Tocatli Honor Guard wrecks your own Bristling Hydra, Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, Rogue Refiner, Rishkar and Verdurous Gearhulk hard. If you play it, you may need to kill it.
Maybe I just like a challenge.
I definitely didn't just completely miss those interactions. lol
Apologies, then. I assumed that you thought it was an asymnetric effect. But please let me know if it works. Because if it's good, I'm even stupider than I think I am and I need to learn something.
My analysis based on moderate experience with Bestiary and hardly any with Sanctuary.
Shapers Sanctuary vs Lifecrafter's Bestiary
SS cheaper and easier to resolve, better against removal and don't block effects (aggro, midrange). More durable, as enchantments don't have much hate.
LB better against counterspells and sweepers (control)
Meta-dependant? Which matchup do you want the help against?
Spell Pierce might not be the thing, but the thought is to delay the defensive plays. Censor was effective often enough, and it was effective more often than it was cast, by convincing an oppponent to delay spells by a turn. Now if somebody needs 7 mana to cast Fumigate or Glorybringer, this is an advantage where they are 2 mana behind curve while we operate 1 mana behind curve on those crucial turns.
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Current Awesome Deck: UWAll-In GiftsWU Consistent, Resiliant, and way overpowered, making multiple 4/4s per turn.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWUFree Stuff MidrangeUWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
Tocatli Honor Guard wrecks your own Bristling Hydra, Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, Rogue Refiner, Rishkar and Verdurous Gearhulk hard. If you play it, you may need to kill it.
Maybe I just like a challenge.
I definitely didn't just completely miss those interactions. lol
Apologies, then. I assumed that you thought it was an asymnetric effect. But please let me know if it works. Because if it's good, I'm even stupider than I think I am and I need to learn something.
My analysis based on moderate experience with Bestiary and hardly any with Sanctuary.
Shapers Sanctuary vs Lifecrafter's Bestiary
SS cheaper and easier to resolve, better against removal and don't block effects (aggro, midrange). More durable, as enchantments don't have much hate.
LB better against counterspells and sweepers (control)
Meta-dependant? Which matchup do you want the help against?
My bad. I was joking. I did totally miss how it would interact with my own cards.
As far as Shapers' Sanctuary versus Lifecrafter's Bestiary, having no experience with either, Sanctuary seems much better. Bestiary requires so much more mana for only a little situational upside and could get blown out by Abrade. I don't think trying to out card advantage Control will work, and you'll end up giving up too much tempo.
This seems like a weird version of the deck. Kitesail Freebooter seems like a decent card, as it's evasion card advantage so long as it lives, and your opponent will feel bad using a removal spell on it... but I'm not convinced it's worth 4 main deck slots. I like the idea of swapping out Attunes with Ranging Raptors if you lose the energy package, but it seems a bad idea to drop energy due to its impressive synergy. I like Savage Stomp, but it's it's only good if you run enough dinos to get the discount. Otherwise, it's a bad pump/fight spell. Deathgorge Scavenger is not that good of a card IMO. If it added counters instead of temporary buffs, then it would be pretty good, especially in this deck. It's not horrible against Ramunap Red due to the life gain, but that's about it.
SS cheaper and easier to resolve, better against removal and don't block effects (aggro, midrange). More durable, as enchantments don't have much hate.
LB better against counterspells and sweepers (control)
As far as Shapers' Sanctuary versus Lifecrafter's Bestiary, having no experience with either, Sanctuary seems much better. Bestiary requires so much more mana for only a little situational upside and could get blown out by Abrade. I don't think trying to out card advantage Control will work, and you'll end up giving up too much tempo.
Hoser, you've given me some better insight on Sanctuary, as I wasn't thinking about do not block effects and how it could help in the aggro/midrange matchup. That's definitely worth considering. The reason I like Bestiary is because even on an empty board, it does something (scry 1). Also, it puts you in control of the draw effects, since it's your trigger, as opposed to letting your opponent be the one in charge of it. I like that Sanctuary is more resilient than Bestiary, but Abrade will be seeing less play due to Lightning Strike being reprinted. I like that Sanctuary comes down on T1, but it could literally do nothing the entire game whereas Bestiary will always do something. The biggest drawback to Bestiary is that it doesn't come down until T3, which can represent a decent tempo swing that you have to come back from.
So the next question becomes, is it worth having both in the SB? Maybe a 2/1 split or 1/1?
Against control I side in Bestiary and make it my highest priority to resolve. If it sticks early, it has generally taken over. Drawing all those cards could make use of the ramp from a Settle the Wreckage blowout.
Against aggro or midrange, I leave it out. I can't afford a 3 mana do-nothing and pay extra for my creatures.
Sanctuary seems like it should be good against aggro, midrange or BW control (removal based), but I don't have real experience with it.
In your shoes, I would work out sideboard plans against the decks I expect to face. Maybe Ramunap Red, Temur Energy, UW Approach, God-Pharaoh's Gift, Mardu Vehicles, RG Dinos, etc. I would test against (proxied) Ramunap Red and see if the matchup seems bad and if Sanctuary helps. Because if Sanctuary costs you a card but gives you cards that you never get to play, that's not helpful.
I have a ton of cards for fighting control in the board: Duress, Negate, Dispossess, Vraska, Blood Fast, Bestiary. I am largely preboarded against Ramunap and Temur.
How much are you worried about Ramunap and Temur and how much does Sanctuary help? I consider Bestiary proven for the control matchup and a mix of Bestiary and Sanctuary could make sense. I would hate to find out at Dallas that Sanctuary was bad or unneeded in the matchups where it was good.
Tocatli Honor Guard wrecks your own Bristling Hydra, Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, Rogue Refiner, Rishkar and Verdurous Gearhulk hard. If you play it, you may need to kill it.
Maybe I just like a challenge.
I definitely didn't just completely miss those interactions. lol
Apologies, then. I assumed that you thought it was an asymnetric effect. But please let me know if it works. Because if it's good, I'm even stupider than I think I am and I need to learn something.
My analysis based on moderate experience with Bestiary and hardly any with Sanctuary.
Shapers Sanctuary vs Lifecrafter's Bestiary
SS cheaper and easier to resolve, better against removal and don't block effects (aggro, midrange). More durable, as enchantments don't have much hate.
LB better against counterspells and sweepers (control)
Meta-dependant? Which matchup do you want the help against?
My bad. I was joking. I did totally miss how it would interact with my own cards.
As far as Shapers' Sanctuary versus Lifecrafter's Bestiary, having no experience with either, Sanctuary seems much better. Bestiary requires so much more mana for only a little situational upside and could get blown out by Abrade. I don't think trying to out card advantage Control will work, and you'll end up giving up too much tempo.
I read your first post about liking a challenge as being serious. It's hard to communicate sarcasm and some other things through text without a good emoji.
I was rocking lifecrafter's bestiary hard the last couple of weeks. I was running 1 maindeck even! I play local fnm only, so preparing for the international meta may take different deck considerations. However, crafter's is strong because it can win you the game against a control deck on it's own. The way I learned to play it was to play it on curve against a control deck (if you think it won't be countered.) From there on, just play creatures one mana behind curve and draw a card for every creature played. This, plus the scry ability is huge. The scry ability isn't situational upside and will win games when played right. My friends playing control HATED this card.
Another way to play bestiary is against midrange decks. You simply fill out your early curve with creatures the best you can from the start (especially when on the play.) Play bestiary when you have no other creatures to cast or are waiting for another mana for a larger creature. Scrying yourself into more creatures is crazy good, especially with how many low cost creatures we have. I drew 3 cards and played 3 creatures against control one turn!
Basically, this card is for matchups where we lose lategame due to board wipes, lots of removal, or an opponent's card advantage. Against midrange where we are matched somewhat evenly on tempo, but need some advantage over them bestiary is great.
As to shapers' sanctuary, depending on the meta, running one of this mainboard seems pretty great. We don't have many one drop slots, and this is a devastating turn 1 play against a lot of decks. It also fits nicely turn 3. We can force them to spend their instant speed mana on our turn 2, less impressive 2 drop before sanctuary resolves or give us a card. Then we play a more valued 2 drop behind sanctuary turn 3, this ensuring we will get a card if they choose to kill the better 2 drop.
Both cards are good, I will play 2-4 copies split between them in the 75 I imagine.
This seems like a weird version of the deck. Kitesail Freebooter seems like a decent card, as it's evasion card advantage so long as it lives, and your opponent will feel bad using a removal spell on it... but I'm not convinced it's worth 4 main deck slots. I like the idea of swapping out Attunes with Ranging Raptors if you lose the energy package, but it seems a bad idea to drop energy due to its impressive synergy. I like Savage Stomp, but it's it's only good if you run enough dinos to get the discount. Otherwise, it's a bad pump/fight spell. Deathgorge Scavenger is not that good of a card IMO. If it added counters instead of temporary buffs, then it would be pretty good, especially in this deck. It's not horrible against Ramunap Red due to the life gain, but that's about it.
SS cheaper and easier to resolve, better against removal and don't block effects (aggro, midrange). More durable, as enchantments don't have much hate.
LB better against counterspells and sweepers (control)
As far as Shapers' Sanctuary versus Lifecrafter's Bestiary, having no experience with either, Sanctuary seems much better. Bestiary requires so much more mana for only a little situational upside and could get blown out by Abrade. I don't think trying to out card advantage Control will work, and you'll end up giving up too much tempo.
Hoser, you've given me some better insight on Sanctuary, as I wasn't thinking about do not block effects and how it could help in the aggro/midrange matchup. That's definitely worth considering. The reason I like Bestiary is because even on an empty board, it does something (scry 1). Also, it puts you in control of the draw effects, since it's your trigger, as opposed to letting your opponent be the one in charge of it. I like that Sanctuary is more resilient than Bestiary, but Abrade will be seeing less play due to Lightning Strike being reprinted. I like that Sanctuary comes down on T1, but it could literally do nothing the entire game whereas Bestiary will always do something. The biggest drawback to Bestiary is that it doesn't come down until T3, which can represent a decent tempo swing that you have to come back from.
So the next question becomes, is it worth having both in the SB? Maybe a 2/1 split or 1/1?
Ramunap red is something we will have to worry about a lot more without grasp around. It makes including at least some Deathgorge Scavenger in the mainboard seem reasonable.
The deck is running a lot of dinos, so it definitely pays off for Savage Stomp. Also consider that this card synergizes with snake and walking ballista as well. There are potentially 8 cards minimum mainboard without dinos, and Ripjaw Raptor looks like a 1 or 2 of in just about every list. I'm not saying the card is great, but there are more potential synergies than just dinos. Looks interesting to me.
I like the land dino sometimes. Others it's just a vanilla card. The scavenger can really help against gate decks and control (torrential targets). I think it's really good.
Is ammit eternal good enough for us now? I think he is good enough for the non-energy version
I have an energy version that is similar to everyone else's I can post. As well as a b/g snek that I can post similar to the mtgo version
The point of Spell Pierce is to have a defense against sweepers on turns 4 and 5. If you can keep a strong board through that while still developing, you have a good chance to win. Other cards you could pierce effectively include Approach (no gaining 6 life), Blue Gearhulk, Confiscation Coup.
Sanctuary is great if the deck is like Temur Energy. You don't have to commit 3 mana to start, plus a G every turn for draw, and they are loaded with targeting effects (lightning, abrade, Glory Bringer, Chandra, Confiscation Coup). Ramunap Red would draw you so many cards with their "can't block" effects, it wouldn't be hard to draw a lot of goods.
If there's a UW Approach deck that's all about counterspells, Wreckage and Fumigate, then Sanctuary seems useless. Also a deck that ignores your creatures won't do well with Sanctuary. Bestiary is fine against control and grindy matchups, but terrible slow against aggro decks.
Overall, I think I'd usually prefer creature-based draw power. Rogue Refiner, Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, Card-Draw Raptor. Just hope the latter comes down to a reasonable price soon.
Incidentally, had a great night with the energy-combo deck I posted. I misbuilt the deck with only 12 green sources, but with the exception of those games where I failed to draw my green, I smoked the field. Temur Energy, RG dragons, 5-color control all got run over by creatures who got big fast.
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Current Awesome Deck: UWAll-In GiftsWU Consistent, Resiliant, and way overpowered, making multiple 4/4s per turn.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWUFree Stuff MidrangeUWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
Alright yall, I've been doing some searches trying to figure out this Glorybringer problem. This looks like a simple and effective solution.
Spidery Grasp! If bringer enters and exerts, we play spidery grasp on the creature targeted for damage. It lives through the damage, and will untap with reach, +2 power and kill the glorybringer. Glorybringer will probably still eat 2 cards, but I can't think of anything besides Vraska's contempt for 4 mana or the extremely narrow Crushing Canopy that takes care of the situation better.
Spidery Grasp has the benefit of being a decent combat trick regardless if glorybringer makes it to the field. Could benefit decks that play Gifted Aetherborn too. 4/7 deathtouch lifelink kills and survives just about anything on the ground these days. We can also pump Aethersphere Harvester for extra lifegain and a gigantic ass. Spidery Grasp can turn on Rhonas by surprise. It can allow our creature to survive 4 damage from a chandra planeswalker (something often played alongside bringer.)
Thoughts?
Edit: How could I forget about how this card can fight Ramunap Red? We simply pump up a creature to give it greater power than Earthshaker Khenra. This card also allow our own creatures to attack in, while still being able to untap one to block with. In that way it's helpful for offense and defense.
I'd personally rather push up the numbers of Blossoming Defense than play a 3 mana combat trick. Sure it won't kill a Glorybringer, but they probably aren't only attacking with the Glorybringer and it's useful against black and white removal. Can also be key in protecting a Hostage Taker until you can cast their spell. Against red you can blow out an Ahn-Crop Crasher as well.
I had a feeling hostage taker could end up being a good card for our deck. I was thrown off by his lack of 5 drops at first. It looks like his 5 drop is hostage taker plus leaving up a blossoming defense if possible.
Hostage taker should destroy that God-Pharoah's Gift deck. Also a good answer to Hazoret, which our deck now lacks.
I see the 3 toughness as less of a drawback if you can play around it. Leave up blossoming d, or run it alongside duress or sorcerous spyglass to check out their hand, then wait for their removal to be gone.
Surprised to see the deck running 4 copies of it instead of another Scarab God and verdurous gearhulk however.
Thanks! I'll hopefully be able to give my report tonight or tomorrow. I didn't take notes, but I have all the sheets I used for life totals to provide insight into each match-up. I played both Jessup brothers, losing to both. Hostage Taker is such a huge tempo swing, and they treated it like a 5-drop (holding up Blossoming Defense). They also almost always had the right card at the right time, which was extremely frustrating. It's one thing to be a good player with a good deck. But to always have Fatal Push, Blossoming Defense, and Hostage Taker at the right time to maximize the advantage? That's some good luck too!
The price spike on Scarab God and Hostage Taker. ouch. I was hoping continuing to play GB would be cheap because I have the cards for the most part. Guess I have to wait for the price to stabilize and then trade my way to them. Congrats, DRAY!
Round 1: Abzan Tokens/Stockpile
Game 1 he got stuck on lands and it was over pretty quick. Game 2 he landed Legion's Landing early, and once he got Anointed Procession and Hidden Stockpile out, it got ugly quick. I scooped with about 10 minutes left on the clock and he had 63 life. Game 3 went to turns after I got him down really low. A timely Walking Ballista allowed me to control his board and swing for lethal on T2.
2-1
Round 2: Bant Control
I don't think his deck ever really performed. I asked him about his wincons because he sorta controlled the board, but I could always chip in for some damage here and there. He was a turbofog style control deck but I had too many threats.
2-0
Round 3: UR Control
He got stuck on one land game 1 and it was over very quickly. Game 2, he stalled he got controlled the board pretty well and was using Enigma Drake as his win con. He also was using Vizier of Many Faces to copy the Enigma Drake. His first his was for 8, then for 10 (technically swinging for 20, but I had revolt enabled and tried to fatal push both the Drake and the Vizier copy, but he countered one). He was down to 4 life and I topdecked a Walking Ballista with 8+ mana so...
2-0
Round 4: Temur Black Energy
I played Temur Black Energy several times the weekend and they all kinda blur together. I think my version of the deck is favored, because I won all the match-ups against it. I lost Game 2 due to land screw, but I won games 1 & 3 pretty handily.
2-1
Round 5: UW Approach
It's not even close. Settle the Wreckage is terrible to play against. My maindeck stands very little chance unless they just don't find the answers. My opponent sticks Search for Azcanta on T2 both games and I can never keep a large enough board presence to make a difference. I board in 3 Doomfall and 3 Spell Pierce to try to make a difference, but never draw the Doomfalls and Spell Pierce doesn't work when they have all the manas. For what it's worth, my opponent this round made 7th in the tourney.
0-2
Round 6: Temur Black Energy
See above about this match-up.
2-1
Round 7: Ramunap Red
The red match-up I think is slightly favored in our advantage. Game 1, Aethersphere Harvester was the MVP. He took me down to 3, but crewing Harvester and dropping all the Gearhulk counters on it to gain back a bunch of life works SUPER well in this matchup. I mean, sure, they can blow you out with Abrade, but if they don't have it right then, it's almost always game over. G2 I didn't put up much of a fight. G3 was close, as I got down to 4 before closing the game out.
2-1
Round 8: Sultai Snek Hostage Taker - Dan Jessup
Game 1 I managed to win. He didn't see a Hostage Taker, and without that card, my deck performs better than his. Game 2, he Hostage Taker's my Winding Constrictor on T5, holding up for Blossoming Defense. I attempt to Never on my turn, but Blossoming Defense eats my lunch. Snake into Rishkar and that's all she wrote. Game 3 followed a similar pattern. I would dominate turns 1-4, but turns 5-8 were all his after Hostage Taker with Defense turned the tide. It's a ugly two-card combo that's very hard to deal with.
1-2
Round 9: Mono Black Aggro
Game 1 goes to my opponent in a very weird way. He gets stuck on two lands - a swamp and an Aether Hub. He has a Glint-Sleeve Siphoner out. He beats face with Siphoner to gain an energy and then uses the energy to pay for a black to cast Walk the Plank. For 6 turns, he casts all four Planks and 2 Fatal Pushes. He 1-for-1s me and hits for 12 points without ever drawing another land. Finally he hits land three, I'm out of gas, and he lands another threat or two and closes the game. I easily take games 2 & 3 because the deck can weather early aggro, stabilize, and the crack back is really hard once that happens.
2-1, finish Day 1 with a 7-2 record
Round 10: Temur Black Energy
See above. Worth noting that opponent's T3 Bristling Hydra into T4 Bristling Hydra while on the play is hard to answer...
2-1
Round 11: Grixis Improvise
I really enjoyed this match-up. He'd land early artifacts and servo makers to power out improvise creatures like Herald of Anguish. He used Battle at the Bridge to kill Rhonas. In the end, though, The Scarab God proved too much, as did timely removal for his threats.
2-0
Round 12: Sultai Snek Hostage Taker - Andrew Jessup
See notes from round 8, as it was almost exactly the same except I didn't win game 1. He slaughtered me both games with all the answers, Hostage Taker when needed, and Blossoming Defense to blank all my removal. It was frustrating to feel like his draws were the perfect counters against my draws, but that's how it works sometimes!
0-2
Round 13: Ramunap Red
I closed out Game 1 without much difficulty. I think he got stuck on lands. Game 2 was the opposite, where he closed it out pretty quickly and I barely put up a fight. Game 3 was a much closer game, despite his life total never changing. The game ended with me having two Winding Constrictors that were 5/6s, an 8/8 Gearhulk, and Rhonas with 6 mana. He had enough of a board that I couldn't swing in with anything because the crack back would be lethal. I had to try to build a critical mass of creatures and grant trample with Rhonas to make it where he was forced to block to survive and not be able to attack back. He got to six mana and was able to Eternalize a Khenra, and between that, two Crashers, Hazoret, and Kari Zev, it was game over. The turning point was about turn 7 when I crewed Harvester to block and gain some life and he played Lightning Strike on it. Not so big a deal, except I had two Constrictors out and he had a Soul-Scar Mage. Next turn, I was gonna drop Gearhulk and counter it up, but it would've been a worse blow out (Strike in response to the counters).
1-2
Round 14: UW Approach
See above for how bad this match-up is. Game 2 was actually really funny, as he played Regal Caracal into Regal Caracal and beat face. He got me down to 1 and was up to 46 life, thenFumigated to clear away everything. I managed to crawl back up to 7 life from various life gain effects while also dropping him to 35, but the second sun made its way to victory.
0-2
Round 15: Mono Red Aggro
It wasn't the standard build of Ramunap Red, using some newer cards like Rampaging Ferocidon. The games were close, but Walking Ballista, life gain from Harvester, and even incidental gain from Vraska's Contempt make this a win-able match-up.
2-1, finishing Day 2 at 3-3 with a 10-5 record overall
Main thing I would change is to add back in the 4th Fatal Push (I needed it so often the weekend), remove Shapers' Sanctuary (I never really wanted it and it rarely drew me cards because the opponent's would just play around it), and possibly switch out the Never // Return with more Vraska's Contempt. Sideboard, I'd probably pull the Tyrant, as I'm not sure it was really needed, probably add in another Harvester (it was a serious MVP in so many match-ups), replace the Spell Pierces with Negates, and consider switching out Doomfall with Duress like the Jessup brothers have. I think Duress will overall be better against Approach, which was by far the worst match-up, and Negate being a hard counter against both Approach and Settle is a big deal. How to deal with the Hostage Taker version? Not sure yet, but I may have to consider some amount of Defense myself as a counter to the ability. I wouldn't play Taker myself unless I use their style build, as the whole game plan is to make a massive tempo swing with Taker and protect it with Defense.
To be clear, Panharmonicon is a fun card, but it doesn't do all that. It does nothing for Walking Ballista because it's not a trigger. Nor is Winding Constrictor. But you are right that Rogue Refiner will draw 2 cards and gain 4 energy, and Rishkar will lay out counters on 2+2 creatures.
P.S. Still rocking the combo list. Fabrication Module and Decoction Module surprisingly put in a lot of work. You can actually get away with running up to 4 each and come out ahead in the long run.
To be clear, Panharmonicon is a fun card, but it doesn't do all that. It does nothing for Walking Ballista because it's not a trigger. Nor is Winding Constrictor. But you are right that Rogue Refiner will draw 2 cards and gain 4 energy, and Rishkar will lay out counters on 2+2 creatures.
P.S. Still rocking the combo list. Fabrication Module and Decoction Module surprisingly put in a lot of work. You can actually get away with running up to 4 each and come out ahead in the long run.
I missed that Walking Ballistaisn't a trigger, this make Panharmonicon truly less useful. Winding Constrictor part is just because the artifact would make another trigger for the snake, but since don't work with ballista, is just meh. Still incredible fun with Hostage Taker, with two you can, utterly slowly, wipe all the board. With three+ 1 ETB creature, could be infinite.
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My analysis based on moderate experience with Bestiary and hardly any with Sanctuary.
Shapers Sanctuary vs Lifecrafter's Bestiary
Meta-dependant? Which matchup do you want the help against?
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
My bad. I was joking. I did totally miss how it would interact with my own cards.
As far as Shapers' Sanctuary versus Lifecrafter's Bestiary, having no experience with either, Sanctuary seems much better. Bestiary requires so much more mana for only a little situational upside and could get blown out by Abrade. I don't think trying to out card advantage Control will work, and you'll end up giving up too much tempo.
2 Deathgorge Scavenger
4 Kitesail Freebooter
3 Ranging Raptors
4 Ripjaw Raptor
2 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
4 Verdurous Gearhulk
4 Walking Ballista
4 Winding Constrictor
2 Savage Stomp
2 Blossoming Defense
4 Fatal Push
2 Vraska's Contempt
Land
4 Blooming Marsh
2 Evolving Wilds
8 Forest
2 Foul Orchard
7 Swamp
1 Vraska's Contempt
2 Aethersphere Harvester
4 Duress
2 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
2 Lifecrafter's Bestiary
2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
2 Yahenni's Expertise
Enjoy!
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
This seems like a weird version of the deck. Kitesail Freebooter seems like a decent card, as it's evasion card advantage so long as it lives, and your opponent will feel bad using a removal spell on it... but I'm not convinced it's worth 4 main deck slots. I like the idea of swapping out Attunes with Ranging Raptors if you lose the energy package, but it seems a bad idea to drop energy due to its impressive synergy. I like Savage Stomp, but it's it's only good if you run enough dinos to get the discount. Otherwise, it's a bad pump/fight spell. Deathgorge Scavenger is not that good of a card IMO. If it added counters instead of temporary buffs, then it would be pretty good, especially in this deck. It's not horrible against Ramunap Red due to the life gain, but that's about it.
Hoser, you've given me some better insight on Sanctuary, as I wasn't thinking about do not block effects and how it could help in the aggro/midrange matchup. That's definitely worth considering. The reason I like Bestiary is because even on an empty board, it does something (scry 1). Also, it puts you in control of the draw effects, since it's your trigger, as opposed to letting your opponent be the one in charge of it. I like that Sanctuary is more resilient than Bestiary, but Abrade will be seeing less play due to Lightning Strike being reprinted. I like that Sanctuary comes down on T1, but it could literally do nothing the entire game whereas Bestiary will always do something. The biggest drawback to Bestiary is that it doesn't come down until T3, which can represent a decent tempo swing that you have to come back from.
So the next question becomes, is it worth having both in the SB? Maybe a 2/1 split or 1/1?
Against aggro or midrange, I leave it out. I can't afford a 3 mana do-nothing and pay extra for my creatures.
Sanctuary seems like it should be good against aggro, midrange or BW control (removal based), but I don't have real experience with it.
In your shoes, I would work out sideboard plans against the decks I expect to face. Maybe Ramunap Red, Temur Energy, UW Approach, God-Pharaoh's Gift, Mardu Vehicles, RG Dinos, etc. I would test against (proxied) Ramunap Red and see if the matchup seems bad and if Sanctuary helps. Because if Sanctuary costs you a card but gives you cards that you never get to play, that's not helpful.
I have a ton of cards for fighting control in the board: Duress, Negate, Dispossess, Vraska, Blood Fast, Bestiary. I am largely preboarded against Ramunap and Temur.
How much are you worried about Ramunap and Temur and how much does Sanctuary help? I consider Bestiary proven for the control matchup and a mix of Bestiary and Sanctuary could make sense. I would hate to find out at Dallas that Sanctuary was bad or unneeded in the matchups where it was good.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
I read your first post about liking a challenge as being serious. It's hard to communicate sarcasm and some other things through text without a good emoji.
I was rocking lifecrafter's bestiary hard the last couple of weeks. I was running 1 maindeck even! I play local fnm only, so preparing for the international meta may take different deck considerations. However, crafter's is strong because it can win you the game against a control deck on it's own. The way I learned to play it was to play it on curve against a control deck (if you think it won't be countered.) From there on, just play creatures one mana behind curve and draw a card for every creature played. This, plus the scry ability is huge. The scry ability isn't situational upside and will win games when played right. My friends playing control HATED this card.
Another way to play bestiary is against midrange decks. You simply fill out your early curve with creatures the best you can from the start (especially when on the play.) Play bestiary when you have no other creatures to cast or are waiting for another mana for a larger creature. Scrying yourself into more creatures is crazy good, especially with how many low cost creatures we have. I drew 3 cards and played 3 creatures against control one turn!
Basically, this card is for matchups where we lose lategame due to board wipes, lots of removal, or an opponent's card advantage. Against midrange where we are matched somewhat evenly on tempo, but need some advantage over them bestiary is great.
As to shapers' sanctuary, depending on the meta, running one of this mainboard seems pretty great. We don't have many one drop slots, and this is a devastating turn 1 play against a lot of decks. It also fits nicely turn 3. We can force them to spend their instant speed mana on our turn 2, less impressive 2 drop before sanctuary resolves or give us a card. Then we play a more valued 2 drop behind sanctuary turn 3, this ensuring we will get a card if they choose to kill the better 2 drop.
Both cards are good, I will play 2-4 copies split between them in the 75 I imagine.
Ramunap red is something we will have to worry about a lot more without grasp around. It makes including at least some Deathgorge Scavenger in the mainboard seem reasonable.
The deck is running a lot of dinos, so it definitely pays off for Savage Stomp. Also consider that this card synergizes with snake and walking ballista as well. There are potentially 8 cards minimum mainboard without dinos, and Ripjaw Raptor looks like a 1 or 2 of in just about every list. I'm not saying the card is great, but there are more potential synergies than just dinos. Looks interesting to me.
Is ammit eternal good enough for us now? I think he is good enough for the non-energy version
I have an energy version that is similar to everyone else's I can post. As well as a b/g snek that I can post similar to the mtgo version
Nonbo with Snek.
Sanctuary is great if the deck is like Temur Energy. You don't have to commit 3 mana to start, plus a G every turn for draw, and they are loaded with targeting effects (lightning, abrade, Glory Bringer, Chandra, Confiscation Coup). Ramunap Red would draw you so many cards with their "can't block" effects, it wouldn't be hard to draw a lot of goods.
If there's a UW Approach deck that's all about counterspells, Wreckage and Fumigate, then Sanctuary seems useless. Also a deck that ignores your creatures won't do well with Sanctuary. Bestiary is fine against control and grindy matchups, but terrible slow against aggro decks.
Overall, I think I'd usually prefer creature-based draw power. Rogue Refiner, Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, Card-Draw Raptor. Just hope the latter comes down to a reasonable price soon.
Incidentally, had a great night with the energy-combo deck I posted. I misbuilt the deck with only 12 green sources, but with the exception of those games where I failed to draw my green, I smoked the field. Temur Energy, RG dragons, 5-color control all got run over by creatures who got big fast.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
Spidery Grasp! If bringer enters and exerts, we play spidery grasp on the creature targeted for damage. It lives through the damage, and will untap with reach, +2 power and kill the glorybringer. Glorybringer will probably still eat 2 cards, but I can't think of anything besides Vraska's contempt for 4 mana or the extremely narrow Crushing Canopy that takes care of the situation better.
Spidery Grasp has the benefit of being a decent combat trick regardless if glorybringer makes it to the field. Could benefit decks that play Gifted Aetherborn too. 4/7 deathtouch lifelink kills and survives just about anything on the ground these days. We can also pump Aethersphere Harvester for extra lifegain and a gigantic ass. Spidery Grasp can turn on Rhonas by surprise. It can allow our creature to survive 4 damage from a chandra planeswalker (something often played alongside bringer.)
Thoughts?
Edit: How could I forget about how this card can fight Ramunap Red? We simply pump up a creature to give it greater power than Earthshaker Khenra. This card also allow our own creatures to attack in, while still being able to untap one to block with. In that way it's helpful for offense and defense.
4 Aether Hub
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Botanical Sanctum
2 Fetid Pools
4 Forest
1 Island
2 Swamp
Spells (12)
4 Attune with Aether
3 Blossoming Defense
4 Fatal Push
1 Spell Pierce
4 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner
4 Hostage Taker
4 Longtusk Cub
2 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
4 Rogue Refiner
1 The Scarab God
4 Walking Ballista
4 Winding Constrictor
4 Duress
3 Negate
3 Deathgorge Scrounger
2 Vraska, Relic Seeker
2 Vraska's Contempt
1 The Scarab God
Hostage taker should destroy that God-Pharoah's Gift deck. Also a good answer to Hazoret, which our deck now lacks.
I see the 3 toughness as less of a drawback if you can play around it. Leave up blossoming d, or run it alongside duress or sorcerous spyglass to check out their hand, then wait for their removal to be gone.
Surprised to see the deck running 4 copies of it instead of another Scarab God and verdurous gearhulk however.
Hostage Taker plus Deathgorge Scavenger plus The Scarab God.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
Thanks! I'll hopefully be able to give my report tonight or tomorrow. I didn't take notes, but I have all the sheets I used for life totals to provide insight into each match-up. I played both Jessup brothers, losing to both. Hostage Taker is such a huge tempo swing, and they treated it like a 5-drop (holding up Blossoming Defense). They also almost always had the right card at the right time, which was extremely frustrating. It's one thing to be a good player with a good deck. But to always have Fatal Push, Blossoming Defense, and Hostage Taker at the right time to maximize the advantage? That's some good luck too!
I'm curious how the deck does Game 1 versus Ramunap Red and UW Approach?
anything you'd change?
4 Longtusk Cub
4 Walking Ballista
4 Winding Constrictor
4 Rogue Refiner
2 Rhonas the Indomitable
2 Bristling Hydra
2 Ripjaw Raptor
2 Verdurous Gearhulk
1 The Scarab God
Non-creature Spells
2 Shapers' Sanctuary
3 Fatal Push
3 Attune with Aether
2 Aethersphere Harvester
2 Never // Return
2 Vraska's Contempt
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Botanical Sanctum
4 Aether Hub
2 Foul Orchard
3 Forest
3 Swamp
1 Island
1 Fetid Pools
1 Carnage Tyrannt
1 Vraska's Contempt
2 Lifecrafter's Bestiary
3 Spell Pierce
1 Ripjaw Raptor
3 Doomfall
2 Crook of Condemnation
2 Appetite for the Unnatural
Round 1: Abzan Tokens/Stockpile
Game 1 he got stuck on lands and it was over pretty quick. Game 2 he landed Legion's Landing early, and once he got Anointed Procession and Hidden Stockpile out, it got ugly quick. I scooped with about 10 minutes left on the clock and he had 63 life. Game 3 went to turns after I got him down really low. A timely Walking Ballista allowed me to control his board and swing for lethal on T2.
2-1
Round 2: Bant Control
I don't think his deck ever really performed. I asked him about his wincons because he sorta controlled the board, but I could always chip in for some damage here and there. He was a turbofog style control deck but I had too many threats.
2-0
Round 3: UR Control
He got stuck on one land game 1 and it was over very quickly. Game 2, he stalled he got controlled the board pretty well and was using Enigma Drake as his win con. He also was using Vizier of Many Faces to copy the Enigma Drake. His first his was for 8, then for 10 (technically swinging for 20, but I had revolt enabled and tried to fatal push both the Drake and the Vizier copy, but he countered one). He was down to 4 life and I topdecked a Walking Ballista with 8+ mana so...
2-0
Round 4: Temur Black Energy
I played Temur Black Energy several times the weekend and they all kinda blur together. I think my version of the deck is favored, because I won all the match-ups against it. I lost Game 2 due to land screw, but I won games 1 & 3 pretty handily.
2-1
Round 5: UW Approach
It's not even close. Settle the Wreckage is terrible to play against. My maindeck stands very little chance unless they just don't find the answers. My opponent sticks Search for Azcanta on T2 both games and I can never keep a large enough board presence to make a difference. I board in 3 Doomfall and 3 Spell Pierce to try to make a difference, but never draw the Doomfalls and Spell Pierce doesn't work when they have all the manas. For what it's worth, my opponent this round made 7th in the tourney.
0-2
Round 6: Temur Black Energy
See above about this match-up.
2-1
Round 7: Ramunap Red
The red match-up I think is slightly favored in our advantage. Game 1, Aethersphere Harvester was the MVP. He took me down to 3, but crewing Harvester and dropping all the Gearhulk counters on it to gain back a bunch of life works SUPER well in this matchup. I mean, sure, they can blow you out with Abrade, but if they don't have it right then, it's almost always game over. G2 I didn't put up much of a fight. G3 was close, as I got down to 4 before closing the game out.
2-1
Round 8: Sultai Snek Hostage Taker - Dan Jessup
Game 1 I managed to win. He didn't see a Hostage Taker, and without that card, my deck performs better than his. Game 2, he Hostage Taker's my Winding Constrictor on T5, holding up for Blossoming Defense. I attempt to Never on my turn, but Blossoming Defense eats my lunch. Snake into Rishkar and that's all she wrote. Game 3 followed a similar pattern. I would dominate turns 1-4, but turns 5-8 were all his after Hostage Taker with Defense turned the tide. It's a ugly two-card combo that's very hard to deal with.
1-2
Round 9: Mono Black Aggro
Game 1 goes to my opponent in a very weird way. He gets stuck on two lands - a swamp and an Aether Hub. He has a Glint-Sleeve Siphoner out. He beats face with Siphoner to gain an energy and then uses the energy to pay for a black to cast Walk the Plank. For 6 turns, he casts all four Planks and 2 Fatal Pushes. He 1-for-1s me and hits for 12 points without ever drawing another land. Finally he hits land three, I'm out of gas, and he lands another threat or two and closes the game. I easily take games 2 & 3 because the deck can weather early aggro, stabilize, and the crack back is really hard once that happens.
2-1, finish Day 1 with a 7-2 record
Round 10: Temur Black Energy
See above. Worth noting that opponent's T3 Bristling Hydra into T4 Bristling Hydra while on the play is hard to answer...
2-1
Round 11: Grixis Improvise
I really enjoyed this match-up. He'd land early artifacts and servo makers to power out improvise creatures like Herald of Anguish. He used Battle at the Bridge to kill Rhonas. In the end, though, The Scarab God proved too much, as did timely removal for his threats.
2-0
Round 12: Sultai Snek Hostage Taker - Andrew Jessup
See notes from round 8, as it was almost exactly the same except I didn't win game 1. He slaughtered me both games with all the answers, Hostage Taker when needed, and Blossoming Defense to blank all my removal. It was frustrating to feel like his draws were the perfect counters against my draws, but that's how it works sometimes!
0-2
Round 13: Ramunap Red
I closed out Game 1 without much difficulty. I think he got stuck on lands. Game 2 was the opposite, where he closed it out pretty quickly and I barely put up a fight. Game 3 was a much closer game, despite his life total never changing. The game ended with me having two Winding Constrictors that were 5/6s, an 8/8 Gearhulk, and Rhonas with 6 mana. He had enough of a board that I couldn't swing in with anything because the crack back would be lethal. I had to try to build a critical mass of creatures and grant trample with Rhonas to make it where he was forced to block to survive and not be able to attack back. He got to six mana and was able to Eternalize a Khenra, and between that, two Crashers, Hazoret, and Kari Zev, it was game over. The turning point was about turn 7 when I crewed Harvester to block and gain some life and he played Lightning Strike on it. Not so big a deal, except I had two Constrictors out and he had a Soul-Scar Mage. Next turn, I was gonna drop Gearhulk and counter it up, but it would've been a worse blow out (Strike in response to the counters).
1-2
Round 14: UW Approach
See above for how bad this match-up is. Game 2 was actually really funny, as he played Regal Caracal into Regal Caracal and beat face. He got me down to 1 and was up to 46 life, then Fumigated to clear away everything. I managed to crawl back up to 7 life from various life gain effects while also dropping him to 35, but the second sun made its way to victory.
0-2
Round 15: Mono Red Aggro
It wasn't the standard build of Ramunap Red, using some newer cards like Rampaging Ferocidon. The games were close, but Walking Ballista, life gain from Harvester, and even incidental gain from Vraska's Contempt make this a win-able match-up.
2-1, finishing Day 2 at 3-3 with a 10-5 record overall
Main thing I would change is to add back in the 4th Fatal Push (I needed it so often the weekend), remove Shapers' Sanctuary (I never really wanted it and it rarely drew me cards because the opponent's would just play around it), and possibly switch out the Never // Return with more Vraska's Contempt. Sideboard, I'd probably pull the Tyrant, as I'm not sure it was really needed, probably add in another Harvester (it was a serious MVP in so many match-ups), replace the Spell Pierces with Negates, and consider switching out Doomfall with Duress like the Jessup brothers have. I think Duress will overall be better against Approach, which was by far the worst match-up, and Negate being a hard counter against both Approach and Settle is a big deal. How to deal with the Hostage Taker version? Not sure yet, but I may have to consider some amount of Defense myself as a counter to the ability. I wouldn't play Taker myself unless I use their style build, as the whole game plan is to make a massive tempo swing with Taker and protect it with Defense.
To be clear, Panharmonicon is a fun card, but it doesn't do all that. It does nothing for Walking Ballista because it's not a trigger. Nor is Winding Constrictor. But you are right that Rogue Refiner will draw 2 cards and gain 4 energy, and Rishkar will lay out counters on 2+2 creatures.
P.S. Still rocking the combo list. Fabrication Module and Decoction Module surprisingly put in a lot of work. You can actually get away with running up to 4 each and come out ahead in the long run.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
I missed that Walking Ballistaisn't a trigger, this make Panharmonicon truly less useful. Winding Constrictor part is just because the artifact would make another trigger for the snake, but since don't work with ballista, is just meh. Still incredible fun with Hostage Taker, with two you can, utterly slowly, wipe all the board. With three+ 1 ETB creature, could be infinite.