Hello, has anyone tested Trophy Mage?
It could get a Bridge (or a Crucible), providing also a chumpblock.
It could also fit in a blue version of the deck that plays also Whir of Invention
We could play just a couple of Mages and lower the number of Bridges.
Hi, congratulations for your GP result!
And thanks for the primer, I was looking for a working emerge deck and this is surely working.
I will try this deck tomorrow in a small local tournament.
Could you give some advice about the sideboard, and if you are satisfied with it or if you would change something?
Thanks for the suggestion, I might try it.
The only thing I don'like about Courser of Kruphix is that it shows your opponent what you draw,
so if they Thougthseized you (or played Vendilion Clique, or Inquisition of Kozilek, etc.) they basically know exactly what you have in your hand.
Tonight I will attend to another small local tournament and I think I will play 2 Finks instead of the 2 Regal Forces.
I will probably try to adapt the sideboard to the decks seen at Valencia: I'm considering Choke, Krosan Grip, and a Boseiju for the sideboard, but I'm still unsure.
Hello everybody, yesterday I went 4-1 at a local FNM (Bologna, Italy) and I just wanted to share my experience.
Here's my decklist, you will notice some personal choices:
As you can see I play Tooth and Nail instead of Genesis Wave, because I've found that usually it's enough to win: you just get the 2 Craterhoof Behemoth on the board and go for lethal.
Sure: Genesis Wave usually grants a more crowded board and so gives a bigger bonus to your Behemots, but during my playtesting I've found that there were many times I could get only to 9 or 10 mana, so I could cast only a "small" wave. Tooth and Nail, on the other hand, guarantees that you always get your 2 Behemots.
Because I didn't play the Waves I also removed the Witnesses and the Shamans.
You will also notice that I played 4 Angel's Grace in the side: in my opinion it's the only effective answer we have against combo decks (Pod, Twins, Scapeshift, Storm...) that could kill us before we go off. The plan is to have an Angel's Grace in hand when they combo off: you will end at 1 life and usually they don't have any other means to kill you (at least not in that turn, and usually thay have depleted their resources), and you get an extra turn to assemble your combo.
Here's a brief recap of the matches:
Round 1: VS. RG TRON
G1: I started with some acceleration, then cast a couple of Geists while he managed to assemble is Tron on turn 3 and used it to cast Oblivion Stone, but did'nt have the mana to blow it. On turn 4 I played Nyktos, Garruk and proceeded to win with Tooth and Nail into 2 Behemots
G2: Pretty Much the same, but this time he had 1 more mana and I had 1 Geist and 1 Ooze. If I remember well he did blow the Oblivion Stone, but obviously my guys were still around and in the next turn I played again Nyktos into Garruk into Tooth and Nails for the win.
1-0
Round 2: vs. UWR (with Geist of St. Traft)
G1: I played some acceleration, and a Selkie. On his 3rd turn he tapped out to play a Geist of Saint Traft, so on my 4th turn I could cast double Sylvan Scrying to get Nyktos and Ghost Quarter (because he had a Celestial Colonnade on the board).
On the following turn he attacked with the Geist and I blocked with the Selkie, so he tapped out again to Electrolyze my Selkie and save his Geist. During my turn I played Garruk and managed to get 9 Mana to cast T&N for the win.
G2: I sided in 2 Thrun. I didn't remember well this game: I believe he started with Vendilion Clique + Geist while I cast something I don't remember (I believe an Elf and an Ooze). After a couple of turns I was able to assemble 12 Mana and went for T&N: he had just Mana Leak, so I paid the 3 mana and resolved it: my Behemots finished the game.
2-0
Round 3: vs. Scapeshift
G1: I started fast with a Strangleroot, an Utopia Sprawl and an Elf, while he was assembling his lands. On turn 4 of 5 I managed to assemble 8 mana, cast a Garruk that he Remanded and I cast again. I used Garruk to untap Nyktos and an Utopia-enhanted forest to get 8 mana again, then hardcast a Beehemoth from my hand and win.
G2: I sided in 4 Angel's Grace and hoped for the best. But I didn't started fast and was a bit flooded on lands, so he had time to assemble his combo and kill me on turn 6.
G3: I mulled to 6 and kept an hand with Angel's Grace and 2 Geists. I started out fast attacking with both Geists, but he ad 2 search for tomorrow and managed to play a Wurmcoil Engine on turn 4 or 5, so my race plan went out of the window... I didn't had answers in my deck to the Wurmcoil, so my only chance was to assemble my combo, but I didn't drew any pieces and died to the wurmcoil.
2-1
Round 4: vs. Jund
G1: if I remember well I put in some early damage with a Strangleroot Geist and then won on the back of a Predator Ooze that his deck couldn't manage.
G2: I sided in 3 Decay and 2 Thrun. He started with Thoughtseize and forced me to discard an Ooze, then I played a couple of Geists that deal some damage. He played a Chandra, Pyromaster and managed to get rid of my Geists while also played Courser of Kruphix and a Tarmogoyf. But at that time I had Garruk and a couple of Oozes. He managed to kill my Garruk, meanwhile I was attacking with the oozes to grow them. I Finally was able to kill Chandra and played another Garruk, while he had 2 Courser and a Goyf on his side. I stopped attacking for a turn in order to get 4 loyalty counters on Garruk, then attacked the next turn giving overrun to my 2 Oozes, so they were an 8/8 and a 7/7, and he was at 13. He blocked with both Courser and was at 6 life. So he had a lone Goyf (5/6) and a Thoughtseize in hand, While I had my 2 Oozes and an elf.
He drew nothing relevant the next turn, so I won again on the back of my Oozes.
3-1
Round 5: vs Zoo
G1: He mulled and keep an hand with only 1 land, started with a Nacatl and didn't drew another land for 2 turns, so played a Kird Ape, bolted a Selkie but didn't really put enough pressure. Meanwhile I assembled my board and was able to cast T&N for the win.
G2: I sided in only the 3 decays. He started out too fast this time and on turn 4 I had 3 elves, one enchanted forest and a Visionary on my side while being at only 9 life. He attacked and I could block only one of his 3 creatures with my visionary hoping to survive and going off the next turn powered by my 3 elves, but he had a Ghor-Clan Rampager to deal exactly lethal to me.
G3: This time I sided also the 3 Obstinate Baloths. This was the most memorable game of the tournament, where my deck showed to me that I must play it with faith.
He had 5 critters: Nacatl, Kird Ape, Lion and 1 Goyf tapped, and another Goyf untapped). I was a little above 10 life and had Selkie and Nyktos on the board while holding Garruk, Behemot and a Decay in hand.
I drew a visionary and started doing the maths... I could manage to cast Garruk and Behemoth but not the Visionary if I wanted to keep 2 mana open to cast Decay, so I could deal only 11 damages (he was at 14).
I could cast the Visionary instead of the decay: it would have meant 14 damage from Behemot + Selkie, but he could block with the goyf and survive.
Or I could just cast the creatures and pass the turn without attacking, but I Probably would die anyway if he drew a damage spell or a Ghor-Clan Rampager.
Basically I needed one more creature to buff the Behemot's bonus enough to pass through the Goyf...
So I choose to trust the deck and:
- played Garruk
- untapped and played Visionary (should have done the other way around)
- drew a Selkie out of the Visionary!
- played Selkie
- drew another Garruk out of the Selkie!
- played the second Garruk
- untapped and got plenty of mana to cast both Behemoth and Decay on his Goyf
- attack for 15 damage and win!
Final result 4-1 (ranked 4th)
Some thoughts:
- the Oozes and the Geists overperformed, winning games on their own.
- T&N really seems the way to go for me: the deck surely is not as spectacular as whit the Waves, but it's more consistent in my opinion.
- Regal Forces are not really needed in this version, I probably will play 2 Finks or some other form of acceleration (too bad Wild Growth isn't legal in Modern!)
- Maybe I should play some form of better removal for artifacts and enchantments, something that could manage Wurmcoil Engines... Perhaps Unravel the Aether?
Thanks for reading so far, comments and suggestions are welcome!
I really want to add 2-3Elvish Spirit Guide to the deck to make it faster (i don't really like Chrome Mox much). I also would like to add a second Mirri's Guile but I don't know what to take out for these cards. I do not think that I need 2 O. Rings, City of Solitude, Runed Halo, and Ground Seal all in the maindeck, but i don't know which of these to keep as a one-of and which to move to sideboard. thanks for any help
You may cut one Wild Growth in favor of a Mirri's Guile. I'm testing a list with only 3 Wild Growths and is performing very well.
I'm not a big fan of Elvish Spirit Guide, but I believe that Chrome Mox is better, because it's a permanent mana source and if you draw it when you are comboing it's more useful than ESG.
Even Lotus Petal would be better than ESG, at least you can get white or red mana if you need it.
Aside from that, your list seems pretty good to me. Maybe I would try 1 Sacred Mesa and 1 Sigil of the Empty Throne instead of 2 Sigils, so you are less vulnerable to Cranial Extraction.
Just out of curiosity, why is Worldly Tutor being discussed? 3 WT to find 4 Enchantress? What is wrong with the 8 MD Enchantress effects?
Well, usually we must mulligan the opening hands without Enchantresses (Argothian or Presence), and we have only 8 Enchantresses.
3 Worldly Tutor raise to 11 the cards that lets us keep the initial hand.
Sure, we can also keep a hand with Sterling Grove, but this means that we cannot drop a drawing engine until turn 4.
Even if you already have 1 Argothian Enchantress in your initial hand you are happy to Worldly Tutor for another one, so you can drop an enchantress on turn 2 and another on turn 3.
I have played a list with 3 Worldly Tutor maindeck and placed first in a recent tournament.
In that deck I also played a single Vexing Shusher which I could tutor and it helped me greatly in some matches.
I wrote a report of that tournament here.
Now I'm working on a WGU version with Words of Wind, I'll post a list soon.
Please give Worldly Tutor a try, you won't be disappointed.
1) Is Island Sanctuary worth substituting in place of Moat. While I do want the real thing, I'm hesitant to invest $140 in a card I can only use effectively in this deck.
Nice idea. Also the Island Sanctuary has an additional bonus: you may skip forever your draw, so you cannot be decked and it's an auto-win against aggro decks that can't manage enchantments, like most goblin decks.
However I prefer to play 4 Solitary Confinement: it protects you from everything and you cannot be targeted.
2) Root Maze: is it useful? Seems intriguing in that it can slow their tempo while mildly affecting us. Not sure if it deserves deck space or not. At best a 1 (2 may be stretching it).
Forlorn Egoist
I will surely add some Root Mazes in my sideboard because I believe it's very good against ANT. It can give you the time to find and play the confinement.
Just curious too, as I'm still quite new to the enchantress deck(not used to the speed mostly), I saw a thread regarding the leylines which runs a similar enchantment deck.
Anyone care to explain what exactly is the difference? Other than I noticed one uses opalescence (enchantment march of machines) and the other combo.
I played a Karakas exactly against Iona, even though reanimator is not so played. But why not playing it: I mean, it's like a plains with a cool effect and it doesn't comes into play tapped.
Yes, if you play just one and your opponent has Iona into play you need to be very lucky to draw your only Karakas, but if you do... game over for him!
Hi guys, if you are so worried about Iona, why don't you play Karakas?
And we could also play Crop Rotation, that could help finding Serra's Sanctum when needed...
Just a thought.
Hi guys, I saw this interesting thread and would like to share my tournament experience.
Last sunday (13 december) I piloted my enchantress deck all the way to the final, where I split the prizes with the other finalist: we won 20 Zendikar Fetchlands, 4 Phyrexian Dreadnought, 4 Noble Hierarch and 4 Dark confidant, which we split evenly. If you want to take a look at the other prizes follow this link (it's in italian, but should be clear enough).
The tournament attendance was 61 people, so I played 6 round of swiss (I went 5-1) and the top 8.
My build was a classic W/G Enchantress with some minor adjustments.
Here's my decklist:
As you can see I expected a not-so-aggro field (that's why I played just 1 Elephant Grass Maindeck), so I tried this build.
Here is some card choice explanation:
- 3 Worldly Tutor allowed me to keep hands in which I didn't had the Enchantresses, or to be sure to draw a second one. It was also useful to call the mono Vexing Shusher I played maindeck.
- Vexing Shusher: as I said I expected many control matchups and this guy really owns control decks. When I cast Worldly Tutor in their EOT usually the control players let it resolve, only to realize that they won't be able to counter what I tutored for.
- 2 Suppression Field: this is very good against Sensei's Divining Top, Rishadan Port, Wasteland, Enginereed Explosives, Pernicious Deed, the fetchlands, and a lot more cards very played in T1.5
I expected to face many decks based around SDT and/or other artifacts, so I thought that 2 Suppression Field could replace a couple of Elephant Grass maindeck.
- Only 1 Savannah and 1 Taiga? Yes, because an early Wasteland on an enchanted land could ruin your day, and also because Back to Basics and Price of progress are very popular here...
- Karakas: I included this at the last moment: It's an uncounterable answer to Iona and other possible legendary creatures I could face.
- Sigil of the Empty Throne: my main victory condition, it allowed me to win with my Super Sexy Angel tokens! If you are curious here are the pictures (all made by myself and my friend Photoshop): http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/6913/tokenangel4.jpg http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/7082/tokenangel2.jpg http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/3392/tokenangel1.jpg http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/6229/tokenangel3.jpg
Ok, now some notes about the matches:
Round 1: vs Maicol Cutrì (B/G/W control)
The 1st game was pretty ridicolous: he kept a 1 land hand, duressed me something then I drew almost nothing while he was stuck at 1 land for many turns. When he finally started drawing lands I was still with nothing relevant in play (no Enchantresses or ways to tutor one), so he won pretty easy.
Game 2 and 3 I started out well with my Enchantresses: in game 2 he managed to reset the board, but I had replenish and he conceeded, in game 3 I had Karmic Justice out early and He couldn't reset the board without losing all his permanents. 1-0
Round 2: vs Andrea Girgenti (Canadian Threshold)
He opened a 1-land hand, but had brainstorm and many good cards, so he choose to keep it. I mulliganed to 6 because I didn't have any Enchantress or tutors for them. My 6-card hand was very good, so I kept it.
He started with a land and a brainstorm in my EOT. In his next turn, however, he didn't play lands and passed.
I played Argothian Enchantress but he had Spell Snare waiting.
He drew and passed, still with only 1 land in play.
Next turn I played Sterling Grove, which resolved, then in his EOT sacrificed it, but he had Stifle (he was still stuck on 1 land).
I untapped, played my 4th land and an Enchantress's presence, but he had Force of Will.
I can't remember if he countered something more, but eventually I resolved an Argothian Enchantress I tutored for, then when he started drawing some lands it was too late for him to recover.
Game 2 he starts beating me with a Tarmogoyf and I draw nothing useful, so he win quickly.
Game 3 I play around his daze, resolving an early enchantress leaving 1 mana open. Then I started drawing for everything I cast and he cannot counter all my threaths. 2-0
Round 3: vs Gabriele Barbarossa (A.N.T.)
Game 1: I did a bad mistake: I saw an Underground Sea, a Tundra and a sensei's divining top and didn't realized he was playing ANT. I thought he was playing some kind of control deck and was quite happy to answer his top with a Suppression Field. He played some lands and started using the top, while I had an Enchantress and a Sterling Grove I could have sacrificed to get a Solitary Confinement, but instead kept it on the table. When he started to play his 0-mana artifacts it was too late.
Game 2: he was able to combo out on turn 2 and I had just a suppression field on the board... 2-1
Round 4: vs Dario Nardi (B/W Kithkin)
Game 1: he starts out well with Goldmeadow Stalwart, Wizened Cenn and a couple of Dark Confidant, bringing me down to 2 life in few turns, but in the meanwhile I have started my engine and when I am at 2 life I have Sigil of the Empty Throne out and I topdeck my Elephant Grass, and I start making some Angel tokens to block his creatures. Next turn i tutor for a Solitary Confinement and it's game.
Game 2: I have 2 Enchantresses in play by turn 3 and in a couple of turns I am sealed in my Solitary Confinement while producing Angel Tokens for the win. 3-1
Round 5: vs Cristiano Zanca (some sort of Black Control)
This was a sad match for him, because he was extremely unlucky both games and I was really really lucky on game 2.
Game 1 I have a perfect hand, and even if he Tourachs me I start my drawing engine, while he draws only lands.
Game 2 I mulligan to 5, but I keep a hand with 2 Presences. He starts duressing one, then the other on turn 2. I have 3 forests in play and topdeck an Argothian Enchantress, but he has Innocent Blood. Then I topdeck another Enchantress, but I have non enchantments in hand and only green mana sources in play. In the meantime he draws only lands, so I eventually start drawing some enchantments and recover, while he floods.
Sorry for him, but now I'm 4-1
Round 6: vs Alessio Selvini (U/G Merfolk)
Alessio is a friend of mine, but we cannot I.D. because he's at 11 points. But I am happy anyway because the winner will make top 8.
Game 1: I play around his daze and I resolve and enchantress with 1 mana open. Then I start my engine and he can't kill me quickly enough with his merfolks.
Game 2: He play a turn 3 Trygon Predator, and my only answer could be an Oblivion Ring, but I don't draw it.
Game 3: turn one Utopia Sprawl, turn 2 Enchantress with 1 mana open for his Daze. He tries to put some pressure with a tarmogoyf, but it's not enough: some turn later I am confined and full of Angel Tokens. 5-1: I'm in Top 8! (and I'm 1st in the standings with 15 points!)
Quartefinal: vs Lorenzo Malucelli (Canadian Threshold)
Game 1: again I play around his daze to resolve an Enchantress, then i start drawing while he has not enough pressure to kill me.
Game 2: I mulligan to 6 and keep a bad hand (I didn't wanted to mullingan to 5, this turned out to be a mistake). He has a couple of Grim Lavamancers in play, while I'm in mana flood: I draw nothing else than lands and mana enchantments. I'm about to concede (even if I draw an Enchantress he will surely have the counter), when I draw Vexing Shusher. I play it, he reads it a couple of times and then plays Force of Will! I ask why he chosed to deal 1 damage to himself and discard a FOW, then he realizes his mistake.
But I really draw nothin for the rest of the game and he kills me with a tarmogoyf and the lavamancers.
Game 3: I keep a hand with enchantress and some white enchantments, but only green mana. I'm able to resolve the enchantress, but he realizes that I have only green mana available. I draw Utopia Sprawl, play it but he Forces.
Luckily in the next turn I draw a Fetch and start playing out my hand while he can't put enough pressure on me.
Semifinal: vs Simone Giovannetti (Canadian Threshold)
Simone is one of the best italian Legacy players, so I know that I cannot make any mistakes.
Game 1: again i play around Daze and I manage to resolve an Enchantress's Presence, while he draws few lands. After a few turns i have Sigil of Empty Throne on the table and more than 20 permanents, while he has a Tarmogoyf and only 2 lands. I ask him to concede, but he says he still has answers, so I must kill him with angel tokens.
Game 2: He starts out aggressively with 2 tarmogoyfs, but I have 2 Argothian Enchantress in play, so I draw a lot and eventually topdeck a Solitary Confinement. I'm very low, so I need the Confinement or he will kill me in a couple of turns, but I can't allow the Confinement to be countered, so I prefer to play a City of Solitude. The City resolves, but I fail to draw the necessary land to play also the confinement. I play a third Argothian and pass the turn.
In his turn he swings with the 2 goyfs for lethal damage, but guess what? I block with two argothians, then I lay down the confinement and proceed to win the game. I'm in the final! and I'm going to split!
Final thoughts: the deck has proven to be very solid, even against a non-aggro field. I definitely would recommend the Worldly tutors, while I'm not so sure about the Suppression fields.
We also need some answer to ANT, because it's too fast for us and we don't put any pressure, so it has all the time to make his combo.
I would like to thank the Tournament Organizer (Goblin Shop, in Bologna - Italy), the Judge (Lorenzo Andalò) and all my opponents for being very sportsmanlike.
And thanks to Alessandro Teneggi for agreeing to split in the final!
I really had lot of fun playing my favorite deck (and there was another in the top 8!)
Also I would like to say sorry to Simone Giovannetti for asking him to concede game 1: I was in a hurry, but this doesn't gave me the right to ask for a concession.
Hello everybody, here's my report as promised.
For the event I expected an aggro metagame, with many Jund and R/W, so I tuned KnighElite's list like this:
The meta was exactly as I predicted: I faced 3 Jund, 1 Vampire and 1 R/B Burn.
Now some consideration about the single cards:
-As you can see I opted for Spell Pierce instead of Negate because I wanted to combo as fast as possible without worrying about the eventual instant removal that my opponent could hold in his hand waiting for my Polymorph. But that didn't worked very well and I ended up siding them out every game.
- Ponder is a great addiction in my opinion: it helps you keeping doubtful hands and it's pretty good with the fetchlands.
- Goblin assault is a necessary card, but it didn't satisfied me much... I would like to play some other token producer but I don't think there are other options.
- Dragon Fodder is a key card and really helps against aggro decks.
- Conqueror's Pledge is probably the best token producer besides Elspeth and won me a game, but I think that 2 is the right number to play.
- Elspeth was the MVP of my deck and I should have played 4. She wins games by herself alone, especially if you cast your board sweepers, and she absorbs damage for you.
- Ajani Vengeant did its job, but rarely survives a couple of turns: usually you use it to helix something away and gain some life, then it dies absorbing some damage for you. Obviously this could be a real pain for opponents playing control, but against aggro it's "just" an OK card. I would still play it, but maybe we can find something better to put in this list.
- Earthquake and Day of Judgment are pretty good against aggro, but sometimes I sided the quakes out in favor of oblivion rings.
Now some note about the side:
- Sphinx of the Steel Wind is a tech specifically for the Jund matchup: the plan is winning the first game with Iona naming black, so they side in Thought Emorrhage and... surprise: there are no more Iona in my deck, but just a couple of unbeatable Sphinx waiting for them. Usually when you polymorph into a Sphinx they read it and realize that can't kill it, so they concede. If there is a third game to be played you can go with 1 Iona and 1 Sphinx in the deck.
It's true that Jund often has Deathmark in the side that could kill the Sphinx, but when you win the 1st game naming "black" with Iona they usually don't side in the deathmarks.
- Path to Exile: those should be definitely maindeck: I always sided those in every game.
- Oblivion Ring: Sided in often, mainly versus Garruk and other PW, but quite useful also for the thrinax.
- Swerve: vs control and, why not, Jund. But in the end I couldn't side in vs Jund because I usually sided the Sphinx, the paths and the oblivion rings.
- Luminarch Ascension and Jace were meant vs control deck, but I never faced one.
Now some note about the matches I played:
Round 1: vs Vampires (mono B)
Game one I won thanks to 12 tokens (6 soldiers and 6 goblins), after sweeping the board with DoJ. He was a bit unlucky with lands, but probably I would have won anyway because I had a strong hand.
I sided out the Spell Pierces for Paths and a couple of Oblivion Rings replaced Goblin Assault.
Game 2 he got the perfect curve: Lacerator, Hexmage, Nighthawk and Vampire Nocturnus, which I exiled, but then he drew another.
Game 3 I plymorphed into Iona at turn 4, he read the card and concede. 1-0
Round 2: vs Jund Game 1: I don't remember well, but I think I mulled to 5 and he won easily.
I sided in the paths and out the Spell Pierce. He did'nt saw my Ionas, so I kept them in the deck. Game 2: while he was tapped out I polymorphed into Iona, naming Black, he didn't conceded immediately but then I started making tokens with an Elspeth and swung with the Lady a couple of times to win.
Now I sided out both Ionas and put in the Sphinxes, expecting a Thought Emorrhage for my angels. Game 3: If i remember well he mulled down to 5. I controlled with DoJ then laid down Ajani, wich he bolted, then another Ajani and Elspeth, and he dind't found answers: so I destroyed all his lands with ajani and he conceeded. He was unlucky: after the mulligan he drew a lot of lands. 2-0
Round 3: vs Jund: Game 1: He started out with a Thrinax and a Bloodbraid Elf (which revealed a Lightning bolt to my face) and started attacking. Then he tapped out to play Garruk but I spell pierced it (the only time I used Spell pierce).
I had Goblin assault in play. In my following turn I drew Day of judgment, but i also was holding Polymorph, I was at 12 life. So I had this choice: Sweep the board now and wait the following turn to cast Polymorph, or cast it now and use Iona to block the next attacks.
A lightning bolt was already in his grave, so the probability that he held 2 more in his hand was low. If I cast DoJ then he untaps and probably I will never get the chance to play Polymorph safely, so I opted to cast it now.
The lady showed herself, naming black.
In his next turn he attacked with both creatures, the Thrinax and the Elf.
If he really held 2 lightning bolts in his hand and I dindn't blocked I would have taken 12 anyway, so I blocked on creature. Guess what? he casted 2 bolts on my angel, and won some turn later...
I sided out Iona, Spell Pierce, 2 Goblin Assault and 1 quake to put in the Sphinxes, the paths and the rings. Game 2: I polymorphed into a Sphinx on turn 4, he conceeded immediately.
I sided in 1 Iona and took out 1 Sphinx, to avoid a lethal Thought Hemorrhage Game 3: I mulled to 6 and got a bad start, while he started out aggro with a Leech and a couple of Elves. I didn't had any sweepers, I managed to cast Conqueror's Pledge to buy some time, but didn't drew anything useful. 2-1, but I left the table thinking that under normal circumstances I should have won the first game, so I was still very confident about the deck. 2-1
Round 4: vs Jund
This was the perfect game: game 1 Morphed into Iona, game 2 into Sphinx.
The opponent didn't sided in the Deathmarks because in the 1st game I called "black" with Iona. 3-1
Round 5 (final): vs R/B burn Game 1: I mulled to 5 and felt very bad, starting with Dragon Fodder, while he was beating me with a Goblin Guide and a Geopede, then drew Polymorph and Iona appeared, naming red. I backed up with Ajani and Elspeth, game over.
I sided in the Sphinxes for their lifelink ability, along with the usual paths, but left the rings in the side. I also sided out the Pledges. Game 2: I dont' remember well, but I mulled to 6 and he finished me quickly. Game 3: I mulled to 6, but he mulled to 4, was discouraged and wanted to concede. He was a friend, so I convinced him to try anyway.
He started with a Goblin Guide, after a couple of attacks I pathed it.
He tried an Hell's Thunder, but I pathed it, then he cast Bloodchief Ascension. I wasn't expecting it, so I didn't sided in the rings... mmmhh... bad news for me...
Meanwhile my draws were pretty bad: 3 Polymorph (without token generators) and a lot of lands... And I had a Sphinx sitting in my hand.
Well I just needed a token generator to play Polymorph, and in a couple of tuns I could hardcast the sphinx.
In three turns he was able to put 3 counters on his ascension, so now every card that hitted my graveyard was a shock for me.
I went very low, then I managed to gain 6 life with an Ajani before he dispatched it, then I finally hardcasted my Sphinx, dropping dangerously to 2.
Guess what? He was holding Deathmark in his hand...
Anyway I was happy for him because he's a friend and he couln't believe that he just won a game after a mulligan to 4. Hi think he learned something, and I too. 3-2
Final thoughts:
Well, the deck performed well in my opinion and I believe that I could have won a couple more games if not for a little bad luck.
I think that the paths should be maindeck and probably we don't really need counters.
Also I believe that Elspeth is by far the best token producer, so we should play 4X.
I would love a bit more deck manipulation: I was very happy with Ponder and I would find a way to put some Esper Charm maindeck.
Thanks everybody in this forum for the ideas about the deck and a special thanks to KnightElite for the list.
Sorry for my bad english, I'm not a native speaker (I'm Italian).
Hi everybody, yesterday i went 3-2 on a local tournament (28 players) with a deck very similar to the one posted by KnighElite (thanks for the list!).
Unfortunately now I don't have time to post a complete report and the decklist, but I'll do it as soon as possible.
All i can say for now is: I defeated 2 Jund and lost to a 3rd, I defeated a Vampire Deck and lost from a R/B aggro-burn.
I definitely liked the deck and the way it played: i won some games just with tokens an Planeswalkers, and the other games with Polymorph.
I also had a tech against Thought Hemorrage, I will explain it better in my next post.
Before leaving I wold like to thank everybody in this forum for the ideas and contributions to my list.
It could get a Bridge (or a Crucible), providing also a chumpblock.
It could also fit in a blue version of the deck that plays also Whir of Invention
We could play just a couple of Mages and lower the number of Bridges.
What do you think?
Thanks.
And thanks for the primer, I was looking for a working emerge deck and this is surely working.
I will try this deck tomorrow in a small local tournament.
Could you give some advice about the sideboard, and if you are satisfied with it or if you would change something?
Thanks again.
And I'm looking forward to read your report.
Thanks.
The only thing I don'like about Courser of Kruphix is that it shows your opponent what you draw,
so if they Thougthseized you (or played Vendilion Clique, or Inquisition of Kozilek, etc.) they basically know exactly what you have in your hand.
Tonight I will attend to another small local tournament and I think I will play 2 Finks instead of the 2 Regal Forces.
I will probably try to adapt the sideboard to the decks seen at Valencia: I'm considering Choke, Krosan Grip, and a Boseiju for the sideboard, but I'm still unsure.
Here's my decklist, you will notice some personal choices:
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Overgrown Tomb
2 Temple Garden
Creatures
4 Arbor Elf
2 Craterhoof Behemoth
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Wistful Selkie
4 Predator Ooze
4 Strangleroot Geist
2 Regal Force
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Sylvan Scrying
4 Tooth and Nail
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Obstinate Baloth
2 Seal of Primordium
1 Mistcutter Hydra
4 Angel's Grace
As you can see I play Tooth and Nail instead of Genesis Wave, because I've found that usually it's enough to win: you just get the 2 Craterhoof Behemoth on the board and go for lethal.
Sure: Genesis Wave usually grants a more crowded board and so gives a bigger bonus to your Behemots, but during my playtesting I've found that there were many times I could get only to 9 or 10 mana, so I could cast only a "small" wave. Tooth and Nail, on the other hand, guarantees that you always get your 2 Behemots.
Because I didn't play the Waves I also removed the Witnesses and the Shamans.
You will also notice that I played 4 Angel's Grace in the side: in my opinion it's the only effective answer we have against combo decks (Pod, Twins, Scapeshift, Storm...) that could kill us before we go off. The plan is to have an Angel's Grace in hand when they combo off: you will end at 1 life and usually they don't have any other means to kill you (at least not in that turn, and usually thay have depleted their resources), and you get an extra turn to assemble your combo.
Here's a brief recap of the matches:
Round 1: VS. RG TRON
G1: I started with some acceleration, then cast a couple of Geists while he managed to assemble is Tron on turn 3 and used it to cast Oblivion Stone, but did'nt have the mana to blow it. On turn 4 I played Nyktos, Garruk and proceeded to win with Tooth and Nail into 2 Behemots
G2: Pretty Much the same, but this time he had 1 more mana and I had 1 Geist and 1 Ooze. If I remember well he did blow the Oblivion Stone, but obviously my guys were still around and in the next turn I played again Nyktos into Garruk into Tooth and Nails for the win.
1-0
Round 2: vs. UWR (with Geist of St. Traft)
G1: I played some acceleration, and a Selkie. On his 3rd turn he tapped out to play a Geist of Saint Traft, so on my 4th turn I could cast double Sylvan Scrying to get Nyktos and Ghost Quarter (because he had a Celestial Colonnade on the board).
On the following turn he attacked with the Geist and I blocked with the Selkie, so he tapped out again to Electrolyze my Selkie and save his Geist. During my turn I played Garruk and managed to get 9 Mana to cast T&N for the win.
G2: I sided in 2 Thrun. I didn't remember well this game: I believe he started with Vendilion Clique + Geist while I cast something I don't remember (I believe an Elf and an Ooze). After a couple of turns I was able to assemble 12 Mana and went for T&N: he had just Mana Leak, so I paid the 3 mana and resolved it: my Behemots finished the game.
2-0
Round 3: vs. Scapeshift
G1: I started fast with a Strangleroot, an Utopia Sprawl and an Elf, while he was assembling his lands. On turn 4 of 5 I managed to assemble 8 mana, cast a Garruk that he Remanded and I cast again. I used Garruk to untap Nyktos and an Utopia-enhanted forest to get 8 mana again, then hardcast a Beehemoth from my hand and win.
G2: I sided in 4 Angel's Grace and hoped for the best. But I didn't started fast and was a bit flooded on lands, so he had time to assemble his combo and kill me on turn 6.
G3: I mulled to 6 and kept an hand with Angel's Grace and 2 Geists. I started out fast attacking with both Geists, but he ad 2 search for tomorrow and managed to play a Wurmcoil Engine on turn 4 or 5, so my race plan went out of the window... I didn't had answers in my deck to the Wurmcoil, so my only chance was to assemble my combo, but I didn't drew any pieces and died to the wurmcoil.
2-1
Round 4: vs. Jund
G1: if I remember well I put in some early damage with a Strangleroot Geist and then won on the back of a Predator Ooze that his deck couldn't manage.
G2: I sided in 3 Decay and 2 Thrun. He started with Thoughtseize and forced me to discard an Ooze, then I played a couple of Geists that deal some damage. He played a Chandra, Pyromaster and managed to get rid of my Geists while also played Courser of Kruphix and a Tarmogoyf. But at that time I had Garruk and a couple of Oozes. He managed to kill my Garruk, meanwhile I was attacking with the oozes to grow them. I Finally was able to kill Chandra and played another Garruk, while he had 2 Courser and a Goyf on his side. I stopped attacking for a turn in order to get 4 loyalty counters on Garruk, then attacked the next turn giving overrun to my 2 Oozes, so they were an 8/8 and a 7/7, and he was at 13. He blocked with both Courser and was at 6 life. So he had a lone Goyf (5/6) and a Thoughtseize in hand, While I had my 2 Oozes and an elf.
He drew nothing relevant the next turn, so I won again on the back of my Oozes.
3-1
Round 5: vs Zoo
G1: He mulled and keep an hand with only 1 land, started with a Nacatl and didn't drew another land for 2 turns, so played a Kird Ape, bolted a Selkie but didn't really put enough pressure. Meanwhile I assembled my board and was able to cast T&N for the win.
G2: I sided in only the 3 decays. He started out too fast this time and on turn 4 I had 3 elves, one enchanted forest and a Visionary on my side while being at only 9 life. He attacked and I could block only one of his 3 creatures with my visionary hoping to survive and going off the next turn powered by my 3 elves, but he had a Ghor-Clan Rampager to deal exactly lethal to me.
G3: This time I sided also the 3 Obstinate Baloths. This was the most memorable game of the tournament, where my deck showed to me that I must play it with faith.
He had 5 critters: Nacatl, Kird Ape, Lion and 1 Goyf tapped, and another Goyf untapped). I was a little above 10 life and had Selkie and Nyktos on the board while holding Garruk, Behemot and a Decay in hand.
I drew a visionary and started doing the maths... I could manage to cast Garruk and Behemoth but not the Visionary if I wanted to keep 2 mana open to cast Decay, so I could deal only 11 damages (he was at 14).
I could cast the Visionary instead of the decay: it would have meant 14 damage from Behemot + Selkie, but he could block with the goyf and survive.
Or I could just cast the creatures and pass the turn without attacking, but I Probably would die anyway if he drew a damage spell or a Ghor-Clan Rampager.
Basically I needed one more creature to buff the Behemot's bonus enough to pass through the Goyf...
So I choose to trust the deck and:
- played Garruk
- untapped and played Visionary (should have done the other way around)
- drew a Selkie out of the Visionary!
- played Selkie
- drew another Garruk out of the Selkie!
- played the second Garruk
- untapped and got plenty of mana to cast both Behemoth and Decay on his Goyf
- attack for 15 damage and win!
Final result 4-1 (ranked 4th)
Some thoughts:
- the Oozes and the Geists overperformed, winning games on their own.
- T&N really seems the way to go for me: the deck surely is not as spectacular as whit the Waves, but it's more consistent in my opinion.
- Regal Forces are not really needed in this version, I probably will play 2 Finks or some other form of acceleration (too bad Wild Growth isn't legal in Modern!)
- Maybe I should play some form of better removal for artifacts and enchantments, something that could manage Wurmcoil Engines... Perhaps Unravel the Aether?
Thanks for reading so far, comments and suggestions are welcome!
You may cut one Wild Growth in favor of a Mirri's Guile. I'm testing a list with only 3 Wild Growths and is performing very well.
I'm not a big fan of Elvish Spirit Guide, but I believe that Chrome Mox is better, because it's a permanent mana source and if you draw it when you are comboing it's more useful than ESG.
Even Lotus Petal would be better than ESG, at least you can get white or red mana if you need it.
Aside from that, your list seems pretty good to me. Maybe I would try 1 Sacred Mesa and 1 Sigil of the Empty Throne instead of 2 Sigils, so you are less vulnerable to Cranial Extraction.
Just my two cents...
Well, usually we must mulligan the opening hands without Enchantresses (Argothian or Presence), and we have only 8 Enchantresses.
3 Worldly Tutor raise to 11 the cards that lets us keep the initial hand.
Sure, we can also keep a hand with Sterling Grove, but this means that we cannot drop a drawing engine until turn 4.
Even if you already have 1 Argothian Enchantress in your initial hand you are happy to Worldly Tutor for another one, so you can drop an enchantress on turn 2 and another on turn 3.
I have played a list with 3 Worldly Tutor maindeck and placed first in a recent tournament.
In that deck I also played a single Vexing Shusher which I could tutor and it helped me greatly in some matches.
I wrote a report of that tournament here.
Now I'm working on a WGU version with Words of Wind, I'll post a list soon.
Please give Worldly Tutor a try, you won't be disappointed.
Nice idea. Also the Island Sanctuary has an additional bonus: you may skip forever your draw, so you cannot be decked and it's an auto-win against aggro decks that can't manage enchantments, like most goblin decks.
However I prefer to play 4 Solitary Confinement: it protects you from everything and you cannot be targeted.
I will surely add some Root Mazes in my sideboard because I believe it's very good against ANT. It can give you the time to find and play the confinement.
Just my thoughts.
Silvio
I'm the one who played this and placed first. You can read my report and my thoughts about the deck in this post (it was in the previous page):
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showpost.php?p=4723993&postcount=102
Hope it will be of some help...
Silvio
Hi, I'm the one who placed first in a local tournament, in the previous page is my report:
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showpost.php?p=4723993&postcount=102
I played a Karakas exactly against Iona, even though reanimator is not so played. But why not playing it: I mean, it's like a plains with a cool effect and it doesn't comes into play tapped.
Yes, if you play just one and your opponent has Iona into play you need to be very lucky to draw your only Karakas, but if you do... game over for him!
And we could also play Crop Rotation, that could help finding Serra's Sanctum when needed...
Just a thought.
Silvio
Last sunday (13 december) I piloted my enchantress deck all the way to the final, where I split the prizes with the other finalist: we won 20 Zendikar Fetchlands, 4 Phyrexian Dreadnought, 4 Noble Hierarch and 4 Dark confidant, which we split evenly. If you want to take a look at the other prizes follow this link (it's in italian, but should be clear enough).
The tournament attendance was 61 people, so I played 6 round of swiss (I went 5-1) and the top 8.
My build was a classic W/G Enchantress with some minor adjustments.
Here's my decklist:
4 Argothian Enchantress
4 Enchantress's Presence
4 Wild Growth
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Sterling Grove
3 Solitary Confinement
2 Suppression Field
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Exploration
1 Aura of Silence
1 Karmic Justice
1 Elephant Grass
1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
1 Words of War
3 Worldly Tutor
1 Vexing Shusher
4 Windswept Heath
2 Serra's Sanctum
1 Savannah
1 Taiga
1 Karakas
3 Plains
9 Forest
3 City of Solitude
3 Elephant Grass
3 Wheel of Sun and Moon
2 Aura of Silence
1 Suppression Field
2 Karmic Justice
1 Solitary Confinement
As you can see I expected a not-so-aggro field (that's why I played just 1 Elephant Grass Maindeck), so I tried this build.
Here is some card choice explanation:
- 3 Worldly Tutor allowed me to keep hands in which I didn't had the Enchantresses, or to be sure to draw a second one. It was also useful to call the mono Vexing Shusher I played maindeck.
- Vexing Shusher: as I said I expected many control matchups and this guy really owns control decks. When I cast Worldly Tutor in their EOT usually the control players let it resolve, only to realize that they won't be able to counter what I tutored for.
- 2 Suppression Field: this is very good against Sensei's Divining Top, Rishadan Port, Wasteland, Enginereed Explosives, Pernicious Deed, the fetchlands, and a lot more cards very played in T1.5
I expected to face many decks based around SDT and/or other artifacts, so I thought that 2 Suppression Field could replace a couple of Elephant Grass maindeck.
- Only 1 Savannah and 1 Taiga? Yes, because an early Wasteland on an enchanted land could ruin your day, and also because Back to Basics and Price of progress are very popular here...
- Karakas: I included this at the last moment: It's an uncounterable answer to Iona and other possible legendary creatures I could face.
- Sigil of the Empty Throne: my main victory condition, it allowed me to win with my Super Sexy Angel tokens! If you are curious here are the pictures (all made by myself and my friend Photoshop):
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/6913/tokenangel4.jpg
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/7082/tokenangel2.jpg
http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/3392/tokenangel1.jpg
http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/6229/tokenangel3.jpg
Ok, now some notes about the matches:
Round 1: vs Maicol Cutrì (B/G/W control)
The 1st game was pretty ridicolous: he kept a 1 land hand, duressed me something then I drew almost nothing while he was stuck at 1 land for many turns. When he finally started drawing lands I was still with nothing relevant in play (no Enchantresses or ways to tutor one), so he won pretty easy.
Game 2 and 3 I started out well with my Enchantresses: in game 2 he managed to reset the board, but I had replenish and he conceeded, in game 3 I had Karmic Justice out early and He couldn't reset the board without losing all his permanents.
1-0
Round 2: vs Andrea Girgenti (Canadian Threshold)
He opened a 1-land hand, but had brainstorm and many good cards, so he choose to keep it. I mulliganed to 6 because I didn't have any Enchantress or tutors for them. My 6-card hand was very good, so I kept it.
He started with a land and a brainstorm in my EOT. In his next turn, however, he didn't play lands and passed.
I played Argothian Enchantress but he had Spell Snare waiting.
He drew and passed, still with only 1 land in play.
Next turn I played Sterling Grove, which resolved, then in his EOT sacrificed it, but he had Stifle (he was still stuck on 1 land).
I untapped, played my 4th land and an Enchantress's presence, but he had Force of Will.
I can't remember if he countered something more, but eventually I resolved an Argothian Enchantress I tutored for, then when he started drawing some lands it was too late for him to recover.
Game 2 he starts beating me with a Tarmogoyf and I draw nothing useful, so he win quickly.
Game 3 I play around his daze, resolving an early enchantress leaving 1 mana open. Then I started drawing for everything I cast and he cannot counter all my threaths.
2-0
Round 3: vs Gabriele Barbarossa (A.N.T.)
Game 1: I did a bad mistake: I saw an Underground Sea, a Tundra and a sensei's divining top and didn't realized he was playing ANT. I thought he was playing some kind of control deck and was quite happy to answer his top with a Suppression Field. He played some lands and started using the top, while I had an Enchantress and a Sterling Grove I could have sacrificed to get a Solitary Confinement, but instead kept it on the table. When he started to play his 0-mana artifacts it was too late.
Game 2: he was able to combo out on turn 2 and I had just a suppression field on the board...
2-1
Round 4: vs Dario Nardi (B/W Kithkin)
Game 1: he starts out well with Goldmeadow Stalwart, Wizened Cenn and a couple of Dark Confidant, bringing me down to 2 life in few turns, but in the meanwhile I have started my engine and when I am at 2 life I have Sigil of the Empty Throne out and I topdeck my Elephant Grass, and I start making some Angel tokens to block his creatures. Next turn i tutor for a Solitary Confinement and it's game.
Game 2: I have 2 Enchantresses in play by turn 3 and in a couple of turns I am sealed in my Solitary Confinement while producing Angel Tokens for the win.
3-1
Round 5: vs Cristiano Zanca (some sort of Black Control)
This was a sad match for him, because he was extremely unlucky both games and I was really really lucky on game 2.
Game 1 I have a perfect hand, and even if he Tourachs me I start my drawing engine, while he draws only lands.
Game 2 I mulligan to 5, but I keep a hand with 2 Presences. He starts duressing one, then the other on turn 2. I have 3 forests in play and topdeck an Argothian Enchantress, but he has Innocent Blood. Then I topdeck another Enchantress, but I have non enchantments in hand and only green mana sources in play. In the meantime he draws only lands, so I eventually start drawing some enchantments and recover, while he floods.
Sorry for him, but now I'm
4-1
Round 6: vs Alessio Selvini (U/G Merfolk)
Alessio is a friend of mine, but we cannot I.D. because he's at 11 points. But I am happy anyway because the winner will make top 8.
Game 1: I play around his daze and I resolve and enchantress with 1 mana open. Then I start my engine and he can't kill me quickly enough with his merfolks.
Game 2: He play a turn 3 Trygon Predator, and my only answer could be an Oblivion Ring, but I don't draw it.
Game 3: turn one Utopia Sprawl, turn 2 Enchantress with 1 mana open for his Daze. He tries to put some pressure with a tarmogoyf, but it's not enough: some turn later I am confined and full of Angel Tokens.
5-1: I'm in Top 8! (and I'm 1st in the standings with 15 points!)
Quartefinal: vs Lorenzo Malucelli (Canadian Threshold)
Game 1: again I play around his daze to resolve an Enchantress, then i start drawing while he has not enough pressure to kill me.
Game 2: I mulligan to 6 and keep a bad hand (I didn't wanted to mullingan to 5, this turned out to be a mistake). He has a couple of Grim Lavamancers in play, while I'm in mana flood: I draw nothing else than lands and mana enchantments. I'm about to concede (even if I draw an Enchantress he will surely have the counter), when I draw Vexing Shusher. I play it, he reads it a couple of times and then plays Force of Will! I ask why he chosed to deal 1 damage to himself and discard a FOW, then he realizes his mistake.
But I really draw nothin for the rest of the game and he kills me with a tarmogoyf and the lavamancers.
Game 3: I keep a hand with enchantress and some white enchantments, but only green mana. I'm able to resolve the enchantress, but he realizes that I have only green mana available. I draw Utopia Sprawl, play it but he Forces.
Luckily in the next turn I draw a Fetch and start playing out my hand while he can't put enough pressure on me.
Semifinal: vs Simone Giovannetti (Canadian Threshold)
Simone is one of the best italian Legacy players, so I know that I cannot make any mistakes.
Game 1: again i play around Daze and I manage to resolve an Enchantress's Presence, while he draws few lands. After a few turns i have Sigil of Empty Throne on the table and more than 20 permanents, while he has a Tarmogoyf and only 2 lands. I ask him to concede, but he says he still has answers, so I must kill him with angel tokens.
Game 2: He starts out aggressively with 2 tarmogoyfs, but I have 2 Argothian Enchantress in play, so I draw a lot and eventually topdeck a Solitary Confinement. I'm very low, so I need the Confinement or he will kill me in a couple of turns, but I can't allow the Confinement to be countered, so I prefer to play a City of Solitude. The City resolves, but I fail to draw the necessary land to play also the confinement. I play a third Argothian and pass the turn.
In his turn he swings with the 2 goyfs for lethal damage, but guess what? I block with two argothians, then I lay down the confinement and proceed to win the game.
I'm in the final! and I'm going to split!
Final thoughts: the deck has proven to be very solid, even against a non-aggro field. I definitely would recommend the Worldly tutors, while I'm not so sure about the Suppression fields.
We also need some answer to ANT, because it's too fast for us and we don't put any pressure, so it has all the time to make his combo.
I would like to thank the Tournament Organizer (Goblin Shop, in Bologna - Italy), the Judge (Lorenzo Andalò) and all my opponents for being very sportsmanlike.
And thanks to Alessandro Teneggi for agreeing to split in the final!
I really had lot of fun playing my favorite deck (and there was another in the top 8!)
Also I would like to say sorry to Simone Giovannetti for asking him to concede game 1: I was in a hurry, but this doesn't gave me the right to ask for a concession.
Thanks for reading so far, and beware of Presence of the Master!
Thanks,
For the event I expected an aggro metagame, with many Jund and R/W, so I tuned KnighElite's list like this:
4 Day of Judgment
3 Earthquake
3 Ajani Vengeant
3 Elspeth, Knight Errant
2 Conqueror's Pledge
4 Dragon Fodder
3 Goblin Assault
4 Polymorph
4 Ponder
3 Spell Pierce
3 Mountain
4 Plains
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Arid Mesa
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Arcane Sanctum
3 Jungle Shrine
3 Path to Exile
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Jace Beleren
2 Luminarch Ascension
2 Swerve
2 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
The meta was exactly as I predicted: I faced 3 Jund, 1 Vampire and 1 R/B Burn.
Now some consideration about the single cards:
-As you can see I opted for Spell Pierce instead of Negate because I wanted to combo as fast as possible without worrying about the eventual instant removal that my opponent could hold in his hand waiting for my Polymorph. But that didn't worked very well and I ended up siding them out every game.
- Ponder is a great addiction in my opinion: it helps you keeping doubtful hands and it's pretty good with the fetchlands.
- Goblin assault is a necessary card, but it didn't satisfied me much... I would like to play some other token producer but I don't think there are other options.
- Dragon Fodder is a key card and really helps against aggro decks.
- Conqueror's Pledge is probably the best token producer besides Elspeth and won me a game, but I think that 2 is the right number to play.
- Elspeth was the MVP of my deck and I should have played 4. She wins games by herself alone, especially if you cast your board sweepers, and she absorbs damage for you.
- Ajani Vengeant did its job, but rarely survives a couple of turns: usually you use it to helix something away and gain some life, then it dies absorbing some damage for you. Obviously this could be a real pain for opponents playing control, but against aggro it's "just" an OK card. I would still play it, but maybe we can find something better to put in this list.
- Earthquake and Day of Judgment are pretty good against aggro, but sometimes I sided the quakes out in favor of oblivion rings.
Now some note about the side:
- Sphinx of the Steel Wind is a tech specifically for the Jund matchup: the plan is winning the first game with Iona naming black, so they side in Thought Emorrhage and... surprise: there are no more Iona in my deck, but just a couple of unbeatable Sphinx waiting for them. Usually when you polymorph into a Sphinx they read it and realize that can't kill it, so they concede. If there is a third game to be played you can go with 1 Iona and 1 Sphinx in the deck.
It's true that Jund often has Deathmark in the side that could kill the Sphinx, but when you win the 1st game naming "black" with Iona they usually don't side in the deathmarks.
- Path to Exile: those should be definitely maindeck: I always sided those in every game.
- Oblivion Ring: Sided in often, mainly versus Garruk and other PW, but quite useful also for the thrinax.
- Swerve: vs control and, why not, Jund. But in the end I couldn't side in vs Jund because I usually sided the Sphinx, the paths and the oblivion rings.
- Luminarch Ascension and Jace were meant vs control deck, but I never faced one.
Now some note about the matches I played:
Round 1: vs Vampires (mono B)
Game one I won thanks to 12 tokens (6 soldiers and 6 goblins), after sweeping the board with DoJ. He was a bit unlucky with lands, but probably I would have won anyway because I had a strong hand.
I sided out the Spell Pierces for Paths and a couple of Oblivion Rings replaced Goblin Assault.
Game 2 he got the perfect curve: Lacerator, Hexmage, Nighthawk and Vampire Nocturnus, which I exiled, but then he drew another.
Game 3 I plymorphed into Iona at turn 4, he read the card and concede.
1-0
Round 2: vs Jund
Game 1: I don't remember well, but I think I mulled to 5 and he won easily.
I sided in the paths and out the Spell Pierce. He did'nt saw my Ionas, so I kept them in the deck.
Game 2: while he was tapped out I polymorphed into Iona, naming Black, he didn't conceded immediately but then I started making tokens with an Elspeth and swung with the Lady a couple of times to win.
Now I sided out both Ionas and put in the Sphinxes, expecting a Thought Emorrhage for my angels.
Game 3: If i remember well he mulled down to 5. I controlled with DoJ then laid down Ajani, wich he bolted, then another Ajani and Elspeth, and he dind't found answers: so I destroyed all his lands with ajani and he conceeded. He was unlucky: after the mulligan he drew a lot of lands.
2-0
Round 3: vs Jund:
Game 1: He started out with a Thrinax and a Bloodbraid Elf (which revealed a Lightning bolt to my face) and started attacking. Then he tapped out to play Garruk but I spell pierced it (the only time I used Spell pierce).
I had Goblin assault in play. In my following turn I drew Day of judgment, but i also was holding Polymorph, I was at 12 life. So I had this choice: Sweep the board now and wait the following turn to cast Polymorph, or cast it now and use Iona to block the next attacks.
A lightning bolt was already in his grave, so the probability that he held 2 more in his hand was low. If I cast DoJ then he untaps and probably I will never get the chance to play Polymorph safely, so I opted to cast it now.
The lady showed herself, naming black.
In his next turn he attacked with both creatures, the Thrinax and the Elf.
If he really held 2 lightning bolts in his hand and I dindn't blocked I would have taken 12 anyway, so I blocked on creature. Guess what? he casted 2 bolts on my angel, and won some turn later...
I sided out Iona, Spell Pierce, 2 Goblin Assault and 1 quake to put in the Sphinxes, the paths and the rings.
Game 2: I polymorphed into a Sphinx on turn 4, he conceeded immediately.
I sided in 1 Iona and took out 1 Sphinx, to avoid a lethal Thought Hemorrhage
Game 3: I mulled to 6 and got a bad start, while he started out aggro with a Leech and a couple of Elves. I didn't had any sweepers, I managed to cast Conqueror's Pledge to buy some time, but didn't drew anything useful.
2-1, but I left the table thinking that under normal circumstances I should have won the first game, so I was still very confident about the deck.
2-1
Round 4: vs Jund
This was the perfect game: game 1 Morphed into Iona, game 2 into Sphinx.
The opponent didn't sided in the Deathmarks because in the 1st game I called "black" with Iona.
3-1
Round 5 (final): vs R/B burn
Game 1: I mulled to 5 and felt very bad, starting with Dragon Fodder, while he was beating me with a Goblin Guide and a Geopede, then drew Polymorph and Iona appeared, naming red. I backed up with Ajani and Elspeth, game over.
I sided in the Sphinxes for their lifelink ability, along with the usual paths, but left the rings in the side. I also sided out the Pledges.
Game 2: I dont' remember well, but I mulled to 6 and he finished me quickly.
Game 3: I mulled to 6, but he mulled to 4, was discouraged and wanted to concede. He was a friend, so I convinced him to try anyway.
He started with a Goblin Guide, after a couple of attacks I pathed it.
He tried an Hell's Thunder, but I pathed it, then he cast Bloodchief Ascension. I wasn't expecting it, so I didn't sided in the rings... mmmhh... bad news for me...
Meanwhile my draws were pretty bad: 3 Polymorph (without token generators) and a lot of lands... And I had a Sphinx sitting in my hand.
Well I just needed a token generator to play Polymorph, and in a couple of tuns I could hardcast the sphinx.
In three turns he was able to put 3 counters on his ascension, so now every card that hitted my graveyard was a shock for me.
I went very low, then I managed to gain 6 life with an Ajani before he dispatched it, then I finally hardcasted my Sphinx, dropping dangerously to 2.
Guess what? He was holding Deathmark in his hand...
Anyway I was happy for him because he's a friend and he couln't believe that he just won a game after a mulligan to 4. Hi think he learned something, and I too.
3-2
Final thoughts:
Well, the deck performed well in my opinion and I believe that I could have won a couple more games if not for a little bad luck.
I think that the paths should be maindeck and probably we don't really need counters.
Also I believe that Elspeth is by far the best token producer, so we should play 4X.
I would love a bit more deck manipulation: I was very happy with Ponder and I would find a way to put some Esper Charm maindeck.
Thanks everybody in this forum for the ideas about the deck and a special thanks to KnightElite for the list.
Sorry for my bad english, I'm not a native speaker (I'm Italian).
Unfortunately now I don't have time to post a complete report and the decklist, but I'll do it as soon as possible.
All i can say for now is: I defeated 2 Jund and lost to a 3rd, I defeated a Vampire Deck and lost from a R/B aggro-burn.
I definitely liked the deck and the way it played: i won some games just with tokens an Planeswalkers, and the other games with Polymorph.
I also had a tech against Thought Hemorrage, I will explain it better in my next post.
Before leaving I wold like to thank everybody in this forum for the ideas and contributions to my list.