every time I add the 3rd and 4th Explore I draw clunky hands without enough lands + multiple Explore.
Wow, this ended up way longer than I expected. Hope you guys have a happy new year. I can't wait for this deck to get some pros on board and maybe have it spike a tournament. I know that if anywhere near as many people were playing Amulet as are on any of the other big 5 it would have won something by now.
@jacetotheface I’m still at my parents house until the new year and I had too many issues last time I tried to stream from my laptop. Also, I’m only getting to play a match or two at a time so it wouldn’t make for much of a stream. I’ll be back streaming at some point after New Years and I’ll be at scg Columbus defending my house (I live in Columbus) and playing amulet.
Indeed, IMO Cavern is very much worthy of the MD slot. In the Scout lists, I would 100% play the 3rd forest over 2nd Hub (since the Scout gets pathed quite often.) Even more so with the 2 MD Trackers. The online meta is currently quite unfavorable for Amulet, but still some people keep posting 5-0s semi-regularly (including today, somebody playing the Scout list with 4 SB white Leylines.) I feel like that tells something about the possibilities, though maybe not so much its consistency. Which is fine. Still, its awesome to see so many people still having fun with it, and even having quite positive records!
I played it yesterday at FNM, to a non-exciting 2-2 record. I won against Jund and Bant Company, in very straightforward games where the deck did what it's supposed to do, though game 1 vs Bant was nice and drawn out, where I ended up winning because of Ballista being able to take over the game once I established control. Lost against Burn (for the first time in months, I kept a greedy hand game 2 which had a turn 1 kill if I get to draw an untapped land on the draw, and didn't get there... and then game 3 I had an amazing draw if I ever see a 3rd land, against his 2 Goblin Guides, which attacked 3 times and yielded me 0 lands. One of the 2 lands I had was a Radiant Fountain, which encouraged me to keep the hand anyway, but it just wasn't meant to be I guess...) and UWR (where game 1 I saw no titans/Pacts/Tolarias in 23 cards and died to slow Queller beats, and game 2 I brain farted and played around cryptic by pacting when he tapped out... but didn't realize I only had 2 green sources, so Cryptic bounce one of my green sources killed me on upkeep. It was 10 pm and I hadn't eaten since 1, I wasn't even able to think anymore at that point xD)
The deck was as fun and as unforgiving as usual, so that hasn't changed. Variance will still get you, but I don't think adding Serum Visions and stuff is worth it (I'm in the Tribe Scout list, btw.) I do think that against Burn my keep was defensible, since if I draw an untapped land I have double Amulet, Bounceland, Azusa AND Titan, so it's an actual kill, so I can brick for 1 turn. Had I only had 1 Amulet I would have mulled, but it being game 2 and on the draw I think keeping spiky hands is ok if they are deterministic kills.
Anyways, happy new year to everybody! And hopefully Summer Bloom will get reprinted in Rivals of Ixalan (lol) To a Prime Time filled 2018!!!
I think amulet is very well positioned on mtgo right now. I think I feel strongly favored against every tier 1 deck except deaths shadow and that matchup is certainly winnable.
What I don't like against Needle is that people ALWAYS bring in artifact hate against us, even when we're siding out our amulets. So actually giving them targets is not great. Still, it's a good sideboard card, and one that can be for sure considered, especially vs Planeswalker decks. I wouldn't bring it vs Vial decks unless I have some other good targets. Even against Death & Taxes it's rough, since they can Flicker the Needle, GQ us, and then bring the needle back once the damage has already been done. I'd much rather have removal in this kinda of matchups rather than permanent based interaction.
Crumble is ok if you draw it. Yes, you can stir for it, but it isn't really consistent enough. Also, it can be countered by Warping Wail, which is even more likely if they know we have it hand by revealing it to Stirrings. Also, when you say we don't "lose any tempo" I don't think that's correct, since you're spending your turn and 4 mana doing something that is not progressing your game plan. In the Bloom version we can tec edge and with a Bloom coming off suspend we still have 6 mana on turn 4, and in the Tribe Scout version it does cost us 1 land drop, which is a big deal, but it's still rare for us to be GQing/Tec edging before we resolve a Titan. If we're losing lands while we have a Titan in play... we just wait til next turn and have even more lands. Overall, I think the upside of Tec Edge is greater than Crumble. Also, Tec Edge comes in against control and Search for Azcanta decks, while Crumbling a Colonnade is cool, but quite costly, since it needs to resolve and it costs a turn.
Boil and Choke are ok, though it doesn't completely lock out control decks. They still play a bunch of colonnades, Glacial Fortresses, Sulfur Falls, Drowned Catacombs, Spirebluff Canals, etc. The only deck is really REALLY cripples is Mono U turns, or something like that. But having a card for those matchups seems like kind of a waste.
I talked about this earlier, but instead of Thrun what I'd like to test is the Dino, Carnage Tyrant. I think the Trample is exceedingly relevant, especially vs Elspeth/Gideon Ally Tokens. I know it still dies to Verdict, but it's effectively the same... Thrun is simply blanked by their Planeswalkers and chumped by Snapcaster, which is why I haven't been impressed by it. It has looked better vs BGx decks, though still can't attack through a goyf.
Corrosion IMO is worse than Grudge. Yes, it kills all the artifacts, but you need 4 mana. Sometimes you keep a slow but robust hand vs Affinity cause you have a Grudge, and that buys you 2 or so turns. You might be dead before you make it to Corrosion. And if they have the Spell Pierce, you're actually dead, whereas Grudge is tougher for them to play around because we can Grudge after they tap out, it's easier to pay for soft countermagic and we get a round 2 if they manage to counter/thoghtseize the hate card away. This is even more relevant vs lantern, where if they Shred our Grudge we just cast it from the yard.
Leyline is just a good card. There will be metas where it's amazing, some other times it won't be worth it. Right now it is in a really good spot. Still, I like it better in the Bloom versions that in Tribe Scout versions.
Those are my thoughts on those, hopefully it helps.
Just thought I'd stop by with a few more thoughts on deckbuilding. There's nothing too ground-breaking or even that new, but I've definitely changed my opinion on a few things since I last reported in!
First, and probably the biggest change of thinking for me personally - the Lotus Bloom deck, if you learn the mulligans and the sideboarding, is actually stronger than I gave it credit. I had issues with Lotus Bloom in theory, and that was making me sideboard in a way that was unproductive (e.g boarding out bloom on the draw vs fast decks etc). It wasn't the right way to view the deck, and using Geedemorris' sideboard guide certainly helped me understand that.
Do you have a link to the list and sideboard guide?
THIS 100X!!! If you don't agree with this then there is no amount of logic that will ever convince you that good, non-oppressive, combos should be allowed. If you don't agree with it then just don't play this game, and you certainly shouldn't feel entitled to make any comment on ban lists ever.
Blood sun negates the titan chain. Although we are able to cast consistently a Titan , it wont going to have a huge impact on board. But the card is easier to clear with Explosives cause we keep our colorfull manabase.
Grat results! Traditional Amulet Titan its very good. The chances of exploding on turn 2 or 3 are real.
I dont like krupix much. I’ll rather try obstinate baloth main and replace the sideboard baloth for another tracker.
It provides some toolbox against discard. And it is possible to squeezee it when burn opponent is tapped and dont expect such powerfull card mainboard.
I think amulet is very well positioned on mtgo right now. I think I feel strongly favored against every tier 1 deck except deaths shadow and that matchup is certainly winnable.
I think that death shadow is a good pairing because you can kill him with a only one titan strike, and since we board a main walkibg ballista, the tier 1 bad pairing is storm, is more consistent and it has blood moon in the sideboard.
On saturday went 3-0. Beating off BW Control 2-0, Bring the light 2-0, and Storm 2-1 (lost second game due to bloodmoon)
Then I had to draw 2 games and did it to top 8.
Cuarter finals went unlucky against infect on first round.
This was like my best result on a tournament, Im playing no tracker main. 2 dismembers 3 adusa 3 explore and a kessig mainboard.
Enough flexibility to deal with annoying permanents (rubed halo, ensnaring bridge, etc)
After the match agains infect I analyze thr alternative lines of play. The guy ended up wining the tourny.
Cool report, thanks for sharing! Lantern and Ponza aren't the kind of decks that are fun to play magic against, so sounds like a rough tournament haha. I would keep the Summoner's Pacts in - I would board out Walking Ballista, Batterskull, one Gruul Turf (similar to Death & Taxes, the tempo swing from a strip mine on a karoo is backbreaking) and both Trackers, which would give me room for one Dismember to answer a t1 Bird or Elf. I would also rather bring a 2nd EE main rather than a Rec Sage, as you need 3/4 pieces to combo off (this is first and foremost a combo deck after all), and drawing the Sage in your opener against some matchups is rough, whereas EE will answer most of the same threats but is good in almost every matchup in some capacity.
Also, check out the Discord server where we chat Amulet strategy if you haven't already! https://discord.gg/9Ntysn
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4 Titan
4 Summoner's Pact
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Amulet of Vigor
4 Lotus Bloom
3 Azusa
2 Explore
2 Pact of Negation
2 Serum Visions
1 Hornet Queen
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Thrun
1 EE
4 Simic
4 Gemstone Mine
3 Gruul Turf
2 Tolaria West
2 Temple of Mystery
2 Forest
1 Aether Hub
1 Slayer's Stronghold
1 Boros Garrison
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Selesyna Sanctuary
1 Mirrorpool
1 Crumbling Vestige
1 Khlani Garden
1 Radiant Fountain
1 Vesuva
1 Ghost Quarter
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Swan Song
2 Kozilek's Return
2 Nature's Claim
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Mortuary Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Ruric Thar
1 Ramunap Excavator
I think the only constraints Mirrorpool places is having a good colorless land. Crumbling Vestige/Aether Hub is likely the most powerful. And taking out one land, in this case Tolaria West. It's definitely not perfect and dependent on the Meta. I finally decided Thrun and Baloth were just in a sweet spot, blocking a lot of aggressive decks, chumping/delaying against Shadow, being castable with the same 4 mana as pact, and offering extremely powerful abilities. Thrun has felt a lot better than trying to play Cavern of Souls main. I might try Hive Mind out at some point, the fact that it's good against Storm is very compelling.
I feel Chalice is not good here, considering I have no SSG in my deck, turn-2 Chalice looks not so charming.
After the reading, my new thought of sideboard maybe:
-1 Cavern, -1 Bog, -2 Relic, -1 Ballista
+1 Baloth, +1 Thragtusk, +1 Queen, +1 Rec Sage (vs Eidolon) +1 EE
Sometimes I feel K-return like a dead card in this game... And I wish I can keep Pact of Negation to deal with Deflecting Palm. I don't know whether I can board in Ruric Thar, seems it's too slow... I guess the key point of this game is adding some life as soon as possible...
Arena looks hilarious (and potentially even better in our deck).
I went 3-0-1 tonight drawing with W lifegain and beating U/W control, B/W Eldrazi, and Elves. Brief match reports if anyone is interested:
The W lifegain deck I assumed was just Soulsisters and didn't really play against it optimally. G1 I got him with multiple Titans on T4 while he was stuck on 2 mana. Traded an Azusa and a Lotus Bloom for 2 Koz Return. G2 he had a Serra Ascendant out T1 into T2 Martyr Of Sands revealing a Hand full of Oblivion Rings and Path to Exile. The 6/6 life linker beat on me for a bit until I got Hornet Queen out with the help of a Lotus Bloom and started swinging back. I couldn't decide between trying to win or just stalling the round. Eventually he Wrathed the board and then Played 3 Squadron Hawks and started beating on my meager 2 life. A few Radiant Fountain bounces kept my life total reasonable but 4 Path's were incredibly tough to fight through. Even with one Titan out I could only swing for 22 damage before he hit me for lethal with 30 seconds left in the round. We drew a couple openers and I mulled down to 4 looking for something that could kill on or before T3. No luck and his deck had no way to get me before then so it was a draw. I was definitely not focused enough in the second game and thought I should just run away with things after the first Titan.
U/W control seems like a matchup that might pose some troubles, especially before SB. I lost the first game to 3 mana Gideon beats with tons of Path, Snaps, and Field of Ruin. In came Cavern of Souls, Mortuary Mire, Bojuka Bog, and Ramunap Excavator. G2 I drew my second Amulet on T3, and played it into a Mana Leak which I then Pact of Negation'd. With an Explore, Gruul Turf, and Titian in hand that was lethal (assuming Mirrorpool). G3 I transmuted for a Cavern on T2 and then he used Detention Sphere on my Amulet. I wasn't playing the Thrun tonight because I thought no one was on control. I believe I EE'd a Search for Azcanta that was about to flip. After that an uncounterable Tracker into an uncounterable Azusa drew a bunch of cards and I basically knew the game was over. A Titan was played, followed by a Wrath, followed by gratuitous use of Mortuary Mire and eventually 2 Titans and a Tracker getting hit by Settle the Wreckage (keep this card in mind!). Another Summoner's Pact was in hand along with Slayer's on the field and that was enough for lethal.
B/W Eldrazi is a deck that feels like it can rarely win. Our 6/6 just towers over all their creatures. Their best hope is T2 TKS into Smashers and Path. My opponent never had that god hand and I played a fairly benign T4 Titan choosing to get more Summoner's Pacts and just worked through all his removal. I think the second game was double Amulet in my opening hand with the requisite pieces and I swung for 27 on T2.
Elves scared the ***** out of me. In G1 my opponent basically dumped his hand on T2, then cast running Collected Company. Multiple Shaman of the Pack hits took off 8 and 9 chunks of life and then creature beats finished it. In came the Kozilek's Return... G2 I played EE for 1 on T1 then my opponent Thoughtseized my Azusa away. That was confusing. Next turn I just developed my mana with an Explore and my opponet played out two mana dorks (I assume he was baiting my EE explosion which I happily obliged). I ripped a Tracker off the top and played that and started drawing cards while my opponent rebuilt. A Turn later I had Azusa, and another turn later I drew a Summoner's Pact and had about 6 clues in play. Chaining a couple 6/6's while drawing extra cards was enough to finish the game. In the final game I kept a Kozilek's Return, Tolaria West, Temple of Mystery, Crumbling Vestige + 2 Titans and a Summoner's Pact. My plan was to get the Kozilek's Return off on T3, hopefully before a second lord had made it out. Temple of Mystery kept a Gruul Turf on top, and I played it T2 to avoid being reliant on Crumbling vestige for my colors. My opponent ended up Chording for an Archdruid which was likely the wrong play as it also prevented him from attacking while leaving his guys at 2/2 and I untapped and wrathed his board. 2 Turns later I had a Titan out and cruised to another win. Not a single amulet was drawn in this round.
I really want to buy the deck online. I'm something like 18-2-2 over the last few weeks at my LGS but obviously a few of the opponents aren't playing solid T1 decks. Having said that, I've had my share of matches and practice against Storm, Death's Shadow, Affinity, Burn, ETron, etc. and all feel strongly to slightly in our favor in a 3 Game match. I've beaten Burn roughly 5 times in a row now. Affinity/Death's Shadow/Storm are the closest to 50/50 and should probably comprise the majority of our sideboard decisions. Dismember feels reasonable against all of them and I may be putting it back in the SB (for a while I simply thought that anything dismember could kill could also be blocked by a Titan, but that's obviously not the case against Evasion, creatures that never attack, and creatures that grow huge very quickly). Baloth has continued to impress in the main, delaying games where life is needed and sniping Lili's and Thoughtseizes when the opportunity presents itself. It's still hard to say what the flex slots should be between Slaughter Pact (creates certain land requirements), Ballista (slow but insane in some games), Tracker (usually feels total unnecessary but super fun). Baloth and Hornet Queen are imo MB slots that just win games over and over. Upping Serum Visions/Explore helps with finding pieces while executing the gameplan (get lands into play), but every time I add the 3rd and 4th Explore I draw clunky hands without enough lands + multiple Explore.
Wow, this ended up way longer than I expected. Hope you guys have a happy new year. I can't wait for this deck to get some pros on board and maybe have it spike a tournament. I know that if anywhere near as many people were playing Amulet as are on any of the other big 5 it would have won something by now.
I played it yesterday at FNM, to a non-exciting 2-2 record. I won against Jund and Bant Company, in very straightforward games where the deck did what it's supposed to do, though game 1 vs Bant was nice and drawn out, where I ended up winning because of Ballista being able to take over the game once I established control. Lost against Burn (for the first time in months, I kept a greedy hand game 2 which had a turn 1 kill if I get to draw an untapped land on the draw, and didn't get there... and then game 3 I had an amazing draw if I ever see a 3rd land, against his 2 Goblin Guides, which attacked 3 times and yielded me 0 lands. One of the 2 lands I had was a Radiant Fountain, which encouraged me to keep the hand anyway, but it just wasn't meant to be I guess...) and UWR (where game 1 I saw no titans/Pacts/Tolarias in 23 cards and died to slow Queller beats, and game 2 I brain farted and played around cryptic by pacting when he tapped out... but didn't realize I only had 2 green sources, so Cryptic bounce one of my green sources killed me on upkeep. It was 10 pm and I hadn't eaten since 1, I wasn't even able to think anymore at that point xD)
The deck was as fun and as unforgiving as usual, so that hasn't changed. Variance will still get you, but I don't think adding Serum Visions and stuff is worth it (I'm in the Tribe Scout list, btw.) I do think that against Burn my keep was defensible, since if I draw an untapped land I have double Amulet, Bounceland, Azusa AND Titan, so it's an actual kill, so I can brick for 1 turn. Had I only had 1 Amulet I would have mulled, but it being game 2 and on the draw I think keeping spiky hands is ok if they are deterministic kills.
Anyways, happy new year to everybody! And hopefully Summer Bloom will get reprinted in Rivals of Ixalan (lol) To a Prime Time filled 2018!!!
Crumble is ok if you draw it. Yes, you can stir for it, but it isn't really consistent enough. Also, it can be countered by Warping Wail, which is even more likely if they know we have it hand by revealing it to Stirrings. Also, when you say we don't "lose any tempo" I don't think that's correct, since you're spending your turn and 4 mana doing something that is not progressing your game plan. In the Bloom version we can tec edge and with a Bloom coming off suspend we still have 6 mana on turn 4, and in the Tribe Scout version it does cost us 1 land drop, which is a big deal, but it's still rare for us to be GQing/Tec edging before we resolve a Titan. If we're losing lands while we have a Titan in play... we just wait til next turn and have even more lands. Overall, I think the upside of Tec Edge is greater than Crumble. Also, Tec Edge comes in against control and Search for Azcanta decks, while Crumbling a Colonnade is cool, but quite costly, since it needs to resolve and it costs a turn.
Boil and Choke are ok, though it doesn't completely lock out control decks. They still play a bunch of colonnades, Glacial Fortresses, Sulfur Falls, Drowned Catacombs, Spirebluff Canals, etc. The only deck is really REALLY cripples is Mono U turns, or something like that. But having a card for those matchups seems like kind of a waste.
I talked about this earlier, but instead of Thrun what I'd like to test is the Dino, Carnage Tyrant. I think the Trample is exceedingly relevant, especially vs Elspeth/Gideon Ally Tokens. I know it still dies to Verdict, but it's effectively the same... Thrun is simply blanked by their Planeswalkers and chumped by Snapcaster, which is why I haven't been impressed by it. It has looked better vs BGx decks, though still can't attack through a goyf.
Corrosion IMO is worse than Grudge. Yes, it kills all the artifacts, but you need 4 mana. Sometimes you keep a slow but robust hand vs Affinity cause you have a Grudge, and that buys you 2 or so turns. You might be dead before you make it to Corrosion. And if they have the Spell Pierce, you're actually dead, whereas Grudge is tougher for them to play around because we can Grudge after they tap out, it's easier to pay for soft countermagic and we get a round 2 if they manage to counter/thoghtseize the hate card away. This is even more relevant vs lantern, where if they Shred our Grudge we just cast it from the yard.
Leyline is just a good card. There will be metas where it's amazing, some other times it won't be worth it. Right now it is in a really good spot. Still, I like it better in the Bloom versions that in Tribe Scout versions.
Those are my thoughts on those, hopefully it helps.
Do you have a link to the list and sideboard guide?
ya but it could also be an asset by stopping the bounce. we could play it our selves and spam the bouncelands out in large quantity.
bigger issues is we lose the ability to pump and modify titan with the spell lands. with the crazy mana the bounce lands can make.
maybe it would be reason to run thornling along side the blood sun. with him you get a creature that can modify and is indestructable.
I dont like krupix much. I’ll rather try obstinate baloth main and replace the sideboard baloth for another tracker.
It provides some toolbox against discard. And it is possible to squeezee it when burn opponent is tapped and dont expect such powerfull card mainboard.
I think that death shadow is a good pairing because you can kill him with a only one titan strike, and since we board a main walkibg ballista, the tier 1 bad pairing is storm, is more consistent and it has blood moon in the sideboard.
Then I had to draw 2 games and did it to top 8.
Cuarter finals went unlucky against infect on first round.
This was like my best result on a tournament, Im playing no tracker main. 2 dismembers 3 adusa 3 explore and a kessig mainboard.
Enough flexibility to deal with annoying permanents (rubed halo, ensnaring bridge, etc)
After the match agains infect I analyze thr alternative lines of play. The guy ended up wining the tourny.
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