One more tournament with amulet titan, this time a 5 rounder. I went 4-1, deck played really well!
Round 1 - Bogles - 2x0
G1: Opponent got me to 2 life with a bogle enchanted with double ethereal armor, daybreak coronet and gryff's boon. I managed to transmute tolaria for explosives, attacked with titan and got radiant fountain to try to survive silhana ledgewalker next turn. He did not kill me, and mr. Primetime started the beats equipped with batterskull and that's pretty much it.
G2: He mulls to 5 and keeps a hand with no dude but a stony silence to stop explosives. I had both explosives and seal of primordium in hand, and killed his silhana, spirit mantle and ethereal armor. Death by asuza and scout beats hahaha
Round 2 - MonoU Tron - 2x1
G1: I kept a really bad hand. My titan got condescended and I did not draw anything else, and Wurmcoil Engine sentenced my defeat.
G2 and G3: Double Amulet + Cavern of Souls = Turn 4 win both games.
Round 3 - Bant Eldrazi - 1x2
G1: Double amulet into azusa into titan into g2.
G2 and G3: chalice of the void for 0 and 1 on first 2 turns of the games, followed by smashers and TKS's.
Round 4 - Burn - 2x0
G1: Maindeck thragtusk saved my ass. When I managed to play titan, searched for radiant fountain and got to 1 life next turn. Titan ended the game on the swing back.
G2: Not a particular fast start from the burn player. I believe he kept a slow hand because of deflecting palm. He misplayed his palm with titan attack trigger on the stack instead of waiting for me to fetch my land, and that saved me some life, which was enough to survive the whole game.
Round 5 - Skred Red - 2x0
G1: I was really scared of the 3 MD blood moon. I was on the play, and my opener was: Vestige, Tolaria, Gemstone, Growth Chamber, Amulet, Azusa, Titan. Turn 3 titan with haste fetching forests garanteed the win.
G2: He mulled to 6 and kept a hand with double blood moon, but no third land. When he found his third land, I already had seal of primordium on the battlefield, so he opted to molten rain my gruul turf. He never played the moons. Instead, he played Chandra and Koth, while I played two titans. He killed one of them with both his planeswalkers, but next turn I fetched mortuary mire to return it to the top. After that he conceded.
Deck still feels pretty solid to me. Maindeck Thragtusk and Batterskull helped in a couple of games. Considering going up to 4 azusas.
I also played against Grixis Control yesterday. Mortuary Mire was the MVP. I played the same 2 titans over and over again and it was overwhelming.
I went 2-2, also beating burn.
My two losses were another burn (fast hand + atarka's command the turn I played radiant fountain + thragtusk and mulled to 5 only with bouncelands on G2) and a RW allies brew from a friend. G1 was pretty easy, as I managed to play T4 titan and get khalni garden + radiant fountain, and after that I started bouncing/copying garden. Ended the game with 4 or 5 plant tokens to block and 3 titans in play. G2 on the draw I kept a hand with swan song to counter Blood Moon, but he killed me on turn 4 with a thousand allies and thalia's lieutenant. G3 I had T4 titan but he had T3 Blood Moon and I never drew my forest to play the Rec Sage in my hand =/
G1: I kept a really bad hand and opponent killed me quickly with Pyromancer + Tasigur.
G2: Turn 1 Scout into Turn 2 Amulet + Scout. Turn 4 Titan with mana leak mana available due to Scouts and the job was done.
G3: He Played an early Delver, I Dismembered it. He blew my amulet with Kommand, and the game stalled until we had about 10 life each. He had Pyromancer + Snapcaster on the battlefield. I managed to play Hornet Queen, and he killed 3 of my 5 guys in combat + Kommand getting back snapcaster. After a few turns I played a titan, got tolaria, cycled it for a Pact of Negation to protect it and that was enough to end the game.
R2: Infect - 2x0 (yep, really)
G1: I mulled to 6 and kept a hand with engineered explosives. I played turn 1 tolaria tapped, he played glistener elf. Turn 2 explosives for 1, hope not to die that turn. The turn he drew blighted agent I had already attacked with titan once and was about to double strike him out of the game.
G2: I kept a hand with Sunhome, Gemstone Mine, Amulet, Nature's Claim, Pyroclasm, Scout and something else. I also drew Amulet, Melira and Swan Song in my first 3 or 4 draws. He played turn 1 hierarch into turn 2 inkmoth nexus but Titan + double amulet killed him on turn 5 or so.
R3: Affinity - 2x0
G1: Opponent: T1 Memnite + Signal Pest. T2 hit for 2. T3 hit for 2 + cranial plating. Me: T1 Scout. T2 land. T3 radiant fountain back to 20 and cycle tolaria. T4 hive mind + pact.
G2: He played T1 mountain -> Vault Skirge, I played T1 Scout. He played darksteel citadel and Shrapnel Blast'd my scout, hit for 1. I played land and passed. He had inkmoth, signal pest and passed. I pact'd for azusa and played 3 lands. He attacked, I attempted to dismember his signal pest, but he sacced it to another shrapnel blast to the face, and that brought me down to 9 life. I just payed for my pact, played ghost quarter and passed. He had arcbound, immediatly sacced it to put a counter on the skirge and try to hit me for another two, but I nature's claim it and g. quarter his inkmoth. On my turn, titan grabbing stronghold + vestige for W. Bounced stronghold with karoo, played it again, and gemstone mine for R was enough to haste my titan, grabbing radiant fountain and simic growth chamber. Bounce on fountain and play it again. He had galvanic for azusa, but I played another titan off the top and he conceded =D
Second time I play with the post banning version of the deck. First time I went 3-1, beating grixis delver twice and bant eldrazi, lost to infect. It is not what it used to be, but I feel the deck is still quite good =D
resmaster - heartless summoning seems interesting (obviously scouts have to go), but I wonder if its any better than Lotus Bloom, the other card being run at present.
In essence - Lotus Bloom is pretty much guarenteeing a T4, but doesnt help a T3. Heartless Summoning does something similar, but is better when drawn on T2/T3, but probably worse when drawn on T10+ (though both are pretty rubbish then). Summoning is probably slightly harder to hate against (people bring in ancient grudge against us already, but that misses heartless summoning).
I guess the question is - is the slightly harder to hate, better T2/T3 card worth -1/-1 to your titan? It would stretch the manabase too, I think i'd be reworking it significantly, potentially loosing all the pyroclasm effects from the board as a result. That may be ok, but not sure the payoff is there.
We're still ignoring the Scout vs Heartless comparison here, but i think that's a bit harder. The scout is the better card in a goldfish (i'm 99% sure on that), but its a lot easier to kill. It would be slightly meta dependent at a guess!
That is pretty much what I think. I'm not a huge fan of Lotus Bloom, so, if I would test anything other than Scouts, probably it'd be summoning.
PS2: How are you guys doing against Infect? Is it as disastrous as I imagine it to be?
I played against infect once. G1 he killed me on turn 5 (Pact of Negation prevented me from dying a turn earlier). G2 I had quick spellskite AND melira, and that was enough. G3 I had turn 2 Melira but he had the dismember. I would play a turn 4 titan, but i got killed on the turn before =/. It felt like a really difficult match, but not completely unwinnable. With pacts and/or stirrings we can find melira and/or spellskite pretty quickly.
Also, just saw an interesting tech (at least for me it's brand new stuff): heartless summoning instead of sakura tribe scouts. Has anyone ever tried that? Of course it demands rethinking about our mana base to be able to generate 1B consistently on turn 2/3.
Is it worth cutting down on Vines over blossoming. I have definitely kicked vines for wins, but it happens pretty rarely. Maybe go 4-3-1 for blossoming-vines-blessing?
I do not think the main reason to keep vines in your MD is the +4/+4. It's the fact that it can be used in your opponent's creatures. If your meta has a lot of other infect, bogles, zooicide, amulet azusa, maybe it's worth keeping 4 Vines/3 B. Defense.
Kitchen Finks is awful, I started playing tarmogoyfs against burn and zoo, and I am never disappointed of it. If it lands on turn 2 with 3 types of cards it stops anything. Then it applies to much pressure to ignore it. If you have access to tarmogoyfs, switch kitchen finks for them.
What about Thing in The Ice? Landing it on turn 2 does not require 3 types of cards to be a X/4. Also it's quite easy to flip it with this deck, and, depending on the amount of damage the opponent caused to him/herself by fetching/shocking, you can kill him out of nowhere by pumping and flipping TiTi all at once.
I apologize in advance if this subject has already been brought in, but...
Has anyone ever tested pentad prism?
If you go like Turn 3 prism + bounce land, you can have titan on turn 4 without and amulet. I do not like Explore in this deck, even Journey of Discovery seems a little better.
List seems awesome! I always liked Hoogland's point of view about all chord-type decks, but this time I have to agree with luda. It seems like those 6-7 drops are kinda "win more". The one thing I think is missing is a copy of Selfless Spirit. Any thoughts about this particular guy?
I like him, probably going to find a slot in the board but even that's pretty tight right now. I really need to test a lot vs. GR Tron before Indy to tighten things up.
I believe Dork -> Evo -> Thalia may be helpful against Tron.
List seems awesome! I always liked Hoogland's point of view about all chord-type decks, but this time I have to agree with luda. It seems like those 6-7 drops are kinda "win more". The one thing I think is missing is a copy of Selfless Spirit. Any thoughts about this particular guy?
R1: 2x0 - Infect
G1: My opponent was on the play and probed me on turn 1, seeing no Melira. After the game he said he had the turn 3 kill through Spellskite. My first draw of the game? Melira. Combo kill at turn 6.
G2: Once again, he started the game with g. probe. My hand was: Land, land, v. seer, finks, chord, melira, melira. You can imagine his face. If that wasn't enough, he had no colored mana (2 inkmoths for his first and second land drops). Finks beatdown for the easy win.
Melira in hand both games makes things real easy.
R2: 2x1 - UW Control
G1: Really fast combo with finks. Turn 3 or 4 I believe. I couldn't even see if he was playing Jeskai Nahiri or straight UW.
G2: T1 relic, T2 another relic and path. I played a Tidehollow Sculler on turn 3 or 4 just to see 2 Snapcasters, Supreme Verdict and Jace, AoT. I managed to resist as hard as I could, but eventually after 6-7 paths, 2 verdicts, e. explosives, 3 finks and Jace, he ended up killing me with Colonnades.
G3: Turn 3 or 4 Company finding missing pieces of combo when he had no answers in hand.
R3: 2x0 - Bant Eldrazi
G1: Hierarch into Thought-Knot Seer removing my company. I drew another company and comboed for infinite life on Turn 3.
G2: Displacer into TKS into TKS, and I had only Viscera Seer and Anafenza in play. On my last turn of life, Finks on top to save the day. After the game my opponent said he should have blinked his TKS with displacer, because he knew I had only a land in hand, and that would have made me draw the Finks and he would remove it. We flipped the next card on top of my library to check if his play would have saved him: another Finks. I guess the deck really liked me that day =D
R4: 2x1 - Bogles
G1: He did not have the nut draws, neither did I, but I have company and chord to help me on that. Finks combo.
G2: I was overrun by a 10/9 flying trample Spiritdancer.
G3: Complicated game. He started a little slow, with G. Scout on T1, Rancor + D. Arbor on T2. I started the beats early with an exalted Witness. He managed to play a Grafdigger's Cage, but I had Reclamation Sage and Anguished Unmaking in hand. Played Sage on Cage, and A. Unmaking on Rancor with Coronet on the stack was a blow (unmaking proving its value over m. pulse hahaha). When he was at 6 life with a Scout and a Spiritdancer with no auras attached, I played company on his end step revealing finks + witness, got company back and played it again. Before I could see the 6 cards he conceded. I believe the witness I played on turn 2 was the only creature that attacked the whole game.
R5: 2x0 - Eggs?
It was some weird controlish brew of Eggs. I don't recall exactly the actual sequence of games, but I believe it was the following:
G1: I kept a hand with Hierarch, Spellskite, Chord and 4 lands (including Gavony Township), as I did not know what I was paired against. He played Terrarion, Krark-Clan Ironworks, Mox Opal and a Thopter Foundry the whole game. I played Hierarch into Kite into Finks and chained Witnesses, and Township did its job.
G2: Hierarch into Finks with 2 Chords on hand. He did not play a spell until his 4th turn, so I tried to chord for seer, and he answered with a path for my finks. Chord for Rec. Sage to destroy his KCI on turn 5, and beatdowns to end the game.
R6: 0x2 - Tron:
G1: He was on the play. Turn 3 Oblivion Stone. Blew it on T4. T5 Ugin into T6 Ulamog exiling my Redcap on T7.
G2: T2 Pyroclasm. Turn 4 I played Tidehollow Sculler and saw Karn and Ugin. Karn->Ugin->World Breaker->Ulamog->Concede and conceal homicidal feelings.
R7: 0x2 - Jund:
G1: Early Bob gave him crazy advantage. He had everything: tons of kill spells, discards and kalitas.
G2: Once again, really tough game. When I managed to stabilize cycling Reveillark, Witness and Spellskite, he bolted me in the face to end the game =)
R8: 2x0 - Naya Company:
G1: I was on the draw. He played Nacatl into Goyf, and I had tapped land into Wall of Roots. He PtE'ed my Wall, attacked and put another Goyf into play. I played finks and chump blocked his Nacatl. He played Knight of Reliquary and had no cards in hand. I untapped, drew CoCo. Persisted Finks + 5 lands on table, Melira + CoCo + Chord in hand, and probably dead on next turn. Played Company on main phase to avoid removal and got Anafenza + Birds =DDD Chord for seer and game (once again, my deck seems to love me, specially on that day).
G2: I kept a hand with Fetch, Hierarch, Hierarch, Witness, Path, Finks and another card. My opponent mulliganed to 6 and did not seem happy with his six. Then a friend of his that was watching the game and was already locked for top8 told him to ask me to concede. He said I wouldn't get into top8 even with the win because I had 15 points, and my opponent had 16. One of the other spectators of the game called the judge and my opponent got DQed.
At this time I was at 10th position, and I thought the first 8 players had all ID'ed. But two of them didn't, as they had 18 points, and they were afraid that my opponent (who had 16 points) could pass over one of them. My OMW was really high, and I ended up getting the 8th spot on the Top 8 =D
T8: 0x2 - Jund:
The same opponent from R7. He turned out to be the champion of the tournament.
G1: Kept a one-land hand with 2 hierarchs and a witness. He bolted one hierarch and discarded the other one. I never drew the second land.
G2: Mulled two one-land hands. Kept 4 lands and Spellskite, which got discarded. Drew another hundred lands and lost the match in ten minutes.
To all of you who managed to read it up to here:
How do you sideboard against Jund? I tried to follow Logan Mize's Guide, boarding out all dorks and bringing some value (2 Sculler, 2 Decays, 3 Path, Reveillark and Forge-Tender) and trying to play a midrange-ish game. That seems to just make us even slower and not helping much.
Any comments and sugestions are welcome =)
And sorry for the long post and for any grammar issues haha
Thank you for the report, and congratulations for the top8! How was Westvale Abbey for you?
Activated it once. Opponent had Path to Exile. Probably going back to 3 Gavony Township.
grats on the top8! Vs jund, I have not tried Logan's plan before, but I'll do some testing tomorrow for WMCQ.
Before that, I assume it is difficult to combo off in face of Jund's infinite removals. So I would cut Melira, the weakest piece.
My plan for your sideboard is: -2 Melira -some manadorks, +some Paths/Abrupt Decays/Anguished Unmaking +Reveillark (maybe +Burrenton Forge-Tender)
I don't like Tidehollow Sculler in this matchup as it's an artifact.
Reveillark is high value, but it's still weak against the best cards Jund has for us (Scavenging Ooze, Kalitas, Anger of the Gods) so it doesnt handle our weakness. I have not been using Burrenton Forge-Tender in my sideboard since Kozilek's Return was printed, I would bring it in against Jund if I have it, but you still have to play around Damnation.
I'm using Courser of Kruphix like Logan's sideboard. I'll also test Linvala, Keeper of Silence tomorrow, if it's good against Jund I would play it this sunday.
The one card I wanted to try against Jund was the one card I forgot to take: Pharika. This seems to be great against their powerful - but few - threats. But yeah, I have to agree with you on the Reveillark issue, it's become a lot worse since the printing of Kalitas. Other than that, the guy played REALLY well and, as I said before, he won the tournament.
R1: 2x0 - Infect
G1: My opponent was on the play and probed me on turn 1, seeing no Melira. After the game he said he had the turn 3 kill through Spellskite. My first draw of the game? Melira. Combo kill at turn 6.
G2: Once again, he started the game with g. probe. My hand was: Land, land, v. seer, finks, chord, melira, melira. You can imagine his face. If that wasn't enough, he had no colored mana (2 inkmoths for his first and second land drops). Finks beatdown for the easy win.
Melira in hand both games makes things real easy.
R2: 2x1 - UW Control
G1: Really fast combo with finks. Turn 3 or 4 I believe. I couldn't even see if he was playing Jeskai Nahiri or straight UW.
G2: T1 relic, T2 another relic and path. I played a Tidehollow Sculler on turn 3 or 4 just to see 2 Snapcasters, Supreme Verdict and Jace, AoT. I managed to resist as hard as I could, but eventually after 6-7 paths, 2 verdicts, e. explosives, 3 finks and Jace, he ended up killing me with Colonnades.
G3: Turn 3 or 4 Company finding missing pieces of combo when he had no answers in hand.
R3: 2x0 - Bant Eldrazi
G1: Hierarch into Thought-Knot Seer removing my company. I drew another company and comboed for infinite life on Turn 3.
G2: Displacer into TKS into TKS, and I had only Viscera Seer and Anafenza in play. On my last turn of life, Finks on top to save the day. After the game my opponent said he should have blinked his TKS with displacer, because he knew I had only a land in hand, and that would have made me draw the Finks and he would remove it. We flipped the next card on top of my library to check if his play would have saved him: another Finks. I guess the deck really liked me that day =D
R4: 2x1 - Bogles
G1: He did not have the nut draws, neither did I, but I have company and chord to help me on that. Finks combo.
G2: I was overrun by a 10/9 flying trample Spiritdancer.
G3: Complicated game. He started a little slow, with G. Scout on T1, Rancor + D. Arbor on T2. I started the beats early with an exalted Witness. He managed to play a Grafdigger's Cage, but I had Reclamation Sage and Anguished Unmaking in hand. Played Sage on Cage, and A. Unmaking on Rancor with Coronet on the stack was a blow (unmaking proving its value over m. pulse hahaha). When he was at 6 life with a Scout and a Spiritdancer with no auras attached, I played company on his end step revealing finks + witness, got company back and played it again. Before I could see the 6 cards he conceded. I believe the witness I played on turn 2 was the only creature that attacked the whole game.
R5: 2x0 - Eggs?
It was some weird controlish brew of Eggs. I don't recall exactly the actual sequence of games, but I believe it was the following:
G1: I kept a hand with Hierarch, Spellskite, Chord and 4 lands (including Gavony Township), as I did not know what I was paired against. He played Terrarion, Krark-Clan Ironworks, Mox Opal and a Thopter Foundry the whole game. I played Hierarch into Kite into Finks and chained Witnesses, and Township did its job.
G2: Hierarch into Finks with 2 Chords on hand. He did not play a spell until his 4th turn, so I tried to chord for seer, and he answered with a path for my finks. Chord for Rec. Sage to destroy his KCI on turn 5, and beatdowns to end the game.
R6: 0x2 - Tron:
G1: He was on the play. Turn 3 Oblivion Stone. Blew it on T4. T5 Ugin into T6 Ulamog exiling my Redcap on T7.
G2: T2 Pyroclasm. Turn 4 I played Tidehollow Sculler and saw Karn and Ugin. Karn->Ugin->World Breaker->Ulamog->Concede and conceal homicidal feelings.
R7: 0x2 - Jund:
G1: Early Bob gave him crazy advantage. He had everything: tons of kill spells, discards and kalitas.
G2: Once again, really tough game. When I managed to stabilize cycling Reveillark, Witness and Spellskite, he bolted me in the face to end the game =)
R8: 2x0 - Naya Company:
G1: I was on the draw. He played Nacatl into Goyf, and I had tapped land into Wall of Roots. He PtE'ed my Wall, attacked and put another Goyf into play. I played finks and chump blocked his Nacatl. He played Knight of Reliquary and had no cards in hand. I untapped, drew CoCo. Persisted Finks + 5 lands on table, Melira + CoCo + Chord in hand, and probably dead on next turn. Played Company on main phase to avoid removal and got Anafenza + Birds =DDD Chord for seer and game (once again, my deck seems to love me, specially on that day).
G2: I kept a hand with Fetch, Hierarch, Hierarch, Witness, Path, Finks and another card. My opponent mulliganed to 6 and did not seem happy with his six. Then a friend of his that was watching the game and was already locked for top8 told him to ask me to concede. He said I wouldn't get into top8 even with the win because I had 15 points, and my opponent had 16. One of the other spectators of the game called the judge and my opponent got DQed.
At this time I was at 10th position, and I thought the first 8 players had all ID'ed. But two of them didn't, as they had 18 points, and they were afraid that my opponent (who had 16 points) could pass over one of them. My OMW was really high, and I ended up getting the 8th spot on the Top 8 =D
T8: 0x2 - Jund:
The same opponent from R7. He turned out to be the champion of the tournament.
G1: Kept a one-land hand with 2 hierarchs and a witness. He bolted one hierarch and discarded the other one. I never drew the second land.
G2: Mulled two one-land hands. Kept 4 lands and Spellskite, which got discarded. Drew another hundred lands and lost the match in ten minutes.
To all of you who managed to read it up to here:
How do you sideboard against Jund? I tried to follow Logan Mize's Guide, boarding out all dorks and bringing some value (2 Sculler, 2 Decays, 3 Path, Reveillark and Forge-Tender) and trying to play a midrange-ish game. That seems to just make us even slower and not helping much.
Any comments and sugestions are welcome =)
And sorry for the long post and for any grammar issues haha
4 Sakura-Tribe Scout
3 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Spellskite
4 Serum Visions
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Summoner's Pact
1 Pact of Negation
4 Amulet of Vigor
2 Batterskull
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Hive Mind
4 Simic Growth Chamber
4 Gemstone Mine
3 Gruul Turf
3 Tolaria West
2 Selesnya Sanctuary
2 Forest
1 Vesuva
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
1 Boros Garrison
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Radiant Fountain
1 Crumbling Vestige
1 Khalni Garden
1 Ghost Quarter
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Crumble to Dust
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Dismember
1 Hornet Queen
1 Firespout
1 Seal of Primordium
1 Nature's Claim
1 Swan Song
1 Chalice of the Void
Kind of an old-fashion list, with Hive Mind, 3 Azusa, Leyline of Sanctity. Also, both players with no copies of Slaughter's Pact in their 75.
Round 1 - Bogles - 2x0
G1: Opponent got me to 2 life with a bogle enchanted with double ethereal armor, daybreak coronet and gryff's boon. I managed to transmute tolaria for explosives, attacked with titan and got radiant fountain to try to survive silhana ledgewalker next turn. He did not kill me, and mr. Primetime started the beats equipped with batterskull and that's pretty much it.
G2: He mulls to 5 and keeps a hand with no dude but a stony silence to stop explosives. I had both explosives and seal of primordium in hand, and killed his silhana, spirit mantle and ethereal armor. Death by asuza and scout beats hahaha
Round 2 - MonoU Tron - 2x1
G1: I kept a really bad hand. My titan got condescended and I did not draw anything else, and Wurmcoil Engine sentenced my defeat.
G2 and G3: Double Amulet + Cavern of Souls = Turn 4 win both games.
Round 3 - Bant Eldrazi - 1x2
G1: Double amulet into azusa into titan into g2.
G2 and G3: chalice of the void for 0 and 1 on first 2 turns of the games, followed by smashers and TKS's.
Round 4 - Burn - 2x0
G1: Maindeck thragtusk saved my ass. When I managed to play titan, searched for radiant fountain and got to 1 life next turn. Titan ended the game on the swing back.
G2: Not a particular fast start from the burn player. I believe he kept a slow hand because of deflecting palm. He misplayed his palm with titan attack trigger on the stack instead of waiting for me to fetch my land, and that saved me some life, which was enough to survive the whole game.
Round 5 - Skred Red - 2x0
G1: I was really scared of the 3 MD blood moon. I was on the play, and my opener was: Vestige, Tolaria, Gemstone, Growth Chamber, Amulet, Azusa, Titan. Turn 3 titan with haste fetching forests garanteed the win.
G2: He mulled to 6 and kept a hand with double blood moon, but no third land. When he found his third land, I already had seal of primordium on the battlefield, so he opted to molten rain my gruul turf. He never played the moons. Instead, he played Chandra and Koth, while I played two titans. He killed one of them with both his planeswalkers, but next turn I fetched mortuary mire to return it to the top. After that he conceded.
Deck still feels pretty solid to me. Maindeck Thragtusk and Batterskull helped in a couple of games. Considering going up to 4 azusas.
I went 2-2, also beating burn.
My two losses were another burn (fast hand + atarka's command the turn I played radiant fountain + thragtusk and mulled to 5 only with bouncelands on G2) and a RW allies brew from a friend. G1 was pretty easy, as I managed to play T4 titan and get khalni garden + radiant fountain, and after that I started bouncing/copying garden. Ended the game with 4 or 5 plant tokens to block and 3 titans in play. G2 on the draw I kept a hand with swan song to counter Blood Moon, but he killed me on turn 4 with a thousand allies and thalia's lieutenant. G3 I had T4 titan but he had T3 Blood Moon and I never drew my forest to play the Rec Sage in my hand =/
R1: Grixis Delver - 2x1
G1: I kept a really bad hand and opponent killed me quickly with Pyromancer + Tasigur.
G2: Turn 1 Scout into Turn 2 Amulet + Scout. Turn 4 Titan with mana leak mana available due to Scouts and the job was done.
G3: He Played an early Delver, I Dismembered it. He blew my amulet with Kommand, and the game stalled until we had about 10 life each. He had Pyromancer + Snapcaster on the battlefield. I managed to play Hornet Queen, and he killed 3 of my 5 guys in combat + Kommand getting back snapcaster. After a few turns I played a titan, got tolaria, cycled it for a Pact of Negation to protect it and that was enough to end the game.
R2: Infect - 2x0 (yep, really)
G1: I mulled to 6 and kept a hand with engineered explosives. I played turn 1 tolaria tapped, he played glistener elf. Turn 2 explosives for 1, hope not to die that turn. The turn he drew blighted agent I had already attacked with titan once and was about to double strike him out of the game.
G2: I kept a hand with Sunhome, Gemstone Mine, Amulet, Nature's Claim, Pyroclasm, Scout and something else. I also drew Amulet, Melira and Swan Song in my first 3 or 4 draws. He played turn 1 hierarch into turn 2 inkmoth nexus but Titan + double amulet killed him on turn 5 or so.
R3: Affinity - 2x0
G1: Opponent: T1 Memnite + Signal Pest. T2 hit for 2. T3 hit for 2 + cranial plating. Me: T1 Scout. T2 land. T3 radiant fountain back to 20 and cycle tolaria. T4 hive mind + pact.
G2: He played T1 mountain -> Vault Skirge, I played T1 Scout. He played darksteel citadel and Shrapnel Blast'd my scout, hit for 1. I played land and passed. He had inkmoth, signal pest and passed. I pact'd for azusa and played 3 lands. He attacked, I attempted to dismember his signal pest, but he sacced it to another shrapnel blast to the face, and that brought me down to 9 life. I just payed for my pact, played ghost quarter and passed. He had arcbound, immediatly sacced it to put a counter on the skirge and try to hit me for another two, but I nature's claim it and g. quarter his inkmoth. On my turn, titan grabbing stronghold + vestige for W. Bounced stronghold with karoo, played it again, and gemstone mine for R was enough to haste my titan, grabbing radiant fountain and simic growth chamber. Bounce on fountain and play it again. He had galvanic for azusa, but I played another titan off the top and he conceded =D
Second time I play with the post banning version of the deck. First time I went 3-1, beating grixis delver twice and bant eldrazi, lost to infect. It is not what it used to be, but I feel the deck is still quite good =D
That is pretty much what I think. I'm not a huge fan of Lotus Bloom, so, if I would test anything other than Scouts, probably it'd be summoning.
I played against infect once. G1 he killed me on turn 5 (Pact of Negation prevented me from dying a turn earlier). G2 I had quick spellskite AND melira, and that was enough. G3 I had turn 2 Melira but he had the dismember. I would play a turn 4 titan, but i got killed on the turn before =/. It felt like a really difficult match, but not completely unwinnable. With pacts and/or stirrings we can find melira and/or spellskite pretty quickly.
Also, just saw an interesting tech (at least for me it's brand new stuff): heartless summoning instead of sakura tribe scouts. Has anyone ever tried that? Of course it demands rethinking about our mana base to be able to generate 1B consistently on turn 2/3.
I do not think the main reason to keep vines in your MD is the +4/+4. It's the fact that it can be used in your opponent's creatures. If your meta has a lot of other infect, bogles, zooicide, amulet azusa, maybe it's worth keeping 4 Vines/3 B. Defense.
What about Thing in The Ice? Landing it on turn 2 does not require 3 types of cards to be a X/4. Also it's quite easy to flip it with this deck, and, depending on the amount of damage the opponent caused to him/herself by fetching/shocking, you can kill him out of nowhere by pumping and flipping TiTi all at once.
Has anyone ever tested pentad prism?
If you go like Turn 3 prism + bounce land, you can have titan on turn 4 without and amulet. I do not like Explore in this deck, even Journey of Discovery seems a little better.
I believe Dork -> Evo -> Thalia may be helpful against Tron.
List seems awesome! I always liked Hoogland's point of view about all chord-type decks, but this time I have to agree with luda. It seems like those 6-7 drops are kinda "win more". The one thing I think is missing is a copy of Selfless Spirit. Any thoughts about this particular guy?
Activated it once. Opponent had Path to Exile. Probably going back to 3 Gavony Township.
The one card I wanted to try against Jund was the one card I forgot to take: Pharika. This seems to be great against their powerful - but few - threats. But yeah, I have to agree with you on the Reveillark issue, it's become a lot worse since the printing of Kalitas. Other than that, the guy played REALLY well and, as I said before, he won the tournament.
My decklist:
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Noble Hierarch
2 Wall of Roots
Combo
3 Viscera Seer
2 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Murderous Redcap
Utility
2 Voice of Resurgence
1 Fiend Hunter
2 Spellskite
3 Eternal Witness
Spells
4 Collected Company
4 Chord of Calling
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Temple Garden
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
2 Razorverge Thicket
1 Horizon Canopy
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Gavony Township
1 Westvale Abbey
3 Path to Exile
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Anguished Unmaking
2 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Reveillark
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
R1: 2x0 - Infect
G1: My opponent was on the play and probed me on turn 1, seeing no Melira. After the game he said he had the turn 3 kill through Spellskite. My first draw of the game? Melira. Combo kill at turn 6.
G2: Once again, he started the game with g. probe. My hand was: Land, land, v. seer, finks, chord, melira, melira. You can imagine his face. If that wasn't enough, he had no colored mana (2 inkmoths for his first and second land drops). Finks beatdown for the easy win.
Melira in hand both games makes things real easy.
R2: 2x1 - UW Control
G1: Really fast combo with finks. Turn 3 or 4 I believe. I couldn't even see if he was playing Jeskai Nahiri or straight UW.
G2: T1 relic, T2 another relic and path. I played a Tidehollow Sculler on turn 3 or 4 just to see 2 Snapcasters, Supreme Verdict and Jace, AoT. I managed to resist as hard as I could, but eventually after 6-7 paths, 2 verdicts, e. explosives, 3 finks and Jace, he ended up killing me with Colonnades.
G3: Turn 3 or 4 Company finding missing pieces of combo when he had no answers in hand.
R3: 2x0 - Bant Eldrazi
G1: Hierarch into Thought-Knot Seer removing my company. I drew another company and comboed for infinite life on Turn 3.
G2: Displacer into TKS into TKS, and I had only Viscera Seer and Anafenza in play. On my last turn of life, Finks on top to save the day. After the game my opponent said he should have blinked his TKS with displacer, because he knew I had only a land in hand, and that would have made me draw the Finks and he would remove it. We flipped the next card on top of my library to check if his play would have saved him: another Finks. I guess the deck really liked me that day =D
R4: 2x1 - Bogles
G1: He did not have the nut draws, neither did I, but I have company and chord to help me on that. Finks combo.
G2: I was overrun by a 10/9 flying trample Spiritdancer.
G3: Complicated game. He started a little slow, with G. Scout on T1, Rancor + D. Arbor on T2. I started the beats early with an exalted Witness. He managed to play a Grafdigger's Cage, but I had Reclamation Sage and Anguished Unmaking in hand. Played Sage on Cage, and A. Unmaking on Rancor with Coronet on the stack was a blow (unmaking proving its value over m. pulse hahaha). When he was at 6 life with a Scout and a Spiritdancer with no auras attached, I played company on his end step revealing finks + witness, got company back and played it again. Before I could see the 6 cards he conceded. I believe the witness I played on turn 2 was the only creature that attacked the whole game.
R5: 2x0 - Eggs?
It was some weird controlish brew of Eggs. I don't recall exactly the actual sequence of games, but I believe it was the following:
G1: I kept a hand with Hierarch, Spellskite, Chord and 4 lands (including Gavony Township), as I did not know what I was paired against. He played Terrarion, Krark-Clan Ironworks, Mox Opal and a Thopter Foundry the whole game. I played Hierarch into Kite into Finks and chained Witnesses, and Township did its job.
G2: Hierarch into Finks with 2 Chords on hand. He did not play a spell until his 4th turn, so I tried to chord for seer, and he answered with a path for my finks. Chord for Rec. Sage to destroy his KCI on turn 5, and beatdowns to end the game.
R6: 0x2 - Tron:
G1: He was on the play. Turn 3 Oblivion Stone. Blew it on T4. T5 Ugin into T6 Ulamog exiling my Redcap on T7.
G2: T2 Pyroclasm. Turn 4 I played Tidehollow Sculler and saw Karn and Ugin. Karn->Ugin->World Breaker->Ulamog->Concede and conceal homicidal feelings.
R7: 0x2 - Jund:
G1: Early Bob gave him crazy advantage. He had everything: tons of kill spells, discards and kalitas.
G2: Once again, really tough game. When I managed to stabilize cycling Reveillark, Witness and Spellskite, he bolted me in the face to end the game =)
R8: 2x0 - Naya Company:
G1: I was on the draw. He played Nacatl into Goyf, and I had tapped land into Wall of Roots. He PtE'ed my Wall, attacked and put another Goyf into play. I played finks and chump blocked his Nacatl. He played Knight of Reliquary and had no cards in hand. I untapped, drew CoCo. Persisted Finks + 5 lands on table, Melira + CoCo + Chord in hand, and probably dead on next turn. Played Company on main phase to avoid removal and got Anafenza + Birds =DDD Chord for seer and game (once again, my deck seems to love me, specially on that day).
G2: I kept a hand with Fetch, Hierarch, Hierarch, Witness, Path, Finks and another card. My opponent mulliganed to 6 and did not seem happy with his six. Then a friend of his that was watching the game and was already locked for top8 told him to ask me to concede. He said I wouldn't get into top8 even with the win because I had 15 points, and my opponent had 16. One of the other spectators of the game called the judge and my opponent got DQed.
At this time I was at 10th position, and I thought the first 8 players had all ID'ed. But two of them didn't, as they had 18 points, and they were afraid that my opponent (who had 16 points) could pass over one of them. My OMW was really high, and I ended up getting the 8th spot on the Top 8 =D
T8: 0x2 - Jund:
The same opponent from R7. He turned out to be the champion of the tournament.
G1: Kept a one-land hand with 2 hierarchs and a witness. He bolted one hierarch and discarded the other one. I never drew the second land.
G2: Mulled two one-land hands. Kept 4 lands and Spellskite, which got discarded. Drew another hundred lands and lost the match in ten minutes.
To all of you who managed to read it up to here:
How do you sideboard against Jund? I tried to follow Logan Mize's Guide, boarding out all dorks and bringing some value (2 Sculler, 2 Decays, 3 Path, Reveillark and Forge-Tender) and trying to play a midrange-ish game. That seems to just make us even slower and not helping much.
Any comments and sugestions are welcome =)
And sorry for the long post and for any grammar issues haha