Round 1: Grixis Control--Want to start off with, the guy was slow-playing pretty hard the entire round and the TO wouldn't seriously infract/pressure him on it despite my calling for a judge about 10 minutes into the round--and I couldn't really appropriately pressure/correct him on it because of conflict of interest (despite the TO being just newly a rules advisor and not actually a judge). Game one, it gets really, REALLY grindy. I eventually run him out of kolaghan's commands and electrolyze/terminate/lightning bolt and he removes three of my colonnades and my creeping tar pit. I've got a grip of 7 to his 2, I'm at 14 life, he's at 10. He casts thought scour. I ask him who he's targeting. He goes "I don't know... how about you?" and I can't counter it (hand is spell snare, spell snare, path, path, land, land, remand. I let it resolve and flip colonnade and zenith off the top of my library... and just like that, I'm entirely out of win cons despite having the game firmly on lockdown. I do a deck count and determine that he has one fewer card than me, so I try to play it out, but now he knows I'm out of win cons because he knows my list, so he aggressively forces through a pair of snapcasters at the last moment and clocks me out before I can deck him. Game two, I have it on firm lockdown, with leyline, curse, and 18 life with 10 lands and 5 cards in hand, but I can't find a win con to close it out before time is called. He was pretty blatant about not caring about finishing the game and taking 30 second turns even when he had no action, but oh well. I was salty about it.
Round 2: B/r 8-rack: He gets game one off of thoughtseize-->duress + thoughtseize-->liliana-->wrench mind + 2 rack effects. I board in leyline, annul, purges, and baneslayer. I proceed to have leyline in the opener game two and just slam land drops until I find a win con, then game three I keep three lands and four card draw spells, and counter his 3rd turn liliana, then chain card draw to avoid taking damage from racks until I find a leyline, resolve it, and that's all she wrote.
Round 3: Raphael-levy loam pox: Game one he gets off of lucksack turn three urborg + loam + raven's crime engine. Game two his deck does the typical thing where it's an inconsistent pile if you spell snare either their turn two pox or turn two zombie infestation, and I grind out some land drops until I set up a three turn chain of cryptic commands in time-walk mode and my own beatdown with timely reinforcements tokens and snapcasters to clock him for exactsies with a time-walk by reving up to survive his alpha strike with one life left. Game three, he goes turn one raven's crime, turn two double retrace, turn three loam + retrace, turn four dredge loam and retrace to empty my hand, and I never get to hit 5 mana to cast the curse of death's hold that I manage to sandbag through all that early discard, but we hit turns and he doesn't have enough of a clock to kill me, so we're forced into a draw and we split for the store credit. I deserved to lose this one for being a complete and utter moron; I sideboarded out the curse of death's hold in game two like an idiot, because I completely forgot that the deck plays lingering souls. And yes, that was the only game I was going to win out of the set.
I feel like loam pox is strongly unfavorable to us because the raven's crime engine is insane if we don't have a leyline out, and if they're smart they have an answer to leyline post-board anyway. 8-rack is a complete and total bye round for this deck if you have 2+ leylines in the 75, because all we do is draw cards. Grixis control feels strongly favorable to us since we're casting think twice and esper charm to their serum visions, gitaxian probes, and thought scours, so it felt really bad to lose this one. The grixis snapcaster/kolaghan's command engine is really strong and I feel like we need to have a specific plan for beating up that shell--I'm toying with both playing grafdigger's cage and cutting snapcaster, and just running straight up rest in peace. I feel like RIP is the better option since the Command can blow up the cage, but eh. Metagame feels ripe for rest in peace overall, but it feels bad to turn off think twice and snapcaster mage. What really irks me is that all the 3-0 and 2-1 decks were twin, amulet bloom, and BGx midrange; I was totally ready for that and I got dumpstered into the x-1 bracket by the luckiest terrible play I've ever seen. The guy had 10 cards in his graveyard, only three of which he'd actually want to delve out, and he thoughtscours me instead of himself, to lucksack the win.
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Yes, I am a local area mod. WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Primary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
So I've been playing the deck for about 30 hours straight at this point, went to my buddies house for the weekend and had a "player's retreat" with 5 of us, an almost unlimited card pool, and a caffeine fueled test-a-thon involving both paper magic and face to face cockatrice/modo with 2 laptops sitting across a table (sleeving / unsleeving new decks to test is not time efficient).
I have a massive amount of notes which I will post tomorrow probably when I wake up at some point, however my main findings have been that, against a random field, it's almost just best to transition into "Esper Hatebears". I've got the data to support it, but the general overview is that you want access to a 4th wrath effect, a Celestial Purge(basically for blood moon), and some grafdigger's cage / curse type effects, but the other 8 slots are basically a transitional board of 3 Meddling Mage, 3 Tidehollow Sculler and 2-3 Azorius Guildmage. Really effective against tron / bloom / scapeshift / combo in general, while also allowing us to apply some pressure.
You don't have to board them in, against affinity for example an extra wrath and a curse is usually enough, although guildmage does tap down whoever is wearing cranial plating, or an inkmoth nexus. Against GBX just board in a mystical teachings and a purge and out grind them, etc. It's not perfect, but the data I have shows it being really versatile and good.
I've played the hatebears board before, and I love it, the problem is that it weakens a large number of other matchups--not by significant amounts, but the reality is there are a lot of random brews that play lightning bolt or similar types of cards, brews that can't really be beaten with hatebears but which are resilient enough to fight through our mainboard arsenal if they pack actual "control hate", something that random brewers are far more likely to pack than seriously competitive players in my experience.
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Yes, I am a local area mod. WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Primary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
What were some of the positive experiences you had that lead you to say "i love it" , because even though it was so good in testing, I'm sort of iffy abut taking it to a real event
1. pressure--a bear on turn two and a bear on turn three usually means your opponent is on a three turn clock if they played a thoughtseize or fetched two shocks, and a four-turn clock otherwise. It's the same sort of disruptive pressure you see from death and taxes in legacy. It lets us put tron on about the same clock as well.
2. Good against burn--at least when I was running it, every hatebear was a virtually guaranteed 1 for 1 against burn. This isn't as-true now that they have swiftspear, but it's still good against them. Strengthening the burn matchup is a good deal.
3. It rewards format knowledge--understanding what you can beat based on your hand and what you can't and utilizing that appropriately with the hatebears is both rewarding and powerful--sometimes you have to name k-command and hope they don't have the bolt.
4. it's excellent at beating super-linear 1 trick ponies like storm, ad nauseum, and amulet bloom.
The downsides are that this strategy is exceptionally poor when decks (like bloom) sideboard into their own man-plan. It was better early in the format (like, pre-rite of flame ban) when there were more linear strategies that didn't have the flexibility to change gameplans that way. Part of the downside of the power level of the format and its slightly slower speed is that many decks can have a plan B of just going big, which this just loses to, period. THAT is why I wouldn't take it to a large event, because you will run into someone who sideboards into a go big plan and they will beat you because of it.
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Yes, I am a local area mod. WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Primary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
So I've been playing the deck for about 30 hours straight at this point, went to my buddies house for the weekend and had a "player's retreat" with 5 of us, an almost unlimited card pool, and a caffeine fueled test-a-thon involving both paper magic and face to face cockatrice/modo with 2 laptops sitting across a table (sleeving / unsleeving new decks to test is not time efficient).
I have a massive amount of notes which I will post tomorrow probably when I wake up at some point, however my main findings have been that, against a random field, it's almost just best to transition into "Esper Hatebears". I've got the data to support it, but the general overview is that you want access to a 4th wrath effect, a Celestial Purge(basically for blood moon), and some grafdigger's cage / curse type effects, but the other 8 slots are basically a transitional board of 3 Meddling Mage, 3 Tidehollow Sculler and 2-3 Azorius Guildmage. Really effective against tron / bloom / scapeshift / combo in general, while also allowing us to apply some pressure.
You don't have to board them in, against affinity for example an extra wrath and a curse is usually enough, although guildmage does tap down whoever is wearing cranial plating, or an inkmoth nexus. Against GBX just board in a mystical teachings and a purge and out grind them, etc. It's not perfect, but the data I have shows it being really versatile and good.
I been thinking of doing that myself. I was already on avrn Mindcensor, and clique, for some time and it helps a lot to become proactive when you need to be. The thing dome of our sideboard cards are really important against burn and I do not know if we can have enough for that matchup while still having a good enough hatebear plan.
It will help this deck immensely to find a proactive plan for the bad matchups while keeping our strength against the fair decks.
I have a couple of questions:
Why is played think twice over anticipate? I find this last, very very useful, finding what i need in every moment, and cannot see the power on think twice :S
And, you recommend Curse of Death's Hold over nigth of soul´s betrayal?
Is the question [Think Twice over Anticipate] only in response to the above Gifts list, or Esper Control in general?
Regarding Curse over Soul's Betrayal I think the answer becomes, "Are you playing Lingering Soul's as a main part of your plan?"
If the answer is yes then Curse is the correct card.
- Think Twice draws you 2 cards, Anticipate 1, for the same cost
- Think Twice is good against discard, specially Liliana
- Think Twice keeps our hand full (at least fuller than Anticipate)
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One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
Im talking about a general esper control without lingerin souls, so then the souls betrayal seems better (they kill my snaps, but i think its ok). In the part of think over anticipate, whats the answer?
Please read the primer for the reasons why think twice is fantastic, and why anticipate is bad in this deck.
I am loving Tidehollow Sculler in my board over the 1 mana discard. I never brought in discard against decks like burn so where I bring it this guy is just better since it provides a clock. I been doing really well against tron and combo with this board.
This board has plenty of cards to bring in against all the matchups that are not so good such as burn and tron. The board also has an effective plan to turn into a disruptive weenie deck by going up to 8 creatures to clock combo and tron.
So I've been playing the deck for about 30 hours straight at this point, went to my buddies house for the weekend and had a "player's retreat" with 5 of us, an almost unlimited card pool, and a caffeine fueled test-a-thon involving both paper magic and face to face cockatrice/modo with 2 laptops sitting across a table (sleeving / unsleeving new decks to test is not time efficient).
I have a massive amount of notes which I will post tomorrow probably when I wake up at some point, however my main findings have been that, against a random field, it's almost just best to transition into "Esper Hatebears". I've got the data to support it, but the general overview is that you want access to a 4th wrath effect, a Celestial Purge(basically for blood moon), and some grafdigger's cage / curse type effects, but the other 8 slots are basically a transitional board of 3 Meddling Mage, 3 Tidehollow Sculler and 2-3 Azorius Guildmage. Really effective against tron / bloom / scapeshift / combo in general, while also allowing us to apply some pressure.
You don't have to board them in, against affinity for example an extra wrath and a curse is usually enough, although guildmage does tap down whoever is wearing cranial plating, or an inkmoth nexus. Against GBX just board in a mystical teachings and a purge and out grind them, etc. It's not perfect, but the data I have shows it being really versatile and good.
"He plays in a walk in humidor so keep his foils from bending. He once kept an all land hand just to know what it felt like to be mana flooded. He uses power nine for ante. He is the most interesting magic playing in the world." Old man, "I don't always tap basic lands for mana, but when i do, I tap Gurus."
Round 1 vs. Jund midrange (0-2)
Game 1 he used Inquisition of Kozilek to get some threats past my counters/removal. I ended the game with lands and counters, unable to interact with the board. Game 2 was much the same, except he played 3 Fulminator Mage in a row. My White Sun's and Consume the Meek got stranded in my hand, but I couldn't find anything to interact with the board.
Round 2 vs. Living End (2-0)
Different build from the one I played last weak. This one had the Splinter Twin combo in it as well. Games were pretty easy, as I had plenty of counters for Living End available at all times. Play a Zenith at my leisure and win. Game 2 was much the same, only even more dominating for me because I had a Relic of Progenitus out.
Round 3 vs. Coco Elves (2-1)
Game 1, using Mystical Teachings to tutor for Consume the Meek ends up being very good. Game 2, he dumps his hand by turn 4 and says go. I had the Verdict. Somehow I still ended up losing, as he came back and I played cards at the wrong time. Game 3 he was stuck on 1 mana for a long time, which made my 2 Verdict opener really bad for him. This time I didn't painfully screw up and won handily.
Round 4 vs. Abzan midrange (1-2)
Game 1 is total domination on my part, as I end up answering everything he has, and his hand full of Abrupt Decays and Path to Exiles trades with my first round of white sun cat tokens. Teaching to do it again a turn later, and this time he has no answers, and I have a hand full of counters/removal/card draw anyways. Games 2 and 3, I get pretty dominated. Game 2 was mostly due to Liliana, Lingering Souls, and a Tarmogoyf. I was able to get rid of Liliana, but could not find a board wipe and died with a hand full of lands and counters. Game 3, his Inquisition sets him up so I can't answer a Tarmogoyf and Siege Rhino, and I lose with a hand full of lands and counters, with my card draw only getting me more of the same.
I'm not fully sure why I'm losing to what is supposed to be one of our best matchups, and I don't want to just pass it off as bad draws. Game 1 feels great to me. Even the Jund deck wasn't a runaway for game 1. The post board games just feel awful to me, especially the Abzan one, as they side out their bad spot removal. Both decks were consistent at using discard to rip apart my hand.
I didn't care for Dispel in the main, but I do like it in the sideboard. I'm almost thinking of trying something close to your tap-out list with Serum Visions, Lingering Souls, and Sorin. i just don't have any Bitterblossoms though. Could those be swapped for something else (like maybe Tasigur, another Sorin, or Elspeth)?
I didn't care for Dispel in the main, but I do like it in the sideboard. I'm almost thinking of trying something close to your tap-out list with Serum Visions, Lingering Souls, and Sorin. i just don't have any Bitterblossoms though. Could those be swapped for something else (like maybe Tasigur, another Sorin, or Elspeth)?
I you want to play a tap-out list and don't have bitterblossoms, give my list (my most up to date list is in my signature, below) a shot! I've been more than impressed with my matchups in general, and would be more than happy to talk to you about more specifics of how they play out.
4 celestial Colonnade
1 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Watery Grave
1 Godless Shrine
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Mystic Gate
1 Fetid Heath
1 ghost quarter
1 tectonic edge
4 Cryptic Command
4 Spell Snare
2 Logic Knot
2 Remand
Card Draw:
4 Esper Charm
4 Think Twice
2 Sphinx's Revelation
Removal:
3 Supreme Verdict
4 Path to Exile
Misc:
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Leyline of Sanctity
1 White Sun's Zenith
3 Duress
2 Celestial Purge
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Wrath of God
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Dispel
1 Annul
1 Leyline of Sanctity
Round 1: Grixis Control--Want to start off with, the guy was slow-playing pretty hard the entire round and the TO wouldn't seriously infract/pressure him on it despite my calling for a judge about 10 minutes into the round--and I couldn't really appropriately pressure/correct him on it because of conflict of interest (despite the TO being just newly a rules advisor and not actually a judge). Game one, it gets really, REALLY grindy. I eventually run him out of kolaghan's commands and electrolyze/terminate/lightning bolt and he removes three of my colonnades and my creeping tar pit. I've got a grip of 7 to his 2, I'm at 14 life, he's at 10. He casts thought scour. I ask him who he's targeting. He goes "I don't know... how about you?" and I can't counter it (hand is spell snare, spell snare, path, path, land, land, remand. I let it resolve and flip colonnade and zenith off the top of my library... and just like that, I'm entirely out of win cons despite having the game firmly on lockdown. I do a deck count and determine that he has one fewer card than me, so I try to play it out, but now he knows I'm out of win cons because he knows my list, so he aggressively forces through a pair of snapcasters at the last moment and clocks me out before I can deck him. Game two, I have it on firm lockdown, with leyline, curse, and 18 life with 10 lands and 5 cards in hand, but I can't find a win con to close it out before time is called. He was pretty blatant about not caring about finishing the game and taking 30 second turns even when he had no action, but oh well. I was salty about it.
Round 2: B/r 8-rack: He gets game one off of thoughtseize-->duress + thoughtseize-->liliana-->wrench mind + 2 rack effects. I board in leyline, annul, purges, and baneslayer. I proceed to have leyline in the opener game two and just slam land drops until I find a win con, then game three I keep three lands and four card draw spells, and counter his 3rd turn liliana, then chain card draw to avoid taking damage from racks until I find a leyline, resolve it, and that's all she wrote.
Round 3: Raphael-levy loam pox: Game one he gets off of lucksack turn three urborg + loam + raven's crime engine. Game two his deck does the typical thing where it's an inconsistent pile if you spell snare either their turn two pox or turn two zombie infestation, and I grind out some land drops until I set up a three turn chain of cryptic commands in time-walk mode and my own beatdown with timely reinforcements tokens and snapcasters to clock him for exactsies with a time-walk by reving up to survive his alpha strike with one life left. Game three, he goes turn one raven's crime, turn two double retrace, turn three loam + retrace, turn four dredge loam and retrace to empty my hand, and I never get to hit 5 mana to cast the curse of death's hold that I manage to sandbag through all that early discard, but we hit turns and he doesn't have enough of a clock to kill me, so we're forced into a draw and we split for the store credit. I deserved to lose this one for being a complete and utter moron; I sideboarded out the curse of death's hold in game two like an idiot, because I completely forgot that the deck plays lingering souls. And yes, that was the only game I was going to win out of the set.
I feel like loam pox is strongly unfavorable to us because the raven's crime engine is insane if we don't have a leyline out, and if they're smart they have an answer to leyline post-board anyway. 8-rack is a complete and total bye round for this deck if you have 2+ leylines in the 75, because all we do is draw cards. Grixis control feels strongly favorable to us since we're casting think twice and esper charm to their serum visions, gitaxian probes, and thought scours, so it felt really bad to lose this one. The grixis snapcaster/kolaghan's command engine is really strong and I feel like we need to have a specific plan for beating up that shell--I'm toying with both playing grafdigger's cage and cutting snapcaster, and just running straight up rest in peace. I feel like RIP is the better option since the Command can blow up the cage, but eh. Metagame feels ripe for rest in peace overall, but it feels bad to turn off think twice and snapcaster mage. What really irks me is that all the 3-0 and 2-1 decks were twin, amulet bloom, and BGx midrange; I was totally ready for that and I got dumpstered into the x-1 bracket by the luckiest terrible play I've ever seen. The guy had 10 cards in his graveyard, only three of which he'd actually want to delve out, and he thoughtscours me instead of himself, to lucksack the win.
Yes, I am a local area mod.WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVEPrimary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
I have a massive amount of notes which I will post tomorrow probably when I wake up at some point, however my main findings have been that, against a random field, it's almost just best to transition into "Esper Hatebears". I've got the data to support it, but the general overview is that you want access to a 4th wrath effect, a Celestial Purge(basically for blood moon), and some grafdigger's cage / curse type effects, but the other 8 slots are basically a transitional board of 3 Meddling Mage, 3 Tidehollow Sculler and 2-3 Azorius Guildmage. Really effective against tron / bloom / scapeshift / combo in general, while also allowing us to apply some pressure.
You don't have to board them in, against affinity for example an extra wrath and a curse is usually enough, although guildmage does tap down whoever is wearing cranial plating, or an inkmoth nexus. Against GBX just board in a mystical teachings and a purge and out grind them, etc. It's not perfect, but the data I have shows it being really versatile and good.
Esper draw go Control!
Twitch stream: http://www.twitch.tv/pimpdonny
Yes, I am a local area mod.WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVEPrimary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
2. Good against burn--at least when I was running it, every hatebear was a virtually guaranteed 1 for 1 against burn. This isn't as-true now that they have swiftspear, but it's still good against them. Strengthening the burn matchup is a good deal.
3. It rewards format knowledge--understanding what you can beat based on your hand and what you can't and utilizing that appropriately with the hatebears is both rewarding and powerful--sometimes you have to name k-command and hope they don't have the bolt.
4. it's excellent at beating super-linear 1 trick ponies like storm, ad nauseum, and amulet bloom.
The downsides are that this strategy is exceptionally poor when decks (like bloom) sideboard into their own man-plan. It was better early in the format (like, pre-rite of flame ban) when there were more linear strategies that didn't have the flexibility to change gameplans that way. Part of the downside of the power level of the format and its slightly slower speed is that many decks can have a plan B of just going big, which this just loses to, period. THAT is why I wouldn't take it to a large event, because you will run into someone who sideboards into a go big plan and they will beat you because of it.
Yes, I am a local area mod.WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVEPrimary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
I been thinking of doing that myself. I was already on avrn Mindcensor, and clique, for some time and it helps a lot to become proactive when you need to be. The thing dome of our sideboard cards are really important against burn and I do not know if we can have enough for that matchup while still having a good enough hatebear plan.
It will help this deck immensely to find a proactive plan for the bad matchups while keeping our strength against the fair decks.
Is the question [Think Twice over Anticipate] only in response to the above Gifts list, or Esper Control in general?
Regarding Curse over Soul's Betrayal I think the answer becomes, "Are you playing Lingering Soul's as a main part of your plan?"
If the answer is yes then Curse is the correct card.
- Think Twice is good against discard, specially Liliana
- Think Twice keeps our hand full (at least fuller than Anticipate)
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
RWU giest midrange
RUB grixis delver
WUB esper draw-go
edh:
RUG maelstrom wanderer
B shirei control
None of you seem to understand. I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with me!
Please read the primer for the reasons why think twice is fantastic, and why anticipate is bad in this deck.
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Aven Mindcensor
3 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Celestial Purge
1 Wrath of God
1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
2 Negate
1 Dispel
1 Flashfreeze
1 Pulse of the Fields
1 Disfigure
This board has plenty of cards to bring in against all the matchups that are not so good such as burn and tron. The board also has an effective plan to turn into a disruptive weenie deck by going up to 8 creatures to clock combo and tron.
Nice way to think outside of the box.
It has a home in EDH. Maybe Standard sideboards. I don't think it's modern playable, I'd rather just play Bribery and steal an emrakul or something.
Round 1 vs. Jund midrange (0-2)
Game 1 he used Inquisition of Kozilek to get some threats past my counters/removal. I ended the game with lands and counters, unable to interact with the board. Game 2 was much the same, except he played 3 Fulminator Mage in a row. My White Sun's and Consume the Meek got stranded in my hand, but I couldn't find anything to interact with the board.
Round 2 vs. Living End (2-0)
Different build from the one I played last weak. This one had the Splinter Twin combo in it as well. Games were pretty easy, as I had plenty of counters for Living End available at all times. Play a Zenith at my leisure and win. Game 2 was much the same, only even more dominating for me because I had a Relic of Progenitus out.
Round 3 vs. Coco Elves (2-1)
Game 1, using Mystical Teachings to tutor for Consume the Meek ends up being very good. Game 2, he dumps his hand by turn 4 and says go. I had the Verdict. Somehow I still ended up losing, as he came back and I played cards at the wrong time. Game 3 he was stuck on 1 mana for a long time, which made my 2 Verdict opener really bad for him. This time I didn't painfully screw up and won handily.
Round 4 vs. Abzan midrange (1-2)
Game 1 is total domination on my part, as I end up answering everything he has, and his hand full of Abrupt Decays and Path to Exiles trades with my first round of white sun cat tokens. Teaching to do it again a turn later, and this time he has no answers, and I have a hand full of counters/removal/card draw anyways. Games 2 and 3, I get pretty dominated. Game 2 was mostly due to Liliana, Lingering Souls, and a Tarmogoyf. I was able to get rid of Liliana, but could not find a board wipe and died with a hand full of lands and counters. Game 3, his Inquisition sets him up so I can't answer a Tarmogoyf and Siege Rhino, and I lose with a hand full of lands and counters, with my card draw only getting me more of the same.
I'm not fully sure why I'm losing to what is supposed to be one of our best matchups, and I don't want to just pass it off as bad draws. Game 1 feels great to me. Even the Jund deck wasn't a runaway for game 1. The post board games just feel awful to me, especially the Abzan one, as they side out their bad spot removal. Both decks were consistent at using discard to rip apart my hand.
1 of Dispel and Repeal main are nuts.
Here's what I ran.
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
Other Spells (31)
4 Path to Exile
3 Spell Snare
1 Negate
1 Logic Knot
2 Shadow of Doubt
4 Think Twice
4 Esper Charm
4 Cryptic Command
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Consume the Meek
1 Mystical Teachings
1 Mindbreak Trap
2 Sphinx's Revelation
1 White Sun's Zenith
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
3 Hallowed Fountain
2 Watery Grave
2 Ghost Quarter
3 Celestial Colonnade
1 Glacial Fortress
3 Drowned Catacomb
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Stony Silence
1 Disenchant
2 Celestial Purge
2 Pulse of the Fields
1 Thoughtseize
2 Duress
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Dispel
1 Kor Firewalker
I you want to play a tap-out list and don't have bitterblossoms, give my list (my most up to date list is in my signature, below) a shot! I've been more than impressed with my matchups in general, and would be more than happy to talk to you about more specifics of how they play out.
I'm enjoying teachings lately because of the ability to have a virtual 4-of on all my sideboard bullets.