I do like the look of Avacyn, but 5 non eldrazi and WW is kind of steep. Maybe I'll try it as a 1x.
I have to note that you're not on worship in the board. Is the card just not doing it for you?
I actually bring in tocatli a lot, but perhaps I would less without it making a worship lock.
Similarly, what is binding doing for you? I haven't understood that choice from the get-go. It seems so clunky. Cast out is an instant that cycles if it's too clunky and it's really there for trouble cards like blood moon and bridge while also catching the odd walker hence why it's in the board. Like, if you hate dismember that much, journey to nowhere is your card right?
Also I think chalice on 1 is much better vs bant spirits than it is vs UW. And taking out dismember there can't be right. You want all the removal you can get there.
KCI has been the freest MU in all of modern. We have MD chalice, tks, and Thalia with a fast clock with a ton of hard sb answers that chalice even protects from nature's claim.
Hardened scales Is hugely favorable. I think I'm something like 12-1 vs them. It's like affinity but much easier g1 (due to the amount of 1 drops they run making chalice way better) and more hate post board.
I stand by that humans is fine post board. I have a ~66% win rate vs them. Just aggressively mull for hate.
The one shift in the meta that's poor for us is Jeskai moving to UW which is much closer to 50/50 vs Jeskai which was one of the decks we preyed upon.
While I have lost to hollow one, I usually don't. Early chalice and Thalia just wreck them and then displacer takes the game over.
Vengevine is even easier since they're all 1s and don't have a crazy sb removal plan.
Spirits often can't beat a worship, though they can just get you sometimes. I don't have enough reps there to say one way or the other, but it /feels/fine.
Seriously, hollow one, vengevine, hardened scales, and kci are all huge reasons to play this in my mind.
Hi all!
I've been a bit MIA here it seems. Sorry about that guys.
Without Further ado, here's my tournament report from GP Las Vegas.
I took my Thalia Stompy list to GP Vegas and got 61st! This was my first day 2 and I'm pretty pleased with the deck choice and how I played. I'd take that 75 and try it again if I could. If I could have dodged a little more variance (this is where having any buys might have come in), I think I could have top8ed. I think my list was very well positioned.
Here's the short version of how I did:
4 humans 3-1
3 Jeskai 2-1
2 Mardu 1-1
2 jund 2-0
1 infect 1-0
1 UW miracles 1-0
1 G/B Tron 1-0
1 merfolk tie (this should have been a win and while I missed a couple things in our last game, I think this was a paper thing that happened because I'm used to mtgo).
For a more in depth report, you can check out the notes I took on my phone as I went through the tournament. I had notes for every MU, but it seems some of what I had was lost because I exceeded the character count in the memo I saved things. I tried to go back through and fill in what I could. Also, I tried to include how I boarded, but also missed some of that stuff. Turns out going day 2 kinda took it out of me . Sorry about that. I hope you find it useful.
Day 1:
R1 vs Breanna on Jeskai control
G1 I mull to 6 on the play with a simian t1 arbiter. I then draw Thalia and had copter into displacer to get there.
G2 I board out 3 dismember for karn, spyglass, and cast out. Mull to 6 with a gemstone. I go t1 Thalia into t2 arbiter+gq. She paths arbiter the following turn. I draw arbiter and then go cavern into tks. The last turn she tries to snap path smasher and I say trigger and point at it. She says ok and goes to block without discarding not realizing what happened. I lethal her.
2-0
R2 vs Isaiah on Jeskai
G1 my opponent likes to be fancy with snap and block and then play the card after combat. He does this with arbiter and lets the bolt sit there. I tks for the blowout. The same thing happens with path and then I chalice into tks.
G2 I kept a clunker with gemstone. I need it up not lotus petalling it and he resolves teferi where I drawn in cards. The boarding is the same except g3 I sb out a gemstone for a rip. G3 is close where we both run low on cards. I smasher him to 3. He taps out for snap wrath. I have copter out and no cards in hand, but top another smasher.
2-1
R3 Fadel on Jund
I'm on the draw both games. I believe my opponent mulls to 6 both times too. Oh and I luckstoned both times ;). G1 I luckstone and he takes my thicc Thalia leaving displacer, simian, and dismember with some lands (the cavern exiled my second displacer) he follows it up with a bolt, but then his draw was pretty anemic and mine was full of squidbois.
G2 I bring in 2 rip 1 karn 1 cast out for 4 chalices. I run out t1 arbiter which he kills. I go t2 simian, karn. I proceed to then run away with the game while my opponent stumbled.
2-0
R4 vs Brian? On Mardu pyro
G1 I'm on the play with 2x TGoT, tks, temple, and some lands. He t1 thoughtseizes and has to take tks. I drew pretty well, but ultimately the taxes got me there.
I go -2 copter, -1 displacer, -1 tks, -1 dismember and-1? for cast out, karn, 2 rips, and 2 Dec in stone. On the play the? Become gemstone.
G2 he had a lili last hope plus souls draw and gets my awkward start despite my luckstone.
G3 I keep a slight clunker, but OP mulls to 5. He manages to deal with 2x smashers. He almost grinds me out, but after some canopies I rip tks to take his last card, looting. Tks went the distance.
Note: OP says he should only have moon vs me on the play because it's slow
R5 vs Elliot on WU miracles control
G1 t1 chalice stomp.
G2 we have a grindy match and he barely gets there with collonade.
G3 another crazy one. I Dec in stoned his entreat angels and get out karn which gets d sphered. I eventually get there with a tks and Thalia.
Out 3 dismember and in cast out, karn, and spyglass. G3 out 1 gemstones in 1 Dec in stone.
2-1
R6 vs D...? On merfolk
He runs me over g1 and I do that to him g2.
G3 I resolve a worship and a chalice on 2. He kept playing so I thought he had another out. The board was insane and I apparently missed multiple ways I could have won.
I brought in nearly the whole board -stony and rip.
We draw. 1-1-1.
R7 vs V... on Jeskai.
I mull to 5 and then a weak 6 G1 and 2 and lose.
R8 last shot at a win and in vs Megan on humans
G1 I'm on the play with a D&T kinda hand. She goes t1 hierarch into t2 mantis rider. I have no removal and scoop showing only Thalia.
The sb comes in and I mull to worship. I barely live resolving it with only smasher. She scoops. G3 I go to 5 with 2x dismember and triple land with a gemstone. I get it and decapitate her dork and then rider. I proceed to draw tocatli into displacer into worship. She names worship with mage and I draw Dec in stone. I got lucky here, but I got there! I boarded in 3 tocatli, 2 worship, 2 Dec in stone, cast out, and spyglass. On the play it's gemstone, 4 Thalia 4 arbiter. On the draw it's +1gemstone -1 chalice. I might have gone -1 more chalice for a Thalia, but I can't recall.
2-1
Note: I boarded pretty much the same vs merfolk.
That a 6-1-1 record. Yeaaah boi. I should be 7-1 with the tie punts, but at the end of the day I did it and I'm super stoked.
Day 2:
R1 vs Bobby on humans.
He runs me over g1. I bring in the board and mull to a 6 with removal and displacer and decide to keep. I almost stabilized, but never drew a hate effect I needed over 7 turns and died.
0-2
R2 vs Cody on infect
G1 I mull to 5 and go t1 chalice. He eventually finds a skite and agent. I find thalias and smasher. He echoing truths chalice, but forgets about Thalia to hit me to 9 poison before dying on the crackback. G2 I draw a 2nd dismember to go t1 take out the work t2 take out the agent into chalice on 1.
2-0
R3 vs Patrick on humans
G1 his start is a little slow and I fight with copter and displacer, but lose. G2 I kill with copter while I hide behind worship.
G3 I keep 7 with 2 plains, Worship, dismember, displacer, tks, and smasher. I rip tocatli for t2 tocatli t3 worship. He was tilted because he didn't see tocatli and the worship answered the booter.
2-1
R4 vs Taylor on Jund
I mull to 6 and get junded out g1.
G2 I keep a slow drazi heavy hand and he keeps a pretty slow out. I cast out lili and tks into tks +rip into smasher to win.
G3 I keep a 2x canopy temple hand with thicc Thalia, dismember, and simian. He ioks the Thalia, but then I draw tks and he has only bbe which hits bolt. I draw more drazi and win.
2-1
R5 vs Tyler on Mardu pyro.
I play g1, but he tears my hands to shreds while I flood. I try to race with smasher with tks om blocks vs pyro and friends. If I had hit 1 more thing I think I woulda had it.
G2 I go t1 arbiter and get him. He accidentally cracks a fetch and loses from there.
G3 was nuts. I kept a double simian 2x chalice, gq, cast put, and Dec in stone hand. My opponent takes the Dec in stone so I chalice him. We both miss land drops until he finds young pizzy who still gets tokens off 1 drops even if they're countered. I'm forced to gq myself to land a big Thalia and an arbiter. We still are stuck on 2 mana each (I drew 1 more after the gq] until he draws a terminate to finish me off.
1-2
Note: Mardu might be my closest MU in the meta. I'm not really scared at all of any of the other top decks. This one might be a coin flip.
R6 vs Ophel? On GB tron
G1 I mull to 5, but have a good start. He has natty tron so I lose. G2 and 3 I mull to 6, but have a hate piece t1 into displacer t2 hate piece t3 for ggs. -2 copter -1 gemstone(on the play)/1 cavern of souls on the draw -3 dismember for 2 Dec in stone 3 stony 1 spyglass.
2-1
Note: for whatever reason any of the splash tron lists feel much easier than mono G.
R7 vs?? On humans
G1 we both have suboptimal starts and it is a bit of a fight, but he gets there. G2 I keep a displacer removal 6 and rip a tocatli at the right time and eventually kill with tks while protecting myself with displacer.
G3 I keep a 7 with dismember, lands, simian, tocatli, and some drazi (hello there displacer). He goes t2 mage name tocatli and I dismember it into t2 tocatli. He's clearly unhappy. I rip a worship for land simian worship. Next turn it's displacer and I take the game over. I ended up drawing 2nd displacer and tocatli eventually. Also spyglass on izzet staticaster and chalice on 1 for whatever bizzarro stuff he might have. He refuses to scoop saying he has an answer. So I eventually draw tks and keep up 1 displacer activation and mull him out. What an end to the GP!
Takeaway: Overall I was very pleased with the deck's performance. If I were to go to that tournament again right now, I'd be quite happy with that 75. If I could guarantee I'd face exactly what I did, I'd probably try to make room for another Karn, scion of Urza in the board since I really didn't see much tron and did see a lot of midrange and control, but my understanding was that it was all over day 2, so I think I made the right call with sorcerous spyglass. In fact, I like the effect enough that I've been trying 1x phyrexian revoker MD over 1x dismember on mtgo and it feels right for the meta.
@redtwister Baby Karn is a difficult walker to kill and can take over the game from multiple angles while also being castable under a blood moon. It's everything I want in a SB anti control/midrange slot.
I did not stream it because I was double queued in the standard MOCS event and it was just too much to manage for me to stream it too.
I did not write up a tournament report directly afterward so some of my memory of the event is a little hazy, but I can try. I don't remember specifics for each match, but I'll add comments on anything I do recall with the how the match went.
Going threw my games I saw the following;
R1 vs mardu pyro 2-0.
R2 vs G Tron 2-1.
R3 vs WU control 2-0.
I remember here that G1 he kept a 1 lander and I locked him out pretty fast. I only saw a plains and a field of ruin so I actually thought he was on taxes. In retrospect I should have thought of WU control, but I boarded for a creature MU, but apparently wasn't punished for it.
R4 vs humans 2-1.
Game one he ran me over and g2 and 3 I found timely tocatli+ worship.
R5 vs Affinity 2-1.
R6 vs Bogles 0-2
I remember having a good tax hand, but no acceleration and he had t1 dude into spells and I was pretty dead right away.
G2 I mulled to 2 before seeing a single land.
R7 vs humans 2-0.
I recall this particular round was one of my oddest rounds vs humans. Both games I was on the draw with gemstone caverns, chalice of the void, and dismember. G1 I dismembered his hierarch and then locked him out with chalice on 1 (I guess he had 1 drops and no second land) Notably his land wasn't cavern in either game. G2 was the same thing except he started with vial and I drew my singleton boarded in sorcerous spyglass resulting in t2 spyglassing his vial and then t2 dismembering his hierarch and simianing into chalice for the same thing.
TOP 8
Quarterfinals vs G tron 2-1.
G1 I flooded after a t1 chalice and lost.
Got there g2 and got lucky g3 where he missed his 5th land for ostone before dying to my pressure.
Finals vs Grixis Death's Shadow 2-1.
G1 I tried to get him with a fast arbtier strip mine on t2, but he had removal into t4 double shadow and I lost.
G2 I lead on t1 chalice and that was pretty much it. I recall I GQed his R source and at the end of the game I saw his hand where he had multiple kolaghan's command stuck in hand.
G3 was very very close. He tried to race me with some snappies and it ended up with a death's shadow + 2x snappies vs double thalias and a tks in a board-stall. Finally he swung in and I got the DS in combat with a dismember. He draws a young pizzy and I swing in forcing the snappies to block. At this point he has no cards in hand, 1 young pyromancer and nothing else with me at 1. I play an arbiter to block and cross my fingers he doesn't draw removal. He draws a dismember and got so excited that he used it in his drawstep to kill TKS when he could have lethaled me. He sat there for a good minute realizing his punt as he didn't draw a second removal spell, or at least not one he could cast and was dead on the crackback.
@2imu (and anyone who care to answer)
So If you could go back and play another similarly large tournament at the moment, how would you change the SB specifically? I feel that everything in my SB other than the cast out/c purge is locked in (maybe the 2 dec in stone vs 1 r bomb 1 dec split is a thing). I was slightly concerned about G tron, but I think we still have game there, and I feel like I've been beating mardu pyro pretty decently and they're the main blood moon deck. I'm not sure I need SB answers to the card beyond just tight plays though both cards do more than just answer blood moon.
Also I've been testing spatial contortion which has been fine, but I think I'm probably gonna stick with 4x dismember MD.
I'm glad to see that my twitch VODS were put to some good use! It sounds like you did some really good work and had pretty great results, all considered. I know it can be hard afterward when you realize you made a punt (did you see that game I had vs bant knightfall?), but it's best to take it on the chin. Everyone can make mistakes, especially at a longer event like that and without much experience with the deck. I've been impressed with the 75 you took, though I've been doing some testing mostly with the board and the 4th dismember before Vegas to see if I can get any valuable information I was missing. I'll likely write up a tournament report of my own afterwards.
Anyway, thanks for sharing your results and I'm glad the deck is treating you well!
EDIT: I'm looking forward to seeing how much representation the deck had at regionals because I know quite a few people who said they were going to take it. I should also note that my win % has gone down quite a bit since the deck has received as much attention as it has. I think people are prepping for us a little more than they used to. I'm down to a still pretty great 68%.Having said that, there's still no other list I'd rather take to Vegas.
The deck has been getting a ton of attention since this last weekend after my modern challenge finish, 5-0s, ptq top 16, and bertram's top 8. I was a tad sad going back through that video as I punted one of my losses g1 to bant company and it might have made the difference to let me get to top 8. Ah well. Making 1 mistake at such a long tournament is nothing to beat myself up over.
I do see the possible problem of having all the dismembers and losing to the life loss, but I've really been struggling to find a better removal spell for the deck. warping wail just didn't kill enough and the most relevant sorcery I wanted to counter was good ol uncounterable wrath (supreme verdict). I've tested spatial contortion and it didn't quite do it for me either. so I've been on the 4th dismember.
Reshaper is fine, but I personally don't like it as much as copter. Being able to get through your lands or the wrong half of your deck is vital. Reshaper only goes through 1 card if it dies. Also, having a flier int he worship stall-states is really nice.
In terms of humans, I board very similar to how I might vs affinity subbing stony for tocatli and keeping copter. One thing to note is that I like chalice on the play as you can sometimes just go t1 chalice and win though it's pretty awful otherwise.
The only MU I've been running into with any consistency that is difficult pre and post has actually been G tron. I'm somewhat shocked to see that as the MU used to always be free. I've been testing damping sphere and crucible of worlds in the board, but I'm not sure just yet how it should look. Having sphere and stony feels like it might be overboarding. On a tangentially related note, I've been starting to wonder how much I need the cards that answer blood moon. I've been beating mardu pretty well and can kinda play around/thru moon often, though it can definitely get us.
I like cavern of souls a lot actually. It helps seal up any kinda deck that would counter our stuff and while those decks aren't typically tough, it can matter. We don't have many tools post board to help there, so it's nice having a trump card. Furthermore, I have cast one too many simians off it that have mattered to go back. The only other utility land I'd consider is some kinda LD slot since that would help vs control and tron, but I doubt a 1x does that much.
Thanks! I also have been putting up some pretty good finishes since then. One thing to note about the link I 5-0ed with is that I didn't end up liking warping wail. Otherwise it's still pretty similar. I've also gone up to 4x canopy which I'm certain was correct. I'm not sure why I be at did that before.
I'm glad to hear it treated you pretty well.
Humans is not favored preboard, tho it is possible to win with things like a t1 chalice on the play, fast smasher, or displacer+ dismember getting there. Postboard, much like affinity, it gets much much better. With an abundance of removal, 3 tocatli, and worship the matchup becomes good. You mentioned your board is different than mine and I wonder how much that contributes to our win% discrepancy. Mind sharing your board?
Oh and Karn is just the go to grind slot. He's easier to cast than something like Gideon and can even be played through a blood moon. If you want a sb grindy walker slot, he's your man.
Sometimes I'm flooded and sometimes I'm starved, but I think I'm happy with this mana base. I think 4 thalias is very important. If I were to make a cut, it'd probably be the reshaper as that's my flex slot and I'm uncertain what it should be (aven mindcensor and bladesplicer chief among other candidates). For a reference point, I think colorless eldrazi should have a similar land count to us, but they're on 23 lands as of this last GP.
It seems to me that 2 stony 2 ratchet (and the worhsip and cast out?) should be enough against affinity and I'm already fine vs eggs, lantern, tron, and ad naus so I think the -1 stony shouldn't hurt me too bad while the ratchet should help me in trouble spots vs aggroswarms/tokens or even vs blood moon.
kitchen finks is the card I'm least sure about in the board, but I need a value slot to help vs stuff like GBx. While mirran crusader should be better, I'm not keen on him being bolted. Plus the life might be nice as I'm anticipating burn.My main concern is that it might be difficult to cast.
tocatli honor guard is preferable to hushwing gryff because I need it ASAP vs something like humans (which I think is still fine atm). I like it more than the orb because it attacks and I can see myself bringing it in vs something like control with snapcaster mage, vendilion clique. Otherwise it's just a versatile card that I can bring in vs a range of decks including D&T and bantcompany to primetime.
Of those decks, most can remove him (humans often has no way and if they do it's like 1 dismember and company has been occasionally pathless lately), but they only have so much removal to use with many cards they'd like to kill. Plus it works with worship ;P.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is slightly better at grinding imo even if he doesn't let my dudes fly over to dome them. I like him a little more on an empty board. I think it's a toss up between the 2 and I found 6 mana elspeth often uncastable.
I think I've settled on a 75 for GP Phoenix and would love some feedback. In particular I wonder if matter reshaper is the right 1x value oriented flex slot. Also I'm unsure about the board.
On Side-boarding;
Playing stony silence for us has gotten worse and worse as we have begun to play more artifacts in the form of smuggler's copter and thraben inspector. This is why you'll see some lists without it int he board, but conventional wisdom is that stony is so good where you want it, that it is worth it. If you're still playing the card (which may or may not be correct depending on your meta, playstyle, etc), I'm curious to hear how you like to board with it. For instance, I think that thraben inspector is absolutely vital vs lantern and would not ever board it out, even if I was bringing in 4 stonies. The truth is, they like to start with hand disruption and then control your draws, making stony hard to resolve. Inspector can help you to draw something relevant. If you have stony and inspector, then you're probably in a good spot.
I use similar logic with vial vs affinity as it helps us stay at parody on board. A fellow streamer likes to make fun of my non-bo style boarding, calling it the "spiderspace special," but I truly believe that to be correct.
Also, D&T is not usually fast enough to get under a GBx deck. For a long time, I experimented with boarding out 0-4 vials vs them and finally came around to the camp of boarding them out. It might be a very different discussion for a deck like humans which can clock them fast enough for it to matter, but it's simply not the case with us. Our deck grinds pretty well with canopies and inspectors or displacers (for the 2 most popular variants. Otherwise you have cards like collected company so I stand by my point). Additionally we have walkers to bring in vs them making us even grindier. Yes, they can resolve a dark confidant that can run away with the game, but they can also brick on hand disruption as we beat them down with a bear and rest in peace makes tarmogoyf into a plant token.
SpiderSpace did nicely with a build recently, would love to hear from him on how his sideboard felt with lots of not Path to Exile removal.
I felt sideboarding into nonbos was awkward. While there are matchups where you want path and not chalice, they're not always a 1 for 1 exchange. A good example of that is vs death's shadow where you want both cards. declaration in stone is just a nice decent broad answer for tokens as well as other decks. Occasionally, I've brought it in with stony so they don't get the upside (it has to be a MU where the OP plays some amount of artifacts of course).
To be honest, there aren't a lot of matchups where I felt a really missed path. I'm bringing in other hate for storm which really loves something like counters company as a bad MU. I already am jamming cage, but let's face it, it's probably just a poor MU.
I like worship in this meta. Humans is difficult otherwise. The walkers are anti control/midrange cards. Otherwise, I think my SB hate is pretty reasonable/standard.
Grats on your recent results with GW SpiderSpace! Any chance you'll be posting your thoughts on your card choices/matchups?
I tend to not post a lot of tournament reports here anymore often because they get buried in comments and then people ask about something that's on the page just before and so it doesn't seem worthwhile to spend time unless someone asks me for them as you have.
That GW list is probably my most perfected variance of D&T and is a list I have worked on for a long time. I just explained ghostly and eidolon above. I should add that eidolon is more necessary in GW as I'm on 3 thalia to accommodate for cocos.
I added field of ruin because of tron's uptick in presence. I like it more vs tron and affinity as you can use them when they have less lands than 4 while I don't feel I need the extra help vs control decks where tectonic edge is better. The mana is still quite clean (and relatively simple) though. Voice of resurgence is nice for grinding capabilities. In fact, this list grinds better than many versions of D&T with cards like that, ewit, and coco, while still being able to be very aggressive with acceleration from hierarch.
I should note that I used to run rip, but this list has GY cards that are excellent in most places you'd want rip, so I moved over to relic of progenitus to not hose myself. Additionally, running stony here feels much easier than in mono W as vial is the only MD artifact.
EE is just a great SB option that cleans up tokens (lingering souls and empty the warrens anyone?) and can be brought in for aggro MUs like humans or affinity.
reclamation sage is a nice SB option. I think it's better than qasali pridemage as I think pridemage is a MD kinda card in a coco shell, it's nice to abuse etb abilities.
ramunap excavator grinds well vs control decks while also being a good option for the greedier decks of the format like DS and humans and also coming in vs big mana decks as that extra oomph (tron variants and valakut).
If you have any questions about particular cards or MUs, please do ask. I'd be happy to answer them.
@Spiderspace
Hi, I am very interested in knowing more about the deck with which spiderspace did 5-2 in a modern challenge recently. Could you explain the reasoning behind the sideboard and their particular matchup? Thank you for the information.
Have a good day everyone!
Also @Bearscape (since it looks like you based your list off mine)
I don't recall all the matchups at this point in time, but I can tell you that my losses were to humans (as would be expected) and to G tron. Vs humans, I've been in love with ghostly prison. The card comes in vs a lot of decks, but since humans started to play kessig malcontents more, ghostly has started to look worse. The tron loss was due to variance clear and simple. I mulled to 5 g1 and almost got him. G2 I drew all 4 vials and all my plains.
I do like gideon of the trials as a versatile pseudo removal card that can grind and is also decent burn hate.
To note, I was trying it again as well as gelid shackles because Theau Murray talked about them and I thought it was time to try the later and give the former another shot. That's also why I was playing stony which is a strong SB card, but one that I like less and less in mono W as cards like copter and inspector pull so much weight.
I do like the gideon, but I'm not in love with shackles. It's kind of like a weaker, but more versatile sunlance, but it just doesn't do enough in my opinion. I can see it being better vs E tron and it has potential in some other big creature MUs, but sunlance doesn't require the repeated mana investment. You may consider trying to get Theau's take, but I don't love the card.
Eidolon of rhetoric is just such a powerful and versatile SB card. It has hidden applications beyond hosing storm. For instance, stopping tron from playing multiple eggs in a turn is very nice. it also hoses snappy without doing nothing else in a game the way rest in peace might vs control.
Overall, the deck is strong and resilient. I'm uncertain if I want stony or not, ghostly probably needs to become something else to have a shot vs humans (worship perhaps?), I like the double gid-fathers, 2 BFT felt right, and eidolon is just a sweet card.
EDIT: I was boarding out copters for stonies if I wanted that effect.
@grayson290
It's just a plains with an upside. The only downside is making your deck slightly weaker to blood moon. The card is by no means essential, and typically is only run in mono W, where you're not worried about moon anyway. Some corner cases come up where it's nice to have. For instance is lets thalia dodge kolaghan's command. It gets better with more legends. For instance, Thalia, heretic cathargets through lightning bolt or anger of the gods if you have it up.
I have to note that you're not on worship in the board. Is the card just not doing it for you?
I actually bring in tocatli a lot, but perhaps I would less without it making a worship lock.
Similarly, what is binding doing for you? I haven't understood that choice from the get-go. It seems so clunky. Cast out is an instant that cycles if it's too clunky and it's really there for trouble cards like blood moon and bridge while also catching the odd walker hence why it's in the board. Like, if you hate dismember that much, journey to nowhere is your card right?
Also I think chalice on 1 is much better vs bant spirits than it is vs UW. And taking out dismember there can't be right. You want all the removal you can get there.
KCI has been the freest MU in all of modern. We have MD chalice, tks, and Thalia with a fast clock with a ton of hard sb answers that chalice even protects from nature's claim.
Hardened scales Is hugely favorable. I think I'm something like 12-1 vs them. It's like affinity but much easier g1 (due to the amount of 1 drops they run making chalice way better) and more hate post board.
I stand by that humans is fine post board. I have a ~66% win rate vs them. Just aggressively mull for hate.
The one shift in the meta that's poor for us is Jeskai moving to UW which is much closer to 50/50 vs Jeskai which was one of the decks we preyed upon.
While I have lost to hollow one, I usually don't. Early chalice and Thalia just wreck them and then displacer takes the game over.
Vengevine is even easier since they're all 1s and don't have a crazy sb removal plan.
Spirits often can't beat a worship, though they can just get you sometimes. I don't have enough reps there to say one way or the other, but it /feels/fine.
Seriously, hollow one, vengevine, hardened scales, and kci are all huge reasons to play this in my mind.
Congrats on that top 8 tho!
I've been a bit MIA here it seems. Sorry about that guys.
Without Further ado, here's my tournament report from GP Las Vegas.
I took my Thalia Stompy list to GP Vegas and got 61st! This was my first day 2 and I'm pretty pleased with the deck choice and how I played. I'd take that 75 and try it again if I could. If I could have dodged a little more variance (this is where having any buys might have come in), I think I could have top8ed. I think my list was very well positioned.
Here's the short version of how I did:
4 humans 3-1
3 Jeskai 2-1
2 Mardu 1-1
2 jund 2-0
1 infect 1-0
1 UW miracles 1-0
1 G/B Tron 1-0
1 merfolk tie (this should have been a win and while I missed a couple things in our last game, I think this was a paper thing that happened because I'm used to mtgo).
It was the same 75 I won the challenge with https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1143958#paper
For a more in depth report, you can check out the notes I took on my phone as I went through the tournament. I had notes for every MU, but it seems some of what I had was lost because I exceeded the character count in the memo I saved things. I tried to go back through and fill in what I could. Also, I tried to include how I boarded, but also missed some of that stuff. Turns out going day 2 kinda took it out of me
R1 vs Breanna on Jeskai control
G1 I mull to 6 on the play with a simian t1 arbiter. I then draw Thalia and had copter into displacer to get there.
G2 I board out 3 dismember for karn, spyglass, and cast out. Mull to 6 with a gemstone. I go t1 Thalia into t2 arbiter+gq. She paths arbiter the following turn. I draw arbiter and then go cavern into tks. The last turn she tries to snap path smasher and I say trigger and point at it. She says ok and goes to block without discarding not realizing what happened. I lethal her.
2-0
R2 vs Isaiah on Jeskai
G1 my opponent likes to be fancy with snap and block and then play the card after combat. He does this with arbiter and lets the bolt sit there. I tks for the blowout. The same thing happens with path and then I chalice into tks.
G2 I kept a clunker with gemstone. I need it up not lotus petalling it and he resolves teferi where I drawn in cards. The boarding is the same except g3 I sb out a gemstone for a rip. G3 is close where we both run low on cards. I smasher him to 3. He taps out for snap wrath. I have copter out and no cards in hand, but top another smasher.
2-1
R3 Fadel on Jund
I'm on the draw both games. I believe my opponent mulls to 6 both times too. Oh and I luckstoned both times ;). G1 I luckstone and he takes my thicc Thalia leaving displacer, simian, and dismember with some lands (the cavern exiled my second displacer) he follows it up with a bolt, but then his draw was pretty anemic and mine was full of squidbois.
G2 I bring in 2 rip 1 karn 1 cast out for 4 chalices. I run out t1 arbiter which he kills. I go t2 simian, karn. I proceed to then run away with the game while my opponent stumbled.
2-0
R4 vs Brian? On Mardu pyro
G1 I'm on the play with 2x TGoT, tks, temple, and some lands. He t1 thoughtseizes and has to take tks. I drew pretty well, but ultimately the taxes got me there.
I go -2 copter, -1 displacer, -1 tks, -1 dismember and-1? for cast out, karn, 2 rips, and 2 Dec in stone. On the play the? Become gemstone.
G2 he had a lili last hope plus souls draw and gets my awkward start despite my luckstone.
G3 I keep a slight clunker, but OP mulls to 5. He manages to deal with 2x smashers. He almost grinds me out, but after some canopies I rip tks to take his last card, looting. Tks went the distance.
Note: OP says he should only have moon vs me on the play because it's slow
R5 vs Elliot on WU miracles control
G1 t1 chalice stomp.
G2 we have a grindy match and he barely gets there with collonade.
G3 another crazy one. I Dec in stoned his entreat angels and get out karn which gets d sphered. I eventually get there with a tks and Thalia.
Out 3 dismember and in cast out, karn, and spyglass. G3 out 1 gemstones in 1 Dec in stone.
2-1
R6 vs D...? On merfolk
He runs me over g1 and I do that to him g2.
G3 I resolve a worship and a chalice on 2. He kept playing so I thought he had another out. The board was insane and I apparently missed multiple ways I could have won.
I brought in nearly the whole board -stony and rip.
We draw. 1-1-1.
R7 vs V... on Jeskai.
I mull to 5 and then a weak 6 G1 and 2 and lose.
R8 last shot at a win and in vs Megan on humans
G1 I'm on the play with a D&T kinda hand. She goes t1 hierarch into t2 mantis rider. I have no removal and scoop showing only Thalia.
The sb comes in and I mull to worship. I barely live resolving it with only smasher. She scoops. G3 I go to 5 with 2x dismember and triple land with a gemstone. I get it and decapitate her dork and then rider. I proceed to draw tocatli into displacer into worship. She names worship with mage and I draw Dec in stone. I got lucky here, but I got there! I boarded in 3 tocatli, 2 worship, 2 Dec in stone, cast out, and spyglass. On the play it's gemstone, 4 Thalia 4 arbiter. On the draw it's +1gemstone -1 chalice. I might have gone -1 more chalice for a Thalia, but I can't recall.
2-1
Note: I boarded pretty much the same vs merfolk.
That a 6-1-1 record. Yeaaah boi. I should be 7-1 with the tie punts, but at the end of the day I did it and I'm super stoked.
R1 vs Bobby on humans.
He runs me over g1. I bring in the board and mull to a 6 with removal and displacer and decide to keep. I almost stabilized, but never drew a hate effect I needed over 7 turns and died.
0-2
R2 vs Cody on infect
G1 I mull to 5 and go t1 chalice. He eventually finds a skite and agent. I find thalias and smasher. He echoing truths chalice, but forgets about Thalia to hit me to 9 poison before dying on the crackback. G2 I draw a 2nd dismember to go t1 take out the work t2 take out the agent into chalice on 1.
2-0
R3 vs Patrick on humans
G1 his start is a little slow and I fight with copter and displacer, but lose. G2 I kill with copter while I hide behind worship.
G3 I keep 7 with 2 plains, Worship, dismember, displacer, tks, and smasher. I rip tocatli for t2 tocatli t3 worship. He was tilted because he didn't see tocatli and the worship answered the booter.
2-1
R4 vs Taylor on Jund
I mull to 6 and get junded out g1.
G2 I keep a slow drazi heavy hand and he keeps a pretty slow out. I cast out lili and tks into tks +rip into smasher to win.
G3 I keep a 2x canopy temple hand with thicc Thalia, dismember, and simian. He ioks the Thalia, but then I draw tks and he has only bbe which hits bolt. I draw more drazi and win.
2-1
R5 vs Tyler on Mardu pyro.
I play g1, but he tears my hands to shreds while I flood. I try to race with smasher with tks om blocks vs pyro and friends. If I had hit 1 more thing I think I woulda had it.
G2 I go t1 arbiter and get him. He accidentally cracks a fetch and loses from there.
G3 was nuts. I kept a double simian 2x chalice, gq, cast put, and Dec in stone hand. My opponent takes the Dec in stone so I chalice him. We both miss land drops until he finds young pizzy who still gets tokens off 1 drops even if they're countered. I'm forced to gq myself to land a big Thalia and an arbiter. We still are stuck on 2 mana each (I drew 1 more after the gq] until he draws a terminate to finish me off.
1-2
Note: Mardu might be my closest MU in the meta. I'm not really scared at all of any of the other top decks. This one might be a coin flip.
R6 vs Ophel? On GB tron
G1 I mull to 5, but have a good start. He has natty tron so I lose. G2 and 3 I mull to 6, but have a hate piece t1 into displacer t2 hate piece t3 for ggs. -2 copter -1 gemstone(on the play)/1 cavern of souls on the draw -3 dismember for 2 Dec in stone 3 stony 1 spyglass.
2-1
Note: for whatever reason any of the splash tron lists feel much easier than mono G.
R7 vs?? On humans
G1 we both have suboptimal starts and it is a bit of a fight, but he gets there. G2 I keep a displacer removal 6 and rip a tocatli at the right time and eventually kill with tks while protecting myself with displacer.
G3 I keep a 7 with dismember, lands, simian, tocatli, and some drazi (hello there displacer). He goes t2 mage name tocatli and I dismember it into t2 tocatli. He's clearly unhappy. I rip a worship for land simian worship. Next turn it's displacer and I take the game over. I ended up drawing 2nd displacer and tocatli eventually. Also spyglass on izzet staticaster and chalice on 1 for whatever bizzarro stuff he might have. He refuses to scoop saying he has an answer. So I eventually draw tks and keep up 1 displacer activation and mull him out. What an end to the GP!
Takeaway: Overall I was very pleased with the deck's performance. If I were to go to that tournament again right now, I'd be quite happy with that 75. If I could guarantee I'd face exactly what I did, I'd probably try to make room for another Karn, scion of Urza in the board since I really didn't see much tron and did see a lot of midrange and control, but my understanding was that it was all over day 2, so I think I made the right call with sorcerous spyglass. In fact, I like the effect enough that I've been trying 1x phyrexian revoker MD over 1x dismember on mtgo and it feels right for the meta.
@redtwister Baby Karn is a difficult walker to kill and can take over the game from multiple angles while also being castable under a blood moon. It's everything I want in a SB anti control/midrange slot.
As always, feel free to ask any questions.
I did not stream it because I was double queued in the standard MOCS event and it was just too much to manage for me to stream it too.
I did not write up a tournament report directly afterward so some of my memory of the event is a little hazy, but I can try. I don't remember specifics for each match, but I'll add comments on anything I do recall with the how the match went.
Going threw my games I saw the following;
R1 vs mardu pyro 2-0.
R2 vs G Tron 2-1.
R3 vs WU control 2-0.
I remember here that G1 he kept a 1 lander and I locked him out pretty fast. I only saw a plains and a field of ruin so I actually thought he was on taxes. In retrospect I should have thought of WU control, but I boarded for a creature MU, but apparently wasn't punished for it.
R4 vs humans 2-1.
Game one he ran me over and g2 and 3 I found timely tocatli+ worship.
R5 vs Affinity 2-1.
R6 vs Bogles 0-2
I remember having a good tax hand, but no acceleration and he had t1 dude into spells and I was pretty dead right away.
G2 I mulled to 2 before seeing a single land.
R7 vs humans 2-0.
I recall this particular round was one of my oddest rounds vs humans. Both games I was on the draw with gemstone caverns, chalice of the void, and dismember. G1 I dismembered his hierarch and then locked him out with chalice on 1 (I guess he had 1 drops and no second land) Notably his land wasn't cavern in either game. G2 was the same thing except he started with vial and I drew my singleton boarded in sorcerous spyglass resulting in t2 spyglassing his vial and then t2 dismembering his hierarch and simianing into chalice for the same thing.
TOP 8
Quarterfinals vs G tron 2-1.
G1 I flooded after a t1 chalice and lost.
Got there g2 and got lucky g3 where he missed his 5th land for ostone before dying to my pressure.
Semifinals vs UR pyromancer ascension with thing in the ice 2-0
Finals vs Grixis Death's Shadow 2-1.
G1 I tried to get him with a fast arbtier strip mine on t2, but he had removal into t4 double shadow and I lost.
G2 I lead on t1 chalice and that was pretty much it. I recall I GQed his R source and at the end of the game I saw his hand where he had multiple kolaghan's command stuck in hand.
G3 was very very close. He tried to race me with some snappies and it ended up with a death's shadow + 2x snappies vs double thalias and a tks in a board-stall. Finally he swung in and I got the DS in combat with a dismember. He draws a young pizzy and I swing in forcing the snappies to block. At this point he has no cards in hand, 1 young pyromancer and nothing else with me at 1. I play an arbiter to block and cross my fingers he doesn't draw removal. He draws a dismember and got so excited that he used it in his drawstep to kill TKS when he could have lethaled me. He sat there for a good minute realizing his punt as he didn't draw a second removal spell, or at least not one he could cast and was dead on the crackback.
Wooh first place!
So If you could go back and play another similarly large tournament at the moment, how would you change the SB specifically? I feel that everything in my SB other than the cast out/c purge is locked in (maybe the 2 dec in stone vs 1 r bomb 1 dec split is a thing). I was slightly concerned about G tron, but I think we still have game there, and I feel like I've been beating mardu pyro pretty decently and they're the main blood moon deck. I'm not sure I need SB answers to the card beyond just tight plays though both cards do more than just answer blood moon.
Also I've been testing spatial contortion which has been fine, but I think I'm probably gonna stick with 4x dismember MD.
P.S. I'm not super about binding.
EDIT: I should mention I've been testing the following cards in that 2x SB slot:tectonic edges, aven mindcensor, sorcerous spyglass, crucible of worlds, and damping sphere post board and nothing has been particularly great. tec edge was probably the best thing.
I'm glad to see that my twitch VODS were put to some good use! It sounds like you did some really good work and had pretty great results, all considered. I know it can be hard afterward when you realize you made a punt (did you see that game I had vs bant knightfall?), but it's best to take it on the chin. Everyone can make mistakes, especially at a longer event like that and without much experience with the deck. I've been impressed with the 75 you took, though I've been doing some testing mostly with the board and the 4th dismember before Vegas to see if I can get any valuable information I was missing. I'll likely write up a tournament report of my own afterwards.
Anyway, thanks for sharing your results and I'm glad the deck is treating you well!
EDIT: I'm looking forward to seeing how much representation the deck had at regionals because I know quite a few people who said they were going to take it. I should also note that my win % has gone down quite a bit since the deck has received as much attention as it has. I think people are prepping for us a little more than they used to. I'm down to a still pretty great 68%.Having said that, there's still no other list I'd rather take to Vegas.
I do see the possible problem of having all the dismembers and losing to the life loss, but I've really been struggling to find a better removal spell for the deck. warping wail just didn't kill enough and the most relevant sorcery I wanted to counter was good ol uncounterable wrath (supreme verdict). I've tested spatial contortion and it didn't quite do it for me either. so I've been on the 4th dismember.
Reshaper is fine, but I personally don't like it as much as copter. Being able to get through your lands or the wrong half of your deck is vital. Reshaper only goes through 1 card if it dies. Also, having a flier int he worship stall-states is really nice.
In terms of humans, I board very similar to how I might vs affinity subbing stony for tocatli and keeping copter. One thing to note is that I like chalice on the play as you can sometimes just go t1 chalice and win though it's pretty awful otherwise.
The only MU I've been running into with any consistency that is difficult pre and post has actually been G tron. I'm somewhat shocked to see that as the MU used to always be free. I've been testing damping sphere and crucible of worlds in the board, but I'm not sure just yet how it should look. Having sphere and stony feels like it might be overboarding. On a tangentially related note, I've been starting to wonder how much I need the cards that answer blood moon. I've been beating mardu pretty well and can kinda play around/thru moon often, though it can definitely get us.
I like cavern of souls a lot actually. It helps seal up any kinda deck that would counter our stuff and while those decks aren't typically tough, it can matter. We don't have many tools post board to help there, so it's nice having a trump card. Furthermore, I have cast one too many simians off it that have mattered to go back. The only other utility land I'd consider is some kinda LD slot since that would help vs control and tron, but I doubt a 1x does that much.
I'm glad to hear it treated you pretty well.
Humans is not favored preboard, tho it is possible to win with things like a t1 chalice on the play, fast smasher, or displacer+ dismember getting there. Postboard, much like affinity, it gets much much better. With an abundance of removal, 3 tocatli, and worship the matchup becomes good. You mentioned your board is different than mine and I wonder how much that contributes to our win% discrepancy. Mind sharing your board?
Oh and Karn is just the go to grind slot. He's easier to cast than something like Gideon and can even be played through a blood moon. If you want a sb grindy walker slot, he's your man.
Sometimes I'm flooded and sometimes I'm starved, but I think I'm happy with this mana base. I think 4 thalias is very important. If I were to make a cut, it'd probably be the reshaper as that's my flex slot and I'm uncertain what it should be (aven mindcensor and bladesplicer chief among other candidates). For a reference point, I think colorless eldrazi should have a similar land count to us, but they're on 23 lands as of this last GP.
I have since updated the SB to be the following;
1 worship
2 tocatli honor guard
1 celestial purge
2 stony silence
2 ratchet bomb
2 rest in peace
2 kitchen finks
1 gideon, ally of zendikar
1 elspeth, knight-errant
1 cast out
It seems to me that 2 stony 2 ratchet (and the worhsip and cast out?) should be enough against affinity and I'm already fine vs eggs, lantern, tron, and ad naus so I think the -1 stony shouldn't hurt me too bad while the ratchet should help me in trouble spots vs aggroswarms/tokens or even vs blood moon.
kitchen finks is the card I'm least sure about in the board, but I need a value slot to help vs stuff like GBx. While mirran crusader should be better, I'm not keen on him being bolted. Plus the life might be nice as I'm anticipating burn.My main concern is that it might be difficult to cast.
tocatli honor guard is preferable to hushwing gryff because I need it ASAP vs something like humans (which I think is still fine atm). I like it more than the orb because it attacks and I can see myself bringing it in vs something like control with snapcaster mage, vendilion clique. Otherwise it's just a versatile card that I can bring in vs a range of decks including D&T and bantcompany to primetime.
Of those decks, most can remove him (humans often has no way and if they do it's like 1 dismember and company has been occasionally pathless lately), but they only have so much removal to use with many cards they'd like to kill. Plus it works with worship ;P.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is slightly better at grinding imo even if he doesn't let my dudes fly over to dome them. I like him a little more on an empty board. I think it's a toss up between the 2 and I found 6 mana elspeth often uncastable.
I think I've settled on a 75 for GP Phoenix and would love some feedback. In particular I wonder if matter reshaper is the right 1x value oriented flex slot. Also I'm unsure about the board.
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/320427841042907137/421098284304695318/unknown.png?width=1405&height=676
Thanks!
Playing stony silence for us has gotten worse and worse as we have begun to play more artifacts in the form of smuggler's copter and thraben inspector. This is why you'll see some lists without it int he board, but conventional wisdom is that stony is so good where you want it, that it is worth it. If you're still playing the card (which may or may not be correct depending on your meta, playstyle, etc), I'm curious to hear how you like to board with it. For instance, I think that thraben inspector is absolutely vital vs lantern and would not ever board it out, even if I was bringing in 4 stonies. The truth is, they like to start with hand disruption and then control your draws, making stony hard to resolve. Inspector can help you to draw something relevant. If you have stony and inspector, then you're probably in a good spot.
I use similar logic with vial vs affinity as it helps us stay at parody on board. A fellow streamer likes to make fun of my non-bo style boarding, calling it the "spiderspace special," but I truly believe that to be correct.
Also, D&T is not usually fast enough to get under a GBx deck. For a long time, I experimented with boarding out 0-4 vials vs them and finally came around to the camp of boarding them out. It might be a very different discussion for a deck like humans which can clock them fast enough for it to matter, but it's simply not the case with us. Our deck grinds pretty well with canopies and inspectors or displacers (for the 2 most popular variants. Otherwise you have cards like collected company so I stand by my point). Additionally we have walkers to bring in vs them making us even grindier. Yes, they can resolve a dark confidant that can run away with the game, but they can also brick on hand disruption as we beat them down with a bear and rest in peace makes tarmogoyf into a plant token.
I felt sideboarding into nonbos was awkward. While there are matchups where you want path and not chalice, they're not always a 1 for 1 exchange. A good example of that is vs death's shadow where you want both cards.
declaration in stone is just a nice decent broad answer for tokens as well as other decks. Occasionally, I've brought it in with stony so they don't get the upside (it has to be a MU where the OP plays some amount of artifacts of course).
To be honest, there aren't a lot of matchups where I felt a really missed path. I'm bringing in other hate for storm which really loves something like counters company as a bad MU. I already am jamming cage, but let's face it, it's probably just a poor MU.
I like worship in this meta. Humans is difficult otherwise. The walkers are anti control/midrange cards. Otherwise, I think my SB hate is pretty reasonable/standard.
I tend to not post a lot of tournament reports here anymore often because they get buried in comments and then people ask about something that's on the page just before and so it doesn't seem worthwhile to spend time unless someone asks me for them as you have.
That GW list is probably my most perfected variance of D&T and is a list I have worked on for a long time. I just explained ghostly and eidolon above. I should add that eidolon is more necessary in GW as I'm on 3 thalia to accommodate for cocos.
I added field of ruin because of tron's uptick in presence. I like it more vs tron and affinity as you can use them when they have less lands than 4 while I don't feel I need the extra help vs control decks where tectonic edge is better. The mana is still quite clean (and relatively simple) though. Voice of resurgence is nice for grinding capabilities. In fact, this list grinds better than many versions of D&T with cards like that, ewit, and coco, while still being able to be very aggressive with acceleration from hierarch.
I should note that I used to run rip, but this list has GY cards that are excellent in most places you'd want rip, so I moved over to relic of progenitus to not hose myself. Additionally, running stony here feels much easier than in mono W as vial is the only MD artifact.
EE is just a great SB option that cleans up tokens (lingering souls and empty the warrens anyone?) and can be brought in for aggro MUs like humans or affinity.
reclamation sage is a nice SB option. I think it's better than qasali pridemage as I think pridemage is a MD kinda card in a coco shell, it's nice to abuse etb abilities.
ramunap excavator grinds well vs control decks while also being a good option for the greedier decks of the format like DS and humans and also coming in vs big mana decks as that extra oomph (tron variants and valakut).
If you have any questions about particular cards or MUs, please do ask. I'd be happy to answer them.
Also @Bearscape (since it looks like you based your list off mine)
I don't recall all the matchups at this point in time, but I can tell you that my losses were to humans (as would be expected) and to G tron. Vs humans, I've been in love with ghostly prison. The card comes in vs a lot of decks, but since humans started to play kessig malcontents more, ghostly has started to look worse. The tron loss was due to variance clear and simple. I mulled to 5 g1 and almost got him. G2 I drew all 4 vials and all my plains.
I do like gideon of the trials as a versatile pseudo removal card that can grind and is also decent burn hate.
To note, I was trying it again as well as gelid shackles because Theau Murray talked about them and I thought it was time to try the later and give the former another shot. That's also why I was playing stony which is a strong SB card, but one that I like less and less in mono W as cards like copter and inspector pull so much weight.
I do like the gideon, but I'm not in love with shackles. It's kind of like a weaker, but more versatile sunlance, but it just doesn't do enough in my opinion. I can see it being better vs E tron and it has potential in some other big creature MUs, but sunlance doesn't require the repeated mana investment. You may consider trying to get Theau's take, but I don't love the card.
Eidolon of rhetoric is just such a powerful and versatile SB card. It has hidden applications beyond hosing storm. For instance, stopping tron from playing multiple eggs in a turn is very nice. it also hoses snappy without doing nothing else in a game the way rest in peace might vs control.
Overall, the deck is strong and resilient. I'm uncertain if I want stony or not, ghostly probably needs to become something else to have a shot vs humans (worship perhaps?), I like the double gid-fathers, 2 BFT felt right, and eidolon is just a sweet card.
EDIT: I was boarding out copters for stonies if I wanted that effect.
It's just a plains with an upside. The only downside is making your deck slightly weaker to blood moon. The card is by no means essential, and typically is only run in mono W, where you're not worried about moon anyway. Some corner cases come up where it's nice to have. For instance is lets thalia dodge kolaghan's command. It gets better with more legends. For instance, Thalia, heretic cathargets through lightning bolt or anger of the gods if you have it up.