What was your SB plan against KCI? I think the matchup should not be that difficult actually, between discard, removal, GY hate and Kambal the matchup feels okay to me.
KCI is actually a deck I still could not beat with Mardu. We do have discard, removal, GY hate and Kambal, but they have trawler/retriever/buried ruin to get back things we discarded. But both times I played against KCI the card that felt like the one that won the game was Inventors' Fair. My opponent was able to search for another KCI after I discarded the first one on G1 once, and also tutored Wurmcoil Engine on G2 more than once.
I agree. It was the last card I chose, because I wanted a 3rd Marsh Flats but did not have one. I also already managed to get 2 Goblin Rabblemaster to put on my SB. Besides that, deck felt a blast to play. Really solid.
After a few months away from the deck (lots of Eldrazi Tron players with turn 1 challice made me stop playing amulet for a while), I decided to play in a small 4-round event.
R1 - U/R Breach - 2x1
G1: I had turn 1 Scout, Turn 2 Double Amulet and a Titan in hand. But I was on the draw and he had blood moon on Turn 3 =(
G2: Turn 4 Titan with amulet on the table. He tapped out to play Jace and bounce Titan, and we all know that is not enough.
G3: I had 1 forest in play and 1 in hand, and my opponent played a blood moon with only island, field of ruin and steam vents. He died with 2 cryptic commands in hand and 2 islands in play.
R2 - Naya aggro - 2x0
I don´t even know if it's a real deck, but this guy plays it. Voice of Resurgence, Tarmogoyf, BBE, Qasali Pridemage, Hierarch, Rallier to return dead guys/seal of fire/lands. Whatever.
G1: He mulled to 5, but had hierarch into rallier returning a fetch. Next turn he had goyf + path on my azusa. I was at 10 life and played a titan without amulet, grabbing garden + fountain, and starring at double hierarch, qasali, goyf and rallier. On the following turn I attacked, got another plant token, gained extra life, played azusa and explosives on 2. He conceded.
G2: He spent turns 2 and 3 playing seal of primordium and qasali pridemage to blow 2 amulets. Then he played rallier to return qasali, and I played Ballista on 3, enough to kill both when he attacked. On the following turn I played Titan against a lonely voice of resurgence. GG.
R3 - UW Control - 2x0
G1: Titan into tolaria into titan into tolaria into titan into ballista, all backed up by a Turn 1 stirrings findind cavern of souls. GG.
G2: Turn 3 Titan, Turn 4 Tireless Tracker and attack with titan and playing azusa on the following turn and voilà: a billion clues. Blessed alliance took my tracker, and path took titan on the following turn. Ruric Thar on the table sealed the deal.
R4 - BR Hollow One - 2x1
G1: Turn 3 Titan, even on the draw, is usually good enough =)
G2: I had turn 2 azusa with forest and fountain in play and bounce in hand. He killed azusa and I never drew a fourth land, and two flameblade adepts + bloodghast + Gurmag angler were too much for me.
G3: I mulled to six with tolaria, gruul turf, stirrings, dismember, boros garrison and pact I think. Turn 1 tolaria, go. He felt my hand was slow, and thought about playing burning inquiry or not. He ended up playing adept. I drew amulet, played it, bounced tolaria back, stirrings for gemstone, tolaria, dismember. Then he played inquiry, which made me draw a baloth but not discard it =(, and also gave him a hollow one =( On my turn I played fountain, relic, popped it to prevent him from playing angler. Took a hit from hollow one, but had baloth on the next turn to trade, and Titan after that with a pact for another titan in hand. Bojuka bog and vesuva to copy fountain , and that was it. He showed me he had two 3 bloodghasts in hand when he played inquiry and none went to the graveyard =)
Deck felt great, I think I mulled to 6 just once or twice the whole night. I opted to play explosives + ghost quarter instead of firespout/kozilek's return because I was not expecting any fast aggro decks and some Tron and blood moon (3 of the 4 decks I played had moon). Also, not playing red sweepers allowed me to play 4 forests instead of 3, and I really like that.
Questions about sideboarding:
1) Is firespout or explosives any good against hollow one? I feel pretty scared everytime they goblin lore, but I'm not sure if we should try to prevent some of the damage or focus on chaining titans. Also, what do we take out against this deck? There were lots of cards I wanted (rec sage, dismember, relics, hornet queen, baloth)
R1 - G Tron - 0x2
Pretty much nothing I could do. Mulled to 6 on the draw, kept a hand with a ghost quarter and no mana dork. The guy went T1 mine map, T2 power plant,i blew up one of his lands, he searched for the other with the map, and next turn played sylvan scrying with the forest he got from GQ. T4 Karn, killed with 2 creatures from CoCo, Turn 5 Ulamog exiling both creatures, Turn 6 Ugin and I conceded. The next game was pretty much the same, I had an Unified Will but he just got a lot of threats in hand.
R2 - Skred - 2x0
A friend of ours plays a quite unusual skred list, with Ensnaring Bridges and Chandra ToD in addition to Koth. G1 he played two bridges and got me 2 life. My courser recovered some of my life, and I had both my tireless trackers and a KotR making me draw cards every turn. Eventually I drew my qasali and my witness and blew both bridges. G2 he played t3 blood moon and I had turn 3 Rec Sage. Turns 4 and 5 I played two KotR. He popped a relic to make my knights 2/2 and tried anger of the gods on the following turn, but I had played a GQ and grew my knights to 4/4s. He showed 3 more angers in hand and conceded.
R3 - Eldrazi Tron - 2x0
He did not play any Smashers on these games. Two Thought-Knot Seers, but my voices are pretty nice blockers for those =)
Both games I won hitting with spell quellers, and the only thing that scared me was All is Dust, but I kept Unified Will in hand to counter that.
R4 - BG Midrange - 2x0
All the value my creatures give were too much for him to handle. Both grindy games, but not that hard.
1
KCI is actually a deck I still could not beat with Mardu. We do have discard, removal, GY hate and Kambal, but they have trawler/retriever/buried ruin to get back things we discarded. But both times I played against KCI the card that felt like the one that won the game was Inventors' Fair. My opponent was able to search for another KCI after I discarded the first one on G1 once, and also tutored Wurmcoil Engine on G2 more than once.
1
1
1 Tireless Tracker
4 Sakura-Tribe Scout
4 Azusa, Lost But Seeking
4 Primeval Titan
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Amulet of Vigor
4 Summoner's Pact
4 Explore
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Pact of Negation
4 Forest
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Simic Growth Chamber
3 Gruul Turf
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Boros Garrison
3 Tolaria West
1 Khalni Garden
1 Radiant Fountain
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Sunhome, Fortress of The Legion
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Vesuva
2 Dismember
2 Obstinate Baloth
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Hornet Queen
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Ruric Thar, The Unbowed
R1 - U/R Breach - 2x1
G1: I had turn 1 Scout, Turn 2 Double Amulet and a Titan in hand. But I was on the draw and he had blood moon on Turn 3 =(
G2: Turn 4 Titan with amulet on the table. He tapped out to play Jace and bounce Titan, and we all know that is not enough.
G3: I had 1 forest in play and 1 in hand, and my opponent played a blood moon with only island, field of ruin and steam vents. He died with 2 cryptic commands in hand and 2 islands in play.
R2 - Naya aggro - 2x0
I don´t even know if it's a real deck, but this guy plays it. Voice of Resurgence, Tarmogoyf, BBE, Qasali Pridemage, Hierarch, Rallier to return dead guys/seal of fire/lands. Whatever.
G1: He mulled to 5, but had hierarch into rallier returning a fetch. Next turn he had goyf + path on my azusa. I was at 10 life and played a titan without amulet, grabbing garden + fountain, and starring at double hierarch, qasali, goyf and rallier. On the following turn I attacked, got another plant token, gained extra life, played azusa and explosives on 2. He conceded.
G2: He spent turns 2 and 3 playing seal of primordium and qasali pridemage to blow 2 amulets. Then he played rallier to return qasali, and I played Ballista on 3, enough to kill both when he attacked. On the following turn I played Titan against a lonely voice of resurgence. GG.
R3 - UW Control - 2x0
G1: Titan into tolaria into titan into tolaria into titan into ballista, all backed up by a Turn 1 stirrings findind cavern of souls. GG.
G2: Turn 3 Titan, Turn 4 Tireless Tracker and attack with titan and playing azusa on the following turn and voilà: a billion clues. Blessed alliance took my tracker, and path took titan on the following turn. Ruric Thar on the table sealed the deal.
R4 - BR Hollow One - 2x1
G1: Turn 3 Titan, even on the draw, is usually good enough =)
G2: I had turn 2 azusa with forest and fountain in play and bounce in hand. He killed azusa and I never drew a fourth land, and two flameblade adepts + bloodghast + Gurmag angler were too much for me.
G3: I mulled to six with tolaria, gruul turf, stirrings, dismember, boros garrison and pact I think. Turn 1 tolaria, go. He felt my hand was slow, and thought about playing burning inquiry or not. He ended up playing adept. I drew amulet, played it, bounced tolaria back, stirrings for gemstone, tolaria, dismember. Then he played inquiry, which made me draw a baloth but not discard it =(, and also gave him a hollow one =( On my turn I played fountain, relic, popped it to prevent him from playing angler. Took a hit from hollow one, but had baloth on the next turn to trade, and Titan after that with a pact for another titan in hand. Bojuka bog and vesuva to copy fountain , and that was it. He showed me he had two 3 bloodghasts in hand when he played inquiry and none went to the graveyard =)
Questions about sideboarding:
1) Is firespout or explosives any good against hollow one? I feel pretty scared everytime they goblin lore, but I'm not sure if we should try to prevent some of the damage or focus on chaining titans. Also, what do we take out against this deck? There were lots of cards I wanted (rec sage, dismember, relics, hornet queen, baloth)
2) Is ruric thar good enough against UW control?
1
3 Birds of Paradise
4 Knight of The Reliquary
4 Spell Queller
3 Voice of Resurgence
2 Tireless Tracker
2 Selfless Spirit
2 Courser of Kruphix
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1 Eternal Witness
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Retreat to Coralhelm
4 Path to Exile
4 Collected Company
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Flooded Strand
3 Forest
2 Plains
1 Island
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Stomping Ground
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Gavony Township
1 Kessig Wolf Run
3 Unified Will
1 Negate
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Stony Silence
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Reflector Mage
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
R1 - G Tron - 0x2
Pretty much nothing I could do. Mulled to 6 on the draw, kept a hand with a ghost quarter and no mana dork. The guy went T1 mine map, T2 power plant,i blew up one of his lands, he searched for the other with the map, and next turn played sylvan scrying with the forest he got from GQ. T4 Karn, killed with 2 creatures from CoCo, Turn 5 Ulamog exiling both creatures, Turn 6 Ugin and I conceded. The next game was pretty much the same, I had an Unified Will but he just got a lot of threats in hand.
R2 - Skred - 2x0
A friend of ours plays a quite unusual skred list, with Ensnaring Bridges and Chandra ToD in addition to Koth. G1 he played two bridges and got me 2 life. My courser recovered some of my life, and I had both my tireless trackers and a KotR making me draw cards every turn. Eventually I drew my qasali and my witness and blew both bridges. G2 he played t3 blood moon and I had turn 3 Rec Sage. Turns 4 and 5 I played two KotR. He popped a relic to make my knights 2/2 and tried anger of the gods on the following turn, but I had played a GQ and grew my knights to 4/4s. He showed 3 more angers in hand and conceded.
R3 - Eldrazi Tron - 2x0
He did not play any Smashers on these games. Two Thought-Knot Seers, but my voices are pretty nice blockers for those =)
Both games I won hitting with spell quellers, and the only thing that scared me was All is Dust, but I kept Unified Will in hand to counter that.
R4 - BG Midrange - 2x0
All the value my creatures give were too much for him to handle. Both grindy games, but not that hard.