75 felt fine, my three losses in the classic were Jund. The issue wasn't that my opponents were on Jund it good but because of stupid things. I drew 3 vials and 8 lands game 1, stomp him game 2, draw 9 lands where any lord wins.
Jund 2 i had to mulligan to 5, crush game 2 and game 3 i had to mulligan to an awkward 6. These mulligans all had 1 land or no land. He played turn 2 Bob flip land, turn 3 liliana then flipped goyf, goyf, land, land.
My final Jund opponent i beat game one, game 2 was similar to jund 1. Draw significant number of lands and any lord wins. He has the right removal at the right time. Abrupt decay for kira etc. Game 3 mulliganed to an awkward 6 and he had turn 2 flayer then turn 3 liliana.
Hey guys, it's Kevin Rogers from the last two modern classics in Atlanta. I let y'all down today and I'm sorry. :(. I went x-7 at the invitational missing top 64 and came in 26th at the classic.
Remaining queries:
1. Negate vs Unified Will: I'm leaning towards Negate, because I'm having trouble thinking of a creature I'm likely to really want/need to counter. Usually, they could just be Vapor Snagged or Islandwalked past. Besides Primeval Titan, is there anything else that must be countered (and isn't it, say, Azban Coco where it's unreliable anyway)?
2. Would you bring in all 8 counterspells versus Burn?
3. Ayiluss mentioned Tidebinder Mage to mitigate green creatures. Is that actually necessary or useful? I imagine we get some utility out of Reejerey, Harbringer, Vapor Snag, and Spreading Seas that mostly mitigates their relevance (unless we get hit by sweepers, in which case, Tidebinder goes too).
You might want to consider Dismember as a permanent solution if you have a high infect or BGx meta. Tidebinder Mage is good enough I currently play 2 mainboard and if I didn't play Tectonic edge I would play 2 more in my SB. I would have a split of Negate/Spell Pierce/Dispel rather than having such a huge amount of them. If you have access to Chalice of the void you might consider it. Spell Pierce is not well positioned right now but it's still a great counterspell in general. Perhaps a 3/3/2 split might be appropriate for your counterspells.
Take out your cursecatchers before you take out harbinger. The 1/1 doesn't really put good pressure on your opponent and you'll never use his sac unless they're idiots and if that's the case then why care about sideboarding. Taking out Kira is fine if you have more things to bring in as well.
Alright, let's get this show started. So as a little prologue I've been a little inactive on this forum as of late and in the magic community in general due to financial hardships and a more committed relationship. I've unfortunately not been able to play as much as I like but I can jam in a few major local events. Saturday was a breath of fresh air! I had not been to a large tournament since the previous open in February where I still had to work on Saturday. This open I was able to enjoy my entire time Saturday playing challenges!!!.... Or so I though... Get there early at 8:30 AM to purchase my challenge badge. 10:40 rolls around and they run out of room for the modern challenge and announce a cap at the event but no worries for me right???!! Wrong.. I had somehow neglected to inform the scorekeeper I would like to play the challenges I purchased!!! I can't be mad at the gentleman, he was busy and super polite both days and I probably didn't ask. So I played legacy for 3 rounds going 2-1 drop with Merfolk. In the challenge I was incredibly discouraged after a weak performance and unfortunate games against a Jund player(I was his only win but T2 bob makes it rough). I've taken losses before and recovered so it's no big deal! The second round was 8whack where I was whacked into the dirt by a wall of tokens and a piledriver all three games. I was so tilted that I signed drop only to go back to my senses later and undrop. The next two rounds I collected myself and beat burn back to back. I spent the rest of the day actually hanging out with Mattheu a lot talking about our lists and what we planned to do.
Shout out to Nikachu for his videos helping. I wasn't handed down a list from the heavens this time but the guidance helped nonetheless!
Enough about the crap nobody cares about! Let's talk about the MATCHES
Round 1 Nahiri Control. 2-0 I won the dice roll. Game one was about as good as this match can possibly go. I had multiple spreading seas and creatures with a vial. My opponent lacked the early creature interaction to properly deal with my creature dense hand and draws. I managed to cut him out of his red sources securing a quick victory with a lethal swing on turn 5. Game 2 went a little bit differently and has me seriously reconsidering some decisions I make when I sideboard against this match-up. My opponent fetched down to 19 at my EOT after I played a vial to follow it up with a turn 2 stony silence. I've been seeing this play more and more often and it has me considering to cut aether vials out. It's super powerful to play around wrath effects and blank their counterspells but I am absolutely tired of having this plan shut down every time I play this deck. I proceed to curve out my creatures by force starting with a silvergill. My opponent kills the silvergill pretty quickly with a bolt followed by serum visions holding up a fetchland as his third land. I felt pretty good about this moment staring at a kira sitting in my hand. With his shields down I untapped and jam the kira onto the field(it's important to note I played a tectonic edge this turn). My opponent then has a moment where I guess he got tilted by the kira and fetched away his serum scry only to realize his mistake when he drew his card. His 4th land was a loot-house. He passed turn with all of his mana untapped. I play my second tectonic edge and holding priority destroy both of his white lands. He loots in response but the next 3 turns are just him never being able to secure another white source dying to uncontested creatures with only paths and a single bolt in his hand.
-3 Harbinger of the Tides
-2 Merrow Reejery
-2 Tidebinder Mages
-2 Dismember
-1 Phantasmal Image
+4 Tectonic Edge
+2 Dispel
+2 Negate (Hits Nahiri and I hve seen them shift more to anger and wrath of god over supreme verdict)
+2 Relic of Progenitus
Round 2 Jund 1-2 I lost the dice roll. Talk about some salt from me on this match-up. It felt like my opponent had the perfect everything. The first game starts off with a turn 2 Bob while I'm on the draw with no removal for him. We actually had quite a game despite 6 total bob activations with 4 of them being lands. I managed to get him down to 6 life and if I had been on the play I would have won this game. I unfortunately don't have any details about this match written down due to my rain of salt. The player was a good jund player and a local so I made sure to let him know I wasn't mad at him just salty. I won game 2 with what seems to be a regular flood the field plan and him not having the proper removal. Game 3 was the worst... T1 seal of fire, T2 BOB, T3 BOB+Inqusition. I counted 7 bob activations this game with all 7 of them being lands. It just didn't feel like games to me, it felt more like divine punishment for being so cocky about my Jund match-up(this makes me 7-2 in COMP REL against Jund).
-4 Aether Vial
-3 Harbinger of the Tides
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+2 Tectonic Edge
+2 Dispel(Aiming for terminate at a key moment and kologhan's command specifically)
+1 Dismember
Round 3 Suicide Zoo 2-1 I lost the dice roll. After going out of the building and getting my hissy fit out of the way I ate a ham sammich and calmed myself down. I go in fresh with resolve to spike the rest of the tournament(Spoiler alert! That's what I go on to do!) The gentleman I played with was great and an awesome person to just talk to and joke around the entire match. I always love it when I get to play a game with the seriousness of COMP but the tone of REG. Homeboy smacks me in the face turn 1 with a swiftspear for 1. I think to myself, that it's a burn deck and I have a dismember so it's probably best to just kill the damn thing down before it deals 5+ damage to me. He curves himself out into a swiftspear and Gitaxian probes me twice paying the life and that's when it hits me... I'm playing against suicide zoo! CRAP!!! So he smacks me down for 4 followed by a Nacatl and fetches for an untapped godless shrine. I pass the turn and the only thing I can do reasonably is cast a silvergill to hope to draw a harbinger or more removal. His next turn he cats mishra's bauble and swings. I do some calculations and he only has 2 cards left in hand so at worst case scenario it could be a become immense and temur battlerage which he had the mana for both after another fetch/shock and there wasn't another scenario I could think of that would kill me and blocking with silvergill doesn't stop anything so I take it. He doesn't do anything else and brings me down to 10. I'm sitting here shaking in my boots praying to draw a harbinger to stablize but the best that came was a lord. I jam him out there sitting with a 4th land and a master of waves in hand for next turn ready to treat his creatures with a wall of elementals.... He draws his card from bauble and he plays down a 4th land(land flooded for that deck I guess) and swings in. I'm ready this time so i declare blocks.. And there it was, mutagenic growth on swiftspear and a temur battlerage killing both my creatures while he loses none and I lose both. I jam the master anyway but his next play was another siftspear and a battlerage. Game 2 was a little bit better for me. I had a pretty great hand this game with a dismember and tons of threats including harbinger. I turn 1 hold up dismember which he plays a Nacatl turn 1 to eat it.I drew a second spreading seas and decided to risk the mana denial plan. I hit his hand and his face told all. As soon as he saw the spreading sea I could tell he was in trouble. He played a second land but I don't think he did anything super relevant other than shock himself and g probe. At this point I was pretty confident he was color screwed so I hit his second land with a spreading seas. He plays a death's shadow at 11 life and only a overgrown tomb in play able to make mana. I managed to curve out into a cursecatcher and a silvergill. He swings with his death's shadow and I'm at 16 life so I think to myself "He can't possibly do that much damage!" so I told him no blocks.... He shows me Mutagenic, Mutagenic, Become Immense playing around cursecatcher. Homeboy was hitting me for 14 damage..... I just do what I can and take it. I play a harbinger of the tides to bounce it and swing for 3 to bring him to 4 life. He replays the death shadow and I noticed something different about this one. The first Death's Shadow was a nonfoil and this one was foil. He only had 2 cards in his hand so this gave me a lot of information. I actually called him out on it mid-match with our joyous tone we had been continuing. He sort of facepalms and I explain to him that's why I play all my islands with the same art. We go into my turn and I slam down a master of the pearl trident and triumphantly swing for lethal. Game 3 was a little bit different from the others and really caught me off guard. He didn't have a turn 1 creature to play but I had a turn 1 vial and was feeling really good right now. He untaps and places down Stony Silence. I'm sitting here scratching my head over why did this guy bring in silence against me. I'm staring down 2 more lands, a harbinger, dispel, dismember and some creatures. This still felt pretty great!! The creatures come raining down from my hand crushing his tempo with harbinger and killing him with lords. I'm holding up a blue mana this whole game ready for his alpha strike. He swings with a death's shadow as a 2/2 but I'm confident with my dispel it won't matter so I take it. Some sort of story as last game with mutagenic, mutagenic temur battlerage threatening me with lethal damage but dispel took care of the battlerage and I just go down to 9 life to kill him on the crackback.
-2 Kira
-1 Master
+2 Dispel
+1 Dismember
Round 4 Abzan CoCo 2-0 Won the dice roll. So this gentleman was actually a local from Savannah that I was acquainted with from when I lived/played there. Starts out a good tone and I'm feeling great after my last win and seeing a good hand. It doesn't have a vial but a great curve nonetheless. I play island holding up a dismember for anything he might have. My opponent plays a forest and then a bird of paradise. I almost go for the kill before I look at my hand and see Tidebinder Mage!!! I draw my next card and jam that tidebinder mage down hard. My opponent bricks the 4 turns with no real action other than a COCO that fails to keep him alive through my onslaught of lords and other pressure. Game 2 was a little bit more of a game but he still had a pretty slow hand. Had another great hand but I didn't really have any good removal other than harbinger. I play a silvergill out turn 2 to an empty field and my opponent replies with a kitchen finks. I think no big deal and curve into a merrow reejery(played a mutavault this turn which is important) staring down my singleton phantasmal image with 2 lords and a harbinger of the tides. My opponent takes his turn to chord of calling for 1 while I'm tapped out for a vicera seer. I waste no time copying my reej with image into lord, lord, harbinger(bounce kitchen finks) animate mutavault and swing for a lot of damage. He stares at his hand intensely and plays the kitchen finks again. I don't think it really matters what he does but hes at least still trying. I animate my mutavaults(had 2 at this point, one was the 4th land. I forgot to mention). I've already done the calculation and I know he has 0 outs and I have lethal but I let him count it out himself for a few minutes(we have like 30 minutes left in the round) and he concedes when he realizes he can't get out of it. He reveals his hand to me showing BOTH combos right there. He had infinite damage and infinite life ready to go. If I hadn't harbinger the finks on that turn he was going to combo me out of the game.
-3 Cursecatcher
-2 Kira
+2 Dispel(counters chord and co-co, usually how they beat us)
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+1 Dismember
Round 5 Mono White Death and Taxes 2-1. Lost the dice roll. So this guy is actually 15 years old I believe and plays at a local store near me. He's doing incredibly well(came in top 32)both for his age and I would argue for the deck itself. His deck wasn't a D&T eldrazi build but a mono white flicker build but it still utilized Eldrazi Displacer. Game one I was actually feeling incredibly favored. We both had a vial turn 1 and I know my creatures are going to be bigger in general... Or so I though. He starts shooting out the regular things like Thalia, leonin arbiter but when he played Blade splicer I knew I was in for a rough time. Now I have to play around flickerwisp and restoration angel at instant speed I thought to myself... My saving grace was a Kira that had landed on the field. My hand sort of just never comes together and he gets a little too much value off blade splicer and flickerwisp but the thing that seals the deal is an eldrazi displacer. He displaces my master of waves to trigger kira and then path to exiles him. The second game nothing interesting happened. We both had vials turn 1 and every card I played was a lord. When your lords are 6/6s they stop caring about 3/1s and 3/3s. I had more creatures and they were all bigger. Game 3 was a bit more interesting but he unfortunately had to mulligan down to a mediocre 6. We both have a turn 1 vial(all 3 games!). The only value I get out of mine was a cursecatcher and I'm holding up a master of the pearl trident ready to flash him in. He had already gotten a bit more value out of vial with his Thalia and he activates it on his turn 4. I think no big deal that's cool. It's a stupid Phyrexian Revoker :(... He names Aether Vial and I'm forced to curve with lands. My hand was pretty good fortunately. I had a turn 3 Reejery and another one in my hand, I just needed to draw a land. The land didn't come that turn so I just played master of the pearl trident and swung in after tapping a creature for ~4 damage. His next turn had a blade splicer to make more blockers. I manage to get my 4th land and then drop the rest of it including a spreading seas on his tapped ghost quarter. He couldn't stop the wave of unblockable fish in the next two turns so I got it.
-2 Tidebinder Mage
+1 Dismember
+1 Echoing Truth
Round 6 Abzan Coco Midrange(no combo) 2-0 Won the dice roll. This deck was actually super interesting and threw me through a loop in the first couple turns. He had a T1 BOP but a turn 2 Lingering Souls. Lingering Souls screamed some kind of midrange/value deck to me so I just figured it was Abzan that used birds(i've seen a few). While he has the shields down I play a kira. He flashbacks lingering souls and plays a goyf so that wasn't fun but it solidified my initial assessment. I continued to curve out. My creatures are protected by kira and I don't see any decays and at the same time she is holding off the spirit tokens. I just manage to get there by playing more creatures and eventually a spreading seas swinging with 1-2 fish at a time until I could just get him for lethal. Game 2 I felt really awful for the guy because he seemed like a competent player. He mulliganed down to 5 on the play after he sideboarded 10 cards into a control deck. I just wittled away at his life and dismembered his only goyf. He showed me the deck and it was really sweet, he likely would have made top 8 if I had lost. Unfortunately he had a bad tron game and made top 32 so you guys didn't get to see his deck(his friend made top 32 playing the same list).
-4 Vial
-4 Cursecatcher
+3 Tectonic Edge(I saw him pull out 10 SB cards and assumed he went more control.. Which he did so I sideboarded more appropriately after I saw this)
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+2 Dispel
+1 Dismember
Round 7 Abzan Aristocrats(Top 8 guy) 2-0 I won the dice roll. This deck was absolutely sweet and I loved every second. Game 1 was a quick game. He didn't keep quick action and I had a good curve. I throw out the lords and just roll him down. I actually thought he was a COCO combo so I sideboarded how I did with the previous one in round 4 but something felt off so I put in an echoing truth just in case. Game 2 the cat was out of the bag as soon as I saw a stupid Saytr that mills 5 cards for a land or something. I 100% knew this list as soon as that happened(I play it on cockatrice for funsies). This game I don't have details of what I did but he had a super awesome play I'd like to point out. He swung with an elemental token as a 1/1 so I said no blocks and then he rally the ancients against me to make it a 6/6. I went to 14 and he got a sac outlet with the new blood artist ally in play and his voice back. I curve out but I hold up an echoing truth waiting for him to saw his voice before everything gets exiled. He sacs everything at the end of my turn and after it's all done I bounce his tokens leaving him with an empty field. He lost to my crackback in the next 2 turns not really able to recover.
In hindsight this is how I would have SB if I knew game 1.
Round 8 RG Tron 2-1 I won the dice roll. Game 1 was pretty quick. I had a vial and spreading seas with enough pressure to kill him before he could get tron online. Game 2 I didn't get enough disruption and he lands ugin before I can get lethal in. Game 3 he mulligans down to a mediocre 6 and I have a great hand to punish it. I have a double spreading seas, negate and some fish with 3 lands. I played a vial turn 1 and a creature on turn 2. I held up negate for the rest of the game just playing off vial. The reason I didn't play spreading seas was because of his first 2 lands. He played Forest turn 1 and then Burngrove turn 2. I didn't really have any reason to not just hold up negate for the oblivion stone. On his turn 4 he plays the oblivion stone where I negate it. I bring him down to 11 life in that attack and spreading seas both of his tron pieces threatening lethal next turn. He draws his card and concedes. This is what locked me into top 8 as the 4th seed.
-2 Kira
-2 Dismember
-2 Cursecatcher
+4 Tectonic Edge
+2 Negate
So I'm celebrating with Mattheu the whole time(fish bros for life <3!!) Both of us secured a top 8!! We wait around for a good 30 minutes feeling happy and giddy(especially me since it was back to back for myself). We find out after the announcement of the top 8 over the speaker that unfortunately we play in quarter finals. Whatever, best fish wins right!? At least we'll enjoy the match. Before we head over my friend(L2 Judge) gets me and calls me over to the judge table. I knew 100% what was happening. If you get called to the judge table before top 8 you made a decklist error... SOO BACK STORY!! During the beginning of the event the lights went out as I was writing my decklist and I made a mistake during this time. I wrote out "Silvergill" and not "Silvergill Adept" and ya know, they probably would have forgiven that with judge's discretion. Unfortunately, I made a HUGE mistake!!! I wrote down Master of Waves twice instead of Master of the Pearl Trident. Soooo, i go in with a game 1 loss. Ugh, whatever I just need to win every match right? RIGHT! At least we can all take away a lesson from this, PRINT OUT YOUR DECKLISTS PEOPLE! DO NOT WRITE THEM OUT BUT TYPE THEM SO YOU CAN'T MAKE A MISTAKE, that is all.
Anyways, so the quarter finals.. Yeah...
Quarter Finals 0-2 Fishy Fishy Fish On the play.
Yeah we both mulliganed into an oblivion and he had better action. Not to put it all on luck, Mattheu played tightly and would have absolutely lost if he was a bit more greedy but he made the better plays and got the win in.
Hey, it's Kevin Rogers again. What i find funny is that nobody noticed that i made top 8 two ATL classics in a row or that the gentleman who won came in 12th at the last ATL classic. It's funny, Mattheu, Mrs. Long and myself met up before the player meeting to talk our decklists. I was pushing mattheu to play negates but he felt confident enough against combo. At the same time he grilled me on my 11 lord plan instead of playing a 3rd Reejery. After testing saturday we agreed pierce was miserable all day and i traded mine for more counters in the sb and mainboard tidebinders who overperformed all day.
I will make a report soon and Mattheu should have one up on the reddit page FishMTG.
ATL has firmly become our swimming grounds and we look forward to top 8 in the next one.
Scapeshift is tough because of the lack of counterspells i'll concede that.
Maybe it's just my opponents continually seem to play 2-3 eldrazi a turn past turn 3. Maybe it's not as bad as I thought. But those are the only decks so far giving me any trouble, I haven't had much issues with anything else.
Chalice's main steal so many games I don't know if I want to go back to not playing them. I will def try out unified will in place of the contortions, perhaps find room for a 3rd MB.
4 Tectonic Edges in your sideboard and you'll never lose to scapeshift again. I think this isn't the right meta for chalice mainboard and you might be forcing it too hard. I'm of course a fishy player who's never really been fond of chalice in modern since T-Cruise.
Thanks for the report, Kevin, and congrats on doing well! Do you think Chalice of the Void would have helped you win any of these matchups more comfortably (or turned some of your Ls into Ws)?
It would have been better than dispel this particular tournament and it would have likely beaten todd if it resolved turn 2. His deck was off the wall what i am used to seeing for hooting delver though. Infect could have been better but i never felt like i needed it. Burn would have felt a lot better with chalice on the play but im not sure i need it on the draw.
Im way more worried about finding a alot for tidebinder number 3. Probably cutting a negate.
Hey guys, Kevin Rogers again. I just wanted to let you know there were I believe 2-3 Merfolk players in 32-17th place who's lists didn't get published. I lost my notepad half-way through the tournament so I've written down everything I remember. Fish was everywhere at the top tables at round 4 for example then slowly shifted to x-2 and x-3.
I was actually playing Nikachu's(with his permission) exact list.
Match 1 BW Tokens 2-1 Game one went swimmingly(PUN INTENDED). I curved out perfectly with a vial turn 1. He had a removal light hand but managed a bitterblossom turn 2 to match me. Through the game he amassed a few tokens, intangible virtue and then sorin to swing for 9(he had previously blocked a lord to prevent damage with a fae). Spreading seas into lord sealed the deal killing sorin with one creature and him scooping after drawing nothing relevent. I forgot the second game's details but I lost miserably. Game 3 I was on my way to lose but a timely negate on his timely reinforcements(see what I did there?)spreading seas turn 2 to cut him off turn 3 procession, tectonic edge on his windbrisk heights(his 2nd white source) and an echoing truth after a lingering souls and flashback cleared his field and everything fell apart.I felt like I would have lost regardless without that echoing truth blow out. The reason he would have won was a very good play where he killed all of my creatures when I cast a phantasmal image. It left my entire board empty but with 5 lands on turn 3.
-4 vials(a general rule I use is that thoughtseize effects make vial bad)-2 tidebinder, -1 master of waves(I want 21 lands without vial here to curve out and he played lots of relevent lands to blow up I also wanted full reejereys for zealous persecution) +3 negate +2 echoing Truth, +2 tectonic edge
Match 2 Grishoalbrand 2-0 This guy was cool as hell huge shout out to Tye Copeland in the top 16. Game one he couldn't get the combo in time for my clock. I figured out what he was on luckily from his night's whisper. Game 2 he had the dream... Turn 2 griselbrand while I had tapped out for a vial. This unlucky bastard drew 21 cards and only saw 1 nourishing shoals. At 2 lands he was screwed with my T1 vial. I topdecked relic and exiled his GY. He never quite and never scooped until the moment I swung for lethal. He even managed to through the breach a griselbrand the turn before I was going to kill him in an attempt but I unlucky had harbinger with a vial on 2 to seal the game. I had an image as well but that's just more outs.
-2 tidebinder mages, -3 master of waves, -4 spreading seas, +3 negates, +2 dispel, +2 relics, +2 echoing truth
Match 3 Infect 2-1 Game 1 I kept a solid hand for anything and everything but infect unfortuantely. He had zero interaction for him and my lords weren't fast enough for his turn 3 unblockable kill. Game 2 was a turn 2 harbinger on his noble hierarch into a fast clock and just enough disruption to never be in danger of an infect creature swinging. Game 3 was a little bit different but very hard fought on both sides. A turn 2 tidebinder mage locked his only infect creature down(a glistener elf). He proceeded to draw 0 of his infect creatures outside of inkmoth nexus which were promptly answered by spreading seas the following turn. He turned on the direct damage plan fetching a dryad arbor and playing a total of 3 hierarchs. Another tidebinder mage tappped down his dryad arbor and an on upkeep echoing truth bought the tempo I needed to seal the deal.
-2 Phantasmal Image, -3 master of waves +2 dispel, +2 dismember, +1 echoing truth. I find spreading seas to be very good since we have few ways to interact with inkmoth nexus. The infect player was kind of salty implying this was not a good decision.
Match 4 BW Midrange 2-0 This gentleman is a wonderful fellow and an Atlanta local I played before at FNM so we each knew what we were on. Game one was super unfortunate..... He had a mulligan down to 5 and I had generic flood lord into battlefield with vial hand. Game 2 was a wonderful game of magic. I would have 100% lost this game if I didn't know his deck. It's like a mixture between Junk without green, Tokens and BW control. He has pack rat, lingering souls, wrath of god, dark confidant, blade splicer all while backed up with hand disruption and paths. This deck is super sexy and spicy. He goes all in on turn 2 packrat plan. I bide my time waiting for him to make a mistake or open himself to 2 for 1s but he plays super tight. I negate his timely reinforcements which I actually think won me the game overall. We trade resources back and forth all through the game. He finally goes in hard on the packrat plan when he lands a liliana and starts getting value. I echoing truthed 1 packrat and 2 tokens to his hand resetting the field. He got them back online with mutavaults to back them up. One play I was absolutely proud of was when he had 0 cards in hand I had a harbinger with 6 mana open. He +1 liliana and I bounced his physical pack-rat to his hand making. Tectonic edge was a huge blow out able to kill his mutavault and create a terrible situation where he lost everything on board while I lost 1 silvergill. He petered out as I just topdecked better with a higher threat density.
-4 aether vials, -3 merrow reejereys, -2 tidebinder mages +4 tectonic edges, +3 negates, +2 echoing truth Treated him like a control deck with token aspects I also knew he played Sorin and I believe the new Gideon even if we didn't see them.
Match 5 Burn without Nacatl 2-0 He was stuck on 1 land until turn 3 and I had a turn 2 spreading seas. Game 2 I had tidebinder, image tidebinder, image tidebinder when he had a creature heavy hand and a double eidolon. If he played anything he died after all the shocks and my swing. Another really cool player though, we spoke for a while.
-4 spreading seas +2 dispel, +2 tectonic edge. I really wanted to curve out this match-up and I don't like relying on spreading seas for tempo when it's most often a 2 mana cycle. I am considering testing it on the play but 100% out on the draw.
Match 6 Affinity. 0-2 He beat me on a mulligan to 4, jesus christ... Game 2 I almost beat him when he mulliganed to 4.... GE-GE
-2 tidebinder mages, -2 master of waves +2 Dismember +2 Echoing Truth
Match 7 Infect. 2-1 I actually won this game on the draw to my surprise. Mainboard tidebinder was the hero of the day. The game 1 was is fuzzy.. I don't remember much but I remember winning. Game 2 I felt 100% in control only to be blown out. I killed all of his creatures or tapped them. He played inkmoth nexus which I spreading seas and played lord. I tapped out to do this which he used nature's claim to kill the sea.... He crack-backed for lethal. Game 3 was unfortunate for him. He took a gamble and it didn't pay off. His T1 glistener elf was met with a dismember and he couldn't pull it off after that. He had a T2 win if I didn't answer glistener elf. I was proud to play around nature's claim this game by double spreading seas on his inkmoth nexus but it didn't matter. He drew 0 creatures the rest the game.
Same SB as match 3
Match 8 Affinity - Draw. I was so happy when he drew with me, I thought he was going to be an ******** and just dreamcrush me but he let me in. He was the 3rd seed so I <3 you Cody Beamish and wish to return the favor in the future if I can.
Match 9(top 8) Nacatl Burn 2-1 Game 1 was a fine game with things getting spell pierced, trades happened and a turn 1 vial glides me to victory. Game 2 was a turn 1 goblin guide no land. Turn 2 double guide no land. I couldn't come back. Game 3 I don't remember the details, I was playing on pure adrenaline. The final turn came down to a nacatl with him having 3 cards in hand and I have 6 life. He had 4 mana and I had cursecatcher on the field. I just resolved master and had an extra creature to block in case of path to exile. He had Boros Charm, land and drew a destructive revelry. GG sir.
I wanted to note that I actually cut my vials on the play in game 3. I didn't think I would need the tempo and just played 2 more negates and 2 more teconic edges.
Match 10 0-2 Todd Anderson drew hot gas. He had all the right answers and phyrexian mana is pretty amazing on a flashback. Vapor snag snap vapor snag felt way worse than bolt snap bolt largely because he did it to my master of waves. Both games were the exact same story and to be honest I don't remember my SB. Todd was cool and i liked playing against him though.
I probably cut my spreading seas for dismember and dispel is my guess.
Hi guys, I'm Kevin Rogers who placed 3rd. Expect a quick tournament report from me in the next few days. Tested Nikachu's list, loved it and rocked it. Todd Anderson drew hot fire both games against me. Vapor snag is not the nicest thing to see when they have snapcaters and goyfs.
In general decks like Tron and Eldrazi were hated out by round 3. As one of the very good tron players i followed put it. "I played infect, infect, burn, burn before I dropped 0-x."
166 players
My matches were
1 BW Tokens
2 GrishoalBrand(the guy who came in 15th, really cool guy)
3 Infect
4 BW Midrange(weird mix of Junk without green, Tokens and wraths postboard. Pack rat, dark confidant, the deck was awesome and he came in top 32. An Atlanta local I play a lot)
5 Burn without Nacatl
6 Affinity(only loss)
7 Infect
8 Affinity (draw)
9(top 8) Nacatl Burn
10 Temur Delver (Curse you Todd!)
It will be fine. Merfolk is a difficult deck to hate out directly unlike affinity. The only card that effectively hates us is ensnaring bridge which is very mediocre against the general field.
General question here. With Merfolk now being tier 1, do you guys think that builds with a white splash may become more popular? I only ask this because I have to assume that the deck will rise in popularity and people will start adding cards in their decks to hate on the more popular mono blue builds.
I don't think so. Mono blue version is still the best imo and with adding white you only get your mana base worse and more vulnerable to Spreading seas and similar effect. It doesn't add enough to be worth.
Says the Jund player.
The Mono Blue version is still the best currently. Playing the white splash is a huge meta call and almost exclusively dependent on whether you have a large amount of affinity there. You also don't die to blood moon which is a pretty popular card right now. If you want to play around choke just play 3-4 wanderwine hubs. I can't think of anything other than choke and boil that hates on only the mono blue build.
"Are you familiar with the card Oblivion Stone? It only needs 5 land to destroy literally all the work you have done. Seas claim in conjunction with Spreading seas is not as good as Tectonic Edge and Spreading seas for this reason."
If you'll notice I said Spreading Seas in conjunction with Tectonic Edge. Tectonic Edge keeps them off 5 lands and Spreading Seas keeps them off Tron. Sea's Claim and Spreading Seas only keeps them off Tron. Are you familiar with a Straw Man Argument? I'm pretty sure I explicitly said last page you need both tools.
If you lose to Amulet or GR tron while playing eight seas then you need to seriously reevaluate your decision making during the process of the game.
This is the statement you made that I have an issue with.
You should also have more respect for Tron, it's not simply a by because you're running so much land disruption. My win % is absurdly high against tron as well but it's because of Tectonic Edge.
I don't understand how you can expect to kill tron by turn 5 by using so much tempo and resources on their lands. It really seems like the plan is vial on turn 1 or bust. Pyroclasm is a card but it shouldn't be an issue as long as you don't fall into the turn 2 silvergill trap.
Sea's Claim has merit against the 3+ color decks and maybe bloom but Tron is not a reason to play sea's claim.
Jund 2 i had to mulligan to 5, crush game 2 and game 3 i had to mulligan to an awkward 6. These mulligans all had 1 land or no land. He played turn 2 Bob flip land, turn 3 liliana then flipped goyf, goyf, land, land.
My final Jund opponent i beat game one, game 2 was similar to jund 1. Draw significant number of lands and any lord wins. He has the right removal at the right time. Abrupt decay for kira etc. Game 3 mulliganed to an awkward 6 and he had turn 2 flayer then turn 3 liliana.
You might want to consider Dismember as a permanent solution if you have a high infect or BGx meta. Tidebinder Mage is good enough I currently play 2 mainboard and if I didn't play Tectonic edge I would play 2 more in my SB. I would have a split of Negate/Spell Pierce/Dispel rather than having such a huge amount of them. If you have access to Chalice of the void you might consider it. Spell Pierce is not well positioned right now but it's still a great counterspell in general. Perhaps a 3/3/2 split might be appropriate for your counterspells.
Shout out to Nikachu for his videos helping. I wasn't handed down a list from the heavens this time
Enough about the crap nobody cares about! Let's talk about the MATCHES
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=103771
This is my decklist for reference^^^^
Round 1 Nahiri Control. 2-0 I won the dice roll. Game one was about as good as this match can possibly go. I had multiple spreading seas and creatures with a vial. My opponent lacked the early creature interaction to properly deal with my creature dense hand and draws. I managed to cut him out of his red sources securing a quick victory with a lethal swing on turn 5. Game 2 went a little bit differently and has me seriously reconsidering some decisions I make when I sideboard against this match-up. My opponent fetched down to 19 at my EOT after I played a vial to follow it up with a turn 2 stony silence. I've been seeing this play more and more often and it has me considering to cut aether vials out. It's super powerful to play around wrath effects and blank their counterspells but I am absolutely tired of having this plan shut down every time I play this deck. I proceed to curve out my creatures by force starting with a silvergill. My opponent kills the silvergill pretty quickly with a bolt followed by serum visions holding up a fetchland as his third land. I felt pretty good about this moment staring at a kira sitting in my hand. With his shields down I untapped and jam the kira onto the field(it's important to note I played a tectonic edge this turn). My opponent then has a moment where I guess he got tilted by the kira and fetched away his serum scry only to realize his mistake when he drew his card. His 4th land was a loot-house. He passed turn with all of his mana untapped. I play my second tectonic edge and holding priority destroy both of his white lands. He loots in response but the next 3 turns are just him never being able to secure another white source dying to uncontested creatures with only paths and a single bolt in his hand.
-3 Harbinger of the Tides
-2 Merrow Reejery
-2 Tidebinder Mages
-2 Dismember
-1 Phantasmal Image
+4 Tectonic Edge
+2 Dispel
+2 Negate (Hits Nahiri and I hve seen them shift more to anger and wrath of god over supreme verdict)
+2 Relic of Progenitus
Round 2 Jund 1-2 I lost the dice roll. Talk about some salt from me on this match-up. It felt like my opponent had the perfect everything. The first game starts off with a turn 2 Bob while I'm on the draw with no removal for him. We actually had quite a game despite 6 total bob activations with 4 of them being lands. I managed to get him down to 6 life and if I had been on the play I would have won this game. I unfortunately don't have any details about this match written down due to my rain of salt. The player was a good jund player and a local so I made sure to let him know I wasn't mad at him just salty. I won game 2 with what seems to be a regular flood the field plan and him not having the proper removal. Game 3 was the worst... T1 seal of fire, T2 BOB, T3 BOB+Inqusition. I counted 7 bob activations this game with all 7 of them being lands. It just didn't feel like games to me, it felt more like divine punishment for being so cocky about my Jund match-up(this makes me 7-2 in COMP REL against Jund).
-4 Aether Vial
-3 Harbinger of the Tides
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+2 Tectonic Edge
+2 Dispel(Aiming for terminate at a key moment and kologhan's command specifically)
+1 Dismember
Round 3 Suicide Zoo 2-1 I lost the dice roll. After going out of the building and getting my hissy fit out of the way I ate a ham sammich and calmed myself down. I go in fresh with resolve to spike the rest of the tournament(Spoiler alert! That's what I go on to do!) The gentleman I played with was great and an awesome person to just talk to and joke around the entire match. I always love it when I get to play a game with the seriousness of COMP but the tone of REG. Homeboy smacks me in the face turn 1 with a swiftspear for 1. I think to myself, that it's a burn deck and I have a dismember so it's probably best to just kill the damn thing down before it deals 5+ damage to me. He curves himself out into a swiftspear and Gitaxian probes me twice paying the life and that's when it hits me... I'm playing against suicide zoo! CRAP!!! So he smacks me down for 4 followed by a Nacatl and fetches for an untapped godless shrine. I pass the turn and the only thing I can do reasonably is cast a silvergill to hope to draw a harbinger or more removal. His next turn he cats mishra's bauble and swings. I do some calculations and he only has 2 cards left in hand so at worst case scenario it could be a become immense and temur battlerage which he had the mana for both after another fetch/shock and there wasn't another scenario I could think of that would kill me and blocking with silvergill doesn't stop anything so I take it. He doesn't do anything else and brings me down to 10. I'm sitting here shaking in my boots praying to draw a harbinger to stablize but the best that came was a lord. I jam him out there sitting with a 4th land and a master of waves in hand for next turn ready to treat his creatures with a wall of elementals.... He draws his card from bauble and he plays down a 4th land(land flooded for that deck I guess) and swings in. I'm ready this time so i declare blocks.. And there it was, mutagenic growth on swiftspear and a temur battlerage killing both my creatures while he loses none and I lose both. I jam the master anyway but his next play was another siftspear and a battlerage. Game 2 was a little bit better for me. I had a pretty great hand this game with a dismember and tons of threats including harbinger. I turn 1 hold up dismember which he plays a Nacatl turn 1 to eat it.I drew a second spreading seas and decided to risk the mana denial plan. I hit his hand and his face told all. As soon as he saw the spreading sea I could tell he was in trouble. He played a second land but I don't think he did anything super relevant other than shock himself and g probe. At this point I was pretty confident he was color screwed so I hit his second land with a spreading seas. He plays a death's shadow at 11 life and only a overgrown tomb in play able to make mana. I managed to curve out into a cursecatcher and a silvergill. He swings with his death's shadow and I'm at 16 life so I think to myself "He can't possibly do that much damage!" so I told him no blocks.... He shows me Mutagenic, Mutagenic, Become Immense playing around cursecatcher. Homeboy was hitting me for 14 damage..... I just do what I can and take it. I play a harbinger of the tides to bounce it and swing for 3 to bring him to 4 life. He replays the death shadow and I noticed something different about this one. The first Death's Shadow was a nonfoil and this one was foil. He only had 2 cards in his hand so this gave me a lot of information. I actually called him out on it mid-match with our joyous tone we had been continuing. He sort of facepalms and I explain to him that's why I play all my islands with the same art. We go into my turn and I slam down a master of the pearl trident and triumphantly swing for lethal. Game 3 was a little bit different from the others and really caught me off guard. He didn't have a turn 1 creature to play but I had a turn 1 vial and was feeling really good right now. He untaps and places down Stony Silence. I'm sitting here scratching my head over why did this guy bring in silence against me. I'm staring down 2 more lands, a harbinger, dispel, dismember and some creatures. This still felt pretty great!! The creatures come raining down from my hand crushing his tempo with harbinger and killing him with lords. I'm holding up a blue mana this whole game ready for his alpha strike. He swings with a death's shadow as a 2/2 but I'm confident with my dispel it won't matter so I take it. Some sort of story as last game with mutagenic, mutagenic temur battlerage threatening me with lethal damage but dispel took care of the battlerage and I just go down to 9 life to kill him on the crackback.
-2 Kira
-1 Master
+2 Dispel
+1 Dismember
Round 4 Abzan CoCo 2-0 Won the dice roll. So this gentleman was actually a local from Savannah that I was acquainted with from when I lived/played there. Starts out a good tone and I'm feeling great after my last win and seeing a good hand. It doesn't have a vial but a great curve nonetheless. I play island holding up a dismember for anything he might have. My opponent plays a forest and then a bird of paradise. I almost go for the kill before I look at my hand and see Tidebinder Mage!!! I draw my next card and jam that tidebinder mage down hard. My opponent bricks the 4 turns with no real action other than a COCO that fails to keep him alive through my onslaught of lords and other pressure. Game 2 was a little bit more of a game but he still had a pretty slow hand. Had another great hand but I didn't really have any good removal other than harbinger. I play a silvergill out turn 2 to an empty field and my opponent replies with a kitchen finks. I think no big deal and curve into a merrow reejery(played a mutavault this turn which is important) staring down my singleton phantasmal image with 2 lords and a harbinger of the tides. My opponent takes his turn to chord of calling for 1 while I'm tapped out for a vicera seer. I waste no time copying my reej with image into lord, lord, harbinger(bounce kitchen finks) animate mutavault and swing for a lot of damage. He stares at his hand intensely and plays the kitchen finks again. I don't think it really matters what he does but hes at least still trying. I animate my mutavaults(had 2 at this point, one was the 4th land. I forgot to mention). I've already done the calculation and I know he has 0 outs and I have lethal but I let him count it out himself for a few minutes(we have like 30 minutes left in the round) and he concedes when he realizes he can't get out of it. He reveals his hand to me showing BOTH combos right there. He had infinite damage and infinite life ready to go. If I hadn't harbinger the finks on that turn he was going to combo me out of the game.
-3 Cursecatcher
-2 Kira
+2 Dispel(counters chord and co-co, usually how they beat us)
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+1 Dismember
Round 5 Mono White Death and Taxes 2-1. Lost the dice roll. So this guy is actually 15 years old I believe and plays at a local store near me. He's doing incredibly well(came in top 32)both for his age and I would argue for the deck itself. His deck wasn't a D&T eldrazi build but a mono white flicker build but it still utilized Eldrazi Displacer. Game one I was actually feeling incredibly favored. We both had a vial turn 1 and I know my creatures are going to be bigger in general... Or so I though. He starts shooting out the regular things like Thalia, leonin arbiter but when he played Blade splicer I knew I was in for a rough time. Now I have to play around flickerwisp and restoration angel at instant speed I thought to myself... My saving grace was a Kira that had landed on the field. My hand sort of just never comes together and he gets a little too much value off blade splicer and flickerwisp but the thing that seals the deal is an eldrazi displacer. He displaces my master of waves to trigger kira and then path to exiles him. The second game nothing interesting happened. We both had vials turn 1 and every card I played was a lord. When your lords are 6/6s they stop caring about 3/1s and 3/3s. I had more creatures and they were all bigger. Game 3 was a bit more interesting but he unfortunately had to mulligan down to a mediocre 6. We both have a turn 1 vial(all 3 games!). The only value I get out of mine was a cursecatcher and I'm holding up a master of the pearl trident ready to flash him in. He had already gotten a bit more value out of vial with his Thalia and he activates it on his turn 4. I think no big deal that's cool. It's a stupid Phyrexian Revoker :(... He names Aether Vial and I'm forced to curve with lands. My hand was pretty good fortunately. I had a turn 3 Reejery and another one in my hand, I just needed to draw a land. The land didn't come that turn so I just played master of the pearl trident and swung in after tapping a creature for ~4 damage. His next turn had a blade splicer to make more blockers. I manage to get my 4th land and then drop the rest of it including a spreading seas on his tapped ghost quarter. He couldn't stop the wave of unblockable fish in the next two turns so I got it.
-2 Tidebinder Mage
+1 Dismember
+1 Echoing Truth
Round 6 Abzan Coco Midrange(no combo) 2-0 Won the dice roll. This deck was actually super interesting and threw me through a loop in the first couple turns. He had a T1 BOP but a turn 2 Lingering Souls. Lingering Souls screamed some kind of midrange/value deck to me so I just figured it was Abzan that used birds(i've seen a few). While he has the shields down I play a kira. He flashbacks lingering souls and plays a goyf so that wasn't fun but it solidified my initial assessment. I continued to curve out. My creatures are protected by kira and I don't see any decays and at the same time she is holding off the spirit tokens. I just manage to get there by playing more creatures and eventually a spreading seas swinging with 1-2 fish at a time until I could just get him for lethal. Game 2 I felt really awful for the guy because he seemed like a competent player. He mulliganed down to 5 on the play after he sideboarded 10 cards into a control deck. I just wittled away at his life and dismembered his only goyf. He showed me the deck and it was really sweet, he likely would have made top 8 if I had lost. Unfortunately he had a bad tron game and made top 32 so you guys didn't get to see his deck(his friend made top 32 playing the same list).
-4 Vial
-4 Cursecatcher
+3 Tectonic Edge(I saw him pull out 10 SB cards and assumed he went more control.. Which he did so I sideboarded more appropriately after I saw this)
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+2 Dispel
+1 Dismember
Round 7 Abzan Aristocrats(Top 8 guy) 2-0 I won the dice roll. This deck was absolutely sweet and I loved every second. Game 1 was a quick game. He didn't keep quick action and I had a good curve. I throw out the lords and just roll him down. I actually thought he was a COCO combo so I sideboarded how I did with the previous one in round 4 but something felt off so I put in an echoing truth just in case. Game 2 the cat was out of the bag as soon as I saw a stupid Saytr that mills 5 cards for a land or something. I 100% knew this list as soon as that happened(I play it on cockatrice for funsies). This game I don't have details of what I did but he had a super awesome play I'd like to point out. He swung with an elemental token as a 1/1 so I said no blocks and then he rally the ancients against me to make it a 6/6. I went to 14 and he got a sac outlet with the new blood artist ally in play and his voice back. I curve out but I hold up an echoing truth waiting for him to saw his voice before everything gets exiled. He sacs everything at the end of my turn and after it's all done I bounce his tokens leaving him with an empty field. He lost to my crackback in the next 2 turns not really able to recover.
In hindsight this is how I would have SB if I knew game 1.
Round 8 RG Tron 2-1 I won the dice roll. Game 1 was pretty quick. I had a vial and spreading seas with enough pressure to kill him before he could get tron online. Game 2 I didn't get enough disruption and he lands ugin before I can get lethal in. Game 3 he mulligans down to a mediocre 6 and I have a great hand to punish it. I have a double spreading seas, negate and some fish with 3 lands. I played a vial turn 1 and a creature on turn 2. I held up negate for the rest of the game just playing off vial. The reason I didn't play spreading seas was because of his first 2 lands. He played Forest turn 1 and then Burngrove turn 2. I didn't really have any reason to not just hold up negate for the oblivion stone. On his turn 4 he plays the oblivion stone where I negate it. I bring him down to 11 life in that attack and spreading seas both of his tron pieces threatening lethal next turn. He draws his card and concedes. This is what locked me into top 8 as the 4th seed.
-2 Kira
-2 Dismember
-2 Cursecatcher
+4 Tectonic Edge
+2 Negate
So I'm celebrating with Mattheu the whole time(fish bros for life <3!!) Both of us secured a top 8!! We wait around for a good 30 minutes feeling happy and giddy(especially me since it was back to back for myself). We find out after the announcement of the top 8 over the speaker that unfortunately we play in quarter finals. Whatever, best fish wins right!? At least we'll enjoy the match. Before we head over my friend(L2 Judge) gets me and calls me over to the judge table. I knew 100% what was happening. If you get called to the judge table before top 8 you made a decklist error... SOO BACK STORY!! During the beginning of the event the lights went out as I was writing my decklist and I made a mistake during this time. I wrote out "Silvergill" and not "Silvergill Adept" and ya know, they probably would have forgiven that with judge's discretion. Unfortunately, I made a HUGE mistake!!! I wrote down Master of Waves twice instead of Master of the Pearl Trident. Soooo, i go in with a game 1 loss. Ugh, whatever I just need to win every match right? RIGHT! At least we can all take away a lesson from this, PRINT OUT YOUR DECKLISTS PEOPLE! DO NOT WRITE THEM OUT BUT TYPE THEM SO YOU CAN'T MAKE A MISTAKE, that is all.
Anyways, so the quarter finals.. Yeah...
Quarter Finals 0-2 Fishy Fishy Fish On the play.
Yeah we both mulliganed into an oblivion and he had better action. Not to put it all on luck, Mattheu played tightly and would have absolutely lost if he was a bit more greedy but he made the better plays and got the win in.
So yeah, if you have any questions let me know!
I will make a report soon and Mattheu should have one up on the reddit page FishMTG.
ATL has firmly become our swimming grounds and we look forward to top 8 in the next one.
4 Tectonic Edges in your sideboard and you'll never lose to scapeshift again. I think this isn't the right meta for chalice mainboard and you might be forcing it too hard. I'm of course a fishy player who's never really been fond of chalice in modern since T-Cruise.
It would have been better than dispel this particular tournament and it would have likely beaten todd if it resolved turn 2. His deck was off the wall what i am used to seeing for hooting delver though. Infect could have been better but i never felt like i needed it. Burn would have felt a lot better with chalice on the play but im not sure i need it on the draw.
Im way more worried about finding a alot for tidebinder number 3. Probably cutting a negate.
I was actually playing Nikachu's(with his permission) exact list.
Match 1 BW Tokens 2-1 Game one went swimmingly(PUN INTENDED). I curved out perfectly with a vial turn 1. He had a removal light hand but managed a bitterblossom turn 2 to match me. Through the game he amassed a few tokens, intangible virtue and then sorin to swing for 9(he had previously blocked a lord to prevent damage with a fae). Spreading seas into lord sealed the deal killing sorin with one creature and him scooping after drawing nothing relevent. I forgot the second game's details but I lost miserably. Game 3 I was on my way to lose but a timely negate on his timely reinforcements(see what I did there?)spreading seas turn 2 to cut him off turn 3 procession, tectonic edge on his windbrisk heights(his 2nd white source) and an echoing truth after a lingering souls and flashback cleared his field and everything fell apart.I felt like I would have lost regardless without that echoing truth blow out. The reason he would have won was a very good play where he killed all of my creatures when I cast a phantasmal image. It left my entire board empty but with 5 lands on turn 3.
-4 vials(a general rule I use is that thoughtseize effects make vial bad)-2 tidebinder, -1 master of waves(I want 21 lands without vial here to curve out and he played lots of relevent lands to blow up I also wanted full reejereys for zealous persecution) +3 negate +2 echoing Truth, +2 tectonic edge
Match 2 Grishoalbrand 2-0 This guy was cool as hell huge shout out to Tye Copeland in the top 16. Game one he couldn't get the combo in time for my clock. I figured out what he was on luckily from his night's whisper. Game 2 he had the dream... Turn 2 griselbrand while I had tapped out for a vial. This unlucky bastard drew 21 cards and only saw 1 nourishing shoals. At 2 lands he was screwed with my T1 vial. I topdecked relic and exiled his GY. He never quite and never scooped until the moment I swung for lethal. He even managed to through the breach a griselbrand the turn before I was going to kill him in an attempt but I unlucky had harbinger with a vial on 2 to seal the game. I had an image as well but that's just more outs.
-2 tidebinder mages, -3 master of waves, -4 spreading seas, +3 negates, +2 dispel, +2 relics, +2 echoing truth
Match 3 Infect 2-1 Game 1 I kept a solid hand for anything and everything but infect unfortuantely. He had zero interaction for him and my lords weren't fast enough for his turn 3 unblockable kill. Game 2 was a turn 2 harbinger on his noble hierarch into a fast clock and just enough disruption to never be in danger of an infect creature swinging. Game 3 was a little bit different but very hard fought on both sides. A turn 2 tidebinder mage locked his only infect creature down(a glistener elf). He proceeded to draw 0 of his infect creatures outside of inkmoth nexus which were promptly answered by spreading seas the following turn. He turned on the direct damage plan fetching a dryad arbor and playing a total of 3 hierarchs. Another tidebinder mage tappped down his dryad arbor and an on upkeep echoing truth bought the tempo I needed to seal the deal.
-2 Phantasmal Image, -3 master of waves +2 dispel, +2 dismember, +1 echoing truth. I find spreading seas to be very good since we have few ways to interact with inkmoth nexus. The infect player was kind of salty implying this was not a good decision.
Match 4 BW Midrange 2-0 This gentleman is a wonderful fellow and an Atlanta local I played before at FNM so we each knew what we were on. Game one was super unfortunate..... He had a mulligan down to 5 and I had generic flood lord into battlefield with vial hand. Game 2 was a wonderful game of magic. I would have 100% lost this game if I didn't know his deck. It's like a mixture between Junk without green, Tokens and BW control. He has pack rat, lingering souls, wrath of god, dark confidant, blade splicer all while backed up with hand disruption and paths. This deck is super sexy and spicy. He goes all in on turn 2 packrat plan. I bide my time waiting for him to make a mistake or open himself to 2 for 1s but he plays super tight. I negate his timely reinforcements which I actually think won me the game overall. We trade resources back and forth all through the game. He finally goes in hard on the packrat plan when he lands a liliana and starts getting value. I echoing truthed 1 packrat and 2 tokens to his hand resetting the field. He got them back online with mutavaults to back them up. One play I was absolutely proud of was when he had 0 cards in hand I had a harbinger with 6 mana open. He +1 liliana and I bounced his physical pack-rat to his hand making. Tectonic edge was a huge blow out able to kill his mutavault and create a terrible situation where he lost everything on board while I lost 1 silvergill. He petered out as I just topdecked better with a higher threat density.
-4 aether vials, -3 merrow reejereys, -2 tidebinder mages +4 tectonic edges, +3 negates, +2 echoing truth Treated him like a control deck with token aspects I also knew he played Sorin and I believe the new Gideon even if we didn't see them.
Match 5 Burn without Nacatl 2-0 He was stuck on 1 land until turn 3 and I had a turn 2 spreading seas. Game 2 I had tidebinder, image tidebinder, image tidebinder when he had a creature heavy hand and a double eidolon. If he played anything he died after all the shocks and my swing. Another really cool player though, we spoke for a while.
-4 spreading seas +2 dispel, +2 tectonic edge. I really wanted to curve out this match-up and I don't like relying on spreading seas for tempo when it's most often a 2 mana cycle. I am considering testing it on the play but 100% out on the draw.
Match 6 Affinity. 0-2 He beat me on a mulligan to 4, jesus christ... Game 2 I almost beat him when he mulliganed to 4.... GE-GE
-2 tidebinder mages, -2 master of waves +2 Dismember +2 Echoing Truth
Match 7 Infect. 2-1 I actually won this game on the draw to my surprise. Mainboard tidebinder was the hero of the day. The game 1 was is fuzzy.. I don't remember much but I remember winning. Game 2 I felt 100% in control only to be blown out. I killed all of his creatures or tapped them. He played inkmoth nexus which I spreading seas and played lord. I tapped out to do this which he used nature's claim to kill the sea.... He crack-backed for lethal. Game 3 was unfortunate for him. He took a gamble and it didn't pay off. His T1 glistener elf was met with a dismember and he couldn't pull it off after that. He had a T2 win if I didn't answer glistener elf. I was proud to play around nature's claim this game by double spreading seas on his inkmoth nexus but it didn't matter. He drew 0 creatures the rest the game.
Same SB as match 3
Match 8 Affinity - Draw. I was so happy when he drew with me, I thought he was going to be an ******** and just dreamcrush me but he let me in. He was the 3rd seed so I <3 you Cody Beamish and wish to return the favor in the future if I can.
Match 9(top 8) Nacatl Burn 2-1 Game 1 was a fine game with things getting spell pierced, trades happened and a turn 1 vial glides me to victory. Game 2 was a turn 1 goblin guide no land. Turn 2 double guide no land. I couldn't come back. Game 3 I don't remember the details, I was playing on pure adrenaline. The final turn came down to a nacatl with him having 3 cards in hand and I have 6 life. He had 4 mana and I had cursecatcher on the field. I just resolved master and had an extra creature to block in case of path to exile. He had Boros Charm, land and drew a destructive revelry. GG sir.
I wanted to note that I actually cut my vials on the play in game 3. I didn't think I would need the tempo and just played 2 more negates and 2 more teconic edges.
Match 10 0-2 Todd Anderson drew hot gas. He had all the right answers and phyrexian mana is pretty amazing on a flashback. Vapor snag snap vapor snag felt way worse than bolt snap bolt largely because he did it to my master of waves. Both games were the exact same story and to be honest I don't remember my SB. Todd was cool and i liked playing against him though.
I probably cut my spreading seas for dismember and dispel is my guess.
In general decks like Tron and Eldrazi were hated out by round 3. As one of the very good tron players i followed put it. "I played infect, infect, burn, burn before I dropped 0-x."
166 players
My matches were
1 BW Tokens
2 GrishoalBrand(the guy who came in 15th, really cool guy)
3 Infect
4 BW Midrange(weird mix of Junk without green, Tokens and wraths postboard. Pack rat, dark confidant, the deck was awesome and he came in top 32. An Atlanta local I play a lot)
5 Burn without Nacatl
6 Affinity(only loss)
7 Infect
8 Affinity (draw)
9(top 8) Nacatl Burn
10 Temur Delver (Curse you Todd!)
The Mono Blue version is still the best currently. Playing the white splash is a huge meta call and almost exclusively dependent on whether you have a large amount of affinity there. You also don't die to blood moon which is a pretty popular card right now. If you want to play around choke just play 3-4 wanderwine hubs. I can't think of anything other than choke and boil that hates on only the mono blue build.
Says the Merfolk player
If you'll notice I said Spreading Seas in conjunction with Tectonic Edge. Tectonic Edge keeps them off 5 lands and Spreading Seas keeps them off Tron. Sea's Claim and Spreading Seas only keeps them off Tron. Are you familiar with a Straw Man Argument? I'm pretty sure I explicitly said last page you need both tools.
This is the statement you made that I have an issue with.
You should also have more respect for Tron, it's not simply a by because you're running so much land disruption. My win % is absurdly high against tron as well but it's because of Tectonic Edge.
Sea's Claim has merit against the 3+ color decks and maybe bloom but Tron is not a reason to play sea's claim.