I'm quite new to this seasons standard and have no idea what to play. I usually like to play a deck that rewards good play, so I thought of going for UB Control or UW Delver, what do you guys think? I wouldn't mind playing Aggro if there is a solid list out there, so I'm basically open for anything. Any ideas are greatly appreciated!
Flashfreeze was primary thought for Boros, Zoo and Burn where they act as a substitute for Remand, which suck in those matchups. I don't know if I would bring them against Jund, probably not. But it's a nice little one-off
I board out Mistbind Cliques against Zoo and Jund because they usually bring in Combust and Volcanic Fallout. The Steel Sabotage against Twin was for Spellskite, Defense Grid and bouncing my Shackles against Grudge.
Speaking of choking, I'm probably going to run -1 Steel Sabotage +1 Annul in the Sideboard. Dispel sounds sweet, I'll try it out. I need something for the Jund matchup, which is worrying me. The games I lost were like t1 discard, t2 again discard, manland, t3 bob or liliana
I didn't like the Spell Pierce in the Sideboard, they were for Jund but they didn't really help. I would probably play more grave hate instead for the Loam decks that are starting to show up.
I usually board out the Mistind Cliques against Boros and Burn because they just aren't good, so I couldn't care less about Volcanic Fallouts. Of course they are solid (uncounterable source of damage is always nice to have) but there are much better cards to board against us.
If you checked the daily events you knew that many storm deck actually transform into splinter twin postboard, so I guess it was just common sense to leave the paths inside
I don't think you can compare Caw to Faeries because they play a different game, but you should know that by having experience with playing both decks. Caw is stronger against aggro and quite weak to combo, faeries is very good against combo and has a a fair chance against aggro with its painless manabase, But trying to say that one deck is superior to the other doesnt quite work that way, imo.
I'm with you Ramon, I think they should have banned Scapeshift and not Valakut, because without Scapeshift you can easily interact with it (e.g. Ghost Quarter, Tectonic Edge)
What I don't understand is the lack of colored mana/fetches for the engineered explosives in the side. I think you need Ancient Grudge anyway so it wouldn't hurt much to add some fetches and a dual of each ug and ur.
So what are our answers to Splinter Twin? I thought of something like Ghostly Prison to stall and then Kami of False Hope with Proclamation for a soft lock (they appear to have no answers to this). We could add 1 or 2 Felidar Sovereign to go with this plan. Or we could try to run a couple of Linvala, Keeper of Silence but it probably isn't as good as the kami plan because its easily remanded like the prison. The black splash sounds nice, hand disruption could improve our combo matchups and the sliver sounds nice too
edit: has anyone tested Auriok Champion? Seems like a nice answer to Twin and the protection makes it almost unkillable in the matchups its relevant in
Didn't test UB much, but after playing like 40 games against tempered steel I found BSZ to be the game winning card in the matchup, I wouldn't play less than 3
During the testing I wasn't impressed by Despise (well it kinda sucks against Tempered Steel), I'd probably only maindeck 2-3. Agree on the 4 Dismember mainboard, they are awesome
ps. How do you guys do against Tempered Steel? I dropped this deck because I couldn't manage to win more than 50% of the times, but I'd love to play a control
The deck has a good lategame with the blinking combos, but's got some problems surviving and early rush, thats why I play 3 Divine Offering main. Skithiryx and Kuldotha Phoenix are not good either, so I decided to play 3 Magnets, 4 Beast Within and 2 Rituals for them. Almost nobody's playing enchantment removal which makes the rituals a perfect finisher and an underrated card. I purposely dismissed counterspells because they are to slow against tempered steel, mono black infect and red aggro which I'm expecting to face a lot. I want to fit in some Blade Splicers, Ratchet Bomb and 1 more Venser but cant find space for them. I also thought of cutting the Elspeth, Crusader and Sword plan for a greater focus on the blink plan, but I think that having the option of going aggro against other control is better than playing full control.
Any thoughts and opinions on the deck?
So what decks do you think will be at the top after NPH? Is there anything like the strongest deck out in Block? I guess Tempered Steel is going to be quite good, but are there any alternatives top tier decks (if you dont like to play pure aggro?)
Zoo
-3 Remand
-2 Mistbind Clique
-1 Scion of Oona
+3 Threads of Disloyalty
+1 Flashfreeze
+2 Ratchet Bomb
Living End
-1 Repeal
-4 Spell Snare
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+1 Flashfreeze
+2 Spell Pierce
Twin
-1 Repeal
-3 Remand
+1 Flashfreeze
+1 Steel Sabotage
+2 Ratchet Bomb
Jund
-3 Remand
-1 Repeal
-2 Mistbind Clique
-1 Scion of Oona
+3 Threads of Disloyalty
+1 Wurmcoil Engine
+2 Spell Pierce
+1 Ratchet Bomb
Loam
-2 Scion of Oona
-1 Shackles
-3 Remand
+3 Threads
+1 Flashfreeze
+2 Relic of Progenitus
I board out Mistbind Cliques against Zoo and Jund because they usually bring in Combust and Volcanic Fallout. The Steel Sabotage against Twin was for Spellskite, Defense Grid and bouncing my Shackles against Grudge.
Speaking of choking, I'm probably going to run -1 Steel Sabotage +1 Annul in the Sideboard. Dispel sounds sweet, I'll try it out. I need something for the Jund matchup, which is worrying me. The games I lost were like t1 discard, t2 again discard, manland, t3 bob or liliana
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Scion of Oona
3 Vendilion Clique
2 Spellskite
4 Cryptic Command
4 Spell Snare
3 Remand
3 Mana Leak
3 Vedalken Shackles
1 Repeal
3 Tectonic Edge
4 Mutavault
17 Island
3 Threads of Disloyalty
3 Steel Sabotage
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Flashfreeze
2 Spell Pierce
1 Wurmcoil Engine
2-0 Zoo
2-0 Living End
2-0 Splinter Twin
1-2 Jund
ID Boros
Top8:
2-0 Aggro Loam
2-0 Jund (round 4 opponent)
2-0 Zoo
I didn't like the Spell Pierce in the Sideboard, they were for Jund but they didn't really help. I would probably play more grave hate instead for the Loam decks that are starting to show up.
19 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Mistbind Clique
4 Scion of Oona
2 Spellskite
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Vendilion Clique
3 Mana Leak
3 Remand
2 Spell Pierce
3 Spell Snare
3 Vedalken Shackles
3 Engineered Explosives
1 Pithing Needle
2 Sower of Temptation
2 Spell Pierce
1 Spell Snare
1 Spellskite
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Vendilion Clique
What I don't understand is the lack of colored mana/fetches for the engineered explosives in the side. I think you need Ancient Grudge anyway so it wouldn't hurt much to add some fetches and a dual of each ug and ur.
edit: has anyone tested Auriok Champion? Seems like a nice answer to Twin and the protection makes it almost unkillable in the matchups its relevant in
During the testing I wasn't impressed by Despise (well it kinda sucks against Tempered Steel), I'd probably only maindeck 2-3. Agree on the 4 Dismember mainboard, they are awesome
ps. How do you guys do against Tempered Steel? I dropped this deck because I couldn't manage to win more than 50% of the times, but I'd love to play a control
Here is my take at it for the PT
3 Hero of Bladehold
3 Glimmerpoint Stag
3 Consecrated Sphinx
3 Divine Offering
2 Elspeth Tirel
2 Venser the Soujourner
4 Mycosynth Wellspring
3 Tumble Magnet
2 Exclusion Ritual
4 Beast Within
2 Sword of War and Peace
4 Razorverge Thicket
1 Forest
6 Island
10 Plains
The deck has a good lategame with the blinking combos, but's got some problems surviving and early rush, thats why I play 3 Divine Offering main. Skithiryx and Kuldotha Phoenix are not good either, so I decided to play 3 Magnets, 4 Beast Within and 2 Rituals for them. Almost nobody's playing enchantment removal which makes the rituals a perfect finisher and an underrated card. I purposely dismissed counterspells because they are to slow against tempered steel, mono black infect and red aggro which I'm expecting to face a lot. I want to fit in some Blade Splicers, Ratchet Bomb and 1 more Venser but cant find space for them. I also thought of cutting the Elspeth, Crusader and Sword plan for a greater focus on the blink plan, but I think that having the option of going aggro against other control is better than playing full control.
Any thoughts and opinions on the deck?