Just came back from a 47 players tourney at a LGS, finished 2-2, not great, but a learning experience. Rocking UG. Please note that I take zero credit for the decklist, JPo tipped me off on this one. MD spells remained intact and I made tweaks to the mana base and sideboard.
Round 1 / Affinity / L 1-2
Round 2 / MonoU Tron / W 2-0 (ragequits)
Round 3 / Affinity / W 2-1
Round 4 / Jund / L 1-2
I feel like I punted against Jund because my initial sideboarding strategy was flawed. I got destroyed by early Liliana's twice, and Inquisition / Thoughtseize for days is brutal. To shore up that matchup I'm leaning on shaving to 2 Swan Song and adding a Pithing Needle. Game 2-3 against BG I will mulligan more aggressively to get early interaction. I've been thinking about sideboarding against all the major archetypes, gonna write something up soon to get feedback.
22 lands is really greedy, and only 6 mine effects (Mikokoro doesn't count) is a concern. I think a successful Time Warp list needs minimum 24 lands + 8 mine effects. 4 Spellskite seems overboard as well, that choice must be meta dependant. It's good against Twin, Jund, Burn, but against Pod and Affinity it doesn't do much. Everything else seems fine.
If a meta is really heavy on aggro / burn, Pharika's Cure could be considered. Easy cuts from the SB are the Boon Satyr, Needle and the 4th Ooze. I like Satyr over Mistcutter, it's more mana efficient and doesn't require you to tap out. Bestow is a bonus.
My reasoning for cutting mana dorks against Burn is that I want to reduce the number of targets for Searing Blood. Demon and Herald can stop Phoenix stone cold. I could see cutting the heavy stuff instead.
I like Shadowborn against Monoblue, it kills their devotion and it's flying.
Are you guys siding out Deathrite this much also? If you're running it, obviously. Also, not too sure about Monoblack. Maybe we need Erebos ourselves out of the SB.
I swear I don't understand why people love Boomerang so much in this deck. OK so you bounce a land turn 2... big deal.
It is a big deal. If I told you could run a card that is essentially a Time Walk on turn 2, would you do it? Yes. But there's a big BUT. 3 conditions have to be met. You have to be on the play. It has to be in you starting hand. You need 2 blue sources in your starting hand. It's gonna happen from time to time, but not consistently enough for me to run them. My guess is that if a Time Warp list ever breaks out, there will be 0 Boomerang in the 75. I've been on and off on this card (currently off). There's no need to be so harsh on other fellow posters, we're all trying to improve the deck in our own way.
I like the idea of splashing G for Rites of Flourishing / Fog / Nature's Claim, which seems like a better package than Explore / Obstinate Baloth. Untapping with Rites will put you so far ahead, just play smart and don't drop it into an obvious Abrupt Decay for the complete blowout. Fog is a 1cmc Time Walk against creature decks, what's not to like? In the Lab Man / Jace shells we don't care about our opponent's life total, making Nature's Claim a 1cmc Naturalize.
Boomerang, Wipe Away, Echoing Truth, Hibernation, Swan Song, Spell Pierce… I think a 1-of Teeg is the least of my worries. Go away hatebears, we don't like your kind.
I'm beginning to second guess Remand in the deck. Reviewing my SB strategies I find out that I'm siding it out in A LOT of match ups. Let's look at the current top 4 of the MTGO meta:
Bad against Affinity
Bad against Pod
Below average against BG Rock
Average to below average against Twin
This is just scratching the surface, let's mention Burn, Merfolk, Infect, Hatebears... I've been on and off on Boomerang, I'm gonna give it another go. Not only it's the best thing we can do on turn 2 on the play (mana denial), it can be an actual answer to Abrupt Decay on our stuff.
This was posted not a long time ago... I doubt it's worth splashing green for Explore and Obstinate Baloth. Also, a single Faerie Conclave as the wincon is kind of surprising, I mean, sick 10 turn clock bro!!
Cryptic is a great card, no question about it. I find that it's stuck in my hand against other blue decks, so trimming on a number of them seems fine.
Exhaustion is good against creature decks and horrendous against other flash / blue decks, so going all out on them must be meta dependent.
@jingleheimersmith: Cutting Serum Visions means you have ZERO turn one play. Elixir / Gigadrowse / Swan Song can be played for one, but are not meant to be played on turn one. To fit Serum in your list, I would do -1 Gigadrowse -2 Swan Song -2 Exhaustion, +4 Serum Visions +1 Boomerang. If you're playing Boomerang might as well max out on those. The cuts can easily fit in your SB.
I disagree when you say that Herald is a bad blocker. It blocks all the dorky flyers of MonoU and Chandra's Phoenix. If it eats up removal that's fine, that means your more relevant threats have one less to worry about. And whipping a Herald with Strength in play is nuts.
It's nice to see a Time Warp deck doing well. I don't think Explore + Baloth warrants a green splash, but I like some of the ideas.
BG Rock is on the rise and it's looking scary, 4 Decay / 4 Inquisition / 3 Thoughtseize MD is brutal. Redirect anyone? jk, but maybe not
I read that a lot of people are having trouble with Burn. Since that is a budget deck we are bound to run into it at LGS's. Maybe we are looking at it all wrong, what if we transform into full on control and change the wincon. Consider this list.
Gigadrowse is there to tap creatures (fog!) instead of lands against burn, they run too many instants. It's not great, but it's better than straight up dying. It will make haste n sac creatures like Hellspark Elemental look foolish. Survive and drop Wurmcoil, that's the plan. I prefer Wurmcoil to Batterskull against burn, it "survives" to Smash to Smithereens. Spellskite is ok against burn, but experienced burn players will see skite coming from a mile away, it's a juicy target for Smash.
Beating GW aggro, RG monsters, RW control, MonoB aggro. Bow of Nylea was real good against monsters. Reckoner is a problem, but not as much as Elspeth. Nylea is there to help with those. Aspect of Hydra was an all star, would not go below 4 in an aggro list.
1 Laboratory Maniac
Planeswalker [1]
1 Jace Beleren
Spells [34]
4 Cryptic Command
4 Dictate of Kruphix
1 Elixir of Immortality
4 Gigadrowse
2 Remand
3 Rites of Flourishing
4 Serum Visions
2 Telling Time
4 Temporal Mastery
4 Time Warp
2 Walk the Aeons
3 Breeding Pool
1 Faerie Conclave
4 Hinterland Harbor
15 Island
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Cyclonic Rift
3 Fog
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Nature's Claim
2 Negate
1 Rapid Hybridization
3 Swan Song
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Round 2 / MonoU Tron / W 2-0 (ragequits)
Round 3 / Affinity / W 2-1
Round 4 / Jund / L 1-2
I feel like I punted against Jund because my initial sideboarding strategy was flawed. I got destroyed by early Liliana's twice, and Inquisition / Thoughtseize for days is brutal. To shore up that matchup I'm leaning on shaving to 2 Swan Song and adding a Pithing Needle. Game 2-3 against BG I will mulligan more aggressively to get early interaction. I've been thinking about sideboarding against all the major archetypes, gonna write something up soon to get feedback.
Screw this, it's gonna be a Thoughtseize instead.
Edit: Golgari Charm can also sweep Young Pyro + his/her tokens in builds playing it.
2 Deathrite Shaman
4 Elvish Mystic
2 Herald of Torment
1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
3 Lotleth Troll
4 Nemesis of Mortals
4 Nighthowler
4 Nyx Weaver
4 Satyr Wayfinder
3 Shadowborn Demon
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Grisly Salvage
2 Whip of Erebos
Lands [21]
7 Forest
4 Overgrown Tomb
7 Swamp
3 Temple of Malady
2 Boon Satyr
2 Golgari Charm
1 Pithing Needle
4 Scavenging Ooze
1 Shadowborn Demon
3 Skylasher
2 Ultimate Price
Monoblack
OUT: 2 Deathrite Shaman / 2 Nemesis of Mortals / 1 Shadowborn Demon
IN: 2 Ultimate Price / 2 Golgari Charm / 1 Pithing Needle
Needle naming Underworld Connections
RGx Monsters
OUT: 2 Deathrite Shaman / 1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
IN: 2 Ultimate Price / 1 Shadowborn Demon
Needle could hit Domri, no idea what to cut.
Monoblue
OUT: 2 Deathrite Shaman / 3 Lotleth Troll / 1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord / 2 Nemesis of Mortals
IN: 2 Golgari Charm / 1 Shadowborn Demon / 3 Skylasher / 2 Ultimate Price
Between Abrupt Decay, Skylasher, Ultimate Price, Golgari Charm and Nyx Weaver, I think we can stall long enough before Shadowborn Demon takes over.
UWx
OUT: 4 Elvish Mystic / 3 Shadowborn Demon / 1 Abrupt Decay
IN: 2 Boon Satyr / 2 Golgari Charm / 3 Skylasher / 1 Pithing Needle
Needle naming AEtherling, any PW not named Jace. Decay is a really narrow answer in this matchup, it only hits D-Sphere.
Burn
OUT: 2 Elvish Mystic / 1 Nemesis of Mortals / 1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord / 1 Shadowborn Demon
IN: 1 Golgari Charm / 4 Scavenging Ooze
Ok I caved in.
My reasoning for cutting mana dorks against Burn is that I want to reduce the number of targets for Searing Blood. Demon and Herald can stop Phoenix stone cold. I could see cutting the heavy stuff instead.
I like Shadowborn against Monoblue, it kills their devotion and it's flying.
Monoblack
OUT: 2 Deathrite Shaman / 1 Nemesis of Mortals / 1 Shadowborn Demon
IN: 2 Ultimate Price, 2 Golgari Charm
Monoblue
OUT: 2 Deathrite Shaman / 3 Lotleth Troll / 2 Nemesis of Mortals / 1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
IN: 2 Golgari Charm / 1 Shadowborn Demon / 3 Skylasher / 2 Ultimate Price
UWx
OUT: 4 Elvish Mystic / 3 Shadowborn Demon
IN: 2 Boon Satyr / 2 Golgari Charm / 3 Skylasher
Burn
OUT: 2 Deathrite Shaman / 1 Nemesis of Mortals / 1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord / 1 Shadowborn Demon
IN: 2 Nylea's Disciple / 3 Scavenging Ooze
2 Deathrite Shaman
4 Elvish Mystic
2 Herald of Torment
1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
3 Lotleth Troll
4 Nemesis of Mortals
4 Nighthowler
4 Nyx Weaver
4 Satyr Wayfinder
3 Shadowborn Demon
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Grisly Salvage
2 Whip of Erebos
Lands [21]
7 Forest
4 Overgrown Tomb
7 Swamp
3 Temple of Malady
2 Boon Satyr
2 Golgari Charm
3 Nylea's Disciple
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Shadowborn Demon
3 Skylasher
2 Ultimate Price
Monoblack
OUT: 2 Deathrite Shaman
IN: 2 Ultimate Price
RGx Monsters
OUT: 2 Deathrite Shaman / 1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
IN: 2 Ultimate Price / 1 Shadowborn Demon
Monoblue
OUT: 2 Deathrite Shaman / 3 Lotleth Troll / 1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord / 2 Abrupt Decay
IN: 2 Golgari Charm / 1 Shadowborn Demon / 3 Skylasher / 2 Ultimate Price
UWx
OUT: 2 Elvish Mystic / 3 Shadowborn Demon / 2 Abrupt Decay
IN: 2 Boon Satyr / 2 Golgari Charm / 3 Skylasher
Burn
OUT: 2 Deathrite Shaman / 1 Elvish Mystic / 1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord / 1 Shadowborn Demon
IN: 3 Nylea's Disciple / 2 Scavenging Ooze
Are you guys siding out Deathrite this much also? If you're running it, obviously. Also, not too sure about Monoblack. Maybe we need Erebos ourselves out of the SB.
I like the idea of splashing G for Rites of Flourishing / Fog / Nature's Claim, which seems like a better package than Explore / Obstinate Baloth. Untapping with Rites will put you so far ahead, just play smart and don't drop it into an obvious Abrupt Decay for the complete blowout. Fog is a 1cmc Time Walk against creature decks, what's not to like? In the Lab Man / Jace shells we don't care about our opponent's life total, making Nature's Claim a 1cmc Naturalize.
Exhaustion is good against creature decks and horrendous against other flash / blue decks, so going all out on them must be meta dependent.
@jingleheimersmith: Cutting Serum Visions means you have ZERO turn one play. Elixir / Gigadrowse / Swan Song can be played for one, but are not meant to be played on turn one. To fit Serum in your list, I would do -1 Gigadrowse -2 Swan Song -2 Exhaustion, +4 Serum Visions +1 Boomerang. If you're playing Boomerang might as well max out on those. The cuts can easily fit in your SB.
BG Rock is on the rise and it's looking scary, 4 Decay / 4 Inquisition / 3 Thoughtseize MD is brutal. Redirect anyone? jk, but maybe not
I read that a lot of people are having trouble with Burn. Since that is a budget deck we are bound to run into it at LGS's. Maybe we are looking at it all wrong, what if we transform into full on control and change the wincon. Consider this list.
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
Planeswalkers [2]
2 Jace Beleren
Spells [34]
2 Cryptic Command
4 Dictate of Kruphix
1 Elixir of Immortality
3 Gigadrowse
4 Remand
4 Serum Visions
2 Spell Snare
2 Telling Time
4 Temporal Mastery
4 Time Warp
4 Walk the Aeons
23 Island
2 Aetherize
2 Dismember
1 Dispel
1 Gigadrowse
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Laboratory Maniac
2 Spell Pierce
2 Swan Song
2 Wurmcoil Engine
3 Boon Satyr
2 Brushstrider
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Experiment One
3 Gyre Sage
4 Kalonian Tusker
3 Reverent Hunter
3 Scavenging Ooze
2 Spire Tracer
3 Swordwise Centaur
4 Aspect of Hydra
3 Ranger's Guile
Lands [18]
16 Forest
2 Mutavault
1 Boon Satyr
2 Bow of Nylea
2 Nylea, God of the Hunt
2 Plummet
1 Reverent Hunter
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Setessan Tactics
2 Skylasher
2 Unravel the AEther
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
Planeswalkers [2]
2 Jace Beleren
Spells [34]
4 Cryptic Command
4 Dictate of Kruphix
1 Elixir of Immortality
3 Gigadrowse
4 Remand
4 Serum Visions
2 Telling Time
4 Temporal Mastery
4 Time Warp
4 Walk the Aeons
22 Island
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
2 AEtherize
2 Dismember
1 Gigadrowse
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Laboratory Maniac
2 Spell Snare
2 Sun Droplet
3 Swan Song