Play this deck at a GPT. Was fortunate not to meet any burn decks.
Game 1 - 1:1
Mono Red Storm Goblin Deck with Blood moon
Match 1 On Play - Lost to turn 2 Blood Moon
Match 2 On Play - Opponent was at 2 land so with able to take down match 2 with basic lands. I made a mistake of resolving Surgical Extraction without paying the casting cost. That was like a warning.
Match 3 On Draw - Bow of Nylea made up some life vs the 8 little red goblin tokens. The goblins hiding behind 2 Ensnaring Bridge did not help. On hindsight, I made too many mistakes for this match and should have exiled some different cards with Tasigur, The Golden Fang.
Game 2 - 2:1
Bogles
Match 1 On Play - Opponent mulligans to 5 and thus Liliana of the Veil was able to take down the match easily.
Match 2 On Draw - Opponent mulligans to 6 to open with Leyline of Sanctity
Match 3 On Play - Turn 1 Engineered Explosives was able to slow down Bogles for Siege Rhinos to take down the game.
Game 3 - 2:0
Twin
Match 1 On Play - Discarding Turn 1 Splinter Twin and Liliana of The Veil coming in the play took the match down.
Match 2 On Draw - Hmm did not remember much about this match. Discards and Siege Rhino attacks.
Game 4 - 2:1
Infect
Match 1 On Draw - Opponent mulligans to 6. I Inquisition of Kozilek away a Blighted Agent. With the opponent with 2 land drop, the Abrupt Decay should havve been saved for the infect creature instead. Lost this match.
Match 2 On Play - Engineered Explosives bought many turns and a win.
Match 3 On Draw - Sudden Death was good taking down an infect creature when the opponent cast Might of Old Krosa.
Game 5 - 2:1
Ad Nauseam
Match 1 On Play - Discards and Liliana of the Veil took this down quickly.
Match 2 On Draw - I took away his Serum Visions instead of Angel's Grace which would have been better as it is a key part of the combo and he would have to dig for it to go off.
Match 3 On Play - This is madness as I've kept a hand of 4 Lands, 2 Noble Hierarch and a Beast Within. Using Beast Within on a land was like duh from the opponent and myself. It should have been saved for the Lotus Bloom. The opponent had multiple Ad Nauseam and went off digging 7 - 10 cards to be down to 2 life without getting the last piece of the puzzle being Phyrexian Unlife or Angel's Grace. Won with a topdecked Siege Rhino.
Got into Top 8:
Game vs JUND
Match 1 - Lost as did not considered Batterskull combat trip of equipping to manland.
Match 2 - Lost to Stormbreath Dragon and Olivia Voldaren. The dynamic duo of dragon and vampire took the game.
That ends a day
Thoughts:
More practice as I need to play faster. No intentional slow roll though. Its brainfreeze.
More practice vs Jund ... Need to get the miracle out of Maelstrom Pulse to rid Batterskull
With Noble Hierarch, its always sideout on the draw, in for the play as on the play, its a little slow.
Having 2 Blackcleave Cliffs + random fetch / land does help with Liliana, Anger of the Gods.
Assuming starting hand of 3 lands:
If the 4th land laid down is Blackcleave Cliffs, assuming 3 lands in starting hand, that would be like getting 1 land card in 4 turns and top decking it at 4th turn, thus putting it in play tapped.
That would affect only casting of Chandra, Olivia.
UWR midrange can play more fetches (abt 8), basic lands (abt 6), shocklands (6-9) as they play draw go style thus would not need the seachrome. They play fetch, go then choose to fetch a shockland (tapped) or basic land.
JUND ideally would like to play land -> IOK, 2nd Land Goyf, 3rd Land Liliana, 4th Land Chandra etc or in worst case scenarios of 4th land topped deck being a blackcleave cliff would play the land tapped into play then pass the turn with instants in hand such as lightning bolt, abrupt decay.
For Blackcleave cliff to come in tapped, that would require having 3 lands in hand, drawing 3 non land cards on the play with the third being Blackcleave Cliff, drawing 4 non land cards on the draw with the 4th being a Blackcleave cliff.
On the 5th turn onwards for JUND, generally all spells can be cast and lands come in tapped: blackcleave cliff, raging ravine, shocklands (to conserve life).
Midgame, JUND would be beatdown with the Raging Ravine being 4/4 onwards, or getting a large scavenging ooze with the green mana available. The tapped blackcleave cliff does not matter at that point as forest are laid before it or shocks (green) for the green mana for scavenging ooze.
Raging Ravine offers red mana and more options for JUND.
1st turn Raging Ravine, 2nd Turn Swamp offers option of lightning bolt and terminate. Also offers 2nd turn, IOK or thoughtseize and holding back a lightning bolt for a tight 2 land hand too.
1st turn Treetop village, 2nd turn land does not offer much flexibility.
manland(Raging Ravine), land, land, offers a third turn Anger of the Gods with need of just 1 shockland.
For JUND vs BURN,
I refer to it as a 1st game AUTO LOSS, possible 2nd, 3rd game wins with gain life cards.
This is as game 1, JUND is down 7 cards vs BURN. (3 Thoughtseize, 4 Dark Confidant)
Bloodstained Mire (To fetch for Swamp, Overgrown Tomb, Blood Crypt, Stomping Ground)
Wooded Foothill (To fetch for Forest, Stomping Ground, Blood Crypt)
Blackcleave Cliffs is too good a card not to include 4 of for Jund.
Increasing the number fetches and shocks would make it an auto loss to Burn decks in game 1 and even game 2 after sideboarding.
Hey guys, long time lurker but finally decided to contribute a bit.(Disclosure : Pardon my English, I'm a French native)
I've been playing fish for the past 6 months and I love that deck, whatever the haters say. I took a more serious approach to it after I saw mister snazzycool performance in Richmond. I went at my local FNM in Montreal yesterday night (good level local FNM ) and went 4-0, taking 1st place with the following list.
4 lord of the atlantis
4 master of the pearl trident
4 merrow reejerey
3 cursecatcher
4 silvergill adept
3 master of waves
2 coralhelm commander
1 kira, great glass spinner
4 aether vial
4 mana leak
4 spreading seas
3 vapor snag
4 mutavault
2 cavern of souls
14 islands
I faced : white vial/hatebears/weenie, Pod, Burn and UWr control (no Kiki).
R1 1 : White weenie splash red/vial/hatebears 1-0
G1 : A very straight race that I won with spreading seas and vapor snag. He had Brimaz into play with the soldier that makes all your creaturess x/x in hand, I block a token, he slams the soldier with vial, and I vapor snag his double strike guy, falling down to 4 when he's all tap, then alpha strike back for 18. I could/should have blocked with a lord That I had in my hand in order to be more safe.
G2 : He goes all in with vial, Thalia + brave the elements and kills me turn 4.
G3 : Vial into cursecatcher, into silvergil. Turn 4 I cast a lord with 2 mana up, he tries to path it, I slam Kira. He then tries brimaz, I manaleak, and I have vial at 4 with 2 masters in hand + 5 devotion on the table.
R2 : POD (Melira)2-1
G1 : He had bird + finks + pod + melira in hand, goes for combo turn 4 withou a single pod activation. Skilled.
G2 : I keep a hand with island, vial, reejerey silvergill and 3 lords. He decays my vial, I don't see a second land before turn 4, but manage to counter his pod with steel sabotage. He has only some mana dorks and finks. I start hitting lands on turn 4-5, and cast two reejereys, then Lord untap two islands*3 then win on spreading seas next turn. I was at 3. Never keep a one lander against a deck with decay.
G3 : He casts a bird, I dismember it, then spreading sea his overgrown tomb, leaving him with just one gavony township and blue mana. No finks for you mofo. My board is weak (silvergill*2 + cursecatcher + lands) but I manage to kill him slowly him with mana leak protection in hand.
R3 Burn 2-0
G1 : I'm on the draw, he casts goblin guide T1, then burns me down to 8 but I have a solid board (vial + lords). He tries to burn my lords, but I have kira on vial + mana leak in my hand. Then start slamming.
G2 : Spreading seas + mana leak early game, then kira + spellskite lock. (one of my favourite stuff to do). He tries to trick me attacking with guide, and asking if I want to block with spellskite. I say no thanks, and strikes for lethal in two turns with multiple lords + corlahelm commander level 4.
R4 : UWr control snap/bolt/ajani and stuff - 2-1
G1 : He has a hand full of removal, and I scoop on vendilion clique + ajani tapping my cavern of souls after turn 10 with no more gas in hand.
G2 : I spreading sea his red land, and start grinding with cursecatcher + silvergill, keeping mana up for mana leak and vial on 2 with speelskite in hand. He anger of the god turn 5, when I have 2 lords. I sac cursecatcher to make him pay one (leaving just 1 mana up), then slams a lord to protect my other lords. Attack for lethal with mutavault on my turn.
G3 : It was such a grind. I lack gas early game but I have 2 cursecatchers + vial + relic on the board. I keep vial on 2, attack with cursecatchers + 1 lord. He wants to path my lord but I have him exile my spellskite instead to keep pressuring his life total. Next turn, he tries to snap bolt but I counter his bolt, then save one of my guys with vapor snag from another bolt, to re-vial it in combat. Lots of tricks. I slam a lord end of turn to have lethal. He tries to cryptic command tap/draw on my next attack, but I have 2 cursecatchers. I sac the two to counter the cryptic, he's got 1 mana up, and falls to 1, then I destroy his untapped blue land with tec edge and vapor snag his snapcaster (lol).
I'll probably make some changes for GP Boston next week, fine tuning the sideboard for affinity and make room for echoing truth (for hatebears enchantements/twin/resto/tokens etc).
My own 2 cents :
Merfolk is a good deck that you have to play like a fox. Don't puke your hand, you're not affinity. Use your bounce wisely, 40% of the time on you own guys. Spreading seas before silvergill is often a good choice.
MVPs and movers:
- Relic + tec edge. Probably moving up to 3 tec edge in the sideboard for Tron and Scapeshift
- Spellskite + kira : so much value. Sadistic play : Path your spellskite > counter. Path again, slams another spellskite on vial > counter > cry.
- I'll probably cut coralhelm commander for more bounce and back to 4 cursecatcher (don't under the little guy, he's your mvp against control.)
- Steel sabotage is nut
- I still think tidebinder has a place in a meta full of BGx shells
- Threads of disloyalty is not worth playing anymore
- Always keep at least one dismember somewhere
Hope you guys enjoy it !
G3 : Vial into cursecatcher, into silvergil. Turn 4 I cast a lord with 2 mana up, he tries to path it, I slam Kira. He then tries brimaz, I manaleak, and I have vial at 4 with 2 masters in hand + 5 devotion on the table.
Vialing in Kira in response to a path does not save your creature. Kira has to be in play to counter the first spell that targets your creature
Lily does not actual solve the Etched Champion problem that easily. She is certainly still helpful against Affinity, but I don't think you can keep in all 4. Yes she gets Etched Champion if their board is clear, but that rarely comes up, as they too often have plenty of other targets to sacrifice. She's pretty embarrassing against any 2 random dorks on their side, not to mention they can easily ping her with a manland activation. I'm not looking for a 3-mana card that reads, "Kill Ornithopter or Memnite, gain 1 life" in this matchup. Too often she will just rot in your hand or not get enough value against their board. When they drop 4 cards on turn 1 and you're struggling to stem the bleeding, tapping out on turn 3 to take their worst creature is just not an option, and we really want to play at instant speed against them as much as possible.
If you manage to draw the nuts of Anger + Lily, you're obviously winning, but if you just draw one of them, you'd much rather it be Anger. I generally keep in 1-2 Liliana after SB against Robots as a way to truly lock up the game if I stabilize, but in my opinion the Fulminators are more important in the 3-drop slot. Etched Champ is not as much of an issue as manlands are, and not all Affinity decks have 4 copies of Champion. What they do all have is 8 manlands.
As for Jund having a "less painful" manabase than BGw, I think that's a misconception. Jund is very heavily 3-colors, and often must pay 3-5 life for lands in the first few turns to set up for all the RR/GG/BG/RB/GGG spells in the deck. 2-landers in Jund almost always require you to Bolt yourself, and even the 3-landers often require fetch+shock twice. Now, you might not HAVE to take damage from all those lands, but with the tapped lands in the deck you sometimes want to take the damage to cast your spells in the best order.
Contrast that to Rock, which is basically a 2-color deck. Rock can much more easily fetch for 2 basics and then leisurely find the last color when the time is right. Rock also doesn't need that Turn 1 land for Thoughtseize to also support cards like Anger or Lightning Bolt, or the SB cards like Ancient Grudge and Jund Charm. The difference is that Rock can wait until the 3rd or 4th or 5th land to find white mana, while Jund cannot. In short, I think that Rock decks have better control over how much pain they must take from their lands, and they aren't required to set up 3 colors immediately. Also, while Tec Edge might seem like a detriment to the manabase, don't forget that sometimes it's also a Timewalk, which then gives you more time to curve out your hand. Having the option to Tec Edge for colorless is yet another choice the Rock player has that the Jund player does not. Jund is very pressured to get it's spells cast on time, Rock has a little more flexibility.
After further consideration, I do think that BG/w probably isn't much worse against Affinity than Jund is. They might have less powerful SB cards, but having Lingering Souls game 1 is much much better. Also, Tec Edge does answer manlands if the Affinity player plays out enough lands (they generally do want 4 lands, especially when they draw multiple Nexi). As always it depends on the draws, but my guess is that BG and Jund have similar chances against Affinity.
I do still need to test BG/w before the GP. I played RUG Twin to a 6th place finish at a GPT on Wednesday, losing the Quarters to Junk in a very very close game 3. He indicated that he liked it, but would probably switch back to Jund for the GP since it has a more even keel of matchups against the field. I'm most likely still playing Jund at the GP myself, but I wanted to test a few other options.
My reasoning is that IOK on the draw does not work as Affinity dumps their hand on turn 1 (if a fast hand) or turn 2.
I'm slotting in the last Liliana due to the cards being slotted out.
Any more advice on the sideboarding techniques against Affinity would be appreciated
I would keep Lilianas in and cut Chandra/pulse and the Thoughtsiezes probably. Lily is only bad if they have 2-for-1s like blade splicer plus Resto shenanagins or against heavy swarms like Affinity. Even against Zoo she can be a straight up 2-1 herself if you can protect her. She is a little weak against Flyers + aether vial so maybe you cut 1 on the draw, but she can lock up games against fair Aggro decks really well. Chandra is too slow, and you could even cut back a little on Bobs or Coursers in some cases. You are very much the control deck, and the only thing you really need to avoid is getting mana screwed.
Also I don't think Rakdos Charm is any good unless they have heavy GY interaction or you suspect problem artifacts like Batterskull. Killing their vial is rarely worth a card.
Liliana is a must imho against Affinity.
Affinity boards in 4 Etched Champion against Jund.
BG is game 1 loss vs burn, aggro if opening Fetch -> Overgrown Tomb -> Thoughtseize base on 2 land hand. Tec edge + fetch, Fetch + Treetop. There is limited amount of black sources, 12 for turn 1 discard. 4 Thoughtseizes is too aggressive. 3 Thoughtseize, 3 IOK would be a better count.
Also BG does get to stalled board states where the last few points of damage does not get through. Jund's lightning bolt help with reach and anger of the gods helps in resetting the creatures on board.
I'm curious as to how people are constructing their sideboards and how they are adjusting their mainboard sweepers, for reference here's what I've been running so far but I've got some questions about some sideboard options:
Sideboarding: I'm curious about Bow of Nylea, it seems like it would help a lot against burn and would be fine in Jund mirrors but I haven't tested it enough. Also I've been wondering about Jund Charm vs Anger of the Gods; Jund charm seems like it might be decent in the maindeck along with 1 anger as it still hurts creature swarming type decks (affinity, pod, etc) but it gives options vs the rest of the field as well. I think 3 3CMC sweepers is needed I'm just not sure of the right mixture and whether Jund Charm maindeck (or even side) is good enough? Is there any reason to play 3x Anger vs 2x Anger/1x Jund charm? I can't think of too many x/3s that are really prevalent and the exile clause is good against Pod for sure but being able to get their GY is also pretty good and that splashes over to snapcaster decks/living end/anything GY based/some Twin variants.
Any thoughts?
My list is similar to yours except:
Grove of the Burnwillows -> Overgrown Tomb
Slaughter Pact -> Jund Charm
Bow of Nylea is good for your creatures going against the walls, +2 for Tarmogoyf (Enchantment + Artifact)
2 x Anger of the Gods is good against:
- Creatures with persist (POD)
- Affinity
- GW Hatebears
- Zoo
Out:
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Raging Ravine (This is as average casting cost is lowered without Chandra)
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
I've sided out this for way the Pod Matchups.
Liliana is sided out as -2 ability does not work well against the persist creatures.
Chandra is sided out as too slow at turn 4.
The key imho is to attack their mana base, BOP, wall of roots using removal, lands using Fulminator Mage.
If they have enough mana on board, Fulminator Mage is used for
If Pod commit a lot to the board, Anger of the Gods is used as sweeper.
Scavenging Ooze with at least a green mana to exile persist creature else they go infinite life / damage.
Archangel of Thune is used as beatdown by Pod too so need to keep spot removal too.
2 is used often as there's always a affinity deck in the FNM that I play at.
I do not have much success with Slaughter Games though.
Sowing Salt is for against Mirror match.
Against Combos, its usually -1 Chandra, -1 Raging Ravine etc.
2 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Plains
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Marsh Flats
2 Windswept Heath
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
2 Twilight Mire
2 Techtonic Edge
Creatures
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Siege Rhino
3 Noble Hierarch
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
1 Tasigur, The Golden Fang
4 Abrupt Decay
3 Path to Exile
1 Dromoka's Command
3 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Lingering Souls
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Liliana of the Veil
3 Fulminator Mage
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Stony Silence
2 Dromoka's Command
1 Beast Within
1 Sudden Death
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Bow of Nylea
Play this deck at a GPT. Was fortunate not to meet any burn decks.
Game 1 - 1:1
Mono Red Storm Goblin Deck with Blood moon
Match 1 On Play - Lost to turn 2 Blood Moon
Match 2 On Play - Opponent was at 2 land so with able to take down match 2 with basic lands. I made a mistake of resolving Surgical Extraction without paying the casting cost. That was like a warning.
Match 3 On Draw - Bow of Nylea made up some life vs the 8 little red goblin tokens. The goblins hiding behind 2 Ensnaring Bridge did not help. On hindsight, I made too many mistakes for this match and should have exiled some different cards with Tasigur, The Golden Fang.
Game 2 - 2:1
Bogles
Match 1 On Play - Opponent mulligans to 5 and thus Liliana of the Veil was able to take down the match easily.
Match 2 On Draw - Opponent mulligans to 6 to open with Leyline of Sanctity
Match 3 On Play - Turn 1 Engineered Explosives was able to slow down Bogles for Siege Rhinos to take down the game.
Game 3 - 2:0
Twin
Match 1 On Play - Discarding Turn 1 Splinter Twin and Liliana of The Veil coming in the play took the match down.
Match 2 On Draw - Hmm did not remember much about this match. Discards and Siege Rhino attacks.
Game 4 - 2:1
Infect
Match 1 On Draw - Opponent mulligans to 6. I Inquisition of Kozilek away a Blighted Agent. With the opponent with 2 land drop, the Abrupt Decay should havve been saved for the infect creature instead. Lost this match.
Match 2 On Play - Engineered Explosives bought many turns and a win.
Match 3 On Draw - Sudden Death was good taking down an infect creature when the opponent cast Might of Old Krosa.
Game 5 - 2:1
Ad Nauseam
Match 1 On Play - Discards and Liliana of the Veil took this down quickly.
Match 2 On Draw - I took away his Serum Visions instead of Angel's Grace which would have been better as it is a key part of the combo and he would have to dig for it to go off.
Match 3 On Play - This is madness as I've kept a hand of 4 Lands, 2 Noble Hierarch and a Beast Within. Using Beast Within on a land was like duh from the opponent and myself. It should have been saved for the Lotus Bloom. The opponent had multiple Ad Nauseam and went off digging 7 - 10 cards to be down to 2 life without getting the last piece of the puzzle being Phyrexian Unlife or Angel's Grace. Won with a topdecked Siege Rhino.
Got into Top 8:
Game vs JUND
Match 1 - Lost as did not considered Batterskull combat trip of equipping to manland.
Match 2 - Lost to Stormbreath Dragon and Olivia Voldaren. The dynamic duo of dragon and vampire took the game.
That ends a day
Thoughts:
More practice as I need to play faster. No intentional slow roll though. Its brainfreeze.
More practice vs Jund ... Need to get the miracle out of Maelstrom Pulse to rid Batterskull
With Noble Hierarch, its always sideout on the draw, in for the play as on the play, its a little slow.
4 Overgrown Tombs seem a bit too much. Adding of a Twilight Mire to replace an Overgrown Tomb?
There are 14 - 3 Mana cost, 15 - 2 Mana cost, 8 - one Mana cost in the deck.
There's too many choices to cast on a third turn.
SB Plans on 2/3 game.
Minus
- 3 or 4 Inquisition of Kozilek
Add
+ 1 or 2 Deathmark?
+ More Creature Destruction?
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
3 Overgrown Tomb
2 Swamp
2 Forest
2 Twilight Mire
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Treetop Village
4 Tectonic Edge
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Scavenging Ooze
2 Courser of Kruphix
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Bow of Nylea
3 Thoughtseize
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Abrupt Decay
1 Darkblast
1 Dismember
2 Putrefy
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Sudden Spoiling
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Night of Souls' Betrayal
1 Creeping Corrosion
1 Blight Bile
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Unravel the Aether
2 Drown in Sorrow
4 Fulminator Mage
Assuming starting hand of 3 lands:
If the 4th land laid down is Blackcleave Cliffs, assuming 3 lands in starting hand, that would be like getting 1 land card in 4 turns and top decking it at 4th turn, thus putting it in play tapped.
That would affect only casting of Chandra, Olivia.
UWR midrange can play more fetches (abt 8), basic lands (abt 6), shocklands (6-9) as they play draw go style thus would not need the seachrome. They play fetch, go then choose to fetch a shockland (tapped) or basic land.
JUND ideally would like to play land -> IOK, 2nd Land Goyf, 3rd Land Liliana, 4th Land Chandra etc or in worst case scenarios of 4th land topped deck being a blackcleave cliff would play the land tapped into play then pass the turn with instants in hand such as lightning bolt, abrupt decay.
For Blackcleave cliff to come in tapped, that would require having 3 lands in hand, drawing 3 non land cards on the play with the third being Blackcleave Cliff, drawing 4 non land cards on the draw with the 4th being a Blackcleave cliff.
On the 5th turn onwards for JUND, generally all spells can be cast and lands come in tapped: blackcleave cliff, raging ravine, shocklands (to conserve life).
Midgame, JUND would be beatdown with the Raging Ravine being 4/4 onwards, or getting a large scavenging ooze with the green mana available. The tapped blackcleave cliff does not matter at that point as forest are laid before it or shocks (green) for the green mana for scavenging ooze.
1st turn Raging Ravine, 2nd Turn Swamp offers option of lightning bolt and terminate. Also offers 2nd turn, IOK or thoughtseize and holding back a lightning bolt for a tight 2 land hand too.
1st turn Treetop village, 2nd turn land does not offer much flexibility.
manland(Raging Ravine), land, land, offers a third turn Anger of the Gods with need of just 1 shockland.
For JUND vs BURN,
I refer to it as a 1st game AUTO LOSS, possible 2nd, 3rd game wins with gain life cards.
This is as game 1, JUND is down 7 cards vs BURN. (3 Thoughtseize, 4 Dark Confidant)
Bloodstained Mire (To fetch for Swamp, Overgrown Tomb, Blood Crypt, Stomping Ground)
Wooded Foothill (To fetch for Forest, Stomping Ground, Blood Crypt)
Blackcleave Cliffs is too good a card not to include 4 of for Jund.
Increasing the number fetches and shocks would make it an auto loss to Burn decks in game 1 and even game 2 after sideboarding.
G3 : Vial into cursecatcher, into silvergil. Turn 4 I cast a lord with 2 mana up, he tries to path it, I slam Kira. He then tries brimaz, I manaleak, and I have vial at 4 with 2 masters in hand + 5 devotion on the table.
Vialing in Kira in response to a path does not save your creature. Kira has to be in play to counter the first spell that targets your creature
I'm currently running a sideboard of:
Thinking of sideboarding against Affinity:
On the play
In:
Out:
On the draw:
In:
Out:
My reasoning is that IOK on the draw does not work as Affinity dumps their hand on turn 1 (if a fast hand) or turn 2.
I'm slotting in the last Liliana due to the cards being slotted out.
Any more advice on the sideboarding techniques against Affinity would be appreciated
Playing one deck only so as to practise more.
Liliana is a must imho against Affinity.
Affinity boards in 4 Etched Champion against Jund.
You can sweep their board using Anger of the gods etc and they will still have an Etched Champion, Darksteel Citadel and random artifact.
I would substitute the 2 Dismember for 2 Hero's downfall.
Also BG does get to stalled board states where the last few points of damage does not get through. Jund's lightning bolt help with reach and anger of the gods helps in resetting the creatures on board.
My list is similar to yours except:
Grove of the Burnwillows -> Overgrown Tomb
Slaughter Pact -> Jund Charm
SB:
Grafdigger's Cage -> Fulminator Mage
Slaughter Games -> Engineered Explosives
Bow of Nylea is good for your creatures going against the walls, +2 for Tarmogoyf (Enchantment + Artifact)
2 x Anger of the Gods is good against:
- Creatures with persist (POD)
- Affinity
- GW Hatebears
- Zoo
4 Fulminator Mage
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Golgari Charm
1 Bow of Nylea
1 Engineered Explosives
Out:
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Raging Ravine (This is as average casting cost is lowered without Chandra)
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
I've sided out this for way the Pod Matchups.
Liliana is sided out as -2 ability does not work well against the persist creatures.
Chandra is sided out as too slow at turn 4.
The key imho is to attack their mana base, BOP, wall of roots using removal, lands using Fulminator Mage.
If they have enough mana on board, Fulminator Mage is used for
If Pod commit a lot to the board, Anger of the Gods is used as sweeper.
Scavenging Ooze with at least a green mana to exile persist creature else they go infinite life / damage.
Archangel of Thune is used as beatdown by Pod too so need to keep spot removal too.
2 is used often as there's always a affinity deck in the FNM that I play at.
I do not have much success with Slaughter Games though.
Sowing Salt is for against Mirror match.
Against Combos, its usually -1 Chandra, -1 Raging Ravine etc.
1. Sideboard (15)
4 Fulminator Mage
2 Rakdos Charm
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Golgari Charm
1 Sowing Salt
1 Bow of Nylea
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Thrun, The Last Troll
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Batterskull
2. Sideboard (15)
4 Fulminator Mage
2 Shatterstorm
2 Slaughter Games
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Golgari Charm
1 Sowing Salt
1 Bow of Nylea
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Olivia Voldaren
3. Sideboard (15)
4 Fulminator Mage
2 Rakdos Charm
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Shatterstorm
1 Golgari Charm
1 Sowing Salt
1 Bow of Nylea
1 Thrun the Last Troll
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Grafdigger's Cage
4. Balanced Sideboard?(15)
3 Fulminator Mage
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Slaughter Games
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Golgari Charm
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Thoughtseize
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Thrun, The Last Troll
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Batterskull