Sorry to intrude with the giant tournament report, that was meant to have its own thread, and I'm not entirely sure they just inserted it into the middle of the conversation here.
Because discussion of individual decks (such as tournament reports or card choices) is supposed to be in that deck's thread. We all appreciate the tournament report much more here than if it was its own thread.
I agree, Shadowlink, this deck is a lot of fun. I built it fairly recently from the ashes of a Grixis Delver deck I'd been messing around with, and so far I'm really glad I made the swap. I'm still short a playset of Scalding Tarns but I'm able to make do with 9 KTK fetches. I am in the process of trading for 2 more Cryptic Commands, at which point I may experiment with one the Grixis Control lists that have been making waves lately, but all in all I'm having a ton of fun with this archetype. I finally bit the bullet and installed Cockatrice to get some playtesting in, and it's provided me with some much-needed practice piloting the deck. I too enjoy the variety of angles we can attack from; it opens up many complex lines that make our games equally challenging and rewarding.
Siding out 75% of our combo pieces G2 to make room for more tempo/control while our opponent sides in a bunch of Twin hate is extremely satisfying, and the biggest lessons I've learned so far, aside from how/when to fetch correctly, are that 1) Tasigur is an absolute powerhouse (I've won so many games off of the card advantage he enables), and 2) Keranos in from the sideboard can be ridiculously powerful in grindy matchups.
Next items on my list are to pick up 2 more Cryptics, 2 Engineered Explosives for the board, a set of Tarns (should I wait for BFZ?) and perhaps to finish my playset of Fulminator Mages in case I ever decide I need them.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
EDH: B Chainer, Dementia Master B | UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG | WRG Marath, Will of the Wild WRG | UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR | UBG Tasigur, the Golden Fang UBG
Modern: WBG Abzan Company WBG | UBR Grixis Delver and/or Twin UBR | U Merfolk U
WBG Anafenza, the Foremost WBG WUR Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR
WUBRG Horde of Notions WUBRG WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon WUBRG URG Maelstrom Wanderer URG UBG Damia, Sage of Stone UBG WUG Roon of the Hidden Realm WUG WUG Rafiq of the Many WUG WUG Deveri, Empyrial Tactician WUG BRG Prossh, Skyraider of Kher BRG WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain WBG UBR Nekusar, the Mind Razer UBR WBR Kaalia of the Vast WBR UG Prime Speaker Zegana UG UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG WB Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter WB WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
Go for the throat is a terminate that can't be redirected by Spellskite. I'm not sure how much it matters, but having that option is nice. The non artifact clause doesn't affect too many matchups.
I am probably taking it out for dismember though its a change I already intended to make but havent done so yet.
@Shadowlink, no worries about the thread merge. It took me a little bit to figure out what the mods did, but we're back on track now anyway.
I still think Vandalblast is better for us than Shatterstorm. It costs one more to be a sweeper, but still eats their whole board the same way Storm would, barring a Welding Jar. But again, it doubles as early removal if you don't see yourself hitting 4+ lands, or if you have a Snapcaster/Bolt draw and just want to kill everything early. And it does very important things against Tron and especially Bloom, where Shatterstorm is basically way too slow. If you feel you need the superior artifact sweeper, Shatterstorm is obviously it, but Vandalblast gives you a lot more flexibility, and we already have a very positive Affinity matchup. Bloom, however, is terrifying.
I'm definitely very excited about playing with Grave Titan again. I haven't resolved that card in years. Hopefully I get a chance tonight to side it in and draw/cast it. It's one of my favorite creatures of all time. And I do think he is the best answer for something like Jund. Keranos has been great for me too, but there have been a few games I've lost even with a Keranos that stuck around for several turns. He's good on a clear and stable board, but he won't catch you up from behind like Titan will. I'm still on the fence about Jace. He's good in the grindy matchups and also does some work against certain aggro decks that go wide, but it's possible that slot is better utilized. I still need more testing with him to decide.
@spentbullets, at the risk of violating the budget discussion pact on competitive threads, I'll just say this about the Tarns: It's a catch 22. Either you get them them now and risk them being reprinted in the fall (at which point you can just get a lot more and hold them long term), or you wait and find out they aren't being printed and watch the originals shoot back up to a Ben Franklin each. Personally, I'd just try and get them as soon as possible. If you end up with just a couple from ZEN than you can finish the set in the fall, assuming the do come back. Then you can just hold onto them for awhile while they slowly regain their OG value. If you do decide to wait, then you should start collecting Deltas and Strands so you can at least trade evenly for the Tarns this fall. Hopefully they do reprint them, but there is no way to know for sure.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
MODERN RGB Jund BGR WGB Junk/Abzan Company WGB
LEGACY RUGB Delver GURB
EDH UW Geist of Saint Traft Aggro-Control WU RUG Riku of Two Reflections Combo GUR BBB Skithiryx Control BB
Has Bloom really been that bad for you? I seem to have a very positive matchup against it. Barring a turn 2 combo from them, which is even stoppable if you're on the play, generally you have so many ways to interact with them that they can't go off before you do, at least in my experience. I've had one remand set them back two turns before, and they have almost no real way to interact with your combo. I've won a lot of games by watching them cast titan and either get remanded, or tap it down before attacks with a deceiver and then just twin and win next turn.
As for vandalblast / shatterstorm, I guess just agree to disagree / YMMV, but I'll take the guaranteed board wipe over that at 4 mana, we do have a lot of other interaction, which is why I believe that coupling our sweeper into early interaction isn't necessary. When I want etched champions dead, I want them really, really dead.
Has Bloom really been that bad for you? I seem to have a very positive matchup against it. Barring a turn 2 combo from them, which is even stoppable if you're on the play, generally you have so many ways to interact with them that they can't go off before you do, at least in my experience. I've had one remand set them back two turns before, and they have almost no real way to interact with your combo. I've won a lot of games by watching them cast titan and either get remanded, or tap it down before attacks with a deceiver and then just twin and win next turn.
As for vandalblast / shatterstorm, I guess just agree to disagree / YMMV, but I'll take the guaranteed board wipe over that at 4 mana, we do have a lot of other interaction, which is why I believe that coupling our sweeper into early interaction isn't necessary. When I want etched champions dead, I want them really, really dead.
My last go-round against Bloom was quite bad, yes. Probably just variance, but he stomped me pretty bad, and I just felt like my deck and combo were way too clunky. If we draw the wrong half of the deck or don't curve out, it's a pretty scary matchup. A capable pilot can definitely pull wins out from nowhere, even on a mulligan to 5. And our local Bloom aficionado is very capable, and even he has said there are games he has punted against me.
Overall, I'm probably up in matches against him (maybe 3 wins - 2 losses) but the ones I've won have been close, and often involve an unanswered Moon. When I draw multiple Remands/counters with the mana to cast them, I feel favored too, but that doesn't always happen, even with 8+ counters in the postboard configuration. Even with a Remand and another spell in hand, they can just play for the long game and out-mana us. That said, I'm fairly certain my experience recently has been skewed, and I'm aware that the matchup isn't actually terrible. I don't even currently have room for the Vandalblast slot, but if I did I would still hedge my bets for the matchups like Bloom, Tron, and Lantern Control, rather than gaining the slight edge against Affinity. Granted, Shatterstorm is good against Lanterns too, and marginally playable in some Tron matchups, but I still think the interaction between Snapcaster and the option of having a 1-mana shatter early on makes Blast the better choice. But I respect the agree to disagree clause. Since I don't even currently have a slot for that spell, it's a moot point. I've chosen to fight Bloom via more blue interaction (and the single Seize), and I'm not terribly worried about artifact decks in my current meta.
We regularly have 2-3 affinity players at our store, so I like to hedge against them. As far as Bloom is concerned, maybe the people who play bloom that I regularly face off against are still learning the deck, but unless I draw really poorly, I rarely have any issues with them at all. The combo never feels clunky to me, as half of it just shuts off their titan for a turn, and that is assuming I let it resolve in the first place. Add that to the blood moons in the board that just win the game on the spot, I always feel pretty favored against them.
I see people talking about Grim Lavamancer. Like all cards, it's value is match up dependent. It's a good card. Great in some match ups, such as Affinity, Elves and CC Abzan. It's terrible against decks like Tron and Amulet. When you play against the mirror and Delver, it comes down to weighing it's threat level. You probably don't bolt one if it's going to have minimal impact against your line of play.
There is the aspect that it eats your grave, and with Delve cards and Snapcaster Mage, we like to keep our graveyard healthy. Managing what cards to eat and when does add a level of complexity to the game, but I generally think it's better to have a choice between two options than to only have one line of play.
I think it's worth playing Lavamancer as a 1 of, and just board him out in match ups where he is bad. I could see reason to run more if you have an Affinity/CC heavy meta. I could see running none if you see a lot of Amulet and Tron.
In an open meta, I don't like Lavamancer at all. 2 cards per activation adds up fast, and if you only get 1 activation out of him he isn't valuable enough to keep in your deck. With Snapcaster providing a huge part of our deck's power and Tasigur/Kommand doing the same, I don't think you can even consider running Lavamancer unless you run Thought Scour to go with it (which I don't particularly like in Twin).
Okay, so I thought I'd share my list (pretty stock MB) and request some feedback on changes I should make, particularly to my manabase and SB. I understand that my manabase will always be suboptimal without Tarns, but I'll have to make do with KTK fetches until I acquire a playset. Here's my current list:
My only specific questions: In regards to my manabase, should I trim an Island to make room for a Darkslick Shores or another Sulfur Falls, or should I stick with 6 basics? And is running 3 Exarchs and 2 Pestermites to make room for a MB Clique too greedy? Does it make the combo too clunky?
Other than that, just looking for some feedback on optimizing my SB for an unknown meta. Any recommendations would be appreciated!
EDH: B Chainer, Dementia Master B | UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG | WRG Marath, Will of the Wild WRG | UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR | UBG Tasigur, the Golden Fang UBG
Modern: WBG Abzan Company WBG | UBR Grixis Delver and/or Twin UBR | U Merfolk U
WBG Anafenza, the Foremost WBG WUR Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR
WUBRG Horde of Notions WUBRG WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon WUBRG URG Maelstrom Wanderer URG UBG Damia, Sage of Stone UBG WUG Roon of the Hidden Realm WUG WUG Rafiq of the Many WUG WUG Deveri, Empyrial Tactician WUG BRG Prossh, Skyraider of Kher BRG WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain WBG UBR Nekusar, the Mind Razer UBR WBR Kaalia of the Vast WBR UG Prime Speaker Zegana UG UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG WB Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter WB WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
GftT doesn't kill Spellskite, which is more of an issue than not getting redirected to Spellskite. I think you are just as likely to want to kill Spellskite first anyway than need the weird interaction where they can't redirect it. I get that it's a very real corner case, but it doesn't justify playing a card that is stone blank against many other problematic cards, including an entire Tier 1 deck. Not hitting Skite, Wurm, Inkmoth, or the entirety of Affinity is just way more relevant than any corner cases. Also, Kolaghan's Command takes care of Skite pretty nicely on it's own, leaving your Terminate/Dismember to clean up the other important stuff. I also get that GftT is easier on the mana and stuff, but in my experience it's rarely a big deal.
TLDR, I approve of the switch from Go for the Throat to Dismember.
RE: Lavaman:
I'm sure there are games where you can manage your graveyard through any 2 out of 3 of Lavaman, Tasigur, Snapcaster, but it's not easy. And yes I enjoy those kinds of decisions when they are mentally challenging, but a good choice exists. But if your choices are, "Do I keep this last relevant spell, cast my Tasigur ever, or end up with an irrelevant 1/1 for a few turns?", then they aren't good choices. Lavaman is ideal in the early game, and is only specifically good against creature decks with plenty of x/2s in them. You can talk about upgrading Bolts or providing pressure, but we already do that better with Tasigur and Snappy anyway, so I see him as slightly redundant. He can certainly curve out better than the likes of Anger or EE, but Pyroclasm is still a better SB card in that case in my opinion. If my meta was flooded with Infect, Affinity, G/W Bears, and Fishy stuff alike, I might be tempted to play a Lava or two, but I'd also want to add at least the first Thought Scour to my maindeck, which I'm loathe to do otherwise. And I'd be wary about having 2 Tasigur in the deck at the same time as Lava. And I'd also be more wary about hate cards like RElic, which shouldn't hurt us much but do once you start committing to the graveyard too much.
Personally, I still love lavaman, and I know there's a case for him. But I think it taxes the graveyard just a little too much, and drawing him with any of the other graveyard spells just means you have a suboptimal Wizard in play. He's great when he's fully fueled, but if you skip even one turn of him being active he starts to look really bad. And these days, people are certainly gunning for graveyards again.
@spentbullets, I think your maindeck is fine. If you do want Darkslick shores, I'd cut an Island and the Catacombs for them. It's nice having an early untapped dual that doesn't hurt, and I've rarely been upset or mana short because of it when I draw it late. 2 Darkslick 2 Sulfur Falls is a good split in my opinion. And I don't think you need more than 2-3 Islands. If you are Blood Mooning people, you are likely fetching for your basics anyway, not drawing them naturally. Beyond that, I'd rather have some Choke-proof duals. I really want to squeeze a 5th in personally (likely the 3rd Falls or 1st Catacomb), but I'm unwilling to cut the 3rd Island or 9th fetch. But yeah, Darkslick has really helped smooth my mana.
Your board is fine. Missing some sweepers. I'd like to see Pyroclasm/Anger (maybe cut the 'mancer, but you've already seen my opinoin there). And definitely an Explosives. One copy is a nice hedge against random crap. Two copies if you expect a lot of the decks that fold to it (Zoo, Bogles, Lantern, Fish, etc).
`````````````````````
As for the Tuesday night event, it didn't go great. I lost round 1 to a Fast Zoo deck with Ghor Clan, Boros Charm, and Emissaries (which I never saw). I probably misplayed the first game by being too careful early on thinking he was burn, and not curving out my removal perfectly as a consequence. But both games he burned me out after fast Goblin guide starts.
I then beat GR TRon (narrowly) and Affinity (soundly), only to lose the Fourth Round to a visiting young Swissman playing G/W Bears with couple CoCos. He locked me off Twin mana with Arbiter and Thalia for many turns in game 1, and I think I made a slight mistake earlier that cost me the game. In game 2 he Choked me after I tapped out (again, possibly foolishly), but I managed to resolve an EE on 3 next turn. He then Flickerwisped it for the absolute blowout rub-ins, and I was toast. I still had 3 nonIslands in play, but they were all red black and colorless. So there went my store cred for the night.
After that experience, I will definitely be cutting an Anger for a 'Clasm. Otherwise, I think my board is still fine. I could have probably won those matches if I played a lot tighter, or at least had a better chance. It's been awhile since I've played vs. Zoo, and GW is always a frustrating grind. I think I might actually sleeve up some Naya cards real soon, as soon as I get the set of Hierarchs, just to switch things up a little bit. But despite my disappointing 2-2, I'm still fully behind Grixis Twin as a stellar deck right now. PRactice PRactice PracTice.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
MODERN RGB Jund BGR WGB Junk/Abzan Company WGB
LEGACY RUGB Delver GURB
EDH UW Geist of Saint Traft Aggro-Control WU RUG Riku of Two Reflections Combo GUR BBB Skithiryx Control BB
Oops, my sideboard was 13 cards... forgot to include my 2x Anger of the Gods haha. I'll go make that edit now. Thanks for the input!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
EDH: B Chainer, Dementia Master B | UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG | WRG Marath, Will of the Wild WRG | UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR | UBG Tasigur, the Golden Fang UBG
Modern: WBG Abzan Company WBG | UBR Grixis Delver and/or Twin UBR | U Merfolk U
WBG Anafenza, the Foremost WBG WUR Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR
WUBRG Horde of Notions WUBRG WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon WUBRG URG Maelstrom Wanderer URG UBG Damia, Sage of Stone UBG WUG Roon of the Hidden Realm WUG WUG Rafiq of the Many WUG WUG Deveri, Empyrial Tactician WUG BRG Prossh, Skyraider of Kher BRG WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain WBG UBR Nekusar, the Mind Razer UBR WBR Kaalia of the Vast WBR UG Prime Speaker Zegana UG UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG WB Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter WB WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
I went 3-1-1, made top 8 and then lost in the semis. Sorry if my report is kinda incoherent, I got off work at 4 and got up at 9 so I could actually look like a human being before going to the tournament.
Round 1: Jared on Lantern Control
I'm on the play and drop a Serum Visions, to which my opponent responds with a Lantern of Insight.
So that's how we're going to play.
He dropped a Codex Shredder and milled the top card of my library, revealing a Kolaghan's Command, which then got promptly Surgically Extracted.
Cool.
He then dropped an Ensaring Bridge, followed by two more Shredders, which locked up game one.
Note: I should have brought in the Shatterstorm as well, replacing one of my Tasigurs. I completely forgot and didn't notice until I had already shuffled and presented.
Game 2 I kept an easy hand of a Delta, a Tarn, an Island, 2 Snapcasters, a Bolt and a Kolaghan's Command. I drew a Pestermite and a Bolt over the next couple turns, so I went Bolt into Pestermite into Snap flashbacking Bolt and beating down. He played an Ancient Stirrings, revealing an Ensnaring Bridge, then tried to play a Lantern of Insight, which got Negated. I then drew my Counterflux and held it while beating down with my Pestermite and Snapcaster. I got him down to 4 then Counterfluxed his Bridge, which led to game 3.
Out: 1 Tasigur
In: 1 Shatterstorm
I led off with a couple Pestermites and started beating down while he desperately chained together Gitaxian Probes and Ancient Stirrings to try and find something. He finally drew an Ensnaring Bridge and dropped it, only for it to meet its grisly end to my Kolaghan's Command. We went into turns, but I drew a Bolt and a second Kommand, which was just enough burn for me to net the victory on turn 5.
Thank God I didn't get shoved over into the Miracles bracket.
1-0
Round 2: Devan on RG Tron
I was on the play and kept a kind of sketchy hand with only 2 lands, but 2 Serum Visions. I went to the ol' Modern starting life total of 17 to Serum Visions on turn 1, scrying a Tasigur to the top. My opponent then went Mine->Bauble, which is sort of a dead giveaway. I played a second land and a second Serum Visions and scryed two irrelevant cards to the bottom. Unfortunately I then missed my next land drop, but luckily my opponent wasn't faring much better. They mostly spent the time chaining spheres and stars together and not really getting anything. The 1 Sylvan Scrying they played drew a Spell Snare from me, which was enough cards for me to get out a Tasigur on turn 4 (after conveniently drawing my 3rd land). I then held up my answers and beat down with the Tasigur, to which they had no outs.
I kept a hand of 1 Steam Vents, 1 Sulfur Falls, 1 Exarch, 1 Twin, a Flashfreeze and 2 Blood Moon. It was greedy but I couldn't resist. It ended up not really mattering as my opponent mulled to 4 with a Grove as their only land =/. I drew a mire and went Turn 3 exarch, turn 4 moon, then waited until I drew a 4th land to twin. It was kind of a boring game on both sides.
Note: Flashfreeze ate a sylvan scrying, so I feel vindicated at its usefulness. I'm not entirely sure if it was correct to bring in, but it felt fine.
2-0
Round 3: Mark on Grixis Control
I thought I was in the mirror match when we both led off with a turn 1 delta, which put me on high alert. I got out an early Tasigur, which he tried to terminate. I snared it, he dispelled and I dispelled back. I then rode that Tasigur to victory, as he was unable to find another kill spell or snapcaster. He tried to gum up the ground with his own tasigur while at 4 life, but a deceiver exarch tapping it down cleared the way for a lethal attack.
Out: 2 Remand, 1 Pestermite, 2 Splinter Twin, 1 Cryptic Command
In: 2 Dispel, 1 Negate, 1 Counterflux, 1 Jace, Architect of Thought, 1 Keranos, God of Storms
I kept a fairly mediocre hand, but one containing a dispel, an exarch and a twin. I was unfortunately punished for this when my opponent played a skite into a skite into a zombie fish. I tried to counter the angler, leading to a mighty counter battle containing no less than 6 counters, which I ultimately won. It was all for naught as he played another angler the next turn, and my exhausted hand had no response. I was then unceremoniously beat down.
Out: 1 Pestermite
In: 1 Engineered Explosives
I brought in the explosives as a counter to the multiple skites that he showed me, but I'm not positive that that was correct.
It didn't end up mattering as my opponent landed an early banana king, successfully won the counter war over my terminate and then rode it to victory while I drew nothing but crap.
Oh well, it happens sometimes. The games were pretty tight over all, but it definitely feels like Grixis Control has the advantage in this matchup (nothing too lopsided, but I'd definitely put it in their favor). They have too many kill/counters mainboard while we're trying to muck around with bad combo pieces.
2-1
Round 4: Andrew on Sultai Delver
I won the roll and led off with a tarn, bolding up bolt and snare.
My opponent went delta->watery grave->delver, which made me think they were on grixis delver at first (which terrified me. I hate playing that matchup). Luckily I had the bolt for the delver. He tried to play a goyf, which drew the snare from me. I then played a tasigur and rode it to victory, using a couple exarchs to tap down his next goyf and stop it from blocking. Nothing too crazy happened this game (besides my opponent accidentally showing me a disrupting shoal, which I immediately began playing around).
Out: 2 Exarch, 2 Twin, 1 Cryptic
In: 2 Dispel, 1 Negate, 1 Keranos, God of Storms, 1 Olivia Voldaren
My opponent led off with a delver, which I killed with a bolt (seems familiar). He then got out another delver, which I had no response to. He then flipped it a couple turns later and did a bit of damage to me, before trying to tap out for a tasigur. He didn't hold up mana for a counter, allowing me to cryptic it (which had a CMC too high to be shoaled). I was then able to untap and play the storm god, which kept the board under control until I landed a pestermite into splinter twin with dispel backup.
Overall an easy matchup, I would say. They lack red, which is a huge part of why grixis delver is so bad for twin (which is also why I sided out exarchs instead of pestermites. They both die to abrupt decay, but pestermites beat down for more damage and are evasive. I usually do the opposite against decks with red in them) and his deck didn't match up all that well to terminate/spell snare.
3-1
Round 5: ID for guaranteed spot in top 8.
3-1-1
Quarterfinals: Pete on Affinity
I was 4th seed and got paired down with 5th, so I was on the play. I fetched into a steam vents to play a serum visions, which I typically don't like to do against affinity, but I had a tasigur in my hand that was raring to go. Luckily my opponent had a pretty slow start (something like land->drum, thopter->vault skirge), which was easily broken up by a lightning bolt. Tasigur came down on turn 3 and started beating down, and a pair of exarchs tapping down my opponent's creatures sealed the deal.
Out: 4 Remand, 1 Cryptic
In: 2 Anger of the Gods, 1 Shatterstorm, 1 Negate, 1 Olivia Voldaren
Game 2 he came out of the gates much faster with a turn 1 Arcbound Ravager with welding jar backup. Turn 2 he plopped down a spellskite with me having no real way to get rid of it. I had a vents, a watery grave, an island and a shatterstorm with no second red source, forcing me to desperately hold on with an exarch into pestermite into pestermite into cryptic tapping his team before I finally found the 2nd red source.
My shatterstorm then got spell pierced. Oh well.
Out: N/A
In: N/A
I kept a hand with a spell snare, bolt, three lands, an exarch and a twin. I bolted his first real play (a vault skirge), then spell snared a torpor orb, which allowed him to land a spellskite. A second spellskite came down, followed by a steel overseer while I drew nothing but lightning bolts. The beatdown was real.
Overall I felt pretty good, and while I wasn't too happy that I lost to what is theoretically a good matchup, I can't help but feel good that I beat the 1st round top control deck (ensnaring bridge tilts me whenever it hits the table). I had taken a brief hiatus from this deck to play Grixis Control, but going back to Twin felt so natural. Having the combo out was very important in several of my games and the threat of the combo helped my beatdown plan immensely.
I've been playing with 2 K Command and 1 Electrolyze recently. Electrolyze is not a dead card in this list, and it's still very powerful. Cantripping is always good, and you can often get a 3 for 1, unlike with K Command, which only does 2 for 1. I do like to have a reasonable amount of burn, and Electrolyze sort of solves the problem of K Command, in that drawing cards is insane.
It's easy to say terminate is unnecessary after having a successful tournament dodging GBx decks all day. Terminate is the only saving grace against those decks.
I tend to remove the combo against decks that are good at killing creatures. That includes, but isn't limited to:
Jund
Junk
Grixis Control
Delver
Sometimes Company, depending on what they show me in the first game. It's kind of annoying that there's no real "stock" list you can hedge on.
All of these decks are packing absurd amounts of highly efficient creature kill. Grixis Control/Delver have the counterspells to fight over its kill spells (and have more of both than you to boot) and all of the BGx decks have uncounterable kill spells, which leaves you open to getting 2 for 1'ed.
Against Jund/Grixis I tend to go -2 Exarchs, -2 Pestermites, -3 Splinter Twin and bring in all of my control cards (Negates, Keranos, Olivia, Jace, etc). I like to leave at least one Twin in the deck in case they get a bit cocky postboard and tap out. Against Junk/Company I tend to do the same thing, but I'll take out 3-4 Exarchs and leave in the Pestermites, as the latter are a better tempo card and won't get bolted.
Other than that I tend not to touch the combo, as it is your best out to a lot of very popular decks, such as:
GR Tron
Amulet Bloom
Affinity
Burn
Ad Nauseam
I may take out a Pestermite or shave a Twin somewhere along the line, but I tend to leave the majority of the combo untouched against these decks.
I would love some feedback on my newly reformed sideboard. My meta is heavy on other Twin decks, Grixis control/delver, Abzan CoCo and Wilt-Liege liege decks, and Boggles. I'm having difficulty against the control decks and Boggles. Anyway, here are my choices with brief explanation:
2 Anger of the Gods - Best sweeper to have against the Abzan decks and Elves/Merfolk
2 Thoughtseize - This is the big new addition, and the one I'd really like to hear feedback on. Like I said, I'm having some issues with Bogles if I don't have a fast combo hand, and rather than run stuff like Engineered Explosives which gets wrecked by Totem Armor, I've decided to be more proactive and just run Thoughtseizes. On the play they are especially good, making them discard a Bogle if they only have one in hand can just win the game outright. I'm also expecting Thoughtseize to be good in the mirror and against control decks, thoughts on this? Finally, it is also good against Tron and rogue combo decks like Ad Nauseam and Grishoalbrand. The life loss is relevant, and I'd almost rather play Duress if not for Bogles. I don't think I want Inquisition, it misses too many important cards against control and Tron.
1 Olivia Voldaren, 1 Keranos, God of Storms - Grindy cards for BGx and control matchups. Olivia also helps against creature decks. I've considered replacing one of these with Grave Titan, but ultimately I think theses are the better two
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir - I'm replacing Jace with this because I think it will be better in the mirror and against control. Worst case you can cast it on the opponents end step and they will be forced to counter it, letting you resolve a Keranos or something on your turn. It also protects the combo from Abrupt Decay and such, but I don't think bringing it in against BGx is what we want to be doing. Could be wrong though.
1 Spellskite - Doesn't need explanation, good against Bogles, Burn, Infect, mirror, Affinity, Bloom Titan....yeah.
1 Izzet Staticaster - I've seen some discussion about Grim Lavamancer in this thread. I prefer Staticaster because it fills up a similar role and doesn't chew on the graveyard. It also has the upside of being able to killing groups of tokens
2 Dispel, 1 Negate - Extra countermagic with a variety of uses, fairly standard.
1 Kolaghan's Command - I'm running two in the main already, but it's so good and I think the #1 reason to splash black in twin. I bring it in for BGx, control, affinity, among others.
Are there any glaring holes here? I really don't want to run specific Burn hate like Dragon's Claw. There isn't that much burn in my local meta anyway. Cards I am considering adding are Jace, Grave Titan, Leyline of the Void (requires at least 2-3 slots to be good, so I don't think it's worth it), and another Spellskite. The spellskite is very tempting, but I'm not sure what to cut for it.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Current Modern decks BGW Junk / URB Grixis Shadow / RGB Lantern Control / WUBCBant Eldrazi
Current Legacy decks BUG Shardless BUG / UWR Predict Miracles / RUG Canadian Thresh / WRBG 4c Loam UB Reanimator
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Because discussion of individual decks (such as tournament reports or card choices) is supposed to be in that deck's thread. We all appreciate the tournament report much more here than if it was its own thread.
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
Siding out 75% of our combo pieces G2 to make room for more tempo/control while our opponent sides in a bunch of Twin hate is extremely satisfying, and the biggest lessons I've learned so far, aside from how/when to fetch correctly, are that 1) Tasigur is an absolute powerhouse (I've won so many games off of the card advantage he enables), and 2) Keranos in from the sideboard can be ridiculously powerful in grindy matchups.
Next items on my list are to pick up 2 more Cryptics, 2 Engineered Explosives for the board, a set of Tarns (should I wait for BFZ?) and perhaps to finish my playset of Fulminator Mages in case I ever decide I need them.
B Chainer, Dementia Master B | UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG | WRG Marath, Will of the Wild WRG | UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR | UBG Tasigur, the Golden Fang UBG
Modern:
WBG Abzan Company WBG | UBR Grixis Delver and/or Twin UBR | U Merfolk U
WBG Anafenza, the Foremost WBG
WUR Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR
WUBRG Horde of Notions WUBRG
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon WUBRG
URG Maelstrom Wanderer URG
UBG Damia, Sage of Stone UBG
WUG Roon of the Hidden Realm WUG
WUG Rafiq of the Many WUG
WUG Deveri, Empyrial Tactician WUG
BRG Prossh, Skyraider of Kher BRG
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain WBG
UBR Nekusar, the Mind Razer UBR
WBR Kaalia of the Vast WBR
UG Prime Speaker Zegana UG
UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG
WB Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter WB
WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
I am probably taking it out for dismember though its a change I already intended to make but havent done so yet.
I still think Vandalblast is better for us than Shatterstorm. It costs one more to be a sweeper, but still eats their whole board the same way Storm would, barring a Welding Jar. But again, it doubles as early removal if you don't see yourself hitting 4+ lands, or if you have a Snapcaster/Bolt draw and just want to kill everything early. And it does very important things against Tron and especially Bloom, where Shatterstorm is basically way too slow. If you feel you need the superior artifact sweeper, Shatterstorm is obviously it, but Vandalblast gives you a lot more flexibility, and we already have a very positive Affinity matchup. Bloom, however, is terrifying.
I'm definitely very excited about playing with Grave Titan again. I haven't resolved that card in years. Hopefully I get a chance tonight to side it in and draw/cast it. It's one of my favorite creatures of all time. And I do think he is the best answer for something like Jund. Keranos has been great for me too, but there have been a few games I've lost even with a Keranos that stuck around for several turns. He's good on a clear and stable board, but he won't catch you up from behind like Titan will. I'm still on the fence about Jace. He's good in the grindy matchups and also does some work against certain aggro decks that go wide, but it's possible that slot is better utilized. I still need more testing with him to decide.
@spentbullets, at the risk of violating the budget discussion pact on competitive threads, I'll just say this about the Tarns: It's a catch 22. Either you get them them now and risk them being reprinted in the fall (at which point you can just get a lot more and hold them long term), or you wait and find out they aren't being printed and watch the originals shoot back up to a Ben Franklin each. Personally, I'd just try and get them as soon as possible. If you end up with just a couple from ZEN than you can finish the set in the fall, assuming the do come back. Then you can just hold onto them for awhile while they slowly regain their OG value. If you do decide to wait, then you should start collecting Deltas and Strands so you can at least trade evenly for the Tarns this fall. Hopefully they do reprint them, but there is no way to know for sure.
RGB Jund BGR
WGB Junk/Abzan Company WGB
LEGACY
RUGB Delver GURB
EDH
UW Geist of Saint Traft Aggro-Control WU
RUG Riku of Two Reflections Combo GUR
BBB Skithiryx Control BB
As for vandalblast / shatterstorm, I guess just agree to disagree / YMMV, but I'll take the guaranteed board wipe over that at 4 mana, we do have a lot of other interaction, which is why I believe that coupling our sweeper into early interaction isn't necessary. When I want etched champions dead, I want them really, really dead.
My last go-round against Bloom was quite bad, yes. Probably just variance, but he stomped me pretty bad, and I just felt like my deck and combo were way too clunky. If we draw the wrong half of the deck or don't curve out, it's a pretty scary matchup. A capable pilot can definitely pull wins out from nowhere, even on a mulligan to 5. And our local Bloom aficionado is very capable, and even he has said there are games he has punted against me.
Overall, I'm probably up in matches against him (maybe 3 wins - 2 losses) but the ones I've won have been close, and often involve an unanswered Moon. When I draw multiple Remands/counters with the mana to cast them, I feel favored too, but that doesn't always happen, even with 8+ counters in the postboard configuration. Even with a Remand and another spell in hand, they can just play for the long game and out-mana us. That said, I'm fairly certain my experience recently has been skewed, and I'm aware that the matchup isn't actually terrible. I don't even currently have room for the Vandalblast slot, but if I did I would still hedge my bets for the matchups like Bloom, Tron, and Lantern Control, rather than gaining the slight edge against Affinity. Granted, Shatterstorm is good against Lanterns too, and marginally playable in some Tron matchups, but I still think the interaction between Snapcaster and the option of having a 1-mana shatter early on makes Blast the better choice. But I respect the agree to disagree clause. Since I don't even currently have a slot for that spell, it's a moot point. I've chosen to fight Bloom via more blue interaction (and the single Seize), and I'm not terribly worried about artifact decks in my current meta.
RGB Jund BGR
WGB Junk/Abzan Company WGB
LEGACY
RUGB Delver GURB
EDH
UW Geist of Saint Traft Aggro-Control WU
RUG Riku of Two Reflections Combo GUR
BBB Skithiryx Control BB
There is the aspect that it eats your grave, and with Delve cards and Snapcaster Mage, we like to keep our graveyard healthy. Managing what cards to eat and when does add a level of complexity to the game, but I generally think it's better to have a choice between two options than to only have one line of play.
I think it's worth playing Lavamancer as a 1 of, and just board him out in match ups where he is bad. I could see reason to run more if you have an Affinity/CC heavy meta. I could see running none if you see a lot of Amulet and Tron.
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
3 Deceiver Exarch
2 Pestermite
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Vendilion Clique
Enchantment
4 Splinter Twin
Socery
4 Serum Visions
Instant
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Terminate
1 Kolaghan's Command
1 Dismember
4 Remand
2 Spell Snare
1 Dispel
2 Cryptic Command
4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Steam Vents
1 Blood Crypt
1 Watery Grave
2 Sulfur Falls
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Desolate Lighthouse
4 Island
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
2 Dispel
2 Negate
1 Kolaghan's Command
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Vandalblast
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Spellskite
1 Grim Lavamancer
2 Blood Moon
My only specific questions: In regards to my manabase, should I trim an Island to make room for a Darkslick Shores or another Sulfur Falls, or should I stick with 6 basics? And is running 3 Exarchs and 2 Pestermites to make room for a MB Clique too greedy? Does it make the combo too clunky?
Other than that, just looking for some feedback on optimizing my SB for an unknown meta. Any recommendations would be appreciated!
B Chainer, Dementia Master B | UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG | WRG Marath, Will of the Wild WRG | UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR | UBG Tasigur, the Golden Fang UBG
Modern:
WBG Abzan Company WBG | UBR Grixis Delver and/or Twin UBR | U Merfolk U
WBG Anafenza, the Foremost WBG
WUR Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR
WUBRG Horde of Notions WUBRG
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon WUBRG
URG Maelstrom Wanderer URG
UBG Damia, Sage of Stone UBG
WUG Roon of the Hidden Realm WUG
WUG Rafiq of the Many WUG
WUG Deveri, Empyrial Tactician WUG
BRG Prossh, Skyraider of Kher BRG
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain WBG
UBR Nekusar, the Mind Razer UBR
WBR Kaalia of the Vast WBR
UG Prime Speaker Zegana UG
UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG
WB Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter WB
WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
GftT doesn't kill Spellskite, which is more of an issue than not getting redirected to Spellskite. I think you are just as likely to want to kill Spellskite first anyway than need the weird interaction where they can't redirect it. I get that it's a very real corner case, but it doesn't justify playing a card that is stone blank against many other problematic cards, including an entire Tier 1 deck. Not hitting Skite, Wurm, Inkmoth, or the entirety of Affinity is just way more relevant than any corner cases. Also, Kolaghan's Command takes care of Skite pretty nicely on it's own, leaving your Terminate/Dismember to clean up the other important stuff. I also get that GftT is easier on the mana and stuff, but in my experience it's rarely a big deal.
TLDR, I approve of the switch from Go for the Throat to Dismember.
RE: Lavaman:
I'm sure there are games where you can manage your graveyard through any 2 out of 3 of Lavaman, Tasigur, Snapcaster, but it's not easy. And yes I enjoy those kinds of decisions when they are mentally challenging, but a good choice exists. But if your choices are, "Do I keep this last relevant spell, cast my Tasigur ever, or end up with an irrelevant 1/1 for a few turns?", then they aren't good choices. Lavaman is ideal in the early game, and is only specifically good against creature decks with plenty of x/2s in them. You can talk about upgrading Bolts or providing pressure, but we already do that better with Tasigur and Snappy anyway, so I see him as slightly redundant. He can certainly curve out better than the likes of Anger or EE, but Pyroclasm is still a better SB card in that case in my opinion. If my meta was flooded with Infect, Affinity, G/W Bears, and Fishy stuff alike, I might be tempted to play a Lava or two, but I'd also want to add at least the first Thought Scour to my maindeck, which I'm loathe to do otherwise. And I'd be wary about having 2 Tasigur in the deck at the same time as Lava. And I'd also be more wary about hate cards like RElic, which shouldn't hurt us much but do once you start committing to the graveyard too much.
Personally, I still love lavaman, and I know there's a case for him. But I think it taxes the graveyard just a little too much, and drawing him with any of the other graveyard spells just means you have a suboptimal Wizard in play. He's great when he's fully fueled, but if you skip even one turn of him being active he starts to look really bad. And these days, people are certainly gunning for graveyards again.
@spentbullets, I think your maindeck is fine. If you do want Darkslick shores, I'd cut an Island and the Catacombs for them. It's nice having an early untapped dual that doesn't hurt, and I've rarely been upset or mana short because of it when I draw it late. 2 Darkslick 2 Sulfur Falls is a good split in my opinion. And I don't think you need more than 2-3 Islands. If you are Blood Mooning people, you are likely fetching for your basics anyway, not drawing them naturally. Beyond that, I'd rather have some Choke-proof duals. I really want to squeeze a 5th in personally (likely the 3rd Falls or 1st Catacomb), but I'm unwilling to cut the 3rd Island or 9th fetch. But yeah, Darkslick has really helped smooth my mana.
Your board is fine. Missing some sweepers. I'd like to see Pyroclasm/Anger (maybe cut the 'mancer, but you've already seen my opinoin there). And definitely an Explosives. One copy is a nice hedge against random crap. Two copies if you expect a lot of the decks that fold to it (Zoo, Bogles, Lantern, Fish, etc).
`````````````````````
As for the Tuesday night event, it didn't go great. I lost round 1 to a Fast Zoo deck with Ghor Clan, Boros Charm, and Emissaries (which I never saw). I probably misplayed the first game by being too careful early on thinking he was burn, and not curving out my removal perfectly as a consequence. But both games he burned me out after fast Goblin guide starts.
I then beat GR TRon (narrowly) and Affinity (soundly), only to lose the Fourth Round to a visiting young Swissman playing G/W Bears with couple CoCos. He locked me off Twin mana with Arbiter and Thalia for many turns in game 1, and I think I made a slight mistake earlier that cost me the game. In game 2 he Choked me after I tapped out (again, possibly foolishly), but I managed to resolve an EE on 3 next turn. He then Flickerwisped it for the absolute blowout rub-ins, and I was toast. I still had 3 nonIslands in play, but they were all red black and colorless. So there went my store cred for the night.
After that experience, I will definitely be cutting an Anger for a 'Clasm. Otherwise, I think my board is still fine. I could have probably won those matches if I played a lot tighter, or at least had a better chance. It's been awhile since I've played vs. Zoo, and GW is always a frustrating grind. I think I might actually sleeve up some Naya cards real soon, as soon as I get the set of Hierarchs, just to switch things up a little bit. But despite my disappointing 2-2, I'm still fully behind Grixis Twin as a stellar deck right now. PRactice PRactice PracTice.
RGB Jund BGR
WGB Junk/Abzan Company WGB
LEGACY
RUGB Delver GURB
EDH
UW Geist of Saint Traft Aggro-Control WU
RUG Riku of Two Reflections Combo GUR
BBB Skithiryx Control BB
B Chainer, Dementia Master B | UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG | WRG Marath, Will of the Wild WRG | UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR | UBG Tasigur, the Golden Fang UBG
Modern:
WBG Abzan Company WBG | UBR Grixis Delver and/or Twin UBR | U Merfolk U
WBG Anafenza, the Foremost WBG
WUR Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR
WUBRG Horde of Notions WUBRG
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon WUBRG
URG Maelstrom Wanderer URG
UBG Damia, Sage of Stone UBG
WUG Roon of the Hidden Realm WUG
WUG Rafiq of the Many WUG
WUG Deveri, Empyrial Tactician WUG
BRG Prossh, Skyraider of Kher BRG
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain WBG
UBR Nekusar, the Mind Razer UBR
WBR Kaalia of the Vast WBR
UG Prime Speaker Zegana UG
UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG
WB Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter WB
WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
run 4 dispel in the 75 and your burn match ups should get a bit better
decks playing:
none
4 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Sulfur Falls
2 Steam Vents
2 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
4 Island
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
Creatures (12)
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Deceiver Exarch
2 Pestermite
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Splinter Twin
Sorceries (4)
4 Serum Visions
Instants (17)
1 Dispel
2 Spell Snare
4 Remand
2 Cryptic Command
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Terminate
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Dispel
1 Negate
1 Flashfreeze
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Shatterstorm
1 Counterflux
2 Blood Moon
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Engineered Explosives
I went 3-1-1, made top 8 and then lost in the semis. Sorry if my report is kinda incoherent, I got off work at 4 and got up at 9 so I could actually look like a human being before going to the tournament.
Round 1: Jared on Lantern Control
I'm on the play and drop a Serum Visions, to which my opponent responds with a Lantern of Insight.
So that's how we're going to play.
He dropped a Codex Shredder and milled the top card of my library, revealing a Kolaghan's Command, which then got promptly Surgically Extracted.
Cool.
He then dropped an Ensaring Bridge, followed by two more Shredders, which locked up game one.
In: 1 Counterflux, 1 Negate, 1 Keranos, 1 Engineered Explosives
Out: 4 Remand
Note: I should have brought in the Shatterstorm as well, replacing one of my Tasigurs. I completely forgot and didn't notice until I had already shuffled and presented.
Game 2 I kept an easy hand of a Delta, a Tarn, an Island, 2 Snapcasters, a Bolt and a Kolaghan's Command. I drew a Pestermite and a Bolt over the next couple turns, so I went Bolt into Pestermite into Snap flashbacking Bolt and beating down. He played an Ancient Stirrings, revealing an Ensnaring Bridge, then tried to play a Lantern of Insight, which got Negated. I then drew my Counterflux and held it while beating down with my Pestermite and Snapcaster. I got him down to 4 then Counterfluxed his Bridge, which led to game 3.
Out: 1 Tasigur
In: 1 Shatterstorm
I led off with a couple Pestermites and started beating down while he desperately chained together Gitaxian Probes and Ancient Stirrings to try and find something. He finally drew an Ensnaring Bridge and dropped it, only for it to meet its grisly end to my Kolaghan's Command. We went into turns, but I drew a Bolt and a second Kommand, which was just enough burn for me to net the victory on turn 5.
Thank God I didn't get shoved over into the Miracles bracket.
1-0
Round 2: Devan on RG Tron
I was on the play and kept a kind of sketchy hand with only 2 lands, but 2 Serum Visions. I went to the ol' Modern starting life total of 17 to Serum Visions on turn 1, scrying a Tasigur to the top. My opponent then went Mine->Bauble, which is sort of a dead giveaway. I played a second land and a second Serum Visions and scryed two irrelevant cards to the bottom. Unfortunately I then missed my next land drop, but luckily my opponent wasn't faring much better. They mostly spent the time chaining spheres and stars together and not really getting anything. The 1 Sylvan Scrying they played drew a Spell Snare from me, which was enough cards for me to get out a Tasigur on turn 4 (after conveniently drawing my 3rd land). I then held up my answers and beat down with the Tasigur, to which they had no outs.
In: 2 Blood Moon, 1 Negate, 1 Flashfreeze, 1 Counterflux, 1 Keranos, God of Storms
Out: 4 Remand, 1 Dispel, 1 Lightning Bolt
I kept a hand of 1 Steam Vents, 1 Sulfur Falls, 1 Exarch, 1 Twin, a Flashfreeze and 2 Blood Moon. It was greedy but I couldn't resist. It ended up not really mattering as my opponent mulled to 4 with a Grove as their only land =/. I drew a mire and went Turn 3 exarch, turn 4 moon, then waited until I drew a 4th land to twin. It was kind of a boring game on both sides.
Note: Flashfreeze ate a sylvan scrying, so I feel vindicated at its usefulness. I'm not entirely sure if it was correct to bring in, but it felt fine.
2-0
Round 3: Mark on Grixis Control
I thought I was in the mirror match when we both led off with a turn 1 delta, which put me on high alert. I got out an early Tasigur, which he tried to terminate. I snared it, he dispelled and I dispelled back. I then rode that Tasigur to victory, as he was unable to find another kill spell or snapcaster. He tried to gum up the ground with his own tasigur while at 4 life, but a deceiver exarch tapping it down cleared the way for a lethal attack.
Out: 2 Remand, 1 Pestermite, 2 Splinter Twin, 1 Cryptic Command
In: 2 Dispel, 1 Negate, 1 Counterflux, 1 Jace, Architect of Thought, 1 Keranos, God of Storms
I kept a fairly mediocre hand, but one containing a dispel, an exarch and a twin. I was unfortunately punished for this when my opponent played a skite into a skite into a zombie fish. I tried to counter the angler, leading to a mighty counter battle containing no less than 6 counters, which I ultimately won. It was all for naught as he played another angler the next turn, and my exhausted hand had no response. I was then unceremoniously beat down.
Out: 1 Pestermite
In: 1 Engineered Explosives
I brought in the explosives as a counter to the multiple skites that he showed me, but I'm not positive that that was correct.
It didn't end up mattering as my opponent landed an early banana king, successfully won the counter war over my terminate and then rode it to victory while I drew nothing but crap.
Oh well, it happens sometimes. The games were pretty tight over all, but it definitely feels like Grixis Control has the advantage in this matchup (nothing too lopsided, but I'd definitely put it in their favor). They have too many kill/counters mainboard while we're trying to muck around with bad combo pieces.
2-1
Round 4: Andrew on Sultai Delver
I won the roll and led off with a tarn, bolding up bolt and snare.
My opponent went delta->watery grave->delver, which made me think they were on grixis delver at first (which terrified me. I hate playing that matchup). Luckily I had the bolt for the delver. He tried to play a goyf, which drew the snare from me. I then played a tasigur and rode it to victory, using a couple exarchs to tap down his next goyf and stop it from blocking. Nothing too crazy happened this game (besides my opponent accidentally showing me a disrupting shoal, which I immediately began playing around).
Out: 2 Exarch, 2 Twin, 1 Cryptic
In: 2 Dispel, 1 Negate, 1 Keranos, God of Storms, 1 Olivia Voldaren
My opponent led off with a delver, which I killed with a bolt (seems familiar). He then got out another delver, which I had no response to. He then flipped it a couple turns later and did a bit of damage to me, before trying to tap out for a tasigur. He didn't hold up mana for a counter, allowing me to cryptic it (which had a CMC too high to be shoaled). I was then able to untap and play the storm god, which kept the board under control until I landed a pestermite into splinter twin with dispel backup.
Overall an easy matchup, I would say. They lack red, which is a huge part of why grixis delver is so bad for twin (which is also why I sided out exarchs instead of pestermites. They both die to abrupt decay, but pestermites beat down for more damage and are evasive. I usually do the opposite against decks with red in them) and his deck didn't match up all that well to terminate/spell snare.
3-1
Round 5: ID for guaranteed spot in top 8.
3-1-1
Quarterfinals: Pete on Affinity
I was 4th seed and got paired down with 5th, so I was on the play. I fetched into a steam vents to play a serum visions, which I typically don't like to do against affinity, but I had a tasigur in my hand that was raring to go. Luckily my opponent had a pretty slow start (something like land->drum, thopter->vault skirge), which was easily broken up by a lightning bolt. Tasigur came down on turn 3 and started beating down, and a pair of exarchs tapping down my opponent's creatures sealed the deal.
Out: 4 Remand, 1 Cryptic
In: 2 Anger of the Gods, 1 Shatterstorm, 1 Negate, 1 Olivia Voldaren
Game 2 he came out of the gates much faster with a turn 1 Arcbound Ravager with welding jar backup. Turn 2 he plopped down a spellskite with me having no real way to get rid of it. I had a vents, a watery grave, an island and a shatterstorm with no second red source, forcing me to desperately hold on with an exarch into pestermite into pestermite into cryptic tapping his team before I finally found the 2nd red source.
My shatterstorm then got spell pierced. Oh well.
Out: N/A
In: N/A
I kept a hand with a spell snare, bolt, three lands, an exarch and a twin. I bolted his first real play (a vault skirge), then spell snared a torpor orb, which allowed him to land a spellskite. A second spellskite came down, followed by a steel overseer while I drew nothing but lightning bolts. The beatdown was real.
Overall I felt pretty good, and while I wasn't too happy that I lost to what is theoretically a good matchup, I can't help but feel good that I beat the 1st round top control deck (ensnaring bridge tilts me whenever it hits the table). I had taken a brief hiatus from this deck to play Grixis Control, but going back to Twin felt so natural. Having the combo out was very important in several of my games and the threat of the combo helped my beatdown plan immensely.
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
UWR Control
Legacy:
W D&T
All of these decks are packing absurd amounts of highly efficient creature kill. Grixis Control/Delver have the counterspells to fight over its kill spells (and have more of both than you to boot) and all of the BGx decks have uncounterable kill spells, which leaves you open to getting 2 for 1'ed.
Against Jund/Grixis I tend to go -2 Exarchs, -2 Pestermites, -3 Splinter Twin and bring in all of my control cards (Negates, Keranos, Olivia, Jace, etc). I like to leave at least one Twin in the deck in case they get a bit cocky postboard and tap out. Against Junk/Company I tend to do the same thing, but I'll take out 3-4 Exarchs and leave in the Pestermites, as the latter are a better tempo card and won't get bolted.
Other than that I tend not to touch the combo, as it is your best out to a lot of very popular decks, such as:
I may take out a Pestermite or shave a Twin somewhere along the line, but I tend to leave the majority of the combo untouched against these decks.
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
2 Blood Moon - Fairly standard, pretty necessary
2 Anger of the Gods - Best sweeper to have against the Abzan decks and Elves/Merfolk
2 Thoughtseize - This is the big new addition, and the one I'd really like to hear feedback on. Like I said, I'm having some issues with Bogles if I don't have a fast combo hand, and rather than run stuff like Engineered Explosives which gets wrecked by Totem Armor, I've decided to be more proactive and just run Thoughtseizes. On the play they are especially good, making them discard a Bogle if they only have one in hand can just win the game outright. I'm also expecting Thoughtseize to be good in the mirror and against control decks, thoughts on this? Finally, it is also good against Tron and rogue combo decks like Ad Nauseam and Grishoalbrand. The life loss is relevant, and I'd almost rather play Duress if not for Bogles. I don't think I want Inquisition, it misses too many important cards against control and Tron.
1 Olivia Voldaren, 1 Keranos, God of Storms - Grindy cards for BGx and control matchups. Olivia also helps against creature decks. I've considered replacing one of these with Grave Titan, but ultimately I think theses are the better two
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir - I'm replacing Jace with this because I think it will be better in the mirror and against control. Worst case you can cast it on the opponents end step and they will be forced to counter it, letting you resolve a Keranos or something on your turn. It also protects the combo from Abrupt Decay and such, but I don't think bringing it in against BGx is what we want to be doing. Could be wrong though.
1 Spellskite - Doesn't need explanation, good against Bogles, Burn, Infect, mirror, Affinity, Bloom Titan....yeah.
1 Izzet Staticaster - I've seen some discussion about Grim Lavamancer in this thread. I prefer Staticaster because it fills up a similar role and doesn't chew on the graveyard. It also has the upside of being able to killing groups of tokens
2 Dispel, 1 Negate - Extra countermagic with a variety of uses, fairly standard.
1 Kolaghan's Command - I'm running two in the main already, but it's so good and I think the #1 reason to splash black in twin. I bring it in for BGx, control, affinity, among others.
Are there any glaring holes here? I really don't want to run specific Burn hate like Dragon's Claw. There isn't that much burn in my local meta anyway. Cards I am considering adding are Jace, Grave Titan, Leyline of the Void (requires at least 2-3 slots to be good, so I don't think it's worth it), and another Spellskite. The spellskite is very tempting, but I'm not sure what to cut for it.
BGW Junk / URB Grixis Shadow / RGB Lantern Control / WUBCBant Eldrazi
Current Legacy decks
BUG Shardless BUG / UWR Predict Miracles / RUG Canadian Thresh / WRBG 4c Loam
UB Reanimator