Decklist:
| DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards | ||
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Lands (24): 1 Creeping Tar Pit 1 Shambling Vents 4 Polluted Delta 3 Flooded Strand 2 Hallowed Fountain 2 Watery Grave 1 Godless Shrine 4 Island 2 Plains 1 Swamp 2 Glacial Fortress 1 Field of Ruin Creatures (6): 4 Snapcaster Mage 2 Vendilion Clique Dig and card draw (9): 2 Serum Visions 2 Opt 2 Search for Azcanta 3 Esper Charm | Removal & Sweepers (9): 2 Fatal Push 3 Path to Exile 1 Blessed Alliance 2 Supreme Verdict 1 Settle the Wreckage Counters (9): 1 Spell Snare 1 Mana Leak 1 Negate 3 Logic Knot 3 Cryptic Command X spells (1): 1 Secure the Wastes Planeswalkers (2): 1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 1 Gideon Jura | Sideboard (15): 1 Dispel 1 Thoughtseize 3 Surgical Extraction 2 Disdainful Stroke 2 Collective Brutality 1 Celestial Purge 1 Settle the Wreckage 2 Stony Silence 1 Night of Souls' Betrayal 1 Timely Reinforcements |
Round 1: Bye
Round 2: Boros Scepter
Opponent was playing a deck with some burn spells, some weird creatures and Isochron Scepter. In Game 1 on the draw I got the lucky Spell Snare against his turn 2 Scepter, and then navigated the game pretty easily due to his creatures not being quite good and him not having the critical mass of burn spells required to deal 20. In 1 Dispel, 2 Collective Brutality, 1 Timely Reinforcements, 1 Celestial Purge, out the Leak, sweepers and 1 Path. I got turn 2 Sceptered with Lightning Helix, digged for a Cryptic and T4 was able to bounce it EoT and Logic Knot it on T5. After leaving him hellbent with Esper Charm I ended up winning with Secure tokens (involving some punts against a 1 CMC Chalice I let resolve, haven't played modern in a while heh)
Round 3: 5C Humans
Game 1 no Vial, he opens with Champion of the Parish into Thalia, Guardian of Thraben which I Path as I won the die roll. He plays a Meddling Mage on Path and another on Supreme Verdict. I end up Settling the Wreckage for 2 of his creatures and the game drags on until I slam Gideon Jura and win from there. In 1 Settle the Wreckage, 1 Timeley Reinforcements, out 1 Mana Leak and 1 Negate. Game 2 he goes T1 hierarch into T2 Sin Collector grabbing a Path. On T3 he goes for Phantasmal Image so I path his Collector (I think he knew about my second Path, can't recall). The game drags on and on, I stabilize pretty well, land a Gideon and a Secure for 9 when he attacks with a 4/4 champion and I block with all the tokens. He didn't announce 2 exalted triggers but I'm too lazy to ask for a judge and go back to blockers and chump with 1 so I end up trading 6 tokens for his champion instead of 4 (pretty bad from my part) and then proceed to draw 3/4 lands in a row and things start falling apart. Gideon dies and when I'm about to get lethaled Jace makes his entrance. Brainstorm into Cryptic + fetch with 3 minutes remaining. I proceed to Brainstorm + fetch for 3 turns in a row tapping all his stuff until we get to turn 5 of overtime and I end up winning the match 1-0. Really awesome games, Meddling Mages make this matchup very intrincate and you want to respond to pretty much every 2 vial activation not to get Mage'd or Thalia'd.
Round 4: UR Moon-Breach
Game 1 I go T2 Azcanta, T3 I Vendilion him which gets bolted and sees Remand, 2 Jace, 2 Emrakul. I take the remand and negate 1 Jace. After some turns I Esper Charm him, he shuffles Emmy, and resolve my second Vendilion which I ride to victory. In 1 Dispel, 1 Thoughtseize, 2 Disdainful Stroke, 2 Collective Brutality, 1 Celestial Purge, out 3 sweepers, 3 Path and 1 Blessed Alliance. He T1 Grim Lavamancer, I T2 Azcanta with Island and Plains. He blood moons, and second blood moon the turn after and I got to chump his lavamancer with vendilion while cycling away 1 Fatal Push from my hand. I'm lucky to find some basics with Search for Azcanta, I think I esper charm at some point and he concedes at some point (can't remember this game too well)
Round 5: Blue Living End
Game 1 he suspends Ancestral Vision on T1, I Knot a T3 as foretold, and the game drags on and on. I don't fight over his Ancestrals, and he can't stick an As Foretold. At some point I bring the beats with a snap and 3 tokens, I play Gideon Jura and +2 and he instead of slamming As Foretold in that window, plays the 5/5 hexproof dude, so he's got no As Foretold. I +2 Gideon again, he bounces and taps with Cryptic and bashes me in
leaving me at 3. On my turn I attack with snap and tokens putting him down to 7 and I Verdict so I don't die to another Cryptic. A couple of turns go by, he slams As Foretold into LE and I get to return 2 snaps FBing Secure the wastes for 7 tokens. He has an absurd board which include 2 unblockable Street Wraiths but I play Gideon and force attacks on him and win the turn after with the tokens + Snaps (opponent didn't have cryptic and apparently misunderstood how Gideon +2 worked). In 3 Surgicals, 1 Thoughtseize, 1 Dispel, out 2 Fatal Push, 1 Blessed Alliance, 1 Path and 1 Serum I think... He suspends visions on T1 and T3 Field of Ruins my Tar Pit so I get to Vendilion him with 2 lands, he has 2 Living End in hand and no As Foretold. I start smashing, he resolves the Visions and is forced to discard to hand size; he drops a Living End which I Surgical and that's pretty much it.
Overall thoughts:
- 2 Vendilion maindeck were amazing. I feel that it's too good in slow matchups and in matchups where it's not that good, it isn't that bad either. Having a way to actually kill your opponent while getting much needed infromation or cycling a dead card (I think I targeted myself half of the times) is just what I felt I needed on most of my games.
- Gideon Jura was amazing in all matchups except for UR Breach. It's so back breaking against creature decks that I'm very happy cutting the 4th sweeper for him.
- 1 Settle the Wreckage should be core IMO. The card is soo good. Against humans it shined the most, because due to hasty Mantis Rider and Aether Vial, Verdict can leave you in some weird spots. The even greater thing is that your opponent ends up playing around it after he gets caught with one, and that gives you plenty of time which is just what you want in a control deck. Every turn your opponent sends just 1 of his dudes and you just Path it feels like a mighty Time Walk.
- I really felt the need for 1 Sphinx's Revelation to close out games. It might be the bias of wanting it so much when games went long vs not realizing the amount of times it could have ruined an opener, but I'd like to make a slot for it.
- Night of Souls' Betrayal is leaving the sideboard. I realized mid tournament that the card left me with almost no win conditions at all and I pretty much always wanted to be able to close the game (never SBed out Vendilions). Granted it can be lights out against some decks, but if you lost G1 you want to hurry things up because with this deck going to time is a real thing. Maybe with more Jaces it could be played, but I'm having trouble finding the slots for them.
- Serum and Opt were fine, I liked having T1 plays but I think I should move over to 4 Opt. This deck is really mana hungry and instant speed is well worth it over the 1 card deeper IMO. I just hate the Ixalan artwork so I'm trying to find 2 Invasion ones
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Quote: MTG Salvation will be closing on July 8th, 2019.
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Oh and on the Countersquall matter: I am currently running Gods_Shadow's list including Squalls and Ionize main. The damage really adds up and can net you a not-so-insignificant amount of wins in combination with bolts and creature beats (especially Obstructionist being a flying Lightning Bolt).