I used 4 toploaders and some bubblewrap and mailed some cards from canada to the states today. is 3 dollars worth of stamps enough for a package like that or should i have used more to be on the safe side?
Kinda gave up on UW for a while. It kinda sucks for me to sit and leave a primer to not be updated. Post a variant that the general consensus has seen to be optimal and I will update the original page.
this lists given me damn near optimal performance at fnm and gameday level!! go venser!
R1 vs mono R.
G1 I stabilize with some dudes and 3 Orings (2 on Chandra's Phoenixs), but he topdecks some burn and his last phoenix to get there
SB:missteps, ratchet bombs, leylines, timely reinforcements, sun titan
G2 I hold off early dmg with Sea gate Oracles and back to back DOJs. I find my batterskull and equip to SGO after he burns the token. I then swing in to make life totals 15/10 in my favor. He act of aggressions it and reverses life totals but has no way to sac it. I then swing a few turns for the win.
G3 Opening 7: Ratchet bomb, oring, 5 land, opponent mulls, so do I. Opening 6: Leyline, 5 land, I mul again. Opening 5: 5 land... I keep, as I am not willing to go to 4 against aggro. He play land go, and I topdeck preordain, which reveals Sea Gate Oracle, preordain. He go land shrine of burning rage. I cast 2nd preordain T2. T3 & 4 he drops dudes into my T4 DOJ. I then drop batterskull which he kills the token with the shrine. But I find a 2nd SGO and equip to start the beats which wins this game. lucky...
2-1|1-0
R2 vs Esper Tezz.
G1 I keep a lovely hand that curves nicely into a T4 sad robot, but he counters it. I see him playing lux canon and swords (but never a Tezz, this confuses me a bit), so I Oring a few waiting on land (I have gideon, Venser, Batterskull, and karn in hand). I drop a SGO and find a fifth land, which I play. Next turn I drop Venser and bounce SGO which reveals no land... He drops Frost Titan with mana leak backup, which counters my Gideon (he only had 3 cards in hand). Frosty taps down SGO to kill Venser, and that is game. I never get beyond the 5 land, while he is at like 15 without ramp...
SB Torpor Orbs, Devine Offerings.
He is light on land but drops a T1 hex parasite and T2 Vault skirge, while I drop T2 Sundial, T3 oring targeting the parasite and a T4 sad robot. He finally gets to 4 and drops Tezz, but digs (revealing Lux Canon) instead of pumping the vault skirge. I oring Tezz and tech out his inkmoth dropping him back to 3 (i have another tech in hand). a turn or two pass while I beat with robot and he beats with vault Skirge. Still on 3 land he orings my oring and pumps the skirge to 5/5 w/ tezz. I go to 11 on the swing, but kill tezz with sad robot (at this point I have a preordain as my hand). He swings with skirge to take me to 6. I have 6 land in play and think that I have 4 draws to get gideon (2 off preordain), but I top deck him. Drop and kill the tapped skirge. Then preordain finds me Venser (!!!). Next turn I drop venser, and start exile permanents with oring and sundial, though in top deck mode I cannot find anything other than SGO and metamorph. I start swinging in with 4 SGO (2 are metamorph), but 4 dmg per turn is taking a long time as he is at 29 from the skirge. Venser is at some ridiculous 14 or 15 counters as an emblem does nothing if I dont have cards to cast. I get him to 9 life when time is called :mad:. But next turn I emblem, cast a devine offering on a sword to exile his loan blocker, make Gideon a dude and swing in for lethal.
1-1|1-0-1
R3 vs B/ Architect.
G1 I get in with timely DOJs and metamorphs of Wurmcoil Engine with oring backup to hide his coil. He is playing a lot of creature removal, so everything but my SGOs are killed . I get in with batterskull and friends for the Win though.
SB Diving Offering
G2 he starts with T1 Phantsmal bear, T2 Hex parasite. I play some SGO and Orings to slow him down. He doom blades SGO and beats. I play Sad robot, which he kills, then I play Gideon and kill the parasite as he is tapped down (both creature and mana). He does kill gideon, but I then DOJ. I follow up with karn and exile the last card in his hand. He hits carn to 7 with creeping tar pit. On my turn I drop venser. Karn then eats tarpit and venser bounces Karn. A few more turns of this while I eat everything he plays, and I land my second Gideon. He then scoops.
2-0|2-0-1
Overall, not too shabby. I was initially going to play Spine of Ish Sah, but Karn has the same casting cost and is more versatile, so he was added last minute. I also wanted a sad robot or two, so I pulled 1 SGO for 1 robot. Spell Pierces really never showed up (except for a pierced mox opal, lolz), and into the roil only appeared once (when I bounced an inkmoth with swords equipped). Batterskull was a house. And while I like phantasmal image, the metamorph seemed more versatile.
prize support netted me another Sad robot and another phantasmal image (2 for 2 packs, not bad), though my buddy pulled Jace 3.0, Primeval Titan in his 3 packs...
into the roil only appeared once (when I bounced an inkmoth with swords equipped).
so essentially here, you cast a spell on an illegal target and your opponent didnt notice?could this have changed the outcome of the night?
Round 1 Caw/Puresteel 0-1-1
first game went about 45 min, drew 2nd game
Round 2 Valakut 2-0
not the typical valakut deck, was able to counter or oring his titans and spreading seas his valakut
Round 3 UB control 0-2
Wiped the floor with me, hand disruption took out all my answers and couldnt resolve any creatures...pretty much both games he discared all the nonland cards from my hand and i drew nothing but land and the occasional blade splicer( which was countered)
so...wtf.....i was doing really well with this deck and the last 3 tourneys i've been to have been 1-2s or 1-3s
besides no collonades is there any thing wrong with my list...normally i run Karn and WSZ MD and the seas in the side, but i switched it out today...any ideas for my list or just general play tips would help me out a ton...
hey jkilla. i had noticed you were wanting some help on your list last week, and i feel bad for being a little late to the party. so i took a look at your updated list and compared it to your first list. The first thing i always look at is the mana base. because i know you generally want to be running 4 collonades because of their ability to win games on their own, block when on defence , and attack planeswalkers like koth of the hammer and garruk, primal hunter. you can also force them into using their planeswalkers in different ways then they wouldve wanted to. Also collonade can surprise your opponent when they attack and forget that you can just activate collonade to snap block and gain better board position. This outwieghs the only con of collonade, coming into play tapped and being tech edgable. take the 3 terr. expanses and 1 plains and add in 4 collonades. there is a defenite lack of tech edges in your deck, not to mention the lack of spot removal. i think solidifying your maindeck before making your sideboard will solve a lot of your problems. today i want to focus on what is good against certain matches and what isnt.
First , i want to rank creatures. Wall of omens may seem like the perfect choice to run against various aggro decks and whatnot. i will tell you i think its bad. because it is very easy to kill, get around, fly over, or burn through. right now the premiere aggro decks consist of vampires, goblins, tempered steel, red deck wins, and puresteel equipster. you really dont want wall against any of these matchups more then you would want spreading seas, which survives the impending day of judgment, gaining you maximum value from the board wipe. wall of omens is a trap, and in most cases is just a tiny tiny stall that eventually gets killed. i would play wall if there was nothing else availible but as of right now it is second best to spreading seas just for the pure value and game steals that seas provides for us.
blade splicer- a decent 3 drop if you want to have things to equip swords to and get in the red zone fast. also a fantastic blink target when given the right situation and pending there arent any signifigant flying threats on board. the common problem people like myself kept facing with this creature, is it is actually a little too agressive for a build like this, and a 3/3 golem is not hard to deal with once the first strike has been removed. it also doesnt get us any further in our quest to find a 5 or 6 drop. so often i run out of gas before i am able to get anything good done on board.
sea gate oracle- this is the best 3 drop cantrip in standard. this is often the best blink target for venser, nothing has pro blue in standard, so you can always block with it (leave out SoBaM of course, its just worse then the other swords right now), and i dont care if they remove it once it tables because i have already gotten sick value from it, i replace the card in my hand and they then proceed to waste spot removal on a 1/3.
hero of bladehold- play this if you want to have fun. dont play this if you want to win at magic. there are just better options at 4 drop.
emeria angel- if you want to go a little more agressive, then this is the 4 drop i would suggest, as it can make 1/1s, sometimes 2 - 4 if you have a sun titan and venser out too.
baneslayer angel- this is generally weak right now because of its frail 5/5 body for 5 mana. too much of an investment, i would sooner cast gideon jura, because hes harder to remove and interacts better with your opponents board.
titans
Frost titan- generally not a bad creature, but gets easily outclassed when behind in the game already, or has untargetable things with hexproof and shroud. when he gets killed you pay 6 to tap their land and get rid of a removal spell. i wouldnt play frost titan with venser right now.
Sun titan- the best option for a venser deck. he is like a little 6 drop toolbox. he brings back anything you may have lost in the mix of battle, draws cards, brings back edges, collonades, jace beleren. sun titan bringing back anything is good. you can actually consider him as a 2nd win con in this deck with all the things he can bring back to help you get right back into games you may have fallen behind in. i would run this over frost titan anyday.
wurmcoil engine- better suited for the bench i think. no instant value in standard right now is usually not good.
notice i only pointed out 2 creatures i actually really really like here? sun titan and sea gate oracle. these 2 separate the men from the boys and are good against decks like ub control, birthing pod, and control decks, because they gain you value and put you way ahead once you get venser.
Spells.
preordain is > then all other 1 mana draw spells. 4 of because of its ability to sift you through to a venser or something else needed better then anything else for the price.
oust,dismember, and condemn.
i cant say which are always better. they are situational so use them at your own discretion. but i always recommend at least 3 1 mana removal spells to get your game started against decks like birthing pod, fast aggro, and decks that are easily stoppable when we have acess to things like dismember, like twin, puresteel equipster, fauna shaman, goblin guide.
i would say usually dismember is better then oust, but oust can be better vs fast aggro, but condemn is too situational, but great against vengevine and bloodghast.
spell pierce- ive tried this out, i find drawing counters isnt what i want, i want to draw lots of cards and eventually bury my opponent with CA. spell pierce is cute, and i would recommend it if you see a lot of people tapping out for noncreature spells in your area. however, this deck can tap out itself effectively, and still not be worried about losing the game because its tapped out. leave it to the sideboard in most cases.
mana leak- the best counter in standard. i run 4. most people run 4. we all have success running 4. its because we want to draw at least one if not more in a lot of our games.
cancel, stoic, and the like
these spells seem to be a little clunky in my testing, and everytime i hold one i end up wishing it was something else. i wouldnt run these. i wouldnt run deprive either because it just seems like too much of a tempo loss when all of our win spells cost 5 and 6, and we want to get them out as early as turn 5 or 6. i find holding up any more then 2 mana during these crucial turns usually is a turn wasted for me. sometimes i will bluff spell pierce. but not always.
o ring- nasty piece of all around removal. i love 2-3 in a venser deck, or in any white deck that isnt that aggressive. i would be cautious about running more then 3 and running some in the sb, because they are more of a maindeck "getcha" card, and can be easily played around post board.
tumble magnet- great against birthing pod. good against overinvested creatures like titans, sworded mans, obliterators, protection from _____ creatures.creates a lock on your opponents best dudes, and also forces aggro to play right into the hands of your day of judgment.
speaking of day of judgment!
this is just what the doctor ordered for lower creature decks. good against every deck when you run less creatures then they do! and if ur up against twin or whatever, just side the things out.....its not that hard. if they run no creatures, side them out its very simple. i even keep them in against control decks who think you will side out your days, only to run into big problems when they get blown out next game. taking care of a spellskite, a sea gate oracle, a blade splicer all at the same time is good enough for me. taking out a resolved grave titan or sun titan who brings back squadrron hawk is a good trade ffor me. taking out 3 birds, a lotus cobra, insert 4 drop here, and a titan all at the same time is just win....makes me want to run 4 in my maindeck and i do.
Zeniths
win more and lose more all in one card. they are generally bad against everything except control decks, and thats pending you play it around counterspells, and discard.
planeswalkers
most of us know that running 2-3 venser seems good, and running 2-3 gideon seems fine.
i like to run 2 jace beleren as well
elspeth and karn dont do enough and seem to win more. i was a fan of both for a short time, but they suffer having too high of a mana cost to completely dominate games like a venser or a gideon. i would just recommend running more of those guys before including elspeth and karn into the mix.
gideon steamrolls aggro, steals games against control, and finishes games on his own and plays defence like a champ.
im not going to speak of venser. the main problem people seem to have is running too few or too many. Run 2 venser. run enough cantrips to consistently see venser and you will only ever need 1 in a game if its done properly. i am often discouraged from playing 3 because he is bad in multiples, and easy to draw into with cantrips.
spreading seas
many people dont like seas, because "people arent running valakut in my area". truth is this card has applications that go deeper than valakut. they ruin man land strategies while gaining you more cards, and screw over mana screwed decks before they have a chance to get back into the game. sometimes i draw 3 right off the bat and force my opponent to be mana screwed, even though he or she may have enough land to cast all their spells, they just lose because of colour screw. surviving my 4 doj maindeck is the deciding factor in running this as a 4 of. its good against ub control, uw control, caw blade to an extent, tempered steel, infect, tezzeret control, mono black, mono red, and sometimes screws over twin as well.
i tweaked my build to be strong against the field minus splinter twin cuz no one plays it in my area, same with kut.
more pod, mono red, tempered steel, green white aggro, uw control, ub control and other randomness show up in my area.
if you are still playing the same build, and losing with it, why dont you take some of these pointers into consideration and we can try to come up with something that wins more. thanks for the read !!
im just saying that day of judgment is necessary removal if a consecrated sphinx, titan, Soji, or coil hits the field. we can deal with a couple 3/3s. if you cant you need to relook at your deck. but being smacked by a 6/6 can get pretty bad fast. things like o ring help in this situation too. sure they draw 2 cards off sphinx, but they have acess to only 4 big thrreats in their deck. the 2 cards they draw off sphinx is worthwhile when you are probably getting rid of their best threat anyways, they probably didnt draw another one off the 2 cards, so their sphinx basically reads- pay 6 mana, draw 2 cards and opponent discards a decent card. its a fair trade anyday. narrower answers like condemn are good. oust has been better though because sometimes the creature thats pestering us doesnt need to attack to be effective, like lotus cobra. fauna shaman. you need day of judgment against creatures that win the game. and when decks run cards like praetors, wurmcoils, 6cmc titans, etc. i always keep in 2-3 doj.. and i usually keep the 4th in against ub, because that means they are probably never EVER landing an effective creature against me. and i can deal with all 4 tar pits..so they probably are never winning any sided games unless i draw crappy or they get lucky and draw all 4 threats plus planeswalkers. UB is no match for UW if the deck is built right. Luminarch ascension is another thing i love vs UB, because it instantly swings momentum in our favour and puts us on the aggressive without any extra mana investment all for the low cost of 2 mana.
Hey guys, did you find anything you liked about my last post other then the DOJ bash? i think i made some pretty valid points when talking about matchups.
Does anyone have any questions about certain matchups?? i might be able to help.
Hey everybody,
some scary discussion been going on in here over the last 2 pages. Siding out 4 Doj vs Ub control is a horrible idea. they run the likes of wurmcoil engine, grave titan, and consecrated sphinx, all of which are good 1 for 1 trades with DOj. if you play without day, you force yourself to always have that counterspell handy, and thats not always going to happen. i have won games by actually having to cast 3 and 4 DoJ, just to stay alive. Spreading seas is a key component as it sucks any early pressure from tar pits down the drain. i know wurmcoil might seem like a 1 for 2, as they get 2 tokens, however, there are lots of ways we can deal with wurmcoil, like tumble magnet, gideon, doj, counterspell, or just play against the tokens with whatever we have out and scratch and claw our way forward. i have dealt with multiple wurmcoils vs UB tezzeret control, and come out unmolested. they also run dinky dudes like solemns and stuff that can eat away our life totals if we arent dropping that many threats. sweepers are kind of good in war of attrititon. if you want to protect your hand in games 2 and 3 then siding in 1 or 2 leylines is not a bad thing, especially if you see that they are running the trio of discard, despise, duress, inquisition, as you may only have 2 dead cards in your deck post side, if you hit that leyline, 4-8 cards in thier deck become absolutely useless. Luminarch ascension. try it. once that hits the board the only way UB can interact with it is into the roil...good luck fellow ub players, this is one of their least fave cards because it says remove me in 4 turns or lose the game. Very little investment for a win con as well.
Vs puresteel equipster, dismember and tumble magnet are really good. getting rid of puresteel before they go off for 3 or 4 cards is very important, and they arent hitting you for enough damage like TS to really be concerned with 4 life. stabilize at like 5 or 6 life vs that deck and you will win the game.
Another note on blade splicer, the card started to piss me off when i just needed card advantage to prolong the match, or get me back in one, and sea gate oracle does so much more then splicer in the end. it helps you get to your massive game enders, and digs you into answers much faster then the aggro version. im sold on the control version of this deck, and cards like hero of bladehold and squadron hawk are definately questionable choices to me at this point.,
Solemn simulacrum- not needed unless you run 3+ 6 drops. staying as tight and defencive as possible pre turn 5 is the key to winning a lot of matches where our opponent is trying to overextend and win the game quickly. these colours offer the most protection possible, and best early defensive game possible to set up our massive 4-5 card draw per turn late games. I prefer to draw 3-5 cards a turn when i see venser sitting on the table, and thats exactly what i do everytime i stick him with my decks layout. it has just enough defence to combat the early game, but has lots of live spells late game to take it home as well.
Sun titan > any other titan in this archetype. he is a beast. recurring tools like collonade, jace b, tech edge, LAND.. sea gate, spreading seas, blade splicer, image...tumble magnet,, he is quite useful and running few creature CA so far in my months and months of rigourous testing.
Tumble magnet and DoJ stop birthing pod flat out. they cant compete with you when you are making them hardcast their 5 CC acidic slimes into mana leak. it just doesnt work. making them play at our turtle like pace pre turn 5 is key.
my list runs 2 oust maindeck. no one plays twin in my area cept for a rug pod list, which keels over to me anyways. i side in one card for that matchup, but realisticly speaking i could probably just keep it the same and the matchup wouldnt go any differently then in game 1 where thye play t3 pod, i play t3 magnet and say good luck. while they cast their acidic slimes, you hold up mana leak and play gideon the next turn, or even worse , doj. venser comes out next turn and resets our magnets and they are liek...sigh..why couldnt you have just blinked an island. sun titan comes out and returns shtuff. need i say more. i will post an updated list that has gone 10-2-1 in the last couple weeks. i believe it is running at optimal, as i have steamrolled a lot of my matches and my losses have only come on some form of variance. never have i felt unprepared for a given matchup take away the one time vs UB tezzerator, which i won 2-1 anyways.
Azure mage is kind of good.. kind of a boss in control mirrors, thanks to the team at channelfireball.com for that one.
i HAVE tested blade splicer. it is a horrible card in the more controlling build, because im not trying to get there with that while my opponent pods to their hearts delight, or just removes the golem and ur left with a 1/1. tumble magnet, sgo, and jace are all better 3 drops in my build. tumble magnet into day of j is really good. it allows u to play venser or gideon unmolested on t5. the longer venser gets to go off the less chance we have of losing. ub is no match for venser, and a bolstered defence. twin matchups are tough, but no one plays tht deck here..why waste time teching for it then? and seas is good vs aggro when u mana screw them, need something to blink after doj, or when combatting twin or manlands....wall...well, is usually just pay 2, draw a card in most mu's...wall sucks now. if you take a look at my tournament report from either page 26 or 27, the really long one from going to 2 different gamedays and an fnm the night before that, going a total of 10-2-1 over the course of those MU's, and the only games i lost were from getting spell or mana screwed. the only justifiable change at this point would be -1 spreading seas, +1 land, possibly that 4th tec edge or something like an island. i feel like games where early mana screw is an issue, are damn near impossible to come back from. also, i wouldnt cut the best planeswalker in standard from my list..gideon is kind of awesome, even if he does cost 5, he is stall, defence, and offence all for 5 mana. what more could a control deck ask for?? I think people are trying to overextend their hand too early in this standard, and cards like tumble magnet offset that completely, especially if you're tapping down their best piece of mana production, offence, defence, or artifacts, and completely destroying their mean plans they had for you. it also gets around pro colours. i found blade splicer being outclassed, and offered no form of card draw to hit our win cons..i mean blade splicer to me is a plan D type creature in most games, because often winning with gideon, venser, sun titan, and collonade is easier. you might get lucky the odd game and walk away with a victory, but standard just has better turn 3's then blade splicer right now..like birthing pod for 1. deceiver exarch for 2nd. anything off lotus cobra for 3rd. and then we just sit there wondering where our 4-6 drops were hiding....because we couldnt dig for them as consistently as with SGO. or we couldnt defend our team as well as tumble magnet does. things that survive 4x doj right now are the way to go. running slow creatures like splicer will lose many many games after walking them into a doj, after blocking for a turn. i like the idea of hawks more then i do splicers, although if theyre just for combating hawks, i wouldnt worry too much about them. naked hawks arent that scary when we have access to cards that stop the sworded ones. and they arent even guaranteed to have hawk anyways. caw blade is best suited for that twin match though. and they should be. 3 dismember, 3 into the roil , and 7 counterspells md. should be the easiest way to combat it g1, ad they have emeria angel which helps a lot too..actually i like emeria angel a hell of a lot more then squadron hawk to be honest. but i wouldnt run either, because they arent good enough on their own to not fir they synergy of this deck, i hate having 2 different routes my deck os trying to accomplish when i could just have 1 route, and solidify it in the best way possible. run aggro venser to beat some decks, but i think control venser beats most of those decks, plus more because of the amount of protection it has for venser and the amount of consistency i seem to have in drawing him with help on the board in a lot of games. cards like azure mage and consecrated sphinx help against caw blade, although i wouldnt side in luminarch ascension because there is too big a chance of them hawking on t2 for that to be playable. and for t2's against caw blade i would definately rather have squadron hawk then a stupid wall of omens. i think mana is a huge factor in that matchup as well, but we dont want to focus too too much of our attention that way with more then 75 % of standard playing different decks then caw blade right now. in my meta 90 percent of decks are not caw blade, so i have to prepare for that accordingly as well.
am i the only one that has found 4x spreading seas Maindeck to be 100% just better then WoO for its utility at sniping off their key land sources?? it seems like a good thing after playing a venser the turn after casting DoJ as well, as it lets you get an extra card off of your venser investment if you so choose.
this is becoming a fun deck to play isnt it people? theres just so much the archetype has to offer right now and has a lot of play to it which i like. it isnt uncommon for me to go preordain, -1 jace, +2 gideon, +2 venser targeting sea gate, play another sea gate oracle, look at 2, take one, draw into removal, remove something, sea gate comes back at end step, look at 2 again..thats 9 things i did in one turn.. and this happens consistently lol
my point on page 26 wasnt that our decks suck at scg opens and pro tours. what i said is what it is. our deck stomps lower level tourneys. because that is my experience and knowledge. i wouldnt even guess what it could do at a higher level tourney....hell who knows ...some one finished top 16 with stupid mono blue illusions last week! and people have been running lots of rogue type stuff like allies for gods sake into the top 16. play whatever you want at these tourneys and just at least have a plan going into the matchups. don't build a deck and be all confident its going to win without testing it against the match-ups like caw blade and such. i had my deck so tuned to combat with caw blade pre ban, that in the end i was sad to see it go because it wasn't such a bad match-up anymore because i knew what i needed to do to win. i think blade splicer is kind of a win more card because it doesn't really do anything without Venser, is very simple to remove/play around. i think the defensive game is what this deck does best, incrementally gaining CA until we land a 5 or 6 CC man and blow the game out of reach. we can make this deck work. tune it like an engine. oil it often and practice much and im pretty sure we wont be disappointed. i didn't mean to cause a debate on whether the deck would be good or not. i was just assuring everyone of my experience. to tell of someone else's experience though, with rogue decks is....it can work. it has worked , and has worked with this archetype. you just have to be smart enough to do it. I'm pretty sure we have only been making better solutions to our problems however in the last 5 weeks. Teching against certain matches and such. I don't mean to bring down the haters, but anything is possible and this deck is a good deck. there's no reason why we can't have success with mythic rares like gideon, venser and sun titan at bigger events like SCG opens. theyre that good of cards i am confident in our ability to make it work eventually, although our archetype will be overshadowed by our big brother caw blade until rotation for sure, and some blade variant possibly after, but who knows. all i know is this deck is friggen fun to play, and i would love to try it out sometime on the bigger stage. you just tech for more caw blade pseudo mirrors and less aggro is all...i mean i probably wouldnt run the full 4 DOJ in the main deck, maybe some more counters like spell pierce, and maybe 3 doj, 2 spell pierce. but i would definately try to stay as close to 4 spreading seas, 3 tumble magnets , 2 or 3 dismembers, and 3 or 4 sea gate oracles in the main as possible. because the whole idea of my deck is trying to tap out each turn for something reletively useful, while filling my hand up and digging thru my deck franticly searching for a 5CC walker..and if i already have one..thats just gravy///now its all about protecting him for the win. sounds like a fun challenge to me...but if annyone can post up some results from a bigger tourney please let us know how you do, and i encourage us to take this deck to as many big tourneys as possible, because how will we ever know without trying right???
the list i posted was a tempo style deck believe it or not, and the use of maze is not needed when the list is running properly. you need to use all of your mana or threaten at least to use it on each turn leading to turn 6. and any threat can be stopped with magnet, day or 1 mana removal. Ub needs maze because it doesnt have access to gideon. we dont need it because we tap 5 once for gideon and thats it...done deal. they have to repeatadly do it. i found the tumble magnets a trump card over B-pod decks. and especially what makes it so good is they are forced to hardcast their clunky spells all game, while we cast our lower costing and more efficient spells. by turn 7 most times you should have them drowned in CA..Trumping them with control of the board state.
this lower level metagame seems to be overwhelmed by our venser control decks at the moment. the only games i lost over the weekend were games where i either got spell screwed or land screwed. where i drew what my deck was supposed to draw i won every game. theres just too many people investing in their little 1/1 and 2/2 creatures with good abilities right now to not be running 4 DOJ.
wooooo! finally notched another fnm victory last night! 4-0 with this list beating in rd 1 mono blue illusions 2-0, the tumble magnets and day of judgment are just unfair here lol. in rd 2 RB Vampires 2-0, again with the magnets and doj. and rd 3 2-1 vs mono green infect w/ glistener elf..close call, the ousts and dismembers held him off until i could land a 3 drop. i added in 2 azure mage and a kor firewalker just to make him waste pump spells killing my creatures. rd 4 i edged RDW 2-0 with all of the defence he was no match for my good draws.
i have a good feeling about azure mage shoring up our longer control matchups.
found some sucess in gameday yesterday. i played in 2 different gamedays in 2 different stores, one with 4 rounds (12 people) and my regular shop with 5 rounds (30 people)
in the first gameday i went 3-1 piloting the list above, the only change was a few changes to the sb and one to the maindeck to challenge red aggro a little better then before.
game one i won by just killing him with gideon and collonade, and answering all his threats.
game 2 i was about to kill him after a game long tit-for-tat, but with 20 cards left in my library he jace memory adepts me 2 times and i have no library left to win the game...
game 3 i land luminarch ascension t2. he is unable to remove it until i land 4 angels and thats game.
this seemed like a good matchup for me, although his poor card selection was the downfall of his day.
match 2 WIN --- vs U/b Empires 2-1
he used the 3 empires cards from m12 to try and win his games, throne, scepter and i forget the other one...
game 1 i kill him quickly with gideon and venser.
game 2 he kills me quickly after landing all 3 empires.
game 3 i win by doing the same thing as g1.
match 3 LOSS ---RDW with chandra's phoenix and planeswalkers 1-2
i dont remember this matchup...i just remember getting owned in game 3 because i got spell screwed.
Match 4 WIN --- kuldoltha red 2-1
game 1- i get killed by goblin chieftain and kuldoltha rebirth sacrificing perlous myr on the same turn.
game 2- i get early tempo and get to 6 mana.
game 3- i get out leyline and gideon and he shakes my hand.
overall- 3rd place at 3-1
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gameday #2
round 1 WIN vs Naya Birthing Pod 2-0
games 1 and 2 i get huge early tempo with 2 tumble magnet and counterspells.
game 2 i do exactly the same thing as g1, siding in the revoke existence and the dismember and removing the 2 spreading seas.
Round 2 WIN 2-1 vs UB tezzeret control
game 1 i get lucky by landing a tumble magnet, and follow with the regular threats to exile his permanents eventually.
game 2 ends quickly when he lands wurmcoil, metamorphs it 2 times on the following turn. i hold 2 doj in my hand, have gideon and 2 tumble magnet on the board. but it wasnt enough to win once he lands tezzeret on the following turn.
game 3 i won by burying him in CA with venser/ sea gate oracle. nearly goes to time, but he didnt draw into removal so i kill him with gideon and sun titan while vensers ultimate is online.
RD 3 WIN VS RDW with shrine and chandras phoenixx
game 1 i got venser ultimate off when hes stuck on 3 land and 2 shrines at 5 counters and 6 counters respectively. i exile his land and he scoops
game 2 i mull to 5. he wins with a singleton lavamancer and chandra's phoenix and burn.
game 3 i land leyline, gideon. he shakes my hand.
RD 4- DRAW 1-1-1 vs. U/w Control Mirror
game 1 he just lands more threats then me. although i almost came back. game takes 30 minutes.
game 2 i land t2 ascension, get it off with 2 life left. he into the roils my ascension when i have 6 land up on his turn, he has 4 left for DOJ. in response i mana leak his into the roil. he pays the 3 and in response to that i activate the ability and make 2 4/4 fliers. i have him on 12 life cuz i got in there 8 times with sea gate oracle. i win the match, albeit a tough one. game ends in 15 minutes.
RD 5 LOSS 1-2 VS RUG POD for either 1st place or 4th. it was win or come 4th place.
game 1 i got 2 early magnets out to stop his pod activations. he doesnt get one activation the whole game and i blow his board 3 times with DOJ before bashing with gideon.
Game 2 - lose to frost titan with stupid splinter twin to tap my lands down before i could recover..i dont draw 1 DOJ...
Game 3- each player takes a trip to paris, keep a one lander because i felt i couldnt go down to 5 on the play. i miss my 2nd land drop, mana leak his first deciever exarch on t3, mana leak his wurmcoil on t4. he is left with 2 cards in hand and i have mana to play magnet with hopes he is out of threats because of the sequence of plays, and i was like if you have exarch/twin in hand after mulling and playing 1 already, i figured i needed to start playing stuff cuz he was at 7 mana and i couldnt leak anything anymore except frost titan......he shows exarch/twin at my end step and i shake his hand.....lucky bum. i had the 2nd magnet in hand as well :(.
OVERALL 3-1-1 good for 4th out of 30. i got my dungrove elder so i was happy...although i felt i couldve won if i drew my 2nd land on t2...this deck is perfectly metagamed right now. i wouldnt change a thing about the deck at the moment.
if they use shrine to kill my kor firewalker, thats one less burn threat i have to worry about, they have to spend a whole turn killing it which i like to begin with, and most of the time its just enough time to start setting up my defences or cast doj, and curve right into gideon or baneslayer, and then cast sun titan. they also return firewalkers, which i like. a good option, however is just to oblivion ring the stupid shrine. dismember is a different story, if they draw it fine, thats that, but we also have enough defence in the deck to deal with their red deck quite nicely. ive found the defencive strategy really worthwhile so far. casting blade splicer and seeing them just bolt the golem and keep going really used to ruin my day. when running 4 firewalker, however, i find casting multiples each game is not out of the ordinary, and our draws are much more consistent then theirs because of the deck manipulation. if you cast preordain turn 1, turn 2 mana leak/celestial purge/kor firewalker/flashfreeze. turn 3 sea gate oracle, you draw 3 cards from draw steps, and look at a potential 5 more cards just off the oracle and preordain alone. thats a good chance of hitting just what you need to not die. i havent lost a sideboarded game to red decks once yet, and ive tested the match many times because i know its the toughest game 1 to win, especially if we are on the draw. we could add more red hate to our maindecks, but red is so easy to hate out of the sb that im confident enough to win games 2 and 3 that i wont even bother. remember, though, dismember takes a potential game winning burn spell out of their deck, which i like even more.
i took a break from the forums to heavy playtest last night and a few nights before. i realized something just wasnt right when all these decks werre using mana dorks and things like birds and lotus cobra to get ahead early. i was slacking on the day of judgments and pod decks were kicking my ass due to lack of spot removal and board presence with tumble magnets. i was trying to hard to get out a blade splicer or counter everything and i was getting away from the pure card advantage wins this deck can generate. so i thought and i thought for hours and hours, trying to implement a solution to all these strategies i was running into. vampires, Gxx Pod decks, twin, valakut, mono red, red deck wins, blue white caw blade, ub control, mono green elves and some rb control decks i was facing, tempered steel as well. so i made a new list with 4 day of judgment, 3 tumble magnets and found out quickly after looking at the list, that my midrangy blade splicer, emeria angel, and hero of bladehold package was being outclassed early and often by spot removal, or better spells. so i cut them from my list, tested a match against each of the aformentioned decks, and a few others i cant mention due to jankiness. the only 2 loss came to a rogue list of GU ramp with negates and mana leaks and spell pierces, and caw blade, which seemed to have an answer to evey one of my answers and threats...i concluded that the deck was competitive enough to post on here, because it has been stopping birthing pod decks and has many answers to the meta. the sb also plays well against red decks, which is my worst game 1 matchup, and has some form of win cons against controlier decks with the ascensions, and can hang with the other colours in the format in the form of hard counters or removal. the deck i feel functions well with the 4 doj, as im only running 5 creatures now, the deck is built to go long. the walls were too easy to manouvre around, and i needed a 2 mana blink target that survives common removal, and takes out manlands, so i went back to the spreading seas, which is a nice option with venser really.
heres the list:
it is basically X-2 in many rounds of testing right now
im not sure about the baneslayer or mimic vat. the slayer is a good replacement for venser in red deck matchups, also against any other random aggro deck, the stoic rebuttal is questionable, some like deprive, but i just hate the tempo loss and would rather have that in longer matchups that are becomeing more mana intensive, i dont want to have to play my lands twice.
so far the most used things have been celestial purge, flashfreeze, luminarch ascension, and oust. i feel the numbers are correct , but i may add more luminarchs if the twin decks start popping up again.
i feel our mythics are good enough to win any game, and i felt they needed to be protected better because of that. i dont feel we can get ahead in the meta anymore by playing blade splicers. we need to get board presence and card advantage with non creature spells like tumble magnets and spot removal, and make them play at our turtle like pace, until we pop out a threat and start overwhlming them with CA. just my take on the meta right now. its all value creatures, which our deck isnt poised to stand up to with our own creatures, and board wipes and spot removal is a good thing to have and thats a big reason for me running 4 right now.
mimic vat seems good in longer games vs pod and control decks.
and i leave in magnets against red deck wins, you need something to block after a day of judgment as well, and it forces them to overplay thier hand into a day. kor firewalkers are better then timely reinforcments right now. i have yet to lose a game after casting a firewalker.
this lists given me damn near optimal performance at fnm and gameday level!! go venser!
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Tectonic Edge
6 Island
5 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
// Creatures
3 Sea Gate Oracle
2 Sun Titan
// Spells
4 Preordain
1 dismember
2 oust
4 Mana Leak
4 Spreading seas
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Tumble magnet
2 Jace Beleren
4 Day of Judgment
2 Venser, the Sojourner
2 Gideon Jura
1 dismember
2 Azure Mage
2 Flashfreeze
2 Celestial Purge
2 Luminarch Ascension
1 Revoke Existence
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Consecrated sphinx
into the roil only appeared once (when I bounced an inkmoth with swords equipped).
so essentially here, you cast a spell on an illegal target and your opponent didnt notice?could this have changed the outcome of the night?
hey jkilla. i had noticed you were wanting some help on your list last week, and i feel bad for being a little late to the party. so i took a look at your updated list and compared it to your first list. The first thing i always look at is the mana base. because i know you generally want to be running 4 collonades because of their ability to win games on their own, block when on defence , and attack planeswalkers like koth of the hammer and garruk, primal hunter. you can also force them into using their planeswalkers in different ways then they wouldve wanted to. Also collonade can surprise your opponent when they attack and forget that you can just activate collonade to snap block and gain better board position. This outwieghs the only con of collonade, coming into play tapped and being tech edgable. take the 3 terr. expanses and 1 plains and add in 4 collonades. there is a defenite lack of tech edges in your deck, not to mention the lack of spot removal. i think solidifying your maindeck before making your sideboard will solve a lot of your problems. today i want to focus on what is good against certain matches and what isnt.
First , i want to rank creatures. Wall of omens may seem like the perfect choice to run against various aggro decks and whatnot. i will tell you i think its bad. because it is very easy to kill, get around, fly over, or burn through. right now the premiere aggro decks consist of vampires, goblins, tempered steel, red deck wins, and puresteel equipster. you really dont want wall against any of these matchups more then you would want spreading seas, which survives the impending day of judgment, gaining you maximum value from the board wipe. wall of omens is a trap, and in most cases is just a tiny tiny stall that eventually gets killed. i would play wall if there was nothing else availible but as of right now it is second best to spreading seas just for the pure value and game steals that seas provides for us.
blade splicer- a decent 3 drop if you want to have things to equip swords to and get in the red zone fast. also a fantastic blink target when given the right situation and pending there arent any signifigant flying threats on board. the common problem people like myself kept facing with this creature, is it is actually a little too agressive for a build like this, and a 3/3 golem is not hard to deal with once the first strike has been removed. it also doesnt get us any further in our quest to find a 5 or 6 drop. so often i run out of gas before i am able to get anything good done on board.
sea gate oracle- this is the best 3 drop cantrip in standard. this is often the best blink target for venser, nothing has pro blue in standard, so you can always block with it (leave out SoBaM of course, its just worse then the other swords right now), and i dont care if they remove it once it tables because i have already gotten sick value from it, i replace the card in my hand and they then proceed to waste spot removal on a 1/3.
hero of bladehold- play this if you want to have fun. dont play this if you want to win at magic. there are just better options at 4 drop.
emeria angel- if you want to go a little more agressive, then this is the 4 drop i would suggest, as it can make 1/1s, sometimes 2 - 4 if you have a sun titan and venser out too.
baneslayer angel- this is generally weak right now because of its frail 5/5 body for 5 mana. too much of an investment, i would sooner cast gideon jura, because hes harder to remove and interacts better with your opponents board.
Frost titan- generally not a bad creature, but gets easily outclassed when behind in the game already, or has untargetable things with hexproof and shroud. when he gets killed you pay 6 to tap their land and get rid of a removal spell. i wouldnt play frost titan with venser right now.
Sun titan- the best option for a venser deck. he is like a little 6 drop toolbox. he brings back anything you may have lost in the mix of battle, draws cards, brings back edges, collonades, jace beleren. sun titan bringing back anything is good. you can actually consider him as a 2nd win con in this deck with all the things he can bring back to help you get right back into games you may have fallen behind in. i would run this over frost titan anyday.
wurmcoil engine- better suited for the bench i think. no instant value in standard right now is usually not good.
notice i only pointed out 2 creatures i actually really really like here? sun titan and sea gate oracle. these 2 separate the men from the boys and are good against decks like ub control, birthing pod, and control decks, because they gain you value and put you way ahead once you get venser.
Spells.
preordain is > then all other 1 mana draw spells. 4 of because of its ability to sift you through to a venser or something else needed better then anything else for the price.
oust,dismember, and condemn.
i cant say which are always better. they are situational so use them at your own discretion. but i always recommend at least 3 1 mana removal spells to get your game started against decks like birthing pod, fast aggro, and decks that are easily stoppable when we have acess to things like dismember, like twin, puresteel equipster, fauna shaman, goblin guide.
i would say usually dismember is better then oust, but oust can be better vs fast aggro, but condemn is too situational, but great against vengevine and bloodghast.
spell pierce- ive tried this out, i find drawing counters isnt what i want, i want to draw lots of cards and eventually bury my opponent with CA. spell pierce is cute, and i would recommend it if you see a lot of people tapping out for noncreature spells in your area. however, this deck can tap out itself effectively, and still not be worried about losing the game because its tapped out. leave it to the sideboard in most cases.
mana leak- the best counter in standard. i run 4. most people run 4. we all have success running 4. its because we want to draw at least one if not more in a lot of our games.
cancel, stoic, and the like
these spells seem to be a little clunky in my testing, and everytime i hold one i end up wishing it was something else. i wouldnt run these. i wouldnt run deprive either because it just seems like too much of a tempo loss when all of our win spells cost 5 and 6, and we want to get them out as early as turn 5 or 6. i find holding up any more then 2 mana during these crucial turns usually is a turn wasted for me. sometimes i will bluff spell pierce. but not always.
o ring- nasty piece of all around removal. i love 2-3 in a venser deck, or in any white deck that isnt that aggressive. i would be cautious about running more then 3 and running some in the sb, because they are more of a maindeck "getcha" card, and can be easily played around post board.
tumble magnet- great against birthing pod. good against overinvested creatures like titans, sworded mans, obliterators, protection from _____ creatures.creates a lock on your opponents best dudes, and also forces aggro to play right into the hands of your day of judgment.
speaking of day of judgment!
this is just what the doctor ordered for lower creature decks. good against every deck when you run less creatures then they do! and if ur up against twin or whatever, just side the things out.....its not that hard. if they run no creatures, side them out its very simple. i even keep them in against control decks who think you will side out your days, only to run into big problems when they get blown out next game. taking care of a spellskite, a sea gate oracle, a blade splicer all at the same time is good enough for me. taking out a resolved grave titan or sun titan who brings back squadrron hawk is a good trade ffor me. taking out 3 birds, a lotus cobra, insert 4 drop here, and a titan all at the same time is just win....makes me want to run 4 in my maindeck and i do.
Zeniths
win more and lose more all in one card. they are generally bad against everything except control decks, and thats pending you play it around counterspells, and discard.
planeswalkers
most of us know that running 2-3 venser seems good, and running 2-3 gideon seems fine.
i like to run 2 jace beleren as well
elspeth and karn dont do enough and seem to win more. i was a fan of both for a short time, but they suffer having too high of a mana cost to completely dominate games like a venser or a gideon. i would just recommend running more of those guys before including elspeth and karn into the mix.
gideon steamrolls aggro, steals games against control, and finishes games on his own and plays defence like a champ.
im not going to speak of venser. the main problem people seem to have is running too few or too many. Run 2 venser. run enough cantrips to consistently see venser and you will only ever need 1 in a game if its done properly. i am often discouraged from playing 3 because he is bad in multiples, and easy to draw into with cantrips.
spreading seas
many people dont like seas, because "people arent running valakut in my area". truth is this card has applications that go deeper than valakut. they ruin man land strategies while gaining you more cards, and screw over mana screwed decks before they have a chance to get back into the game. sometimes i draw 3 right off the bat and force my opponent to be mana screwed, even though he or she may have enough land to cast all their spells, they just lose because of colour screw. surviving my 4 doj maindeck is the deciding factor in running this as a 4 of. its good against ub control, uw control, caw blade to an extent, tempered steel, infect, tezzeret control, mono black, mono red, and sometimes screws over twin as well.
i tweaked my build to be strong against the field minus splinter twin cuz no one plays it in my area, same with kut.
more pod, mono red, tempered steel, green white aggro, uw control, ub control and other randomness show up in my area.
if you are still playing the same build, and losing with it, why dont you take some of these pointers into consideration and we can try to come up with something that wins more. thanks for the read !!
Hey guys, did you find anything you liked about my last post other then the DOJ bash? i think i made some pretty valid points when talking about matchups.
Does anyone have any questions about certain matchups?? i might be able to help.
some scary discussion been going on in here over the last 2 pages. Siding out 4 Doj vs Ub control is a horrible idea. they run the likes of wurmcoil engine, grave titan, and consecrated sphinx, all of which are good 1 for 1 trades with DOj. if you play without day, you force yourself to always have that counterspell handy, and thats not always going to happen. i have won games by actually having to cast 3 and 4 DoJ, just to stay alive. Spreading seas is a key component as it sucks any early pressure from tar pits down the drain. i know wurmcoil might seem like a 1 for 2, as they get 2 tokens, however, there are lots of ways we can deal with wurmcoil, like tumble magnet, gideon, doj, counterspell, or just play against the tokens with whatever we have out and scratch and claw our way forward. i have dealt with multiple wurmcoils vs UB tezzeret control, and come out unmolested. they also run dinky dudes like solemns and stuff that can eat away our life totals if we arent dropping that many threats. sweepers are kind of good in war of attrititon. if you want to protect your hand in games 2 and 3 then siding in 1 or 2 leylines is not a bad thing, especially if you see that they are running the trio of discard, despise, duress, inquisition, as you may only have 2 dead cards in your deck post side, if you hit that leyline, 4-8 cards in thier deck become absolutely useless. Luminarch ascension. try it. once that hits the board the only way UB can interact with it is into the roil...good luck fellow ub players, this is one of their least fave cards because it says remove me in 4 turns or lose the game. Very little investment for a win con as well.
Vs puresteel equipster, dismember and tumble magnet are really good. getting rid of puresteel before they go off for 3 or 4 cards is very important, and they arent hitting you for enough damage like TS to really be concerned with 4 life. stabilize at like 5 or 6 life vs that deck and you will win the game.
Another note on blade splicer, the card started to piss me off when i just needed card advantage to prolong the match, or get me back in one, and sea gate oracle does so much more then splicer in the end. it helps you get to your massive game enders, and digs you into answers much faster then the aggro version. im sold on the control version of this deck, and cards like hero of bladehold and squadron hawk are definately questionable choices to me at this point.,
Solemn simulacrum- not needed unless you run 3+ 6 drops. staying as tight and defencive as possible pre turn 5 is the key to winning a lot of matches where our opponent is trying to overextend and win the game quickly. these colours offer the most protection possible, and best early defensive game possible to set up our massive 4-5 card draw per turn late games. I prefer to draw 3-5 cards a turn when i see venser sitting on the table, and thats exactly what i do everytime i stick him with my decks layout. it has just enough defence to combat the early game, but has lots of live spells late game to take it home as well.
Sun titan > any other titan in this archetype. he is a beast. recurring tools like collonade, jace b, tech edge, LAND.. sea gate, spreading seas, blade splicer, image...tumble magnet,, he is quite useful and running few creature CA so far in my months and months of rigourous testing.
Tumble magnet and DoJ stop birthing pod flat out. they cant compete with you when you are making them hardcast their 5 CC acidic slimes into mana leak. it just doesnt work. making them play at our turtle like pace pre turn 5 is key.
my list runs 2 oust maindeck. no one plays twin in my area cept for a rug pod list, which keels over to me anyways. i side in one card for that matchup, but realisticly speaking i could probably just keep it the same and the matchup wouldnt go any differently then in game 1 where thye play t3 pod, i play t3 magnet and say good luck. while they cast their acidic slimes, you hold up mana leak and play gideon the next turn, or even worse , doj. venser comes out next turn and resets our magnets and they are liek...sigh..why couldnt you have just blinked an island. sun titan comes out and returns shtuff. need i say more. i will post an updated list that has gone 10-2-1 in the last couple weeks. i believe it is running at optimal, as i have steamrolled a lot of my matches and my losses have only come on some form of variance. never have i felt unprepared for a given matchup take away the one time vs UB tezzerator, which i won 2-1 anyways.
Azure mage is kind of good.. kind of a boss in control mirrors, thanks to the team at channelfireball.com for that one.
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Tectonic Edge
5 Island
5 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
// Creatures
3 Sea Gate Oracle
2 Sun Titan
// Spells
4 Preordain
1 dismember
2 oust
4 Mana Leak
4 Spreading seas
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Tumble magnet
2 Jace Beleren
4 Day of Judgment
2 Venser, the Sojourner
2 Gideon Jura
1 dismember
2 Azure Mage
2 Flashfreeze
2 Celestial Purge
2 Luminarch Ascension
1 Revoke Existence
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Consecrated sphinx
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Tectonic Edge
5 Island
5 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
// Creatures
3 Sea Gate Oracle
2 Sun Titan
// Spells
4 Preordain
2 dismember
1 oust
4 Mana Leak
4 Spreading seas
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Tumble magnet
2 Jace Beleren
4 Day of Judgment
2 Venser, the Sojourner
2 Gideon Jura
1 Oust
2 Azure Mage
2 Flashfreeze
2 Celestial Purge
2 Luminarch Ascension
1 Revoke Existence
3 Kor Firewalker
1 Timely Reinforcments
1 Leyline of Sanctity
i have a good feeling about azure mage shoring up our longer control matchups.
found some sucess in gameday yesterday. i played in 2 different gamedays in 2 different stores, one with 4 rounds (12 people) and my regular shop with 5 rounds (30 people)
in the first gameday i went 3-1 piloting the list above, the only change was a few changes to the sb and one to the maindeck to challenge red aggro a little better then before.
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Tectonic Edge
5 Island
5 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
// Creatures
3 Sea Gate Oracle
2 Sun Titan
// Spells
4 Preordain
1 dismember
2 oust
4 Mana Leak
4 Spreading seas
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Tumble magnet
2 Jace Beleren
4 Day of Judgment
2 Venser, the Sojourner
2 Gideon Jura
1 dismember
2 Azure Mage
2 Flashfreeze
2 Celestial Purge
2 Luminarch Ascension
1 Revoke Existence
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Consecrated sphinx
gameday #1
round 1 WIN --- vs U/W control mirror match 2-1
game one i won by just killing him with gideon and collonade, and answering all his threats.
game 2 i was about to kill him after a game long tit-for-tat, but with 20 cards left in my library he jace memory adepts me 2 times and i have no library left to win the game...
game 3 i land luminarch ascension t2. he is unable to remove it until i land 4 angels and thats game.
this seemed like a good matchup for me, although his poor card selection was the downfall of his day.
match 2 WIN --- vs U/b Empires 2-1
he used the 3 empires cards from m12 to try and win his games, throne, scepter and i forget the other one...
game 1 i kill him quickly with gideon and venser.
game 2 he kills me quickly after landing all 3 empires.
game 3 i win by doing the same thing as g1.
match 3 LOSS ---RDW with chandra's phoenix and planeswalkers 1-2
i dont remember this matchup...i just remember getting owned in game 3 because i got spell screwed.
Match 4 WIN --- kuldoltha red 2-1
game 1- i get killed by goblin chieftain and kuldoltha rebirth sacrificing perlous myr on the same turn.
game 2- i get early tempo and get to 6 mana.
game 3- i get out leyline and gideon and he shakes my hand.
overall- 3rd place at 3-1
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gameday #2
round 1 WIN vs Naya Birthing Pod 2-0
games 1 and 2 i get huge early tempo with 2 tumble magnet and counterspells.
game 2 i do exactly the same thing as g1, siding in the revoke existence and the dismember and removing the 2 spreading seas.
Round 2 WIN 2-1 vs UB tezzeret control
game 1 i get lucky by landing a tumble magnet, and follow with the regular threats to exile his permanents eventually.
game 2 ends quickly when he lands wurmcoil, metamorphs it 2 times on the following turn. i hold 2 doj in my hand, have gideon and 2 tumble magnet on the board. but it wasnt enough to win once he lands tezzeret on the following turn.
game 3 i won by burying him in CA with venser/ sea gate oracle. nearly goes to time, but he didnt draw into removal so i kill him with gideon and sun titan while vensers ultimate is online.
RD 3 WIN VS RDW with shrine and chandras phoenixx
game 1 i got venser ultimate off when hes stuck on 3 land and 2 shrines at 5 counters and 6 counters respectively. i exile his land and he scoops
game 2 i mull to 5. he wins with a singleton lavamancer and chandra's phoenix and burn.
game 3 i land leyline, gideon. he shakes my hand.
RD 4- DRAW 1-1-1 vs. U/w Control Mirror
game 1 he just lands more threats then me. although i almost came back. game takes 30 minutes.
game 2 i land t2 ascension, get it off with 2 life left. he into the roils my ascension when i have 6 land up on his turn, he has 4 left for DOJ. in response i mana leak his into the roil. he pays the 3 and in response to that i activate the ability and make 2 4/4 fliers. i have him on 12 life cuz i got in there 8 times with sea gate oracle. i win the match, albeit a tough one. game ends in 15 minutes.
RD 5 LOSS 1-2 VS RUG POD for either 1st place or 4th. it was win or come 4th place.
game 1 i got 2 early magnets out to stop his pod activations. he doesnt get one activation the whole game and i blow his board 3 times with DOJ before bashing with gideon.
Game 2 - lose to frost titan with stupid splinter twin to tap my lands down before i could recover..i dont draw 1 DOJ...
Game 3- each player takes a trip to paris, keep a one lander because i felt i couldnt go down to 5 on the play. i miss my 2nd land drop, mana leak his first deciever exarch on t3, mana leak his wurmcoil on t4. he is left with 2 cards in hand and i have mana to play magnet with hopes he is out of threats because of the sequence of plays, and i was like if you have exarch/twin in hand after mulling and playing 1 already, i figured i needed to start playing stuff cuz he was at 7 mana and i couldnt leak anything anymore except frost titan......he shows exarch/twin at my end step and i shake his hand.....lucky bum. i had the 2nd magnet in hand as well :(.
OVERALL 3-1-1 good for 4th out of 30. i got my dungrove elder so i was happy...although i felt i couldve won if i drew my 2nd land on t2...this deck is perfectly metagamed right now. i wouldnt change a thing about the deck at the moment.
heres the list:
it is basically X-2 in many rounds of testing right now
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Tectonic Edge
5 Plains
5 Island
4 Seachrome Coast
// Creatures
3 Sea Gate Oracle
2 Sun Titan
// Spells
1 Oust
2 Dismember
4 Preordain
4 Mana Leak
4 Spreading Seas
3 Tumble Magnet
2 Jace Beleren
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Day of Judgment
2 Venser, the Sojourner
2 Gideon Jura
1 Oust
1 Revoke Existence
2 Luminarch Ascension
4 Kor Firewalker
2 Celestial Purge
2 Flashfreeze
1 Mimic Vat
1 Stoic Rebuttal
1 Baneslayer Angel
im not sure about the baneslayer or mimic vat. the slayer is a good replacement for venser in red deck matchups, also against any other random aggro deck, the stoic rebuttal is questionable, some like deprive, but i just hate the tempo loss and would rather have that in longer matchups that are becomeing more mana intensive, i dont want to have to play my lands twice.
so far the most used things have been celestial purge, flashfreeze, luminarch ascension, and oust. i feel the numbers are correct , but i may add more luminarchs if the twin decks start popping up again.
i feel our mythics are good enough to win any game, and i felt they needed to be protected better because of that. i dont feel we can get ahead in the meta anymore by playing blade splicers. we need to get board presence and card advantage with non creature spells like tumble magnets and spot removal, and make them play at our turtle like pace, until we pop out a threat and start overwhlming them with CA. just my take on the meta right now. its all value creatures, which our deck isnt poised to stand up to with our own creatures, and board wipes and spot removal is a good thing to have and thats a big reason for me running 4 right now.
mimic vat seems good in longer games vs pod and control decks.
and i leave in magnets against red deck wins, you need something to block after a day of judgment as well, and it forces them to overplay thier hand into a day. kor firewalkers are better then timely reinforcments right now. i have yet to lose a game after casting a firewalker.