If this is true, I will lose what little confidence I have in wotc to manage the format. I mean, with Pod and Twin, they went straight for the jugular and axed the engines of the decks. So why does Eldrazi get a free pass?
Abzan Company is very similar to what Pod was like prior to it's final year.
Didn't Company come after the ban? It's not like anyone could have predicted that Company would pull the band back together and recreate the deck (not even Wizards, since they don't playtest the format).
Based on Aaron's interview it seems like only one land is getting banned since he likes the deck for some reason. Since eye of ugin is the most degenerate land I expect it to go. Does that mean that people should be getting Eldrazi temples now? It seems like a decent spec at the moment.
I didn't get that from his interview at all. I took away that both lands will go but no creatures or other pieces.
Banning out both lands means that the deck completely dies. He wants to keep it alive so one land will probably go. Power level wise it's def Eye of Ugin hence why I asked if Eldrazi temple is a good spec.
If this is true, I will lose what little confidence I have in wotc to manage the format. I mean, with Pod and Twin, they went straight for the jugular and axed the engines of the decks. So why does Eldrazi get a free pass?
Processor only existed because of the lands. Period. It is an otherwise underwhelming deck that is moreso a bad tron list. Any land ban will kill any remnant of that deck.
That's a misconception. I played B/W Eldrazi before Oath came out. They were more like Jund decks with a tron endgame, and as a result could eat 'goyf and snapcaster decks alive, while losing to aggro and tron. The new versions are affinity/Jund...with a tron endgame. They don't have any real weaknesses other than being big dumb creature decks with broken lands.
We're entering into Super Tuesday. We'll see if people wise up, or if they continue to vote Trump. Life is full of surprises. We might just receive one.
I loved the video and no fan of Donald Drumpf, but it's still important to see what the other side has to say:
The journeys are my tech against reality smasher. I'm only running two thought-knot seer and zero reality smasher because I don't want to invest in the deck if the ban removes both eye and temple.
Well, here's the report:
Match 1 - B/W Hate Bears
Game 1: I inquisition and remove an AEther vial, leaving two inquisitions and some sort of bear. She inquisitions back but I have no targets except a lingering souls. My turn, I flashback the souls and begin the beats. She plays another vial and begins playing creatures. This is a slow grindy game, but I constantly have her on the back foot with remove and creatures. Eye of Ugin ensures that she can’t answer the rise of the eldrazi.
Game 2: I play Urborg and keep a flooded strand in hand, which was silly because she plays a leonin arbiter, locking me out of white mana for a good 5 turns. She gets a dark confidant, a thalia, and more hate bears. I stall with dismember and some wasteland strangers. I finally draw my plains, and cast my first lingering souls and a path the following turn. Unfortunately, I’m at 4 and facing lethal. I topdeck flaying tendrils and wipe the board. I follow up with a blight herder with spawn tokens. I attack for a couple of turns. I have spellskite in hand, but I foolishly keep in a hand. I attack with the blight herder and she vials in a Wasteland Stranger of her own, trading with my blight herder. Time is called and I manage to tie the game by ghost quartering what would otherwise be a lethal attack from a shambling vent.
Since I won the first game and drew the second, the match goes to me.
1-0
Match 2 – Kiki Cord
Game 1: He plays some ‘goyfs which I path. He draws enough mana and creatures though to combo out.
Game 2: I keep a hand with discard and removal, but no eldrazi or souls. I stall the board for awhile, but he beats me with a pack of wolf tokens from Huntmaster.
My sideboard was a mistake. I should have sided in flaying tendrils and kept in spellskite, but I wasn’t familiar enough with his deck to understand how to stop it. Oh well.
1-1
Match 3 – Griselbrand Reanimator
Game 1: He mulls and I make it worse by discarding a mana source. He loots, and loots, and loots some more. I cast relic and remove his graveyard. I hit him with another inquisition and remove a night’s whisper. He has Griselbrand and a spirit guide, but nothing else. I cast blight herder and chain into another blight herder, threatening lethal when he’s at 11. He top decks through the breach and combos out.
Game 2: He mulls once. I cast a blight herder on turn 3 without processing. He tries to cast through the breach with Griselbrand on turn 6, but I have celestial purge. He concedes.
Game 3 – I keep a risky hand with 2 maps, 2 paths, 1 inqusition, 1 lingering souls and 1 land. I top deck a land and inquisition him. I draw a relic and remove each card that lands in his grave as they come. I get my third land, and cast map. Map fetches my fourth, then my fifth land (I have two maps) while I hold white mana up in case he tries to combo. When I cast lingering souls, he tries comboing out, but I path his wurm. He concedes.
Pretty easy matchup with maindeck relic and plenty of removal to exile his win conditions.
2-1
Match 4: R/B Eight Racks
Game 1: I inquisition him and remove waste not from his hand. He plays smallpox, but I have a lingering souls to soften the blow. I ghost quarter his rakdos cranium, slowing his tempo. He plays two raven’s crime, but I have the relic to remove those. I Meanwhile, my spirit tokens and eldrazi maw him down. I dismember his only creature and swing for lethal.
Game 2: I mull to five and he hits me with a monastery swiftspear backed by discard and burn. Thankfully, I die quickly.
Game 3: I play a quick thought-knot seer and remove a blightning. He plays a smallpox and I foolishly sacrifice my only plains, choosing to keep a ghost quarter instead. Big mistake. I draw a disenchant and three lingering souls while his racks and lone swiftspear peck away at me. Finally, I draw enough lands to cast Oblivion sower. This nets me two lands. I attack with my sower and he’s forced to chump, then take ten damage. I cast a wasteland stranger to threaten lethal damage. He has me at three, so a single bolt will end me. My opponent draws ensnaring bridge and breathes a sign of relief. Not bad, except I have a disenchant in hand. I ghost quarter one of the lands I stole from him and dig up a plains, cast disenchant, and then swing for lethal.
3-1
My record nets me $27.50 in store credit, so I almost double my entry fee. Not a bad run.
Alright, as promised I played a few games with proxies:
Game 1 -
Zombies Cursed wins the dice roll and has to choose between blue mana (tap land) for a screeching skaab and a turn 1 diregraf ghoul. I lead with the ghoul. Humans Blessed goes turn 1 cathedral sanctifier. Cursed draws an island and screeching skaab comes down, milling two. I attack with my ghoul and Blessed chooses not to block. Blessed has yet to draw an island, so it enchants the sanctifier with bonds of faith and swings for three. Sadly, Blessed doesn't draw an island for the rest of the game as Cursed plays more zombies. Blessed has the removal though, rebuke on unbreathing horde and fiend hunter for diregraf captain. Mindwrack Demon comes down though, and the game ends shortly as Blessed can't even chump block after tooth collector starts triggering (Delirium is easy to trigger when you can mill yourself!)
Game 2 -
Fiend hunter eats a butcher ghoul so thraben heteric begins the beats. Cursed plays a skaab and exiles a flier with appetite for brains. Blessed plays a grey ogre of some sort and continues the attack. Blessed chumps with the skaab. Cursed plays moan of the unhallowed to stabilize. Blessed plays a couple of creatures and gains some life. An unbreathing horde comes down and a removal spell clears out the heteric. Blessed casts increasing devotion and suddenly the humans have won the numbers game. The zombies recruit a traitorous human in tooth collector, but he's not crazy enough to start picking off the townsfolk yet. Blessed begins changing the tides as it plays a couple of angels. The zombies are forced to take a couple hits, but a Mindwrack demon stabilizes the air.
Although Cursed is forced to take 4 from its demon, another skaab triggers delirium. Blessed has gained almost twenty life this game, but it's clear that the board is turning back in the zombie's favor. Compelling deterrence does an amazing recoil as goldnight redeemer is bounced and then discarded. Blessed flashbacks increasing devotion, but sever the bloodline means that faith can't save the human army. Blessed is now at 4, with tooth collector picking off random weenies here and there. Blessed knows its on it's fateful hour when it gather the townsfolk, but Cursed soars over head for the win.
Thoughts:
The decks do an amazing job capturing the feel of the original innistrad set and there appears to be enough removal to give the decks enough interaction. The new SOI cards made their impact and are fun, as delirium is a mini-game all by itself. Cursed feels like the stronger deck, but its difficult to tell with only two games, especially since Blessed was color-screwed in game 1. So far though, I would purchase this DD if I wanted recreate the original innistrad experience.
They tend not to reprint lords who affect other players' creatures anymore. Death Baron would have been a good choice though, but I think it's too strong for a Duel Deck.
At a single copy, it would not have made the duel deck insanely powerful. They could even do 2 lords and it still wouldn't make it good without a reliable way of drawing or tutoring into it.
The original duel decks like divine vs demonic were perfect, fun and casual but had enough power so that it didn't feel like i threw all the cards together using a bulk commons box. DDs really took a nosedive since venser and koth and it's just sad. I bought DDs when they first came out and I definitely enjoyed playing them. They also served me well after it got boring because some of the cards can be used for other decks. Now it just looks like they're pushing the duel decks to face each other and nothing else
I've been collecting DDs since Divine vs. Demonic. That one was terrible for playing, but it was worth buying for foil Akroma and alternative art demonic tutor. Everything else in there was chaff though. I mean, Angelic Page? Demon's Jester? OVEREAGER APPRENTICE?! Duel decks have always had bad cards in them, its just that some have more valuable reprints than others.
Sometimes DDs can surprise you though. Sorin vs. Tibalt looked terrible, but if you actually play them out, they were amazing, despite having less than valuable cards (lingering souls and sorin aside). I'll be proxy testing this DD before judging it. I'm excited for this one since both of them have blue (which is underrepresented in DD) and no red (which is over represented in DD).
Pleasantly surprised when Dottie Underwood came back in the very first scenes.
Likewise, also surprised Ray Wise appeared again this season.
Setting and tone in LA is just as impressive as NY, but I expect Carter to back in New York before the season is over.
Is the Council connected to Hydra? Their logos are very similar.
Looks like SSR might be absorbed by SHIELD this season. Well, sooner rather than later.
Love triangles are boring to me, so I'm hoping they do something more with Violet than be someone that causes drama for Sousa/Carter. Although Carter and Violet seem to get along very well.
Jason Wilkes probably isn't dead. Whitney Frost survived and the two of them were side by the side when the blast went off. both characters are subject to racism/sexism, so if there's a parallel, it would be interesting to see how they each react to the zero matter incident.
I'm surprised others have a hard time against merfolk. I've only played two matches (5 games) against merfolk, but the match-up seems 50/50 to me. Some play tips:
I save my removal for their lords, especially master of waves. If there aren't any lords, kill the mutavaults.
Don't be afraid to use GQ on your own island. One of my opponents swung with what he thought was an unblockable school of fish. I GQ the eldrazi temple he spreading seas on and destroyed most of his creatures as a result.
Many of their cards are of little value against us, like spell pierce and cursecatcher. Vapor snag will often be used to save one of their lords from removal rather than bouncing an eldrazi. Use your wasteland stranglers because there's little merfolk can do against it.
I went 5-3 in legacy on Saturday. Just kind of wandered the hall on Sunday for a couple hours. Picked up an unlimited Timetwister completing my set of power. Picked up an Italian foil dark ritual, bringing my global set to I believe 93/108 (getting really hard to find ones I don't have now!) And picked up a couple things I couldn't pass up. Legacy foil Defense Grid, 2 AQ Hurkyls, Beta Regrowth. Anyone else pick up anything sweet?
Top 8 in Modern on Friday. Picked up a box of modern masters, box of khans of takir, a foil damnation, and several packs of new phyrexia. Plus that promo stoneforge mystic
What do you think about Eldrazi Displacer? He works really good with Wasteland Strangler and Thought-Knot Seer. Too slow?
I think it's a great SB card for aggro decks. Blinking blinkmoth nexus, inkmoth nexus, wild nacatl, merfolk, etc. Now that I think about it, it might help against tron too since it stops eldarzi and wurmcoils...
Very excited this deck got bumped up to Tier two, just as excited to see one of the thorns in this decks side get banned(amulet), sadly twin was a good match up for us.
Ban is bad, because with twin gone, tron takes its place as the biggest deck in the format. Fighting through Karns and wurmcoil engines is not what I want to do with this deck.
Congratulations on a strong showing Darth Bunny! After your success w/ your current list I'm curious, what kind of changes do you think you'll want to make, if any, post OGW?
@darth bunny: What cards do you think you didn't like? What did you feel over performed and underperformed? What changes would you bring?
Damnation surprisingly under performed. Granted, it was usually because it was discarded or countered, but the one game where it really would have helped, I found myself stuck on 1 swamp without access to a second black source.Lingering Souls and Blight Herders were amazing, helping me race or block.
Celestial purge was also underwhelming since I didn't face any burn, anything running Liliana of the Veil is almost a bye in most matches (mirror the exception), and I have more than enough removal/discard to handle twin. I would probably trade the purges out for duress.
Speaking of changes, I went back to GP Oakland for a smaller Swiss on Sunday. My list was the same except I took out the damnations for a newly acquired spellskite and all is dust. The former I opened from a draft on Saturday and the latter I found at a pretty good price while walking around the vendors, so I was eager to try out my new toys:
Match 1: Affinity
G1 - He overruns me with little robots and flying manlands,then burns me out. I have a dead go for the throat in my hand the whole game. Second time my choice of removal has hurt me (first time was against infect and it's manlands).
G2 - Similar game, but I have the disenchants and ghost quarters to slow him down. I eventually stabilize with lingering souls and blight herder.
G3 - He has me on the backfoot as he dumps his hand, but he begins running out of gas as I chump with spirit tokens and wasteland stranglers. Then he casts day's undoing. Oh god. Luck is with me, as my new 7 contains a stony silence. Suddenly, most of his cards are blank. However, he somehow finds three master of etherium and suddenly I'm at 2 facing lethal. The only thing saving me is that his inkmoth nexus deals damage in the form of poison counters rather than damage.
I play eye of ugin, although I'm unsure (I think I did?) if I played my land drop for the turn. My opponent didn't seem to care (or notice?), even though it was a tense game. For future reference, do I call a judge on myself? I fetch Ulamog, and he exiles two of the masters. My opponent concedes after that.
Record: 1-0
Match 2 - Merfolk
G1 - He has some early fish, but no lords. He does spreading seas my only temple. I have the time to set up a board of eldrazi and spirits, but he eventually lands a master of waves and a master of pearls. He swings in with what he thinks is unblockable lethal, but I GQ my own island, a move he doesn't see coming. My eldrazi block his merfolk and suddenly the game is completely flipped on its head in my favor. He tries to grind it out, but he eventually scoops.
G2 - I path his lords and his remaining fish can't stop my eldrazi horde.
Record: 2-0
Match 3 - Twin
G1 - I double inquisition him and he loses his cantrips. I slow grind him, constantly holding back removal so that he can't suddenly combo off. Relic keeps his graveyard empty so his snapcasters can't generate any card advantage for him.
G2 - Same as G1, except he kept a hand with two twins and one creature that I discard.
Record: 3-0
Match 4 - Infect (against the same one on Saturday!)
G1 - I have him completely on the backfoot with double inquisitions, double lingering souls, and double GQ. I stupidly attack with my spirit tokens while he has an inkmoth in play. He attacks with the inkmoth and I attempt to GQ it. He gives it shroud. I could actiatve the second GQ in response, but I forget for a split second and the inkmoth resolves. He pumps it for lethal and once again I lose a game I was winning. Against the same infect player with the same deck. I'm such a good player.
Board In - 2 Disenchant; 1 surgical extraction; Board Out - 2 Expedition Map, 1 oblivion sower
G2 - I inquisition and he has 1 noble hierarch, 1 spellskite, 1 blighted agent, 1 glister elf, 1 forest, 1 inkmoth, 1 groundswell. It's a perfect hand for him, but I discard the elf and continue with the match. Still, I draw the removal I need to remove spellskite and keep his infect creatures from killing me. I finally learn from my previous games and pass priority to him every attack step before playing my own removal so that he can't just give them shroud in response. Eventually, spirit tokens take the win for me.
G3 - He attacks with blighted agent pumped with noble hierarch every turn and I don't draw the removal to stop it.
Record: 3-1.
Match 5 - Tron
I'm very greedy and we play instead of taking the draw. I chose poorly.
G1 - He gets Karn on Turn 4 and kills me.
Board In - 2 Stony Silence, 2 Crucible of Worlds, 2 Surgical Extraction, 1 Ghost Quarter, 2 Disenchant; Board Out - 1 Wasteland Stranger, 2 Go For the Throat, 4 Lingering Souls and 2 Expedition Map
G2 - I play stony silence turn 2 and GQ an uraz's mine. No matter, he sylvan scrying for another one, assembles tron, and proceeds to play threat after threat. I'm able to keep pace for a little while, as I have a couple of paths and my oblivion sowers remove a couple of his eldrazi. Sadly, he fetches the third eldarzi in his deck and I'm done.
Record: 3-2
Instead of 190 prize tixckets if I had drawn with him, I get 2 tickets instead, and only because I wanted 360 ticks. Karma is a thing!
Hey guys, just came back from GP Oakland Modern showdown. Here's my tournament report:
<snip>
My record is enough to get into Top 8 and we all split prize tickets rather than endure another potential 3 rounds. I have enough for two boxes of modern masters. Not bad for my first major modern tournament Eager to see what Oath brings to the table!
Congratulations on your victory. Wow, you showed them the power of Eldrazi. Made up of many cards in Standard, but can go against decks in Modern.
Thanks for sharing the report. It's an informative read.
Just one question... is it hard to play against UW or Jeskai control decks with board wipe and Snapcaster?
No, its actually a complete walk over them if you don't give them their mass removal back in their graveyard while they have double snapcaster and six mana up
I like the land base, I've been working around not having marsh flats either but went windswept heaths since they were cheaper. It doesn't sound like you had much trouble with fetch targets, but I am curious since you have only 3 targets for bloodstained. Did you ever have a dead one? Thanks!
Thanks! No trouble, either I had the targets or an Urborg so they tapped for black mana regardless of whether I had fetch targets.
Didn't Company come after the ban? It's not like anyone could have predicted that Company would pull the band back together and recreate the deck (not even Wizards, since they don't playtest the format).
If this is true, I will lose what little confidence I have in wotc to manage the format. I mean, with Pod and Twin, they went straight for the jugular and axed the engines of the decks. So why does Eldrazi get a free pass?
That's a misconception. I played B/W Eldrazi before Oath came out. They were more like Jund decks with a tron endgame, and as a result could eat 'goyf and snapcaster decks alive, while losing to aggro and tron. The new versions are affinity/Jund...with a tron endgame. They don't have any real weaknesses other than being big dumb creature decks with broken lands.
I loved the video and no fan of Donald Drumpf, but it's still important to see what the other side has to say:
https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/48a3y0/the_true_story_behind_the_donald_drumpf_accusation/
https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/48ci1g/after_being_asked_countless_times_heres/
Any way to verify what John Oliver said compared to what the Drumpf Supporter is arguing in these reddit posts?
It was a small event, with only 14 players, so we went 4 rounds of swiss.
2 Eye of Ugin
4 Caves of Koilos
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Plains
2 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Flooded Strand
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Godless Shrine
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Oblivion Sower
2 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Blight Herder
4 Wasteland Strangler
1 Spellskite
4 Lingering Souls
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Path to Exile
2 Expedition Map
2 Dismember
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Revoke Existence
3 Journey to Nowhere
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Stony Silence
2 Celestial Purge
2 Flaying Tendrils
The journeys are my tech against reality smasher. I'm only running two thought-knot seer and zero reality smasher because I don't want to invest in the deck if the ban removes both eye and temple.
Well, here's the report:
Match 1 - B/W Hate Bears
Game 1: I inquisition and remove an AEther vial, leaving two inquisitions and some sort of bear. She inquisitions back but I have no targets except a lingering souls. My turn, I flashback the souls and begin the beats. She plays another vial and begins playing creatures. This is a slow grindy game, but I constantly have her on the back foot with remove and creatures. Eye of Ugin ensures that she can’t answer the rise of the eldrazi.
In: 2 Flaying Tendrils, 3 Journey to Nowhere. Out: 3 Inquisition, 2 Oblivion Sower
Game 2: I play Urborg and keep a flooded strand in hand, which was silly because she plays a leonin arbiter, locking me out of white mana for a good 5 turns. She gets a dark confidant, a thalia, and more hate bears. I stall with dismember and some wasteland strangers. I finally draw my plains, and cast my first lingering souls and a path the following turn. Unfortunately, I’m at 4 and facing lethal. I topdeck flaying tendrils and wipe the board. I follow up with a blight herder with spawn tokens. I attack for a couple of turns. I have spellskite in hand, but I foolishly keep in a hand. I attack with the blight herder and she vials in a Wasteland Stranger of her own, trading with my blight herder. Time is called and I manage to tie the game by ghost quartering what would otherwise be a lethal attack from a shambling vent.
Since I won the first game and drew the second, the match goes to me.
1-0
Match 2 – Kiki Cord
Game 1: He plays some ‘goyfs which I path. He draws enough mana and creatures though to combo out.
In: 2 Journey To Nowhere, 2 Surgical Extraction. Out: 1 Spellskite, 2 Oblivion Sower, 1 Expedition Map
Game 2: I keep a hand with discard and removal, but no eldrazi or souls. I stall the board for awhile, but he beats me with a pack of wolf tokens from Huntmaster.
My sideboard was a mistake. I should have sided in flaying tendrils and kept in spellskite, but I wasn’t familiar enough with his deck to understand how to stop it. Oh well.
1-1
Match 3 – Griselbrand Reanimator
Game 1: He mulls and I make it worse by discarding a mana source. He loots, and loots, and loots some more. I cast relic and remove his graveyard. I hit him with another inquisition and remove a night’s whisper. He has Griselbrand and a spirit guide, but nothing else. I cast blight herder and chain into another blight herder, threatening lethal when he’s at 11. He top decks through the breach and combos out.
In- 2 Celestial Purge, 2 Surgical Extraction. Out: 4 Wasteland Stranger
Game 2: He mulls once. I cast a blight herder on turn 3 without processing. He tries to cast through the breach with Griselbrand on turn 6, but I have celestial purge. He concedes.
Game 3 – I keep a risky hand with 2 maps, 2 paths, 1 inqusition, 1 lingering souls and 1 land. I top deck a land and inquisition him. I draw a relic and remove each card that lands in his grave as they come. I get my third land, and cast map. Map fetches my fourth, then my fifth land (I have two maps) while I hold white mana up in case he tries to combo. When I cast lingering souls, he tries comboing out, but I path his wurm. He concedes.
Pretty easy matchup with maindeck relic and plenty of removal to exile his win conditions.
2-1
Match 4: R/B Eight Racks
Game 1: I inquisition him and remove waste not from his hand. He plays smallpox, but I have a lingering souls to soften the blow. I ghost quarter his rakdos cranium, slowing his tempo. He plays two raven’s crime, but I have the relic to remove those. I Meanwhile, my spirit tokens and eldrazi maw him down. I dismember his only creature and swing for lethal.
In: 2 Disenchant, 2 Revoke Existence, 2 Celestial Purge. Out: 2 Wasteland Stranger, 1 Ulamog, 1 Oblivion Sower, 2 Dismember
Game 2: I mull to five and he hits me with a monastery swiftspear backed by discard and burn. Thankfully, I die quickly.
Game 3: I play a quick thought-knot seer and remove a blightning. He plays a smallpox and I foolishly sacrifice my only plains, choosing to keep a ghost quarter instead. Big mistake. I draw a disenchant and three lingering souls while his racks and lone swiftspear peck away at me. Finally, I draw enough lands to cast Oblivion sower. This nets me two lands. I attack with my sower and he’s forced to chump, then take ten damage. I cast a wasteland stranger to threaten lethal damage. He has me at three, so a single bolt will end me. My opponent draws ensnaring bridge and breathes a sign of relief. Not bad, except I have a disenchant in hand. I ghost quarter one of the lands I stole from him and dig up a plains, cast disenchant, and then swing for lethal.
3-1
My record nets me $27.50 in store credit, so I almost double my entry fee. Not a bad run.
Game 1 -
ZombiesCursed wins the dice roll and has to choose between blue mana (tap land) for a screeching skaab and a turn 1 diregraf ghoul. I lead with the ghoul.HumansBlessed goes turn 1 cathedral sanctifier. Cursed draws an island and screeching skaab comes down, milling two. I attack with my ghoul and Blessed chooses not to block. Blessed has yet to draw an island, so it enchants the sanctifier with bonds of faith and swings for three. Sadly, Blessed doesn't draw an island for the rest of the game as Cursed plays more zombies. Blessed has the removal though, rebuke on unbreathing horde and fiend hunter for diregraf captain. Mindwrack Demon comes down though, and the game ends shortly as Blessed can't even chump block after tooth collector starts triggering (Delirium is easy to trigger when you can mill yourself!)Game 2 -
Fiend hunter eats a butcher ghoul so thraben heteric begins the beats. Cursed plays a skaab and exiles a flier with appetite for brains. Blessed plays a grey ogre of some sort and continues the attack. Blessed chumps with the skaab. Cursed plays moan of the unhallowed to stabilize. Blessed plays a couple of creatures and gains some life. An unbreathing horde comes down and a removal spell clears out the heteric. Blessed casts increasing devotion and suddenly the humans have won the numbers game. The zombies recruit a traitorous human in tooth collector, but he's not crazy enough to start picking off the townsfolk yet. Blessed begins changing the tides as it plays a couple of angels. The zombies are forced to take a couple hits, but a Mindwrack demon stabilizes the air.
Although Cursed is forced to take 4 from its demon, another skaab triggers delirium. Blessed has gained almost twenty life this game, but it's clear that the board is turning back in the zombie's favor. Compelling deterrence does an amazing recoil as goldnight redeemer is bounced and then discarded. Blessed flashbacks increasing devotion, but sever the bloodline means that faith can't save the human army. Blessed is now at 4, with tooth collector picking off random weenies here and there. Blessed knows its on it's fateful hour when it gather the townsfolk, but Cursed soars over head for the win.
Thoughts:
The decks do an amazing job capturing the feel of the original innistrad set and there appears to be enough removal to give the decks enough interaction. The new SOI cards made their impact and are fun, as delirium is a mini-game all by itself. Cursed feels like the stronger deck, but its difficult to tell with only two games, especially since Blessed was color-screwed in game 1. So far though, I would purchase this DD if I wanted recreate the original innistrad experience.
I've been collecting DDs since Divine vs. Demonic. That one was terrible for playing, but it was worth buying for foil Akroma and alternative art demonic tutor. Everything else in there was chaff though. I mean, Angelic Page? Demon's Jester? OVEREAGER APPRENTICE?! Duel decks have always had bad cards in them, its just that some have more valuable reprints than others.
Sometimes DDs can surprise you though. Sorin vs. Tibalt looked terrible, but if you actually play them out, they were amazing, despite having less than valuable cards (lingering souls and sorin aside). I'll be proxy testing this DD before judging it. I'm excited for this one since both of them have blue (which is underrepresented in DD) and no red (which is over represented in DD).
What did everyone else think?
Should I keep it and hope the prices spike later or sell it now? What decks does this card go into?
Top 8 in Modern on Friday. Picked up a box of modern masters, box of khans of takir, a foil damnation, and several packs of new phyrexia. Plus that promo stoneforge mystic
I think it's a great SB card for aggro decks. Blinking blinkmoth nexus, inkmoth nexus, wild nacatl, merfolk, etc. Now that I think about it, it might help against tron too since it stops eldarzi and wurmcoils...
Ban is bad, because with twin gone, tron takes its place as the biggest deck in the format. Fighting through Karns and wurmcoil engines is not what I want to do with this deck.
Eldrazi displacer looks amazing against all the aggro decks, screwing with manlands,master of waves, ravager, etc. Thought-knot sower would have greatly helped against tron.
Damnation surprisingly under performed. Granted, it was usually because it was discarded or countered, but the one game where it really would have helped, I found myself stuck on 1 swamp without access to a second black source.Lingering Souls and Blight Herders were amazing, helping me race or block.
Celestial purge was also underwhelming since I didn't face any burn, anything running Liliana of the Veil is almost a bye in most matches (mirror the exception), and I have more than enough removal/discard to handle twin. I would probably trade the purges out for duress.
Speaking of changes, I went back to GP Oakland for a smaller Swiss on Sunday. My list was the same except I took out the damnations for a newly acquired spellskite and all is dust. The former I opened from a draft on Saturday and the latter I found at a pretty good price while walking around the vendors, so I was eager to try out my new toys:
Match 1: Affinity
G1 - He overruns me with little robots and flying manlands,then burns me out. I have a dead go for the throat in my hand the whole game. Second time my choice of removal has hurt me (first time was against infect and it's manlands).
Board In - 2 Stony Silence, 2 Disenchant, 1 Ghost Quarter, Board Out - 2 Go For the Throat, 1 Oblivion Sower, 2 Expedition Map
G2 - Similar game, but I have the disenchants and ghost quarters to slow him down. I eventually stabilize with lingering souls and blight herder.
G3 - He has me on the backfoot as he dumps his hand, but he begins running out of gas as I chump with spirit tokens and wasteland stranglers. Then he casts day's undoing. Oh god. Luck is with me, as my new 7 contains a stony silence. Suddenly, most of his cards are blank. However, he somehow finds three master of etherium and suddenly I'm at 2 facing lethal. The only thing saving me is that his inkmoth nexus deals damage in the form of poison counters rather than damage.
I play eye of ugin, although I'm unsure (I think I did?) if I played my land drop for the turn. My opponent didn't seem to care (or notice?), even though it was a tense game. For future reference, do I call a judge on myself? I fetch Ulamog, and he exiles two of the masters. My opponent concedes after that.
Record: 1-0
Match 2 - Merfolk
G1 - He has some early fish, but no lords. He does spreading seas my only temple. I have the time to set up a board of eldrazi and spirits, but he eventually lands a master of waves and a master of pearls. He swings in with what he thinks is unblockable lethal, but I GQ my own island, a move he doesn't see coming. My eldrazi block his merfolk and suddenly the game is completely flipped on its head in my favor. He tries to grind it out, but he eventually scoops.
Board In - 1 All is Dust, 1 Surgical Extraction Board Out - 1 Oblivion Sower, 1 Expedition Map
G2 - I path his lords and his remaining fish can't stop my eldrazi horde.
Record: 2-0
Match 3 - Twin
G1 - I double inquisition him and he loses his cantrips. I slow grind him, constantly holding back removal so that he can't suddenly combo off. Relic keeps his graveyard empty so his snapcasters can't generate any card advantage for him.
Board In - 2 Celestial Purge, 1 Surgical Extraction Board Out- 1 Ulamog, 2 wasteland strangler
G2 - Same as G1, except he kept a hand with two twins and one creature that I discard.
Record: 3-0
Match 4 - Infect (against the same one on Saturday!)
G1 - I have him completely on the backfoot with double inquisitions, double lingering souls, and double GQ. I stupidly attack with my spirit tokens while he has an inkmoth in play. He attacks with the inkmoth and I attempt to GQ it. He gives it shroud. I could actiatve the second GQ in response, but I forget for a split second and the inkmoth resolves. He pumps it for lethal and once again I lose a game I was winning. Against the same infect player with the same deck. I'm such a good player.
Board In - 2 Disenchant; 1 surgical extraction; Board Out - 2 Expedition Map, 1 oblivion sower
G2 - I inquisition and he has 1 noble hierarch, 1 spellskite, 1 blighted agent, 1 glister elf, 1 forest, 1 inkmoth, 1 groundswell. It's a perfect hand for him, but I discard the elf and continue with the match. Still, I draw the removal I need to remove spellskite and keep his infect creatures from killing me. I finally learn from my previous games and pass priority to him every attack step before playing my own removal so that he can't just give them shroud in response. Eventually, spirit tokens take the win for me.
G3 - He attacks with blighted agent pumped with noble hierarch every turn and I don't draw the removal to stop it.
Record: 3-1.
Match 5 - Tron
I'm very greedy and we play instead of taking the draw. I chose poorly.
G1 - He gets Karn on Turn 4 and kills me.
Board In - 2 Stony Silence, 2 Crucible of Worlds, 2 Surgical Extraction, 1 Ghost Quarter, 2 Disenchant; Board Out - 1 Wasteland Stranger, 2 Go For the Throat, 4 Lingering Souls and 2 Expedition Map
G2 - I play stony silence turn 2 and GQ an uraz's mine. No matter, he sylvan scrying for another one, assembles tron, and proceeds to play threat after threat. I'm able to keep pace for a little while, as I have a couple of paths and my oblivion sowers remove a couple of his eldrazi. Sadly, he fetches the third eldarzi in his deck and I'm done.
Record: 3-2
Instead of 190 prize tixckets if I had drawn with him, I get 2 tickets instead, and only because I wanted 360 ticks. Karma is a thing!
No, its actually a complete walk over them if you don't give them their mass removal back in their graveyard while they have double snapcaster and six mana up
Thanks! No trouble, either I had the targets or an Urborg so they tapped for black mana regardless of whether I had fetch targets.