This deck absolutely dominates polymorph and Eldrazi decks. Only problem I have is vs Iona, but siding in sad sac makes that easy g2. I once pulled off a kicked sad sac (games vs UW Control can last forever) and pulled everything from his deck except land.
I love watching poly decks try so hard getting an Eldrazi out, then popping off a Vapor. Also Smothering the token they try to morph is fun. Vapors vs wall decks is hilarious too.
Snow- I currently have suffer the past sitting in my sideboard, but I'm beginning to think that haunting echoes may be an all around better choice for graveyard hate.
Echoes definitely wrecks if you resolve it, but it's not all around better. Suffer the Past is amazing graveyard hate early game. If RDW declares an unearth, you can just use Suffer the Past for two (hopefully more, but not necessary) mana and exile the unearthing creature, since it goes on the stack and Suffer the Past is instant. Echoes is probably better against every other archetype, but Suffer is incredible vs RDW and definitely saves us from damage early game until we can stabilize.
Echoes definitely wrecks if you resolve it, but it's not all around better. Suffer the Past is amazing graveyard hate early game. If RDW declares an unearth, you can just use Suffer the Past for two (hopefully more, but not necessary) mana and exile the unearthing creature, since it goes on the stack and Suffer the Past is instant. Echoes is probably better against every other archetype, but Suffer is incredible vs RDW and definitely saves us from damage early game until we can stabilize.
Which creatures does RDW unearth before they hit four lands? I hardly ever play this deck so I literally just have no idea.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Type 2:
:symr:Tribal Goblins:symr:
:symb:Mono-Black Control:symb:
:symb::symu::symw:Esper Aggro:symw::symu::symb:
EDH:
:symb::symr::symu:Sedris, the Traitor King:symu::symr::symb:
This deck absolutely dominates polymorph and Eldrazi decks. Only problem I have is vs Iona, but siding in sad sac makes that easy g2. I once pulled off a kicked sad sac (games vs UW Control can last forever) and pulled everything from his deck except land.
I love watching poly decks try so hard getting an Eldrazi out, then popping off a Vapor. Also Smothering the token they try to morph is fun. Vapors vs wall decks is hilarious too.
I'll agree that this handles that large ELdrazi rather well- but one deck I did have some trouble with in MWS testing is this sort of R/G token ramp. The biggest issue here of course was the ELdrazi Monument. We were 1-1 for the match and he SB'd again and sided in Warp Worlds, which I was not expecting, and it was a pretty mean surprise. Best bet here might be to try to Sad Sac their Monuments away.
Which creatures does RDW unearth before they hit four lands? I hardly ever play this deck so I literally just have no idea.
As the other posters have said, Hellspark. The thing is that RDW can bring you to 0 before they ever need to unearth Hell's Thunder. Mitigating any damage you can is important. The entire strategy against RDW for any deck is to weather the storm and take control once they run out of steam.
You might appreciate this: I busted some sleeves the other day, so I bought a new set of yellow-backs for my MBC deck. As soon as I sleeved up the cardboard, "Killer Bees" popped in my head.
I bomb atomically, Socrates' philosophies and hypothesis can't define how I be droppin' these...
I have heard vague rumors of a moustache-dispensing vending machine in a distant laundromat, across the street from a tattoo parlor. However, this information is shaky, and time is of the essence.
I've been toying around with the idea of switching out the 3x Duress/IoK in MB for 3x Guul Draz Assassin. In the early part of the matches we may have the available mana to get this guy some quick levels and therefore become a early threat. I will do some testing and see how it works out based on this theory. It just doesn't seem like we have too many plays before turn 3 or 4.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I think this forum would be strictly better if people would stop trying to force the word strictly into discussions.
You might appreciate this: I busted some sleeves the other day, so I bought a new set of yellow-backs for my MBC deck. As soon as I sleeved up the cardboard, "Killer Bees" popped in my head.
I bomb atomically, Socrates' philosophies and hypothesis can't define how I be droppin' these...
haha Dude I love you. I have yellow sleeves on my mbc too for the exact same reason. They look so good. haha
...mockeries, lyrically perform armed robbery
flee with the lottery, possibly they spotted me
I've been toying around with the idea of switching out the 3x Duress/IoK in MB for 3x Guul Draz Assassin. In the early part of the matches we may have the available mana to get this guy some quick levels and therefore become a early threat. I will do some testing and see how it works out based on this theory. It just doesn't seem like we have too many plays before turn 3 or 4.
You could do some testing. I don't think I'm going to run him because he's just going to eat early removal and essentially take up a spot. I don't know how he'd do top decking it late game, prolly wouldn't be that bad. But then Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief would prolly be a better bet.
Here is a deck list I sorta mustered up. I havn't gotten a chance to test it (mainly because I don't have everything) but any suggestions would be great. Thanks
That was part of the idea too that the Guul Assassin would eat some of the removal that normally Nighthawk or Percy would eat. And in turn this may help the deck out, so it may be a two-fold purpose with them.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I think this forum would be strictly better if people would stop trying to force the word strictly into discussions.
That was part of the idea too that the Guul Assassin would eat some of the removal that normally Nighthawk or Percy would eat. And in turn this may help the deck out, so it may be a two-fold purpose with them.
Yep, true.
A while ago I was going to try to fit in Hypnotic Specter for the same reasons. He can eat early removal to hopefully save later threats or if he sticks he's going to do some nasty damage.
Let us know how the assassin does.
ImAChampion... Are the chalice overkill at all? I mean when you cast that are you ever wanting to put the mana elsewhere? Or is it to fuel a kicked Sacrament after boarding?
Has anyone found that against aggro decks, cards like mind sludge are lackluster?
What do you mean by "cards like mind sludge"? I might side out Sludges for Duress against RDW, but that's about it. Mind Sludge will really punish any aggro deck that gets off to a slow start.
I have heard vague rumors of a moustache-dispensing vending machine in a distant laundromat, across the street from a tattoo parlor. However, this information is shaky, and time is of the essence.
I'm just debating how many mind sludges vs consuming vapors i want. Or potentially consume the meek. Idealy i was thinking 3 mind sludges, but then i thought well against mythic,OTV and to some extent boss naya mind sludge on my turn 5 seems very lackluster. So i was thinking hmm ok, maybe 2 mind sludge 1 consuming vapor as you only ever need 1 mind sludge in a game.
Against mid range decks a turn 4 mind sludge is just backbreaking.
Just ideas i am not 100% what to do at the moment.
I would run 3 just so you can see it. If you don't like it in the matchup you are playing just SB. But if it's at 2-of in a matchup where it's favorable, you may never see it.
With regard to Everflowing Chalice, I feel that we would be better served by just having more of something rather than having faster something. Back when black decks had almost nothing of value to play in the opening turns, it was absolutely correct to run out some sort of signet on turn 2 and skip straight to powerful 4cc plays like Persecute or Damnation. The situation today is quite different in that we have a considerable amount of worthwhile options at our disposal on turns 2 and 3, and our plays on turns 4 and 5 aren't so much stronger that they would merit us sacrificing our early game and filling our deck up with bad topdecks just to "go off" faster.
I tweaked my deck around. I felt like it was too erratic sometimes even though every topdeck was a card I could use, it was just too random for me. So I tightened it up.
Anyway, here's my new list.
No more planeswalkers sadly. As much as I love them, they weren't pulling their weight. Also no more grim discovery, which might be a mistake, but it hasn't been a problem yet. And I put in an extra wincon since I don't have the walkers in anymore (which I was wanting to do anyway; sooooo much removal in the meta).
A lot of my iterations in testing today struggled with rampant jund. I've built up a version I feel is very strong against it... and probably still beats Junk and WW... but who knows how the other matchups look:
4 Gatekeeper
4 Persecutor
3 Ob Nix
2 Nightmare
4 Sign in Blood
4 Marsh Casualties
3 Grim Discovery
4 Tendrils
4 Consuming Vapors
3 Mind Sludge
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats
18 Swamps
First, yes, that's 61. 2nd, yes I cut Consume the Meek and am definitely running 4 Marsh Casualties.
I found that in my games vs. Jund I couldn't rely on Consume to sweep their board reliably. Consuming Vapors matches up favorably against BMD, but bbe and sgc laugh off consume the meek. Plus, thrinax is mildly resilient. So I took the more flexible card in MC that also answers BBE and SGC nicely. And by running 4 I'm not bothered by just throwing it out on turn 2 to kill a lotus cobra.
Another thing I found after running a serious battery against Jund is that Nighthawk is a lot worse than advertised. It never fails that when you run him out on 3 he eats a bolt, or he's the only guy you've got so cascade into removal blasts him off the board. Cutting him defrays the power of BBE into removal... and let me add up more wincons. Yes, that's 4 persecutors, 3 ob nix, 2 nightmare.
With 25 lands and no fetches I was going just nuts hitting 4 lands and stopping. So by tweaking the numbers a bit and adding more land (and fetches... i think i shuffle bizarrely when i test) I'm hitting my land drops more smoothly.
At any rate, if this matches up how I expect I'm fine fixing the sideboard to cover up the exposure to RDW again.
I thought I would post a quick tournament report. I took my deck on page 1 to FNM last night and finished 5-0. I learned a bit about my deck and things to change for next time.
Round 1
I played a person new to the store but not new to magic with Valakut. On game 1 my turn 3 Tectonic Edge against his Valakut after he used explore to ramp himself caused him to curse a lot. Followed up next turn with another Tectonic that just stayed on the field taunting him. I won that one on the back on a Perseuctor that stuck around.
Game 2 my third turn sideboarded Sadistic Sacrament caused an outcry that I way play "jank" and not "real vampires". With one valakut on the field, one in hand and the other two removed, it was not much of a fight. I won with 2 Percys that he thought I could not get rid of, I introduced him to Consuming Vapors.
sidenote: the next round he lost to my friend playing U/W with 2 Tectonics mainboard and the following another person playing a deck with Persecutors (more sacrifice effects than mine), he left cursing the shop for playing "jank"
Round 2
My friend playing the U/R Sneaky deck that I built for testing, without sideboard. He handily got me the first game. I swapped Consume the Meek for Mind Sludge the next two game and was able to stay alive thanks to Tendrils and Vapors. I believe Nighthawks took both of those games. To be fair he would of had a chance if he had played with the deck more and if there was a sideboard.
Round 3
This is a friend playing a great version of Jund with the new 1G 2/2 dude who puts out an Eldrazi Spawn. That spawn really nerfs my Gatekeepers and Vapors. He won game 1 when I was stuck on 2 swamps and a Gargoyle Castle with 2 Gatekeepers, 2 Vapors and a Percy in my hand. Game 2 was won thanks to early tectonic edges that came back with Grim and a Percy that stuck. Game 3 was the best game of the night , he sideboarded in Collars which he threw on his Thrinax! I gatekeepered and he of coursed has his 3 1/1 dudes. Followed up by two Hexmages meant that even a bloodbraid with the collar could not get threw and Hexmages are mostly Maelstrom Pulse proof. Also he forgot for some reason that I carry tendrils and attacked with broodmate with collar and it's token. I Tendril'd the dragon and blocked the other with percy. Great Game all around.
Round 4
U/W TapOut with Gideon and Lightmine Fields maindeck. I am surprised the more I play against U/W that MBC has such a good matchup against them. A turn 5 sludge after they tapped out for a DOJ (baited with a Gatekeeper and Nighthawk on the table) put them in Topdeck mode and that is one play U/W hates to be. Game two it was all thanks to Hexmages (one brought in from SB) and Bloodwitches (Swapped for Percy). An early IoK showed me his had of a DOJ and Gideon so I played a bit smarter. I attacked with a hexmage only which he activated a Collonade to block and kill, so I echoed away his Deprives, DOJ, Jace, Paths and some other stuff. Grim Discovery plus the bloodwitch made short work.
Round 5
I was the only undefeated at this point but we were going the full 5 rounds regardless. My LGS does not break for a top8, they just go by points.
My opponent was a good guy who has never managed to place in the top 4 before and was worried that if I won he'd go 3-2 and not win anything. He was playing Polymorph'd Emrakul. First game he got out Emrakul on turn 4 but my Consuming Vapors plsu 2 gatekeepers in my hand kept him from being much of a threat, I finished the game north of 40 life, Vaporing Emrakul is awesome. Game 2 he switched Emrakul for Iona and well her on turn 3 was GG. Game 3 I managed a thrid turn Sadistic Sacrament but Iona was not in the deck!! He kept a hand with her in it in hopes to draw See Beyond to put her back. Drat that could have been a third turn win for me. I took three polymorphs. I knew I was safe for a while as he'd have to draw the one remaining Poly AND put Iona back in the deck. A few turns later a Devastation haunting echoes left him with less than 20 cards in his deck which consisted of forests, awakening zone and that card that searches for a land and plops out an Eldrazi Sapwn. At that point I knew his other polymorph was in his hand AND the Iona so that was pretty much game. He did end up 3-2 but the owner placed down to 6 and he got 5th due to tiebreakers and finally won a prize!
This was my first FNM win in a while (I've been judging and playing "fun" decks like Bazaar Trader.dec and Merfolk recently)
Closing thoughts: This deck was a blast to play and seemed to have the right answers for everything since it attacks all the fundamentals (Hand, graveyard, creatures) A lot of people thought I was playing Vampires (especially the first player who called my deck "jank")
I owe an apology to Niche, IoK was phenomenal once (Jund grabbing Thrinax) but in most cases I'd rather have had Duress especially when I top decked it later in the game, that will be my one change for next week when my shop runs both an FNM and that WPN qualifier.
TL;DR I won 5-0 against a variety of decks
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The only sound was the gentle clicking of the Faeries' wings. Then those intruders who were still standing turned and fled. One thing was certain: they didn't think the Scryb were very funny anymore.
Always glad to hear a positive tourney report. Nice work.
And glad to hear that testing supports my theory crafting. The truth is that theory is the only thing that can be relied upon completely as metas as so diverse and games can have so many outliers. This makes cardboard testing tough to make judgements based on unless you focus on the flow of the match in its entirety, not just the card that beat you. And play at least 30 games.
Echoes definitely wrecks if you resolve it, but it's not all around better. Suffer the Past is amazing graveyard hate early game. If RDW declares an unearth, you can just use Suffer the Past for two (hopefully more, but not necessary) mana and exile the unearthing creature, since it goes on the stack and Suffer the Past is instant.
This does not work, since once they announce the unearth, the creature is no longer in the graveyard, but on the stack. You can prevent them from unearthing by using suffer on thier upkeep or draw step, since unearth is played as a sorcery, but you can't stop unearthing once it has been announced.
Top 4'd last night with this list. Very pleased with it, but could always use tweaking. The high creature density makes it a little different, but I am a fan!
I thought I would post a quick tournament report. I took my deck on page 1 to FNM last night and finished 5-0. I learned a bit about my deck and things to change for next time.
Round 1
I played a person new to the store but not new to magic with Valakut. On game 1 my turn 3 Tectonic Edge against his Valakut after he used explore to ramp himself caused him to curse a lot. Followed up next turn with another Tectonic that just stayed on the field taunting him. I won that one on the back on a Perseuctor that stuck around.
Game 2 my third turn sideboarded Sadistic Sacrament caused an outcry that I way play "jank" and not "real vampires". With one valakut on the field, one in hand and the other two removed, it was not much of a fight. I won with 2 Percys that he thought I could not get rid of, I introduced him to Consuming Vapors.
sidenote: the next round he lost to my friend playing U/W with 2 Tectonics mainboard and the following another person playing a deck with Persecutors (more sacrifice effects than mine), he left cursing the shop for playing "jank"
Round 2
My friend playing the U/R Sneaky deck that I built for testing, without sideboard. He handily got me the first game. I swapped Consume the Meek for Mind Sludge the next two game and was able to stay alive thanks to Tendrils and Vapors. I believe Nighthawks took both of those games. To be fair he would of had a chance if he had played with the deck more and if there was a sideboard.
Round 3
This is a friend playing a great version of Jund with the new 1G 2/2 dude who puts out an Eldrazi Spawn. That spawn really nerfs my Gatekeepers and Vapors. He won game 1 when I was stuck on 2 swamps and a Gargoyle Castle with 2 Gatekeepers, 2 Vapors and a Percy in my hand. Game 2 was won thanks to early tectonic edges that came back with Grim and a Percy that stuck. Game 3 was the best game of the night , he sideboarded in Collars which he threw on his Thrinax! I gatekeepered and he of coursed has his 3 1/1 dudes. Followed up by two Hexmages meant that even a bloodbraid with the collar could not get threw and Hexmages are mostly Maelstrom Pulse proof. Also he forgot for some reason that I carry tendrils and attacked with broodmate with collar and it's token. I Tendril'd the dragon and blocked the other with percy. Great Game all around.
Round 4
U/W TapOut with Gideon and Lightmine Fields maindeck. I am surprised the more I play against U/W that MBC has such a good matchup against them. A turn 5 sludge after they tapped out for a DOJ (baited with a Gatekeeper and Nighthawk on the table) put them in Topdeck mode and that is one play U/W hates to be. Game two it was all thanks to Hexmages (one brought in from SB) and Bloodwitches (Swapped for Percy). An early IoK showed me his had of a DOJ and Gideon so I played a bit smarter. I attacked with a hexmage only which he activated a Collonade to block and kill, so I echoed away his Deprives, DOJ, Jace, Paths and some other stuff. Grim Discovery plus the bloodwitch made short work.
Round 5
I was the only undefeated at this point but we were going the full 5 rounds regardless. My LGS does not break for a top8, they just go by points.
My opponent was a good guy who has never managed to place in the top 4 before and was worried that if I won he'd go 3-2 and not win anything. He was playing Polymorph'd Emrakul. First game he got out Emrakul on turn 4 but my Consuming Vapors plsu 2 gatekeepers in my hand kept him from being much of a threat, I finished the game north of 40 life, Vaporing Emrakul is awesome. Game 2 he switched Emrakul for Iona and well her on turn 3 was GG. Game 3 I managed a thrid turn Sadistic Sacrament but Iona was not in the deck!! He kept a hand with her in it in hopes to draw See Beyond to put her back. Drat that could have been a third turn win for me. I took three polymorphs. I knew I was safe for a while as he'd have to draw the one remaining Poly AND put Iona back in the deck. A few turns later a Devastation haunting echoes left him with less than 20 cards in his deck which consisted of forests, awakening zone and that card that searches for a land and plops out an Eldrazi Sapwn. At that point I knew his other polymorph was in his hand AND the Iona so that was pretty much game. He did end up 3-2 but the owner placed down to 6 and he got 5th due to tiebreakers and finally won a prize!
This was my first FNM win in a while (I've been judging and playing "fun" decks like Bazaar Trader.dec and Merfolk recently)
Closing thoughts: This deck was a blast to play and seemed to have the right answers for everything since it attacks all the fundamentals (Hand, graveyard, creatures) A lot of people thought I was playing Vampires (especially the first player who called my deck "jank")
I owe an apology to Niche, IoK was phenomenal once (Jund grabbing Thrinax) but in most cases I'd rather have had Duress especially when I top decked it later in the game, that will be my one change for next week when my shop runs both an FNM and that WPN qualifier.
I love watching poly decks try so hard getting an Eldrazi out, then popping off a Vapor. Also Smothering the token they try to morph is fun. Vapors vs wall decks is hilarious too.
Echoes definitely wrecks if you resolve it, but it's not all around better. Suffer the Past is amazing graveyard hate early game. If RDW declares an unearth, you can just use Suffer the Past for two (hopefully more, but not necessary) mana and exile the unearthing creature, since it goes on the stack and Suffer the Past is instant. Echoes is probably better against every other archetype, but Suffer is incredible vs RDW and definitely saves us from damage early game until we can stabilize.
Which creatures does RDW unearth before they hit four lands? I hardly ever play this deck so I literally just have no idea.
:symr:Tribal Goblins:symr:
:symb:Mono-Black Control:symb:
:symb::symu::symw:Esper Aggro:symw::symu::symb:
EDH:
:symb::symr::symu:Sedris, the Traitor King:symu::symr::symb:
Hellspark Elemental is the only one before 4.
Legacy: Pox | Tiny Leaders: Thalia Hatebears
Like smashing face? Like not worrying about pitiful tokens or life gain? Check out Stonebrow, Krosan Hero for all your face smashing needs
I'll agree that this handles that large ELdrazi rather well- but one deck I did have some trouble with in MWS testing is this sort of R/G token ramp. The biggest issue here of course was the ELdrazi Monument. We were 1-1 for the match and he SB'd again and sided in Warp Worlds, which I was not expecting, and it was a pretty mean surprise. Best bet here might be to try to Sad Sac their Monuments away.
As the other posters have said, Hellspark. The thing is that RDW can bring you to 0 before they ever need to unearth Hell's Thunder. Mitigating any damage you can is important. The entire strategy against RDW for any deck is to weather the storm and take control once they run out of steam.
You might appreciate this: I busted some sleeves the other day, so I bought a new set of yellow-backs for my MBC deck. As soon as I sleeved up the cardboard, "Killer Bees" popped in my head.
I bomb atomically, Socrates' philosophies and hypothesis can't define how I be droppin' these...
haha Dude I love you. I have yellow sleeves on my mbc too for the exact same reason. They look so good. haha
...mockeries, lyrically perform armed robbery
flee with the lottery, possibly they spotted me
You could do some testing. I don't think I'm going to run him because he's just going to eat early removal and essentially take up a spot. I don't know how he'd do top decking it late game, prolly wouldn't be that bad. But then Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief would prolly be a better bet.
Legacy: Pox | Tiny Leaders: Thalia Hatebears
1x Pestilence Demon
3x Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
4x Gatekeeper of Malikir
3x Guul Draz Assassin
Sorceries/Instant: (24)
4x Tendrills of Coruption
4x Consuming Vapours
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
3x Smother
3x Sign in Blood
3x Grim Discovery
3x Mind Sludge
4x Marsh Flats
4x Verdant Catacombs
17x Swamps
4x Duress
3x Consume the Meek
3x Malikir Bloodwitch
2x Suffer the Past
3x Hypnotic Specter
Here is a deck list I sorta mustered up. I havn't gotten a chance to test it (mainly because I don't have everything) but any suggestions would be great. Thanks
GRAggroRG
Smouldering decay
Take your breath away
Millions of our years
In minutes disappears
That was part of the idea too that the Guul Assassin would eat some of the removal that normally Nighthawk or Percy would eat. And in turn this may help the deck out, so it may be a two-fold purpose with them.
Yep, true.
A while ago I was going to try to fit in Hypnotic Specter for the same reasons. He can eat early removal to hopefully save later threats or if he sticks he's going to do some nasty damage.
Let us know how the assassin does.
Legacy: Pox | Tiny Leaders: Thalia Hatebears
Turn 2 Everflowing Chalice
Turn 3 Consuming Vapors
Turn 4 Mind Sludge
Turn 5 Abyssal Persecutor + Sign in Blood
Mind Sludge for 4 is just as devistating as Mind Sludge for 5...only this is a turn earlier...and just in time to start the pain.
I could see this deck functionig without Everflowing Chalice...but it has been an allstar in my deck.
[EDH] Ob Nixilis the Fallen
What do you mean by "cards like mind sludge"? I might side out Sludges for Duress against RDW, but that's about it. Mind Sludge will really punish any aggro deck that gets off to a slow start.
That's why you have some Hexmages for something like RDW to side in.
My Trade Thread
I would run 3 just so you can see it. If you don't like it in the matchup you are playing just SB. But if it's at 2-of in a matchup where it's favorable, you may never see it.
My Trade Thread
And lastly, the correct way to play turn 4 Mind Sludge is clearly to get some sucker to play Path to Exile on your Vampire Nighthawk. THAT, not ramping with Everflowing Chalice, is a blowout.
Anyway, here's my new list.
2 Gargoyle Castle
2 Nightmare
3 Malakir Bloodwitch
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Vampire Nighthawk
3 Mind Sludge
4 Sign In Blood
3 Consume the Meek
4 Consuming Vapors
4 Smother
3 Duress
3 Pithing Needle
3 Sadistic Sacrament
2 Haunting Echoes
4 Vampire Hexmage
No more planeswalkers sadly. As much as I love them, they weren't pulling their weight. Also no more grim discovery, which might be a mistake, but it hasn't been a problem yet. And I put in an extra wincon since I don't have the walkers in anymore (which I was wanting to do anyway; sooooo much removal in the meta).
Legacy: Pox | Tiny Leaders: Thalia Hatebears
A lot of my iterations in testing today struggled with rampant jund. I've built up a version I feel is very strong against it... and probably still beats Junk and WW... but who knows how the other matchups look:
4 Gatekeeper
4 Persecutor
3 Ob Nix
2 Nightmare
4 Sign in Blood
4 Marsh Casualties
3 Grim Discovery
4 Tendrils
4 Consuming Vapors
3 Mind Sludge
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats
18 Swamps
First, yes, that's 61. 2nd, yes I cut Consume the Meek and am definitely running 4 Marsh Casualties.
I found that in my games vs. Jund I couldn't rely on Consume to sweep their board reliably. Consuming Vapors matches up favorably against BMD, but bbe and sgc laugh off consume the meek. Plus, thrinax is mildly resilient. So I took the more flexible card in MC that also answers BBE and SGC nicely. And by running 4 I'm not bothered by just throwing it out on turn 2 to kill a lotus cobra.
Another thing I found after running a serious battery against Jund is that Nighthawk is a lot worse than advertised. It never fails that when you run him out on 3 he eats a bolt, or he's the only guy you've got so cascade into removal blasts him off the board. Cutting him defrays the power of BBE into removal... and let me add up more wincons. Yes, that's 4 persecutors, 3 ob nix, 2 nightmare.
With 25 lands and no fetches I was going just nuts hitting 4 lands and stopping. So by tweaking the numbers a bit and adding more land (and fetches... i think i shuffle bizarrely when i test) I'm hitting my land drops more smoothly.
At any rate, if this matches up how I expect I'm fine fixing the sideboard to cover up the exposure to RDW again.
Round 1
I played a person new to the store but not new to magic with Valakut. On game 1 my turn 3 Tectonic Edge against his Valakut after he used explore to ramp himself caused him to curse a lot. Followed up next turn with another Tectonic that just stayed on the field taunting him. I won that one on the back on a Perseuctor that stuck around.
Game 2 my third turn sideboarded Sadistic Sacrament caused an outcry that I way play "jank" and not "real vampires". With one valakut on the field, one in hand and the other two removed, it was not much of a fight. I won with 2 Percys that he thought I could not get rid of, I introduced him to Consuming Vapors.
sidenote: the next round he lost to my friend playing U/W with 2 Tectonics mainboard and the following another person playing a deck with Persecutors (more sacrifice effects than mine), he left cursing the shop for playing "jank"
Round 2
My friend playing the U/R Sneaky deck that I built for testing, without sideboard. He handily got me the first game. I swapped Consume the Meek for Mind Sludge the next two game and was able to stay alive thanks to Tendrils and Vapors. I believe Nighthawks took both of those games. To be fair he would of had a chance if he had played with the deck more and if there was a sideboard.
Round 3
This is a friend playing a great version of Jund with the new 1G 2/2 dude who puts out an Eldrazi Spawn. That spawn really nerfs my Gatekeepers and Vapors. He won game 1 when I was stuck on 2 swamps and a Gargoyle Castle with 2 Gatekeepers, 2 Vapors and a Percy in my hand. Game 2 was won thanks to early tectonic edges that came back with Grim and a Percy that stuck. Game 3 was the best game of the night , he sideboarded in Collars which he threw on his Thrinax! I gatekeepered and he of coursed has his 3 1/1 dudes. Followed up by two Hexmages meant that even a bloodbraid with the collar could not get threw and Hexmages are mostly Maelstrom Pulse proof. Also he forgot for some reason that I carry tendrils and attacked with broodmate with collar and it's token. I Tendril'd the dragon and blocked the other with percy. Great Game all around.
Round 4
U/W TapOut with Gideon and Lightmine Fields maindeck. I am surprised the more I play against U/W that MBC has such a good matchup against them. A turn 5 sludge after they tapped out for a DOJ (baited with a Gatekeeper and Nighthawk on the table) put them in Topdeck mode and that is one play U/W hates to be. Game two it was all thanks to Hexmages (one brought in from SB) and Bloodwitches (Swapped for Percy). An early IoK showed me his had of a DOJ and Gideon so I played a bit smarter. I attacked with a hexmage only which he activated a Collonade to block and kill, so I echoed away his Deprives, DOJ, Jace, Paths and some other stuff. Grim Discovery plus the bloodwitch made short work.
Round 5
I was the only undefeated at this point but we were going the full 5 rounds regardless. My LGS does not break for a top8, they just go by points.
My opponent was a good guy who has never managed to place in the top 4 before and was worried that if I won he'd go 3-2 and not win anything. He was playing Polymorph'd Emrakul. First game he got out Emrakul on turn 4 but my Consuming Vapors plsu 2 gatekeepers in my hand kept him from being much of a threat, I finished the game north of 40 life, Vaporing Emrakul is awesome. Game 2 he switched Emrakul for Iona and well her on turn 3 was GG. Game 3 I managed a thrid turn Sadistic Sacrament but Iona was not in the deck!! He kept a hand with her in it in hopes to draw See Beyond to put her back. Drat that could have been a third turn win for me. I took three polymorphs. I knew I was safe for a while as he'd have to draw the one remaining Poly AND put Iona back in the deck. A few turns later a Devastation haunting echoes left him with less than 20 cards in his deck which consisted of forests, awakening zone and that card that searches for a land and plops out an Eldrazi Sapwn. At that point I knew his other polymorph was in his hand AND the Iona so that was pretty much game. He did end up 3-2 but the owner placed down to 6 and he got 5th due to tiebreakers and finally won a prize!
This was my first FNM win in a while (I've been judging and playing "fun" decks like Bazaar Trader.dec and Merfolk recently)
Closing thoughts: This deck was a blast to play and seemed to have the right answers for everything since it attacks all the fundamentals (Hand, graveyard, creatures) A lot of people thought I was playing Vampires (especially the first player who called my deck "jank")
I owe an apology to Niche, IoK was phenomenal once (Jund grabbing Thrinax) but in most cases I'd rather have had Duress especially when I top decked it later in the game, that will be my one change for next week when my shop runs both an FNM and that WPN qualifier.
TL;DR I won 5-0 against a variety of decks
And glad to hear that testing supports my theory crafting. The truth is that theory is the only thing that can be relied upon completely as metas as so diverse and games can have so many outliers. This makes cardboard testing tough to make judgements based on unless you focus on the flow of the match in its entirety, not just the card that beat you. And play at least 30 games.
This does not work, since once they announce the unearth, the creature is no longer in the graveyard, but on the stack. You can prevent them from unearthing by using suffer on thier upkeep or draw step, since unearth is played as a sorcery, but you can't stop unearthing once it has been announced.
3 Tectonic Edge
3 Marsh Flats
1 Verdant Catacombs
4 Consuming Vapors
3 Grim Discovery
3 Smother
4 Tendrils of Corruption
2 Consume the Meek
4 Mind Sludge
3 Vampire Hexmage
3 Malakir Bloodwitch
2 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
4 Abyssal Persecutor
4 Pithing Needle
3 Sadistic Sacrament
1 Haunting Echoes
2 Suffer the Past
2 Consume the Meek
3 Black Knight
Mind posting a decklist?
And has anyone playtested All is Dust?