@grapefruit another follow up after reading through all of your MUs; I'm pretty surprised to see that you chose to keep in Confidants against both Eldrazi & Burn. I find that we very easily out card either of those decks without Bob (maybe less true for you without Lilly?) and they put on enough pressure that Bob usually just feels like a chump blocker. I feel like I'd rarely want to trade life for cards there, and I'd more value something like Timely that just gives me time to use the cards I already have. I'm especially surprised you preferred Bob over Seize vs Burn; Sieze isn't great there but I'd rather take 2 from Sieze than 4 from Boros Charm, etc. Curious about your thinking there.
I've been of two minds and gone back and forth on it. I've settled on leaving Bob in over thoughtseize on this logic. Playing him and trading with a Guide prevents more damage than taking a charm or command with TS does. It's definitely a horrendous late game top deck, but so is TS. I was especially swayed to board this way against this particular opponent as he was on Wild Nacatls and slightly less pure burn. It could be that I was wrong but with our matchup already being very favored I was comfortable leaving in Confidant. Last note it's really hard to Seize a charm after turn 2. From turn three on they are leaving up a lot of mana for Commands and Charms and will cast their highest damage spell in respone to the Seize. I would much rather have a creature that can trade (or even stop attacks if they want it to do the work for them) than TS given the Zoo leaning version of the deck.
As for Eldrazi he's a creature that will trade with non triggered mimics and something they will point removal at that isn't Kalitas or Olivia. That said I think I might have tried boarding Bobs out against the second eldrazi deck for Ghostly Prison, Timely Reinforements, and Kalitas in game two before deciding it raised my curve too much and I just wanted early plays.
Last note on the viability of the deck without Liliana. It's definitely not Tier 1. But it is viable enough that with a better pilot it would have made it through to day 2. If I play better against the second Eldrazi player or RG scapeshift I would have been through. But I didn't and fell short. I don't think it's as much an indictment of the deck itself, more of me and my focus waning at the end of the day. Is the Liliana version better? Of course. But I think that you aren't not completely hamstringing yourself by playing a version without her. You give yourself some more bad matchups, but you still have a great number of good ones.
TLDR: Scrubbed out in round 9 dropping to 5-4. MVPs were Kalitas, Discard suite, Lingering Souls, Olivia, and great sideboard cards. LVPs: Kolaghan's Command, Smoldering Marsh, Budgets, bad play, and Lightning Helix.
Full Report:
Head to the GP and catch up with the guys from my LGS and we're feeling good about our decks, prepped and ready after a Friday full of gauntlet testing. We have a diverse group of decks including Storm, Fish, Azorious Titan, and even Mill. Not the most hyper competitive bunch but we're feeling good. I decide to splurge for the second Kolaghan's Command I've been failing to trade for and get gouged 35 Australian for it. Ohh well worth it with a field full of affinity out there to matchup against. Registered the following decklist.
Round 1: 2-0 vs Zoo/Burn mashup. Game 1 I'm staring down a Goblin Guide with no way to remove it, a thoughtseize and a Dark Confidant. I end up drawing 4 cards from his guide and use that card advantage to eventually grind the game out. Kalitas was the coup de grace. Game two I look at my 7 and see 3 lands, Bob, SFGM, bolt, and Helix. The game is not remotely close and at one point I am at 26 after flipping souls to Bob.
Sideboard
In: Kalitas, Helix, Fulminator, Timely Out: 4 Thoughtseize
Round 2: 2-1 vs Coco GB elves. Lose game one after mis-assessing what his deck was trying to do. I focused on mana denial only to get blown out by a Coco for the 3 mana lose life for each elf card. Game 2 is very tight. I slow him down a bit by killing two mana dorks with a persecution, but he gets me down to 3 before I stabilize behind Kalitas and SFGM. Game three I disrupt him before starting to kill off his mana dorks and running away with the game via Chandra, Pryomaster. Mulled to 6 all three games, but the deck has a lot of card advantage to recover from it. Lingering Souls was great this game chumping to keep me alive and providing a clock in game three.
Sideboard
In: Chandra, Helix, Timely, Wrath, Prison, Persecution Out: 2 IoK, 2 Doom, 2 Confidant
Round 3: 2-0 vs UW Eldrazi. Game 1 is a slog. He keeps a slow hand and I manage to thoughtseize a Drowner just before it will come out. I eventually grind it out with souls and point some bolts at his face to finish game 1 off. Game two is an ugly low resource game. I mull to 5 him to four. He leads with a temple and passes. I go turn 1 thoughtseize and see another temple a TKS and a Skyspawner. Take the TKS and he slams another one that he scryed to the top. He sees Terminate, Path, and Lingering Souls. Takes the terminate to try to force me to give him his colored mana. I play souls take 4 and then rip a terminate the next turn. He never draws colored mana and I run away with it.
Sideboard
In: Fulminator, Wrath, Crackling Doom, Zealous Persecution Out: 2 Helix, 2 Kommand.
Round 4: 2-1 vs Ad Nauseum. The nightmare. A non interactive combo deck and I don't have Lili to properly pressure his hand. Not looking good. I manage to steal game 1 when he doesn't find an angel's grace or phyrexian unlife after chaining 4 cantrips together. Game two he slams a turn zero Leyline of Sanctity and I can't pressure fast enough with Dark Confidant. Game 3 He cantrips into turn 1 double Lotus Bloom. I'm resigned to my fate before I see my draw step. Stony Silence off the top! I'm alive! A few turns later I haven't found a clock faster than SFGM and he's still on one land. Then second land, cast echoing truth on Stony Silence. I just ask if I'm dead. Expecting to be dead. Resigned to 3-1. He pops lotus and drops Leyline of Sanctity. And I breathe a sigh of relief. Replay Stoney and add a Lingering Souls to the board.
At this point I'm on top of the world. I had set my goal at making day 2 and was thrilled to be in a positon where I just needed two wins in 5 rounds to get there. Was on top of the world at this point.
Round 5: 1-2 vs UW Time Warp. Actually worse than the nightmare. Here even my Thougtseizes aren't going to slow him down as his deck is much more redundant than Ad Naus, and it's much more a critical mass deck. Plus he has Paths, Superme Verdict, Timely Reinforcments, and Elixer of Immortality main. Game 1 is a slaughter. Just a slaughter. He chains about 8 turns in a row before trying to kill me with an awakened Part the Waterveil which gets terminated to he adibules to a Jace Beleren ultimate plan. Ughh... Game two I steal as I have Wear/Tear for his only Dicatate/Howling Mine and he kept a time walk heavy hand. Game three is just a disaster. I have almost no pressure and he quickly assembles enough mine effects to draw 4 a turn.
Sideboard
Out: 4 Path, 3 Terminate
In: Anything that can attack of deal damage to face.
Round 6: 1-2 vs UW Eldrazi. Don't remember the first two game very clearly but we split them. The third game is the game that is most interesting to me of the entire GP. I keep a 7 that is Blood Crypt, Smoldering Marsh, 2 Thoughtseize, Bob, Lingering Souls, and Wrath of God on the draw. I have no clue if this keep is correct. It has my best sideboard card in the mathcup in Wrath and Lingering Souls which is great. But I have no white mana. In retrospect I've decided I should have mulliganed but I think that may be results oriented thinking. Anyway being punished for Smoldering Marsh I lead off with it as I have little choice. If it's a second Blood Crypt I definitely lead off with a turn 1 thoughtseize. He plays a turn two mimic and I draw another white card. I tank and eventually decide to thoughtseize before playing my Blood Crypt to decide if I want to cast both. I see a Path, 2 Skyspawners, and a third land. I tank some more and decide that my line will be to take the path and lean on Bob to draw me mana. I play the Blood Crypt tapped and pass. He draws and plays a displacer off the top. I draw a Young Pyro and now desperate for a land run out Bob. He plays a Skyspawner and smashes. I don't block. Flip a lingering souls, draw a Shambling Vent and have no play expect Young Pyro and the game is pretty much over. I have no idea how I should have played this one. I think once I cast the thoughtseize it's correct to take the Path as I can't play Bob that turn anyway. But I could very well have been wrong to not just run him out in the first place. Anyway I'm now 4-2 and tilting a bit, and didn't write down sideboarding notes from here on out. Believe that I sideboard the same as the previous Eldrazi.
Round 7: 0-2 R/G Scapeshift. I get smashed game 1. He has a great ramp draw going Search into STE into Explore into lethal Scapeshift. I had no discard to pressure his hand out of threats. Game two I still had no discard but I had an aggressive pyromancer souls draw. Unfortuately I punted the game and the tilt became real. I didn't play properly around scapeshift. I had him at 8 with pryo and two 1/1's. I had a Vent I could attack with or a helix I could attack with. I attacked with the vent to go to 18 life rather than a helix to go to 19. If I had Helix'd I would have had a path so if he cast Inferno Titan I could spawn an extra elemental and still attack for lethal with the token and Vent and I would have been out of scapeshift range as he only had 6 lands in play at the time. Instead I died to Scapeshift for 18 damage thanks to attack with the vent. I probably still would have been disadvantaged in game three but if I had drawn discard I would have had a shot. So I titled super hard at this point. Knowing I threw away a game win and dropped to knife's edge at 4-3.
Round 8: 2-1 vs Jund Hakkon Dredge. These were some long drawn out awesome games of magic. Kalitas and SFGM were the maindeck MVPs. Kalitas for exiling reasons and SFGM as I bought back several bolts. Almost stole game one but he dropped two creatures late in the game and recurred four Vengevines. Just a little too much damage that late in the game. Games two and three game down to sticking Kalitas in one Olivia in the other and resolving Stony Silence around Abrupt Decay. Ghostly Prison was super key in one to stop a fast Lotleth Troll Vengevine draw. My opponent misplayed later in that game casting Damnation with Kalitas out, giving me two Zombies to finish the game off.
Round 9: 0-2 vs UW Control. Story of this game is I was punished for not having Liliana. Plain and simple. Without her I have no way to pressure through their countermagic and wraths. He had enough removal that he was comfortable spending a supreme verdict on just a dark confidant, and drew enough cards that he powered through a rest in peace to shut down Snaps, baby Jace, and Ojutai's Commands.
Anyway I was shattered. Went 4-0 and finished 1-4. Really tough pill swallow after the great start. So what am I taking away in terms of what I could do better. Definitely would have had a better result with Lili, played 4 of 9 matchups against effectively creatureless (UW timewalk and control, Ad Naus, and scapeshift) decks. Going 1-3 in those matchups really sunk me. Having 9 completely dead cards is so bad. Playing tighter would have given me a really good shot at day 2. Would have had a game three vs RG scapeshift with a 40ish% chance to get my 15th point there. Also matchup luck could have gone much better for me. Facing Eldrazi twice and with chances to win both matches felt good and playing a third time wouldn't have been the worst. But I think I got very unluckly by not running into Affinity which was the second most common archetype of the day anecdotally and just checking the top 100 day 1 decks on coverage. Affinity is a great matchup for Mardu and not seeing it really hurt me this tournament.
Card specific takeaways: Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is the real deal. If I had mana to cast him drawing him felt great. Against any fair deck he is so much value and against unfair graveyard decks he is the best draw in your deck. Olivia is good too, but she has been a little more matchup dependent in my experience.
Lingering Souls is the best card in the deck. Maybe if I had Lili it would be her, but I don't and it's souls.
1 mana discard is so good and gives you a shot even in nominally horrible matchups. Punishes Eldrazi hard given that they are a heavy mulligan deck.
Young Pyromancer scares opponents. People were as reluctant to allow Peezy to survive as Bob. I haven't played anywhere near as much with Abbot or Pack Rat as I have with Peezy, but I am still firmly convinced that Pyromancer is great in this deck.
Kolaghan's Command is a powerful card. And did win me one game by regrowthing a Young Pyro. But this is not the meta for it. If you hit your affinity matchups that are expected it's great, but it's not common enough and that matchup is great anyway. Dust it back off once control isn't planeswalkers and is Tron again.
My sideboard was mostly awesome for me. Everything came in at least once. Chandra saw the least only coming in against elves (was too tilted to bring it against UW control). Ghostly Prison, Stony Silence, and Rest in Peace all came close to single handedly won game. The second Kalitas was great. The sketchiest looking card is probably Painful truths. It came in twice against UW control and Dredge. Never drew it but it would have been solid in both those matchups. Also liked having it available against potential Jund matchups.
I ran a bunch of basics expecting a ton of land hate but didn't see Blood Moon once. Heard there were a fair number of them running around though.
Anyway I had a great time, didn't meet my goal but I came close. And I'm proud of that. And the squad from my store did really well. With all of us alive at round 8, and 2 of the squad making it day 2.
Last couple of points. I think Mardu Midrange is great and well positioned if you have Liliana's. Without them you're going to be soft to the control decks that are tuning themselves to beat the fast eldrazi draws. If budget weren't an issue going forward I would push 1 Crackling Doom to the board, the other out entirely, and shave a creature probably the SFGM for three Lili's in the main. Would cut the third Helix from the board to accommodate the extra Doom (Helix would come back if the eldrazi meance does eat a ban) as I as cutting Helix very often. SFGM would be a toss up with Timely for a sideboard slot wasn't impressed by it. Too hard to get both modes active. Lastly I'd go to 3 Pyro 4 Bob.
So non budget changes would be +2 fetches -2 basics, -2 Crackling Doom -1 SFGM +3 Liliana's. Sideboard -1 Helix, -1 Timely, +1 Crackling Doom, +1 SFGM.
One last time I think the deck is awesome and I think if I'd had Lili's I would be playing right now instead of typing this up. The deck is strong, and strong right now.
Edit: Added some spoiler tags as this was too long a post to be weildly for people scrolling through.
I think our anti agro game is the best in the business and this fast meta is great for us. We hit the sweet spot of closing the game out a reasonable pace (slower than Jund or Abzan) but have better removal to pick off the agro lists. Where we suffer is against the decks that take advantage of our reduced clock. Things like Storm, Tron, burn, and Scapeshift have an easier time with us as we don't have the agro plan of goyf beats.
So I think we might be the best positioned of the Liliana based midrange decks for the current environment even if the eldrazi matchup is not so great.
Also definitely playing this at the GP this weekend. Will give a decklist and results afterwards (even in the event of and 0-4 scrub out). Don't have a set list yet as everything is still being last minute tweaked. Good luck to anyone else hitting a GP this weekend. Or other big tournament.
Edit: I am a big painful truths fan. It out of the board (or in the main as a 2nd Kommand place holder) is so big against the other grindy decks. Resolving it against Jund, Grixis, or Abzan feels like game over. Opinion may be biased due to Young Pyro as my 2 drop of choice.
Awesome write ups guys. These tournament reports are so helpful. It's too bad about the results, but reading these makes me feel like the deck is pretty well positioned.
Glad to hear Vault was good for you. That card has been awesome for me everytime I've drawn it. Might have to give SFGM a main deck run, just picked it up for the board but I'll give it a spin in the main and see how it goes.
Awesome advice guys, I'm trying to do some gauntlet testing but have been too busy get tons done. You have a good point about a potential lower Eldrazi turnout here Atryom. People will still have it, and be planning for it, but hopefully it won't be a huge day 1 %.
You are spot on about it's position against the field. I really like how the deck does against the agro decks that are trying to race under it.
I'm still worried about it's position and exactly how the list should be tuned but I think I'll just stick it out as knowing your deck and knowing it's matchups is such a big deal. Just rely and that and hope to get lucky.
Dang you're right on World Breaker. It's just an impossible deck to hate out as it's not particularly synergistic. It just is a stompy deck that is more efficient than anything else at it's core. And has evolved to have a dominate late game. It's a top 2 agro deck, with a top 5 end game.
I still like Prison just because it buys time. It's not like landing Stony Silence against affinity. More like Timely Reinforcements against burn. It gives us time to try and play a game, which isn't great when they're casting world breakers and drowner of hopes, but it's something. As for how to actually win the game I'm strongly considering going back to monastery mentor just to have an explosive out of nowhere clock. Get's wrecked by Kozilek's Return, but it at least wins the game quickly to minimize their time to draw it....
@BoatsBoatsBoats I am a huge fan of Kalitas but I don't actually think he really filled a hole. With Liliana's, Lingering Souls/Manlands, and other planeswalkers of choice we already had a really solid late game. What I like about Kalitas was his synergy with the deck, ability to hose graveyard decks from the main, and as an extra source of life gain. Smasher ends the game very quickly, but doesn't that doesn't fit what the deck is trying to do (excepting tron and a few other select matchups). Normally we're trying to put the sleeper hold on and slowly finish the game off. I find I'm very often going to time in the round or close to it if I run into a slow playing opponent. And the longer those games drag the more favored I feel in almost every matchup. Also the filters are great, but the don't fill the best thing that Cliffs does: turn 1 Thoughtsieze/IoK without shocking. So losing them is a real cost.
Our tron matchup will never be great as long as the deck can play it's game plan. But we feast on the decks that feast on Tron so we are well positioned when the agro decks rise up.
I'm not convinced that Ghostly Prison is bad against the eldrazi, but I will have to check out Torpor Orb. That makes a lot of sense to bring in when it's all about Drowner, TKS, and World Breaker. Thanks for the tip.
Nah Tron sucks, I was trying to say that I don't feel good about those three (Eldrazi, Tron, and Storm random) but I'm comfortable with everything else. There are other bad matchups but I feel like I have a game in the rest of them while those three just feel hopeless. Sorry to give false hope.
And I don't feel like the UW eldrazi matchup is even close to 50/50. I'm afraid it's 30/70 at best. But I don't have a deck that comes close to even 40/60 without buying a whole new deck. I'm regretting my pre registration right now. Probably will jam mardu because it at least doesn't lose games to itself like green devotion. Just going to pack all the sideboard hate I can I guess.
So thoughts and opinions would be welcome. I've been all in on playing this list for the upcoming GP weekend accepting that after the PT colorless Eldrazi would be rough but I could make it work with edicts and going wide. Even with UR I felt like I could outlate game them. But with the new UW list I have no chance to out pressure them, no chance to out lategame Drowner + Displacer and I can't even sculpt my path to victory in hyothecial scenarios against the new version. So I'm now panicking and putting my other decks back together despite having brewed this for months and feeling great about the non eldrazi, storm, and tron matchups. I just am so scared of UW that I don't want to run it, but I'm thinking that I should just run it and hope to dodge. It's not like I came in with a making the top8 goal or anything. My goal is day two, my expectation is to make to round 6 without picking up my third match lose. Dropping at .500 would be fine. Just want to get to that stage.
Edit as that was nonsensical and I don't want to reread what I typed: I don't know if I should stick to my mardu guns in the face of the eldrazi menance (even packing extra sideboard hate Hello ghostly prison) as we don't have late game over them anymore with UW versions running around. So should I bite the bullet, let my testing go to waste and play either a wrath based control deck or a linear deck (probably a devotion build as it's all I have built). Mardu is the deck I think is best in a vacuum, but I hate this meta for it.
That is a spicy list and I really like it Curdbros.
Is the Wolf Run still worth it without Primeval Titan? Without the land tutor it doesn't seem that reliable even with Genesis Hydra.
That sideboard is a thing of beauty. Awesome targets, hits so many different decks, and is able to attack them on multiple angles.
What is your board plan when you are looking to bring in some number of targets and the chords? I don't have enough of a feel for the deck to know what you can afford to take out. Some number of cantrips I assume, maybe some of the planeswalkers if the matchup isn't great for them?
As for targets you don't have off the top of my head: Spellskite, Finks and Thragtusk I generally prefer to Obstinate Baloth, and for going really big to try to Woodfall Primus or Terastadon. They are almost assuredly way too slow, but blowing up lands sounds like a place to be right now.
Well when I pick up Nissa's I will have to do some testing with Chord and get back to all of you fine people with my results. Really excited to pick this deck back up. I loved jamming it before I put it down. So much fun to just spend 8 mana on turn 2. Garruk Wildspeaker is such an awesome card. I do have to say that if Genesis Hydra is as good as everyone is saying that makes Chord a heck of a lot worse. And Hydra does seem awesome. That trigger being a cast trigger is nasty.
Hey peeps, I was got the itch to put this deck back together after months and months of it lying in pieces in my cabinet. Things have changed so much since I left, those times were all about Chording for Siege Rhinos and packing Abrubt Decay. Things are differnet now so I'd just like to ask a few questions.
1: On might light dig through the backlogs of this thread (~last 5 pages) I see a lot of well deserved hype for the new Nissa. What I didn't see (or missed) is a discussion of here and Chord of Calling. That seems like a match made in heaven to me and I'm not sure why that isn't being explored. No disrespect to all of the Summoner's Pact theorycrafting as that card seems very good too, but in lists running so many token makers Chord seems natural to me.
2: It's definitely not the time for Siege Rhino, poor guy doesn't matchup well at all against Reality Smashers, and Turn 2 Thought-Knots, I'm a little surpised to see so many near mono green lists. I really found that being able to almost free splash white for absurd hate cards was one of the strengths of the deck back when I was playing it. I think it's still worth it to play 1 Temple Garden and pack Stony Silence and Rest in Peace.
3: How many fatties is necessary if we're not running any sort of Tutoring? I used to run something like 2 Titan, 1 Craterhoof and no other 5+drops. Maybe 1 Primal Command depending on my mood. I feel like if I'm just leaning on Oath of Nissa (seems insanely good btw) I probably need more, and Genesis Hydra seems like the most popular one here. So would something like 2 Titan, 4 Hydra, 2 Hornet Queen, and 1 Craterhoof be enough? Is that too much?
Another plug for Painful Truths as a great grindy sideboard card. Yes three is a lot of life in a deck running Bob and thoughtseize, but with Helix's, Shambling Vents, Vault of the Archangel, and occasionally Kalitas I definitely think there is enough lifegain to balance it out. All of that said because we're a control deck I tend to fetch very conservatively. I try very hard to avoid shocking and have actually liked my increased basic count for those purposes. Much easier to fire off an IoK or Thoughtseize for not extra pain on turn 1 with 3 Swamps and Blackcleave Cliffs.
I've been of two minds and gone back and forth on it. I've settled on leaving Bob in over thoughtseize on this logic. Playing him and trading with a Guide prevents more damage than taking a charm or command with TS does. It's definitely a horrendous late game top deck, but so is TS. I was especially swayed to board this way against this particular opponent as he was on Wild Nacatls and slightly less pure burn. It could be that I was wrong but with our matchup already being very favored I was comfortable leaving in Confidant. Last note it's really hard to Seize a charm after turn 2. From turn three on they are leaving up a lot of mana for Commands and Charms and will cast their highest damage spell in respone to the Seize. I would much rather have a creature that can trade (or even stop attacks if they want it to do the work for them) than TS given the Zoo leaning version of the deck.
As for Eldrazi he's a creature that will trade with non triggered mimics and something they will point removal at that isn't Kalitas or Olivia. That said I think I might have tried boarding Bobs out against the second eldrazi deck for Ghostly Prison, Timely Reinforements, and Kalitas in game two before deciding it raised my curve too much and I just wanted early plays.
Last note on the viability of the deck without Liliana. It's definitely not Tier 1. But it is viable enough that with a better pilot it would have made it through to day 2. If I play better against the second Eldrazi player or RG scapeshift I would have been through. But I didn't and fell short. I don't think it's as much an indictment of the deck itself, more of me and my focus waning at the end of the day. Is the Liliana version better? Of course. But I think that you aren't not completely hamstringing yourself by playing a version without her. You give yourself some more bad matchups, but you still have a great number of good ones.
TLDR: Scrubbed out in round 9 dropping to 5-4. MVPs were Kalitas, Discard suite, Lingering Souls, Olivia, and great sideboard cards. LVPs: Kolaghan's Command, Smoldering Marsh, Budgets, bad play, and Lightning Helix.
Full Report:
Head to the GP and catch up with the guys from my LGS and we're feeling good about our decks, prepped and ready after a Friday full of gauntlet testing. We have a diverse group of decks including Storm, Fish, Azorious Titan, and even Mill. Not the most hyper competitive bunch but we're feeling good. I decide to splurge for the second Kolaghan's Command I've been failing to trade for and get gouged 35 Australian for it. Ohh well worth it with a field full of affinity out there to matchup against. Registered the following decklist.
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Blood Crypt
1 Smoldering Marsh
1 Godless Shrine
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Arid Mesa
1 Marsh Flats
1 Windswept Heath
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Shambling Vent
1 Vault of the Archangel
3 Swamps
3 Plains
2 Mountain
10 Creatures
1 Soulfire Grand Master
3 Dark Confidant
4 Young Pyromancer
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Olivia Voldaren
10 Sorcery
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
4 Lingering Souls
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Terminate
2 Lightning Helix
2 Crackling Doom
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 Wear//Tear
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Wrath of God
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Lightning Helix
1 Crackling Doom
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Painful Turths
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2 Rest in Peace
Sideboard
In: Kalitas, Helix, Fulminator, Timely Out: 4 Thoughtseize
Round 2: 2-1 vs Coco GB elves. Lose game one after mis-assessing what his deck was trying to do. I focused on mana denial only to get blown out by a Coco for the 3 mana lose life for each elf card. Game 2 is very tight. I slow him down a bit by killing two mana dorks with a persecution, but he gets me down to 3 before I stabilize behind Kalitas and SFGM. Game three I disrupt him before starting to kill off his mana dorks and running away with the game via Chandra, Pryomaster. Mulled to 6 all three games, but the deck has a lot of card advantage to recover from it. Lingering Souls was great this game chumping to keep me alive and providing a clock in game three.
Sideboard
In: Chandra, Helix, Timely, Wrath, Prison, Persecution Out: 2 IoK, 2 Doom, 2 Confidant
Round 3: 2-0 vs UW Eldrazi. Game 1 is a slog. He keeps a slow hand and I manage to thoughtseize a Drowner just before it will come out. I eventually grind it out with souls and point some bolts at his face to finish game 1 off. Game two is an ugly low resource game. I mull to 5 him to four. He leads with a temple and passes. I go turn 1 thoughtseize and see another temple a TKS and a Skyspawner. Take the TKS and he slams another one that he scryed to the top. He sees Terminate, Path, and Lingering Souls. Takes the terminate to try to force me to give him his colored mana. I play souls take 4 and then rip a terminate the next turn. He never draws colored mana and I run away with it.
Sideboard
In: Fulminator, Wrath, Crackling Doom, Zealous Persecution Out: 2 Helix, 2 Kommand.
Round 4: 2-1 vs Ad Nauseum. The nightmare. A non interactive combo deck and I don't have Lili to properly pressure his hand. Not looking good. I manage to steal game 1 when he doesn't find an angel's grace or phyrexian unlife after chaining 4 cantrips together. Game two he slams a turn zero Leyline of Sanctity and I can't pressure fast enough with Dark Confidant. Game 3 He cantrips into turn 1 double Lotus Bloom. I'm resigned to my fate before I see my draw step. Stony Silence off the top! I'm alive! A few turns later I haven't found a clock faster than SFGM and he's still on one land. Then second land, cast echoing truth on Stony Silence. I just ask if I'm dead. Expecting to be dead. Resigned to 3-1. He pops lotus and drops Leyline of Sanctity. And I breathe a sigh of relief. Replay Stoney and add a Lingering Souls to the board.
At this point I'm on top of the world. I had set my goal at making day 2 and was thrilled to be in a positon where I just needed two wins in 5 rounds to get there. Was on top of the world at this point.
Round 5: 1-2 vs UW Time Warp. Actually worse than the nightmare. Here even my Thougtseizes aren't going to slow him down as his deck is much more redundant than Ad Naus, and it's much more a critical mass deck. Plus he has Paths, Superme Verdict, Timely Reinforcments, and Elixer of Immortality main. Game 1 is a slaughter. Just a slaughter. He chains about 8 turns in a row before trying to kill me with an awakened Part the Waterveil which gets terminated to he adibules to a Jace Beleren ultimate plan. Ughh... Game two I steal as I have Wear/Tear for his only Dicatate/Howling Mine and he kept a time walk heavy hand. Game three is just a disaster. I have almost no pressure and he quickly assembles enough mine effects to draw 4 a turn.
Sideboard
Out: 4 Path, 3 Terminate
In: Anything that can attack of deal damage to face.
Round 6: 1-2 vs UW Eldrazi. Don't remember the first two game very clearly but we split them. The third game is the game that is most interesting to me of the entire GP. I keep a 7 that is Blood Crypt, Smoldering Marsh, 2 Thoughtseize, Bob, Lingering Souls, and Wrath of God on the draw. I have no clue if this keep is correct. It has my best sideboard card in the mathcup in Wrath and Lingering Souls which is great. But I have no white mana. In retrospect I've decided I should have mulliganed but I think that may be results oriented thinking. Anyway being punished for Smoldering Marsh I lead off with it as I have little choice. If it's a second Blood Crypt I definitely lead off with a turn 1 thoughtseize. He plays a turn two mimic and I draw another white card. I tank and eventually decide to thoughtseize before playing my Blood Crypt to decide if I want to cast both. I see a Path, 2 Skyspawners, and a third land. I tank some more and decide that my line will be to take the path and lean on Bob to draw me mana. I play the Blood Crypt tapped and pass. He draws and plays a displacer off the top. I draw a Young Pyro and now desperate for a land run out Bob. He plays a Skyspawner and smashes. I don't block. Flip a lingering souls, draw a Shambling Vent and have no play expect Young Pyro and the game is pretty much over. I have no idea how I should have played this one. I think once I cast the thoughtseize it's correct to take the Path as I can't play Bob that turn anyway. But I could very well have been wrong to not just run him out in the first place. Anyway I'm now 4-2 and tilting a bit, and didn't write down sideboarding notes from here on out. Believe that I sideboard the same as the previous Eldrazi.
Round 7: 0-2 R/G Scapeshift. I get smashed game 1. He has a great ramp draw going Search into STE into Explore into lethal Scapeshift. I had no discard to pressure his hand out of threats. Game two I still had no discard but I had an aggressive pyromancer souls draw. Unfortuately I punted the game and the tilt became real. I didn't play properly around scapeshift. I had him at 8 with pryo and two 1/1's. I had a Vent I could attack with or a helix I could attack with. I attacked with the vent to go to 18 life rather than a helix to go to 19. If I had Helix'd I would have had a path so if he cast Inferno Titan I could spawn an extra elemental and still attack for lethal with the token and Vent and I would have been out of scapeshift range as he only had 6 lands in play at the time. Instead I died to Scapeshift for 18 damage thanks to attack with the vent. I probably still would have been disadvantaged in game three but if I had drawn discard I would have had a shot. So I titled super hard at this point. Knowing I threw away a game win and dropped to knife's edge at 4-3.
Round 8: 2-1 vs Jund Hakkon Dredge. These were some long drawn out awesome games of magic. Kalitas and SFGM were the maindeck MVPs. Kalitas for exiling reasons and SFGM as I bought back several bolts. Almost stole game one but he dropped two creatures late in the game and recurred four Vengevines. Just a little too much damage that late in the game. Games two and three game down to sticking Kalitas in one Olivia in the other and resolving Stony Silence around Abrupt Decay. Ghostly Prison was super key in one to stop a fast Lotleth Troll Vengevine draw. My opponent misplayed later in that game casting Damnation with Kalitas out, giving me two Zombies to finish the game off.
Round 9: 0-2 vs UW Control. Story of this game is I was punished for not having Liliana. Plain and simple. Without her I have no way to pressure through their countermagic and wraths. He had enough removal that he was comfortable spending a supreme verdict on just a dark confidant, and drew enough cards that he powered through a rest in peace to shut down Snaps, baby Jace, and Ojutai's Commands.
Anyway I was shattered. Went 4-0 and finished 1-4. Really tough pill swallow after the great start. So what am I taking away in terms of what I could do better. Definitely would have had a better result with Lili, played 4 of 9 matchups against effectively creatureless (UW timewalk and control, Ad Naus, and scapeshift) decks. Going 1-3 in those matchups really sunk me. Having 9 completely dead cards is so bad. Playing tighter would have given me a really good shot at day 2. Would have had a game three vs RG scapeshift with a 40ish% chance to get my 15th point there. Also matchup luck could have gone much better for me. Facing Eldrazi twice and with chances to win both matches felt good and playing a third time wouldn't have been the worst. But I think I got very unluckly by not running into Affinity which was the second most common archetype of the day anecdotally and just checking the top 100 day 1 decks on coverage. Affinity is a great matchup for Mardu and not seeing it really hurt me this tournament.
Card specific takeaways:
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is the real deal. If I had mana to cast him drawing him felt great. Against any fair deck he is so much value and against unfair graveyard decks he is the best draw in your deck. Olivia is good too, but she has been a little more matchup dependent in my experience.
Lingering Souls is the best card in the deck. Maybe if I had Lili it would be her, but I don't and it's souls.
1 mana discard is so good and gives you a shot even in nominally horrible matchups. Punishes Eldrazi hard given that they are a heavy mulligan deck.
Young Pyromancer scares opponents. People were as reluctant to allow Peezy to survive as Bob. I haven't played anywhere near as much with Abbot or Pack Rat as I have with Peezy, but I am still firmly convinced that Pyromancer is great in this deck.
Kolaghan's Command is a powerful card. And did win me one game by regrowthing a Young Pyro. But this is not the meta for it. If you hit your affinity matchups that are expected it's great, but it's not common enough and that matchup is great anyway. Dust it back off once control isn't planeswalkers and is Tron again.
My sideboard was mostly awesome for me. Everything came in at least once. Chandra saw the least only coming in against elves (was too tilted to bring it against UW control). Ghostly Prison, Stony Silence, and Rest in Peace all came close to single handedly won game. The second Kalitas was great. The sketchiest looking card is probably Painful truths. It came in twice against UW control and Dredge. Never drew it but it would have been solid in both those matchups. Also liked having it available against potential Jund matchups.
I ran a bunch of basics expecting a ton of land hate but didn't see Blood Moon once. Heard there were a fair number of them running around though.
Anyway I had a great time, didn't meet my goal but I came close. And I'm proud of that. And the squad from my store did really well. With all of us alive at round 8, and 2 of the squad making it day 2.
Last couple of points. I think Mardu Midrange is great and well positioned if you have Liliana's. Without them you're going to be soft to the control decks that are tuning themselves to beat the fast eldrazi draws. If budget weren't an issue going forward I would push 1 Crackling Doom to the board, the other out entirely, and shave a creature probably the SFGM for three Lili's in the main. Would cut the third Helix from the board to accommodate the extra Doom (Helix would come back if the eldrazi meance does eat a ban) as I as cutting Helix very often. SFGM would be a toss up with Timely for a sideboard slot wasn't impressed by it. Too hard to get both modes active. Lastly I'd go to 3 Pyro 4 Bob.
So non budget changes would be +2 fetches -2 basics, -2 Crackling Doom -1 SFGM +3 Liliana's. Sideboard -1 Helix, -1 Timely, +1 Crackling Doom, +1 SFGM.
One last time I think the deck is awesome and I think if I'd had Lili's I would be playing right now instead of typing this up. The deck is strong, and strong right now.
Edit: Added some spoiler tags as this was too long a post to be weildly for people scrolling through.
So I think we might be the best positioned of the Liliana based midrange decks for the current environment even if the eldrazi matchup is not so great.
Also definitely playing this at the GP this weekend. Will give a decklist and results afterwards (even in the event of and 0-4 scrub out). Don't have a set list yet as everything is still being last minute tweaked. Good luck to anyone else hitting a GP this weekend. Or other big tournament.
Edit: I am a big painful truths fan. It out of the board (or in the main as a 2nd Kommand place holder) is so big against the other grindy decks. Resolving it against Jund, Grixis, or Abzan feels like game over. Opinion may be biased due to Young Pyro as my 2 drop of choice.
Glad to hear Vault was good for you. That card has been awesome for me everytime I've drawn it. Might have to give SFGM a main deck run, just picked it up for the board but I'll give it a spin in the main and see how it goes.
You are spot on about it's position against the field. I really like how the deck does against the agro decks that are trying to race under it.
I'm still worried about it's position and exactly how the list should be tuned but I think I'll just stick it out as knowing your deck and knowing it's matchups is such a big deal. Just rely and that and hope to get lucky.
I still like Prison just because it buys time. It's not like landing Stony Silence against affinity. More like Timely Reinforcements against burn. It gives us time to try and play a game, which isn't great when they're casting world breakers and drowner of hopes, but it's something. As for how to actually win the game I'm strongly considering going back to monastery mentor just to have an explosive out of nowhere clock. Get's wrecked by Kozilek's Return, but it at least wins the game quickly to minimize their time to draw it....
@BoatsBoatsBoats I am a huge fan of Kalitas but I don't actually think he really filled a hole. With Liliana's, Lingering Souls/Manlands, and other planeswalkers of choice we already had a really solid late game. What I like about Kalitas was his synergy with the deck, ability to hose graveyard decks from the main, and as an extra source of life gain. Smasher ends the game very quickly, but doesn't that doesn't fit what the deck is trying to do (excepting tron and a few other select matchups). Normally we're trying to put the sleeper hold on and slowly finish the game off. I find I'm very often going to time in the round or close to it if I run into a slow playing opponent. And the longer those games drag the more favored I feel in almost every matchup. Also the filters are great, but the don't fill the best thing that Cliffs does: turn 1 Thoughtsieze/IoK without shocking. So losing them is a real cost.
I'm not convinced that Ghostly Prison is bad against the eldrazi, but I will have to check out Torpor Orb. That makes a lot of sense to bring in when it's all about Drowner, TKS, and World Breaker. Thanks for the tip.
And I don't feel like the UW eldrazi matchup is even close to 50/50. I'm afraid it's 30/70 at best. But I don't have a deck that comes close to even 40/60 without buying a whole new deck. I'm regretting my pre registration right now. Probably will jam mardu because it at least doesn't lose games to itself like green devotion. Just going to pack all the sideboard hate I can I guess.
Edit as that was nonsensical and I don't want to reread what I typed: I don't know if I should stick to my mardu guns in the face of the eldrazi menance (even packing extra sideboard hate Hello ghostly prison) as we don't have late game over them anymore with UW versions running around. So should I bite the bullet, let my testing go to waste and play either a wrath based control deck or a linear deck (probably a devotion build as it's all I have built). Mardu is the deck I think is best in a vacuum, but I hate this meta for it.
Is the Wolf Run still worth it without Primeval Titan? Without the land tutor it doesn't seem that reliable even with Genesis Hydra.
That sideboard is a thing of beauty. Awesome targets, hits so many different decks, and is able to attack them on multiple angles.
What is your board plan when you are looking to bring in some number of targets and the chords? I don't have enough of a feel for the deck to know what you can afford to take out. Some number of cantrips I assume, maybe some of the planeswalkers if the matchup isn't great for them?
As for targets you don't have off the top of my head: Spellskite, Finks and Thragtusk I generally prefer to Obstinate Baloth, and for going really big to try to Woodfall Primus or Terastadon. They are almost assuredly way too slow, but blowing up lands sounds like a place to be right now.
Thanks for the quick feedback!
1: On might light dig through the backlogs of this thread (~last 5 pages) I see a lot of well deserved hype for the new Nissa. What I didn't see (or missed) is a discussion of here and Chord of Calling. That seems like a match made in heaven to me and I'm not sure why that isn't being explored. No disrespect to all of the Summoner's Pact theorycrafting as that card seems very good too, but in lists running so many token makers Chord seems natural to me.
2: It's definitely not the time for Siege Rhino, poor guy doesn't matchup well at all against Reality Smashers, and Turn 2 Thought-Knots, I'm a little surpised to see so many near mono green lists. I really found that being able to almost free splash white for absurd hate cards was one of the strengths of the deck back when I was playing it. I think it's still worth it to play 1 Temple Garden and pack Stony Silence and Rest in Peace.
3: How many fatties is necessary if we're not running any sort of Tutoring? I used to run something like 2 Titan, 1 Craterhoof and no other 5+drops. Maybe 1 Primal Command depending on my mood. I feel like if I'm just leaning on Oath of Nissa (seems insanely good btw) I probably need more, and Genesis Hydra seems like the most popular one here. So would something like 2 Titan, 4 Hydra, 2 Hornet Queen, and 1 Craterhoof be enough? Is that too much?