well why do you want to reinvent the wheel in the first place?
And vizier is strictly worst than melira if you dont play druids.
Careful with strictly. She's legendary. The mix of 2 melira/2 anafenza has proven very good if not using druids and I think that's the way to go.
However, there's a lot of splash graveyard hate on the finks type combos. I believe the thing that makes the druid combo so good is that it requires specific hate to beat that doesn't line up with other hate well. Only cage is any good against the whole deck and you can randomly just crush that too.
Druid being a mana dork is just so damned good. Having a mana dork as your combo piece-- it's difficult to overstate how powerful that is. It lets you play action in your ramp slots. It's like expedition map in tron fetching sanctum of ugin or ramp lands.
I would go so far as to say that the druid combo is simply better. If you're only going to play one you should play the druid combo. Druid + vizier + duskwatch recruiter is a compact package with 2/3 of the cards being very good on their own.
The graveyard focused decks are so vulnerable to being hated out and generally require a lot of bad cards (blood artist, viscera seer, etc.).
I wouldn't say the druid combo is strictly better - it's not instant speed and vizier is a less useful card by itself than anafeza or even viscera seer (which I think is actually underrated for its scry ability in value creature decks). It's definitely less susceptible to hate though. I think there's probably metas, ones loaded with bolts and light on graveyard hate (ie pre-splinter-twin ban meta), where the traditional combo is better. That being said, since dredge showed up, the traditional combos been a bad place to be and I'd currently take druid/vizier as the better combo.
So, I think I may be on to something here, but then again my record in Modern is abysmal, so I'll let y'all be the judge of this.
Myojin of Life's Web over Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Walking Ballista? It essentially allows the mana from the Druid+Vizier combo to cheat onto the battlefield creatures in your hand that the mana could not normally cast; great if you run a back-up combo.
So, I think I may be on to something here, but then again my record in Modern is abysmal, so I'll let y'all be the judge of this.
Myojin of Life's Web over Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Walking Ballista? It essentially allows the mana from the Druid+Vizier combo to cheat onto the battlefield creatures in your hand that the mana could not normally cast; great if you run a back-up combo.
You may be missing the point of the wincons. Walking Ballista and Rhonas are useful outside of having infinite mana if need be. Playing Emrakul or Myojin of Life's Web or any other crazy big thing is that it is impractical to cast them so you will be sitting there with a dead card in hand if you draw them. I get what you're going for, but if you build your deck well (Courser + Horizon Canopy) and play smart you can still cast any nongreen backup cards no problem off of Companies and Chords. I have never had a problem doing this and it leads to a tighter decklist in the end.
So I split for first in 4 rounds but since I was given a W by a friend who beat me but had to leave it's not much of a report
I made 4 changes to my deck tonight - -3 renegade rallier, -1 wolf run, +1 township +3 knight of the reliquary. I wanted to leave a rallier to chord for but it never came up since I only cast chord once out of 7 games (for a recruiter for the win). Also swapped selfless spirit in board for a pridemage in main.
Round 1 vs. 8 rack (W)
Game 1 I kill through an ensnaring bridge with infinite mana on turn 4.
Game 2 I'm beating him down with dudes and he's racking me, and I untap with the combo. He goes to scoop and I'm like that's a township not a....oh, I have a knight of the reliquary. Knight sacks stomping ground floating red, gets wolf run and kills. He crypts me at one point but one shot graveyard hate is really not good enough against my build - it's got to be RIP or Cage.
Commentary: Knight felt good here. Only match he felt good in was one that was very light on removal.
Round 2 vs. Burn (L)
Game 1 - t1 lavamancer. Sigh. This is a burn deck he borrowed from my friend who hates collected company and appears to have a million lavamancers. He lavamancers my druids until he kills me on turn 5. It's actually a close game because I resolve 2 back to back cocos but am unable to get a mirror entity on board. I had an opportunity to go for it but he had an untapped lavamancer. Wheee.
Game 2 - I combo kill him turn 4 with a wolf run after killing his t1 lavamancer with my t2 lavamancer because he has no fuel (creature heavy draw with no creature killing spells).
Game 3 - This one is over from the start as he t1 lavamancers again and kills my noble hierarch, then my druid.
Round 3 vs. Mardu Nahiri (W)
Game 1 - I grind this one out by turn 15 or so with a gavony township and stupid dudes. I killed 3 different nahiris with exalted crap creatures. His deck full of 1-1 removal, painful truths and planeswalkers has a hard time hanging with township and a deck full of value dudes. He fatal pushes a Knight of the Reliquary at one point. Knight is awful in these kinds of matchups. Superbly awful. I wanted rallier all match.
To be fair to wolf run I did kill him with a topdecked wolf run - I was left with him at 5 life and me with a 2/3 noble hierarch. He could easily have stabilized with another removal spell but I bolted him to the face with wolf run and that sealed the deal
Game 2 - He has bricks, thoughtseizes a coco, fatal pushes my t1 dork, has to painful truths after my t2 druid (which I topdeck? Lucksacked) and I untap and kill him (vizier, chord for recruiter).
I felt this game he should adjust his game plan of t1 kill all dorks. Against my deck it is 100% incorrect if you do not have other removal. Yes, you can lose the mana battle, but if your goal is to attrition you have to just give that up against a deck playing druid.
And that's it. I drew with the Abzan player, though I feel confident I had good odds.
Commentary: Ralliers are too good. I really do like township; it was quite a bit better than wolf run the time I drew it, and I felt that a lot of the time. I may try the straight GW build with 4 duskwatch, though, since I love how good township is in the fair matches. Much more efficient than wolf run for sure if you can put two bodies on the field.
Horizon canopy. Vs. the control and 8-rack decks I played horizon canopy was stellar. It's just so good sometimes. I kinda want to try 4 in a GW build with ralliers and a ramnuap excavator Something about jamming 4 township also appeals to me. That card just annihilates fair matchups so hard, almost nothing they can do once every little crap creature becomes a lethal threat.
Generally speaking I think 4 witness/3-4 rallier is right. In non-finks build you want at least 7 value 3-drops that give you a high chance of hitting a piece of card draw off of your coco, so it becomes a 4 mana draw 3 instead of a 4 mana draw 2 (essentially).
Went 3-1 with the Devoted/Knight build last night.
Vs Merfolk 0-2
I felt I was in a fairly strong position although didn't have acces to the combo. Unfortunately surcombed to a spreading seas followed by two Merfolk lords.
Second round I had a great hand with nearly all the pieces I needed. But wasn't prepared for my opponent to topdeck x3 tidebender Mage in a row. This resulted in a birds, hierarch and Druid being tapped down. Followed again by a spreading seas... game over.
Vs 8 Rack 2-0
Despite nearly everything getting discarded or removed I pulled a CoCo and jammed 2 KotR which won me the game.
Round 2, I lost a lot of life and cards very quickly through discard and rack and affliction out. Jammed the mana combo and the following turn (no cards in hand, 2 life) topdecked duskwatch recruiter so won with walking ballista.
Vs RG Aggro 2-0
Had the perfect hand and won turn 3 with the combo.
Round 2, my opponent didn't learn their lesson and let a Druid live so again won on turn 3.
Vs Mono red goblins 2-0
Lost an awful lot of life very very quickly. Managed to find the combo turn 4 and won with walking ballista.
Second round started very similar to the first, opponent left a Vizier alive and I played a CoCo at the end of my opponents turn found Druid and recruiter. Won with 3 life remaining.
Really felt like I needed more answers vs Merfolk. But apart from path and abrupt decay I'm struggling to think what else I would swap out of my sideboard.... otherwise had a great evening. Unlike @Pokken I still really like KotR, but I haven't tested rallier. Playing against friends casually I love having 2 ghost quarters vs Tron and KotR. This has won me several games which I am positive I would've lost without these cards in the deck - plus they are in the main.
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So, I think I may be on to something here, but then again my record in Modern is abysmal, so I'll let y'all be the judge of this.
Myojin of Life's Web over Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Walking Ballista? It essentially allows the mana from the Druid+Vizier combo to cheat onto the battlefield creatures in your hand that the mana could not normally cast; great if you run a back-up combo.
You may be missing the point of the wincons. Walking Ballista and Rhonas are useful outside of having infinite mana if need be. Playing Emrakul or Myojin of Life's Web or any other crazy big thing is that it is impractical to cast them so you will be sitting there with a dead card in hand if you draw them. I get what you're going for, but if you build your deck well (Courser + Horizon Canopy) and play smart you can still cast any nongreen backup cards no problem off of Companies and Chords. I have never had a problem doing this and it leads to a tighter decklist in the end.
Understandable, I'm actually liking Ballista more now that realize that hitting it off of Company/Chord is viable as we always have Witnesses to bring it back. Rhonas Im still doubting though outside of Kessig builds (slower build would make it a prime target for Path; plus Im fond of Nylea as well for Theros God-conditions).
Speaking of Ballista, because of State Based Effects, how would hitting both Ballista and either Rallier/Witness off of Company work?
I still swear by mirror entity personally. It helps out so much in all the big mana matchups and pretty much any race scenario. The risk of not being able to get by a chump blocker is modest in comparison to the percentage edge it gives you vs. your worst matchups.
I've lost zero games to entity not being rhonas or ballista, and won several due to it being better at closing games naturally.
Re: Merfolk
Need to play fiery justice if you're in Naya. 1-for-1 removal is not good enough against Merfolk unless you're running 8-10 pieces. You need to break the card parity, since they have Master and Silvergill adept and Tidebinder to draw virtual cards.
At one point in time I would jam all my removal (4 paths) when I was on Abzan vs. Merfolk, but gradually I realized this is probably incorrect and started just bringing in 1 pridemage/1 rec sage and forcing the combo. Even post board they will struggle to draw enough answers to your creatures and if they draw lots of answers and counterspells their clock tends to be poor.
My personal approach now is -2 chord -2 witness +1 pridemage +1 rec sage +2 fiery justice. The matchup is very advantaged. You can bring in stingscourgers if using my build but I don't love them since they can't bounce master of waves.
(Note: If I don't see dispels I'll bring 2 chords back in, but they usually have as many as 5-6 counterspells post board and sometimes cages, trying to resolve a chord is usually futile in g2).
Note: Mirror Entity is very good in this matchup, as is lavamancer, if on Naya.
First I will talk about some card choices. I had a hard time choosing for the right configuration of the deck. The doubt was about Old Coco or the new Vizier build. I have some experience with both, but after discussions in my playgroup I went for the Vizier Druid combo, just to be faster and more consistent on turn 3 and 4.
Mainboard I play a Renegade Rallier for science. But I boarded him out a lot. Never seen him in my games throughout the tournament. Fiend Hunter is a nice addition, but I don’t know if I want him in the mainboard. Preboard games must be fast. But I know I need some removal in the main, so I think I keep playing him in that spot. Tireless Tracker is leaving to the board. I think I will play a Spellskite/Selfless Spirit in that spot.
The matches:
Round 1 vs. Abzan Midrange
Game 1:
I kept my seven and he did to. Turn 1 thoughtseize and he saw I had the combo. So he went to his aggro plan. I killed him with his guard down.
Game 2:
He surgicaled away my Devoted Druid and we went both to beatdown plans. He had some hard time with Mirran Crusader but in the end I was at 1 life and he at 3. He topdecked his fourth land for his MOOOOEEEEEEEE and I died.
Game 3:
I started with fetch, go. He plays a tapped dual. I draw. Fetch, land druid.
He plays Goyf. I play land chord for Vizier, and he dies. GG
1-0 overall
Round 2 vs. BantB Vizier
Game 1:
He had triple Queller for all my pieces and beated me to death.
Game 2 and 3 went the same for me. Turn 3 kills because he went for his valueplans.
2-0 overall
Round 3 vs. Slivers
Game 1:
She went for some crazy slivers with 0 backup removal. I went to 5.000.000.000 life and she started to attack me with Mutavault and Slivers. I told her, oké I go to 4.999.999.984. She scooped.
Game 2:
Was a grindy game, he had the path for my Eidolon and I drew to much lands.
Game 3:
Read game 1.
4-0 overall.
Round 5 vs. Jund
Draw
Round 6 vs. GR Ramp
Draw because we had a clean cut I was 1st.
The quarter final vs. Todd Stevens valuetown.deck
Game 1:
He went for his valueplan with 2 path backup. But I combo’ed turn 6.
Game 2:
His deck did what it does best, with again 2 paths for the backup. I made a mistake for not using my Ooze on his Ghost Quarter, bit of a misplay from my side.
Game 3:
Needed to mul, and drew the worst part of the deck. With 5 activations of duskwatch I found 1 bird. So that says it, I lost the qf there.
Overall impression:
I love the build, it does what Coco does best. Combo fast with a small backup plan. I still think I need to make some slight changes in the list. I want some protection in my mainboard, probably Spellskite.
And the board needs some attention tho.
I generally think selfless spirit is probably better than skite right now; path decks are worse against you than kolaghan's command decks, and you get a lot of mileage against sweeper decks with spirit too.
Skite is great against eldrazi tron though if that's an issue of for you.
I think you should give some serious thought to trying Rhonas or Mirror Entity. Otherwise looks Ok
You know, I'd temporarily forgotten about mirror entity when I switched to abzan then back to Naya; I think entity is better than Rhonas - it's cheaper to activate meaningfully and does more damage in the mid-to-late game when you don't have the combo. The only real downside I see to it is costing white, which sometimes will suck if you have no open white mana when you hit combo, and the fact that it dies to bolt (but generally speaking, the creature Rhonas is pumping does too).
I don't own any horizon canopies and have found renegade rallier too mediocre without them to run - part of the reason I play Knight of the reliquary instead. Game 1 I use knights of the reliquary as a sort of Swiss army creature - they're combo piece tutors (for red Manas or wolf run), a pseudo dork, and lightning rods for removal, with backup function that the can lay the beats if necessary.
Ok, I'll be honest; I have too much going on main deck, but I can't figure out what to prune to make room for utility creatures (especially combo protection). Right candidates for the chopping block are the 4th Witness, the 4th Finks, Redcap, and/or the singleton Flickerwisp; any suggestions/recommendations?
Also, as for the sideboard; Emrakul 1.0 is simply there for the (clutch at best) infinite turn (and thus infinite annihilator 6 trigger) combo and (the (more reasonable) mill protection if needed; I have considered Ulamog 1.0 here as well. (Druid+Vizier+Recruiter+Seer+Emrakul; Generate infinite mana, then dig for Emrakul, cast, go to your extra turn, swing, sacrifice Emrakul to Seer, rinse and repeat).
Emrakul doesn't belong. Ballista is way better. You could have a Rhonas instead as it's better in some matchups.
Drop the redcap also imo, it's not great. You now have 2 misses on coco in the main. You already have anafenza for the infinite bolster, redcap is just a clunky unneeded 4 drop.
Emrakul doesn't belong. Ballista is way better. You could have a Rhonas instead as it's better in some matchups.
Drop the redcap also imo, it's not great. You now have 2 misses on coco in the main. You already have anafenza for the infinite bolster, redcap is just a clunky unneeded 4 drop.
I think you may be misreading what I'm saying as far as Emrakul and Ulamog go; it is in the sideboard for a few reasons, the very least of which is that it also goes infinite given enough set-up. However, I agree that in a blind meta, it is far from the most optimal choice, hence why I do run Ballista main.
Also, I'm confused as to what you mean by two misses on Company in the main; if you're meaning Ballista and Redcap, well, I should inform you that is why I'm running at least 3 Witness; due to SBAs occuring first whenever a player regains priority, a Company that hits Ballista and Witness will bin the Ballista first before Witness's trigger goes on the stack, allowing it to be a viable target. In addition to that, while Redcap can't be grabbed with Company, Rhonas is pretty bad on its own; it's even Path-able unlike non-creature Nylea.
But before I get too focused on Green Gods that don't really do anything by themselves, I will admit that Redcap is clunky (aside: what can I say? playing devil's advocate helps me think a bit more critically on card choices); what would y'all recommend go into that slot? I'm thinking some sort of combo protection like moving selfless spirit main or adding spellskite.
Heya folks I made 9th place at the MKM Series in Prague last weekend (296 players), and since I wanted to do some sort of report for a while now anyway, this gives me the perfect excuse
I played at two tournaments this weekend - the Grand Trial and the Main Event. Grand Trial went so-so, with a final score of 4-3 for me. Only change I made was switching a Phyrexian Revoker from the SB to an Aven Mindcensor for the Main Event.
Round 1 - 2-1 vs Snake Titan. Fairly non-interactive, combo'd him turn 3 game 1, established the combo turn 3 or 4 game 2 without finding a finisher in time, and combo'd him out very early again in game 3. We're faster, seems pretty favorable.
Round 2 - 2-0 vs UWR Geist. Game 1 was very close, with me one snapcaster attack away from death and my opponent too focused on killing me to not disrupt my infinite life combo. Game 2 went pretty grindy as well. Don't remember much than re-casting a Company a bunch of times and Rhonas being a powerhouse. The MU felt tricky, but should be favorable if we pay attention to all the burn spells flying around.
Round 3 - 1-2 vs UB Faeries. Misplayed game 1 pretty hard by attacking with a Kitchen Finks and thus allowing my opponent to swing back for 8. Opponent misplayed game 2, tapped out and let me go infinite with Finks. Game 3 was a mull to 5 and lots of missed land drops from my side. Felt doable with the right draws, but the tempo aspect of Faeries is not to be underestimated.
Round 4 - 1-2 vs Grixis Death's Shadow. Got overrun by large beaters game 1, out-valued my thread-screwed opponent heavily game 2 and lost game 3 to a timely Temur Battle Rage. The matchup isn't as unbeatable as it might seem on paper. It's not favorable, but very doable.
Round 5 - 2-0 vs Burn. Combo'd fairly quickly both games. Opponent didn't seem to know my deck, so that definately helped. Either way tho, Finks alone make the MU fairly favorable.
Round 6 - 1-2 vs Titanshift. I've never played this MU before, only heard it was pretty bad. After playing it a bunch over the weekend I feel it's pretty bad, but if we have a good hand we can luck out for the win in game 3. Game 1 should be relatively easy, game 2 horrible and game 3 very close. This match went basically just like that. T3 combo game 1, 2x Bolt + Anger into Scapeshift game 2, and game 3 I lost by not having 1 more green source for Chord (board was Bird, Bird, Temple Garden, Burrenton Forge-Tender, Kitchen Finks, with Vizier and Chord in hand). Play Vizier, pass turn, die.
Round 7 - 2-0 vs Lantern Control. Game 1 I somehow get to combo with Finks and kill him with Anafenza/Vizier next turn. Game 2 we grind for a while after he starts out by using Pithing Needle on Viscera Seer, and another one on Duskwatch Recruiter. Eventually he can't find answers to everything I'm able to dish out and dies to eot Druid into Vizier with Rhonas and a Bird on the board. The MU is favorable, but not dramatically so.
Round 1 - 2-0 vs 1-Drop Zoo. Fast combo both games. Opponent could've won game 2 but got greedy and died in response to Atarka's Command. Game 2 was a mull to 5 and was pretty close either way. Matchup seems fairly favorable.
Round 2 - 2-0 vs Death & Taxes. Relatively fast combo both games. Game 2 I got way too greedy and kept a 1-lander + Bird on the draw. Never drew another land, but lucky for me, my opponent kept a hand with double Arbiter but without any removal, giving me free reign to make infinite mana, pay for both Arbiters and chord for a kill. The MU seems pretty favorable. Their hate pieces are annoying, but their beatdown isn't fast enough to stop us from rebuilding with our 10 dorks to get things going again.
Round 3 - 2-0 vs Fish. This game felt actively dumb. Fast combo vs no interaction game 1 was fine. Game 2 however, my opponent started with T1 Grafdigger's Cage into T2 Relic into T3 Lord, with Gut Shot in hand. None of which mattered as I went T2 Druid, T3 Vizier into Ballista from hand. The actual match took 5 minutes tops. Luckily my opponent took it well and laughed with me about the silliness we've just witnessed. MU seems very favorable from my limited experience so far.
Round 4 - 2-0 vs B/W Eldrazi Taxes. The first match I won without comboing off, also probably the weirdest one I've played all weekend. Both games we would grind for a while with him disrupting my early combo and me getting value from Company and Finks + Vizier or Anafenza. Eventually he'd find a Displacer to stop me from killing him, but at the same time was unable to do anything to kill me either. Game 2 he had to Flickerwisp my Finks out every turn to disrupt infinite life and eventually just conceded. Same as mono W Death & Taxes, this one is pretty favorable.
Round 5 - 2-0 vs UB Faeries. Same guy as in the trial. This time however, I manage to keep my brain active during the game and not throw it away. I go infinite with life game 1 after a decently long grind and beat him down with Township in game 2.
Round 6 - 1-2 vs Titanshift. Similar story to my loss in the Trial. Win game 1 in maybe a minute, lose game 2, and lose game 3 after assembling the combo turn 3 and not finding a finisher in 3 draw steps (had 10 outs at that point).
Round 7 - 2-1 vs Titanshift. Finally won one of these! Actually fizzled out after comboing turn 3 in game 1 and almost throw the game by not attacking for 1 with exalted. 3 turns later my opponent is down to 1 life and I want to die. However, he also messed up and stacked his Valakut triggers wrong, leaving my Finks alive (Vizier was still there) and him dead on the swing back. Game 2 takes a while, with me disrupting him with Mindcensor for a bit, but getting too greedy and swiftly getting murdered. Game 3 we both mull to 5 and I keep a hand full of Birds. T3 I crack a Canopy since I had nothing else to do, find a Sin Collector and play it. My opponent shakes his head and shows me 2 lands and Anger of the Gods. After that I kill him with Birds + Township as he is unable to find enough action to recover from his mull.
Round 8 - 0-2 vs Dredge. Same guy who played Snake Titan in the Trial. I mull to 5 game 1, he finds triple Conflagrate plus a bunch of beaters and we basically repeat that for game 2, where I kept a really bad hand on 6 because I didn't look at my green sources. This is another MU I haven't had the chance to play before, and the games weren't all that representative, but my guess would be that it's pretty even, depending on draws and sequencing, maybe somewhat unfavorable for us due to Conflagrate and recurring Darkblasts.
Round 9 - 2-0 vs UW Control. Mana screw is the name of the game here. Opponent keeps a hand with double Tec-Edge and has to Spreading Seas one of them to cast Supreme Verdict. Eot I Coco into a Druid, kill his Gideon and kill him. Game 2 he has two fetchlands around, and I have Aven Mindcensor. After a bit of waiting he cracks one, I Mindcensor him, he fetches in response and misses on the first fetch, putting him at 3 lands for what felt like 100 turns. I Sin Collector him, he shows me triple Verdict, double Cryptic and a single Snapcaster. At some point he finds his land for Verdict, wipes the board and lets me CoCo at the end of turn. At this point, if I hit pretty much anything, he'd be pretty dead. So obviously I hit 5 lands and Ballista, leaving my opponent very happy and me in a weird spot of having to tap out into more Verdicts. I Sin Collector him again, he shows me triple Path and Verdict. After that I grind through his removal and keep poking him with Witness and Townships until he's dead. Interesting matchup, probably a lot closer than shown here, but doable either way.
The deck felt extremely powerful throughout the whole weekend. Yes, it's pretty easily disrupted, but the fact that 30 of our cards help us assemble some sort of combo (18 creatures, 4 witness, 8 tutor) gives the deck a silly amount of redundancy and ability to rebuild. The fair beats are there and they are decent enough, but all in all they feel outclassed by Eldrazis and 1-mana 12/12's with double-strike and trample.
I've seen a number of variations on the kill-cons for the deck and had some problems deciding on a package for a while. However I'm pretty happy with 1 Ballista/1 Rhonas/1 Anafenza as they all kill in different ways. Having only 1 Ballista gives me up to 29 CoCo hits, while Rhonas and Anafenza can definately help the random beatdown plan. I also really dislike the idea of not having a way to kill directly with the Finks combo, so Anafenza is a pretty easy inclusion for me.
I was pretty happy with the sideboard. Maybe want a second Mindcensor over the big Anafenza, but I'll have to test the Dredge MU more to decide on that.
Enough rambling from me for now, comments are obiously appreciated
You all have a nice day!
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"I can call an army to my side in the blink of an eye. Best not blink."
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
You didn't mention the Fiend Hunter at all; I'm curious if you felt he was worth the inclusion. With an extra Seer you might be able to justify abusing the stack with him. I tried for a bit with a single Seer, but it didn't feel great and Fiend always ate removal anyway. Similar experience?
I think the Dredge match up is just a combo or die affair. The Foremost might be good there, I don't know, but I generally just try to combo asap.
Careful with strictly. She's legendary. The mix of 2 melira/2 anafenza has proven very good if not using druids and I think that's the way to go.
However, there's a lot of splash graveyard hate on the finks type combos. I believe the thing that makes the druid combo so good is that it requires specific hate to beat that doesn't line up with other hate well. Only cage is any good against the whole deck and you can randomly just crush that too.
Druid being a mana dork is just so damned good. Having a mana dork as your combo piece-- it's difficult to overstate how powerful that is. It lets you play action in your ramp slots. It's like expedition map in tron fetching sanctum of ugin or ramp lands.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
The graveyard focused decks are so vulnerable to being hated out and generally require a lot of bad cards (blood artist, viscera seer, etc.).
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
1 Walking Ballista
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
1 Viscera Seer
1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
4 Devoted Druid
2 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Vizier of Remedies
3 Eternal Witness
3 Renegade Rallier
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Chord of Calling
4 Collected Company
Lands (22)
2 Forest
2 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
2 Horizon Canopy
2 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
Considering this version for GP São Paulo. I'm still pondering about my SB though, burn and affinity have big shares of the meta here.. Any thoughts?
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Vizier of Remedies
4 Devoted Druid
2 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Myojin of Life's Web
2 Viscera Seer
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
3 Eternal Witness
1 Flickerwisp
1 Selfless Spirit
4 Chord of Calling
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Gavony Township
2 Temple Garden
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Scattered Groves
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Vizier of Remedies
4 Devoted Druid
2 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Myojin of Life's Web
2 Viscera Seer
2 Saffi Eriksdotter
3 Renegade Rallier
1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
3 Eternal Witness
1 Flickerwisp
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Chord of Calling
3 Eldritch Evolution
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Marsh Flats
2 Temple Garden
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Scattered Groves
EDIT: Updating Renegade list
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MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
I made 4 changes to my deck tonight - -3 renegade rallier, -1 wolf run, +1 township +3 knight of the reliquary. I wanted to leave a rallier to chord for but it never came up since I only cast chord once out of 7 games (for a recruiter for the win). Also swapped selfless spirit in board for a pridemage in main.
Round 1 vs. 8 rack (W)
Game 1 I kill through an ensnaring bridge with infinite mana on turn 4.
Game 2 I'm beating him down with dudes and he's racking me, and I untap with the combo. He goes to scoop and I'm like that's a township not a....oh, I have a knight of the reliquary. Knight sacks stomping ground floating red, gets wolf run and kills. He crypts me at one point but one shot graveyard hate is really not good enough against my build - it's got to be RIP or Cage.
Commentary: Knight felt good here. Only match he felt good in was one that was very light on removal.
Round 2 vs. Burn (L)
Game 1 - t1 lavamancer. Sigh. This is a burn deck he borrowed from my friend who hates collected company and appears to have a million lavamancers. He lavamancers my druids until he kills me on turn 5. It's actually a close game because I resolve 2 back to back cocos but am unable to get a mirror entity on board. I had an opportunity to go for it but he had an untapped lavamancer. Wheee.
Game 2 - I combo kill him turn 4 with a wolf run after killing his t1 lavamancer with my t2 lavamancer because he has no fuel (creature heavy draw with no creature killing spells).
Game 3 - This one is over from the start as he t1 lavamancers again and kills my noble hierarch, then my druid.
Round 3 vs. Mardu Nahiri (W)
Game 1 - I grind this one out by turn 15 or so with a gavony township and stupid dudes. I killed 3 different nahiris with exalted crap creatures. His deck full of 1-1 removal, painful truths and planeswalkers has a hard time hanging with township and a deck full of value dudes. He fatal pushes a Knight of the Reliquary at one point. Knight is awful in these kinds of matchups. Superbly awful. I wanted rallier all match.
To be fair to wolf run I did kill him with a topdecked wolf run - I was left with him at 5 life and me with a 2/3 noble hierarch. He could easily have stabilized with another removal spell but I bolted him to the face with wolf run and that sealed the deal
Game 2 - He has bricks, thoughtseizes a coco, fatal pushes my t1 dork, has to painful truths after my t2 druid (which I topdeck? Lucksacked) and I untap and kill him (vizier, chord for recruiter).
I felt this game he should adjust his game plan of t1 kill all dorks. Against my deck it is 100% incorrect if you do not have other removal. Yes, you can lose the mana battle, but if your goal is to attrition you have to just give that up against a deck playing druid.
And that's it. I drew with the Abzan player, though I feel confident I had good odds.
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Commentary: Ralliers are too good. I really do like township; it was quite a bit better than wolf run the time I drew it, and I felt that a lot of the time. I may try the straight GW build with 4 duskwatch, though, since I love how good township is in the fair matches. Much more efficient than wolf run for sure if you can put two bodies on the field.
Horizon canopy. Vs. the control and 8-rack decks I played horizon canopy was stellar. It's just so good sometimes. I kinda want to try 4 in a GW build with ralliers and a ramnuap excavator Something about jamming 4 township also appeals to me. That card just annihilates fair matchups so hard, almost nothing they can do once every little crap creature becomes a lethal threat.
Generally speaking I think 4 witness/3-4 rallier is right. In non-finks build you want at least 7 value 3-drops that give you a high chance of hitting a piece of card draw off of your coco, so it becomes a 4 mana draw 3 instead of a 4 mana draw 2 (essentially).
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Vs Merfolk 0-2
I felt I was in a fairly strong position although didn't have acces to the combo. Unfortunately surcombed to a spreading seas followed by two Merfolk lords.
Second round I had a great hand with nearly all the pieces I needed. But wasn't prepared for my opponent to topdeck x3 tidebender Mage in a row. This resulted in a birds, hierarch and Druid being tapped down. Followed again by a spreading seas... game over.
Vs 8 Rack 2-0
Despite nearly everything getting discarded or removed I pulled a CoCo and jammed 2 KotR which won me the game.
Round 2, I lost a lot of life and cards very quickly through discard and rack and affliction out. Jammed the mana combo and the following turn (no cards in hand, 2 life) topdecked duskwatch recruiter so won with walking ballista.
Vs RG Aggro 2-0
Had the perfect hand and won turn 3 with the combo.
Round 2, my opponent didn't learn their lesson and let a Druid live so again won on turn 3.
Vs Mono red goblins 2-0
Lost an awful lot of life very very quickly. Managed to find the combo turn 4 and won with walking ballista.
Second round started very similar to the first, opponent left a Vizier alive and I played a CoCo at the end of my opponents turn found Druid and recruiter. Won with 3 life remaining.
Really felt like I needed more answers vs Merfolk. But apart from path and abrupt decay I'm struggling to think what else I would swap out of my sideboard.... otherwise had a great evening. Unlike @Pokken I still really like KotR, but I haven't tested rallier. Playing against friends casually I love having 2 ghost quarters vs Tron and KotR. This has won me several games which I am positive I would've lost without these cards in the deck - plus they are in the main.
Everyone loves an angry mob RWG
Why so Bloo? RU
Understandable, I'm actually liking Ballista more now that realize that hitting it off of Company/Chord is viable as we always have Witnesses to bring it back. Rhonas Im still doubting though outside of Kessig builds (slower build would make it a prime target for Path; plus Im fond of Nylea as well for Theros God-conditions).
Speaking of Ballista, because of State Based Effects, how would hitting both Ballista and either Rallier/Witness off of Company work?
Avatar and Signature by XenoNinja via Heroes of the Plane Studios
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
4 Devoted Druid
4 Vizier of Remedies
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Viscera Seer
1 Walking Ballista
4 Eternal Witness
1 Renegade Rallier
2 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Fiend Hunter
4 Chord of Calling
4 Collected Company
4 Windswept Heath
2 Temple Garden
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
2 Gavony Township
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Razorverge Thicket
3 Forest
1 Plains
3 Path to Exile
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Pharika, God of Affliction
I want to give Rallier a try in the deck. Right now as a 1-off, if I like him< I might go to 2. In that case I can shave a Witness tho.
I'll post how the day has gone for me later.
I've lost zero games to entity not being rhonas or ballista, and won several due to it being better at closing games naturally.
Re: Merfolk
Need to play fiery justice if you're in Naya. 1-for-1 removal is not good enough against Merfolk unless you're running 8-10 pieces. You need to break the card parity, since they have Master and Silvergill adept and Tidebinder to draw virtual cards.
At one point in time I would jam all my removal (4 paths) when I was on Abzan vs. Merfolk, but gradually I realized this is probably incorrect and started just bringing in 1 pridemage/1 rec sage and forcing the combo. Even post board they will struggle to draw enough answers to your creatures and if they draw lots of answers and counterspells their clock tends to be poor.
My personal approach now is -2 chord -2 witness +1 pridemage +1 rec sage +2 fiery justice. The matchup is very advantaged. You can bring in stingscourgers if using my build but I don't love them since they can't bounce master of waves.
(Note: If I don't see dispels I'll bring 2 chords back in, but they usually have as many as 5-6 counterspells post board and sometimes cages, trying to resolve a chord is usually futile in g2).
Note: Mirror Entity is very good in this matchup, as is lavamancer, if on Naya.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
The deck list I took with me to the PPTQ:
4 Bird of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
4 Devoted Druid
4 Vizier of Remedies
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Viscera Seer
1 Walking Ballista
4 Eternal Witness
1 Renegade Rallier
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Tireless Tracker
4 Chord of Calling
4 Collected Company
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
2 Temple Garden
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
2 Gavony Township
2 Horizon Canopy
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Razorverge Thicket
3 Path to Exile
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Pharika, God of Affliction
1 Kataki, War’s Wage
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Qasali Pridemage
First I will talk about some card choices. I had a hard time choosing for the right configuration of the deck. The doubt was about Old Coco or the new Vizier build. I have some experience with both, but after discussions in my playgroup I went for the Vizier Druid combo, just to be faster and more consistent on turn 3 and 4.
Mainboard I play a Renegade Rallier for science. But I boarded him out a lot. Never seen him in my games throughout the tournament. Fiend Hunter is a nice addition, but I don’t know if I want him in the mainboard. Preboard games must be fast. But I know I need some removal in the main, so I think I keep playing him in that spot. Tireless Tracker is leaving to the board. I think I will play a Spellskite/Selfless Spirit in that spot.
The matches:
Round 1 vs. Abzan Midrange
Game 1:
I kept my seven and he did to. Turn 1 thoughtseize and he saw I had the combo. So he went to his aggro plan. I killed him with his guard down.
Sideboard:
In: 1 qasali pridemage 2 mirran 1 decay 1 path 1 pulse
Out: 2 noble 1 rallier (path’s obvious) 1 bird 1 tracker 1 chord
Game 2:
He surgicaled away my Devoted Druid and we went both to beatdown plans. He had some hard time with Mirran Crusader but in the end I was at 1 life and he at 3. He topdecked his fourth land for his MOOOOEEEEEEEE and I died.
Game 3:
I started with fetch, go. He plays a tapped dual. I draw. Fetch, land druid.
He plays Goyf. I play land chord for Vizier, and he dies. GG
1-0 overall
Round 2 vs. BantB Vizier
Game 1:
He had triple Queller for all my pieces and beated me to death.
Sideboard:
In: 3 Pte pontiff decay linvala
Out: 1 Chord ooze tracker 1 finks 1 witness
Game 2 and 3 went the same for me. Turn 3 kills because he went for his valueplans.
2-0 overall
Round 3 vs. Slivers
Game 1:
She went for some crazy slivers with 0 backup removal. I went to 5.000.000.000 life and she started to attack me with Mutavault and Slivers. I told her, oké I go to 4.999.999.984. She scooped.
Sideboard:
In: 1 pte 1 decay 1 pulse
Out: ooze fiend hunter rallier
Game 2:
Kept a risky hand, she kills me on t4.
Game 3:
Turn 3 kill. GG
3-0 overall
Round 4 vs. Storm. This was my win and in. We had 42 players so with 4-0 I could draw twice or draw and play for seatings.
Game 1:
I turn 3 him, if I had not done that, he would killed me the turn after.
Sideboard:
In: Eidolon 2 pte 1 decay
Out: fiend, rallier, tracker, finks
Game 2:
Was a grindy game, he had the path for my Eidolon and I drew to much lands.
Game 3:
Read game 1.
4-0 overall.
Round 5 vs. Jund
Draw
Round 6 vs. GR Ramp
Draw because we had a clean cut I was 1st.
The quarter final vs. Todd Stevens valuetown.deck
Game 1:
He went for his valueplan with 2 path backup. But I combo’ed turn 6.
Game 2:
His deck did what it does best, with again 2 paths for the backup. I made a mistake for not using my Ooze on his Ghost Quarter, bit of a misplay from my side.
Game 3:
Needed to mul, and drew the worst part of the deck. With 5 activations of duskwatch I found 1 bird. So that says it, I lost the qf there.
Overall impression:
I love the build, it does what Coco does best. Combo fast with a small backup plan. I still think I need to make some slight changes in the list. I want some protection in my mainboard, probably Spellskite.
And the board needs some attention tho.
Skite is great against eldrazi tron though if that's an issue of for you.
I think you should give some serious thought to trying Rhonas or Mirror Entity. Otherwise looks Ok
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
I don't own any horizon canopies and have found renegade rallier too mediocre without them to run - part of the reason I play Knight of the reliquary instead. Game 1 I use knights of the reliquary as a sort of Swiss army creature - they're combo piece tutors (for red Manas or wolf run), a pseudo dork, and lightning rods for removal, with backup function that the can lay the beats if necessary.
Main downside to entity is no trample but it's got a ton of upside
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Marsh Flats
2 Temple Garden
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Gavony Township
|30 Creatures|
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
4 Devoted Druid
2 Viscera Seer
4 Vizier of Remedies
1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Murderous Redcap
2 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Walking Ballista
4 Eternal Witness
1 Flickerwisp
4 Collected Company
4 Chord of Calling
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Ok, I'll be honest; I have too much going on main deck, but I can't figure out what to prune to make room for utility creatures (especially combo protection). Right candidates for the chopping block are the 4th Witness, the 4th Finks, Redcap, and/or the singleton Flickerwisp; any suggestions/recommendations?
Also, as for the sideboard; Emrakul 1.0 is simply there for the (clutch at best) infinite turn (and thus infinite annihilator 6 trigger) combo and (the (more reasonable) mill protection if needed; I have considered Ulamog 1.0 here as well. (Druid+Vizier+Recruiter+Seer+Emrakul; Generate infinite mana, then dig for Emrakul, cast, go to your extra turn, swing, sacrifice Emrakul to Seer, rinse and repeat).
Avatar and Signature by XenoNinja via Heroes of the Plane Studios
Drop the redcap also imo, it's not great. You now have 2 misses on coco in the main. You already have anafenza for the infinite bolster, redcap is just a clunky unneeded 4 drop.
I think you may be misreading what I'm saying as far as Emrakul and Ulamog go; it is in the sideboard for a few reasons, the very least of which is that it also goes infinite given enough set-up. However, I agree that in a blind meta, it is far from the most optimal choice, hence why I do run Ballista main.
Also, I'm confused as to what you mean by two misses on Company in the main; if you're meaning Ballista and Redcap, well, I should inform you that is why I'm running at least 3 Witness; due to SBAs occuring first whenever a player regains priority, a Company that hits Ballista and Witness will bin the Ballista first before Witness's trigger goes on the stack, allowing it to be a viable target. In addition to that, while Redcap can't be grabbed with Company, Rhonas is pretty bad on its own; it's even Path-able unlike non-creature Nylea.
But before I get too focused on Green Gods that don't really do anything by themselves, I will admit that Redcap is clunky (aside: what can I say? playing devil's advocate helps me think a bit more critically on card choices); what would y'all recommend go into that slot? I'm thinking some sort of combo protection like moving selfless spirit main or adding spellskite.
Avatar and Signature by XenoNinja via Heroes of the Plane Studios
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
2 Viscera Seer
4 Devoted Druid
4 Vizier of Remedies
1 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Walking Ballista
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Eternal Witness
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Rhonas the Indomitable
4 Collected Company
4 Chord of Calling
Lands (22)
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Temple Garden
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
3 Forest
1 Plains
3 Horizon Canopy
1 Razorverge Thicket
2 Gavony Township
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Sin Collector
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Big Game Hunter
1 Anafenza, the Foremost
I played at two tournaments this weekend - the Grand Trial and the Main Event. Grand Trial went so-so, with a final score of 4-3 for me. Only change I made was switching a Phyrexian Revoker from the SB to an Aven Mindcensor for the Main Event.
Round 1 - 2-1 vs Snake Titan. Fairly non-interactive, combo'd him turn 3 game 1, established the combo turn 3 or 4 game 2 without finding a finisher in time, and combo'd him out very early again in game 3. We're faster, seems pretty favorable.
Round 2 - 2-0 vs UWR Geist. Game 1 was very close, with me one snapcaster attack away from death and my opponent too focused on killing me to not disrupt my infinite life combo. Game 2 went pretty grindy as well. Don't remember much than re-casting a Company a bunch of times and Rhonas being a powerhouse. The MU felt tricky, but should be favorable if we pay attention to all the burn spells flying around.
Round 3 - 1-2 vs UB Faeries. Misplayed game 1 pretty hard by attacking with a Kitchen Finks and thus allowing my opponent to swing back for 8. Opponent misplayed game 2, tapped out and let me go infinite with Finks. Game 3 was a mull to 5 and lots of missed land drops from my side. Felt doable with the right draws, but the tempo aspect of Faeries is not to be underestimated.
Round 4 - 1-2 vs Grixis Death's Shadow. Got overrun by large beaters game 1, out-valued my thread-screwed opponent heavily game 2 and lost game 3 to a timely Temur Battle Rage. The matchup isn't as unbeatable as it might seem on paper. It's not favorable, but very doable.
Round 5 - 2-0 vs Burn. Combo'd fairly quickly both games. Opponent didn't seem to know my deck, so that definately helped. Either way tho, Finks alone make the MU fairly favorable.
Round 6 - 1-2 vs Titanshift. I've never played this MU before, only heard it was pretty bad. After playing it a bunch over the weekend I feel it's pretty bad, but if we have a good hand we can luck out for the win in game 3. Game 1 should be relatively easy, game 2 horrible and game 3 very close. This match went basically just like that. T3 combo game 1, 2x Bolt + Anger into Scapeshift game 2, and game 3 I lost by not having 1 more green source for Chord (board was Bird, Bird, Temple Garden, Burrenton Forge-Tender, Kitchen Finks, with Vizier and Chord in hand). Play Vizier, pass turn, die.
Round 7 - 2-0 vs Lantern Control. Game 1 I somehow get to combo with Finks and kill him with Anafenza/Vizier next turn. Game 2 we grind for a while after he starts out by using Pithing Needle on Viscera Seer, and another one on Duskwatch Recruiter. Eventually he can't find answers to everything I'm able to dish out and dies to eot Druid into Vizier with Rhonas and a Bird on the board. The MU is favorable, but not dramatically so.
Round 1 - 2-0 vs 1-Drop Zoo. Fast combo both games. Opponent could've won game 2 but got greedy and died in response to Atarka's Command. Game 2 was a mull to 5 and was pretty close either way. Matchup seems fairly favorable.
Round 2 - 2-0 vs Death & Taxes. Relatively fast combo both games. Game 2 I got way too greedy and kept a 1-lander + Bird on the draw. Never drew another land, but lucky for me, my opponent kept a hand with double Arbiter but without any removal, giving me free reign to make infinite mana, pay for both Arbiters and chord for a kill. The MU seems pretty favorable. Their hate pieces are annoying, but their beatdown isn't fast enough to stop us from rebuilding with our 10 dorks to get things going again.
Round 3 - 2-0 vs Fish. This game felt actively dumb. Fast combo vs no interaction game 1 was fine. Game 2 however, my opponent started with T1 Grafdigger's Cage into T2 Relic into T3 Lord, with Gut Shot in hand. None of which mattered as I went T2 Druid, T3 Vizier into Ballista from hand. The actual match took 5 minutes tops. Luckily my opponent took it well and laughed with me about the silliness we've just witnessed. MU seems very favorable from my limited experience so far.
Round 4 - 2-0 vs B/W Eldrazi Taxes. The first match I won without comboing off, also probably the weirdest one I've played all weekend. Both games we would grind for a while with him disrupting my early combo and me getting value from Company and Finks + Vizier or Anafenza. Eventually he'd find a Displacer to stop me from killing him, but at the same time was unable to do anything to kill me either. Game 2 he had to Flickerwisp my Finks out every turn to disrupt infinite life and eventually just conceded. Same as mono W Death & Taxes, this one is pretty favorable.
Round 5 - 2-0 vs UB Faeries. Same guy as in the trial. This time however, I manage to keep my brain active during the game and not throw it away. I go infinite with life game 1 after a decently long grind and beat him down with Township in game 2.
Round 6 - 1-2 vs Titanshift. Similar story to my loss in the Trial. Win game 1 in maybe a minute, lose game 2, and lose game 3 after assembling the combo turn 3 and not finding a finisher in 3 draw steps (had 10 outs at that point).
Round 7 - 2-1 vs Titanshift. Finally won one of these! Actually fizzled out after comboing turn 3 in game 1 and almost throw the game by not attacking for 1 with exalted. 3 turns later my opponent is down to 1 life and I want to die. However, he also messed up and stacked his Valakut triggers wrong, leaving my Finks alive (Vizier was still there) and him dead on the swing back. Game 2 takes a while, with me disrupting him with Mindcensor for a bit, but getting too greedy and swiftly getting murdered. Game 3 we both mull to 5 and I keep a hand full of Birds. T3 I crack a Canopy since I had nothing else to do, find a Sin Collector and play it. My opponent shakes his head and shows me 2 lands and Anger of the Gods. After that I kill him with Birds + Township as he is unable to find enough action to recover from his mull.
Round 8 - 0-2 vs Dredge. Same guy who played Snake Titan in the Trial. I mull to 5 game 1, he finds triple Conflagrate plus a bunch of beaters and we basically repeat that for game 2, where I kept a really bad hand on 6 because I didn't look at my green sources. This is another MU I haven't had the chance to play before, and the games weren't all that representative, but my guess would be that it's pretty even, depending on draws and sequencing, maybe somewhat unfavorable for us due to Conflagrate and recurring Darkblasts.
Round 9 - 2-0 vs UW Control. Mana screw is the name of the game here. Opponent keeps a hand with double Tec-Edge and has to Spreading Seas one of them to cast Supreme Verdict. Eot I Coco into a Druid, kill his Gideon and kill him. Game 2 he has two fetchlands around, and I have Aven Mindcensor. After a bit of waiting he cracks one, I Mindcensor him, he fetches in response and misses on the first fetch, putting him at 3 lands for what felt like 100 turns. I Sin Collector him, he shows me triple Verdict, double Cryptic and a single Snapcaster. At some point he finds his land for Verdict, wipes the board and lets me CoCo at the end of turn. At this point, if I hit pretty much anything, he'd be pretty dead. So obviously I hit 5 lands and Ballista, leaving my opponent very happy and me in a weird spot of having to tap out into more Verdicts. I Sin Collector him again, he shows me triple Path and Verdict. After that I grind through his removal and keep poking him with Witness and Townships until he's dead. Interesting matchup, probably a lot closer than shown here, but doable either way.
The deck felt extremely powerful throughout the whole weekend. Yes, it's pretty easily disrupted, but the fact that 30 of our cards help us assemble some sort of combo (18 creatures, 4 witness, 8 tutor) gives the deck a silly amount of redundancy and ability to rebuild. The fair beats are there and they are decent enough, but all in all they feel outclassed by Eldrazis and 1-mana 12/12's with double-strike and trample.
I've seen a number of variations on the kill-cons for the deck and had some problems deciding on a package for a while. However I'm pretty happy with 1 Ballista/1 Rhonas/1 Anafenza as they all kill in different ways. Having only 1 Ballista gives me up to 29 CoCo hits, while Rhonas and Anafenza can definately help the random beatdown plan. I also really dislike the idea of not having a way to kill directly with the Finks combo, so Anafenza is a pretty easy inclusion for me.
I was pretty happy with the sideboard. Maybe want a second Mindcensor over the big Anafenza, but I'll have to test the Dredge MU more to decide on that.
Enough rambling from me for now, comments are obiously appreciated
You all have a nice day!
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
Abzan Toolbox Primer
GWBAbzan CompanyBWG
GWBUGifts RockUBWG
I think the Dredge match up is just a combo or die affair. The Foremost might be good there, I don't know, but I generally just try to combo asap.
"Reveal a Dragon"