Naya Pod
U/W Delver
Esper Control
Esper Spirits
U/W Delver
U/W Delver
U/W Delver
Esper Spirits
Delver is obviously dominating the metagame right now. I think the list we need to be looking to is the 4th place list from GP Salt Lake. It appears to be a modified version of the Pro Tour Honolulu list that won.
I am going to the SCG IQ on 4/14 in Roanoke and I know I will be playing someone along the lines of this list. I think this is where WRR is heading. I really like Wrack with Madness to battle Phyrexian Obliterator. Any suggestions for a metagame filled with Delver decks?
I think it depends on how you derive "fun" from magic. If you have fun winning with a good deck, then this is a good choice. Just don't let people who pull the age old "you just netdecked" crap get you down.
I'am not so sure about boarding in Curse against them because of afore mentioned cards. I would go Ratchet Bomb, Go for the Throat and Black Sun's Zenith for BoP, 1 Primeval Titan and 1 Grave Titan.
Thanks for the feedback! I'm testing with my group again tomorrow night. Will definitely try this out
against delver, why not take out 2x prime titan, and in thunr and garruk ?
both of them are easier to enter (thrun always enters), and garruk gives card advantage.
all the rest seemed kind of ok.
I like this alot. Thanks for the suggestion!
Edit: Thinking about this more and more. Seems REALLY good because vapor snag misses Thrun and Garruk. Then you get the bonus of Thrun being uncounterable...yeah. They definitely come in.
So this is the deck Conley won with at GP Orlando. I love it. I've tested it and feel really confident piloting it. Especially vs. MageBlade because you almost always have an answer for their threat.
My concern is, am I sideboarding it correctly?
vs. Mono Red
+2 Batterskull
+1 Ancient Grudge
+1 Tree of Redemption
+1 Thrun, the Last Troll
Reasonings: Batterskull and Thrun lower your curve to battle their creatures. Ancient Grudge kills Shrine and SoWaP(maybe). Tree is ~10 life gain.
Take out bird because it dies too easily. Ratchet bomb is a little too slow to take out their threats. Primeval and Acidics were a hard choice. I chose them because you're putting in 3 threats and Primeval doesn't give you token chumps like Grave Titan, then Acidics CAN kill shrine but with 5 mana, Batterskull is nearly always a better choice.
vs. MageBlade
+2 Nihil Spellbomb
+2 Curse of Death's Hold
+1 Liliana of the Veil
+1 Ancient Grudge
-3 Doom Blade
-1 Grave Titan
-1 Sphere of Suns
-1 Birds of Paradise
Reasonings: To start off, 7/15 of MageBlade's creatures have Hexproof. That means that Doom blade can only hit 1/2 of their creatures (outside of haunt tokens). Talking about tokens, say hello to your little friend Curse of Death's Hold. Curses are a no brainer in this MU. Nihil Spellbombs kill their flashbacks from Snapcasters and shuts down pike pumping. Ancient Grudge is for the Pikes and Swords. Grave titan goes out b/c he's a groundie. 1 Sphere and Bird can get cut b/c you don't need to race when you kill all their threats
vs. Humans
+1 Ratchet Bomb
+1 Black Sun's Zenith
+2 Curse of Death's Hold
+1 Go for the Throat
-2 Acidic Slime
-1 Primeval Titan
-1 Green Sun's Zenith
Reasonings: This is the most popular aggro deck at the moment. Ratchet Bomb kills Moorland tokens, Black Sun's is your standar board wipe. Curse shuts down over 1/2 of their creatures + Moorland Tokens. GFTT is another removal spell to keep their board empty.
Acidic's don't do much here. Yes, they kill Moorland Haunt, but you can keep that shut down with Curses/Ratchets/BSZs. (I am 2nd guessing myself but think this is the right choice). Primeval's aren't as detrimental as Grave titans because you can always leave back chumps. Take out 1 GSZ because you've taken out 4 targets at this point.
vs. Mirror
+2 Curse of Death's Hold
+1 Go for the Throat
+1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
-1 Ratchet Bomb
-3 Black Sun's Zenith
Reasonings: Curse shuts down Nexus. GFTT Kills everything but Nexus and Solemns (maybe Wurmcoil). Garruk is card advantage and unlimited threats (more for the G/R version).
Ratchet bomb takes too long to kill anything in this MU. Black Sun's aren't really relevant b/c they're not playing mass creatures. (Haven't played a lot of this MU in testing).
vs. Tempered Steel
+1 Ancient Grudge
+1 Ratchet Bomb
+1 Black Sun's Zenith
So I've experienced an unsuccessful (so far) trend with WRR. I played Valakut and did great with it. However, Wolf Run has been very inconsistent for me. I was playing Iyanaga's list from worlds and I would find myself drawing hands like: land land land titan titan titan burn.
My problem is I draw hands like: 3 lands, solemn, growth, burn. Do I keep this? Like I played that exact hand vs Flare and didn't draw any of my threats (after SB).
I'm not sure if I should have taken a mulligan to 6 or do you play a decent hand and hope to draw a threat?
Wow, I'm curious about this too. I've never heard of someone writing down what was in the other person's hand. It feels a bit too encumbersome and time-consuming, especially when you're playing a timed event like FNM.
Was it really THAT crucial to aiding your victory?
I can understand the player being annoyed too, but I guess it depends on the rules actually work.
What did the Judge do to resolve the situation?
Yes. Perfect knowledge is irreplaceable. It lets you know whether or not they have a leak for your win con. It also lets you know what their turn structure is going to look like. It's pretty brutal.
And the judge just told the player that it's public knowledge, and since I wasn't taking long to write it down, there wasn't a problem with it.
I searched the forums and couldn't find the answer I am looking for. I know player's are allowed to write down their opponent's hand when it becomes public knowledge (i.e. Gitaxian Probe, Surgical Extraction, etc.) However, I don't know the EXACT rule that says this.
The reason I ask is because I was playing at FNM the other night and I cast Gitaxian Probe, my opponent reveals his hand, I begin to write it down, and he picks it up. I ask him to wait and he spews off some angry response of "you're not allowed to write it down while it's revealed, you have to remember it then write it down". I just looked at him in awe at how dumb it sounded. I called a judge, got it resolved. But I want to know the rule that says a player is allowed to write it down, in case it comes up in the future.
Stop complaining about standard being expensive. Look at it like this. I invest a couple hundred dollars in a solid standard deck that wins. I go to FNMs and opens, and win, gaining me free product from these events. So you don't lose any money in the end.
Also, Jules_d1 is right. WotC doesn't need to print more cards. All that would do is flood the stores with more boosters than they need. I also have never walked into a store and they not have at least 1 box of a standard set. If WotC printed singles of the bomb cards that come out, THAT would make the individual price of THAT card go down. Otherwise, the price will stay the same.
I have to go with Rohkey on this one. Sad Robot is great in my deck. I run 4 of him. I still run 1 of Oracle and fetch her if needed. Robot is just so nice to chump block or kill something and further thin your deck with the draw.
Round 1: Some Homebrew deck
I 2-0 him really fast and don't remember what he was playing...
Round 2: Mono Black w/ Vamps
I had heard a lot of chatter of this deck and how "good" it was. So I was a little anxious to play it. Turned out the pilot was really cool.
Game 1: T1 Pulse Tracker. T2 Bloodghast. T3 Lacerator and Kalastria. At this point I'm taking a lot of damage. Top deck a slagstorm. I win because he can't recover.
1-0
Game 2: T1 Vampire Lacerator. T2 Another Lacerator. T3 Bloodghast. T4 Obliterator. I'm at 8. I have a birds, Baloth, Robot and Titan on the field. He attacks, I block the titan to Obliterator, saccing some land (that I didn't need), and my other 3 creatures. He dismembers my Titan and drops ANOTHER obliterator. My top deck was unplayable.
1-1
Game 3: We go back and forth. He gets me to 8. Drops a land bringing 2 hasted Bloodghast back into play bringing me to 4. My go. I draw a Titan and have a Cultivate and Bolt in my hand. Deal like 32 damage.
2-1
Round 3: Mono Black deck
Game 1: He hits nothing with Despise T1. He fiddles around and lets me get Titan off. Kills it instantly. I have GSZ to answer.
1-0
Game 2: I roll him. No real resistance as my Titan fetches my 3rd Valakut and a Mountain. Then I deal a bunch of damage.
2-0
Round 4: Tempered Steel
Get matched vs. my best friend who was running my Tempered Steel deck. (not fun). At this point not only is my FNM placing on the line, so are bragging rights. Gotta win!
Game 1: I don't draw the 1 MB slagstorm. He pummels.
0-1
Game 2: Bring in 3 Creeping Corrosion and 1 Slagstorm. That's 5 board wipes total in my deck now. I mulligan into a Corrosion. T3 I have 4 Mana (3 Land and a Bird). At this point it's either play cultivate or Corrosion. He didn't have a Tempered Steel on the board and only 1 card in hand. I guessed it was Dispatch (and it was). He top decks TS. Deals 11 damage to me. Putting me at 9. I Corrosion next turn then he can't recover.
1-1
Game 3: My hand looks something like Fetch Mountain Mountain Slagstorm Corrosion Cultivate Titan. I keep and win without a problem. Thank you Sideboard!
2-1
Round 5: Mono Black (Who saw it coming!?)
The Pilot is the tournament judge and a really cool guy that I know I can beat.
Game 1: I trollololol with 2 Titans and he scoops.
1-0
Game 2: Memorcides Titans. Beats my face in with Nighthawk and Obliterator.
1-1
Game 3: He hits a Memorcide AFTER I get 1 Titan on the field. He GftT's my titan and I just ramp into mountains with 2 Activated Valakuts.
2-1
Mono Black really doesn't do well vs. Valakut. The Vamps on R2 got the closest to a match win vs. me. (Had me at 4 Life). But it's funny because most of the people at my FNM don't play T1 decks because they're too "expensive". But they will buy $30 worth of boosters and their best rare is Time Reversal... But I'm the only Valakut player out of 30-40 people that show up for FNM. So there's not much resistance to my deck.
Saturday Win a Box Tournament. Only 10 People show up. But they're the best 10 people from FNM. So this should be interesting.
Round 1: Mono Black
I've played this deck a lot at my FNM. The pilot is very good and really cool.
Game 1: T1 He plays Land-Go. T2 Sign in Blood on himself. T3 Kicked Gatekeeper to get my birds. T4 No obliterator, my titan fetches me Valakuts. He keeps my board cleared of creatures, I GSZ into a win.
1-0
Game 2: I literally had a great ramp hand. But he gets an early Memorcide off and snags my Titans. I don't top deck anything great.
1-1
Game 3: I get a T4 Titan. Get him down to 3. He's keeping my board cleared. I'm topdecking at this point. Top deck Cultivate with 2 activated Valakut's.
2-1
Game 1: I keep with no removal. He attacks with 2 Kiln Fiend and hits me twice with Forked Bolt. Deals 18 to me killing me.
0-1
Game 2: I literally topdeck EIGHT land in a row when ANY creature when have been good vs. a Koth Mountain banging me every turn.
0-2
He rarely beats me. But his deck is one of the two I despise (that and Mono Green infect). It just gets under my skin because both of these types of decks that are very explosive only take 1 or 2 bolts (for the creatures) to slow down to a screeching halt. And of course I don't draw one. Oh well, onto round 3.
Round 3: Mono Black
It's the one from last night with vamps. The matchup is about the same. I go 2-1. (see round 2 at FNM above for details).
Round 4: Caw Blade
It's another one of my friends. Me and him put Flores Blade together specifically for the "Win a Box" tourney.
Game 1: He has no leak for my Titan. He top decks a land that he didn't need.
1-0
Game 2: Emeria Angel with fetches hurt!
1-1
Game 3: He gets out a Feast and Famine but has nothing to swing with due to Slagstorm. My titan prevails.
2-1
We split to top 4. (I'm at the #1 position because the Red deck combo got trounced by Puresteel). Decide to split the box.
SCG Open Salt Lake City 4/1
U/W Delver
W/B Tokens
U/W Delver
U/W Delver
U/W Delver
U/W Delver
Naya Pod
Naya Pod
GP Salt Lake City 4/1
U/W Delver
U/W Delver
Esper Spirits
Wolf Run Ramp
G/R Aggro
W/U Humans
U/W Delver
U/W Delver
GP Kuala Lumpur 3/25
U/W Delver
G/W Aggro
U/W Delver
B/U Zombies
U/W Delver
U/W Delver
B/U Zombies
G/R Aggro
Baltimore Invitational 3/25
Naya Pod
U/W Delver
Esper Control
Esper Spirits
U/W Delver
U/W Delver
U/W Delver
Esper Spirits
Delver is obviously dominating the metagame right now. I think the list we need to be looking to is the 4th place list from GP Salt Lake. It appears to be a modified version of the Pro Tour Honolulu list that won.
List here:
4 Sphere of the Suns
Artifact Creatures
3 Solemn Simulacrum
Creatures
1 Acidic Slime
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
2 Inferno Titan
4 Primeval Titan
Instants
3 Galvanic Blast
Legendary Creatures
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
Sorceries
2 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Rampant Growth
1 Red Sun's Zenith
4 Slagstorm
1 Whipflare
6 Forest
4 Mountain
Lands
4 Copperline Gorge
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Rootbound Crag
1 Batterskull
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Autumn's Veil
2 Beast Within
2 Combust
2 Naturalize
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Karn Liberated
1 Whipflare
2 Wrack with Madness
I am going to the SCG IQ on 4/14 in Roanoke and I know I will be playing someone along the lines of this list. I think this is where WRR is heading. I really like Wrack with Madness to battle Phyrexian Obliterator. Any suggestions for a metagame filled with Delver decks?
Thanks for the feedback! I'm testing with my group again tomorrow night. Will definitely try this out
I like this alot. Thanks for the suggestion!
Edit: Thinking about this more and more. Seems REALLY good because vapor snag misses Thrun and Garruk. Then you get the bonus of Thrun being uncounterable...yeah. They definitely come in.
1 Dragonskull Summit
7 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Mountain
5 Swamp
4 Woodland Cemetery
Creatures: 16
2 Acidic Slime
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Glissa, the Traitor
4 Grave Titan
4 Primeval Titan
4 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Ratchet Bomb
4 Sphere of the Suns
Instants: 5
3 Doom Blade
2 Geth's Verdict
Sorceries: 9
3 Black Sun's Zenith
2 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Rampant Growth
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Batterskull
1 Black Sun's Zenith
2 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Go for the Throat
1 Liliana of the Veil
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Tree of Redemption
1 Viridian Corrupter
So this is the deck Conley won with at GP Orlando. I love it. I've tested it and feel really confident piloting it. Especially vs. MageBlade because you almost always have an answer for their threat.
My concern is, am I sideboarding it correctly?
+2 Batterskull
+1 Ancient Grudge
+1 Tree of Redemption
+1 Thrun, the Last Troll
-1 Birds of Paradise
-1 Ratchet Bomb
-1 Primeval Titan
-2 Acidic Slime
vs. MageBlade
+2 Nihil Spellbomb
+2 Curse of Death's Hold
+1 Liliana of the Veil
+1 Ancient Grudge
-3 Doom Blade
-1 Grave Titan
-1 Sphere of Suns
-1 Birds of Paradise
vs. Humans
+1 Ratchet Bomb
+1 Black Sun's Zenith
+2 Curse of Death's Hold
+1 Go for the Throat
-2 Acidic Slime
-1 Primeval Titan
-1 Green Sun's Zenith
vs. Mirror
+2 Curse of Death's Hold
+1 Go for the Throat
+1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
-1 Ratchet Bomb
-3 Black Sun's Zenith
vs. Tempered Steel
+1 Ancient Grudge
+1 Ratchet Bomb
+1 Black Sun's Zenith
-1 Grave Titan
-1 Primeval Titan
-1 Solemn Simulacrum
Please give me some feedback/suggestions. Thanks!
1) free tokens with LIFELINK
2) it kills PLANESWALKERS
I will be getting at least 2 of these for Esper Control, hands down.
My problem is I draw hands like: 3 lands, solemn, growth, burn. Do I keep this? Like I played that exact hand vs Flare and didn't draw any of my threats (after SB).
I'm not sure if I should have taken a mulligan to 6 or do you play a decent hand and hope to draw a threat?
Yes. Perfect knowledge is irreplaceable. It lets you know whether or not they have a leak for your win con. It also lets you know what their turn structure is going to look like. It's pretty brutal.
And the judge just told the player that it's public knowledge, and since I wasn't taking long to write it down, there wasn't a problem with it.
I searched the forums and couldn't find the answer I am looking for. I know player's are allowed to write down their opponent's hand when it becomes public knowledge (i.e. Gitaxian Probe, Surgical Extraction, etc.) However, I don't know the EXACT rule that says this.
The reason I ask is because I was playing at FNM the other night and I cast Gitaxian Probe, my opponent reveals his hand, I begin to write it down, and he picks it up. I ask him to wait and he spews off some angry response of "you're not allowed to write it down while it's revealed, you have to remember it then write it down". I just looked at him in awe at how dumb it sounded. I called a judge, got it resolved. But I want to know the rule that says a player is allowed to write it down, in case it comes up in the future.
Thanks,
Ryan
Also, Jules_d1 is right. WotC doesn't need to print more cards. All that would do is flood the stores with more boosters than they need. I also have never walked into a store and they not have at least 1 box of a standard set. If WotC printed singles of the bomb cards that come out, THAT would make the individual price of THAT card go down. Otherwise, the price will stay the same.
4 Primeval Titan
1 Avenger of Zendikar
4 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Inferno Titan
1 Birds of Paradise
2 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Gaea's Revenge
Lands: (27)
5 Forest
11 Mountain
3 Evolving Wilds
3 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1 Raging Ravine
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Rampant Growth
4 Explore
2 Cultivate
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Slagstorm
1 Obstinate Baloth
3 Nature's Claim
3 Creeping Corrosion
3 Summoning Trap
1 Slagstorm
3 Back to Nature
1 Gaea's Revenge
Round 1: Some Homebrew deck
I 2-0 him really fast and don't remember what he was playing...
Round 2: Mono Black w/ Vamps
I had heard a lot of chatter of this deck and how "good" it was. So I was a little anxious to play it. Turned out the pilot was really cool.
Game 1: T1 Pulse Tracker. T2 Bloodghast. T3 Lacerator and Kalastria. At this point I'm taking a lot of damage. Top deck a slagstorm. I win because he can't recover.
1-0
Game 2: T1 Vampire Lacerator. T2 Another Lacerator. T3 Bloodghast. T4 Obliterator. I'm at 8. I have a birds, Baloth, Robot and Titan on the field. He attacks, I block the titan to Obliterator, saccing some land (that I didn't need), and my other 3 creatures. He dismembers my Titan and drops ANOTHER obliterator. My top deck was unplayable.
1-1
Game 3: We go back and forth. He gets me to 8. Drops a land bringing 2 hasted Bloodghast back into play bringing me to 4. My go. I draw a Titan and have a Cultivate and Bolt in my hand. Deal like 32 damage.
2-1
Round 3: Mono Black deck
Game 1: He hits nothing with Despise T1. He fiddles around and lets me get Titan off. Kills it instantly. I have GSZ to answer.
1-0
Game 2: I roll him. No real resistance as my Titan fetches my 3rd Valakut and a Mountain. Then I deal a bunch of damage.
2-0
Round 4: Tempered Steel
Get matched vs. my best friend who was running my Tempered Steel deck. (not fun). At this point not only is my FNM placing on the line, so are bragging rights. Gotta win!
Game 1: I don't draw the 1 MB slagstorm. He pummels.
0-1
Game 2: Bring in 3 Creeping Corrosion and 1 Slagstorm. That's 5 board wipes total in my deck now. I mulligan into a Corrosion. T3 I have 4 Mana (3 Land and a Bird). At this point it's either play cultivate or Corrosion. He didn't have a Tempered Steel on the board and only 1 card in hand. I guessed it was Dispatch (and it was). He top decks TS. Deals 11 damage to me. Putting me at 9. I Corrosion next turn then he can't recover.
1-1
Game 3: My hand looks something like Fetch Mountain Mountain Slagstorm Corrosion Cultivate Titan. I keep and win without a problem. Thank you Sideboard!
2-1
Round 5: Mono Black (Who saw it coming!?)
The Pilot is the tournament judge and a really cool guy that I know I can beat.
Game 1: I trollololol with 2 Titans and he scoops.
1-0
Game 2: Memorcides Titans. Beats my face in with Nighthawk and Obliterator.
1-1
Game 3: He hits a Memorcide AFTER I get 1 Titan on the field. He GftT's my titan and I just ramp into mountains with 2 Activated Valakuts.
2-1
Mono Black really doesn't do well vs. Valakut. The Vamps on R2 got the closest to a match win vs. me. (Had me at 4 Life). But it's funny because most of the people at my FNM don't play T1 decks because they're too "expensive". But they will buy $30 worth of boosters and their best rare is Time Reversal... But I'm the only Valakut player out of 30-40 people that show up for FNM. So there's not much resistance to my deck.
Saturday Win a Box Tournament. Only 10 People show up. But they're the best 10 people from FNM. So this should be interesting.
Round 1: Mono Black
I've played this deck a lot at my FNM. The pilot is very good and really cool.
Game 1: T1 He plays Land-Go. T2 Sign in Blood on himself. T3 Kicked Gatekeeper to get my birds. T4 No obliterator, my titan fetches me Valakuts. He keeps my board cleared of creatures, I GSZ into a win.
1-0
Game 2: I literally had a great ramp hand. But he gets an early Memorcide off and snags my Titans. I don't top deck anything great.
1-1
Game 3: I get a T4 Titan. Get him down to 3. He's keeping my board cleared. I'm topdecking at this point. Top deck Cultivate with 2 activated Valakut's.
2-1
Round 2: Play Mono Red Combo
His deck consists of burn cards with 4 Kiln Fiend and 4 Chandra's Spitfire.
Game 1: I keep with no removal. He attacks with 2 Kiln Fiend and hits me twice with Forked Bolt. Deals 18 to me killing me.
0-1
Game 2: I literally topdeck EIGHT land in a row when ANY creature when have been good vs. a Koth Mountain banging me every turn.
0-2
He rarely beats me. But his deck is one of the two I despise (that and Mono Green infect). It just gets under my skin because both of these types of decks that are very explosive only take 1 or 2 bolts (for the creatures) to slow down to a screeching halt. And of course I don't draw one. Oh well, onto round 3.
Round 3: Mono Black
It's the one from last night with vamps. The matchup is about the same. I go 2-1. (see round 2 at FNM above for details).
Round 4: Caw Blade
It's another one of my friends. Me and him put Flores Blade together specifically for the "Win a Box" tourney.
Game 1: He has no leak for my Titan. He top decks a land that he didn't need.
1-0
Game 2: Emeria Angel with fetches hurt!
1-1
Game 3: He gets out a Feast and Famine but has nothing to swing with due to Slagstorm. My titan prevails.
2-1
We split to top 4. (I'm at the #1 position because the Red deck combo got trounced by Puresteel). Decide to split the box.