Hey guys! I'm terribly sorry my report has been so delayed. RL getting in the way of Magic and stuff. To answer some of the questions, Rhox did serious work. I ended up replacing the Angels for him and I'm happy I did. Losing the flying does take an angle of attack away, but being able to swing my life total by points of 10+ is no small feat. I promise the report will be up tomorrow since I have off of work. Spoiler, I did very very well.
Hey, good luck everyone tonight at your LGS FNM's! I'll be writing another detailed report (a little easier to read and more formatted this time) by Monday. Along with deck modifications and such.
So, as you all know I've been doing alot of testing in preperation for the aggro matchup which is probably our worst matchup currently. I'm looking for some second opinions on a card I have been having extended success with. That card is Rhox Faithmender. Currently I feel like 1 of my lackluster creatures in the deck is Resto Angel in the Aggro matchup she provides a great instant blocker and does a decent job having a fat enough butt to get by most aggro creatures, but she does nothing to stabilize us. Rhox Faithmender is my current answer, he can very quickly swing a game in our favor by himself, but the best part is he plays really well with our enchantment strategy. Rancor on a Faithmender is an absolute beating against any deck that is trying to kill us with damage. Even in a war of attrition with midrange decks he can help us survive long enough to beat down the thragtusk life gain. Best part is, he dodges alot of the prime removal spells in standard at the moment. Obvious exceptions are Ultimate Price, Morbid removal, and Dreadbore. Overall I've been greatly enjoying him, I think its worth a shot!
What about curse of echoes in the sideboard against control? I always lose to their revelations or fall behind after they stabilize with their life gain. Plus we get online and close out faster in an even card battle.
By control I'm assuming you mean Bant. Ive noticed that my biggest all star against any blue deck is Dispel. Against the Bant control lists you will very rarely see any counters, which are easy enough to play around. So my counter to Sphinx's is to tap 1 mana and try not to laugh. I literally have had people concede on the spot. Curse of Echos has been picking up in popularity and I dont think its a bad option, but I do think that trying to beat Control decks at their own game is the wrong answer. Board in some fast cards and make them race you. That is a race you will always win.
If you were speaking of U/W Flash (which is technically tempo but runs many counters) then again I point you to dispel. The main reason I feel like it is just a better answer is the ability to be able to use it on T1 as oppossed to T5. Additionally, if you are playing the matchup properly you wont be walking into any counterspells. Meaning that on turn 5 if youve done your job right and you try to slam Curse, you will most likely run into the brick wall that is Dissapate. There can be something said for the synergy yet I feel like this might be the Sphere of Safety argument all over again. If you think it might be good then test it! Be sure to post your results with it as well.
As you can see there are a few number changes. Ive been really wanting to go up to 3 Silverblade because it is an absolute beating. Granted its not immune to spot removal like Geist and Stalker are, but dropping him unpaired and hitting a geist angel is really great. Also ive been trying 24 lands a few times and cant say that I hate it, its enough to notice though. Typically I'm +1 land in my starting hand. Also I get to 5 very consistently working well with the Vault beats. Our lists are still very similar with the exception of just a few numbers here and there. The major change is Moorland vs. Vault.
Nice report Manki, I didn't top 8 as I had hoped. I placed 51st out of ~450 people, but had some interesting matches. Typing up my report after this.
Kind of strange that your FNM was only 5 rounds with that many players, normally 33+ players means 6 rounds and I think 65+ is 7 but the shop can shorten it if there are time constraints.
I can understand why invisible stalker would seem lackluster when you're going up against that much agro in one night. He's good against a lot of the midrange/control field and is your deck's best option for turn-3 pressure without any pilgrims, so that's something to consider for you. He's also great against the U/W/x matchups that you didn't seem to get paired against at all.
I agree o-ring isn't exceptional when everything you're fighting against has haste or provides some sort of value just by entering/leaving the battlefield. Unfortunately I can't think of any better alternative spells that can be used as a universal answer and a pump for ethereal armor.
I loved divine reckoning as much as you did, it won me a couple games for sure.
Thanks! Since Friday I have been back at the drawing board attempting to figure out what I can do better based upon recent thoughts brought into my head. Also I am planning to write a section about how to sideboard for my teammates because some of them, while competent players, are the best at building and executing a sideboard. I figured I can PM it to you Boner and see what you think, maybe use it as a template for the Primer.
On the subject of taking this deck seriously, I think everyone that has put some time into developing this deck will say we do take it seriously. On the flip side yes, there are some matchups that are sub optimal for us, and that’s what we are working on. Boner is correct in saying that if 30% of people in a tournament are playing B/R Zombies, statistically you will see multiples of them in the top 16. All you have to do to realize that the current standard isn’t set in stone is look at the tournament results for the past 5 big events. You’ll notice that B/R has won 2, but so have Naya, 4 color midrange and even a rogue Craterhoof deck (similar to the old Elf Wave). Sure these decks are similar in what they do, which is beat you down with value creatures, but by no means are they the same deck or even play the same. Until WotC prints a Delver 2.0 this is how the meta will remain for at least 6 months (when the full set of Ravnica Block is released). Then maybe we will start to see more solidified lists as players need time to work with the cards. Currently every list that has done well in events are styles of play that have been worked on for years. Jund/Bant/BR/RDW are not new concepts, nor are they even new words to Magic. Lastly, I'm not sure 51st out of 450 can even be considered "ok". I'd say that’s a pretty good showing and can help to prove that this style of deck can be a contender.
Back on subject, I went back to the drawing board with my list, and while I'm not 100% sure that what I've developed over the course of the weekend will hold up to scrutiny, I'll give it a go anyway and see what you think. First, the cards im not happy with.
These cards are incredible for what they do, it can be a great answer to a big fatty on the board, or even something dangerous and getting out of control (a la Champion of the Parrish), but what they don’t do is provide an immediate response. Let's take a brief look at what our biggest targets are for these types of cards. In the creature category some cards that are seeing a lot of play that we cant necessarily deal with via our own creatures are, Thundermaw Hellkite, Thragtusk, Restoration Angel, Angel of Serenity, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Olivia Voldaren, Geralf's Messenger, Craterhoof Behemoth, and to some extent Silverblade Paladin. Now I've listed 9 creatures here, and if you notice every single one of those creatures upon entering play have an immediate affect on the board state. Meaning that responding to them with an O-ring/D-Sphere is totally acceptable for my opponent since they have already gotten value from those creatures in some regard. Also, the decks that play these types of creatures generally have very good answers for O-Ring/D-Sphere effects if not in the Main board, certainly in the Side board. From this we can deduct that O-ring/D-sphere are poor answers to creatures that matter.
Ok, so they are bad against creatures. There is plenty of other targets right? The next step on our list is Planeswalkers. Some of the well used PW's are these, Jace, Architect of Thought, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Garruk, Primal Hunter, and the lesser seen PW's are Lilliana of the Veil, Vraska the Unseen, Ajani, Caller of the Pride, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, and Garruk Relentless. So let’s break this down, unfortunately the PW's in almost every case have the same downfall as creatures. Most of them do what they need to do the second they hit the board. Jace draws and cycles cards, Garruk PH can draw before we can even respond, Lilly can really mess us up when she -2's, Ajani, as we know because we use him, can cause our life to fall into the red zone in an instant. Now, there are some such as Sorin/Tamiyo/Garruk Relentless that our enchantment removal is marginally better against. Great, but it still doesn’t provide us with the answer we need. So, the decision on this is, slightly better against PW's than creatures, but not optimal.
So, what’s left? We've discussed creatures and planeswalkers and determined that they are not the best answer for either of those types of cards. So what is O-ring/D-Sphere good against? My answer is this: Oblivion Ring and Detention Sphere. Yes that’s right these cards actually shine at reacting to the opposing O-ring/D-sphere. Who would have thought? So, the matchups where I'm up against another player playing these control style cards, I'm glad to have them. In almost every other case they fall in to the "too little, too late" category. The honorable mention here is Tokens. Detention Sphere is an absolute house against tokens, the downside is this. A smart opponent won’t over extend his token generators and open himself up to a blowout. This means not double casting Lingering Souls and the works. So even as good as this card is against tokens, we cannot expect it to be a blowout card against decks that play cards such as Lingering Souls.
This is a good card, no one could deny that fact. So the question is, is it good in our deck? After testing it initially it felt good in the deck when I saw it, but there was also times when I really wished it was something else because it felt like a “Tap: Add 1 to your mana pool”. The creature count argument is a good one; we are not a deck that runs 30+ creatures. More importantly, the decks that run Moorland Haunt typically run it to get value out of their GY for cards discarded with Thought Scour and massive hand count (a la Sphinx’s Revelation). So let’s consider this, how to our creatures get into OUR graveyard? The answer 9 times out of 10 is that, they die. This means that either A. they were beaten by a more powerful creature or B. They were removed with some sort of spell (a la Red/Black/Sweeper type removal). In the instance of A consider for a moment the point at which our creatures are getting beaten. Is a 1/1 really helping our cause at this point? As a 3 mana investment? The answer is clearly no; it is possible that it is buying us 1 more turn, maybe 2. The instance of B is much better for this card; this means that there is a possibility that our opponent had no other way to deal with that creature except to remove it, meaning being able to put another body on the field is good, extra value is extra value right? So, overall in 1 out of 2 instances, this card is good for us. In my honest opinion this isn’t good enough. I want a card that makes a difference every time I play/use it, not only good 50% of the time.
So what are our options? What can we do to streamline the deck and make every card count? I’ll address the O-Ring/D-Sphere argument first. These cards are good enough to play on there own, but lack the ability to be an instant answer. These cards also play well into our strategy of building up our enchantment count to make our attacks even more lethal. The answer to this is possibly running supporting cards that play well in our deck, while not hindering our overall strategy.
Options!
One such answer is Alchemists’ Refuge. Utilizing this card, we can convert our slow answers into immediate ones by simply flashing in an O-Ring/D-Sphere at the cost of 3 additional mana. The biggest downfall of this card is, it costs 3 additional mana to do so. We are not a deck that can afford to hold back mana in the assumption that our opponent might play something we need to react to in a moments notice, at least, before turn 6. That makes this particular utility a mid-late game strategy, occasionally after the damage has already been done. All of this is reliant on the fact that we actually have the cards that we need in hand of course. The additional added utility to this card is that it can allow us to sneak cards in under the radar against a control style deck. We can cast stuff in response to them casting stuff allowing us to dodge the majority of counterspells and making them respond with other means.
So what are some other options? Counterspells of our own are definitely an option. They allow us to stop the big spells before they can even be cast. Let me tell you there is no greater joy than using Dispel on a Sphinx’s Revelation for a million. The most dangerous thing to us is the ability to be overrun by multiple large threats while we are trying to either build our board or get through with damage. So we want to counter creatures? Essence Scatter is the king here. It’s a hard counter for 2 mana that deals with the most dangerous thing for our deck. Dissipate is an honorable mention, but it should be noted that the UU casting requirement is much harder than it appears. Generally our decks are running more W heavy with less U. Here is the problem with counterspells of our own, they have the potential to be dead in our hand and it will only ever create a 1 for 1. Additionally, they do not meet the second requirement of not hindering our strategy. Every turn we hold back to counter is a turn farther away from winning.
So we turn to combat tricks as our final option. Feeling of Dread has been our go to card for a while now and I think it should remain that way; it deals with so many things that can take us down such as Thundermaw, Hellrider, and Falkenrath. It also plays extremely well allowing our creatures to get through for damage while be safe from the counter attack via flashback. If it’s not in your deck it probably should be. Now combat tricks, the most common trap with combat tricks is that you are essentially offering the opponent a 2 for 1 by using a card to trade with theirs most of the time. So the goal of a good combat trick is to avoid the 2 for 1 or further our gameplan/delay theirs. So a brief list on some of the good combat tricks that can do this are Moment of Heroism, Swift Justice, and Zealous Strike. The reason these 3 are mentioned is because they meet the 2 required criteria for a good combat trick. Moment of Heroism might not save our guy, but it gains us life and can allow us to remove a threat via pumped up creatures. This meets both criteria of keeping us alive via life gain, and eliminating a threat. Swift Justice is a card I have been looking at very in depth the past weekend for a couple of reasons. Not always are we going to have Ethereal Armor down, meaning it is very risky for us to swing in, especially with Geist of Saint Traft. Using this spell our measly 2/2 can BEAT one of the most dangerous creatures in the format, Thragtusk. This is a huge boon for us because the Thragtusk token is much easier to race than the big beast himself. 2 less power is more than you think in a race. Oh did I mention that it also give lifelink? This essentially makes the first attack from the token useless seeing how we just gained 3 life. Defensively this card can be used in very much the same manner and can be a great blowout at the right time, buying you that extra cushion for that last attack for the win. Zealous Strike is basically a mix of the other 2. While it doesn’t give lifelink, it does provide 2 power and first strike, meaning that Elvish Visionary we have back on defense can BEAT a Thragtusk. I’d say that’s a good trade any day of the week.
Now I know this post turned into a lot more than I expected it to be, but that’s what I get for being bored at work. The final card that I want to talk about that will be in my deck this week and possibly in the future, one that I have been testing all weekend and can see almost limitless potential for is: Vault of the Archangel. A few posts back there was a brief discussion about Lingering Souls and whether or not it was playable with flashback being black. Generally I saw it as a way to hamper aggro decks until we can get the kill online. Also I realized that splashing the B required for flashback wasn’t all that hard with Abundant Growth and a 1 or 2 of Overgrown Tomb. Unfortunately, I realized that trying to get the B mana for essentially the same effect as Feeling of Dread wasn’t what I was looking for in the deck, but I didn’t think the very light splash was a bad idea. So I researched some other options.
As I stated previously I have been very underwhelmed by the effectiveness of Moorland Haunt, and that brought me to Vault of the Archangel. After reading the card a couple times, it dawned on me. This does everything we need it to do, literally everything. It adds a HUGE buffer against agro decks when we can swing our life by huge amounts via pumped up Stalker/Geist essentially just putting the game out of reach for them. This also allows us to not be concerned about the counter attack as we have the huge buffer of life to just soak it up. Defensively it can be a house of a card, trade my 1/1 for your 5/3 without the cost of a card? Gaining life in the process? Yes please. In the 10 or so matches online that I tested this card I quickly went from a 1 of, to a 2 of. It’s just that good. 1 match in particular I was holding a Rancor with a Smiter paired with Silverblade on board vs. G/W Humans. I was at 7 life he was at 16. He had a 4/4 Champion of the Parrish out along with a Mayor of Avarbuck, and a Precinct Captain. I top deck Vault as my 6th land. Drop the Vault, play Rancor making my Smiter a 6/4 and swing. He blocks with Precinct Captain and I gain 12 and deal 10 trample. He scoops the next turn. Now this particular board state it may seem that we were on about equal footing, but from experience I know that sooner or later he was going to draw a Sublime Archangel and I was going to lose. The simplest way to put it is this, Vault can reset games. Literally, and in our deck it can be even more devastating when we are swinging for game changing totals.
In conclusion, these are just some of the most recent developments from my latest brainstorming ideas and testing. Obviously what works for me may not work for you. As they say, your mileage may vary. Now that I’ve spent the last 2 hours writing this I may actually do some work?
TL;DR O-Ring/D-Sphere are slow, Moorland Haunt is bad for us, Feeling of Dread is still amazing, Consider combat tricks that don’t 2 for 1 you, and lastly play Vault of the Archangel, just do it.
As promised my loyal subjects here is an in depth FNM Report from my success and failures of the night. The setup was 58 players (little lower than the usual 80+) 5 rounds and top 8 at the end. The deck list was slightly modified from my previous post with the insistence that I required 4 Geist of Saint Traft and 3 Invisible Stalkers.
As you can see the only slight changes were in the 1 for 1 GoST for Stalker MB and a slight change in the SB adding a 3rd Dispel and changing Negate to Essence Scatter.
Overall I felt good going into the tourney, the Meta for the past few weeks was rife with Bant control followed by Zombies and G/W aggro. Relatively few Jund players as of late and almost no RDW (hooray!). Also have a few buddies playing Esper control with very good success, and I can say that it is a matchup I am not familiar with at all. Luckily for me that particular problem didn’t come up for me tonight! Arrived at the LGS a few hours early to do my trading thing and get a few games of EDH in before the rounds started, as usual. 7 o'clock hits and the pairings go up! Ready to lay the smack down!
Match 1: RDW
So I check my pairings, table 3 awesome. Arrive at my destination and see sitting across from me a player that I previously played a game of EDH with, so good for me I already know what I’m up against, RDW, ugh. Sit down at the table, bust out my awesome World of Warcraft playmat and get to work.
Game 1: Shuffle up and deal, I draw a fairly good hand of 2 land, Visionary, Geist, Growth, Paladin, and Rancor. I keep so does he, he wins the dice roll much to my dismay. Plays turn 1 Stormkirk Noble, I respond with forest growth. T2 Ash Zealot I take 3, I respond with land, visionary. T3 he drops Lightning Mauler and pairs it with Ash zealot, swings with the team, I block the Mauler and go to 13. My response is GoST. T4 he plays Hell rider and swings. Instead of going to 2 I block the Hellrider. Having a Feeling of dread in hand I play land go. He attempts to swing but I tap down his 3 dudes, MP2 he proceeds to play Double searing spear, way to slow roll.
Game 2: I draw an excellent hand of 3 Land, Geist, Growth, Visionary, Rancor. He mulls to 6 and keeps a hand with no 1 drop, I proceed to top deck Ethereal Armor/Silverblade with Growth Cantrip. T3 Geist, T4 Paladin + Rancor swing. T5 Ethereal Armor, GG. Glad to see the deck can work.
SB: No additional SB
Game 3: This game may have been the longest game I’ve ever played vs. RDW. Went to turn 15, which seems ridiculous I know. I was playing on the defensive since he was on the play, but I managed to hang in there with a rancored/Armored Smiter blocking supported by a Rancored Restoration angel in the air. Was able to play my second resto angel after he dropped a Thundermaw, pairing it with a silverblade and trading. Leaving an opening for an attack on my next turn. Proceeded to take a Brimstone Volley to my dome. Unfortunate, but it happens, now I know I just have to win out in order to Top8. NP! Hopefully I get a control deck next match and stomp it.
MVP Card: Divine Reckoning, this card is SO good for us, was able to play it 3 times (1 of those times being flashback) this match made me consider going to 3 in the board, or possibly 1 main. Can’t say enough about this card. After the match the guy gave me some friendly tips about certain matchups that I will discuss at the end of this report. Some decent suggestions that I think are worth looking at.
Match Record: 0-1
Overall Record: 1-2
Match 2: Elfhoof
For those of you confused about the name, the deck was very similar to the one that just won the Grand Prix a few weeks ago. I think the name Hoof! Ther' it is! Is lame. Had no idea what this guy was playing prior to match so I was looking forward to it. Engage!
Game 1: I lose the roll (of course) and T1 he starts with Temple Garden Arbor elf, pretty standard for a lot of decks so I’m still not sure at this point what he is playing. The T2 Elvish archdruid however, put me right onto the strat. So now my goal is, Kill him before 8 mana. I detention sphere the Druid and drop a stalker with rancor down. Smiter gets played and I respond with my own smiter. Got him to 5 health and what else but a Thragtusk! -.- That’s all right he's low on creatures and I’ve got a feeling of dread with Geist on the field with an armor and multiple enchantments out. I top deck a silverblade paladin, show it from my hand, he scoops.
Game 2: As I said earlier, my goal is to keep him off 8 mana, as long as I can do that I should be fine. He takes the play, Leads with Temple Garden pass. Good start, he has no dork. T1 Growth for myself and pass. he T2 drops Arbor elf and Pilgrim, Apparently he didn’t have a 3 drop so he decided to straight ramp into 5 and not take the 2 shock dmg, seems like a smart plan. I respond with visionary. T3 thragtusk, ugh, as much as this sucks I know I can beat it, I drop another visionary and drop and Armor on 1. T4, Thragtusk, sigh. That’s ok I still got this, I respond with Geist and Armor on him, I decide I need to be aggressive or I’m going to lose, swing with my armored Visionary, he throws the pilgrim in front of it, sure. T5 he drops Elvish Visionary and draws a Elvish Archdruid, sigh. No attacks because my geist is still bigger. My T5 consists of drawing more land, sigh. I swing in with the geist and leave my visionary on defense. He takes 9, woot. T6, what else could he hit, surely not a top deck craterhoof. GG. Sad days.
SB: No additional SB
Game 3: This game was absolutely no contest, T1 Growth, T2 Growth, T3 Loxodon smiter, T4 Rancor, Armor, and Armor. He scoops! Hooray!
Match Record: 1-1
Overall Record: 3-3
Now, the store I attend buys pizza for the players at FNM and we all get 1 free slice. So I’m sitting there minding my own business stuffing my face outside while I wait for the next round to start. Also, I should tell you I’m a people watcher, I enjoy seeing people and what they do and how they react to different situations. I hear the words “Ethereal Armor” from behind me. I spin around and listen in to the conversation. Its 2 buddies talking about their match where they were apparently paired for the round. Guy 1 says “I still think it’s bad, but ok”. Guy 2 responds with “Well, I beat you right?”. “It’s like my worst matchup, and I took game 2, your deck just isn’t good enough to play in the top leagues” Guy 1 retorts. At this point I have to interject myself into the conversation. Guy 2 was playing none other than Bant Enchant! I almost hugged him on the spot, I wasn’t alone anymore! He was also 2-0! Even better I had found a new pseudo teammate for the night. For reference, Guy 1 was playing Jund control, presumably our best matchup since 30% of their cards are dead.
Match 3: R/B Zombies
I digress, Round 3 starts and as I walk to the table I see a friend I’ve known at the store for a while. I also know he is a diehard Zombie player, which in my opinion is a very good matchup for us. Last week we actually sat across from each other at the same exact table, and he got 2-0’ed. The week before that we sat 1 table over, and he got 2-0’ed. Needless to say he saw me approach with a very cheesy grin on my face, and he immediately puts his face in his hands. He tells me he made his deck a little faster, so he might have a chance this week. We shuffle up and deal.
Game 1: I lose the dice roll (sigh). He plays T1 Gravecrawler, I respond with a land! He plays T2 Knight of Infamy, swing for 3. I respond with land/Growth. He plays T3 Geralf’s Messenger, swings for 4. I’m at 13 so I respond with Geist. Now I’m holding on to double armor, Silverblade, Rancor, land so I’m feeling pretty good that I’ll be able to stabilize. He plays T4 Falkenrath Aristicat, swings for 11. I scoop next turn. Sigh.
Game 2: I’m on the play, and after his nut hand I know I need something to happen, and it does. T1 Growth, T2 Visionary, T3 Geist, T4 Silverblade + Armor on Geist. He takes 8. He drops Falkenrath and swings in with a Messenger and Falkenrath, It was a slight play mistake on his part because he didn’t realize that I had lethal on board if the silverblade gets through. So he left a reanimated Gravecrawler on defense. I proceed to swing next turn for game.
SB: No additional SB
Game 3: Ok, time to beat Zombies on the draw. I can do this. He mulls to 4 luckily for me, I keep 6 with 2 land, Visionary, Smiter, Rancor, and Armor. He plays T1 Diregraf and then gets stuck with land, it’s unfortunate but needless to say I drew heart of the cards style and beat face. I told him after the game that at least he didn’t get 2-0’ed. He laughed and said at least it was improvement.
Match Record: 2-1
Overall Record: 5-4
Match 4: Junk Frites
Had no idea who this guy was, but he was a super serious player. One of those players that you just want to slap to see if they are human. Yet this was an important match for both of us, if either of us lost we would not have the chance at top 8. So I guess some seriousness is required.
Game 1: I, to no one’s surprise, lose the dice roll. He starts off well with arbor elf into Lingering Souls. I’ve got a stalker and visionary on the field on T3 holding 3 Ethereal Armor and 1 Rancor. T4 I just go deep and throw everything on the Stalker because I know he has no way to interact with it. T5 Top deck a Silverblabe and show it, he scoops.
SB: -2 Oblivion Ring, -3 Feeling of Dread, +2 Rest in Peace, +2 Essence Scatter, +1 Divine Reckoning
Game 2: On the draw again, and he proceeded to have 2 mulch and a Grisly Salvage. Put Angel of Serenity/Thragtusk/Craterhoof into the yard with a rites. Luckily for me, he chose not to rites but instead to play a thragtusk from hand. Next turn I Rest in Peace and he sits there for about 3 min staring at the card. I don’t feel bad at all though, next turn I divine reckoning with just geist in play. For some reason he chose thragtusk, which was an obvious mistake. I pump the geist and swing in for a lot. His turn, he golgari Charms the Rest in peace and plays Lingering Souls, which keeps him alive 1 more turn. If I didn’t top deck the Detention Sphere. I swing in and he sits for another 5 min looking for an out. Finally he scoops, signs the paper and leaves. Not the table, but leaves the shop altogether. I hope I don’t see him in the obituary tomorrow.
Match Record: 3-1
Overall Record: 7-4
Match 5: G/W Humans
Sigh, yet another aggro matchup. By this point I was sick and tired of them, but I knew 1 more win knocked me into the top 8 and I wasn’t about to give that chance up. My opponent was 2-1-1 meaning a win for him was needed, I could draw and still get in, but he wasn’t obliged to that for which I can’t really blame him. So we play it out.
Game 1: I don’t win the dice roll…figures. I also have a terrible time getting a hand. Down to 5 after a no land 7 and a 1 cavern 6. So playing on 5 cards, on the draw, against G/W humans. Great. He goes T1 Champion of the Parrish, T2 Precinct Captain, T3 Mayor of Avarbuck, T4 Rancor+Mayor. I was able to hold it off for a turn or 2 with feeling of dread/Detention sphere but don’t have the gas in hand to beat him. On to game 2
Game 2: On the play I mulled don to 5 again, for some reason my deck was not cooperating with me in this match. That’s ok, I drew into everything I needed to win, very heart of the cards style. Game winner was a double Rancor Restoration Angel Paired with Silverblade. Went right over top and even took out a Sublime Archangel. Very good game for me, didn’t make a single mistake and had all the answers. Did find out that he was running Ajani, Caller of the Pride, which seemed strange but w/e. To each his own.
SB: No additional SB
Game 3: On the draw, this game actually went so long we went to just before time. He had a slower start with no Champion and no rancor. Meaning my Moorland Haunt and Visionaries were able to hold him off till I got some meat on the board, then he drops one of my least favorite cards, Thalia. Let me tell you about this punk, she hoses a lot of what we are trying to do. Slows me down a lot. Luckily he went into top deck mode and couldn’t find an answer for my creatures. Until he finally drew a Sublime, he plays and then sits back, doesn’t attack. I play Divine Reckoning (for 5 ) and he has a decision to make, save Thalia or save Sublime. He chooses Sublime and then I detention Sphere it away. Life totals are about equal at 15 for me and 13 for him. Then the top deck wars begin. He draws Thalia, I draw my second Reckoning to deal with his weenies and he keeps Thalia in this time smartly. Throws a rancor on her and tries to beat down, luckily my smiter next turn paired with Silverblade stalls his attack for a few turns. Turn 27, Board state looks like this ME: Loxodon Smiter, Silverblade Paladin/Rancor/Armor tapped, at 6 life. HIM: Thalia, Gather the Townsfolk (both tokens) and 1 Spirit token from a Doomed Traveler. He’s at 4 life. It’s his turn. He top decks a Sublime Archangel, shows it, I scoop. It was a silly, silly game where I casted ¾ possible Divine Reckonings and all 6 possible Feeling of Dread.
Match Record: 3-2
Overall Record: 8-6
Even with the heartbreaking loss in the final round, I was happy with the showing the deck put up, especially against 5 aggro decks. This is very rare in my Meta. Yet, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. You remember my pseudo teammate also playing Bant Enchant? He went 4-0-1 and ended up getting 3rd overall! I caught up with him after the rounds and asked him what his matchups were. Bant Control, Esper Control (his 1 draw), Jund Midrange, Bant Midrange, and RDW. To me it seemed that he played a much easier lineup for the deck but you can’t have everything. I do regret that I never actually took a look at his deck to find out what the differences were (I’m bad), but I do know it was very similar to the versions we were running a while back, no Loxodon, no Angel and A few more tempo/Control Spells. Top 8 looked like this at my store:
1. Bant Control
2. Esper Control
3. Bant Enchant
4. RDW - Small
5. Bant Control
6. UWR Midrange
7. Junk Frites
8. RDW – Big
Overall, had a fun night even if I didn’t win. My actual teammate took 5th with the Bant Control deck so we got to crack open 9 packs. Pulled a Temple Garden and a Vraska for the pool but those are the only cards of note. Back to the drawing board about how I can deal with the Aggro matchup better. Hopefully Next week we can have more success and better matchups!
Most unused card in the MD: Oblivion Ring, might have something to do with not seeing it as much as I could have, but this seemed like the only lackluster card I ever had in my hand.
MVP in the MD: Geist of Saint Traft, just the mental games of having him on the board with 1 enchant is enough to cause my opponent to block unfavorably. Loved having 4 and I’m glad I was convinced to play the extra copy. Not much was better than Suicide the Geist for 4 dmg and then playing another.
Most unused Card in the SB: This award goes to every card I had vs. control. Dispel and Ajani primarily. Didn’t board them in once, so it’s not necessarily their fault. But for consistency this is what I didn’t play.
MVP in the SB: DIVINE RECKONING, Ill be singing this cards praise for a while, never, not even once, was a sad to see it in my hand. Ever application it was useful and 9 time out of 10 won me the game. Will definitely be a staple in my board until the meta changes to more control.
Now, as I said during the Match 1 recap. The RDW player had some interesting suggestions for me that I hadn’t considered. Lingering Souls, now hear me out. Running 1 of Overgrown Tomb in the deck would not hurt the land base, and with abundant growth it would be enough to reliably get the flashback most of the time. The biggest thing this card does is create bodies. Which normally for us means blockers, but they can also carry rancor very well and can be paired with Silverblade to represent 6 dmg in the air. Overall I somewhat like the idea, I’m not saying it is a for sure thing but I believe it deserves some thought. I may try running a couple in my board for the Aggro matchups that I seem to be having a problem with currently. Food for thought.
Also Invisible stalker, I’m not sure why in almost every case I decided to board him out, but I only saw him impact a game once in all the games he was in. Every other time he was just a body to throw in front of Thragtusk or some other fatty. I’m not that happy with him currently but it is quite possible I was doing it wrong all night. He just didn’t feel good in my hand against agro so that was the bases of the decision to take him out every time.
I hope that this recap helped those of you who read it, hopefully you guys had more success than I did this weekend. A final good luck to Boner for his SCG open this weekend, kick some butt and take some names. I expect a full recap when you are finished! Top 8 or bust!
Lol too funny! My main hope is to just do well, I've been pouring my blood sweat and tears into the deck for the past few months so these next couple events are really important to me. I can't say that I've put as much energy into tuning a deck before. This community has been awesome too, there's elements of several people's tech in the deck that ultimately made it what it is.
Also I've never seen that tool before, bookmarked and thank you.
Np, its actually tied into Cockatrice as well, thats how I populate the data. But you can insert your own stuff into it and check. Works well for me.
This is only 1 card off from the version I was considering running, I really like what you did with it. This version has more value creatures, is less vulnerable to removal, and has some good answers to agro. It's about a turn slower at putting a clock on your opponent. The only thing I would change would be adding back the 4th Geist and dropping a 2-drop. You're running 3 feeling of dread and 2 resto angels so you have a lot more ways to help Geist connect with damage.
Edit: You also may want to consider rebalancing your lands. You still have a heavy forest concentration but you're no longer reliant on getting that turn 1 pilgrim. You also have 7 Hallowed fountains =P
LOL! Silly Glacial Fortresses......Anywho I have found that i do enjoy seeing a resto angel in my hand, but not normally for the bounce trick. He carries a rancor better than any of our guys, maybe even better than the Hexproofs. There is something to be said for a 5/4 flyer. Allows him to get through opposing Angels means alot to me. Combat trick aside it is definately a nice addition.
As far as the land base goes, here is what i use to determine my lands
That is the link for the current posted deck. The reason I like having the Forests is the T1 Growth acts like your T1 Pilgrimm. I like to hit it if at all possible. Also the higher concentration of forests allows all except the Glacial Fortress to come into play untapped which can be a big deal vs RDW (which seems to be my hardest match right now, not sure how im going to fix it). I'll be rooting for you for sure! Wouldnt it be awesome to get some camera time, maybe even a deck tech *little girl scream*? I should also have my FNM report posted tonight after all the hurt feelings I give out!
Ya, I love silverblade in a meta full of sorc speed removal and w/x agro decks but now that the meta has shifted I don't think he'll be AS good. There's a few factors going into my decision but I'm still not 100% on it:
We're already heavy on 3-drops
The double white can be tough once in a while
The meta has shifted to include a lot more instant speed removal
Why I am choosing Resto:
Saves our non-hexproof guys from instant removal
Dodges 2/3 of the instant removal spells being played (Searing Spear / Abrupt Decay)
Recovery from board wipes
Extra cantripping off visionary
Easy to cast
Combat tricks
Can still provide some surprise damage in the form of flashing at end of turn (though not as much)
All valid points, I'll def have to try it out this week since I will be back playing Bant Enchant instead of my digress into Seance (teamate was using certain cards). Also resto angel carries Rancor very well. All good properties, worth consideration.
Ground seal doesnt affect zombies at all - they don't target anything in the graveyard.
I think I'm going to drop the silverblades for Resto Angel and the miser for another visionary. I really love the consistency all the cantrips provide, and that's like adding 4 more to the deck. The resto angel is also great for dodging removal or combat tricks.
There's a ton of Ultimate Price and Searing Spears floating around making silverblade a big liability mid-combat.
It's going to be nice going to 2 SCG opens in a row, the first one should put me pretty in touch with the meta for the 2nd one.
Nath'd ya!
So with what you propose, are you going to forgoe the double strike blowout all together? Just planning on grinding out the game? Just a curiosity, also would you still have the Ajani in the board? I myself like having the ability to just instantly finish the game. Baring counters and instant speed removal, which are fairly easy to play around.
If you don't mind doing it I think that it would be best to stay close to the core list. You know I like to experiment myself but for serious event I think serious decklist is in order.
If you're seriously worried about zombies (and I don't blame you) then you could easily run two ground seals in the main. It might make the difference in game one and if it doesn't, well at least it cantrips. My heart tells me that would be too aggressive though.
At least go back to faith's shield for your miser. My opinion.
Oh and those links you posted... mother of god.... I can see why you're getting that advice. But the last thing I want is to attract some overzealous moderation so I'll save that for some other thread.
Ground Seal isnt great against Zombies mainly because they dont target stuff in the GY, Rest in Peace is strictly better since it nullifies every GY shenanigan. Additionally, GY hate vs zombies isnt as amazing since they cant still just win by beating face.
I think in most situations I'd prefer a Sphinx or Thragtusk to a Palisade Giant.
Christopher: You buylist looks fine, you might want another Clone for the sideboard. Most people only play 1 stronghold.
Manki: Is Screeching Skaab actually okay? It seems terrible on paper. Have you tried Clone or Sphinx instead?
LeoninKha: You can't Cyclonic Rift your own stuff.
I play a more aggro centric version of the deck. The Skaab has served me well countering the few decks that can go under me. Overall it's probably the weakest card in my deck but I feel like your 2 options are much slower. The Sphinx only really mattering after Seance is online, and Clone I dont see as a main board card. I cant populate it after casting. Skaab has gotten beats in on its own especially against control type decks where it can get under counters and for the most part is dodges counters. I also prefer to be able to cast my threats reasonably fast as well for 1 reasons: It gains twice as much value out of my threats. Yes I could cast Sphinx at 1 turn after Armada Wurm, but in a perfect world I prefer my 6-7 drop to have a little more staying power than Sphinx, instead of accelerating the combo. Also, one of the hard cards to beat that ive found in this format is lingering souls. Which cant jump out in front of Armada Wurm as well as Sphinx in the finisher slot. Arguably, land drops are not hard to hit with the amount of cantrips and dig in the deck. Maybe its a preference thing, but I prefer to have the lower end creature getting in early or blocking early. To each his own, the applications are certainly there for the card.
EDIT: Its also very hard to compare a 2cc creature with a 7cc one.
You want to play Borborygmos, try Seek the Horizon. It ensures that you hit your 5th-7th land drops. Once Borborygmos comes down, it's 4 mana for 9 damage, split 3-3-3.
...That's assuming you can even get Borborygmos in play.
I was just correcting his obvious mistake :). Also, I dont agree, Creeping Renaissance represents very lethal in any deck that MAY play this guy. Since he doesnt have haste you can easily win on a poor board state. Still very janky card but I cant wait to T3 this guy into play and laugh at the look on my opponents face. To each his own.
By control I'm assuming you mean Bant. Ive noticed that my biggest all star against any blue deck is Dispel. Against the Bant control lists you will very rarely see any counters, which are easy enough to play around. So my counter to Sphinx's is to tap 1 mana and try not to laugh. I literally have had people concede on the spot. Curse of Echos has been picking up in popularity and I dont think its a bad option, but I do think that trying to beat Control decks at their own game is the wrong answer. Board in some fast cards and make them race you. That is a race you will always win.
If you were speaking of U/W Flash (which is technically tempo but runs many counters) then again I point you to dispel. The main reason I feel like it is just a better answer is the ability to be able to use it on T1 as oppossed to T5. Additionally, if you are playing the matchup properly you wont be walking into any counterspells. Meaning that on turn 5 if youve done your job right and you try to slam Curse, you will most likely run into the brick wall that is Dissapate. There can be something said for the synergy yet I feel like this might be the Sphere of Safety argument all over again. If you think it might be good then test it! Be sure to post your results with it as well.
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Invisible Stalker
4 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Loxodon Smiter
2 Silverblade Paladin
2 Restoration Angel
4 Abundant Growth
4 Ethereal Armor
4 Rancor
3 Detention Sphere
Spells 3
3 Feeling of Dread
Lands 23
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Temple Garden
4 Sunpetal Grove
3 Glacial Fortress
3 Forest
1 Overgrown Tomb
2 Vault of the Archangel
2 Cavern of Souls
As you can see there are a few number changes. Ive been really wanting to go up to 3 Silverblade because it is an absolute beating. Granted its not immune to spot removal like Geist and Stalker are, but dropping him unpaired and hitting a geist angel is really great. Also ive been trying 24 lands a few times and cant say that I hate it, its enough to notice though. Typically I'm +1 land in my starting hand. Also I get to 5 very consistently working well with the Vault beats. Our lists are still very similar with the exception of just a few numbers here and there. The major change is Moorland vs. Vault.
Thanks! Since Friday I have been back at the drawing board attempting to figure out what I can do better based upon recent thoughts brought into my head. Also I am planning to write a section about how to sideboard for my teammates because some of them, while competent players, are the best at building and executing a sideboard. I figured I can PM it to you Boner and see what you think, maybe use it as a template for the Primer.
On the subject of taking this deck seriously, I think everyone that has put some time into developing this deck will say we do take it seriously. On the flip side yes, there are some matchups that are sub optimal for us, and that’s what we are working on. Boner is correct in saying that if 30% of people in a tournament are playing B/R Zombies, statistically you will see multiples of them in the top 16. All you have to do to realize that the current standard isn’t set in stone is look at the tournament results for the past 5 big events. You’ll notice that B/R has won 2, but so have Naya, 4 color midrange and even a rogue Craterhoof deck (similar to the old Elf Wave). Sure these decks are similar in what they do, which is beat you down with value creatures, but by no means are they the same deck or even play the same. Until WotC prints a Delver 2.0 this is how the meta will remain for at least 6 months (when the full set of Ravnica Block is released). Then maybe we will start to see more solidified lists as players need time to work with the cards. Currently every list that has done well in events are styles of play that have been worked on for years. Jund/Bant/BR/RDW are not new concepts, nor are they even new words to Magic. Lastly, I'm not sure 51st out of 450 can even be considered "ok". I'd say that’s a pretty good showing and can help to prove that this style of deck can be a contender.
Back on subject, I went back to the drawing board with my list, and while I'm not 100% sure that what I've developed over the course of the weekend will hold up to scrutiny, I'll give it a go anyway and see what you think. First, the cards im not happy with.
Oblivion Ring/Detention Sphere
Ok, so they are bad against creatures. There is plenty of other targets right? The next step on our list is Planeswalkers. Some of the well used PW's are these, Jace, Architect of Thought, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Garruk, Primal Hunter, and the lesser seen PW's are Lilliana of the Veil, Vraska the Unseen, Ajani, Caller of the Pride, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, and Garruk Relentless. So let’s break this down, unfortunately the PW's in almost every case have the same downfall as creatures. Most of them do what they need to do the second they hit the board. Jace draws and cycles cards, Garruk PH can draw before we can even respond, Lilly can really mess us up when she -2's, Ajani, as we know because we use him, can cause our life to fall into the red zone in an instant. Now, there are some such as Sorin/Tamiyo/Garruk Relentless that our enchantment removal is marginally better against. Great, but it still doesn’t provide us with the answer we need. So, the decision on this is, slightly better against PW's than creatures, but not optimal.
So, what’s left? We've discussed creatures and planeswalkers and determined that they are not the best answer for either of those types of cards. So what is O-ring/D-Sphere good against? My answer is this: Oblivion Ring and Detention Sphere. Yes that’s right these cards actually shine at reacting to the opposing O-ring/D-sphere. Who would have thought? So, the matchups where I'm up against another player playing these control style cards, I'm glad to have them. In almost every other case they fall in to the "too little, too late" category. The honorable mention here is Tokens. Detention Sphere is an absolute house against tokens, the downside is this. A smart opponent won’t over extend his token generators and open himself up to a blowout. This means not double casting Lingering Souls and the works. So even as good as this card is against tokens, we cannot expect it to be a blowout card against decks that play cards such as Lingering Souls.
Moorland Haunt
So what are our options? What can we do to streamline the deck and make every card count? I’ll address the O-Ring/D-Sphere argument first. These cards are good enough to play on there own, but lack the ability to be an instant answer. These cards also play well into our strategy of building up our enchantment count to make our attacks even more lethal. The answer to this is possibly running supporting cards that play well in our deck, while not hindering our overall strategy.
Options!
So what are some other options? Counterspells of our own are definitely an option. They allow us to stop the big spells before they can even be cast. Let me tell you there is no greater joy than using Dispel on a Sphinx’s Revelation for a million. The most dangerous thing to us is the ability to be overrun by multiple large threats while we are trying to either build our board or get through with damage. So we want to counter creatures? Essence Scatter is the king here. It’s a hard counter for 2 mana that deals with the most dangerous thing for our deck. Dissipate is an honorable mention, but it should be noted that the UU casting requirement is much harder than it appears. Generally our decks are running more W heavy with less U. Here is the problem with counterspells of our own, they have the potential to be dead in our hand and it will only ever create a 1 for 1. Additionally, they do not meet the second requirement of not hindering our strategy. Every turn we hold back to counter is a turn farther away from winning.
So we turn to combat tricks as our final option. Feeling of Dread has been our go to card for a while now and I think it should remain that way; it deals with so many things that can take us down such as Thundermaw, Hellrider, and Falkenrath. It also plays extremely well allowing our creatures to get through for damage while be safe from the counter attack via flashback. If it’s not in your deck it probably should be. Now combat tricks, the most common trap with combat tricks is that you are essentially offering the opponent a 2 for 1 by using a card to trade with theirs most of the time. So the goal of a good combat trick is to avoid the 2 for 1 or further our gameplan/delay theirs. So a brief list on some of the good combat tricks that can do this are Moment of Heroism, Swift Justice, and Zealous Strike. The reason these 3 are mentioned is because they meet the 2 required criteria for a good combat trick. Moment of Heroism might not save our guy, but it gains us life and can allow us to remove a threat via pumped up creatures. This meets both criteria of keeping us alive via life gain, and eliminating a threat. Swift Justice is a card I have been looking at very in depth the past weekend for a couple of reasons. Not always are we going to have Ethereal Armor down, meaning it is very risky for us to swing in, especially with Geist of Saint Traft. Using this spell our measly 2/2 can BEAT one of the most dangerous creatures in the format, Thragtusk. This is a huge boon for us because the Thragtusk token is much easier to race than the big beast himself. 2 less power is more than you think in a race. Oh did I mention that it also give lifelink? This essentially makes the first attack from the token useless seeing how we just gained 3 life. Defensively this card can be used in very much the same manner and can be a great blowout at the right time, buying you that extra cushion for that last attack for the win. Zealous Strike is basically a mix of the other 2. While it doesn’t give lifelink, it does provide 2 power and first strike, meaning that Elvish Visionary we have back on defense can BEAT a Thragtusk. I’d say that’s a good trade any day of the week.
Now I know this post turned into a lot more than I expected it to be, but that’s what I get for being bored at work. The final card that I want to talk about that will be in my deck this week and possibly in the future, one that I have been testing all weekend and can see almost limitless potential for is: Vault of the Archangel. A few posts back there was a brief discussion about Lingering Souls and whether or not it was playable with flashback being black. Generally I saw it as a way to hamper aggro decks until we can get the kill online. Also I realized that splashing the B required for flashback wasn’t all that hard with Abundant Growth and a 1 or 2 of Overgrown Tomb. Unfortunately, I realized that trying to get the B mana for essentially the same effect as Feeling of Dread wasn’t what I was looking for in the deck, but I didn’t think the very light splash was a bad idea. So I researched some other options.
As I stated previously I have been very underwhelmed by the effectiveness of Moorland Haunt, and that brought me to Vault of the Archangel. After reading the card a couple times, it dawned on me. This does everything we need it to do, literally everything. It adds a HUGE buffer against agro decks when we can swing our life by huge amounts via pumped up Stalker/Geist essentially just putting the game out of reach for them. This also allows us to not be concerned about the counter attack as we have the huge buffer of life to just soak it up. Defensively it can be a house of a card, trade my 1/1 for your 5/3 without the cost of a card? Gaining life in the process? Yes please. In the 10 or so matches online that I tested this card I quickly went from a 1 of, to a 2 of. It’s just that good. 1 match in particular I was holding a Rancor with a Smiter paired with Silverblade on board vs. G/W Humans. I was at 7 life he was at 16. He had a 4/4 Champion of the Parrish out along with a Mayor of Avarbuck, and a Precinct Captain. I top deck Vault as my 6th land. Drop the Vault, play Rancor making my Smiter a 6/4 and swing. He blocks with Precinct Captain and I gain 12 and deal 10 trample. He scoops the next turn. Now this particular board state it may seem that we were on about equal footing, but from experience I know that sooner or later he was going to draw a Sublime Archangel and I was going to lose. The simplest way to put it is this, Vault can reset games. Literally, and in our deck it can be even more devastating when we are swinging for game changing totals.
In conclusion, these are just some of the most recent developments from my latest brainstorming ideas and testing. Obviously what works for me may not work for you. As they say, your mileage may vary. Now that I’ve spent the last 2 hours writing this I may actually do some work?
TL;DR O-Ring/D-Sphere are slow, Moorland Haunt is bad for us, Feeling of Dread is still amazing, Consider combat tricks that don’t 2 for 1 you, and lastly play Vault of the Archangel, just do it.
4 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Elvish Visionary
3 Invisible Stalker
3 Loxodon Smiter
2 Silverblade Paladin
2 Restoration Angels
3 Feeling of Dread
Enchantments 16
4 Rancor
4 Ethereal Armor
4 Abundant Growth
2 Detention Sphere
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Temple Garden
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Forest
3 Glacial Fortress
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Moorland Haunt
3 Dispel
2 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
2 Essence Scatter
2 Detention Sphere
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Rest in Peace
2 Divine Reckoning
As you can see the only slight changes were in the 1 for 1 GoST for Stalker MB and a slight change in the SB adding a 3rd Dispel and changing Negate to Essence Scatter.
Overall I felt good going into the tourney, the Meta for the past few weeks was rife with Bant control followed by Zombies and G/W aggro. Relatively few Jund players as of late and almost no RDW (hooray!). Also have a few buddies playing Esper control with very good success, and I can say that it is a matchup I am not familiar with at all. Luckily for me that particular problem didn’t come up for me tonight! Arrived at the LGS a few hours early to do my trading thing and get a few games of EDH in before the rounds started, as usual. 7 o'clock hits and the pairings go up! Ready to lay the smack down!
Match 1: RDW
Game 1: Shuffle up and deal, I draw a fairly good hand of 2 land, Visionary, Geist, Growth, Paladin, and Rancor. I keep so does he, he wins the dice roll much to my dismay. Plays turn 1 Stormkirk Noble, I respond with forest growth. T2 Ash Zealot I take 3, I respond with land, visionary. T3 he drops Lightning Mauler and pairs it with Ash zealot, swings with the team, I block the Mauler and go to 13. My response is GoST. T4 he plays Hell rider and swings. Instead of going to 2 I block the Hellrider. Having a Feeling of dread in hand I play land go. He attempts to swing but I tap down his 3 dudes, MP2 he proceeds to play Double searing spear, way to slow roll.
SB: -3 Invisible Stalker +2 Divine Reckoning +1 Detention Sphere
Game 2: I draw an excellent hand of 3 Land, Geist, Growth, Visionary, Rancor. He mulls to 6 and keeps a hand with no 1 drop, I proceed to top deck Ethereal Armor/Silverblade with Growth Cantrip. T3 Geist, T4 Paladin + Rancor swing. T5 Ethereal Armor, GG. Glad to see the deck can work.
SB: No additional SB
Game 3: This game may have been the longest game I’ve ever played vs. RDW. Went to turn 15, which seems ridiculous I know. I was playing on the defensive since he was on the play, but I managed to hang in there with a rancored/Armored Smiter blocking supported by a Rancored Restoration angel in the air. Was able to play my second resto angel after he dropped a Thundermaw, pairing it with a silverblade and trading. Leaving an opening for an attack on my next turn. Proceeded to take a Brimstone Volley to my dome. Unfortunate, but it happens, now I know I just have to win out in order to Top8. NP! Hopefully I get a control deck next match and stomp it.
MVP Card: Divine Reckoning, this card is SO good for us, was able to play it 3 times (1 of those times being flashback) this match made me consider going to 3 in the board, or possibly 1 main. Can’t say enough about this card. After the match the guy gave me some friendly tips about certain matchups that I will discuss at the end of this report. Some decent suggestions that I think are worth looking at.
Match Record: 0-1
Overall Record: 1-2
Match 2: Elfhoof
Game 1: I lose the roll (of course) and T1 he starts with Temple Garden Arbor elf, pretty standard for a lot of decks so I’m still not sure at this point what he is playing. The T2 Elvish archdruid however, put me right onto the strat. So now my goal is, Kill him before 8 mana. I detention sphere the Druid and drop a stalker with rancor down. Smiter gets played and I respond with my own smiter. Got him to 5 health and what else but a Thragtusk! -.- That’s all right he's low on creatures and I’ve got a feeling of dread with Geist on the field with an armor and multiple enchantments out. I top deck a silverblade paladin, show it from my hand, he scoops.
SB: -3 Invisible Stalker, -1 Oblivion Ring, +2 Essence Scatter, +2 Diving Reckoning
Game 2: As I said earlier, my goal is to keep him off 8 mana, as long as I can do that I should be fine. He takes the play, Leads with Temple Garden pass. Good start, he has no dork. T1 Growth for myself and pass. he T2 drops Arbor elf and Pilgrim, Apparently he didn’t have a 3 drop so he decided to straight ramp into 5 and not take the 2 shock dmg, seems like a smart plan. I respond with visionary. T3 thragtusk, ugh, as much as this sucks I know I can beat it, I drop another visionary and drop and Armor on 1. T4, Thragtusk, sigh. That’s ok I still got this, I respond with Geist and Armor on him, I decide I need to be aggressive or I’m going to lose, swing with my armored Visionary, he throws the pilgrim in front of it, sure. T5 he drops Elvish Visionary and draws a Elvish Archdruid, sigh. No attacks because my geist is still bigger. My T5 consists of drawing more land, sigh. I swing in with the geist and leave my visionary on defense. He takes 9, woot. T6, what else could he hit, surely not a top deck craterhoof. GG. Sad days.
SB: No additional SB
Game 3: This game was absolutely no contest, T1 Growth, T2 Growth, T3 Loxodon smiter, T4 Rancor, Armor, and Armor. He scoops! Hooray!
Match Record: 1-1
Overall Record: 3-3
Now, the store I attend buys pizza for the players at FNM and we all get 1 free slice. So I’m sitting there minding my own business stuffing my face outside while I wait for the next round to start. Also, I should tell you I’m a people watcher, I enjoy seeing people and what they do and how they react to different situations. I hear the words “Ethereal Armor” from behind me. I spin around and listen in to the conversation. Its 2 buddies talking about their match where they were apparently paired for the round. Guy 1 says “I still think it’s bad, but ok”. Guy 2 responds with “Well, I beat you right?”. “It’s like my worst matchup, and I took game 2, your deck just isn’t good enough to play in the top leagues” Guy 1 retorts. At this point I have to interject myself into the conversation. Guy 2 was playing none other than Bant Enchant! I almost hugged him on the spot, I wasn’t alone anymore! He was also 2-0! Even better I had found a new pseudo teammate for the night. For reference, Guy 1 was playing Jund control, presumably our best matchup since 30% of their cards are dead.
Match 3: R/B Zombies
Game 1: I lose the dice roll (sigh). He plays T1 Gravecrawler, I respond with a land! He plays T2 Knight of Infamy, swing for 3. I respond with land/Growth. He plays T3 Geralf’s Messenger, swings for 4. I’m at 13 so I respond with Geist. Now I’m holding on to double armor, Silverblade, Rancor, land so I’m feeling pretty good that I’ll be able to stabilize. He plays T4 Falkenrath Aristicat, swings for 11. I scoop next turn. Sigh.
SB: -3 Invisible Stalker, -2 Oblivion Ring, -1 Detention Sphere, +2 Divine Reckoning, +2 Essence Scatter, +2 Rest in Peace
Game 2: I’m on the play, and after his nut hand I know I need something to happen, and it does. T1 Growth, T2 Visionary, T3 Geist, T4 Silverblade + Armor on Geist. He takes 8. He drops Falkenrath and swings in with a Messenger and Falkenrath, It was a slight play mistake on his part because he didn’t realize that I had lethal on board if the silverblade gets through. So he left a reanimated Gravecrawler on defense. I proceed to swing next turn for game.
SB: No additional SB
Game 3: Ok, time to beat Zombies on the draw. I can do this. He mulls to 4 luckily for me, I keep 6 with 2 land, Visionary, Smiter, Rancor, and Armor. He plays T1 Diregraf and then gets stuck with land, it’s unfortunate but needless to say I drew heart of the cards style and beat face. I told him after the game that at least he didn’t get 2-0’ed. He laughed and said at least it was improvement.
Match Record: 2-1
Overall Record: 5-4
Match 4: Junk Frites
Game 1: I, to no one’s surprise, lose the dice roll. He starts off well with arbor elf into Lingering Souls. I’ve got a stalker and visionary on the field on T3 holding 3 Ethereal Armor and 1 Rancor. T4 I just go deep and throw everything on the Stalker because I know he has no way to interact with it. T5 Top deck a Silverblabe and show it, he scoops.
SB: -2 Oblivion Ring, -3 Feeling of Dread, +2 Rest in Peace, +2 Essence Scatter, +1 Divine Reckoning
Game 2: On the draw again, and he proceeded to have 2 mulch and a Grisly Salvage. Put Angel of Serenity/Thragtusk/Craterhoof into the yard with a rites. Luckily for me, he chose not to rites but instead to play a thragtusk from hand. Next turn I Rest in Peace and he sits there for about 3 min staring at the card. I don’t feel bad at all though, next turn I divine reckoning with just geist in play. For some reason he chose thragtusk, which was an obvious mistake. I pump the geist and swing in for a lot. His turn, he golgari Charms the Rest in peace and plays Lingering Souls, which keeps him alive 1 more turn. If I didn’t top deck the Detention Sphere. I swing in and he sits for another 5 min looking for an out. Finally he scoops, signs the paper and leaves. Not the table, but leaves the shop altogether. I hope I don’t see him in the obituary tomorrow.
Match Record: 3-1
Overall Record: 7-4
Match 5: G/W Humans
Game 1: I don’t win the dice roll…figures. I also have a terrible time getting a hand. Down to 5 after a no land 7 and a 1 cavern 6. So playing on 5 cards, on the draw, against G/W humans. Great. He goes T1 Champion of the Parrish, T2 Precinct Captain, T3 Mayor of Avarbuck, T4 Rancor+Mayor. I was able to hold it off for a turn or 2 with feeling of dread/Detention sphere but don’t have the gas in hand to beat him. On to game 2
SB: -3 Invisible Stalker, + 2 Divine Reckoning, +1 Detention Sphere
Game 2: On the play I mulled don to 5 again, for some reason my deck was not cooperating with me in this match. That’s ok, I drew into everything I needed to win, very heart of the cards style. Game winner was a double Rancor Restoration Angel Paired with Silverblade. Went right over top and even took out a Sublime Archangel. Very good game for me, didn’t make a single mistake and had all the answers. Did find out that he was running Ajani, Caller of the Pride, which seemed strange but w/e. To each his own.
SB: No additional SB
Game 3: On the draw, this game actually went so long we went to just before time. He had a slower start with no Champion and no rancor. Meaning my Moorland Haunt and Visionaries were able to hold him off till I got some meat on the board, then he drops one of my least favorite cards, Thalia. Let me tell you about this punk, she hoses a lot of what we are trying to do. Slows me down a lot. Luckily he went into top deck mode and couldn’t find an answer for my creatures. Until he finally drew a Sublime, he plays and then sits back, doesn’t attack. I play Divine Reckoning (for 5 ) and he has a decision to make, save Thalia or save Sublime. He chooses Sublime and then I detention Sphere it away. Life totals are about equal at 15 for me and 13 for him. Then the top deck wars begin. He draws Thalia, I draw my second Reckoning to deal with his weenies and he keeps Thalia in this time smartly. Throws a rancor on her and tries to beat down, luckily my smiter next turn paired with Silverblade stalls his attack for a few turns. Turn 27, Board state looks like this ME: Loxodon Smiter, Silverblade Paladin/Rancor/Armor tapped, at 6 life. HIM: Thalia, Gather the Townsfolk (both tokens) and 1 Spirit token from a Doomed Traveler. He’s at 4 life. It’s his turn. He top decks a Sublime Archangel, shows it, I scoop. It was a silly, silly game where I casted ¾ possible Divine Reckonings and all 6 possible Feeling of Dread.
Match Record: 3-2
Overall Record: 8-6
Even with the heartbreaking loss in the final round, I was happy with the showing the deck put up, especially against 5 aggro decks. This is very rare in my Meta. Yet, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. You remember my pseudo teammate also playing Bant Enchant? He went 4-0-1 and ended up getting 3rd overall! I caught up with him after the rounds and asked him what his matchups were. Bant Control, Esper Control (his 1 draw), Jund Midrange, Bant Midrange, and RDW. To me it seemed that he played a much easier lineup for the deck but you can’t have everything. I do regret that I never actually took a look at his deck to find out what the differences were (I’m bad), but I do know it was very similar to the versions we were running a while back, no Loxodon, no Angel and A few more tempo/Control Spells. Top 8 looked like this at my store:
1. Bant Control
2. Esper Control
3. Bant Enchant
4. RDW - Small
5. Bant Control
6. UWR Midrange
7. Junk Frites
8. RDW – Big
Overall, had a fun night even if I didn’t win. My actual teammate took 5th with the Bant Control deck so we got to crack open 9 packs. Pulled a Temple Garden and a Vraska for the pool but those are the only cards of note. Back to the drawing board about how I can deal with the Aggro matchup better. Hopefully Next week we can have more success and better matchups!
Most unused card in the MD: Oblivion Ring, might have something to do with not seeing it as much as I could have, but this seemed like the only lackluster card I ever had in my hand.
MVP in the MD: Geist of Saint Traft, just the mental games of having him on the board with 1 enchant is enough to cause my opponent to block unfavorably. Loved having 4 and I’m glad I was convinced to play the extra copy. Not much was better than Suicide the Geist for 4 dmg and then playing another.
Most unused Card in the SB: This award goes to every card I had vs. control. Dispel and Ajani primarily. Didn’t board them in once, so it’s not necessarily their fault. But for consistency this is what I didn’t play.
MVP in the SB: DIVINE RECKONING, Ill be singing this cards praise for a while, never, not even once, was a sad to see it in my hand. Ever application it was useful and 9 time out of 10 won me the game. Will definitely be a staple in my board until the meta changes to more control.
Now, as I said during the Match 1 recap. The RDW player had some interesting suggestions for me that I hadn’t considered. Lingering Souls, now hear me out. Running 1 of Overgrown Tomb in the deck would not hurt the land base, and with abundant growth it would be enough to reliably get the flashback most of the time. The biggest thing this card does is create bodies. Which normally for us means blockers, but they can also carry rancor very well and can be paired with Silverblade to represent 6 dmg in the air. Overall I somewhat like the idea, I’m not saying it is a for sure thing but I believe it deserves some thought. I may try running a couple in my board for the Aggro matchups that I seem to be having a problem with currently. Food for thought.
Also Invisible stalker, I’m not sure why in almost every case I decided to board him out, but I only saw him impact a game once in all the games he was in. Every other time he was just a body to throw in front of Thragtusk or some other fatty. I’m not that happy with him currently but it is quite possible I was doing it wrong all night. He just didn’t feel good in my hand against agro so that was the bases of the decision to take him out every time.
I hope that this recap helped those of you who read it, hopefully you guys had more success than I did this weekend. A final good luck to Boner for his SCG open this weekend, kick some butt and take some names. I expect a full recap when you are finished! Top 8 or bust!
Np, its actually tied into Cockatrice as well, thats how I populate the data. But you can insert your own stuff into it and check. Works well for me.
LOL! Silly Glacial Fortresses......Anywho I have found that i do enjoy seeing a resto angel in my hand, but not normally for the bounce trick. He carries a rancor better than any of our guys, maybe even better than the Hexproofs. There is something to be said for a 5/4 flyer. Allows him to get through opposing Angels means alot to me. Combat trick aside it is definately a nice addition.
As far as the land base goes, here is what i use to determine my lands
http://deckstats.net/deck-1715995-dae3cd1f281c1f9df040a6e08da249e3.html
That is the link for the current posted deck. The reason I like having the Forests is the T1 Growth acts like your T1 Pilgrimm. I like to hit it if at all possible. Also the higher concentration of forests allows all except the Glacial Fortress to come into play untapped which can be a big deal vs RDW (which seems to be my hardest match right now, not sure how im going to fix it). I'll be rooting for you for sure! Wouldnt it be awesome to get some camera time, maybe even a deck tech *little girl scream*? I should also have my FNM report posted tonight after all the hurt feelings I give out!
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Invisible Stalker
3 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Loxodon Smiter
2 Silverblade Paladin
2 Restoration Angel
3 Feeling of Dread
Enchantment 16
4 Rancor
4 Etheral Armor
4 Abundant Growth
2 Detention Sphere
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Forest
4 Temple Garden
4 Hallowed Fountain
3 Sunpetal Grove
3 Hallowed Fountain
2 Hinterland Harbor
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Moorland Haunt
3 Dispel
2 Essence Scatter
2 Detention Sphere
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
2 Divine Reckoning
2 Rest in Peace
I will be posting a detailed FNM report after the night. Hopefully I'll see some good games and we can speculate.
All valid points, I'll def have to try it out this week since I will be back playing Bant Enchant instead of my digress into Seance (teamate was using certain cards). Also resto angel carries Rancor very well. All good properties, worth consideration.
Nath'd ya!
So with what you propose, are you going to forgoe the double strike blowout all together? Just planning on grinding out the game? Just a curiosity, also would you still have the Ajani in the board? I myself like having the ability to just instantly finish the game. Baring counters and instant speed removal, which are fairly easy to play around.
Ground Seal isnt great against Zombies mainly because they dont target stuff in the GY, Rest in Peace is strictly better since it nullifies every GY shenanigan. Additionally, GY hate vs zombies isnt as amazing since they cant still just win by beating face.
I play a more aggro centric version of the deck. The Skaab has served me well countering the few decks that can go under me. Overall it's probably the weakest card in my deck but I feel like your 2 options are much slower. The Sphinx only really mattering after Seance is online, and Clone I dont see as a main board card. I cant populate it after casting. Skaab has gotten beats in on its own especially against control type decks where it can get under counters and for the most part is dodges counters. I also prefer to be able to cast my threats reasonably fast as well for 1 reasons: It gains twice as much value out of my threats. Yes I could cast Sphinx at 1 turn after Armada Wurm, but in a perfect world I prefer my 6-7 drop to have a little more staying power than Sphinx, instead of accelerating the combo. Also, one of the hard cards to beat that ive found in this format is lingering souls. Which cant jump out in front of Armada Wurm as well as Sphinx in the finisher slot. Arguably, land drops are not hard to hit with the amount of cantrips and dig in the deck. Maybe its a preference thing, but I prefer to have the lower end creature getting in early or blocking early. To each his own, the applications are certainly there for the card.
EDIT: Its also very hard to compare a 2cc creature with a 7cc one.
I was just correcting his obvious mistake :). Also, I dont agree, Creeping Renaissance represents very lethal in any deck that MAY play this guy. Since he doesnt have haste you can easily win on a poor board state. Still very janky card but I cant wait to T3 this guy into play and laugh at the look on my opponents face. To each his own.