LotV and LotDR are both what I'm interested in running for PWs here. With the Mutilate plan, LotDR beats out Crypt Ghast, but both are rather complimentary. This Liliana is usable in a pinch against Aggro and as a win condition (on an unblockable Keyrune perhaps?) as well as filling the hand to ensure land drops against control. Though, against control, the other Liliana is bonkers with a not-entirely-bad early use against aggro. Dimir Charm their earliest 2 power, Liliana the next creature in the opposing curve if you must and then develop your board for a turn or two before you mutillate.
Having a solid not-dead deck against control mirror in game one without crippling the game one against aggro is how Control ought to find the most success. I did my best with this as Jund Control since RTR, and I'm looking at taking apart Jund and switching to Dimir Control and Gruul Aggro for the next few months.
Not necessarily dead. There will be some cards out to get our nighthawks and negate some of the other life gain critters. So what? Even if a skull crack gets lucky enough to hit our PH in addition to negating the gain from a thrag, it's not a full 2 for 1.
I have been hurting for a four drop that's challenging to kill with common instant or cheap removal. 4/4 trample for two-color four with late game value as a drawn card in a tight game? Holy freaking hell yes. Huntmaster gets a solid partner in.
There are others I'll be sporting. Removal and a couple other bloodrush guys. I'm not giving up the power and versatility of midrange to a lack of imagination. Gc gives us big opportunities for innovation.
At the expense of aggression, I'm going to put in acidic slimes starting next week until the dust settles also, edict heavy over targeting and as many instants as feasible to combat swarms of low cmc dudes and cards trading for attacking boosts.
You had to add in that 'long ago realised' part, didnt you?
Directly in reference to this aspect of the removal package discussions from 50 or 60 pages ago.
Abrupt Decay remains a viable 2-for MD due to basically everything requiring immediate early game removal. In light of recent performances, I will be upping my AD count to 2/2 MD/SB, to reconcile those times when Ultimate Price just won't kill that damned O-Ring while still being there when I need to kill that turn 2 3-drop.
I seem to be the only player at my LGS, even being one of three habitual Jund players, sporting Ultimate Price. I think I've only been hit by it by one other random player. To that end, Thundermaw is spectacular. In the larger meta, I suspect this local blip is far from the norm, whereas that pesky two mana instant can be back breaking. Oh, actually, I just remembered someone at my last FNM Victim of Night someone else's dragon. That made me giggle just a bit, since I wasn't sporting Hellkites that night.
So, what I've decided is to board Hellkites out against anyone playing swamps. For those match ups, I switch to serious control and disruption, because even Zombies and Dos Rakis can suffer from one of the three Duress I bring in to replace hellkite.
Because so much of our removal, as demonstrated by the earlier referenced but long ago realized Venn Diagram, crosses over to both specific weaknesses in what it can't hit vs versatility in what it can, even blanking on a Duress against a hand full of lands and creatures provides incredibly valuable information.
The multicolor creatures are obviously superior against UP, so that four CMC slot is pretty important, where as our mono-colored 5 drops can just be goofy good or goofy bad. I really hate when Thragtusk on turn 5 actually doesn't increase my chances of winning, like say against MonoRed. I HATE losing to MonoRed with a deck possessing so much inherent card advantage that just doesn't pan out.
You started nothing, US. that apprentice is doomed to never graduate from a padawan level at this rate of un-constructive interactions with jedi masters of this fiercely competitive "competitive" forum. Your list is tight on versatility and speed. Thrag maxed out makes us grindy, so if you want to keep things light, max the huntmasters. They aren't as grindy or life adjusting as thrag, but, MAN, they give decks fits, including both aggro and control, depending on who's the beatdown in a given match. You're also accidentally, but we can pretend intentionally, more resilient against slaughter games.
Man, I'd pay money some days to flood. I was mana starved 7 out of nine games and took your list 1-2, drop, beating only BW Flash through superior guess work on what's in the oponents' hands. Lost to GW humans and Naya with spectacular mulls to 5 against both opponents each game. It left me wondering if I accidentally somehow sided out 15 lands.
Grats on the present DE. Shame you can't stream.
In reference to your last stream, would you be willing to share somewhere that collection you have bookmarked for old articles from stellar players?
I was most sincerely interested, but I have to watch your recordings normally rather than be able to chime in on the live streaming.
They're a combo deck so you just need to race ASAP. Think of all your creatures as burn spells.
Thank you, Zeman. Honestly, of all the Red mages I've played with and against as well as learned from and taught over the years I've been playing since 1995, you are consistantly the wonkiest one of all. Frequesntly helpful, sometimes insightful, constructively opinionated and destructively forum-related. All of this is just buttering you up for not good reason except to say, your streams over the last 6 weeks I've been following them have been pivotal in guiding my switch this standard season from Jund-Control to MonoRed Sligh/Midrange.
I helped my buddy build the Bant Auras that won the recent GP, and your streamlined advice is what allowed me to snap keep my highly aggressive draws and beat the snot out of him in 2 of our 3 races.
I look forward to more of your streaming and commentary as Standard evolves with GC.
Can we please stay focused in the present for a couple more weeks?
Having trouble in the card draw department. With the bonkers shift in the meta, staff is too slow, connections to consuming, primal hunter too reliant on the board. Can we apply any other red or black digging with two or three card slots?
Liliana wins games because of her versatility. She helped me go undefeated last night out of four rounds of Swiss because she's bonkers in control and only slightly weak vs aggro. I rarely get two creatures with her, but she is answer or lose to control. That the triumphs can be shut off or dead draws is why I don't play them and won't.
Having a solid not-dead deck against control mirror in game one without crippling the game one against aggro is how Control ought to find the most success. I did my best with this as Jund Control since RTR, and I'm looking at taking apart Jund and switching to Dimir Control and Gruul Aggro for the next few months.
I have been hurting for a four drop that's challenging to kill with common instant or cheap removal. 4/4 trample for two-color four with late game value as a drawn card in a tight game? Holy freaking hell yes. Huntmaster gets a solid partner in.
There are others I'll be sporting. Removal and a couple other bloodrush guys. I'm not giving up the power and versatility of midrange to a lack of imagination. Gc gives us big opportunities for innovation.
Directly in reference to this aspect of the removal package discussions from 50 or 60 pages ago.
Abrupt Decay remains a viable 2-for MD due to basically everything requiring immediate early game removal. In light of recent performances, I will be upping my AD count to 2/2 MD/SB, to reconcile those times when Ultimate Price just won't kill that damned O-Ring while still being there when I need to kill that turn 2 3-drop.
So, what I've decided is to board Hellkites out against anyone playing swamps. For those match ups, I switch to serious control and disruption, because even Zombies and Dos Rakis can suffer from one of the three Duress I bring in to replace hellkite.
Because so much of our removal, as demonstrated by the earlier referenced but long ago realized Venn Diagram, crosses over to both specific weaknesses in what it can't hit vs versatility in what it can, even blanking on a Duress against a hand full of lands and creatures provides incredibly valuable information.
The multicolor creatures are obviously superior against UP, so that four CMC slot is pretty important, where as our mono-colored 5 drops can just be goofy good or goofy bad. I really hate when Thragtusk on turn 5 actually doesn't increase my chances of winning, like say against MonoRed. I HATE losing to MonoRed with a deck possessing so much inherent card advantage that just doesn't pan out.
In reference to your last stream, would you be willing to share somewhere that collection you have bookmarked for old articles from stellar players?
I was most sincerely interested, but I have to watch your recordings normally rather than be able to chime in on the live streaming.
Thank you, Zeman. Honestly, of all the Red mages I've played with and against as well as learned from and taught over the years I've been playing since 1995, you are consistantly the wonkiest one of all. Frequesntly helpful, sometimes insightful, constructively opinionated and destructively forum-related. All of this is just buttering you up for not good reason except to say, your streams over the last 6 weeks I've been following them have been pivotal in guiding my switch this standard season from Jund-Control to MonoRed Sligh/Midrange.
I helped my buddy build the Bant Auras that won the recent GP, and your streamlined advice is what allowed me to snap keep my highly aggressive draws and beat the snot out of him in 2 of our 3 races.
I look forward to more of your streaming and commentary as Standard evolves with GC.
Cheers!
Having trouble in the card draw department. With the bonkers shift in the meta, staff is too slow, connections to consuming, primal hunter too reliant on the board. Can we apply any other red or black digging with two or three card slots?