It looks like Tidehollow Sculler has fallen out of favor? It was once cited as an auto 4x, now in this thread it's been a long time since anybody included it in a list or brought it up. I never liked Sculler, but before everybody acted like it was heresy for me to say so. Now it's dead as disco. So what changed everybody's mind?
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In the main deck I'm still pondering -1 raise the alarm or either a spectral procession or a Zealous Persecution. Timely Reinforcements in the main deck has worked very well since I'm often getting full value out of it if I cast on turns 3 or 4. For the sideboard I'm tempted to take a zealous persecution out for Elspeth Tirel to add another sweeper. Narset Transcendent has been fairly good at digging when the game goes into top decking but has been really nice for rebounding Souls and Procession.
It looks like Tidehollow Sculler has fallen out of favor? It was once cited as an auto 4x, now in this thread it's been a long time since anybody included it in a list or brought it up. I never liked Sculler, but before everybody acted like it was heresy for me to say so. Now it's dead as disco. So what changed everybody's mind?
The biggest issues with it (as someone who's had it in and out of their deck repeatedly recently) are:
1) It dramatically throws off your curve. We win a lot of matchups Abzan style, packing discard then a quick clock to close them out. Discard->Anthem->Spells or Discard->Raise->Anthem+Discard are very common lines for us. Tidehollow neuters that by draining 2 mana into discard while comitting little pressure to the board. It can delay your kill by turns by preventing a key anthem drop or similar because you were too busy checking for cryptics or Karns
2) It just goddamn dies to anything. Almost every removal spell in the format hits it, generally negating any sort of gain you'd get out of the card. Especially against Twin, they have so many ways to kill it you actually aren't playing a discard spell... you're playing a tempo spell that delays their game plan, but because you're not playing low cost efficient beaters you won't be able to kill them before they recover. Plus even against matchups like Tron, you can't safely take a Karn or wincon because you have to take a board wipe, lest you just lose after they wipe and get their wincon back. It's better to jus guarantee an actual discard, for less mana. Both this and the 1 mana discards are bad lategame topdecks... but the argument that at least this does SOMETHING is mostly moot because a turn 7 grizzly bears in any other situation would be a bad topdeck too. Do yourself a favor and strengthen the early game by just playing 1 mana discard spells of various varieties.
Budget-ish decklist I'm trying to build. I'm not going to shell out for Marsh Flats unless it somehow gets reprinted. I just need to get new Sorin, Urborg, a Godless Shrine, and the Inquisitions (which could just come out of my infect deck).
I have a rough sideboard with Duress, Rest in Peace, Stony Silence, and the like. My meta includes Burn, Abzan, Soul Sisters, Soul Sisters w/Norin, Midrange Zoo (Goyf, Knight of the Reliquary, Loxodon Smiter, etc.), Grixis Delver, and UWR control.
It's not 100%, but since Zendikar is being returned to, there is a high chance of enemy coloured fetch lands being reprinted
Exactly. If you're not playing competitively or have budget concerns, stick to KTK fetches. We're almost certainly going to see a reprint in BFZ (MaRo has posted about player expectations and the consequences of not meeting them a bit ago, leading most to assume the reprints are on the way). If not, well, they aren't gonna get more expensive.
Speaking of KTK fetches, though, what are people using? I stick to a playset of Plains fetches (Strand or Heath), but is anyone trying Polluted Delta/Bloodstained Mire? I just find that 90% of the time I only want a Plains or Shrine.
I've borrowed a couple of Marsh Flats from a friend. But I play two of those and 4 Windswept Heath because, as you said, you want to fetch plains more often than swamps.
I don't have Flats online and stick to Heaths and Strands. I have contemplated one or two black fetches, but it never seems worth it. That being said, there was mention of why run Urborg in this deck? In grindy matches I sometimes fetch all my options and am stuck with useless fetches in play.
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One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
My list I stick to only white producing fetches. Your fetches can get any color dual but you'll rarely if ever want to fetch only a basic swamp. I'm currently on a 3-3 Marsh Flats/Windswept Heath split, but I've run a Flooded Strand before and would consider going up to 8 fetches total, if my current list wasn't some odd 3rd color brew I'm testing to see if I improve my twin matchup.
What are you having difficulty with in the Twin matchup? I've lost to it once in several games against it online in the last few weeks. You look adequately stocked for the match to me.
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One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
Is Tidehollow Sculler worth it? A lot of decks used to run him, but I don't see him anymore. I have some in the build I'm considering, but now I realize that he provides temporary discard on a bear (good), but that he usually eats removal spells in a deck that doesn't worry too much about removal.
I don't think I'd play Sculler in B/W tokens part of the appeal of Tokens to me it how it makes your opponents targeted removal fairly bad since they are trading 1 card for 1/2 or 1/3 of a token producing card. I think it fits in very well in a swords deck since it's a discard that can be equipped. That being said I could see it as a sideboard card coming in after targeted removal was taken out but I'd probably play duress in cases where I wanted to add more discard (combo).
@wingkon see the previous page, I wrote my thoughts on Sculler in tokens. In short, no, it's not for this deck.
@TrappedUnderIce:
It may have been me, or just some good Twin players at my store but I was just having abysmal winrates against it. Had one guy who after like 8 games we had a 50/50 pre board matchup, but post-board I literally didn't win a game (he had weird sideboard cards like Thundermaw Hellkite and Glen Elendra Archmage that ****ed me up). I rarely got Twinned to death but I'd just get constantly outempo'd and beat down by Pesters, Snaps, or in the case of splash decks Tasigurs or Goyfs. A couple of friends of mine thought it might be worth trying decays for little to no opportunity cost to buff the matchup and give game against stuff like Ghostly Prison/Vedalken Shackles/etc.
However for States I'm probably gonna go back to straight BW, I'm worried enough about the burn and zoo matchup I don't need to do 8 damage to myself for free for them. I just don't have any BW filters so I might have to run like, Caves of Koilos or something T_T
Yeah, I kind of figured that out when I was playtesting. Good thing those Scullers only cost fifty cents each. Maybe they'll be in the board against removal light decks or something. What would be a good replacement? I know Auriok Champion is a great two-drop, but they're really expensive. Maybe I just need more kill spells? Or maybe I should shell out some good money for Thoughtseize?
Against Twin, I basically run maindeck hate with Auriok Champion, seven discard spells, and six removal spells. That generally prevents them from being able to combo out game 1. I have a really solid record online against Twin, but I also think some people are dumb and think that this is a white weenie deck and think they can just jam the combo. Then post-board when I bring in even more removal and disruption, it becomes laughable. I feel like our gameplan is pretty solid against their creatures, i.e., our token generators line up well with Electrolyze. Game 2, I feel like our gameplan of tokens lines up well against Tasigur and Goyf, but also against Pestermite. The one time that I remember a guy casting Thundermaw against me online was out of Jund and I had an Intangible Virtue in play luckily. I like Disenchant against Ghostly Prison and Vedalken Shackles. One friend of mine plays Grixis Twin with Olivia and Thundermaw out of the board and he said that it's a great matchup for him so I could easily imagine some builds just lucking into having a solid gameplan against us as splash damage against Affinity.
Was thinking about how I sideboard matches with this build:
This deck feels like a total dog against Storm, Tron, Amulet, Ad Nauseam, and pretty much any other non-fair deck. I'm trying to improve that with discard and a Stain the Mind, but doesn't feel like enough.
Elspeth1 is great for turning a decent board state into a winning board state. With the control-ish aspects of the deck, it is, in some parallel universes, get multiple tokens out, pump your dudes, and maybe even ultimate. I wouldn't call her win more, but you need a presence to make it worth it. She can pump out Soldiers to help build a board, but that is just not efficient enough on its own. If you manage to get her on board with a Bitterblossom, then that IS pretty good token engine. But, if you're running BB, then you might want to take her out anyway, as you have those for the early game. So I guess I'm not sure about her. She's playable, definitely, but I'm not certain where she fits in.
My tron match ups tend to be okay. I actually keep all of my buffs and token generators and board in as much discard or hate as possible. Especially against rg, you have to beware of the wipes and keep open to replace the casualties. I feel that way about ad naseum too. If you can force them to discard a lot early, they are dead in the late game. The same goes for burn, if you can get them to discard their sorceries and instants, you can weather the creatures and generally win pretty easily. In that regard, I feel that Timely Reinforcements is actually inferior to more duress.
Bloom kicks my ass. I have two Avens that I have managed to get online but it didn't fix the board state. I am thinking that more discard and/or extirpate effects will help. I am reviewing other sideboard guides and thinking that my plan is too old for the current meta.
I've borrowed a couple of Marsh Flats from a friend. But I play two of those and 4 Windswept Heath because, as you said, you want to fetch plains more often than swamps.
That's simple math, but when I fetch B, I almost always fetch the Swamp. Really.
Bloom kicks my ass. I have two Avens that I have managed to get online but it didn't fix the board state. I am thinking that more discard and/or extirpate effects will help. I am reviewing other sideboard guides and thinking that my plan is too old for the current meta.
Deathmark seems as if it might be worth a side-board slot for Prime-Time as well as the seemingly everywhere Rhinos. Celestial Flare might also be worth a thought.
Twin is my biggest worry for states Sunday as it was the largest represented deck in Top 8's last weekend so I'll talk about that matchup.
@TrappedUnderIce
I think it's worth boarding out the majority of your Inquisitions against Twin and bringing in any and all duress you have. Unless they have a hand chock full of like, 3 creature combo pieces and snapcaster mages and cliques, you're not gonna miss, and if they have combo, you can still take the twin. Only hand that ****s you with duress if if you see [Creature, Twin, Twin] or more rarely [Creature, Kiki], but for the first case Inquisition already has the reverse problem of being unable to handle multiple creatures and one twin (which is statistically more likely for them to draw), and for the second we run enough removal to just kill the Kiki. Where duress shines is at killing Cryptic Commands or weird sidebord stuff like Jace, while also being able to attack the countermagic and other engines they run to gain value against us. It's very unlikely they can twin us to death, it's super important that our SB also prevents them from just UR controlling us to death.
I'm not sure how I feel about bringing in disenchant effects in against them. They can be redirected to Spellskite, and unlike normal removal spells like Path, can't be used to stop them from beating you down with Snaps or Cliques if they Spell Pierce/Snare all our Token creators and leave us with a pile of dead anthems. I'd almost rather you leave in the Raise the Alarm and maybe the Spectral too... after board without the disenchants you're already at 20 cards of your deck hating on the combo in some way or another, and you need a more reliable way to actually kill them. If it's conditional removal for Twin we're after, I'm going to try:
1) Go for the Throat (SB) - Can't be redirected to Spellskite, kills anything they play cleanly, also can just come in against any non-affinity deck where we prefer removal over discard.
2) Celestial Purge (SB) - Kills Kiki and Twin cleanly, while also having the ability to deal with the 1 of Keranos I see in Twin sideboards fairly often (as well as Thundermaw Hellkite should they board into a beatdown tempo plan on you)
Anyway I'm still fudging with my last few cards, particularly sideboard, but this is probably what I'm gonna take to States tomorrow:
***Quick question for the group: Is 23 lands enough? I've had trouble with both flooding and screw over time, but is it worth upping the count by one to more reliably curve 1-4 in drops?
Also I'll post my sideboard guide once I finish it (that's my project for today) but here's my current (straight UR) Twin sideboard unless I figure out something better
-2 Sorin (Slow, and you're unlikely to need the lifegain, plus tapping out on turn 4 unless you know their hand is clear is really hard, especially against Spell Pierce which likely gets boarded in if they have more)
+2 Hero of Bladehold (dodges lightning bolt, and if it resolves it WILL end the game quickly, which we need badly here)
-2 Inquisition of Kozilek - (as I stated above, Duress is just better here, and we don't need to board up to 8 discard spells I think. I could be proven wrong, but for now taking cryptics is more important to me than taking Snapcasters)
+2 Duress - (see above)
-1 Murderous Cut - (this card, depending on how the game has panned out, can be pretty mana intensive for a particular turn. It's really important to have cheap interaction for the first 4 turns so we can interact and develop our board simultaneously. If we slack on developing our board because we could get Twinned and need to leave mana up, we fall way behind).
+1 Go for the Throat - (can't ever be cast for 1 mana like Cut can, but can always be for 2 which is convenient. More convenient is its ability to dodge Spellskite redirection, an important factor in beating their sideboard plan)
-1 Honor of the Pure - (we need interaction, or dudes threatening them. I've lost too many games to flooding on anthems (may be a deck building problem I need to adjust), but here we can go down a buff to keep our interaction high. Any creatures we get on board can eventually win us the game and run them out of value.)
+1 Celestial Purge - (Hits Twin, Kiki, Thundermaw, Keranos, and other weird stuff, all without being redirected to Spellskite. Importante.)
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It looks like Tidehollow Sculler has fallen out of favor? It was once cited as an auto 4x, now in this thread it's been a long time since anybody included it in a list or brought it up. I never liked Sculler, but before everybody acted like it was heresy for me to say so. Now it's dead as disco. So what changed everybody's mind?
2x Fetid Heath
1x Flooded Strand
1x Godless Shrine
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Island
2x Isolated Chapel
4x Marsh Flats
2x Plains
2x Polluted Delta
2x Seachrome Coast
1x Swamp
1x Vault of the Archangel
1x Watery Grave
3x Windbrisk Heights
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Lingering Souls
3x Spectral Procession
2x Thoughtseize
2x Timely Reinforcements
Instant (10)
1x Dismember
4x Path to Exile
3x Raise the Alarm
2x Zealous Persecution
Creature (2)
2x Snapcaster Mage
Planeswalker (5)
1x Liliana of the Veil
2x Narset Transcendent
1x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4x Intangible Virtue
2x Celestial Purge
1x Disenchant
2x Negate
1x Nevermore
1x Oblivion Ring
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
1x Supreme Verdict
2x Timely Reinforcements
1x Zealous Persecution
In the main deck I'm still pondering -1 raise the alarm or either a spectral procession or a Zealous Persecution. Timely Reinforcements in the main deck has worked very well since I'm often getting full value out of it if I cast on turns 3 or 4. For the sideboard I'm tempted to take a zealous persecution out for Elspeth Tirel to add another sweeper. Narset Transcendent has been fairly good at digging when the game goes into top decking but has been really nice for rebounding Souls and Procession.
The biggest issues with it (as someone who's had it in and out of their deck repeatedly recently) are:
1) It dramatically throws off your curve. We win a lot of matchups Abzan style, packing discard then a quick clock to close them out. Discard->Anthem->Spells or Discard->Raise->Anthem+Discard are very common lines for us. Tidehollow neuters that by draining 2 mana into discard while comitting little pressure to the board. It can delay your kill by turns by preventing a key anthem drop or similar because you were too busy checking for cryptics or Karns
2) It just goddamn dies to anything. Almost every removal spell in the format hits it, generally negating any sort of gain you'd get out of the card. Especially against Twin, they have so many ways to kill it you actually aren't playing a discard spell... you're playing a tempo spell that delays their game plan, but because you're not playing low cost efficient beaters you won't be able to kill them before they recover. Plus even against matchups like Tron, you can't safely take a Karn or wincon because you have to take a board wipe, lest you just lose after they wipe and get their wincon back. It's better to jus guarantee an actual discard, for less mana. Both this and the 1 mana discards are bad lategame topdecks... but the argument that at least this does SOMETHING is mostly moot because a turn 7 grizzly bears in any other situation would be a bad topdeck too. Do yourself a favor and strengthen the early game by just playing 1 mana discard spells of various varieties.
4x Godless Shrine
4x Isolated Chapel
7x Plains
3x Swamp
1x Temple of Silence
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2x Vault of the Archangel
1x Windbrisk Heights
1x Go for the Throat
3x Path to Exile
4x Raise the Alarm
2x Zealous Persecution
Enchantments:
3x Honor of the Pure
4x Intangible Virtue
1x Oblivion Ring
1x Worship
1x Gather the Townsfolk
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Lingering Souls
4x Spectral Procession
Planeswalkers:
2x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Creatures:
3x Tidehollow Sculler
I have a rough sideboard with Duress, Rest in Peace, Stony Silence, and the like. My meta includes Burn, Abzan, Soul Sisters, Soul Sisters w/Norin, Midrange Zoo (Goyf, Knight of the Reliquary, Loxodon Smiter, etc.), Grixis Delver, and UWR control.
RGGruul Aggro
WSoul Sisters
WBTokens
BUGRRestore Balance
BMono-Black Infect
EDH:
RGWMayael, the Anima
GWURoon of the Hidden Realm
BDrana, Kalastria Bloodchief
Exactly. If you're not playing competitively or have budget concerns, stick to KTK fetches. We're almost certainly going to see a reprint in BFZ (MaRo has posted about player expectations and the consequences of not meeting them a bit ago, leading most to assume the reprints are on the way). If not, well, they aren't gonna get more expensive.
Speaking of KTK fetches, though, what are people using? I stick to a playset of Plains fetches (Strand or Heath), but is anyone trying Polluted Delta/Bloodstained Mire? I just find that 90% of the time I only want a Plains or Shrine.
BTCC Mono-Black WarriorsB
Modern
GMono-Green StompyG
Commander
GWKrond the Dawn-Clad: Aura Borealis is in BloomWG
UBRMarchesa, the Black RoseRBU
Casual
UIt's All a Grand Illusion (Illusion tribal)U
RGSpawing for Fun and Profit (Eldrazi sac)GR
Curious about Pucatrade, the BEST way to trade cards online? If interested, please try my link: https://pucatrade.com/invite/gift/19129. Thanks.
For those curious, here's my current list:
3 Thoughtseize
4 Path to Exile
2 Secure the Wastes
1 Zealous Persecution
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Intangible Virtue
3 Honor of the Pure
4 Spectral Procession
4 Lingering Souls
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Plains
4 Godless Shrine
3 Isolated Chapel
3 Marsh Flats
3 Windswept Heath
3 Temple Garden
1 Swamp
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Hero of Bladehold
1 Disenchant
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Celestial Purge
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Rest in Peace
2 Auriok Champion
2 Duress
2 Stony Silence
I'm working on a sideboard plan right now for the various matchups
RGGruul Aggro
WSoul Sisters
WBTokens
BUGRRestore Balance
BMono-Black Infect
EDH:
RGWMayael, the Anima
GWURoon of the Hidden Realm
BDrana, Kalastria Bloodchief
@TrappedUnderIce:
It may have been me, or just some good Twin players at my store but I was just having abysmal winrates against it. Had one guy who after like 8 games we had a 50/50 pre board matchup, but post-board I literally didn't win a game (he had weird sideboard cards like Thundermaw Hellkite and Glen Elendra Archmage that ****ed me up). I rarely got Twinned to death but I'd just get constantly outempo'd and beat down by Pesters, Snaps, or in the case of splash decks Tasigurs or Goyfs. A couple of friends of mine thought it might be worth trying decays for little to no opportunity cost to buff the matchup and give game against stuff like Ghostly Prison/Vedalken Shackles/etc.
However for States I'm probably gonna go back to straight BW, I'm worried enough about the burn and zoo matchup I don't need to do 8 damage to myself for free for them. I just don't have any BW filters so I might have to run like, Caves of Koilos or something T_T
RGGruul Aggro
WSoul Sisters
WBTokens
BUGRRestore Balance
BMono-Black Infect
EDH:
RGWMayael, the Anima
GWURoon of the Hidden Realm
BDrana, Kalastria Bloodchief
Was thinking about how I sideboard matches with this build:
3 Windswept Heath
2 Windbrisk Heights
3 Isolated Chapel
4 Godless Shrine
2 Vault of the Archangel
5 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Auriok Champion
3 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Elspeth, Knight Errant
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Honor of the Pure
4 Intangible Virtue
1 Raise the Alarm
4 Lingering Souls
4 Spectral Procession
4 Path to Exile
1 Murderous Cut
1 Dismember
1 Zealous Persecution
3 Inquistion of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
3 Timely Reinforcements
1 Thoughtseize
2 Duress
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Stony Silence
1 Zealous Persecution
2 Disenchant
1 Dismember
1 Stain the Mind
Twin
-2 Elspeth, -1 Sorin, -1 Spectral, -1 Honor, -1 Raise, +2 Disenchant, +1 Thoughtseize, +1 Duress, +1 ZP, +1 Dismember, +1 Stain
Burn
-2 Bitterblossom, -3 Thoughtseize, +3 Timely Reinforcements, +2 Duress
Abzan
-3 IoK, +1 Relic, +1 Dismember, +1 ZP
Affinity
-2 Bitterblossom, -1 Elspeth, +2 Stony Silence, +1 ZP
Infect
-2 Elspeth, -3 Sorin, -2 Champion, +1 ZP, +1 Dismember, +2 Duress, +1 Thoughtseize, +2 Disenchant
Tron
-2 Bitterblossom, -1 Raise, -1 Honor, -1 Elspeth, +2 Duress, +1 Thoughtseize, +2 Stony Silence
Amulet Bloom
-1 Dismember, -1 ZP, -1 Raise, +2 Duress, +1 Thoughtseize
This deck feels like a total dog against Storm, Tron, Amulet, Ad Nauseam, and pretty much any other non-fair deck. I'm trying to improve that with discard and a Stain the Mind, but doesn't feel like enough.
BTCC Mono-Black WarriorsB
Modern
GMono-Green StompyG
Commander
GWKrond the Dawn-Clad: Aura Borealis is in BloomWG
UBRMarchesa, the Black RoseRBU
Casual
UIt's All a Grand Illusion (Illusion tribal)U
RGSpawing for Fun and Profit (Eldrazi sac)GR
Curious about Pucatrade, the BEST way to trade cards online? If interested, please try my link: https://pucatrade.com/invite/gift/19129. Thanks.
Bloom kicks my ass. I have two Avens that I have managed to get online but it didn't fix the board state. I am thinking that more discard and/or extirpate effects will help. I am reviewing other sideboard guides and thinking that my plan is too old for the current meta.
That's simple math, but when I fetch B, I almost always fetch the Swamp. Really.
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
Deathmark seems as if it might be worth a side-board slot for Prime-Time as well as the seemingly everywhere Rhinos. Celestial Flare might also be worth a thought.
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
@TrappedUnderIce
I think it's worth boarding out the majority of your Inquisitions against Twin and bringing in any and all duress you have. Unless they have a hand chock full of like, 3 creature combo pieces and snapcaster mages and cliques, you're not gonna miss, and if they have combo, you can still take the twin. Only hand that ****s you with duress if if you see [Creature, Twin, Twin] or more rarely [Creature, Kiki], but for the first case Inquisition already has the reverse problem of being unable to handle multiple creatures and one twin (which is statistically more likely for them to draw), and for the second we run enough removal to just kill the Kiki. Where duress shines is at killing Cryptic Commands or weird sidebord stuff like Jace, while also being able to attack the countermagic and other engines they run to gain value against us. It's very unlikely they can twin us to death, it's super important that our SB also prevents them from just UR controlling us to death.
I'm not sure how I feel about bringing in disenchant effects in against them. They can be redirected to Spellskite, and unlike normal removal spells like Path, can't be used to stop them from beating you down with Snaps or Cliques if they Spell Pierce/Snare all our Token creators and leave us with a pile of dead anthems. I'd almost rather you leave in the Raise the Alarm and maybe the Spectral too... after board without the disenchants you're already at 20 cards of your deck hating on the combo in some way or another, and you need a more reliable way to actually kill them. If it's conditional removal for Twin we're after, I'm going to try:
1) Go for the Throat (SB) - Can't be redirected to Spellskite, kills anything they play cleanly, also can just come in against any non-affinity deck where we prefer removal over discard.
2) Celestial Purge (SB) - Kills Kiki and Twin cleanly, while also having the ability to deal with the 1 of Keranos I see in Twin sideboards fairly often (as well as Thundermaw Hellkite should they board into a beatdown tempo plan on you)
Anyway I'm still fudging with my last few cards, particularly sideboard, but this is probably what I'm gonna take to States tomorrow:
3 Thoughtseize
4 Path to Exile
2 Secure the Wastes
2 Auriok Champion
3 Honor of the Pure
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Raise the Alarm
1 Zealous Persecution
4 Spectral Procession
4 Lingering Souls
1 Murderous Cut
Lands***:
1 Flooded Strand
4 Godless Shrine
4 Isolated Chapel
3 Marsh Flats
6 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Vault of the Archangel
3 Windswept Heath
2 Hero of Bladehold
2 Sundering Growth
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Celestial Purge
1 Kor Firewalker
2 Rest in Peace
1 Go for the Throat
2 Duress
2 Stony Silence
***Quick question for the group: Is 23 lands enough? I've had trouble with both flooding and screw over time, but is it worth upping the count by one to more reliably curve 1-4 in drops?
Also I'll post my sideboard guide once I finish it (that's my project for today) but here's my current (straight UR) Twin sideboard unless I figure out something better
-2 Sorin (Slow, and you're unlikely to need the lifegain, plus tapping out on turn 4 unless you know their hand is clear is really hard, especially against Spell Pierce which likely gets boarded in if they have more)
+2 Hero of Bladehold (dodges lightning bolt, and if it resolves it WILL end the game quickly, which we need badly here)
-2 Inquisition of Kozilek - (as I stated above, Duress is just better here, and we don't need to board up to 8 discard spells I think. I could be proven wrong, but for now taking cryptics is more important to me than taking Snapcasters)
+2 Duress - (see above)
-1 Murderous Cut - (this card, depending on how the game has panned out, can be pretty mana intensive for a particular turn. It's really important to have cheap interaction for the first 4 turns so we can interact and develop our board simultaneously. If we slack on developing our board because we could get Twinned and need to leave mana up, we fall way behind).
+1 Go for the Throat - (can't ever be cast for 1 mana like Cut can, but can always be for 2 which is convenient. More convenient is its ability to dodge Spellskite redirection, an important factor in beating their sideboard plan)
-1 Honor of the Pure - (we need interaction, or dudes threatening them. I've lost too many games to flooding on anthems (may be a deck building problem I need to adjust), but here we can go down a buff to keep our interaction high. Any creatures we get on board can eventually win us the game and run them out of value.)
+1 Celestial Purge - (Hits Twin, Kiki, Thundermaw, Keranos, and other weird stuff, all without being redirected to Spellskite. Importante.)