Craig Wescoe has posted an article regarding potential decks that could make an impact on the format. In addition to Illiusions, Exalted, and a variant of Naya, he's included this Grixis list. Notice the lack of Snapcasters and Karn, and the 2 Nicol Bolas. I absolutely love the idea of this deck and will probably throw it together over the next few days. I really want to find a spot for Olivia Voldaren, though. She's absolutely bonkers and gives the deck something to do before turn 5.
I run three Image and two Splicer in my deck, as I really like them both. I have a fairly aggro-heavy meta, and the Golem just blocks so many things; Zombies, Humans, Strangleroots, Huntmasters, etc. Splicer isn't as valuable late-game compared to Image, but he definitely does his job and by the time we have Titan/Sphinx/Elesh online, we're in a winning position anyway.
Stony Silence turns Naya Pod into a slow clunky deck. Also, I agree with you on Slayers' Stronghold. It's pretty sweet.
This was true for the Elesh-Norn, 4x Pod decks of old. The newer Naya archetype has the pods as an afterthought, commonly only running 2, and usually boarding them out. I prefer Nearhearth Pilgrim as a sideboard option against aggro/creature based decks. It really slows them down, and we don't exactly have the sideboard space for Stony Silence.
I recently dropped Blade Splicer altogether and put in 2 Angelic Destiny. It's absolutely explosive late game and really helps us get there with flying.
Edit: Last FNM tomorrow with Boros Humans before making the switch to Solar Flare. I'm gonna try to keep Boros built just in case I decide to play it again. Regardless, an FNM Report will be posted. Maybe even a Deck-Tech on youtube or something if anyone would watch that.
Oxid Ridge is a star in this as well because Silver Blade solves most of its problems with being frail by giving it first strike (and then some double strike)
I have my Oxid Ridge in the side, making my maindeck four-drops 2 Bladehold and 2 Hellrider. Oxid Ridge definitely becomes a start in his relevant matchups, but Hellrider always at least does something. He's more productive more often, pretty much.
How do we feel about Nearheath Pilgrim? Wescoe tested him out in Haunted Humans and it seems to really improve the delver matchup. I kinda want to try 2 of them in the sideboard tonight.
not to sure about the 3rd Timely and the Deflection
I'm really pretty against Stormblood Berserker. Bad synergy with Champion of the Parish.
Also, four HoB might be a little much; 6 4-drops is iffy.
And now, time for my one-week late FNM report. Sorry, guys
Round 1 vs. B/W Blood Artist
This guy makes a lot of really cool homebrews, and this one was pretty much black/white humans with a lotta kill spells for Blood Artist. Game one was pretty much me getting the nuts before he could do a thing about it. Game two, I sided in Oxid Ridge and got through like a train. 1-0
Round 2 vs. GW Humans
As much as I like the GW list, I feel like Boros' explosiveness puts it over the top. In game one, while my opponent was setting up with Avacyn's Pilgrim turn one, I had t1 champ, t2 Lightning Mauler for 4 early damage, and kept applying preasure into a Hero of Bladehold bound with a Mauler. Game two went a little more his way with double Mayor of Avabruk simply making his dudes bigger than mine. Game three, he ended up getting land flood while I got there. 2-0
Round 3 vs. UG Infect
This was the best player at our store piloting Frank Lepore's new UG infect deck that that abuses Wild Defiance. Game one stretches on for a pretty long time, as I'm not drawing the pressure I need. He gets there with Mutagenic Growth and Inkmoth pretty quickly. Game two I had Arc Trail on his two early creatures and got there with Silverblade on a 4/4 Champion. Game three was insanely close, and I was dead to poison next turn when I got an insane Oxid Ridge topdeck, and he simply didn't have the blockers. 3-0
Round 4 vs. Wolf Run Ramp
So, as it turns out, our Wolf Run matchup is pretty sketchy without Angelic Destiny in the side. Game one he sees double Primeval Titan, and I only have the O-Ring for one, and no Fiend Hunters in sight. Game two goes in a similar fashion, but with Inferno Titan to wipe my board multiple times. Very frustrating matchup. 3-1
Round 5 vs. Boros Humans
Mirror match, leygo. Round one goes back and forth for a little while, but the opponent saw the major threat first in Hero of Bladehold, and I draw no answer. Game two I get the essential nuts, with an Arc Trail on his t1 Champion, Fiend Hunter for his Silverblade, and constant pressure from my Champion. Game 3, I fail to see a single red source and stare down triple (yes, all three copies) Arc Trail and a Hellrider in hand while he hands me a sore beating. 3-2
Overall, not horrible for the night, but I very easily could have 4-1'd the night to at least take 3rd place. Oh well, there's always next week! I'm checking out a different card shop with my playgroup; we want to scope out the meta and see how we fare.
Hi !
I'm probably playing a T2 casual tournament saturday at newly discovered LGS.
Last week, finished 3/8, beaten by a Runechanter's Pike or SoWaP wielding Geist or St Traft. Other decks were mono G aggro (lacked consistency), and R/W humans with the same problem. (8 peoples means only 3 rounds ^^).
Otherwise, i know someone brought an Heartless architect, and I think there was a Pod. So this week I'd like to bring some heavy artifact removal in SB (Pod, Wurmcoils, Geist is way less fearsome as a bear), but I can't decide on what to use.
Hesitating between Revoke existence and Manic Vandal.
Manic is human, not impaired by Thalia, which I'll side in vs Delver and H.Archi. (and Pod ?). Revoke also hit enchantements (H.Summoning, Anthems), and get rid of Wurmcoil. Your thoughts ?
Revoke over Vandal all the way. Exiling > Destroying, always.
Played a few matches against Venser Control today which, to my surprise, went stunningly well in my favor. I shall be posting an FNM report tomorrow night/Saturday morning.
What does everyone think about a possible single Gideon in the sideboard? I realized while playing some games today at my lgs that my sideboard doesn't have a whole ton of options against other aggro decks. Forcing the opponent to tap all their dudes and leave themselves completely open seems pretty huge. Thoughts?
True, blade splicer on T2/3 is a serious issue but the thing is...big tournament Meta shifted to Delver/RG (be it ramp or aggro)
There are veeery few decks that can and will play it. Killing a dork right away is surely an amazing strategy...but so is playing a Champion, 2-drop (Cathar, the red haste, Gather townfolks, whatever) and Silverblade Paladin/Crusader.
Plus alwaus consider that Arc trail...for how good it is, could be a dead card later on (ramp, hexproof, x/3+), same for other burn spells....whilemore crusaders/paladins or whatever...always help.
In my list i'm trying Guardians' Pledge...not only it WILL save you from all red sweepers..but it sure as hell does more dmg than any red burn spell.....downside....it doeos nothing if you have no creatures in play...but if you dont have them...you already lost
If big tournament meta has shifted to Delver and Red Green...Arc Trail does a pretty great job of killing their threats (Abberation, Huntmaster, Strangleroot.)
I used to run 3-of Rally the Peasants which, in my opinion, is a better Guardian's Pledge for what you're trying to accomplish. That being said, I took it out for Arc Trail and haven't looked back since.
With so much burn though you must lose a bit on the creature end of things. If you are playing any of these spells in the first 4 turns you are destroying your damage curve and your t4-5 win.
The creatre:instant/sorcery ratio of my build really isn't enough to screw up my tempo. One thing humans lack is evasion, and a Blade Splicer golem on turn three against us is a serious detriment. Pinging their dork on turn two and getting in for a total of three damage is still fine. Sure, we wanna win the race; but sometimes that's accomplished by slowing them down.
The problem I see with burn is how it retards overall damage output at most turns on curve. Every creature we pack from 1-4 cmc have more potential damage then a single burn spell. The only time burn is good is when you are reaching off curve or to clear a path for your army and I don't really feel that TW is optimal for that. Hard casting it is only a desperate act as your goal is to win turns before it could be casted. The same can mostly be said for volley as well, as I feel our 3 drop slot has much better play then it, outside of off curve reach.
I run 3 Arc Trail in the main, 3 Brimstone in the main, and 3 Pillar in the side. I feel like burn gives to Boros Humans what countermagic gives to Haunted Humans; something to do when our dudes can't get there. On the play, killing a bird and getting an extra two damage is fantastic. Pillar nerfs the **** out of Gravecrawlers, Strangleroots, and Doomed Traveler. As for Brimstone, I enjoy and nice explosive 5 damage out of nowhere, though I may drop the count to 2 in place for a third Silverblade Paladin (he's just so good.)
Game day is this friday/saturday, and my lgs is doing two standard events. I'll put tournament reports up, and I expect the same from some of you!
The real issue is that board wipe followed by Tamiyo/Gideon to lock down my next creature and tokens/Batterskull or another boardwipe to stop the following creature while building her up to ultimate or just picking off my creatures with gideon. If I dodge that turn 2-4 mass removal I can usually push through enough damage but they run so many that I can't dodge enough. Slayers' stronghold helps but not after a gideon forces me to kill him instead of my opponent or a Batterskull gets in the way. If I hold back my aggro deck becomes a mid-range deck with underwhelming creatures.
That being said the deck just dominates ramp and other aggro decks.
Zealous Conscripts called, they wanna steal your Gideon and hit you for 9.
I actually have a pretty rough matchup against RG aggro. Huntmaster just puts such a slow on us.
This was true for the Elesh-Norn, 4x Pod decks of old. The newer Naya archetype has the pods as an afterthought, commonly only running 2, and usually boarding them out. I prefer Nearhearth Pilgrim as a sideboard option against aggro/creature based decks. It really slows them down, and we don't exactly have the sideboard space for Stony Silence.
Edit: Last FNM tomorrow with Boros Humans before making the switch to Solar Flare. I'm gonna try to keep Boros built just in case I decide to play it again. Regardless, an FNM Report will be posted. Maybe even a Deck-Tech on youtube or something if anyone would watch that.
I have my Oxid Ridge in the side, making my maindeck four-drops 2 Bladehold and 2 Hellrider. Oxid Ridge definitely becomes a start in his relevant matchups, but Hellrider always at least does something. He's more productive more often, pretty much.
I'm really pretty against Stormblood Berserker. Bad synergy with Champion of the Parish.
Also, four HoB might be a little much; 6 4-drops is iffy.
And now, time for my one-week late FNM report. Sorry, guys
Round 1 vs. B/W Blood Artist
This guy makes a lot of really cool homebrews, and this one was pretty much black/white humans with a lotta kill spells for Blood Artist. Game one was pretty much me getting the nuts before he could do a thing about it. Game two, I sided in Oxid Ridge and got through like a train. 1-0
Round 2 vs. GW Humans
As much as I like the GW list, I feel like Boros' explosiveness puts it over the top. In game one, while my opponent was setting up with Avacyn's Pilgrim turn one, I had t1 champ, t2 Lightning Mauler for 4 early damage, and kept applying preasure into a Hero of Bladehold bound with a Mauler. Game two went a little more his way with double Mayor of Avabruk simply making his dudes bigger than mine. Game three, he ended up getting land flood while I got there. 2-0
Round 3 vs. UG Infect
This was the best player at our store piloting Frank Lepore's new UG infect deck that that abuses Wild Defiance. Game one stretches on for a pretty long time, as I'm not drawing the pressure I need. He gets there with Mutagenic Growth and Inkmoth pretty quickly. Game two I had Arc Trail on his two early creatures and got there with Silverblade on a 4/4 Champion. Game three was insanely close, and I was dead to poison next turn when I got an insane Oxid Ridge topdeck, and he simply didn't have the blockers. 3-0
Round 4 vs. Wolf Run Ramp
So, as it turns out, our Wolf Run matchup is pretty sketchy without Angelic Destiny in the side. Game one he sees double Primeval Titan, and I only have the O-Ring for one, and no Fiend Hunters in sight. Game two goes in a similar fashion, but with Inferno Titan to wipe my board multiple times. Very frustrating matchup. 3-1
Round 5 vs. Boros Humans
Mirror match, leygo. Round one goes back and forth for a little while, but the opponent saw the major threat first in Hero of Bladehold, and I draw no answer. Game two I get the essential nuts, with an Arc Trail on his t1 Champion, Fiend Hunter for his Silverblade, and constant pressure from my Champion. Game 3, I fail to see a single red source and stare down triple (yes, all three copies) Arc Trail and a Hellrider in hand while he hands me a sore beating. 3-2
Overall, not horrible for the night, but I very easily could have 4-1'd the night to at least take 3rd place. Oh well, there's always next week! I'm checking out a different card shop with my playgroup; we want to scope out the meta and see how we fare.
Revoke over Vandal all the way. Exiling > Destroying, always.
Played a few matches against Venser Control today which, to my surprise, went stunningly well in my favor. I shall be posting an FNM report tomorrow night/Saturday morning.
Hell, mine's in the main
If big tournament meta has shifted to Delver and Red Green...Arc Trail does a pretty great job of killing their threats (Abberation, Huntmaster, Strangleroot.)
I used to run 3-of Rally the Peasants which, in my opinion, is a better Guardian's Pledge for what you're trying to accomplish. That being said, I took it out for Arc Trail and haven't looked back since.
The creatre:instant/sorcery ratio of my build really isn't enough to screw up my tempo. One thing humans lack is evasion, and a Blade Splicer golem on turn three against us is a serious detriment. Pinging their dork on turn two and getting in for a total of three damage is still fine. Sure, we wanna win the race; but sometimes that's accomplished by slowing them down.
I run 3 Arc Trail in the main, 3 Brimstone in the main, and 3 Pillar in the side. I feel like burn gives to Boros Humans what countermagic gives to Haunted Humans; something to do when our dudes can't get there. On the play, killing a bird and getting an extra two damage is fantastic. Pillar nerfs the **** out of Gravecrawlers, Strangleroots, and Doomed Traveler. As for Brimstone, I enjoy and nice explosive 5 damage out of nowhere, though I may drop the count to 2 in place for a third Silverblade Paladin (he's just so good.)
Game day is this friday/saturday, and my lgs is doing two standard events. I'll put tournament reports up, and I expect the same from some of you!
Zealous Conscripts called, they wanna steal your Gideon and hit you for 9.
I actually have a pretty rough matchup against RG aggro. Huntmaster just puts such a slow on us.