Time Sieve with Whir against Tron and Scapeshift is actually really nice, I've always loaded the board with creatures like Vendilion Clique to get more aggressive, being able to better tutor the combo and win right there sounds great.
The other consideration right now is what to do with the manabase. With Prism and much fewer colorless sources we can splash a color pretty easily, one of the Japanese decks had green for Abrupt Decay in the board, what other options do we have?
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MTG Brewmaster - The fastest deck builder around (Please PM me with comments or problems!)
Modern: Tezzeret
???
Legacy:
Imperial Painter aka. Strawberry Shortcake
Tezzeret, aka. Dack in Black
@Zinch: My previous version was very similar to yours, and felt too airy. Shen's build thaught me this: to compensate, play more bombs. Liliana of the Veil fits the bill. I had forgotten how she crushes in midrange matchups, and helps against big mana too. Daddy demon is pretty awesome too, up to two now.
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MODERN Blue Lantern, UBx Tezzerator. OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
@sirpsychomantis - A small red splash like Zinch has pointed out? Crumble to dust and Aether Grid in the board seems sweet. If you go a little heavier on red, Galvanic blast is a sweet one.
I do think that dropping a lot of the colourless sources is correct due to Mana constraints, but indestructible 5/5s are so sweet though!
In a Whir build though, you don't need 4 Citadels anyway. 2 Max, for the 5/5 thing and occasional land hit with Tezz / Crane.
The archetype cannot ignore Valakut and Tron otherwise it's not competitive outside FNMs : I guess GQ is good enough to steal 2 Citadels slots. No need for more than 1 Fair since there's Whir, and Ruins gets even more obsolete with 5 tutors overall. It doesn't seem complicated to figure out what <> lands can be played after all. @SirPM : I don't think I was out of bounds when I said your manabase was not functional. We're speaking of UUU and BB spells + 4 Prisms here (!!!). There's only a very few archetypes you can take for comparison, for example UB Faeries. Just check out how many <> lands they play and follow their tracks. You were at 8 <> lands iirc (one third of your manabase), which is wayyyy above playability.
What I like with the Improvise angle is that we don't fold to artifact hate as much, and it's the first time I see a way to build a strong core without relying on Bridges + Foundries too much.
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Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
@sirpsychomantis - A small red splash like Zinch has pointed out? Crumble to dust and Aether Grid in the board seems sweet. If you go a little heavier on red, Galvanic blast is a sweet one.
I do think that dropping a lot of the colourless sources is correct due to Mana constraints, but indestructible 5/5s are so sweet though!
I have been playtesting white WUUUBB
Instant speed tidehollow sculler, lingering souls in the main, disenchant and anguished unmaking in the sideboard. Two Shambling Vents. Tidehollow helps against Tron and Combo, Lingering Souls is busted in half anyways and goes under Ensnaring Bridge, and the sideboard options help against hate.
I've been doing well in testing. I got 11 White Sources as lands + 4 Prism. Seems absolutely fine. Don't know if it's better yet though.
Instant speed tidehollow sculler, lingering souls in the main, disenchant and anguished unmaking in the sideboard. Two Shambling Vents. Tidehollow helps against Tron and Combo, Lingering Souls is busted in half anyways and goes under Ensnaring Bridge, and the sideboard options help against hate.
I've been doing well in testing. I got 11 White Sources as lands + 4 Prism. Seems absolutely fine. Don't know if it's better yet though.
Sounds interesting for sure. Tron is a tough match, and any help would be appreciated. Not too mention how many interesting things you could do with an instant speed Tidehollow.
Which sideboard options against hate are you thinking of? I'm thinking Disenchant effects against Stony Silence, but I'm guessing you have more in mind?
Instant speed tidehollow sculler, lingering souls in the main, disenchant and anguished unmaking in the sideboard. Two Shambling Vents. Tidehollow helps against Tron and Combo, Lingering Souls is busted in half anyways and goes under Ensnaring Bridge, and the sideboard options help against hate.
I've been doing well in testing. I got 11 White Sources as lands + 4 Prism. Seems absolutely fine. Don't know if it's better yet though.
Sounds interesting for sure. Tron is a tough match, and any help would be appreciated. Not too mention how many interesting things you could do with an instant speed Tidehollow.
Which sideboard options against hate are you thinking of? I'm thinking Disenchant effects against Stony Silence, but I'm guessing you have more in mind?
Exactly. 2 extra Tidehollow Sculler in the side also 1 Disenchant, 1 Anguished Unmaking, 1 Esper Charm.
White splash sounds like a great idea. Because we can.
In other news, tonight's testing went well and tweaking some more, I closed the night destroying a VALAKUT TITAN player 2-1 using a Spreading Seas tempo plan!!! It can be done, spread the news
/e: Just woke-up this morning and decided I'm taking the SV out for more interaction. I have been sorely missing my discard spells against Snapcaster mage and all the countermagic, so some number of IoK and TS are back in. Updated above list to reflect those changes.
I really think the Vedalken Shackles plan has a big upside as a 1-of in that as noted before, it's a very high-impact card we can tutor off a single Whir (or hit off of Tezzeret). My issue with it is that I think it would be hard to get our Island count high enough to make it a consistent haymaker.
So, I've been looking for other 1-of artifacts we can try to use to similar effect. Nothing great so far, but here's what I've found:
Wurmcoil Engine and Batterskull – This is where I started out. Hefty CMCs, but the bodies and lifelink are great, and both have a form of built-in resilience.
Etched Champion – Definitely solid out the board for its evasion and resilience, but not sure if it's maindeckable.
Ethersworn Adjudicator – Decent beater with a super powerful effect, but requires a W splash.
Epochrasite – Whirs in as a resilient 4/4, but seems very slow.
Ring of Three Wishes – Turn one Whir into your entire combo plus change. But again, slooooooow.
Master of Etherium – Pumps our Thopters, but without a high-impact ability or resilience, not sure if it's worthwhile.
The Alara Sphinxs – Waaaaay too expensive.
Mindslaver – Expensive to Whir, and pay 5 more to activate. Can go infinite with Academy Ruins, but we don't really have a reliable way of setting that up.
Hope of Ghirapur – Great with infinite recursion, otherwise pretty lackluster for this purpose.
Heart of Kiran – We can really only crew it with a Planeswalker, which seems pretty meh.
Sooooo… yeah. Not really finding anything spectacular. Honestly, Ring may be the best of these, since likely we're sitting behind a Bridge at this point and have a few turn of breathing room. That said, it doesn't seem particularly good; Shackles is probably much better even if it may be hard to swing with this land base.
Maybe it's better just to focus on running a few more haymakers (Liliana, Herald of Anguish). /shrug
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Playing UX Mana Denial until Modern gets the answers it needs.
WUBRG Humans BRW Mardu Pyromancer UW UW "Control" UR Blue Moon
4x Push, 1-2x Brutality and/or Battle at the Bridge along 3x Lili (Shen'z removal suite) make it so youre way less reliant on Bridge. Have you tried going similarly removal heavy?
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MODERN Blue Lantern, UBx Tezzerator. OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
There are certainly a few slots you can play around with in your list. The 3rd jar seems redundant alongside the 2 Spellskites and can probably go. And Cage is pretty narrow for the main. I would recommend making those cuts and adding some of what Radouf suggested...Battle at the Bridge, Fatal Push #4 or Lilly to give you a little more game against the aggro decks you're having trouble with.
There are certainly a few slots you can play around with in your list. The 3rd jar seems redundant alongside the 2 Spellskites and can probably go. And Cage is pretty narrow for the main. I would recommend making those cuts and adding some of what Radouf suggested...Battle at the Bridge, Fatal Push #4 or Lilly to give you a little more game against the aggro decks you're having trouble with.
Thanks jayjay. Echo to that. Lili feels amazing (agan) btw. She had become underwhelming, now winds have changed! Try her out, she adds a whole new dimension to the deck.
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MODERN Blue Lantern, UBx Tezzerator. OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
There are certainly a few slots you can play around with in your list. The 3rd jar seems redundant alongside the 2 Spellskites and can probably go. And Cage is pretty narrow for the main. I would recommend making those cuts and adding some of what Radouf suggested...Battle at the Bridge, Fatal Push #4 or Lilly to give you a little more game against the aggro decks you're having trouble with.
Thanks jayjay. Echo to that. Lili feels amazing (agan) btw. She had become underwhelming, now winds have changed! Try her out, she adds a whole new dimension to the deck.
I reluctantly experimented with dropping my Serum Visions and Thirst for Knowledges for 3 Liliana and 2 Herald. Can't say I'm 100% sold on no filter, but Liliana at the very least has been performing better than expected. She's of course best when you have a Tarmogoyf standing in front of her, but Push plus Brutality plus the Bridges (Battle At and Ensnaring, respectively) plus sometimes just a plain ol' Spellskite have been working. And of course you can always interact early into Tezz-5/5 and then plop her down behind that.
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Playing UX Mana Denial until Modern gets the answers it needs.
WUBRG Humans BRW Mardu Pyromancer UW UW "Control" UR Blue Moon
@rogue_LOVE: I feel ya. I just (very reluctantly) dropped my Serum Visions myself for more interaction. And I think that's what's the key here. With all the recent shifts, I think we're looking at way more 1. interaction and 2. bombs than ever before. Interaction, paired with Lili's edict, keep her safe to tick up into more edict or ultimate zone, while all the bombs we run now make for great topdecks (am personally on 3x Tezz, 3x Whir = anything from Thopter-Sword to Bridge, 2x Bridge, 2x Thopter-Sword, 2x Demon daddy and 3x Lili herself.
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MODERN Blue Lantern, UBx Tezzerator. OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
Hey guys. I went to regionals over the weekend representing for Tezzerator! I had a ton of fun, got to share my favorite deck with a lot of people who had never seen it before, had to different people ask to take pictures of my 75. Almost every match I played both games from either side of me stuck around to watch our games finish because they thought the deck was so cool. Here is my list that I took:
Round 1: Burn 1-2 I lost game 1 to the pretty standard fast burn hand of 2 lands/2 creatures/mix of 1-2 cmc spells. I was on the draw. I had the ability to assemble the combo on turn 3 but saw little hope in winning and feined being a standard UB control deck to dodge game 2 destructive revelry. Game 2 I get the combo up on t3 and he conceeds 2 turns later. Game 3 I assemble the combo quickly, make 4 guys and gain 4 life while at 1. But he has grim lavamancer in play and a bolt off the top. (I slogged through 2 copies of destructively revelry this game by absorbing them with welding jar and spellskite.
Round 2: Grixis Delver 1-2 This match was my most unfortunate luck of the day. He had T1 delver and flipped it on T2 all three games. Game 1 I got the combo down with spellskite protection and he conceded. A bunch of spell snares and K commands kept me from doing anything the next 2 games while I proceeded to flood out. He tells me after the match that he is playing 4 of each :/ Great against me but a bad deck building decision and he scrubbed out shortly after.
Round 3: UB Control 2-0 Game 1 I assemble the combo quickly and he can't do anything to answer it. He spends multiple turns trying to cryptic tap/bounce my foundry but he would have to tap out to do this and I would simply re play it in my second main phase. Game 2 I correctly concluded that he boarded out most of his removal and went for a batterskull kill. Batterskull on a crane wins the match :].
Round 4: Bogles 2-0 Had to call a judge because I forgot to sideboard from the previous match. I simply had to fix it and take a mulligan since I caught it in my opening hand. Had to call the judge again in favor of my opponent to explain to him that EE doesn't kill his bogle as well if he as an umbra. He thought everything died and was pleasantly surprised. Overall this match was a bye with rapid access to Spellskite, EE and Ensnaring Bridge. I got 2 bridges and a sklite into play while hellbent. He succumbs to a Tezzeret ultimate both games.
Round 5: BTL Scapeshift 0-2 His list was very weird playing all 4 colors for bring to light and still playing 4x cryptic commands. I got the combo up quicly both games but couldn't race his scapeshift kill. Game 2 I negated the scapeshift and he had a second one.
At this point I am dead for top 8 but decide to play it out becuase I can still top 32 and cash the event.
Round 6: GR Tron 2-0 That's right. 2-0. Major accomplishment of the day. Realistically, I drew perfectly and my tron opponent drew the worst I have seen a tron player draw. Between the 2 games he only found 1 threat and I was able to negate it. Thopter/Sword into Tezz ultimate closed the games quickly once he stumbled.
Round 7: Jeskai 2-0 My friend was sitting next to me playing his match for this round and standard making fun of me when i slammed a t2 contraband kingpin. "What is this racing089?! Standard?!" I jokingly said "Yeah! My opponent is probably going to untap and jam a Saheli Rai!" No joke, opponent untaps and jams a Saheli Rai... I could not control my laughter and the 8 players around us all stopped playing to join in. lol. I made quick work of him game 1 since I put on a lot of pressure with thopter/sword and was able to represent removal. Game 2 he 2 Scalding Tarn in play when I cast a T3 Pithing Needle. He thinks for a second then says it resolves (probably tunnel visioned on me naming Saheli) I name scalding tarn to double stone rain him and win with ease.
Round 8: GB Tron 0-2 I can't say I was excited to see Tron again. I had great hands with a lot of ways to create outs for myself but my opponent had some great draws. I locked him out with Ensnaring Bridge both games while I had the combo up to lost to karn/Ulamogs off the top that exiled the bridge. I never died to regular damage since I could block forever with thopter/sword but the exile trigger on Ulamog was too much.
Now I am dead for top 64. Losing early ruined my tie breakers with people often dropping after I beat them in the x-2 or x-3 brackets. Only 1 round left and we had driven over 2 hours to play so we stuck it out.
Round 9: Grixis Control 2-1 Game 1 I mulligan to 5 and die to a tasigur with an ensnaring bridge stuck in my hand.
Game 2 my opponent had 2 polluted deltas on the table and a steam vents. I had sword of the meek in play and cast whir of Invention for X=2 to bait my opponent into thinking I was getting thopter foundry, which he would likely then just destroy with K command when I was tapped out. He took the bait and allowed me to Whir. I put Pithing Needle into play and named Polluted Delta. Double stone rain strikes again! He got particularly salty, and called a judge insisting that he could respond to the Pithing Needle. However he could not. The game continues on and I have the combo up facing 2 fulimnator mage and an izzet staticaster. I make 3 guys (2/3 and 2 1/1) and move to block the fulminator mages. He activates his Izzet staticaster than bolts my 2/3 before blocks. So I do it again and move to blocks a second time to take down the 2 fulminator mages. He instead goes to sacrifice them now and take out 2 of my lands. I use the mana to combo out. Go to my turn and now I can attack him for lethal because he can't actiavte his izzet staticaster. Game 3 I have the combo in play but I can't get anywhere with it because he has a Jace AOT shrinking my team every turn. I continued to make my army every turn for the life anyway and on his last turn of the game (We went to time) he was visibily frustrated and passed the turn without ever activating his Jace. I confirmed this before going to my turn and he attempted to argue over it, but a judge was watching our game and confirmed he did not activate Jace. I then attacked on my last turn with 40+ thopters for the kill.
Overall the deck felt great. I had some games where I had the combo in play and was able to use Contraband Kingpin to scry 1, 12+ plus times to find a tezz/hate card/awnser. (Sword and the token enter, so every 1 mana equals scry 1 twice.) He was also an all star against burn and often had to eat removal becuase of the recurring value I would get out of it. It felt great to play him and then play free artifacts like Welding Jar/Darksteel Citadel/Mox Opal. I won games I had no business winning because he allowed me draw straight fire for the rest of the game.
Moving forward I am going to need to dedicate a sideboard plan to big mana decks because it appears they are back in a big way. Thoughtseize and Wurmcoil Engine under performed and will be coming out for a plan against Big Mana. I will likely end up playing 2x ghost quarter main over an island and a fetch. Sideboard 1x Crucible of Worlds and 2x Surgical Extraction.
I would love to hear how anyone else did at regionals! Or if anyone has had good success with teching for Big mana without dedicating too many slots I'd like to hear about that as well!
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U/B Tezzeret Control
Sultai Midrange
Anything Innovative
5-0-1 is impressive. Trading Post in the main is pretty sweet - Lifegain, Recursion, draw and hand-size manipulation all rolled up into one. I wonder if having access to this recursion is what led to dropping down to only 1 Spellskite and 1 Welding Jar?
Trading Post was on my radar, too. Great insight @jayjayhooks; if I could run my Academy ruins in a non-land but rather in an artifact slot, would I? Heck yeah. Or turn my Jar/Skite no#2-3 into a lifegain engine, with the ever slowing down meta, would I? It's a tutorable planeswalker at this point.
What I'd give to get some YouTube replays of Gen piloting this.
@Zinch: Although C-Brut makes (use to make) a good, one-shot Lili impression on T2, I think that without the staying power of Lili your list be a little light on must-answer cards right now. I'd look into +1 Bridge maybe, and consider +1 Ashiok / Batterskul and/or Trading Post, and tweak from there. Keep us posted
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MODERN Blue Lantern, UBx Tezzerator. OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
The other consideration right now is what to do with the manabase. With Prism and much fewer colorless sources we can splash a color pretty easily, one of the Japanese decks had green for Abrupt Decay in the board, what other options do we have?
Modern:
Tezzeret
???
Legacy:
Imperial Painter aka. Strawberry Shortcake
Tezzeret, aka. Dack in Black
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
I do think that dropping a lot of the colourless sources is correct due to Mana constraints, but indestructible 5/5s are so sweet though!
The archetype cannot ignore Valakut and Tron otherwise it's not competitive outside FNMs : I guess GQ is good enough to steal 2 Citadels slots. No need for more than 1 Fair since there's Whir, and Ruins gets even more obsolete with 5 tutors overall. It doesn't seem complicated to figure out what <> lands can be played after all.
@SirPM : I don't think I was out of bounds when I said your manabase was not functional. We're speaking of UUU and BB spells + 4 Prisms here (!!!). There's only a very few archetypes you can take for comparison, for example UB Faeries. Just check out how many <> lands they play and follow their tracks. You were at 8 <> lands iirc (one third of your manabase), which is wayyyy above playability.
What I like with the Improvise angle is that we don't fold to artifact hate as much, and it's the first time I see a way to build a strong core without relying on Bridges + Foundries too much.
I have been playtesting white WUUUBB
Instant speed tidehollow sculler, lingering souls in the main, disenchant and anguished unmaking in the sideboard. Two Shambling Vents. Tidehollow helps against Tron and Combo, Lingering Souls is busted in half anyways and goes under Ensnaring Bridge, and the sideboard options help against hate.
I've been doing well in testing. I got 11 White Sources as lands + 4 Prism. Seems absolutely fine. Don't know if it's better yet though.
Sounds interesting for sure. Tron is a tough match, and any help would be appreciated. Not too mention how many interesting things you could do with an instant speed Tidehollow.
Which sideboard options against hate are you thinking of? I'm thinking Disenchant effects against Stony Silence, but I'm guessing you have more in mind?
Exactly. 2 extra Tidehollow Sculler in the side also 1 Disenchant, 1 Anguished Unmaking, 1 Esper Charm.
Here is my list
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/565853#online
Play testing a lot so please dont hate on all the one ofs
In other news, tonight's testing went well and tweaking some more, I closed the night destroying a VALAKUT TITAN player 2-1 using a Spreading Seas tempo plan!!! It can be done, spread the news
Where the list's at:
1 Welding Jar
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ratchet Bomb
Spells
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 Fatal Push
1 Collective Brutality
3 Whir of Invention
Creature
1 Spellskite
2 Herald of Anguish
Planeswalker
3 Liliana of the Veil
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Combo slots
2 Sword of the Meek
2 Thopter Foundry
2 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Mox Opal
4 Pentad Prism
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Academy Ruins
1 Inventors' Fair
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
2 Island
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
3 Glimmervoid
1 Spire of Industry
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Witchbane Orb
1 Welding Jar
1 Etched Champion
1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
1 Duress
4 Spreading Seas
2 Pack Rat
1 Time Sieve
1 Echoing Truth
1 Battle at the Bridge
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
So, I've been looking for other 1-of artifacts we can try to use to similar effect. Nothing great so far, but here's what I've found:
Wurmcoil Engine and Batterskull – This is where I started out. Hefty CMCs, but the bodies and lifelink are great, and both have a form of built-in resilience.
Etched Champion – Definitely solid out the board for its evasion and resilience, but not sure if it's maindeckable.
Ethersworn Adjudicator – Decent beater with a super powerful effect, but requires a W splash.
Epochrasite – Whirs in as a resilient 4/4, but seems very slow.
Ring of Three Wishes – Turn one Whir into your entire combo plus change. But again, slooooooow.
Master of Etherium – Pumps our Thopters, but without a high-impact ability or resilience, not sure if it's worthwhile.
The Alara Sphinxs – Waaaaay too expensive.
Mindslaver – Expensive to Whir, and pay 5 more to activate. Can go infinite with Academy Ruins, but we don't really have a reliable way of setting that up.
Hope of Ghirapur – Great with infinite recursion, otherwise pretty lackluster for this purpose.
Heart of Kiran – We can really only crew it with a Planeswalker, which seems pretty meh.
Sooooo… yeah. Not really finding anything spectacular. Honestly, Ring may be the best of these, since likely we're sitting behind a Bridge at this point and have a few turn of breathing room. That said, it doesn't seem particularly good; Shackles is probably much better even if it may be hard to swing with this land base.
Maybe it's better just to focus on running a few more haymakers (Liliana, Herald of Anguish). /shrug
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
2 Herald of Anguish
4 Whir of Innovation
3 Fatal Push
3 Collective Brutality
3 Welding Jar
2 Mox Opal
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Pithing Needle
1 Ratchet Bomb
2 Spellskite
2 Sword of the Meek
2 Thopter Foundry
4 Pentad Prism
2 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Inventors' Fair
4 Darkslick Shore
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
2 Watery Grave
2 Sunken Ruins
1 Glimmervoid
1 Steam Vents
1 Swamp
3 Island
There are certainly a few slots you can play around with in your list. The 3rd jar seems redundant alongside the 2 Spellskites and can probably go. And Cage is pretty narrow for the main. I would recommend making those cuts and adding some of what Radouf suggested...Battle at the Bridge, Fatal Push #4 or Lilly to give you a little more game against the aggro decks you're having trouble with.
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
I reluctantly experimented with dropping my Serum Visions and Thirst for Knowledges for 3 Liliana and 2 Herald. Can't say I'm 100% sold on no filter, but Liliana at the very least has been performing better than expected. She's of course best when you have a Tarmogoyf standing in front of her, but Push plus Brutality plus the Bridges (Battle At and Ensnaring, respectively) plus sometimes just a plain ol' Spellskite have been working. And of course you can always interact early into Tezz-5/5 and then plop her down behind that.
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
1 Academy Ruins
1 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Darksteel Citadel
1 Inventors' Fair
3 Island
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
3 Watery Grave
Artifacts:
1 Batterskull
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Mox Opal
3 Pentad Prism
1 Pithing Needle
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Spellskite
3 Sword of the Meek
4 Thopter Foundry
1 Welding Jar
1 Contraband Kingpin
4 Glint-Nest Crane
Instants/Sorceries:
4 Fatal Push
2 Whir of Invention
Planeswalkers:
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 Collective Brutality
2 Damnation
1 Flaying Tendrils
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Negate
1 Spell Pierce
1 Spellskite
2 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Thoughtseize
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Round 1: Burn 1-2 I lost game 1 to the pretty standard fast burn hand of 2 lands/2 creatures/mix of 1-2 cmc spells. I was on the draw. I had the ability to assemble the combo on turn 3 but saw little hope in winning and feined being a standard UB control deck to dodge game 2 destructive revelry. Game 2 I get the combo up on t3 and he conceeds 2 turns later. Game 3 I assemble the combo quickly, make 4 guys and gain 4 life while at 1. But he has grim lavamancer in play and a bolt off the top. (I slogged through 2 copies of destructively revelry this game by absorbing them with welding jar and spellskite.
Round 2: Grixis Delver 1-2 This match was my most unfortunate luck of the day. He had T1 delver and flipped it on T2 all three games. Game 1 I got the combo down with spellskite protection and he conceded. A bunch of spell snares and K commands kept me from doing anything the next 2 games while I proceeded to flood out. He tells me after the match that he is playing 4 of each :/ Great against me but a bad deck building decision and he scrubbed out shortly after.
Round 3: UB Control 2-0 Game 1 I assemble the combo quickly and he can't do anything to answer it. He spends multiple turns trying to cryptic tap/bounce my foundry but he would have to tap out to do this and I would simply re play it in my second main phase. Game 2 I correctly concluded that he boarded out most of his removal and went for a batterskull kill. Batterskull on a crane wins the match :].
Round 4: Bogles 2-0 Had to call a judge because I forgot to sideboard from the previous match. I simply had to fix it and take a mulligan since I caught it in my opening hand. Had to call the judge again in favor of my opponent to explain to him that EE doesn't kill his bogle as well if he as an umbra. He thought everything died and was pleasantly surprised. Overall this match was a bye with rapid access to Spellskite, EE and Ensnaring Bridge. I got 2 bridges and a sklite into play while hellbent. He succumbs to a Tezzeret ultimate both games.
Round 5: BTL Scapeshift 0-2 His list was very weird playing all 4 colors for bring to light and still playing 4x cryptic commands. I got the combo up quicly both games but couldn't race his scapeshift kill. Game 2 I negated the scapeshift and he had a second one.
At this point I am dead for top 8 but decide to play it out becuase I can still top 32 and cash the event.
Round 6: GR Tron 2-0 That's right. 2-0. Major accomplishment of the day. Realistically, I drew perfectly and my tron opponent drew the worst I have seen a tron player draw. Between the 2 games he only found 1 threat and I was able to negate it. Thopter/Sword into Tezz ultimate closed the games quickly once he stumbled.
Round 7: Jeskai 2-0 My friend was sitting next to me playing his match for this round and standard making fun of me when i slammed a t2 contraband kingpin. "What is this racing089?! Standard?!" I jokingly said "Yeah! My opponent is probably going to untap and jam a Saheli Rai!" No joke, opponent untaps and jams a Saheli Rai... I could not control my laughter and the 8 players around us all stopped playing to join in. lol. I made quick work of him game 1 since I put on a lot of pressure with thopter/sword and was able to represent removal. Game 2 he 2 Scalding Tarn in play when I cast a T3 Pithing Needle. He thinks for a second then says it resolves (probably tunnel visioned on me naming Saheli) I name scalding tarn to double stone rain him and win with ease.
Round 8: GB Tron 0-2 I can't say I was excited to see Tron again. I had great hands with a lot of ways to create outs for myself but my opponent had some great draws. I locked him out with Ensnaring Bridge both games while I had the combo up to lost to karn/Ulamogs off the top that exiled the bridge. I never died to regular damage since I could block forever with thopter/sword but the exile trigger on Ulamog was too much.
Now I am dead for top 64. Losing early ruined my tie breakers with people often dropping after I beat them in the x-2 or x-3 brackets. Only 1 round left and we had driven over 2 hours to play so we stuck it out.
Round 9: Grixis Control 2-1 Game 1 I mulligan to 5 and die to a tasigur with an ensnaring bridge stuck in my hand.
Game 2 my opponent had 2 polluted deltas on the table and a steam vents. I had sword of the meek in play and cast whir of Invention for X=2 to bait my opponent into thinking I was getting thopter foundry, which he would likely then just destroy with K command when I was tapped out. He took the bait and allowed me to Whir. I put Pithing Needle into play and named Polluted Delta. Double stone rain strikes again! He got particularly salty, and called a judge insisting that he could respond to the Pithing Needle. However he could not. The game continues on and I have the combo up facing 2 fulimnator mage and an izzet staticaster. I make 3 guys (2/3 and 2 1/1) and move to block the fulminator mages. He activates his Izzet staticaster than bolts my 2/3 before blocks. So I do it again and move to blocks a second time to take down the 2 fulminator mages. He instead goes to sacrifice them now and take out 2 of my lands. I use the mana to combo out. Go to my turn and now I can attack him for lethal because he can't actiavte his izzet staticaster. Game 3 I have the combo in play but I can't get anywhere with it because he has a Jace AOT shrinking my team every turn. I continued to make my army every turn for the life anyway and on his last turn of the game (We went to time) he was visibily frustrated and passed the turn without ever activating his Jace. I confirmed this before going to my turn and he attempted to argue over it, but a judge was watching our game and confirmed he did not activate Jace. I then attacked on my last turn with 40+ thopters for the kill.
Overall the deck felt great. I had some games where I had the combo in play and was able to use Contraband Kingpin to scry 1, 12+ plus times to find a tezz/hate card/awnser. (Sword and the token enter, so every 1 mana equals scry 1 twice.) He was also an all star against burn and often had to eat removal becuase of the recurring value I would get out of it. It felt great to play him and then play free artifacts like Welding Jar/Darksteel Citadel/Mox Opal. I won games I had no business winning because he allowed me draw straight fire for the rest of the game.
Moving forward I am going to need to dedicate a sideboard plan to big mana decks because it appears they are back in a big way. Thoughtseize and Wurmcoil Engine under performed and will be coming out for a plan against Big Mana. I will likely end up playing 2x ghost quarter main over an island and a fetch. Sideboard 1x Crucible of Worlds and 2x Surgical Extraction.
I would love to hear how anyone else did at regionals! Or if anyone has had good success with teching for Big mana without dedicating too many slots I'd like to hear about that as well!
Sultai Midrange
Anything Innovative
http://www.hareruyamtg.com/en/k/kD06241W/
Would love to hear people's thoughts.
5-0-1 is impressive. Trading Post in the main is pretty sweet - Lifegain, Recursion, draw and hand-size manipulation all rolled up into one. I wonder if having access to this recursion is what led to dropping down to only 1 Spellskite and 1 Welding Jar?
What I'd give to get some YouTube replays of Gen piloting this.
@Zinch: Although C-Brut makes (use to make) a good, one-shot Lili impression on T2, I think that without the staying power of Lili your list be a little light on must-answer cards right now. I'd look into +1 Bridge maybe, and consider +1 Ashiok / Batterskul and/or Trading Post, and tweak from there. Keep us posted
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon