In January my LGS is hosting our first annual store championship, and it is going to be a Multi format tournament. When pairing Swiss rounds, I know you cannot play the same person twice. Is this the same for multi format tournaments? I know on the PT you can play the same person twice, but never thr same format. However the PT is Limited and Constructed. Our tournament is going to be half standard and half modern.
The reason we need to know is to determine if WER is the right software for this event or if we need to figure out another method that will correctly pair when we swap from standard to modern and keep tie breakers intact.
Round 1 I played against a weird 4 color deck that ran Sultai Ascendancy and Sorin for lifelink. Game 1 I was able to Narset into Rebounded Remorseless Punishment but lost when he played Sorin and started gaining like 15 a turn. Game 2 we both got suck on three lands and I was stuck removing irrelevant creatures so I could Dig Through Time for my fourth land. Eventually I got out of the rut and resolved a Kalitas, but his answer was Torrent Elmental and I had no answer to it as long as Kalitas was in play. He managed get Sorin into play and was able to start producing 2/2 flyers, which I had no real answer too either and I eventually lost.
Round 2 I played against Esper Dragons and it was incredibly easy. Remorseless Punishment did some serious work this match.
Round 3 I played against BW Warriors. Game 2 I flooded out and one of those sources wasn't a Seer's Lantern so I couldn't really find a way through it. I lost when my opponent had a removal spell to remove my Reflector Mage. After the game he showed me his hand and it was all removal spells, which was a little awkward since he hadn't seen a Reflector Mage until game 2. Both games took so long that we didn't have time for game three, but I definitely had the game well in hand by turn 5 when the last turn ended.
Round 4 I played against Jeskai Black and I won two relatively close games that were also relatively unremarkable.
The deck felt strong all night, but it also feels like there is a different direction to take it. Goblin Dark-Dwellers was pretty awful for most of the night, my sideboard was all wrong and I often had more cards to side in then to side out, and while Ojuta's Command was incredibly strong all night, it wasn't strong enough to make me feel the white splash is actually worth it. Cutting white makes the mana better and gives me access to more utility lands. I've started working on a new deck so I don't think I'm going to work on this in the coming week, but any work I do I will post here. It was fun to play, but it didn't blow me away.
So my friends kind of know me as the guy who plays crazy cards. So when we were talking about some of our favorite cards ever printed, they laughed when I said Cruel Ultimatum. So, they pointed out that Cruel Ultimatums little brother was recently printed in Oath, so I decided to build a Grixis control deck. As I was building the deck, I decided I really wanted a reason to play Snapcaster Mage again as well, so I put Goblin Dark-Dwellers in as well, and then also knew that I really wanted to play Reflector Mage. All factors considered, I ended up with the below list. My problem is, I'm not rich and so I'm not building it on MTGO to test, and with two kids, I get to play sparingly. I've done some preliminary testing, but I'd like some input on possible directions, and maybe some cards that I've missed:
Ojutai's Command was put in the deck because I needed a way to gain life. Usually that is the mode, and it also helps as counter magic. Seer's Lantern is actually really impressive. It lets me play Ob Nixilis or Chandra a few turns earlier than normal, and late game it gives me some control over my draw steps. There are a few cards I omitted that normally go in decks like this as well I'd like to cover:
Read the Bones - The loss of life is actually just a little too much. Ob Nixilis provides a steady source of cards at the cost of life, and Ojutai's Command, along with Dragonlord's Prerogative is typically enough card draw to win me the game. The Sire out of the board helps in the control match-ups as well. In the midrange match-ups, I don't need much more card draw then I already have, and so playing this at the life loss, isn't worth it.
Kozilek's Return - Doesn't actually do much against Rally, and Radiant Flames is much better against them. The problem is obviously that Dark Dwellers can't flash it back, but that's okay, typically I only need to cast it once to gain an advantage against Rally, but I haven't tested this match-up outside of two games so I could very well just have gotten lucky. Post board my match-up gets much better.
Any input, cards I missed? Is the Dark-Dwellers actually worth the slot? Should I cut it and go for main deck Kalitas and counter magic instead of the Crackling Dooms? Is there a glaring hole with the mana I'm just missing? I haven't had problems casting Reflector Mage into Chandra/Ob Nixilis/Remorseless Punishment yet, but again that could be positive variance, considering the mana issues I have had were from lack of drawing or flooding, and not coloring.
Any help would be great! I'll be playing this at FNM tonight, but since I'm in the DFW area and pretty much all the top players outside of myself and a very few friends are already at GP Houston, I'm not expecting tonights results to be indicative of the deck's power level. I'll be testing this on some 3rd party sites soon, which will also help, but I definitely am looking for any advice possible right now.
I started with the original list. I noticed how budget it was, so I started by adding some of the rare lands to make the mana more consistent, and fetches to help smooth over the cantrip action later in the game.
The other problem, Nettle Drone kinda sucks. I generate a ton of mana no problem, but it's hard keeping Nettle Drone alive to combo. With Jeskai Ascendency though, you can play the colorless fling guy and just fling all your guys to their face. Multiple different kill conditions will help...
My sideboard has countermagic, and some other colorless spells. It also has more Barrage Tyrants in it, and various X spells to make use of all the ridiculous mana that the deck has. Dispels, Negates, etc. It kind of depends on what's been popular lately.
I like the idea of token-based strategies, but I can't get around the fact that they're so easy to counter. Virulent Plague didn't make top 8 in any form at the PT, but it might start showing up if tokens keep appearing. Radiant Flames certainly showed up at the PT, and unless you have a way of making all the tokens 3/3 or 4/4, (apart from descent of the dragons, which is the wincon), it'll wipe your board before you can do anything. The way around that is to use Jeskai Ascendancy and the Gideon emblem, but then the deck becomes a Jeskai Tokens deck. The problem is, they'll always be able to cast Radiant Flames before you get to cast Descent.
Radiant Flames is a sorcery though, so it doesn't interact favorably against this deck. You can generate enough tokens to kill them at the end of their turn instant speed with Secure and Spawning Bed, so it's not really a problem. As for Virulent Plague, you would just sideboard accordingly. If they play it main deck, then, I guess we lose that game. It's not fair to say x,y,z shuts down x,y,z, when there are instant speed answers available in the sideboard to stop it. It requires drawing the answer, but so does their threat to our combo. The difference is, in this deck, everything relevant happens instant speed, so there are zero sorcery speed interactions that can destroy the tokens.
The reason we need to know is to determine if WER is the right software for this event or if we need to figure out another method that will correctly pair when we swap from standard to modern and keep tie breakers intact.
Thanks for any help!
Round 1 I played against a weird 4 color deck that ran Sultai Ascendancy and Sorin for lifelink. Game 1 I was able to Narset into Rebounded Remorseless Punishment but lost when he played Sorin and started gaining like 15 a turn. Game 2 we both got suck on three lands and I was stuck removing irrelevant creatures so I could Dig Through Time for my fourth land. Eventually I got out of the rut and resolved a Kalitas, but his answer was Torrent Elmental and I had no answer to it as long as Kalitas was in play. He managed get Sorin into play and was able to start producing 2/2 flyers, which I had no real answer too either and I eventually lost.
Round 2 I played against Esper Dragons and it was incredibly easy. Remorseless Punishment did some serious work this match.
Round 3 I played against BW Warriors. Game 2 I flooded out and one of those sources wasn't a Seer's Lantern so I couldn't really find a way through it. I lost when my opponent had a removal spell to remove my Reflector Mage. After the game he showed me his hand and it was all removal spells, which was a little awkward since he hadn't seen a Reflector Mage until game 2. Both games took so long that we didn't have time for game three, but I definitely had the game well in hand by turn 5 when the last turn ended.
Round 4 I played against Jeskai Black and I won two relatively close games that were also relatively unremarkable.
The deck felt strong all night, but it also feels like there is a different direction to take it. Goblin Dark-Dwellers was pretty awful for most of the night, my sideboard was all wrong and I often had more cards to side in then to side out, and while Ojuta's Command was incredibly strong all night, it wasn't strong enough to make me feel the white splash is actually worth it. Cutting white makes the mana better and gives me access to more utility lands. I've started working on a new deck so I don't think I'm going to work on this in the coming week, but any work I do I will post here. It was fun to play, but it didn't blow me away.
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Polluted Delta
2 Wandering Fumerole
4 Smoldering Marsh
3 Sunken Hollow
2 Prairie Stream
2 Swamp
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Reflector Mage
3 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
2 Chandra, Flamecaller
1 Narset Transcendent
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
4 Crackling Doom
1 Exert Influence
2 Ruinous Path
2 Roast
1 Languish
1 Radiant Flames
2 Ojutai's Command
1 Silumgar's Command
2 Dig Through Time
1 Dragonlord's Prerogative
3 Remorseless Punishment
2 Crumble to Dust
3 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Sire of Stagnation
1 Hallowed Moonlight
2 Negate
3 Arc Lightning
1 Ojutai's Command
2 Duress
A few card choices:
Ojutai's Command was put in the deck because I needed a way to gain life. Usually that is the mode, and it also helps as counter magic. Seer's Lantern is actually really impressive. It lets me play Ob Nixilis or Chandra a few turns earlier than normal, and late game it gives me some control over my draw steps. There are a few cards I omitted that normally go in decks like this as well I'd like to cover:
Read the Bones - The loss of life is actually just a little too much. Ob Nixilis provides a steady source of cards at the cost of life, and Ojutai's Command, along with Dragonlord's Prerogative is typically enough card draw to win me the game. The Sire out of the board helps in the control match-ups as well. In the midrange match-ups, I don't need much more card draw then I already have, and so playing this at the life loss, isn't worth it.
Kozilek's Return - Doesn't actually do much against Rally, and Radiant Flames is much better against them. The problem is obviously that Dark Dwellers can't flash it back, but that's okay, typically I only need to cast it once to gain an advantage against Rally, but I haven't tested this match-up outside of two games so I could very well just have gotten lucky. Post board my match-up gets much better.
Any input, cards I missed? Is the Dark-Dwellers actually worth the slot? Should I cut it and go for main deck Kalitas and counter magic instead of the Crackling Dooms? Is there a glaring hole with the mana I'm just missing? I haven't had problems casting Reflector Mage into Chandra/Ob Nixilis/Remorseless Punishment yet, but again that could be positive variance, considering the mana issues I have had were from lack of drawing or flooding, and not coloring.
Any help would be great! I'll be playing this at FNM tonight, but since I'm in the DFW area and pretty much all the top players outside of myself and a very few friends are already at GP Houston, I'm not expecting tonights results to be indicative of the deck's power level. I'll be testing this on some 3rd party sites soon, which will also help, but I definitely am looking for any advice possible right now.
The other problem, Nettle Drone kinda sucks. I generate a ton of mana no problem, but it's hard keeping Nettle Drone alive to combo. With Jeskai Ascendency though, you can play the colorless fling guy and just fling all your guys to their face. Multiple different kill conditions will help...
The other thing I found, the deck really wants Dig Through Time
My Current List:
4 Prairie Stream
1 Cinder Glade
3 Shivan Reef
1 Blighted Cataract
2 Mystic Monestary
3 Plains
4 Islands
3 Mountain
1 Barrage Tyrant
3 Kozilek's Channeler
4 Herald of Kozilek
3 Rattleclaw Mystic
2 Renowned Weaponsmith
3 Refocus
1 Anticipate
2 Dig Through Time
2 Alhammarret's Archive
3 Hedron Archive
3 Jeskai Banner
2 Ojutai Monument
1 Vial of Dragonfire
My sideboard has countermagic, and some other colorless spells. It also has more Barrage Tyrants in it, and various X spells to make use of all the ridiculous mana that the deck has. Dispels, Negates, etc. It kind of depends on what's been popular lately.
Radiant Flames is a sorcery though, so it doesn't interact favorably against this deck. You can generate enough tokens to kill them at the end of their turn instant speed with Secure and Spawning Bed, so it's not really a problem. As for Virulent Plague, you would just sideboard accordingly. If they play it main deck, then, I guess we lose that game. It's not fair to say x,y,z shuts down x,y,z, when there are instant speed answers available in the sideboard to stop it. It requires drawing the answer, but so does their threat to our combo. The difference is, in this deck, everything relevant happens instant speed, so there are zero sorcery speed interactions that can destroy the tokens.