Any form really. I'd just like to be able to post a list of all my standard cards to a tradeboard, or if someone asks me if I have any standard traders I can easily show them that list rather than my whole collection that they're probably not interested in.
I've been using your program and really like it a lot. I was wondering, is there a way to export a filtered part of my collection?
For example, I have my entire collection, but say I do a search filter for just standard legal cards. So then it shows me all my standard legal cards, I want to export just those ones, so that I can have an exported list of all my standard cards.
Double Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and keeping him on 1 land past turn 3 with 2 Path to Exile in hand won me the game. (I was VERY surprised I won game 1)
How did you get two thalia out in round two? She's legendary...
I see a lot of you guys are discussing walkers, I currently don't run any and am pretty happy with my list, but I'm always looking to tweak and improve. Would you guys mind posting your lists with walkers? I'd be interested in comparing.
So I got knocked out by some fringe combo decks last night. I admit I made a couple misplays but it was my first paper tournament with the deck and I'm still learning the control archetype. I'm coming from mainly fast aggro decks so it's a way different game. Anyway, I'm trying to improve and am seeking tips/advice, here's my deck and how the rounds went down:
Faced a UWr Midrange. Game one was interesting, he was on the play and got an Isochron Scepter off on turn 2 (I had no spell snare) and exiled Lightning Bolt. I was getting bolted pretty much every end step until I was able to bounce the scepter + counter Geist of Saint Traft with Cryptic Command. At this point I was down to about 8 life but I was able to resolve a few Lightning Helix's to help. He played the scepter again this time with a Mana Leak but when He tapped out to animate a Celestial Colonnade I bounced the scepter back again. I ended up stabilizing at 2 life by double Electrolyzeing his colonnade and then next turn animating my own colonnade to trade with his second one. Finished the game off with bolts + counters + resto angel swings. Game 2 was a relative blowout, didn't miss a land drop and drew nothing but counters and draw spells to outgas my opponent.
Round 2:
Opponent is joking about some sort of brew deck. He's dropping UG dual lands and Everflowing Chalices. After a while he drops a Doubling Season and I still have no idea what's going on. I tried to counter it but only had mana leaks and he was able to pay. After a while he was down to 8 life and I decided to (Mistake #1) animate a colonnade and swing with a snapcaster + colonnade. Brought him down to two life, next turn he plays Compulsive Research into Serum Visionsx2, then plays a Ral Zarek who comes into play with 8 counters. He uses the ult and flips 5 coins and gets 3 extra turns. Eventually he plays a Jace, Architect of Thought and uses his ultimate to search for an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and yea. If I didn't tap out animating colonnade I would have had a cryptic, but he showed me a remand anyway so I'm not sure it would have mattered.
Game two I avoided tapping out and killed doubling season with Wear//Tear in response to jace. Continued to beat down with resto angels and burn until game.
Game three I drew 1 land and some expensive spells, so I mulled to 6. I kept the 6 (Mistake #2) which consisted of 3 lands, A bolt, An Electrolyze, and a Mana leak. I'm thinking I should have gone to 5 in attempt to pull wear//tear or a better counterspell. First 5 turns were basically draw-go's for both players. I didn't want to tap out so I had counters available, and unfortunately drew lands, burn spells, and a cryptic. My opponent doubling seasoned on turn 5 which I leaked. On turn 6 he played another, which I cryptic commanded and he responded with remand. Turn 7 and still all I have is cryptic and when he played Jace he remanded my cryptic again. gg.
I definitely think I should have mulled to 5 in that game for a better hand. I don't mull to 5 enough, something I should probably get used to if I know the cards I need? Would like tips/advice/suggestions on my play for this round.
Round 3:
Match one. Opponent playing nothing but islands and Halimar Depths, and a couple UW dual lands. After a pretty passive matchup I (Mistake #3) resolve a batterskull and pass. My opponent then plays Pili-Pala followed by Grand Architect which I attempt to leak but it get's negated and now I'm tapped out. He uses the infinite mana combo to transmute for a profane command and kill me.
I board +2 Shadow of Doubt for transmute, +2 Counterflux, -1 Electrolyze, -2 Lightning Helix, -1 Sphinx's Revelation. Not sure if this boarding was correct or not. I figured the Shadow of Doubts will stop his transmute buying me at worst one turn but probably a lot more if he doesn't have another transmute in his hand. Counterflux's are good since he protects his combo with counters. I took out helix's because they're harder to cast in terms of creature removal than bolt and path, and I don't need the life gain vs this combo deck. I took one electrolyze because of it's casting cost, but I still kept 2 in because I can split the damage across 1/1's and I get to draw a card. I took out one sphinx because I felt like he can combo off before I can resolve a useful sphinx (X=3+). Could use suggestions here on the boarding.
Game 2: Pretty uneventful game for the first few turns, I cliqued his hand around turn 3-4 on his end step and removed one of his creatures to allowed him to transmute for architect. He also had a pili-pala, a creature to transmute for pili-pala/profane command, a negate, and a land. Then around turn 7 I have in my hand a Snapcaster, Spellsnare, Mana leak, and Lightning bolt and 5 mana available. He tries to resolve a pili-pala and has 7 mana available. I spellsnare, knowing he has negate, which he casts. I let the negate resolve and then snapcaster, flashing back spellsnare, which he negates again. Pili pala resolves. Next turn I draw a snap caster. He also has a spellskite on board so my bolt is useless. I pass and he drops a land and tries to resolve architect. He's got 5 mana left so I leak, he pays three and I snapcaster leak again. he has one card in hand and shows the negate. Next turn I draw a bolt so I have 2. I attack with snapcaster but he doesn't block with the skite. I try casting the bolts hoping he forgets about the skite, but he doesn't. Next turn he draws the card to transmute for profane command and goes off.
So all in all I made some mistakes, which I expected to do as I'm learning the deck, but I'm hoping to improve and am looking for suggestions, tips or some good old berating of my play. Combo decks seem to be giving me the hardest time.
Most of my games last a while. A lot of my early game turns are Draw, Play land, go. I like both spells, Remand worked awesome in my Merfolk deck because it was a turn 3 wonder card. By turn 3, if I got an vial out on turn one, I could remand their 3rd turn, draw a card, and then set myself up for a big swing on turn four for 10-16 damage vs no blockers against most decks. In this deck however, you're not trying to win by turn 4-5, you're trying to drag out the game, which is why I really like think twice.
Draw, drop a land, go. We have mana for remand, leak, negate, whatever.
Opponent takes his turn, plays nothing counter worthy, now we can think twice at end step for a free card.
Now that it's in the graveyard we can just Draw-Go every turn, and on any turn where our opponent doesn't play anything we want to react to, instead of otherwise having unused untapped mana, we can just flashback think twice at end step for a free card. That's why I like it, it's using mana that we otherwise wouldn't have used.
Comparing it to remand is a little like apples to oranges. Sure remand is great, it's good early because it replaces itself in card draw and pretty much makes our opponent skip their turn. By turn 4-5 against most decks, unless he's dropping some sort of big drop, remand just makes whatever spell cost double while giving us a card. After around turn 5 if our opponent has a lot of mana I prefer to use remand for counterspell battles and protecting your casts. It's amazing in mirror. If we get something counterfluxed or cryptic'd, we can remand our spell back to our hand AND draw a card while our opponent's spell fizzles. It's pretty amazing for that. Nothing is better than your opponent thinking his counterflux can't be stopped only to remand it's target, except maybe when your opponent spends UUU1 to counter + draw or counter + bounce and it fizzles because the counter target is no longer legal. VS decks that don't run counter, it's still decent, making most spells cost double their mana while it replaces itself with a new card.
Just recently built a version of this deck. Have done some playtesting vs a mirror (UWR midrange but with some different spells than mine), vs RDW, vs Jund, and vs GR Tron. My LGS runs Modern on thursdays, so far I've seen the following decks consistently:
Kiki Pod
Ad Nauseam combo deck
Cascade Into Restore Balance deck
UWR midrange (weaker player though, misplays frequently)
It's pretty much Cheon's list with very minor tweaks. I'm thinking I might switch out my sideboard a bit for the local meta, still thinking about what to throw in. I've had pretty good success in play testing against a few different archetypes, but I wouldn't mind some criticism/feedback on the deck. Most of the criticism I get is about have one of's, but personally I feel like I'd rather have an answer somewhere in my deck despite having a low chance of drawing it rather than just drawing dead cards.
In any case I'll report back here Friday morning after the tournament to let you guys know how it went.
Just recently built a version of this deck. Have done some playtesting vs a mirror (UWR midrange but with some different spells than mine), vs RDW, vs Jund, and vs GR Tron. My LGS runs Modern on thursdays, so far I've seen the following decks consistently:
Kiki Pod
Ad Nauseam combo deck
Cascade Into Restore Balance deck
UWR midrange (weaker player though, misplays frequently)
I'm thinking I might switch out my sideboard a bit for the local meta, still thinking about what to throw in. I've had pretty good success in play testing against a few different archetypes, but I wouldn't mind some criticism/feedback on the deck. In any case I'll report back here Friday morning after the tournament to let you guys know how it went.
Ah, so we have been playing it wrong. Also did not know there was a chance to play spells/activate abilities after draw step, good to know. Thanks all for your answers and help, much appreciated.
Two questions my friends and I came up with last night while playing.
For the first one, we're unsure of what abilities fizzle or resolve when the permanent they come from is bounced in response. A few examples:
Player A plays Liliana of the Veil, it resolved. Player A then announces he's using her +1 to make us both discard a card and passes priority. Player B casts Echoing Truth targeting Liliana. Both players pass priority and Echoing Truth resolves. Now, what happens to Liliana's +1 ability? Does it fizzle or does it still resolve? We've been playing that it fizzles, but I saw the following scenario play out last night in an MGTO stream which made me question how we're playing:
Player A controlled an Esperzoa. During his upkeep, the Esperzoa ability triggered and in response to the trigger player B casted Echoing Truth targeting Esperzoa. The truth resolved, Esperzoa was bounced, but then the ability resolved and player A still had to return an artifact to his hand.
So do all abilities still resolve even if their source has left the battlefield? Do only some resolve, and if so which? Did MTGO screw up? We're unsure of how this situation works. Also, I'm assuming it's the same thing, but if you casted Lightning Bolt targeting Esperzoa in the above situation, it would work the same way?
My second question is more of a clarification really. We were playing last night, and as soon as I drew a card on my turn my opponent played Vendilion Clique. I wasn't sure if he was allowed to play it or not. It was my main phase, and I had priority, right? I'd need to cast a spell, activate an ability, or just even pass priority and attempt to move into combat phase before he could cast the clique? I'm pretty sure how that works, but I wasn't sure and it wasn't a huge deal at the time so I just let it resolve.
First round I lost 2-0 to this type of deck. Even while only keeping two islands down and not playing too much at once I was still getting everything sac'd to his Restore Balance. I didn't run too well on the card draw either though, as I never drew a single counterspell or aether vial for both matches which would have helped tons. An Echoing truth on one of his borderposts would have worked well too, since it would have returned all the borderposts of the same name, but I couldn't draw that either. Most of the match was spent me hitting for 2-4 damage and then getting everything sac'd, get a couple land out, drop creatures, swing for 2-4 and then get sac'd again. I think unless I run more counterspells this matchup is pretty big in his favor as he can pretty consistently Restore Balance by turn 3. With a good hand on the play I can kill by turn 4 on an open board, but with what I was drawing it was going to at least take me 5 turns and he was definitely playing Restore Balance before my 5th turn. Perhaps I should have mulled better in this match, not sure, tips welcome.
Round 2 was against the same UWR deck I beat last week, and the games went similarly. First game was pretty fun (for me anyway). I got to legendary rule his Geist of Saint Traft twice with my Phantasmal Images, and at another point in the game he played a Vendilion Clique and I responded with a Clique of my own for some Clique on Clique action into another legendary rule for the Cliques. So by legendary ruling all his threats I won that pretty easily, second game he didn't draw much, I Cliqued his hand and he had 3 Lightning Helixs and an Electrolyze, but he didn't have any red sources so I won by turn 5.
Round 3 I played against a mono green aggro deck that ran Predator Ooze and Dungrove Elder and Khalni Hydra. Dropped the first game, I think he drew well and I kept a hand I wouldn't have kept had I known what his deck was and he was just able to get a couple big creatures out (Namely elder and ooze) that I couldn't remove or kill and I wasn't able to get through with much damage. I won game 2 after I knew a bit more about his deck pretty easily, mulled for a Spreading Seas which made the matchup a lot easier and was just able to get more creatures out faster. Match 3 he kept a 2 land hand and never got a third so I won by turn 5.
Round 4 I played against the kikipod deck that I lost to last week. This week though, I have torpor orbs. Got him down to 4 life the first game before he combo'd off (just like last week :/). Second game I SB'd in my torpor orbs and a pithing needle and had to mull to 6. For 6 cards I got: Island, Mutavault, Cursecatcher, Pithing Needle, Mana Leak, Echoing Truth. I thought about it for a while and wasn't sure if this was going to be better than an average 5card hand. I don't have any lords but I have a needle, Leak, and echoing truth to help buy me a few turns to pull some (I mean we have 14 effective lords it shouldn't be that hard). Unfortunately for me within the next 5 turns the only creature I pulled was a clique to go with the 4 Islands. I cliqued his hand and he showed me 3 birthing pods. Opted not to choose a card and then drew a mutavault, mana leak, 2 more islands, and a cursecatcher. I ended up losing that game to being attacked by kitchen finks and redcaps.
So all in all I finished 2-2. I think I was somewhat unlucky on card draws in some games like the second kikipod game and the restore balance games. I felt like I could have won those with better cards, maybe I need to mulligan more or something. The Clique was a nice addition, I wouldn't mind running two for a better chance to draw it, maybe cut a spell for another one. I'm thinking of trying cutting a couple lands next week for some other cards, not sure what ones yet though.
To be honest kira has only come in handy once or twice, the only reason I mainboarded it in the first place was I heard a lot of people at my LGS run burn, but I haven't seen any burn decks or many burn spells even. I wouldn't mind swapping it out for something else, but I'm not sure what. I could run another Phantasmal Image I suppose and that would work decently, or do you think there's something else I could run?
Echoing truth MB has worked wonders for me so far. I prefer it to vapor snag because it's able to bounce a permanent rather than a creature, and it can bounce multiples. Being able to bounce planeswalkers, enchantments, artifacts, etc is useful. Also being able to bounce multiples of tokens is good too (let opponent cast lingering souls, then flashback it, then bounce all four tokens = awesome) I've also had it bounce back my lords when things like all is dust get played. I find lots of use for it and would recommend running it.
I won the first round 2-0 vs what looked like a budget UW control. The player seemed new, attempted to path my creatures when I had kira out, and tried to counterspell my creatures when I vialed them in. I was nice about it all and still ended up winning, so that's good.
My next match was against a UWR control/midrange type deck. The games were very close, and I actually would have won the first game when I had my opponent down to 2 life with 4 fish out, but he top decked a Supreme Verdict and even said "Wow that was lucky", then proceeded to top deck into two Lightning Helix's to keep my fish at bay while he played some flying vigiliance haste angels or something and kept swining at me. Game two was similar, had him on the ropes but couldn't get it done while Lightning Helix kept him alive and an early stony silence slowed me down. Got 0-2'd
My third round was against a kikipod. Another very close first game, where Echoing truth let me bounce his 1 million Restoration Angel's and my swing brought him down to unfortunately 1 life, where he was able to combo off next turn and win. The second game was also a very close one, I had 4 fish out and was swinging for 13 and had my opponent down to 8 life and I had island walk up. He had two mana dorks out and a kikijiki in hand, and at the end of my turn he played a resto angel. I counted up his mana and saw he was 1 short (including the dorks) to cast both resto angel and kikijiki next turn, so I bounced his resto angel with echoing truth. He said "Well you win unless I draw a land" and then drew a land.
My last 4 games were very close, so I feel like with a bit of better luck I could have pulled those off, but I still feel like the deck is missing something. I don't think anyone at my LGS can afford goyf since I haven't seen it in any games and have never had to SB in my Threads. I'm thinking I should get some Torpor Orbs into the SB and maybe run less Mana Leaks. Mana leaks are great when I get an early vial, but if I don't get the vial they're kind of a dead card because I need the mana to get fish on the field asap. Which leads me to a question:
How aggressive should we be mulling for a vial? I'll often take 7 card hands that don't have a vial but have either a cursecatcher or mutavault, and sometimes will keep some with neither if I have 2-3 Islands. I feel like maybe I should be mulling for a better hand in some spots. Can anyone post examples of what they like to mull and they like to keep? (the latter might be pretty obvious).
I've been using your program and really like it a lot. I was wondering, is there a way to export a filtered part of my collection?
For example, I have my entire collection, but say I do a search filter for just standard legal cards. So then it shows me all my standard legal cards, I want to export just those ones, so that I can have an exported list of all my standard cards.
How did you get two thalia out in round two? She's legendary...
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Arid Mesa
4 Celestial Colonnade
3 Tectonic Edge
2 Steam Vents
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Mystic Gate
1 Sulfur Falls
Creatures (8)
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Restoration Angel
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Mana Leak
3 Electrolyze
3 Cryptic Command
2 Path to Exile
2 Lightning Helix
2 Think Twice
2 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Pyroclasm
1 Remand
1 Shadow of Doubt
1 Spell Snare
Other (1)
1 Batterskull
1 Batterskull
1 Path to Exile
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Celestial Purge
2 Shadow of Doubt
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Wrath of God
1 Sowing Salt
1 Wear // Tear
2 Counterflux
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Gideon Jura
Round 1:
Faced a UWr Midrange. Game one was interesting, he was on the play and got an Isochron Scepter off on turn 2 (I had no spell snare) and exiled Lightning Bolt. I was getting bolted pretty much every end step until I was able to bounce the scepter + counter Geist of Saint Traft with Cryptic Command. At this point I was down to about 8 life but I was able to resolve a few Lightning Helix's to help. He played the scepter again this time with a Mana Leak but when He tapped out to animate a Celestial Colonnade I bounced the scepter back again. I ended up stabilizing at 2 life by double Electrolyzeing his colonnade and then next turn animating my own colonnade to trade with his second one. Finished the game off with bolts + counters + resto angel swings. Game 2 was a relative blowout, didn't miss a land drop and drew nothing but counters and draw spells to outgas my opponent.
Round 2:
Opponent is joking about some sort of brew deck. He's dropping UG dual lands and Everflowing Chalices. After a while he drops a Doubling Season and I still have no idea what's going on. I tried to counter it but only had mana leaks and he was able to pay. After a while he was down to 8 life and I decided to (Mistake #1) animate a colonnade and swing with a snapcaster + colonnade. Brought him down to two life, next turn he plays Compulsive Research into Serum Visionsx2, then plays a Ral Zarek who comes into play with 8 counters. He uses the ult and flips 5 coins and gets 3 extra turns. Eventually he plays a Jace, Architect of Thought and uses his ultimate to search for an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and yea. If I didn't tap out animating colonnade I would have had a cryptic, but he showed me a remand anyway so I'm not sure it would have mattered.
Boarded +1 Wear // Tear, +2 Counterflux -1 Pyroclasm, -2 Path to Exile.
Game two I avoided tapping out and killed doubling season with Wear//Tear in response to jace. Continued to beat down with resto angels and burn until game.
Game three I drew 1 land and some expensive spells, so I mulled to 6. I kept the 6 (Mistake #2) which consisted of 3 lands, A bolt, An Electrolyze, and a Mana leak. I'm thinking I should have gone to 5 in attempt to pull wear//tear or a better counterspell. First 5 turns were basically draw-go's for both players. I didn't want to tap out so I had counters available, and unfortunately drew lands, burn spells, and a cryptic. My opponent doubling seasoned on turn 5 which I leaked. On turn 6 he played another, which I cryptic commanded and he responded with remand. Turn 7 and still all I have is cryptic and when he played Jace he remanded my cryptic again. gg.
I definitely think I should have mulled to 5 in that game for a better hand. I don't mull to 5 enough, something I should probably get used to if I know the cards I need? Would like tips/advice/suggestions on my play for this round.
Round 3:
Match one. Opponent playing nothing but islands and Halimar Depths, and a couple UW dual lands. After a pretty passive matchup I (Mistake #3) resolve a batterskull and pass. My opponent then plays Pili-Pala followed by Grand Architect which I attempt to leak but it get's negated and now I'm tapped out. He uses the infinite mana combo to transmute for a profane command and kill me.
I board +2 Shadow of Doubt for transmute, +2 Counterflux, -1 Electrolyze, -2 Lightning Helix, -1 Sphinx's Revelation. Not sure if this boarding was correct or not. I figured the Shadow of Doubts will stop his transmute buying me at worst one turn but probably a lot more if he doesn't have another transmute in his hand. Counterflux's are good since he protects his combo with counters. I took out helix's because they're harder to cast in terms of creature removal than bolt and path, and I don't need the life gain vs this combo deck. I took one electrolyze because of it's casting cost, but I still kept 2 in because I can split the damage across 1/1's and I get to draw a card. I took out one sphinx because I felt like he can combo off before I can resolve a useful sphinx (X=3+). Could use suggestions here on the boarding.
Game 2: Pretty uneventful game for the first few turns, I cliqued his hand around turn 3-4 on his end step and removed one of his creatures to allowed him to transmute for architect. He also had a pili-pala, a creature to transmute for pili-pala/profane command, a negate, and a land. Then around turn 7 I have in my hand a Snapcaster, Spellsnare, Mana leak, and Lightning bolt and 5 mana available. He tries to resolve a pili-pala and has 7 mana available. I spellsnare, knowing he has negate, which he casts. I let the negate resolve and then snapcaster, flashing back spellsnare, which he negates again. Pili pala resolves. Next turn I draw a snap caster. He also has a spellskite on board so my bolt is useless. I pass and he drops a land and tries to resolve architect. He's got 5 mana left so I leak, he pays three and I snapcaster leak again. he has one card in hand and shows the negate. Next turn I draw a bolt so I have 2. I attack with snapcaster but he doesn't block with the skite. I try casting the bolts hoping he forgets about the skite, but he doesn't. Next turn he draws the card to transmute for profane command and goes off.
So all in all I made some mistakes, which I expected to do as I'm learning the deck, but I'm hoping to improve and am looking for suggestions, tips or some good old berating of my play. Combo decks seem to be giving me the hardest time.
Draw, drop a land, go. We have mana for remand, leak, negate, whatever.
Opponent takes his turn, plays nothing counter worthy, now we can think twice at end step for a free card.
Now that it's in the graveyard we can just Draw-Go every turn, and on any turn where our opponent doesn't play anything we want to react to, instead of otherwise having unused untapped mana, we can just flashback think twice at end step for a free card. That's why I like it, it's using mana that we otherwise wouldn't have used.
Comparing it to remand is a little like apples to oranges. Sure remand is great, it's good early because it replaces itself in card draw and pretty much makes our opponent skip their turn. By turn 4-5 against most decks, unless he's dropping some sort of big drop, remand just makes whatever spell cost double while giving us a card. After around turn 5 if our opponent has a lot of mana I prefer to use remand for counterspell battles and protecting your casts. It's amazing in mirror. If we get something counterfluxed or cryptic'd, we can remand our spell back to our hand AND draw a card while our opponent's spell fizzles. It's pretty amazing for that. Nothing is better than your opponent thinking his counterflux can't be stopped only to remand it's target, except maybe when your opponent spends UUU1 to counter + draw or counter + bounce and it fizzles because the counter target is no longer legal. VS decks that don't run counter, it's still decent, making most spells cost double their mana while it replaces itself with a new card.
Here is my list:
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Arid Mesa
4 Celestial Colonnade
3 Tectonic Edge
2 Steam Vents
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Mystic Gate
1 Sulfur Falls
Creatures (8)
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Restoration Angel
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Mana Leak
3 Electrolyze
3 Cryptic Command
3 Path to Exile
2 Lightning Helix
2 Think Twice
2 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Pyroclasm
1 Remand
1 Shadow of Doubt
1 Spell Snare
2 Batterskull
1 Path to Exile
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Celestial Purge
1 Shadow of Doubt
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Wrath of God
2 Sowing Salt
1 Wear // Tear
1 Negate
2 Counterflux
1 Relic of Progenitus
It's pretty much Cheon's list with very minor tweaks. I'm thinking I might switch out my sideboard a bit for the local meta, still thinking about what to throw in. I've had pretty good success in play testing against a few different archetypes, but I wouldn't mind some criticism/feedback on the deck. Most of the criticism I get is about have one of's, but personally I feel like I'd rather have an answer somewhere in my deck despite having a low chance of drawing it rather than just drawing dead cards.
In any case I'll report back here Friday morning after the tournament to let you guys know how it went.
Here is my list:
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Arid Mesa
4 Celestial Colonnade
3 Tectonic Edge
2 Steam Vents
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Mystic Gate
1 Sulfur Falls
Creatures (8)
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Restoration Angel
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Mana Leak
3 Electrolyze
3 Cryptic Command
3 Path to Exile
2 Lightning Helix
2 Think Twice
2 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Pyroclasm
1 Remand
1 Shadow of Doubt
1 Spell Snare
2 Batterskull
1 Path to Exile
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Celestial Purge
1 Shadow of Doubt
2 Supreme Verdict
2 Sowing Salt
1 Wear // Tear
1 Negate
2 Counterflux
1 Relic of Progenitus
I'm thinking I might switch out my sideboard a bit for the local meta, still thinking about what to throw in. I've had pretty good success in play testing against a few different archetypes, but I wouldn't mind some criticism/feedback on the deck. In any case I'll report back here Friday morning after the tournament to let you guys know how it went.
Two questions my friends and I came up with last night while playing.
For the first one, we're unsure of what abilities fizzle or resolve when the permanent they come from is bounced in response. A few examples:
Player A plays Liliana of the Veil, it resolved. Player A then announces he's using her +1 to make us both discard a card and passes priority. Player B casts Echoing Truth targeting Liliana. Both players pass priority and Echoing Truth resolves. Now, what happens to Liliana's +1 ability? Does it fizzle or does it still resolve? We've been playing that it fizzles, but I saw the following scenario play out last night in an MGTO stream which made me question how we're playing:
Player A controlled an Esperzoa. During his upkeep, the Esperzoa ability triggered and in response to the trigger player B casted Echoing Truth targeting Esperzoa. The truth resolved, Esperzoa was bounced, but then the ability resolved and player A still had to return an artifact to his hand.
So do all abilities still resolve even if their source has left the battlefield? Do only some resolve, and if so which? Did MTGO screw up? We're unsure of how this situation works. Also, I'm assuming it's the same thing, but if you casted Lightning Bolt targeting Esperzoa in the above situation, it would work the same way?
My second question is more of a clarification really. We were playing last night, and as soon as I drew a card on my turn my opponent played Vendilion Clique. I wasn't sure if he was allowed to play it or not. It was my main phase, and I had priority, right? I'd need to cast a spell, activate an ability, or just even pass priority and attempt to move into combat phase before he could cast the clique? I'm pretty sure how that works, but I wasn't sure and it wasn't a huge deal at the time so I just let it resolve.
Thanks.
16 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Cursecatcher
3 Spellskite
2 Phantasmal Image
1 Vendilion Clique
4 Aether Vial
4 Spreading Seas
3 Echoing Truth
3 Mana leak
3 Torpor Orb
3 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
1 Negate
1 Echoing Truth
1 Pithing Needle
1 Spellskite
First round I lost 2-0 to this type of deck. Even while only keeping two islands down and not playing too much at once I was still getting everything sac'd to his Restore Balance. I didn't run too well on the card draw either though, as I never drew a single counterspell or aether vial for both matches which would have helped tons. An Echoing truth on one of his borderposts would have worked well too, since it would have returned all the borderposts of the same name, but I couldn't draw that either. Most of the match was spent me hitting for 2-4 damage and then getting everything sac'd, get a couple land out, drop creatures, swing for 2-4 and then get sac'd again. I think unless I run more counterspells this matchup is pretty big in his favor as he can pretty consistently Restore Balance by turn 3. With a good hand on the play I can kill by turn 4 on an open board, but with what I was drawing it was going to at least take me 5 turns and he was definitely playing Restore Balance before my 5th turn. Perhaps I should have mulled better in this match, not sure, tips welcome.
Round 2 was against the same UWR deck I beat last week, and the games went similarly. First game was pretty fun (for me anyway). I got to legendary rule his Geist of Saint Traft twice with my Phantasmal Images, and at another point in the game he played a Vendilion Clique and I responded with a Clique of my own for some Clique on Clique action into another legendary rule for the Cliques. So by legendary ruling all his threats I won that pretty easily, second game he didn't draw much, I Cliqued his hand and he had 3 Lightning Helixs and an Electrolyze, but he didn't have any red sources so I won by turn 5.
Round 3 I played against a mono green aggro deck that ran Predator Ooze and Dungrove Elder and Khalni Hydra. Dropped the first game, I think he drew well and I kept a hand I wouldn't have kept had I known what his deck was and he was just able to get a couple big creatures out (Namely elder and ooze) that I couldn't remove or kill and I wasn't able to get through with much damage. I won game 2 after I knew a bit more about his deck pretty easily, mulled for a Spreading Seas which made the matchup a lot easier and was just able to get more creatures out faster. Match 3 he kept a 2 land hand and never got a third so I won by turn 5.
Round 4 I played against the kikipod deck that I lost to last week. This week though, I have torpor orbs. Got him down to 4 life the first game before he combo'd off (just like last week :/). Second game I SB'd in my torpor orbs and a pithing needle and had to mull to 6. For 6 cards I got: Island, Mutavault, Cursecatcher, Pithing Needle, Mana Leak, Echoing Truth. I thought about it for a while and wasn't sure if this was going to be better than an average 5card hand. I don't have any lords but I have a needle, Leak, and echoing truth to help buy me a few turns to pull some (I mean we have 14 effective lords it shouldn't be that hard). Unfortunately for me within the next 5 turns the only creature I pulled was a clique to go with the 4 Islands. I cliqued his hand and he showed me 3 birthing pods. Opted not to choose a card and then drew a mutavault, mana leak, 2 more islands, and a cursecatcher. I ended up losing that game to being attacked by kitchen finks and redcaps.
So all in all I finished 2-2. I think I was somewhat unlucky on card draws in some games like the second kikipod game and the restore balance games. I felt like I could have won those with better cards, maybe I need to mulligan more or something. The Clique was a nice addition, I wouldn't mind running two for a better chance to draw it, maybe cut a spell for another one. I'm thinking of trying cutting a couple lands next week for some other cards, not sure what ones yet though.
Echoing truth MB has worked wonders for me so far. I prefer it to vapor snag because it's able to bounce a permanent rather than a creature, and it can bounce multiples. Being able to bounce planeswalkers, enchantments, artifacts, etc is useful. Also being able to bounce multiples of tokens is good too (let opponent cast lingering souls, then flashback it, then bounce all four tokens = awesome) I've also had it bounce back my lords when things like all is dust get played. I find lots of use for it and would recommend running it.
16 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Cursecatcher
3 Spellskite
2 Phantasmal Image
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
4 Aether Vial
4 Spreading Seas
4 Mana leak
2 Echoing Truth
2 Threads of Disloyalty
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Pithing Needle
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Vapor Snag
2 Deprive
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
I won the first round 2-0 vs what looked like a budget UW control. The player seemed new, attempted to path my creatures when I had kira out, and tried to counterspell my creatures when I vialed them in. I was nice about it all and still ended up winning, so that's good.
My next match was against a UWR control/midrange type deck. The games were very close, and I actually would have won the first game when I had my opponent down to 2 life with 4 fish out, but he top decked a Supreme Verdict and even said "Wow that was lucky", then proceeded to top deck into two Lightning Helix's to keep my fish at bay while he played some flying vigiliance haste angels or something and kept swining at me. Game two was similar, had him on the ropes but couldn't get it done while Lightning Helix kept him alive and an early stony silence slowed me down. Got 0-2'd
My third round was against a kikipod. Another very close first game, where Echoing truth let me bounce his 1 million Restoration Angel's and my swing brought him down to unfortunately 1 life, where he was able to combo off next turn and win. The second game was also a very close one, I had 4 fish out and was swinging for 13 and had my opponent down to 8 life and I had island walk up. He had two mana dorks out and a kikijiki in hand, and at the end of my turn he played a resto angel. I counted up his mana and saw he was 1 short (including the dorks) to cast both resto angel and kikijiki next turn, so I bounced his resto angel with echoing truth. He said "Well you win unless I draw a land" and then drew a land.
My last 4 games were very close, so I feel like with a bit of better luck I could have pulled those off, but I still feel like the deck is missing something. I don't think anyone at my LGS can afford goyf since I haven't seen it in any games and have never had to SB in my Threads. I'm thinking I should get some Torpor Orbs into the SB and maybe run less Mana Leaks. Mana leaks are great when I get an early vial, but if I don't get the vial they're kind of a dead card because I need the mana to get fish on the field asap. Which leads me to a question:
How aggressive should we be mulling for a vial? I'll often take 7 card hands that don't have a vial but have either a cursecatcher or mutavault, and sometimes will keep some with neither if I have 2-3 Islands. I feel like maybe I should be mulling for a better hand in some spots. Can anyone post examples of what they like to mull and they like to keep? (the latter might be pretty obvious).
What I want to run tomorrow:
16 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Cursecatcher
3 Spellskite
2 Phantasmal Image
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
4 Aether Vial
4 Spreading Seas
3 Mana leak
3 Echoing Truth
3 Torpor Orb
3 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Negate
1 Echoing Truth
1 Pithing Needle
1 Spellskite
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner