hi everyone, I really need "basic sideboard plans" (danguard//tempo list) against the current meta tier decks. Specifically what Splinter Twin take out when we face Tron, Jund , Affiniy, Pod, Uwr and mirrors?! I'm new to this archetipe, but I think that if an expert ST player can explain this important part, most of us will be very grateful
Here's my sideboard, I run the tempo version of the deck.
Jund/Tron/UWR have non-basic land problems. So Blood moon is great, board out double-triple blue mana symbols.
Affinity is quick, but can be handled by Engineered Explosives on 0 or 1, They also crumple to Ancient Grudge. Board out Counter Magic, exept Izzet Charms and Cryptic.
Pod relies on... yup, pod. Ancient Grudge is good. Ok to board out Dispel. Keep in mind you can tap pod down during their upkeep with pestermite.
Soul Sisters autofalls to us if we board wipe them before we Combo. Board in Engineered Explosives.
Enginereed Explosives is good against a Tarmogoyf as is Relic of Progenitus.
Spell Pierce good against Tron. (Disrupts turn 3 Karn)
Combust kills Spellskite, Knight of Reliquary, Restoration Angel, Linvala.
Mizzium Skin protects against PATH to exile, abrupt decay, and other creature removal.
Theorycrafting is fine, but without playtesting it won't make any sense. What's the point of untapping your lands if you don't have gas? To swarm the board in colors without a lot of reach? How are you abusing the taps and untaps?
At this point we're just theory crafting. He's saying... with derevi out, and leyline of anticipation. You can flash in a flying man, then a savannah lion, then a scribe sprite... because you untap 1 land each time. Or you tap them down during upkeep.
In a matchup against a control deck, you need to give yourself the advantage.
I’d recommend more board wipes, (Think of decks pre-Edric Ban)
Supreme Verdict
Personal Tutor (For Supreme Verdict)
Wrath of God
Day of Judgement
Washout
Evacuation
Leyline of Singularity
You also have the option to limit the instant’s he’s casting, which will force him to tap his mana.
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Grand Abolisher
Limit his Mana so he can’t play Counterspells
Mana Web
Rishadan Port
Stasis
Hokori
Limit Talrand entering play…
Elesh Norn
Meddling Mage
Nevermore
Portculis – Is actually kind of Funny when you have the two creatures. (Commander and Meddling Mage)
I recommend against the creatures you’re listing, he’s the changes I’d propose:
-Crypt Rats +Solemn Simulacrum
-Blood Ghast +Dark Confidant
-Bloodgift Demon +Cavern of Souls
-Rune-Scared Demon +Lake of the Dead
-Big Game Hunter +Helm of Obedience
-Bubbling Muck +Skeletal Scrying
-Ambitions Cost +Expedition Map
-Underworld Connections +Thoughtseize
-Diabolic Revelation +Inquistion of Kozilek
-Liliana Vess +Worn Powerstone
-Lightning Greaves +Wayfarer’s Bauble
-Swiftfoot Boots +Everflowing Chalice
You want to keep your curve low for massive hand removal. And you want as much spot removal as possible, with follow-ups in the form of board wipes. Mana Accelerators like Worn Powerstone, allow you to cast griselbrand 2 turns earlier. When you cast Grislebrand your opponent should have no hand, and no creatures in play. If your opponent does have stuff in play and in hand, you draw your 7 cards, and get rid of hand first, creatures second.
According to dualcommander.com 70% of all decks being played right now are Blue/White. They attribute this to control aspect of these two colors. In other formats, a control deck is also the most likely deck played. It’s something you just have to play around. This means commanders like Grand Arbiter and Geist are played A LOT.
• My suggestion is Karador if you’re attempting to avoid Blue, but still want versatility and a fun deck.
• Thrun is also an interesting enough commander, and spot removal can’t hit him. However you open yourself up to not being able to easily respond to the battlefield, or attacks. (Flash Creatures are enough to disrupt the opponent.)
• Isamura, the Hound of Konda is also an interesting play. He get’s under the counterspells and causes enough disruption.
As far as cards in the deck, you want to do a couple of things. Fetch Cavern of Souls, or some other form of Disruption. (Winter Orb, Blood Moon (hits fetch lands), Underworld Dreams.)
To effectively fetch cavern of souls you need to be able to search for it. This can be done with Expedition Map, and Green has some other good options like Crop Rotation. The universal tutor, Demonic Tutur…can also get a land. The next step is to protect it, a petrified field can get the land back from the graveyard if they destroy it with wasteland.
In a “counter” meta where a common deck has 40 Land/Mana Rocks, 60% of the deck is likely instant and sorceries. Don’t underestimate the power of War World in these settings with a General like Rurac Thar, who plays 95% critters with ETB effects.
This means you should be doing your Deck 1 build. However, the game has those times of randomness. (If your deck is properly shuffled.) And I'm guessing you're drawing a card during your goldfishing. Which means you're giving up an advantage to the opponent.
I think your statistics are extremely off for those games that tend to go longer, where you don't have an advantage. Typically a deck trades consistency for speed; it's the old fable of the Tortoise and the Hare. If your deck is super fast, can it overcome a hurdle or does it tire out? If it's super slow, can it make it to the point in the game were it offers a more guaranteed win.
Without seeing the deck lists, it's impossible to say which build is better. Because on Paper, everything can win if your opponent never does anything. (Goldfishing)
Turn 1, Play Savannah, Cast Llanowar Elf
Turn 2, Play Tundra, Cast Kodama's Reach (Fetching a Forest to Play, and Island to hand)
Turn 3, Play Island, Cast Rafiq of the Many, Attack with Elf for 4 Damage.
Turn 4, Play Plains, Play Sword of Fire/Ice, Attach to Rafiq and Attack, Cast Berserk. That's 24 Damage in 1 Turn. Death by Commander Damage.
Now this is for an ideal play.To build this style of deck, you run the risk of a Force Spike hitting the Llanowar Elf, a Small Pox hitting the Elf and your starting land. A Turn 2 Blood Moon by a Krenko Deck.A Disenchant hitting the Sword.
As with any format, if you entire hand has no elements of interacting with your opponent, it's not a good hand. You have to have some element of control.
Also if the opponent plays Spike Weaver, or any fog effect your game is nearly over, as is an Ensnaring Bridge.
A combo deck might have a better option. You can go with the 'Helm of Obedience/Rest in Peace' combo in Mono White.
When you say you're not running a control deck, I hope you still have elements of control.
Thrun is a great commander for disrupting what you might anticipate to be a large counter magic - meta-game. And he doesn't have to be fast, just has to be consistent. He can't be countered, And can't be killed (easily) He's just not as aggressive as Rafiq.
Early played Commander's get around this as well. Like Isamaru, Hound of Konda.
Uncounterable Generals like Thrun can pose a lot of problems for what's to be expected 'a lot' of blue decks.
I participated in a tournament last year for EDH and general's could be tucked. It didn't really change the Meta, you play around the counterspells, the chaos warp. They did a best 2 out of 3, which means tucking generals become's a relative non-issue. The biggest aspect that sucked was they did the standard 'Full Mulligan' rule instead of 'Partial Paris' which the French Ban-List and many 1v1 EDH tourney's support.
Full Mulligan mean's you're playing land heavy/mana rock heavy. Which is why deck's like Hound tend to do a bit better. (You only need one land to start hitting hard, and you're in there underneath the counter spells.)
I'm confused, in your deck break-down section you list the number of decks by color and color combinations. But in the breakdown, the number of decks with the (equal or) corresponding basic land, or even adding snow-covered lands doesn't add up to the number of decks that were analyzed.
Why doesn't It? Spellskite is blue.
Here's my sideboard, I run the tempo version of the deck.
2x Ancient Grudge
1x Combust
2x Engineered Explosives
2x Mizzium Skin
3x Blood Moon
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x Spell Pierce
2x Spellskite
Jund/Tron/UWR have non-basic land problems. So Blood moon is great, board out double-triple blue mana symbols.
Affinity is quick, but can be handled by Engineered Explosives on 0 or 1, They also crumple to Ancient Grudge. Board out Counter Magic, exept Izzet Charms and Cryptic.
Pod relies on... yup, pod. Ancient Grudge is good. Ok to board out Dispel. Keep in mind you can tap pod down during their upkeep with pestermite.
Soul Sisters autofalls to us if we board wipe them before we Combo. Board in Engineered Explosives.
Enginereed Explosives is good against a Tarmogoyf as is Relic of Progenitus.
Spell Pierce good against Tron. (Disrupts turn 3 Karn)
Combust kills Spellskite, Knight of Reliquary, Restoration Angel, Linvala.
Mizzium Skin protects against PATH to exile, abrupt decay, and other creature removal.
At this point we're just theory crafting. He's saying... with derevi out, and leyline of anticipation. You can flash in a flying man, then a savannah lion, then a scribe sprite... because you untap 1 land each time. Or you tap them down during upkeep.
I’d recommend more board wipes, (Think of decks pre-Edric Ban)
Supreme Verdict
Personal Tutor (For Supreme Verdict)
Wrath of God
Day of Judgement
Washout
Evacuation
Leyline of Singularity
You also have the option to limit the instant’s he’s casting, which will force him to tap his mana.
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Grand Abolisher
Limit his Mana so he can’t play Counterspells
Mana Web
Rishadan Port
Stasis
Hokori
Limit Talrand entering play…
Elesh Norn
Meddling Mage
Nevermore
Portculis – Is actually kind of Funny when you have the two creatures. (Commander and Meddling Mage)
-Crypt Rats +Solemn Simulacrum
-Blood Ghast +Dark Confidant
-Bloodgift Demon +Cavern of Souls
-Rune-Scared Demon +Lake of the Dead
-Big Game Hunter +Helm of Obedience
-Bubbling Muck +Skeletal Scrying
-Ambitions Cost +Expedition Map
-Underworld Connections +Thoughtseize
-Diabolic Revelation +Inquistion of Kozilek
-Liliana Vess +Worn Powerstone
-Lightning Greaves +Wayfarer’s Bauble
-Swiftfoot Boots +Everflowing Chalice
You want to keep your curve low for massive hand removal. And you want as much spot removal as possible, with follow-ups in the form of board wipes. Mana Accelerators like Worn Powerstone, allow you to cast griselbrand 2 turns earlier. When you cast Grislebrand your opponent should have no hand, and no creatures in play. If your opponent does have stuff in play and in hand, you draw your 7 cards, and get rid of hand first, creatures second.
• My suggestion is Karador if you’re attempting to avoid Blue, but still want versatility and a fun deck.
• Thrun is also an interesting enough commander, and spot removal can’t hit him. However you open yourself up to not being able to easily respond to the battlefield, or attacks. (Flash Creatures are enough to disrupt the opponent.)
• Isamura, the Hound of Konda is also an interesting play. He get’s under the counterspells and causes enough disruption.
As far as cards in the deck, you want to do a couple of things. Fetch Cavern of Souls, or some other form of Disruption. (Winter Orb, Blood Moon (hits fetch lands), Underworld Dreams.)
To effectively fetch cavern of souls you need to be able to search for it. This can be done with Expedition Map, and Green has some other good options like Crop Rotation. The universal tutor, Demonic Tutur…can also get a land. The next step is to protect it, a petrified field can get the land back from the graveyard if they destroy it with wasteland.
In a “counter” meta where a common deck has 40 Land/Mana Rocks, 60% of the deck is likely instant and sorceries. Don’t underestimate the power of War World in these settings with a General like Rurac Thar, who plays 95% critters with ETB effects.
Ain't he banned?
Your table looks like this:
..................Deck 1 Can Win.......Deck 2 Can Win
Turn 4..........25%......................0%
Turn 5..........90%......................48%
Turn 6..........98%......................96%
Turn 7+........100%....................100%
Essentially you're adding the chances it can win, in earlier rounds.
If you look at which deck has the advantage...
Turn 4 Advantage = Deck 1
Turn 5 Advantage = Deck 1
Turn 6 Advantage = Deck 1
Turn 7+ Advantage = Neither
This means you should be doing your Deck 1 build. However, the game has those times of randomness. (If your deck is properly shuffled.) And I'm guessing you're drawing a card during your goldfishing. Which means you're giving up an advantage to the opponent.
I think your statistics are extremely off for those games that tend to go longer, where you don't have an advantage. Typically a deck trades consistency for speed; it's the old fable of the Tortoise and the Hare. If your deck is super fast, can it overcome a hurdle or does it tire out? If it's super slow, can it make it to the point in the game were it offers a more guaranteed win.
Without seeing the deck lists, it's impossible to say which build is better. Because on Paper, everything can win if your opponent never does anything. (Goldfishing)
IMHO a fast general is one like Rafiq of the Many. Here's how I view a 'fast' Rafiq Deck.
Opening Hand:
Turn 1, Play Savannah, Cast Llanowar Elf
Turn 2, Play Tundra, Cast Kodama's Reach (Fetching a Forest to Play, and Island to hand)
Turn 3, Play Island, Cast Rafiq of the Many, Attack with Elf for 4 Damage.
Turn 4, Play Plains, Play Sword of Fire/Ice, Attach to Rafiq and Attack, Cast Berserk. That's 24 Damage in 1 Turn. Death by Commander Damage.
Now this is for an ideal play.To build this style of deck, you run the risk of a Force Spike hitting the Llanowar Elf, a Small Pox hitting the Elf and your starting land. A Turn 2 Blood Moon by a Krenko Deck.A Disenchant hitting the Sword.
As with any format, if you entire hand has no elements of interacting with your opponent, it's not a good hand. You have to have some element of control.
Also if the opponent plays Spike Weaver, or any fog effect your game is nearly over, as is an Ensnaring Bridge.
A combo deck might have a better option. You can go with the 'Helm of Obedience/Rest in Peace' combo in Mono White.
When you say you're not running a control deck, I hope you still have elements of control.
Thrun is a great commander for disrupting what you might anticipate to be a large counter magic - meta-game. And he doesn't have to be fast, just has to be consistent. He can't be countered, And can't be killed (easily) He's just not as aggressive as Rafiq.
Uncounterable Generals like Thrun can pose a lot of problems for what's to be expected 'a lot' of blue decks.
I participated in a tournament last year for EDH and general's could be tucked. It didn't really change the Meta, you play around the counterspells, the chaos warp. They did a best 2 out of 3, which means tucking generals become's a relative non-issue. The biggest aspect that sucked was they did the standard 'Full Mulligan' rule instead of 'Partial Paris' which the French Ban-List and many 1v1 EDH tourney's support.
Full Mulligan mean's you're playing land heavy/mana rock heavy. Which is why deck's like Hound tend to do a bit better. (You only need one land to start hitting hard, and you're in there underneath the counter spells.)
Why is there this descrepency?