Quote from OneShotGame@rx303: pls post your tournament report, i am tremendously eager to hear it.
I made day 2, losing 2 times to gruul agro. Won boggles, tezzerator, ur twin, affinity and boros.
Here is my decklist:
| DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards | ||
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Counters: 3 Spell Snare 3 Mana Leak 3 Cryptic Command Removal: 1 Magma Spray 3 Lightning Bolt 1 Pyroclasm 1 Damnation 3 Electrolyze 4 Inquisition of Kozilek | Draw: 3 Think Twice 2 Forbidden Alchemy Etc: 3 Snapcaster Mage 2 Cruel Ultimatum | Sideboard: 3 Duress 3 Thoughtseize 2 Magma Spray 1 Anger of the Gods 1 Spellskite 1 Rakdos Charm 1 Counterflux 1 Engineered Explosives 2 Sowing Salt |
Round 3 - RG Agro.
First game opponent mulls to five, but plays 3 Goblin Guide. I respond with pyroclasm and we move to sideboarding. I think it was something like -3 Cryptic Command, -2 Electrolyze (both are too slow), + magma sprays, EE, Spellskite and anger.
In the second game I discard Blood Moon with IoK and counter another with Mana Leak. The way it supposed to be
After some turns he is attacking me a few times with 1/1 Experiment One and I'm not blocking him with snapcaster because afraid of rampager and only removal I have in my hand is Cryptic Command, but I don't have enough mana to cast it because I need to answer his other threats each turn. But in the end it turns out that his last card was not rampager but Lightning Bolt, which brings me to 2, and his last topdeck before I play ultimatum is another bolt.In the third game I keep hand with 2 Mana Leaks, IoK, bolt, 2 lands and some other card and make a mistake with inquisition - he has Blood Moon, tarmo, rancor, ooze and rampager (+ Kird Ape already on table), so I instinctively choose Blood Moon while the correct chooce would be Tarmogoyf because I have 2 Leaks to answer Blood Moon and have nothing against tarmo. So I lose because of that + missed a 4th landdrop with Damnation in hand
Round 4 - Boggles
After match this opponent said he picked this deck only yesterday so wasn't very experienced with it. However he made day 2.
First game he keeped a hand of Spiritdancer + auras. I had a hand with bolt.
Second game I've drawn both Anger of the Gods and EE in top 10 cards, so it was very easy.
Round 5 - RG agro again
I don't remember a lot about that match. Opponent had Strangleroot Geists and Molten Rain instead of Blood Moon. Overall 1-2.
Round 6 - Boros aggro.
First game he plays 2 lands and 6 or 7 1-mana creatures
Figure, Lynx, Goblin Guide, Lavamancer... Next two games are similar - I kill his creatures, discard his Boros Charms (or burn, when he is tapped out), play ultimatum, gg.Round 7 - Tezzerator
At last non-agro matchup!
In the first game i deal with 3 Tezzerets (first one gets eot snapcaster + eleztrolyze, second - Hero's Downfall, third - command), find ultimatum, scan his hand for counters with IoK and okay ultimatum.
Second is again the same - counter his high-costed threats (batterskull and wurm), find ultimatum, check his hand, play ultimatum.
After the match he tells me he didn't sided in Defence Grids because haven't seen a lot of counters in first game.
Round 8 - Splinter Twin
Game one as usual - he plays a lot of cantrips, but have no opportunity to combo out. In the end I play IoK+Ultimatum, leaving him with only Pestermite.
Sideboarding - woo-woo, discard train coming in! )))
Second game I got reaaally lucky when he plays Peek during my 1st turn draw phase, sees no discard or counters and then plays t3 Blood Moon. But that only draw step I had gives me Mana Leak.
There was another interesting moment in that game - he plays Gigadrowse for 6 mana with 1 mountain left, trying to tap all my lands. Obviously, he'll play exarch, untap land, kiki next turn. So I counter one copy with Cryptic Command + bounce his land (because with 8 lands he could combo out with dispel/mizzium skin cover) and holding to my lightning bolt in hand. He sees my red source untapped and decides not to combo. After that turn he do not plays anything threating.
Game 9 - Affinity.
Again, both games goes just as they supposed to. 1 turn he plays 4-5 cards. Then I play IoK and strip him off the single threat. Then he proceeds to attack me 1-2 damage each turn which is perfectly comfortable for me.
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I looked at the list Ben Stark ran and really liked it. I'm going to explain my choices for all the matchups I have tested and ask for your opinions on sideboarding .
EDIT: Lingering Souls isn't in this list. That card is horrrrrrible for us without sorins, pumps, or some other use (sacrificing)
THE DECK
CREATURES
4 Augur of Bolas
3 Restoration Angel
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Azorius Charm
1 Cyclonic Rift
2 Devour Flesh
2 Dissipate
3 Sphinx's Revelation
3 Think Twice
1 Ultimate Price
2 Planar Cleansing
4 Supreme Verdict
4 Drowned Catacomb
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Godless Shrine
4 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
4 Isolated Chapel
3 Nephalia Drownyard
1 Plains
2 Watery Grave
2 Witchbane Orb
2 Angel of Serenity
1 Rest in Peace
1 Dispel
2 Negate
1 Psychic Spiral
2 Jace, Memory Adept
4 Terminus
Jund
Jund used to be a horrible matchup for me. Having to deal with Lili and Garruk was too much for the deck to handle. However, the introduction of planar cleansing (some people were already aware, I was not, so thank you Mr. Stark) has completely changed the matchup for me. G1 I've gone 15-0 against my friend's Jund list.
MB
-3 Restoration Angel
-2 Snapcaster Mage
-1 Think Twice
SB
+2 Angel of Serenity
+2 Negate
+2 Witchbane Orb
The problem with the matchup comes post-board. It goes from a total blowout in my favor to 60-40 in his favor. Until I decided to start siding out restoration angel in the matchup I think it was more like 80-20. His sideboard has 11 cards dedicated to anti-control because he's extremely confident in his agro matchup. He's bringing in 3 slaughter games, 3 Deathrite Shamans, 2 duress, 1 sundering growth, another lili (bringing his total to 3) and one other thing I can't remember. He can afford it, too, because he doesn't need any more than barebones removal in the form of 2 bonfires he leaves in. I feel helpless against a T3 (TURN 3!!! Farseek QQ) Slaughter Games. He's smart so he doesn't name Sphinx's Rev, he names Planar Cleansing and destroys me. I need help finding a way other than coin flipping to turn this match into at least a 50-50. Am I boarding wrong?
Naya/Jund Agro and Mono Red
G1 is about 40/60 in their favor. I'm not entirely suprised, but it does suck a little. I don't think there's much I can do to change these matchups pre-board.
MB
-1 Planar Cleansing
-2 Dissipate
-1 Ghost Quarter
SB
+4 Terminus
Post-board I feel much more confident, maybe 60-40 in my favor. Even moreso against mono-red. Mono-red is just too slow, and I'd be ecstatic to face a field of mono-red. Having 8 sweeps and the small amount of removal/creatures I can use as stall until revs is amazing for me. I've only tested about 20 matches post-board against Naya/Jund/Mono-red lists combined, though, so I could be wrong. Input is always appreciated.
B/W or Esper Tokens
You want to talk about a bad matchup? Pre-board is 90-10 for them in my testing. 10 G1s tested and I've won a single time. ONE TIME. The lists I've tested against just abandon their agro matchup to completely crush any control decks they might face. I'm talking mainboard duresses, 4 murders, l souls and doomed travelers out the ass.
MB
-1 Planar Cleansing
-1 Ultimate Price
-2 Devour Flesh
SB
+4 Terminus
Post-board I've won 2 out of ten matches, so a 100% increase in effectiveness! It's just disgustingly bad. I'm running 9 board wipes in the main and still getting absolutely dominated. What it gives up in the speed department agro lists have, it gains in resilience to board wipes. Ghost quarter stays in to hit Vaults and moorland haunts. Then there's the 2 obzedats who can finish out the game. My question here is, do I bring in Rest in Peace? I don't mind siding out the final planar cleansing (left in to hit their enchantments). I just don't know what to do here. Thankfully I only know of a single player who is crazy enough to run this list in our meta (my Jund tester's wife).
Bant Control/Wolf-Run
Game ones are generally 70-30 for me. Drownyards are dominant and unless I can't find an answer to a resolved Tamiyo (if they're running her) I generally win with them having a life total of around 40-50.
MB
-3 Restoration Angel
-2 Jace, Architect of Thought
-1 Ultimate Price
-1 Supreme Verdict
-1 Azorius Charm
SB
+2 Angel of Serenity
+2 Negate
+1 Dispel
+1 Psychic Spiral
+2 Jace, Memory Adept
Post-board feels very close to 50-50. Might be 55-45. I have witchbanes, my own jaces, planar cleansing, and psychic spiral as reactive answers to their landed Jace (farseek means a consistently earlier Jace than mine). However, they also bring in Geist which can end things quickly if I don't have a devour or sweep ready. I side out ghost quarter against lists that aren't wolf-run and leave in the supreme verdict. Against more bant midrangey decks where I don't see counterspells G1 I don't side in dispel and leave in the supreme verdict. I don't know if there's too much advice anyone can offer on dealing with this matchup other than having to play extremely tight. Mistakes are so killer in this matchup.
Esper Control
Ah, the mirror. What a blast. Thankfully there's only one other esper player at my shop. He runs 4 nephs and drops the ghost quarter which I think is a mistake in our meta, but it does give him an edge in our matchup. He's also running 4 sphinx's 4 think twices instead of 3 of both and 2 Jaces (a decision I made as a concession to how heavily agro our meta is). I'd still say it's only 45-55 in his favor, though.
MB
-3 Restoration Angel
-1 Cyclonic Rift
-1 Ultimate Price
-1 Jace, Architect of Thought
-2 Supreme Verdict
SB
+2 Witchbane Orb
+2 Negate
+1 Dispel
+1 Psychic Spiral
+2 Jace, Memory Adept
Post-board I'm leaving in a couple supreme verdicts and the devour fleshes against geist plays. The planar cleansings also incidentally hit them as well as any nephalia hate/planeswalkers he will bring in so they stay. Post it's closer to 50-50 b/c I have more jaces than him (3 to 2) to win the Jace war which is more important than the nephalia war, in my opinion. He also doesn't run Psychic Spiral, which gives me 3 opportunities to come out on top of a Jace war I'm losing (2 snappy draws with spiral in the gyard, and actually drawing the thing).
Reanimator
A deck I haven't seen, but I've heard some people saying they wanted to run it, so I prepared a little. Matchup G1 seems bad. We don't care about infinite life, so their combo is almost useless. A tucked glorius value can be serious trouble for our board wipes, though. Our mill also happens to further their plan... a lot. Cyclonic rift is hilarious in the matchup, though. Bouncing their fiend hunter and permanently exiling the angel is good ****. Also bouncing the angel to their hand can work if they aren't going for the tuck.
MB
-3 Restoration Angel
-2 Devour Flesh
-1 Think Twice
-1 Ghost Quarter
SB
+2 Negate
+1 Rest in Peace
+4 Terminus
Ten sweeps main and 4 that can actually just make the reanimator player scoop (terminus) are amazing. Ghost quarter hits nothing so comes out, our creatures are useless if they aren't an answer (snappy) or digging for us (augur) so restos are out even though you CAN blink your guys. That's cute, but not as useful as straight dig offered by our other spells. Devours are bad. Ultimate stays in b/c it can kill both fiend hunter and angel while the triggers are on the stack. Post-board it feels like how fast the reanimator player gets there is a very large factor in how this match plays out. Stall until rest in peace, though, and it's ggs. Anything that comes back with haste is stupid amounts of bad for us, though. Time to mise a terminus off think twice or azo charm :/
UWR Reckoning
The matchup I haven't tested. I feel horrible for doing this, but I've never seen a player running American colors at my LGS. I could be making a horrible meta call here by just not preparing for the matchup, though. Should I run into one I imagine my changes will look like...
MB
-1 Cyclonic Rift
-1 Ultimate Price
-2 Planar Cleansing
-2 Jace, Architect of Thought
-1 Ghost Quarter
SB
+2 Witchbane Orb
+2 Jace, Memory Adept
+2 Negate
+1 Dispel
Please share any thoughts you might have. I hope my reasoning isn't too unsound and helps anyone else thinking about running a list similar to this with their sideboarding decisions. Anything I've said that is just straight bad feel free to call out. Thank you!
Double Edit: I didn't test against Aristocrats, either. This was a mistake, don't know why it just hit me. If I face them I'm going to be in a lot of trouble. Terminus is a must, planar is too slow, dealing with falkenrath is going to be really hard. Azo charm > drownyard ftw? :S
1
Is this really a problem? Some magic players derive enjoyment from piloting. Some enjoy brewing. Some enjoy both. You sound bitter. Stay salty, bro.
1
I don't see why you wouldn't just post it in a spoiler or something. Seems like a waste of time to just post something like this and wait on a response. But yes, I'm interested.
Anyways, been really torn between Esper and Junk tokens, but in my testing the jace I pick up in Esper isn't as good as old thraggy boy in junk just b/c of agro (which my LGS has enough of that I have to main against it)