I don't see why tarmogoyf has to be in every decklist... I have a set of them and they collect dust in my binder. I tried goyf in my GR ramp deck and it was a dead card, an instantly shot-down target, or just helped me win more. For 2 mana i'd rather keep ramping to a creature that will actually help me win. In a deck that's supposed to accelerate mana it's not like you'd rather play a goyf than a SGC or thresher anyway... I feel similarly with deus, if you're matched up against a deck that didn't get a bad draw anyway they'll be able to bounce or block or destroy the deus anyway. I always focused on CIP effects or evasion like SGC, redcap, thresher, redcap, colossus, wort, quagnoth, etc... tarmogoyf was so easy to cut for me, I don't see why it's still used in ramp.
Edit: I'm not trying to bash and I am somewhat on the fence, i'd like to see a good argument for tarmogoyf aside from 'he's expensive so he has to be played in tournaments'.
He cost 2 mana, and serves as early defense/beats or late finisher. But, yeah, he's also the next card to cut if I make room for anything.
Reveilark combo isn't the only graveyard deck out there now. The wheel is definite jank against them, talk about a deck that ignores whatever you're doing... aside from beating them in the face early, that is.
Tarmogoyf costs $50, so he has to be played in your tournament deck. Otherwise everyone will laugh at you. You will be brought to the head judge's table where they will publicly humiliate you over the PA. You will have "LOL...WTF!" stamped on your DCI card in big red letters at the door on your way out.
So play Tarmogoyf. It will save you some dignity.
Besides, for 2cc, you get a card that can grow to an 8/9 beatstick. It doesn't hurt that your deck plays lots of food for him, including tons of "must-kill now" creatures, the best (instant) removal in standard, a variety of sorceries, and land destruction (out of the SB). It also doesn't hurt that the most typical removal in the meta atm is tribal. At least one planeswalker isn't exactly uncommon in the meta either...
So, all in all, you get your dignity and a solid card in your deck
I never had much faith in the wheel. It ends up being easily bounced, then or countered. But it does help a lot if you draw more than one. Persist would help with swan.
Wheel of Sun and Moon is really bad. REALLY bad. 99% of the time it gets bounced / countered and then you lose, wishing that was one of 10 other cards.
Also, Everlasting Torment seems janky in Ramp, we already have answers to a lot of stuff, so why bother running an enchantment that does nearly nothing?
Please spare me about being bounced or countered it's the same fallacious argument that's always used for not running anything. Oh, Dark Confidant dies to every piece of removal out there, its SO bad. Please, give it a rest. Testing things before posting on them is tech. Everlasting Torment is without a doubt one of the best cards in this set. Man 99% of the time my creatures get killed. Creatures are bad. I mean REALLY really bad, lolz.
Your answer to lifegain is? Your answer to Swans is? Yeah, that's what I thought. How do you beat the Persist decks? I would love to hear what you have in your deck that you think will beat all those little green and white guys that you'll have to keep killing over and over again.
Hmmm, bounced and countered? From a deck running just 4 counters. C'mon, you can lie to me, but please, stop lying to yourself. I would very much like to see what 10 other cards are better than the Wheel and the situations they are better in. I guess I'm wrong, I mean my whole point was to drop out something early that my opponent has to find an answer to while I am dropping threats. Maybe that's why new cards get dismissed, people just do not try them out before dismissing them.
Reveilark combo isn't the only graveyard deck out there now. The wheel is definite jank against them, talk about a deck that ignores whatever you're doing... aside from beating them in the face early, that is.
Ok, so if I drop Wheel how does Reveillark do anything relevant now in the deck, especially when it's early before they've put any Mulldrifters, or Riftwings in their graveyard? Yes we all know it can be bounced or countered but this deck has no disruption, so what else is there? If i just played a Deus after the Wheel, which do you think is going to get bounced? I highly doubt it will be the Wheel. And if it is they are going to have to use a blink. I'd rather they bounce those cards than bounce my lands.
If you are talking about Swans, they're not going to get enough lands in hand to kill you without Dakmor Salvage. The whole point in using Wheel and Torment is to force the opponent to deal with something that creates an environment that is hostile to the opponent's deck. While they search for a way to deal with it I can drop threats, the same thing your deck wants to be doing except my deck is making sure they play fair.
I agree with a lot of what was just said. While a deck with no answers will likely lose, a deck that has only answers and doesn't bother making any 'must answer threats' will lose even faster.
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Tarmogoyf costs $50, so he has to be played in your tournament deck. Otherwise everyone will laugh at you. You will be brought to the head judge's table where they will publicly humiliate you over the PA. You will have "LOL...WTF!" stamped on your DCI card in big red letters at the door on your way out.
So play Tarmogoyf. It will save you some dignity.
lol wow im useing this....
but i agree with fyre i cut tarmo from my list for hellkite. but thats a personal call
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I love the women and im a dude, so what get over yourselfs!
Tarmogoyf costs $50, so he has to be played in your tournament deck. Otherwise everyone will laugh at you. You will be brought to the head judge's table where they will publicly humiliate you over the PA. You will have "LOL...WTF!" stamped on your DCI card in big red letters at the door on your way out.
About Wheel. Right, so Reillark runs 4 counters/bounce? LOL.
They have 4 Riftwing, 2-3 Venser, 4 Rune Snag, 2-3 Pact of Negation. Oh, and have I mentioned they also have Wispmares? You stick down a wheel, they laugh at you, play an EOT Venser (or Blink), bounce it then laugh some more as they combo off.
And before you use the "no testing" thing, I got together with a friend of mine and tested a version of Haterator. I can tell you that from 20 Reveillark matches (about 50 games), Wheel was relevant in 0.
If you want decent Reveillark hate, then Tormod's ypt or Faerie Macabre work wonders (hint, Primal Command fetches creatures and Macabre is a creature).
I am sorry but I find it very hard to believe that WoS&M had NO impact on ~50 games. It has been discovered ages ago that Lark can play around Tormod's and Faerie Macabre is a more narrow version of that card, and you are suggesting that instead of tutoring for a win condition or threat that NEEDS to be dealt with (see: red akroma, see also: they can't deal with her) you are suggesting we delay them until they can play another spell the following turn.
I don't mean to be hostile towards your post, so I am sorry, but it is difficult when you come out of the gates, guns drawn and calling his post narrow minded.
S&M costs two mana to cast, having them bounce it is not the end of the world.
Once again, it's not that I straight up dis believe you when you said you tested for 50 games (that is a LOT of time though, like, a straight day and a half or more of playing......) but it IS really hard to imagine that it had no effect on any of those games, I still see it as a valid answer.
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hellkite is an awesome creature, but it's still slowww for this deck. i'm not sure what's in your build already, but if you are pulling tarmy out for a big bruiser, i'd consider deus of calamity instead--it'll hit earlier. adding more cloudthreshers if you MD less than 4 is even better.
i wouldn't lose sight of the fact that goyf plays a key role in the deck by giving you a decent/awesome threat for just 2cc. we curve out around 5 (and play thresher at 6, even), and imo this deck wins by being able to: 1. play big threats early and 2. play multiple large threats consistently in the mid and late game. for me, tarmogoyf does help on point 1 a bit, but mostly helps on point 2. this is especially relevant against fae, merfolk, and control oriented lark (oh, you just countered my SGC/Thresher/Pcommand? Guess I'll just have to use my last 2 open mana to lay a piddly goyf...) You simply can't play multiple threats a turn as early/easily w/o him in your build.
I did test for a long time, I was trying to see what cards hurt each MU the most, and every single time I dropped it it either got countered or bounced followed by combo. And yes, I did forget we have Akroma availiable when I posted that, but sometimes, Macabre is BETTER than Akroma, ie when they will combo off next turn and you haven't got the mana to play Command AND drop Akroma.
Sure Everlasting Torment kills a couple of persist dudes, but isn't this a mana ramp deck? Your guys are bigger, just compare them, they have 3/2s and 2/2s when you have 2/2s that ping things, 2/2s that bring 1/1s that can be flinged, 7/7s, 5/5s that munch on small dudes (Hellkite), etc. If you're worried about a persist deck, then you have no idea what Ramp is all about.
It's right about here that I realize you have no idea what the Persist decks run. Main deck Wraths in both the GW one (with or without a wishboard) and the BW version. Damnation/Wrath split in the BW. The GW is really aggressive with its guys, just playing out an army that it Wraths away when you start to lay out a defense/offense and dropping guys that mass pump the board. Its guys come back, your's don't, you die. It runs multiple ways to remove its persist counters so unless you catch them at the right time with a Sulfurous Blast you have nothing their deck cares about. The BW plays mostly the same but runs reanimation effects along with spot removal and will gladly beat you in the face with your own Thresher/Goyf/Siege-Gang or Deus. The amount of lifegain the GW deck can run after boards is obscene which is yet another reason for the Torment.
As for Swans (the deck), Krosan Grip? You destroy the Seismic and you get another couple of turns? Sure, that Swan can stay in play for a bit, but go ahead and Skred it eot. It becomes a MUCH better Ancestral Recall, then you untap and burn your opponent out. Besides, I honestly don't know why everyone is worried about Seismic Swans, if you win r1 and 2, you won't face any at the top tables, because it's such a horrid deck.
You will not beat Seismic Assault with Krosan Grip or any other form of enchantment hate. Sorry, not happening. If you have to ask why, I really don't think we have anything left to discuss. You may slow them down a turn, but unless you have lethal on the board, they've nothing to worry about. Unless they tried to go off with just one land in hand. The deck is far from horrid. Playing against it is a lot like playing Ramp against D-Storm, you can try to race it game one but unless you have something main deck to kill its lands I don't see how you win game one. I guess you must mise your ld every game against Swans if your deck actually has game against it.
About Wheel. Right, so Reillark runs 4 counters/bounce? LOL.
They have 4 Riftwing, 2-3 Venser, 4 Rune Snag, 2-3 Pact of Negation. Oh, and have I mentioned they also have Wispmares? You stick down a wheel, they laugh at you, play an EOT Venser (or Blink), bounce it then laugh some more as they combo off.
And before you use the "no testing" thing, I got together with a friend of mine and tested a version of Haterator. I can tell you that from 20 Reveillark matches (about 50 games), Wheel was relevant in 0.
If you want decent Reveillark hate, then Tormod's ypt or Faerie Macabre work wonders (hint, Primal Command fetches creatures and Macabre is a creature).
I only talked about Lark having 4 counters, of course it has bounce. Not all versions run Pact and its a silly card to play against a deck with access to land destruction.
I've no clue what deck this "Haterator" is. Sounds jank-tastic to me. Faerie Macabre will only matter early in the game. I really do not believe that in 50 games Wheel never mattered.
Anyway, what I also found out from testing is that a more aggro-ey build works really well nowadays. 4 Siege-Gang, 4 Redcap, 4 Incinerate, 4 Skred (as mentioned before, it's tech against Swans), 2 Flame Javelin, 2 Hellkite burn suite along with the usual suspects for mana ramping (4 Wall, 4 ItN, 2 SfT), 4 Harmonize and then 2 spare meta slots.
It might seem janky at first, but it has a really good MU v RDW, Faeries (SB Shusher), and general control decks. The only thing it has a fairly poor MU against is Reveillark (but Faerie Macabre and Mwonvuli out of SB help it out)
Now I do actually agree with you here, on the matter of Ramp becoming more aggro. All except the Flame Javelins and Hellkite. Skred is only tech against Swans if you actually have relevant hate cards you can draw off of it, which I do not see in your list, nor have I heard mention of anything. If you did somewhere and I missed it, I apologize. I might test out Flame Javelin but it seems rather unwieldy in this deck. I think I'd rather stick to Incinerate myself, waaaay more efficient and mana consistent to my thinking for Ramp. I actually think I might test Mercy Killing before Javelin. It will at least permanently deal with a Swan.
One last thing, I've no clue what version of Lark you tested against that consistently (and constantly it seems...) combos out whenever you lay out a hate card. I don't proclaim Wheel of Sun and Moon to destroy Lark, but I do know that it can create the openings you need to beat it.
saw someone's list w/ KG in the board and just wondered...i worried about swans for millisecond, but land destruction has that covered... nothing else comes to mind. it just struck me as an odd choice, tho, so i thought i'd see if i just missed something.
I play two. I used to run two Karplusan Forest and replaced them with the Thickets, since they're much better. Since Wall of Roots only produces green, I found that working in a few extra red sources for Siege-Gang was a good idea.
why not?! it's nearly strictly better than k. forest, esp. w/ all the mana you kick out in this deck. it's an awesome color fixer and helps you hit your threshers. i can't see any less than 2x, but that's just me.
It's not that the wheel doesn't have a place in the deck, depending on your meta. And I agree that just because a deck can have an answer, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't try something disruptive. Thing is, in the same slots I think the LD transformation has more impact on a broader range of matches. Primal for a Detrivore, Acid moss for assistance with the basics. But I hope people will try it to see. It's like Hum of the Radix in Ravager days. It seems like it should be a hoser, it just slowed you down some.
It's not that the wheel doesn't have a place in the deck, depending on your meta. And I agree that just because a deck can have an answer, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't try something disruptive. Thing is, in the same slots I think the LD transformation has more impact on a broader range of matches. Primal for a Detrivore, Acid moss for assistance with the basics. But I hope people will try it to see. It's like Hum of the Radix in Ravager days. It seems like it should be a hoser, it just slowed you down some.
That's a really bad example. Hum was far too slow to affect Affinity. I guarantee that if there had been more playtesting with affinity before the block's release that Hum would have come out costing either GG or 1G and possibly would have taxed artifacts for 2 instead of 1. Plus Green had access to better hate than Hum for artifacts. Molder Slug, Oxidize, Viridian Zealot/Shaman, these cards actually affected Affinity even after it had emptied its hand. Not that I want to belabor my arguments on Wheel and Torment, but they affect many match ups. Detritivore should be good (emphasis on should) but I think he may still be too slow, maybe if things slow down into a more controllish meta.
Game 1 D-Storm 2-0
I easily beat him just ramped up g1 my deus kept killing his storage lands. G2 i used acid-moss to destroy his lands and won.
Game 2 Doran 1-2
I don't really know what happened here. He easily beat me game one t2 doran t3 Colossus and I only had a Wall in play. Then I played goyf and Cloudthresher. Which both got deathmarked. and i lost.
That's a really bad example. Hum was far too slow to affect Affinity. I guarantee that if there had been more playtesting with affinity before the block's release that Hum would have come out costing either GG or 1G and possibly would have taxed artifacts for 2 instead of 1. Plus Green had access to better hate than Hum for artifacts. Molder Slug, Oxidize, Viridian Zealot/Shaman, these cards actually affected Affinity even after it had emptied its hand. Not that I want to belabor my arguments on Wheel and Torment, but they affect many match ups. Detritivore should be good (emphasis on should) but I think he may still be too slow, maybe if things slow down into a more controllish meta.
Yeah, it's just that I remember everyone was all gloom and doom about the hum. Same with Molder Slug, he sorta helped affinity by providing an alternate sac engine. We were just laughing about the days of affinity and skullclamp last night. Something about the way blink ignores everything people do just puts us to mind of those times.
Does this deck really own the way people are making it out to be? I haven't played against it, but it seems like things such as MBC would decimate it. Big mana and big creatures, how origional
I'd say the deck is tier 1.5. It's main advantage is creature control, so in a sense it's a meta deck. The main downside seems to be putting the game away. My real deck (as opposed to my testing deck in workstation) still runs molten disaster which pulls some surprise wins, but doesn't have a place in a burn heavy environment. I sorta miss the days of running Hellkite, but he was definitely too slow.
I think all decks have certain bad match ups. It's a healthy thing for the meta, rock-paper-scissors. Much like faeries, it's a very skill intensive deck. Rather than what spell to stop, it's more what to burn the dome or the critters (and which specific ones and when). Both are fairly common so you can expect others to know your strategy and have one of their own to respond with. Decks like RDW are fairly straight forward, as are the basic aggro decks (goblins, kithkins, and to a large extent elves). Right now I think the deck is just lacking something I can't seem to put my finger on. Once I do, I'll let you know... In testing, I seem to have a decided advantage against MBC but I'm sure the right build would give me lots of fits.
I'm not certain about the Primal Command count. I run 2 main, 1 SB but wonder if 4 are needed (it just conflicts with SGC's slot, and he's a definite 4-of IMHO).
EDIT: I may need to make room for vexing shusher. He's tutorable with the command, and I like the idea of an uncounterable raking canopy. The issue there is that the canopy needs to be run as a 3 or 4-of in the sideboard to make an impact. Even at 3-of, you only run a 49% chance of drawing one before turn 5 (aside from harmonize and deck thinning). With 4-of that goes to 60%.
That's a really bad example. Hum was far too slow to affect Affinity. I guarantee that if there had been more playtesting with affinity before the block's release that Hum would have come out costing either GG or 1G and possibly would have taxed artifacts for 2 instead of 1. Plus Green had access to better hate than Hum for artifacts. Molder Slug, Oxidize, Viridian Zealot/Shaman, these cards actually affected Affinity even after it had emptied its hand. Not that I want to belabor my arguments on Wheel and Torment, but they affect many match ups. Detritivore should be good (emphasis on should) but I think he may still be too slow, maybe if things slow down into a more controllish meta.
I agree with most of the posts you have said. What I have picked up, wheel and torment are good, but do not hose many MU. Our hardest MU is Project R. Most people run LD and possibly Detritivore. Detritivore only comes good to my mind against Project R. I mainly keep LD against Project R. But it may be better now with Swan's extensive manabase.
About the turn3 deus a couple of days ago. If you want it so bad. Go with devoted druid. No reason to go with 11-12 acceleration slots just for that turn three deus. That won't help. But sure, a turn three deus is almost unstoppable when playing against lark. I would much rather run more solid choices than that acceleration. I have tested 11 accelerators. I still survive against aggro. Actually, a turn three deus is much better against RDW than Project R. What is your list?
Hello, are you guys having problems with BG elves? I've recently built a ramp deck and it's combined record across 3 tournaments is 11-4-1 (4 loss). I've lost only against BG elves (twice), RDW (gargadon sucks), and UB Fae (supeeer close match). I mean the elves are fricking fat and every elf that lands requires a removal spell. I'm running 2 molten/sulfurous (depending on meta), 4 skred and 3 incinerate main, with an additional 2 sulfurous blast coming out of the side. Maybe its because I'm not yet running murderous redcap yet (just thought that he can 3-4 for 1 elves). What's your matchup percentages vs RDW and BG elves?
my definite mvp is the 1 detritivore coming out of the side he's soooo good vs lark, U-X control, ramp mirrors, doran, dragonstorm, etc. He's destroyed about 20 lands already in my 11 wins.
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Sounds like your Primal Command count may be the key. Perhaps Kitchen Finks would help. RDW depends on the build, heavier burn favoring them heavy aggro favoring us.
Edit: I'm not trying to bash and I am somewhat on the fence, i'd like to see a good argument for tarmogoyf aside from 'he's expensive so he has to be played in tournaments'.
Reveilark combo isn't the only graveyard deck out there now. The wheel is definite jank against them, talk about a deck that ignores whatever you're doing... aside from beating them in the face early, that is.
Tarmogoyf costs $50, so he has to be played in your tournament deck. Otherwise everyone will laugh at you. You will be brought to the head judge's table where they will publicly humiliate you over the PA. You will have "LOL...WTF!" stamped on your DCI card in big red letters at the door on your way out.
So play Tarmogoyf. It will save you some dignity.
Besides, for 2cc, you get a card that can grow to an 8/9 beatstick. It doesn't hurt that your deck plays lots of food for him, including tons of "must-kill now" creatures, the best (instant) removal in standard, a variety of sorceries, and land destruction (out of the SB). It also doesn't hurt that the most typical removal in the meta atm is tribal. At least one planeswalker isn't exactly uncommon in the meta either...
So, all in all, you get your dignity and a solid card in your deck
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Please spare me about being bounced or countered it's the same fallacious argument that's always used for not running anything. Oh, Dark Confidant dies to every piece of removal out there, its SO bad. Please, give it a rest. Testing things before posting on them is tech. Everlasting Torment is without a doubt one of the best cards in this set. Man 99% of the time my creatures get killed. Creatures are bad. I mean REALLY really bad, lolz.
Your answer to lifegain is? Your answer to Swans is? Yeah, that's what I thought. How do you beat the Persist decks? I would love to hear what you have in your deck that you think will beat all those little green and white guys that you'll have to keep killing over and over again.
Hmmm, bounced and countered? From a deck running just 4 counters. C'mon, you can lie to me, but please, stop lying to yourself. I would very much like to see what 10 other cards are better than the Wheel and the situations they are better in. I guess I'm wrong, I mean my whole point was to drop out something early that my opponent has to find an answer to while I am dropping threats. Maybe that's why new cards get dismissed, people just do not try them out before dismissing them.
Ok, so if I drop Wheel how does Reveillark do anything relevant now in the deck, especially when it's early before they've put any Mulldrifters, or Riftwings in their graveyard? Yes we all know it can be bounced or countered but this deck has no disruption, so what else is there? If i just played a Deus after the Wheel, which do you think is going to get bounced? I highly doubt it will be the Wheel. And if it is they are going to have to use a blink. I'd rather they bounce those cards than bounce my lands.
If you are talking about Swans, they're not going to get enough lands in hand to kill you without Dakmor Salvage. The whole point in using Wheel and Torment is to force the opponent to deal with something that creates an environment that is hostile to the opponent's deck. While they search for a way to deal with it I can drop threats, the same thing your deck wants to be doing except my deck is making sure they play fair.
lol wow im useing this....
but i agree with fyre i cut tarmo from my list for hellkite. but thats a personal call
I love the women and im a dude, so what get over yourselfs!
I am sorry but I find it very hard to believe that WoS&M had NO impact on ~50 games. It has been discovered ages ago that Lark can play around Tormod's and Faerie Macabre is a more narrow version of that card, and you are suggesting that instead of tutoring for a win condition or threat that NEEDS to be dealt with (see: red akroma, see also: they can't deal with her) you are suggesting we delay them until they can play another spell the following turn.
I don't mean to be hostile towards your post, so I am sorry, but it is difficult when you come out of the gates, guns drawn and calling his post narrow minded.
S&M costs two mana to cast, having them bounce it is not the end of the world.
Once again, it's not that I straight up dis believe you when you said you tested for 50 games (that is a LOT of time though, like, a straight day and a half or more of playing......) but it IS really hard to imagine that it had no effect on any of those games, I still see it as a valid answer.
hellkite is an awesome creature, but it's still slowww for this deck. i'm not sure what's in your build already, but if you are pulling tarmy out for a big bruiser, i'd consider deus of calamity instead--it'll hit earlier. adding more cloudthreshers if you MD less than 4 is even better.
i wouldn't lose sight of the fact that goyf plays a key role in the deck by giving you a decent/awesome threat for just 2cc. we curve out around 5 (and play thresher at 6, even), and imo this deck wins by being able to: 1. play big threats early and 2. play multiple large threats consistently in the mid and late game. for me, tarmogoyf does help on point 1 a bit, but mostly helps on point 2. this is especially relevant against fae, merfolk, and control oriented lark (oh, you just countered my SGC/Thresher/Pcommand? Guess I'll just have to use my last 2 open mana to lay a piddly goyf...) You simply can't play multiple threats a turn as early/easily w/o him in your build.
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Actually my post was far more dismissive than narrow minded.
It's right about here that I realize you have no idea what the Persist decks run. Main deck Wraths in both the GW one (with or without a wishboard) and the BW version. Damnation/Wrath split in the BW. The GW is really aggressive with its guys, just playing out an army that it Wraths away when you start to lay out a defense/offense and dropping guys that mass pump the board. Its guys come back, your's don't, you die. It runs multiple ways to remove its persist counters so unless you catch them at the right time with a Sulfurous Blast you have nothing their deck cares about. The BW plays mostly the same but runs reanimation effects along with spot removal and will gladly beat you in the face with your own Thresher/Goyf/Siege-Gang or Deus. The amount of lifegain the GW deck can run after boards is obscene which is yet another reason for the Torment.
You will not beat Seismic Assault with Krosan Grip or any other form of enchantment hate. Sorry, not happening. If you have to ask why, I really don't think we have anything left to discuss. You may slow them down a turn, but unless you have lethal on the board, they've nothing to worry about. Unless they tried to go off with just one land in hand. The deck is far from horrid. Playing against it is a lot like playing Ramp against D-Storm, you can try to race it game one but unless you have something main deck to kill its lands I don't see how you win game one. I guess you must mise your ld every game against Swans if your deck actually has game against it.
I only talked about Lark having 4 counters, of course it has bounce. Not all versions run Pact and its a silly card to play against a deck with access to land destruction.
I've no clue what deck this "Haterator" is. Sounds jank-tastic to me. Faerie Macabre will only matter early in the game. I really do not believe that in 50 games Wheel never mattered.
Now I do actually agree with you here, on the matter of Ramp becoming more aggro. All except the Flame Javelins and Hellkite. Skred is only tech against Swans if you actually have relevant hate cards you can draw off of it, which I do not see in your list, nor have I heard mention of anything. If you did somewhere and I missed it, I apologize. I might test out Flame Javelin but it seems rather unwieldy in this deck. I think I'd rather stick to Incinerate myself, waaaay more efficient and mana consistent to my thinking for Ramp. I actually think I might test Mercy Killing before Javelin. It will at least permanently deal with a Swan.
One last thing, I've no clue what version of Lark you tested against that consistently (and constantly it seems...) combos out whenever you lay out a hate card. I don't proclaim Wheel of Sun and Moon to destroy Lark, but I do know that it can create the openings you need to beat it.
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packed a deus today, but no firelit thickets
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That's a really bad example. Hum was far too slow to affect Affinity. I guarantee that if there had been more playtesting with affinity before the block's release that Hum would have come out costing either GG or 1G and possibly would have taxed artifacts for 2 instead of 1. Plus Green had access to better hate than Hum for artifacts. Molder Slug, Oxidize, Viridian Zealot/Shaman, these cards actually affected Affinity even after it had emptied its hand. Not that I want to belabor my arguments on Wheel and Torment, but they affect many match ups. Detritivore should be good (emphasis on should) but I think he may still be too slow, maybe if things slow down into a more controllish meta.
I think just going with a heavy LD package is our best bet.
Game 1 D-Storm 2-0
I easily beat him just ramped up g1 my deus kept killing his storage lands. G2 i used acid-moss to destroy his lands and won.
Game 2 Doran 1-2
I don't really know what happened here. He easily beat me game one t2 doran t3 Colossus and I only had a Wall in play. Then I played goyf and Cloudthresher. Which both got deathmarked. and i lost.
Game 3 MBC 2-0
Easily done.
Yeah, it's just that I remember everyone was all gloom and doom about the hum. Same with Molder Slug, he sorta helped affinity by providing an alternate sac engine. We were just laughing about the days of affinity and skullclamp last night. Something about the way blink ignores everything people do just puts us to mind of those times.
I think all decks have certain bad match ups. It's a healthy thing for the meta, rock-paper-scissors. Much like faeries, it's a very skill intensive deck. Rather than what spell to stop, it's more what to burn the dome or the critters (and which specific ones and when). Both are fairly common so you can expect others to know your strategy and have one of their own to respond with. Decks like RDW are fairly straight forward, as are the basic aggro decks (goblins, kithkins, and to a large extent elves). Right now I think the deck is just lacking something I can't seem to put my finger on. Once I do, I'll let you know... In testing, I seem to have a decided advantage against MBC but I'm sure the right build would give me lots of fits.
I've focused my SB a bit. Here's what I'm running now:
// Sideboard
SB: 2 [TSP] Sulfurous Blast
SB: 1 [LRW] Primal Command
SB: 2 [MOR] Chameleon Colossus
SB: 1 [PLC] Akroma, Angel of Fury
SB: 3 [TSP] Krosan Grip
SB: 4 [TSP] Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
SB: 2 [PLC] Detritivore
I'm not certain about the Primal Command count. I run 2 main, 1 SB but wonder if 4 are needed (it just conflicts with SGC's slot, and he's a definite 4-of IMHO).
EDIT: I may need to make room for vexing shusher. He's tutorable with the command, and I like the idea of an uncounterable raking canopy. The issue there is that the canopy needs to be run as a 3 or 4-of in the sideboard to make an impact. Even at 3-of, you only run a 49% chance of drawing one before turn 5 (aside from harmonize and deck thinning). With 4-of that goes to 60%.
I agree with most of the posts you have said. What I have picked up, wheel and torment are good, but do not hose many MU. Our hardest MU is Project R. Most people run LD and possibly Detritivore. Detritivore only comes good to my mind against Project R. I mainly keep LD against Project R. But it may be better now with Swan's extensive manabase.
About the turn3 deus a couple of days ago. If you want it so bad. Go with devoted druid. No reason to go with 11-12 acceleration slots just for that turn three deus. That won't help. But sure, a turn three deus is almost unstoppable when playing against lark. I would much rather run more solid choices than that acceleration. I have tested 11 accelerators. I still survive against aggro. Actually, a turn three deus is much better against RDW than Project R. What is your list?
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my definite mvp is the 1 detritivore coming out of the side he's soooo good vs lark, U-X control, ramp mirrors, doran, dragonstorm, etc. He's destroyed about 20 lands already in my 11 wins.