I scrubbed out, PLAYING PICKLES ALL THREE ROUNDS.
Round 1 My opponent won game one via countering my Teferi and getting his own.
Game 2 was going okay when I accidentally removed an extra counter from Ancestral Vision when I was playing with my dice. He called me on it and I got a caution, and it shook me up. But I ended up winning that game, but they called time as we shuffled for game 3.
0-0-1
Round 2 I played Pickles again, lost in two games. My opponent simply had more skill.
Round 3 I won game 1 (UG Shifter) by keeping my opponent off lands (he missed his third drop for a while) I cleared his lands with Riftwings and he never recovered.
Game 2 He won...don't remember.
Game 3 was at a stalemate when turns started, and we drew. I ended up scooping for him since I had to win out to stay in and didn't really feel like staying since my friends, who scrubbed, were leaving. So I technically went 0-1-2.
Meh.
As for the deck...
The Trisk/Academy Ruins idea was bad. Didn't draw it once, sided it out all matches.
Arrows were okay main, but more would be more effective.
Aeon Chronicler is not that hot.
Pact was good, I would add another, and consider SB Slaughter Pacts with the Damnation idea.
I would have liked the third Venser.
Thank god this format is over. It has practically ruined my summer magic-wise.
I was there too, I live in Jersey, yay me. If you have not noticed, GWR beats almost everything. Game one for us is 20/80...I think the deck's going to be pretty popular, because of two people who played it, BOTH got top 4. pretty freakin good. We can't stop fiery justice, and they have the ability to bounce their guys with Stonecloaker. And no Damnation? No dice, you lose, period. You can't dig for 'em either because you have to side out Ancestrals.
Well, you are right about Justice. What to do there? It's basically like GW Goyf except for a two-card combo that makes it about 20/80 in their favor game one.
You don't think Willbenders are otherwise necessary against aggro?
And do you bring in all your Chroniclers in the mirror?
Hm, the latter is conceded, but maybe Spell Burst is better than Pact for beating the mirror.
Willbender does redirect their Fiery Justice...right to the Predator. SBE's are checked once it resolves, and it dies before its ability can trigger (so long as its p/t is less than 5/5). Or you can simply burn them and kill/bounce their predator, I really don't care.
I think you need 4 Willbenders in that matchup, though.
The Towel-mikey and my metagame was as follows at the last Neutral Ground PTQ:
35% Pickles players
15% UG Goyf players
10% GW Goyf Players
10% Teachings players
10% Blink Variant players
19%: Random ****
~2%-GWR Goyf (namely, Ravitz and Asher Hecht)
I expect a LARGE surge in GWR goyf because it went 2-2 in Top 4'ing and got a winner winner. But since the paper metagame moves slower than the online one, I would expect the majority of pickles players to continue playing that deck, people jumping onto that deck from teachings, gw goyf, gu goyf, and the randomness. and some people who usually just play the best deck will play that. So maybe about an increase to ~20% to GWR Goyf. So I think you should have in the side perhaps...i don't know, nix the arrows, have 2 benders, and 2 aeon chroniclers...maybe also change the MD Pact to a Spell Burst, but that I am definitely not so sure about.
Well right now, my sideboard is getting mixed up over six cards.
These six are
3 Spell Burst
1 Cancel
2 Aeon Chronicler
Spellburst goes in for mirror matchups. I am considering adding one to the maindeck instead of Snapback, since my other 7 (Urborg/Damnation) crush aggro, and I don't need much more help. (The remaining 2 are Willbenders).
Cacel goes in against Teachings and the mirror...it probably is not well-used. Serrated Arrows belong in the board, because not only do they aid the aggro matchup, but they also completely own Slivers...the ever-present X-factor deck.
Aeons also go in the mirror and teachings matchups...this I am disinclined to cut because it's so good, but it requires tapping out in the midgame...a horrible thing to do most of the time. It beats SO hard, though, but Shapeshifter often trades with it or it just dies to Teferi.
There's also the GRW Kavu Matchup, which is like 20/80 at best pre-board. Post board, we do okay, but I don't think it can be made favorable. I usually board in everything except fo r the Spell Bursts (with the new SB).
After much thought I have figured to go down to 2 Burst in the board. See, a good Pickles player will only leave in 1-2 Brine tops, so Burst is not that necessary, and often >1 is a dead card. I am trying to fit Arrows in, possibly for the sliver matchup. But that is the only matchup where they really shine, so I am not quite sure if I shouldn't go for snapback.
I'd like to remark that Flores' transformational sideboard (Urborg/Damnation) pretty much destroys every bad matchup this deck has. GW Goyf (which I already believe is not as bad anymore, I have not been having as much trouble, and the sideboard destroys it), Predator Goyf (as long as you have the ability to counter a Stonecloaker, and you pretty much win here as long as you don't let a 'Derm resolve). The UG Goyf matchup is already great, and said sideboard plan blows it the hell away.
I do need some sideboard help, as it were.
These are locked in-
3 Urborg
4 Damnation
and I think, for the mirror & UG Shifter: 3 Spell Burst
Now, I need to figure out what to cut of the following:
2 Willbender
3 Serrated Arrows
2 Aeon Chronicler
1 Cancel
To be honest, I don't like Arrows anymore in the meta...they are a bit slow, and I don't need much more help against aggro. I could cut those and add the 4th cancel.
The Chroniclers help in the mirror and Teachings matchups. But I don't prefer tapping out, especially mid to late game against Pickles.
The Benders are solid in most matchups, but I wasn't really clear if they were, you know, effective enough.
Thoughts?
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I scrubbed out, PLAYING PICKLES ALL THREE ROUNDS.
Round 1 My opponent won game one via countering my Teferi and getting his own.
Game 2 was going okay when I accidentally removed an extra counter from Ancestral Vision when I was playing with my dice. He called me on it and I got a caution, and it shook me up. But I ended up winning that game, but they called time as we shuffled for game 3.
0-0-1
Round 2 I played Pickles again, lost in two games. My opponent simply had more skill.
Round 3 I won game 1 (UG Shifter) by keeping my opponent off lands (he missed his third drop for a while) I cleared his lands with Riftwings and he never recovered.
Game 2 He won...don't remember.
Game 3 was at a stalemate when turns started, and we drew. I ended up scooping for him since I had to win out to stay in and didn't really feel like staying since my friends, who scrubbed, were leaving. So I technically went 0-1-2.
Meh.
As for the deck...
The Trisk/Academy Ruins idea was bad. Didn't draw it once, sided it out all matches.
Arrows were okay main, but more would be more effective.
Aeon Chronicler is not that hot.
Pact was good, I would add another, and consider SB Slaughter Pacts with the Damnation idea.
I would have liked the third Venser.
Thank god this format is over. It has practically ruined my summer magic-wise.
Back to Standard yaaaaaaaaaay!
I would love that third Venser somewhere.
You don't think Willbenders are otherwise necessary against aggro?
And do you bring in all your Chroniclers in the mirror?
Willbender does redirect their Fiery Justice...right to the Predator. SBE's are checked once it resolves, and it dies before its ability can trigger (so long as its p/t is less than 5/5). Or you can simply burn them and kill/bounce their predator, I really don't care.
and how do you sideboard with the current one?
I think you need 4 Willbenders in that matchup, though.
The Towel-mikey and my metagame was as follows at the last Neutral Ground PTQ:
35% Pickles players
15% UG Goyf players
10% GW Goyf Players
10% Teachings players
10% Blink Variant players
19%: Random ****
~2%-GWR Goyf (namely, Ravitz and Asher Hecht)
I expect a LARGE surge in GWR goyf because it went 2-2 in Top 4'ing and got a winner winner. But since the paper metagame moves slower than the online one, I would expect the majority of pickles players to continue playing that deck, people jumping onto that deck from teachings, gw goyf, gu goyf, and the randomness. and some people who usually just play the best deck will play that. So maybe about an increase to ~20% to GWR Goyf. So I think you should have in the side perhaps...i don't know, nix the arrows, have 2 benders, and 2 aeon chroniclers...maybe also change the MD Pact to a Spell Burst, but that I am definitely not so sure about.
Trike does seem great though, especially with Shapeshifter you can get twice the tokens every turn.
I might make the Arrows one Pact of Negation and one Spell Burst and put more in the board.
Serrated is also good against slivers, btw.
Why only 2 willbenders overall? They are pretty good against Fiery Justice (they can turn one against a Predator)
I think the biggest need is to improve the GRW matchup, and how does this deck do so?
Well right now, my sideboard is getting mixed up over six cards.
These six are
3 Spell Burst
1 Cancel
2 Aeon Chronicler
Spellburst goes in for mirror matchups. I am considering adding one to the maindeck instead of Snapback, since my other 7 (Urborg/Damnation) crush aggro, and I don't need much more help. (The remaining 2 are Willbenders).
Cacel goes in against Teachings and the mirror...it probably is not well-used. Serrated Arrows belong in the board, because not only do they aid the aggro matchup, but they also completely own Slivers...the ever-present X-factor deck.
Aeons also go in the mirror and teachings matchups...this I am disinclined to cut because it's so good, but it requires tapping out in the midgame...a horrible thing to do most of the time. It beats SO hard, though, but Shapeshifter often trades with it or it just dies to Teferi.
There's also the GRW Kavu Matchup, which is like 20/80 at best pre-board. Post board, we do okay, but I don't think it can be made favorable. I usually board in everything except fo r the Spell Bursts (with the new SB).
I do need some sideboard help, as it were.
These are locked in-
3 Urborg
4 Damnation
and I think, for the mirror & UG Shifter: 3 Spell Burst
Now, I need to figure out what to cut of the following:
2 Willbender
3 Serrated Arrows
2 Aeon Chronicler
1 Cancel
To be honest, I don't like Arrows anymore in the meta...they are a bit slow, and I don't need much more help against aggro. I could cut those and add the 4th cancel.
The Chroniclers help in the mirror and Teachings matchups. But I don't prefer tapping out, especially mid to late game against Pickles.
The Benders are solid in most matchups, but I wasn't really clear if they were, you know, effective enough.
Thoughts?