For those interested in alt win cons and trying Zacama and Hive Mind again and such... What about running Mindslaver lock? Academy ruins does a lot for our artifacts and is easy to get, mindslaver can be picked up off stirrings, unlike Hive Mind, and never becomes a dead card by happenstance, which sometimes happens with hive mind.
I haven't seen any talk on the new GW knight but maybe I didn't look back far enough. That's in for sure.
Oh, and with people hating on explore, I've replaced them with an extra scryland, utility land, and slaughter pact. I'm also curious about replacing them with Wayward Swordtooth since it's a land player and also a decent beat stick.
they can play around it... by not attacking you, which is nice. It's just good against anyone who wants to kill you with creatures but not just alpha strike you. Good for goyfs, tasigurs, and all the bears of the format. It can buy you decent time in grindy matchups.
So far in testing I seem to lose to burn the most. My opponent will always have the perfect topdeck when I am one turn away from winning and kill me for exact damage.
I side in +4 Collective Brutality, +2 Nature's Claim, and +1 Gnaw to the Bone in this matchup
I take out -4 Cathartic Reunion, -2 Darkblast, and -1 Conflagrate
Is this incorrect?
I wouldn't cut conflag in the matchup. It's pretty strong and valuable to turn 2 or 3 kill a couple creatures, and you don't take damage off Eidolon for it because its CMC is generally huge. Also I feel like cutting Cathartic Reunion slows you down a lot. I'm mainboarding the Collective Brutalities instead of Neonates so I could see siding out neonates. Even though Cathartic is a turn "slower", it does 3x as much work giving you more speed for the card and mana.
Are there any thoughts/has anyone tested Hollow One or Eternal Scourge to beat grave hate? Hollow one doesn't need to interact with the graveyard and does well with looting, and doesn't die to Anger of the Gods, and Eternal Scourge punishes your opponent for exiling your yard, and becomes truly eternal vs rest in peace. I bet a lot of people would misplay their relics like mad if they saw you dredge past an eternal scourge.
Went 6-3 at the Cincinnati SCG classic, ended at 33rd
Beat Grixis Death's Shadow - relatively close races but I was always ahead and chumping is good.
Beat Vizier - I showed up late, giving up game 1, and still wrecked it in 2 games.
Beat Abzan - Ground it out, put her on the back foot every game by having more threats.
Beat 8 Rack - Mulled to Loam on 5 both games and rolled through the win.
Beat UW Control - Got to drop a satisfying burning inquiry that took away a RIP and a Cryptic. He didn't have enough answers to pseudo wide boards.
Lost to Storm - I struggle a lot with this matchup. I don't have a driven//despair yet. I killed every body he put down before his combo turns but still went off on t4 in game 2 and 3. Game 1 he fizzled by 1 storm and I darkblasted his attacking Baral to survive and win the swing back.
Lost to Burn - find lifegain or lose.
No Show
Lost to Burn - find lifegain or lose.
My 1-ofs are Scourge Devil and Haunted Dead, and I'm finding I don't care much for haunted dead and I may make it the Driven//Despair slot. I'm also running a split of 2 Burning Inquiry and 2 Collective Brutality. I wanted the Inquiries for more turbo dredging, but I kinda just want 4 Brutalities after seeing them be crucial and I don't want to waste sideboard slots on more of them. Also I'm past caring about Neonate, it just doesn't feel like it does enough.
I've been running 2 neonate 2 brutality main with one more of each in the side and it's been perfectly satisfactory. Really the neonate in the side is just filler and it'll be a Driven//Despair.
I also picked up some Burning Inquiries today to test out because honestly Neonate doesn't feel good to me and Inquiry has the added bonus of potentially making your opponent lose for R while being a triple dredge. Of course I know it's a bad first loot, but after a faithless it can be as nuts as Cathartic and let you hold your land drop til after your dredges on turn 2. It's also fine holding for after a Brutality.
And on a third note, I had an insane game today where I dredged down to 4 cards in my library on TURN 3, which was a new experience for me. 11 dredges. Neonate > Draw Step > Cathartic > Draw Step > Cathartic > Looting. And I did it because I needed the blockers for a scary Ornithoper and did the full 20 swing back.
generator servant is more than just haste, it's also ramp. You can T3 put them at 1 with a loot->generator->alesha with haste and the mana available to use the trigger. Not to mention it's just a bear you can always grab back in the fair plan. Generator Servant also lets you win on T3 by just casting your master of cruelties with haste directly on turn 3. IMO it's a pretty valuable and critical piece.
And hope of Ghirapur isn't really strong enough to see play. It doesn't even silence them quickly enough to protect our creatures.
I'm playtesting UB with 1 sword and 3 foundries and I'm liking it. I mirrored the mana base to blue but I think I want a little more colored lands to smallpox better. I also cut crucible down to 1 but I've decided that feels really bad since it hurts so much to smallpox on 3 lands without it.
-Would it be better to run the shock/fetch land base to allow for a single blue land?
-If you were to do the above, engineered explosives gets a lot better in comparison to ratchet bomb, which is already a crazy good card, and may be better in 2 color already. Note that you can play it for 1 through chalice if you pay 2 of the same color or add a colorless.
-If you were more concerned about mana consistency, what about buried ruin in place of academy ruins? it is also not legendary so you can run multiples, and creates card advantage with crucible unlike academy ruins. In a similar vein, I just discovered the card sequestered stash, which is interesting... a bit expensive though.
Anyone playtest with Confirm Suspicions? I feel like it is a crazy good card. Basically staples a significant draw spell on a counter. A little pricey I know, but its like a sphinx's rev but a little safer.
I've been out of the loop for a while, but Pod felt like a positive matchup for me playing the junk style gifts. I don't know why CoCo should be so bad.
screw owl, fevered visions is a wincon enough. owl is basically just wasting a slot to speed up the clock visions already creates. The beauty of fevered visions is that it is both a win con and turbo in the same slot which opens up a few more slots in your deck for other cards like more fogs or utility
It's a lot more comfortable to me to gifts for Loam + Academy Ruins + Thopter + Sword than it is for me to get some noxious revival garbage pile. Green is really good.
is there an unburial rites but for enchantments?
and what're some cards we can use to help against/potentially hose aggro in general? namely cheap lifegain that isnt garbage.
best you get is obzedat's aid. What are you trying to do with it?
I haven't seen any talk on the new GW knight but maybe I didn't look back far enough. That's in for sure.
Oh, and with people hating on explore, I've replaced them with an extra scryland, utility land, and slaughter pact. I'm also curious about replacing them with Wayward Swordtooth since it's a land player and also a decent beat stick.
I wouldn't cut conflag in the matchup. It's pretty strong and valuable to turn 2 or 3 kill a couple creatures, and you don't take damage off Eidolon for it because its CMC is generally huge. Also I feel like cutting Cathartic Reunion slows you down a lot. I'm mainboarding the Collective Brutalities instead of Neonates so I could see siding out neonates. Even though Cathartic is a turn "slower", it does 3x as much work giving you more speed for the card and mana.
Beat Grixis Death's Shadow - relatively close races but I was always ahead and chumping is good.
Beat Vizier - I showed up late, giving up game 1, and still wrecked it in 2 games.
Beat Abzan - Ground it out, put her on the back foot every game by having more threats.
Beat 8 Rack - Mulled to Loam on 5 both games and rolled through the win.
Beat UW Control - Got to drop a satisfying burning inquiry that took away a RIP and a Cryptic. He didn't have enough answers to pseudo wide boards.
Lost to Storm - I struggle a lot with this matchup. I don't have a driven//despair yet. I killed every body he put down before his combo turns but still went off on t4 in game 2 and 3. Game 1 he fizzled by 1 storm and I darkblasted his attacking Baral to survive and win the swing back.
Lost to Burn - find lifegain or lose.
No Show
Lost to Burn - find lifegain or lose.
My 1-ofs are Scourge Devil and Haunted Dead, and I'm finding I don't care much for haunted dead and I may make it the Driven//Despair slot. I'm also running a split of 2 Burning Inquiry and 2 Collective Brutality. I wanted the Inquiries for more turbo dredging, but I kinda just want 4 Brutalities after seeing them be crucial and I don't want to waste sideboard slots on more of them. Also I'm past caring about Neonate, it just doesn't feel like it does enough.
I also picked up some Burning Inquiries today to test out because honestly Neonate doesn't feel good to me and Inquiry has the added bonus of potentially making your opponent lose for R while being a triple dredge. Of course I know it's a bad first loot, but after a faithless it can be as nuts as Cathartic and let you hold your land drop til after your dredges on turn 2. It's also fine holding for after a Brutality.
And on a third note, I had an insane game today where I dredged down to 4 cards in my library on TURN 3, which was a new experience for me. 11 dredges. Neonate > Draw Step > Cathartic > Draw Step > Cathartic > Looting. And I did it because I needed the blockers for a scary Ornithoper and did the full 20 swing back.
Esper Charm?
And hope of Ghirapur isn't really strong enough to see play. It doesn't even silence them quickly enough to protect our creatures.
-Is mishra's bauble better than a card that does something such as welding jar mainboard?
-Would it be better to run the shock/fetch land base to allow for a single blue land?
-If you were to do the above, engineered explosives gets a lot better in comparison to ratchet bomb, which is already a crazy good card, and may be better in 2 color already. Note that you can play it for 1 through chalice if you pay 2 of the same color or add a colorless.
-If you were more concerned about mana consistency, what about buried ruin in place of academy ruins? it is also not legendary so you can run multiples, and creates card advantage with crucible unlike academy ruins. In a similar vein, I just discovered the card sequestered stash, which is interesting... a bit expensive though.
best you get is obzedat's aid. What are you trying to do with it?