Really love the sideboard ensoul artifact package. I really think switching to straight beatdown 5/5's will throw a lot of opponents off. I'm going to play with that.
went 3-1 at last night's FNM
a
2-1 vs Ad Nauseum
1. Got him with an early spellskite & a collective brutallity trading some life and slowrolling some lands. I spotted his deck quickly as he played his temples.
in: Ethersworn cannonist x2, thoughtseize x2 pithing needle x2 out: bridges, fatal push
2. he went off early when I did not have any defenses up.
3. Discard + an early tezz making 5/5s for the beatdown just got him.
0-2 vs Merfolk
1. He gets there dropping lord after lord. I do manage to put in a thopter foundry/sword combo, but with all the lords he plays his guys remain 4/4 islandwalkers and I did not find a bridge.
in:Damnationx2 out ? probably relic of progenitus
2. had to keep a 5 card hand. Again, not fast enough.
2-0 vs Jeskai Nahiri + thopter Foundry combo + blood moon
1. He has a T1 chalice on 1 with SSG. A cookie of my own dough is interesting because this is the first FNM I am not playing chalice. I sit with an inquisition and fatal push in hand. But also rocks and a some other stuff. I have no issue with the blood moon due to the rocks and I play more basics now. I drop an early liliana and ultimate her taking out his bridge and chalices (he gets one on 2 as well, but not after the mana rocks). I think he drops a second bridge before I can kill him, or this is game 2. I drop a 2nd tezz, +1 him find walking ballista. Next turn play walking ballista, shoot him with tezz and then shoot him with ballista.
2. I get an early tezz and smash in. He has to sacrifice his artifacts including darksteel citadels to thopter foundry to produce blockers. I keep -1'ing tezz to overwhelm him.
2-0 vs Affinity
1. Crane blocks really well versus affinity because it trades against most of their guys as well. Affinity in topdeck mode has no answer for Tezzeret spewing out 5/5's.
in: damnation, pithing needle (Ravager), ghirapur aether grid
out: not sure, probably relic of progenitus, thoughtseize?
2. kill his early guys with walking ballista's - T1 I played a polluted, T1 he plays glimmervoid and vault skirge. I fetch and play a land and play walking ballista, shoot his skirge. That sets him back bad. I play another walking ballista and he is kind of stuck - he has a scary cranial plating and a bunch of artifacts but he cannot transfer it to a dude before I shoot it with ballista or push on his ravager. His Blinkmoth nexus is nullified by my ghost quarter and then I tezz him out with 5/5's.
Everything went smooth but I think I might need chalice of the void versus Cheeri0's which seemed popular but really lost to itself a lot.
Merfolk has just always been a bad matchup for me it feels like. I really need an early bridge to stop them.
I think the gatewatch five will all get their own 4 ability planeswalker card at some point.
Liliana, Freed at last (For when she conquers the Veil) 2BB
Planeswaker - Liliana
+2) sacrifice a permanent, gain life equal to its CMC, draw a card
-2) Target player discards a card, then target player sacrifices a creature.
-3) Put a non-land permanent from any graveyard into the battlefield under your control.
-10) You get an emblem that reads: "Whenever a permanent enters a graveyard from the battlefield, return that card to the battlefield under your control."
Starting loyalty: 3
Gideon, Champion of the Sun
Planeswalker - Gideon
+2) Gideon beomes a 6/6 indestructible, haste creature until end of turn, prevent all damage etc.
+1) All your creatures get +2/+2 and vigilance until the start of your next turn.
-0) Put a 2/2 human warrior knight soldier token onto the battlefield with haste, first strike and vigilance.
-6) You get an emblem that reads:" Whenever a creature you control takes damage, put a +1/+1 counter on it equal to the damage. At the start of your upkeep, gain 2 life."
Loyalty: 3
4 mox opals is often not enough. From my experience even 4 mox opals 2 glimmervoids is troublesome sometimes. Now that I run 1 off color shockland (for green for abrupt decay for stony silence etc -cannot rely on the mox) alongside the original 4 polluted delta that gives me 11 off-color sources which is enough to reliably hit it early enough to matter against a T2 stony silence.
went 2-3 last night;
2-0 vs Jeskai Nahiri - just not really that troublesome; hero's downfalled his nahiri that he got online after he shatterstormed me. I then recovered and beat down both games.
1-2 vs Merfolk. Just a tough match generally since we played islands. One game I got stuck with 2 abrupt decays in hand and no green source. Very painful.
2-1 vs burn. He got me one game after I had stabilized with deflecting palm. Auch but awesome. Chalice is great in this matchup as is Wurmcoil. I also like liliana as she just costs him 2+ cards and trading cards is great versus burn.
0-2 vs ad nauseum. Game 1 is always rough. Game 2 I got a wurmcoil down and started doing beatdowns looking for white to dump ethersworn canonist after my turn 1 pithing needle on the land storm card. He pulls out lab maniac with me without removal in hand.
1-2 vs W/g humans with coco. Game 1 crush with bridge and tezzeret shot. Game 2 I get stuck at 2 lands and he ends up overruning me. Game 3 had to mull to 4. Ended up being 1 untapped black away from a damnation to stabilize due to Thalia of course. Sad turn of events.
Over all I am very happy with my deck but I am thinking of adding 2 more Glimmervoids or maybe adding a Overgrown tomb so I can fetch a Green source and do not have to rely on my opals etc. I'm leaning on testing out the Overgrown tomb because that would add 5 green sources to the 6 I have by replacing 1 card as opposed to replacing 2 to put 2 more sources in. I am also completely unamazed with the thopter foundry / sword of the meek combo. Sure I make a ton of mana but it never does the work you expect it to do. I think I'm instead going to run more removal maindeck.
I don't really know why we would want to go through the effort of taking an extra turn. I completely agree it is a card that should be tested, and it looks very powerful, but I also think it counters our main plan. Let me explain:
You take an extra turn. What do you usually do with your turn? draw a card, play a land and a rock or other permanent, sit behind your bridge, and go. Or smash face with 5/5 citadels.
If you sit behind your bridge, you don't really need to go through the extra effort to take extra turns, they're going to topdeck, groan, and pass. You basically get extra turns because they don't do anything with theirs because they're in prison/locked out.
It takes away 5 artifacts, which is half the amount of artifacts we need to just hit our 'I win' button with -4 Tezzeret. Since it works against this main win condition, I am not sure.
If we had thopter foundry + sword, then that would be amazing for sure; 5 mana take an extra turn gain 5 would be hilarious.
For those people who doubt chalice, think about the amount of ways people can interact with our 5/5 indestructible darksteel citadel.
Path to Exile & Dismember are the only two real options, and Dismember doesn't get run all that much. Path does however, but Chalice for 1 makes interacting with our citadels a nightmare / impossible for our opponent.
sea gate wreckage is very nice with thirst for knowledge; end of turn thirst for knowledge in response activate sea gate; draw 4 discard 1 artifact.
edit: Just saw Jokers list, very fun. But no removal? You're relying on cyclonic rift and cycling that with days undoing? Engineered explosives sometimes?
I really like the astral cornucopia with the added counters and room for ghost quarters.
If you go for Chalice, go all out. You also need bridges in this type of set up with Liliana. they got very pricy sadly. (Good thing I have 3.) (btw if someone has a stronghold one but would prefer an 8th edition one, I want to make a trade)
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1
1
a
2-1 vs Ad Nauseum
1. Got him with an early spellskite & a collective brutallity trading some life and slowrolling some lands. I spotted his deck quickly as he played his temples.
in: Ethersworn cannonist x2, thoughtseize x2 pithing needle x2 out: bridges, fatal push
2. he went off early when I did not have any defenses up.
3. Discard + an early tezz making 5/5s for the beatdown just got him.
0-2 vs Merfolk
1. He gets there dropping lord after lord. I do manage to put in a thopter foundry/sword combo, but with all the lords he plays his guys remain 4/4 islandwalkers and I did not find a bridge.
in:Damnationx2 out ? probably relic of progenitus
2. had to keep a 5 card hand. Again, not fast enough.
2-0 vs Jeskai Nahiri + thopter Foundry combo + blood moon
1. He has a T1 chalice on 1 with SSG. A cookie of my own dough is interesting because this is the first FNM I am not playing chalice. I sit with an inquisition and fatal push in hand. But also rocks and a some other stuff. I have no issue with the blood moon due to the rocks and I play more basics now. I drop an early liliana and ultimate her taking out his bridge and chalices (he gets one on 2 as well, but not after the mana rocks). I think he drops a second bridge before I can kill him, or this is game 2. I drop a 2nd tezz, +1 him find walking ballista. Next turn play walking ballista, shoot him with tezz and then shoot him with ballista.
in: discard, hero's downfall, ghirapur aether grid, pithing needle
out: bridges, push I think
2. I get an early tezz and smash in. He has to sacrifice his artifacts including darksteel citadels to thopter foundry to produce blockers. I keep -1'ing tezz to overwhelm him.
2-0 vs Affinity
1. Crane blocks really well versus affinity because it trades against most of their guys as well. Affinity in topdeck mode has no answer for Tezzeret spewing out 5/5's.
in: damnation, pithing needle (Ravager), ghirapur aether grid
out: not sure, probably relic of progenitus, thoughtseize?
2. kill his early guys with walking ballista's - T1 I played a polluted, T1 he plays glimmervoid and vault skirge. I fetch and play a land and play walking ballista, shoot his skirge. That sets him back bad. I play another walking ballista and he is kind of stuck - he has a scary cranial plating and a bunch of artifacts but he cannot transfer it to a dude before I shoot it with ballista or push on his ravager. His Blinkmoth nexus is nullified by my ghost quarter and then I tezz him out with 5/5's.
Everything went smooth but I think I might need chalice of the void versus Cheeri0's which seemed popular but really lost to itself a lot.
Merfolk has just always been a bad matchup for me it feels like. I really need an early bridge to stop them.
List:
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Collective Brutality
3 Fatal Push
2 Thopter Foundry
4 Talisman of Dominance
2 Relic of Progenitus
3 Mox Opal
3 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Sword of the Meek
2 Liliana of the Veil
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 Walking Ballista
2 Spellskite
1 Watery Grave
4 Polluted Delta
2 Island
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Inventors' Fair
1 Academy Ruins
4 Darksteel Citadel
2 Swamp
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Darkslick Shores
2 Pithing Needle
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Torpor Orb
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Ghirapur Aether Grid
2 Thoughtseize
2 Damnation
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1
Liliana, Freed at last (For when she conquers the Veil) 2BB
Planeswaker - Liliana
+2) sacrifice a permanent, gain life equal to its CMC, draw a card
-2) Target player discards a card, then target player sacrifices a creature.
-3) Put a non-land permanent from any graveyard into the battlefield under your control.
-10) You get an emblem that reads: "Whenever a permanent enters a graveyard from the battlefield, return that card to the battlefield under your control."
Starting loyalty: 3
Gideon, Champion of the Sun
Planeswalker - Gideon
+2) Gideon beomes a 6/6 indestructible, haste creature until end of turn, prevent all damage etc.
+1) All your creatures get +2/+2 and vigilance until the start of your next turn.
-0) Put a 2/2 human warrior knight soldier token onto the battlefield with haste, first strike and vigilance.
-6) You get an emblem that reads:" Whenever a creature you control takes damage, put a +1/+1 counter on it equal to the damage. At the start of your upkeep, gain 2 life."
Loyalty: 3
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2-0 vs Jeskai Nahiri - just not really that troublesome; hero's downfalled his nahiri that he got online after he shatterstormed me. I then recovered and beat down both games.
1-2 vs Merfolk. Just a tough match generally since we played islands. One game I got stuck with 2 abrupt decays in hand and no green source. Very painful.
2-1 vs burn. He got me one game after I had stabilized with deflecting palm. Auch but awesome. Chalice is great in this matchup as is Wurmcoil. I also like liliana as she just costs him 2+ cards and trading cards is great versus burn.
0-2 vs ad nauseum. Game 1 is always rough. Game 2 I got a wurmcoil down and started doing beatdowns looking for white to dump ethersworn canonist after my turn 1 pithing needle on the land storm card. He pulls out lab maniac with me without removal in hand.
1-2 vs W/g humans with coco. Game 1 crush with bridge and tezzeret shot. Game 2 I get stuck at 2 lands and he ends up overruning me. Game 3 had to mull to 4. Ended up being 1 untapped black away from a damnation to stabilize due to Thalia of course. Sad turn of events.
Over all I am very happy with my deck but I am thinking of adding 2 more Glimmervoids or maybe adding a Overgrown tomb so I can fetch a Green source and do not have to rely on my opals etc. I'm leaning on testing out the Overgrown tomb because that would add 5 green sources to the 6 I have by replacing 1 card as opposed to replacing 2 to put 2 more sources in. I am also completely unamazed with the thopter foundry / sword of the meek combo. Sure I make a ton of mana but it never does the work you expect it to do. I think I'm instead going to run more removal maindeck.
Here was my list last night:
2 darkslick shores
4 polluted delta
1 watery grave
1 swamp
1 island
1 Academy Ruins
1 Sea gate wreckage
2 Mutavault
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Glimmervoid
4 darksteel Citadel
Artifacts:
4 Mox Opal
4 Talisman of Dominance
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Thopter Foundry
1 Sword of the Meek
2 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Grafiddger's Cage
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Torpor Orb
2 Spellskite
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Instants:
1 Dismember
1 negate
3 Thirst for knowledge
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Hero's downfall
sorceries:
2 Damnation
Planeswalkers:
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Pithing Needle
2 Negate
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Radiant Flames
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Crumble to Dust
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Dismember
1 Maelstrom Pulse
I'm also interested in adding echoing truths to my sideboard.
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You take an extra turn. What do you usually do with your turn? draw a card, play a land and a rock or other permanent, sit behind your bridge, and go. Or smash face with 5/5 citadels.
If you sit behind your bridge, you don't really need to go through the extra effort to take extra turns, they're going to topdeck, groan, and pass. You basically get extra turns because they don't do anything with theirs because they're in prison/locked out.
It takes away 5 artifacts, which is half the amount of artifacts we need to just hit our 'I win' button with -4 Tezzeret. Since it works against this main win condition, I am not sure.
If we had thopter foundry + sword, then that would be amazing for sure; 5 mana take an extra turn gain 5 would be hilarious.
For those people who doubt chalice, think about the amount of ways people can interact with our 5/5 indestructible darksteel citadel.
Path to Exile & Dismember are the only two real options, and Dismember doesn't get run all that much. Path does however, but Chalice for 1 makes interacting with our citadels a nightmare / impossible for our opponent.
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edit: Just saw Jokers list, very fun. But no removal? You're relying on cyclonic rift and cycling that with days undoing? Engineered explosives sometimes?
I really like the astral cornucopia with the added counters and room for ghost quarters.
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