I've been working on this deck for a while and I'm pretty happy with it. It doesnt seem to be super soft against anything in particular. There are a few things i could change with it, but i think its strongest at its current moment.
Current Version
Over the course of my playtesting I've done pretty well. From my testing, this deck has the following matchups:
UW stoneblade: Good. You are them if they had more threats and dark confidant to draw cards and life from the loam to kill all of the mishra's factories as well as maze of ith to make batterskull+ sword not do something awesome. The thopter sword variant is actually better to play against due to the 3 energy flux. as well as EE's ability to reck havoc on the combo and the tokens.
Merfolk: Even. Merfolk doesnt do so well against batterskulls-- this is well known. Also, they aren't super great against multiple tarmogoyfs. The ability to survive wasteland and go over daze's head is good. Also umezawa's jitte, when online, does a great job of shutting merfolk down. Also, if they are playing the phantasmal image variant which does better at killing dredge, progenitus and making sure they have all the silverguill adepts in the world, its pretty cool that tower of the magistrate has 1, T: kill that. That said, they are quick and fast and the deck has a very solid mana base.
High tide: Good. Game 1: play an early chalice of the void on 1 while showing an island. On turn 3 at the end of your turn, they will tutor up wipe away because they suspect you might have countermagic since you are playing blue. Hopefully you have either found another chalice of the void or established a clock or vindicated an island early enough. In any case, chalice of the void generally stalls them to turn 5 and that should be enough. Games 2 and 3 are the same except you want to also stick a rule of law and/or arcane laboratory. Chalice+ arcane lab/rule of law stalls significantly.
The Gate: this mostly depends on getting to either chalice, dark confidant or an online jitte. If you dont get any of those you almost always lose.
Reanimator: Good. Since you have karakas and maze of ith (not to mention jace/vindicate, knight getting making them block with their big dudes)-- whats not to love. O right, and chalice on 1 can shut them down pretty harshly.
Show and Tell w/hivemind: Even. If you can keep them off an early show and tell into hivemind/pact you win this. If they drop emrakul you are in great shape: you drop knight of the reliquary and bounce it when you tutor up karakas. If they drop hivemind, then its time to hope that you dropped a mox diamond earlier in the game, and have a knight. If you did, then its just 5 mana to pay for that pact of the titan which you can do if you have had 3 turns between a mox diamond and a knight of the reliquary. But lucky for you, it will often take a few turns for them to assemble that. Start mowing them down with goyfs, knights, bobs and jaces as quickly as you can.
Goblins: Much better on the play than on the draw. That said, goblins has trouble with turn 1 tarmogoyf, chalice and especially stoneforge mystic. Both batterskull and umezawa's jitte wreck havoc on them.
ANT: if they run echoing truth then thing are bad for you. If they run chain of vapor, repeal, nature's claim as their go to anti-disruption, then things are very good for you.
Other potential names for this deck:
Dark Bant
Dark Loam
Midrange Loam
Loam Blade
Loam Stompy
esper Loam
4 color Blade
Junk n Jace
JaceLoam
4 color Goodstuff
Maverick w/UB splash
Played against Show and Tell splashing red. After some back and forth(he forced two spells, i managed a confidant), he cast show and tell. I put knight of the reliquary onto the BF and he had emrakul. In my upkeep, i floated green mana, tutored up a karkas, bounced emrakul and cycled my tranquil thicket. After that, the game was mine.
Game 2 I boarded in both rule of law and arcane laboratory. I boarded out batterskull and something else. He have show and tell into hivemind/pact turn on 2 off of a turn 1 basic island and I didn't have arcane lab or rule of law on the BF.
Game 3 i stuck with my board plan. I managed to get arcane laboratory into my hand and play through a vendilion clique, resolve a jace and a knight of the reliquary. When he show and telled i had arcane laboratory to match his hive mind. He had pact, but couldn't go with it just then.
On my turn, I jacestormed, wastelanded him back down to 2 mana, and then vindicated his hivemind. He choose to have his copy target my knight that would kill him in 2 turns so i decided to tutor up a karakas. After that I just road arcane laboratory and jace to victory.
I actually really like this deck idea. It reminds of Caleb Durward's powerful blue zoo deck but instead of zoo it's the Rock.
With that said, I think if you want to beat combo decks, I would perhaps suggest to add more black sources of mana to the deck and run discard in the form of hymn to tourach, thoughteize, and inquisition of Koziliek.
I actually really like this deck idea. It reminds of Caleb Durward's powerful blue zoo deck but instead of zoo it's the Rock.
With that said, I think if you want to beat combo decks, I would perhaps suggest to add more black sources of mana to the deck and run discard in the form of hymn to tourach, thoughteize, and inquisition of Koziliek.
or bitterblossom cabal therapy, which is insane in rock btw
Really? I thought alot of The Rock lists ran Eternal Witness with cabal therapy to build up disruption and as well as card advantage. That's interesting.
Yeah, I understand the purpose of Bitterblossom and as well as it's very powerful with equipment. However, I am not really sure if he actually needs bitterblossom just some disruption to shore up the combo matchup which is the original plan. Both hymn to tourach and thoughtseize can already disrupt combo decks pretty heavily preboard and also post supplemented with other cards that he boards in. Not to mention, he can play knight and go get a maze of ith or tabernacle to protect Jace from opposing creatures. Don't get me wrong, I think bitterblossom is a great card but I don't think it's actually needed in this deck with the core of creatures this deck has.
Yeah, I understand the purpose of Bitterblossom and as well as it's very powerful with equipment. However, I am not really sure if he actually needs bitterblossom just some disruption to shore up the combo matchup which is the original plan. Both hymn to tourach and thoughtseize can already disrupt combo decks pretty heavily preboard and also post supplemented with other cards that he boards in. Not to mention, he can play knight and go get a maze of ith or tabernacle to protect Jace from opposing creatures. Don't get me wrong, I think bitterblossom is a great card but I don't think it's actually needed in this deck with the core of creatures this deck has.
I was just mentioning the interaction with BB, I was highlighting cabal therapy (if you have sick reads then therapy is pretty insane) [note: i have terrible read skillz]
i typically ran 7-9 hand disruption spells
4 hymn
3 thoughtseize
2 cabal therapy
if you are playing blue i could see trinket mage for ee making the deck, which would let you sideboard some bullets like needle and crypt [both help against combo]
I was just mentioning the interaction with BB, I was highlighting cabal therapy (if you have sick reads then therapy is pretty insane) [note: i have terrible read skillz]
i typically ran 7-9 hand disruption spells
4 hymn
3 thoughtseize
2 cabal therapy
if you are playing blue i could see trinket mage for ee making the deck, which would let you sideboard some bullets like needle and crypt [both help against combo]
Oh, I am not trying to burst your bubble or anything and I apologize if I sounded that way. Your intentions and ideas are good.
Also, you could be onto something about the Trinket mage, especially with mox diamond which you can actually fetch for too with trinket mage. I also like the idea of running Sensei's top in here as well.
Edit: Maybe, we can actually put together a list now or later with our ideas.
I loved this decklist the minute that I saw it. My first critique though, is why do you need the Sylvan Librarys? You already have four Jaces + four Bobs to draw you extra cards. Granted, I guess it does work well for loaming crap off the top.
How exactly does that stack anyways? Draw for turn, library library (replaced by Loam) -> Dredge three, then the only two actual cards "drawn" back on top of deck? Or loam first, look at the top two and put them back in any order. Assuming of course you're not paying the life. Or how best are you abusing this to dig?
How often does Tranquil Thicket do something for you? I love the card most certainly, but it seems a little odd as a one-of even with two ways to dig it up beyond the super-slow path of Knight`ing for it and Wasteland.
Anyways, to my point: how much consideration have you given to stuffing in Hymn or the like? It'd not be able to reach critical mass with as many slots as you already have given over to the manabase, and as such I'd either replace the Libraries with more Chalices since you so nicely dodge the 1-drop spot and have Moxen to get them out on the first turn, or stuffing in an extra Vindicate as this seems to be very removal light for a rock list. Then again, Jace can bounce stuff.. so interesting. Got any favorite play stories to share?
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Currently Playing: Legacy: BWG Dark Horizons UWB Esper Stoneblade GUB Lands BGB (Pact) Spanish Inquisition
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Living wish seems insane, it can go and get Maze, Stronghold, Karakas, Tabernacle, Teeg, Pridemage, Bog, etc A pretty sweet one i've seen wished for is Stirring Wildwood, it can block V-Clique and is a pretty good way to close out the game against control, you could also wish for Creeping tar pit
1) Yes, I made this deck to blank mental misstep. I realize thats silly now. However, the deck turned out to be good on its own.
2) @ soft against wastelands: I have 25 lands, 3 life from the loams, and mox diamonds as mana fixing. I win the wasteland war. Ive won the wasteland war by making land drops every turn through weathered wayfarer.
I loved this decklist the minute that I saw it. My first critique though, is why do you need the Sylvan Librarys? You already have four Jaces + four Bobs to draw you extra cards. Granted, I guess it does work well for loaming crap off the top.
Sylvan Library is great. Its another must answer card and it works well.
How exactly does that stack anyways? Draw for turn, library library (replaced by Loam) -> Dredge three, then the only two actual cards "drawn" back on top of deck? Or loam first, look at the top two and put them back in any order. Assuming of course you're not paying the life. Or how best are you abusing this to dig?
Well, you draw your first card (or replace it with loam) then you get to draw 2 more cards (either of which you can replace with loam). If from using sylvan library on a previous turn, you know you have something you want to keep on top (like Jace), you can draw a card for the turn, then use sylvan library to dredge loam (dredge a second loam if you can) and then put jace back on top. If you have out sylvan library with all 3 loams in your graveyard, you can actually just dredge 9 and get them all back into your hand. But thats magical christmas land.
How often does Tranquil Thicket do something for you? I love the card most certainly, but it seems a little odd as a one-of even with two ways to dig it up beyond the super-slow path of Knight`ing for it and Wasteland.
Its pretty useful. The general gameplan is to discard it early to a mox diamond or to cycle it into more gas. The cool thing about it is that it can let you use life from the loam to not give up any gas in terms of drawing potentially nonland cards.
Anyways, to my point: how much consideration have you given to stuffing in Hymn or the like? It'd not be able to reach critical mass with as many slots as you already have given over to the manabase, and as such I'd either replace the Libraries with more Chalices since you so nicely dodge the 1-drop spot and have Moxen to get them out on the first turn, or stuffing in an extra Vindicate as this seems to be very removal light for a rock list. Then again, Jace can bounce stuff.. so interesting. Got any favorite play stories to share?
Well, Ive had some crazy games with this deck. Ive enjoyed wrecking stoneblade with maze of ith and tower of the magistrate. Its been great to just watch someone drop all of the graveyard hate as ive beaten them down with batterskull or jace the mind sculptor.
As for hymn: I'm trying to get cards stuck in their hand.
@ the trinket mage decklist. How many games do you win off the back of stoneforge mystic? Now how many games do you win off the back of trinket mage?
The same with tarmogoyf. Generally speaking the sheer volume of A class threats wears people down.
I provide 16 must answer creatures, 2 must answer enchantments (sylvan library) and then 4 jaces (must be answered too).
For most decks, the sheer threat density backed by loam/wasteland wins games. Whatever this deck may look like, its probably more like aggro loam than junk. This is just a more midrange. I suppose you could also call it midrange loam.
I think that jace TMS and Life from the loam synergize brilliantly. I think dark confidant works amazing in high land count decks. Knight + loam= awesome because both work great with lots of wastelands as well as with 1 of utility lands. Stoneforge+ jace = awesome.
honestly, this deck seems like it would be a dog to stax strategies, dragon stompy, burn, and maybe the mighty quinn. That said, if these aren't in your meta, then I guess it doesn't matter! Anything that can turn off your mana base, or use it against you and win quickly is going to make your life mighty sad.
For cards that I would cut for more chalice, well, you only need to see one jace in any game. 3 of those should be plenty. Life from the loam is a completely reusable and abusable, and you don't necessarily need to see it, just would like to. I'd cut one as well. That should leave you room for 2 more chalice. After that, it's up to you.
honestly, this deck seems like it would be a dog to stax strategies, dragon stompy, burn, and maybe the mighty quinn. That said, if these aren't in your meta, then I guess it doesn't matter! Anything that can turn off your mana base, or use it against you and win quickly is going to make your life mighty sad.
I havent seen much of them to be honest. Except for a few stacks strategies. Ive cruised through tangle wires and trinispheres as i just have 25 lands and life from the loam to get me there and mox diamonds if i want to hit 2 mana on turn 1.
That may be true, depending on how fast they get started using a smokestack. On the other hand, I see blood moon reaming you pretty well, actually, and maybe back to basics as well.
My sylvan library off of a mox diamond runs into a daze.
My goyf then resolves.
My next sylvan library gets force of willed.
Then stoneforge mystic gets batterskull and I win.
He draws the nuts and merfolk wins.
turn 1 confidant off of mox diamond he matches with island into vial
turn 2 confidant with daze mana up. he casts silverguill adept.
turn 3 sword of fire and ice with daze mana up. Confidant trades with silverguill. On his turn, he drops a standstill.
turn 4 wasteland his mutavault and suit up my confidant. I drop a maze of ith and ride confidant to victory underneath his standstill.
After some more playtesting, I think I want to cut volrath's stronghold and a sylvan library for academy ruins and an engineered explosives. Engineered explosives just helps this deck do a lot better against all of those swarm decks that it would otherwise have difficulty with. I played against affinity today (UB tez build) and was able to kill all his etched chamions and masters of etheriums off of recurring EE while losing no life off of dark confidant for 4 turns in a row and then went on to mow down his 2 drops before resolving batterskull. Of course, it was also in large part due to having Jace TMS, maze of ith and a tower of the magistrate (all cool lands thanks to an early knight that i blew up with my own EE)
I played high tide. Game 1 he was on the play. he preordained. I played mox diamond into chalice of the void which he force of willed.
I dropped a turn 2 goyf.
i dug as rapidly as i could towards a vindicate to try to keep him down on lands, but he went off.
Game 2 my first chalice resolved. He merchant scrolled into cunning wish. I transmuted tolaria west into a second chalice of the void and resolved my second chalice of the void (both at 1). He conceded (telling me that wipe away was his out)
Game 3 I draw 1 chalice of the void and managed to transmute into the second 1 before he can deal with the 1st. He concedes.
7 fetches with Loam is ridiculous. You need more duals or you're going to kill yourself as well as fetch yourself out. I run only 4 green fetches in my actual Lands build. That said, I like the idea. It reminds me of Landstill - primarily control, with Loam. You're primarily aggro, with Loam.
7 fetches with Loam is ridiculous. You need more duals or you're going to kill yourself as well as fetch yourself out. I run only 4 green fetches in my actual Lands build. That said, I like the idea. It reminds me of Landstill - primarily control, with Loam. You're primarily aggro, with Loam.
What would you recommend for the manabase? I could cut 1 fetchland for a second bayou.
Took out excess fetches for more Mazes - they're that good. You don't need Tower of the Magistrate maindeck, so I would replace it with Academy Ruins since you have some nice recurrable artifacts.
Took out excess fetches for more Mazes - they're that good. You don't need Tower of the Magistrate maindeck, so I would replace it with Academy Ruins since you have some nice recurrable artifacts.
O, i guess i forgot to update the list, but i ended up cutting a volrath's stronghold and a silvan library for an Engineered explosives and an academy ruins.
On Volrath's stronghold: the card is good. But it just consistently ended up being to slow. The ties when i found myself needing more dudes were only the times when 1 per turn wasn't going to cut it. It just didn't end up being useful frequently enough to justify its slot. When it was useful was for looking on top with sylvan library, then putting a dude on top so that when i dredged life from the loam i knew that i wasnt going to hit any card i couldn't recur (IE jace)
I think it would be a mistake to cut the tundra. I can fetch tundra off of any of my fetchlands if i stick to misty and windswept heath. Between it and a mox diamond and wastelands i can cast every spell in my deck.
As for tower of the magistrate: stoneblade is popular in my meta. tower of the magistrate blows stoneblade out of the water. Its also occasionally useful for chump blocking artifact creatures forever (it has come up) as well as helping keep cranial plating from instantly destroying me. Ive won more than my fair share of games for 1,T: destroy target germ equipped with batterskull. (also unequipping swords of this and that is useful since it is a land that effectively destroys an equipment). Keeping merfolk off of jitte has won me some games as well.
I played against UW stoneblade the other day. He got out a mainboard back to basics. I was fine. I had a mox diamond and a basic forest. Then I used loam to get back a few lands. I transmuted tolaria west to get a mox diamond and I was golden. Sure, 5 of my lands didnt untap but i got there anyways. He ended up getting thopter foundry as well as counterbalance/top. His issue was that he was already on the fence thanks to the explosiveness of mox diamond into confidant then knight, then goyf and stoneforge (knight was FoWed, stoneforge was FoWed, Goyf was sworded and his stoneforge mystic traded with my confidant since i had already dropped tower of the magistrate to keep his sword of batterskull completely worthless.
He ended up almost stabilizing at 4 life thanks to an ensnaring bridge. Unfortunately he had put his top on top to draw it in time so i just vindicated it and blasted through for the next two turns for victory.
Played TES:
Game 1 he almost stumbles on mana thanks to a wasteland and a knight tutoring up a wasteland. I get out jace and bottom of chrome mox. He chain of vapors the knight which buys him a turn of keeping a land and has ad nauseum the turn after for game.
Game 2 I roll out a rule of law. He burning wishes for something. Next turn i wasteland his city of brass and then cast an arcane laboratory. He concedes.
Game 3 I mull my opening which was wasteland, karakas, sylvan library, rule of law, jace, 2 vindicate. I get a hand with 4 lands, a mox diamond and a chalice of the void. I keep it and hope he doesnt open with thoughtseize or duress. He rolls out a ponder. I drop chalice of the void on 1. I draw a goyf somewhere in those first 2 draws and cast it as a 2/3 (land, sorcery). Next turn i bash. I draw a dark confidant bash and cast it. He then has the lands, a chrome mox, 2 lotus petals and an LED plus the ad nauseum in hand to cast ad nauseum. He goes looking for victory but he draws a bunch of 1 drops (3 rite of flames, duresses, brainstorms,, dark rituals, plus tendrils of agony, infernal tutor and a burning wish and just cant combo off through the chalice on 1).
He wins the roll, and I mull to 6. He opens with a misty rainforest.
After drawing my hand consists of of tropical island, mox diamond, forest, tolaria west, 2x knight of the reliquary, sword of fire and ice. I play a forest and pass.
He lays down a tropical island. He cracks misty fetching volcanic island and drop a grim lavamancer.
On my turn (drew wasteland) I play my mox diamond (tossing tolaria west) and run out a turn 2 knight of the reliquary. He dazes it.
On his turn, he wastelands my trop and swings for 1.
My turn: I play my wasteland and drop knight.
On his turn he ponders and passes.
I play my second knight which resolves. Then i sacrifice my forest and tutor up a wasteland and take out one of his lands. And the game is mine.
Played high tide:
He force of willed my turn 1 sylvan library exiling cunning wish so i put him on high tide. He confirmed as soon as he laid his second island. I laid down a jace soon after (it got FoWed too) and followed it up with another jace which resolved. Next turn tolaria west tutored for a chalice of the void and it resolved. The following turn jace found me a dark confidant and a really big goyf. And that was all it took.
Game 2 i boarded in the chalices, rule of law and arcane laboratory.
I ran out a turn 2 goyf, my turn 3 rule of law was FoWed, and my turn 4 arcane laboratory resolved. Then goyf beatdowns got there before he could wish for a wipe away and then wipe away to go off the following turn.
EDIT: Played reanimator:
Game 1 had him winning the die roll. He turn 1 careful studied dropping elesh norn.
turn 2 he dropped exhume and brought her back.
He countered my stoneforge mystic.
Then i dropped a knight of the reliquary which he dazed. Then he careful studied and thoughtseized me to take my other knight of the reliquary.
A few turns pass and then i go to vindicate his elesh norn-- which he manages to double daze.
Game 2:
I lead off with a chalice of the void-- which he force of wills. I follow it up with a knight which lands. Then i lay down another knight and double wasteland him with a karakas on the battlefield. Game is quickly rapped up.
Game3: he has turn 2 underground sea. I have turn 1 dark confidant (its off of a mox diamond and it gets dazed). I try casting a tormod's crypt-- it gets Forced. I follow it up with a stoneforge mystic which gets batterskull. (I have karakas now). On his turn 4 he show and tells. With 3 lands on the battlefield and a jace in hand, i decide to let it resolve. I drop knight of the reliquary and he drops elesh norn. Stoneforge mystic dies, i karakas it back to his hand and knight makes short work of him.
After some more playtesting i've figured some things out:
Its better for me to have umezawa's jitte instead of sword of fire and ice. Specifically, jitte is the same deadly force as sword of fire and ice against goblins and merfolk. (ok, its not quite as good against merfolk in terms of alpha striking for lethal, but the ability to kill a 3/3 or 4/4 with jitte is useful so it evens out. Additionally, the lifegain is relevant in both matchups)
In particular jitte turned out to be better than SoFI against "The Gate" This is because of its ability to more easily go through dark confidants and bitterblossoms.
The second change was replacing 1 of the two sylvan librarys with a crucible of worlds. This change is mostly there because as rare as it is, drawing the second sylvan library is bogus-- plus crucible of worlds is really good in this deck. Its another card advantage engine, and since this deck is more midrange its useful.
Additionally, I cut the jace the mind sculptor count down to 3.
While messing with the sideboard, engineered plague didnt seem to be pulling its wait. Also, I was having some difficulty with zenith based knight-goyf decks (aka Maverick decks, but to a lesser extent bant decks. Bant is a bit easier because brainstorm and daze turn out to be a little light against us) the matchup seemed to be 60-40 in that favor before changing SoFI to jitte and adding crucible of worlds. There are several reasons why that deck is so good against me:
1.mother of runes is relatively difficult for me to answer without engineered explosives.
2. The number of manadorks available makes it resilient against wasteland strategies.
3. Green sun's zenith gives their deck more access to
A. knight of the reliquary tutorable wasteland allows it to dodge the tech of loam bringing back and establishing utility lands like maze of ith
B. terravore-- who is generally big enough to swing for game
C. Scavenging Ooze The thing with this guy is that most other graveyard hate simply dilutes their deck. I have no issue at all if my opponent boards in 4 extirpate. With the ooze, it quickly outgrows batterskull (as do knight and terravore) while providing a way of shrinking my goyfs and knights as well as making life from the loam worse.
What was helping me win this matchup previously:
Wrath of god out of the board was a great answer to knights, scavenging ooze, mother of runes and a few noble hierarchs. This was essentially the card i needed to win. Additionally, engineered explosives pulled a lot of weight as it was one of the early outs to the noble hierarch + mother of runes.
Bojuka bog out of the board won me a few games.
Tower of the magistrate maindeck allowed me to shut down opposing stoneforge mystic shenanigans.
Engineered explosives allowed me to net some early card advantage by popping a few nobles and/or mother of runes.
Early chalice of the void crippled a lot of the decks draws, but was answerable by qasali pridemage and just green sun's zenithing over it.
Unfortunately, Gaddock teeg is decent answer to EE, chalice and Wrath of god if it comes down with support. Yes, vindicate and karakas are both great here, so generally speaking we can keep him off of the board as karakas is readily tutorable.
At this point, I decided that adding an EE and 2 scavenging ooze to the board in place of enginereed plague would help shore this up. Also, umezawa's jitte is just a lot better than sword of fire and ice in this matchup.
Note that the sideboard is meta specific. If dredge is heavy in your meta then I recommend that you modify your sideboard significantly and move the bojuka bog into maindeck.
If combo is heavy, then have 4 chalice of the void maindeck and probably cutting a stoneforge mystic, a crucible of worlds and whatever other card suits you is the correct move.
And now a game summary against burn:
He was on the play and led off with a fetchland.
I played a turn 1 tarmogoyf off of a mox diamond. He through a lightning bolt at my face at the end step (i doubt that that was the correct decision).
He then chain lightnings me and passes the turn.
Turn 2 i bash with goyf and transmute tolaria west for chalice of the void.
Turn 3 i land chalice of the void @1.
A friend for tarmogoyf ends the match rather quickly.
Current Version
3 Windswept Heath
1 Forest
2 Wasteland
1 Academy Ruins
2 Tolaria West
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
2 Bayou
2 Savannah
1 Tundra
1 Tropical Island
1 Tower of the Magistrate
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Lingering Souls
2 Vindicate
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Mox Diamond
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Dark Confidant
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Rule of Law
1 Arcane Laboratory
2 Wrath of God
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Faerie Macabre
1 Dismember
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Maze of Ith
1 Gilded Drake
1 Zealous Persecution
3-31-2012 version:
4x Wasteland
1x Forest
2x Bayou
2x Savannah
1x Tropical Island
1x Tundra
3x Misty Rainforest
3x Windswept Heath
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Karakas
1x Maze of Ith
1x Stirring Wildwood
2x Tolaria West
1x Tower of the Magistrate
1x Academy ruins
4x Dark Confidant
4x Stoneforge Mystic
1x Tarmogoyf
4x Knight of the reliquary
2x Vendilion Clique
Planeswalkers 2:
2x Jace, the Mind sculptor
Artifacts 12:
1x Batterskull
1x Umezawa's Jitte
4x Mox Diamond
4x Chalice of the Void
2x Engineered Explosives
Instants/sorceries 6:
3x Life from the Loam
3x Vindicate
1x Arcane Laboratory
1x Rule of Law
1x Thorn of Amethyst
1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3x Energy Flux
1x Consuming Vapors
1x Ghostly Prison
1x Wrath of God
2x Dismember
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Crucible of Worlds
February and midmarch 2012 version:
4x Wasteland
1x Forest
2x Bayou
2x Savannah
1x Tropical Island
1x Tundra
3x Misty Rainforest
3x Windswept Heath
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Karakas
1x Maze of Ith
1x Stirring Wildwood
2x Tolaria West
1x Tower of the Magistrate
1x Academy ruins
4x Dark Confidant
4x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Knight of the reliquary
2x Scavenging Ooze
1x Vendilion Clique
Planeswalkers 2:
2x Jace, the Mind sculptor
Artifacts 12:
1x Batterskull
1x Umezawa's Jitte
4x Mox Diamond
4x Chalice of the Void
2x Engineered Explosives
Instants/sorceries 6:
3x Life from the Loam
3x Vindicate
1x Arcane Laboratory
1x Rule of Law
1x Thorn of Amethyst
1x Consuming Vapors
1x Wrath of God
1x Dismember
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Elspeth, Knight Errant
1x Lingering Souls
1x Zealous Persecution
2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2x Energy Flux
January 2012 version:
4x Wasteland
1x Forest
2x Bayou
2x Savannah
1x Tropical Island
1x Tundra
3x Misty Rainforest
3x Windswept Heath
1x Cephalid Coliseum
1x Karakas
1x Maze of Ith
1x Stirring Wildwood
2x Tolaria West
1x Tower of the Magistrate
1x Academy ruins
4x Dark Confidant
4x Stoneforge Mystic
3x Tarmogoyf
4x Knight of the reliquary
1x Vendilion Clique
Planeswalkers 1:
1x Jace, the Mind sculptor
Artifacts 11:
1x Batterskull
1x Umezawa's Jitte
4x Mox Diamond
3x Chalice of the Void
2x Engineered Explosives
Instants/sorceries 7:
3x Life from the Loam
3x Vindicate
1x Worm Harvest
1x Chalice of the void
1x Arcane Laboratory
1x Rule of Law
2x Thorn of Amethyst
3x Energy Flux
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Consuming Vapors
1x Ghostly Prison
2x Wrath of God
1x Dismember
1x Sword of Light and Shadow
Mid november version
4x Wasteland
1x Forest
2x Bayou
1x Savannah
2x Tropical Island
1x Tundra
3x Misty Rainforest
3x Windswept Heath
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Karakas
1x Maze of Ith
2x Tolaria West
1x Tower of the Magistrate
1x Tranquil Thicket
1x Academy ruins
4x Dark Confidant
4x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Knight of the reliquary
Planeswalkers 3:
3x Jace, the Mind sculptor
Other spells 16:
1x Batterskull
1x Umezawa's Jitte
4x Mox Diamond
3x Chalice of the Void
1x Engineered Explosives
3x Life from the Loam
3x Vindicate
1x Chalice of the void
1x Arcane Laboratory
1x Rule of Law
1x Thorn of Amethyst
3x Energy Flux
1x Bojuka Bog
2x Scavenging Ooze
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Sylvan Library
1x Engineered Explosives
2x Wrath of God
Older, less good version:
4x Wasteland
1x Forest
1x Bayou
1x Savannah
2x Tropical Island
1x Tundra
3x Misty Rainforest
4x Windswept Heath
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Karakas
1x Maze of Ith
2x Tolaria West
1x Tower of the Magistrate
1x Tranquil Thicket
1x Academy ruins
4x Dark Confidant
4x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Knight of the reliquary
Planeswalkers 4:
4x Jace, the Mind sculptor
Other spells 15:
1x Batterskull
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
4x Mox Diamond
1x Chalice of the Void
1x Engineered Explosives
3x Life from the Loam
3x Vindicate
1x Sylvan Library
3x Chalice of the void
1x Arcane Laboratory
1x Rule of Law
3x Energy Flux
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Bojuka Bog
3x Engineered Plague
2x Wrath of God
Over the course of my playtesting I've done pretty well. From my testing, this deck has the following matchups:
UW stoneblade: Good. You are them if they had more threats and dark confidant to draw cards and life from the loam to kill all of the mishra's factories as well as maze of ith to make batterskull+ sword not do something awesome. The thopter sword variant is actually better to play against due to the 3 energy flux. as well as EE's ability to reck havoc on the combo and the tokens.
Merfolk: Even. Merfolk doesnt do so well against batterskulls-- this is well known. Also, they aren't super great against multiple tarmogoyfs. The ability to survive wasteland and go over daze's head is good. Also umezawa's jitte, when online, does a great job of shutting merfolk down. Also, if they are playing the phantasmal image variant which does better at killing dredge, progenitus and making sure they have all the silverguill adepts in the world, its pretty cool that tower of the magistrate has 1, T: kill that. That said, they are quick and fast and the deck has a very solid mana base.
High tide: Good. Game 1: play an early chalice of the void on 1 while showing an island. On turn 3 at the end of your turn, they will tutor up wipe away because they suspect you might have countermagic since you are playing blue. Hopefully you have either found another chalice of the void or established a clock or vindicated an island early enough. In any case, chalice of the void generally stalls them to turn 5 and that should be enough. Games 2 and 3 are the same except you want to also stick a rule of law and/or arcane laboratory. Chalice+ arcane lab/rule of law stalls significantly.
The Gate: this mostly depends on getting to either chalice, dark confidant or an online jitte. If you dont get any of those you almost always lose.
Reanimator: Good. Since you have karakas and maze of ith (not to mention jace/vindicate, knight getting making them block with their big dudes)-- whats not to love. O right, and chalice on 1 can shut them down pretty harshly.
Show and Tell w/hivemind: Even. If you can keep them off an early show and tell into hivemind/pact you win this. If they drop emrakul you are in great shape: you drop knight of the reliquary and bounce it when you tutor up karakas. If they drop hivemind, then its time to hope that you dropped a mox diamond earlier in the game, and have a knight. If you did, then its just 5 mana to pay for that pact of the titan which you can do if you have had 3 turns between a mox diamond and a knight of the reliquary. But lucky for you, it will often take a few turns for them to assemble that. Start mowing them down with goyfs, knights, bobs and jaces as quickly as you can.
Goblins: Much better on the play than on the draw. That said, goblins has trouble with turn 1 tarmogoyf, chalice and especially stoneforge mystic. Both batterskull and umezawa's jitte wreck havoc on them.
ANT: if they run echoing truth then thing are bad for you. If they run chain of vapor, repeal, nature's claim as their go to anti-disruption, then things are very good for you.
Other potential names for this deck:
Dark Bant
Dark Loam
Midrange Loam
Loam Blade
Loam Stompy
esper Loam
4 color Blade
Junk n Jace
JaceLoam
4 color Goodstuff
Maverick w/UB splash
Legacy:WUBG Jace Rock
Trade thread
Sig by: heroes of the plane studios
Game 2 I boarded in both rule of law and arcane laboratory. I boarded out batterskull and something else. He have show and tell into hivemind/pact turn on 2 off of a turn 1 basic island and I didn't have arcane lab or rule of law on the BF.
Game 3 i stuck with my board plan. I managed to get arcane laboratory into my hand and play through a vendilion clique, resolve a jace and a knight of the reliquary. When he show and telled i had arcane laboratory to match his hive mind. He had pact, but couldn't go with it just then.
On my turn, I jacestormed, wastelanded him back down to 2 mana, and then vindicated his hivemind. He choose to have his copy target my knight that would kill him in 2 turns so i decided to tutor up a karakas. After that I just road arcane laboratory and jace to victory.
Legacy:WUBG Jace Rock
Trade thread
Sig by: heroes of the plane studios
With that said, I think if you want to beat combo decks, I would perhaps suggest to add more black sources of mana to the deck and run discard in the form of hymn to tourach, thoughteize, and inquisition of Koziliek.
or bitterblossom cabal therapy, which is insane in rock btw
[NB: it almost looks as though he has built his deck around blanking MM]
I was just mentioning the interaction with BB, I was highlighting cabal therapy (if you have sick reads then therapy is pretty insane) [note: i have terrible read skillz]
i typically ran 7-9 hand disruption spells
4 hymn
3 thoughtseize
2 cabal therapy
if you are playing blue i could see trinket mage for ee making the deck, which would let you sideboard some bullets like needle and crypt [both help against combo]
Oh, I am not trying to burst your bubble or anything and I apologize if I sounded that way. Your intentions and ideas are good.
Also, you could be onto something about the Trinket mage, especially with mox diamond which you can actually fetch for too with trinket mage. I also like the idea of running Sensei's top in here as well.
Edit: Maybe, we can actually put together a list now or later with our ideas.
How exactly does that stack anyways? Draw for turn, library library (replaced by Loam) -> Dredge three, then the only two actual cards "drawn" back on top of deck? Or loam first, look at the top two and put them back in any order. Assuming of course you're not paying the life. Or how best are you abusing this to dig?
How often does Tranquil Thicket do something for you? I love the card most certainly, but it seems a little odd as a one-of even with two ways to dig it up beyond the super-slow path of Knight`ing for it and Wasteland.
Anyways, to my point: how much consideration have you given to stuffing in Hymn or the like? It'd not be able to reach critical mass with as many slots as you already have given over to the manabase, and as such I'd either replace the Libraries with more Chalices since you so nicely dodge the 1-drop spot and have Moxen to get them out on the first turn, or stuffing in an extra Vindicate as this seems to be very removal light for a rock list. Then again, Jace can bounce stuff.. so interesting. Got any favorite play stories to share?
BWG Dark Horizons
UWB Esper Stoneblade
GUB Lands
BGB (Pact) Spanish Inquisition
EDH:
BGW Karador, Spirit Warmage
EDIT: Here's a quick list, defs needs some work:
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
3 Thoughtseize
2 Cabal Therapy
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Dark Confidant
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Life from the Loam
3 Living Wish
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Trinket Mage
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Mox Diamond
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats
3 Bayou
3 Scrubland
2 Tropical Island
1 Plains
1 Forest
1 Swamp
4 Wasteland
Living wish seems insane, it can go and get Maze, Stronghold, Karakas, Tabernacle, Teeg, Pridemage, Bog, etc A pretty sweet one i've seen wished for is Stirring Wildwood, it can block V-Clique and is a pretty good way to close out the game against control, you could also wish for Creeping tar pit
[Man, the brewing begins!!!]
2) @ soft against wastelands: I have 25 lands, 3 life from the loams, and mox diamonds as mana fixing. I win the wasteland war. Ive won the wasteland war by making land drops every turn through weathered wayfarer.
Sylvan Library is great. Its another must answer card and it works well.
Well, you draw your first card (or replace it with loam) then you get to draw 2 more cards (either of which you can replace with loam). If from using sylvan library on a previous turn, you know you have something you want to keep on top (like Jace), you can draw a card for the turn, then use sylvan library to dredge loam (dredge a second loam if you can) and then put jace back on top. If you have out sylvan library with all 3 loams in your graveyard, you can actually just dredge 9 and get them all back into your hand. But thats magical christmas land.
Its pretty useful. The general gameplan is to discard it early to a mox diamond or to cycle it into more gas. The cool thing about it is that it can let you use life from the loam to not give up any gas in terms of drawing potentially nonland cards.
Well, Ive had some crazy games with this deck. Ive enjoyed wrecking stoneblade with maze of ith and tower of the magistrate. Its been great to just watch someone drop all of the graveyard hate as ive beaten them down with batterskull or jace the mind sculptor.
As for hymn: I'm trying to get cards stuck in their hand.
@ the trinket mage decklist. How many games do you win off the back of stoneforge mystic? Now how many games do you win off the back of trinket mage?
The same with tarmogoyf. Generally speaking the sheer volume of A class threats wears people down.
I provide 16 must answer creatures, 2 must answer enchantments (sylvan library) and then 4 jaces (must be answered too).
For most decks, the sheer threat density backed by loam/wasteland wins games. Whatever this deck may look like, its probably more like aggro loam than junk. This is just a more midrange. I suppose you could also call it midrange loam.
I think that jace TMS and Life from the loam synergize brilliantly. I think dark confidant works amazing in high land count decks. Knight + loam= awesome because both work great with lots of wastelands as well as with 1 of utility lands. Stoneforge+ jace = awesome.
Legacy:WUBG Jace Rock
Trade thread
Sig by: heroes of the plane studios
For cards that I would cut for more chalice, well, you only need to see one jace in any game. 3 of those should be plenty. Life from the loam is a completely reusable and abusable, and you don't necessarily need to see it, just would like to. I'd cut one as well. That should leave you room for 2 more chalice. After that, it's up to you.
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
I havent seen much of them to be honest. Except for a few stacks strategies. Ive cruised through tangle wires and trinispheres as i just have 25 lands and life from the loam to get me there and mox diamonds if i want to hit 2 mana on turn 1.
Legacy:WUBG Jace Rock
Trade thread
Sig by: heroes of the plane studios
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
My sylvan library off of a mox diamond runs into a daze.
My goyf then resolves.
My next sylvan library gets force of willed.
Then stoneforge mystic gets batterskull and I win.
He draws the nuts and merfolk wins.
turn 1 confidant off of mox diamond he matches with island into vial
turn 2 confidant with daze mana up. he casts silverguill adept.
turn 3 sword of fire and ice with daze mana up. Confidant trades with silverguill. On his turn, he drops a standstill.
turn 4 wasteland his mutavault and suit up my confidant. I drop a maze of ith and ride confidant to victory underneath his standstill.
Legacy:WUBG Jace Rock
Trade thread
Sig by: heroes of the plane studios
Legacy:WUBG Jace Rock
Trade thread
Sig by: heroes of the plane studios
I dropped a turn 2 goyf.
i dug as rapidly as i could towards a vindicate to try to keep him down on lands, but he went off.
Game 2 my first chalice resolved. He merchant scrolled into cunning wish. I transmuted tolaria west into a second chalice of the void and resolved my second chalice of the void (both at 1). He conceded (telling me that wipe away was his out)
Game 3 I draw 1 chalice of the void and managed to transmute into the second 1 before he can deal with the 1st. He concedes.
Legacy:WUBG Jace Rock
Trade thread
Sig by: heroes of the plane studios
Lands WUBG
EDH:
Doran WBG
What would you recommend for the manabase? I could cut 1 fetchland for a second bayou.
Legacy:WUBG Jace Rock
Trade thread
Sig by: heroes of the plane studios
4x Wasteland
1x Forest
1x Bayou
3x Savannah
3x Tropical Island
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Windswept Heath
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Karakas
3x Maze of Ith
2x Tolaria West
1x Tranquil Thicket
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Academy Ruins
Took out excess fetches for more Mazes - they're that good. You don't need Tower of the Magistrate maindeck, so I would replace it with Academy Ruins since you have some nice recurrable artifacts.
Lands WUBG
EDH:
Doran WBG
O, i guess i forgot to update the list, but i ended up cutting a volrath's stronghold and a silvan library for an Engineered explosives and an academy ruins.
On Volrath's stronghold: the card is good. But it just consistently ended up being to slow. The ties when i found myself needing more dudes were only the times when 1 per turn wasn't going to cut it. It just didn't end up being useful frequently enough to justify its slot. When it was useful was for looking on top with sylvan library, then putting a dude on top so that when i dredged life from the loam i knew that i wasnt going to hit any card i couldn't recur (IE jace)
I think it would be a mistake to cut the tundra. I can fetch tundra off of any of my fetchlands if i stick to misty and windswept heath. Between it and a mox diamond and wastelands i can cast every spell in my deck.
As for tower of the magistrate: stoneblade is popular in my meta. tower of the magistrate blows stoneblade out of the water. Its also occasionally useful for chump blocking artifact creatures forever (it has come up) as well as helping keep cranial plating from instantly destroying me. Ive won more than my fair share of games for 1,T: destroy target germ equipped with batterskull. (also unequipping swords of this and that is useful since it is a land that effectively destroys an equipment). Keeping merfolk off of jitte has won me some games as well.
I played against UW stoneblade the other day. He got out a mainboard back to basics. I was fine. I had a mox diamond and a basic forest. Then I used loam to get back a few lands. I transmuted tolaria west to get a mox diamond and I was golden. Sure, 5 of my lands didnt untap but i got there anyways. He ended up getting thopter foundry as well as counterbalance/top. His issue was that he was already on the fence thanks to the explosiveness of mox diamond into confidant then knight, then goyf and stoneforge (knight was FoWed, stoneforge was FoWed, Goyf was sworded and his stoneforge mystic traded with my confidant since i had already dropped tower of the magistrate to keep his sword of batterskull completely worthless.
He ended up almost stabilizing at 4 life thanks to an ensnaring bridge. Unfortunately he had put his top on top to draw it in time so i just vindicated it and blasted through for the next two turns for victory.
Legacy:WUBG Jace Rock
Trade thread
Sig by: heroes of the plane studios
Game 1 he almost stumbles on mana thanks to a wasteland and a knight tutoring up a wasteland. I get out jace and bottom of chrome mox. He chain of vapors the knight which buys him a turn of keeping a land and has ad nauseum the turn after for game.
Game 2 I roll out a rule of law. He burning wishes for something. Next turn i wasteland his city of brass and then cast an arcane laboratory. He concedes.
Game 3 I mull my opening which was wasteland, karakas, sylvan library, rule of law, jace, 2 vindicate. I get a hand with 4 lands, a mox diamond and a chalice of the void. I keep it and hope he doesnt open with thoughtseize or duress. He rolls out a ponder. I drop chalice of the void on 1. I draw a goyf somewhere in those first 2 draws and cast it as a 2/3 (land, sorcery). Next turn i bash. I draw a dark confidant bash and cast it. He then has the lands, a chrome mox, 2 lotus petals and an LED plus the ad nauseum in hand to cast ad nauseum. He goes looking for victory but he draws a bunch of 1 drops (3 rite of flames, duresses, brainstorms,, dark rituals, plus tendrils of agony, infernal tutor and a burning wish and just cant combo off through the chalice on 1).
So i win 2-1 against TES.
Legacy:WUBG Jace Rock
Trade thread
Sig by: heroes of the plane studios
He wins the roll, and I mull to 6. He opens with a misty rainforest.
After drawing my hand consists of of tropical island, mox diamond, forest, tolaria west, 2x knight of the reliquary, sword of fire and ice. I play a forest and pass.
He lays down a tropical island. He cracks misty fetching volcanic island and drop a grim lavamancer.
On my turn (drew wasteland) I play my mox diamond (tossing tolaria west) and run out a turn 2 knight of the reliquary. He dazes it.
On his turn, he wastelands my trop and swings for 1.
My turn: I play my wasteland and drop knight.
On his turn he ponders and passes.
I play my second knight which resolves. Then i sacrifice my forest and tutor up a wasteland and take out one of his lands. And the game is mine.
Played high tide:
He force of willed my turn 1 sylvan library exiling cunning wish so i put him on high tide. He confirmed as soon as he laid his second island. I laid down a jace soon after (it got FoWed too) and followed it up with another jace which resolved. Next turn tolaria west tutored for a chalice of the void and it resolved. The following turn jace found me a dark confidant and a really big goyf. And that was all it took.
Game 2 i boarded in the chalices, rule of law and arcane laboratory.
I ran out a turn 2 goyf, my turn 3 rule of law was FoWed, and my turn 4 arcane laboratory resolved. Then goyf beatdowns got there before he could wish for a wipe away and then wipe away to go off the following turn.
EDIT:
Played reanimator:
Game 1 had him winning the die roll. He turn 1 careful studied dropping elesh norn.
turn 2 he dropped exhume and brought her back.
He countered my stoneforge mystic.
Then i dropped a knight of the reliquary which he dazed. Then he careful studied and thoughtseized me to take my other knight of the reliquary.
A few turns pass and then i go to vindicate his elesh norn-- which he manages to double daze.
Game 2:
I lead off with a chalice of the void-- which he force of wills. I follow it up with a knight which lands. Then i lay down another knight and double wasteland him with a karakas on the battlefield. Game is quickly rapped up.
Game3: he has turn 2 underground sea. I have turn 1 dark confidant (its off of a mox diamond and it gets dazed). I try casting a tormod's crypt-- it gets Forced. I follow it up with a stoneforge mystic which gets batterskull. (I have karakas now). On his turn 4 he show and tells. With 3 lands on the battlefield and a jace in hand, i decide to let it resolve. I drop knight of the reliquary and he drops elesh norn. Stoneforge mystic dies, i karakas it back to his hand and knight makes short work of him.
Legacy:WUBG Jace Rock
Trade thread
Sig by: heroes of the plane studios
Its better for me to have umezawa's jitte instead of sword of fire and ice. Specifically, jitte is the same deadly force as sword of fire and ice against goblins and merfolk. (ok, its not quite as good against merfolk in terms of alpha striking for lethal, but the ability to kill a 3/3 or 4/4 with jitte is useful so it evens out. Additionally, the lifegain is relevant in both matchups)
In particular jitte turned out to be better than SoFI against "The Gate" This is because of its ability to more easily go through dark confidants and bitterblossoms.
The second change was replacing 1 of the two sylvan librarys with a crucible of worlds. This change is mostly there because as rare as it is, drawing the second sylvan library is bogus-- plus crucible of worlds is really good in this deck. Its another card advantage engine, and since this deck is more midrange its useful.
Additionally, I cut the jace the mind sculptor count down to 3.
While messing with the sideboard, engineered plague didnt seem to be pulling its wait. Also, I was having some difficulty with zenith based knight-goyf decks (aka Maverick decks, but to a lesser extent bant decks. Bant is a bit easier because brainstorm and daze turn out to be a little light against us) the matchup seemed to be 60-40 in that favor before changing SoFI to jitte and adding crucible of worlds. There are several reasons why that deck is so good against me:
1.mother of runes is relatively difficult for me to answer without engineered explosives.
2. The number of manadorks available makes it resilient against wasteland strategies.
3. Green sun's zenith gives their deck more access to
A. knight of the reliquary tutorable wasteland allows it to dodge the tech of loam bringing back and establishing utility lands like maze of ith
B. terravore-- who is generally big enough to swing for game
C. Scavenging Ooze The thing with this guy is that most other graveyard hate simply dilutes their deck. I have no issue at all if my opponent boards in 4 extirpate. With the ooze, it quickly outgrows batterskull (as do knight and terravore) while providing a way of shrinking my goyfs and knights as well as making life from the loam worse.
What was helping me win this matchup previously:
Wrath of god out of the board was a great answer to knights, scavenging ooze, mother of runes and a few noble hierarchs. This was essentially the card i needed to win. Additionally, engineered explosives pulled a lot of weight as it was one of the early outs to the noble hierarch + mother of runes.
Bojuka bog out of the board won me a few games.
Tower of the magistrate maindeck allowed me to shut down opposing stoneforge mystic shenanigans.
Engineered explosives allowed me to net some early card advantage by popping a few nobles and/or mother of runes.
Early chalice of the void crippled a lot of the decks draws, but was answerable by qasali pridemage and just green sun's zenithing over it.
Unfortunately, Gaddock teeg is decent answer to EE, chalice and Wrath of god if it comes down with support. Yes, vindicate and karakas are both great here, so generally speaking we can keep him off of the board as karakas is readily tutorable.
At this point, I decided that adding an EE and 2 scavenging ooze to the board in place of enginereed plague would help shore this up. Also, umezawa's jitte is just a lot better than sword of fire and ice in this matchup.
To recap, the current version of the deck is:
1x Batterskull
1x Chalice of the void
1x Crucible of worlds
1x Engineered Explosives
4x Mox Diamond
1x Umezawa's jitte
Planeswalkers
3x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Creatures
4x Dark Confidant
4x Knight of the Reliquary
4x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Tarmogoyf
Land 25
4x Wasteland
2x Bayou
2x Tropical Island
1x Savannah
1x Tundra
1x Forest
3x Misty Rainforest
3x Windswept Heath
1x Horizon Canopy
2x Tolaria West
1x Tranquil Thicket
1x Academy Ruins
1x Karakas
1x Maze of ith
1x Tower of the Magistrate
3x Life from the Loam
3x Vindicate
1x Sylvan Library
3x Chalice of the Void
1x Thorn of Amethyst
1x Arcane Laboratory
1x Rule of Law
1x Bojuka Bog
2x Scavenging Ooze
1x Engineered Explosives
2x Wrath of God
3x Energy Flux
Note that the sideboard is meta specific. If dredge is heavy in your meta then I recommend that you modify your sideboard significantly and move the bojuka bog into maindeck.
If combo is heavy, then have 4 chalice of the void maindeck and probably cutting a stoneforge mystic, a crucible of worlds and whatever other card suits you is the correct move.
And now a game summary against burn:
He was on the play and led off with a fetchland.
I played a turn 1 tarmogoyf off of a mox diamond. He through a lightning bolt at my face at the end step (i doubt that that was the correct decision).
He then chain lightnings me and passes the turn.
Turn 2 i bash with goyf and transmute tolaria west for chalice of the void.
Turn 3 i land chalice of the void @1.
A friend for tarmogoyf ends the match rather quickly.
Legacy:WUBG Jace Rock
Trade thread
Sig by: heroes of the plane studios