MTG Salvation

@KJuhlin :
the manabase of you bw deck is just ok, not grindy but not great too.
I can only advice you the nice article written by FlyingDelver on BGX manabase, he is a little not enough grindy for me but for sure his manabase are safe.
Maths say 18 black sources to cast a liliana turn 3.

About GQ, you talk about 2 specific scenarios :
-blood moon, it's not played a lot and Rock have no problem to deal with when you have 6 basics and 4/5 fetchs.
-valakut, a scenario where you have 3 GQ and your opponent cast scapeshift when he have to know it not works. Moreover if you have 3 field of ruin instead you can just activate it one turn before to do samething, not need to do it in response to scapeshift.

About Tron, sure GQ is far better when your opponent does tron online on the play, sure. If you want only fight tron with your lands, just run ghost quarter. Field of ruin is just better when you look other than these specific scenario cases because you don't loose a land, the only main advantage is that and with tracker, ooze and manlands it matters a lot.
Agree, BG can manage all tron threats even if it's really hard obviously.
I agree too if you are afraid of tron match-up, GQ seems better in your BW but the 4 trophy in BG give you a good MU.

@tempest :
3 overgrown tomb ? you love pain !
I never tried this vraska but my only thought about here is too high cost for not really unique effect as kalitas can bring. It's just a too fair card or me.
Vraska not really help against spirits and humans where LotV is already average. I don't see any match-ups except mirror where vraska seems insane.

FlyingDelver +1
@KJuhlin statistics not agree at all with you,
15 black sources to cast 5 Lilianas is grindy.
Ghost quarter have advantage for sur but it's not really an huge advantage to can destroy your own land, with field of ruin you can just destroy opponent land and take a swamp.

@redtwister.
Agree but this view seems a quite too simple for me.
Just one point, i don't say displacer is bad against burn i just say finks is a too small argument to keep displacer when you have only one.
And for sure crackdown is not only for hardened scales.
I don't expect burn match-up is so good !
Thanks for your time :).
I will try to do a small report of my sunday.

I think you can't validate enough the manabase rules with too much treetop/twilight mire/field of ruin.
Reid Duke's manabase with 4 treetop and 0 field of ruin is probably the safest way with a lot of treetop but i can't play less than 4 fields of ruin now ><.

I think triumph is just not what we want at all, it's a small upgrade of devour flesh and the bonus only matters in grindy match-ups and devour flesh was never an option in any BGX since years.

4 trophy is the easiest way to have a good match-up against tron and amulet titan, any other removals except collective brutality don't help against aggro decks but i can see nihil spellbomb instead of some trophy even if it's not a removal. Obviously it depends on against what you want to win, imo it's the reverse for me, i am always "it does always something relevant event with a drawback sometimes".

@redtwister :
Tron : ok, crackdown and declaration are meh for me too but displacer don't do a lot of thing i guess it's nice to kill for free thragtusk token too.
Burn : if i play more finks i agreee but that's not the case, yes cast out seems too much. declaration seems ok to help against stupid full creatures hand if i don't have a early chalice
Scales : crackdown is expensive but it's a gg and even if they nature's claim it it kill tokens, ballista, remove clounters etc etc. I agree thalia v2 is good but i don't know where to find a slot for it, cast out maybe ?
And sure ratchet bomb is a nombo but i play only few of each and if i have stony silence i guess i don't need a ratchet bomb 80% of times.

Up

Hi again,
i search advice for my sideboard guide :
(the list is derivated from SpiderSpace's last decklist)



UR Phoenix :
+ 1 cast out, 1 declaration in stone, 2 rest in peace
- 4 leonin arbiter

Dredge :
+ 1 declaration in stone, 2 rest in peace, 1 kitchen finks, 2 worship
- 3 dismember, 3 leonin arbiter/(maybe smasher and/or chalice and/or displacer)

Humans :
+ 1 declaration in stone, 1 kitchen finks, 2 worship, 1 cast out, 3 tocatli honour guard, 1 ratchet bomb
- 4 thalia v1, 4 leonin arbiter, 1 reality smasher

Tron :
+ 1 cast out, 1 declaration in stone, 2 stony silence, 1 aven mindcensor, 1 consulate crackdown
- 3 dismember, 3 eldrazi displacer

Burn :
+ 1 kitchen finks, 2 worship, 1 declaration in stone, 1 cast out, 1 ratchet bomb
- 3 dismember, 3 eldrazi displacer

Scales :
+ 1 cast out, 1 declaration in stone, 2 stony silence, 1 kitchen finks, 1 ratchet bomb, 1 consulate crackdown, 2 rest in peace
- 4 thalia v1, 4 leonin arbiter, 1 thalia v2

Robots :
+ 1 cast out, 1 declaration in stone, 2 stony silence, 1 ratchet bomb, 1 consulate crackdown, 2 worship
- 4 thalia v1, 4 leonin arbiter

UWX Control :
+ 1 cast out, 1 aven mindcensor
- 2 dismember

Grixis Death Shadow :
+ 1 declaration in stone, 1 rest in peace, 1 kitchen finks, 1 ratchet bomb, 1 cast out
- 4 leonin arbiter, 2 warping wail (these cards are not really bad for sure but there are too much situationnals and death shadow can easily turn around them with discard if you don't success to play it before discard)

BGX : (here i am pretty sure because BGX is my first deck choice right now and i played it a lot in the past)
+ 1 declaration in stone, 1 rest in peace, 1 kitchen finks, 1 ratchet bomb, 1 cast out
- 4 calice 1 arbiter (against Jund) ; -4 arbiter -1 chalice (against rock)

Storm :
+ 2 rest in peace, 1 aven mindcensor, 1 ratchet bomb, 1 declaration in stone
- 4 eldrazi displacer, 1 reality smasher (no sure at all about smasher, it's fine sure but i think we need more disrupt than clock)

Amulet Titan :
+ 1 aven mindcensor, 1 cast out, 1 declaration in stone, 3 tocatli honour guard
- 4 eldrazi displacer, 2 warping wail

Valakut :
+ 1 aven mindcensor, 1 cast out, 1 declaration in stone, 3 tocatli honour guard
- 3 eldrazi displacer, 3 dismember

Ad Nauseam :
+ 1 cast out, 2 stony silence
-3 dismember

Spirits :
+ 1 declaration in stone, 2 worship, 1 cast out, 3 tocatli honour guard, 1 ratchet bomb
- 4 thalia v1, 4 leonin arbiter

Thanks for help, correction and critic.
I am an experimented Hatebears player but not all with that version !

When i don't put number that mean i board in/out all copy of this card. I will try to update that after more games.
I know all about that, i not have the time when i wrote it !

I don't expect more than "i do that +X -Y in that mu". I don't ask any justification, list, sb guide or whatever, just if you disagree say it and what do you do instead. If it's too much for what i write, i hope people will be happy to find a starting sb guide somewhere. And you are not an ass, it's a totally fair request.

Quote from Lilletblanc »

yeah i just panicked it seemes the stock build is enough to beat tron decks.. on the other hand for me dredge is a hard matchup if you don't have the right cards .. is surgical really important and nihil? im planning to just run 4 leyline of the void

I prefear to have discard then graveyard and prepare a small setup than mulligan more leylines, put it in play and nature's claim it t1 for loose.
Dredge is really betable if you discard then goyf and they slow dredge up to they find a looting and classic graveyard hate is better in this case imo.
But both choices are probably correct against dredge, surgical will miss you against phoenix, tron and combo decks.

Hello guys,
i want to start to play Death&Staxes and i have a nice 80 people tournament next week. I will try to play this list :
[See bottom]

@Lilletblanc :
if you have 4 trophy, 4 field of ruin MD and fulminator mage, Tron is a favourable match-up.
Infect is a good match-up too.
I think add one more thoughtseize Md can be a nice thing here.

@Tempest753 :
When i started to play against phoenix, i board in only 1 surgical against phoenix on the play and let the other one in SB, i was not very impressed by surgical. And to be honest it's not impressive even now, i have just the feeling the only way for phoenix to easy win the game is turbo phoenix you so we have to respect that.
I think damping sphere is bad but i am not sure at 100%, nihil spellbomb is better than surgical here for me (surgical is only better against the double phoenix t2 otp), when you are in midgame the setup discard+ooze win against arclight phoenix and spellbomb too (i mean you have time to play it and do other things).
I think have a bunch of 1-cmc discard spells is a good way too to slow down turbo phoenix.

@pzbw7z : good point ! I forgot that card, maybe i will sell my mtgo surgical for that because price x).

Hey Tempest !
I think UR Phoenix is a favorable match-up and mono red phoenix is probably 50/50 (i am currently 6-2 with jund and 11-6 with rock against them)
I think these matchs are very hard to play during the first 4 turns because both decks try to take an advantage.
I guess a fine heuristic is stay focus on their threats and try to deploy yours at the best moment and an other one can be count them as a storm/combo deck with enabler and payoff.
If you want a side board plan with Rock (you can find my list on the previous page) :
+1 duress, +2 nihil spellbomb, +2 surgical extraction
-1 kalitas, -1 liliana the last hope, -2 collective brutality, -1 field of ruin
I am not sure at all about that plan and i have the feeling it's the same thing in general, some people board out discard keep brutality or think kalitas is very great (i disagree with that, i think kalitas is only good when you have time to setup as mirror or company deck or when he's good with hellbent as against burn, humans or dredge)

Instead of playing kaya, please remember relic of progenitus exist. Sure sure it not target what you want but it cost less mana and you can exile all graveyard and do it as instant. Kaya won't exil a bunch of permanent in modern....