Well just sort of a heads up for anyone who might have been following this thread. I have enjoyed playing G/R agro quite a bit however I have just noticed sort of a decline in my community for wanting to play standard of late. We played 1 sanctioned FNM standard tourney in the month of march... Due to this I decided to just go ahead and sell everything. I got arround $700.00 worth of credit to run off and play EDH with so I have had fun but I am moving on to do other things other than standard.
I like the option of having more guys to tutor up with GSZ however Ancient Grudge just works better against swords and artifact heavy decks. I still like having the 2 creatures in the MD as they are easier to tutor into when I need them and eat up less slots MD. I might end up needing to make more adjustments however the grudge hits more swords. The big question being is if I draw multiple GSZ and need more sword answers than this. Well I will try it out this FNM and see how it goes.
Well... I had a few more changes. I played my list a lot in some casual games on friday as it was draft and I didnt want to join in. I also played several games last night against a friend at my place.
As much as I like drawing the swords I have on occasion drawn multiple before getting one of them into play and that is not good. My meta is also loading up on some sword hate due to how popular they are so I would rather run one less and draw 2 of them at a time a little less. The metamorphs have been great so far in my playtesting and I bumped it up to 3x of them a little earlier. It has been playing well so far and I have been happy with it.
some slight SB changes:
Dismember I am seeing a lot more Phyrexian Obliterators in my meta and I know a few U/B zombie decks are sideboarding them. I have a great match vs the zombies so far but the obliterators can be a problems still. Dismember works against titans / wurmcoils alright as well which I like too.
Surgical Extraction I had been packing some Nihil Spellbombs instead but I think that the Extraction has a better game against more decks. I can screw with Delver's flashback cards or hit up a rez deck like solar flare or that new one that is rezing Elesh Norn in the early game.
Ok, well I did a lot of swapping things arround. Gameday results were interesting but I had some issues still with G/W tokens and the U/W delver matchup was sort of a coin flip where I feel like I was just moving a little too slowly to win but honestly it came down to the timing of the final spell that decided the victor.
I am seeing tons of swords everywhere so I opted to move 1 Viridian Corrupter into the main of the deck as well as the slime that I have.
Hellrider is the new add for my deck. I have been sort of lacking a finisher style of creature so hopefully this will give me some of the reach I felt I was sort of lacking.
Phyrexian Metamorph is back in. I was running them originally but cut them some time back but I think it is time for them to come back again... They are a nice versatile creature so I will see what I can do with them. They are great on the undying creatures and the idea of slamming 2 hellriders in the same turn just sounds fantastic.
Galvanic Blast, I have been finding that I don't usually need the 3 damage on Incinerate so much as a 1 mana burn spell. This allows me to play a turn 2, two mana creature as well as burn off the opponent's first drop which seems good. It has potential problems with Mirran Crusader if they buff him however I plan on sideboarding into Combust so hopefully it doesn't impair me much. My U/W humans matchup is already fairly good.
Well, more changes to the list. I sort of wanted to make some adjustments based on some of the issues I have been having for this list right before the FNM / Gameday this weekend. Up until now I have had some issues with wrath / slastorm / Whipflare heavy decks. I played against a boros list that almost soley used these forms of sweeping creatures so due to that sort of horrible playtesting I adjusted my list a little to have a slightly better matchup against the control match. I have been dominatiing the agro v agro matches so hopefully the slight change wont screw with that too much but give me a little better game vs control.
The Viridian Emissary has been great in my testing. Against agro decks he trades or eats a removal to ramp me which gets me to better things faster. Against control decks he provides some early damage that they usually dont want to answer the first 1-2 pokes from then he eats removal and gets me more mana. Extra mana in this deck turns into bigger wolf runs, bigger X damage burn, and just faster plays. I have been having some issues keeping mana critters and 6 sort of feels like where I want to be. I dont like drawing too many mana critters throughout the game.
Acidic Slime I have had a few situations where I just bend over and take it if I cant answer something... Angelic Destiny with no burn response is really hard to deal with currently... This gives me an option to answer it in the mainboard.
Huntmaster of the Fells is great vs agro but man against a sweeper heavy control I have had some issues with him. As my meta seems to be based a lot arround what I seem to be running... I am pushing one of these to the sideboard. I love these guys and against agro lists I will definately be bringing him in but I have found him a little less desireable against a heavy control sweeper style of deck.
Chandra's Phoenix I just have had a hard time being impressed by them. It is nice that they can come back but I dont run enough burn that I can actively throw it in people's face through the game. Also 2 a turn is just sort of ok. I like them with wolfrun but poking for 2 a turn is just ok...
Vorapede I have been finding him my go to target for later game plays. Against a lot of nonwhite decks he just is a monster who is harder than hell to answer. He is good vs agro due to his undying + vigilance. He is just a tank and I love throwing a sword on him as it is a total face beating.
As for the incinerate, I have been finding it a bit less useful. The games that I have hard times with it is often mostly a dead card. Due to that I am shifting one of them back to being a GSZ. I like my Devil's Play still due to the fact that it still can burn titans / shoot people in the face for that last x amount when someone gets their defenses up.
EDIT: ohh also I got a sideboard up. Mine is a bit odd but I built it based upon some of the troublesome decks in my meta. I have been having some issues with a sort of self mill into flashback and Boneyard Wurm / Splinterfright that seem to be regularly like 6/6+ on turn 4/5....
I pushed a singleton Glissa in to assist the token hate and grave hate options. I have some high hopes that that pans out nicely especially now that I am pushing my GSZ count back up to 4x.
I obtained my 4th Sword of W&P this weekend so I put it in the list to try out the old 4x of them. I am so far having a lot of issues with the setup as I play against more non white lists I think in my meta than I do white lists. There are some games where the protections are important but I would say more often than not they don't work. Still it hits like a truck on the birds or in conjunction with the wolf run so they are currently being tested as a 4x. I have been sort of considering moving 2x of the swords to a different sword though.
Porcelain Legionnaire I had a lot of fun with this guy but sadly it seems like Viridian Emissary just works better more often so I moved back to running him. I was playing with them last night and managed a turn 3 Vorapede with mana dorks and Emissary so that was fun. They trade and ramp me and are just so backbreaking against agro that its great.
Chandra's Phoenix I have had issues having these too often. I am bumping my list down to only running 2 of them for now. I like her for some evasion but generally speaking it is harder to get as big of results off of them due to not having as fast of damage output in general. I just havent been really wowed by the phoenix yet but I think I need to keep playing some of them. I hate having them though when I really need to answer something.
I have a new list that I am testing out that has actually been playtesting quite well. I really like Huntsmaster as a 4 set but I have been having some problems with my new build with Hero of Bladehold due to the lack of the 4+ hitting removal and I have been having problems with Angelic due to the lack of enchantment answers mainboard.
I have moved more towards the direction of running a heavier red package of late and I have been enjoying that from a removal perspective. I cant say I am sold on any one build yet as I am still sort of testing a lot of things out. Last night I got more testing in and found more results:
Garruk's Companion totally sucks as he trades with like everything and the only time he is good is if he gets on an open board with no opposition or he is carrying a sword. With those restraints I am going to just chalk him up as not so good in my opinion.
Brimstone Volley I had a much harder time hitting morbid than I thought I would. Against white decks they have tons of exile removal and you are facing vapor snags as well so I have been having a hard time making use of this. I think they are going out.
This is sort of a new set of experiments that I am going with. The original list at the top is currently not being utilized so I might swap it out for the current list up a few posts.
Porcelain Legionnaire just wins so much in combat and while it costs some life to cast it I could spin it off of the birds as well and it really gives me another strong creature in the 2 mana range as I have found that the 2-3 mana guys have been a bit shakey at best. I find that a lot of the R/G options for 2 mana to be a bit underwhelming so I figure it is worth testing.
Incinerate has been great all in all. I keep finding that 3 damage is sort of exactly where I want to be as it can deal with so many things. I figure bumping this to 4x should be a good thing.
Devil's Play I like the fact that it catches a lot of the problematic creatures right when I need to. Mirran Crusader I will have 3-4 mana minimum to nuke him when he comes down. Hero of Bladehold I will have 4-5 mana depending on if I went first / have a mana dork. The flashback option seems nice as well as I can hit another target later. It also gives me a decent finisher spell to hit someone in the face. I considered some of the 2 damage effects such as Galvanic Blast but I have my worries about it so I will try this for now.
As for Inkmoth Nexus: I think it is better in a ramp heavy style of deck like WRR. I dont want to spend my mana in the early game to animate a land and I am not trying to ramp as high of landbase as WRR is trying to. While Wolf Run itself is a great land adding infect is trying to push this type of agro list in too many different directions. WRR might not have even done damage to the oppsoing player by the time it tries to swing with inkmoths for leathal damages. I would leave inkmoth for them to run.
The sideboard for my new list is largely undecided still... I will see if I cant get something a bit more appropriate pushed together for the new list.
what do you think of adding Inkmoth Nexus for another win con? I can see what your going for with the more aggro route with out the Titan (which I like btw...and I don't have lol). I can see how the mana base maybe iffy since we don't have Rampart Growth either. I like how you're trying to stay with the Mono-greed build though, with more of the red for defense.
Alright, I am trying to work up a new list that dishes out damage a bit faster as well as working against some of the swarm decks I have been having troubles with. This is a bit experimental so I wont bother updating my decklist up top until I can see how it plays out first.
This list is pushing a faster clock with a little less mid to end game options. I cut Garruk Relentless in this version as I feel like he is a bit better in a midrange deck that is trying to stall and do things. I increased my huntsmasters as I cant think of a situation where I dont really want a ton of them nonstop. I was having problems defending Garruk against the flyers anyways.
I am running a 4 sword package but I have found that my meta isnt as cookie cutter with all running white agro so I pushed a Sword of Body and Mind to cover a few other situations. I might end up playing with the sword count and which ones I am running a bit over the next few weeks as well.
I brought Garruk's Companion in as he is a fast clock as well as being amazing with a sword on him. Chandra's Phoenix is also a new add to this heavier red build. There isnt a lot that would really threaten to kill her currently and she can come out quick and recur later which I like. Slamming a phoenix on turn 2 seems like a solid move.
Well... that is sort of the list I was thinking about playing with a bit. It has an increased speed which is nice over my current one. I was also having problems with swarm decks which hopefully the increased Hunstamster numbers as well as the pheonixes will help solve.
When you look at running a heavy basic land count with very few nonbasics it is almost unheard of to see a situation where you have to play the Rootbound Crag in the first turn. You are looking at 80% of the landbase being basic lands which means that the chance of having no basic lands to play before the Crag is a very low chance. On the other hand this deck does play into the late game as you can see with the Vorapede inclusion so I felt that the chance of topdecking my 4th+ land as a ETB tapped land was higher than my chance of having no land options to have my lands ETB untapped in the first few turns due to the high basic land count.
I might be shifting my direction here shortly though as I have been considering moving to a bit more of a red presence in my list by adding more dual lands which would by default force the Dungrove Elders out of my list... I haven't made any sort of commitment to such changes yet but it has been something I have been considering for a while. I really want to push my Huntmaster of the Fells count to a 4x mainboard to see how it operates for a while so I don't know how that will affect my list yet...
Why did you decide to.run rootbound crags instead of compelling gorges? It seems like this deck would much rather consistently play the first 3 lands untapped.
Well... I had an interesting FNM on Friday with my list. I managed to make top 4 in a very small FNM where I went 4-2 in the first 3 rounds. I got ran over game 3 by a G/W token deck where before sideboarding I just couldnt handle all of the bodies and after sideboarding he got a god hand sticking T2: Mirran Crusader, T3: Garruk Relentless, T4 Hero. I stopped all of it right up to the hero which I tried to drop a thrun in front of him but he swung and had the mana to township and I scooped to that... In the top 4 I went up against a more aggressive version of my own deck with less removal but more CA / undying guys. It went to game 3 where I had him at 2 life with a sworded up BoP but I got overrun at the last moment where I just couldnt dig anything but land the last several turns.
Overall I still like the deck concept. I am also sort of working on a psudo WRR that runs a smaller curve with more mass damaging spells to deal with all of the swarm decks I am seeing currently.
I am also sort of at a standstill currently... I am feeling like staying heavy green is hurting me and I might go to a R/G agro list. I tried out Todd Anderson's mono green just to give it a shot and was extremely not pleased with how it worked. While it is a good list it works against a particular meta which is different from my own meta and I hate the lack of feeling of any sort of control which is sort of how that list feels.
I am going to sort of shift away from the heavy green in here and try out R/G agro.
Combust is also good against the Delver decks however it is really really good against the G/W token and U/W human decks. Vorapede is really good against the titan type of decks as it just gives them fits. I think these changes will be for the best.
If I had more Temp Steel in my meta I would be a bit more hesitant to side out the Gut Shots however I dont really have it in my meta and so that leaves very few tempo decks for me to worry about.
OUT:
-2 Daybreak Ranger there is low expectation of them sticking the turn and very few targets for them to even try to fight anyways.
-2 Incinerate not real great targets for them to burn. They could burn the planeswalkers or burn to the face FTW but other than that I am not real impressed.
IN:
+1 Thrun, the Last Troll
+1 Acidic Slime hits lands / O Rings whatever. It is a solid creature that forces them to remove it and while Sun Titan can rez what we blow up it still can cost them time especially if we hit a land before they make it to 6.
+1 Vorapede solid against removal as he is hard to kill. Not as good here due to the counterspells but still ok..
+1 Sword of War and Peace put on the hurt. It gets past Sun Titan at least and it can hurt them which is great.
We dont really have a ton to add for Solar Flare however I dont think it is really huge in the overall meta currently. If it is a problem then include some grave hate in your SB.
U/W Tempo Delver
OUT:
1 Vorapede too slow and it would be disasterous to have him bounced by Vapor Snag...
3 Dismember they hurt me too much for how fast the opponent is. They are good but I cant go giving up 4 life for this one.
1 Garruk Relentless a little slow, I just dont want to draw a ton of them. Our opponent's creatures are a bit evasive as well making it hard to defend him however he can trade with delvers on his own.
2 Sword of War and Peace a bit slow going and it really only gives us evasion from the tokens. By the time it is up to the tokens I think this is a small matter.
IN:
2 Gut Shot it gets the delvers and it gets the illusions. It can screw with snapcasters as well.
3 Whipflare blows up like everything but the drake.
1 Huntmaster of the Fells multiple bodies and lifegain to offset their fast nature. Best of all it is decent if they bounce him.
1 Thrun, the Last Troll hexproof / uncounterable. They will likely clone him which is why we are forced to use 2 of him but still he is good.
This one is sort of a speed match. Luckily we have some hexproof and such to screw with their control. Use fast burn and disrupt them as fast as you can. You will probably be using Whipflare on turn 2/3 to restart them. This should be a good adjustment to their speed as well.
Temp Steel
OUT:
-1 Vorapede too slow for the matchup. You need to quickly take things out and stabalize.
-1 Thrun, the Last Troll they dont have much for removal. You need to eliminate their threats quickly.
-1 Dismember good against them due to its speed but it hurts to use so ideally you just want to see less of them.
-2 Sword of War and Peace too slow, you will be dead before it goes active.
-1 Garruk Relentless he can be hard to protect and a little slow. You really dont want to see more than one of him either.
IN:
+2 Gut Shot answers a lot of their deck quickly.
+2 Naturalize answers a lot of their deck. Ideally the temp steel but hey whatever you need to win.
+1 Huntmaster of the Fells bodies and life sounds like fun.
+1 Acidic Slime can answer temp steel / the utility lands.
NOTE** I specifically dont really have any temp steel in my meta or I might adjust my sideboard a little. In an ideal SB for Temp Steel you would likely include 2x Creeping Corrosion and 1x Viridian Corrupter. I dont have any Temp Steel in my meta though so I dont need to worry about it. I dont even know what I would cut from my list to make room for those 3 either...
Wow... that took some time to complete. I guess I should look over my sideboard now and see if I have some cards I really dont want in or if there is something a bit more pressing that I could use.
Well... I have some free time so I guess I am trying to figure out how I would sideboard against some different decks while I can look at their lists. This probably wont all go according to plan exactly but I would like some idea of how I might like to go about it when the time comes:
B/W Sorin Token
OUT
-3 Garruk Relentless There is just no good way to try to protect him in a token matchup. They will have some flying tokens and they will have numbers on their side. It is not worth the effort to drop him into play to eat a token and or spawn a single 2/2... When against tokens just pull him out as it is a trap.
-3 Dismember nothing really good as targets. They might have the Geist-Honored Monks however, even with that it is a so so on killing it. Better off just blowing all his friends up. This cant be used on planeswalkers and the life loss will hurt. Cut it among the first cuts.
-1 Thrun, the Last Troll he is meh ok but against tokens he isnt a great blocker or a great attacker... Either way I feel like he isnt really needed in this matchup.
-2 Strangleroot Geist they are aggressive and unfortunately you are going to be against a lot of small bodies who trade with him easily. I kept one in in case there is a weak P/W in a situation with no blocks but I doubt it would happen. Still GSZ can go get him if needed.
IN
+2 Naturalize deals with all of the anthem effects, Oblivion Ring, and swords if they run them.
+3 Whipflare die tokens die! If you are lucky they will bring in Stoney Silence thinking you will be Ratchet Bombing them lol. I like how this kills the monks as well if they run them.
+1 Huntmaster of the Fells a token to fight back with, lifegain, and removal over time. A nice solid 2 in 1 punch. Don't forget to poke their planeswalkers with him with his shocks.
+1 Acidic Slime they have a shakey landbase so you can attack that or you can go for their enchantments. Sort of depends on how the game plays out.
+1 Vorapede tokens suck against trampling vigilance guys. Go go gooooooooooo
+1 Sword of War and Peace They are primarily running white tokens so bust out the protection and stomp some face with the Elders.
In this matchup I think that Dismember and Garruk are the big two that need to come out. Dismember is just going to be disappointing too often and Garruk will be impossible to defend. The other cuts aren't as important in my mind here. Going in Whipflare is probably the most important. The rest will just help the matchup more than the cards being cut out for them.
U/W Humans
OUT:
-1 Vorapede He gets exiled and killed by most any of their removal which is unfortunate. I like him if he doesnt get removed but I think the Slime fits better as it can kill so many of their good threats and still sit back to deathtouch things.
-3 Dismember good removal but it doesn't hit crusader so I swap this out for Combust which can still hit all their stuff and is uncounterable.
-3 Strangleroot Geist I like them for putting on pressure however U/W humans is good at making trades and I found that they generally become less impressive especially if they drop some first strikers in and or have an Honor of the Pure in play.
IN:
+1 Acidic Slime answers a lot of their good enchants / lands and leaves a deathtoucher behind for a hero attack.
+3 Combust deals with literally every creature target and is uncounterable. Perfect against U/W humans.
+2 Naturalize answer Honor / O Ring
+1 Sword of War and Peace connect more and or give a bird protection from flyers especially an angelic attack.
I was tempted to try to fit Whipfire into the deck when sideboarding here however other than to answer crusader I have a decent setup against U/W humans. Whipfire has a problem with Honor of the Pure as well which could suck as it would only kill my stuff at that point. The slime and combust are the key sideboards here. The sword just allows me to connect a little more against them.
G/W Tokens
OUT:
-3 Garruk Relentless dont bother trying to protect him against a token swarm. The targets I would want to fight with him wont die to him / cant be targeted by him... Spawning a single token for 4 mana isnt enough value to keep him in.
-3 Dismember direct swap into Combust which can catch and kill all their good threats as well as not costing me life and killing the Crusader.
-1 Thrun, the Last Troll as a blocker he wont help enough and as an attacker he will have a hard time getting in.
-1 Daybreak Ranger sadly they don't have much for flying and trying to ping tokens one at a time with this guy isnt going to be of much help. He can still be nice at taking out Heros assuming they aren't pumped up and he could take on Mikaus but other than those options he isn't much good. I am still keeping one in but I don't need 2.
IN:
+3 Combust strict upgrade as all of their targets are white and it can hit crusader.
+3 Whipflare hopefully blow the tokens out but it is harder to use as their tokens pump a lot. Hopefully I can stop them from getting too big before I pop this off.
+1 Acidic Slime answer for their Township as well as an option to trade with something.
+1 Sword of War and Peace more evasion as well as some good damage. Unfortunately they do have some green but this gets me past a lot of the tokens and I can always strap it to a bird if need be.
Here I kept the 1 Vorapede for the trample as strapping a sword to him is really really good. There are a lot of high priority targets in theis matchup such as Hero, Crusader, and Mikaeus whom I have to kill them all.
RDW
OUT:
-1 Vorapede too slow. I have won / lost the game before he matters.
-2 Daybreak Ranger they get removed too easily for this matchup. If I have no real expectancy of them untapping they are no good.
-2 Dismember it hurts a lot to use. I lost a game because I was forced to use 2 of these in a game once.
-1 Sword of War and Peace by the time it is out and you swing with it you likely already decided the outcome of the game. I opted to run a Naturalize for the shrine instead.
IN:
1 Huntmaster of the Fells lifegain + 2 bodies is huge. It makes it hard for my opponent to just burn through this. In a pinch also I can use these guys to double block a Beserker.
3 Whipflare Like everything but their Stormblood Beserker dies to this. Hopefully I can pick up some value on this and put them off their game quickly with it. Generally in this matchup everything I drop in the early will have been burnt off anyways.
2 Naturalize Their shrines will likely be a problem. Blow them up when you can and try to minimize how much you take off of them.
This game is all about stalling your way to victory. Luckily we have the huntsmasters which just kill them as lifegain against RDW is amazing. Do anything you can to stall the game out. Removal is better than creatures but creatures are better than nothing. Drop things as fast as you can and force them to use their answers up early which will slow down their other guys.
Wolf Run
OUT:
-2 Huntmaster of the Fells lifegain and tokens dont matter in this matchup. Shocks are mostly a waste as well. Cut him out as he will just get zapped. The token production can be cute but they seem to always have slagstorms ready to roll.
-2 Daybreak Ranger he wont survive and they have nothing he can nicely fight. Cut him out.
-2 Incinerate this is fun if you can burn to the face but it is usually pointless.
-3 Garruk Relentless all that burn is going to turn into a dead Garruk quite quickly. I would be surprised if he lasted a whole turn.
IN:
2 Naturalize deals with their mana stone ramp and the Inkmoths. Blow up their mana stone if drawn early, save it for the inkmoth if drawn later.
1 Acidic Slime blows up the wolf run. It will deprive them of a land and force them to shock him. Not too bad...
1 Vorapede red burn doesnt nicely answer him and he can stand up to a titan by double blocking / wolf run / dismember the titan.
1 Sword of War and Peace connect for good damage and pushes red burn off.
When the titans start crashing down things get a bit sticky however this deck can stand up to it. A big thing is that Vorapede is great against the titans. Swords will screw with them in the midgame and possibly force them to block with an inkmoth which puts them back mana. Once the titans start crashing in though it can get a bit tough but still very doable thanks to our own wolf run / Dungrove Elder can get bigger than the titans as well.
Well... I hit the character cap for blogs so I guess I will break up this post and continue from here...
While I like Naturalize, I just didn't foresee myself adding 3x of them against anything but Temp Steel which isnt really in my meta...
I was also only really bringing in my red burn against U/W humans and Delver decks. Combust is harder for them to fight as well as it works on Hero which Incinerate does not nicely work on.
Playing arround with a newly updated sideboard on my list... I cant say too much about a few of them but in general my thoughts of the matter are:
2 IncinerateMirran Crusader answer it still hits them even if they have a single Honor of the Pure in play which is a plus. I didn't want to go with some of the 2 damage burn due to that. It also helps against some of the fast decks with lots of answers like RDW where it might hurt me to have dismember due to the life loss and or just push some of the slower creatures and what not to faster answers.
1 Huntmaster of the Fells sort of a versatile creature. I run 2 of them mainboard already but I have found he works really good against other agro decks. Even if he gets answered it gives 2 life and a 2/2 token and if I get to flip him back and forth it is just pure profit. Against agro decks I can cut either of the 5 drops depending on what deck it is for him.
1 Acidic Slime I have noticed that U/W humans has a ton of targets for this to be used on. It is also good against WRR due to being able to hit the special lands they fetch and it trades with titans.
1 Thrun, the Last Troll against control he is solid. On occasion one isn't enough and they are nice to draw against them.
1 Vorapede I found he actually stands up to titans nicely and control in general has a little bit of an issue with him. Generally vs the control I will bring him in for one of the Huntsmasters.
1 Sword of War and Peace lots of white and red decks out there. This helps push some pain on them and it is very solid vs the agro / token decks. I only like 2 main though but against U/W humans or G/W tokens I would probably bump it to 3 because of how good it is vs them. 3 Ratchet Bomb I think it will hate on several decks. It works well against tokens, it can work as an answer to Mirran Crusader / Oblivion Ring as well.
2 Naturalize Oblivion Ring, Tempered Steel, Honor of the Pure, Swords. Plenty of things where having a few of these in the SB is a nice option. I like having this effect on a body bout the slimes can be a bit too slow sometimes so when you really need something removed this is usually better. 1 Viridian Corrupter Tutorable artifact removal. Solid to have at least a singleton of it due to GSZ to go get him if needed. Due to being faster than the slime it can be better than the slime especially vs faster agro decks.
2 Gut Shot some nice removal for Inkmoth / Delver style of decks. Also very solid vs Illusions. I really hate Delver something fierce so it is nice.
Well... that is where I am sort of standing on my sideboard as of right now... I still have 2 proxies left in my list but my cards should be in within the week. Hopefully I can comment a bit more once we can actually play some games with the cards. In all my testing though I really like the list so far.
The corrupter seems like he could be decent against sword of F&F and Tempered Steel however I just dont see Temp steel in my meta and I think SoW&P is going to be the preferred sword at the moment so I think I will hold off on that. Naturalize can jack with Angelic Destiny, Oblivion Ring, Honor of the Pure, Swords, and temp steel if it does pop up. I just dont think narrowing myself to just artifacts is worthwhile at the moment for my meta.
Ratchet is really good against tokens however I think that Whipflare will also be good against tokens but have an easier time against Mirran Crusader which is still a problem. That will give me 7 answers after SB for the crusaders if need be.
Well not really a ton to report on. I found that I only wanted a singelton of the Vorapede MD more often than not. I think I will likely sideboard a second one as he is a beating vs control lists / token decks. I found that I play against more agro lists though that you need extra bodies / life gain / removal which the Huntsmaster gives. I like having 2 mainboard as well as I like drawing them usually and I can play with them a bit to get some removal and what not out of them.
The sideboard is going to take a lot of playing with yet.... My main concern so far has been the MD though.
Hey thanks for the interest in my list. Currently my SB thoughts for some of the common things I encounter. The SB is mostly untested yet though so don't hold me to it but this is sort of my thoughts on the matter.
I will try to get back to you on that but I don't know if my sideboard is quite ready for me to go into that... I have been tuning the maindeck a lot but the sideboard has yet to really be tested for me.
-1 Viridian Corrupter
-1 Acidic Slime
+2 Ancient Grudge
I like the option of having more guys to tutor up with GSZ however Ancient Grudge just works better against swords and artifact heavy decks. I still like having the 2 creatures in the MD as they are easier to tutor into when I need them and eat up less slots MD. I might end up needing to make more adjustments however the grudge hits more swords. The big question being is if I draw multiple GSZ and need more sword answers than this. Well I will try it out this FNM and see how it goes.
-1 Sword of War and Peace
+1 Phyrexian Metamorph
As much as I like drawing the swords I have on occasion drawn multiple before getting one of them into play and that is not good. My meta is also loading up on some sword hate due to how popular they are so I would rather run one less and draw 2 of them at a time a little less. The metamorphs have been great so far in my playtesting and I bumped it up to 3x of them a little earlier. It has been playing well so far and I have been happy with it.
some slight SB changes:
Dismember I am seeing a lot more Phyrexian Obliterators in my meta and I know a few U/B zombie decks are sideboarding them. I have a great match vs the zombies so far but the obliterators can be a problems still. Dismember works against titans / wurmcoils alright as well which I like too.
Surgical Extraction I had been packing some Nihil Spellbombs instead but I think that the Extraction has a better game against more decks. I can screw with Delver's flashback cards or hit up a rez deck like solar flare or that new one that is rezing Elesh Norn in the early game.
I am seeing tons of swords everywhere so I opted to move 1 Viridian Corrupter into the main of the deck as well as the slime that I have.
Hellrider is the new add for my deck. I have been sort of lacking a finisher style of creature so hopefully this will give me some of the reach I felt I was sort of lacking.
Phyrexian Metamorph is back in. I was running them originally but cut them some time back but I think it is time for them to come back again... They are a nice versatile creature so I will see what I can do with them. They are great on the undying creatures and the idea of slamming 2 hellriders in the same turn just sounds fantastic.
Galvanic Blast, I have been finding that I don't usually need the 3 damage on Incinerate so much as a 1 mana burn spell. This allows me to play a turn 2, two mana creature as well as burn off the opponent's first drop which seems good. It has potential problems with Mirran Crusader if they buff him however I plan on sideboarding into Combust so hopefully it doesn't impair me much. My U/W humans matchup is already fairly good.
-1 Llanowar Elves
+1 Viridian Emissary
-1 Huntmaster of the Fells
+1 Acidic Slime
-2 Chandra's Phoenix
+2 Vorapede
-1 Incinerate
+1 Green Sun's Zenith
The Viridian Emissary has been great in my testing. Against agro decks he trades or eats a removal to ramp me which gets me to better things faster. Against control decks he provides some early damage that they usually dont want to answer the first 1-2 pokes from then he eats removal and gets me more mana. Extra mana in this deck turns into bigger wolf runs, bigger X damage burn, and just faster plays. I have been having some issues keeping mana critters and 6 sort of feels like where I want to be. I dont like drawing too many mana critters throughout the game.
Acidic Slime I have had a few situations where I just bend over and take it if I cant answer something... Angelic Destiny with no burn response is really hard to deal with currently... This gives me an option to answer it in the mainboard.
Huntmaster of the Fells is great vs agro but man against a sweeper heavy control I have had some issues with him. As my meta seems to be based a lot arround what I seem to be running... I am pushing one of these to the sideboard. I love these guys and against agro lists I will definately be bringing him in but I have found him a little less desireable against a heavy control sweeper style of deck.
Chandra's Phoenix I just have had a hard time being impressed by them. It is nice that they can come back but I dont run enough burn that I can actively throw it in people's face through the game. Also 2 a turn is just sort of ok. I like them with wolfrun but poking for 2 a turn is just ok...
Vorapede I have been finding him my go to target for later game plays. Against a lot of nonwhite decks he just is a monster who is harder than hell to answer. He is good vs agro due to his undying + vigilance. He is just a tank and I love throwing a sword on him as it is a total face beating.
As for the incinerate, I have been finding it a bit less useful. The games that I have hard times with it is often mostly a dead card. Due to that I am shifting one of them back to being a GSZ. I like my Devil's Play still due to the fact that it still can burn titans / shoot people in the face for that last x amount when someone gets their defenses up.
EDIT: ohh also I got a sideboard up. Mine is a bit odd but I built it based upon some of the troublesome decks in my meta. I have been having some issues with a sort of self mill into flashback and Boneyard Wurm / Splinterfright that seem to be regularly like 6/6+ on turn 4/5....
I pushed a singleton Glissa in to assist the token hate and grave hate options. I have some high hopes that that pans out nicely especially now that I am pushing my GSZ count back up to 4x.
-1 Sword of Body and Mind
+1 Sword of War and Peace
-3 Porcelain Legionnaire
+3 Viridian Emissary
-1 Chandra's Phoenix
+1 Devil's Play
I obtained my 4th Sword of W&P this weekend so I put it in the list to try out the old 4x of them. I am so far having a lot of issues with the setup as I play against more non white lists I think in my meta than I do white lists. There are some games where the protections are important but I would say more often than not they don't work. Still it hits like a truck on the birds or in conjunction with the wolf run so they are currently being tested as a 4x. I have been sort of considering moving 2x of the swords to a different sword though.
Porcelain Legionnaire I had a lot of fun with this guy but sadly it seems like Viridian Emissary just works better more often so I moved back to running him. I was playing with them last night and managed a turn 3 Vorapede with mana dorks and Emissary so that was fun. They trade and ramp me and are just so backbreaking against agro that its great.
Chandra's Phoenix I have had issues having these too often. I am bumping my list down to only running 2 of them for now. I like her for some evasion but generally speaking it is harder to get as big of results off of them due to not having as fast of damage output in general. I just havent been really wowed by the phoenix yet but I think I need to keep playing some of them. I hate having them though when I really need to answer something.
I have moved more towards the direction of running a heavier red package of late and I have been enjoying that from a removal perspective. I cant say I am sold on any one build yet as I am still sort of testing a lot of things out. Last night I got more testing in and found more results:
Garruk's Companion totally sucks as he trades with like everything and the only time he is good is if he gets on an open board with no opposition or he is carrying a sword. With those restraints I am going to just chalk him up as not so good in my opinion.
Brimstone Volley I had a much harder time hitting morbid than I thought I would. Against white decks they have tons of exile removal and you are facing vapor snags as well so I have been having a hard time making use of this. I think they are going out.
So that said I am doing the following:
-2 Garruk's Companion
-3 Brimstone Volley
-1 Daybreak Ranger (moving the second to SB)
+3 Porcelain Legionnaire
+1 Incinerate
+2 Devil's Play
This is sort of a new set of experiments that I am going with. The original list at the top is currently not being utilized so I might swap it out for the current list up a few posts.
Porcelain Legionnaire just wins so much in combat and while it costs some life to cast it I could spin it off of the birds as well and it really gives me another strong creature in the 2 mana range as I have found that the 2-3 mana guys have been a bit shakey at best. I find that a lot of the R/G options for 2 mana to be a bit underwhelming so I figure it is worth testing.
Incinerate has been great all in all. I keep finding that 3 damage is sort of exactly where I want to be as it can deal with so many things. I figure bumping this to 4x should be a good thing.
Devil's Play I like the fact that it catches a lot of the problematic creatures right when I need to. Mirran Crusader I will have 3-4 mana minimum to nuke him when he comes down. Hero of Bladehold I will have 4-5 mana depending on if I went first / have a mana dork. The flashback option seems nice as well as I can hit another target later. It also gives me a decent finisher spell to hit someone in the face. I considered some of the 2 damage effects such as Galvanic Blast but I have my worries about it so I will try this for now.
As for Inkmoth Nexus: I think it is better in a ramp heavy style of deck like WRR. I dont want to spend my mana in the early game to animate a land and I am not trying to ramp as high of landbase as WRR is trying to. While Wolf Run itself is a great land adding infect is trying to push this type of agro list in too many different directions. WRR might not have even done damage to the oppsoing player by the time it tries to swing with inkmoths for leathal damages. I would leave inkmoth for them to run.
The sideboard for my new list is largely undecided still... I will see if I cant get something a bit more appropriate pushed together for the new list.
4 Bird of Paradise
3 Llanowar Elves
4 Strangleroot Geist
2 Garruk's Companion
3 Chandra's Phoenix
2 Daybreak Ranger
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
3 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Incinerate
3 Brimstone Volley
1 Sword of Body and Mind
3 Sword of War and Peace
LAND (24)
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Rootbound Crag
3 Kessig Wolf Run
10 Forest
3 Mountain
This list is pushing a faster clock with a little less mid to end game options. I cut Garruk Relentless in this version as I feel like he is a bit better in a midrange deck that is trying to stall and do things. I increased my huntsmasters as I cant think of a situation where I dont really want a ton of them nonstop. I was having problems defending Garruk against the flyers anyways.
I am running a 4 sword package but I have found that my meta isnt as cookie cutter with all running white agro so I pushed a Sword of Body and Mind to cover a few other situations. I might end up playing with the sword count and which ones I am running a bit over the next few weeks as well.
I brought Garruk's Companion in as he is a fast clock as well as being amazing with a sword on him. Chandra's Phoenix is also a new add to this heavier red build. There isnt a lot that would really threaten to kill her currently and she can come out quick and recur later which I like. Slamming a phoenix on turn 2 seems like a solid move.
Well... that is sort of the list I was thinking about playing with a bit. It has an increased speed which is nice over my current one. I was also having problems with swarm decks which hopefully the increased Hunstamster numbers as well as the pheonixes will help solve.
I might be shifting my direction here shortly though as I have been considering moving to a bit more of a red presence in my list by adding more dual lands which would by default force the Dungrove Elders out of my list... I haven't made any sort of commitment to such changes yet but it has been something I have been considering for a while. I really want to push my Huntmaster of the Fells count to a 4x mainboard to see how it operates for a while so I don't know how that will affect my list yet...
Overall I still like the deck concept. I am also sort of working on a psudo WRR that runs a smaller curve with more mass damaging spells to deal with all of the swarm decks I am seeing currently.
I am also sort of at a standstill currently... I am feeling like staying heavy green is hurting me and I might go to a R/G agro list. I tried out Todd Anderson's mono green just to give it a shot and was extremely not pleased with how it worked. While it is a good list it works against a particular meta which is different from my own meta and I hate the lack of feeling of any sort of control which is sort of how that list feels.
I am going to sort of shift away from the heavy green in here and try out R/G agro.
I think I am going to push my SB arround yet again:
-2 Gut Shot
+1 Combust
+1 Vorapede
Combust is also good against the Delver decks however it is really really good against the G/W token and U/W human decks. Vorapede is really good against the titan type of decks as it just gives them fits. I think these changes will be for the best.
If I had more Temp Steel in my meta I would be a bit more hesitant to side out the Gut Shots however I dont really have it in my meta and so that leaves very few tempo decks for me to worry about.
OUT:
-2 Daybreak Ranger there is low expectation of them sticking the turn and very few targets for them to even try to fight anyways.
-2 Incinerate not real great targets for them to burn. They could burn the planeswalkers or burn to the face FTW but other than that I am not real impressed.
IN:
+1 Thrun, the Last Troll
+1 Acidic Slime hits lands / O Rings whatever. It is a solid creature that forces them to remove it and while Sun Titan can rez what we blow up it still can cost them time especially if we hit a land before they make it to 6.
+1 Vorapede solid against removal as he is hard to kill. Not as good here due to the counterspells but still ok..
+1 Sword of War and Peace put on the hurt. It gets past Sun Titan at least and it can hurt them which is great.
We dont really have a ton to add for Solar Flare however I dont think it is really huge in the overall meta currently. If it is a problem then include some grave hate in your SB.
U/W Tempo Delver
OUT:
1 Vorapede too slow and it would be disasterous to have him bounced by Vapor Snag...
3 Dismember they hurt me too much for how fast the opponent is. They are good but I cant go giving up 4 life for this one.
1 Garruk Relentless a little slow, I just dont want to draw a ton of them. Our opponent's creatures are a bit evasive as well making it hard to defend him however he can trade with delvers on his own.
2 Sword of War and Peace a bit slow going and it really only gives us evasion from the tokens. By the time it is up to the tokens I think this is a small matter.
IN:
2 Gut Shot it gets the delvers and it gets the illusions. It can screw with snapcasters as well.
3 Whipflare blows up like everything but the drake.
1 Huntmaster of the Fells multiple bodies and lifegain to offset their fast nature. Best of all it is decent if they bounce him.
1 Thrun, the Last Troll hexproof / uncounterable. They will likely clone him which is why we are forced to use 2 of him but still he is good.
This one is sort of a speed match. Luckily we have some hexproof and such to screw with their control. Use fast burn and disrupt them as fast as you can. You will probably be using Whipflare on turn 2/3 to restart them. This should be a good adjustment to their speed as well.
Temp Steel
OUT:
-1 Vorapede too slow for the matchup. You need to quickly take things out and stabalize.
-1 Thrun, the Last Troll they dont have much for removal. You need to eliminate their threats quickly.
-1 Dismember good against them due to its speed but it hurts to use so ideally you just want to see less of them.
-2 Sword of War and Peace too slow, you will be dead before it goes active.
-1 Garruk Relentless he can be hard to protect and a little slow. You really dont want to see more than one of him either.
IN:
+2 Gut Shot answers a lot of their deck quickly.
+2 Naturalize answers a lot of their deck. Ideally the temp steel but hey whatever you need to win.
+1 Huntmaster of the Fells bodies and life sounds like fun.
+1 Acidic Slime can answer temp steel / the utility lands.
NOTE** I specifically dont really have any temp steel in my meta or I might adjust my sideboard a little. In an ideal SB for Temp Steel you would likely include 2x Creeping Corrosion and 1x Viridian Corrupter. I dont have any Temp Steel in my meta though so I dont need to worry about it. I dont even know what I would cut from my list to make room for those 3 either...
Wow... that took some time to complete. I guess I should look over my sideboard now and see if I have some cards I really dont want in or if there is something a bit more pressing that I could use.
B/W Sorin Token
OUT
-3 Garruk Relentless There is just no good way to try to protect him in a token matchup. They will have some flying tokens and they will have numbers on their side. It is not worth the effort to drop him into play to eat a token and or spawn a single 2/2... When against tokens just pull him out as it is a trap.
-3 Dismember nothing really good as targets. They might have the Geist-Honored Monks however, even with that it is a so so on killing it. Better off just blowing all his friends up. This cant be used on planeswalkers and the life loss will hurt. Cut it among the first cuts.
-1 Thrun, the Last Troll he is meh ok but against tokens he isnt a great blocker or a great attacker... Either way I feel like he isnt really needed in this matchup.
-2 Strangleroot Geist they are aggressive and unfortunately you are going to be against a lot of small bodies who trade with him easily. I kept one in in case there is a weak P/W in a situation with no blocks but I doubt it would happen. Still GSZ can go get him if needed.
IN
+2 Naturalize deals with all of the anthem effects, Oblivion Ring, and swords if they run them.
+3 Whipflare die tokens die! If you are lucky they will bring in Stoney Silence thinking you will be Ratchet Bombing them lol. I like how this kills the monks as well if they run them.
+1 Huntmaster of the Fells a token to fight back with, lifegain, and removal over time. A nice solid 2 in 1 punch. Don't forget to poke their planeswalkers with him with his shocks.
+1 Acidic Slime they have a shakey landbase so you can attack that or you can go for their enchantments. Sort of depends on how the game plays out.
+1 Vorapede tokens suck against trampling vigilance guys. Go go gooooooooooo
+1 Sword of War and Peace They are primarily running white tokens so bust out the protection and stomp some face with the Elders.
In this matchup I think that Dismember and Garruk are the big two that need to come out. Dismember is just going to be disappointing too often and Garruk will be impossible to defend. The other cuts aren't as important in my mind here. Going in Whipflare is probably the most important. The rest will just help the matchup more than the cards being cut out for them.
U/W Humans
OUT:
-1 Vorapede He gets exiled and killed by most any of their removal which is unfortunate. I like him if he doesnt get removed but I think the Slime fits better as it can kill so many of their good threats and still sit back to deathtouch things.
-3 Dismember good removal but it doesn't hit crusader so I swap this out for Combust which can still hit all their stuff and is uncounterable.
-3 Strangleroot Geist I like them for putting on pressure however U/W humans is good at making trades and I found that they generally become less impressive especially if they drop some first strikers in and or have an Honor of the Pure in play.
IN:
+1 Acidic Slime answers a lot of their good enchants / lands and leaves a deathtoucher behind for a hero attack.
+3 Combust deals with literally every creature target and is uncounterable. Perfect against U/W humans.
+2 Naturalize answer Honor / O Ring
+1 Sword of War and Peace connect more and or give a bird protection from flyers especially an angelic attack.
I was tempted to try to fit Whipfire into the deck when sideboarding here however other than to answer crusader I have a decent setup against U/W humans. Whipfire has a problem with Honor of the Pure as well which could suck as it would only kill my stuff at that point. The slime and combust are the key sideboards here. The sword just allows me to connect a little more against them.
G/W Tokens
OUT:
-3 Garruk Relentless dont bother trying to protect him against a token swarm. The targets I would want to fight with him wont die to him / cant be targeted by him... Spawning a single token for 4 mana isnt enough value to keep him in.
-3 Dismember direct swap into Combust which can catch and kill all their good threats as well as not costing me life and killing the Crusader.
-1 Thrun, the Last Troll as a blocker he wont help enough and as an attacker he will have a hard time getting in.
-1 Daybreak Ranger sadly they don't have much for flying and trying to ping tokens one at a time with this guy isnt going to be of much help. He can still be nice at taking out Heros assuming they aren't pumped up and he could take on Mikaus but other than those options he isn't much good. I am still keeping one in but I don't need 2.
IN:
+3 Combust strict upgrade as all of their targets are white and it can hit crusader.
+3 Whipflare hopefully blow the tokens out but it is harder to use as their tokens pump a lot. Hopefully I can stop them from getting too big before I pop this off.
+1 Acidic Slime answer for their Township as well as an option to trade with something.
+1 Sword of War and Peace more evasion as well as some good damage. Unfortunately they do have some green but this gets me past a lot of the tokens and I can always strap it to a bird if need be.
Here I kept the 1 Vorapede for the trample as strapping a sword to him is really really good. There are a lot of high priority targets in theis matchup such as Hero, Crusader, and Mikaeus whom I have to kill them all.
RDW
OUT:
-1 Vorapede too slow. I have won / lost the game before he matters.
-2 Daybreak Ranger they get removed too easily for this matchup. If I have no real expectancy of them untapping they are no good.
-2 Dismember it hurts a lot to use. I lost a game because I was forced to use 2 of these in a game once.
-1 Sword of War and Peace by the time it is out and you swing with it you likely already decided the outcome of the game. I opted to run a Naturalize for the shrine instead.
IN:
1 Huntmaster of the Fells lifegain + 2 bodies is huge. It makes it hard for my opponent to just burn through this. In a pinch also I can use these guys to double block a Beserker.
3 Whipflare Like everything but their Stormblood Beserker dies to this. Hopefully I can pick up some value on this and put them off their game quickly with it. Generally in this matchup everything I drop in the early will have been burnt off anyways.
2 Naturalize Their shrines will likely be a problem. Blow them up when you can and try to minimize how much you take off of them.
This game is all about stalling your way to victory. Luckily we have the huntsmasters which just kill them as lifegain against RDW is amazing. Do anything you can to stall the game out. Removal is better than creatures but creatures are better than nothing. Drop things as fast as you can and force them to use their answers up early which will slow down their other guys.
Wolf Run
OUT:
-2 Huntmaster of the Fells lifegain and tokens dont matter in this matchup. Shocks are mostly a waste as well. Cut him out as he will just get zapped. The token production can be cute but they seem to always have slagstorms ready to roll.
-2 Daybreak Ranger he wont survive and they have nothing he can nicely fight. Cut him out.
-2 Incinerate this is fun if you can burn to the face but it is usually pointless.
-3 Garruk Relentless all that burn is going to turn into a dead Garruk quite quickly. I would be surprised if he lasted a whole turn.
IN:
2 Naturalize deals with their mana stone ramp and the Inkmoths. Blow up their mana stone if drawn early, save it for the inkmoth if drawn later.
1 Acidic Slime blows up the wolf run. It will deprive them of a land and force them to shock him. Not too bad...
1 Vorapede red burn doesnt nicely answer him and he can stand up to a titan by double blocking / wolf run / dismember the titan.
1 Sword of War and Peace connect for good damage and pushes red burn off.
When the titans start crashing down things get a bit sticky however this deck can stand up to it. A big thing is that Vorapede is great against the titans. Swords will screw with them in the midgame and possibly force them to block with an inkmoth which puts them back mana. Once the titans start crashing in though it can get a bit tough but still very doable thanks to our own wolf run / Dungrove Elder can get bigger than the titans as well.
Well... I hit the character cap for blogs so I guess I will break up this post and continue from here...
-1 Naturalize
-2 Incinerate
+3 Combust
While I like Naturalize, I just didn't foresee myself adding 3x of them against anything but Temp Steel which isnt really in my meta...
I was also only really bringing in my red burn against U/W humans and Delver decks. Combust is harder for them to fight as well as it works on Hero which Incinerate does not nicely work on.
2 Incinerate Mirran Crusader answer it still hits them even if they have a single Honor of the Pure in play which is a plus. I didn't want to go with some of the 2 damage burn due to that. It also helps against some of the fast decks with lots of answers like RDW where it might hurt me to have dismember due to the life loss and or just push some of the slower creatures and what not to faster answers.
1 Huntmaster of the Fells sort of a versatile creature. I run 2 of them mainboard already but I have found he works really good against other agro decks. Even if he gets answered it gives 2 life and a 2/2 token and if I get to flip him back and forth it is just pure profit. Against agro decks I can cut either of the 5 drops depending on what deck it is for him.
1 Acidic Slime I have noticed that U/W humans has a ton of targets for this to be used on. It is also good against WRR due to being able to hit the special lands they fetch and it trades with titans.
1 Thrun, the Last Troll against control he is solid. On occasion one isn't enough and they are nice to draw against them.
1 Vorapede I found he actually stands up to titans nicely and control in general has a little bit of an issue with him. Generally vs the control I will bring him in for one of the Huntsmasters.
1 Sword of War and Peace lots of white and red decks out there. This helps push some pain on them and it is very solid vs the agro / token decks. I only like 2 main though but against U/W humans or G/W tokens I would probably bump it to 3 because of how good it is vs them.
3 Ratchet Bomb I think it will hate on several decks. It works well against tokens, it can work as an answer to Mirran Crusader / Oblivion Ring as well.2 Naturalize Oblivion Ring, Tempered Steel, Honor of the Pure, Swords. Plenty of things where having a few of these in the SB is a nice option. I like having this effect on a body bout the slimes can be a bit too slow sometimes so when you really need something removed this is usually better.
1 Viridian Corrupter Tutorable artifact removal. Solid to have at least a singleton of it due to GSZ to go get him if needed. Due to being faster than the slime it can be better than the slime especially vs faster agro decks.2 Gut Shot some nice removal for Inkmoth / Delver style of decks. Also very solid vs Illusions. I really hate Delver something fierce so it is nice.
Well... that is where I am sort of standing on my sideboard as of right now... I still have 2 proxies left in my list but my cards should be in within the week. Hopefully I can comment a bit more once we can actually play some games with the cards. In all my testing though I really like the list so far.
------------------------------
EDIT: did a few changes to the SB:
-1 Viridian Corrupter
+1 Naturalize
-3 Ratchet Bomb
+3 Whipflare
The corrupter seems like he could be decent against sword of F&F and Tempered Steel however I just dont see Temp steel in my meta and I think SoW&P is going to be the preferred sword at the moment so I think I will hold off on that. Naturalize can jack with Angelic Destiny, Oblivion Ring, Honor of the Pure, Swords, and temp steel if it does pop up. I just dont think narrowing myself to just artifacts is worthwhile at the moment for my meta.
Ratchet is really good against tokens however I think that Whipflare will also be good against tokens but have an easier time against Mirran Crusader which is still a problem. That will give me 7 answers after SB for the crusaders if need be.
-2 Phyrexian Metamorph
-1 Vorapede
-1 Strangleroot Geist
+2 Incinerate
+1 Huntmaster of the Fells
+1 Daybreak Ranger
Well not really a ton to report on. I found that I only wanted a singelton of the Vorapede MD more often than not. I think I will likely sideboard a second one as he is a beating vs control lists / token decks. I found that I play against more agro lists though that you need extra bodies / life gain / removal which the Huntsmaster gives. I like having 2 mainboard as well as I like drawing them usually and I can play with them a bit to get some removal and what not out of them.
The sideboard is going to take a lot of playing with yet.... My main concern so far has been the MD though.
I will try to get back to you on that but I don't know if my sideboard is quite ready for me to go into that... I have been tuning the maindeck a lot but the sideboard has yet to really be tested for me.