So you're at a PTQ with Faeries and you're on the play, right? And your opponent has some mana dudes out and they're not all that threatening. Out of nowhere, your opponent taps three and SLAMS Knight of the Reliquary. Ready to end the game, you tap out for Cryptic Command to counter their Knight and draw probably Mistbind Clique or another Command. (Obviously. You're so good at Magic!) Your opponent grins, gels his hair up -- following one windmill slam with another -- and announces, "YOU'VE ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD!" Now you have a 15/15 Flying, Pro-Spells, Annihilator 6 Emrakulstorybro staring you down. You are so good at Magic and you're about to lose to the Magical embodiment of Card Games on Motorcycles. Gee Gee.
Trap! is what happens when all of your Magic collection is invested entirely in ridiculous creatures every person you play with at your local store told you to take out of your decks because you will seriously never cast that and go play a real deck like Valakut or something. Well, YOUR LOCAL STORE'S CASE WAS OUT OF VALAKUT, OKAY? THEY TRIED TO KEEP IT IN STOCK, BUT EVERYONE'S PLAYING THAT GOSH DARNED DECK. GOD, JUST PLAY EXTENDED OR WHATEVER, STOP BOTHERING ME.
I really enjoyed the list when playing it online. Though I found it to be a little easy to disrupt.
However, I would like to add I ran into a list of this that ran 4 valakuts and 4 Prismatic Omens, with 2 Scapeshifts. It was ultimately the same deck, with the same win conditions, but with an alternate win condition that won as well. Just something I thought I'd throw out there.
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Currently playing:
Venser Control/ Mimic Allies
Valakut Titan Stole My House
Sower of Temptation is the creature that will cause Trap! players to include some more removal in the deck than just Ulamog. Without some removal, Sower can turn the Faeries matchup from almost an auto-win to almost an auto-loss. Having your Emrakul stolen is just no fun.
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I'm sorry if I sound noobish, but is Trap supposed to beat Faeries? I played vs. Trap with my Fae in round 1 and beat him pretty well. I did have a great hand game 1 though. Game 2 he actually beat me with Emrakul off of Windbrisk Heights. Game 3, a Ratchet Bomb hits Great Sable Stag and Knight of the Reliquary, Infest hits Lotus Cobra and a BoP, and he gets stuck with 2 Emrakul in hand.
I actually hadn't played vs. the deck before as I didn't think people would play it. LSV actually told people not to play it in his article.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
The worst matchup was definitely Jund: they have enough removal to keep me far from activating either Hideaway land and enough creatures and burn to win while I still have only harmless creatures.
Against Faeries I have, at least on paper, more and better creatures; they can be faster and/or remove, counter or Thoughtseize some of them, but they cannot do anything particularly horrible or explosive.
Faeries usually doesn't win with explosive, but instead the slow long grind of 1-3 damage a turn...
Other than Mistbind Clique, you're pretty much right.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
What are the advantages of this deck over Mythic Conscription?
Both have a similar core GW core with Noble Hierarch, Birds of Paradise, Lotus Cobra, and Knight of the Reliquary, but Mythic plays the much more reliable Sovereigns of Lost Alara to power out a pseudo Eldrazi monster instead of warping the deck to fit Summong Trap.
I was trying to find ways to fit Blue and Jace, the Mind Sculptor into the GW Trap shell, and it was impossible without diluting the creature base too much. Why force the Summoning Trap?
Budget reasons aside, I see no reason to play GW Trap over Mythic. Please prove me wrong!
A pseudo-creature with flash, at a reasonable casting cost because (hopefully) the payload would cost 3WW, 4GG, 6 or 15 and be drawn in the far future.
Quite effective against common counterspell-based control decks, even as a bluff or hypothesis.
Then you are playing RUG control for the most part. Summoning Trap with Titans and eldrazi ramp is pretty much all it is.
GW hideaway is all about cheating into emrakuls, and the hideaway lands have proven themselves to be not only successful but crucial to the decks preformance.
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Currently playing:
Venser Control/ Mimic Allies
Valakut Titan Stole My House
The problem with defining this format by what is "fun" is that everyone seems to define fun as what they don't lose to. If you keep losing to easily answered cards, that means you should improve your deck. If you don't want to improve your deck, then you should come to peace with the idea that you are going to lose because you chose to not interact with better strategies.
How did you sideboard/how would you side board with the decision to remove the great stable stags and add in the cloud threshers instead of the Reveillarks?
Darguard, what matchups did youfind the tectonic edges the most useful for? Best for keeping opponents of a color or killing off those manlands? I imagine getting rid of mutavault, and the 3rd blue for cryptic would be nice, but am hesitant to change my deck for the GP at the last second. I am planning to run it in one of the last chance trials though to see how I feel about the edges.
I have cut 1 of each mana dork, gone to 61 card & added 4 vengevine. That is the only real change I made to the deck.
Also, I was wondering if you ran into any decks running spreading seas? I haven't seen many but am concerned that more people might be running edges or seas now with the deck getting a few top 8 appearances, although it does seem like most people are just grouping us in w/ mythic which I find to be funny since the decks run pretty differently. Just curious on your thoughts since there is very little discussion here compared to most of the threads.
Trap! is what happens when all of your Magic collection is invested entirely in ridiculous creatures every person you play with at your local store told you to take out of your decks because you will seriously never cast that and go play a real deck like Valakut or something. Well, YOUR LOCAL STORE'S CASE WAS OUT OF VALAKUT, OKAY? THEY TRIED TO KEEP IT IN STOCK, BUT EVERYONE'S PLAYING THAT GOSH DARNED DECK. GOD, JUST PLAY EXTENDED OR WHATEVER, STOP BOTHERING ME.
Card games on motorcycles.
4 Forest
1 Khalni Garden
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Mosswort Bridge
1 Murmuring Bosk
1 Mutavault
1 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Stirring Wildwood
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windbrisk Heights
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Cloudgoat Ranger
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Nest Invader
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Primeval Titan
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Spells
4 Summoning Trap
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
4 Great Sable Stag
2 Kitchen Finks
4 Nature's Claim
3 Reveillark
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However, I would like to add I ran into a list of this that ran 4 valakuts and 4 Prismatic Omens, with 2 Scapeshifts. It was ultimately the same deck, with the same win conditions, but with an alternate win condition that won as well. Just something I thought I'd throw out there.
Venser Control/ Mimic Allies
Valakut Titan Stole My House
BGStandard Green AggroGB
UWRGModern Saheeli CobraGRWU
UBRGLegacy StormGRBU
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‘Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.’ – André Gide
I actually hadn't played vs. the deck before as I didn't think people would play it. LSV actually told people not to play it in his article.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)I went 5-4, losing against Jund (x2) (Blightning, creature superiority), faeries (flying monsters & fog mode Cryptic Command) and "mono-white Boros" (swarming Figure of Destiny, Student of Warfare, Steppe Lynx, Honor of the Pure) and winning against goblins (2-1 because they managed to pull a second Goblin Chieftain and a Siege-Gang Commander from a Warren Instigator), naively played faeries (with the beyond-perfect win in the OP: turn 2 Lotus Cobra->Mana Leak->2x Summoning Trap->Emrakul, the Aeons Torn->fold), BW tokens (Tidehollow Sculler and cute Spectral Procession tokens against my 5/5 and 6/6 midrange creatures), Esper with Esperzoa and Master of Etherium (conservatively outgunned, with Primeval Titan, Wurmcoil Engine and Baneslayer Angel setting a threshold of how big his artifact creature have to be, and finished off with Day of Judgment).
The worst matchup was definitely Jund: they have enough removal to keep me far from activating either Hideaway land and enough creatures and burn to win while I still have only harmless creatures.
Against Faeries I have, at least on paper, more and better creatures; they can be faster and/or remove, counter or Thoughtseize some of them, but they cannot do anything particularly horrible or explosive.
Venser Control/ Mimic Allies
Valakut Titan Stole My House
No, they can go off with a game plan like:
Thoughtseize/Preordain -> Bitterblosoom -> Removal/Permission -> Mistbind Clique on upkeep -> 5 turn clock
I've seen this happen often enough for me to believe it is a pretty standard way of winning with Fae.
Other than Mistbind Clique, you're pretty much right.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)LSV also thought 4cc was the best deck in the format until about a week ago. What else needs to be said?
Both have a similar core GW core with Noble Hierarch, Birds of Paradise, Lotus Cobra, and Knight of the Reliquary, but Mythic plays the much more reliable Sovereigns of Lost Alara to power out a pseudo Eldrazi monster instead of warping the deck to fit Summong Trap.
I was trying to find ways to fit Blue and Jace, the Mind Sculptor into the GW Trap shell, and it was impossible without diluting the creature base too much. Why force the Summoning Trap?
Budget reasons aside, I see no reason to play GW Trap over Mythic. Please prove me wrong!
Lands WUBG
EDH:
Doran WBG
It's a GW source you can fetch with Misty Rainforest.
I have deeper doubts about the overabundance of small creatures: depending on a horde of 0/1, 2/1, 2/2 for mana isn't a good plan in case of Volcanic Fallout, Lightning Bolt, and similar natural hazards.
Cutting the hideaway lands and assorted strange lands would give room for blue or red (better value from fetchlands) and/or for the usual package of Eldrazi Temple and Eye of Ugin (presumably with Wurmcoil Engine and All Is Dust).
Removing Nest Invader and maybe Birds of Paradise would allow the Jund-unfriendly Overgrown Battlement and Wall of Omens (Joraga Treespeaker is as fragile as what it would replace), or less compromises with landfall (Harrow etc.).
GW hideaway is all about cheating into emrakuls, and the hideaway lands have proven themselves to be not only successful but crucial to the decks preformance.
Venser Control/ Mimic Allies
Valakut Titan Stole My House
I believe that being sacable to knight of the reliquary is the real ticket here.
This this this. I found myself laughing through the whole thing.
But yeah, a turn 2 Fauna Shaman is excellent counter bait.
Meh. Being able to fetch it is by far the biggest reason. It's nice that you can sac it to Knight, but I've never actually done it.
Blog (Paper Magic and MTGO thoughts and experiences): KeysMyaths.com
How did you sideboard/how would you side board with the decision to remove the great stable stags and add in the cloud threshers instead of the Reveillarks?
I have cut 1 of each mana dork, gone to 61 card & added 4 vengevine. That is the only real change I made to the deck.
Also, I was wondering if you ran into any decks running spreading seas? I haven't seen many but am concerned that more people might be running edges or seas now with the deck getting a few top 8 appearances, although it does seem like most people are just grouping us in w/ mythic which I find to be funny since the decks run pretty differently. Just curious on your thoughts since there is very little discussion here compared to most of the threads.