I did pretty well in Lyon, but don't remember enough of the games for a full report.
R1 against UR Pyro 2-0: French guy, the matchup is just great and he cannot do much.
R2 against Affinity 0-2: Another frenchie who did a couple mistake but it turns out T1 Plating is still pretty good. G2 I flood and manage to do some sequencing mistakes which cut my outs in half, but I draw a couple blanks anyway.
R3 against Mardu Pyro 2-0: The guy made some mistakes in the games, sideboarded very wrong and complained in the end.
R4 against Infect 2-0: He didn't draw any Inkmoth Nexus and without this card the matchup is pretty unwinnable for him.
R5 against Etron 2-0: G1 I play a discard spell only to see 2 Chalices, a Relic, GQ, Mine, and 2 creatures. I'm on the play and take a chalice, hoping to draw an answer to the second one. He draws a temple, plays it and the relic. I play a Shadow and pass with a blue up. He draws a second temple, plays it and the chalice. I draw a tarmogoyf to go with my DS and kill him on turn 4 with a battle rage.
G2 I keep a one lander with street wraith, play a discard spell and see 2 chalices, 1 Dismember, 0 temples and some lands and a creature that I select. I leave both chalices because I have a Maelstrom Pulse and a Grudge in hand. He draws 2 temples but has no pressure while I can't find lands. on turn 4 he plays the second chalice on 2. I draw 2 lands the following turn and Pulse the Chalice, he draws an Endbringer but my triple Death's Shadow hand kills him anyway.
R6 against Tron 2-0: I misscount his lands G1 and give him the out of drawing the last tron piece on the last turn by taking the wrong card with a Thoughtseize, but even if I had played right and taken the Ugin with Thoughtseize the tron piece was still 90% to win him the game there. G2 is uneventful, he doen't have green mana for Thragdaddy and Stirrings and can't get to Tron.
R7 against Shuhei Nakamura on Jeskai Tempo 2-1: An interesting incident happened there. I won G1 just by playing a big Shadow while I knew he had no Burn or answers to DS in hand. G2 I sideboarded wrong thinking he was on a more controlling build and died to snapcaster bolts with 2 D-Stroke in hand. G3 I'm fairly ahead and at some point I cycle a Street wraith in order to get delirium and play Traverse the Ulvenwald. While I'm searching my library, a friend of mine says us to wait and calls a Judge: it turns out I didn't draw with the Wraith and upon learning that Shuhei laughs immediately. The Judge fixes the situation, we both get warnings and I win the game with the card drawn. At the end of the game, the Judge asks Shuhei Nakamura to come with him and my friends tell me he could get DQ'd because his reaction with the judge call seemed to show he was aware of me not drawing the card and just didn't tell me even though he should have. He has a long discussion with the Head Judge and ends up not being DQ'd.
R8 against Jeskai Breach 2-1: He left the combo in even though it's pretty bad against me, and I take down both postboard games with most of my removal out.
7-1 and happy so far, but I have to keep focusing on each game as best as I can.
R9 against Grixis Shadow 2-1 despite me cracking my Bauble during main phase like a noob when we're in Topdeck war.
R10 against the Mirror 1-2: In G3 my opponents discard my Stubs and Discard and Traverses for a land on turn 3: I think about what I can do against the obviously upcoming Lili, Bauble myself and see a thoughtseize on top, and choose not to play any creature thinking he might want to wait for me to have a board. He doesn't and wins with Lili active for more than 10 turns and me not finding any of my 3 answers.
R11 against Storm 2-0. Easy win G1, and he's mana screwed during G2.
R12 against Bogles 2-0 through T1 Leyline G1 because he only had a Kor. G2 He doesn't have a Leyline and Lili crushed him.
R13 against Burn 2-1 thanks to my opponent letting me resolve my Street wraith cycling which let me draw the Stubborn Denial that countered the Helix he had to cast to survive.
R14 against Abzan Aggro (Time Walk Feature Match, it's at the end of the round) 2-1: I'll let you see all my punts live on Twitch, I did a bunch of them.
R15 against Mardu Pyro 2-0: The guy mulled to 4 G2 and wasn't happy about it :/
I end up 10th on breakers, with a PT invite and airfare plus a thousand bucks. Super stoked with this at my 2nd GP ever, and hope I can keep being this lucky in the future and step my game up.
WOW Congratulations on such an impressive run! Now having run so well with your list is there any changes you would make moving forward? I am about to buy into this deck and am really having a tough time with how to put the deck together. I noticed you have a small blue package with Snapcaster etc. and I am wondering if that is something you would recommend in the new meta with some different decks floating around? If you have any tips or an updated build I would really be interested in your opinions. Thanks for any advice you might have!
I did pretty well in Lyon, but don't remember enough of the games for a full report.
R1 against UR Pyro 2-0: French guy, the matchup is just great and he cannot do much.
R2 against Affinity 0-2: Another frenchie who did a couple mistake but it turns out T1 Plating is still pretty good. G2 I flood and manage to do some sequencing mistakes which cut my outs in half, but I draw a couple blanks anyway.
R3 against Mardu Pyro 2-0: The guy made some mistakes in the games, sideboarded very wrong and complained in the end.
R4 against Infect 2-0: He didn't draw any Inkmoth Nexus and without this card the matchup is pretty unwinnable for him.
R5 against Etron 2-0: G1 I play a discard spell only to see 2 Chalices, a Relic, GQ, Mine, and 2 creatures. I'm on the play and take a chalice, hoping to draw an answer to the second one. He draws a temple, plays it and the relic. I play a Shadow and pass with a blue up. He draws a second temple, plays it and the chalice. I draw a tarmogoyf to go with my DS and kill him on turn 4 with a battle rage.
G2 I keep a one lander with street wraith, play a discard spell and see 2 chalices, 1 Dismember, 0 temples and some lands and a creature that I select. I leave both chalices because I have a Maelstrom Pulse and a Grudge in hand. He draws 2 temples but has no pressure while I can't find lands. on turn 4 he plays the second chalice on 2. I draw 2 lands the following turn and Pulse the Chalice, he draws an Endbringer but my triple Death's Shadow hand kills him anyway.
R6 against Tron 2-0: I misscount his lands G1 and give him the out of drawing the last tron piece on the last turn by taking the wrong card with a Thoughtseize, but even if I had played right and taken the Ugin with Thoughtseize the tron piece was still 90% to win him the game there. G2 is uneventful, he doen't have green mana for Thragdaddy and Stirrings and can't get to Tron.
R7 against Shuhei Nakamura on Jeskai Tempo 2-1: An interesting incident happened there. I won G1 just by playing a big Shadow while I knew he had no Burn or answers to DS in hand. G2 I sideboarded wrong thinking he was on a more controlling build and died to snapcaster bolts with 2 D-Stroke in hand. G3 I'm fairly ahead and at some point I cycle a Street wraith in order to get delirium and play Traverse the Ulvenwald. While I'm searching my library, a friend of mine says us to wait and calls a Judge: it turns out I didn't draw with the Wraith and upon learning that Shuhei laughs immediately. The Judge fixes the situation, we both get warnings and I win the game with the card drawn. At the end of the game, the Judge asks Shuhei Nakamura to come with him and my friends tell me he could get DQ'd because his reaction with the judge call seemed to show he was aware of me not drawing the card and just didn't tell me even though he should have. He has a long discussion with the Head Judge and ends up not being DQ'd.
R8 against Jeskai Breach 2-1: He left the combo in even though it's pretty bad against me, and I take down both postboard games with most of my removal out.
7-1 and happy so far, but I have to keep focusing on each game as best as I can.
R9 against Grixis Shadow 2-1 despite me cracking my Bauble during main phase like a noob when we're in Topdeck war.
R10 against the Mirror 1-2: In G3 my opponents discard my Stubs and Discard and Traverses for a land on turn 3: I think about what I can do against the obviously upcoming Lili, Bauble myself and see a thoughtseize on top, and choose not to play any creature thinking he might want to wait for me to have a board. He doesn't and wins with Lili active for more than 10 turns and me not finding any of my 3 answers.
R11 against Storm 2-0. Easy win G1, and he's mana screwed during G2.
R12 against Bogles 2-0 through T1 Leyline G1 because he only had a Kor. G2 He doesn't have a Leyline and Lili crushed him.
R13 against Burn 2-1 thanks to my opponent letting me resolve my Street wraith cycling which let me draw the Stubborn Denial that countered the Helix he had to cast to survive.
R14 against Abzan Aggro (Time Walk Feature Match, it's at the end of the round) 2-1: I'll let you see all my punts live on Twitch, I did a bunch of them.
R15 against Mardu Pyro 2-0: The guy mulled to 4 G2 and wasn't happy about it :/
I end up 10th on breakers, with a PT invite and airfare plus a thousand bucks. Super stoked with this at my 2nd GP ever, and hope I can keep being this lucky in the future and step my game up.
I did pretty well in Lyon, but don't remember enough of the games for a full report.
R1 against UR Pyro 2-0: French guy, the matchup is just great and he cannot do much.
R2 against Affinity 0-2: Another frenchie who did a couple mistake but it turns out T1 Plating is still pretty good. G2 I flood and manage to do some sequencing mistakes which cut my outs in half, but I draw a couple blanks anyway.
R3 against Mardu Pyro 2-0: The guy made some mistakes in the games, sideboarded very wrong and complained in the end.
R4 against Infect 2-0: He didn't draw any Inkmoth Nexus and without this card the matchup is pretty unwinnable for him.
R5 against Etron 2-0: G1 I play a discard spell only to see 2 Chalices, a Relic, GQ, Mine, and 2 creatures. I'm on the play and take a chalice, hoping to draw an answer to the second one. He draws a temple, plays it and the relic. I play a Shadow and pass with a blue up. He draws a second temple, plays it and the chalice. I draw a tarmogoyf to go with my DS and kill him on turn 4 with a battle rage.
G2 I keep a one lander with street wraith, play a discard spell and see 2 chalices, 1 Dismember, 0 temples and some lands and a creature that I select. I leave both chalices because I have a Maelstrom Pulse and a Grudge in hand. He draws 2 temples but has no pressure while I can't find lands. on turn 4 he plays the second chalice on 2. I draw 2 lands the following turn and Pulse the Chalice, he draws an Endbringer but my triple Death's Shadow hand kills him anyway.
R6 against Tron 2-0: I misscount his lands G1 and give him the out of drawing the last tron piece on the last turn by taking the wrong card with a Thoughtseize, but even if I had played right and taken the Ugin with Thoughtseize the tron piece was still 90% to win him the game there. G2 is uneventful, he doen't have green mana for Thragdaddy and Stirrings and can't get to Tron.
R7 against Shuhei Nakamura on Jeskai Tempo 2-1: An interesting incident happened there. I won G1 just by playing a big Shadow while I knew he had no Burn or answers to DS in hand. G2 I sideboarded wrong thinking he was on a more controlling build and died to snapcaster bolts with 2 D-Stroke in hand. G3 I'm fairly ahead and at some point I cycle a Street wraith in order to get delirium and play Traverse the Ulvenwald. While I'm searching my library, a friend of mine says us to wait and calls a Judge: it turns out I didn't draw with the Wraith and upon learning that Shuhei laughs immediately. The Judge fixes the situation, we both get warnings and I win the game with the card drawn. At the end of the game, the Judge asks Shuhei Nakamura to come with him and my friends tell me he could get DQ'd because his reaction with the judge call seemed to show he was aware of me not drawing the card and just didn't tell me even though he should have. He has a long discussion with the Head Judge and ends up not being DQ'd.
R8 against Jeskai Breach 2-1: He left the combo in even though it's pretty bad against me, and I take down both postboard games with most of my removal out.
7-1 and happy so far, but I have to keep focusing on each game as best as I can.
R9 against Grixis Shadow 2-1 despite me cracking my Bauble during main phase like a noob when we're in Topdeck war.
R10 against the Mirror 1-2: In G3 my opponents discard my Stubs and Discard and Traverses for a land on turn 3: I think about what I can do against the obviously upcoming Lili, Bauble myself and see a thoughtseize on top, and choose not to play any creature thinking he might want to wait for me to have a board. He doesn't and wins with Lili active for more than 10 turns and me not finding any of my 3 answers.
R11 against Storm 2-0. Easy win G1, and he's mana screwed during G2.
R12 against Bogles 2-0 through T1 Leyline G1 because he only had a Kor. G2 He doesn't have a Leyline and Lili crushed him.
R13 against Burn 2-1 thanks to my opponent letting me resolve my Street wraith cycling which let me draw the Stubborn Denial that countered the Helix he had to cast to survive.
R14 against Abzan Aggro (Time Walk Feature Match, it's at the end of the round) 2-1: I'll let you see all my punts live on Twitch, I did a bunch of them.
R15 against Mardu Pyro 2-0: The guy mulled to 4 G2 and wasn't happy about it :/
I end up 10th on breakers, with a PT invite and airfare plus a thousand bucks. Super stoked with this at my 2nd GP ever, and hope I can keep being this lucky in the future and step my game up.
WOW Congratulations on such an impressive run! Now having run so well with your list is there any changes you would make moving forward? I am about to buy into this deck and am really having a tough time with how to put the deck together. I noticed you have a small blue package with Snapcaster etc. and I am wondering if that is something you would recommend in the new meta with some different decks floating around? If you have any tips or an updated build I would really be interested in your opinions. Thanks for any advice you might have!
Oh, I missed this. Congrats on 10th and the invite! Depraz got 16th with Traverse Shadow as well - with 1 MD Manamorphose
I've been jamming the BBE Jund list that was posted last page (with a few tweaks) and I'm just crushing. I know its a 4 drop, and I know its random, but seriously BBE trains are crazy. You're totally fine with the Traverses hitting your land drops in the early game because once you start casting BBE's you don't stop until their dead. You lose percentage points against the unfair decks in game 1 because you're playing less disruption, but I'm just crushing any creature based matchup or Jace deck. UW is obnoxious, but I've been able to run them over most of the time before they can kill our manabase. Post sideboard you have the 4 Collective Brutalities for the spell based combo and you get MAGUS AND BLOOD MOON which is great against a large percentage of the field. The mana feels so silky smooth after playing 4/5c Shadow for so long.
I really can't suggest the 4 BBE+4 KCommand decklist enough.
I would recommend trying some noble hierarchs if you're on jace. It's proving to be quite a good card in the deck in general, certainly more impactful than adding jace himself to the deck. Like you said, he might just be a SB card, or a 1 of MD for respect of his power level, but either way, NH works well with him, and it works great with your big fatties and TBR. So far im 13-2 in leagues using that configuration, playing against a wide variety of archetypes.
I've been jamming the BBE Jund list that was posted last page (with a few tweaks) and I'm just crushing. I know its a 4 drop, and I know its random, but seriously BBE trains are crazy. You're totally fine with the Traverses hitting your land drops in the early game because once you start casting BBE's you don't stop until their dead. You lose percentage points against the unfair decks in game 1 because you're playing less disruption, but I'm just crushing any creature based matchup or Jace deck. UW is obnoxious, but I've been able to run them over most of the time before they can kill our manabase. Post sideboard you have the 4 Collective Brutalities for the spell based combo and you get MAGUS AND BLOOD MOON which is great against a large percentage of the field. The mana feels so silky smooth after playing 4/5c Shadow for so long.
I really can't suggest the 4 BBE+4 KCommand decklist enough.
Ooooh, please post a list. I am looking for something new to jam in Traverse. I don’t have a 4th K Command in paper so... I might just jam 1 Pulse until I get that 4th KCommand.
I've been jamming the BBE Jund list that was posted last page (with a few tweaks) and I'm just crushing. I know its a 4 drop, and I know its random, but seriously BBE trains are crazy. You're totally fine with the Traverses hitting your land drops in the early game because once you start casting BBE's you don't stop until their dead. You lose percentage points against the unfair decks in game 1 because you're playing less disruption, but I'm just crushing any creature based matchup or Jace deck. UW is obnoxious, but I've been able to run them over most of the time before they can kill our manabase. Post sideboard you have the 4 Collective Brutalities for the spell based combo and you get MAGUS AND BLOOD MOON which is great against a large percentage of the field. The mana feels so silky smooth after playing 4/5c Shadow for so long.
I really can't suggest the 4 BBE+4 KCommand decklist enough.
Bro, post your list. If you're that over the moon about it I'm excited to give it a try.
What are people's thoughts on running a Manamorphose in the main? Patrick Chapin made the suggestion a few weeks back in his podcast, but did not expound on it for a Traverse build.
I did pretty well in Lyon, but don't remember enough of the games for a full report.
R1 against UR Pyro 2-0: French guy, the matchup is just great and he cannot do much.
R2 against Affinity 0-2: Another frenchie who did a couple mistake but it turns out T1 Plating is still pretty good. G2 I flood and manage to do some sequencing mistakes which cut my outs in half, but I draw a couple blanks anyway.
R3 against Mardu Pyro 2-0: The guy made some mistakes in the games, sideboarded very wrong and complained in the end.
R4 against Infect 2-0: He didn't draw any Inkmoth Nexus and without this card the matchup is pretty unwinnable for him.
R5 against Etron 2-0: G1 I play a discard spell only to see 2 Chalices, a Relic, GQ, Mine, and 2 creatures. I'm on the play and take a chalice, hoping to draw an answer to the second one. He draws a temple, plays it and the relic. I play a Shadow and pass with a blue up. He draws a second temple, plays it and the chalice. I draw a tarmogoyf to go with my DS and kill him on turn 4 with a battle rage.
G2 I keep a one lander with street wraith, play a discard spell and see 2 chalices, 1 Dismember, 0 temples and some lands and a creature that I select. I leave both chalices because I have a Maelstrom Pulse and a Grudge in hand. He draws 2 temples but has no pressure while I can't find lands. on turn 4 he plays the second chalice on 2. I draw 2 lands the following turn and Pulse the Chalice, he draws an Endbringer but my triple Death's Shadow hand kills him anyway.
R6 against Tron 2-0: I misscount his lands G1 and give him the out of drawing the last tron piece on the last turn by taking the wrong card with a Thoughtseize, but even if I had played right and taken the Ugin with Thoughtseize the tron piece was still 90% to win him the game there. G2 is uneventful, he doen't have green mana for Thragdaddy and Stirrings and can't get to Tron.
R7 against Shuhei Nakamura on Jeskai Tempo 2-1: An interesting incident happened there. I won G1 just by playing a big Shadow while I knew he had no Burn or answers to DS in hand. G2 I sideboarded wrong thinking he was on a more controlling build and died to snapcaster bolts with 2 D-Stroke in hand. G3 I'm fairly ahead and at some point I cycle a Street wraith in order to get delirium and play Traverse the Ulvenwald. While I'm searching my library, a friend of mine says us to wait and calls a Judge: it turns out I didn't draw with the Wraith and upon learning that Shuhei laughs immediately. The Judge fixes the situation, we both get warnings and I win the game with the card drawn. At the end of the game, the Judge asks Shuhei Nakamura to come with him and my friends tell me he could get DQ'd because his reaction with the judge call seemed to show he was aware of me not drawing the card and just didn't tell me even though he should have. He has a long discussion with the Head Judge and ends up not being DQ'd.
R8 against Jeskai Breach 2-1: He left the combo in even though it's pretty bad against me, and I take down both postboard games with most of my removal out.
7-1 and happy so far, but I have to keep focusing on each game as best as I can.
R9 against Grixis Shadow 2-1 despite me cracking my Bauble during main phase like a noob when we're in Topdeck war.
R10 against the Mirror 1-2: In G3 my opponents discard my Stubs and Discard and Traverses for a land on turn 3: I think about what I can do against the obviously upcoming Lili, Bauble myself and see a thoughtseize on top, and choose not to play any creature thinking he might want to wait for me to have a board. He doesn't and wins with Lili active for more than 10 turns and me not finding any of my 3 answers.
R11 against Storm 2-0. Easy win G1, and he's mana screwed during G2.
R12 against Bogles 2-0 through T1 Leyline G1 because he only had a Kor. G2 He doesn't have a Leyline and Lili crushed him.
R13 against Burn 2-1 thanks to my opponent letting me resolve my Street wraith cycling which let me draw the Stubborn Denial that countered the Helix he had to cast to survive.
R14 against Abzan Aggro (Time Walk Feature Match, it's at the end of the round) 2-1: I'll let you see all my punts live on Twitch, I did a bunch of them.
R15 against Mardu Pyro 2-0: The guy mulled to 4 G2 and wasn't happy about it :/
I end up 10th on breakers, with a PT invite and airfare plus a thousand bucks. Super stoked with this at my 2nd GP ever, and hope I can keep being this lucky in the future and step my game up.
WOW Congratulations on such an impressive run! Now having run so well with your list is there any changes you would make moving forward? I am about to buy into this deck and am really having a tough time with how to put the deck together. I noticed you have a small blue package with Snapcaster etc. and I am wondering if that is something you would recommend in the new meta with some different decks floating around? If you have any tips or an updated build I would really be interested in your opinions. Thanks for any advice you might have!
The Hostage Taker was pretty bad, everytime I drew it I never had the mana and the time to cast it, but this might be because of the sample size.
2 D-Stroke might be too many: Against Jeskai, you don't want to draw 2 most of the time and 2 manas is somewhat clunky. But given how great they are in some other matchups (Etron, Tron, Through the breach decks) I'm really not sure about this one.
Fulminator Mage was great in a lot of matchups, I'm pretty sure most people should play at least 1 and maybe even more. BGx Midrange (Shadow and non-Shadow), Control, Burn, Infect and Big mana decks make up a large percentage of the meta.
I think TBR is great in the Mardu Matchup and we shouldn't sideboard it out, we have to hope to go faster because it's too hard to grind them out and they don't have that many answers to our big creatures (Like 4 preboard and maybe a couple more postboard). Maybe It's even right to side in the 3rd copy but I haven't tried it.
Snapcaster was pretty good but I'm not sure he deserves a spot in the 75, he was often a bit clunky. I never traversed for it, maybe Grim Flayer is just better even though I'm not playing Souls. Even if you're not playing it, I would still play the breeding pool because of the tron matchup, and having 2 blue sources against Field of ruin decks can be critical (unless you're playing a bunch of Tarfires and Terminate which necessitate a Stomping Ground).
I only found myself wanting to Traverse for a Ghor Clan once but I won the game anyway. I'm not sure it's needed unless swarm decks become much more prevalent (It would necessitate a rework of the mana and/or some manamorphoses in the deck).
I was happy with the removal split. I have no idea what I could cut but getting a couple manamorphose in the deck could be great.
This is the BBE/K Command list that Steve Mann 5-0 a league with recently and has been generating a lot of buzz. Todd Anderson talked about it in his article yesterday.
My inclination is to -1 Mountain, -1 Tarfire, -1 K Command, -1 Seal of Fire for +4 Manamorphose, and to fit TBR in there somewhere. The SB is also a bit of a mess - but that's to be expected this early in the experimentation phase. But like fromagedechevre said, Fulminator Mage has been pretty impressive - even in blue builds with countermagic.
I still haven't tried a BBE shell yet, but I've put more work into the Jace shell and it feels pretty good. Tonight I think I'll give BBE a try though.
I did pretty well in Lyon, but don't remember enough of the games for a full report.
R1 against UR Pyro 2-0: French guy, the matchup is just great and he cannot do much.
R2 against Affinity 0-2: Another frenchie who did a couple mistake but it turns out T1 Plating is still pretty good. G2 I flood and manage to do some sequencing mistakes which cut my outs in half, but I draw a couple blanks anyway.
R3 against Mardu Pyro 2-0: The guy made some mistakes in the games, sideboarded very wrong and complained in the end.
R4 against Infect 2-0: He didn't draw any Inkmoth Nexus and without this card the matchup is pretty unwinnable for him.
R5 against Etron 2-0: G1 I play a discard spell only to see 2 Chalices, a Relic, GQ, Mine, and 2 creatures. I'm on the play and take a chalice, hoping to draw an answer to the second one. He draws a temple, plays it and the relic. I play a Shadow and pass with a blue up. He draws a second temple, plays it and the chalice. I draw a tarmogoyf to go with my DS and kill him on turn 4 with a battle rage.
G2 I keep a one lander with street wraith, play a discard spell and see 2 chalices, 1 Dismember, 0 temples and some lands and a creature that I select. I leave both chalices because I have a Maelstrom Pulse and a Grudge in hand. He draws 2 temples but has no pressure while I can't find lands. on turn 4 he plays the second chalice on 2. I draw 2 lands the following turn and Pulse the Chalice, he draws an Endbringer but my triple Death's Shadow hand kills him anyway.
R6 against Tron 2-0: I misscount his lands G1 and give him the out of drawing the last tron piece on the last turn by taking the wrong card with a Thoughtseize, but even if I had played right and taken the Ugin with Thoughtseize the tron piece was still 90% to win him the game there. G2 is uneventful, he doen't have green mana for Thragdaddy and Stirrings and can't get to Tron.
R7 against Shuhei Nakamura on Jeskai Tempo 2-1: An interesting incident happened there. I won G1 just by playing a big Shadow while I knew he had no Burn or answers to DS in hand. G2 I sideboarded wrong thinking he was on a more controlling build and died to snapcaster bolts with 2 D-Stroke in hand. G3 I'm fairly ahead and at some point I cycle a Street wraith in order to get delirium and play Traverse the Ulvenwald. While I'm searching my library, a friend of mine says us to wait and calls a Judge: it turns out I didn't draw with the Wraith and upon learning that Shuhei laughs immediately. The Judge fixes the situation, we both get warnings and I win the game with the card drawn. At the end of the game, the Judge asks Shuhei Nakamura to come with him and my friends tell me he could get DQ'd because his reaction with the judge call seemed to show he was aware of me not drawing the card and just didn't tell me even though he should have. He has a long discussion with the Head Judge and ends up not being DQ'd.
R8 against Jeskai Breach 2-1: He left the combo in even though it's pretty bad against me, and I take down both postboard games with most of my removal out.
7-1 and happy so far, but I have to keep focusing on each game as best as I can.
R9 against Grixis Shadow 2-1 despite me cracking my Bauble during main phase like a noob when we're in Topdeck war.
R10 against the Mirror 1-2: In G3 my opponents discard my Stubs and Discard and Traverses for a land on turn 3: I think about what I can do against the obviously upcoming Lili, Bauble myself and see a thoughtseize on top, and choose not to play any creature thinking he might want to wait for me to have a board. He doesn't and wins with Lili active for more than 10 turns and me not finding any of my 3 answers.
R11 against Storm 2-0. Easy win G1, and he's mana screwed during G2.
R12 against Bogles 2-0 through T1 Leyline G1 because he only had a Kor. G2 He doesn't have a Leyline and Lili crushed him.
R13 against Burn 2-1 thanks to my opponent letting me resolve my Street wraith cycling which let me draw the Stubborn Denial that countered the Helix he had to cast to survive.
R14 against Abzan Aggro (Time Walk Feature Match, it's at the end of the round) 2-1: I'll let you see all my punts live on Twitch, I did a bunch of them.
R15 against Mardu Pyro 2-0: The guy mulled to 4 G2 and wasn't happy about it :/
I end up 10th on breakers, with a PT invite and airfare plus a thousand bucks. Super stoked with this at my 2nd GP ever, and hope I can keep being this lucky in the future and step my game up.
WOW Congratulations on such an impressive run! Now having run so well with your list is there any changes you would make moving forward? I am about to buy into this deck and am really having a tough time with how to put the deck together. I noticed you have a small blue package with Snapcaster etc. and I am wondering if that is something you would recommend in the new meta with some different decks floating around? If you have any tips or an updated build I would really be interested in your opinions. Thanks for any advice you might have!
The Hostage Taker was pretty bad, everytime I drew it I never had the mana and the time to cast it, but this might be because of the sample size.
2 D-Stroke might be too many: Against Jeskai, you don't want to draw 2 most of the time and 2 manas is somewhat clunky. But given how great they are in some other matchups (Etron, Tron, Through the breach decks) I'm really not sure about this one.
Fulminator Mage was great in a lot of matchups, I'm pretty sure most people should play at least 1 and maybe even more. BGx Midrange (Shadow and non-Shadow), Control, Burn, Infect and Big mana decks make up a large percentage of the meta.
I think TBR is great in the Mardu Matchup and we shouldn't sideboard it out, we have to hope to go faster because it's too hard to grind them out and they don't have that many answers to our big creatures (Like 4 preboard and maybe a couple more postboard). Maybe It's even right to side in the 3rd copy but I haven't tried it.
Snapcaster was pretty good but I'm not sure he deserves a spot in the 75, he was often a bit clunky. I never traversed for it, maybe Grim Flayer is just better even though I'm not playing Souls. Even if you're not playing it, I would still play the breeding pool because of the tron matchup, and having 2 blue sources against Field of ruin decks can be critical (unless you're playing a bunch of Tarfires and Terminate which necessitate a Stomping Ground).
I only found myself wanting to Traverse for a Ghor Clan once but I won the game anyway. I'm not sure it's needed unless swarm decks become much more prevalent (It would necessitate a rework of the mana and/or some manamorphoses in the deck).
I was happy with the removal split. I have no idea what I could cut but getting a couple manamorphose in the deck could be great.
Thanks for the feedback on how those things worked out for you, I will keep that in mind as I put together my own version
Ah. You're right about the manamorphose. I guess I'll just go buy those now while their "only" 8 dollars.
I've been calling it the best card in the format, between this deck and Mardu Reveler (which appears to be perfectly fine in the post-unban format).
I also want to add the IoKs back in. The K Commands seem so expensive and only good in a handful of matchups, and the discard still seems necessary to interact, even if they're not the best BBE hits. But I haven't tried this shell. What have you thought of the K Commands?
I really am not high on manamorphose in a 3 color deck with BBE. Just seems like a bad cascade target.
When you cascade into Manamorphose, you cascade into casting a card (or two!) from your hand for free, plus drawing a card. It removes the random element of how the cascade impacts the board in exchange for sometimes drawing a worse card off the cascade, but sometimes drawing a better card - like another BBE specifically.
If you have an empty hand when you draw BBE and cascade into Morphose, sometimes you'll draw a card you wish you had cascaded into. In that case, if you made BG off Morphose, you'll be able to cast it most of the time anyway. If you have an additional untapped land, then you'll be able to cast it 100% of the time anyway. If you draw something you couldn't have cascaded into, it could be a BBE, in which case if you have 2 additional untapped lands you can go ahead and cast the BBE that turn. It could also be a Street Wraith, which is just a redraw much of the time. It could also be a land, which does indeed suck.
It doesn't seem that bad to me to be honest. And shrinking the deck size + getting delrium + some insulation against mana denial is good.
This is the BBE/K Command list that Steve Mann 5-0 a league with recently and has been generating a lot of buzz. Todd Anderson talked about it in his article yesterday.
My inclination is to -1 Mountain, -1 Tarfire, -1 K Command, -1 Seal of Fire for +4 Manamorphose, and to fit TBR in there somewhere. The SB is also a bit of a mess - but that's to be expected this early in the experimentation phase. But like fromagedechevre said, Fulminator Mage has been pretty impressive - even in blue builds with countermagic.
I still haven't tried a BBE shell yet, but I've put more work into the Jace shell and it feels pretty good. Tonight I think I'll give BBE a try though.
What about -1 Mountain, -1 Tarfire, -1 K Command, -2 Seal of Fire for +3 Manamorphose, +2 Grim Flayer?
The K-commands are definitely expensive, but they do allow the deck to do something it didn't have before:
You can actually grind your opponent to nothing. Before, we usually won by by finishing our opponent off before they stabilize. The 4 BBE, 4 Traverse, 3/4 Kcommand package starts what I call the BBE Freight Train. I found that once I casted the first BBE, the rest just seemed to jump out of my deck. You end up with sequences like:
t4: BBE into Goyf
t5: Traverse into BBE into Bolt
t6: KCommand back my BBE + make you discard, and cast a Shadow
t7: BBE into Traverse that gets another BBE
That's not unreasonable. It happens almost every game that just gets to 4 mana. This one doesn't really feel like the Shadow deck from before. Instead this feels like an aggro version of Snap/Kcommand value loops but your deck is so thin (and has 1 mana tutor) that once it starts you can just cast BBE's every turn until your opponent dies.
So this one feels favored against every fair deck deck except maybe UW (its hard to chain if you cant cast your spells, although maybe manamorphose changes this). The amount of 1 mana removal lets you keep parity against the little creature decks, and the Blood Moons are big game against a lot of decks. I know Blood Moon doesn't beat Tron on its own, but pressure+moon does, and this deck can very consistently apply the pressure.
The K-commands are one of the few ways we can kill Hollowed One which is on the rise. I know we can play dismember and such, but they also have 4 delve creatures which means we can't ever have enough removal spells for the amount of threats they have. K-command is slow, but it gives us some outs.
So in summary, I've felt I've gained percentage against the majority of the field, and lost some percentage against the spell based combo decks. Of which there are basically 2. Ad Naus and Storm. I still feel okay against storm overall (grafdigger's cage and brutality are still good), and Ad Naus also randomly has a rough time beating a Blood Moon. I'm okay with taking a small hit to a small part of the metagame and gaining percentage basically everywhere else.
It seems an easy jump to make to splash a 4th color into the sideboard against storm. Not too much of an investment to play 1 island and 3 stubborn denials.
It seems an easy jump to make to splash a 4th color into the sideboard against storm. Not too much of an investment to play 1 island and 3 stubborn denials.
Here is a 5-0 list running 4 BBE and straight Jund.
WOW Congratulations on such an impressive run! Now having run so well with your list is there any changes you would make moving forward? I am about to buy into this deck and am really having a tough time with how to put the deck together. I noticed you have a small blue package with Snapcaster etc. and I am wondering if that is something you would recommend in the new meta with some different decks floating around? If you have any tips or an updated build I would really be interested in your opinions. Thanks for any advice you might have!
"If it was easy, everyone would do it."
Oh, I missed this. Congrats on 10th and the invite! Depraz got 16th with Traverse Shadow as well - with 1 MD Manamorphose
Decklists here for those looking (those were the only two Death's Shadow lists in the T32) https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gplyo18/top-32-decklists-2018-02-18
I really can't suggest the 4 BBE+4 KCommand decklist enough.
Ooooh, please post a list. I am looking for something new to jam in Traverse. I don’t have a 4th K Command in paper so... I might just jam 1 Pulse until I get that 4th KCommand.
Bro, post your list. If you're that over the moon about it I'm excited to give it a try.
BGWAbzanBGW
GBGB RockGB
BGRJundBGR
The Hostage Taker was pretty bad, everytime I drew it I never had the mana and the time to cast it, but this might be because of the sample size.
2 D-Stroke might be too many: Against Jeskai, you don't want to draw 2 most of the time and 2 manas is somewhat clunky. But given how great they are in some other matchups (Etron, Tron, Through the breach decks) I'm really not sure about this one.
Fulminator Mage was great in a lot of matchups, I'm pretty sure most people should play at least 1 and maybe even more. BGx Midrange (Shadow and non-Shadow), Control, Burn, Infect and Big mana decks make up a large percentage of the meta.
I think TBR is great in the Mardu Matchup and we shouldn't sideboard it out, we have to hope to go faster because it's too hard to grind them out and they don't have that many answers to our big creatures (Like 4 preboard and maybe a couple more postboard). Maybe It's even right to side in the 3rd copy but I haven't tried it.
Snapcaster was pretty good but I'm not sure he deserves a spot in the 75, he was often a bit clunky. I never traversed for it, maybe Grim Flayer is just better even though I'm not playing Souls. Even if you're not playing it, I would still play the breeding pool because of the tron matchup, and having 2 blue sources against Field of ruin decks can be critical (unless you're playing a bunch of Tarfires and Terminate which necessitate a Stomping Ground).
I only found myself wanting to Traverse for a Ghor Clan once but I won the game anyway. I'm not sure it's needed unless swarm decks become much more prevalent (It would necessitate a rework of the mana and/or some manamorphoses in the deck).
I was happy with the removal split. I have no idea what I could cut but getting a couple manamorphose in the deck could be great.
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Death's Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Tarmogoyf
Lands (19)
1 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Mishra's Bauble
2 Seal of Fire
4 Fatal Push
4 Kolaghan's Command
2 Dreadbore
4 Thoughtseize
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
1 Tarfire
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Minister of Pain
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Yixlid Jailer
1 Blood Moon
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Lightning Bolt
4 Collective Brutality
My inclination is to -1 Mountain, -1 Tarfire, -1 K Command, -1 Seal of Fire for +4 Manamorphose, and to fit TBR in there somewhere. The SB is also a bit of a mess - but that's to be expected this early in the experimentation phase. But like fromagedechevre said, Fulminator Mage has been pretty impressive - even in blue builds with countermagic.
I still haven't tried a BBE shell yet, but I've put more work into the Jace shell and it feels pretty good. Tonight I think I'll give BBE a try though.
Thanks for the feedback on how those things worked out for you, I will keep that in mind as I put together my own version
"If it was easy, everyone would do it."
Oh and I'm not sure you want/need the fulminators. The Blood/Magus of the Moon have been GREAT.
I've been calling it the best card in the format, between this deck and Mardu Reveler (which appears to be perfectly fine in the post-unban format).
I also want to add the IoKs back in. The K Commands seem so expensive and only good in a handful of matchups, and the discard still seems necessary to interact, even if they're not the best BBE hits. But I haven't tried this shell. What have you thought of the K Commands?
I would like to fit at least 2 TBR and 2 Inquisitions back in and going -1 mountain, -1 seal, -2 K commands seems like it might be the correct choice.
When you cascade into Manamorphose, you cascade into casting a card (or two!) from your hand for free, plus drawing a card. It removes the random element of how the cascade impacts the board in exchange for sometimes drawing a worse card off the cascade, but sometimes drawing a better card - like another BBE specifically.
If you have an empty hand when you draw BBE and cascade into Morphose, sometimes you'll draw a card you wish you had cascaded into. In that case, if you made BG off Morphose, you'll be able to cast it most of the time anyway. If you have an additional untapped land, then you'll be able to cast it 100% of the time anyway. If you draw something you couldn't have cascaded into, it could be a BBE, in which case if you have 2 additional untapped lands you can go ahead and cast the BBE that turn. It could also be a Street Wraith, which is just a redraw much of the time. It could also be a land, which does indeed suck.
It doesn't seem that bad to me to be honest. And shrinking the deck size + getting delrium + some insulation against mana denial is good.
Edit: for clarity.
What about -1 Mountain, -1 Tarfire, -1 K Command, -2 Seal of Fire for +3 Manamorphose, +2 Grim Flayer?
You can actually grind your opponent to nothing. Before, we usually won by by finishing our opponent off before they stabilize. The 4 BBE, 4 Traverse, 3/4 Kcommand package starts what I call the BBE Freight Train. I found that once I casted the first BBE, the rest just seemed to jump out of my deck. You end up with sequences like:
t4: BBE into Goyf
t5: Traverse into BBE into Bolt
t6: KCommand back my BBE + make you discard, and cast a Shadow
t7: BBE into Traverse that gets another BBE
That's not unreasonable. It happens almost every game that just gets to 4 mana. This one doesn't really feel like the Shadow deck from before. Instead this feels like an aggro version of Snap/Kcommand value loops but your deck is so thin (and has 1 mana tutor) that once it starts you can just cast BBE's every turn until your opponent dies.
So this one feels favored against every fair deck deck except maybe UW (its hard to chain if you cant cast your spells, although maybe manamorphose changes this). The amount of 1 mana removal lets you keep parity against the little creature decks, and the Blood Moons are big game against a lot of decks. I know Blood Moon doesn't beat Tron on its own, but pressure+moon does, and this deck can very consistently apply the pressure.
The K-commands are one of the few ways we can kill Hollowed One which is on the rise. I know we can play dismember and such, but they also have 4 delve creatures which means we can't ever have enough removal spells for the amount of threats they have. K-command is slow, but it gives us some outs.
So in summary, I've felt I've gained percentage against the majority of the field, and lost some percentage against the spell based combo decks. Of which there are basically 2. Ad Naus and Storm. I still feel okay against storm overall (grafdigger's cage and brutality are still good), and Ad Naus also randomly has a rough time beating a Blood Moon. I'm okay with taking a small hit to a small part of the metagame and gaining percentage basically everywhere else.
I'm just greatly enjoying the silky smooth manabase and the blood moon free wins
I'm more inclined to add TBR than blue for Stub, since it has so many more applications.