@Nahnope: Gratz, want to validate the Disenchant in the board? It's the only thing that really stood out to me, why not another Haze/Holy Day? another Duress?
Thanks! So Disenchant. I've always ran one as a permanent answer to Blood Moon (that can be cast off my 2 Basic plains) with application against Stony Silence and Affinity. I had 2 Duress before this weekend but dropped one for a 3rd Hurkyls. I'm very comfortable playing against Blue decks, and without Twin around, I felt I didn't need to lean as heavily on Duress. I was thinking of upping the Holy Day slot to 3, but I decided that the Infect matchup was just unsalvagable and wanted to improve the Affinity matchup, which we have a chance against. Another change going into this weekend was dropping a Dreadship and moving a Slaughter Pact main (a concession to Thought Knot Seer and aggro decks.) I added a 4th Leyline into that sideboard slot.
I placed 12th at Syracuse Regionals (around 350 people.)
4 Seachrome Coast
3 Darkslick Shores
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Temple of Deceit
1 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Dreadship Reef
2 Plains
1 Island
4 SSG
4 Ad Naus
4 Angel's Grace
3 Phyrexian Unlife
1 Lightning Storm
1 Conflagrate
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
3 Spoils of the Vault
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Pentad Prism
3 Pact of Neg
1 Slaughter Pact
Sideboard:
2 Holy Day (Haven't gotten around to getting Haze)
3 Hurkyls Recall
1 Boseiju
4 Leyline
1 Duress
1 Echoing Truth
1 Patrician Scorn
1 Lab Maniac
1 Disenchant
1. UR Prowess 2-0
2. BW Processor Eldrazi 2-1
3. Merfolk 2-1
4. Infect 0-2
5. UWR Control 2-0
6. UWR Control 2-0
7. Affinity 2-1
8. UW Control 2-0
9. Living End 1-2
I was hoping to dodge Infect all day and did a decent job of it. Stomped control decks, barely got there against Affinity. Can't believe I lost my win and in against Living End. I got fulminatored and Ingot Chewered out of games 2 and 3.
Highlights include:
A very salty Eldrazi player telling me I should just stay home and play Solitaire after he had to stare at my Leyline with what I can only imagine was a hand full of discard and Thoughknots.
Staring at my UWR opponent's 6 open mana with combo in hand and mana to go for it with Pact back up. I draw for turn, put on my best salt face, shake my head, say "Pass to you..." in an annoyed fashion. Opponent pauses and takes the bait, hook, line and sinker. "Snapcaster?" You got it. "Target Helix?" Yup.. "Cast Helix?" I have a response... He died with a Cryptic and negate in hand.
Game 3 against Affinity. We are 3 Hurkyls into this game at this point. I'm at 6. Opponent swings with dudes, pumps with Overseer to 7 power of attackers. I Slaughter Pact a 2/2 Memnite to go to 1. Untap, Grace, draw. Spoils naming Ad Naus. Exile a few non relevant cards. Tap 3 remaining lands, exile 2 SSG, cast Ad Naus. Opponent is familiar with the deck, and seeing me tap out and exile 2 Guides he thinks I screwed up, he's pretty vocal about it. Draw my deck, exile 2 Guides, "LAND FOR TURN" (his head goes into his hands at this point.)
Had a great time. I've been on the deck for about a year and a half and this is the first big tournament I've taken it for a spin at. Super bummed I missed top 8 to Living End, but oh well. Hopefully this deck stays under the radar because it is absolutely bonkers especially when people have no idea how to play against it (bringing in nonsense like Skites and Leylines) and when people don't respect it (tapping out on turn 4 and after.)
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Also wanted to know if anyone else has had trouble using Conflagrate on MTGO. I can't seem to cast it for 0 to get it in the 'yard. Sucks bc it one me a game I couldn't have won with LS, then lost me the next game bc I Spoiled away LS and couldn't cast it w/o using 3 Spirit Guides to cast it for 1, which meant no mana to recast from the graveyard. Pretty sure I want to run it if there's not a bug.
You need to make sure it has 0 targets if you are casting it for 0.
You can cast Vexing Shusher and without giving priority to opponent cast scapeshift. In that way only split second removal will prevent you from giving scapeshift Shusher's protection.
That's legitimately impossible. You cannot hold priority with it on the stack and then use its ability because he has not resolved. That's not how the stack works.
Sure, you are going to give priority after casting Shusher to your opponent, but he cannot kill him while he is in the stack, neither he can counter it. And after resolving him you are getting priority back.
Once a spell resolves, you get priority back, sure. But even if you say: "Cast Scapeshift, hold priority, activate Vexing Shusher's ability targeting Scapeshift." They still have an opportunity to respond by killing your shusher after ability activation and still countering your spell.
So they'd need to have removal and a counterspell (also, this is game 2, as I assume this is a sideboard discussion )which seems like a tall order for a lot of decks against the deck not playing creatures. It seems like an okay card.
Conduit of Ruin felt a bit rubbish... if you have 10 mana to cast Ulamog, wouldn't Conduit be better as a 3rd Ulamog? If you don't have 10 mana, do you want to put a 10-mana spell on top of your library that you can't cast until you hit more land drops? My gut instinct is that you don't. I believe Conduit either needs a mini toolbox (so Ulamog + Void Winnowed/Kozilek Butcher would be my choice), or it may as well just be another 10 drop.
Conduit of ruin ramps you, don't forget. You don't need to 10 mana for an Ulamog if you have a Conduit out, you need 8.
Round 2 I 2-0d a naya humans list that was pretty much a clone of the Naya blitz decks from Innistrad RTR standard. He came out fast but couldn't finish me off and I stabilized at low life both games
Round 3 I lost 2-1 to twinning end. Game 1 he mauled me. Game 2 I put too much pressure on. game 3 he beat me with a ricochet trap
Round 4 I beat some weird UB artifact based deck that tried to sac manlands to polymorph into Emrakul. Game 1 he had a batterskull which he put on inkmoth nexus. he tried it a second time then I used Kolaghan's Command to shock the land and shatter the equipment. Game 2 he stuck a proteus staff. Kolaghan's command did me wonders this game too
round 5 my buddy conceded to get me into top 4.
I lost to my other buddy playing 4 colour zoo because I couldn't answer geist games 1 and 3.
I know doing well at a small GPT isn't great but I got some good confidence with the deck today. I'm starting to feel better about my zoo matchups
So you went 4-2? And two of your wins being byes/scoops. Not trying to be a dick but these aren't very good results.
Both times it was actually pretty good - once targeting my lightning bolt (I just countered it with a dispel) and again as a counterspell forcing my remand to target swerve instead of his primary spell.
I'm pretty sure changing the target of a counter to Swerve is not a legal play. Swerve would have to resolve for him to change the target, which means Swerve is not on the stack when he chooses a new target.
Thanks! So Disenchant. I've always ran one as a permanent answer to Blood Moon (that can be cast off my 2 Basic plains) with application against Stony Silence and Affinity. I had 2 Duress before this weekend but dropped one for a 3rd Hurkyls. I'm very comfortable playing against Blue decks, and without Twin around, I felt I didn't need to lean as heavily on Duress. I was thinking of upping the Holy Day slot to 3, but I decided that the Infect matchup was just unsalvagable and wanted to improve the Affinity matchup, which we have a chance against. Another change going into this weekend was dropping a Dreadship and moving a Slaughter Pact main (a concession to Thought Knot Seer and aggro decks.) I added a 4th Leyline into that sideboard slot.
I placed 12th at Syracuse Regionals (around 350 people.)
4 Seachrome Coast
3 Darkslick Shores
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Temple of Deceit
1 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Dreadship Reef
2 Plains
1 Island
4 SSG
4 Ad Naus
4 Angel's Grace
3 Phyrexian Unlife
1 Lightning Storm
1 Conflagrate
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
3 Spoils of the Vault
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Pentad Prism
3 Pact of Neg
1 Slaughter Pact
Sideboard:
2 Holy Day (Haven't gotten around to getting Haze)
3 Hurkyls Recall
1 Boseiju
4 Leyline
1 Duress
1 Echoing Truth
1 Patrician Scorn
1 Lab Maniac
1 Disenchant
1. UR Prowess 2-0
2. BW Processor Eldrazi 2-1
3. Merfolk 2-1
4. Infect 0-2
5. UWR Control 2-0
6. UWR Control 2-0
7. Affinity 2-1
8. UW Control 2-0
9. Living End 1-2
I was hoping to dodge Infect all day and did a decent job of it. Stomped control decks, barely got there against Affinity. Can't believe I lost my win and in against Living End. I got fulminatored and Ingot Chewered out of games 2 and 3.
Highlights include:
A very salty Eldrazi player telling me I should just stay home and play Solitaire after he had to stare at my Leyline with what I can only imagine was a hand full of discard and Thoughknots.
Staring at my UWR opponent's 6 open mana with combo in hand and mana to go for it with Pact back up. I draw for turn, put on my best salt face, shake my head, say "Pass to you..." in an annoyed fashion. Opponent pauses and takes the bait, hook, line and sinker. "Snapcaster?" You got it. "Target Helix?" Yup.. "Cast Helix?" I have a response... He died with a Cryptic and negate in hand.
Game 3 against Affinity. We are 3 Hurkyls into this game at this point. I'm at 6. Opponent swings with dudes, pumps with Overseer to 7 power of attackers. I Slaughter Pact a 2/2 Memnite to go to 1. Untap, Grace, draw. Spoils naming Ad Naus. Exile a few non relevant cards. Tap 3 remaining lands, exile 2 SSG, cast Ad Naus. Opponent is familiar with the deck, and seeing me tap out and exile 2 Guides he thinks I screwed up, he's pretty vocal about it. Draw my deck, exile 2 Guides, "LAND FOR TURN" (his head goes into his hands at this point.)
Had a great time. I've been on the deck for about a year and a half and this is the first big tournament I've taken it for a spin at. Super bummed I missed top 8 to Living End, but oh well. Hopefully this deck stays under the radar because it is absolutely bonkers especially when people have no idea how to play against it (bringing in nonsense like Skites and Leylines) and when people don't respect it (tapping out on turn 4 and after.)
You need to make sure it has 0 targets if you are casting it for 0.
So they'd need to have removal and a counterspell (also, this is game 2, as I assume this is a sideboard discussion )which seems like a tall order for a lot of decks against the deck not playing creatures. It seems like an okay card.
Conduit of ruin ramps you, don't forget. You don't need to 10 mana for an Ulamog if you have a Conduit out, you need 8.
So you went 4-2? And two of your wins being byes/scoops. Not trying to be a dick but these aren't very good results.
I'm pretty sure changing the target of a counter to Swerve is not a legal play. Swerve would have to resolve for him to change the target, which means Swerve is not on the stack when he chooses a new target.