@Mindz I like your list, but why run Wastes instead of more Aether Hub, Crossroads, and SGW? There's nothing in your list that benefits from having more basics.
@Mindz I like your list, but why run Wastes instead of more Aether Hub, Crossroads, and SGW? There's nothing in your list that benefits from having more basics.
You're right. All I did was update the list and I have no idea why I never really looked at the land base with that type of scrutiny before. Any suggestions for the last 4 sideboard cards?
Personally, I'd go with Bearer of Silence, the card absolutely wrecks green decks. There's plenty of other options though. World Breaker seems pretty intriguing to me against blue control, it's pretty much impossible for them to deal with unless they have Void Shatter.
I'd also consider some number of Blighted Fen in the main. SGW isn't good in multiples so I probably wouldn't run 4, and edicts are good enough in certain matchups that I think it warrants inclusion.
Personally, I'd go with Bearer of Silence, the card absolutely wrecks green decks. There's plenty of other options though. World Breaker seems pretty intriguing to me against blue control, it's pretty much impossible for them to deal with unless they have Void Shatter.
I'd also consider some number of Blighted Fen in the main. SGW isn't good in multiples so I probably wouldn't run 4, and edicts are good enough in certain matchups that I think it warrants inclusion.
I actually took those out foe the scrounger. Against control, I definitely see the appeal still. And as I was actually pulling the cards out of the sleeves, I was going to remove the 2 blighted fens I had in there and had the same idea about the SGW. I am keeping only 2 SGW because of the 2 blighted fens already in there.
Personally I find 10 swamps is about right for enough black sources for a T3 flaying tendrils or T4 distended mindbender. So far only Lackey tampers with the manabase via shuffling. In practice with actual cards, I haven't had many issues with mana.
Keep in mind you cannot use Crossroads for Mindbender's emerge and Scrounger's reanimate.
Only 14 sources, counting Hub as a full source which is generous, just doesn't seem consistent to me. Then again, all these RB decks with 12 are siding in Kalitas, so yolo I guess.
I might be a little too deep into the discard aspect, but depending on the match up I can switch out the discard for removal or threats in my to-be-determined sideboard.
I find the full set of Wasteland Strangler very strange. He's running very few ways to exile stuff T2 (only 2x mainboard in fact). Seems to be relying on Thought Knot and Kalitas to provide that effect, which makes Strangler a later game removal which gives you a body. I think I would much rather run Bearer of Silence in that spot if that is how he wnats to play the card. Strangler seems much better when you can cast it on T3 for maximum tempo.
I find the full set of Wasteland Strangler very strange. He's running very few ways to exile stuff T2 (only 2x mainboard in fact). Seems to be relying on Thought Knot and Kalitas to provide that effect, which makes Strangler a later game removal which gives you a body. I think I would much rather run Bearer of Silence in that spot if that is how he wnats to play the card. Strangler seems much better when you can cast it on T3 for maximum tempo.
Seconded. I've decided to remove Wasteland Strangler completely given how unreliable to hit off it.
I think our builds have always been good against Control, and since Control has seen more prominence at PT, we might expect more control played at all our local metas. However the absence of cards like Languish, Read the Bones, and painlands has really crippled us. I'm sure we can still do well but definitely not enough to beat all tier 1 decks out there right now. At best, I think B/x Eldrazi will be a Tier 1 janky home brew.
My approach is to be more aggressive. The biggest thing that I'm still [somewhat] debating is whether going 23 lands is a good choice. I did that because most of my previous losses came from drawing too many lands. I also concluded that we really need to be able to draw cards, hence the 2x Live Fast, which also gives us energy counters for reusing Aether Hub.
So I was able to pick up the last few cards I needed to finish my deck for the gameday on Sunday. I'll post up results and matchups if I can remember to write them down.
As anyone tested or played with Harsh Scrutiny? Do you like it?
I have and honestly I think more than half the time, the Scry is real benefit from it. After PT, there are more control decks being played where Harsh Scrutiny hits almost nothing. Not to mention that since we're playing black, we already have the best creatures removals to begin with.
I'm playing 1 in Main and 2 in SB because it's still against more aggro decks.
Hi guys, so I ran the following list at gameday to a top 8 finish. Lost the finals in a very tough match to jeskai control because I made a mistake of transgressing a glimmer instead of a dovan baan and because I haven't got all my scrap heap scroungers yet. I think the deck is very well positioned, mixing excellent disruption with tons of removal and beef, straight aggro decks feel like a walkover for us:
Sideboard (15):
1x Transgress the Mind
3x Flaying Tendrils
2x Lost Legacy
2x Ob Nixilis Reignited
1x scrapheap scrounger
4x essence extraction
2x distended mindbender
Some of the numbers might seem a bit odd because, particularly in the sideboard, this is because I do not have a full playset of scrougners or aether hubs, which are on their way. I have two pptqs coming up and I think this deck is very well positioned for them. I would make the following observations:
Creatures:
Hedron Crawler: The opening hands with this card in it feel great particularly when on the play. Accelerating out big eldrazi is so good and this really unlocks the rest of the deck. It can chump block fine if topdecked and sometimes that's all you need. I think a full four are essential. Getting to activate our spell lands in the late game is essential too.
Bearer of Silence: Again I think a full four is where we want to be, although this could change if we see a big shift towards token strategies or flash.
Kalitas and distended mindbender: Kalitas was meant to be a two of but I could not find another copy. I think he belongs in the board though as a two of as we really want to be playing more removal with him. Mindbender is great, defo gets sideboarded out versus the most aggressive decks though.
Grasp of darkness: The best card in the deck. Kills everything of relevance in the format, from copters to avacyn. Keep a full four in vs control, getting their fulmaroles or shrinking a gearhulk is huge.
Transgress the mind/harsh scrutiny: I was just trying out the Scrutiny but it is very good and should be a full four. Even if you don’t hit a creature, having the information and getting to scry is worth a card and a mana at any point in the game vs control. Versus aggro this card is excellent, particularly versus the flash based decks as you can really play around their strategies. Transgress can stay in the board.
Sideboard: You either want to bring in more removal and go over the aggro decks or cut the curve down and go under control/combo. Not much to talk about although I do regret having included lost legacy, not hitting artifacts makes it pretty useless.
Given all this, this is where I am going moving forward:
Looks like a good traditional Dark Devoid Eldrazi list. Your observations are right on about Hedron Crawler. Towards the end of last season's standard I was running him 4x for all the reasons you mention. Plus you can tap it for its mana and use as emerge sac fodder for Mindbender.
Why have you chosen Ob Nix over Liliana? How do you feel about the mana? Have you considered adding Wastes and Evoling Wilds?
19 black sources works a treat, the crawlers help with colourless too so I haven't had any problems. I'm not a huge fan of lili outside of delirium. Ob Nixilis gives us a nice curve topper and attacks on a different axis to the rest of the deck. Could be wrong, but its just my personal preference.
despite its ability to beat down, I fell short a few times. The deck however is fun as heck. I am not a fan of Eternal Scourge. But since the deck is built around Eldrazi Mimic, I wanted a solid t3 devoid creature. Maybe I could switch them out with Lathnu Helion. There are many times a t2 Mimic can be followed by a t3 Forerunner or Scrounger. But removing devoid creatures weakens Mimic's effectiveness.
Meanwhile I am brewing a B/g Eldrazi list to try out
So I was able to pick up the last few cards I needed to finish my deck for the gameday on Sunday. I'll post up results and matchups if I can remember to write them down.
Well the gameday only had 9 players but 4 of the 9 are very good running variants of the top tier netdecks.
Match 1 vs. homebrew RW artifact aggro. Loss 1-2
This wasn't the netdeck, he was running built to smash, built to last, thraben inspectors, Thalia, cultivators and skysovereign. Game 1 I flooded out but stablized late and had the match down to a 4-3 life game. Opponent top-decked a fleetwheel cruise for the win. Brought in the harsh scrutiny and lost legacy for a copter and 4 Transgress. Scrutinied a thalia on turn 1, dropped mimic t2 which he left alone. reshaper came out turn 3 and he chumped the mimic with an inspector. T4 mindbender saccing the reshaper, which triggered another reshaper. Opponent was so busy chump blocking, he didn't have any board presence for the rest of the game. Reality Smasher turn 5 sealed the game and he scooped. Game 3, mulliganed to 5 cards, and we each has some smaller creatures on the board (I had a scrounger, and two mimics, and he had a an exemplar, gisela and something else. I was at 12, he was at 6. I let him take back a sky sovereign play, and he had a built to last in hand for the match. I could have been a stickler for the rules, but it's for fun right? Entry was free and no prizes except the mat and promos
Match 2 vs. Esper Control Win 2-0
Game 1 was easy, I curved out (mimic, reshaper, thot knot, smasher, smasher) and he had a single stasis snare on my thot knot.
Sideboarded out four spatial contortion and a warping wail for lost legacy and ruinous path.
He was able to snare a reshaper, I warping wailed an eldrazi scion on his end step the next turn. Crewed a copter to attack and then sacced it for the 5th mana (missed the land drop) for the 5th mana to emerge a mindbender using the scrapheap scrounger. This hit his gideon and oath of liliana. Smasher next turn was the nail in the coffin.
Match 3 vs. American Dynavolt Control (This guy won the gameday the previous day with this deck) Win 2-0
Game 1, I had 3 spatial contortion in hand with a mimic. I didn't draw any other creatures until turn 8. He had 2 dynavolts on the field and had 8 energy by turn 5. After 3 counters in a row, he threw down a torrential gearhulk and countered a fourth creature I played. It was just a matter of time, but the gearhulk's body was just too big with all the mana he had open every turn and his card draw.
This was tough to sideboard out as dynavolt and gearhulks are artifacts, so lost legacy is an almost dead card, and he didn't run any planeswalkers mainboard. I ended up sideboarding in two lost legacy to maybe hit some of his counters and sided out 2 warping wails as he ran no sorceries.
Game 2
Opponent allowed me to resolve a matter reshaper, and tapped out to play dynavolt. I mindbender'ed his torrential gearhulk and anticipate. he drew 2 lands in a row, and my next turn I dropped a thought knot. He responded by hitting my mindbender harnessed lightning, but drew a counter. I dropped 2 smashers to end the game.
Game 3 started out with 6 turns of counters. scrounger was brought back 2 times (exiling mimic then a thought knot. Mindbender was summary of dismissalled, so scrounger was brought back a third time. This was his last card. I drew 3 reality smashers in a row and that ended the game pretty quickly.
At this point, one guy was undefeated and that was the end of the event. Notes that I kept in the back of my head was that I either had 4 energy and 5 swamps by the time the game ended, or only a single black source and couldn't cast a mindbender on turn 4 or even 5. The only enchantment removal the deck has is via hand disruption. I am still up in the air as to whether or not we need some sort of enchantment removal. The copters are great for early game, however lategame, they are a dead draw. If you play any deck with even a small amount of spot removal, you will not be able to crew the copter unless you drop one on turn 2 or 3 at the latest. After that, you really want to drop a thought knot or reality smasher instead. I will continue to test and update the thread as time goes on. At this point I need a few more games to determine what other cards if any need to be put in here.
despite its ability to beat down, I fell short a few times. The deck however is fun as heck. I am not a fan of Eternal Scourge. But since the deck is built around Eldrazi Mimic, I wanted a solid t3 devoid creature. Maybe I could switch them out with Lathnu Helion. There are many times a t2 Mimic can be followed by a t3 Forerunner or Scrounger. But removing devoid creatures weakens Mimic's effectiveness.
Meanwhile I am brewing a B/g Eldrazi list to try out
Why wouldn't you run matter reshaper? it's a perfect curve card that replenishes itself or cantrips at the very least when it dies.
very good question. and Reshaper has been one of my favorites and a staple 4x in my decks since its release. However my mana does not support C. I am trying to figure that out though. In the meantime I am considering Flayer Drone and Dominator Drone at the 3cmc. Would really love to get Smasher in this line up. If even at 2x. But again, its difficult to pull off RBC without hiccups. Nevelo can probably atest to this as R/b Devoid aggro was tried many times back when BloodStained Mire was legal. But it was thought too inconsistent for aggro
Yeah, RBC was hard. We still have Crossroads and now Aetherhub, but it will likely be choppy. If you limit to single color requirements (e.g, no double black spells) maybe it's manageable, but that's sort of defeats the purpose. This is the reason I went to BC in the end.
You're right. All I did was update the list and I have no idea why I never really looked at the land base with that type of scrutiny before. Any suggestions for the last 4 sideboard cards?
4 Eldrazi Mimic
3 Scrapheap Scrounger
3 Smuggler's Copter
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
2 Distended Mindbender
Spells:
4 Transgress the Mind
4 Warping Wail
4 Spatial Contortion
10 Swamp
1 Wastes
4 Sea Gate Wreckage
4 Aether Hub
2 Ruins of Oran-Rief
4 Corrupted Crossroads
3 Flaying Tendrils
2 Lost Legacy
3 Harsh Scrutiny
3 Ruinous Path
4 Undecided
I'd also consider some number of Blighted Fen in the main. SGW isn't good in multiples so I probably wouldn't run 4, and edicts are good enough in certain matchups that I think it warrants inclusion.
I actually took those out foe the scrounger. Against control, I definitely see the appeal still. And as I was actually pulling the cards out of the sleeves, I was going to remove the 2 blighted fens I had in there and had the same idea about the SGW. I am keeping only 2 SGW because of the 2 blighted fens already in there.
ill be taking this in for the first week after Protour
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
2 Distended Mindbender
Spells: 14
2 Grasp of Darkness
2 Harsh Scrutiny
4 Transgress the Mind
2 Warping Wail
4 Spatial Contortion
10 Swamp
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
4 Sea Gate Wreckage
4 Aether Hub
2 Ruins of Oran-Rief
2 Blighted Fen
1 Mirrorpool
1 Westvale Abbey
3 Flaying Tendrils
2 Lost Legacy
2 Harsh Scrutiny
3 Ruinous Path
1 Fleetwheel Cruiser
2 warping wail
2 To the Slaughter
UBRWGHumansUBRWG
UMerfolkU
Eldrazi Tron
Legacy
WDeath & TaxesW
Pauper
RGoblinsR
EDH
UGMerfolk ComboGU
Standard
UWApproachWU
C Long Live Eldrazi C
Only 14 sources, counting Hub as a full source which is generous, just doesn't seem consistent to me. Then again, all these RB decks with 12 are siding in Kalitas, so yolo I guess.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-knot Seer
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Geth
3 Reality Smasher
3 Distended Mindbender
1 Noxiosu Gearhulk
3 Harsh Scrutiny
4 Transgress the Mind
4 Grasp of Darkness
3 Spacial Contortion
2 Warping Wail
Lands
4 Aether Hub
1 Sanctum of Ugin
2 Sea Gate Wreckage
2 Crumbling Sanctuary
1 Mirrorpool
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
1 Blighted Fen
10 Swamps
I might be a little too deep into the discard aspect, but depending on the match up I can switch out the discard for removal or threats in my to-be-determined sideboard.
3 Spatial Contortions
2 Warping Wail
4 Smuggler's Copter
4 Bomat Courier
4 Scrapheap Scrounge
4 Bearer of Silence
3 Eternal Scourge
3 Wasteland Strangler
3 Eldrazi Displacer
3 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Concealed Courtyard
4 Aether Hub
4 Corrupted Crossroad
4 Sea Gate Wreckage
3 Swamp
4 Transgress the Mind
3 Anguished Unmaking
3 Grasp of Darkness
2 Reality Smasher / Warping Wail
3 Matter Reshaper
Deck is fun as hell. Vs Control, Scourge is beastly. They won't snare it so it just beats. Plays well with Scrapheap. First to side out vs Weavers.
White splash for Anguished Unmaking being that enchantments are a huge problem. Haven't tried using it yet, mana may be a problem.
I've been using Distended and not liking it. Aggro is huge and I'm usually looking at lands.
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Reality Smasher
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Wasteland Strangler
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Lands (24)
12 Swamp
4 Aether Hub
4 Ruins of Oran-Rief
2 Sea Gate Wreckage
2 Unknown Shores
4 Grasp of Darkness
2 Murder
4 Spatial Contortion
2 Titan's Presence
2 Transgress the Mind
1 Fleetwheel Cruiser
2 Bearer of Silence
2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
2 Ob Nixilis Reignited
4 Flaying Tendrils
2 Ruinous Path
2 Transgress the Mind
I find the full set of Wasteland Strangler very strange. He's running very few ways to exile stuff T2 (only 2x mainboard in fact). Seems to be relying on Thought Knot and Kalitas to provide that effect, which makes Strangler a later game removal which gives you a body. I think I would much rather run Bearer of Silence in that spot if that is how he wnats to play the card. Strangler seems much better when you can cast it on T3 for maximum tempo.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
Seconded. I've decided to remove Wasteland Strangler completely given how unreliable to hit off it.
Here's the build that I used to go 2-1 last FNM:
4x Thought-Knot Seer
4x Reality Smasher
4x Matter Reshaper
3x Scrapheap Scrounger
3x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
2x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2x Distended Mindbender
Enchantments (2):
2x Dead Weight
Instants (6):
4x Grasp of Darkness
2x Murder
1x Ruinous Path
1x Harsh Scrutiny
2x Transgress the Mind
2x Live Fast
Planeswalker (1):
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
Lands (23):
14x Swamp
4x Aether Hub
2x Ruins of Oran-Rief
2x Blighted Fen
1x Mirrorpool
1x Transgress the Mind
2x Harsh Scrutiny
1x Ruinous Path
3x Flaying Tendrils
2x Lost Legacy
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2x Dead Weight
2x Collective Brutality
1x Ob Nixilis Reignited
I think our builds have always been good against Control, and since Control has seen more prominence at PT, we might expect more control played at all our local metas. However the absence of cards like Languish, Read the Bones, and painlands has really crippled us. I'm sure we can still do well but definitely not enough to beat all tier 1 decks out there right now. At best, I think B/x Eldrazi will be a Tier 1 janky home brew.
My approach is to be more aggressive. The biggest thing that I'm still [somewhat] debating is whether going 23 lands is a good choice. I did that because most of my previous losses came from drawing too many lands. I also concluded that we really need to be able to draw cards, hence the 2x Live Fast, which also gives us energy counters for reusing Aether Hub.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/wb-eldrazi-control-1st-fnm/
4x Eldrazi Displacer
4x Fairgrounds Warden
2x Gonti, Lord of Luxury
1x Noxious Gearhulk
3x Reality Smasher
4x Thought-Knot Seer
4x Wasteland Strangler
4x Declaration in Stone
1x Fumigate
3x Live Fast
4x Concealed Courtyard
4x Evolving Wilds
3x Plains
4x Shambling Vent
3x Swamp
2x Wastes
2x Immolating Glare
4x Authority of the Consuls
1x Archangel Avacyn Flip
2x Blessed Alliance
1x Cataclysmic Gearhulk
3x Fragmentize
2x Linvala, the Preserver
2x Skywhaler's Shot
2x Stasis Snare
kudos to Iniallator98..
any thoughts?
Meanwhile, I ran this list at a small event at my LGS Thursday night:
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Forerunner of Slaughter
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
4 Eternal Scourge
2 Drana, liberator of Malakir
2 Hanweir Garrison
4 Dust stalker
4 Incendiary Flow
4 grasp of Darkness
4 Unlicensed Disintegration
Lands 24
4 Smoldering Marsh
4 Foreboding Ruins
2 Hanweir Battlements
7 mountain
7 swamp
C Long Live Eldrazi C
4 Eldrazi Mimic
3 Scrapheap Scrounger
3 Smuggler's Copter
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
2 Distended Mindbender
Spells:
4 Transgress the Mind
4 Warping Wail
4 Spatial Contortion
10 Swamp
1 Wastes
2 Sea Gate Wreckage
4 Aether Hub
2 Ruins of Oran-Rief
4 Corrupted Crossroads
2 Blighted Fen
3 Flaying Tendrils
2 Lost Legacy
3 Harsh Scrutiny
3 Ruinous Path
4 Bearer of Silence
C Long Live Eldrazi C
I have and honestly I think more than half the time, the Scry is real benefit from it. After PT, there are more control decks being played where Harsh Scrutiny hits almost nothing. Not to mention that since we're playing black, we already have the best creatures removals to begin with.
I'm playing 1 in Main and 2 in SB because it's still against more aggro decks.
Creatures (24):
4x Hedron Crawler
4x Thought-Knot Seer
4x Reality Smasher
4x Matter Reshaper
4x Bearer of Silence
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2x Distended Mindbender
1x Skyship Sovereign, Consul Flagship
Planeswalker (1):
1x Ob Nixilis Reignited
Instants (7):
4x Grasp of Darkness
3x Spatial Contortion
Sorcery (4):
1x Harsh Scrutiny
3x Transgress the Mind
Lands (24):
13x Swamp
1x Aether Hub
3x Crumbling vestige
1x Ruins of Oran-Rief
2x Seagate Wreckage
2x Blighted Fen
1x Mirrorpool
Sideboard (15):
1x Transgress the Mind
3x Flaying Tendrils
2x Lost Legacy
2x Ob Nixilis Reignited
1x scrapheap scrounger
4x essence extraction
2x distended mindbender
Some of the numbers might seem a bit odd because, particularly in the sideboard, this is because I do not have a full playset of scrougners or aether hubs, which are on their way. I have two pptqs coming up and I think this deck is very well positioned for them. I would make the following observations:
Creatures:
Hedron Crawler: The opening hands with this card in it feel great particularly when on the play. Accelerating out big eldrazi is so good and this really unlocks the rest of the deck. It can chump block fine if topdecked and sometimes that's all you need. I think a full four are essential. Getting to activate our spell lands in the late game is essential too.
Bearer of Silence: Again I think a full four is where we want to be, although this could change if we see a big shift towards token strategies or flash.
Kalitas and distended mindbender: Kalitas was meant to be a two of but I could not find another copy. I think he belongs in the board though as a two of as we really want to be playing more removal with him. Mindbender is great, defo gets sideboarded out versus the most aggressive decks though.
Grasp of darkness: The best card in the deck. Kills everything of relevance in the format, from copters to avacyn. Keep a full four in vs control, getting their fulmaroles or shrinking a gearhulk is huge.
Transgress the mind/harsh scrutiny: I was just trying out the Scrutiny but it is very good and should be a full four. Even if you don’t hit a creature, having the information and getting to scry is worth a card and a mana at any point in the game vs control. Versus aggro this card is excellent, particularly versus the flash based decks as you can really play around their strategies. Transgress can stay in the board.
Sideboard: You either want to bring in more removal and go over the aggro decks or cut the curve down and go under control/combo. Not much to talk about although I do regret having included lost legacy, not hitting artifacts makes it pretty useless.
Given all this, this is where I am going moving forward:
Creatures (23):
4x Hedron Crawler
4x Thought-Knot Seer
4x Reality Smasher
4x Matter Reshaper
4x Bearer of Silence
3x Distended Mindbender
Planeswalker (1):
1x Ob Nixilis Reignited
Instants (8):
4x Grasp of Darkness
4x Spatial Contortion
Sorcery (4):
4x Harsh Scrutiny
Lands (24):
13x Swamp
4x Aether Hub
1x Crumbling vestige
3x Seagate Wreckage
2x Blighted Fen
1x Mirrorpool
Sideboard (15):
3x Transgress the Mind
4x Scrapheap Scrounger
1x Distended mindbender
2x Flaying Tendrils
3x Kalitas Traitor of Ghet
2x essence extraction
Let me know what you think!
Why have you chosen Ob Nix over Liliana? How do you feel about the mana? Have you considered adding Wastes and Evoling Wilds?
C Long Live Eldrazi C
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Forerunner of Slaughter
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
4 Eternal Scourge
2 Drana, liberator of Malakir
2 Hanweir Garrison
4 Dust stalker
4 Incendiary Flow
4 grasp of Darkness
4 Unlicensed Disintegration
Lands 24
4 Smoldering Marsh
4 Foreboding Ruins
2 Hanweir Battlements
7 mountain
7 swamp
despite its ability to beat down, I fell short a few times. The deck however is fun as heck. I am not a fan of Eternal Scourge. But since the deck is built around Eldrazi Mimic, I wanted a solid t3 devoid creature. Maybe I could switch them out with Lathnu Helion. There are many times a t2 Mimic can be followed by a t3 Forerunner or Scrounger. But removing devoid creatures weakens Mimic's effectiveness.
Meanwhile I am brewing a B/g Eldrazi list to try out
C Long Live Eldrazi C
Well the gameday only had 9 players but 4 of the 9 are very good running variants of the top tier netdecks.
Match 1 vs. homebrew RW artifact aggro. Loss 1-2
This wasn't the netdeck, he was running built to smash, built to last, thraben inspectors, Thalia, cultivators and skysovereign. Game 1 I flooded out but stablized late and had the match down to a 4-3 life game. Opponent top-decked a fleetwheel cruise for the win. Brought in the harsh scrutiny and lost legacy for a copter and 4 Transgress. Scrutinied a thalia on turn 1, dropped mimic t2 which he left alone. reshaper came out turn 3 and he chumped the mimic with an inspector. T4 mindbender saccing the reshaper, which triggered another reshaper. Opponent was so busy chump blocking, he didn't have any board presence for the rest of the game. Reality Smasher turn 5 sealed the game and he scooped. Game 3, mulliganed to 5 cards, and we each has some smaller creatures on the board (I had a scrounger, and two mimics, and he had a an exemplar, gisela and something else. I was at 12, he was at 6. I let him take back a sky sovereign play, and he had a built to last in hand for the match. I could have been a stickler for the rules, but it's for fun right? Entry was free and no prizes except the mat and promos
Match 2 vs. Esper Control Win 2-0
Game 1 was easy, I curved out (mimic, reshaper, thot knot, smasher, smasher) and he had a single stasis snare on my thot knot.
Sideboarded out four spatial contortion and a warping wail for lost legacy and ruinous path.
He was able to snare a reshaper, I warping wailed an eldrazi scion on his end step the next turn. Crewed a copter to attack and then sacced it for the 5th mana (missed the land drop) for the 5th mana to emerge a mindbender using the scrapheap scrounger. This hit his gideon and oath of liliana. Smasher next turn was the nail in the coffin.
Match 3 vs. American Dynavolt Control (This guy won the gameday the previous day with this deck) Win 2-0
Game 1, I had 3 spatial contortion in hand with a mimic. I didn't draw any other creatures until turn 8. He had 2 dynavolts on the field and had 8 energy by turn 5. After 3 counters in a row, he threw down a torrential gearhulk and countered a fourth creature I played. It was just a matter of time, but the gearhulk's body was just too big with all the mana he had open every turn and his card draw.
This was tough to sideboard out as dynavolt and gearhulks are artifacts, so lost legacy is an almost dead card, and he didn't run any planeswalkers mainboard. I ended up sideboarding in two lost legacy to maybe hit some of his counters and sided out 2 warping wails as he ran no sorceries.
Game 2
Opponent allowed me to resolve a matter reshaper, and tapped out to play dynavolt. I mindbender'ed his torrential gearhulk and anticipate. he drew 2 lands in a row, and my next turn I dropped a thought knot. He responded by hitting my mindbender harnessed lightning, but drew a counter. I dropped 2 smashers to end the game.
Game 3 started out with 6 turns of counters. scrounger was brought back 2 times (exiling mimic then a thought knot. Mindbender was summary of dismissalled, so scrounger was brought back a third time. This was his last card. I drew 3 reality smashers in a row and that ended the game pretty quickly.
At this point, one guy was undefeated and that was the end of the event. Notes that I kept in the back of my head was that I either had 4 energy and 5 swamps by the time the game ended, or only a single black source and couldn't cast a mindbender on turn 4 or even 5. The only enchantment removal the deck has is via hand disruption. I am still up in the air as to whether or not we need some sort of enchantment removal. The copters are great for early game, however lategame, they are a dead draw. If you play any deck with even a small amount of spot removal, you will not be able to crew the copter unless you drop one on turn 2 or 3 at the latest. After that, you really want to drop a thought knot or reality smasher instead. I will continue to test and update the thread as time goes on. At this point I need a few more games to determine what other cards if any need to be put in here.
Why wouldn't you run matter reshaper? it's a perfect curve card that replenishes itself or cantrips at the very least when it dies.
C Long Live Eldrazi C
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)