How's the singleton Electrolyze mainboard going for you? I cut 'Lyze from the 75 when I switched from Grixis Delver to Twin, but I do like the card still and wonder how it has performed for you lately.
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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 actually just swapped out the 2nd Kommand for the Electrolyze this past week, since I felt it was time to bring back the original 3-for-1. I love Kommand, but it's not the same flexible card that 'Lyze is, and I really wanted a 5th cantrip in the deck that also happens to be great in certain matchups. While Kommand is great, and often worth more value, it can sometimes be awkward when you're stuck on 3 lands and/or can't seem to hit your black source early, and you really just want to start cycling cards. For that reason, I dropped down to the 1/1 split main, though I still definitely want the 2nd Kommand in the board.
As for the other night, in both testing and the main event, Electrolyze was pretty sweet and I was glad to have it back. It didn't do anything stellar, but flashing it back with Snappy to sweep my Amulet opponent's Plant tokens and draw another card was STILL somehow gas. And that's not to mention all the mana dorks, Affinity, Goblins, Infect, and CoCo decks that were present at the tournament that i never played against. Given my expected meta swings, I think Electrolyze is a good call again. People are catching onto Kommand, and we aren't the most synergistic deck to be abusing it anyway. Electrolyze just smooths the deck out better in the end, and helps out in a lot of matchups that are closer than they should be without a little help.
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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
Hey, how do you guys find the Fish matchup? I played against it at my lgs PPTQ last week and got crushed by turn 1 Cavern of Souls into Master of Waves game one followed by turn 1 Cavern of Souls into doubleMaster of Waves game two. Obviously he drew well both games, but how would you typically split the matchup over 100 games? 50/50?
I'd say it's about 55-45 in your favor at all times. Just don't let them stick anything at any point in time and you should be fine. Removal is much more important than Counterspells(which are quite bad honestly), so ship hands that can't deal with his/her creatures if they resolve. The match up is definitely decent with so much removal in our deck, that being said if you don't keep them in check they'll take over the game. If their creatures get to become 4/4s, or if they have devotion for Master of Waves it's pretty much game over for you.
I don't know if you can side anything else against Junk. Perhaps Dispel if they're playing a lot of removal, but I think your board has a lot of cards against aggro so there's not much left.
Probably -1 Snare +1 Command against Bloom.
weaker to path to exile, and kills them faster but Wurmcoil is much better and Stabilizing and harder to kill.
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To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour. - William Blake
It was not delight, not wonder that arose among us, it was the peace of heaven. He who has thought most deeply loves what is most alive. - Friedrich Holderlin
I disagree, in my opinion Grave Titan is certainly harder to kill than Wurmcoil, because he doesn't get destroyed by Kolaghan's command which every deck you want to side him in against(other than Junk which has PtE) is playing. He also still leaves 2 bodies if Exiled with Path, Wurmcoil doesn't. And doesn't get splash hate from cards your opponents might bring in to deal with the combo(Seal, Revelry).
I think that wurmcoil is better if you're behind and low on life, and if you need something that doesn't strain your mana. Titan is good at all points of the game though. Even more so when you cast him on an empty board, and both players are topdecking.
I think you still want bolt over the combo pieces, it's just too hard to combo them out, so personally I still value bolt higher than the pieces, however if you had extra SB cards for the match up it would definitely be the next card to cut.
I disagree, in my opinion Grave Titan is certainly harder to kill than Wurmcoil, because he doesn't get destroyed by Kolaghan's command which every deck you want to side him in against(other than Junk which has PtE) is playing. He also still leaves 2 bodies if Exiled with Path, Wurmcoil doesn't. And doesn't get splash hate from cards your opponents might bring in to deal with the combo(Seal, Revelry).
I think that wurmcoil is better if you're behind and low on life, and if you need something that doesn't strain your mana. Titan is good at all points of the game though. Even more so when you cast him on an empty board, and both players are topdecking.
Are you always going to have BB? Seems like R and U are the most usual fetch colors. Wurmcoil is cast off literally every land in the deck. Sometimes you have a colorless source and want UU for cryptic...Titan may be better in those decks but it's harder to cast
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EDH:ShatterStax, Only The Strong Survive
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Mono-U Control
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Sen Triplets
Mizzix of the Izmagnus
Derevi Stax
VolThrun
Marchesa, The Black Rose
Olivia Voldaren, Vampire Tribal
You would be absolutely correct. Wurmcoil is easier to cast, no question about it. What I was arguing though wasn't that Grave Titan was easier to cast, but that he was harder to kill, and more powerful than Wurmcoil. I also stated that if we look at it simply taking into account Mana constraints, that Wurmcoil is certainly the choice.
@Priest of Titania, RE: Merfolk. It definitely sounds like you got gotten that one time. Game 1 Cavern is a beating against any Remand-heavy hand. The other HUGE issue against Fish is when they hit 2+ Spreading Seas, they can really shut our mana down. Master of Waves is also a problem, and a good reason to run stuff like Dismember or Murderous Cut in your 75, but we only realistically are going to have 4-6 actual answers for him, so it can be an issue. That said, don't forget that we have ~12 creatures that can flash in to block him during combat, and Tasigur can also square off with him if they don't have a lord in play.
The Merfolk match is a close one, but I do think we are favored. Cut all the bad countermagic and chaff, bring in all the removal and sweepers, and maybe shave a copy of Twin or a Tasigur, depending on your game plan. Watch out for Spreading Seas, as it's definitely the easiest way to lose to them early on. Kill everything during their turn and in response to Vial triggers, and you should be able to keep the odds in your favor over the long haul. It's a scary match, but very winnable, and sometimes you just Snap/Bolt them into oblivion.
RE: Grave Titan vs. Wurmcoil Engine. While Wurmcoil is certainly easier to cast, and can provide similar issues for a BGx deck to handle, if I'm playing a 6-drop in my board it's going to be Titan. For starters, it's 10 power, spread over 3 bodies, which means much better blocking/attacking potential even if they manage to answer the 6/6. Secondly, there is the issue of Kommand splitting up Wurmcoil (and potentially flashing back) against any Mirror or Jund deck. And assuming you untap with either of them, Gravy is the gift that keeps on giving. Not only are you attacking with 10 power the next turn, you're also generating 2 more dudes on blocking duty, or 14 power on the next attack. When you're trying to close quickly, Grave Titan shuts the door much faster.
The lifegain is nice on Wurm, but honestly if you need to be gaining life, turn 6+ is generally too late. Grave Titan provides a safer blocking scenario immediately, and represents nearly double the power/toughness of Wurmcoil if you make it to your next combat step. He's also black, not Artifact, which means he is more resilient to fair amount of common removal spells. Mostly, he threatens to run away with the game much faster than Wurm in any game that remotely resembled parity. Sure, Wurm is more easily castable, but I'm not worried about that in a Grixis or Jund match, even if I am throwing down the occasional Blood Moon. Aside from that non-bo, I'm pretty comfortable casting a BB spell in any game that goes long enough for it to matter, especially with 2 Darkslick Shores in my deck now. In the matchups I'm looking for powerful lategame bombs, I'd rather have more power.
@Sxnr1se, Pestermite isn't great against Lingering Souls. If I am okay with accepting that, and want to pressure stuff like Liliana, I might leave in the 2 Pests, or maybe just Clique. If I'm trying to combo at all, I will still leave in maybe 3 Exarchs, but they are also quite bad against BGx in most cases. Usually, I cut the entire combo, but sometimes I will keep in maybe 2-3 tappers and occasionally a singleton Twin for LOLz. But the general rule is, Pestermite stays in vs. Jund but not vs. Junk.
I'd be a little wary of relying heavily on these sideboarding guides. They all seem correct in general, but specific sideboarding choices aren't entirely based on metagame, they are based on the specifics of the two decks. Basically, your opponent's deck isn't guaranteed to be an exact stock list so you don't want to always sideboard based on that.
Additionally, some cards (specifically Remand) have differing value being on the play or on the draw. Use your sideboarding guide as a reference, don't use it as instructions.
@gnome, yes it's always good to be flexible with your Sideboarding plans. I personally don't even bother keeping track anymore, mostly out of laziness, but also because my sideboarding is so fluid anyway. The one thing I DO think is important though, is making sure you have the correct number of cards to swap in and out for particular matchups. Having 9 cards to bring in but only 6 cards to side out is a classic conundrum, and it's the one thing I really think is important to analyze before any big tournament. For this reason, writing (or excelling) out strict sideboard plans is a good idea for your planned 75 so that you can ensure you are at least in the ballpark for proper numbers. In practice, do whatever feels correct in the particular matchup and situation. But it's also good to be careful not to oversideboard.
@Sxnr1se, I don't actually think Exarch is good at all against any of the BGx decks, unless you are still trying to combo in some capacity. It's pretty embarrassing against Jund in my opinion. At best, you might snipe a Bob with a surprise block, but beyond that it's not doing very much for you. All their threats aside from Dark Confidant will run it over, and being able to block the occasional Scooze or Goyf for a turn or so is rarely going to be feasible, let alone actually accomplish anything. It might eat a Decay simply out of fear, or tap a thing to keep tempo up, or perhaps snipe a Lily down on an empty board, but Exarch by itself is significantly worse than any other creature in the deck against a BGx-type deck.
I generally would keep in Pestermite against most BGx decks, simply because we need threats and it does pressure their Lilianas well. Flying over all the ground based crap is helpful too. The fact that it's not great against Lingering Souls does suck, but they only have ~3 copies post board to your 2 Pests, so the likelihood of getting massively shut down isn't super high. But still, it's a problem. And that was your original question that I was answering.
But as with everything, these decisions are very situational and personal. I don't think I've sided against BGx the same way twice, nor I do think I have a perfect plan against them. It just comes down to how I feel each game, and which strategy I think is most important.
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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
Alright, so now that I finally had time I was able to write a small report about my last 2 tournament. Figure I'd post it here and maybe create some discussion.
Seems like it was a brew of the lists that had been running around Japan a couple months ago.
Game one I play Visions, and pass with mana open turns 2 and 3. Turn 3 he taps out into Lingering Souls and I play Exarch and untap with Twin. Pretty uneventful.
-1 Twin
-1 Exarch
-2 Lightning Bolt
+1 Izzet Staticaster
+1 Pyroclasm
+1 Anger of the Gods
+1 Dispel
Sideboarding felt odd since I had no experience against the deck, so I tried to treat it as half token, half control deck.
Game two goes on for very, very long. We play removal on each other's creatures and keep the board empty until I try to combo out once, but he has a Path to Exile and Mana Leak backup for my Dispel. He then proceeds to resolve Ashiok, and manages to ultimate it. He has no threats so eventually just mills mi with it and we go to game 3.
Game 3 we play nothing our first 2-3 turns, then he goes for a Lingering Souls and I let it resolve. I Have Pyroclasm in hand, but I want to wait for him to flash it back or play a Mentor. He Plays the mentor and passes back. I Flash an Exarch in and untap. I Pyroclasm and take his board away. He untaps and PtE my Exarch and passes. I Play a visions and See negate and Pestermite. Pass the turn back (already on turn 1 of turns). He plays a land and passes. I play a land and pass. He plays another creature I can't remember what it was at the moment, but I Play Pestermite Eot into it. Then untap and Cast Twin. He has Murderous Cut, I Play Dispel, he tries to negate it and I negate in response to combo off on turn 5.
1-0
Round 2 - Affinity
Played against a good friend of mine.
Game 1 I win the roll, play a delta and then pass the turn. He draws plays Citadel, Springleaf, Thopter, and Vault Skirge. I EOT Fetch for an Island and Thought scour myself.
I untap play a Darkslick Shores and play Tasigur and ship the turn back to him. He untaps, Plays an Inkmoth Nexus and a Craneal Plating. Attaches the Plating to Skirge and swings for a bunch, I untap play a Mountain and swing with Tasigur. Then I ship the turn. He attacks without animating Inkmoth. I Kolaghan's Command his Plating and his Vault Skirge in response. He plays an Etched Champion and passes back, then I proceed to switch from Grixis Twin into URB Turbo Fog, the next 4 turns go:
Swing with Tasigur, Cryptic tap your creatures Draw a card.
Swing with Tasigur, Cryptic #2 tap your creatures Draw a card.
Swing with Tasigur, Snapcaster -> Flashback Cryptic, tap your creatures, and bounce Snapcaster to my hand.
Swing with Tasigur (This time he gets blocked by Inkmoth), Snapcaster -> Flashback Cryptic, tap your creatures, bounce Snapcaster which he Proceeds to G-Blast in response.
Swing with Tasigur one more time to close the game.
Game 2 he has a bunch of small guys and a signal pest, but no Ravager or Plating. I bolt some of them to slow him down, but he eventually plays Etched Champion into Master of Etherium. I play an Exarch into his only Mana source (Glimmervoid) and he responds by blasting it. Next turn I do the same tapping his Master, but he has no removal this time. I simply play Twin and win the game.
2-0
Round 3 - Living End
Game 1 I have the combo in hand. He wins the Die roll. Ponders for about a minute about whether he should mulligan or not. He keeps. I keep a hand with heavy mana assuming he's going to try to LD me out of the game. Sure enough end of my turn 4 he plays Beast Within and untaps and plays fulminator Mage. I just let them resolve and keep 2 Islands in Play, Play a Delta and ship back. He untaps and tries to go off. I Remand his spell and he Scoops. Turns out he had the rest of his Living Ends in hand with nothing else.
Game 2 is pretty uneventful. Turns out Remand, Remand, and Teferi is in fact really hard to beat for them.
3-0
Round 4 - Burn
Game 1 I win the die roll, I keep, play a fetchland, and then comment on how terrified of the match I am. He plays Goblin Guide hits me for 2 and passes
I untap play a land and pass, he untaps plays a Swiftspear, a Lava spike and swings. Guide trigger gives me a land and I kill his Swiftspear with a bolt.
I play a land and pass. He declares attackers I play an Exarch, Tap GG before it attacks. He passes the turn.
I play Splinter Twin and turns out he didn’t have enough burn in hand to kill Exarch.
Game 2 He plays Goblin Guide into Swiftspear into Lava Spike into Boros Charm into Atarka's Command. Whatever I had in hand doesn't matter because I cast like 2 spells before dying.
Game 3 I keep a Sketchy hand and Play a fetch, a visions and pass. He plays Goblin Guide and swings. I draw a land off the top. Untap play a land and pass. He casts GG number 2 and swings for 4. I draw a land, and he doesn't play another one. Untap play a fetch. Search for mountain and Pyroclasm. Pass the turn. He untaps plays a Rift Bolt and passes. I untap play a land and pass, on his upkeep play an exarch and tap his land. He does nothing, rift bolts me and ends the turn. I untap, play a land and pass. On his draw step I clique him and see a couple 2cmc burn spells and a land. I throw away some burn spell, he plays a land and Lava Spikes me. I untap, swing for 4 and then pass the turn. He untaps and plays Eidolon of the great rebel. I untap, swing for 4 to put him at 7 and pass the turn. He untaps, plays a land, and then casts Lightning Helix. I Spell snare it to go to 3. He declares attackers and I flash in an Exarch, go to 1 and block Eidolon then I untap and hit him for exactly 5 Dmg to win the game.
Round 5 ID
Last round opponent was playing CoCo Elves. I was actually looking forward to that matchup and I think I could've won it fairly easily. I’d been playtesting against it, and it feels like a 60-40 all the time. Either way I got first with a Final record of 4-0-1.
Tuesday
For Tuesday I switched a Negate and the Teferi for 2 more Dispels on the Board, they're just incredible at my store's metagame.
Round 1 - Junk
This was the first time I played him with the Grixis version of the deck. We had played several times while I was still on the U/R version and I can say that the match up felt much better with the Grixis version.
Game 1 I win the die roll and Play a fetchland. he plays a tapped shockland and passes back the turn. I EoT Thought Scour and Play another shock fetching for Blood Crypt to play the good old turn 2 Tasigur. I ship the turn back, he shakes his head, plays a Ghost Quarter and passes back the turn. I swing for 4 and keep mana open for Remand. He plays a goyf into my remand, next turn he resolves a liliana, and tries to -2 to kill Tasigur, I respond by casting Lighting Bolt, then Casting Snapcaster and targeting Lightning Bolt. Lightning Bolt kills Lily, I sac Snapcaster and then Flashback bolt to deal 3 to Him. He plays souls and after a couple turns his only out is a stirring wildwood that I terminate to seal the deal.
Game 2 He plays a turn 1 Shockland, I play a serum visions and pass the turn. He plays another land and passes back, I play another Visions and a fetchland and ship the turn. He untaps and plays a 2/3 Goyf, and I make the decision of sacrificing a lot of Life for a tempo play. I fetch and shock myself to play Dismember paying 1 and putting myself at 12. He passes back and I untap and play Tasigur. He untaps and plays a Rhino. I Terminate it, untap and swing for 4. He tries to play another Rhino that I Remand back to his hand. He plays Choke when I tap out. I assumed he was going to side them in so I fetch in a way that I can still Keep 4 mana open, but I also had Cryptic in hand so I got a bit greedy. I attack, play a mountain and pass the turn. He untaps and resolves rhino. I Play Snapcaster and flashback a Terminate to kill it. He untaps passes and concedes after I swing in with Tasigur.
1-0
Round 2 - Infect
He was playing what was either an older version of the archetype or a brew that tried to splash black again. He had Plague Stinger, Murderous Cuts out of the Board and Phyrexian Crusaders. We both awkwardly mull down to 5 and play a slow uninteractive game for the next 4 turns. He resolves a Skirge that I kill with a Kolaghan's Command making him discard a card. He tries to pump it and I Dispel his pump Spell. He untaps and plays an Inkmoth and passes back. I Play a Tasigur and pass back the turn. He animates Inkmoth and swings. He tries to give it +2/+2 with Mutagenic Growth just to meet my lightning bolt. A couple of turns later he dies to Tasigur. He ended up flooding a bit, and mulliganing is worse for them than it is for us. So it wasn't a hard game one.
Game 2 he just doesn't stand a chance. My opener is Bolt, Snap, Terminate, Izzet Staticaster, Serum Visions and Lands. I Kill everything he tries to play early and then EoT Izzet Staticaster which takes over the game completely. He can't play anything and whatever he tries to stick by pumping it in response makes it harder for him to try to kill me. I take 1 Poison damage throughout the course of the game and then eventually draw my combo pieces to end it.
2-0
Round 3 - R/G Through the Breach.
One of my buddies was playing this. I had seen this deck online a couple times, but I had never played against it. They have the Through the Breach Emrakul combo, and Summoning traps with Primeval Titans with 2 Valakut. The deck was very powerful, and had a lot of inevitability.
Game 1 I Lose the die roll and he plays a land and Suspends Search for tomorrow. 2 Turns later I remand it and he recasts it that same turn. I have a very control-heavy hand. so all I'm doing is Playing lands and passing the turn. All I have to put pressure is a single Deceiver Exarch. He eventually plays a Valakut and just plays lands until he slowly eats my life away. I manage to counter a Primeval with a Cryptic, but it is all for naught, as I have no real answer to Valakut and I'm nowhere near close to killing him.
+2 Inquisition of Kozilek(this seemed mediocre at best in retrospective)
+2 Dispel
-4 Lightning Bolt
Game 2 We play sort of the same draw go game and he again gets a valakut and starts shooting at me. He has a Through the Breach and a Summoning Trap. I Cryptic both and then I manage to resolve an Exarch and Twin him when I'm at 3 life.
Game 3 I play Inquisition game one to see a hand of Through the Breach, Summoning Trap, Steve, 3 lands and Emrakul. I take the Steve and pass turn, he plays land and passes back. I play a Clique on turn 3 taking his Through the Breach, he passes back and I start tempo-ing him out. He tries to resolve a summoning trap and I dispel it. He tries to play Ugin(!) and I Cryptic it. In the end he runs out of powerful spells and floods a bit which simply allows me to kill him with Clique beats.
3-0
Round 4 - Mirror
Friend of mine who also switched to Grixis a couple weeks ago.
Game 1 I mull to 6 and then we play the typical draw-go game until I try to resolve a Threat. We play some counter magic on each other and I resolve a Tasigur, he untaps-terminates it, and plays his own. I have nothing to deal with the Tasigur, so it eventually takes over the game and gives him back value in the form of Snaps, Bolts, and Serum Visions. In retrospective I think I should've wait longer to try and play mine, I pushed too much for tempo and got blown out by him.
I'm not sure those last 4 bolts where correct, but everything else seemed better in the match up. Specially when the only thing they kill is Snapcasters and V-clique. I'm also concerned about over-sideboarding, and just diluting the deck too much.
I keep a hand with 5 lands, Remand, and Spellskite. I'm pretty sure that mulliganing it away was the correct choice, but at that moment I reasoned that we would just play a long draw go game and I'd draw more gas.
Through the next 4 turns I draw 2 Lands a Terminate and a Snapcaster. He tries to Clique me and I Remand, Snapcaster-Remand it. I draw a Keranos when he is finally able to resolve the Clique which was quite annoying because I really pondered about just letting the Clique resolve the turn before, and terminate it in response. Either way he sends Keranos away and I play a land and pass. He plays a Tasigur which I kill with the Terminate. He passes back and I untap on my upkeep he plays an Exarch taping a Blood Crypt, here I make the mistake of playing a Snap and flashbacking terminate in response for no reason other than being scared of him having the combo. I'm pretty sure that at this point the game just turns over to him as he starts racing me with clique while I only have lands in my hand. I finally manage to play a serum visions to find both Tasigur and Grave Titan. I'm only at 4 life with nothing in hand though. I put grave titan on top but in retrospective I think that shipping him to the bottom and then keeping tasigur on top to activate him and return something to try and deal with clique was the better choice. Either way I play Grave Titan which would've killed him, but I had no way of stopping his Clique and die the turn after casting the Grave titan.
This game I played mediocre magic against a good player and got punished hard by it. I can see in retrospective all the mistakes I made and I now realize that the mirror is something I really need to work on and practice.
3-1
Round 5 - Infect
He has a pretty stock list, nothing extraordinary.
I win the roll, and then proceed to mull to 5 with 3 lands a bolt and a serum visions. Of course this just doesn't stand a chance against all his pump spells and I promptly die to a Become Immense with nothing to fight it.
Game 2 I play a land and pass, he plays a probe, a land and passes the turn. I untap play inquisition and see Pierce, Dispel, Become, Vines, Land, probe #2, and something else I can't remember. I take the dispel as he has no creatures and pass the turn. He untaps plays a land and passes back. I play a land and pass. He doesn't play anything and just passes the turn back to me again. I Eot cast Deceiver tapping his Only blue source so he can't cast pierce and just untap and play Twin to kill him.
Game 3 I am sitting on dispel, snapcaster, lands, a bolt and serum visions. He plays a Hierarch and passes. I play a land and pass. I debated about killing the hierarch on my turn, but figured it was more important to keep him off of his infect dudes. He untaps plays an Inkmoth and casts Spellskite. I try to bolt the hierarch in response and he uses vines to protect it. He resolves spellskite and passes. I play a land, play serum visions and draw dismember off the top. He animates Inmoth and attacks using a pump spell, I cast Dismember on it and he actually lets it kill the inkmoth instead of the Spellskite. I'm guessing he wanted to try to kill me with hierarch, and still have protection against the combo instead since I had shocked myself twice and took 4 from the dismember. Either way he passes the turn back and I proceed to cast Pyroclasm and a Lightning Bolt to get rid of his Hierarch. I play a bolt on his Spellskite and clear his board away. He untaps, plays a land and passes. He draws no creatures and little gas while I start to tempo him with Pestermite and Deceiver Exarch. He doesn't play anything else for the rest of the game and dies to me swinging in with my tappers.
4-1
A Couple thoughts, and reasoning for Mainboard and Sideboard choices:
The reason to why there's 3 Dispels and no Blood Moons on my board is because half of my store is essentially either U/R/x or Infect, and there's virtually 0 Tron or Bloom decks. Dispel has been an all-star against 80% of the field, and I've only had about 2 or 3 matches when they didn't get sided in.
I decided to cut a single Pestermite and a copy of Splinter Twin to make room for more control because the combo, or parts of it get sided out very often. Even against Infect sometimes I would cut 1 of each to make space for removal against them, so I decided to run like this to improve my game one against most of the field.
Anyways that's it for right now, will probably play again next until next Tuesday. Want to add either an Electrolize or Kolaghan's Command #3, I just have to find the room for them. Might cut the Ashiok since he underperformed both weeks.
Currently 9-2-1 with the list so I'm feeling pretty great about it. Thoughts?
does nothing the turn he/she comes into play, s/he's very very slow.
sometimes you it no creatures and have to wait even more, if you hit a creature thats pretty good but also they can just be attacking her/him the whole time
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To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour. - William Blake
It was not delight, not wonder that arose among us, it was the peace of heaven. He who has thought most deeply loves what is most alive. - Friedrich Holderlin
Yeah, he definitely underperformed. I kept it on the board because I got to do some sweet things againat Rug and the mirror with him, but I think I'd rather have consistency in my deck, and he/she can be somewhat of a hit or miss. Choices right now are Kolaghan's Command 3, Blood Moon, or more removal like a 3rd Terminate or a Murderous Cut
As of right now they have been awesome everytime I've cast them, I've used them to slow down affinity, Burn, and Infect. Sometimes you just get a key card in their hand and shut down their clock for a few turns.
Haven't really used them much against the midrange and the mirrors matches, but they seem quite useful in theory.
They seem very different but in practice are very similiar.
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To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour. - William Blake
It was not delight, not wonder that arose among us, it was the peace of heaven. He who has thought most deeply loves what is most alive. - Friedrich Holderlin
1907 Constructed Rating on Magic Online.
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How's the singleton Electrolyze mainboard going for you? I cut 'Lyze from the 75 when I switched from Grixis Delver to Twin, but I do like the card still and wonder how it has performed for you lately.
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 actually just swapped out the 2nd Kommand for the Electrolyze this past week, since I felt it was time to bring back the original 3-for-1. I love Kommand, but it's not the same flexible card that 'Lyze is, and I really wanted a 5th cantrip in the deck that also happens to be great in certain matchups. While Kommand is great, and often worth more value, it can sometimes be awkward when you're stuck on 3 lands and/or can't seem to hit your black source early, and you really just want to start cycling cards. For that reason, I dropped down to the 1/1 split main, though I still definitely want the 2nd Kommand in the board.
As for the other night, in both testing and the main event, Electrolyze was pretty sweet and I was glad to have it back. It didn't do anything stellar, but flashing it back with Snappy to sweep my Amulet opponent's Plant tokens and draw another card was STILL somehow gas. And that's not to mention all the mana dorks, Affinity, Goblins, Infect, and CoCo decks that were present at the tournament that i never played against. Given my expected meta swings, I think Electrolyze is a good call again. People are catching onto Kommand, and we aren't the most synergistic deck to be abusing it anyway. Electrolyze just smooths the deck out better in the end, and helps out in a lot of matchups that are closer than they should be without a little help.
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
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What about this against junk:
-2 pestermite, -2 twin, -4 bolt
+2 blood moon, 1 spellskite, 1 e.e., 1 dismember, 2 keranos, 1 kommand
weaker to path to exile, and kills them faster but Wurmcoil is much better and Stabilizing and harder to kill.
It was not delight, not wonder that arose among us, it was the peace of heaven. He who has thought most deeply loves what is most alive. - Friedrich Holderlin
1907 Constructed Rating on Magic Online.
I think that wurmcoil is better if you're behind and low on life, and if you need something that doesn't strain your mana. Titan is good at all points of the game though. Even more so when you cast him on an empty board, and both players are topdecking.
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Are you always going to have BB? Seems like R and U are the most usual fetch colors. Wurmcoil is cast off literally every land in the deck. Sometimes you have a colorless source and want UU for cryptic...Titan may be better in those decks but it's harder to cast
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Mono-U Control
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Sen Triplets
Mizzix of the Izmagnus
Derevi Stax
VolThrun
Marchesa, The Black Rose
Olivia Voldaren, Vampire Tribal
Modern: Fish, JUND/Junk
--------
RIP Twin
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4 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Desolate Lighthouse
3 Sulfur Falls
2 Steam Vents
1 Blood Crypt
1 Watery Grave
4 Island
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
Creatures (13)
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Deceiver Exarch
2 Pestermite
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Vendilion Clique
4 Splinter Twin
4 Serum Visions
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Terminate
4 Remand
2 Spell Snare
2 Cryptic Command
2 Blood Moon
2 Dispel
1 Grim Lavamancer
2 Spellskite
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Dismember
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Negate
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Kolaghan's Command
The Merfolk match is a close one, but I do think we are favored. Cut all the bad countermagic and chaff, bring in all the removal and sweepers, and maybe shave a copy of Twin or a Tasigur, depending on your game plan. Watch out for Spreading Seas, as it's definitely the easiest way to lose to them early on. Kill everything during their turn and in response to Vial triggers, and you should be able to keep the odds in your favor over the long haul. It's a scary match, but very winnable, and sometimes you just Snap/Bolt them into oblivion.
RE: Grave Titan vs. Wurmcoil Engine. While Wurmcoil is certainly easier to cast, and can provide similar issues for a BGx deck to handle, if I'm playing a 6-drop in my board it's going to be Titan. For starters, it's 10 power, spread over 3 bodies, which means much better blocking/attacking potential even if they manage to answer the 6/6. Secondly, there is the issue of Kommand splitting up Wurmcoil (and potentially flashing back) against any Mirror or Jund deck. And assuming you untap with either of them, Gravy is the gift that keeps on giving. Not only are you attacking with 10 power the next turn, you're also generating 2 more dudes on blocking duty, or 14 power on the next attack. When you're trying to close quickly, Grave Titan shuts the door much faster.
The lifegain is nice on Wurm, but honestly if you need to be gaining life, turn 6+ is generally too late. Grave Titan provides a safer blocking scenario immediately, and represents nearly double the power/toughness of Wurmcoil if you make it to your next combat step. He's also black, not Artifact, which means he is more resilient to fair amount of common removal spells. Mostly, he threatens to run away with the game much faster than Wurm in any game that remotely resembled parity. Sure, Wurm is more easily castable, but I'm not worried about that in a Grixis or Jund match, even if I am throwing down the occasional Blood Moon. Aside from that non-bo, I'm pretty comfortable casting a BB spell in any game that goes long enough for it to matter, especially with 2 Darkslick Shores in my deck now. In the matchups I'm looking for powerful lategame bombs, I'd rather have more power.
@Sxnr1se, Pestermite isn't great against Lingering Souls. If I am okay with accepting that, and want to pressure stuff like Liliana, I might leave in the 2 Pests, or maybe just Clique. If I'm trying to combo at all, I will still leave in maybe 3 Exarchs, but they are also quite bad against BGx in most cases. Usually, I cut the entire combo, but sometimes I will keep in maybe 2-3 tappers and occasionally a singleton Twin for LOLz. But the general rule is, Pestermite stays in vs. Jund but not vs. Junk.
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
Additionally, some cards (specifically Remand) have differing value being on the play or on the draw. Use your sideboarding guide as a reference, don't use it as instructions.
@Sxnr1se, I don't actually think Exarch is good at all against any of the BGx decks, unless you are still trying to combo in some capacity. It's pretty embarrassing against Jund in my opinion. At best, you might snipe a Bob with a surprise block, but beyond that it's not doing very much for you. All their threats aside from Dark Confidant will run it over, and being able to block the occasional Scooze or Goyf for a turn or so is rarely going to be feasible, let alone actually accomplish anything. It might eat a Decay simply out of fear, or tap a thing to keep tempo up, or perhaps snipe a Lily down on an empty board, but Exarch by itself is significantly worse than any other creature in the deck against a BGx-type deck.
I generally would keep in Pestermite against most BGx decks, simply because we need threats and it does pressure their Lilianas well. Flying over all the ground based crap is helpful too. The fact that it's not great against Lingering Souls does suck, but they only have ~3 copies post board to your 2 Pests, so the likelihood of getting massively shut down isn't super high. But still, it's a problem. And that was your original question that I was answering.
But as with everything, these decisions are very situational and personal. I don't think I've sided against BGx the same way twice, nor I do think I have a perfect plan against them. It just comes down to how I feel each game, and which strategy I think is most important.
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
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Remand
2 Cryptic Command
2 Terminate
2 Spell Snare
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 Thought Scour
1 Dispel
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Deceiver Exarch
1 Pestermite
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Steam Vents
1 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
3 Sulfur Falls
1 Darkslick Shores
3 Island
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
3 Dispel (1 Dispel, 1 Negate/1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir for Friday)
1 Dismember
1 Spellskite
1 Pyroclasm
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Grave Titan
Friday
Round 1 - Esper Mentor
Seems like it was a brew of the lists that had been running around Japan a couple months ago.
Game one I play Visions, and pass with mana open turns 2 and 3. Turn 3 he taps out into Lingering Souls and I play Exarch and untap with Twin. Pretty uneventful.
-1 Twin
-1 Exarch
-2 Lightning Bolt
+1 Izzet Staticaster
+1 Pyroclasm
+1 Anger of the Gods
+1 Dispel
Sideboarding felt odd since I had no experience against the deck, so I tried to treat it as half token, half control deck.
Game two goes on for very, very long. We play removal on each other's creatures and keep the board empty until I try to combo out once, but he has a Path to Exile and Mana Leak backup for my Dispel. He then proceeds to resolve Ashiok, and manages to ultimate it. He has no threats so eventually just mills mi with it and we go to game 3.
Game 3 we play nothing our first 2-3 turns, then he goes for a Lingering Souls and I let it resolve. I Have Pyroclasm in hand, but I want to wait for him to flash it back or play a Mentor. He Plays the mentor and passes back. I Flash an Exarch in and untap. I Pyroclasm and take his board away. He untaps and PtE my Exarch and passes. I Play a visions and See negate and Pestermite. Pass the turn back (already on turn 1 of turns). He plays a land and passes. I play a land and pass. He plays another creature I can't remember what it was at the moment, but I Play Pestermite Eot into it. Then untap and Cast Twin. He has Murderous Cut, I Play Dispel, he tries to negate it and I negate in response to combo off on turn 5.
1-0
Round 2 - Affinity
Played against a good friend of mine.
Game 1 I win the roll, play a delta and then pass the turn. He draws plays Citadel, Springleaf, Thopter, and Vault Skirge. I EOT Fetch for an Island and Thought scour myself.
I untap play a Darkslick Shores and play Tasigur and ship the turn back to him. He untaps, Plays an Inkmoth Nexus and a Craneal Plating. Attaches the Plating to Skirge and swings for a bunch, I untap play a Mountain and swing with Tasigur. Then I ship the turn. He attacks without animating Inkmoth. I Kolaghan's Command his Plating and his Vault Skirge in response. He plays an Etched Champion and passes back, then I proceed to switch from Grixis Twin into URB Turbo Fog, the next 4 turns go:
Swing with Tasigur, Cryptic tap your creatures Draw a card.
Swing with Tasigur, Cryptic #2 tap your creatures Draw a card.
Swing with Tasigur, Snapcaster -> Flashback Cryptic, tap your creatures, and bounce Snapcaster to my hand.
Swing with Tasigur (This time he gets blocked by Inkmoth), Snapcaster -> Flashback Cryptic, tap your creatures, bounce Snapcaster which he Proceeds to G-Blast in response.
Swing with Tasigur one more time to close the game.
+1 Staticaster
+1 Anger
+1 Pyroclasm
+1 Dismember
+2 Inquisition
-4 Remand
-1 Thought Scour
-1 Dispel
Game 2 he has a bunch of small guys and a signal pest, but no Ravager or Plating. I bolt some of them to slow him down, but he eventually plays Etched Champion into Master of Etherium. I play an Exarch into his only Mana source (Glimmervoid) and he responds by blasting it. Next turn I do the same tapping his Master, but he has no removal this time. I simply play Twin and win the game.
2-0
Round 3 - Living End
Game 1 I have the combo in hand. He wins the Die roll. Ponders for about a minute about whether he should mulligan or not. He keeps. I keep a hand with heavy mana assuming he's going to try to LD me out of the game. Sure enough end of my turn 4 he plays Beast Within and untaps and plays fulminator Mage. I just let them resolve and keep 2 Islands in Play, Play a Delta and ship back. He untaps and tries to go off. I Remand his spell and he Scoops. Turns out he had the rest of his Living Ends in hand with nothing else.
+1 Dispel
+1 Teferi
+1 Negate
+2 Inquisition
-3 Lighting Bolt
-2 Spell Snare
Game 2 is pretty uneventful. Turns out Remand, Remand, and Teferi is in fact really hard to beat for them.
3-0
Round 4 - Burn
Game 1 I win the die roll, I keep, play a fetchland, and then comment on how terrified of the match I am. He plays Goblin Guide hits me for 2 and passes
I untap play a land and pass, he untaps plays a Swiftspear, a Lava spike and swings. Guide trigger gives me a land and I kill his Swiftspear with a bolt.
I play a land and pass. He declares attackers I play an Exarch, Tap GG before it attacks. He passes the turn.
I play Splinter Twin and turns out he didn’t have enough burn in hand to kill Exarch.
+1 Negate
+1 Dispel
+1 Spellskite
+1 Teferi
+2 Inquisition of Kozilek
Game 2 He plays Goblin Guide into Swiftspear into Lava Spike into Boros Charm into Atarka's Command. Whatever I had in hand doesn't matter because I cast like 2 spells before dying.
Game 3 I keep a Sketchy hand and Play a fetch, a visions and pass. He plays Goblin Guide and swings. I draw a land off the top. Untap play a land and pass. He casts GG number 2 and swings for 4. I draw a land, and he doesn't play another one. Untap play a fetch. Search for mountain and Pyroclasm. Pass the turn. He untaps plays a Rift Bolt and passes. I untap play a land and pass, on his upkeep play an exarch and tap his land. He does nothing, rift bolts me and ends the turn. I untap, play a land and pass. On his draw step I clique him and see a couple 2cmc burn spells and a land. I throw away some burn spell, he plays a land and Lava Spikes me. I untap, swing for 4 and then pass the turn. He untaps and plays Eidolon of the great rebel. I untap, swing for 4 to put him at 7 and pass the turn. He untaps, plays a land, and then casts Lightning Helix. I Spell snare it to go to 3. He declares attackers and I flash in an Exarch, go to 1 and block Eidolon then I untap and hit him for exactly 5 Dmg to win the game.
Round 5 ID
Last round opponent was playing CoCo Elves. I was actually looking forward to that matchup and I think I could've won it fairly easily. I’d been playtesting against it, and it feels like a 60-40 all the time. Either way I got first with a Final record of 4-0-1.
Tuesday
For Tuesday I switched a Negate and the Teferi for 2 more Dispels on the Board, they're just incredible at my store's metagame.
Round 1 - Junk
This was the first time I played him with the Grixis version of the deck. We had played several times while I was still on the U/R version and I can say that the match up felt much better with the Grixis version.
Game 1 I win the die roll and Play a fetchland. he plays a tapped shockland and passes back the turn. I EoT Thought Scour and Play another shock fetching for Blood Crypt to play the good old turn 2 Tasigur. I ship the turn back, he shakes his head, plays a Ghost Quarter and passes back the turn. I swing for 4 and keep mana open for Remand. He plays a goyf into my remand, next turn he resolves a liliana, and tries to -2 to kill Tasigur, I respond by casting Lighting Bolt, then Casting Snapcaster and targeting Lightning Bolt. Lightning Bolt kills Lily, I sac Snapcaster and then Flashback bolt to deal 3 to Him. He plays souls and after a couple turns his only out is a stirring wildwood that I terminate to seal the deal.
-3 Splinter Twin
-4 Deceiver Exarch
-1 Pestermite
-1 Lightning Bolt
+2 Inquisition of Kozilek
+1 Izzet Staticaster
+1 Tasigur
+1 Keranos
+1 Grave Titan
+1 Jace, AoT
+1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
+1 Dismember
Game 2 He plays a turn 1 Shockland, I play a serum visions and pass the turn. He plays another land and passes back, I play another Visions and a fetchland and ship the turn. He untaps and plays a 2/3 Goyf, and I make the decision of sacrificing a lot of Life for a tempo play. I fetch and shock myself to play Dismember paying 1 and putting myself at 12. He passes back and I untap and play Tasigur. He untaps and plays a Rhino. I Terminate it, untap and swing for 4. He tries to play another Rhino that I Remand back to his hand. He plays Choke when I tap out. I assumed he was going to side them in so I fetch in a way that I can still Keep 4 mana open, but I also had Cryptic in hand so I got a bit greedy. I attack, play a mountain and pass the turn. He untaps and resolves rhino. I Play Snapcaster and flashback a Terminate to kill it. He untaps passes and concedes after I swing in with Tasigur.
1-0
Round 2 - Infect
He was playing what was either an older version of the archetype or a brew that tried to splash black again. He had Plague Stinger, Murderous Cuts out of the Board and Phyrexian Crusaders. We both awkwardly mull down to 5 and play a slow uninteractive game for the next 4 turns. He resolves a Skirge that I kill with a Kolaghan's Command making him discard a card. He tries to pump it and I Dispel his pump Spell. He untaps and plays an Inkmoth and passes back. I Play a Tasigur and pass back the turn. He animates Inkmoth and swings. He tries to give it +2/+2 with Mutagenic Growth just to meet my lightning bolt. A couple of turns later he dies to Tasigur. He ended up flooding a bit, and mulliganing is worse for them than it is for us. So it wasn't a hard game one.
+3 Dispel
+1 Izzet Staticaster
+1 Dismember
+2 Inquisition of Kozilek
+1 Pyroclasm
+1 Spellskite
-4 Remand
-2 Cryptic Command
-2 Tasigur
-1 Spell Snare
Game 2 he just doesn't stand a chance. My opener is Bolt, Snap, Terminate, Izzet Staticaster, Serum Visions and Lands. I Kill everything he tries to play early and then EoT Izzet Staticaster which takes over the game completely. He can't play anything and whatever he tries to stick by pumping it in response makes it harder for him to try to kill me. I take 1 Poison damage throughout the course of the game and then eventually draw my combo pieces to end it.
2-0
Round 3 - R/G Through the Breach.
One of my buddies was playing this. I had seen this deck online a couple times, but I had never played against it. They have the Through the Breach Emrakul combo, and Summoning traps with Primeval Titans with 2 Valakut. The deck was very powerful, and had a lot of inevitability.
Game 1 I Lose the die roll and he plays a land and Suspends Search for tomorrow. 2 Turns later I remand it and he recasts it that same turn. I have a very control-heavy hand. so all I'm doing is Playing lands and passing the turn. All I have to put pressure is a single Deceiver Exarch. He eventually plays a Valakut and just plays lands until he slowly eats my life away. I manage to counter a Primeval with a Cryptic, but it is all for naught, as I have no real answer to Valakut and I'm nowhere near close to killing him.
+2 Inquisition of Kozilek(this seemed mediocre at best in retrospective)
+2 Dispel
-4 Lightning Bolt
Game 2 We play sort of the same draw go game and he again gets a valakut and starts shooting at me. He has a Through the Breach and a Summoning Trap. I Cryptic both and then I manage to resolve an Exarch and Twin him when I'm at 3 life.
Game 3 I play Inquisition game one to see a hand of Through the Breach, Summoning Trap, Steve, 3 lands and Emrakul. I take the Steve and pass turn, he plays land and passes back. I play a Clique on turn 3 taking his Through the Breach, he passes back and I start tempo-ing him out. He tries to resolve a summoning trap and I dispel it. He tries to play Ugin(!) and I Cryptic it. In the end he runs out of powerful spells and floods a bit which simply allows me to kill him with Clique beats.
3-0
Round 4 - Mirror
Friend of mine who also switched to Grixis a couple weeks ago.
Game 1 I mull to 6 and then we play the typical draw-go game until I try to resolve a Threat. We play some counter magic on each other and I resolve a Tasigur, he untaps-terminates it, and plays his own. I have nothing to deal with the Tasigur, so it eventually takes over the game and gives him back value in the form of Snaps, Bolts, and Serum Visions. In retrospective I think I should've wait longer to try and play mine, I pushed too much for tempo and got blown out by him.
+1 Tasigur
+1 Grave Titan
+1 Keranos
+1 Jace
+2 Inquisition
+1 Spellskite
+1 Dismember
+3 Dispel
+1 Ashiok
-4 Deceiver
-1 Pestermite
-3 Splinter Twin
-4 Bolt
I'm not sure those last 4 bolts where correct, but everything else seemed better in the match up. Specially when the only thing they kill is Snapcasters and V-clique. I'm also concerned about over-sideboarding, and just diluting the deck too much.
I keep a hand with 5 lands, Remand, and Spellskite. I'm pretty sure that mulliganing it away was the correct choice, but at that moment I reasoned that we would just play a long draw go game and I'd draw more gas.
Through the next 4 turns I draw 2 Lands a Terminate and a Snapcaster. He tries to Clique me and I Remand, Snapcaster-Remand it. I draw a Keranos when he is finally able to resolve the Clique which was quite annoying because I really pondered about just letting the Clique resolve the turn before, and terminate it in response. Either way he sends Keranos away and I play a land and pass. He plays a Tasigur which I kill with the Terminate. He passes back and I untap on my upkeep he plays an Exarch taping a Blood Crypt, here I make the mistake of playing a Snap and flashbacking terminate in response for no reason other than being scared of him having the combo. I'm pretty sure that at this point the game just turns over to him as he starts racing me with clique while I only have lands in my hand. I finally manage to play a serum visions to find both Tasigur and Grave Titan. I'm only at 4 life with nothing in hand though. I put grave titan on top but in retrospective I think that shipping him to the bottom and then keeping tasigur on top to activate him and return something to try and deal with clique was the better choice. Either way I play Grave Titan which would've killed him, but I had no way of stopping his Clique and die the turn after casting the Grave titan.
This game I played mediocre magic against a good player and got punished hard by it. I can see in retrospective all the mistakes I made and I now realize that the mirror is something I really need to work on and practice.
3-1
Round 5 - Infect
He has a pretty stock list, nothing extraordinary.
I win the roll, and then proceed to mull to 5 with 3 lands a bolt and a serum visions. Of course this just doesn't stand a chance against all his pump spells and I promptly die to a Become Immense with nothing to fight it.
+3 Dispel
+2 Inquisition of Kozilek
+1 Dismember
+1 Izzet Staticaster
+1 Pyroclasm
+1 Spellskite
-4 Remand
-2 Spell Snare
-1 Cryptic Command
-2 Tasigur
Game 2 I play a land and pass, he plays a probe, a land and passes the turn. I untap play inquisition and see Pierce, Dispel, Become, Vines, Land, probe #2, and something else I can't remember. I take the dispel as he has no creatures and pass the turn. He untaps plays a land and passes back. I play a land and pass. He doesn't play anything and just passes the turn back to me again. I Eot cast Deceiver tapping his Only blue source so he can't cast pierce and just untap and play Twin to kill him.
Game 3 I am sitting on dispel, snapcaster, lands, a bolt and serum visions. He plays a Hierarch and passes. I play a land and pass. I debated about killing the hierarch on my turn, but figured it was more important to keep him off of his infect dudes. He untaps plays an Inkmoth and casts Spellskite. I try to bolt the hierarch in response and he uses vines to protect it. He resolves spellskite and passes. I play a land, play serum visions and draw dismember off the top. He animates Inmoth and attacks using a pump spell, I cast Dismember on it and he actually lets it kill the inkmoth instead of the Spellskite. I'm guessing he wanted to try to kill me with hierarch, and still have protection against the combo instead since I had shocked myself twice and took 4 from the dismember. Either way he passes the turn back and I proceed to cast Pyroclasm and a Lightning Bolt to get rid of his Hierarch. I play a bolt on his Spellskite and clear his board away. He untaps, plays a land and passes. He draws no creatures and little gas while I start to tempo him with Pestermite and Deceiver Exarch. He doesn't play anything else for the rest of the game and dies to me swinging in with my tappers.
4-1
A Couple thoughts, and reasoning for Mainboard and Sideboard choices:
The reason to why there's 3 Dispels and no Blood Moons on my board is because half of my store is essentially either U/R/x or Infect, and there's virtually 0 Tron or Bloom decks. Dispel has been an all-star against 80% of the field, and I've only had about 2 or 3 matches when they didn't get sided in.
I decided to cut a single Pestermite and a copy of Splinter Twin to make room for more control because the combo, or parts of it get sided out very often. Even against Infect sometimes I would cut 1 of each to make space for removal against them, so I decided to run like this to improve my game one against most of the field.
Anyways that's it for right now, will probably play again next until next Tuesday. Want to add either an Electrolize or Kolaghan's Command #3, I just have to find the room for them. Might cut the Ashiok since he underperformed both weeks.
Currently 9-2-1 with the list so I'm feeling pretty great about it. Thoughts?
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does nothing the turn he/she comes into play, s/he's very very slow.
sometimes you it no creatures and have to wait even more, if you hit a creature thats pretty good but also they can just be attacking her/him the whole time
It was not delight, not wonder that arose among us, it was the peace of heaven. He who has thought most deeply loves what is most alive. - Friedrich Holderlin
1907 Constructed Rating on Magic Online.
URBURB
Haven't really used them much against the midrange and the mirrors matches, but they seem quite useful in theory.
URBURB
They seem very different but in practice are very similiar.
It was not delight, not wonder that arose among us, it was the peace of heaven. He who has thought most deeply loves what is most alive. - Friedrich Holderlin
1907 Constructed Rating on Magic Online.