My mana base is a little abnormal. I run an 8th green fetchland instead of a 3rd basic Forest. I have not seen a Blood Moon in probably 50 matches Online, so I am not worried about them. The Forest can be a liability against decks like Death's Shadow where you really need to get Valakut online ASAP. Plus, more fetchlands synergizes well with KHE and Tracker.
Speaking of KHE: that card is INSANE! I recently added 1 copy to replace Explores that were underperforming. It was great every time I got it turn 2 or 3. I recently added a 2nd copy instead of the clunky Primal Command. I would love to run a 3rd, but I think I like Farseek better, and I like having access to Wood Elves. But I think everyone should consider running KHE, they are very good.
Tournament Report from my latest 5-0
Round 1 - UW Control [2-0]
G1: [W] On the draw, I keep Cinder Glade, Foothills, Pact, Farseek, Courser, Scapeshift, Titan. He suspends Ancestral on turn 1. I play turn 1 Glade, turn 2 fetch Stomping, Farseek finding Stomping. He counters my turn 3 STE but Relic resolves and I play Valakut. He seems like a bad player when he plays turn 4 Crucible + GQ and immediately pops GQ to kill my Valakut. Relic exiles it on my turn and I resolve Courser which finds land on top. Turn 5, with Courser and Relic in play to his 4 lands and Crucible, I simply attack and play another Relic, content to build my mana while Courser pressures his life total. We play draw-go for multiple turns, his AV ticking down while Courser keeps finding me lands and filling my hand with Titans. A second Courser helps knock him to 5. He casts Quicken+Planar Cleansing end of turn to wipe the board. I rebuild next turn with Courser, STE, Relic. At this point the only real lands left in my deck are 2 Glade and 2 Valakut. He taps low for Supreme Verdict, so I cast Scapeshift. He Cryptic Commands it, and the next one resolves to kill him!
G2: [W] He seems like a new/bad player, so I keep a greedy 7: Glade, 2 Mountain, Relic, Chandra, Scapeshift, Titan. He has Ancestral turn 1. I play Glade, then Relic, then turn 3 Tracker. I figured I would bait a counterspell and hope to resolve turn 4 Chandra. Miraculously, Tracker resolves and survives until my turn 4! I saw him discard Azorious Charm to hand size game 1, so Tracker sits back while I play a fetchland and draw cards. Turn 5 I play STE and continue playing fetchlands and drawing cards. On turn 6, I play Baloth into Dissolve just to stay below 7 cards. I do the same with Chandra the following turn while the rest of my hand is Valakut, Scapeshift, 3 Titan, Nature's Claim. On turn 9, I finally attack with my 10/9 Tracker into his Charm. I simply draw with Clue and play double Tracker. He taps low to play Jace, so I take the opportunity to cast Titan, which eats Cryptic, and then Scapeshift for the win.
Round 2 - BW Eldrazi [2-1]
G1: [W] On the play, I keep Glade, Verdant, 2 Mountain, 2 Search, KHE. I fetch for Forest and suspend Search turn 1, then KHE turn 2. He has Relic then Sculler taking Farseek. On turn 4, with 5 lands already in play, KHE on 5 counters, and 2 Mountains in hand, I draw Courser. She shows me STE on top while he plays turn 4 Smasher. I pop KHE for Mountain + Forest so I can find a more live card on top. I draw Relic and Courser shows me Titan. I play and pop Relic to draw Titan, find 2 Valakut, and play my last Mountain hand to kill Smasher. He has Push for Courser but no Path for Titan, so he concedes.
G2: [L] On the draw, I keep Forest, Mountain, Foothills, Anger, Wood Elves, Chandra, Titan. It's a slow hand but it has great removal, and I figure his discard won't take everything. His turn 1 Inquisition takes Wood Elves and turn 3 Collective Brutality takes Anger. His turn 2 Strangler puts me on a clock. I have turn 3 Tracker, but it is too slow while his TKS takes Chandra. I almost stabilize with Tracker, Clues, STE, Farseek, Harmonize, but don't have enough mana to play double Courser in my hand before I get run over.
G3: [W] On the play, I mulligan 2 Mountain, 2 Search, STE, Farseek, Courser and keep Foothills, Verdant, Bolt, Farseek, Chandra, Titan, scrying Mountain to the top. His turn 1 Inquisition takes Farseek and turn 2 Sculler takes Bolt. I topdeck STE to find my 4th land and hope to get Chandra out, but he has another Sculler for her plus Thoughtseize for Titan. I am empty-handed to his double Sculler. Luckily he doesn't have any more big creatures, just a hand full of removal spells I think. I find lands and Farseeks for a couple turns, and then finally draw Bolt. Bolt #1 frees my Bolt from Sculler. Bolt #2 frees my Chandra from Sculler. Then I play Chandra and hope he doesn't topdeck Smasher. He doesn't. Chandra survives, finds Courser, then Search, then STE, then Titan. He concedes.
Round 3 - Titan Shift [2-0]
G1: [W] On the draw, I keep 2 Foothills, Verdant, Search, Farseek, Wood Elves, Scapeshift. We both suspend Search turn 1. He has turn 2 Explore into Search while I have KHE. Here I have a choice. I start the turn with 2 Forest and Mountain in play, with KHE on 1 counter. My hand is Foothills, Pact, Farseek, Wood Elves, Courser, Scapeshift, and I am at 18 life. He has 6 lands in play and 2 cards in hand. I assume he will play land + Scapeshift for 18, just enough to kill me. So I play Courser + Foothills, pop Foothills, then KHE to go to 21 life and 6 lands in play. I can kill him next turn from 19 by attacking, casting Wood Elves for Glade, then Scapeshift for 18. He doesn't have Scapeshift, so I survive the turn and kill him.
G2: [W] On the draw, I mulligan 6 lands + STE into Verdant, Foothills, 2 Search, Farseek, Wood Elves. He also mulls to 6, but I have no idea what he kept because he didn't do much this game, just cycled Sheltered Thicket. I play turn 1 Search, turn 2 Farseek, turn 3 Wood Elves + Search, turn 4 draw and play Pact.
Round 4 - Burn [2-1]
G1: [W] On the play, I mulligan 2 Foothils, 3 Scapeshift, 2 Titan into Verdant, Stomping, Relic, KHE, Harmonize, Scapeshift. I shock myself to play turn 1 Relic, which is fine against anyone other than hyper aggro like Burn... I wanted to save the fetchland to get KHE going. His turn 1 Goblin Guide finds a Mountain so I drop turn 2 KHE. He has turn 2 Eidolon, so I am in trouble, starting turn 3 with 14 life and only 2 lands in play. I topdeck Courser and fall to 11 after fetchland and Eidolon. He doesn't attack me, which seems like a terrible play on his part since he has 6 cards in hand. I assume he wants to catch me with Skullcrack. I am stuck on 3 lands. I pop Relic looking for more but am unsuccessful. He casts Skullcrack when I play STE. I fall to 6. He casts Lava Spike. In response, I pop STE, gain 1, put the 3rd counter on KHE, pop it, gain 2, go up to 9 then down to 6. He attacks with Guide and Bolts Courser after combat. I survive at 6 life and kill him with Scapeshift next turn.
G2: [L] On the draw, I keep Forest, Foothills, Glade, 2 Search, 2 Titan. Not a great hand since it has no removal or life gain, but double Search is nice. He has Rift Bolt into Eidolon into double Rift Bolt. I have Search into STE into Courser. I get Courser into play on 9 life, but his 2 Rift Bolts plus 2 Lava Spike finish me.
G3: [W] On the play, I keep Stomping, 2 Mountain, Bolt, KHE, STE, Courser. I play Stomping tapped turn 1. He has Guide. I play STE turn 2 to chump. He has Swiftspear but no 2nd land. I play turn 3 Courser+Bolt. I play turn 4 KHE, fetchland, Search, going up to 14 with Titan in hand. He can't keep up with only 1 land and concedes to turn 5 Titan.
Round 5 - Grixis Death's Shadow [2-0]
G1: [W] On the draw, I keep 2 Mountain, Verdant, Valakut, 2 Search, KHE. He leads on fetch-shock-Serum, so I put him on Grixis DS. I know my primary path to victory will be natural Valakut, so I shock myself turn 1 and suspend Search. He has another Serum turn 2 but no threat. I play turn 2 KHE. On turn 3, he plays a 2/2 Death's Shadow plus Gurmag Angler. On my turn 3, Search gets Mountain, Wood Elves gets Stomping, and I play natural Valakut. He puts himself to 9 then 7 to Thoughtseize my Titan. I kill him with KHE plus Mountain in hand.
G2: [W] On the draw, I keep Forest, Glade, 2 Search, STE, Courser, Baloth. If I find another land on top, this is a great hand. His turn 1 Inquisition takes Courser. I suspend Search while he has turn 2 Angler, meaning I am dead in 4 turns. I don't find lands on the top, just Farseek and Tracker. His Thoughtseize takes Tracker. I still don't find land on top, so I cast Farseek to get to 4, and then play Relic. He plays a 5/5 Death's Shadow on turn 4. My 2nd Search comes off Suspend, and I draw a land to let me cast STE and Baloth, putting me back to 13 but with no cards in hand. His attack puts me to 8 after STE chumps. I topdeck Titan and cast it, finding 2 Valakut. I have 1 mana left and choose to pop Relic, hoping to find a Mountain to kill Angler. I miss. His Thoughtseize takes Relic, and he attacks with Angler, 7/7 DS, and Snapcaster. Titan blocks Angler knowing it will die to Command but that will tap him out and he is at 5, so I just need to draw a Mountain. Baloth chumps his 8/8 Death's Shadow, and I fall to 6 from Snapcaster. My next draw is Courser, showing STE on top. On the next turn, I chump his Death's Shadow with Courser, fall to 4, and cast STE for the win!
that's interesting. So how many trackers do you have in the SB and what other cards do you bring in against death shadow? it's a tough match up for sure, so I might give the trackers a try.
Against Grixis Death's Shadow, I remove 4 Scapeshift and 1 Forest for 3 Tracker, 1 Harmonize, 1 Thragtusk. I would love to have more Thragtusk in the side, but I can't find room.
Against Jund DS, I remove a ramp spell for Chandra. Relic often keeps Tarmogoyf small enough that Chandra can kill them. Plus, she can pressure LotV.
I really like your list, mono green main! Relics are so good at the moment that a playset maindeck is not a bad idea, even if they are dead they cycle.
I will give your deck a try with the following changes:
- I'll cut harmonize for the third KHE. I know that this card is nuts. I use to play it as a 3 and it was never disappointing. 3 copies help to get it down turn 2 often enough. Yes it's a dead draw when you are in top deck mode but the power of the card is so strong it's worth it. Also titanshift is really good at topdecking since outside of KHE or forests, we are happy to draw all other cards late game.
- 1x Sheltered Thicket instead of the 8th fecth. I have been playing that land for a while and the cycling is welcome when you are flooding. I like going down to only 2 forests with 14 mountains.
- In SB I'll have +1 Nature's Claim and +1 Thragtusk instead of Chandra and Harmonize.
I'll have a few leagues with this build, keep records and let you guys know how I did.
I'd love to hear from more people who have tried sheltered thicket. I didn't test it very extensively, and my results weren't super conclusive. But, the feeling I got was that you wanted to fetch it end of turn if you were in early game so that you didn't draw a tapped land in the next few turns. But that defeats the purpose of having cycling. Also, I replaced a mountain with it not a forest, so that was also different. If you really expect 0 blood moons and are happy running it over forest 3, then it's probably better than when I was trying it. But it replacing a mountain did nothing because in the late game topdecking a mountain is fine anyway and you don't really need a redraw most of the time.
So I had planned on playing Grixis Shadow tonight, but when I saw that my opponent was on Merfolk, I decided to play a deck that had a better chance against Merfolk...or so I thought. I go with Titanshift since I loaned out my Elves, which I would have loved to play. This was after a round 1 repair from someone I don't know to a Merfolk player. 20 something people, cut to 4 rounds.
Round 1 vs. Merfolk. Game 1, I keep on 4 lands, Search for Tomorrow, Primeval Titan, and Scapeshift. My 5 draws are 5 lands and I lose on turn 5 to a plethora of Lords and Silvergill Adept. In the next game, I do an early Chandra to kill his Lord, but he swings with Mutavault to kill it. I am drawing all lands again until I draw...Hornet Nest. My next draw is Hornet Nest #2. My next draw is Hornet Nest #3. In between this, he makes a mistake of attacking with Lord of Atlantis after I had Spreading Seas and Seas Claim on 2 lands instead of just attacking with Merrow Reejery and Mutavault. I block and get some Hornets. But he rebuilds with another Lord, so I swing and then cast Anger of the Gods. A couple of turns later, I draw my first non-land, non-Hornet Nest spell of the game and cast Primeval Titan to put this one away. I side out 1 Hornet Nest so the most I can draw is 2. In the next game, I play an Anger of the Gods, a Lightning Bolt, a turn 1 Search for Tomorrow, and I actually draw a ramp spell this game - Explore. I eventually get up in lands and play Prime Time, killing a Lord. Then it is all over next turn after I swing with the Prime Time to put Valakut #3 and #4 in play, he sees the writing on the wall. 2-1.
Round 2 vs. Zoo? He wins the die roll. Goblin Guide into double Goblin Guide, but I Bolt one of them after revealing the 2nd non-land card on his turn 2. He does Lightning Bolt/Reckless Bushwhacker to get me low and Bolt ends it. I end up drawing 2 Prime Time after already having 1 in my opening hand. I needed 1 ramp spell to cast it, but he probably had the other 2 Bolts on top of his deck anyway. The next game goes like this. Turn 1 Nacatl for him. Goblin Guide X 2 next turn, but I have Anger of the Gods. He only gets down a Knight of the Reliquary, but I Chandra, Torch of Defiance 4 damage to it. He doesn't do much after that except some Burn and I actually draw lands to Prime Time and win. I didn't need to play Obstinate Baloth because I was at a safe life total and Prime Time cleared the way. In the final game, he does Goblin Guide into Goblin Guide. I Bolt one on his turn 3 after Search for Tomorrow on my turns 1 and 2. Another Goblin Guide reveals Obstinate Baloth, but I have to take a counter of the suspended Search for Tomorrow and I lose it. I draw another land for the turn. His Goblin Guide reveals another Obstinate Baloth again next turn. I have to Search for Tomorrow and I lose it. I draw another land. I play Hornet Nest, but he has the Path to Exile. I get my land and even play another one after a Farseek to do a Valakut trigger, killing the Goblin Guide, but he Bolts EoT (had 3 cards before the Path to Exile), and then draws, plays a land, and Bolts me on his turn with his last card. Game. 1-2.
Round 3 vs. Merfolk. In the first game, I have the ramp and the win-con. I draw a single ramp and another win-con in Prime Time and a Scapeshift, cast them and win pretty easily. In the next game, I keep with just Lightning Bolt, which I do to a Lord of Atlantis. I eventually get a Prime Time out after he had a couple of Lords, but he then cast Tidebinder Mage to tap it down and another Lord for exactsies. I am removing some creatures in the next game, but he then cast a Merrow Reejery with 4 cards in hand and Mutavault in play. I play Anger of the Gods and Hornet Nest because Titan can't kill his Reejery and I want to give myself another draw step to draw a land. His next turn is Reejery after playing a 2nd Mutavault, and then double Lord, and finally a Cursecatcher. I draw a land for the turn, but even if I could kill a 4/4 Lord with a Valakut trigger, of which I only can get 1, he still gets me for lethal since I have 2 Islands in play. I scoop. 1-2.
Round 4 vs. Jund. I am 1-2 and can't get prize. He's 2-1 and can get prize. He asks me to scoop and I do. We actually don't play for fun, so I'm not sure how this would go. I know that Titanshift is around 60/40 vs. Jund, but I can see hands of Thoughtseize, Dark Confidant, Liliana of the Veil on the play for him while I stumble with lands and end up discarding Prime Times at 5 mana going his way. Who knows what would have happened, but the past few times I've played against him, he's had some insane draws, including during testing. When he has no cards in hand, I just think of the worst card for me that he can draw and assume it's that because it has actually been that quite a bit. 0-2.
I finish 1-3. Maybe I shouldn't have kept a 4 land hand with a win-con and turn 1 Search, but I don't usually assume that I will draw 0 non-land cards in a game. Rough evening. Last 3 tournaments with the deck - 2-3, 4-0, 3-1, and 1-3 for a total of 10-7, a record that's much worse than I'm accustomed to. Saw 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder the whole night, in game 3 Round 3 against Merfolk. Saw 1 or 2 Farseek all night. Felt a bit salty. :salt:
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)
I posted this to Reddit, but a cross post seems appropriate.
I've been playing with VBA recently and made a neat tool to look at card choices among MTGO 5-0 decks, SCG IQs/Events, and GPs. The first test looks at decks that fall in this catagory from 5-18 to 6-10 (a total of 24 decks).
I don't want to try and format it here, but here is the link to the Reddit post.
The first column is the card, second column is percentage in which that card is played among those decks in the set, and the third column is the average number of copies of that played card (of decks that have it).
Hope this is useful ahead of GP Vegas. About to look at mini-golf/food options for those who did the survey and release some details.
How have you guys done vs. Eldrazi Tron? I feel like there will be a lot in Vegas since Todd Stevens won the Open and made his tweet and all. I just barely put together E Tron and it seems like we're certainly favored.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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)
Todd has said on stream that Valakut strategies are probably his worst matchup (apart from jank like UB Mill) and that he always loses to them, so we're pretty favoured, in my opinion.
A big thing is not overboarding - I lost to Eldrazi Tron at GP Brisbane because I boarded into a more midrange list and didn't have the critical mass required to just kill them.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Well, I can saw a woman in two, but you won't wanna look in the box when I'm through.
This isn't inclusive, so feel free to bring whoever. I also picked the highest recommended place closest to the convention center but if the group that shows up decides on something else, that's also fine.
Also someone on the survey said they were local and knew some good eating spots, but the responses on my side are anon. DM me on twitter (@ aRichMesh) or on Reddit whoever you are (those will go to my phone, messages here don't)
How have you guys done vs. Eldrazi Tron? I feel like there will be a lot in Vegas since Todd Stevens won the Open and made his tweet and all. I just barely put together E Tron and it seems like we're certainly favored.
I used to play Eldrazi Tron, and Scapeshift was a horrendous matchup, nearly impossible to win unless the Scapeshift player mulligan'd to oblivion.
I played against E-Tron last night in a 2-man. The opponent had a decent start and then held up Warping Wail to stop the Scapeshift on 8 lands. Instead, I played Titan, which he has 0 answers for, and he died.
Their disruption matches up very poorly for our threats. Chalice does almost nothing (best on 0 to stop Pact), TKS is great as always but will only take 1 card and doesn't help against your topdecks. We don't care about Ballista or Endbringer. All is Dust doesn't do anything.
Why don't more Titanshift lists run the third summoners pact? It seems like such a good card to draw for both finding threats and grabbing sideboard cards.
Why don't more Titanshift lists run the third summoners pact? It seems like such a good card to draw for both finding threats and grabbing sideboard cards.
It is strong card indeed but sometimes you just get handful of game ending cards when you need more ramp cards. With two Pacts I find myself sometimes in those situations where I have three lands in play and hand is Titan, Scapeshift, Pact, Pact, land (very awkward). I don't personally feel that the deck needs more win conditions or at least I don't personally have any issues to find them enough consistently.
My board was set up to deal with the two or three decks that give me real pause at my local, which are UW Control, Death's Shadow Jund, and UW Eldrazi Hatebears. There's also a guy running UR Land Destruction, but he's usually a lossand trying to play around his shenanigans is probably so low EV that it's not worth doing.
Round 1: I'm up against a guy on a BG Midrange deck that's a bit of a brew. He's running Grim Flayers and Phyrexian Obliterators. Game 1 I manage to ply my two Relics early and he ended up having to Abrupt Decay them both, which is a win in my book. I end up getting to six lands and cast a Primeval Titan, and then kill him with Scapeshift the following turn. Game 2 I board in my other Relics and my Tireless Tracker, but the game proceeds in much the same way as the first.
Round 2: Mono Green Devotion. Game one he plays out his things, and I eventually cast a Sweltering Suns to 3-for-1 him. I then hit 6 lands and play a Primeval Titan. Usual story. I board in my other Sweltering Suns and my other Bolt, cutting a Courser and a Farseek (I think). He ramps out quickly and plays a Primal Command when I'm on two lands, gaining 7 life and searching up an Eternal Witness. As might be expected, I kill some of his creatures with some Bolts and then Scapeshift for lethal.
Round 3: UW Control. Game 1 my opponent plays the slow control plan, digging with Serum Visions and looking for action. He lets a Summoner's Pact sneak through and I resolve a Titan, which he Paths in response to the search trigger. I end up killing him by Scapeshifting after he taps out for an Elspeth to try to kill me quickly. I board out a Bolt, a Farseek, and a Sweltering Suns for 2 Reverberates and a Tireless Tracker. Game 2, Tracker and Chandra do a bunch of work - I'll play a land drop, getting my clue, and then uptick Chandra to pop the clue. I think I drew 3 or 4 cards off of the Tracker this game. Eventually my opponent taps out for a Supereme Verdict since my Tracker is pressuring him pretty hard, and I play the Scapeshift I've been slowrolling. I'd also had Reverberate in hand all game, which he knew about (due to Vendillion Clique) - I was waiting until he'd tapped his mana such that he could only have 1 counterspell.
Round 4: Jund. Game one my opponent keeps a hand with a lot of disruption and zero threats. His disruption doesn't stop me resolving a Titan and then Scapeshifting. For game 2, since I'm a game up and I wanted to test a board plan I'd seen mentioned in this thread, I boarded out 5 cards - all 4 Scapeshifts and a Farseek for 2 Relics, 2 Baloths, and Tireless Tracker. Game 2 proceeds much the same way as the first, although my opponent does Surgical my Wooded Foothills (he wanted to hit something and didn't feel like waiting for a Fulminator); eventually I resolve a Titan and get to 3 Valakuts in play and active, and then play two mountains to deal him 18.
My perspectives on my card choices: Wood Elves did a lot of work. I'm going to be trying a second, in place of the Courser of Kruphix. Chandra was very good when I got her, and I'm considering increasing the number I play, since she's never entirely useless. Mainboard Relics and the Relics in from the board did a lot of work for me; if nothing else, they can cycle, which for a deck that is as good at topdecking as this one is surprisingly strong. Tireless Tracker from the board did a lot of work for me against UW, and I'll have to consider playing more. I never boarded in my Nests or Haze of Pollen, since I never played against an aggro deck or against Death's Shadow, which is why I'd put them in the board in the first place. Ideally, Haze of Pollen would be a Fog, but I couldn't be bothered to go through my collection to find one when I had a Haze of Pollen sitting in my random jank.
The deck is still good, and still tight. I'd be happy to take it to any big event if I got the chance, although I'd probably mess with the list a little, since Chandra and Wood Elves performed very well.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Well, I can saw a woman in two, but you won't wanna look in the box when I'm through.
I can't believe that there are players that gain 7 life in that situation instead of putting one of your lands on top of your Deck O_O
Just curious, why are you playing another sweltering suns in the sideboard instead of anger of the gods?
I pointed that out to him afterwards. He had a brainfart and forgot that he could do that.
The third Sweltering Suns in the board over the Anger is simply because there are times where I'll want to board it in, and still have to cycle it. I was relying on my 4 Relics over the 75 to deal with any graveyard shenanigans. I'm probably going to change some of those Relics with Grafdigger's Cages after I put in a card order, and having that makes Sweltering Suns a bit more justifiable in the board.
EDIT: Just thought that I'd note that I haven't gotten much out of the current duel land split of 3-2-2. I rarely want to cycle Sheltered Thicket if it's in my hand, since playing it for a bigger Scapeshift is usually better, but I'm going to keep using it since it's basically a freeroll in most circumstances. I've got to imagine that when you're at 5 lands with a Titan in hand and you topdeck a Sheltered Thicket it has to hurt, but that hasn't come up yet. If you've got the Thickets, give it a go, but so far I haven't found it to be a particularly positive or negative change to the mana base.
I also found it to not matter. And because of that I cut it. The times where it could hurt seem to be worse than the times you want a cycle. But, in a grindy meta when you expect to be topdecking with a bunch of lands in play more often than not it could be reasonable.
Round 3 vs. Affinity. This guy was honestly one of the best Affinity players I've ever played against. In game 1, he kills me on either turn 4 or 5. I have a solid hand, but miss drawing a single ramp spell and end up short. In the next game, I keep a hand that has Hornet Nest and Anger of the Gods. I do it and he is pretty surprised. He makes a reference to the Wicker Man movie when Nick Cage says, "no, not the beeeees!" It gives me the time to draw a kill spell. In the next game, I keep with 2 land, Anger of the Gods, Hornet Nest, and some other cards. I draw a land to cast them and it gives me infinite time. I finally get Prime Time a bunch of turns later, but after taking some damage, he draws Springleaf Drum and slams Blood Moon. Since I only had 1 Forest in play, it turned off potential draws. He was at a high life total, but basically Bees gave me time to attack 4 times with a Prime Time for lethal while I was digging for Nature's Claim or Beast Within. Got it with the 6/6 trampler. I talked to this guy for a while before Round 15 much, much later and he was 11-3 at that time. 2-1.
Round 4 vs. UWR Kiki. I recognize this guy as a guy who played at my shop, but now is traveling to a lot of GPs and doing pretty damn well. He also top 8ed the GP Vegas Legacy with RUG Delver 2 days ago. In the first game, I am trying to figure out what flavor of UWR he is. When I see Resto Angel, I feel like it's Kiki. The game is drawn out and long, but he gets chip shots with a Resto Angel, SCM, and Lightning Helices. He tries with a Celestial Colonnade, but I Bolt and Valakut trigger it. I killed each of those after only 1 hit each, but he had enough to topdeck Bolt and kill me. I didn't draw Pact, Titan, Scapeshift, or Chandra this game. He says that it is not usually the way the games go, probably just saying that I didn't draw ***** in a nicer way. In the next game, it is very similar except I do draw a Chandra, Torch of Defiance to kill a Spell Queller. I tried to lure him to counter it so that I could Sweltering Suns while he's tapped out. It turned out he didn't have another Queller, but was considering Resto Angel. He ends up killing me with that Resto Angel because I don't find win cons and my 1 Valakut was Spreading Seas'd. 0-2.
Round 5 vs. Esper Shadow. I keep a hand with Search, 2 ramps, and lands in anticipation of Shadow. He ends up playing a non discard game where he has early delve creatures that put me away when I draw just more lands, except a Prime Time that was stripped before I could play it. 2 Wood Elves bought me a little time with a STE, although 1 of the Elves was Pushed with Revolt. I keep a similar hand in the next one, but he DOES have discard. So he only can get 1 ramp spell and I live off the top to find Prime Time. He basically had almost nothing. The last game was the one game where I potentially could have won during this tournament. He got turn 2 Angler, turn 3 Tasigur and applies pressure. After some chumps by Wood Elves, I am at 11 life and he has left 1 Godless Shrine open. I have Summoner's Pact (along with a Titan in hand if I can get to that), which I use for Hornet Nest. I was considering how he was leaving Path mana open, but I came to the conclusion that I can't beat Path anyway. Obstinate Baloth getting Pathed is as bad. So, he was just really trying to fake Path. But I didn't recognize that he didn't leave Stubborn Denial mana open, although he couldn't have represented both because he had no Hallowed Fountain in play. Thien was watching since his match to the side was over and said that I could have tried an aggressive line of taking the damage down to 2, Pactin for Sakura-Tribe Elder and then doing Scapeshift next turn. I was so scared of Stubborn Denial that I didn't want to do that, but not leaving Blue open signifies something at least. I end up Pacting for Hornet Nest and he untaps and plays Liliana of the Veil to make me sacrifice the nest and lose the game. 1-2.
Round 6 vs. Grixis Shadow. This guy tried to scumbag me in the first game after a mull to 5 left me with 1 Forest and a suspended Search. He tried to tell a Judge that I took a counter off during his DRAW STEP. I was furious and literally wanted to kick his ass after the match. The Judge figures out the right call, but he nut draws me to win while my Forest start and missed land drops don't get there. In the next 2 games, I basically have pretty quick hands and his hands are a bit too slow. 2-1.
Round 7 vs. Grixis Shadow. He messes with my hand, but can't find the turn 2-3 delve creatures and by turn 4, it's just too late. I have a few turns to draw land, I do, and then win with a Prime Time. He attacks into it and I don't even block because even though I know they don't have something to punish that, I just don't want to take a chance and I'm at 4 life with only 1 Red source in play by him. In the next game, he does turn 1 Thoughtseize again, but after another Thoughtseize on turn 2, he finds nothing else until it's too late. Just poor draws by him after turn 2 in both games. 2-0.
Round 8 vs. Affinity. He has the turn 5 kill, but I have a turn 4 and win. Best draw of the tournament. The next game is pretty similar. Lucky to have exactly 1 Lightning Bolt in hand for his turn 2 Steel Overseer both games. Really not much to say here other than I drew my 2 best goldfish hands of the tournament and he was a bit slow. 2-0.
Round 9 vs. Affinity. This guy is a really nice guy. Genuinely wishes me luck and have fun! In game 1, he is attacking me while I'm trying to get to Titan. It comes down to this. I can Scapeshift after Pacting for Sakura-Tribe Elder and if I had done Lightning Bolt earlier, it would have been 21 damage. But he was at 22, so it wasn't actually a punt. The next game is going similarly. He had a slow start, but started accelerating around turns 2-3, so I go for Hornet Nest. He looks at it, reads it, and doesn't think much of it. I do Sweltering Suns next turn. He had 1 card in hand since the beginning. I considered Galvanic Blast, but he lets me get tokens and has 3 counters on his Inkmoth Nexus now. Buuuut...I have 3 Bees. I can't find the big win-cons, but it slows him down enough for me to Valakut him out of the game, finishing by attacking with all 3 bees (in case he blocked 1) and double Lightning Bolt to win. He tells me after the match that he misplayed by not doing Galvanic Blast on the Nest in response to Sweltering Suns. I would have lost the bees and would have gotten poisoned by a Nexus soon after that since we both bricked for some turns. 2-1.
Round 10 vs. Burn. In the first game, I just have the perfect goldfish. He does too, but since Sakura-Tribe Elder prevents his turn 3 kill, I kill him on turn 4 with Scapeshift. He gets the good Burn draw in the next and ends up burning me out before I can attack with Prime Time. In the final game, it came down to him playing Mountain into Stomping Ground. He was out of White, but got it after my Prime Time landed. I overly played around Deflecting Palm, which he didn't have, but managed to get an Obstinate Baloth down while not attacking with Prime Time since it wasn't lethal before Palm could Palm me. I squeak this one out. He shows me that he had double Boros Charm and double Lightning Helix in hand the whole time. 2-1.
Round 11 vs. Dredge. I am matched up against Pro Tour player Ben Weitz. The first game is really ugly in terms of playing by me. I just do a million blunders, getting thrown off by some opening hands. I have a hand with 4 Mountain and 3 Search for Tomorrow. I know most people just mulligan it right away and don't dwell on it. I think too hard about if he manipulated my deck without me knowing it, even though he super clearly didn't look at my deck while shuffling. Stellar guy. Then I have 3 Windswept Heath, 2 STE, and another card. I snap keep and ship a land to the bottom. He does turn 1 Stomping Ground, Insolent Neonate. He does Collective Brutality with 2 modes to nab my win-con of Scapeshift. I topdeck a Scapeshift the next turn while he has some Bloodghast beats. I play it for 18 in case he does another Collective Brutality before I can get a ramp next turn or land. BBUUUUUT, I forget that he's back at 20 life now, thinking that he will scoop. I only get 1 RG source and 5 Mountain. So now Prime Time or Scapeshift off the top DON'T kill him. Terrible. I draw Search for Tomorrow, but there are no more Mountains in the deck. Now it's just comical, but I topdeck Bolt to kill him the next turn as he bricked on a Dredge 3, not finding Conflagrate, so I win at 5 life. In the next game, he mulls to 3. I play turn 1 Relic of Progenitus. He plays lands and Ancient Grudge right away. But he only plays 2 more land and dies after that. 2-0.
Round 12 vs. RG Breach. I see him looking like a mirror, but he turn 4s Through the Breach/Emrakul. I have drawn only lands this game and in fact 6 lands for my first 6 draws, so I keep playing. He plays Simian Spirit Guide to finish me, but my only non land card in hand is Lightning Bolt. He bricks a million turns while I am getting to Scapeshift mana. I have some turns, 4 in fact, to draw Scapeshift to straight up kill him. I don't and eventually he draws Mountains to kill me with his first Valakut triggers. The next game is just a turn 3 Through the Breach/Prime time by him, but I kept a hand that goldfishes to beat that if I draw a single ramp spell (already had Search). I don't and he wins. 0-2.
Round 13 vs. BW Eldrazi and Taxes. This guy's first land drop is Shambling Vent and now I' super confident that I'll win. I assume Junk at worst. His next plays are this. Leonin Arbiter, slowing me down, E Temple into Thought-Knot Seer into Thought-Knot Seer and Ghost Quarter. I basically in this game if I had Bolt for Arbiter because the Quarter keeps me off Valakut activations. In the next game, I get out Prime Time and am just too quick of a win. He plays turn 4 Thought-Knot Seer to see my hand and then scoops. The last game is similar to the first one except he had turn 1 Burrenton Forge-Tender and I had 1 Lighting Bolt. I ramped pretty good, but needed to draw Sweltering Suns or Anger of the Gods to wipe his Leonin Arbiter and Tidehollow Sculler. They and a Seer kill me before I can potentially draw land or ramp to Scapeshift him. He told me that he's "the guy" on MTGO who's been killing leagues 5-0 with E Taxes. I took a look at his list, originally because I wanted to count the deck since it felt a bit light. But it looked like a super good list and I wasn't salty anymore about this super tough loss. 1-2.
Round 14 vs. Faeries. This guy gets Bitterblossom and keeps me off balance with some counters, but lets me ramp for the most part. He has me at lethal next turn if I don't lethal him, so I go for the 18 damage, 7 land, Scapeshift after putting mana in my pool. He has fetch and a Tectonic Edge that he just drew for the turn. I forget exactly if he can Tec Edge a Mountain in response to the resolution to prevent my kill, but I am dead on board next turn anyway. I try to find 6 Mountain, but there's only 5 left, so I get Stomping Ground. He does Tec Edge the Stomping Ground and I call a Judge in case. The first Judge rules 3 damage, so I call another because I know that's certainly not right. The other Judge rules correctly. I just wanted to be sure. In the next game, I get off a quick Titan and he can't do anything. In the last game, he makes some plays, but an active Valakut keeps him from applying pressure. I end up going for the Nature's Claim that I had drawn instead of a win-con on his Bitterblossom. He does Countersquall, putting me to 8 life. I untap, draw Bolt (I have four Valakut in play now) and double Bolt him to win. He was pretty on tilt after this one, but not towards me. Just signed the slip, slammed his backpack down, and then left. I probably would have been the same amount of upset if I missed top 8 on a play like this, but certainly not at the X-4 bracket. 2-1.
Round 15 vs. BR Moon. This guy visited our store for a few months a year ago. He traveled through work. He's super cool and I happen to outdraw him every time, so it's always fun. Same thing happens. He does turn 1 IoK. I think he's Shadow? It turns out he's playing the BR Moon deck that had Goblin Rabblemaster and Pack Rate to go with disruption and kill spells. He said it's good vs. Shadow and it seems it. I end up doing Bolt for Rabblemaster on my turn since I tapped out for Wood Elves. His token gets blocked by the Wood Elves after some hits. I get there with Prime Time eventually. In the next game, he does IoK again, taking my Bolt - the answer to his Bob. But I topdeck Bolt and get his Bob. I draw another Bolt, but he's stuck on Swamp, and eventually Mutavault X 3. He gets in hits while I saw Bolt in case a Rabblemaster gets out. I get to about 7 before Scapeshifting. Bolt + 18 Scapeshifted points is lethal. 2-0.
Finished 11-4 for 146th place. Kind of disappointed at my Day 1 record, but happy at how I fought back from 3-2. A bit disappointed about going 4-2 on Day 2, but happy since it was my best Day 2 ever. (I know; pretty embarrassing) But I was VERY happy to see a lot of friends doing so well, including a friend who top 4ed Legacy (which he's only played for a month) and was 11-1 in Modern at one point.
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)
Finished 11-4 as well , lost to Grishoalbrand, Eldrazi (both game nut draw with double temple, curving TKS smasher smasher), Grixis DS (3-1 vs it in the tourney), and last round to 8rack.
Few closing thoughts on some of the card choices over the weekend:
- Relic was great, it should be a maindeck 3-4 of in the current meta
- my teammate (he went 12-3) and I both played a singleton primal commend, and it was great for us
- Thragtusk is a trap in sb, just play baloths
- EE was great
- have a real plan against blood moon, not just relying on 1 for 1 solution like rec sage. We both had a back to nature, and alternate whammies in sb (i had 13emmy, my teammated had a ugin)
- don't play hornet nest (we cut it entirely)
- Chandra is very medium (we have 0 in our 75 this weekend), doesn't kill most of DS's threats, and just dies to any go wide deck. She is a good card, and will have another time to shine in a different meta
- if you use expedition well, it is one of the most powerful card against DS
- Don't play a third forest
- Don't go less than 4 stomping
Finished 11-4 as well , lost to Grishoalbrand, Eldrazi (both game nut draw with double temple, curving TKS smasher smasher), Grixis DS (3-1 vs it in the tourney), and last round to 8rack.
Few closing thoughts on some of the card choices over the weekend:
- Relic was great, it should be a maindeck 3-4 of in the current meta
- my teammate (he went 12-3) and I both played a singleton primal commend, and it was great for us
- Thragtusk is a trap in sb, just play baloths
- EE was great
- have a real plan against blood moon, not just relying on 1 for 1 solution like rec sage. We both had a back to nature, and alternate whammies in sb (i had 13emmy, my teammated had a ugin)
- don't play hornet nest (we cut it entirely)
- Chandra is very medium (we have 0 in our 75 this weekend), doesn't kill most of DS's threats, and just dies to any go wide deck. She is a good card, and will have another time to shine in a different meta
- if you use expedition well, it is one of the most powerful card against DS
- Don't play a third forest
- Don't go less than 4 stomping
I have come to many of the exact same conclusions for the deck.
1) Relic - I maindeck 4. Worst-case, you cycle them game 1 (we often have 1 extra mana) and board them out. Or, you just win turn 1 against some decks.
2) Primal - I used to run it but ended up cutting it. A 5cc Sorcery will just get Stubborn Denial'd against DS. Against other decks, I'd rather have Pact. It's nice to have a maindeck out to Blood Moon or Leyline of Sanctity, but I rarely face those Online.
3) Thragtusk - Can you elaborate here? I have found Thragtusk AMAZING against DS. It's much worse against Burn, but that's why I run 3 maindeck Courser. Against something like 8-Rack, Baloth is better, but I have 4 Trackers post-board.
4) EE - I considered running it in the side, but it seems very slow. When do you want this over Anger? Do you splash to get X=3?
5) Blood Moon - I don't see any Blood Moons Online, but my plan is 4 Tireless Tracker (post-side), 4 Titan, 3 Courser, 1 Chandra. How was 13Emmy for you? You often get it reduced by 3 (land, sorcery, creature), max 5 (enchantment, instant). Best-case, it costs 8, which seems way too expensive for the effect.
6) Hornet Nest - I recently put them back into the sideboard but haven't had a chance to use them yet. They aren't amazing in some configurations of Titan Shift, but I like them in mine. Against Grixis DS, my post-board threats are:
2 Pact
3 Courser
2 Hornet Nest
4 Tireless Tracker
4 Titan
0 Scapeshift
I overload on creatures, so Hornet is very unlikely to be killed with non-damage removal.
7) Chandra - I board 1 against Eldrazi decks, but otherwise I agree that she's not great right now.
8) KHE is insane against DS, especially Grixis. If you get out a Valakut, you can really screw up their combat math and kill them out of nowhere.
9) 3rd Forest - 100% agree. I put in an 8th green fetchland instead of 3rd Forest. It helps with KHE and Tracker.
10) Stomping - I could see 4 Stomping, 3 Glade over 1 basic Mountain. Do you run 2 or 3 Glades? I love the ability to play untapped duals later in the game and save on life. I will often fetch for Stomping turns 1 or 3, and then Glades the rest of the game. With 3 Stomping, 2 Forest, 8 fetchlands, I have a good number of ways to get turn 1 green for Search. That's the main time it makes a difference.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
4 Search for Tomorrow
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Khalni Heart Expedition
4 Farseek
1 Wood Elves
Utility [8]
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Courser of Kruphix
1 Harmonize
Payoff [10]
2 Summoner's Pact
4 Scapeshift
4 Primeval Titan
2 Forest
7 Mountain
3 Stomping Ground
3 Cinder Glade
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Windswept Heath
2 Verdant Catacombs
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Nature's Claim
3 Anger of the Gods
1 Reclamation Sage
3 Tireless Tracker
1 Obstinate Baloth (now a Thragtusk)
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Harmonize
My mana base is a little abnormal. I run an 8th green fetchland instead of a 3rd basic Forest. I have not seen a Blood Moon in probably 50 matches Online, so I am not worried about them. The Forest can be a liability against decks like Death's Shadow where you really need to get Valakut online ASAP. Plus, more fetchlands synergizes well with KHE and Tracker.
Speaking of KHE: that card is INSANE! I recently added 1 copy to replace Explores that were underperforming. It was great every time I got it turn 2 or 3. I recently added a 2nd copy instead of the clunky Primal Command. I would love to run a 3rd, but I think I like Farseek better, and I like having access to Wood Elves. But I think everyone should consider running KHE, they are very good.
Tournament Report from my latest 5-0
Round 1 - UW Control [2-0]
G1: [W] On the draw, I keep Cinder Glade, Foothills, Pact, Farseek, Courser, Scapeshift, Titan. He suspends Ancestral on turn 1. I play turn 1 Glade, turn 2 fetch Stomping, Farseek finding Stomping. He counters my turn 3 STE but Relic resolves and I play Valakut. He seems like a bad player when he plays turn 4 Crucible + GQ and immediately pops GQ to kill my Valakut. Relic exiles it on my turn and I resolve Courser which finds land on top. Turn 5, with Courser and Relic in play to his 4 lands and Crucible, I simply attack and play another Relic, content to build my mana while Courser pressures his life total. We play draw-go for multiple turns, his AV ticking down while Courser keeps finding me lands and filling my hand with Titans. A second Courser helps knock him to 5. He casts Quicken+Planar Cleansing end of turn to wipe the board. I rebuild next turn with Courser, STE, Relic. At this point the only real lands left in my deck are 2 Glade and 2 Valakut. He taps low for Supreme Verdict, so I cast Scapeshift. He Cryptic Commands it, and the next one resolves to kill him!
G2: [W] He seems like a new/bad player, so I keep a greedy 7: Glade, 2 Mountain, Relic, Chandra, Scapeshift, Titan. He has Ancestral turn 1. I play Glade, then Relic, then turn 3 Tracker. I figured I would bait a counterspell and hope to resolve turn 4 Chandra. Miraculously, Tracker resolves and survives until my turn 4! I saw him discard Azorious Charm to hand size game 1, so Tracker sits back while I play a fetchland and draw cards. Turn 5 I play STE and continue playing fetchlands and drawing cards. On turn 6, I play Baloth into Dissolve just to stay below 7 cards. I do the same with Chandra the following turn while the rest of my hand is Valakut, Scapeshift, 3 Titan, Nature's Claim. On turn 9, I finally attack with my 10/9 Tracker into his Charm. I simply draw with Clue and play double Tracker. He taps low to play Jace, so I take the opportunity to cast Titan, which eats Cryptic, and then Scapeshift for the win.
Round 2 - BW Eldrazi [2-1]
G1: [W] On the play, I keep Glade, Verdant, 2 Mountain, 2 Search, KHE. I fetch for Forest and suspend Search turn 1, then KHE turn 2. He has Relic then Sculler taking Farseek. On turn 4, with 5 lands already in play, KHE on 5 counters, and 2 Mountains in hand, I draw Courser. She shows me STE on top while he plays turn 4 Smasher. I pop KHE for Mountain + Forest so I can find a more live card on top. I draw Relic and Courser shows me Titan. I play and pop Relic to draw Titan, find 2 Valakut, and play my last Mountain hand to kill Smasher. He has Push for Courser but no Path for Titan, so he concedes.
G2: [L] On the draw, I keep Forest, Mountain, Foothills, Anger, Wood Elves, Chandra, Titan. It's a slow hand but it has great removal, and I figure his discard won't take everything. His turn 1 Inquisition takes Wood Elves and turn 3 Collective Brutality takes Anger. His turn 2 Strangler puts me on a clock. I have turn 3 Tracker, but it is too slow while his TKS takes Chandra. I almost stabilize with Tracker, Clues, STE, Farseek, Harmonize, but don't have enough mana to play double Courser in my hand before I get run over.
G3: [W] On the play, I mulligan 2 Mountain, 2 Search, STE, Farseek, Courser and keep Foothills, Verdant, Bolt, Farseek, Chandra, Titan, scrying Mountain to the top. His turn 1 Inquisition takes Farseek and turn 2 Sculler takes Bolt. I topdeck STE to find my 4th land and hope to get Chandra out, but he has another Sculler for her plus Thoughtseize for Titan. I am empty-handed to his double Sculler. Luckily he doesn't have any more big creatures, just a hand full of removal spells I think. I find lands and Farseeks for a couple turns, and then finally draw Bolt. Bolt #1 frees my Bolt from Sculler. Bolt #2 frees my Chandra from Sculler. Then I play Chandra and hope he doesn't topdeck Smasher. He doesn't. Chandra survives, finds Courser, then Search, then STE, then Titan. He concedes.
Round 3 - Titan Shift [2-0]
G1: [W] On the draw, I keep 2 Foothills, Verdant, Search, Farseek, Wood Elves, Scapeshift. We both suspend Search turn 1. He has turn 2 Explore into Search while I have KHE. Here I have a choice. I start the turn with 2 Forest and Mountain in play, with KHE on 1 counter. My hand is Foothills, Pact, Farseek, Wood Elves, Courser, Scapeshift, and I am at 18 life. He has 6 lands in play and 2 cards in hand. I assume he will play land + Scapeshift for 18, just enough to kill me. So I play Courser + Foothills, pop Foothills, then KHE to go to 21 life and 6 lands in play. I can kill him next turn from 19 by attacking, casting Wood Elves for Glade, then Scapeshift for 18. He doesn't have Scapeshift, so I survive the turn and kill him.
G2: [W] On the draw, I mulligan 6 lands + STE into Verdant, Foothills, 2 Search, Farseek, Wood Elves. He also mulls to 6, but I have no idea what he kept because he didn't do much this game, just cycled Sheltered Thicket. I play turn 1 Search, turn 2 Farseek, turn 3 Wood Elves + Search, turn 4 draw and play Pact.
Round 4 - Burn [2-1]
G1: [W] On the play, I mulligan 2 Foothils, 3 Scapeshift, 2 Titan into Verdant, Stomping, Relic, KHE, Harmonize, Scapeshift. I shock myself to play turn 1 Relic, which is fine against anyone other than hyper aggro like Burn... I wanted to save the fetchland to get KHE going. His turn 1 Goblin Guide finds a Mountain so I drop turn 2 KHE. He has turn 2 Eidolon, so I am in trouble, starting turn 3 with 14 life and only 2 lands in play. I topdeck Courser and fall to 11 after fetchland and Eidolon. He doesn't attack me, which seems like a terrible play on his part since he has 6 cards in hand. I assume he wants to catch me with Skullcrack. I am stuck on 3 lands. I pop Relic looking for more but am unsuccessful. He casts Skullcrack when I play STE. I fall to 6. He casts Lava Spike. In response, I pop STE, gain 1, put the 3rd counter on KHE, pop it, gain 2, go up to 9 then down to 6. He attacks with Guide and Bolts Courser after combat. I survive at 6 life and kill him with Scapeshift next turn.
G2: [L] On the draw, I keep Forest, Foothills, Glade, 2 Search, 2 Titan. Not a great hand since it has no removal or life gain, but double Search is nice. He has Rift Bolt into Eidolon into double Rift Bolt. I have Search into STE into Courser. I get Courser into play on 9 life, but his 2 Rift Bolts plus 2 Lava Spike finish me.
G3: [W] On the play, I keep Stomping, 2 Mountain, Bolt, KHE, STE, Courser. I play Stomping tapped turn 1. He has Guide. I play STE turn 2 to chump. He has Swiftspear but no 2nd land. I play turn 3 Courser+Bolt. I play turn 4 KHE, fetchland, Search, going up to 14 with Titan in hand. He can't keep up with only 1 land and concedes to turn 5 Titan.
Round 5 - Grixis Death's Shadow [2-0]
G1: [W] On the draw, I keep 2 Mountain, Verdant, Valakut, 2 Search, KHE. He leads on fetch-shock-Serum, so I put him on Grixis DS. I know my primary path to victory will be natural Valakut, so I shock myself turn 1 and suspend Search. He has another Serum turn 2 but no threat. I play turn 2 KHE. On turn 3, he plays a 2/2 Death's Shadow plus Gurmag Angler. On my turn 3, Search gets Mountain, Wood Elves gets Stomping, and I play natural Valakut. He puts himself to 9 then 7 to Thoughtseize my Titan. I kill him with KHE plus Mountain in hand.
G2: [W] On the draw, I keep Forest, Glade, 2 Search, STE, Courser, Baloth. If I find another land on top, this is a great hand. His turn 1 Inquisition takes Courser. I suspend Search while he has turn 2 Angler, meaning I am dead in 4 turns. I don't find lands on the top, just Farseek and Tracker. His Thoughtseize takes Tracker. I still don't find land on top, so I cast Farseek to get to 4, and then play Relic. He plays a 5/5 Death's Shadow on turn 4. My 2nd Search comes off Suspend, and I draw a land to let me cast STE and Baloth, putting me back to 13 but with no cards in hand. His attack puts me to 8 after STE chumps. I topdeck Titan and cast it, finding 2 Valakut. I have 1 mana left and choose to pop Relic, hoping to find a Mountain to kill Angler. I miss. His Thoughtseize takes Relic, and he attacks with Angler, 7/7 DS, and Snapcaster. Titan blocks Angler knowing it will die to Command but that will tap him out and he is at 5, so I just need to draw a Mountain. Baloth chumps his 8/8 Death's Shadow, and I fall to 6 from Snapcaster. My next draw is Courser, showing STE on top. On the next turn, I chump his Death's Shadow with Courser, fall to 4, and cast STE for the win!
Against Grixis Death's Shadow, I remove 4 Scapeshift and 1 Forest for 3 Tracker, 1 Harmonize, 1 Thragtusk. I would love to have more Thragtusk in the side, but I can't find room.
Against Jund DS, I remove a ramp spell for Chandra. Relic often keeps Tarmogoyf small enough that Chandra can kill them. Plus, she can pressure LotV.
I will give your deck a try with the following changes:
- I'll cut harmonize for the third KHE. I know that this card is nuts. I use to play it as a 3 and it was never disappointing. 3 copies help to get it down turn 2 often enough. Yes it's a dead draw when you are in top deck mode but the power of the card is so strong it's worth it. Also titanshift is really good at topdecking since outside of KHE or forests, we are happy to draw all other cards late game.
- 1x Sheltered Thicket instead of the 8th fecth. I have been playing that land for a while and the cycling is welcome when you are flooding. I like going down to only 2 forests with 14 mountains.
- In SB I'll have +1 Nature's Claim and +1 Thragtusk instead of Chandra and Harmonize.
I'll have a few leagues with this build, keep records and let you guys know how I did.
Marath, Will of the Wild Tokens!! / Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund Dragons! / Muzzio, Visionary Architect / Brago, King Eternal / Daretti, Scrap Savant / Narset, Enlightened Master / Alesha, Who Smiles at Death / Bruna, Light of Alabaster / Marchesa, the Black Rose / Iroas, God of Victory / Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury / Omnath, Locus of rage / Titania, Protector of Argoth / Kozilek, the Great Distortion
Modern
Elves / Titanshift / Merfolk
Round 1 vs. Merfolk. Game 1, I keep on 4 lands, Search for Tomorrow, Primeval Titan, and Scapeshift. My 5 draws are 5 lands and I lose on turn 5 to a plethora of Lords and Silvergill Adept. In the next game, I do an early Chandra to kill his Lord, but he swings with Mutavault to kill it. I am drawing all lands again until I draw...Hornet Nest. My next draw is Hornet Nest #2. My next draw is Hornet Nest #3. In between this, he makes a mistake of attacking with Lord of Atlantis after I had Spreading Seas and Seas Claim on 2 lands instead of just attacking with Merrow Reejery and Mutavault. I block and get some Hornets. But he rebuilds with another Lord, so I swing and then cast Anger of the Gods. A couple of turns later, I draw my first non-land, non-Hornet Nest spell of the game and cast Primeval Titan to put this one away. I side out 1 Hornet Nest so the most I can draw is 2. In the next game, I play an Anger of the Gods, a Lightning Bolt, a turn 1 Search for Tomorrow, and I actually draw a ramp spell this game - Explore. I eventually get up in lands and play Prime Time, killing a Lord. Then it is all over next turn after I swing with the Prime Time to put Valakut #3 and #4 in play, he sees the writing on the wall. 2-1.
Round 2 vs. Zoo? He wins the die roll. Goblin Guide into double Goblin Guide, but I Bolt one of them after revealing the 2nd non-land card on his turn 2. He does Lightning Bolt/Reckless Bushwhacker to get me low and Bolt ends it. I end up drawing 2 Prime Time after already having 1 in my opening hand. I needed 1 ramp spell to cast it, but he probably had the other 2 Bolts on top of his deck anyway. The next game goes like this. Turn 1 Nacatl for him. Goblin Guide X 2 next turn, but I have Anger of the Gods. He only gets down a Knight of the Reliquary, but I Chandra, Torch of Defiance 4 damage to it. He doesn't do much after that except some Burn and I actually draw lands to Prime Time and win. I didn't need to play Obstinate Baloth because I was at a safe life total and Prime Time cleared the way. In the final game, he does Goblin Guide into Goblin Guide. I Bolt one on his turn 3 after Search for Tomorrow on my turns 1 and 2. Another Goblin Guide reveals Obstinate Baloth, but I have to take a counter of the suspended Search for Tomorrow and I lose it. I draw another land for the turn. His Goblin Guide reveals another Obstinate Baloth again next turn. I have to Search for Tomorrow and I lose it. I draw another land. I play Hornet Nest, but he has the Path to Exile. I get my land and even play another one after a Farseek to do a Valakut trigger, killing the Goblin Guide, but he Bolts EoT (had 3 cards before the Path to Exile), and then draws, plays a land, and Bolts me on his turn with his last card. Game. 1-2.
Round 3 vs. Merfolk. In the first game, I have the ramp and the win-con. I draw a single ramp and another win-con in Prime Time and a Scapeshift, cast them and win pretty easily. In the next game, I keep with just Lightning Bolt, which I do to a Lord of Atlantis. I eventually get a Prime Time out after he had a couple of Lords, but he then cast Tidebinder Mage to tap it down and another Lord for exactsies. I am removing some creatures in the next game, but he then cast a Merrow Reejery with 4 cards in hand and Mutavault in play. I play Anger of the Gods and Hornet Nest because Titan can't kill his Reejery and I want to give myself another draw step to draw a land. His next turn is Reejery after playing a 2nd Mutavault, and then double Lord, and finally a Cursecatcher. I draw a land for the turn, but even if I could kill a 4/4 Lord with a Valakut trigger, of which I only can get 1, he still gets me for lethal since I have 2 Islands in play. I scoop. 1-2.
Round 4 vs. Jund. I am 1-2 and can't get prize. He's 2-1 and can get prize. He asks me to scoop and I do. We actually don't play for fun, so I'm not sure how this would go. I know that Titanshift is around 60/40 vs. Jund, but I can see hands of Thoughtseize, Dark Confidant, Liliana of the Veil on the play for him while I stumble with lands and end up discarding Prime Times at 5 mana going his way. Who knows what would have happened, but the past few times I've played against him, he's had some insane draws, including during testing. When he has no cards in hand, I just think of the worst card for me that he can draw and assume it's that because it has actually been that quite a bit. 0-2.
I finish 1-3. Maybe I shouldn't have kept a 4 land hand with a win-con and turn 1 Search, but I don't usually assume that I will draw 0 non-land cards in a game. Rough evening. Last 3 tournaments with the deck - 2-3, 4-0, 3-1, and 1-3 for a total of 10-7, a record that's much worse than I'm accustomed to. Saw 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder the whole night, in game 3 Round 3 against Merfolk. Saw 1 or 2 Farseek all night. Felt a bit salty. :salt:
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've been playing with VBA recently and made a neat tool to look at card choices among MTGO 5-0 decks, SCG IQs/Events, and GPs. The first test looks at decks that fall in this catagory from 5-18 to 6-10 (a total of 24 decks).
I don't want to try and format it here, but here is the link to the Reddit post.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Scapeshift/comments/6gv4gl/rg_scapeshift_card_choices_518610/
The first column is the card, second column is percentage in which that card is played among those decks in the set, and the third column is the average number of copies of that played card (of decks that have it).
Hope this is useful ahead of GP Vegas. About to look at mini-golf/food options for those who did the survey and release some details.
Fetch-Shock-Blog
Moderator of /r/Scapeshift
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)A big thing is not overboarding - I lost to Eldrazi Tron at GP Brisbane because I boarded into a more midrange list and didn't have the critical mass required to just kill them.
Tacos El Gordo Site
Google Maps Link
This isn't inclusive, so feel free to bring whoever. I also picked the highest recommended place closest to the convention center but if the group that shows up decides on something else, that's also fine.
Also someone on the survey said they were local and knew some good eating spots, but the responses on my side are anon. DM me on twitter (@ aRichMesh) or on Reddit whoever you are (those will go to my phone, messages here don't)
Fetch-Shock-Blog
Moderator of /r/Scapeshift
I used to play Eldrazi Tron, and Scapeshift was a horrendous matchup, nearly impossible to win unless the Scapeshift player mulligan'd to oblivion.
I played against E-Tron last night in a 2-man. The opponent had a decent start and then held up Warping Wail to stop the Scapeshift on 8 lands. Instead, I played Titan, which he has 0 answers for, and he died.
Their disruption matches up very poorly for our threats. Chalice does almost nothing (best on 0 to stop Pact), TKS is great as always but will only take 1 card and doesn't help against your topdecks. We don't care about Ballista or Endbringer. All is Dust doesn't do anything.
It is strong card indeed but sometimes you just get handful of game ending cards when you need more ramp cards. With two Pacts I find myself sometimes in those situations where I have three lands in play and hand is Titan, Scapeshift, Pact, Pact, land (very awkward). I don't personally feel that the deck needs more win conditions or at least I don't personally have any issues to find them enough consistently.
Modern
WUBRG
3x Forest
4x Wooded Foothills
3x Misty Rainforest
3x Cinder Glade
2x Sheltered Thicket
2x Stomping Ground
4x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
4x Primeval Titan
4x Scapeshift
2x Summoner's Pact
4x Sakura-Tribe Elder
3x Farseek
2x Explore
1x Wood Elves
3x Lightning Bolt
2x Sweltering Suns
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1x Courser of Kruphix
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Obstinate Baloth
2x Hornet Nest
2x Reverberate
2x Nature's Claim
1x Tireless Tracker
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Haze of Pollen
1x Lightning Bolt
1x Sweltering Suns
My board was set up to deal with the two or three decks that give me real pause at my local, which are UW Control, Death's Shadow Jund, and UW Eldrazi Hatebears. There's also a guy running UR Land Destruction, but he's usually a lossand trying to play around his shenanigans is probably so low EV that it's not worth doing.
Round 1: I'm up against a guy on a BG Midrange deck that's a bit of a brew. He's running Grim Flayers and Phyrexian Obliterators. Game 1 I manage to ply my two Relics early and he ended up having to Abrupt Decay them both, which is a win in my book. I end up getting to six lands and cast a Primeval Titan, and then kill him with Scapeshift the following turn. Game 2 I board in my other Relics and my Tireless Tracker, but the game proceeds in much the same way as the first.
Round 2: Mono Green Devotion. Game one he plays out his things, and I eventually cast a Sweltering Suns to 3-for-1 him. I then hit 6 lands and play a Primeval Titan. Usual story. I board in my other Sweltering Suns and my other Bolt, cutting a Courser and a Farseek (I think). He ramps out quickly and plays a Primal Command when I'm on two lands, gaining 7 life and searching up an Eternal Witness. As might be expected, I kill some of his creatures with some Bolts and then Scapeshift for lethal.
Round 3: UW Control. Game 1 my opponent plays the slow control plan, digging with Serum Visions and looking for action. He lets a Summoner's Pact sneak through and I resolve a Titan, which he Paths in response to the search trigger. I end up killing him by Scapeshifting after he taps out for an Elspeth to try to kill me quickly. I board out a Bolt, a Farseek, and a Sweltering Suns for 2 Reverberates and a Tireless Tracker. Game 2, Tracker and Chandra do a bunch of work - I'll play a land drop, getting my clue, and then uptick Chandra to pop the clue. I think I drew 3 or 4 cards off of the Tracker this game. Eventually my opponent taps out for a Supereme Verdict since my Tracker is pressuring him pretty hard, and I play the Scapeshift I've been slowrolling. I'd also had Reverberate in hand all game, which he knew about (due to Vendillion Clique) - I was waiting until he'd tapped his mana such that he could only have 1 counterspell.
Round 4: Jund. Game one my opponent keeps a hand with a lot of disruption and zero threats. His disruption doesn't stop me resolving a Titan and then Scapeshifting. For game 2, since I'm a game up and I wanted to test a board plan I'd seen mentioned in this thread, I boarded out 5 cards - all 4 Scapeshifts and a Farseek for 2 Relics, 2 Baloths, and Tireless Tracker. Game 2 proceeds much the same way as the first, although my opponent does Surgical my Wooded Foothills (he wanted to hit something and didn't feel like waiting for a Fulminator); eventually I resolve a Titan and get to 3 Valakuts in play and active, and then play two mountains to deal him 18.
My perspectives on my card choices: Wood Elves did a lot of work. I'm going to be trying a second, in place of the Courser of Kruphix. Chandra was very good when I got her, and I'm considering increasing the number I play, since she's never entirely useless. Mainboard Relics and the Relics in from the board did a lot of work for me; if nothing else, they can cycle, which for a deck that is as good at topdecking as this one is surprisingly strong. Tireless Tracker from the board did a lot of work for me against UW, and I'll have to consider playing more. I never boarded in my Nests or Haze of Pollen, since I never played against an aggro deck or against Death's Shadow, which is why I'd put them in the board in the first place. Ideally, Haze of Pollen would be a Fog, but I couldn't be bothered to go through my collection to find one when I had a Haze of Pollen sitting in my random jank.
The deck is still good, and still tight. I'd be happy to take it to any big event if I got the chance, although I'd probably mess with the list a little, since Chandra and Wood Elves performed very well.
I pointed that out to him afterwards. He had a brainfart and forgot that he could do that.
The third Sweltering Suns in the board over the Anger is simply because there are times where I'll want to board it in, and still have to cycle it. I was relying on my 4 Relics over the 75 to deal with any graveyard shenanigans. I'm probably going to change some of those Relics with Grafdigger's Cages after I put in a card order, and having that makes Sweltering Suns a bit more justifiable in the board.
EDIT: Just thought that I'd note that I haven't gotten much out of the current duel land split of 3-2-2. I rarely want to cycle Sheltered Thicket if it's in my hand, since playing it for a bigger Scapeshift is usually better, but I'm going to keep using it since it's basically a freeroll in most circumstances. I've got to imagine that when you're at 5 lands with a Titan in hand and you topdeck a Sheltered Thicket it has to hurt, but that hasn't come up yet. If you've got the Thickets, give it a go, but so far I haven't found it to be a particularly positive or negative change to the mana base.
Marath, Will of the Wild Tokens!! / Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund Dragons! / Muzzio, Visionary Architect / Brago, King Eternal / Daretti, Scrap Savant / Narset, Enlightened Master / Alesha, Who Smiles at Death / Bruna, Light of Alabaster / Marchesa, the Black Rose / Iroas, God of Victory / Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury / Omnath, Locus of rage / Titania, Protector of Argoth / Kozilek, the Great Distortion
Modern
Elves / Titanshift / Merfolk
4 Cinder Glade
2 Explore
3 Farseek
3 Forest
3 Lightning Bolt
6 Mountain
4 Primeval Titan
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Scapeshift
4 Search for Tomorrow
3 Stomping Ground
2 Summoner's Pact
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
3 Windswept Heath
2 Wood Elves
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Sweltering Suns
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Guttural Response
1 Nature's Claim
3 Obstinate Baloth
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Crumble to Dust
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Thragtusk
1 Lightning Bolt
2-1 vs Jeskai Control
2-1 vs Grixis DS
2-0 vs Gw Tron
2-0 vs Merfolk
Top 4 :
2-0 vs Burn
2-1 vs Merfolk
All star is : Wood Elves, Chandra and the main deck Relics.
RG Titan Scapeshift GR
UBWAd Nauseam WBU
CEldrazi TronC
Round 1 vs. Bye. 2-0.
Round 2 vs. Bye. 2-0.
Round 3 vs. Affinity. This guy was honestly one of the best Affinity players I've ever played against. In game 1, he kills me on either turn 4 or 5. I have a solid hand, but miss drawing a single ramp spell and end up short. In the next game, I keep a hand that has Hornet Nest and Anger of the Gods. I do it and he is pretty surprised. He makes a reference to the Wicker Man movie when Nick Cage says, "no, not the beeeees!" It gives me the time to draw a kill spell. In the next game, I keep with 2 land, Anger of the Gods, Hornet Nest, and some other cards. I draw a land to cast them and it gives me infinite time. I finally get Prime Time a bunch of turns later, but after taking some damage, he draws Springleaf Drum and slams Blood Moon. Since I only had 1 Forest in play, it turned off potential draws. He was at a high life total, but basically Bees gave me time to attack 4 times with a Prime Time for lethal while I was digging for Nature's Claim or Beast Within. Got it with the 6/6 trampler. I talked to this guy for a while before Round 15 much, much later and he was 11-3 at that time. 2-1.
Round 4 vs. UWR Kiki. I recognize this guy as a guy who played at my shop, but now is traveling to a lot of GPs and doing pretty damn well. He also top 8ed the GP Vegas Legacy with RUG Delver 2 days ago. In the first game, I am trying to figure out what flavor of UWR he is. When I see Resto Angel, I feel like it's Kiki. The game is drawn out and long, but he gets chip shots with a Resto Angel, SCM, and Lightning Helices. He tries with a Celestial Colonnade, but I Bolt and Valakut trigger it. I killed each of those after only 1 hit each, but he had enough to topdeck Bolt and kill me. I didn't draw Pact, Titan, Scapeshift, or Chandra this game. He says that it is not usually the way the games go, probably just saying that I didn't draw ***** in a nicer way. In the next game, it is very similar except I do draw a Chandra, Torch of Defiance to kill a Spell Queller. I tried to lure him to counter it so that I could Sweltering Suns while he's tapped out. It turned out he didn't have another Queller, but was considering Resto Angel. He ends up killing me with that Resto Angel because I don't find win cons and my 1 Valakut was Spreading Seas'd. 0-2.
Round 5 vs. Esper Shadow. I keep a hand with Search, 2 ramps, and lands in anticipation of Shadow. He ends up playing a non discard game where he has early delve creatures that put me away when I draw just more lands, except a Prime Time that was stripped before I could play it. 2 Wood Elves bought me a little time with a STE, although 1 of the Elves was Pushed with Revolt. I keep a similar hand in the next one, but he DOES have discard. So he only can get 1 ramp spell and I live off the top to find Prime Time. He basically had almost nothing. The last game was the one game where I potentially could have won during this tournament. He got turn 2 Angler, turn 3 Tasigur and applies pressure. After some chumps by Wood Elves, I am at 11 life and he has left 1 Godless Shrine open. I have Summoner's Pact (along with a Titan in hand if I can get to that), which I use for Hornet Nest. I was considering how he was leaving Path mana open, but I came to the conclusion that I can't beat Path anyway. Obstinate Baloth getting Pathed is as bad. So, he was just really trying to fake Path. But I didn't recognize that he didn't leave Stubborn Denial mana open, although he couldn't have represented both because he had no Hallowed Fountain in play. Thien was watching since his match to the side was over and said that I could have tried an aggressive line of taking the damage down to 2, Pactin for Sakura-Tribe Elder and then doing Scapeshift next turn. I was so scared of Stubborn Denial that I didn't want to do that, but not leaving Blue open signifies something at least. I end up Pacting for Hornet Nest and he untaps and plays Liliana of the Veil to make me sacrifice the nest and lose the game. 1-2.
Round 6 vs. Grixis Shadow. This guy tried to scumbag me in the first game after a mull to 5 left me with 1 Forest and a suspended Search. He tried to tell a Judge that I took a counter off during his DRAW STEP. I was furious and literally wanted to kick his ass after the match. The Judge figures out the right call, but he nut draws me to win while my Forest start and missed land drops don't get there. In the next 2 games, I basically have pretty quick hands and his hands are a bit too slow. 2-1.
Round 7 vs. Grixis Shadow. He messes with my hand, but can't find the turn 2-3 delve creatures and by turn 4, it's just too late. I have a few turns to draw land, I do, and then win with a Prime Time. He attacks into it and I don't even block because even though I know they don't have something to punish that, I just don't want to take a chance and I'm at 4 life with only 1 Red source in play by him. In the next game, he does turn 1 Thoughtseize again, but after another Thoughtseize on turn 2, he finds nothing else until it's too late. Just poor draws by him after turn 2 in both games. 2-0.
Round 8 vs. Affinity. He has the turn 5 kill, but I have a turn 4 and win. Best draw of the tournament. The next game is pretty similar. Lucky to have exactly 1 Lightning Bolt in hand for his turn 2 Steel Overseer both games. Really not much to say here other than I drew my 2 best goldfish hands of the tournament and he was a bit slow. 2-0.
Round 9 vs. Affinity. This guy is a really nice guy. Genuinely wishes me luck and have fun! In game 1, he is attacking me while I'm trying to get to Titan. It comes down to this. I can Scapeshift after Pacting for Sakura-Tribe Elder and if I had done Lightning Bolt earlier, it would have been 21 damage. But he was at 22, so it wasn't actually a punt. The next game is going similarly. He had a slow start, but started accelerating around turns 2-3, so I go for Hornet Nest. He looks at it, reads it, and doesn't think much of it. I do Sweltering Suns next turn. He had 1 card in hand since the beginning. I considered Galvanic Blast, but he lets me get tokens and has 3 counters on his Inkmoth Nexus now. Buuuut...I have 3 Bees. I can't find the big win-cons, but it slows him down enough for me to Valakut him out of the game, finishing by attacking with all 3 bees (in case he blocked 1) and double Lightning Bolt to win. He tells me after the match that he misplayed by not doing Galvanic Blast on the Nest in response to Sweltering Suns. I would have lost the bees and would have gotten poisoned by a Nexus soon after that since we both bricked for some turns. 2-1.
Round 10 vs. Burn. In the first game, I just have the perfect goldfish. He does too, but since Sakura-Tribe Elder prevents his turn 3 kill, I kill him on turn 4 with Scapeshift. He gets the good Burn draw in the next and ends up burning me out before I can attack with Prime Time. In the final game, it came down to him playing Mountain into Stomping Ground. He was out of White, but got it after my Prime Time landed. I overly played around Deflecting Palm, which he didn't have, but managed to get an Obstinate Baloth down while not attacking with Prime Time since it wasn't lethal before Palm could Palm me. I squeak this one out. He shows me that he had double Boros Charm and double Lightning Helix in hand the whole time. 2-1.
Round 11 vs. Dredge. I am matched up against Pro Tour player Ben Weitz. The first game is really ugly in terms of playing by me. I just do a million blunders, getting thrown off by some opening hands. I have a hand with 4 Mountain and 3 Search for Tomorrow. I know most people just mulligan it right away and don't dwell on it. I think too hard about if he manipulated my deck without me knowing it, even though he super clearly didn't look at my deck while shuffling. Stellar guy. Then I have 3 Windswept Heath, 2 STE, and another card. I snap keep and ship a land to the bottom. He does turn 1 Stomping Ground, Insolent Neonate. He does Collective Brutality with 2 modes to nab my win-con of Scapeshift. I topdeck a Scapeshift the next turn while he has some Bloodghast beats. I play it for 18 in case he does another Collective Brutality before I can get a ramp next turn or land. BBUUUUUT, I forget that he's back at 20 life now, thinking that he will scoop. I only get 1 RG source and 5 Mountain. So now Prime Time or Scapeshift off the top DON'T kill him. Terrible. I draw Search for Tomorrow, but there are no more Mountains in the deck. Now it's just comical, but I topdeck Bolt to kill him the next turn as he bricked on a Dredge 3, not finding Conflagrate, so I win at 5 life. In the next game, he mulls to 3. I play turn 1 Relic of Progenitus. He plays lands and Ancient Grudge right away. But he only plays 2 more land and dies after that. 2-0.
Round 12 vs. RG Breach. I see him looking like a mirror, but he turn 4s Through the Breach/Emrakul. I have drawn only lands this game and in fact 6 lands for my first 6 draws, so I keep playing. He plays Simian Spirit Guide to finish me, but my only non land card in hand is Lightning Bolt. He bricks a million turns while I am getting to Scapeshift mana. I have some turns, 4 in fact, to draw Scapeshift to straight up kill him. I don't and eventually he draws Mountains to kill me with his first Valakut triggers. The next game is just a turn 3 Through the Breach/Prime time by him, but I kept a hand that goldfishes to beat that if I draw a single ramp spell (already had Search). I don't and he wins. 0-2.
Round 13 vs. BW Eldrazi and Taxes. This guy's first land drop is Shambling Vent and now I' super confident that I'll win. I assume Junk at worst. His next plays are this. Leonin Arbiter, slowing me down, E Temple into Thought-Knot Seer into Thought-Knot Seer and Ghost Quarter. I basically in this game if I had Bolt for Arbiter because the Quarter keeps me off Valakut activations. In the next game, I get out Prime Time and am just too quick of a win. He plays turn 4 Thought-Knot Seer to see my hand and then scoops. The last game is similar to the first one except he had turn 1 Burrenton Forge-Tender and I had 1 Lighting Bolt. I ramped pretty good, but needed to draw Sweltering Suns or Anger of the Gods to wipe his Leonin Arbiter and Tidehollow Sculler. They and a Seer kill me before I can potentially draw land or ramp to Scapeshift him. He told me that he's "the guy" on MTGO who's been killing leagues 5-0 with E Taxes. I took a look at his list, originally because I wanted to count the deck since it felt a bit light. But it looked like a super good list and I wasn't salty anymore about this super tough loss. 1-2.
Round 14 vs. Faeries. This guy gets Bitterblossom and keeps me off balance with some counters, but lets me ramp for the most part. He has me at lethal next turn if I don't lethal him, so I go for the 18 damage, 7 land, Scapeshift after putting mana in my pool. He has fetch and a Tectonic Edge that he just drew for the turn. I forget exactly if he can Tec Edge a Mountain in response to the resolution to prevent my kill, but I am dead on board next turn anyway. I try to find 6 Mountain, but there's only 5 left, so I get Stomping Ground. He does Tec Edge the Stomping Ground and I call a Judge in case. The first Judge rules 3 damage, so I call another because I know that's certainly not right. The other Judge rules correctly. I just wanted to be sure. In the next game, I get off a quick Titan and he can't do anything. In the last game, he makes some plays, but an active Valakut keeps him from applying pressure. I end up going for the Nature's Claim that I had drawn instead of a win-con on his Bitterblossom. He does Countersquall, putting me to 8 life. I untap, draw Bolt (I have four Valakut in play now) and double Bolt him to win. He was pretty on tilt after this one, but not towards me. Just signed the slip, slammed his backpack down, and then left. I probably would have been the same amount of upset if I missed top 8 on a play like this, but certainly not at the X-4 bracket. 2-1.
Round 15 vs. BR Moon. This guy visited our store for a few months a year ago. He traveled through work. He's super cool and I happen to outdraw him every time, so it's always fun. Same thing happens. He does turn 1 IoK. I think he's Shadow? It turns out he's playing the BR Moon deck that had Goblin Rabblemaster and Pack Rate to go with disruption and kill spells. He said it's good vs. Shadow and it seems it. I end up doing Bolt for Rabblemaster on my turn since I tapped out for Wood Elves. His token gets blocked by the Wood Elves after some hits. I get there with Prime Time eventually. In the next game, he does IoK again, taking my Bolt - the answer to his Bob. But I topdeck Bolt and get his Bob. I draw another Bolt, but he's stuck on Swamp, and eventually Mutavault X 3. He gets in hits while I saw Bolt in case a Rabblemaster gets out. I get to about 7 before Scapeshifting. Bolt + 18 Scapeshifted points is lethal. 2-0.
Finished 11-4 for 146th place. Kind of disappointed at my Day 1 record, but happy at how I fought back from 3-2. A bit disappointed about going 4-2 on Day 2, but happy since it was my best Day 2 ever. (I know; pretty embarrassing) But I was VERY happy to see a lot of friends doing so well, including a friend who top 4ed Legacy (which he's only played for a month) and was 11-1 in Modern at one point.
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)Do you mind posting a list? I usually have trouble against affinity but you destroyed them all
Few closing thoughts on some of the card choices over the weekend:
- Relic was great, it should be a maindeck 3-4 of in the current meta
- my teammate (he went 12-3) and I both played a singleton primal commend, and it was great for us
- Thragtusk is a trap in sb, just play baloths
- EE was great
- have a real plan against blood moon, not just relying on 1 for 1 solution like rec sage. We both had a back to nature, and alternate whammies in sb (i had 13emmy, my teammated had a ugin)
- don't play hornet nest (we cut it entirely)
- Chandra is very medium (we have 0 in our 75 this weekend), doesn't kill most of DS's threats, and just dies to any go wide deck. She is a good card, and will have another time to shine in a different meta
- if you use expedition well, it is one of the most powerful card against DS
- Don't play a third forest
- Don't go less than 4 stomping
I have come to many of the exact same conclusions for the deck.
1) Relic - I maindeck 4. Worst-case, you cycle them game 1 (we often have 1 extra mana) and board them out. Or, you just win turn 1 against some decks.
2) Primal - I used to run it but ended up cutting it. A 5cc Sorcery will just get Stubborn Denial'd against DS. Against other decks, I'd rather have Pact. It's nice to have a maindeck out to Blood Moon or Leyline of Sanctity, but I rarely face those Online.
3) Thragtusk - Can you elaborate here? I have found Thragtusk AMAZING against DS. It's much worse against Burn, but that's why I run 3 maindeck Courser. Against something like 8-Rack, Baloth is better, but I have 4 Trackers post-board.
4) EE - I considered running it in the side, but it seems very slow. When do you want this over Anger? Do you splash to get X=3?
5) Blood Moon - I don't see any Blood Moons Online, but my plan is 4 Tireless Tracker (post-side), 4 Titan, 3 Courser, 1 Chandra. How was 13Emmy for you? You often get it reduced by 3 (land, sorcery, creature), max 5 (enchantment, instant). Best-case, it costs 8, which seems way too expensive for the effect.
6) Hornet Nest - I recently put them back into the sideboard but haven't had a chance to use them yet. They aren't amazing in some configurations of Titan Shift, but I like them in mine. Against Grixis DS, my post-board threats are:
2 Pact
3 Courser
2 Hornet Nest
4 Tireless Tracker
4 Titan
0 Scapeshift
I overload on creatures, so Hornet is very unlikely to be killed with non-damage removal.
7) Chandra - I board 1 against Eldrazi decks, but otherwise I agree that she's not great right now.
8) KHE is insane against DS, especially Grixis. If you get out a Valakut, you can really screw up their combat math and kill them out of nowhere.
9) 3rd Forest - 100% agree. I put in an 8th green fetchland instead of 3rd Forest. It helps with KHE and Tracker.
10) Stomping - I could see 4 Stomping, 3 Glade over 1 basic Mountain. Do you run 2 or 3 Glades? I love the ability to play untapped duals later in the game and save on life. I will often fetch for Stomping turns 1 or 3, and then Glades the rest of the game. With 3 Stomping, 2 Forest, 8 fetchlands, I have a good number of ways to get turn 1 green for Search. That's the main time it makes a difference.