What are the thoughts on far//away ? Just dont know what to cut for it. And it could be a problem with seer ... But something within me just wants to play this card.
List that i ran today at FNM, didn't make a report but went 3-1 taking second place. Thinking about Devour Flesh because as said before, need a few answers to Bant Enchant, the only deck i lost to.
Played against:
Junk Reanimator(2-0)
R/G Aggro(2-1)
Another Junk Reanimator(2-1)
Bant Enchant(0-2) Totally owned.
@Kuiji: I ran a mana base the same except for 2 Watery Graves and 3 Drowned Catacombs. I think your list with the 3 Watery Graves, 2 Drowned Catacombs is better. I'll switch my mana base over to your list. Although I'm not sure that it wouldn't be better with 1 or 2 more basics though, and I'll test 2 Watery Graves, 1 Drowned Catacomb, 1 Swamp, 1 Island which means one less Black and Blue source (from 13 to 12).
Duskmantle Seer didn't directly win me any games. It got hit with Dreadbore, Mizzium Mortars, and anything else they had. I don't think my matchups were particularly good for Duskmantle as it was a lot of aggro matches and I don't really want to take the chance and give Aggro more cards that they can use to kill me. Quite a few games I took 2 of them out for Nighthawks.
Lotleth Troll was very good all night long. If you cast him with open black mana he will just be the best blocker. It was tricky to figure out when to pitch a card to put a token on him, because the deck has very little means of drawing actual cards.
I found last night all the games were very quickly out of cards for both sides. We cast our spells they cast theirs and it comes down to who has what standing at the end. If it's me with a Lothleth Troll, they need to very quickly draw 2 creatures, because if they find nothing I just beat in for 2 each turn. If they find one I can potentially race it to win. If I can't race it I just sit back on defence.
Rapid Hybridization was awesome, so many tricks. I'm still not sure if 4 was the right number because I'd rather see a Young Wolf and a RH or 2 Young Wolfs then 2 RH's. I wasn't upset by running 4 though.
Skirsdag was removal magnet all night long, which is fine, our opponents are going to cast spells and interact with our cards so if they choose to hit our 1/2's as opposed to our 2/1 undying creatures that's the way it goes.
Spell Rupture often came out. It was good but against Aggro creature decks, which is what I faced, I needed to cast creatures on my turn so I didn't have the mana up to cast it. Plus Cavern of Souls on Vampire -> Aristocrat made Spell Rupture pretty bad.
What exactly is present in your metagame that makes you want all those counters? I feel by running all those counters you are giving up percentage points because in some games you'll draw 3 counterspells and not put enough pressure on your opponent.
[b]Game 1:[/b] Lost the die roll and had to ship a 1 land hand, running into a better hand, but it had Duskmantle Seer and no blue mana. I kept anyway, figuring going to 5 on the draw was a death sentence and I'd have a better shot at drawing my way into this game. My start was pretty slow, hitting 2 more lands (neither of which were blue) and taking care of a Mikeaus with Abrupt Decay, but he eventually got 2 very large Champion of the Parishes attached to Silverblade Paladins (one was 4/4 and the other was 7/7). I eventually quadruple blocked the 7/7 double striker to bring it down and then finally found a blue land, which let me take care of the other with Rapid Hybridization. Fortunately for me, his Zhur-Taa Druids weren't doing as much damage as they could because he wasn't tapping them at the end of his turns. The Seers finally came down (I had drawn a second by this point), and I managed to close it out in the air after dealing with most of his gas, but had he remembered to use his Druids, I would have died.
[b]Game 2:[/b] This game I got off to a much better start. I managed to get a Zameck Guildmage and a Young Wolf to get some blocks going. After drawing a bunch of cards and blocking a lot, I manged to wear his board down with removal spells (including a Far//Away fused which took care of a frog lizard token I had to give him to get rid of a Paladin). After his gas ran out, I just slowly closed out the game.
1-0 (2-0)
Round 2 vs. Mono Red Aggro
[b]Game 1:[/b] This was a friend of mine who's new and I've been teaching to play. I lost the die roll and had to mulligan again. He opened pretty quickly with a Rakdos Cackler and a Ash Zealot. My hand consisted of a bunch of X/2s, and I couldn't ever get anything in front of it. I started to stabilize the board to a position I could win from, but he managed to close it with his only copy of Brimstone Volley (did its job).
[b]Game 2:[/b] Fortunately for me, he forgot the sideboard plan I told him last night and accidentally sided out most of his Ash Zealots instead of Madcap Skills and a burn spell. Without the Zealots, I didn't have any problem creatures and managed to get the Guildmage engine up and running. He got me pretty low, but Deathrite Shamans kept me high enough to avoid dying to his pair of Hellriders. I cleaned them up with a Hybridization and a fused Far//Away, which let me finish the game pretty easily.
[b]Game 3:[/b] I found a Guildmage in my opening grip and he kept a hand that was pretty heavy with burn spells. He cleared out a couple of undying creatures and a Shaman, but he wasn't really getting anywhere damage-wise. After seeing the third burn spell come out, and I slammed my Guildmage and buried him in card advantage. Afterwards, I found out about his boarding mistake and we fixed it. He crushed the BUG player he ran into in round 4.
[b]Game 2:[b]my opening hand consisted of 2 Duskmantle Seers, a Spell Rupture, and some lands. I figured it might be a bit slow, but I knew his deck was light on actual removal and the Seers would do work, so I tried it. I ended up finding a Strangleroot Geist and got to work on his life total, getting down 2 Seers (I had drawn a third by this point). He answered with a Angel of Serenity, which I dispatched via a Hybridization, getting both my Seers back. Unfortunately, the 3 flips to this point only dealt him 1 damage, but I still liked my position. He untapped and flashed a rites to regain his angel, which I was okay with. On my turn, I tapped out to drop 2 more Seers, with his life total sitting at 8. I figured between triggers and only being able to block one, I could close it out, but he simply dropped another Angel, which was just too much for me to handle. I didn't find anything on my next draw step and his army finished me off.
2-1 (4-3)
Round 4 vs. Bant Humans
[b]Game 1:[/b] This was my win-and-in, since we were only cutting to top 4 thanks to the small turnout. Unfortunately for me, this guy was running a weird Bant humans brew, and it was tuned against BUG since that's what his friend played. I had to go to 5 to find a playable hand (all the spells in my 7 were not castable with the mana, and the 6 didn't have a land). I manged to get a Varolz out after stalling for a few turns with undying guys and a Rapid on his Frontline Medic and started to get back into the game with a 5/5 Dreg Mangler. Unfortunately, my life total was at a precarious 2 at this point, a Blind Obedience out, and he had Moorland Haunt to generate fliers. I managed to take out the flier he had linked to his Paladin, but he had a Selesnya Charm with extort to get me exactsies.
[b]Game 2:[/b] I got a decent opener with a Guildmage, and started trying to develop my board. He started with an early Pilgrim and a Champion that he drew on turn 2, but when he tried to flash in a Deputy of Acquittals, I Golgari Charmed him and cleared out his 1/1s. A couple of Silverblade Paladins and a Loxodon Smiter tried to make things difficult, but I managed to take care of them using Rapid and Far to catch a Paladin in combat without double strike. I landed a Seer, and a 4/4 flier proved to be too much for him to handle at this point, so I closed him out.
[b]Game 3:[/b] He opened with Pilgrim for the third game in a row. He followed it with a Paladin and a Smiter (which he Rancored), taking me to 8 on turn 4, which is not where I wanted to be. I was stalling decently, but a Blind Obedience on his side of the board was making it impossible to catch the Paladins this game, since I couldn't flash in blockers or use my Rapids and undying triggers to actually get people in front of his cards. I found Varolz while holding a Simic Manipulator, which gave me hope that I could still climb back into the game. I dropped the manipulator out on the board, and would've been able to get it to 4 counters next turn via Varolz. Unfortunately for me, he had another Paladin and a Simic Charm, and I didn't have the life to survive the turn. We played it out for fun, and the manipulator would've given me the game if I had another untap step.
2-2 (5-5)
Originally, I didn't want to bring this list to the tournament, as I had been having troubles with mulligans and consistency with the deck preboard. My fears proved true, as I had to ship most of my hands, and I only mustered a 1-3 record in game 1s, with the one win being against the player who punted by not using his [card]Zhur-Taa Druid[card]s, and mulliganing 3 of the 4 rounds. Postboard was as strong as I expected, landing me a 4-2 individual game record, so at least that's something. Anyone have any recommendations or thoughts I could do to shore up my consistency a bit?
On Varolz:
He was fantastic every time I drew him, but I never really wished I had him in any game where I didn't draw him. If you're going to run him, I wouldn't suggest any more than 2. The numbers here seemed like I drew him just enough, and without a way to pitch him, you don't really want to see extras. The ability to pump up your creatures beyond their normal toleration ranges was amazing, and he's a huge defensive force against any kind of aggressive strategy. If you have a lot of aggro in your format, I'd definitely recommend him.
On Spell Rupture:
This card hasn't done much for me, and I actually found myself siding it out the vast majority of the time. Maybe it's the general lack of control decks in my area right now, but I think until the meta starts seeing a major return of Sphinx's Revelation decks, these may be a pretty poor choice. I think if I had cut them for other cards, I may have had more preboard success.
On Simic Manipulator:
This card has the ability to be completely unreasonable in certain matchups, given that you're running Varolz. That being said, the issue I've found with it is how hard it is to cast. I was having trouble with my mana to begin with, and the symu: mana cost was just a little bit too rough. Feel free to try him out against more aggressive decks, but I think it may just be too cute to actually be good.
@Samtford: Wolfir Avengers would be my suggestion. It can survive control's sweepers and it can do battle with Thragtusks. The flash part is great too for avoiding sorcery removal.
Dissipate
Pros: Stops everything, good against reanimation and flashback. Good in the late game.
Cons: 3 mana not the best and not the worst.
Syncopate
Pros: Stops everything and is good in the short and long games. Good against Junk Rites. I think this is the best candidate for main board play. I will be testing and report back.
Cons: Could be ineffective if opponent has a lot of mana.
What are the thoughts on far//away ? Just dont know what to cut for it. And it could be a problem with seer ... But something within me just wants to play this card.
I will also be testing this. My friend said he enjoyed having it the deck. I have yet to playtest it.
I'm not sure we need to worry about Supreme Verdict. Part of the appeal this list has is its resiliency to sweepers: Undying and Regeneration really set this deck apart from other aggro decks.
Spell Rupture and Syncopate look to me as almost interchangeable. There will be times one is better than the other but I think that if you're running Snapcasters Spell Rupture is going to be better more often.
Far / Away looks good and probably can replace Devour Flesh in my sideboard. It would suck to draw it off Duskmantle Seer but taking 10+ from a suited up Geist of Saint Traft sounds worse.
Alright so i'm thinking on adding Lotleth Troll and/or Varolz to my deck, they seem to be really good. However i can't seem to find a spot for them in my deck... a friendly hand that could help me to fit atleast 2/3 Lotleth?
We can't forget that Spell Rupture is only removal at one point and it's only removal if your creature has more power than they have mana up. Also unless you know your opponent's list saving Spell Rupture and having them play Cavern of Souls is just such a beating.
I'm going to try 2 Spell Ruptures instead of 3. It's the most frequently sided out card and for my meta, which is almost all aggro or midrange, I'd just prefer a Tragic Slip.
Yep, this deck can definitely do some serious work with minimal mana. I think this is definitely a case of easily to learn difficult to master. Knowing what tricks to pull where is incredibly important. And yeah, unless your staring down a 23/23 Champion of the Parish I feel like your Spell Rupture's should be fine (we play Tragic Slip, Abrupt Decay and Simic Charm for this exact reason).
Ill be playing around a lot more with the sideboard for the next couple of days. I know Side boarding is without a doubt my worst attribute as a player so it will be something I have to work on personally as well. I just feel like there are a few cards, for example Negate, that the deck can do without.
Have you guys had similar experiences?
Well the thing about Negate is that it shines against Control decks, you can counter like every single threat they throw at you with it.
The main deck should be quite similar to thatguy91's list. Notable differences are +2 Snapcaster +1 Duskmantle Seer -1 Skirsdag High Priest -1 Spell Rupture -1 Evil Twin. And I believe those differences are right, of course
Varolz has been good enough, but I wouldn't want more than a one-of. I love Snapcaster Mage, so found myself having to cut a Skirsdag High-Priest. The same goes for Duskmantle Seer, which often wins games in testing. He's the best curve-topper, and let's not forget finally evolving our Experiment One to 4/4s. I did cut that magic Spell Rupture everyone's been talking about, and I hope I won't miss it. Mana base is nice and clean in the numbers, but I can't help to note the irk that such an aggressive deck plays 10 checklands and only has 11 available green mana spells turn one (for our 7 one-drops, should be ok).
The sideboard is what I'm not really sure about. I've honestly never been impressed by Evil Twin, could someone elaborate on when one would bring him in? If he goes in I bet Wolfir Avenger goes, even if I think it equals "Dreg Mangler minus haste but with built-in-removal" in many aggro matchups, which is great.
Duress lets us be proactive rather than reactive against control, and I think it's the right choice. Some might argue for Dispel and/or Negate instead, but Duress+Golgari Charm renders control quite defenseless for the first four-five turns, which works to our advantage.
Any last-minute suggestions are welcome. I have most of the available main deck/sideboard cards packed up too
Over'n'out.
I love your list. Mind if i run it for this FNM?
Anyways, i think the same about Evil Twin,never been impressed and never really liked it, i just felt that it was a card that i didn't need most of the time.
There are a couple matchups I like Evil Twin. The first one is Red based aggro lists that top out with either Falkenrath Aristocrat, Thundermaw Hellkite or both. Copying either one of those beasties can allow us to swing back for an Alpha Strike or play defence. There are also a ton of shenanigans we can pull off by first copying an undying creature and when it comes back it gets to be something new.
The other matchup I want Evil Twin for is when my opponent is throwing down Angel of Serenity. They clear our board we copy their angel pulling the best stuff out of our yard. We kill their angel get our stuff back. Simic Charm and Deathrite Shaman are both key in this matchup as well.
Simic Charm has been very impressive for me. It's basically been counter target spell or ability that targets one of your permanents. It's awesome against Acidic Slime, O-ring, Detention Sphere. They have to choose one of their own permanents. I'm going to find room for 3 between my main board and sideboard.
Evil Twin is a must with Angel of Serenity around. It is a great way to recover there. If you think you will see Reanimator, then yes, you need twins.
Strawlies the only thing I don't really like about your list is the snapcaster + 9 instants. Just seems barely better than a shambleshark at that point.
Varolz is interesting but I'm not sure what decks he's overly good against. He's good in complex board states and he's fairly good when the deck gets into top deck battles (which it seems to regularly). He's cool but I don't really see him as that useful.
Cards I'm thinking of trying are both the Innistrad planeswalkers.
Liliana seems great we can just grind their hands down and kill them with our resilient threats. I'm sure with Liliana we can even nullify their card draw from Duskmantle Seer.
Garruk enables Morbid, he protects himself. I don't think he's quite as good as Liliana but I'll test him out.
vs. Aristocrats I side in all the Golgari Charms, as they do wonders vs. 1/1 Spirits and even do some good work against Falkenrath Aristocrats. It could also be used against a Blasphemous Act to regenerate all your creatures but that seems unlikely to matter if they kill you with Reckoner. I also side in Evil Twins. It's great to copy either Reckoner or Aristocrat. Basically we turn their problem creatures into our problem creatures.
This an entirely meta dominated move but I'm moving the Spell Ruptures into my sideboard and main decking 4 Rapids, 2 Tragic Slips, 2 Simic Charms, 2 Abrupt Decay.
The main reason is Falkenrath Aristocrat. Im expecting to see her all night long cast off a Cavern of Souls.
Too limited in this deck to be useful? Vorel could get a bigger value out of Experiment One or Lotleth Troll or Dreg Mangler scavenge. Even Strangleroot Geist if we have to drag it out. The only creatures in most decks that wouldn't have a token is Dreg Mangler, Skirsdag High Priest, and Duskmantle Seer so nearly every time I deal damage to a player I would be drawing. I only use the high priest to attack with no other play...
I'm staying far away from Vorel. I don't want a 1/4 who's ability is slow. He might be useful in a Simic Aggro deck where you're using Cloudfin's, Experiment One's and other Evolvers because he will affect the board he comes in by evolving all your other dudes, but since we only run the Experiment One's it's probably not worth it.
Bred for the Hunt seems like it would be good because you think of all the game states where you're swinging with guys with +1/+1 counters on them but you don't realize that if your deck ran Bred for the Hunt you would have fewer creatures (or fewer answers for your opponents creatures) so Bred for the Hunt isn't quite so good. Again in a straight up Evolve deck it might be alright.
I could see Putrefy in Abrupt Decay's slot, I like the 2 mana cost of Abrupt Decay but against some decks it's a dead card. I think running one or the other really depends on what you're expecting in the environment, aggro go with Abrupt, midrange go with Putrefy.
Went 4-1 with the deck and loved how it played. I made a pretty bad mistake with the deck and it likely cost me my third round match. I also made a few smaller mistakes (missed an evolve trigger when a demon entered the battlefield) but for the most part I thought I played the deck well. The slips in the mainboard were fine but I didn't see any Falkenrath Aristocrats so the Spell Ruptures probably would have been fine.
I beat Grixis Control easily 2-0, he was sort of colour screwed and my deck really goldfished him.
Round 2 I beat a RUG Zarek list 2-0 that was running Izzet Staticaster, Nightshade Peddler, Progenitor Mimic, Thragtusk and of course Ral Zarek. Tougher matchup because he got Progenitor copying Staticaster in game 1 and Thragtusk in game 2. Some timely removal and multiple flying 5-5 demons trump a couple Thragtusks.
Round 3 I lost 1-2 to a strange Jund list. He was running Rakdos Lord of Riots, Olivia, Wolfir Silverhearts, Thragtusk and Griselbrand!
Round 4 I beat Esper Control 2-1. Game 1 I got him to 1 and then he chained off Sphinx's into a second Sphinx's into Aetherling. Best moment happened in game 3 when he spent turn 2 and 3 blocking my young Wolf and Geist in a way to kill them each once, so I put him on a Supreme Verdict and held back Golgari Charm and sure enough he cast Supreme Verdict...
Round 5 I beat Azorius Aggro 2-1.
4-1 Record was good enough for 4th place on breakers and I won a single pack of Dragon's Maze and the foil Judge's Familiar.
Stupid question: Is rapid hybridalization sometimes used on your own young wolves? else I dont see the reasoning for them, if that is the case can u stack the triggers so that if you have an experiment in play it evolves twice? So the undying wolf returns before the token?
+ is there room for putrefy or do you think it is too expensive?
Well you can also use them on your Strangleroot Geist and it helps you to active the High Priest Morbid. I'm not sure about it but i actually think that the Undying creature returns before the token, if i'm wrong someone correct me.
There could be space, it is a good card, a lil too expensive but it could work.
Stupid question: Is rapid hybridalization sometimes used on your own young wolves? else I dont see the reasoning for them, if that is the case can u stack the triggers so that if you have an experiment in play it evolves twice? So the undying wolf returns before the token?
+ is there room for putrefy or do you think it is too expensive?
If you target the Young Wolf with a Rapid Hybridization and you have an Experiment One in play the Spell resolves and puts a 3/3 token into play. Since the 3/3 Frog Lizard has a greater power/ toughness the 1/1 Experiment One the Evolve trigger is put on the stack. It doesn't resolve yet because the undying trigger of Young Wolf goes on the stack. It resolves and comes back as a 2/2 and it then triggers the Evolve trigger on the 1/1 Experiment One. When it resolves the Experiment One is a 2/2 and then the Frog Lizard Evolve trigger is checked once again and yes the 3/3 is greater than the 2/2 Experiment One and it evolves into a 3/3. This very rarely will happen.
I will often just cast Rapid Hybridization in response to a Searing Spear or Pillar of Flame on one of my creatures. Basically in that case you're getting a 3/3 flash creature for a blue, and it keeps the pressure up on your opponent when they weren't expecting it.
I've even used RH on a Frog Lizard token after blocking so I can swing back for lethal, and I've used RH on a tapped creature so I can block to survive an attack.
The benefit of Abrupt Decay is that you can play it and hopefully advance your board position with a second spell. The extra mana of Putrefy means that's less likely to happen. Still Putrefy hits almost everything so maybe the loss of tempo would be worth it.
Rapid Hybridization is more or less only used on your own creatures. I think I have used it a handfull of times on stuff like Thundermaw Hellkites and the like but 9/10 times its used on your own creature. Im pretty sure both effects go on the stack at the same time so you get to choose which one enters first, dont quote me on that because im not a real rules person. If its Evolve you are worried about, dont be. The way it works is that if 2 creatures that have a higher power/toughness than you evolved creature both creatures activate the ability since they enter at the same time. Atleast thats how its been explained to me.
I'll also use it on any backbreaking creature my opponent plays.
I'm using Far/Away vs. Bant Enchant. It's a very powerful card and if you have it in your hand you can craft scenarios where you completely blow out your opponent. Or they just run their Geist out and suit him up and you get to Edict him.
Regarding the High Priest, getting a 5/5 flier is huge right now vs. all the other aggro decks which just clog up the ground. When you don't have any profitable attacks you can sit back and block with an undying creature or just use a spell to kill something and make yourself a 5/5 Demon and beat down with that.
I do need to work on a more extensive sideboard plan as I realised that I kept in Skirsdag High priests vs. Esper Control.
Thank for the report! I think you forgot 2 forest in your list, doesnt add up to 23.
You're correct I missed the 2 Forests.
I liked my 3/1 Split of Dreg Mangler and Wolfir Avenger. In general I really liked Wolfir Avenger, whenever I had him he was useful: Flashing him in on turn 3 to block a 2/2 and then being able to suit him up with Rancor having Regeneration mana available is very powerful. I wouldn't hesitate to find room for a second one in either the main or the sideboard.
Snapcaster seems bad with only 9 or 10 targets but in all reality it's fine. It's very rarely a turn 2 play, and with all our instants costing 2 or less we can often craft a game state to take advantage of casting the same instant twice by turn 4 or 5.
The worst part about this deck is that I feel it mulligans quite poorly. Our deck needs to hit all 3 colours fairly early so if my opening 7 has access to all 3 colours I'm likely to keep anything but 6 or 7 land hands.
BUG Aggro
4 Breeding Pool
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Woodland Cemetery
3 Watery Grave
2 Drowned Catacomb
2 Forest
Creatures (23)
4 Dreg Mangler
4 Experiment One
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Young Wolf
3 Duskmantle Seer
2 Wolfir Avenger
2 Skirsdag High Priest
3 Rancor
4 Rapid Hybridization
3 Spell Rupture
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Simic Charm
2 Deathrite Shaman
2 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Golgari Charm
2 Memory's Journey
2 Negate
2 Tragic Slip
3 Appetite for Brains
List that i ran today at FNM, didn't make a report but went 3-1 taking second place. Thinking about Devour Flesh because as said before, need a few answers to Bant Enchant, the only deck i lost to.
Played against:
Junk Reanimator(2-0)
R/G Aggro(2-1)
Another Junk Reanimator(2-1)
Bant Enchant(0-2) Totally owned.
Duskmantle Seer didn't directly win me any games. It got hit with Dreadbore, Mizzium Mortars, and anything else they had. I don't think my matchups were particularly good for Duskmantle as it was a lot of aggro matches and I don't really want to take the chance and give Aggro more cards that they can use to kill me. Quite a few games I took 2 of them out for Nighthawks.
Lotleth Troll was very good all night long. If you cast him with open black mana he will just be the best blocker. It was tricky to figure out when to pitch a card to put a token on him, because the deck has very little means of drawing actual cards.
I found last night all the games were very quickly out of cards for both sides. We cast our spells they cast theirs and it comes down to who has what standing at the end. If it's me with a Lothleth Troll, they need to very quickly draw 2 creatures, because if they find nothing I just beat in for 2 each turn. If they find one I can potentially race it to win. If I can't race it I just sit back on defence.
Rapid Hybridization was awesome, so many tricks. I'm still not sure if 4 was the right number because I'd rather see a Young Wolf and a RH or 2 Young Wolfs then 2 RH's. I wasn't upset by running 4 though.
Skirsdag was removal magnet all night long, which is fine, our opponents are going to cast spells and interact with our cards so if they choose to hit our 1/2's as opposed to our 2/1 undying creatures that's the way it goes.
Spell Rupture often came out. It was good but against Aggro creature decks, which is what I faced, I needed to cast creatures on my turn so I didn't have the mana up to cast it. Plus Cavern of Souls on Vampire -> Aristocrat made Spell Rupture pretty bad.
I really like the makeup of this deck.
3 Young Wolf
4 Strangleroot Geist
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Zameck Guildmage
3 Dreg Mangler
2 Varolz, the Scar Striped
1 Evil Twin
4 Duskmantle Seer
3 Rapid Hybridization
3 Rancor
1 Tragic Slip
3 Spell Rupture
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Woodland Cemetery
4 Watery Grave
2 Drowned Catacombs
1 Forest
3 Deathrite Shaman
3 Notion Thief
3 Golgari Charm
2 Far//Away
2 Negate
1 Evil Twin
1 Simic Manipulator
Report:
Round 1 vs. Naya Humans
[b]Game 1:[/b] Lost the die roll and had to ship a 1 land hand, running into a better hand, but it had Duskmantle Seer and no blue mana. I kept anyway, figuring going to 5 on the draw was a death sentence and I'd have a better shot at drawing my way into this game. My start was pretty slow, hitting 2 more lands (neither of which were blue) and taking care of a Mikeaus with Abrupt Decay, but he eventually got 2 very large Champion of the Parishes attached to Silverblade Paladins (one was 4/4 and the other was 7/7). I eventually quadruple blocked the 7/7 double striker to bring it down and then finally found a blue land, which let me take care of the other with Rapid Hybridization. Fortunately for me, his Zhur-Taa Druids weren't doing as much damage as they could because he wasn't tapping them at the end of his turns. The Seers finally came down (I had drawn a second by this point), and I managed to close it out in the air after dealing with most of his gas, but had he remembered to use his Druids, I would have died.
-3 Spell Rupture, -1 Rancor, -1 Evil Twin, +3 Golgari Charm, +2 Far//Away
[b]Game 2:[/b] This game I got off to a much better start. I managed to get a Zameck Guildmage and a Young Wolf to get some blocks going. After drawing a bunch of cards and blocking a lot, I manged to wear his board down with removal spells (including a Far//Away fused which took care of a frog lizard token I had to give him to get rid of a Paladin). After his gas ran out, I just slowly closed out the game.
1-0 (2-0)
Round 2 vs. Mono Red Aggro
[b]Game 1:[/b] This was a friend of mine who's new and I've been teaching to play. I lost the die roll and had to mulligan again. He opened pretty quickly with a Rakdos Cackler and a Ash Zealot. My hand consisted of a bunch of X/2s, and I couldn't ever get anything in front of it. I started to stabilize the board to a position I could win from, but he managed to close it with his only copy of Brimstone Volley (did its job).
-3 Spell Rupture, -1 Evil Twin, -2 Duskmantle Seer, -1 Rancor, +3 Deathrite Shaman, +2 Golgari Charm, +2 Far//Away
[b]Game 2:[/b] Fortunately for me, he forgot the sideboard plan I told him last night and accidentally sided out most of his Ash Zealots instead of Madcap Skills and a burn spell. Without the Zealots, I didn't have any problem creatures and managed to get the Guildmage engine up and running. He got me pretty low, but Deathrite Shamans kept me high enough to avoid dying to his pair of Hellriders. I cleaned them up with a Hybridization and a fused Far//Away, which let me finish the game pretty easily.
[b]Game 3:[/b] I found a Guildmage in my opening grip and he kept a hand that was pretty heavy with burn spells. He cleared out a couple of undying creatures and a Shaman, but he wasn't really getting anywhere damage-wise. After seeing the third burn spell come out, and I slammed my Guildmage and buried him in card advantage. Afterwards, I found out about his boarding mistake and we fixed it. He crushed the BUG player he ran into in round 4.
2-0 (4-1)
Round 3 vs. Junk Reanimator
[b]Game 1:[/b] Once again I get an awful pairing, having to face my best friend. I keep an interesting opener of 3 Strangleroot Geists, and he opened with a Pilgrim into Sin Collector, which blanked. I found a Guildmage and started crashing and drawing, while he defended himself with Lingering Souls and a Voice of Resurgence. I ground him down, but he still had a small army (1 spirit token, 2 voice tokens, and his pilgrim). He was dead next turn, so he untaps and casts a Grisly Salvage, binning his lone copy of Craterhoof Behemoth. A land an a flashbacked [card]Unburial Rites[card] later, and I was dead.
-2 Abrupt Decay, -2 Young Wolf, -1 Zameck Guildmage, -1 Varolz, +3 Deathrite Shaman, +2 Golgari Charm, +1 Evil Twin
[b]Game 2:[b]my opening hand consisted of 2 Duskmantle Seers, a Spell Rupture, and some lands. I figured it might be a bit slow, but I knew his deck was light on actual removal and the Seers would do work, so I tried it. I ended up finding a Strangleroot Geist and got to work on his life total, getting down 2 Seers (I had drawn a third by this point). He answered with a Angel of Serenity, which I dispatched via a Hybridization, getting both my Seers back. Unfortunately, the 3 flips to this point only dealt him 1 damage, but I still liked my position. He untapped and flashed a rites to regain his angel, which I was okay with. On my turn, I tapped out to drop 2 more Seers, with his life total sitting at 8. I figured between triggers and only being able to block one, I could close it out, but he simply dropped another Angel, which was just too much for me to handle. I didn't find anything on my next draw step and his army finished me off.
2-1 (4-3)
Round 4 vs. Bant Humans
[b]Game 1:[/b] This was my win-and-in, since we were only cutting to top 4 thanks to the small turnout. Unfortunately for me, this guy was running a weird Bant humans brew, and it was tuned against BUG since that's what his friend played. I had to go to 5 to find a playable hand (all the spells in my 7 were not castable with the mana, and the 6 didn't have a land). I manged to get a Varolz out after stalling for a few turns with undying guys and a Rapid on his Frontline Medic and started to get back into the game with a 5/5 Dreg Mangler. Unfortunately, my life total was at a precarious 2 at this point, a Blind Obedience out, and he had Moorland Haunt to generate fliers. I managed to take out the flier he had linked to his Paladin, but he had a Selesnya Charm with extort to get me exactsies.
-3 Spell Rupture, -1 Rancor, -1 Evil Twin, -1 Duskmantle Seer, +3 Golgari Charm, +1 Simic Manipulator, +2 Far//Away
[b]Game 2:[/b] I got a decent opener with a Guildmage, and started trying to develop my board. He started with an early Pilgrim and a Champion that he drew on turn 2, but when he tried to flash in a Deputy of Acquittals, I Golgari Charmed him and cleared out his 1/1s. A couple of Silverblade Paladins and a Loxodon Smiter tried to make things difficult, but I managed to take care of them using Rapid and Far to catch a Paladin in combat without double strike. I landed a Seer, and a 4/4 flier proved to be too much for him to handle at this point, so I closed him out.
[b]Game 3:[/b] He opened with Pilgrim for the third game in a row. He followed it with a Paladin and a Smiter (which he Rancored), taking me to 8 on turn 4, which is not where I wanted to be. I was stalling decently, but a Blind Obedience on his side of the board was making it impossible to catch the Paladins this game, since I couldn't flash in blockers or use my Rapids and undying triggers to actually get people in front of his cards. I found Varolz while holding a Simic Manipulator, which gave me hope that I could still climb back into the game. I dropped the manipulator out on the board, and would've been able to get it to 4 counters next turn via Varolz. Unfortunately for me, he had another Paladin and a Simic Charm, and I didn't have the life to survive the turn. We played it out for fun, and the manipulator would've given me the game if I had another untap step.
2-2 (5-5)
Originally, I didn't want to bring this list to the tournament, as I had been having troubles with mulligans and consistency with the deck preboard. My fears proved true, as I had to ship most of my hands, and I only mustered a 1-3 record in game 1s, with the one win being against the player who punted by not using his [card]Zhur-Taa Druid[card]s, and mulliganing 3 of the 4 rounds. Postboard was as strong as I expected, landing me a 4-2 individual game record, so at least that's something. Anyone have any recommendations or thoughts I could do to shore up my consistency a bit?
On Varolz:
He was fantastic every time I drew him, but I never really wished I had him in any game where I didn't draw him. If you're going to run him, I wouldn't suggest any more than 2. The numbers here seemed like I drew him just enough, and without a way to pitch him, you don't really want to see extras. The ability to pump up your creatures beyond their normal toleration ranges was amazing, and he's a huge defensive force against any kind of aggressive strategy. If you have a lot of aggro in your format, I'd definitely recommend him.
On Spell Rupture:
This card hasn't done much for me, and I actually found myself siding it out the vast majority of the time. Maybe it's the general lack of control decks in my area right now, but I think until the meta starts seeing a major return of Sphinx's Revelation decks, these may be a pretty poor choice. I think if I had cut them for other cards, I may have had more preboard success.
On Simic Manipulator:
This card has the ability to be completely unreasonable in certain matchups, given that you're running Varolz. That being said, the issue I've found with it is how hard it is to cast. I was having trouble with my mana to begin with, and the symu: mana cost was just a little bit too rough. Feel free to try him out against more aggressive decks, but I think it may just be too cute to actually be good.
Here is the list. The Sideboard is a work in Progress.
2x Skirsdag High Priest
4x Strangleroot Geist
2x Varolz, the Scar-Striped
4x Dreg Mangler
2x Duskmantle Seer
1x Evil Twin
4x Experiment One
3x Lotleth Troll
4x Young Wolf
Spells:
2x Far / Away
3x Rancor
3x Rapid Hybridization
2x Simic Charm
2x Abrupt Decay
4x Watery Grave
4x Woodland Cemetery
4x Overgrown Tomb
4x Forest
2x Hinterland Harbor
4x Breeding Pool
1x Evil Twin
2x Golgari Charm
3x Negate
1x Rapid Hybridization
1x Abrupt Decay
2x Snapcaster Mage
3x Vampire Nighthawk
2x Vraska the Unseen
I think there needs to be mainboard counters but which ones? Spell Rupture seems to be lackluster. But what else is available?
Negate
Pros: Good against Sphinx's Revelation, and anything not a creature.
Cons: No stopping; Restoration Angel, Thragtusk, Burning-tree Emissary etc.
Psychic Strike
Pros: Could mill threats. Stops everything.
Cons: Cost puts strain on mana base. Weak against reanimator.
Dispel
Pros: Stops Revelation, other counters, charms, and some removal.
Cons: Doesn't stop anything else
Mindstatic
Pros: Stops everything
Cons: Expensive
Dimir Charm
Pros: Stops Pillar of Flame from exiling our Undying creatures, Bonfire of the damned, Unburial Rites, Rakdos's Return, Mizzium Mortars plus more I am forgetting. This is not a terrible choice for SB counters in my mind. I would put it in against other aggro decks and Junk Rites.
Cons: Doesn't stop Revelation or Thragtusk.
Dissipate
Pros: Stops everything, good against reanimation and flashback. Good in the late game.
Cons: 3 mana not the best and not the worst.
Syncopate
Pros: Stops everything and is good in the short and long games. Good against Junk Rites. I think this is the best candidate for main board play. I will be testing and report back.
Cons: Could be ineffective if opponent has a lot of mana.
I will also be testing this. My friend said he enjoyed having it the deck. I have yet to playtest it.
After changes I think my deck will look like:
2x Skirsdag High Priest
4x Strangleroot Geist
2x Varolz, the Scar-Striped
4x Young Wolf
4x Dreg Mangler
2x Duskmantle Seer
1x Evil Twin
3x Experiment One
3x Lotleth Troll
Spells:
2x Far / Away
3x Rancor
3x Rapid Hybridization
2x Syncopate
1x Simic Charm
2x Abrupt Decay
4x Breeding Pool
4x Overgrown Tomb
4x Watery Grave
4x Woodland Cemetery
4x Forest
2x Hinterland Harbor
1x Evil Twin
2x Gaze of Granite
1x Negate
2x Dimir Charm
2x Snapcaster Mage
2x Vampire Nighthawk
1x Syncopate
2x Vraska the Unseen
1x Abrupt Decay
1x Simic Charm
Any feedback would be appreciated. Considering Scrapping Snapcasters in the side for Appetite for Brains to hit Supreme Verdict.
Spell Rupture and Syncopate look to me as almost interchangeable. There will be times one is better than the other but I think that if you're running Snapcasters Spell Rupture is going to be better more often.
Far / Away looks good and probably can replace Devour Flesh in my sideboard. It would suck to draw it off Duskmantle Seer but taking 10+ from a suited up Geist of Saint Traft sounds worse.
My list:
4 Breeding Pool
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Woodland Cemetery
3 Watery Grave
2 Drowned Catacomb
2 Forest
Creatures (23)
4 Dreg Mangler
4 Experiment One
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Young Wolf
3 Duskmantle Seer
2 Wolfir Avenger
2 Skirsdag High Priest
3 Rancor
4 Rapid Hybridization
3 Spell Rupture
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Simic Charm
2 Deathrite Shaman
2 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Golgari Charm
2 Memory's Journey
2 Negate
2 Tragic Slip
3 Appetite for Brains
Probably: -1 Simic Charm -1 Rapid +2 Troll? I don't know, thoughts?
I'm going to try 2 Spell Ruptures instead of 3. It's the most frequently sided out card and for my meta, which is almost all aggro or midrange, I'd just prefer a Tragic Slip.
Well the thing about Negate is that it shines against Control decks, you can counter like every single threat they throw at you with it.
I love your list. Mind if i run it for this FNM?
Anyways, i think the same about Evil Twin,never been impressed and never really liked it, i just felt that it was a card that i didn't need most of the time.
The other matchup I want Evil Twin for is when my opponent is throwing down Angel of Serenity. They clear our board we copy their angel pulling the best stuff out of our yard. We kill their angel get our stuff back. Simic Charm and Deathrite Shaman are both key in this matchup as well.
Simic Charm has been very impressive for me. It's basically been counter target spell or ability that targets one of your permanents. It's awesome against Acidic Slime, O-ring, Detention Sphere. They have to choose one of their own permanents. I'm going to find room for 3 between my main board and sideboard.
Strawlies the only thing I don't really like about your list is the snapcaster + 9 instants. Just seems barely better than a shambleshark at that point.
Cards I'm thinking of trying are both the Innistrad planeswalkers.
Liliana seems great we can just grind their hands down and kill them with our resilient threats. I'm sure with Liliana we can even nullify their card draw from Duskmantle Seer.
Garruk enables Morbid, he protects himself. I don't think he's quite as good as Liliana but I'll test him out.
The main reason is Falkenrath Aristocrat. Im expecting to see her all night long cast off a Cavern of Souls.
Has to be brought up, Vorel of the Hull Clade and Bred for the Hunt.
Too limited in this deck to be useful? Vorel could get a bigger value out of Experiment One or Lotleth Troll or Dreg Mangler scavenge. Even Strangleroot Geist if we have to drag it out. The only creatures in most decks that wouldn't have a token is Dreg Mangler, Skirsdag High Priest, and Duskmantle Seer so nearly every time I deal damage to a player I would be drawing. I only use the high priest to attack with no other play...
Maybe a 2-of each?
I've already moved a couple Putrefy in.
Bred for the Hunt seems like it would be good because you think of all the game states where you're swinging with guys with +1/+1 counters on them but you don't realize that if your deck ran Bred for the Hunt you would have fewer creatures (or fewer answers for your opponents creatures) so Bred for the Hunt isn't quite so good. Again in a straight up Evolve deck it might be alright.
I could see Putrefy in Abrupt Decay's slot, I like the 2 mana cost of Abrupt Decay but against some decks it's a dead card. I think running one or the other really depends on what you're expecting in the environment, aggro go with Abrupt, midrange go with Putrefy.
3 Young Wolf
4 Strangleroot Geist
2 Lotleth Troll
2 Skirsdag High Priest
2 Snapcasters Mage
3 Dreg Mangler
1 Wolfir Avenger
3 Duskmantle Seer
Spells 13
2 Tragic Slip
4 Rapid Hybridization
2 Simic Charm
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Rancor
4 Breeding Pool
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Woodland Cemetery
3 Watery Grave
2 Drowned Catacomb
2 Forest
3 Deathrite Shaman
3 Golgari Charm
3 Far/Away
2 Spell Rupture
2 Vampire Nighthawk
2 Evil Twin
Went 4-1 with the deck and loved how it played. I made a pretty bad mistake with the deck and it likely cost me my third round match. I also made a few smaller mistakes (missed an evolve trigger when a demon entered the battlefield) but for the most part I thought I played the deck well. The slips in the mainboard were fine but I didn't see any Falkenrath Aristocrats so the Spell Ruptures probably would have been fine.
I beat Grixis Control easily 2-0, he was sort of colour screwed and my deck really goldfished him.
Round 2 I beat a RUG Zarek list 2-0 that was running Izzet Staticaster, Nightshade Peddler, Progenitor Mimic, Thragtusk and of course Ral Zarek. Tougher matchup because he got Progenitor copying Staticaster in game 1 and Thragtusk in game 2. Some timely removal and multiple flying 5-5 demons trump a couple Thragtusks.
Round 3 I lost 1-2 to a strange Jund list. He was running Rakdos Lord of Riots, Olivia, Wolfir Silverhearts, Thragtusk and Griselbrand!
Round 4 I beat Esper Control 2-1. Game 1 I got him to 1 and then he chained off Sphinx's into a second Sphinx's into Aetherling. Best moment happened in game 3 when he spent turn 2 and 3 blocking my young Wolf and Geist in a way to kill them each once, so I put him on a Supreme Verdict and held back Golgari Charm and sure enough he cast Supreme Verdict...
Round 5 I beat Azorius Aggro 2-1.
4-1 Record was good enough for 4th place on breakers and I won a single pack of Dragon's Maze and the foil Judge's Familiar.
Well you can also use them on your Strangleroot Geist and it helps you to active the High Priest Morbid. I'm not sure about it but i actually think that the Undying creature returns before the token, if i'm wrong someone correct me.
There could be space, it is a good card, a lil too expensive but it could work.
If you target the Young Wolf with a Rapid Hybridization and you have an Experiment One in play the Spell resolves and puts a 3/3 token into play. Since the 3/3 Frog Lizard has a greater power/ toughness the 1/1 Experiment One the Evolve trigger is put on the stack. It doesn't resolve yet because the undying trigger of Young Wolf goes on the stack. It resolves and comes back as a 2/2 and it then triggers the Evolve trigger on the 1/1 Experiment One. When it resolves the Experiment One is a 2/2 and then the Frog Lizard Evolve trigger is checked once again and yes the 3/3 is greater than the 2/2 Experiment One and it evolves into a 3/3. This very rarely will happen.
I will often just cast Rapid Hybridization in response to a Searing Spear or Pillar of Flame on one of my creatures. Basically in that case you're getting a 3/3 flash creature for a blue, and it keeps the pressure up on your opponent when they weren't expecting it.
I've even used RH on a Frog Lizard token after blocking so I can swing back for lethal, and I've used RH on a tapped creature so I can block to survive an attack.
The benefit of Abrupt Decay is that you can play it and hopefully advance your board position with a second spell. The extra mana of Putrefy means that's less likely to happen. Still Putrefy hits almost everything so maybe the loss of tempo would be worth it.
I'll also use it on any backbreaking creature my opponent plays.
Regarding the High Priest, getting a 5/5 flier is huge right now vs. all the other aggro decks which just clog up the ground. When you don't have any profitable attacks you can sit back and block with an undying creature or just use a spell to kill something and make yourself a 5/5 Demon and beat down with that.
I do need to work on a more extensive sideboard plan as I realised that I kept in Skirsdag High priests vs. Esper Control.
You're correct I missed the 2 Forests.
I liked my 3/1 Split of Dreg Mangler and Wolfir Avenger. In general I really liked Wolfir Avenger, whenever I had him he was useful: Flashing him in on turn 3 to block a 2/2 and then being able to suit him up with Rancor having Regeneration mana available is very powerful. I wouldn't hesitate to find room for a second one in either the main or the sideboard.
Snapcaster seems bad with only 9 or 10 targets but in all reality it's fine. It's very rarely a turn 2 play, and with all our instants costing 2 or less we can often craft a game state to take advantage of casting the same instant twice by turn 4 or 5.
The worst part about this deck is that I feel it mulligans quite poorly. Our deck needs to hit all 3 colours fairly early so if my opening 7 has access to all 3 colours I'm likely to keep anything but 6 or 7 land hands.