PS, just tried out your list Finalnub. I really don't like not having any answers to problem enchantments like RIP or Supression Field. It's cards like that which make me want EE.
Thoughts?
it's a fair thought, and it's really good against taxes variants. I wouldn't just bring it in for RIP though (for example, vs. UW control RIP is generally a 2 of. EE is otherwise a dead card vs. them). I just value other cards higher at this moment, but it's a nice catch all
Yeah, I don't disagree. I guess I just like knowing I have answers to anything I might need, but sometimes it is better to just try to dodge it. I also like it as a card to bring in when I don't know what hate the deck might run. I like having a catchall, so I'll still keep at least 1 EE, but otherwise there is a lot I like in your list. I'll have to try the cathartic reunions again; they're probably the right thing in that slot. I just don't really like them.
FinalNub, do you think you can write up a quick sideboard guide for your current sideboard? Maybe for like the top 4 or 5 decks? I want to see your thought process for each match-up and the info would be greatly appreciated.
My list was exactly the same as the one I posted earlier on the page except that I ran 2 Leyline of Sanctity instead of 1 Leyline of Sanctity and 1 Leyline of the Void.
Round 1: GW Company
I've never played vs GW Company. I mull to a 6 card hand with no combo pieces but a bunch of card draw. Opponent opens Noble Hierarch into Azusa as I cast several card draw spells and draw nothing of conseuqence. Eventually I die to *EDIT* Gavony Township and a swarm of creatures.
Game 2 I mull to a 6 with Kozilek's Return, Bontu's Last Reckoning, and card draw. I Kozilek's Return away a Noble Hierarch and a Qasali Pridemage, and when my opponent's followup is two mana creatures, I hold off on Bontu's Last Reckoning. Then my opponent plays Whisperwood Elemental and I die horribly to manifest beats.
0-1 (0-2 in games)
Round 2: Grixis Death's Shadow
Well, I'm in for a long day.
Game 1 I get Inquisitioned and lose a business card but my opponent gives me an opening to Breach. I go for it into three cards in hand and two open mana and get out a Griselbrand. It gets Terminated but in response I fully combo off and kill.
-1 Manamorphose, -2 Cathartic Reunion, -2 Night's Whisper, +3 Chalice of the Void, +2 Leyline of Sanctity
Game 2 I play a Chalice for 1 on turn 1 and settle in for a garbage game. I then punt on turn 4. I cast Night's Whisper and draw the cards to Through the Breach a Worldspine Wurm next turn, and have two open mana and a Chalice in hand. I decide I'm going to Breach next turn and play a second Chalice on 1 since I'm not under huge pressure. I Breach next turn and it gets Disdainful Stroked. If I had waited a turn I could have played a Chalice for 2 to guarantee a kill. As it stands, the game continues and I hardcast a Griselbrand on the last turn I need it to stay alive, but that gets Disdainful Stroked as well and I lose.
-2 Leyline of Sanctity, -1 Nourishing Shoal, +3 Blood Moon
Game 3 on the play, my opening hand is Temple of Malice, 2 Simian Spirit Guides, Chalice of the Void, Worldspine Wurm, Night's Whisper. I play the Temple of Malice and see Through the Breach on top of my library. Top or bottom? How do you play the game from here out?
I get out Chalice for 1 and Blood Moon and my opponent can't stop my combo.
1-1 (2-3 in games)
Well, I'm never going to win against Grixis Death's Shadow again. Not in a million years.
Round 3: Grixis Death's Shadow
Nuts.
Game 1 my opponent only has one piece of disruption and I get out a turn 3 Breached Worldspine Wurm and he loses.
-1 Manamorphose, -2 Cathartic Reunion, -1 Night's Whisper, -1 Nourishing Shoal, +3 Chalice of the Void, +2 Leyline of Sanctity
Game 2 I get out a Chalice for 1 on turn 1 but my opponent gets out a Gurmag Angler and a Snapcaster Mage and beats me to death with those and a Temur Battle Rage for the assist.
-2 Leyline of Sanctity, -1 Nourishing Shoal, +3 Blood Moon
Game 3 the opponent mulls to a hand with only digging. He has to tap out early and gets Breached out by Worldspine Wurm.
2-1 (4-4 in games)
Well, lightning struck twice! Bring on the easy matchups!
Round 4: Eldrazi Tron
My hand has a setup for a turn 4 Breach for Worldspine Wurm, but my Breach gets Thought-Knotted away. I draw a second Breach but I had thrown out a Ritual so I can't cast it (I looted and kept a card draw spell instead) and the second Breach also gets Thought-Knotted away. Facing lethal, I topdeck a third Through the Breach and force a standoff between Wurms and Eldrazi. I then topdeck running Worldspine and the fourth Through the Breach and trample through.
In game 2 my Griselbrand gets Thought-Knotted away on turn 3 and I don't draw a replacement creature and die.
Game 3 I get out a turn 2 Blood Moon and we both draw a bunch of nothing. Opponent beats me down to 9 with a Walking Ballista that keeps growing and I Goryo's a Borb to block it, but the pings leave me at 4. On turn 7 my opponent says "go" and tries to go back and play something as I reach to untap my lands. A judge call allows the opponent to rewind and he plays All is Dust to blow up my Blood Moon. I have scryed into Through the Breach for Worldspine Wurm and hit for 15. However, the opponent untaps with Tron and plays Wurmcoil Engine, Thought-Knot, Thought-Knot. I have two shots to draw Goryo's Vengeance for the kill and miss on both as my opponent adds two Matter Reshapers and Reality Smasher to overrun my Wurm tokens.
2-2 (5-6 in games)
Round 5: Dredge
Game 1 I keep a slow hand I get hit with the god draw as I face down two Prized Amalgams and a Narcomoeba on turn 2. Joined by a Bloodghast, they beat me down and force me to blow my Nourishing Shoal to stay alive. This keeps me off Through the Breach mana and I get beaten to death before I can do anything.
No sideboard =(
Game 2 I have another slow draw and my opponent beats me down with Amalgams, Bloodghasts and Narcomoebas before I have anything of consequence.
2-3 (5-8 in games)
Round 6: R/G Scapeshift
Game 1 I turn 3 Through the Breach Griselbrand and fully combo off.
Game 2 my opponent misses his third land drop, I turn 4 Through the Breach a Worldspine Wurm and R/G Scapeshift can't beat that after missing land once.
3-3 (7-8 in games)
I somehow beat Death's Shadow twice but lost the more reasonable matchups. I think the deck was a pretty reasonable choice today but didn't run hot enough to take advantage of actually beating Death's Shadow twice.
I also think Leyline of Sanctity is useless and would like to try something else. It would be great vs Burn and Scapeshift in theory but those matchups are already good.
sorry to hear, but I would've felt really good for you if you had told me you are going to beat two Grixis Shadows list I would've loved your matchup. I'm fairly sure GW Company is favorable on average as they don't have much disruption for us mainboard past oozes or a fast Excavator+Azusa+GQ lock. Unlucky. Also it seems like you lost to Dredge without facing any Leyline of the Void so I think you just ran badly.
As for Leyline, I dislike it too but it's useful vs. Storm as well as having general application vs. the other Blood Moon matchups (GBx, Grixis Shadows , valakut etc.) which is fine. I agree it's less useful in general than Moons and sucks to draw them but we can discard them so that's not as bad. Personally I'm just hoping these dorky humans decks keep Storm out a bit and we'll take our lumps playing chalice for 2 as our win condition
FinalNub, do you think you can write up a quick sideboard guide for your current sideboard? Maybe for like the top 4 or 5 decks? I want to see your thought process for each match-up and the info would be greatly appreciated.
This isn't really set in stone and not necessarily correct. I'll provide reasonings and sideboard plans, and would be happy to discuss them.
Removal order: -2 Hugs, -2 Ritual, (-1 Through the Breach)
Logic is chalice on 2 is too slow on the draw, where I'm dead way more often than I'd like. So on the draw I side in Pacts and hope to combo through permission. Hugs come out vs. remands. Breach is the fifth cut because a significant amount of time you don't get to reach 5 mana. Note even when they are tapped out they can Noxious Revival your Vengeance target (some lists play them as a 1 of)
I used to cut more Breaches but I've stopped doing so because a lot of lists pack cages and RIPs. Matchup seem like 45/55 ish.
vs. Eldrazi Tron
OTP: +3 Blood Moon +2 Shattering Spree
OTD or if you see mindstones MD: +2 Shattering Spree +x Bontu's
Blood Moon is secretly not great vs. Eldrazi Tron but I would still bring it in to harrass them on the play. some lists are foregoing mindstones which is great for this plan, but otherwise I wouldn't bother with Moons.
Vs. UWx Control:
+2 Pact +2 Brutality +x chalice if you think they have a critical mass of meaningful cmc=x cards (not just path/sv, but also surgical/relic/dispels from SB)
-2 hugs -2 ritual -1 temple -1 lightning axe
I would also consider bringing in moons on the play vs. Jeskai
vs. Gx Tron
+2 Shattering Spree -1 Lightning Axe -1 Ritual
This matchup is so laughably easy feel free to spree a singleton map when can't activate it if they don't start with a relic in the first few turns
Brutality is there to kill freebooters, thalias and meddling mages. Not sure if this matchup is bad - they actually don't have graveyard hate outside of Anafenza the Foremost. Obvoiusly meddling mage, Guardian of Thraben, Heretic Cathar and Freebooters are all nuisances but we have more than one way to win plus shoaling stuff. probably a 45/55 matchup.
I see you're often siding out rituals. What is your reasoning? I often find the only thing limiting my win is access to mana. Especially in marches where you want to combo quickly. I also don't like cutting rituals any time I'm bringing in Blood Moon, since having a quick bloodmoon is so important.
I also thought I'd want chalice against burn, but (assuming you out it on one?) it shuts off our looting, which makes a quick combo more difficult. So, I've been question that (still undecided). I usually trim Breach and try to win faster.
I noticed your also cutting Breach and trying to get a chalice on 2 against storm, which seems slightly at odds.
I see you're often siding out rituals. What is your reasoning? I often find the only thing limiting my win is access to mana. Especially in marches where you want to combo quickly. I also don't like cutting rituals any time I'm bringing in Blood Moon, since having a quick bloodmoon is so important.
I also thought I'd want chalice against burn, but (assuming you out it on one?) it shuts off our looting, which makes a quick combo more difficult. So, I've been question that (still undecided). I usually trim Breach and try to win faster.
I noticed your also cutting Breach and trying to get a chalice on 2 against storm, which seems slightly at odds.
ì hear you on ritual and moon. i just like to think in terms of the weakest cards to cut, and generally its the rituals. for me we are an a+b combo deck so I'd rather cut on mana than cantrips
for burn, it would be for one, and i would still keep the looting because you want to keep your 10% chance of the nut start. also also have only 4 cmc cards so imo its a worthy sacrifice
lastly? chalice on two is basically a win condition, since no sane person should bring shattering sprees or wear tears vs this deck and it has to be precisely a 1 of wipe away to win. if the card actually is a knock out, i am willing to sacrifice like 20% of our deck, especially in a bad matchup
I think you're probably right about burn. It's worth it to bring in chalice on the okay since a turn 1 or even 2 on the play is fast enough to be worthwhile. But not bring it in the draw. There it's just better to use our lifegain to race them to a win.
I have been running two manamorphose and my fist cut was pretty much always a manamorphose unless I thought I was gonna need an EE on 4 to take care of a leyline. But, it's probably better to just win through other means in those situations. And at that point, I can probably trim to one manamorphose to start.
Good point about storm. Once they've seen the chalice, it's probably better not to bring it a second time and let them have dead shattering sprees in hand, but the first time they will likely have 1 answer in their deck. I wonder if boseiju would be worth it for this matchup. Seems like the UW control decks with land destruction have been disappearing. Most blue decks now are storm or jeskai.
I think I'll try out your boarding plans and see how it goes. I like learning where I'm wrong
I'll reiterate this again - I've never understood the manamorphoses beyond the first, which is needed from time to time if you need to combo asap with just SSGs and Vengeance. I dislike the "the floor is low it just cycles" argument - in that case, I'd much rather add a cantrip+enabler like hugs or an interaction spell+enabler like Brutality
EE for Leylines is pretty corner case. I think you are a bit too worried about these relatively rare cases - we'll face many-a graveyard hate and will beat many-a graveyard hate. RIP/Leyline of the Void is far from a 1 hit KO against us. I can't count how many times people kept a RIP with no pressure/disruption and I won at my leisure through a Breach or hardcasting Griselbrands. The most scary thing to face is the pressure+disruption combo.
I will say EE is great against multiple artifact hate pieces (for example, blowing up relic+needle+cage all at once, although for the same three mana spree can do the exact same thing). I will also say EE is amazing vs. eldrazi & taxes rising in popularity (thalia, sculler, arbiter, RIP, Dark Confidant).
Lastly, I still have issues with Boseiju in this metagame. For one, as you said, Field of Ruin/Tec Edge/GQ/Spreading Seas in UW are a nightmare. For another, both Jeskai and UW play Quellers nowadays, which works vs. Boseiju. Lastly, the rising UR kiki/blue moon breach decks play some spraeding seas and Blood Moon (though the latter should come out against us, but you never know). If you are concerned about control matchups, I would highly recommend you stick with Pacts
This just came up in the modern challenge and I considered for a long time. Maybe it's not such a close decision. WWYD?
Relevant info: G2 OTD vs burn, you have 2 pacts remaining in the deck. You've played your land and you've attached for the the turn. Note the two shoals already with a Wurm and a Borb
saw some good answers there on the previous page. Here was my thought process:
We note that both life and fast mana are bottlenecks. 2 Shoals have already been used, so at most you can gain 22 more life (37 life effective). Without landdrops or SSGs at this point, I would say there's a real chance of failure if we go for it, as our draws can fail in two different ways. Not only that, our deck is not divisible by 7 (6 cards remaining before any desperation Lootings that we may be forced into). My first instinct was keep going, but these reasons makes it unappealing.
The opponent's nut turn next turn is Boros Charm+Bolt+attack. That's 4+3+2+3=12 damage. It's very important to note that you cannot die for at least two turns if you fully escalate Brutality and kill Goblin Guide (you'd go back up to 5 from the drain after the nut turn of Boros Charm+Bolt). Moreover, you get to do a Path/Palm check, which is significant. Generally in these spots you can guess the texture of their hand given how the first few turns have played out. I don't think I had a read on whether I thought he had a palm or a path, but that's irrelevant to this decision. What is relevant is that you are guaranteed 2 turns to draw a land/mana (Breach Wurm) or a Goryo's Vengeance. Looting is a redraw if your plan is to Laxe+Brutality That is a lot of hits over the next two draws. I count 2 Temples and 2 Blacleave Cliffs (only if draw next turn)+9 other lands, 4 Goryo's Vengeance, 4 SSGs=21 outs once and 17 outs once. I like those odds moreso than the odds of comboing off this turn in this circumstance.
General plan: discard Reunion to handsize, opponent takes their turn, fully escalate Brutality to kill the goblin guide (pitch a Griselbrand+hug or a brick that you draw like Night's Whisper), Axe the swiftspear, plan to combo the turn after, which is what I did and led to a win.
Good points.
I like the second manamorphose for the same reason I liked the second borb from the beginning. Sometimes you need the color to win and if it gets stuck in the bottom cards, you can't find it. But, if I'm willing to board it out and risk it, I should just risk it from the beginning, I suppose. That'll let me sneak a cathartic in and keep my axe and brutality.
Completely agree on the EE statements. It is definitely a corner case to hit EE for more than 2, but can happen. I don't bring it in just for that, though. I like it for the other reasons you mention.
I agree, I think Boseiju still isn't good enough. I was just thinking about it out loud here. It is getting better as UW seems to fade, but still not good against queller, etc. I'm not worried about the true control decks; they'll give us plenty of time to set things up. Things like jeskai that have a bit of disruption and a quick clock are more worrisome. I beat jeskai the only time I played it because he tapped out on my end step g1 (mistakenly thought he was safe) and then I got a quick blood moon game 2. Current jeskai lists are very weak to Blood Moon (especially if they don't expect it) which is another reason not to play Boseiju.
I will say in EE's favor is the rise of the hoomans. EE for 1 kills 12 cards (Champion of the Parish, Hierarch, VIal), and EE for 2 kills at least a third of their deck (Guardian of Thraben, Mayor, Kitesail Freebooter, Meddling Mage, Lieutenant MD, bob/canonist post). I think for the time being I'm just going to add it back as the 15th card.
I've been playing around with Darkblast for the 15th card as I've seen a bunch of Affinity and Infect lately. It's cute but not good enough and need a specific metagame..
Here's a mini report on the Modern Challenge that I won last week
Round 1 vs. D00mwake (UG Merfolk, OTD)
G1: I keep a h and of temple, land Vengeance, Whispers, Griselbrand, Shoal, Breach. Base plan is to discard Griselbrand to t2 Night's Whisper and combo t3. He plays some new green dorks but doesn't do anything relevant. I combo t3
+2 Bontu's +1 Pact +1 Anger +1 Lightning Axe
-2 Ritual -1 Whisper -1 Brutality -1 Through the Breach
I board out a breach because WIth their clock and disruption I don't think I'm making it out to t5 very often. Especially on the draw I'm on full defensive mode
g2: I mull a good 7 with Vengeance, cantrips, Pact etc but no land, into no land 6 and 5 and keep a 4 with land, SSG, looting, x. Funny when you still have a realistic chance as long as you have a land and looting, basically. I get run over.
g3: I keep a mediocre hand of 4 lands, looting, whisper, anger. By turn 2 I have drawn into Breach, Griselbrand, Shoal and SSG so my plan is now well defined. His t3 involves him extending into 3 creatuers so I plan on tapping out with SSG to try and combo, as I'm not lnog for the world. I draw a Wurm for the turn and both my constraints become relaxed and I win.
1-0 (2-1)
Round 2 vs. Gmanlsa (GB Tron, OTP)
g1 I start with a nutty hand of 2 lands, looting, vengeance, Griselbrand and Wurm. His turn 1 is a Tower into Chromatic Star. My next turn is a bit better
+2 Shattering Spree
-1 Brutality -1 Ritual
This matchup is such a joke that I wouldn't even bother with Blood Moon OTP.
G2 I start with a reasonable hand of each of my 3 fatties, temple, mountain, looting, hug. He insists on being the fun police with a t1 relic and t2 brutality taking away my hug. I eventually looting into a vengeance and I have a decision to ditch Griselbrand or hold him to draw into breach. I bin the griselbrand and try to draw into another Vengeance, a Spree, or Breach a Wurm for my win condition. his t4 tron produces a wurmcoil and I never get close
G3 i start with 2 lands, rit, SSG, looting, borb, grisel. My Looting hits a Vengeance and I start to wonder if today's the day.
2-0 (2-1)
Round 3 vs. SmoiL (Eldrazi Tron, OTD)
g1 I keep a hand of 2 lands, wurm, SSG, whispers, hug and Vengeance. Pretty good. He leads on Mine+Chalice for 0, so he obviously has another Chalice. I temple a Breach on bottom and he casts an irrelevant chalice for 1. He misses his third landdrop which makes me wonder about his keep. His board consisted of a Ballista for 1, chalice for 1, chalice for 0, GQ and Mine when I breached in a Wurm on turn 4
+2 Shatternig Spree +1 Bontu's +1 Lightning Axe
-1 Brutality -2 Ritual -1 Temple on the play
I've actually had Etron players insist on Chalice for 1 even postboard so if you observe that, don't bother with Lightning axe
g2 I have a good hand of 3 lands, 2 Whispers, Griselbrand and Breach and draw a ssg t1. He plays a chalice for 1 again and then plays a temple into TKS on t3 and takes away my Griselbrand when I had 2 Breaches. Rude. His t4 consisted of playing a Smasher to smash me to 8. My turn 4 consisted of drawing another fast mana and breaching in a Wurm for 15. He's now at 5 with TKS and Smasher while I'm at 8 with 3 angry 5/5 wurms plus a Blood Crypt, Breach and Shoal. I'm winning the race for now but this can be swung around in his favor by stuff like All is Dust, running smashers/Endbringers. Sure enough, on his next turn he plays another smasher such that his board is now Smasherx2 and TKS. He passes and I present lethal and we trade off 2 of our creatuers and he chumps with TKS which draws me a hug (hand is now hug, spree, shoal, breach, Crypt). It's going to be problematic if he draws another 5/5 or an All is Dust so I work towards getting a second breach going. I hug pitching Spree and SHoal to pick up a rit, wurm and looting. So I'm set up to fight through another blocker/All is Dust next turn with another Breached Wrum. Of course he draws a TKS and takes away my Breach. I draw a blank and he chumps my wurm, going down to 3. I draw another Breach off of the TKS and his topdecked Smasher is made obsolete next turn
3-0 (2-0)
Round 4 vs. Juzam-Djinn84 (Storm, OTP)
g1 I recognize his name as a storm grinder so I know I'm in for a ride. I keep a hand of 2 lands, 2 Vengeances, griselbrand and SSG. On my t2 i don't draw anything and pass, aiming to discard to handsize next turn (I have SSG+2 vengeances to play through a remand). He plays a baral on t3 but does not kill me. I EoT Vengeance with my SSG, and he has the remand. I untap and Vengeance again for the win
g2 i keep a mediocre hand that never draws a Vengeance with Griselbrand in the bin. I dig 22 cards deep to no avail. He plays 2 Goblins and a Baral and beats em down
g3 I mull a no land 7 into a hand with 2 lands, Vengeance, Breach and Griselbrand. Seems reasonable enough.I scry a SSG to the bottom looking for cantrips. His turn 2 Electromancer sends me into a panic and of course I draw a Brutality like a professional and kill the goblin. I punt t3 when I main phase Vengeance with him at 3 lands and nothing else. I get remanded and lose tempo. thankfully he doesn't murder me turn 4 and I go for it again main phase (I think him having 3 lands vs. 4 is a big difference in terms of what he needs to go off next turn). He uses 2 of his 3 open mana to cast Peer through Depth, prsumably looking for dispel. He doesn't have it and I kill him t4
4-0 (2-1)
Round 5 vs. toondoslav (GW elves, otp)
I keep a very speculative hand of temple, whisper, rit, shoal, wurm, griselbrand, Breach. I have 2 shots at a land and then I'd be in business. I scry another temple to the top while he plays a bunch of dorks. On his turn 2 he spews 11 points of damage onto play. On my turn 3 I play my third land, play a ritual, shoal pitch wurm splice breach, breaching Griselbrand. My mana is pretty constrained here but I cannot give him a chance to draw an archdruid or an ezuri. I end fizzling because my deck size was divisible by 7 with 4 remainder. I end the turn with 4 cards left in deck, 5 lands and 2 Vengeances in hand, and a Borb in the GY with the opponent at 13 and I pray he doesn't kill me. He doesn't topdeck and swings for 11 and i kill him with borb
Brutailty is good in theory but being OTD vs OTP for the turn 2 play can make a world of a difference
g2 I keep a hand with 2 lands, vengeance, phose, shoal, Bontu's and Anger. Great. He mulls to 5 and I feel a RIP to the face in my future. his first 2 turns consists of t1 land heritage druid, t2 land nothing. I don't draw business for a while so I just sculpt my hand. He plays a t3 RIP and keeps beating me down his 1/1. I draw enough mana so I cast a SSG to halt his Heritage druid assault. He then draws his 4th land and plays ezuri, which is bad news bears. I attack with SSG with the plan to wipe away ezuri after. He makes the mistake of blocking SSG with Heritage Druid and then regeneration it, tapping him out, letting my Bontu's sweep his board. I keep drawing Vengeances after though and he draws a Vizier and a Nettle afterwards, and my life is starting to get reallly low with jsut breaches but nothing else in my hand. I finally draw a griselbrand but get a really bad draw 7 or two, so I set up a breach Griselbrand next turn. He plays a selfless spirit and attacks. I make a gigantic mistake of breaching and attacking with Griselbrand the next turn, where he obviously blocked then sacced to deny lifelink. I should've obviously waited for him to attack with his Nettle Sentinel to block it. THankfully I don't get punished and I finally get there in 10 turns
5-0 (2-0)
Round 6 vs. TomatoCheese (GB Tron, OTD)
g1 I keep a hand of 2 swamps, 2 shoals, wurm, griselbrand and vengeance and chuckle at his t1 tower+Sphere. I plan on t1 land, t2 discard griselbrand, t3 kill. He doesn't have discard and I kill him t3
SB: same as above
g2 I keep a very speculative hand of 2 Vengeances, land, ssg, spree, phose, shoal. His first 2 turns concists of a swamp+Marsh and a relic, which complicates things for my double Vengeance hand. I manaphose into a land and spree his relic+map and he gets no value out of either of those. I draw into looting+Griselbrand by t4 and win.
6-0 (2-0)
Round 7 vs. Miguelcaster (Eldrazi & Taxes, OTP)
I look him up as the only other undefeated and groan at his history of playing E&T. I keep a hand that kills him t4 even through a t3 TKS
g2 and g3 plays the same. I'm ruined by a mixture of thalias and RIP. I would try Blood Moons OTP because their mana base without Vials is putrid
6-1 (1-2)
Quarterfinals vs. TomatoCheese (GB Tron, OTP)
g1 I keep a 1 lander with wurms, Vengeance, Griselbrand and Looting. keep. Sucks that the second land is a Temple but thankfully he doesn't have a Brutality and I win g3
SB: Same as above
g2: I mull a no land 7 into temple, swamp, 2 whispers, hug, wurm. he has t3 tron+relic.while I keep cantripping and eventually draw into breach+fatty, only to be thoughtseized but thankfully he's durling around with eggs and Thragtusk. I draw into a Shoal+Breach+Borb+wurm+4 lands, so I shoal pitch borb breaching in wurm when he's at 23. this line is pretty weak vs. wurmcoil but he hadn't played it for 2 turns after tron so i figured that wasn't a thing. I pass confidently and he slams wurmcoil. Thankfully I did splice the breach so I have 4 lands+whisper+ssg+Breach leftover. My whisper draws me into another wurm. He attacks with wurmcoil (no block) and then plays a ballista for 6, which seals the deal as I breach in a wurm and attack 30 points of power
7-1 (2-0)
Semifinals vs eronkim (OTP, Burn)
Before g1 I'm doing some research and realize 1 of the player has a bunch of 5-0s with lantern and grixis shadows, so I'm praying he loses in the semis
g1 I keep a hand of 2 temples, mountain, looting, ssg, phose, wurm. Not the most exciting hand. He goes foundry+goblin guide revealing griselbrand. I find a Vengeance with my looting and he tapped down for swifty and bolt so I don't have to worry about skullcrack effects while I kill him t3
+2 Pact +1 Lightning Axe
-3 Whispers
g2 I keep a pretty loose hand of 3 temple, montain, swamp, rit, shoalx2, wurm. But gain 11 vs burn seems good so whatever. I draw a Griselbrand then scry another land to the top for Guide. next turn I draw a temple and scry breach to the top. Though I'm already at 11, i have 2 lands and a hand of 2 shoals, wurm, rit, griselbrand with a Breach next turn, so I feel OK. I don't shoal while he's tapped out and take a risk that he doesn't have skullcrack effects and I can combo next turn. His next turn is a Molten Rain to set me back (?!?!) I end up in the game state that I shared with you above, and ended up stopping rather than keep going. I took the hit, did a Brutality check and won the turn after
8-1 (2-0)
Finals vs. caux12 (Burn, OTD)
Thankfully Jadoth on the other side lost playing lantern and now I get to face a good matchup. I have a hand that has combo pieces but 2 too many whispers. thankfully I t1 loot away a Griselbrand and topdeck a Vengeance t2. I wait until the end of his next turn as not to get blown out by Skullcrack (skullcrack in response to Vengeance renders griselbrand to nothing).he ends up tapping out for Eidolon so I am free to carefully combo off while being mindful of the Eidolon on t3
SB: same as above. Consider bringing chalices in OTP
g2 I mull a no land 7 into 5 red cards and a swamp into 2 mountains, hug, looting and pact. I shrug and keep. I actually make a game out of it by drawing into vengeance/brutality etc while he runs out of gas. He slams a relic a tur nbefore I can Vengeance back a Griselbrand and that is that
g3 I have 2 temples, looting, phose, vengeance, chalice, breach and scry a SSG to the bottom. t2 I draw Vengeance, loot into griselbrand with 2 vengeances in hand. Opponent taps out on his t2, and it just feels like it's my day. I kill him and take down the whole thing.
TLDR: I played the matchup bingo well, and had a bunch of t3/t4 kills
Here's a mini report on the Modern Challenge that I won last week
Round 1 vs. D00mwake (UG Merfolk, OTD)
G1: I keep a h and of temple, land Vengeance, Whispers, Griselbrand, Shoal, Breach. Base plan is to discard Griselbrand to t2 Night's Whisper and combo t3. He plays some new green dorks but doesn't do anything relevant. I combo t3
+2 Bontu's +1 Pact +1 Anger +1 Lightning Axe
-2 Ritual -1 Whisper -1 Brutality -1 Through the Breach
I board out a breach because WIth their clock and disruption I don't think I'm making it out to t5 very often. Especially on the draw I'm on full defensive mode
g2: I mull a good 7 with Vengeance, cantrips, Pact etc but no land, into no land 6 and 5 and keep a 4 with land, SSG, looting, x. Funny when you still have a realistic chance as long as you have a land and looting, basically. I get run over.
g3: I keep a mediocre hand of 4 lands, looting, whisper, anger. By turn 2 I have drawn into Breach, Griselbrand, Shoal and SSG so my plan is now well defined. His t3 involves him extending into 3 creatuers so I plan on tapping out with SSG to try and combo, as I'm not lnog for the world. I draw a Wurm for the turn and both my constraints become relaxed and I win.
1-0 (2-1)
Round 2 vs. Gmanlsa (GB Tron, OTP)
g1 I start with a nutty hand of 2 lands, looting, vengeance, Griselbrand and Wurm. His turn 1 is a Tower into Chromatic Star. My next turn is a bit better
+2 Shattering Spree
-1 Brutality -1 Ritual
This matchup is such a joke that I wouldn't even bother with Blood Moon OTP.
G2 I start with a reasonable hand of each of my 3 fatties, temple, mountain, looting, hug. He insists on being the fun police with a t1 relic and t2 brutality taking away my hug. I eventually looting into a vengeance and I have a decision to ditch Griselbrand or hold him to draw into breach. I bin the griselbrand and try to draw into another Vengeance, a Spree, or Breach a Wurm for my win condition. his t4 tron produces a wurmcoil and I never get close
G3 i start with 2 lands, rit, SSG, looting, borb, grisel. My Looting hits a Vengeance and I start to wonder if today's the day.
2-0 (2-1)
Round 3 vs. SmoiL (Eldrazi Tron, OTD)
g1 I keep a hand of 2 lands, wurm, SSG, whispers, hug and Vengeance. Pretty good. He leads on Mine+Chalice for 0, so he obviously has another Chalice. I temple a Breach on bottom and he casts an irrelevant chalice for 1. He misses his third landdrop which makes me wonder about his keep. His board consisted of a Ballista for 1, chalice for 1, chalice for 0, GQ and Mine when I breached in a Wurm on turn 4
+2 Shatternig Spree +1 Bontu's +1 Lightning Axe
-1 Brutality -2 Ritual -1 Temple on the play
I've actually had Etron players insist on Chalice for 1 even postboard so if you observe that, don't bother with Lightning axe
g2 I have a good hand of 3 lands, 2 Whispers, Griselbrand and Breach and draw a ssg t1. He plays a chalice for 1 again and then plays a temple into TKS on t3 and takes away my Griselbrand when I had 2 Breaches. Rude. His t4 consisted of playing a Smasher to smash me to 8. My turn 4 consisted of drawing another fast mana and breaching in a Wurm for 15. He's now at 5 with TKS and Smasher while I'm at 8 with 3 angry 5/5 wurms plus a Blood Crypt, Breach and Shoal. I'm winning the race for now but this can be swung around in his favor by stuff like All is Dust, running smashers/Endbringers. Sure enough, on his next turn he plays another smasher such that his board is now Smasherx2 and TKS. He passes and I present lethal and we trade off 2 of our creatuers and he chumps with TKS which draws me a hug (hand is now hug, spree, shoal, breach, Crypt). It's going to be problematic if he draws another 5/5 or an All is Dust so I work towards getting a second breach going. I hug pitching Spree and SHoal to pick up a rit, wurm and looting. So I'm set up to fight through another blocker/All is Dust next turn with another Breached Wrum. Of course he draws a TKS and takes away my Breach. I draw a blank and he chumps my wurm, going down to 3. I draw another Breach off of the TKS and his topdecked Smasher is made obsolete next turn
3-0 (2-0)
Round 4 vs. Juzam-Djinn84 (Storm, OTP)
g1 I recognize his name as a storm grinder so I know I'm in for a ride. I keep a hand of 2 lands, 2 Vengeances, griselbrand and SSG. On my t2 i don't draw anything and pass, aiming to discard to handsize next turn (I have SSG+2 vengeances to play through a remand). He plays a baral on t3 but does not kill me. I EoT Vengeance with my SSG, and he has the remand. I untap and Vengeance again for the win
g2 i keep a mediocre hand that never draws a Vengeance with Griselbrand in the bin. I dig 22 cards deep to no avail. He plays 2 Goblins and a Baral and beats em down
g3 I mull a no land 7 into a hand with 2 lands, Vengeance, Breach and Griselbrand. Seems reasonable enough.I scry a SSG to the bottom looking for cantrips. His turn 2 Electromancer sends me into a panic and of course I draw a Brutality like a professional and kill the goblin. I punt t3 when I main phase Vengeance with him at 3 lands and nothing else. I get remanded and lose tempo. thankfully he doesn't murder me turn 4 and I go for it again main phase (I think him having 3 lands vs. 4 is a big difference in terms of what he needs to go off next turn). He uses 2 of his 3 open mana to cast Peer through Depth, prsumably looking for dispel. He doesn't have it and I kill him t4
4-0 (2-1)
Round 5 vs. toondoslav (GW elves, otp)
I keep a very speculative hand of temple, whisper, rit, shoal, wurm, griselbrand, Breach. I have 2 shots at a land and then I'd be in business. I scry another temple to the top while he plays a bunch of dorks. On his turn 2 he spews 11 points of damage onto play. On my turn 3 I play my third land, play a ritual, shoal pitch wurm splice breach, breaching Griselbrand. My mana is pretty constrained here but I cannot give him a chance to draw an archdruid or an ezuri. I end fizzling because my deck size was divisible by 7 with 4 remainder. I end the turn with 4 cards left in deck, 5 lands and 2 Vengeances in hand, and a Borb in the GY with the opponent at 13 and I pray he doesn't kill me. He doesn't topdeck and swings for 11 and i kill him with borb
Brutailty is good in theory but being OTD vs OTP for the turn 2 play can make a world of a difference
g2 I keep a hand with 2 lands, vengeance, phose, shoal, Bontu's and Anger. Great. He mulls to 5 and I feel a RIP to the face in my future. his first 2 turns consists of t1 land heritage druid, t2 land nothing. I don't draw business for a while so I just sculpt my hand. He plays a t3 RIP and keeps beating me down his 1/1. I draw enough mana so I cast a SSG to halt his Heritage druid assault. He then draws his 4th land and plays ezuri, which is bad news bears. I attack with SSG with the plan to wipe away ezuri after. He makes the mistake of blocking SSG with Heritage Druid and then regeneration it, tapping him out, letting my Bontu's sweep his board. I keep drawing Vengeances after though and he draws a Vizier and a Nettle afterwards, and my life is starting to get reallly low with jsut breaches but nothing else in my hand. I finally draw a griselbrand but get a really bad draw 7 or two, so I set up a breach Griselbrand next turn. He plays a selfless spirit and attacks. I make a gigantic mistake of breaching and attacking with Griselbrand the next turn, where he obviously blocked then sacced to deny lifelink. I should've obviously waited for him to attack with his Nettle Sentinel to block it. THankfully I don't get punished and I finally get there in 10 turns
5-0 (2-0)
Round 6 vs. TomatoCheese (GB Tron, OTD)
g1 I keep a hand of 2 swamps, 2 shoals, wurm, griselbrand and vengeance and chuckle at his t1 tower+Sphere. I plan on t1 land, t2 discard griselbrand, t3 kill. He doesn't have discard and I kill him t3
SB: same as above
g2 I keep a very speculative hand of 2 Vengeances, land, ssg, spree, phose, shoal. His first 2 turns concists of a swamp+Marsh and a relic, which complicates things for my double Vengeance hand. I manaphose into a land and spree his relic+map and he gets no value out of either of those. I draw into looting+Griselbrand by t4 and win.
6-0 (2-0)
Round 7 vs. Miguelcaster (Eldrazi & Taxes, OTP)
I look him up as the only other undefeated and groan at his history of playing E&T. I keep a hand that kills him t4 even through a t3 TKS
g2 and g3 plays the same. I'm ruined by a mixture of thalias and RIP. I would try Blood Moons OTP because their mana base without Vials is putrid
6-1 (1-2)
Quarterfinals vs. TomatoCheese (GB Tron, OTP)
g1 I keep a 1 lander with wurms, Vengeance, Griselbrand and Looting. keep. Sucks that the second land is a Temple but thankfully he doesn't have a Brutality and I win g3
SB: Same as above
g2: I mull a no land 7 into temple, swamp, 2 whispers, hug, wurm. he has t3 tron+relic.while I keep cantripping and eventually draw into breach+fatty, only to be thoughtseized but thankfully he's durling around with eggs and Thragtusk. I draw into a Shoal+Breach+Borb+wurm+4 lands, so I shoal pitch borb breaching in wurm when he's at 23. this line is pretty weak vs. wurmcoil but he hadn't played it for 2 turns after tron so i figured that wasn't a thing. I pass confidently and he slams wurmcoil. Thankfully I did splice the breach so I have 4 lands+whisper+ssg+Breach leftover. My whisper draws me into another wurm. He attacks with wurmcoil (no block) and then plays a ballista for 6, which seals the deal as I breach in a wurm and attack 30 points of power
7-1 (2-0)
Semifinals vs eronkim (OTP, Burn)
Before g1 I'm doing some research and realize 1 of the player has a bunch of 5-0s with lantern and grixis shadows, so I'm praying he loses in the semis
g1 I keep a hand of 2 temples, mountain, looting, ssg, phose, wurm. Not the most exciting hand. He goes foundry+goblin guide revealing griselbrand. I find a Vengeance with my looting and he tapped down for swifty and bolt so I don't have to worry about skullcrack effects while I kill him t3
+2 Pact +1 Lightning Axe
-3 Whispers
g2 I keep a pretty loose hand of 3 temple, montain, swamp, rit, shoalx2, wurm. But gain 11 vs burn seems good so whatever. I draw a Griselbrand then scry another land to the top for Guide. next turn I draw a temple and scry breach to the top. Though I'm already at 11, i have 2 lands and a hand of 2 shoals, wurm, rit, griselbrand with a Breach next turn, so I feel OK. I don't shoal while he's tapped out and take a risk that he doesn't have skullcrack effects and I can combo next turn. His next turn is a Molten Rain to set me back (?!?!) I end up in the game state that I shared with you above, and ended up stopping rather than keep going. I took the hit, did a Brutality check and won the turn after
8-1 (2-0)
Finals vs. caux12 (Burn, OTD)
Thankfully Jadoth on the other side lost playing lantern and now I get to face a good matchup. I have a hand that has combo pieces but 2 too many whispers. thankfully I t1 loot away a Griselbrand and topdeck a Vengeance t2. I wait until the end of his next turn as not to get blown out by Skullcrack (skullcrack in response to Vengeance renders griselbrand to nothing).he ends up tapping out for Eidolon so I am free to carefully combo off while being mindful of the Eidolon on t3
SB: same as above. Consider bringing chalices in OTP
g2 I mull a no land 7 into 5 red cards and a swamp into 2 mountains, hug, looting and pact. I shrug and keep. I actually make a game out of it by drawing into vengeance/brutality etc while he runs out of gas. He slams a relic a tur nbefore I can Vengeance back a Griselbrand and that is that
g3 I have 2 temples, looting, phose, vengeance, chalice, breach and scry a SSG to the bottom. t2 I draw Vengeance, loot into griselbrand with 2 vengeances in hand. Opponent taps out on his t2, and it just feels like it's my day. I kill him and take down the whole thing.
TLDR: I played the matchup bingo well, and had a bunch of t3/t4 kills
Nice games..can you put your SB list?..really interested on seeing it..thanks!
Here's a mini report on the Modern Challenge that I won last week
Round 1 vs. D00mwake (UG Merfolk, OTD)
G1: I keep a h and of temple, land Vengeance, Whispers, Griselbrand, Shoal, Breach. Base plan is to discard Griselbrand to t2 Night's Whisper and combo t3. He plays some new green dorks but doesn't do anything relevant. I combo t3
+2 Bontu's +1 Pact +1 Anger +1 Lightning Axe
-2 Ritual -1 Whisper -1 Brutality -1 Through the Breach
I board out a breach because WIth their clock and disruption I don't think I'm making it out to t5 very often. Especially on the draw I'm on full defensive mode
g2: I mull a good 7 with Vengeance, cantrips, Pact etc but no land, into no land 6 and 5 and keep a 4 with land, SSG, looting, x. Funny when you still have a realistic chance as long as you have a land and looting, basically. I get run over.
g3: I keep a mediocre hand of 4 lands, looting, whisper, anger. By turn 2 I have drawn into Breach, Griselbrand, Shoal and SSG so my plan is now well defined. His t3 involves him extending into 3 creatuers so I plan on tapping out with SSG to try and combo, as I'm not lnog for the world. I draw a Wurm for the turn and both my constraints become relaxed and I win.
1-0 (2-1)
Round 2 vs. Gmanlsa (GB Tron, OTP)
g1 I start with a nutty hand of 2 lands, looting, vengeance, Griselbrand and Wurm. His turn 1 is a Tower into Chromatic Star. My next turn is a bit better
+2 Shattering Spree
-1 Brutality -1 Ritual
This matchup is such a joke that I wouldn't even bother with Blood Moon OTP.
G2 I start with a reasonable hand of each of my 3 fatties, temple, mountain, looting, hug. He insists on being the fun police with a t1 relic and t2 brutality taking away my hug. I eventually looting into a vengeance and I have a decision to ditch Griselbrand or hold him to draw into breach. I bin the griselbrand and try to draw into another Vengeance, a Spree, or Breach a Wurm for my win condition. his t4 tron produces a wurmcoil and I never get close
G3 i start with 2 lands, rit, SSG, looting, borb, grisel. My Looting hits a Vengeance and I start to wonder if today's the day.
2-0 (2-1)
Round 3 vs. SmoiL (Eldrazi Tron, OTD)
g1 I keep a hand of 2 lands, wurm, SSG, whispers, hug and Vengeance. Pretty good. He leads on Mine+Chalice for 0, so he obviously has another Chalice. I temple a Breach on bottom and he casts an irrelevant chalice for 1. He misses his third landdrop which makes me wonder about his keep. His board consisted of a Ballista for 1, chalice for 1, chalice for 0, GQ and Mine when I breached in a Wurm on turn 4
+2 Shatternig Spree +1 Bontu's +1 Lightning Axe
-1 Brutality -2 Ritual -1 Temple on the play
I've actually had Etron players insist on Chalice for 1 even postboard so if you observe that, don't bother with Lightning axe
g2 I have a good hand of 3 lands, 2 Whispers, Griselbrand and Breach and draw a ssg t1. He plays a chalice for 1 again and then plays a temple into TKS on t3 and takes away my Griselbrand when I had 2 Breaches. Rude. His t4 consisted of playing a Smasher to smash me to 8. My turn 4 consisted of drawing another fast mana and breaching in a Wurm for 15. He's now at 5 with TKS and Smasher while I'm at 8 with 3 angry 5/5 wurms plus a Blood Crypt, Breach and Shoal. I'm winning the race for now but this can be swung around in his favor by stuff like All is Dust, running smashers/Endbringers. Sure enough, on his next turn he plays another smasher such that his board is now Smasherx2 and TKS. He passes and I present lethal and we trade off 2 of our creatuers and he chumps with TKS which draws me a hug (hand is now hug, spree, shoal, breach, Crypt). It's going to be problematic if he draws another 5/5 or an All is Dust so I work towards getting a second breach going. I hug pitching Spree and SHoal to pick up a rit, wurm and looting. So I'm set up to fight through another blocker/All is Dust next turn with another Breached Wrum. Of course he draws a TKS and takes away my Breach. I draw a blank and he chumps my wurm, going down to 3. I draw another Breach off of the TKS and his topdecked Smasher is made obsolete next turn
3-0 (2-0)
Round 4 vs. Juzam-Djinn84 (Storm, OTP)
g1 I recognize his name as a storm grinder so I know I'm in for a ride. I keep a hand of 2 lands, 2 Vengeances, griselbrand and SSG. On my t2 i don't draw anything and pass, aiming to discard to handsize next turn (I have SSG+2 vengeances to play through a remand). He plays a baral on t3 but does not kill me. I EoT Vengeance with my SSG, and he has the remand. I untap and Vengeance again for the win
g2 i keep a mediocre hand that never draws a Vengeance with Griselbrand in the bin. I dig 22 cards deep to no avail. He plays 2 Goblins and a Baral and beats em down
g3 I mull a no land 7 into a hand with 2 lands, Vengeance, Breach and Griselbrand. Seems reasonable enough.I scry a SSG to the bottom looking for cantrips. His turn 2 Electromancer sends me into a panic and of course I draw a Brutality like a professional and kill the goblin. I punt t3 when I main phase Vengeance with him at 3 lands and nothing else. I get remanded and lose tempo. thankfully he doesn't murder me turn 4 and I go for it again main phase (I think him having 3 lands vs. 4 is a big difference in terms of what he needs to go off next turn). He uses 2 of his 3 open mana to cast Peer through Depth, prsumably looking for dispel. He doesn't have it and I kill him t4
4-0 (2-1)
Round 5 vs. toondoslav (GW elves, otp)
I keep a very speculative hand of temple, whisper, rit, shoal, wurm, griselbrand, Breach. I have 2 shots at a land and then I'd be in business. I scry another temple to the top while he plays a bunch of dorks. On his turn 2 he spews 11 points of damage onto play. On my turn 3 I play my third land, play a ritual, shoal pitch wurm splice breach, breaching Griselbrand. My mana is pretty constrained here but I cannot give him a chance to draw an archdruid or an ezuri. I end fizzling because my deck size was divisible by 7 with 4 remainder. I end the turn with 4 cards left in deck, 5 lands and 2 Vengeances in hand, and a Borb in the GY with the opponent at 13 and I pray he doesn't kill me. He doesn't topdeck and swings for 11 and i kill him with borb
Brutailty is good in theory but being OTD vs OTP for the turn 2 play can make a world of a difference
g2 I keep a hand with 2 lands, vengeance, phose, shoal, Bontu's and Anger. Great. He mulls to 5 and I feel a RIP to the face in my future. his first 2 turns consists of t1 land heritage druid, t2 land nothing. I don't draw business for a while so I just sculpt my hand. He plays a t3 RIP and keeps beating me down his 1/1. I draw enough mana so I cast a SSG to halt his Heritage druid assault. He then draws his 4th land and plays ezuri, which is bad news bears. I attack with SSG with the plan to wipe away ezuri after. He makes the mistake of blocking SSG with Heritage Druid and then regeneration it, tapping him out, letting my Bontu's sweep his board. I keep drawing Vengeances after though and he draws a Vizier and a Nettle afterwards, and my life is starting to get reallly low with jsut breaches but nothing else in my hand. I finally draw a griselbrand but get a really bad draw 7 or two, so I set up a breach Griselbrand next turn. He plays a selfless spirit and attacks. I make a gigantic mistake of breaching and attacking with Griselbrand the next turn, where he obviously blocked then sacced to deny lifelink. I should've obviously waited for him to attack with his Nettle Sentinel to block it. THankfully I don't get punished and I finally get there in 10 turns
5-0 (2-0)
Round 6 vs. TomatoCheese (GB Tron, OTD)
g1 I keep a hand of 2 swamps, 2 shoals, wurm, griselbrand and vengeance and chuckle at his t1 tower+Sphere. I plan on t1 land, t2 discard griselbrand, t3 kill. He doesn't have discard and I kill him t3
SB: same as above
g2 I keep a very speculative hand of 2 Vengeances, land, ssg, spree, phose, shoal. His first 2 turns concists of a swamp+Marsh and a relic, which complicates things for my double Vengeance hand. I manaphose into a land and spree his relic+map and he gets no value out of either of those. I draw into looting+Griselbrand by t4 and win.
6-0 (2-0)
Round 7 vs. Miguelcaster (Eldrazi & Taxes, OTP)
I look him up as the only other undefeated and groan at his history of playing E&T. I keep a hand that kills him t4 even through a t3 TKS
g2 and g3 plays the same. I'm ruined by a mixture of thalias and RIP. I would try Blood Moons OTP because their mana base without Vials is putrid
6-1 (1-2)
Quarterfinals vs. TomatoCheese (GB Tron, OTP)
g1 I keep a 1 lander with wurms, Vengeance, Griselbrand and Looting. keep. Sucks that the second land is a Temple but thankfully he doesn't have a Brutality and I win g3
SB: Same as above
g2: I mull a no land 7 into temple, swamp, 2 whispers, hug, wurm. he has t3 tron+relic.while I keep cantripping and eventually draw into breach+fatty, only to be thoughtseized but thankfully he's durling around with eggs and Thragtusk. I draw into a Shoal+Breach+Borb+wurm+4 lands, so I shoal pitch borb breaching in wurm when he's at 23. this line is pretty weak vs. wurmcoil but he hadn't played it for 2 turns after tron so i figured that wasn't a thing. I pass confidently and he slams wurmcoil. Thankfully I did splice the breach so I have 4 lands+whisper+ssg+Breach leftover. My whisper draws me into another wurm. He attacks with wurmcoil (no block) and then plays a ballista for 6, which seals the deal as I breach in a wurm and attack 30 points of power
7-1 (2-0)
Semifinals vs eronkim (OTP, Burn)
Before g1 I'm doing some research and realize 1 of the player has a bunch of 5-0s with lantern and grixis shadows, so I'm praying he loses in the semis
g1 I keep a hand of 2 temples, mountain, looting, ssg, phose, wurm. Not the most exciting hand. He goes foundry+goblin guide revealing griselbrand. I find a Vengeance with my looting and he tapped down for swifty and bolt so I don't have to worry about skullcrack effects while I kill him t3
+2 Pact +1 Lightning Axe
-3 Whispers
g2 I keep a pretty loose hand of 3 temple, montain, swamp, rit, shoalx2, wurm. But gain 11 vs burn seems good so whatever. I draw a Griselbrand then scry another land to the top for Guide. next turn I draw a temple and scry breach to the top. Though I'm already at 11, i have 2 lands and a hand of 2 shoals, wurm, rit, griselbrand with a Breach next turn, so I feel OK. I don't shoal while he's tapped out and take a risk that he doesn't have skullcrack effects and I can combo next turn. His next turn is a Molten Rain to set me back (?!?!) I end up in the game state that I shared with you above, and ended up stopping rather than keep going. I took the hit, did a Brutality check and won the turn after
8-1 (2-0)
Finals vs. caux12 (Burn, OTD)
Thankfully Jadoth on the other side lost playing lantern and now I get to face a good matchup. I have a hand that has combo pieces but 2 too many whispers. thankfully I t1 loot away a Griselbrand and topdeck a Vengeance t2. I wait until the end of his next turn as not to get blown out by Skullcrack (skullcrack in response to Vengeance renders griselbrand to nothing).he ends up tapping out for Eidolon so I am free to carefully combo off while being mindful of the Eidolon on t3
SB: same as above. Consider bringing chalices in OTP
g2 I mull a no land 7 into 5 red cards and a swamp into 2 mountains, hug, looting and pact. I shrug and keep. I actually make a game out of it by drawing into vengeance/brutality etc while he runs out of gas. He slams a relic a tur nbefore I can Vengeance back a Griselbrand and that is that
g3 I have 2 temples, looting, phose, vengeance, chalice, breach and scry a SSG to the bottom. t2 I draw Vengeance, loot into griselbrand with 2 vengeances in hand. Opponent taps out on his t2, and it just feels like it's my day. I kill him and take down the whole thing.
TLDR: I played the matchup bingo well, and had a bunch of t3/t4 kills
Nice games..can you poat your SB list?..really interested on seeing it..thanks!
here's the list i used. I've been flirting with an Emrakul or a third pact for a Jeskai/UWx heavy meta. Also it's possible the second Bontu's should be a second Anger if Dredge is going to keep doing its thing
a 5-0 list from Zores. First instinct is it's a pile of nonsense but I do like the idea. I've worked on a similar Black Moon midrange with a combo finish concept. That said I think this can use improvement. Manamorphose in this shell is most assuredly wrong, and I feel like SSG is as well. Some other minor stuff like Sweltering>Anger and quicksilver amulets. I feel like if you throw in some LotVs, IoKs, Pushes and Thoughtseizes it'd be more a more robust deck. thoughts?
To expand, idea would be similar to Blue Moon Breach which plays a controlling role with Blood Moon and a combo finish. Instead of permission and burn-based removals we have discard+harder removal like push/terminate/draedbore and instead of having a back up burn+snapcaster/Clique plan we have double the combo. That's the idea.. anyone else try it before?
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it's a fair thought, and it's really good against taxes variants. I wouldn't just bring it in for RIP though (for example, vs. UW control RIP is generally a 2 of. EE is otherwise a dead card vs. them). I just value other cards higher at this moment, but it's a nice catch all
sorry to hear, but I would've felt really good for you if you had told me you are going to beat two Grixis Shadows list I would've loved your matchup. I'm fairly sure GW Company is favorable on average as they don't have much disruption for us mainboard past oozes or a fast Excavator+Azusa+GQ lock. Unlucky. Also it seems like you lost to Dredge without facing any Leyline of the Void so I think you just ran badly.
As for Leyline, I dislike it too but it's useful vs. Storm as well as having general application vs. the other Blood Moon matchups (GBx, Grixis Shadows , valakut etc.) which is fine. I agree it's less useful in general than Moons and sucks to draw them but we can discard them so that's not as bad. Personally I'm just hoping these dorky humans decks keep Storm out a bit and we'll take our lumps playing chalice for 2 as our win condition
This isn't really set in stone and not necessarily correct. I'll provide reasonings and sideboard plans, and would be happy to discuss them.
Vs. Storm
OTP: +3 Chalice +2 Brutality
OTD: +2 Pact +2 Brutality
Removal order: -2 Hugs, -2 Ritual, (-1 Through the Breach)
Logic is chalice on 2 is too slow on the draw, where I'm dead way more often than I'd like. So on the draw I side in Pacts and hope to combo through permission. Hugs come out vs. remands. Breach is the fifth cut because a significant amount of time you don't get to reach 5 mana. Note even when they are tapped out they can Noxious Revival your Vengeance target (some lists play them as a 1 of)
Vs. Affinity
+2 Spree +1 Anger +2 Bontu's
-1 Breach -2 Whisper -1 Ritual -1 Temple
I used to cut more Breaches but I've stopped doing so because a lot of lists pack cages and RIPs. Matchup seem like 45/55 ish.
vs. Eldrazi Tron
OTP: +3 Blood Moon +2 Shattering Spree
OTD or if you see mindstones MD: +2 Shattering Spree +x Bontu's
Blood Moon is secretly not great vs. Eldrazi Tron but I would still bring it in to harrass them on the play. some lists are foregoing mindstones which is great for this plan, but otherwise I wouldn't bother with Moons.
Vs. UWx Control:
+2 Pact +2 Brutality +x chalice if you think they have a critical mass of meaningful cmc=x cards (not just path/sv, but also surgical/relic/dispels from SB)
-2 hugs -2 ritual -1 temple -1 lightning axe
I would also consider bringing in moons on the play vs. Jeskai
vs. Gx Tron
+2 Shattering Spree -1 Lightning Axe -1 Ritual
This matchup is so laughably easy feel free to spree a singleton map when can't activate it if they don't start with a relic in the first few turns
Vs. Grixis Shadows
+3 Moon +3 Chalice
-1 Shoal -1 Wurm -2 Ritual -2 hugs
This matchup is so laughably bad you'll want to do a bad imitation of legacy big red and cheese them out
vs. humans
OTP: +2 Bontu's +1 Anger +2 Moon
OTD: +2 Bontu's +1 Anger +2 brutality
-2 Ritual -2 Whispers -1 temple
Brutality is there to kill freebooters, thalias and meddling mages. Not sure if this matchup is bad - they actually don't have graveyard hate outside of Anafenza the Foremost. Obvoiusly meddling mage, Guardian of Thraben, Heretic Cathar and Freebooters are all nuisances but we have more than one way to win plus shoaling stuff. probably a 45/55 matchup.
vs. Burn
OTP: +2 Pact +2 Brutality +3 Chalice
OTD: +2 Pact +2 Brutality +1 Anger
-4 Whispers -2 Ritual -1 Temple
Pacts are for Deflecting Palms, Paths and anti-lifegain spells\
vs. Vizier Coco Variants
+2 Brutality +1 Anger +2 Bontu's
-2 Ritual -1 Breach -1 Temple -1 Hug
Their average kill is faster than our average kill so we want to bring in some disruption.
I also thought I'd want chalice against burn, but (assuming you out it on one?) it shuts off our looting, which makes a quick combo more difficult. So, I've been question that (still undecided). I usually trim Breach and try to win faster.
I noticed your also cutting Breach and trying to get a chalice on 2 against storm, which seems slightly at odds.
ì hear you on ritual and moon. i just like to think in terms of the weakest cards to cut, and generally its the rituals. for me we are an a+b combo deck so I'd rather cut on mana than cantrips
for burn, it would be for one, and i would still keep the looting because you want to keep your 10% chance of the nut start. also also have only 4 cmc cards so imo its a worthy sacrifice
lastly? chalice on two is basically a win condition, since no sane person should bring shattering sprees or wear tears vs this deck and it has to be precisely a 1 of wipe away to win. if the card actually is a knock out, i am willing to sacrifice like 20% of our deck, especially in a bad matchup
I think you're probably right about burn. It's worth it to bring in chalice on the okay since a turn 1 or even 2 on the play is fast enough to be worthwhile. But not bring it in the draw. There it's just better to use our lifegain to race them to a win.
I have been running two manamorphose and my fist cut was pretty much always a manamorphose unless I thought I was gonna need an EE on 4 to take care of a leyline. But, it's probably better to just win through other means in those situations. And at that point, I can probably trim to one manamorphose to start.
Good point about storm. Once they've seen the chalice, it's probably better not to bring it a second time and let them have dead shattering sprees in hand, but the first time they will likely have 1 answer in their deck. I wonder if boseiju would be worth it for this matchup. Seems like the UW control decks with land destruction have been disappearing. Most blue decks now are storm or jeskai.
I think I'll try out your boarding plans and see how it goes. I like learning where I'm wrong
EE for Leylines is pretty corner case. I think you are a bit too worried about these relatively rare cases - we'll face many-a graveyard hate and will beat many-a graveyard hate. RIP/Leyline of the Void is far from a 1 hit KO against us. I can't count how many times people kept a RIP with no pressure/disruption and I won at my leisure through a Breach or hardcasting Griselbrands. The most scary thing to face is the pressure+disruption combo.
I will say EE is great against multiple artifact hate pieces (for example, blowing up relic+needle+cage all at once, although for the same three mana spree can do the exact same thing). I will also say EE is amazing vs. eldrazi & taxes rising in popularity (thalia, sculler, arbiter, RIP, Dark Confidant).
Lastly, I still have issues with Boseiju in this metagame. For one, as you said, Field of Ruin/Tec Edge/GQ/Spreading Seas in UW are a nightmare. For another, both Jeskai and UW play Quellers nowadays, which works vs. Boseiju. Lastly, the rising UR kiki/blue moon breach decks play some spraeding seas and Blood Moon (though the latter should come out against us, but you never know). If you are concerned about control matchups, I would highly recommend you stick with Pacts
saw some good answers there on the previous page. Here was my thought process:
We note that both life and fast mana are bottlenecks. 2 Shoals have already been used, so at most you can gain 22 more life (37 life effective). Without landdrops or SSGs at this point, I would say there's a real chance of failure if we go for it, as our draws can fail in two different ways. Not only that, our deck is not divisible by 7 (6 cards remaining before any desperation Lootings that we may be forced into). My first instinct was keep going, but these reasons makes it unappealing.
The opponent's nut turn next turn is Boros Charm+Bolt+attack. That's 4+3+2+3=12 damage. It's very important to note that you cannot die for at least two turns if you fully escalate Brutality and kill Goblin Guide (you'd go back up to 5 from the drain after the nut turn of Boros Charm+Bolt). Moreover, you get to do a Path/Palm check, which is significant. Generally in these spots you can guess the texture of their hand given how the first few turns have played out. I don't think I had a read on whether I thought he had a palm or a path, but that's irrelevant to this decision. What is relevant is that you are guaranteed 2 turns to draw a land/mana (Breach Wurm) or a Goryo's Vengeance. Looting is a redraw if your plan is to Laxe+Brutality That is a lot of hits over the next two draws. I count 2 Temples and 2 Blacleave Cliffs (only if draw next turn)+9 other lands, 4 Goryo's Vengeance, 4 SSGs=21 outs once and 17 outs once. I like those odds moreso than the odds of comboing off this turn in this circumstance.
General plan: discard Reunion to handsize, opponent takes their turn, fully escalate Brutality to kill the goblin guide (pitch a Griselbrand+hug or a brick that you draw like Night's Whisper), Axe the swiftspear, plan to combo the turn after, which is what I did and led to a win.
I like the second manamorphose for the same reason I liked the second borb from the beginning. Sometimes you need the color to win and if it gets stuck in the bottom cards, you can't find it. But, if I'm willing to board it out and risk it, I should just risk it from the beginning, I suppose. That'll let me sneak a cathartic in and keep my axe and brutality.
Completely agree on the EE statements. It is definitely a corner case to hit EE for more than 2, but can happen. I don't bring it in just for that, though. I like it for the other reasons you mention.
I agree, I think Boseiju still isn't good enough. I was just thinking about it out loud here. It is getting better as UW seems to fade, but still not good against queller, etc. I'm not worried about the true control decks; they'll give us plenty of time to set things up. Things like jeskai that have a bit of disruption and a quick clock are more worrisome. I beat jeskai the only time I played it because he tapped out on my end step g1 (mistakenly thought he was safe) and then I got a quick blood moon game 2. Current jeskai lists are very weak to Blood Moon (especially if they don't expect it) which is another reason not to play Boseiju.
I've been playing around with Darkblast for the 15th card as I've seen a bunch of Affinity and Infect lately. It's cute but not good enough and need a specific metagame..
Round 1 vs. D00mwake (UG Merfolk, OTD)
G1: I keep a h and of temple, land Vengeance, Whispers, Griselbrand, Shoal, Breach. Base plan is to discard Griselbrand to t2 Night's Whisper and combo t3. He plays some new green dorks but doesn't do anything relevant. I combo t3
+2 Bontu's +1 Pact +1 Anger +1 Lightning Axe
-2 Ritual -1 Whisper -1 Brutality -1 Through the Breach
I board out a breach because WIth their clock and disruption I don't think I'm making it out to t5 very often. Especially on the draw I'm on full defensive mode
g2: I mull a good 7 with Vengeance, cantrips, Pact etc but no land, into no land 6 and 5 and keep a 4 with land, SSG, looting, x. Funny when you still have a realistic chance as long as you have a land and looting, basically. I get run over.
g3: I keep a mediocre hand of 4 lands, looting, whisper, anger. By turn 2 I have drawn into Breach, Griselbrand, Shoal and SSG so my plan is now well defined. His t3 involves him extending into 3 creatuers so I plan on tapping out with SSG to try and combo, as I'm not lnog for the world. I draw a Wurm for the turn and both my constraints become relaxed and I win.
1-0 (2-1)
Round 2 vs. Gmanlsa (GB Tron, OTP)
g1 I start with a nutty hand of 2 lands, looting, vengeance, Griselbrand and Wurm. His turn 1 is a Tower into Chromatic Star. My next turn is a bit better
+2 Shattering Spree
-1 Brutality -1 Ritual
This matchup is such a joke that I wouldn't even bother with Blood Moon OTP.
G2 I start with a reasonable hand of each of my 3 fatties, temple, mountain, looting, hug. He insists on being the fun police with a t1 relic and t2 brutality taking away my hug. I eventually looting into a vengeance and I have a decision to ditch Griselbrand or hold him to draw into breach. I bin the griselbrand and try to draw into another Vengeance, a Spree, or Breach a Wurm for my win condition. his t4 tron produces a wurmcoil and I never get close
G3 i start with 2 lands, rit, SSG, looting, borb, grisel. My Looting hits a Vengeance and I start to wonder if today's the day.
2-0 (2-1)
Round 3 vs. SmoiL (Eldrazi Tron, OTD)
g1 I keep a hand of 2 lands, wurm, SSG, whispers, hug and Vengeance. Pretty good. He leads on Mine+Chalice for 0, so he obviously has another Chalice. I temple a Breach on bottom and he casts an irrelevant chalice for 1. He misses his third landdrop which makes me wonder about his keep. His board consisted of a Ballista for 1, chalice for 1, chalice for 0, GQ and Mine when I breached in a Wurm on turn 4
+2 Shatternig Spree +1 Bontu's +1 Lightning Axe
-1 Brutality -2 Ritual -1 Temple on the play
I've actually had Etron players insist on Chalice for 1 even postboard so if you observe that, don't bother with Lightning axe
g2 I have a good hand of 3 lands, 2 Whispers, Griselbrand and Breach and draw a ssg t1. He plays a chalice for 1 again and then plays a temple into TKS on t3 and takes away my Griselbrand when I had 2 Breaches. Rude. His t4 consisted of playing a Smasher to smash me to 8. My turn 4 consisted of drawing another fast mana and breaching in a Wurm for 15. He's now at 5 with TKS and Smasher while I'm at 8 with 3 angry 5/5 wurms plus a Blood Crypt, Breach and Shoal. I'm winning the race for now but this can be swung around in his favor by stuff like All is Dust, running smashers/Endbringers. Sure enough, on his next turn he plays another smasher such that his board is now Smasherx2 and TKS. He passes and I present lethal and we trade off 2 of our creatuers and he chumps with TKS which draws me a hug (hand is now hug, spree, shoal, breach, Crypt). It's going to be problematic if he draws another 5/5 or an All is Dust so I work towards getting a second breach going. I hug pitching Spree and SHoal to pick up a rit, wurm and looting. So I'm set up to fight through another blocker/All is Dust next turn with another Breached Wrum. Of course he draws a TKS and takes away my Breach. I draw a blank and he chumps my wurm, going down to 3. I draw another Breach off of the TKS and his topdecked Smasher is made obsolete next turn
3-0 (2-0)
Round 4 vs. Juzam-Djinn84 (Storm, OTP)
g1 I recognize his name as a storm grinder so I know I'm in for a ride. I keep a hand of 2 lands, 2 Vengeances, griselbrand and SSG. On my t2 i don't draw anything and pass, aiming to discard to handsize next turn (I have SSG+2 vengeances to play through a remand). He plays a baral on t3 but does not kill me. I EoT Vengeance with my SSG, and he has the remand. I untap and Vengeance again for the win
+1 Brutality +1 Lightning Axe +2 Pact
-2 rit -2 hug
I would bring in the chalices for pacts OTP
g2 i keep a mediocre hand that never draws a Vengeance with Griselbrand in the bin. I dig 22 cards deep to no avail. He plays 2 Goblins and a Baral and beats em down
g3 I mull a no land 7 into a hand with 2 lands, Vengeance, Breach and Griselbrand. Seems reasonable enough.I scry a SSG to the bottom looking for cantrips. His turn 2 Electromancer sends me into a panic and of course I draw a Brutality like a professional and kill the goblin. I punt t3 when I main phase Vengeance with him at 3 lands and nothing else. I get remanded and lose tempo. thankfully he doesn't murder me turn 4 and I go for it again main phase (I think him having 3 lands vs. 4 is a big difference in terms of what he needs to go off next turn). He uses 2 of his 3 open mana to cast Peer through Depth, prsumably looking for dispel. He doesn't have it and I kill him t4
4-0 (2-1)
Round 5 vs. toondoslav (GW elves, otp)
I keep a very speculative hand of temple, whisper, rit, shoal, wurm, griselbrand, Breach. I have 2 shots at a land and then I'd be in business. I scry another temple to the top while he plays a bunch of dorks. On his turn 2 he spews 11 points of damage onto play. On my turn 3 I play my third land, play a ritual, shoal pitch wurm splice breach, breaching Griselbrand. My mana is pretty constrained here but I cannot give him a chance to draw an archdruid or an ezuri. I end fizzling because my deck size was divisible by 7 with 4 remainder. I end the turn with 4 cards left in deck, 5 lands and 2 Vengeances in hand, and a Borb in the GY with the opponent at 13 and I pray he doesn't kill me. He doesn't topdeck and swings for 11 and i kill him with borb
+2 Bontu's +1 Lightning Axe +1 Anger
-2 Ritual -1 Whisper -1 Temple OTD
Brutailty is good in theory but being OTD vs OTP for the turn 2 play can make a world of a difference
g2 I keep a hand with 2 lands, vengeance, phose, shoal, Bontu's and Anger. Great. He mulls to 5 and I feel a RIP to the face in my future. his first 2 turns consists of t1 land heritage druid, t2 land nothing. I don't draw business for a while so I just sculpt my hand. He plays a t3 RIP and keeps beating me down his 1/1. I draw enough mana so I cast a SSG to halt his Heritage druid assault. He then draws his 4th land and plays ezuri, which is bad news bears. I attack with SSG with the plan to wipe away ezuri after. He makes the mistake of blocking SSG with Heritage Druid and then regeneration it, tapping him out, letting my Bontu's sweep his board. I keep drawing Vengeances after though and he draws a Vizier and a Nettle afterwards, and my life is starting to get reallly low with jsut breaches but nothing else in my hand. I finally draw a griselbrand but get a really bad draw 7 or two, so I set up a breach Griselbrand next turn. He plays a selfless spirit and attacks. I make a gigantic mistake of breaching and attacking with Griselbrand the next turn, where he obviously blocked then sacced to deny lifelink. I should've obviously waited for him to attack with his Nettle Sentinel to block it. THankfully I don't get punished and I finally get there in 10 turns
5-0 (2-0)
Round 6 vs. TomatoCheese (GB Tron, OTD)
g1 I keep a hand of 2 swamps, 2 shoals, wurm, griselbrand and vengeance and chuckle at his t1 tower+Sphere. I plan on t1 land, t2 discard griselbrand, t3 kill. He doesn't have discard and I kill him t3
SB: same as above
g2 I keep a very speculative hand of 2 Vengeances, land, ssg, spree, phose, shoal. His first 2 turns concists of a swamp+Marsh and a relic, which complicates things for my double Vengeance hand. I manaphose into a land and spree his relic+map and he gets no value out of either of those. I draw into looting+Griselbrand by t4 and win.
6-0 (2-0)
Round 7 vs. Miguelcaster (Eldrazi & Taxes, OTP)
I look him up as the only other undefeated and groan at his history of playing E&T. I keep a hand that kills him t4 even through a t3 TKS
+1 Anger +2 Bontu's +1 Lightning axe
-1 Brutality -1 Whisper -2 RItual
g2 and g3 plays the same. I'm ruined by a mixture of thalias and RIP. I would try Blood Moons OTP because their mana base without Vials is putrid
6-1 (1-2)
Quarterfinals vs. TomatoCheese (GB Tron, OTP)
g1 I keep a 1 lander with wurms, Vengeance, Griselbrand and Looting. keep. Sucks that the second land is a Temple but thankfully he doesn't have a Brutality and I win g3
SB: Same as above
g2: I mull a no land 7 into temple, swamp, 2 whispers, hug, wurm. he has t3 tron+relic.while I keep cantripping and eventually draw into breach+fatty, only to be thoughtseized but thankfully he's durling around with eggs and Thragtusk. I draw into a Shoal+Breach+Borb+wurm+4 lands, so I shoal pitch borb breaching in wurm when he's at 23. this line is pretty weak vs. wurmcoil but he hadn't played it for 2 turns after tron so i figured that wasn't a thing. I pass confidently and he slams wurmcoil. Thankfully I did splice the breach so I have 4 lands+whisper+ssg+Breach leftover. My whisper draws me into another wurm. He attacks with wurmcoil (no block) and then plays a ballista for 6, which seals the deal as I breach in a wurm and attack 30 points of power
7-1 (2-0)
Semifinals vs eronkim (OTP, Burn)
Before g1 I'm doing some research and realize 1 of the player has a bunch of 5-0s with lantern and grixis shadows, so I'm praying he loses in the semis
g1 I keep a hand of 2 temples, mountain, looting, ssg, phose, wurm. Not the most exciting hand. He goes foundry+goblin guide revealing griselbrand. I find a Vengeance with my looting and he tapped down for swifty and bolt so I don't have to worry about skullcrack effects while I kill him t3
+2 Pact +1 Lightning Axe
-3 Whispers
g2 I keep a pretty loose hand of 3 temple, montain, swamp, rit, shoalx2, wurm. But gain 11 vs burn seems good so whatever. I draw a Griselbrand then scry another land to the top for Guide. next turn I draw a temple and scry breach to the top. Though I'm already at 11, i have 2 lands and a hand of 2 shoals, wurm, rit, griselbrand with a Breach next turn, so I feel OK. I don't shoal while he's tapped out and take a risk that he doesn't have skullcrack effects and I can combo next turn. His next turn is a Molten Rain to set me back (?!?!) I end up in the game state that I shared with you above, and ended up stopping rather than keep going. I took the hit, did a Brutality check and won the turn after
8-1 (2-0)
Finals vs. caux12 (Burn, OTD)
Thankfully Jadoth on the other side lost playing lantern and now I get to face a good matchup. I have a hand that has combo pieces but 2 too many whispers. thankfully I t1 loot away a Griselbrand and topdeck a Vengeance t2. I wait until the end of his next turn as not to get blown out by Skullcrack (skullcrack in response to Vengeance renders griselbrand to nothing).he ends up tapping out for Eidolon so I am free to carefully combo off while being mindful of the Eidolon on t3
SB: same as above. Consider bringing chalices in OTP
g2 I mull a no land 7 into 5 red cards and a swamp into 2 mountains, hug, looting and pact. I shrug and keep. I actually make a game out of it by drawing into vengeance/brutality etc while he runs out of gas. He slams a relic a tur nbefore I can Vengeance back a Griselbrand and that is that
g3 I have 2 temples, looting, phose, vengeance, chalice, breach and scry a SSG to the bottom. t2 I draw Vengeance, loot into griselbrand with 2 vengeances in hand. Opponent taps out on his t2, and it just feels like it's my day. I kill him and take down the whole thing.
TLDR: I played the matchup bingo well, and had a bunch of t3/t4 kills
Nice games..can you put your SB list?..really interested on seeing it..thanks!
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/825609#online
here's the list i used. I've been flirting with an Emrakul or a third pact for a Jeskai/UWx heavy meta. Also it's possible the second Bontu's should be a second Anger if Dredge is going to keep doing its thing
4 Griselbrand
4 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Bontu's Last Reckoning
4 Collective Brutality
4 Faithless Looting
4 Night's Whisper
3 Tormenting Voice
4 Goryo's Vengeance
2 Lightning Axe
1 Manamorphose
3 Through the Breach
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Mountain
6 Swamp
4 Temple of Malice
60 Cards
1 Bontu's Last Reckoning
1 Lightning Axe
4 Duress
3 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Quicksilver Amulet
3 Shattering Spree
2 Sweltering Suns
a 5-0 list from Zores. First instinct is it's a pile of nonsense but I do like the idea. I've worked on a similar Black Moon midrange with a combo finish concept. That said I think this can use improvement. Manamorphose in this shell is most assuredly wrong, and I feel like SSG is as well. Some other minor stuff like Sweltering>Anger and quicksilver amulets. I feel like if you throw in some LotVs, IoKs, Pushes and Thoughtseizes it'd be more a more robust deck. thoughts?