@mtgbauer, straight white is the place to start and learn the initial lines of play that you will need to master to have good games with this deck, and eventually start winning with it. Straight white is also the cheapest in terms of cash outlay or trade. From there, you're free to go where you like as color splashes go.
Wb is perhaps the second strongest of the splashes (after Wg which is brutally expensive) and very fun to play. The two main problems are a lackluster manabase (due to no enemy color fastlands) and the fact that your life total will suffer from your painlands, shocklands, fetches, bob and dismember. So pick up some kitchen finks.
Best of luck.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Your success in playing dnt/hatebears is determined largely by your ability to read and prepare for the meta that you will be playing in. Furthermore, it has an absolutely brutal learning curve. Expect to lose; a lot.
@everyone I owe a Mage an apology lol. Someone suggested maybe we try Thraben Inspector. I dont recall saying no or downplaying its viability but I surely didn't defend the card slot. I watched an scg versus video of Tom Ross piloting his take on DNT with her and she was actually pretty good. At the time, I wasn't sure if it's due to the nature of the matchup or what but I was curious. I sleeved it up and took it to a local shop and wow. She's pretty good. It also makes the Kor skyfisher builds so much stronger. I'm absolutely thrilled to keep testing this card.
Why is it better than wall of omens? It attacks early, better curve (especially with skyfisher), and doesn't require you to draw the card immediately. When someone starts inquisitioning your hand the drawn card of relevance is victim to the opponents disruption. If card draw is laid on suspend via a clue, you can grab the card at a more optimal time. It also can get into fights with some of the more agressive creatures and potentially kill. I know clique, confidant, and mana dudes aren't blinking this anytime soon. So in my world this card translates to, 3 mana 1/2 creature that deals 3 damage, chunk blocks, and draws at least one card.
Not sure how far it makes it through testing but maybe this is the best one drop we could have achieved for mono-white builds.
I think Thraben Inspector is good, but it's probably not dealing 3 damage over the course of a game. It can potentially get there against control and combo builds, but in any aggro-heavy metagame, you'll be chump blocking long before you can do much damage with it.
I agree with you about Clue utility in general; I think Clues are better for our deck than most, and especially so in the redbuilds.
I'm interested to see how Bygone Bishop performs in this deck, for the same reasons we've been talking about.
Maybe time will show otherwise, but I really don't think its a good card compared to any of the other two drops we have. It doesn't trade with any of the important/annoying creatures like geist, goblin guide, any of the affinity stuff, and I think I'd go with what most of you have done and just drop the 1 drops if my only option was to play the inspector.
Its going to do an equal or less amount of damage than Judge's Familiar so the question is if drawing a card for 2 is better than the mana tithe ability?
I think the question you raised is the right one.
Judge's Familiar is more likely to deal damage, but it's also more likely to be removed, after which it can't swing anymore. In other words, I think it's more likely that Familiar will end up in a graveyard than Thraben Inspector. Familiar and Inspector chump block the same. Familiar is more likely to get hit with removal. Familiar is also more likely to be sacrificed for value. On the average, Inspector will stay in the board longer than Familiar, even if Inspector is less generally useful, because it doesn't have flying.
I think the relative utility of Inspector and Familiar really depends on your metagame, and on what the rest of your deck does. Against control, I'd probably rather have Familiar, because it really slows down burn and discard spells. Against aggro, I'd rather have Inspector, because that aggro has a low density of noncreature spells. Against combo, I think it could go either way, depending on the combo deck. Similarly, if your deck is designed to take advantage of artifacts (like the red options I listed above), I'd rather have Inspector. But if your deck is designed to be heavy on taxes, Familiar is more consistent.
Playing millions of cards every turn... Slowly and systematically obliterating any chance my opponent has of winning... Clicking the multitude of locking mechanisms into place... Not even trying to win myself until turn 10+ once I have nigh absolute control... Watching my opponent desperately trying to navigate the labyrinthine prison that I've constructed... Seeing the light of hope fade and ultimately extinguished in an excruciatingly slow manner... THAT'S fun Magic.
We have 2-3 users that are dramatically making this thread incomprehensible and non-productive for anyone else to possibly join in the discussion. This needs to change.
Every time I see [ktkenshinx] post in here, I get the impression of a stern dad walking in on a bunch of kids trying to do something dumb and just shaking his head in disappointment.
Near Mint: The same as Slightly Played, but we threw some Altoids in the box we stored it in to cover up the scent of dead mice. Slightly Played: The base condition for all MTG cards. This card looks OK, but there’s one minor annoying ding in it that will always irritate and distract you whenever you draw it. Moderately Played: This card looks like it survived the Tet Offensive tucked inside the waistband of GI underwear. It may smell like it, too. Heavily Played: This card looks like the remains of Mohammed Atta’s passport after 9/11. It may be playable if you double-sleeve it to stop the chunks from falling out. The condition formerly known as "Washing Machine Grade" Damaged: This card is the unfortunate victim of a Mirrorweave/March of the Machines/Chaos Confetti/Mindslaver combo.
[M]aking counterfeit cards is the absolute height of dishonesty. Ask yourself this question: Since most people...are totally cool with the use of proxies...what purpose do [high] quality counterfeit cards serve?
Do people really use removal on familiar? I don't think I've ever had anone actuallytry to kill it, and most of the time they play around with one mana open past the first two turns of the game.
I like militant because of its 2 power, it trades with almost every creature in the format, gets its damage in twice as fast as our other options and has a useful ability tacked on. Inspectors ability to draw a card is nice buton paper it doesn't convince me that it's worth losing a point of power for.
I'm having second thoughts on my eldrazi list; the main question in having is the 2 of slot which is either going to blade splicer or reality smasher. Blade splicer goes wider, great flicker target and first strike,and less reliant on temple, but dies to k command and without flicker can get out classed quickly. Smasher ends games quick, hard to target and tramples but can be hard to cast without temple. I haven't been in this meta since eldrazi were running rampant, so large part is unknown, tron will most likely be there. List follows
Did someone say Judge's Familiar?! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways!
1. JF vs. Affinity: relevant blocker for Nexi and Pest.
2. JF against Infect: relevant blocker for Nexi. Makes pump spells cost 1 more. Effectively will always trade for a card and some amount of poison.
3. JF against Burn: effectively either Healing Salve or Thalia.
4. JF against Jund: usually trades for a removal spell, protecting something more valuable, such as an Arbiter. Bonus points for being responsible for the second sweetest line we typically have (turn 1 Vial, turn 2 Arbiter, Vial in Familiar in response to the non-Abrupt Decay removal spell. The sweetest, of course, being roughly the same line, but having Vial on 2 and Vialing in Spellskite to redirect Abrupt Decay.
5. JF against Grixis: see Jund.
6. JF against Merfolk: No. @#$% Merfolk.
I'm not going to do a full run-down of every single deck in the format, but JF basically has 3 roles: another Thalia, a counterspell on legs that pings for 1 a turn, and a disposable blocker for X/1 flyers. JF has a surprising amount of versatility for a 1 drop, and while it's a terrible late game topdeck, there are very few matchups, if any, where it's a dead card. I very rarely find myself siding out JFs.
Do people really use removal on familiar? I don't think I've ever had anone actuallytry to kill it, and most of the time they play around with one mana open past the first two turns of the game.
Yes, I've definitely had people kill JF much for the same reason they kill Thalia. They have more important spells they need to start churning through, and they'd rather trade JF for a removal spell rather than the more important ones. Sometimes they'll wait, but if you're mana starved JF is a problem.
dryad militant and icatian javelineers also worthy Mentions. Militant puts up pressure ,hurts snapcaster and goyf, and can trade with t1 goblin guide. Javelineers kills unflipped delver, young pyromancer, steel ovesear, pestermite, grim lavamancer,mana dorks, nexus, infect creatures etc...
I think in non green kor skyfisher lists thraben inspector might be good, provides something to bounce and something to do with vial on one.
Today's thursday weekly tournament went 2-1, beating 2 jund decks and losing to burn with wild nacatl or zoo with lots of burn. Pretty happy to beat 2 jund decks, the deck is getting more resilient now.
Couldn't do much vs zoo/burn. Game 1 my opponent had a couple of early threats and cheap removal for my stuff, and i got nothing to remove them. My tidehollow sculler revealed a hand with lands, searing blaze, lightning bolt, oh well. Game 2 kept a one lander on 6 cards, with no one drop. I should have mulliganed, obviously i didn't draw lands until it was too late, too bad. Was pretty much the only time i wished my siege rhino (which i didn't have the time to cast in both games) were kitchen kinks, but they did lots of work in the other 2 matches.
You said in non green version, I was commenting that green splash one drop should be noble hierarch (one of the main reasons to go green splash). It was not meant to be offensive, just showing that no one can agree on correct one drop, except in gw version. I guess over forums a lot if context is lost. Again no offense or disrespect meant.
You said in non green version, I was commenting that green splash one drop should be noble hierarch (one of the main reasons to go green splash). It was not meant to be offensive, just showing that no one can agree on correct one drop, except in gw version. I guess over forums a lot if context is lost. Again no offense or disrespect meant.
Oh ok, i didn't understood what you meant.
Yeah green has noble hierarch, but in kor skyfisher builds oath of nissa is just solid as well. I was referring to this specific build with skyfisher because oath negates the «drawback» of playing a turn two kor (because you never want to bounce a land, a vial or a noble hierarch). What i meant to say is thraben inspector fulfills the same role of making kor a decent turn 2 play.
Unless I play mono white, I don't even run 1 drops any more, just not enough space, yes it would be nice to have something to do with vial on 1 but most scale way down as the game goes longer. But I don't hamper others creativity or preferences; I will bring my experience playing certain cards to the table but won't two people they ate wrong for doing something. Like many people told Catmix he was wrong for running the wall and he had done great with that choice. People have told me many times (especiall in person) I am wrong for not running thoughtseize and confidant...most times I just look at them as I advance to top 8s with a smirk. Everyone plays different and the deck has a lot of space for originality since core leaves a lot of flex spots.
Went 3-0 split the fourth round tonight. Beat RG eldrazi round one, it's a much slower deck now and I won with pretty wimpy creatures.
Round 2 beat esper humans, brimaz was bigger than everything in their deck.
Round 3 was vs junk rally, won game 1 off a few arbiters and a mindcensors, lost game 2 to a super fast combo, then crushed game 3 after keeping a hand of 3 lands, rip, path path celestial purge.
Round 4 we split then played out the matches lost game one to Chandra pyromaster but it was close, won game 2 through two night of souls betrayles then lost game 3 when I didn't name Chandra with revoker and she came down a turn later and killed everything.
Highlites of the night was removing 2 Bob's with deceleration of stone!
Went 3-0 split the fourth round tonight. Beat RG eldrazi round one, it's a much slower deck now and I won with pretty wimpy creatures.
Round 2 beat esper humans, brimaz was bigger than everything in their deck.
Round 3 was vs junk rally, won game 1 off a few arbiters and a mindcensors, lost game 2 to a super fast combo, then crushed game 3 after keeping a hand of 3 lands, rip, path path celestial purge.
Round 4 we split then played out the matches lost game one to Chandra pyromaster but it was close, won game 2 through two night of souls betrayles then lost game 3 when I didn't name Chandra with revoker and she came down a turn later and killed everything.
Highlites of the night was removing 2 Bob's with deceleration of stone!
Congrats on the finish!
By the way i'd love to play declaration in stone just to give clue tokens to my opponent:
"Do you have a clue? No, you don't have a clue. Here, have some clues, now you have a clue!"
g1) He started with double BTE. But I stripped him of good cards with TKS+Sculler and quickly won when all he had was mana.
g2) I keep a one lander on the hopes of drawing another in two turns. I take two turns too many and he runs over.
g3) t2 thalia, t4 TKS, t5 Reality smasher leaves him at 2, serra avenger at end step seals the deal.
g1) I start with sculler, displacer and TKS. He never assembles a hand to combo and dies eventually.
g2) He starts with double electromancer and pyro ascension. I attack him with thalia and displacer for a couple of turns then cast strangler getting rid of one electromancer. Next turn I flash in Pontiff to push the last 3 points of damage.
g1) I went in too aggressivo with t2 displacer. He put me at 8 on t3 with shaman of the pack + beats. t4 he casts Elvish archdruid and I don't have enough blockers.
g2) I play a very grindy game where I destroy all his lands with triple GQ but his mana dorks pull him and he runs over with archdruid + a bunch of guys. I feel like my sequencing was ridiculously wrong. I needed to land Pontiff + flickerwisp in order to wipe him. I spent the flickers on his archdruid to hide it on his turn. What do?
g1) I Strangler his tarmogoyf and sculler on draw. He bolted the sculler before I exiled anything. (atm I typed "YES" in the chat) Later I flickerwisp my strangler 2x to keep him off creatures. His manabase dealt more damage than me.
g2) I get my face beaten by 2 flipped delvers for a couple of turns. I respond with Sculler+Strangler taking him off Staticaster and killing a delver. Now I made a mistake, decided to TKS him instead of killing the delver at 5 life. He puts me at 2 and next turn he has 0 cards in hand, draws and plays serum visions, then gitaxian probe, then bolt and I'm dead.
g3) Turn 3 he's at 11 life and I have firewalker + orzhov pontiff on the board. He lands tarmogoyf and manages to stall the board. I keep putting stuff on the board and he tries to keep up. I just overwhelm him and win.
g1) He lands triple swiftspear + nacatl and I'm at 5 life. I flash in strangler killing nacatl and path one swiftspear, this leaves me at 1 and he's all tapped. On my turn I drop a land and activate Shambling Vent for the last 2 damage.
g2) I turn 3 flash in arbiter and GQ his two lands. he plays another and hits with guide. Next turn I drop another GQ, kill his land, sunlance the guide and drop vial. He has no permanents and scoops.
obs:
I sided out stonecloaker a lot, but he's valueble a lot of times. I figure what I could put in his place.
Ajani, Caller of the Pride didn't show up. Can't tell if he helps or not.
I feel naked without Worship, but I guess ghostly prison helps in almost every match worship does and costs 1 less.
Pontiff is valuable. Even in this version that doesn't put as many creatures on the table as straight bw.
Where's affinity, lantern and thopters? My stony silences and relic-warder sat on the side the wohle league.
Smasher off the side is the way to go. He's too clunky MD, but when you need him, he smashes.
The deck felt strong and overall fun to play with. The eldrazi menace helps a lot to overcome the big creatures. I always felt DnT lacking when we had to brawl with 4/4s up, unless we used double blocking + first strike of some combination of elements. The eldrazi deal with those by their own. I have 8 targeted discard main deck stapled to creatures and they're not hard to cast. Strangler is pretty easy to activate and sometimes you strangle on an empty board just to process that Ancestral Visions. Sadly I didn't get to play against thopters, but that will happen eventually.
Wb is perhaps the second strongest of the splashes (after Wg which is brutally expensive) and very fun to play. The two main problems are a lackluster manabase (due to no enemy color fastlands) and the fact that your life total will suffer from your painlands, shocklands, fetches, bob and dismember. So pick up some kitchen finks.
Best of luck.
I agree with you about Clue utility in general; I think Clues are better for our deck than most, and especially so in the red builds.
I'm interested to see how Bygone Bishop performs in this deck, for the same reasons we've been talking about.
I think the question you raised is the right one.
Judge's Familiar is more likely to deal damage, but it's also more likely to be removed, after which it can't swing anymore. In other words, I think it's more likely that Familiar will end up in a graveyard than Thraben Inspector. Familiar and Inspector chump block the same. Familiar is more likely to get hit with removal. Familiar is also more likely to be sacrificed for value. On the average, Inspector will stay in the board longer than Familiar, even if Inspector is less generally useful, because it doesn't have flying.
I think the relative utility of Inspector and Familiar really depends on your metagame, and on what the rest of your deck does. Against control, I'd probably rather have Familiar, because it really slows down burn and discard spells. Against aggro, I'd rather have Inspector, because that aggro has a low density of noncreature spells. Against combo, I think it could go either way, depending on the combo deck. Similarly, if your deck is designed to take advantage of artifacts (like the red options I listed above), I'd rather have Inspector. But if your deck is designed to be heavy on taxes, Familiar is more consistent.
WUDeath&TaxesWG
Legacy
UBRGDredgeUBRG
UHigh TideU
URGLandsURG
WR Card Choice List
WUR American D&T
WUB Esper D&T
The Reserved List
Heat Maps
I like militant because of its 2 power, it trades with almost every creature in the format, gets its damage in twice as fast as our other options and has a useful ability tacked on. Inspectors ability to draw a card is nice buton paper it doesn't convince me that it's worth losing a point of power for.
WWModern Death And Taxes (w/ Militia Bugler) (JUL '19)
GWModern Maverick (JUL '19)
WBCatmix on Twitch!
WWCatmix on Youtube
3 thalia, guardian of thraben
4 leonin arbiter
4 tidehollow sculler
4 flickerwisp
3 wasteland strangler
3 Eldrazi Displacer
2 Blade splicer
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 aether vial
4 path to exile
2 anguished unmaking
Lands 23
4 caves of koilos
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Godless Shrine
2 shambling vent
2 tectonic edge
2 Plains
1 swamp
1 fetid heath
WDeath and TaxesW
RWGBurnGWR
1. JF vs. Affinity: relevant blocker for Nexi and Pest.
2. JF against Infect: relevant blocker for Nexi. Makes pump spells cost 1 more. Effectively will always trade for a card and some amount of poison.
3. JF against Burn: effectively either Healing Salve or Thalia.
4. JF against Jund: usually trades for a removal spell, protecting something more valuable, such as an Arbiter. Bonus points for being responsible for the second sweetest line we typically have (turn 1 Vial, turn 2 Arbiter, Vial in Familiar in response to the non-Abrupt Decay removal spell. The sweetest, of course, being roughly the same line, but having Vial on 2 and Vialing in Spellskite to redirect Abrupt Decay.
5. JF against Grixis: see Jund.
6. JF against Merfolk: No. @#$% Merfolk.
I'm not going to do a full run-down of every single deck in the format, but JF basically has 3 roles: another Thalia, a counterspell on legs that pings for 1 a turn, and a disposable blocker for X/1 flyers. JF has a surprising amount of versatility for a 1 drop, and while it's a terrible late game topdeck, there are very few matchups, if any, where it's a dead card. I very rarely find myself siding out JFs.
Yes, I've definitely had people kill JF much for the same reason they kill Thalia. They have more important spells they need to start churning through, and they'd rather trade JF for a removal spell rather than the more important ones. Sometimes they'll wait, but if you're mana starved JF is a problem.
WWModern Death And Taxes (w/ Militia Bugler) (JUL '19)
GWModern Maverick (JUL '19)
WBCatmix on Twitch!
WWCatmix on Youtube
WDeath and TaxesW
RWGBurnGWR
J Fam and Spellskite of Runes. It's the only way to play!
Today's thursday weekly tournament went 2-1, beating 2 jund decks and losing to burn with wild nacatl or zoo with lots of burn. Pretty happy to beat 2 jund decks, the deck is getting more resilient now.
Couldn't do much vs zoo/burn. Game 1 my opponent had a couple of early threats and cheap removal for my stuff, and i got nothing to remove them. My tidehollow sculler revealed a hand with lands, searing blaze, lightning bolt, oh well. Game 2 kept a one lander on 6 cards, with no one drop. I should have mulliganed, obviously i didn't draw lands until it was too late, too bad. Was pretty much the only time i wished my siege rhino (which i didn't have the time to cast in both games) were kitchen kinks, but they did lots of work in the other 2 matches.
WDeath and TaxesW
RWGBurnGWR
What is that supposed to mean?
WDeath and TaxesW
RWGBurnGWR
Weathered Wayfarer
Dryad Militant
Judge's Familiar
Kytheon, Hero of Akros
Thraben Inspector
Topplegeist
And these are the top candidates from what I can tell.
Oh ok, i didn't understood what you meant.
Yeah green has noble hierarch, but in kor skyfisher builds oath of nissa is just solid as well. I was referring to this specific build with skyfisher because oath negates the «drawback» of playing a turn two kor (because you never want to bounce a land, a vial or a noble hierarch). What i meant to say is thraben inspector fulfills the same role of making kor a decent turn 2 play.
WDeath and TaxesW
RWGBurnGWR
Round 2 beat esper humans, brimaz was bigger than everything in their deck.
Round 3 was vs junk rally, won game 1 off a few arbiters and a mindcensors, lost game 2 to a super fast combo, then crushed game 3 after keeping a hand of 3 lands, rip, path path celestial purge.
Round 4 we split then played out the matches lost game one to Chandra pyromaster but it was close, won game 2 through two night of souls betrayles then lost game 3 when I didn't name Chandra with revoker and she came down a turn later and killed everything.
Highlites of the night was removing 2 Bob's with deceleration of stone!
Congrats on the finish!
By the way i'd love to play declaration in stone just to give clue tokens to my opponent:
"Do you have a clue? No, you don't have a clue. Here, have some clues, now you have a clue!"
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Leonin Arbiter
4 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Serra Avenger
4 Flickerwisp
4 Wasteland Strangler
2 Stonecloaker
2 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Aether Vial
4 Path to Exile
1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
Lands
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Godless Shrine
2 Shambling Vent
3 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Sunlance
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Ghostly Prison
2 Orzhov Pontiff
2 Reality Smasher
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
g1) He started with double BTE. But I stripped him of good cards with TKS+Sculler and quickly won when all he had was mana.
g2) I keep a one lander on the hopes of drawing another in two turns. I take two turns too many and he runs over.
g3) t2 thalia, t4 TKS, t5 Reality smasher leaves him at 2, serra avenger at end step seals the deal.
g1) I start with sculler, displacer and TKS. He never assembles a hand to combo and dies eventually.
g2) He starts with double electromancer and pyro ascension. I attack him with thalia and displacer for a couple of turns then cast strangler getting rid of one electromancer. Next turn I flash in Pontiff to push the last 3 points of damage.
g1) I went in too aggressivo with t2 displacer. He put me at 8 on t3 with shaman of the pack + beats. t4 he casts Elvish archdruid and I don't have enough blockers.
g2) I play a very grindy game where I destroy all his lands with triple GQ but his mana dorks pull him and he runs over with archdruid + a bunch of guys. I feel like my sequencing was ridiculously wrong. I needed to land Pontiff + flickerwisp in order to wipe him. I spent the flickers on his archdruid to hide it on his turn. What do?
g1) I Strangler his tarmogoyf and sculler on draw. He bolted the sculler before I exiled anything. (atm I typed "YES" in the chat) Later I flickerwisp my strangler 2x to keep him off creatures. His manabase dealt more damage than me.
g2) I get my face beaten by 2 flipped delvers for a couple of turns. I respond with Sculler+Strangler taking him off Staticaster and killing a delver. Now I made a mistake, decided to TKS him instead of killing the delver at 5 life. He puts me at 2 and next turn he has 0 cards in hand, draws and plays serum visions, then gitaxian probe, then bolt and I'm dead.
g3) Turn 3 he's at 11 life and I have firewalker + orzhov pontiff on the board. He lands tarmogoyf and manages to stall the board. I keep putting stuff on the board and he tries to keep up. I just overwhelm him and win.
g1) He lands triple swiftspear + nacatl and I'm at 5 life. I flash in strangler killing nacatl and path one swiftspear, this leaves me at 1 and he's all tapped. On my turn I drop a land and activate Shambling Vent for the last 2 damage.
g2) I turn 3 flash in arbiter and GQ his two lands. he plays another and hits with guide. Next turn I drop another GQ, kill his land, sunlance the guide and drop vial. He has no permanents and scoops.
obs:
I sided out stonecloaker a lot, but he's valueble a lot of times. I figure what I could put in his place.
Ajani, Caller of the Pride didn't show up. Can't tell if he helps or not.
I feel naked without Worship, but I guess ghostly prison helps in almost every match worship does and costs 1 less.
Pontiff is valuable. Even in this version that doesn't put as many creatures on the table as straight bw.
Where's affinity, lantern and thopters? My stony silences and relic-warder sat on the side the wohle league.
Smasher off the side is the way to go. He's too clunky MD, but when you need him, he smashes.
The deck felt strong and overall fun to play with. The eldrazi menace helps a lot to overcome the big creatures. I always felt DnT lacking when we had to brawl with 4/4s up, unless we used double blocking + first strike of some combination of elements. The eldrazi deal with those by their own. I have 8 targeted discard main deck stapled to creatures and they're not hard to cast. Strangler is pretty easy to activate and sometimes you strangle on an empty board just to process that Ancestral Visions. Sadly I didn't get to play against thopters, but that will happen eventually.
Will probably do another league this weekend.
I'm only waiting for SOI to land on MTGO to test:
Declaration in Stone
Anguished Unmaking
Thraben Inspector
Topplegeist