You just either wait for your opponent to tap out or for you to have no other options. PS, surprise flipping ormenhdal for the win after a cryptic tap is one of the greatest feelings in magic.
Can Confirm. That 18 point life swing is truly satisfying, especially after OP taps out, or in response to a Cryptic.
You just either wait for your opponent to tap out or for you to have no other options. PS, surprise flipping ormenhdal for the win after a cryptic tap is one of the greatest feelings in magic.
Can Confirm. That 18 point life swing is truly satisfying, especially after OP taps out, or in response to a Cryptic.
You should definetly not do it in response to a Cryptic, you should do it after it resolves.
When you respond to a Cryptic, haven't they already picked their modes and targets? So you're at no risk, in this instance, whether you do your Westvale shenanigans before or after the Cryptic resolves.
When you respond to a Cryptic, haven't they already picked their modes and targets? So you're at no risk, in this instance, whether you do your Westvale shenanigans before or after the Cryptic resolves.
No, when you respond, your westvale goes on the stack on top of his cryptic command and your westvale ability resolves 1st. So you will sacrifice your 5 creatures and get your ormendahl, then his cryptic command (if he chooses tap all creatures mode) resolves, tapping down your Ormendahl.
So no, you cannot respond to Cryptic with Westvale activation. You have to do it AFTER cryptic command resolves and priority gets passed back to you.
Guys please opinions on japanese cards. Lost a 3/3 creature against Japan celestial colonade. This guy played all creatures and spells in english cards, but some cards in his manabase was japanese. I dont registrated this really ( my brain say its all fine and all english to me lets attack his empty board)...and i am sure it is a Kind of legal cheating. It is not ok, but i know legal. I Hate such people. I never forget colonade normally, but with this Tricks it can happen one time in 3 years and such people take advantage of this
If I am a customer spending premium amount of dollars, I expect a premium service. Jund falls into the category of a premium deck costing more dollars than a majority of the rest of the format. I'm not getting the desired performance ratio per dollars spent out of the Jund deck because WOTC decided to make the format more diverse.
I think the comboless build makes sense in a midrange/control heavy context when you might be siding out the retreats anyways since they won't let you keep a knight in play. With that in mind, replacing them with Tireless tracker to out-grind these metagames is strategically sound. Interesting idea to keep in mind.
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Modern Decks
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
I never cut kessig because it turns your topdeck dorks into large threats very quickly - it is the only form of "reach" in the deck. Before there was retreat, the old "big zoo" lists that bant company traces its origins to still ran kotR and kessig. Kessig is jsut a great card to avoid getting chumped to death, or ground out by removal. With just a single copy, there is little opportunity cost (what should we favour over it?)
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Modern Decks
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
From extensive experience with Big Zoo (Noble Hierarch powering out Knight) I can say for certain that you always keep Kessig Wolf Run in. It will earn you wins all over the place. Unexpected wins obviously, but also just breaking board stalemates. Whether by the buff or the trample, Wolf Run will always be relevant. The current Bant shells play more mana dorks than my Zoo deck did, making Wolf Run even better.
EDIT:
If you're expecting a meta where Retreat will be sub-optimal, maybe it should go in the sideboard? What matchups would you bring it in for?
I've really grown fond of the flexibility of kessig. One of the TCG Player videos cut it in a couple of matches and it didn't make too much sense to me. Trample feels very impactful.
If you're expecting a meta where Retreat will be sub-optimal, maybe it should go in the sideboard? What matchups would you bring it in for?
I've definitely had a lot of success with 2 Retreat maindeck and wouldn't want to cut them. However, if you wanted to run them in the board, I'd say the best decks to bring them in against are ones that have the highest inevitability but take a bit to get off the ground. Tron, Scapeshift, Ad Nauseam, etc. In my experience, we have a very hard time aggroing them down to 0 before they get their engine running or combo us off. Landing a Knight into Retreat when Tron's sitting on Grove/Mine/Powerplant with a Map in play means the difference between beating them to a pulp with a 20/15 trampler and them wrathing your board with Ugin next turn.
Vs. aggro, our inevitability is a lot higher than theirs. If we can stabilize, we usually don't need the combo, especially with the anti-Burn tech we can run post-board. Control and BGx are pretty adept at keeping us from assembling the combo, and often the best plan is just to bring in countermagic to hit key spells while growing our board faster than they can deploy answers.
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Playing UX Mana Denial until Modern gets the answers it needs.
WUBRG Humans BRW Mardu Pyromancer UW UW "Control" UR Blue Moon
I'm the only one who feels like spellskite is really awkward against grindy decks like abzan/jund/grixis etc? I feel like we should be the aggressive player and spellskite is sitting there doing... nothing... for most of the game. Selfless protects almost as well but at least attacks and makes amazing blockers.
Plus, kolaghan's command. The card that literally made every artifact unplayable in midrange decks
So, after just getting back into playing paper magic (haven’t had time until recently due to work and life circumstances), I managed to go 3-0 for three weeks in a row at my LGS with this list:
While recognizing that 3 round LGS tournaments are hardly a persuasive or reliable benchmark for competitive play, I feel that going 9-0 over the course of three weeks does warrant a “tournament” report, as the deck felt very strong even against much of the T1 gauntlet.
So without further ado, here goes (and please note that my memory may be fuzzy especially about the first two weeks’ events)
WEEK 1
R1 vs Naya Burn (with Wild Nacatl)
G1
I’m on the play with a hand that has no mana accelerant. By his turn 3, he gets me down to about 7 life with a Rift Bolt suspended, but he’s also taken damage from his lands. I have a Knight in play. He taps out, and I manage to combo him out by playing Retreat. This is one of the games where the combo actually was the only avenue to victory, and it pulled through.
G2
A fast collected company for Knight + Scooze followed by a Blessed Alliance put the game out of reach for him.
2-0
R2 vs BW Eldrazi
This is not Eldrazi and Taxes but the BW deck that was popular just before Eldrazi Winter (sans Ugin’s Nexus of course).
G1
I honestly can`t remember what happened here, but I`m pretty sure I out-valued him and he also just flooded out and ran out of steam.
G2
He draws and plays two Relic of Progenitus, turning my Knights into 2/2 manadorks that can tutor any land. Unfazed, I play a Knight on turn 2 thanks to Noble Hierarch, and use it to ramp out a second Knight and a Voice of Resurgence on turn 3. On turn 4 I tutor Gavony Township, growing my board beyond his reach over the next few turns.
After the game, he shows me two reality smashers in hand that he did not cast. He had 5 mana, but he felt he had to respect the combo and keep 1 mana up to activate relic should I try to go off. In reality I had sided out Retreat in any event in favor of Reflector Mage and Kitchen Finks. I don’t think reality Smasher would have made a difference at all, though.
This game showcases two things:
First, it shows why bringing in graveyard hate against us is a trap. Even if you shut off Knight’s size and the combo, it’s still a manadork that can essentially cast Crop Rotation every turn while accelerating your mana. Retreat becomes much worse but it still has some utility.
Second, it shows the residual power of the combo; the “Splinter Twin effect” so to speak, where your opponent needs to hold mana up to respect the combo (Voice of Resurgence works very nicely for this) and the mindgames we can play by siding the combo out or in.
2-0
R3 vs Gr Tron
I have no illusion that I dodged a bullet here. Tron is NOT a good matchup, though it IS winnable. I’d say it’s between 30-70 and 40-60. It’s debatable whether the Gr version is better or worse than Gw against us. Arguably, Selfless Spirit (incidentally one of the better cards in this matchup) makes Gr worse against us, but when you don’t have it, a Pyroclasm or Firespout can be devastating, as I found out in G2.
G1
I actually put up a decent fight here, but my opponent resolved a Wurmcoil Engine. Had I drawn a Path, I likely would have killed him. I would have been better off against a Karn or even an Ugin because of Collected Company. He later plays an O-Stone, sealing the deal.
G2
This game really showcased how grim the matchup can be at times. My opponent mulled to FOUR and still almost took the game. He had Tron active on turn 4 and set me back a lot with a Pyroclasm that killed three creatures. The play that likely won me the game was a Vendillion Clique in his draw step seeing Ancient Stirrings in his hand. He had an Ancient Stirrings in his graveyard, so I used Surgical Extraction to remove it, along with the other copies in his deck. This significantly reduced his odds of hitting action. I eventually aggro’d him out.
G3
I draw Stony Silence in my opening hand, and it really shuts him off. A Selfless Spirit also managed to stop a Firespout. He does eventually get Tron and play an Ugin, but with his O-stones and other trinkets inactive, I was able to fight through it and take the win.
Moral of the story: Stony Silence is good, and I probably need to pack more Ghost Quarters in the future.
2-1
WEEK 2
R1 vs GW Bogles
G1
My opponent plays a hexproof dude on T1. On T2 he gets a little greedy and plays a Spiritdancer, which I promptly Path. He then starts attaching auras to his hexproof guy. The situation looks grim but a resolved Collected company yielding Knight and Spellskite gives me hope, since he can’t attach any more auras. I Spell Queller a Spirit Mantle. I then draw a Qasali Pridemage, which seals the deal.
G2
My opening hand is Spellskite, Blessed Alliance, Blessed Alliance, Ghost Quarter, land, land, something else. I can’t possibly ask for a better hand. Spellskite on turn 2 already shuts off my opponent. He scoops to my Blessed Alliance. Even if he had used Dryad Arbor, I had Ghost Quarter ready.
2-0
R2 vs Jund
G1
This game was atypical and kind of hilarious. I had a draw of Noble Hierarch x3, 1 fetchland, 1 Spellskite, 2 Spell Queller. I subsequently drew a third Spell Queller, a Path and a second land. I dropped 3 Hierarchs by turn 2, praying for no Maelstrom Pulse. I then proceed to Quell a spell each turn, and attack for 5 a turn with triple exalted. My opponent might have been ok if he had had a lightning bolt to kill the first queller, but since that never happened, every removal spell he played was countered (including a Kolaghan’s Command that tried to kill the Spellskite). I closed it out pretty quickly with the fliers. My opponent's face when I Spell Quellered him a third turn in a row was priceless.
G2
I side out the Retreats, and the Pridemages in favor of Reflector Mage, Kitchen Finks, Elspeth, and Bojuka Bog. In this game he resolved a Dark Confidant on about turn 4 or 5, but Bob ended up playing on my team as Bob often does, since I managed to beat him down in the air with Spirits, with Bob contributing to the damage. Plays of note include Knight removing his graveyard by tutoring Bojuka Bog, making his Goyf smaller, and Spell Queller catching a Huntmaster of the Fells.
2-0
R3 vs Blue Moon
G1
My opponent resolves Blood Moon, but thankfully I have a Forest out. I cast Collected Company, getting a Pridemage and a Knight. The Pridemage then removes Blood Moon, and Knight goes on to win the game because UR has a really hard time dealing with a large creature.
G2
I keep a hand with no way to fetch a Forest [This shows why Misty Rainforest would make my deck better, but it’s currently not in my budget], so my start is slow as I want to play around Blood Moon. I keep mana up for Negate, fetching an Island and a Plains. This ends up being ok since my opponent doesn’t play anything either. He likely had counterspells or bolts at the ready. When he casts Blood Moon, I negate it, and draw a Windswept Heath the next turn. I’m now safe from blood moon. I resolve a Knight. About two turns later I draw and cast Retreat. My opponent makes a crucial mistake by letting the Retreat resolve rather than casting Cryptic Command. He was thinking he could tap my team in response, but I kept fetches up to untap Knight. I swing in for a lethal hit with a ~20/15 Knight.
Overall this seems like a very favorable matchup. We play at instant speed, and can play around Blood Moon pretty easily. Not to mention that manadorks make Moon bad if they stick. Moreover, Knight is very difficult for them to deal with.
2-0
WEEK 3
R1 vs UW Spirits
This was a UW Spirits brew that played at instant speed a lot. Beyond the obvious Mausoleum Wanderer, Rattlechains, Selfless Spirit, Drogskol Captain, etc,, it had a good amount of counterspells including Cryptic Command. An interesting take on Spirits, though arguably less powerful than the Bant version.
G1
Geist of St. Traft with 2 Noble Hierarchs closes the game out fast.
G2
He manages to outrace me with fliers while Mausoleum Wanderer makes it difficult to cast Collected Company. I misplay by targeting Mausoleum Wanderer with Izzet Staticaster, while he has a Rattlechains in play. He flashes in another spirit, making the Wanderer too big to kill.
G3
I come out of the gates fast with T1 Noble, T2 Geist, T3 Scooze + Selfless Spirit. Geist again puts in some work. It’s a close race because my opponent has double Drogskol Captain, but I swing with the team and finish him off with Kessig Wolf-Run on my Geist.
2-1
R2 vs Affinity
This one needs no introduction.
G1
Affinity does its thing. She drops 5 creatures by turn 2, she has Cranial Plating. I lose.
G2
I draw Stony Silence and play it immediately. It slows my opponent’s mana but she manages to play three Vault Skirges. It looked as though she had a chance to come back, but I find Izzet Staticaster from a Collected Company, wiping her board and sealing the game.
2-1
G3
I keep a risky hand of five lands, Selfless Spirit, Stony Silence. It’s risky because I’ve seen that my opponent plays Thoughtseize, but I decide to try it. It pays off, as I get to resolve Stony on turn 2. My opponent plays an Etched Champion, but I draw the perfect answer in a Spellskite, which can safely block Champion. I later play a collected company in response to a second Champion, hitting Knight and Queller. I was likely on the track to winning, but I top deck Retreat and my opponent scoops.
We played again for fun after the games and my opponent scooped pretty quickly to an absurd Collected Company. Overall this matchup seems unfavorable G1, but very favorable post-board. Even in G1 though we have some good tools in Spellskite, Pridemage, and just random fliers killing their signal pests and nexuses.
R3 vs Bant Eldrazi
This was the same opponent who played Jund in Week 2. Pretty standard decklist, but with maindeck Engineered Explosives.
G1
It’s a long slog, but I draw three Paths to answer all his threats. Vendillion Clique does some good work by removing his threats from hand. A top-decked Collected Company into double Knight eventually takes over the game.
G2
My opponent puts on a lot of pressure with a turn 2 Eldrazi Displacer + Noble Hierarch attacking for 4 per turn. I’m unable to block with Spellskite. I Quell one of his Thought-Knot Seers, and he is unable to blink it thanks to Spellskite. The next turn, I have Collected Company and Retreat to Coralhelm in hand. I’m at 10 life and my opponent is at 18. He tries to Path my Spellskite so he can blink my Queller, freeing his Seer. I cast Collected Company, hoping to hit a Spell Queller. Even better: I hit Spellskite + Knight. I let Path resolve, and my opponent taps out to attack for 7 with a Reality Smasher with exalted. At this point I decide the Combo is my path to victory, so I throw Spellskite under the bus, putting me to 7. I manage to combo off, hitting my opponent for 22 with Kessig Wolf-Run and with the Queller. I went to 1 life in the process.
This game was definitely saved by the combo. Had I not sacked the Spellskite, I would not have had enough life to make the Knight lethal.
2-0
--
Overall, the deck felt really strong. Now that the super-unfair decks such as Dredge, Infect and Death’s Shadow are under control, it could really be Bant’s time to shine. The deck doesn’t have any obvious weakness, and even though Tron and Valakut are bad matchups, they don’t feel unsurmountable. In particular, Unified Will seems like a powerful card in those matchups, and there’s always the “Oops I win” factor, as seen in Game 1 against Burn and Game 2 against Bant Eldrazi. For that reason, I do feel 2 playing Retreats is worthwhile.
In terms of the creatures, all of the two-drops feel solid. Having ~ 5 protection creatures in Selfless Spirit and Spellskite feels really good, as we get to protect our game-winning threats (Knight, Spell Queller, Clique) Voice, Pridemage and Scooze all have their moments of greatness. In terms of the three-drops, I haven’t tested Tireless Tracker, and Courser of Kruphix is a decent option, but I really enjoy the ability to play at instant speed and to disrupt hands that Clique offers. The one copy of Geist has performed well, but it may ultimately be worse than Tireless Tracker or a second copy of Clique.
In terms of the sideboard, it feels solid. I haven’t actually drawn Elspeth, but I’m not convinced she’s needed. The matchups she’s good in (Jund, Bant Eldrazi) are solid anyway. I think I’ll be replacing it with an extra Ghost Quarter moving forward. The rest feels great – all of the cards are useful in several matchups.
So there you have it. This whole experience made me very optimistic about the future of the deck. Collected Company is a really - really - powerful card. Not to mention, this deck is incredibly fun. The most fun I've had playing a deck, with the possible exception of Kiki Chord. I highly recommend it at the moment and I believe it's solidly Tier 1.5 in terms of power level.
Thank you deus837 for the detailed write up! I've been testing the deck the last week or so and it's encouraging to see other people's success.
Our builds differ slightly, and I plan to test the deck with multiple changes over time. As you said in your closing statement, you are running a slightly different style, with more emphasis on protecting threats and closing the game, with a higher count of Spellskite and Selfless spirit, along with Clique and Geist. It seems to indicate you favour tempo and disruption. My version is a bit more grindy, since my meta is quite removal heavy, with a few Ancestral Visions Decks and GBx, so lots of games go to topdecking. My changes to yours are:
Personally I find that I always tutor up Wolf run over Gavony. Perhaps I'm wrong, but it feels higher impact and a second Quarter along with a 3rd in the SB really helps vs tron. Whats more, with 2 Rallier, and Eternal witness and the 4 Knights, we have a tonne of opportunity to loop Ghost Quarters, and the Tron matchups honestly dont feel as awful any more. Along with Unified will, Negate and 3 Geist from the SB, my testing has been pretty positive. (This of course applies to Valakut and to a lesser extent Eldrazi too)
The Jace is really spicy, but hitting him with CoCo, untapping and flashing back CoCo is huge when topdecking. He also filters to find our matchup specific cards like Qasali and Ooze, and he triggers and is brought back by Rallier.
I'm looking forward to fine tuning the deck, so thanks again for giving your analysis. Might post a report if i have a few good FNM records.
Interesting. You've convinced me that Rallier may be worth trying, where I previously thought this wasn't the right deck for it (most of our 2-drops are utility rather than raw power). Bringing back Ghost Quarter is definitely good against a lot of decks (Affinity, Infect, Tron, Valakut), though I have to say the loss of Gavony seems significant to me because A) Gavony is a better threat in a grindier game and B) It's hard to always have the red mana for Wolf Run.
How has Jace been performing? I suppose my main worries would be that it's hard to have 5 cards in the graveyard early on, and that we only have 8 spells total for him to flash back
I wouldn't dismiss rallier too quickly if I were you. Keep in mind that it doesn't just bring back creatures. It opens up multiple avenues of tempo/control plays. Ghost quarter into rallier bringing back ghost quarter for another activation for example can be a back breaking sequence against some decks. It can bring back destroyed wolf-run/townships, or it can even just be used to ensure you don't miss crucial land drops.
I absolutely love Rallier, I've been playing him as a 2-of in Naya Company instead of Knightfall because that's my flavor of the month. He does require you to play a little bit more carefully with the revolt in mind. I actually think Rallier might be THE best card out of Aether Revolt.
Another card I really like is Tireless Tracker. Rallier and Tracker also work really well together, any excess lands give you clues that you can even crack to trigger revolt while drawing cards. I initially thought that the printing of fatal push would make GWx aggro-midrange decks much worse against the GBx, grixis and esper grindy decks but it's actually not the case because Rallier is such an amazing tempo/recovery card.
Guys please opinions on japanese cards. Lost a 3/3 creature against Japan celestial colonade. This guy played all creatures and spells in english cards, but some cards in his manabase was japanese. I dont registrated this really ( my brain say its all fine and all english to me lets attack his empty board)...and i am sure it is a Kind of legal cheating. It is not ok, but i know legal. I Hate such people. I never forget colonade normally, but with this Tricks it can happen one time in 3 years and such people take advantage of this
If I am a customer spending premium amount of dollars, I expect a premium service. Jund falls into the category of a premium deck costing more dollars than a majority of the rest of the format. I'm not getting the desired performance ratio per dollars spent out of the Jund deck because WOTC decided to make the format more diverse.
I really like the value 3-drops since my LGS has a lot of grindy midrange decks. That said, I'm not convinced Rallier is better than our other options. It's good velocity, I'm pretty enamored with my currently package: a 1-2-1 split of Eternal Witness, Tireless Tracker, and Courser of Kruphix. Witness lets me rebuy Path to Exile, either combo piece, or CoCo. It doesn't cheat on the mana, but the flexibility makes up for it to me. Courser and Tracker are both good, but they're absurd when you can stick both – which because of CoCo happens more often than I expected.
I'm a firm believer in a good value package for this deck; I'm just not onboard the Rallier train (yet). Maybe it's my meta. Then again, with the Probe ban, the decks that I want to rebuy my disruption against are fewer and further between, so maybe the extra aggression is worth it.
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Playing UX Mana Denial until Modern gets the answers it needs.
WUBRG Humans BRW Mardu Pyromancer UW UW "Control" UR Blue Moon
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Can Confirm. That 18 point life swing is truly satisfying, especially after OP taps out, or in response to a Cryptic.
2nd Place at SCG Regionals at Columbus:
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=111468
Is Coralhelm combo not worth the slots it takes up?
Legacy: Strawberry Shortcake, Aggro Loam, DnT+b
Modern: Devoted Karn
Vintage: Survival
No, when you respond, your westvale goes on the stack on top of his cryptic command and your westvale ability resolves 1st. So you will sacrifice your 5 creatures and get your ormendahl, then his cryptic command (if he chooses tap all creatures mode) resolves, tapping down your Ormendahl.
So no, you cannot respond to Cryptic with Westvale activation. You have to do it AFTER cryptic command resolves and priority gets passed back to you.
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
EDIT:
If you're expecting a meta where Retreat will be sub-optimal, maybe it should go in the sideboard? What matchups would you bring it in for?
Legacy: Strawberry Shortcake, Aggro Loam, DnT+b
Modern: Devoted Karn
Vintage: Survival
I've definitely had a lot of success with 2 Retreat maindeck and wouldn't want to cut them. However, if you wanted to run them in the board, I'd say the best decks to bring them in against are ones that have the highest inevitability but take a bit to get off the ground. Tron, Scapeshift, Ad Nauseam, etc. In my experience, we have a very hard time aggroing them down to 0 before they get their engine running or combo us off. Landing a Knight into Retreat when Tron's sitting on Grove/Mine/Powerplant with a Map in play means the difference between beating them to a pulp with a 20/15 trampler and them wrathing your board with Ugin next turn.
Vs. aggro, our inevitability is a lot higher than theirs. If we can stabilize, we usually don't need the combo, especially with the anti-Burn tech we can run post-board. Control and BGx are pretty adept at keeping us from assembling the combo, and often the best plan is just to bring in countermagic to hit key spells while growing our board faster than they can deploy answers.
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
The only time I want spellskite is against burn infect and path to exile deck. He is also ok against bolt.
The spirit is better against anger of the god and wrath and racing situation
Plus, kolaghan's command. The card that literally made every artifact unplayable in midrange decks
L: Maverick
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Birds of Paradise
2 Voice of Resurgence
2 Spellskite
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Selfless Spirit
2 Qasali Pridemage
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Spell Queller
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Geist of Saint Traft
Spells
4 Path to Exile
2 Retreat to Coralhelm
4 Collected Company
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Breeding Pool
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Windswept Heath
4 Flooded Strand
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Gavony Township
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Horizon Canopy
2 Izzet Staticaster
2 Negate
2 Unified Will
2 Blessed Alliance
1 Kitchen Finks
3 Stony Silence
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Surgical Extraction
After Week 1 I decided Surgical Extraction was no longer needed, so I swapped the two copies out for:
While recognizing that 3 round LGS tournaments are hardly a persuasive or reliable benchmark for competitive play, I feel that going 9-0 over the course of three weeks does warrant a “tournament” report, as the deck felt very strong even against much of the T1 gauntlet.
So without further ado, here goes (and please note that my memory may be fuzzy especially about the first two weeks’ events)
WEEK 1
R1 vs Naya Burn (with Wild Nacatl)
G1
I’m on the play with a hand that has no mana accelerant. By his turn 3, he gets me down to about 7 life with a Rift Bolt suspended, but he’s also taken damage from his lands. I have a Knight in play. He taps out, and I manage to combo him out by playing Retreat. This is one of the games where the combo actually was the only avenue to victory, and it pulled through.
G2
A fast collected company for Knight + Scooze followed by a Blessed Alliance put the game out of reach for him.
2-0
R2 vs BW Eldrazi
This is not Eldrazi and Taxes but the BW deck that was popular just before Eldrazi Winter (sans Ugin’s Nexus of course).
G1
I honestly can`t remember what happened here, but I`m pretty sure I out-valued him and he also just flooded out and ran out of steam.
G2
He draws and plays two Relic of Progenitus, turning my Knights into 2/2 manadorks that can tutor any land. Unfazed, I play a Knight on turn 2 thanks to Noble Hierarch, and use it to ramp out a second Knight and a Voice of Resurgence on turn 3. On turn 4 I tutor Gavony Township, growing my board beyond his reach over the next few turns.
After the game, he shows me two reality smashers in hand that he did not cast. He had 5 mana, but he felt he had to respect the combo and keep 1 mana up to activate relic should I try to go off. In reality I had sided out Retreat in any event in favor of Reflector Mage and Kitchen Finks. I don’t think reality Smasher would have made a difference at all, though.
This game showcases two things:
First, it shows why bringing in graveyard hate against us is a trap. Even if you shut off Knight’s size and the combo, it’s still a manadork that can essentially cast Crop Rotation every turn while accelerating your mana. Retreat becomes much worse but it still has some utility.
Second, it shows the residual power of the combo; the “Splinter Twin effect” so to speak, where your opponent needs to hold mana up to respect the combo (Voice of Resurgence works very nicely for this) and the mindgames we can play by siding the combo out or in.
2-0
R3 vs Gr Tron
I have no illusion that I dodged a bullet here. Tron is NOT a good matchup, though it IS winnable. I’d say it’s between 30-70 and 40-60. It’s debatable whether the Gr version is better or worse than Gw against us. Arguably, Selfless Spirit (incidentally one of the better cards in this matchup) makes Gr worse against us, but when you don’t have it, a Pyroclasm or Firespout can be devastating, as I found out in G2.
G1
I actually put up a decent fight here, but my opponent resolved a Wurmcoil Engine. Had I drawn a Path, I likely would have killed him. I would have been better off against a Karn or even an Ugin because of Collected Company. He later plays an O-Stone, sealing the deal.
G2
This game really showcased how grim the matchup can be at times. My opponent mulled to FOUR and still almost took the game. He had Tron active on turn 4 and set me back a lot with a Pyroclasm that killed three creatures. The play that likely won me the game was a Vendillion Clique in his draw step seeing Ancient Stirrings in his hand. He had an Ancient Stirrings in his graveyard, so I used Surgical Extraction to remove it, along with the other copies in his deck. This significantly reduced his odds of hitting action. I eventually aggro’d him out.
G3
I draw Stony Silence in my opening hand, and it really shuts him off. A Selfless Spirit also managed to stop a Firespout. He does eventually get Tron and play an Ugin, but with his O-stones and other trinkets inactive, I was able to fight through it and take the win.
Moral of the story: Stony Silence is good, and I probably need to pack more Ghost Quarters in the future.
2-1
WEEK 2
R1 vs GW Bogles
G1
My opponent plays a hexproof dude on T1. On T2 he gets a little greedy and plays a Spiritdancer, which I promptly Path. He then starts attaching auras to his hexproof guy. The situation looks grim but a resolved Collected company yielding Knight and Spellskite gives me hope, since he can’t attach any more auras. I Spell Queller a Spirit Mantle. I then draw a Qasali Pridemage, which seals the deal.
G2
My opening hand is Spellskite, Blessed Alliance, Blessed Alliance, Ghost Quarter, land, land, something else. I can’t possibly ask for a better hand. Spellskite on turn 2 already shuts off my opponent. He scoops to my Blessed Alliance. Even if he had used Dryad Arbor, I had Ghost Quarter ready.
2-0
R2 vs Jund
G1
This game was atypical and kind of hilarious. I had a draw of Noble Hierarch x3, 1 fetchland, 1 Spellskite, 2 Spell Queller. I subsequently drew a third Spell Queller, a Path and a second land. I dropped 3 Hierarchs by turn 2, praying for no Maelstrom Pulse. I then proceed to Quell a spell each turn, and attack for 5 a turn with triple exalted. My opponent might have been ok if he had had a lightning bolt to kill the first queller, but since that never happened, every removal spell he played was countered (including a Kolaghan’s Command that tried to kill the Spellskite). I closed it out pretty quickly with the fliers. My opponent's face when I Spell Quellered him a third turn in a row was priceless.
G2
I side out the Retreats, and the Pridemages in favor of Reflector Mage, Kitchen Finks, Elspeth, and Bojuka Bog. In this game he resolved a Dark Confidant on about turn 4 or 5, but Bob ended up playing on my team as Bob often does, since I managed to beat him down in the air with Spirits, with Bob contributing to the damage. Plays of note include Knight removing his graveyard by tutoring Bojuka Bog, making his Goyf smaller, and Spell Queller catching a Huntmaster of the Fells.
2-0
R3 vs Blue Moon
G1
My opponent resolves Blood Moon, but thankfully I have a Forest out. I cast Collected Company, getting a Pridemage and a Knight. The Pridemage then removes Blood Moon, and Knight goes on to win the game because UR has a really hard time dealing with a large creature.
G2
I keep a hand with no way to fetch a Forest [This shows why Misty Rainforest would make my deck better, but it’s currently not in my budget], so my start is slow as I want to play around Blood Moon. I keep mana up for Negate, fetching an Island and a Plains. This ends up being ok since my opponent doesn’t play anything either. He likely had counterspells or bolts at the ready. When he casts Blood Moon, I negate it, and draw a Windswept Heath the next turn. I’m now safe from blood moon. I resolve a Knight. About two turns later I draw and cast Retreat. My opponent makes a crucial mistake by letting the Retreat resolve rather than casting Cryptic Command. He was thinking he could tap my team in response, but I kept fetches up to untap Knight. I swing in for a lethal hit with a ~20/15 Knight.
Overall this seems like a very favorable matchup. We play at instant speed, and can play around Blood Moon pretty easily. Not to mention that manadorks make Moon bad if they stick. Moreover, Knight is very difficult for them to deal with.
2-0
WEEK 3
R1 vs UW Spirits
This was a UW Spirits brew that played at instant speed a lot. Beyond the obvious Mausoleum Wanderer, Rattlechains, Selfless Spirit, Drogskol Captain, etc,, it had a good amount of counterspells including Cryptic Command. An interesting take on Spirits, though arguably less powerful than the Bant version.
G1
Geist of St. Traft with 2 Noble Hierarchs closes the game out fast.
G2
He manages to outrace me with fliers while Mausoleum Wanderer makes it difficult to cast Collected Company. I misplay by targeting Mausoleum Wanderer with Izzet Staticaster, while he has a Rattlechains in play. He flashes in another spirit, making the Wanderer too big to kill.
G3
I come out of the gates fast with T1 Noble, T2 Geist, T3 Scooze + Selfless Spirit. Geist again puts in some work. It’s a close race because my opponent has double Drogskol Captain, but I swing with the team and finish him off with Kessig Wolf-Run on my Geist.
2-1
R2 vs Affinity
This one needs no introduction.
G1
Affinity does its thing. She drops 5 creatures by turn 2, she has Cranial Plating. I lose.
G2
I draw Stony Silence and play it immediately. It slows my opponent’s mana but she manages to play three Vault Skirges. It looked as though she had a chance to come back, but I find Izzet Staticaster from a Collected Company, wiping her board and sealing the game.
2-1
G3
I keep a risky hand of five lands, Selfless Spirit, Stony Silence. It’s risky because I’ve seen that my opponent plays Thoughtseize, but I decide to try it. It pays off, as I get to resolve Stony on turn 2. My opponent plays an Etched Champion, but I draw the perfect answer in a Spellskite, which can safely block Champion. I later play a collected company in response to a second Champion, hitting Knight and Queller. I was likely on the track to winning, but I top deck Retreat and my opponent scoops.
We played again for fun after the games and my opponent scooped pretty quickly to an absurd Collected Company. Overall this matchup seems unfavorable G1, but very favorable post-board. Even in G1 though we have some good tools in Spellskite, Pridemage, and just random fliers killing their signal pests and nexuses.
R3 vs Bant Eldrazi
This was the same opponent who played Jund in Week 2. Pretty standard decklist, but with maindeck Engineered Explosives.
G1
It’s a long slog, but I draw three Paths to answer all his threats. Vendillion Clique does some good work by removing his threats from hand. A top-decked Collected Company into double Knight eventually takes over the game.
G2
My opponent puts on a lot of pressure with a turn 2 Eldrazi Displacer + Noble Hierarch attacking for 4 per turn. I’m unable to block with Spellskite. I Quell one of his Thought-Knot Seers, and he is unable to blink it thanks to Spellskite. The next turn, I have Collected Company and Retreat to Coralhelm in hand. I’m at 10 life and my opponent is at 18. He tries to Path my Spellskite so he can blink my Queller, freeing his Seer. I cast Collected Company, hoping to hit a Spell Queller. Even better: I hit Spellskite + Knight. I let Path resolve, and my opponent taps out to attack for 7 with a Reality Smasher with exalted. At this point I decide the Combo is my path to victory, so I throw Spellskite under the bus, putting me to 7. I manage to combo off, hitting my opponent for 22 with Kessig Wolf-Run and with the Queller. I went to 1 life in the process.
This game was definitely saved by the combo. Had I not sacked the Spellskite, I would not have had enough life to make the Knight lethal.
2-0
--
Overall, the deck felt really strong. Now that the super-unfair decks such as Dredge, Infect and Death’s Shadow are under control, it could really be Bant’s time to shine. The deck doesn’t have any obvious weakness, and even though Tron and Valakut are bad matchups, they don’t feel unsurmountable. In particular, Unified Will seems like a powerful card in those matchups, and there’s always the “Oops I win” factor, as seen in Game 1 against Burn and Game 2 against Bant Eldrazi. For that reason, I do feel 2 playing Retreats is worthwhile.
In terms of the creatures, all of the two-drops feel solid. Having ~ 5 protection creatures in Selfless Spirit and Spellskite feels really good, as we get to protect our game-winning threats (Knight, Spell Queller, Clique) Voice, Pridemage and Scooze all have their moments of greatness. In terms of the three-drops, I haven’t tested Tireless Tracker, and Courser of Kruphix is a decent option, but I really enjoy the ability to play at instant speed and to disrupt hands that Clique offers. The one copy of Geist has performed well, but it may ultimately be worse than Tireless Tracker or a second copy of Clique.
In terms of the sideboard, it feels solid. I haven’t actually drawn Elspeth, but I’m not convinced she’s needed. The matchups she’s good in (Jund, Bant Eldrazi) are solid anyway. I think I’ll be replacing it with an extra Ghost Quarter moving forward. The rest feels great – all of the cards are useful in several matchups.
So there you have it. This whole experience made me very optimistic about the future of the deck. Collected Company is a really - really - powerful card. Not to mention, this deck is incredibly fun. The most fun I've had playing a deck, with the possible exception of Kiki Chord. I highly recommend it at the moment and I believe it's solidly Tier 1.5 in terms of power level.
GWU Knightfall Spirit Company GWU
GWB Abzan Evolution GWB
Interesting. You've convinced me that Rallier may be worth trying, where I previously thought this wasn't the right deck for it (most of our 2-drops are utility rather than raw power). Bringing back Ghost Quarter is definitely good against a lot of decks (Affinity, Infect, Tron, Valakut), though I have to say the loss of Gavony seems significant to me because A) Gavony is a better threat in a grindier game and B) It's hard to always have the red mana for Wolf Run.
How has Jace been performing? I suppose my main worries would be that it's hard to have 5 cards in the graveyard early on, and that we only have 8 spells total for him to flash back
GWU Knightfall Spirit Company GWU
GWB Abzan Evolution GWB
I absolutely love Rallier, I've been playing him as a 2-of in Naya Company instead of Knightfall because that's my flavor of the month. He does require you to play a little bit more carefully with the revolt in mind. I actually think Rallier might be THE best card out of Aether Revolt.
Another card I really like is Tireless Tracker. Rallier and Tracker also work really well together, any excess lands give you clues that you can even crack to trigger revolt while drawing cards. I initially thought that the printing of fatal push would make GWx aggro-midrange decks much worse against the GBx, grixis and esper grindy decks but it's actually not the case because Rallier is such an amazing tempo/recovery card.
Legacy: Strawberry Shortcake, Aggro Loam, DnT+b
Modern: Devoted Karn
Vintage: Survival
They just destroy a number of decks -
Infect, Elves, Affinity, Abzan Company, Tokens, Merfolk, Death & Taxes variants, Soul Sisters... etc
I'm a firm believer in a good value package for this deck; I'm just not onboard the Rallier train (yet). Maybe it's my meta. Then again, with the Probe ban, the decks that I want to rebuy my disruption against are fewer and further between, so maybe the extra aggression is worth it.
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon