This card is planes beyond the other planewalkers. Phyrexian Arena was so good because it offered black a card draw spell better than most of blue's. Jace is basically a Phyrexian Arena for blue, and he along with the new Blue Command is going to make blue broken...again. He himself is just absurd, good thing he costs UU or he'd be in every deck that can splash for him.
Never board in take possession against UB? Are you high? At most the UB deck runs 1 bounce spell and maybe 2 willbenders...maybe? I can only assume that was a joke but...damn.
If there's one thing that is typically known, Smallpox in an aggro deck looking to win with several creatures is a bad idea. I understand its tremendous synergy with Tarmogoyf, and it's certainly great with it, but you need to cast pox, then play the goyf, then attack. On top of that, pox costs double black, and without an urborg in play, that really seems hard to do since you can't search black sources with flagstones.
Hi there. In testing the Mono-blue deck, I've found that I don't like Ancestral Visions very much. They are pretty bad to draw at any time other than one's opening hand, and are easily Willbendered or Imp's Mischief'd. On top of this, pickles is a slow deck on its control end, and if the two players go into topdeck mode, this deck has no real way of recovering. I feel like Whispers of the Muse would be better card draw in the deck, because it could be cycled early, and be a powerful tool late in the game. I don't really like Aeon Chronicler in the deck because everything it would be boarded in against plays Pull from Eternity and/or Riftsweeper. On top of this, to stop Whispers of the Muse, they must counter it, and forcing a counterspell onto card draw is important.
In my opinion, the lands are easily the big problem to this deck. Without the mana accelerators on the board, if somebody can't hit their land, the game is over, and with only 22 and four terramorphic expanses, this happens a whole lot.
Round 1 I played some U/W tempo deck with Blink and those Djinn things. I started out pretty slow, lacking much acceleration in both games. It didn't help that he blinked a djinn turn three on me in one game. I don't think it was a bad matchup, just bad luck.
Round 2 I was up against RDW, and I drew typical hands both games, and Wished into Dark Heart Sliver both games. It was a fairly easy victory.
Round 3 I got paired against a UBgw teachings deck. It was an incredibly easy match for me, but I am really good at playing against slow control decks, so I'm not sure this would be true for everyone. The trick against the deck for me was to keep seven cards in my hand, basically. Not to overplay, cast dormant sliver, etc. etc. It was an easy matchup in my opinion, however I think it was due to play skill against this deck more than anything.
Round 4 I got paired against a GW Tarmogoyf deck. I drew a good hand game 1, game 2 he drew a good hand, and game 3 I made a wrong decision on a Wish target. He had Krosan Grips and Kestrels in his deck, and I needed to stabilize. My choice was either Moat or Teneb, and I chose Teneb in fear of the enchantment destruction. Turns out he didn't have any in his hand, and he wound up drawing into enough creatures to swarm around him before I could do anything. Oh well.
Round 5 I was up against a UG Goyf deck, which I beat with stunning hands again. Both allowed me to play out quick Wild Pairs, and he was pretty much beaten after that.
Round 6 I was up against another teachings deck, which I again beat rather handily. This was a more traditional UBw deck, but the idea is still the same.
Round 7 I was up against a UG Pickles deck, which is an auto-loss with anything less than super-fast hands. Turns out this is what happened game 2, but games 1 and 3 turned out in my favor.
Round 8 I scooped to my friend to give him a chance to get into the top 8.
I actually saw one of the matches where you so-called "played like a donk", and I know what you mean, but don't sweat it The deck is incredibly hard to play in situations where the right move doesn't scream itself out of nowhere, and without a little bit of luck to drawing into Wild Pair early every time, it's ten times worse. I agree with you in that the GW matchup is typically poor, even without the Scryb Rangers. If they get a relatively quick start, you are under a decent amount of pressure to lay down some defense in the form of Telekinetic Sliver, Wild Pair, or even Take Possession. There are numerous Trumps to the enchantments that they will always side in, and if they have one when you go to play it, it's bad news. For Telekinetic Sliver, I saw a lot of boarded Sunlances, but I'd be more scared of Scryb Ranger. There's always the rogue Invocation that flies out of nowhere as well, so it's really not all that good of a matchup.
I remember there were quite a few Wild Pair decks at the Neutral Ground PTQ, and I definitely learned a lot from playing it. First and foremost is, the deck is really interactive and play skill reliant, especially against the teachings decks, but without quite a large amount of luck of drawing into and sticking your mana acceleration and fixing, the deck is in trouble. Second is that it's really not an entirely difficult deck to dismantle when playing against it, although nobody who could seemed to know how. This is probably due to the scarcity fo the deck, and possibly due to the player skill at the PTQs. Regardless, if you are careful, tap all of your mana correctly, and think before you go to win, there's very few people at one of these who will be able to stop it.
Third, and probably most importantly, control decks are hard to play at a long tournament such as a PTQ. When you are not presented with the obvious plays with this deck, it is about ten times worse on your head than a control deck is. As mentioned before, there are tons and tons and tons of options almost every turn when there's no obvious one, so it's really important to, if you plan on playing this at a PTQ, get a good night's sleep, eat breakfast, and make sure you don't get tired during the day. Unless you're incredibly lucky, in which case there's no need to
Finally, as mentioned, I sported the version with Glittering Wish. I'm still undecided upon which is the better deck. I shortened my budget on dual lands, so that may have affected some of my mana issues (of which there weren't much to begin with), but the addition of this card certainly boggles the mana base. That said, if one could work out a base that's really solid for the addition of the card, I'd reccommend it in the deck. I lost no real consistancy in powering out spells and wild pair, and the toolbox gained from the card is really great. The matches I lost were both to aggro decks, and there really isn't anything in the board that could help that. I would consider wishing for Fiery Justice, or Teferi's Moat, or Void on turn 4-5 without a Wild Pair in hand a much better play than throwing down a Foresee, or a Dormant Sliver, or a Dark Heart Sliver. What's even better with Void is that, especially in the G/W matchup, almost all of their creatures cost two mana. Serra Avenger, Mire Boa, Tarmogoyf, it's very effective there.
So, in short, I'd suggest first finding a way to tweak the mana base into supporting Glittering Wish without losing any mana consistancy. If you can do that, I'd suggest playing it, because I really think it helps the deck out quite a lot.
As for me, that's the last time I'll play this deck at a PTQ, because it's too much thinking for that long The highlight of my day, however, was winning in round 2 with Glittering Wish into Coalition Victory. I'm pretty sure that's never been done lol
I just placed 10th at a PTQ playing Glittering Wish...
It's actually probably the best idea for the deck, because you lose absolutely nothing by cutting the Darkheart and Dormant Slivers, and then I removed an additional Foresee. The manabase is easy to tweak, just remove the burnwillows, add in two plains, one mountain, and a forest, and it's fine.
The wishboard is really nice in the deck. Wafo-Tapa's list is hard pressed to win without a Wild Pair on the board, Glittering Wish not only allows that to happen, but it allows you to protect your wild pair should you get it. Some notable targets;
Mystic Snake
Fiery Justice (Good vs. morphs, lots of stuff)
Teferi's Moat
Teneb, The Harvester, or any dragon really
Frenetic Sliver
Dormant Sliver
Dark Heart Sliver
Harmonic Sliver
Void (unbelievable card in block, it was my MVP of the day if Wish wasn't)
Mystic Enforcer
Coalition Victory (I acutally stole not one, but two games with this card today, it's quite a lot easier to do than one would think and is hugely funny)
Go ahead and try with the Wishes, you definitely won't notice much missing from the deck, and you won't be disappointed.
EDIT: I'd like to affirm that I was playing Glittering Wish in this Sliver Control deck.
Seriously though, this deck is capable of beating any deck in the format if you play really really well, that's why Wafo-Tapa finished first at the end of the swiss at the GP. Granted, he's one of the best players in the world, but the way to fix any matchup with this deck is to play really well. The sideboard really doesn't help all that much in the long run; it only provides a few supports for the main engine of the deck, and that's the part that needs to be played with, not the board. Honestly this deck could probably do fine without a sideboard, but none of us are that crazy
I agree in that this is possibly the hardest deck to sideboard with I've ever played. That is, in part, why I chose to put Glittering Wish in it, because it makes sideboarding very easy, you usually don't have to!
The thing about the Predator-less Goyf decks is that they're not that fast. That deck is good because it's extremely strong against all sorts of removal, not because it's fast. The Kavu Predator versions can win quicker, but are also less stable.
The real problem in the whole matchup comes from Riftsweeper, and unfortunately, aside from countering it, there's nothing one can really do about it. If a Riftsweeper resolves and hits your visions or cloudskate, it becomes really difficult to win. That said, perhaps a different creature in the board is needed to combat this. Visions is an obvious include for the deck because it's a one-drop card-draw spell, but Maybe there's another two-drop that could do better than cloudskate in the deck. Or, maybe the answer is to cut the number of cloudskates post-board. I truly don't know the answer, but Riftsweeper is the problem card in the matchup, not Goyf/Enforcer.
For blue, it's difficult to find a quick defensive technique without losing card advantage. Snapback is obviously a choice, but, and especially with this deck, Riftsweeper sweeps it away "no pun intended". Visions and Cloudskate are both extremely important cards, and losing them is tough especially when you've crafted your game plan on having them in play.
There are very few options and for blue, only two real routes to go; walls, and removal. For walls, there's Primal Plasma, Aquamorph Entity, and Cryptic Annelid. For removal, there's erratic mutation, Ovinize, and Pongify. Typically, I wouldn't suggest pongify, but it synergizes well with the multitude of bounce effects in the deck.
Any thoughts?
Round 2 I was up against RDW, and I drew typical hands both games, and Wished into Dark Heart Sliver both games. It was a fairly easy victory.
Round 3 I got paired against a UBgw teachings deck. It was an incredibly easy match for me, but I am really good at playing against slow control decks, so I'm not sure this would be true for everyone. The trick against the deck for me was to keep seven cards in my hand, basically. Not to overplay, cast dormant sliver, etc. etc. It was an easy matchup in my opinion, however I think it was due to play skill against this deck more than anything.
Round 4 I got paired against a GW Tarmogoyf deck. I drew a good hand game 1, game 2 he drew a good hand, and game 3 I made a wrong decision on a Wish target. He had Krosan Grips and Kestrels in his deck, and I needed to stabilize. My choice was either Moat or Teneb, and I chose Teneb in fear of the enchantment destruction. Turns out he didn't have any in his hand, and he wound up drawing into enough creatures to swarm around him before I could do anything. Oh well.
Round 5 I was up against a UG Goyf deck, which I beat with stunning hands again. Both allowed me to play out quick Wild Pairs, and he was pretty much beaten after that.
Round 6 I was up against another teachings deck, which I again beat rather handily. This was a more traditional UBw deck, but the idea is still the same.
Round 7 I was up against a UG Pickles deck, which is an auto-loss with anything less than super-fast hands. Turns out this is what happened game 2, but games 1 and 3 turned out in my favor.
Round 8 I scooped to my friend to give him a chance to get into the top 8.
I remember there were quite a few Wild Pair decks at the Neutral Ground PTQ, and I definitely learned a lot from playing it. First and foremost is, the deck is really interactive and play skill reliant, especially against the teachings decks, but without quite a large amount of luck of drawing into and sticking your mana acceleration and fixing, the deck is in trouble. Second is that it's really not an entirely difficult deck to dismantle when playing against it, although nobody who could seemed to know how. This is probably due to the scarcity fo the deck, and possibly due to the player skill at the PTQs. Regardless, if you are careful, tap all of your mana correctly, and think before you go to win, there's very few people at one of these who will be able to stop it.
Third, and probably most importantly, control decks are hard to play at a long tournament such as a PTQ. When you are not presented with the obvious plays with this deck, it is about ten times worse on your head than a control deck is. As mentioned before, there are tons and tons and tons of options almost every turn when there's no obvious one, so it's really important to, if you plan on playing this at a PTQ, get a good night's sleep, eat breakfast, and make sure you don't get tired during the day. Unless you're incredibly lucky, in which case there's no need to
Finally, as mentioned, I sported the version with Glittering Wish. I'm still undecided upon which is the better deck. I shortened my budget on dual lands, so that may have affected some of my mana issues (of which there weren't much to begin with), but the addition of this card certainly boggles the mana base. That said, if one could work out a base that's really solid for the addition of the card, I'd reccommend it in the deck. I lost no real consistancy in powering out spells and wild pair, and the toolbox gained from the card is really great. The matches I lost were both to aggro decks, and there really isn't anything in the board that could help that. I would consider wishing for Fiery Justice, or Teferi's Moat, or Void on turn 4-5 without a Wild Pair in hand a much better play than throwing down a Foresee, or a Dormant Sliver, or a Dark Heart Sliver. What's even better with Void is that, especially in the G/W matchup, almost all of their creatures cost two mana. Serra Avenger, Mire Boa, Tarmogoyf, it's very effective there.
So, in short, I'd suggest first finding a way to tweak the mana base into supporting Glittering Wish without losing any mana consistancy. If you can do that, I'd suggest playing it, because I really think it helps the deck out quite a lot.
As for me, that's the last time I'll play this deck at a PTQ, because it's too much thinking for that long
It's actually probably the best idea for the deck, because you lose absolutely nothing by cutting the Darkheart and Dormant Slivers, and then I removed an additional Foresee. The manabase is easy to tweak, just remove the burnwillows, add in two plains, one mountain, and a forest, and it's fine.
The wishboard is really nice in the deck. Wafo-Tapa's list is hard pressed to win without a Wild Pair on the board, Glittering Wish not only allows that to happen, but it allows you to protect your wild pair should you get it. Some notable targets;
Mystic Snake
Fiery Justice (Good vs. morphs, lots of stuff)
Teferi's Moat
Teneb, The Harvester, or any dragon really
Frenetic Sliver
Dormant Sliver
Dark Heart Sliver
Harmonic Sliver
Void (unbelievable card in block, it was my MVP of the day if Wish wasn't)
Mystic Enforcer
Coalition Victory (I acutally stole not one, but two games with this card today, it's quite a lot easier to do than one would think and is hugely funny)
Go ahead and try with the Wishes, you definitely won't notice much missing from the deck, and you won't be disappointed.
EDIT: I'd like to affirm that I was playing Glittering Wish in this Sliver Control deck.
Seriously though, this deck is capable of beating any deck in the format if you play really really well, that's why Wafo-Tapa finished first at the end of the swiss at the GP. Granted, he's one of the best players in the world, but the way to fix any matchup with this deck is to play really well. The sideboard really doesn't help all that much in the long run; it only provides a few supports for the main engine of the deck, and that's the part that needs to be played with, not the board. Honestly this deck could probably do fine without a sideboard, but none of us are that crazy
The real problem in the whole matchup comes from Riftsweeper, and unfortunately, aside from countering it, there's nothing one can really do about it. If a Riftsweeper resolves and hits your visions or cloudskate, it becomes really difficult to win. That said, perhaps a different creature in the board is needed to combat this. Visions is an obvious include for the deck because it's a one-drop card-draw spell, but Maybe there's another two-drop that could do better than cloudskate in the deck. Or, maybe the answer is to cut the number of cloudskates post-board. I truly don't know the answer, but Riftsweeper is the problem card in the matchup, not Goyf/Enforcer.
There are very few options and for blue, only two real routes to go; walls, and removal. For walls, there's Primal Plasma, Aquamorph Entity, and Cryptic Annelid. For removal, there's erratic mutation, Ovinize, and Pongify. Typically, I wouldn't suggest pongify, but it synergizes well with the multitude of bounce effects in the deck.