Yes, they didn't make top 16 this time, but they exist. Go-wide decks will always be there, Merfolk, Elves, Goblins, Eldrazis and unless you enter one of these big ass tournaments with byes on the first two or three rounds, chances are you will run into them... I insist, there are many other options I rather play before stubborn denial mainboard.
Worship on the other hand, it's just beautiful!
3 stubborn denial main deck? Its a stupid choice? 4 valkaut and 2/3 burn in top 16 1 kci 1uw jeskay and a lot of tron in the metagame at the last gp
I wouldn't say it's a stupid choice, but I wouldn't say it's the best choice either. I'd rather have threats in my hand, perhaps 2 main deck and the third one post board? Agains humans its a dead card unless you manage to force spike the vial on t1.
Santi, I wanted to thank you for your tournament report. It was a lot of fun for me to read your experience with the deck at GP Sao Paulo. I think in the decklist you posted, you said you ran 2 detention spheres in the sideboard, but from reading the tournament write up, I think they were actually Damping Sphere, is that right?
After your tournament, what was your overall opinion on Archangel Avacyn? Good enough to keep in the Mainboard as a 1 of? seems great against cards like supreme verdict and oblivion stone. However, it also seems like the card has potential to backfire on us as well. If our board presence is our lower CMC like noble, skypawner, scions and or displacer, they can kill one thing and wrath our board. Has this happened to you yet? I realize blinking the angel gives the team indestructibility. However, it seems the wrath effect happens on the following turn after indestructibility has worn off. I've been looking for ways to improve my control match up. More so blue white control than Jeskai. Jeskai seems like an ok match up. Archangel Avacyn seems like a reasonable card to consider. I recently put 2 Gidoen, Ally of Zendikar in my sideboard to help with the control match up. I haven't been able to test them yet, but its possible Avavyn is better? Not sure as of yet. And of course, there is always the option for me to play the 4th cavern of souls. I'd just be unsure as of what land to cut.
As for the Aether hubs instead of the pain lands, I like how it opens up space for additional basic lands for blood moon and field of ruin. As a fellow Bant Eldrazi player, I can agree that Blood moon is significantly not fun to play against. My anti blood moon technology is 1 talisman of progress, 5 mana dorks and a basic island (which a lot of lists don't run) I'd like to cut the talisman for a better card, but I don't want to have 0 answers to a resolved blood moon. I can see that there are probably a lot of times where it'd be easy to be color screwed by the Aether hubs though. Especially with running 2 engineered explosives. (which i think is great for us and wouldn't recommend playing less than 2.) For me, I think pain lands are better, but i have never tried the aether hubs myself. In the last few days since posting the report, have you made a decision on what lands you'd play going forward?
Also, after the tournament, do you intend to continue to run 2 damping spheres in the sideboard? seems good against, storm, tron, and kci? but I don't think it has a whole lot of applicability in other match ups? unless I'm forgetting about a deck.
Yes! I meant Damping Sphere, haha sorry! I never boarded them in so I have no idea whether they work or not, I believe they cripple us a bit because of the temples, but the upside outweighs the cons either crippling tron even more than ourselves, or blocking storm/KCI.
When it comes to Avacyn, it is true it can be a double edged sword, but I never played it if I couldn't have a good use for it. Let's say -make a better block than my opponent expected or sweeping the board where I'd take more from the opponent than what I'd lose to the sweep. Of course blinking her in response to the damage trigger to re-gain indestructibility for the team sounds awesome but I have to admit I never managed to actually do it; I believe the opponent would concede on the spot to something like that :D. Most of the time what I did was cast her end of turn, sac a scion to make her trigger on my upkeep and swing for lethal with her and the 5/5s on a clean board.
I haven't thought about playing Gideon, or any other planeswalker, I feel the fourth cavern is just to good (if you play creatures - I hate having my spells countered). Controls in my local meta play a bunch of wraths and terminus so it sounds viable, off the top of my head I feel I'd be a bit greedier and go for either baby karn (colorless -> Strrings) or Big Elspeth I always loved that PW.
As for the Hubs, I am still torn (stupid lands xD). Two times in Sao Paulo I managed to cast worship while being at one (I would have died using pain-lands) and one time I lost because I color screwed, so I don't know. I believe I will continue using the hubs in the short term, but this is the most uncertain I am about any deckbuilding matter. Plus, I love having a slot to play the Wastes (completely irracional - my bad). Plus 2, there is always the option of adding an extra color and playing EE on 4/5 (BoP can help us do it as well).
And finally, I think the sphere is a good sideboard card agains those 3 particular decks, I can't think of another match-up where I'd board it in. But sideboard is very meta dependent in my opinion, I wouldn't put it in the 15 if I know there is only one TRON player - already having avacyn mainboard, 3 stony silences and 2 beast withins. I would focus more on the tough match ups we have - like blood moon centered decks and vizier chord.
Hi! I am Argetinean, I travelled with a couple friends for the weekend! Where were you? What were you playing? The magic world is a really small one! hahaha
No problem ... I asked, because my English is bad, and it would be easier to speak Portuguese with you. I hope you understand me
About the GP ... I was from Eldrazi Tron, I played for over a year with the deck, and I was confident, even knowing that metagame didn't favor him! I made 10-5, with two very ridiculous defeats against KCI
How I found out about you ... My friend (he was playing Grixis DS) told me that he faced a player who was with Bant Eldrazi, and I was surprised and excited about this fact! And because of that, I decided to give the deck a chance again, I came to read some news, and I found your post talking about the GP São Paulo = PPP
About Bant Eldrazi .... I love this deck, I played with it since its creation, I did excellent results in 2016 and 2017, but I honestly did not think it had the strength to go far in the GP SP 2018, besides I was not training with he, so I made my choice at Eldra-Tron.
I read your report, and my thoughts are ...
- Pain lands: I believe the idea is good for preventing life in a format that is quite fast and aggressive. But I think the risk isn't worth it, maybe use both, I don't know, but I got to test and suffered sometimes not to have blue
- Worship: I think the fantastic idea, because of the many free victories in Game 1, I had already thought about it, and you reinforced my thinking.
- Avancy: I confess that I was surprised to see her on your list, never tested, and initially I don't like it, but I will test!
- Vizier Chord: There's a player on my team who plays for Counters Company, and the game is really bad! It isn't by chance that in the first Bant Eldrazi lists that came out in 2016, it contained 3x Graffdigger's Cage on the Sideboard, precisely because of decks with Company.
- New Suggestions:
1- A letter that I like very much on my list is Restoration Angel instead of a Drowner of Hope (+1x Restoration / -1x Drowner)! Because the format is faster, and you have 4x CMC6 on the deck is very heavy, I found the exchange valid. Restoration gives an interesting surprise effect, protects its creatures, makes blockers suppressed, and it + displacer are invincible, plus a 3/4 fly is not irrelevant in the Modern. I love Drowner, but I don't want him in my starting hand, so I found the number 3x very good.
2- I added a Mind stone, as my "5 dork", helps me against Blood Moon, and gives me a draw in the late game, that idea, I brought it from the Eldrazi Tron, do a test.
Finally, I wanted to hear from you that you are active with Bant Eldrazi, how you are doing in the main match-ups, and how you feel about the deck.
Congratulations on the great result in GP SP. Very well deserved.
Oh, my Portuguese is awful I can barely introduce myself and tell the 5 magic colors
I believe I played with your friend on the very last round, he had really unlucky draws and reality smasher is a really good magic card
I couldn't agree more with you regarding the lands, it is a really tough choice and both have their ups and downs.
Worship is awesome I agree 100% with you again!
Avacyn is really really good in the late game and it makes your opening hand horrible if she's there. It's quite similar to a drowner of hope or a reality smasher in a temple-less hand.
Restoration Angel sounds great, having a way to blink/safe a displacer sounds like the piece of tech I was missing - I am definitely gonna try it. More than often I have found myself naming Angel with a Cavern of Souls for Avacyn and having another creature to cast with it sounds neat
I play 4 nobles and 2 BoP I don't think adding a Mind Stone here would be a great idea. Perhaps playing Boreal Druid could be a good option against blood moon too but I should cut one or two chickens.
I would say, factoring out Blood Moon on really early turns and vizier chord, the deck has 50/50 or better chances against any Tier 1 deck at the moment. It is difficult to sideboard against (again, except blood moon :D) and most of the creatures 2 for 1 the opponent.
Overall, my opinion is that the main reason the deck is so good is because on Game 1 it can play super aggro like TKS t2 into Smasher t3 and it can also beat the most mid-rangy strategies with Displacers making magic with ETB triggers. And then, post-board, having access to such a wide variety of good sideboard cards is awesome, the limit is the pilot skill -so reading the meta corectly can be very rewarding.
I have to say I am really happy hearing from you guys! It's the first time I post something and I really really appreciate the feedback
PS: Weird pitch! How would you like to create an Eldrazi whatsapp group to share info on a more immediate manner - Text me if you're interested! (+54 9 351 7897763)
Hi! I am Argetinean, I travelled with a couple friends for the weekend! Where were you? What were you playing? The magic world is a really small one! hahaha
Hello everyone!
This is my first post here, and I wanted to share my experience with you. I went to play GP Sao Paulo last weekend and I took Bant Eldrazi to it. It was my first GP and I ended up 11-4 finishing 56 amongst over 1400 players. I am very happy about it!!
I think the deck right now is in a great spot (meta-wise) and on top of that it is so much fun to play (except to stupid prison decks -.-)
When crafting the list I expected to run into TRON KCI and HUMANS mostly. So with my brother who happens to be also my teammate and has been playing TRON forever we tech'd the deck so that it has a chance against oblivion stone on G1. We came up with the idea of playing Archangel Avacyn - indestructibilty was key, and then having the ability to sac tokens to make her turn around was also a cool interaction agaisnt go-wide decks (Double white is not so tough to pay agains decks that wont kill your mana dorks).
The second piece of tech we brought in was worship mainbord, as a one of (YES- I know, against some match ups it is a horrible draw, but I took the risk). Humans and grixis decks have few to none answers to it, so we gave it a try too. After testing we saw it works like a charm.
And the last change we made to the stock list was playing Aether Hub instead of Pain-lands to help prevent the life loss against burn and in aggro match ups.
As a personal call I decided to play more basic lands because losing to blood moon feels awful and I knew I'd face several paths to exile and fields of ruin
So, here is the list (I'm kinda new and I don't know how to post it the fancy way, sorry!) and below I have detailed my match ups. I am more than open to suggestions and I really hope you enjoy the read!
R1 G/W HEXPROOF 1-0
Beatdown showdown.
Luckily for me on G2 ang G3 he didn't draw a single Coronet.
G1 He came out too strong and killed me t5
G2 He mulled to 5 and I reality smash him on t3, he can't race it
G3 He mulled to 6 and kept a hand with 3 creatures, I go double noble into smasher on t3 again. He just can't race against the 7/7 trampler.
R2 VIZIER CHORD 1-1
God please no.
If anyone has any tips on how to navigate this match up please let me know!!
G1 She mulled to 5, I controlled her with two TKS taking away devoted druid and a chord, and pathing another druid she played, left her at 1 and she topdecked chord for the infinite ballista kill.
G2 She mulled to 5 again, this time without any lucky top-decks, I had a RiP on the field and nothing went out of control. I got there before she could combo me.
G3 She doesn't mull, her hand had the three pieces of the combo and before I could do anything (which is her t3) I get an enormous walking ballista to the face.
R3 HUMANS 2-1
This is what I had the deck tuned for.
G1 He doesn't have an answer to worship main-board
G2 He overpowers me, with double parish and lieutenant for the kill on T4
G3 I manage to stall the board until I get to lock him with drowner of hope and displacer. He wasn't aware of the interaction. When I blinked drowner for the first time he re-read the card and immediately conceded.
R4 VALAKUT 3-1
My lands are better than yours.
G1 I won dice roll and TKS him on t2 to see a hand with 5 lands and a titan. Stripe the titan out and smash him before he can do anything else.
G2 Kept a disdainful stroke in the opening, counter his t4 titan, he scapeshifts on t5 but has to kill my creatures because he can't valakut me to the face (I was at 20 thanks to the HUBS ) and he ran out of gas. (Playing hubs instead of pain lands was crucial here)
R5 JESKAI CONTROL 4-1
Cavern - name eldrazi - GG
G1 I won the dice roll for a cavern into temple, playing displacer t2 and tks turn 3, managed to lock him out of removal and sweepers.
G2 He played a geist on t3 trying to race me but wasn't quickly enough.
After the game he mentioned he had only been playing for a couple of months and had no idea such a deck existed
R6 MONO-RED PRISON 4-2
I wasn't expecting this at all.
G1 I mull down to 5 and he plays Chandra, ToD on t2 with ritual and SSG, into bridge t3 and Blood Moon t4- I can't get back into game before chandra ults and roasts me to death.
G2 He mulls to 5 this time but cant find Chandra, he plays both bridge and moon but doesn't pressure me, two stirrings allow me to find EE and the basic island for the 3rd color, I crack the EE end of his turn and swing for lethal.
G3 He draws nuts, playing Chalice on t1 with a SSG, sorcerous spyglass on t2 (naming EE) and moon on t3, he finds Chandra on t5 or t6 but there's not much I can do to get out of the lock.
R7 HUMANS 5-2
Another victim.
G1 Didn't know what he was playing, took a leap of faith, and kept a hand with Path x 2 and Worship. Once I see his land drop naming humans I sigh in relief. He manages to take out Worship with freebooter on t4 or 5 and swings for a bunch leaving me at 1 but with path EoT I get it back and he can't kill me through it.
G2 Was pretty similar to the game on third round, I swept the board with EE on 2 and then manage to lock him out with Displacer and Drowner.
R8 STOMPY 6-2
Yet another victim.
G1 He wins dice roll and mulls to 5. His first creature is a turn 2 Avatar of the resolute but he has more in hand. I manage to stall the table but a vault skirge kept taking chunks of life, one turn before completing the lock with a displacer I make a horrible mistake and let the flier hit me I had a BoP to block (I was at 4 life) - he aspects of hydra for the win.
G2 He comes out too strong and a worship from the topdeck saves me to the scream of - QUI PORRA I ESSA! (wtf is that??) he didn't sideboard any enchantment hate.
G3 I play spellskite on t2 and stop his aggressiveness significantly. He decides to go wide, but Avacyn sweeps the board and he can't get back into game, so I make it into day 2.
R9 VALAKUT 7-2
Good morning.
G1 He keeps a really bad hand after mulling to 6 and TKS t2 is too strong for it.
G2 Similar thing happens, but he manages to Summoner's Pact for a titan and kill a displacer and a skyspawner with Valakut's triggers. He didn't search for a fourth green source, so, after paying for the pact on the following turn he couldn't cast scapeshift and died to a smasher from the topdeck.
R10 VIZIER CHORD 7-3
God no, why again?
G1 I go TKS turn 2 and take devoted from his hand (he had infinite mana combo in hand). He proceeds to flood the board with fliers and Shalai to protect them. I manage to chump-block and displace my skyspawners for several turns but he plays a Rhonas whose activated ability messes with my chump-blocking, I make a bad call and swing with everything trying to force a mistake, he blocks correctly and kills me on the swing back. It is likely that I would had died the turn after if I hadn't attacked.
G2 I begin with cage on t1 and he goes viscera seer, vizier, kitchen on t1-2-3 and on t4 he reclamation sages my cage. I concede on the spot.
R11 HUMANS 7-4
Aether hubs would backfire eventually.
G1 I manage to play worship on t3 with a noble and a scion with a hub generating green on t1 and a cavern naming eldrazi, but I never draw the third land, with a hand full of creatures, he bounces both my creatures with reflectors and kills me trough the enchantment.
G2 I play a t3 smasher and ran him over, he flooded.
G3 I get color screwed again and he kills me with a not so good hand. (Stupid aehter hubs)
R12 TEMURSHIFT 8-4
Beast within into scapeshift - Just beautiful.
G1 I play two life saving TKSs to take spells out of his hand right before he could cast them, it gave me the game. Spells were C COMMAND AND SCAPESHIFT.
G2 I kept a hand with both disdainful stroke and beast within, he baits my DStroke with a JTMS and proceeds to scapeshift on the following turn. I beast within one of the mountains (this is a super neat interaction, look it up if you are unaware of it), the spells fizzles and he is left with only top decks, he drew a C COMMAND and a Snap Caster but eventually died to the creatures I had on the field.
R13 MARDU PYROMANCER 9-4
Mardu player, meet Reality Smasher. Reality smasher, smash.
This guy had no idea what my deck did and it cost him both games. Reality Smasher is an insanely good card against this deck on top of that.
G1 I go Displacer t2 into Drowner t3, he let me blink the drowner once before killing the displacer, I generate several tokens and then a smasher swings for lethal after I tap his blockers.
G2 I do Displacer into Smasher this time. Being at 4 he blocks the smasher with 2 tokens, I blink one of the tokens and he looks at me in disbelief -oh, I forgot about that.
R14 ELDRAZI AND TAXES (B&W) 10-4
Mana dorks > Aether vial
G1 I casted worship before he could take it out of my hand and he had no answers to it. I would have died to a smasher the following turn.
G2 He kept a greedy hand and didn't draw the third land. I went tk2 t2 into (I believe, can't recall exactly) a Smasher t3. He can't get back into game by the time he draws the land.
R15 GRIXIS SHADOW (CONTROL? - Never saw a Shadow) 11-4
No path to exile? - No problem
The deck is really powerful against path to exile-less versions of control
G1 I have two caverns in play he mulls to 6 and floods. He simply can't answer the aggro facet of the deck.
G2 He boards in lots of removal apparently and kills mana dorks and small eldrazis left and right but he fails to pressure me. His first threat is a Gurmag on t4 or 5. I draw beautifully playing smasher into drowner of hope and he has to concede.
Overall I feel the deck is quite strong against decks that commit to the table. I was lucky enough to get paired against several of them. Worship was an ALL-STAR on most match ups. I was sad I didn't run into any TRONs or KCIs, I had stony silences and damping spheres ready for them.
On paper THRAGTUSK feels awesome (Displacing him forever sounds insane xD) but in the matches I boarded him in, he didn't show up. I am still torn between Aether Hubs and Pain-lands and I didn't play against burn to test it out.
Then, Ancient Stirrings and Eldrazi Temples are just plain broken. Stirrings make any one lander hand keepable if you have a mana dork, and then temple paying for abilities enables super unfair turns with displacers.
So, overall that was my experience last weekend! Hope you enjoyed the read and thanks for going trough it!
Lands (22)
2 Forest
1 Mountain
3 Cavern of Souls
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Karplusan Forest
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Stomping Ground
2 Wooded Foothills
Spells (13)
1 Batterskull
2 Mind Stone
2 Dismember
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Ancient Stirrings
Sideboard
3 Ancient Grudge
2 Crumble to Dust
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Kozilek's Return
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 All Is Dust
Jeskai Control
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+2 Kitchen Finks
-2 Dismember
-1 Batterskull
-1 Eldrazi obligator
Scapeshift
+2 Crumble To Dust
-2 Dismember
Amulet Titan
+3 Ancient Grudge
+1 Kozilek's Return
-2 Mind Stone
-2 Matter Reshaper
Thank you so much for the insight! I wonder though, what's your sideboard plan against UW Control and death shadow? They are heavily present in my local meta and I struggle against them, I am playing a very similar list to yours.
I play a weird version of Blue Eldrazi Tron but my creatures include a set of Conduit of Ruin and 2 Newlamogs as my top end. Works out real well for me, though my meta is very midrangy so it works out more often than not.
Hi! Would you like sharing the list? I play in a rather mid-rangy meta as well and this approach seems interesting!
Thanks in advance!
Worship on the other hand, it's just beautiful!
I wouldn't say it's a stupid choice, but I wouldn't say it's the best choice either. I'd rather have threats in my hand, perhaps 2 main deck and the third one post board? Agains humans its a dead card unless you manage to force spike the vial on t1.
Yes! I meant Damping Sphere, haha sorry! I never boarded them in so I have no idea whether they work or not, I believe they cripple us a bit because of the temples, but the upside outweighs the cons either crippling tron even more than ourselves, or blocking storm/KCI.
When it comes to Avacyn, it is true it can be a double edged sword, but I never played it if I couldn't have a good use for it. Let's say -make a better block than my opponent expected or sweeping the board where I'd take more from the opponent than what I'd lose to the sweep. Of course blinking her in response to the damage trigger to re-gain indestructibility for the team sounds awesome but I have to admit I never managed to actually do it; I believe the opponent would concede on the spot to something like that :D. Most of the time what I did was cast her end of turn, sac a scion to make her trigger on my upkeep and swing for lethal with her and the 5/5s on a clean board.
I haven't thought about playing Gideon, or any other planeswalker, I feel the fourth cavern is just to good (if you play creatures - I hate having my spells countered). Controls in my local meta play a bunch of wraths and terminus so it sounds viable, off the top of my head I feel I'd be a bit greedier and go for either baby karn (colorless -> Strrings) or Big Elspeth I always loved that PW.
As for the Hubs, I am still torn (stupid lands xD). Two times in Sao Paulo I managed to cast worship while being at one (I would have died using pain-lands) and one time I lost because I color screwed, so I don't know. I believe I will continue using the hubs in the short term, but this is the most uncertain I am about any deckbuilding matter. Plus, I love having a slot to play the Wastes (completely irracional - my bad). Plus 2, there is always the option of adding an extra color and playing EE on 4/5 (BoP can help us do it as well).
And finally, I think the sphere is a good sideboard card agains those 3 particular decks, I can't think of another match-up where I'd board it in. But sideboard is very meta dependent in my opinion, I wouldn't put it in the 15 if I know there is only one TRON player - already having avacyn mainboard, 3 stony silences and 2 beast withins. I would focus more on the tough match ups we have - like blood moon centered decks and vizier chord.
Oh, my Portuguese is awful I can barely introduce myself and tell the 5 magic colors
I believe I played with your friend on the very last round, he had really unlucky draws
I couldn't agree more with you regarding the lands, it is a really tough choice and both have their ups and downs.
Worship is awesome I agree 100% with you again!
Avacyn is really really good in the late game and it makes your opening hand horrible if she's there. It's quite similar to a drowner of hope or a reality smasher in a temple-less hand.
Restoration Angel sounds great, having a way to blink/safe a displacer sounds like the piece of tech I was missing - I am definitely gonna try it. More than often I have found myself naming Angel with a Cavern of Souls for Avacyn and having another creature to cast with it sounds neat
I play 4 nobles and 2 BoP I don't think adding a Mind Stone here would be a great idea. Perhaps playing Boreal Druid could be a good option against blood moon too but I should cut one or two chickens.
I would say, factoring out Blood Moon on really early turns and vizier chord, the deck has 50/50 or better chances against any Tier 1 deck at the moment. It is difficult to sideboard against (again, except blood moon :D) and most of the creatures 2 for 1 the opponent.
Overall, my opinion is that the main reason the deck is so good is because on Game 1 it can play super aggro like TKS t2 into Smasher t3 and it can also beat the most mid-rangy strategies with Displacers making magic with ETB triggers. And then, post-board, having access to such a wide variety of good sideboard cards is awesome, the limit is the pilot skill -so reading the meta corectly can be very rewarding.
I have to say I am really happy hearing from you guys! It's the first time I post something and I really really appreciate the feedback
PS: Weird pitch! How would you like to create an Eldrazi whatsapp group to share info on a more immediate manner - Text me if you're interested! (+54 9 351 7897763)
This is my first post here, and I wanted to share my experience with you. I went to play GP Sao Paulo last weekend and I took Bant Eldrazi to it. It was my first GP and I ended up 11-4 finishing 56 amongst over 1400 players. I am very happy about it!!
I think the deck right now is in a great spot (meta-wise) and on top of that it is so much fun to play (except to stupid prison decks -.-)
When crafting the list I expected to run into TRON KCI and HUMANS mostly. So with my brother who happens to be also my teammate and has been playing TRON forever we tech'd the deck so that it has a chance against oblivion stone on G1. We came up with the idea of playing Archangel Avacyn - indestructibilty was key, and then having the ability to sac tokens to make her turn around was also a cool interaction agaisnt go-wide decks (Double white is not so tough to pay agains decks that wont kill your mana dorks).
The second piece of tech we brought in was worship mainbord, as a one of (YES- I know, against some match ups it is a horrible draw, but I took the risk). Humans and grixis decks have few to none answers to it, so we gave it a try too. After testing we saw it works like a charm.
And the last change we made to the stock list was playing Aether Hub instead of Pain-lands to help prevent the life loss against burn and in aggro match ups.
As a personal call I decided to play more basic lands because losing to blood moon feels awful and I knew I'd face several paths to exile and fields of ruin
So, here is the list (I'm kinda new and I don't know how to post it the fancy way, sorry!) and below I have detailed my match ups. I am more than open to suggestions and I really hope you enjoy the read!
Lands (23)
1x Breeding Pool
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Temple Garden
1x Misty Rainforest
2x Windswept Heath
2x Forest
1x Island
1x Plains
1x Wastes
4x Aether Hub
4x Cavern of Souls
4x Eldrazi Temple
Creature (26)
4x Drowner of Hope
4x Reality Smasher
4x Thought-Knot Seer
4x Eldrazi Displacer
3x Eldrazi Skyspawner
4x Noble Hierarch
2x Birds of Paradise
1x Archangel Avacyn
Non-Creature (11)
4x Ancient Stirrings
4x Path to exile
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Worship
SIDEBOARD
1x Grafdigger's cage
2x Detention Sphere
2x Spellskite
2x Disdainful Stroke
2x Rest in Peace
3x Stony Silence
2x Beast Within
1x Thragtusk
R1 G/W HEXPROOF 1-0
Beatdown showdown.
Luckily for me on G2 ang G3 he didn't draw a single Coronet.
G1 He came out too strong and killed me t5
G2 He mulled to 5 and I reality smash him on t3, he can't race it
G3 He mulled to 6 and kept a hand with 3 creatures, I go double noble into smasher on t3 again. He just can't race against the 7/7 trampler.
R2 VIZIER CHORD 1-1
God please no.
If anyone has any tips on how to navigate this match up please let me know!!
G1 She mulled to 5, I controlled her with two TKS taking away devoted druid and a chord, and pathing another druid she played, left her at 1 and she topdecked chord for the infinite ballista kill.
G2 She mulled to 5 again, this time without any lucky top-decks, I had a RiP on the field and nothing went out of control. I got there before she could combo me.
G3 She doesn't mull, her hand had the three pieces of the combo and before I could do anything (which is her t3) I get an enormous walking ballista to the face.
R3 HUMANS 2-1
This is what I had the deck tuned for.
G1 He doesn't have an answer to worship main-board
G2 He overpowers me, with double parish and lieutenant for the kill on T4
G3 I manage to stall the board until I get to lock him with drowner of hope and displacer. He wasn't aware of the interaction. When I blinked drowner for the first time he re-read the card and immediately conceded.
R4 VALAKUT 3-1
My lands are better than yours.
G1 I won dice roll and TKS him on t2 to see a hand with 5 lands and a titan. Stripe the titan out and smash him before he can do anything else.
G2 Kept a disdainful stroke in the opening, counter his t4 titan, he scapeshifts on t5 but has to kill my creatures because he can't valakut me to the face (I was at 20 thanks to the HUBS ) and he ran out of gas. (Playing hubs instead of pain lands was crucial here)
R5 JESKAI CONTROL 4-1
Cavern - name eldrazi - GG
G1 I won the dice roll for a cavern into temple, playing displacer t2 and tks turn 3, managed to lock him out of removal and sweepers.
G2 He played a geist on t3 trying to race me but wasn't quickly enough.
After the game he mentioned he had only been playing for a couple of months and had no idea such a deck existed
R6 MONO-RED PRISON 4-2
I wasn't expecting this at all.
G1 I mull down to 5 and he plays Chandra, ToD on t2 with ritual and SSG, into bridge t3 and Blood Moon t4- I can't get back into game before chandra ults and roasts me to death.
G2 He mulls to 5 this time but cant find Chandra, he plays both bridge and moon but doesn't pressure me, two stirrings allow me to find EE and the basic island for the 3rd color, I crack the EE end of his turn and swing for lethal.
G3 He draws nuts, playing Chalice on t1 with a SSG, sorcerous spyglass on t2 (naming EE) and moon on t3, he finds Chandra on t5 or t6 but there's not much I can do to get out of the lock.
R7 HUMANS 5-2
Another victim.
G1 Didn't know what he was playing, took a leap of faith, and kept a hand with Path x 2 and Worship. Once I see his land drop naming humans I sigh in relief. He manages to take out Worship with freebooter on t4 or 5 and swings for a bunch leaving me at 1 but with path EoT I get it back and he can't kill me through it.
G2 Was pretty similar to the game on third round, I swept the board with EE on 2 and then manage to lock him out with Displacer and Drowner.
R8 STOMPY 6-2
Yet another victim.
G1 He wins dice roll and mulls to 5. His first creature is a turn 2 Avatar of the resolute but he has more in hand. I manage to stall the table but a vault skirge kept taking chunks of life, one turn before completing the lock with a displacer I make a horrible mistake and let the flier hit me I had a BoP to block (I was at 4 life) - he aspects of hydra for the win.
G2 He comes out too strong and a worship from the topdeck saves me to the scream of - QUI PORRA I ESSA! (wtf is that??) he didn't sideboard any enchantment hate.
G3 I play spellskite on t2 and stop his aggressiveness significantly. He decides to go wide, but Avacyn sweeps the board and he can't get back into game, so I make it into day 2.
R9 VALAKUT 7-2
Good morning.
G1 He keeps a really bad hand after mulling to 6 and TKS t2 is too strong for it.
G2 Similar thing happens, but he manages to Summoner's Pact for a titan and kill a displacer and a skyspawner with Valakut's triggers. He didn't search for a fourth green source, so, after paying for the pact on the following turn he couldn't cast scapeshift and died to a smasher from the topdeck.
R10 VIZIER CHORD 7-3
God no, why again?
G1 I go TKS turn 2 and take devoted from his hand (he had infinite mana combo in hand). He proceeds to flood the board with fliers and Shalai to protect them. I manage to chump-block and displace my skyspawners for several turns but he plays a Rhonas whose activated ability messes with my chump-blocking, I make a bad call and swing with everything trying to force a mistake, he blocks correctly and kills me on the swing back. It is likely that I would had died the turn after if I hadn't attacked.
G2 I begin with cage on t1 and he goes viscera seer, vizier, kitchen on t1-2-3 and on t4 he reclamation sages my cage. I concede on the spot.
R11 HUMANS 7-4
Aether hubs would backfire eventually.
G1 I manage to play worship on t3 with a noble and a scion with a hub generating green on t1 and a cavern naming eldrazi, but I never draw the third land, with a hand full of creatures, he bounces both my creatures with reflectors and kills me trough the enchantment.
G2 I play a t3 smasher and ran him over, he flooded.
G3 I get color screwed again and he kills me with a not so good hand. (Stupid aehter hubs)
R12 TEMURSHIFT 8-4
Beast within into scapeshift - Just beautiful.
G1 I play two life saving TKSs to take spells out of his hand right before he could cast them, it gave me the game. Spells were C COMMAND AND SCAPESHIFT.
G2 I kept a hand with both disdainful stroke and beast within, he baits my DStroke with a JTMS and proceeds to scapeshift on the following turn. I beast within one of the mountains (this is a super neat interaction, look it up if you are unaware of it), the spells fizzles and he is left with only top decks, he drew a C COMMAND and a Snap Caster but eventually died to the creatures I had on the field.
R13 MARDU PYROMANCER 9-4
Mardu player, meet Reality Smasher. Reality smasher, smash.
This guy had no idea what my deck did and it cost him both games. Reality Smasher is an insanely good card against this deck on top of that.
G1 I go Displacer t2 into Drowner t3, he let me blink the drowner once before killing the displacer, I generate several tokens and then a smasher swings for lethal after I tap his blockers.
G2 I do Displacer into Smasher this time. Being at 4 he blocks the smasher with 2 tokens, I blink one of the tokens and he looks at me in disbelief -oh, I forgot about that.
R14 ELDRAZI AND TAXES (B&W) 10-4
Mana dorks > Aether vial
G1 I casted worship before he could take it out of my hand and he had no answers to it. I would have died to a smasher the following turn.
G2 He kept a greedy hand and didn't draw the third land. I went tk2 t2 into (I believe, can't recall exactly) a Smasher t3. He can't get back into game by the time he draws the land.
R15 GRIXIS SHADOW (CONTROL? - Never saw a Shadow) 11-4
No path to exile? - No problem
The deck is really powerful against path to exile-less versions of control
G1 I have two caverns in play he mulls to 6 and floods. He simply can't answer the aggro facet of the deck.
G2 He boards in lots of removal apparently and kills mana dorks and small eldrazis left and right but he fails to pressure me. His first threat is a Gurmag on t4 or 5. I draw beautifully playing smasher into drowner of hope and he has to concede.
Overall I feel the deck is quite strong against decks that commit to the table. I was lucky enough to get paired against several of them. Worship was an ALL-STAR on most match ups. I was sad I didn't run into any TRONs or KCIs, I had stony silences and damping spheres ready for them.
On paper THRAGTUSK feels awesome (Displacing him forever sounds insane xD) but in the matches I boarded him in, he didn't show up. I am still torn between Aether Hubs and Pain-lands and I didn't play against burn to test it out.
Then, Ancient Stirrings and Eldrazi Temples are just plain broken. Stirrings make any one lander hand keepable if you have a mana dork, and then temple paying for abilities enables super unfair turns with displacers.
So, overall that was my experience last weekend! Hope you enjoyed the read and thanks for going trough it!
My last message was supposed to quote this
Thanks man! I'll be trying this out soon and I'll let you know how it behaves!
Hi! Would you like sharing the list? I play in a rather mid-rangy meta as well and this approach seems interesting!
Thanks in advance!
Thanks in advance!