MTG Salvation

Quote from 1ron »

So I just realized that Mission Briefing lets you buyback cards in your graveyard.

I might try a 1 Briefing, 1 Spell Burst split.

Mission Briefing costs UU, and you'll often add another U to that for the spell you're trying to flashback. This means you'll need to have three Islands in play, which often you won't.

Quote from The Fluff »

Hi, I'm currently building this deck.

Just one question to the veterans. How do we win against Dredge on game 1?

With the "stock" list, we just don't Lately I have seen people maindeck Surgicals, Paths, even the new Kaya... those can help, but it's still very hard.

On the other hand, we usually bring in A LOT of stuff from the sideboard, and that sometimes turns the match around

Infect: i already knew what deck he was on, so i mulled a 7 with no interaction and kept a 6 with a bolt, a Chandra and some ramp. I bolted the first creature, did Chandra -3 on the second one, then killed him with Tracker and Shaman. Boarded in more removal (roast, dismember, anger), mulled again, kept 5 with a Dismember, then same as game 1 but with an Inferno Titan clearing the board then finishing him. Have to say he mulled to 6 both games too, and didn't probably find the best 6.

Spirits: i remember less about this, it involved a Blood Moon and some beasts in game 1, and a 7/7 Stormbreath Dragon in game 2. I drew some removal in both games, he didn't hit a critical mass of creatures and then my creatures were just bigger. Guess he also didn't get the most explosive Bant Spirits hands. After all, it takes some luck to win all the matches

Hello, fellow land destroyers!

Went 4-0 with this list: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/970917#paper

Matchups were:

• Mono-Black Devotion (2-1, lost one to a big Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet)
• Sultai Midrange (2-1, lost one to land screw + discard on my ramp)
• Infect (2-0)
• Bant Spirits (2-0)

As you can see, i went to the dark side and cut all copies of Bloodbraid Elf. I played BBE Ponza for months, and BBE was actually great sometimes (a hasty 3/2 + Blood Moon / Stone Rain on turn 3 can win the game) but most of the time it was just meh. Many times you cascade into something almost-or-completely-useless in that moment of the game, and then you just spent an entire turn casting a vanilla 3/2.

There are many great options at the 4 or 5 mana slot:

• more Planeswalkers besides Chandra (i tried Arlinn Kord here)
• big mana spells like Primal Command
• more beasts Glorybringer, Stormbreath Dragon, Thrun, the Last Troll, Obstinate Baloth, Huntmaster of the Fells, even Shaman of The Great Hunt if you like your opponents going WTF, like I do

Right now, i feel like i'm better off casting one of these instead.

Don't get me wrong, Bloodbraid Elf is a great card, just maybe not for this deck. If only we had Kolaghan's Command or Liliana of the Veil

Primer updated and overhauled.


(Sideboarding is the only section I have still to do.)

I made another tournament, splitted on top 4:
M1: 2-1 Hardened scales

M2: 2-0 Urza
Don't know which... Discard, discard, pyromancer and he is gone

M3: 0-2 uw Mentor
Winnable, i had 5-6 bad cards hands in both games.

M4: 2-0 classic uw control

M5: 1-1 Titanshift
Not played, we were already qualified

Top 8:
2-0 bogles:
Tough MU... They had hexproof but discards and nahiri-chandrina-elemental tokens made the day in g1 (even casted an emrakul with nahiri still alive for the win). G2: he kept a middle/bad hand with a leyline of sanctity, looted all the discards and went the anti-auras nahiri mode. I didn't drop all the pushes because i wanted a remotion for the non hexproof drawer and when he attacked with a powered up dryad forest i did the most satisfyng push ever made.

I posted it only for the bogles MU, i thought it was unwinnable but a well protected nahiri can do a 3/4-1 easly. I played this deck 3 times and went top 4, top 8, top 4. Luckly i played against big manas only a bunch of times but the deck seems pretty solid against all other decks. I think that we have the best SB possible and post side our deck feels really strong. Burn and wg auras are the only meh MU out of the big Manas. Maybe i could drop the second damping sphere for an additional Bloodmoon in side (we have a great choose of swissknife spells for our sideboard and 3 big mana dedicated cards+ 3 pillage can be a way, even if i think we still need a great beater). In any case jund has our same pros and cons (the only difference is that tarmo can steal a big mana game sometimes) so if it is played i don't know why we are not. The deck is way better that its online results.

Today i made a 20 ppl tournament on my lgs with Nahiri Emrakul and the YP pack as a second wincon (no dreadhorde, no batterskull), these are the results:

M1: 0-2 vs Hardened Scales
I never played against this deck and i made too many mistakes, i think this MU is all but unwinnable

M2: 2-0 vs uw control
Lingering and discards are the way for the win... They don't have the right removal for me/us (i play with 4 YP as a second win condition)

M3: 1-2 Amulet Titan
As always big manas felt unwinnable except for g2 in which pillage-little chandra-pillage made the day... I still think that mardu will always have problems with it, tron and titanshift even if i think this is simply the worst deck possible for us.

M4: 2-0 Burn
As always helix, brutality and kambal are our wincoin... Discard spells if played well are a must. I still think is a rough MU

M5: 2-0 Ad Nauseam
Discards and YP in g1 and discards and Souls in g2. We are slow on closing but in the topdeck mode they can't easly win

Top 8... Amulet Titan again: 0-2

I think that Emrakul is a support wincoin (i shifted to this deck thinking on YP as the second but maybe i was wrong). I won 7 games but only 1 with emrakul (against Burn, an already won match)... Nahiri is a beast, everyone hates it, eats all the possible removals and is a powerhouse in topdeck. Emrakul is meh, never really casted it but i don't think i'll remove it (it scares too much)... SP is simply great. Chandra AoF is a staple in this deck, she gives you too much amd is our flexible Snapcaster. I think the deck is fine and has the known big mana problem (even if nahiri/emrakul makes the tron and titanshift MU not favorable but roughly winnable). What would you board in?

So.

I took a 5-6 months break from MTG and I'm (partially) back. I noticed that all of my posts went deleted (dunno why), hope most of you still remember me and my schizoid lists. I'm not yet in the game, once again, because I managed to find a good balance in my life and Time is a harsh component of it. But, every now and then, I will take a short break and come here to discuss about our favourite game.

What I wanted to say.

If people still remember me, you should be aware of this: I was the first huge proponent of maindecks high on Dismember, Ballista and no Chalices. I do think I was right, and my previous win ratio confirmed it (last time I played, half a year ago, I had a 71% win rate overall). When I was back, though, I noticed the metagame changed quite a bit. There are Phoenixes everywhere, Dredge is a thing again, Burn percentage increased, Grixis Shadow had a comeback. Chalices in this metagame is HUGE. Walking Ballista, which I adore, became a huge "spend here your excess mana" from the "play it and devastate opponent's little creatures" it was in the past. When Affinity was Affinity instead of Hardened Scales and Elves were rampant, I had them in the deck even if they were "bad" against anything else, because Ballistas were winning those two games by themselves. Now, I find them pretty much underwhelming. Not "bad", just "a spot that could be something more impactful". Same goes for Dismember. It's - finally - the time for me to switch to Spatial Contortion. With Burn, Phoenixes & Hardened Scales running rampant, I feel like it's the correct choice. That said, I'm still unsure about this last point. I yet have to make real tests, putting aside one small tournament.

What did I try.

• Sideboard (15)
  
• 1x Chalice of the Void
  
• 2x Nimble Obstructionist
  
• 4x Relic of Progenitus
  
• 1x Spatial Contortion
  
• 3x Dismember
  
• 3x Negate
  
• 1x Tectonic Edge

For the first time ever, I'm willing to play baby Karn. Without Talismans, of course (you all should know what I think about them). Guess what? I'm liking the four planeswalkers configuration a lot. From the printing of Assassin's Trophy I felt like we needed to up the count of our walkers. The deck is now working way better than before when it comes to fight opponents that are eager to kill our Tron lands. Having three Wurmcoils plus 2 Karns as "linear, efficient threats" (plus the two big Ugin) makes postboard games way more playable than before. AND, it really helps a lot vs Control, cause lately (before taking a break) I had very good results against the field, but UW and Jeskai made a meatball out of me, after all the goodies WOTC printed.


How my tests went.

Last week I tried to enter a tournament with the old list. Steamrolled by Burn, Phoenix & Miracles, while winning against Humans, for the final 1-3. I took changes, and that's the result:


Round1// Jeskai Delver 2-0

Chalice of the Void really shines here. Geist was a huge problem, having less blockers than before, but Chalice#1 locks them out of half spells (even more) and I was able to chain Remand into Remand into Tron both games before ultimating Ugin.

Round2// Naya Burn 2-1

On the draw. Won game one thanks to Chalice#1 into a pair of Contortion, then I proceed to counter everything until I ultimate Ugin again. Game two he has turn three the same amount of Guides on the field. Game three I'm able to chain a pair of Remands on his Eidolon until I hardcast a Wurmcoil on turn six.

Round3// UR Phoenix 2-0

Chalice#1 won me the first game. Relic + Dismember on Thing won me the second.

Round4// BG Goodstuff 2-0

Karn actually did it in both games. We traded resources for a bit, he tried to keep me out of Tron on the first, but I end up being refuelled constantly by Karn until I hit a Slaver. In the second game he has Trophy into Fulminator into Fulminator into double Field of Ruin activation. I keep killing his stuff with Dismember and Contortion, then I slam Karn into Wurmcoil into another Wurmcoil and laugh.

----

How's the deck positioned?

Can't say for sure. I tested a little bit in the last two weeks, against all the forms of Tron (Gx, Eldrazi), UR Storm, Humans, Hardened Scales, Phoenix, Burn (Mardu, Boros, Naya). It still seems to have plenty of games against those strategies (with Hardened Scales being, by far, the worse between them). Had a 45-55 ratio against G-Tron, 40-60 against HS Affinity, 55+/% against the others.

I'm thinking about fourth Chalice in the main, and I'd like to have one Commit too. Crucible in the side seems to be in a good spot, but dunno what to take out for it.

I apologize in case I forgot how to write in English, please bear with it. I hope you all can find this analysis interesting.