The only problem i see with the card is that there is no Seething Song of the format. If this was Mir-CHK, then the card would be right at home. There is no way to pump him out early and efficiently. I don't like running Simian Spirit Guide or Rite of Flame for this guy.
That is not the final build on the deck. I might add in Venser, or cut the Rude for a 2nd Meloku (very probable). Plus the board is very rough. Though I really want to keep Teeg, because he is nutty.
Not much to say about the deck. He top 8'd consecutive PTQ's with the deck, winning one of them. It has tools vs everything. Plus it looks consistent as hell.
Now normally I wouldn't choose a deck so, well, odd as this deck, but there were three reasons I started to show interest in it:
1) Their (Rashad Miller and Rusty Kubis) combined record in the Swiss was 12-1-3, with Rashad holding strong as the clear number one seed.
2) RDW, Zoo, Ideal, and Blue/Green Tron he (Rashad) considers close to being byes. Most of the other matches, he feels are somewhat advantageous, largely because they are so slow. The Blue decks tend to rely so much on their creature stealing powers, that they are often just a little bit behind, and a Troll can simply be too much for them. Rock decks are often slow in getting up their own answers, and again, Troll is especially problematic, particularly if it is flying in with Griffin Guide.
3) Rusty and Rashad got 3rd and 5th place respectively in a Midwest PTQ. There must be some merit to the deck.
I realize that the Goblins matchup must be bad, but if you can land a Worship with a Troll (or hard to remove creature, such as Centaur), they can't win. Plus you get goodies from the board to deal with the deck. It also looks like Deed bends this deck over and violates it.
So, there are the three decks. If you have any questions about the blue deck above, feel free to PM me.
There was a lot more blue than there was at new jersey. Doran and Goblins were predictably very popular. There were only 3 dredge players in the room, but one of them made the finals. Of course you could just chalk that up to Jay Imperiale being Jay Imperiale. There was also more affinity than at the nj ptq.
It seemed that the only tron players were Gabe, Ravitz, and Zvi. I loaned zvi the deck 10 minuites before the tournament started and explained what the cards did as I filled out the decklist. None of them did well.
I think that there was one more UG Tron player. The dude sucked though, and he was at the lower tables.
I think that I saw you with Zvi, SRdude. What were you wearing? (you were playing Doran right?)
The Czech guy was not Jaroslav Nachtigall from NG, was it?
Yeah, it was Jaroslav.
There was an interesting little problem with Napoli and Nachtigall in the 5th round:
Phil apparently lost his 4th Vindicate, and had to barn one off someone else, getting a game loss in the process. Then after that, he lost the next game (pretty sure it was game 2) and the match. Unfortunate.
Quiet Speculation into Lava Dart is a massive Storm count jump, and with Pyromancer's Swath in play, is 9 damage for 1U. The deck is pretty obvious, but I'm not sure about the sideboard. I tested it a little bit this week to some pretty good results.
Discuss!!
The deck is really cool. I saw Osyp play the deck at a PTQ today and bribe some kid with a dollar to see his hand so Osyp could kill him with Ignite Memories lol.
Though the list he played looked different. I think it was closer to this:
That is just a guess though. The only thing that I know about the mana is that there were at least 2x Island and 2x Polluted Delta and definitely 4x Steam Vents.
I have no clue what the last slot is. Probably another Deep Analysis. Though it could've been a miser's EtW.
I think there should be an Eye of Nowhere in the board to get around Solitary Confinement, which was everywhere.
@satriani...great way to celebrate your 18th bday - possibly getting pinched for interstate mail fraud. pretty weak - frowntown, indeed. wouldn't be the first of our clan to go down in ban-hammered-flames for bad trading *cough*jimisnotonyoursideapparently *cough*ahem*.
Ok, what the **** is your problem Chops? I'm going to bring this out into the open, because it has become very apparent that you have an issue with me. I don't know what the **** it is though.
What have I done to piss you off? If you are still going on about the deck, then you really have to let that **** go.
What gives you the right to judge my character? The fact that I had to break off a trade with you before? Please tell me what it is, because I'm very curious.
I was at the GP and Cheons deck was great. He played Gurney round 1, day 1, and in the quarter finals, both times Mike did not feel like he was in it.
I think that the deck was a success. We really hit the nail on the head with that one.
The Gurney matchup is very positive because of how similar it was to NLB. I found that, for me, NLB was a positive matchup overall. It may have been that the players I was up against sucked, or maybe Cryptic Command is just the nut high (yeah, it is), but I really never had a problem with the deck.
Satriani- I still say right now Mono Red Burn (as much as I hate that deck) defeats PLB and SimicTron.
Chops- I really don't playing non-Baloth, non-Tribe Elder creatures in the deck at all, anymore. I haven't played the deck in a while since I'm trying to develop something new at the moment, but I have some advice. I cut the bounce lands a while ago because I started to hate getting Molten Rained or whatever and I always drew too many. I cut it down to 3x, then 2x, then I cut them altogether and my mana flowed a lot better. Then I added in some Treetop Villages and they worked rather wonderfully. I'm not sure if they are better than something like Mutavault or not, but when I played them I generally loved it. I've been thinking of playing 2x Haunting Echoes Maindeck. It very well might be overkill but I am unsure. I'm still an advocate for Moment's Peace (Satriani can attest to this-:D-I probably suggest this in all X/g non aggro decks). If you are going to be playing Boseiju in the sideboard (which I highly recommend, especially after the GP we just witnessed) than I would recommend some number of Persecute. Persecuting off of Boseiju is nutz. It seems janky, but in testing it was pretty decent. The only other thing I've really got of use is that I cut Smother altogether and just ran Putrefies. They are just as good as Smother and can help in other matchups too, Affinity on Myr Enforcer is the only relevent example I can think of atm, but that is the single most problematic card in the Affinity matchup, so that alone really makes it worth it in my mind. Solemn Simulacrum could be good, but I'm not a fan of Night's Whisper or Bitterblossom (I all too often stabilize at 5 life or less, and then procede to win the game, that additional lifeloss just worried me).
True. You have the midrange matchup locked up, but fast red aggro seems to be an issue. Moment's Peace ain't just for Tron anymore kids. Perhaps Wall of Roots instead of STE.
Yeah, as a control player Persecute of a Boseiju is NOT something that I want to see. Though, I think that is a little TOO narrow, unless your meta is heavy PLB/NLB.
Ok, I know how some of you think that I've sandbagged the Clan. Well, I've come to redeem myself. Somewhat.
I assume that since my deck won Vancouver, a lot of the netdeckers will get on board with PLB/UG Tron at Neutral Ground on Saturday. Therefore, I've come to tell you what to play: U/G Tron/Shrapnel Affinity.
No, that is not a joke. I realize that U/G Tron lost to PLB in the finals. However, statistically, the matchup has been bad for PLB in testing and Shrapnel Affinity can just be a ***** for both decks.
I'm going to be playing any one of those 3 decks. Testing and time will tell which one is most comfortable for me to pilot. Oh, a word to the wise, if you do plan on playing Control, playtest EXTENSIVELY. If you don't, you will scrub. Fair warning.
Yeah, well according to you guys, you had it days before, we all got to see it Saturday night with the rest of the world. I only trust LSV with Vintage and Standard - nothing more. He has a habit of testing with other great pros then altering the deck slightly towards the worse end, then making misplays with 'em. Don't get me wrong, I played his Omnichord decks for a few week's wins at FNM, but I also played Flore's "this girl" and Mishra decks too.
I didn't even give Atomsk the final list of the PLB deck until the night before the PTQ. He said that his friend was gonna play NLB, and I said that in a field of Doran and Goblins he would be better suited playing my deck.
The only people who knew about the optimal version of the deck before Vancouver were Cheontourage, Becker and I (and prob some other people). We agreed to not spill the deck online beforehand in order to maintain solid matchups.
Then Cheon's savage playskill just ripped the field apart. The man is a god among men in Constructed formats.
Take this into account: +90% of all decks using red run Pyroclasm in the SB. There is NO control deck that does not run either Damnation or *** MD or SB. There are aggro decks running *** and Damnation in the board (I know I'm running 3 Damnation on the board). Mass removal is especcially relevant in an aggro-swamped metagame.
Yeah, that is pretty much all true. The meta is aggro and anti-aggro. Anti-aggro runs mass removal. You counter that by playing Bitterblossom.
Now we get to see the twisted images in the minds of the artists, those crazy bastards.
If the cards suck power-wise, I might cry.
Stifle is pure gas. It is even better than Force Spike turn 1 on the play a good percentage of the time.
Hey guys. I'm currently undecided between 3 decks for GP Philly. One I have built, but the other two are mostly built.
Jugan/PLB cross breed:
That is not the final build on the deck. I might add in Venser, or cut the Rude for a 2nd Meloku (very probable). Plus the board is very rough. Though I really want to keep Teeg, because he is nutty.
Flow Rock (Sullivan Style):
Artifacts
2 Sensei's Divining Top
Creatures
4 Birds Of Paradise
2 Eternal Witness
3 Ravenous Baloth
4 Sakura-tribe Elder
3 Tarmogoyf
Enchantments
3 Destructive Flow
4 Pernicious Deed
Instants
2 Extirpate
2 Putrefy
1 Terminate
Sorceries
4 Duress
4 Living Wish
1 Profane Command
Basic Lands
6 Forest
2 Mountain
4 Swamp
Lands
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills
Not much to say about the deck. He top 8'd consecutive PTQ's with the deck, winning one of them. It has tools vs everything. Plus it looks consistent as hell.
GW Ghost Dad:
Artifacts
4 Chrome Mox
Creatures
4 Kami Of Ancient Law
4 Phantom Centaur
3 Tallowisp
3 Tarmogoyf
4 Troll Ascetic
Enchantments
4 Armadillo Cloak
1 Griffin Guide
3 Worship
Instants
3 Otherworldly Journey
Legendary Creatures
4 Gaddock Teeg
3 Saffi Eriksdotter
Basic Lands
2 Forest
1 Plains
Lands
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
1 Sungrass Prairie
3 Temple Garden
4 Treetop Village
4 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
Legendary Lands
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Okina, Temple To The Grandfathers
Now normally I wouldn't choose a deck so, well, odd as this deck, but there were three reasons I started to show interest in it:
1) Their (Rashad Miller and Rusty Kubis) combined record in the Swiss was 12-1-3, with Rashad holding strong as the clear number one seed.
2) RDW, Zoo, Ideal, and Blue/Green Tron he (Rashad) considers close to being byes. Most of the other matches, he feels are somewhat advantageous, largely because they are so slow. The Blue decks tend to rely so much on their creature stealing powers, that they are often just a little bit behind, and a Troll can simply be too much for them. Rock decks are often slow in getting up their own answers, and again, Troll is especially problematic, particularly if it is flying in with Griffin Guide.
3) Rusty and Rashad got 3rd and 5th place respectively in a Midwest PTQ. There must be some merit to the deck.
I realize that the Goblins matchup must be bad, but if you can land a Worship with a Troll (or hard to remove creature, such as Centaur), they can't win. Plus you get goodies from the board to deal with the deck. It also looks like Deed bends this deck over and violates it.
So, there are the three decks. If you have any questions about the blue deck above, feel free to PM me.
I think that there was one more UG Tron player. The dude sucked though, and he was at the lower tables.
I think that I saw you with Zvi, SRdude. What were you wearing? (you were playing Doran right?)
Yeah, it was Jaroslav.
There was an interesting little problem with Napoli and Nachtigall in the 5th round:
Phil apparently lost his 4th Vindicate, and had to barn one off someone else, getting a game loss in the process. Then after that, he lost the next game (pretty sure it was game 2) and the match. Unfortunate.
The deck is really cool. I saw Osyp play the deck at a PTQ today and bribe some kid with a dollar to see his hand so Osyp could kill him with Ignite Memories lol.
Though the list he played looked different. I think it was closer to this:
4x Simian Spirit Guide
Other Spells-38
4x Rite of Flame
4x Seething Song
3x Quiet Speculation
4x Lava Dart
4x Burning Wish
1x Deep Analysis
3x Mind's Desire
3x Pyromancer's Swath
3x Grapeshot
4x Lotus Bloom
4x Chrome Mox
1x ??????????????
4x Steam Vents
4x Polluted Delta
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Mountain
2x Island
4x Ancestral Vision
3x Mana Short
1x Mind's Desire
1x Grapeshot
1x Pyroclasm
1x Empty the Warrens
2x Venser, Shaper Savant
1x Deep Analysis
1x Ignite Memories
I have no clue what the last slot is. Probably another Deep Analysis. Though it could've been a miser's EtW.
I think there should be an Eye of Nowhere in the board to get around Solitary Confinement, which was everywhere.
Ok, what the **** is your problem Chops? I'm going to bring this out into the open, because it has become very apparent that you have an issue with me. I don't know what the **** it is though.
What have I done to piss you off? If you are still going on about the deck, then you really have to let that **** go.
What gives you the right to judge my character? The fact that I had to break off a trade with you before? Please tell me what it is, because I'm very curious.
I think that the deck was a success. We really hit the nail on the head with that one.
The Gurney matchup is very positive because of how similar it was to NLB. I found that, for me, NLB was a positive matchup overall. It may have been that the players I was up against sucked, or maybe Cryptic Command is just the nut high (yeah, it is), but I really never had a problem with the deck.
True. You have the midrange matchup locked up, but fast red aggro seems to be an issue. Moment's Peace ain't just for Tron anymore kids. Perhaps Wall of Roots instead of STE.
Yeah, as a control player Persecute of a Boseiju is NOT something that I want to see. Though, I think that is a little TOO narrow, unless your meta is heavy PLB/NLB.
I assume that since my deck won Vancouver, a lot of the netdeckers will get on board with PLB/UG Tron at Neutral Ground on Saturday. Therefore, I've come to tell you what to play: U/G Tron/Shrapnel Affinity.
No, that is not a joke. I realize that U/G Tron lost to PLB in the finals. However, statistically, the matchup has been bad for PLB in testing and Shrapnel Affinity can just be a ***** for both decks.
I'm going to be playing any one of those 3 decks. Testing and time will tell which one is most comfortable for me to pilot. Oh, a word to the wise, if you do plan on playing Control, playtest EXTENSIVELY. If you don't, you will scrub. Fair warning.
I didn't even give Atomsk the final list of the PLB deck until the night before the PTQ. He said that his friend was gonna play NLB, and I said that in a field of Doran and Goblins he would be better suited playing my deck.
The only people who knew about the optimal version of the deck before Vancouver were Cheontourage, Becker and I (and prob some other people). We agreed to not spill the deck online beforehand in order to maintain solid matchups.
Then Cheon's savage playskill just ripped the field apart. The man is a god among men in Constructed formats.
Bonnefoy is playing TEPS as well, and Gurney is rocking Death Cloud. Hell yeah son, bye matchup for Cheon.
Yeah, that is pretty much all true. The meta is aggro and anti-aggro. Anti-aggro runs mass removal. You counter that by playing Bitterblossom.
That sums up the meta pretty well.