Although I have only been playing this particular build for a few weeks, I've done a good deal of testing with it and t8d at one of the California p9 tournies. Stax is indeed a terrible matchup, as your mana is very open to them, and chalice hurts, badly. To deal with random chalices I play 1 md Chain of Vapor, as there aren't enough chalices to justify more locally. If there were more of a presence of chalices and other such hate, I would reccomend mding Hurkyl's Recall, as it evades chalice for 1, which will happen. For the ocasional stax matchup I sideboard 3 Hurkyl's Recall and 2 Elvish Spirit Guide, relying on the time-honored tradition of waiting to recall at the opponents EOT and go off. Although this by no means allows stax to be a good matchup, it does give you a fighting chance. If you're worrying about stax in your meta, I'd consider a different deck, myself.
As for a sideboard, I've found that disruption in the form of Cabal Therapy is very strong, so far it's better than Duress, but I haven't decided for certain. Running a mini-toolbox of "trinkets" has worked wonders for me, with the Trinket Mages combining with the already large tutor count to find them early and often. For this I use 1-3 Tormod's Crypt, depending on metagame, 1 Pithing Needle, and sometimes 1 Engineered Explosives, again based on metagame. If combo is very prevalent I've found Stifle to be an excellent SB card, as it comes out of nowhere and basically seals the game for you. In a more drain-heavy meta Abeyance as a 1-2 of has worked well, throwing off your opponents gameplan dramatically, whether played pre-combo or even mid-combo. In my testing I've found Shattering Spree to be surprisingly sub-par in Man Plan, often not willing to invest the red mana. Other SB choices are very meta-dependant, and such cards as Balance, Duress, Seal of Cleansing, more bounce, more Elvish Spirit Guides, Darksteel Colossus, Sundering Titan, and surprisingly even Force of Will can fill the remaining slots.
Hope this helps, and this is an amazing deck, very explosive and consistant.
Hey there, sorry I haven't been posting, this was finals week, and my internet was down, so I was pretty screwed for being online. Also, congrats Athani, you move on to round 2 of the contest!
This was given out at GP Osaka, and I'm reasonably sure that you guys haven't seen it yet. Credit to Macone from magiclibrary.net for the find! (Mods: if this isn't new please delete/merge this, thanks!)
Things like this make me happy, maybe there are good points about living in an area with almost no players except noobs... I still don't like the new card face though, so I'll probably be trading any I get for the originals...
To me the fate of this card is based on whether it has trample or not. If it doesn't then I don't feel it will have any real impact on constructed, but if it does I see it as quite powerful. Here's hoping for Treetop Villages v2.0!
Hmm, I'd say that nothing here really stands out to me, except possibly the new Winter Orb. The shoals are looking pretty sad from the blue and red ones, IMO. I wonder if the new Orb will be good enough to be used in t2...
If only t2 wasn't dominated by stupid decks such as Ravager, then such a cool flavorful card might actaully see use, oh well. Also, congrats WOTC, I'm pretty sure that's the worst name ever put on a card!
LOL, I went nuts when I first saw the blue shoal, I had read it as "unless they pay X". This led me to the immidiate response of going insane and drooling. Then I read a post calling it crap, reread it, and felt like someone tore out my spleen. So much for good blue....
The avatar you made looks great, but the only thing is, its supposed to say "CAT" singular, rather than plural, if you could fix that I'd really appreciate it, thanks! (Popoki is Hawaiian for Cat, in case you were wondering!)
Whenever I view a thread every post shows up twice, right above the original, and it wasn't like this earlier today, what did I do and how can I fix it, this is annoying!
As for a sideboard, I've found that disruption in the form of Cabal Therapy is very strong, so far it's better than Duress, but I haven't decided for certain. Running a mini-toolbox of "trinkets" has worked wonders for me, with the Trinket Mages combining with the already large tutor count to find them early and often. For this I use 1-3 Tormod's Crypt, depending on metagame, 1 Pithing Needle, and sometimes 1 Engineered Explosives, again based on metagame. If combo is very prevalent I've found Stifle to be an excellent SB card, as it comes out of nowhere and basically seals the game for you. In a more drain-heavy meta Abeyance as a 1-2 of has worked well, throwing off your opponents gameplan dramatically, whether played pre-combo or even mid-combo. In my testing I've found Shattering Spree to be surprisingly sub-par in Man Plan, often not willing to invest the red mana. Other SB choices are very meta-dependant, and such cards as Balance, Duress, Seal of Cleansing, more bounce, more Elvish Spirit Guides, Darksteel Colossus, Sundering Titan, and surprisingly even Force of Will can fill the remaining slots.
Hope this helps, and this is an amazing deck, very explosive and consistant.
WINNERS:
Plainswalker
5kyh16h91
Athani
Planesjaywalker
TIES:
Zirlian and RickCorgan
The Full Results:
1:
Zirlian (TIE)
None Submitted
-Creativity 0/5
-Wording 0/5
-Flavor 0/5
-Round Fulfillment 0/5
-Bonus 0/5
TOTAL: -20
VS
RickCorgan (TIE)
None Submitted
-Creativity 0/5
-Wording 0/5
-Flavor 0/5
-Round Fulfillment 0/5
-Bonus 0/5
TOTAL: -20
2:
Plainswalker (WINNER)
X minus Cycle
-Creativity 4/5
-Wording 3/5
-Flavor 4/5
-Round Fulfillment 5/5
-Bonus 0/5
TOTAL: 16
VS
GPM
None Submitted
-Creativity 0/5
-Wording 0/5
-Flavor 0/5
-Round Fulfillment 0/5
-Bonus 0/5
TOTAL: -20
3:
5kyh16h91 (WINNER)
Blessing Cycle
-Creativity 5/5
-Wording 5/5
-Flavor 4/5
-Round Fulfillment 5/5
-Bonus 1/5
TOTAL: 20
VS
Cantripmancer
Time Cycle
-Creativity 5/5
-Wording 4/5
-Flavor 4/5
-Round Fulfillment 5/5
-Bonus 1/5
TOTAL: 19
4:
Gerg
Lash Cycle
-Creativity 4/5
-Wording 2/5
-Flavor 5/5
-Round Fulfillment 3/5
-Bonus 1/5
TOTAL: 7
VS
Athani (WINNER)
Enemy Color Winds Cycle
-Creativity 4/5
-Wording 5/5
-Flavor 4/5
-Round Fulfillment 5/5
-Bonus 1/5
TOTAL: 19
5:
Planesjaywalker (WINNER)
Tsubo Cycle
-Creativity 5/5
-Wording 4/5
-Flavor 5/5
-Round Fulfillment 5/5
-Bonus 2/5
TOTAL: 21
VS
Landkiller
None Submitted
-Creativity 0/5
-Wording 0/5
-Flavor 0/5
-Round Fulfillment 0/5
-Bonus 0/5
TOTAL: -20