The Living End in his meta is the Jund version, which is a much different game. I’ve played Living End in the last 4 Midwest opens to 4-1, 5-0, 5-1, 5-0 starts respectively before dropping matches in the real rounds, but never dropped a match to Grixis Deaths Shadow.
You can’t tap out, EOT they can Beast Within a Blue source, you don’t have an answer for Fulminator Mage, it’s a very different dynamic than playing against the Blue version that relies on sorcery speed Living End.
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Granted , and you are basically right, but I'll counter a bit. First, for the purposes of my tournament tomorrow, its perfectly fine to have a few 'dedicated' slots because Fatal Push decks are a full 40 percent of the meta. The hurdle for the card to earn a sideboard slot or two for the GP is much higher. Also, about the body and timing. The bread and butter spells for Daredevil are the same as Snapcaster: Serum Visions, Thoughtseize, Fatal Push. I consider it a three-drop in most situations. This snagging and casting a Lingering Souls on 5 is basically never going to happen, because they would generally just flash it back themselves and I don't want 5 lands anyway. Ceiling is Kolaghan's Command most of the time, but an extra Terminate that leaves behind a Piker is fine. Also, the body is essentially the same as Snapcaster. Small, bad against all the big guys, bad against Liliana the Last Hope, good against Edicts. A small but relevant point is that the first strike means it is effective against tokens and opposing Snapcasters.
The new Mono-U Living End seems like a really good matchup for us. I've run a few games against a friend who built the deck, and dropped a single game of about 6-7 due to him having an absolute god draw. Other than that I was able to both pick apart his hand and counter any As Foretolds he was trying to land in order to secure the wins.
I don't think this is an unfavorable matchup, but it can be trickier than you think. The plus side is that if you have keep As Fortold off the table they basically can't win, but they have a couple good tools. Ancestral Vision has been a good counter to Thoughtseize decks for a long time, and that's still true here. We can often just invalidate most of their deck to make it irrelevant, but we don't have any draw threes so its possible that they play the old fasioned blue control 'bully them with extra cards' game. Another one that is easy to miss is Remand. Part of the reason Angler and Tasigur are so good is that people aren't really playing this card a lot, but its very good against Delve and in blue Mirrors.
I’d like to point out that against Living End, discard isn’t nearly as good as you’re thinking. They play 8 copies of their Cascade spells and ~16 1-mana draw spells. Not to mention Beast Within your guy after battle rage. I’d throw some games against that one, it doesn’t navigate like normal combo. You may play a Deaths shadow at 14 life with a fetch in play to Trump their yard flip.
You're 100 percent right. Thoughtseize or Inquisition is still your best turn one play, but you can't just rely on one discard spell and be in the clear. Stubborn Denial is another real winner here, especially if they are going to come with Beast Within and Ricochet Traps. Quick clock plus disruption is the best plan but it is undeniably tricky. You can lose just by cracking a fetch at the wrong time, and Gorilla powered Fulminator Mages can also wreak havoc.
I have to take back some of my criticism in regard to maindeck TBRs.
Today I played 15 practice matches in a row on MTGO and took notes on which cards were good in each matchup and what my opponents did to stop me. Unsurprisingly, Thoughtseize, Stubborn Denial and Gurmag Angler were the MVPs.
What surprised me was the lack of interaction in the vast majority of the games. The two most interactive matches were against Storm and Bant Eldrazi, and frankly, these decks were not that interactive. To be fair, I also rolled over a blue red control deck before my opponent had the opportunity to interact much. But even that opponent was busy trying to resolve one of their maindeck Blood Moons when they were not Opting or Serum Vision-ing. Of the 15 decks, 6 were Company/Chord decks in various color combinations that mostly played solitaire.
I went 12-3 in matches, losing only to Elves (very close), Esper Tokens (totally owned me with Lingering Souls) and Mono Red Hollow One (in both games I was stuck on 2 lands for the entire time). 10 of the 12 matches that I won ended 2-0 in games for me. I'm sure I won some of these games because I was more experienced with my deck than my opponents were with theirs, even though I also was playing an unfamiliar version with a new sideboard. On the other hand, I doubt that most of the solitaire decks are that hard to master. Anyway, I'm glad that TBR helped end some of these games prematurely. And I'm looking forward to some mirror matches in the future, which are currently by far the most enjoyable games for me.
I have to take back some of my criticism in regard to maindeck TBRs.
Today I played 15 practice matches in a row on MTGO and took notes on which cards were good in each matchup and what my opponents did to stop me. Unsurprisingly, Thoughtseize, Stubborn Denial and Gurmag Angler were the MVPs.
What surprised me was the lack of interaction in the vast majority of the games. The two most interactive matches were against Storm and Bant Eldrazi, and frankly, these decks were not that interactive. To be fair, I also rolled over a blue red control deck before my opponent had the opportunity to interact much. But even that opponent was busy trying to resolve one of their maindeck Blood Moons when they were not Opting or Serum Vision-ing. Of the 15 decks, 6 were Company/Chord decks in various color combinations that mostly played solitaire.
I went 12-3 in matches, losing only to Elves (very close), Esper Tokens (totally owned me with Lingering Souls) and Mono Red Hollow One (in both games I was stuck on 2 lands for the entire time). 10 of the 12 matches that I won ended 2-0 in games for me. I'm sure I won some of these games because I was more experienced with my deck than my opponents were with theirs, even though I also was playing an unfamiliar version with a new sideboard. On the other hand, I doubt that most of the solitaire decks are that hard to master. Anyway, I'm glad that TBR helped end some of these games prematurely. And I'm looking forward to some mirror matches in the future, which are currently by far the most enjoyable games for me.
Sure, but keep in mind that these were practice matches against opponents of varying skill levels.
My deck list was stock except for running a split of 3 Anglers / 1 Tasigur, which also means that Angler had much more opportunity to shine. I also played a LotV over the 4th Snapcaster Mage, which I kind of regretted because I had problems establishing a threat in several games, in which a 2/1 + with flashed-backed Opt would have been better in comparison.
Without further ado, here's my afternoon "report".
Match 1 - Naya Company (Knight of the Reliquary) 2-0
G1: Opponent is busy chump blocking, all their creatures die as I draw tons of discard and removal, it's not even close
G2: Opponent is stuck on two lands after I kill their mana dorks, they have a hand full of cards, but apparently no way to interact with my Izzet Staticaster
Good Cards: Death's Shadow, Dismember, Izzet Staticaster
Match 2 - Blue Living End 2-1
G1: Opponent draws 2 As Foretolds, 3 Living Ends and 2 Cryptic Commands, I die
G2: Heavy disruption thanks to Liliana of the Veil, Stubborn Denial counters their Ancestral Vision, Rakdos Charm wipes their yard
G3: Opponent has Leyline of Sanctity but misses turn 2 land drop, draws some land, but it's already too late
Good Cards: Stubborn Denial, Liliana of the Veil, Gurmag Angler, Rakdos Charm
Match 3 - Esper Tokens 0-2
G1: I mulligan into a terrible hand with 2 removal spells and a Snapcaster Mage, which they make me discard, they run over me with a bunch of spirit tokens
G2: I am on land short of casting Angler (don't have Tasigur) when they cast Surgical Extraction on a Snapcaster Mage that I milled with my first Thought Scour, taking another Snapcaster Mage from my hand, this makes it even harder to cast my Angler and the spirit tokens get me before Angler becomes relevant
Good Cards: Thoughtseize, Tasigur the Golden Fang
Match 4 - Blue Moon 2-0
G1: I play around Remand, I let them have Blood Moon because I already have my two basics, an Angler and 2 Stubborn Denials, they die quickly
G2: They are stuck on multiple copies of Shadow of Doubt which would have screwed me had they had the mana to cast it, Gurmag Angler runs over them
Good Cards: Thoughtseize, Death's Shadow, Gurmag Angler
Match 5 - Gb Elves (Company) 1-2
G1: They mulligan to 5, but still build up insanely fast, I die with a TBR in hand after they topdecked exactly the one land that they needed for a big Ezuri attack
G2: Again my opponent has a very good board, successfully playing around my Staticaster with a timely Lord, in the end, I get them with TBR and Stubborn Denial backup, despite some nasty Scooze action
G3: They take my only threat with Thoughtseize on turn 1, as it turns out there is no second threat in the top 27 cards of my deck, so I slowly bleed out against a board of small buggers
Good Cards: Temur Battle Rage, Fatal Push
Match 6 - Bant Company 2-1
G1: I totally roll over him with Gurmak Angler and Death's Shadow with the removal that I was short on in the games vs. Elves, my deck feels like a combo deck this game
G2: My opponent land floods, but my deck fails to produce a threat again, eventually they kill me with Sigarda, Host of Herons of all cards after a long game
G3: Slow game again, but this time 2 Shadows and TBR roll over the few creatures my opponent manages to cast for an uncontested win
Good Cards: Death's Shadow, Stubborn Denial, Temur Battle Rage
Match 7 - Mono-Red Prison 2-0
G1: Fatal Push kills Eidolon, Stubborn Denial stops a turn 2 Chalice of the Void, I decide to cast Liliana of the Veil over a threat, my opponent casts Blood Moon (I saw that coming), but I already have the basic Swamp to cast Angler, opponent scoops after discarding some cards and taking a beating
G2: I'm unhappy to start with two Ceremonious Rejections, but my opponent has Sorcerous Spyglass on turn 2 and Chalice on turn 3, I thoughtseize a Magus of the Moon, leaving them with only lands in hand, my opponent scoops again
Good Cards: Ceremonious Rejection, Liliana of the Veil, Gurmag Angler
Match 8 - Naya Burn 2-0
G1: Opponent has lots of gas but is stuck on 2 lands, Gurmag Angler + TBR proof to be too much to handle
G2: Game 2: IOK reveals a Path and an Ensnaring Bridge, opponent is again stuck on good cards but few lands, 2 Swiftspears are no match for 2 Death's Shadows
Good Cards: Death's Shadow, Stubborn Denial, Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Fatal Push
Match 9 - Gift's Storm 2-0
G1: My opponent kinda goes off when I tap out for an early Angler, killing it and lowering my life total from 15 to 7 with a Past in Flames in the yard, I have way too many lands, but also some removal for their dorks, eventually I find a second Angler and kill them before they can combo off
G2: It's my opponent's turn to be mana flooded and they are even better at this than me, my disruption ensures an easy win
Good Cards: Stubborn Denial, Gurmag Angler, Fatal Push, Snapcaster Mage
Match 10 - Bant Eldrazi 2-0
G1: My opponent has Eldrazi Temple but no Eldrazi, just a bunch of mana dorks and a Fauna Shaman, they all die a horrible death
G2: The game drags endlessly as my opponent and me are both land flooded, Relic of Progenitus does some work for them, and they have multiple Paths and Blessed Alliances for my threats, then they suddenly start drawing about one Eldrazi per turn, lowering my life total to 2 before I can stabilize and take over the board with multiple threats
Good Cards: Thoughtseize, Fatal Push, Dismember
Match 11 - Blue Red Breach Combo 2-0
G1: They have a land heavy hand and I take what little action is left with my discard spells, eventually I get Angler down and they die
G2: They are still setting up their board when two rather small Shadows come at them before they can hit the 5 mana they need for Breach (which I would have countered)
Good Cards: Stubborn Denial, Thoughtseize
Match 12 - 4C Vizier Company 2-0
G1: They basically ignore me outside of chumpblocking, but not even half their combo remains on the board long enough to lose summoning sickness
G2: This time they actually interact with my cards once when they bounce a Death's Shadow with Reflector Mage after I baited them to do so by making them discard their alternatives, I proceed to drop Angler, Shadow comes back from vacation, game over
Good Cards: Death's Shadow, Gurmag Angler, Street Wraith
Match 13 - Hollow One 0-2
G1: I'm stuck on two lands and can't find another one despite casting multiple cantrips, they have a hand full of action and slaughter me
G2: I'm stuck on two lands again, this time they even cast Molten Rain on one those lands after a few turns, not good
Good Cards: Stubborn Denial, Fatal Push
Match 14 - GW Company 2-0
G1: They seem to have a full playset of Renegade Rallier, Eternal Witness and Kitchen Finks, which would have been a problem, had they enough mana and revolt triggers to cast them all before Angler and two Shadows got out of control
G2: They are low on creatures this time, but I'm still one removal short of stopping their Scooze from growing dangerously big, yet my opponent underestimates my ability of lowering my life total and die on the back swing of their first attack
Good Cards: Dismember, Thoughtseize, Gurmag Angler, Death's Shadow
Match 15 - Abzan Vizier Company 2-0
G1: This game feels like a deja-vu from G1 against the 4C Vizier Company deck, but this time my opponent also has a slow start except for two druids which both die before they can tap
G2: Apparently they boarded in a Path that kills one of my two Death's Shadows, unfortunately for them, this also gives me the land that I needed to cast an Angler, followed by a Temur Battle Rage with Stubborn Denial backup
Good Cards: Death's Shadow, Temur Battle Rage, Fatal Push
I feel like I need a spot for engineered explosives and 1-2 copies of surgical extraction . I'm playing GP Toronto in 2 weeks so i wanna make sure I have the best chances of doing well
Regarding Serum Visions vs Opt - I think it's actually reasonable to have both in the deck as a split. Both have their uses. I feel like 18 lands and 4 opt leads to a lot of unkeepable openers (for example, 2 lands + opt + thought scour + slow spells (e.g. TBR/Kolaghans) - is that keepable? what about 1 lander with just opt?). The power of serum visions to dig 4 over 2 turns instead of opt's digging 2 over 1 turn is very relevant when you need a land or a threat. However, opt is definitely smoother and has less negative interactions with the rest of the deck i.e. thought scour and fetching.
4 visions is definitely wrong in a world with opt, because visions has diminishing returns. Any hand with 1 opt 1 visions is going to be stronger than a hand with 2 visions.
I'm playing a grixis combo-control hybrid type deck. In some ways similar to your decks.
The biggest issue I am facing is aggro decks. I can race, but not always. I have interaction in the form of inquisitions, and thoughtseize, but those can be fairly ineffective vs decks where all the spells are redundant, like all of the low curve decks that try to vomit their hand onto the board and kill fast. burn, affinity, zoo, humans, elves, merfolk, dredge, ..
I have access to ~6-8 slots in the deck postboard, I'm thinking collective brutality? anger of the gods? engineered explosives? tasigurs/anglers? (I can support them easily), bolts/pushes, and maybe Hello all
I'm playing a grixis combo-control hybrid type deck. In some ways similar to your decks.
The biggest issue I am facing is aggro decks. I can race, but not always. I have interaction in the form of inquisitions, and thoughtseize, but those can be fairly ineffective vs decks where all the spells are redundant, like all of the low curve decks that try to vomit their hand onto the board and kill fast. burn, affinity, zoo, humans, elves, merfolk, dredge, ..
I have access to ~6-8 slots in the deck postboard, I'm thinking collective brutality? anger of the gods? engineered explosives? tasigurs/anglers? (I can support them easily), bolts/pushes(and maybe snapcasters?)? damnation? bontu's last reckoning? Pyroclasm?
It seems over here you already play a lot of those cards. So what do you reckon are the most impactful cards that can be played in those matchups?
This a death's shadow deck, so nothing to do with grixis control. I would try to post someplace else. And without a list nobody is going to be able to help you.
Can someone please help me with young Pyro in the SB. Do I just bring her in for the midrange/control matchup? If anyone has experience on what matchups in particular she shines that would be helpful. Thanks!
Can someone please help me with young Pyro in the SB. Do I just bring her in for the midrange/control matchup? If anyone has experience on what matchups in particular she shines that would be helpful. Thanks!
Besides midrange and control matchups as you mention, it's good against,
Go-wide strategies (I've turned many Humans games around with a YP that stuck around for a couple of turns)
Games where you're expecting graveyard hate (in place of Anglers)
Grixis DS mirror
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BUR Grixis Death's Shadow RBW Mardu Pyromancer GBR Gx Tron
Can someone please help me with young Pyro in the SB. Do I just bring her in for the midrange/control matchup? If anyone has experience on what matchups in particular she shines that would be helpful. Thanks!
Also quite good against Abzan/ Rock style decks with a critical mass of removal and LotV.
Her -2 crushes Shadow most of the time due to our low threat count, young peezy gives us edict chaff.
Thoughts on removing inquistion of kozilek in general and replace them with bolts or different spells. Running a 4-2 split with thoughtsieze but sometimes it feels pretty bad when you draw the discard spells very late.
No. It shouldn't feel bad to draw inquisition later in the game. You just keep it in your hand until you want to deploy a threat to clear the way. You want discard T1 so 6 discard spells is the minimum.
The problem with faithless looting that I can see is which land do we want to fetch for t1. Most of the time the correct way is to fetch a watery grave for both t1 and 2. With faithless, we have to choose between fetching a watery grave or blood crypt. Maybe not 4 faithless but 1-2 might be the correct amount if we want to go this route.
Lestart is right. Faithless Looting was one of the first cards that I tested in Grixis Shadow shortly after the deck had its breakout appearance. Back then, Faithless Looting had been the backbone of a rogue Grixis Aggro deck I had previously played, so I was very eager to integrate it into my new deck. Unfortunately, this change effectively turned Grixis Shadow into a UBR deck instead of a UBr deck, resulting in frequent mana issues without adding that much power to the deck. It's also noteworthy that Faithless Looting doesn't play well with Delve creatures.
That's card disadvantage and makes it even more profitable to neutralize your Gurmag Angler because you have one less card to recover from that. In addition, a turn 2 Gurmag Angler is most profitable against mostly non-interactive decks like Tron and Titanshift. But the one way these decks are interacting with your deck early is by attacking your graveyard. While it is certainly not impossible to play around a turn 1 Relic of Progenitus on your opponent's side, doing so is considerably harder with four copies of Gurmag Angler and no Tasigurs. Yes, it is still going to work sometimes, but the more you rely on things going well for you, the more likely you are going to get punished.
I would at the very least put 2 Young Pyromancers and some additional artifact/enchantment removal (Engineered Explosives etc.) in the sideboard to fight your way through graveyard hate. The typical Mardu Pyromancer deck has 3 or 4 Kolaghan's Command maindeck and some combination of Wear/Tear, Engineered Explosives, Stony Silence and Pithing Needle in the sideboard (4 to 6 cards in total). Your deck has just 1 By Force and doesn't even run a second copy of Kolaghan's Command.
Then why not cut a couple delve creatures for pyros or souls main, or heck even bobs if you want to use looting and cut delvers. I would then cut scours for sv though.
Faithless Looting has worse card selection than Serum Visions. You will be tapped out when you cast it on turn 1 or 2 most of the time, so getting cards a turn earlier won't even matter much.
IMHO Faithless Looting is a build-around card which is good in the Mardu Pyromancer deck because almost every other card in it that isn't a discard/removal spell benefits significantly from it or negates its drawback (Bedlam Reveler, Young Pyromancer, Lingering Souls, Collective Brutality, Kolaghan's Command). There is a lot of synergy here, while there is next to no synergy between Faithless Looting and Death's Shadow, Stubborn Denial and Temur Battle Rage.
The more I think about it, I would rather replace Thought Scour with Faithless Looting in order to maximize the deck's ability to dig for a threat. Faithless Looting and Serum Visions even have some nice synergies with each other.
You're playing an entirely different deck with faithless looting...
Tested opt/visions split and going back to 4 opt. It's just so much smoother. The problem is I don't think 1 Landers with opt are keepable so either I need another cantrip or a 19th land.
Also beem testing a remand main board. Very impressive against big mana and control. Terrible against low to the ground creature decks.
You can’t tap out, EOT they can Beast Within a Blue source, you don’t have an answer for Fulminator Mage, it’s a very different dynamic than playing against the Blue version that relies on sorcery speed Living End.
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Granted , and you are basically right, but I'll counter a bit. First, for the purposes of my tournament tomorrow, its perfectly fine to have a few 'dedicated' slots because Fatal Push decks are a full 40 percent of the meta. The hurdle for the card to earn a sideboard slot or two for the GP is much higher. Also, about the body and timing. The bread and butter spells for Daredevil are the same as Snapcaster: Serum Visions, Thoughtseize, Fatal Push. I consider it a three-drop in most situations. This snagging and casting a Lingering Souls on 5 is basically never going to happen, because they would generally just flash it back themselves and I don't want 5 lands anyway. Ceiling is Kolaghan's Command most of the time, but an extra Terminate that leaves behind a Piker is fine. Also, the body is essentially the same as Snapcaster. Small, bad against all the big guys, bad against Liliana the Last Hope, good against Edicts. A small but relevant point is that the first strike means it is effective against tokens and opposing Snapcasters.
I don't think this is an unfavorable matchup, but it can be trickier than you think. The plus side is that if you have keep As Fortold off the table they basically can't win, but they have a couple good tools. Ancestral Vision has been a good counter to Thoughtseize decks for a long time, and that's still true here. We can often just invalidate most of their deck to make it irrelevant, but we don't have any draw threes so its possible that they play the old fasioned blue control 'bully them with extra cards' game. Another one that is easy to miss is Remand. Part of the reason Angler and Tasigur are so good is that people aren't really playing this card a lot, but its very good against Delve and in blue Mirrors.
You're 100 percent right. Thoughtseize or Inquisition is still your best turn one play, but you can't just rely on one discard spell and be in the clear. Stubborn Denial is another real winner here, especially if they are going to come with Beast Within and Ricochet Traps. Quick clock plus disruption is the best plan but it is undeniably tricky. You can lose just by cracking a fetch at the wrong time, and Gorilla powered Fulminator Mages can also wreak havoc.
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Today I played 15 practice matches in a row on MTGO and took notes on which cards were good in each matchup and what my opponents did to stop me. Unsurprisingly, Thoughtseize, Stubborn Denial and Gurmag Angler were the MVPs.
What surprised me was the lack of interaction in the vast majority of the games. The two most interactive matches were against Storm and Bant Eldrazi, and frankly, these decks were not that interactive. To be fair, I also rolled over a blue red control deck before my opponent had the opportunity to interact much. But even that opponent was busy trying to resolve one of their maindeck Blood Moons when they were not Opting or Serum Vision-ing. Of the 15 decks, 6 were Company/Chord decks in various color combinations that mostly played solitaire.
I went 12-3 in matches, losing only to Elves (very close), Esper Tokens (totally owned me with Lingering Souls) and Mono Red Hollow One (in both games I was stuck on 2 lands for the entire time). 10 of the 12 matches that I won ended 2-0 in games for me. I'm sure I won some of these games because I was more experienced with my deck than my opponents were with theirs, even though I also was playing an unfamiliar version with a new sideboard. On the other hand, I doubt that most of the solitaire decks are that hard to master. Anyway, I'm glad that TBR helped end some of these games prematurely. And I'm looking forward to some mirror matches in the future, which are currently by far the most enjoyable games for me.
Mind if you could share the list here?
My deck list was stock except for running a split of 3 Anglers / 1 Tasigur, which also means that Angler had much more opportunity to shine. I also played a LotV over the 4th Snapcaster Mage, which I kind of regretted because I had problems establishing a threat in several games, in which a 2/1 + with flashed-backed Opt would have been better in comparison.
Without further ado, here's my afternoon "report".
Match 1 - Naya Company (Knight of the Reliquary) 2-0
G1: Opponent is busy chump blocking, all their creatures die as I draw tons of discard and removal, it's not even close
G2: Opponent is stuck on two lands after I kill their mana dorks, they have a hand full of cards, but apparently no way to interact with my Izzet Staticaster
Good Cards: Death's Shadow, Dismember, Izzet Staticaster
Match 2 - Blue Living End 2-1
G1: Opponent draws 2 As Foretolds, 3 Living Ends and 2 Cryptic Commands, I die
G2: Heavy disruption thanks to Liliana of the Veil, Stubborn Denial counters their Ancestral Vision, Rakdos Charm wipes their yard
G3: Opponent has Leyline of Sanctity but misses turn 2 land drop, draws some land, but it's already too late
Good Cards: Stubborn Denial, Liliana of the Veil, Gurmag Angler, Rakdos Charm
Match 3 - Esper Tokens 0-2
G1: I mulligan into a terrible hand with 2 removal spells and a Snapcaster Mage, which they make me discard, they run over me with a bunch of spirit tokens
G2: I am on land short of casting Angler (don't have Tasigur) when they cast Surgical Extraction on a Snapcaster Mage that I milled with my first Thought Scour, taking another Snapcaster Mage from my hand, this makes it even harder to cast my Angler and the spirit tokens get me before Angler becomes relevant
Good Cards: Thoughtseize, Tasigur the Golden Fang
Match 4 - Blue Moon 2-0
G1: I play around Remand, I let them have Blood Moon because I already have my two basics, an Angler and 2 Stubborn Denials, they die quickly
G2: They are stuck on multiple copies of Shadow of Doubt which would have screwed me had they had the mana to cast it, Gurmag Angler runs over them
Good Cards: Thoughtseize, Death's Shadow, Gurmag Angler
Match 5 - Gb Elves (Company) 1-2
G1: They mulligan to 5, but still build up insanely fast, I die with a TBR in hand after they topdecked exactly the one land that they needed for a big Ezuri attack
G2: Again my opponent has a very good board, successfully playing around my Staticaster with a timely Lord, in the end, I get them with TBR and Stubborn Denial backup, despite some nasty Scooze action
G3: They take my only threat with Thoughtseize on turn 1, as it turns out there is no second threat in the top 27 cards of my deck, so I slowly bleed out against a board of small buggers
Good Cards: Temur Battle Rage, Fatal Push
Match 6 - Bant Company 2-1
G1: I totally roll over him with Gurmak Angler and Death's Shadow with the removal that I was short on in the games vs. Elves, my deck feels like a combo deck this game
G2: My opponent land floods, but my deck fails to produce a threat again, eventually they kill me with Sigarda, Host of Herons of all cards after a long game
G3: Slow game again, but this time 2 Shadows and TBR roll over the few creatures my opponent manages to cast for an uncontested win
Good Cards: Death's Shadow, Stubborn Denial, Temur Battle Rage
Match 7 - Mono-Red Prison 2-0
G1: Fatal Push kills Eidolon, Stubborn Denial stops a turn 2 Chalice of the Void, I decide to cast Liliana of the Veil over a threat, my opponent casts Blood Moon (I saw that coming), but I already have the basic Swamp to cast Angler, opponent scoops after discarding some cards and taking a beating
G2: I'm unhappy to start with two Ceremonious Rejections, but my opponent has Sorcerous Spyglass on turn 2 and Chalice on turn 3, I thoughtseize a Magus of the Moon, leaving them with only lands in hand, my opponent scoops again
Good Cards: Ceremonious Rejection, Liliana of the Veil, Gurmag Angler
Match 8 - Naya Burn 2-0
G1: Opponent has lots of gas but is stuck on 2 lands, Gurmag Angler + TBR proof to be too much to handle
G2: Game 2: IOK reveals a Path and an Ensnaring Bridge, opponent is again stuck on good cards but few lands, 2 Swiftspears are no match for 2 Death's Shadows
Good Cards: Death's Shadow, Stubborn Denial, Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Fatal Push
Match 9 - Gift's Storm 2-0
G1: My opponent kinda goes off when I tap out for an early Angler, killing it and lowering my life total from 15 to 7 with a Past in Flames in the yard, I have way too many lands, but also some removal for their dorks, eventually I find a second Angler and kill them before they can combo off
G2: It's my opponent's turn to be mana flooded and they are even better at this than me, my disruption ensures an easy win
Good Cards: Stubborn Denial, Gurmag Angler, Fatal Push, Snapcaster Mage
Match 10 - Bant Eldrazi 2-0
G1: My opponent has Eldrazi Temple but no Eldrazi, just a bunch of mana dorks and a Fauna Shaman, they all die a horrible death
G2: The game drags endlessly as my opponent and me are both land flooded, Relic of Progenitus does some work for them, and they have multiple Paths and Blessed Alliances for my threats, then they suddenly start drawing about one Eldrazi per turn, lowering my life total to 2 before I can stabilize and take over the board with multiple threats
Good Cards: Thoughtseize, Fatal Push, Dismember
Match 11 - Blue Red Breach Combo 2-0
G1: They have a land heavy hand and I take what little action is left with my discard spells, eventually I get Angler down and they die
G2: They are still setting up their board when two rather small Shadows come at them before they can hit the 5 mana they need for Breach (which I would have countered)
Good Cards: Stubborn Denial, Thoughtseize
Match 12 - 4C Vizier Company 2-0
G1: They basically ignore me outside of chumpblocking, but not even half their combo remains on the board long enough to lose summoning sickness
G2: This time they actually interact with my cards once when they bounce a Death's Shadow with Reflector Mage after I baited them to do so by making them discard their alternatives, I proceed to drop Angler, Shadow comes back from vacation, game over
Good Cards: Death's Shadow, Gurmag Angler, Street Wraith
Match 13 - Hollow One 0-2
G1: I'm stuck on two lands and can't find another one despite casting multiple cantrips, they have a hand full of action and slaughter me
G2: I'm stuck on two lands again, this time they even cast Molten Rain on one those lands after a few turns, not good
Good Cards: Stubborn Denial, Fatal Push
Match 14 - GW Company 2-0
G1: They seem to have a full playset of Renegade Rallier, Eternal Witness and Kitchen Finks, which would have been a problem, had they enough mana and revolt triggers to cast them all before Angler and two Shadows got out of control
G2: They are low on creatures this time, but I'm still one removal short of stopping their Scooze from growing dangerously big, yet my opponent underestimates my ability of lowering my life total and die on the back swing of their first attack
Good Cards: Dismember, Thoughtseize, Gurmag Angler, Death's Shadow
Match 15 - Abzan Vizier Company 2-0
G1: This game feels like a deja-vu from G1 against the 4C Vizier Company deck, but this time my opponent also has a slow start except for two druids which both die before they can tap
G2: Apparently they boarded in a Path that kills one of my two Death's Shadows, unfortunately for them, this also gives me the land that I needed to cast an Angler, followed by a Temur Battle Rage with Stubborn Denial backup
Good Cards: Death's Shadow, Temur Battle Rage, Fatal Push
2x Liliana of the veil
2x flaying tendrils
2x nihil spellbomb
2x stubborn denial
2x collective brutality
1x kolaghan's command
1x Liliana the last hope
1x izzet staticcaster
1x disdainful stroke
1x ceremonious rejection
I feel like I need a spot for engineered explosives and 1-2 copies of surgical extraction . I'm playing GP Toronto in 2 weeks so i wanna make sure I have the best chances of doing well
4 visions is definitely wrong in a world with opt, because visions has diminishing returns. Any hand with 1 opt 1 visions is going to be stronger than a hand with 2 visions.
I am currently testing 3 opt and 2 visions.
This a death's shadow deck, so nothing to do with grixis control. I would try to post someplace else. And without a list nobody is going to be able to help you.
Besides midrange and control matchups as you mention, it's good against,
Grixis Death's Shadow
RBW
Mardu Pyromancer
GBR
Gx Tron
Also quite good against Abzan/ Rock style decks with a critical mass of removal and LotV.
Her -2 crushes Shadow most of the time due to our low threat count, young peezy gives us edict chaff.
I would at the very least put 2 Young Pyromancers and some additional artifact/enchantment removal (Engineered Explosives etc.) in the sideboard to fight your way through graveyard hate. The typical Mardu Pyromancer deck has 3 or 4 Kolaghan's Command maindeck and some combination of Wear/Tear, Engineered Explosives, Stony Silence and Pithing Needle in the sideboard (4 to 6 cards in total). Your deck has just 1 By Force and doesn't even run a second copy of Kolaghan's Command.
IMHO Faithless Looting is a build-around card which is good in the Mardu Pyromancer deck because almost every other card in it that isn't a discard/removal spell benefits significantly from it or negates its drawback (Bedlam Reveler, Young Pyromancer, Lingering Souls, Collective Brutality, Kolaghan's Command). There is a lot of synergy here, while there is next to no synergy between Faithless Looting and Death's Shadow, Stubborn Denial and Temur Battle Rage.
The more I think about it, I would rather replace Thought Scour with Faithless Looting in order to maximize the deck's ability to dig for a threat. Faithless Looting and Serum Visions even have some nice synergies with each other.
Tested opt/visions split and going back to 4 opt. It's just so much smoother. The problem is I don't think 1 Landers with opt are keepable so either I need another cantrip or a 19th land.
Also beem testing a remand main board. Very impressive against big mana and control. Terrible against low to the ground creature decks.