MTG Salvation

Ah yeah, but that's 2 months old.. I'd hardly call that recent. I think the metagame's changed a little bit since then.. Still, it might hold up nicely. I agree on the Forest though, that's risky.

Quote from EoTGifts »

Regarding tournament results, it (that is, Esper Gifts) put up some 5-0s in competitive leagues on MtGO last summer. Here are some of the lists: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1220849#paper

Thanks, missed those.

Can you post the actual list please? I've spent 10 minutes digging through his YouTube and Twitter to no avail.

I love this archetype more than anything but am really wondering whether it should still be in the Established section. Nobody has put up even a single result with this deck in, what, years now?

Good to see you guys keeping the flame alive regardless.

Yeah, Suicide Zoo has been around since before DSJ as far as I'm aware. It can be very explosive but lacks disruption and doesn't deal with it very well from the other side of the table either.

If you really need to win on turn 3 at the expense of consistency, it's a great option. Fun to play too, but it can't hold a candle to GDS and Traverse across the board as far as I'm concerned.

I assume you mean Dragon's Claw? Maybe if they're all over the place, but I'd still rather play something a bit more widely applicable or at least instant-speed.

Yeah, Flayer is definitely an asset in matchups where you rely heavily on finding key sideboard cards. I'd run two if I could but I don't see what I'd cut for the second copy.

Could you please link the actual article? Friedman's a GDS player as far as I'm aware, so I'm not sure if it applies here. We don't have a lot of blue mana to sink into Spellskite, for starters, but there is the fun fairyland trick where you can crack a fetch, redirect the effect 9 times to Spellskite and swing for 24 with TBR on the spot.

No idea why I'd want Spellskite against UW builds, maybe there's an argument to bring it in against Jeskai to redirect some burn spells but you can easily play around those anyway if you stay focused.

Quote from cfusionpm »

Many of us have been searching for that for years. I've personally fallen to Grixis Death's Shadow, which ticks all those boxes.

Agreed on all of those points except the first - consistency. This is GDS' biggest issue, and if we figure out a way to solve it, it will absolutely dominate the format again.

Quote from user-100027030 »

My dudes, i´m missing the Tarns from this deck.

Can i replace them with Strands and Mesas?

Strand doesn't fetch Crypt or Swamp. Mesa doesn't fetch Island, Swamp, Grave. Short answer, no. Long answer, some games you'll be fine, some games you'll lose because of this and it's the saddest way to go.

Quote from Godrik1374 »

In traverse, we should not cut more than 2 Wraith post sb. No matter against what.

You are right about land drop but the biggest reason is to enable traverse.

Affinity doesnt kill your threat so having creature in your GY is though.

My Wraiths are the first thing that comes out against Burn, and I mean all 4.

Valid concern regarding the lands. I'm on the fence about Spellbomb as it costs 2 mana to replace itself which is a bit steep, but it does hit delve pretty hard. Then again, GDS can be very fast to recover from an exiled graveyard.

That's a lot of grave hate, Faerie seems somewhat niche but I like that it can fulfill the role of an additional Wraith-style beater if the situation asks for it.

I don't think you want Delay against Jund, but I might be wrong. I'd personally also consider an Assassin's Trophy over Decay just to hit Jace / Teferi / Leyline / Tron lands.

Against Affinity I would cut all the Wraiths, probably, and possibly all the Thoughtseizes. You really don't want to hurt yourself in that matchup as they will just overrun you out of nowhere (especially the Scales variant - Ballista is a big deal and you need to be able to deal with Hangarback spam). Also don't think I would cut Stub against Amulet, Engineered Explosives is a blowout against us and you need to be able to counter their Pacts. People are also running Hive Mind again, which I'd really hate to have to deal with if it resolves.

Just thinking out loud here with all of this, I don't think I'm a sideboarding expert by any stretch of the imagination but that's what stood out for me. Do let us know how you get on, I'm a bit torn on the very real mana base risks of running blue vs. how badly we do seem to need that fourth color these days with Burn / Amulet / Tron popping up everywhere.. but I think it's correct to run 4c right now in the final analysis.

Seriously confused as well why everybody is playing Grixis over Traverse. They're both fairly challenging to pilot and very powerful in their own rights. I'd at least expect something like a 70/30 split rather than what, 95/5? If that?

Oh well, good for us I guess, keeps people underestimating the deck.

Quote from Drowsy Emperor »

I wonder, if Phoenix continues crushing, whether anything will eat a ban and then what. At the end of the day, it's just a critical mass of dirt cheap spells that work together in a number of decks. If you ban Phoenix it's only a question of time before the exact same thing reemerges with another card in its stead.

Ugh... not this again. Not already.