Played a Standard event at my LGS last night, hadn't been there in about a year before yesterday (last time I was there was for a draft), and hadn't played in a Standard event there in about three or four years (whenever Faeries and Jund were in Standard together). Went 2-1-1, but I should've won the tie (opponent stalled hardcore and I was very much so in the lead and was going to kill him within a turn or two). Was an overall negative experience, maybe just due to it being a Wednesday, or the people I played (every single one cheated, intentionally or not, and many just played poorly). Regardless of that, I was very happy with my updated build, and it ran incredibly smoothly. Here's the list for anyone interested:
I took out the fourth Jace's Ingenuity for Sphinx due to control being more popular as well as overall desire for another threat, and I'm glad I did. Even in matches I had PLA, being able to scry and get some damage in with Sphinx, just block with it, or even just eat some removal and fuel Dig, worked wonders. The fourth Ingenuity got stuck in my hand more often than not and I never wanted to open with two of it and a Dig, or it and a Dig, two Digs and it, etc.; the cut has definitely made things much more fluid.
I replaced the Nullifies with Despise because while I did like them (and still do, a lot), the amount of discard when paired with Thoughtseize and Lili is awesome. Despise (usually) hits more of what I want to be getting rid of than Nullify anyway, and it does it for cheaper, and on top of that it's a good turn one play as well.
Match one I went 0-2 very quickly against a Mardu Midrange list. None of it was due to my deck or skill at all, but rather me forgetting to shuffle after breaking my deck down into creatures, lands, etc. Opened with a bunch of lands, mulliganed, same thing again, then just a bad draw. Game two I can't remember what I opened with but it was equally horrible. Despite that, I actually should've won game two, but my opponent refused to let me cast my Silence the Believers because he "had already tapped his creatures" (allowing him the Wingmate Roc triggers) and I couldn't say I wanted to do it at the end of M1 because it was too late (even though I told him I wanted a moment to think before he attacks).
Match two I played against Mardu Midrange again, he ended up getting rid of his Sarkhan for the emblem, I countered or removed basically everything he drew with it, and eventually played a PLA which led to me winning. Multiple Perilous Vault helped along the way. Game two was incredibly close, both of us at low life totals, going back and forth with Murk Lurker lifegaining while he poked with tokens and such, he ended up Lightning Striking me for game when all I had was removal. We had about twelve minutes on the clock left when he decided to sideboard again for about ten of those minutes, I had a great opening hand, lots of removal and counters, a Murk Lurker, got him down to 8 to my 16, dropped a PLA, had a Vault and some other stuff in my hand, all the while he continues to stall hardcore each turn even when he's tapped out, has no cards, etc. Really annoying but, as a result, we tied. I consider it a win because in normal circumstances, I would've won.
Match three I realise now I was playing against a newer player (I originally thought it was just someone who wasn't very good at the game), so I feel a lot better about the things he was doing. He was playing a BG Constellation deck that was heavily focused on situational enchantments that weren't bad, but weren't good enough and lacked some tuning overall. He was by far the nicest guy I played, though, and I'm glad I discovered he's new because he did a lot of things I considered off at the time (turn three he had four lands to my three and an extra card in hand even though I started playing first, claimed it was my error in thinking this and because I had a Polluted Delta in my grave, that it was explained through that?). I won game one due to removal and him ignoring my Liliana, ended up saccing her for her ultimate and getting back six of his creatures, drawing six cards with Eidolon, him losing six life due to some other enchantment creature, and then attacking for game the next turn (had a PLA this whole time, too). Game two he talked about how he just wanted to win a game so I'm glad he won it. I misplayed a Backwater thinking I needed the life when I should've popped my Delta and played PLA to block his creature, put pressure on him, etc. Game three involved me removing and countering everything he had, him not knowing how to play around my Vaults, etc. It was an easy one.
My final match was against a girl who used to work at the store running Temur Midrange, I beat her 2-0 with ease, Liliana and multiple Thoughtseize/Despise destroyed her hand both games, I had counters exactly when I needed them, removal when I needed it, ridiculous amounts of card draw (Digs into other Digs into Jace's Ingenuities), and two Perilous Vaults in one game alongside Sphinx which did a good amount of beats, followed by PLA. We ended up going into time game two, but I already had five or six cards in hand, Sphinx on the board, and a PLA the next turn, so it was no issue (not that it would've been an issue regardless). Unusually enough, she took my Hero's Downfall from me, removed it from its sleeve, started bending it, rubbing her fingernail against it, etc. and straight up asked me if it was printed (it's an obvious misprint). Was really weird and I'm still kind of shocked she didn't ask my permission or anything. The same match, her husband (I believe) said my Flooded Strands had "a nice washed out look to them" and then walked a few steps back and said "maybe too much of a washed out look", which resulted in the new owner of the store (or judge at the time, I have no idea) to bend it, scratch it, compare its thickness to other cards, etc. about the Needless to say, it passed all the tests, and I explained that its "washed out look" was due to them having sun damage.
I ended up coming 4th, won two packs (not sure if prize support is this terrible now in general, or it was just because it was a Wednesday, but it was far from worth it for 4-5 hours of playing). Not sure if I'd ever play a Wednesday there again, or how good of a time I had (due to the accidental/intentional cheating, comments on my cards, and level of skill of the players), but I'm glad I was able to test my deck in a real world event. Will probably head to the SCG IQ in my area on Sunday and hopefully have a better time there.
After yesterday, I definitely want the fourth Vault, but I have no idea what to remove for it right now (I imagine Sphinx will end up testing poorly in the long run and that'll be the cut, it's just been playing too well right now for me to make that choice at this moment).
edit: I went for Nullify over Despise because I have was having poor luck finding a despise in the first 1st turns of the game, though only running 2x copies. Running 3x Nullify now.
Shenhar's version seems tough with 2 MB Ashiok and 1 MB Soul of Innistrad.
Sultai Charm, Soul, Pharika, 2 Rec Sage, and a 3rd Pharika out of the side seem hard for us to deal with.
Plus they have Thoughtseize.
Is a card like Dissipate worth running just to exile Soul?
I've never had an issue with it, so long as you can get rid of Whip. If you aren't able to, you kind of just have to hope that you either have enough removal to kill off their stuff, draw into Vault and play it well, or can outpace them with PLA (assuming you run it).
I side a single Tormod's Crypt for them, which although I've never actually seen it yet, seems solid in theory; I've seen people run Cranial Archive for the same reason.
I've been playing this deck for about a month, and I can't find success for it. Been playing the standard 2 PLA build, and the deck feels wildly underpowered most of the time. Anyone else feel this?
The sidisi deck does not need to resolve a whip to win late game. Refer to the match between cifka and josh (round 11/12 of worlds can't remember). Cifka even had 2 PLA in play at 1 point of time but just couldnt get pass 1/1 snakes.
I've been playing this deck for about a month, and I can't find success for it. Been playing the standard 2 PLA build, and the deck feels wildly underpowered most of the time. Anyone else feel this?
Can't say I have, but it could be caused by different lists?
The sidisi deck does not need to resolve a whip to win late game. Refer to the match between cifka and josh (round 11/12 of worlds can't remember). Cifka even had 2 PLA in play at 1 point of time but just couldnt get pass 1/1 snakes.
Perilous Vault should solve that (it's awesome in this matchup), Liliana's ult if you can manage would wreck, and by late game, you should have a plethora of removal, counters, etc. to handle whatever you're up against. Aetherspouts and Bile Blight (much emphasis on Bile Blight) are an easy answer to 1/1 snakes.
I've been playing this deck for about a month, and I can't find success for it. Been playing the standard 2 PLA build, and the deck feels wildly underpowered most of the time. Anyone else feel this?
I highly recommend trying out the Ashiok version of the deck. I really like it in the current meta game.
Private Mod Note
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Standard: UB Control
Modern: UWR Control
EDH: Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Titania, Protector of Argoth
Phelddagrif
Glissa, the Traitor
Rosheen Meanderer
Im really intrigued by the small green splash for villainous wealth. Over all it seems like a good card in all match ups. Even against control it can push it over the top mill the down, assuming you can get it to resolve. As for the blueless mid range decks it fixes the grindyness, since PLA can take a while with all the kill spells they are running.
And it doesnt make a huge dent in the gameplan, since its only 4 lands and a card.
Went 4-0-1 on Friday. My draw could have easily been a win if I drew the untapped land I needed to play my Vault and crack it on the same turn to get rid of a board of Whip, Coursers, Caryatids, and Reclamation Sage. But I drew Jace's Ingenuity instead, oh well it happens. This is what I played:
My favorite thing about the deck is that when I resolve a Perilous Vault my opponent actually thinks they can just drop one threat a turn to try and get me to use up my Vault right away. I love just using my spot removal on the single threat they play and keep up Vault as an "emergency panic button"
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Standard: UB Control
Modern: UWR Control
EDH: Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Titania, Protector of Argoth
Phelddagrif
Glissa, the Traitor
Rosheen Meanderer
Looking through a card list, and forgot about this one: Psychic Intrusion
Has anyone tested it? It looks like it can be at least a 2-of coming out of the SB.
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The funniest thing about this particular signature is that by the time you realize it doesn't say anything it's too late to stop reading it....
I've been away for a few weeks and I see that grindclock is becoming a standard part of the 75. What's the purpose of it? Is it used to take the card left on the top during an opponents scry, what courser is looking at, or are they actually using it to mill for a wincon?
Thanks Duxx, but no that is not the list. First of all the commentators mentioned he ran a total of 0 creatures main deck and only 2 sphinx's and 1 pearl lake ancient in side. Second and more importantly, Ivan Floch is a Slovakian player.
I've been away for a few weeks and I see that grindclock is becoming a standard part of the 75. What's the purpose of it? Is it used to take the card left on the top during an opponents scry, what courser is looking at, or are they actually using it to mill for a wincon?
It serves the purpose to mill an opponent. Especially in the mirror it works well. Since it comes down turn 2 before anyone have counter magic, and very few people play actual answers to it.
The danish list is identical to Adrian Sullivan's Chevy control list from what I remember of seeing it displayed.
they are playing his old version as I saw Evolving Wilds in the list.
Match-Ups:
Round 1: Josh Milliken with G/R Monsters
Game 1 - He went mana guy into Courser into Polukranos into Nissa. I kept a decent hand against an unknown deck. I believe it was lands, blight, downfall, vault, dig. Nissa is an absolute beating if it can't get ripped from their hand or countered on the way down. It is also the only thing that vault doesn't clean up completely. That unfortunately spelled the end for me.
Game 2 - He mulled to a loose 6 and his hand was very soft to a targeted discard spell. A turn 1 Thoughtseize took a mana accelerant and I was able to hit my land drops and sit back until I could find a PLA.
Game 3 - It was kind of the same scenario. He had a hand full of 5 and 8 drops. I just killed his Coursers and kept him from filtering his draws.
This matchup is very easy to win if you can stop a Nissa from hitting. It's easily the worst permanent against this deck IMO.
1-0-0
Round 2: Ben Steiner with Abzan Midrange
Game 1 - It went how most midrange matchups should go. Trading 1 for 1, possibly more until they're topdecking. Unfortunately it took a while.
Game 2 - I got him into topdeck mode. He ripped an Elspeth and I had no answer. I was low enough in life were 3 soldiers just killed me. I did board out all the blights. This was a mistake I feel, as I was thinking of that exact situation whilst boarding. But I couldn't find anything else to cut. Keeping in a singleton would have given me a silver bullet to dig for. I dug twice for a vault instead, and found none.
Game 3 - Obviously I nor my opponent could win in under 5 minutes. He asked if I would concede to him, to which I actually laughed aloud. Unintentional draw. :/
1-0-1
Round 3: RG McCaman with Jeskai Tokens (Yuuya's Worlds 75)
Game 1 - After we discussed that it sucks he got paired down we started to resolve mulligans. It was a battle indeed. A long game one left me at 1 life for turns. I got him in topdecking mode. He had an ascendancy in play though. I was able to gain is little life in increments thanks to the life lands. I exhausted all his resources, and even though he resolved 3 out of the 4 cruises he cast, I was able to take the first game.
Game 2 - I had a lot of hate for aggro based decks. This game was much easier. Between the drowns, cures, and murk lurkers, it was quite academic. I'm sure you all know that the lurkers are best friends with PLA. And gosh bless his heart, he refused to scoop even when I went over 30 life when he had no hand or board presence.
2-0-1
Round 4: Wally Wallerstein with Boros Heroic
Game 1 - He came out of the gate very fast. My fourth land came into play tapped. I felt that was the end for me. I missed my fifth land drop and played a vault. He swung me down to 8 life. I had no land in hand and needed to hit an untapped land, preferably an island seeing as I had 1 blue source in play. Untap, upkeep, draw.....an ISLAND!!!! Lucksack, I know. I pulled the trigger on his attack phase. He plays another guy. I miss yet another land drop in my 28 land deck, and pass the turn. He gets me down to 3 and passes. I draw a land, play it and pass. I kill his guy on his turn. He tries to burn me for the win, it meets a stroke. I draw a fountain and go up to 5. He plays a land and passed. I have had a PLA in hand since the opener. It's like a pseudo mull to minus 1 of the x amount of cards in hand, borderline all of the time. I have no counter magic in hand and figure I'm dead to pretty much everything, so I end step a PLA. I figured his draws were more live than mine considering how low my life is. My turn I draw another PLA.....jeez. Not what I wanted to see. He plays another land and passes. Wow. He hit a real land pocket here. I end step the second ancient. I attack for 12 and he stokes in response. I stroke it just in case he drew a strike to finish me off. He sais he just wanted to make sure I had a counter. A lightning strike was not the other card in his hand. Got game one in an odd fashion. Mulling to 6 and having a pearl in hand is not where I wanted to be. But his bad draws compared to my also seemingly horrendous/good draws put me above him that game. He also confided to me that he drew the stoke a turn after I played the fountain that put me out of range.
Game 2 - It was very much like game 2 of the last round. He has to overextend and gets punished by drowns, blights, and cures.
3-0-1
Round 5: Familiar face, unknown name with Abzan Midrange
Game 1 - I felt I kept a decent 6 on the draw knowing what my opponent was playing. The mana was wonky though. My hand was swamp, delta, fountain, dig, dissolve, downfall. I drew another downfall and played a swamp. He Thoughtseized me and takes dig. I draw a swamp, and play the delta. He does the courser thing and passed. I crack the fetch at end step for an island. I untap and draw, obviously I don't rip a land, and play my swamp. I downfall a rhino he plays on his turn. My turn....no land again. I play fountain and pass. He does more things while I continue to draw double blue spells during that time I draw two more lands. Those unfortunately, were regular old swamps. Then, around turn 11-12 I draw a land that's not a swamp! Dear Lord! Thank you! Thank you for this...this...Evolving Wilds. There is no God. The life tilt was real. Let's go to the next game.
Game 2 - My hand was okay I guess. I don't remember a lot from that game, but I do know I was Thoughseized a bunch. It was a real game at least. I was digging for answers but found none. I could have taken a different line though. I was at 2 and he had a Courser, I dug in his turn to find a kill spell. I failed to do so. I could have dug on my turn, trying to find a fountain to keep me alive another turn, barring he didn't have a charm to pump his guy. I found the fountain in the top 7, but not anything else relevant. It was sloppy play on my part.
3-1-1
Round 6: Chris Kronenberger with Jeskai Heroic Combo
Game 1 - He has a slower hand and stops on 2 mana. One of them was a scry land to which he was in that tank on for some time. He plays a couple of guys and I manage to kill them around his protection spells. He eventually plays a drum and casts an ascendancy. I counter it. He hits his third land and plays another ascendancy, I have no answer. He plays some noncreature spells and filters his draws. Somehow he gets another ascendancy and plays a raise the alarm. I can't do anything about it. He plays an outburst, then a stoke to kill me and I only had two do nothing cards in hand and a PLA out that couldn't soak up enough damage.
Game 2 - I bring in the aggro hate and things go as planned. He can't get anything to stick and his burn spells are combatted by counters.
Game 3 - It goes to time and we know drawing doesn't do either of us any good. I show him my two cards in hand of Dig and PLA and he ships me the win. Thanks bro.
4-1-1
Quarter Finals: A nice individual with Jeskai Tokens (Yuuya's Worlds 75 almost)
Game 1 - He does stuff and so do I. He gets an ascendancy out. Then next turn he taps four mana. I assume for Chandra, but nope. He plays a Bident of Thassa. *Jaw Drops* He follows it up with an outburst. I can't find a counter and have no bile blight in hand. He attacks and rips 3 off the top. Disgusting. He cruises, seems bad for me. I finally handle the tokens. He does nothing for a few turns while I'm at 1 life. I thought that there was a slight chance to pull away from this if I can't find a few counters and a PLA, but he rips a rabblemaster off the top and ends my life with a little goblin.
Game 2 - I board in negates, drowns, and 1 cure. This seems to be going poorly for me since he resolves a cruise. He had a full grip and I said I hope you have 5 lands in your hand. He said it's close. He has an ascendancy out but literally has a strike and lands in his hand. A PLA makes quick work of him. We both were astounded how bad his cruise/draws were. Variance rears its ugly head again. But that's magic.
Game 3 - We go back and fourth. Me killing his guys, him pushing a little burn through. I'm trying not to let any 4 damage spells resolve after the first. He gets the namesake enchantment out and the bident. But he is playing off the top now and can't get any traction as an ancient that resides in pearl lake is taking massive chunks out of his life total. On to the semis. He tells me later that he hated chandra in Yuuya's list so he took them out and put another jeskai charm and a bident in their place. It seemed pretty awesome against me and had been working well for him all day.
Semi Finals: Nick Cowden with Jeskai Burn
Game 1 - Ugh. I was dreading this matchup. The mainboard negate was a nod to this deck in particular. I keep a 6 card hand like usual. He was first in the Swiss so I was in the draw in every match in the top 8 as I was 5th going into it. He plays a scry land and ships it to the bottom. I play a land and pass. He plays another land and a seeker. I play a swamp and pass. He swings seeker and puts me to 18, sighs and says go. I bile blight his guy end step. I play another land and pass. He draws and passes. Same series of events happens again. He draws and passes I cast ingenuity at the end of his turn, he strokes it. I hit my land drop and pass. On his upkeep he magma jets me, I counter it but he naturally draws a land off the top. I felt at this point it was too late for him to come back. I played a PLA and got game one.
Game 2 - it was a back and forth fight. I stopped hitting land after the fourth for a few turns. It put me pretty far behind. He cast 3 digs, 2 of which relived. And I cast 3 digs and an ingenuity, none of which resolved. They were met with 3 strokes and a negate. Sad face. I was at 8 life. I managed to get an ancient out, he was at 6 from a couple of hits by that big guy. He had 2 cards in hand. He end step jets me, kept one on top and shipped the other, then he fired off a charm taking me to 2. He draws another charm to kill me.
Game 3 - This one was actually a good game. We both hit land drops and were playing spells. I'm at 8 and he's at 6. I have a PLA and he's trying to resolve a mantis rider. I play an ingenuity in response to find a counter/kill spell. He strokes it. I play a dig in response, it resolves. I find a downfall and a dissolve. I let the rider resolve and target it with a downfall. He extends his hand.
Finals: Kasey Walton with Mardu Midrange
Game 1 - He realizes while looking as his opening 7 that he didn't remove all of his sideboard cards from his original 60. He calls the judge on himself and they give him a warning. He takes them out and mulligans to 6 and keeps. I mull to 6 also. At this point I think I've kept a 7 card hand around 4 times today. He plays a couple of lands and plays a brain maggot. Yup, that's right. Brain Maggot. It was odd to me, but if it works, it works. I have a pretty good hand so I'm just sculpting at this time. I draw a despise and cast it. I see he has 3 Crackling Doom. Gross. I realize at that point this will be a very long game. And I was right, it took an hour for game one. He didn't really do much outside of getting his bloodsoaked champion, rabblemaster, butcher, and dragons killed. He packed it up after I forced the dooms from his grip.
Game 2 - This was a better game. He had a couple thoughtseizes for me. I brought in a singleton Grindclock just in case he played stain the mind or something. I got a couple of his guys with a vault including a stormbreath, but he just followed it up with another one. I murdered that one and the game was over for the most part. He hamd no more pressure in hand and didn't really draw any.
7-1-1
I thought my list was pretty good. I don't know why I had to mulligan so much but in the end it didn't matter. I played really tight, especially during the jeskai matchups. Every point of damage could spell the end a turn or two later. I obviously had a little bit of luck on my side. I also didn't think this tournament was soft like I had originally perceived. At least my opponents we very seasoned. As I know my round 1 opponent just went to the pro tour and top 8'ed the Hawaii states. Round 2 opponent recently top 8'ed an SCG standard open. Round 3 opponent has found himself in many a large local tournament across all formats. Round 4 opponent is a very skilled limited player so maybe constructed isn't his thing. He still top 16'ed the tournament though. Round 5 opponent? I don't know what he's done to be honest. Round 6 opponent just top 8'ed/4'ed 2 modern ptq (last season obviously) and won a legacy open. Quarterfinalist I've never heard of, but his play was very solid. I'm assuming he's seasoned. Semifinalist also won a legacy open. And the finalist, well, that may have been the easiest match all day. The point I'm getting at I guess is I played against some guys that know what they're doing, and with tight play, this deck came out on top. I couldn't be happier. Especially since there were guys there telling me that they were thinking about playing UB Control but thought it wasn't good enough to compete. There are some extremely powerful cards in this archetype, you just need to know how to wield them.
Shenhar's version seems tough with 2 MB Ashiok and 1 MB Soul of Innistrad.
Sultai Charm, Soul, Pharika, 2 Rec Sage, and a 3rd Pharika out of the side seem hard for us to deal with.
Plus they have Thoughtseize.
Is a card like Dissipate worth running just to exile Soul?
If you're playing the Adrian Sullivan "Chevy" version of the deck, then Sultai is a very favorable matchup. Our 4MB Ashiok makes them decking out a reality, and they have some decent creatures to steal that their own deck has trouble beating.
In fact, the reason Shenhar plays Ashiok is to beat his own deck in the mirror match, and other green decks.
Post board, having Cranial Archive can mess them up pretty bad, or can be used to recycle our own thoughtseized/downfall'd threats.
The main key to winning is Perilous Vault, and exiling their Whips and bomb creatures.
Looking through a card list, and forgot about this one: Psychic Intrusion
Has anyone tested it? It looks like it can be at least a 2-of coming out of the SB.
Against a midrange or control deck, the card is fantastic. It's impossible to remove, it's almost always a Thoughtseize that cantrips, and in many cases decks have answers to their own threats so it's very much a tutor for a solution. Against decks with overall low power level cards that are more based on synergy (like most aggro decks), it's not very effective--but it's always at least live. But for anything that isn't hyper-aggressive, you're usually going to take their best card and then play it yourself. So if they have an Elspeth, you get it and you can play it to kill their Rhinos or flood the board. If they have a draw spell, you can take that and then refill your hand while denying their card advantage. If they have a Downfall, you can take that and kill a threat of theirs with it. If they have a counter, you can take it and just leave it open--and it can't be Thoughtseized because it's in exile. So it has a lot of uses.
And being able to take stuff out of the yard is what makes it really shine--if they have nothing, you still can take what you want from their yard, effectively making this a 1-for-1 tutor. Generally speaking, I think this card is at its best when it supports a number of Thoughtseizes and some 2-drop counters (out of the board, like all of this). As an anti-control plan, it's very strong to have Thoughtseize and Intrusion as outs to PLA and overall proactive disruption, then also have Intrusion complement the draw suite and potentially double as finishers to up your critical mass.
I think Intrusion is the future of control decks, but it might just not have the tools to support it at the moment because mana curves are kind of weak in the 2-drop slot for us. With Intrusion you really want to be keeping the board mostly clear before you cast it, and when you cast it you want to be able to follow up the next turn by cleaning up the table with a couple more spells (or just slamming their best bomb to handle that problem, esp if that's Elspeth).
What would you be cutting for it, control decks have to be pretty tight since half of our deck is lands. And I cant see something like this being better then Jace ing
Psychic Intrusion is a bomb. You play it instead of a planeswalker or creature, as a big proactive tool. As a sideboard card in part of a cohesive plan, it's very good against control and midrange decks because it's a bomb that does not die to removal.
So I've been playing Sullivan's list for awhile and am pretty good at SB'ing now, the only cards I'm not sure when to SB out are the 2 Divination, 4 Ashiok, and 1 Liliana.
- Do Ashiok ever come out? Vs say like Jeskai Tokens to Sphinx and Pearl Lake come in instead as Ashiok steals nothing and can die easily to burn?
- Divination seems decent on the play but on the draw seems fairly slow. Seems good vs aggro to help find drown but vs midrange I'd rather SB in another Ingenuity.
- Liliana come out vs aggro?
Divination is typically fine regardless. It's the kind of card that you cut on the draw if you have nothing else to cut.
Liliana comes out against pretty much any matchup that's not the mirror, abzan, or mardu midrange I would say. Seems too slow against jeskai tokens/burn and the heroic decks. Be sure to side out interpret the signs with her as well.
Divination is typically fine regardless. It's the kind of card that you cut on the draw if you have nothing else to cut.
Liliana comes out against pretty much any matchup that's not the mirror, abzan, or mardu midrange I would say. Seems too slow against jeskai tokens/burn and the heroic decks. Be sure to side out interpret the signs with her as well.
I cut the Signs for a 27th land and it feels better.
So Ashiok ever come out? Maybe cut one of them on the draw?
1 Prognostic Sphinx
4 Dig through Time
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Dissolve
3 Jace's Ingenuity
3 Perilous Vault
3 Bile Blight
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Thoughtseize
2 Despise
1 Silence the Believers
1 Liliana Vess
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Temple of Silence
4 Island
4 Swamp
3 Jorubai Murk Lurker
1 Prognostic Sphinx
3 Drown in Sorrow
2 Pharika’s Cure
2 Nullify
2 Negate
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Tormod’s Crypt
I took out the fourth Jace's Ingenuity for Sphinx due to control being more popular as well as overall desire for another threat, and I'm glad I did. Even in matches I had PLA, being able to scry and get some damage in with Sphinx, just block with it, or even just eat some removal and fuel Dig, worked wonders. The fourth Ingenuity got stuck in my hand more often than not and I never wanted to open with two of it and a Dig, or it and a Dig, two Digs and it, etc.; the cut has definitely made things much more fluid.
I replaced the Nullifies with Despise because while I did like them (and still do, a lot), the amount of discard when paired with Thoughtseize and Lili is awesome. Despise (usually) hits more of what I want to be getting rid of than Nullify anyway, and it does it for cheaper, and on top of that it's a good turn one play as well.
Match one I went 0-2 very quickly against a Mardu Midrange list. None of it was due to my deck or skill at all, but rather me forgetting to shuffle after breaking my deck down into creatures, lands, etc. Opened with a bunch of lands, mulliganed, same thing again, then just a bad draw. Game two I can't remember what I opened with but it was equally horrible. Despite that, I actually should've won game two, but my opponent refused to let me cast my Silence the Believers because he "had already tapped his creatures" (allowing him the Wingmate Roc triggers) and I couldn't say I wanted to do it at the end of M1 because it was too late (even though I told him I wanted a moment to think before he attacks).
Match two I played against Mardu Midrange again, he ended up getting rid of his Sarkhan for the emblem, I countered or removed basically everything he drew with it, and eventually played a PLA which led to me winning. Multiple Perilous Vault helped along the way. Game two was incredibly close, both of us at low life totals, going back and forth with Murk Lurker lifegaining while he poked with tokens and such, he ended up Lightning Striking me for game when all I had was removal. We had about twelve minutes on the clock left when he decided to sideboard again for about ten of those minutes, I had a great opening hand, lots of removal and counters, a Murk Lurker, got him down to 8 to my 16, dropped a PLA, had a Vault and some other stuff in my hand, all the while he continues to stall hardcore each turn even when he's tapped out, has no cards, etc. Really annoying but, as a result, we tied. I consider it a win because in normal circumstances, I would've won.
Match three I realise now I was playing against a newer player (I originally thought it was just someone who wasn't very good at the game), so I feel a lot better about the things he was doing. He was playing a BG Constellation deck that was heavily focused on situational enchantments that weren't bad, but weren't good enough and lacked some tuning overall. He was by far the nicest guy I played, though, and I'm glad I discovered he's new because he did a lot of things I considered off at the time (turn three he had four lands to my three and an extra card in hand even though I started playing first, claimed it was my error in thinking this and because I had a Polluted Delta in my grave, that it was explained through that?). I won game one due to removal and him ignoring my Liliana, ended up saccing her for her ultimate and getting back six of his creatures, drawing six cards with Eidolon, him losing six life due to some other enchantment creature, and then attacking for game the next turn (had a PLA this whole time, too). Game two he talked about how he just wanted to win a game so I'm glad he won it. I misplayed a Backwater thinking I needed the life when I should've popped my Delta and played PLA to block his creature, put pressure on him, etc. Game three involved me removing and countering everything he had, him not knowing how to play around my Vaults, etc. It was an easy one.
My final match was against a girl who used to work at the store running Temur Midrange, I beat her 2-0 with ease, Liliana and multiple Thoughtseize/Despise destroyed her hand both games, I had counters exactly when I needed them, removal when I needed it, ridiculous amounts of card draw (Digs into other Digs into Jace's Ingenuities), and two Perilous Vaults in one game alongside Sphinx which did a good amount of beats, followed by PLA. We ended up going into time game two, but I already had five or six cards in hand, Sphinx on the board, and a PLA the next turn, so it was no issue (not that it would've been an issue regardless). Unusually enough, she took my Hero's Downfall from me, removed it from its sleeve, started bending it, rubbing her fingernail against it, etc. and straight up asked me if it was printed (it's an obvious misprint). Was really weird and I'm still kind of shocked she didn't ask my permission or anything. The same match, her husband (I believe) said my Flooded Strands had "a nice washed out look to them" and then walked a few steps back and said "maybe too much of a washed out look", which resulted in the new owner of the store (or judge at the time, I have no idea) to bend it, scratch it, compare its thickness to other cards, etc. about the Needless to say, it passed all the tests, and I explained that its "washed out look" was due to them having sun damage.
I ended up coming 4th, won two packs (not sure if prize support is this terrible now in general, or it was just because it was a Wednesday, but it was far from worth it for 4-5 hours of playing). Not sure if I'd ever play a Wednesday there again, or how good of a time I had (due to the accidental/intentional cheating, comments on my cards, and level of skill of the players), but I'm glad I was able to test my deck in a real world event. Will probably head to the SCG IQ in my area on Sunday and hopefully have a better time there.
After yesterday, I definitely want the fourth Vault, but I have no idea what to remove for it right now (I imagine Sphinx will end up testing poorly in the long run and that'll be the cut, it's just been playing too well right now for me to make that choice at this moment).
Mafia Stats 2016-2017:
Town: 1-0 | Scum: 2-0 | Neutral: 1-1
edit: I went for Nullify over Despise because I have was having poor luck finding a despise in the first 1st turns of the game, though only running 2x copies. Running 3x Nullify now.
Shenhar's version seems tough with 2 MB Ashiok and 1 MB Soul of Innistrad.
Sultai Charm, Soul, Pharika, 2 Rec Sage, and a 3rd Pharika out of the side seem hard for us to deal with.
Plus they have Thoughtseize.
Is a card like Dissipate worth running just to exile Soul?
I've never had an issue with it, so long as you can get rid of Whip. If you aren't able to, you kind of just have to hope that you either have enough removal to kill off their stuff, draw into Vault and play it well, or can outpace them with PLA (assuming you run it).
I side a single Tormod's Crypt for them, which although I've never actually seen it yet, seems solid in theory; I've seen people run Cranial Archive for the same reason.
Mafia Stats 2016-2017:
Town: 1-0 | Scum: 2-0 | Neutral: 1-1
Can't say I have, but it could be caused by different lists?
Perilous Vault should solve that (it's awesome in this matchup), Liliana's ult if you can manage would wreck, and by late game, you should have a plethora of removal, counters, etc. to handle whatever you're up against. Aetherspouts and Bile Blight (much emphasis on Bile Blight) are an easy answer to 1/1 snakes.
Mafia Stats 2016-2017:
Town: 1-0 | Scum: 2-0 | Neutral: 1-1
I highly recommend trying out the Ashiok version of the deck. I really like it in the current meta game.
Modern: UWR Control
EDH: Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Titania, Protector of Argoth
Phelddagrif
Glissa, the Traitor
Rosheen Meanderer
RIP Jimmy foREVer
1. How's the Mardu Matchup
2. How's the Heroic Matchup
3. How's the control mirror
This is the list I'm leaning towards playing
5 Island
4 Dismal Backwater
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Polluted Delta
2 Radiant Fountain
1 Flooded Strand
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Bile Blight
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Dig Through Time
4 Dissolve
3 Jace's Ingenuity
3 Thoughtseize
2 Despise
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Murderous Cut
4 Perilous Vault
1 Liliana Vess
sideboard
Standard
UB UB Midrange UB
Modern
GRWUBTribal Flames ZooGRWUB
RUGTemur DelverRUG
Legacy
UW Stoneblade UW
And it doesnt make a huge dent in the gameplan, since its only 4 lands and a card.
Pretty excited to try this one out!
4x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1x Liliana Vess
4x Perilous Vault
1x Aetherspouts
4x Dig Through Time
2x Jace's Ingenuity
4x Dissolve
2x Disdainful Stroke
1x Nullify
4x Hero's Downfall
4x Bile Blight
1x Silence the Believers
2x Drown in Sorrow
4x Polluted Delta
4x Temple of Deceit
2x Temple of Mystery
4x Dismal Backwater
3x Radiant Fountain
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4x Island
4x Swamp
2x Thoughtseize
3x Negate
1x Pearl Lake Ancient
2x Prognostic Sphinx
1x Cranial Archive
1x Stain the Mind
2x Feast of Dreams
1x Disdainful Stroke
1x Silence the Believers
1x Drown in Sorrow
My favorite thing about the deck is that when I resolve a Perilous Vault my opponent actually thinks they can just drop one threat a turn to try and get me to use up my Vault right away. I love just using my spot removal on the single threat they play and keep up Vault as an "emergency panic button"
Modern: UWR Control
EDH: Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Titania, Protector of Argoth
Phelddagrif
Glissa, the Traitor
Rosheen Meanderer
RIP Jimmy foREVer
Psychic Intrusion
Has anyone tested it? It looks like it can be at least a 2-of coming out of the SB.
The funniest thing about this particular signature is that by the time you realize it doesn't say anything it's too late to stop reading it....
I believe THIS is it.
The funniest thing about this particular signature is that by the time you realize it doesn't say anything it's too late to stop reading it....
they are playing his old version as I saw Evolving Wilds in the list.
I managed to take down a PPTQ this weekend with UB Control. My list was as follows:
2 Pearl Lake Ancient
Spells (30)
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Dissolve
4 Dig Through Time
4 Bile Blight
3 Jace's Ingenuity
2 Disdainful Stroke
1 Negate
1 Silence the Believers
1 AEtherspouts
2 Despise
4 Perilous Vault
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Dismal Backwater
4 Polluted Delta
4 Radiant Fountain
1 Flooded Strand
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
5 Swamp
4 Island
4 Drown in Sorrow
2 Negate
2 Jorubai Murk Lurker
2 Pharika's Cure
3 Thoughtseize
2 Grindclock
I went 7-1-1 total.
Match-Ups:
Round 1: Josh Milliken with G/R Monsters
Game 1 - He went mana guy into Courser into Polukranos into Nissa. I kept a decent hand against an unknown deck. I believe it was lands, blight, downfall, vault, dig. Nissa is an absolute beating if it can't get ripped from their hand or countered on the way down. It is also the only thing that vault doesn't clean up completely. That unfortunately spelled the end for me.
Game 2 - He mulled to a loose 6 and his hand was very soft to a targeted discard spell. A turn 1 Thoughtseize took a mana accelerant and I was able to hit my land drops and sit back until I could find a PLA.
Game 3 - It was kind of the same scenario. He had a hand full of 5 and 8 drops. I just killed his Coursers and kept him from filtering his draws.
This matchup is very easy to win if you can stop a Nissa from hitting. It's easily the worst permanent against this deck IMO.
1-0-0
Round 2: Ben Steiner with Abzan Midrange
Game 1 - It went how most midrange matchups should go. Trading 1 for 1, possibly more until they're topdecking. Unfortunately it took a while.
Game 2 - I got him into topdeck mode. He ripped an Elspeth and I had no answer. I was low enough in life were 3 soldiers just killed me. I did board out all the blights. This was a mistake I feel, as I was thinking of that exact situation whilst boarding. But I couldn't find anything else to cut. Keeping in a singleton would have given me a silver bullet to dig for. I dug twice for a vault instead, and found none.
Game 3 - Obviously I nor my opponent could win in under 5 minutes. He asked if I would concede to him, to which I actually laughed aloud. Unintentional draw. :/
1-0-1
Round 3: RG McCaman with Jeskai Tokens (Yuuya's Worlds 75)
Game 1 - After we discussed that it sucks he got paired down we started to resolve mulligans. It was a battle indeed. A long game one left me at 1 life for turns. I got him in topdecking mode. He had an ascendancy in play though. I was able to gain is little life in increments thanks to the life lands. I exhausted all his resources, and even though he resolved 3 out of the 4 cruises he cast, I was able to take the first game.
Game 2 - I had a lot of hate for aggro based decks. This game was much easier. Between the drowns, cures, and murk lurkers, it was quite academic. I'm sure you all know that the lurkers are best friends with PLA. And gosh bless his heart, he refused to scoop even when I went over 30 life when he had no hand or board presence.
2-0-1
Round 4: Wally Wallerstein with Boros Heroic
Game 1 - He came out of the gate very fast. My fourth land came into play tapped. I felt that was the end for me. I missed my fifth land drop and played a vault. He swung me down to 8 life. I had no land in hand and needed to hit an untapped land, preferably an island seeing as I had 1 blue source in play. Untap, upkeep, draw.....an ISLAND!!!! Lucksack, I know. I pulled the trigger on his attack phase. He plays another guy. I miss yet another land drop in my 28 land deck, and pass the turn. He gets me down to 3 and passes. I draw a land, play it and pass. I kill his guy on his turn. He tries to burn me for the win, it meets a stroke. I draw a fountain and go up to 5. He plays a land and passed. I have had a PLA in hand since the opener. It's like a pseudo mull to minus 1 of the x amount of cards in hand, borderline all of the time. I have no counter magic in hand and figure I'm dead to pretty much everything, so I end step a PLA. I figured his draws were more live than mine considering how low my life is. My turn I draw another PLA.....jeez. Not what I wanted to see. He plays another land and passes. Wow. He hit a real land pocket here. I end step the second ancient. I attack for 12 and he stokes in response. I stroke it just in case he drew a strike to finish me off. He sais he just wanted to make sure I had a counter. A lightning strike was not the other card in his hand. Got game one in an odd fashion. Mulling to 6 and having a pearl in hand is not where I wanted to be. But his bad draws compared to my also seemingly horrendous/good draws put me above him that game. He also confided to me that he drew the stoke a turn after I played the fountain that put me out of range.
Game 2 - It was very much like game 2 of the last round. He has to overextend and gets punished by drowns, blights, and cures.
3-0-1
Round 5: Familiar face, unknown name with Abzan Midrange
Game 1 - I felt I kept a decent 6 on the draw knowing what my opponent was playing. The mana was wonky though. My hand was swamp, delta, fountain, dig, dissolve, downfall. I drew another downfall and played a swamp. He Thoughtseized me and takes dig. I draw a swamp, and play the delta. He does the courser thing and passed. I crack the fetch at end step for an island. I untap and draw, obviously I don't rip a land, and play my swamp. I downfall a rhino he plays on his turn. My turn....no land again. I play fountain and pass. He does more things while I continue to draw double blue spells during that time I draw two more lands. Those unfortunately, were regular old swamps. Then, around turn 11-12 I draw a land that's not a swamp! Dear Lord! Thank you! Thank you for this...this...Evolving Wilds. There is no God. The life tilt was real. Let's go to the next game.
Game 2 - My hand was okay I guess. I don't remember a lot from that game, but I do know I was Thoughseized a bunch. It was a real game at least. I was digging for answers but found none. I could have taken a different line though. I was at 2 and he had a Courser, I dug in his turn to find a kill spell. I failed to do so. I could have dug on my turn, trying to find a fountain to keep me alive another turn, barring he didn't have a charm to pump his guy. I found the fountain in the top 7, but not anything else relevant. It was sloppy play on my part.
3-1-1
Round 6: Chris Kronenberger with Jeskai Heroic Combo
Game 1 - He has a slower hand and stops on 2 mana. One of them was a scry land to which he was in that tank on for some time. He plays a couple of guys and I manage to kill them around his protection spells. He eventually plays a drum and casts an ascendancy. I counter it. He hits his third land and plays another ascendancy, I have no answer. He plays some noncreature spells and filters his draws. Somehow he gets another ascendancy and plays a raise the alarm. I can't do anything about it. He plays an outburst, then a stoke to kill me and I only had two do nothing cards in hand and a PLA out that couldn't soak up enough damage.
Game 2 - I bring in the aggro hate and things go as planned. He can't get anything to stick and his burn spells are combatted by counters.
Game 3 - It goes to time and we know drawing doesn't do either of us any good. I show him my two cards in hand of Dig and PLA and he ships me the win. Thanks bro.
4-1-1
Quarter Finals: A nice individual with Jeskai Tokens (Yuuya's Worlds 75 almost)
Game 1 - He does stuff and so do I. He gets an ascendancy out. Then next turn he taps four mana. I assume for Chandra, but nope. He plays a Bident of Thassa. *Jaw Drops* He follows it up with an outburst. I can't find a counter and have no bile blight in hand. He attacks and rips 3 off the top. Disgusting. He cruises, seems bad for me. I finally handle the tokens. He does nothing for a few turns while I'm at 1 life. I thought that there was a slight chance to pull away from this if I can't find a few counters and a PLA, but he rips a rabblemaster off the top and ends my life with a little goblin.
Game 2 - I board in negates, drowns, and 1 cure. This seems to be going poorly for me since he resolves a cruise. He had a full grip and I said I hope you have 5 lands in your hand. He said it's close. He has an ascendancy out but literally has a strike and lands in his hand. A PLA makes quick work of him. We both were astounded how bad his cruise/draws were. Variance rears its ugly head again. But that's magic.
Game 3 - We go back and fourth. Me killing his guys, him pushing a little burn through. I'm trying not to let any 4 damage spells resolve after the first. He gets the namesake enchantment out and the bident. But he is playing off the top now and can't get any traction as an ancient that resides in pearl lake is taking massive chunks out of his life total. On to the semis. He tells me later that he hated chandra in Yuuya's list so he took them out and put another jeskai charm and a bident in their place. It seemed pretty awesome against me and had been working well for him all day.
Semi Finals: Nick Cowden with Jeskai Burn
Game 1 - Ugh. I was dreading this matchup. The mainboard negate was a nod to this deck in particular. I keep a 6 card hand like usual. He was first in the Swiss so I was in the draw in every match in the top 8 as I was 5th going into it. He plays a scry land and ships it to the bottom. I play a land and pass. He plays another land and a seeker. I play a swamp and pass. He swings seeker and puts me to 18, sighs and says go. I bile blight his guy end step. I play another land and pass. He draws and passes. Same series of events happens again. He draws and passes I cast ingenuity at the end of his turn, he strokes it. I hit my land drop and pass. On his upkeep he magma jets me, I counter it but he naturally draws a land off the top. I felt at this point it was too late for him to come back. I played a PLA and got game one.
Game 2 - it was a back and forth fight. I stopped hitting land after the fourth for a few turns. It put me pretty far behind. He cast 3 digs, 2 of which relived. And I cast 3 digs and an ingenuity, none of which resolved. They were met with 3 strokes and a negate. Sad face. I was at 8 life. I managed to get an ancient out, he was at 6 from a couple of hits by that big guy. He had 2 cards in hand. He end step jets me, kept one on top and shipped the other, then he fired off a charm taking me to 2. He draws another charm to kill me.
Game 3 - This one was actually a good game. We both hit land drops and were playing spells. I'm at 8 and he's at 6. I have a PLA and he's trying to resolve a mantis rider. I play an ingenuity in response to find a counter/kill spell. He strokes it. I play a dig in response, it resolves. I find a downfall and a dissolve. I let the rider resolve and target it with a downfall. He extends his hand.
Finals: Kasey Walton with Mardu Midrange
Game 1 - He realizes while looking as his opening 7 that he didn't remove all of his sideboard cards from his original 60. He calls the judge on himself and they give him a warning. He takes them out and mulligans to 6 and keeps. I mull to 6 also. At this point I think I've kept a 7 card hand around 4 times today. He plays a couple of lands and plays a brain maggot. Yup, that's right. Brain Maggot. It was odd to me, but if it works, it works. I have a pretty good hand so I'm just sculpting at this time. I draw a despise and cast it. I see he has 3 Crackling Doom. Gross. I realize at that point this will be a very long game. And I was right, it took an hour for game one. He didn't really do much outside of getting his bloodsoaked champion, rabblemaster, butcher, and dragons killed. He packed it up after I forced the dooms from his grip.
Game 2 - This was a better game. He had a couple thoughtseizes for me. I brought in a singleton Grindclock just in case he played stain the mind or something. I got a couple of his guys with a vault including a stormbreath, but he just followed it up with another one. I murdered that one and the game was over for the most part. He hamd no more pressure in hand and didn't really draw any.
7-1-1
I thought my list was pretty good. I don't know why I had to mulligan so much but in the end it didn't matter. I played really tight, especially during the jeskai matchups. Every point of damage could spell the end a turn or two later. I obviously had a little bit of luck on my side. I also didn't think this tournament was soft like I had originally perceived. At least my opponents we very seasoned. As I know my round 1 opponent just went to the pro tour and top 8'ed the Hawaii states. Round 2 opponent recently top 8'ed an SCG standard open. Round 3 opponent has found himself in many a large local tournament across all formats. Round 4 opponent is a very skilled limited player so maybe constructed isn't his thing. He still top 16'ed the tournament though. Round 5 opponent? I don't know what he's done to be honest. Round 6 opponent just top 8'ed/4'ed 2 modern ptq (last season obviously) and won a legacy open. Quarterfinalist I've never heard of, but his play was very solid. I'm assuming he's seasoned. Semifinalist also won a legacy open. And the finalist, well, that may have been the easiest match all day. The point I'm getting at I guess is I played against some guys that know what they're doing, and with tight play, this deck came out on top. I couldn't be happier. Especially since there were guys there telling me that they were thinking about playing UB Control but thought it wasn't good enough to compete. There are some extremely powerful cards in this archetype, you just need to know how to wield them.
If you're playing the Adrian Sullivan "Chevy" version of the deck, then Sultai is a very favorable matchup. Our 4MB Ashiok makes them decking out a reality, and they have some decent creatures to steal that their own deck has trouble beating.
In fact, the reason Shenhar plays Ashiok is to beat his own deck in the mirror match, and other green decks.
Post board, having Cranial Archive can mess them up pretty bad, or can be used to recycle our own thoughtseized/downfall'd threats.
The main key to winning is Perilous Vault, and exiling their Whips and bomb creatures.
Against a midrange or control deck, the card is fantastic. It's impossible to remove, it's almost always a Thoughtseize that cantrips, and in many cases decks have answers to their own threats so it's very much a tutor for a solution. Against decks with overall low power level cards that are more based on synergy (like most aggro decks), it's not very effective--but it's always at least live. But for anything that isn't hyper-aggressive, you're usually going to take their best card and then play it yourself. So if they have an Elspeth, you get it and you can play it to kill their Rhinos or flood the board. If they have a draw spell, you can take that and then refill your hand while denying their card advantage. If they have a Downfall, you can take that and kill a threat of theirs with it. If they have a counter, you can take it and just leave it open--and it can't be Thoughtseized because it's in exile. So it has a lot of uses.
And being able to take stuff out of the yard is what makes it really shine--if they have nothing, you still can take what you want from their yard, effectively making this a 1-for-1 tutor. Generally speaking, I think this card is at its best when it supports a number of Thoughtseizes and some 2-drop counters (out of the board, like all of this). As an anti-control plan, it's very strong to have Thoughtseize and Intrusion as outs to PLA and overall proactive disruption, then also have Intrusion complement the draw suite and potentially double as finishers to up your critical mass.
I think Intrusion is the future of control decks, but it might just not have the tools to support it at the moment because mana curves are kind of weak in the 2-drop slot for us. With Intrusion you really want to be keeping the board mostly clear before you cast it, and when you cast it you want to be able to follow up the next turn by cleaning up the table with a couple more spells (or just slamming their best bomb to handle that problem, esp if that's Elspeth).
You never cut Jace's Ingenuity. Never.
- Do Ashiok ever come out? Vs say like Jeskai Tokens to Sphinx and Pearl Lake come in instead as Ashiok steals nothing and can die easily to burn?
- Divination seems decent on the play but on the draw seems fairly slow. Seems good vs aggro to help find drown but vs midrange I'd rather SB in another Ingenuity.
- Liliana come out vs aggro?
Liliana comes out against pretty much any matchup that's not the mirror, abzan, or mardu midrange I would say. Seems too slow against jeskai tokens/burn and the heroic decks. Be sure to side out interpret the signs with her as well.
I cut the Signs for a 27th land and it feels better.
So Ashiok ever come out? Maybe cut one of them on the draw?
Me
Hand: Divination, Hero's Downfall, Two Dissolve, Perilous Vault, Dig Through Time
In Play: 4 U/B Duals, 2 Swamp
Life: 6
Opponent
In Play: Elspeth at 5, 3 tokens, 6 mana untapped
Life: 20
Relevant Cards Played so Far: Utter Ended Vault 2 turns ago
It's my turn, opponent on Mardu with mana open, hasn't played any burn all game, has shown one Utter End.
What play do you make?
1. Divination and then Downfall Elspeth
2. Play Vault and pass
3. Other?