I have been considering dropping the green and going with Wear // Tear in the place of the Destructive Revelry in my SB. How has that treated you so far?
It would definitely let me cut the Stomping Ground to add another Inspiring Vantage or a 3rd Mountain. My main reservation is that Destructive Revelry is adding in 2 damage which helps our normal game plan. On the other side it will make the mana base a little easier, since paying 2 life for the Stomping Ground game 1 was annoying since there is no need for the green.
I wonder if the life points and consistency you gain are worth the loss of the extra damage from revelry. Any thoughts?
The other option could be to make some split between Smash to Smithereens and some enchantment destruction. Realistically, there are not that many targets for the enchantment destruction right now. I have seen very few Leyline of Sanctity which would be the most likely candidate. There is Eidolon of Rhetoric which some decks will SB against us. Blood moon is another enchantment we might see, but there are not too many matches that will matter that much. We might want to destroy a Phyrexian Unlife or a Worship in some games.
So, I have been playing Nacatl burn for a while, and I just tried out making the switch over to Boros (with the green splash for SB). I really liked how the deck performed. Here's my list:
In the current meta with a lot of aggro decks, I thought it would be nice to play with fewer colors so I could more easily fetch for my basics and save a number of life points. With Naya, I found that every game I was effectively starting at 14, since I would fetch and shock turn 1 and 2 so I could cast the Nacatl and have it be a 3/3, and also so I could cast both Atarka's Command and Boros Charm. I replaced the Atarka's Command with Skullcrack and the Wild Nacatl with some Lightning Helix and pushed myself to the full set of Searing Blaze.
I have noticed that this version seems to be just a little less explosive without the Commands and Nacatls, but I have felt it to be more consistent so far. Drawing a Nacatl on turn 6 when they are at 3 life and have a board is the worst. I have also run up against a decent number of opposing burn decks, and the Kor Firewalker is just killer in the mirror. Running Naya made it really hard to get those deployed due to the WW cost, and I know how back-breaking they can be when they land, so now that I feel I can cast them, I bumped them up to 3 in the SB.
I took this out the other day and went 4-0 beating Naya Coco Spirits, Turbo Turns, and then Jund 2 rounds in a row.
Spirits and Turns went to 3. Spirits got a crazy hand of 2 Spellskite in their opener game 1.
Game 1 against turns I ended up drawing 4 lands in a row and he took me down while at 4 life.
Neither Jund player was able to keep around their Goyfs for long and both ended up bottle-necked on lands, and I was even able to fight through a Collective Brutality both matches. Luckily I dodged the Kitchen Finks in both the SB matches and came away with the
Overall, I have been very pleased with the switch so far. The Lightning Helix life gain has been a champ, and the extra burn spells have been nice in the late game when the board gets bogged up. I'll keep trying this one out for a bit I think.
I went to a Modern GPT for GP Vancouver last night. I took my Boros Burn deck from above and put up some decent results.
There were 21 people that showed up. Interestingly, there was no Dredge and no Affinity. I think the most represented decks were 4 Burn and 3 Infect.
Here's my report. I forgot to write down my SB choices, so I'm guessing on those.
R1 Win Against Gifts Ungiven (2-0)
Took down them down pretty easily in game 1. Just got a quick start and they stumbled a bit. Killed them turn 4 or 5.
Game 2 was a little closer, I had no creatures, and they got a lili ticked up to 6. I had a Path To Exile in hand and they used Unburial Rites to get back Iona, and named red, so I pathed it and closed out the game on the next turn.
SB: +3 Rest In Peace and +3 Path to Exile, -2 Grim Lavamancer -4 Searing Blaze.
R3 Loss against Kiki Chord (0-2)
Was a close matchup, game 1 he had a Scavenging Ooze at 3 toughness with 1 green up. I attacked with my Monastery Swiftspear which was blocked by the Scavenging Ooze. I cast a Skullcrack with a Lighning Helix in hand, hoping he would go for the life gain with the Skullcrack on the stack so I could finish off the Scooze. He thought for a while, but didn't take the bait. So after the combat damage killed my Swiftspear, I cast the Helix to kill the Ooze. Since he didn't take my bluff, I wasn't able to gain the 3 off the helix which ended up costing me the game.
Game 2 I made a play mistake that probably cost me the game. I had him at 2 life, and he only had 2 lands untapped, so I cast Skullcrack on my second main, expecting to close it out, but he had a Lighning Helix in hand and kept himself in the game. If I had held it up, there's no guarantee I would have got him, but it was probably not the right play.
SB: I didn't really know what to expect from this, so I brought +2 Path to Exile, +2 Rest In Peace, and +2 Destructive Revelry, and -2 Grim Lavamancer and -4 Lava Spike. Destructive Revelry was probably wrong. I was worried about possible Leyline of Sanctity. Luckily I was able to hit a Spellskite with one, so it wasn't totally dead, but I think it might have been wrong.
R4 Win against Madcap Moon Jund (2-1)
G1 I got lost to the Madcap Experiment into Platinum Emperion. I had 2 Eidolon of the Great Revel out, which locked me out of being able to kill him off.
G2 I kept a super risky hand. I knew that he relied on Birds of Paradise to ramp into moon and madcap. My hand was 1 basic mountain, 3 Searing Blaze, Lighning Bolt, Goblin Guide, and Monastery Swiftspear. Since I knew I needed to kill him off fast, I figured this would be a good gamble, since he would usually have a creature out quickly for the Searing blaze if I drew the second land. It was really a super risky keep, and probably should have been mulled. Anyways, my bad call paid off and I topdecked 2 fetches in a row. I went T1 Goblin Guide, he cast a T1 Birds of Paradise. I got the Fetch off the top, and and cast the first Searing Blaze. T2 he drops his second land (Forest, Copperline Gorge at this point) and plays the second Birds. Again, I topdeck the second fetch, so I play the fetch, Blaze the Bird, and swing in with the GG. Meanwhile, it's been black spells on top every time. T3 he misses his land drop and plays a 3rd bird. So I leave my Fetch up for the next turn, play my swiftspear, fetch and Blaze.
G3 was a closer game. Luckily I got to Blaze the Bird again, and it came down to him having 4 lands at 4 life with a Blood Moon out and he just needed to topdeck the Madcap Experement to lock the win, but he didn't.
SB: +3 Path to Exile, +3 Destructive Revelry, -2 Grim Lavamancer. I think I took out some combo of Eidolons and Lava Spikes.
R5 ID into the top 8. It was a burn deck, but we were both a lock for top 8.
R6 Loss to the Same Kiki Chord deck again. (1-2)
I had the lower seed, so he got to choose to be on the play.
Game 1 was super close, but at 4 life he was able to chord into the kiki Combo while I was tapped out.
G2 I was able to take with a well timed 2 Goblin Guides, a Seaing Blaze, and a well timed Skullcrack.
G3 Came down to a long game, I had him at 4 life, and drew 2 lands in a row then a skullcrack. He ended up gaining out of range with a Scavenging Ooze. My Boros Charm was just 1 draw step too late to finish out the game.
SB: +3 Path to Exile, and I don't remember what came out.
Overall, it was an awesome tournament. I was pleased to top 8. I think it would have been an easier task to win if I had been paired against the 2 infect, 2 Merfolk, or the other Burn deck. The last deck in the top 8 was another toolbox type deck with Eldritch Evolution and Chord. It was probably ever worse to beat than the Kiki Chord, since he was playing Kitchen Finks.
I noticed that I saved a lot of life over the course of the day since I dropped green from the deck. I was pleased to have Inspiring Vantage almost every time I drew it. It only came in tapped once, but I was using it to fire off a searing blaze, and just had another 1 cost in hand then anyways.
I was dissapointed at first that I didn't play against any of the other burn decks. Part of my switch out of green was so I could save the life fetching, and to be able to more easily cast the Kor Firewalker from the SB. Although, after the rounds were over, I tested the main deck against 2 different Burn decks and lost a lot of my matches. I've not really played the Mirror much, and I think I don't know it very well. I'll definitely try to get some more reps in before the GP comes around.
So, I have been playing Nacatl burn for a while, and I just tried out making the switch over to Boros (with the green splash for SB). I really liked how the deck performed. Here's my list:
In the current meta with a lot of aggro decks, I thought it would be nice to play with fewer colors so I could more easily fetch for my basics and save a number of life points. With Naya, I found that every game I was effectively starting at 14, since I would fetch and shock turn 1 and 2 so I could cast the Nacatl and have it be a 3/3, and also so I could cast both Atarka's Command and Boros Charm. I replaced the Atarka's Command with Skullcrack and the Wild Nacatl with some Lightning Helix and pushed myself to the full set of Searing Blaze.
I have noticed that this version seems to be just a little less explosive without the Commands and Nacatls, but I have felt it to be more consistent so far. Drawing a Nacatl on turn 6 when they are at 3 life and have a board is the worst. I have also run up against a decent number of opposing burn decks, and the Kor Firewalker is just killer in the mirror. Running Naya made it really hard to get those deployed due to the WW cost, and I know how back-breaking they can be when they land, so now that I feel I can cast them, I bumped them up to 3 in the SB.
I took this out the other day and went 4-0 beating Naya Coco Spirits, Turbo Turns, and then Jund 2 rounds in a row.
Spirits and Turns went to 3. Spirits got a crazy hand of 2 Spellskite in their opener game 1.
Game 1 against turns I ended up drawing 4 lands in a row and he took me down while at 4 life.
Neither Jund player was able to keep around their Goyfs for long and both ended up bottle-necked on lands, and I was even able to fight through a Collective Brutality both matches. Luckily I dodged the Kitchen Finks in both the SB matches and came away with the
Overall, I have been very pleased with the switch so far. The Lightning Helix life gain has been a champ, and the extra burn spells have been nice in the late game when the board gets bogged up. I'll keep trying this one out for a bit I think.
Academy Ruins seems like it would be a good addition for sure, I will have to look into that. It could be especially useful with the main deck artifact hate that is running around right now (Kolaghan's Command). With that, you could also look into the Academy Ruins/Mindslaver combo potentially.
I'm curious about how you are using Altar of the Brood. What do you use as the engine to fuel that, and is it reliable enough to close out the game on it's own? In my experience Sphinx's Tutelage combined with all the card draw can really close out games when you are milling 6-10 cards for each of your draw steps, but it does require that extra mana investment up front. I can see how a turn 1 mill threat could be pretty nice.
I guess Altar of the Brood could also have some synergy with Rites of Flourishing and fetches. Are there any cards that you use to use to help produce more permanents? Something like a Secure the Wastes for a big X could get things going, especially if you have more than 1 Altar of the Brood out. If could also serve as a type of fog by providing a lot of chump blockers.
If you have a list with Altar, I'd love to see it!
That is a great point, I had not considered that Swan Song can counter Eidolon of the Great Revel. So my burn matchup may not be too terrible considering that.
Also, not running into tron won't be a viable strategy for me. All the places I play have at least one weekly tron player. I think I might need to run Slaughter Games and Jester's Cap as a way to strip the threats from their deck. These can also provide some resilience against any other troublesome decks I run into.
I do like Gideon Jura, and I am considering War's Toll instead/as well. This forces them to swing with everyone if they want to attack, which gets Batwing Brume online. It also has an added effect of shutting out the control decks from being able to out counter me effectively (if I can resolve it). I can cast a fog on their upkeep, and if they want to counter it, they have to tap out.
Any thoughts on these?
Also, I think I will play this version this FNM probably (since my twin deck is done for), so I should hopefully have some results to post soon.
Hey guys, I have a new take on the turbo fog idea that I want to get some advice on. I have been playing Bant Fog for a bit. I think I posted a list a while ago. It's win con was Sphinx's Tutelage. I enjoyed it, but I have decided to try a new direction. I started of just substituting some lands with Forbidden Orchard since I figured the creatures wouldn't be getting any damage in anyways, and this allowed me to use Batwing Brume to get some damage in. It was fun, but people quickly figured out to quit attacking with the spirits once they saw the Brume. I did throw a singleton Rakdos Charm in the SB and it turned out to be way better than Brume in most cases. So it inspired me to try something new. I pulled green completely out of the deck (the Rites of Flourishing were great, but I found them often helping my control/tron opponents a bit more than I wanted).
Here's the idea. Get some Forbidden Orchard out and tap them every time possible to give your opponents some spirits. Use Mercy Killing to turn their Goyf/Tasigur/Swiftspear/Ulamog etc into a bunch of chumps. Counter some spells with Swan Song, then once they have enough dudes, cast Rakdos Charm to turn their army against them. Additionally Batwing Brume can be combined with the Gideon Jura +2 to force them to attack into you with everyone. Riot Control can do some good work gaining life with all the creatures they will have (with the added bonus of stopping storm and the occasional lethal burn spell). Congregate can help out with the burn matchup, which is pretty tough if they land an Eidolon of the Great Revel.
This is just a first draft of what I am thinking. I put the 2 Tutelage in the sideboard to give me a second win condition in case I need to kill them without damage. Definitely still a work in progress. I especially need to keep thinking of how my Burn and Tron matches go (since that I what I was having the most trouble with before).
Advice is greatly appreciated. I have not even played this version of the deck yet. Hopefully I can test this out and report back with some results soon.
So, the GP is this weekend, and I was hoping to get some last minute advice on my sideboard.
I am expecting that I will see a good number of BUG Delver, Shardless BUG, and UWx Miracles.
In addition to those that I expect to see, there are some decks that I will most likely see a few of that I feel that I have a bit of a hard time dealing with. Death and Taxes (Thalia + Port really hurts), and Berserk Infect (force + daze my prisons then in for the quick kill).
I am trying to decide if I really want the Sigarda, Host of Herons in there, since I have played many games without siding it in. Currently I was thinking of replacing it with the 4th Leyline.
Also, I know that the Suppression Field can really help my D&T matchup, but I don't really know what I would want to do for an Infect matchup.
I played again at one of the bigger legacy tournaments in my area (52 people last night) and I went 3-0-split. It was a pretty great night.
My matchups were Shardless BUG (won in 3), BUG Delver (won in 2), UWr Miracles (won in 2), and then I split with another UWr miracles player.
Early Rest In Peace did a lot of work against the BUG decks. Against Miracles game 1, I was able to land an early RIP, and I just played out all of the counters in his hand, and cast my Helm of Obedience when he only had 1 card in hand and I had the mana up for a daze/pierce. Game 2, somehow, I landed Choke in the first few turns, and he had no way to recover.
I mixed up my list just a bit by taking out one of my 4 maindeck Sterling Grove and replacing it with a Humility. I have been dealing with a pretty heavy showing of Death and Taxes, and wanted to try to gain a little extra advantage there.
To my sideboard, I added another Humility and I swapped out the 2 O-Rings for a Quarantine Field and a Banishing Light to diversify my removal a bit, but I might swap them back so I can deal with my own Humility if I find myself in a place that I need to.
Also, I am still loving the 2 Multani's Presence in the SB against control heavy decks. You should try it out. It's a great turn 1 play that Miracles really needs to Force, or the card advantage it gives you is just too good for them to recover usually.
Just 1 week until Grand Prix Seattle/Tacoma, and I'm feeling pretty positive where my deck is.
So, I took the Bant fog deck I posted to my local FNM. (nearly the same as what I posted -1 Celestial Colonnade and +1 Canopy Vista). It was a blast. I went 2-0-2.
Both of my draws were after a game 1 win then my opponent winning game 2. One the players won on turn 5 after going to time, the other I got hit with a Thalia, then a surprise Spellstutter Sprite that got me.
Here are my matchups:
Round 1: Mono-Red Burn 2-0 Win
This can be a troublesome matchup for me, but luckily, my opponent never landed an Eidolon of the Great Revel either game. Being Mono-red really helped me to get the win game 1 with Sphinx's Tutelage.
Game 2, I boarded in 4 Timely Reinforcements and 4 Leyline of Sanctity and was able to win pretty easily.
Round 2: Abzan 1-1 Draw
Game 1 was incredibly long. I got caught by a Maelstrom Pulse with 2 Sphinx's Tutelage out, but I got my Elixir of Immortality to shuffle them back in. I was finally able to land another Tutelage and cast a very big Sphinx's Revelation for the win. Game 1 took almost 40 minutes.
Game 2, I obliged my opponent by playing as quickly as possible, and I got killed by a Manland on turn 5 of time in round, after casting 3 Supreme Verdict to clear the board.
I had boarded in 2 Supreme Verdict, 4 Leyline of Sanctity, and (I think) 2 Rest in Peace .
Round 3: Bant Collected Chord 1-1-1 Draw
Game 1 I won pretty straight up, my opponent tried to combo off with Knight of the Reliquary and Retreat to Coralhelm and thinned his deck way out so my Tutelage hit for a lot.
Game 2 I was doing pretty well, and I tapped more than I needed to (I left up 2 mana for 2 fog effects), my Opponent had a huge board presense and used Chord of Calling to get Thalia, Guardian, Thraben on my turn, then attacked and countered my fog with a Spellstutter Sprite. Kudos to him, it was a great play that I was not expecting. Those collected decks full of 1-ofs are hard to predict.
Game 3 Basically started, then went to turns so we drew.
I had boarded in 2 Rest in Peace, 2 Detention Sphere, and 4 Leyline of Sanctity (to avoid the mill from a Hedron Crab with the Kight/Retreat combo, and to avoid Melira combos).
Round 4: ??? 2-0 Win
I got paired up against a BW mostly Standard Allies deck. Not sure exactly what it was, but it wasn't really tuned to be competitive. Though, I almost lost game 1 to his Retreat to Hagra which was draining me for 2-3 every turn with my Rites of Flourishings out. I boarded in my 2 Detention Sphere and 4 Timely Reinforcements for the extra life gain. I won this one pretty easily.
Overall, it was a great night. Had some really close fun games, with a lot to keep track of. Everyone loved seeing Turbo Fog, and I'm looking forward to playing it more (and hoping I keep avoiding the burn decks!).
I have recently put together a Bant Fog deck, and I have been playtesting it a lot, and it feels pretty good. I'm taking it out to my next FNM to see how it goes.
Burn is a problem for this deck, especially Eidolon of the Great Revel. I think I want to include 4 Runed Halo somewhere in the 75 to help deal with it. The life gain from Timely Reinforcements and Riot Control can really help out in those matches. Riot Control has the added advantage of preventing damage from Storm, Scapeshift, and Melira.
Sphinx's Revelation is there to power out wins with Tutelage, and the lifegain can play an important role in some matchups.
The single Elixir of Immortality is there to prevent me from milling myself, and the incidental lifegain can be good. It also puts my fogs back in the deck when I have an especially long and grindy match.
I really like going green for Rites of Flourishing, since it lets me drop it on turn 3, then play another land to keep up for a Fog effect. I have also considered running the new Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger as a one-of for an alternate win condition, since hitting 10 mana is not uncommon with Rites out.
I know there is probably some room for improvement here and suggestions are appreciated.
If your plan to beat omnitell is to sandbag a card until they show and tell it into play for you then you are still losing that game. You are better off letting omnitell crap on itself and just play the game.
Have you actually played against Omnitell recently? Dig Through Time is a real card. The times that I have played against them, they are not durdling around. The ones that I have been playing against, my opponents are casting Show and Tell on turns 3 and 4, with the early turns backed up by counter magic. I think hanging onto a single card in my hand that can allow me to not lose is a pretty good prospect.
By putting this down from the Show and Tell resolution, we buy ourselves a full turn of casting spells, and likely only have to deal with 1 spell being countered on our turn (unless they have the bounce spell in their hand already, but if we had a Sterling Grove out, we avoid that issue).
If I really want to beat Omnitell, I think I would want 3 or 4 of these, but I'm not sure what sideboard slots I would drop out for them.
Here are my results.
Match 1: Win; Miracles- Won game 1 and game 2 with Emrakul. Both of these games took a really long time. Game 2 we went to turns, and on turn 1 I cast Emrakul for the win. Multani's Presence did a lot of work for me in game 2.
Match 2: Win; Tezzeret Control- Won games 1 and 2 with RIP/Helm combo. Game 1 my opponent cast a Chalice of the Void for 1 on turn 1, and I luckily had a hand that didn't care about that. He had a Sword of the Meek, but I had an O-ring in hand to deal with his Thopter Foundry before he could make too many guys. I got my RIP/Helm pretty quick after that. Game 2 my opponent was planning to bounce my Rest in Peace and didn't realize it had shroud from Sterling Grove. I was in a good position anyways, and I don't know that he had a better line of play to win it.
Match 3: Loss; Jeskai Ascendancy Combo- Won game 1 with a quick RIP/Helm. Lost game 2 to a bad keep with no white mana and too many white spells, then my opponent with a Monastery Mentor and some well timed counter magic. Lost game 3 after a terrible mulligan to 5, but he went off Turn 2 with a back up Force of Will anyways, so it didn't really matter what I would have had.
Match 4: Split for Prize (Really a loss); Omnitell- Sooo glad my opponent wanted to split before we played. This is my nightmare matchup. We played the games for fun and he got the t3 show and tell both times, I had the O-Ring both times as well, but he was able to cunning wish up a Trickbind. Silly deck. The second game he actually cast all 4 Dig Through Time while my O-ring trigger was on the stack.
Bonus Match: 1-1 (just played 2 until I had to leave) My show and tell opponent had an ANT Storm deck that he wanted to test play, so we played a match of that. He got me game 1 on turn 3 .I had the Solitary Confinement in hand, but I wouldn't have gotten anywhere by playing it, then having to sac it next upkeep. Game 2 I got the opener with a double Leyline of Sanctity and an Elephant Grass in hand. Easy RIP/Helm win.
So, I went 2-1-1 on the night (would have been 2-2 if I had to actually play Omni).
Overall, it was a fun night. I got my entry fee back + $5, so I can play there again for free. I'm glad I discovered the Multani's Presence, I think it is a pretty good card to have in my meta with a decent number of miracles and other control decks running around. I still need to figure out some way that I can handle the Omnitell deck, it just wrecks me so hard. I have thought about adding in Eidolon of Rhetoric because I know that I can at least buy myself another turn with it, but I think it will just be a short turn with little impact usually. Really, I think I just need a banning of Omniscience or Dig Through Time to not lose to that deck.
I will be going to another LGS for Legacy on Sunday, so I'll report back with those results as well.
So, I have a new idea for this deck that I have never seen used before. I'm sure there are lots of reasons it is terrible, but just take a second to think through the possibilities.
Anyways, here it is: Remove Enchantments
Go ahead, read over it a few times. Got it yet? Ok.
For this deck, that wall of ridiculous text boils down to (W) - Instant - Return all enchantments you own to your hand.
Have a single Argothian Enchantress on the battlefield and this turns all of our Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl into free* cantrips. We tap the lands that they are enchanting, and as long as we have one more untapped land to re-attach them to, we cast them for the mana they just produced and draw a card for each one we cast. This gives us a very good way of zipping through our deck to try to get to the combo pieces that we want.
Obviously, there are some cards that could hose this particular strategy(Ethersworn Canonist, Eidolon of Rhetoric, etc), but we are usually aware of when to expect these and can work around them.
As a side note, for my experience, I have a NicFit deck that plays at one of my LGSs and causes me some trouble, and this would be a nice way to save some cards after a Pernicious Deed gets activated.
I just ran across this card when I was delving through the depths of gatherer, and I just wondered if it might have a home here.
So, any thoughts? Please discuss.
Thanks for the info! Do you happen to have a list of what your match-ups were, and the corresponding results? I'm curious how the deck performs against each of the other archetypes, and what win con was used to defeat each one.
In fact. This inspires me to do the same. I am going to start keeping a detailed log of all of my matches from now on.
It would definitely let me cut the Stomping Ground to add another Inspiring Vantage or a 3rd Mountain. My main reservation is that Destructive Revelry is adding in 2 damage which helps our normal game plan. On the other side it will make the mana base a little easier, since paying 2 life for the Stomping Ground game 1 was annoying since there is no need for the green.
I wonder if the life points and consistency you gain are worth the loss of the extra damage from revelry. Any thoughts?
The other option could be to make some split between Smash to Smithereens and some enchantment destruction. Realistically, there are not that many targets for the enchantment destruction right now. I have seen very few Leyline of Sanctity which would be the most likely candidate. There is Eidolon of Rhetoric which some decks will SB against us. Blood moon is another enchantment we might see, but there are not too many matches that will matter that much. We might want to destroy a Phyrexian Unlife or a Worship in some games.
So, does anyone have any ideas on Destructive Revelry vs Wear // Tear vs Smash to Smithereens in a Boros Burn deck?
I went to a Modern GPT for GP Vancouver last night. I took my Boros Burn deck from above and put up some decent results.
There were 21 people that showed up. Interestingly, there was no Dredge and no Affinity. I think the most represented decks were 4 Burn and 3 Infect.
Here's my report. I forgot to write down my SB choices, so I'm guessing on those.
R1 Win Against Gifts Ungiven (2-0)
Took down them down pretty easily in game 1. Just got a quick start and they stumbled a bit. Killed them turn 4 or 5.
Game 2 was a little closer, I had no creatures, and they got a lili ticked up to 6. I had a Path To Exile in hand and they used Unburial Rites to get back Iona, and named red, so I pathed it and closed out the game on the next turn.
SB: +3 Rest In Peace and +3 Path to Exile, -2 Grim Lavamancer -4 Searing Blaze.
R2 Win against Infect (2-0)
This is a pretty easy matchup for me. Kept a hand with bolt and Searing Blaze both games and he was never able to keep a creature long.
SB: +2 Path to exile and +2 Destructive Revelry, +2 Deflecting Palm, -4 Lava Spike, -2 Rift Bolt
R3 Loss against Kiki Chord (0-2)
Was a close matchup, game 1 he had a Scavenging Ooze at 3 toughness with 1 green up. I attacked with my Monastery Swiftspear which was blocked by the Scavenging Ooze. I cast a Skullcrack with a Lighning Helix in hand, hoping he would go for the life gain with the Skullcrack on the stack so I could finish off the Scooze. He thought for a while, but didn't take the bait. So after the combat damage killed my Swiftspear, I cast the Helix to kill the Ooze. Since he didn't take my bluff, I wasn't able to gain the 3 off the helix which ended up costing me the game.
Game 2 I made a play mistake that probably cost me the game. I had him at 2 life, and he only had 2 lands untapped, so I cast Skullcrack on my second main, expecting to close it out, but he had a Lighning Helix in hand and kept himself in the game. If I had held it up, there's no guarantee I would have got him, but it was probably not the right play.
SB: I didn't really know what to expect from this, so I brought +2 Path to Exile, +2 Rest In Peace, and +2 Destructive Revelry, and -2 Grim Lavamancer and -4 Lava Spike. Destructive Revelry was probably wrong. I was worried about possible Leyline of Sanctity. Luckily I was able to hit a Spellskite with one, so it wasn't totally dead, but I think it might have been wrong.
R4 Win against Madcap Moon Jund (2-1)
G1 I got lost to the Madcap Experiment into Platinum Emperion. I had 2 Eidolon of the Great Revel out, which locked me out of being able to kill him off.
G2 I kept a super risky hand. I knew that he relied on Birds of Paradise to ramp into moon and madcap. My hand was 1 basic mountain, 3 Searing Blaze, Lighning Bolt, Goblin Guide, and Monastery Swiftspear. Since I knew I needed to kill him off fast, I figured this would be a good gamble, since he would usually have a creature out quickly for the Searing blaze if I drew the second land. It was really a super risky keep, and probably should have been mulled. Anyways, my bad call paid off and I topdecked 2 fetches in a row. I went T1 Goblin Guide, he cast a T1 Birds of Paradise. I got the Fetch off the top, and and cast the first Searing Blaze. T2 he drops his second land (Forest, Copperline Gorge at this point) and plays the second Birds. Again, I topdeck the second fetch, so I play the fetch, Blaze the Bird, and swing in with the GG. Meanwhile, it's been black spells on top every time. T3 he misses his land drop and plays a 3rd bird. So I leave my Fetch up for the next turn, play my swiftspear, fetch and Blaze.
G3 was a closer game. Luckily I got to Blaze the Bird again, and it came down to him having 4 lands at 4 life with a Blood Moon out and he just needed to topdeck the Madcap Experement to lock the win, but he didn't.
SB: +3 Path to Exile, +3 Destructive Revelry, -2 Grim Lavamancer. I think I took out some combo of Eidolons and Lava Spikes.
R5 ID into the top 8. It was a burn deck, but we were both a lock for top 8.
R6 Loss to the Same Kiki Chord deck again. (1-2)
I had the lower seed, so he got to choose to be on the play.
Game 1 was super close, but at 4 life he was able to chord into the kiki Combo while I was tapped out.
G2 I was able to take with a well timed 2 Goblin Guides, a Seaing Blaze, and a well timed Skullcrack.
G3 Came down to a long game, I had him at 4 life, and drew 2 lands in a row then a skullcrack. He ended up gaining out of range with a Scavenging Ooze. My Boros Charm was just 1 draw step too late to finish out the game.
SB: +3 Path to Exile, and I don't remember what came out.
Overall, it was an awesome tournament. I was pleased to top 8. I think it would have been an easier task to win if I had been paired against the 2 infect, 2 Merfolk, or the other Burn deck. The last deck in the top 8 was another toolbox type deck with Eldritch Evolution and Chord. It was probably ever worse to beat than the Kiki Chord, since he was playing Kitchen Finks.
I noticed that I saved a lot of life over the course of the day since I dropped green from the deck. I was pleased to have Inspiring Vantage almost every time I drew it. It only came in tapped once, but I was using it to fire off a searing blaze, and just had another 1 cost in hand then anyways.
I was dissapointed at first that I didn't play against any of the other burn decks. Part of my switch out of green was so I could save the life fetching, and to be able to more easily cast the Kor Firewalker from the SB. Although, after the rounds were over, I tested the main deck against 2 different Burn decks and lost a lot of my matches. I've not really played the Mirror much, and I think I don't know it very well. I'll definitely try to get some more reps in before the GP comes around.
2x Arid Mesa
4x Bloodstained Mire
2x Inspiring Vantage
2x Mountain
2x Sacred Foundry
2x Scalding Tarn
1x Stomping Ground
4x Wooded Foothills
Instant (19)
4x Boros Charm
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Lightning Helix
4x Searing Blaze
4x Skullcrack
4x Eidolon of the Great Revel
4x Goblin Guide
2x Grim Lavamancer
4x Monastery Swiftspear
Sorcery (8)
4x Lava Spike
4x Rift Bolt
2x Deflecting Palm
3x Destructive Revelry
3x Kor Firewalker
3x Path to Exile
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
In the current meta with a lot of aggro decks, I thought it would be nice to play with fewer colors so I could more easily fetch for my basics and save a number of life points. With Naya, I found that every game I was effectively starting at 14, since I would fetch and shock turn 1 and 2 so I could cast the Nacatl and have it be a 3/3, and also so I could cast both Atarka's Command and Boros Charm. I replaced the Atarka's Command with Skullcrack and the Wild Nacatl with some Lightning Helix and pushed myself to the full set of Searing Blaze.
I have noticed that this version seems to be just a little less explosive without the Commands and Nacatls, but I have felt it to be more consistent so far. Drawing a Nacatl on turn 6 when they are at 3 life and have a board is the worst. I have also run up against a decent number of opposing burn decks, and the Kor Firewalker is just killer in the mirror. Running Naya made it really hard to get those deployed due to the WW cost, and I know how back-breaking they can be when they land, so now that I feel I can cast them, I bumped them up to 3 in the SB.
I took this out the other day and went 4-0 beating Naya Coco Spirits, Turbo Turns, and then Jund 2 rounds in a row.
Spirits and Turns went to 3. Spirits got a crazy hand of 2 Spellskite in their opener game 1.
Game 1 against turns I ended up drawing 4 lands in a row and he took me down while at 4 life.
Neither Jund player was able to keep around their Goyfs for long and both ended up bottle-necked on lands, and I was even able to fight through a Collective Brutality both matches. Luckily I dodged the Kitchen Finks in both the SB matches and came away with the
Overall, I have been very pleased with the switch so far. The Lightning Helix life gain has been a champ, and the extra burn spells have been nice in the late game when the board gets bogged up. I'll keep trying this one out for a bit I think.
I'm curious about how you are using Altar of the Brood. What do you use as the engine to fuel that, and is it reliable enough to close out the game on it's own? In my experience Sphinx's Tutelage combined with all the card draw can really close out games when you are milling 6-10 cards for each of your draw steps, but it does require that extra mana investment up front. I can see how a turn 1 mill threat could be pretty nice.
I guess Altar of the Brood could also have some synergy with Rites of Flourishing and fetches. Are there any cards that you use to use to help produce more permanents? Something like a Secure the Wastes for a big X could get things going, especially if you have more than 1 Altar of the Brood out. If could also serve as a type of fog by providing a lot of chump blockers.
If you have a list with Altar, I'd love to see it!
Also, not running into tron won't be a viable strategy for me. All the places I play have at least one weekly tron player. I think I might need to run Slaughter Games and Jester's Cap as a way to strip the threats from their deck. These can also provide some resilience against any other troublesome decks I run into.
I do like Gideon Jura, and I am considering War's Toll instead/as well. This forces them to swing with everyone if they want to attack, which gets Batwing Brume online. It also has an added effect of shutting out the control decks from being able to out counter me effectively (if I can resolve it). I can cast a fog on their upkeep, and if they want to counter it, they have to tap out.
Any thoughts on these?
Also, I think I will play this version this FNM probably (since my twin deck is done for), so I should hopefully have some results to post soon.
Here's the idea. Get some Forbidden Orchard out and tap them every time possible to give your opponents some spirits. Use Mercy Killing to turn their Goyf/Tasigur/Swiftspear/Ulamog etc into a bunch of chumps. Counter some spells with Swan Song, then once they have enough dudes, cast Rakdos Charm to turn their army against them. Additionally Batwing Brume can be combined with the Gideon Jura +2 to force them to attack into you with everyone. Riot Control can do some good work gaining life with all the creatures they will have (with the added bonus of stopping storm and the occasional lethal burn spell). Congregate can help out with the burn matchup, which is pretty tough if they land an Eidolon of the Great Revel.
2x Darkness
3x Ethereal Haze
3x Holy Day
2x Pollen Lullaby
4x Riot Control
2x Congregate
3x Mercy Killing
3x Swan Song
3x Rakdos Charm
1x Blood Crypt
4x Flooded Strand
4x Forbidden Orchard
2x Hallowed Fountain
2x Island
2x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
2x Plains
4x Polluted Delta
1x Swamp
1x Watery Grave
4x Howling Mine
1x Gideon Jura
1x Jester's Cap
4x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Nevermore
2x Pithing Needle
2x Rest in Peace
2x Runed Halo
2x Sphinx's Tutelage
This is just a first draft of what I am thinking. I put the 2 Tutelage in the sideboard to give me a second win condition in case I need to kill them without damage. Definitely still a work in progress. I especially need to keep thinking of how my Burn and Tron matches go (since that I what I was having the most trouble with before).
Advice is greatly appreciated. I have not even played this version of the deck yet. Hopefully I can test this out and report back with some results soon.
I am expecting that I will see a good number of BUG Delver, Shardless BUG, and UWx Miracles.
In addition to those that I expect to see, there are some decks that I will most likely see a few of that I feel that I have a bit of a hard time dealing with. Death and Taxes (Thalia + Port really hurts), and Berserk Infect (force + daze my prisons then in for the quick kill).
Here is my board as it currently stands:
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Quarantine Field
3 Suppression Field
2 Multani's Presence
1 Humility
1 Replenish
2 Choke
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
I am trying to decide if I really want the Sigarda, Host of Herons in there, since I have played many games without siding it in. Currently I was thinking of replacing it with the 4th Leyline.
Also, I know that the Suppression Field can really help my D&T matchup, but I don't really know what I would want to do for an Infect matchup.
Any suggestions?
My matchups were Shardless BUG (won in 3), BUG Delver (won in 2), UWr Miracles (won in 2), and then I split with another UWr miracles player.
Early Rest In Peace did a lot of work against the BUG decks. Against Miracles game 1, I was able to land an early RIP, and I just played out all of the counters in his hand, and cast my Helm of Obedience when he only had 1 card in hand and I had the mana up for a daze/pierce. Game 2, somehow, I landed Choke in the first few turns, and he had no way to recover.
I mixed up my list just a bit by taking out one of my 4 maindeck Sterling Grove and replacing it with a Humility. I have been dealing with a pretty heavy showing of Death and Taxes, and wanted to try to gain a little extra advantage there.
To my sideboard, I added another Humility and I swapped out the 2 O-Rings for a Quarantine Field and a Banishing Light to diversify my removal a bit, but I might swap them back so I can deal with my own Humility if I find myself in a place that I need to.
Also, I am still loving the 2 Multani's Presence in the SB against control heavy decks. You should try it out. It's a great turn 1 play that Miracles really needs to Force, or the card advantage it gives you is just too good for them to recover usually.
Just 1 week until Grand Prix Seattle/Tacoma, and I'm feeling pretty positive where my deck is.
Both of my draws were after a game 1 win then my opponent winning game 2. One the players won on turn 5 after going to time, the other I got hit with a Thalia, then a surprise Spellstutter Sprite that got me.
Here are my matchups:
Round 1: Mono-Red Burn 2-0 Win
This can be a troublesome matchup for me, but luckily, my opponent never landed an Eidolon of the Great Revel either game. Being Mono-red really helped me to get the win game 1 with Sphinx's Tutelage.
Game 2, I boarded in 4 Timely Reinforcements and 4 Leyline of Sanctity and was able to win pretty easily.
Round 2: Abzan 1-1 Draw
Game 1 was incredibly long. I got caught by a Maelstrom Pulse with 2 Sphinx's Tutelage out, but I got my Elixir of Immortality to shuffle them back in. I was finally able to land another Tutelage and cast a very big Sphinx's Revelation for the win. Game 1 took almost 40 minutes.
Game 2, I obliged my opponent by playing as quickly as possible, and I got killed by a Manland on turn 5 of time in round, after casting 3 Supreme Verdict to clear the board.
I had boarded in 2 Supreme Verdict, 4 Leyline of Sanctity, and (I think) 2 Rest in Peace .
Round 3: Bant Collected Chord 1-1-1 Draw
Game 1 I won pretty straight up, my opponent tried to combo off with Knight of the Reliquary and Retreat to Coralhelm and thinned his deck way out so my Tutelage hit for a lot.
Game 2 I was doing pretty well, and I tapped more than I needed to (I left up 2 mana for 2 fog effects), my Opponent had a huge board presense and used Chord of Calling to get Thalia, Guardian, Thraben on my turn, then attacked and countered my fog with a Spellstutter Sprite. Kudos to him, it was a great play that I was not expecting. Those collected decks full of 1-ofs are hard to predict.
Game 3 Basically started, then went to turns so we drew.
I had boarded in 2 Rest in Peace, 2 Detention Sphere, and 4 Leyline of Sanctity (to avoid the mill from a Hedron Crab with the Kight/Retreat combo, and to avoid Melira combos).
Round 4: ??? 2-0 Win
I got paired up against a BW mostly Standard Allies deck. Not sure exactly what it was, but it wasn't really tuned to be competitive. Though, I almost lost game 1 to his Retreat to Hagra which was draining me for 2-3 every turn with my Rites of Flourishings out. I boarded in my 2 Detention Sphere and 4 Timely Reinforcements for the extra life gain. I won this one pretty easily.
Overall, it was a great night. Had some really close fun games, with a lot to keep track of. Everyone loved seeing Turbo Fog, and I'm looking forward to playing it more (and hoping I keep avoiding the burn decks!).
Sphinx's Tutelage is my main win condition, and I have the backup of Celestial Colonnade beatdown.
Main:
4x Flooded Strand
1x Forest
2x Celestial Colonnade
4x Hallowed Fountain
3x Island
2x Misty Rainforest
2x Plains
1x Sunpetal Grove
1x Temple Garden
2x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1x Cryptic Command
4x Ethereal Haze
4x Fog
4x Holy Day
2x Pollen Lullaby
2x Sphinx's Revelation
2x Supreme Verdict
3x Riot Control
1x Elixir of Immortality
4x Rites of Flourishing
4x Sphinx's Tutelage
Side:
4x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Rest in Peace
2x Supreme Verdict
1x Surgical Extraction
4x Timely Reinforcements
Burn is a problem for this deck, especially Eidolon of the Great Revel. I think I want to include 4 Runed Halo somewhere in the 75 to help deal with it. The life gain from Timely Reinforcements and Riot Control can really help out in those matches. Riot Control has the added advantage of preventing damage from Storm, Scapeshift, and Melira.
Sphinx's Revelation is there to power out wins with Tutelage, and the lifegain can play an important role in some matchups.
The single Elixir of Immortality is there to prevent me from milling myself, and the incidental lifegain can be good. It also puts my fogs back in the deck when I have an especially long and grindy match.
I really like going green for Rites of Flourishing, since it lets me drop it on turn 3, then play another land to keep up for a Fog effect. I have also considered running the new Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger as a one-of for an alternate win condition, since hitting 10 mana is not uncommon with Rites out.
I know there is probably some room for improvement here and suggestions are appreciated.
Have you actually played against Omnitell recently? Dig Through Time is a real card. The times that I have played against them, they are not durdling around. The ones that I have been playing against, my opponents are casting Show and Tell on turns 3 and 4, with the early turns backed up by counter magic. I think hanging onto a single card in my hand that can allow me to not lose is a pretty good prospect.
At first I was thinking of Rule of Law or Eidolon of Rhetoric, but the extra turn those buy me is not that great since I can only cast 1 spell. Then I cam across this card: Curse of Exhaustion.
By putting this down from the Show and Tell resolution, we buy ourselves a full turn of casting spells, and likely only have to deal with 1 spell being countered on our turn (unless they have the bounce spell in their hand already, but if we had a Sterling Grove out, we avoid that issue).
If I really want to beat Omnitell, I think I would want 3 or 4 of these, but I'm not sure what sideboard slots I would drop out for them.
2x Choke
3x Leyline of Sanctity
3x Multani's Presence
2x Oblivion Ring
1x Replenish
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
3x Suppression Field
Here are my results.
Match 1: Win; Miracles- Won game 1 and game 2 with Emrakul. Both of these games took a really long time. Game 2 we went to turns, and on turn 1 I cast Emrakul for the win. Multani's Presence did a lot of work for me in game 2.
Match 2: Win; Tezzeret Control- Won games 1 and 2 with RIP/Helm combo. Game 1 my opponent cast a Chalice of the Void for 1 on turn 1, and I luckily had a hand that didn't care about that. He had a Sword of the Meek, but I had an O-ring in hand to deal with his Thopter Foundry before he could make too many guys. I got my RIP/Helm pretty quick after that. Game 2 my opponent was planning to bounce my Rest in Peace and didn't realize it had shroud from Sterling Grove. I was in a good position anyways, and I don't know that he had a better line of play to win it.
Match 3: Loss; Jeskai Ascendancy Combo- Won game 1 with a quick RIP/Helm. Lost game 2 to a bad keep with no white mana and too many white spells, then my opponent with a Monastery Mentor and some well timed counter magic. Lost game 3 after a terrible mulligan to 5, but he went off Turn 2 with a back up Force of Will anyways, so it didn't really matter what I would have had.
Match 4: Split for Prize (Really a loss); Omnitell- Sooo glad my opponent wanted to split before we played. This is my nightmare matchup. We played the games for fun and he got the t3 show and tell both times, I had the O-Ring both times as well, but he was able to cunning wish up a Trickbind. Silly deck. The second game he actually cast all 4 Dig Through Time while my O-ring trigger was on the stack.
Bonus Match: 1-1 (just played 2 until I had to leave) My show and tell opponent had an ANT Storm deck that he wanted to test play, so we played a match of that. He got me game 1 on turn 3 .I had the Solitary Confinement in hand, but I wouldn't have gotten anywhere by playing it, then having to sac it next upkeep. Game 2 I got the opener with a double Leyline of Sanctity and an Elephant Grass in hand. Easy RIP/Helm win.
So, I went 2-1-1 on the night (would have been 2-2 if I had to actually play Omni).
Overall, it was a fun night. I got my entry fee back + $5, so I can play there again for free. I'm glad I discovered the Multani's Presence, I think it is a pretty good card to have in my meta with a decent number of miracles and other control decks running around. I still need to figure out some way that I can handle the Omnitell deck, it just wrecks me so hard. I have thought about adding in Eidolon of Rhetoric because I know that I can at least buy myself another turn with it, but I think it will just be a short turn with little impact usually. Really, I think I just need a banning of Omniscience or Dig Through Time to not lose to that deck.
I will be going to another LGS for Legacy on Sunday, so I'll report back with those results as well.
Anyways, here it is: Remove Enchantments
Go ahead, read over it a few times. Got it yet? Ok.
For this deck, that wall of ridiculous text boils down to (W) - Instant - Return all enchantments you own to your hand.
Have a single Argothian Enchantress on the battlefield and this turns all of our Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl into free* cantrips. We tap the lands that they are enchanting, and as long as we have one more untapped land to re-attach them to, we cast them for the mana they just produced and draw a card for each one we cast. This gives us a very good way of zipping through our deck to try to get to the combo pieces that we want.
Obviously, there are some cards that could hose this particular strategy(Ethersworn Canonist, Eidolon of Rhetoric, etc), but we are usually aware of when to expect these and can work around them.
As a side note, for my experience, I have a NicFit deck that plays at one of my LGSs and causes me some trouble, and this would be a nice way to save some cards after a Pernicious Deed gets activated.
I just ran across this card when I was delving through the depths of gatherer, and I just wondered if it might have a home here.
So, any thoughts? Please discuss.
In fact. This inspires me to do the same. I am going to start keeping a detailed log of all of my matches from now on.