I've been liking Daze a lot, but running them means I had to cut down on Cavern of Souls. In my testing, my Merfolk haven't been getting countered often, especially with Aether Vial, so I'm not unhappy about having to cut them. Only time I really want Cavern is when I'm up against Miracles. I've been liking Spreading Seas and the one extra Wasteland in the side, because I've been playing against a lot of Lands / Punishing Jund / Eldrazi.
What are some other good SB options against Eldrazi?
I can foresee a resurgence of Elves and other non-blue decks... so I might go back to some number of Submerges and or Hibernate in my SB. Elves has always been one of my worst matchups. They can easily win through a Chalice-on-1 and can push through Force of Wills.
Hmm..
Delver: 50/50
Burn: Good
MUD: Poor
Infect: Poor
Death and Taxes: Impossible
Stoneblade: 50/50
Miracles: Good
Pyromancer: Good
Lands: 50/50
BGx: 50/50
Show and Tell: Poor
Reanimator: Good
Elves: Poor
My sense of things is a bit outdated, as I'm far more experienced with Daze builds than Chalice builds.
Not sure why you think D&T is impossible - my record against this match up is positive. One True Name is all we really need. It can be a bit tough to race if they equip a Sword of Fire and Ice, but that's why I always run one copy of Manriki in the side. Copy their Stoneforge with Image to fetch up Manriki usually prevents them from playing any equipment from that point on.
I did play two. I like it. It comes out against most unfair decks (exception so far being lands) but it's great in a field of delver and miracles, which I mostly played today. Whenever I lose to delver or miracles it's because I ultimately run out of gas. Being able to refuel and play what I draw with vial to get around the end turn clause is nice. Plus I'm more than likely to have a Chalice on 1 before I cast it, so whatever cards they're drawing as well are more than likely going to be countered by Chalice.
Admittedly I need more data before I can say it's great. One tournament isn't much, and I only cast it a few times. It did win me my match against lands during the Swiss portion - it just let me rebuild my hand from nothing while also shuffling his gy back to his hand (which was relevant, with loam and punishing fire).
I'm gonna keep testing it. I could be completely wrong and got by despite it
The Merfolk deck that top 8'd the Legacy Championship at Eternal Weekend ran 2 Back to Basics in the side. I'm wondering, what match ups do you typically bring BtB in again, and what match ups are they bad against? I've always considered running two in the side but I don't have the experience with it to tell when they're good vs when they're bad (except in obvious cases.. terrible vs Burn, D&T, High Tide, mirror, have to imagine Elves)
I find Cursecatcher is the best card against the Show and Tell/Sneak and Show type decks. Just from my personal experience, I could be wrong. Chalice is still good but a bit slow, Cursecatcher actively slows them down from turn 1 if it's in your opening hand
Played in my second Legacy IQ this past weekend, and made my second top 8 as well. Unlike the first time where I made the finals and lost to Elves, I only made it to the semi-finals and lost to the same player playing Grixis Delver.
My matches:
Round 1 vs Grixis Delver (2-0 win)
Round 2 vs Jeskai Delver (1-2 loss)
Round 3 vs Affinity (2-0 win)
Round 4 vs Sneak and Show (2-1 win)
Round 5 draw into top 8
Round 6 vs Death and Taxes (2-1 win)
Round 7 vs Grixis Delver (0-2 loss)
Some things I took away from the event: playing less than 4 Chalice in the main is wrong, playing less than 4 Cavern of Souls is wrong. Wasteland is good but not as powerful as I had initially thought - it never did anything for me in those matches other than make it more difficult to cast my spells, although I still believe some number of them are correct because of decks like Lands or even some random Cloudpost deck. It can also just give you an easy win - turn 2 Chalice into turn 3 Wasteland their second land will really constrict them in terms of what they can play, and if they're greedy and keep a hand with few hands you can just get an easy win that way. I believe I will keep them in the deck for now, but I'm not sure what type of split I want knowing now that I really want the fourth Cavern.
I never got to see how good Harbinger of the Tides was - it was in my hand against Sneak and Show, but I did not have the means to bounce his Griselbrand at instant speed and I ended up winning without having to cast it. It doesn't bounce Emrakul before the Annihilator trigger goes on the stack, so it's questionable against Sneak and Show. Other than that, I only ever drew it against my D&T opponent and I was never able to use it because of Mother of Runes and Sword of Ice and Fire, and again against my semi-finals Grixis Delver opponent where I actually got to cast it and bounce a flipped Delver. However, I missed my second land drop until turn 4 and I was never able to capitalize on any sort of tempo gains as I was so far behind. I still feel it's worth testing as I don't think my matches gave a fair chance for the card to prove itself.
I might cut down to 3 Phantasmal Image and slip in a second Echoing Truth - my D&T opponent had Sword of Ice and Fire down early each game and I only won due to some lucky draws on my part, but having ET to bounce those hard to deal with permanents feels necessary.
As for the sideboard, I wanted more Relics but couldn't get any in time so I settled on Tormods Crypt. I sided the Relics in against Grixis Delver, but I feel it's not correct - keeping them off Delve is okay but doesn't really progress your game plan, and our deck is equipped to deal with a vanilla 5/5. I do regret not putting my Jitte and or Manriki in the side - I really wanted to Phantasmal Image my Jeskai and D&T opponent's Stoneforge to fetch one or the other up to swing the games back in my favor.
As for the matchups, the worst one felt like Jeskai. He Supreme Verdicted my board twice in one game. Really tough to deal with that plus Batterskulls. Grixis Delver felt winnable, especially with a Chalice on turn 2. D&T is fine as long as I can effectively race them if they get Sword of Fire and Ice out - TNN is definitely the best card in the match up. Against Sneak and Show, I will keep any hand that has some number of Cursecatchers in it - card is the best against them when you can drop it on turn 1. Affinity was easy, even without anything like Hurkyl's Recall - we can race faster and just keep Force up to counter Cranial Plating. Chalice on 0 when on the play helps a lot, and Chalice on 2 pretty much guarantees the win.
I'm playing Act 2, no Skirsdag, two main board Obzedats, 3 Sorins. Right now, my worst match up is, by far, American aggro/tempo. Turn 3 Geist/Reckoner, turn 4 Ral Zarek, turn 5 thundermaw... I just can't deal with it.
I'm running Act 2 (nelson's list), and I have some big trouble against Bant Hexproof. Just no way of dealing with it outside of getting off a lucky Blasphemous Act early on. Anyone have any good recommendations for dealing with Hexproof?
Just took 1st at SCG Invitational. Sam Black's new brew. The SCG Team was at this PTQ (i saw two SCG guys) running this same deck, and quite a few other decks were running LS as well. I sat next to the guy playing it in round 8.
In my testing, I've found that LS is my biggest threat. In terms of the game game clock, it sets me back TREMENDOUSLY and makes my Falkenrath look like garbage. So having a truly reliable and surprising way of dealing with LS is great. Flames of the Fire Brand costs too much and Bonfire has always been unreliable for me.
As for the Bant list, I'm not sure where to find it. I think it was more of a homebrew.
Volcanic Strength is definitely interesting and I might consider it. As for Rakdos Return, with only 23 lands, it's not very good. Rakdos Return for 2 isn't all that exciting. Same reason why I might just drop Thundermaw, pretty expensive.
As for your last point, I'm trying to figure it out myself. RG Aggro steamrolled me. I beat Jund Aggro, but it's no where near as fast as RG Aggro or Naya Blitz/Naya Humans. I had the good fortune of facing neither of those decks, and I can't imagine my matchup is all that great against them, either. Zombies is just no longer the fast deck of the format. That's why I run 4 Vampires main.
As an aside, there was only one deck I played today that ran Pillars - the RG Aggro, and it was all SB. So if Zombies is gonna make a come back, it's now. THe reason I stopped playing it for a while is because Pillar just made it very difficult to run efficiently.
PLEASE. Do a write up of every match. I'm really interested. Personally, i'd probably side out Gravecrawlers against RG aggro...we just get outclassed by their creatures and we can't race them...so Gravecrawler doesn't do anything here to be honest. I'd try siding the pillars for them. But thats just me.
How did the KOI play? Are they worth it?
How integral were the Vampire Nighthawks?
How would you feel about having Cartel Aristocrats/Bloodthrone Vamps in your deck?
It was a very long day and I don't remember much detaisl, so the report will be somewhat bare bones. Sorry. I'm going to another PTQ soon so I'll be sure to actually write what happened down right after so it's still fresh in my memory.
As for Knight of Infamy, I love him. He lets my 1 drops swing for 3, which might not seem like much but is actually very good. Lot of 3 toughness guys out there. He also just ignores many of the creatures that I normally have problems with - Centaur Healer, Reckoner, LS tokens, Rhox Faithmender, Smiter. Also he's a nice sac outlet for Aristocrat. I feel he's a much better two drop than Bloodthrone.
As for Vampire Nighthawk, I don't know what I would have done without him. There were some games where I was around 28 health from simply him, and he trades very well as he's one of the only few cards I have that can reliably deal with big threats like Smiter and that can actually block Resto Angel. And he just stalls aggro decks like a champ. He was really helping me against RG Aggro, but I just wasn't drawing any gas to back him up.
For Cartel Aristocrat, I don't see splashing white to justify the card. Bloodthrone is too cute. Blood Artist is great because it makes my attack steps so much in my advantage, and he can just end the game with Falkenrath out. But I've tested Bloodthrone and I just never had any success with it. I'd rather have KOI.
Again, the following "report" won't be very informative because my memory is ****ty, so I apologize.
Round 1: Naya Mid-range (2-0)
I usually consider Naya mid-range a pretty rough match up for me, but I steam-rolled it pretty fast on game 1. I just curved out beautifully - Zombie into Knight into messenger into Aristocrat. I won the die roll, so it was to be expected with the hand I kept. Game 2 I sided out my Blood Artists for four Appetite for Brains and the two tragic slips became Victim of Nights. I forget exactly what I had in hand, except that I had an Appetite for sure. On my turn 3, I appetite and see only a Thragtusk and a Conjurer's Closet. I take the Tusk, he plays the closet, I won right after. I sort of considered it a freebie, since keeping Closet against a fast deck like mine is very iffy.
Round 2: Bant Life Gain (2-0)
This match is more fuzzy to me than the rest. But it was very life gain heavy. Centuar Healers, Tusks, Restos, and Troistani. On game 2, I brought in all my Skullcracks. He played the Troistani, passed to me, and I kept two up for my skullcrack. He wasn't playing around it - went to resolve a Tusk, but I cracked him, bringing him down to ~5, and I just swung for the win next turn. Skullcrack was very good to me.
Round 3: 4-Color (2-0)
So this guy top 8'd the PTQ last week in Philadelphia, and he made note to mention it to me a few times. I was a little worried, this being my first PTQ and never really facing stiff competition before. I didn't really get to see the full extent of his deck because I beat him pretty quickly. I know he had Deadeye Navigator, and I brought in 4 Appetites once again and kept him from casting Tusk. Every time I brought in Appetite I was very happy with it.
Round 4: RG Aggro (0-2)
My first loss. Game 1 is more or less my fault, I kept a one lander, albeit with 3 one drops. I did not know what he was playing, but I was on the draw and figured with three one drops and a two drop and three drop it was a keep. Alas, it never works out that way. And since he was playing RG Aggro, he just ran me over.
Game 2, I had to mull to 5. Was not very happy with it. I ultimately kept a hand with 2 Nighthawks and a Knight of Infamy. The Nighthawks were pretty good, they kept me alive a bit longer. But Ghor-Clan Rampager just finished me off.
Round 5: Bant Aggro (0-2)
This was over in a few minutes. Was pretty brutal. Cloudfin Raptor easily became a 3 power creature, swinging in the air. My Nighthawks could not stick to stabilize, he just had every answer you could think of. The real finishing moment came when he Call of Conclaved. I was not playing around Rootborn Defenses, and he had two 3/3s that were indestructible. Really tough match, not sure how I could have sideboarded better since my SB wasn't really ready for a match like that.
Round 6: Junk Rites (2-1)
Game 1 I beat him pretty quickly. I saw the colors for Rites, and a Thragtusk, but I Mark'd the Thragtusk and swung for the win. I wasn't 100% positive he was playing Rites, since I did not see anything besides Tusk, so I sided in the 4 Appetites and the 1 Rise from the Grave, just in case. Game 2, he played lots of Lingering Souls, but still no mulch or grizzly salvage, so after game 2 I figured he was a tokens deck. Two games without a single unburial rites, mulch or salvage was unlikely. I took the Rise from the Grave out and put the two Illnesses in. Then I saw the mulches. But it was too little, too late - my Aristocrat just swung over his Thragtusk and I sacc'd my board with Blood Artist out to seal the deal.
Round 7: Selesnya Aggro? (2-1)
Not a deck I Was very familiar with. Champion, Smiter, Silverblade, and Sublime Angel (the exalted guy). Game 1 he actually beat me with Smiter + Rancor + Silverblade. I made a mistake in that I marked his Smiter, hoping to get a bunch of damage in quick (Which it did), but if I had waited a turn, I could have marked his Angel and likely won with the exalted triggers. But, I was not expecting that card.
This is where my Knight of Infamy really shined, however. He just kept Loxodon Smiter and Champion at bay while my Nighthawks went over his board and gave me life every turn. It got pretty close on game 3. My only out was drawing a 2nd red mana source to play my Hellrider and swing for the win. Aristocrat would not have done it by herself. He played that tree defender that allows you to swap your health total, but it had summoning sickness. If I didn't draw the 2nd red source, I was probably a goner. However, I top decked the dragonskull summit and played hte Hellrider. The triggers alone won the match.
Round 8: Jund Aggro (2-1)
Game 1 I mulled to 4. But it was a good 4 - two lands, NighthawIk and Aristocrat. I was actually able to recover and put some pressure on the board, but I was just too far behind. His Falkenraths just finished me off. Game 2 I was on the play and it was much better in my favor. I had a good starting hand (Gravecrawler, Knight, Hawk) and just won with Blood Artist before he was able to stabilize. Game 3 was scary though. I was on the draw against a deck that was just as fast if not faster than mine. However he did not draw any red lands. I played my Blood Artist and Aristocrat, with a knight and gravecrawler out. He played his own Falkenrath off of a Burning Tree Emissary, which was pretty funny, since he had yet to draw a red land. Eventually he was able to resolve a Olivia, and I got him down to 1 life. I passed to him, expecting the finishing move, but he didn't have anything in hand. He stole my Blood Artist, hoping to get some value out of it, but next turn I searing speared him. THis forced him to sac his entire field to stay alive, leaving only his tapped down Aristocrat, but I Just swung in against an empty field and won.
I was really excited about using Illness, I wanted to see it in action, but I Just never got the chance. But I really like the 3 skullcrack and 4 appetites, and I'm gonna continue trying out Illness since it seems LS is on the rise again. I still need to solve my issues against RG Aggro and tempo decks.
I took this to the PTQ in Brooklyn. About 230 people, I came in 22nd place (6-2) with eight rounds of swiss. My losses were to RG Aggro and Bant Aggro (Cloudfin Raptor, Delver, lots of tempo).
My all-stars were Blood Artist and the one Mark of Mutiny. Card won me two games by itself. Really happy with the results.
I had a rough time against the RG Aggro - I had poor hands, had to mull to 5, kept a hand with 2 Nighthawks, which I figured would let me stall for some time, but it was just too fast. I probably sideboarded wrong - I took out my tragic slips for the pillars, but I probably should have kept the slips and took out my messengers for the pillars.
The Bant Aggro was nuts. It seemed like a homebrew - really wasn't expecting cards like spell rupture and rootborn defenses, had no prior experience against this deck. Everything I had on the field just kept returning with unsummon My SB was totally unprepared for this deck. Not really sure -how- to SB for it.
4 Silvergil Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Phantasmal Image
4 True-Name Nemesis
4 Aether Vial
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
1 Echoing Truth
12 Island
1 Cavern of Souls
4 Mutavault
3 Wasteland
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Back to Basics
2 Spreading Seas
2 Dismember
2 Flusterstorm
1 Day's Undoing
1 Misdirection
1 Wasteland
1 Day's Undoing
I've been liking Daze a lot, but running them means I had to cut down on Cavern of Souls. In my testing, my Merfolk haven't been getting countered often, especially with Aether Vial, so I'm not unhappy about having to cut them. Only time I really want Cavern is when I'm up against Miracles. I've been liking Spreading Seas and the one extra Wasteland in the side, because I've been playing against a lot of Lands / Punishing Jund / Eldrazi.
What are some other good SB options against Eldrazi?
Not sure why you think D&T is impossible - my record against this match up is positive. One True Name is all we really need. It can be a bit tough to race if they equip a Sword of Fire and Ice, but that's why I always run one copy of Manriki in the side. Copy their Stoneforge with Image to fetch up Manriki usually prevents them from playing any equipment from that point on.
Admittedly I need more data before I can say it's great. One tournament isn't much, and I only cast it a few times. It did win me my match against lands during the Swiss portion - it just let me rebuild my hand from nothing while also shuffling his gy back to his hand (which was relevant, with loam and punishing fire).
I'm gonna keep testing it. I could be completely wrong and got by despite it
Lost in finals to Lands in game 3. It was a close last game, I misplayed pretty bad - didn't vial in my Cursecatcher to counter his crop rotation.
My matches:
Round 1 vs Grixis Delver (2-0 win)
Round 2 vs Jeskai Delver (1-2 loss)
Round 3 vs Affinity (2-0 win)
Round 4 vs Sneak and Show (2-1 win)
Round 5 draw into top 8
Round 6 vs Death and Taxes (2-1 win)
Round 7 vs Grixis Delver (0-2 loss)
Here's the list:
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Silvergil Adept
2 Harbinger of the Tides
4 True-Name Nemesis
4 Aether Vial
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Echoing Truth
Lands
3 Wasteland
3 Cavern of Souls
4 Mutavault
12 Island
3 Grafdigger Cage
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
3 Submerge
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Cursed Totem
2 Flusterstorm
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Chalice of the Void
Some things I took away from the event: playing less than 4 Chalice in the main is wrong, playing less than 4 Cavern of Souls is wrong. Wasteland is good but not as powerful as I had initially thought - it never did anything for me in those matches other than make it more difficult to cast my spells, although I still believe some number of them are correct because of decks like Lands or even some random Cloudpost deck. It can also just give you an easy win - turn 2 Chalice into turn 3 Wasteland their second land will really constrict them in terms of what they can play, and if they're greedy and keep a hand with few hands you can just get an easy win that way. I believe I will keep them in the deck for now, but I'm not sure what type of split I want knowing now that I really want the fourth Cavern.
I never got to see how good Harbinger of the Tides was - it was in my hand against Sneak and Show, but I did not have the means to bounce his Griselbrand at instant speed and I ended up winning without having to cast it. It doesn't bounce Emrakul before the Annihilator trigger goes on the stack, so it's questionable against Sneak and Show. Other than that, I only ever drew it against my D&T opponent and I was never able to use it because of Mother of Runes and Sword of Ice and Fire, and again against my semi-finals Grixis Delver opponent where I actually got to cast it and bounce a flipped Delver. However, I missed my second land drop until turn 4 and I was never able to capitalize on any sort of tempo gains as I was so far behind. I still feel it's worth testing as I don't think my matches gave a fair chance for the card to prove itself.
I might cut down to 3 Phantasmal Image and slip in a second Echoing Truth - my D&T opponent had Sword of Ice and Fire down early each game and I only won due to some lucky draws on my part, but having ET to bounce those hard to deal with permanents feels necessary.
As for the sideboard, I wanted more Relics but couldn't get any in time so I settled on Tormods Crypt. I sided the Relics in against Grixis Delver, but I feel it's not correct - keeping them off Delve is okay but doesn't really progress your game plan, and our deck is equipped to deal with a vanilla 5/5. I do regret not putting my Jitte and or Manriki in the side - I really wanted to Phantasmal Image my Jeskai and D&T opponent's Stoneforge to fetch one or the other up to swing the games back in my favor.
As for the matchups, the worst one felt like Jeskai. He Supreme Verdicted my board twice in one game. Really tough to deal with that plus Batterskulls. Grixis Delver felt winnable, especially with a Chalice on turn 2. D&T is fine as long as I can effectively race them if they get Sword of Fire and Ice out - TNN is definitely the best card in the match up. Against Sneak and Show, I will keep any hand that has some number of Cursecatchers in it - card is the best against them when you can drop it on turn 1. Affinity was easy, even without anything like Hurkyl's Recall - we can race faster and just keep Force up to counter Cranial Plating. Chalice on 0 when on the play helps a lot, and Chalice on 2 pretty much guarantees the win.
Looking forward to the Open in DC!
Any particular reason why? Seems odd to not host one there, the turn out would probably be huge. The New York Metropolitan area is massive.
http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/deck_tech_the_aristocrats_act_.html
Just took 1st at SCG Invitational. Sam Black's new brew. The SCG Team was at this PTQ (i saw two SCG guys) running this same deck, and quite a few other decks were running LS as well. I sat next to the guy playing it in round 8.
In my testing, I've found that LS is my biggest threat. In terms of the game game clock, it sets me back TREMENDOUSLY and makes my Falkenrath look like garbage. So having a truly reliable and surprising way of dealing with LS is great. Flames of the Fire Brand costs too much and Bonfire has always been unreliable for me.
As for the Bant list, I'm not sure where to find it. I think it was more of a homebrew.
Volcanic Strength is definitely interesting and I might consider it. As for Rakdos Return, with only 23 lands, it's not very good. Rakdos Return for 2 isn't all that exciting. Same reason why I might just drop Thundermaw, pretty expensive.
As for your last point, I'm trying to figure it out myself. RG Aggro steamrolled me. I beat Jund Aggro, but it's no where near as fast as RG Aggro or Naya Blitz/Naya Humans. I had the good fortune of facing neither of those decks, and I can't imagine my matchup is all that great against them, either. Zombies is just no longer the fast deck of the format. That's why I run 4 Vampires main.
It was a very long day and I don't remember much detaisl, so the report will be somewhat bare bones. Sorry. I'm going to another PTQ soon so I'll be sure to actually write what happened down right after so it's still fresh in my memory.
As for Knight of Infamy, I love him. He lets my 1 drops swing for 3, which might not seem like much but is actually very good. Lot of 3 toughness guys out there. He also just ignores many of the creatures that I normally have problems with - Centaur Healer, Reckoner, LS tokens, Rhox Faithmender, Smiter. Also he's a nice sac outlet for Aristocrat. I feel he's a much better two drop than Bloodthrone.
As for Vampire Nighthawk, I don't know what I would have done without him. There were some games where I was around 28 health from simply him, and he trades very well as he's one of the only few cards I have that can reliably deal with big threats like Smiter and that can actually block Resto Angel. And he just stalls aggro decks like a champ. He was really helping me against RG Aggro, but I just wasn't drawing any gas to back him up.
For Cartel Aristocrat, I don't see splashing white to justify the card. Bloodthrone is too cute. Blood Artist is great because it makes my attack steps so much in my advantage, and he can just end the game with Falkenrath out. But I've tested Bloodthrone and I just never had any success with it. I'd rather have KOI.
Again, the following "report" won't be very informative because my memory is ****ty, so I apologize.
Round 1: Naya Mid-range (2-0)
I usually consider Naya mid-range a pretty rough match up for me, but I steam-rolled it pretty fast on game 1. I just curved out beautifully - Zombie into Knight into messenger into Aristocrat. I won the die roll, so it was to be expected with the hand I kept. Game 2 I sided out my Blood Artists for four Appetite for Brains and the two tragic slips became Victim of Nights. I forget exactly what I had in hand, except that I had an Appetite for sure. On my turn 3, I appetite and see only a Thragtusk and a Conjurer's Closet. I take the Tusk, he plays the closet, I won right after. I sort of considered it a freebie, since keeping Closet against a fast deck like mine is very iffy.
Round 2: Bant Life Gain (2-0)
This match is more fuzzy to me than the rest. But it was very life gain heavy. Centuar Healers, Tusks, Restos, and Troistani. On game 2, I brought in all my Skullcracks. He played the Troistani, passed to me, and I kept two up for my skullcrack. He wasn't playing around it - went to resolve a Tusk, but I cracked him, bringing him down to ~5, and I just swung for the win next turn. Skullcrack was very good to me.
Round 3: 4-Color (2-0)
So this guy top 8'd the PTQ last week in Philadelphia, and he made note to mention it to me a few times. I was a little worried, this being my first PTQ and never really facing stiff competition before. I didn't really get to see the full extent of his deck because I beat him pretty quickly. I know he had Deadeye Navigator, and I brought in 4 Appetites once again and kept him from casting Tusk. Every time I brought in Appetite I was very happy with it.
Round 4: RG Aggro (0-2)
My first loss. Game 1 is more or less my fault, I kept a one lander, albeit with 3 one drops. I did not know what he was playing, but I was on the draw and figured with three one drops and a two drop and three drop it was a keep. Alas, it never works out that way. And since he was playing RG Aggro, he just ran me over.
Game 2, I had to mull to 5. Was not very happy with it. I ultimately kept a hand with 2 Nighthawks and a Knight of Infamy. The Nighthawks were pretty good, they kept me alive a bit longer. But Ghor-Clan Rampager just finished me off.
Round 5: Bant Aggro (0-2)
This was over in a few minutes. Was pretty brutal. Cloudfin Raptor easily became a 3 power creature, swinging in the air. My Nighthawks could not stick to stabilize, he just had every answer you could think of. The real finishing moment came when he Call of Conclaved. I was not playing around Rootborn Defenses, and he had two 3/3s that were indestructible. Really tough match, not sure how I could have sideboarded better since my SB wasn't really ready for a match like that.
Round 6: Junk Rites (2-1)
Game 1 I beat him pretty quickly. I saw the colors for Rites, and a Thragtusk, but I Mark'd the Thragtusk and swung for the win. I wasn't 100% positive he was playing Rites, since I did not see anything besides Tusk, so I sided in the 4 Appetites and the 1 Rise from the Grave, just in case. Game 2, he played lots of Lingering Souls, but still no mulch or grizzly salvage, so after game 2 I figured he was a tokens deck. Two games without a single unburial rites, mulch or salvage was unlikely. I took the Rise from the Grave out and put the two Illnesses in. Then I saw the mulches. But it was too little, too late - my Aristocrat just swung over his Thragtusk and I sacc'd my board with Blood Artist out to seal the deal.
Round 7: Selesnya Aggro? (2-1)
Not a deck I Was very familiar with. Champion, Smiter, Silverblade, and Sublime Angel (the exalted guy). Game 1 he actually beat me with Smiter + Rancor + Silverblade. I made a mistake in that I marked his Smiter, hoping to get a bunch of damage in quick (Which it did), but if I had waited a turn, I could have marked his Angel and likely won with the exalted triggers. But, I was not expecting that card.
This is where my Knight of Infamy really shined, however. He just kept Loxodon Smiter and Champion at bay while my Nighthawks went over his board and gave me life every turn. It got pretty close on game 3. My only out was drawing a 2nd red mana source to play my Hellrider and swing for the win. Aristocrat would not have done it by herself. He played that tree defender that allows you to swap your health total, but it had summoning sickness. If I didn't draw the 2nd red source, I was probably a goner. However, I top decked the dragonskull summit and played hte Hellrider. The triggers alone won the match.
Round 8: Jund Aggro (2-1)
Game 1 I mulled to 4. But it was a good 4 - two lands, NighthawIk and Aristocrat. I was actually able to recover and put some pressure on the board, but I was just too far behind. His Falkenraths just finished me off. Game 2 I was on the play and it was much better in my favor. I had a good starting hand (Gravecrawler, Knight, Hawk) and just won with Blood Artist before he was able to stabilize. Game 3 was scary though. I was on the draw against a deck that was just as fast if not faster than mine. However he did not draw any red lands. I played my Blood Artist and Aristocrat, with a knight and gravecrawler out. He played his own Falkenrath off of a Burning Tree Emissary, which was pretty funny, since he had yet to draw a red land. Eventually he was able to resolve a Olivia, and I got him down to 1 life. I passed to him, expecting the finishing move, but he didn't have anything in hand. He stole my Blood Artist, hoping to get some value out of it, but next turn I searing speared him. THis forced him to sac his entire field to stay alive, leaving only his tapped down Aristocrat, but I Just swung in against an empty field and won.
I was really excited about using Illness, I wanted to see it in action, but I Just never got the chance. But I really like the 3 skullcrack and 4 appetites, and I'm gonna continue trying out Illness since it seems LS is on the rise again. I still need to solve my issues against RG Aggro and tempo decks.
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Gravecrawler
4 Blood Artist
4 Knight of Infamy
4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
2 Hellrider
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
3 Searing Spear
2 Tragic Slip
1 Mark of Mutiny
9 Swamp
2 Rakdos Guildgate
4 Blood Crypt
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Appetite for Brains
3 Pillar of Flames
2 Illness in the Ranks
1 Rise from the Grave
3 Skullcrack
2 Victim of Night
My all-stars were Blood Artist and the one Mark of Mutiny. Card won me two games by itself. Really happy with the results.
I had a rough time against the RG Aggro - I had poor hands, had to mull to 5, kept a hand with 2 Nighthawks, which I figured would let me stall for some time, but it was just too fast. I probably sideboarded wrong - I took out my tragic slips for the pillars, but I probably should have kept the slips and took out my messengers for the pillars.
The Bant Aggro was nuts. It seemed like a homebrew - really wasn't expecting cards like spell rupture and rootborn defenses, had no prior experience against this deck. Everything I had on the field just kept returning with unsummon