I took the deck to a 40 person, competitive tourney on Sunday and was pretty disappointed with a few things. I didn't have an ideal sideboard because the storms in the US significantly delayed my order but I played a similar list to Ryan Davies, with 3 Dromoka's Command and 3 Inquisition of Kozilek instead of the 2 Thoughtseize. For lands, I also used 2 Marsh Flats over 1x Verdant Catacombs and 1xWindswept Heath. I only had 1 scooze so I decided to test 1 Metallic Mimic. Overall, I came in about the middle of the pack. The deck felt fairly weak to hand disruption but removal was a bigger concern. Engineered Explosives is also a killer. I had the most difficulty playing against Eldrazi&Taxes and Burn, GDS felt like a fair matchup when they didn't have a godly hand, and I steamrolled a couple of Jund players.
Hangarback was MVP. I made some mistakes keeping hands I shouldn't have and my sideboard was less than Ideal but I did run a Collective Brutality and it was a huge play every time I drew it. I found that Ancient Stirrings was not impressive whatsoever. It's a bad turn one play and whenever I played it, I would have preferred a Traverse the Ulvenwald. Pendelhaven was also pretty irrelevant because the biggest problem was Fatal Push. It probably helps blocking things like Goblin Guide but if you're leaving a green mana open early game, I feel like you've already lost.
I'm going to be going back to Traverse and adding a Plains over Pendelhaven. I really, really wanted to like Metallic Mimic but it has bad stats and the only time I got it out on t2, I got 2-for-1'd trying to play a ballista when the mimic got pushed in response. Late game, it's not a good draw whatsoever. Ooze was insane when I got to play it and I would definitely main at least 2. As said previously, Arcbound Worker is extremely underwhelming. I'm tempted to cut all of them and cut the Arcbound Ravager count down to 2 in order to run more removal and hand disruption.
With less creatures, Dromoka's Command probably loses some usefulness compared to more efficient removal like path and abrupt decay. I'll be experimenting with that once I get the cards and I'll report back. I did struggle with card draw but having hand disruption made it more even. Tireless Tracker is more appealing to me than Dark Confidant because it's stronger against push and grows in the late game. If I end up cutting down on ravagers, it might end up losing some utility but I plan on testing it out in both versions once I can get my hands on some. The meta at my LGS is very heavy on Death's Shadow decks, E&Taxes, and Tron, so that's primarily what I'm going to be considering when making changes. I think that most popular aggressive decks are too disruptive for the build I tried to be viable where I am so I'm going to try to see if I can hit a sweet spot with a more midrange list.
Hopefully interest hasn't died out because the deck is a lot of fun and it would be awesome to find a list slightly more competitive. If people are still set on the non-artifact version, depending on my results and whether or not more people on this forum are interested in a more midrange build, it might be time to split the lists into different threads. Thoughts?
Hangarback was MVP. I made some mistakes keeping hands I shouldn't have and my sideboard was less than Ideal but I did run a Collective Brutality and it was a huge play every time I drew it. I found that Ancient Stirrings was not impressive whatsoever. It's a bad turn one play and whenever I played it, I would have preferred a Traverse the Ulvenwald. Pendelhaven was also pretty irrelevant because the biggest problem was Fatal Push. It probably helps blocking things like Goblin Guide but if you're leaving a green mana open early game, I feel like you've already lost.
I'm going to be going back to Traverse and adding a Plains over Pendelhaven. I really, really wanted to like Metallic Mimic but it has bad stats and the only time I got it out on t2, I got 2-for-1'd trying to play a ballista when the mimic got pushed in response. Late game, it's not a good draw whatsoever. Ooze was insane when I got to play it and I would definitely main at least 2. As said previously, Arcbound Worker is extremely underwhelming. I'm tempted to cut all of them and cut the Arcbound Ravager count down to 2 in order to run more removal and hand disruption.
With less creatures, Dromoka's Command probably loses some usefulness compared to more efficient removal like path and abrupt decay. I'll be experimenting with that once I get the cards and I'll report back. I did struggle with card draw but having hand disruption made it more even. Tireless Tracker is more appealing to me than Dark Confidant because it's stronger against push and grows in the late game. If I end up cutting down on ravagers, it might end up losing some utility but I plan on testing it out in both versions once I can get my hands on some. The meta at my LGS is very heavy on Death's Shadow decks, E&Taxes, and Tron, so that's primarily what I'm going to be considering when making changes. I think that most popular aggressive decks are too disruptive for the build I tried to be viable where I am so I'm going to try to see if I can hit a sweet spot with a more midrange list.
Hopefully interest hasn't died out because the deck is a lot of fun and it would be awesome to find a list slightly more competitive. If people are still set on the non-artifact version, depending on my results and whether or not more people on this forum are interested in a more midrange build, it might be time to split the lists into different threads. Thoughts?