You might laugh at Brave the Sands but it wins games, the blocking is so good against rabble, I can't believe no one is playing it.
I'd rather just remove the need for more blocking with more Murderous Cut, Utter End and/or Hero's Downfall.
Im going to have to agree with Asrial here. Id rather remove the creature i am worried about needing to block than run brave the sands. Plus, brave the sands really provides no immediate value, and taking a turn off to play it on t2-3 will just get you plain killed against some decks. Maybe your meta is slow enough that you havent encountered this, but against some of the faster aggro decks and u/w heroic decks you may just be dead if you take a turn to cast that.
Good point. It may just be my meta, but turn 3 rhino, turn 4 bts, then attack has been pretty good. Vigilant rhinos and doomwakes have really helped me end games sooner. I'm trying an abzan constellation variant where bts is obviously better.
You may be able to get away with it in a constellation-type deck, but a good way of figuring out if a card is performing worse than another card in it's spot (like switching Brave the Sands out with Murderous Cut or some such removal), is like any other good experiment, test it and make that the only changed variable (changing out only brave the sands with murderous cuts, no other deck changes at the same time) and each time you draw brave, ask yourself whether or not you would rather have a murderous cut. Tally each time you draw it and record whether it's about the same, better, or worse and after numerous tests look at the data.
Is there a post in this thread that explains the best way to sideboard against specific decks?
I dont think specifically it has been discussed in depth in a single post, no. There have been posts about specific people posting sideboard strategies for their particular deck, but not a general discussion of sideboard strategies against each archetype.
It would be nice if someone who has had experience playing a typical Abzan build against many of the common archetypes could go over this. I'd be willing to give it a try if no one else steps in, but there are a couple decks i havent played a lot against and therefore wouldnt be comfortable giving sound advice on, such as the new jeskai heroic combo deck (though i have played against the traditional jeskai combo deck, where some of the same strategies apply).
You might laugh at Brave the Sands but it wins games, the blocking is so good against rabble, I can't believe no one is playing it.
I'd rather just remove the need for more blocking with more Murderous Cut, Utter End and/or Hero's Downfall.
Im going to have to agree with Asrial here. Id rather remove the creature i am worried about needing to block than run brave the sands. Plus, brave the sands really provides no immediate value, and taking a turn off to play it on t2-3 will just get you plain killed against some decks. Maybe your meta is slow enough that you havent encountered this, but against some of the faster aggro decks and u/w heroic decks you may just be dead if you take a turn to cast that.
What do you guys think about running a singleton Polukranos, World Eater? I know he contends with the 4-drop slot with siege rhino and sorin, but hes great against rabblemaster and friends, and having only 1 doesnt seem like it would clog up the 4-drop slot THAT much.
The 1 thoughtseize was almost always boarded out. The field right now is pretty much mono-midrange, and in my opinion thoughtseize is terrible in those. Seize is the worst card to topdeck lategame, and the games go late a lot. I had 1 main to go with the theme of 1-ofs but mostly I felt like it didn't matter if it was 1 or 0, which were the two numbers I was considering. All 4 definitely belong in the 75 somewhere though. Any synergy deck falls flat to that card, and it helped me against the two heroic decks I played against and in the top 8 against Temur Monsters. I think Seize should be boarded in against any deck that can be expected to have a lot of cards in their hand even in the late game (Jeskai Tempo, U/B Control) or a deck trying to go over the top of you (Devotion decks). Seize is a very powerful card, and the number of maindeck seizes pretty much depends on the expected metagame.
Congrats on your solid finish. You say thoughtseize should be boarded in against Jeskai Tempo, but I test against it alot, and I find it somewhat lackluster. Often times you are removing a burn spell and while it feels like saving yourself 1-2 damage, in reality you are allowing them to more easily burn you out by dealing yourself damage. I get burned out by jeskai -much- more often when I draw thoughtseize and play it than not. In fact I side it out the first chance I get against Jeskai. I'm interested to hear your reasons why you feel it is good against them, other than the fact that they still have cards in hand in the mid-late game.
I have 3 Thoughtseize maindeck right now, and I am seriously considering moving them to sideboard because as you say, the meta right now is almost solely midrange. Having said that, I do agree with you that it is almost necessary to have atleast 3 in the 75 somewhere, but I'm thinking more and more that it doesn't belong in the main ATM.
I'm having some serious issues with Jeskai Wins, or at least my friends build of it (which is s pretty standard build). Now i havent taken actual statistics, but i FEEL like im losing 7/10 times pre-SB, with the odds going slightly back in my favor post-board.
He does run 2 maindeck Banishing Light and Deflecting Palm which is perhaps not standard for jeskai tempo, but the rest of his deck is pretty stock with the full burn suite of strikes/stokes/jets/charm, creatures of 4x mantis rider/seeker of the way/rabblemaster, and of course a couple sarkhans and dig through times.
Seeker of the way does ALOT of work against me, especially when hes on the play. No chance im blocking it with my caryatid, and alot of the time he will just use removal and get in for damage, rinse and repeat until i get something big out, then just finish me off with burn.
Additionally, stoke allows them to play rabblemaster and convoke the token so it doesnt have to attack, which lets them build up a token army until their rabblemaster can trade with your larger creatures like rhino and roc. Or they build up a token army, make a huge attack and use jeskai charm to +1 and lifelink their army. They just have so many annoying plays.
Post-board my bile blight and drown in sorrows help me get rid of the seekers and rabblemasters easily, which is the main problem for me. My question is this: has anyone come up with any good strategies against jeskai tempo? When they play rabblemaster t3 do you downfall it or play a courser? How do you deal with rabblemaster when they use convoke to build their army? Do you normally play defensively or try to run them over? I would really like some help on this.
First, lets evaluate why we run Erase. It's primarily for Jeskai Combo to remove the ascendancy part of the combo, but also has application against gods. It doesn't have a whole lot of other great uses. Being a 1 mana instant makes it very easy to hold up mana to use anytime however, and allows us to advance our board while keeping insurance against jeskai comboing off, which is why it is so popular.
Glare is slightly more expensive at 1W and is sorcery speed. The upside is that it also has further applications in the mirror match to remove opposing rhinos, rocs, elspeth, sorin, and actually just about every good threat. It can still remove ascendancy, but not if they play it on their turn and combo immediately. It also doesnt deal with non-white gods or enchantments, such as keranos who does see some play.
Unravel is also more expensive than erase at 1G, but is importantly an instant. It can deal with ascendancy even if they drop it on their turn. It also deals with any god or other enchantment, could even hit a courser if need be. The artifact removal application on unravel has some usefulness against Perilous Vault from U/B control, but other than that i cant think of other relevant artifacts. If control was heavy in the meta i would say unravel would be worth it.
So to review, im thinking Glare is going to be better in Abzan-heavy metas, Unravel in control-heavy metas, and Erase in metas with a lot of Jeskai Combo.
I'd like to know what everyone is using in their SB for this slot and if they have thought about the alternatives. Also, if i missed anything in my evaluation, feel free to add some input.
How many of you guys started out with Fleecemane Lion and later removed them? What were your thoughts/results?
I started with them, cut them, and haven't regretted their absence.
The problem I was having is...
I want to Thoughtseize turn 1. That needs black.
I want to Caryatid turn 2. That needs green (and the black from turn 1). Or I might want to Fleecemane turn 2 and that needs green and white AND the black from turn 1.
My turn 2 was pretty conflicted.
I think late game.. Rakshasa is far superior to Fleecemane. I think early game, Fleecemane is because Rakshasha doesn't want you to use your mana (to keep up regeneration). With my deck I have a 4/4 on turn 3 or a 4/5 on turn 3/4 and so a 3/3 on turn 2 isn't that critical for me.
Just my thoughts.
I feel similarly about the conflicted turn 2, though i would rather play a tapland on t1 instead of thoughtseizing.
Often times ill have both caryatid and lion in my hand t2 and am not sure which to play, because if i play the lion i cant ramp into rhino/roc and if i play the caryatid i end up playing the lion on t5-6 when i would rather have another bomb.
It is nice having 8 2-drops because im near guaranteed to have some kind of play t2, but i feel like i have caryatid a healthy amount of the time anyway. Either that or i can play t1 tapland/t2 tapland-thoughtseize.
Interested to hear what others have to say about this. Thanks for your input
How many of you guys started out with Fleecemane Lion and later removed them? What were your thoughts/results? I have 4 lions in my deck currently, and I'm looking for cards to cut. I see quite a few people arent running them anymore, but I've wondered if they've tried the deck with and without the lions.
I test alot against Jeskai Wins, and fleecemane lion seems lackluster there, so perhaps my results are biased somewhat. I just hate having them drop a Seeker of the Way and then Lightning Strike my lion and get in for damage. I just never feel that great about drawing it unless I can immediately monstrous it. I'm curious to see how you guys felt when you cut or added him to your list.
So i've been finding it hard to figure out what to sideboard out when playing some matchups. I know what i need to board in usually, but the fact we run so many individually powerful cards makes it feel bad to me to board anything out.
What do you guys typically board out in these matchups?
Jeskai Wins, Jeskai Combo, Abzan(the mirror), Temur/GR monsters/GR devotion, Mardu/other aggro, UB control, and heavy removal decks?
I know for aggro it's basically boarding out the elspeths and high-end stuff for drown in sorrow, rams, and bile blights. Conversely i know that you should side out some of your removal for more threats/card advantage against control, but everything in between im kind of stuck. What about the mirror? Other midrange decks? A mardu control/removal heavy deck? When do you side out caryatids, if ever? Any input on this would be great
Round 1 (2-0): Mardu Aggro
This wasn't quite a typical Mardu aggro deck, but was more token-based. The fact that I had tons of x/3+ creatures made this matchup easy. He wasn't able to attack profitably the first game due to my caryatids/coursers, and a single Siege Rhino was all I needed to win. The second round I boarded in the 3x Drown in Sorrow and 2x Bile Blight. Since the deck was more token-based, I didn't bring in the Rams because I just felt I didn't need them, he wasn't -that- fast. Again, he found it hard to attack through my creatures, and when he finally amassed enough tokens to get through some damage my Drown in Sorrow ruined him.
Round 2 (2-0): Temur Monsters
Game 1 he was restricted to 3 mana and had no red sources, so a turn 2 Fleecemane Lion and turn 3 Herald of Torment was all that was really needed to win. Since I didn't see hardly any of his deck(or his 3rd color) I didn't sideboard. Game 2 we exchanged resources for awhile until there was an eventual standoff between his Stormbreath Dragon and 2 of my Fleecemane Lions. I was able to poke through some damage by monstrousing the lion he blocked, and eventually got both lions monstrous. I drew a Sorin off the top, and each attack after that put me further and further out of reach until he eventually died.
Round 3 (1-1-1): Mardu Control
This matchup was -very- grindy, and I didn't quite have the tools I needed to win. After the matchup my opponent showed me his deck, which was full of a ridiculous amount of removal including 4 downfalls, 4 crackling doom, 3 bile blight, 2 murderous cut, 4 utter end, 4 silence the believers, and 4 mardu charm. The rest of the deck was mainly planeswalkers. The first game was one of the most frustrating games I've played in a long time, as I had about 5 turns in a row to draw ANY threat to win the game but couldn't, and lost to an eventual Elspeth on his side. I boarded in the Abzan Charm, Read the Bones, and Utter End, while sideboarding out my 3 Windmate Rocs. The rocs were NEVER active as he had so much removal, so they were becomming quite lackluster. Game 2 ended fairly quickly as I curved out with a lion, brimaz, and rhino. I was able to recur my creatures through his removal with the whip, and that was it for that game. Game 3 took the majority of the round's time(and made us end in a draw), as his insane amount of removal was killing everything I put out, while his small number of threats were answered by my downfalls. This is where I wish I would have had more cards that generated resources, perhaps another sorin, ajani, abzan charm, and/or read the bones in the 75 somewhere. I can't seem to push through a deck that has that much removal. Anyway, the draw was better than the loss, which I feel like probably would have been the result had the game had unlimited time.
Round 4 (2-0): U/G Devotion
This matchup was a little swingy but still ended in my favor. Game 1 my opponent mulliganed to 6, missed his 4th land drop, and didn't draw any mana dorks. I was able to beat him by ramping into a t3 Rhino/t4 Roc. Game 2 was a sweat -- I came out of the gates with a couple early threats and chipped away his life total while he was playing mana dorks. Eventually he was able to start playing Genesis Hydra for 6-7 and monstrous Polukranos for enough to kill multiple of my earlier threats. The board got down to his 6/6 hydra, which I had to chump for a couple turns with my caryatids. I got down to 6 life, topdecked a Rhino to bring myself up to 9, and took the next hit down to 3 life hoping I could topdeck another threat. Elspeth came off the top, followed by Sorin the next turn, and I gained enough life to be out of reach and win the match.
Here are some changes I've implemented to the sideboard which I hope will help the deck perform better: -1 Despise, -1 Murderous Cut. +1 Utter End, +1 Duneblast (may switch it out for End Hostilities). So the sideboard looks like this now:
Im seeing that most people are running 3+ Thoughtseize. Do you guys feel this a preferential card or do you feel it is essential to have as a mainboard card?
Yeah, i feel like in general prices always drop on cards after release, save for sleeper cards that people dont anticipate being as good as they are (see sphinxs rev and boros reckoner preorder prices before rtr and gatecrash). Im going to wait until after prerelease to see if i get any fetches in packs, then probably only order a couple at the current price for edh like i said -- after that i will wait for the price to drop to around 15(for delta+strand). I feel like 15 is a good price to buy them for regardless if they go down more than that.
You guys think it's better to preorder them now for 20$ or do you guys think they will go down to the 10-15 range after release?
Do you play for fun or profit ? personally i play for fun. I would buy them now and enjoy my time spent with them
It's not necessarily about profit, but rather saving money. 5-10 dollar difference a piece is $20-40 per playset difference. That isn't exactly chump change, even though it's not necessarily breaking the bank. Multiply that over 5 playsets, and that's a $100-200 difference, which is actually fairly significant.
Personally I plan on playing mono colored or at best 2-color until I get my hands on cheaper versions (As I have been doing each rotation), usually 2-3 months after the set is out. It's simply about saving money and being willing to be patient for the time being so I don't have to spend more money than I have to.
To the poster, I can't imagine a world where the fetches will maintain their price. They will get to $10-15 probably in November/December more than likely, and likely won't go much farther down from there. You might be able to save a couple bucks if you wait longer, but honestly not much. I wouldn't pre-order however if you want to save some money. That all said, if you plan on playing green I would suggest prioritizing them when you do buy them, particularly if they plummet to that $10 range. The reason is simple in that green is still going to be ludicrously strong in the next standard as it losing pretty much nothing relevant with RtR block rotation, and it has several of the strongest cards. G/R/x is just as strong post-rotation as before, really. It doesn't help that nothing in really seems like it is particularly strong against it, better at doing what Green can do, or is able to stop them effectively. Courser is amazing in a fetchland environment, as well, and is just plain good. Caryatid is the best ramper/fixer in standard and makes wedges easier. Xenagos is still amazing. Stormbreath should still be great. Polukranos is still going to be playable as an undercosted fatty with removal options. Etc and so forth.
Basically, people are going to be playing green.
My thoughts exactly. I play for fun as well, but for me 100-200$ difference to get a full playset of each fetch is a (somewhat) significant savings. I may pick up 2-3 right now for the $20/ea just to fit in my edh deck, but i think ill wait to buy full playsets in case they drop. I figure worst case scenario they stay at 20$ and ill be none the worse for waiting. I suppose they could go up past 20, but from what ive read most people arent foreseeing that happening. Anyways, thanks for the input.
You may be able to get away with it in a constellation-type deck, but a good way of figuring out if a card is performing worse than another card in it's spot (like switching Brave the Sands out with Murderous Cut or some such removal), is like any other good experiment, test it and make that the only changed variable (changing out only brave the sands with murderous cuts, no other deck changes at the same time) and each time you draw brave, ask yourself whether or not you would rather have a murderous cut. Tally each time you draw it and record whether it's about the same, better, or worse and after numerous tests look at the data.
I dont think specifically it has been discussed in depth in a single post, no. There have been posts about specific people posting sideboard strategies for their particular deck, but not a general discussion of sideboard strategies against each archetype.
It would be nice if someone who has had experience playing a typical Abzan build against many of the common archetypes could go over this. I'd be willing to give it a try if no one else steps in, but there are a couple decks i havent played a lot against and therefore wouldnt be comfortable giving sound advice on, such as the new jeskai heroic combo deck (though i have played against the traditional jeskai combo deck, where some of the same strategies apply).
Im going to have to agree with Asrial here. Id rather remove the creature i am worried about needing to block than run brave the sands. Plus, brave the sands really provides no immediate value, and taking a turn off to play it on t2-3 will just get you plain killed against some decks. Maybe your meta is slow enough that you havent encountered this, but against some of the faster aggro decks and u/w heroic decks you may just be dead if you take a turn to cast that.
Congrats on your solid finish. You say thoughtseize should be boarded in against Jeskai Tempo, but I test against it alot, and I find it somewhat lackluster. Often times you are removing a burn spell and while it feels like saving yourself 1-2 damage, in reality you are allowing them to more easily burn you out by dealing yourself damage. I get burned out by jeskai -much- more often when I draw thoughtseize and play it than not. In fact I side it out the first chance I get against Jeskai. I'm interested to hear your reasons why you feel it is good against them, other than the fact that they still have cards in hand in the mid-late game.
I have 3 Thoughtseize maindeck right now, and I am seriously considering moving them to sideboard because as you say, the meta right now is almost solely midrange. Having said that, I do agree with you that it is almost necessary to have atleast 3 in the 75 somewhere, but I'm thinking more and more that it doesn't belong in the main ATM.
He does run 2 maindeck Banishing Light and Deflecting Palm which is perhaps not standard for jeskai tempo, but the rest of his deck is pretty stock with the full burn suite of strikes/stokes/jets/charm, creatures of 4x mantis rider/seeker of the way/rabblemaster, and of course a couple sarkhans and dig through times.
Seeker of the way does ALOT of work against me, especially when hes on the play. No chance im blocking it with my caryatid, and alot of the time he will just use removal and get in for damage, rinse and repeat until i get something big out, then just finish me off with burn.
Additionally, stoke allows them to play rabblemaster and convoke the token so it doesnt have to attack, which lets them build up a token army until their rabblemaster can trade with your larger creatures like rhino and roc. Or they build up a token army, make a huge attack and use jeskai charm to +1 and lifelink their army. They just have so many annoying plays.
Post-board my bile blight and drown in sorrows help me get rid of the seekers and rabblemasters easily, which is the main problem for me. My question is this: has anyone come up with any good strategies against jeskai tempo? When they play rabblemaster t3 do you downfall it or play a courser? How do you deal with rabblemaster when they use convoke to build their army? Do you normally play defensively or try to run them over? I would really like some help on this.
First, lets evaluate why we run Erase. It's primarily for Jeskai Combo to remove the ascendancy part of the combo, but also has application against gods. It doesn't have a whole lot of other great uses. Being a 1 mana instant makes it very easy to hold up mana to use anytime however, and allows us to advance our board while keeping insurance against jeskai comboing off, which is why it is so popular.
Glare is slightly more expensive at 1W and is sorcery speed. The upside is that it also has further applications in the mirror match to remove opposing rhinos, rocs, elspeth, sorin, and actually just about every good threat. It can still remove ascendancy, but not if they play it on their turn and combo immediately. It also doesnt deal with non-white gods or enchantments, such as keranos who does see some play.
Unravel is also more expensive than erase at 1G, but is importantly an instant. It can deal with ascendancy even if they drop it on their turn. It also deals with any god or other enchantment, could even hit a courser if need be. The artifact removal application on unravel has some usefulness against Perilous Vault from U/B control, but other than that i cant think of other relevant artifacts. If control was heavy in the meta i would say unravel would be worth it.
So to review, im thinking Glare is going to be better in Abzan-heavy metas, Unravel in control-heavy metas, and Erase in metas with a lot of Jeskai Combo.
I'd like to know what everyone is using in their SB for this slot and if they have thought about the alternatives. Also, if i missed anything in my evaluation, feel free to add some input.
I feel similarly about the conflicted turn 2, though i would rather play a tapland on t1 instead of thoughtseizing.
Often times ill have both caryatid and lion in my hand t2 and am not sure which to play, because if i play the lion i cant ramp into rhino/roc and if i play the caryatid i end up playing the lion on t5-6 when i would rather have another bomb.
It is nice having 8 2-drops because im near guaranteed to have some kind of play t2, but i feel like i have caryatid a healthy amount of the time anyway. Either that or i can play t1 tapland/t2 tapland-thoughtseize.
Interested to hear what others have to say about this. Thanks for your input
I test alot against Jeskai Wins, and fleecemane lion seems lackluster there, so perhaps my results are biased somewhat. I just hate having them drop a Seeker of the Way and then Lightning Strike my lion and get in for damage. I just never feel that great about drawing it unless I can immediately monstrous it. I'm curious to see how you guys felt when you cut or added him to your list.
What do you guys typically board out in these matchups?
Jeskai Wins, Jeskai Combo, Abzan(the mirror), Temur/GR monsters/GR devotion, Mardu/other aggro, UB control, and heavy removal decks?
I know for aggro it's basically boarding out the elspeths and high-end stuff for drown in sorrow, rams, and bile blights. Conversely i know that you should side out some of your removal for more threats/card advantage against control, but everything in between im kind of stuck. What about the mirror? Other midrange decks? A mardu control/removal heavy deck? When do you side out caryatids, if ever? Any input on this would be great
4x Sylvan Caryatid
3x Courser of Kruphix
1x Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1x Anafenza, the Foremost
4x Siege Rhino
2x Herald of Torment
3x Wingmate Roc
4x Fleecemane Lion
Spells
4x Hero's Downfall
3x Thoughtseize
2x Abzan Charm
Other
1x Whip of Erebos
1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1x Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
Land
3x Windswept Heath
2x Caves of Koilos
2x Llanowar Wastes
4x Sandsteppe Citadel
3x Temple of Malady
3x Temple of Silence
2x Temple of Plenty
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2x Plains
2x Forest
3x Drown in Sorrow
3x Nyx-Fleece Ram
2x Bile Blight
1x Utter End
1x Despise
2x Murderous Cut
1x Abzan Charm
1x Read the Bones
1x Duneblast
My matchups were the following
Round 1 (2-0): Mardu Aggro
This wasn't quite a typical Mardu aggro deck, but was more token-based. The fact that I had tons of x/3+ creatures made this matchup easy. He wasn't able to attack profitably the first game due to my caryatids/coursers, and a single Siege Rhino was all I needed to win. The second round I boarded in the 3x Drown in Sorrow and 2x Bile Blight. Since the deck was more token-based, I didn't bring in the Rams because I just felt I didn't need them, he wasn't -that- fast. Again, he found it hard to attack through my creatures, and when he finally amassed enough tokens to get through some damage my Drown in Sorrow ruined him.
Round 2 (2-0): Temur Monsters
Game 1 he was restricted to 3 mana and had no red sources, so a turn 2 Fleecemane Lion and turn 3 Herald of Torment was all that was really needed to win. Since I didn't see hardly any of his deck(or his 3rd color) I didn't sideboard. Game 2 we exchanged resources for awhile until there was an eventual standoff between his Stormbreath Dragon and 2 of my Fleecemane Lions. I was able to poke through some damage by monstrousing the lion he blocked, and eventually got both lions monstrous. I drew a Sorin off the top, and each attack after that put me further and further out of reach until he eventually died.
Round 3 (1-1-1): Mardu Control
This matchup was -very- grindy, and I didn't quite have the tools I needed to win. After the matchup my opponent showed me his deck, which was full of a ridiculous amount of removal including 4 downfalls, 4 crackling doom, 3 bile blight, 2 murderous cut, 4 utter end, 4 silence the believers, and 4 mardu charm. The rest of the deck was mainly planeswalkers. The first game was one of the most frustrating games I've played in a long time, as I had about 5 turns in a row to draw ANY threat to win the game but couldn't, and lost to an eventual Elspeth on his side. I boarded in the Abzan Charm, Read the Bones, and Utter End, while sideboarding out my 3 Windmate Rocs. The rocs were NEVER active as he had so much removal, so they were becomming quite lackluster. Game 2 ended fairly quickly as I curved out with a lion, brimaz, and rhino. I was able to recur my creatures through his removal with the whip, and that was it for that game. Game 3 took the majority of the round's time(and made us end in a draw), as his insane amount of removal was killing everything I put out, while his small number of threats were answered by my downfalls. This is where I wish I would have had more cards that generated resources, perhaps another sorin, ajani, abzan charm, and/or read the bones in the 75 somewhere. I can't seem to push through a deck that has that much removal. Anyway, the draw was better than the loss, which I feel like probably would have been the result had the game had unlimited time.
Round 4 (2-0): U/G Devotion
This matchup was a little swingy but still ended in my favor. Game 1 my opponent mulliganed to 6, missed his 4th land drop, and didn't draw any mana dorks. I was able to beat him by ramping into a t3 Rhino/t4 Roc. Game 2 was a sweat -- I came out of the gates with a couple early threats and chipped away his life total while he was playing mana dorks. Eventually he was able to start playing Genesis Hydra for 6-7 and monstrous Polukranos for enough to kill multiple of my earlier threats. The board got down to his 6/6 hydra, which I had to chump for a couple turns with my caryatids. I got down to 6 life, topdecked a Rhino to bring myself up to 9, and took the next hit down to 3 life hoping I could topdeck another threat. Elspeth came off the top, followed by Sorin the next turn, and I gained enough life to be out of reach and win the match.
Here are some changes I've implemented to the sideboard which I hope will help the deck perform better: -1 Despise, -1 Murderous Cut. +1 Utter End, +1 Duneblast (may switch it out for End Hostilities). So the sideboard looks like this now:
3x Drown in Sorrow
3x Nyx-Fleece Ram
2x Bile Blight
2x Utter End
1x Murderous Cut
1x Abzan Charm
1x Read the Bones
2x Duneblast
My thoughts exactly. I play for fun as well, but for me 100-200$ difference to get a full playset of each fetch is a (somewhat) significant savings. I may pick up 2-3 right now for the $20/ea just to fit in my edh deck, but i think ill wait to buy full playsets in case they drop. I figure worst case scenario they stay at 20$ and ill be none the worse for waiting. I suppose they could go up past 20, but from what ive read most people arent foreseeing that happening. Anyways, thanks for the input.