I've been seeing a very similar deck 4-0 MTGO daylies and since I owned almost everything out of my DD/ED collection, I decided to give it a go.
So far I've only tested with my playgroup of friends but I have been doing well against Junk, Burn, UR Twin and Affinity but having trouble with Tron, Infect and Grixis Control. May take it to a PPTQ in two weeks, see how it does.
I manged to beat a jank deck, BW tokens mirror and abzan company and lost to URW control. In the finals i got mana screwed then flooded and lost to grixis delver which i consider a good matchup. The main change is I have cut one secure the wastes for a zealous perscution. Killing the mana dorks and bogles rise means that turn two zealous can be key. Furthermore, secure the wastes has been good but I never really want to see it in my opening hand.
I have also bought 2 aven mindcensors to combat bloom and other searching decks like tron. Brimaz is a further threat. Im really liking modern at the moment heaps of cool decks about online and at the store.
Just a few thoughts on card choices.
Duress over Thoughtseize is just an edge for burn game one. I'm also not sure if there is really a way to get punished for it. I couldn't think of one. Also favor the mighty in the SB is for the infect and splinter twin matchs.
I cut my second Secure for the fourth BB... I didn't like it. Two BB in play are great, but it forces you to have to rip Sorin or win the race. I don't think I would want a third Auriok Champion.
Invitational was a huge failure. I'll write on it soon, but nothing amazing to report.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
I use 2 rest in peace,1 Relic of Progenitus and 1 Sudden death. I find the match up hard too, but im guessing the best way to play it is to get your creatures to 2 toughness before hording the board because of the threat of Orzhov Pontiff, since they have 4 Chords to tutor for it. I think we have to try race them while holding up removal.
Does anyone run mono-White or B/W without discard? I have to stick to one color for budget-ish reasons so I can't run Black for Lingering Souls, discard, Zealous Persecution, Sorin, Solemn Visitor, etc., but I still want to try to make the most "competitive" version of mono-White possible. The 60 I cobbled together looks like this:
Does anyone run mono-White or B/W without discard? I have to stick to one color for budget-ish reasons so I can't run Black for Lingering Souls, discard, Zealous Persecution, Sorin, Solemn Visitor, etc., but I still want to try to make the most "competitive" version of mono-White possible. The 60 I cobbled together looks like this:
I had thought about this before, would recommend two Brave the Elements over two Mana Tithe. No reason not to run the full number of Windbrisk Heights. And probably an Auriok Champion or two, not budget obv, over Honor of the Pure, but then you're probably playing a bad Soul Sisters deck: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=85748
Sideboard would probably have some number of Rest in Peace, Stony Silence, Timely Reinforcements, Kor Firewalker, Aven Mindcensor, etc.
I had thought about this before, would recommend two Brave the Elements over two Mana Tithe. No reason not to run the full number of Windbrisk Heights. And probably an Auriok Champion or two, not budget obv, over Honor of the Pure, but then you're probably playing a bad Soul Sisters deck: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=85748
Sideboard would probably have some number of Rest in Peace, Stony Silence, Timely Reinforcements, Kor Firewalker, Aven Mindcensor, etc.
Brave the Elements was the last cut, but a 2/2 split makes sense, especially since Brave protects Myth Realized where Mana Tithe usually does not. I could also cut the Gitaxian Probes for Brave. List is still very much a work in progress.
I've seen Auriok Champion in most mains now. Is that mostly to hose Twin/Burn game 1, or is it more to offset life lost from fetches/Thoughtseize in the B/W lists?
I went 3-3 at my first pptq with tokens (I selected this over burn or grixis delver owing to my experience with the deck). Aside from a few misplays such as missed land drop in round two and not attacking for the win in round three with Jund, the bad matchups I had were:
Infect in both games I would have won next turn.
UR tron I conceded game 1 when it got really grindy and I wanted time for games two and three after board. He had inevitability. In two I boarded stony silence and discard. I had the game until he top decked Ugin for the win.
Monoblue tron played similarly to UR tron. Blow outs in both games with mindslaver lock.
I think a different board would have helped. pithing needle and aven mindcensor in addition would greatly aided not only this matchup, but also others through resource denial. I think this would be better than more discard.
The good matches were two rounds of Jund. In both I boarded out my entire discard suite. This allowed me to outpace my opponent each turn. one played blood moon, which I already suspected and played around turn two. I cannot emphasize that boarding decision enough versus abzan and Jund. We are practically unbeatable if you don't force them to discard.
Sorry if it's been talked about before, how is everyones opinions on monastery mentor?
I love teh card, but I could not for the life of me make it work. Mentor would be good if people just sat there and waited for you to play mentor, then let you play anthems and destroy their hand. Mentor is good in vintage because mana is literally free in that format. I don't want to feel bad about destroying their hand and using cards that could create me monks, I just want to play them. I want twin out of their hand ASAP.
In my experience, 3 fliers at 2/2 is enough for you to set up for the win and put them on a clock. You don't really need anymore guys. 8 lingering souls, 4 processions, and maybe a bitterblossem or two is enough, monk tokens cost 3+a spell.
I'm hoping another card pops along and breaks mentor, but that card isn't here. I'd pickup some for speculation reasons though.
Sorry if it's been talked about before, how is everyones opinions on monastery mentor?
I love teh card, but I could not for the life of me make it work. Mentor would be good if people just sat there and waited for you to play mentor, then let you play anthems and destroy their hand. Mentor is good in vintage because mana is literally free in that format. I don't want to feel bad about destroying their hand and using cards that could create me monks, I just want to play them. I want twin out of their hand ASAP.
In my experience, 3 fliers at 2/2 is enough for you to set up for the win and put them on a clock. You don't really need anymore guys. 8 lingering souls, 4 processions, and maybe a bitterblossem or two is enough, monk tokens cost 3+a spell.
I'm hoping another card pops along and breaks mentor, but that card isn't here. I'd pickup some for speculation reasons though.
I'd love (and am waiting for) a one- or two-drop that would put tokens over the top
I've seen Auriok Champion in most mains now. Is that mostly to hose Twin/Burn game 1, or is it more to offset life lost from fetches/Thoughtseize in the B/W lists?
Pretty much that. It helps with the life loss from Bitterblossom and Thoughtseize, while providing maindeck hate against Burn and Twin. Twin has a lot of difficulty dealing with it, forcing them to Cryptic bounce it and hope you don't have the removal. Taxing their spells and mana while also giving you time to put pressure on them with tokens.
Didn't want to lose to Amulet or Tron. Proceed to not see them.
Round 1, Affinity (0-2, 0-1)
Keep a Windbrisk, three land, Spectral, Inquisition, Dismember hand. I take his Etched Champion, he drops his hand, I dismember a Signal Pest. I play Spectral Procession, only to have him rip an Ensoul Artifact for his Vault Skirge the next turn. I go for the triple block and he has topdecked a Galvanic Blast. I draw Anthems, and never see anything to put a stop to him beating my face in.
Game 2, I keep a one land Stony Silence, Bitterblossom, Inquisition, Dismember hand on the play. If I draw a land, I win, but I can mulligan to pretty much anything and feel fine about the matchup, but I'm an idiot. I Inquisition away a Cranial Plating, he has double Signal Pest. I don't Dismember a Signal Pest until turn 3, and never see the second land before I die. I'm an idiot.
Round 2, Jund (2-1, 1-1)
Game 1, I have a Bitterblossom going, but he goes wider than me. Double Goyf, a Liliana ripping my hand apart, a Scavenging Ooze, and a Raving Ravine crashing into me every turn. I have twelve lands in play when I die; I had only drawn four spells the entire game. I sideboard in Rest in Peace. First turn, I strip his hand of discard to protect my RIP, seeing double Goyf. I play a BB, he plays a Goyf, I play an Anthem and a Windbrisk. He casts Abrupt Decay on the BB, leaving me an opening for the Rest in Peace. He fetches up a Godless Shrine... I start ripping Lingering Souls and am able to cast Spectral off of the Windbrisk and go to town. Very intrigued by a white splash and I put him on Lingering Souls as a mirror breaker, which turned out to be right. The only other thing I could have imagined was Blood Baron, but that seemed unnecessary. Game 3, I have an early Auriok Champion followed by a Bitterblossom and am able to grind him out despite being hit with an Anger.
Somebody above me said cut all of the discard against GBx, but I leave in Thoughtseize against Abzan for Siege Rhino and I leave in Inquisition against Jund for sweepers like Pulse and Anger. It's okay, drawing some discard; you just don't want it all. It's also important to diversify your blocks, blocking with both Faeries and Spirits when you can to make Maelstrom Pulse worse.
Round 3, Burn (0-2, 1-2)
Guy gets me on turn 3, t1 on the play, Goblin Guide, t2, Goblin Guide and suspend a Rift Bolt, t3, Monastery Swiftspear and Atarka's Command. That game I was able to cast an Intangible Virtue. Game 2, I bring in 2 Timely, Disenchant, Go for the Throat, and 2 Duress, cutting the Thoughtseizes and Bitterblossom. He gets two early Swiftspears against me, but I am able to get a turn 3 Timely Reinforcements and keep casting Lingering Souls into Lingering Souls, flashback them both, in order to chump, when I finally get the fourth land for a Sorin, I am down to two and opt not to attack, because going up to six on the swing, would still be dead to a burn spell with both Swiftspears in play. He rips a Lightning Helix. He drew burn spells for seven turns in a row.
Round 4, Grixis Twin (2-0, 2-2)
Game 1, I rip his hand apart with discard, enabling an early Tasigur, which forced me to cash in an early Secure the Wastes to chump block with. Eventually, Tasigur was brickwalled by the Auriok Champion that I had waited to play when I knew the coast was clear. He struggles on hitting land drops and eventually I get an Anthem online with some dorks to put pressure on him. In Game 2, he never sees a fourth land till way too late in the game.By that time, he has accumulated Cryptics in his hand. At four life and facing down twelve damage in the air, he is able to Cryptic and tap my guys down twice, before getting to six lands and Snapping back Cryptic to tap dudes down. When he is no longer able to do that, I attack for lethal. He never saw the two Angers that he boarded in against me.
From there, I win two standard matches only to lose the next two and fail to make day two. I wanted to see Jund and Twin all day, but completely punted against Affinity and Burn, which I thought I couldn't lose against. Barring the fact that I should have mulliganed more aggressively in both games against Affinity, I feel like most games were decided by who drew better; I lost matches when my opponents had it all and won matches when my opponents couldn't get it together. I never outplayed my opponents or really had to navigate my way back into a game, barring some sequencing.
In the Open, a similar story occurred.
Round 1, Infect (1-2, 0-1)
In the first game, I kept an all too fair of a hand with no disruption only dorks that couldn't block a Blighted Agent. Game 2, I blow him out with a Zealous Persecution and beat him down with Lingering Souls. Game 3, I apparently mulliganed too aggressively, having only a Bitterblossom and an Inquisition in my opening seven for early plays. My six has removal, but I lose to an Inkmoth Nexus the turn before I would have had him.
Round 2, Elves (1-2, 0-2)
Bad matchup is bad. Game 1, he gets Ezuri for lethal. Game 2, I kill off all of his Ezuris and swing for lethal with Spirits. Game 3, I kill Ezuri five times, he casts a single Ezuri three times because I was only able to draw two Paths and he recurs him twice with Eternal Witness. He gets me for exactly 11, when I had lethal on the swing back with a Sorin.
Round 3, Grixis Twin (2-1, 1-2)
Game 1, I have the removal to keep him off of Twin and get there with tokens. Auriok Champion made it impossible for him to combo off and he made a mistake by not just bouncing Champion at EOT. Instead, he tried countering and bouncing and I just recast it in my second main phase. Game 2, we grind and eventually late in the game he casts a removal spell, which I mistakenly let him resolve despite there having been a Deceiver Exarch in play for several turns. He takes my Path and jams the Twin for lethal. Game 3, Auriok Champion keeps him off of the combo. He draws too many lands and I win.
Round 4, Esper Mentor (1-2, 1-3)
An early discard spell lets me strip him of a Mana Leak and I commit tokens to the board holding up removal for Mentor. An anthem lets me swing through his Lingering Souls and eventually I win. Game 2, I have double Bitterblossom and fail to draw a Sorin or Timely Reinforcements. He chumps with three Lingering Souls plus flashback and is able to ultimate a Liliana before I am able to beat him. I lose the race when he is at three life. Game 3, I rip a card from his hand, cast Intangible Virtue into Spectral Procession and begin beating down. A timely Zealous Persecution wipes his board and leaves him with no cards left in hand. I get him down to three while I am still at twenty life. He rips an Engineered Explosives and casts it for zero and activates it. He fires up Creeping Tar Pit and puts me to 17. I draw a second Anthem and cast it and play a land. He rips a Sorin off the top, makes a vampire and puts me to 14 with Tar Pit. Next turn, I draw a discard spell, play a land and pass. He +1s Sorin and swings in for seven putting me to 7. I draw a land and lose.
Should have drawn better and mulliganed more wisely.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
But that isn't why you remove your discard: compared to Jund and Abzan, our discards are less effective and set us back a turn. If you don't force a discard, then you put them on the defensive. Our evasion creatures can hit them while we run defense with things like Auriok Champion. RIP negates their Goyf and Siege Rhino comes down too late to address the beating they are taking. Sure, they can wipe the board, but that is why you don't overextend.
But that isn't why you remove your discard: compared to Jund and Abzan, our discards are less effective and set us back a turn. If you don't force a discard, then you put them on the defensive. Our evasion creatures can hit them while we run defense with things like Auriok Champion. RIP negates their Goyf and Siege Rhino comes down too late to address the beating they are taking. Sure, they can wipe the board, but that is why you don't overextend.
The last two times that I have played against GBx, if I didn't keep some number of discard in against them, I wouldn't have been able to protect RIP insofar as those decks keep their discard in. Their discard is better than ours. They have redundancy and powerful things while our decks relies a little more on synergy or at least we have weaker single cards, hence the deck doesn't mull well.
You board out some number of discard, because it is a grindy matchup and discard is bad to topdeck. But keeping some number of discard in can protect our early plays, taking their discard that will snipe RIP or BB out of our hands, but also taking threats that we can't beat or sweepers that make it difficult to beat. It enables you to play a lot more confidently having access to the information of what you have to play against. All I'm saying is don't take out all seven discard spells against GBx, but leave 3-4 in.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
Mtgsalvation,
Hello all. My main magic site has been always tappedout.net, so I am therefore unfamiliar with mtgsalvation as a whole. I have made a primer for the folks at tappedout.net on b/w tokens and was wondering if you all could take a look at it. If you see anything that you think would make a good addition to the primer do not hesitate to tell me. Thank you for your time. http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/bw-token-primer/
-Xzzane
Nice primer xzzane, very useful read. I agree with Sorin being better with bitterblossom.
Can you guys tell me what you think about myth realized in the deck ? I'll test it as a 4 of and tell you about it later. Might replace raise the alarm and such.
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Lingering Souls
4 Path to Exile
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Spectral Procession
2 Honor of the Pure
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Zealous Persecution
4 Swamp
4 Godless Shrine
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vault of the Archangel
3 Disenchant
3 Go for the Throat
3 Kor Firewalker
2 Rest in Peace
2 Torpor Orb
2 Zealous Persecution
I've been seeing a very similar deck 4-0 MTGO daylies and since I owned almost everything out of my DD/ED collection, I decided to give it a go.
So far I've only tested with my playgroup of friends but I have been doing well against Junk, Burn, UR Twin and Affinity but having trouble with Tron, Infect and Grixis Control. May take it to a PPTQ in two weeks, see how it does.
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Path to Exile
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Marsh Flats
2 Windswept Heath
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Lingering Souls
4 Spectral Procession
2 Hero of Bladehold
2 Bitterblossom
2 Auriok Champion
4 Godless Shrine
5 Plains
1 Go for the Throat
2 Vault of the Archangel
3 Zealous Persecution
1 Swamp
1 Honor of the Pure
1 Secure the Wastes
1 Dismember
1 Fetid Heath
3 Stony Silence
3 Rest in Peace
3 Duress
2 Disenchant
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Murderous Cut
I manged to beat a jank deck, BW tokens mirror and abzan company and lost to URW control. In the finals i got mana screwed then flooded and lost to grixis delver which i consider a good matchup. The main change is I have cut one secure the wastes for a zealous perscution. Killing the mana dorks and bogles rise means that turn two zealous can be key. Furthermore, secure the wastes has been good but I never really want to see it in my opening hand.
I have also bought 2 aven mindcensors to combat bloom and other searching decks like tron. Brimaz is a further threat. Im really liking modern at the moment heaps of cool decks about online and at the store.
1 brimaz
4 intangible virtue
2 dismember
4 path to exile
3 raise the alarm
1 secure the waste
2 zealous persecution
4 Inqusition of kozilek
2 duress
4 lingering souls
4 spectral procession
3 sorin solemn visitor
4 marsh flats
4 godless shrine
2 ghost quarter
1 vault of the archangel
3 isolated chapel
2 fetid heath
4 plains
1 swamp
2 windbrisk heights
1 verdant catacombs
3 leyline of sanctity
2 rest in peace
1 linvala keeper of silence
1 timely reinforcements
2 aven mindsencer
3 fulminator mage
1 favor the mighty
Just a few thoughts on card choices.
Duress over Thoughtseize is just an edge for burn game one. I'm also not sure if there is really a way to get punished for it. I couldn't think of one. Also favor the mighty in the SB is for the infect and splinter twin matchs.
Invitational was a huge failure. I'll write on it soon, but nothing amazing to report.
Almost everything worth discarding is a creature.
What creatures are you really worried about that costs more than three? That your removal spells can't kill or that you can't race?
17 Plains
4 Ghost Quarter
2 Windbrisk Heights
Tokens
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Spectral Procession
4 Midnight Haunting
2 Secure the Wastes
4 Intangible Virtue
3 Honor of the Pure
Removal
4 Path to Exile
Spice
4 Myth Realized
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Mana Tithe
Mana Tithe is a homeless man's Thoughtseize, and Gitaxian Probe is mostly there to power up Myth Realized. Thoughts?
I had thought about this before, would recommend two Brave the Elements over two Mana Tithe. No reason not to run the full number of Windbrisk Heights. And probably an Auriok Champion or two, not budget obv, over Honor of the Pure, but then you're probably playing a bad Soul Sisters deck: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=85748
Sideboard would probably have some number of Rest in Peace, Stony Silence, Timely Reinforcements, Kor Firewalker, Aven Mindcensor, etc.
Brave the Elements was the last cut, but a 2/2 split makes sense, especially since Brave protects Myth Realized where Mana Tithe usually does not. I could also cut the Gitaxian Probes for Brave. List is still very much a work in progress.
I've seen Auriok Champion in most mains now. Is that mostly to hose Twin/Burn game 1, or is it more to offset life lost from fetches/Thoughtseize in the B/W lists?
Infect in both games I would have won next turn.
UR tron I conceded game 1 when it got really grindy and I wanted time for games two and three after board. He had inevitability. In two I boarded stony silence and discard. I had the game until he top decked Ugin for the win.
Monoblue tron played similarly to UR tron. Blow outs in both games with mindslaver lock.
I think a different board would have helped. pithing needle and aven mindcensor in addition would greatly aided not only this matchup, but also others through resource denial. I think this would be better than more discard.
The good matches were two rounds of Jund. In both I boarded out my entire discard suite. This allowed me to outpace my opponent each turn. one played blood moon, which I already suspected and played around turn two. I cannot emphasize that boarding decision enough versus abzan and Jund. We are practically unbeatable if you don't force them to discard.
I love teh card, but I could not for the life of me make it work. Mentor would be good if people just sat there and waited for you to play mentor, then let you play anthems and destroy their hand. Mentor is good in vintage because mana is literally free in that format. I don't want to feel bad about destroying their hand and using cards that could create me monks, I just want to play them. I want twin out of their hand ASAP.
In my experience, 3 fliers at 2/2 is enough for you to set up for the win and put them on a clock. You don't really need anymore guys. 8 lingering souls, 4 processions, and maybe a bitterblossem or two is enough, monk tokens cost 3+a spell.
I'm hoping another card pops along and breaks mentor, but that card isn't here. I'd pickup some for speculation reasons though.
I'd love (and am waiting for) a one- or two-drop that would put tokens over the top
Pretty much that. It helps with the life loss from Bitterblossom and Thoughtseize, while providing maindeck hate against Burn and Twin. Twin has a lot of difficulty dealing with it, forcing them to Cryptic bounce it and hope you don't have the removal. Taxing their spells and mana while also giving you time to put pressure on them with tokens.
Invitational.
4 Windswept Heath
3 Windbrisk Heights
1 Isolated Chapel
2 Fetid Heath
4 Godless Shrine
2 Vault of the Archangel
3 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Auriok Champion
3 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Intangible Virtue
2 Secure the Wastes
4 Lingering Souls
4 Spectral Procession
4 Path to Exile
1 Murderous Cut
1 Dismember
1 Timely Reinforcements
4 Inquistion of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
3 Fulminator Mage
2 Duress
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Disenchant
1 Go for the Throat
1 Hour of Reckoning
Didn't want to lose to Amulet or Tron. Proceed to not see them.
Round 1, Affinity (0-2, 0-1)
Keep a Windbrisk, three land, Spectral, Inquisition, Dismember hand. I take his Etched Champion, he drops his hand, I dismember a Signal Pest. I play Spectral Procession, only to have him rip an Ensoul Artifact for his Vault Skirge the next turn. I go for the triple block and he has topdecked a Galvanic Blast. I draw Anthems, and never see anything to put a stop to him beating my face in.
Game 2, I keep a one land Stony Silence, Bitterblossom, Inquisition, Dismember hand on the play. If I draw a land, I win, but I can mulligan to pretty much anything and feel fine about the matchup, but I'm an idiot. I Inquisition away a Cranial Plating, he has double Signal Pest. I don't Dismember a Signal Pest until turn 3, and never see the second land before I die. I'm an idiot.
Round 2, Jund (2-1, 1-1)
Game 1, I have a Bitterblossom going, but he goes wider than me. Double Goyf, a Liliana ripping my hand apart, a Scavenging Ooze, and a Raving Ravine crashing into me every turn. I have twelve lands in play when I die; I had only drawn four spells the entire game. I sideboard in Rest in Peace. First turn, I strip his hand of discard to protect my RIP, seeing double Goyf. I play a BB, he plays a Goyf, I play an Anthem and a Windbrisk. He casts Abrupt Decay on the BB, leaving me an opening for the Rest in Peace. He fetches up a Godless Shrine... I start ripping Lingering Souls and am able to cast Spectral off of the Windbrisk and go to town. Very intrigued by a white splash and I put him on Lingering Souls as a mirror breaker, which turned out to be right. The only other thing I could have imagined was Blood Baron, but that seemed unnecessary. Game 3, I have an early Auriok Champion followed by a Bitterblossom and am able to grind him out despite being hit with an Anger.
Somebody above me said cut all of the discard against GBx, but I leave in Thoughtseize against Abzan for Siege Rhino and I leave in Inquisition against Jund for sweepers like Pulse and Anger. It's okay, drawing some discard; you just don't want it all. It's also important to diversify your blocks, blocking with both Faeries and Spirits when you can to make Maelstrom Pulse worse.
Round 3, Burn (0-2, 1-2)
Guy gets me on turn 3, t1 on the play, Goblin Guide, t2, Goblin Guide and suspend a Rift Bolt, t3, Monastery Swiftspear and Atarka's Command. That game I was able to cast an Intangible Virtue. Game 2, I bring in 2 Timely, Disenchant, Go for the Throat, and 2 Duress, cutting the Thoughtseizes and Bitterblossom. He gets two early Swiftspears against me, but I am able to get a turn 3 Timely Reinforcements and keep casting Lingering Souls into Lingering Souls, flashback them both, in order to chump, when I finally get the fourth land for a Sorin, I am down to two and opt not to attack, because going up to six on the swing, would still be dead to a burn spell with both Swiftspears in play. He rips a Lightning Helix. He drew burn spells for seven turns in a row.
Round 4, Grixis Twin (2-0, 2-2)
Game 1, I rip his hand apart with discard, enabling an early Tasigur, which forced me to cash in an early Secure the Wastes to chump block with. Eventually, Tasigur was brickwalled by the Auriok Champion that I had waited to play when I knew the coast was clear. He struggles on hitting land drops and eventually I get an Anthem online with some dorks to put pressure on him. In Game 2, he never sees a fourth land till way too late in the game.By that time, he has accumulated Cryptics in his hand. At four life and facing down twelve damage in the air, he is able to Cryptic and tap my guys down twice, before getting to six lands and Snapping back Cryptic to tap dudes down. When he is no longer able to do that, I attack for lethal. He never saw the two Angers that he boarded in against me.
From there, I win two standard matches only to lose the next two and fail to make day two. I wanted to see Jund and Twin all day, but completely punted against Affinity and Burn, which I thought I couldn't lose against. Barring the fact that I should have mulliganed more aggressively in both games against Affinity, I feel like most games were decided by who drew better; I lost matches when my opponents had it all and won matches when my opponents couldn't get it together. I never outplayed my opponents or really had to navigate my way back into a game, barring some sequencing.
In the Open, a similar story occurred.
Round 1, Infect (1-2, 0-1)
In the first game, I kept an all too fair of a hand with no disruption only dorks that couldn't block a Blighted Agent. Game 2, I blow him out with a Zealous Persecution and beat him down with Lingering Souls. Game 3, I apparently mulliganed too aggressively, having only a Bitterblossom and an Inquisition in my opening seven for early plays. My six has removal, but I lose to an Inkmoth Nexus the turn before I would have had him.
Round 2, Elves (1-2, 0-2)
Bad matchup is bad. Game 1, he gets Ezuri for lethal. Game 2, I kill off all of his Ezuris and swing for lethal with Spirits. Game 3, I kill Ezuri five times, he casts a single Ezuri three times because I was only able to draw two Paths and he recurs him twice with Eternal Witness. He gets me for exactly 11, when I had lethal on the swing back with a Sorin.
Round 3, Grixis Twin (2-1, 1-2)
Game 1, I have the removal to keep him off of Twin and get there with tokens. Auriok Champion made it impossible for him to combo off and he made a mistake by not just bouncing Champion at EOT. Instead, he tried countering and bouncing and I just recast it in my second main phase. Game 2, we grind and eventually late in the game he casts a removal spell, which I mistakenly let him resolve despite there having been a Deceiver Exarch in play for several turns. He takes my Path and jams the Twin for lethal. Game 3, Auriok Champion keeps him off of the combo. He draws too many lands and I win.
Round 4, Esper Mentor (1-2, 1-3)
An early discard spell lets me strip him of a Mana Leak and I commit tokens to the board holding up removal for Mentor. An anthem lets me swing through his Lingering Souls and eventually I win. Game 2, I have double Bitterblossom and fail to draw a Sorin or Timely Reinforcements. He chumps with three Lingering Souls plus flashback and is able to ultimate a Liliana before I am able to beat him. I lose the race when he is at three life. Game 3, I rip a card from his hand, cast Intangible Virtue into Spectral Procession and begin beating down. A timely Zealous Persecution wipes his board and leaves him with no cards left in hand. I get him down to three while I am still at twenty life. He rips an Engineered Explosives and casts it for zero and activates it. He fires up Creeping Tar Pit and puts me to 17. I draw a second Anthem and cast it and play a land. He rips a Sorin off the top, makes a vampire and puts me to 14 with Tar Pit. Next turn, I draw a discard spell, play a land and pass. He +1s Sorin and swings in for seven putting me to 7. I draw a land and lose.
Should have drawn better and mulliganed more wisely.
You board out some number of discard, because it is a grindy matchup and discard is bad to topdeck. But keeping some number of discard in can protect our early plays, taking their discard that will snipe RIP or BB out of our hands, but also taking threats that we can't beat or sweepers that make it difficult to beat. It enables you to play a lot more confidently having access to the information of what you have to play against. All I'm saying is don't take out all seven discard spells against GBx, but leave 3-4 in.
Hello all. My main magic site has been always tappedout.net, so I am therefore unfamiliar with mtgsalvation as a whole. I have made a primer for the folks at tappedout.net on b/w tokens and was wondering if you all could take a look at it. If you see anything that you think would make a good addition to the primer do not hesitate to tell me. Thank you for your time. http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/bw-token-primer/
-Xzzane
Can you guys tell me what you think about myth realized in the deck ? I'll test it as a 4 of and tell you about it later. Might replace raise the alarm and such.