Both Avacyn and Grislebrand have a fair chance of being Indestructible, which would circumvent the need to give them protection.
"What cannot be destroyed must be bound." is repeated several times in the lore sequence for the Helvault, and it would be a nice touch to make them unkillable.
The cage stops undying. I'm definitely sideboarding it in the new meta.
On a related note, does anyone else think pod is going to be the nuts with excellent two-mana and three-mana undying options for B/G, not to mention Vorapede?
Yeah, there's a bit of MBI where I play, and it consistently beats the WRR, tokens, RDW, and control lists that don't consider it in their boarding choices.
I suppose if none of you see it I can stop mentioning it.
I can definitely see no Snapcasters being the norm at the end of the block or even as this set develops. Snapcasters are game 1 slot-savers, not in-game value machines. The body is much more relevant for mage-blade or other quirky aggro decks, not our hard control shell.
That being said, I love having them as counterspells 10 and 11 against MBI and WRR. I'd never keep five counterspells in the sideboard, but three isn't so bad.
One mana can be a big deal, and I've never faced a 2/2 I've needed to kill. Anything bigger is either worth a Doom Blade or ends up swept in the Day.
I can't imagine the 2 life cost to be an issue. After all, you're going to be killing something that otherwise would do a lot more than 2 damage to you. The only creatures I listed that wouldn't are the mana dorks, and life isn't quite as important against WRR anyway.
It's incredible to tap out for a bomb (or a bomb and a Negate for the incoming kill spell) and still be able to completely nullify a WWR's Inkmoth swing. It kills MBI dead. It's at least moderately useful in every non-control matchup.
One mana is a big deal, especially in the important midgame when you're building up to an Elesh.
I haven't been around the forums for a month or so, so excuse me if this is something that's already been discussed in other threads.
I've used Gut Shot in several FNMs and have never been unhappy to see it. For zero mana, it kills an incredibly wide array of creatures, most notably:
Inkmoth Nexus
Birds of Paradise
Stromkirk Noble
Champion of the Parish
Mana Elves
Plague Stinger, Whispering Specter
Phantasmal Bear, Phantasmal Image
Vault Skirge
And other niche creatures not off the top of my head. The biggest thing for me has been its interaction with Inkmoth, especially since it's a mere 1Uwith Snapcaster.
It is useless in the control matchup other than killing off Lilianas, but with only two mainboard I've never found it to be a problem.
Are you dying to Inkmoth, weenies, or anything other than a Titan? Then try it out!
My main Magic partner is an MBI player, and I've found that the best way to beat him is to up the counterspell count to 9-10 (11-12 with snapcasters) and side in three Gut Shots. Gut Shot is absolutely amazing versus MBI - it kills Inkmoths, Stingers, and that discarding 1/1 flier for zero mana, which is often a pretty big deal.
Most of the time I win by sticking an Elesh Norn and countering the one Skithyrix that comes afterwards, or by playing a Consecrated Sphinx and countering spells for another ten turns.
I impressed myself the other day VS WRR. He had garruk, primal hunter at 4 with no creatures on board. he plays primeval titan and in response to the CIP trigger I doom blade the titan. problem solved.
Jace and counterspells for control, Timely and the kill spells for aggro, Phantasmal for Thrun and the odd Elesh and Offering for those pesky swords and lashwrithes. Works on Inkmoths in a pinch, too.
My MB countersuite is 3x Mana Leak, 1x Negate, 2x Dissipate, in case those numbers struck you as odd.
Solar Flare is and always will be a control deck. If it wasn't, it wouldn't focus on disrupting the opponent's game plan turns 1-4 and usually onwards. Control does not mean durdle. Control means a focus on plan disruption. And that we do, Snapcaster or no Snapcaster. And it never was and never will be a ramp deck. This is an issue of semantics. You do not mean control and ramp, you mean counterspell control and midrange. And if you use those words, we agree with you. I don't think, for example, you could say that Day of Judgment doesn't fit this deck, even though Wrath is the quintessential control card next to Counterspell.
Moving on to the sideboard discussion this thread is for, I agree with Spoofed's points and want to bring in Midnight Hauntings.
Pros: Provides two 1/1 fliers at instant speed
Cons: Worse than Timely Reinforcements against ground-based decks
Where it Shines: In the Mono-Black Infect and Tempered Steel matchups. I've had so many Spirit tokens Dismembered I'm certain the two decks would be nonexistent if Spectral Procession was still standard.
"What cannot be destroyed must be bound." is repeated several times in the lore sequence for the Helvault, and it would be a nice touch to make them unkillable.
On a related note, does anyone else think pod is going to be the nuts with excellent two-mana and three-mana undying options for B/G, not to mention Vorapede?
I suppose if none of you see it I can stop mentioning it.
That being said, I love having them as counterspells 10 and 11 against MBI and WRR. I'd never keep five counterspells in the sideboard, but three isn't so bad.
Definitely sideboard material. Midnight Hauntings was almost good enough for me, and this fits Solar Flare perfectly.
I can't imagine the 2 life cost to be an issue. After all, you're going to be killing something that otherwise would do a lot more than 2 damage to you. The only creatures I listed that wouldn't are the mana dorks, and life isn't quite as important against WRR anyway.
It's incredible to tap out for a bomb (or a bomb and a Negate for the incoming kill spell) and still be able to completely nullify a WWR's Inkmoth swing. It kills MBI dead. It's at least moderately useful in every non-control matchup.
One mana is a big deal, especially in the important midgame when you're building up to an Elesh.
I haven't been around the forums for a month or so, so excuse me if this is something that's already been discussed in other threads.
I've used Gut Shot in several FNMs and have never been unhappy to see it. For zero mana, it kills an incredibly wide array of creatures, most notably:
Inkmoth Nexus
Birds of Paradise
Stromkirk Noble
Champion of the Parish
Mana Elves
Plague Stinger, Whispering Specter
Phantasmal Bear, Phantasmal Image
Vault Skirge
And other niche creatures not off the top of my head. The biggest thing for me has been its interaction with Inkmoth, especially since it's a mere 1Uwith Snapcaster.
It is useless in the control matchup other than killing off Lilianas, but with only two mainboard I've never found it to be a problem.
Are you dying to Inkmoth, weenies, or anything other than a Titan? Then try it out!
Most of the time I win by sticking an Elesh Norn and countering the one Skithyrix that comes afterwards, or by playing a Consecrated Sphinx and countering spells for another ten turns.
You mean in response to Garruk's ability...?
Great idea.
1x Go For the Throat
1x Doom Blade
2x Jace, Memory Adept
1x Phantasmal Image
1x Mana Leak
1x Negate
2x Dissipate
1x Day of Judgment
2x Divine Offering
Jace and counterspells for control, Timely and the kill spells for aggro, Phantasmal for Thrun and the odd Elesh and Offering for those pesky swords and lashwrithes. Works on Inkmoths in a pinch, too.
My MB countersuite is 3x Mana Leak, 1x Negate, 2x Dissipate, in case those numbers struck you as odd.
Moving on to the sideboard discussion this thread is for, I agree with Spoofed's points and want to bring in Midnight Hauntings.
Pros: Provides two 1/1 fliers at instant speed
Cons: Worse than Timely Reinforcements against ground-based decks
Where it Shines: In the Mono-Black Infect and Tempered Steel matchups. I've had so many Spirit tokens Dismembered I'm certain the two decks would be nonexistent if Spectral Procession was still standard.