wow that new assassin's trophy is insane. That will change things in my list for sure. What exactly to cut I'm not sure. I know probably decay and cast down can immediately go. possibly a collective brutality. I feel like I want 3 of these. 3 of these and 3 field of ruin seems awesome. It's possible I want 4 fields and 3 trophies. Hmm.
Forgot my updates for past 2 FNMs. I went an unspectacular 3-2 in both. I guess that proves it's a modern deck because that's what all modern decks score.
I played poorly in a couple of matches 100% so I think should I have been a better player they would have gone differently. I lost to 2 deskai tempo/control decks. I had wonderful starts from both and then I just, I dunno, stopped drawing stuff and petered out. I'm not going to assume the UWx decks are easy. Maybe I need a choke or cavern or something in the SB...just not sure on another good SB card for control. Pithing needle could help, it's a good catch all too. I also lost to elves due to not playing a land t2 for some reason, smh. I also lost to UW spirits. That also seems like a hard matchup. It's beatable but every guy having evasion is what makes it so hard. Not sure what to do for that deck.
I'm sure it is being played. I think the problem is GBx is not particularly well positioned at the moment. if the wind blows in one direction you will never know the deck was even at an event but if the wind blows the other way it can top 8. /shrug
I beat UW control in the quarters of the PTQ today. Was a close but long match as expected. It is certainly tough matchup but he got kinda land screwed so I guess that was good for me g3 and my spells lined up well. I think I played decently enough. I then spoiled it by making a total BONEHEAD play in g3 of semis vs humans. Board was as follows: he has 2 buglers in play with a vial on 3 and I play a TKS with yahenni's expertise in hand. He reveals 2 reflector mages, mantis rider and a hostage taker. I stupidly take the mantis rider as that card is his best card vs me. Turns out I totally miss assessed hostage taker like an idiot and forgot that when he casts it He thoughtseizes me. Well he ticks up to 4 plays taker and casts my tks taking my yahennis. I'm totally boned from here outside a damnation. I'm disappointed in myself for doing that, it was totally dumb but I learned the hard way. oh well what can you do. It also happened that he drew all of this 3 toughness guys as I had flaying tendrils in hand.
Overall the deck performed well as it has been over the last year of me playing it. Dodging the blood moon matches (there were very few) this deck is a house. Had I played better I know I would have ended up winning especially considering I would be playing counters company in the finals. Still I went 5-1-1 over all so I have no complaints and I hope I gave this variant a little exposure.
No streaming of it. I beat UW control in the quarters. Was a close but long match as expected. It is certainly tough matchup but he got kinda land screwed so I guess that was good for me g3 and my spells lined up well. I think I played decently enough. I then spoiled it by making a total BONEHEAD play in g3 of semis vs humans. Board was as follows: he has 2 buglers in play with a vial on 3 and I play a TKS with yahenni's expertise in hand. He reveals 2 reflector mages, mantis rider and a hostage taker. I stupidly take the mantis rider as that card is his best card vs me. Turns out I totally miss assessed hostage taker like an idiot and forgot that when he casts it He thoughtseizes me. Well he ticks up to 4 plays taker and casts my tks taking my yahennis. I'm totally boned from here outside a damnation. I'm disappointed in myself for doing that, it was totally dumb but I learned the hard way. oh well what can you do.
I have no interest in standard but given the PTQ top 8 was at the same time as the GP if the players didn't finish before r3 they get an auto game loss. How effed up is that. Didn't matter to me tho but it's still pretty stupid. Overall the deck performed well. Dodging the blood moon matches (there were very few) this deck is a house. Had I played better I know I would have ended up winning. Still I went 5-1-1 over all so I have no complaints I hope I gave a little exposure to it.
4 discard has been fine. Not much to say about them. I would like another but to be honest I'm not sure another discard is better than anything else in my list. They also play a little weird with TKS as if I have too much TKS is actively medium. He's basically my discard 8-10 and brutality effectively filling in where needed.
r1: Humans
g1 he flooded some and I was able to capitalize and he was too far behind to come back. g2 was close but he ripped a second mantis rider to finish me off. g3 was a slaughter. bunch of removal into a big scooze and tracker then a yahenni's to wipe his board and net me a goyf.
1-0
r2 martyr proc
2 games and both were easily won. He has tiny dudes and a bunch of spells which were all nabbed by discard and then steamrolled over. I haven't played against this much but it felt very good for me.
2-0
r3 G tron
g1 I was able to field of Ruin him off tron long enough to have a smasher into a second smasher get me there. g2 I should have lost honestly he bricked pretty hard for a while but when he did draw stuff I had answers for them and was able to scrape it out in the end. He had tron for basically the entire game. Goyf and eldrazi were MVP as was FoR. I had to battle through a wurmcoil, karn and 2 Oblivion stones.
3-0
r4 hollow one
g1 I have a couple discard and his hand is pure garbage with 2 bloodghast and something else. He rips faithless looting binning both, plays a land plus cycles wraith and plays a hollow boi. Just like that my hand of discard and stuff was completely garbage and I lose. He only saw 2 of my lands so he just assumed I was straight GB, obviously. g2 I am on the eldrazi plan and just straight steam roll him. He was obviously not expecting that. g3 he has the adept but I have removal after he tries to slam in for like 8 with it. I push it and he plays a hollow one which I untap and play a 5/6 goyf. He plays tasigur making my dude a 1/2 but I have a rec sage for the hollow boi and then a pulse for tasigur. From there it was easy.
4-0
r5: counters company
I was in 8th and there was 9 undefeated UGH. I beat him down g1 with a bunch of removal and into huge goyf and TKS. I then play some discard into smasher and that was that. From here the other undefeated player lost to so we were in the clear to ID into top 8! I think this match is pretty good for me especially being up a game going into game 2. I was confident I could have gone 5-0.
We play top 8 tomorrow 9am at GP Providence 3 more matches and it's off to the pro tour, imagine that! The meta here was seriously like 50% humans. There was an absurd amount, it was really stupid. Outside of that it was really diverse as one would expect. I would say UWx was the next most represented deck but no where near the numbers of humans.
r1: Humans
g1 he flooded some and I was able to capitalize and he was too far behind to come back. g2 was close but he ripped a second mantis rider to finish me off. g3 was a slaughter. bunch of removal into a big scooze and tracker then a yahenni's to wipe his board and net me a goyf.
1-0
r2 martyr proc
2 games and both were easily won. He has tiny dudes and a bunch of spells which were all nabbed by discard and then steamrolled over. I haven't played against this much but it felt very good for me.
2-0
r3 G tron
g1 I was able to field of Ruin him off tron long enough to have a smasher into a second smasher get me there. g2 I should have lost honestly he bricked pretty hard for a while but when he did draw stuff I had answers for them and was able to scrape it out in the end. He had tron for basically the entire game. Goyf and eldrazi were MVP as was FoR. I had to battle through a wurmcoil, karn and 2 Oblivion stones.
3-0
r4 hollow one
g1 I have a couple discard and his hand is pure garbage with 2 bloodghast and something else. He rips faithless looting binning both, plays a land plus cycles wraith and plays a hollow boi. Just like that my hand of discard and stuff was completely garbage and I lose. He only saw 2 of my lands so he just assumed I was straight GB, obviously. g2 I am on the eldrazi plan and just straight steam roll him. He was obviously not expecting that. g3 he has the adept but I have removal after he tries to slam in for like 8 with it. I push it and he plays a hollow one which I untap and play a 5/6 goyf. He plays tasigur making my dude a 1/2 but I have a rec sage for the hollow boi and then a pulse for tasigur. From there it was easy.
4-0
r5: counters company
I was in 8th and there was 9 undefeated UGH. I beat him down g1 with a bunch of removal and into huge goyf and TKS. I then play some discard into smasher and that was that. From here the other undefeated player lost to so we were in the clear to ID into top 8! I think this match is pretty good for me especially being up a game going into game 2. I was confident I could have gone 5-0.
We play top 8 tomorrow 9am at GP Providence 3 more matches and it's off to the pro tour, imagine that! The meta here was seriously like 50% humans. There was an absurd amount, it was really stupid. Outside of that it was really diverse as one would expect. I would say UWx was the next most represented deck but no where near the numbers of humans.
@D90Dennis14 if you are playing green to play ancient stirrings black adds nothing to the archetype. It's sad but any good black cards make stirrings bad. Which is why I'm playing Oath of Nissa, it digs less but proves WAY more advantages all of which are extremely relevant. I'm pretty sure a GB dedicated eldrazi deck just can't exist and be good.
@Deadkitten -1 goyf is a meta call and I'm glad I made it but it's not a permanent thing I don't think. If anything I'll cut a tracker for another goyf but my meta has a lot of decks that either I NEED the gy hate or they don't fill their gy at all or goyf is a consistent 2/3. Goyf is always great late game so I always want to see at least one. Tracker I dare say is one of the best cards ever printed. She's different than goyf though and provides a much needed advantage. Is she better? I dunno. I will never cut smasher, ever, he is always the best card in my deck.
My philosophy on this deck having played it consistently for over a year is that I want to be playing GB archetype and not trying to push eldrazi on an archetype that doesn't really support it. The GB archetype is proven and is very strong and I love playing it. My manabase is currently solid, not overly painful and always lets me cast my cards. What my version adds over typical GB is larger top end while still doing the things GB wants to be doing. The line of discard into threat/removal or discard on legs into unanswerable smusher has won me a lot of games.
I miss reshaper a lot I'm not gonna lie to you but reshaper only gets value when he dies and if he dies but also means you need to have a manabase that can support him. A GBC manabase is sketchy as hell and or very painful. If the board gets stalled tracker turns flooding into cards, gets bigger doing nothing and provides revolt randomly while drawing a card. The biggest issue of tracker vs reshaper is speed. There are certainly some matches where reshaper is just better where I need the speed. If I can find a way to play reshapers and trackers together sign me up for that.
couple week hiatus due to life. small changes to list for testing for FNM.
Main: +1 scooze, -1 goyf.
SB: -1 night of souls betrayal, +1 yahenni's expertise, -1 thrun, +1 obstinate baloth
r1: burn
g1 just had a hand of discard into a bunch of TKS. his hand was kinda meh. g2 I had too many 4 drops and was dead before it mattered. perhaps should have mulled to find discard. g3 came down to me dodging 2 turns of an actual burn spell. I did lucky I guess.
1-0
r2: G tron
g1 he hits tron t4 into karn then into o stone I scoop. g2 I FoR and then surgical his lands. easy. g3 was a close one. He t3 trons me into karn (I made him discard one t1 then dropped goyf t2). I then FoR him and he's unable to find tron again. I play smasher and keep smacking karn. Honestly karn gained him like 15 life or something silly. I was pretty far ahead after karn died but I guess tron into o stone would have changed things.
2-0
r3: mono white pillow fort
These were long drawn out games as one would expect. I won the match basically because he was unable to play t0 leyline. we went to 3 games and in g3 I was able to actually say, fatal push your greater auramancy as he had starfield of nyx out. LOL. Honestly I shouldn't have won this match but this deck does have the problem of consistency. There's not a ton of ways to find what he needs cheaply and quickly.
3-0
We drew into the top 4 and opponent wanted to play commander. I didn't want to play against ponza so I agreed so no more modern for me that night As for the changes I think I like it. scooze allows me to play slightly less GY hate sb. Could be a mistake but we shall see. I'm still unsure of the right configuration for my SB but I know fast aggro decks are still hard. Night of betrayal has been wonderful but I think yahenni's could be more impactful. I do want to find a way to get Thrun back in there. I have a feeling hard control decks are tough still.
Here's my take on this. I like some of your card choices So I'm going to have to find some room to add those in. I think there are some tweaks to be made but I need some real testing first.
I've been on this style Bxx zombie for a long time mostly Grimgrin tho. I think I need to add another sac outlet in here and I love the idea of anointed procession. I'm interested to see what the white cards add. So far in my limited test outside the commander, it doesn't seem like much but I am happy for stoneforge, enlightened tutor and mirror entity.
The deck has a few main game plans. My favorite is rooftop storm and gravecrawler shenanigans with any of the pingers or consuming aberration. I was always hesitant on that card but if it can mill out people actually pretty quickly and doesn't rely on damage which is rarely necessary but sometimes. Rooftop storm and gravecrawler are always an all stars. always. Storm Makes havengul lich and lilana absolutely insane with sac outlets like grimgrin. I guess something funny along those veins is repeat self mill with stitcher's supplier and something like lab man but that's too cute/unreliable for me. Another card I'm high on is undead alchemist. That card gets out of hand VERY fast. Most people underestimate the milling but it can be real deal. It's cute the ability also triggers off other sorts of milling like aberration triggers or lich lord of unx.
Game plans I strive for in order:
1) combo kill with rooftop and pingers
2) mill some bozos out
3) make a million idiots and attack
4) cast strong cards and kill nerds the old fashioned way
I'm not sure c18 adds much else for me. Pretty underwhelming set as a whole The only problem I have with this deck is it has a literal million decisions to make. It is by far one of the most complicated decks I've made. Don't let the zombie meme fool you, zombies ain't simple
r1: bushwhacker zoo
g1 she doesn't have a blistering start and I'm on the play so after a few removal spells liliana is able to stabilize and then my huge idiots just take over. g2 she plays like a million guys and swings for 14 on t3 putting me to 4. I untap rip an untapped black source like a boss and flaying tendrils the entire board. from there I just had to dodge multiple bolts and TKS cleaned up her hand and stopped anything from coming in.
1-0
r2 grixis control
This was a very hard match tons of removal, counters and interaction. Notably Ashiok from opponent was just a huge beating and it won him g2 pretty convincingly even after I killed it, it just got so much value I couldn't come back. g3 I mull to 5 (ouch) but still end up making good choices and eventually winning the game. At the end he chose not to counter lili of the veil and hold it for something else and that really came back to bite him in the ass as Lili just controlled the entire board after a few turns. I was kinda surprised but I suppose I can't blame him I didn't know what he had in hand at that point but being forced to discard feels like a bad thing in a control deck.
2-0
r3 grixis goryo/breach fury of the horde combo
g1 his deck doesn't do much. My discard takes any key cards and scooze strips the griselbrands from his yard. I guess I was lucky he never drew emrakul or another gdaddy he could through the breach but I had a real deal clock. g2 he also doesn't do much and keeps a mega sketchy hand. My discard takes anything relevant and I eventually land a scooze which takes over combined with goyf. I saw the deck and let me tell you I was lucky to dodge leyline of sanctity. I coincidentally had a pulse in hand but that means I would have had to waste a turn killing that and not disrupting. which is 110% necessary that deck can nut draw you very quick.
3-0
r4 esper control standard....
yes this was a standard deck. AT 2-0-1 WTF?! IS THIS NARNIA what world are we in?! he actually beat real decks too, he drew only to mono white pillow fort. SO long story short my deck has a VERY hard time with teferi and the scarab god when combined with counters, multiple settle the wreckage and fumigates and things like vraska's contempt. He basically got shorted on white mana for too long and I was able to just stomp him but had he had double white when he needed it we would have had an entirely different match. I'm not gonna lie the majority of my deck was from the standard just before this one so who am I to say haha.
4-0
we split top 4 to cube but got to play a Bonus round
bonus: hollow one
game 1 my removal lined up very well for once and his deck didn't do a whole heck of a lot. g2 we have a very long game and both end at 1 life each but he missed an attack for 2 by playing defensive which I can respect but I would have just gone aggro. he went through most of his deck and didn't see many phoenix or bloodghast (2 each) I was able to deal with those albeit poorly and managed to sneak it out with the help of treetop village. I have a lot in the board to help with this match and when they aren't nut drawing me the deck is actually not that ba to beat. That being said, the deck is no joke and it is FAR from ever being a good matchup but it is certainly beatable. I'm now 4-2 vs it.
5-0
Another week, another FNM report no decklist changes
r1: bushwhacker zoo
g1 she doesn't have a blistering start and I'm on the play so after a few removal spells liliana is able to stabilize and then my huge idiots just take over. g2 she plays like a million guys and swings for 14 on t3 putting me to 4. I untap rip an untapped black source like a boss and flaying tendrils the entire board. from there I just had to dodge multiple bolts and TKS cleaned up her hand and stopped anything from coming in.
1-0
r2 grixis control
This was a very hard match tons of removal, counters and interaction. Notably Ashiok from opponent was just a huge beating and it won him g2 pretty convincingly even after I killed it, it just got so much value I couldn't come back. g3 I mull to 5 (ouch) but still end up making good choices and eventually winning the game. At the end he chose not to counter lili of the veil and hold it for something else and that really came back to bite him in the ass as Lili just controlled the entire board after a few turns. I was kinda surprised but I suppose I can't blame him I didn't know what he had in hand at that point but being forced to discard feels like a bad thing in a control deck.
2-0
r3 grixis goryo/breach fury of the horde combo
g1 his deck doesn't do much. My discard takes any key cards and scooze strips the griselbrands from his yard. I guess I was lucky he never drew emrakul or another gdaddy he could through the breach but I had a real deal clock. g2 he also doesn't do much and keeps a mega sketchy hand. My discard takes anything relevant and I eventually land a scooze which takes over combined with goyf. I saw the deck and let me tell you I was lucky to dodge leyline of sanctity. I coincidentally had a pulse in hand but that means I would have had to waste a turn killing that and not disrupting. which is 110% necessary that deck can nut draw you very quick.
3-0
r4 esper control standard....
yes this was a standard deck. AT 2-0-1 WTF?! IS THIS NARNIA what world are we in?! he actually beat real decks too, he drew only to mono white pillow fort. SO long story short my deck has a VERY hard time with teferi and the scarab god when combined with counters, multiple settle the wreckage and fumigates and things like vraska's contempt. He basically got shorted on white mana for too long and I was able to just stomp him but had he had double white when he needed it we would have had an entirely different match. I'm not gonna lie the majority of my deck was from the standard just before this one so who am I to say haha.
4-0
we split top 4 to cube but got to play a Bonus round
bonus: hollow one
game 1 my removal lined up very well for once and his deck didn't do a whole heck of a lot. g2 we have a very long game and both end at 1 life each but he missed an attack for 2 by playing defensive which I can respect but I would have just gone aggro. he went through most of his deck and didn't see many phoenix or bloodghast (2 each) I was able to deal with those albeit poorly and managed to sneak it out with the help of treetop village. I have a lot in the board to help with this match and when they aren't nut drawing me the deck is actually not that ba to beat. That being said, the deck is no joke and it is FAR from ever being a good matchup but it is certainly beatable. I'm now 4-2 vs it.
5-0
More results from my rockdrazi list over past 2 weeks. No changes to decklist.
previous week 2-2. lost to hollow one and humans both having the most literal best draws vs me. Sometimes I draw well, sometimes they do, that's magic I guess. Both had games they killed me on t3. I beat jeskai control and sultai midrange.
This weeks results:
r1: colorless eldrazi (serum powder version)
Not much to say this is a decent matchup for me I have good removal and interaction for most of their guys. thing of note was g2 he on the play pitches 2 spirit guides and t1 TKS me...ouch. Thankfully I found removal after a couple turns and was able to turn the corner but my life was super low for the whole game.
1-0
r2: UR thing in the ice
Another easy match for me. I have discard and huge guys. Once I dealt with thing in the ice there's not much he can do to me.
2-0
r3: KCI
UGH this deck...g1 he mulls to 4 and STILL WINS through a scooze and a pulse....what the actual F. Admittedly I punted pretty hard with a wrong sequence of collective brutality and scooze activation so I deserved it but still. It was a mull to 4 in a combo deck. G2 I just get wrecked. Deck is so resilient it's really dumb.
2-1
r4: Jund
I get wrecked in this match. All his cards just lined up perfectly for what I was doing. He drew really well and I didn't. That's magic though sometimes these things happen. I drew 3 lands in a row and he drew all gas.
2-2
r5: burn
So far I've played burn about 10 times and lost only once. I can't say it's a good matchup as they are almost always close but maybe it's actually pretty good for me despite not having much in my board. g3 my opponent attacked into my guys for some reason and just threw them away. I can't figure out why. He was in a very bad position anyways, as I have 2 tks in play and a goyf vs his no cards in hand and a swifty+eidolon to my 11 life. Blocking gives him another turn maybe 2 but to just throw it away? I dunno.
3-2
So I was VERY lucky to only lost to undefeated players meaning my breakers were awesome despite my mediocre record. I lucked into top 8. I'm not going to complain. I was the only 9 pointer to make it.
top8: jund
different player but fun games. g1 he does jund things and just buries me. g2 I draw lucky and rip a second temple t3 like a boss and smasher him into another smasher. GG. g3 I was able to strip him of any of him cards and leave him stuck with a couple 4 drops thanks to brutality and TKS. He doesn't draw his 4th land until too late.
4-2
top4: mardu pyro
As expected I lose g1 pretty convincingly. I don't have any good way to deal with spirit tokens and didn't draw any removal for pyro for some reason. g2 and g3 were grindy but liliana last hope was straight up MVP. I have so much in the board to help with this match and I definitely need it.
5-2
We split finals and went home it was like 230 am...ouch. I think I might cut a tracker and play another liliana or scooze or something. I'm undecided. I love trackers and I think 2 might be the right amount. I may cut tasigur too but I never saw him once last night. I'll keep him in for now as he's been good in the past.
Been a couple weeks but finally got back to an FNM. Went 5-2 and got mega lucky on my pairings I can't lie. No changes to the list.
r1: colorless eldrazi (serum powder version)
Not much to say this is a decent matchup for me I have good removal and interaction for most of their guys. thing of note was g2 he on the play pitches 2 spirit guides and t1 TKS me...ouch. Thankfully I found removal after a couple turns and was able to turn the corner but my life was super low for the whole game.
1-0
r2: UR thing in the ice
Another easy match for me. I have discard and huge guys. Once I dealt with thing in the ice there's not much he can do to me.
2-0
r3: KCI
UGH this deck...g1 he mulls to 4 and STILL WINS through a scooze and a pulse....what the actual F. Admittedly I punted pretty hard with a wrong sequence of collective brutality and scooze activation so i deserved it but still. It was a mull to 4. G2 I just get wrecked. Deck is so resilient it's really dumb.
2-1
r4: Jund
I get wrecked in this match. All his cards just lined up perfectly for what I was doing. He drew really well and I didn't. That's magic though sometimes these things happen.
2-2
r5: burn
So far I've played burn about 10 times and lost only once. I can't say it's a good matchup as they are almost always close but maybe it's actually pretty good for me. g3 my opponent attacked into my guys for some reason and just threw them away. I can't figure out why. He was in a very bad position, as I have 2 tks in play and a goyf vs his no cards in hand and a swifty+eidolon to my 11 life. Blocking gives him another turn maybe 2 but to just throw it away? I dunno.
3-2
So I was VERY lucky to only lost to undefeated players meaning my breakers were awesome despite my mediocre record. I lucked into top 8. I'm not going to complain. I was the only 9 pointer to make it.
top8: jund
different player but fun games. g1 he does jund things and just buries me. g2 I draw lucky and rip a second temple t3 like a boss and smasher him into another smasher. GG. g3 I was able to strip him of any of him cards and leave him stuck with a couple 4 drops thanks to brutality and TKS. He doesn't draw his 4th land until too late.
4-2
top4: mardu pyro
As expected I lose g1 pretty convincingly. I don't have any good way to deal with spirit tokens and didn't draw any removal for pyro for some reason. g2 and g3 were grindy but liliana last hope was straight up MVP. I have so much in the board to help with this match and I definitely need it.
5-2
We split finals and went home it was like 230 am...ouch. I think I might cut a tracker and play another liliana or something. I'm undecided. I love trackers and I think 2 might be the right amount. I may cut tasigur too but I never saw him once last night. I'll keep him in for now as he's been good in the past.
r1: hollow one
g1 he gets t1 hollow one but I'm able to beat through that but flamewake phoenix eventually kills me. g2 we have a mega long staredown but I end up getting there with removal, night of soul's betrayal and larger dudes. g3 i t1 thoughtseize and see 2 street wraith, burning inquiry, gurmag, some lands and something else. I take gurmag hoping that he doesn't have much action. I think this is a mistake as he has a flameblade on the field. his t2 he plays another flameblade, land and passes i play a goyf. he then untaps, cycles 3x street wraith and then casts 2x burning inquiry me and swings for 20..........
0-1
r2: jeskai control
g1 I just lay the beats and avoid over committing. smusher is so good. g2 we have a mega long game of dancing around teferi and thrun but eventually he finds his outs and a second teferi takes it home. g3 I have a fast hand with some disruption. I take his counter then tks him to take his removal then smusher him and that was that.
1-1
r3 humans
i mull to 5 and proceed to get stomped. g2 I have a decent hand but there's exactly 1 hand I lose to and he has it. t1 noble, t2 mantis rider, t3 mantis rider. now I'm still ok I have live draws if i can find a sweeper or pulse. I don't and TKS him to see a 3rd mantis rider and an image. I was totally screwed even if I had a sweeper. well. that's modern for you I guess. This is my first loss to humans in 6 matches.
1-2
r4 sultai midrange
we have 3 very excellent games of a lot of back and forth. It's gbx vs gbx those mirrors are always exciting. As I've found over and over with these GBx matches is, if I can maintain some kind of parity with them I will always win as my top end is so much better. Jund is slightly different as bbe can either be gamebreaking or nothing. His counters are annoying game 1 and wasn't really expecting 2 legic knots and then snapcaster to then keep me off more things but what can ya do. g3 we have a wonderful back and forth with board wipes and removal galore but smusher man. hell of a card.
2-2
not sure if I would change anything going forward. I really want to try goreclaw in my 75 but not sure that will happen. He seems great in fair deck fights but 4cmc is a lot. Kalitas has been stellar everytime so it's highly unlikely he will find a spot. Otherwise I don't think m19 adds anything to this deck. It's a fantastic set though, I'm mega hyped.
I played poorly in a couple of matches 100% so I think should I have been a better player they would have gone differently. I lost to 2 deskai tempo/control decks. I had wonderful starts from both and then I just, I dunno, stopped drawing stuff and petered out. I'm not going to assume the UWx decks are easy. Maybe I need a choke or cavern or something in the SB...just not sure on another good SB card for control. Pithing needle could help, it's a good catch all too. I also lost to elves due to not playing a land t2 for some reason, smh. I also lost to UW spirits. That also seems like a hard matchup. It's beatable but every guy having evasion is what makes it so hard. Not sure what to do for that deck.
Overall the deck performed well as it has been over the last year of me playing it. Dodging the blood moon matches (there were very few) this deck is a house. Had I played better I know I would have ended up winning especially considering I would be playing counters company in the finals. Still I went 5-1-1 over all so I have no complaints and I hope I gave this variant a little exposure.
I have no interest in standard but given the PTQ top 8 was at the same time as the GP if the players didn't finish before r3 they get an auto game loss. How effed up is that. Didn't matter to me tho but it's still pretty stupid. Overall the deck performed well. Dodging the blood moon matches (there were very few) this deck is a house. Had I played better I know I would have ended up winning. Still I went 5-1-1 over all so I have no complaints I hope I gave a little exposure to it.
4 discard has been fine. Not much to say about them. I would like another but to be honest I'm not sure another discard is better than anything else in my list. They also play a little weird with TKS as if I have too much TKS is actively medium. He's basically my discard 8-10 and brutality effectively filling in where needed.
3 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
3 tireless tracker
4 thought-knot seer
3 reality smasher
spells
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
3 fatal push
4 oath of nissa
1 cast down
1 abrupt decay
2 collective brutality
2 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
1 maelstrom pulse
2 llanowar wastes
2 Blooming marsh
4 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
3 swamp
2 forest
1 twilight mire
1 treetop village
1 hissing quagmire
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
2 surgical extraction
2 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
1 yahenni's expertise
1 maelstrom pulse
1 thrun, the last troll
1 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
1 reclamation sage
2 fulminator mage
1 golgari charm
2 damping sphere
r1: Humans
g1 he flooded some and I was able to capitalize and he was too far behind to come back. g2 was close but he ripped a second mantis rider to finish me off. g3 was a slaughter. bunch of removal into a big scooze and tracker then a yahenni's to wipe his board and net me a goyf.
1-0
r2 martyr proc
2 games and both were easily won. He has tiny dudes and a bunch of spells which were all nabbed by discard and then steamrolled over. I haven't played against this much but it felt very good for me.
2-0
r3 G tron
g1 I was able to field of Ruin him off tron long enough to have a smasher into a second smasher get me there. g2 I should have lost honestly he bricked pretty hard for a while but when he did draw stuff I had answers for them and was able to scrape it out in the end. He had tron for basically the entire game. Goyf and eldrazi were MVP as was FoR. I had to battle through a wurmcoil, karn and 2 Oblivion stones.
3-0
r4 hollow one
g1 I have a couple discard and his hand is pure garbage with 2 bloodghast and something else. He rips faithless looting binning both, plays a land plus cycles wraith and plays a hollow boi. Just like that my hand of discard and stuff was completely garbage and I lose. He only saw 2 of my lands so he just assumed I was straight GB, obviously. g2 I am on the eldrazi plan and just straight steam roll him. He was obviously not expecting that. g3 he has the adept but I have removal after he tries to slam in for like 8 with it. I push it and he plays a hollow one which I untap and play a 5/6 goyf. He plays tasigur making my dude a 1/2 but I have a rec sage for the hollow boi and then a pulse for tasigur. From there it was easy.
4-0
r5: counters company
I was in 8th and there was 9 undefeated UGH. I beat him down g1 with a bunch of removal and into huge goyf and TKS. I then play some discard into smasher and that was that. From here the other undefeated player lost to so we were in the clear to ID into top 8! I think this match is pretty good for me especially being up a game going into game 2. I was confident I could have gone 5-0.
We play top 8 tomorrow 9am at GP Providence
3 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
3 tireless tracker
4 thought-knot seer
3 reality smasher
spells
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
3 fatal push
4 oath of nissa
1 cast down
1 abrupt decay
2 collective brutality
2 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
1 maelstrom pulse
2 llanowar wastes
2 Blooming marsh
4 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
3 swamp
2 forest
1 twilight mire
1 treetop village
1 hissing quagmire
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
2 surgical extraction
2 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
1 yahenni's expertise
1 maelstrom pulse
1 thrun, the last troll
1 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
1 reclamation sage
2 fulminator mage
1 golgari charm
2 damping sphere
r1: Humans
g1 he flooded some and I was able to capitalize and he was too far behind to come back. g2 was close but he ripped a second mantis rider to finish me off. g3 was a slaughter. bunch of removal into a big scooze and tracker then a yahenni's to wipe his board and net me a goyf.
1-0
r2 martyr proc
2 games and both were easily won. He has tiny dudes and a bunch of spells which were all nabbed by discard and then steamrolled over. I haven't played against this much but it felt very good for me.
2-0
r3 G tron
g1 I was able to field of Ruin him off tron long enough to have a smasher into a second smasher get me there. g2 I should have lost honestly he bricked pretty hard for a while but when he did draw stuff I had answers for them and was able to scrape it out in the end. He had tron for basically the entire game. Goyf and eldrazi were MVP as was FoR. I had to battle through a wurmcoil, karn and 2 Oblivion stones.
3-0
r4 hollow one
g1 I have a couple discard and his hand is pure garbage with 2 bloodghast and something else. He rips faithless looting binning both, plays a land plus cycles wraith and plays a hollow boi. Just like that my hand of discard and stuff was completely garbage and I lose. He only saw 2 of my lands so he just assumed I was straight GB, obviously. g2 I am on the eldrazi plan and just straight steam roll him. He was obviously not expecting that. g3 he has the adept but I have removal after he tries to slam in for like 8 with it. I push it and he plays a hollow one which I untap and play a 5/6 goyf. He plays tasigur making my dude a 1/2 but I have a rec sage for the hollow boi and then a pulse for tasigur. From there it was easy.
4-0
r5: counters company
I was in 8th and there was 9 undefeated UGH. I beat him down g1 with a bunch of removal and into huge goyf and TKS. I then play some discard into smasher and that was that. From here the other undefeated player lost to so we were in the clear to ID into top 8! I think this match is pretty good for me especially being up a game going into game 2. I was confident I could have gone 5-0.
We play top 8 tomorrow 9am at GP Providence
@Deadkitten -1 goyf is a meta call and I'm glad I made it but it's not a permanent thing I don't think. If anything I'll cut a tracker for another goyf but my meta has a lot of decks that either I NEED the gy hate or they don't fill their gy at all or goyf is a consistent 2/3. Goyf is always great late game so I always want to see at least one. Tracker I dare say is one of the best cards ever printed. She's different than goyf though and provides a much needed advantage. Is she better? I dunno. I will never cut smasher, ever, he is always the best card in my deck.
My philosophy on this deck having played it consistently for over a year is that I want to be playing GB archetype and not trying to push eldrazi on an archetype that doesn't really support it. The GB archetype is proven and is very strong and I love playing it. My manabase is currently solid, not overly painful and always lets me cast my cards. What my version adds over typical GB is larger top end while still doing the things GB wants to be doing. The line of discard into threat/removal or discard on legs into unanswerable smusher has won me a lot of games.
I miss reshaper a lot I'm not gonna lie to you but reshaper only gets value when he dies and if he dies but also means you need to have a manabase that can support him. A GBC manabase is sketchy as hell and or very painful. If the board gets stalled tracker turns flooding into cards, gets bigger doing nothing and provides revolt randomly while drawing a card. The biggest issue of tracker vs reshaper is speed. There are certainly some matches where reshaper is just better where I need the speed. If I can find a way to play reshapers and trackers together sign me up for that.
Main: +1 scooze, -1 goyf.
SB: -1 night of souls betrayal, +1 yahenni's expertise, -1 thrun, +1 obstinate baloth
r1: burn
g1 just had a hand of discard into a bunch of TKS. his hand was kinda meh. g2 I had too many 4 drops and was dead before it mattered. perhaps should have mulled to find discard. g3 came down to me dodging 2 turns of an actual burn spell. I did lucky I guess.
1-0
r2: G tron
g1 he hits tron t4 into karn then into o stone I scoop. g2 I FoR and then surgical his lands. easy. g3 was a close one. He t3 trons me into karn (I made him discard one t1 then dropped goyf t2). I then FoR him and he's unable to find tron again. I play smasher and keep smacking karn. Honestly karn gained him like 15 life or something silly. I was pretty far ahead after karn died but I guess tron into o stone would have changed things.
2-0
r3: mono white pillow fort
These were long drawn out games as one would expect. I won the match basically because he was unable to play t0 leyline. we went to 3 games and in g3 I was able to actually say, fatal push your greater auramancy as he had starfield of nyx out. LOL. Honestly I shouldn't have won this match but this deck does have the problem of consistency. There's not a ton of ways to find what he needs cheaply and quickly.
3-0
We drew into the top 4 and opponent wanted to play commander. I didn't want to play against ponza so I agreed so no more modern for me that night
4 Varina, Lich Queen
Sac outlets (3)
1 carrion feeder
3 fleshbag marauder
5 Grimgrin, corpse-born
pingers (7)
2 zulaport cutthroat
2 blood artist
2 wayward servant
3 diregraf captain
3 plague belcher
4 vengeful dead
5 consuming aberration
6 vela the night-clad
lords (5)
3 cemetery reaper
3 death baron
3 lord of the undead
4 undead warchief
6 mikaeus, the unhallowed
GY enablers (9)
1 stitcher's supplier
1 gravecrawler
2 graveyard marshal
3 coffin queen
4 Gisa and Geralf
4 Liliana, Untouched by death
4 Whip of erebos
5 havengul lich
5 The scarab god
utility (13)
1 cryptbreaker
2 binding mummy
2 relentless dead
3 diregraf colossus
3 lich lord of unx
3 mirror entity
3 lingering souls
4 solemn simulacrum
4 undead alchemist
5 gray merchant of asphodel
6 grave titan
6 rooftop storm
1 enlightened tutor
1 ponder
1 preordain
2 demonic tutor
2 stoneforge mystic
2 baleful strix
4 graveborn muse
4 fact or fiction
5 sidisi, undead vizier
7 dig through time
mana rocks (6)
1 mana vault
1 sol ring
2 orzhov signet
2 talisman of dominance
2 talisman of progress
3 chromatic lantern
equipment (5)
1 skullclamp
2 umezawa's jitte
2 lightning greaves
3 sword of fire and Ice
3 sword of feast and famine
removal (5)
1 path to exile
1 swords to plowshares
2 black sun's zenith
2 nameless inversion
3 toxic deluge
Lands (36)
1 arcane sanctum
1 command tower
1 bojuka bog
1 cabal coffers
1 cavern of souls
1 phyrexian tower
1 unholy grotto
1 urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
1 strip mine
1 celestial colonnade
1 creeping tar pit
1 flooded strand
1 marsh flats
1 polluted delta
1 godless shrine
1 hallowed fountain
1 watery grave
1 temple of deceit
1 temple of enlightenment
1 temple of silence
2 plains
3 island
10 swamp
I've been on this style Bxx zombie for a long time mostly Grimgrin tho. I think I need to add another sac outlet in here and I love the idea of anointed procession. I'm interested to see what the white cards add. So far in my limited test outside the commander, it doesn't seem like much but I am happy for stoneforge, enlightened tutor and mirror entity.
The deck has a few main game plans. My favorite is rooftop storm and gravecrawler shenanigans with any of the pingers or consuming aberration. I was always hesitant on that card but if it can mill out people actually pretty quickly and doesn't rely on damage which is rarely necessary but sometimes. Rooftop storm and gravecrawler are always an all stars. always. Storm Makes havengul lich and lilana absolutely insane with sac outlets like grimgrin. I guess something funny along those veins is repeat self mill with stitcher's supplier and something like lab man but that's too cute/unreliable for me. Another card I'm high on is undead alchemist. That card gets out of hand VERY fast. Most people underestimate the milling but it can be real deal. It's cute the ability also triggers off other sorts of milling like aberration triggers or lich lord of unx.
Game plans I strive for in order:
1) combo kill with rooftop and pingers
2) mill some bozos out
3) make a million idiots and attack
4) cast strong cards and kill nerds the old fashioned way
I'm not sure c18 adds much else for me. Pretty underwhelming set as a whole
2 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
3 tireless tracker
4 thought-knot seer
3 reality smasher
1 Tasigur, the golden fang
spells
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
4 fatal push
4 oath of nissa
1 abrupt decay
2 collective brutality
2 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
1 maelstrom pulse
2 llanowar wastes
2 Blooming marsh
4 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
3 swamp
2 forest
1 twilight mire
1 hissing quagmire
1 treetop village
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
1 surgical extraction
1 lost legacy
1 grafdigger's cage
1 golgari charm
2 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
1 night of souls' betrayal
1 thrun, the last troll
1 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
1 reclamation sage
1 fulminator mage
1 ratchet bomb
2 damping sphere
r1: bushwhacker zoo
g1 she doesn't have a blistering start and I'm on the play so after a few removal spells liliana is able to stabilize and then my huge idiots just take over. g2 she plays like a million guys and swings for 14 on t3 putting me to 4. I untap rip an untapped black source like a boss and flaying tendrils the entire board. from there I just had to dodge multiple bolts and TKS cleaned up her hand and stopped anything from coming in.
1-0
r2 grixis control
This was a very hard match tons of removal, counters and interaction. Notably Ashiok from opponent was just a huge beating and it won him g2 pretty convincingly even after I killed it, it just got so much value I couldn't come back. g3 I mull to 5 (ouch) but still end up making good choices and eventually winning the game. At the end he chose not to counter lili of the veil and hold it for something else and that really came back to bite him in the ass as Lili just controlled the entire board after a few turns. I was kinda surprised but I suppose I can't blame him I didn't know what he had in hand at that point but being forced to discard feels like a bad thing in a control deck.
2-0
r3 grixis goryo/breach fury of the horde combo
g1 his deck doesn't do much. My discard takes any key cards and scooze strips the griselbrands from his yard. I guess I was lucky he never drew emrakul or another gdaddy he could through the breach but I had a real deal clock. g2 he also doesn't do much and keeps a mega sketchy hand. My discard takes anything relevant and I eventually land a scooze which takes over combined with goyf. I saw the deck and let me tell you I was lucky to dodge leyline of sanctity. I coincidentally had a pulse in hand but that means I would have had to waste a turn killing that and not disrupting. which is 110% necessary that deck can nut draw you very quick.
3-0
r4 esper control standard....
yes this was a standard deck. AT 2-0-1 WTF?! IS THIS NARNIA what world are we in?! he actually beat real decks too, he drew only to mono white pillow fort. SO long story short my deck has a VERY hard time with teferi and the scarab god when combined with counters, multiple settle the wreckage and fumigates and things like vraska's contempt. He basically got shorted on white mana for too long and I was able to just stomp him but had he had double white when he needed it we would have had an entirely different match. I'm not gonna lie the majority of my deck was from the standard just before this one so who am I to say haha.
4-0
we split top 4 to cube but got to play a Bonus round
bonus: hollow one
game 1 my removal lined up very well for once and his deck didn't do a whole heck of a lot. g2 we have a very long game and both end at 1 life each but he missed an attack for 2 by playing defensive which I can respect but I would have just gone aggro. he went through most of his deck and didn't see many phoenix or bloodghast (2 each) I was able to deal with those albeit poorly and managed to sneak it out with the help of treetop village. I have a lot in the board to help with this match and when they aren't nut drawing me the deck is actually not that ba to beat. That being said, the deck is no joke and it is FAR from ever being a good matchup but it is certainly beatable. I'm now 4-2 vs it.
5-0
r1: bushwhacker zoo
g1 she doesn't have a blistering start and I'm on the play so after a few removal spells liliana is able to stabilize and then my huge idiots just take over. g2 she plays like a million guys and swings for 14 on t3 putting me to 4. I untap rip an untapped black source like a boss and flaying tendrils the entire board. from there I just had to dodge multiple bolts and TKS cleaned up her hand and stopped anything from coming in.
1-0
r2 grixis control
This was a very hard match tons of removal, counters and interaction. Notably Ashiok from opponent was just a huge beating and it won him g2 pretty convincingly even after I killed it, it just got so much value I couldn't come back. g3 I mull to 5 (ouch) but still end up making good choices and eventually winning the game. At the end he chose not to counter lili of the veil and hold it for something else and that really came back to bite him in the ass as Lili just controlled the entire board after a few turns. I was kinda surprised but I suppose I can't blame him I didn't know what he had in hand at that point but being forced to discard feels like a bad thing in a control deck.
2-0
r3 grixis goryo/breach fury of the horde combo
g1 his deck doesn't do much. My discard takes any key cards and scooze strips the griselbrands from his yard. I guess I was lucky he never drew emrakul or another gdaddy he could through the breach but I had a real deal clock. g2 he also doesn't do much and keeps a mega sketchy hand. My discard takes anything relevant and I eventually land a scooze which takes over combined with goyf. I saw the deck and let me tell you I was lucky to dodge leyline of sanctity. I coincidentally had a pulse in hand but that means I would have had to waste a turn killing that and not disrupting. which is 110% necessary that deck can nut draw you very quick.
3-0
r4 esper control standard....
yes this was a standard deck. AT 2-0-1 WTF?! IS THIS NARNIA what world are we in?! he actually beat real decks too, he drew only to mono white pillow fort. SO long story short my deck has a VERY hard time with teferi and the scarab god when combined with counters, multiple settle the wreckage and fumigates and things like vraska's contempt. He basically got shorted on white mana for too long and I was able to just stomp him but had he had double white when he needed it we would have had an entirely different match. I'm not gonna lie the majority of my deck was from the standard just before this one so who am I to say haha.
4-0
we split top 4 to cube but got to play a Bonus round
bonus: hollow one
game 1 my removal lined up very well for once and his deck didn't do a whole heck of a lot. g2 we have a very long game and both end at 1 life each but he missed an attack for 2 by playing defensive which I can respect but I would have just gone aggro. he went through most of his deck and didn't see many phoenix or bloodghast (2 each) I was able to deal with those albeit poorly and managed to sneak it out with the help of treetop village. I have a lot in the board to help with this match and when they aren't nut drawing me the deck is actually not that ba to beat. That being said, the deck is no joke and it is FAR from ever being a good matchup but it is certainly beatable. I'm now 4-2 vs it.
5-0
previous week 2-2. lost to hollow one and humans both having the most literal best draws vs me. Sometimes I draw well, sometimes they do, that's magic I guess. Both had games they killed me on t3. I beat jeskai control and sultai midrange.
This weeks results:
r1: colorless eldrazi (serum powder version)
Not much to say this is a decent matchup for me I have good removal and interaction for most of their guys. thing of note was g2 he on the play pitches 2 spirit guides and t1 TKS me...ouch. Thankfully I found removal after a couple turns and was able to turn the corner but my life was super low for the whole game.
1-0
r2: UR thing in the ice
Another easy match for me. I have discard and huge guys. Once I dealt with thing in the ice there's not much he can do to me.
2-0
r3: KCI
UGH this deck...g1 he mulls to 4 and STILL WINS through a scooze and a pulse....what the actual F. Admittedly I punted pretty hard with a wrong sequence of collective brutality and scooze activation so I deserved it but still. It was a mull to 4 in a combo deck. G2 I just get wrecked. Deck is so resilient it's really dumb.
2-1
r4: Jund
I get wrecked in this match. All his cards just lined up perfectly for what I was doing. He drew really well and I didn't. That's magic though sometimes these things happen. I drew 3 lands in a row and he drew all gas.
2-2
r5: burn
So far I've played burn about 10 times and lost only once. I can't say it's a good matchup as they are almost always close but maybe it's actually pretty good for me despite not having much in my board. g3 my opponent attacked into my guys for some reason and just threw them away. I can't figure out why. He was in a very bad position anyways, as I have 2 tks in play and a goyf vs his no cards in hand and a swifty+eidolon to my 11 life. Blocking gives him another turn maybe 2 but to just throw it away? I dunno.
3-2
So I was VERY lucky to only lost to undefeated players meaning my breakers were awesome despite my mediocre record. I lucked into top 8. I'm not going to complain. I was the only 9 pointer to make it.
top8: jund
different player but fun games. g1 he does jund things and just buries me. g2 I draw lucky and rip a second temple t3 like a boss and smasher him into another smasher. GG. g3 I was able to strip him of any of him cards and leave him stuck with a couple 4 drops thanks to brutality and TKS. He doesn't draw his 4th land until too late.
4-2
top4: mardu pyro
As expected I lose g1 pretty convincingly. I don't have any good way to deal with spirit tokens and didn't draw any removal for pyro for some reason. g2 and g3 were grindy but liliana last hope was straight up MVP. I have so much in the board to help with this match and I definitely need it.
5-2
We split finals and went home it was like 230 am...ouch. I think I might cut a tracker and play another liliana or scooze or something. I'm undecided. I love trackers and I think 2 might be the right amount. I may cut tasigur too but I never saw him once last night. I'll keep him in for now as he's been good in the past.
r1: colorless eldrazi (serum powder version)
Not much to say this is a decent matchup for me I have good removal and interaction for most of their guys. thing of note was g2 he on the play pitches 2 spirit guides and t1 TKS me...ouch. Thankfully I found removal after a couple turns and was able to turn the corner but my life was super low for the whole game.
1-0
r2: UR thing in the ice
Another easy match for me. I have discard and huge guys. Once I dealt with thing in the ice there's not much he can do to me.
2-0
r3: KCI
UGH this deck...g1 he mulls to 4 and STILL WINS through a scooze and a pulse....what the actual F. Admittedly I punted pretty hard with a wrong sequence of collective brutality and scooze activation so i deserved it but still. It was a mull to 4. G2 I just get wrecked. Deck is so resilient it's really dumb.
2-1
r4: Jund
I get wrecked in this match. All his cards just lined up perfectly for what I was doing. He drew really well and I didn't. That's magic though sometimes these things happen.
2-2
r5: burn
So far I've played burn about 10 times and lost only once. I can't say it's a good matchup as they are almost always close but maybe it's actually pretty good for me. g3 my opponent attacked into my guys for some reason and just threw them away. I can't figure out why. He was in a very bad position, as I have 2 tks in play and a goyf vs his no cards in hand and a swifty+eidolon to my 11 life. Blocking gives him another turn maybe 2 but to just throw it away? I dunno.
3-2
So I was VERY lucky to only lost to undefeated players meaning my breakers were awesome despite my mediocre record. I lucked into top 8. I'm not going to complain. I was the only 9 pointer to make it.
top8: jund
different player but fun games. g1 he does jund things and just buries me. g2 I draw lucky and rip a second temple t3 like a boss and smasher him into another smasher. GG. g3 I was able to strip him of any of him cards and leave him stuck with a couple 4 drops thanks to brutality and TKS. He doesn't draw his 4th land until too late.
4-2
top4: mardu pyro
As expected I lose g1 pretty convincingly. I don't have any good way to deal with spirit tokens and didn't draw any removal for pyro for some reason. g2 and g3 were grindy but liliana last hope was straight up MVP. I have so much in the board to help with this match and I definitely need it.
5-2
We split finals and went home it was like 230 am...ouch. I think I might cut a tracker and play another liliana or something. I'm undecided. I love trackers and I think 2 might be the right amount. I may cut tasigur too but I never saw him once last night. I'll keep him in for now as he's been good in the past.
r1: hollow one
g1 he gets t1 hollow one but I'm able to beat through that but flamewake phoenix eventually kills me. g2 we have a mega long staredown but I end up getting there with removal, night of soul's betrayal and larger dudes. g3 i t1 thoughtseize and see 2 street wraith, burning inquiry, gurmag, some lands and something else. I take gurmag hoping that he doesn't have much action. I think this is a mistake as he has a flameblade on the field. his t2 he plays another flameblade, land and passes i play a goyf. he then untaps, cycles 3x street wraith and then casts 2x burning inquiry me and swings for 20..........
0-1
r2: jeskai control
g1 I just lay the beats and avoid over committing. smusher is so good. g2 we have a mega long game of dancing around teferi and thrun but eventually he finds his outs and a second teferi takes it home. g3 I have a fast hand with some disruption. I take his counter then tks him to take his removal then smusher him and that was that.
1-1
r3 humans
i mull to 5 and proceed to get stomped. g2 I have a decent hand but there's exactly 1 hand I lose to and he has it. t1 noble, t2 mantis rider, t3 mantis rider. now I'm still ok I have live draws if i can find a sweeper or pulse. I don't and TKS him to see a 3rd mantis rider and an image. I was totally screwed even if I had a sweeper. well. that's modern for you I guess. This is my first loss to humans in 6 matches.
1-2
r4 sultai midrange
we have 3 very excellent games of a lot of back and forth. It's gbx vs gbx those mirrors are always exciting. As I've found over and over with these GBx matches is, if I can maintain some kind of parity with them I will always win as my top end is so much better. Jund is slightly different as bbe can either be gamebreaking or nothing. His counters are annoying game 1 and wasn't really expecting 2 legic knots and then snapcaster to then keep me off more things but what can ya do. g3 we have a wonderful back and forth with board wipes and removal galore but smusher man. hell of a card.
2-2
not sure if I would change anything going forward. I really want to try goreclaw in my 75 but not sure that will happen. He seems great in fair deck fights but 4cmc is a lot. Kalitas has been stellar everytime so it's highly unlikely he will find a spot. Otherwise I don't think m19 adds anything to this deck. It's a fantastic set though, I'm mega hyped.