MTG Salvation

Ended up 3-1 last night. My sideboard ended up changing.



Round 1 vs 5c Walkers (W 2-0): There's not a lot to say about this match. He played Nissa, Sorin, and Sarkhan that I saw, and he cast an Engulf the Shore when he had no Islands out. Like I said, nothing to say about this match.

Round 2 vs BW Control (L 1-2): Game 2, I was stuck on two mana. Game 3, I drew very little other than land. Game 1, though, was a good back and forth, and showed me that this deck could be trouble. It plays such a critical mass of removal, it can be hard to punch through.

Round 3 vs Abzan Walkers (W 2-1): Playing against this list was very similar to the BW control deck; a critical mass of removal, backed by Kalitas and Walkers. Game 1 was going my way until I couldn't get around his Kalitas, then he played a second the turn after I finally killed the fist. Game 3 also required me to play around a Kalitas, but sideboarding in Declaration in Stone helped a lot here. Atarka's Command also gave me the W here, letting me attack for just over lethal with the pump+burn, while I was dead on board next turn.

Round 4 vs GW Humans (W 2-0): He mana screwed two games in a row. Woo.

Hamlet Captain is better than I thought. Even just bringing in the one from the side, if they didn't have an answer, he could get out of hand. I had a turn of attacking with HC, and flashing in Heron's Grace Champion. Hanweir Militia Captain let me down, but that may have been because he also had removal thrown at him immediately. I'll swap HMC for HC and see how it feels. Heron's Grace Champion is an absolute beast, usually giving 10+ life; that said, I still wouldn't run more than two for obvious (CoCo) reasons.

I sided Thalia in in nearly every match, but never missed her in my game 1s. If I can find a slot, I'll go back to 1 in the main. I also need to make a cut for a 25th land. Firemantle Mage was extremely underwhelming, since I had no other allies. Maybe in multiples, it'd be more playable, but if you're only counting on getting his trigger once, it's not worth it. Maybe a sideboard package with him and Lantern Scout could be an interesting way to out-aggro aggro. I got to see Foul Emissary in my hand and on a CoCo, and it didn't feel good in either place: Duskwatch just does it so much better.

The deck seems very strong, but definitely needs some refining (especially since my list had subpar test cards). Hanweir Garrison ends up having a huge target on his head, and against the control decks, I usually held on to them until after a Laguish. Den Protector is as good as you'd expect, nothing more, nothing less. Getting a CoCo back feels great, but not so great I wouldn't cut him for something else. He's worth testing, and probably just comes down to personal preference.

I also have a crazy idea I'm just going to throw out there, feel free to tell me I'm crazy.



I'm not great with complicated mana bases, I'd definitely take some help on that if anyone is good at it.

I'll be playing FNM tonight with this deck. I'm missing 1 Thalia's Lieutenant (in the mail), hence the 1 Foul Emissary (which I was wanting to test out anyway). Results and hopefully something of a report later tonight/tomorrow.



About some of my choices:

While flipping a Hanweir Battlements is neat, if you can't win with one, you're probably not winning with two. Because it can be such a swingy play, I'll keep one in there as a good mana dump (both in haste and flipping). Really, though, the Garrison does enough work on his own without flipping, and makes humans, which are more relevant than eldrazi. I haven't done enough testing, but I'm not sold on Hamlet Captain, so I'm running Hanweir Militia Captain instead. Den Protector was a last minute thought, but seems like it could be very good. Enough Lieutenants, and it'll basically be unblockable. Ride Down and Incendiary Flow in the side are just fun cards I wanted to try out if they ever seem relevant.

Comment Hidden

Comment Hidden

Yes you can. Emerge doesn't specify from where you can cast it. Chandra doesn't specify casting without paying a mana cost (not that it would matter for emerge), so you can choose to cast it for an alternate cost.

Correct for the right reasons (assuming the land isn't already a creature beforehand).

You follow instructions in the order written. The counters are placed on the noncreature land. Then, the land becomes a creature. Winding Constrictor's ability has no effect on those events.

Yes. Triggers (that aren't mana abilities) use the stack, they can be responded to, and they can be Stifled. If your opponent simply adds the energy counters right away, he's proposing a shortcut (for all players to pass priority and let the trigger resolve). You can shorten or reject the shortcut if you want. Then the game gets rewound to the point where you want to interfere. But you can do so only, if you take a different action than proposed for you (to pass priority) for that time in the shortcut.

Yes, that works. When paying an Emerge cost, you choose the creature to sacrifice before you actually pay the cost. This way it can be used to determine the total cost of the spell. Then, you pay the costs of the spell and you can do it in any order. As long as you tap the creature for Improvise first and then sacrifice it, it will satisfy the sac a creature part of Emerge as well as 1 for the cost.

Well looks like we got a uw control deck after my own heart in the top 32 at the ag open:
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=108104

Displacer is a magnet for removal, as untapping with it can wreck an opponents board state. My meta is shifting to g/b delirium decks and this was before the PT. players were astute enough to realize that lili backed by grasps and languish were a winning combination. Add Emmy and the deck can clearly go over the top. Selfless spirit gets worse and I can see going down to 3 like lsv had in his list. The elements of the deck that were lost early on , Jace and nissa should make a comeback now. I can even see going up to 3 dec in stone in the sb to combat clogged board states.

Tamiyo seemed absolutely bonkers on camera and she went a long way in giving lsv a chance against Rubin in that match. He still lost to Emmy but drawing triple traverse was brutal.

If it's true that g/b becomes the go to control deck than a Krasis gets way better off coco.

When I need a sweeper to live, and my Augury shows me five lands, I won't be happy.

And to Steam Augury's Credit, if you look up at the top 5 and it's all lands then Steam Augury isn't what killed you. You just got screwed.

Isn`t this exactly why Vexing Devil bad?

Your opponent making choices is bad for you, but Vexing Devil isn't even really worth a card if he gets sacrificed and doesn't develop a board presence. This at least digs pretty deep.

Yeah. A lot of people are looking at Steam Augury incorrectly. Its strength lies in chaining them together so that you see a lot of cards. The value of a single Steam Augury might be irrelevant but it'll matter when it stacks with the value of the second and third Steam Auguries you cast throughout the game.

A properly built Augury deck will probably be able to bury people in card advantage as good as any other. This will especially be true in Modern, where cards like Snapcaster Mage, Life from the Loam, Academy Ruins, and the like will make what pile your opponent picks ultimately irrelevant.

Unlike an "I agree"/"thank you" system, where further commenting may be unnecessary, just saying "I disagree"/"no thank you" wouldn't be helpful at all. Unless you state why, it is pointless.

Additionally, I am generally skeptical of a system that feels inherently negative. I'd rather just have the thanks button to promote goodposting in a way that, you know, spreads "happy feelings", rather than one which basically says "this post sucks" without any explanation. It may have merit, since promoting goodposting is A+ and it could be a reasonable supplement to the thank you button, but at this point you can color me skeptic.

Like, I foresee that a "dislike" button would generate lots of "this guy hates me!"-like feelings, and that's not really a good thing.