Went 4-1 last night with Bant Spirits. Went into the finals undefeated after beating Grixis Dragons, KCI (dumpstered), UW Monument Weenies, Cheeri0s (god bless you modern FNM's). Lost to infect very quickly in the finals.
I usually do a full write up, but since most of the decks were extreme off meta I'm not going to bother unless there are specific requests besides for KCI/infect.
Versus KCI: I knew what this guy was on before the round started. I took out my sideboard cards and lined them up on the side of my playmat and went "LEND ME YOUR STRENGTH!" Game 1 I kept a hand that didn't do a whole lot initially, but had two spell quellers. I played out some early lords, then Queller'd his KCI's two turns in a row and won on the back swing. I brought in my stony, rips, and thalia for game 2 (brought out coco, 2 path, 1 kira, 1 rattlechains) and saw both RIP and Stony. Easy life.
Game 1 versus infect I got a path off on one of his unblockable guys, but he had a second. I took out two random things (probably kira and a company, I think? it was late and my notes broke down at this point) mulled my landless-7 into a 6 with a noble hierarch, land, and thalia. Thalia slowed them a bit, but never saw a path and couldn't interact with his Blighted Agent. I was able to spell queller two of his groundswells, but wasn't fast enough with my backswings to race. At least the round was fast! I think this is a fairly mediocre matchup for bant unless our hand has land + dork + queller + path. And the board has no good answers.
Changes, Kira should be a phantasmal image, and I would probably do at least -1 Rattlechains for a maindeck Remorseful Cleric.
I am another stats guy, and was wondering what you did to get the data? Did you just have a program scrape the information off the wizards sites or manually copy + paste and edit? Didn't look like wizards had text or csv versions of standards naturally, but looks like something similar could be done with SCG events.
I take it you don't know how often particular players switch deck archetypes or anything like that? I'd like to know if the top performers are likely to switch more or less often than lower ranking individuals. Also, as others have noted, I wouldn't mind seeing the data set.
There is a gav township in the deck, I guess I forgot to add it to the list. The original list I was trying to put together had something like 2 additional ghost quarter and a FoR, I didn't have those in my collection so I just added some more basic lands + additional temple garden.
I agree in hindsight Ramunap seems loose. There are two jesaki control decks lying around in my meta, so I wanted something that I could chord for to try and hurt their mana base more.
I played a straight GW build last night to a 2-2 finish. I lost to Grixis Death's Shadow and Elves, beat GB Infect and Goblins.
Last week I played a bant version that top 8'd GP Vegas to a 1-3 finish, beating Titan, and losing to Burn, Mill, and Jeskai. I wanted to run a deck that had a beat more of a beefcake role game 1 so moved over to a straight GW build, since the local meta is only about 10 players right now.
I don't think this boarding plan is correct. And I'll talk about it later that after playing the elves player I'm generally for taking out Chord of Calling over CoCo, Chokeand maybe Shalai should have been two paths, at least.
Game 2: same as game 1, he bolts/pushs my things, drops death's shadow, and my hand is too slow to develop a board.
Round 2 versus GB Infect:
Both games they didn't have the ability to get me off my combo fast enough, and turns out Vizier makes it really easy to keep their ground forces off the table. Turns out a handful of discard and creature interaction just isn't good enough here.
(2-0 in games, 1-1 overall)
Round 3 versus Elves:
Game 1: I keep a hand with the combo in it, he cracks me for 20 on turn 3.
Game 2: I misplay, I play turn 1 dork, and I start developing a board by deploying an early walking ballista on 1 with a chord in hand to go for the combo. He starts briking on lands, but eventually gets a heritage druid down. I forget my own gameplan, and ping the druid before coco, and suddenly can't start fetching combo pieces (with a CoCo + ewitt in my hand). He bricks on land, but hits another heritage druid + CoCo in hand and I lose.
Again, I think my boarding plan is wrong here, as it pushes my curve marginally up in what should just be a drag race match.
(we play a third game for fun, I mull to four and kill him on turn 3. Felt good).
Rd 4 versus Goblins
Game 1 he gets under me with double Legion Loyaltist + Piledriver, ooph.
He's on the beat down, I drop Devoted Druid with the combo in hand (he saw walking ballista off an early Goblin Guide flip). He can't kill it, I untap and murderize him.
-1 something +1 path
I remember boarding up to the 3 paths. I think I took a one-of vizier out. But I forget the exact card. I go on the GW beatdown plan with something like, selfless spirit, knight, ewitt get back knight, knight with double path's being thrown in there at some point. He still holds up a card, so I'm not able to crack through. Eventually I knight for gavony township, CoCo out my combo and just need a payoff- which I grab before he can get bolt + grenade.
2-2 overall.
Reflection: My play with the deck is still not great. I make a lot of misplays between lack of a clear boarding plan and suboptimal play. Knight is good, but slow. I might go down a Knight and up another Ewitt to maximize chance of going in on the combo, which is definitely where I feel the deck's power is. Eidolon and Shalai both have very high cmc for chord targets, and they often feel like useless trap cards after I board them in. I might look at replace one, particularly Eidolon. Right now I've replaced them with a Phyrexian Revoker.
I've liked the look of the bant Company decks featuring Jace I've seen 5-0 (zmagic went 6-2 at the end of february with this list. hyper just got a 5-0 posted with something similar, and this guy and this guy top 24rd the SCG classic, which, while not top results, looked good enough to pique my interest.
If anyone could give me a run down on what sort of matchups are good/bad for the deck, and if there's anyone whose streamed any leagues with a list I can watch before pulling the trigger?
I went 2-2 at FNM last night, then round 5 my opponent conceded so they could go get dinner. I beat Humans, the Jeskai mirror, and then lost to Living End and UR pryomancer/moon.
Game 1 (p, opponent mulled once); My opener was sacred foundry, flooded strand, island, secure the wastes, bolt, helix, lyze. I originally thought he was on Jeskai, so was kept to try and play a tempo game, but he ended up switching to humans which made my hand line up great. He was mana flooded, and I could just clean up whatever small creatures he threw out. I dropped a Jace on an empty board and started fatesealing, and he conceded shortly after.
Game 2 (draw): Openered was 2 colonnades, tarn, island, snap, jace, verdict. The hand had little starting interaction, but I usually keep hands with a sweaper + snap against a lot of aggro decks, because few can get under me fast enough. Bill played a lot more at tempo, some Freebooter's took some removal, sin collector hit my verdict, and dropped a meddling mage that took me off of two snapcaster mages. He vialed in a xathrid necromancer in response to a kill spell, but was otherwise out of cards when I still had 4 in hand, (2 snap, tarn, secure the wastes). He misplayed and attacked for lethal with everything including the meddling mage, but I secured the waste for a bunch, took out the mage and gave him a bunch of tokens. Then could use snapcaster to grind out a helix in my graveyard, and block the necromancer tokens. I dropped Elspeth and he had nothing left to fight with.
Side notes: I think it is better on the margin to bring out another jace and leave in another cryptic. My opponent thinks it is right to bring out all the jace as well to bring in clique, staticaster, and more counters for runed halo. I agree with clique and staticaster, but I don't think I'm a fan of halo.
Rd 2 vs Kyle on Jeskai. Tradiaionally Kyle was on UW control, but I guess had switched. When he told me I felt much more comfortable, since he was also running 3 geists and 2 clique's main, so was a bit more tempo oriented than I was.
Game 1 (draw): opening hand was colonnade, flooded strand, sulfur falls, snap, lyze, jace, helix. Again, this offers me an ability to trade off early resources, and I like lyze in these matchups a lot as card advantage. We both traded down resources a bunch, snap bolting each other, both resolving and eating each other's jaces. I was able to counter his early geist, and then gain more card advantage that carried me through to the end.
brought in d sphere, elspeth, 2 negate, 2 dispel, out 2 knot, 3 helix, 1 jace. I almost always side out 2 knot when I'm bringing in the 4 extra counter spells. In these matchups I feel like my graveyard can get heavily overworked between snap and counter wars, but keeping power cards in it is super useful. I also favor mana efficiency of bolt over the incremental life gain of helix, and it keeps my mana a little nicer.
game 2 (draw): I first draw a hand of 5 lands, snapcaster, verdict, and mull. I decide this is a matchup where I need to keep some form of interaction. Compared to the rest of the night, I apparently didn't write down what my keeping hand was. But it was something like 2 lands, 2 serum visions, a path, and a non-counterspell card. I misplay and both turns 1 and 2 serum visions, and Kyle turn 3 geist, turn 4 clique's me, and I have no responses.
I side out 2 path and bring in my own clique and a settle the wreckage.
game 3 (play): Both Kyle and I go to 6. My first hand was island, path, snap, verdict, secure, bolt, elspeth. My second one was 3 island, scalding tarn, bolt, negate. I know this doesn't protect me from a turn 3 geist, but I have a lot of live top decks, and has enough interaction I don't feel uncomfortable with. I play drop lands and pass. Kyle drops a snapcaster that gets in two beats before it eats a bolt. Eventually we both resolve jace's, and I fateseal him to get out of bolt range, and he jacestorms. We both end up killing each other's jaces before we can get too much advantage out of it, but as a result I'm left with search for azcanta and elspeth in hand. I bait the search to draw out cryptic command, resolve elsepth and despite top decking baneslayer angel, Kyle is dead on board.
Elspeth is a beat. I liked my sideboarding here. I still think there is a discussion on what parts of the removal suite to bring out though, and I'm interested in others opinions.
Rd 3 vs Alex on Living End.
Game 1 (play): hand is colonnade, tarn, plains, field of ruins, sacred foundry, bolt, knot. Again, a land heavy start, but in the blind, it has bolt and knot which protect me a little bit, and hopefully I can draw into more interaction. In hindsight I might have mulled to a hand without 5 land, but my 2 nonland felt strong. He ends up cycling a bunch, then plays fulminator mage which eats my logic knot. I've still failed to draw blue sources to get the two cryptics in my hand online, and have been tight on lands, so I try to field of ruin end of turn to get me a third blue source. He violent outbursts in response, get backs his fulminator and blows up my colonnade so I can't verdict. I untap, drop a land and pass, play cryptic tap draw, Play another land, looking to snap cryptic, but he discards faerie macabre to remove my cryptic, I secure the wastes for a bit instead to buy a turn, but he plays fulminator and blows up one of my two white producing sources so I can't supreme verdict anyway.
In: 2 negate, 2 dispel, purge, ee (obvious mistake), d sphere, settle the wreckage. Out: 3 bolt, spel snare, helix, 2 jace.
Game 2 (play): Hand is hallowed fountain, sacred foundry, ee, cryptic, verdict, helix, purge. I realize I made a mistake by boarding in explosives, so evaluate the hand as a 6. I still have 2 live lands, a source of (permanent) removal, and two ways to kill time if I hit my land drops. I hit search for azcanta as my second draw, and, since I don't have any permission up, missing a land drop, and no way to bluff a knot, play search to hope and try to dig for a land. The hope is that he'll be able to cycle a few things, living end, and I'll be able to recover. In response he cycles a bunch, and ends up drawing, and cycling, 3 street wraith, one of his 4/4's that pumps, and one of the 5/4s, and then on his turn violent outbursts into living end. I draw a 3rd land and pass. He untaps, drops another land, attacks, I purge the 4/4 that pumps, take a casual 14, he plays fulminator mage and blows up my hallowed fountain and I have no outs.
Outside of bringing in EE which I shouldn't have, I liked my boarding plan here, and I think I got unlucky given the number of counters in my deck. Should I be more aggressively mulligan-ing to get to them?
Rd 4 vs Jacob on UR Pyromancer/Moon
Game 1 (play): Jacob mull's twice. I keep a hand of 2 hallowed fountain, 1 snap, 1 steam vents, 2 serum visions, 1 logic knot. Jacob gets heavily land screwed, and I get so far ahead I'm able to jace + protect it and just fateseal him out of the game. Never get to actually ult, but would have on my next turn. I see a blood moon and a pyromancer and a bunch of basics.
Game 2 (draw) I keep bolt, mountain, path, strand, search, colonnade, flooded strand. We trade off a bunch of resources, and eventually I'm up on lands but out of gas and haven't drawn a jace, or search in probably my top 25. I hold wear // tear and purge in my hand on an empty board, but I have only non-basic white sources. I decide to start clocking my opponent with colonnade, who then plays blood moon. I float from my second colonnade and wear // tear it (after a minor timing misplay on my part, but we sorted it out), and go to wear // tear it, but he has the dispel. I then brick on any action with a path and purge in my hand, and he drops a battleskull and I get vroom vroom'd.
Game 3 (play): I didn't write down my hand here (ugh, I was doing so good ComplexSystems!) but it was something like 2-3 lands and some interaction. But I end up bricking on land or serum visions for 3 draws in a row, he eventually drops a pyromancer and blood moon oh and did turn 1/3 suspend Ancestral Visions. Never showed up for the game.
I felt like I could have won game 2 if I drew any of my stronger card advantage engines, but was happy with the round overall.
Rd 5 vs Jim on 5c tribal zoo.
Jim concedes to me so he can go get dinner at 11:20 or whatever obnoxiously late time it is. Naturally I play versus the air and it is the most amazing interactive game of magic ever seen by no one.
Some general notes: I was hot on 3 jaces, but in a lot of matchups I just decided I would rather try 2. This might have cost me game 2 versus the UR moon deck, since I didn't have as many ways of gaining advantage/jace can win by himself, but against many control matchups I like digging in and trying to drag things out, and against aggro matchups he's not great. I never played versus any of the midrange decks that showed up that day, and I continue to expect the meta to be heavily control/aggro in my meta, I might drop to 2 and add in a fourth bolt/cryptic.
I prefer cast out due to being flash, and, can still be a cheap cantrip if not relevant. A lot of how the sideboard shakes out is going to rely on what the resulting meta looks like.
I goldfished some games with only 2 jace (3rd jace was sphinx's rev), but I felt I wasn't drawing him as often as I want, which is every game. 4 I fear means sometimes you would get jace flooded, and watching SaffronOlive on the modern super leagued kind of confirmed. The games I played yesterday felt good on "how often am I seeing jace" front.
I also no longer like d-sphere as much in the board. We want strong, instant speed answers to opponent's jace, and d-sphere hurts us too if we already have one out. I might try Cast Out for a bit, but I'm not particularly high on it.
I think getting the right mix of counterspell's between the main deck and sideboard is going to be important, and will probably have to change a bit going forward.
I went 3-1 last night at FNM last night, beaking Grixis Dragons, Dredge, and Grixis delver/control(?) and losing to Grixis Death's Shadow. Before the rounds started I realized I had a stone rain in my deck, since I play most of my decks in the same sleeves it probably snuck in from goldfishing decks against each other at home and was never corrected. Since rounds were being called I quickly moved an engineered explosives from my side to the main and added a grafdigger's cage, since I knew two people in the room were on dredge. This morning I recounted the deck, and I was missing a lightning bolt. So with that stated, my list;
Round 1 vs Garrett on Grixis Dragons (on the play)
Game 1 I got gotten. I start off with a hand with two spell quellers and a geist, and an interaction or two. I get double inquisitioned, when I go to cast geist my opponent casts Silumgar's Scorn and then turns around into a Tasigur and Thunderbreak Regent. I bricked on more lands and died.
-4 Spell Quellers, -1 Engineered Explosives, -3 Helix. He showed me a lot of cards with CMC > 4, and some burn. I decided to go full control and brought in about half my sideboard. +1 Celestial Purge, +2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar, +2 Disdainful Stroke, +2 Dispel, +1 Clique.
I don't have great notes for the next two matches. In the second match, I kept a hand with no draw, 1 Colonnade, and 1 Mountain that I feared I would be punished for, but I had counter spell's for day's, so I landed a Geist that hard carried me. In the third match I was threat light, and so started attacking with a snapcaster that he eventually cleared. I eventually played Pia and Kiran, he tapped out for a Thunderbreak Regent, I pathed. On my turn, attacked, flung the tokens at him for the match win. Post board I had so many counters that lined up exceptionally well versus his deck at almost all stages of the game.
Round 2 vs Kody on Grixis Death's Shadow (on the play)
Game 1 Kody spent the first few turns trying to sculpt his hand, and I eventually got to Spell Queller his first Death's Shadow that he instantly followed up with a second. When I was at 9, and he was at 7, I went to cryptic bounce the death's shadow knowing I had a bolt on top, that he snap pushed my queller in response. In hindsight this was still a huge misplay, but after the match he told me he also had angler/another snap in his hand, and I'm not sure if I could have won through those with my hand and an active shadow on board.
I didn't track my sideboard for the rest of the matches because I'm an idiot.
I kept a hand with some Spell Quellers, Geist, and land. I got double inquisitioned, drew a third land, and then bricked on land until I died.
Round 3 Vs Jack on Dredge (on the play, hey, I was super lucky here!)
Game one I was just totally out of it, and had a bunch of counters but didn't counter/queller anything he played.
I think I sideboard in both relics, cage, and supreme verdict. I take out things like cryptic command, and some spell queller here.
Game two he starts off with neonating a blodghast. I realize he must have a super slow hand, I play and burst one of my Relic's, drop a threat, and draw into my second Relic. Between that I seem to just chip him down without much of a board presence.
Game three he gets an early double Narcomeba's, I drop Geist, and he lets me swing with it a few times while trying to race me with the Narco's. I again get both my relic's to keep his graveyard from exploding, then mix of burn and removal carries me.
Round 4 vs Mitchell on Grixis Control
He starts off acting like he's on grixis death's shadow. I try to just rush a Geist to get information, and it eats a mana leak. He plays a Tasigur, and the theme of the evening is that Tasigur on turn 2 is pretty good. When I go to snap path he spell snare's it. This game takes 35 minutes of grinding each other out, about half way through I drop a Search for Azcanta and start digging. Mitchell gets two tasigur activations, kologhan's command's me twice. But burn and Lightning Helix carries the day.
At this point there's 15 minutes in the round, and I decide to be that guy and go for the 1-0 win. I again board in things like dispel, celestial purge, and supreme verdict over my EE- since his last play of the previous game was to drop a Young Pyro.
Game 2 he starts off with a delver on one, but doesn't flip. Eventually I get to electrolyze it and him, and start just trying to hold him back. He again drops Tasigur and gets an activation, and since he has only 1 card left in hand and I have to give him either action or draw to sandbag turns I give him Dispel. With round called he drops young pyro, but is too low on resources to drop me from 13 life thanks to some earlier Lightning Helix's. I leave a colonnade activation available, and win the round at 1-0 on turns.
3-1, got 3 packs. Traded some stuff in my binder for 3 Onslaught Flooded Plains for my legacy deck and went home happy with the night.
Some notes
- I tried to find some Golgari Charms for the board before the event started, but the store didn't have any.
- I'd like to cut the Edict and TNN to look at rebalancing the sideboard a bit to include things like Sylvan Library and Golgari Charm with/over Decay's. I originally ran two TNN, but even with DRS they just seemed to push the mana of the deck more than it wanted.
- In general, the deck seems to have a very good combo matchup, and a very poor aggro matchup. I'm trying to find ways to rebalance the maindeck/sideboard to make this not feel quite as binary.
Sunday Legacy 11/12/17: 7 people showed up (first time we hosted it was two weeks prior and there were 11) decks present were:
1 BR Reanimator
1 High Tide
1 Grixis Delver
1 Sultai DS
1 Death and Taxes
1 Merfolk
1 Spanish Inquision
The previous event also had a BU Tin Fins, Bant Deathblade, ANT, and UR Delver, and something else over High Tide that escapes me.
Rd 1: Bye
Rd 2: Ian on Death and Taxes.
g1: I didn't write down who was on the play, but I believe it was Ian, who mulled to 6. It looks like I cast and early thoughseize and grabbed Jitte from his hand of Thalia, Batterskull, Flickerwisp, and Jitte (did land -> mom turn 1). I ended up going something like delver, drop to 12, double death's shadow when he had a Mom and Thalia out. I let him take back an attack when he realized he would take a ton on the swing back, but drew a fetch. His life went 20-16-5-dead. I took a gamble after thoughtseizing him that I could probably finish him before he could get a swords to plowshares into his hand, since otherwise mom could lock out a single threat from me.
sideboard -4 daze, -2 spellsnare, -1 death's shadow, +2 decay, +2 engineered explosives, +2 dread of night, +1 true-name nemesis. There's another player that hasn't shown up for one of the regular flights that also is on DnT, and he has 4 caverns (turns out Ian only had 1), and I cut most of my counters besides Force for more removal, and a threat that is stronger against Swords.
g2: I actually took really bad notes here. But turn 1 mom into turn 2 stoneforge mystic for battleskull (I think turn 1 I pondered or something trying to find a fatal push). On my turn 2 I had dread of night and decay in my hand, so I dropped Dread hoping to be able to get more action in my hand. He is able to drop battleskull, but I get a pair of delvers out. I decay the germ token, and he gets out two phrexian revokers (both on explosives). I hold up two wastelands, but he's only playing planes. I drop him to 8 before he plays karakas for his 5th land to equip battleskull. I have to brainstorm lock myself, and despite two dread of night out can't answer the revokers (note: Golgari Charm in the future might be good here).
g3: I didn't change my sideboard strategy. I tempo him out. Delver, git prove, his hand is, wasteland, 2x revokers, stoneforge mystic, helm of obedience, 2x planes. He mistakenly wastelands my watery grave turn 1. On my turn I flip delver, fetch for another watery grave, play deathrite shaman, and on my third turn death's shadow, on his third turn he plays rest in peace, passes. I'm now super aware of his Helm, and while he's still only on 2 lands, I want to close it out quickly with him at 14 and me at 10, I look at doing something like activate DRS drain (him at 12), dismember it (me at 6), swing him down to 3, but realize it doesn't really change the clock and attack him down to 8 and pass. He goes land, mom, I dismember end of turn and he concedes. 1-0.
I'm not sure if I should have still done the dismember play just to try and stop a swords, but he had open mana and might have done it that turn anyway. Turns out he sideboarded terribly and took out Serra Avengers.
Rd 3 versus Jack on Fish.
g1: I'm on the play. I think Jack mulled. I thoughtseize, see lord, merrow rejerry, jittle, master of waves, cavern, and take jitte. I shock myself, get a delver and death's shadow out with me at 10. But he has a vial on 2, and drops 2 lords, followed by 2 more. Islandwalk and a bunch of self harm do me in.
g2: I draw a land of wasteland, 2 git probe, decay, edict, thoughtseize ponder, and reluctantly keep. The hope is to double git probe and then based on what I see either thoughtseize or ponder. I double git probe, see no lands. 3 turns later, I still haven't seen one, with a chalice on 1, and a vial out. Eventually he plays TNN and a lord of atlantis so i can't even edict it anymore. I scoop.
I probably should have mulled the hand due to the lack of a colored source on principle, but I basically had 1/4th chance of hitting a viable mana source on each of the successive draws. Ugh, writing that out makes it clear it was 100% a mulligan, but I wanted to get away by being greedy. This is the second time in a row I've lost to merfolk, and a matchup that seems terrible to the current build of the deck.
Technically with only 7 people, the event ended there. But I stuck around to play... Allen on THE SPANISH INQUISITION.
g1: He does a bunch of stuff, I force his Diabolic Contract, and daze something else. On his second turn he successfully pays for his turn 1 Summoner's pact. He ends up having a bunch of mana in play, and I sit with a Fatal Push and spell pierce in hand. He eventually tries to go for a infernal contract, I think, but I spell pierce the second land grant and he's forced to top deck for a few turns. I eventually get out three deathrite shaman and just drain him from 20 to 0 without seeing a delver or shadow.
sideboard -1 daze, +1 flusterstorm. Now, why not side out Fatal Push/Dismember? Game 1 I spell pierced a land grant that would have fetched Dryad Arbor, and I could have fatal pushed that. I also know he sides in Tomb of Urami or whatever it's called, and just wanted to make sure I didn't get cheesed out. Note earlier how I've felt very secure against unfair decks with my first 60.
g2: we both mulligan, my second hand is basically FoW, blue card, 2 daze's and 2 lands. He land grants, showing manamorphose, dark ritual, summoners pact, belcher, carpet of flowers. Turn 1 I force carpet of flowers, and on turn 2, he tries a bunch of stuff to get a belcher into play with eats a daze, and he scoops with zero cards in hand.
I agree with Hume86, unearth is probably too inconsistent. There was a list a while back with main deck reanimate so you could do cheaky stuff like cycle street wraith, reanimate for the life loss/threat, but I think going the UB(x) goodstuffs pile is probably more consistent/powerful. Either CFB Lets Play Video or random MTGO 5-0 list might be the one I'm thinking about.
I put 2 True-Name Nemesis in my board but the 3 mana feels very expensive in this deck, even in my list with Deathrite Shaman. I've since swapped them out and made sure I have answers for my opponents TNN.
-I was getting stuck in areas where opponents were wasting me, and I had no way of getting back in the game outside of just ripping off the top of the deck.
-I was getting into situations where both my opp and I had gone through most of our hands, and they had a better post-attrition sink.
-I was having problems with a straight UB Death's Shadow build dealing with planeswalkers besides interacting with them on the stack.
-Opponent DRS often made it feel that my waste/stifles were not as effective as I imagined them to be.
DRS makes me stronger against wasteland and gives me potentially stronger turn 2 plays with the extra mana, since the overall curve of the deck didn't change much with my changes. However, sometimes the extra mana isn't needed, but even then I can often ping for two, and the life gain ability when I'm at precariously low life has also saved me a few times. I'm better able to splash/reliably cast golgari charm or now abrupt decay out of the board. Thoughtseize kept the next lifeloss componenets of the deck static across the two builds, and makes me less dead to Jace, Mirran Crusader, TNN, etc.
I'm still not sure if its right or not, but I think there's decent merit to talking about the pros/cons of the changes.
My list
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Flooded Strand
2 Botanical Sanctum
1 Island
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Moorland Haunt
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Breeding Pool
2 Temple Garden
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
3 Selfless Spirit
4 Supreme Phantom
1 Phantasmal Image
4 Rattlechains
4 Drogskol Captain
4 Spell Queller
1 Kira, Great-Glass Spinner
4 Path to Exile
4 Collected Company
3 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Thalia, Garden of Thraben
3 Stony Silence
3 Rest in Peace
2 Worship
2 Damping Sphere
I usually do a full write up, but since most of the decks were extreme off meta I'm not going to bother unless there are specific requests besides for KCI/infect.
Versus KCI: I knew what this guy was on before the round started. I took out my sideboard cards and lined them up on the side of my playmat and went "LEND ME YOUR STRENGTH!" Game 1 I kept a hand that didn't do a whole lot initially, but had two spell quellers. I played out some early lords, then Queller'd his KCI's two turns in a row and won on the back swing. I brought in my stony, rips, and thalia for game 2 (brought out coco, 2 path, 1 kira, 1 rattlechains) and saw both RIP and Stony. Easy life.
Game 1 versus infect I got a path off on one of his unblockable guys, but he had a second. I took out two random things (probably kira and a company, I think? it was late and my notes broke down at this point) mulled my landless-7 into a 6 with a noble hierarch, land, and thalia. Thalia slowed them a bit, but never saw a path and couldn't interact with his Blighted Agent. I was able to spell queller two of his groundswells, but wasn't fast enough with my backswings to race. At least the round was fast! I think this is a fairly mediocre matchup for bant unless our hand has land + dork + queller + path. And the board has no good answers.
Changes, Kira should be a phantasmal image, and I would probably do at least -1 Rattlechains for a maindeck Remorseful Cleric.
There is a gav township in the deck, I guess I forgot to add it to the list. The original list I was trying to put together had something like 2 additional ghost quarter and a FoR, I didn't have those in my collection so I just added some more basic lands + additional temple garden.
I agree in hindsight Ramunap seems loose. There are two jesaki control decks lying around in my meta, so I wanted something that I could chord for to try and hurt their mana base more.
Last week I played a bant version that top 8'd GP Vegas to a 1-3 finish, beating Titan, and losing to Burn, Mill, and Jeskai. I wanted to run a deck that had a beat more of a beefcake role game 1 so moved over to a straight GW build, since the local meta is only about 10 players right now.
1 Walking Ballista
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Devoted Druid
3 Birds of Paradise
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Courser of Kruphix
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Vizier of Remedies
2 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Ramunap Excavator
2 Eternal Witness
2 Tireless Tracker
4 Chord of Calling
4 Collected Company
Lands
1 Tectonic Edge
4 Misty Rainforest
6 Forest
2 Plains
4 Windswept Heath
1 Horizon Canopy
3 Temple Garden
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Remorseful Cleric
3 Path to Exile
2 Choke
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Worship
2 Voice of Resurgence
Round 1 versus Grixis Death's Shadow
Bolted the bird(s) as I played them, dropped a bunch of death's shadows and beat me to death before I could assemble the combo.
-4 coco, -1 courser of kruphix, -1 ramunap excuvator, -1 Tireless Tracker, +2 Worship, +2 choke + 2 Voice of Resurgance + 1 Shalai
I don't think this boarding plan is correct. And I'll talk about it later that after playing the elves player I'm generally for taking out Chord of Calling over CoCo, Chokeand maybe Shalai should have been two paths, at least.
Game 2: same as game 1, he bolts/pushs my things, drops death's shadow, and my hand is too slow to develop a board.
Round 2 versus GB Infect:
Both games they didn't have the ability to get me off my combo fast enough, and turns out Vizier makes it really easy to keep their ground forces off the table. Turns out a handful of discard and creature interaction just isn't good enough here.
(2-0 in games, 1-1 overall)
Round 3 versus Elves:
Game 1: I keep a hand with the combo in it, he cracks me for 20 on turn 3.
+2 worship, +1 eidolon of rhetoric, -1 scavenging ooze, -1 Courser, -1 Ramunap Excuvator
Game 2: I misplay, I play turn 1 dork, and I start developing a board by deploying an early walking ballista on 1 with a chord in hand to go for the combo. He starts briking on lands, but eventually gets a heritage druid down. I forget my own gameplan, and ping the druid before coco, and suddenly can't start fetching combo pieces (with a CoCo + ewitt in my hand). He bricks on land, but hits another heritage druid + CoCo in hand and I lose.
Again, I think my boarding plan is wrong here, as it pushes my curve marginally up in what should just be a drag race match.
(we play a third game for fun, I mull to four and kill him on turn 3. Felt good).
Rd 4 versus Goblins
Game 1 he gets under me with double Legion Loyaltist + Piledriver, ooph.
+2 worship, +2 path, +2 Voice -4 Chord of Calling, -1 Ramunap Excuvator, -1 Tireless Tracker
He's on the beat down, I drop Devoted Druid with the combo in hand (he saw walking ballista off an early Goblin Guide flip). He can't kill it, I untap and murderize him.
-1 something +1 path
I remember boarding up to the 3 paths. I think I took a one-of vizier out. But I forget the exact card. I go on the GW beatdown plan with something like, selfless spirit, knight, ewitt get back knight, knight with double path's being thrown in there at some point. He still holds up a card, so I'm not able to crack through. Eventually I knight for gavony township, CoCo out my combo and just need a payoff- which I grab before he can get bolt + grenade.
2-2 overall.
Reflection: My play with the deck is still not great. I make a lot of misplays between lack of a clear boarding plan and suboptimal play. Knight is good, but slow. I might go down a Knight and up another Ewitt to maximize chance of going in on the combo, which is definitely where I feel the deck's power is. Eidolon and Shalai both have very high cmc for chord targets, and they often feel like useless trap cards after I board them in. I might look at replace one, particularly Eidolon. Right now I've replaced them with a Phyrexian Revoker.
If anyone could give me a run down on what sort of matchups are good/bad for the deck, and if there's anyone whose streamed any leagues with a list I can watch before pulling the trigger?
4 Snapcaster Mage
Planeswalkers
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Spells
3 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
1 Secure the Wastes
4 Serum Visions
1 Spell Snare
3 Lightning Helix
3 Logic Knot
1 Negate
2 Electrolyze
3 Cryptic Command
2 Supreme Verdict
2 Search for Azcanta
Lands
3 Celestial Colonnade
1 Field of Ruin
4 Flooded Strand
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Dispel
1 Celestial Purge
2 Negate
1 Wear // Tear
1 Settle the Wreckage
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Runed Halo
1 Detention Sphere
Rd 1 vs Bill on Humans.
Game 1 (p, opponent mulled once); My opener was sacred foundry, flooded strand, island, secure the wastes, bolt, helix, lyze. I originally thought he was on Jeskai, so was kept to try and play a tempo game, but he ended up switching to humans which made my hand line up great. He was mana flooded, and I could just clean up whatever small creatures he threw out. I dropped a Jace on an empty board and started fatesealing, and he conceded shortly after.
Out: 3 cryptic commands, 1 negate, 1 knot, 1 jace. In: Settle the wreckage, engineered explosives, d sphere, wear // tear, purge, elspeth.
Game 2 (draw): Openered was 2 colonnades, tarn, island, snap, jace, verdict. The hand had little starting interaction, but I usually keep hands with a sweaper + snap against a lot of aggro decks, because few can get under me fast enough. Bill played a lot more at tempo, some Freebooter's took some removal, sin collector hit my verdict, and dropped a meddling mage that took me off of two snapcaster mages. He vialed in a xathrid necromancer in response to a kill spell, but was otherwise out of cards when I still had 4 in hand, (2 snap, tarn, secure the wastes). He misplayed and attacked for lethal with everything including the meddling mage, but I secured the waste for a bunch, took out the mage and gave him a bunch of tokens. Then could use snapcaster to grind out a helix in my graveyard, and block the necromancer tokens. I dropped Elspeth and he had nothing left to fight with.
Side notes: I think it is better on the margin to bring out another jace and leave in another cryptic. My opponent thinks it is right to bring out all the jace as well to bring in clique, staticaster, and more counters for runed halo. I agree with clique and staticaster, but I don't think I'm a fan of halo.
Rd 2 vs Kyle on Jeskai. Tradiaionally Kyle was on UW control, but I guess had switched. When he told me I felt much more comfortable, since he was also running 3 geists and 2 clique's main, so was a bit more tempo oriented than I was.
Game 1 (draw): opening hand was colonnade, flooded strand, sulfur falls, snap, lyze, jace, helix. Again, this offers me an ability to trade off early resources, and I like lyze in these matchups a lot as card advantage. We both traded down resources a bunch, snap bolting each other, both resolving and eating each other's jaces. I was able to counter his early geist, and then gain more card advantage that carried me through to the end.
brought in d sphere, elspeth, 2 negate, 2 dispel, out 2 knot, 3 helix, 1 jace. I almost always side out 2 knot when I'm bringing in the 4 extra counter spells. In these matchups I feel like my graveyard can get heavily overworked between snap and counter wars, but keeping power cards in it is super useful. I also favor mana efficiency of bolt over the incremental life gain of helix, and it keeps my mana a little nicer.
game 2 (draw): I first draw a hand of 5 lands, snapcaster, verdict, and mull. I decide this is a matchup where I need to keep some form of interaction. Compared to the rest of the night, I apparently didn't write down what my keeping hand was. But it was something like 2 lands, 2 serum visions, a path, and a non-counterspell card. I misplay and both turns 1 and 2 serum visions, and Kyle turn 3 geist, turn 4 clique's me, and I have no responses.
I side out 2 path and bring in my own clique and a settle the wreckage.
game 3 (play): Both Kyle and I go to 6. My first hand was island, path, snap, verdict, secure, bolt, elspeth. My second one was 3 island, scalding tarn, bolt, negate. I know this doesn't protect me from a turn 3 geist, but I have a lot of live top decks, and has enough interaction I don't feel uncomfortable with. I play drop lands and pass. Kyle drops a snapcaster that gets in two beats before it eats a bolt. Eventually we both resolve jace's, and I fateseal him to get out of bolt range, and he jacestorms. We both end up killing each other's jaces before we can get too much advantage out of it, but as a result I'm left with search for azcanta and elspeth in hand. I bait the search to draw out cryptic command, resolve elsepth and despite top decking baneslayer angel, Kyle is dead on board.
Elspeth is a beat. I liked my sideboarding here. I still think there is a discussion on what parts of the removal suite to bring out though, and I'm interested in others opinions.
Rd 3 vs Alex on Living End.
Game 1 (play): hand is colonnade, tarn, plains, field of ruins, sacred foundry, bolt, knot. Again, a land heavy start, but in the blind, it has bolt and knot which protect me a little bit, and hopefully I can draw into more interaction. In hindsight I might have mulled to a hand without 5 land, but my 2 nonland felt strong. He ends up cycling a bunch, then plays fulminator mage which eats my logic knot. I've still failed to draw blue sources to get the two cryptics in my hand online, and have been tight on lands, so I try to field of ruin end of turn to get me a third blue source. He violent outbursts in response, get backs his fulminator and blows up my colonnade so I can't verdict. I untap, drop a land and pass, play cryptic tap draw, Play another land, looking to snap cryptic, but he discards faerie macabre to remove my cryptic, I secure the wastes for a bit instead to buy a turn, but he plays fulminator and blows up one of my two white producing sources so I can't supreme verdict anyway.
In: 2 negate, 2 dispel, purge, ee (obvious mistake), d sphere, settle the wreckage. Out: 3 bolt, spel snare, helix, 2 jace.
Game 2 (play): Hand is hallowed fountain, sacred foundry, ee, cryptic, verdict, helix, purge. I realize I made a mistake by boarding in explosives, so evaluate the hand as a 6. I still have 2 live lands, a source of (permanent) removal, and two ways to kill time if I hit my land drops. I hit search for azcanta as my second draw, and, since I don't have any permission up, missing a land drop, and no way to bluff a knot, play search to hope and try to dig for a land. The hope is that he'll be able to cycle a few things, living end, and I'll be able to recover. In response he cycles a bunch, and ends up drawing, and cycling, 3 street wraith, one of his 4/4's that pumps, and one of the 5/4s, and then on his turn violent outbursts into living end. I draw a 3rd land and pass. He untaps, drops another land, attacks, I purge the 4/4 that pumps, take a casual 14, he plays fulminator mage and blows up my hallowed fountain and I have no outs.
Outside of bringing in EE which I shouldn't have, I liked my boarding plan here, and I think I got unlucky given the number of counters in my deck. Should I be more aggressively mulligan-ing to get to them?
Rd 4 vs Jacob on UR Pyromancer/Moon
Game 1 (play): Jacob mull's twice. I keep a hand of 2 hallowed fountain, 1 snap, 1 steam vents, 2 serum visions, 1 logic knot. Jacob gets heavily land screwed, and I get so far ahead I'm able to jace + protect it and just fateseal him out of the game. Never get to actually ult, but would have on my next turn. I see a blood moon and a pyromancer and a bunch of basics.
Out: 3 helix, 2 knot, 1 bolt, 1 path, 1 jace. In: 1 staticaster, 1 ee, 2 dispel, 2 negate, 1 purge, 1 wear // tear.
Game 2 (draw) I keep bolt, mountain, path, strand, search, colonnade, flooded strand. We trade off a bunch of resources, and eventually I'm up on lands but out of gas and haven't drawn a jace, or search in probably my top 25. I hold wear // tear and purge in my hand on an empty board, but I have only non-basic white sources. I decide to start clocking my opponent with colonnade, who then plays blood moon. I float from my second colonnade and wear // tear it (after a minor timing misplay on my part, but we sorted it out), and go to wear // tear it, but he has the dispel. I then brick on any action with a path and purge in my hand, and he drops a battleskull and I get vroom vroom'd.
Game 3 (play): I didn't write down my hand here (ugh, I was doing so good ComplexSystems!) but it was something like 2-3 lands and some interaction. But I end up bricking on land or serum visions for 3 draws in a row, he eventually drops a pyromancer and blood moon oh and did turn 1/3 suspend Ancestral Visions. Never showed up for the game.
I felt like I could have won game 2 if I drew any of my stronger card advantage engines, but was happy with the round overall.
Rd 5 vs Jim on 5c tribal zoo.
Jim concedes to me so he can go get dinner at 11:20 or whatever obnoxiously late time it is. Naturally I play versus the air and it is the most amazing interactive game of magic ever seen by no one.
Some general notes: I was hot on 3 jaces, but in a lot of matchups I just decided I would rather try 2. This might have cost me game 2 versus the UR moon deck, since I didn't have as many ways of gaining advantage/jace can win by himself, but against many control matchups I like digging in and trying to drag things out, and against aggro matchups he's not great. I never played versus any of the midrange decks that showed up that day, and I continue to expect the meta to be heavily control/aggro in my meta, I might drop to 2 and add in a fourth bolt/cryptic.
3 Celestial Colonnade
1 Field of Ruin
4 Flooded Strand
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Island
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
2 Sulfur Falls
// Creatures
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
1 Secure the Wastes
4 Serum Visions
1 Spell Snare
3 Lightning Helix
3 Logic Knot
1 Negate
2 Search for Azcanta
1 Electrolyze
4 Cryptic Command
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Dispel
1 Celestial Purge
2 Negate
2 Runed Halo
1 Wear // Tear
1 Izzet Staticaster
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Cast Out
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Supreme Verdict
I goldfished some games with only 2 jace (3rd jace was sphinx's rev), but I felt I wasn't drawing him as often as I want, which is every game. 4 I fear means sometimes you would get jace flooded, and watching SaffronOlive on the modern super leagued kind of confirmed. The games I played yesterday felt good on "how often am I seeing jace" front.
I also no longer like d-sphere as much in the board. We want strong, instant speed answers to opponent's jace, and d-sphere hurts us too if we already have one out. I might try Cast Out for a bit, but I'm not particularly high on it.
I think getting the right mix of counterspell's between the main deck and sideboard is going to be important, and will probably have to change a bit going forward.
I cut Gideon and electroylze. Others I've talked to have cut Sphinx's rev. Secure is now needed to fight Jace, and is important to keep in.
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
2 Sulfur Falls
4 Celestial Colonnade
// Creatures 11
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Spell Queller
2 Search for Azcanta
4 Serum Visions
2 Spell Snare
3 Logic Knot
3 Cryptic Command
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
1 Electrolyze
4 Path to Exile
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 Dispel
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Disdainful Stroke
1 Wear // Tear
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Celestial Purge
1 Grafdigger's Cage
Round 1 vs Garrett on Grixis Dragons (on the play)
Game 1 I got gotten. I start off with a hand with two spell quellers and a geist, and an interaction or two. I get double inquisitioned, when I go to cast geist my opponent casts Silumgar's Scorn and then turns around into a Tasigur and Thunderbreak Regent. I bricked on more lands and died.
-4 Spell Quellers, -1 Engineered Explosives, -3 Helix. He showed me a lot of cards with CMC > 4, and some burn. I decided to go full control and brought in about half my sideboard. +1 Celestial Purge, +2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar, +2 Disdainful Stroke, +2 Dispel, +1 Clique.
I don't have great notes for the next two matches. In the second match, I kept a hand with no draw, 1 Colonnade, and 1 Mountain that I feared I would be punished for, but I had counter spell's for day's, so I landed a Geist that hard carried me. In the third match I was threat light, and so started attacking with a snapcaster that he eventually cleared. I eventually played Pia and Kiran, he tapped out for a Thunderbreak Regent, I pathed. On my turn, attacked, flung the tokens at him for the match win. Post board I had so many counters that lined up exceptionally well versus his deck at almost all stages of the game.
Round 2 vs Kody on Grixis Death's Shadow (on the play)
Game 1 Kody spent the first few turns trying to sculpt his hand, and I eventually got to Spell Queller his first Death's Shadow that he instantly followed up with a second. When I was at 9, and he was at 7, I went to cryptic bounce the death's shadow knowing I had a bolt on top, that he snap pushed my queller in response. In hindsight this was still a huge misplay, but after the match he told me he also had angler/another snap in his hand, and I'm not sure if I could have won through those with my hand and an active shadow on board.
I didn't track my sideboard for the rest of the matches because I'm an idiot.
I kept a hand with some Spell Quellers, Geist, and land. I got double inquisitioned, drew a third land, and then bricked on land until I died.
Round 3 Vs Jack on Dredge (on the play, hey, I was super lucky here!)
Game one I was just totally out of it, and had a bunch of counters but didn't counter/queller anything he played.
I think I sideboard in both relics, cage, and supreme verdict. I take out things like cryptic command, and some spell queller here.
Game two he starts off with neonating a blodghast. I realize he must have a super slow hand, I play and burst one of my Relic's, drop a threat, and draw into my second Relic. Between that I seem to just chip him down without much of a board presence.
Game three he gets an early double Narcomeba's, I drop Geist, and he lets me swing with it a few times while trying to race me with the Narco's. I again get both my relic's to keep his graveyard from exploding, then mix of burn and removal carries me.
Round 4 vs Mitchell on Grixis Control
He starts off acting like he's on grixis death's shadow. I try to just rush a Geist to get information, and it eats a mana leak. He plays a Tasigur, and the theme of the evening is that Tasigur on turn 2 is pretty good. When I go to snap path he spell snare's it. This game takes 35 minutes of grinding each other out, about half way through I drop a Search for Azcanta and start digging. Mitchell gets two tasigur activations, kologhan's command's me twice. But burn and Lightning Helix carries the day.
At this point there's 15 minutes in the round, and I decide to be that guy and go for the 1-0 win. I again board in things like dispel, celestial purge, and supreme verdict over my EE- since his last play of the previous game was to drop a Young Pyro.
Game 2 he starts off with a delver on one, but doesn't flip. Eventually I get to electrolyze it and him, and start just trying to hold him back. He again drops Tasigur and gets an activation, and since he has only 1 card left in hand and I have to give him either action or draw to sandbag turns I give him Dispel. With round called he drops young pyro, but is too low on resources to drop me from 13 life thanks to some earlier Lightning Helix's. I leave a colonnade activation available, and win the round at 1-0 on turns.
3-1, got 3 packs. Traded some stuff in my binder for 3 Onslaught Flooded Plains for my legacy deck and went home happy with the night.
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Death's Shadow
2 Gurmag Angler
//Spells - 28
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce
4 Thoughtseize
4 Brainstorm
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Ponder
3 Fatal Push
1 Dismember
4 Wasteland
4 Marsh Flats
4 Polluted Delta
1 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
1 Breeding Pool
3 Watery Grave
1 Flusterstorm
1 Diabolic Edict
1 True-Name Nemesis
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Hymn to Tourach
2 Dread of Night
2 Grafdigger's Cage
Some notes
- I tried to find some Golgari Charms for the board before the event started, but the store didn't have any.
- I'd like to cut the Edict and TNN to look at rebalancing the sideboard a bit to include things like Sylvan Library and Golgari Charm with/over Decay's. I originally ran two TNN, but even with DRS they just seemed to push the mana of the deck more than it wanted.
- In general, the deck seems to have a very good combo matchup, and a very poor aggro matchup. I'm trying to find ways to rebalance the maindeck/sideboard to make this not feel quite as binary.
Sunday Legacy 11/12/17: 7 people showed up (first time we hosted it was two weeks prior and there were 11) decks present were:
1 BR Reanimator
1 High Tide
1 Grixis Delver
1 Sultai DS
1 Death and Taxes
1 Merfolk
1 Spanish Inquision
The previous event also had a BU Tin Fins, Bant Deathblade, ANT, and UR Delver, and something else over High Tide that escapes me.
Rd 1: Bye
Rd 2: Ian on Death and Taxes.
g1: I didn't write down who was on the play, but I believe it was Ian, who mulled to 6. It looks like I cast and early thoughseize and grabbed Jitte from his hand of Thalia, Batterskull, Flickerwisp, and Jitte (did land -> mom turn 1). I ended up going something like delver, drop to 12, double death's shadow when he had a Mom and Thalia out. I let him take back an attack when he realized he would take a ton on the swing back, but drew a fetch. His life went 20-16-5-dead. I took a gamble after thoughtseizing him that I could probably finish him before he could get a swords to plowshares into his hand, since otherwise mom could lock out a single threat from me.
sideboard -4 daze, -2 spellsnare, -1 death's shadow, +2 decay, +2 engineered explosives, +2 dread of night, +1 true-name nemesis. There's another player that hasn't shown up for one of the regular flights that also is on DnT, and he has 4 caverns (turns out Ian only had 1), and I cut most of my counters besides Force for more removal, and a threat that is stronger against Swords.
g2: I actually took really bad notes here. But turn 1 mom into turn 2 stoneforge mystic for battleskull (I think turn 1 I pondered or something trying to find a fatal push). On my turn 2 I had dread of night and decay in my hand, so I dropped Dread hoping to be able to get more action in my hand. He is able to drop battleskull, but I get a pair of delvers out. I decay the germ token, and he gets out two phrexian revokers (both on explosives). I hold up two wastelands, but he's only playing planes. I drop him to 8 before he plays karakas for his 5th land to equip battleskull. I have to brainstorm lock myself, and despite two dread of night out can't answer the revokers (note: Golgari Charm in the future might be good here).
g3: I didn't change my sideboard strategy. I tempo him out. Delver, git prove, his hand is, wasteland, 2x revokers, stoneforge mystic, helm of obedience, 2x planes. He mistakenly wastelands my watery grave turn 1. On my turn I flip delver, fetch for another watery grave, play deathrite shaman, and on my third turn death's shadow, on his third turn he plays rest in peace, passes. I'm now super aware of his Helm, and while he's still only on 2 lands, I want to close it out quickly with him at 14 and me at 10, I look at doing something like activate DRS drain (him at 12), dismember it (me at 6), swing him down to 3, but realize it doesn't really change the clock and attack him down to 8 and pass. He goes land, mom, I dismember end of turn and he concedes. 1-0.
I'm not sure if I should have still done the dismember play just to try and stop a swords, but he had open mana and might have done it that turn anyway. Turns out he sideboarded terribly and took out Serra Avengers.
Rd 3 versus Jack on Fish.
g1: I'm on the play. I think Jack mulled. I thoughtseize, see lord, merrow rejerry, jittle, master of waves, cavern, and take jitte. I shock myself, get a delver and death's shadow out with me at 10. But he has a vial on 2, and drops 2 lords, followed by 2 more. Islandwalk and a bunch of self harm do me in.
sideboard: +2 decay +1 tnn, +1 explosives +1 diabolic edict. -2 spell pierce, -1 ds, -1 drs, -1 daze, -1 ts.
g2: I draw a land of wasteland, 2 git probe, decay, edict, thoughtseize ponder, and reluctantly keep. The hope is to double git probe and then based on what I see either thoughtseize or ponder. I double git probe, see no lands. 3 turns later, I still haven't seen one, with a chalice on 1, and a vial out. Eventually he plays TNN and a lord of atlantis so i can't even edict it anymore. I scoop.
I probably should have mulled the hand due to the lack of a colored source on principle, but I basically had 1/4th chance of hitting a viable mana source on each of the successive draws. Ugh, writing that out makes it clear it was 100% a mulligan, but I wanted to get away by being greedy. This is the second time in a row I've lost to merfolk, and a matchup that seems terrible to the current build of the deck.
Technically with only 7 people, the event ended there. But I stuck around to play... Allen on THE SPANISH INQUISITION.
g1: He does a bunch of stuff, I force his Diabolic Contract, and daze something else. On his second turn he successfully pays for his turn 1 Summoner's pact. He ends up having a bunch of mana in play, and I sit with a Fatal Push and spell pierce in hand. He eventually tries to go for a infernal contract, I think, but I spell pierce the second land grant and he's forced to top deck for a few turns. I eventually get out three deathrite shaman and just drain him from 20 to 0 without seeing a delver or shadow.
sideboard -1 daze, +1 flusterstorm. Now, why not side out Fatal Push/Dismember? Game 1 I spell pierced a land grant that would have fetched Dryad Arbor, and I could have fatal pushed that. I also know he sides in Tomb of Urami or whatever it's called, and just wanted to make sure I didn't get cheesed out. Note earlier how I've felt very secure against unfair decks with my first 60.
g2: we both mulligan, my second hand is basically FoW, blue card, 2 daze's and 2 lands. He land grants, showing manamorphose, dark ritual, summoners pact, belcher, carpet of flowers. Turn 1 I force carpet of flowers, and on turn 2, he tries a bunch of stuff to get a belcher into play with eats a daze, and he scoops with zero cards in hand.
I put 2 True-Name Nemesis in my board but the 3 mana feels very expensive in this deck, even in my list with Deathrite Shaman. I've since swapped them out and made sure I have answers for my opponents TNN.
-I was getting stuck in areas where opponents were wasting me, and I had no way of getting back in the game outside of just ripping off the top of the deck.
-I was getting into situations where both my opp and I had gone through most of our hands, and they had a better post-attrition sink.
-I was having problems with a straight UB Death's Shadow build dealing with planeswalkers besides interacting with them on the stack.
-Opponent DRS often made it feel that my waste/stifles were not as effective as I imagined them to be.
DRS makes me stronger against wasteland and gives me potentially stronger turn 2 plays with the extra mana, since the overall curve of the deck didn't change much with my changes. However, sometimes the extra mana isn't needed, but even then I can often ping for two, and the life gain ability when I'm at precariously low life has also saved me a few times. I'm better able to splash/reliably cast golgari charm or now abrupt decay out of the board. Thoughtseize kept the next lifeloss componenets of the deck static across the two builds, and makes me less dead to Jace, Mirran Crusader, TNN, etc.
I'm still not sure if its right or not, but I think there's decent merit to talking about the pros/cons of the changes.