I've found the spirits matchup to be pretty close but slightly favorable. They are very bad at playing from behind and very good at staying ahead. It's pretty easy to get blown out by trying to remove their threats before playing your own and getting rattlechainsed or whatever. Usually it's best to establish a board presence as quickly as possible and force them to tap out or block, then remove their important spells. You can't really win without being the aggressor because you just can't block their guys.
Flashfreeze doesn't counter wrath of God and is as good at countering nahiri as anything else, and wrath is literally the point of bringing in counterspells against nahiri. Flashfreeze is equal or worse than disdainful in basically every scenario except blood moon, where you can start leaving up 2 mana on turn two forwards, and terminate, where you don't bring in flashfreeze against terminate decks.
Without any counterspells I don't see how you are ever beating any of the big mana decks. I also play in a meta with above average valakut and r/x control decks like Mardu nahiri and ponza so YMMV
Boarding up to four engineered explosives in tandem with maindeck spellskite and displacer makes your infect and deaths shadow matchups fine, and you even have worship for deaths shadow. Chalice is very significantly worse against affinity and suicide blue than engineered explosives. I could see wanting them against burn, but that matchup is already winnable with racing, spellskite, and wor
I think that's certainly valid, and the ability to play a 3-mana eldrazi on turn two off a temple is very good, and I wouldn't want to go below 7 of those. however I don't think 9 is correct either, having played a 4-3-2 split before.
Jamming Ewit on turn two is just as easy off a dork, and can return a fetch but is subpar for sure a lot of the time.
Hi guys, figured I’d share my list and discuss here. I’ve won multiple SCG IQs with this list and a face2face 1k with a similar one. Posting card choices, may also share a sideboard plan if there is interest.
My list
4 Noble hierarch
4 eldrazi displacer
4 reality smasher
4 thought-knot seer
4 drowner of hope
3 eldrazi skyspawner
2 eternal witness
2 spellskite
4 path to exile
4 ancient stirrings
1 engineered explosives
4 eldrazi temple
4 cavern of souls
4 windswept heath
3 brushland
3 yavimaya coast
2 forest
1 plains
1 breeding pool
1 hallowed fountain
1 temple garden
Matter Reshaper: I think the magic hivemind is at work again with this card. It isn’t very good in matchups where a 3/2 is irrelevant, which is a ton of them. This card shines against wild nacatl and abrupt decay decks, both of which I am already very comfortable beating. I would rather just play stronger and more versatile cards.
Elder Deep Fiend. This card is a trap. It is much too hard to cast without losing value, and racing is not the issue. We already race just fine with smasher and drowner, and making our deck less consistent is not worth it in my opinion.
Ghost quarter/moorland haunt/2nd plains/wastes/random bad land. We can’t afford to have hands that don’t make green mana, and I think a 6th painland is the best option for a 24th land, bringing us up to 14 green sources that cast noble hierarch on turn one, plus 4 caverns which help in a pinch.
Dismember: I think maindeck engineered explosives helps enough matchups to be worth it, but its inclusion in that slot is also reasonable.
Chalice of the void: I can’t jutify this card. Drawing it too late is miserable, playing enough in the board to consistently have one is miserable, turning off your own paths and stirrings is miserable, etc. etc. etc.
Blessed alliance: I think we are better served to tap out a bunch and rely on EE in the mathcups where this card would be good. Just race burn, kill all of infect’s guys, and EE the crap out of your very sad suizoo opponent.
Natural state/any naturalize effect; I think these cards are defensible but not worth it right now. I was playing an unravel the aether for a while, because the mana is usually fine and we want it to hit worship.
World breaker: this card is much worse than Elspeth in every matchup we want an extra big thing. I would consider playing two elspeths, but I think one fair deck card / giant thing is Gucci.
Card Choices:
Eternal witness. This card is great. Keeps us from being manascrewed early by returning fetches and stirrings, gives us more copies of path to exile when we need them, and is insane on a stable board with displacer. I wouldn’t go above 2 however, as drawing more than one gets a little durdly. Also note, cavern on human casts hierarch and witness.
Eldrazi skyspawner: This card makes us stronger against blood moon by producing colorless that sits in play, can accelerate into our heavy hitters, and is a much more relevant body as a flier against spirits, robots, and infect. Worth noting it shares a lot of the strengths of reshaper against things like Liliana or chump blockin for value, as 2 bodies are 2 bodies.
Spellskite: I still play 2 spellskites, I would consider 1 cuttable and 1 mandatory. Colorless interaction is important and maximizing our displacer’s effectiveness/ preventing removal of thought-knot is reason enough for me to like both.
4th drowner of hope: Maximizing on plan A (Beat face) is the name of the game. I disagree with shaving 1, although I usually do when I am playing against an aggressive deck or boarding in Elspeth.
Sideboard counterspells: I’ve been messing around with a bunch of different configurations, pretty sure 3-5 is the right amount. Disdainful stroke, negate, unified will, and stubborn denial are what I consider the reasonable options. I do think that at least 2 of them should be able to counter a primeval titan.
Jamming Ewit on turn two is just as easy off a dork, and can return a fetch but is subpar for sure a lot of the time.
My list
4 Noble hierarch
4 eldrazi displacer
4 reality smasher
4 thought-knot seer
4 drowner of hope
3 eldrazi skyspawner
2 eternal witness
2 spellskite
4 path to exile
4 ancient stirrings
1 engineered explosives
4 eldrazi temple
4 cavern of souls
4 windswept heath
3 brushland
3 yavimaya coast
2 forest
1 plains
1 breeding pool
1 hallowed fountain
1 temple garden
SB:
2 worship
2 stony silence
2 rest in peace
2 disdainful stroke
2 stubborn denial
1 elspeth, suns champion
1 grafdigger’s cage
3 engineered explosives
Notable Exclusions:
Matter Reshaper: I think the magic hivemind is at work again with this card. It isn’t very good in matchups where a 3/2 is irrelevant, which is a ton of them. This card shines against wild nacatl and abrupt decay decks, both of which I am already very comfortable beating. I would rather just play stronger and more versatile cards.
Elder Deep Fiend. This card is a trap. It is much too hard to cast without losing value, and racing is not the issue. We already race just fine with smasher and drowner, and making our deck less consistent is not worth it in my opinion.
Ghost quarter/moorland haunt/2nd plains/wastes/random bad land. We can’t afford to have hands that don’t make green mana, and I think a 6th painland is the best option for a 24th land, bringing us up to 14 green sources that cast noble hierarch on turn one, plus 4 caverns which help in a pinch.
Dismember: I think maindeck engineered explosives helps enough matchups to be worth it, but its inclusion in that slot is also reasonable.
Chalice of the void: I can’t jutify this card. Drawing it too late is miserable, playing enough in the board to consistently have one is miserable, turning off your own paths and stirrings is miserable, etc. etc. etc.
Blessed alliance: I think we are better served to tap out a bunch and rely on EE in the mathcups where this card would be good. Just race burn, kill all of infect’s guys, and EE the crap out of your very sad suizoo opponent.
Natural state/any naturalize effect; I think these cards are defensible but not worth it right now. I was playing an unravel the aether for a while, because the mana is usually fine and we want it to hit worship.
World breaker: this card is much worse than Elspeth in every matchup we want an extra big thing. I would consider playing two elspeths, but I think one fair deck card / giant thing is Gucci.
Card Choices:
Eternal witness. This card is great. Keeps us from being manascrewed early by returning fetches and stirrings, gives us more copies of path to exile when we need them, and is insane on a stable board with displacer. I wouldn’t go above 2 however, as drawing more than one gets a little durdly. Also note, cavern on human casts hierarch and witness.
Eldrazi skyspawner: This card makes us stronger against blood moon by producing colorless that sits in play, can accelerate into our heavy hitters, and is a much more relevant body as a flier against spirits, robots, and infect. Worth noting it shares a lot of the strengths of reshaper against things like Liliana or chump blockin for value, as 2 bodies are 2 bodies.
Spellskite: I still play 2 spellskites, I would consider 1 cuttable and 1 mandatory. Colorless interaction is important and maximizing our displacer’s effectiveness/ preventing removal of thought-knot is reason enough for me to like both.
4th drowner of hope: Maximizing on plan A (Beat face) is the name of the game. I disagree with shaving 1, although I usually do when I am playing against an aggressive deck or boarding in Elspeth.
Sideboard counterspells: I’ve been messing around with a bunch of different configurations, pretty sure 3-5 is the right amount. Disdainful stroke, negate, unified will, and stubborn denial are what I consider the reasonable options. I do think that at least 2 of them should be able to counter a primeval titan.