Depends on the variant of the deck, sometimes it's been miserable and sometimes it's felt like a silly matchup. I've faced it three times, and naya nahiri once. I lost to Naya by a pretty wide margin, UWR on the other hand, I have 2 wins and 1 loss, but I know I lost at least one of the games against the deck to my own misplay.
This deck was pre-twin banning era, I have a whole 13 page write-up on its good and bad match ups and explanations for every card I run in it, which you can find https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v0wfPcHIXljx4iSLpYQXz6FFu70B3byDne8Sgq-jpBo/edit?usp=sharing here. I haven't updated it for the new meta or my new list since I'm still working out my exact 75-90 cards (factoring swapping for meta and sideboard alternatives)
Post banning I ran the same list for a while, up until Ancestral/Thoptersword unban at which point I decided "I can't be weak to control any more."
So I took a fresh look at the format and threw Wescoe's list together. It was a delight to play, really fun against midrange decks and control lists, just really value heavy and hard to beat in a grindy game but BOY was it bad against aggro lists, burn and infect were just too fast for me to deal with and it became super mulligan dependent, the deck just didn't feel fast or low enough to the ground.
So after a lot of soul searching and deck thoughts, I ran this list out.
It wasn't bad, just called the deck new hotness for a while, match results in MTGO leagues are as follows.
RG Tron 2
Ad Naus 1
Kuldotha Burn 1
Naya Burn 1
Jund 1
Jeskai Control 1
UB Fae 1
Grixis Delver 1
Losses
Jund 2
Infect 1
Esper Control 1
Dredge 1
4c Kiki Control 1
With a win rate sitting at just about 60%
I tried to look at what I was losing against and realized that my midrange and control matchups were still pretty rough, so I made some further tweaks and ended up with this list.
You'll notice it's a bit more top-heavy and cuts the "utility creatures" down quite a bit. I didn't want to concede to Affinity so I left in the 3 Qasali Main, I just hate losing to a deck like Affinity.
Methodology of Changes to Creatures:
Smiter is good in the control match-up but doesn't contest the big creatures of the format that well, options include becoming evasive, going wide, or running Wilt-Leaf Liege for anthem.
Wilt-Leaf Liege feels bad because of how much non-damage based removal is in the format, Restoration Angel meets our needs by being evasive and equally hard to 1:1.
+3 Restoration Angel
To take better advantage of Restoration Angel we want to run more creatures it can get value off of, Scavenging Ooze + Resto Angel is a non-bo and Scavenging Ooze is bad in multiples (and often times just bad). Kitchen Finks is a sticky all-star and we get great value with Resto + Finks + Evo Leap.
-1 Scavenging Ooze
+1 Kitchen Finks
Thalia is one of our weaker bears, great in certain matchups, but bad in multiples.
-1 Thalia
Aven Mindcensor is great when it's good but otherwise is very easily removed and doesn't do much to end a game rapidly.
-2 Aven Mindcensor
Increasing the top of our mana curve demands a bit more at the low end to support a rapid midgame.
+1 Birds of Paradise
Out
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Loxodon Smiter
In
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Kitchen Finks
3 Restoration Angel
I felt like the list was a bit too inconsistent, I ended up with about a 40% win rate after 2 MTGO Leagues, I 4-1'd the first league, and 0-5'd the second one. There were definitely a few games that I played poorly (I literally brought gaddock teeg in against living end and was like "Oh this counters living end!") the records for this list are as follows.
Match Results: 4/6/0
Wins 40% Win
Eldrazi and Taxes 1
UWR Nahiri Control 1
Naya Company 1
Gruul Blitz 1
Losses
BR Discard + Blood Moon 1
Blue Moon 1
Living End 1
UWR Nahiri Control 1
Affinity 1
GR Eldrazi 1
I don't think the list was awful, just the slight difference in consistency felt worse, and I think despite the higher curve the addition of the bird was probably unnecessary.
With what I believe will be the sideboard, I ran it last night in paper and saw Jund twice (2-0, 2-0), RUG Control (2-0), and Scapeshift (an ashamed 1-2) I'll be running it through at least 2 (probably 3) Modern Leagues on MTGO to gather more data for it, but I think Eidolon will do a bit more work for me against some of the more challenging matchups (Infect, Nahiri control, Living End) than Teeg did, since Teeg was mostly there for Company decks and I've seen very few of them and honestly I don't feel THAT bad against them.
One consideration I've had is cutting something else from the board (maybe one of fracturing gust?) for either a third spellskite, or a third evolutionary leap (2 main 1 board) as if I resolve it against Jund/most Control matchups it generally means it's either eating an abrupt decay or winning me the game, but I'm going to run it as is for now. The changes are less drastic this time around, bumping Thalia back up to 3 in the main in exchange for 1 less bird, -2 Gaddock Teeg, -1 Kataki, +2 Eidolon of Rhetoric, +1 Scavenging Ooze (I don't feel comfortable not having at least 6 ways to interact with the GY between main and side with the new dredge deck skulking about).
So those are my thoughts.
I've recently seen a few lists running 4x Mindcensor and no Arbiters
This is intriguing for me and I'm going to think this over a bit, the curve change seems rough, I'd probably (definitely) be running a couple of birds at that point, something closer to my first list most likely.
Just updating on the CA problem, I found what I would consider a better card draw engine for us: Heartwood Storyteller. He will always draw at you at least one card and against any blue based decks (Grixis, Jeskai, etc...) you could expect more. I will test Tireless Tracker but I am not expecting much, Bygone Bishop might be better but like Stuhl said, dumping your hand isn't the best way to win.
Can I try to sell you guys on something real quick? When card advantage woes rear their ugly head, may you just look into the eternal light that is Evolution. Yes my friends, Evolutionary Leap is your answer to those anti-card advantage matchups. At a measly 1G you gain the ability to answer every removal spell with "That's fine, I'm just going to draw a new creature, Ok?" when you have Gavony Township* and Finks online, or if your list runs restoration angel, you get to laugh in their face as you proceed to draw oodles of extra creatures and keep a nice fully stocked hand. I was incredibly skeptical of this card until I tried the Craig Wescoe "trigger happy" list. I enjoyed many factors of it quite a bit but found I was losing to burn so decided if I could just take some of the deck design lessons from it into my regular bears build I'd be happy, and I've been very happy with the results.
Here's the list I've been tuning for MTGO and my local meta, which sees a lot of control, and midrange strategies, with a fair share of burn and aggro tossed in. There's also some combo to deal with, I'm planning on brainstorming some options for the sideboard today, as I have some under-performers and some new match-ups to think about, if you want my reasoning on anything feel free to ask.
What i found most difficult last night was the Grixis Control matchup: the counters he kept throwing at me really hurt my gameplan, often denying me the turn 2 Leonin Arbiter + Ghost Quarter or a Restoration Angel played to avoid removal on my creatures.
I'm actually struggling: should i put the AEther Vials back and move the Dromoka's Commands to the sideboard?
I was also thinking about adding 2 copies of Voice of Resurgence, but they get effective only if i can manage to play them without receiving a counter from the other side of the table.
A thing i can surely do is bump the Loxodon Smiters up to 4, since i found 2 Dromoka's Commands more than enough.
What would you guys suggest?
In my experience against Delver it's the one matchup that I genuinely can't find a solution for us winning against, it's more controlling of the board, has a faster clock, and generally goes bigger than us. It's a lot more susceptible to other decks than we are, but you'll find that controlling decks are this variants worst matchup. I suppose vials would be a solution to that but honestly I don't think there's any sideboard space for them and you need to get them on turn 1 for them to be relevant. It's a matchup that I personally am for the most part willing to concede that it is just bad.
I made some adjustments, primarily that I cut the gryff and brought a bit more counterplay into the deck with Dromoka's command, in addition I cut an Eiganjo's castle and the Tec Edge to bring in a plains and a Flagstones, I've had some awkward runins with blood moon and control decks in general have been rough and are even worse when you stumble on mana.
So lets go matchup by matchup.
1. Delver
This is probably our worst matchup right now which is rough given the popularity of the deck. We can hit their lands but they don't really need many, just try to keep them off red, get down a Thalia, sustain with Scooze, and use resilient boltproof creatures to push the win through. Game 2 bring in Spellskites, Rest in Peace, and a Linvala (doesn't die to bolt, turns off Tasigur engine), cut Pridemages, Mindcensors, and a Hushwing Gryff. Keep them off red again, and black if possible, we don't care if they have blue.
2. Infect
I'm continuing on with the worse matchups, we now have 6 removal spells maindeck! Yaay, destroy their Wild Defiance on sight as well as their Spellskites, hold your paths for the last possible second or force them to burn a vines on your turn, land and stick a Thalia, do your best to not let her die, game 2 cut Mindcensor and Hushwing Gryff, bring in 3 Spellskite, you know the drill.
3. Burn
Lets start getting into the good matchups, with a less painful manabase we're coming out ahead here, drop your Thalia to draw a bolt, throw your finks down, trade aggressively and then throw down a scooze to scoop up your life total and your opponents cards. Save Dromoka's command to 2 for 1 an eidolon and a removal/damage spell. Post board bring in 3 Kor Firewalker again over Mindcensor and Gryff, bring in spellskites over 3 of your Arbiters, proceed to win step.
4. Affinity
Our game 1 isn't as laughably bad as it used to be, use Dromoka's command to snipe things off, land a Linvala ASAP, try to keep the board trimmed and use your Pridemages aggressively.
Game 2 side out (again) Mindcensors and Gryffs (they aren't our bad cards they're our flex slot, I'll explain more later) bring in Stony Silences, you can also cut a Liege for another Linvala if you really want/if they're big affinity. Mull aggressively for a Stony Silence (but not too aggressively).
5. Junk/Jund
We run 3 Wilt-Leaf Liege and 3 Smiters... If they drop a Lili it's a 3 mana edict 90% of the time, try to keep them off their mana, their base is painful and if you can punish them for it on top of it you can get ahead and win, there's not much of a board for this matchup, if it seems like they're running a full set of Souls + Tasigur + Goyf then RIP might be prudent, I'd advise it over Gryff and a pridemage, our Mindcensors do work here to make their fetches actively worse. For the Jund matchup just remember how relevant your Commands are.
6. GR Tron
Ha... Hahahahaha... If you need me to tell you how to play this matchup than you probably aren't meant for this deck, but here it goes, strip mine/ghost quarter their tron lands, stop them from searching their library, beat them down with creatures and don't overextend into pyroclasm. Game 2 bring in Stony Silences over Gryff, Linvala, and Wilf-Leaf, you can mull aggressively for them because they actually do a LOT of work to shut down Tron. Beat them down.
7. Bloom Titan
Hope they don't have a turn 2 or 3 kill, get down Leonin Arbiter, Path any titans that come out on 3 or 4, keep them off their land and win, game 2 is much the same, don't even bother boarding.
8. Twin
Here it is ladies and gentleman, the scariest match of our top 8 gauntlet, but actually no it's not really that bad anymore, keep them off double red, keep a pridemage on board, beat face, land a Hushwing Gryff in response to a Twin, keep up Dromoka's Command and or Path to Exile, you'll be ok. Post board bring in Linvala number 2, 3 Chokes, and 3 Spellskites, cut Finks, Scooze, and Lieges, yeah it sound scary to take out our big beaters against a legitimate tempo deck but this is where the resource denial gets REAL, drop a turn 2 Choke and watch them pick up their cards, get down an arbiter and some ghost quarters or tec edges to take care of all those pesky non-islands, you know the drill.
I believe this is the right place to post this but do not frequent MTGS (or at least not outside of lurking and certainly not for this purpose)
A friend of mine went to GP AC and lost his entire collection, so let this be a warning to those who are going to a large event, don't take your sight off your stuff for a second and don't bring anything more than you need to attend the event and have a good time.
If anyone finds anything/someone sketchy comes in with a small collection, the information relating to it is as follows:
White binder with toon link on the front, the order of the cards go red-blue-white-black-green-multicolor-lands. A whole page of savage knuckle blades and silence the believers notable cards being a signed foil Chandra pyro master and a miscut hero of blade hold. There was a r/g devotion deck in a xenagos box.
If I need to post this elsewhere just let me know , if you guys have any suggestions just yell at me.
We are starting at 491 cards, 3/2/1 ratio, eventually we're going to tune it up to 540, as we do it we will be adding and subtracting cards to make specific archetypes viable/tuning to make specific archetypes viable.
I like the idea of leyline since I feel like it would hit other decks too.
Voice is nice, but I'm still not willing to go in on them on MTGO (paper I'm happy to buy whatever for this deck, in fact I just sent a friend to the PTQ tomorrow with 35 resto angels, 10 snaps, and 2 FOW's to trade for foils and craziness for this deck)
2x pridgemage
3x Kitchen finks
1x Resto Angel
In
2x Grafdigger's Cage
3x Spellskite
1x Sigarda
Creatures (32)
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Leonin Arbiter
3 Qasali Pridemage
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Aven Mindcensor
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Loxodon Smiter
2 Vryn Wingmare
3 Wilt-Leaf Liege
4 Path to Exile
3 Dromoka's Command
Lands (22)
1 Flagstones of Trokair
2 Forest
2 Gavony Township
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Horizon Canopy
2 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Temple Garden
3 Kor Firewalker
3 Rest in Peace
2 Spellskite
3 Stony Silence
3 Choke
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
This deck was pre-twin banning era, I have a whole 13 page write-up on its good and bad match ups and explanations for every card I run in it, which you can find https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v0wfPcHIXljx4iSLpYQXz6FFu70B3byDne8Sgq-jpBo/edit?usp=sharing here. I haven't updated it for the new meta or my new list since I'm still working out my exact 75-90 cards (factoring swapping for meta and sideboard alternatives)
Post banning I ran the same list for a while, up until Ancestral/Thoptersword unban at which point I decided "I can't be weak to control any more."
4 Flickerwisp
2 Kor Skyfisher
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Restoration Angel
2 Thragtusk
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Aether Vial
2 Evolutionary Leap
3 Oath of Nissa
4 Path to Exile
2 Runed Halo
1 Gavony Township
4 Horizon Canopy
2 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Evolutionary Leap
3 Gaddock Teeg
1 Journey to Nowhere
3 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Sunlance
So I took a fresh look at the format and threw Wescoe's list together. It was a delight to play, really fun against midrange decks and control lists, just really value heavy and hard to beat in a grindy game but BOY was it bad against aggro lists, burn and infect were just too fast for me to deal with and it became super mulligan dependent, the deck just didn't feel fast or low enough to the ground.
So after a lot of soul searching and deck thoughts, I ran this list out.
Creatures (28)
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Leonin Arbiter
3 Qasali Pridemage
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Aven Mindcensor
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Loxodon Smiter
3 Voice of Resurgence
4 Path to Exile
4 Aether Vial
2 Evolutionary Leap
Lands (22)
1 Flagstones of Trokair
2 Forest
2 Gavony Township
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Brushland
2 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Temple Garden
3 Kor Firewalker
2 Rest in Peace
2 Spellskite
3 Stony Silence
1 Kataki, Wars Wage
2 Gaddock Teeg
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Evolutionary Leap
It wasn't bad, just called the deck new hotness for a while, match results in MTGO leagues are as follows.
RG Tron 2
Ad Naus 1
Kuldotha Burn 1
Naya Burn 1
Jund 1
Jeskai Control 1
UB Fae 1
Grixis Delver 1
Losses
Jund 2
Infect 1
Esper Control 1
Dredge 1
4c Kiki Control 1
With a win rate sitting at just about 60%
I tried to look at what I was losing against and realized that my midrange and control matchups were still pretty rough, so I made some further tweaks and ended up with this list.
Creatures (28)
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Leonin Arbiter
3 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Loxodon Smiter
3 Restoration Angel
3 Voice of Resurgence
4 Path to Exile
4 Aether Vial
2 Evolutionary Leap
Lands (22)
1 Flagstones of Trokair
2 Forest
2 Gavony Township
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Brushland
2 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Temple Garden
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Spellskite
3 Stony Silence
1 Kataki Wars Wage
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Gaddock Teeg
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
You'll notice it's a bit more top-heavy and cuts the "utility creatures" down quite a bit. I didn't want to concede to Affinity so I left in the 3 Qasali Main, I just hate losing to a deck like Affinity.
Smiter is good in the control match-up but doesn't contest the big creatures of the format that well, options include becoming evasive, going wide, or running Wilt-Leaf Liege for anthem.
Wilt-Leaf Liege feels bad because of how much non-damage based removal is in the format, Restoration Angel meets our needs by being evasive and equally hard to 1:1.
+3 Restoration Angel
To take better advantage of Restoration Angel we want to run more creatures it can get value off of, Scavenging Ooze + Resto Angel is a non-bo and Scavenging Ooze is bad in multiples (and often times just bad). Kitchen Finks is a sticky all-star and we get great value with Resto + Finks + Evo Leap.
-1 Scavenging Ooze
+1 Kitchen Finks
Thalia is one of our weaker bears, great in certain matchups, but bad in multiples.
-1 Thalia
Aven Mindcensor is great when it's good but otherwise is very easily removed and doesn't do much to end a game rapidly.
-2 Aven Mindcensor
Increasing the top of our mana curve demands a bit more at the low end to support a rapid midgame.
+1 Birds of Paradise
Out
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Loxodon Smiter
In
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Kitchen Finks
3 Restoration Angel
I felt like the list was a bit too inconsistent, I ended up with about a 40% win rate after 2 MTGO Leagues, I 4-1'd the first league, and 0-5'd the second one. There were definitely a few games that I played poorly (I literally brought gaddock teeg in against living end and was like "Oh this counters living end!") the records for this list are as follows.
Match Results: 4/6/0
Wins 40% Win
Eldrazi and Taxes 1
UWR Nahiri Control 1
Naya Company 1
Gruul Blitz 1
Losses
BR Discard + Blood Moon 1
Blue Moon 1
Living End 1
UWR Nahiri Control 1
Affinity 1
GR Eldrazi 1
I don't think the list was awful, just the slight difference in consistency felt worse, and I think despite the higher curve the addition of the bird was probably unnecessary.
and thus we land on the list I shared previously.
Creatures (28)
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Leonin Arbiter
3 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Loxodon Smiter
3 Restoration Angel
3 Voice of Resurgence
4 Path to Exile
4 Aether Vial
2 Evolutionary Leap
Lands (22)
1 Flagstones of Trokair
2 Forest
2 Gavony Township
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Brushland
2 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Temple Garden
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Spellskite
3 Stony Silence
2 Kor Firewalker
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
With what I believe will be the sideboard, I ran it last night in paper and saw Jund twice (2-0, 2-0), RUG Control (2-0), and Scapeshift (an ashamed 1-2) I'll be running it through at least 2 (probably 3) Modern Leagues on MTGO to gather more data for it, but I think Eidolon will do a bit more work for me against some of the more challenging matchups (Infect, Nahiri control, Living End) than Teeg did, since Teeg was mostly there for Company decks and I've seen very few of them and honestly I don't feel THAT bad against them.
One consideration I've had is cutting something else from the board (maybe one of fracturing gust?) for either a third spellskite, or a third evolutionary leap (2 main 1 board) as if I resolve it against Jund/most Control matchups it generally means it's either eating an abrupt decay or winning me the game, but I'm going to run it as is for now. The changes are less drastic this time around, bumping Thalia back up to 3 in the main in exchange for 1 less bird, -2 Gaddock Teeg, -1 Kataki, +2 Eidolon of Rhetoric, +1 Scavenging Ooze (I don't feel comfortable not having at least 6 ways to interact with the GY between main and side with the new dredge deck skulking about).
So those are my thoughts.
This is intriguing for me and I'm going to think this over a bit, the curve change seems rough, I'd probably (definitely) be running a couple of birds at that point, something closer to my first list most likely.
Edit: Minor formatting edit.
Can I try to sell you guys on something real quick? When card advantage woes rear their ugly head, may you just look into the eternal light that is Evolution. Yes my friends, Evolutionary Leap is your answer to those anti-card advantage matchups. At a measly 1G you gain the ability to answer every removal spell with "That's fine, I'm just going to draw a new creature, Ok?" when you have Gavony Township* and Finks online, or if your list runs restoration angel, you get to laugh in their face as you proceed to draw oodles of extra creatures and keep a nice fully stocked hand. I was incredibly skeptical of this card until I tried the Craig Wescoe "trigger happy" list. I enjoyed many factors of it quite a bit but found I was losing to burn so decided if I could just take some of the deck design lessons from it into my regular bears build I'd be happy, and I've been very happy with the results.
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Leonin Arbiter
3 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Loxodon Smiter
3 Restoration Angel
3 Voice of Resurgence
Spells (10)
4 Path to Exile
4 Aether Vial
2 Evolutionary Leap
1 Flagstones of Trokair
2 Forest
2 Gavony Township
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Brushland
2 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Temple Garden
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Spellskite
3 Stony Silence
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Gaddock Teeg
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
Here's the list I've been tuning for MTGO and my local meta, which sees a lot of control, and midrange strategies, with a fair share of burn and aggro tossed in. There's also some combo to deal with, I'm planning on brainstorming some options for the sideboard today, as I have some under-performers and some new match-ups to think about, if you want my reasoning on anything feel free to ask.
In my experience against Delver it's the one matchup that I genuinely can't find a solution for us winning against, it's more controlling of the board, has a faster clock, and generally goes bigger than us. It's a lot more susceptible to other decks than we are, but you'll find that controlling decks are this variants worst matchup. I suppose vials would be a solution to that but honestly I don't think there's any sideboard space for them and you need to get them on turn 1 for them to be relevant. It's a matchup that I personally am for the most part willing to concede that it is just bad.
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Leonin Arbiter
3 Qasali Pridemage
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Aven Mindcensor
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Loxodon Smiter
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
3 Wilt-Leaf Liege
4 Path to Exile
3 Dromoka's Command
Lands (22)
1 Flagstones of Trokair
2 Forest
2 Gavony Township
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Horizon Canopy
2 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Temple Garden
3 Kor Firewalker
2 Rest in Peace
3 Spellskite
3 Stony Silence
3 Choke
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
I made some adjustments, primarily that I cut the gryff and brought a bit more counterplay into the deck with Dromoka's command, in addition I cut an Eiganjo's castle and the Tec Edge to bring in a plains and a Flagstones, I've had some awkward runins with blood moon and control decks in general have been rough and are even worse when you stumble on mana.
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Leonin Arbiter
3 Qasali Pridemage
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Hushwing Gryff
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Loxodon Smiter
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
3 Wilt-Leaf Liege
4 Path to Exile
2 Dromoka's Command
Lands (22)
1 Eiganjo Castle
2 Forest
2 Gavony Township
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Horizon Canopy
1 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
1 Tectonic Edge
4 Temple Garden
3 Kor Firewalker
2 Rest in Peace
3 Spellskite
3 Stony Silence
3 Choke
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
So lets go matchup by matchup.
1. Delver
This is probably our worst matchup right now which is rough given the popularity of the deck. We can hit their lands but they don't really need many, just try to keep them off red, get down a Thalia, sustain with Scooze, and use resilient boltproof creatures to push the win through. Game 2 bring in Spellskites, Rest in Peace, and a Linvala (doesn't die to bolt, turns off Tasigur engine), cut Pridemages, Mindcensors, and a Hushwing Gryff. Keep them off red again, and black if possible, we don't care if they have blue.
2. Infect
I'm continuing on with the worse matchups, we now have 6 removal spells maindeck! Yaay, destroy their Wild Defiance on sight as well as their Spellskites, hold your paths for the last possible second or force them to burn a vines on your turn, land and stick a Thalia, do your best to not let her die, game 2 cut Mindcensor and Hushwing Gryff, bring in 3 Spellskite, you know the drill.
3. Burn
Lets start getting into the good matchups, with a less painful manabase we're coming out ahead here, drop your Thalia to draw a bolt, throw your finks down, trade aggressively and then throw down a scooze to scoop up your life total and your opponents cards. Save Dromoka's command to 2 for 1 an eidolon and a removal/damage spell. Post board bring in 3 Kor Firewalker again over Mindcensor and Gryff, bring in spellskites over 3 of your Arbiters, proceed to win step.
4. Affinity
Our game 1 isn't as laughably bad as it used to be, use Dromoka's command to snipe things off, land a Linvala ASAP, try to keep the board trimmed and use your Pridemages aggressively.
Game 2 side out (again) Mindcensors and Gryffs (they aren't our bad cards they're our flex slot, I'll explain more later) bring in Stony Silences, you can also cut a Liege for another Linvala if you really want/if they're big affinity. Mull aggressively for a Stony Silence (but not too aggressively).
5. Junk/Jund
We run 3 Wilt-Leaf Liege and 3 Smiters... If they drop a Lili it's a 3 mana edict 90% of the time, try to keep them off their mana, their base is painful and if you can punish them for it on top of it you can get ahead and win, there's not much of a board for this matchup, if it seems like they're running a full set of Souls + Tasigur + Goyf then RIP might be prudent, I'd advise it over Gryff and a pridemage, our Mindcensors do work here to make their fetches actively worse. For the Jund matchup just remember how relevant your Commands are.
6. GR Tron
Ha... Hahahahaha... If you need me to tell you how to play this matchup than you probably aren't meant for this deck, but here it goes, strip mine/ghost quarter their tron lands, stop them from searching their library, beat them down with creatures and don't overextend into pyroclasm. Game 2 bring in Stony Silences over Gryff, Linvala, and Wilf-Leaf, you can mull aggressively for them because they actually do a LOT of work to shut down Tron. Beat them down.
7. Bloom Titan
Hope they don't have a turn 2 or 3 kill, get down Leonin Arbiter, Path any titans that come out on 3 or 4, keep them off their land and win, game 2 is much the same, don't even bother boarding.
8. Twin
Here it is ladies and gentleman, the scariest match of our top 8 gauntlet, but actually no it's not really that bad anymore, keep them off double red, keep a pridemage on board, beat face, land a Hushwing Gryff in response to a Twin, keep up Dromoka's Command and or Path to Exile, you'll be ok. Post board bring in Linvala number 2, 3 Chokes, and 3 Spellskites, cut Finks, Scooze, and Lieges, yeah it sound scary to take out our big beaters against a legitimate tempo deck but this is where the resource denial gets REAL, drop a turn 2 Choke and watch them pick up their cards, get down an arbiter and some ghost quarters or tec edges to take care of all those pesky non-islands, you know the drill.
A friend of mine went to GP AC and lost his entire collection, so let this be a warning to those who are going to a large event, don't take your sight off your stuff for a second and don't bring anything more than you need to attend the event and have a good time.
If anyone finds anything/someone sketchy comes in with a small collection, the information relating to it is as follows:
White binder with toon link on the front, the order of the cards go red-blue-white-black-green-multicolor-lands. A whole page of savage knuckle blades and silence the believers notable cards being a signed foil Chandra pyro master and a miscut hero of blade hold. There was a r/g devotion deck in a xenagos box.
If I need to post this elsewhere just let me know , if you guys have any suggestions just yell at me.
Thanks!
I'll keep you all informed of our progress.
Thanks for the list, will use it as a jumping off point.
Voice is nice, but I'm still not willing to go in on them on MTGO (paper I'm happy to buy whatever for this deck, in fact I just sent a friend to the PTQ tomorrow with 35 resto angels, 10 snaps, and 2 FOW's to trade for foils and craziness for this deck)
But yeah I am MODOpoor.
What do we do to American control?