2-0 vs Traverse Shadow - Token blockers lined up vs threats very well, finished him off with burn and flyers.
0-2 vs Storm - Mulled down to 4 G1 and got run over. Kept a disruptive hand G2 but looted into Pyro in the mid game and was one turn too slow on my clock. Didn't see any of my SB cards either game. /shrug
2-0 vs G Tron - No Blood Moons in sight but hit T1 discard into T2 Pyro both games. G1 he ended with two World Breakers on board but I kept slipping Elementals and burn past until he died. G2 he drew into two Mines and two Towers but I kept him off of tutoring up the Power Plant. Got super lucky.
2-0 vs Naya Midrange Pile - He outpaced my removal with a huge army of Knights, Trackers, Courser, BBE, Voice, etc and I blocked him with Elemental tokens for 40 minutes while swinging in the air and burning him out. Kessig Wolf Run threatened the chump-block plan but Blood Moon covered it. G2 I drew into Ensnaring Bridge which would've locked up the game but he topdecked Qasali Pridemage next turn XD... So I just stuck to the block and chip plan to take the game.
Overall I was pretty happy with the deck's performance for my first night playing it at an event. Stealing a win vs Tron was the icing on the cake.
A common theme in my matches that I was often blocking some huge threats with Pyro tokens while trying to close the game with reach. Lightning Helix sounds interesting as additional reach, and I figure that I might as well get more value out of the Plains that I was running (still mostly happy with this btw, casting both halves of Souls through BM came up a few times during the night). I'm not sure what I'd cut, though, maybe the 2nd Dreadbore and 3rd MB Brutality.
Between Wayfinder and Stitcher you can get enough creatures in your grave that Rally starts to become more attractive than Return. It can also return E-Wit, which is important to get discarded copies of Rally and CoCo back into hand. I think running all 8 Blood Artists is the way to go here. They power up your sac loops much more than fodder like Doomed Traveler / Voice, and we already have Stitcher, Wayfinder, Dorks, and Cartel Aristocrat to act as blockers.
I started with 7-8 copies of Return/Rally but IMO they're too boom/bust -- if your grave is full they're great, if you haven't drawn into your Stitchers or Wayfinders they just clog up your hand. 4 CoCo / 4 Rally seems like a better balance.
Overall probably still too fair and slow to be terribly competitive, lol. I've tried to build the sideboard around that... Ensnaring Bridge seems great for this deck since it doesn't necessarily need to attack.
Here's another option for a value tool that also digs for Felidar / Kiki. It shouldn't be too hard to build the deck with 20+ hits so you have a >80% success rate on the ETB.
I think you have the right idea with RIP. ScOoze has the benefit of being a creature but is more of a broad-spectrum value card than a fast and clean answer to degenerate graveyard strategies. Even if you tutor for him T2 he can be too slow and mana-intensive to shut down these decks. I think you could even go up to 2x RIP in the side (as Emzed has done at times) for that meta and if needed diversify your value creatures away from grave reliance (Tracker over some Ralliers, Wall/Oracle over some Voices, etc).
I agree with all of your points on Image being good with Rallier but mostly bad with deck's core. Although it was an interesting experiment I don't particularly care for the direction of the Phantasmal Saheeli list and I wouldn't spend too long bending over backwards trying to rationalize it -- it was a donation list sent in for him to play, not something Hoogland designed.
How do you guys sideboard vs Humans? That matchup is by far the worst in my experience.
My most recent list is built with a primary goal of making the Humans matchup manageable. My swaps are -1 Rallier, -1 Slime, -1 Titan, -1 Evo, -1 Saheeli for +1 Abrade, +2 Justice, +1 Worship, +1 Ambusher. Running four Felidars and Kiki has made a tremendous difference in getting around T2 Meddling Mage snap-naming Saheeli when we’re on the draw. I respectfully disagree with maniospas about aiming to outgrind Humans — I feel that we want to take out their Meddling Mage / Freebooter / Aruiok with removal and then combo out as quickly as possible because they have such a high threat density that they will almost always end up punching through with Mantis Riders, Malcontents, Freebooters, etc. Towards that end I’ve added two more Hierarchs and swapped to Walls over Voice to accelerate things.
Went 2-2 at another 20 person FNM tonight. Decklist was similar to last time except for -1 Fiery Justice, -1 Worship in the side for +1 Abrade, +1 Qasali Ambusher.
R1 - Humans G1 I'm on the play so I get under his disruption and combo out T3 G2 Opponent leads with T1 Champion of the Parish, T2 Champion of the Parish, Gut Shot-ing my T1 Hierarch. Ouch. I play Wall of Omens T2 and pass. He bounces Wall with Reflector Mage (interesting choice) and swings in for 5. T3 I play Cobra into Fiery Justice, clearing both of his Champions. Next turn I play Worship and he flashes in Staticaster to clear Cobra. We both draw-go for a couple turns as I try to dig down to the combo and he looks for answers to Worship. Before I can find anything he cracks Canopy into Reflector Mage, bounces my lone Wall, and swings in for lethal. G3 Is a little fuzzy. By the late game I had three Felidars and an Oath while he had Staticaster, Phantasmal Staticaster, Malcontents, Meddling Mage on Saheeli, and a couple Freebooters (exiling Oath & Saheeli). I kept flickering Oath but ended up digging past an Evo at one point and didn't hit anything else while his Freebooters hit me for 2 dmg / turn for 3-4 turns. After the match I looked and my next out was 15+ cards down. Sometimes it isn't meant to be. (1-2 games, 0-1 matches)
R2 - Ponza G1 and G2 were similar. He lead with T1 Arbor Elf, T2 Stone Rain'd my first land, while I played T1 Dork, T2 Cobra. Both games I recovered on mana quickly after the Stone Rain and combo'd out ~T4. (2-0 games, 1-1 matches)
R3 - GW Elves G1 I combo out T3 with a silly sequence of T1 Bird, T2 Cobra, T3 Cobra, Rallier to rally back Fetch, Felidar blink Rallier to return the Fetch again, Evolve Rallier into Kiki. G2 I keep him off the druid combo by bouncing his T2 Druid with my Reflector Mage, Fiery Justice away his Ezuri, and play Gaddock but a few turns later he's able to hardcast another Ezuri and Vizier to combo out. G3 T1 Bird, T2 Saheeli, T3 Clone Bird, play Gaddock, Evolve into Felidar to combo out (2-1 games, 2-1 matches)
R4 - Mardu Reveler G1 I stick a T3 Saheeli with Oath on board and two Felidars in hand. Unfortunately my fetches weren't white so I couldn't get a Plains. He kills my Bird and plays Blood Moon, locking me out of casting the two Felidars and the Wall that I proceed to topdeck. I draw another Felidar. I draw another Bird, cast and clone it to get the Wall out (not enough mana for Felidar), draw into nothing useful/castable. I durdle around for a while while he takes over with a Pyro. G2 I had to mull down to a 4 of 2 Fetches, Bird, and Wall. He Inquisitions away the wall. I work my way back into the game for a while thanks to some good topdecks of Shalai, Thragtusk, and Slime. Things start to look good when I topdeck Saheeli and clone Thragtusk, but he starts stabilizing with Pyro + Elemental & Spirit tokens, sealing the deal with Liliana of the Veil to slowly pick off my creatures, finally finishing the game with a Reveler. (0-2 games, 2-2 matches)
Thoughts:
Despite going 2-2 I'm still pleased with the overall performance of the deck and I feel like we are honing in on an increasingly optimized core.
In the future I'll have to make more effort to pair Worship with a creature-heavy hand to keep Humans from getting around Worship with the removal they bring in to disrupt the combo. I didn't get to play Qasali Ambusher at all, but this experience made me feel a bit better about going to a split of 1 Worship and 1 Ambusher since they are good in most of the same matchups. More testing needed.
This is the first time I've gotten to play against a dedicated Mardu pilot, and it's also the first time I've had to actually fear an opposing Blood Moon due to the way Mardu backs Blood Moon up with a critical mass of removal to consistently clear our dorks, unlike Ponza & Red Prison.
I continue to feel very good about racing other linear decks with this build, but I may need to bolster the grind potential. Currently considering cutting the 3rd MB Reflector for the 4th Rallier, especially since Reflector is poor against Mardu & Jeskai. I'll try to jam more games vs these decks.
Didn't sideboard in Ambusher vs any other decks, but it should definitely be a game changer vs Affinity, Hollow One and Humans.
With Affinity, Hollow One, Humans, and Burn being half of the top 8 meta decks it certainly might be Ambusher's time to shine.
My biggest reservation with Ambusher vs Humans is that it doesn't necessarily help combo out once they've landed their (Turn 2!) combo-hate cards -- Meddling Mage or Auriok Champion. With that in mind I'd rather have more copies of Reflector Mage, Explosives, Fiery Justice, Abrade, etc, which restore the combo route vs Humans and can have additional application vs Midrange, Lantern, and creature-based combo like Counters Co, Elves, and Storm. Granted, those latter decks have less individual representation in the current meta but together still make up a good chunk of it. With that said having a free 3-drop to accelerate Evo is still powerful, and as you've demonstrated in your Burn matchup when Ambusher is good it's really good...
When deciding between Ambusher and more removal I guess it comes down to how much you want to spike the most common matchups vs taking a more generalist approach. I'd appreciate you sharing more Ambusher data as you continue to play matches.
Glad you got to live the dream with Ambusher vs Burn. Did Ambusher come up in any other games? How did mainboard Thrun do?
You drew a Fetch to essentially play a version of the T2 combo sequence: you play and crack the fetch (GWX mana), tap Bird for floating mana then Evolve Bird into Rallier, Rally back Fetch (URX mana), cast Saheeli, -2 clone Rallier, Rally back Fetch (WXX mana), you then had 4 mana to cast Felidar with the Bird’s floating mana.
R1 Mono-W Eldrazi & Taxes G1 My opponent lead with inspector after a mull to ~5, and I curve Bird into Cobra. T3 Opponent plays Displacer, and I play Acidic Slime to blow up his only white source. Next turn I chip in with Slime and Cobra, then play Kiki copying Slime. Opponent scoops. G2 Was fuzzy but I mull down to a slower hand leaning on Worship. My opponent hits Flickerwisp and Displacer, essentially invalidating Worship and I die a few turns later. We discussed this later and still feel that it's worth bringing at least one Worship in since he has only 4 outs. G3 I toss the match with a keep of Bird, Cobra, Fiery Justice, Stomping Grounds, and two Fetches. My logic was that I'd be ready to cast essentially anything I drew T4, that Justice can just decimate a lot of Taxes board states, and the extra lands might help if he set up his LD plan... T3 I hit his Inspector and Displacer with Justice (feels good!). On his T4 he plays Reality Smasher and I have meanwhile proceeded to draw two Birds and two more lands (feels bad!). Ded. Lesson learned, in a build with 10x dorks you can't afford to keep a fast hand without a win con. (1-2 in games, 0-1 in matches)
R2 Mono-U Merfolk G1 My opponent has a slow start with no T1 play. I lead with Birds into T2 Reflector Mage to bounce his T2 Lord. T3 I play Saheeli and Reflector Mage, bouncing his 3-drop. T4 I draw another Reflector Mage and by T5 I copy Reflector with Saheeli and swing in with two Cobras and three Reflectors for lethal. G2 My opponent mulls to 4 and I combo out T3 >.< (2-0 in games, 1-1 in matches)
R3 Skred Red
G1 & G2 go pretty similarly, he Skreds my dorks and plays Blood Moon but I ignore it with more Dorks/Oaths and combo out T4-T5. (2-0 in games, 2-1 matches)
R4 Lantern Control G1 My oppponent leads with T1 Inquisition into T2 Pithing Needle naming Saheeli. I have a hand with Wall and Reflector Mage. I proceed to draw three more Saheelis and another Reflector Mage over the course of the game. I take him to 6 life but eventually scoop once he has 4 mill rocks + Cage + double Bridge. G2 I combo out T3 or T4. G3 I keep an amazing hand with Tracker, Shalai, Oath, Cobra, Rec Sage, and two lands. He dismantles a lot of it with triple discard but I draw and stick Saheeli and Oath my way into Gaddock and Slime. He scoops a few turns later. (2-1 in games, 3-1 in matches)
Thoughts & Takeaways
After months of trying to attack an aggro-heavy meta with a 50:50 midrange-combo plan going all-in on combo with 10x Dorks, Walls over Voices, 4x Felidars, 4x Evo, and Kiki has been transformative. Despite some of the oddball decks I played tonight my LGS is converging with the global trend of people playing silly linear decks -- also present tonight were 2 Boggles players, Burn, Affinity, Cheeri0s, Mill, Infect, and more. As much as I miss Siege Rhino (<3) having a consistent, fast, proactive combo plan is the way to go right now.
I was pleasantly surprised with Slime and continue to like it as a land-hate card over Magus of the Moon.
Tireless Tracker was solid and I recommend it over cards like Sigarda due to its better CMC vs Control and application against Prison decks.
After talking with Emzed we agreed that Shalai is an awesome role player but we both found ourselves tutoring her up less than expected and moved her to the side.
Overall the deck performed really well and seemed well-positioned!
After playing some more I think that 3x Felidars is the most awkward number of Felidars. If you want to run a value midrange list (which it looks like you do) I think 1-2 Felidars (with 2-3 Evo) makes sense. If you want to push the combo then 4 Felidars with 4 Evos and Kiki is the way to go, IMO.
With that said I would vote P&K and Lark, swap Thragtusk for Wingmate Roc, and swap the 3rd Felidar for Glorybringer. Shalai gets better (and unfortunately Geahulk gets worse) the wider you make your board, and Roc + P&K + Splicer all support going wide. At that point Gavony starts to look like a more attractive utility Land than Ghost Quarter. Glorybringer can help add a bit of interaction while keeping your mana centered on Naya.
Hi guys, I'm looking for help filling out my MB flex slots in a way that prepares for a local meta exceptionally heavy on aggro, with a bit of Bx Midrange + Tron, and then a smattering of control, prison, and combo. Full meta below:
2-3 Humans
2-3 GW Elves
2 Affinity
2 Taxes
2 Merfolk
2 Death's Shadow
2 Jund
2 Gx Tron
2 Lantern
1 Storm
1 Mardu
1 Burn
1 Ux Control
1 Titanshift
1 Hollow One
1 Abzan Company
Blood Moon seems good against Humans, Tron, Titanshift, and Ux decks that lean on Colonnade... but that's only ~20% of this meta. Is 20% enough to run Moon in the main? Split one main, one side? Or leave them all in the side?
Main-boarded sweepers seem good here. I could imagine moving the usual SB 2x Explosives into the main. Or Anger / Sweltering Suns?
Alternatively I could run more point removal that excels vs aggro such as Forked Bolt, Abrade, or Liliana TLH.
Another way to speed up the deck to handle fast aggro and Tron matchups might be to use some of the flex slots to go up to 4x Manamorphose. This could backfire against Thalias, though.
Right now I'm leaning towards 2x Manamorphose, 2x EE, and 1x Abrade main, with Moons in the side. Any other ideas?
I think everyone gets frustrated with CoCo if they play the card long enough. Those game (or match) losing whiffs get seared into your memory.
Uncage the Menagerie looks ok (although slow) but Growing Rites doesn't dig especially well for the cost and isn't great when you're behind, so I'm less impressed by that.
If I were going to cut CoCo I would probably abandon the value plan and start by experimenting with a Turbo Vizier list, like the one recently demo'd here.
Using the version from hotshot can people clue me into how to sb properly with this combo deck?
In general against fast matchups you want to shave your unessential top end -- Titan, Slime, Shalai (exceptions for Burn, Storm, Mill, etc), maybe Lancers -- but keep Kiki. If the fast match involves attacking on the ground then keep Voice/Oracle to block (Humans), otherwise these can be shaved (Merfolk, Elves, Affinity, Storm). Renegade Rallier is also somewhat flexible if your opponent isn't interacting with you much to put stuff in your graveyard. However, Rallier retains more value in fast matchups where you're trying to get a 2 CMC hate permanent to stick (Stony vs Tron).
Against grindy decks I often shave 2-4x 1-CMC dorks (less if the grindy matchup involves Blood Moons, like Mardu, or if you need to out-tempo them, like Ux control), 1-4x Evo (higher vs Cage decks and especially counterspell decks), and 0-2x Felidar Guardian if you still need room.
As you're taking cards out try to replace them in a way that keeps your deck composition similar enough to still function: in general you don't want to go below ~21 creatures if possible, with 4+ 2-CMC creatures and ~4 3-CMC creatures if Evoing into Kiki quickly is important to the matchup. What you bring in should be fairly straightforward, but if you have questions about specific matchups let us know.
Went 3-1 with this list:
4x Young Pyromancer
4x Bedlam Reveler
Instant (10)
3x Fatal Push
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Kolaghan's Command
Sorcery (20)
4x Faithless Looting
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
3x Thoughtseize
3x Collective Brutality
2x Dreadbore
4x Lingering Souls
2x Blood Moon
Land (20)
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Marsh Flats
2x Blood Crypt
1x Sacred Foundry
2x Mountain
2x Swamp
1x Plains
2x Nihil Spellbomb
3x Ensnaring Bridge
1x Collective Brutality
3x Wear
1x Blood Moon
3x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
2x Goblin Rabblemaster
0-2 vs Storm - Mulled down to 4 G1 and got run over. Kept a disruptive hand G2 but looted into Pyro in the mid game and was one turn too slow on my clock. Didn't see any of my SB cards either game. /shrug
2-0 vs G Tron - No Blood Moons in sight but hit T1 discard into T2 Pyro both games. G1 he ended with two World Breakers on board but I kept slipping Elementals and burn past until he died. G2 he drew into two Mines and two Towers but I kept him off of tutoring up the Power Plant. Got super lucky.
2-0 vs Naya Midrange Pile - He outpaced my removal with a huge army of Knights, Trackers, Courser, BBE, Voice, etc and I blocked him with Elemental tokens for 40 minutes while swinging in the air and burning him out. Kessig Wolf Run threatened the chump-block plan but Blood Moon covered it. G2 I drew into Ensnaring Bridge which would've locked up the game but he topdecked Qasali Pridemage next turn XD... So I just stuck to the block and chip plan to take the game.
Overall I was pretty happy with the deck's performance for my first night playing it at an event. Stealing a win vs Tron was the icing on the cake.
A common theme in my matches that I was often blocking some huge threats with Pyro tokens while trying to close the game with reach. Lightning Helix sounds interesting as additional reach, and I figure that I might as well get more value out of the Plains that I was running (still mostly happy with this btw, casting both halves of Souls through BM came up a few times during the night). I'm not sure what I'd cut, though, maybe the 2nd Dreadbore and 3rd MB Brutality.
4x Birds of Paradise
2x Noble Hierarch
4x Stitcher's Supplier
4x Viscera Seer
2x Cartel Aristocrat
4x Blood Artist
4x Zulaport Cutthroat
4x Satyr Wayfinder
3x Eternal Witness
Instants (8)
4x Collected Company
4x Rally the Ancestors
2x Forest
2x Godless Shrine
2x Horizon Canopy
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Plains
1x Swamp
1x Temple Garden
4x Verdant Catacombs
2x Westvale Abbey
4x Windswept Heath
2x Damping Sphere
4x Kitesail Freebooter
2x Phyrexian Revoker
2x Qasali Pridemage
3x Ensnaring Bridge
2x Lost Legacy
I started with 7-8 copies of Return/Rally but IMO they're too boom/bust -- if your grave is full they're great, if you haven't drawn into your Stitchers or Wayfinders they just clog up your hand. 4 CoCo / 4 Rally seems like a better balance.
Overall probably still too fair and slow to be terribly competitive, lol. I've tried to build the sideboard around that... Ensnaring Bridge seems great for this deck since it doesn't necessarily need to attack.
Here's another option for a value tool that also digs for Felidar / Kiki. It shouldn't be too hard to build the deck with 20+ hits so you have a >80% success rate on the ETB.
Hoogland's updated Kiki Midrange deck with Chain Whirler, however, looks fun! But that's a deck for another thread.
4x Birds of Paradise
2x Noble Hierarch
4x Lotus Cobra
3x Wall of Omens
3x Renegade Rallier
3x Reflector Mage
4x Felidar Guardian
1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1x Acidic Slime
1x Sun Titan
Spells (12)
4x Oath of Nissa
4x Saheeli Rai
4x Eldritch Evolution
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
2x Misty Rainforest
1x Flooded Strand
2x Stomping Ground
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Breeding Pool
1x Temple Garden
2x Forest
2x Plains
2x Horizon Canopy
2x Stony Silence
2x Fiery Justice
1x Abrade
1x Worship
2x Gaddock Teeg
1x Selfless Spirit
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Qasali Ambusher
2x Tireless Tracker
1x Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1x Thragtusk
G1 I'm on the play so I get under his disruption and combo out T3
G2 Opponent leads with T1 Champion of the Parish, T2 Champion of the Parish, Gut Shot-ing my T1 Hierarch. Ouch. I play Wall of Omens T2 and pass. He bounces Wall with Reflector Mage (interesting choice) and swings in for 5. T3 I play Cobra into Fiery Justice, clearing both of his Champions. Next turn I play Worship and he flashes in Staticaster to clear Cobra. We both draw-go for a couple turns as I try to dig down to the combo and he looks for answers to Worship. Before I can find anything he cracks Canopy into Reflector Mage, bounces my lone Wall, and swings in for lethal.
G3 Is a little fuzzy. By the late game I had three Felidars and an Oath while he had Staticaster, Phantasmal Staticaster, Malcontents, Meddling Mage on Saheeli, and a couple Freebooters (exiling Oath & Saheeli). I kept flickering Oath but ended up digging past an Evo at one point and didn't hit anything else while his Freebooters hit me for 2 dmg / turn for 3-4 turns. After the match I looked and my next out was 15+ cards down. Sometimes it isn't meant to be.
(1-2 games, 0-1 matches)
R2 - Ponza
G1 and G2 were similar. He lead with T1 Arbor Elf, T2 Stone Rain'd my first land, while I played T1 Dork, T2 Cobra. Both games I recovered on mana quickly after the Stone Rain and combo'd out ~T4.
(2-0 games, 1-1 matches)
R3 - GW Elves
G1 I combo out T3 with a silly sequence of T1 Bird, T2 Cobra, T3 Cobra, Rallier to rally back Fetch, Felidar blink Rallier to return the Fetch again, Evolve Rallier into Kiki.
G2 I keep him off the druid combo by bouncing his T2 Druid with my Reflector Mage, Fiery Justice away his Ezuri, and play Gaddock but a few turns later he's able to hardcast another Ezuri and Vizier to combo out.
G3 T1 Bird, T2 Saheeli, T3 Clone Bird, play Gaddock, Evolve into Felidar to combo out
(2-1 games, 2-1 matches)
R4 - Mardu Reveler
G1 I stick a T3 Saheeli with Oath on board and two Felidars in hand. Unfortunately my fetches weren't white so I couldn't get a Plains. He kills my Bird and plays Blood Moon, locking me out of casting the two Felidars and the Wall that I proceed to topdeck. I draw another Felidar. I draw another Bird, cast and clone it to get the Wall out (not enough mana for Felidar), draw into nothing useful/castable. I durdle around for a while while he takes over with a Pyro.
G2 I had to mull down to a 4 of 2 Fetches, Bird, and Wall. He Inquisitions away the wall. I work my way back into the game for a while thanks to some good topdecks of Shalai, Thragtusk, and Slime. Things start to look good when I topdeck Saheeli and clone Thragtusk, but he starts stabilizing with Pyro + Elemental & Spirit tokens, sealing the deal with Liliana of the Veil to slowly pick off my creatures, finally finishing the game with a Reveler.
(0-2 games, 2-2 matches)
My biggest reservation with Ambusher vs Humans is that it doesn't necessarily help combo out once they've landed their (Turn 2!) combo-hate cards -- Meddling Mage or Auriok Champion. With that in mind I'd rather have more copies of Reflector Mage, Explosives, Fiery Justice, Abrade, etc, which restore the combo route vs Humans and can have additional application vs Midrange, Lantern, and creature-based combo like Counters Co, Elves, and Storm. Granted, those latter decks have less individual representation in the current meta but together still make up a good chunk of it. With that said having a free 3-drop to accelerate Evo is still powerful, and as you've demonstrated in your Burn matchup when Ambusher is good it's really good...
When deciding between Ambusher and more removal I guess it comes down to how much you want to spike the most common matchups vs taking a more generalist approach. I'd appreciate you sharing more Ambusher data as you continue to play matches.
Glad you got to live the dream with Ambusher vs Burn. Did Ambusher come up in any other games? How did mainboard Thrun do?
4x Birds of Paradise
2x Noble Hierarch
4x Lotus Cobra
3x Wall of Omens
3x Renegade Rallier
3x Reflector Mage
4x Felidar Guardian
1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1x Acidic Slime
1x Sun Titan
Spells (12)
4x Oath of Nissa
4x Saheeli Rai
4x Eldritch Evolution
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
2x Misty Rainforest
1x Flooded Strand
2x Stomping Ground
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Breeding Pool
1x Temple Garden
2x Forest
2x Plains
2x Horizon Canopy
2x Stony Silence
3x Fiery Justice*
2x Worship
2x Gaddock Teeg
1x Selfless Spirit
1x Reclamation Sage
2x Tireless Tracker
1x Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1x Thragtusk
R1 Mono-W Eldrazi & Taxes
G1 My opponent lead with inspector after a mull to ~5, and I curve Bird into Cobra. T3 Opponent plays Displacer, and I play Acidic Slime to blow up his only white source. Next turn I chip in with Slime and Cobra, then play Kiki copying Slime. Opponent scoops.
G2 Was fuzzy but I mull down to a slower hand leaning on Worship. My opponent hits Flickerwisp and Displacer, essentially invalidating Worship and I die a few turns later. We discussed this later and still feel that it's worth bringing at least one Worship in since he has only 4 outs.
G3 I toss the match with a keep of Bird, Cobra, Fiery Justice, Stomping Grounds, and two Fetches. My logic was that I'd be ready to cast essentially anything I drew T4, that Justice can just decimate a lot of Taxes board states, and the extra lands might help if he set up his LD plan... T3 I hit his Inspector and Displacer with Justice (feels good!). On his T4 he plays Reality Smasher and I have meanwhile proceeded to draw two Birds and two more lands (feels bad!). Ded. Lesson learned, in a build with 10x dorks you can't afford to keep a fast hand without a win con.
(1-2 in games, 0-1 in matches)
R2 Mono-U Merfolk
G1 My opponent has a slow start with no T1 play. I lead with Birds into T2 Reflector Mage to bounce his T2 Lord. T3 I play Saheeli and Reflector Mage, bouncing his 3-drop. T4 I draw another Reflector Mage and by T5 I copy Reflector with Saheeli and swing in with two Cobras and three Reflectors for lethal.
G2 My opponent mulls to 4 and I combo out T3 >.<
(2-0 in games, 1-1 in matches)
R3 Skred Red
G1 & G2 go pretty similarly, he Skreds my dorks and plays Blood Moon but I ignore it with more Dorks/Oaths and combo out T4-T5.
(2-0 in games, 2-1 matches)
R4 Lantern Control
G1 My oppponent leads with T1 Inquisition into T2 Pithing Needle naming Saheeli. I have a hand with Wall and Reflector Mage. I proceed to draw three more Saheelis and another Reflector Mage over the course of the game. I take him to 6 life but eventually scoop once he has 4 mill rocks + Cage + double Bridge.
G2 I combo out T3 or T4.
G3 I keep an amazing hand with Tracker, Shalai, Oath, Cobra, Rec Sage, and two lands. He dismantles a lot of it with triple discard but I draw and stick Saheeli and Oath my way into Gaddock and Slime. He scoops a few turns later.
(2-1 in games, 3-1 in matches)
With that said I would vote P&K and Lark, swap Thragtusk for Wingmate Roc, and swap the 3rd Felidar for Glorybringer. Shalai gets better (and unfortunately Geahulk gets worse) the wider you make your board, and Roc + P&K + Splicer all support going wide. At that point Gavony starts to look like a more attractive utility Land than Ghost Quarter. Glorybringer can help add a bit of interaction while keeping your mana centered on Naya.
2-3 GW Elves
2 Affinity
2 Taxes
2 Merfolk
2 Death's Shadow
2 Jund
2 Gx Tron
2 Lantern
1 Storm
1 Mardu
1 Burn
1 Ux Control
1 Titanshift
1 Hollow One
1 Abzan Company
- Blood Moon seems good against Humans, Tron, Titanshift, and Ux decks that lean on Colonnade... but that's only ~20% of this meta. Is 20% enough to run Moon in the main? Split one main, one side? Or leave them all in the side?
- Main-boarded sweepers seem good here. I could imagine moving the usual SB 2x Explosives into the main. Or Anger / Sweltering Suns?
- Alternatively I could run more point removal that excels vs aggro such as Forked Bolt, Abrade, or Liliana TLH.
- Another way to speed up the deck to handle fast aggro and Tron matchups might be to use some of the flex slots to go up to 4x Manamorphose. This could backfire against Thalias, though.
Right now I'm leaning towards 2x Manamorphose, 2x EE, and 1x Abrade main, with Moons in the side. Any other ideas?Thanks!
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
4 Devoted Druid
3 Vizier of Remedies
2 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Eternal Witness
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Magus of the Moon
2 Restoration Angel
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
3 Fiery Justice
4 Chord of Calling
2 Eldritch Evolution
2 Blood Moon
Land (23)
1 Copperline Gorge
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
3 Forest
2 Horizon Canopy
2 Plains
1 Razorverge Thicket
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
2 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Fiery Justice
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Loaming Shaman
2 Obstinate Baloth
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Tireless Tracker
2 Worship
Uncage the Menagerie looks ok (although slow) but Growing Rites doesn't dig especially well for the cost and isn't great when you're behind, so I'm less impressed by that.
If I were going to cut CoCo I would probably abandon the value plan and start by experimenting with a Turbo Vizier list, like the one recently demo'd here.
Against grindy decks I often shave 2-4x 1-CMC dorks (less if the grindy matchup involves Blood Moons, like Mardu, or if you need to out-tempo them, like Ux control), 1-4x Evo (higher vs Cage decks and especially counterspell decks), and 0-2x Felidar Guardian if you still need room.
As you're taking cards out try to replace them in a way that keeps your deck composition similar enough to still function: in general you don't want to go below ~21 creatures if possible, with 4+ 2-CMC creatures and ~4 3-CMC creatures if Evoing into Kiki quickly is important to the matchup. What you bring in should be fairly straightforward, but if you have questions about specific matchups let us know.