Birds are great, if you don't have Vial in your opening Hand, you Play Birds and can get Arbiter + GQ opponents' land next turn.. or Play big Thalia turn 2 (depends on opponent's deck).. it's very smooth and I didn't got manascrewed.. I like the Birds more than Hierarch, since they have flying and I would always take the 4 more flying creatures than the Exalted trigger.. you nearly don't even need sideboarding against some of the Tier decks like Burn, Tron etc. and with Birds you have some blockers against Affinity to buy you time until you find the sideboard Card/Wrath..
The green splash has been good for a long time. The recent printing of Ramunap Excavator gave it some new tech, although I haven't had a chance to test it yet.
There's a lot going on with your list, but I can already tell you that Hierarch is better than Birds. Hierarch is the second best mana dork behind Deathrite Shaman, and both of them are miles ahead of the third best dork, which is Birds of Paradise.
Finks in the maindeck is a metagame call. Unless your metagame is filled with Burn, it's probably not the right one. You've basically pulled 4x Blade Splicer for 2x Serra Avenger and 2x Kitchen Finks, which I think is probably a mistake. The 2x Serra Avenger is definitely a mistake. The 2x Kitchen Finks, well, your mileage may vary.
For what it's worth, I was recently testing Wrath of God in the Settle the Wreckage slot, and I think Wrath is the right call against a lot of decks. You only want that card when your opponents go wide faster than you do, and in that spot, you don't want your opponents to be able to play around it.
So a buddy of mine was at a PPTQ yesterday and faced a guy playing BW Eldrazi & Taxes with some Lingering Souls in it. Kind of sparked my curiosity. What's your opinions on putting 1-2 in where our flex spots are? I feel like it does fit into the deck alright. No real drawbacks except for maybe competing with our other 3 drops. But at that point I feel like you're playing more midrange Eldrazi almost so idk. Thoughts?
@yung_loogy google search the term “Lingering Taxes” or deathandcatmix. Lol we’ve been doing that’s for almost two years, my love!
Like Catmix said, we've been playing Lingering Souls in WB variants for a while now. Catmix advocated for it a long time ago, and I've become a big fan since trying it myself.
Playing millions of cards every turn... Slowly and systematically obliterating any chance my opponent has of winning... Clicking the multitude of locking mechanisms into place... Not even trying to win myself until turn 10+ once I have nigh absolute control... Watching my opponent desperately trying to navigate the labyrinthine prison that I've constructed... Seeing the light of hope fade and ultimately extinguished in an excruciatingly slow manner... THAT'S fun Magic.
We have 2-3 users that are dramatically making this thread incomprehensible and non-productive for anyone else to possibly join in the discussion. This needs to change.
Every time I see [ktkenshinx] post in here, I get the impression of a stern dad walking in on a bunch of kids trying to do something dumb and just shaking his head in disappointment.
Near Mint: The same as Slightly Played, but we threw some Altoids in the box we stored it in to cover up the scent of dead mice. Slightly Played: The base condition for all MTG cards. This card looks OK, but there’s one minor annoying ding in it that will always irritate and distract you whenever you draw it. Moderately Played: This card looks like it survived the Tet Offensive tucked inside the waistband of GI underwear. It may smell like it, too. Heavily Played: This card looks like the remains of Mohammed Atta’s passport after 9/11. It may be playable if you double-sleeve it to stop the chunks from falling out. The condition formerly known as "Washing Machine Grade" Damaged: This card is the unfortunate victim of a Mirrorweave/March of the Machines/Chaos Confetti/Mindslaver combo.
[M]aking counterfeit cards is the absolute height of dishonesty. Ask yourself this question: Since most people...are totally cool with the use of proxies...what purpose do [high] quality counterfeit cards serve?
Playing millions of cards every turn... Slowly and systematically obliterating any chance my opponent has of winning... Clicking the multitude of locking mechanisms into place... Not even trying to win myself until turn 10+ once I have nigh absolute control... Watching my opponent desperately trying to navigate the labyrinthine prison that I've constructed... Seeing the light of hope fade and ultimately extinguished in an excruciatingly slow manner... THAT'S fun Magic.
We have 2-3 users that are dramatically making this thread incomprehensible and non-productive for anyone else to possibly join in the discussion. This needs to change.
Every time I see [ktkenshinx] post in here, I get the impression of a stern dad walking in on a bunch of kids trying to do something dumb and just shaking his head in disappointment.
Near Mint: The same as Slightly Played, but we threw some Altoids in the box we stored it in to cover up the scent of dead mice. Slightly Played: The base condition for all MTG cards. This card looks OK, but there’s one minor annoying ding in it that will always irritate and distract you whenever you draw it. Moderately Played: This card looks like it survived the Tet Offensive tucked inside the waistband of GI underwear. It may smell like it, too. Heavily Played: This card looks like the remains of Mohammed Atta’s passport after 9/11. It may be playable if you double-sleeve it to stop the chunks from falling out. The condition formerly known as "Washing Machine Grade" Damaged: This card is the unfortunate victim of a Mirrorweave/March of the Machines/Chaos Confetti/Mindslaver combo.
[M]aking counterfeit cards is the absolute height of dishonesty. Ask yourself this question: Since most people...are totally cool with the use of proxies...what purpose do [high] quality counterfeit cards serve?
Nothing. As someone who plays E-Tron, there's some hands where I think it's nearly impossible to beat unless you're a combo deck that can win on the spot. Decks aren't designed to beat turn 2 thought knots into back to back 5/5s
Spsiegel1987 is right. Against that hand, you either have Ghost Quarter ready or you lose. Natural Tron only occurs in like 4-5% of games though, so you're dealing with the exception and not the rule.
Playing millions of cards every turn... Slowly and systematically obliterating any chance my opponent has of winning... Clicking the multitude of locking mechanisms into place... Not even trying to win myself until turn 10+ once I have nigh absolute control... Watching my opponent desperately trying to navigate the labyrinthine prison that I've constructed... Seeing the light of hope fade and ultimately extinguished in an excruciatingly slow manner... THAT'S fun Magic.
We have 2-3 users that are dramatically making this thread incomprehensible and non-productive for anyone else to possibly join in the discussion. This needs to change.
Every time I see [ktkenshinx] post in here, I get the impression of a stern dad walking in on a bunch of kids trying to do something dumb and just shaking his head in disappointment.
Near Mint: The same as Slightly Played, but we threw some Altoids in the box we stored it in to cover up the scent of dead mice. Slightly Played: The base condition for all MTG cards. This card looks OK, but there’s one minor annoying ding in it that will always irritate and distract you whenever you draw it. Moderately Played: This card looks like it survived the Tet Offensive tucked inside the waistband of GI underwear. It may smell like it, too. Heavily Played: This card looks like the remains of Mohammed Atta’s passport after 9/11. It may be playable if you double-sleeve it to stop the chunks from falling out. The condition formerly known as "Washing Machine Grade" Damaged: This card is the unfortunate victim of a Mirrorweave/March of the Machines/Chaos Confetti/Mindslaver combo.
[M]aking counterfeit cards is the absolute height of dishonesty. Ask yourself this question: Since most people...are totally cool with the use of proxies...what purpose do [high] quality counterfeit cards serve?
Seems like an interesting approach gonna try it out and report back! I always thought stony was the number A take against affinity and the MU being one of the worse ones for DnT. But replacing it with specific hate and swapping the avengers for copters makes sense. Fragmentize seems like a good hate card vs affinity.
Affinity isn't one of the worst matchups for D&T. Granted, it's not great; our noncreature taxes and our search taxes do basically nothing. But our first-strikers do a lot of work and you can often race their deck. Be wary of Cranial Plating. Hold up your Paths and Flickerwisps for profitable spots (removing counters, hindering attacks).
Fragmentize is versatile and cheap, but it's slow. If your opponent topdecks a Cranial Plating on T5 and swings for the win, you'll feel differently about that Fragmentize in your hand. Fragmentize does a better job of removing Ensnaring Bridges and Blood Moons because of the tempo advantage it provides.
Spot removal is probably enough to give you an edge against Affinity. Sunlance and Journey to Nowhere are probably your best options. I mentioned Shining Shoal - which is sort of a joke between Catmix and I - but that card is really good at punishing linear aggro strategies like Affinity. Shoal is good against decks that (1) don't usually run discard or counterspells and (2) would rather win by an inch than a mile. In other words, it's good against Affinity, Zoo, and Burn; it's okay against Merfolk; it's bad against Elves.
Playing millions of cards every turn... Slowly and systematically obliterating any chance my opponent has of winning... Clicking the multitude of locking mechanisms into place... Not even trying to win myself until turn 10+ once I have nigh absolute control... Watching my opponent desperately trying to navigate the labyrinthine prison that I've constructed... Seeing the light of hope fade and ultimately extinguished in an excruciatingly slow manner... THAT'S fun Magic.
We have 2-3 users that are dramatically making this thread incomprehensible and non-productive for anyone else to possibly join in the discussion. This needs to change.
Every time I see [ktkenshinx] post in here, I get the impression of a stern dad walking in on a bunch of kids trying to do something dumb and just shaking his head in disappointment.
Near Mint: The same as Slightly Played, but we threw some Altoids in the box we stored it in to cover up the scent of dead mice. Slightly Played: The base condition for all MTG cards. This card looks OK, but there’s one minor annoying ding in it that will always irritate and distract you whenever you draw it. Moderately Played: This card looks like it survived the Tet Offensive tucked inside the waistband of GI underwear. It may smell like it, too. Heavily Played: This card looks like the remains of Mohammed Atta’s passport after 9/11. It may be playable if you double-sleeve it to stop the chunks from falling out. The condition formerly known as "Washing Machine Grade" Damaged: This card is the unfortunate victim of a Mirrorweave/March of the Machines/Chaos Confetti/Mindslaver combo.
[M]aking counterfeit cards is the absolute height of dishonesty. Ask yourself this question: Since most people...are totally cool with the use of proxies...what purpose do [high] quality counterfeit cards serve?
How could Smuggler's Copter make affinity a worse MU? If you're talking about Stony Silence, I look at this as another tool to fight against Signal Pest's/Vault Skirge, Nexuses and Ornithopter armories...
Hm with Stony on board copter becomes a dead card doesn´t it? Not really something we need in this matchup. I would prefer avenger in this spot vs affinity, when sideboarding in stony seems like the sensible thing to do. Sure avenger can not block etched champion but we have the golems for that.
copter helps you at keeping hand because it trades with anything in affinity, staying alive against all of their pieces and loot a card. Stony silence is great, but if you're worried about the nombo, you're relying on 2~3 cards that may come too late or not. In any case, I'm sure that most people keeps vial despite bringing stony silence.
Correction: since Thraben Inspector and Smuggler's Copter became an important part of this deck, no one should run Stony Silence in the board anymore. It was fine when we were just using Vials, but now that we run even more artifacts with activated abilities (clue tokens and Copters), Stony Silence shouldn't be used.
Playing millions of cards every turn... Slowly and systematically obliterating any chance my opponent has of winning... Clicking the multitude of locking mechanisms into place... Not even trying to win myself until turn 10+ once I have nigh absolute control... Watching my opponent desperately trying to navigate the labyrinthine prison that I've constructed... Seeing the light of hope fade and ultimately extinguished in an excruciatingly slow manner... THAT'S fun Magic.
We have 2-3 users that are dramatically making this thread incomprehensible and non-productive for anyone else to possibly join in the discussion. This needs to change.
Every time I see [ktkenshinx] post in here, I get the impression of a stern dad walking in on a bunch of kids trying to do something dumb and just shaking his head in disappointment.
Near Mint: The same as Slightly Played, but we threw some Altoids in the box we stored it in to cover up the scent of dead mice. Slightly Played: The base condition for all MTG cards. This card looks OK, but there’s one minor annoying ding in it that will always irritate and distract you whenever you draw it. Moderately Played: This card looks like it survived the Tet Offensive tucked inside the waistband of GI underwear. It may smell like it, too. Heavily Played: This card looks like the remains of Mohammed Atta’s passport after 9/11. It may be playable if you double-sleeve it to stop the chunks from falling out. The condition formerly known as "Washing Machine Grade" Damaged: This card is the unfortunate victim of a Mirrorweave/March of the Machines/Chaos Confetti/Mindslaver combo.
[M]aking counterfeit cards is the absolute height of dishonesty. Ask yourself this question: Since most people...are totally cool with the use of proxies...what purpose do [high] quality counterfeit cards serve?
Obviously, the range of keepable hands varies by matchup. But given you have access to perfect mathematical information about probability distributions, the situation that you optimize for should be G1 in some reasonable approximation of the metagame.
If you're not willing to use the perfect information that math gives you, that's fine. You don't have to. You can run 23 lands or 30 lands. But as far as I'm concerned, you've provided no evidence for why 23 lands is the right number.
Since you refuse to present your own logical framework of what a keepbable hand is and instead chose to cherry pick my argument with your position being simply that of a contrarian with no logical explanation behind it, I suppose I'll have to send you to other magic players explanation of what a good 7 might mean. Here Reid Duke breaks down how different general archetypes mulligan. Of course, this isn't about our deck in particular, and we have to define our deck via one of his general deck types. D&T is often called a "aggro-control" deck, but that doesn't much clear things up. Based on the amount of turns the game tends to go, we'd likely be defined as a midrange deck, but we do this by often taxing our opponents and keeping the game in a approximation of the early game longer than it might otherwise go. Thus, while this is a useful tool, it can be challenging to fit our deck neatly into a category. However, according to his breakdown, I'd say that we most closely resemble a midrange deck what with having some cards that are very good in some MUs, but absolutely terrible in others. Then the question becomes, how many lands does a generic midrange deck want to typically see?
To better understand what makes one mulligan, modern nexus breaks it down here . The mulligans we're talking about fall into their type #1, the inherent mulligan. That is, we're mulliganing because our hand is in some way not okay due to the land in or the lack of lands in the hand.
This is true, but I could spin this the exact opposite way. Given the percentage difference is small mathematically, why haven't you cut that 23rd land?
(In practice, exactly how small of a difference depends on what constitutes a keepable opening hand. If keepable hands have 2-3 lands, then the difference between 22 and 23 land is only 0.62% in favor of 22. But if keepable hands have 3-4 lands, then the difference between 22 and 23 lands becomes 2.69% in favor of 23.)
This is basically a direct contradiction of your previous sentiment. If you're mulliganing significantly more hands having only 22 land as opposed to 23, that's probably variance, because they're so probabilistically similar. You would have to play literal thousands of games before you would notice this, which again begs the question: why are you still playing that 23rd land?
Unfortunately, we don't know what percentage of mulligans come specifically from "inherent mulligans," making this even harder to pin down.
This was me offering you the olive branch in that unless you play thousands of games, as you said, it's going to be hard to see the difference between the two different land counts. HOWEVER, since you insist that we are able to find the ultimate truth of how many lands should we run, I'm going to have to throw my anecdotal evidence in the 23 land side of things as I have played literally thousands of games with this deck. You seem to assume that I never tried 22 lands. This couldn't be farther from the truth. In actuality, the difference between the two land counts likely comes down to preference, but that ~1% difference in mulligans, according to the program I've been using since the start of the year, agrees with the rest of the games I've played and my experience with it in that I get to mulligan less. While I have played MANY games, they're not all with the stock mono W list (with 22vs23 lands) verbatim, which makes this even harder to say is a certainty. Of course, most every top finish with the deck has 23 lands and 4 canopies, but you refuse to see those results. Now, just because everyone does something does not make it the truth, but it certainly makes us wonder if there is a reason behind their choices. We have the statistics, but can't seem to agree on how they should be interpreted. While the math represents the truth of the situation, how we interpret it introduces opinion and human error.
I would like to have a higher chance of having Canopy in my 4-land opener. But the cost is that I also have a higher chance of having Canopy in my 2-land opener, which feels much worse.
Again, math can answer your question. Regardless of whether you have 22 or 23 lands, the chance of you having exactly 2 lands (30.02%, 28.56%) is higher than you having exactly 4 lands (15.98%, 17.82%). That means that you're more likely to have a 2-land opener with Canopy than a 4-land opener with Canopy. (That statement would still be true even if you only had one Canopy as opposed to four, but I digress.) My point is that the cost of making your 4-land openers better is making your 2-land openers significantly worse; not only are 2-land openers more likely, but the Canopies are probably costing you more life in the 2-land openers than the 4-land openers.
I agree with you that Canopy should be played in mono-white. I just think the correct number is probably 2-3.
Where does having canopy feel much worse? I reiterate, the only deck that can consistently punish us is burn. Where's the math behind the canopy numbers? I'd love to see the average damage taken from canopies over the course of the game with 2vs3vs4 of them. Currently, we're just saying why we like one or the other and explaining it via play theory.
EDIT: I realize your issue with my initial statement may have been with the strength of the rhetoric I used; "I wouldn't be caught dead running 22 lands (and less than 4 canopies in mono W)."
Spider, I'm just going to let this one go. Obviously, you're entitled to build your manabase however you want and I'm not going to stop you. I'm just trying to stop the lurkers from feeling obligated to run 23 lands with 4 Canopies in Mono-white D&T.
There is an interesting article on Thraben university for mana bases with vial taken into consideration. There is also source code for a small programm. http://www.thrabenuniversity.com/?page_id=1288
Maybe this will help settle your argument.
Unfortunately, it won't. Both Spider and I have access to pretty comprehensive probability distribution tables for this deck, and I have additional access to a Monte Carlo simulator for figuring out everything else (e.g., "what are the odds I draw a Hierarch, Arbiter, Ghost Quarter, and WG source in my opening hand?"). Both Spider and I know the math, although I'm more of a purist about it (as you can probably tell).
Either way, neither of us need additional resources on this topic. We've both played this game for a very long time. We both know this deck inside and out. We're arguing about performance information that's really on the margin of mainstream gameplay and not readily answerable using a goldfish simulator.
Playing millions of cards every turn... Slowly and systematically obliterating any chance my opponent has of winning... Clicking the multitude of locking mechanisms into place... Not even trying to win myself until turn 10+ once I have nigh absolute control... Watching my opponent desperately trying to navigate the labyrinthine prison that I've constructed... Seeing the light of hope fade and ultimately extinguished in an excruciatingly slow manner... THAT'S fun Magic.
We have 2-3 users that are dramatically making this thread incomprehensible and non-productive for anyone else to possibly join in the discussion. This needs to change.
Every time I see [ktkenshinx] post in here, I get the impression of a stern dad walking in on a bunch of kids trying to do something dumb and just shaking his head in disappointment.
Near Mint: The same as Slightly Played, but we threw some Altoids in the box we stored it in to cover up the scent of dead mice. Slightly Played: The base condition for all MTG cards. This card looks OK, but there’s one minor annoying ding in it that will always irritate and distract you whenever you draw it. Moderately Played: This card looks like it survived the Tet Offensive tucked inside the waistband of GI underwear. It may smell like it, too. Heavily Played: This card looks like the remains of Mohammed Atta’s passport after 9/11. It may be playable if you double-sleeve it to stop the chunks from falling out. The condition formerly known as "Washing Machine Grade" Damaged: This card is the unfortunate victim of a Mirrorweave/March of the Machines/Chaos Confetti/Mindslaver combo.
[M]aking counterfeit cards is the absolute height of dishonesty. Ask yourself this question: Since most people...are totally cool with the use of proxies...what purpose do [high] quality counterfeit cards serve?
For what it's worth, I've liked both the 4/3/2 and 4/4/1 colorless land splits. I think that Tectonic Edge is probably better than Field of Ruin in most lists, but the difference will likely be less noticeable in lists that run maindeck Mindcensor. Catmix and I are also going to be testing the utility land splits; please let us know how it works for you.
I do think you can comfortably cut the Shefet Dunes though. Dunes works much better in lists that run Eldrazi Displacer because it produces both white and colorless mana. But I think that your list probably wants something like (-2 Dunes, -1 Plains, +3 Flagstones of Trokair) because the ability to turn a Ghost Quarter into a Plains is going to be relevant as you try to curve out.
I can see why you took that to mean 3-4 lands are ideal in every opener, but that's still not quite what I meant. I was trying to clarify what a keepable seven looked like and while I'm sure we all keep many 1-2 land hands, it also totally depends on the scenario. Furthermore, I'm sure there are plenty of unkeepable 3-4 landers. I can envision a scenario where you have resto, resto, wisp or say 3x vial. But that's getting into to extremely specific scenarios, which really isn't the point. But yes, if you frame my argument as I must have 3-4 lands in every hand, obviously the math doesn't agree with me, because who runs 30 lands? Nobody. Perhaps the error is on my side in that the implications that 3-4 lands are always good might be seen in what I said, but I don't think it's very easy to clarify what exactly a good starting seven is. If you'd like to make your own/ expand on my definition of it, be my guest.
Obviously, the range of keepable hands varies by matchup. But given you have access to perfect mathematical information about probability distributions, the situation that you optimize for should be G1 in some reasonable approximation of the metagame.
If you're not willing to use the perfect information that math gives you, that's fine. You don't have to. You can run 23 lands or 30 lands. But as far as I'm concerned, you've provided no evidence for why 23 lands is the right number.
As I stated earlier, the difference between 22 and 23 lands is small mathematically, so we're really arguing about that tiny percent difference.
This is true, but I could spin this the exact opposite way. Given the percentage difference is small mathematically, why haven't you cut that 23rd land?
(In practice, exactly how small of a difference depends on what constitutes a keepable opening hand. If keepable hands have 2-3 lands, then the difference between 22 and 23 land is only 0.62% in favor of 22. But if keepable hands have 3-4 lands, then the difference between 22 and 23 lands becomes 2.69% in favor of 23.)
Going off your last sentiment, I'm assuming you do understand why I might prefer 23 over 22. Given that, I can tell you that I've had to mulligan more hands when my list was on 22 lands than when it was on 23. While yes, it may occasionally cost me life or tempo, I'd rather ensure a better start. While the joke on my twitch is that I'm the dean of "Luck Sack University," I also understand where to take my chances and if I can guarantee a safer start without too much of a late game drawback, I'm going to do so.
This is basically a direct contradiction of your previous sentiment. If you're mulliganing significantly more hands having only 22 land as opposed to 23, that's probably variance, because they're so probabilistically similar. You would have to play literal thousands of games before you would notice this, which again begs the question: why are you still playing that 23rd land?
It's worth noting that we're having two arguments in one here. We're arguing both about whether 22 or 23 lands is correct AS WELL AS whether running canopy is right or not and in what numbers. It might be helpful to separate those as if I were going to run 22 lands in mono W, I'd still have 4x canopy in my deck and I'm sure you wouldn't. This begs the question, why wouldn't you want to have a higher chance of having a canopy in that 4 land opener? Unless you're in a very burn heavy meta, you likely won't be punished for the canopies.
I would like to have a higher chance of having Canopy in my 4-land opener. But the cost is that I also have a higher chance of having Canopy in my 2-land opener, which feels much worse.
Again, math can answer your question. Regardless of whether you have 22 or 23 lands, the chance of you having exactly 2 lands (30.02%, 28.56%) is higher than you having exactly 4 lands (15.98%, 17.82%). That means that you're more likely to have a 2-land opener with Canopy than a 4-land opener with Canopy. (That statement would still be true even if you only had one Canopy as opposed to four, but I digress.) My point is that the cost of making your 4-land openers better is making your 2-land openers significantly worse; not only are 2-land openers more likely, but the Canopies are probably costing you more life in the 2-land openers than the 4-land openers.
I agree with you that Canopy should be played in mono-white. I just think the correct number is probably 2-3.
Playing millions of cards every turn... Slowly and systematically obliterating any chance my opponent has of winning... Clicking the multitude of locking mechanisms into place... Not even trying to win myself until turn 10+ once I have nigh absolute control... Watching my opponent desperately trying to navigate the labyrinthine prison that I've constructed... Seeing the light of hope fade and ultimately extinguished in an excruciatingly slow manner... THAT'S fun Magic.
We have 2-3 users that are dramatically making this thread incomprehensible and non-productive for anyone else to possibly join in the discussion. This needs to change.
Every time I see [ktkenshinx] post in here, I get the impression of a stern dad walking in on a bunch of kids trying to do something dumb and just shaking his head in disappointment.
Near Mint: The same as Slightly Played, but we threw some Altoids in the box we stored it in to cover up the scent of dead mice. Slightly Played: The base condition for all MTG cards. This card looks OK, but there’s one minor annoying ding in it that will always irritate and distract you whenever you draw it. Moderately Played: This card looks like it survived the Tet Offensive tucked inside the waistband of GI underwear. It may smell like it, too. Heavily Played: This card looks like the remains of Mohammed Atta’s passport after 9/11. It may be playable if you double-sleeve it to stop the chunks from falling out. The condition formerly known as "Washing Machine Grade" Damaged: This card is the unfortunate victim of a Mirrorweave/March of the Machines/Chaos Confetti/Mindslaver combo.
[M]aking counterfeit cards is the absolute height of dishonesty. Ask yourself this question: Since most people...are totally cool with the use of proxies...what purpose do [high] quality counterfeit cards serve?
Perhaps we're looking at this in a different way, but a keepable opener can mean a lot of different things. For instance if you know what you're playing against, you might try to mulligan to find good cards for the MUs, but I don't think that's what either of us mean as we're talking about land count. There are 2 scenarios in my mind that lands might not make your opener keepable.
1) Too many lands. This would mean 5+ lands in the opener. if you have 2 cards that are good in the MU and some of your lands are utility in either the form of a man land, redraw, or LD, you might be able to keep a hand that has 4-5 lands, but I don't think any player would want to keep a hand that had 6-7 lands in it.
2) Too few lands. This is where you simply can't keep the hand because you can't cast your cards. This is likely going to be 2 or fewer lands. While our deck has aether vial which obviously helps to mitigate this issue and let us keep otherwise poor 1 landers, generally you can't keep a hand that has 2 lands and mono 3-4 drops. Another possible scenario would involve color screw. For mono W, this might mean finding something like 2x tec edges and then a bunch of cards that require a colored source.
Keeping all that in mind, I mulligan far more hands from issue #2 than issue #1. That's not to say that it never happens, but it happens much less. Specifically, I'll see hands that have 1 lands and no vial or hands with 0 lands.
So, while you're right that that extra canopy could be spell and not a land which is obviously good in the late game, I'd much rather be able to play the game more often at the start than have the potential of flooding out later. Your opening 7 affects the course of the game more than most any other factor. Having 4 of lands that can be redraws to find gas thus makes sense in this context. In this way you get to have more keepable starts in seeing enough lands as well as being willing to keep those 4-5 landers given redraws. Similarly, in the late game, the canopy helps you get to gas.
Play style may have something to do with this as well. I might be more willing to fire off GQs/crack canopies, but even so I think that doesn't have much to do with a "keepable 7."
You and I are talking about the same thing, except the math doesn't agree with you. The ideal number of lands in your deck to maximize your chances of having an opening 7 with 3 or 4 lands in hand, is 30 lands. I'm going to suggest to you that this really isn't the circumstance you want to optimize for.
For comparison, if you wanted to run the same analysis except for 2 or 3 lands in your opening 7, the ideal number of lands in your deck would be 21. And if you wanted to run that same analysis again with 2, 3, or 4 lands in your opening 7, the ideal number of lands in your deck would be 25.
It gets much, much more complicated when you start talking about color screw, because cards like Flickerwisp and Eldrazi Displacer are often only playable after the first few turns of the game anyway.
I know that the range of acceptable opening hands is hard to pin down, but I would almost always prefer an opener with two lands rather than four. You don't mind the four because you're hoping that at least one of them is a Canopy, but that deckbuilding approach is likely to cost you life, tempo, or both while you're curving out.
Playing millions of cards every turn... Slowly and systematically obliterating any chance my opponent has of winning... Clicking the multitude of locking mechanisms into place... Not even trying to win myself until turn 10+ once I have nigh absolute control... Watching my opponent desperately trying to navigate the labyrinthine prison that I've constructed... Seeing the light of hope fade and ultimately extinguished in an excruciatingly slow manner... THAT'S fun Magic.
We have 2-3 users that are dramatically making this thread incomprehensible and non-productive for anyone else to possibly join in the discussion. This needs to change.
Every time I see [ktkenshinx] post in here, I get the impression of a stern dad walking in on a bunch of kids trying to do something dumb and just shaking his head in disappointment.
Near Mint: The same as Slightly Played, but we threw some Altoids in the box we stored it in to cover up the scent of dead mice. Slightly Played: The base condition for all MTG cards. This card looks OK, but there’s one minor annoying ding in it that will always irritate and distract you whenever you draw it. Moderately Played: This card looks like it survived the Tet Offensive tucked inside the waistband of GI underwear. It may smell like it, too. Heavily Played: This card looks like the remains of Mohammed Atta’s passport after 9/11. It may be playable if you double-sleeve it to stop the chunks from falling out. The condition formerly known as "Washing Machine Grade" Damaged: This card is the unfortunate victim of a Mirrorweave/March of the Machines/Chaos Confetti/Mindslaver combo.
[M]aking counterfeit cards is the absolute height of dishonesty. Ask yourself this question: Since most people...are totally cool with the use of proxies...what purpose do [high] quality counterfeit cards serve?
I wouldn't be caught dead running 22 lands in mono W, even with smuggler's copter (which I also hugely recommend).
I didn't have a chance to respond to this earlier, but 22 lands is probably the right number. There's a little bit of room to debate it, but I suggest you make the switch and never look back.
Smuggler's copter helps sift through lands (or find them), but the issue has more to do with upping my keepable openers. I've extensively tested both 22 and 23 in an assortment of builds, and I tend to prefer 23, altho it depends on the curve and build of course. But for mono W, I believe 23 to be the correct number if you're running something close to the stock build. Of course some of our land choices affect this decision as well. Having 4x horizon canopy for instance that flooding is reduced. In my opinion, such a list is able to both have the optimal amount of good starting hands while also not concerning itself too heavily with flooding.
Of course, we're arguing over a fairly small percentage (I'm sure you have the numbers. I don't have them on hand.), but I do think that 23 (and 4x canopy) is correct for a list resembling the stock mono W list.
I'm probably going to believe this sentiment even more so once we're trying to run a whopping 10x LD lands.
The weirdest part about this discussion is that you and I have access to the same set of numbers. I can virtually guarantee that 23 lands with 4x Horizon Canopy is not the optimal way to build a mono-white manabase, and especially so if the deciding factor is keepable openers. Keepable openers are a function of probabilistic certainty; they're a set of numbers that you can't easily argue with.
If you were optimizing for something like T3/T4 land destruction plays, it would be much harder to reach a consensus. But given the criteria you're using, your conclusion only makes sense if you're aggressively cracking utility lands, in which case you should probably be closer to 24 or 25 lands anyway.
It's possible that you're simply piloting the deck to more grindy games than I am, but I tend to want to draw more gas than cantrips. If I can swap out a cantrip for more gas, I'm going to try to do it. That 4th Horizon Canopy for a 38th spell seems like an easy exchange given the difference in the probability of a keepable opener.
Playing millions of cards every turn... Slowly and systematically obliterating any chance my opponent has of winning... Clicking the multitude of locking mechanisms into place... Not even trying to win myself until turn 10+ once I have nigh absolute control... Watching my opponent desperately trying to navigate the labyrinthine prison that I've constructed... Seeing the light of hope fade and ultimately extinguished in an excruciatingly slow manner... THAT'S fun Magic.
We have 2-3 users that are dramatically making this thread incomprehensible and non-productive for anyone else to possibly join in the discussion. This needs to change.
Every time I see [ktkenshinx] post in here, I get the impression of a stern dad walking in on a bunch of kids trying to do something dumb and just shaking his head in disappointment.
Near Mint: The same as Slightly Played, but we threw some Altoids in the box we stored it in to cover up the scent of dead mice. Slightly Played: The base condition for all MTG cards. This card looks OK, but there’s one minor annoying ding in it that will always irritate and distract you whenever you draw it. Moderately Played: This card looks like it survived the Tet Offensive tucked inside the waistband of GI underwear. It may smell like it, too. Heavily Played: This card looks like the remains of Mohammed Atta’s passport after 9/11. It may be playable if you double-sleeve it to stop the chunks from falling out. The condition formerly known as "Washing Machine Grade" Damaged: This card is the unfortunate victim of a Mirrorweave/March of the Machines/Chaos Confetti/Mindslaver combo.
[M]aking counterfeit cards is the absolute height of dishonesty. Ask yourself this question: Since most people...are totally cool with the use of proxies...what purpose do [high] quality counterfeit cards serve?
Hello there, DNT Squad! Let's dive right into this. We have become a Tier 1 deck in the last 6 months. There are two builds primarily responsible for this: Mono-White DNT & Eldrazi And Taxes. This is not to say other builds haven't had major success but the major meta share is from the aforementioned duo. The next step is to see if either of those lists got better with Ixalan, and to determine what specific cards will be utilized from the new set.
Ixalan Playables: [These cards have the potential of being used for Death And Taxes in the maindeck and/or sideboard].
Field of Ruin: This card seems to be the clear winner as most likely played card for our archetype. I am not sold on it taking over Tectonic Edge slots like some others have been thinking. I do believe that this could be the 8th and 9th colorless land slots.
Settle the Wreckage: Path of God, Wrath to Exile, Mass Path (or whatever!) This is very likely in contention with the Dusk/Dawn slots in Mono-White's board. Not having to lose your own team is great. Having to wait for an opponent to alpha swing might be problematic, though. I do like this card a lot and look forward to testing it.
Kinjalli's Sunwing: This card has potential to be a flex slot for Mono-White. The body is "reasonable" and the tax is pretty affective in Modern. If a list wants Thalia, Heretic Cathar, there might be a chance this takes some of the same slots (maybe).)
Deadeye Tracker: Surprisingly, I think this might be a viable (pun intended) target for Eldrazi and Taxes. One Drops have proven to be pretty important. Having a card that can filter cards, scale in size, and force removal from the opps could be great. Eldrazi And Taxes players should really, really, really look at addressing the mana issues with the list. That deck has access to so many great tools but punishes itself so much with the current configuration.
I'm just quoting this for truth.
I suspect that Field of Ruin won't take over the Tectonic Edge slot, but it may become the 8th or 9th colorless land (8th if you're playing maindeck Mindcensor, 9th otherwise).
Settle the Wreckage is going to give us an edge against aggressive strategies, especially against things like Merfolk and Zoo. I'm looking forward to this one.
It's probably unlikely that Kinjalli's Sunwing is going to take the slot of Thalia, Heretic Cathar because Thalia's ability to tax nonbasic lands is such a huge advantage in certain matchups, but the Sunwing's ability to fly will ensure that it connects more often. They're both good, but I think that Sunwing probably doesn't become better than Thalia until you're considering a third copy of Thalia.
Recently, I have had an influx of people asking me for my sideboard planning. I tend to play "unconventional" Magic and look for mix-ups to adjust for the meta (see in example: Journey To Nowhere.) While I may not be reinventing the wheel or choosing a plan most will agree with, many have continuously asked about my personal sideboard strategy.
So without further adieu, "How to be a Death-Cat".
Precursor to building the SB:
Step 1: Jam (and track) as many games with your desired list. Find out how many games you are winning on draw/play with your main deck. The desired result is to be 50% better against any given deck at any given time with your main deck. While you play more games in the sideboard, you have access to a maximum of 15 cards in your SB. Having a fighting chance game one is critical to your overall win percentage. Have you ever noticed most people in Top 8 do not have amazing blow out wins but consistently win round over round. This is because a balanced deck will win across the field instead of head-hunting 2-3 meta decks.
Step 2: Use a trusted site such as: MtgTop 8 or Mtg Goldfish to determine what the top tier decks are. Observe how many decks have overlapping strategies. Do 3 decks in the meta all crumble to Rest In Peace? Is there a singular deck that just seems like its the only one that needs specific hate (Affinity). Use the information from Step 1 to determine if you even want to have additional tools against them. If you are 50%+ against them on play and draw, then why are you dedicating hate to the deck or the pilot. My earliest years of Magic have shown me sometimes we get tethered to how it feels to lose to the same player over and over again. Eventually, you want to stick it to that player... not the deck.
Step 3: Accept your losses. There are some decks that you will not beat unless you over commit to beating them. If you are playing against a deck that you are 20-40% on play/draw prior to boarding, Adding 2 cards to your SB is not worth the percentage points you would gain against other overlapping strategies. After every round in a major event, I count what cards in my SB came in and how many were drawn in the match. This will help you you track whether your sb choices are influential in you wining games.
Step 4: Change your sideboard based on what your results are telling you! If you have cards that have become pet sideboard cards, cut them! "I SAID CUT THEM!" lol. Modern is always changing. Cards are always being printed. Your match up percentages are changing every 3 months. Storm use to be a complete joke against DNT. Now, they have 8 Thalias/Storm Lords. Change your sideboards. Stop being stubborn.
Pre-Ixalan Sideboard: Here goes an example sideboard of mine (at the moment):
This sideboard was a result of all the things I described in the precursor section. I tracked my results and made changes as needed. (Gideon might need to be readjusted at the time of the post).
Lets give a mock run through 5 rounds to see if I have reasonable sideboard options. I am going to check a random tournament report on MTG Goldfish and see how our SB would have would perform. Link to Gauntlet
R1 vs UW Control.
SB Options: Gideon of the Trials, Oblivion Ring, Eidolon of Rheteric, Rest In Peace, Spellskite.
R2 vs Ad Nauseam (Skipped Jeskai due to redundancy).
SB Options: Gideon of the Trials, Oblivion Ring, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Spellskite, Burrenton Forge-Tender.
R3 vs Esper Gifts.
SB Options: Eidolon of Rhetoric, Rest In Peace, Spellskite, Sunlance, Journey To Nowhere.
R4 vs Bogle.
SB Options: Spellskite, Oblivion Ring.
R5 vs Affinity.
SB Options: Oblivion Ring, Spellskite, Journey to Nowhere, Sunlance, Burrenton Forge-Tender.
With these matches, data shows me that I can expect to run a 5-0 or 4-1 against the meta. The swingiest matches being Bogle and Affinity. The Gideon might be the shakiest card in my board according to what we are observing. Initially, Gideon was in the Board due to Smallpox and other randoms showing up in the meta. But, it might be time to turn those into Settle the Wreckage. And guess what! That would answer the shaky match ups we just analyzed.
While this is not a step by step into every tier match up, I hope it gives some insight to my SB building and why I feel that my unorthodox sb tends to do well. In the last year I have attended roughly 6-7 events and have placed top 8 in all of them. I think with more data we can all potentially continue to uncover great tools as metas keep pushing forward.
Again, I'm mostly just quoting this for truth. Catmix and I tend to agree on general D&T strategy, including building a sideboard.
My 75 probably looks pretty similar to Catmix's 75, but I keep some of the core taxers in the sideboard. In the maindeck, I run 3x Thalia, and a 2/2 Arbiter/Mindcensor split. My 2x Gideon of the Trials is in the maindeck. In our sideboards, Blessed Alliance and Spellskite fill very similar roles, putting in work against Bogles, Infect, and Burn.
The major difference between our sideboards is that I'm running Shining Shoal in his Journey to Nowhere slot. I really like Journey to Nowhere and I may end up switching to it. Shoal is great out of the sideboard though because most opponents don't expect it and it can cause major blowouts.
I've said it before, but it's worth repeating: Catmix knows what he's doing.
Playing millions of cards every turn... Slowly and systematically obliterating any chance my opponent has of winning... Clicking the multitude of locking mechanisms into place... Not even trying to win myself until turn 10+ once I have nigh absolute control... Watching my opponent desperately trying to navigate the labyrinthine prison that I've constructed... Seeing the light of hope fade and ultimately extinguished in an excruciatingly slow manner... THAT'S fun Magic.
We have 2-3 users that are dramatically making this thread incomprehensible and non-productive for anyone else to possibly join in the discussion. This needs to change.
Every time I see [ktkenshinx] post in here, I get the impression of a stern dad walking in on a bunch of kids trying to do something dumb and just shaking his head in disappointment.
Near Mint: The same as Slightly Played, but we threw some Altoids in the box we stored it in to cover up the scent of dead mice. Slightly Played: The base condition for all MTG cards. This card looks OK, but there’s one minor annoying ding in it that will always irritate and distract you whenever you draw it. Moderately Played: This card looks like it survived the Tet Offensive tucked inside the waistband of GI underwear. It may smell like it, too. Heavily Played: This card looks like the remains of Mohammed Atta’s passport after 9/11. It may be playable if you double-sleeve it to stop the chunks from falling out. The condition formerly known as "Washing Machine Grade" Damaged: This card is the unfortunate victim of a Mirrorweave/March of the Machines/Chaos Confetti/Mindslaver combo.
[M]aking counterfeit cards is the absolute height of dishonesty. Ask yourself this question: Since most people...are totally cool with the use of proxies...what purpose do [high] quality counterfeit cards serve?
I wouldn't be caught dead running 22 lands in mono W, even with smuggler's copter (which I also hugely recommend).
I didn't have a chance to respond to this earlier, but 22 lands is probably the right number. There's a little bit of room to debate it, but I suggest you make the switch and never look back.
Playing millions of cards every turn... Slowly and systematically obliterating any chance my opponent has of winning... Clicking the multitude of locking mechanisms into place... Not even trying to win myself until turn 10+ once I have nigh absolute control... Watching my opponent desperately trying to navigate the labyrinthine prison that I've constructed... Seeing the light of hope fade and ultimately extinguished in an excruciatingly slow manner... THAT'S fun Magic.
We have 2-3 users that are dramatically making this thread incomprehensible and non-productive for anyone else to possibly join in the discussion. This needs to change.
Every time I see [ktkenshinx] post in here, I get the impression of a stern dad walking in on a bunch of kids trying to do something dumb and just shaking his head in disappointment.
Near Mint: The same as Slightly Played, but we threw some Altoids in the box we stored it in to cover up the scent of dead mice. Slightly Played: The base condition for all MTG cards. This card looks OK, but there’s one minor annoying ding in it that will always irritate and distract you whenever you draw it. Moderately Played: This card looks like it survived the Tet Offensive tucked inside the waistband of GI underwear. It may smell like it, too. Heavily Played: This card looks like the remains of Mohammed Atta’s passport after 9/11. It may be playable if you double-sleeve it to stop the chunks from falling out. The condition formerly known as "Washing Machine Grade" Damaged: This card is the unfortunate victim of a Mirrorweave/March of the Machines/Chaos Confetti/Mindslaver combo.
[M]aking counterfeit cards is the absolute height of dishonesty. Ask yourself this question: Since most people...are totally cool with the use of proxies...what purpose do [high] quality counterfeit cards serve?
Real answer:
Rest in Peace
Burrenton Forge-Tender
Sunlance
Oblivion Ring
Gideon of the Trials (if not in the maindeck) or Declaration in Stone (if GotT is in the maindeck)
Hi everyone, I wanted to share my latest version of this deck! I've been testing the above green splash and really liking it. Oath of Nissa is great at finding the exact right land or creature you need, while also having some really great synergies with the rest of the deck. It comes at the cost of the Thraben Inspector, but I have found being able to dig deeper and not spend mana to draw is worth the trade off. The rest of the deck is a fairly standard mono-white list, with a minor green splash. Let me know what you all think, and I would encourage you to try it out!
SpiderSpace and I have played a lot with the green splash; to me, you've done some things right and other things wrong.
Things I like:
1) Less than four Hierarchs. SpiderSpace and I can argue about this later, but four is too many for my taste.
2) 22 land. 22 or 21 is probably the right number for the green splash with Hierarchs.
3) 4x the core (Vial, Thalia, Arbiter, Flickerwisp, Path). If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
4) 4x Blade Splicer and 4x Restoration Angel. Good choice for the metagame.
Things I don't like:
1) 4x Horizon Canopies. I don't care how many lists T8 with 4 copies of Canopy. It's bad and those pilots should feel bad. The right number is 2-3, because double Canopy hands are terrible. The green splash gets away with 4 because Hierarch/Oath occasionally play like mana sources, but you'll lose a lot of games on the margin where you draw two Canopies early.
2) Kor Skyfisher. It's cute, and the interaction with Oath of Nissa is powerful. But it's also not the most powerful thing you could be doing with those slots, which means those slots should be something else.
3) Renegade Rallier. See the justification for Kor Skyfisher. It's cute. It's occasionally good. Do something better.
4) 10 one-drops. It doesn't matter that they're good one drops; too many one drops will weaken your deck. Just ask any Burn player who topdecks a Monastery Swiftspear. The maximum number of one-drops is probably 9; 8 is preferable; 4 is required (4x Vial).
All in all:
This list is close to being good. It's a little weaker than most WG lists though; too many one drops and not enough rawpower. Also, Fiend Hunter is a very desirable card in WG lists running Oath of Nissa, because it's one of the only pieces of removal that Oath can dig for. Finally, Oath of Nissa makes Gideon of the Trials that much better; I'd run at least one, maybe two.
There will be a big Modern event in two weeks from now, and I will probably bring my Mono-W D&T deck, as I think it can be quite powerful at the moment against major decks, such as Titan Shift, Burn or Death Shadows.
At the moment I have the following deck (note that Ixalan will be legal by then):
What do you think about it? Your feedback would be greatly appreciated
Also, I might consider to try Settle the Wreckage in the sideboard. It might be good against wide-spread strategies such as merfolk or edlrazis (since our creatures are most of the time too small to fight them). And the card gets even better with Arbiter or Mindcensor on the field.
Thank you!!
I would recommend checking out Catmix's list from the PPTQ, but a few general notes:
1) go to 22 land
2) add Smuggler's Copter (3x, if possible)
3) Tectonic Edge > Field of Ruin
4) Shefet Dunes is less good than Canopy if you're not running Displacer
In the board:
1) Try 2x Settle the Wreckage
2) 3x Blessed Alliance is too many, unless you're expecting a lot of Bogles
3) Take out Aura of Silence
Playing millions of cards every turn... Slowly and systematically obliterating any chance my opponent has of winning... Clicking the multitude of locking mechanisms into place... Not even trying to win myself until turn 10+ once I have nigh absolute control... Watching my opponent desperately trying to navigate the labyrinthine prison that I've constructed... Seeing the light of hope fade and ultimately extinguished in an excruciatingly slow manner... THAT'S fun Magic.
We have 2-3 users that are dramatically making this thread incomprehensible and non-productive for anyone else to possibly join in the discussion. This needs to change.
Every time I see [ktkenshinx] post in here, I get the impression of a stern dad walking in on a bunch of kids trying to do something dumb and just shaking his head in disappointment.
Near Mint: The same as Slightly Played, but we threw some Altoids in the box we stored it in to cover up the scent of dead mice. Slightly Played: The base condition for all MTG cards. This card looks OK, but there’s one minor annoying ding in it that will always irritate and distract you whenever you draw it. Moderately Played: This card looks like it survived the Tet Offensive tucked inside the waistband of GI underwear. It may smell like it, too. Heavily Played: This card looks like the remains of Mohammed Atta’s passport after 9/11. It may be playable if you double-sleeve it to stop the chunks from falling out. The condition formerly known as "Washing Machine Grade" Damaged: This card is the unfortunate victim of a Mirrorweave/March of the Machines/Chaos Confetti/Mindslaver combo.
[M]aking counterfeit cards is the absolute height of dishonesty. Ask yourself this question: Since most people...are totally cool with the use of proxies...what purpose do [high] quality counterfeit cards serve?
It make sense the introduction of spot removal. Maybe even add disenchant to cover some enchantment trouble too. I'm going to try your type of list.
Other doubt, what are your conclusions on displacer? Worth it?
Short answer: Try it and see if it works for you.
Long answer: Displacer is a really difficult card to evaluate. It's objectively good - arguably one of the best cards in the deck. The problem is that it costs 3 mana and has no immediate impact on the board state. For those of you who have been reading the thread for a while, this is known as the Mangara problem.
In theory, Mangara is one of the best possible cards for our deck. It can hit any troublesomepermanent, includinglands, and you can flicker it for value. For a while, it was a staple in the Legacy D&T lists, because of its interactions with Karakas. So why isn't it played in Modern?
It isn't played because, unlike the Legacy version, we can't protectit long enough to get value out of it. As soon as Mangara hits the battlefield, it gets removedatatempoloss. So despite it seeming like a great card for the deck, it consistently underperforms because every opponent is going to remove it at a tempo advantage. Hence, the Mangara problem.
Eldrazi Displacer is not always a 3-drop. In fact, it usually isn't a 3-drop. Like Managara, if it sticks on the battlefield, you eventually win. But no opponent is going to let you keep it, and they're all going to use removal spells that cost less than 3 CMC to get rid of it. Catmix really likes the card (and justifiably so), but he will often play it like a 6-drop. That's right; Eldrazi Displacer is competing with Sun Titan. (I'm joking. Please don't try to play Sun Titan.) In order to play Displacer effectively, one of two things has to be true: (1) you can activate Displacer as soon as it enters the battlefield (either you have 6 mana or a Vial on 3), or (2) you have to be reasonably certain that your opponent is out of removal (so Displacer should almost always be the last or second-to-last card in your hand when you finally cast it).
But the above, in a nutshell, is a kind of Mangara problem. Displacer is better than Mangara though, because there are reasonable ways for Displacer to effectively have haste (either you have 6 mana or you have an active Vial on 3, allowing Displacer to be activated immediately when it enters the battlefield).
Okay, so now glance back at my tournament report. I got to play 4 rounds of Magic, and the last 3 rounds were against red decks all running some combination of Bolt, Helix, and Anger of the Gods. Every time I would play Displacer on turn 3 or 4 (which, admittedly, was often a mistake), it would immediately get removed. As a result, Displacer underperformed all day and probably cost me a game or two. By contrast, Catmix will tell you that there were matchups he couldn't have won without Displacer. He was more comfortable playing with it than I was, and his results yesterday show it.
If you want to be an aggro deck, play Brimaz or something similar in that slot. If you want to be a control deck, play Displacer instead.
Looking at my matchups yesterday, those Displacers really needed to be something more aggressive, like Brimaz or Walking Ballista. But if my matchups were different, I could be saying something else today.
Try Displacer and see if you like it, but make sure you're playing it properly. For examples of how to play it properly, watch Catmix on his stream.
At this point I'd like to take a moment to talk about Spell Queller. Neither my opponent or I were very impressed by it's performance. He was able to exile some of my spells with it, but I was always able to get them back through wisps or my own removal. The card just never seemed to do enough to justify its place in the deck. I've seen a few U/W D&T lists floating around and honestly I don't think it's the right card for us. it's just two easy to get the exiled spell back. If we were comboing off the next turn this discussion would be different, but as it stands I don't think this kind of tempo card is right for us. Moving on...
This sentiment almost couldn't be more wrong. Your logic would also apply to Tidehollow Sculler in WB, and Sculler puts in a lot of work in WB D&T lists. Honestly, Spell Queller is one of the best reasons to play WU (and Queller in WU is much better than Sculler in WB).
Queller is a tough card to play properly. You have to know when to play it as an aggressive beater and when to hold it up to hit an opponent's spell. If you're consistently catching a random spell on T3, you're probably playing the card wrong, because your opponent's hand will still be filled with removal spells at that point in the game. Queller basically locks your opponent out of his or her endgame, allowing you to push through damage. If you need something that you can deploy aggressively, Reflector Mage is what you're looking for instead.
It sounds like either your opponent didn't really know how to play his or her deck, or more likely, he or she was forced into playing Queller at inopportune times because you had applied so much pressure (to both his/her manabase and life total).
Playing millions of cards every turn... Slowly and systematically obliterating any chance my opponent has of winning... Clicking the multitude of locking mechanisms into place... Not even trying to win myself until turn 10+ once I have nigh absolute control... Watching my opponent desperately trying to navigate the labyrinthine prison that I've constructed... Seeing the light of hope fade and ultimately extinguished in an excruciatingly slow manner... THAT'S fun Magic.
We have 2-3 users that are dramatically making this thread incomprehensible and non-productive for anyone else to possibly join in the discussion. This needs to change.
Every time I see [ktkenshinx] post in here, I get the impression of a stern dad walking in on a bunch of kids trying to do something dumb and just shaking his head in disappointment.
Near Mint: The same as Slightly Played, but we threw some Altoids in the box we stored it in to cover up the scent of dead mice. Slightly Played: The base condition for all MTG cards. This card looks OK, but there’s one minor annoying ding in it that will always irritate and distract you whenever you draw it. Moderately Played: This card looks like it survived the Tet Offensive tucked inside the waistband of GI underwear. It may smell like it, too. Heavily Played: This card looks like the remains of Mohammed Atta’s passport after 9/11. It may be playable if you double-sleeve it to stop the chunks from falling out. The condition formerly known as "Washing Machine Grade" Damaged: This card is the unfortunate victim of a Mirrorweave/March of the Machines/Chaos Confetti/Mindslaver combo.
[M]aking counterfeit cards is the absolute height of dishonesty. Ask yourself this question: Since most people...are totally cool with the use of proxies...what purpose do [high] quality counterfeit cards serve?
Excellent results and I really like the list except for the fact that you miss write down the restos you talked about in the recap.
I have I big doubt: Why not Stony Silence? How would you face the affinity match up without them?
Neither Catmix nor I wanted to dedicate entire sideboard slots to the Affinity matchup. Instead, he and I had versatile spot removal that would have come in, had either of us played against Affinity.
Playing millions of cards every turn... Slowly and systematically obliterating any chance my opponent has of winning... Clicking the multitude of locking mechanisms into place... Not even trying to win myself until turn 10+ once I have nigh absolute control... Watching my opponent desperately trying to navigate the labyrinthine prison that I've constructed... Seeing the light of hope fade and ultimately extinguished in an excruciatingly slow manner... THAT'S fun Magic.
We have 2-3 users that are dramatically making this thread incomprehensible and non-productive for anyone else to possibly join in the discussion. This needs to change.
Every time I see [ktkenshinx] post in here, I get the impression of a stern dad walking in on a bunch of kids trying to do something dumb and just shaking his head in disappointment.
Near Mint: The same as Slightly Played, but we threw some Altoids in the box we stored it in to cover up the scent of dead mice. Slightly Played: The base condition for all MTG cards. This card looks OK, but there’s one minor annoying ding in it that will always irritate and distract you whenever you draw it. Moderately Played: This card looks like it survived the Tet Offensive tucked inside the waistband of GI underwear. It may smell like it, too. Heavily Played: This card looks like the remains of Mohammed Atta’s passport after 9/11. It may be playable if you double-sleeve it to stop the chunks from falling out. The condition formerly known as "Washing Machine Grade" Damaged: This card is the unfortunate victim of a Mirrorweave/March of the Machines/Chaos Confetti/Mindslaver combo.
[M]aking counterfeit cards is the absolute height of dishonesty. Ask yourself this question: Since most people...are totally cool with the use of proxies...what purpose do [high] quality counterfeit cards serve?
I didn't do quite as well as Catmix, but the deck still felt really strong. My matchups felt winnable, but I needed more practice with the deck. (I haven't played a mono-white list in about a year.) I ended up going 2-2-1, although my last round was a win-and-in for T8.
Catmix and I piloted similar lists, although there were small variations in our 75:
R1 vs. CharonsObol aka Mirror: ID
We drove together, test together, theorize together and planned the trip together. It was for the best sake of friendship and time that we decided to face the odds with an intentional draw. We knew this was not great for the breakers at the end of our 5 rounds but bros before pros* (tour qualifiers).
This. And in the end, Catmix managed to ID into T8, and I still had a win-and-in. Worth it.
R2 vs. UW Prison: match 2-0 and tournament 1-0-1
G1: T1 Inspector into T2 Copter, while my opponent goes T2 and T3 Suppression Field. Double Suppression field is annoying against this deck, but I manage to chip away damage until I finally just bounce his Phyrexian Unlife with a Flickerwisp.
G2: Again, T1 Inspector into T2 Copter, except this time I actually get to crew things without paying 4. Much better. Pressure on his mana meant that he was only able to Entreat the Angels for 1, and a Flickerwisp made quick work of the angel token.
R3 vs. Mardu: match 0-2 and tournament 1-1-1
G1: His T1 Thoughtseize grabbed my Arbiter, which was unfortunate given how shaky his manabase was. I ultimately drew 3x Ghost Quarter and didn't basic-check him quickly enough, but eventually I just started to Strip Mine things. Also, free paths feel pretty good. I lost this game having gotten him down to either 1 or 2 life, and he had played 2-3 Lightning Helixes. He ultimately ran away with the game when he cast (and flashed back) Lingering Souls with 2x Young Pyromancer on the battlefield.
G2: More or less the same as G1, with slightly different details. I was way ahead and simply ran out of gas.
Note: Both games, my opponent had a T2 Dark Confidant, and in retrospect, I should probably have stopped taking aggressive lines on the ground and forced him to remove his own creature. At the time, I thought the aggressive line was the right one (because I didn't want him to keep drawing cards), but now I think I punted both games by swinging on the ground and letting him block when he had around 5 life left.
R4 vs. Scapeshift: match 2-0 tournament 2-1-1
G1: T3 Aven Mindcensor made things really tough for him. I was on the play, and he never quite got going. Felt really good having Mindcensor in the maindeck.
G2: He played Anger of the Gods when I had 2x Arbiter and an Inspector. Smuggler's Copter survived though, which meant the subsequent turn Blade Splicer felt pretty good. He had to Summoner's Pact for a Reclamation Sage in order to remove the Copter, so I knew I was pretty far ahead. I followed up with a Flickerwisp targeting Splicer, which basically ended the game.
Note: Shoutout to my R4 opponent, who was a super nice guy. It's hard to sit across from a really bad matchup and still be a positive person, but he deserves some kudos for doing it. It was fun talking with him afterward, too.
At this point, I actually was in a perfect spot to sneak into the T8 based on standings, provided I won the final match (which I didn't).
R5 vs. RG Ponza: match 0-2 tournament 2-2-1
G1: I'm on the play, but he played a T2 Blood Moon, which really slowed things down. It was actually worse than that; by the end of T2 he had Blood Moon, Utopia Sprawl, and 2x Arbor Elf. It was a very good draw. I actually had a T3 land destruction play that was no longer an option (Blood Moon takes Ghost Quarter offline), which really hurt me in the short and long run. I used a Path on his inevitable Inferno Titan, and actually managed to make a game out of this. I ultimately lost to 2x Huntmaster of the Fells transforming and dealing 4 damage to the Restoration Angel that represented lethal. Rough break.
G2: I mull to 6, and keep a 2-land hand with a Thraben Inspector and Smuggler's Copter. Not a bad start against most decks, but this really wasn't the interaction that I needed for this matchup. It wasn't much of a game, because my 3rd land got Stone Rain'd and I never recovered. In retrospect, I probably sideboarded incorrectly. It's also possible that I should have gone to 5, looking for more interactive cards.
In the end, the deck was much better than my record suggests. Don't let my piloting errors scare you off this list; Catmix and I played 57 of the same cards in the maindeck. The list was pretty great.
Things I would change in the maindeck:
-1 Stonecloaker
-2 Eldrazi Displacer
+1 Gideon of the Trials
+2 ???
Things I would change in the sideboard:
Honestly, I'm not sure. The whole day, I almost never saw any sideboard cards. I played Burrenton Forge-Tender twice, saw a Mirran Crusader once (but never cast it) and the rest of my cards never made an appearance. That was pretty unfortunate, to be honest. I could really have used a lot of them.
Like Catmix, that's all I've got for now. Happy taxing!
-CharonsObol
Playing millions of cards every turn... Slowly and systematically obliterating any chance my opponent has of winning... Clicking the multitude of locking mechanisms into place... Not even trying to win myself until turn 10+ once I have nigh absolute control... Watching my opponent desperately trying to navigate the labyrinthine prison that I've constructed... Seeing the light of hope fade and ultimately extinguished in an excruciatingly slow manner... THAT'S fun Magic.
We have 2-3 users that are dramatically making this thread incomprehensible and non-productive for anyone else to possibly join in the discussion. This needs to change.
Every time I see [ktkenshinx] post in here, I get the impression of a stern dad walking in on a bunch of kids trying to do something dumb and just shaking his head in disappointment.
Near Mint: The same as Slightly Played, but we threw some Altoids in the box we stored it in to cover up the scent of dead mice. Slightly Played: The base condition for all MTG cards. This card looks OK, but there’s one minor annoying ding in it that will always irritate and distract you whenever you draw it. Moderately Played: This card looks like it survived the Tet Offensive tucked inside the waistband of GI underwear. It may smell like it, too. Heavily Played: This card looks like the remains of Mohammed Atta’s passport after 9/11. It may be playable if you double-sleeve it to stop the chunks from falling out. The condition formerly known as "Washing Machine Grade" Damaged: This card is the unfortunate victim of a Mirrorweave/March of the Machines/Chaos Confetti/Mindslaver combo.
[M]aking counterfeit cards is the absolute height of dishonesty. Ask yourself this question: Since most people...are totally cool with the use of proxies...what purpose do [high] quality counterfeit cards serve?
There's a lot going on with your list, but I can already tell you that Hierarch is better than Birds. Hierarch is the second best mana dork behind Deathrite Shaman, and both of them are miles ahead of the third best dork, which is Birds of Paradise.
Finks in the maindeck is a metagame call. Unless your metagame is filled with Burn, it's probably not the right one. You've basically pulled 4x Blade Splicer for 2x Serra Avenger and 2x Kitchen Finks, which I think is probably a mistake. The 2x Serra Avenger is definitely a mistake. The 2x Kitchen Finks, well, your mileage may vary.
For what it's worth, I was recently testing Wrath of God in the Settle the Wreckage slot, and I think Wrath is the right call against a lot of decks. You only want that card when your opponents go wide faster than you do, and in that spot, you don't want your opponents to be able to play around it.
Like Catmix said, we've been playing Lingering Souls in WB variants for a while now. Catmix advocated for it a long time ago, and I've become a big fan since trying it myself.
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Masterpiece Vials are a nice touch, but you should only be running Masterpiece Vials if you've also got WMCQ Thalias.
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Fragmentize is versatile and cheap, but it's slow. If your opponent topdecks a Cranial Plating on T5 and swings for the win, you'll feel differently about that Fragmentize in your hand. Fragmentize does a better job of removing Ensnaring Bridges and Blood Moons because of the tempo advantage it provides.
Spot removal is probably enough to give you an edge against Affinity. Sunlance and Journey to Nowhere are probably your best options. I mentioned Shining Shoal - which is sort of a joke between Catmix and I - but that card is really good at punishing linear aggro strategies like Affinity. Shoal is good against decks that (1) don't usually run discard or counterspells and (2) would rather win by an inch than a mile. In other words, it's good against Affinity, Zoo, and Burn; it's okay against Merfolk; it's bad against Elves.
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@TheLegionsArmory: You already have 4 Splicers and 8 flicker effects. You should be adding Copters in the maindeck and cutting Stony Silence in the board. If you're worried about the Affinity matchup, add some more spot removal (Sunlance, Journey to Nowhere, Shining Shoal) or some artifact removal (Fragmentize, Disenchant).
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Unfortunately, it won't. Both Spider and I have access to pretty comprehensive probability distribution tables for this deck, and I have additional access to a Monte Carlo simulator for figuring out everything else (e.g., "what are the odds I draw a Hierarch, Arbiter, Ghost Quarter, and WG source in my opening hand?"). Both Spider and I know the math, although I'm more of a purist about it (as you can probably tell).
Either way, neither of us need additional resources on this topic. We've both played this game for a very long time. We both know this deck inside and out. We're arguing about performance information that's really on the margin of mainstream gameplay and not readily answerable using a goldfish simulator.
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I do think you can comfortably cut the Shefet Dunes though. Dunes works much better in lists that run Eldrazi Displacer because it produces both white and colorless mana. But I think that your list probably wants something like (-2 Dunes, -1 Plains, +3 Flagstones of Trokair) because the ability to turn a Ghost Quarter into a Plains is going to be relevant as you try to curve out.
Obviously, the range of keepable hands varies by matchup. But given you have access to perfect mathematical information about probability distributions, the situation that you optimize for should be G1 in some reasonable approximation of the metagame.
If you're not willing to use the perfect information that math gives you, that's fine. You don't have to. You can run 23 lands or 30 lands. But as far as I'm concerned, you've provided no evidence for why 23 lands is the right number.
This is true, but I could spin this the exact opposite way. Given the percentage difference is small mathematically, why haven't you cut that 23rd land?
(In practice, exactly how small of a difference depends on what constitutes a keepable opening hand. If keepable hands have 2-3 lands, then the difference between 22 and 23 land is only 0.62% in favor of 22. But if keepable hands have 3-4 lands, then the difference between 22 and 23 lands becomes 2.69% in favor of 23.)
This is basically a direct contradiction of your previous sentiment. If you're mulliganing significantly more hands having only 22 land as opposed to 23, that's probably variance, because they're so probabilistically similar. You would have to play literal thousands of games before you would notice this, which again begs the question: why are you still playing that 23rd land?
I would like to have a higher chance of having Canopy in my 4-land opener. But the cost is that I also have a higher chance of having Canopy in my 2-land opener, which feels much worse.
Again, math can answer your question. Regardless of whether you have 22 or 23 lands, the chance of you having exactly 2 lands (30.02%, 28.56%) is higher than you having exactly 4 lands (15.98%, 17.82%). That means that you're more likely to have a 2-land opener with Canopy than a 4-land opener with Canopy. (That statement would still be true even if you only had one Canopy as opposed to four, but I digress.) My point is that the cost of making your 4-land openers better is making your 2-land openers significantly worse; not only are 2-land openers more likely, but the Canopies are probably costing you more life in the 2-land openers than the 4-land openers.
I agree with you that Canopy should be played in mono-white. I just think the correct number is probably 2-3.
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For comparison, if you wanted to run the same analysis except for 2 or 3 lands in your opening 7, the ideal number of lands in your deck would be 21. And if you wanted to run that same analysis again with 2, 3, or 4 lands in your opening 7, the ideal number of lands in your deck would be 25.
It gets much, much more complicated when you start talking about color screw, because cards like Flickerwisp and Eldrazi Displacer are often only playable after the first few turns of the game anyway.
I know that the range of acceptable opening hands is hard to pin down, but I would almost always prefer an opener with two lands rather than four. You don't mind the four because you're hoping that at least one of them is a Canopy, but that deckbuilding approach is likely to cost you life, tempo, or both while you're curving out.
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If you were optimizing for something like T3/T4 land destruction plays, it would be much harder to reach a consensus. But given the criteria you're using, your conclusion only makes sense if you're aggressively cracking utility lands, in which case you should probably be closer to 24 or 25 lands anyway.
It's possible that you're simply piloting the deck to more grindy games than I am, but I tend to want to draw more gas than cantrips. If I can swap out a cantrip for more gas, I'm going to try to do it. That 4th Horizon Canopy for a 38th spell seems like an easy exchange given the difference in the probability of a keepable opener.
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I suspect that Field of Ruin won't take over the Tectonic Edge slot, but it may become the 8th or 9th colorless land (8th if you're playing maindeck Mindcensor, 9th otherwise).
Settle the Wreckage is going to give us an edge against aggressive strategies, especially against things like Merfolk and Zoo. I'm looking forward to this one.
It's probably unlikely that Kinjalli's Sunwing is going to take the slot of Thalia, Heretic Cathar because Thalia's ability to tax nonbasic lands is such a huge advantage in certain matchups, but the Sunwing's ability to fly will ensure that it connects more often. They're both good, but I think that Sunwing probably doesn't become better than Thalia until you're considering a third copy of Thalia.
Again, I'm mostly just quoting this for truth. Catmix and I tend to agree on general D&T strategy, including building a sideboard.
My current sideboard looks like this:
2 Leonin Arbiter
2 Rest in Peace
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Sunlance
2 Shining Shoal
1 Blessed Alliance
The major difference between our sideboards is that I'm running Shining Shoal in his Journey to Nowhere slot. I really like Journey to Nowhere and I may end up switching to it. Shoal is great out of the sideboard though because most opponents don't expect it and it can cause major blowouts.
I've said it before, but it's worth repeating: Catmix knows what he's doing.
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SpiderSpace
LtGlitter
Chalupacabra
Jendo87
...at least I'll be great in the mirror match.
Real answer:
Rest in Peace
Burrenton Forge-Tender
Sunlance
Oblivion Ring
Gideon of the Trials (if not in the maindeck) or Declaration in Stone (if GotT is in the maindeck)
SpiderSpace and I have played a lot with the green splash; to me, you've done some things right and other things wrong.
Things I like:
1) Less than four Hierarchs. SpiderSpace and I can argue about this later, but four is too many for my taste.
2) 22 land. 22 or 21 is probably the right number for the green splash with Hierarchs.
3) 4x the core (Vial, Thalia, Arbiter, Flickerwisp, Path). If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
4) 4x Blade Splicer and 4x Restoration Angel. Good choice for the metagame.
Things I don't like:
1) 4x Horizon Canopies. I don't care how many lists T8 with 4 copies of Canopy. It's bad and those pilots should feel bad. The right number is 2-3, because double Canopy hands are terrible. The green splash gets away with 4 because Hierarch/Oath occasionally play like mana sources, but you'll lose a lot of games on the margin where you draw two Canopies early.
2) Kor Skyfisher. It's cute, and the interaction with Oath of Nissa is powerful. But it's also not the most powerful thing you could be doing with those slots, which means those slots should be something else.
3) Renegade Rallier. See the justification for Kor Skyfisher. It's cute. It's occasionally good. Do something better.
4) 10 one-drops. It doesn't matter that they're good one drops; too many one drops will weaken your deck. Just ask any Burn player who topdecks a Monastery Swiftspear. The maximum number of one-drops is probably 9; 8 is preferable; 4 is required (4x Vial).
All in all:
This list is close to being good. It's a little weaker than most WG lists though; too many one drops and not enough raw power. Also, Fiend Hunter is a very desirable card in WG lists running Oath of Nissa, because it's one of the only pieces of removal that Oath can dig for. Finally, Oath of Nissa makes Gideon of the Trials that much better; I'd run at least one, maybe two.
I would recommend checking out Catmix's list from the PPTQ, but a few general notes:
1) go to 22 land
2) add Smuggler's Copter (3x, if possible)
3) Tectonic Edge > Field of Ruin
4) Shefet Dunes is less good than Canopy if you're not running Displacer
In the board:
1) Try 2x Settle the Wreckage
2) 3x Blessed Alliance is too many, unless you're expecting a lot of Bogles
3) Take out Aura of Silence
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Long answer: Displacer is a really difficult card to evaluate. It's objectively good - arguably one of the best cards in the deck. The problem is that it costs 3 mana and has no immediate impact on the board state. For those of you who have been reading the thread for a while, this is known as the Mangara problem.
In theory, Mangara is one of the best possible cards for our deck. It can hit any troublesome permanent, including lands, and you can flicker it for value. For a while, it was a staple in the Legacy D&T lists, because of its interactions with Karakas. So why isn't it played in Modern?
It isn't played because, unlike the Legacy version, we can't protect it long enough to get value out of it. As soon as Mangara hits the battlefield, it gets removed at a tempo loss. So despite it seeming like a great card for the deck, it consistently underperforms because every opponent is going to remove it at a tempo advantage. Hence, the Mangara problem.
Eldrazi Displacer is not always a 3-drop. In fact, it usually isn't a 3-drop. Like Managara, if it sticks on the battlefield, you eventually win. But no opponent is going to let you keep it, and they're all going to use removal spells that cost less than 3 CMC to get rid of it. Catmix really likes the card (and justifiably so), but he will often play it like a 6-drop. That's right; Eldrazi Displacer is competing with Sun Titan. (I'm joking. Please don't try to play Sun Titan.) In order to play Displacer effectively, one of two things has to be true: (1) you can activate Displacer as soon as it enters the battlefield (either you have 6 mana or a Vial on 3), or (2) you have to be reasonably certain that your opponent is out of removal (so Displacer should almost always be the last or second-to-last card in your hand when you finally cast it).
But the above, in a nutshell, is a kind of Mangara problem. Displacer is better than Mangara though, because there are reasonable ways for Displacer to effectively have haste (either you have 6 mana or you have an active Vial on 3, allowing Displacer to be activated immediately when it enters the battlefield).
Okay, so now glance back at my tournament report. I got to play 4 rounds of Magic, and the last 3 rounds were against red decks all running some combination of Bolt, Helix, and Anger of the Gods. Every time I would play Displacer on turn 3 or 4 (which, admittedly, was often a mistake), it would immediately get removed. As a result, Displacer underperformed all day and probably cost me a game or two. By contrast, Catmix will tell you that there were matchups he couldn't have won without Displacer. He was more comfortable playing with it than I was, and his results yesterday show it.
If you want to be an aggro deck, play Brimaz or something similar in that slot. If you want to be a control deck, play Displacer instead.
Looking at my matchups yesterday, those Displacers really needed to be something more aggressive, like Brimaz or Walking Ballista. But if my matchups were different, I could be saying something else today.
Try Displacer and see if you like it, but make sure you're playing it properly. For examples of how to play it properly, watch Catmix on his stream.
This sentiment almost couldn't be more wrong. Your logic would also apply to Tidehollow Sculler in WB, and Sculler puts in a lot of work in WB D&T lists. Honestly, Spell Queller is one of the best reasons to play WU (and Queller in WU is much better than Sculler in WB).
Queller is a tough card to play properly. You have to know when to play it as an aggressive beater and when to hold it up to hit an opponent's spell. If you're consistently catching a random spell on T3, you're probably playing the card wrong, because your opponent's hand will still be filled with removal spells at that point in the game. Queller basically locks your opponent out of his or her endgame, allowing you to push through damage. If you need something that you can deploy aggressively, Reflector Mage is what you're looking for instead.
It sounds like either your opponent didn't really know how to play his or her deck, or more likely, he or she was forced into playing Queller at inopportune times because you had applied so much pressure (to both his/her manabase and life total).
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Neither Catmix nor I wanted to dedicate entire sideboard slots to the Affinity matchup. Instead, he and I had versatile spot removal that would have come in, had either of us played against Affinity.
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Catmix and I piloted similar lists, although there were small variations in our 75:
4 Aether Vial
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Leonin Arbiter
4 Flickerwisp
4 Path to Exile
Secondary Core (9)
4 Thraben Inspector
3 Smuggler's Copter
2 Aven Mindcensor
Flex Slots (12)
4 Restoration Angel
3 Blade Splicer
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
2 Eldrazi Displacer
1 Stonecloaker
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Tectonic Edge
3 Flagstones of Trokair
2 Horizon Canopy
3 Shefet Dunes
6 Plains
2 Rest in Peace
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Leonin Arbiter
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Sunlance
2 Shining Shoal
1 Gideon of the Trials
R1 vs. Catmix: ID 0-0-1 This. And in the end, Catmix managed to ID into T8, and I still had a win-and-in. Worth it.
R2 vs. UW Prison: match 2-0 and tournament 1-0-1
G1: T1 Inspector into T2 Copter, while my opponent goes T2 and T3 Suppression Field. Double Suppression field is annoying against this deck, but I manage to chip away damage until I finally just bounce his Phyrexian Unlife with a Flickerwisp.
G2: Again, T1 Inspector into T2 Copter, except this time I actually get to crew things without paying 4. Much better. Pressure on his mana meant that he was only able to Entreat the Angels for 1, and a Flickerwisp made quick work of the angel token.
R3 vs. Mardu: match 0-2 and tournament 1-1-1
G1: His T1 Thoughtseize grabbed my Arbiter, which was unfortunate given how shaky his manabase was. I ultimately drew 3x Ghost Quarter and didn't basic-check him quickly enough, but eventually I just started to Strip Mine things. Also, free paths feel pretty good. I lost this game having gotten him down to either 1 or 2 life, and he had played 2-3 Lightning Helixes. He ultimately ran away with the game when he cast (and flashed back) Lingering Souls with 2x Young Pyromancer on the battlefield.
G2: More or less the same as G1, with slightly different details. I was way ahead and simply ran out of gas.
Note: Both games, my opponent had a T2 Dark Confidant, and in retrospect, I should probably have stopped taking aggressive lines on the ground and forced him to remove his own creature. At the time, I thought the aggressive line was the right one (because I didn't want him to keep drawing cards), but now I think I punted both games by swinging on the ground and letting him block when he had around 5 life left.
R4 vs. Scapeshift: match 2-0 tournament 2-1-1
G1: T3 Aven Mindcensor made things really tough for him. I was on the play, and he never quite got going. Felt really good having Mindcensor in the maindeck.
G2: He played Anger of the Gods when I had 2x Arbiter and an Inspector. Smuggler's Copter survived though, which meant the subsequent turn Blade Splicer felt pretty good. He had to Summoner's Pact for a Reclamation Sage in order to remove the Copter, so I knew I was pretty far ahead. I followed up with a Flickerwisp targeting Splicer, which basically ended the game.
Note: Shoutout to my R4 opponent, who was a super nice guy. It's hard to sit across from a really bad matchup and still be a positive person, but he deserves some kudos for doing it. It was fun talking with him afterward, too.
At this point, I actually was in a perfect spot to sneak into the T8 based on standings, provided I won the final match (which I didn't).
R5 vs. RG Ponza: match 0-2 tournament 2-2-1
G1: I'm on the play, but he played a T2 Blood Moon, which really slowed things down. It was actually worse than that; by the end of T2 he had Blood Moon, Utopia Sprawl, and 2x Arbor Elf. It was a very good draw. I actually had a T3 land destruction play that was no longer an option (Blood Moon takes Ghost Quarter offline), which really hurt me in the short and long run. I used a Path on his inevitable Inferno Titan, and actually managed to make a game out of this. I ultimately lost to 2x Huntmaster of the Fells transforming and dealing 4 damage to the Restoration Angel that represented lethal. Rough break.
G2: I mull to 6, and keep a 2-land hand with a Thraben Inspector and Smuggler's Copter. Not a bad start against most decks, but this really wasn't the interaction that I needed for this matchup. It wasn't much of a game, because my 3rd land got Stone Rain'd and I never recovered. In retrospect, I probably sideboarded incorrectly. It's also possible that I should have gone to 5, looking for more interactive cards.
In the end, the deck was much better than my record suggests. Don't let my piloting errors scare you off this list; Catmix and I played 57 of the same cards in the maindeck. The list was pretty great.
Things I would change in the maindeck:
-1 Stonecloaker
-2 Eldrazi Displacer
+1 Gideon of the Trials
+2 ???
Things I would change in the sideboard:
Honestly, I'm not sure. The whole day, I almost never saw any sideboard cards. I played Burrenton Forge-Tender twice, saw a Mirran Crusader once (but never cast it) and the rest of my cards never made an appearance. That was pretty unfortunate, to be honest. I could really have used a lot of them.
Like Catmix, that's all I've got for now. Happy taxing!
-CharonsObol
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