MTG Salvation

Quote from Minoke »

... wolf? Don't you mean zombie?

Read the card. It's very clear. When Liliana sees another creature die, she exiles and returns as a planeswalker with a zombie butler. Failing to put the 2/2 zombie token onto the battlefield is just lazy, basically.

It was an incorrectly-executed trigger. If it's not too long away from the event (like the same phase/step), you should've been allowed to create the token - if the game had moved on - pay more attention next time, I guess.

Ha, thank you. Yes, I got neither a Wolf nor a Zombie token.
I thought nothing of the ruling at the time, but that night at home, I started wondering.
Thanks for the responses!

J
And PS: I am pretty lazy. I couldn't work up a sweat putting that token out there, which ultimately cost me the game!

I was playing at Competitive Rel, and I had a trigger for my Liliana, Heretical Healer when my other non-token creature died.
I "flipped" Liliana, but I forgot to make a Wolf token.

Is this two triggers, one of which I missed, or is it one trigger that was executed improperly?

What should have been the correct ruling? The judge simply called it a missed trigger which my opponent naturally declined to put on the stack.
Liliana remained a Planeswalker, but I got no Wolf.

J

Quote from colo »

If graveyard abuse is such a worrying trend that it warrants mainboard Relic of Progenitus, maybe it's time to reconsider Stonecloaker, which fell out of favour back when combat damage ceased to use the stack?

When Reanimator was a much slower deck, and Dredge and Reanimator were the only Graveyard strategies, Stonecloaker was pretty good. Now, the Graveyard is being used as mana, and fills at a prodigious pace. Running Sc out Turn 3 (or 4 with Vial) is too slow (even though she does do surprise chumping of Delvers). I got questioned a bit when I ran Relic of P in the main a few months ago, but since Craig Wescow famously sided it in for nearly every matchup (on Thomas Enevoldsen's advice), it's been a reasonable choice.

I kind of like Curby's idea of Scavenging Ooze, but I think it suffers for the same reason as Sc. Relic can start getting rid of that "graveyard mana" on Turn 1; Sc on Turn 3 for three mana; SO on Turn 3 for one (hard-to-get Green) mana. But, I'm embracing DnT almost becoming Maverick.

J

Quote from SwordsToTimeshares »

...There must be some green card out there that hates on blue creatures that I'm missing...

mtgsally won't properly post the link. You'll have to copy/paste the whole deal:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?sort=mana &action=advanced&text= [blue]&color=|[G]|[W]
Scryb Ranger might be the best on this list.

J

Quote from llamalover000 »

I still don't understand why no one really supported the "stay mono white" post I made 2 pages back. People are still talking as if EVERYONE is running GW DnT. "Oh just slap a quasali or teeg down and you'll be fine". Yeah that works great and all, but GW DnT has no card filtering and if you are missing a color, you are royally ****ed. There was even a post a page back where someone gave his tournament experience with GW and guess what. He got screwed out of a color twice in the tourney. I really don't think the green or red splash is the answer, and I think looking at the top 8 results of big tournaments will only further that conclusion.

I will chime in also on your gripe. I have been running mono-White for something like five years. That's certainly not discounting it -- but the value of Gaddock Teeg dragged me in when Treasure Cruise was legal, and he's still good now that Dig Through Time is so common. That impetus to run Green just for him attracts the deck toward adding just a few other Green options. I have seen this be an evolution over the last year or so. If it appears to you that it's too dominant, I would probably encourage you to look further into the history (I also dabbled in Black splash during the Survival of the Fittest days, with the Red splash to try to force Blood Moon effects, and the Green splash once earlier, mostly for Gaddock Teeg).

I think a bigger question behind what you are saying (I'm trying to interpret a bit, which is easy to screw up just from a forum post) is about the "philosophy" of the deck, as I sometimes call it. If you are concerned about splashing Green just for one or two cards that you can't tutor, it is a fairly reasonable worry, but the "philosophy" of the deck allows for it. Each card in DnT is more of a puzzle piece than you find with other decks, in my opinion. In most other deck "philosophies" you are using one class of card (cantrip) to get to another class of card (Sensei's Divining Top, Jace) to set up another class of card (Terminus, Entreat the Angels). This is a simplification. In DnT, if you don't have the Thalia, you drop the Spirit of the Labyrinth you do have. If you don't have the Revoker, you drop the Swords to Plowshares on the Deathrite Shaman, and so on. It's a little different way of playing, which I am obviously struggling to communicate, but which, I have found, a lot of players have difficulty mastering.

J

Quote from neddsaurus »

Why relic over rip?

Multiple Rest In Peace are redundant (don't stack, other than provide protection in case one gets blown up).
Relic of Progenitus is obviously cheaper, can confound Deathrite Shaman activations which are using your graveyard (now not unusual, due to Dig Through Time), and of course, it cantrips, especially if you have the RiP in place.

J

Quote from axman »

How do you beat omni-tell? I continually loose to this deck weekly.

Sorry to respond to old news.
I personally don't like the "cure" approach that I feel like I hear.
In my humble opinion, a "prevention" approach is preferred.
A resolved Omniscience isn't gonna be good for no one.
I try to get the kill in before that happens, with Thalia, Spirit of the Lab, and then hope a Disenchant effect or Canonist closes the deal if they go off (the cure).

J

Sort of an old-fashioned mono-White version, but it got there (1st Place Super IQ):

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=89038

J

I paid five mana for a Choke at an event at Gencon. Even though my opponent scooped when it resolved, something is very wrong with the tutorboard. I am going to be rethinking my non-creature sideboard for more bodies like Leonin Relic-Warder and Jotun Grunt, for as long as I'm married to Vryn Wingmare.

J

Quote from SwordsToTimeshares »

Quote from ameobasinger »

DTT is still a fairly late-game, to at earliest, mid-game Hail Mary against Death 'n' Taxes, in my experience, and it often whiffs.

You are a lucky man.

That's nothing. I've seen Griselbrand whiff plenty of times.

Quote from Curby »

...Probes also feed Dig, and thankfully they can't Probe on your turn.

Well, the list is long, Sensei's Top (on their turn) and Big Jace are other candidates, as well as Griselbrand and Probe.

J

Quote from Frenadol »

Ever since TC got banned and the main bull**** CA engine of the format became DTT I don't really see much of a reason to keep running SotL main, and its utility in the sideboard is only marginal at best (there are better cards to fit the 15 slots). Containment Priest is such a beast though, especially in 4 Wisp lists. You can board her in even against decks that lack creature cheating mechanics like Chalice Merfolk simply because you turn your Wisps into StP 5-8.

Sure SotL blanks their Brainstorms and maybe Ponder if they run it, but how worth is that really? DnT lacks a draw engine so even if your opponent doesn't draw it's still a 1-for-1, and their card is still in their hand so if SotL dies (which at 3/1 it's extremely likely) they can use it again right away. SotL suffers from the same drawback as soft removal like Revoker or O-Ring: You give your opponent a chance to set up a blowout a couple turns later and DnT isn't such a fast deck that can exploit the window effectively every single time. Sure SotL is good if dropped from a Vial but then again what else in the deck isn't?

I don't agree with this, and I was running 3x Spirit main, but had to make room for Vryn Wingmare, so I've gone to 2x. Although DTT is present now in almost every deck (it seems), it doesn't get fed except by a Graveyard full of Brainstorms and Ponders, in my experience (and the chaff, like fetchlands, that those cantrips search for). DTT is still a fairly late-game, to at earliest, mid-game Hail Mary against Death 'n' Taxes, in my experience, and it often whiffs. Brainstorm and company, on the other hand, are universal set-up and smoothing spells that are found at every point in the game. These are frequently the main spells you disrupt with Thalia, which is the best creature in Death 'n' Taxes, in my opinion.
Disrupting set-up against any opponent is one of the keys to Death 'n' Taxes, if not the main line of attack.
I like Spirit against any deck running a Blue draw package, and I only consider taking it out when they don't run that package.

J

I like my list posted on previous page. I went 2-3 drop at the Chicago IQ, but I lost one Game 3 on brain fart play mistake (my biggest weakness) and lost one 43-minute Game 1 by not doing my combat math right (bounced an Ensnaring Bridge with Flickerwisp against Painted Stone. Didn't manage my Jitte counters properly, and didn't need to attack Koth, because I had lethal on board possibly. Opp blocked badly which should have punted the game to me.).

I would make a Revoker or a Seal of Cleansing into a Qasali Pridemage, and I would find a spot for one Spellskite.
I would also tweak the basic land count because a Blood Moon shouldn't spell curtains for DnT.

I loved Vryn Wingmare, and I don't think she replaces the 4th Thalia. She is a perfect 5th and possibly 6th. I didn't see Mosquito Guard all day, but Honor of the Pure carried weight.

J

Quote from neddsaurus »

How well does this handle grixis YP and mentor miracle?

I'll let you know. I am going to try to make a sideboard guide. I play against Mentor Miracle enough and it is similar enough to Miracles imo, that I can say it's pretty solid, with the usual disruption I have (tons of it) and not over-extending. Grixis I hope to playtest today but against Young P I can do Ok after sideboard. I am going to try to get to Chicago SCG IP tomorrow (Sunday) morning.

J

Here's my list. I think this list is very solid. Only one new card, tiny splash Green, but it's a very well-tuned deck for the SCG meta imo.

J

Sorry to jump in with a non sequitur, but if Vryn Wingmare is not an auto-include as (at least) a one-of going forward I'll eat my hat.
I'm sure somebody else has said it, but I'm going on the record.

J