rougesareth, I'm down to put in the testing. I'll take turns piloting the deck through a gauntlet with you if you'd like. My cockatrice name is Realize
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YMTC: We need a spikey red enchantment. My creations:
RR
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Yeah that would work me for sure. This should be interesting. My name on cockatrice is "rougesareth," and just for reference that's the french word rouge, not a miss-spelling of rogue.
I wouldnt play a version of this deck in standard without Falkenrath aristocrat and/or cartel aristocrat, 4x lingering souls, 4x bloodghast and 4x liliana of the veil.
Though there isn't the hand disruption, there also isn't any combo, which is where the hand disruption is most important.
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YMTC: We need a spikey red enchantment. My creations:
RR
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Rougesareth and I just finished testing Zombardment versus punishing Jund. We both agreed the matchup needs testing, but we settler on 60-40 in favor of punishing Jund, perhaps ever more favorable for them. However, Zombardment is likely favored versus regular jund.
I piloted Jund. I didn't feel favored game 1. G1 all depends on assembling a grove of the burnwillows with a punishing fire. After that is assembled, there's not much zombies can do. Tidehollow is easily removed. The best counter to punishing fire is bombardment, but Jund plays 4-6 answers (abrupt decay/maelstrom pulse) maindeck.
I used the list that won scg atlanta 3 weeks ago (piloted by Tony Chu).
G2 Punishing Jund can bring in 3 engineered plague, 2 tormod's crypts, and perhaps most importantly, can side out all 4 liliana of the veils.
I don't think I need to explain why liliana sucks. Also, any player worth their salt names spirits with engineered plague, taking out both ghast and lingering souls.
The keys to beating Jund: make them discard engineered explosives. Have a pithing needle for their DRS. Drop a perish on them. Hope they don't get their fire/willow engine online.
It's not the best plan but it's what we have. Luckily jund is getting pushed out of the meta by combo again. Punishing fire should never be a huge player in the meta because of how bad it is versus combo.
After the testing I checked the results from SCG Atlanta more closely. Charles Smith finished 15th with a record of 6-2-1. As it turns out, one of his 2 losses was to Tony Chu, who piloted the punishing Jund list i was testing with. Figures.
Next we plan to test sneak and show, which will probably be all about discard/humility in the sb.
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YMTC: We need a spikey red enchantment. My creations:
RR
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Jund (60/40)/(40/60) depending on Punishing Fire
This match-up is slightly in your favor if they are a version without Punishing Fire, and slightly in their favor if they are a version with Punishing fire. Your hand destruction does a lot against them, and your recursive creatures help to blank their suite of removal, however if they get the fire engine online then they can do a lot against your board, considering every creature in the deck is killed by it. Even with punishing fire they still have a lot of dead cards against you, Liliana in particular is pretty dead against you.
Matchup versus RUG. Tested with Liam~ (A great dude!)
RUG, as always, is a tricky one. We put the matchup at 55-45 in favor of RUG
If you resolve a Goblin Bombardment and a Lingering Souls, you win. Problem is, that's no easy task. Our Deathrites are big in combating their mana denial plan, but they have 6+ ways to remove deathrite. We usually can't play around daze (let alone pierce) and they can save FoW for our key spells. We often find ourselves without the correct mana color (do to stifle or wasteland).
The good news is, we're just as aggro as they are. If Carrion feeder ever gets to be a 4/4 theirs not much they can do to remove him. Tarmogoyf gives us big big problems, but we can deal with him.
For the matches I was siding out swords and bringing in zealous, but now i think that's wrong. Swords is vital for tarmogoyf, and zealous really only hits unflipped delver or small mongooses, and a good player will have counters up before those hit the table.
It also took a while to realize you should side out tidehollow.
Your plan is to resolve a Lingering Souls. That is the single biggest card in the matchup. Otherwise, do your best to pick off delver with bombardment. This is the only matchup where i side out tidehollow, but resolving our 2 drops through daze and having them stick is no easy task. You would rather have gravecrawler or feeder. Tangentially, tidehollow tends to make their goyfs bigger.
It's tough to put a number on this one. I won preboard games 2-1, and lost post board 3-0. Still, we agreed that it was a very close matchup, and i didnt draw a cabal therapy or resolve a lingering souls in any of those matches, and never drew multiple souls. The sample size was way to small to make fast conclusions, but we put it at 55-45 in favor of RUG. Alot depends on bolt vs. DRS and Pierce vs. Lingering souls.
YMTC: We need a spikey red enchantment. My creations:
RR
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
No worries, I've got some other testing buddies. If anyone wants to test, hit me up. Realize on Cockatrice.
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YMTC: We need a spikey red enchantment. My creations:
RR
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Ok, Jund, RUG, and the partial Show and Tell MUs were added with a bit of editing to help save space for the other MUs. Thank you guys!
Has anyone else tested against Esper Stoneblade? I have played just a handful of matches against it and I feel like it is 60-40 us, both post and pre board. Running Thalia against it seems to be a positive effect, but I can't stand having to pay the extra mana for noncreature spells like Looting, Therapy, and Souls. Their discard, for the most part, is pretty dead. The only time it was good against me was when I had removal or Looting.
I find that saving discard for them until they search, or have 3 mana is a good time to shred their hand. Jace resolving was a bit of a problem if I didn't have a way to bomb him out. He is still the king of "I'm here for 3 turns? You lost!" I kept Decay and sided out Bolt and brought in a second Decay. I am no longer a fan of Disenchant, as it is counterable and you can just attack through batterskull by blowing up whatever they equipped him to, if they managed to plop him onto the field.
DRS is still a bomb in this MU. I'm not sure if I should SB in Needle just for Jace. I feel like I should win by turn 4, or it's a loss and I didn't know it. Needle feels like it would be a great answer to him should the game go long, but they might side in Disenchant of their own for an answer to Bombardment.
For the MU, I sided in a Thalia, another Decay, a Needle, and sided out a Souls, Bolt, and Darkblast. Not a big fan of Thalia in this MU, again, so I think I will switch in both Thoughtseize to see that side of the coin.
I've been playing this deck on cockatrice for a while but haven't taken it to a tournament yet. I was pretty settled on a list but couldn't decide between 2 AD or 1 AD 1 vindicate in the board. I ended up going with the vindicate and it paid off throughout the day. I think I'm going to make room for another.
I went 3-1-1 before split to top 8. I won the first two rounds of top 8 before I lost in the finals.
Round 1: B/R Reanimator brew 2-0
Game 1: Early on he had a lucky top deck to bin grizzle after I hit him with discard. He landed grizzle and should have won, but he was greedy with card draw and ended a turn at 10 life when I had 2 ghasts and a DRS in play. I already had another ghast in my hand so I burned 2 on his turn, swung 6 and burned another 2 for the win.
Game 2: I don't think he actually played a spell this game. I had plenty of hand hate and a tormod's crypt that I never even used.
Round 2: U/W/B(?) Miracles 2-0
Game 1: I drew three lingering souls and ended the game with 1 in hand still. I think he terminused twice, it just wasn't enough.
Game 2: I was expecting rest in peace to come down and possibly surgicals as well, so I figured I'd try boarding out my gravecrawlers and feeders and boarded in Bobs, vindicate, abrupt decay, and O-ring. This was a slug fest. First turn I thoughtseized him and saw a STP and a counterbalance. I was holding a Bob so I wasn't sure if I should try to stick it by taking stp or go for the balance. I went with the counterbalance, still not sure if it was the right move. After a while, I'd gotten him down to 7 but he wiped the board for the 3rd time. We were on topdeck mode but I had a ghast and a crawler in the bin. He tops an entreat the angels and lands 3 angels. He swung with two next turn, I let them come in but AD'd his untapped angel. Next turn I swung with ghast and looted into a second AD. He swung again and I AD'd his untapped angel once more. Next turn I landed goblin bombardment, swung with ghast, and played a fetch to recur/burn for the win.
Round 3: BUG 2-1
We got deck checked. I got a game loss for having another Abrupt Decay in my deck box with my spare sleeves even though I'd kept my sideboard on the table for all my matches. They said I should have given it to someone else to hold. So...yeah, that sucked.
Game 1: Game Loss
Game 2: I don't remember much about these games. I abrupt decayed a goyf and won with a goblin bombardment shooting him.
Game 3: He shredded my hand and landed JTMS and I couldn't deal with it.
Round 4: Esper Blade 2-0
Game 1: I kept a hand with two cabal therapies, tidehollow, DRS, and land. I was feeling pretty good. When I tidehollowed him on turn two though, all he had left in his hand was like 3 land and a supreme verdict and a lingering souls. He top decked into creatures, but I hit his equipment with therapy. He couldn't do much this game and I won with bombardment on the table.
Game 2: I spent most of this game playing around a supreme verdict that I'd seen in his hand early on. Eventually ghasts+lingering souls took it home. Apparently he'd shuffled the verdict away.
Round 5: Nic Fit ID
We'd played one game for fun before the tournament and deed wrecked me. We played another game for fun before we drew and deed + sun titan destroyed me again.
Top 8:
Someone doesn't want to split. Poop.
Round 1: Affinity 2-1
He had the higher ranking. I wasn't feeling too good about this match.
Game 1: I name cranial plating on therapy, miss. Ravager wrecks my ****.
Game 2: I name plating again, miss again, ravager starts wrecking me again. However, I got ghast and crawler beats going while I landed a bombardment and some souls. I shot off all his smaller creatures so he just had one big ravager I could safely chump and eventually won.
Game 3: I realized ravager is way harder for me to deal with than plating so I named ravager with therapy...plating in hand =( I AD the plating and sac some creatures to shoot his board clean. Then he lands etched champion while I'm at 10 life. He has 1 card in hand, I know it's a tezzeret. He has 3 land in play, so if he top decks another he can make champion a 5/5 pro everything and kill me quickly. I was holding a vindicate (woo!), so I blew up his blue land and started swinging with souls and zombies. He drew a mox, a thopter and then spring leaf, I shot the thopter so he couldn't play tezz without tapping champion. I drew a bombardment and sacced my board to win.
Round 2: Nic Fit 2-0
Still no split. I wasn't feeling good about this round either
Game 1: He lands top right away, he's had top every game we've played and it usually seems to find him what he needs. He had a maindeck engineered plague, thankfully I was able to discard it early. He deeded my board away once but never landed a big enough threat.
Game 2: Top again turn 2, but not enough lands for him this time. I got a bombardment down and started swinging in the air with souls. He deeded again and I sacced but I could sac everything for another 5 damage. He eventually snagged a thragtusk and things were looking grim but faithless looting is awesome so I found what I need.
Round 3: 0-2 Junk
Still no split, but I felt this was a much better matchup than my previous two.
Game 1: 2 death rite shamans on turn 2. I lost bad.
Game 2: Mulled to 5, one land and DRS, shaman plowed. He drew 3 STP and 4 Bobs in his first 15 or so cards. Lost bad again.
Final thoughts:
Carrion feeder is horrible. I almost always side it out. We need something better in its place. I'm thinking about putting rotting rats in its place.
Goblin bombardment is amazing and you want to see 2 in just about every match up. 4 is the right number.
After reading through all the pages in this thread I did see this addressed, so I guess I'll ask it now: why not play Haakon, Stromgald Scourge?
Now I can see where he is very mana intensive, but as a 1-2 of I feel that he would really help out the gravecrawler draws as well as allow a splash for either nameless inversion or crib swap. Seems like it might warrant some testing. Anyone who has played the deck got any feedback on this?
@iranger. All of those options seem too expensive. We only have 4 ways to discard haakon, and a 3mana loop is not viable with bombardment. In addition, i don't believe recurring nameless inversion is worth the investment as NI is too inefficient without Haakon in play. You faithless looting, ditching haakon. Then you have to cast him. Then you have to cast NI. If you want to play Haakon I suggest dredgevine in modern. ZX_XZ is a great person/player and has supported haakon there.
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YMTC: We need a spikey red enchantment. My creations:
RR
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Alright I suited up and decided to try this little number on Wednesday night for a little Legacy tourney. Decided to try this little number instead of my usual, the Sam Black list posted in the OP (minus the bitterblossoms and one carrion feeder for two path to exile and another tidehollow sculler to be exact) to see what I liked and didn't like before making any changes. Aside from that I figure the worst matchups for this deck were combo/aggro ones. Therefore my sideboard was:
It was rather hastily put together and mostly just "goodstuff" that I thought would help me in general.
I didn't take any formal notes but I do remember my match-ups for the most part.
R1-Ravager Affinity
G1: The night got off to a quick start as my first match was affinity. I'm not really sure how I felt about that other than thanking god that I had meta-gamed my sideboard a bit. I get to go first and play a thoughtsieze, which I would have been exited about in any other match-up except this one. I decide to take cranial plating as this is probably his quickest path to victory. His one tun one he basically drops his whole hand with a memnite, ornithopter and a vault skirdge. The bad news for me is that I can't block his guys with most of mine (being that I had a gravecrawler and a carrion feeder) and since I wasn't drawing any blood artists I was feeling the pain from the race.
Eventually he pulls away with a thoughtcast drawing too much aggro (read:etched champion) with me only seeing one lingering souls.
R2: So obviously lingering souls are beast in this match up. I side out all of my thougtsiezes for 3 Inquisition of Kozilek and one more path to exile. I also decide to take out a carrion feeder for a darkblast. I go first and get to rip a faithless looting T1 which feels really good in this deck getting to discard a lingering souls and a bloodghast. His turn one he gets down a memnite, a seat of the synod and a mox opal before casting a ravager. Looking down the maw of the beast, I spend T2 getting some lingering souls and reanimating a bloodghast. Next turn he decides to go "all in" casting a thoughtcast allowing him to lay down a signal pest and an ornithopter. I rip darkblast exitedly, laying a land and pathing his ravager immediately before things get out of hand. He moves the counters around as I bash in with bloodghast holding back souls to block his guys. Eventually I stall him enough the darkblast + bombardment means he cant lay down anything and have it live (other than maybe champion) and I quickly take over the game.
G3: I sideboard once again realizing that I should just take all of the carrion feeders out probably. Opting to put in two vindicates instead. This doesn't get a chance to work out as he goes first and lays his had out on the table to smash my face turn 2 followed by plating.
Record: 1-2 (overall 0-1)
R2- Sneak and Show
G1: After a dishearteningly close first round I hope that this match up isn't too bad. I've played against a lot of Show and Tell decks so I'm fairly confident that I know what I'm up against. Turns out I don't need to as I get a monster had with both Thoughtsieze and Cabal Therapy. G2 anyone?
G2: Bro across from me doesn't really side in anything and I just go to my sideboard to get the 2x O-rings which could come in handy as well as 1 of the IOK's. I take out 2 path to exile and 1 bombardment. After shuffling up, I feel bad again. T1 I cabal therapy for a Show and Tell and follow it up with a tidehollow sculler. He sits there doing mostly nothing as I ride gravecrawler and carrion feeder to victory.
Record: 2-0 (overall 1-1)
R3-Maverick
G1: Coincidentally, this is the same guy that the sneak and show dude played the round before. We get down to business. The first few turns are mostly inconsequential as I thoughsieze away a knight and then plop down some dorks and a pair of spirits. However my bloodghast/gravecrawler onslaught with blood artist backup is soon ruined by a mother of runes and a stoneforge mystic getting my worst enemy: a batterskull.
G2: Get more removal like a darkblast for mom and noble hierarch. Also I laugh as perish seems to be just what I needed here as well. Unfortunately even though I am going first I do something stupid which is keep a hand without any discard. It seems that this deck really relies on the opponent faltering, as I wish that I had gotten a sculler, thoughtsieze, or therapy at anytime after my opponent stoneforge mystics for a batterskull again. I pack up the cards shortly after my nemesis comes down T3.
Record: 0-2 (overall 1-2) After the match I decided that the most likely reason I had gotten stomped by Maverick was my inexperience with the deck. I mean block plus bombardment or sac seems like it it legit against the deck of moms, thalias and noble hierarchs, but alas it wasn't to be.
R4-Goblins
G1: Yikes, another aggro matchup. This goblins deck is definitely worse than average, (not running cavern of souls or Krenko) but it still has enough nasty green men to give me a headache. Piledriver laughs at my guys who say they can't block and although I manage to kill a few of the peskier ones, a single goblin ringleader later and they're back at it.
G2: Side in darkblast, path, and vindicate hoping for something. Super unfortunately, I get landlocked as he draws gas while shutting me down with rishidan port and wasteland. I only had one land in my opener plus a faithless looting so I was suckered into a keep over the prospect of discarding a gravecrawler, bloodghast, or lingering souls.
Record: 0-2 (overall 1-3)
I will say that I did enjoy playing the deck and I'm not counting it out yet, but having so many guys with the rules text "this creature can't block" makes aggro decks sooooo good against this build. I feel of course that more than likely Sam's build has been improved upon and it was only my first time piloting the deck outside of a testing environment, so there's that. Anyways I guess I'll try to test again when I get a chance.
plus there is a synergy with grim backwoods and phyrexian tower. i dont know if this would work, but i'd like to try on proxy.
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A team should be as happy as a meal - TEAM HAPPYMEAL
EDH - UWGrand Arbiter Agustin IV UBW Oloro, Ageless Ascetic Modern - Mono U tron / Polymorph / NFTW (ninja for the win)GR tronGR
Buy All the planeswalkers!!!
Buy All the Dual Lands!!!
Buy All the fetches!
Create tons of EDH Decks!!!
Eat Nothing but Oats!! (LOL, not true)
Train MMA!!!
Marry My girlfriend!!!
Get her Pregnant only Once!
Teach my Son/Daughter Sports and magic cards!!!
Continue my legacy son!!!/Daughter!!
We will need to find a new medium if testing is to continue as this notice has been posted on the cockatrice main page
"I have received a letter from a law firm representing Hasbro Germany, expressing a strong feeling of dislike for our project, backed up with legal claims. Regardless of whether the claims they are making are factually correct or not, I have agreed to shut down the project in its current form. As soon as this is completely sorted out, development work will be put into keeping alive the code base in such a way that it can be used for other purposes."
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Fires Rf Salvation
4 gravecrawler
4 veihborn ghoul
4 slitherhead
4 geralf's messenger
3 demonlord ashmoth
2 disciple of bolas
4 vampire nighthawk
1 desecration demon
3 barter in blood
3 tragic slip
4 mutilate
Lands(24)
24 swamp
4 duress
4 tormod's crypt
2 pithing needle
2 Deathrite Shaman
3 Desecration Demon
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
I kinda like your list. However the only concern I have is that Standard lacks the powerful hand disruption and sac outlets that Legacy provides.
In standard I think BR zombies would do a better job, since they have reach.
Though there isn't the hand disruption, there also isn't any combo, which is where the hand disruption is most important.
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Fires Rf Salvation
I piloted Jund. I didn't feel favored game 1. G1 all depends on assembling a grove of the burnwillows with a punishing fire. After that is assembled, there's not much zombies can do. Tidehollow is easily removed. The best counter to punishing fire is bombardment, but Jund plays 4-6 answers (abrupt decay/maelstrom pulse) maindeck.
I used the list that won scg atlanta 3 weeks ago (piloted by Tony Chu).
G2 Punishing Jund can bring in 3 engineered plague, 2 tormod's crypts, and perhaps most importantly, can side out all 4 liliana of the veils.
I don't think I need to explain why liliana sucks. Also, any player worth their salt names spirits with engineered plague, taking out both ghast and lingering souls.
The keys to beating Jund: make them discard engineered explosives. Have a pithing needle for their DRS. Drop a perish on them. Hope they don't get their fire/willow engine online.
It's not the best plan but it's what we have. Luckily jund is getting pushed out of the meta by combo again. Punishing fire should never be a huge player in the meta because of how bad it is versus combo.
After the testing I checked the results from SCG Atlanta more closely. Charles Smith finished 15th with a record of 6-2-1. As it turns out, one of his 2 losses was to Tony Chu, who piloted the punishing Jund list i was testing with. Figures.
Next we plan to test sneak and show, which will probably be all about discard/humility in the sb.
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Fires Rf Salvation
This match-up is slightly in your favor if they are a version without Punishing Fire, and slightly in their favor if they are a version with Punishing fire. Your hand destruction does a lot against them, and your recursive creatures help to blank their suite of removal, however if they get the fire engine online then they can do a lot against your board, considering every creature in the deck is killed by it. Even with punishing fire they still have a lot of dead cards against you, Liliana in particular is pretty dead against you.
RUG, as always, is a tricky one. We put the matchup at 55-45 in favor of RUG
If you resolve a Goblin Bombardment and a Lingering Souls, you win. Problem is, that's no easy task. Our Deathrites are big in combating their mana denial plan, but they have 6+ ways to remove deathrite. We usually can't play around daze (let alone pierce) and they can save FoW for our key spells. We often find ourselves without the correct mana color (do to stifle or wasteland).
The good news is, we're just as aggro as they are. If Carrion feeder ever gets to be a 4/4 theirs not much they can do to remove him. Tarmogoyf gives us big big problems, but we can deal with him.
My SB guide:
+1 Abrupt Decay
+1 Darkblast
+1 Swords
+2 Perish
-2 Feeder
-2 Gravecrawler
-2 Tidehollow
For the matches I was siding out swords and bringing in zealous, but now i think that's wrong. Swords is vital for tarmogoyf, and zealous really only hits unflipped delver or small mongooses, and a good player will have counters up before those hit the table.
It also took a while to realize you should side out tidehollow.
Your plan is to resolve a Lingering Souls. That is the single biggest card in the matchup. Otherwise, do your best to pick off delver with bombardment. This is the only matchup where i side out tidehollow, but resolving our 2 drops through daze and having them stick is no easy task. You would rather have gravecrawler or feeder. Tangentially, tidehollow tends to make their goyfs bigger.
It's tough to put a number on this one. I won preboard games 2-1, and lost post board 3-0. Still, we agreed that it was a very close matchup, and i didnt draw a cabal therapy or resolve a lingering souls in any of those matches, and never drew multiple souls. The sample size was way to small to make fast conclusions, but we put it at 55-45 in favor of RUG. Alot depends on bolt vs. DRS and Pierce vs. Lingering souls.
My list for reference:
4 Gravecrawler
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
4 Bloodghast
3 Badlands
4 Marsh Flats
3 Scrubland
2 Swamp
1 Undiscovered Paradise
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Faithless Looting
3 Goblin Bombardment
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Bayou
2 Thoughtseize
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Swords to Plowshares
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Fires Rf Salvation
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Fires Rf Salvation
Has anyone else tested against Esper Stoneblade? I have played just a handful of matches against it and I feel like it is 60-40 us, both post and pre board. Running Thalia against it seems to be a positive effect, but I can't stand having to pay the extra mana for noncreature spells like Looting, Therapy, and Souls. Their discard, for the most part, is pretty dead. The only time it was good against me was when I had removal or Looting.
I find that saving discard for them until they search, or have 3 mana is a good time to shred their hand. Jace resolving was a bit of a problem if I didn't have a way to bomb him out. He is still the king of "I'm here for 3 turns? You lost!" I kept Decay and sided out Bolt and brought in a second Decay. I am no longer a fan of Disenchant, as it is counterable and you can just attack through batterskull by blowing up whatever they equipped him to, if they managed to plop him onto the field.
DRS is still a bomb in this MU. I'm not sure if I should SB in Needle just for Jace. I feel like I should win by turn 4, or it's a loss and I didn't know it. Needle feels like it would be a great answer to him should the game go long, but they might side in Disenchant of their own for an answer to Bombardment.
For the MU, I sided in a Thalia, another Decay, a Needle, and sided out a Souls, Bolt, and Darkblast. Not a big fan of Thalia in this MU, again, so I think I will switch in both Thoughtseize to see that side of the coin.
Can anyone else confirm?
I went 3-1-1 before split to top 8. I won the first two rounds of top 8 before I lost in the finals.
Round 1: B/R Reanimator brew 2-0
Game 1: Early on he had a lucky top deck to bin grizzle after I hit him with discard. He landed grizzle and should have won, but he was greedy with card draw and ended a turn at 10 life when I had 2 ghasts and a DRS in play. I already had another ghast in my hand so I burned 2 on his turn, swung 6 and burned another 2 for the win.
Game 2: I don't think he actually played a spell this game. I had plenty of hand hate and a tormod's crypt that I never even used.
Round 2: U/W/B(?) Miracles 2-0
Game 1: I drew three lingering souls and ended the game with 1 in hand still. I think he terminused twice, it just wasn't enough.
Game 2: I was expecting rest in peace to come down and possibly surgicals as well, so I figured I'd try boarding out my gravecrawlers and feeders and boarded in Bobs, vindicate, abrupt decay, and O-ring. This was a slug fest. First turn I thoughtseized him and saw a STP and a counterbalance. I was holding a Bob so I wasn't sure if I should try to stick it by taking stp or go for the balance. I went with the counterbalance, still not sure if it was the right move. After a while, I'd gotten him down to 7 but he wiped the board for the 3rd time. We were on topdeck mode but I had a ghast and a crawler in the bin. He tops an entreat the angels and lands 3 angels. He swung with two next turn, I let them come in but AD'd his untapped angel. Next turn I swung with ghast and looted into a second AD. He swung again and I AD'd his untapped angel once more. Next turn I landed goblin bombardment, swung with ghast, and played a fetch to recur/burn for the win.
Round 3: BUG 2-1
We got deck checked. I got a game loss for having another Abrupt Decay in my deck box with my spare sleeves even though I'd kept my sideboard on the table for all my matches. They said I should have given it to someone else to hold. So...yeah, that sucked.
Game 1: Game Loss
Game 2: I don't remember much about these games. I abrupt decayed a goyf and won with a goblin bombardment shooting him.
Game 3: He shredded my hand and landed JTMS and I couldn't deal with it.
Round 4: Esper Blade 2-0
Game 1: I kept a hand with two cabal therapies, tidehollow, DRS, and land. I was feeling pretty good. When I tidehollowed him on turn two though, all he had left in his hand was like 3 land and a supreme verdict and a lingering souls. He top decked into creatures, but I hit his equipment with therapy. He couldn't do much this game and I won with bombardment on the table.
Game 2: I spent most of this game playing around a supreme verdict that I'd seen in his hand early on. Eventually ghasts+lingering souls took it home. Apparently he'd shuffled the verdict away.
Round 5: Nic Fit ID
We'd played one game for fun before the tournament and deed wrecked me. We played another game for fun before we drew and deed + sun titan destroyed me again.
Top 8:
Someone doesn't want to split. Poop.
Round 1: Affinity 2-1
He had the higher ranking. I wasn't feeling too good about this match.
Game 1: I name cranial plating on therapy, miss. Ravager wrecks my ****.
Game 2: I name plating again, miss again, ravager starts wrecking me again. However, I got ghast and crawler beats going while I landed a bombardment and some souls. I shot off all his smaller creatures so he just had one big ravager I could safely chump and eventually won.
Game 3: I realized ravager is way harder for me to deal with than plating so I named ravager with therapy...plating in hand =( I AD the plating and sac some creatures to shoot his board clean. Then he lands etched champion while I'm at 10 life. He has 1 card in hand, I know it's a tezzeret. He has 3 land in play, so if he top decks another he can make champion a 5/5 pro everything and kill me quickly. I was holding a vindicate (woo!), so I blew up his blue land and started swinging with souls and zombies. He drew a mox, a thopter and then spring leaf, I shot the thopter so he couldn't play tezz without tapping champion. I drew a bombardment and sacced my board to win.
Round 2: Nic Fit 2-0
Still no split. I wasn't feeling good about this round either
Game 1: He lands top right away, he's had top every game we've played and it usually seems to find him what he needs. He had a maindeck engineered plague, thankfully I was able to discard it early. He deeded my board away once but never landed a big enough threat.
Game 2: Top again turn 2, but not enough lands for him this time. I got a bombardment down and started swinging in the air with souls. He deeded again and I sacced but I could sac everything for another 5 damage. He eventually snagged a thragtusk and things were looking grim but faithless looting is awesome so I found what I need.
Round 3: 0-2 Junk
Still no split, but I felt this was a much better matchup than my previous two.
Game 1: 2 death rite shamans on turn 2. I lost bad.
Game 2: Mulled to 5, one land and DRS, shaman plowed. He drew 3 STP and 4 Bobs in his first 15 or so cards. Lost bad again.
Final thoughts:
Carrion feeder is horrible. I almost always side it out. We need something better in its place. I'm thinking about putting rotting rats in its place.
Goblin bombardment is amazing and you want to see 2 in just about every match up. 4 is the right number.
List:
4 grave crawler
4 bloodghast
4 tidehollow sculler
4 deathrite shaman
2 carrion feeder
4 lingering souls
4 faithless looting
4 cabal therapy
2 thoughtseize
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 abrupt decay
4 goblin bombardment
20 land
2 tormod's crypt
1 abrupt decay
1 vindicate
2 o-ring
1 zealous persecution
2 REB
2 dark confidant
2 perish
2 engineered plague
"]Trade list[/URL]
"]Trade list[/URL]
Now I can see where he is very mana intensive, but as a 1-2 of I feel that he would really help out the gravecrawler draws as well as allow a splash for either nameless inversion or crib swap. Seems like it might warrant some testing. Anyone who has played the deck got any feedback on this?
Thanks to Rivenor @ //forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=329663"/"> Miraculous Recovery for the Sig!
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Fires Rf Salvation
1x Path to Exile
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Relic of Progenitus
2x Nil Spellbomb
2x Vindicate
2x Perish
2x Oblivion Ring
It was rather hastily put together and mostly just "goodstuff" that I thought would help me in general.
I didn't take any formal notes but I do remember my match-ups for the most part.
R1-Ravager Affinity
G1: The night got off to a quick start as my first match was affinity. I'm not really sure how I felt about that other than thanking god that I had meta-gamed my sideboard a bit. I get to go first and play a thoughtsieze, which I would have been exited about in any other match-up except this one. I decide to take cranial plating as this is probably his quickest path to victory. His one tun one he basically drops his whole hand with a memnite, ornithopter and a vault skirdge. The bad news for me is that I can't block his guys with most of mine (being that I had a gravecrawler and a carrion feeder) and since I wasn't drawing any blood artists I was feeling the pain from the race.
Eventually he pulls away with a thoughtcast drawing too much aggro (read:etched champion) with me only seeing one lingering souls.
R2: So obviously lingering souls are beast in this match up. I side out all of my thougtsiezes for 3 Inquisition of Kozilek and one more path to exile. I also decide to take out a carrion feeder for a darkblast. I go first and get to rip a faithless looting T1 which feels really good in this deck getting to discard a lingering souls and a bloodghast. His turn one he gets down a memnite, a seat of the synod and a mox opal before casting a ravager. Looking down the maw of the beast, I spend T2 getting some lingering souls and reanimating a bloodghast. Next turn he decides to go "all in" casting a thoughtcast allowing him to lay down a signal pest and an ornithopter. I rip darkblast exitedly, laying a land and pathing his ravager immediately before things get out of hand. He moves the counters around as I bash in with bloodghast holding back souls to block his guys. Eventually I stall him enough the darkblast + bombardment means he cant lay down anything and have it live (other than maybe champion) and I quickly take over the game.
G3: I sideboard once again realizing that I should just take all of the carrion feeders out probably. Opting to put in two vindicates instead. This doesn't get a chance to work out as he goes first and lays his had out on the table to smash my face turn 2 followed by plating.
Record: 1-2 (overall 0-1)
R2- Sneak and Show
G1: After a dishearteningly close first round I hope that this match up isn't too bad. I've played against a lot of Show and Tell decks so I'm fairly confident that I know what I'm up against. Turns out I don't need to as I get a monster had with both Thoughtsieze and Cabal Therapy. G2 anyone?
G2: Bro across from me doesn't really side in anything and I just go to my sideboard to get the 2x O-rings which could come in handy as well as 1 of the IOK's. I take out 2 path to exile and 1 bombardment. After shuffling up, I feel bad again. T1 I cabal therapy for a Show and Tell and follow it up with a tidehollow sculler. He sits there doing mostly nothing as I ride gravecrawler and carrion feeder to victory.
Record: 2-0 (overall 1-1)
R3-Maverick
G1: Coincidentally, this is the same guy that the sneak and show dude played the round before. We get down to business. The first few turns are mostly inconsequential as I thoughsieze away a knight and then plop down some dorks and a pair of spirits. However my bloodghast/gravecrawler onslaught with blood artist backup is soon ruined by a mother of runes and a stoneforge mystic getting my worst enemy: a batterskull.
G2: Get more removal like a darkblast for mom and noble hierarch. Also I laugh as perish seems to be just what I needed here as well. Unfortunately even though I am going first I do something stupid which is keep a hand without any discard. It seems that this deck really relies on the opponent faltering, as I wish that I had gotten a sculler, thoughtsieze, or therapy at anytime after my opponent stoneforge mystics for a batterskull again. I pack up the cards shortly after my nemesis comes down T3.
Record: 0-2 (overall 1-2) After the match I decided that the most likely reason I had gotten stomped by Maverick was my inexperience with the deck. I mean block plus bombardment or sac seems like it it legit against the deck of moms, thalias and noble hierarchs, but alas it wasn't to be.
R4-Goblins
G1: Yikes, another aggro matchup. This goblins deck is definitely worse than average, (not running cavern of souls or Krenko) but it still has enough nasty green men to give me a headache. Piledriver laughs at my guys who say they can't block and although I manage to kill a few of the peskier ones, a single goblin ringleader later and they're back at it.
G2: Side in darkblast, path, and vindicate hoping for something. Super unfortunately, I get landlocked as he draws gas while shutting me down with rishidan port and wasteland. I only had one land in my opener plus a faithless looting so I was suckered into a keep over the prospect of discarding a gravecrawler, bloodghast, or lingering souls.
Record: 0-2 (overall 1-3)
I will say that I did enjoy playing the deck and I'm not counting it out yet, but having so many guys with the rules text "this creature can't block" makes aggro decks sooooo good against this build. I feel of course that more than likely Sam's build has been improved upon and it was only my first time piloting the deck outside of a testing environment, so there's that. Anyways I guess I'll try to test again when I get a chance.
Thanks to Rivenor @ //forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=329663"/"> Miraculous Recovery for the Sig!
4 lightning bolt
3 goblin bombardment
4 gravecrawler
4 bloodghast
2 eternal witness
4 dark confidant
4 deathrite shaman
4 cabal therapy
3 signal the clans
3 bitterblossom
3 badlands
1 taiga
4 bloodstained mire
3 verdant catacombs
2 swamp
1 forest
1 mountain
1 volrath's stronghold
1 phyrexian tower
1 grim backwoods
plus there is a synergy with grim backwoods and phyrexian tower. i dont know if this would work, but i'd like to try on proxy.
EDH - UWGrand Arbiter Agustin IV
UBW Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
Modern - Mono U tron / Polymorph / NFTW (ninja for the win)GR tron GR
Buy All the Dual Lands!!!
Buy All the fetches!
Create tons of EDH Decks!!!
Eat Nothing but Oats!! (LOL, not true)
Train MMA!!!
Marry My girlfriend!!!
Get her Pregnant only Once!
Teach my Son/Daughter Sports and magic cards!!!
Continue my legacy son!!!/Daughter!!
"I have received a letter from a law firm representing Hasbro Germany, expressing a strong feeling of dislike for our project, backed up with legal claims. Regardless of whether the claims they are making are factually correct or not, I have agreed to shut down the project in its current form. As soon as this is completely sorted out, development work will be put into keeping alive the code base in such a way that it can be used for other purposes."