I decided instead of doing the whole artifact lands/shrapnel blast mess (which may in fact be the best way to go, I just don't like it) I would splash white for Lightning Helix and sideboard options. This deck seems to have favorable match-ups with a lot of decks. I went 3-0-1 with it at a local extended tournament.
The few interesting card choices I think I have compared to similar decks are the splash of white for Lightning Helix and the Flamebreak maindeck. Also the 2x Magma Jet 2x Seal of Fire situation is kind of questionable. I'll start off with my reasoning behind using the helix.
Lightning Helix, in my opinion, is the most powerful burn card in extended. Its slower than things like Shrapnel Blast, sure, but you don't have to sacrifice anything, and it is a six point life swing against any deck trying to damage you for the win, particularly the "mirror" and against decks like zoo. I realize it is iffy to run both this card and Sulfuric Vortex main deck, and I may end up cutting the vortexes to the board. Generally I end up needing the life more in matches where I don't want to play vortex as much.
Flamebreak is an incredible board sweeper because it is not "dead" against other decks with no creatures. It is always going to give you three damage to their dome. It is mainly for Elves!, Zoo, Affinity and other random aggro decks, and it does it's job VERY well. It allows you to send more burn to their dome, and it also takes care of NASTY PROBLEMS like Troll Ascetic. It may end up in the board, but for now it is just too good against Elves!
The Magma Jet dilemma is mostly due to the fact that I don't own four jets, sadly, however, the Seal of Fire have been kind of clutch at killing things like Nettle Sentinel on the play. I think next week I am going to try a couple Flame Jab in the Seal of Fire slot maybe. Seal is really good at sitting there waiting for threats against Elves, and acting as part of a finishing setup, but it's a liability in a format with Tarmogoyf, and it's vanilla and sort of weak.
And now for a mini-tournament report:
Round One against Elves!:
We had played a couple before the tournament and he got smoked, so he was unhappy to be sitting across from me round one. He ended up winning the die roll.
Game One: My opening hand is something like...Mountain, Rugged Prairie, Rugged Prairie, Seal of Fire, Lightning Helix, Incinerate and Flamebreak. He plays a Llanowar Elf and passes, I drop Seal, he cringes. His Nettle Sentinel meets with my Seal, he plays the Heritage Druid and another Llanowar Elf and passes. I top deck a Mogg Fanatic and send it at his druid. He plays a couple more irrelevent elves, gets Flamebreaked, burnt a couple times, and I drop a Sulfuric Vortex that clocks him out with my burn as backup.
Sideboard: -4 Spark Elemental, -4 Sulfuric Vortex, +4 Ethersworn Cannonist, +4 Shard Volley (I would have kept the vortexes in or boarded in disenchant, but I didn't think he had any Jittes.
Game Two: I end up getting out an early cannonist and he is stuck on one land. I burn away his mana elves and he eventually gets some land out and starts playing one elf per turn. His elves all get burned away as my cannonists and fanatics swing in. A vortex and some burn topped it off.
Round Two against... Teachings?!:
Game One: I just rail him with burn and creatures while he is setting up. I don't let him Tendrils of Agony anything and he just gets rolled by all the burn.
Sideboard: -4 Flamebreak, +4 Shard Volley
Game Two: Game two goes pretty much the same way, except he ends up getting out a 7/7 Aeon Chronicler or something before he dies. This was basically a bye.
Round Three against Zombies!:
(Yes I know my metagame is pretty absurd!)
Game One: He does a lot of blocking of Fanatics and Marauders, trading with his zombies. He ends up getting a few zombies out and they die to Flamebreak. I end up at four life due to having 2x Battlefield Forges as my only red for a few turns, the Flamebreaks, him getting a little damage through, and Vortex, but I manage to get there.
Sideboard: None.
Game Two: He comes out a bit faster this game and chooses not to trade his zombies for my Mogg Fanatics this time. He manages to hit me a few times before I wipe his board, throw a couple helixes around and drop double Vortex. We both eat four a couple times and he has a jump knight and something else. He ends up hitting me for four, getting me down to 11, drops a few zombies and says go, I drop down to 7 but throw Incinerate and Lava Spike at him for the win. He would have drew the game during his next upkeep with Shepherd of Rot if I didn't draw burn (and tried to let the vortex kill him). It was actually pretty good for a zombie deck, I think he ended up 3-1.
Round Four, All-In Red:
We decide to intentionally draw, but we played some games for fun without sideboard just to see what would happen. Game one is basically a race against time. If they turn one all in for like a Deus of Calamity, its game over. This is where the Shrapnel Blast version of the deck is better. Being able to use one card plus sac a land to take out most of their bombs (Demigods) in one shot is really good. I managed to take out a Demigod in one game with a couple burn cards. If they don't go all in the first couple turns you have a good chance of racing them even if they do. He ended up beating me 2-1 in three close games, but we didn't board. I would board in my whole board basically. The person knew I only rain 8 nonbasic white sources so he left his 8-moon in, I sat there with dead helixes in my hand. This is where fetches would be useful. I could float disenchant mana as he cast a moon and disenchant it, plus it hits Jitte. The cannonists stop their all-in strategy. Dead/Gone bounces all their bombs. Shard Volley is better than Vortex for helping race them, although Vortex is good against Jitte. This whole match seems like a coin-flip to me, I hope I don't see a lot of this deck.
Some other decks I've tried some games against in person and on MWS:
Affinity: This is a fairly easy match. You basically just burn away all their threats as efficiently as possible. The Master of Etherium builds are kind of blah if they drop a big Master, but if you keep their little artifact critters under control, it is okay. I would like Shattering Spree in the board for this matchup somewhat. I board in Disenchant and it works well enough killing Masters and things with lots of Ravager counters on them. Lightning Helix is really good here.
Different forms of Rock, Doran, Death Cloud, etc.: Their lifegain is tough sometimes, especially those who maindeck Finks. Getting a vortex down ASAP is important in this one, even though they can kill it with Mortify. Second turn Doran off a birds is hard to deal with sometimes, so I usually try to kill their turn 1 birds. When they get a fat guy out (Doran, Collosus, whatever.) I usually try to amass enough burn to burn them out, rather than taking out the fat guys with lots of burn. Mogg Fanatics make good chumpies! I board out Marauders and Spark Elementals in this one for Dead/Gone and Shard Volley sometimes, seems to work out rather well.
TEPS: This one is hard to win pre-board. One of the reasons I decided to play white is the wonderful SB card Ethersworn Cannonist. You do not win many game 1's against TEPS. The Shrapnel Blast version might win more game one's in this matchup, but I think with the Cannonist I win more two and three's.
Goblins: Fairly easy with the Flamebreak maindeck. You can actually let this one go a lot more than Elves!, keeping it balanced with Helixes and Flamebreaks. Fanatic is great for blocking and taking out two goblins at once. Don't play this one TOO defensively though, sometimes they can out-topdeck you if you don't kill them fast enough. I board out Vortexes for Cannonist or Shard Volley in this one.
Tron: U/G tron isn't too difficult due to the lack of lifegain. I wish I had Shattering Spree in my board, but boarding in Disenchant is really good here. The U/B Persecute version match can suck if they hit you with an early Persecute. I've also played against some U/W builds with Pulse of the Fields and/or Renewed Faith, this is generally the toughest version I have played against. Try to stick the Vortex early.
Dredge: Just basically take out their Magus of the Bazaar and hold onto your Fanatics to take out Bridge from Below. Fairly easy match, I don't see this deck being anywhere near as powerful as old dredge anyway.
Faeries: This deck is kind of annoying, especially since Flamebreak doesn't hit fliers. The lack of lifegain in a lot of builds is beneficial, but some run Jitte or Finks. Try like hell to stick an early vortex and kill as many of their faeries as you can. The versions that actually run Bitterblossom are a lot easier.
Zoo: A fairly easy match most of the time. Burn off a couple dudes, make them over-commit into Flamebreak. The only time Zoo has beaten me was when they drew like 3x Lightning Helix and 3x Tribal Flames, and it was still close. I sometimes board out Vortex in this one, sometimes I don't if I feel they are running Finks in the board. Finks+Jitte+Helix tuins my day a little.
Tezzerator: I have only played a couple games against this deck, both of which I won. I just went to the dome with lots of burn both games and they didn't do much to stop me, so I don't know what to make of this match. They didn't get Chalice of the Void down on me... I assume I board in Disenchant and wish it was Shattering Spree. I don't think most lists run any lifegain?
The "Mirror" AKA other "Mono-Red" burn decks: I have played against builds with Shrapnel and against builds that run Dark Confidant and/or Blightning. With my helixes, I do very well against both of these builds. I sometimes board Flamebreak into Shard Volley, depending on how many creatures I see.
All-in-all this deck is pretty good but admittedly still needs some work, especially on the SB. Having playing over 50 games with this deck so far, I think there is definitely something to it. Constructive comments appreciated.
I have been playing with a U/W Control build that is currently 14-1-1 at FNM in four weeks. The loss was an extremely close three game match with faeries, where I would have won both games I lost if not for luck on my opponent's part. The draw was a final split, and I beat my opponent in a friendly game. Unfortunately, Ancestral Visions and Rune Snag are rotating, so I had to make some changes.
So, basically, you do everything in your power to extend the game until you can drop and protect an Oona, Guile or Ajani. Also sometimes I drop two or three finks and just win that way. The one miser's Mutavault has also won games. Now, onto the changes I made due to rotations:
I feel like I'm most likely going to have some problems with Faeries without Crovax. I might have to switch O-Rings to Disenchants to combat Bitterblossom. Tidings is clunky, but its the only card draw I feel comfortable with besides Oona's Grace. I upped the count on Grace to two since I really want to draw it, and if I draw the second one, oh well. Negates are basically the replacement for Rune Snag at this point as the other two mana counters in the deck. I think Remove Soul and Negate are heavily under-rated. If you manage using your counterspells properly, these will never fail you. I am actually almost glad that there are no more soft counters in the deck, pure hard counters seems much better. Gaddock Teeg can be a serious problem, but if someone actually plays him, I would pray to have Remove Soul, and board in Oblivion Ring.
I don't think adding black is the answer with the rotation. The new WUB cards are cool, but they are just not OLD SCHOOL.
Decent list but you really needed Divert. That card gives you game against so many decks. Rizzo's deck is pretty good, I beat it at the GPT in Standish (not with ninjas hehe). I went 1-1-2 drop with a similar build to yours at the Brighton PTQ. Its a fun deck but I don't know if I would bring it to a PTQ again.
I don't see why you wouldn't run atleast 2 slaughter pact. Teeg is being played in so many decks and having slaughter pacts means you don't get slowed down by them too much.
You are running shattering spree and tranquility instead of 1 hull breach because you are scared about the chalice of the void with 2 counters? really? That means they have to spend 4 mana on the chalice, the only deck playing chalice is tron and they really can't afford to spend 4 mana on turn 3-4 because then you will just desire for the win, sure you don't get to burning wish, but with just desires and tendrils in the deck you will still win regularly with desires for 6 or so.
I would never play offalsnout in this deck as my dredge hate. Offalsnout will remove their bridges and dread return target but thats not how you lose. You lose because they dredge alot and have 3-4 therapies to empty your hand and preventing you to go nuts while they make some zombie tokens to kill you with.
Deathmark and pyroclasm also seems a bit much. The only time where you ever want one and not the other is with magus of the moon (you want clasm instead of deathmark) or a cloaked up teeg (here you want deathmark) but since both are handled bij slaughter pact i see no reason to play both deathmark and pyroclasm instead of choosing 1 (depending on how much cloaked teegs and magusses you expect) and filling the sideboard with lots of slaughter pacts.
I don't think you should play around cards you simply lose to like laboratory, if they play that they play blue and have counters, you dont beat a resolved laboratory. period.
if you are scared about pyrostatic pillar you should just play more tendrils, pillar is played by aggresive decks like burn and they have alot of trouble with the pillar themselves so if you hold a tendrils and they play pillar you should win, even if you don't win on the spot, getting them to 2 while you are at 12 or so gives you so much time because they only beat you with nexus at that point, you will probably find another tendrils in time.
Not running chromatic stars and spheres is stupid imo. those are the cards that let you play eot peers and plunges, fixing your mana so you never have a trouble gettting uu or bb for desire and tendrils and they make you go off so easily because you draw a few extra cards, without them i would never risk desire for 4, now i kill people on a regular basis with desires for 4.
Sins of the past + infernal tutor is the worst combo in magic. Its so bad that you have to play cards like chrome mox 4 times, they are not good and its the card that goes out after game 1 the most. Playing sins+infernal tutor makes it necessary to keep the mox in and what do you take out then? rituals? tendrils? plunges and peers? :(.
I also recommend atleast 15 lands, 14 is just not enough. I see people here playing desperate ritual instead of lands and that makes me sad and think that you haven't played against control because against control you will need 3 or 4 lands to go off since they counter 1 or 2 rituals if they play correctly. Its hard to win when they counter a channel the suns if you play 16 lands so playing less is suicide against blue decks and makes the deck inconsistent in general because you will mulligan more due to having 1 or no land hands.
I know that i am just saying that you should play my list and that anything else is inconsistent and bad but i have really played alot with this deck and i didn't get those results because i was so lucky. Luck was obviously involved but the deck was so resilient that people would only win if they had absurds amounts of hate.
Greetings,
I definitely agree with you on the Slaughter Pacts, I've seen way too many Teegs lately. I also agree with you on Hull Breach/Tranquility/etc. They can just counter them anyway if they're playing blue generally. If blue control decks where heavy in my meta, I would probably play Thoughtseize or something.
As far as dredge hate, I don't bother packing any. I haven't seen the deck around anywhere lately. If I had to face it on a weekly basis, I would probably play Tormod's Crypt. Any hate you have to waste mana on I don't really like.
About the Deathmark/Pyroclasm deal, there are several reasons why I play both AND play Slaughter Pact as well. The case for Deathmark: All the Zoo and Doran decks I've run into play Teeg maindeck and cloak maindeck or side. I've also Burning Wished for Death Mark several turns before going off to kill a cloaked up Tarmogoyf or a Doran that was going to set the pace of the game. I've also lost games before putting the mark in my board, simply because I was -1- mana short of wishing for a Pyroclasm AND going off. Now the case for Pyro: Again with this card I have wished for it and used it as crowd control a turn or two before going off, simply to stay alive. This card can also take out Teeg+Meddling Mage at the same time (assuming your opponent isn't bright enough to Meddling Mage for Burning Wish, which for some reason I've seen ><). Also, I often have a large amount of red mana and not as much black, since I play all three of the red rituals. The case for both: I don't really see what else I could be running in the board if I cut one of them.
As for Chromatic Stars/Spheres I agree that some of these should be ran, how many is up in the air. I am currently running four, but I have seen lists with as many as eight. I don't really think there is a right or a wrong answer here, because I think no matter how many of these you add to the deck, it almost "doesn't matter" in the long run. I personally don't usually have a problem getting UU or BB with four. I think if you're playing a Peer Through Depths and/or Ponder, you definitely want more of these.
I agree that Sins and Infernal don't go together very well, but like I said, that's what Moxen are for. I DO NOT agree with you that Moxes are bad in this deck at all, I'm sorry. I can give you anything else, but the moxes are clutch imo. In sideboarding, Plunges and Sins are the first things to come out of my build, followed by Desperate Rituals. Rarely do I have to board in more than four cards ever. I NEVER EVER in a million years board out Chrome Mox. I can't tell you how many times I have pulled turn three wins and turn one and two 10-14 goblin tokens with moxen.
I can definitely understand playing more land, especially against control. If you can't land a bloom, lands are especially clutch. Saying that, I would still never play more than 14 lands lands with 4 mox and 4 bloom. Generally when I go off against control decks, I go for either turn one or two goblins (if I know they're not playing EE/Deed) or I try to hit a desire for 4 or 5 on turn three on the play when they've tapped out for a signet or whatever. I've found against most control decks, you win the die roll, you win the match. Also, if you get turn one bloom all three games, you generally win the match. Usually by the time the bloom is coming into play, the control decks I've played against have one counterspell ready. Generally that counter hits the bloom, and I go off anyway with that +2 storm count. I think the less lands we can consistantly play with the better, as they SUCK to hit with a desire (rituals generally never suck off a desire, unless you have NOTHING to play with them, and the only land I've ever been happy seeing was Gemstone Mine).
ALL that being said, I'm no expert, but I just felt like throwing my opinions/experience with the deck out there. I honestly think the best quality of this deck is people not being prepared for it. Once people prepare for it, it has a MUCH harder time.
3 rite of flames? There must be an error. 4x rite of flame MD are a must for every respectable TEPS build, especially if you run 14 lands. If you wanna run less mana sources, cut a desperate ritual.
Probably your meta doesn't have a lot of disruption but, trust me, your plan of wishing a rite isn't good at all. The wish is the main target of every cabal ritual, meddling mage, whatever: if you rely on the wish to find an accelerator that can add RRR at least, you're on the wrong way.
3x sins of the past MD and noone sb isn't a great choice either. Sins is a good card, but 80% of the times is just a "win more" card, and a dead card in hand that won't let you cast infernal tutor.
Revealing it after a quite consistent mind's desire is awesome, but since you run 4x infernal tutor, I find it useless, especially because the best card that we have, aka Burning Wish, removes itself when played, so can't be played again via sins.
If you like sins so much, I would reccomend to play them as 2x MD and 1x SB (replacing the ritual).
Another question: is ancient spring any good? I know that you run fire/ice, but you don't play Orim's Chant, so probably other 2 geothermal crevice can fix better your mana (the crevice adds black as well as the spring, in addition to green, a much better choice because of the channel), without hurting you too much while you need red mana to cast a ritual or a burning wish the turn BEFORE you go off.
These are just my supposition on how your decks could look like, but I'm not really a PRO. Probably the other members down here can post something more inherent about your choices.
Greetings,
You know, I think you're definitely right about the Rite of Flame. I actually had it in there from before I added the Channel to the board. I would probably change the Ancient Springs to Crevice if I switch the Fire/Ices for Pacts in the SB (which I will probably do). The three Sins does seem like a lot, I will try cutting one even though they've saved my butt a number of times on small desires. They do end up getting clogged in my hand sometimes, like I said, I end up Chrome Moxing them more than anything else I think. Thanks for the suggestions!
I have been playing/testing a version of TEPS that I might bring to a PTQ this weekend (or I might just play in local tournaments). I tested Ponder and Peer and I didn't find that they helped me go off any more consistantly.
Lands:
4x Sulfur Vent
4x Gemstone Mine
2x Geothermal Crevice
2x Irrigation Ditch
2x Ancient Spring
Artifacts:
4x Chrome Mox
4x Chromatic Sphere
4x Lotus Bloom
Rituals:
4x Cabal Ritual
4x Seething Song
3x Desperate Ritual
3x Rite of Flame
2x Channel the Suns
Storm:
3x Mind's Desire
3x Sins of the Past
1x Tendrils of Agony
1x Empty the Warrens
Sideboard:
3x Slaughter Pact
4x Fire/Ice (Would be Pact of Negation if I took it to a PTQ)
1x Pyroclasm
1x Channel the Suns
1x Empty the Warrens
1x Rite of Flame
1x Tendrils of Agony
1x Deathmark
1x Mind's Desire
1x Hull Breach
I notice a lot of lists have stopped running Sins of the Past. I really hate when I draw the thing, but its like having three extra Mind's Desires in the deck to hit after a Desire. Usually if its dead in my hand I throw it on a Chrome Mox (generally when I need to Infernal Tutor). I am running Chromatic Sphere instead of Star just because I only want to draw the card when *I* WANT to draw the card, not when my opponent feels like K-Gripping my Chromatic Star, and I've never seen an instance where I would rather have a Star. Any help will be appreciated.
I don't understand how birds would be any slower than a lavamancer. Kird Ape is obviously the best one drop, but last time I checked, most aggro control decks have some kind of acceleration. Birds allow for turn two Pestermite and turn three Venser, which is good disruption, and a lot more than a lavamancer would do for the first couple turns. Also Birds can ATTACK as a FLYER and ninjitsu in a Ninja of the Deep Hours much easier than a Grim Lavamancer can. Playing Birds doesn't like feed the combo side of it, it would just speed the deck up all around. I'm going to build this deck and check it out.
Creatures:
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Wall of Roots
4x Mystic Snake
4x Riftwing Cloudskate
4x Mulldrifter
3x Venser
2x Reveillark
2x Mirror Entity
2x Body Double
Spells:
3x Primal Command
4x Momentary Blink
Sideboard:
3x Trickbind
3x Wrath of God
4x Eyes of the Wisent
4x Rune Snag
1x Loxodon Warhammer
The deck doesn't do much but drop Birds, Wall of Roots, suspend Riftwing and evoke Mulldrifter occasionally for the first few turns. This is all to setup for huge tempo swinging plays. I am really liking Primal Command. This deck looks really clunky on paper, but it is much more smooth to play. Sideboard is meta dependent, I have Faeries, Elves, Dragonstorm, U/R Control and Project-R in my meta.
I have been playing this deck at FNMs for a while now and just decided to put the combo in. I don't often win with the combo, but I am usually able to search it out if I need it (via Primal Command). I often drop Mirror Entity with some mulldrifters/riftwings/venser/snakes/birds in play and go for the throat.
Only decks I've lost matches to have been Tarmorack, Project-R (with lucky draws, but still a bad matchup) and really fast warriors.
Wouldn't Birds of Paradise be a good addition to this? You could drop turn 2 Pestermites, turn 4 Kiki, and they can also swing with flying turn 2 to ninjitsu in a deep hours.
I have decided to share my experiences in semi-competitive Magic this year. This may end up being fairly long, but oh well. To start off, I don’t really see myself as being a great Magic player. I do fairly well at my local store and carry a decent rating, but I’ve never really done anything significant. I quit the game when Time Spiral first came out, and just came back this January. For some reason I decided to dive in head first and try my hand at some PTQs and even GP: Philly. Since I live north of Boston, traveling to Philadelphia for Magic was a bit overboard (considering my skill level) however, I guess you only live once. My story starts in rather remote (to me) Standish, Maine.
Grand Prix Trial Philadelphia: Standish, Maine:
After bombing out of PTQ Hollywood Brighton (1-1-2 drop with Ninjafish), I decided to try something a little different. We decided to go up to a Grand Prix Trial at Crossroads Games in Maine (nice store by the way). On my way to Standish (about a two and a half hour drive) I rifled through my boxes and binders in my bag and pulled out all the cards for Zoo. I had been contemplating the deck for a couple of weeks, but with my own little alterations. So on two hours of sleep and about an hour before the tournament I came up with this build of Zoo, which I dubbed “Welcome to the Jungle”:
It was a bit of a rush job, especially the sideboard. I had played the regular Zoo/GMGT build at a couple local tournaments on loan from a friend, so I had a basic understanding on how to play it. I decided I wanted to go more of a control route (I am a control player at heart) so I replaced some of the burn and creatures with Cabal Therapies and Terminates. Cabal Therapy is one of my favorite cards, and I pretty much always play it when I can. The decks I had in mind with the sideboard choices were Affinity, Burn, Goblins and Dredge. The Duress were basically there for any deck where the Terminates were dead (TEPS, Ideal, etc.). One thing I noticed almost right away was: One of those Stomping Grounds really should have been a Breeding Pool.
Round One, Goblins:
Game one I started bolting myself right away, dropping an Isamaru and a Gaddock Teeg, mostly to stave off an onslaught of goblin violence. Game one was basically a lost cause, as I get massacred by hordes upon hordes of little red men.
I knew I needed help in this matchup, in come the Engineered Plagues and Armadillo Cloaks for Cabal Therapies and Vindicates. I found Vindicate was just too slow in this matchup and his hand emptied too fast for Cabal Therapy to do much. I left one miser’s Vindicate in, just in case.
Game two was a very different atmosphere. I actually drew domain rather than having to bolt myself to get it. I managed to shock myself a few times into triple Kird Apes to stop his goblins. After that I proceeded to draw into triple Lightning Helix, turning the game forever in my favor.
I figured I was going to lose game three since he was on the play. Luckily he got a slow hand, and I managed to slow play (dropping my lands into play tapped mostly) into Engineered Plague turn three. This wiped out his board, but I was at nine-life, so he decided to try and fight it out. That is until I dropped a second Engineered Plague turn four, and he extended his hand.
(1-0)
Between rounds, my friend I drove up with was mulling about how he lost to some deck with Kokushos and Profane Commands. I came to find out later it was none other than John F. Rizzo with Big Mana Rock.
Round Two, Some level of blue:
Game one I dropped all kinds of damage on the poor guy’s face. It was something like double Gaea’s Might and a Tribal Flames. He didn’t do much but cast a couple of Force Spikes, causing me to not be able to drop two-one drops in one turn.
For game two, I decided to board out the Terminates for Duress - this turns out to be a bad idea.
Game two he leads off with an Island, passing the turn. I get my Duress Force Spiked. Then he drops a Tarmogoyf. I kept a heavy discard hand, so I am kind of screwed here. I dropped a Kird Ape and a Cabal Therapy naming Counterspell the next turn, seeing Vedalken Shackles, Force Spike, Tarmogoyf and some Islands. I fight the good fight, but double Tarmo+Shackles = I lose.
I decided to switch the Duress back to Terminates - this turns out to be a bad idea.
Game three my opening hand consists of a few critters, Terminate and land. I proceed to draw the-other-three Terminates in my first four draws. Had they been Duress, I would not have run into so many Force Spikes on my wonderful little men. I ended up going all the way with a Tarmogoyf, with four kills waiting in hand.
(2-0)
My friend came up and told me he lost to goblins or something (he was playing Death Cloud by the way). It kind of killed my buzz.
Round Three, TEPS:
Apparently this guy is one of the best players in Maine (I didn’t know until later.) and I was really tired at this point. He was playing a good build of the deck and played it well.
Game one I started off with an Isamaru and a Gaddock Teeg. I had just hit one of his lands with a Vindicate with two more on deck and he responded with a Peer Through Depths. Now, I had been testing TEPS and I hadn’t been using this particular card, instead we were using Ponder. He had his deck in his hands, putting the cards on the bottom, and then when he put the deck down on the table, I was thinking it was a shuffle affect (since I don’t like to read cards) and just picked up his deck and started to shuffle it. As he protested I had just basically cut the deck in my hands, uncut it and put it down on the table. He called the judge over, who almost immediately told me he was giving me a game loss, which I protested. He said he would go look it up, and when he came back, he said it was a gray area and gave me a warning. For the rest of the tournament I kept my hands in my pockets when it wasn’t my turn! I proceeded to win that game, but it didn’t end up mattering.
Games two and three were about the same, I got him down to within one burn spell or attack phase of winning and he went off. He definitely deserved to win the match 3-0.
(2-1)
At this point I am really, really tired and frustrated. My friend lost again, and I was practically ready to leave at this point. I was hungry.
Round Four, Death Cloud:
I had seen Death Cloud around all day and was trying to avoid it. I feel it is not a good matchup for me at all.
Game one I mulligan to five and he drops a dirty deed and like three Ravenous Baloths, pwned.
Game two I mulligan to six and he drops a Dark Heart Sliver which completely pwns everything I’m trying to do with my lone Isamaru. SCOOP.
(2-2)
I thought it was time to drop and go eat. I was too tired to continue. I thought I had no chance of making top 8 (it was a small tournament, about 30ish people, only 5 rounds). I asked the judge if there was any way I could make top 8 and he said it was a long shot. My friend encouraged me, saying if there was a chance I should stay and try to pull it off. Sigh…no food in sight.
Round Five, Affinity:
FINALLY a good matchup!
Game one I go Terminator all over his face. He goes to Atog me out with a Fatal Frenzy in hand (little did I know it was Fatal Frenzy and not Shrapnel Blast). He keeps sacrificing artifacts as I stare at the beautiful Terminate in my hand. I dashed his hopes of victory right there. Since I bolted the crap out of myself with my lands, he didn’t have to sacrifice it all though, and went for a second bout with a Ravager the next turn, fortunately I had another Terminate.
For game two I boarded in the Grudges. I wanted to use those things all day.
Game two he pulled off some crazy-hat shenanigans with like three Ornithopters or some mess. I had no Terminates or Grudges this time. Poop.
Game three I still didn’t see any Grudge, but I manage to stomp his little guys with burn and swing in for enough to get there.
(3-2)
I stand around in anticipation for the top 8 to go up, talking to some people. My friend ended up going 2-3. All of a sudden I hear “you made it” from behind me. I couldn’t believe it, 3-2 got there.
Top 8 round one, TEPS again:
I was eighth seed so I had to face the first seed. It was my good old buddy TEPS from earlier. I was not pleased to see him. At this point I was very tired and did not want to deal with TEPS shenanigans.
Game one was a haze. He went off real fast, like turn three or so. I was resigned to my fate at this point.
Game two came out of nowhere, I owned his hand with double Duress and Cabal Therapy and the beats kept coming. I couldn’t believe it was going to game three.
Game three was the steamy part. I led off with Isamaru, Kird Ape and Gaddock Teeg. I had him lethal the next turn and he starts going off. He does lots of Peer Through Depths, Plunge into Darkness and mana ramping, but apparently he is one mana short of killing Teeg and killing me the whole time. He tried to play a Channel the Suns at one point, but Gaddock Teeg was out. As I see him ramping up his mana and going off, I thought he had enough to do it, and I was like “Burning Wish for the win?” and he drops the Wish on the table and extends his hand – my jaw drops and I get depressed for a moment, shaking his hand…but then a small spark of the competitive creeps up and I say “Wait, show me the cards…” and he brings a Pyroclasm out of his sideboard and says, “You got it man, I got nothing.” PHEW!
(4-2)
I could not believe I had come this far from being 2-2 and wanting to go home. My next opponent is John F. Rizzo, creator of Friggorid, who I had always wanted to meet, so after a few moments of me being star-struck, we start our round.
Top 8 round two, Big Mana Rock:
I was a little nervous here since he had done well in the Swiss with this deck. I also heard a lot of horror stories from my friend about Kokushos dropping all over the place and Profane Commands and whatnot. I was hoping it wouldn’t get that far.
We played two games and there really isn’t much to report. In one of them (I honestly forget which one) I think he took a mulligan or two, probably game one. Both games I pretty much just destroyed his hand, I think game one I had two therapies and game two I think I had two duress and a therapy. It was pretty ugly. I think at some point he is writing an article about his experiences with Big Mana Rock, he said I would be in it.
(5-2)
Top 8 Round Three, U/G Tron:
This is the matchup I had the least experience with. The deck was fairly new as a craze at this point, and I didn’t really know what to do. I was also almost comatose at this point, and my opponent was sharp as a tack.
Game one I lead off with some hand destruction and a Vindicate or two. I think he took a mulligan. He never really got off the ground.
Game two he dropped some combination of Tarmogoyfs and Threads of Disloyalty. It was real ugly. He soundly stomped me and got really cocky at this point.
Game three I think he got screwed and drew nothing but lands (I think I helped him with some Duress/Therapy action). He started to get a little cranky since he wasn’t drawing much and I was miss-playing all over the place for the win (I was seriously ready to keel over at this point). Anyway, I ended up winning somehow, which was a good time.
(6-2)
I don’t consider this win much of an accomplishment, I feel like I got lucky. I also wish I had decided then and there to switch decks for the Grand Prix, but no…I decided to stick with my pile of jank. Three byes and ten packs of Russian Morningtide to its credit, Welcome to the Jungle was going to Philadelphia.
Grand Prix Philadelphia:
We didn’t do anything like plan in advance for rooms, despite advice from people to do so. We drove up the night before, through the night, arriving at like 6:00 AM. I got about 30 minutes of sleep in the car during the trip. I learned a lot about planning trips ahead and going up the night before and whatnot from this trip. I didn’t play my first round until like 2:30 PM. So from 6:00 AM to 2:30 PM I wandered around the convention center and the mall across the street. I had a few beers, which was a great idea. So round four I come into this tournament having been awake over 24 hours, a few beers in me, ready to play. Also, I decided it was a good idea to change my deck around like right before the tournament - I took out the Terminates for main-deck Duress and switched the Terminates out of the board for Fire/Ice. Bad idea. I also added Meddling Mages to the sideboard…meh.
(3-0, Byes)
Round Four, Spirit Stompy: I didn’t find out until later that my opponent was apparently the creator of Spirit Stompy, Rashad Miller. I guess he is a lot better than me and has done well for himself.
Game one I mulligan and he drops some kind of double Troll Ascetic action on my face and I never really recovered. I could already tell this was a bad matchup for me - I should have tested it more and side-boarded better. Oh did I mention I was main-decking the Duress instead of Terminate – really bad idea.
So I DON’T board in my Terminates because guess what, they’re Fire/Ice. I decide to board them in for the Duress, since it isn’t doing a heck of a lot for me.
Game two I think he took a mulligan and I managed to eat his hand and disrupt him long enough to edge out a victory. It was way too hard fought.
Game three we both came out of the gates with a lot of guys. It got to the point where he had a lot of guys, I was at six-life and I had enough guys to block all his guys and swing back for the win (with the Gaea’s Might in hand.) This standoff lasted for about eight turns, neither one of us able to alpha for the win. I seriously had about twelve of my eighteen creatures out. I had Meddling Mage on both Armadillo Cloak and Griffon Guide, as those would break the game. I also kept killing his Tallowisps. Unfortunately at one point I decide to Fire/Ice his Saffi, and he had an Okina I didn’t notice. That Fire/Ice WOULD have been a Terminate. Then I had another Fire/Ice which could have killed his second Tallowisp (I hit one with a Tribal Flames at one point) but it wasn’t a Terminate. So then he top-decks Otherworldly Journey, sends away my Meddling Mage and gets Griffon Guide for his Tarmogoyf for the win. Boo.
(3-1)
At this point I am seriously ready to pass out. I was done.
Round Five, Weird Level Blue:
This round I played against some guy who had like main deck Pernicious Deeds in NLU. It was a weird time.
Game one I managed to win on the back of speed. I noticed his dirty deeds and whatnot. I thought his deck was kind of weird but I was afraid of the deeds.
Game two the Hierarchs come into the picture. Great, so now he has deeds AND hierarchs, not a good time for me. I lose this one soundly.
Game three I had his hand pretty much raped and I had him on the run with a couple creatures. He had a couple Ancestral Visions on the table and two cards in hand. I had been casting creatures and other goodness and he hadn’t been countering them, so I figured – no counterspells right? WRONG. I go to drop a Kird Ape as bait, just incase. He hard counters it. So I am like “YAY I WIN THE DAY!” Meddling Mage on Ancestral Visions for the win! No. Counterspell number 2. Good day sir. As he reloads his hand, I see my doom. Dirty Deed stops all my plans next turn.
(3-2)
Now at this point, if I had slept the night before, I would still be in good shape. I could ride the loser’s bracket right into day two. Unfortunately I was ready to pass out, and my friend had gone 0-3 drop with TEPS, so I decided to say screw it. I should have stuck around until I lost again at least. Boo. L
PTQ Hollywood Philadelphia:
So the next day I head to the PTQ by myself, since my friend decided to sleep instead. I switched some things around in my sideboard, putting the Terminates back in there. I also added some Stifles and Katakis. I heard there was going to be a lot of Affinity, TEPS and Zoo. I heard wrong.
Round One, Doran Rock:
My round one opponent was playing some kind of crazy homebrew version of Doran Rock. He was playing Eladamri’s Call and stuff. He also had maindeck Hierarchs and Armadillo Cloaks…not good for me.
Game one I managed to thwart his plans of creating some kind of massive 6/6 spiritlinked, trampling elephant. Phew. Cute, there’s a Harbinger…Okay…Doran? Cool….I can deal with that…Eladamri’s Call?! Hierarch!? Whoops I lose.
So yea, I needed some serious Terminate action on this guy.
Game two he took a mulligan to five and I destroyed his hand. I proceeded to kill him just as he dropped a Harbinger to grab a Doran.
Game three was a tough fight. It went back and fourth with bombs. He dropped a Doran, I dropped a Terminate, he dropped a Hierarch, I dropped a Vindicate. He dropped a Doran, I dropped a Terminate. Then my little dudes finished him off.
(1-0)
There’s about 25 minutes between the rounds...somehow Dredge VS. Doran with a Deed on the table lasts 25 minutes for 5 turns. Round two, NLU with Decree of Justice:
Game one I think he took a mulligan or two and I just smashed him. Cabal Therapy kind of surprised him.
Game two I had Gaddock Teeg, Meddling Mage on Vedalken Shackles and some other critter out. I swung with my Teeg and Meddling Mage into his empty board. That’s when I found out he played Decree of Justice. He killed my Mage and dropped Shackles. Then he dropped Tarmogoyf and all sorts of other nonsense.
Game three I got him to five before he stabilized and owned my whole board. He had two of his own Tarmogoyfs, one of mine, and I had nothing out. He had a top and two cards in hand. He would have won the next turn…if I didn’t top-deck an un-countered Tribal Flames ftw.
(2-0)
Round three, Flow Rock:
FLOW ROCK?! I obviously didn’t get the memo. Yea all those flow/blood moon decks were apparently everywhere the Friday before the GP. I played the wrong deck. L
Game one I think I actually managed to win despite all the Baloth shenanigans. I didn’t see Destructive Flow, so I couldn’t tell right away what he was playing. (since I wasn’t around the last time this deck was big).
Game two I found out about the flow, but he didn’t manage to play it (gogo therapy!). However, he did manage to get a Garruk out, power it up to Overrun with some birds of paradise, a tarmogoyf and treetop village out. I was smart enough to swing at the Garruk, but got chump blocked, and he swung back for the win with Profane Command.
Game three he dropped a Blood Moon on like turn three and I scooped. My 1/1 Kird Apes and Tribal Flames for 1 weren’t going to get there.
(2-1)
Round Four, RDW/Splash Goyf:
This was un-exciting, I beat him in two quick and un-eventful games. I had all kinds of Tribal Flames and Gaea’s Might shenanigans. Apparently he had Blood Moons in out of the SB but didn’t see them game 2. I would have lost. J
(3-1)
At this point I am feeling tired from the long trip and the past few days of no sleep. My pull-out couch in our roach-motel was uncomfortable. Being 3-1 kept me going though.
Round Five, NLU:
I don’t even want to talk about this match really but I will…
Game one he drops turn one and turn two Tarmogoyf followed by double force spike and a counterspell off the top of his deck. (since he mulled to 5 into crome mox, land, tarmogoyf, thirst for knowledge, tarmogoyf). I hate to call a mull to 5 lucky but come on now.
Game two I got a quick and surprising win on the back of double Tribal Flames.
Game three the kid takes my Dark Confidant and proceeds to miss the trigger twice. I am just not the kind of person who calls the judge on things. I just let him reveal the card (he didn’t put it in his hand completely, I kept track of what card it was) and take the damage both times (because I thought I was going to win). I should have called the judge both times. He also missed Kataki triggers on his Tree of Tales and Chrome Mox, so I think at some point he should have gotten a game loss if I actually called the judge. I don’t know, I didn’t care at this point. Anyway, he barely won the game off the back of insane top-decks.
(3-2)
At this point I just wanted to like go home. But I decided I might as well play my last round.
Round Six, CAL:
Another deck that I didn’t prepare for, Confinement-Assault-Loam, well that’s what I call it. I think he called it agro loam with confinement in it. Whatever the case, it’s like an auto-loss for me. He had Devastating Dreams, Solitary Confinement, Destructive Flow AND Blood Moon. It wasn’t even a fight…I dropped a couple Kird Apes and Duressed him to find double Devastating Dreams and a Destructive Flow. Suffice it to say, I took the flow, and he dropped a dreams the next turn, killing both Kird Apes and my land. I had nothing else…Game two he mulled to like four and I thought I had a chance but he mulled into land, land, birds, flow. I managed to get rid of his flow, but he top-decked two countryside crushers, one of which got Vindicated, the other of which got huge.
(3-3, drop)
Overall, I had a fairly good experience with the deck…it was fun to play at least. It has some seriously bad matchups, especially with all the tron hate splash damage. Next time I’m just going to take a page from Benzo Stanbury’s book and play mono-black.
Ok guys, I think i have a final list for the PTQ i'll be attending this saturday.
Once again, modeled after Tsumura's list from PTLA 05, with changes based on meta, of course.
Without further ado:
// Lands
4 [ON] Polluted Delta
3 [DIS] Breeding Pool
4 [RAV] Watery Grave
1 [ON] Tranquil Thicket
1 [DM] Swamp (1)
3 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
3 [RAV] Overgrown Tomb
1 [SOK] Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 [ON] Lonely Sandbar
2 [A] Island (1)
1 [ON] Barren Moor
2 [IA] Snow-Covered Island
Choices should be obvious, I recently added the singleton putrefy so that i could gifts for 4 removal spells if i have to. The only thing i'm debating at the moment is deep analysis vs. ? because although it's a good gifts target sometimes, they usually just put it into my hand, when I don't want to tap out to draw 2.
As always comments and suggestions are welcome.
Thanks
Hello,
Isn't Fact or Fiction more powerful than Gifts for this deck?
I won a Grand Prix Trial this past weekend and it has thrown me a curve as to what deck I want to use. I don't know if I should go with the deck I have tested with the most or go with a deck that will do best after the third round. My gut is telling me to go with the deck I have played and play-tested the most, but I just feel like certain decks must be better fourth round and up. Any thoughts/opinions/deck suggestions?
How do you know that the metagame I am facing isn´t similar to the one that those decks faced succesfully? I am not saying that your options against Combo, Tron and Mirror aren´t good (certainly they are). I am just curious about how do you get your foreign metagame prediction abilities.
Hello,
I get my predictions from tournament results. Look at GP: Vancouver. U/G Tron is the next big thing and it rapes the current Death Cloud builds if you don't sideboard Cranial Extraction at the very least. Hell, it took about 9 SB slots just to give the thing a decent game 2 and 3 versus U/G tron (game one is basically an auto-loss). The metagame is in a constant shift lately because there are SO many viable decks out there AND it is like a Rock/Paper/Scissors match. You want to bring GUN to that one, and that is what this deck can be if you build it right.
I have readed your post twice and is not very constructive in terms of criticism. Anyways, my list is quite similar (just 1-2 cards difference..smother over putrefy or the so) from lists that not only top8ed but win PTQs in Europe. If that is having serious problems...I am in!!
Those decks top 8ed in different metagames. Check the latest GP results. I am trying to be constructive - I told you, run more discard, more answers to combo and tron and Tombstalker > Tarmogoyf for the mirror which will be all over the place. I guess if you don't want to hear it - good luck.
My Sideboard is obviously still under consideration. I have not tested neither Cranial Extraction nor Persecute against any given matchups so I would appreciate any suggestion here. My PTQ is this Sunday and I am looking for t8.
Hello,
If you're taking this to a PTQ, you're in for some serious problems. This build will not win the mirror consistantly, especially if their build is teched to win the mirror (Tombstalker instead of Tarmogoyf). You may also have a problem with U/G Tron, as I've found Extirpate is just not enough in testing. One main deck Boseiju isn't going to help you much, even with two between main/board I have not seen it come up enough in the heavy blue control matchups. You also have too little discard in the maindeck, control is going to be very popular between NLU/PLU, U/G Tron, Death Cloud, etc. I would up it to six discard maindeck. You're also going to have a tough time against gobbos, definitely game one, but dark hearts in the board may be enough for the following games - but having to board against aggro, a matchup you should have locked with a good maindeck build kind of sucks. I still think Engineered Plague is good sideboard. You may also face a lot of problems against Zoo, Aggro Loam, Flow, Doran and other aggro-controlish decks with this build. You will also be a total dog to TEPS and have a hard time against Ideal gaime 1. I wouldn't just rely on Extirpate for all the combos around.
I decided instead of doing the whole artifact lands/shrapnel blast mess (which may in fact be the best way to go, I just don't like it) I would splash white for Lightning Helix and sideboard options. This deck seems to have favorable match-ups with a lot of decks. I went 3-0-1 with it at a local extended tournament.
12x Mountain
4x Rugged Prairie
4x Battlefield Forge
Creatures:
4x Mogg Fanatic
4x Keldon Marauders
4x Spark Elemental
Spells:
4x Rift Bolt
4x Lava Spike
4x Incinerate
4x Lightning Helix
4x Sulfuric Vortex
4x Flamebreak
2x Magma Jet
2x Seal of Fire
4x Ethersworn Cannonist
4x Disenchant
4x Shard Volley
3x Dead/Gone
The few interesting card choices I think I have compared to similar decks are the splash of white for Lightning Helix and the Flamebreak maindeck. Also the 2x Magma Jet 2x Seal of Fire situation is kind of questionable. I'll start off with my reasoning behind using the helix.
Lightning Helix, in my opinion, is the most powerful burn card in extended. Its slower than things like Shrapnel Blast, sure, but you don't have to sacrifice anything, and it is a six point life swing against any deck trying to damage you for the win, particularly the "mirror" and against decks like zoo. I realize it is iffy to run both this card and Sulfuric Vortex main deck, and I may end up cutting the vortexes to the board. Generally I end up needing the life more in matches where I don't want to play vortex as much.
Flamebreak is an incredible board sweeper because it is not "dead" against other decks with no creatures. It is always going to give you three damage to their dome. It is mainly for Elves!, Zoo, Affinity and other random aggro decks, and it does it's job VERY well. It allows you to send more burn to their dome, and it also takes care of NASTY PROBLEMS like Troll Ascetic. It may end up in the board, but for now it is just too good against Elves!
The Magma Jet dilemma is mostly due to the fact that I don't own four jets, sadly, however, the Seal of Fire have been kind of clutch at killing things like Nettle Sentinel on the play. I think next week I am going to try a couple Flame Jab in the Seal of Fire slot maybe. Seal is really good at sitting there waiting for threats against Elves, and acting as part of a finishing setup, but it's a liability in a format with Tarmogoyf, and it's vanilla and sort of weak.
And now for a mini-tournament report:
Round One against Elves!:
We had played a couple before the tournament and he got smoked, so he was unhappy to be sitting across from me round one. He ended up winning the die roll.
Game One: My opening hand is something like...Mountain, Rugged Prairie, Rugged Prairie, Seal of Fire, Lightning Helix, Incinerate and Flamebreak. He plays a Llanowar Elf and passes, I drop Seal, he cringes. His Nettle Sentinel meets with my Seal, he plays the Heritage Druid and another Llanowar Elf and passes. I top deck a Mogg Fanatic and send it at his druid. He plays a couple more irrelevent elves, gets Flamebreaked, burnt a couple times, and I drop a Sulfuric Vortex that clocks him out with my burn as backup.
Sideboard: -4 Spark Elemental, -4 Sulfuric Vortex, +4 Ethersworn Cannonist, +4 Shard Volley (I would have kept the vortexes in or boarded in disenchant, but I didn't think he had any Jittes.
Game Two: I end up getting out an early cannonist and he is stuck on one land. I burn away his mana elves and he eventually gets some land out and starts playing one elf per turn. His elves all get burned away as my cannonists and fanatics swing in. A vortex and some burn topped it off.
Round Two against... Teachings?!:
Game One: I just rail him with burn and creatures while he is setting up. I don't let him Tendrils of Agony anything and he just gets rolled by all the burn.
Sideboard: -4 Flamebreak, +4 Shard Volley
Game Two: Game two goes pretty much the same way, except he ends up getting out a 7/7 Aeon Chronicler or something before he dies. This was basically a bye.
Round Three against Zombies!:
(Yes I know my metagame is pretty absurd!)
Game One: He does a lot of blocking of Fanatics and Marauders, trading with his zombies. He ends up getting a few zombies out and they die to Flamebreak. I end up at four life due to having 2x Battlefield Forges as my only red for a few turns, the Flamebreaks, him getting a little damage through, and Vortex, but I manage to get there.
Sideboard: None.
Game Two: He comes out a bit faster this game and chooses not to trade his zombies for my Mogg Fanatics this time. He manages to hit me a few times before I wipe his board, throw a couple helixes around and drop double Vortex. We both eat four a couple times and he has a jump knight and something else. He ends up hitting me for four, getting me down to 11, drops a few zombies and says go, I drop down to 7 but throw Incinerate and Lava Spike at him for the win. He would have drew the game during his next upkeep with Shepherd of Rot if I didn't draw burn (and tried to let the vortex kill him). It was actually pretty good for a zombie deck, I think he ended up 3-1.
Round Four, All-In Red:
We decide to intentionally draw, but we played some games for fun without sideboard just to see what would happen. Game one is basically a race against time. If they turn one all in for like a Deus of Calamity, its game over. This is where the Shrapnel Blast version of the deck is better. Being able to use one card plus sac a land to take out most of their bombs (Demigods) in one shot is really good. I managed to take out a Demigod in one game with a couple burn cards. If they don't go all in the first couple turns you have a good chance of racing them even if they do. He ended up beating me 2-1 in three close games, but we didn't board. I would board in my whole board basically. The person knew I only rain 8 nonbasic white sources so he left his 8-moon in, I sat there with dead helixes in my hand. This is where fetches would be useful. I could float disenchant mana as he cast a moon and disenchant it, plus it hits Jitte. The cannonists stop their all-in strategy. Dead/Gone bounces all their bombs. Shard Volley is better than Vortex for helping race them, although Vortex is good against Jitte. This whole match seems like a coin-flip to me, I hope I don't see a lot of this deck.
Some other decks I've tried some games against in person and on MWS:
Affinity: This is a fairly easy match. You basically just burn away all their threats as efficiently as possible. The Master of Etherium builds are kind of blah if they drop a big Master, but if you keep their little artifact critters under control, it is okay. I would like Shattering Spree in the board for this matchup somewhat. I board in Disenchant and it works well enough killing Masters and things with lots of Ravager counters on them. Lightning Helix is really good here.
Different forms of Rock, Doran, Death Cloud, etc.: Their lifegain is tough sometimes, especially those who maindeck Finks. Getting a vortex down ASAP is important in this one, even though they can kill it with Mortify. Second turn Doran off a birds is hard to deal with sometimes, so I usually try to kill their turn 1 birds. When they get a fat guy out (Doran, Collosus, whatever.) I usually try to amass enough burn to burn them out, rather than taking out the fat guys with lots of burn. Mogg Fanatics make good chumpies! I board out Marauders and Spark Elementals in this one for Dead/Gone and Shard Volley sometimes, seems to work out rather well.
TEPS: This one is hard to win pre-board. One of the reasons I decided to play white is the wonderful SB card Ethersworn Cannonist. You do not win many game 1's against TEPS. The Shrapnel Blast version might win more game one's in this matchup, but I think with the Cannonist I win more two and three's.
Goblins: Fairly easy with the Flamebreak maindeck. You can actually let this one go a lot more than Elves!, keeping it balanced with Helixes and Flamebreaks. Fanatic is great for blocking and taking out two goblins at once. Don't play this one TOO defensively though, sometimes they can out-topdeck you if you don't kill them fast enough. I board out Vortexes for Cannonist or Shard Volley in this one.
Tron: U/G tron isn't too difficult due to the lack of lifegain. I wish I had Shattering Spree in my board, but boarding in Disenchant is really good here. The U/B Persecute version match can suck if they hit you with an early Persecute. I've also played against some U/W builds with Pulse of the Fields and/or Renewed Faith, this is generally the toughest version I have played against. Try to stick the Vortex early.
Dredge: Just basically take out their Magus of the Bazaar and hold onto your Fanatics to take out Bridge from Below. Fairly easy match, I don't see this deck being anywhere near as powerful as old dredge anyway.
Faeries: This deck is kind of annoying, especially since Flamebreak doesn't hit fliers. The lack of lifegain in a lot of builds is beneficial, but some run Jitte or Finks. Try like hell to stick an early vortex and kill as many of their faeries as you can. The versions that actually run Bitterblossom are a lot easier.
Zoo: A fairly easy match most of the time. Burn off a couple dudes, make them over-commit into Flamebreak. The only time Zoo has beaten me was when they drew like 3x Lightning Helix and 3x Tribal Flames, and it was still close. I sometimes board out Vortex in this one, sometimes I don't if I feel they are running Finks in the board. Finks+Jitte+Helix tuins my day a little.
Tezzerator: I have only played a couple games against this deck, both of which I won. I just went to the dome with lots of burn both games and they didn't do much to stop me, so I don't know what to make of this match. They didn't get Chalice of the Void down on me... I assume I board in Disenchant and wish it was Shattering Spree. I don't think most lists run any lifegain?
The "Mirror" AKA other "Mono-Red" burn decks: I have played against builds with Shrapnel and against builds that run Dark Confidant and/or Blightning. With my helixes, I do very well against both of these builds. I sometimes board Flamebreak into Shard Volley, depending on how many creatures I see.
All-in-all this deck is pretty good but admittedly still needs some work, especially on the SB. Having playing over 50 games with this deck so far, I think there is definitely something to it. Constructive comments appreciated.
Regards,
Patrick
I have been playing with a U/W Control build that is currently 14-1-1 at FNM in four weeks. The loss was an extremely close three game match with faeries, where I would have won both games I lost if not for luck on my opponent's part. The draw was a final split, and I beat my opponent in a friendly game. Unfortunately, Ancestral Visions and Rune Snag are rotating, so I had to make some changes.
4x Mystic Gate
11x Island
8x Plains
1x Mutavault
1x Calciform Pools
Creatures:
4x Kitchen Finks
1x Oona, Queen of the Fae
1x Crovax, Ascendant Evincar
1x Ajani Goldmane
4x Remove Soul
4x Ancestral Visions
4x Rune Snag
4x Cancel
4x Cryptic Command
4x Wrath of God
4x Runed Halo
3x Burrenton Forgetender
3x Condemn
2x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
2x Pact of Negation
2x Plumeveil
1x Crovax, Ascendant Evincar
2x Disenchant
So, basically, you do everything in your power to extend the game until you can drop and protect an Oona, Guile or Ajani. Also sometimes I drop two or three finks and just win that way. The one miser's Mutavault has also won games. Now, onto the changes I made due to rotations:
4x Mystic Gate
3x Reflecting Pool
10x Island
7x Plains
1x Mutavault
Creatures:
4x Kitchen Finks
3x Archon of Justice (I might change these to the new exalted angel thing.)
1x Ajani Goldmane
4x Remove Soul
4x Dream Fracture (Put these in for Cancels since there is less card draw.)
4x Cryptic Command
4x Wrath of God
4x Runed Halo
3x Negate
2x Tidings
2x Oona's Grace
3x Burrenton Forgetender
3x Condemn
4x Cancel
2x Plumeveil
3x Oblivion Ring
I feel like I'm most likely going to have some problems with Faeries without Crovax. I might have to switch O-Rings to Disenchants to combat Bitterblossom. Tidings is clunky, but its the only card draw I feel comfortable with besides Oona's Grace. I upped the count on Grace to two since I really want to draw it, and if I draw the second one, oh well. Negates are basically the replacement for Rune Snag at this point as the other two mana counters in the deck. I think Remove Soul and Negate are heavily under-rated. If you manage using your counterspells properly, these will never fail you. I am actually almost glad that there are no more soft counters in the deck, pure hard counters seems much better. Gaddock Teeg can be a serious problem, but if someone actually plays him, I would pray to have Remove Soul, and board in Oblivion Ring.
I don't think adding black is the answer with the rotation. The new WUB cards are cool, but they are just not OLD SCHOOL.
Regards,
Patrick
Decent list but you really needed Divert. That card gives you game against so many decks. Rizzo's deck is pretty good, I beat it at the GPT in Standish (not with ninjas hehe). I went 1-1-2 drop with a similar build to yours at the Brighton PTQ. Its a fun deck but I don't know if I would bring it to a PTQ again.
Regards,
Hazur
Greetings,
I definitely agree with you on the Slaughter Pacts, I've seen way too many Teegs lately. I also agree with you on Hull Breach/Tranquility/etc. They can just counter them anyway if they're playing blue generally. If blue control decks where heavy in my meta, I would probably play Thoughtseize or something.
As far as dredge hate, I don't bother packing any. I haven't seen the deck around anywhere lately. If I had to face it on a weekly basis, I would probably play Tormod's Crypt. Any hate you have to waste mana on I don't really like.
About the Deathmark/Pyroclasm deal, there are several reasons why I play both AND play Slaughter Pact as well. The case for Deathmark: All the Zoo and Doran decks I've run into play Teeg maindeck and cloak maindeck or side. I've also Burning Wished for Death Mark several turns before going off to kill a cloaked up Tarmogoyf or a Doran that was going to set the pace of the game. I've also lost games before putting the mark in my board, simply because I was -1- mana short of wishing for a Pyroclasm AND going off. Now the case for Pyro: Again with this card I have wished for it and used it as crowd control a turn or two before going off, simply to stay alive. This card can also take out Teeg+Meddling Mage at the same time (assuming your opponent isn't bright enough to Meddling Mage for Burning Wish, which for some reason I've seen ><). Also, I often have a large amount of red mana and not as much black, since I play all three of the red rituals. The case for both: I don't really see what else I could be running in the board if I cut one of them.
As for Chromatic Stars/Spheres I agree that some of these should be ran, how many is up in the air. I am currently running four, but I have seen lists with as many as eight. I don't really think there is a right or a wrong answer here, because I think no matter how many of these you add to the deck, it almost "doesn't matter" in the long run. I personally don't usually have a problem getting UU or BB with four. I think if you're playing a Peer Through Depths and/or Ponder, you definitely want more of these.
I agree that Sins and Infernal don't go together very well, but like I said, that's what Moxen are for. I DO NOT agree with you that Moxes are bad in this deck at all, I'm sorry. I can give you anything else, but the moxes are clutch imo. In sideboarding, Plunges and Sins are the first things to come out of my build, followed by Desperate Rituals. Rarely do I have to board in more than four cards ever. I NEVER EVER in a million years board out Chrome Mox. I can't tell you how many times I have pulled turn three wins and turn one and two 10-14 goblin tokens with moxen.
I can definitely understand playing more land, especially against control. If you can't land a bloom, lands are especially clutch. Saying that, I would still never play more than 14 lands lands with 4 mox and 4 bloom. Generally when I go off against control decks, I go for either turn one or two goblins (if I know they're not playing EE/Deed) or I try to hit a desire for 4 or 5 on turn three on the play when they've tapped out for a signet or whatever. I've found against most control decks, you win the die roll, you win the match. Also, if you get turn one bloom all three games, you generally win the match. Usually by the time the bloom is coming into play, the control decks I've played against have one counterspell ready. Generally that counter hits the bloom, and I go off anyway with that +2 storm count. I think the less lands we can consistantly play with the better, as they SUCK to hit with a desire (rituals generally never suck off a desire, unless you have NOTHING to play with them, and the only land I've ever been happy seeing was Gemstone Mine).
ALL that being said, I'm no expert, but I just felt like throwing my opinions/experience with the deck out there. I honestly think the best quality of this deck is people not being prepared for it. Once people prepare for it, it has a MUCH harder time.
Regards,
Hazur
Greetings,
You know, I think you're definitely right about the Rite of Flame. I actually had it in there from before I added the Channel to the board. I would probably change the Ancient Springs to Crevice if I switch the Fire/Ices for Pacts in the SB (which I will probably do). The three Sins does seem like a lot, I will try cutting one even though they've saved my butt a number of times on small desires. They do end up getting clogged in my hand sometimes, like I said, I end up Chrome Moxing them more than anything else I think. Thanks for the suggestions!
Regards,
Hazur
I have been playing/testing a version of TEPS that I might bring to a PTQ this weekend (or I might just play in local tournaments). I tested Ponder and Peer and I didn't find that they helped me go off any more consistantly.
Lands:
4x Sulfur Vent
4x Gemstone Mine
2x Geothermal Crevice
2x Irrigation Ditch
2x Ancient Spring
Artifacts:
4x Chrome Mox
4x Chromatic Sphere
4x Lotus Bloom
Rituals:
4x Cabal Ritual
4x Seething Song
3x Desperate Ritual
3x Rite of Flame
2x Channel the Suns
Tutors:
4x Burning Wish
4x Infernal Tutor
2x Plunge into Darkness
Storm:
3x Mind's Desire
3x Sins of the Past
1x Tendrils of Agony
1x Empty the Warrens
Sideboard:
3x Slaughter Pact
4x Fire/Ice (Would be Pact of Negation if I took it to a PTQ)
1x Pyroclasm
1x Channel the Suns
1x Empty the Warrens
1x Rite of Flame
1x Tendrils of Agony
1x Deathmark
1x Mind's Desire
1x Hull Breach
I notice a lot of lists have stopped running Sins of the Past. I really hate when I draw the thing, but its like having three extra Mind's Desires in the deck to hit after a Desire. Usually if its dead in my hand I throw it on a Chrome Mox (generally when I need to Infernal Tutor). I am running Chromatic Sphere instead of Star just because I only want to draw the card when *I* WANT to draw the card, not when my opponent feels like K-Gripping my Chromatic Star, and I've never seen an instance where I would rather have a Star. Any help will be appreciated.
Regards,
Hazur
I don't understand how birds would be any slower than a lavamancer. Kird Ape is obviously the best one drop, but last time I checked, most aggro control decks have some kind of acceleration. Birds allow for turn two Pestermite and turn three Venser, which is good disruption, and a lot more than a lavamancer would do for the first couple turns. Also Birds can ATTACK as a FLYER and ninjitsu in a Ninja of the Deep Hours much easier than a Grim Lavamancer can. Playing Birds doesn't like feed the combo side of it, it would just speed the deck up all around. I'm going to build this deck and check it out.
Regards,
Hazur
I am playing a rather odd build of U/G/W blink - I decided to incorperate the Reveillark combo into it a bit:
Lands:
4x Yavimaya Coast
4x Brushland
2x Adarkar Wastes
2x Gemstone Mine
5x Island
5x Forest
2x Plains
Creatures:
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Wall of Roots
4x Mystic Snake
4x Riftwing Cloudskate
4x Mulldrifter
3x Venser
2x Reveillark
2x Mirror Entity
2x Body Double
Spells:
3x Primal Command
4x Momentary Blink
Sideboard:
3x Trickbind
3x Wrath of God
4x Eyes of the Wisent
4x Rune Snag
1x Loxodon Warhammer
The deck doesn't do much but drop Birds, Wall of Roots, suspend Riftwing and evoke Mulldrifter occasionally for the first few turns. This is all to setup for huge tempo swinging plays. I am really liking Primal Command. This deck looks really clunky on paper, but it is much more smooth to play. Sideboard is meta dependent, I have Faeries, Elves, Dragonstorm, U/R Control and Project-R in my meta.
I have been playing this deck at FNMs for a while now and just decided to put the combo in. I don't often win with the combo, but I am usually able to search it out if I need it (via Primal Command). I often drop Mirror Entity with some mulldrifters/riftwings/venser/snakes/birds in play and go for the throat.
Only decks I've lost matches to have been Tarmorack, Project-R (with lucky draws, but still a bad matchup) and really fast warriors.
Regards,
Hazur
Wouldn't Birds of Paradise be a good addition to this? You could drop turn 2 Pestermites, turn 4 Kiki, and they can also swing with flying turn 2 to ninjitsu in a deep hours.
Regards,
Hazur
I have decided to share my experiences in semi-competitive Magic this year. This may end up being fairly long, but oh well. To start off, I don’t really see myself as being a great Magic player. I do fairly well at my local store and carry a decent rating, but I’ve never really done anything significant. I quit the game when Time Spiral first came out, and just came back this January. For some reason I decided to dive in head first and try my hand at some PTQs and even GP: Philly. Since I live north of Boston, traveling to Philadelphia for Magic was a bit overboard (considering my skill level) however, I guess you only live once. My story starts in rather remote (to me) Standish, Maine.
Grand Prix Trial Philadelphia: Standish, Maine:
After bombing out of PTQ Hollywood Brighton (1-1-2 drop with Ninjafish), I decided to try something a little different. We decided to go up to a Grand Prix Trial at Crossroads Games in Maine (nice store by the way). On my way to Standish (about a two and a half hour drive) I rifled through my boxes and binders in my bag and pulled out all the cards for Zoo. I had been contemplating the deck for a couple of weeks, but with my own little alterations. So on two hours of sleep and about an hour before the tournament I came up with this build of Zoo, which I dubbed “Welcome to the Jungle”:
[/DECK]
Lands:
4x Polluted Delta
4x Wooded Foothills
3x Windswept Heath
2x Stomping Ground
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Watery Grave
1x Blood Crypt
1x Temple Garden
1x Steam Vents
1x Godless Shrine
Creatures:
4x Kird Ape
4x Dark Confidant
4x Tarmogoyf
3x Isamaru, Hound of Konda
3x Gaddock Teeg
Spells:
4x Tribal Flames
4x Lightning Helix
4x Cabal Therapy
4x Terminate
3x Vindicate
3x Gaea’s Might
Sideboard:
3x Ancient Grudge
2x Armadillo Cloak
3x Duress
3x Engineered Plague
4x Offalsnout
[/DECK]
It was a bit of a rush job, especially the sideboard. I had played the regular Zoo/GMGT build at a couple local tournaments on loan from a friend, so I had a basic understanding on how to play it. I decided I wanted to go more of a control route (I am a control player at heart) so I replaced some of the burn and creatures with Cabal Therapies and Terminates. Cabal Therapy is one of my favorite cards, and I pretty much always play it when I can. The decks I had in mind with the sideboard choices were Affinity, Burn, Goblins and Dredge. The Duress were basically there for any deck where the Terminates were dead (TEPS, Ideal, etc.). One thing I noticed almost right away was: One of those Stomping Grounds really should have been a Breeding Pool.
Round One, Goblins:
Game one I started bolting myself right away, dropping an Isamaru and a Gaddock Teeg, mostly to stave off an onslaught of goblin violence. Game one was basically a lost cause, as I get massacred by hordes upon hordes of little red men.
I knew I needed help in this matchup, in come the Engineered Plagues and Armadillo Cloaks for Cabal Therapies and Vindicates. I found Vindicate was just too slow in this matchup and his hand emptied too fast for Cabal Therapy to do much. I left one miser’s Vindicate in, just in case.
Game two was a very different atmosphere. I actually drew domain rather than having to bolt myself to get it. I managed to shock myself a few times into triple Kird Apes to stop his goblins. After that I proceeded to draw into triple Lightning Helix, turning the game forever in my favor.
I figured I was going to lose game three since he was on the play. Luckily he got a slow hand, and I managed to slow play (dropping my lands into play tapped mostly) into Engineered Plague turn three. This wiped out his board, but I was at nine-life, so he decided to try and fight it out. That is until I dropped a second Engineered Plague turn four, and he extended his hand.
(1-0)
Between rounds, my friend I drove up with was mulling about how he lost to some deck with Kokushos and Profane Commands. I came to find out later it was none other than John F. Rizzo with Big Mana Rock.
Round Two, Some level of blue:
Game one I dropped all kinds of damage on the poor guy’s face. It was something like double Gaea’s Might and a Tribal Flames. He didn’t do much but cast a couple of Force Spikes, causing me to not be able to drop two-one drops in one turn.
For game two, I decided to board out the Terminates for Duress - this turns out to be a bad idea.
Game two he leads off with an Island, passing the turn. I get my Duress Force Spiked. Then he drops a Tarmogoyf. I kept a heavy discard hand, so I am kind of screwed here. I dropped a Kird Ape and a Cabal Therapy naming Counterspell the next turn, seeing Vedalken Shackles, Force Spike, Tarmogoyf and some Islands. I fight the good fight, but double Tarmo+Shackles = I lose.
I decided to switch the Duress back to Terminates - this turns out to be a bad idea.
Game three my opening hand consists of a few critters, Terminate and land. I proceed to draw the-other-three Terminates in my first four draws. Had they been Duress, I would not have run into so many Force Spikes on my wonderful little men. I ended up going all the way with a Tarmogoyf, with four kills waiting in hand.
(2-0)
My friend came up and told me he lost to goblins or something (he was playing Death Cloud by the way). It kind of killed my buzz.
Round Three, TEPS:
Apparently this guy is one of the best players in Maine (I didn’t know until later.) and I was really tired at this point. He was playing a good build of the deck and played it well.
Game one I started off with an Isamaru and a Gaddock Teeg. I had just hit one of his lands with a Vindicate with two more on deck and he responded with a Peer Through Depths. Now, I had been testing TEPS and I hadn’t been using this particular card, instead we were using Ponder. He had his deck in his hands, putting the cards on the bottom, and then when he put the deck down on the table, I was thinking it was a shuffle affect (since I don’t like to read cards) and just picked up his deck and started to shuffle it. As he protested I had just basically cut the deck in my hands, uncut it and put it down on the table. He called the judge over, who almost immediately told me he was giving me a game loss, which I protested. He said he would go look it up, and when he came back, he said it was a gray area and gave me a warning. For the rest of the tournament I kept my hands in my pockets when it wasn’t my turn! I proceeded to win that game, but it didn’t end up mattering.
Games two and three were about the same, I got him down to within one burn spell or attack phase of winning and he went off. He definitely deserved to win the match 3-0.
(2-1)
At this point I am really, really tired and frustrated. My friend lost again, and I was practically ready to leave at this point. I was hungry.
Round Four, Death Cloud:
I had seen Death Cloud around all day and was trying to avoid it. I feel it is not a good matchup for me at all.
Game one I mulligan to five and he drops a dirty deed and like three Ravenous Baloths, pwned.
Game two I mulligan to six and he drops a Dark Heart Sliver which completely pwns everything I’m trying to do with my lone Isamaru. SCOOP.
(2-2)
I thought it was time to drop and go eat. I was too tired to continue. I thought I had no chance of making top 8 (it was a small tournament, about 30ish people, only 5 rounds). I asked the judge if there was any way I could make top 8 and he said it was a long shot. My friend encouraged me, saying if there was a chance I should stay and try to pull it off. Sigh…no food in sight.
Round Five, Affinity:
FINALLY a good matchup!
Game one I go Terminator all over his face. He goes to Atog me out with a Fatal Frenzy in hand (little did I know it was Fatal Frenzy and not Shrapnel Blast). He keeps sacrificing artifacts as I stare at the beautiful Terminate in my hand. I dashed his hopes of victory right there. Since I bolted the crap out of myself with my lands, he didn’t have to sacrifice it all though, and went for a second bout with a Ravager the next turn, fortunately I had another Terminate.
For game two I boarded in the Grudges. I wanted to use those things all day.
Game two he pulled off some crazy-hat shenanigans with like three Ornithopters or some mess. I had no Terminates or Grudges this time. Poop.
Game three I still didn’t see any Grudge, but I manage to stomp his little guys with burn and swing in for enough to get there.
(3-2)
I stand around in anticipation for the top 8 to go up, talking to some people. My friend ended up going 2-3. All of a sudden I hear “you made it” from behind me. I couldn’t believe it, 3-2 got there.
Top 8 round one, TEPS again:
I was eighth seed so I had to face the first seed. It was my good old buddy TEPS from earlier. I was not pleased to see him. At this point I was very tired and did not want to deal with TEPS shenanigans.
Game one was a haze. He went off real fast, like turn three or so. I was resigned to my fate at this point.
Game two came out of nowhere, I owned his hand with double Duress and Cabal Therapy and the beats kept coming. I couldn’t believe it was going to game three.
Game three was the steamy part. I led off with Isamaru, Kird Ape and Gaddock Teeg. I had him lethal the next turn and he starts going off. He does lots of Peer Through Depths, Plunge into Darkness and mana ramping, but apparently he is one mana short of killing Teeg and killing me the whole time. He tried to play a Channel the Suns at one point, but Gaddock Teeg was out. As I see him ramping up his mana and going off, I thought he had enough to do it, and I was like “Burning Wish for the win?” and he drops the Wish on the table and extends his hand – my jaw drops and I get depressed for a moment, shaking his hand…but then a small spark of the competitive creeps up and I say “Wait, show me the cards…” and he brings a Pyroclasm out of his sideboard and says, “You got it man, I got nothing.” PHEW!
(4-2)
I could not believe I had come this far from being 2-2 and wanting to go home. My next opponent is John F. Rizzo, creator of Friggorid, who I had always wanted to meet, so after a few moments of me being star-struck, we start our round.
Top 8 round two, Big Mana Rock:
I was a little nervous here since he had done well in the Swiss with this deck. I also heard a lot of horror stories from my friend about Kokushos dropping all over the place and Profane Commands and whatnot. I was hoping it wouldn’t get that far.
We played two games and there really isn’t much to report. In one of them (I honestly forget which one) I think he took a mulligan or two, probably game one. Both games I pretty much just destroyed his hand, I think game one I had two therapies and game two I think I had two duress and a therapy. It was pretty ugly. I think at some point he is writing an article about his experiences with Big Mana Rock, he said I would be in it.
(5-2)
Top 8 Round Three, U/G Tron:
This is the matchup I had the least experience with. The deck was fairly new as a craze at this point, and I didn’t really know what to do. I was also almost comatose at this point, and my opponent was sharp as a tack.
Game one I lead off with some hand destruction and a Vindicate or two. I think he took a mulligan. He never really got off the ground.
Game two he dropped some combination of Tarmogoyfs and Threads of Disloyalty. It was real ugly. He soundly stomped me and got really cocky at this point.
Game three I think he got screwed and drew nothing but lands (I think I helped him with some Duress/Therapy action). He started to get a little cranky since he wasn’t drawing much and I was miss-playing all over the place for the win (I was seriously ready to keel over at this point). Anyway, I ended up winning somehow, which was a good time.
(6-2)
I don’t consider this win much of an accomplishment, I feel like I got lucky. I also wish I had decided then and there to switch decks for the Grand Prix, but no…I decided to stick with my pile of jank. Three byes and ten packs of Russian Morningtide to its credit, Welcome to the Jungle was going to Philadelphia.
Grand Prix Philadelphia:
We didn’t do anything like plan in advance for rooms, despite advice from people to do so. We drove up the night before, through the night, arriving at like 6:00 AM. I got about 30 minutes of sleep in the car during the trip. I learned a lot about planning trips ahead and going up the night before and whatnot from this trip. I didn’t play my first round until like 2:30 PM. So from 6:00 AM to 2:30 PM I wandered around the convention center and the mall across the street. I had a few beers, which was a great idea. So round four I come into this tournament having been awake over 24 hours, a few beers in me, ready to play. Also, I decided it was a good idea to change my deck around like right before the tournament - I took out the Terminates for main-deck Duress and switched the Terminates out of the board for Fire/Ice. Bad idea. I also added Meddling Mages to the sideboard…meh.
(3-0, Byes)
Round Four, Spirit Stompy:
I didn’t find out until later that my opponent was apparently the creator of Spirit Stompy, Rashad Miller. I guess he is a lot better than me and has done well for himself.
Game one I mulligan and he drops some kind of double Troll Ascetic action on my face and I never really recovered. I could already tell this was a bad matchup for me - I should have tested it more and side-boarded better. Oh did I mention I was main-decking the Duress instead of Terminate – really bad idea.
So I DON’T board in my Terminates because guess what, they’re Fire/Ice. I decide to board them in for the Duress, since it isn’t doing a heck of a lot for me.
Game two I think he took a mulligan and I managed to eat his hand and disrupt him long enough to edge out a victory. It was way too hard fought.
Game three we both came out of the gates with a lot of guys. It got to the point where he had a lot of guys, I was at six-life and I had enough guys to block all his guys and swing back for the win (with the Gaea’s Might in hand.) This standoff lasted for about eight turns, neither one of us able to alpha for the win. I seriously had about twelve of my eighteen creatures out. I had Meddling Mage on both Armadillo Cloak and Griffon Guide, as those would break the game. I also kept killing his Tallowisps. Unfortunately at one point I decide to Fire/Ice his Saffi, and he had an Okina I didn’t notice. That Fire/Ice WOULD have been a Terminate. Then I had another Fire/Ice which could have killed his second Tallowisp (I hit one with a Tribal Flames at one point) but it wasn’t a Terminate. So then he top-decks Otherworldly Journey, sends away my Meddling Mage and gets Griffon Guide for his Tarmogoyf for the win. Boo.
(3-1)
At this point I am seriously ready to pass out. I was done.
Round Five, Weird Level Blue:
This round I played against some guy who had like main deck Pernicious Deeds in NLU. It was a weird time.
Game one I managed to win on the back of speed. I noticed his dirty deeds and whatnot. I thought his deck was kind of weird but I was afraid of the deeds.
Game two the Hierarchs come into the picture. Great, so now he has deeds AND hierarchs, not a good time for me. I lose this one soundly.
Game three I had his hand pretty much raped and I had him on the run with a couple creatures. He had a couple Ancestral Visions on the table and two cards in hand. I had been casting creatures and other goodness and he hadn’t been countering them, so I figured – no counterspells right? WRONG. I go to drop a Kird Ape as bait, just incase. He hard counters it. So I am like “YAY I WIN THE DAY!” Meddling Mage on Ancestral Visions for the win! No. Counterspell number 2. Good day sir. As he reloads his hand, I see my doom. Dirty Deed stops all my plans next turn.
(3-2)
Now at this point, if I had slept the night before, I would still be in good shape. I could ride the loser’s bracket right into day two. Unfortunately I was ready to pass out, and my friend had gone 0-3 drop with TEPS, so I decided to say screw it. I should have stuck around until I lost again at least. Boo. L
PTQ Hollywood Philadelphia:
So the next day I head to the PTQ by myself, since my friend decided to sleep instead. I switched some things around in my sideboard, putting the Terminates back in there. I also added some Stifles and Katakis. I heard there was going to be a lot of Affinity, TEPS and Zoo. I heard wrong.
Round One, Doran Rock:
My round one opponent was playing some kind of crazy homebrew version of Doran Rock. He was playing Eladamri’s Call and stuff. He also had maindeck Hierarchs and Armadillo Cloaks…not good for me.
Game one I managed to thwart his plans of creating some kind of massive 6/6 spiritlinked, trampling elephant. Phew. Cute, there’s a Harbinger…Okay…Doran? Cool….I can deal with that…Eladamri’s Call?! Hierarch!? Whoops I lose.
So yea, I needed some serious Terminate action on this guy.
Game two he took a mulligan to five and I destroyed his hand. I proceeded to kill him just as he dropped a Harbinger to grab a Doran.
Game three was a tough fight. It went back and fourth with bombs. He dropped a Doran, I dropped a Terminate, he dropped a Hierarch, I dropped a Vindicate. He dropped a Doran, I dropped a Terminate. Then my little dudes finished him off.
(1-0)
There’s about 25 minutes between the rounds...somehow Dredge VS. Doran with a Deed on the table lasts 25 minutes for 5 turns.
Round two, NLU with Decree of Justice:
Game one I think he took a mulligan or two and I just smashed him. Cabal Therapy kind of surprised him.
Game two I had Gaddock Teeg, Meddling Mage on Vedalken Shackles and some other critter out. I swung with my Teeg and Meddling Mage into his empty board. That’s when I found out he played Decree of Justice. He killed my Mage and dropped Shackles. Then he dropped Tarmogoyf and all sorts of other nonsense.
Game three I got him to five before he stabilized and owned my whole board. He had two of his own Tarmogoyfs, one of mine, and I had nothing out. He had a top and two cards in hand. He would have won the next turn…if I didn’t top-deck an un-countered Tribal Flames ftw.
(2-0)
Round three, Flow Rock:
FLOW ROCK?! I obviously didn’t get the memo. Yea all those flow/blood moon decks were apparently everywhere the Friday before the GP. I played the wrong deck. L
Game one I think I actually managed to win despite all the Baloth shenanigans. I didn’t see Destructive Flow, so I couldn’t tell right away what he was playing. (since I wasn’t around the last time this deck was big).
Game two I found out about the flow, but he didn’t manage to play it (gogo therapy!). However, he did manage to get a Garruk out, power it up to Overrun with some birds of paradise, a tarmogoyf and treetop village out. I was smart enough to swing at the Garruk, but got chump blocked, and he swung back for the win with Profane Command.
Game three he dropped a Blood Moon on like turn three and I scooped. My 1/1 Kird Apes and Tribal Flames for 1 weren’t going to get there.
(2-1)
Round Four, RDW/Splash Goyf:
This was un-exciting, I beat him in two quick and un-eventful games. I had all kinds of Tribal Flames and Gaea’s Might shenanigans. Apparently he had Blood Moons in out of the SB but didn’t see them game 2. I would have lost. J
(3-1)
At this point I am feeling tired from the long trip and the past few days of no sleep. My pull-out couch in our roach-motel was uncomfortable. Being 3-1 kept me going though.
Round Five, NLU:
I don’t even want to talk about this match really but I will…
Game one he drops turn one and turn two Tarmogoyf followed by double force spike and a counterspell off the top of his deck. (since he mulled to 5 into crome mox, land, tarmogoyf, thirst for knowledge, tarmogoyf). I hate to call a mull to 5 lucky but come on now.
Game two I got a quick and surprising win on the back of double Tribal Flames.
Game three the kid takes my Dark Confidant and proceeds to miss the trigger twice. I am just not the kind of person who calls the judge on things. I just let him reveal the card (he didn’t put it in his hand completely, I kept track of what card it was) and take the damage both times (because I thought I was going to win). I should have called the judge both times. He also missed Kataki triggers on his Tree of Tales and Chrome Mox, so I think at some point he should have gotten a game loss if I actually called the judge. I don’t know, I didn’t care at this point. Anyway, he barely won the game off the back of insane top-decks.
(3-2)
At this point I just wanted to like go home. But I decided I might as well play my last round.
Round Six, CAL:
Another deck that I didn’t prepare for, Confinement-Assault-Loam, well that’s what I call it. I think he called it agro loam with confinement in it. Whatever the case, it’s like an auto-loss for me. He had Devastating Dreams, Solitary Confinement, Destructive Flow AND Blood Moon. It wasn’t even a fight…I dropped a couple Kird Apes and Duressed him to find double Devastating Dreams and a Destructive Flow. Suffice it to say, I took the flow, and he dropped a dreams the next turn, killing both Kird Apes and my land. I had nothing else…Game two he mulled to like four and I thought I had a chance but he mulled into land, land, birds, flow. I managed to get rid of his flow, but he top-decked two countryside crushers, one of which got Vindicated, the other of which got huge.
(3-3, drop)
Overall, I had a fairly good experience with the deck…it was fun to play at least. It has some seriously bad matchups, especially with all the tron hate splash damage. Next time I’m just going to take a page from Benzo Stanbury’s book and play mono-black.
Final Build:
[/DECK]
Lands:
4x Polluted Delta
4x Wooded Foothills
3x Windswept Heath
1x Stomping Ground
1x Breeding Pool
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Watery Grave
1x Blood Crypt
1x Temple Garden
1x Steam Vents
1x Godless Shrine
Creatures:
4x Kird Ape
4x Dark Confidant
4x Tarmogoyf
3x Isamaru, Hound of Konda
3x Gaddock Teeg
3x Meddling Mage
Spells:
4x Tribal Flames
4x Lightning Helix
3x Cabal Therapy
3x Duress
3x Vindicate
2x Gaea’s Might
Sideboard:
3x Engineered Plague
4x Stifle
4x Terminate (Fire/Ice for the GP)
4x Kataki, War's Wage (Unexciting, should have been Ancient Grudge)
[/DECK]
Hello,
Isn't Fact or Fiction more powerful than Gifts for this deck?
Regards,
Hazur
I won a Grand Prix Trial this past weekend and it has thrown me a curve as to what deck I want to use. I don't know if I should go with the deck I have tested with the most or go with a deck that will do best after the third round. My gut is telling me to go with the deck I have played and play-tested the most, but I just feel like certain decks must be better fourth round and up. Any thoughts/opinions/deck suggestions?
Regards,
Hazur
Hello,
I get my predictions from tournament results. Look at GP: Vancouver. U/G Tron is the next big thing and it rapes the current Death Cloud builds if you don't sideboard Cranial Extraction at the very least. Hell, it took about 9 SB slots just to give the thing a decent game 2 and 3 versus U/G tron (game one is basically an auto-loss). The metagame is in a constant shift lately because there are SO many viable decks out there AND it is like a Rock/Paper/Scissors match. You want to bring GUN to that one, and that is what this deck can be if you build it right.
Regards,
Hazur
Hello,
Those decks top 8ed in different metagames. Check the latest GP results. I am trying to be constructive - I told you, run more discard, more answers to combo and tron and Tombstalker > Tarmogoyf for the mirror which will be all over the place. I guess if you don't want to hear it - good luck.
Regards,
Hazur
Hello,
If you're taking this to a PTQ, you're in for some serious problems. This build will not win the mirror consistantly, especially if their build is teched to win the mirror (Tombstalker instead of Tarmogoyf). You may also have a problem with U/G Tron, as I've found Extirpate is just not enough in testing. One main deck Boseiju isn't going to help you much, even with two between main/board I have not seen it come up enough in the heavy blue control matchups. You also have too little discard in the maindeck, control is going to be very popular between NLU/PLU, U/G Tron, Death Cloud, etc. I would up it to six discard maindeck. You're also going to have a tough time against gobbos, definitely game one, but dark hearts in the board may be enough for the following games - but having to board against aggro, a matchup you should have locked with a good maindeck build kind of sucks. I still think Engineered Plague is good sideboard. You may also face a lot of problems against Zoo, Aggro Loam, Flow, Doran and other aggro-controlish decks with this build. You will also be a total dog to TEPS and have a hard time against Ideal gaime 1. I wouldn't just rely on Extirpate for all the combos around.
Regards,
Hazur