At this point money isn't the issue, i just want to build an individual deck to suit my playstyle, and any missing cards i'll get over time. Company is really not what i'm after tho i know its merits, and hence the value of reflector mage and spell queller is greatly diminished. U are right about the noble hierach tho, i started testing with it and it works wonders!! I've overlooked it as an upgraded mana dork and awful topdeck later on but was really plain wrong.
Ludafish, that's really something im after, maybe the added mana dorks are the key to speed things up? (Also, cast out never worked well with me, its not that good of an answer OR cantrip, and the functions don't add up to much)
I also needed to go back with more coursers, as courser+knight is usually better than knight+anything else.
Not giving up on madrills just yet as they are good exactly when knight is not: the push decks with lingering souls. Ditched the declaration and now trying blessed alliance and selesnya charm in side.
What does everyone think about dropping jace and going back to Bant splash red for kessig and staticaster? Jace has been pretty unimpressive for me, although not terrible. Just not good. I am going to run a league tonight and replace my two maindeck jace with two maindeck retreats again. That makes me want to pick up red again too because I won't need double blue anymore (I would have to drop Clique too).
I've ran the classic Bant Knightfall yesterday to a 2-1-2 finish. It felt alright and not too low-impact with Retreat to Coralhelm.
I've managed to put it down 2 times, the first against Jund (i was on 8 life) which was enough to finish the game, the other time against Ad Nauseam but he had Slaughter Pact.
The good-ol' Retreat-Combo felt totally fine - i wasn't anywhere in a spot where i'd regret that it's in my deck.
I've also noticed an influx of green decks on mtgo, specifically Vizier combo decks and green Saheeli combo decks. Izzet staticaster can decimate those matchups (as well as other matchups like elves, affinity, lingering souls, and storm) and I don't like not having staticaster in the board. I think if I'm dropping jace, I'm going back to red.
In paper it's the exact opposite - i'm really in for dropping Staticcaster because i never board it. I firmly beliebe that Reflector Mage makes up for that loss.
Gideon, AoZ has been a beast in the board, and I want to have two of him in the 75. Maybe I just replace the 2 maindeck jace with 2 maindeck gideon instead of retreats and see how it goes. I think Gideon is more matchup dependent though.
You can gobble around with different Planeswalkers (last week i ran 2 Nissa, Steward of Elements in my 60), but it just shore up some matchups and weaken others. So it's really up to you to decide wether it's worth that trade.
My opponent indeed boarded into a Midrange-Plan. He cuts Rain and added much more midrange-game Beaters and Planeswalkers. Therefore my gameplan didn't pay off completely. We ended up drawing in extra turns after i destroyed Blood Moon and had Kessig Wolf Run tutored by Knight, but i couldn't get through lethal damage.
What's your plan against Ponza? Play the longer game with Value-Creatures or sneaking in a quick win, countering there mana-denial spells and threaten letahl with a huge Knight?
That's funny I actually had a similar yet opposite experience with Ponza. Game 1 was in the bag but a top decked primal command saved him. I resolved 3 CoCos that game without seeing a single KotR. Sometimes variance just gets ya. So anyways Game 2 I was expecting him to go more Midrange so I boarded out my Birds and Retreat. But he didn't and I whiffed my 3rd land drop just long enough for him to start blowing my first 2 up. Didn't take long to lose from there.
So I think my plan for the next time is to keep Birds in, but take Retreat and maybe a scooze out to make room for counterspells and Dromoka's Command (pet card). Staticaster doesn't seem terrible on the play but I don't think it's worth it.
Probably mulligan anything that doesn't have turn 2 Knight, Reflector (only good if they have an Elf obviously), or Queller. Double dork + Uwill doesn't seem terrible either if you have something fat like Knight or CoCo to back it up turn 3
This could be totally wrong, but I feel like getting Knight to stick early is crucial to punish them for blowing up your lands. And then try to keep them off their ramp by killing dorks/GQ their Utopia Sprawl lands.
That's funny I actually had a similar yet opposite experience with Ponza. Game 1 was in the bag but a top decked primal command saved him. I resolved 3 CoCos that game without seeing a single KotR. Sometimes variance just gets ya. So anyways Game 2 I was expecting him to go more Midrange so I boarded out my Birds and Retreat. But he didn't and I whiffed my 3rd land drop just long enough for him to start blowing my first 2 up. Didn't take long to lose from there.
So I think my plan for the next time is to keep Birds in, but take Retreat and maybe a scooze out to make room for counterspells and Dromoka's Command (pet card). Staticaster doesn't seem terrible on the play but I don't think it's worth it.
Probably mulligan anything that doesn't have turn 2 Knight, Reflector (only good if they have an Elf obviously), or Queller. Double dork + Uwill doesn't seem terrible either if you have something fat like Knight or CoCo to back it up turn 3
This could be totally wrong, but I feel like getting Knight to stick early is crucial to punish them for blowing up your lands. And then try to keep them off their ramp by killing dorks/GQ their Utopia Sprawl lands.
My argument is with the fact that they stick on Stone Rain and Blood Moon, so as i'm aware of this i always sticking to 8 manadorks. Retreat to Coralhelm is super-bad with Blood Moon in game, so i board it out for more interaction.
To be honest, I just wanted to play with Nimble Obstructionist for fun but uncounterable Stifle cycle turned out to be pretty sweet. Having more plays at instant speed and more threats in the air was great as well. Haven't gotten to Stifle Ulamog, Karn, Ugin or Storm yet but maybe one day I'll live the dream. Don't run out and buy Obstructionists.. But if you wanna have some fun and get some people, have at it.
4-round FNM
G Tron 1-2***
Jund Shadow 2-0
Bant Toolbox (Thune Combo) 2-1
UB Control 1-2
Notes: Flash creatures are great versus planeswalkers and control decks. This is why I like Clique and even Aven Mindcensor (which helps versus Scapeshift). I think this helps save some space in sideboard. I'm starting to feel less good about Courser of Kruphix. We already grind really well, so I need more impact cards in this slot. Selfless Spirits are really good versus control decks, and even Valakut decks, to protect our clock. I might play 0 Courser and 2 Selfless Spirit. I don't think Courser is good enough versus Burn, or else I'd be more hesitant dropping it.
*Against Affinity, Phyrexian Revoker is so good. Shuts down Overseer or Cranial Plating. Blocks Etched Champion. I have at least 2 in my sideboard now always.
**I'm not sure about our matchup against Burn. It depends on how good Burn's hand is, and how slow our hand is. If we can get to Spell Queller and counterspells, we have a shot. I have 2 Kitchen Finks in my sideboard now. A 5/5 Knight of the Reliquary on turn 2 is another way I've won.
***Sideboarding against G Tron is tricky. If they side in Thragtusk and more Wurms on game 2, I'd rather have Path to Exiles. Even Reflector Mage would be useful if I Qasali a Wurm, then I can bounce a token. But if they don't side in creatures, Reflector Mage and Paths would be useless. Anyone have tips?
Doing well in tournaments is really about the sideboard and our 4 flex spots. If we guess the metagame right, I feel our deck has great chance anytime.
@kamerkhan Thanks for the advice! I feel like Karn is actually not that scary against us. If Karn minuses, we can flash in a 2/1 to get Karn down to 1 loyalty, or flash in Clique to kill it, or flash in 2/1 and play an exalted creature to kill it. We have options, so we don't necessarily even have to use a counterspell on Karn.
With Ugin, I agree, we need to have counterspells for him, and if we kept all our Paths, we'd be screwed. But I just hope that the chances of Tron playing Ugin are low.
What's your game plan against Burn and Affinity? I've always felt heavily favored in those MUs
This is my new plan vs. Burn:
In: +4 United Will, +1 Blessed Alliance, +2 Kitchen Finks, +2 Reflector Mage
Out: -3 Path to Exile, -2 Nissa, Steward of Elements, -2 Tireless Tracker, -2 Collected Company
My old plan didn't have Kitchen Finks. I'm maybe 3-3 against Burn overall, so sometimes Burn does feel like an easy matchup. I used to play 2-3 Courser of Kruphix, but I don't like them as much lately anymore. Drawing 1 Courser won't help too much. I used to play more Negates rather than United Wills as well, which made the matchup feel better.
In my latest game versus Burn, I didn't draw enough land, so I don't think it's a great example of the matchup.
Against Affinity:
In: +2 Phyrexian Revoker, +2 Reflector Mage, +1 Blessed Alliance, +2 Aven Mindcensor
Out: -2 Tireless Tracker, -2 Nissa, Steward of Elements, -3 Voice of Resurgence
I'm like 0-4 lifetime against Affinity. I play 2 Qasali Pridemage in mainboard too. I feel like I should have an easier matchup, but sometimes Affinity is way too explosive in first 2 turns.
Against Burn I usually do something like
+1 Dromoka's Command, + 2 Uwill, +1 Negate, +1 Finks
- 1 Nissa, -2 Retreat, - 2 Path, and then -1 of Reflector or Pridemage
I don't think boarding out CoCo is ever correct
I just realized you don't run Stony Silence. Stony does WORK against Affinity, and it's great against Tron too. Izzet Staticaster is fantastic against them too. Otherwise yeah the typical RecSage. You bring mindcensor in just as a flying blocker?
Anybody else playing phyrexian revoker in their board? I've found it to be fantastic against Tron and affinity, as well as devoted druid decks and linear combo.
It's not as strong a hoser as Stony, but it has applications in more matchups. And it's a company hit, of course
I ended up 2-1-2 last saturday with my usual Retreat list.
Round 1: Rg Eldrazi
I started and quellered consecutively, built up my board and overwhelmed him with a huge Knight + Township.
Game 2 i sacrificed Selfless Spirit for Anger turn 3 and flooded the board again, pressured my opponent and finally won.
1-0
Round 2: Rg Ponza
Game 1 i got the game with huge Beaters, going under Blood Moon and a Stone Rain.
Game 2 went to time while i was not able to get through a bunch of huge Tireless Tracker and in my last turn i couldn't put together enough damage to threat lethal.
1-0-1
Round 3: Jund
Game 1 was easily mine, i outcomboed my opponent on 8 life and he has tapped out for Bloodbraid Elf.
Game 2 was about 30 turns and my opponent mulled to 5 with no lands. Sadly he found one and casted Grafdigger's Cage, which shuts down 2 companies in hand. I topdecked lands and manadorks for 10 turns, but he hasn't much business going on either. At some point he casted Goyf and ran away with the game.
Game 3 we only played a couple of turns when time was called, again i wasn't able to punch through enough damage with Kessig Wolf Run.
1-0-2
Round 4: Bushwhacker Zoo
He started and had the nuts with Goblin Guide x2 plus Nacatl with a follow up Atarka's Command for lethal.
Game 2 i dropped an early Courser of Kruphix and bounced or path'd everything he dropped.
Game 3 he had again the nuts with a turn 3 kill when i had already Voice of Resurgence on board.
1-1-2
Round 5: Ad Nauseam
Game 1 i killed him like turn 7 or 8. A pretty inexperienced player that can't put together the combo, i believe.
I had the combo, but he responded with a Slaughter Pact, but wasn't able to get off at any point in time.
Game 2 i was able to destroy a timely Pentad Prism with Pridemage and held Queller plus Disdainful Stroke in my hand to keep everything in check.
2-1-2
I played another 4 round tournament yesterday, and once again ended up 3-1.
R1 - G Tron - 2x1
G1: Even though I had ghost quarter on turn 2 and path for his wurmcoil engine on turn 4, he played T5 karn, T6 o. stone + wurmcoil and T7 Ugin.
G2: My opener was Fetch, Fetch, Ghost Quarter, Noble Hierarch, Stony Silence, Unified Will, Meddling Mage, and my second draw was another GQ.
G3: Once again Stony Silence on turn 2 won the game.
R2 - Esper Control - 2x0
G1: Hierarch into Hierarch + Voice (got pathed) into Tracker + Fetch + Clique to take his Jace away = GG
G2: After trading a few spells, I played a Courser of Kruphix. He played EE on 3, but did not blow it. Courser hit him 2 or 3 times, until he attempted to play Gideon Jura, but I had negate. Next turn he played Collective Brutality to duress away my CoCo. Played CoCo in response, finding Queller and Ooze. Quellered the Brutality, and he popped the explosives. Chose duress mode again, and I had only creatures in hand. On The following turns I played a couple more creatures that ended the game.
R3 - UW Control - 2x0
G1: I had meddling mage on turn 2 to name Supreme Verdict. He had 2 verdicts in hand =) Couple of creatures and Spell Quellers were enough to close the game.
G2: He managed to handle my first turns and played an Elspeth, Sun's Champion on Turn 6, taking my Knight and Tracker. I played a queller on the end of turn to pressure Elspeth. He played Rest in Peace and made 9 soldier tokens overall, but basically had nothing else. I had 2 Knights + Tracker making millions of clues, and that's too much for him.
R4 - Lantern Control - 0x2
G1: I had meddling mage for Bridge, and that was my only hope. He played T1 Bauble + Shredder + Mox, T2 Lantern, T3 whir for Pyrite Spellbomb, T4 Bridge.
G2: I mulled to 6, kept fetch fetch birds queller queller negate and scryed stony silence to the top. He took my negate away on T2, I played T2 Silence and he had T2 seal of primordium. Conceded right there. How the hell do we beat this deck?
Unless Lantern Control had the lock set up, why didn't you try to play under the bridge with Exalted guys on game 2? Although Lantern matchup is tough, we actually have several ways to combat semi-lock situations with Exalted, card draw (Tireless Tracker, etc), shuffles (fetches, CoCo) which can negate a soft lock by shuffling away your top card, and you even play Stony Silence. Some decks even have Kessig Wolf Run. I wouldn't concede right away.
Unless Lantern Control had the lock set up, why didn't you try to play under the bridge with Exalted guys on game 2? Although Lantern matchup is tough, we actually have several ways to combat semi-lock situations with Exalted, card draw (Tireless Tracker, etc), shuffles (fetches, CoCo) which can negate a soft lock by shuffling away your top card, and you even play Stony Silence. Some decks even have Kessig Wolf Run. I wouldn't concede right away.
I actually conceded next turn when he whired for bridge. And he already had a lantern in play, played it on turn 1. It was a good friend of mine, and I just did not want to keep on playing that miserable game. But that made me wonder how hard that match up can be.
I used to play abzan/counters company, and as the deck is faster and does not need to attack to win the game, it was not that hard to win. Also have already won with infect. But my local meta shifted to a "fairer" environment, and the value in Bant Company lists is far superior. I'm actually quite happy I managed to defeat Tron with this deck, so i'm not giving that much ***** about losing that last round =)
I've won a surprising amount of games vs Lantern that I had no right winning either because they don't always have it, they play poorly, or our myriad of disruption+ways to win gets us there.
Sometimes their draw is just nuts - the last game I played, I had Clique for their bridge they were drawing, but whir was on top - they were DOB otherwise. I still ended up winning thanks to Exalted beats after I got a tracker through, ensuring I could draw Hierarchs. Sometimes their draw isn't nuts and we play T1 dork T2 Queller and beat them in holding up permission all game. It's a somewhat miserable MU, especially if they aren't proficient in their own deck, but a very winnable one. Mostly, if they can't land a Bridge they very likely aren't winning, and even then we have outs in Jace, potentially pridemage, and Hierarch.
I'm pretty locked in on the main and sideboard spell choices. The one thing I'm not quite sure about is the 2 Botanical Sanctum, 1 Stirring Wildwood. I'm not sold on Wildwood, and maybe it should be a Razorverge Thicket. Or maybe one of the Botanical Sanctums should be a Razorverge Thicket or possibly a second Temple Garden.
I'm pretty much dead to dredge, and don't have much game on storm either. You gotta make some concessions when making a SB, and those are mine. Wish me luck!
Hey Brosterman, we're just about list buddies. I've been on the same build sans a couple slots for the last few weeks. It's been pretty insane and I really like where it is in the meta.
I've actually felt pretty decent against Storm just because of being able to randomly Path their ElectroBarals game one, plus Queller/Clique disruption. Game two, all that countermagic in for slow and irrelevant Jaces and stuff makes the match feel pretty comfortable to me.
If you're having trouble with Dredge, think about the Bojuka Bog in the side? It's not the fastest thing ever, but anything helps.
Also, I've been liking the couple-of Worship against random beatdowny decks. I kinda like the concept of Blessed Alliance, but the Worships have been really good in that slot instead. Many of the aggressive decks still don't see it coming and have literally no outs to it.
How have you been doing against Ponza, if you've had the insurmountable pleasure of getting much time against it?
Just wrapped up a couple of modo leagues, finishing with an overall 8-2 record.
My list was essentially the same as brosterman's, with the key difference being Nissa, Steward of Elements over Jace.
Nissa was very, very good, but often in spots where jace would have been as well. Playing with both, I think they fill the same role. Nissa simply trades the bounce ability for CMC 3 and a better ultimate.
Bojuka bog was very awkward for me. I never tutored it, so drawing it felt worse than having a relic or surgical. I also had a second courser over the second clique, which played out well
I think mostly lists lately have been quite alike. And I really like brosterman's list, by the way. I'm playing a similar list, but I play more basics (lots of fields of ruin and blood moon around here) instead of 1 botanical sanctum and 1 stirring wildwood. And I also play Nissa over Jace (due to that awesome reason of not having Jace), but I'm thinking about trying the mind sculptor just to feel if makes that much of a difference.
And I also like having a second ghost quarter SB, Tron is quite hard to beat without quarter + stony silence =/
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At this point money isn't the issue, i just want to build an individual deck to suit my playstyle, and any missing cards i'll get over time. Company is really not what i'm after tho i know its merits, and hence the value of reflector mage and spell queller is greatly diminished. U are right about the noble hierach tho, i started testing with it and it works wonders!! I've overlooked it as an upgraded mana dork and awful topdeck later on but was really plain wrong.
Ludafish, that's really something im after, maybe the added mana dorks are the key to speed things up? (Also, cast out never worked well with me, its not that good of an answer OR cantrip, and the functions don't add up to much)
I also needed to go back with more coursers, as courser+knight is usually better than knight+anything else.
Not giving up on madrills just yet as they are good exactly when knight is not: the push decks with lingering souls. Ditched the declaration and now trying blessed alliance and selesnya charm in side.
I've ran the classic Bant Knightfall yesterday to a 2-1-2 finish. It felt alright and not too low-impact with Retreat to Coralhelm.
I've managed to put it down 2 times, the first against Jund (i was on 8 life) which was enough to finish the game, the other time against Ad Nauseam but he had Slaughter Pact.
The good-ol' Retreat-Combo felt totally fine - i wasn't anywhere in a spot where i'd regret that it's in my deck.
In paper it's the exact opposite - i'm really in for dropping Staticcaster because i never board it. I firmly beliebe that Reflector Mage makes up for that loss.
You can gobble around with different Planeswalkers (last week i ran 2 Nissa, Steward of Elements in my 60), but it just shore up some matchups and weaken others. So it's really up to you to decide wether it's worth that trade.
I was paired against Ponza yesterday. I maybe on a wrong spot here, because i boarded wrong. I thought the game comes down to if the ponza player has an
early Blood Moon or Stone Rain. To prevent that, i'm always boarding Spell Pierce (against an early Moon, Anger and Utopia Sprawl), Disdainful Stroke (against Dragon's, Inferno Titan, Bonfire of the Damned, Chandra, Torch of Defiance) plus Reflector Mage (against early Arbor Elf and other Creatures) and Reclamation Sage (against Sprawl, Moon and RoP).
My opponent indeed boarded into a Midrange-Plan. He cuts Rain and added much more midrange-game Beaters and Planeswalkers. Therefore my gameplan didn't pay off completely. We ended up drawing in extra turns after i destroyed Blood Moon and had Kessig Wolf Run tutored by Knight, but i couldn't get through lethal damage.
What's your plan against Ponza? Play the longer game with Value-Creatures or sneaking in a quick win, countering there mana-denial spells and threaten letahl with a huge Knight?
Green @ it's best
So I think my plan for the next time is to keep Birds in, but take Retreat and maybe a scooze out to make room for counterspells and Dromoka's Command (pet card). Staticaster doesn't seem terrible on the play but I don't think it's worth it.
Probably mulligan anything that doesn't have turn 2 Knight, Reflector (only good if they have an Elf obviously), or Queller. Double dork + Uwill doesn't seem terrible either if you have something fat like Knight or CoCo to back it up turn 3
This could be totally wrong, but I feel like getting Knight to stick early is crucial to punish them for blowing up your lands. And then try to keep them off their ramp by killing dorks/GQ their Utopia Sprawl lands.
My argument is with the fact that they stick on Stone Rain and Blood Moon, so as i'm aware of this i always sticking to 8 manadorks. Retreat to Coralhelm is super-bad with Blood Moon in game, so i board it out for more interaction.
I'm trying to handle Arbor Elf, preventing a turn 2 Garruk Wildspeaker, or an Utopia Sprawl with a Pridemage / Reclamation Sage. In the long run they have Courser of Kruphix, Bloodbraid Elf, Scavenging Ooze and Tireless Tracker in multiples, so they are pretty well-equipped to fight the grind-game.
Inferno Titan and Stormbreath Dragon can be real gamebreakers and must be handled quickly.
Green @ it's best
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Selfless Spirit
3 Voice of Resurgence
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Nimble Obstructionist
4 Spell Queller
2 Tireless Tracker
Spells (8)
4 Path to Exile
4 Collected Company
2 Retreat to Coralhelm
Lands (22)
1 Breeding Pool
2 Flooded Strand
3 Forest
1 Gavony Township
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
2 Blessed Alliance
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Stony Silence
4 Unified Will
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Reflector Mage
1 Worship
To be honest, I just wanted to play with Nimble Obstructionist for fun but uncounterable Stifle cycle turned out to be pretty sweet. Having more plays at instant speed and more threats in the air was great as well. Haven't gotten to Stifle Ulamog, Karn, Ugin or Storm yet but maybe one day I'll live the dream. Don't run out and buy Obstructionists.. But if you wanna have some fun and get some people, have at it.
3/2 (40+ Person):
Grixis Kiki - 2-0
Devoted Elves - 2-0
Burn - 2-1
Titanbreach - 2-0
ID
ID
QF: BUG Midrange - 1-2
3/9 (30+ Person):
RUG BBE/Jace - 2-1
Burn - 2-0
Devoted Elves - 2-0
Jund - 2-1
ID
ID Top 8
8-round tourney
Affinity 0-2*
Elves 1-2
Taking Turns 2-0
Burn 0-2**
Abzan 2-1
BR Hollow One 2-0
Dropped last 2 rounds
4-round FNM
G Tron 1-2***
Jund Shadow 2-0
Bant Toolbox (Thune Combo) 2-1
UB Control 1-2
Notes: Flash creatures are great versus planeswalkers and control decks. This is why I like Clique and even Aven Mindcensor (which helps versus Scapeshift). I think this helps save some space in sideboard. I'm starting to feel less good about Courser of Kruphix. We already grind really well, so I need more impact cards in this slot. Selfless Spirits are really good versus control decks, and even Valakut decks, to protect our clock. I might play 0 Courser and 2 Selfless Spirit. I don't think Courser is good enough versus Burn, or else I'd be more hesitant dropping it.
*Against Affinity, Phyrexian Revoker is so good. Shuts down Overseer or Cranial Plating. Blocks Etched Champion. I have at least 2 in my sideboard now always.
**I'm not sure about our matchup against Burn. It depends on how good Burn's hand is, and how slow our hand is. If we can get to Spell Queller and counterspells, we have a shot. I have 2 Kitchen Finks in my sideboard now. A 5/5 Knight of the Reliquary on turn 2 is another way I've won.
***Sideboarding against G Tron is tricky. If they side in Thragtusk and more Wurms on game 2, I'd rather have Path to Exiles. Even Reflector Mage would be useful if I Qasali a Wurm, then I can bounce a token. But if they don't side in creatures, Reflector Mage and Paths would be useless. Anyone have tips?
Doing well in tournaments is really about the sideboard and our 4 flex spots. If we guess the metagame right, I feel our deck has great chance anytime.
With Ugin, I agree, we need to have counterspells for him, and if we kept all our Paths, we'd be screwed. But I just hope that the chances of Tron playing Ugin are low.
This is my new plan vs. Burn:
In: +4 United Will, +1 Blessed Alliance, +2 Kitchen Finks, +2 Reflector Mage
Out: -3 Path to Exile, -2 Nissa, Steward of Elements, -2 Tireless Tracker, -2 Collected Company
My old plan didn't have Kitchen Finks. I'm maybe 3-3 against Burn overall, so sometimes Burn does feel like an easy matchup. I used to play 2-3 Courser of Kruphix, but I don't like them as much lately anymore. Drawing 1 Courser won't help too much. I used to play more Negates rather than United Wills as well, which made the matchup feel better.
In my latest game versus Burn, I didn't draw enough land, so I don't think it's a great example of the matchup.
Against Affinity:
In: +2 Phyrexian Revoker, +2 Reflector Mage, +1 Blessed Alliance, +2 Aven Mindcensor
Out: -2 Tireless Tracker, -2 Nissa, Steward of Elements, -3 Voice of Resurgence
I'm like 0-4 lifetime against Affinity. I play 2 Qasali Pridemage in mainboard too. I feel like I should have an easier matchup, but sometimes Affinity is way too explosive in first 2 turns.
What's your game plan like? How do your games go?
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/26-06-17-knightfall/
Against Burn I usually do something like
+1 Dromoka's Command, + 2 Uwill, +1 Negate, +1 Finks
- 1 Nissa, -2 Retreat, - 2 Path, and then -1 of Reflector or Pridemage
I don't think boarding out CoCo is ever correct
I just realized you don't run Stony Silence. Stony does WORK against Affinity, and it's great against Tron too. Izzet Staticaster is fantastic against them too. Otherwise yeah the typical RecSage. You bring mindcensor in just as a flying blocker?
It's not as strong a hoser as Stony, but it has applications in more matchups. And it's a company hit, of course
Round 1: Rg Eldrazi
I started and quellered consecutively, built up my board and overwhelmed him with a huge Knight + Township.
Game 2 i sacrificed Selfless Spirit for Anger turn 3 and flooded the board again, pressured my opponent and finally won.
1-0
Round 2: Rg Ponza
Game 1 i got the game with huge Beaters, going under Blood Moon and a Stone Rain.
Game 2 went to time while i was not able to get through a bunch of huge Tireless Tracker and in my last turn i couldn't put together enough damage to threat lethal.
1-0-1
Round 3: Jund
Game 1 was easily mine, i outcomboed my opponent on 8 life and he has tapped out for Bloodbraid Elf.
Game 2 was about 30 turns and my opponent mulled to 5 with no lands. Sadly he found one and casted Grafdigger's Cage, which shuts down 2 companies in hand. I topdecked lands and manadorks for 10 turns, but he hasn't much business going on either. At some point he casted Goyf and ran away with the game.
Game 3 we only played a couple of turns when time was called, again i wasn't able to punch through enough damage with Kessig Wolf Run.
1-0-2
Round 4: Bushwhacker Zoo
He started and had the nuts with Goblin Guide x2 plus Nacatl with a follow up Atarka's Command for lethal.
Game 2 i dropped an early Courser of Kruphix and bounced or path'd everything he dropped.
Game 3 he had again the nuts with a turn 3 kill when i had already Voice of Resurgence on board.
1-1-2
Round 5: Ad Nauseam
Game 1 i killed him like turn 7 or 8. A pretty inexperienced player that can't put together the combo, i believe.
I had the combo, but he responded with a Slaughter Pact, but wasn't able to get off at any point in time.
Game 2 i was able to destroy a timely Pentad Prism with Pridemage and held Queller plus Disdainful Stroke in my hand to keep everything in check.
2-1-2
Green @ it's best
R1 - G Tron - 2x1
G1: Even though I had ghost quarter on turn 2 and path for his wurmcoil engine on turn 4, he played T5 karn, T6 o. stone + wurmcoil and T7 Ugin.
G2: My opener was Fetch, Fetch, Ghost Quarter, Noble Hierarch, Stony Silence, Unified Will, Meddling Mage, and my second draw was another GQ.
G3: Once again Stony Silence on turn 2 won the game.
R2 - Esper Control - 2x0
G1: Hierarch into Hierarch + Voice (got pathed) into Tracker + Fetch + Clique to take his Jace away = GG
G2: After trading a few spells, I played a Courser of Kruphix. He played EE on 3, but did not blow it. Courser hit him 2 or 3 times, until he attempted to play Gideon Jura, but I had negate. Next turn he played Collective Brutality to duress away my CoCo. Played CoCo in response, finding Queller and Ooze. Quellered the Brutality, and he popped the explosives. Chose duress mode again, and I had only creatures in hand. On The following turns I played a couple more creatures that ended the game.
R3 - UW Control - 2x0
G1: I had meddling mage on turn 2 to name Supreme Verdict. He had 2 verdicts in hand =) Couple of creatures and Spell Quellers were enough to close the game.
G2: He managed to handle my first turns and played an Elspeth, Sun's Champion on Turn 6, taking my Knight and Tracker. I played a queller on the end of turn to pressure Elspeth. He played Rest in Peace and made 9 soldier tokens overall, but basically had nothing else. I had 2 Knights + Tracker making millions of clues, and that's too much for him.
R4 - Lantern Control - 0x2
G1: I had meddling mage for Bridge, and that was my only hope. He played T1 Bauble + Shredder + Mox, T2 Lantern, T3 whir for Pyrite Spellbomb, T4 Bridge.
G2: I mulled to 6, kept fetch fetch birds queller queller negate and scryed stony silence to the top. He took my negate away on T2, I played T2 Silence and he had T2 seal of primordium. Conceded right there. How the hell do we beat this deck?
Decklist for reference
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Knight of The Reliquary
4 Spell Queller
4 Voice of Resurgence
2 Tireless Tracker
2 Courser of Kruphix
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Meddling Mage
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Nissa, Steward of Elements
4 Path to Exile
4 Collected Company
4 Windswept Heath
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Flooded Strand
3 Forest
2 Plains
1 Island
1 Breeding Pool
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Temple Garden
1 Botanical Sanctum
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Gavony Township
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Negate
2 Blessed Alliance
2 Stony Silence
2 Reflector Mage
3 Unified Will
1 Worship
I actually conceded next turn when he whired for bridge. And he already had a lantern in play, played it on turn 1. It was a good friend of mine, and I just did not want to keep on playing that miserable game. But that made me wonder how hard that match up can be.
I used to play abzan/counters company, and as the deck is faster and does not need to attack to win the game, it was not that hard to win. Also have already won with infect. But my local meta shifted to a "fairer" environment, and the value in Bant Company lists is far superior. I'm actually quite happy I managed to defeat Tron with this deck, so i'm not giving that much ***** about losing that last round =)
Sometimes their draw is just nuts - the last game I played, I had Clique for their bridge they were drawing, but whir was on top - they were DOB otherwise. I still ended up winning thanks to Exalted beats after I got a tracker through, ensuring I could draw Hierarchs. Sometimes their draw isn't nuts and we play T1 dork T2 Queller and beat them in holding up permission all game. It's a somewhat miserable MU, especially if they aren't proficient in their own deck, but a very winnable one. Mostly, if they can't land a Bridge they very likely aren't winning, and even then we have outs in Jace, potentially pridemage, and Hierarch.
4x Birds of Paradise
2x Qasali Pridemage
2x Scavenging Ooze
3x Voice of Resurgence
4x Knight of the Reliquary
4x Spell Queller
2x Tireless Tracker
2x Vendilion Clique
1x Courser of Kruphix
4x Path to Exile
4x Collected Company
2x Jace. the Mind Scultor
4x Misty Rainforest
1x Flooded Strand
1x Temple Garden
1x Breeding Pool
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Gavony Township
2x Forest
1x Plains
1x Island
2x Botanical Sanctum
1x Stirring Wildwood
2x Negate
3x Unified Will
3x Reflector Mage
3x Blessed Alliance
2x Kitchen Finks
2x Stony Silence
I'm pretty locked in on the main and sideboard spell choices. The one thing I'm not quite sure about is the 2 Botanical Sanctum, 1 Stirring Wildwood. I'm not sold on Wildwood, and maybe it should be a Razorverge Thicket. Or maybe one of the Botanical Sanctums should be a Razorverge Thicket or possibly a second Temple Garden.
I'm pretty much dead to dredge, and don't have much game on storm either. You gotta make some concessions when making a SB, and those are mine. Wish me luck!
I've actually felt pretty decent against Storm just because of being able to randomly Path their ElectroBarals game one, plus Queller/Clique disruption. Game two, all that countermagic in for slow and irrelevant Jaces and stuff makes the match feel pretty comfortable to me.
If you're having trouble with Dredge, think about the Bojuka Bog in the side? It's not the fastest thing ever, but anything helps.
Also, I've been liking the couple-of Worship against random beatdowny decks. I kinda like the concept of Blessed Alliance, but the Worships have been really good in that slot instead. Many of the aggressive decks still don't see it coming and have literally no outs to it.
How have you been doing against Ponza, if you've had the insurmountable pleasure of getting much time against it?
My list was essentially the same as brosterman's, with the key difference being Nissa, Steward of Elements over Jace.
Nissa was very, very good, but often in spots where jace would have been as well. Playing with both, I think they fill the same role. Nissa simply trades the bounce ability for CMC 3 and a better ultimate.
Bojuka bog was very awkward for me. I never tutored it, so drawing it felt worse than having a relic or surgical. I also had a second courser over the second clique, which played out well
And I also like having a second ghost quarter SB, Tron is quite hard to beat without quarter + stony silence =/