Has anyone ever run Surgical Extraction in here? I'm thinking about trying it. Seems very relevant to any hate that could come about. Kor Spirit dancer taken out by Path? Surgically Extract that thing.
I've thought about that before, but it requires the card to be in their graveyard. Usually, to make use of it would require they already used a burn/removal on the poor dancer
I prefer to use that card in sideboards for decks that pack a lot of removal or discard. The applications in this particular deck are a bit narrow and situational. I would say give it a try and see how you like it though.
Treetop Village and Raging Ravine are also viable options for manlands. I personally opted for the treetop and a stirring, just out of preference.
Arena is another useful utility land, if you want to run some more removal and you run bigger creatures like Baneslayer Angel or Thundermaw Hellkite. The great thing about Arena is that if your opponent has a lot of small creatures and one of your fatties gets chumped, you can still use Arena to pick off another one of their chumps, even though you're guy is already tapped.
There's a lot of possibilities with utility lands, but the ones people have mentioned so far are the more universally accepted ones. There are some other, more narrow choices that may or may not be useful to you depending on your list. Some cards and are more situational, but I'm sure someone could find a way to make it work.
I've acutally got a pile of these lands sitting at home in a box, trying to find a home for them. I really wanna make Keldon Megaliths useful, but I can't imagine very many situations I would want to go into topdeck mode constantly. I guess the Rage Pits would be worth considering if all you want out of your Kessig is the trample, for the same mana you get +1/1.
I personally keep 18 lands static. 10 fetches, 3 basics and 5 shocklands. I've tried running less than the 18, but the manabase felt shaky with less than those 18. That gives me 4 to 5 slots to run whatever utility lands I feel like using. I'm thinking about cutting back a fetchland and throwing in an extra shockland.
I find that having lands coming into play tapped can be pretty determental for this deck. I prefer not to draw the manland, and simply tutor for it using Knight.
I guess Jund can get away with all those manlands, since they run so much removal and discard that they can buy themselves more time and grind it out.
I've been playing a budget version of RG Tron for a while (still missing 2 Karns and 4 Groves) and it's fun to play, but a pain to play against
Most of my testing with my other deck seems to down to whether it can handle Tron without getting crushed more than 3/5 times. Since this deck also runs the Knights package, it looked tempting to try it out. Guess I'll have to come up with a game plan!
I'm interested in giving this deck a try since it looks pretty unique and has a lot of intricate play. I was wondering though, since the deck runs so many 1s, what recourse do we have in the aftermath of a graveyard wipe a la relic of progenitus?
I know that's what damping matrix and stony silences are for, but what happens when we don't draw into them or they get destroyed? Is there any recovering from it?
Cutting the Knights is fine but keep in mind the objective of your deck will change. The Knight is still played for its ability to fetch you whatever land you need on a whim, which gives you a lot more in the way of options. Need a manland? Fetch Treetop or Stirring Wildwood. Need some bigger beats? Fetch a Wolf Run. Want to use your fatties as removal? Grab an Arena.
In cutting the Knight out completely, you will need to adjust your land base to make up for the loss in consistency you would otherwise have, if she was still in. The way I see it, getting the +1/1 from lands being in the graveyard is just gravy, and not really the main reason I play her.
It's interesting you mentioned how you transitioned from R/G to Naya. I basically moved to Naya because R/G was too "all-in" and didn't have much going for it in the mid to late game.
I love to play Naya because it feels true to its roots, and I love using the planeswalkers. I just love Elspeth. She does so much work for me everytime she hits the board.
The printing of Ooze also seems to have been a huge boon for this deck. I liked the Thundermaw Hellkite package, but cutting them and using Ooze instead has helped a lot with my consistency and mana issues.
Has anyone tested extensively with these two? When I used either of them in my deck, I didn't usually have enough mana to attack with them without tapping myself out.
On the one hand Stirring has reach, starts as a 3/4 and only costs 3 to activate. The Ravine costs 4 to activate, but can get big pretty fast if it's not dealt with.
I find Treetop Village gives me much more mileage, but I want to try and throw in a second man land for those games that go long.
I'm really loving the thought put into the red deck. I especially like the use of snow covered mountains + scrying sheets, and skred to hit for big numbers. It's interesting to see a different take on red, a colour that typically wants to win fast at any cost.
Are there any specific matchups in which we would want to run Gaddock Teeg or Thalia, Guardian of Thraben in our sideboards? Or would they end up hampering us too much?
I was searching high and low for a place that was doing preorders for FTV:20. Then the spoiler came out and that was the nail in the coffin. To be fair though, all the FTV items tend to sell for way more than MSRP given the low print run and all.
Does anyone know what the actual MSRP for this box set is supposed to be?
How did the RTR storyline wrap up anyways? All I know is what happened with Jace, but I didn't hear much of anything about Gideon's whole pursuit of finding strong individuals to bring back to Zendikar to battle the Eldrazi.
Well they still haven't revealed where Elspeth's birthplace is. At first I was hoping it would be Theros for some interesting backstory, but then I remembered she was born on a plane that was already overtaken by Phyrexians.
Then someone in the thread mentioned Karn and that got me thinking...what if it turns out Theros has its own Phyrexian problem? What better converts to the cause then powerful beings and godlike creatures?
From a player perspective though, I feel like that probably won't be the case. Too much Phyrexia too soon might be overkill.
I hear the Ultrapro pro-fits are tighter than the KMC perfect fits. Fact or fiction?
In my recent experience with both, its about the same, with KMC being a bit tighter. It was tight enough that it would cause a slight bend in my card in one direction or the other. Sticking it in a KMC Matte and letting it sit overnight fixed the problem though.
I was wondering if anyone knows, how is the quality control on the new KMC matte sleeves? I'm debating whether I should sleeve all my decks with just matte black, or try another colour like matte dark blue.
My main concern is with the cut for each pack. Is there a noticeable difference in the cut between different shipment of packs? If not, I'd rather sleeve everything with one colour just for convenience.
I've thought about that before, but it requires the card to be in their graveyard. Usually, to make use of it would require they already used a burn/removal on the poor dancer
I prefer to use that card in sideboards for decks that pack a lot of removal or discard. The applications in this particular deck are a bit narrow and situational. I would say give it a try and see how you like it though.
Arena is another useful utility land, if you want to run some more removal and you run bigger creatures like Baneslayer Angel or Thundermaw Hellkite. The great thing about Arena is that if your opponent has a lot of small creatures and one of your fatties gets chumped, you can still use Arena to pick off another one of their chumps, even though you're guy is already tapped.
There's a lot of possibilities with utility lands, but the ones people have mentioned so far are the more universally accepted ones. There are some other, more narrow choices that may or may not be useful to you depending on your list. Some cards and are more situational, but I'm sure someone could find a way to make it work.
Here are a few off the top of my head:
Miren, the Moaning Well
Skarrg, the Rage Pits
Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
Keldon Megaliths
Smoldering Spires
I've acutally got a pile of these lands sitting at home in a box, trying to find a home for them. I really wanna make Keldon Megaliths useful, but I can't imagine very many situations I would want to go into topdeck mode constantly. I guess the Rage Pits would be worth considering if all you want out of your Kessig is the trample, for the same mana you get +1/1.
I find that having lands coming into play tapped can be pretty determental for this deck. I prefer not to draw the manland, and simply tutor for it using Knight.
I guess Jund can get away with all those manlands, since they run so much removal and discard that they can buy themselves more time and grind it out.
Most of my testing with my other deck seems to down to whether it can handle Tron without getting crushed more than 3/5 times. Since this deck also runs the Knights package, it looked tempting to try it out. Guess I'll have to come up with a game plan!
I know that's what damping matrix and stony silences are for, but what happens when we don't draw into them or they get destroyed? Is there any recovering from it?
In cutting the Knight out completely, you will need to adjust your land base to make up for the loss in consistency you would otherwise have, if she was still in. The way I see it, getting the +1/1 from lands being in the graveyard is just gravy, and not really the main reason I play her.
I love to play Naya because it feels true to its roots, and I love using the planeswalkers. I just love Elspeth. She does so much work for me everytime she hits the board.
The printing of Ooze also seems to have been a huge boon for this deck. I liked the Thundermaw Hellkite package, but cutting them and using Ooze instead has helped a lot with my consistency and mana issues.
Has anyone tested extensively with these two? When I used either of them in my deck, I didn't usually have enough mana to attack with them without tapping myself out.
On the one hand Stirring has reach, starts as a 3/4 and only costs 3 to activate. The Ravine costs 4 to activate, but can get big pretty fast if it's not dealt with.
I find Treetop Village gives me much more mileage, but I want to try and throw in a second man land for those games that go long.
I'm really loving the thought put into the red deck. I especially like the use of snow covered mountains + scrying sheets, and skred to hit for big numbers. It's interesting to see a different take on red, a colour that typically wants to win fast at any cost.
I just feel really bad for the players that lost to his sextet of druids.
Does anyone know what the actual MSRP for this box set is supposed to be?
Then someone in the thread mentioned Karn and that got me thinking...what if it turns out Theros has its own Phyrexian problem? What better converts to the cause then powerful beings and godlike creatures?
From a player perspective though, I feel like that probably won't be the case. Too much Phyrexia too soon might be overkill.
In my recent experience with both, its about the same, with KMC being a bit tighter. It was tight enough that it would cause a slight bend in my card in one direction or the other. Sticking it in a KMC Matte and letting it sit overnight fixed the problem though.
I was wondering if anyone knows, how is the quality control on the new KMC matte sleeves? I'm debating whether I should sleeve all my decks with just matte black, or try another colour like matte dark blue.
My main concern is with the cut for each pack. Is there a noticeable difference in the cut between different shipment of packs? If not, I'd rather sleeve everything with one colour just for convenience.