ROFL, you are trying to educate me? just because English is not my first language doesn't mean i am uneducated you prick, when you go study to become a genetic researcher or a brain surgeon amd succeed in it you can come and diss me with how smart you are okay? this is freaking card game forum, not cambridge university.
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I think Chapin's U/w has solid game against vampires. 3 Doj and 2 Martial Coup maindeck is rough because we need board presence. Jace is really good. If they brainstorm, then you drop hexmage to kill him, you just got 2-for-1'd. Cancel is good in this deck.
Bloodghast and Kalastria are good against them and Hexmage is a necessity. Duress is very good, but then so are their purges after boarding. Sludge has less value in this MU than against other control decks because of the way they can recover (Mind Spring), and the way they can use Jace to bury Iona in their deck.
In my testing and assesment this deck should beat vampires given equally skilled pilots something like 55:45 pre board and 65:35 post board.
If you are worried about this deck I would suggest Sadistic Sacrament in the board, because it can neuter this deck. Leave a few Tendrils in for Collonade, and 'Slayers coming in from the board. Sadistic Sacrament away Iona and any Angels you can get then their only wincon is manlands and Jace. Jace is not a reliable wincon against us because of Hexmage
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PS I have been working on a mono-black control-ish deck that uses everflowing chalice to set up turn three persecutor and turn 4 Mind Sludge (!) I mention this because I've found that turn 4 Sludge (for four) makes me enjoy playing Sludge again. The Chalice doesn't really fit in Vampires though.
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The most often misspelled word on these forums is ROGUE. Let me clarify, ROUGE, is something your mother puts on her face to keep her looking pretty. ROGUE is the word you're looking for.
Don't bother, Chris. Some people can't take bad news OR good advice.
To the rest of you, if you are truly a good Vamps player, you'd do well to heed his words. This has nothing to do with him having a shiny writer tag; this has to do with him being right.
Chapin's UW list (and UW in general) is a much, much, much different match-up then the RWU lists you've all gotten used to curb-stomping for the past 2 months.
It is an entirely different deck with an entirely different angle of attack; far more resilient and robust, far less dependent on PWs. Hexmage and Bloodwitch are not the catch-all solutions that they have previously been. You are dealing with a deck that runs wild acceleration, the best sweeper in the format (Coup), the best PW in the format (Mind Sculptor), and 8+ counters.
Proxy up one of the old UB Teachings/Pickles decks from TSP block and try to play Vamps against that; its much closer to what Chapin's UW list feels like.
I too feel that Vampires in its current iteration has become very predictable-- you know exactly what you're getting when your opponent drops his 2nd swamp. Its the same issue plaguing Grixis atm. This sort of degenerate repetition in decklists/strategy makes it much easier for Control decks to figure out what you're doing/going to do and play around you.
Highborn and Bloodghast are actually probably your strongest cards at this point.
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Have a helicopter drop you off out front. Light your cigar with a small Indonesian boy holding a black lotus. Then bust out a craw wurm deck with no sleeves. Raw dog shuffle, loose terribly, flip the table, leave in a hovercraft.
or you can actually think open-mindedly and realize that you need to CHANGE your deck to beat the control decks that have CHANGED in order to beat YOU.
Naw, really? You mean like the people who have been saying that Vampires will adapt the whole time you've been here? Didn't you just dismiss them as wrong? You're a regular Sarah Palin, aren't you?
We know we have to change. Or have you not noticed the discussions of different cards to work against Chapin's deck?(For example, the recent discussion about Sadistic Sacrament, which can be an auto-win if you pull an Iona. If you don't pull an Iona, you can just revert to Mind Sludging her out of their hand before they ramp enough.)
Naw, really? You mean like the people who have been saying that Vampires will adapt the whole time you've been here? Didn't you just dismiss them as wrong? You're a regular Sarah Palin, aren't you?
We know we have to change. Or have you not noticed the discussions of different cards to work against Chapin's deck?(For example, the recent discussion about Sadistic Sacrament, which can be an auto-win if you pull an Iona. If you don't pull an Iona, you can just revert to Mind Sludging her out of their hand before they ramp enough.)
i use pithing needle over sacrament, mostly because it shuts down jace, manlands, fetches, any other pw, fetches, basilisk collar, knight of the reliquary (to some degree), and fetches. i'd rather just have 2 bloodwitch out against iona, but we'll see what happens when it happens.
Honestly Shin, I respect you a lot, and realize what you meant to say, but I hope you realize that you did come up as vague, and offering no advice to how we should adapt, assuming your testing was near perfection. Surely after going 1-35, you must have received some tech or idea (or hell, even a guess) of how to make the match-up more favorable for us, aside from just saying: "This version sucks, change it or you have a 2nd bad matchup to a supposed 'nother "tier 1" deck.
Underworld Dreams may be a start, but having more Mind Rots to bring in after SB would help. Pithing Needle, even the Sacrament would be ideas. I never said you didn't have options, just that you need to PLAY those cards in order to not roll over to UW.
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it's going to be hard keeping card advantage on someone playing a control deck, heck, in mono-black you may just have to eat it and hope for the best next time they try to beef up black. 4 Duress is about as far as you'll end up going, as far goes good discard. Other than that, you need to run 4 Bloodhusk Ritualist, and resolve it for mono-black to maintain it's reputation as a "threat" in the competition. Smother kind of helps you though. it's the professional man-land killer.
i use pithing needle over sacrament, mostly because it shuts down jace, manlands, fetches, any other pw, fetches, basilisk collar, knight of the reliquary (to some degree), and fetches. i'd rather just have 2 bloodwitch out against iona, but we'll see what happens when it happens.
Well, my big thing is Pithing Needle not shutting down Iona. Sure, if you have two Bloodwitches, or one bloodwitch and two active Nocturni... but that's not going to happen as often as them getting Iona.
Sadistic Sacrament takes out two birds with one stone, eliminating one wincon completely and removing half of the other, bringing Jace down to an easily-managed 2-of. If you hit them with two Sacraments... :hifive:(Colonnade is not a problem. Tendrils, smother, or Bloodwitch takes it down easily, as does any nocturnus-pumped vampire.)
Well, my big thing is Pithing Needle not shutting down Iona. Sure, if you have two Bloodwitches, or one bloodwitch and two active Nocturni... but that's not going to happen as often as them getting Iona.
Sadistic Sacrament takes out two birds with one stone, eliminating one wincon completely and removing half of the other, bringing Jace down to an easily-managed 2-of. If you hit them with two Sacraments... :hifive:(Colonnade is not a problem. Tendrils, smother, or Bloodwitch takes it down easily, as does any nocturnus-pumped vampire.)
Right. Sacrament is yet another spell that "wins" you the game, though it's probably a lot better than Mind Sludge. The problem I had vs UW was that Mind Sludge actually just wasn't doing it for me, since it's fairly easy to survive it if you're on the UW side of things. First and foremost, Treasure Hunt allows them to usually keep a full hand, so Sludge won't always be wiping out their whole grip. Second, with a Jace on the board they can easily hide Mind Spring two cards down and just wait for you to Sludge so that they can untap and Brainstorm for it.
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Erm sorry to burst your bubble but if a GSS is attacking you alone.... then you cant target him with nemesis trap. Sure if another creature was attacking you then you could kill him.
BUt if its jund this guy will be getting through for at least 2-3 turns before you hit 6 mana.
Just food for thought.
Erm... you didn't burst any bubble, I thought that detail was too blindingly obvious to even type out.
And all I said about GSS was added flexibility, not the answer, which it does. But for that matter, is it not better to stop the stag after 2-3 hits than not at all? We don't have anything that can target the stag.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I think Underworld Dreams might be better vs control in general, they will draw allot of cards with jace, treasure hunt and what not. Since i don't see jace as a problem, i think Saddistic Sacrament is worth running, just because you can take out Iona, but Underworld Dreams might be better, it eats Oblivion Ring and Celestial Purge though.
Yes, Underworld Dreams would help against Jace, but not Treasure Hunt . TH says "reveal cards" and "put all cards revealed this way into your hand". These cards are not drawn.
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Currently Playing:
Standard: B MonoBlack Midrange/Control
EDH: BGW Teneb, The Harvester
Underworld Dreams may be a start, but having more Mind Rots to bring in after SB would help. Pithing Needle, even the Sacrament would be ideas. I never said you didn't have options, just that you need to PLAY those cards in order to not roll over to UW.
thats funny i have been using needle for a atleast 5 weeks now and have changed from MS to mind rot 3 weeks ago. everyone said it was a bad idea that MS was so much better. lol now sacrament is a option but after post board they will wait for it turn 3. targets????? iona jace doj? or martial?
Seriously, I don't see the point why the past 5 or so pages have been all about Vamps vs. UW Control. Pardon me but it's an archetype that didn't even shined that well from the PT and we have bigger problems to worry about. This discussion will all go back to the single most important factor in playing competitively: Play according to your meta. I speak of this in a narrow sense since, well, you all want this deck to win against almost anything. It's narrow since if you're a really competitive player, you'll probably have a pool of cards with a team and play another archetype that hoses a certain meta and not play a single archetype just because it's your pet deck. I personally believe all of the points thrown in the current discussion are coherent enough to make a point or another. But please, if we really want this archetype to reach greater heights I suggest not wasting 5 pages of the thread in discussing a matchup that is relatively small. Yes, whether all of you agree or not, let's stop this clamor about UW Control vs. Mono-B Vamps. It doesn't get us anywhere really except getting on each other's nerves trying to make a point that is not that significant in the whole of the format.
But it also works with Mind Spring and its like Time Cloak for them.
I was merely trying to point out that Underworld Dreams does not work for Treasure Hunt . I am sure I will see more players running Treasure Hunt rather than Mind Spring. Still not worth boarding UD imo.
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Currently Playing:
Standard: B MonoBlack Midrange/Control
EDH: BGW Teneb, The Harvester
thats funny i have been using needle for a atleast 5 weeks now and have changed from MS to mind rot 3 weeks ago. everyone said it was a bad idea that MS was so much better. lol now sacrament is a option but after post board they will wait for it turn 3. targets????? iona jace doj? or martial?
Most likely Iona and two Jaces to begin with. If you get a second one, take out the other Jaces and a Coup. That leaves them with one coup and colonnades to win... neither of which can really go the distance against Vamps.
Also, as for them holding a counterspell, cast it when they're tapped out. They do get tapped out frequently. Or, you can draw a counter from their hand by casting Hexmage.
Yes, it's definitely got a favorable matchup against us right now, throwing the idea of a rock/paper/scissors meta right the hell out the window. I haven't had results as extreme as Shin's just yet, (about 65-35 in 14 or so games) but it's definitely not pretty. Here's the problem: Against U/w draw-go control, Mind Sludge is absolutely worthless. Post-Jace, they will pretty much always have mana open, they can recover from a sludge without too much deviation from their game plan, and if Jace dies, they're still two steps ahead of us. The most positive results come from these few strategies:
1. Balls-to-the-walls aggro. Invalidate their answers by just killing them. There are problems with that strategy though, mainly that their deck forces us to overextend, and our aggro suite is pretty underwhelming (read:army of bears). Black Knight and Abyssal Persecutor may be worth a second look.
2. Win the atrrition war. Force a threat through and ride him to victory. This is actually not as hard as it would seem, as our mid-game bodies are big enough to end games on their own. For those of you not playing Sorin Markov yet, here's the perfect time to give him a go. He's at his best when he's eating Jaces and pantsing opponents to 10 life. I hear Mindslaver is pretty good against slow control as well.
3. Disrupt! Disrupt! Disrupt! Though Chapin's list is traditional slow control, it gets its gears going as early as T3 (chalice into Jace was pretty big in San Diego). Kudos to Chen for daring to run Mire's Toll in a high level event. I've been missing Ostracize in this format, and Mire's Toll is a pretty solid alternative. I've been running 4 Duress and 2 Mire's Toll and it's worked out pretty well so far. I've also been maindecking 3 Duress in place of the traditional 3 MD Bloodwitches to try to up my G1 win percentage. While I do miss Bloodwitch, Duress is pretty much never dead. I've been an advocate for MD Duress in this format for quite a while and it has not disappointed. Try it out.
P.S. Grabbing an everflowing Chalice with Duress is a fine play. Take it, and never look back.
On Sadistic Sacrament:
Skip it. It's not necessary. WW's threat density against us is high enough for them to not care about drawing into more removal, Chapin can win without Iona, Polymorph is too slow and too vulnerable to keep up with our offensive, and Summoning Trap suffers the same problem.
On Mind Rot:
Skip it. Recent results indicate that we can beat Jund without general discard, and Control doesn't care. Thanks again, Jace!
On Underworld Dreams:
It's pretty good, but Sorin Markov is better. It does the same job while also having more relevance in matchups that aren't turbofog.
On Pithing Needle:
Skip it. Once again, Control doesn't care. Okay, don't dismiss it entirely, as it forces our opponent to react or fall behind dramatically, but don't assume that a T1 needle = GG. Control players seem to be perfectly content with going EOT Roil, Mphase Jace with counter backup. If you're gonna run it, run 4. You'll need em all.
TL;DR version:
Worldwake changed the game. Our previous strategies have been pretty much invalidated in the post-SD metagame. The aggro decks play aggro better than us, and the control decks play control better than us, and we're not good enough to sit in the middle any longer. Fortunately, Worldwake additions have made it possible for us to be a completely legitimate aggro archetype. Vamps now beat face with the best of them. WHat we need is a foundational restructuring. Whereas pre-WWK we played AGGRO/CONTROL in equal shares, we need a shift to AGGRO/control to survive in the new format. Mind Sludge, it's time to bid farewell.
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Seriously, I don't see the point why the past 5 or so pages have been all about Vamps vs. UW Control. Pardon me but it's an archetype that didn't even shined that well from the PT and we have bigger problems to worry about. This discussion will all go back to the single most important factor in playing competitively: Play according to your meta. I speak of this in a narrow sense since, well, you all want this deck to win against almost anything. It's narrow since if you're a really competitive player, you'll probably have a pool of cards with a team and play another archetype that hoses a certain meta and not play a single archetype just because it's your pet deck. I personally believe all of the points thrown in the current discussion are coherent enough to make a point or another. But please, if we really want this archetype to reach greater heights I suggest not wasting 5 pages of the thread in discussing a matchup that is relatively small. Yes, whether all of you agree or not, let's stop this clamor about UW Control vs. Mono-B Vamps. It doesn't get us anywhere really except getting on each other's nerves trying to make a point that is not that significant in the whole of the format.
Do you not realize that they are writing 5 pages because many of them are finding out how to defeat the U/W Control directly. It's a tough deck, and I think it's going to be a hard blow to one's self-esteem because I really don't believe that Mono-Black has what it takes. Everyone should be worried about white: day of judgment, Path to exile, various protection spells.
red: Chain Reaction, Earthquake, Lightning Bolt, the list goes on and on.
Multicolored: Terminate, Bituminous Blast, Agony Warp, this list goes on and on also.
There are just too many ways that vampires die, and too many ways that you can kill there extra pump effects to make them durable to Earthquake. I think they belong in vintage or legacy, right next to their real friends, Dark Ritual and Hymn to Tourach.
I guess you missed my main point, the format is not about one archetype. Let alone an archetype that didn't really do well in the PT. I agree its necessary to discuss about the MU but dedicating so much work and to a certain extent, hate in it is just wasted effort as Jund was there to win the PT, Boss Naya is a pretty hard matchup(Harder than UW Control I would argue), and WW still getting around us. I don't really see the point of resulting to flaming and declaring war when it's not even a substantial part of being competitive. UW Control's number will rise, but if I really want to bring down a Vamps deck I would go with WW or Jund and to these decks, we are at the mercy of having a God draw or the opponent's screwing bigtime.
I guess you missed my main point, the format is not about one archetype. Let alone an archetype that didn't really do well in the PT. I agree its necessary to discuss about the MU but dedicating so much work and to a certain extent, hate in it is just wasted effort as Jund was there to win the PT, Boss Naya is a pretty hard matchup(Harder than UW Control I would argue), and WW still getting around us. I don't really see the point of resulting to flaming and declaring war when it's not even a substantial part of being competitive. UW Control's number will rise, but if I really want to bring down a Vamps deck I would go with WW or Jund and to these decks, we are at the mercy of having a God draw or the opponent's screwing bigtime.
Didn't do well in the PT? Pat Chapin, Mark Herberholz, and Gabriel Nassif were all in the top Standard decks, dude. There were like, what, two or three others playing the deck? You know how sick a record that is?
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I guess you missed my main point, the format is not about one archetype. Let alone an archetype that didn't really do well in the PT. I agree its necessary to discuss about the MU but dedicating so much work and to a certain extent, hate in it is just wasted effort as Jund was there to win the PT, Boss Naya is a pretty hard matchup(Harder than UW Control I would argue), and WW still getting around us. I don't really see the point of resulting to flaming and declaring war when it's not even a substantial part of being competitive. UW Control's number will rise, but if I really want to bring down a Vamps deck I would go with WW or Jund and to these decks, we are at the mercy of having a God draw or the opponent's screwing bigtime.
lol, you're right...these people should just stop building Mono-Black and start building control decks, after all every deck being played right now controls the board in some form or another. Specially with the burn decks trying to keep up with burning and killing Jace, the Mind Sculptor just to keep the blue players from gaining their monster card advantage from the jace and Treasure Hunt combo. It's about the greatest thing ever.
I think it was for this
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Bloodghast and Kalastria are good against them and Hexmage is a necessity. Duress is very good, but then so are their purges after boarding. Sludge has less value in this MU than against other control decks because of the way they can recover (Mind Spring), and the way they can use Jace to bury Iona in their deck.
In my testing and assesment this deck should beat vampires given equally skilled pilots something like 55:45 pre board and 65:35 post board.
If you are worried about this deck I would suggest Sadistic Sacrament in the board, because it can neuter this deck. Leave a few Tendrils in for Collonade, and 'Slayers coming in from the board. Sadistic Sacrament away Iona and any Angels you can get then their only wincon is manlands and Jace. Jace is not a reliable wincon against us because of Hexmage
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PS I have been working on a mono-black control-ish deck that uses everflowing chalice to set up turn three persecutor and turn 4 Mind Sludge (!) I mention this because I've found that turn 4 Sludge (for four) makes me enjoy playing Sludge again. The Chalice doesn't really fit in Vampires though.
Don't bother, Chris. Some people can't take bad news OR good advice.
To the rest of you, if you are truly a good Vamps player, you'd do well to heed his words. This has nothing to do with him having a shiny writer tag; this has to do with him being right.
Chapin's UW list (and UW in general) is a much, much, much different match-up then the RWU lists you've all gotten used to curb-stomping for the past 2 months.
It is an entirely different deck with an entirely different angle of attack; far more resilient and robust, far less dependent on PWs. Hexmage and Bloodwitch are not the catch-all solutions that they have previously been. You are dealing with a deck that runs wild acceleration, the best sweeper in the format (Coup), the best PW in the format (Mind Sculptor), and 8+ counters.
Proxy up one of the old UB Teachings/Pickles decks from TSP block and try to play Vamps against that; its much closer to what Chapin's UW list feels like.
I too feel that Vampires in its current iteration has become very predictable-- you know exactly what you're getting when your opponent drops his 2nd swamp. Its the same issue plaguing Grixis atm. This sort of degenerate repetition in decklists/strategy makes it much easier for Control decks to figure out what you're doing/going to do and play around you.
Highborn and Bloodghast are actually probably your strongest cards at this point.
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Naw, really? You mean like the people who have been saying that Vampires will adapt the whole time you've been here? Didn't you just dismiss them as wrong? You're a regular Sarah Palin, aren't you?
We know we have to change. Or have you not noticed the discussions of different cards to work against Chapin's deck?(For example, the recent discussion about Sadistic Sacrament, which can be an auto-win if you pull an Iona. If you don't pull an Iona, you can just revert to Mind Sludging her out of their hand before they ramp enough.)
i use pithing needle over sacrament, mostly because it shuts down jace, manlands, fetches, any other pw, fetches, basilisk collar, knight of the reliquary (to some degree), and fetches. i'd rather just have 2 bloodwitch out against iona, but we'll see what happens when it happens.
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Well, my big thing is Pithing Needle not shutting down Iona. Sure, if you have two Bloodwitches, or one bloodwitch and two active Nocturni... but that's not going to happen as often as them getting Iona.
Sadistic Sacrament takes out two birds with one stone, eliminating one wincon completely and removing half of the other, bringing Jace down to an easily-managed 2-of. If you hit them with two Sacraments... :hifive:(Colonnade is not a problem. Tendrils, smother, or Bloodwitch takes it down easily, as does any nocturnus-pumped vampire.)
Right. Sacrament is yet another spell that "wins" you the game, though it's probably a lot better than Mind Sludge. The problem I had vs UW was that Mind Sludge actually just wasn't doing it for me, since it's fairly easy to survive it if you're on the UW side of things. First and foremost, Treasure Hunt allows them to usually keep a full hand, so Sludge won't always be wiping out their whole grip. Second, with a Jace on the board they can easily hide Mind Spring two cards down and just wait for you to Sludge so that they can untap and Brainstorm for it.
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Erm... you didn't burst any bubble, I thought that detail was too blindingly obvious to even type out.
And all I said about GSS was added flexibility, not the answer, which it does. But for that matter, is it not better to stop the stag after 2-3 hits than not at all? We don't have anything that can target the stag.
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Yes, Underworld Dreams would help against Jace, but not Treasure Hunt . TH says "reveal cards" and "put all cards revealed this way into your hand". These cards are not drawn.
Standard:
B MonoBlack Midrange/Control
EDH:
BGW Teneb, The Harvester
thats funny i have been using needle for a atleast 5 weeks now and have changed from MS to mind rot 3 weeks ago. everyone said it was a bad idea that MS was so much better. lol now sacrament is a option but after post board they will wait for it turn 3. targets????? iona jace doj? or martial?
I was merely trying to point out that Underworld Dreams does not work for Treasure Hunt . I am sure I will see more players running Treasure Hunt rather than Mind Spring. Still not worth boarding UD imo.
Standard:
B MonoBlack Midrange/Control
EDH:
BGW Teneb, The Harvester
Most likely Iona and two Jaces to begin with. If you get a second one, take out the other Jaces and a Coup. That leaves them with one coup and colonnades to win... neither of which can really go the distance against Vamps.
Also, as for them holding a counterspell, cast it when they're tapped out. They do get tapped out frequently. Or, you can draw a counter from their hand by casting Hexmage.
Yes, it's definitely got a favorable matchup against us right now, throwing the idea of a rock/paper/scissors meta right the hell out the window. I haven't had results as extreme as Shin's just yet, (about 65-35 in 14 or so games) but it's definitely not pretty. Here's the problem: Against U/w draw-go control, Mind Sludge is absolutely worthless. Post-Jace, they will pretty much always have mana open, they can recover from a sludge without too much deviation from their game plan, and if Jace dies, they're still two steps ahead of us. The most positive results come from these few strategies:
1. Balls-to-the-walls aggro. Invalidate their answers by just killing them. There are problems with that strategy though, mainly that their deck forces us to overextend, and our aggro suite is pretty underwhelming (read:army of bears). Black Knight and Abyssal Persecutor may be worth a second look.
2. Win the atrrition war. Force a threat through and ride him to victory. This is actually not as hard as it would seem, as our mid-game bodies are big enough to end games on their own. For those of you not playing Sorin Markov yet, here's the perfect time to give him a go. He's at his best when he's eating Jaces and pantsing opponents to 10 life. I hear Mindslaver is pretty good against slow control as well.
3. Disrupt! Disrupt! Disrupt! Though Chapin's list is traditional slow control, it gets its gears going as early as T3 (chalice into Jace was pretty big in San Diego). Kudos to Chen for daring to run Mire's Toll in a high level event. I've been missing Ostracize in this format, and Mire's Toll is a pretty solid alternative. I've been running 4 Duress and 2 Mire's Toll and it's worked out pretty well so far. I've also been maindecking 3 Duress in place of the traditional 3 MD Bloodwitches to try to up my G1 win percentage. While I do miss Bloodwitch, Duress is pretty much never dead. I've been an advocate for MD Duress in this format for quite a while and it has not disappointed. Try it out.
P.S. Grabbing an everflowing Chalice with Duress is a fine play. Take it, and never look back.
On Sadistic Sacrament:
Skip it. It's not necessary. WW's threat density against us is high enough for them to not care about drawing into more removal, Chapin can win without Iona, Polymorph is too slow and too vulnerable to keep up with our offensive, and Summoning Trap suffers the same problem.
On Mind Rot:
Skip it. Recent results indicate that we can beat Jund without general discard, and Control doesn't care. Thanks again, Jace!
On Underworld Dreams:
It's pretty good, but Sorin Markov is better. It does the same job while also having more relevance in matchups that aren't turbofog.
On Pithing Needle:
Skip it. Once again, Control doesn't care. Okay, don't dismiss it entirely, as it forces our opponent to react or fall behind dramatically, but don't assume that a T1 needle = GG. Control players seem to be perfectly content with going EOT Roil, Mphase Jace with counter backup. If you're gonna run it, run 4. You'll need em all.
TL;DR version:
Worldwake changed the game. Our previous strategies have been pretty much invalidated in the post-SD metagame. The aggro decks play aggro better than us, and the control decks play control better than us, and we're not good enough to sit in the middle any longer. Fortunately, Worldwake additions have made it possible for us to be a completely legitimate aggro archetype. Vamps now beat face with the best of them. WHat we need is a foundational restructuring. Whereas pre-WWK we played AGGRO/CONTROL in equal shares, we need a shift to AGGRO/control to survive in the new format. Mind Sludge, it's time to bid farewell.
Do you not realize that they are writing 5 pages because many of them are finding out how to defeat the U/W Control directly. It's a tough deck, and I think it's going to be a hard blow to one's self-esteem because I really don't believe that Mono-Black has what it takes. Everyone should be worried about white: day of judgment, Path to exile, various protection spells.
red: Chain Reaction, Earthquake, Lightning Bolt, the list goes on and on.
Multicolored: Terminate, Bituminous Blast, Agony Warp, this list goes on and on also.
There are just too many ways that vampires die, and too many ways that you can kill there extra pump effects to make them durable to Earthquake. I think they belong in vintage or legacy, right next to their real friends, Dark Ritual and Hymn to Tourach.
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Pulse Tracker isn't really so good. We have better options.
Standard:
:symu::symb::symw:Solar Flare:symw::symb::symu:
Commander:
:symb::symw:Ghost Council of Orzhova:symw::symb:
Linger on death's door and risk being invited in.
no it has no evasion if it had flying then maybe, but no not good enough. sorry
Didn't do well in the PT? Pat Chapin, Mark Herberholz, and Gabriel Nassif were all in the top Standard decks, dude. There were like, what, two or three others playing the deck? You know how sick a record that is?
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lol, you're right...these people should just stop building Mono-Black and start building control decks, after all every deck being played right now controls the board in some form or another. Specially with the burn decks trying to keep up with burning and killing Jace, the Mind Sculptor just to keep the blue players from gaining their monster card advantage from the jace and Treasure Hunt combo. It's about the greatest thing ever.
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