For folks running Chalice either MD or SB - do you find it gets awkward with all the Thoughtseize/IoK/Serums? I ran into a storm match where I wanted chalice but at the same time was boarding in surgicals, thoughtseizes, grafdiggers, etc grossly upping my 1cmc spell count. I suspect thats like the worst case scenario - and liliana helps us pitch dead weight (although she does the same for the opponent) but still felt a little sketchy.
I think in an SFM world you'd see Mardu being a far more legitimate choice as a midrange wedge. Using K-Command to recur a turn 2 stoneforge that got bolted has to be a decent play.
Today I feel like your midrange pick is 70% Jund, 25% Abzan, 5% Mardu. In an SFM world I'd expect more like 50% Abzan, 25% Mardu, 25% Jund - we might even see some legitimate 2-colour midrange decks.
Halo is for infect dredge valakut bogles and incidentally good vs manlands, gifts ungiven, and liliana of the veil. Also good vs eidolon of the great revel and just generally good 2cmc removal that sometimes is virtual ca if they have more than one copy of the named card.
I prefer it maindeck as its so versatile and at its best when they have no enchant removal.
Learned something new here. Always thought protection meant can't be targeted/damaged/blocked by and any auras of that colour on the permanent with protection are destroyed. I see that they must have updated the rules for protection later on to include both equipment and fortification... I wonder if they'll go on and add crew (so that if your vehicle gets protection from red, it can't be crewed by red creatures!)
For now looks like crew is the outlier. But they made sure to get fortifications with the equipments ;p
I'm confused by abzan advantage over jund... Jund plays blackcleave cliffs, abzan plays no fast land... if anything this would remove one of jund's advantages? Although more likely its a wash since they can both use the GB one?
Another thought on GGD - it adds to Eternal Scourge as a card where you kind of want to keep relic of progenitus on the table. Exiling your GY to cantrip and then hitting a dark dweller is going to feel pretty sad. I know snapcaster decks will sideboard relics because you can play around it relatively easily, but they have far more decent value targets that could soon go to the GY (serums etc) and they're not maindecking 4 relics. I'm willing to try it out but I'm skeptical - I do find non-interactive combo games tough to win, so being able to flash back something like molten rain might help those matchups more than 4 haste.
GDD lack of value targets was my thought as well - if removal is not required (anger or skred) you're down to doming them with a magma jet or bolt, or molten rain on a land. None of those quite feel like flashing back a Kolaghan's Command or Ancestral Vision
I'm on sword of fire and ice right now. Haven't cast it (or Godo) enough to have a real opinion yet. I think general consensus would be that light and shadow is the best protection while F&I is the best trigger.
L&S isnt very good with the low creature count and relics so I went with F&I. Hitting for 5 with a thopter or 4 with a Spellskite seems like a good clock out of an otherwise non-threateing body.
It's possible sword of feast and famine is the place to be - discard is better vs combo but again kind of non-bo when a blood moon is making some of their cards uncastable, and generally untapping would just be letting us use some Scrying Sheets more? I'd like it more with say figure of destiny I think.
sword of war and peace is more synergistic with blood moon - strand cards in their hand then hit them for extra damage because of it (see Stormbreath monstrous for more). Skred also often has excess cards in hand from scrying sheets or skreds/angers that arent needed yet or extra copies of a Koth/Moon. The weakness imo is that the lifegain is too slow against burn and requires us to swing when we probably need to block.
So basically there's a case for any of them except body and mind and I havent tested enough to feel strongly about my pick yet ;p
Also no spellskite anywhere? I guess you just hope to chalice = 1 vs bogles?
I've been trying maindeck spellskites with godo, baterskull, and a sword. Like boros reckoner before it, eternal scourge is super juicy if you can equip it when you replay it (could be overkill, dunno). My issue with that deck variant is it also runs mind stone, and suddenly you're in a place where stony silence and ancient grudge affinity hate cards are doing a lot of splash damage to you as well.
If they're smart they'll just ride them out 2 tokens at a time and at that point we're left trying to cryptic bounce or tap out for verdict. Is plan A to just get 2-for-1d and counter both sides?
2. No runed halo. Against all the agro matchups, we have baneslayers and blessed alliance. Against combo matchups, we're now playing duress + extraction effects.
This seems like a bad use of density - runed halo is good everywhere, including aggro and combo and you're replacing it with more niche cards that only work on one deck or the other? I mean if the extra cards make those matchups a tonne more favourable maybe I can see it - but otherwise why not just hve 2 runed halo covering all of these instead of a bunch of surgical/alliance slots used up to make them ok (at the cost of halo)?
Runed halo stopping manlands has been very relevant for me - and stealing game 1 wins vs scapeshift or ad nauseum happens.
But well spirits = GG for Control decks if the spirits are growing in Numbers i would seriously consider either Languish or Flaying in my Esper board as they Dodge the annoying spirit!
possible that where you'd really want to be is hallowed burial or terminus since they can't be spell quellered and do some relevant (if slow) work vs other decks.
Speaking of those other decks - is there any way esper control beats dredge game 1? The only way I can imagine winning is a very slow dredge hand met with at least 3 copies of path to exile on our end. Dredge makes our counterspells and wraths pretty much useless and presents a clock too fast for us to realistically turn the corner and win with warrior tokens or colonnades. In g2/g3 we can hit our grave hate and maybe win but still seems uphill.
Just watched the first one - what a joke. He cryptics into verdict against a board with kira and Caleb topdecks a selfless spirit to stop the verdict. I mean I guess he can draw spell queller or collected company there as well, but he had already drawn really well that game so that rip was just brutal. I would think if that card is a land wafo tapa probably turns it around from there pretty handily.
That being said hexproof + indestructible board is... kinda tough.
More generally I don't get people dropping spell snare. It's the difference between life and death vs burn and zoo in my experience, and huge vs things like voice and bob if you do not have the path sitting in your hand. I also had meh results with blessed alliance - in the matchups where I would want to escalate it I never did because I couldn't risk either a) letting them resolve a spell on main phase 2 or b) responding with atarkas command wasting my "kicker".
Requires a concession to play some number of tarfire or seal of fire (or both) to help with delirium. I'm also happier running my one thirst for knowledge knowing that this is both something I sometimes want to pitch and that thirst can help me get delirium on. Dryad gives us something to vial at one, a way to kill big creatures which are generally a problem, and is a surprisingly decent beater late game as a deathtouch wild nacatl.
2) reflecting pool
I put this in place of filterland - I had done flooded grove then switched to cascade bluffs and with pool I'm never looking back. While it won't give you a missing colour it does the all important job of giving you the third blue for cryptic, the second green for witness, and the second red for hasty knuckleblade, anger of the gods out of the board, and casting multiple bolts.
Played a few matches with turn/burn and its just painfully expensive for what it is. It was a 2 mana shock in most of the games I drew it, and as nice has a maindeck out to wurmcoils is I'm not convinced that you wouldn't be better off with a deprive or something instead. Your point on thought knot, kalitas, and colonnade is relevant though for burst lightning. I also gave grim lavamancer a few games - never had a stocked GY and always felt like it was non-boing with my snapcasters.
Cascade bluffs is 100% a concession to playing knuckleblade, but it also just flat out casts more spells with UR than we can cast for UG as there are zero UG spells but both izzet charm and electrolyze. Double green for ooze is cute, but generally not important. I've seen way more instances where the harbour got awkard with me casting a charm/electrolyze/knuckleblade or even a serum visions on t2 than I have seen instances where an extra green for scooze would be good. You often want to tap a green and leave a green up to respond to snapcasters and such if they happen.
Today I feel like your midrange pick is 70% Jund, 25% Abzan, 5% Mardu. In an SFM world I'd expect more like 50% Abzan, 25% Mardu, 25% Jund - we might even see some legitimate 2-colour midrange decks.
I prefer it maindeck as its so versatile and at its best when they have no enchant removal.
Learned something new here. Always thought protection meant can't be targeted/damaged/blocked by and any auras of that colour on the permanent with protection are destroyed. I see that they must have updated the rules for protection later on to include both equipment and fortification... I wonder if they'll go on and add crew (so that if your vehicle gets protection from red, it can't be crewed by red creatures!)
For now looks like crew is the outlier. But they made sure to get fortifications with the equipments ;p
I'm on sword of fire and ice right now. Haven't cast it (or Godo) enough to have a real opinion yet. I think general consensus would be that light and shadow is the best protection while F&I is the best trigger.
L&S isnt very good with the low creature count and relics so I went with F&I. Hitting for 5 with a thopter or 4 with a Spellskite seems like a good clock out of an otherwise non-threateing body.
It's possible sword of feast and famine is the place to be - discard is better vs combo but again kind of non-bo when a blood moon is making some of their cards uncastable, and generally untapping would just be letting us use some Scrying Sheets more? I'd like it more with say figure of destiny I think.
sword of war and peace is more synergistic with blood moon - strand cards in their hand then hit them for extra damage because of it (see Stormbreath monstrous for more). Skred also often has excess cards in hand from scrying sheets or skreds/angers that arent needed yet or extra copies of a Koth/Moon. The weakness imo is that the lifegain is too slow against burn and requires us to swing when we probably need to block.
So basically there's a case for any of them except body and mind and I havent tested enough to feel strongly about my pick yet ;p
Also no spellskite anywhere? I guess you just hope to chalice = 1 vs bogles?
I've been trying maindeck spellskites with godo, baterskull, and a sword. Like boros reckoner before it, eternal scourge is super juicy if you can equip it when you replay it (could be overkill, dunno). My issue with that deck variant is it also runs mind stone, and suddenly you're in a place where stony silence and ancient grudge affinity hate cards are doing a lot of splash damage to you as well.
If they're smart they'll just ride them out 2 tokens at a time and at that point we're left trying to cryptic bounce or tap out for verdict. Is plan A to just get 2-for-1d and counter both sides?
This seems like a bad use of density - runed halo is good everywhere, including aggro and combo and you're replacing it with more niche cards that only work on one deck or the other? I mean if the extra cards make those matchups a tonne more favourable maybe I can see it - but otherwise why not just hve 2 runed halo covering all of these instead of a bunch of surgical/alliance slots used up to make them ok (at the cost of halo)?
Runed halo stopping manlands has been very relevant for me - and stealing game 1 wins vs scapeshift or ad nauseum happens.
possible that where you'd really want to be is hallowed burial or terminus since they can't be spell quellered and do some relevant (if slow) work vs other decks.
Speaking of those other decks - is there any way esper control beats dredge game 1? The only way I can imagine winning is a very slow dredge hand met with at least 3 copies of path to exile on our end. Dredge makes our counterspells and wraths pretty much useless and presents a clock too fast for us to realistically turn the corner and win with warrior tokens or colonnades. In g2/g3 we can hit our grave hate and maybe win but still seems uphill.
That being said hexproof + indestructible board is... kinda tough.
More generally I don't get people dropping spell snare. It's the difference between life and death vs burn and zoo in my experience, and huge vs things like voice and bob if you do not have the path sitting in your hand. I also had meh results with blessed alliance - in the matchups where I would want to escalate it I never did because I couldn't risk either a) letting them resolve a spell on main phase 2 or b) responding with atarkas command wasting my "kicker".
1) gnarlwood dryad
Requires a concession to play some number of tarfire or seal of fire (or both) to help with delirium. I'm also happier running my one thirst for knowledge knowing that this is both something I sometimes want to pitch and that thirst can help me get delirium on. Dryad gives us something to vial at one, a way to kill big creatures which are generally a problem, and is a surprisingly decent beater late game as a deathtouch wild nacatl.
2) reflecting pool
I put this in place of filterland - I had done flooded grove then switched to cascade bluffs and with pool I'm never looking back. While it won't give you a missing colour it does the all important job of giving you the third blue for cryptic, the second green for witness, and the second red for hasty knuckleblade, anger of the gods out of the board, and casting multiple bolts.
Cascade bluffs is 100% a concession to playing knuckleblade, but it also just flat out casts more spells with UR than we can cast for UG as there are zero UG spells but both izzet charm and electrolyze. Double green for ooze is cute, but generally not important. I've seen way more instances where the harbour got awkard with me casting a charm/electrolyze/knuckleblade or even a serum visions on t2 than I have seen instances where an extra green for scooze would be good. You often want to tap a green and leave a green up to respond to snapcasters and such if they happen.