Over on the E Tron thread, they’re talking about how their Jund MUs have gotten exponentially worse since BBE was unbanned. One guy said he’s lost every match vs Jund since the BnR change.
I think they are also dropping chalice, because it’s not as useful vs the meta as it used to be
Mind pointing me at which video this was? I'll see if I can remember why I made the play, although I do certainly make mistakes in these videos. I try to play a few notches above autopilot, but trying to play all of them as tight as I do at paper tournaments would be exhausting and mean I'd record a lot less. Actually - would people prefer more videos, or ones where I try to play perfectly?
Personally I think it’s hilarious when you record them at 1:00 AM, durdle through a league, and still end up 4-1 at the end. I think the current pace of videos is fine, maybe just me but I find the coaching leagues to be especially helpful.
I piloted Affinity in a 92-man $1k today and took home Top 4. 5-1-1, 2-1 in quarterfinals and 1-2 in semifinals.
Lost in g3 of semis to 5 consecutive turns of opp flipping a land to his bob to not be at 0 life when I had to swing out with my champion + plating.
Deck still feels great. I live and die by Daniel’s videos, highly recommend 😬
Congrats man! You've been really crushing it with the deck.
I was considering asking you how you side for the mirror, but when I was out for a walk, I think I figured it out...
On the play or draw - side out 3 Etched Champion and 4 Signal Pest for 2 Ancient Grudge, 2 Ghirapur Aether Grid, 2 Bitterblossom, and 1 Spell Pierce (for nabbing that Cranial Plating or Ghirapur Aether Grid, lol). Does this sound right?
*Dark Confidant always flips lands. I had a match a long while back where my opponent had 8 flips from Bob in 2 games - 7 Verdant Catacombs and 1 Raging Ravine. It came to a point where I'd just guess, "Verdant Catacombs?" and I was right every time except once. The only hope is that the card drawn is also a land, right?
**One thing I noticed from the videos is this. There was a game where he could have afforded 1 mana to equip Cranial Plating onto Ornithopter and off the Vault Skirge when he was expecting Lightning Bolt. Is it the better play to equip the Ornithopter instead when the Vault Skirge is a more important creature if you are expecting removal? I know it's different when you NEED the life gain, but I would have done so. Or is it more important to try to gain the life, just in case it matters later on? You never know. How do you play it? For me, I equip the Ornithopter because I'd rather that die since sometimes chip shots from a Skirge put an opponent in Galvanic Blast range.
I just now saw this, thanks buddy!! I love the videos for the thoughts and plays I get to watch, I don’t necessarily always agree with his lines — probably 75-80% of the time I do, and if I knew which match you’re referring to I’d go check it out.
Sometimes the huge life swing is relevant, especially vs decks with Bolt, so the odds of connecting must have seemed high to make it worthwhile. I tend to equip my Skirge more often than not, because I win more easily with the lifegain than the exact 1 extra damage
As for the mirror, yes you have it nailed pretty much down. I also SB out my mountain on the draw instead of a Pest.
Ironically, decks that you bring in RIP against (Mardu, Abzan) Ravager is bad against so oftentimes you take them out.
Dredge, Grishoalbrand and Storm are an issue that you keep in Ravager’s with RIP, but Dredge and Storm are such bad matchups that it’s fine to slow you down if you completely turn them off.
Having Synergy =/= a Good card. If you are only winning because of a Grafdiggers Cage against Lingering Souls decks, and they Ancient Grudge you, did the 1 extra damage for Plating really matter now that you can’t attack through souls? And if you are siding out Ravagers in some matchups does it really matter that you are taking up a 2 slot?
At the end of the day, RIP hoses decks harder than Cage does. You can absolutely run 1/1, and that’s fine. Do what you think is best. Sideboarding isn’t an exact science it’s a fluid art. So run 1/1. Or run 0/2 or 2/0.
He hit the nail on the head in both replies. I play Rest In Peace because worst case scenario, they have an immediate answer for it, but I still wiped their GY. Rest In Peace is also relevant vs Living End whereas Cage is relevant vs Coco and Nahiri decks, personally I’d rather hate the decks who absolutely lose to my hate than hate the decks who pack in 6+ ways to deal with artifacts.
I always side out at least 1 ravager vs the decks I want RiP, however I disagree that you don’t want Ravager vs Mardu. I still side 1 out because of RiP, but ravager starts blanking their removal and once you can make a ravager bigger than 3/3 you’re pretty much in the red zone, because they’ll only have hard kills for it and then you can make something else bigger yada yada. I beat my round 13/14 (can’t remember) Mardu opponent with a 6/6 ravager and a RiP in play, he couldn’t do anything except chump block with an elemental every turn while I got in for 2-3 chip damage a turn with my Blinkmoth. RiP shutting off Reveler, souls, faithless, and Kommand -> regrow Pyromancer is a serious thing.
Decks you want grave hate against, you typically win if you resolve RiP. You could play a deck full of vanilla 1/1s and still beat them as long as it’s on the field.
Re: colored mana
I know a lot of people shy away from playing too many colored mana spells, but we play 13 colored sources (12 rainbow). Assuming we are on the draw game 2, that means we are 90% to hit colored mana by t2. We’re 88.7% to hit one of the 12 rainbow. That’s as many colored sources as most tri-color decks (I aim for 12 sources each in most of my decks). We are fine on colored mana.
Ben Ragan (he Top 8ed that event) and I talked about the card at SCG Indy after we played, it performed really well for him as well; my main point of contention is that a hand of mana + [sideboard card] should be all you need to see in order to convince you to keep that hand. That’s my personal opinion. I will keep any hand vs Dredge that has mana + Rest In Peace. I’ll keep any hand vs [insert deck] that has mana + [sideboard card for that deck], because my sideboard cards are specifically game-ending cards.
I didn’t lose a single game to Jeskai or Mardu pyromancer day 1, and three of those G2s were singlehandedly won on the back of an unanswered Bitterblossom.
Shapers sanctuary requires you to play your hand into spot removal to gain value. If your opponent just lets you build a board then wraths, you gain zero value, you’re down a card, and they can now pick your guys off only when they begin to threaten lethal — to hell with whatever random draw you may get.
With Bitterblossom, you know exactly what you’re getting. Every turn, you present 1 new threat. It can wear equipment very well, and it provides an avalanche of advantage if your opponent doesn’t answer it quickly.
This isn’t to say sanctuary is bad; if you go back a couple pages, I played two in my board for a few events. I’ve just found that Bitterblossom gains me more “oops I win” factor than the Sanctuary. I’m considering a split in the future if Jace and BBE make an impactful shift to the meta.
I have yet to try it, but in theory it seems a bit overkill to me. How many would you run and what would you replace it with? My board is packed with Enchantments so my first choice would be to shave one of those. Possibly Shaper's Sanctuary...
I played two at SCG Indy, and it singlehandedly won me two matches against Mardu Pyromancer, and it was absolutely gas vs Jeskai and UW Control also. Several decks are just stone-cold to enchantments, so post-board my plan is "jam all of the enchantments". Basically, any deck trying to grind is going to auto-lose to a 1/1 Flying Faerie every turn. They carry equipment well, and they allow you to hold your creatures in hand while you continue to flood the board with flyers. Against Jeskai and UW, forcing them to use real cards on tokens will put you very far ahead.
I’m a firm believer we are the best Fulminator Mage deck, and that we have an awesome MU Against the Jace decks. Hoping someone will have the right build here soon
I play a 3/1 split between main and side, I believe Ragan had his 2/1. He finished a little higher than I did today at the Open, I barely missed T16 and settled in at 18th on Robots. Our decks were 1 card different MB and 3 cards different SB. Lost to him in the 12th round today.
I played 3 Jeskai and 3 mardu pyromancer this weekend and beat all of them (even gave Nikolich his 2nd loss!) all on the back of Champion. I’m really high on that card in the main.
I don’t think I like 4 trap. It’s only good when trying to resolve something, it doesn’t actively “do” anything for our gameplan. I’d rather constrain mana with EOT beast within, untap Fulminator — or something along those lines
I think they are also dropping chalice, because it’s not as useful vs the meta as it used to be
Personally I think it’s hilarious when you record them at 1:00 AM, durdle through a league, and still end up 4-1 at the end. I think the current pace of videos is fine, maybe just me but I find the coaching leagues to be especially helpful.
Idk if this was intended to be blunt humor but I LOL’d.
Also meddling Mage naming grapeshot
I just now saw this, thanks buddy!! I love the videos for the thoughts and plays I get to watch, I don’t necessarily always agree with his lines — probably 75-80% of the time I do, and if I knew which match you’re referring to I’d go check it out.
Sometimes the huge life swing is relevant, especially vs decks with Bolt, so the odds of connecting must have seemed high to make it worthwhile. I tend to equip my Skirge more often than not, because I win more easily with the lifegain than the exact 1 extra damage
As for the mirror, yes you have it nailed pretty much down. I also SB out my mountain on the draw instead of a Pest.
Lost in g3 of semis to 5 consecutive turns of opp flipping a land to his bob to not be at 0 life when I had to swing out with my champion + plating.
Deck still feels great. I live and die by Daniel’s videos, highly recommend 😬
He hit the nail on the head in both replies. I play Rest In Peace because worst case scenario, they have an immediate answer for it, but I still wiped their GY. Rest In Peace is also relevant vs Living End whereas Cage is relevant vs Coco and Nahiri decks, personally I’d rather hate the decks who absolutely lose to my hate than hate the decks who pack in 6+ ways to deal with artifacts.
I always side out at least 1 ravager vs the decks I want RiP, however I disagree that you don’t want Ravager vs Mardu. I still side 1 out because of RiP, but ravager starts blanking their removal and once you can make a ravager bigger than 3/3 you’re pretty much in the red zone, because they’ll only have hard kills for it and then you can make something else bigger yada yada. I beat my round 13/14 (can’t remember) Mardu opponent with a 6/6 ravager and a RiP in play, he couldn’t do anything except chump block with an elemental every turn while I got in for 2-3 chip damage a turn with my Blinkmoth. RiP shutting off Reveler, souls, faithless, and Kommand -> regrow Pyromancer is a serious thing.
Decks you want grave hate against, you typically win if you resolve RiP. You could play a deck full of vanilla 1/1s and still beat them as long as it’s on the field.
Re: colored mana
I know a lot of people shy away from playing too many colored mana spells, but we play 13 colored sources (12 rainbow). Assuming we are on the draw game 2, that means we are 90% to hit colored mana by t2. We’re 88.7% to hit one of the 12 rainbow. That’s as many colored sources as most tri-color decks (I aim for 12 sources each in most of my decks). We are fine on colored mana.
I didn’t lose a single game to Jeskai or Mardu pyromancer day 1, and three of those G2s were singlehandedly won on the back of an unanswered Bitterblossom.
Shapers sanctuary requires you to play your hand into spot removal to gain value. If your opponent just lets you build a board then wraths, you gain zero value, you’re down a card, and they can now pick your guys off only when they begin to threaten lethal — to hell with whatever random draw you may get.
With Bitterblossom, you know exactly what you’re getting. Every turn, you present 1 new threat. It can wear equipment very well, and it provides an avalanche of advantage if your opponent doesn’t answer it quickly.
This isn’t to say sanctuary is bad; if you go back a couple pages, I played two in my board for a few events. I’ve just found that Bitterblossom gains me more “oops I win” factor than the Sanctuary. I’m considering a split in the future if Jace and BBE make an impactful shift to the meta.
I played two at SCG Indy, and it singlehandedly won me two matches against Mardu Pyromancer, and it was absolutely gas vs Jeskai and UW Control also. Several decks are just stone-cold to enchantments, so post-board my plan is "jam all of the enchantments". Basically, any deck trying to grind is going to auto-lose to a 1/1 Flying Faerie every turn. They carry equipment well, and they allow you to hold your creatures in hand while you continue to flood the board with flyers. Against Jeskai and UW, forcing them to use real cards on tokens will put you very far ahead.
I put it in the slot where most people have some flex slots. The list I played at SCG Indy: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=118916
That card is the TRUTH.
I played 3 Jeskai and 3 mardu pyromancer this weekend and beat all of them (even gave Nikolich his 2nd loss!) all on the back of Champion. I’m really high on that card in the main.