I think our Scapeshift matchup is about 50:50. I played against it twice vs an highly experienced player and I won 2-0 and 2-1. Most of the time we are essentially racing to do the same thing (except the surprise flying spaghetti monster part) but since we lack counterspells we have to be careful. Game 1 we fare a bit better since we can ramp into more mana faster. But when it rolls around to game 2, they will play reactively and hold up mana and counterspells usually going into top deck mode until they have enough lands to safely scapeshift or stabilize with dig through time. boil and or choke out of the board is a must. I think I might try boseiju, who shelters all out of the board next time.
In one week I can probably get some games in against Scapeshift and Affinity.
At the moment my experience against both decks is limited. But I would also say Scapeshift is preboard 50:50 or 40:60 for them, but afterboard it gets much better (at least with Ricardos Sideboard), as we have many good cards against them and they don't have much they can bring in.
izzetmage, in your primer, when you're talking about creature choices, you mention that Obstinate Baloth is the better pick over Solemn Simulacrum. I'm not sure if I agree. Can you give me your reasoning, please?
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Well, I can saw a woman in two, but you won't wanna look in the box when I'm through.
Baloth gains life = you don't die to aggressive decks like Burn as easily
Baloth is 4/4 = it can attack and block (better than 2/2 Simulacrum), it survives Anger (which doesn't trigger the draw from Simulacrum btw) and Bolt from your opponent
If I Trap on my opponent's turn and whiff on Titan/Em, I'd rather the consolation prize be Baloth than Solemn. The bigger body means it can take out slightly larger attackers.
The only pluses I see in Simulacrum are
1) it's colorless instead of double green
2) Baloth might be useless in combo matchups, whereas Simulacrum might draw you into a Breach or something
I don't think 1) makes a big difference since you're going to need double green for Titan and Trap anyway, so you might as well get started on it earlier. With regards to 2), you're not going to play against combo all the time, and you're not going to have Simulacrum draw you into a Breach all the time. Simulacrum might turn out to be just as useless as Baloth when you draw a land and die to the combo next turn.
After a lot of testing I agree myself. Baloth is amazing. Lately on Modo the meta has gone from burn/delver to more Junk. Baloth is great against Liliana.
I've tried harmonize a couple of times as a one or two-of, and found it to be either ok, or underwhelming depending on the matchup. Against BGx decks I found to be good, however vs URx, Scapeshift, Delver, or virtually anything blue there's a good chance of it getting countered. Also, comparing it to dig through time or treasure cruise it really doesn't stand up to well in terms of power level, but then again it's the best CA spell we have in our colors, and we really can't take advantage of delve anyway. Might have to do more play testing to be sure.
Played this deck at FNM last night. Went 5-0 totally crushing the field. Was a lot of fun. My list is pretty close to the GB Madrid deck. MVP was Spellbreaker Behemoth in the sideboard (2 of)
Decks I faced were
Round 1 UR Delver 2-1
Round 2 GBu (GB with snapcaster and cruise) 2-0
Round 3 Scapeshift 2-0
Round 4 Living end 2-0
Round 5 Esper Control 2-1
If you want more info on my deck or the games lemme know. Heading to bed for now though.
I played the Scapeshift matchup twice today, won 2-1 both times. Based on the records of all the players here it seems favorable.
It's quite challenging though. Early-game they will have Izzet Charm to stop your attempts at Breaching, and when you've gathered enough mana to pay for Charm they might have either killed you already, or drawn a Cryptic Command.
The matchup becomes much better postboard, when you can remove Anger of the Gods and Chalice of the Void. Boil is amazing; it punishes them for tapping out on your turn for Dig Through Time. Resolving Sowing Salt is basically an auto-win. You get their Valakut if it's in play, or a Steam Vents/Stomping Ground.
I'm not playing Leylines, so I keep in Baloth and side in the other two. The life gain forces them to have an extra land/burn/ramp spell because Baloth puts me above 18 life. Plus, it's Trap fodder, unlike the Chalices which I side out for them.
@ Apex: Congrats on your results, what's your sideboard list?
One thing I noticed about this deck being so new and everything is that no one has really reached a consensus on what exactly to name it. So far I've seen the following and various combinations thereof used:
@ Apex: Congrats on your results, what's your sideboard list?
One thing I noticed about this deck being so new and everything is that no one has really reached a consensus on what exactly to name it. So far I've seen the following and various combinations thereof used:
RG Valakut
Summoning Trap Valakut
Breach
Breach Trap
Summoning Trap
RG Makeshift
Perhaps we should have a poll?
I'm going with something Forestlore said and dubbing mine Surprise Flying Spaghetti Monster of Supreme Badness. ;-)
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Some people like to win MtG matches in the Red Zone. I prefer to win the way God intended: on the stack.
The deck is actually quite strong as is. It has the potential of going off on turn 3 or virtually anytime as long you have the right combination of lands. The deck does seem quite simple of the face of it, but it really does go deep and takes a bit of a learning curve to to know the correct plays and sequencing.
Turn 3 kills require a god hand though. You need T1 Search and T2 Farseek/Elder. All your lands must ETB untapped (so no Valakuts), and you also need both halves of the combo.
This deck is pretty good against most of the field. I mean, it didn't T8 a GP by pure luck. Unfortunately I don't believe Delver is a good matchup, and SCG Opens are notorious for having tons of Delver in the T16. You might also run into the odd Splinter Twin deck.
Still, using last week's SCG Open as an example, there were 77 players and 5-2-0 was enough to T16. So even if you drop one or two games to Delver/Twin you still have a good shot of T16ing if you win all your other matches (which this deck can do pretty easily).
@APEX:
Would love to see your list and some notes on how the games went/what you sided and what you are general thoughts are
Sorry for the delay, the list I ran can be seen below. As for the matchups ill go over what I remember in detail.
Match 1
Game 1 was UR Delver. I saw a quick win in game 1. My opponent was new to the archetype and didn't play as well as he could. A game 1 chalice for 1 locked him out of the game. He was smart enough to land a young pyromancer and cast his 1 drops anyways to fuel pyros on cast ability. He also fueled his GY for treasure cruise but valakut triggers were to much.
Game two after sideboard my matchup is even better. Siding in a 3rd chalice and 4th anger amongst a couple other cards. I stumbled on lands and never saw any of my SB cards he quickly took game 2. Game three on the play with chalice and anger in hand. Needless to say it did not end well for him. He eventually remanded a Titan which landed me a free trap emrakul for the win.
Match 2
Second opponent was GBu blue splash for cruise and snappy. Sideboard he had counter magic
To become more controlling. Overall he just got overrun. Game 1 he never got a Thoughtseize or inquisition so I ramped fast into a prime time for the kill.
Game two wasn't much better for
Him. He sided in counters as he didn't see trap game 1. He spell
Snared my sarkura to meet a quick fate of trap emrakul.
Match 3
My third opponent was playing living end. Game 1 was close. I had 3 copies of through the breach and nothing to cast. My opponent combos off at my eot, he leaves me 2 points short of death. I find a primeval Titan off the top. I through the breach it for the double trigger. getting me to grab 2 valakut Swing and grab the third followed by a mountain. He has there creatures on board. I ping each of them for 1 and follow up with a anger to exile his board. He died 2 turns later form valakut triggers.
Game two I turn 1 chalice for zero. On his turn four he destroys the chalice with the evoke red creature setting up his combo next turn. Lucky for me I untap on my turn 4 with a slaughter games and he scoops.
Match 4
Scapeshift by far my best matches of the night. I out played his every move. Partially due to him not knowing what I was playing. And partially due to my having playtested the matchup a lot (I found it to be a harder one prior to my current sideboard options)
Game 1 was super tense. He remanded my turn 2 sarkura and I missed on the trap. My opponent was *****ting bricks but I didn't get the win that easy. The game went long and I landed a baloth, I was very conservative with my life total being at 22. My opponent played his 7th land tapped played sarkura and passed with cryptic mana up. My board was 7 mana. Hand was chalice emrakul primeval Titan and through the breach. I eot through the breach. Either he cryptics this now or waits until my turn to tap the emrakul or loose (he was at 13 life.) Either way it sets me up for a prime time in my second main. He lets the emrakul resolve. I top deck a mountain. I attack and as planned he taps out to tap emrakul to survive. I slam the 8th land and play chalice on 4. He scoops realizing his scapeshift and cryptics are offline.
Game two I ramp out faster than him and force him to counter a creature. I get the free emrakul and quickly cleanup afterwords. Overall game two was heavily favored for me post board.
Match 5 esper control
This guy is a local and a very experienced control player. He commonly makes top 4 at our modern events which typically run 16-25 players. We run a really competitive modern scene at my LGS.
Anyways as I've never played this deck at FNM before he was caught off guard. Game 1 his esper charm discard two gave me a free baloth. This game was Grindy. Eventually we both were flooding out which is beneficial to the deck running valakut.
Game two my hand was picked a part with 3 Thoughtseize. I wasn't able to keep enough card advantage to outrun his counters and I was beaten down by a tar-pit. (I did hit a fetch with valakut online so I was able to sac in response to his animation, but he had the pre combat tech edge to destroy valakut)
Game three again felt like a loosing battle. 2 thoightseize and inquisition ripped my ramp and phatties out of the game. However after he ripped my primeval Titan away I top decked a spell breaker behemoth. He had no removal to answer the threat and I top decked a uncounter-able inferno Titan the turn after to clock him out of the game.
Overall I had a ton of fun, I made mistakes as it was the first time in a real paper tournament playing the deck but I certainly learned from them. I feel the deck is really well positioned in the meta, especially with the black splash. I'll be attending a local PPTQ this Sunday and I intend to run the deck again.
I apologize in advance if this is poorly written my PC is outa commission and my finger are bleeding. Be smashing this phone after I post this.
Also people have be commenting on what we should call the deck. As primeval Titan and emrakul are the main wincons I think a suitable name would be
Prime time for spaghetti.
PS the deck list is off memory. Maybe 1 card short dunno what it is tho!
I don't have the most experience with this deck so a lot of what I'm going to say is speculative.
However, I think that this deck is very good against affinity, even post-board. The ability to stymie one of Affinity's more explosive starts with a Chalice on 0 is a good way to slow them down, as is Anger, and once you'd sided in Ancient Grudge, Shatterstorm, and Unravel the Aether, you're typically doing well.
I think you just fell victim to variance; quite often running this deck you'll hit a bad hand, mulligan into a bad hand, etc etc. It's all down to the lack of card selection that this deck has, because we don't play U. The only strategy you really have is to fill your deck with cards that are good and hope to draw into them. In your list, I'd side out the Baloths and a Summoning Trap for artifact hate.
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Well, I can saw a woman in two, but you won't wanna look in the box when I'm through.
I played this deck at a 20 person (low for us) FNM. The decks that I played against were not indicative of the strongest meta.
Round 1 vs. Angel Pod. In the first game, I had the perfect hand against him. He missed some land drops and got his mana dorks and Scavenging Ooze Anger of the Gods. I follow with Through the Breach/Emrakul and we are on to game 2. He mulls to 5 and really never gets any footing. I start slowly with Obstinate Baloths, but draw a Primeval Titan and it is over quickly. 2-0.
Round 2 vs. RG Aggro. In the first game, he started strong and finished me with burn. I kept a hand with Emrakul, STE, and lands. I ended up only on 6 lands and only 4 EMRAKUL in hand!!! I almost had Valakut active though. In the 2nd game, I did an Emrakul in time off Through the Breach and he needed to draw a land to do his 3rd Lightning Bolt, which he had in hand. In the final game, I was at 1 life, facing a Strangleroot Geist with an Undying counter and a Kitchen Finks with a Persist counter. He had no lands from a Through the Breach/Emrakul. He attacks and I did Summoning Trap, getting an Obstinate Baloth and blocking the 3/2 Strangleroot Geist. I take 2, leaving me at 3 life. I swing next turn and cast a Prime Titan and it is over quickly. 2-1.
Round 3 vs. Mono White Aggro. Game 1, I did Anger of the Gods, leaving only a 4/4 Champion of the Parish and a turn 4 Through the Breach/Emrakul. In the 2nd game, I did a similar beginning with some Obstinate Baloths, which only chumped a 7/7 Champion of the Parish and I could only find a Primeval Titan on the final turn, which couldn't do lethal or kill his 7/7 and he had 2 1/1s from Gather the Townsfolk while I was at 1 life. In the final game, he mulled and didn't have anything until turn 5, missing his 3rd land drop twice. I drew the nuts and did a million damage with a Prime Titan and 3 Valakuts in play. 2-1.
Round 4 vs. UR Delver. In game 1, he stuck a Delver on turn 1, which flipped and rode it all the way, getting in a hit with Monastery Swiftspear before the final turn when he pumped his Swiftspear enough to do lethal. In the 2nd game, I killed his Delver and Swiftspear with Anger of the Gods and followed it with 2 Obstinate Baloth. In the final game, he did 1st turn Delver, 2nd turn flip for the 3rd time this match. He Remands an Obstinate Baloth twice, I get stuck on 4 lands, which I had on turn 3, and I draw Chalice of the Void on my final turn. 1-2.
Round 5 vs. UW GiftsTron. Both of these games had some play to them. In the first game, I played too conservatively with 3 Summoning Trap in hand when he Remanded my Obstinate Baloth. I only Trapped once into another Baloth because I feared that he would do Supreme Verdict to my Emrakul and that would be embarrassing. He eventually got Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and attacked me low with Timely Reinforcement tokens. I finally come back with Primeval Titan and kill him a few turns later with Valakuts while he was at 39 life at one point (from Batterskull). In the 2nd game, I kept a no Green mana hand with Through the Breach and 3 Red sources and drew not a land while he did Gifts for Iona, Shield of Emeria off Unburial Rites. In the final game, I do a turn 4 EoT Through the Breach. He considers countering, but he didn't know that I had Emrakul. It ends the next turn. I DID in fact have another Through the Breach, so I would have taken the chance on it next main phase to put Emrakul, so I don't think he had a chance anyway. 2-1.
I finish 4-1, getting 4th place. It's pretty good and I really enjoy this deck, having played Valakut in Standard and then in Scapeshift. These are the types of GR decks that I really like.
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
I don't think that you need the card draw in the deck. You have to draw pretty poorly to not get something that you could use.
I played in a small 20 person FNM. It was 5 rounds.
Round 1 vs. Bogles. This was interesting playing against my top deck choice since Standard began. In the first game, I drew pretty nutty and he couldn't do lethal, so he held the Bogle back, but the Titan put 2 Mountain in play with 3 active Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and that was that. In the 2nd game, he played a Bogle 1st turn and with no land drop, a Keen Sense the 2nd turn. I played a Chalice of the Void with 1 counter on my turn 2. It was easy to play Anger of the Gods and whatever I wanted from there. 2-0.
Round 2 vs. UR Delver. He kept a 1 land hand in the first game. There wasn't much to see. He could answer my Anger of the Gods, then 2 Obstinate Baloth. In the 2nd game, I honestly just had the answer to whatever he played and eventually did an Emrakul/Breach to end it. 2-0.
Round 3 vs. Angel Pod. In the first game, he curved turn 3 Siege Rhino off Wall of Roots into turn 4 Siege Rhino. I kept a 4 land, Emrakul, Obstinate Baloth, Search for Tomorrow hand, but only drew lands the whole game. The 2nd game was similar, but I did Anger of the Gods on some of his creatures and he was stuck on just double Birthing Pod until he drew Siege Rhino. I thought that I would win this game, but I kept drawing land after land. In the end, I needed just 3 more land to hard cast Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Pretty sad. 0-2.
Round 4 vs. Affinity. In the first game, I had a hand with Anger and Obstinate Baloth. I didn't draw Prime Time in time while he had an early Etched Champion with Cranial Plating and rode it to a short victory. In the 2nd game, I had Ancient Grudge, which he saw with Thoughtseize. It had to use it on some early creatures and then he dropped Master of Etherium while I had Chalice of the Void on 2. He swings for a million a turn later. 0-2.
Round 5 vs. BR Discard. The guy did a turn 2 Blackmail and I showed him 3 Obstinate Baloth. This was not really a game obviously with 3 Obstinate Baloth and instead of playing the others, I was desperately trying to ramp to Prime Time. He ended up accidentally making me "discard another one" with Burning Inquiry. Prime Time plays mop up duty. The 2nd game is similar except I get out 1 Obstinate Baloth after triple Lightning Bolt and then a turn 5 Summoning Trap for Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. 2-0.
I finish 3-2 and many people were intrigued with the deck, especially since every card is foil except the 4 SB Chalice of the Void. I sadly lost 2 two of the top decks, but I honestly drew way too many land in those games. In the 2nd game against Pod, I may have saved the 1 Fetchland that I had early on and eventually when I finally drew Valakut, I would have had an extra trigger. I don't think it would have save me since 4/5 Rhinoceroses and 3/4 Archangel of Thune were tough regardless.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Hi, I am new to this thread, I am thinking of forming this deck in paper as I have most of the cards. I would just like to know what are some of the bad matchup so far that you guys have encountered? what are some of the flex spot in this deck that I can play around with?
I've only played the deck for 2 weeks, but I would assume that GBx with lots of discard could be rough. Also, Splinter Twin doesn't seem like the best matchup. Like I said before, I really think the deck is a meta deck designed to do well in this current meta. UR Delver is only a 50/50 matchup despite many of the cards being played exclusively to combat UR Delver.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
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At the moment my experience against both decks is limited. But I would also say Scapeshift is preboard 50:50 or 40:60 for them, but afterboard it gets much better (at least with Ricardos Sideboard), as we have many good cards against them and they don't have much they can bring in.
Baloth is 4/4 = it can attack and block (better than 2/2 Simulacrum), it survives Anger (which doesn't trigger the draw from Simulacrum btw) and Bolt from your opponent
If I Trap on my opponent's turn and whiff on Titan/Em, I'd rather the consolation prize be Baloth than Solemn. The bigger body means it can take out slightly larger attackers.
The only pluses I see in Simulacrum are
1) it's colorless instead of double green
2) Baloth might be useless in combo matchups, whereas Simulacrum might draw you into a Breach or something
I don't think 1) makes a big difference since you're going to need double green for Titan and Trap anyway, so you might as well get started on it earlier. With regards to 2), you're not going to play against combo all the time, and you're not going to have Simulacrum draw you into a Breach all the time. Simulacrum might turn out to be just as useless as Baloth when you draw a land and die to the combo next turn.
Why do you think Simulacrum is better?
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Admittedly, if you don't make it to the late game, it doesn't help, which is why Baloth is really good.
Also, I think the single biggest weakness of this deck is its inability to draw or filter cards, which I like having Solemn for.
Or is it just too slow for this meta?
Decks I faced were
Round 1 UR Delver 2-1
Round 2 GBu (GB with snapcaster and cruise) 2-0
Round 3 Scapeshift 2-0
Round 4 Living end 2-0
Round 5 Esper Control 2-1
If you want more info on my deck or the games lemme know. Heading to bed for now though.
It's quite challenging though. Early-game they will have Izzet Charm to stop your attempts at Breaching, and when you've gathered enough mana to pay for Charm they might have either killed you already, or drawn a Cryptic Command.
The matchup becomes much better postboard, when you can remove Anger of the Gods and Chalice of the Void. Boil is amazing; it punishes them for tapping out on your turn for Dig Through Time. Resolving Sowing Salt is basically an auto-win. You get their Valakut if it's in play, or a Steam Vents/Stomping Ground.
I'm not playing Leylines, so I keep in Baloth and side in the other two. The life gain forces them to have an extra land/burn/ramp spell because Baloth puts me above 18 life. Plus, it's Trap fodder, unlike the Chalices which I side out for them.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
One thing I noticed about this deck being so new and everything is that no one has really reached a consensus on what exactly to name it. So far I've seen the following and various combinations thereof used:
RG Valakut
Summoning Trap Valakut
Breach
Breach Trap
Summoning Trap
RG Makeshift
Perhaps we should have a poll?
Would love to see your list and some notes on how the games went/what you sided and what you are general thoughts are
I'm going with something Forestlore said and dubbing mine Surprise Flying Spaghetti Monster of Supreme Badness. ;-)
Does anyone know how this list does in paper? I've been considering building it for a Starcity Open on January the 3rd.
This deck is pretty good against most of the field. I mean, it didn't T8 a GP by pure luck. Unfortunately I don't believe Delver is a good matchup, and SCG Opens are notorious for having tons of Delver in the T16. You might also run into the odd Splinter Twin deck.
Still, using last week's SCG Open as an example, there were 77 players and 5-2-0 was enough to T16. So even if you drop one or two games to Delver/Twin you still have a good shot of T16ing if you win all your other matches (which this deck can do pretty easily).
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Sorry for the delay, the list I ran can be seen below. As for the matchups ill go over what I remember in detail.
Match 1
Game 1 was UR Delver. I saw a quick win in game 1. My opponent was new to the archetype and didn't play as well as he could. A game 1 chalice for 1 locked him out of the game. He was smart enough to land a young pyromancer and cast his 1 drops anyways to fuel pyros on cast ability. He also fueled his GY for treasure cruise but valakut triggers were to much.
Game two after sideboard my matchup is even better. Siding in a 3rd chalice and 4th anger amongst a couple other cards. I stumbled on lands and never saw any of my SB cards he quickly took game 2. Game three on the play with chalice and anger in hand. Needless to say it did not end well for him. He eventually remanded a Titan which landed me a free trap emrakul for the win.
Match 2
Second opponent was GBu blue splash for cruise and snappy. Sideboard he had counter magic
To become more controlling. Overall he just got overrun. Game 1 he never got a Thoughtseize or inquisition so I ramped fast into a prime time for the kill.
Game two wasn't much better for
Him. He sided in counters as he didn't see trap game 1. He spell
Snared my sarkura to meet a quick fate of trap emrakul.
Match 3
My third opponent was playing living end. Game 1 was close. I had 3 copies of through the breach and nothing to cast. My opponent combos off at my eot, he leaves me 2 points short of death. I find a primeval Titan off the top. I through the breach it for the double trigger. getting me to grab 2 valakut Swing and grab the third followed by a mountain. He has there creatures on board. I ping each of them for 1 and follow up with a anger to exile his board. He died 2 turns later form valakut triggers.
Game two I turn 1 chalice for zero. On his turn four he destroys the chalice with the evoke red creature setting up his combo next turn. Lucky for me I untap on my turn 4 with a slaughter games and he scoops.
Match 4
Scapeshift by far my best matches of the night. I out played his every move. Partially due to him not knowing what I was playing. And partially due to my having playtested the matchup a lot (I found it to be a harder one prior to my current sideboard options)
Game 1 was super tense. He remanded my turn 2 sarkura and I missed on the trap. My opponent was *****ting bricks but I didn't get the win that easy. The game went long and I landed a baloth, I was very conservative with my life total being at 22. My opponent played his 7th land tapped played sarkura and passed with cryptic mana up. My board was 7 mana. Hand was chalice emrakul primeval Titan and through the breach. I eot through the breach. Either he cryptics this now or waits until my turn to tap the emrakul or loose (he was at 13 life.) Either way it sets me up for a prime time in my second main. He lets the emrakul resolve. I top deck a mountain. I attack and as planned he taps out to tap emrakul to survive. I slam the 8th land and play chalice on 4. He scoops realizing his scapeshift and cryptics are offline.
Game two I ramp out faster than him and force him to counter a creature. I get the free emrakul and quickly cleanup afterwords. Overall game two was heavily favored for me post board.
Match 5 esper control
This guy is a local and a very experienced control player. He commonly makes top 4 at our modern events which typically run 16-25 players. We run a really competitive modern scene at my LGS.
Anyways as I've never played this deck at FNM before he was caught off guard. Game 1 his esper charm discard two gave me a free baloth. This game was Grindy. Eventually we both were flooding out which is beneficial to the deck running valakut.
Game two my hand was picked a part with 3 Thoughtseize. I wasn't able to keep enough card advantage to outrun his counters and I was beaten down by a tar-pit. (I did hit a fetch with valakut online so I was able to sac in response to his animation, but he had the pre combat tech edge to destroy valakut)
Game three again felt like a loosing battle. 2 thoightseize and inquisition ripped my ramp and phatties out of the game. However after he ripped my primeval Titan away I top decked a spell breaker behemoth. He had no removal to answer the threat and I top decked a uncounter-able inferno Titan the turn after to clock him out of the game.
Overall I had a ton of fun, I made mistakes as it was the first time in a real paper tournament playing the deck but I certainly learned from them. I feel the deck is really well positioned in the meta, especially with the black splash. I'll be attending a local PPTQ this Sunday and I intend to run the deck again.
I apologize in advance if this is poorly written my PC is outa commission and my finger are bleeding. Be smashing this phone after I post this.
Also people have be commenting on what we should call the deck. As primeval Titan and emrakul are the main wincons I think a suitable name would be
Prime time for spaghetti.
PS the deck list is off memory. Maybe 1 card short dunno what it is tho!
4 Emrakul
4 Primeval Titan
2 Obstinate Baloth
1 Inferno Titan
4 search for tomorrow
2 farseek
3 Anger of the gods
3 Summoning Trap
4 Through the breech
2 Chalice of the Void
4 Stomping Ground
1 Blood Crypt
8 Mountains
2 Forest
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Slaughter Games
1 Boil
1 Sowing Salts
1 Choke
2 Combust
2 Spellbreaker Behemoth
1 Chalice of the void
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 shatterstorm
1 Anger of the gods.
Prime Time Emmy
However, I think that this deck is very good against affinity, even post-board. The ability to stymie one of Affinity's more explosive starts with a Chalice on 0 is a good way to slow them down, as is Anger, and once you'd sided in Ancient Grudge, Shatterstorm, and Unravel the Aether, you're typically doing well.
I think you just fell victim to variance; quite often running this deck you'll hit a bad hand, mulligan into a bad hand, etc etc. It's all down to the lack of card selection that this deck has, because we don't play U. The only strategy you really have is to fill your deck with cards that are good and hope to draw into them. In your list, I'd side out the Baloths and a Summoning Trap for artifact hate.
Round 1 vs. Angel Pod. In the first game, I had the perfect hand against him. He missed some land drops and got his mana dorks and Scavenging Ooze Anger of the Gods. I follow with Through the Breach/Emrakul and we are on to game 2. He mulls to 5 and really never gets any footing. I start slowly with Obstinate Baloths, but draw a Primeval Titan and it is over quickly. 2-0.
Round 2 vs. RG Aggro. In the first game, he started strong and finished me with burn. I kept a hand with Emrakul, STE, and lands. I ended up only on 6 lands and only 4 EMRAKUL in hand!!! I almost had Valakut active though. In the 2nd game, I did an Emrakul in time off Through the Breach and he needed to draw a land to do his 3rd Lightning Bolt, which he had in hand. In the final game, I was at 1 life, facing a Strangleroot Geist with an Undying counter and a Kitchen Finks with a Persist counter. He had no lands from a Through the Breach/Emrakul. He attacks and I did Summoning Trap, getting an Obstinate Baloth and blocking the 3/2 Strangleroot Geist. I take 2, leaving me at 3 life. I swing next turn and cast a Prime Titan and it is over quickly. 2-1.
Round 3 vs. Mono White Aggro. Game 1, I did Anger of the Gods, leaving only a 4/4 Champion of the Parish and a turn 4 Through the Breach/Emrakul. In the 2nd game, I did a similar beginning with some Obstinate Baloths, which only chumped a 7/7 Champion of the Parish and I could only find a Primeval Titan on the final turn, which couldn't do lethal or kill his 7/7 and he had 2 1/1s from Gather the Townsfolk while I was at 1 life. In the final game, he mulled and didn't have anything until turn 5, missing his 3rd land drop twice. I drew the nuts and did a million damage with a Prime Titan and 3 Valakuts in play. 2-1.
Round 4 vs. UR Delver. In game 1, he stuck a Delver on turn 1, which flipped and rode it all the way, getting in a hit with Monastery Swiftspear before the final turn when he pumped his Swiftspear enough to do lethal. In the 2nd game, I killed his Delver and Swiftspear with Anger of the Gods and followed it with 2 Obstinate Baloth. In the final game, he did 1st turn Delver, 2nd turn flip for the 3rd time this match. He Remands an Obstinate Baloth twice, I get stuck on 4 lands, which I had on turn 3, and I draw Chalice of the Void on my final turn. 1-2.
Round 5 vs. UW GiftsTron. Both of these games had some play to them. In the first game, I played too conservatively with 3 Summoning Trap in hand when he Remanded my Obstinate Baloth. I only Trapped once into another Baloth because I feared that he would do Supreme Verdict to my Emrakul and that would be embarrassing. He eventually got Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and attacked me low with Timely Reinforcement tokens. I finally come back with Primeval Titan and kill him a few turns later with Valakuts while he was at 39 life at one point (from Batterskull). In the 2nd game, I kept a no Green mana hand with Through the Breach and 3 Red sources and drew not a land while he did Gifts for Iona, Shield of Emeria off Unburial Rites. In the final game, I do a turn 4 EoT Through the Breach. He considers countering, but he didn't know that I had Emrakul. It ends the next turn. I DID in fact have another Through the Breach, so I would have taken the chance on it next main phase to put Emrakul, so I don't think he had a chance anyway. 2-1.
I finish 4-1, getting 4th place. It's pretty good and I really enjoy this deck, having played Valakut in Standard and then in Scapeshift. These are the types of GR decks that I really like.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)I played in a small 20 person FNM. It was 5 rounds.
Round 1 vs. Bogles. This was interesting playing against my top deck choice since Standard began. In the first game, I drew pretty nutty and he couldn't do lethal, so he held the Bogle back, but the Titan put 2 Mountain in play with 3 active Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and that was that. In the 2nd game, he played a Bogle 1st turn and with no land drop, a Keen Sense the 2nd turn. I played a Chalice of the Void with 1 counter on my turn 2. It was easy to play Anger of the Gods and whatever I wanted from there. 2-0.
Round 2 vs. UR Delver. He kept a 1 land hand in the first game. There wasn't much to see. He could answer my Anger of the Gods, then 2 Obstinate Baloth. In the 2nd game, I honestly just had the answer to whatever he played and eventually did an Emrakul/Breach to end it. 2-0.
Round 3 vs. Angel Pod. In the first game, he curved turn 3 Siege Rhino off Wall of Roots into turn 4 Siege Rhino. I kept a 4 land, Emrakul, Obstinate Baloth, Search for Tomorrow hand, but only drew lands the whole game. The 2nd game was similar, but I did Anger of the Gods on some of his creatures and he was stuck on just double Birthing Pod until he drew Siege Rhino. I thought that I would win this game, but I kept drawing land after land. In the end, I needed just 3 more land to hard cast Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Pretty sad. 0-2.
Round 4 vs. Affinity. In the first game, I had a hand with Anger and Obstinate Baloth. I didn't draw Prime Time in time while he had an early Etched Champion with Cranial Plating and rode it to a short victory. In the 2nd game, I had Ancient Grudge, which he saw with Thoughtseize. It had to use it on some early creatures and then he dropped Master of Etherium while I had Chalice of the Void on 2. He swings for a million a turn later. 0-2.
Round 5 vs. BR Discard. The guy did a turn 2 Blackmail and I showed him 3 Obstinate Baloth. This was not really a game obviously with 3 Obstinate Baloth and instead of playing the others, I was desperately trying to ramp to Prime Time. He ended up accidentally making me "discard another one" with Burning Inquiry. Prime Time plays mop up duty. The 2nd game is similar except I get out 1 Obstinate Baloth after triple Lightning Bolt and then a turn 5 Summoning Trap for Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. 2-0.
I finish 3-2 and many people were intrigued with the deck, especially since every card is foil except the 4 SB Chalice of the Void. I sadly lost 2 two of the top decks, but I honestly drew way too many land in those games. In the 2nd game against Pod, I may have saved the 1 Fetchland that I had early on and eventually when I finally drew Valakut, I would have had an extra trigger. I don't think it would have save me since 4/5 Rhinoceroses and 3/4 Archangel of Thune were tough regardless.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)