First, I have to say that my dreams come true with this deck.
Finally a B/W Midrange deck that puts up good results. I think a lot of that has to do with
the great position of Zealous Persecution in the metagame right now. I like the maindeck a lot, there is only one thing I don't
get. The most successful list is playing 3 Doom Blade. Isn't playing 2 Dismember and 1 Vicitim/Smother/Go for the Throat
just way better?
Anyone who has tested 3 Swords vs. 2 Swords? 3 seem a lot to me.
I also think it's exciting that this deck is sort of taking off right now.
I'm starting to think that we don't want 2 mana removal in here. A lot of times you want to kill something turn 1 delver, birds of paradise, delver, noble hierarch, delver, cursecatcher, delver, etc... (was I clear that delver has been an issue for me? ) and you can't do that with doom blade, smother, victim, etc..
So that leaves us with 1 cmc removal options. I think the best ones we can play are disfigure, dismember, vendetta, and sunlance. Now I personally hate having removal that can't kill a deceiver and anything that can't kill a deceiver is potentially dead in long games since it can't kill goyf, resto, etc.. So out of those 4 I like dismember and vendetta.
I was playing vendetta when I first picked up the deck and I LOVE it. But there is a downside in that it will generally cost 5 life to kill goyf, 4 for resto, 4 for deceiver etc.. but it can kill a birds or a delver for 1 life on turn 1 whereas a dismember will cost 4 life to cast on turn 1. I think since the early creatures are more the issue, and the meta is less-saturated with creatures that have big butts, that vendetta is the right option here, and it also gives you the ability to kill something big if you have to. But it's probably best to play 2 vendetta and 1 dismember since dismember is better in the mid-late game.
On another note, I've been testing pack rat for a few days now, and I can safely say that it's REDICULOUS. Being able to turn dead cards into rats is really good, it's also nasty to discard lingering souls to it and then flashback the souls. The only downsides are that it requires a few turns to get a descent presence with it, and it can die to anger. We were already playing around anger anyway though, and it's easy to play around it. So the biggest downside is that it takes time to establish it, which is another reason why I like 1 cmc removal right now, so you can either go vendetta on a birds into pack rat, or something like thoughtseize, sculler, rat+vendetta, and start taking over the game with the rat. Now that I'm including pack rat, I'm wondering if I should have mutavault, but I think I might have to take out tectonic edge or vault, so I'm not really sure I want it.
Even though I'm not playing gatekeepers or victim anymore, I still find that I want urborg just about every game so I left them in there.
I've been seeing a lot of merfolk and delver recently, so I could see cutting the memoricides, but I would like more outs to scapeshift so I'm not sure it's right. If I was to cut them it would probably be for disfigure.
Private Mod Note
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If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
If we run squadron Hawk (which is a lovely idea) how about running a single mistveil plains? It might seem a little cute but unlimited hawks seems powerful. And it also gives us the ability to shrink a goyf. Just an Idea.
I tried a few games with hawks before, and I really don't like them because they do nothing without a sword attached to them, they can't trade with a alot of the creatures in the format, they can't end a game quickly, and they are literally vanilla creatures with no abilities except for flying. If you have them, but no sword, you're kinda screwed, you're essentially paying 8 for lingering souls with flashback rather than 5, it's just a bad rate. It's different for a deck like soul sisters because they have anthems that can make them 2/2's or bigger, and they gain life off of them entering the battlefield, which fuels their beaters. For us, a hawk is just a spirit token.
A rat however, can completely take over the battlefield because it will be hard for your opponent to attack you profitably, and they will eventually out-class anything your opponent controls.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
It's not bad. I haven't got a lot of playtesting in, but I made this for my girlfriend because she likes Lingering Souls (good taste), and I play Grixis Delver. I'm going to test against Affinity tonight, maybe Merfolk as well. Should do fairly okay. If I can Persecution away their first onslaught of freebie creatures, I'll be fairly okay. I hope...
I play B/W tokens, if you trade my intangible virtues for sword of X and X, and spectral procession for bob, I'm basically playing this deck. I've been considering moving away from tokens to something like this for awhile. Tokens have several benefits, but are weakened because they need an anthem effect in play to really push for the win. I noticed that with awesome beaters, like Brimaz, maybe the focus on tokens is not the way to make the deck succeed. Maybe more targeted discard and solid beaters is the way to play. Considering that this deck has been posting as well as tokens recently, it think it's got legs.
Here's a few thoughts and ideas based on my experience with b/w tokens:
Bitterblossom is not worth it. It takes a few turn for BB to produce the same number of tokens as lingering souls, and the loss of life is definitely relevant. This is a "fair" deck. All the main threats come down turn 3 or later. We also play shocklands, fetchlands, bob, and thoughtseize. We should conserve our life total.
Don't be too impressed by Zealous Persecution. This discussion has been raging over on the token forum. It has the potential to make a one sided field wipe, or turn a regular attack into lethal damage. The key word there is potential. While it's definitely a good card, I think it's more situational than most people realize. Personally, I'd just run more targeted removal.
Squadron hawk comes and goes as a recommended card. Filling up your hand with liliana in play is pretty solid, as is the deck thinning. It is a pretty lame card without a sword or an anthem in play. Considering that most of these builds only have 2 or 3 swords, hawk is probably not a great choice.
I'm not sure if it's a bad call with bob in the main, but I think a token producing walker would be good. Sorin or elspeth Knight errant come to mind. A 6/7 flying Brimaz seems good.
*edit* Forgot a few things:
Grafdigger's cage is worse than Rest In Peace. Grafdigger's still allows the graveyard to grow, so if they ever get rid of the cage, they can go back to whatever snapcaster/living end/past in flames shenanigans they were up to before. If you exile the whole graveyard, they have to remove RiP, then rebuild their graveyard to get any benefit.
Has anyone tried cramming a 3rd ghost quarter/tech edge into the main deck? That would eliminate the need for fulminator mage in the side, opening up more sideboard slots. I think filling that space with Burrenton Forge-tender could be an option, as an anger of the gods could do serious damage to this deck. Alternatively, Patrician's Scorn to hate out Boggles, or Rule of Law/Ethersworn Canonist to hate on storm and cascade strategies.
Don't be too impressed by Zealous Persecution. This discussion has been raging over on the token forum. It has the potential to make a one sided field wipe, or turn a regular attack into lethal damage. The key word there is potential. While it's definitely a good card, I think it's more situational than most people realize. Personally, I'd just run more targeted removal.
*edit* Forgot a few things:
Grafdigger's cage is worse than Rest In Peace. Grafdigger's still allows the graveyard to grow, so if they ever get rid of the cage, they can go back to whatever snapcaster/living end/past in flames shenanigans they were up to before. If you exile the whole graveyard, they have to remove RiP, then rebuild their graveyard to get any benefit.
Has anyone tried cramming a 3rd ghost quarter/tech edge into the main deck? That would eliminate the need for fulminator mage in the side, opening up more sideboard slots. I think filling that space with Burrenton Forge-tender could be an option, as an anger of the gods could do serious damage to this deck. Alternatively, Patrician's Scorn to hate out Boggles, or Rule of Law/Ethersworn Canonist to hate on storm and cascade strategies.
I agree with you that zealous is situational, I'm currently only running 2. I've been wondering if it's the right card for it's slot, but when it's good, it's really good.
Grafdigger's cage is not worse than rest in peace (I currently run 2 of both in my board). I used to think it was worse than rip, but then I realized that cage stops pod from using birthing pod, since it doesn't let creatures enter the battlefield from graveyards or libraries.
I haven't tried adding a 3rd tec edge, but I have played with 4 before along with a vault of the archangel. It was pretty bad, I would have a lot of games where it was hard to hit colors. It's probably ok in my deck now because i'm not nearly as color intensive as I was before. But I can still see having issues with playing sculler on turn 2 or even Liliana turn 3, just imagine getting an opener of 2 tec edges and one colored land.
Fulminator mage is completely different from tec edge and quarter though, because you don't give them a land and you don't have to wait until they have 4 lands. Ghost quarter giving them a land is relevant against scapeshift and 3 color decks if you are trying to cut them off a color, and waiting until they have 4 lands is relevant against tron and affinity.
I don't like forge-tender here, we aren't producing a ton of guys like a token deck does. A lot of the time we will have 1-2 creatures out, and the only time we will have more is if we play 1 of our 4 lingering souls or a pack rat. It just seems like forge-tender takes up valuable sideboard space.
If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
It's not bad. I haven't got a lot of playtesting in, but I made this for my girlfriend because she likes Lingering Souls (good taste), and I play Grixis Delver. I'm going to test against Affinity tonight, maybe Merfolk as well. Should do fairly okay. If I can Persecution away their first onslaught of freebie creatures, I'll be fairly okay. I hope...
-ABC
Loving the deck-list! Here's a few things to consider, though, if you feel it needs improvement (if not, then you can safely ignore this). You could consider dropping a single Zealous Persecution for either one more smother or a single slaughter pact (I'd personally go for the Pact, as it's so handy to tap-out and still be able to remove something, not to mention how it causes your opponents to misplay sometimes). I can't recommend cutting Gatekeeper of Malakir, as I love that card in quite a few match-ups, but I can safely say I've never cared for Brimaz. In the Brimaz slot, I've tried out Pack Rats, and as Immapwner posted earlier in this thread, they've been performing amazingly, if a bit slow. We have a problem with situationally dead cards, and being able to turn them into synergistic rat-bodies has been quite good. At the event this last Wednesday, however, I ran into the problem of devoting those dead cards only to have the Pack Rat Pulse'd or Anger'd, which felt terrible and literally lost me the game twice. I'm convinced there's a better creature for this slot, but Pack Rat is good enough for the time being and should be a heavy consideration if you don't like Brimaz.
I hope this helped some. Here's my Deck-List for reference:
What in particular do you not care for about Brimaz? In the little time I've spent playing the deck, he's been a total house. I have 4 pack rat, I just haven't ever wanted them. I understand the potential of Pack Rat, I just have always felt that it is slow, and probably dies quite quickly. At least, when I play against him he does ;). Brimaz won't die to a Lightning Bolt. They have to 2-for-1 themselves to kill him with any kind of red removal. After the first turn he is out, he almost never gives the opportunity to die to an edict effect, and my large amount of discard helps to ensure his living. He attacks and blocks while generating card advantage better than Young Pyromancer, and the only thing I've tried in his place that I actually liked was Mirran Crusader, but that was a meta call. If I were to go to an SCG or Modern GP, it would be Brimaz all the way. It's possible that Lifebane Zombie is good in this slot, but again, I would probably play 2 Mirran Crusader and 1 Lifebane Zombie instead of 3 Zombie, they both play a similar role, Zombie is just not as aggressive, nor is it as good with a sword. Speaking of Sword, I think Sword of Light and Shadow may be better than War and Peace, especially if I'm using Brimaz. Pro Red is fairly irrelevant, I mean, I would probably move War and Peace to the sideboard, but still, it's probably better.
Don't be too impressed by Zealous Persecution. This discussion has been raging over on the token forum. It has the potential to make a one sided field wipe, or turn a regular attack into lethal damage. The key word there is potential. While it's definitely a good card, I think it's more situational than most people realize. Personally, I'd just run more targeted removal.
*edit* Forgot a few things:
Grafdigger's cage is worse than Rest In Peace. Grafdigger's still allows the graveyard to grow, so if they ever get rid of the cage, they can go back to whatever snapcaster/living end/past in flames shenanigans they were up to before. If you exile the whole graveyard, they have to remove RiP, then rebuild their graveyard to get any benefit.
Has anyone tried cramming a 3rd ghost quarter/tech edge into the main deck? That would eliminate the need for fulminator mage in the side, opening up more sideboard slots. I think filling that space with Burrenton Forge-tender could be an option, as an anger of the gods could do serious damage to this deck. Alternatively, Patrician's Scorn to hate out Boggles, or Rule of Law/Ethersworn Canonist to hate on storm and cascade strategies.
I agree with you that zealous is situational, I'm currently only running 2. I've been wondering if it's the right card for it's slot, but when it's good, it's really good.
Grafdigger's cage is not worse than rest in peace (I currently run 2 of both in my board). I used to think it was worse than rip, but then I realized that cage stops pod from using birthing pod, since it doesn't let creatures enter the battlefield from graveyards or libraries.
I haven't tried adding a 3rd tec edge, but I have played with 4 before along with a vault of the archangel. It was pretty bad, I would have a lot of games where it was hard to hit colors. It's probably ok in my deck now because i'm not nearly as color intensive as I was before. But I can still see having issues with playing sculler on turn 2 or even Liliana turn 3, just imagine getting an opener of 2 tec edges and one colored land.
Fulminator mage is completely different from tec edge and quarter though, because you don't give them a land and you don't have to wait until they have 4 lands. Ghost quarter giving them a land is relevant against scapeshift and 3 color decks if you are trying to cut them off a color, and waiting until they have 4 lands is relevant against tron and affinity.
I don't like forge-tender here, we aren't producing a ton of guys like a token deck does. A lot of the time we will have 1-2 creatures out, and the only time we will have more is if we play 1 of our 4 lingering souls or a pack rat. It just seems like forge-tender takes up valuable sideboard space.
While you are correct the graffigger's stops pod, stony silence and disenchant also stop pod, which are cards already in the sideboard. Dropping the two cages for an extra torpor orb and one more rest in peace will give you more tools in other matches, and won't really hurt the pod match. With 5 ways to shut down pod, and a deck loaded with targeted removal and discard, you have tons of game against pod.
I agree about Fulminator mage. In my local meta, tron is not well represented, so I often under prepare for it.
I'd argue the inclusion of forge-tender because you aren't producing many creatures. One anger of the gods clears your whole board (save for brimaz). On the other hand, I agree that there's really not space for it.
next topic, what's the purpose of nevermore and worship? Again, both are good cards, but what are you using them to stop? If you didn't use them, perhaps aven mindcensor in those slots. It's good against plenty of strategies, namely pod, scapeshift, and amulet of vigor.
So this is basically BW goodstuff? Or am I missing something?
In that vein: Athreos?
Kinda, but there is focus. First stripping your opps hand, then crushing them with resident threats backed by tons of kill spells. And swords. Athreos may be good.
Also, Brimaz is a house. With all our discard and kill, if he sticks on the field, he's unstoppable. I don't feal like I'm exaggerating when I say Brimaz is this deck's goyf.
What in particular do you not care for about Brimaz? In the little time I've spent playing the deck, he's been a total house. I have 4 pack rat, I just haven't ever wanted them. I understand the potential of Pack Rat, I just have always felt that it is slow, and probably dies quite quickly. At least, when I play against him he does ;). Brimaz won't die to a Lightning Bolt. They have to 2-for-1 themselves to kill him with any kind of red removal. After the first turn he is out, he almost never gives the opportunity to die to an edict effect, and my large amount of discard helps to ensure his living. He attacks and blocks while generating card advantage better than Young Pyromancer, and the only thing I've tried in his place that I actually liked was Mirran Crusader, but that was a meta call. If I were to go to an SCG or Modern GP, it would be Brimaz all the way. It's possible that Lifebane Zombie is good in this slot, but again, I would probably play 2 Mirran Crusader and 1 Lifebane Zombie instead of 3 Zombie, they both play a similar role, Zombie is just not as aggressive, nor is it as good with a sword. Speaking of Sword, I think Sword of Light and Shadow may be better than War and Peace, especially if I'm using Brimaz. Pro Red is fairly irrelevant, I mean, I would probably move War and Peace to the sideboard, but still, it's probably better.
-ABC
While I agree that it's nice to have a 3-drop that doesn't die to bolt, Brimaz quite literally dies to everything else. Brimaz requires a high threat-density to realize his potential, as the only deck I know of that runs nothing but bolts is literally burn. Sure, he can't get bolted, but everything else in the deck can, and Brimaz dies to Doomblade, Smother, Abrupt Decay, Terminate, Path to Exile. The decks that run bolt run at least a dozen other ways to deal with Brimaz that they'll probably be sandbagging since bolt handles everything else so well. Brimaz can flood the board, make your opponents make bad decisions, and he has a big butt, but he just isn't worth tapping out on turn 3 to get him removed. The only time he does what he needs to is when the board is clear and your opponent doesn't have removal, and, let's be honest, with the threat-density of this deck, what else is the opponent going to Terminate?
I would also recommend that you do give Pack Rats a try, because as slow as it is, it can really seize the game as well as Brimaz can. That, and I'd rather tap-out on 2 for a card that scales with the game, makes our dead cards not dead, and is a must-deal-with threat. It gives us tempo early in the game when the opponent has to deal with a Pack Rat and thus isn't playing a Tarmogoyf, and if they choose to play the Tarmo, then next turn our Pack Rat is already reproducing itself. Seriously, just try the guy out, he's pretty darn good.
On the note of Sword of War and Peace, I disagree. I would rather Board the Sword of Fire and Ice. Sword of War and Peace destroys control if you can stick it, and with the amount of hand-control in this deck, we usually can. I'd even run two of them before I'd ever consider cutting them. They've just done me too well. As for Sword of Light and Shadow, I was already planning to try it out. It seems to add longevity that could be much needed. I'd run it in the Fire and Ice slot, though.
Do remember that this is just my opinion, and it's by no means written in stone. If you find Brimaz to do tons of work for you, then power to you. I love the card, and I wish it hadn't left a bad taste in my mouth.
On a side note, I intend to randomly try a singleton Blood Baron of Vizkopa. He seems like he could be alright.
While you are correct the graffigger's stops pod, stony silence and disenchant also stop pod, which are cards already in the sideboard. Dropping the two cages for an extra torpor orb and one more rest in peace will give you more tools in other matches, and won't really hurt the pod match. With 5 ways to shut down pod, and a deck loaded with targeted removal and discard, you have tons of game against pod.
next topic, what's the purpose of nevermore and worship? Again, both are good cards, but what are you using them to stop? If you didn't use them, perhaps aven mindcensor in those slots. It's good against plenty of strategies, namely pod, scapeshift, and amulet of vigor.
Also, Brimaz is a house. With all our discard and kill, if he sticks on the field, he's unstoppable. I don't feal like I'm exaggerating when I say Brimaz is this deck's goyf.
Cage doesn't just stop pod itself, it stops persist revilark, and chord of calling. while rip does stop persist, revilark, voice, and eternal witness, chord can be a problem as well. I just don't want them tutoring up anything. They can always just chord for a pridemage or sliver to blow up rip. Rip and orb are good against them, but cage is harder for them to deal with. I will admit that against all of the other grave-based decks rip is hands down better but pod is a hard deck to beat because they can just tutor up the answer to your hate, either through pod or chord. I don't bring stony silence in against them because you need your removal and creatures to close out the game. I bring in 2 cage, 2 rip, and 1 drown in sorrow. It's already hard enough trying to fit in those 5 while still being able to handle their threats as they play them. Cage just closes off most of their outs.
I don't play nevermore or worship, but I imagine they are for combo matchups. Nevermore stops scapeshift, storm, twin, and other random decks. It's also ok against tron. Worship is probably for scapeshift, storm, burn, and some other random combo decks. I do play leylines right now and I think it's better than worship because they have to bounce it instead of just killing your creatures, plus it can be free if it's in your opener. I play memoricide instead of nevermore because they can just bounce nevermore and at least memoricide deals with whatever you're afraid of immediately.
I like pack rat better than brimaz because it gives you more turn 2 plays, and lets you cast 2 spells earlier than you could with brimaz. Brimaz can also just get pathed, while the rat requires 2 removal spells. It only requires one if you play it turn 2 but I don't play it turn 2 unless I have multiples in hand or I know the coast is clear.
Brimaz also doesn't put a fast clock on the opponent while pack rat can close quicker, and pack rat can clog up the board while brimaz can't even go toe-to-toe with a goyf. Their one goyf looks a lot worse against 3 3/3's that threaten to become 4/4's (dealing 8 damage through a goyf), rather than a brimaz with 2 1/1's out. You can easily get the game to the point where you can't get attacked and can still get in for a descent amount of damage with the rats. I used to play brimaz, and swear by him. But through my testing I have found that pack rat is better in just about every situation. The only time I wish I had brimaz is when a creature deck has threats that I want to block immediately.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
While you are correct the graffigger's stops pod, stony silence and disenchant also stop pod, which are cards already in the sideboard. Dropping the two cages for an extra torpor orb and one more rest in peace will give you more tools in other matches, and won't really hurt the pod match. With 5 ways to shut down pod, and a deck loaded with targeted removal and discard, you have tons of game against pod.
next topic, what's the purpose of nevermore and worship? Again, both are good cards, but what are you using them to stop? If you didn't use them, perhaps aven mindcensor in those slots. It's good against plenty of strategies, namely pod, scapeshift, and amulet of vigor.
Also, Brimaz is a house. With all our discard and kill, if he sticks on the field, he's unstoppable. I don't feal like I'm exaggerating when I say Brimaz is this deck's goyf.
Cage doesn't just stop pod itself, it stops persist revilark, and chord of calling. while rip does stop persist, revilark, voice, and eternal witness, chord can be a problem as well. I just don't want them tutoring up anything. They can always just chord for a pridemage or sliver to blow up rip. Rip and orb are good against them, but cage is harder for them to deal with. I will admit that against all of the other grave-based decks rip is hands down better but pod is a hard deck to beat because they can just tutor up the answer to your hate, either through pod or chord. I don't bring stony silence in against them because you need your removal and creatures to close out the game. I bring in 2 cage, 2 rip, and 1 drown in sorrow. It's already hard enough trying to fit in those 5 while still being able to handle their threats as they play them. Cage just closes off most of their outs.
I don't play nevermore or worship, but I imagine they are for combo matchups. Nevermore stops scapeshift, storm, twin, and other random decks. It's also ok against tron. Worship is probably for scapeshift, storm, burn, and some other random combo decks. I do play leylines right now and I think it's better than worship because they have to bounce it instead of just killing your creatures, plus it can be free if it's in your opener. I play memoricide instead of nevermore because they can just bounce nevermore and at least memoricide deals with whatever you're afraid of immediately.
I like pack rat better than brimaz because it gives you more turn 2 plays, and lets you cast 2 spells earlier than you could with brimaz. Brimaz can also just get pathed, while the rat requires 2 removal spells. It only requires one if you play it turn 2 but I don't play it turn 2 unless I have multiples in hand or I know the coast is clear.
Brimaz also doesn't put a fast clock on the opponent while pack rat can close quicker, and pack rat can clog up the board while brimaz can't even go toe-to-toe with a goyf. Their one goyf looks a lot worse against 3 3/3's that threaten to become 4/4's (dealing 8 damage through a goyf), rather than a brimaz with 2 1/1's out. You can easily get the game to the point where you can't get attacked and can still get in for a descent amount of damage with the rats. I used to play brimaz, and swear by him. But through my testing I have found that pack rat is better in just about every situation. The only time I wish I had brimaz is when a creature deck has threats that I want to block immediately.
I play Nevermore for the same reasons you play Memoricide, except in my meta I like Nevermore a little better. Memoricide never stops a turn 3 Karn, while Nevermore does if you're on the play. Nevermore also has the potential to make cards in your opponent's hand dead rather than removing them from the game. It's merely a preference I've developed during months of playtesting different sideboard cards. Worship works in a lot more situations than people give it credit for. It's actually sort of super-secret-sideboard tech. It acts as a Leyline of Sanctity with a few more match-ups I'd take it in against. I recommend you give it a try, it's worth it, and it's difficult for me to explain the effect it has.
Cage doesn't just stop pod itself, it stops persist revilark, and chord of calling. while rip does stop persist, revilark, voice, and eternal witness, chord can be a problem as well. I just don't want them tutoring up anything. They can always just chord for a pridemage or sliver to blow up rip. Rip and orb are good against them, but cage is harder for them to deal with. I will admit that against all of the other grave-based decks rip is hands down better but pod is a hard deck to beat because they can just tutor up the answer to your hate, either through pod or chord. I don't bring stony silence in against them because you need your removal and creatures to close out the game. I bring in 2 cage, 2 rip, and 1 drown in sorrow. It's already hard enough trying to fit in those 5 while still being able to handle their threats as they play them. Cage just closes off most of their outs.
I don't play nevermore or worship, but I imagine they are for combo matchups. Nevermore stops scapeshift, storm, twin, and other random decks. It's also ok against tron. Worship is probably for scapeshift, storm, burn, and some other random combo decks. I do play leylines right now and I think it's better than worship because they have to bounce it instead of just killing your creatures, plus it can be free if it's in your opener. I play memoricide instead of nevermore because they can just bounce nevermore and at least memoricide deals with whatever you're afraid of immediately.
That's a good point cage is great at shutting down the whole pod strategy. If there's room in the sideboard without sacing other matchups, it's a solid choice. Otherwise, it's a specific solution to a limited number of decks. I've had plenty of success against pod with only rip, stony silence and thoughtseize.
Sorry, I didn't pay close enough attention to whose list was whose.
My thought is simply, why not play another bomb alongside Elspeth? She's just a Giant Growth to most of your creatures. I think that Squadron Hawk is garbage, and 2-3 Pack Rats and 1-2 Brimaz should be in its place, or even Mirran Crusader. All of these creatures benefit more from Elspeth while being a better stand-alone creature.
Our shell take sup too much space in the deck for us to include 4 vial + enough creatures. Arbiter + mindcensor might work, but going fetchless is a bad idea in this deck. The only other DNT card I could see maindeck is serra avenger, but our other threats are probably better. If you really want to try WB DNT, you'd want to base it around their shell splashing black instead.
I'm not really a fan of Zealous Persecution. Maybe 1-2 of, but they're just useless sometimes.
Also you may want to drop down to 1-3 Pack Rat, it's only good mid-late game when you have cards to pitch and excess mana.
SoWaP does have anti-synergy, but it's more about the protection it offers. Mirran Crusader Pro B/G/R/W that hits for a minimum of 8? You don't need much more that.
But to be honest, it's more about if you want the damage/protection to end the game, or the card advantage (Sword of Fire/Ice or Light/Shadow).
Swords are only great if they resolve and they don't kill the creature you're equipping them on.
Mirran crusader + sword equip and your opponent just paths/crpytic bounces, is a blowout.
Also you should probably run 4-Path to Exile. You're playing discard, so when an opponent lays a Goyf, he is 4/5 at least (land instant, sorc, creature), so you need some way to get through it.
I've been testing with some friends for the upcoming ptq season, and while zoo isn't a big deck on mtgo I still expect to see it as well as other aggressive strategies during the season, so I'm back on the gatekeepers.
I was playing with 2 dismembers over the vendetta for awhile, but I kept running into problems with killing goyfs, it's just too easy for them to be 5/6's or greater, especially with jund playing courser of kruphix, I mean against something even like tarmo-twin it's not hard for them to make goyf a 5/6 (land, instant, sorcery, creature, planeswalker).
I have found myself boarding out the swords in the vast majority of my matchups, I think it's just bad right now. I could see maybe playing a sword of fire and ice in the main over the doom blade (since that's a flex spot right now), but I still think it's too slow against combo decks and a lot of decks have ways of holding back creatures with swords on them like goyf. I just want war and peace against control, burn, and hatebears right now.
I am playing 4 leylines as a way to help against scapeshift, storm, and burn. I really expect to see a descent amount of burn this season, because it's so cheap to put together. Scapeshift also has to burn a cryptic command to bounce the leyline before going off, which gives me more time to find a memoricide.
I'm not playing zealous in the main because it's bad against alot of the field, I really just want it against storm, pod, hatebears, delver, and boggles.
I have been considering dropping stony silence, But I'm not sure this is right, I've just had such a good matchup against affinity that I'm not sure I need it. I find it very easy to beat them without it. If I replaced it I would play 2 fulimator mage in it's spot (maybe even maindeck a mage over the doom blade) to help out against scapeshift and tron which are by far our worst matchups.
What do you guys think of this list?
Private Mod Note
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If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
I also think it's exciting that this deck is sort of taking off right now.
I'm starting to think that we don't want 2 mana removal in here. A lot of times you want to kill something turn 1 delver, birds of paradise, delver, noble hierarch, delver, cursecatcher, delver, etc... (was I clear that delver has been an issue for me? ) and you can't do that with doom blade, smother, victim, etc..
So that leaves us with 1 cmc removal options. I think the best ones we can play are disfigure, dismember, vendetta, and sunlance. Now I personally hate having removal that can't kill a deceiver and anything that can't kill a deceiver is potentially dead in long games since it can't kill goyf, resto, etc.. So out of those 4 I like dismember and vendetta.
I was playing vendetta when I first picked up the deck and I LOVE it. But there is a downside in that it will generally cost 5 life to kill goyf, 4 for resto, 4 for deceiver etc.. but it can kill a birds or a delver for 1 life on turn 1 whereas a dismember will cost 4 life to cast on turn 1. I think since the early creatures are more the issue, and the meta is less-saturated with creatures that have big butts, that vendetta is the right option here, and it also gives you the ability to kill something big if you have to. But it's probably best to play 2 vendetta and 1 dismember since dismember is better in the mid-late game.
On another note, I've been testing pack rat for a few days now, and I can safely say that it's REDICULOUS. Being able to turn dead cards into rats is really good, it's also nasty to discard lingering souls to it and then flashback the souls. The only downsides are that it requires a few turns to get a descent presence with it, and it can die to anger. We were already playing around anger anyway though, and it's easy to play around it. So the biggest downside is that it takes time to establish it, which is another reason why I like 1 cmc removal right now, so you can either go vendetta on a birds into pack rat, or something like thoughtseize, sculler, rat+vendetta, and start taking over the game with the rat. Now that I'm including pack rat, I'm wondering if I should have mutavault, but I think I might have to take out tectonic edge or vault, so I'm not really sure I want it.
Here's my updated list:
4 Godless Shrine
3 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
2 Temple of Silence
1 Plains
3 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Vault of the Archangel
Creatures: 12
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Dark Confidant
4 Pack Rat
1 Slaughter Pact
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
4 Path to Exile
2 Vendetta
2 Zealous Persecution
4 Lingering Souls
1 Dismember
Other: 5
2 Sword of War and Peace
3 Liliana of the Veil
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Disenchant
2 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
1 Drown in Sorrow
2 Memoricide
3 Leyline of Sanctity
Even though I'm not playing gatekeepers or victim anymore, I still find that I want urborg just about every game so I left them in there.
I've been seeing a lot of merfolk and delver recently, so I could see cutting the memoricides, but I would like more outs to scapeshift so I'm not sure it's right. If I was to cut them it would probably be for disfigure.
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
A rat however, can completely take over the battlefield because it will be hard for your opponent to attack you profitably, and they will eventually out-class anything your opponent controls.
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
List:
3 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Lingering Souls
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of War and Peace
4 Path to Exile
2 Smother
3 Zealous Persecution
3 Swamp
2 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats
3 Godless Shrine
2 Fetid Heath
2 Isolated Chapel
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Vault of the Archangel
2 Tectonic Edge
It's not bad. I haven't got a lot of playtesting in, but I made this for my girlfriend because she likes Lingering Souls (good taste), and I play Grixis Delver. I'm going to test against Affinity tonight, maybe Merfolk as well. Should do fairly okay. If I can Persecution away their first onslaught of freebie creatures, I'll be fairly okay. I hope...
-ABC
Here's a few thoughts and ideas based on my experience with b/w tokens:
Bitterblossom is not worth it. It takes a few turn for BB to produce the same number of tokens as lingering souls, and the loss of life is definitely relevant. This is a "fair" deck. All the main threats come down turn 3 or later. We also play shocklands, fetchlands, bob, and thoughtseize. We should conserve our life total.
Don't be too impressed by Zealous Persecution. This discussion has been raging over on the token forum. It has the potential to make a one sided field wipe, or turn a regular attack into lethal damage. The key word there is potential. While it's definitely a good card, I think it's more situational than most people realize. Personally, I'd just run more targeted removal.
Squadron hawk comes and goes as a recommended card. Filling up your hand with liliana in play is pretty solid, as is the deck thinning. It is a pretty lame card without a sword or an anthem in play. Considering that most of these builds only have 2 or 3 swords, hawk is probably not a great choice.
I'm not sure if it's a bad call with bob in the main, but I think a token producing walker would be good. Sorin or elspeth Knight errant come to mind. A 6/7 flying Brimaz seems good.
*edit* Forgot a few things:
Grafdigger's cage is worse than Rest In Peace. Grafdigger's still allows the graveyard to grow, so if they ever get rid of the cage, they can go back to whatever snapcaster/living end/past in flames shenanigans they were up to before. If you exile the whole graveyard, they have to remove RiP, then rebuild their graveyard to get any benefit.
Has anyone tried cramming a 3rd ghost quarter/tech edge into the main deck? That would eliminate the need for fulminator mage in the side, opening up more sideboard slots. I think filling that space with Burrenton Forge-tender could be an option, as an anger of the gods could do serious damage to this deck. Alternatively, Patrician's Scorn to hate out Boggles, or Rule of Law/Ethersworn Canonist to hate on storm and cascade strategies.
I agree with you that zealous is situational, I'm currently only running 2. I've been wondering if it's the right card for it's slot, but when it's good, it's really good.
Grafdigger's cage is not worse than rest in peace (I currently run 2 of both in my board). I used to think it was worse than rip, but then I realized that cage stops pod from using birthing pod, since it doesn't let creatures enter the battlefield from graveyards or libraries.
I haven't tried adding a 3rd tec edge, but I have played with 4 before along with a vault of the archangel. It was pretty bad, I would have a lot of games where it was hard to hit colors. It's probably ok in my deck now because i'm not nearly as color intensive as I was before. But I can still see having issues with playing sculler on turn 2 or even Liliana turn 3, just imagine getting an opener of 2 tec edges and one colored land.
Fulminator mage is completely different from tec edge and quarter though, because you don't give them a land and you don't have to wait until they have 4 lands. Ghost quarter giving them a land is relevant against scapeshift and 3 color decks if you are trying to cut them off a color, and waiting until they have 4 lands is relevant against tron and affinity.
I don't like forge-tender here, we aren't producing a ton of guys like a token deck does. A lot of the time we will have 1-2 creatures out, and the only time we will have more is if we play 1 of our 4 lingering souls or a pack rat. It just seems like forge-tender takes up valuable sideboard space.
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
In that vein: Athreos?
Loving the deck-list! Here's a few things to consider, though, if you feel it needs improvement (if not, then you can safely ignore this). You could consider dropping a single Zealous Persecution for either one more smother or a single slaughter pact (I'd personally go for the Pact, as it's so handy to tap-out and still be able to remove something, not to mention how it causes your opponents to misplay sometimes). I can't recommend cutting Gatekeeper of Malakir, as I love that card in quite a few match-ups, but I can safely say I've never cared for Brimaz. In the Brimaz slot, I've tried out Pack Rats, and as Immapwner posted earlier in this thread, they've been performing amazingly, if a bit slow. We have a problem with situationally dead cards, and being able to turn them into synergistic rat-bodies has been quite good. At the event this last Wednesday, however, I ran into the problem of devoting those dead cards only to have the Pack Rat Pulse'd or Anger'd, which felt terrible and literally lost me the game twice. I'm convinced there's a better creature for this slot, but Pack Rat is good enough for the time being and should be a heavy consideration if you don't like Brimaz.
I hope this helped some. Here's my Deck-List for reference:
2 Fetid Heath
3 Godless Shrine
2 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
3 Swamp
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Vault of the Archangel
2 Verdant Catacombs
Spells
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Liliana of the Veil
4 Lingering Souls
4 Path to Exile
2 Slaughter Pact
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of War and Peace
3 Thoughtseize
2 Victim of Night
2 Zealous Persecution
4 Dark Confidant
2 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Pack Rat
3 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Torpor Orb
2 Sundering Growth
3 Stony Silence
2 Nevermore
2 Rest in Peace
1 Worship
2 Fulminator Mage
Modern Decks:
Grixis Twin
Abzan/Junk Midrange
-ABC
While you are correct the graffigger's stops pod, stony silence and disenchant also stop pod, which are cards already in the sideboard. Dropping the two cages for an extra torpor orb and one more rest in peace will give you more tools in other matches, and won't really hurt the pod match. With 5 ways to shut down pod, and a deck loaded with targeted removal and discard, you have tons of game against pod.
I agree about Fulminator mage. In my local meta, tron is not well represented, so I often under prepare for it.
I'd argue the inclusion of forge-tender because you aren't producing many creatures. One anger of the gods clears your whole board (save for brimaz). On the other hand, I agree that there's really not space for it.
next topic, what's the purpose of nevermore and worship? Again, both are good cards, but what are you using them to stop? If you didn't use them, perhaps aven mindcensor in those slots. It's good against plenty of strategies, namely pod, scapeshift, and amulet of vigor.
Kinda, but there is focus. First stripping your opps hand, then crushing them with resident threats backed by tons of kill spells. And swords. Athreos may be good.
Also, Brimaz is a house. With all our discard and kill, if he sticks on the field, he's unstoppable. I don't feal like I'm exaggerating when I say Brimaz is this deck's goyf.
While I agree that it's nice to have a 3-drop that doesn't die to bolt, Brimaz quite literally dies to everything else. Brimaz requires a high threat-density to realize his potential, as the only deck I know of that runs nothing but bolts is literally burn. Sure, he can't get bolted, but everything else in the deck can, and Brimaz dies to Doomblade, Smother, Abrupt Decay, Terminate, Path to Exile. The decks that run bolt run at least a dozen other ways to deal with Brimaz that they'll probably be sandbagging since bolt handles everything else so well. Brimaz can flood the board, make your opponents make bad decisions, and he has a big butt, but he just isn't worth tapping out on turn 3 to get him removed. The only time he does what he needs to is when the board is clear and your opponent doesn't have removal, and, let's be honest, with the threat-density of this deck, what else is the opponent going to Terminate?
I would also recommend that you do give Pack Rats a try, because as slow as it is, it can really seize the game as well as Brimaz can. That, and I'd rather tap-out on 2 for a card that scales with the game, makes our dead cards not dead, and is a must-deal-with threat. It gives us tempo early in the game when the opponent has to deal with a Pack Rat and thus isn't playing a Tarmogoyf, and if they choose to play the Tarmo, then next turn our Pack Rat is already reproducing itself. Seriously, just try the guy out, he's pretty darn good.
On the note of Sword of War and Peace, I disagree. I would rather Board the Sword of Fire and Ice. Sword of War and Peace destroys control if you can stick it, and with the amount of hand-control in this deck, we usually can. I'd even run two of them before I'd ever consider cutting them. They've just done me too well. As for Sword of Light and Shadow, I was already planning to try it out. It seems to add longevity that could be much needed. I'd run it in the Fire and Ice slot, though.
Do remember that this is just my opinion, and it's by no means written in stone. If you find Brimaz to do tons of work for you, then power to you. I love the card, and I wish it hadn't left a bad taste in my mouth.
On a side note, I intend to randomly try a singleton Blood Baron of Vizkopa. He seems like he could be alright.
Modern Decks:
Grixis Twin
Abzan/Junk Midrange
Cage doesn't just stop pod itself, it stops persist revilark, and chord of calling. while rip does stop persist, revilark, voice, and eternal witness, chord can be a problem as well. I just don't want them tutoring up anything. They can always just chord for a pridemage or sliver to blow up rip. Rip and orb are good against them, but cage is harder for them to deal with. I will admit that against all of the other grave-based decks rip is hands down better but pod is a hard deck to beat because they can just tutor up the answer to your hate, either through pod or chord. I don't bring stony silence in against them because you need your removal and creatures to close out the game. I bring in 2 cage, 2 rip, and 1 drown in sorrow. It's already hard enough trying to fit in those 5 while still being able to handle their threats as they play them. Cage just closes off most of their outs.
I don't play nevermore or worship, but I imagine they are for combo matchups. Nevermore stops scapeshift, storm, twin, and other random decks. It's also ok against tron. Worship is probably for scapeshift, storm, burn, and some other random combo decks. I do play leylines right now and I think it's better than worship because they have to bounce it instead of just killing your creatures, plus it can be free if it's in your opener. I play memoricide instead of nevermore because they can just bounce nevermore and at least memoricide deals with whatever you're afraid of immediately.
I like pack rat better than brimaz because it gives you more turn 2 plays, and lets you cast 2 spells earlier than you could with brimaz. Brimaz can also just get pathed, while the rat requires 2 removal spells. It only requires one if you play it turn 2 but I don't play it turn 2 unless I have multiples in hand or I know the coast is clear.
Brimaz also doesn't put a fast clock on the opponent while pack rat can close quicker, and pack rat can clog up the board while brimaz can't even go toe-to-toe with a goyf. Their one goyf looks a lot worse against 3 3/3's that threaten to become 4/4's (dealing 8 damage through a goyf), rather than a brimaz with 2 1/1's out. You can easily get the game to the point where you can't get attacked and can still get in for a descent amount of damage with the rats. I used to play brimaz, and swear by him. But through my testing I have found that pack rat is better in just about every situation. The only time I wish I had brimaz is when a creature deck has threats that I want to block immediately.
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
I play Nevermore for the same reasons you play Memoricide, except in my meta I like Nevermore a little better. Memoricide never stops a turn 3 Karn, while Nevermore does if you're on the play. Nevermore also has the potential to make cards in your opponent's hand dead rather than removing them from the game. It's merely a preference I've developed during months of playtesting different sideboard cards. Worship works in a lot more situations than people give it credit for. It's actually sort of super-secret-sideboard tech. It acts as a Leyline of Sanctity with a few more match-ups I'd take it in against. I recommend you give it a try, it's worth it, and it's difficult for me to explain the effect it has.
Modern Decks:
Grixis Twin
Abzan/Junk Midrange
That's a good point cage is great at shutting down the whole pod strategy. If there's room in the sideboard without sacing other matchups, it's a solid choice. Otherwise, it's a specific solution to a limited number of decks. I've had plenty of success against pod with only rip, stony silence and thoughtseize.
Sorry, I didn't pay close enough attention to whose list was whose.
Would it be a terrible idea to go an aether vial route?
Playing almost a taxes style deck with 2-drops feels good to me.
2-drop choices I would be inclined to use in my 75:
Tidehollow Sculler
Leonin Arbiter
Phyrexian Revoker
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Dark Confidant
Serra Avenger
Kataki, War's Wage
Ethersworn Canonist
Spellskite
Along with the DeadGuy shell of:
Thoughtseize
Inquisition of Kozilek
Path to Exile
Liliana of the Veil
Smother/Dismember/Doom Blade/Vendetta/etc.
SoXaY
Lingering Souls
Any thoughts, suggestions, deck lists?
Also you may want to drop down to 1-3 Pack Rat, it's only good mid-late game when you have cards to pitch and excess mana.
SoWaP does have anti-synergy, but it's more about the protection it offers. Mirran Crusader Pro B/G/R/W that hits for a minimum of 8? You don't need much more that.
But to be honest, it's more about if you want the damage/protection to end the game, or the card advantage (Sword of Fire/Ice or Light/Shadow).
Swords are only great if they resolve and they don't kill the creature you're equipping them on.
Mirran crusader + sword equip and your opponent just paths/crpytic bounces, is a blowout.
Also you should probably run 4-Path to Exile. You're playing discard, so when an opponent lays a Goyf, he is 4/5 at least (land instant, sorc, creature), so you need some way to get through it.
You have plenty of black for access to Gatekeeper of Malakir, or the white for Kitchen Finks if you want either of those.
4 Godless Shrine
3 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
2 Temple of Silence
1 Plains
3 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Vault of the Archangel
Creatures: 15
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Dark Confidant
3 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Pack Rat
2 Slaughter Pact
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
4 Path to Exile
2 Vendetta
1 Doom Blade
4 Lingering Souls
Planeswalker: 3
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Disenchant
1 Zealous Persecution
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Sword of War and Peace
2 Memoricide
4 Leyline of Sanctity
I've been testing with some friends for the upcoming ptq season, and while zoo isn't a big deck on mtgo I still expect to see it as well as other aggressive strategies during the season, so I'm back on the gatekeepers.
I was playing with 2 dismembers over the vendetta for awhile, but I kept running into problems with killing goyfs, it's just too easy for them to be 5/6's or greater, especially with jund playing courser of kruphix, I mean against something even like tarmo-twin it's not hard for them to make goyf a 5/6 (land, instant, sorcery, creature, planeswalker).
I have found myself boarding out the swords in the vast majority of my matchups, I think it's just bad right now. I could see maybe playing a sword of fire and ice in the main over the doom blade (since that's a flex spot right now), but I still think it's too slow against combo decks and a lot of decks have ways of holding back creatures with swords on them like goyf. I just want war and peace against control, burn, and hatebears right now.
I am playing 4 leylines as a way to help against scapeshift, storm, and burn. I really expect to see a descent amount of burn this season, because it's so cheap to put together. Scapeshift also has to burn a cryptic command to bounce the leyline before going off, which gives me more time to find a memoricide.
I'm not playing zealous in the main because it's bad against alot of the field, I really just want it against storm, pod, hatebears, delver, and boggles.
I have been considering dropping stony silence, But I'm not sure this is right, I've just had such a good matchup against affinity that I'm not sure I need it. I find it very easy to beat them without it. If I replaced it I would play 2 fulimator mage in it's spot (maybe even maindeck a mage over the doom blade) to help out against scapeshift and tron which are by far our worst matchups.
What do you guys think of this list?
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
Perhaps something like this?:
1 fetid heath
3 godless shrine
4 marsh flats
2 Mutavault
3 verdant catacombs
1 Arid Mesa
1 plains
3 swamp
2 tectonic edge
3 Isolated Chapel
Creatures: 15
2 tidehollow sculler
3 dark confidant
2 brimaz, king of oreskos
4 Pack Rat
4 Bloodghast
3 inquisition of kozilek
4 thoughtseize
4 path to exile
1 Doom Blade
2 zealous persecution
4 lingering souls
Other: 4
3 Liliana of the veil
1 sword of war and peace
1 grafdigger's cage
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Oblivion Ring
3 stony silence
2 fulminator mage
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Sword of War and Peace
UWRUWR Delver/Lynx TempoUWR-------UWRUWR Midrange GeistUWR-------UWRUWR Nahiri ControlUWR-------UWRUWR SaheeliUWR
BGRJund / Jund ShadowBGR-------BGWAbzan / Abzan ShadowBGW
Commander (Leviathan/MTGO): UWGeist of Saint TraftUW