If you want 25 lands, then add a treetop. If you want a mountain, exchange the second forest with it and exchange the second foothills with a 4th mire.
With this manabase you have 18 black sources, 18 red sources and 17 green sources. This is definitely enough to cast anger and Lilis. Finks are possible but gets better when you add the 25th land in treetop. This covers everything you might want.
I want 25 lands, with treetop and mountain, bu I currently dont own a 9th fetchland,and the tournement is this saturday, what should I replace it with? Blooming marsh?
@Jori, The Splashy Puddle :
I am on that since a lot of games :
3 raging ravine
2 treetop village
4 blackcleave cliffs
1 twilight mire
2 swamp
1 forest
1 mountain
1 ovegrown tomb
1 blood crypt
1 stomping ground
4 verdant catacombs
2 bloodstained mire
1 wooded foothils
I am not sure about the twilight mire and the mountain, they are just not bad for me up to now. I a happy to have 6 fetchs to find the forest since optimal lands are biland RB + forest. I never understand that second overgrown tomb, maybe i should play it instead of the twilight mire. 5 manlands seems ok too but not really sure at all.
@Piney_Tinecones : i play 4leyline since some months, i didn't play play them in my 2 PPTQS because i knew there was only 5 or 10% of mardu, dredge, hollow one and dredgevine. Now i play the 4 leylines again, it's not bad but i disagree when you say the problem is "BBE don't find it" because BBE is a pretty bad cards in your starting hand (except against mardu). When i don't play it the leylines, i play 2 spellbomb, 1 cage and 1 anger of the gods instead. Hard to choice.
I count only 16 black sources though, which I dont like, especiallt with mountain and 5 creaturelands whom all produce no black. Sire lategame its no problem, and ever good because of the creaturelands, but early game you might stumble vs decks like humans and spirits because you dont have enough black sources and a lot of taplands
Wouldn't side in choke against spirirts. Between Botanical sanctum, aether vial, mana dorks and CoCo, I can't see them being scrwed. Plus, you won't have the time to cast choke anyway. I think its similar with Bant Knightfall.
I could see it against Grixis DS, as their only blue sources are shockland or basic land based, and grixis cant deal with enchantments. So I would try it. Chances are you screw them in other colours too. But its best against control for sure.
I would play 2 surgicals right now, yes.
Grixis players have access to about a million ways to deal with enchantments but they rarely make use of them. When I played Grixis, I never left home without Echoing Truth.
Grixis can't destroy enchantments was my point. When they bounce it, they have to counter it to really get rid of it then. Which seems really bad.
What’s everyone’s Lili spread right now? Is anyone on 5x Lili?
I’ve been away for awhile and I’m trying to figure out some fine-tuning now that we have a new toy.
Also, is anyone on Leyline of the Void? It’s one of the strongest GY hate cards but I don’t like that BBE doesn’t find it for us.
In my case 3/1 split main and 1 extra in the side. I don't want to overload on too many clunky spells since I am on 24 lands. And that has been fine for me.
I don't paly leyline atm since Surgical seems more flexible with trophy. Also I am a huge Spellbomb fan in general.
If you want 25 lands, then add a treetop. If you want a mountain, exchange the second forest with it and exchange the second foothills with a 4th mire.
With this manabase you have 18 black sources, 18 red sources and 17 green sources. This is definitely enough to cast anger and Lilis. Finks are possible but gets better when you add the 25th land in treetop. This covers everything you might want.
I want 25 lands, with treetop and mountain, bu I currently dont own a 9th fetchland,and the tournement is this saturday, what should I replace it with? Blooming marsh?
If you don't run 5 manlands then blooming marsh is an option. You can also run Twilight Mire and no Damping Sphere in the SB.
It's because they don't go well together. If you have Damping Sphere in the play Twilight Mire will produce only colorless mana and no any combination of bg which it otherwise does.
Twilight Mire will still tap for 1 colourless though, meaning you landed your powerful sideboardcard on turn2 which means youre winning anyway, turning your twilight into a colourless land seems like a small price to pay to slow down or shut down storm and tron/eldrazi lands.
@FlyingDelver Ok, so I want to run 25 lands because several reasons; I hate getting land screwed more than flooded, there is a fair amount of path to exile/ghost quarter/ field of ruins/ settle the wreckage in my meta, I have a history of getting land screwed and/or colour screwed out of the game which would otherwise be a win, there is a fair amount of UW and jeskai in my meta therefore I want to play 4 BBE.
@FlyingDelver I always look over the Sideboard Primer on here before a tournament. Very useful and I thank you for keeping it up to date. I do however wonder about a few sideboard cards that arent in there that might be worth it, Choke (silver bullet), Alpine Moon (Silver bullet), Rakdos Charm and Jund Charm (both very versatile for when you need some extra graveyard or artifact hate or sweeper effect besides your already dedicated sideboard cards for those functions)
I honestly rhink too big a deal ia made of the Twilight Mire/Damping Sphere issue. I'm more concerned that it costs 2 mana. That's when I usually want to drop threats. That is also why i prefer Alpine Moon.
Facing a small meta tomorrow with some known decks that might show up, not 100% sure about any of them though, a lot of the small meta have different decks they bring.
Regarding the GDS matchup, I read that its a grindy matchup in which you want kcommand and liliana last hope and get rid of some inquisitions.
I find id rather keep all discard and leave out kcommand and liliana last hope, the matchup often comes down to them landing a gangler or Shadow back up by a stubborn denial. and then they win in 1-3 turns, while u have a useless value spell in hand... I think its better to discard their treaths or counter spell proactively.
I honestly rhink too big a deal ia made of the Twilight Mire/Damping Sphere issue. I'm more concerned that it costs 2 mana. That's when I usually want to drop threats. That is also why i prefer Alpine Moon.
i think alpine moon is good on a looting deck so u can filter away the rest. but it is bad against control. but i do like alpine moon.
and i think jund is the best shell Right now due to its closing games. i was high on abzan traverse but now that ive found a list with grim flayer, the closing ability of the deck got better.
Grixis players have access to about a million ways to deal with enchantments but they rarely make use of them. When I played Grixis, I never left home without Echoing Truth.
Grixis can't destroy enchantments was my point. When they bounce it, they have to counter it to really get rid of it then. Which seems really bad.
Most Grixis players are helpless to a resolved Enchantment and it probably wasn't worth mentioning that they don't have to be. I've beaten Grixis Delver with Pia's Revolution in Affinity and it's just a hoot to cycle Mox Opals until they just can't stand it any more. But I digress. . .
I honestly rhink too big a deal ia made of the Twilight Mire/Damping Sphere issue. I'm more concerned that it costs 2 mana. That's when I usually want to drop threats. That is also why i prefer Alpine Moon.
Its maybe a small issue, and of course it will rarely matter, but its a interaction to keep in mind. I usually like to point it out for the simple reason that I don't see a big loss of just not running twilight mire in the first place. I think its a freebe. Twilight mire doesn't really give a big benefit over say a 9th fetchland or whatever. Thats why I think, if you run Damping Sphere, it is free to avoid this nonbo. Or the other way round, there is no particular upside to risk having this nonbo in the deck.
@FlyingDelver Ok, so I want to run 25 lands because several reasons; I hate getting land screwed more than flooded, there is a fair amount of path to exile/ghost quarter/ field of ruins/ settle the wreckage in my meta, I have a history of getting land screwed and/or colour screwed out of the game which would otherwise be a win, there is a fair amount of UW and jeskai in my meta therefore I want to play 4 BBE.
@FlyingDelver I always look over the Sideboard Primer on here before a tournament. Very useful and I thank you for keeping it up to date. I do however wonder about a few sideboard cards that arent in there that might be worth it, Choke (silver bullet), Alpine Moon (Silver bullet), Rakdos Charm and Jund Charm (both very versatile for when you need some extra graveyard or artifact hate or sweeper effect besides your already dedicated sideboard cards for those functions)
This manabase looks good, go for it!
I have a few cards on my radar which I consider to add into the primer, but unless I don't see them too frequently, I will leave them out for now. Right now those cards are Alpine Moon, Choke, and Nissa/Angrath.
@FlyingDelver I like twilight mire because it always comes down untapped, can help feed the scooze, pay for finks and liliana easily. But I do see my list being a little light on black sources, might try and get my hands on a nineth fetchland. Not sure about the basic mountain vs 2nd forest, will see tomorrow if I regret it
You have any sideboard tips vs Eldrazi taxes @FlyingDelver?
I honestly rhink too big a deal ia made of the Twilight Mire/Damping Sphere issue. I'm more concerned that it costs 2 mana. That's when I usually want to drop threats. That is also why i prefer Alpine Moon.
Its maybe a small issue, and of course it will rarely matter, but its a interaction to keep in mind. I usually like to point it out for the simple reason that I don't see a big loss of just not running twilight mire in the first place. I think its a freebe. Twilight mire doesn't really give a big benefit over say a 9th fetchland or whatever. Thats why I think, if you run Damping Sphere, it is free to avoid this nonbo. Or the other way round, there is no particular upside to risk having this nonbo in the deck.
@FlyingDelver Ok, so I want to run 25 lands because several reasons; I hate getting land screwed more than flooded, there is a fair amount of path to exile/ghost quarter/ field of ruins/ settle the wreckage in my meta, I have a history of getting land screwed and/or colour screwed out of the game which would otherwise be a win, there is a fair amount of UW and jeskai in my meta therefore I want to play 4 BBE.
@FlyingDelver I always look over the Sideboard Primer on here before a tournament. Very useful and I thank you for keeping it up to date. I do however wonder about a few sideboard cards that arent in there that might be worth it, Choke (silver bullet), Alpine Moon (Silver bullet), Rakdos Charm and Jund Charm (both very versatile for when you need some extra graveyard or artifact hate or sweeper effect besides your already dedicated sideboard cards for those functions)
This manabase looks good, go for it!
I have a few cards on my radar which I consider to add into the primer, but unless I don't see them too frequently, I will leave them out for now. Right now those cards are Alpine Moon, Choke, and Nissa/Angrath.
I've been actually been thinking about Angrath, the Flame-Chained recently. What do you think would be good matchups to bring him in against?
I've been actually been thinking about Angrath, the Flame-Chained recently. What do you think would be good matchups to bring him in against?
His best use is the mirror. But Micheal Olsen also likes it for the control matchups, to which I personally say Nissa would be just better. And since Nissa is also quite good in the mirror, I think that Nissa is overall more flexible than Angrath. But testing will show that.
Michael Olsen's reasons for including Angrath (cited from the fb group):
" I wanted to have a sideboard that was good against uwx control and the mirror. Previously, I had a stormbreath dragon in my sideboard to beat uwx control and mardu. (As a side note, let me tell you, stormbreath isn’t good in the mirror).
With the decline in mardu, and expected mirror matches, I figured I needed a card that was good against the mirror that I could use against uwx control.
Terminus is the reason to play uwx, and since it’s a strong card against us, I wanted to weaken it by attacking them at a different angle.
My conclusion to play a five drop for the mirror comes from only two weeks of testing and theory: assassin’s trophy fundamentally changes the mirror. Five mana spells are more common place with your opponents rampant growth-ing you.
Playing angrath is going deep and I’ll tell you why I chose it over:
1. Nissa, viral force - the goyf stand off breaker is scavenging ooze. It doesn’t change with assasin’s trophy. More often than not, spending five mana to regrow is asking a lot. Attacking with a 5/5 haste doesn’t beat a Tarmogoyf. It does, however, beat the Liliana standoff.
2. Thragtusk - I find this card to be enimic in the mirror. Yes, it is a value creature, but more often than not, tarmogoyf is bigger. Good against the Liliana stand off for a turn of reprieve, though
3. Ob Nixilis - it’s a two for one without much play to it. The loss of life isn’t marginal, and spending five mana to cantrip against uwx doesn’t help close the game with your creature beat down plan.
4. Chandra ToD - the planeswalker that does everything but kill a tarmogoyf. Against UWx control, spending mana to make them use a card out of their hand isn’t as strong as forcing them to discard before playing a spell (they aren’t gaining tempo). If you don’t like angrath, and are too stubborn to try him out, just play this card.
5. Hazoret - this card is hard to initially deal with outside of Liliana of the veil. Yes its a strong card, but can be bricked by tarmogoyfs while also plays into uwx’s paths and terminus’. (This is close to the “dies to doom blade” argument, but if you can beat them around from terminus then you should try and find other avenues.)
Angrath allows you to catch up while you’re behind and stay ahead when you’re ahead. The highest ceiling for the card goes: “steal your tarmogoyf, attack your Liliana, your Liliana dies, sac your tarmogoyf, pass the turn.”"
Now, I think he rates Nissa to low, but other than that I can see his reasoning. Like I said, I am personally quite high on Nissa actually, but of course all those options are interesting for certain situations.
@FlyingDelver : i agree if twilight mire just do nothing more than any other land, that's obviously not the case, this land give you some life each time you have it against aggro, you can bluff to don't have any black sometimes and slam a LotV after. I understand but your reflexion doesn't make sense at all for me.
Well and I don't agree with you reflexion. I don't think bluffing against aggro is valuable at all and hardly a reasonable argument. We are almost what I refer as being a "mono removal deck" which means aggro will always play around removal if it means they get blown out unless we are tapped out. And I don't think bluffing adds much value here when it comes from a deck which naturally runs a heavy amount of removal. If you add the fact to it that LoTV is often bad vs aggro this makes it even less relevant, if relevant at all.
The way I see it, Twilight Mire can preserve some life totals against aggro, sure. However, the downside is that we need and want to be as efficient with our spells as possible against aggro, otherwise we are rolled over. And mire doesnt go well in the first three turns, especially on turn 2 you would like to be able to discard + hold up removal or want to be able cast bolt + push which mire can't provide on turn 2. And Mire can be really bad in the opening hand. Mire is overall very awkward in the early turns and imo especially vs aggro where efficiency is very high on the strategy plan. And therefore, even if I personally would not do it, If you had a Blooming Marsh in that spot your life argument is also fulfilled but you can still cast your spells. So, in the context of your argument which addresses the aggro matchups, overall I don't see a real benefit of having mire over blooming marsh even or for me its a 9th fetchland. I am personally willing to spent some life in order to cast my spells and be more efficient. The deck is already clunky enough with the manlands, don't need to complicate sequencing with twilight mire also.
I haven't give Angrath a try just yet but looking at him on the paper he looks pretty weak to me. I don't find any of his abilities really good and helpful in most situations. I think we have better option available against decks you might want him. He doesn't do anything super relevant against control and even against other midrange decks (where he is at his best) he doesn't seem very appealing to me.
Nissa is better if you want something for the mirror that also helps us against control. Both Chandras are also superior to him if you ask me.
I mean what we have to give angrath credit for is the insane comeback potential when you are behind. If say your opponent has a goyf and LoTV in play, you can play angrath, get the goyf, kill liliana and the sac the goyf at the end of turn and you are still left with a PW on board. In theory in this particualr case this is insane. However, it is only this particular case (or similar ones at least) where the potential is very high. I am not sure if in all other cases angrath still pulls its weight, for which reason I am also sceptical.
"Board Out
Thoughtseize
Liliana of the Veil
Mountain or Forest
(25 land builds only)
Bloodbraid Elf (1-2)"
I would argue that on the play and even on the draw you want thoughtseize to strip away their 2-3 drops, and Scooze is not so hot in the matchup along with bloodbraid. I even found liliana lasthope underwheling today, she hardly kills anything that matters, especially manlands, ravager, champion.
I lost in the semi finale today against affinity 1-2, it was also my only loss in the swiss round 1 with 0-2, first I lost against etched champion, and in the semi against inkmoth +topdeck ravager, for this reason im pretty sure I want kozileks return back in my sideboard, sick of losing to those cards.
I find that I often lose to etched champion or inkmoth nexus in the matchups, and ive got very few awnsers postboard for champion, so keeping the discard would help their.
I did topdeck dead discard later on a few times, but those would have been scooze, liliana, bloodbraids which wouldnt have helped me kill inkmoth nexus anyways, maybe bloodbraid, but I still had 1 in the deck anyways and I understand its to expensive to matter, you might be dead by the time u cast it, but I think scooze should be on the ''board out'' plan for affinity, sure it can grow, but I hardly have time to utilize scooze and the card doesnt help against dying to poison counters.
@Jori This is a fair assessment, however I think these scenarios are more or less specific scenarios. Ooze can help to retain life if they don't have inkmoth. But I do think TS got more value against Affinity since some lists started to play Karn now. Maybe you can change the SB plan and make a small hedge of that by keeping 1 TS in and board in 1 Ooze instead. But I do think these small hedges are within the realm of personal assessment and skill of the matchup.
@FlyingDelver : i wrote pretty bad my previous post, my problem is your shortcut about "not play twilight mire if you play damping sphere", if this shortcut is true that means twilight mire not do anything more than an other land. I have the impression you always want to play the safest manabase ever, that's fair, i was happy to play ghost quarters or 23 lands sometimes, my threshold of "clunky" is lower than yours ^^ !
What can I say, I am just a big fan of consistancy. When the nature of the deck is already pretty variance-driven due to the dynamics of the meta, I like to be very precise about things to improve the consistancy. It is okay if that is not for everyone.
I definitely like Nissa and Chandra more than Angrath. On Nilixis was decent as well the couple times I tried it. Playing Angrath for some corner case seems pretty bad and very "anti-Jund." I might try it anyway. This one just feels sketchy.
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I’ve been away for awhile and I’m trying to figure out some fine-tuning now that we have a new toy.
Also, is anyone on Leyline of the Void? It’s one of the strongest GY hate cards but I don’t like that BBE doesn’t find it for us.
BRGJUNDGRB---BRHOLLOW ONERB---BGELVESGB---BRGLIVING ENDGRB---GWBOGLESWG
EDH:
BRGKARRTHUS, TYRANT OF JUNDGRB
I want 25 lands, with treetop and mountain, bu I currently dont own a 9th fetchland,and the tournement is this saturday, what should I replace it with? Blooming marsh?
I count only 16 black sources though, which I dont like, especiallt with mountain and 5 creaturelands whom all produce no black. Sire lategame its no problem, and ever good because of the creaturelands, but early game you might stumble vs decks like humans and spirits because you dont have enough black sources and a lot of taplands
Grixis can't destroy enchantments was my point. When they bounce it, they have to counter it to really get rid of it then. Which seems really bad.
In my case 3/1 split main and 1 extra in the side. I don't want to overload on too many clunky spells since I am on 24 lands. And that has been fine for me.
I don't paly leyline atm since Surgical seems more flexible with trophy. Also I am a huge Spellbomb fan in general.
If you don't run 5 manlands then blooming marsh is an option. You can also run Twilight Mire and no Damping Sphere in the SB.
Twilight Mire will still tap for 1 colourless though, meaning you landed your powerful sideboardcard on turn2 which means youre winning anyway, turning your twilight into a colourless land seems like a small price to pay to slow down or shut down storm and tron/eldrazi lands.
@FlyingDelver Ok, so I want to run 25 lands because several reasons; I hate getting land screwed more than flooded, there is a fair amount of path to exile/ghost quarter/ field of ruins/ settle the wreckage in my meta, I have a history of getting land screwed and/or colour screwed out of the game which would otherwise be a win, there is a fair amount of UW and jeskai in my meta therefore I want to play 4 BBE.
Im thinking this:
25 lands + 4BBE + 7/8 3drops
3 raging ravine
1 treetop village
4 blackcleave cliffs
1 twilight mire
2 swamp
1 forest
1 mountain
2 ovegrown tomb
1 blood crypt
1 stomping ground
4 verdant catacombs
3 bloodstained mire
1 wooded foothills
@FlyingDelver I always look over the Sideboard Primer on here before a tournament. Very useful and I thank you for keeping it up to date. I do however wonder about a few sideboard cards that arent in there that might be worth it, Choke (silver bullet), Alpine Moon (Silver bullet), Rakdos Charm and Jund Charm (both very versatile for when you need some extra graveyard or artifact hate or sweeper effect besides your already dedicated sideboard cards for those functions)
Facing a small meta tomorrow with some known decks that might show up, not 100% sure about any of them though, a lot of the small meta have different decks they bring.
1-2 afinity, scapeshift, bant spirits, GDS, GreenTron, hardened scales, grixis control, UW control, jeskai control, mardu pyromancer, tooth and nail, boggles, living end, pox, hollow one, humans, storm
25 lands
4 blackcleave cliffs
1 twilight mire
2 overgrown tomb
1 bloodcrypt
1 stomping ground
3 raging ravine
4 verdant catacombs
1 wooded foothills
3 bloodstained mire
2 swamp
1 forest
1 mountain
1 treetop village
14 creatures
4 bloodbraid
3 dark confidant
4 goyf
3 scooze
21 spells
4 liliana of the veil
1 fatal push
2 kcommand
4 assassin’s trophy
4 lightning bolt
2 thoughtseize
4 inquisition
Sideboard 15
1 maelstrom pulse
1 surgical
1 thoughtseize
3 fulmiMage
1 Collective brutality
1 Anger of the gods
1 engineered explosives
2 nihil Spellbomb
1 liliana the last hope
2 kitchen finks
1 damnation
I find id rather keep all discard and leave out kcommand and liliana last hope, the matchup often comes down to them landing a gangler or Shadow back up by a stubborn denial. and then they win in 1-3 turns, while u have a useless value spell in hand... I think its better to discard their treaths or counter spell proactively.
i think alpine moon is good on a looting deck so u can filter away the rest. but it is bad against control. but i do like alpine moon.
and i think jund is the best shell Right now due to its closing games. i was high on abzan traverse but now that ive found a list with grim flayer, the closing ability of the deck got better.
Most Grixis players are helpless to a resolved Enchantment and it probably wasn't worth mentioning that they don't have to be. I've beaten Grixis Delver with Pia's Revolution in Affinity and it's just a hoot to cycle Mox Opals until they just can't stand it any more. But I digress. . .
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
Its maybe a small issue, and of course it will rarely matter, but its a interaction to keep in mind. I usually like to point it out for the simple reason that I don't see a big loss of just not running twilight mire in the first place. I think its a freebe. Twilight mire doesn't really give a big benefit over say a 9th fetchland or whatever. Thats why I think, if you run Damping Sphere, it is free to avoid this nonbo. Or the other way round, there is no particular upside to risk having this nonbo in the deck.
This manabase looks good, go for it!
I have a few cards on my radar which I consider to add into the primer, but unless I don't see them too frequently, I will leave them out for now. Right now those cards are Alpine Moon, Choke, and Nissa/Angrath.
You have any sideboard tips vs Eldrazi taxes @FlyingDelver?
I've been actually been thinking about Angrath, the Flame-Chained recently. What do you think would be good matchups to bring him in against?
BGGRock
Modern
BRGJund
BBGRock
I am curious why I'm seeing this uptick in interest for Angrath, the Flame-Chained. It seems subpar to other choices we currently have available. For instance, why Angrath instead of Ob Nixilis Reignited, Chandra, Pyromaster or Chandra, Torch of Defiance?
His best use is the mirror. But Micheal Olsen also likes it for the control matchups, to which I personally say Nissa would be just better. And since Nissa is also quite good in the mirror, I think that Nissa is overall more flexible than Angrath. But testing will show that.
Michael Olsen's reasons for including Angrath (cited from the fb group):
" I wanted to have a sideboard that was good against uwx control and the mirror. Previously, I had a stormbreath dragon in my sideboard to beat uwx control and mardu. (As a side note, let me tell you, stormbreath isn’t good in the mirror).
With the decline in mardu, and expected mirror matches, I figured I needed a card that was good against the mirror that I could use against uwx control.
Terminus is the reason to play uwx, and since it’s a strong card against us, I wanted to weaken it by attacking them at a different angle.
My conclusion to play a five drop for the mirror comes from only two weeks of testing and theory: assassin’s trophy fundamentally changes the mirror. Five mana spells are more common place with your opponents rampant growth-ing you.
Playing angrath is going deep and I’ll tell you why I chose it over:
1. Nissa, viral force - the goyf stand off breaker is scavenging ooze. It doesn’t change with assasin’s trophy. More often than not, spending five mana to regrow is asking a lot. Attacking with a 5/5 haste doesn’t beat a Tarmogoyf. It does, however, beat the Liliana standoff.
2. Thragtusk - I find this card to be enimic in the mirror. Yes, it is a value creature, but more often than not, tarmogoyf is bigger. Good against the Liliana stand off for a turn of reprieve, though
3. Ob Nixilis - it’s a two for one without much play to it. The loss of life isn’t marginal, and spending five mana to cantrip against uwx doesn’t help close the game with your creature beat down plan.
4. Chandra ToD - the planeswalker that does everything but kill a tarmogoyf. Against UWx control, spending mana to make them use a card out of their hand isn’t as strong as forcing them to discard before playing a spell (they aren’t gaining tempo). If you don’t like angrath, and are too stubborn to try him out, just play this card.
5. Hazoret - this card is hard to initially deal with outside of Liliana of the veil. Yes its a strong card, but can be bricked by tarmogoyfs while also plays into uwx’s paths and terminus’. (This is close to the “dies to doom blade” argument, but if you can beat them around from terminus then you should try and find other avenues.)
Angrath allows you to catch up while you’re behind and stay ahead when you’re ahead. The highest ceiling for the card goes: “steal your tarmogoyf, attack your Liliana, your Liliana dies, sac your tarmogoyf, pass the turn.”"
Now, I think he rates Nissa to low, but other than that I can see his reasoning. Like I said, I am personally quite high on Nissa actually, but of course all those options are interesting for certain situations.
Well and I don't agree with you reflexion. I don't think bluffing against aggro is valuable at all and hardly a reasonable argument. We are almost what I refer as being a "mono removal deck" which means aggro will always play around removal if it means they get blown out unless we are tapped out. And I don't think bluffing adds much value here when it comes from a deck which naturally runs a heavy amount of removal. If you add the fact to it that LoTV is often bad vs aggro this makes it even less relevant, if relevant at all.
The way I see it, Twilight Mire can preserve some life totals against aggro, sure. However, the downside is that we need and want to be as efficient with our spells as possible against aggro, otherwise we are rolled over. And mire doesnt go well in the first three turns, especially on turn 2 you would like to be able to discard + hold up removal or want to be able cast bolt + push which mire can't provide on turn 2. And Mire can be really bad in the opening hand. Mire is overall very awkward in the early turns and imo especially vs aggro where efficiency is very high on the strategy plan. And therefore, even if I personally would not do it, If you had a Blooming Marsh in that spot your life argument is also fulfilled but you can still cast your spells. So, in the context of your argument which addresses the aggro matchups, overall I don't see a real benefit of having mire over blooming marsh even or for me its a 9th fetchland. I am personally willing to spent some life in order to cast my spells and be more efficient. The deck is already clunky enough with the manlands, don't need to complicate sequencing with twilight mire also.
I mean what we have to give angrath credit for is the insane comeback potential when you are behind. If say your opponent has a goyf and LoTV in play, you can play angrath, get the goyf, kill liliana and the sac the goyf at the end of turn and you are still left with a PW on board. In theory in this particualr case this is insane. However, it is only this particular case (or similar ones at least) where the potential is very high. I am not sure if in all other cases angrath still pulls its weight, for which reason I am also sceptical.
Affinity
"Board Out
Thoughtseize
Liliana of the Veil
Mountain or Forest
(25 land builds only)
Bloodbraid Elf (1-2)"
I would argue that on the play and even on the draw you want thoughtseize to strip away their 2-3 drops, and Scooze is not so hot in the matchup along with bloodbraid. I even found liliana lasthope underwheling today, she hardly kills anything that matters, especially manlands, ravager, champion.
I lost in the semi finale today against affinity 1-2, it was also my only loss in the swiss round 1 with 0-2, first I lost against etched champion, and in the semi against inkmoth +topdeck ravager, for this reason im pretty sure I want kozileks return back in my sideboard, sick of losing to those cards.
I find that I often lose to etched champion or inkmoth nexus in the matchups, and ive got very few awnsers postboard for champion, so keeping the discard would help their.
I did topdeck dead discard later on a few times, but those would have been scooze, liliana, bloodbraids which wouldnt have helped me kill inkmoth nexus anyways, maybe bloodbraid, but I still had 1 in the deck anyways and I understand its to expensive to matter, you might be dead by the time u cast it, but I think scooze should be on the ''board out'' plan for affinity, sure it can grow, but I hardly have time to utilize scooze and the card doesnt help against dying to poison counters.
What can I say, I am just a big fan of consistancy. When the nature of the deck is already pretty variance-driven due to the dynamics of the meta, I like to be very precise about things to improve the consistancy. It is okay if that is not for everyone.