Don't wanna jinx it but seems like we might get some veeeery good results for our good ol' deck this weekend. Props to that and the people who believe in the deck!
This is what I think I'm taking to the Minneapolis GP next weekend. It'll be my first tournament since I was 15 (19 years ago). Seeing that it's 5 miles from my house it would be silly not to go experience it.
Until last week I was playing it with 2 Forbidden Alchemy and only 3 Electrolyze's and 2 Terminates. I bumped each one of those up and removed Alchemy in favor of more consistency in the main board. The only reason I'm removing the Alchemy is because I have 13 cards that provide draw. 2 Shadow of Doubt's main board in this deck is a must. Its directly applicable in 90% of your match ups. At the very least its a cheap draw, and helps with game 1 against pod. It also really messes up things like Primeval Titan if you can't counter it (e.g. Genesis Wave). I used to run 4 Mana Leaks, but dropped one b/c there were quite a few times where I just couldn't counter something b/c they had too much mana open. Remand is basically my 4th Leak now.
As for the sideboard...
A friend recommended Annul in the sideboard to combat Twin. Its a lot easier to keep 1 mana up than 2, and it also helps with token decks (Intangible Virtue) and Affinity. Its also an answer to Blood Moon. Spellskite is for burn match ups, and walls against zoo/aggro decks. I advocated Tribute to Hungar earlier in this thread, but swapped it out for Far // Away. I really like the life gain option in some match ups, but Far // Away has more reach. It handles things like Geists very well, and is just more flexible all around. I don't like Thoughsieze main board, it just sucks too much life which I think this deck can't afford to do. IoK has been a champ and hits so many cards. Duress has been a great sideboard option too. Applicable against a lot of decks. A single Hero's Downfall incase I run into an 8-Rack or Tron deck and need to dispose of a planeswalker. Yeah, Dreadbore is cheaper, but I like instants more than sorceries
I'd say to drop the 1 Remand which is not that relevant as a 1-off. Slaughter pact is amazingly relevant, especially if you are running anything at sourcery speed because you can tap out against combo and still be fine. I'd also say that 3 Inquisitions are fine but you do need another sweeper mainboard like another damantion or an Anger of the Gods (which is very relevant nowadays).
On the SB I would say that deathmarks are very good. Threads of disloyalty is also a card that you need in there if you have it, it has been performing so well that I am thinking of upping the number to 2. I really dislike Annul as a choice, yeah I can see the value against blood moon, but if you expect you should probably keep a counter up anyway and go for a draw-go playstyle. 2 Far//Away and 1 Hero's downfall (although I get that they serve a different purpose) are yoo heavy removal on the SB, I think you need more versatility. Get another Counterflux or a dispel, get engineered explosives, shatterstorm, showing salt, there are plenty of choices in order to not have a linear but a versatile and toolkit sideboard. Good luck!
So I have this idea, which might sound crazy but give me some feedback please. Currently I am running 2 jaces (baby and AoT). What if I would cut em both plus one more spell (probably an electrolyze) in order to play 2 bitterblossoms and 1 batterskull. What I lose is some card advantage/card selection. What I get however is the ability to have constant blockers against very aggressive strategies (which we need), the ability to simply re-equip my batterskull if they keep killing the germ instead of constant bouncing, the ability to generate board advantage on a deck which shouldn't do it and finally another winning condition. The lifeloss is very impactful but I would say that we could also slam it down later rather than T2 (depending on the MU ofc). What do you guys think? (also how cool would it be to name the deck cruel blossom? )
I played on a local event on sunday and went 4-0 pretty easily. Played against Kiki-Pod, Faeries, jund, Melira Pod. All games went 2-0 except Faeries which was 2-1 because G2 I got way to mana screwed, didn't hit 3rd land for 3 turns and then when I got my 3rd and 4rth he tec edged me and I couldn't find a 3rd blue source. G1 however was dominant by me and G3 was extremely close but cruel ultimatum into cruel ultimatum into snapcaster cruel ultimatum can't be dealt with.
Anyway, I have to say that: Slaughter Pact (which was a 1 of) was astonishingly good. The ability to tap out on my turn if I want to (for Jace or man land attack) without fearing a combo from them is just great for this deck. I might have a draw-go list overall but slaughter pact was game changing always. Shadow of Doubt was also an all star. It was dead only against faeries. I got to screw my jund opponent on lands and I managed to stop both pod decks from going off. I play 2 main board and I wouldn't consider cutting them. Anger of the Gods was not that impressive to be honest, damnations were enough and everytime I drew AotG, it ended up being a dead card. Jace, Architect of Thought was decent but he was mostly a "secure win" card rather than producing advantage. Unless I had slaughter pact up I didn't want to cast him turns 4-6 (which is when he is needed to produce a decent advantage). Baby Jace never came up so I cannot comment. Think Twice is nuts. Threads of Disloyalty was a one of in my SB and it is the best thing that ever happened to my SB. Because I play an almost 0 permanent list (well, only Jace, baby jace, 2 snappys) everyone removed their creature hate so I ended up borrowing ppls goyfs and oozes to win them.
I had a batterskull SB which ended up getting in to almost every MU so I might just bring it in mainboard.
First of all you should be more polite. I said that a deck which runs red, and especially a control deck, should (and imho must) play Lightning bolt. If you play UW control it is a different story. The same goes for other decks which don't need the bolt because they have different strategies. However there is a reason that, for example UWR control ALWAYS runs lightning bolt and it is the same reason we should do it too. It is the best burn spell and one of the best decks in the format, that is a fact you can't argue with. If you don't want to run it feel free to do so, however if you want to argue about it find some constructive arguments to provide a constructive discussion.
You can't use your life total as a resource against zoo because you have to fetch and/or shock your self to cast the sweepers and that means more lifeloss. Even after the sweeper it takes 1 stumble in your draw to screw you up. Especially with only 1 terminate, if you are stack with AotG what will you do for a Tarmogoyf? Shriekmaw is indeed a good choice since you can fetch it back from GY but: 1) it is not even close to a terminate (2 less targets + the creature can regenerate) 2) by the point you slam your ultimatum you (probably) don't need the shriekmaws ability. Having lavaclaw reaches is all you need to finish things off.
4 cryptics might be too many cause you don't want to draw them that early and with all that card draw you run you will eventually get one. I think that with your build merfold, zoo or any other aggro and burn (which is already bad Mu) you are going to have a ton of problems. The same goes for pod decks unless you are lucky enough to thoughtseize a pod from their hand. You need early counters like mana leak, remand, spell snare.
Saying that because you play red you shouldn't play Lightning Bolt is no argument. Lightning bolt is arguably one of the best cards in the entire format. It is the sole reason some decks decide to splash red. It is a card that defines the format right now (the argument that a card is "good but dies to bolt" is there for some reason). So yeah, especially if you are a control deck you SHOULD run a lightning bolts no matter what. There needs to be a very good reason for not doing so (like storm decks for example, but even they run em SB or, rarely MB).
I playtested a bit against a friend with UW gifts tron. While this is not (for me) the best version of the tron variance I can't say I had great success (although I won more games). All the games were pre-SB to test out some main deck choices like Shadow of doubt and 1 Tec edge. I do think these additions help the MU astoundingly w/o weakening any other MUs. Tec edge is relevant in most MUs nowadays and shadow of doubt even if it doesn't give you a 2 for 1 it can cycle itself later.
Ok i will -2 remand +1 Shadow of doubt +1 ???????? In my meta there are not much aggro decks, so I dont think I need the second damnation, at least damnation deal with geist,will try, other cards to consider are tribute the hunger, Suffer the Past( can it help me a bit against RDW?).Anger of the gods is not worth because of my actual meta( no pod/no zoo at the moment)
Well, you can go +1 Mana Leak or +1 Cruel Ultimatum (if you face controls all the time it might secure you more resolves) or +1 Forbidden Alchemy or +1 IoK/thoughtseize
Has anyone tried Grixis Charm in this deck? I feel like it would do to many things not to have it. I have not tested it yet but it seems good. I don't know how viable a turn 3 Charm is though.
Grixis charm is not flexible enough. Its 3rd ability is completely useless to us and for the other 2 we have way better cards to use.
@kyshio
Playing 2 remands and 2 think twice is probably not the best cause you are basically covering the same spot (credits to xJosh for that remark). I would suggest you to remove the 2 remands and go +1 Shadow of doubt (the cards is bananas and none gives enough credit I think) and maybe 1 more damnation or an anger of the gods
Hey guys, so this is my new list after playtesting Faeries for a couple of weeks. I'd like some feedback. I like the article posted above, it is not very explanatory but has some good points.
So I guess we don't have anyone who reached d2 with the deck on GP Richmond? I know there was a guy who at some point was 5-2 but idk what happened in the end.
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
2x Blood Crypt
2x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Dreadship Reef
3x Island
2x Lavaclaw Reaches
1x Mountain
2x Reflecting Pool
1x River of Tears
4x Scalding Tarn
3x Steam Vents
1x Sunken Ruins
1x Tectonic Edge
2x Watery Grave
3x Cryptic Command
3x Electrolyze
1x Forbidden Alchemy
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Mana Leak
2x Shadow of Doubt
1x Slaughter Pact
2x Spell Snare
2x Terminate
2x Think Twice
1x Jace Beleren
2x Snapcaster Mage
1x Anger of the Gods
2x Cruel Ultimatum
2x Damnation
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Counterflux
2x Deathmark
2x Duress
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Izzet Staticaster
2x Rakdos Charm
2x Spellskite
1x Threads of Disloyalty
On the SB I would say that deathmarks are very good. Threads of disloyalty is also a card that you need in there if you have it, it has been performing so well that I am thinking of upping the number to 2. I really dislike Annul as a choice, yeah I can see the value against blood moon, but if you expect you should probably keep a counter up anyway and go for a draw-go playstyle. 2 Far//Away and 1 Hero's downfall (although I get that they serve a different purpose) are yoo heavy removal on the SB, I think you need more versatility. Get another Counterflux or a dispel, get engineered explosives, shatterstorm, showing salt, there are plenty of choices in order to not have a linear but a versatile and toolkit sideboard. Good luck!
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
Anyway, I have to say that: Slaughter Pact (which was a 1 of) was astonishingly good. The ability to tap out on my turn if I want to (for Jace or man land attack) without fearing a combo from them is just great for this deck. I might have a draw-go list overall but slaughter pact was game changing always.
Shadow of Doubt was also an all star. It was dead only against faeries. I got to screw my jund opponent on lands and I managed to stop both pod decks from going off. I play 2 main board and I wouldn't consider cutting them.
Anger of the Gods was not that impressive to be honest, damnations were enough and everytime I drew AotG, it ended up being a dead card.
Jace, Architect of Thought was decent but he was mostly a "secure win" card rather than producing advantage. Unless I had slaughter pact up I didn't want to cast him turns 4-6 (which is when he is needed to produce a decent advantage). Baby Jace never came up so I cannot comment.
Think Twice is nuts.
Threads of Disloyalty was a one of in my SB and it is the best thing that ever happened to my SB. Because I play an almost 0 permanent list (well, only Jace, baby jace, 2 snappys) everyone removed their creature hate so I ended up borrowing ppls goyfs and oozes to win them.
I had a batterskull SB which ended up getting in to almost every MU so I might just bring it in mainboard.
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
4 cryptics might be too many cause you don't want to draw them that early and with all that card draw you run you will eventually get one. I think that with your build merfold, zoo or any other aggro and burn (which is already bad Mu) you are going to have a ton of problems. The same goes for pod decks unless you are lucky enough to thoughtseize a pod from their hand. You need early counters like mana leak, remand, spell snare.
Saying that because you play red you shouldn't play Lightning Bolt is no argument. Lightning bolt is arguably one of the best cards in the entire format. It is the sole reason some decks decide to splash red. It is a card that defines the format right now (the argument that a card is "good but dies to bolt" is there for some reason). So yeah, especially if you are a control deck you SHOULD run a lightning bolts no matter what. There needs to be a very good reason for not doing so (like storm decks for example, but even they run em SB or, rarely MB).
Could you also explain the demigod on the SB?
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
Well, you can go +1 Mana Leak or +1 Cruel Ultimatum (if you face controls all the time it might secure you more resolves) or +1 Forbidden Alchemy or +1 IoK/thoughtseize
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
@kyshio
Playing 2 remands and 2 think twice is probably not the best cause you are basically covering the same spot (credits to xJosh for that remark). I would suggest you to remove the 2 remands and go +1 Shadow of doubt (the cards is bananas and none gives enough credit I think) and maybe 1 more damnation or an anger of the gods
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
2 Snapcaster Mage
Planeswalkers
1 Jace Beleren
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
3 Mana Leak
1 Spell Snare
3 Cryptic Command
2 Remand
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Shadow of Doubt
2 Think Twice
1 Forbidden Alchemy
2 Cruel Ultimatum
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Damnation
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Electrolyze
2 Terminate
1 Far // Away
1 Tectonic Edge
2 Reflecting Pool
1 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Dreadship Reef
1 Sunken Ruins
1 River of Tears
2 Lavaclaw Reaches
2 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Steam Vents
2 Blood Crypt
2 Watery Grave
1 Mountain
3 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Counterflux
2 Combust
2 Deathmark
2 Duress
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Izzet Staticaster
2 Rakdos Charm
2 Spellskite
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past