I dont really see my response has "harsh", but i will apologize if it came like that to you.
Still, the fact remains that you didnt asnwer the problem i pointed out, what do you do in the face of mirror matches, or uwr control? We (as a person) are not gonna be the only one playing this deck, so not considering mirrors, or just thinking that you can outplay the match seems really naive to me.
On another note, there is no card that reads "use this if you face XXX deck" so there is no such thing as dedicated hate.
Rest in peace IS sideboard agaisnt melira, and pretty useful at that.
Even grafdiggers cage can be used in other match ups, so i dont really get this "i only run 3 sb cards".
You run grafdiggers, which can be used against pod, you also run rest in peace, which can be used against pod, and you run stony silence which is also a possible option against pod. Not to mention wrath effects also are a good choice against that deck.
For the sake of argument i just said "6 cards" when in truth you run more than that.
I don't see 6 hate cards for Pod. There's Cage, but all the other have crossover applications, which is exactly what you need in a deck like this.
Glass Cannon is a deck as is Storm, even without Song. Both had good appearances in GP Portland. Also, as is clear in my post, no cards are dedicated hate versus it. But they can be used if you come to face the deck (Purge is mainly for Jund and Twin, Cage for Pod, etc). I don't get the harshness of you response, but unfortunately it appears to be a norm around here.
As noted, Eslpeth is good versus Control decks, as well as Counterflux and Dispel.
I believe at least 3 Stony Silence, 2 Counterflux and 2 Celestial Purge should be a given. Some PWs like Elspeth and Ajani are good. EE is a bit slow, I like Wrath/Supreme and Pyroclasm more. Spellskite is good versus Burn, Bogle and Infect.
I have to agree with Stony Silence and Counterflux, but not so much with Celestial Purge. I know it hits bob, LoTV, DRS. But these are cards that we can deal with. I just can't think of another relevant matchup where you'd want purges. Unless BG/x is huge in your meta, I believe it is better to have something else it it's place.
As for EE, it might be slower than Wrath effects when you need to have 3 charge counters on it, but the card is too flexible. Maybe it is just me, but having the option to keep our Geist alive and at the same time destroy certain threats at the other side of the table makes it worth it. It's even playable vs Twin because you can drop it for 0 and wipe Pestermite / Exarch tokens.
I wouldn't sideboard all these against Pod. Cage for sure, but even Stony Silence is too iffy. Chord of Calling is still a problem.
I think dedicated hate do exists. A good example is Sowing Salt.
As I said, at least 3 spots of my suggested SB are pretty flexible. I'm not playing this deck lately (I play blue Tron and UWR Gifts), so I'm not so familiar with mirror matches right now. I guess I would replace Wrath with Supreme and side in Counterflux. EE can get Geist and Clique, but I still think it's a bit slow in the format (except versus tokens :P).
So, maybe:
3 Stony Silence (this is good versus some though mu, so definitely in)
2 Celestial Purge (Jund, Twin)
2 Engineered Explosives (Jund, tokens, mirror, Bogle, Infect, maybe Affinity)
2 Counterflux (Scapeshift, mirror, Wafo, U Tron)
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant - or 1/1 split with Batterskull (mirror, Wafo)
1 Wear//Tear (Affinity, Blood Moon, Bogle?)
1 Supreme Verdict (mirror, Pod, tokens maybe)
2 Rest in Peace
Other cards I would consider: Wrath of God, Pyroclasm, Combust, Rest in Peace, Negate, Sowing Salt, Spellskite, Spell Pierce, Spreading Seas, Grafdigger's Cage, Dispel, Pithing Needle.
UWR has an insane amount of options for the sideboard. It's hard to fit everything useful in this open meta.
I have to agree with Stony Silence and Counterflux, but not so much with Celestial Purge. I know it hits bob, LoTV, DRS. But these are cards that we can deal with. I just can't think of another relevant matchup where you'd want purges. Unless BG/x is huge in your meta, I believe it is better to have something else it it's place.
As for EE, it might be slower than Wrath effects when you need to have 3 charge counters on it, but the card is too flexible. Maybe it is just me, but having the option to keep our Geist alive and at the same time destroy certain threats at the other side of the table makes it worth it. It's even playable vs Twin because you can drop it for 0 and wipe Pestermite / Exarch tokens.
Purge is good versus Twin and kills Lili, as she just wrecks this deck (yeah, I know there's countermagic).
EE doesn't work versus Twin. The tokens have the same casting cost of the creatures they copy.
Trickbind only stops 1 trigger from Valakut. What are the best cards for Scapeshift match? In my opinion the best cards right now are Counterflux and Aven Mindcensor, but they can so easily play around Aven. I was thinking about Runed Halo but they can bounce it and prevent spells like Riot Control, Safe Passage but they cost too much and too narrow. Any new suggestions?
One trigger is all you need to counter to stay alive normally, but i will grant you that there are better answers.
I have to agree with Stony Silence and Counterflux, but not so much with Celestial Purge. I know it hits bob, LoTV, DRS. But these are cards that we can deal with. I just can't think of another relevant matchup where you'd want purges. Unless BG/x is huge in your meta, I believe it is better to have something else it it's place.
Sure several of these can be fixed with existing cards and sure many of these are not staples, but ALL of these are seen in decks and many of them are win conditions. If your meta calls for Celestial Purge, then I submit that you should run it. Would I run it at a GP? Probably not. Would I run it at an LGS? Odds are there.
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and to think i just traded my 2 foil purges. i had them in my sideboard once upon a time but was convinced to take them out.
regarding the mirror:
my strategy has always been to swap out 4 GOST and move to control. i don't think think is necessary anymore (legendary rule). further, it may just be too cute (as mentioned).
i think the advantage of playing the mirror is knowing what they are running: a mass of removal of some counters. their game plan is landing geist and pushing to colonnade.
so, in my opinion, we take advantage of our knowledge by making their removal inefficient and winning the race. how do we do that? disrupt their hand and be faster tempo.
Sure several of these can be fixed with existing cards and sure many of these are not staples, but ALL of these are seen in decks and many of them are win conditions. If your meta calls for Celestial Purge, then I submit that you should run it. Would I run it at a GP? Probably not. Would I run it at an LGS? Odds are there.
I get that these cards die to purge, but the creatures in this list, the one that really needs to get exiled asap would be redcap. I know some of them don't die to bolt and prolly need you to 2 for 1 them if you don't draw Path. But I just don't like the idea of holding purge against Birthing Pod or RG Aggro when most of their guys are green. The sb card is just too narrow. If there's a need for it, a copy would do but not more than that.
The only time I'd want purge would be against Jund, and sometimes against the random red deck.
unfortunately don't have EE. will look to trading for one, but that probably won't happen before this weekend. here's my final list of what i'm going to run sideboard:
2 Wrath of God
2 Stony Silence
2 Rest in Peace
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Spreading Seas
2 Wear // Tear
1 Echoing Truth
1 Shadow of Doubt
1 Batterskull
^ agreed on what he said. If you dont have counterflux, maybe you could try to run negate or dispel, but its really important you have some extra counters for the important MUs.
I dont think there is a problem with running rip and cage, if you think your metagame warrants it. Melira pod is a popular deck, and one that you dont want to be losing against, besides both have applications in other games too.
Elspeth from the board is a great tool against both trons and uwr mirror/control, so i highly recommend her.
But mostly, get some extra counterspells in there.
I also think Surgical Extraction is something you could consider as a 1 of. It's pretty good against combo decks because it takes away their win condition.
Well, RiP and Cage have a good amount of overlap, maybe you should stick with just one of these?
Also, are you playing any planeswalkers? I really like Elspeth from the board.
A single Detention Sphere is a good catchall utility to have.
Counterflux is really important IMHO. Maybe a couple Negates or Dispels?
I've got both Elspeth and Ajani main and let me say that have both just ended games. Sometimes I miss having my Sphinx's Revelation in the main when game 1 goes down the grindy path, but those walkers are relevant in more situations than Sphinx. I flipped Elspeth off the top in 2 separate games and both of my opponents were just like "wtf." Both of us had already blown through a ton of threats and answers and Elspeth just sent me over the top to win it.
Flux scares combo. It stops Scapeshift, Ad nauseum grace, Heartbeat, and various other combo decks cold. You'll want 2 or 3 to be honest.
Still, the fact remains that you didnt asnwer the problem i pointed out, what do you do in the face of mirror matches, or uwr control? We (as a person) are not gonna be the only one playing this deck, so not considering mirrors, or just thinking that you can outplay the match seems really naive to me.
On another note, there is no card that reads "use this if you face XXX deck" so there is no such thing as dedicated hate.
Rest in peace IS sideboard agaisnt melira, and pretty useful at that.
Even grafdiggers cage can be used in other match ups, so i dont really get this "i only run 3 sb cards".
You run grafdiggers, which can be used against pod, you also run rest in peace, which can be used against pod, and you run stony silence which is also a possible option against pod. Not to mention wrath effects also are a good choice against that deck.
For the sake of argument i just said "6 cards" when in truth you run more than that.
I have to agree with Stony Silence and Counterflux, but not so much with Celestial Purge. I know it hits bob, LoTV, DRS. But these are cards that we can deal with. I just can't think of another relevant matchup where you'd want purges. Unless BG/x is huge in your meta, I believe it is better to have something else it it's place.
As for EE, it might be slower than Wrath effects when you need to have 3 charge counters on it, but the card is too flexible. Maybe it is just me, but having the option to keep our Geist alive and at the same time destroy certain threats at the other side of the table makes it worth it. It's even playable vs Twin because you can drop it for 0 and wipe Pestermite / Exarch tokens.
I think dedicated hate do exists. A good example is Sowing Salt.
As I said, at least 3 spots of my suggested SB are pretty flexible. I'm not playing this deck lately (I play blue Tron and UWR Gifts), so I'm not so familiar with mirror matches right now. I guess I would replace Wrath with Supreme and side in Counterflux. EE can get Geist and Clique, but I still think it's a bit slow in the format (except versus tokens :P).
So, maybe:
3 Stony Silence (this is good versus some though mu, so definitely in)
2 Celestial Purge (Jund, Twin)
2 Engineered Explosives (Jund, tokens, mirror, Bogle, Infect, maybe Affinity)
2 Counterflux (Scapeshift, mirror, Wafo, U Tron)
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant - or 1/1 split with Batterskull (mirror, Wafo)
1 Wear//Tear (Affinity, Blood Moon, Bogle?)
1 Supreme Verdict (mirror, Pod, tokens maybe)
2 Rest in Peace
Other cards I would consider: Wrath of God, Pyroclasm, Combust, Rest in Peace, Negate, Sowing Salt, Spellskite, Spell Pierce, Spreading Seas, Grafdigger's Cage, Dispel, Pithing Needle.
UWR has an insane amount of options for the sideboard. It's hard to fit everything useful in this open meta.
Purge is good versus Twin and kills Lili, as she just wrecks this deck (yeah, I know there's countermagic).
EE doesn't work versus Twin. The tokens have the same casting cost of the creatures they copy.
One trigger is all you need to counter to stay alive normally, but i will grant you that there are better answers.
You could also add a Blood Crypt and play Slaughter Games.
Celestial Purge also stops:
Sure several of these can be fixed with existing cards and sure many of these are not staples, but ALL of these are seen in decks and many of them are win conditions. If your meta calls for Celestial Purge, then I submit that you should run it. Would I run it at a GP? Probably not. Would I run it at an LGS? Odds are there.
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regarding the mirror:
my strategy has always been to swap out 4 GOST and move to control. i don't think think is necessary anymore (legendary rule). further, it may just be too cute (as mentioned).
i think the advantage of playing the mirror is knowing what they are running: a mass of removal of some counters. their game plan is landing geist and pushing to colonnade.
so, in my opinion, we take advantage of our knowledge by making their removal inefficient and winning the race. how do we do that? disrupt their hand and be faster tempo.
maybe Git Probe and Thalia?
Detention Sphere is a nice catchall for PWs, Pillar of Flame eats Voice. I would just play more Stony Silence, but I like it anyway.
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I get that these cards die to purge, but the creatures in this list, the one that really needs to get exiled asap would be redcap. I know some of them don't die to bolt and prolly need you to 2 for 1 them if you don't draw Path. But I just don't like the idea of holding purge against Birthing Pod or RG Aggro when most of their guys are green. The sb card is just too narrow. If there's a need for it, a copy would do but not more than that.
The only time I'd want purge would be against Jund, and sometimes against the random red deck.
unfortunately don't have EE. will look to trading for one, but that probably won't happen before this weekend. here's my final list of what i'm going to run sideboard:
2 Wrath of God
2 Stony Silence
2 Rest in Peace
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Spreading Seas
2 Wear // Tear
1 Echoing Truth
1 Shadow of Doubt
1 Batterskull
i couldn't find any counterflux =/
Also, are you playing any planeswalkers? I really like Elspeth from the board.
A single Detention Sphere is a good catchall utility to have.
Counterflux is really important IMHO. Maybe a couple Negates or Dispels?
I dont think there is a problem with running rip and cage, if you think your metagame warrants it. Melira pod is a popular deck, and one that you dont want to be losing against, besides both have applications in other games too.
Elspeth from the board is a great tool against both trons and uwr mirror/control, so i highly recommend her.
But mostly, get some extra counterspells in there.
+1 Spell Pierce
+1 Surgical Extraction
I've got both Elspeth and Ajani main and let me say that have both just ended games. Sometimes I miss having my Sphinx's Revelation in the main when game 1 goes down the grindy path, but those walkers are relevant in more situations than Sphinx. I flipped Elspeth off the top in 2 separate games and both of my opponents were just like "wtf." Both of us had already blown through a ton of threats and answers and Elspeth just sent me over the top to win it.
Flux scares combo. It stops Scapeshift, Ad nauseum grace, Heartbeat, and various other combo decks cold. You'll want 2 or 3 to be honest.
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