Sup boys. Recently started playing MtG again. Been playing mostly burn, but the meta is starting to seem sort of bad for it, so I'm considering coming back into the Skred fold.
Can anyone give me a rundown on Hazoret? I was still playing MtG when it got printed, but I never really saw any potential for it in Skred at the time. Now I see a lot of lists running it, so I was curious as to what makes it so good in this deck.
Way to go man. I've been playing Standard lately, but I'll be testing Skred more in the week leading up to GP San Antonio. I'm also looking at playing Skred at the SCG Invitational in Roanoke, but thats a ways off.
Good morning everyone!
First of all thanks Jasper for playing hauntingly well! impressive! I was here in Rio de Janeiro, the bullet eating, and I watching Twith waiting to see his departure again.
I wanted to talk a few things! with all respect! Sometimes my bad English can say something I do not want to express myself. It would grabde useful your opinion.
1- You only use 1 Stormbreath Dragon !!!! Missed him? In my use 3
2- Did the 2x Scourge do a good job ?? I cut them to the pro 2x main deck ratchet pump
3. Against Burn I always feel tense, I use 4x dragon claws would you add 3 claws to your list? I always leave it zero, but I always get 5 life or 3..ai he buys the boma and it was already
4 - I would like to know what you take against UWR, Affiith and Burn!
5- What changes would you make to the next championship?
Originated by representing the Skred family! In Brazil, especially Rio de Janeiro you were very well spoken by the community of players!
I'll answer as best I can, before I go to sleep.
1. I normally play with 2. It honestly just depends on how common I think Terminate will be. 3 seems like too many for me.
2. Eternal Scourge was excellent.
3. If Burn is super common, I think 4 is probably correct. I normally play 3.
4. My sideboarding is kind of random, I don't really have a set guide for it. Generally any 3-color deck will have me bring in Molten Rain, and if a deck will allow me to go into the late game, or let me force them into the late game, I'll bring in Dark Dweller. I take out Relic in any matchup without graveyard reliance, and I'll trim down to 1-2 if I think cycling is better than a low power card.
5. I would add 1 Dragon's Claw and take out something. I would also like to test more with Tezzeret's Gambit, as I originally planned on having 2 in the deck but could not find any.
I feel like Goblin Dark-Dweller is hell of an underplayed card... think about it, you're getting back a free spell and a 4/4 Menace body, it's the Red Snapcaster Mage. I think it's a good card for grindy matchups and a must in Skred Sideboards, it's a good card to bring in when you don't need your Relic of Progenitus.
I mean, if you are flashing back just a bolt, the guy has pseudo-haste with the 3 damage. GDD can race, and GDD can also play really good defense. It can catch you up when your behind a lot of the time. Sometimes I wonder if he should just be in the main, honestly. Even with Relic's, you can play in such a way to guarantee value.
Shame that you had to face a situation like game 3 match 1, those are my biggest fear when playing in GPs. Glad the judges sorted out the injustice, sadly it doesn't always prove an easy task.
You've got a quite spicy and versatile list, I'm particulary interested in the mainboard Ratchet Bomb. How well does it perform as general removal? It's obviously great for 1-drops, but I can't help but feel it's a clunky and slow topdeck in a lot of other situations.
It can definitely be pretty bad. There were a couple times I top decked it and it wasn't the best, but I'll tell you that every time I drew it, I either cracked it or threatened to crack it. It would have been better with my intended list of 2 mainboard Tezzeret's Gambit, as I only started playing a Bomb in the main because I had the option to Proliferate on it if I needed to. I'd feel comfortable running it without the Gambits though, as it was fine all day. Certainly no worse than Roast would have been, as that's what was in that slot originally.
Jasper,
in one of your recent streams you were toying with the idea to include Obliterate in your 75.
At the SCG Open, has there been a moment in which you would have liked it or is that card just not good enough?
And congrats on the great result!
I've tested Obliterate a pretty fair amount, even 5-0'ing on MTGO with it in the mainboard twice a little over a month ago. I'd like to test with it more, as i still don't really have a full understanding of how powerful the card is. I'd like to test it in a build with 8 Walkers. Maybe 4 Koth, 2 Chandra Torch, 1 Sarkhan, 1 Chandra Flamecaller?
Awesome run, Jasper! Shame you ran into 2 sketchy opponents - I'm not sure I'd have your wherewithal to catch either of them.
Thanks bud. I've gotten more and more paranoid lately about cheating, and I guess it paid off by letting me catch one. My paranoia mostly stems from playing so much Online that my paper play was starting to get a little weaker. I noticed myself paying less attention to what my opponent was doing. I counteracted that hard at this event.
Here's my tournament report from the SCG Dallas Open. I won't be able to go into much detail on how the individual matches went, but I did take some notes while playing. I also posted this on the Skred subreddit.
Game 1 I was fortunate enough to keep an opening hand with Relic. I follow up with a turn 2 Mind Stone, allowing me to hold up Relics activation. Turn 3 Eternal Scourge with 1 mana left. Turn 4 Koth, once again holding 1 mana open. He either doesn't find a Through the Breach, or he's missing a creature. Either way, he just dies without doing much other than Looting a couple times.
Game 2 my memory is hazy on, but my lifepad shows that he dealt 15 to me, I believe with an Emrakul. I kept Chandra on board but could not find lands to play the rest of my hand. Something about this game made me suspicious of him though.
Game 3 doesn't even start. As I go to draw my opening hand, I'm looking at his library, and his sideboard is right under it. As he's drawing his opening hand, he drags 4-5 cards from the top of his library, then moves his hand back over and drags 2-3 cards from the top of his sideboard. I call judge, and he drags 2-3 cards from the top of his library on to his sideboard, then picks his sideboard up and begins counting it. To make a long story short here, a team of judges listens to my account of what happened privately, and then listen to his account. I'm not aware of what his excuse was, but when the judge examines his opening hand, it contains 8 cards. He then counts his library, and checks his sideboard. I am then informed that he is being DQ'd. I am later informed that there were 2 lands on the top of his sideboard by a bystander of the judge call. During this entire time, I was so angry that my hands were shaking. One of the judge's that I also consider to be a friend spent most of this time talking to me about various things that didn't relate to the current match, so I assume he was just trying to distract me to calm me down. It worked, and if he reads this, I'd like to thank him for it.
Match 2 vs Big kid Abzan, lost die roll. (1-0)
Game 1 I don't remember much, but from my lifepad I can see that he cast a Siege Rhino very early, possibly turn 3.
Game 2 I land an early Chandra Torch and follow up with Koth into a removal spell. Like I said before though, my memory is hazy and I was still pretty angry during this round so details are slim.
Game 3 Has my lifepad showing it being pretty one-sided. I end the game at 17 life.
Match 3 vs Abzan Collected Company, not sure who won die roll. (2-0)
Game 1 my hand was soft and he just kind of combo-ed me out. I play a couple turns with him at infinite to maybe find an Anger of the Gods and play the "who decks first" minigame, but eventually concede.
Game 2 looks like I just beat him down with some removal for key combo pieces.
Game 3 is very interesting. My opponent plays a Pharika early on, but it doesn't do much as I have a Relic eating his graveyard. He at some point manages to turn her online with devotion. I make multiple misplays this game, popping Relic at the wrong time with a Goblin Dark Dweller in my hand and multiple spells in my graveyard. Just poor play in general. With my opponent at 8 and myself at 9, I cast a Stormbreath Dragon and attack, knowing that I die if my opponent just plays a double green guy. On his turn he Chords for 2, and doesn't find a double green creature in his deck. He then explains that this was a huge punt, as he had a Big Game Hunter in his deck, and if he had just cracked his fetchland and Chorded for 3, the game was over. Sometimes it's better to be lucky and good though.
Match 4 vs Eldrazi Tron, lost die roll. (3-0)
Game 1 my hand has double Relic, which I start cycling as soon as I see his lands. I get an early Blood Moon into a Koth plus removal and just beat him down while he's forced to play on curve.
Game 2 is just bizarre. I keep a hand without Blood Moon, and never end up finding one. Eventually I have a Koth at 5, and he plays a Walking Ballista for 16 mana, removes my Koth, and I bolt his Ballista, which he uses to hit me for 3. Next turn another Koth, which puts him to 5. He top decks another Ballista, casts for 16 again, and kills my Koth again. I Skred this one and eventually win with whatever else was in my hand.
Match 5 vs Eldrazi Tron, won die roll. (4-0)
Game 1 he just kind of kills me. Lifepad shows me it was a shutout. I think he had a Chalice on 1 this game, lol.
Game 2 is very back and forth. I eventually win the game while at 1 life, fading him drawing a Ballista for a couple turns.
Game 3 was kind of weird. Memory still blinded with rage, I do remember he conceded while at 16 life after I Blood Mooned and Shattering Spree'd his Mind Stone and a Ratchet Bomb or something. I do remember Skredding a Thought Knot Seer, and then using Goblin Dark Dwellers to flashback the Skred to kill a Reality Smasher.
Match 6 vs Revolt Zoo, lost die roll. (5-0)
You can watch the tail end of this match at 5:44:00 onTwitch
Game 1 I win. No real details, but I ended the game at 15 so he probably stumbled or I had a ton of removal, either way.
Game 2 is the opposite, with me not putting up much of a fight.
Game 3 we get moved to being the on-camera feature match. I recommend watching it, though I take a line that is possibly sub-optimal. I'm almost always trying to Control, rather than Race. There is a point in the game where I can just not block an attack and let my Koth die, keeping 6 power on board and just beating down. I opt to block and play safe, just offering some trades on my creatures. I know my late game is better, I just have to not die to one explosive turn. My thought process is that I'd rather run him out of cards than try to go for a kill and just die on the crackback. I also disagree on cutting Blood Moon completely in this matchup, which the commentators seem to want to do. I trimmed down to 2, but I was also bringing in Molten Rain, so if I hit his Forest and Moon him, he might just end up basically locked out of the game. Him Grudging my Mind Stone first was probably correct, to limit my mana. I think, from my side of the table, trying to just control this game is correct. He misses land drops for multiple turns, and my hand is absolutely stacked.
Match 7 vs GW Elves, won die roll. (6-0)
Game 1 I keep a great hand, with plenty of removal, a Mind Stone, and a Koth. He opens on GW land into passing. I play the stone. He plays a Pendelhaven which really gets me thinking, but then he casts a likely topdecked mana elf. Not sure how the rest of the game goes, but I end at 20 life, and do remember Blood Mooning him out of casting spells.
Game 2 is the reverse shutout. He plays Mark of Asylum on turn 2, and the game is just over as I don't find a Ratchet Bomb.
Game 3 is very long. I land an early Ratchet Bomb and just put it on 2, where it stays until the end of the game. I cast Anger into Goblin Dark Dwellers flashing back Anger. I brick for a while while he does some stuff. GDD eventually deals 24 damage to him while I play defense with Pia and Kirin. Removal for the Lords and throwing some Mind Stones at his other dudes with P&K is just too much.
Match 8 vs Ad Nauseam, won die roll. (7-0)
Game 1 I was very prudent with memorizing the faces of the Ad Naus players from the top tables, so I know what I'm in for. We all know how hard this matchup is. I mull to 5, hoping to find a Koth and a Mind Stone or a Blood Moon so I can try to just race, as game 1 has tons of dead cards. I find the Koth but no Moon or Stone. Hands kind of slow, and he just kills me on like turn 5 or 6.
Game 2 bring in like 11 cards to remove all the dead removal. Get him to 12 and die anyway, lol.
Match 9 vs GR Devotion/Summoners Pact?, lost die roll. (7-1)
Game 1 memory fuzzy. He really really looks like a Ponza deck with Utopia Sprawl, but he also has Oath of Nissa and Nykthos. I kind of just kill him with Batterskull and remove his guys.
Game 2 is closer, with him ramping early. The turning point of the game is when I Molten Rain his forest that has 2 Sprawls on it. Next turn, I Goblin Dark Dweller, flashing back Molten Rain and hitting his Stomping Ground, and also killing his planeswalker with the 2 damage.
Day 1 Record, 8-1, good for 5th place out of 850+ players
Match 10 vs Living End, lost die roll (8-1)
The very very end of our second game was on stream at 00:51:30 on Twitch
Game 1 my opening has a Relic and some removal. As soon as he cylces, I know my Relic is solid gold. Batterskull makes an appearance and I get to just kind of kill'em. The key to these kinds of matchups is drawing Relics and holding a mana open.
Game 2 my opening hand is 2 lands, 2 Relics, and I'm not actually sure if I saw the rest of the cards before I said keep. You should be able to see how this game went based on the stream footage. Short version is that I just control his graveyard and hold mana open, Molten Rain some lands, and end the game with Bolt/GDD/Bolt after getting some oracle text to make sure Living End only exiled creatures from the yard and not like, instants as well. I almost flash the Molten Rain, but then I remember that he could Beast Within his own land to live or something weird.
Match 11 vs Ad Naus, lost die roll. (9-1)
Game 1 I'm thinking this is another loss. I believe he was still undefeated at this point, but he might have lost round 10, not sure. I make an offer to intentionally draw, with the sell that my deck will knock out all the matchups that are bad for him. This ploy doesn't work, but hey, worth a shot, lol. I lose game 1 super hard after my usual mulligan routine of trying to find a hand that races hard.
Game 2 is kind of funny, in that the Dragon's Claw I boarded in makes an appearance. Doesn't do anything though, since I get him locked under a Blood Moon, and using Ratchet Bomb on 0 to hit his Lotus Bloom. I think I end up killing him with Eternal Scourge.
Game 3 pretty pumped about winning a game. My opening hand has both Blood Moon and Ratchet Bomb, and I snap keep. Turns out, those 2 cards alone are good enough. His lands are mountains, and I Ratchet Bomb his Lotus Bloom, which he responds to by cracking for black mana. He casts Spoils of the Vault naming Basic Plains and dies. I had a clock on the board as well, so i think it's correct for him to desperately try and find his only real out.
Match 12 vs Todd Stevens GW brew, lost die roll. (10-1)
Game 1 he mentions how bad this matchup is for him. I tell him miracles can happen since I just beat Ad Naus. For future games, I will not be jinxing myself this hard. I bolt a dork or something, and don't really draw much other in the way of removal. I begin clocking him with a Stormbreath Dragon. He's got some Goyfs out and I'm not drawing much other than lands, but the game should still be in my hands if I play it right. I pass turn, planning on Monstrous'ing Stormbreath in his draw step to drop him to 6. I have to keep this up as a blocker because I'm at like 10 and he has 2 Goyfs and a Voice. In response to the Monstrous, Todd cast Path to Exile on his own Voice, holding priority, and casting another Path on the same Voice. He goes to 8. He then attacks me and I eat a Goyf, dropping to 6. He plays another Goyf. I go to draw, knowing that there about a billion good draws that can end this game. I draw a Mind Stone. I pass, and he plays a voice passing back. I draw and brick again. I'm forced to crack my Mind Stones, which make the Goyfs into 5/6's. My draws are Pyroclasm, Anger, and Koth. Casting a Sorcery makes his Goyf's into 6/7's. Tough spot, with no real out other than him just making a mistake, so I cast my Koth and use it as bait(Also casting Anger). He doesn't fall for it, and attacks me with the 2 goyfs.
Game 2 my hand is absolutely insane. The problem is, my mana sources are 2 mountains, 1 scrying sheets, 1 mind stone. He Blessed Alliances makes me sac the mountain I attacked him with. I proceed to not draw lands for my hand of Skred, Skred, Chandra, Goblin Dark Dweller. This is a very frustrating loss. I guess I could have just not attacked with the Mountain, but it seemed like a free attack. I just didn't expect Blessed Alliance. Even if he Path'd it I would have been fine.
Match 13 vs Jund Shadow, lost die roll. (10-2)
All 3 games I go into this match knowing that I have to win 2 out of my next 3 matches to Top 8. This is a very do-able goal, and the decks been running great. I have this shortened to all 3 games since Jund Shadow kind of just makes my lifepad look wacky and I don't even know who won game 1 or 2. Better note-taking will happen in the future, but I was more focused on just winning. Game 3 he keeps a 1 lander and fetches a Swamp, taking my Blood Moon. He misses his second land drop, and I top deck a Molten Rain. Game's over pretty soon after.
Match 14 vs Jund Shadow, won die roll. (11-2)
Both Games I lose both of these games in ridiculous fashion. I know in one game I have him basically locked out, but I don't draw a Skred or a Relic or a Pia and Kirin to stop his Tarmogoyf. The other game I get mana screwed. This matchup isn't very hard at all, but it does require at least a few things to go right. Pretty bummed, but I know if I win this last match I will top 8 because I have a 75% tie breaker, which is miles above the others.
Match 15 vs Trent Avera Burn, unsure of die roll. (11-3)
Game 1 I'm just going to throw out that I had heard rumors of him cheating sometime in day 1, I also saw him rules lawyer multiple people, and he was involved in a 30 minute long judge call next to me sometime day 2. Needless to say, I was suspicious of him, but I was able to detect no cheating during any of our games. I have a friend who thinks he cheated against him at an RPTQ, but that's also unverified. Anyways, back to the games. I don't know who was on the play, but he opens with a Swiftspear and the game gets to a point where I can fight back if I can fade a draw step or 2. I die to a Searing Blaze with landfall on my Thopter.
Game 2 I'm on the play, and I win handily while at 6 life.
Game 3 I mulligan to 6, and have a tough mulligan choice. This hand has no Dragon Claw or Bolt, but it does have Mind Stone, lands, Pia&Kirin, and a Trinisphere. I decide to keep. I have multiple options this game depending on what he does. He in fact does the worst possible thing for my hand. He plays a Swiftspear into double bolt. I play a Mind Stone, knowing how bad things are, but I can still win if he misses a land drop or something. The worst possible outcome is bolt into land into Eidolon, which is exactly what happens. I play P&K, and chump his Swifty. I use P&K's ability to kill his Eidolon and bolt his Swift. All too late though, as he just untaps and kills me with spells. It seems fishy so I call a judge to ascertain if he has drawn extra cards, but we find out that he has no extra cards so I shake the hand and sign the slip.
I keep getting congratulated for my performance, but I can't help but feel like I was robbed of Top 8. I feel better about it now though, since the prize money from this event will fund my other upcoming events this month, including GP San Antonio where I will once again be on Skred.
Feel free to ask any questions in this thread and I'll try to answer them as best I can. I feel like the sideboarding with the deck is pretty straightforward, but I'll be happy to help with those questions as well.
I also stream on Twitch.tv, and you can find my channel HERE. I mostly stream MTGO, and when I stream MTGO, it's mostly Skred, haha. I really enjoy fielding questions and reading potential alternate lines when I'm streaming, so pop in if you want.
Everyone decided to mow their lawns today so I'm kind of waiting for all of that outside noise to die down. Can follow the channel and enable notifications, or just check here as I'll make a post a little bit before I go live.
Just 5-0'd another League. Shout out to whoever was in here playing a one of Commune with Lava. I'd been meaning to test it, and finally got around to it today. The online meta seems to have a lot less combo today, as I played against mostly fair decks. Commune was good in the grindy matches.
Trinisphere is good still as well. Playing 2, and it's solid vs combo decks. Also pretty good vs Burn and little Zoo, especially with Molten Rain to set up a bit of a lock on them.
I play Mardu Vehicles and at my store, the only guy I really worry about plays B/G Delirium (Winding Constrictor, Rishkar, Mindwrack, Ballista, and Ishkanah). How should I sideboard against him?
Moving to Vehicles thread for obvious reasons. Please let me know if you have a problem with this. Thanks! - hoser2
It's probably one of your easiest matchups.
Board in all your Metallic Rebuke, which I'd say should be a minimum of 3, if not 4. Bring in some Fatal Push, some 4-mana Chandras, and whatever flyers are in your board, like Avacyn, Skysoverign, Gisela, or Spell Quellers.
Unless you aren't running blue. Then maybe it's harder, idk. 2-3 Depala should be in the main as well, as it insulates you against Ballista, which is just kind of a crummy Mog Fanatic, until they have a snake out anyway.
Pithing Needle naming Lightning Storm. Then you try to race while holding up an amount of removal for their Lab Maniac plan. Also, I personally bring in the 2 Shattering Spree. If I was running Trinisphere, which I've been thinking about a lot lately, I'd also probably bring that in.
Besides all the above disruption, your only real option is to race. In fact, even with the cards about, you still need to assemble a decent clock or they will just find a way.
I'm going to agree with Morcrux here, and say that Control is among our best matchups. If you are losing the majority of games against Control, you are playing the deck wrong most likely.
Depending on the Control deck, you have 2 paths to victory. You can either jam threats into counter magic until one sticks, which works and its what you have to do sometimes. The other option is to play a typical control mirror, which means that you just want to hit your land drops on every turn until you can play multiple spells in one turn and overload their counters/mana access. Because you play Mind Stone and Scrying Sheets, you should always have access to more mana than they do. The only counterspell that actually matters is Cryptic Command, and they have to tap low to do it. Snapcasters aren't an issue unless you don't have a Relic out, and even then, if they Snap a Cryptic/counterspell, that should leave and opening to resolve another threat.
If you still find you are having trouble with Control, or Control is super prevalent in the meta, I'd suggest playing a 1-of Reverberate in the main, as it can lead to huge blowouts. Even without Reverberate though, I think Control is super easy.
Valakut decks can be difficult. I don't mind them that much, honestly. I play the 4th Moon in sideboard, along with 3 Molten Rain.
The decks 1 true weakness is Combo decks. Another semi-weakpoint is that if you make a mistake with Skred, you are probably going to lose. Mistakes like using a removal spell at the wrong time, or on the wrong creature. Or not activating your Srying Sheets in your upkeep, or just timing your threats wrong and getting them removed without generating value.
Here's my list, so you know the style of Skred I've been playing lately. https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/562904#online
I feel like based on what you are saying, you have to be playing Boros Reckoner or something, which I think is just outdated and too weak. Like, if you are playing Reckoners and Simian Spirit Guides, of course you are going to have more trouble with Control than you should.
Not gonna post a Regionals report tonight, maybe tomorrow. Long story short, I started off 5-0, then lost 2 rounds, won 1 round, and lost my last round. Lost to Soul Sisters, Eldrazi Tron, and Affinity. I managed to beat GriselShoal, which was nice. Still, pretty mad that I lost to Soul Sisters and Affinity.
If my 1-of Volcanic Fallout had been a Kozileks Return like I intended this morning, I would have top 8'ed. I showed up late to the event and had to scribble my list down super fast and didn't have time to buy/borrow cards before the player meeting. Bummed, but still happy for 32nd for the $50. I think Skred is super strong right now.
Can anyone give me a rundown on Hazoret? I was still playing MtG when it got printed, but I never really saw any potential for it in Skred at the time. Now I see a lot of lists running it, so I was curious as to what makes it so good in this deck.
1. I normally play with 2. It honestly just depends on how common I think Terminate will be. 3 seems like too many for me.
2. Eternal Scourge was excellent.
3. If Burn is super common, I think 4 is probably correct. I normally play 3.
4. My sideboarding is kind of random, I don't really have a set guide for it. Generally any 3-color deck will have me bring in Molten Rain, and if a deck will allow me to go into the late game, or let me force them into the late game, I'll bring in Dark Dweller. I take out Relic in any matchup without graveyard reliance, and I'll trim down to 1-2 if I think cycling is better than a low power card.
5. I would add 1 Dragon's Claw and take out something. I would also like to test more with Tezzeret's Gambit, as I originally planned on having 2 in the deck but could not find any.
Thanks for all the support! I'm glad to hear it.
I mean, if you are flashing back just a bolt, the guy has pseudo-haste with the 3 damage. GDD can race, and GDD can also play really good defense. It can catch you up when your behind a lot of the time. Sometimes I wonder if he should just be in the main, honestly. Even with Relic's, you can play in such a way to guarantee value.
It can definitely be pretty bad. There were a couple times I top decked it and it wasn't the best, but I'll tell you that every time I drew it, I either cracked it or threatened to crack it. It would have been better with my intended list of 2 mainboard Tezzeret's Gambit, as I only started playing a Bomb in the main because I had the option to Proliferate on it if I needed to. I'd feel comfortable running it without the Gambits though, as it was fine all day. Certainly no worse than Roast would have been, as that's what was in that slot originally.
I've tested Obliterate a pretty fair amount, even 5-0'ing on MTGO with it in the mainboard twice a little over a month ago. I'd like to test with it more, as i still don't really have a full understanding of how powerful the card is. I'd like to test it in a build with 8 Walkers. Maybe 4 Koth, 2 Chandra Torch, 1 Sarkhan, 1 Chandra Flamecaller?
Thanks bud. I've gotten more and more paranoid lately about cheating, and I guess it paid off by letting me catch one. My paranoia mostly stems from playing so much Online that my paper play was starting to get a little weaker. I noticed myself paying less attention to what my opponent was doing. I counteracted that hard at this event.
The list.
1 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
4 Koth of the Hammer
20 Snow-Covered Mountain
3 Scrying Sheets
1 Batterskull
4 Mind Stone
1 Ratchet Bomb
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Blood Moon
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Magma Jet
4 Skred
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Pyroclasm
2 Dragon's Claw
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Trinisphere
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Anger of the Gods
3 Molten Rain
1 Roast
2 Shattering Spree
2 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
Match 1 vs Grishoalbrand, lost die roll.
Game 1 I was fortunate enough to keep an opening hand with Relic. I follow up with a turn 2 Mind Stone, allowing me to hold up Relics activation. Turn 3 Eternal Scourge with 1 mana left. Turn 4 Koth, once again holding 1 mana open. He either doesn't find a Through the Breach, or he's missing a creature. Either way, he just dies without doing much other than Looting a couple times.
Game 2 my memory is hazy on, but my lifepad shows that he dealt 15 to me, I believe with an Emrakul. I kept Chandra on board but could not find lands to play the rest of my hand. Something about this game made me suspicious of him though.
Game 3 doesn't even start. As I go to draw my opening hand, I'm looking at his library, and his sideboard is right under it. As he's drawing his opening hand, he drags 4-5 cards from the top of his library, then moves his hand back over and drags 2-3 cards from the top of his sideboard. I call judge, and he drags 2-3 cards from the top of his library on to his sideboard, then picks his sideboard up and begins counting it. To make a long story short here, a team of judges listens to my account of what happened privately, and then listen to his account. I'm not aware of what his excuse was, but when the judge examines his opening hand, it contains 8 cards. He then counts his library, and checks his sideboard. I am then informed that he is being DQ'd. I am later informed that there were 2 lands on the top of his sideboard by a bystander of the judge call. During this entire time, I was so angry that my hands were shaking. One of the judge's that I also consider to be a friend spent most of this time talking to me about various things that didn't relate to the current match, so I assume he was just trying to distract me to calm me down. It worked, and if he reads this, I'd like to thank him for it.
Match 2 vs Big kid Abzan, lost die roll. (1-0)
Game 1 I don't remember much, but from my lifepad I can see that he cast a Siege Rhino very early, possibly turn 3.
Game 2 I land an early Chandra Torch and follow up with Koth into a removal spell. Like I said before though, my memory is hazy and I was still pretty angry during this round so details are slim.
Game 3 Has my lifepad showing it being pretty one-sided. I end the game at 17 life.
Match 3 vs Abzan Collected Company, not sure who won die roll. (2-0)
Game 1 my hand was soft and he just kind of combo-ed me out. I play a couple turns with him at infinite to maybe find an Anger of the Gods and play the "who decks first" minigame, but eventually concede.
Game 2 looks like I just beat him down with some removal for key combo pieces.
Game 3 is very interesting. My opponent plays a Pharika early on, but it doesn't do much as I have a Relic eating his graveyard. He at some point manages to turn her online with devotion. I make multiple misplays this game, popping Relic at the wrong time with a Goblin Dark Dweller in my hand and multiple spells in my graveyard. Just poor play in general. With my opponent at 8 and myself at 9, I cast a Stormbreath Dragon and attack, knowing that I die if my opponent just plays a double green guy. On his turn he Chords for 2, and doesn't find a double green creature in his deck. He then explains that this was a huge punt, as he had a Big Game Hunter in his deck, and if he had just cracked his fetchland and Chorded for 3, the game was over. Sometimes it's better to be lucky and good though.
Match 4 vs Eldrazi Tron, lost die roll. (3-0)
Game 1 my hand has double Relic, which I start cycling as soon as I see his lands. I get an early Blood Moon into a Koth plus removal and just beat him down while he's forced to play on curve.
Game 2 is just bizarre. I keep a hand without Blood Moon, and never end up finding one. Eventually I have a Koth at 5, and he plays a Walking Ballista for 16 mana, removes my Koth, and I bolt his Ballista, which he uses to hit me for 3. Next turn another Koth, which puts him to 5. He top decks another Ballista, casts for 16 again, and kills my Koth again. I Skred this one and eventually win with whatever else was in my hand.
Match 5 vs Eldrazi Tron, won die roll. (4-0)
Game 1 he just kind of kills me. Lifepad shows me it was a shutout. I think he had a Chalice on 1 this game, lol.
Game 2 is very back and forth. I eventually win the game while at 1 life, fading him drawing a Ballista for a couple turns.
Game 3 was kind of weird. Memory still blinded with rage, I do remember he conceded while at 16 life after I Blood Mooned and Shattering Spree'd his Mind Stone and a Ratchet Bomb or something. I do remember Skredding a Thought Knot Seer, and then using Goblin Dark Dwellers to flashback the Skred to kill a Reality Smasher.
Match 6 vs Revolt Zoo, lost die roll. (5-0)
You can watch the tail end of this match at 5:44:00 onTwitch
Game 1 I win. No real details, but I ended the game at 15 so he probably stumbled or I had a ton of removal, either way.
Game 2 is the opposite, with me not putting up much of a fight.
Game 3 we get moved to being the on-camera feature match. I recommend watching it, though I take a line that is possibly sub-optimal. I'm almost always trying to Control, rather than Race. There is a point in the game where I can just not block an attack and let my Koth die, keeping 6 power on board and just beating down. I opt to block and play safe, just offering some trades on my creatures. I know my late game is better, I just have to not die to one explosive turn. My thought process is that I'd rather run him out of cards than try to go for a kill and just die on the crackback. I also disagree on cutting Blood Moon completely in this matchup, which the commentators seem to want to do. I trimmed down to 2, but I was also bringing in Molten Rain, so if I hit his Forest and Moon him, he might just end up basically locked out of the game. Him Grudging my Mind Stone first was probably correct, to limit my mana. I think, from my side of the table, trying to just control this game is correct. He misses land drops for multiple turns, and my hand is absolutely stacked.
Match 7 vs GW Elves, won die roll. (6-0)
Game 1 I keep a great hand, with plenty of removal, a Mind Stone, and a Koth. He opens on GW land into passing. I play the stone. He plays a Pendelhaven which really gets me thinking, but then he casts a likely topdecked mana elf. Not sure how the rest of the game goes, but I end at 20 life, and do remember Blood Mooning him out of casting spells.
Game 2 is the reverse shutout. He plays Mark of Asylum on turn 2, and the game is just over as I don't find a Ratchet Bomb.
Game 3 is very long. I land an early Ratchet Bomb and just put it on 2, where it stays until the end of the game. I cast Anger into Goblin Dark Dwellers flashing back Anger. I brick for a while while he does some stuff. GDD eventually deals 24 damage to him while I play defense with Pia and Kirin. Removal for the Lords and throwing some Mind Stones at his other dudes with P&K is just too much.
Match 8 vs Ad Nauseam, won die roll. (7-0)
Game 1 I was very prudent with memorizing the faces of the Ad Naus players from the top tables, so I know what I'm in for. We all know how hard this matchup is. I mull to 5, hoping to find a Koth and a Mind Stone or a Blood Moon so I can try to just race, as game 1 has tons of dead cards. I find the Koth but no Moon or Stone. Hands kind of slow, and he just kills me on like turn 5 or 6.
Game 2 bring in like 11 cards to remove all the dead removal. Get him to 12 and die anyway, lol.
Match 9 vs GR Devotion/Summoners Pact?, lost die roll. (7-1)
Game 1 memory fuzzy. He really really looks like a Ponza deck with Utopia Sprawl, but he also has Oath of Nissa and Nykthos. I kind of just kill him with Batterskull and remove his guys.
Game 2 is closer, with him ramping early. The turning point of the game is when I Molten Rain his forest that has 2 Sprawls on it. Next turn, I Goblin Dark Dweller, flashing back Molten Rain and hitting his Stomping Ground, and also killing his planeswalker with the 2 damage.
Day 1 Record, 8-1, good for 5th place out of 850+ players
Match 10 vs Living End, lost die roll (8-1)
The very very end of our second game was on stream at 00:51:30 on Twitch
Game 1 my opening has a Relic and some removal. As soon as he cylces, I know my Relic is solid gold. Batterskull makes an appearance and I get to just kind of kill'em. The key to these kinds of matchups is drawing Relics and holding a mana open.
Game 2 my opening hand is 2 lands, 2 Relics, and I'm not actually sure if I saw the rest of the cards before I said keep. You should be able to see how this game went based on the stream footage. Short version is that I just control his graveyard and hold mana open, Molten Rain some lands, and end the game with Bolt/GDD/Bolt after getting some oracle text to make sure Living End only exiled creatures from the yard and not like, instants as well. I almost flash the Molten Rain, but then I remember that he could Beast Within his own land to live or something weird.
Match 11 vs Ad Naus, lost die roll. (9-1)
Game 1 I'm thinking this is another loss. I believe he was still undefeated at this point, but he might have lost round 10, not sure. I make an offer to intentionally draw, with the sell that my deck will knock out all the matchups that are bad for him. This ploy doesn't work, but hey, worth a shot, lol. I lose game 1 super hard after my usual mulligan routine of trying to find a hand that races hard.
Game 2 is kind of funny, in that the Dragon's Claw I boarded in makes an appearance. Doesn't do anything though, since I get him locked under a Blood Moon, and using Ratchet Bomb on 0 to hit his Lotus Bloom. I think I end up killing him with Eternal Scourge.
Game 3 pretty pumped about winning a game. My opening hand has both Blood Moon and Ratchet Bomb, and I snap keep. Turns out, those 2 cards alone are good enough. His lands are mountains, and I Ratchet Bomb his Lotus Bloom, which he responds to by cracking for black mana. He casts Spoils of the Vault naming Basic Plains and dies. I had a clock on the board as well, so i think it's correct for him to desperately try and find his only real out.
Match 12 vs Todd Stevens GW brew, lost die roll. (10-1)
Game 1 he mentions how bad this matchup is for him. I tell him miracles can happen since I just beat Ad Naus. For future games, I will not be jinxing myself this hard. I bolt a dork or something, and don't really draw much other in the way of removal. I begin clocking him with a Stormbreath Dragon. He's got some Goyfs out and I'm not drawing much other than lands, but the game should still be in my hands if I play it right. I pass turn, planning on Monstrous'ing Stormbreath in his draw step to drop him to 6. I have to keep this up as a blocker because I'm at like 10 and he has 2 Goyfs and a Voice. In response to the Monstrous, Todd cast Path to Exile on his own Voice, holding priority, and casting another Path on the same Voice. He goes to 8. He then attacks me and I eat a Goyf, dropping to 6. He plays another Goyf. I go to draw, knowing that there about a billion good draws that can end this game. I draw a Mind Stone. I pass, and he plays a voice passing back. I draw and brick again. I'm forced to crack my Mind Stones, which make the Goyfs into 5/6's. My draws are Pyroclasm, Anger, and Koth. Casting a Sorcery makes his Goyf's into 6/7's. Tough spot, with no real out other than him just making a mistake, so I cast my Koth and use it as bait(Also casting Anger). He doesn't fall for it, and attacks me with the 2 goyfs.
Game 2 my hand is absolutely insane. The problem is, my mana sources are 2 mountains, 1 scrying sheets, 1 mind stone. He Blessed Alliances makes me sac the mountain I attacked him with. I proceed to not draw lands for my hand of Skred, Skred, Chandra, Goblin Dark Dweller. This is a very frustrating loss. I guess I could have just not attacked with the Mountain, but it seemed like a free attack. I just didn't expect Blessed Alliance. Even if he Path'd it I would have been fine.
Match 13 vs Jund Shadow, lost die roll. (10-2)
All 3 games I go into this match knowing that I have to win 2 out of my next 3 matches to Top 8. This is a very do-able goal, and the decks been running great. I have this shortened to all 3 games since Jund Shadow kind of just makes my lifepad look wacky and I don't even know who won game 1 or 2. Better note-taking will happen in the future, but I was more focused on just winning. Game 3 he keeps a 1 lander and fetches a Swamp, taking my Blood Moon. He misses his second land drop, and I top deck a Molten Rain. Game's over pretty soon after.
Match 14 vs Jund Shadow, won die roll. (11-2)
Both Games I lose both of these games in ridiculous fashion. I know in one game I have him basically locked out, but I don't draw a Skred or a Relic or a Pia and Kirin to stop his Tarmogoyf. The other game I get mana screwed. This matchup isn't very hard at all, but it does require at least a few things to go right. Pretty bummed, but I know if I win this last match I will top 8 because I have a 75% tie breaker, which is miles above the others.
Match 15 vs Trent Avera Burn, unsure of die roll. (11-3)
Game 1 I'm just going to throw out that I had heard rumors of him cheating sometime in day 1, I also saw him rules lawyer multiple people, and he was involved in a 30 minute long judge call next to me sometime day 2. Needless to say, I was suspicious of him, but I was able to detect no cheating during any of our games. I have a friend who thinks he cheated against him at an RPTQ, but that's also unverified. Anyways, back to the games. I don't know who was on the play, but he opens with a Swiftspear and the game gets to a point where I can fight back if I can fade a draw step or 2. I die to a Searing Blaze with landfall on my Thopter.
Game 2 I'm on the play, and I win handily while at 6 life.
Game 3 I mulligan to 6, and have a tough mulligan choice. This hand has no Dragon Claw or Bolt, but it does have Mind Stone, lands, Pia&Kirin, and a Trinisphere. I decide to keep. I have multiple options this game depending on what he does. He in fact does the worst possible thing for my hand. He plays a Swiftspear into double bolt. I play a Mind Stone, knowing how bad things are, but I can still win if he misses a land drop or something. The worst possible outcome is bolt into land into Eidolon, which is exactly what happens. I play P&K, and chump his Swifty. I use P&K's ability to kill his Eidolon and bolt his Swift. All too late though, as he just untaps and kills me with spells. It seems fishy so I call a judge to ascertain if he has drawn extra cards, but we find out that he has no extra cards so I shake the hand and sign the slip.
I keep getting congratulated for my performance, but I can't help but feel like I was robbed of Top 8. I feel better about it now though, since the prize money from this event will fund my other upcoming events this month, including GP San Antonio where I will once again be on Skred.
Feel free to ask any questions in this thread and I'll try to answer them as best I can. I feel like the sideboarding with the deck is pretty straightforward, but I'll be happy to help with those questions as well.
I also stream on Twitch.tv, and you can find my channel HERE. I mostly stream MTGO, and when I stream MTGO, it's mostly Skred, haha. I really enjoy fielding questions and reading potential alternate lines when I'm streaming, so pop in if you want.
https://www.twitch.tv/joshcrowemtg
Edit: So I WAS going to stream, but it looks like thats not gonna happen tonight. Shoot for tomorrow.
Would it be cool if I post my Twitch channel in here? I've been streaming Skred lately and plan to stream some more tonight.
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 Eternal Scourge
4 Koth of the Hammer
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
4 Mind Stone
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Skred
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Pyroclasm
1 Kozilek's Return
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Roast
1 Commune with Lava
4 Blood Moon
3 Scrying Sheets
2 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
1 Magus of the Moon
2 Shattering Spree
1 Outpost Siege
3 Molten Rain
2 Trinisphere
2 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Roast
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
Trinisphere is good still as well. Playing 2, and it's solid vs combo decks. Also pretty good vs Burn and little Zoo, especially with Molten Rain to set up a bit of a lock on them.
It's probably one of your easiest matchups.
Board in all your Metallic Rebuke, which I'd say should be a minimum of 3, if not 4. Bring in some Fatal Push, some 4-mana Chandras, and whatever flyers are in your board, like Avacyn, Skysoverign, Gisela, or Spell Quellers.
Unless you aren't running blue. Then maybe it's harder, idk. 2-3 Depala should be in the main as well, as it insulates you against Ballista, which is just kind of a crummy Mog Fanatic, until they have a snake out anyway.
Besides all the above disruption, your only real option is to race. In fact, even with the cards about, you still need to assemble a decent clock or they will just find a way.
Depending on the Control deck, you have 2 paths to victory. You can either jam threats into counter magic until one sticks, which works and its what you have to do sometimes. The other option is to play a typical control mirror, which means that you just want to hit your land drops on every turn until you can play multiple spells in one turn and overload their counters/mana access. Because you play Mind Stone and Scrying Sheets, you should always have access to more mana than they do. The only counterspell that actually matters is Cryptic Command, and they have to tap low to do it. Snapcasters aren't an issue unless you don't have a Relic out, and even then, if they Snap a Cryptic/counterspell, that should leave and opening to resolve another threat.
If you still find you are having trouble with Control, or Control is super prevalent in the meta, I'd suggest playing a 1-of Reverberate in the main, as it can lead to huge blowouts. Even without Reverberate though, I think Control is super easy.
Valakut decks can be difficult. I don't mind them that much, honestly. I play the 4th Moon in sideboard, along with 3 Molten Rain.
The decks 1 true weakness is Combo decks. Another semi-weakpoint is that if you make a mistake with Skred, you are probably going to lose. Mistakes like using a removal spell at the wrong time, or on the wrong creature. Or not activating your Srying Sheets in your upkeep, or just timing your threats wrong and getting them removed without generating value.
Here's my list, so you know the style of Skred I've been playing lately. https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/562904#online
I feel like based on what you are saying, you have to be playing Boros Reckoner or something, which I think is just outdated and too weak. Like, if you are playing Reckoners and Simian Spirit Guides, of course you are going to have more trouble with Control than you should.
If my 1-of Volcanic Fallout had been a Kozileks Return like I intended this morning, I would have top 8'ed. I showed up late to the event and had to scribble my list down super fast and didn't have time to buy/borrow cards before the player meeting. Bummed, but still happy for 32nd for the $50. I think Skred is super strong right now.