I think the best replacement in my deck would be a spectral procession, since they offer similar roles. However, I dont feel he is strictly an upgrade but more of an option.
Please let me know what you think about the changes, especially about the manabase.
I appreciate all your help and support, Thank you
Neither Isolated Chapel nor Caves of Koilos are good four-of kind of cards for different reasons. In a normal, current mana-base, one would want none of either; however, without fetch-lands, it is probably necessary to run some. I would probably have replaced one of each of these with your shock-lands.
While Marsh Flats are absolutely indicated, any W fetch-land is better than either Chapels or Caves and Fetid Heath is also a good two or three-of.
Please let me know what you think about the changes, especially about the manabase.
I appreciate all your help and support, Thank you
Neither Isolated Chapel nor Caves of Koilos are good four-of kind of cards for different reasons. In a normal, current mana-base, one would want none of either; however, without fetch-lands, it is probably necessary to run some. I would probably have replaced one of each of these with your shock-lands.
While Marsh Flats are absolutely indicated, any W fetch-land is better than either Chapels or Caves and Fetid Heath is also a good two or three-of.
pucatrade
big receipts
alpha mox emerald
beta time walk
4 goyfs received
3 liliana of the veil
4 karn liberated
3 force of will
4 grove of the burnwillows
snapcaster mage
3 horizon canopy
2 full art damnation
Went 3-1 tonight with the Green Splash version of the deck (including beating Elves and Merfolk). It was a nice finale, but this is going to be my last time piloting this variant before returning to straight BW.
Driven//Despair is a great card for the Tokens archetype in theory, but in practice, it only significantly impacted a game in my favor a single time. The same is true of Abrupt Decay. I got to use it to blow up an Aether Vial... once. Every other time I drew it, I wished I had drawn a Push or Path instead. The second issue with Driven//Despair is that it is fundamentally a late-game card, and by the time you're in a position to make use of the "Despair" half, the opponent tends to have few to no cards in hand unless they just resolved an Ancestral Vision or are playing a Draw/Go deck, in which case it is likely to be countered anyways.
There is also a mana issue associated with such a light splash. Unless you have a green card in hand, statistically it doesn't make sense to fetch a Temple Garden unless you are doing it on the opponent's EOT, and BW Tokens likes to play on the curve when it can, so this doesn't happen particularly often. The result is that occasionally (and I don't mean to imply that this is a frequent event, because it's not), you will draw Driven//Despair or Abrupt Decay without a Green source to play it.
All things considered, this has been a fun experiment, but I'm ready to move on to the new BW version I have been working on. Hope you guys find this info useful.
now that you have 2 shocks, go for the fetches. Many lists run 2 shocks and fetches. I am running 3 shocks because I dont have the marsh flats. Once I get them, I will probably cut a shock for a basic plains.
All things considered, this has been a fun experiment, but I'm ready to move on to the new BW version I have been working on. Hope you guys find this info useful.
I cant access the link. Maybe you dont have it as public?
I see people playing Start//Finish in some newer posts. What makes this card good? 3 Mana for 2 1/1 tokens on the ground is our worst token producer, and the aftermath cost plus creature sac seems a bit too high priced for removal in a deck running Push and Path. It looks like the only thing it has going for it is virtual card advantage? Is thay really enough to justify it over other token makers? Bitterblossom, Raise, Spectral, and Lingering are all faster, and have established themselves.
you can think of it as a raise the alarm that costs you 1 more and gives you an extra removal. Having a card that can deal with problematic creatures while still representing threats has resulted to be very impactful, after some games. Just give it a try, it is easier to experience than to explain. If you are going towards a super aggressive tokens build, RtA is the card to pick, but most of the people are tilting towards a more control-oriented shell. There you want to be interacting with your opponent in stronger ways than RtA, i.e., hand disruption or removal, or landing a BB t2, which is many times game. Also, vigilance is relevant.
Went 3-1 tonight with the Green Splash version of the deck (including beating Elves and Merfolk). It was a nice finale, but this is going to be my last time piloting this variant before returning to straight BW.
Driven//Despair is a great card for the Tokens archetype in theory, but in practice, it only significantly impacted a game in my favor a single time. The same is true of Abrupt Decay. I got to use it to blow up an Aether Vial... once. Every other time I drew it, I wished I had drawn a Push or Path instead. The second issue with Driven//Despair is that it is fundamentally a late-game card, and by the time you're in a position to make use of the "Despair" half, the opponent tends to have few to no cards in hand unless they just resolved an Ancestral Vision or are playing a Draw/Go deck, in which case it is likely to be countered anyways.
There is also a mana issue associated with such a light splash. Unless you have a green card in hand, statistically it doesn't make sense to fetch a Temple Garden unless you are doing it on the opponent's EOT, and BW Tokens likes to play on the curve when it can, so this doesn't happen particularly often. The result is that occasionally (and I don't mean to imply that this is a frequent event, because it's not), you will draw Driven//Despair or Abrupt Decay without a Green source to play it.
All things considered, this has been a fun experiment, but I'm ready to move on to the new BW version I have been working on. Hope you guys find this info useful.
This is what I keep saying to the green splash people. Abrupt decay is really bad in the meta right now and isn't worth a splash, which is why you see maybe 2 copies even in Jund Shadow lists. I don't see it coming back anytime soon unless you see a ton of Chalice of the Void, Ensnaring Bridges, and Splinter Twin revival.
So recently someone recommended Mirran Crusader to me as a sideboard option, how do you feel about that?
Although lightning bolt is at an all time low, we are already heavily favored against the black midrange decks. I don't like the idea of getting blown out by Kolaghan's Command either. You're better of siding more things like Rest in Peace which destroys the decks you'd side Crusader in, while also being great in other matches.
Please let me know what you think about the changes, especially about the manabase.
I appreciate all your help and support, Thank you
If I was to make a "budget" mana base(we're talking no fetch, no Fetid heath and only two shock land in this case), it would probably look something like this:
I'd really advise to get yourself one of the fetchland that can get white mana. Not necessarily Marsh flats, since its price tag is a bit high at 30$ (and it's not going to lower unless reprinted), but windsept heath is about 12$ if you get the khans of tarkir version. even just one or two of those could be good since it thins the deck (Minimal, but still a plus) and can fetch you your shockland if you really need that black mana (The actual reason you'd run it). If you go for that, a budget landbase would look like this.
Also, I'd like to note that what makes a land good is the ability to enter the battlefield untapped while producing our two colors with the least downside possible, or if it enters tapped, has a pretty good effect. That's why Fetchlands + shocklands as well as manlands are so loved and that checklands and painlands (Caves of koilos) less so.
It also explains the price tags. you can get about eight playset of caves of koilos for the price of a single Marsh flats and that's because the cave is played as a one or two of in a few decks (four of in eldrazi taxes) and as been reprinted quite a bit even recently, while flats will be played at three-four in all decks that wants it and was printed only twice, one of them in a deluxe pack that cost 15$/packs.
So recently someone recommended Mirran Crusader to me as a sideboard option, how do you feel about that?
Although lightning bolt is at an all time low, we are already heavily favored against the black midrange decks. I don't like the idea of getting blown out by Kolaghan's Command either. You're better of siding more things like Rest in Peace which destroys the decks you'd side Crusader in, while also being great in other matches.
That´s kinda what I was thinking aswell. Thanks for clarifying though!
@Jongsl5 I'm not sure what you meant by blown out by K-Command, it can't kill Crusader (Pro Black/Green) as it's Black/Red.
So recently someone recommended Mirran Crusader to me as a sideboard option, how do you feel about that?
Although lightning bolt is at an all time low, we are already heavily favored against the black midrange decks. I don't like the idea of getting blown out by Kolaghan's Command either. You're better of siding more things like Rest in Peace which destroys the decks you'd side Crusader in, while also being great in other matches.
That´s kinda what I was thinking aswell. Thanks for clarifying though!
@Jongsl5 I'm not sure what you meant by blown out by K-Command, it can't kill Crusader (Pro Black/Green) as it's Black/Red.
Lost legacy can be a very good budget option to deal with combo decks. It's slower and doesn't hit artifacts or lands, but doesn't require the card to be in the graveyard. I'm actually gonna try them again next week instead of my pair of Surgical extraction
I notice a lot of you seem to dislike Caves of Koilos quite a bit. Personaly I´ve always felt that it´s better than Isolated Chapel, as it always enters untapped, which is what we want. Sure, every now and again it makes you bleed a bit, but from my experience that life loss really isn´t that big of a deal. Fetches and Shocks damage us too after all, right?
You'd actually be right. If I had to choose between caves of koilos and Isolated chapel, I'd choose cave in a heartbeat. Plus, we do have a few way to gain life back with sorin and our manland, not to mention cards we can easily run in the side or even main like Timely reinforcements, Blessed alliance and Auriok champion. Not that I'd recommend it, but we can go pretty deep in the lifegain.
In fact, my deck started out as a budget soul sister deck with a couple token generators to trigger the sisters. Turns out I won more often with my little flyers than my beefy ajani's Pridemate and so I slowly converted my deck to what it is now.
Holy balls, just found one of my older decklist, probably my very first "BW token" Deck. Probably bought the modern event deck and tweaked it to my neophyte liking:
I remember when I thought discard effect were bad and that gaining life was next to removal in term of importance. I also remember that Isolated chapel was my favorite land. And I remember my Ajani's pridemate getting an insane amount of +1/+1 counters on him only to get chump blocked like a noob. Looking back at this list fills me with nostalgia
In fact, my deck started out as a budget soul sister deck with a couple token generators to trigger the sisters. Turns out I won more often with my little flyers than my beefy ajani's Pridemate and so I slowly converted my deck to what it is now.
@Jongsl5 I'm not sure what you meant by blown out by K-Command, it can't kill Crusader (Pro Black/Green) as it's Black/Red.
Oh shoot you are right. I'm a noob
Still though don't side Crusader in!
Something similar happened to me just two days ago. I got rekt by Atarka's Command. tried to attack for game with four 2/2 flyers, but Turn's out A-Command has a little mode I wasn't aware of that goes as follow:
"Creatures you control gets +1/+1 and gain REACH until end of turn."
I'll let you guess how that game turned out. This mistake actually costed me the round. Just be glad you were noticed it in the forum instead of being reminded in a tournaments.
I´m a big fan of the Lost Legacy type of cards. Personally I´ve opted to go with Nevermore for now, as it gets around all of the big problems with Lost Legacy, namely Ensnaring Bridge and Leyline of Sanctity.
The problem with it is, that it can be removed after effectifly "giving them their cards back". Personally I´ve never seen enchantment-hate boarded in against me, but that might be because I´m not using Bitterblossom.
The biggest problem I have with these kinds of cards is, that if we don´t draw them early we might aswell not have them in the deck. We don´t really have much card draw,which lead to quite a few games vs combo decks wheer I just didn´t draw them and ended up losing because of that.
We could just put 3 or even 4 in the sideboard and just mulligan until we find one, but that doesn´t feel like it´s the correct thing to do.
On the note of lands, what do you think is the correct amount of fetches to run? Also sometimes when looking at lists, I see more fetchlands than fetchable lands. This seems counter intuitive, is that ever the correct thing to do?
Resolving Nevermore can kill some combo decks on the spot, but it's a permanent, so you gotta be careful about all-hitting cards like Abrupt decay, Detention sphere and the likes. This is a weakness Lost legacy doesn't have, but then again, Nevermore can hit literally anything, and coupled with our discards which also reveal our opponent's hand. It can be really good. It's a pretty decent choice.
Also, The absolute correct amount of fetches? I will not claim to hold the truest answer, but 7 and 8 both always felt like good numbers to me. 4 would be the bare minimum (and a good number to start with) and 6 would probably not be the end of the world. Pretty sure 9 or more is overkill.
Something important to note: it's okay if you have a few more fetches than fetchable targtets. For example, if you have only four basics + two shocks, but run seven fetches, it's okay, since you most likely won't draw all of your fetches in a game anyway, and even if you do, you certainly have more than enough lands.
Also about this
The biggest problem I have with these kinds of cards is, that if we don´t draw them early we might aswell not have them in the deck.
This is normal. We usually run 2-3 card to counter something (Graveyard hate, combo hate, lifegain, etc) so that we can counter more strategies this way instead of just deadlocking a few.
For a drastic example, graveyard decks often have a pretty good chance at beating us. So we could run 4x Rest in peace, 4x Nihil spellbomb 4x leyline of the void and 3x tormod's crypt in the side. That way, Dredge and Living end would never ever win game 2/3, and you can say goodbye to any grave shenanigans your opponent has. you will also notice Snapcaster mage and Tarmogoyf crying in the corner over there. But you'd be greatly vulnerable against any other strategies that do nothing with their grave.
If you know your meta and you know a specific kind of deck is prevalent, then do boost the number of counter to 3 or 4 instead of leaving it to 2, but in an unknown meta? we're better off running catch-all cards and staying modest on the amount we run.
At two or three copies, it's definitely possible that we simply don't draw them. Mulliganing once to try and get them is actually not that bad of a plan, however doing it more can lead to bad hands. If we had to talk Probabilities, we only have 22% chance to draw at least 1 copy of a sideboard card in our opening hand if we only run two of it, and this number pumps to 32% if we run three. now if we include the three next card we're going to draw, this pump the numbers to 31% and 43% respectively. Still pretty unfavorable odds if we absolutely NEED the card to win, but pretty okay odds if the card is just a favorable card that gives us an edge.
That is why I keep my grave hate and Artifact/enchantment hate to three and pretty much everything else to two. I feel like my deck don't stand a chance against Dredge and Living end, and if a deck run Ensnaring bridge or worship, I almost can't win unless I destroy them.
Hope any of this helps, and sorry for the wall of text
Lost legacy can be a very good budget option to deal with combo decks. It's slower and doesn't hit artifacts or lands, but doesn't require the card to be in the graveyard. I'm actually gonna try them again next week instead of my pair of Surgical extraction
I notice a lot of you seem to dislike Caves of Koilos quite a bit. Personaly I´ve always felt that it´s better than Isolated Chapel, as it always enters untapped, which is what we want. Sure, every now and again it makes you bleed a bit, but from my experience that life loss really isn´t that big of a deal. Fetches and Shocks damage us too after all, right?
You'd actually be right. If I had to choose between caves of koilos and Isolated chapel, I'd choose cave in a heartbeat. Plus, we do have a few way to gain life back with sorin and our manland, not to mention cards we can easily run in the side or even main like Timely reinforcements, Blessed alliance and Auriok champion. Not that I'd recommend it, but we can go pretty deep in the lifegain.
In fact, my deck started out as a budget soul sister deck with a couple token generators to trigger the sisters. Turns out I won more often with my little flyers than my beefy ajani's Pridemate and so I slowly converted my deck to what it is now.
Caves of Koilos is generally better than Isolated Chapel it's just neither are much good at all. There's no reason other than budget to consider either anymore for BW tokens. If one has a great many Plains and Swamps, Chapel looks better, but that's not how competitive decks are usually built these days. Fetches also improve Chapel, as they can get you what you need before you play the Chapel.
Before Concealed Courtyard, I ran one Cave and one Chapel each. Both suck in multiples.
Oddly, I loved my single Woodland Cemetery in my Rock deck - mainly because it just tickled me to draw it and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth together - but I could never muster any feeling but contempt for Isolated Chapel.
Thanks, you´re always a great help! (I actually prefer the wall of text as there is more information in there^^)
Glad to hear it. I tend to have long posts, so we should get along just fine.
I found myself really struggeling with opponents playing combo-decks (to be expected with this deck, i know). It`s probably worse for me as I don't have Thoughtseize and Surgical Extraction yet, so I´ve REALLY been depending on Nevermore to win those games.
Somehow it would feel weird to put more than 2 of those in my sideboard though...
Well, sideboard is a hard thing to get right. It's probably the part of my deck I change the most over time. Sometime I feel like running Stony silence, other time I like Timely reinforcements more than Auriok champion. Recently I felt like I don't like any of these, but now I feel like a little life gain would go a long way against aggro or burn.
It's also very dependant on your meta. A good call for me could be a bad call for you simply because of different metagame, especially in our deck. If I see a lot of burn decks and you don't, it might seem like a bad idea to you to run more lifegain, but a good idea to me who sees a lot of them. Same thing goes for anything: if you feel like there are a lot of combo player in your meta, study their deck, gain knowledge on their win cons and combo piece, then side-in the right tool to destroy most of them. Even if a third or fourth copy of Nevermore feel like too much, it could be the right choice for your meta. Hell, most sideboards I see only run two pieces of grave hate and one Pithing needle, while I run one more of each and I am pretty confident it's the right amount for me against my meta.
The sideboard numbers are especially interesting.
If you ever feel like calculating a bit with statistics, I personally use this site.
Population size: Number of card in your deck, or remaining cards in your deck (Usually 60) Number of successes in population: The amount of a certain card or group of cards in you deck. Sample size: the amount of card you draw. You can count your starting hand of 7, or just how much chance you have to draw 1 card after reducing the population size accordingly Number of successes in sample: put a number here (preferably 1) and see how much chance you have of having this many card in your starting hand or chance you have to draw it if it wasn't in your starting hand.
You can count so many useful statistic with this, it's pretty neat. Here's a couple of noteworthy ones:
-If your landbase is 23 lands, you have 83.5% chance to have at least 2 lands in your starting hand (55% 3 or more). There's a 2.5% chance you don't draw any lands. (Yes, you heard me right, statistically speaking, only one game out of 40 results in a hand with no lands. Bet you feel like it happens more often than that! )
-If your landbase is 24 lands, you have about 86% chance to have at least 2 lands in your starting hand (59% 3 or more). There's a 2.1% chance you don't draw any lands.
-If you run a playset of a certain card (Let's say intangible virture, you have about 40% chance to draw at least one of them in your starting hand, but only about 6% chance to have two or more in your starting hand. If you did not draw any in your opening hand, you have 7.5% chance to draw one next draw step. (and it increases steadily from there on out until you draw one)
- if you run eight of a certain type of card (Let's say 8 removals), you have about 65% chance to draw at least one of them in your starting hand. You also have about 23% chance to have two or more in your starting hand. If you did not draw any in your opening hand, you have about 15% chance to draw one next draw step.
- if you run twelve of a certain type of card (that would usually be our token generators), you have about 81% chance to draw at least one of them in your starting hand. You also have about 43% chance to have two or more in your starting hand. If you did not draw any in your opening hand, you have about 22.5% chance to draw one next draw step.
Also, good to note that fetching actually increase the chance of drawing other card, since fetching a land removes it from your deck and so increase ever so slightly the chance of drawing what you need. It's small crumbles of % and most people will tell you it's no that significative, but in the long run, those crumbles turn into the cards you want.
Fun fact: You have 0.007% chance to draw a full playset of a card in your opponening hand. That roughly mean it will happen once every 14 286 games.
If I ever get my hands on him I will give it a try! thanks for the input.
BW BW Tokens
RG Dredgeplendid Reclamation
RW Boros Burn
GB Elves
RB Dark Goblins
WU Azorius' Relic
BW BW Tokens
RG Dredgeplendid Reclamation
RW Boros Burn
GB Elves
RB Dark Goblins
WU Azorius' Relic
Neither Isolated Chapel nor Caves of Koilos are good four-of kind of cards for different reasons. In a normal, current mana-base, one would want none of either; however, without fetch-lands, it is probably necessary to run some. I would probably have replaced one of each of these with your shock-lands.
While Marsh Flats are absolutely indicated, any W fetch-land is better than either Chapels or Caves and Fetid Heath is also a good two or three-of.
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
Maybe some reflecting pool?
isolated chapel gets alot worse without fetchlands.
pucatrade
big receipts
alpha mox emerald
beta time walk
4 goyfs received
3 liliana of the veil
4 karn liberated
3 force of will
4 grove of the burnwillows
snapcaster mage
3 horizon canopy
2 full art damnation
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
Driven//Despair is a great card for the Tokens archetype in theory, but in practice, it only significantly impacted a game in my favor a single time. The same is true of Abrupt Decay. I got to use it to blow up an Aether Vial... once. Every other time I drew it, I wished I had drawn a Push or Path instead. The second issue with Driven//Despair is that it is fundamentally a late-game card, and by the time you're in a position to make use of the "Despair" half, the opponent tends to have few to no cards in hand unless they just resolved an Ancestral Vision or are playing a Draw/Go deck, in which case it is likely to be countered anyways.
There is also a mana issue associated with such a light splash. Unless you have a green card in hand, statistically it doesn't make sense to fetch a Temple Garden unless you are doing it on the opponent's EOT, and BW Tokens likes to play on the curve when it can, so this doesn't happen particularly often. The result is that occasionally (and I don't mean to imply that this is a frequent event, because it's not), you will draw Driven//Despair or Abrupt Decay without a Green source to play it.
All things considered, this has been a fun experiment, but I'm ready to move on to the new BW version I have been working on. Hope you guys find this info useful.
BW BW Tokens
BUW Esper Shadow
BUR Grixis Shadow
I cant access the link. Maybe you dont have it as public?
BW BW Tokens
RG Dredgeplendid Reclamation
RW Boros Burn
GB Elves
RB Dark Goblins
WU Azorius' Relic
BWTokensBW
RWBurnRW
UFaeriesU
BW BW Tokens
RG Dredgeplendid Reclamation
RW Boros Burn
GB Elves
RB Dark Goblins
WU Azorius' Relic
This is what I keep saying to the green splash people. Abrupt decay is really bad in the meta right now and isn't worth a splash, which is why you see maybe 2 copies even in Jund Shadow lists. I don't see it coming back anytime soon unless you see a ton of Chalice of the Void, Ensnaring Bridges, and Splinter Twin revival.
Although lightning bolt is at an all time low, we are already heavily favored against the black midrange decks. I don't like the idea of getting blown out by Kolaghan's Command either. You're better of siding more things like Rest in Peace which destroys the decks you'd side Crusader in, while also being great in other matches.
2x swamp
4x Concealed courtyard
3x isolated chapel
3x Caves of koilos
3x Shambling Vent
2x Godless shrine
1x Vault of the archangel
1x ghost quarter
4x Windswpet heath
1x swamp
4x Concealed courtyard
1x isolated chapel
3x Caves of koilos
3x Shambling Vent
2x Godless shrine
1x Vault of the archangel
1x ghost quarter
It also explains the price tags. you can get about eight playset of caves of koilos for the price of a single Marsh flats and that's because the cave is played as a one or two of in a few decks (four of in eldrazi taxes) and as been reprinted quite a bit even recently, while flats will be played at three-four in all decks that wants it and was printed only twice, one of them in a deluxe pack that cost 15$/packs.
(W/B)BW Tokens(W/B) | (B/R)Rakdos Burn(B/R) | (U/R)Gift Storm(U/R)
@Jongsl5 I'm not sure what you meant by blown out by K-Command, it can't kill Crusader (Pro Black/Green) as it's Black/Red.
Oh shoot you are right. I'm a noob
Still though don't side Crusader in!
In fact, my deck started out as a budget soul sister deck with a couple token generators to trigger the sisters. Turns out I won more often with my little flyers than my beefy ajani's Pridemate and so I slowly converted my deck to what it is now.
(W/B)BW Tokens(W/B) | (B/R)Rakdos Burn(B/R) | (U/R)Gift Storm(U/R)
4x Ajani's Pridemate
4x Soul Warden
4x Soul's Attendant
Token generators (12)
4x Spectral procession
4x Lingering souls
2x Raise the alarm
2x Shrine of loyal legions
3x Path to exile
Pump/Anthems (9)
4x Intangible virtue
2x honor of the pure
2x Zealous Persecution
1x Sword of Feast and famine
Planeswalker (4)
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3x Sorin, lord of innistrad
6x Plains
2x Swamps
1x windbrisk heights
1x Vault of the archangel
2x City of brass
3x Caves of Koilos
4x Isolated chapel
1x Godless shrine
Also, gosh this list is bad
(W/B)BW Tokens(W/B) | (B/R)Rakdos Burn(B/R) | (U/R)Gift Storm(U/R)
Same here!!!! LOL
BW BW Tokens
RG Dredgeplendid Reclamation
RW Boros Burn
GB Elves
RB Dark Goblins
WU Azorius' Relic
"Creatures you control gets +1/+1 and gain REACH until end of turn."
I'll let you guess how that game turned out. This mistake actually costed me the round. Just be glad you were noticed it in the forum instead of being reminded in a tournaments.
(W/B)BW Tokens(W/B) | (B/R)Rakdos Burn(B/R) | (U/R)Gift Storm(U/R)
Also, The absolute correct amount of fetches? I will not claim to hold the truest answer, but 7 and 8 both always felt like good numbers to me. 4 would be the bare minimum (and a good number to start with) and 6 would probably not be the end of the world. Pretty sure 9 or more is overkill.
Something important to note: it's okay if you have a few more fetches than fetchable targtets. For example, if you have only four basics + two shocks, but run seven fetches, it's okay, since you most likely won't draw all of your fetches in a game anyway, and even if you do, you certainly have more than enough lands.
Also about this This is normal. We usually run 2-3 card to counter something (Graveyard hate, combo hate, lifegain, etc) so that we can counter more strategies this way instead of just deadlocking a few.
For a drastic example, graveyard decks often have a pretty good chance at beating us. So we could run 4x Rest in peace, 4x Nihil spellbomb 4x leyline of the void and 3x tormod's crypt in the side. That way, Dredge and Living end would never ever win game 2/3, and you can say goodbye to any grave shenanigans your opponent has. you will also notice Snapcaster mage and Tarmogoyf crying in the corner over there. But you'd be greatly vulnerable against any other strategies that do nothing with their grave.
If you know your meta and you know a specific kind of deck is prevalent, then do boost the number of counter to 3 or 4 instead of leaving it to 2, but in an unknown meta? we're better off running catch-all cards and staying modest on the amount we run.
At two or three copies, it's definitely possible that we simply don't draw them. Mulliganing once to try and get them is actually not that bad of a plan, however doing it more can lead to bad hands. If we had to talk Probabilities, we only have 22% chance to draw at least 1 copy of a sideboard card in our opening hand if we only run two of it, and this number pumps to 32% if we run three. now if we include the three next card we're going to draw, this pump the numbers to 31% and 43% respectively. Still pretty unfavorable odds if we absolutely NEED the card to win, but pretty okay odds if the card is just a favorable card that gives us an edge.
That is why I keep my grave hate and Artifact/enchantment hate to three and pretty much everything else to two. I feel like my deck don't stand a chance against Dredge and Living end, and if a deck run Ensnaring bridge or worship, I almost can't win unless I destroy them.
Hope any of this helps, and sorry for the wall of text
(W/B)BW Tokens(W/B) | (B/R)Rakdos Burn(B/R) | (U/R)Gift Storm(U/R)
Caves of Koilos is generally better than Isolated Chapel it's just neither are much good at all. There's no reason other than budget to consider either anymore for BW tokens. If one has a great many Plains and Swamps, Chapel looks better, but that's not how competitive decks are usually built these days. Fetches also improve Chapel, as they can get you what you need before you play the Chapel.
Before Concealed Courtyard, I ran one Cave and one Chapel each. Both suck in multiples.
Oddly, I loved my single Woodland Cemetery in my Rock deck - mainly because it just tickled me to draw it and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth together - but I could never muster any feeling but contempt for Isolated Chapel.
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
It's also very dependant on your meta. A good call for me could be a bad call for you simply because of different metagame, especially in our deck. If I see a lot of burn decks and you don't, it might seem like a bad idea to you to run more lifegain, but a good idea to me who sees a lot of them. Same thing goes for anything: if you feel like there are a lot of combo player in your meta, study their deck, gain knowledge on their win cons and combo piece, then side-in the right tool to destroy most of them. Even if a third or fourth copy of Nevermore feel like too much, it could be the right choice for your meta. Hell, most sideboards I see only run two pieces of grave hate and one Pithing needle, while I run one more of each and I am pretty confident it's the right amount for me against my meta.
If you ever feel like calculating a bit with statistics, I personally use this site.
Population size: Number of card in your deck, or remaining cards in your deck (Usually 60)
Number of successes in population: The amount of a certain card or group of cards in you deck.
Sample size: the amount of card you draw. You can count your starting hand of 7, or just how much chance you have to draw 1 card after reducing the population size accordingly
Number of successes in sample: put a number here (preferably 1) and see how much chance you have of having this many card in your starting hand or chance you have to draw it if it wasn't in your starting hand.
You can count so many useful statistic with this, it's pretty neat. Here's a couple of noteworthy ones:
-If your landbase is 23 lands, you have 83.5% chance to have at least 2 lands in your starting hand (55% 3 or more). There's a 2.5% chance you don't draw any lands. (Yes, you heard me right, statistically speaking, only one game out of 40 results in a hand with no lands. Bet you feel like it happens more often than that! )
-If your landbase is 24 lands, you have about 86% chance to have at least 2 lands in your starting hand (59% 3 or more). There's a 2.1% chance you don't draw any lands.
-If you run a playset of a certain card (Let's say intangible virture, you have about 40% chance to draw at least one of them in your starting hand, but only about 6% chance to have two or more in your starting hand. If you did not draw any in your opening hand, you have 7.5% chance to draw one next draw step. (and it increases steadily from there on out until you draw one)
- if you run eight of a certain type of card (Let's say 8 removals), you have about 65% chance to draw at least one of them in your starting hand. You also have about 23% chance to have two or more in your starting hand. If you did not draw any in your opening hand, you have about 15% chance to draw one next draw step.
- if you run twelve of a certain type of card (that would usually be our token generators), you have about 81% chance to draw at least one of them in your starting hand. You also have about 43% chance to have two or more in your starting hand. If you did not draw any in your opening hand, you have about 22.5% chance to draw one next draw step.
Also, good to note that fetching actually increase the chance of drawing other card, since fetching a land removes it from your deck and so increase ever so slightly the chance of drawing what you need. It's small crumbles of % and most people will tell you it's no that significative, but in the long run, those crumbles turn into the cards you want.
Fun fact: You have 0.007% chance to draw a full playset of a card in your opponening hand. That roughly mean it will happen once every 14 286 games.
(W/B)BW Tokens(W/B) | (B/R)Rakdos Burn(B/R) | (U/R)Gift Storm(U/R)