Notable cards: 1. Vendilion Clique. I've only recently started playing 2 Cliques in my deck, and let me say it's been a revelation against combo decks. A lot of the time, the 2 U to cast is bypassed with Nissa and Collected Company. Cliqued away Scapeshift a couple of times. 2. Loxodon Smiter. As an experiment, I've played 3 Loxodon Smiters in my sideboard. This is partly a reaction against an uptick in Anger of the Gods, so Kitchen Finks isn't as good. I wanted a 3 mana 4/4 that can pressure (on top of Knight). It's also great against control since it can't be countered (which I forgot about). Has anyone else tested Loxodon Smiter? It feels really good.
I also played 3 Reflector Mages in my main deck and crushed Jund. Thanks for the tip, @dejadal!
My current quandary is the 2-slot. I used to play 2 Qasali and 2 Ooze, but I want to make my deck more proactive in terms of game plan. Ooze and Qasali are great sometimes, but mostly reactionary. I've been playing less 2-drops (replacing with Reflector Mages), so that I have only 3 Voice and 2 Selfless Spirit. I'm toying with some out of the box ideas like Spellskite, Exemplar of Strength, Channeler Initiate, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, etc. to replace my 2 Selfless Spirits (they haven't been bad). Spellskite is on top of my list now since it seems great versus Affinity, Bogles, Burn, and Bolt. However, it's reactive rather than proactive. Any ideas?
I had 3 Reflector Mages in the sideboard this time and even 2 Kitchen Finks, which I boarded in. The games were all right in the first five, six turns, but eventually, with Dark Confidant, Jund just turned the corner faster. Many of the games were Ooze battles were we tried to eat up as many of the creatures in our graveyards as possible. Spell Quellers felt really bad in these games, so I might side them out in future. I'm not sure about siding Birds. I feel like 23 lands isn't enough sometimes to reach land 3 or 4.
Edit: I'm also seriously considering replacing Nissa with Gideon, AoZ. His Knight token can't be Last Hoped, and can block BBE. Gideon can't be Inquisitioned or Abrupt Decayed either.
Hi, all, I played a couple of FNMs this week and I was trounced by Jund and Traverse Shadow. But focussing on Jund, my deck just felt picked apart each time. Bird would get bolted. Tracker would get Kolaghan Commanded. Bloodbraid Elf everywhere. Big Tarmogoyfs. Dark Confidant. I was a little overwhelmed, and I'm not sure whether it was just my bad draws vs their really good draws or not. People who have success against Jund, any insight to share? Do I always Path the Dark Confidant when I get the chance?
Unless Lantern Control had the lock set up, why didn't you try to play under the bridge with Exalted guys on game 2? Although Lantern matchup is tough, we actually have several ways to combat semi-lock situations with Exalted, card draw (Tireless Tracker, etc), shuffles (fetches, CoCo) which can negate a soft lock by shuffling away your top card, and you even play Stony Silence. Some decks even have Kessig Wolf Run. I wouldn't concede right away.
What's your game plan against Burn and Affinity? I've always felt heavily favored in those MUs
This is my new plan vs. Burn:
In: +4 United Will, +1 Blessed Alliance, +2 Kitchen Finks, +2 Reflector Mage
Out: -3 Path to Exile, -2 Nissa, Steward of Elements, -2 Tireless Tracker, -2 Collected Company
My old plan didn't have Kitchen Finks. I'm maybe 3-3 against Burn overall, so sometimes Burn does feel like an easy matchup. I used to play 2-3 Courser of Kruphix, but I don't like them as much lately anymore. Drawing 1 Courser won't help too much. I used to play more Negates rather than United Wills as well, which made the matchup feel better.
In my latest game versus Burn, I didn't draw enough land, so I don't think it's a great example of the matchup.
Against Affinity:
In: +2 Phyrexian Revoker, +2 Reflector Mage, +1 Blessed Alliance, +2 Aven Mindcensor
Out: -2 Tireless Tracker, -2 Nissa, Steward of Elements, -3 Voice of Resurgence
I'm like 0-4 lifetime against Affinity. I play 2 Qasali Pridemage in mainboard too. I feel like I should have an easier matchup, but sometimes Affinity is way too explosive in first 2 turns.
@kamerkhan Thanks for the advice! I feel like Karn is actually not that scary against us. If Karn minuses, we can flash in a 2/1 to get Karn down to 1 loyalty, or flash in Clique to kill it, or flash in 2/1 and play an exalted creature to kill it. We have options, so we don't necessarily even have to use a counterspell on Karn.
With Ugin, I agree, we need to have counterspells for him, and if we kept all our Paths, we'd be screwed. But I just hope that the chances of Tron playing Ugin are low.
4-round FNM
G Tron 1-2***
Jund Shadow 2-0
Bant Toolbox (Thune Combo) 2-1
UB Control 1-2
Notes: Flash creatures are great versus planeswalkers and control decks. This is why I like Clique and even Aven Mindcensor (which helps versus Scapeshift). I think this helps save some space in sideboard. I'm starting to feel less good about Courser of Kruphix. We already grind really well, so I need more impact cards in this slot. Selfless Spirits are really good versus control decks, and even Valakut decks, to protect our clock. I might play 0 Courser and 2 Selfless Spirit. I don't think Courser is good enough versus Burn, or else I'd be more hesitant dropping it.
*Against Affinity, Phyrexian Revoker is so good. Shuts down Overseer or Cranial Plating. Blocks Etched Champion. I have at least 2 in my sideboard now always.
**I'm not sure about our matchup against Burn. It depends on how good Burn's hand is, and how slow our hand is. If we can get to Spell Queller and counterspells, we have a shot. I have 2 Kitchen Finks in my sideboard now. A 5/5 Knight of the Reliquary on turn 2 is another way I've won.
***Sideboarding against G Tron is tricky. If they side in Thragtusk and more Wurms on game 2, I'd rather have Path to Exiles. Even Reflector Mage would be useful if I Qasali a Wurm, then I can bounce a token. But if they don't side in creatures, Reflector Mage and Paths would be useless. Anyone have tips?
Doing well in tournaments is really about the sideboard and our 4 flex spots. If we guess the metagame right, I feel our deck has great chance anytime.
I think it's important to have at least 2 of some planeswalker in the deck. Not many decks can handle all our creatures, so PWs are back-breaking. Have you considered Bloodbraid Elf if you're going red? You just can't run Spell Quellers (as they'll counter BBE on cascade), but running Blood Moon is good tradeoff. You can run 2-3 Retreats and cascade into them.
I'm personally not a fan of Staticasters. They sometimes can't stop combo fast enough as Devoted Druid can be activated on the stack (right?). When you get Izzets with Elvish Archdruid already out, it doesn't do much. Getting that red mana is sometimes awkward, too. I like Phyrexian Revoker a lot more. Shut down Ezuri and Elves aren't very good anymore. Revokers are really good versus Affinity too.
I like Gideon, too. He is very proactive and aggressive, and sometimes Knightfall doesn't feel aggressive enough. In grindy matchups, his Knight token is serviceable, at least. It's just more of a risk to use him as an attacker cause he can be Pathed.
Other cons:
-Nissa can be discarded with Inquisition to Kozilek
-When Detention Sphered, she returns to play with Loyalty 0
Pro:
She can be played late game as a sorcery spell that costs 8 and deals 10 damage.
The thing is that most planeswalkers don't really help in our weak matchups (combo decks and big mana). I'd say Nissa is better than Jace against control decks (comes out quicker, gets out creatures for free, scryes, comes back bigger when recast after being bounced by Cryptic Command). However, Jace might be better against other midrange decks (-1 bounce ability). However, as others have mentioned, Nissa shines more than Jace if the deck is built with Nissa in mind. Using her 0 to play a Reflector Mage from the top of the deck is great. Gideon (and to an extent, Elspeth) is good against combo and big mana because he gets in lots of damage and provides a fast clock.
The recent good results from Knightfall decks might be because more people are trying BBE decks (midrange) and control (Jace), which our deck is good against. Not because we have Jace. That's my hunch.
@deus837 I think plugging 2 Jace in typical Knightfall lists does give us an edge over most other midrange decks. The -1 bounce seems really big. I think Bloodbraid Elf decks are different from Bant that they are another archetype altogether. As I've previously mentioned though, Knightfall's problem was never in fair matchups, but playing against unfair ones. That's why Spell Queller is such a big deal, and why Bloodbraid Elf is the wrong direction. One concession would be that BBE into Blood Moon seems pretty good.
I'm still on the regular Knightfall list, and with a big tournament coming up, I've been revisiting my sideboard strategy. Before, my philosophy was to pick a weak match-up and fill my sideboard with cards. So I had lots of anti-Tron and Valakut: 4 Unified Will, 1-2 Disdainful Stroke, etc. However, reading a recent article on sideboarding, I'm going to try doing a more versatile sideboard strategy. Here's my list: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/bant-company-march-118/
Any thoughts on sideboard approach or utility cards are welcome!
Question: Is Bojuka Bog necessary in my sideboard with 2 mainboard Scavenging Oozes?
Going a bit further, I also think that Elspeth, Knight-Errant is great, but she's only good in matchups where Knightfall is already typically strong. What if Elspeth can come out on turn 2 (with dork) and also scry 2? That's why I'm running 3 Nissa, Steward of Elements in my mainboard. In grind matchups, she can potentially get you a creature or a land (synergizes with Courser of Kruphix). The most important part though is how relevant her other two abilities are. If the game plan in non-interactive matchups is to Retreat combo, Scry 2 is great at finding the combo piece. If she comes down on turn 2 (with dork) and scryes each turn, she can Ult on turn 5 for 10 damage.
How do you guys compare Nissa, Steward of Elements to Jace, the Mind Sculptor? I feel like Nissa does the same things but better in our deck. Bant Company is often starved for mana, even with dorks, and I've found Nissa cheats out creatures a lot better. She comes down as early as turn 2 with a dork. She has amazing synergy with Courser of Kruphix, and because of her ult, drawing a second copy later on is useful. The one thing I really like about Jace is his bounce ability.
I also played 3 Reflector Mages in my main deck and crushed Jund. Thanks for the tip, @dejadal!
My current quandary is the 2-slot. I used to play 2 Qasali and 2 Ooze, but I want to make my deck more proactive in terms of game plan. Ooze and Qasali are great sometimes, but mostly reactionary. I've been playing less 2-drops (replacing with Reflector Mages), so that I have only 3 Voice and 2 Selfless Spirit. I'm toying with some out of the box ideas like Spellskite, Exemplar of Strength, Channeler Initiate, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, etc. to replace my 2 Selfless Spirits (they haven't been bad). Spellskite is on top of my list now since it seems great versus Affinity, Bogles, Burn, and Bolt. However, it's reactive rather than proactive. Any ideas?
I had 3 Reflector Mages in the sideboard this time and even 2 Kitchen Finks, which I boarded in. The games were all right in the first five, six turns, but eventually, with Dark Confidant, Jund just turned the corner faster. Many of the games were Ooze battles were we tried to eat up as many of the creatures in our graveyards as possible. Spell Quellers felt really bad in these games, so I might side them out in future. I'm not sure about siding Birds. I feel like 23 lands isn't enough sometimes to reach land 3 or 4.
Edit: I'm also seriously considering replacing Nissa with Gideon, AoZ. His Knight token can't be Last Hoped, and can block BBE. Gideon can't be Inquisitioned or Abrupt Decayed either.
This is my new plan vs. Burn:
In: +4 United Will, +1 Blessed Alliance, +2 Kitchen Finks, +2 Reflector Mage
Out: -3 Path to Exile, -2 Nissa, Steward of Elements, -2 Tireless Tracker, -2 Collected Company
My old plan didn't have Kitchen Finks. I'm maybe 3-3 against Burn overall, so sometimes Burn does feel like an easy matchup. I used to play 2-3 Courser of Kruphix, but I don't like them as much lately anymore. Drawing 1 Courser won't help too much. I used to play more Negates rather than United Wills as well, which made the matchup feel better.
In my latest game versus Burn, I didn't draw enough land, so I don't think it's a great example of the matchup.
Against Affinity:
In: +2 Phyrexian Revoker, +2 Reflector Mage, +1 Blessed Alliance, +2 Aven Mindcensor
Out: -2 Tireless Tracker, -2 Nissa, Steward of Elements, -3 Voice of Resurgence
I'm like 0-4 lifetime against Affinity. I play 2 Qasali Pridemage in mainboard too. I feel like I should have an easier matchup, but sometimes Affinity is way too explosive in first 2 turns.
What's your game plan like? How do your games go?
With Ugin, I agree, we need to have counterspells for him, and if we kept all our Paths, we'd be screwed. But I just hope that the chances of Tron playing Ugin are low.
8-round tourney
Affinity 0-2*
Elves 1-2
Taking Turns 2-0
Burn 0-2**
Abzan 2-1
BR Hollow One 2-0
Dropped last 2 rounds
4-round FNM
G Tron 1-2***
Jund Shadow 2-0
Bant Toolbox (Thune Combo) 2-1
UB Control 1-2
Notes: Flash creatures are great versus planeswalkers and control decks. This is why I like Clique and even Aven Mindcensor (which helps versus Scapeshift). I think this helps save some space in sideboard. I'm starting to feel less good about Courser of Kruphix. We already grind really well, so I need more impact cards in this slot. Selfless Spirits are really good versus control decks, and even Valakut decks, to protect our clock. I might play 0 Courser and 2 Selfless Spirit. I don't think Courser is good enough versus Burn, or else I'd be more hesitant dropping it.
*Against Affinity, Phyrexian Revoker is so good. Shuts down Overseer or Cranial Plating. Blocks Etched Champion. I have at least 2 in my sideboard now always.
**I'm not sure about our matchup against Burn. It depends on how good Burn's hand is, and how slow our hand is. If we can get to Spell Queller and counterspells, we have a shot. I have 2 Kitchen Finks in my sideboard now. A 5/5 Knight of the Reliquary on turn 2 is another way I've won.
***Sideboarding against G Tron is tricky. If they side in Thragtusk and more Wurms on game 2, I'd rather have Path to Exiles. Even Reflector Mage would be useful if I Qasali a Wurm, then I can bounce a token. But if they don't side in creatures, Reflector Mage and Paths would be useless. Anyone have tips?
Doing well in tournaments is really about the sideboard and our 4 flex spots. If we guess the metagame right, I feel our deck has great chance anytime.
I'm personally not a fan of Staticasters. They sometimes can't stop combo fast enough as Devoted Druid can be activated on the stack (right?). When you get Izzets with Elvish Archdruid already out, it doesn't do much. Getting that red mana is sometimes awkward, too. I like Phyrexian Revoker a lot more. Shut down Ezuri and Elves aren't very good anymore. Revokers are really good versus Affinity too.
I like Gideon, too. He is very proactive and aggressive, and sometimes Knightfall doesn't feel aggressive enough. In grindy matchups, his Knight token is serviceable, at least. It's just more of a risk to use him as an attacker cause he can be Pathed.
-Nissa can be discarded with Inquisition to Kozilek
-When Detention Sphered, she returns to play with Loyalty 0
Pro:
She can be played late game as a sorcery spell that costs 8 and deals 10 damage.
The thing is that most planeswalkers don't really help in our weak matchups (combo decks and big mana). I'd say Nissa is better than Jace against control decks (comes out quicker, gets out creatures for free, scryes, comes back bigger when recast after being bounced by Cryptic Command). However, Jace might be better against other midrange decks (-1 bounce ability). However, as others have mentioned, Nissa shines more than Jace if the deck is built with Nissa in mind. Using her 0 to play a Reflector Mage from the top of the deck is great. Gideon (and to an extent, Elspeth) is good against combo and big mana because he gets in lots of damage and provides a fast clock.
The recent good results from Knightfall decks might be because more people are trying BBE decks (midrange) and control (Jace), which our deck is good against. Not because we have Jace. That's my hunch.
I'm still on the regular Knightfall list, and with a big tournament coming up, I've been revisiting my sideboard strategy. Before, my philosophy was to pick a weak match-up and fill my sideboard with cards. So I had lots of anti-Tron and Valakut: 4 Unified Will, 1-2 Disdainful Stroke, etc. However, reading a recent article on sideboarding, I'm going to try doing a more versatile sideboard strategy. Here's my list: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/bant-company-march-118/
Any thoughts on sideboard approach or utility cards are welcome!
Question: Is Bojuka Bog necessary in my sideboard with 2 mainboard Scavenging Oozes?