Nice deck. I am working on something similar. I run -1 Dissipate and -1 Despise and +2 Surgical Extraction MD and some different stuff SB.
I also run -1 Mana Leak for 1 MD Batterskull. It is an awesome card by itself and makes Snapcaster a real threat.
Have you tried this interaction? Despise + Surgical Extraction + Snapcaster Mage. It is not necessarily something I am exactly looking for, but it has come up in my testing. It is a roflstomp.
I have been thinking about running Swords. I am not sure which. Probably Feast or Famine.
You don't have enough creatures for swords.
Generally despise + leak + snapcaster on despise is good enough. Extraction is not good enough in most matches. It's only good if they have more then on in their hand or have one 1 type of win condition.3
The list looks great and similar to what ive been testing lately. However, id be interested to know how you beat a turn 2 shrine on the draw, and how you boarded vs mono red in the tournament. Ive considered running spellkite in the board to soak up shrine or soak up 2 burns
You can out race a shrine if you have life link. Generally bluffing a mana leak is good enough to keep shrine off for a few turns.
Here is what I wrote on SCG:
My Main:
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Think Twice
4 Mana Leak
2 Grave Titan
3 Dissipate
2 Black Sun's Zenith
3 Liliana of the Veil
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Inkmoth Nexus
6 Swamp
8 Island
3 Doom Blade
2 Consecrated Sphinx
3 Despise
My SB:
3 Mental Mistep
3 Negate
3 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Doom Blade
2 Dismember
2 Batterskull
I think this was the right choice for the weekend. As long as you play tight the 75 can be rearranged just to handle anything. Lilana with Alchemy and Think Twice are a real card advantage engine that just seemed to blow other decks out. I used every card in my 75 at least once which is always a good thing.
Some basic rules I learned:
-Never waste a snapcaster on an Alchemy unless you are going to use the snapcaster to block and trade. You can't afford to lose the card advantage.
-Ask if snapcaster resolves before declaring target. You can give out information for no real good reason.
-If you have the choice of playing a card from your hand or snapcastering the same card usually snapcastering is the right choice because later on you might not have the mana to do so.
-Lilana does not need to be above 3 loyalty to be awesome. I think it is very important to realize that just having her on the field to prevent your opponent from playing one is huge. I only up her past 3 when I know the card I am discarding is garbage (extra land or a dead doom blade) or is part of your card advantage engine.
-Sometimes when you play Alchemy you need to chose the land. It might be sad letting that mana leak or sphinx go into your yard but if you cannot miss a land drop before turn 6-7.
SB Plan: (AKA SOMETIMES YOU GOTTA BLUFF MANA LEAK)
Sometimes you'll need the extra black sun or doom blade depending on what they have so you need to practice it out and be able to call what they have in their list. I found myself not being able to beat an image copying my own grave titan so I swamped them with batterskull.
+3 mental mistep
+1 Doom Blade
+2 Dismember
+2 batterskull
+1 black sun zenith
RDW is the only match up I wish I had white. O-rings help about against koth and shrines. The way I have the deck built you just kill out their creatures until you drop something and try to out race them. Koth and shrines are imune to this type of attack. I think both times I beat RDW I was a turn away from losing to a shrine. Remember snapcaster can't block noble. That cost me some practice games in-between rounds. Just 1:1 with snapcaster is fine because you are trying to get to the late game, where you have the advantage. That means for the most part 1:1 is value because you generally can win a stalemate/ top deck war with your more powerful spells and card advantage engine.
And my fellow team member Mike Lanigan played a U/W Caw Blade list and took 8th in the swiss. His article on it will go up here http://www.quietspeculation.com/ soon.
Hmm ggslive had the red deck in the finals at some point during the feed. I didnt go on sunday so i believe mitchell won then. His deck was ub draw go with 4 lilianas and i have to say that he was probably the only ub player i played the whole day that actually seemed like he knew how to play the deck (lost to him 1st round...)
What were you running? Shape Anew? I only had three lil's in my deck.
Thats incorrect. Mitchell lost to a red deck in the top 4 and tim landale beat jason imperiale's puresteel in the top 4. The only other top 8 deck i know was a wolf run red deck that lost to the other red deck. (I only know because i lost to him in the top 32.)
I did split the finals. What are you talking about. Well I conceded cause Tim was in the running for the team prize and I was not. We split the winnings
According to some photos from Paris, it seems like Tezzeret is URb deck.
I sense comet storms, lavaball traps, galvanic blasts planeswalker combo/aggro/control/pinada Jace/Koth/Tezzeret abomination..:D
This is just going to be a tough match period. I think I will have to actually play it to figure it out. We don't have any Kuldotha players here, nor have I even seen the decklist.
rofl....goblin guide >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> then spell pierce. The problem with the match up is the ammount of toons they spit out.
I think counter magic and discard is going to be the key to the Kuldotha match, I don't think sweepers are going to take care of it.
This statement is wrong. I love you neo but it is just wrong. Our counters are two slow (now working on turn one) and the discard doesn't hit creatures. Turn one plays are the way to go.
Shrivel is a good card, but it is sorcery speed. What scares me most about RDW is the explosiveness and hasty speed. I really wish they had reprinted volcanic fallout or at least made slagstorm an instant (it is a freaking rare). barring that I cannot see shrivel work well if they drop a rebirth and kicked bushwacker in the same turn, where as choking fumes though a mana more expensive, will hate on such a play. Another card that might stall is turn the tide, but it is a one and done, so make sure you have a sorcery speed answer for your turn.
When all there tokens a 2/2's cause of the lord you'll be real happy you played that pos card.
Early game, I am usually using them with Lux Cannon. Which drops T3 usually. I like the keys to be honest.
If you drop cannon on turn three. You most likely will kill something on turn 5 if you have keys. Red will have killed you by then or have 5+ toons on the feild.... we should test on mws.
You don't have enough creatures for swords.
Generally despise + leak + snapcaster on despise is good enough. Extraction is not good enough in most matches. It's only good if they have more then on in their hand or have one 1 type of win condition.3
You can out race a shrine if you have life link. Generally bluffing a mana leak is good enough to keep shrine off for a few turns.
Here is what I wrote on SCG:
My Main:
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Think Twice
4 Mana Leak
2 Grave Titan
3 Dissipate
2 Black Sun's Zenith
3 Liliana of the Veil
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Inkmoth Nexus
6 Swamp
8 Island
3 Doom Blade
2 Consecrated Sphinx
3 Despise
My SB:
3 Mental Mistep
3 Negate
3 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Doom Blade
2 Dismember
2 Batterskull
I think this was the right choice for the weekend. As long as you play tight the 75 can be rearranged just to handle anything. Lilana with Alchemy and Think Twice are a real card advantage engine that just seemed to blow other decks out. I used every card in my 75 at least once which is always a good thing.
Some basic rules I learned:
-Never waste a snapcaster on an Alchemy unless you are going to use the snapcaster to block and trade. You can't afford to lose the card advantage.
-Ask if snapcaster resolves before declaring target. You can give out information for no real good reason.
-If you have the choice of playing a card from your hand or snapcastering the same card usually snapcastering is the right choice because later on you might not have the mana to do so.
-Lilana does not need to be above 3 loyalty to be awesome. I think it is very important to realize that just having her on the field to prevent your opponent from playing one is huge. I only up her past 3 when I know the card I am discarding is garbage (extra land or a dead doom blade) or is part of your card advantage engine.
-Sometimes when you play Alchemy you need to chose the land. It might be sad letting that mana leak or sphinx go into your yard but if you cannot miss a land drop before turn 6-7.
SB Plan: (AKA SOMETIMES YOU GOTTA BLUFF MANA LEAK)
u/x decks (Genreal)
-3 lilana's
+3 negates
Solar Flare (General)
-3 lilana's
-3 despise
+3 negates
+3 spell bombs
Sometimes you'll need the extra black sun or doom blade depending on what they have so you need to practice it out and be able to call what they have in their list. I found myself not being able to beat an image copying my own grave titan so I swamped them with batterskull.
Rdw (and aggro decks)
-3 dissipate
-4 mana leaks
-2 Sphinx
+3 mental mistep
+1 Doom Blade
+2 Dismember
+2 batterskull
+1 black sun zenith
RDW is the only match up I wish I had white. O-rings help about against koth and shrines. The way I have the deck built you just kill out their creatures until you drop something and try to out race them. Koth and shrines are imune to this type of attack. I think both times I beat RDW I was a turn away from losing to a shrine. Remember snapcaster can't block noble. That cost me some practice games in-between rounds. Just 1:1 with snapcaster is fine because you are trying to get to the late game, where you have the advantage. That means for the most part 1:1 is value because you generally can win a stalemate/ top deck war with your more powerful spells and card advantage engine.
Why no koth?
gulp. I wish they posted the lists already. I would have liked to get some coverage.
I played 3.
That was the first deck I beat in the top 8.
I think I beat everyone one of those in the room. Shape anew, doom blade in resp. I was a fan of your deck though.
What were you running? Shape Anew? I only had three lil's in my deck.
I did split the finals. What are you talking about. Well I conceded cause Tim was in the running for the team prize and I was not. We split the winnings
My List:
4 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Think Twice
4 Mana Leak
2 Grave Titan
3 Dissipate
2 Black Sun's Zenith
3 Liliana of the Veil
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Inkmoth Nexus
6 Swamp
8 Island
3 Doom Blade
2 Consecrated Sphinx
3 Despise
Sideboard
3 Negate
3 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Doom Blade
2 Dismember
2 Batterskull
Still don't know if I like batterskull or wurmcoil better.
deck list?
rofl....goblin guide >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> then spell pierce. The problem with the match up is the ammount of toons they spit out.
I would suggest disfigure.
This statement is wrong. I love you neo but it is just wrong. Our counters are two slow (now working on turn one) and the discard doesn't hit creatures. Turn one plays are the way to go.
When all there tokens a 2/2's cause of the lord you'll be real happy you played that pos card.
its the deck to beat
If you drop cannon on turn three. You most likely will kill something on turn 5 if you have keys. Red will have killed you by then or have 5+ toons on the feild.... we should test on mws.