Angel of glory's rise seems to be the lateste barcelona tech, for anyone interested.
Apparently, the idea is to play a bunch of humans, like avacyn's pilgrim, borderland ranger, huntmaster of the fells, and so on, and then eventually play an angel later on, and gain a million value and board presence, along with a giant beater.
So be prepared for it.
Good call. Looks like we're seeing two versions of it in the first feature match off the bat. GW Humans for Channel Fireball and Naya Humans for one of the SCG teams.
I couldn't quite make it out over the commentators... when Finkel played Captain and copied it with Image, did Kibler say, "I'm going to lose" on camera?
Love Huntmaster so far in testing. Excellent to see 12 copies in the top 8 of a Pro Tour. Less excellent that they'll now be overpriced on Modo next week. Ah, well.
Seems like there was a good bit of variation in the CF team's ramp decks, even beyond Conley and Efro running two plains + Elesh Norns. Nothing else that dramatic perhaps, but I thought I saw from the coverage that Paulo was running maindeck Whipflare, and I have to think that contributed to his strong showing in standard.
But yeah, what a difference from last February where they all just slaughtered people with CawBlade.
They ditched Twitch for Livestream and it's working beautifully now. Well, the lighting is still poorly planned (terrible glare), but this is at least watchable.
Only saw the third round of standard so far -- CawBlade w/Emeria vs. Goblins. Not sure if there were more interesting lists in the first two rounds, if anyone saw them.
The stream referenced an RG brew that Kibler put together, but I didn't hear any details. Conley was also briefly in the booth and is playing some sort of RB Destructive Force monstrosity.
Jeez -- just read that the Block Championship didn't end until after 4 a.m. Eastern. Full foil playset of every card in Scars block as first prize, though.
Looking forward to these first four rounds of standard this morning to see what people brewed up.
I tested briefly with Sun Titan and found it extremely unimpressive. It's far too slow and mana intensive to make a pronounced impact, and I found relevant recursion targets limited (though admittedly, it is an epic blowout when circumstances permit). I've been much happier with Argent Sphinx, though my experiences with Sun Titan have been limited. I look forward to hearing how it does for you.
How many Sphinxes have you been testing with? Been trying to tweak a UW version of the deck for a couple weeks now and that's definitely a card I haven't checked out yet. Right now I have two Hero of Bladehold at the top of my curve. And while it can be a very effective win-con, I've lost count the number of times I've had it immediately eat a Dismember in this current meta. So Sphinx seems intriguing.
Seeing the UW archetype have some solid success at the SCG Open this weekend was a good sign, I think.
Not sure what to make of this, but figured I'd at least post it here because of its success -- a GW aggro build that made Top 8 at Japan Nationals this weekend. WOTC site says it made the finals, actually, but there's no update on the title game just yet.
The creature choice has it set up to be a Birthing Pod deck, but with only a singleton Pod, that's basically just a backup plan.
I started testing on MODO, but pre Angelic Destiny and Pre O-Ring is a huge difference (I'm running 2 Fauna Shaman in the Angelic Slot, and Acidic Slimes where the O-RIngs are). The other thing is MODO seems to be all RDW and Tempered Steel. I've hit way more aggro than anything else. Hence my focus on the sideboard in my previous post. Tempered Steel is bad because they can actually outsize your threats pretty quick.
Valakut has been fine from my other testing. It isn't great but this is very fast GW list. Enough that you aren't complete dog to it. I would say this is one of the better GW lists against Valakut since it is so aggressive. Twin has been more of annoyance, but I think it might be inexperience.
As usual Control matchup is highly favourable. Slow roll your threats don't overextend (but don't be too afraid of permission, force them to use it). Recur Vengevines. Control is breeze.
The tricky part are decks prepared for Tempered Steel. They pack the artifact hate and often enchantment hate. This might be the biggest slight against this deck, because the implied hate. It makes other midrange strategies like Pod can be more of a pain, but usually they are too slow to matter. It might be the one midrange/aggro deck not blue or black (or red) to beat Valakut, but it can be somewhat hated, since you don't get the pure aggressiveness sometimes without the pump..hard to win. I might need to adjust for that. Maybe the enchantment isn't enough maybe a planeswalker changes it more.. Like run a Garruk atleast board.. stuff to consider.
EDIT: This deck preM12 does tend to lose to the decks that lose to Valakut and Twin. Basically any slower midrange type deck if you don't get the right draw. Right now people are trying a lot of rogue strategies that don't beat the top decks. I think with the m12 Additions it will test a lot better on MODO. A lot closer to my testing in Paper and MWS.
Am interested to hear your thoughts on Angelic Destiny in what testing you've been able to do so far. The majority of the GW lists I've ran in the past 18 months or so have packed Baneslayers, so Destiny was something that seemed interesting as a replacement.
Good call. Looks like we're seeing two versions of it in the first feature match off the bat. GW Humans for Channel Fireball and Naya Humans for one of the SCG teams.
But yeah, what a difference from last February where they all just slaughtered people with CawBlade.
The stream referenced an RG brew that Kibler put together, but I didn't hear any details. Conley was also briefly in the booth and is playing some sort of RB Destructive Force monstrosity.
Looking forward to these first four rounds of standard this morning to see what people brewed up.
How many Sphinxes have you been testing with? Been trying to tweak a UW version of the deck for a couple weeks now and that's definitely a card I haven't checked out yet. Right now I have two Hero of Bladehold at the top of my curve. And while it can be a very effective win-con, I've lost count the number of times I've had it immediately eat a Dismember in this current meta. So Sphinx seems intriguing.
Seeing the UW archetype have some solid success at the SCG Open this weekend was a good sign, I think.
The creature choice has it set up to be a Birthing Pod deck, but with only a singleton Pod, that's basically just a backup plan.
2 Marsh Flats
3 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
3 Stirring Wildwood
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Tectonic Edge
2 Verdant Catacombs
3 Acidic Slime
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Blade Splicer
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
4 Hero of Bladehold
3 Lotus Cobra
4 Nest Invader
1 Obstinate Baloth
3 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Journey to Nowhere
1 Acidic Slime
2 Celestial Purge
1 Creeping Corrosion
1 Gaea's Revenge
2 Lone Missionary
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Spellskite
2 Summoning Trap
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
Am interested to hear your thoughts on Angelic Destiny in what testing you've been able to do so far. The majority of the GW lists I've ran in the past 18 months or so have packed Baneslayers, so Destiny was something that seemed interesting as a replacement.
Many thanks.