Sometimes it was hard. But it never got to the point where I said, "This game is not fun anymore because of X."
In all fairness, Wizards did "ban" U/B control with Cavern of Souls. If you had just plunked down $400 for a Tier 1.5 U/B deck, you would be pretty mad right now.
Anyone with a brain saw the Jace ban coming, and to a lesser extent, the SFM banning. This banning is much more jarring to some players.
Otherwise you have to wonder what their testing teams are actually doing when they're making so many mistakes.
Quote from Zac Hill »
I can't tell you how many FFL matches were spent Mana Leaking a spell, killing the next threat, and just sitting on Mana Leak + Snapcaster Mage forever while casting flashback cards and activating nonbasic lands.
So we decided to nip that problem in the bud."
The FFL is filled with morons, and the previous season was U/B control with a millyard wincon.
I really don't think he understands that Wizards makes the game, Wizards sells the game, and Wizards truly knows much more than the OP and every other play about what's good for the game. Nobody is going to let their business sink from stupid decisions, even if you think that's what Wizards is doing.
Quote from Zac Hill »
I can't tell you how many FFL matches were spent Mana Leaking a spell, killing the next threat, and just sitting on Mana Leak + Snapcaster Mage forever while casting flashback cards and activating nonbasic lands.
So we decided to nip that problem in the bud."
Counter-point: The FFL is filled with morons, and the previous seasons was entirely U/B control with a millyard wincon.
Post-AVR is a meta of 33% plus WRR with Delver, Zombies and Humans trying to defeat WRR while still staying respectable against the other two.
Blink control will be tried, and it will suck.
Mono Black control will be tried, and it will suck.
Land Destruction will be tried, and might T8 an SCG, once.
Wow... looks like red is probably the color to beat in standard now.
Okay creatures, bad burn. Mono-red has a lot of work to come close to being playable.
U/R Human wizards(and one shaman) on the other hand might be pretty nifty with a bit of Tibalt thrown in to feed the yard while Snappy, Deranged Assistant, Skirsdag Cultist, and Grim Lavamancer make a mess of things.
Add in Brimstone Volley, Negates, the U/R lighthouse deck mill, and Cavern of Souls. Win.
You can't really go wrong with this setup because it gives you a strong transition against U/B control and many of the slower decks that now exist in standard. Ancient Grudge, Ray of Revelation, and the space open for metagame choices all help against their respective threats.
I'll keep this short. You won't be assemble Voltron if you only have some of the robot cats. Almost every loss in playtesting was the deck just beating itself by drawing about 1/2 of each win strategy. It makes more sense to go full Frites G1 and then side into beats G2/3 if you think it will be advantageous.
Oh a side note, 2x Kessig Wolf Run is a HUGE Frites improvement, and it will likely be an auto include once people move away from Levy's manabase.
But yeah, potatoes was fun, but I don't think you can run both strategies effectively and consistently.
I'm averaging about 66% versus U/B control in matches and can usually go 50/50 G1. G2/3 is usually a beating of such epic magnitude that the person is just mad afterwards.
Good luck with the 23 land mana base, it will be heavy black, medium blue, fast green/red, and a minimum of white. I would imagine it has 'yards as a backup plan.
Since the sideboard is always a metagame call, I think it is useful to identify why a particular card or sideboard works in a specific matchup.
For example, Strangleroot Geist is an absolute house against most control decks, and he can play attrition games if your opponents creatures actually stay in the graveyard. While maybe 3% of the potential matchups, he can also put a hurting on junkwalkers if played on T2.
My sideboard suggestions:
Wurmcoil Engine: Wurmcoil just own bones unless your opponent is using infect.dec or can Kessig Wolf Run on an Inkmoth Nexus. He is useful in just about every matchup with the potential exceptions of Blue heavy control or delver where you might well have your wurm copied and then vapor snagged.
Stranglewoot Geist: See above, smash U/B control pt. 1
Thrun, the Last Troll: Smash U/B control pt. 2
Surgical Extraction: Zombie and U/B control, any deck that uses too many 4x or graveyard mechanics.
Ray of Revelation: Humans, Heartless, and that one guy still throwing Angelic Destiny on his Saint and Crusaders. Flashback!
I see what you are doing, but how is removing the Rites the best thing? Especially when you still have Mulch and Looting sending cards to your graveyard.
I'm not removing the the Unburial Rites strategy, and even under the hardest SB hate, I wouldn't go under two Unburial Rites. Threat Diversification helps with hate aimed at specific cards, and the added thruns and titans should be enough to push through a late game win in most cases.
Looting will only send cards to the graveyard that I think it is okay to put in graveyard. If I send something to graveyard and it gets extracted or spellbombed, that's my play error.
Mulch is required to get land into my hand on turns three through the rest of the game. I hate discarding creatures with Mulch when facing graveyard disruption, but at the same time, G1 I love the discard effect in Mulch. Since Mulch powers this deck, you just gotta roll with it G2.
What is your solution for Surgical Extraction or the spellbomb? Those are the two biggest banes for this deck, followed by the cage.
Extraction is easy enough to beat. When I suspect extraction, I side out 2 Lingering souls, 2 Unburial Rites, 1 Elesh, and 1 Sun Titan. I replace them with 2 Inferno Titan, 2 Thrun, and 2 Gavony Township. Basically, I make extraction a losing game by diversifying my threats and adding two additional lands helps to hardcast the deck's spells. Gavony also helps with the "extract all of the things" strategy some people use against this deck.
Nihil is harder to beat, but this deck provides couple of options. I would side in 2 Ancient Grudges and 2 Thrun, and I would side out 2 Lingering Souls, 1 Unburial Rites, and 1 Elesh. Ancient Grudge gives you the ability to force the spellbomb, and as long as you play more conservative than usual, a spellbomb should only eat a useful card or two at a time.
In all fairness, Wizards did "ban" U/B control with Cavern of Souls. If you had just plunked down $400 for a Tier 1.5 U/B deck, you would be pretty mad right now.
Anyone with a brain saw the Jace ban coming, and to a lesser extent, the SFM banning. This banning is much more jarring to some players.
The FFL is filled with morons, and the previous season was U/B control with a millyard wincon.
Counter-point: The FFL is filled with morons, and the previous seasons was entirely U/B control with a millyard wincon.
Post-AVR is a meta of 33% plus WRR with Delver, Zombies and Humans trying to defeat WRR while still staying respectable against the other two.
Blink control will be tried, and it will suck.
Mono Black control will be tried, and it will suck.
Land Destruction will be tried, and might T8 an SCG, once.
Okay creatures, bad burn. Mono-red has a lot of work to come close to being playable.
U/R Human wizards(and one shaman) on the other hand might be pretty nifty with a bit of Tibalt thrown in to feed the yard while Snappy, Deranged Assistant, Skirsdag Cultist, and Grim Lavamancer make a mess of things.
Add in Brimstone Volley, Negates, the U/R lighthouse deck mill, and Cavern of Souls. Win.
But it combos nicely with Cellar Door to give you a steady supply 2/2 zombies and creature cards in your graveyard for reanimator.
8-10 Cards of Aggro-transform
3-4 Strangleroot Geist
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
0-2 Sun Titan
0-4 Sword of W&P / F&F
4 Utility Flashback Spells
2 Ray of Revelation
2 Ancient Grudge
0-2 Metagame Choices
2 Memory Journey / Surgical Extraction / Divine Reckoning / Mystic Retrieval / Utility Creatures / Oblivion Ring
You can't really go wrong with this setup because it gives you a strong transition against U/B control and many of the slower decks that now exist in standard. Ancient Grudge, Ray of Revelation, and the space open for metagame choices all help against their respective threats.
Oh a side note, 2x Kessig Wolf Run is a HUGE Frites improvement, and it will likely be an auto include once people move away from Levy's manabase.
But yeah, potatoes was fun, but I don't think you can run both strategies effectively and consistently.
4 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Llanowar Elves
3 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
4 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Inferno Titan
Non-basic Lands
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Razorverge Thicket
2 Rootbound Crag
2 Hinterland Harbor
2 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Forest
1 Mountain
Sorceries
4 Lingering Souls
4 Faithless Looting
4 Mulch
3 Tracker's Instincts
4 Unburial Rites
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Ray of Revelation
2 Surgical Extraction
4 Strangleroot Geist
3 Sword of War and Peace
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
3x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
2x Grave Titan
3x Wurmcoil Engine
4x Birds of Paradise
3x Avacyn's Pilgrim
2x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
2x Liliana of the Veil
4x Forbidden Alchemy
3x Faithless Looting
2x Think Twice
2x Mana Leak
3x Unburial Rites
4x Lingering Souls
Good luck with the 23 land mana base, it will be heavy black, medium blue, fast green/red, and a minimum of white. I would imagine it has 'yards as a backup plan.
For example, Strangleroot Geist is an absolute house against most control decks, and he can play attrition games if your opponents creatures actually stay in the graveyard. While maybe 3% of the potential matchups, he can also put a hurting on junkwalkers if played on T2.
My sideboard suggestions:
Wurmcoil Engine: Wurmcoil just own bones unless your opponent is using infect.dec or can Kessig Wolf Run on an Inkmoth Nexus. He is useful in just about every matchup with the potential exceptions of Blue heavy control or delver where you might well have your wurm copied and then vapor snagged.
Stranglewoot Geist: See above, smash U/B control pt. 1
Thrun, the Last Troll: Smash U/B control pt. 2
Surgical Extraction: Zombie and U/B control, any deck that uses too many 4x or graveyard mechanics.
Ray of Revelation: Humans, Heartless, and that one guy still throwing Angelic Destiny on his Saint and Crusaders. Flashback!
Phyrexian Metamorph / Phantasmal Image: Copy creatures, infinite uses.
Slagstorm: Junkwalkers, token spam, humans, Bad Aggro.dec
Timely Reinforcements: Delver, Bad Aggro.dec
Creeping Renaissance: Get back all my creatures or sorceries? And it has flashback? Frites is begging for this in the longer games.I'm not removing the the Unburial Rites strategy, and even under the hardest SB hate, I wouldn't go under two Unburial Rites. Threat Diversification helps with hate aimed at specific cards, and the added thruns and titans should be enough to push through a late game win in most cases.
Looting will only send cards to the graveyard that I think it is okay to put in graveyard. If I send something to graveyard and it gets extracted or spellbombed, that's my play error.
Mulch is required to get land into my hand on turns three through the rest of the game. I hate discarding creatures with Mulch when facing graveyard disruption, but at the same time, G1 I love the discard effect in Mulch. Since Mulch powers this deck, you just gotta roll with it G2.
Extraction is easy enough to beat. When I suspect extraction, I side out 2 Lingering souls, 2 Unburial Rites, 1 Elesh, and 1 Sun Titan. I replace them with 2 Inferno Titan, 2 Thrun, and 2 Gavony Township. Basically, I make extraction a losing game by diversifying my threats and adding two additional lands helps to hardcast the deck's spells. Gavony also helps with the "extract all of the things" strategy some people use against this deck.
Nihil is harder to beat, but this deck provides couple of options. I would side in 2 Ancient Grudges and 2 Thrun, and I would side out 2 Lingering Souls, 1 Unburial Rites, and 1 Elesh. Ancient Grudge gives you the ability to force the spellbomb, and as long as you play more conservative than usual, a spellbomb should only eat a useful card or two at a time.