I'm 6-3 in day two of GP LA with Eldrazi Taxes. I worked a lot on developing the older WB version, came back to it again with eldrazi addition.
I know all those things, but usually they're just able to kill my Leonin then all the rest of the things, as well as disrupt my hand and use Kommand to auto 2-1 (Vial + any creature but TK, Tidehollow + something else). I'm not playing Reality Smashers because I don't like having a 5 drop in the deck, but I could definitely see how they'd be good in the matchup (especially given TK feels like the best card there right now).
Hi Skeet. I loved having three of them in my deck vs. Jund, and I only ran 22 lands. There were turns where I needed a land, but Reality Smasher overperformed for me all day. Having three in the main always felt like it was my out, and I won a lot of stalemates by topdecking it. Against the decks that ran Bolt-style removal, they really had to expend a lot of resources to get rid of him.
My successes vs. Jund (won 1 match and four games in total) out of four matches came from aggressive, early Ghost Quarters and Path to Exiles with Leonin on the field, ol' Smashee just smashing face, and SB Rest in Peace, Celestial Purge. I wouldn't give up on the matchup. I don't think it's a great % for us, but my feeling after those four matches is that it's decent enough if we don't overextend and play a long, slow game just sticking a threat and trying to protect it, while working the red mana denial angle. This strategy also worked well for me against Delver. I ran that guy out of basics.
I'm sorry you had a jerk for your last game. I'm hoping it was just because everyone was tired and hungry by that point. You played pretty good "at this level", so bravo!
No worries Esplanade. I am a counselor by trade so I used some "de-escalation" skills to make the salty less salty. He flew in early that morning and had little sleep. Understandable that by midnight, losing a win and in game to a top Decker like me, he'd be disappointed in himself. Hopefully in the future, I'll get better at the deck and he'll get better at dealing with lucksacks. Variance!
Hey all. I day 2'd my first GP at Charlotte (6-2-1) with a B/W Eldrazi Taxes build. What follows is a LONG report of just the first 9 rounds (I 1-2/dropped on day 2 and didn't want to write more), so if it's too much, let me know, and I won't post such an exhaustive report again.
Game 1 Saw Groundbreaker, Primal Forcemage, Uktabi Drake, backed up by Summoner’s Pact to recharge the hand and deal a final blow. You know what kills a green Ball Lightning, though? A 2/1 first strike Thalia. And I only needed one. She cut off all of his ground attacks.
Game 2 Lost because I didn’t read the card Timbermare and recognize that it tapped ALL creatures, including my blockers. I took something non-lethal with a drawstep-vialed Sculler and knew I messed up when I saw the look on my opponent’s face. I thought I had him dead on a crackback after a block. Lesson learned: always read cards you don’t know.
Game 3 I won easily off of a double Temple, Thought Knot into Smasher draw.
Round 2 W 2-1 Kiki-Chord
Game 1 Aggro’d him out fairly quickly. The power of Reality Smasher is not to be underestimated. Combo pieces I Path to Exile’d as they came up.
Game 2 Lost a grindy matchup to infinite Redcap after a great Collected Company + Chord from him. My opponent started to become tilted when I kept vialing in Tidehollows and Thought-Knots on his draw step to exile relevant cards.
Game 3 Attrition battle from the get-go. Purges, Paths, Ghost Quarters to kill his Ravines and relevant lands. I had a plan to keep him off of green after he stumbled on mana, and it saved me. He didn’t have enough sources open to Chord for a couple of turns. Smasher into Smasher. Stole a win at 7 life with no cards left in hand.
Round 3 W 2-0 Burn
Game 1 Kept a land light hand and was actually relieved to see Goblin Guide (it gave me two lands). After it lost its usefulness, I lived the dream and Wasteland Strangler’d a Rift Bolt.
Game 2 Sided in Kor Firewalker, 2x Celestial Purge, 2x Timely Reinforcements, Spellskite. Took out 3x Leonin Arbiters, Relic, and 2x Thoughtseizes to speed up my clock. Mulliganed a slow hand into a 6 with Timely. He Destructive Revelried a T1 Vial from me, and got me to 5 by his Turn 3, but I cast Timely the following turn that was able to stabilize me. I also wound up Ghost Quartering two of my own lands to get enough to activate Shambling Vent AND leave Path up. I felt like I needed a Fetid Heath in the deck instead of one Plains, maybe.
An interesting interaction came up where he attacked into a Kor Firewalker. I should’ve known something was up, but I didn’t know yet that a Skullcrack negates protection effects, because those are considered “damage prevention.” Cool to know.
Round 4 Draw Grixis Delver
Game 1 T1 Aether Vial on the play basically eliminated half the cards in his hand (counter spells). Quick and dirty. Smasher, again, was an all star. I quite honestly don’t know how I would’ve won half of my games without it.
Game 2 Trading blows with man-lands. Slogfest draw-go where we eliminated each other’s threats, and I made a mistake again with my rookie-ness not reading a card I didn’t know, Goblin Darkdweller. I left one blocker back. MENACE, sigh. I know … make fun of me, but also recognize that I’m a Commander player who never expected to win one game, much less make a Day 2 of my first Grand Prix with a deck I’d literally put together the day before.
Game 3 Vial an all-star again. Exiling all relevant cards from his hand during drawsteps. Unfortunely, we went to time, and neither of us could finish one another off. I had him at 6 with a Vent that had been attacking steadily.
Round 5 W 2-1 Mono-Blue Tron
Game 1 Blistering start. Thalia, TKS, into Smasher. GG.
Game 2 Got him to 6 before he stabilized and landed a Wurmcoil. I had a Smasher but I was also fighting against a Karn, managed to get it off of the board with a Vialed-in Flickerwisp, bounce your blocker, let trample damage through shenanigans. It was too much, though. He found Ulamog and I scooped.
Game 3 This game was my favorite. T1 Vial. T2 Thalia, T3 TKS. One white mana open, and he attempts a Dismember on TKS, taking 4 damage to do so. I Mana Tithe’d it (my favorite sideboard tech by a long shot – it singlehandedly won me three matches). He was stunned, just shook his head. “Good deck, bro.” Later I heard him telling the story to his friend, so I’m glad he got something out fun out of it. We laughed about it despite losing never really being fun for anyone who’s 4-0-1 and competitive
Round 6 L 0-2 Jund
Game 1 2x Terminates, Thoughtseize, Inquisition, Kolaghan’s Command in his opening hand just dismantled any forward moment I had. I Path’d one Kalitas, but his second one landed unanswered, and he ran away with it.
Game 2 Close, but my luck with top-deck Smashers ran out. Got him to 4 and we went draw-go for a while with a sideboard Rest in Peace keeping his Goyfs and Snaps pretty useless. I had a chance to Path a Goyf early, but I didn’t take it and should’ve. Once he had an opening to kill the Rest in Peace, his Goyf quickly grew to a 4/5 and he was able to Thoughtseize my Path. I’m sure I played this wrong, but I can’t remember the exact sequence which made me want to tap out … I think it was greed and a Shambling Vent. Him being so low made me do something stupid, and I paid the price.
Round 7 L 1-2 Jund
Game 1 He grew a giant Scavenging Ooze. Saw a Damnation before dying, but I drew no removal for his 7-power Scooze. Game over for me.
Game 2 Decided to play smart and not over-extend after seeing Damnation. Leonin Arbiter was an all-star. I was Path-ing and Ghost Quartering him into oblivion. The single bear almost got there on his own attacking for five straight turns while I kept my opponent off of his mana and protected it from removal via Vial and Flickerwisp. Top deck Smasher sealed it.
Game 3 Felt good about my hand. T1 Vial BUT he had three discard spells right off the bat and just dismantled me. I made a mistake and played a Leonin unnecessarily into an Anger of the Gods. No excuse or reasoning. I knew he had it … no idea what I was thinking. I don’t know if that cost me the game, as I was playing on the back foot for a lot of it, but I noted it as a stupid decision and promised to not do it again, nonetheless.
Round 8 W 2-1 Nahiri Harbinger
Game 1 Grindy, but I lost to a Snapcaster basically … 19, 17, 15, 11, 9, 7, 5 reads my life total. Final nail … Emrakul. I was trying to draw out removal with Bears, and bounce-reset his Nahiri via Flickerwisp, which I succeeded at, but I spent so much on resources doing it that she didn’t take too long to get back up to ultimate.
Game 2 I felt great in this matchup after sideboard, honestly. 2x Celestial Purge, 2x Rest in Peace, Surgical Extraction, and Pithing Needle in for 4x Sculler, Strangler, and 1 Smasher. I found the Scullers pretty inept in the matchup game 1 since they’d get bolted away easily and really only provided a bad speedbump to his main win-con. It worked out. Vial and Thalia should be in your opening hand if you can get it … they both really mess this deck up. And Celestial Colonnade stands no chance against Ghost Quarters. Vialed Smasher sealed the deal.
Game 3 He drew the Emrakul. I took apart his hand otherwise. We still wound up trading back and forth for a while (removal, creature, removal, counter, etc), and by this time, his friends had gathered around and we were stalemated. Top deck Thought Knot. Vialed in on draw step. Top Deck Reality Smasher. Vialed in. And unbelieveably (I even showed his friend the card before I even looked at it, and his reaction was all I needed – Smasher). Much laughter. Great example of how you can enjoy a game even if it doesn’t go your way. Shout out to Preston if you read this.
Round 9 W 2-1 Nahiri Harbinger
Game 1 Took him out in the first game with a protected bear. We were both drawing some blanks. Sorry I can’t remember the specifics, but his life total tells a story – 10, 8, 6, 4, 2. It was also a 25 minute game, so I know it was grindy, and my opponent was pretty upset with me for calling a judge to clarify whether or not cards exiled with Displacer could be instead-speed processed with a Vialed in Strangler. (No, they can’t.) “You should know what your cards do,” is a paraphrase of what he said. I agreed. And then he died.
Game 2 He took early control and Emrakuled me before I scooped up.
Game 3 We were rushing to finish in 14 minutes. It went to time. I killed him with exactsies on Turn 5 of extra turns. I must be the Top Deck king … extra turn 1 Smasher (which he paid dearly to remove) into a winning extra-turn 3 draw of Thought-Knot that I Vialed in to an empty board on his draw step and took his last card (Anger of the Gods, I believe) with it so that I could swing on my final turn 5 for the 4 I needed to take it. He then lectured me about how to play modern “at this level.” I just let him go with it, and apologized for any slow play, noting that I was new to the deck and only had one modern challenge even the day before to practice it.
In the back of my mind, though, after having played a Grixis Delver and three Harbinger builds, I couldn’t help but think that if you didn’t want the games to draw on forever, you shouldn’t play a U/R deck that literally just stops people from advancing the game state and tries to win the damage race with man-lands and a 2/1 wizard.
DAY 2!!!! 6-2-1 ... I went 1-2 and dropped on Day 2 because I was totally exhausted by then (you heard about the terrible Day 1 games going 'til midnight, right?), but I did finally have a good game against JUND in my half-asleep state and didn’t feel totally at a loss against them for my one win.
Thanks again for all the people who put work into this deck. I love it and had a ton of fun playing it. I plan on getting it online soon so that I can start perfecting it and working towards another GP. Final thought is the 4 Vials, 22 Lands, and MD Smashers felt great to me. Also, Mana Tithe is SPECTACULARLY fun. I Mana Tithed a T2 Goyf, an important Cryptic Command v. Jeskai, and 4-damage Dismember v. Mono Blue Tron. Each time, it felt like that one card both put my opponent in the frame of mind where they hesitated with everything thereafter, and I also felt like those counters swung the game my way. I would definitely recommend one in the SB to bring in when you're on the draw, as you will most likely be behind, and it can save you from getting crushed by a speedy deck that's tapping out.
Hi all. It's late, but I wanted to thank everyone for their input into this forum. I just got back from GP Charlotte ... Made day 2 with a 6-2-1 record. B/w eldrazi taxes. My two losses were to Jund. At a loss of how to fight them. Feels tough. This deck's a monster against jeskai nahiri. Played and won that three times. I'll post a report after tomorrow .... Exhausted atm.
Hey, thank you for the input on the Flats. Also, I neglected to mention that I am considering Celestial Purge in the SB. Any thoughts on what to replace?
Hey all. I lurk all the time in this thread, but I'm going to GP Charlotte. Here's my current list ... any feedback? I'm considering making room for an Anguished Unmaking somewhere, and I don't know what people's opinions are on 3 vs. 4 for Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Aether Vial, and Wasteland Strangler.
Last note is that do you think it's wise to include a Marsh Flats for some minimal deck-thinning or to get that one Swamp, if necessary? Thanks.
(note: I know it's not formatted just right, but I don't know how to get the subheadings for instants, sorceries, etc.)
Hey, I was wondering if you were still working on the deck. I've been trying to figure out what I'll play at GP Charlotte, and I really like the utility of CoCo decks. Also, I love Fulminator Mage and Anathemancer.
Same here with bugs. I have it on PC ... lately, I've also been getting less gold than I'm supposed to. Coupla days in a row. I had 80 going into a single player 10 coin battle. Won that and completed a quest for 100. Should be 80+10+100, but no, I had a total of 150. It's not much, but if it keeps happening, it's a real pain.
And the timer thing SUCKKKKKKKKKSSSS. For example, I had a sorcery in my graveyard that I wanted to use AFTER combat. I -3ed Jace to make it happen, attacked, and then BAM, end step. I ran a 1/1 into a 4 toughness creature with the idea that I'd be able to burn it out post-combat. Nope, Duels had other plans ... mainly me screwing myself by not casting the spell, losing a creature, and losing 3 counters off of Jace for no reason. One of many I've experienced ... I'm pretty much scared to try and play anything in my second main phase now.
How's your mana base treating you? Would you adjust? I like the four-of Cave of Koilos because it's cheap, but also because it seems like the pain lands are better than fetches in a deck that needs access to colorless mana sources.
Zedruu the Greathearted - She changes the whole game around, and there are a couple of different ways to build around her while also still utilizing her ability of giving people things. More than any other commander, I'm most pleased with the new anti-tuck ruling because of decks like this.
Teysa, Orzhov Scion - my first commander, ever. Later, I found out that she can go infinite in a number of ways, though I try to play her more as a token generation/attrition strategy.
This last slot could go to lots of generals, but I want to throw a shout-out to Titania, Protector of Argoth, because she's really given me incentive to play a Landfall deck that's been fun for me lately. The build-around generals have always been the most fun for me to play.
EDH etiquette, if your deck is built on incremental value, and you're taking 15-20 actions per turn through sacrifice, draw, etc. ... COUNT for God's sake. I was playing the other day and was top-decking against an opponent who was steadily tutoring, Karmic Guiding, amassing an army of creatures under Avacyn and Elesh Norn, and I asked on several turns, "Can you kill me, yet?" I had one out - it was getting Wonder to die, surviving one assault, and then counter-attacking with a bunch of flying Leviathans thanks to Kiora's ultimate. It was a long-shot, and I didn't try to hide it. Still, my opponent clearly had enough creatures on deck to get through 13 points of damage, and he just wouldn't do it. The thing that frustrated me most was him not counting up damage. Like ... take the time to read the board state and try to win instead of spending 5 minutes per turn fiddling around.
Concerning other damage sources, a card I've been stuck on lately is Suffer the Past. In Modern, where so many decks run from the graveyard these days, it's a triple threat - targeted removal of GY threats, lifegain, and life-loss that can't be countered with leylines. Just a thought - one-of, maybe? As a bonus, instant speed so you can respond to triggers from the many critters who want to abuse their yards.
Hi Skeet. I loved having three of them in my deck vs. Jund, and I only ran 22 lands. There were turns where I needed a land, but Reality Smasher overperformed for me all day. Having three in the main always felt like it was my out, and I won a lot of stalemates by topdecking it. Against the decks that ran Bolt-style removal, they really had to expend a lot of resources to get rid of him.
My successes vs. Jund (won 1 match and four games in total) out of four matches came from aggressive, early Ghost Quarters and Path to Exiles with Leonin on the field, ol' Smashee just smashing face, and SB Rest in Peace, Celestial Purge. I wouldn't give up on the matchup. I don't think it's a great % for us, but my feeling after those four matches is that it's decent enough if we don't overextend and play a long, slow game just sticking a threat and trying to protect it, while working the red mana denial angle. This strategy also worked well for me against Delver. I ran that guy out of basics.
No worries Esplanade. I am a counselor by trade so I used some "de-escalation" skills to make the salty less salty. He flew in early that morning and had little sleep. Understandable that by midnight, losing a win and in game to a top Decker like me, he'd be disappointed in himself. Hopefully in the future, I'll get better at the deck and he'll get better at dealing with lucksacks. Variance!
The deck I settled on:
4 Aether Vial
2 Thoughtseize
1 Relic of Progenitus
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Flickerwisp
4 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Wasteland Strangler
3 Reality Smasher
2 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Godless Shrine
3 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Shambling Vent
2 Stony Silence
2 Celestial Purge
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Spellskite
1 Kor Firewalker
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Pithing Needle
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Mana Tithe
Round 1 W 2-1 Mono-Green Ball Lightning
Game 1 Saw Groundbreaker, Primal Forcemage, Uktabi Drake, backed up by Summoner’s Pact to recharge the hand and deal a final blow. You know what kills a green Ball Lightning, though? A 2/1 first strike Thalia. And I only needed one. She cut off all of his ground attacks.
Game 2 Lost because I didn’t read the card Timbermare and recognize that it tapped ALL creatures, including my blockers. I took something non-lethal with a drawstep-vialed Sculler and knew I messed up when I saw the look on my opponent’s face. I thought I had him dead on a crackback after a block. Lesson learned: always read cards you don’t know.
Game 3 I won easily off of a double Temple, Thought Knot into Smasher draw.
Round 2 W 2-1 Kiki-Chord
Game 1 Aggro’d him out fairly quickly. The power of Reality Smasher is not to be underestimated. Combo pieces I Path to Exile’d as they came up.
Game 2 Lost a grindy matchup to infinite Redcap after a great Collected Company + Chord from him. My opponent started to become tilted when I kept vialing in Tidehollows and Thought-Knots on his draw step to exile relevant cards.
Game 3 Attrition battle from the get-go. Purges, Paths, Ghost Quarters to kill his Ravines and relevant lands. I had a plan to keep him off of green after he stumbled on mana, and it saved me. He didn’t have enough sources open to Chord for a couple of turns. Smasher into Smasher. Stole a win at 7 life with no cards left in hand.
Round 3 W 2-0 Burn
Game 1 Kept a land light hand and was actually relieved to see Goblin Guide (it gave me two lands). After it lost its usefulness, I lived the dream and Wasteland Strangler’d a Rift Bolt.
Game 2 Sided in Kor Firewalker, 2x Celestial Purge, 2x Timely Reinforcements, Spellskite. Took out 3x Leonin Arbiters, Relic, and 2x Thoughtseizes to speed up my clock. Mulliganed a slow hand into a 6 with Timely. He Destructive Revelried a T1 Vial from me, and got me to 5 by his Turn 3, but I cast Timely the following turn that was able to stabilize me. I also wound up Ghost Quartering two of my own lands to get enough to activate Shambling Vent AND leave Path up. I felt like I needed a Fetid Heath in the deck instead of one Plains, maybe.
An interesting interaction came up where he attacked into a Kor Firewalker. I should’ve known something was up, but I didn’t know yet that a Skullcrack negates protection effects, because those are considered “damage prevention.” Cool to know.
Round 4 Draw Grixis Delver
Game 1 T1 Aether Vial on the play basically eliminated half the cards in his hand (counter spells). Quick and dirty. Smasher, again, was an all star. I quite honestly don’t know how I would’ve won half of my games without it.
Game 2 Trading blows with man-lands. Slogfest draw-go where we eliminated each other’s threats, and I made a mistake again with my rookie-ness not reading a card I didn’t know, Goblin Darkdweller. I left one blocker back. MENACE, sigh. I know … make fun of me, but also recognize that I’m a Commander player who never expected to win one game, much less make a Day 2 of my first Grand Prix with a deck I’d literally put together the day before.
Game 3 Vial an all-star again. Exiling all relevant cards from his hand during drawsteps. Unfortunely, we went to time, and neither of us could finish one another off. I had him at 6 with a Vent that had been attacking steadily.
Round 5 W 2-1 Mono-Blue Tron
Game 1 Blistering start. Thalia, TKS, into Smasher. GG.
Game 2 Got him to 6 before he stabilized and landed a Wurmcoil. I had a Smasher but I was also fighting against a Karn, managed to get it off of the board with a Vialed-in Flickerwisp, bounce your blocker, let trample damage through shenanigans. It was too much, though. He found Ulamog and I scooped.
Game 3 This game was my favorite. T1 Vial. T2 Thalia, T3 TKS. One white mana open, and he attempts a Dismember on TKS, taking 4 damage to do so. I Mana Tithe’d it (my favorite sideboard tech by a long shot – it singlehandedly won me three matches). He was stunned, just shook his head. “Good deck, bro.” Later I heard him telling the story to his friend, so I’m glad he got something out fun out of it. We laughed about it despite losing never really being fun for anyone who’s 4-0-1 and competitive
Round 6 L 0-2 Jund
Game 1 2x Terminates, Thoughtseize, Inquisition, Kolaghan’s Command in his opening hand just dismantled any forward moment I had. I Path’d one Kalitas, but his second one landed unanswered, and he ran away with it.
Game 2 Close, but my luck with top-deck Smashers ran out. Got him to 4 and we went draw-go for a while with a sideboard Rest in Peace keeping his Goyfs and Snaps pretty useless. I had a chance to Path a Goyf early, but I didn’t take it and should’ve. Once he had an opening to kill the Rest in Peace, his Goyf quickly grew to a 4/5 and he was able to Thoughtseize my Path. I’m sure I played this wrong, but I can’t remember the exact sequence which made me want to tap out … I think it was greed and a Shambling Vent. Him being so low made me do something stupid, and I paid the price.
Round 7 L 1-2 Jund
Game 1 He grew a giant Scavenging Ooze. Saw a Damnation before dying, but I drew no removal for his 7-power Scooze. Game over for me.
Game 2 Decided to play smart and not over-extend after seeing Damnation. Leonin Arbiter was an all-star. I was Path-ing and Ghost Quartering him into oblivion. The single bear almost got there on his own attacking for five straight turns while I kept my opponent off of his mana and protected it from removal via Vial and Flickerwisp. Top deck Smasher sealed it.
Game 3 Felt good about my hand. T1 Vial BUT he had three discard spells right off the bat and just dismantled me. I made a mistake and played a Leonin unnecessarily into an Anger of the Gods. No excuse or reasoning. I knew he had it … no idea what I was thinking. I don’t know if that cost me the game, as I was playing on the back foot for a lot of it, but I noted it as a stupid decision and promised to not do it again, nonetheless.
Round 8 W 2-1 Nahiri Harbinger
Game 1 Grindy, but I lost to a Snapcaster basically … 19, 17, 15, 11, 9, 7, 5 reads my life total. Final nail … Emrakul. I was trying to draw out removal with Bears, and bounce-reset his Nahiri via Flickerwisp, which I succeeded at, but I spent so much on resources doing it that she didn’t take too long to get back up to ultimate.
Game 2 I felt great in this matchup after sideboard, honestly. 2x Celestial Purge, 2x Rest in Peace, Surgical Extraction, and Pithing Needle in for 4x Sculler, Strangler, and 1 Smasher. I found the Scullers pretty inept in the matchup game 1 since they’d get bolted away easily and really only provided a bad speedbump to his main win-con. It worked out. Vial and Thalia should be in your opening hand if you can get it … they both really mess this deck up. And Celestial Colonnade stands no chance against Ghost Quarters. Vialed Smasher sealed the deal.
Game 3 He drew the Emrakul. I took apart his hand otherwise. We still wound up trading back and forth for a while (removal, creature, removal, counter, etc), and by this time, his friends had gathered around and we were stalemated. Top deck Thought Knot. Vialed in on draw step. Top Deck Reality Smasher. Vialed in. And unbelieveably (I even showed his friend the card before I even looked at it, and his reaction was all I needed – Smasher). Much laughter. Great example of how you can enjoy a game even if it doesn’t go your way. Shout out to Preston if you read this.
Round 9 W 2-1 Nahiri Harbinger
Game 1 Took him out in the first game with a protected bear. We were both drawing some blanks. Sorry I can’t remember the specifics, but his life total tells a story – 10, 8, 6, 4, 2. It was also a 25 minute game, so I know it was grindy, and my opponent was pretty upset with me for calling a judge to clarify whether or not cards exiled with Displacer could be instead-speed processed with a Vialed in Strangler. (No, they can’t.) “You should know what your cards do,” is a paraphrase of what he said. I agreed. And then he died.
Game 2 He took early control and Emrakuled me before I scooped up.
Game 3 We were rushing to finish in 14 minutes. It went to time. I killed him with exactsies on Turn 5 of extra turns. I must be the Top Deck king … extra turn 1 Smasher (which he paid dearly to remove) into a winning extra-turn 3 draw of Thought-Knot that I Vialed in to an empty board on his draw step and took his last card (Anger of the Gods, I believe) with it so that I could swing on my final turn 5 for the 4 I needed to take it. He then lectured me about how to play modern “at this level.” I just let him go with it, and apologized for any slow play, noting that I was new to the deck and only had one modern challenge even the day before to practice it.
In the back of my mind, though, after having played a Grixis Delver and three Harbinger builds, I couldn’t help but think that if you didn’t want the games to draw on forever, you shouldn’t play a U/R deck that literally just stops people from advancing the game state and tries to win the damage race with man-lands and a 2/1 wizard.
DAY 2!!!! 6-2-1 ... I went 1-2 and dropped on Day 2 because I was totally exhausted by then (you heard about the terrible Day 1 games going 'til midnight, right?), but I did finally have a good game against JUND in my half-asleep state and didn’t feel totally at a loss against them for my one win.
Thanks again for all the people who put work into this deck. I love it and had a ton of fun playing it. I plan on getting it online soon so that I can start perfecting it and working towards another GP. Final thought is the 4 Vials, 22 Lands, and MD Smashers felt great to me. Also, Mana Tithe is SPECTACULARLY fun. I Mana Tithed a T2 Goyf, an important Cryptic Command v. Jeskai, and 4-damage Dismember v. Mono Blue Tron. Each time, it felt like that one card both put my opponent in the frame of mind where they hesitated with everything thereafter, and I also felt like those counters swung the game my way. I would definitely recommend one in the SB to bring in when you're on the draw, as you will most likely be behind, and it can save you from getting crushed by a speedy deck that's tapping out.
Last note is that do you think it's wise to include a Marsh Flats for some minimal deck-thinning or to get that one Swamp, if necessary? Thanks.
(note: I know it's not formatted just right, but I don't know how to get the subheadings for instants, sorceries, etc.)
3 Aether Vial
1 Spellskite
2 Thoughtseize
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Flickerwisp
4 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Wasteland Strangler
2 Reality Smasher
2 Eldrazi Displacer
1 Spellskite
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Godless Shrine
3 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Shambling Vent
1 Marsh Flats
2 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Stony Silence
1 Spellskite
2 Kor Firewalker
1 Timely Reinforcements
2 Pithing Needle
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Surgical Extraction
And the timer thing SUCKKKKKKKKKSSSS. For example, I had a sorcery in my graveyard that I wanted to use AFTER combat. I -3ed Jace to make it happen, attacked, and then BAM, end step. I ran a 1/1 into a 4 toughness creature with the idea that I'd be able to burn it out post-combat. Nope, Duels had other plans ... mainly me screwing myself by not casting the spell, losing a creature, and losing 3 counters off of Jace for no reason. One of many I've experienced ... I'm pretty much scared to try and play anything in my second main phase now.
Teysa, Orzhov Scion - my first commander, ever. Later, I found out that she can go infinite in a number of ways, though I try to play her more as a token generation/attrition strategy.
This last slot could go to lots of generals, but I want to throw a shout-out to Titania, Protector of Argoth, because she's really given me incentive to play a Landfall deck that's been fun for me lately. The build-around generals have always been the most fun for me to play.
Embrace math.