So I'm seriously starting to wonder what the correct number of lands in the deck is after some recent results. I only have results from an event yesterday, but this has been an ongoing trend. I'm currently playing 18 with 4 Serum, 4 Thought Scour, but I feel like it's wrong.
Yesterday, I played three rounds. I went 1-2 in matches and 4-4 in games. I mulliganed 4 times to 6 cards, and once to 5 cards. All of the mulligan hands were very reasonable. Of the mulligans, two were due to having only the Swamp in my hand, one was due to a bad hand (4 lands and nothing under 3 mana), and the remaining were due to too few lands.
Now, of my losses, one of them was due to me playing poorly, and I accept that one. The remaining three loses were due to flooding. One game, I had 12 lands (one was from a Path) and 5 non-land cards. I scooped with lands in my hand and unable to fetch since all the fetchable lands were in play.
It feels like I should be playing fewer lands and more filtering or something. I feel like flooding is a real problem for me and causing me to lose far too many games. I still flood in games I win sometimes, but it has been a concerning issue. I know I brought it up before but it's once again something I want to take a look at.
Street Wraith is basically a free cantrip that pushes you toward your goal. This deck wants to both hurt itself and fill the graveyard and no card is going to do a better job at both than Street Wraith. When you don't play them your Death's Shadows become significantly worse.
I approve entirely of 18 lands whether you increase the cantrip amount or not, 19 was always too much and I had plenty of success at 18. I think the correct number might actually be 17.5 but at 17 you just mulligan one too many hands.
As far as the rest goes, I don't like Deprive all that much because of its cost. You're generally not super concerned about holding up counters and would rather prefer to be more proactive. I like Liliana of the Veil a lot more in this slot because it's proactive and answers a lot of threats while putting pressure. Your split on removal strikes me as a meta call, and I'd leave that decision to you. Bolt was one of the worst performing cards for me, there just aren't a lot of creatures that Bolt kills that Fatal Push doesn't, Mirran Crusader being one of the only ones. Making a change to play Liliana can alleviate that because her -2 will remove Mirran Crusaders provided you have ways to keep the rest of their board empty, which is probably doable.
I apologize if anything is wrong, I don't remember things 100% since it was a long event a couple days ago.
Round 1 vs GW Knightfall
The games were extremely grindy, often going to the last couple of turns. Sometimes I ended up having to leave Courser in play for a while which did a number on me. Combined with Eternal Witness, they can sometimes grind you out. In game 3, I had math'd to go down to one and have blockers available, but CoCo into Renegade Rallier with a revolt trigger was enough.
Record: 0-1
Round 2 vs Jund
I don't remember much about this particular game unfortunately. He was playing a full foil + expedition list, that was cool. It went to three games and Liliana ended up being the MVP.
Record: 1-1
R3 vs Mirror
Finally a mirror matchup, a deck I feel comfortable against thanks to Lilis. This was a quick two games, Liliana in the MB is so disgustingly good. I had her at 7 counters in one game before he conceded.
Record: 2-1
R4 vs Jund
The notable thing I remember is that he was playing a copy of Hazoret, which seems pretty solid to me. Other than that, typical fare for Jund matchups. Really grindy, went to three games. I didn't get Liliana up so high in this game as he had a Dreadbore, but I still definitely liked her.
Record: 3-1
R5 vs GW Humans
Game 1 I kept a hand with little removal and had a hard time properly answering his threats. Path is pretty good against us and removed some key blockers and that was that. In game 2, he had a really explosive start that was Avacayn's Pilgrim into Champion of the Parish + Thalia's Lieutenant, it crushed me really fast.
Record: 3-2
R6 vs Mirror
Another mirror that I crushed. I ended up having enough time to wait in a 25 minute food line and eat it after. Can't say I remember much other than that.
Record: 4-2
R7 vs RG Scapeshift
So we both keep 7 cards in game 1 and when I Thoughtseize him, he reveals two Valakuts and 5 green cards. He makes a comment he refuses to ever mulligan. Well, I'm not going to argue, sine I won the game without him casting a single card. In game 2 he resolved a Chameleon Colossus, and then I had a Gurmag Angler, Tasigur, and Death's Shadow in play. He math'd it to attack with Colossus, put me to 8, and have lethal on the following turn. Apparently his math was bad, because the attack on my turn, combined with a Bolt and a Street Wraith ended up being 19, more than enough for lethal.
Record: 5-2
R8 vs Elves
Game 1 I answered his stuff pretty efficiently and had threats of my own, and ended up taking it. In game 2, the hand was keepable but not great, and he rolled me like Elves can do. In game 3, he mulled to 5 and I kept a hand with Anger of the Gods. I Pushed his turn 2 Shaman of the Pact, and when he played two Dwynen's a turn or two later, I Angered and that ended the game.
Record: 6-2
R8 vs Mirror
We played two really fast games as my opponent wasn't really comfortable with the deck (so he said afterwards). He ended up just getting rolled by some big creatures in both games. I also think him leaving in cards like Bolt and Push wasn't the greatest. I remember at the end of the last game, I was holding Snap + Stubborn Denial with a Liliana and Death's Shadow in play while my opponent had one card in hand, it was a pretty easy win from there.
Record: 7-2
Overall I did quite well, I ended up top 16. Turns out 6 of the top 8 drew in, one was guaranteed from the pair down match, and my breakers weren't good. Sucks I wasn't in the top 8 but I'm still happy with a solid enough performance.
Liliana was a really good card for me, it won me a lot of Jund and mirror matches. I think Bolt was still fine in the deck. Dreadbore is good in the board to specifically answer Lilianas (Veil and Last Hope). Staticaster wasn't good in this particular event, but based on other results from the weekend, is still worth the slot. I'd perhaps even play an Illness in the Ranks on top of it for Lingering Souls (which is really good against us). I like the wrath and graveyard removal, but you could probably shave one, which also goes for the Ceremonious Rejections as well. They were bad here and I anticipated the wrong decks evidently. Flaying Tendrils vs EE vs Anger is still something I'm not sold on, but I picked Angers for the Dredge matchup and EEs for general purpose (killing Liliana was very good for me).
My board for the mirror was to cut 2 Inquisition, the Bolt, and the Pushes, bringing in a Liliana, Dreadbore, two Surgical, and two Spellbombs. I hate the idea of having dead cards late, so I shave on some disruption and the non-guaranteed removal, bringing in grave hate and removal. I think four grave hate might be a bit overkill here, but I'm happy removing the bad removal. A lot of my opponents kept in cards I cut and ended up losing with them in hand. Every one of the post-board matches I played vs the mirror or Jund were really grindy, and so you want to cut on cards that are bad late game, I think.
I love 18 lands and I wouldn't go back to 19. With 19 I was flooding out a lot, and with 17 I had too many mulligans due to no lands.
Cheers guys, what do you think about lili of the veil in the mirror matchup? is she better than dismember??
Significantly. She kills everything and she's a threat that's similarly hard to deal with. This matchup goes very tall, which is that they don't swarm the board and tend to play single large threats (Tasigur, Gurmag, Death's Shadow). As a result Liliana being a 3-mana kill spell at sorcery speed is perfectly fine, especially when she still has to be answered. If you play against an opponent that cut Bolts and doesn't play the sideboard Dreadbore, then they have almost no way to kill her. They need Kolaghan's Command and for her to be at a low enough amount. Suffice to say, she's very hard to remove from the table.
In my last game against the mirror, Liliana single-handedly won me the game. My opponent literally could not remove her and she got up to 9 counters.
So I played the deck at a local PPTQ, I ended up 3-3. I played a list with 18 lands, two Liliana and one Claim//Fame in the main. Here's a short tournament report:
R1 vs Merfolk:
Game 1 I take his Vial with turn 1 Thoughtseize. It feels good but then his Spreading Seas on my red source hurt me from using removal for his lords later on. He ended up just getting there with those lords after my removal was stick in my hand. Game 2 I had a really painful turn 1 as I went to 11. I took his only lord and left him with Cursecatchers and a Master of the Waves he couldn't cast, but he ended up topdecking lord into lord. I couldn't fight through the Cursecatchers and was hedging my early double Death's Shadow would be good. Nothing to do really if he draws the lords he needs to not lose.
Record: 0-1
R2 vs Grixis Death's Shadow:
Game 1 is very long but I crush my opponent eventually. I never really felt like I wasn't in control of the matchup. Game 2 was a different story, my opponent drew all the right pieces and I didn't. Game 3 was the interesting one because my early Lilianas were really good. I played turn 3 Liliana that ate two dudes, then followed it up with one that got up to 9 counters, it was absurd. There was no way he could really survive after the amount she did, and it was just a matter of me drawing into the important stuff.
Record: 1-1
R3 vs Affinity:
Game 1 was pretty bad for me, I didn't really draw any of the normal cards that beat them and that was that. In game 2 I drew a bunch more good stuff and was able to take a close one after a clutch Anger of the Gods. In game 3 I just drew all the removal I had and it wasn't even close. I even had Ceremonious Rejection for his Etched Champion. It felt very reminiscent of UWR Control vs Affinity, which is notoriously bad for Affinity because of all the removal they pack.
Record: 2-1
Round 4 vs UB Turns:
In game 1 I actually misplayed not keeping up double blue to play around Gigadrowse (I had a Stubborn Denial but putting me off blue meant I couldn't counter the turns spell), had no idea they played that card. Not sure if it was relevant to be honest, he might have had the mana to pay the replicate. Thing is, my opponent had a Mine and two Dictates in play and whiffed with 10 cards in his hand. I'll take it. In game 2 I just stomped really hard out of the gate, and while he had a Thing in the Ice in play, it was too slow and he lost before it flipped.
Record: 3-1
Round 5 vs UW Control:
In game 1 it was pretty standard fare, Paths for my creatures and then Cryptics later on. Wasn't close, he actually stomped me. In game 2 he had Rest In Peace for me so no Delve, then it turned out to be even less close. Slowing me down was just enough for him to beat me.
3-3
Round 6 vs Amulet:
Funnily, I was joking around with the guy I played (a friend of mine) about the deck and this matchup. He knows I used to play the deck and that I stopped after the ban, but he's had some good success with it since (including an X-4 at a GP that I know of).
Anyway, in game 1 my turn 1 Thoughtseize took Azusa and left him with the clunkiest hand I've ever seen. It ended up being nowhere near close, I was just too far ahead. In game 2, he drew a bunch of stuff to roadblock me and then eventually played Titan, gave it haste, and killed me on the spot; turns out Fatal Push not so good in this matchup. In game 3, he had double Relic, Bojuka Bog, and Grove of the Burnwillows, and it all slowed me down too much. I ended up Thoughtseizing and having a choice between Titan and Hornet Queen, and I took Titan. I ended up losing to Hornet Queen later but I don't think taking it over Titan was better since Titan is liable to put me too far behind.
Record: 3-3
Now some thoughts on the deck:
1. Claim // Fame was bad for me. It's so incredibly unreliable and I'm cutting it. Path is still a card as is everything like Bojuka Bog that exiles your graveyard. I'd wager you need to be playing the green varient to properly make use of the card.
2. Fatal Push wasn't as good as it seemed. In the mirror and vs Amulet it just didn't do much. One deck was also Turns where it was very dead. Path or more Terminates would have honestly been better, I think. The format moving toward decks where Fatal Push is bad made the card bad.
3. Liliana of the Veil was excellent for me. She pulled a lot of weight, killing more than one guy on average. It just really let me grind out those slower matchups or the mirror.
4. I played 18 lands and consistently flooded out. I ended several games with all 7 fetchable lands in play and more lands in hand. I know 17 is too few but even 18 is showing itself as flood central.
Your sideboard is as good as it's going to get. I would side out the Lilis, Terminates, and 2 Pushes. Discard is better against them than it looks because you can often snag one of their engine cards like Cathartic Reunion and slow them down a lot.
Yeah that's what I did yesterday, or something similar. I did leave in the discard, and I did hit Cathartic Reunion with it. I feel like if the post-board matchup is going to suck this much, I might just want to not board that heavily for it.
So I was playing against Dredge yesterday and it didn't go so well. Was hoping to get some advice/feedback from you guys.
Game 1 was a complete stomp, and it feels pretty one-sided. You have no good way to interact with them, so unless they draw awfully, you just fold. He has enough ways to block my few big dudes if he has to while also having enough ways to push damage from recursion. Game 2 was more interesting though. I played my Spellbomb early and it got Abrupt Decayed (which I think is normally Maelstrom Pulse), so the effectiveness of it was very minimal. After he got rolling, I had my Anger of the Gods ready, but he played around it. He left a minimal amount of dudes on the board, leaving several things still in his graveyard. For example, he would decline to trigger Bloodghast which left Prized Amalgams in his yard.
My sideboard for them is currently: 2x Surgical Extraction, 1x Nihil Spellbomb, 1x Grafdigger's Cage, 2x Anger of the Gods.
Questions that I have:
What do I sideboard out? I have lots of cards that seem dead and it's not obvious what's best to bring out. I play 1 Bolt, 3 Fatal Push, 2 Terminate, 2 Liliana of the Veil, 2 Inquisitions, 4 Thoughtseize, none of which seem good against them.
Should I be saving Nihil Spellbomb until my opponent has a bunch of cards in his graveyard? It's not clear to me if I want to stop turn 1 or 2 Dredging, if I want to use it to stop triggers on Prized Amalgam or whatever else is there, or if I use it later on to assist with Anger of the Gods (as would have been great in my game).
Is this sideboard plan good/enough? I feel like Leyline of the Void could be good but it's more narrow and much harder to use if you don't open with it. I currently have four graveyard cards in my sideboard, so it's not like I have to make room.
What's the actual gameplan in this matchup? Do I try to grind them out and make good use of sideboard cards? Do I try to put big dudes into play early?
So, I'm wondering if people still think Grixis is the best colour combination for the deck. With people shaving down on the number of red spells, it seems like perhaps Esper might be better. Looking at the SCG Invitational, Fournier played two Terminates and a Rise//Fall, while Anderson played two Termintes, two Kolaghan's Commands, and a Bolt. While I think Kolaghan's Command is great, I'm not convinced it is solely a reason to play red over another colour. A card like Izzet Staticaster or Kozilek's return out of the board doesn't seem enough better than what white would offer in cards like Stony Silence or whatever cards white has (because they generally have the best sideboard cards).
White offers you: Path, Orzhov Charm, Lingering Souls. Most importantly, I think Path is really good in the meta right now because people are moving to decks with bigger creatures. Eldrazi Tron and Grixis Death's Shadow are really popular, both decks where Fatal Push and Bolt are bad. Sure, Grixis has Terminate, but I think any benefit of no drawback is mitigated by the one mana difference, which is often relevant for a deck like ours that operates on very few lands. Path also offers an answer to the dreaded Mirran Crusader. Orzhov Charm, to me, seems like a better card than Rise//Fall, and Lingering Souls is similarly just a high value card.
Yesterday, I played three rounds. I went 1-2 in matches and 4-4 in games. I mulliganed 4 times to 6 cards, and once to 5 cards. All of the mulligan hands were very reasonable. Of the mulligans, two were due to having only the Swamp in my hand, one was due to a bad hand (4 lands and nothing under 3 mana), and the remaining were due to too few lands.
Now, of my losses, one of them was due to me playing poorly, and I accept that one. The remaining three loses were due to flooding. One game, I had 12 lands (one was from a Path) and 5 non-land cards. I scooped with lands in my hand and unable to fetch since all the fetchable lands were in play.
It feels like I should be playing fewer lands and more filtering or something. I feel like flooding is a real problem for me and causing me to lose far too many games. I still flood in games I win sometimes, but it has been a concerning issue. I know I brought it up before but it's once again something I want to take a look at.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
I approve entirely of 18 lands whether you increase the cantrip amount or not, 19 was always too much and I had plenty of success at 18. I think the correct number might actually be 17.5 but at 17 you just mulligan one too many hands.
As far as the rest goes, I don't like Deprive all that much because of its cost. You're generally not super concerned about holding up counters and would rather prefer to be more proactive. I like Liliana of the Veil a lot more in this slot because it's proactive and answers a lot of threats while putting pressure. Your split on removal strikes me as a meta call, and I'd leave that decision to you. Bolt was one of the worst performing cards for me, there just aren't a lot of creatures that Bolt kills that Fatal Push doesn't, Mirran Crusader being one of the only ones. Making a change to play Liliana can alleviate that because her -2 will remove Mirran Crusaders provided you have ways to keep the rest of their board empty, which is probably doable.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
Here's the list I played:
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Steam Vents
2 Watery Grave
2 Blood Crypt
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Polluted Delta
4 Death's Shadow
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Street Wraith
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Gurmag Angler
4 Serum Visions
4 Thought Scour
4 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Lightning Bolt
3 Fatal Push
2 Terminate
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Stubborn Denial
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Dreadbore
I apologize if anything is wrong, I don't remember things 100% since it was a long event a couple days ago.
Round 1 vs GW Knightfall
The games were extremely grindy, often going to the last couple of turns. Sometimes I ended up having to leave Courser in play for a while which did a number on me. Combined with Eternal Witness, they can sometimes grind you out. In game 3, I had math'd to go down to one and have blockers available, but CoCo into Renegade Rallier with a revolt trigger was enough.
Record: 0-1
Round 2 vs Jund
I don't remember much about this particular game unfortunately. He was playing a full foil + expedition list, that was cool. It went to three games and Liliana ended up being the MVP.
Record: 1-1
R3 vs Mirror
Finally a mirror matchup, a deck I feel comfortable against thanks to Lilis. This was a quick two games, Liliana in the MB is so disgustingly good. I had her at 7 counters in one game before he conceded.
Record: 2-1
R4 vs Jund
The notable thing I remember is that he was playing a copy of Hazoret, which seems pretty solid to me. Other than that, typical fare for Jund matchups. Really grindy, went to three games. I didn't get Liliana up so high in this game as he had a Dreadbore, but I still definitely liked her.
Record: 3-1
R5 vs GW Humans
Game 1 I kept a hand with little removal and had a hard time properly answering his threats. Path is pretty good against us and removed some key blockers and that was that. In game 2, he had a really explosive start that was Avacayn's Pilgrim into Champion of the Parish + Thalia's Lieutenant, it crushed me really fast.
Record: 3-2
R6 vs Mirror
Another mirror that I crushed. I ended up having enough time to wait in a 25 minute food line and eat it after. Can't say I remember much other than that.
Record: 4-2
R7 vs RG Scapeshift
So we both keep 7 cards in game 1 and when I Thoughtseize him, he reveals two Valakuts and 5 green cards. He makes a comment he refuses to ever mulligan. Well, I'm not going to argue, sine I won the game without him casting a single card. In game 2 he resolved a Chameleon Colossus, and then I had a Gurmag Angler, Tasigur, and Death's Shadow in play. He math'd it to attack with Colossus, put me to 8, and have lethal on the following turn. Apparently his math was bad, because the attack on my turn, combined with a Bolt and a Street Wraith ended up being 19, more than enough for lethal.
Record: 5-2
R8 vs Elves
Game 1 I answered his stuff pretty efficiently and had threats of my own, and ended up taking it. In game 2, the hand was keepable but not great, and he rolled me like Elves can do. In game 3, he mulled to 5 and I kept a hand with Anger of the Gods. I Pushed his turn 2 Shaman of the Pact, and when he played two Dwynen's a turn or two later, I Angered and that ended the game.
Record: 6-2
R8 vs Mirror
We played two really fast games as my opponent wasn't really comfortable with the deck (so he said afterwards). He ended up just getting rolled by some big creatures in both games. I also think him leaving in cards like Bolt and Push wasn't the greatest. I remember at the end of the last game, I was holding Snap + Stubborn Denial with a Liliana and Death's Shadow in play while my opponent had one card in hand, it was a pretty easy win from there.
Record: 7-2
Overall I did quite well, I ended up top 16. Turns out 6 of the top 8 drew in, one was guaranteed from the pair down match, and my breakers weren't good. Sucks I wasn't in the top 8 but I'm still happy with a solid enough performance.
Liliana was a really good card for me, it won me a lot of Jund and mirror matches. I think Bolt was still fine in the deck. Dreadbore is good in the board to specifically answer Lilianas (Veil and Last Hope). Staticaster wasn't good in this particular event, but based on other results from the weekend, is still worth the slot. I'd perhaps even play an Illness in the Ranks on top of it for Lingering Souls (which is really good against us). I like the wrath and graveyard removal, but you could probably shave one, which also goes for the Ceremonious Rejections as well. They were bad here and I anticipated the wrong decks evidently. Flaying Tendrils vs EE vs Anger is still something I'm not sold on, but I picked Angers for the Dredge matchup and EEs for general purpose (killing Liliana was very good for me).
My board for the mirror was to cut 2 Inquisition, the Bolt, and the Pushes, bringing in a Liliana, Dreadbore, two Surgical, and two Spellbombs. I hate the idea of having dead cards late, so I shave on some disruption and the non-guaranteed removal, bringing in grave hate and removal. I think four grave hate might be a bit overkill here, but I'm happy removing the bad removal. A lot of my opponents kept in cards I cut and ended up losing with them in hand. Every one of the post-board matches I played vs the mirror or Jund were really grindy, and so you want to cut on cards that are bad late game, I think.
I love 18 lands and I wouldn't go back to 19. With 19 I was flooding out a lot, and with 17 I had too many mulligans due to no lands.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
In my last game against the mirror, Liliana single-handedly won me the game. My opponent literally could not remove her and she got up to 9 counters.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
R1 vs Merfolk:
Game 1 I take his Vial with turn 1 Thoughtseize. It feels good but then his Spreading Seas on my red source hurt me from using removal for his lords later on. He ended up just getting there with those lords after my removal was stick in my hand. Game 2 I had a really painful turn 1 as I went to 11. I took his only lord and left him with Cursecatchers and a Master of the Waves he couldn't cast, but he ended up topdecking lord into lord. I couldn't fight through the Cursecatchers and was hedging my early double Death's Shadow would be good. Nothing to do really if he draws the lords he needs to not lose.
Record: 0-1
R2 vs Grixis Death's Shadow:
Game 1 is very long but I crush my opponent eventually. I never really felt like I wasn't in control of the matchup. Game 2 was a different story, my opponent drew all the right pieces and I didn't. Game 3 was the interesting one because my early Lilianas were really good. I played turn 3 Liliana that ate two dudes, then followed it up with one that got up to 9 counters, it was absurd. There was no way he could really survive after the amount she did, and it was just a matter of me drawing into the important stuff.
Record: 1-1
R3 vs Affinity:
Game 1 was pretty bad for me, I didn't really draw any of the normal cards that beat them and that was that. In game 2 I drew a bunch more good stuff and was able to take a close one after a clutch Anger of the Gods. In game 3 I just drew all the removal I had and it wasn't even close. I even had Ceremonious Rejection for his Etched Champion. It felt very reminiscent of UWR Control vs Affinity, which is notoriously bad for Affinity because of all the removal they pack.
Record: 2-1
Round 4 vs UB Turns:
In game 1 I actually misplayed not keeping up double blue to play around Gigadrowse (I had a Stubborn Denial but putting me off blue meant I couldn't counter the turns spell), had no idea they played that card. Not sure if it was relevant to be honest, he might have had the mana to pay the replicate. Thing is, my opponent had a Mine and two Dictates in play and whiffed with 10 cards in his hand. I'll take it. In game 2 I just stomped really hard out of the gate, and while he had a Thing in the Ice in play, it was too slow and he lost before it flipped.
Record: 3-1
Round 5 vs UW Control:
In game 1 it was pretty standard fare, Paths for my creatures and then Cryptics later on. Wasn't close, he actually stomped me. In game 2 he had Rest In Peace for me so no Delve, then it turned out to be even less close. Slowing me down was just enough for him to beat me.
3-3
Round 6 vs Amulet:
Funnily, I was joking around with the guy I played (a friend of mine) about the deck and this matchup. He knows I used to play the deck and that I stopped after the ban, but he's had some good success with it since (including an X-4 at a GP that I know of).
Anyway, in game 1 my turn 1 Thoughtseize took Azusa and left him with the clunkiest hand I've ever seen. It ended up being nowhere near close, I was just too far ahead. In game 2, he drew a bunch of stuff to roadblock me and then eventually played Titan, gave it haste, and killed me on the spot; turns out Fatal Push not so good in this matchup. In game 3, he had double Relic, Bojuka Bog, and Grove of the Burnwillows, and it all slowed me down too much. I ended up Thoughtseizing and having a choice between Titan and Hornet Queen, and I took Titan. I ended up losing to Hornet Queen later but I don't think taking it over Titan was better since Titan is liable to put me too far behind.
Record: 3-3
Now some thoughts on the deck:
1. Claim // Fame was bad for me. It's so incredibly unreliable and I'm cutting it. Path is still a card as is everything like Bojuka Bog that exiles your graveyard. I'd wager you need to be playing the green varient to properly make use of the card.
2. Fatal Push wasn't as good as it seemed. In the mirror and vs Amulet it just didn't do much. One deck was also Turns where it was very dead. Path or more Terminates would have honestly been better, I think. The format moving toward decks where Fatal Push is bad made the card bad.
3. Liliana of the Veil was excellent for me. She pulled a lot of weight, killing more than one guy on average. It just really let me grind out those slower matchups or the mirror.
4. I played 18 lands and consistently flooded out. I ended several games with all 7 fetchable lands in play and more lands in hand. I know 17 is too few but even 18 is showing itself as flood central.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
Game 1 was a complete stomp, and it feels pretty one-sided. You have no good way to interact with them, so unless they draw awfully, you just fold. He has enough ways to block my few big dudes if he has to while also having enough ways to push damage from recursion. Game 2 was more interesting though. I played my Spellbomb early and it got Abrupt Decayed (which I think is normally Maelstrom Pulse), so the effectiveness of it was very minimal. After he got rolling, I had my Anger of the Gods ready, but he played around it. He left a minimal amount of dudes on the board, leaving several things still in his graveyard. For example, he would decline to trigger Bloodghast which left Prized Amalgams in his yard.
My sideboard for them is currently: 2x Surgical Extraction, 1x Nihil Spellbomb, 1x Grafdigger's Cage, 2x Anger of the Gods.
Questions that I have:
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
White offers you: Path, Orzhov Charm, Lingering Souls. Most importantly, I think Path is really good in the meta right now because people are moving to decks with bigger creatures. Eldrazi Tron and Grixis Death's Shadow are really popular, both decks where Fatal Push and Bolt are bad. Sure, Grixis has Terminate, but I think any benefit of no drawback is mitigated by the one mana difference, which is often relevant for a deck like ours that operates on very few lands. Path also offers an answer to the dreaded Mirran Crusader. Orzhov Charm, to me, seems like a better card than Rise//Fall, and Lingering Souls is similarly just a high value card.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer