MTG Salvation

thanks so much, sicsmoo. i'll check it out. going to a scg event and wanna play tron again.

Quote from TechnoWriter »

Gratz on that T2 finish!

Going forward would you make any changes? Aside from CarnyT are there any other “all star” cards that you’d promote?

I think the main board was perfect. I might switch a walker for a cast down to give me a 4th but honestly i really liked the entire list. no one card disappointed me. every play felt super smooth. i definitely had no problem with red burning my stuff since it saved me life. it just felt like "get to 6, drop a carnage tyrant, win the game." against white, i would peck away at their life with 2/3's or 3/2's. like one at a time. make them use a settle on one dude. saving tyrant is great.

i know in the jeskai matchups, trying to play stuff before you attack is good. force them to use their mana so they don't have 4. there were a few times in the semi finals that i would have a tyrant on the field but then play a branchwalker or ranger. they'd counter it, which took them off of settle. easy 7 points of damage. it almost feels like we are semi-control in those matchups since you need CT to connect.

Tournament reports!!!!!!


FNM: 3-1. Third place. Felt the deck was great and used it for the PPTQ the next day.

PPTQ: 2nd place!!

I get to the PPTQ 30 minutes before it starts and just listen to some Gorillaz. They post the first round parings and there are 23 people with five rounds. I was hoping for a first round bye but that was not the case.

R1: Jeskai Drakes – Lost in 2.
Off to a great start here. Game 1 I mulled to five. I didn’t like the hand but stuck with it since I knew the player and what he usually ran. I couldn’t really resolve anything and the things that did hit the battlefield soon died there after. Never really saw my removal. Game 2 was a lot quicker for him and I just got blown out by a huge drake. My PPTQ losing streak continues.

R2: Mono Red – Won in 3.
Game 1 he was stuck on two lands the entire game and just couldn’t keep anything on the field. My Wildgrowth Walker gained me a tun of life and just ran him over. I used Cast Downs on all his Steam-Kins. Game 2 was the complete opposite. So much burn to my face and nothing stuck. At this point I was getting a little frustrated but kept my composure. Game 3 was just like game 1. I gained 12 life off of my Walker and he couldn’t do anything about it, especially after I resolved a Carnage Tyrant on 6.

R3: Izzet Phoenix – Won in 3.
These games played out a lot like the mono red list but instead of burning me, he kept drawing cards. Game 1 I didn’t see one Phoenix but knew what he was on. I just destroyed his stuff that would get in my way and 2 Carnage Tyrants sealed the deal. Game 2 had me trying to resolve a Deathgorge Scavenger against him but it soon was burned out before I could use it. Eventually he had 3 Phoenixes and I couldn’t keep up. Game 3 had him stuck on a few lands and I was able to keep all my removal for his Phoenixes. Carnage Tyrant won me another one.

R4: Dimir Control – Won in 2.
My opponent played with a Dairy Queen ice cream in his hand the whole time. Game 1 he had an active Azcanta (which I had to flip for him since he couldn’t do it with one hand) but kept missing on every hit. Two Carnage Tyrants later and I got there. Game 2 was very similar but I saved all my removal for his Doom Whisperers. I noticed he never really used them when I killed them. Just let them die without using Surveil. Another Carnage Tyrant won me this one.

R5: ID to top 8.
The standings for the last round went up and everyone noticed that there was a clean top 8. And I got 8th. My first top 8 at any event. I was super freaking excited. So we all drew and I was able to relax before the top 8.

Quarters: Mono Red – Won in 2.
I sit down with all the excitement of hitting top 8 to have to play the #1 player in the PPTQ. This round took me about 10 minutes to win. Game 1, he flooded the board with dudes but I gained 9 life off of Wildgrowth Walker. Turn 6 I dropped a Carnage Tyrant and passed. I was trying to figure out what I would need to get the win and my only real option was Find/Finality to wipe the board. I drew my card – Find/Finality. I put the counters on Tyrant to have a 4/6 Walker and a 9/8 Tyrant. He scoops. Game 2 had him flood out and I out-valued him.

Semis: Jeskai Drakes – Won in 2.
I was a little worried about this one since I was afraid of playing against control. I need to stop feeling that way. I need to play to my outs. Game 1, he was stuck on 2 lands for 5 turns. I drew Baby Vraska and destroyed his Search. He scooped after that. Game 2, I resolved 2 Tyrants and was able to eventually kill him.

Finals: Boros Angels – dropped
I finished my semis before the other games were done so I sat and watched to see who I was going to have to play in the finals. After he won, he asked if I cared about invite to the RPTQ. I asked the judge if he knew when it was and the dates that they happened to fall on, I was not able to go to. So the judge and my opponent were able to figure out a split. I get $175 in credit and he got the invite plus $125 in credit. I was happy with my decision. I finished off my shocklands that I needed and got a box of Ixalan where my wife pulls a Carnage Tyrant, Search for Azcanta and foil Search for Azcanta. Not a bad day at all.

Overall, I loved the deck. I wrote to Andrea on twitter a few times and he shared my excitement as well. I hope to one day meet him. He seems like a cool dude. I’ll probably keep playing this until the next set comes out.

WE ARE SAFE, BOYS AND GIRLS! NOTHING BANNED

Went to FNM with kappa's list

R1: affinity. lost game 1 but destroyed him games 2 and 3. i love oblivion stone.
R2: mono black. won 2-0. he never got past 2 lands both games. :/
R3: jeskai control. won 2-0. he is a burn player that was trying to "read the meta" at regionals. everyone told him not to.
R4: rg scapeshift. won game 1. lost game 2 (didn't blow up ostone. played thraggy instead). won game 3 cause he didn't see the win he had in his hand.

so i went 4-0. won a cavern of souls. <3

Quote from ed06288 »

so this deck is clearly better with bloodbraid elf? should we be running the molten rain and the stone rain and the mwonvuli moss AND the blood moon? feels too heavy on land destruction now.

I feel that's Meta dependant. I honestly don't like molten in my build. Moss was really good getting my white source when I needed it.

If you want to go full on ld, then there is a deck for that. I like the creature heavy build. Using ld for "spot removal" is really really good, especially against the mirror. I felt that most people go all in and it doesn't leave them a way to interact with my creatures. I put one threat down followed by two more. What do you do?

Also, if you're against the mirror, holding fetches until you need them is great. I was able to blow up sprawls on forests plenty of times, putting them back a bunch. There was one match the guy told me he was hoping I'd crack them early so he could blow up my lands but I just left them

There was a deck that got 11th that had no bbe and was in the ramp game. Had 3 Titans and dragons. So there's some merit to no bbe

Quote from frozencajun »

Congrats on the wins with an interesting list! I saw a list got top 16 and was like old Ponza without BBE which I think is hilarious.

i honestly didn't even know there was another list in the top 16 until i got home. i saw he was going for ramp/monsters than bbe, which i can understand. i wish i got to meet him to see what his game played like but after looking at the list, i'm glad i didn't lol too much LD for me!

and thanks. i like the white splash. the ponza facebook page has been doing some spicy brews as of late and i think nahiri is really good right now in it. someone was even thinking assemble the legion against control, which seems pretty good if you can get it down.

Quote from JaishivaJai »

Quote from michaelvogler »

I feel like we lack early game interaction. Most of the listed builds for straight GB are basically gloried stompy lists and a Sultai build has interaction, but lacks the staying mana power to really do anything with it.

Don't forget Moment of Anguish and blossoming defense. We have hand interaction in the sideboard.

I'm surprised more people aren't at least sideboarding moment of anguish (or maybe some people are and I missed it.) I think this is going to be a very good card against merfolk, and it's already amazing against Not-ramunap red. With all of the tribes out there, I expect we are going to want to kill of some small creatures very quickly.

what is moment of anguish? do you mean moment of craving?

my buddy and i have been working on a list and this is what i'm gonna run tomorrow:



i haven't played snek in a while so this will be interesting.

I ran this to a 3-0 at FNM last night.



Thoughts? I'm going to store champs today with this same list.

Ancient Stirrings is still perfectly balanced

As all things should be

Tron is not and never has been format warping.

It is a good deck in the swiss portion of the tournament but always struggles to "get there" in the finals.
Stirrings is still an insane card but you have to build you whole deck around it which makes it balanced imo.

I still see no reason at all for a stirrings ban.

i updated my post above with the decklist.

now that i have thought about it, the main problem of the deck i think is consistency. yesterday at FNM i was 4-0, now at Standard Showdown i went 1-3.

the difference is that yesterday, i was able to draw my best 2 drops - Voltaic Brawler and Longtusk Cub - and curve from there. today, the deck went uncooperative and i was forced to mulligan a lot when i did't have an aggressive start or mana's problematic.

it may be called a variance problem, but i want to minimize variance. i do not know exactly how, but i'm racking my brain right now.

but, hey, i pulled a Liliana, the Last Hope from today's Standard Showdown pack so i have that going for me, which is nice.

Pia and Kiran Nalaar roles:
-Chump blockers.
-Kill little creatutes sacrificing artifacts.
-Hit to the face with its fliers.
-Make the opponent to waste removal.

I have won games only by casting P&KN, combining them with 1 bolt/skred and sacrificing artifacts/blocking to clear the board, and then casting another P&KN to have 3 creatures on board, extra 2-damage removal, and fly hitters. Is a typical "jund" value card, it makes 2 for 1 easy, and 3 for 1 if you play it in the right time.

Quote from artvi »

Quote from whocansay »

I'd run a second Rhino over the second P&K in that case.

second rhino would put reveillark target to 19 though..

Well yeah, you can't have your cake and eat it. You said you wanted a more beatdown-oriented list.

Going into Day 2 of GP Charlotte at 7-2 with Coco Kiki Chord. Wish me luck guys.

Well, for those who prefer a white splash, i've been getting great results with a miser Valorous Stance mainboard. It acts as another removal spell for things bolt can't kill, can protect our fatties from stuff like terminate and can even allow some pretty crazy turns with Reckoner and multiple skreds.

Going to a GPT thats modern today for Vegas. Top 8 gets modern masters booster packs so my plan is to try and get to finals give the guy the byes but I get more packs then him as I can not go to Vegas. Will do a tournament report!