MTG Salvation

hey guys. I played in SCG:Baltimore this weekend and was hoping to beat my performance with 8 rack at GP Richmond last year where I lost my win and in due to a missed rack trigger :(. However due to some bad luck pairings wise and probably a few misplays I ended up going 2-4 and dropping. However I have notes for all the games including starting hand for each game so this could be a good time to talk about mulliganing that you guys were just discussing about doing. I played the deck in the primer and when possible tried to follow the sideboarding suggestions in the primer.

Overall, I think it was a fun day even if i did get some bad luck being paired against two dredge decks. hope the hands help in the mulliganing questions even if most of the hand i mulliganed were obvious mulligans, feel free to discuss if you wouldve mulliganed some of the hand i kept.

I know it has been a couple of weeks but my schedule has been hectic, but I played this deck at GP:Richmond and lost my win and in and ended up 6-3. I went into this tournament with no playtest experience with the deck but a good idea of the decks in modern. Even though I had not played this deck, I do have tournament experience with Legacy Pox which is very similar in play style. I used the decklist from the Pro Tour. Here is my recollection of the games for the day. I went in with no byes.

Round 1- NO SHOW
So I basically started with one bye.
1-0

Round 2-U/W/R
Game 1- I remember getting him down to one card in hand and hitting him for 8 on turn 5. This is after he dropped a turn three Geist of Saint Traft and I matched it with a ensnaring bridge so that the Geist only attacked twice all game. The only problem with this games was that I didnt draw any discard effects to keep his hand empty. I remember ending the game with 12 lands out, 2 ensnaring bridge, 3 Shrieking Affliction, 3 The Rack and played out 3 Dark Confidant(each dying/countered before i can draw extra cards.). But he eventually got back up to 7 cards in hand and evtually he bounced a Bridge to get my hand size to two and kill me with geist and 2 snapcasters.
Game 2- I mull to six and keep a hand with 2 ravens crime and a liliana of the veil. I cast the two ravens crime and he discards a geist and snapcaster. Of course he drops a geist on turn three. I have the liliana to drop for the geist but don't hit the third land for the rest of the game to take out the geist until the turn before I die. I inquistion him the turn before and see a snapcaster and a remand so even if i draw the land next turn(which i do), I'm still screwed. Die next turn.
1-1

Round 3-Esper Teachings
Game 1-I double wrench mind him out of the game and have him at lethal by the time he can flashback the two teachings he discards so he has to flashback a teachings and get a sphinx revelation to survive but it does not matter as he dies next turn.
Game 2-I resolve a Liliana and he eventually gets to top deck mode and cant find his outs.
2-1

Round 4-W/R Twin
I don't really remember this match that well but just remember stripping away his combo pieces and slowly killing him both games.
3-1

Round 5-Merfolk
Game 1-Get stuck on two lands so I cant drop the Liliana in my hand to help get rid of some creatures to turn off the thassa that is killing me.
Game 2-Drop a turn three ensnaring bridge and he hits me with a lord of atlantis the next turn and never hits me again. he eventually concedes because he realizes he has nothing to win.
Game 3- Opponenet mulls to 6 and goes turn 1 mutavault, aether vial. I inquistion him and see a spell pierce and 3 cursecatchers. he never draws a blue source the rest of the game and i resolve a liliana and eventually kill him with racks and dark confidants.
4-1

Round 6-U/R Twin
Once again nothing really notable here, rip apart his hand and strip his combo pieces both games, noting he can really do here.
5-1

Round 7-U/W/R
This guy was a nice guy with a fully foil U/W/R who was really interested in my deck. Remember resolving Liliana against him so that he cant do anything. This match goes how the matchup should go and there is nothing he can do.
6-1

At this point I am super excited since I have never made day 2 of a GP and was one win away. Then it went downhill

Round 8-Affinity.
Game 1- Keep a double thoughtsieze hand thinking I hope it isnt affinity. And of course it was affinity. Still draw enough disruption to slow him down enough to eek out a win.
Game 2- Drops a Cranial plating before i can strip it away. Cant kill him fast enough to stop the inkmoth pokes into plating kill.
Game 3- Drop an ensnaring bridge and stop him cold with no cards in my hand. Here comes my biggest regret of the tournament. I pass turn and ass he draws his card for turn and it touches his hand, I realize I missed the trigger for Shrieking Affliction. As a judge, I knew that I missed it and if he had called a judge I would have had it ruled that I missed it. As a player I believe I could have gotten him to give it to me since he went straight to draw without giving me much time to react. But I dont say anything and accept missing the trigger. He topdecked an ancient grudge and killed the bridge and hit me with an inkmoth with a plating on it. He tapped his overseer and put a counter on it even though he still didnt have lethal and passes the turn back with lethal next turn. I have a Drak confidant that I played the turn before. Take 1 from a thoughtsieze and draw my card for turn... Shrieking Affliction number 2. Now to point out why that was the ultimate troll draw was becaue he was at 11. If I had remembered the trigger he would've been at 8 this turn. He tapped out to hit me last turn. I attack with the Dark Confidant and bring him to 9(6) and pass turn when he has 1 card in hand. Trigger both affliction and bring him to 3(0!) and die to the Inkmoth. Ask for the concession since I had him dead if I had hit the trigger but he refuses.
6-2

Round 9-Bogles
Game 1- He mulls to 5. I keep a hand of 5 lands, The Rack, Ensnaring Bridge having a feeling of an aggro deck since I have dodged it all tournament. He drops a boggle turn 1 and I draw an inquistion to see his hand of unflinching courage, boggle and hyena umbra. Take courage in case he draws some lands and proceed to draw no spells the rest of the game. He puts umbra on boggle and starts hitting me for 2 a turn until he drops the other boggle and puts a umbra on it and hits me for 4 a turn. Since all I do is draw lands, I cant get my hand low enough to stop the attacks. The turn i die, I finally get to two cards in hand but that is not enough.
Game 2- I inqiustion him and take one of his two creatures in his hand rather then the natures claim so that i have more outs (8 sac outlets rather then 4 ensnaring bridge). It doesn't matter since I dont draw any of those 12 cards. He drops triple rancor on the boggle and kills me with it. Think i end up with 4 rack effects out. End game with 2 lands in my hand once again.
6-3

Overall the day went really well and the deck was extremely fun to play and was not too complicated. Still mad about the missed trigger but that is only because I drew exactly what i needed to win if i had hit the trigger. Any other card would have made it a moot point.

Here is a picture of the tromokratis pack for the blue pack

Thanks for the info. I have alot of changes I am making to the deck. I am starting by selling the Nykthos to my collection for 5 tix credit. I am then buying cards from my collection as follows:
This totals to 3.21 x.75 = 2.41
Leaving me with 2.59 tix
I am not sure if this is how it should be done or if this is considered a trade. If it is then the values are as follows:
3.21 x 1.5=4.81 tix
Nythoks at marlon price is 5.99 so that means that i would be left with 1.18 tix left.
If you can clarify which one I should follow that would let me know how much credit would be left. Thanks.
Anyway the decklist will be as follows after changes:

can i trade my nykthos into my collection for its current value on mtgo(5.99) and take some cards for my deck at the 1.5x price and keep the rest as funds for my pack?(future additions, tournament entry, etc.)

I thought what the heck and decided to do the challange on MTGO since I could buy the singles for the deck for 1 tix and I already had two packs online. I chose to go with the G/W deck from Theros whose decklist is as follows:

I opened my two packs and were blessed with the following cards:
Pack 1:

Pack 2:
Overall, I think I opened some good pack for my deck. Neither of my rares are useful in my deck but I think that I can sell the Nykthos for some funds and make the deck much better. I also opened up some good cards for the deck itself. I opened up two of the better heroic creatures and a couple of good target spells. ANyone with the B/U deck online that wants to trade for another overlord let me know. I have the same handle on MTGO that I have on here. Right now I think the following cuts are valid and hope the deck is better with the new additions
Cuts:
Adds:
After these changes, the decklist is at the following:

where the sideboard is my extra cards in pool. I am excited to try it out and hope this is as fun as it seems. I am also making my first trade with my collection. Even though the deck's big rare is anthousa, i think that she herself is not that good with heroic since every heroic trigger costs potential creatures. I am trading her for 2 giant growths from my collection which isnt exactly even (.05 compared to .02*2*1.5=.06) but I feel that trading a rare for two commons are worth the .01 gain.

*** BACKGROUND ***

I didn't think I was gonna build minotaurs after rotation and had planned on giving my minotaur stuff to a friend. Then the prerelease happened. I went on Saturday and opened both a Rageblood Shaman and a Kragma Warcaller along with ten other minotaurs and absolutely crushed every game I didn't get mana flooded in(no salt here). I saw the great interaction between the two lords and how good a 2/3 for 2 could be. So I sleeved up the deck and it has been pretty consistent. And surprisingly it is extremely cheap to make without watering down the deck too much. The fun interactions in the deck include Rageblood Shaman and Kragma Warcaller on the field at the same time. I've also heard a double striking trampler (Orduun Vetran and any cretaure with Boros Charm) is very good. With Magma Jet and Lightning Strike acting as removal and reach against control, I feel this deck has potential. For those with bigger budgets, I would recommending picking up Boros Reckoner and Purphoros, God of the Forge as they add so much to the deck.

*** THE DECKLIST ***

TIMESTAMP: 9/26/2013 2:15AM




CURVE (0-1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6+): 2 / 15 / 8 / 8 / 4 / 0
AVERAGE CMC: 2.97
TYPE: BDC10 ($10.00 LIMIT)
CURRENT COST: 9.91
REMAINING BUDGET: .09

Sorry for people who tried to come on twitch yesterday and look at the videos. I found out it got rid of the videos but I still salvaged one day so there are two videos you can look at. Ghost Quarter has bitten me in the butt a couple times but otherwise it has been pretty good. Usually one less swamp out doesn't affect me that much, though once or twice it has stopped me from casting messanger on time. I plan on using this deck at SCG Baltimore this weekend wish me luck

Hey strebbs
I have been playing this deck online and it is suprisingly consistent and is putting up a very good record against competitive decks. You can watch most of my games at twitch.tv/pmarti4. I have about 10 hours of video with commentary on there. One change I made was to add 3 ghost quarters to the deck. There are a lot decks that don't play many basics if any and a lot of utility lands that are troublesome to deal with. I also added nightmare to test it out and it has performed alright when I was able to cast it. Will probably stream later tonight so feel free to come and watch and talk about the deck.

The only problem that I have with that statement is that you say that if you play heartless, you need to cut the reanimation package but that is the best part... you can play them both! I win about half of my games with rites and the rest of the games with either an early heartless summoning or controlling the game and dropping a hard to deal with threat which is what the normal decks do. Playing heartless just adds a whole new angle of attack to the deck. But you are entitled to your opinion. Once again just ask that you play some games with the summoning before you dismiss it outright.

I agree heartless is a great addition to the deck. It allows for some really explosive starts that helps against the fast agro decks. A 5/5 on turn 3 is hard for them to deal with. I am usually able to drop a sire on turn 4 which is devastating against all decks in the format in all but the most aggressive decks where my 3 mb blood barons wreck them. And just being able to side in more removal and nighthawks in these match ups has made this deck have an awesome match up against all but the nut draws of blitz which no decks can handle. And the best part is people dont know how to side for the deck. First game I win off the unburial rites package and they side in gy hate which doesn't affect me. Almost no players have enchantment hate anywhere in the 75 except the dreaded slime. Even without the summoning or if it gets destroyed, it doesn't effect the deck at all since none of the creatures are uncastable without it. The deck is surprisingly resilient and no one is ready for it. I plan on playing it at the open this weekend with basically the same list as the one a couple of pages ago but with the following changes:
-1 unburial rites
-1 wild guess
+3 blood baron of vizkopa

In the sideboard:
-1 Olivia voldaren
-2 blood baron of vizkopa
+1 pillar of flame
+1 glaring spotlight
+1 slaughter games

Let me know if you guys have any suggestions.

Hey guys, I have been playing a oros deck for the past couple weeks and I have been doing really well against a variety of decks. I plan on playing this deck at the open in Baltimore so any feedback would be great.

The heartless summonings have been great in the deck enabling a turn 4 sire into an unburial Rites on another fatty the next turn quite often. Again any constructive criticisms are appreciated. All I ask is that you try the deck before you hate on it.

if you do want to stick with the miracle theme, may i suggest Dimir Charm? It helps stack the top of your deck with miracles.

I have been playing this deck online and it is suprisingly consistent. I haven't faced it yet but I was trying to find a way to get around leyline of sanctity. I found this little gem: Blistergrub. I know it doesn't cost one so it isn't the same sequence as mogg fanatic, but I would only try to use this combo if I need to. The sequence becomes:
1. Fetch out body double(copy hulk) and seer
2. Sac body double, get the second double(copy hulk again) and a one drop(fanatic or another seer)
3. Sac body double copying hulk and get lark and another 1 drop
4. Sac lark and get back both body doubles(copy lark and hulk)
5. Sac body double copying hulk and fetch out the blistergrub and whatever else you want
6. Sac blistergrub then body double that was copying lark and get back body double and the grub. Repeat for untargeted win.
My favorite play was waiting for a blue player to tap out for something then instant speed seething song then through the breach in a hulk on turn 3

By the way I think your list is missing inkmoths. I have a tournament I want to go to on Saturday and want to play this deck but can only find one distortion strike and 2 might of old krosas. I am thinking of replacing the 2 missing mights with giant growth. I know it is not as good when trying to kill but I am limited by my availability and tome constraint . Is this an adequate substitution and what you recommend replacing distortion strike with? I don't except much if any jund but other then that I have no idea what kind of meta it coups be (gonna be full of casual players). Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.