As I recall, the mardu vehicles deck was interesting because the player literally splashed blue just to run the Ceremonious Rejection. To be frank, it's the one good answer to all the colorless cards running around right now, both eldrazi and artifacts. I may very well buy up Spirebluff Canal just to afford the splash myself as it's quite literally the only instant speed answer for copter next to Immolating Glare.
What about fiery temper, lightning axe, harnessed lightning, skywhalers shot. I mean really the answers to copters are all over the place I see no reason to go way off base with mana just to have a 1 mana blue answer. I would guess that fella wasn't bringing in ceremonious rejection against copter and more then likely bringing it in against marvelworks and colossus decks.
As I recall, the mardu vehicles deck was interesting because the player literally splashed blue just to run the Ceremonious Rejection. To be frank, it's the one good answer to all the colorless cards running around right now, both eldrazi and artifacts. I may very well buy up Spirebluff Canal just to afford the splash myself as it's quite literally the only instant speed answer for copter next to Immolating Glare.
What about fiery temper, lightning axe, harnessed lightning, skywhalers shot. I mean really the answers to copters are all over the place I see no reason to go way off base with mana just to have a 1 mana blue answer. I would guess that fella wasn't bringing in ceremonious rejection against copter and more then likely bringing it in against marvelworks and colossus decks.
He might have brought it in against all of those + copter. It's a one cmc hard counter to an extremely broad range of answers in the current meta, many of which are key components to a lot of deck strategies. I bought a play set early because it worked so well in testing in my UW spirits list that it seemed criminal not to have four of them laying about.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
What would be the gameplan against aetherworks marvel decks? With a decent hand they can easily pump out an edrazi titan T6ish, and since they run a lot of artifact counters: it's about 2 turns before we have our win.
I've been actually sideboarding all artifacts except copter just to "counter artifact hate": but it seems silly?
Marvel isn't really a worry for this deck in my experience, really. At worst it's a 50/50 matchup, but it's probably slightly in our favor. If the deck stumbles at all you just crush them, and the deck stumbles quite often. If you're on the play, a turn 4 emrakul is sometimes not enough for them to swing the game around. (turn 4 ulamog, however, is usally game over)
I never liked the marvel deck because people got way too focused on trying to get 6 energy turn 4 to use it right away. That card in my mind looks like it would work in a Simic Emerge deck that uses Eldrich Evolution and Elder Deep fiend, or maybe an aristocrats style deck to get some extra value off of it to find some key piece to combo out on later. It's one of those cards that you want to own right now because something is going to come in Aether Revolt to make it really good.
Personally, I want to try Mardu vehicles and just go peanut butter and jelly with this thing. You get Scrapheap Scrounger going black, access to Unlicensed Disintegration, while keeping access to Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and a number of good one drops. I feel like we are about to enter the year of Gideon since he's such a beast against a number of decks. The only chance of a good replacement will be in Aether Revolt, assuming everyones favorite fluffy angry cat comes in swinging.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
4-1'd a MTGO League with this list. Went against B/G Delirium, G/R Energy, U/W Control, the mirror match and lost to Grixis Control. Thing in the Ice is really good against us. I feel like Grixis is probably this deck's worst matchup, and we'll just have to accept that fact. U/W Control I think is not very well equipped to defeat Mardu Vehicles because they have no way of killing Gideon and don't have Radiant Flames. I think Jeskai and Grixis Control are probably just strictly better decks than U/W (not sure if Grixis or Jeksai is stronger overall, or which is better vs Vehicles. I think they're both probably poor matchups for this deck) and people will stop playing U/W, but we'll just have to wait and see.
I feel like the worst card in the deck is probably the Fleetwheel Cruisers honestly, and I'm going to try cutting them for +1 Gideon and +1 Cultivator's Caravan. (moving the Gideon from the board and +1 something in the side, not quite sure what)
Fiery Temper - I'd love to take advantage of the Smuggler's Copter discard. Also, we need to be fast, and if they manage to stabilize, this might be enough to finish them off.
Played Chen's 4 color list at game day. went 3-0-1 and then undefeated in top 8
Played R/W Vehicles, Bant Midrange, GB Delerium both in tourney and top 8.
I will say 2 things. Gideon to me is a staple at 3 in the main. He is just superrrr good atm and emblem alone has won me a ton of games. Secondly Cultivator's Caravan is a staple at 3. The card in insane in the mirror and just super strong against control. I found Scrapheap Scrounger to be kind of mediocre but needed for artifact count.
The 4 color deck or even just Mardu is just super fast. I killed before turn 5 almost every game. And if it went long Clues+Depala+Gideon was just too much.
Bomat Courier - Anyone have any experience with the average number of cards you draw with this? I imagine it's a couple of cards if you get it turn 1 or 2, and probably 0-1 cards if you get it late game.
Inventor's Apprentice - It can't crew everything and it can't be brought up with Depala.
Ruinous Gremlin - I think serious consideration should be given to this as it can destroy Gearhulks, Copters (which are EVERYWHERE) and even the Skysovereign. Can also take out those random artifact decks (IE: Aetherworks Marvel. Has the same limitations as Thraben Inspector. Card draw and artifact or late game destructive capabilities (along with a turn 1 creature for copter)?
Topplegeist - Flying is always relevant, although I doubt we'll have delirium very much.
Which two drop do you think is best? The intent would be to add a little more power to the starting turns.
Thriving Grubs - It's red. Gives some energy for Harnessed Lightning or turns itself into an always 3/2 (after an attack). I like this one a lot because of the ability to be a 3/2 in the early game, or some added power to Harnessed Lightning late game (although it's a shame we can't get to 6 energy to kill Torrential Gearhulk).
Scrapheap Scrounger - I'm not sold yet on splashing black, but it's an always 3/2 (that can't block) for colorless mana. Turns on Toolcraft Exemplar.
The below deck is 61 cards, with 25 lands (based on my experience with Abzan Aggro), and I also want to find a way to fit in Cultivator's Caravan. Maybe drop to 23 lands and 2 Caravan (still at 61 cards though).
Also, another thing I'm seeing is the midrange/late game is very weak. If they can get to Avacyn, then things start getting ugly for me. Gideon + Gisela + Avacyn should hopefully make the late game a little better.
I'm planning to cut Bushwhacker for... something else.
Everything feels super draw dependent. If you curve Exemplar -> Copter -> Motorist/Depala and you aren't disrupted then basically nobody is beating you.
Honestly, if you aren't disrupted and just make reasonably good plays on turns 1-3, basically nobody is beating you. Being on the play helps massively with both.
The rest of the deck needs to be tuned to make your Plan B as strong as possible against the decks people are playing that weekend, and to break serve in the mirror.
At the moment, most people in my area play the mirror or UW Flash, so I just need to tune for those. Selfless Spirit + Archangel Avacyn + Skysovereign, Consul Flagship is my plan of attack for both decks. Avacyn and Skysovereign go over the top of everything they're doing: the 6/5 flier is the biggest thing on the field, neither deck plays much interaction for that, and each creature has some kind of battlefield effect that snowballs super hard. Avacyn's wrath effect cleans up all Spell Quellers on the field against UW, which means you're usually getting a free spell, maybe two, with your board wipe and 6/5; and the wrath kills every creature in WR, which strands all their Vehicles in play. And Skysovereign's snowballing is even more straightforward, it's a massive flying beater that also kills blockers for free on attacks.
I think I want a better way to beat GB Delirium in the maindeck, but I don't really know what to go for. Liliana is very hard to beat if you don't have the aforementioned great aggro draw, and it's hard to change that. Ishkanah doesn't seem as bad because of Declaration in Stone, but Liliana is so hard to answer cleanly without Copter. It's possible that Fleetwheel Cruiser is a necessary evil here, but that's only good on the play, and Gideon is about as good anyway if we're talking about 4-mana 'answers' (with the added bonus of an immediate emblem making Liliana much easier to handle). I think we just have to draw our Copters and hope that's enough vs Liliana. It's also possible that a swap to Inventor's Apprentice over Toolcraft Exemplar would help, but it's much less powerful than Exemplar imo.
Everything feels super draw dependent. If you curve Exemplar -> Copter -> Motorist/Depala and you aren't disrupted then basically nobody is beating you. Honestly, if you aren't disrupted and just make reasonably good plays on turns 1-3, basically nobody is beating you. Being on the play helps massively with both.
Hey scasseden!
These are my findings as well.
..and I guess the problems I have when they DO disrupt me and the game DOES go longer are the typical problems fast aggro decks have? Seems like my attempts to have a decent late game with Gideon/Gisela/Avacyn/Removal aren't helping too much.
Either I curve out with stuff early, and win, or I don't, and lose.
Everything feels super draw dependent. If you curve Exemplar -> Copter -> Motorist/Depala and you aren't disrupted then basically nobody is beating you. Honestly, if you aren't disrupted and just make reasonably good plays on turns 1-3, basically nobody is beating you. Being on the play helps massively with both.
Hey scasseden!
These are my findings as well.
..and I guess the problems I have when they DO disrupt me and the game DOES go longer are the typical problems fast aggro decks have? Seems like my attempts to have a decent late game with Gideon/Gisela/Avacyn/Removal aren't helping too much.
Either I curve out with stuff early, and win, or I don't, and lose.
Thats basically every aggro decks problem is that you run out of tricks and thats it if you can't pull something out then you just lose
Everything feels super draw dependent. If you curve Exemplar -> Copter -> Motorist/Depala and you aren't disrupted then basically nobody is beating you. Honestly, if you aren't disrupted and just make reasonably good plays on turns 1-3, basically nobody is beating you. Being on the play helps massively with both.
Hey scasseden!
These are my findings as well.
..and I guess the problems I have when they DO disrupt me and the game DOES go longer are the typical problems fast aggro decks have? Seems like my attempts to have a decent late game with Gideon/Gisela/Avacyn/Removal aren't helping too much.
Either I curve out with stuff early, and win, or I don't, and lose.
Not saying that you're doing this, but you can't just jam powerful high-end cards and removal into your aggro deck and expect it to give you a better lategame. Committing to playing cards like Toolcraft Exemplar is commitment to the fact that on turn 10 of a game, you will still have this card in your deck to draw, and it will probably suck really hard to draw it when you do. Trying to play a longer game when you have at most 10 "long game" cards like Gideon is a losing strategy against many slower decks, because those decks usually have a larger number of such cards to draw than you do.
Your top-end stuff has to have a specific plan in mind for its use. That way you can play to that plan if you can't just curve out and kill people. For example, if we don't have the Exemplar -> Copter -> Motorist/Depala draw, my deck's primary backup plan is Selfless Spirit + Archangel Avacyn. Usually if you didn't draw the parts of the curve-out plan, you drew Selfless Spirit and Avacyn, and those two make combat for your opponent very difficult individually -- which is important because you're usually going to be under the gun a bit if you aren't curving out (two of the three major decks, WRx Vehicles and UW Flash, are capable of getting under you if your draw is slow). And together, they represent the most powerful catchup plan in the format: sweeping the board, Bolting them, and getting a 6/5 flier in play.
Key to the City is the blades, Fiery Temper is the blades, breaking serve on the draw in the mirror is the blades, Ishkanah not getting to block ever is the blades. Everything is sweet.
Except Liliana. Liliana is not sweet. Liliana is impossible to beat basically.
Lil isn't really a big deal play more vehicles a fleetwheel cruiser kills Liliana no problem. I think burn in this deck is not what want to be doing, I test fiery temper and it very rarely got out for its madness cost making it 3 mana for 3 dmg about 95% of the time.
Actually, burn is sorta good here for closing out the game, problem is that you have the fast stuff that only works as removal (Harnessed Lightning), the good stuff that's sorcery speed (Incendiary Flow), and then Fiery Temper which demands a better Madness engine to make the most of.
We're in the market for a Lightning Strike, though. 2CMC, instant speed, can close the game just as well as it can clear stuff off the field.
But theoretically Liliana, and planeswalkers in general, should easily get stuffed by something like Fleetwheel.
I've brought a Human Burn deck list to a 35 players PPTQ last week, with very good results (4th, with an intentional draw... and I'm an average pilot). I would like to invite Spikes to try and test this list in the current metagame and tell me what you think of it. I think it has all the right ingredients to perform really well : burns of 4 to deal with the staple creatures of the format ; burns that can kill Planeswalkers and opponents too ; some Copters, Angels or Spirits to grant evasion and indestructibility ; and Humans with great synergy and abilities very useful in this UW Flash and GB Delirium environment.
How does this deck fare against UW flash and GB Delirium?
Are you asking this about the latest post, me inviting people to the Boros Human Burn thread? Or is your question about RW Vehicles ?
If you were wondering about Boros Human Burn vs UW Flash and GB Delirium... Most comments so far is that UW Flash is matchup that is favorable to Boros Human Burn. Myself, I'm undefeated yet against them, and other players are reporting the same. Only one so far is complaining that it depends on who's on the play first. I consider that post SB the matchup is even more in our favor, an losing game 1 turns into 2-1 results.
GB Delirium is... well... not so easy. I've played 5 games with Boros Human Burn against it, but one was vs a rookie player, so let's exclude this one. The other 4 games : 0-2, 2-1, 2-1, 0-2. But that was before I added Thalia, Heretic Cathar to the main deck. She's amazing at slowing them down, because they have to lose a turn dealing with her and this delays their creatures. If they don't remove her, Kalitas, Ishkanah and spider Tokens ETB tapped, which allow for a free turn of attacks, and this is very favorable for a deck that can burn the rest of damage through. Also, I didn't play Gideon the right way in the matchup. I was focused on producing tokens, but attacking them with 5/5 indestructible is far better, as all their blockers die to him or damage get through. Again, this is favorable to decks that can burn (us). I beleive that the deck now has a small hedge vs GB Delirium.
Please talk about vehicles. This is spam because it is off-topic. -- Lugger
Edit : You are right, boss. Sorry. I was trying to help, but should have redirected @StritchnineGaming to the appropriate thread, and answer there. I should have known better...
On the topic of Liliana, the Last Hope being an absolute beating against us, what about adding some copies of Always Watching? It's not preventative in the sense that you're not able to get it in on curve before you play Veteran Motorist, but you can maybe sequence a little differently, and if you have the option of Motorist or Copter on two you're playing Copter 100% of the time anyways. I've been rolling with Reid Duke's winning list from SCG Baltimore and it's been great. https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/506314#online
How does this deck fare against UW flash and GB Delirium?
WR Vehicles is favored against UW Flash and a dog to BG Delirium. You get underneath UW Flash pretty easily and their endgame doesn't go over the top of yours, so you win or compete evenly at all points in the game. BG Delirium is difficult because they go over you with Emrakul and Ishkanah, but they also have Liliana to stop you from going under them.
Both matchups are close in their respective directions though. Player skill and sideboarding are the make-or-break areas of the matchups more than anything else.
On the topic of Liliana, the Last Hope being an absolute beating against us, what about adding some copies of Always Watching? It's not preventative in the sense that you're not able to get it in on curve before you play Veteran Motorist, but you can maybe sequence a little differently, and if you have the option of Motorist or Copter on two you're playing Copter 100% of the time anyways. I've been rolling with Reid Duke's winning list from SCG Baltimore and it's been great. https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/506314#online
Thought about this. Haven't tested it because I have yet to find anything I'd actually want to cut from my list to include it. That said, I think I would rather just maindeck Gideon and use his -4 if I felt that anthem effects were the way to go against Liliana. In my experience, the best angle of attack is just boarding out all the 1-toughness dudes except Veteran Motorist. Selfless Spirit is a total blank in the matchup anyway, and Toolcraft Exemplar is pretty hit-or-miss too. Motorist at least makes Copter a 4/4 so you can murk Liliana immediately. Someone else said Fleetwheel Cruiser, I'd sb that before playing Always Watching anywhere in the 75 I think.
You can't let Liliana sit around and gain 2 life per turn even if she's not necessarily killing your dudes for free, so the best answers for her are going to involve ways of killing her the turn after she comes down, while insulating yourself against the one activation she does get. Always Watching does this to some degree so perhaps it's worth looking into.
[quote from="d00mwake »" url="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/standard-type-2/proven-standard/756777-rw-dwarf-vehicle-aggro?comment=113"]On the topic of Liliana, the Last Hope being an absolute beating against us, what about adding some copies of Always Watching? It's not preventative in the sense that you're not able to get it in on curve before you play Veteran Motorist, but you can maybe sequence a little differently, and if you have the option of Motorist or Copter on two you're playing Copter 100% of the time anyways. I've been rolling with Reid Duke's winning list from SCG Baltimore and it's been great. https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/506314#online
Thought about this. Haven't tested it because I have yet to find anything I'd actually want to cut from my list to include it. That said, I think I would rather just maindeck Gideon and use his -4 if I felt that anthem effects were the way to go against Liliana. In my experience, the best angle of attack is just boarding out all the 1-toughness dudes except Veteran Motorist. Selfless Spirit is a total blank in the matchup anyway, and Toolcraft Exemplar is pretty hit-or-miss too. Motorist at least makes Copter a 4/4 so you can murk Liliana immediately. Someone else said Fleetwheel Cruiser, I'd sb that before playing Always Watching anywhere in the 75 I think.
You can't let Liliana sit around and gain 2 life per turn even if she's not necessarily killing your dudes for free, so the best answers for her are going to involve ways of killing her the turn after she comes down, while insulating yourself against the one activation she does get. Always Watching does this to some degree so perhaps it's worth looking into.
Any thoughts on Quarantine Field for Liliana? Seems like it could be a little slow but that matchup isn't exactly all about speed anyways.
I don't think this deck is good without Gideon or Avacyn honestly. Avacyn herself is kinda mediocre in this deck, I've learned, as I've played more of it. But Gideon is nuts and really makes everything go. You're going to find that a UW deck fully constructed will be trouble for you because the power level of the expensive staples is off the charts.
WR Vehicles is an aggressively-slanted midrange deck which seeks to use efficient 1-3 mana creatures and Vehicles to seize a tempo advantage right from the beginning of the game. It leverages this tempo advantage to win with Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, a planeswalker whose effectiveness varies substantially depending on the degree to which his controller is advantaged or disadvantaged on the board.
How are its matchups against the top decks in the current Standard metagame?
WR Vehicles, despite being the most aggressive of the top decks in Standard right now, is the deck which I've found to have the least polarized matchups in the format. Usually the format's "speed limit" deck -- the deck which emerges as the fastest deck among the format's top tier -- has among its most polarized matchups, because it is usually all-in on a particular linear mechanic or sequence and has very little in the way of "flex" room in its list for meaningful adjustments to the opponent's strategy. The fast deck usually has one way it wins, and if that path to victory lines up well with its opponent's strategy, it wins, and if not, it struggles and often loses.
Not so with WR Vehicles. The deck has some significant internal synergies focused around Smuggler's Copter, but only Copter and Toolcraft Exemplar ask for meaningful concessions in deckbuilding. As long as you keep enough artifacts to turn on Exemplar and enough creatures to pilot the Copter, you can kinda do whatever you want with the rest. This gives you much more flexibility in how you approach sideboarding. Additionally, the deck doesn't have to win with a draw involving Toolcraft Exemplar, and indeed there will be matchups where it is a bit of a liability and needs to come out. This is a big advantage that most fast top-tier decks normally don't have access to, and is the main reason I consider the deck a midrange deck first.
The matchup spread:
UW Flash: You are significantly but not overwhelmingly favored -- it is a 55/45 type of matchup. You are advantaged in this matchup because both decks are Gideon decks -- the matchup is decided by which player can resolve and protect Gideon, who provides you with incremental board advantage and a massive finishing body all in one card. Gideon is very dependent on his controller not being behind in board development when he hits the field, and WR is faster and plays more statistically-efficient creatures than UW, which allows WR to achieve a consistent battlefield advantage when Gideon comes down. Your strategy in this matchup is relatively straightforward: you are going to have lots of chances for good attacks and should take them. Eliminate opposing Gideons on sight and don't attack into five untapped lands unless one of the following is true: (1) you have lethal damage through an Archangel Avacyn; (2) you have a Stasis Snare for Avacyn, and the indestructible trigger for their team doesn't lead to you getting blown out by their block; (3) you have a Key to the City and can simply use it to make your best attacker unblockable, bypassing Avacyn's effects. The only cards in their deck that actually have a chance of beating you are Avacyn, Gideon, and an unanswered Gisela, the Broken Blade, so focus your planning on being able to beat these cards; you will be given plenty of time to do it, since you will pressure them early and your Gideon will put pressure on them to attack when they really shouldn't be.
BG Delirium: After a lot of playtesting and tuning with this deck in mind, I'm happy to report that this matchup is 50/50. BG Delirium is fundamentally well-equipped for this matchup primarily due to the presence of Liliana, the Last Hope and Ishkanah, Grafwidow; the matchup can still be made even with particular deckbuilding decisions by the WR player and a clear understanding of what matters. Liliana is good against this deck, especially in game 1, because she frequently hits the field on turn 3, kills something with her +1 and demands four damage on the spot if you don't want her to do it again, which isn't easy to muster when one of your early creatures got killed. Ishkanah is good against this deck because her Spider tokens are well-sized against the creatures the deck chooses to play -- they can double-block a Thraben Inspector and lose nobody, double-block a Knight Ally token or Toolcraft Exemplar and trade off, triple-block a Smuggler's Copter or Depala, Pilot Exemplar and trade off, or trade off 1-for-1 with Veteran Motorist -- and because recurring her to spawn a mob of the tokens is not difficult for BG to do. In short, BG is advantaged because its two key threats prior to Emrakul are perfectly-sized against WR's best creatures, allowing it to blunt WR's assault before lethal damage can be assembled and drag things out to win with Emrakul.
The key to this matchup, then, is sizing. Gideon is by far your best weapon here and your only real way to win in game 1. A Gideon emblem completely changes the dynamic of the game, as now the Spider tokens suddenly aren't good enough to get the job done, and Liliana's +1 becomes a much more modest power reduction instead of a repeatable kill spell. Additionally, Gideon's Knight Allies allow you to keep pace with BG's Spider token spam, and Gideon himself is a great attacker since he can kill Ishkanah in one hit, usually kills Liliana in one hit (and can't be affected by Liliana's +1), and kills fast when he's able to connect consistently. Depala, Pilot Exemplar is also crucial here because she acts as a pseudo-"emblem" from Gideon, protecting your Exemplars and Motorists from Liliana and the Spider swarm; and she is surprisingly difficult for BG to actually kill, as the deck only plays the playset of Grasp of Darkness and maybe 1-2 Murder or Ruinous Path for removal. Key to the City is also important, especially in tandem with Gideon; the cleanest way to beat Ishkanah is to attack with your biggest unblockable dude and make them try to race, which favors you, as your creatures (for their sizing woes defensively) are better on defense than Ishkanah and her anemic brood is on offense. You have to juggle things very carefully to beat BG; you want to avoid presenting a good opportunity for Liliana to come down and +1 if you can. Save your Veteran Motorists if they're about to take their third turn, as those guys are very good immediately after Liliana hits the field (giving you the chance to crew a Copter and kill her immediately, regardless of how she used her +1 the previous turn). Be willing to be slightly mana-inefficient if the situation calls for it, because you can't afford to get blown out by Liliana. Ishkanah is the most difficult factor, especially since BG can play her more than once; try to save exiling removal for Ishkanah if you can, since that greatly reduces the effectiveness of Grapple with the Past against you. Using Gideon well is instrumental to victory -- there's no hard and fast rules for when you should cash him in for an emblem vs when you should spam tokens vs when you should clock them. Practice makes perfect here.
RGx Aetherworks Marvel: You are a slight underdog in this matchup -- something like 48/52, not quite 45/55 but definitely worse than 50/50. Aetherworks Marvel is simply a turn too fast for you to be a favorite against it. Without a doubt your gameplan is to max out on aggression and try to run them over before they can start doing their thing with Marvel. Servant of the Conduit is arguably their best card against you, as bizarre as that will sound: it is extremely well-sized against you, since it bricks Thraben Inspector and trades with everything but Depala, and they get to choose whether they value the mana acceleration more than the body, which means that Servant will always do what's worse for you (trade when they want to buy setup time, sit back and ramp when they're ready to kill you). Don't be afraid to use an early Declaration in Stone or Fiery Temper on it, as opposed to saving Declaration for a bigger threat or sending Fiery Temper upstairs. This is a matchup where you just want a singleminded approach toward maximizing the amount of damage you can do. Play to your "nut draws" -- you have a lot of permutations of good aggressive sequences and shouldn't settle for middling, somewhat durdly hands. Your best weapons against Ishkanah in BG Delirium (Gideon, Key to the City) are similarly great here since Ishkanah is their Plan A for stabilizing (aside from the Plan 0 of hitting Emrakul on turn 4, but there's nothing you can do about that, realistically).
URx Control: You are a slight favorite in this matchup, again 52/48 type of matchup, but this time you're on top. The reason for this is simple -- Copter and Gideon are the two best cards in your deck, and both of them are resilient not only to sweepers but spot removal in general, if you want them to be. Your creatures are efficient and quick enough to put a real clock on them early, which forces them to line up a lot of specific answers -- countermagic for planeswalkers and Copters, which can't be removed if you don't want them to be; spot removal for Selfless Spirits and sweepers for the rest -- in a very short window. If they can do it and get to six mana, then they're in a pretty good spot with Torrential Gearhulk stabilizing the ground and giving them another spell to try to handle Gideon or Chandra or Copter, but you have a chance to draw live with Key to the City filtering draw steps and Fiery Temper burning them out. Your challenge in this matchup is to pinch them on mana and mess up the sequencing of their spells. If you're on the play and curve 1-drop into Copter, and they pass with mana for Harnessed Lightning up, don't Crew your Copter and give them a chance to answer it cleanly on curve. Save it for turn 4, when they have to choose between using Harnessed Lightning on your Copter (while you've given them the window) and holding up Void Shatter for Gideon or Chandra with the option to cast Glimmer of Genius EOT. If they hit your Copter at that point, then you've got your window to resolve the much more deadly planeswalker in your hand. If they don't, then you got 3-4 free hasty damage in, which is no small thing either. Similarly, if you're on the play and they pass with Void Shatter mana up, don't jam Gideon main 1 to crew Copter. In fact, probably don't play Gideon at all there; you're going to find that control decks struggle mightily to beat him once he resolves, so playing around their countermagic by forcing action somewhere else is key. Sequence your most backbreaking threats to come down on the same turn that you force significant action from your opponent.
RB Aggro: Finally a truly bad matchup, at least preboard. I consider this a 45/55 matchup overall. Game 1 is pretty bad: RB Aggro is faster than you and makes you play defense almost from the jump, which your creatures are very bad at doing, and your planeswalkers become dramatically less efficient as a result. Remember what we said about Gideon and Chandra needing you to be ahead? Yeah, that goes both ways, and this is the matchup where it comes back to bite ya, at least in Game 1. I'm talking a lot about Game 1 here, because things change substantially once you go to the sideboard. In Game 1 your best hope is that they stumble out of the gates or don't draw very much burn. You want to trade off cards as much as possible to preserve your life total and stabilize the battlefield. Gideon is actually fine against them if, by some minor miracle, you get to turn 4 with a board at parity. The stream of 2/2s is pretty difficult to beat, and him starting at 4 loyalty means that he demands two burn effects from them before he dies, which is not necessarily easy for them to muster on demand. After board, things get a lot easier, because you can cut your cards that are bad on defense and bring in removal. Postboard you are much better equipped to trade off cards and stay at parity on the field, so your planeswalker plan becomes much more efficient. Additionally, many aggro pilots fail to recognize that the postboard games are not races, especially when they're going first. They'll make plays to maximize damage and prevent crackbacks when those aren't realistic concerns for how you're going to win the game after your bad defensive creatures are gone and you're playing more interaction.
Sideboarding
Sideboarding is a bit tricky, mainly because there are times where Toolcraft Exemplar comes out, and you have to know when that's the way to go. I talked about how to approach each major matchup generally, so I'll just discuss the purpose of each card in the board so you can sideboard for yourself.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance: Chandra is the real deal. She's kind of your "backup Gideons" of a sort, in that she gives you a powerful curve-topper to complement your early aggression. She has some very different functions from Gideon which leads to very different play patterns, but fundamentally she fills the same role. She's very good against Delirium, where she can come down and shoot a Grim Flayer or Kalitas and force some overextension on the Delirium player's part to answer her before she can start generating incremental advantage. You want Chandra in matchups where both players will be trading resources, since Chandra is usually at least a 2-for-1 even if immediately attacked to death, and runs away with card advantage if left unchecked.
Skysovereign, Consul Flagship: The big boat is a major trump in matchups where your opponents are playing smaller creatures, like the mirror, RB Aggro, and UW Flash. Often these decks are sparse on removal for Skysovereign and may not have it on the radar (as it's fallen out of favor in these decks). It's too big for Grasp of Darkness or most Harnessed Lightning, sorceries can't hit it, it dodges Fragmentize and Spell Queller due to its CMC... just has built-in resilience to many of the format's common artifact answers. Bring it in when you expect 3 damage to kill the significant majority of the opponent's creatures.
Galvanic Bombardment: This is your pivot card with Toolcraft Exemplar in the aggro matchups. Whenever you need to be blocking, Exemplar is pretty bad. It blocks as a 2/2 if you're lucky and have an anthem effect in play, otherwise it's basically blank text. Bombardment, on the other hand, is excellent in these matchups where Exemplar is bad. Straight swapping these two happens basically anytime you would need to block.
Stasis Snare: A relatively weak singleton slot here, just gives you one extra piece of catch-all exiling removal. Useful when some aspects of Fiery Temper or Declaration in Stone make them suboptimal afterboard: maybe Temper doesn't kill enough opposing creatures or Declaration in Stone being a sorcery or investigating is a liability. Also useful against Delirium, where exiling is at a premium, and where you're already cutting cards anyway.
Fragmentize: Necessary for sniping Aetherworks Marvel and Dynavolt Tower. Also good in the mirror and against RB Aggro, where one-mana artifact removal gives you crucial early interaction on the cheap. Some people bring this in against UW Flash, since it hits Stasis Snare and Smuggler's Copter, but I usually don't find that I particularly care about either one of those cards in UW.
Reckless Bushwhacker: Bushwhacker is an odd inclusion in this deck, since it doesn't go very wide and has a lot of high-CMC cards, which both play poorly with surge. Bushwhacker is simply there as an additional way to get a quick "nut draw kill" in matchups where all that matters is maximizing damage output. You can have sequences where you curve Exemplar into Copter into Exemplar, Bushwhacker, hold priority on the surge ETB trigger and Crew Copter -- this sequence represents six damage from the Bushwhacker compared to any other card in the sequence (nine if compared to cards that can't Crew the Copter). Bushwhacker just gives you more iterations of turn-4 and turn-5 kills, which you need against decks trying to get you dead at around the same time and which you can't interact with. Bring in Bushwhacker when your goal for the game is just to 20 somebody ASAP at all costs.
Fleetwheel Cruiser: Rounding out the sideboard is the Cruiser, a staple of WR that's fallen out of favor since the Pro Tour. Cruiser is another card you want when you're trying to kill someone ASAP, as it's actually the highest damage producing 4-drop available to the deck, if measuring damage potential through turn 6 -- Gideon's damage output with 0 into repeated +1 overtakes Cruiser's on turn 7, but haste and auto-Crewing on ETB makes Cruiser the most damaging 4-drop available. You also want Cruiser against control decks, where you can punish them for tapping low for a wrath or just draw the last bit of pressure you need; and you want it against Delirium, since it lines up well against Spider tokens (any +1/+1 or better effect makes it smoosh all the Spiders in one go, and come out intact; or run over Ishkanah herself and live to tell the tale), and gives you a quick burst of damage off the top to win as well. You don't want it in the maindeck because it's too linear a card for the format right now -- for every Aetherworks and Delirium deck where you're trying to just get 'em dead in game 1, there's a Flash or mirror match where Cruiser's one-sided offensive focus is a liability given its mana cost -- but you definitely want it in the 75 because it's very good against several decks.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Standard: GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern: RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy: BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
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What about fiery temper, lightning axe, harnessed lightning, skywhalers shot. I mean really the answers to copters are all over the place I see no reason to go way off base with mana just to have a 1 mana blue answer. I would guess that fella wasn't bringing in ceremonious rejection against copter and more then likely bringing it in against marvelworks and colossus decks.
He might have brought it in against all of those + copter. It's a one cmc hard counter to an extremely broad range of answers in the current meta, many of which are key components to a lot of deck strategies. I bought a play set early because it worked so well in testing in my UW spirits list that it seemed criminal not to have four of them laying about.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Marvel isn't really a worry for this deck in my experience, really. At worst it's a 50/50 matchup, but it's probably slightly in our favor. If the deck stumbles at all you just crush them, and the deck stumbles quite often. If you're on the play, a turn 4 emrakul is sometimes not enough for them to swing the game around. (turn 4 ulamog, however, is usally game over)
Personally, I want to try Mardu vehicles and just go peanut butter and jelly with this thing. You get Scrapheap Scrounger going black, access to Unlicensed Disintegration, while keeping access to Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and a number of good one drops. I feel like we are about to enter the year of Gideon since he's such a beast against a number of decks. The only chance of a good replacement will be in Aether Revolt, assuming everyones favorite fluffy angry cat comes in swinging.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I feel like the worst card in the deck is probably the Fleetwheel Cruisers honestly, and I'm going to try cutting them for +1 Gideon and +1 Cultivator's Caravan. (moving the Gideon from the board and +1 something in the side, not quite sure what)
4 Bomat Courier
4 Toolcraft Exemplar
4 Inventor's Apprentice
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
4 Veteran Motorist
2 Pia Nalaar
2 Depala, Pilot Exemplar
Artifacts
4 Smuggler's Copter
2 Cultivator's Caravan
2 Fleetwheel Cruiser
4 Unlicensed Disintegration
Planeswalkers
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Land
5 Mountain
5 Plains
4 Inspiring Vantage
4 Concealed Courtyard
4 Aether Hub
4 Galvanic Bombardment
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
2 Transgress the Mind
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
3 Fragmentize
3 Selfless Spirit
4 Thraben Inspector
4 Toolcraft Exemplar
4 Veteran Motorist
3 Selfless Spirit
3 Depala, Pilot Exemplar
Planeswalkers
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Vehicles
4 Smuggler's Copter
2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
3 Harnessed Lightning
3 Fiery Temper
3 Stasis Snare
Land
4 Needle Spires
4 Inspiring Vantage
6 Mountain
10 Plains
4 Fragmentize
4 Skywhaler's Shot
4 Weaver of Lightning
3 Gisela, the Broken Blade
Stasis Snare - Takes care of Emrakul, the Promised End and anything else we may come across.
The sideboard is definitely a work in progress...
Gisela, the Broken Blade - Take out Selfless Spirit and bring her in for the mirror, and decks that are faster.
Played R/W Vehicles, Bant Midrange, GB Delerium both in tourney and top 8.
I will say 2 things. Gideon to me is a staple at 3 in the main. He is just superrrr good atm and emblem alone has won me a ton of games. Secondly Cultivator's Caravan is a staple at 3. The card in insane in the mirror and just super strong against control. I found Scrapheap Scrounger to be kind of mediocre but needed for artifact count.
The 4 color deck or even just Mardu is just super fast. I killed before turn 5 almost every game. And if it went long Clues+Depala+Gideon was just too much.
Thanks for the playmat Lee<3
Which one drop do you think is best? The intent would be to replace Thraben Inspector.
Thraben Inspector - Replaces itself. Can't be brought up with Depala, Pilot Exemplar. Can't crew anything beyond the Smuggler's Copter. The clue fuels Toolcraft Exemplar.
Bomat Courier - Anyone have any experience with the average number of cards you draw with this? I imagine it's a couple of cards if you get it turn 1 or 2, and probably 0-1 cards if you get it late game.
Inventor's Apprentice - It can't crew everything and it can't be brought up with Depala.
Ruinous Gremlin - I think serious consideration should be given to this as it can destroy Gearhulks, Copters (which are EVERYWHERE) and even the Skysovereign. Can also take out those random artifact decks (IE: Aetherworks Marvel. Has the same limitations as Thraben Inspector. Card draw and artifact or late game destructive capabilities (along with a turn 1 creature for copter)?
Topplegeist - Flying is always relevant, although I doubt we'll have delirium very much.
Which two drop do you think is best? The intent would be to add a little more power to the starting turns.
Kor Castigator - It's white.
Thriving Grubs - It's red. Gives some energy for Harnessed Lightning or turns itself into an always 3/2 (after an attack). I like this one a lot because of the ability to be a 3/2 in the early game, or some added power to Harnessed Lightning late game (although it's a shame we can't get to 6 energy to kill Torrential Gearhulk).
Weapons Trainer - It's red AND white. Always 3/2.
Scrapheap Scrounger - I'm not sold yet on splashing black, but it's an always 3/2 (that can't block) for colorless mana. Turns on Toolcraft Exemplar.
The below deck is 61 cards, with 25 lands (based on my experience with Abzan Aggro), and I also want to find a way to fit in Cultivator's Caravan. Maybe drop to 23 lands and 2 Caravan (still at 61 cards though).
Also, another thing I'm seeing is the midrange/late game is very weak. If they can get to Avacyn, then things start getting ugly for me. Gideon + Gisela + Avacyn should hopefully make the late game a little better.
3 Ruinous Gremlin
4 Toolcraft Exemplar
4 Veteran Motorist
4 Thriving Grubs
2 Selfless Spirit
2 Depala, Pilot Exemplar
2 Gisela, the Broken Blade
2 Archangel Avacyn
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Vehicles
4 Smuggler's Copter
1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
Spells
3 Harnessed Lightning
2 Stasis Snare
4 Needle Spires
4 Inspiring Vantage
7 Mountain
10 Plains
.
[EDIT]
This is the newest version I'm going to give a try for a bit...
2 Ruinous Gremlin
2 Thraben Inspector
4 Toolcraft Exemplar
4 Veteran Motorist
1 Thriving Grubs
2 Scrapheap Scrounger
3 Selfless Spirit
2 Depala, Pilot Exemplar
2 Gisela, the Broken Blade
2 Archangel Avacyn
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Vehicles
4 Smuggler's Copter
Spells
3 Harnessed Lightning
2 Stasis Snare
Land
4 Needle Spires
4 Inspiring Vantage
7 Mountain
9 Plains
2 Fragmentize
2 Skywhaler's Shot
3 Weaver of Lightning
1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
4 Galvanic Bombardment
3 Quarantine Field
I just top 8'd Louisiana TCG States with my take on WR Vehicles.
4 Toolcraft Exemplar
4 Thraben Inspector
4 Veteran Motorist
4 Selfless Spirit
3 Depala, Pilot Exemplar
2 Pia Nalaar
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
2 Archangel Avacyn
4 Smuggler's Copter
1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
Spells (6)
3 Fiery Temper
3 Declaration in Stone
Lands (24)
4 Inspiring Vantage
4 Needle Spires
10 Plains
6 Mountain
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4 Galvanic Bombardment
2 Stasis Snare
2 Magmatic Chasm
2 Fragmentize
2 Reckless Bushwhacker
I'm planning to cut Bushwhacker for... something else.
Everything feels super draw dependent. If you curve Exemplar -> Copter -> Motorist/Depala and you aren't disrupted then basically nobody is beating you.
Honestly, if you aren't disrupted and just make reasonably good plays on turns 1-3, basically nobody is beating you. Being on the play helps massively with both.
The rest of the deck needs to be tuned to make your Plan B as strong as possible against the decks people are playing that weekend, and to break serve in the mirror.
At the moment, most people in my area play the mirror or UW Flash, so I just need to tune for those. Selfless Spirit + Archangel Avacyn + Skysovereign, Consul Flagship is my plan of attack for both decks. Avacyn and Skysovereign go over the top of everything they're doing: the 6/5 flier is the biggest thing on the field, neither deck plays much interaction for that, and each creature has some kind of battlefield effect that snowballs super hard. Avacyn's wrath effect cleans up all Spell Quellers on the field against UW, which means you're usually getting a free spell, maybe two, with your board wipe and 6/5; and the wrath kills every creature in WR, which strands all their Vehicles in play. And Skysovereign's snowballing is even more straightforward, it's a massive flying beater that also kills blockers for free on attacks.
I think I want a better way to beat GB Delirium in the maindeck, but I don't really know what to go for. Liliana is very hard to beat if you don't have the aforementioned great aggro draw, and it's hard to change that. Ishkanah doesn't seem as bad because of Declaration in Stone, but Liliana is so hard to answer cleanly without Copter. It's possible that Fleetwheel Cruiser is a necessary evil here, but that's only good on the play, and Gideon is about as good anyway if we're talking about 4-mana 'answers' (with the added bonus of an immediate emblem making Liliana much easier to handle). I think we just have to draw our Copters and hope that's enough vs Liliana. It's also possible that a swap to Inventor's Apprentice over Toolcraft Exemplar would help, but it's much less powerful than Exemplar imo.
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
These are my findings as well.
..and I guess the problems I have when they DO disrupt me and the game DOES go longer are the typical problems fast aggro decks have? Seems like my attempts to have a decent late game with Gideon/Gisela/Avacyn/Removal aren't helping too much.
Either I curve out with stuff early, and win, or I don't, and lose.
Thats basically every aggro decks problem is that you run out of tricks and thats it if you can't pull something out then you just lose
Not saying that you're doing this, but you can't just jam powerful high-end cards and removal into your aggro deck and expect it to give you a better lategame. Committing to playing cards like Toolcraft Exemplar is commitment to the fact that on turn 10 of a game, you will still have this card in your deck to draw, and it will probably suck really hard to draw it when you do. Trying to play a longer game when you have at most 10 "long game" cards like Gideon is a losing strategy against many slower decks, because those decks usually have a larger number of such cards to draw than you do.
Your top-end stuff has to have a specific plan in mind for its use. That way you can play to that plan if you can't just curve out and kill people. For example, if we don't have the Exemplar -> Copter -> Motorist/Depala draw, my deck's primary backup plan is Selfless Spirit + Archangel Avacyn. Usually if you didn't draw the parts of the curve-out plan, you drew Selfless Spirit and Avacyn, and those two make combat for your opponent very difficult individually -- which is important because you're usually going to be under the gun a bit if you aren't curving out (two of the three major decks, WRx Vehicles and UW Flash, are capable of getting under you if your draw is slow). And together, they represent the most powerful catchup plan in the format: sweeping the board, Bolting them, and getting a 6/5 flier in play.
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
4 Toolcraft Exemplar
4 Thraben Inspector
4 Veteran Motorist
4 Selfless Spirit
3 Depala, Pilot Exemplar
2 Pia Nalaar
2 Archangel Avacyn
Artifacts (7)
4 Smuggler's Copter
2 Key to the City
1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
4 Fiery Temper
2 Declaration in Stone
Lands (24)
4 Needle Spires
4 Inspiring Vantage
10 Plains
6 Mountain
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
4 Galvanic Bombardment
2 Stasis Snare
2 Fragmentize
1 Magmatic Chasm
Key to the City is the blades, Fiery Temper is the blades, breaking serve on the draw in the mirror is the blades, Ishkanah not getting to block ever is the blades. Everything is sweet.
Except Liliana. Liliana is not sweet. Liliana is impossible to beat basically.
BUT EVERYTHING ELSE!
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
We're in the market for a Lightning Strike, though. 2CMC, instant speed, can close the game just as well as it can clear stuff off the field.
But theoretically Liliana, and planeswalkers in general, should easily get stuffed by something like Fleetwheel.
I've brought a Human Burn deck list to a 35 players PPTQ last week, with very good results (4th, with an intentional draw... and I'm an average pilot). I would like to invite Spikes to try and test this list in the current metagame and tell me what you think of it. I think it has all the right ingredients to perform really well : burns of 4 to deal with the staple creatures of the format ; burns that can kill Planeswalkers and opponents too ; some Copters, Angels or Spirits to grant evasion and indestructibility ; and Humans with great synergy and abilities very useful in this UW Flash and GB Delirium environment.
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
Are you asking this about the latest post, me inviting people to the Boros Human Burn thread? Or is your question about RW Vehicles ?
If you were wondering about Boros Human Burn vs UW Flash and GB Delirium... Most comments so far is that UW Flash is matchup that is favorable to Boros Human Burn. Myself, I'm undefeated yet against them, and other players are reporting the same. Only one so far is complaining that it depends on who's on the play first. I consider that post SB the matchup is even more in our favor, an losing game 1 turns into 2-1 results.
GB Delirium is... well... not so easy. I've played 5 games with Boros Human Burn against it, but one was vs a rookie player, so let's exclude this one. The other 4 games : 0-2, 2-1, 2-1, 0-2. But that was before I added Thalia, Heretic Cathar to the main deck. She's amazing at slowing them down, because they have to lose a turn dealing with her and this delays their creatures. If they don't remove her, Kalitas, Ishkanah and spider Tokens ETB tapped, which allow for a free turn of attacks, and this is very favorable for a deck that can burn the rest of damage through. Also, I didn't play Gideon the right way in the matchup. I was focused on producing tokens, but attacking them with 5/5 indestructible is far better, as all their blockers die to him or damage get through. Again, this is favorable to decks that can burn (us). I beleive that the deck now has a small hedge vs GB Delirium.
Please talk about vehicles. This is spam because it is off-topic. -- Lugger
Edit : You are right, boss. Sorry. I was trying to help, but should have redirected @StritchnineGaming to the appropriate thread, and answer there. I should have known better...
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
WR Vehicles is favored against UW Flash and a dog to BG Delirium. You get underneath UW Flash pretty easily and their endgame doesn't go over the top of yours, so you win or compete evenly at all points in the game. BG Delirium is difficult because they go over you with Emrakul and Ishkanah, but they also have Liliana to stop you from going under them.
Both matchups are close in their respective directions though. Player skill and sideboarding are the make-or-break areas of the matchups more than anything else.
Thought about this. Haven't tested it because I have yet to find anything I'd actually want to cut from my list to include it. That said, I think I would rather just maindeck Gideon and use his -4 if I felt that anthem effects were the way to go against Liliana. In my experience, the best angle of attack is just boarding out all the 1-toughness dudes except Veteran Motorist. Selfless Spirit is a total blank in the matchup anyway, and Toolcraft Exemplar is pretty hit-or-miss too. Motorist at least makes Copter a 4/4 so you can murk Liliana immediately. Someone else said Fleetwheel Cruiser, I'd sb that before playing Always Watching anywhere in the 75 I think.
You can't let Liliana sit around and gain 2 life per turn even if she's not necessarily killing your dudes for free, so the best answers for her are going to involve ways of killing her the turn after she comes down, while insulating yourself against the one activation she does get. Always Watching does this to some degree so perhaps it's worth looking into.
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
Any thoughts on Quarantine Field for Liliana? Seems like it could be a little slow but that matchup isn't exactly all about speed anyways.
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
4 Toolcraft Exemplar
4 Thraben Inspector
4 Veteran Motorist
4 Depala, Pilot Exemplar
2 Selfless Spirit
Planeswalkers (4)
4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Artifacts (6)
4 Smuggler's Copter
2 Key to the City
4 Fiery Temper
2 Stasis Snare
2 Declaration in Stone
Lands (24)
4 Inspiring Vantage
4 Needle Spires
9 Plains
7 Mountain
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
4 Galvanic Bombardment
1 Stasis Snare
2 Fragmentize
2 Reckless Bushwhacker
2 Fleetwheel Cruiser
What is this deck?
WR Vehicles is an aggressively-slanted midrange deck which seeks to use efficient 1-3 mana creatures and Vehicles to seize a tempo advantage right from the beginning of the game. It leverages this tempo advantage to win with Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, a planeswalker whose effectiveness varies substantially depending on the degree to which his controller is advantaged or disadvantaged on the board.
How are its matchups against the top decks in the current Standard metagame?
WR Vehicles, despite being the most aggressive of the top decks in Standard right now, is the deck which I've found to have the least polarized matchups in the format. Usually the format's "speed limit" deck -- the deck which emerges as the fastest deck among the format's top tier -- has among its most polarized matchups, because it is usually all-in on a particular linear mechanic or sequence and has very little in the way of "flex" room in its list for meaningful adjustments to the opponent's strategy. The fast deck usually has one way it wins, and if that path to victory lines up well with its opponent's strategy, it wins, and if not, it struggles and often loses.
Not so with WR Vehicles. The deck has some significant internal synergies focused around Smuggler's Copter, but only Copter and Toolcraft Exemplar ask for meaningful concessions in deckbuilding. As long as you keep enough artifacts to turn on Exemplar and enough creatures to pilot the Copter, you can kinda do whatever you want with the rest. This gives you much more flexibility in how you approach sideboarding. Additionally, the deck doesn't have to win with a draw involving Toolcraft Exemplar, and indeed there will be matchups where it is a bit of a liability and needs to come out. This is a big advantage that most fast top-tier decks normally don't have access to, and is the main reason I consider the deck a midrange deck first.
The matchup spread:
UW Flash: You are significantly but not overwhelmingly favored -- it is a 55/45 type of matchup. You are advantaged in this matchup because both decks are Gideon decks -- the matchup is decided by which player can resolve and protect Gideon, who provides you with incremental board advantage and a massive finishing body all in one card. Gideon is very dependent on his controller not being behind in board development when he hits the field, and WR is faster and plays more statistically-efficient creatures than UW, which allows WR to achieve a consistent battlefield advantage when Gideon comes down. Your strategy in this matchup is relatively straightforward: you are going to have lots of chances for good attacks and should take them. Eliminate opposing Gideons on sight and don't attack into five untapped lands unless one of the following is true: (1) you have lethal damage through an Archangel Avacyn; (2) you have a Stasis Snare for Avacyn, and the indestructible trigger for their team doesn't lead to you getting blown out by their block; (3) you have a Key to the City and can simply use it to make your best attacker unblockable, bypassing Avacyn's effects. The only cards in their deck that actually have a chance of beating you are Avacyn, Gideon, and an unanswered Gisela, the Broken Blade, so focus your planning on being able to beat these cards; you will be given plenty of time to do it, since you will pressure them early and your Gideon will put pressure on them to attack when they really shouldn't be.
BG Delirium: After a lot of playtesting and tuning with this deck in mind, I'm happy to report that this matchup is 50/50. BG Delirium is fundamentally well-equipped for this matchup primarily due to the presence of Liliana, the Last Hope and Ishkanah, Grafwidow; the matchup can still be made even with particular deckbuilding decisions by the WR player and a clear understanding of what matters. Liliana is good against this deck, especially in game 1, because she frequently hits the field on turn 3, kills something with her +1 and demands four damage on the spot if you don't want her to do it again, which isn't easy to muster when one of your early creatures got killed. Ishkanah is good against this deck because her Spider tokens are well-sized against the creatures the deck chooses to play -- they can double-block a Thraben Inspector and lose nobody, double-block a Knight Ally token or Toolcraft Exemplar and trade off, triple-block a Smuggler's Copter or Depala, Pilot Exemplar and trade off, or trade off 1-for-1 with Veteran Motorist -- and because recurring her to spawn a mob of the tokens is not difficult for BG to do. In short, BG is advantaged because its two key threats prior to Emrakul are perfectly-sized against WR's best creatures, allowing it to blunt WR's assault before lethal damage can be assembled and drag things out to win with Emrakul.
The key to this matchup, then, is sizing. Gideon is by far your best weapon here and your only real way to win in game 1. A Gideon emblem completely changes the dynamic of the game, as now the Spider tokens suddenly aren't good enough to get the job done, and Liliana's +1 becomes a much more modest power reduction instead of a repeatable kill spell. Additionally, Gideon's Knight Allies allow you to keep pace with BG's Spider token spam, and Gideon himself is a great attacker since he can kill Ishkanah in one hit, usually kills Liliana in one hit (and can't be affected by Liliana's +1), and kills fast when he's able to connect consistently. Depala, Pilot Exemplar is also crucial here because she acts as a pseudo-"emblem" from Gideon, protecting your Exemplars and Motorists from Liliana and the Spider swarm; and she is surprisingly difficult for BG to actually kill, as the deck only plays the playset of Grasp of Darkness and maybe 1-2 Murder or Ruinous Path for removal. Key to the City is also important, especially in tandem with Gideon; the cleanest way to beat Ishkanah is to attack with your biggest unblockable dude and make them try to race, which favors you, as your creatures (for their sizing woes defensively) are better on defense than Ishkanah and her anemic brood is on offense. You have to juggle things very carefully to beat BG; you want to avoid presenting a good opportunity for Liliana to come down and +1 if you can. Save your Veteran Motorists if they're about to take their third turn, as those guys are very good immediately after Liliana hits the field (giving you the chance to crew a Copter and kill her immediately, regardless of how she used her +1 the previous turn). Be willing to be slightly mana-inefficient if the situation calls for it, because you can't afford to get blown out by Liliana. Ishkanah is the most difficult factor, especially since BG can play her more than once; try to save exiling removal for Ishkanah if you can, since that greatly reduces the effectiveness of Grapple with the Past against you. Using Gideon well is instrumental to victory -- there's no hard and fast rules for when you should cash him in for an emblem vs when you should spam tokens vs when you should clock them. Practice makes perfect here.
RGx Aetherworks Marvel: You are a slight underdog in this matchup -- something like 48/52, not quite 45/55 but definitely worse than 50/50. Aetherworks Marvel is simply a turn too fast for you to be a favorite against it. Without a doubt your gameplan is to max out on aggression and try to run them over before they can start doing their thing with Marvel. Servant of the Conduit is arguably their best card against you, as bizarre as that will sound: it is extremely well-sized against you, since it bricks Thraben Inspector and trades with everything but Depala, and they get to choose whether they value the mana acceleration more than the body, which means that Servant will always do what's worse for you (trade when they want to buy setup time, sit back and ramp when they're ready to kill you). Don't be afraid to use an early Declaration in Stone or Fiery Temper on it, as opposed to saving Declaration for a bigger threat or sending Fiery Temper upstairs. This is a matchup where you just want a singleminded approach toward maximizing the amount of damage you can do. Play to your "nut draws" -- you have a lot of permutations of good aggressive sequences and shouldn't settle for middling, somewhat durdly hands. Your best weapons against Ishkanah in BG Delirium (Gideon, Key to the City) are similarly great here since Ishkanah is their Plan A for stabilizing (aside from the Plan 0 of hitting Emrakul on turn 4, but there's nothing you can do about that, realistically).
URx Control: You are a slight favorite in this matchup, again 52/48 type of matchup, but this time you're on top. The reason for this is simple -- Copter and Gideon are the two best cards in your deck, and both of them are resilient not only to sweepers but spot removal in general, if you want them to be. Your creatures are efficient and quick enough to put a real clock on them early, which forces them to line up a lot of specific answers -- countermagic for planeswalkers and Copters, which can't be removed if you don't want them to be; spot removal for Selfless Spirits and sweepers for the rest -- in a very short window. If they can do it and get to six mana, then they're in a pretty good spot with Torrential Gearhulk stabilizing the ground and giving them another spell to try to handle Gideon or Chandra or Copter, but you have a chance to draw live with Key to the City filtering draw steps and Fiery Temper burning them out. Your challenge in this matchup is to pinch them on mana and mess up the sequencing of their spells. If you're on the play and curve 1-drop into Copter, and they pass with mana for Harnessed Lightning up, don't Crew your Copter and give them a chance to answer it cleanly on curve. Save it for turn 4, when they have to choose between using Harnessed Lightning on your Copter (while you've given them the window) and holding up Void Shatter for Gideon or Chandra with the option to cast Glimmer of Genius EOT. If they hit your Copter at that point, then you've got your window to resolve the much more deadly planeswalker in your hand. If they don't, then you got 3-4 free hasty damage in, which is no small thing either. Similarly, if you're on the play and they pass with Void Shatter mana up, don't jam Gideon main 1 to crew Copter. In fact, probably don't play Gideon at all there; you're going to find that control decks struggle mightily to beat him once he resolves, so playing around their countermagic by forcing action somewhere else is key. Sequence your most backbreaking threats to come down on the same turn that you force significant action from your opponent.
RB Aggro: Finally a truly bad matchup, at least preboard. I consider this a 45/55 matchup overall. Game 1 is pretty bad: RB Aggro is faster than you and makes you play defense almost from the jump, which your creatures are very bad at doing, and your planeswalkers become dramatically less efficient as a result. Remember what we said about Gideon and Chandra needing you to be ahead? Yeah, that goes both ways, and this is the matchup where it comes back to bite ya, at least in Game 1. I'm talking a lot about Game 1 here, because things change substantially once you go to the sideboard. In Game 1 your best hope is that they stumble out of the gates or don't draw very much burn. You want to trade off cards as much as possible to preserve your life total and stabilize the battlefield. Gideon is actually fine against them if, by some minor miracle, you get to turn 4 with a board at parity. The stream of 2/2s is pretty difficult to beat, and him starting at 4 loyalty means that he demands two burn effects from them before he dies, which is not necessarily easy for them to muster on demand. After board, things get a lot easier, because you can cut your cards that are bad on defense and bring in removal. Postboard you are much better equipped to trade off cards and stay at parity on the field, so your planeswalker plan becomes much more efficient. Additionally, many aggro pilots fail to recognize that the postboard games are not races, especially when they're going first. They'll make plays to maximize damage and prevent crackbacks when those aren't realistic concerns for how you're going to win the game after your bad defensive creatures are gone and you're playing more interaction.
Sideboarding
Sideboarding is a bit tricky, mainly because there are times where Toolcraft Exemplar comes out, and you have to know when that's the way to go. I talked about how to approach each major matchup generally, so I'll just discuss the purpose of each card in the board so you can sideboard for yourself.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance: Chandra is the real deal. She's kind of your "backup Gideons" of a sort, in that she gives you a powerful curve-topper to complement your early aggression. She has some very different functions from Gideon which leads to very different play patterns, but fundamentally she fills the same role. She's very good against Delirium, where she can come down and shoot a Grim Flayer or Kalitas and force some overextension on the Delirium player's part to answer her before she can start generating incremental advantage. You want Chandra in matchups where both players will be trading resources, since Chandra is usually at least a 2-for-1 even if immediately attacked to death, and runs away with card advantage if left unchecked.
Skysovereign, Consul Flagship: The big boat is a major trump in matchups where your opponents are playing smaller creatures, like the mirror, RB Aggro, and UW Flash. Often these decks are sparse on removal for Skysovereign and may not have it on the radar (as it's fallen out of favor in these decks). It's too big for Grasp of Darkness or most Harnessed Lightning, sorceries can't hit it, it dodges Fragmentize and Spell Queller due to its CMC... just has built-in resilience to many of the format's common artifact answers. Bring it in when you expect 3 damage to kill the significant majority of the opponent's creatures.
Galvanic Bombardment: This is your pivot card with Toolcraft Exemplar in the aggro matchups. Whenever you need to be blocking, Exemplar is pretty bad. It blocks as a 2/2 if you're lucky and have an anthem effect in play, otherwise it's basically blank text. Bombardment, on the other hand, is excellent in these matchups where Exemplar is bad. Straight swapping these two happens basically anytime you would need to block.
Stasis Snare: A relatively weak singleton slot here, just gives you one extra piece of catch-all exiling removal. Useful when some aspects of Fiery Temper or Declaration in Stone make them suboptimal afterboard: maybe Temper doesn't kill enough opposing creatures or Declaration in Stone being a sorcery or investigating is a liability. Also useful against Delirium, where exiling is at a premium, and where you're already cutting cards anyway.
Fragmentize: Necessary for sniping Aetherworks Marvel and Dynavolt Tower. Also good in the mirror and against RB Aggro, where one-mana artifact removal gives you crucial early interaction on the cheap. Some people bring this in against UW Flash, since it hits Stasis Snare and Smuggler's Copter, but I usually don't find that I particularly care about either one of those cards in UW.
Reckless Bushwhacker: Bushwhacker is an odd inclusion in this deck, since it doesn't go very wide and has a lot of high-CMC cards, which both play poorly with surge. Bushwhacker is simply there as an additional way to get a quick "nut draw kill" in matchups where all that matters is maximizing damage output. You can have sequences where you curve Exemplar into Copter into Exemplar, Bushwhacker, hold priority on the surge ETB trigger and Crew Copter -- this sequence represents six damage from the Bushwhacker compared to any other card in the sequence (nine if compared to cards that can't Crew the Copter). Bushwhacker just gives you more iterations of turn-4 and turn-5 kills, which you need against decks trying to get you dead at around the same time and which you can't interact with. Bring in Bushwhacker when your goal for the game is just to 20 somebody ASAP at all costs.
Fleetwheel Cruiser: Rounding out the sideboard is the Cruiser, a staple of WR that's fallen out of favor since the Pro Tour. Cruiser is another card you want when you're trying to kill someone ASAP, as it's actually the highest damage producing 4-drop available to the deck, if measuring damage potential through turn 6 -- Gideon's damage output with 0 into repeated +1 overtakes Cruiser's on turn 7, but haste and auto-Crewing on ETB makes Cruiser the most damaging 4-drop available. You also want Cruiser against control decks, where you can punish them for tapping low for a wrath or just draw the last bit of pressure you need; and you want it against Delirium, since it lines up well against Spider tokens (any +1/+1 or better effect makes it smoosh all the Spiders in one go, and come out intact; or run over Ishkanah herself and live to tell the tale), and gives you a quick burst of damage off the top to win as well. You don't want it in the maindeck because it's too linear a card for the format right now -- for every Aetherworks and Delirium deck where you're trying to just get 'em dead in game 1, there's a Flash or mirror match where Cruiser's one-sided offensive focus is a liability given its mana cost -- but you definitely want it in the 75 because it's very good against several decks.
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB