I've been preparing for Grand Prix Kobe. I went day 2 at Grand Prix Guangzhou last year with a pretty stock list and bought in on modo. (I'll post my list later)
I like 1x Lavinia of the Tenth in the sb. Pro red is never too irrelevant as decks going RBx really just rely on terminate/push/kolaghan for removal and she ignores all of those. Against several non-interactive decks like Affinity she just locks them down for a while, and if you have displacer/worship in a couple of these matches you basically lock them out. She is a champ at disabling lots of midrange planeswalkers, too.
Hey guys any tips for playing UR Gifts Storm? I have a positive win rate but it's still frustrating losing to that pile of garbage.
I side in all counters and all GY hate and prioritize TKS'ing Past in Flames, Gifts. Any tips appreciated
grave hate for PIF (most important)
explosives/ratchet bomb for empty the warrens
worship to slow them down (though they may be able to tutor into echoing truth, so if it wont fit then dont side it in)
I went 6-3 at GP guangzhou with a list almost the same as the SCG one but with a lavinia of the tenth and a RIP in SB. My record is a bit of a farce but if you're interested you can keep reading.
Here's my report:
Round 1: I was 40 minutes late to the venue, so I was surprised they even let me play. I got an auto game loss for tardiness and g2 I find myself playing lantern control and a t3 bridge, 0-1
Round 2: I play UR pyromancer's ascension with thing the ice. Game one he plays multiple ToiT and gets them flipped. Couldn't do much. Game 2 I SB in natural state and EE. I blow up his first ascension and he plays a second. when he's at 4 life or so he combos off, 0-2
Round 3: I play UG infect, his G1 is kind of slow and I get spellskite out, so I take it. G2 we both have spellskites out so I just keep redirecting distortion strike to make him pay life. I play lavinia of the tenth (displacer was out too), which stopped spellskite and hierarch from blocking/using abilities. He did have inkmoths but they were way too slow and my eldrazi were basically unblockable, 1-2
Round 4: I play against elves. G1 he plays a nettle setinel? t1, t2 he has about 5 1/1 elves (heritage druid, llanowar), t3 he topdecks ezuri and i get steamrolled. G2 I side in cage and explosives, i mulligan to 2 forest, temple, TKS, cage and PTE. I play cage T1, TKS T3 and take an elf (i see he has chord and company in hand as well), but unfortunately i get mana devastate and he flips westvale abbey for ormendahl, profane prince and I'm sitting with two PTE in hand and no white mana sources, i top deck explosives thinking it matters and it doesn't 1-3
Round 5: My opponent didn't show up, 2-3
Round 6: Bant Eldrazi mirror. Win game 1, look stupid in G2 with enchantment removal and worship in hand and nothing else. G3 is a long one and there's board stalls. I misplay by attacking agressively with a topdeck'd reality smasher and my opponent doesn't understand how eldrazi displacer works, thinking that his drowner of hope dies when he blocks my exalted reality smasher, but unfortunately it means his takes 6 trample damage. i leave myself in a spot where he can attack me with matter reshaper and 2 exalted triggers for lethal but he doesnt see it, next turn i kill him with a bunch of mana, drowner of hope/displacer. 3-3
Round 7: Ad Nauseum. I almost win game 1 by ravaging his hand with TKS, but phyrexian unlife does a lot of work in slowing the game down and he top decked ad nauseum. Game 2, he played slaughter pact, and forgot to pay in the upkeep and drew the card, which is a game loss. Game 3 I am able to put the pressure on and he is out of luck. 4-3
Round 8: RG tron. His version was a really bad matchup against my deck. Played karn, ulamog, and a random platinum angel? Anyhow, game one he wins. Game 2 he exiles my hierarchs with ulamog when I have 3 lands, but I just PTE ulamog and keep the pressure on. Game 3 was a long one that went to turns, but I made the dude so mad. Every threat he played I had PTE for, and when he played karn he would just die the next turn. I thought knot'd a threat, he played oblivion stone (he had another one in hand), cracked it to kill TKS, i topdeck another TKS and take his other oblivion stone, and he gets close to milling. In turns I topdeck a land to play smasher when he is at 10 life on T2, and kill him T4. 5-3
Round 9: UWR Nahiri: Lose game 1. I felt really bad because I took a verdict instead of an emrakul with TKS but the emrakul later killed me. Game 2 i got cage and rest in peace in the early turns and his deck just couldn't do anything, and it was satisfying to watch. G3 I started with like..2 cages and a ROP, but didn't want to walk into explosives or wear/tear so I played them slowly while attacking. It went to turns and the dude conceded, but I had the feeling I was gonna win. 6-3
There's my tale of horrible coincidences and misplays. I made day two, but I had to leave early. I would say spellskite is a monster and ruins so many decks for such little effort. Worship usually under-performed in every game so I'm a little iffy on it. Displacer did a lot of work as usual. I think my 1x elder deep fiend needs to go, and it never really did anything.
Yeah I preordered 4x Deep Fiends. I think the deck could fit in more "haymakers", but it does make the deck lean more blue.
I've been having bad luck on MODO. With 24 lands it seems like I flood a lot. Other times it seems like Smasher or TKS come down too slow even with dorks. Advice?
I don't have time for a lot of MTG these days, but I've been playing a few games in the queues lately once a week or so, and I've been playing this deck. I like it a lot. It has a lot of interaction and is a good fit for my playstyle.
One thing, has anyone played against the Nahiri deck that runs Boom // Bust and 4 copies of Blood Moon main deck? Its basically miserable in my opinion. I misplayed to lose the first game, not attacking with both my Spellskite and other critter to be able to redirect Nahiri's -2 that I knew was coming. I did this twice in a row (like a fool... I was tired). The second game ended with T2 Blood Moon into a T4 Goblin Dark Dwellers recurring Lightning Helix to take care of my threats.
Yeah, I sold out of that deck a few days ago. You could SB celestial purge/nature's claim/natural state/engineered explosives to deal with Moon, and I'm assuming Ensnaring Bridge. For Nahiri, could always do Needle or Purge from SB. My guess is that the Eldrazi deck should just be as aggressive as possible since that puts the pressure on the controlling-deck. Relic/ROP can be annoying too against Goblin DD and ROP also hoses Flagstones. Maybe it's time to start experimenting with Beast Within SB?
hey guys, I just bought into the deck in paper and MODO. I'm planning on playing it next month at a GP. Still missing a few SB cards but I look forward to playing. Played some games on MODO and it's doing pretty well.
How expensive is it online?
You can get an approx price from MTGgoldfish. http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/442411#online There's several decks that slightly vary a couple of lands or tarmogoyfs or whatever. Hovers around $500. I know it's a lot for virtual cards, but you can sell out at like a 10% loss through services like MTGOtraders.
Big expenses are mostly Cavern ($40ea), Hierarchs ($20 each - not too bad), Spellskite ($18, not bad). The sideboard cards are pretty bad- Grafdigger's Cage is like $20 each and Explosives are like $35.
hey guys, I just bought into the deck in paper and MODO. I'm planning on playing it next month at a GP. Still missing a few SB cards but I look forward to playing. Played some games on MODO and it's doing pretty well.
I like 1x Lavinia of the Tenth in the sb. Pro red is never too irrelevant as decks going RBx really just rely on terminate/push/kolaghan for removal and she ignores all of those. Against several non-interactive decks like Affinity she just locks them down for a while, and if you have displacer/worship in a couple of these matches you basically lock them out. She is a champ at disabling lots of midrange planeswalkers, too.
grave hate for PIF (most important)
explosives/ratchet bomb for empty the warrens
worship to slow them down (though they may be able to tutor into echoing truth, so if it wont fit then dont side it in)
Here's my report:
Round 1: I was 40 minutes late to the venue, so I was surprised they even let me play. I got an auto game loss for tardiness and g2 I find myself playing lantern control and a t3 bridge, 0-1
Round 2: I play UR pyromancer's ascension with thing the ice. Game one he plays multiple ToiT and gets them flipped. Couldn't do much. Game 2 I SB in natural state and EE. I blow up his first ascension and he plays a second. when he's at 4 life or so he combos off, 0-2
Round 3: I play UG infect, his G1 is kind of slow and I get spellskite out, so I take it. G2 we both have spellskites out so I just keep redirecting distortion strike to make him pay life. I play lavinia of the tenth (displacer was out too), which stopped spellskite and hierarch from blocking/using abilities. He did have inkmoths but they were way too slow and my eldrazi were basically unblockable, 1-2
Round 4: I play against elves. G1 he plays a nettle setinel? t1, t2 he has about 5 1/1 elves (heritage druid, llanowar), t3 he topdecks ezuri and i get steamrolled. G2 I side in cage and explosives, i mulligan to 2 forest, temple, TKS, cage and PTE. I play cage T1, TKS T3 and take an elf (i see he has chord and company in hand as well), but unfortunately i get mana devastate and he flips westvale abbey for ormendahl, profane prince and I'm sitting with two PTE in hand and no white mana sources, i top deck explosives thinking it matters and it doesn't
Round 5: My opponent didn't show up, 2-3
Round 6: Bant Eldrazi mirror. Win game 1, look stupid in G2 with enchantment removal and worship in hand and nothing else. G3 is a long one and there's board stalls. I misplay by attacking agressively with a topdeck'd reality smasher and my opponent doesn't understand how eldrazi displacer works, thinking that his drowner of hope dies when he blocks my exalted reality smasher, but unfortunately it means his takes 6 trample damage. i leave myself in a spot where he can attack me with matter reshaper and 2 exalted triggers for lethal but he doesnt see it, next turn i kill him with a bunch of mana, drowner of hope/displacer. 3-3
Round 7: Ad Nauseum. I almost win game 1 by ravaging his hand with TKS, but phyrexian unlife does a lot of work in slowing the game down and he top decked ad nauseum. Game 2, he played slaughter pact, and forgot to pay in the upkeep and drew the card, which is a game loss. Game 3 I am able to put the pressure on and he is out of luck. 4-3
Round 8: RG tron. His version was a really bad matchup against my deck. Played karn, ulamog, and a random platinum angel? Anyhow, game one he wins. Game 2 he exiles my hierarchs with ulamog when I have 3 lands, but I just PTE ulamog and keep the pressure on. Game 3 was a long one that went to turns, but I made the dude so mad. Every threat he played I had PTE for, and when he played karn he would just die the next turn. I thought knot'd a threat, he played oblivion stone (he had another one in hand), cracked it to kill TKS, i topdeck another TKS and take his other oblivion stone, and he gets close to milling. In turns I topdeck a land to play smasher when he is at 10 life on T2, and kill him T4. 5-3
Round 9: UWR Nahiri: Lose game 1. I felt really bad because I took a verdict instead of an emrakul with TKS but the emrakul later killed me. Game 2 i got cage and rest in peace in the early turns and his deck just couldn't do anything, and it was satisfying to watch. G3 I started with like..2 cages and a ROP, but didn't want to walk into explosives or wear/tear so I played them slowly while attacking. It went to turns and the dude conceded, but I had the feeling I was gonna win. 6-3
There's my tale of horrible coincidences and misplays. I made day two, but I had to leave early. I would say spellskite is a monster and ruins so many decks for such little effort. Worship usually under-performed in every game so I'm a little iffy on it. Displacer did a lot of work as usual. I think my 1x elder deep fiend needs to go, and it never really did anything.
I've been having bad luck on MODO. With 24 lands it seems like I flood a lot. Other times it seems like Smasher or TKS come down too slow even with dorks. Advice?
Yeah, I sold out of that deck a few days ago. You could SB celestial purge/nature's claim/natural state/engineered explosives to deal with Moon, and I'm assuming Ensnaring Bridge. For Nahiri, could always do Needle or Purge from SB. My guess is that the Eldrazi deck should just be as aggressive as possible since that puts the pressure on the controlling-deck. Relic/ROP can be annoying too against Goblin DD and ROP also hoses Flagstones. Maybe it's time to start experimenting with Beast Within SB?
You can get an approx price from MTGgoldfish. http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/442411#online There's several decks that slightly vary a couple of lands or tarmogoyfs or whatever. Hovers around $500. I know it's a lot for virtual cards, but you can sell out at like a 10% loss through services like MTGOtraders.
Big expenses are mostly Cavern ($40ea), Hierarchs ($20 each - not too bad), Spellskite ($18, not bad). The sideboard cards are pretty bad- Grafdigger's Cage is like $20 each and Explosives are like $35.