MTG Salvation

What does grave titan really do for us?

I board out some discard vs midrange creature decks.

I doubt pyroclasm or other sweepers are necessary but cannot say for sure. I see the board going a different direction, but if you test it out, let us know how it goes.
Try not to base your board on only a couple matches.

When creatures on both sides die at the same time, bridge triggers for each one. Since bridge is your card, you decide how the triggers go on the stack. Stack the exile triggers first so that the zombie triggers resolve first. Read about handling triggered abilities and the stack if you need official clarification.

Peace.

@Darth Bunny
Running all swamps in your list helps against RUG because their stifles and wastelands are much less impactful.
However I believe the amount of value gained by factory and fetchlands outweighs the decrease in manabase stability. I know we disagree on this point.
RUG should still be a favorable matchup for my list, especially since it has not adopted dig through time.

I can't say much else about confidant. I cannot conceive a list non-inferior to another deck... maybe someone smarter than me can make one.

Peace

A 2-2 finish is actually good, nothing to be ashamed of, especially since you're new to the deck... and maybe competitive legacy?
It'd be a little crazy to expect to show up and crush everyone. The deck is reasonably good but can only push win percentages so high.
Deciding when and how to play around counterspells isn't easy, even when you know what to expect. Playing slower isn't always the thing to do; sometimes we need to bait out counters or just try to jam spells to wear them down.

I like the reports; keep 'em coming!

Quote from Heskatet »

He can't respond to the Bloodghast trigger because sacrificing the creature is the cost of therapy when you flashback it, so he never gets priority until I actually cast Therapy if I get that correctly?

Right.

Quote from Heskatet »

Would it also be legal, or say would it work if I don't play therapy when ghast hits the board, he wants to play swords and I pay the cost of the therapy let the swords resolve (where there is no ghast in play then) and then therapy resolves? or wouln't that work this way, because therapy is sorcery speed?

Since therapy is sorcery it needs to be the next thing you do after the bloodghast trigger resolves in order to maintain priority.

Graveyard hate is annoying, but we do have both ghast and crawler so there is some resiliency if one of them gets extracted. Fetchlands can help protect bloodghast by recurring it at instant speed. Extirpate is much less common than surgical, which makes protecting our creatures a little easier.

My build destroys death and taxes (6-0 in pre-board testing) and I think we have better options against creature swarms such as sudden demise... So I probably wouldn't use e plague, especially since elves can still win through it. I have a lot of experience using plague in pox, and usually it just doesn't do enough.

Peace

I designed the main deck to be very aggressive... pretty successfully I think since my game 1 win percentage is very high. However since it is so focused, yard hate is more devastating post-board.
The board strategy still needs refined. I have high hopes that there's a good board plan that will maintain the high win percentage. I will continue to work on it but it will take time.

So to respond to your questions, yes life matters and I am still going to go down to 3 probes. Occasionally hardcasting it with paradise is nice but the lifeloss is relevant in some games.
When playing thoughtseize, try to judge how likely it is that the opponent is holding a card that is worth the 2 life to prevent. Later in the game this is less likely and sometimes (depending on the matchup) you'll want to hold on to the Thoughtseize so you can discard it with a faithless looting and hopefully draw something more useful. Late-game probes are also less useful since you are less likely to need information and should also have the resources to recycle the probe with faithless looting.

Grixis delver is a rough matchup for any deck since it combines discard, counters, removal, card selection, and cheap threats into a nice little package. I can't say much about expected win percentages against it, but it should be winnable since we can take out their threats somewhat easily and their discard and bolts aren't super effective against us. It may just be you need some more practice with the deck and figuring out the best decisions.
If you need to resolve a certain spell, it may be worth waiting until after a discard spell, probe, or even just accumulating enough lands to play around some soft counters.

I think pharaoh is reasonable but I don't have enough testing with him to have a strong opinion. Darkblast is a great card depending on your meta. I always love more good things to entomb.

Entomb is extremely versatile here and its target is always dependent on the game state. A few examples:
Opener is Badlands, verdant catacombs, entomb, and 2x cabal therapy. This hand allows us to play therapy 4 times in the first 2 turns by entombing a bloodghast. Cast entomb T2 before the land drop.
Suppose mid-game vs any white deck you know the opponent has a swords to plowshares in hand and you have bloodghast in the yard and are holding a land and entomb. Your ghast is useless without a sac engine while the opponent can theaten to send him farming. Here we can entomb a cabal therapy, play land, trigger bloodghast (resolves), and then cast therapy. The opponent never gets a chance to respond with the swords.
Mid- or late-game entomb into bridge from below is frequently game-ending. Say we have 2x bloodghast and gravecrawler in the yard, 3 lands and bombardment in play, and are holding entomb and bloodstained mire. No zombies to cast the gravecrawler? Not a problem. Entomb the bridge, play land, sac zombies, trigger bridge, fetch, trigger ghasts, sac ghasts, trigger bridge, cast & sac gravecrawler 3 times, sac zombies... total 14 damage without even attacking.
Entombing a bloodghast or gravecrawler to set up a combo or get some early board presence is a valid option as well. Of course Entomb also allows other tutor cards like the darkblast, pharaoh, deadly allure, and ancient grudge... and random tricks like entombing fleshbag marauder in response to exhume or pharaoh after attackers declared.

Leyline of the void is extremely rare. I don't think we can justify semi-narrow cards to fight it. Regardless, I'd say grip is better than naturalize in the large majority of situations.
Divert is a more common card than leyline, so if you play against either of those frequently enough then grip would be something to consider... and grip is one of the few cards that kills sensei's divining top. It's not bad but probably other options would be better.

peace

Jund is probably one of our easiest matchups. It's good your testing confirms that.

ANT/TES will try to do one of two things against us:
Go for an early kill if possible, since we have no countermagic. Surgical extraction is our best defense against this. 1cmc discard obviously helps too.
Otherwise they will play out their artifact mana and try to setup a later past in flames or ad nauseum kill, with pif being more common. Null rod is great for stopping this plan, along with our other disruption. Yard hate should target infernal tutor or burning wish, or tendrils/pif if you are lucky enough to get one of those. You can cut a lili in addition to the creature removal; she's a bit slow plus they won't kill her so you don't want to draw multiples.

Young pyromancer is the main reason to run targeted removal like disfigure and spinning darkness. I'm not a big fan of necroplasm (too slow) but I think it is playable since it's decent against pyromancer and can be entombed... UWR pyromancer builds aren't very common so massacre isn't as useful for hitting pyromancer.

Peace

I would not bring in needle versus jund. .. it would be better to bring in removal, assuming you still have smother in the board. Think about it.
Our own lilis are still good in this matchup as well. Tombstalker is solid if the opponent boards out Lili (which they should). Extirpate may be useful to get rid of punishing fire (since it kills ghast, kills factory, and works against the rack & SA), but it may be too narrow to bring in.
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying about dakmor. You're dredging it just to discard it?? That can't be right.

My recommendations for burn are in the primer. Plunge into darkness and crypt incursion are both bad in my opinion -- narrow and inefficient.
I disagree with 3sphere honestly. It doesn't answer any of our problems and it doesn't fit well with our tempo gameplan. I was dumb for mentioning it.

Peace

During your testing against burn, you might find yourself wanting the 1x spinning darkness that I run. It deals with eidolon very nicely (among other things).

How did you board against jund?

I don't like keyrune or blightning because of the high cmc and the fact that blightning lets the opponent choose the cards and it doesn't act as removal. Low cmc win-cons are better like bloodchief ascension, hellspark elemental, or grim lavamancer... I would definitely be including pox in my list.
1-2 copies of storm world would be OK... You can only have one in play.

Within the context of rack pox:
Green offers decay and loam/crime.
Red offers direct damage and blood moon.
White does have some decent removal but inferior to green. I guess there's also 1 playable win-con.
Blue doesn't give us anything compelling.

Fair enough.
Still, if I had the opponent at the mercy of a single creature, I'd rather have something that will actually close out the game like tombstalker or pack rat (3 turn clock) rather than a draw engine that's vulnerable to everything and brings down my life total... I am glad he's working out well for you though.

Peace

I'm not happy with the board... it needs some work.

Here's what I used yesterday:


4 Rounds
R1 vs BUG Delver (stifle variant)
Almost got there game 1 but lost both games. The stifle variant is much more controlling.
I know I brought in a couple decay and took out a couple thoughtseize. Don't remember what else.
R2 vs MUD
Won both games. I used bombardment + bridge to kill a wurmcoil engine, the token with lifelink, AND a metalworker in one turn.
Brought in 1 marauder, grudge, rod, 3 needle, charm, 2 decay. Took out the probes, probably some discard and bolts maybe a bridge or dregscape.
R3 vs 12-post (mono-green)
I take game 1. Both post-board games are very close but I lose each. I get chasm-locked.
I don't really have much to bring in besides null rod and a couple needles.
R4 vs Miracles
I win G1 then lose G2... I missed a bridge trigger that may have changed the outcome. G3 goes to time.
Null rod, needles, decays come in.
1-2-1 finish brings my win percentage down to 50%.

Thoughts:
I am pretty happy with the main deck. I think the main problem with my list is that the board doesn't maintain the aggressive game-plan. I believe this deck really has a lot of potential if we optimize the 75, and it's super fun to play.

Probe has been great but I think 3 may be better than 4; the life loss is too much sometimes. I have cast it a couple times with the undiscovered paradise though.

I want to test deadly allure but I didn't have the courage to board it in. It may have won me a game vs Post or Delver. I'm still not sure how I feel about vengeful pharaoh since I haven't really boarded it in much either... It definitely could have won me some games too.

I don't think Haakon is playable. I will probably end up cutting dregscape zombie since I haven't really ever needed him. Zombies are plentiful enough that he's not really pulling his weight and I would rather experiment with other cards in that slot.

Some other SB cards I've been considering that might fit well with my main deck list:
bloodchief ascension.. this potentially answers burn, various blue decks, lands/post with chasm lock (if already online), almost any grindy matchup.
smash to smithereens, searing blaze/searing blood.. removal that keeps up the pressure, works with bloodchief.
hymn to tourach.. vs blue decks & combo, lets us play our game. Maybe could add the rack too, but that's a stretch.
choke.. those islands need to be stopped.
krosan grip.. kills most things that give us problems. better against MUD than decay.
bitterblossom.. solid card that can provide offense and defense.

I agree that dark confidant is a powerful card. Killing him with smallpox is inexcusable unless you need to protect your life total.
My point is that pox is the best card in this deck and the only reason to play the deck. The amount of disruption it provides is devastating and unmatched.

The other thing to consider when building a deck is that Jund is doing what you want, but with way better card quality.
See for yourself... compare the disruption and win-cons in these decks:

Sure Bob is "playable" since it is a powerful card... but you're probably cutting pox to fit them in.
This really weakens the resource-denial plan and shifts the deck to an aggro plan, sort of like a bad version of jund. Jund honestly utilizes much better cards if you want to go the bob aggro route.
Pox's strength lies in resource denial and win-cons that go along with that strategy. The 10-14 win-cons we typically run plus pox taking life generally close out games easily enough.

Peace