You don't actually need to win G2 in paper if you win G1, and your G1 is going to be better than your G2 the majority of the time, just like in a ThopterSword build. That and I think it's largely trivial to win in a lot of cases, just like with Lantern. I've started asking people if they'd like to concede at a certain point, and usually they say yes.
I think Needle is also not a huge deal, but it depends. If you absolutely need a specific card to win (likely Explosives), then it's a problem. Even under Stony, you would need a Needle on Tezz+Grid+Rivulet+Ruins to be locked out of winning if you had less cards in library. EE is definitely the most relevant, since otherwise it's an out to Needle.
It would be cool if the meta did something about tron, it's just a little concerning that green is the main color of the deck and our incoming option is a two mana artifact. Blood moon did almost nothing to them, but hopefully this card is cheap and accessible enough thatevery deck has a few in the SB
A cool thing about the Ur Tezz deck vs Tron is that you want Chalice on 1 against them anyway and that blanks basically all of their post-board interaction. Surgical, Nature's Claim, Relic. All covered by Chalice. I imagine if this deck or other Chalice decks became popular it would require Tron decks to adapt Krosan Grip or something.
I'm not sure that the deck will actually be re-tooled to include Damping Sphere and have less Tron hate. I don't really feel like any of the cards are specifically anti-Tron, the deck just happens to be very good against it. You want Crucible, Chalice and GQs anyway.
I went 3-0-1 last night running the latest Chew 5-0 list with the changes mentioned above: -1 VoR +1 Pridemage, -1 JTMS -2 Will +1 Elspeth +2 Negate in the board.
Round 1 vs RUG Kiki Moon 2-0
Opponent was playing a RUG Moon deck with Krasis+Kiki. I didn't see either of these cards in two games. G1 he got a T3 Moon, but I had a Noble and Plains out and landed a Pridemage the turn after he moon'd. Ended up just beating him down, IIRC he played like... Goyf, Pyre, Snap->Pyre and that's basically it.
I remember sideboarding fairly poorly, but it didn't really matter. I had a 10/10 Knight and a Scooze which was keeping his Goyfs tiny and eliminating Pyre as an out. He dismembered my Scooze the one turn I tap out to Gavony, but it didn't really matter. Got a second Knight with Queller backup and he shows me the Krasis that can't save him.
Round 2 vs 4C Reveler 2-0
My opponents deck was essentially the Mardu reveler deck with green for Grim Flayer and Traverse. G1 he got kind of mana screwed and died fairly easily after I path'd his Reveler.
I bring in Reflector Mages, Scooze, Elspeth and Bojuka Bog over a Bird, Pridemage, Field of Ruin, both Cliques (bad vs souls) and a Meddling Mage. G2 is very long and drawn out. He plays 3 of his souls and all four Revelers. He probably had 10-15 cards left in library at the end of the game. I had lethal one turn where he was at two with two souls and a Reveler. He attacked with one of the souls vs my board of IIRC Voice and Tracker. I could have Jace bounced the other souls and killed him, but cast company instead since by that time I am very likely to hit a Mage and clearly this guy didn't leave himself DOB intentionally (he knew about Jace). I hit solo bird which felt awful and he draws Duress for my Jace, but Tracker ends up pulling it out after drawing like four cards.
Round 3 vs G Tron 1-1-1
I was playing against a friend I hadn't seen in a bit, and we basically drew because we spent too much time shooting the *****. Despite how much I hate playing against Tron, the games were pretty good and I think all of them could have gone either way with slightly better draws on either of our part.
G1 I am on the draw with T1 noble + flash dudes. No Knight but I manage to disrupt him from getting Tron with Field and Clique. I end up taking a Scrying out of his hand and using Queller on an O-Stone. I get a pretty mediocre company of Birds + Pridemage He gets to six mana and casts a Wurmcoil, but I have pridemage to stop lifegain for a turn. I've got lethal but he draws his seventh land to cast All is Dust. I throw out triple VoR, which he kills with O-Stone and then has the second O-Stone to wipe my lethal board again. He gets a Coil before I draw another relevant card and kills me.
I sideboard 4 counters, 2 stony, & 2 mage for 4 Path, 1 Scooze, 2 Tracker, 1 bird. G2 I mulligan into a medium hand of two land no blue source, stony, and blue three drops. Stony happens to be amazing this game and basically carries me to victory. I make a misplay where he has a 2/2 ballista and I don't reflector mage it because I forget about my own Stony. I end up winning anyway, Jace Fatesealing to ensure he doesn't draw any more lands.
G3 I have an amazing tempo hand with T1 Noble into Queller, Field, & Clique. I also have a Negate. He doesn't really have any gas, and I clique a Cage since I have company in hand. Time is called and I have just enough gas to kill him on the fifth turn. Unfortunately, I get a terrible company hitting Bird+Hierarch. I clique him and he has Scryings to hit Tron and an Ancient Stirrings. I am supposed to take Stirrings here, since it's 5 deep vs one when I CLique it. I don't and he finds Ulamog. Oops. He was dead anyway if my company wasn't so trash, but I still have outs. I missed trying to Jace into GQ, but I wouldn't have found it anyway. Ulamog eats my two fliers. If I had Unified Will instead of Negate in hand, I could stop his follow-up Ballista and out-race Ulamog with Birds+Exalted, but since it was Negate he decides not to concede. I think I could have earned a concession or actually won had I played tighter.
Round 4 vs Jeskai control 2-0
My opponent is playing a fairly top-end heavy Jeskai deck. I don't think he had JTMS, since I saw an Architect of Thought in G2. He had Rev, Torrential Gearhulk, & Secure the Wastes. G1 he buys a lot of time with Secure for 4-5, but he can't get an answer to my Knight which just beats in every turn. Jace was also pretty good, though he could actually pressure him well thanks to the Secure and bolt/electrolyze. He revs for 5 but draws into nothing and I win.
I board in 4 counters, scooze and Elspeth for 4 path & 2 birds. G2 I have a Knight that gets remanded, and then I decide to play on his turn since i have Clique/Queller/Company/Will. Finally I decide to cast a VoR and he casts Secure for 3... well, there goes the Unified Will plan! I manage to get ahead on board and he gets a board wipe. I follow up with Clique, which is bolted, and see Elspeth and Rev! I take Elspeth and untap to play a Knight. I am at seven and he has colonnades, so I am at risk to just dying if he has bolt and my follow up company doesn't hit a flier. He mainphase revs for 4, leaving a single U/W source open. I EoT company into Knight + Mage naming Path and win the game.
I think going forward I am going to try dropping Mage from the MB for +1 Scooze, +1 VoR and +1 Pridemage or Courser, and then having 2x Mage in the board. I might experiment with running Retreat again... likely would go to 1 Jace MB and drop the Pridemage/Course for 2x Retreat.
Unless you're playing them Maindeck (which is a huge deckbuilding cost), they don't do much vs Storm. Better now that they run Gifts, but they can still scroll for Echoing Truth and kill us through it. The combination of Brutality, Discard, Surgical, Cage and Relic seems to work well enough but I don't have a ton of experience with the MU.
Vs Burn it's solid but as mentioned a lot of people are going heavy on Brutality and are also playing other discard. Vs Valakut is probably the best place for it.
Vs discard I don't think we care enough. Up to four cards in the deck to blank around eight of theirs potentially and we have great options for grinding and generating card advantage. I only feel like a deck should be boarding in Leyline against BGx if they're a dedicated combo deck (AdNaus, old Bloom are great examples).
Witchbane Orb ends up being a better Leyline on everything but T0 and you only need to run one. Against Valakut the lack of T0 is not super relevant and potentially better, as we can get a blowout and also potentially dodge hate (lands come in tapped after Scapeshift). Vs Burn is where this really hurts. We can also instant speed it against Storm, making it more relevant as it's more likely to counter a Grapeshot (though still potentially useless, as depending on how hard they go off we can still lose).
All in all, I think it's a chronically overrated card that doesn't belong in our deck because we aren't soft to discard like AdNauseum or Amulet are. When AdNaus hits T0 Leyline, their win chance against BGx skyrockets. When we hit it, it's okay.
1
I think Needle is also not a huge deal, but it depends. If you absolutely need a specific card to win (likely Explosives), then it's a problem. Even under Stony, you would need a Needle on Tezz+Grid+Rivulet+Ruins to be locked out of winning if you had less cards in library. EE is definitely the most relevant, since otherwise it's an out to Needle.
1
A cool thing about the Ur Tezz deck vs Tron is that you want Chalice on 1 against them anyway and that blanks basically all of their post-board interaction. Surgical, Nature's Claim, Relic. All covered by Chalice. I imagine if this deck or other Chalice decks became popular it would require Tron decks to adapt Krosan Grip or something.
I'm not sure that the deck will actually be re-tooled to include Damping Sphere and have less Tron hate. I don't really feel like any of the cards are specifically anti-Tron, the deck just happens to be very good against it. You want Crucible, Chalice and GQs anyway.
1
Round 1 vs RUG Kiki Moon 2-0
Opponent was playing a RUG Moon deck with Krasis+Kiki. I didn't see either of these cards in two games. G1 he got a T3 Moon, but I had a Noble and Plains out and landed a Pridemage the turn after he moon'd. Ended up just beating him down, IIRC he played like... Goyf, Pyre, Snap->Pyre and that's basically it.
I remember sideboarding fairly poorly, but it didn't really matter. I had a 10/10 Knight and a Scooze which was keeping his Goyfs tiny and eliminating Pyre as an out. He dismembered my Scooze the one turn I tap out to Gavony, but it didn't really matter. Got a second Knight with Queller backup and he shows me the Krasis that can't save him.
Round 2 vs 4C Reveler 2-0
My opponents deck was essentially the Mardu reveler deck with green for Grim Flayer and Traverse. G1 he got kind of mana screwed and died fairly easily after I path'd his Reveler.
I bring in Reflector Mages, Scooze, Elspeth and Bojuka Bog over a Bird, Pridemage, Field of Ruin, both Cliques (bad vs souls) and a Meddling Mage. G2 is very long and drawn out. He plays 3 of his souls and all four Revelers. He probably had 10-15 cards left in library at the end of the game. I had lethal one turn where he was at two with two souls and a Reveler. He attacked with one of the souls vs my board of IIRC Voice and Tracker. I could have Jace bounced the other souls and killed him, but cast company instead since by that time I am very likely to hit a Mage and clearly this guy didn't leave himself DOB intentionally (he knew about Jace). I hit solo bird which felt awful and he draws Duress for my Jace, but Tracker ends up pulling it out after drawing like four cards.
Round 3 vs G Tron 1-1-1
I was playing against a friend I hadn't seen in a bit, and we basically drew because we spent too much time shooting the *****. Despite how much I hate playing against Tron, the games were pretty good and I think all of them could have gone either way with slightly better draws on either of our part.
G1 I am on the draw with T1 noble + flash dudes. No Knight but I manage to disrupt him from getting Tron with Field and Clique. I end up taking a Scrying out of his hand and using Queller on an O-Stone. I get a pretty mediocre company of Birds + Pridemage He gets to six mana and casts a Wurmcoil, but I have pridemage to stop lifegain for a turn. I've got lethal but he draws his seventh land to cast All is Dust. I throw out triple VoR, which he kills with O-Stone and then has the second O-Stone to wipe my lethal board again. He gets a Coil before I draw another relevant card and kills me.
I sideboard 4 counters, 2 stony, & 2 mage for 4 Path, 1 Scooze, 2 Tracker, 1 bird. G2 I mulligan into a medium hand of two land no blue source, stony, and blue three drops. Stony happens to be amazing this game and basically carries me to victory. I make a misplay where he has a 2/2 ballista and I don't reflector mage it because I forget about my own Stony. I end up winning anyway, Jace Fatesealing to ensure he doesn't draw any more lands.
G3 I have an amazing tempo hand with T1 Noble into Queller, Field, & Clique. I also have a Negate. He doesn't really have any gas, and I clique a Cage since I have company in hand. Time is called and I have just enough gas to kill him on the fifth turn. Unfortunately, I get a terrible company hitting Bird+Hierarch. I clique him and he has Scryings to hit Tron and an Ancient Stirrings. I am supposed to take Stirrings here, since it's 5 deep vs one when I CLique it. I don't and he finds Ulamog. Oops. He was dead anyway if my company wasn't so trash, but I still have outs. I missed trying to Jace into GQ, but I wouldn't have found it anyway. Ulamog eats my two fliers. If I had Unified Will instead of Negate in hand, I could stop his follow-up Ballista and out-race Ulamog with Birds+Exalted, but since it was Negate he decides not to concede. I think I could have earned a concession or actually won had I played tighter.
Round 4 vs Jeskai control 2-0
My opponent is playing a fairly top-end heavy Jeskai deck. I don't think he had JTMS, since I saw an Architect of Thought in G2. He had Rev, Torrential Gearhulk, & Secure the Wastes. G1 he buys a lot of time with Secure for 4-5, but he can't get an answer to my Knight which just beats in every turn. Jace was also pretty good, though he could actually pressure him well thanks to the Secure and bolt/electrolyze. He revs for 5 but draws into nothing and I win.
I board in 4 counters, scooze and Elspeth for 4 path & 2 birds. G2 I have a Knight that gets remanded, and then I decide to play on his turn since i have Clique/Queller/Company/Will. Finally I decide to cast a VoR and he casts Secure for 3... well, there goes the Unified Will plan! I manage to get ahead on board and he gets a board wipe. I follow up with Clique, which is bolted, and see Elspeth and Rev! I take Elspeth and untap to play a Knight. I am at seven and he has colonnades, so I am at risk to just dying if he has bolt and my follow up company doesn't hit a flier. He mainphase revs for 4, leaving a single U/W source open. I EoT company into Knight + Mage naming Path and win the game.
I think going forward I am going to try dropping Mage from the MB for +1 Scooze, +1 VoR and +1 Pridemage or Courser, and then having 2x Mage in the board. I might experiment with running Retreat again... likely would go to 1 Jace MB and drop the Pridemage/Course for 2x Retreat.
1
Unless you're playing them Maindeck (which is a huge deckbuilding cost), they don't do much vs Storm. Better now that they run Gifts, but they can still scroll for Echoing Truth and kill us through it. The combination of Brutality, Discard, Surgical, Cage and Relic seems to work well enough but I don't have a ton of experience with the MU.
Vs Burn it's solid but as mentioned a lot of people are going heavy on Brutality and are also playing other discard. Vs Valakut is probably the best place for it.
Vs discard I don't think we care enough. Up to four cards in the deck to blank around eight of theirs potentially and we have great options for grinding and generating card advantage. I only feel like a deck should be boarding in Leyline against BGx if they're a dedicated combo deck (AdNaus, old Bloom are great examples).
Witchbane Orb ends up being a better Leyline on everything but T0 and you only need to run one. Against Valakut the lack of T0 is not super relevant and potentially better, as we can get a blowout and also potentially dodge hate (lands come in tapped after Scapeshift). Vs Burn is where this really hurts. We can also instant speed it against Storm, making it more relevant as it's more likely to counter a Grapeshot (though still potentially useless, as depending on how hard they go off we can still lose).
All in all, I think it's a chronically overrated card that doesn't belong in our deck because we aren't soft to discard like AdNauseum or Amulet are. When AdNaus hits T0 Leyline, their win chance against BGx skyrockets. When we hit it, it's okay.