Just like Masti_core, I am returning again to magic, its been some time, but not so long since the invasion block, anyways, I have been searching for a thread here that discuss the best cards to pick in this sealed format, and general tips to be aware of what can I expect for this event, if anyone can guide me it'd be much appreciated
Decks posted above looks not bad, I had been thinking on something similiar as those with the actual cards we got, but.. I am not sure how competitive they could be outside FNM events
If you're not committed to a format and almost starting from scratch, I would skip standard and look at Modern or Legacy
There are almost no modern, even less legacy events here, only thing left for me is to build a strong deck that can survive fairly well not only for FNM but for more ranked and important events, which is my main interest here... starting from scratch is not a major problem I suppose
I'm in a similar boat. I'm considering getting back into standard in paper. Personally I am waiting to see what shakes out after Gatecrash and seeing what catches my eye. In the meantime you could look around for a black list and see what you can put together for the time being.
Waiting and seeing "what shakes out" after gatecrash means cardprices would go up a lot more, which is what I intent to avoid o_o
I wouldn't bother with BR zombies. Might be good for FNM, but it's about to be much worse of a deck after gatecrash officially releases.
After reading a bit on some threads, yes, BR zombies seems a deck not much brighter future sadly :/ thats why I feel like giving a chance to other options
hummm...BR 'd be the fastest option yes, and I already considered it, but I dont know how does it develops againts other decks, mainly control.
The other option of making BW controlish or midrange deck, I was thinking in something like that, but it could be not as solid as the now competitive decks around.
It's been a while since I played any magic at all, and now I feel kind of wanting to get back into the move. Currently I have some not so game deciding cards, but they could be of help when deciding which path could I follow to complete a standard deck that could be competitive enough not only for FNM level, but also for some more ranked events.
Here's a list of what I own:
4 killing wave
4 ravenous rats
4 sign in blood
4 gravecrawler
3 desecration demon
2 mutilate
4 geralf's messenger
4 duress
4 tormented soul
4 demonlord of ashmouth
2 barter in blood
4 cavern of souls
4 vampire nighthawk
What I was wanting to build, looking at the actual spoilers, was something related to orzhob colours, 'coz I saw some cards with much potential, but I don't know if that could be a smart decision, seeing that I completely ignore what the metagame has to offer right now, so I'd like to get some help deciding what to do:
-Use some of the above cards and build something already tested and competitive?
-Sell or trade the above cards and start in a diferent direction?
-Any other advise?
I'd pretty much like to conserve the black colour, no matter what combination the deck could have, but if you consider that there are other "black-less" decks with more potential, I'd like to consider them as well.
Thanks in advance for all your kind replies, and much useful help
Beat a homebrew deck that tried to use fast creature mana to get Myr Superion and large Dragons into play. Removal on the accelerators and Inquistions left him helpless to Obliterators.
I beat a Mono Red deck Game 1 with Turn 3 Nighthawk and Turn 4 Lashwrithe. Game 2 was a perfect run of Turn 1 Inquisition, Turn 2 Duress and Inquisition, Turn 3 Phyrexian Crusader, Turn 4 Lashwrithe.
I beat a mono white deck with a removal spell for every threat he laid down, even catching Mirran Crusader in the yard with Surgical Extraction after he sacced it to a kicked Gatekeeper. Game 2 he was poisoned out after being hit for 2 on 5 consecutive turns.
Batterskull and Gideon are cards I can find no good answer for other than more Search and Remove Effects.
I seemed to side in Phyrexian Crusader so often with all the Red and White decks at My LGS that I may just maindeck them next time.
Lashwrithe should have definitely been a four of inclusion, and I'm not sure Sign in Blood should not also be. If I cut the Grave Titan and Wurmcoil Engine I may be able to lose a land but not sure what else to try.
cut the 6 mana cost creatures,.. or place em in sideboard at least, thats my humble advice, so far i have seen that theres little times when i can reach to turn 6 and cast titan safely, by that time opponents have plenty of answers, not to say its a dead draw on early turns, and the deck is kinda faster with just 4 mana costed cards, titan is only good vs control matches, like caw one for example.
also, vampire hexmage is the winz, try raising the number to 3 in ur sideboard, eats pws like a champ and can be copied on a vat for the win
Theres as much answers as guys playing this deck, coz it all depends on ur meta, and ur experience with such cards..i can give u mine if u wanna:
I rarely find needing titan lately, the only matches that titan would be better than obliterator are the caw ones in my opinion, coz theres more chance to get to late game, and lets be honest, most decks doesnt get there too often, by that time, they have already overwhelmed u, or u already won..but thats only in my experience, and in my meta as i said earlier.
vault skirge...well, this guy is almost my only 1 drop in the deck, it put pressure on opponents, and its a perfect lashwrithe target, so yeah, for me it is great,..alo the lifegain is always good, unless ur facing infect..which nobody really plays, or not competitive at least...
Despise i find it kind of ... a clunky card. Some years ago, there was a similar struggle, what to play? duress or ostracize? nowaday that we have IoK, Despise, Duress, and Distress..i have found that, even when discard is useful and frustrating for the opponent, it has its disadvantages, main one is, u do not wanna draw it late game, when ur desperately looking for a treat.. but even then, when i have discard on 1st two turns, theres also the choice of, getting behind the race by playing it to avoid a worse treat in next turns, or to answer their creatures, or play ur own creatures..and that has been a crucial question for me. This week imma be testing a little change i made to my list in which i exchanged my only discard package left in my list, for more "common sideboard options" i had there, im talking about hexmages, for meta reasons only.
at 1st i started playing with just 3 lashwrithes coz i didnt played that much creatures, and i used to run a strange built with grim discovery and other cards that, are good but slows u down in one or another way, but now that i reforged my list and made it a more aggroish one, i find it that 4 is the number. Again it is just my personal choice, and only depends on ur list.
But anyway, i had found that against aggro it is great, control has its issues dealing with it..so yeah, for me 4 is the number.
Consume the meek or BSZ?
1st off, why u need either of those?..against aggro i suppose? right? or any deck that relies heavily on creatures to win..so what decks like that do we have around?
tempered steel
goblins
K red
vamps
puresteel equipments?
elves? ..
Pod?
Consume the meek destroys tempered steel and elves, goblins we can pretty much deal with em with just removal..vamps is kind of the same history, puresteel would work both BSZ or consume the meek..against pod, BSZ would be better but not in all cases..i personally prefer targeted removal to deal with it. For what i really need a sweeper is against T steel ...also elves but theres so few elven players in my meta i really dun see em around often. So i use consume the meek, coz T steel is a though match to deal with, and coz BSZ isnt as effective if they have already landed a Tempered steel,.. worse if they have 2 in play...
Hexmage is always needed, to deal with gideon mainly.. but i have been using her to remove pyromancer assension counters, they never expect it..and against aggro it is always good..also as i said earlier, im now testing her again in maindeck.
Crusader i have been using it in maindeck coz theres a large ammount of decks based on red or on white in my meta, also coz it is a potential 2 hit win condition if unblocked, which makes it worth the inlcussion in the deck.
Again, everythng here is just based on my personal experiences and my current meta, not to be generalized and may not have good results for everyone, but for me its has worked pretty well so far.
nice 6-0, and i'll have to try crusaders as well. something that caught my eye was that you said tempered steel runs mirran crusader and leyline of sanctity. i've never seen that, since MD at least almost all tempered steel players (including myself, i play both of these) don't have anything with 3+ cmc (besides steel) mainboarded, and the leyline, i think doesnt happen as well since 4 mana sources doesnt happen often in tsteel.
also, you can look at the tempered steel thread even if you dont play it to keep your info up on the MU. what i'd reccomend against them is to have 3 black sun zeniths in mb/sb somewhere, side out all gftts for geth's verdicts, whatever you may use. and kill steel overseers, as it will basically cancel out with your bsz
could had been a meta decision, since there was including me, 7 other ppl playing mono black, .. yeah i was also amazed by this, thought i was the only one
edit: (also few players with UB Control now that i remember.. and yeah, im seeing now that taking a peek on the thread could work a little hehe, didnt knew t steel didnt play crusaders at all till now , i dont test against this deck too often too.. my meta is almost filled with K red, goblins, Pyro Twin combo, or UW .. Valakuts in less quantity but theres some showings too, thats why i opted to play crusaders main also, but isnt as bad idea as i thought in the beggining, after all, its about 2 max 3 attacks to dispatch our opponents)
also, sun is good, but not too much for tempered steel in my opinion, since they boost their forces too much and too fast for a sun to empty the board.. at least not at 4th turn, maybe 5th.. in which consume the meek would be way better,...again, its just my humble opinnion.
also consume the meek doesnt hurt ur obliterators, yeah i know... if u already have a obliterator onboard, theres less possibilities u'd need to sweep, still theres chances, since tempered runs too much flying creatures, ignoring obliterator
that list looks good, and grats on the 6-0.
you must have faced one dumb caw player though, its a pretty brainless move to attack MBC with Gideon, they just have to keep upping his counters and shooting down your tapped guys n they win. When played right, Gideon is nearly unstoppable unless you have Hexmage.
crusaders mainboard is interesting, ive considered it myself and i think i'll test it next chance i get
good run down of highlights
stay black
He was indeed a little ... dumb i guess hehe, all the match he spent half his time looking at his cards and making moves, and the other half cursing god coz his pen didnt worked all well (to write down his life),.. so he couldnt concentrate at all i suppose..
even in one opportunity i remember i did casted vampire nighthawk, and then i said "does it resolves?" he didnt paid attention trying to update his life counter or iunno what he was writting there lol, so i said "ur turn then".. he then drew, and realized he had a mana leak ready for my nighthawk, but was already too late to do anything about it, he then started yelling at me with a tone not so friendly to ask him first before any move...
This one was an easy one, lifegain is always lethal for these kind of decks, plus i run phyrexian crusader maindeck, which i have found i always sided it in in most matches, so i ended mainboarding him.
Fast start, with T1 vault skirge, T2 sign in blood, T3 crusader, T4 Lashwrithe made game1, game 2 wasnt that different, but with obliterators this time.
Match 2: Goblins, won 2 - 1
Another similarly to match one, this was kind of easy, only thing one needs to reach is to turn 4 -5 in one piece, and the opponent pretty much had depleted all his materials, while we still got gas to keep going.
Yet, goblins are faster than us in many ways.. and this one packed a lot of burn after game1, plus i didnt had the best opening in game 2, when i could land my obliterator i was already at 2 life, and then he easily dispatched me with lightning bolt
Game 3 was my start, played land and passed, he played goblin guide, declared, i revealed land from my top, drew it, and played disfigure, then in my turn i played vault skirge and passed, he drew, didnt dropped land and passed, i then played a land, declared, he burned my skirge, so i played my nighthawk and passed, he then drew, didnt dropped anything and passed, i then dropped my fourth land, declared, he again burned my attacker, i dropped a obliterator, and he just extended his hand and conceded the game
Match 3: UW Control, won 2 - 0
This one wasnt that easy, he just responded to almost everything i had, after some turns i was already facing Gideon, and the turn after that he sweeped away the board, but i found that a little hasty of his own, coz i just had 2 creatures, but i was expecting that, coz he suddenly stopped from answering, and he still had like 4 - 5 cards in had, so i waited that turn and passed, he then tried to attack me with gideon equiping it with a sword of feast and famine, which i responded with a go for the throat, he didnt responded to that either, so i then played my turn safely after that beggining with a inquisition of kozilek, which also resolved (o.o) so i saw he was just holding lands in his hand, a preorder and a into the roil, which i discarted, followed by my obliterator,.. after few turns i had already landed lashwrithe and a cursader.. he was at 5 life exactly, drew, searched in his top twice, didnt found anything .. and conceded.
Game 2 was a lot harder, and lasted way longer, i was fearing this coz lategame these kind of decks shines the most, yet tried my best, till i drew a mimic vat, ohh yeah, that mimic vat was my salvation, he had already depleted 2 of his into the roil, and lotta other resources, so did i, with a empty field with nothing more that just lands, and a vault skirge, a swamp and a go for the throat, he played, droped guideon..used his +2 ability and passed, i drew a vampire hexmage, played it, he answered with mana leak (his fourth and last), i ofc payed for it, leaving me with 2 untapped lands, he dropped his gideon to the GY, so i passed, he drew, dropped sun titan and returned a manland from his GY, i then go for the throated it in his end of turn, which he couldnt answer, so i imprinted in my vat, and in my turn dropped a crusader and a laswrithe i just drew, and that was it..
Match 4: Valakut, won 2 - 0
Game 1 he kept a hand of 5 lands, a cultivate and a wall, i kept a hand of IoK, mimic vat and 5 lands also, i started that game so i discarted his cultivate, he drew and passed, i drew a doom blade and passed, he drew, dropped his wall and passed, so i doom bladed it in his end of turn, i then drew a go for the throat, dropped my mimic vat and passed, he drew, played a explore, drew again and smiled, dropped a valakut and passed, so i then drew a swamp :/, and passed, he then played a cultivate, dropped another wall and passed, i then drew another swamp o.o .. and passed, he then drew, played a trap and luckily he didnt found titan, but avenger, which i doom bladed and imprinted, i then tapped my vat at his EoT, then drew a obliterator, his only option was drawing titan this next 2 turns or he be pretty much doomed, and he did drew it in the next turn, but at that point i already had like 11 plant tokens, 5 with +2 counters, 6 with +1, drew a lashwrithe and equiped my obliterator ftw..
Game 2 was.. well, hylarious if i could say..he mantained a hand of 1 land and lotta ramp, i kept a hand of 6 swamps and a IoK... thought i'd never draw another one, i really was too overconfident..ohh how wrong i was :P, we kept each one with our own missery hands, he didnt drew another land till turn 10 if im not wrong, ... and i did drew my 3rd spell at turn 9, and it was a
sadistic sacrament, 2nd one was drew at turn 5 or 6 dun remember, was another sad sac, so i waited to turn 10 and played it kicked, emptied his deck out of creatures, and that was about it
Match 5: Vampires, won 2 - 0
Not much to say, he was beating everyone, coz he had faced just splinter twins or control decks, but vampires arent a real treat to MB, as many of us already know, i dont remember pretty well this match..it was just too fast, even worse with sideboard.
Match 6: Tempered Steel, won 2 - 1
This one was a match i was fearing to face, even with consume the meek it'd be a hard match (also i didnt packed em that day though the configuration i had was enoguh to face aggro,..), and i always find myself facing at least 2 of those enchantments and 3 - 5 creatures before i can play obliterator o lashwirthe,... also they pack mirran crusader maindeck, and in sideboard they get to play leyline of sanctity...anyway, he won game 1 fast and easy,..game 2 i sided in hexmages, and disfigures..and i happened to discard his tempered steel before he could drop it, he never drew another one, was a game for me,.. last game was as even as ever, but the lifegain made the edge for me, and i got that match, a hard one i must admit..
I am having trouble with RDW/Goblins also, they are just really damn fast. Has anyone used 4 everflowing chalices with good results?
early disruption, in the form of IoK, doomblades and go for the throath are the answers we have for this match..
i went in the neccesity of brewing again my list and addpat it to beat aggro, i have found that, only thing we need to do is to endure the best we can till we can drop an obliterator or lashwrite, and start the oblivion, 4 lands pretty much means we have entered midgame, in which our lists shines.
hug and protect ur nighthawk as much as u can, they are the ones that gives u some more breath to keep going against this match, every point of life gained means they'd need to spend more resources to deal with us.
Also, not every hand in RDW or any other red deck is perfect and explosive..something to have in mind, but not to be overconfident tho...
I used this list in a smallish (30 or so players) tournament and finished second with a record of 5-1.
I faced one knight themed white weenie, two Valakuts, UR Exarch-Twin, Tempered Steel and one URG Exarch-Twin with Birthing Pods. The defeat came against the URG TwinPod in the last round of the tournament.
The list was originally used by "Rancid-" in a Magic Online Daily Standard event which he won with a record of 4-0, though I changed it a bit due to card selection shortcomings.
The deck felt really strong all the way. It wasn't too hard to win with it, though the Tempered Steel gave me run for the money and I had to pay very close attention in every game, since it's been a while since my last Standard tourney and I wasn't too familiar with opposing decks. Normally a Lashwrithe equipped Obliterator just smashed faces in after picking all the aswers to it with the discard package.
Valakuts were pretty easy matches: just discard the ramps and proceed to quickest kill possible with Obliterator, Lashwrithe or both, so that they are unable to race even with Valakut active, and of course kill the Titans asap. After sideboard Memoricide does the trick, as well as Mind Sludge.
The real problem, however, seems to be the freaking Birthing Pod. After it lands on the table, all you can do is kill every last one of their creatures and at the same time make them discard every card they got, or else it's inevitable that you will be staring down a Frost Titan or two and they lock down your swamps which already might me short supply because of Acidic Slimes. The mana acceleration from Pod decks ensures quick Slimes - often quick enough to prevent you even getting Obliterator-mana.
I sideboarded the Revokers to battle Pods, but haven't been too impressed by them. In test games I've won every one where I've managed to Memoricide the Pods before he got one around, but trying to catch a "3 mana" artifact in a deck with 4 Birds of Paradise with a four mana sorcery is very optimistic at best.
Sorceries
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Distress
4x Sign In Blood
Artifacts
4x Lashwrithe
Instants
2x Dismember
2x Doom Blade
Lands
24x Swamp
Sideboard:
3x Phyrexian Revoker
4x Memoricide
3x Consume the Meek
3x Disfigure
1x Mind Sludge
1x Go for the Throat
Changed my list last week and addpated it to battle in a more aggroish meta, this list is kind of similar to mine, xept i use sad sac instead of memoricide...reaching to 4 mana to get rid of anyone card u might want out to screw ur opponent is . well.. not my thing..and it get rids of valakuts too,.. so far it has worked wonderfully..
i use no mindsludges tho...a mix of 4 IoK, 2 duress and 2 distress works fine for me
lastly, no dismember, i prefer 3/3 doomblade - go for the throath, that accompanied with the gatekeepers are just enoguh to keep creatures at its bay..
btw, i use couple solemn simulacrum to feed up my lashwirtes they are cool
The thing is - Exarch lets you choose between discard or recursion. It's never going to be a dead card. And it hits Valakut.
thing is, when it comes to choose between obliterator, percy, solem simulacrum, or exarch..the decision is kinda obvious.. just in very few punctual cases i'd choose exarch over the others mentioned..
and, its been said in pages ago, that MBC isnt that "controlish" as we'd need, or want it to be, so what we can do is mix some control components in a midrange build, to maximize its performance.
Every spot is vital...leaving exarch as an unnecesary luxury that atm MB cant afford.. thats my point of view at least.
this is 100% true.. trying to compare exarch to a solem simulacrum, or an obliterator is just ridiculous, i read some people discussing about rager being a bad pick, well..exarch is not better in any way, for the same reasons rager isnt good..
if ur gonna need recursion, grim discovery is way better...if what u need is discard outlets, distress, duress, IoK are there for u at better mana cost..in conclusion, exarch is just a mediocre card at best, even if u imprint it on a vat, (which i havent seen much in latest builds), why imprint that when u can imprint percy or obliterator? .. they both have the same mana cost, and both have way more impact in the game than exarch..
regards.
I am interested in invest on whatever gives me good results
There are almost no modern, even less legacy events here, only thing left for me is to build a strong deck that can survive fairly well not only for FNM but for more ranked and important events, which is my main interest here... starting from scratch is not a major problem I suppose
Waiting and seeing "what shakes out" after gatecrash means cardprices would go up a lot more, which is what I intent to avoid o_o
After reading a bit on some threads, yes, BR zombies seems a deck not much brighter future sadly :/ thats why I feel like giving a chance to other options
The other option of making BW controlish or midrange deck, I was thinking in something like that, but it could be not as solid as the now competitive decks around.
It's been a while since I played any magic at all, and now I feel kind of wanting to get back into the move. Currently I have some not so game deciding cards, but they could be of help when deciding which path could I follow to complete a standard deck that could be competitive enough not only for FNM level, but also for some more ranked events.
Here's a list of what I own:
4 killing wave
4 ravenous rats
4 sign in blood
4 gravecrawler
3 desecration demon
2 mutilate
4 geralf's messenger
4 duress
4 tormented soul
4 demonlord of ashmouth
2 barter in blood
4 cavern of souls
4 vampire nighthawk
What I was wanting to build, looking at the actual spoilers, was something related to orzhob colours, 'coz I saw some cards with much potential, but I don't know if that could be a smart decision, seeing that I completely ignore what the metagame has to offer right now, so I'd like to get some help deciding what to do:
-Use some of the above cards and build something already tested and competitive?
-Sell or trade the above cards and start in a diferent direction?
-Any other advise?
I'd pretty much like to conserve the black colour, no matter what combination the deck could have, but if you consider that there are other "black-less" decks with more potential, I'd like to consider them as well.
Thanks in advance for all your kind replies, and much useful help
Best regards.
cut the 6 mana cost creatures,.. or place em in sideboard at least, thats my humble advice, so far i have seen that theres little times when i can reach to turn 6 and cast titan safely, by that time opponents have plenty of answers, not to say its a dead draw on early turns, and the deck is kinda faster with just 4 mana costed cards, titan is only good vs control matches, like caw one for example.
also, vampire hexmage is the winz, try raising the number to 3 in ur sideboard, eats pws like a champ and can be copied on a vat for the win
Theres as much answers as guys playing this deck, coz it all depends on ur meta, and ur experience with such cards..i can give u mine if u wanna:
I rarely find needing titan lately, the only matches that titan would be better than obliterator are the caw ones in my opinion, coz theres more chance to get to late game, and lets be honest, most decks doesnt get there too often, by that time, they have already overwhelmed u, or u already won..but thats only in my experience, and in my meta as i said earlier.
vault skirge...well, this guy is almost my only 1 drop in the deck, it put pressure on opponents, and its a perfect lashwrithe target, so yeah, for me it is great,..alo the lifegain is always good, unless ur facing infect..which nobody really plays, or not competitive at least...
Despise i find it kind of ... a clunky card. Some years ago, there was a similar struggle, what to play? duress or ostracize? nowaday that we have IoK, Despise, Duress, and Distress..i have found that, even when discard is useful and frustrating for the opponent, it has its disadvantages, main one is, u do not wanna draw it late game, when ur desperately looking for a treat.. but even then, when i have discard on 1st two turns, theres also the choice of, getting behind the race by playing it to avoid a worse treat in next turns, or to answer their creatures, or play ur own creatures..and that has been a crucial question for me. This week imma be testing a little change i made to my list in which i exchanged my only discard package left in my list, for more "common sideboard options" i had there, im talking about hexmages, for meta reasons only.
at 1st i started playing with just 3 lashwrithes coz i didnt played that much creatures, and i used to run a strange built with grim discovery and other cards that, are good but slows u down in one or another way, but now that i reforged my list and made it a more aggroish one, i find it that 4 is the number. Again it is just my personal choice, and only depends on ur list.
But anyway, i had found that against aggro it is great, control has its issues dealing with it..so yeah, for me 4 is the number.
Consume the meek or BSZ?
1st off, why u need either of those?..against aggro i suppose? right? or any deck that relies heavily on creatures to win..so what decks like that do we have around?
tempered steel
goblins
K red
vamps
puresteel equipments?
elves? ..
Pod?
Consume the meek destroys tempered steel and elves, goblins we can pretty much deal with em with just removal..vamps is kind of the same history, puresteel would work both BSZ or consume the meek..against pod, BSZ would be better but not in all cases..i personally prefer targeted removal to deal with it. For what i really need a sweeper is against T steel ...also elves but theres so few elven players in my meta i really dun see em around often. So i use consume the meek, coz T steel is a though match to deal with, and coz BSZ isnt as effective if they have already landed a Tempered steel,.. worse if they have 2 in play...
Hexmage is always needed, to deal with gideon mainly.. but i have been using her to remove pyromancer assension counters, they never expect it..and against aggro it is always good..also as i said earlier, im now testing her again in maindeck.
Crusader i have been using it in maindeck coz theres a large ammount of decks based on red or on white in my meta, also coz it is a potential 2 hit win condition if unblocked, which makes it worth the inlcussion in the deck.
Again, everythng here is just based on my personal experiences and my current meta, not to be generalized and may not have good results for everyone, but for me its has worked pretty well so far.
could had been a meta decision, since there was including me, 7 other ppl playing mono black,
edit: (also few players with UB Control now that i remember.. and yeah, im seeing now that taking a peek on the thread could work a little hehe, didnt knew t steel didnt play crusaders at all till now
also, sun is good, but not too much for tempered steel in my opinion, since they boost their forces too much and too fast for a sun to empty the board.. at least not at 4th turn, maybe 5th.. in which consume the meek would be way better,...again, its just my humble opinnion.
also consume the meek doesnt hurt ur obliterators, yeah i know... if u already have a obliterator onboard, theres less possibilities u'd need to sweep, still theres chances, since tempered runs too much flying creatures, ignoring obliterator
He was indeed a little ... dumb i guess hehe, all the match he spent half his time looking at his cards and making moves, and the other half cursing god coz his pen didnt worked all well (to write down his life),.. so he couldnt concentrate at all i suppose..
even in one opportunity i remember i did casted vampire nighthawk, and then i said "does it resolves?" he didnt paid attention trying to update his life counter or iunno what he was writting there lol, so i said "ur turn then".. he then drew, and realized he had a mana leak ready for my nighthawk, but was already too late to do anything about it, he then started yelling at me with a tone not so friendly to ask him first before any move...
hehe, the ppl... i swear...
Went 6 - 0 amazigly hehe, out of 48~ players
Match 1: Kuldotha red, won 2 - 0
This one was an easy one, lifegain is always lethal for these kind of decks, plus i run phyrexian crusader maindeck, which i have found i always sided it in in most matches, so i ended mainboarding him.
Fast start, with T1 vault skirge, T2 sign in blood, T3 crusader, T4 Lashwrithe made game1, game 2 wasnt that different, but with obliterators this time.
Match 2: Goblins, won 2 - 1
Another similarly to match one, this was kind of easy, only thing one needs to reach is to turn 4 -5 in one piece, and the opponent pretty much had depleted all his materials, while we still got gas to keep going.
Yet, goblins are faster than us in many ways.. and this one packed a lot of burn after game1, plus i didnt had the best opening in game 2, when i could land my obliterator i was already at 2 life, and then he easily dispatched me with lightning bolt
Game 3 was my start, played land and passed, he played goblin guide, declared, i revealed land from my top, drew it, and played disfigure, then in my turn i played vault skirge and passed, he drew, didnt dropped land and passed, i then played a land, declared, he burned my skirge, so i played my nighthawk and passed, he then drew, didnt dropped anything and passed, i then dropped my fourth land, declared, he again burned my attacker, i dropped a obliterator, and he just extended his hand and conceded the game
Match 3: UW Control, won 2 - 0
This one wasnt that easy, he just responded to almost everything i had, after some turns i was already facing Gideon, and the turn after that he sweeped away the board, but i found that a little hasty of his own, coz i just had 2 creatures, but i was expecting that, coz he suddenly stopped from answering, and he still had like 4 - 5 cards in had, so i waited that turn and passed, he then tried to attack me with gideon equiping it with a sword of feast and famine, which i responded with a go for the throat, he didnt responded to that either, so i then played my turn safely after that beggining with a inquisition of kozilek, which also resolved (o.o) so i saw he was just holding lands in his hand, a preorder and a into the roil, which i discarted, followed by my obliterator,.. after few turns i had already landed lashwrithe and a cursader.. he was at 5 life exactly, drew, searched in his top twice, didnt found anything .. and conceded.
Game 2 was a lot harder, and lasted way longer, i was fearing this coz lategame these kind of decks shines the most, yet tried my best, till i drew a mimic vat, ohh yeah, that mimic vat was my salvation, he had already depleted 2 of his into the roil, and lotta other resources, so did i, with a empty field with nothing more that just lands, and a vault skirge, a swamp and a go for the throat, he played, droped guideon..used his +2 ability and passed, i drew a vampire hexmage, played it, he answered with mana leak (his fourth and last), i ofc payed for it, leaving me with 2 untapped lands, he dropped his gideon to the GY, so i passed, he drew, dropped sun titan and returned a manland from his GY, i then go for the throated it in his end of turn, which he couldnt answer, so i imprinted in my vat, and in my turn dropped a crusader and a laswrithe i just drew, and that was it..
Match 4: Valakut, won 2 - 0
Game 1 he kept a hand of 5 lands, a cultivate and a wall, i kept a hand of IoK, mimic vat and 5 lands also, i started that game so i discarted his cultivate, he drew and passed, i drew a doom blade and passed, he drew, dropped his wall and passed, so i doom bladed it in his end of turn, i then drew a go for the throat, dropped my mimic vat and passed, he drew, played a explore, drew again and smiled, dropped a valakut and passed, so i then drew a swamp :/, and passed, he then played a cultivate, dropped another wall and passed, i then drew another swamp o.o .. and passed, he then drew, played a trap and luckily he didnt found titan, but avenger, which i doom bladed and imprinted, i then tapped my vat at his EoT, then drew a obliterator, his only option was drawing titan this next 2 turns or he be pretty much doomed, and he did drew it in the next turn, but at that point i already had like 11 plant tokens, 5 with +2 counters, 6 with +1, drew a lashwrithe and equiped my obliterator ftw..
Game 2 was.. well, hylarious if i could say..he mantained a hand of 1 land and lotta ramp, i kept a hand of 6 swamps and a IoK... thought i'd never draw another one, i really was too overconfident..ohh how wrong i was :P, we kept each one with our own missery hands, he didnt drew another land till turn 10 if im not wrong, ... and i did drew my 3rd spell at turn 9, and it was a
sadistic sacrament, 2nd one was drew at turn 5 or 6 dun remember, was another sad sac, so i waited to turn 10 and played it kicked, emptied his deck out of creatures, and that was about it
Match 5: Vampires, won 2 - 0
Not much to say, he was beating everyone, coz he had faced just splinter twins or control decks, but vampires arent a real treat to MB, as many of us already know, i dont remember pretty well this match..it was just too fast, even worse with sideboard.
Match 6: Tempered Steel, won 2 - 1
This one was a match i was fearing to face, even with consume the meek it'd be a hard match (also i didnt packed em that day
so.. thats about it.
the list:
4 vault skirge
4 vampire nighthawk
3 phyrexian crusader
3 gatekeeper of malakir
3 phyrexian obliterator
4 Inquisition of kozilek
3 doomblade
3 Go for the Throat
4 Sign in blood
2 mimic vat
4 lashwrithe
3 vampire hexmage
4 duress
2 Grave Titan
3 sadistic sacrament
Really happy with this list, guess i finally got to my final configuration, proving to be useful against both aggro and control.
early disruption, in the form of IoK, doomblades and go for the throath are the answers we have for this match..
i went in the neccesity of brewing again my list and addpat it to beat aggro, i have found that, only thing we need to do is to endure the best we can till we can drop an obliterator or lashwrite, and start the oblivion, 4 lands pretty much means we have entered midgame, in which our lists shines.
hug and protect ur nighthawk as much as u can, they are the ones that gives u some more breath to keep going against this match, every point of life gained means they'd need to spend more resources to deal with us.
Also, not every hand in RDW or any other red deck is perfect and explosive..something to have in mind, but not to be overconfident tho...
Changed my list last week and addpated it to battle in a more aggroish meta, this list is kind of similar to mine, xept i use sad sac instead of memoricide...reaching to 4 mana to get rid of anyone card u might want out to screw ur opponent is . well.. not my thing..and it get rids of valakuts too,.. so far it has worked wonderfully..
i use no mindsludges tho...a mix of 4 IoK, 2 duress and 2 distress works fine for me
lastly, no dismember, i prefer 3/3 doomblade - go for the throath, that accompanied with the gatekeepers are just enoguh to keep creatures at its bay..
btw, i use couple solemn simulacrum to feed up my lashwirtes
thing is, when it comes to choose between obliterator, percy, solem simulacrum, or exarch..the decision is kinda obvious.. just in very few punctual cases i'd choose exarch over the others mentioned..
and, its been said in pages ago, that MBC isnt that "controlish" as we'd need, or want it to be, so what we can do is mix some control components in a midrange build, to maximize its performance.
Every spot is vital...leaving exarch as an unnecesary luxury that atm MB cant afford.. thats my point of view at least.
btw
this is 100% true.. trying to compare exarch to a solem simulacrum, or an obliterator is just ridiculous, i read some people discussing about rager being a bad pick, well..exarch is not better in any way, for the same reasons rager isnt good..
if ur gonna need recursion, grim discovery is way better...if what u need is discard outlets, distress, duress, IoK are there for u at better mana cost..in conclusion, exarch is just a mediocre card at best, even if u imprint it on a vat, (which i havent seen much in latest builds), why imprint that when u can imprint percy or obliterator? .. they both have the same mana cost, and both have way more impact in the game than exarch..