-Artifact Removal is more important now than ever. Runechanter's Pike is a card that's seeing tons of play, and if you don't have a way to remove it, then you may as well scoop up your cards and walk away. It's that good. Sundering growth is likely the card to run in the board for it.
Rest in peace seems a better answer to pike than dedicated artifact removal, and it also turns off snapcaster in that matchup which is relevant.
I don't think that the decision to MD or SB Thalia should be based on Izzet Staticaster. I think that's definitely a rogue deck and not worth tinkering our deck around because of it.
With all due respect, when a deck fills nearly half the room, I think one loses any right to call it a "rogue" deck.
I have been running both Thalia and Geist for a while now (like you, I was finding that my opponents would *always* pillar my T1 dork, so having actual two drops lets me continue to curve out against them).
Yeah - I'm almost thinking about cutting back to 5 mana bugs and going to 24 lands, add another card at the 2 slot.
I really like Wolfir Avenger in theory, but vs UW at least he's just worse than Strangleroot Geist to me, since he doesn't hit as hard before being captured by Detention Sphere, and it's surprisingly hard to keep 1G open and pressure them.
I do love having more things to do at instant speed though, and producing a 5/3 regenerating trampler out of thin air is always fun.
It's worth testing different combinations of the lower-cost cards. It might be a meta call more than much else. I'll have to get some testing to see what dudes best occupy my 5 vacant slots.
Yeah, there are a whole bunch of cards, like SRG, both Wolfirs, Tracker, Faiths Shield, Sublime Archangel, Thragtusk, that on the surface of things LOOK like they are worth a slot, and definitely have their champions. Ass opposed to the core of Pilgrim/Elf/Thalia/Smiter/Paladin/Resto/Rancor/Charm that is basically set in stone, at least for me.
If you're playing midrange, Thrag is a lock - he's literally that good. I'm still not convinced that Thalia is a core card in the deck, but she'll likely be one of the first answers I turn to when I need one. everything else I totally agree on.
Rest in peace seems a better answer to pike than dedicated artifact removal, and it also turns off snapcaster in that matchup which is relevant.
I didn't even consider that Rest in Peace shuts off pike until another testing buddy pointed it out today. The issue I have is that if I play RiP before they drop pike, they just wait to remove it and continue as normal. If I play it after pike has landed, it's usually too late to regain control of the game unless I have a ****ton of lifegain waiting to happen.
RiP Deals with the effects of pike, but doesn't actually deal with pike itself. If the enchantment gets blown up then their pike is just as much a threat as it was before. With sundering growth, it's gone period until they can find another pike, if they can.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Top 16 - 2012 Indiana State Championships Currently Playing: GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
Yeah - I'm almost thinking about cutting back to 5 mana bugs and going to 24 lands, add another card at the 2 slot.
I think that the 'Miracle Gro' manabase rules apply here. For every land I add I can cut two mana bugs. I currently run 8 bugs and 22 lands, and am considering 6/23 (or 7/23). I don't think we want to slow our deck down so much by cutting the accelerants too much. There's a world of difference between a T2 Loxodon Smiter and that same smiter on turn 3.
It's worth testing different combinations of the lower-cost cards. It might be a meta call more than much else. I'll have to get some testing to see what dudes best occupy my 5 vacant slots.
I only have 1 slot for 5 drops, since having too many makes the deck susceptible to clunky draws that I hate.
I'm still not convinced that Thalia is a core card in the deck, but she'll likely be one of the first answers I turn to when I need one. everything else I totally agree on.
I think that because she's so powerful vs our bad matchups (UW) she's worth making our deck suboptimal vs other decks. Pre-sideboarding for our hard matchups if you will. Because a 2/1 first striker is still pretty good vs creature decks. Who cards if it costs 1G to make her a 4/1 fisrt strike trampler?
I didn't even consider that Rest in Peace shuts off pike until another testing buddy pointed it out today. The issue I have is that if I play RiP before they drop pike, they just wait to remove it and continue as normal. If I play it after pike has landed, it's usually too late to regain control of the game unless I have a ****ton of lifegain waiting to happen.
RiP Deals with the effects of pike, but doesn't actually deal with pike itself. If the enchantment gets blown up then their pike is just as much a threat as it was before. With sundering growth, it's gone period until they can find another pike, if they can.
Actually, that sounds to me like RiP does everything you need it to in that matchup, particularly since you don't want to oversideboard for them.
For sure. If it's even 20% of the room you have to take it into account.
fair enough. Hell, if I KNOW that a deck is going to be more than 30% of the field, it's arguably worth packing maindeck hate for it.
I think that the 'Miracle Gro' manabase rules apply here. For every land I add I can cut two mana bugs. I currently run 8 bugs and 22 lands, and am considering 6/23 (or 7/23). I don't think we want to slow our deck down so much by cutting the accelerants too much. There's a world of difference between a T2 Loxodon Smiter and that same smiter on turn 3.
This point is well made, having lived the dream of swinging with a 6/4 trample double striking smiter turn 3. I'll keep it at 7/23 personally.
I only have 1 slot for 5 drops, since having too many makes the deck susceptible to clunky draws that I hate.
To each his own, I guess. I don't seem to get hands full of 5-drops very often, only running 11 cards that cost more than 3 mana now. Thinking it shouldn't go any higher.
I thought so too, but I've been seeing much more GW in my area, and let me tell you, Wolfir Silverheart ****s on Thragtusk in the mirror match.
The mirror also has Selesnya Charm which ****s on both, but silverheart moreso. I can see your point, but I'm the only GW player at my local shop so...meh.
I think that because she's so powerful vs our bad matchups (UW) she's worth making our deck suboptimal vs other decks. Pre-sideboarding for our hard matchups if you will. Because a 2/1 first striker is still pretty good vs creature decks. Who cards if it costs 1G to make her a 4/1 first strike trampler?
Meta Call, I think. UW on its own I don't have too many problems with, as their angles to attack us are kind of limited. It's the addition of green (mostly thragtusk, but selesnya charm as well) that makes bant so difficult. If Bant is huge around your area, thalia main is a good call. If there's lots of red-based aggro like in my local shop, best to keep her on the sidelines.
Actually, that sounds to me like RiP does everything you need it to in that matchup, particularly since you don't want to oversideboard for them.
...That's a fair point, in retrospect. Apologies.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Top 16 - 2012 Indiana State Championships Currently Playing: GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
I didn't even consider that Rest in Peace shuts off pike until another testing buddy pointed it out today. The issue I have is that if I play RiP before they drop pike, they just wait to remove it and continue as normal. If I play it after pike has landed, it's usually too late to regain control of the game unless I have a ****ton of lifegain waiting to happen.
RiP Deals with the effects of pike, but doesn't actually deal with pike itself. If the enchantment gets blown up then their pike is just as much a threat as it was before. With sundering growth, it's gone period until they can find another pike, if they can.
What exactly do they blow RiP up with? I'm not even sure the deck plays det spheres against us (they mainly use it in the board control matches from what I've seen, for planeswalkers, relying on more useful instant speed disruption for aggro decks). If they are playing det spheres, ray of revelation is a pretty big blowout in that spot.
idk, packing sundering growth for the one slightly problematic artifact in the format doesn't seem like a great idea to me.
Having played UWR a bit I can say that I would hate to see RIP as it seriously messes with important elements of your game plan (i.e. Snapcaster abuse). Destroying the pike is slightly annoying but UWR is well able to win without it (latest versions only run one anyway). And UWR has very few ways of dealing with RIP.
Match 1 - Junk Frites
I just couldn't get any momentum going. Any creature I cast was taken care of (Sever the Bloodline and Angel of Serenity) and him getting 3 Thragtusks out really hurt me. 0-2.
Match 2 - Jund Midrange
He took game 1 handily. Game 2 things started to change. I got better draws and Sigarda, Host of Herons came in big time against Liliana of the Veil. Game 3 was a grind and Primal Hunter gave me a huge card draw. I eventually Kessig'd him. 2-1.
Match 3 - RDW
Took a couple of attacks for the first couple of turns and then it was over for him. 2-0.
Match 4 - GW Midrange
Gained a lot of life in the 2 games, but I was able to eventually get a huge board presence and just overwhelm him with my better creatures. 2-0.
Some notes.
1. I was hoping to put in Angel of Serenity in the sideboard, but the cards didn't arrive in time. It would've been nice in the first game to lock down some of his guys.
2. Bonfire sucked when I had it in my hand. Miracle'ing it was good, but not so good otherwise.
3. In all my games, I only had 1 game where I had trouble with the mana base. Works well for now.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern RGBJund Foiled | x Affinity Foiled | UWR Jeskai Variants Foiled | RGx RG Tron | U Merfolk | WGR Naya Zoo
Won against Frites, Fight Club, and a Midrange-y deck that I hit nut-draws on two games in a row. Got up past 60 life in two different games.
Had a close matchup against a Junk Midrange variant (he won off a top-decked Sorin pushing through his last point of damage in game 3) I ****ed up pretty badly too by not boarding in the set of Centaur Healer when I KNEW we were extremely close-matched for speed.
Second round of the night, I ended up against Frites. In both of his wins, he managed to have all 4 Angel of Serenity on-hand, 2 on board, 2 under them. I boarded in my copies of Rest in Peace, but I think I need to pick up some Nevermore for the board as well. I also REALLY need to finish the set of Thragtusks.
Round 1 vs. Mono Red. Great hand for him, great curve, he beats me easily while my 2 land hand doesn't draw a land until the turn before lethal. Game 2 was really ugly for him. He hit his 1st 7 land drops in a row. He didn't get a Thundermaw Hellkite. He never really was in this game as I soulbond Paladin to Paladin and go in. Game 3, I get Thalia. She is Pillar of Flamed. Again, the same happens. I end up having Champ soulbonded to Paladin and Arbor Elf soulbonded to another Paladin. Good draw for me. 2-1.
Round 2 vs. Esper Tokens. Game 1, I smash through his tokens wih Selesnya Charm for a bunch and then have more creatures than his blockers next turn. Games 2 and 3 are nearly the same. Me keeping 2 land hands and not drawing nothing until it was too late. Him with 4 land, 1-2 Lingering Souls, 1-2 Intangible Virtue, 1-2 Unsummon, 1 Ultimate Price, and Talrand's Invocation. After shuffling his deck like crazy both games, he drew nearly the same thing. You can probably figure out how this beat me. I made a mistake in the last game after he had cast Lingering Souls. I played Nevermore on Lingering Souls because I thought he would have more. Instead he cast 2 Intangible Virtue and won the turn before I had more than lethal. 1-2.
Round 3 vs. Naya Midrange. This was nearly the deck that won the SCG Open recently. It was a very good list and a deck I considered playing myself. He is stalling the inevitable with Restoration Angels and trying to draw Bonfire presumably. I get him in time before he gets it. Game 2, he lets a turn go by to flip his Huntmaster of the Fells so he could shoot my Silverblade Paladin, but my plan was to Selesnya Charm the Paladin and swing for lethal and that's what I did. 2-0.
Round 4 vs. Jund Midrange/Haste. Game 1, I have dorks and Thalia. I never draw anything else but Gavony Township, but win because he stalls on no Red mana long enough. He miracles Bonfire, but loses to a Selesnya Charm Knight from EoT that I equipped with Rancor on my turn. Game 2, he wins with Olivia Voldaren and Thundermaw Hellkite. Without the Hellkite, I would have been fine because I had Selesnya Charm, but with Hellkite, I lost. Game 3, Thalia come out turn 2. He doesn't see a 3rd land until it was too late and I finally drew a BIG CREATURE - Sublime Archangel. 2-1.
Round 5 vs. Jund Midrange. Game 1, I smash through with the good ole Dork/Smiter/Paladin/Rancor hand. He actually had a good hand, but got overrun. Game 2, he ends up doing 3 Pillar of Flame, 2 Liliana of the Veil, and 1 Dreadbore. I end up only seeing X/1 creatures. He gets a Olivia Voldaren and it goes the distance. Game 3 is nearly the same as game 2. However, we get to a point where I am trying to push lethal, but can't because I keep drawing land and he doesn't. Land count - 11, spells - 7, :(. 1-2.
I'm pretty frustrated at 3-2, especially since my opponents drew so well. I drop immediately and leave.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
He led off with Arbor Elf, into Lotleth Troll, into Predator Ooze. He rancor''d the Troll but I was able to Selesnya Charm it away after he sacrificed a mana dork to it later on. I went Pilgrim, into Smiter, into Huntmaster, into Thragtusk, into Thundermaw, and was able to hold the ground while he just couldn't find an answer to Thundermaw. I eventually finished him off with a Thundermaw aided by Kessig Wolf Run. The only answer to it he had in his deck was ultimate price and he just didn't draw one.
He led off with a turn two Strangleroot Geist which met a Pillar of Flame from myself. I then casted Farseek into Huntmaster, into Thragtusk. I was chunking down his life total until he landed a Predator Ooze which held me up a bit. I landed a Thundermaw but this time it was met quickly with an Ultimate Price. He was at 8 life, myself at 13 due to some hits from the Ooze now having Rancor. I top-decked Sigarda and rode her to victory while chump blocking the Ooze the best I could. I was fairly surprised as to how difficult it was to do anything against the Ooze. After the match he told me that he had copied the list from the TCG Player 50k, and that it had finished in the top 16.
Round Two vs. Bant Control (W: 2-0)
G1:
Not much to say about this game really, he had land and no action. He casted a four mana Jace on turn 5, and used the -2 (to dig for a Supreme Verdict and/or Terminus I assume) and it came up land, land, think twice. I already had a flipped Huntmaster on board along with a Loxodon Smiter, and as I dropped a Cavern, named Dragon, and casted Thundermaw, he scopped up his cards.
sideboarding:
I double mana dorked into a turn 3 Garruk, Primal Hunter which he had no counter for. Turn four I landed a Huntmaster that flipped and then just kept making beasts and held onto everything in my hand. He Supreme Verdicted twice and miracle'd a terminus, and kept dropping one additional threat in addition to Garruk whenever he swept my board and just kept attritioning him with Beasts. I had him at 5 life and he ripped a Detention Sphere, which met a Ray of Revelation at the end of his turn and he picked up his cards when I casted a Resto Angel with him tapped out and a Wolf Run on my side of the board.
Round Three vs. Red Deck Wins (W: 2-1)
G1:
Not much to say really, I won the die roll and turn 2 Smitered into double Thragtusk, into Resto Angel on one of the Thragtusks, he wasn't playing the sledgehammer version with Hellkites so he was just dead.
sideboarding:
He went Stromkirk, into Stromkirk + Cackler. I wasn't able to draw any of my Pillars I boarded in so I quickly fell behind. On turn 3 my Loxodon Smter met a Searing Spear after blocking a Rakdos Cackler. His turn 4 and turn 5 he dropped Hellriders, I tried to stabilize with a Huntmaster on turn 4, but I stalled on land with a Thratusk and Resto Angel in hand. He ended up killing me a few turns later with a Morbid Brimstone Volley which he Reverberated.
G3:
His turn one Noble met a Pillar, as did his turn 2 Ash Zealot. The rest of his hand was burn, as he dispatched my Huntmaster with a Pillar, the Wolf Token with a Pillar, and my Thragtusk with a Searing Spear. He was out of threats though and my Beast token along with a Thundermaw and a Wolf Run finished him off as he flooded out a bit on lands.
Round Four vs. GW Aggro (L: 1-2)
G1:
Not a very eventful game. He played a turn 2 Loxodon Smiter, into a turn 3 Silverblade Pally + Rancor on the Smiter with the help of an Arbor Elf on turn 1, but the swing from his Smiter was met with a Selesnya Charm. I then played a turn 3 Huntmaster, into a turn 4 Thundermaw and he had no answer for the Hellkite.
sideboarding:
I had a really tough time sideboarding in this matchup. I wanted the Pillar of Flames as an answer to Silverblade Paladin, but at the same time I wanted Selesnya Charm because I figured he was on either Wolfir Silverheart, Sublime Archangel, or both, and they are good against Rancor'd targets as is evidenced by game 1. I ended up splitting the difference:
I'm not sure this was correct, and that perhaps I should have shaved some of my crreatures to 3 and ran four of each, but I was afraid of making my deck worse post-board.
G2:
I mulliganed for the first time of the night, I guess the run-goods have to stop at some point. I ended up keeping a 5 card hand of Forest, Clifftop Retreat, Huntmaster, Loxodon Smiter, Cavern of Souls. He kept 7 and went Wolfir Avenger into Silverblade. He Rancor'd the Avenger and my Huntmaster and Smiter both died chump blocking. I stalled on four lands and he ended up pairing up a Wolfir Silverheart with a Thalia and I had no answers.
G3:
He curved out perfectly. Smiter, into Silverblade Pally, into Rancor on the Smiter again. This time I didn't have the Selesnya Charm nor the Pillar for the Smiter. He dropped a Sublime Archangel on turn 5 and I just picked my cards up.
Round Five vs. Four-Color Reanimator (W: 2-0)
G1:
I won the die roll and I turn 2 Smiter'd into a Humtmaster which flipped. He was digging with Mulch and multiple Faithless Lootings for a few turns while chump blocking with a couple of Centaur Healers. I had him at 12, he finally milled an Angel of Serenity along with Unburial Rites, and swept up my board of Smiter, flipped Huntmaster, and Wolf Token, leaving me with just a beast Token from a dead Thragtusk. We traded a few blows and I was down at 15, him at 9. I drew into a Wolf Run, and was holding onto a Thundermaw. I dropped a Loxodon Smiter post combat in addition to my Beast Token after taking him down to 6 with it, hoping to Bait out another Angel and it worked. He attacked with the Angel he already had out taking me down to 10, and casted the second Angel from his hand taking out my Smiter and Token, and putting a Thragtusk from his own Graveyard under it. My Thundermaw came down, tapping the second Angel and I had enough to Wolf run it for 1 and kill him exactly.
I came out strong with a turn 3 Huntmaster, turn 4 Thragtusk, and two Resto Angels after that. He was able to unburial Rites an Angel of Serenity on 2 of my Angels and the Huntmaster to try to stabilize, but I then hardcasted an Angel of my own, sweeping up his Angel and Centaur Healer, and getting back all three of my guys, in addition to a Thragtusk from my graveyard going underneath the Angel. He was stuck on 6 land and I'm not sure if he had another Angel in hand, but he couldn't cast it. He had an Unburial Rites still in the bin but nothing of consequence to use it on. I dropped a Rest in Peace the next turn and he picked his cards up.
Impressions:
I liked the deck, as I normally tend to play Green and White based decks (I had been playing G/W Humans for the three weeks prior to this FNM) I had fooled around with Four-Color Reanimator, Juik Reanimator,and Junk Tokens before this FNM but I found them all pretty underwhelming against aggro.
When I saw this list win SCG, I thought it looked to be pretty solid against everything (and I believe it just top 4'd GP Nagoya as well).
The only issue I had was really was sideboarding against G/W because of the variety of threats they can propose, and a few hiccups with the mana base in terms of casting Thundermaw (which no doubt will be solved when we get Stomping Ground and Sacred Foundry in Gatecrash). Perhaps shaving down on a few slots to get some Borderland Rangers in the mix as I see other Naya lists doing is the way to go for the time being.
As for next week, I'm thinking about playing the Dark Naya list splashing Lingering Souls and Ultimate Price that Glenn Jones played to the top 8 at this weekends SCG. In my testing so far, the mana has actually been a lot better, although it does lack Cavern of Souls.
So I played this list at a Super FNM with a whopping 14 people playing. Yes that was sarcasm. Tonight did not turn out well for the shop. It usually gets 25-30 people in attendance. But turnout was low and some drama between players drove away 4 or 5 before the tournament started. It was just not a good day all around
My record was an abysmal 0-3. I dropped after the 3rd round.
G2- I didn't have the nut draw but close to it. 2 Forests, a Sunpetal Grove, 2 Pilgrims, a Silverheart, and a Silverblade. T1 Forest into Pilgrim. He plays land, pass. T2 Sunpetal into Pilgrim, attack for 1. He plays land, pass. T3 Forest, tap all for Silverheart, unbonded. He plays land, pass. T4 Sunpetal into Silverblade Paladin, bonding with the Silverheart(8/8 Double Strike). He has no answer so I Selesnya Charm the Wolfir to swing for 20 and game.
G3- I started off decent with a T2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. I proceed to take control of the board adding a Loxodon Smiter and a Paladin. He takes the board back dropping an Angel of Serenity stealing the above mentioned cards. I drop a Thragtusk to stay in the game but I fear I misplayed with I tried to Charm the Angel. He played Faith's Shield, something that caught me by surprise. To be honest, I'm not sure why I did that when I had a Thragtusk and Silverheart in hand. I might've pulled that one out had I gone Thrag, Silverheart, Charm instead. But I think I feared the 5/6 flyer too much.
G1- I start off strong with a T2 Smiter. He follows with a Peddler. This was my lack of testing showing through as I follow with a T3 Smiter. Down comes the Staticaster and he promptly pings both my Smiters. He wins when he plays Angel of Glory's Rise bringing back 2 Huntmaster of the Fells and about 8 other cards
G2- Goes pretty much like G1 did. I didn't get much traction to begin with but the Pingers and I have no way to remove them. I didn't draw any O-Rings or anything. He proceeds to Huntmaster his way to victory.
Round 3--Dark Naya?
G1- I don't remember this game very well. But I lost. He ultimately stablized with Huntmasters and Lingering Souls. Virtually every threat I played was Tragic Slip'd or Sever the Bloodline'd. I might've won had I seen the Sever's before Flashing in a Restoration Angel at the end of his turn and flashing in another one at the end of his next turn. He sever'd them and it was game
G2- I get off to a good start with T2 Smiter. It gets in for 4 before being Sever'd. I get up a decent amount of mana and proceed to flash my way to victory, dropping Restoration Angel, a Wolfir Avenger and a Silverblade for the final damage.
G3--Again, I'm off to a decent start with a T2 Strangleroot Geist. I drop a second Geist T3 but he follows with a Huntmaster and Centaur Healers. I get mana flooded and can't follow up my soon-to-be-dead Geists. He drops a second Huntmaster and wins with Kessig Wolf Run
I dropped after that.
My Notes
I don't consider myself a good player at all. So perhaps these observations aren't very keen. But here they are.
1) I think Thalia might be overrated. I dropped her in most of the games I played and she was vastly underwhelming. Perhaps it was the matchups and I should've taken her out but she rarely lasted long on the field and didn't seem to hamper my opponents at all. I think she'll go to the SB for Control MU's
2) Arbor Elf may be completely unnecessary to this deck. I drew one Elf the whole night and my ability to play cards wasn't hampered at all. I got a lot of mileage out of the Pilgrims.
3) Revenge of the Hunted is still a good card. Yes, it can lead to 2 for 1's. But anytime I miracle'd it, I had a shot to win the game. I might've won Round 2 had my opponent not tapped his Staticaster and been forced to block with it.
4) Wolfir Avenger is good. As mentioned above, after a Revenge on a Pilgrim hit my opponent for 7(it was T4 and I didn't have anything else to use), I flashed in an Avenger shortly after. It ate 2 shocks from the Staticaster and I was able to just regen it and keep swinging away. I only lost it after blocking a flipped Huntmaster with it, regenerating it, and then he pinged it again.
5) Silverblade Paladin is good.......but he may not be good enough right now. I probably played him 10 times in 8 games and he met almost instant removal in 6 of them. The two games he stuck I managed to win. As much as I like him and Silverheart, they have zero resiliency.
Anyways, that was my night. I'd appreciate any feedback.
This is just my experience but cards like thalia and silverblade get removed so quickly because of how good they are. I honestly would recommend going with the human aggro route, just because I found as far as g/w aggro goes it was the fastest most consistent deck. I don't think your deck is inconsistent but is much more of a midrangey build, and as far as the midrange goes I just think Selesnya is outclassed by the other midrange decks floating around. Here's the old deck I was running that worked well for me
With that deck I was able to take it 3-1 and 3-2... The games I lost were to turbo fog because of sweepers and no nut draws (can't do much there), Bant control game 3 he miracled a terminus when I would have killed him the next turn, he told me otherwise he had nothing and lost to Naya midrange which bonfired me game 3 when I would have again won the next turn...Sweepers are a part of the game and absolutely destroy this deck...If they didn't these decks would just be stupid good...The deck can grind it out but it's really not meant to...The thing the deck does do very well is consistently be able to win by t4 or t5 which is what makes it so good! Before they can do anything were already swinging for lethal. I don't think silverblade and thalia are the problem infact I think they are essential, but I would cater the deck to them so when thalia puts them a turn back your using that extra turn instead of wasting it. Also if your meta has a lot of removal I might try maindecking faiths shield, that card is amazing!
I played in the SCG Open with GW Aggro. I actually had gone 1-3 in the Standard portion of the Invitational, but decided to try it again.
Round 1 vs. UWR Midrange. Game 1, I do the Silverblade Paladin/Smiter/Rancor thing early on with Avacyn's Pilgrim. He doesn't have the answer. Game 2 is closer as he is hitting me with a Resto Angel. I get out Thragtusk, then Sigarda and eventually overwhelm him. He had 2 turns to draw a Searing Spear or Pillar of Flame and swing with 2 Resto Angels past a Sigarda for 5 damage, but failed to draw it. 2-0.
Round 2 vs. Naya. Game 1, I am about to win when he topdecks a Miracle Bonfire. I lose. I side in Nevermore and some other stuff. Game 2, I crush him when his 1st play is on turn 4. Two Huntmaster is not enough. Game 3, I keep a 1 Forest, 1 Plains, Arbor Elf, and other stuff type hand. I play 2 Loxodon Smiter. He plays 3 consecutive ones and buffs one with a Selesnya Charm to kill mine. He Bonfired my Avacyn's Pilgrim and I drew 3 Arbor Elf. Still I had 2 turns to draw a single WHITE mana to cast Ajani, Caller of the Pride from my hand to fly over for 8 damage from my Smiter. He finishes me off with his 3 Smiter attacking and Kessig Wolf Run on the correct one. 1-2.
Round 3 vs. BR "small" Zombies. I believe he was the winner of the Seattle Open with BR Zombies. Game 1, he gets a pretty quick and nutty hand. I have a chance to stabilize even with turn 2 Knight of Glory, but the 2nd Vampire Aristocrat gets me. Game 2, I have Rhox Faithmender, Thragtusk, Champ, Rancor, and 3 lands in hand. I end up getting the Rancor on the Faithmender and a Smiter. He doesn't really stand a chance. Game 3, I kept a slow hand and he just Gravecrawler/Knight of Glory/Geralf's Messenger/Knight of Glory + Gravecrawler and kills me. After my mulls, I kept a 2 land hand. I conceded because he had a billion creatures on board with me at 4 life. His next card was Vampire Aristocrat! 1-2.
Round 4 vs. Junk Tokens. This is where I thought my low was hit. I mulled to 6, 5, and 6 in these games. Game 1, he gets Sorin. Because I kept a 2 Champ, 4 land hand, I have not too much pressure. I draw 5 lands in a row before I draw something else. Despite his slow hand, 9 lands + 2 Champs doesn't beat anything in the format. Game 2, although I have 5 cards, they're good. I get the Avacyn Pilgrim/Smiter/Silverblade Paladin/Rancor combo and surprisingly, he doesn't have any answer. Game 3 is frustrating. He gets Sorin. Because my hand is SO slow and I am drawing millions of lands, he stabilizes with Thragtusks and Sorin. I think I had 1 Smiter, 2 Thragtusk, and X lands this whole game. 1-2.
Round 5 vs. BR Vampires. Game 1, I get a really nutty hand, trading a Smiter and a big Champ for his 2 Vampire Nighthawk. Then, I play Sigarda and topdeck an Rancor next turn, slamming Paladin for lethal. Game 2, I kept a stupid hand with 3 land and 3 Thragtusk. Poor shuffle. He ends up getting Bloodline Keeper, 2 Vampire Aristocrat, a Vampire Lord, and some tokens from Keeper and hits me for a billion. Game 3, I get a Thragtusk and some Smiters. I get Rancor and he has a slow hand that just does removal until Sigarda hits. 2-1.
Round 6 vs. Naya. Game 1 after a mull to 5, this kid crushes me, doing Bonfire after I keep a 4 land hand. My 1st 4 draws were lands until I hit a Sigarda. Game 2 is close. I bluffed Selesnya Charm enough for him not to Kessig Wolf Run for lethal on a Resto Angel and Thragtusk. Game 3, he kept a 2 land hand and only drew 1 Cavern of Souls this game. I top decked Silverblade Paladin and Sublime Archangel on consecutive turns. 2-1.
Round 7 vs. BR Zombies. Game 1, I drew a pretty amazing hand that hit for a bunch while he only played a few 2/X Zombies. He lacked Red, so couldn't burn my creatures. Game 2, I got out a Rhox Faithmender on turn 4 at 12 life. I crept back by doing Rancor on it, then top decked Silverblade Paladin while he lacked removal. Then I kept drawing heat while still on 4 land (I had Thragtusk in hand too). By the time he removed the Silverblade Paladin with Searing Spear and drew Aristocrat, I was over 20 life. 2-0.
Round 8 vs. Naya w/ Blue. Game 1, I just crush him after a Silverblade Paladin and Sublime Archangel are drawn on consecutive turns. I think it caught him by surprise because the damage came really quickly. Game 2, I think all I played was Champ and waited on a 2nd White source to cast a billion cards from my hand. Game 3, I to the Avacyn Pilgrim/Smiter/Smiter combo and play Nevermore, naming Huntmaster of the Fells since he had only 3 mana. He conceded and showed me a hand with Huntmaster and Thragtusk, but no Farseek to accelerate him. 2-1
Round 9 vs. Human Reanimator. This round was pretty heartbreaking. I had started to mull less and draw some decent cards. I had a Selesnya Charm into Silverblade Paladin start, but made a combat error by pumping Gavony Township to leave him at 1 life instead of casting another creature. He topdecked Izzet Staticaster and Unburial Rites off Chronic Flooding for Angel of Glory's Rise. I conceded because I had already made the mistake and he kept getting extra life. Game 2, I keep a 1 land hand on 6. I fail to draw a land for 4 turns when I draw 2 in a row to put me back in it. Despite him casting consecutive Zealous Conscripts, I still nearly win because I top deck Sublime Archangel with a clogged board and swing with Sigarda for 12 damage, knocking him to 3 life. The problem is that after I made the correct blocks the next turn, he flipped Huntmaster for the final 1 damage needed. Pretty embarrassing to lose to a deck that is nearly an auto-win for this deck. 0-2.
Round 10 vs. BR Zombies. Game 1, I draw 2 Champs and 2 Silverblade Paladin, of which 1 he removed. He doesn't stand a chance. Game 2, he just draws the nut hand - see round 3 and although I hit for a lot, multiple Aristocrats get me. Game 3, I just have an amazing hand with Champ, Thalia, Silverblade Paladins, and smash with those. I still had Rhox Faithmender and Thragtusk in hand, although he did fail to see a red mana source until Rakdos Guildgate came on turn 4. 2-0.
I finished 6-4 and really disappointed. Between the Invitational and today, I felt like I was in a nightmare and I'm sorry if I was douchey to any of my opponents (if you happen to read this). I won 1 die roll out of 10 today. :(:rolleyes::( I had a lot of mulls today and should have mulled more often, leaving myself with SLOW hands vs. my opponents' god hands.
I personally don't think that GW Aggro has a good place in the meta. I am going UWR Flash from now on.
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Played Naya again. Changed a couple cards, taking out Sigarda and a Bonfire. Went 1-2-1. Brutal.
Match 1 - GW Aggro
Both games, he started out quick, but no nut draws. I'm able to stall him with Lox until the big boys came out. 2-0.
Match 2 - some GWru build that included Huntmaster, Thrag, Staticaster, Peddler, etc.
Always seemed to be one step ahead of me until Staticaster/Peddler finished me. 0-2.
Match 3 - Junk Frites
He was able to ramp quickly and even when I had Rest in Peace in play, it didn't seem to slow him down too much. He started to hard cast everything. 1-2.
Match 4 - Deadeye Flicker
I couldn't kill him fast enough in game 1 and he managed to build up a huge board presence with Conjurer's Closet, Thrags, Resto, Deadeye. I had probably 10 turns to draw a Bonfire, but nope. As soon as Acidic Slime hit and he got rid of my red sources, I scooped. Game 2, miracles a Bonfire and it was game over. Game 3, timed out. 1-1-1.
For next time, I'll be adding in Garruk for some card draw.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern RGBJund Foiled | x Affinity Foiled | UWR Jeskai Variants Foiled | RGx RG Tron | U Merfolk | WGR Naya Zoo
Match 1 - Rakdos Midrange/Control
This wasn't the normal rakdos decklist I see out there with the thundermaws beating face. Lotta plainswalkers No, this had a lot of creature kill. I got out creatures faster for the most part, though game 2 he pulled off a couple blasphemous acts which in essence Wrathed me. Sided in the Thalias game 2 and the O-Rings to try to get the plainswalkers but never saw them. Game 2 he protected a chandra for too long and beat me down. Game 3 I won quickly by Silverblade + Loxodon + Rancor early. 2-1
Match 2 - GB Zombies
I kept a one land hand game 2, it was ugly. But he outraced me and hit me with some abrupt decays on my Healers and Smiters to clear the board early. He also double rancored. I tried out graffdigger's cage and it wasn't much of a help. 0-2
Match 3 - Selesnya Humans
I outraced him all the way. Just couldn't keep up with thragtusks and resto angels. 2-0
Match 4 - Izzet Control
This deck was far too fast for simple RU. I told him he probably should add in some white to splash some board sweepers. Sided in Thalias. He actually ran delver and I Rancor + Selesnya charmed it for the kill, which was satisfying. 2-0
I'm finding underwhelming in the board:
Graffdigger's Cage
Wolfir Silverheart
Thundering Growth
G1: He gains a bunch of life with Trostani, but Restoration Angels and an Aristocrat gets there. Aristocrat + Kessig Wolf Run vs. Tokens = lolwot.
Sideboard: + 1 Bonfire, 1 Collective Blessing, 1 Silklash Spider. - 2 Falkenrath Aristocrat, 1 Thragtusk.
G2: I miracle'd a bonfire when he was behind and he lost.
Match 2 vs. Bant Control
G1: He took control of the game. I held my hellkite in hand for the longest time, hoping to draw a second one or an aristocrat to close the game but it never happened.
G2: I get my huntmaster and thragtusk online and his smaller dudes cannot win through.
G3: He got stuck on 2 lands and I miracle'd a bonfire, drawing an early concession.
Thoughts
Well, I managed to beat aggro (red), control (bant), and sort of midrange (tokens). I think this deck has the tools to beat everything.
The control matchup is improved tremendously with the hellkites and black splash for slaughter games and rakdos's return. The aggro matchup is weak game 1, but post board should be better when you have access to the fourth bonfire and pillar of flame.
Zombies might be a problem and I'm thinking of bringing the pillar count to 4 in the sideboard.
Overall I'm very happy with this deck and it felt like an improvement over the slower Naya deck with Angel of Serenity where the control and aggro matchup suffered.
I, too, played Dark Naya yesterday with 3 maindeck Unburial Rites as my only black cards in the main 60. I drew against Junk midrange and got destroyed by Omnidoor. Has anyone else played against that deck? I don't think it's winnable.
took my naya to a local FNM tonight. Was nice to bust it out for a real tournament. Usually I run rakdos deck wins, but there were a lot of people getting ready for an SCG IQ, so since I'm going as well, I figured I'd see how the deck stands:
Round 1- Humanimator with peddler/staticaster and huntmasters
Game 1- He durdles, I don't. He never gets the peddler combo out. I got a huntmaster and flipped it a few times flashing resto angel and avenger on his turn and killed off several of his dudes. He angeled all his humans back and pinged off my huntmaster and an angel, then I bonfire for 4 to clear his board and swing with a bunch of wolves.
SB: -2 selesnya charm, -2 garruk, +1 slaughter games, +1 bonfire of the damned, +2 rest in peace
Game 2- I got mana-screwed and got ran over
Game 3- I land a rest in peace and beat face.
1-0
Round 2- GW midrange
Game 1- This round took like 20 min. I got a slow start keeping a hand with 2 tapped lands and a farseek. He lands a turn 2 thalia, slowing down my farseek even more. Got me down to 2 at one point thanks to rancors and gavony township, but I recover on the back of thragtusk, resto angel, a few timely selesny charms, and start looping angel of serenity to eventually take him down.
SB: -1 selesnya charm, +1 bonfire
Game 2: Much faster. he gets a turn 2 smiter and later rancored it, but my turn 3 tusk, into turn 4 miracle bonfire, turn 5 resto angel on thragtusk, turn 6 angel of serenity was way too much for him. never saw silverblade paladin or sigarda from him. Only creatures I saw were pilgrim, thalia, smiter, thragtusk, and resto angel.
2-0
Round 3- UWR tempo
Game 1- This game is over pretty fast. He gets a restoration angel out equipped with runechanter's pike. I'm holding a selesnya charm for it, but for whatever reason I misplayed and decided to play garruk while he was tapped out. His turn he double thoughtscours himself giving his angel enough for lethal.
Game 2: Nothing really fancy, I just got a quick start of farseek into huntmaster into thragtusk with wolf run out and beat him down.
Game 3: I got an early slaughter games naming sphinx's revelation and he just didn't have the gas to keep up after that. Won off the back of a wolf run with a couple of loxodon smiters.
3-0
Thoughts: The black splash for slaughter games seems worth it. Sphinx's revelation is just a tough card to play against. So I like to have the ability to not play against it :p.
Thoughts on wolfir avenger. TBH, this slot is up for grabs between centaur healer and the avenger. Smiter really belongs in the SB in my build and with my play style. The good thing about avenger is he can be such a surprise, so he tends to make my opponents think harder about their plays. He also grinds really well vs GW and the mirror, handling thragtusk profitably and being able to flash in EOT to stop opposing huntmaster activations. There have been a few games where I would have rather had the extra life-gain rather than avenger's uses, but there are just so many more times where he gains me lots of tech and card advantage. Still, I would still probably run the healer over avenger in a meta with a ton of RDW.
I see humanimator/seance/reanimator everywhere. It's at least 2/3 of my meta between 3 different stores. So much so that I'd be inclined to start running a full playset of rest in peace in my sideboard if I didn't think people would realize that its a bad deck BECAUSE REST IN PEACE AND GY HATE EXISTS. It exists in every sideboard. Some decks are even main decking GY hate because of stuff like GB zombies, bant's elixer plan, runechanter's pike, etc. all lean heavily on their graveyard. I dunno. Every week I think people will realize that graveyard-based strategies aren't great as an all-time win condition simply because it's so easy to hate out.
Its not that I hate playing against these decks or think they're unfair or really have any problem with them whatsoever, I just don't get why people run it all the time. Maybe if they have a limited cardpool and they're invested in the deck, but that's not the case with most of the players running this stuff around me. it's also not the case that they simply play it just because it's the most fun for them either. They play it because they think it's the most competitive and well-rounded deck in the meta game. Whatever I guess. It's not really my problem. In fact it makes it easier on me to win when I play against it at every FNM.
I guess the main reason I'm frustrated with this thinking is that I'd like to see my whole play group go far at the IQ coming up, and I don't feel like most of them will have a chance with these graveyard decks, therefore it brings our whole group's chances of making top spots down. Even so, I've said nothing other than that I don't think the deck is good. If that's the deck they want to run then by all means. For all I know they could end up getting lucky and taking it all out of nowhere. I just wanted to rant about it for a little bit. /rant
Really interesting because my local meta has no reanimator/graveyard decks running around.....funny enough people still sideboard GY hate if that at all atests to your rant
Really interesting because my local meta has no reanimator/graveyard decks running around.....funny enough people still sideboard GY hate if that at all atests to your rant
your local meta is smarter than mine i guess.
Ended up going out of town today for a box tournament. Winner got a box of RTR boosters.
Round 1: Some kind of esper spirit deck
Game 1: I mulled to 5 after getting 1 hand with 6 land and an angel of serenity, second with 1 land, and ended up just keeping a hand with a forest and 2 kessig. I got rick-rolled by a turn 2 mindshrieker swinging for 5 turn 3 by milling a resto angel off the top of my deck. Followed it up with favorable winds and lingering souls.
Games 2 and 3 were pretty similar to each other. Overwhelmed him with huntmaster/tusk/resto and then angel of serenity ended the game. I cast bonfire once and never saw the spider, but it was irrelevant.
1-0
Round 2: rakdos deck wins splashing some green for kessig wolf-run. No hellkite or aristocrat.
Game 1: avenger did a good job eating an early zealot. Once I started playing thragtusks he quickly ran out of gas.
Game 2: smiter came out turn 2 and he just couldn't get around it. Never saw a green mana for his kessig.
2-0
Round 3: GB zombies
Game 1: He got me to 2 with early lotleth troll, strangleroot geist, and dreg mangler. I stabilized with thragtusk/resto angel and swept him with angel to take the win.
SB: -1 selesnya charm, +1 bonfire
Game 2: He got stuck on 2 mana and I ran him over. Not the way I like to win, but that's what happens when you don't mulligan a 1-land hand I guess.
3-0
Round 4: UWR tamiyo/jace control
I agreed to draw with him, since I was the only undefeated at this point and I was assured top 4 either way. If I would have beat him then he would have been out of the top 4. I wanted to eat and smoke a cigg anyway.
3-0-1
Top 4
Round 1: UW tamiyo/jace control
Game 1: He bounced and wrathed a few times, but overall he had to spend around 3 cards to deal with one of mine. He tries to stabilize by miracle entreat the angels for 3. I show him angel of serenity about to get played on my turn and he scoops.
Game 2: I got turn 2 smiter and turn 3 huntmaster. He board wipes turn 5 and I play garruk. He stalls, missing land drops. I drop an acidic slime and blink it to put him even further behind. At this point he's stuck on 1 blue and 2 cavern of souls. I drop another huntmaster and finish him with beats + kessig before he can recoup his lands.
Final round: Same UWR guy I drew with before.
At this point It's midnight and I still have a 2 hour drive to get home. Most of this guy's games have gone to time and I just really don't feel like playing that match. We agree to draw again and split the box.
I'd like to get a few games in with the UWR guy next time I go since I generally enjoy a long, grindy match, just not that late when I have a long drive home.
it was nice to play against some different decks. The deck is playing really strong and so far I feel really good going into the SCG IQ
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Big thanks to DarkNightCavalier from heroes of the planes studios for the sig!
Round 3: 2-1 vs. R/B Zombies Armada Wurm plus Restoration Angel.
Round 4: 1-2 vs. R/B Aggro just didn't hit the right cards in game 3.
Took home two boosters. Best outing so far with this deck. Feel confidant that I won't COMPLETELY embarrass myself at GP Atlantic City next week.
It will be my first major tournament. My mindset going in is that if I can win just one match and not beat myself, I will be happy.
Good luck, I was debating which version of GW to run there but so far midrange has been too slow to keep up with RB and other GW aggro decks. Is it just me?
Still experimenting with my Thragtusk/Silverheart mix. I often found myself bringing the third one in from the board, but this tended to be in matchups where I was bringing out Garruk. Also the sideboard probably needs some work (Centaur Healers were kind of a last-minute include and should probably be graveyard hate of some description).
Round 1: Zombies (2-0)
This went fairly well. He had removal for my early creatures, but ran out of gas before I did. Thalia from the board helped hold off the early game, and wound up doing a fair bit of damage paired with a Silverblade.
Round 2: Some mono-white stack of commons (2-0)
Opponent got a bye round 1. This was basically a bye for me.
Round 3: Naya Humans (1-2)
First game, my opponent managed to seal the race with double Selesnya Charm on his Silverbladed creatures during a damage race. Second game I got multiple Smiters, which pushed through a lot of damage and traded profitably with his creatures. Garruk Relentless managed to clear the way for a fatal alpha strike. Third game, he simply curves out with too many Champions of the Parish and by the time I can attempt to stabilize, I'm too far behind to catch up.
Round 4: Jund (2-0)
Game 1 I essentially won due to my opponent thinking a single Rakdos Keyrune does anything useful against Loxodon Smiter. He curved out pretty well, but was slower and always on the back foot. Second game was a bit closer, especially since he managed to sweep my board, but Sigarda overwhelmed him in the long game.
Round 5: Some kind of homebrew mill deck (2-0)
I really don't know what to say about this deck except for the fact that I'm amazed it was 3-1 going into the final round. My opponent spent too much time in the early game durdling and didn't interact with me that much except to counter the odd spell and once to bounce an attacker. Tamiyo slowed me down considerably, but not enough.
So I arrived to my FNM 10 minutes late because I got off late from work. I bought 2 Angel of Serenity and a Sigarda, Host of Herons from the store, then threw this list together from the shell of my G/W Aggro deck that went 0-3 the last time I played. As such I wasn't expecting a good showing. I had no sideboard and no testing.
Round 1- Jund MidrangeW 2-1(1-0)
(This guy placed 8th. We started nearly 20 minutes late and I agreed to concede if the round went to time but it didn't make it that far)
G1- I start off strong with T1 Pilgrim into T2 Smiter. He follows up with a Lotleth Troll which he pumps to 4/3 keeping me in check for a turn. Which actually worked for him because I was somewhat hesitant to be aggressive. He follows up with a Desecration Demon and drops me to 10 life. I topdeck a Selesnya Charm and remove his Demon. He passes the turn and I topdeck a Sigarda. I throw Rancor on Sigarda and begin to beat my way to victory as he drew no answers.
G2- This one was all him. Troll into Demon into Olivia Voldaren. I manage to get Sigarda back out but it was too little, too late.
G3- He starts off strong with double Huntmaster of the Fells but my double Smiters keep him check somewhat. They eventually trade off and he follows up with double Trolls and a Dreg Mangler. I counter with Healer, Thragtusk, Restoration Angel. The game is won when I drop Angel of Serenity taking his creatures and allowing a free strike. On his turn, he Ultimate Price's Serenity but it's too little late as I drop a Silverblade Paladin, pairing with my Resto and Selesnya Charm my Smiter to go over his single Troll.
Round 2- B/R Aggro W 2-0(2-0)
G1- This one was all Sigarda. I drop her T3, Rancor her and start swinging T4. I think he hoped to race me with T1 Rakdos Cackler but he didn't follow up with anything so I'm guessing he kept a bad hand.
G2- This one lasted a bit longer. He leads with T1 Cackler. I follow up with T2 Centaur Healer, which he burns away, but I come right back with another Healer. A third Healer, bounced by Resto, and a Smiter kept me ahead all the way to victory.
Round 3- G/W Aggro W 2-1(3-0)
(One of the best in the store, he's one of the few that plays PTQ's and other large tournaments)
G1- He pounded me with 3 Strangleroot Geist and a Silverblade. I ended up mulling to 5 and keeping a one lander. I failed to draw any lands and he runs me over.
G2- Goes way more in my favor. Smiter, Silverblade, Angel of Serenity to stop his own Smiters. He doesn't draw a Charm and I bash in for victory.
G3- He gets mana flooded hardcore. I don't and a paired Silverblade-Sigarda sent me on to a 3-0 record.
Round 4- B/R Vamps W 2-1(4-0)
(This young lady finished 5th. A fairly impressive feat considering it was her third FNM. Apparently her playgroup destroys her yet none of them finished higher than 8th.)
G1- Garruk Relentless eats her Stromkirk Noble. Garruk makes tokens, I drop Geist Honored Monk at 5/5. She Mutilates my board but also her own. My Healers and Smiters mop up.
G2- Goes way more in her favor. I keep a slow hand but double Healers and Restoration Angel convince me to take a chance. She comes out hard with Noble into Fervor into double [CARD]Vampire
Nighthawk[/CARD]s. and a Stromkirk Captain. I gain some life but she's too far ahead in the creature department.
G3- I draw a fast hand, Pilgrim into T3 Garruk, eating her Noble, and crapping out tokens. I get stalled out on my own beaters but sac a token for Sigarda. She follows with a Nighthawk into Bloodline Keeper. I sac another token for Serenity, capture her board, and swing through with Sigarda for the win
Round 5- Dark American Control W 2-1(5-0)
(This is one of the better players in this store. He finished 6th)
G1- I start off strong with double Healers. He drops Tamiyo, The Moon Sage and taps down a Healer. I draw a second Charm which I kinda sighed at. It saves me though as he drops Niv Mizzet. The Dragon takes a Charm and the other Charm buffs my untapped Healer to knock out Tamiyo. One Sigarda later, and I was on my to a win.
G2- This one went on forever. I drop him to 9 life before I get stone walled when he ultimates Tamiyo. He's able to continually cycle counters and Rakdo's Keyrunes stopping my offense dead. I actually Gavony'd a Healer into a 10/10 and a Smiter into 9/9. But he just kept chumping with Keyrunes and countering anything that gave them trample. He miracles a Terminus then finishes me off with Keyrunes
G3- This match was the fastest one of the night for me. I drop a T2 Healer, then a T3 Paladin, bonding with Healer swinging for 6. He's at 14. He takes 2 for untapped Blood Crypt to leave him at 12. He then activates a Keyrune to block my Silverblade but I Charm the Paladin to put him a 4/4 Double Strike w/ Trample. Paired with the unblocked Healer, they do 13 damage to win the game.
I finished the night winning my first FNM ever with a 5-0(10-4) record. I feel the deck I assembled was well equipped as it could play aggro or midrange. Angel of Serenity and Sigarda were powerhouses. I can attribute half my game victories directly to Serenity clearing the way or Sigarda just not giving a F**k and bashing face. Centaur Healer also was efficient and effective, Smiter was a great wall, and Silverblade made everything deadly. Garruk Relentless, I think, is still valuable for his removal option. There will be changes made and a sideboard constructed. I will post that list in the Garage Thread.
Rest in peace seems a better answer to pike than dedicated artifact removal, and it also turns off snapcaster in that matchup which is relevant.
With all due respect, when a deck fills nearly half the room, I think one loses any right to call it a "rogue" deck.
Yeah - I'm almost thinking about cutting back to 5 mana bugs and going to 24 lands, add another card at the 2 slot.
It's worth testing different combinations of the lower-cost cards. It might be a meta call more than much else. I'll have to get some testing to see what dudes best occupy my 5 vacant slots.
If you're playing midrange, Thrag is a lock - he's literally that good. I'm still not convinced that Thalia is a core card in the deck, but she'll likely be one of the first answers I turn to when I need one. everything else I totally agree on.
I didn't even consider that Rest in Peace shuts off pike until another testing buddy pointed it out today. The issue I have is that if I play RiP before they drop pike, they just wait to remove it and continue as normal. If I play it after pike has landed, it's usually too late to regain control of the game unless I have a ****ton of lifegain waiting to happen.
RiP Deals with the effects of pike, but doesn't actually deal with pike itself. If the enchantment gets blown up then their pike is just as much a threat as it was before. With sundering growth, it's gone period until they can find another pike, if they can.
Currently Playing:
GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG
RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR
RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
Clan Contest 3 Mafia - Mafia Co-MVP
For sure. If it's even 20% of the room you have to take it into account.
I think that the 'Miracle Gro' manabase rules apply here. For every land I add I can cut two mana bugs. I currently run 8 bugs and 22 lands, and am considering 6/23 (or 7/23). I don't think we want to slow our deck down so much by cutting the accelerants too much. There's a world of difference between a T2 Loxodon Smiter and that same smiter on turn 3.
I only have 1 slot for 5 drops, since having too many makes the deck susceptible to clunky draws that I hate.
I thought so too, but I've been seeing much more GW in my area, and let me tell you, Wolfir Silverheart ****s on Thragtusk in the mirror match.
I think that because she's so powerful vs our bad matchups (UW) she's worth making our deck suboptimal vs other decks. Pre-sideboarding for our hard matchups if you will. Because a 2/1 first striker is still pretty good vs creature decks. Who cards if it costs 1G to make her a 4/1 fisrt strike trampler?
Actually, that sounds to me like RiP does everything you need it to in that matchup, particularly since you don't want to oversideboard for them.
This point is well made, having lived the dream of swinging with a 6/4 trample double striking smiter turn 3. I'll keep it at 7/23 personally.
To each his own, I guess. I don't seem to get hands full of 5-drops very often, only running 11 cards that cost more than 3 mana now. Thinking it shouldn't go any higher.
The mirror also has Selesnya Charm which ****s on both, but silverheart moreso. I can see your point, but I'm the only GW player at my local shop so...meh.
Meta Call, I think. UW on its own I don't have too many problems with, as their angles to attack us are kind of limited. It's the addition of green (mostly thragtusk, but selesnya charm as well) that makes bant so difficult. If Bant is huge around your area, thalia main is a good call. If there's lots of red-based aggro like in my local shop, best to keep her on the sidelines.
...That's a fair point, in retrospect. Apologies.
Currently Playing:
GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG
RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR
RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
Clan Contest 3 Mafia - Mafia Co-MVP
What exactly do they blow RiP up with? I'm not even sure the deck plays det spheres against us (they mainly use it in the board control matches from what I've seen, for planeswalkers, relying on more useful instant speed disruption for aggro decks). If they are playing det spheres, ray of revelation is a pretty big blowout in that spot.
idk, packing sundering growth for the one slightly problematic artifact in the format doesn't seem like a great idea to me.
4 Temple Garden
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Clifftop Retreat
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Forest
3 Mountain
2 Kessig Wolf Run
Creatures (24)
4 Restoration Angel
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Thragtusk
3 Thundermaw Hellkite
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Loxodon Smiter
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
4 Bonfire of the Damned
4 Farseek
4 Selesnya Charm
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Rest in Peace
2 Rootborn Defenses
4 Pillar of Flame
2 Zealous Conscripts
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Garruk, Relentless
There were 26 players and I finished 6th, 3-1.
Match 1 - Junk Frites
I just couldn't get any momentum going. Any creature I cast was taken care of (Sever the Bloodline and Angel of Serenity) and him getting 3 Thragtusks out really hurt me. 0-2.
Match 2 - Jund Midrange
He took game 1 handily. Game 2 things started to change. I got better draws and Sigarda, Host of Herons came in big time against Liliana of the Veil. Game 3 was a grind and Primal Hunter gave me a huge card draw. I eventually Kessig'd him. 2-1.
Match 3 - RDW
Took a couple of attacks for the first couple of turns and then it was over for him. 2-0.
Match 4 - GW Midrange
Gained a lot of life in the 2 games, but I was able to eventually get a huge board presence and just overwhelm him with my better creatures. 2-0.
Some notes.
1. I was hoping to put in Angel of Serenity in the sideboard, but the cards didn't arrive in time. It would've been nice in the first game to lock down some of his guys.
2. Bonfire sucked when I had it in my hand. Miracle'ing it was good, but not so good otherwise.
3. In all my games, I only had 1 game where I had trouble with the mana base. Works well for now.
Legacy GElves | UMerfolk
Won against Frites, Fight Club, and a Midrange-y deck that I hit nut-draws on two games in a row. Got up past 60 life in two different games.
Had a close matchup against a Junk Midrange variant (he won off a top-decked Sorin pushing through his last point of damage in game 3) I ****ed up pretty badly too by not boarding in the set of Centaur Healer when I KNEW we were extremely close-matched for speed.
Second round of the night, I ended up against Frites. In both of his wins, he managed to have all 4 Angel of Serenity on-hand, 2 on board, 2 under them. I boarded in my copies of Rest in Peace, but I think I need to pick up some Nevermore for the board as well. I also REALLY need to finish the set of Thragtusks.
Modern:
Bant Eldrazi
Merfolk
Abzan Company
EDH:
Mono-Green Omnath
Mono-White Odric Soup
Mono-Blue Muzzio
Mono-Red Feldon
Round 1 vs. Mono Red. Great hand for him, great curve, he beats me easily while my 2 land hand doesn't draw a land until the turn before lethal. Game 2 was really ugly for him. He hit his 1st 7 land drops in a row. He didn't get a Thundermaw Hellkite. He never really was in this game as I soulbond Paladin to Paladin and go in. Game 3, I get Thalia. She is Pillar of Flamed. Again, the same happens. I end up having Champ soulbonded to Paladin and Arbor Elf soulbonded to another Paladin. Good draw for me. 2-1.
Round 2 vs. Esper Tokens. Game 1, I smash through his tokens wih Selesnya Charm for a bunch and then have more creatures than his blockers next turn. Games 2 and 3 are nearly the same. Me keeping 2 land hands and not drawing nothing until it was too late. Him with 4 land, 1-2 Lingering Souls, 1-2 Intangible Virtue, 1-2 Unsummon, 1 Ultimate Price, and Talrand's Invocation. After shuffling his deck like crazy both games, he drew nearly the same thing. You can probably figure out how this beat me. I made a mistake in the last game after he had cast Lingering Souls. I played Nevermore on Lingering Souls because I thought he would have more. Instead he cast 2 Intangible Virtue and won the turn before I had more than lethal. 1-2.
Round 3 vs. Naya Midrange. This was nearly the deck that won the SCG Open recently. It was a very good list and a deck I considered playing myself. He is stalling the inevitable with Restoration Angels and trying to draw Bonfire presumably. I get him in time before he gets it. Game 2, he lets a turn go by to flip his Huntmaster of the Fells so he could shoot my Silverblade Paladin, but my plan was to Selesnya Charm the Paladin and swing for lethal and that's what I did. 2-0.
Round 4 vs. Jund Midrange/Haste. Game 1, I have dorks and Thalia. I never draw anything else but Gavony Township, but win because he stalls on no Red mana long enough. He miracles Bonfire, but loses to a Selesnya Charm Knight from EoT that I equipped with Rancor on my turn. Game 2, he wins with Olivia Voldaren and Thundermaw Hellkite. Without the Hellkite, I would have been fine because I had Selesnya Charm, but with Hellkite, I lost. Game 3, Thalia come out turn 2. He doesn't see a 3rd land until it was too late and I finally drew a BIG CREATURE - Sublime Archangel. 2-1.
Round 5 vs. Jund Midrange. Game 1, I smash through with the good ole Dork/Smiter/Paladin/Rancor hand. He actually had a good hand, but got overrun. Game 2, he ends up doing 3 Pillar of Flame, 2 Liliana of the Veil, and 1 Dreadbore. I end up only seeing X/1 creatures. He gets a Olivia Voldaren and it goes the distance. Game 3 is nearly the same as game 2. However, we get to a point where I am trying to push lethal, but can't because I keep drawing land and he doesn't. Land count - 11, spells - 7, :(. 1-2.
I'm pretty frustrated at 3-2, especially since my opponents drew so well. I drop immediately and leave.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)4 Temple Garden
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Clifftop Retreat
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Forest
3 Mountain
2 Kessig Wolf Run
Creatures (24)
4 Restoration Angel
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Thragtusk
4 Thundermaw Hellkite
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Loxodon Smiter
4 Bonfire of the Damned
4 Farseek
4 Selesnya Charm
2 Angel of Serenity
2 Rest in Peace
1 Ray of Revelation
4 Pillar of Flame
2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
2 Garruk, Relentless
Round One vs. Golgari Aggro (W: 2-0)
G1:
He led off with Arbor Elf, into Lotleth Troll, into Predator Ooze. He rancor''d the Troll but I was able to Selesnya Charm it away after he sacrificed a mana dork to it later on. I went Pilgrim, into Smiter, into Huntmaster, into Thragtusk, into Thundermaw, and was able to hold the ground while he just couldn't find an answer to Thundermaw. I eventually finished him off with a Thundermaw aided by Kessig Wolf Run. The only answer to it he had in his deck was ultimate price and he just didn't draw one.
sideboarding:
-4 Selesnya Charm
+4 Pillar of Flame
-1 Huntmaster of the Fells
-1 Bonfire of the Damned
+2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
G2:
He led off with a turn two Strangleroot Geist which met a Pillar of Flame from myself. I then casted Farseek into Huntmaster, into Thragtusk. I was chunking down his life total until he landed a Predator Ooze which held me up a bit. I landed a Thundermaw but this time it was met quickly with an Ultimate Price. He was at 8 life, myself at 13 due to some hits from the Ooze now having Rancor. I top-decked Sigarda and rode her to victory while chump blocking the Ooze the best I could. I was fairly surprised as to how difficult it was to do anything against the Ooze. After the match he told me that he had copied the list from the TCG Player 50k, and that it had finished in the top 16.
Round Two vs. Bant Control (W: 2-0)
G1:
Not much to say about this game really, he had land and no action. He casted a four mana Jace on turn 5, and used the -2 (to dig for a Supreme Verdict and/or Terminus I assume) and it came up land, land, think twice. I already had a flipped Huntmaster on board along with a Loxodon Smiter, and as I dropped a Cavern, named Dragon, and casted Thundermaw, he scopped up his cards.
sideboarding:
-4 Selesnya Charm
+2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
+2 Garruk Relentless
-2 Bonfire of the Damned
+1 Ray of Revelation
+1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
G2:
I double mana dorked into a turn 3 Garruk, Primal Hunter which he had no counter for. Turn four I landed a Huntmaster that flipped and then just kept making beasts and held onto everything in my hand. He Supreme Verdicted twice and miracle'd a terminus, and kept dropping one additional threat in addition to Garruk whenever he swept my board and just kept attritioning him with Beasts. I had him at 5 life and he ripped a Detention Sphere, which met a Ray of Revelation at the end of his turn and he picked up his cards when I casted a Resto Angel with him tapped out and a Wolf Run on my side of the board.
Round Three vs. Red Deck Wins (W: 2-1)
G1:
Not much to say really, I won the die roll and turn 2 Smitered into double Thragtusk, into Resto Angel on one of the Thragtusks, he wasn't playing the sledgehammer version with Hellkites so he was just dead.
sideboarding:
-4 Selesnya Charm
+4 Pillar of Flame
G2:
He went Stromkirk, into Stromkirk + Cackler. I wasn't able to draw any of my Pillars I boarded in so I quickly fell behind. On turn 3 my Loxodon Smter met a Searing Spear after blocking a Rakdos Cackler. His turn 4 and turn 5 he dropped Hellriders, I tried to stabilize with a Huntmaster on turn 4, but I stalled on land with a Thratusk and Resto Angel in hand. He ended up killing me a few turns later with a Morbid Brimstone Volley which he Reverberated.
G3:
His turn one Noble met a Pillar, as did his turn 2 Ash Zealot. The rest of his hand was burn, as he dispatched my Huntmaster with a Pillar, the Wolf Token with a Pillar, and my Thragtusk with a Searing Spear. He was out of threats though and my Beast token along with a Thundermaw and a Wolf Run finished him off as he flooded out a bit on lands.
Round Four vs. GW Aggro (L: 1-2)
G1:
Not a very eventful game. He played a turn 2 Loxodon Smiter, into a turn 3 Silverblade Pally + Rancor on the Smiter with the help of an Arbor Elf on turn 1, but the swing from his Smiter was met with a Selesnya Charm. I then played a turn 3 Huntmaster, into a turn 4 Thundermaw and he had no answer for the Hellkite.
sideboarding:
I had a really tough time sideboarding in this matchup. I wanted the Pillar of Flames as an answer to Silverblade Paladin, but at the same time I wanted Selesnya Charm because I figured he was on either Wolfir Silverheart, Sublime Archangel, or both, and they are good against Rancor'd targets as is evidenced by game 1. I ended up splitting the difference:
-2 Selesnya Charm
+2 Pillar of Flame
I'm not sure this was correct, and that perhaps I should have shaved some of my crreatures to 3 and ran four of each, but I was afraid of making my deck worse post-board.
G2:
I mulliganed for the first time of the night, I guess the run-goods have to stop at some point. I ended up keeping a 5 card hand of Forest, Clifftop Retreat, Huntmaster, Loxodon Smiter, Cavern of Souls. He kept 7 and went Wolfir Avenger into Silverblade. He Rancor'd the Avenger and my Huntmaster and Smiter both died chump blocking. I stalled on four lands and he ended up pairing up a Wolfir Silverheart with a Thalia and I had no answers.
G3:
He curved out perfectly. Smiter, into Silverblade Pally, into Rancor on the Smiter again. This time I didn't have the Selesnya Charm nor the Pillar for the Smiter. He dropped a Sublime Archangel on turn 5 and I just picked my cards up.
Round Five vs. Four-Color Reanimator (W: 2-0)
G1:
I won the die roll and I turn 2 Smiter'd into a Humtmaster which flipped. He was digging with Mulch and multiple Faithless Lootings for a few turns while chump blocking with a couple of Centaur Healers. I had him at 12, he finally milled an Angel of Serenity along with Unburial Rites, and swept up my board of Smiter, flipped Huntmaster, and Wolf Token, leaving me with just a beast Token from a dead Thragtusk. We traded a few blows and I was down at 15, him at 9. I drew into a Wolf Run, and was holding onto a Thundermaw. I dropped a Loxodon Smiter post combat in addition to my Beast Token after taking him down to 6 with it, hoping to Bait out another Angel and it worked. He attacked with the Angel he already had out taking me down to 10, and casted the second Angel from his hand taking out my Smiter and Token, and putting a Thragtusk from his own Graveyard under it. My Thundermaw came down, tapping the second Angel and I had enough to Wolf run it for 1 and kill him exactly.
sideboarding:
-1 Thragtusk
-1 Huntmaster of the Fells
-1 Loxodon Smiter
-1 Bonfire of the Damned
+2 Rest in Peace
+2 Angel of Serenity
G2:
I came out strong with a turn 3 Huntmaster, turn 4 Thragtusk, and two Resto Angels after that. He was able to unburial Rites an Angel of Serenity on 2 of my Angels and the Huntmaster to try to stabilize, but I then hardcasted an Angel of my own, sweeping up his Angel and Centaur Healer, and getting back all three of my guys, in addition to a Thragtusk from my graveyard going underneath the Angel. He was stuck on 6 land and I'm not sure if he had another Angel in hand, but he couldn't cast it. He had an Unburial Rites still in the bin but nothing of consequence to use it on. I dropped a Rest in Peace the next turn and he picked his cards up.
Impressions:
I liked the deck, as I normally tend to play Green and White based decks (I had been playing G/W Humans for the three weeks prior to this FNM) I had fooled around with Four-Color Reanimator, Juik Reanimator,and Junk Tokens before this FNM but I found them all pretty underwhelming against aggro.
When I saw this list win SCG, I thought it looked to be pretty solid against everything (and I believe it just top 4'd GP Nagoya as well).
The only issue I had was really was sideboarding against G/W because of the variety of threats they can propose, and a few hiccups with the mana base in terms of casting Thundermaw (which no doubt will be solved when we get Stomping Ground and Sacred Foundry in Gatecrash). Perhaps shaving down on a few slots to get some Borderland Rangers in the mix as I see other Naya lists doing is the way to go for the time being.
As for next week, I'm thinking about playing the Dark Naya list splashing Lingering Souls and Ultimate Price that Glenn Jones played to the top 8 at this weekends SCG. In my testing so far, the mana has actually been a lot better, although it does lack Cavern of Souls.
Lands
8 Forest
2 Gavony Township
5 Plains
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Temple Garden
Creatures
4 Arbor Elf
3 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Restoration Angel
4 Silverblade Paladin
3 Strangleroot Geist
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Wolfir Silverheart
Sorceries
2 Revenge of the Hunted
Enchantments
4 Rancor
3 Centaur Healer
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Ray of Revelation
2 Rest in Peace
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
3 Thragtusk
So I played this list at a Super FNM with a whopping 14 people playing. Yes that was sarcasm. Tonight did not turn out well for the shop. It usually gets 25-30 people in attendance. But turnout was low and some drama between players drove away 4 or 5 before the tournament started. It was just not a good day all around
My record was an abysmal 0-3. I dropped after the 3rd round.
Round 1--Junk Reanimator
G1-Went back and forth. He led with a T2 Lotleth Troll, then discarded two Wolfir Silverhearts and something else to boost it to 5/4. I started off decently with an Avacyn's Pilgrim into Loxodon Smiter into Silverblade Paladin. He promptly Ultimate Price'd it. The game was decided when he flashed back an Unburial Rites, bringing back one of the Silverhearts and bonding it to the Troll swinging for lethal.
G2- I didn't have the nut draw but close to it. 2 Forests, a Sunpetal Grove, 2 Pilgrims, a Silverheart, and a Silverblade. T1 Forest into Pilgrim. He plays land, pass. T2 Sunpetal into Pilgrim, attack for 1. He plays land, pass. T3 Forest, tap all for Silverheart, unbonded. He plays land, pass. T4 Sunpetal into Silverblade Paladin, bonding with the Silverheart(8/8 Double Strike). He has no answer so I Selesnya Charm the Wolfir to swing for 20 and game.
G3- I started off decent with a T2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. I proceed to take control of the board adding a Loxodon Smiter and a Paladin. He takes the board back dropping an Angel of Serenity stealing the above mentioned cards. I drop a Thragtusk to stay in the game but I fear I misplayed with I tried to Charm the Angel. He played Faith's Shield, something that caught me by surprise. To be honest, I'm not sure why I did that when I had a Thragtusk and Silverheart in hand. I might've pulled that one out had I gone Thrag, Silverheart, Charm instead. But I think I feared the 5/6 flyer too much.
Round 2--That janky Izzet Staticaster+Nightshade Peddler deck
G1- I start off strong with a T2 Smiter. He follows with a Peddler. This was my lack of testing showing through as I follow with a T3 Smiter. Down comes the Staticaster and he promptly pings both my Smiters. He wins when he plays Angel of Glory's Rise bringing back 2 Huntmaster of the Fells and about 8 other cards
G2- Goes pretty much like G1 did. I didn't get much traction to begin with but the Pingers and I have no way to remove them. I didn't draw any O-Rings or anything. He proceeds to Huntmaster his way to victory.
Round 3--Dark Naya?
G1- I don't remember this game very well. But I lost. He ultimately stablized with Huntmasters and Lingering Souls. Virtually every threat I played was Tragic Slip'd or Sever the Bloodline'd. I might've won had I seen the Sever's before Flashing in a Restoration Angel at the end of his turn and flashing in another one at the end of his next turn. He sever'd them and it was game
G2- I get off to a good start with T2 Smiter. It gets in for 4 before being Sever'd. I get up a decent amount of mana and proceed to flash my way to victory, dropping Restoration Angel, a Wolfir Avenger and a Silverblade for the final damage.
G3--Again, I'm off to a decent start with a T2 Strangleroot Geist. I drop a second Geist T3 but he follows with a Huntmaster and Centaur Healers. I get mana flooded and can't follow up my soon-to-be-dead Geists. He drops a second Huntmaster and wins with Kessig Wolf Run
I dropped after that.
My Notes
I don't consider myself a good player at all. So perhaps these observations aren't very keen. But here they are.
1) I think Thalia might be overrated. I dropped her in most of the games I played and she was vastly underwhelming. Perhaps it was the matchups and I should've taken her out but she rarely lasted long on the field and didn't seem to hamper my opponents at all. I think she'll go to the SB for Control MU's
2) Arbor Elf may be completely unnecessary to this deck. I drew one Elf the whole night and my ability to play cards wasn't hampered at all. I got a lot of mileage out of the Pilgrims.
3) Revenge of the Hunted is still a good card. Yes, it can lead to 2 for 1's. But anytime I miracle'd it, I had a shot to win the game. I might've won Round 2 had my opponent not tapped his Staticaster and been forced to block with it.
4) Wolfir Avenger is good. As mentioned above, after a Revenge on a Pilgrim hit my opponent for 7(it was T4 and I didn't have anything else to use), I flashed in an Avenger shortly after. It ate 2 shocks from the Staticaster and I was able to just regen it and keep swinging away. I only lost it after blocking a flipped Huntmaster with it, regenerating it, and then he pinged it again.
5) Silverblade Paladin is good.......but he may not be good enough right now. I probably played him 10 times in 8 games and he met almost instant removal in 6 of them. The two games he stuck I managed to win. As much as I like him and Silverheart, they have zero resiliency.
Anyways, that was my night. I'd appreciate any feedback.
How'd you guys do?
4 champion of the parish
4 avacyns pilgrim
4 mayor of avabruck
4 knight of glory
3 thalia guardian of thraben
3 loxodon smiter
4 silverblade paladin
3 restoration angel
2 sublime archangel
1 garruk, relentless
4 cavern of souls
4 temple garden
4 sunpetal grove
4 forest
6 plains
2 gavony township
With that deck I was able to take it 3-1 and 3-2... The games I lost were to turbo fog because of sweepers and no nut draws (can't do much there), Bant control game 3 he miracled a terminus when I would have killed him the next turn, he told me otherwise he had nothing and lost to Naya midrange which bonfired me game 3 when I would have again won the next turn...Sweepers are a part of the game and absolutely destroy this deck...If they didn't these decks would just be stupid good...The deck can grind it out but it's really not meant to...The thing the deck does do very well is consistently be able to win by t4 or t5 which is what makes it so good! Before they can do anything were already swinging for lethal. I don't think silverblade and thalia are the problem infact I think they are essential, but I would cater the deck to them so when thalia puts them a turn back your using that extra turn instead of wasting it. Also if your meta has a lot of removal I might try maindecking faiths shield, that card is amazing!
Round 1 vs. UWR Midrange. Game 1, I do the Silverblade Paladin/Smiter/Rancor thing early on with Avacyn's Pilgrim. He doesn't have the answer. Game 2 is closer as he is hitting me with a Resto Angel. I get out Thragtusk, then Sigarda and eventually overwhelm him. He had 2 turns to draw a Searing Spear or Pillar of Flame and swing with 2 Resto Angels past a Sigarda for 5 damage, but failed to draw it. 2-0.
Round 2 vs. Naya. Game 1, I am about to win when he topdecks a Miracle Bonfire. I lose. I side in Nevermore and some other stuff. Game 2, I crush him when his 1st play is on turn 4. Two Huntmaster is not enough. Game 3, I keep a 1 Forest, 1 Plains, Arbor Elf, and other stuff type hand. I play 2 Loxodon Smiter. He plays 3 consecutive ones and buffs one with a Selesnya Charm to kill mine. He Bonfired my Avacyn's Pilgrim and I drew 3 Arbor Elf. Still I had 2 turns to draw a single WHITE mana to cast Ajani, Caller of the Pride from my hand to fly over for 8 damage from my Smiter. He finishes me off with his 3 Smiter attacking and Kessig Wolf Run on the correct one. 1-2.
Round 3 vs. BR "small" Zombies. I believe he was the winner of the Seattle Open with BR Zombies. Game 1, he gets a pretty quick and nutty hand. I have a chance to stabilize even with turn 2 Knight of Glory, but the 2nd Vampire Aristocrat gets me. Game 2, I have Rhox Faithmender, Thragtusk, Champ, Rancor, and 3 lands in hand. I end up getting the Rancor on the Faithmender and a Smiter. He doesn't really stand a chance. Game 3, I kept a slow hand and he just Gravecrawler/Knight of Glory/Geralf's Messenger/Knight of Glory + Gravecrawler and kills me. After my mulls, I kept a 2 land hand. I conceded because he had a billion creatures on board with me at 4 life. His next card was Vampire Aristocrat! 1-2.
Round 4 vs. Junk Tokens. This is where I thought my low was hit. I mulled to 6, 5, and 6 in these games. Game 1, he gets Sorin. Because I kept a 2 Champ, 4 land hand, I have not too much pressure. I draw 5 lands in a row before I draw something else. Despite his slow hand, 9 lands + 2 Champs doesn't beat anything in the format. Game 2, although I have 5 cards, they're good. I get the Avacyn Pilgrim/Smiter/Silverblade Paladin/Rancor combo and surprisingly, he doesn't have any answer. Game 3 is frustrating. He gets Sorin. Because my hand is SO slow and I am drawing millions of lands, he stabilizes with Thragtusks and Sorin. I think I had 1 Smiter, 2 Thragtusk, and X lands this whole game. 1-2.
Round 5 vs. BR Vampires. Game 1, I get a really nutty hand, trading a Smiter and a big Champ for his 2 Vampire Nighthawk. Then, I play Sigarda and topdeck an Rancor next turn, slamming Paladin for lethal. Game 2, I kept a stupid hand with 3 land and 3 Thragtusk. Poor shuffle. He ends up getting Bloodline Keeper, 2 Vampire Aristocrat, a Vampire Lord, and some tokens from Keeper and hits me for a billion. Game 3, I get a Thragtusk and some Smiters. I get Rancor and he has a slow hand that just does removal until Sigarda hits. 2-1.
Round 6 vs. Naya. Game 1 after a mull to 5, this kid crushes me, doing Bonfire after I keep a 4 land hand. My 1st 4 draws were lands until I hit a Sigarda. Game 2 is close. I bluffed Selesnya Charm enough for him not to Kessig Wolf Run for lethal on a Resto Angel and Thragtusk. Game 3, he kept a 2 land hand and only drew 1 Cavern of Souls this game. I top decked Silverblade Paladin and Sublime Archangel on consecutive turns. 2-1.
Round 7 vs. BR Zombies. Game 1, I drew a pretty amazing hand that hit for a bunch while he only played a few 2/X Zombies. He lacked Red, so couldn't burn my creatures. Game 2, I got out a Rhox Faithmender on turn 4 at 12 life. I crept back by doing Rancor on it, then top decked Silverblade Paladin while he lacked removal. Then I kept drawing heat while still on 4 land (I had Thragtusk in hand too). By the time he removed the Silverblade Paladin with Searing Spear and drew Aristocrat, I was over 20 life. 2-0.
Round 8 vs. Naya w/ Blue. Game 1, I just crush him after a Silverblade Paladin and Sublime Archangel are drawn on consecutive turns. I think it caught him by surprise because the damage came really quickly. Game 2, I think all I played was Champ and waited on a 2nd White source to cast a billion cards from my hand. Game 3, I to the Avacyn Pilgrim/Smiter/Smiter combo and play Nevermore, naming Huntmaster of the Fells since he had only 3 mana. He conceded and showed me a hand with Huntmaster and Thragtusk, but no Farseek to accelerate him. 2-1
Round 9 vs. Human Reanimator. This round was pretty heartbreaking. I had started to mull less and draw some decent cards. I had a Selesnya Charm into Silverblade Paladin start, but made a combat error by pumping Gavony Township to leave him at 1 life instead of casting another creature. He topdecked Izzet Staticaster and Unburial Rites off Chronic Flooding for Angel of Glory's Rise. I conceded because I had already made the mistake and he kept getting extra life. Game 2, I keep a 1 land hand on 6. I fail to draw a land for 4 turns when I draw 2 in a row to put me back in it. Despite him casting consecutive Zealous Conscripts, I still nearly win because I top deck Sublime Archangel with a clogged board and swing with Sigarda for 12 damage, knocking him to 3 life. The problem is that after I made the correct blocks the next turn, he flipped Huntmaster for the final 1 damage needed. Pretty embarrassing to lose to a deck that is nearly an auto-win for this deck. 0-2.
Round 10 vs. BR Zombies. Game 1, I draw 2 Champs and 2 Silverblade Paladin, of which 1 he removed. He doesn't stand a chance. Game 2, he just draws the nut hand - see round 3 and although I hit for a lot, multiple Aristocrats get me. Game 3, I just have an amazing hand with Champ, Thalia, Silverblade Paladins, and smash with those. I still had Rhox Faithmender and Thragtusk in hand, although he did fail to see a red mana source until Rakdos Guildgate came on turn 4. 2-0.
I finished 6-4 and really disappointed. Between the Invitational and today, I felt like I was in a nightmare and I'm sorry if I was douchey to any of my opponents (if you happen to read this). I won 1 die roll out of 10 today. :(:rolleyes::( I had a lot of mulls today and should have mulled more often, leaving myself with SLOW hands vs. my opponents' god hands.
I personally don't think that GW Aggro has a good place in the meta. I am going UWR Flash from now on.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)Match 1 - GW Aggro
Both games, he started out quick, but no nut draws. I'm able to stall him with Lox until the big boys came out. 2-0.
Match 2 - some GWru build that included Huntmaster, Thrag, Staticaster, Peddler, etc.
Always seemed to be one step ahead of me until Staticaster/Peddler finished me. 0-2.
Match 3 - Junk Frites
He was able to ramp quickly and even when I had Rest in Peace in play, it didn't seem to slow him down too much. He started to hard cast everything. 1-2.
Match 4 - Deadeye Flicker
I couldn't kill him fast enough in game 1 and he managed to build up a huge board presence with Conjurer's Closet, Thrags, Resto, Deadeye. I had probably 10 turns to draw a Bonfire, but nope. As soon as Acidic Slime hit and he got rid of my red sources, I scooped. Game 2, miracles a Bonfire and it was game over. Game 3, timed out. 1-1-1.
For next time, I'll be adding in Garruk for some card draw.
Legacy GElves | UMerfolk
4 Temple Garden
4 Sunpetal Grove
1 Gavony Township
5 Plains
9 Forest
Creatures (28)
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
3 Arbor Elf
2 Strangleroot Geist
3 Centaur Healer
3 Silverblade Paladin
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk
2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
4 Selesnya Charm
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Faith's Shield
2 Wolfir Silverheart
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Graffdigger's Cage
2 Rest in Peace
2 Thundering Growth
Match 1 - Rakdos Midrange/Control
This wasn't the normal rakdos decklist I see out there with the thundermaws beating face. Lotta plainswalkers No, this had a lot of creature kill. I got out creatures faster for the most part, though game 2 he pulled off a couple blasphemous acts which in essence Wrathed me. Sided in the Thalias game 2 and the O-Rings to try to get the plainswalkers but never saw them. Game 2 he protected a chandra for too long and beat me down. Game 3 I won quickly by Silverblade + Loxodon + Rancor early. 2-1
Match 2 - GB Zombies
I kept a one land hand game 2, it was ugly. But he outraced me and hit me with some abrupt decays on my Healers and Smiters to clear the board early. He also double rancored. I tried out graffdigger's cage and it wasn't much of a help. 0-2
Match 3 - Selesnya Humans
I outraced him all the way. Just couldn't keep up with thragtusks and resto angels. 2-0
Match 4 - Izzet Control
This deck was far too fast for simple RU. I told him he probably should add in some white to splash some board sweepers. Sided in Thalias. He actually ran delver and I Rancor + Selesnya charmed it for the kill, which was satisfying. 2-0
I'm finding underwhelming in the board:
Graffdigger's Cage
Wolfir Silverheart
Thundering Growth
In the main, everything's pretty tuned.
Currently Playing:
Standard: Jund Midrange
Modern: Mono-U Faeries, Soul Sisters, Scapeshift
Legacy: Goblins, Dredge, BUG Agent
EDH: Zur, Azusa, Gisela, Hanna
3 Blood Crypt
4 Clifftop Retreat
1 Forest
2 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Mountain
4 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Temple Garden
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Borderland Ranger
2 Falkenrath Aristocrat
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk
4 Thundermaw Hellkite
Spells (10):
3 Bonfire of the Damned
4 Farseek
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Bonfire of the Damned
3 Pillar of Flame
2 Rakdos's Return
3 Rest in Peace
2 Slaughter Games
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Silklash Spider
1 Collective Blessing
Match 1 vs. Junk Tokens
G1: He gains a bunch of life with Trostani, but Restoration Angels and an Aristocrat gets there. Aristocrat + Kessig Wolf Run vs. Tokens = lolwot.
Sideboard: + 1 Bonfire, 1 Collective Blessing, 1 Silklash Spider. - 2 Falkenrath Aristocrat, 1 Thragtusk.
G2: I miracle'd a bonfire when he was behind and he lost.
Match 2 vs. Bant Control
G1: He took control of the game. I held my hellkite in hand for the longest time, hoping to draw a second one or an aristocrat to close the game but it never happened.
Sideboard: + 2 Rakdos's Return, 2 Slaughter Games, 2 Garruk, 1 Collective Blessing. - 4 Huntmasters, 3 Bonfires.
G2: Slaughter Games naming Sphinx's Revelation revealed two of those in hand. He promptly died to hellkite and thragtusk beatdown.
G3: Garruk and Collective Blessing just takes over the game.
Match 3 vs. Mono-red
G1: He curved out into 2 hellriders and I died.
Sideboard: + 3 Pillar of Flame, 1 Bonfire. - 4 Thundermaw Hellkites.
G2: I get my huntmaster and thragtusk online and his smaller dudes cannot win through.
G3: He got stuck on 2 lands and I miracle'd a bonfire, drawing an early concession.
Thoughts
Well, I managed to beat aggro (red), control (bant), and sort of midrange (tokens). I think this deck has the tools to beat everything.
The control matchup is improved tremendously with the hellkites and black splash for slaughter games and rakdos's return. The aggro matchup is weak game 1, but post board should be better when you have access to the fourth bonfire and pillar of flame.
Zombies might be a problem and I'm thinking of bringing the pillar count to 4 in the sideboard.
Overall I'm very happy with this deck and it felt like an improvement over the slower Naya deck with Angel of Serenity where the control and aggro matchup suffered.
Modern: Jund Legacy: RUG Delver EDH: Captain Sisay
Modern: Jund Legacy: RUG Delver EDH: Captain Sisay
4 sunpetal grove
4 rootbound crag
4 cavern of souls
2 forest
1 plains
1 mountain
1 swamp
2 kessig wolf run
4 avacyn's pilgrim
3 wolfir avenger
3 borderland ranger
4 huntmaster of the fells
4 thragtusk
4 restoration angel
3 angel of serenity
4 selesnya charm
2 bonfire of the damned
2 garruk, primal hunter
1 bonfire of the damned
4 loxodon smiter
2 slaughter games
1 acidic slime
2 oblivion ring
2 rest in peace
2 sigarda, host of herons
1 silklash spider
Round 1- Humanimator with peddler/staticaster and huntmasters
Game 1- He durdles, I don't. He never gets the peddler combo out. I got a huntmaster and flipped it a few times flashing resto angel and avenger on his turn and killed off several of his dudes. He angeled all his humans back and pinged off my huntmaster and an angel, then I bonfire for 4 to clear his board and swing with a bunch of wolves.
SB: -2 selesnya charm, -2 garruk, +1 slaughter games, +1 bonfire of the damned, +2 rest in peace
Game 2- I got mana-screwed and got ran over
Game 3- I land a rest in peace and beat face.
1-0
Round 2- GW midrange
Game 1- This round took like 20 min. I got a slow start keeping a hand with 2 tapped lands and a farseek. He lands a turn 2 thalia, slowing down my farseek even more. Got me down to 2 at one point thanks to rancors and gavony township, but I recover on the back of thragtusk, resto angel, a few timely selesny charms, and start looping angel of serenity to eventually take him down.
SB: -1 selesnya charm, +1 bonfire
Game 2: Much faster. he gets a turn 2 smiter and later rancored it, but my turn 3 tusk, into turn 4 miracle bonfire, turn 5 resto angel on thragtusk, turn 6 angel of serenity was way too much for him. never saw silverblade paladin or sigarda from him. Only creatures I saw were pilgrim, thalia, smiter, thragtusk, and resto angel.
2-0
Round 3- UWR tempo
Game 1- This game is over pretty fast. He gets a restoration angel out equipped with runechanter's pike. I'm holding a selesnya charm for it, but for whatever reason I misplayed and decided to play garruk while he was tapped out. His turn he double thoughtscours himself giving his angel enough for lethal.
SB: -2 bonfire, -4 avacyn's pilgrim, -2 wolfir avenger, -2 angel of serenity, +2 slaughter games, +2 rest in peace, +2 sigarda, +4 loxodon smiter
Game 2: Nothing really fancy, I just got a quick start of farseek into huntmaster into thragtusk with wolf run out and beat him down.
Game 3: I got an early slaughter games naming sphinx's revelation and he just didn't have the gas to keep up after that. Won off the back of a wolf run with a couple of loxodon smiters.
3-0
Thoughts: The black splash for slaughter games seems worth it. Sphinx's revelation is just a tough card to play against. So I like to have the ability to not play against it :p.
Thoughts on wolfir avenger. TBH, this slot is up for grabs between centaur healer and the avenger. Smiter really belongs in the SB in my build and with my play style. The good thing about avenger is he can be such a surprise, so he tends to make my opponents think harder about their plays. He also grinds really well vs GW and the mirror, handling thragtusk profitably and being able to flash in EOT to stop opposing huntmaster activations. There have been a few games where I would have rather had the extra life-gain rather than avenger's uses, but there are just so many more times where he gains me lots of tech and card advantage. Still, I would still probably run the healer over avenger in a meta with a ton of RDW.
I see humanimator/seance/reanimator everywhere. It's at least 2/3 of my meta between 3 different stores. So much so that I'd be inclined to start running a full playset of rest in peace in my sideboard if I didn't think people would realize that its a bad deck BECAUSE REST IN PEACE AND GY HATE EXISTS. It exists in every sideboard. Some decks are even main decking GY hate because of stuff like GB zombies, bant's elixer plan, runechanter's pike, etc. all lean heavily on their graveyard. I dunno. Every week I think people will realize that graveyard-based strategies aren't great as an all-time win condition simply because it's so easy to hate out.
Its not that I hate playing against these decks or think they're unfair or really have any problem with them whatsoever, I just don't get why people run it all the time. Maybe if they have a limited cardpool and they're invested in the deck, but that's not the case with most of the players running this stuff around me. it's also not the case that they simply play it just because it's the most fun for them either. They play it because they think it's the most competitive and well-rounded deck in the meta game. Whatever I guess. It's not really my problem. In fact it makes it easier on me to win when I play against it at every FNM.
I guess the main reason I'm frustrated with this thinking is that I'd like to see my whole play group go far at the IQ coming up, and I don't feel like most of them will have a chance with these graveyard decks, therefore it brings our whole group's chances of making top spots down. Even so, I've said nothing other than that I don't think the deck is good. If that's the deck they want to run then by all means. For all I know they could end up getting lucky and taking it all out of nowhere. I just wanted to rant about it for a little bit. /rant
Modern:
Twinning End
Commander:
Mayael the Anema
your local meta is smarter than mine i guess.
Ended up going out of town today for a box tournament. Winner got a box of RTR boosters.
Round 1: Some kind of esper spirit deck
Game 1: I mulled to 5 after getting 1 hand with 6 land and an angel of serenity, second with 1 land, and ended up just keeping a hand with a forest and 2 kessig. I got rick-rolled by a turn 2 mindshrieker swinging for 5 turn 3 by milling a resto angel off the top of my deck. Followed it up with favorable winds and lingering souls.
SB: -1 selesnya charm, -1 garruk, +1 bonfire, +1 silklash spider
Games 2 and 3 were pretty similar to each other. Overwhelmed him with huntmaster/tusk/resto and then angel of serenity ended the game. I cast bonfire once and never saw the spider, but it was irrelevant.
1-0
Round 2: rakdos deck wins splashing some green for kessig wolf-run. No hellkite or aristocrat.
Game 1: avenger did a good job eating an early zealot. Once I started playing thragtusks he quickly ran out of gas.
SB: -3 angel of serenity, -2 garruk, +4 loxodon smiter, +1 bonfire
Game 2: smiter came out turn 2 and he just couldn't get around it. Never saw a green mana for his kessig.
2-0
Round 3: GB zombies
Game 1: He got me to 2 with early lotleth troll, strangleroot geist, and dreg mangler. I stabilized with thragtusk/resto angel and swept him with angel to take the win.
SB: -1 selesnya charm, +1 bonfire
Game 2: He got stuck on 2 mana and I ran him over. Not the way I like to win, but that's what happens when you don't mulligan a 1-land hand I guess.
3-0
Round 4: UWR tamiyo/jace control
I agreed to draw with him, since I was the only undefeated at this point and I was assured top 4 either way. If I would have beat him then he would have been out of the top 4. I wanted to eat and smoke a cigg anyway.
3-0-1
Top 4
Round 1: UW tamiyo/jace control
Game 1: He bounced and wrathed a few times, but overall he had to spend around 3 cards to deal with one of mine. He tries to stabilize by miracle entreat the angels for 3. I show him angel of serenity about to get played on my turn and he scoops.
SB: -3 angel of serenity, -4 selesnya charm, -2 bonfire, +4 loxodon smiter, +1 acidic slime, +2 sigarda, +2 slaughter games
Game 2: I got turn 2 smiter and turn 3 huntmaster. He board wipes turn 5 and I play garruk. He stalls, missing land drops. I drop an acidic slime and blink it to put him even further behind. At this point he's stuck on 1 blue and 2 cavern of souls. I drop another huntmaster and finish him with beats + kessig before he can recoup his lands.
Final round: Same UWR guy I drew with before.
At this point It's midnight and I still have a 2 hour drive to get home. Most of this guy's games have gone to time and I just really don't feel like playing that match. We agree to draw again and split the box.
I'd like to get a few games in with the UWR guy next time I go since I generally enjoy a long, grindy match, just not that late when I have a long drive home.
it was nice to play against some different decks. The deck is playing really strong and so far I feel really good going into the SCG IQ
Modern:
Twinning End
Commander:
Mayael the Anema
3x Arbor Elf
3x Armada Wurm
4x Avacyn's Pilgrim
4x Loxodon Smiter
4x Restoration Angel
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
3x Silverblade Paladin
3x Thragtusk
4x Farseek
3x Rancor
3x Selesnya Charm
Planeswalkers (2)
2x Garruk, Primal Hunter
Lands (23)
11x Forest
5x Plains
4x Sunpetal Grove
3x Temple Garden
4x Oblivion Ring
2x Rest in Peace
3x Rootborn Defenses
1x Sublime Archangel
2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3x Wolfir Silverheart
Round 1: 2-1 vs. R/B Zombies Armada Wurm was heroic.
Round 2: 2-1 vs. Mono-Black Evil Stuff (Demons/Zombies) Silverblade//Silverheart pulled through.
Round 3: 2-1 vs. R/B Zombies Armada Wurm plus Restoration Angel.
Round 4: 1-2 vs. R/B Aggro just didn't hit the right cards in game 3.
Took home two boosters. Best outing so far with this deck. Feel confidant that I won't COMPLETELY embarrass myself at GP Atlantic City next week.
It will be my first major tournament. My mindset going in is that if I can win just one match and not beat myself, I will be happy.
Minion #138
"We are 138!!"
Trade Thread
Promo Count - Lost Count
Good luck, I was debating which version of GW to run there but so far midrange has been too slow to keep up with RB and other GW aggro decks. Is it just me?
8x Forest
6x Plains
4x Temple Garden
4x Sunpetal Grove
2x Gavony Township
Creatures:
4x Arbor Elf
3x Avacyn's Pilgrim
4x Loxodon Smiter
4x Silverblade Paladin
4x Restoration Angel
3x Thragtusk
2x Wolfir Silverheart
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
2x Selesnya Charm
Enchantments:
4x Rancor
2x Oblivion Ring
Planeswalkers:
2x Garruk, Primal Hunter
1x Garruk Relentless
4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2x Oblivion Ring
2x Selesnya Charm
2x Triumph of Ferocity
2x Centaur Healer
2x Rootborn Defenses
1x Wolfir Silverheart
Still experimenting with my Thragtusk/Silverheart mix. I often found myself bringing the third one in from the board, but this tended to be in matchups where I was bringing out Garruk. Also the sideboard probably needs some work (Centaur Healers were kind of a last-minute include and should probably be graveyard hate of some description).
Round 1: Zombies (2-0)
This went fairly well. He had removal for my early creatures, but ran out of gas before I did. Thalia from the board helped hold off the early game, and wound up doing a fair bit of damage paired with a Silverblade.
Round 2: Some mono-white stack of commons (2-0)
Opponent got a bye round 1. This was basically a bye for me.
Round 3: Naya Humans (1-2)
First game, my opponent managed to seal the race with double Selesnya Charm on his Silverbladed creatures during a damage race. Second game I got multiple Smiters, which pushed through a lot of damage and traded profitably with his creatures. Garruk Relentless managed to clear the way for a fatal alpha strike. Third game, he simply curves out with too many Champions of the Parish and by the time I can attempt to stabilize, I'm too far behind to catch up.
Round 4: Jund (2-0)
Game 1 I essentially won due to my opponent thinking a single Rakdos Keyrune does anything useful against Loxodon Smiter. He curved out pretty well, but was slower and always on the back foot. Second game was a bit closer, especially since he managed to sweep my board, but Sigarda overwhelmed him in the long game.
Round 5: Some kind of homebrew mill deck (2-0)
I really don't know what to say about this deck except for the fact that I'm amazed it was 3-1 going into the final round. My opponent spent too much time in the early game durdling and didn't interact with me that much except to counter the odd spell and once to bounce an attacker. Tamiyo slowed me down considerably, but not enough.
I went 5-0 and placed first.
Lands
8 Forest
3 Gavony Township
5 Plains
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Temple Garden
2 Angel of Serenity
3 Arbor Elf
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Centaur Healer
1 Geist-Honored Monk
4 Loxodon Smiter
4 Restoration Angel
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
3 Silverblade Paladin
1 Thragtusk
2 Rancor
2 Triumph of Ferocity
2 Garruk Relentless
Round 1- Jund MidrangeW 2-1(1-0)
(This guy placed 8th. We started nearly 20 minutes late and I agreed to concede if the round went to time but it didn't make it that far)
G1- I start off strong with T1 Pilgrim into T2 Smiter. He follows up with a Lotleth Troll which he pumps to 4/3 keeping me in check for a turn. Which actually worked for him because I was somewhat hesitant to be aggressive. He follows up with a Desecration Demon and drops me to 10 life. I topdeck a Selesnya Charm and remove his Demon. He passes the turn and I topdeck a Sigarda. I throw Rancor on Sigarda and begin to beat my way to victory as he drew no answers.
G2- This one was all him. Troll into Demon into Olivia Voldaren. I manage to get Sigarda back out but it was too little, too late.
G3- He starts off strong with double Huntmaster of the Fells but my double Smiters keep him check somewhat. They eventually trade off and he follows up with double Trolls and a Dreg Mangler. I counter with Healer, Thragtusk, Restoration Angel. The game is won when I drop Angel of Serenity taking his creatures and allowing a free strike. On his turn, he Ultimate Price's Serenity but it's too little late as I drop a Silverblade Paladin, pairing with my Resto and Selesnya Charm my Smiter to go over his single Troll.
Round 2- B/R Aggro W 2-0(2-0)
G1- This one was all Sigarda. I drop her T3, Rancor her and start swinging T4. I think he hoped to race me with T1 Rakdos Cackler but he didn't follow up with anything so I'm guessing he kept a bad hand.
G2- This one lasted a bit longer. He leads with T1 Cackler. I follow up with T2 Centaur Healer, which he burns away, but I come right back with another Healer. A third Healer, bounced by Resto, and a Smiter kept me ahead all the way to victory.
Round 3- G/W Aggro W 2-1(3-0)
(One of the best in the store, he's one of the few that plays PTQ's and other large tournaments)
G1- He pounded me with 3 Strangleroot Geist and a Silverblade. I ended up mulling to 5 and keeping a one lander. I failed to draw any lands and he runs me over.
G2- Goes way more in my favor. Smiter, Silverblade, Angel of Serenity to stop his own Smiters. He doesn't draw a Charm and I bash in for victory.
G3- He gets mana flooded hardcore. I don't and a paired Silverblade-Sigarda sent me on to a 3-0 record.
Round 4- B/R Vamps W 2-1(4-0)
(This young lady finished 5th. A fairly impressive feat considering it was her third FNM. Apparently her playgroup destroys her yet none of them finished higher than 8th.)
G1- Garruk Relentless eats her Stromkirk Noble. Garruk makes tokens, I drop Geist Honored Monk at 5/5. She Mutilates my board but also her own. My Healers and Smiters mop up.
G2- Goes way more in her favor. I keep a slow hand but double Healers and Restoration Angel convince me to take a chance. She comes out hard with Noble into Fervor into double [CARD]Vampire
Nighthawk[/CARD]s. and a Stromkirk Captain. I gain some life but she's too far ahead in the creature department.
G3- I draw a fast hand, Pilgrim into T3 Garruk, eating her Noble, and crapping out tokens. I get stalled out on my own beaters but sac a token for Sigarda. She follows with a Nighthawk into Bloodline Keeper. I sac another token for Serenity, capture her board, and swing through with Sigarda for the win
Round 5- Dark American Control W 2-1(5-0)
(This is one of the better players in this store. He finished 6th)
G1- I start off strong with double Healers. He drops Tamiyo, The Moon Sage and taps down a Healer. I draw a second Charm which I kinda sighed at. It saves me though as he drops Niv Mizzet. The Dragon takes a Charm and the other Charm buffs my untapped Healer to knock out Tamiyo. One Sigarda later, and I was on my to a win.
G2- This one went on forever. I drop him to 9 life before I get stone walled when he ultimates Tamiyo. He's able to continually cycle counters and Rakdo's Keyrunes stopping my offense dead. I actually Gavony'd a Healer into a 10/10 and a Smiter into 9/9. But he just kept chumping with Keyrunes and countering anything that gave them trample. He miracles a Terminus then finishes me off with Keyrunes
G3- This match was the fastest one of the night for me. I drop a T2 Healer, then a T3 Paladin, bonding with Healer swinging for 6. He's at 14. He takes 2 for untapped Blood Crypt to leave him at 12. He then activates a Keyrune to block my Silverblade but I Charm the Paladin to put him a 4/4 Double Strike w/ Trample. Paired with the unblocked Healer, they do 13 damage to win the game.
I finished the night winning my first FNM ever with a 5-0(10-4) record. I feel the deck I assembled was well equipped as it could play aggro or midrange. Angel of Serenity and Sigarda were powerhouses. I can attribute half my game victories directly to Serenity clearing the way or Sigarda just not giving a F**k and bashing face. Centaur Healer also was efficient and effective, Smiter was a great wall, and Silverblade made everything deadly. Garruk Relentless, I think, is still valuable for his removal option. There will be changes made and a sideboard constructed. I will post that list in the Garage Thread.