T1 - IOK or TS
T2 - Wrench Mind or Fall
T3 - Lily of the Veil or removal of early creatures + more discard
T4 - by the time you cast JTMS here, there should be hardly any opposition. If there's threat you can bounce it and uptick lily, or downtick lily to kill it and brainstorm.
T5 - NBDG comes down and its downhill for the opponent from here.
I mean, I do love magic Christmas, but this will rarely be happening unfortunately, both because of our own deck, as well as because opposing decks can play multiple threats/disrupt/don't care about what we are doing :/
T2 will most likely always be keep mana up for removal/counter (if any), or having to react on our own turn to their T1/2 play. Not to spoil the fun, but I honestly think our T2 will need different things than Wrench Mind, I think having 2 copies of Fall should be way more than enough. Also, keep in mind that there are a ton of decks that would be extremely happy to discard 2 on T2!
I gave this list some test with proxy Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God, and it felt more solid than I thought. the list I tested is pretty much just his list, -1 bolas +1 bolt
some thoughts:
- this configuration plays like a blue jund list, except for jund is tempo (goyf, ooze) + card advantage (confidant, Kommand, BBE),whereas this list is pure CA driven, we largely don't need to care about tempo.
- the goal is to stabilize with either lili or bolas, then ultimately win by either drawing bolas, or by racing, keeping the board clean is key.
- the list runs 5 targeted discards, 3 LoTVs, 2-3 Kommands (I ran 2), 2 liliana's triumph, the 2-3 copies of nicol are also psudo discarads. 4-5 of which are instant speed, and can be reused by snapcaster mage. you are almost guaranteed to strip your opponent's hand by turn 5. once your opponent's hand is clean, your nicol bolas +1 starts ripping apart their board.
- surprisingly, due to all the attrition and the clock from manlands + snappy, this deck handles Tron way better than I thought
- MU vs the fair decks are pretty good, also handles phoenix quite well, after bolting/pushing the first few threats, it takes them ages to fight through all the discards we pack and bring phoenix back. even then it's easily answered by all the edicts from either lili or triump/rampage. As a phoenix player myself, I'd put 2 copies of young pyromancer in my phoenix sideboard to battle this deck. pyromancer ascension is key in this MU, #1 target for discard.
some problems I ran into:
- undecided between 2-3 copies of nicol bolas. sometimes you need the redundancy, but drawing 2 in the first few turns is brutal. but he is one of the best topdecks ever, you want to see him every game.
- game 1 just folds to dredge, period. I'm thinking of swapping the 2 opts for nihil spellbomb. after SB, an opener with leyline of the void wouldn't suffice sometimes, I sided out all the discards and opponent draws nature's claim and the game is pretty much over from there.
- MU against UW control feels tougher than expected, theoretically discards trump all counterspells, but i found top decked teferi annoying, once his -3 shuffles your walker back, you'll have a hard time to cast it through all the counters. and since they dont play creatures, it's hard for us to gain CA vs them.
Hey guys, this is what I played yesterday at my LGS to a 2-1 finish, not something too impressive, could had won all my matches more easily, but I made several mistakes and I am rusty with the deck. The most impressive thing is that I managed to win against Tron straight up, without them really stumbling. Overall Bolas is THE NUTS. He is SUCH a strong card, basically if you manage to untap with him you win. With this type of build around (discard+removals) this can happen easily. The edict effects were not that impressive, I guess modern is not really the type of format that edicts are all stars. The 3 lilis are probably enough, so I'll cut the Triumph for another removal. The bolts were not bad, not sure if I really want them in there though. I also need some more black mana in this build, so I'll cut the Spirebluff Canal for another Shores.
Huh, the lists we ended up building are pretty close, I even have the fun-of JVP as well, and 0 cryptics. I passed on fastlands tho, since I really want that 4th and 5th untapped land. Played check lands instead.
I really like those lists guys, I'd be going in similar directions. JtMS is also definitely a card to try out as he works very well together with discard.
I really like those lists guys, I'd be going in similar directions. JtMS is also definitely a card to try out as he works very well together with discard.
Yeah I agree very much with this. The 1 off I had worked really well. I am thinking of whether I should crank it up to 2 or whether that will make the deck too heavy.
Didn't have the opportunity to play since Friday but I have been tinkering with the list and I have to say that I REALLY like it. Not sure if it is gonna reach tier 2 status (or any higher for that matter), but it definitely has legs and it definitely has some potential in certain metas. As is the case with Grixis Control (the draw-go) version it has some really difficult lines, mostly involving K.Command, snapcaster and the role of Bolas.
With this new build, if you have a Bolas in play it is not EVEN MORE important to K.Command them on their draw-step, since that makes bolas basically a land destruction+draw ability (that's how I won against Tron).
Bearscape I would be very interested in you brewing up a list if you have the time, to explore maybe some alternative ideas in there.
I also think SV is the card we need here and not Opt, since we don't care that much about instant speed, but we do want to dig deep.
I went with Opt in the end because we're usually spending turn 1 on discard, possibly turn 2 on discard as well, but then from here to turn 4 it's possible you want to hold up mana for the 10-14 ish instants we do have. Opt offers immediate choices in the midgame while SV has you draw the top card and then set up, which is a better turn 1 play.
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How have you guys found Nicol Bolas? To me its - is very weak, but its + is very strong in an already even game.
That said i prefer Kalitas and Tasigur for the cloak over planeswalkers right now so i need to be convinced NB is worth playing
Imho they fulfill different roles. I play 1 Tasigur alongside the 2 NBs. Kalitas, as much as I hate to admit it, is not MB material in this time and age. I have been trying him on and off, and maybe sometimes he is good against creature decks, but otherwise his clock is not something relevant (3 power in T4 is not the most impressive thing you can do).
What NB has going for him is his versatility and his power to close out games, even more than Tasigur. In a heavy discard shell, where the opponent will often have 0-1 cards in hand, Bolas' +1 just rules. In addition, he only needs 3 turns to win you the game just with plus-ing.
His -3 is not even that bad considering that you can land him and have him protect himself. Also, if you are worried about the clock against PWs, Bolas literally kills a PW when he comes into play with his -3
Overall in all the games I played Bolas I was extremely impressed with how powerful he was. Especially against Tron he basically locked the opponent out of the game together with K.Command.
How have you guys found Nicol Bolas? To me its - is very weak, but its + is very strong in an already even game.
That said i prefer Kalitas and Tasigur for the cloak over planeswalkers right now so i need to be convinced NB is worth playing
Nicol Bolas shreds opponents if your shell is heavy discard, and that's where he shines most. That -3 is basically "in a pinch" mode, where there's something already on the board that u just dont have resources to deal with, like maybe a teferi or JTMS. That would mean a long ways to the ultimate, but if your opponent doesn't deal with NB the next turn then their hand+board will be the same size forever, and you're drawing 2 every turn.
Kalitas is terrible against too many decks that it outweighs the decks he is fantastic against. He's quite firmly sideboard material, and honestly I'm not even sure if he's good against the creature aggro that you see today - nix, humans, spirits and light up the stage burn is going to be quite pleased that your plan is to tap out turn 4 for a 3/4 lifelink. Kalitas might not even be fast enough to save you from dredge, thanks to creeping chill.
Tasigur is actually cool. but I thought, since I'm stacking planeswalkers, why not go all the way and render the opponent's spot removal practically worthless outside of killing my 2/1 snappy bois which already gave me value?
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I do think you want some Tasigurs. I don't have a list yet I'm satisfied enough with to post but from my experience you just need him as a blocker, and you're already shredding their hand so might as well take the removal. Getting Tasigur Pathed to ramp into Nic is also not bad at all
I do think you want some Tasigurs. I don't have a list yet I'm satisfied enough with to post but from my experience you just need him as a blocker, and you're already shredding their hand so might as well take the removal. Getting Tasigur Pathed to ramp into Nic is also not bad at all
Between the constant hand shredding and removals and Lily of the veil, there usually isnt much of a board before their hand gets emptied out. I do admit bloodghasts and amalgams could be a huge problem, but that MU is crap with or without banana boi anyways. Phoenix is not an issue when you're tearing their hand apart since they can't chain 3 spells under that kind of attack. I see the value in a cheap 4/5, but if I'm not playing thought scours then the value proposition drops.
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You accumulate a lot of tempo loss between discard and cantrips, you have to mitigate that somewhere. Just having a 4/5 to block with helps stabilizing in those situations.
Played the following list in a tuesday night tournament, small crowd of 16, 4 rounds of swiss, ended 3-1, 3rd place, have to say, this shell has been outperforming my expectations, I'm very impressed.
Here are the test results
R1: Valakut Titan
G1: lost. didn't draw any counter and opponent casted scapeshift to win
G2: won. T3 umoored egoed valakut, answered every creature opponent landed.
G3: won. T1 inquisition, T2 inquisition, T3 liliana of the veil, T4 liliana's triump into T5 nicol bolas.
R2: Narset lock
G1: topdeck war, discards into liliana of the veil, striped opponent's hand, topdecked nicol bolas to win.
G2: similar story to G1, disrupting shoal from opponent essentially stripped his hand for me and rode nicol bolas to another victory.
R3: RUG Scapeshift
G1: lost. similar story to R1 G1, stripped opponent's hand, no counters, scapeshifted me.
G2: lost, opponent had a T1 valakut, drew umoored ego but couldnt take out his in play valakut. then he ramped into a T4 Keranos, and it was GG from there.
R4: abzan
G1: lost. both drew 3/4 of the deck, couldnt land any threats, opponent finally stuck a kaya, orzhov usurper, and i flooded
G2: T1 discard into T2 discard into T3 LotV, killed every creature opponent landed. opponent scooped after resolving nicol bolas
G3: war of attrition, by turn 10 both graveyards are full of dead creatures, manlands, and planeswalkers. tarpit + 2 snappies beated opponent down.
some thoughts:
- tasigur is pretty good, since most of the time we cast it for B. it's a pretty good clock, along side tarpit.
- really need another nicol in the list, im thinking of -1 terminate, +1 nicol
- practiced against a mardu pyromancer dude, seems like it's an autoloss for this configuration, very tough MU
- practiced against hardened scales, another very tought MU
Match 1 UW Control (win)
G1 I begin to appreciate just how powerful discard is against blue based control. On the play, I strip a logic knot, then thoughtseize a cryptic command and inquisition a D sphere, leaving behind lands and Elspeth. Lily OTV comes down unhindered and starts ticking up. When Bolas hits the board, opp scoops.
OUT: 2 Terminates, 1 Engineered, 1 Lily last hope. IN: 2 Dispel, 1 Dovin, 1 Spell Snare
G2 I draw less of the discard half but I have squall and sideboarded dispels in my hand. I make the first non-cantrip play of the game somewhere on turn 5 or 6, and I see 2 Clique, 1 Teferi, 2 Cryptics and 1 Dispel. That's a pretty stacked hand. I take the dispel so my squall can do work, but I have 2 clique I need to worry about. Eventually I snap opt and start beating in. His teferi comes down after he cliques away my squall, and he sees my NBDG, squall (bottomed), dispel, 2 snaps. With the +1 on the stack I flash in the 2 snaps in my hand so I have 6 power on the board. I draw a Brutality off the top, which turns out to be pretty brutal since he was counting on his logic knot and 3 mana up to stop my NBDG. I strip the knot away and his 2 cryptic commands sit stranded in the hand while NBDG comes down and removes Teferi with the -3. The rest of the game is downhill from there - 2 snaps continue beating, and NBDG eats a D sphere but the damage is done. I eventually finish the game with snap beats.
Match 2 Burn (win)
G1 I lose the die roll AND draw the thoughtseizes but not the brutalities, which is NOT good. Light Up the Stage is terrific against discard, rendering my topdecked discard spells and LOTV useless while i stare at my doom in the exile zone across the table.
OUT: 2 Thoughtseize, 1 JTMS, 1 Lily last hope. IN: 2 Dispel, 1 Spell Snare, 1 Dovin Hand of control
G2 goes a lot smoother. I push the T1 swifty, strip a couple of burn spells, then land Dovin, Hand of Control while his hand is stacked with 2 mana burn, which is now 3 mana to cast. With the burn slowed down I have more draw steps and steadily build my mana and stabilize. Between snaps, squalls and brutality damage I am able to close the game.
G3 is pretty tight but I manage to stabilize at 3 life, holding off any attempts to overload my counterspells with Dovin, while snaps, squalls and dispels keep me alive. A couple of fatal pushes also make timely appearances. But what probably pushed the scales in my favor was brutality snap brutality.
Match 3 Hollow One (win)
G1 is a bit lucky - oppo mulls to 5. That he still manages to push me to 2 life is testament to the deck. There's not much can be done about turn 1 hollow one except to pray to draw the terminates or bores, which I eventually do else it might have been a lot worse.
G2 all I get is 2 turns. I lay tar pit turn 1, play JVP turn 2, and die to his t1 Hollow, T2 phoenix attack for 6, into t3 angler+bushwhacker attack for 16. Haha ok.
G3 my control deck does what it's supposed to - I strip the looting spells, push the small threats, terminate a big one. Lily the last hope arrives, makes a phoenix a 0/2 for a couple of turns. Eventually I draw and play NBDG, and I start accumulating card advantage while Lily keeps the bird small. His resources depleted by discard, removals, counterspells and bolas, oppo scoops with an empty hand against my nearly full grip and a board of 2 lands and a 0/1 phoenix after bringing me down to 3 life.
Overall, I think the discard package is incredibly powerful against UW. In fact, I think it was the easiest match up. Aggro decks care little for discard, so that's something to think about. Dovin, Hand of Control is stupid good. He drastically reduces the actions any given opponent can make per turn, indirectly making all our discard much stronger and also does a decent job protecting our life total from manlands or stray threats that slip through the net until we draw an answer for them.
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Playing Tasigur in a list with 0 cantrips in it seems very risky. 1of seems maximum. these types of blue jund lists proposed churn through very few cards.
Tasigur also just becomes a much worse card with Scour missing. tapping 3mana for him is unimpressive. tasigur is good on turn 2, or e.g. on turn 5 with cryptic up and similar. tapping out for tasigur on turn 3 is a loosing play in many matchups. too little too slow.
G2: T1 discard into T2 discard into T3 LotV, killed every creature opponent landed. opponent scooped after resolving nicol bolas
Yessss this is it, this is pretty much the NBDG experience. When the starting hand + early draws is 3 discard spells or 2 discard 1 removal and lily it's just horrendous. NBDG basically lives off that start and seals the game.
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G2: T1 discard into T2 discard into T3 LotV, killed every creature opponent landed. opponent scooped after resolving nicol bolas
Yessss this is it, this is pretty much the NBDG experience. When the starting hand + early draws is 3 discard spells or 2 discard 1 removal and lily it's just horrendous. NBDG basically lives off that start and seals the game.
yeah and that's exactly why im seriously considering throwing the 3rd NBDG in there
It's a rock and a hard place thing... you wanna see exactly 1 but if you have multiples before turn 5 or the 5th land drop they're basically dead draws... so far with 2, I'm not consistently getting him, but there were already games i would draw both, and this deck wants to keep attacking the board or hand while also making land drops.
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T2 will most likely always be keep mana up for removal/counter (if any), or having to react on our own turn to their T1/2 play. Not to spoil the fun, but I honestly think our T2 will need different things than Wrench Mind, I think having 2 copies of Fall should be way more than enough. Also, keep in mind that there are a ton of decks that would be extremely happy to discard 2 on T2!
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
I gave this list some test with proxy Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God, and it felt more solid than I thought. the list I tested is pretty much just his list, -1 bolas +1 bolt
some thoughts:
- this configuration plays like a blue jund list, except for jund is tempo (goyf, ooze) + card advantage (confidant, Kommand, BBE),whereas this list is pure CA driven, we largely don't need to care about tempo.
- the goal is to stabilize with either lili or bolas, then ultimately win by either drawing bolas, or by racing, keeping the board clean is key.
- the list runs 5 targeted discards, 3 LoTVs, 2-3 Kommands (I ran 2), 2 liliana's triumph, the 2-3 copies of nicol are also psudo discarads. 4-5 of which are instant speed, and can be reused by snapcaster mage. you are almost guaranteed to strip your opponent's hand by turn 5. once your opponent's hand is clean, your nicol bolas +1 starts ripping apart their board.
- surprisingly, due to all the attrition and the clock from manlands + snappy, this deck handles Tron way better than I thought
- MU vs the fair decks are pretty good, also handles phoenix quite well, after bolting/pushing the first few threats, it takes them ages to fight through all the discards we pack and bring phoenix back. even then it's easily answered by all the edicts from either lili or triump/rampage. As a phoenix player myself, I'd put 2 copies of young pyromancer in my phoenix sideboard to battle this deck. pyromancer ascension is key in this MU, #1 target for discard.
some problems I ran into:
- undecided between 2-3 copies of nicol bolas. sometimes you need the redundancy, but drawing 2 in the first few turns is brutal. but he is one of the best topdecks ever, you want to see him every game.
- game 1 just folds to dredge, period. I'm thinking of swapping the 2 opts for nihil spellbomb. after SB, an opener with leyline of the void wouldn't suffice sometimes, I sided out all the discards and opponent draws nature's claim and the game is pretty much over from there.
- MU against UW control feels tougher than expected, theoretically discards trump all counterspells, but i found top decked teferi annoying, once his -3 shuffles your walker back, you'll have a hard time to cast it through all the counters. and since they dont play creatures, it's hard for us to gain CA vs them.
UBRGrixis ControlUBR | URPhoenixUR | UWMiraclesUW |GBRJundGBR | UBFaeriesUB | UBWAd NauseumUBW |GBRWBlueless ShadowGBRW |
MTGA
UBRGrixis ControlUBR | UTempoU
1x Blackcleave Cliffs
2x Blood Crypt
1x Creeping Tar Pit
2x Darkslick Shores
2x Island
1x Mountain
4x Polluted Delta
4x Scalding Tarn
1x Spirebluff Canal
2x Steam Vents
2x Swamp
2x Watery Grave
Instant (13)
3x Fatal Push
3x Kolaghan's Command
2x Lightning Bolt
1x Liliana's Triumph
2x Mana Leak
2x Terminate
1x Angrath's Rampage
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Rise // Fall
4x Serum Visions
1x Thoughtseize
Creature (6)
1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
4x Snapcaster Mage
1x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Planeswalker (6)
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3x Liliana of the Veil
2x Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God
2x Collective Brutality
1x Damnation
1x Disdainful Stroke
1x Dispel
2x Engineered Explosives
3x Fulminator Mage
2x Negate
3x Surgical Extraction
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
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4 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
1 Steam Vents
1 Sunken Hollow
2 Dragonskull Summit
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Graven Cairns
1 Creeping Tarpit
2 Swamp
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Desolate Lighthouse
4 Opt
3 Fatal Push
2 Terminate
3 Countersquall
2 Kolaghan's Command
Sorceries (11)
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
2 Collective Brutality
2 Rise // Fall
1 Dreadbore
Creatures (5)
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Walkers (5)
2 Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Engineered Explosives
Board (15)
1 Alpine Moon
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Dispel
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Spell Snare
1 Dovin, Hand of Control
1 Threads of Disloyalty
3 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
I should have 1 more LOTV in that maindeck, but I literally just foiled my mardu deck so resources are a little tight LOL
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Didn't have the opportunity to play since Friday but I have been tinkering with the list and I have to say that I REALLY like it. Not sure if it is gonna reach tier 2 status (or any higher for that matter), but it definitely has legs and it definitely has some potential in certain metas. As is the case with Grixis Control (the draw-go) version it has some really difficult lines, mostly involving K.Command, snapcaster and the role of Bolas.
With this new build, if you have a Bolas in play it is not EVEN MORE important to K.Command them on their draw-step, since that makes bolas basically a land destruction+draw ability (that's how I won against Tron).
Bearscape I would be very interested in you brewing up a list if you have the time, to explore maybe some alternative ideas in there.
I also think SV is the card we need here and not Opt, since we don't care that much about instant speed, but we do want to dig deep.
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
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That said i prefer Kalitas and Tasigur for the cloak over planeswalkers right now so i need to be convinced NB is worth playing
What NB has going for him is his versatility and his power to close out games, even more than Tasigur. In a heavy discard shell, where the opponent will often have 0-1 cards in hand, Bolas' +1 just rules. In addition, he only needs 3 turns to win you the game just with plus-ing.
His -3 is not even that bad considering that you can land him and have him protect himself. Also, if you are worried about the clock against PWs, Bolas literally kills a PW when he comes into play with his -3
Overall in all the games I played Bolas I was extremely impressed with how powerful he was. Especially against Tron he basically locked the opponent out of the game together with K.Command.
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
Nicol Bolas shreds opponents if your shell is heavy discard, and that's where he shines most. That -3 is basically "in a pinch" mode, where there's something already on the board that u just dont have resources to deal with, like maybe a teferi or JTMS. That would mean a long ways to the ultimate, but if your opponent doesn't deal with NB the next turn then their hand+board will be the same size forever, and you're drawing 2 every turn.
Kalitas is terrible against too many decks that it outweighs the decks he is fantastic against. He's quite firmly sideboard material, and honestly I'm not even sure if he's good against the creature aggro that you see today - nix, humans, spirits and light up the stage burn is going to be quite pleased that your plan is to tap out turn 4 for a 3/4 lifelink. Kalitas might not even be fast enough to save you from dredge, thanks to creeping chill.
Tasigur is actually cool. but I thought, since I'm stacking planeswalkers, why not go all the way and render the opponent's spot removal practically worthless outside of killing my 2/1 snappy bois which already gave me value?
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Between the constant hand shredding and removals and Lily of the veil, there usually isnt much of a board before their hand gets emptied out. I do admit bloodghasts and amalgams could be a huge problem, but that MU is crap with or without banana boi anyways. Phoenix is not an issue when you're tearing their hand apart since they can't chain 3 spells under that kind of attack. I see the value in a cheap 4/5, but if I'm not playing thought scours then the value proposition drops.
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sorry i dunno how the deck function works...
3 Scalding tarn
4 Polluted Delta
1 Field of Ruin
2 Watery Grave
3 Steam Vent
1 Drowned Catacomb
3 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Blood Crypt
2 Swamp
3 Island
Creatures (5)
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Nicol Bolas, Dragon God
Enchantments&Artifacts (2)
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Search for Azcanta
Instants and Sorceries (23)
2 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Angrath's Rampage
2 Opt
2 Fatal Push
4 Cryptic Command
2 Liliana's Triump
2 Terminate
2 Kolaghan's Command
3 Lightning Bolt
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Unmoored Ego
1 Damnation
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Countersquall
1 Dispel
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Vandalblast
Here are the test results
R1: Valakut Titan
G1: lost. didn't draw any counter and opponent casted scapeshift to win
G2: won. T3 umoored egoed valakut, answered every creature opponent landed.
G3: won. T1 inquisition, T2 inquisition, T3 liliana of the veil, T4 liliana's triump into T5 nicol bolas.
R2: Narset lock
G1: topdeck war, discards into liliana of the veil, striped opponent's hand, topdecked nicol bolas to win.
G2: similar story to G1, disrupting shoal from opponent essentially stripped his hand for me and rode nicol bolas to another victory.
R3: RUG Scapeshift
G1: lost. similar story to R1 G1, stripped opponent's hand, no counters, scapeshifted me.
G2: lost, opponent had a T1 valakut, drew umoored ego but couldnt take out his in play valakut. then he ramped into a T4 Keranos, and it was GG from there.
R4: abzan
G1: lost. both drew 3/4 of the deck, couldnt land any threats, opponent finally stuck a kaya, orzhov usurper, and i flooded
G2: T1 discard into T2 discard into T3 LotV, killed every creature opponent landed. opponent scooped after resolving nicol bolas
G3: war of attrition, by turn 10 both graveyards are full of dead creatures, manlands, and planeswalkers. tarpit + 2 snappies beated opponent down.
some thoughts:
- tasigur is pretty good, since most of the time we cast it for B. it's a pretty good clock, along side tarpit.
- really need another nicol in the list, im thinking of -1 terminate, +1 nicol
- practiced against a mardu pyromancer dude, seems like it's an autoloss for this configuration, very tough MU
- practiced against hardened scales, another very tought MU
UBRGrixis ControlUBR | URPhoenixUR | UWMiraclesUW |GBRJundGBR | UBFaeriesUB | UBWAd NauseumUBW |GBRWBlueless ShadowGBRW |
MTGA
UBRGrixis ControlUBR | UTempoU
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
1 Steam Vents
1 Sunken Hollow
2 Dragonskull Summit
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Graven Cairns
1 Creeping Tarpit
2 Swamp
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Desolate Lighthouse
4 Opt
3 Fatal Push
2 Terminate
3 Countersquall
2 Kolaghan's Command
Sorceries (11)
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
2 Collective Brutality
2 Rise // Fall
1 Dreadbore
Creatures (5)
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Walkers (5)
2 Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Engineered Explosives
Board (15)
1 Alpine Moon
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Dispel
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Spell Snare
1 Dovin, Hand of Control
1 Threads of Disloyalty
3 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Match 1 UW Control (win)
G1 I begin to appreciate just how powerful discard is against blue based control. On the play, I strip a logic knot, then thoughtseize a cryptic command and inquisition a D sphere, leaving behind lands and Elspeth. Lily OTV comes down unhindered and starts ticking up. When Bolas hits the board, opp scoops.
OUT: 2 Terminates, 1 Engineered, 1 Lily last hope. IN: 2 Dispel, 1 Dovin, 1 Spell Snare
G2 I draw less of the discard half but I have squall and sideboarded dispels in my hand. I make the first non-cantrip play of the game somewhere on turn 5 or 6, and I see 2 Clique, 1 Teferi, 2 Cryptics and 1 Dispel. That's a pretty stacked hand. I take the dispel so my squall can do work, but I have 2 clique I need to worry about. Eventually I snap opt and start beating in. His teferi comes down after he cliques away my squall, and he sees my NBDG, squall (bottomed), dispel, 2 snaps. With the +1 on the stack I flash in the 2 snaps in my hand so I have 6 power on the board. I draw a Brutality off the top, which turns out to be pretty brutal since he was counting on his logic knot and 3 mana up to stop my NBDG. I strip the knot away and his 2 cryptic commands sit stranded in the hand while NBDG comes down and removes Teferi with the -3. The rest of the game is downhill from there - 2 snaps continue beating, and NBDG eats a D sphere but the damage is done. I eventually finish the game with snap beats.
Match 2 Burn (win)
G1 I lose the die roll AND draw the thoughtseizes but not the brutalities, which is NOT good. Light Up the Stage is terrific against discard, rendering my topdecked discard spells and LOTV useless while i stare at my doom in the exile zone across the table.
OUT: 2 Thoughtseize, 1 JTMS, 1 Lily last hope. IN: 2 Dispel, 1 Spell Snare, 1 Dovin Hand of control
G2 goes a lot smoother. I push the T1 swifty, strip a couple of burn spells, then land Dovin, Hand of Control while his hand is stacked with 2 mana burn, which is now 3 mana to cast. With the burn slowed down I have more draw steps and steadily build my mana and stabilize. Between snaps, squalls and brutality damage I am able to close the game.
G3 is pretty tight but I manage to stabilize at 3 life, holding off any attempts to overload my counterspells with Dovin, while snaps, squalls and dispels keep me alive. A couple of fatal pushes also make timely appearances. But what probably pushed the scales in my favor was brutality snap brutality.
Match 3 Hollow One (win)
G1 is a bit lucky - oppo mulls to 5. That he still manages to push me to 2 life is testament to the deck. There's not much can be done about turn 1 hollow one except to pray to draw the terminates or bores, which I eventually do else it might have been a lot worse.
G2 all I get is 2 turns. I lay tar pit turn 1, play JVP turn 2, and die to his t1 Hollow, T2 phoenix attack for 6, into t3 angler+bushwhacker attack for 16. Haha ok.
G3 my control deck does what it's supposed to - I strip the looting spells, push the small threats, terminate a big one. Lily the last hope arrives, makes a phoenix a 0/2 for a couple of turns. Eventually I draw and play NBDG, and I start accumulating card advantage while Lily keeps the bird small. His resources depleted by discard, removals, counterspells and bolas, oppo scoops with an empty hand against my nearly full grip and a board of 2 lands and a 0/1 phoenix after bringing me down to 3 life.
Overall, I think the discard package is incredibly powerful against UW. In fact, I think it was the easiest match up. Aggro decks care little for discard, so that's something to think about. Dovin, Hand of Control is stupid good. He drastically reduces the actions any given opponent can make per turn, indirectly making all our discard much stronger and also does a decent job protecting our life total from manlands or stray threats that slip through the net until we draw an answer for them.
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
Tasigur also just becomes a much worse card with Scour missing. tapping 3mana for him is unimpressive. tasigur is good on turn 2, or e.g. on turn 5 with cryptic up and similar. tapping out for tasigur on turn 3 is a loosing play in many matchups. too little too slow.
Yessss this is it, this is pretty much the NBDG experience. When the starting hand + early draws is 3 discard spells or 2 discard 1 removal and lily it's just horrendous. NBDG basically lives off that start and seals the game.
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
yeah and that's exactly why im seriously considering throwing the 3rd NBDG in there
UBRGrixis ControlUBR | URPhoenixUR | UWMiraclesUW |GBRJundGBR | UBFaeriesUB | UBWAd NauseumUBW |GBRWBlueless ShadowGBRW |
MTGA
UBRGrixis ControlUBR | UTempoU
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
UBRGrixis ControlUBR | URPhoenixUR | UWMiraclesUW |GBRJundGBR | UBFaeriesUB | UBWAd NauseumUBW |GBRWBlueless ShadowGBRW |
MTGA
UBRGrixis ControlUBR | UTempoU