There's no real point to looking at the deck lists posted by WotC for actionable data, being handpicked and without knowing the decks they beat, its little more than a talking point. They could post 5 Spirit 5-0s and you wouldn't know anymore than when you started, aside from maybe some sideboard tech/trends.
If a land is tapped for two or more mana, it produces C instead of any other type and amount. Each spell a player casts costs 1 more to cast for each other spell that player has cast this turn.
How detrimental does this feel to you guys? Obviously does very little vs the extremely fast hands, but is brutal if we go off later on. Maybe we'll need to run the 3rd Shattering Spree, or maybe some number of Abrade?
Hey thread, I've been lurking since late last year but only playing the deck since January. Just wanted to stop in and thank finalnub and everyone else for all the content/puzzles. While I'm still learning the deck, but I've found it incredibly satisfying to pull of intricate lines and playing around hate, and turn 2'ing people has been excellent fun.
I could understand Bronto seeing play if Bolt was in fashion, but it seems like a worse Qasali for the decks that want to beat down at a fair speed, like Knightfall or the GW company deck. As it stands, its Naturalize for the same price as Creeping Corrosion against UB Tezz.
Yo, I actually tested Search last Monday as a 2-of(as I said I would during spoilers) and I really liked it, going 3-1 losing to U-Tron but beating Mardu Goryos, 8Rack and Grixis Delver/Shadow.
We go long in this deck fairly often, in my experience, either looking for a combo piece or a way to break out of Stony/Rip while Brige keeps opponent at bay. Having a way to impulse through my deck was insane, considering every card in our deck is a hit or a land.
@the nobodys I'd much rather have one or two Searches in my main then having a Padeem taking up valuable sideboard slots. Chart seems so poor in a deck with 0 Creatures and 2-3 cards we actually want in our GY, I rather play Thirst.
@TugaTog, @boomforest
I'l try two to start with; while I don't necessarily think two is the right number, I just want a higher chance of seeing it on time.
I feel that most of our game ones (against fair decks) are either won quickly with ThopSword or slower grinds with Bridge. We're also incentivised to go heck/hellbent fairly often, so being able to bin those extra lands or mana rocks before they hit our hand seems worth trying out at least.
On other Ixalan cards, Field of Ruin seems really bad, guys. Effectively paying 3 mana to GQ our Tron opponent seems kinda weak when we lack the pressure to follow it up. Field of Ruin feels like a real mediocre tempo play when we really want to be the beatdown. Our fastest way to win from there is T4 Tezz, make two 5/5s over the course of two turns then win on the next turn for a T6 kill against goldfish. It gets better if you pack Surgical, but we still lack pressure. Maybe Wanted Scoundrels is something we can look at to help beat face in this sort of matchup, but with only 15 sideboard slots I think we're stuck waiting for WotC to print decent Tron/Valakut hate.
So how do we feel about Search for Azcanta//Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin? Helps us scry for combo pieces early( or dump Sword) and late game we can Impulse our way to an answer for whatever hate piece is bringing us down. I don't know where it goes in the "standard" list, but I'm looking to drop my 2x Muddle the Mixtures to give it a whirl.
I played the Mentor SB in 6 games last night, in the standard Turbo shell, but with two Hallowed Fountains instead of Breeding Pools. I got to play 6 games, 3 warmups against Abzan, BW Pox and GB Tron, and 3 in the main against GW Valuetown, Bant Eldrazi and Grixis Control (plus my first bye ever). My initial plan was to remove the combo and its enablers (4 Whir, 3 Thop, 2 Sword and a Time Sieve, 10 cards) and throw in the Mentor package(4 Mentor, 3 Slight and 3 Paradoxical).
Before I start, Ill admit I ran pretty cold, maybe one of the worst nights of Magic I've ever had, I had maybe one game where I didn't feel screwed or flooded.
Honestly, the whole thing felt terrible. Most of the time, on standard Turbo, I want to run out my hand as quickly as possible, while digging/cycling through to find Bridge, Tezz, Whir, Muddle or a piece of the combo. Without the ability to go find a Mentor(beyond just top decking one), I felt like I was trying to turbo into a threat that a. either wasn't in my hand, or was an unlikely topdeck, and b. is incredibly soft to every removal spell in the format, that I have 0 ways to defend. And if I did chance upon a Mentor, it was usually the last card in my hand. When Mentor came down while Stony was up, I couldn't chain mana artifacts together and create a massive board presence in my deck with 20 lands and extremely limited draw potential.
I did get to Paradoxical 6 things back in one of the two games I won, which was some rad, vintage-style fun, but I ended up winning with a Tezz ult behind a Bridge and not with my clunky 2/2.
I'm not saying that going transformational isn't a viable strategy, it has me interested in trying an Esper build with Souls, Polymorph and Emrakul, and I'm somewhat tempted to try the Mentor plan again at FNM for the sake of due diligence, but it felt much worse than the "standard" sideboard I was running the week before.
How do we feel about this newly spoiled, half-step between Tormod's Crypt and Relic of Progenitus? I'm unsure if reducing the cost to activate is worth losing the ability to pressure graveyard dependent decks/ delve threats from T1.
@radouf, @Grouty:
Systrill has a few GDS vids up on Youtube, definitely worth putting his (now 5) league videos on the front page, should you get access.
I've found the GDS MU to be favourable for us overall, mostly due to Push, Relic in the main and 2-3x Chalice in the side. Damnation doesn't hurt either.
The Leave No Trace vs Back to Nature argument is interesting, I'd be hesitant to try a 4th colour now that I'm down to a 2/2 split on Prism/Talisman. I've found Aether Grid to be fairly lacklustre though. I think I'd go with the utility of the Decay/Pulse package at first blush, but anything is worth a try. If I wasn't sick as a dog I'd be trying it out tonight.
2
Artifact
If a land is tapped for two or more mana, it produces C instead of any other type and amount. Each spell a player casts costs 1 more to cast for each other spell that player has cast this turn.
How detrimental does this feel to you guys? Obviously does very little vs the extremely fast hands, but is brutal if we go off later on. Maybe we'll need to run the 3rd Shattering Spree, or maybe some number of Abrade?
We go long in this deck fairly often, in my experience, either looking for a combo piece or a way to break out of Stony/Rip while Brige keeps opponent at bay. Having a way to impulse through my deck was insane, considering every card in our deck is a hit or a land.
@the nobodys I'd much rather have one or two Searches in my main then having a Padeem taking up valuable sideboard slots. Chart seems so poor in a deck with 0 Creatures and 2-3 cards we actually want in our GY, I rather play Thirst.
I'l try two to start with; while I don't necessarily think two is the right number, I just want a higher chance of seeing it on time.
I feel that most of our game ones (against fair decks) are either won quickly with ThopSword or slower grinds with Bridge. We're also incentivised to go heck/hellbent fairly often, so being able to bin those extra lands or mana rocks before they hit our hand seems worth trying out at least.
On other Ixalan cards, Field of Ruin seems really bad, guys. Effectively paying 3 mana to GQ our Tron opponent seems kinda weak when we lack the pressure to follow it up. Field of Ruin feels like a real mediocre tempo play when we really want to be the beatdown. Our fastest way to win from there is T4 Tezz, make two 5/5s over the course of two turns then win on the next turn for a T6 kill against goldfish. It gets better if you pack Surgical, but we still lack pressure. Maybe Wanted Scoundrels is something we can look at to help beat face in this sort of matchup, but with only 15 sideboard slots I think we're stuck waiting for WotC to print decent Tron/Valakut hate.
Has anyone tried Mindcrank/Duskmantle Guildmage as an alternate wincon out of the board?
Before I start, Ill admit I ran pretty cold, maybe one of the worst nights of Magic I've ever had, I had maybe one game where I didn't feel screwed or flooded.
Honestly, the whole thing felt terrible. Most of the time, on standard Turbo, I want to run out my hand as quickly as possible, while digging/cycling through to find Bridge, Tezz, Whir, Muddle or a piece of the combo. Without the ability to go find a Mentor(beyond just top decking one), I felt like I was trying to turbo into a threat that a. either wasn't in my hand, or was an unlikely topdeck, and b. is incredibly soft to every removal spell in the format, that I have 0 ways to defend. And if I did chance upon a Mentor, it was usually the last card in my hand. When Mentor came down while Stony was up, I couldn't chain mana artifacts together and create a massive board presence in my deck with 20 lands and extremely limited draw potential.
I did get to Paradoxical 6 things back in one of the two games I won, which was some rad, vintage-style fun, but I ended up winning with a Tezz ult behind a Bridge and not with my clunky 2/2.
I'm not saying that going transformational isn't a viable strategy, it has me interested in trying an Esper build with Souls, Polymorph and Emrakul, and I'm somewhat tempted to try the Mentor plan again at FNM for the sake of due diligence, but it felt much worse than the "standard" sideboard I was running the week before.
edit: @boomforest I assume Slight of Hand will be replaced by Opt once it drops?
Systrill has a few GDS vids up on Youtube, definitely worth putting his (now 5) league videos on the front page, should you get access.
I've found the GDS MU to be favourable for us overall, mostly due to Push, Relic in the main and 2-3x Chalice in the side. Damnation doesn't hurt either.