The Problem with Emry and creatures in general is, that this is a otherwise creatureless deck, which means you are only offering your opponents a target for the removal, that would otherwise be stuck in their hand. Post board it's totally considerable, because your opponent will most likely board out every form of creature only removal.
I'm just going to rebuild, going back to the old BG core from before GP Charlotte. I wasn't running Opals then, but we have new tools now that we didn't have then. My current tentative list is:
I'm sure it can be tuned to be a bit better, but this is what I plan on testing. It seems to me that it has a decent answer to about every deck type. For aggro, there are six creature removal spells (Collective Brutality and Assassin's Trophy), along with discard and Bridges. For combo, there are Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Collective Brutality, and Surgical Extraction (and Pithing Needle for some combo decks, like Ad Nauseum and Devoted Druid). For control, there are discard spells and Pithing Needle. For big mana (Tron, Titanshift, etc.), there are Ghost Quarter, Assassin's Trophy, Surgical Extraction, and discard (and Pithing Needle to help against Tron).
I expect decks like Grixis Shadow will still be difficult, but that's been the case for nearly forever, and I think it's fair that we have some bad matchups - Every deck should, in my opinion.
I expect to see a rise in Burn, Bogles, Infect, Tron, and Titanshift in the coming months. I think this list has a decent shot at beating Burn, and we've historically had a great Bogles matchup anyways. The BG lists are probably the best we have against Tron, and I imagine that 4 Ghost Quarter and 3 Assassin's Trophy should help a decent amount against them, especially with Surgicals. I worry about Infect, but Collective Brutality should help out.
Either way, I'm going to just rebuild and keep playing when I can. Hope all is well!
Your list only had 6 mill rocks. I would cut some stuff for 2 bells.
also, the debate gets renewed about whir vs colorless lands. I’m going to try a whir version and see how it goes. Collective brutality does handle excess lands in hand. I forgot about that one.
So, new work and interest has picked up on the Discord server. We've started a new spreadsheet for data collection (great work by Jlobblet for making it better!). If anyone is interested in helping collect more data, please feel free to join the cause. We've also started doing more in-house testing on Cockatrice. Cockatrice is probably the best platform to test on, as it allows for anyone to help (no budget restrictions), allows us to take back misplays to get better data, and replay from specific gamestates to try and make sure that our lines are precise. Looking forward to any help!
Disclaimer: I'm in no way a professional player and this is more of a jank variation than anything, so although I'm open to criticism and constructive feedback - don't take it TOO seriously.
Hey everyone,
Been lurking for the longest time but wanted to post because of how relevant Psychic Surgery is for the BG variant at the moment (at least from my experience).
Found some success with it online, still waiting for some pieces before I take it to my local FNM and will post results here when I do.
Missing pieces at the moment is the single Academy Ruins and a set of Mishra's Baubles.
..and their occasional shuffle post-fetch/etc.
Pretty funny to either exile their tutor from Symmetry with Surgery or mill it then Surgical (they usually grab a pretty relevant card).
I've played with 3 and 4 of Simian Spirit Guide and honestly, 2 feels the best. With 2, I get hands where I dump a T2 bridge or an explosive T1 with a Lantern and Shredder/Lantern and Inquisition/etc. as opposed to 3/4 where I just get flooded with them most of the time.
The 1 of Aether Grid feels nice when I draw into/tutor for it while I have my lock already but feelsbad when I topdeck it looking for pieces.
At the moment that's all the justifications I have that's different from the typical list. Will definitely update more when I can and don't mind answering questions/etc.
Psychic surgery does seem interesting with what you laid out. It seems that they might not have the fetchland out trick that they try. Also, with astrolabe banned, there might be more fetches in the future. Let me know how it works!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Pauper Cube & Artifact Pauper Cube & Multiplayer Cube
Interested in building your own Pauper Cube? Take a look at some of the lists and the following project: The "Evaluate Everything" Project (updated to M21/JMP)
do we just replace opals with lands? Or do we spice it up and put something else in that spot?
Search for tomorrow?
I'm just going to rebuild, going back to the old BG core from before GP Charlotte. I wasn't running Opals then, but we have new tools now that we didn't have then. My current tentative list is:
1x Academy Ruins
4x Blooming Marsh
1x Forest
4x Ghost Quarter
4x Glimmervoid
2x Inventors' Fair
3x Llanowar Wastes
1x Swamp
Instant (6)
3x Assassin's Trophy
3x Surgical Extraction
4x Codex Shredder
4x Ensnaring Bridge
4x Lantern of Insight
4x Mishra's Bauble
3x Pithing Needle
2x Pyxis of Pandemonium
Sorcery (13)
4x Ancient Stirrings
3x Collective Brutality
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
1x Assassin's Trophy
1x Collective Brutality
2x Damping Sphere
1x Grafdigger's Cage
3x Leyline of Sanctity
1x Pithing Needle
2x Seal of Primordium
1x Surgical Extraction
3x Welding Jar
I'm sure it can be tuned to be a bit better, but this is what I plan on testing. It seems to me that it has a decent answer to about every deck type. For aggro, there are six creature removal spells (Collective Brutality and Assassin's Trophy), along with discard and Bridges. For combo, there are Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Collective Brutality, and Surgical Extraction (and Pithing Needle for some combo decks, like Ad Nauseum and Devoted Druid). For control, there are discard spells and Pithing Needle. For big mana (Tron, Titanshift, etc.), there are Ghost Quarter, Assassin's Trophy, Surgical Extraction, and discard (and Pithing Needle to help against Tron).
I expect decks like Grixis Shadow will still be difficult, but that's been the case for nearly forever, and I think it's fair that we have some bad matchups - Every deck should, in my opinion.
I expect to see a rise in Burn, Bogles, Infect, Tron, and Titanshift in the coming months. I think this list has a decent shot at beating Burn, and we've historically had a great Bogles matchup anyways. The BG lists are probably the best we have against Tron, and I imagine that 4 Ghost Quarter and 3 Assassin's Trophy should help a decent amount against them, especially with Surgicals. I worry about Infect, but Collective Brutality should help out.
Either way, I'm going to just rebuild and keep playing when I can. Hope all is well!
Lantern Control
(with videos)
Uc Tron
Netdecking explained
Netdecking explained, Part 2
On speculators and counterfeits
On Interaction
Every single competitive deck in existence is designed to limit the opponent's ability to interact in a meaningful way.
Record number of exclamation points on SCG homepage: 71 (6 January, 2018)
"I don't want to believe, I want to know."
-Carl Sagan
also, the debate gets renewed about whir vs colorless lands. I’m going to try a whir version and see how it goes. Collective brutality does handle excess lands in hand. I forgot about that one.
All is well.
Lantern Control
(with videos)
Uc Tron
Netdecking explained
Netdecking explained, Part 2
On speculators and counterfeits
On Interaction
Every single competitive deck in existence is designed to limit the opponent's ability to interact in a meaningful way.
Record number of exclamation points on SCG homepage: 71 (6 January, 2018)
"I don't want to believe, I want to know."
-Carl Sagan
Hey everyone,
Been lurking for the longest time but wanted to post because of how relevant Psychic Surgery is for the BG variant at the moment (at least from my experience).
Found some success with it online, still waiting for some pieces before I take it to my local FNM and will post results here when I do.
Missing pieces at the moment is the single Academy Ruins and a set of Mishra's Baubles.
Here's the list:
1x Swamp
1x Forest
4x Blooming Marsh
4x Glimmervoid
4x Spire of Industry
3x Ghost Quarter
1x Inventor's Fair
Instants (5)
3x Assassin's Trophy
2x Surgical Extraction
Sorceries (13)
4x Ancient Stirrings
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
2x Scheming Symmetry
1x Collective Brutality
4x Ensnaring Bridge
4x Lantern of Insight
4x Codex Shredder
1x Ghoulcaller's Bell
2x Pyxis of Pandemonium
2x Welding Jar
2x Pithing Needle
Enchantments (3)
1x Ghirapur Æther Grid
2x Psychic Surgery
Creatures (2)
2x Simian Spirit Guide
3x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Collective Brutality
2x Grafdigger's Cage
3x Abrupt Decay
1x Surgical Extraction
2x Damping Sphere
2x Return to Nature
First things first, here's the cards relevant to Psychic Surgery:
- Assassin's Trophy
- Ghost Quarter
- Scheming Symmetry
- Lantern of Insight
..and their occasional shuffle post-fetch/etc.Pretty funny to either exile their tutor from Symmetry with Surgery or mill it then Surgical (they usually grab a pretty relevant card).
Cards (x) I'll take out for (y) when I acquire them:
1x Ghost Quarter for 1x Academy Ruins
2x Welding Jar, 1x Pithing Needle, 1x Collective Brutality for 4x Mishra's Bauble
All replaced cards besides Ghost Quarter go into the sideboard and I'm currently unsure of what I'll cut, guess it depends on your meta anyway.
I've played with 3 and 4 of Simian Spirit Guide and honestly, 2 feels the best. With 2, I get hands where I dump a T2 bridge or an explosive T1 with a Lantern and Shredder/Lantern and Inquisition/etc. as opposed to 3/4 where I just get flooded with them most of the time.
The 1 of Aether Grid feels nice when I draw into/tutor for it while I have my lock already but feelsbad when I topdeck it looking for pieces.
At the moment that's all the justifications I have that's different from the typical list. Will definitely update more when I can and don't mind answering questions/etc.