Quote from KeithsGenome »
I've found Spirits to be a very tough matchup for my UB deck - Yamar, how do you do it? Spell Queller wrecks me so hard, stomping out my mill spells and Fatal pushes (or bridges when I try to land them), then flying over my head. It might just be that she knows how to play spirits vs UB Mill because of our regular matchups, but I feel it's tight but definitely unfavoured for me.
Well, I've played the match at my local FNM 3 times in the last month and have gone 3-0 against it (once 2-0, twice 2-1). For reference, I'm playing the Jason Chung build at the moment and plan to start tweaking it a bit this week. My primary strategy is to get rid of the Quellers first and foremost by Extraction means in game 1. This absorbs any chance countering as they don't usually main other options. To me it's just as important as bleeding out the Meddling Mages in the Humans matchup. After that, landing a Bridge and/or a nice Incursion generally will buy enough time to take them out.
Post SB, we get other removal options - I find Night of Souls' Betrayal to be vastly underrated in this and many other matchups post-board - and the board wipe, but mostly it's just plowing thru the important creatures - get rid of Drogskol and Quellers as you can to free things up and keep hexproof off the table.
I know I've been a bit lucky, but the last game was against one of our most seasoned pilots and that was the 2-0. I got lucky with a topdeck Damnation and the following turn he tapped out for a CoCo and I responded with a massive Incursion. Sometimes it just goes that way...
If you have a list for your current UW list, can you post or send it to me? Curious as to what type of build you're working with.
Too bad I don't have the pieces.
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I think I might shave a couple Fatal Push and try to slot 3 Pharaohs in and see how it goes
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Gotta disagree with that. Echoing Truth is card disadvantage, Set Adrift keeps it card-neutral at least (your opponent will use their draw step to get it back), and can be removal if you have a Mesmeric Orb out. Echoing Truth is nice that it's instant, but usually Set Adrift is a better card. If you're running Orbs, I think it's the way to go.
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I wish! Sleep would be nice. Between the 1am bedtime on Friday after playing hockey, getting up twice to help feed the baby, and being on site by 8:30am, I was fatigued. I can point back to fatal or near fatal misplays in every match. I ended up going 1-4 drop.
Brief summary:
Match 1 Cheerios:
G1: he mulliganed to 5 and scooped to my IoK to keep his deck secret
G2: I cast a Damnation T4 to kill Paladin on board, instead of just waiting for him to combo off and use my Mind Funeral under Shelldock to get him with a draw trigger on the stack. Also had an Archive Trap in hand that he made active for me. Big misplay and he storm 42ed me
G3: Lots of creature control, got 3 Sram and 2 Pallys in the yard, then dropped Chalice on 0. Staring down Paladin beats from 15 to 3 life, I was dead next turn. Topdecked a Visions into Fetch, Glimpse, Glimpse with 2 black mana, 1 blue, and 1 ghost quarter on the field - not enough to double glimpse. Play fetch, GQ my own land for my last island and double glimpse for the win. Super tight but it shouldn't have been that close.
Match 2: Zoo
Fast zoo with Narnam Renegades and that new revolt: add GG to your pool guy.
G1 sped me out of nowhere, I landed an orb and a glimpse before dying.
G2 mulligan to 6, keep Crypt Incursion, Glimpse Glimpse Orb Fetch Darkslick Shore. Scry a GQ to the bottom (idiot.) Didn't draw a land for 4 turns and was 1 short of CI for 66 life.
Match 3: Eldrazi Tron
G1 got an Orb out and milled all his cards but 1, which he drew on the turn he killed me. I died with his library empty, dang.
G2 he dropped Chalice on 1, then 2, then 3. I had a Bridge down, he dropped a Ratchet Bomb that got countered by his own chalice. He landed Kozilek the Great Distortion, then a Walking Ballista but they were held back by my Bridge on 1. He shot twice with the Ballista, attached with a 1/1 through my bridge with me on 8 life, then went to add 2 counters before combat damage. I shot my Slaughter Pact at it, he blasted my with the counters in response, putting me down to 5. I forgot my pact trigger, judge was about to hand me game loss, but a spectator said the Ballista died before Pact hit it, so spell fizzled, phew. I topdecked a lethal Archive Trap but he discarded Reality Smasher to Kozilek to counter it. From there it was a draw-go until he landed Karn, exiled my bridge, and Kozilek to my face.
Match 4: Faeries
Wasn't familiar with this matchup but I managed to take Game 1 somehow.
SB: in 2 x Dispel, out 2 x Surgical Extraction
Game 2 he just held up for counters on everything. I boarded in my dispels to fight back, but dispel doesn't do anything to a Spellstutter Sprite. Cryptic Command, Cryptic command, Bitterblosson and Mistbind Clique finished it out for him.
Game 3 he landed 3 bitter blossoms and countered Damnation and I got rocked.
After the game he told me his deck is threat-light and I should've aimed an Extraction at Bitterblossom or Mistbind Clique and all he'd have would be little pesky flyers. Good to know.
Match 5: Abzan Value
Game 1 on the draw: T2 Goyf followed by T3 Goyf at 5/6 got me real dead real quick.
Game 2: Extracted his goyfs T2 and hit one in his hand. Landed an orb and managed to keep his big creatures off the board, but 4x lingering souls tokens put a real clock on me for the loss.
Dropped after going 1-4
I played in a GP Rebound side event after:
Match 1 vs Skred Red
Game 1 he landed a Chandra, Torch of Defiance that I had no way to answer. Once Chandra ulted he cast a couple 1 drop spells for 15 damage to my face.
Game 2: Boarded in Set Adrifts, Spellskite, and Dispels, but it wasn't enough. Blood moon on T2 kept me one black mana short of Damnation, but Koth, of the Hammer got it done with him pounding 4/4 mountains into my face that my Spellskite couldn't block more than once.
Match 2 vs Madcap Titan Shift:
This just seemed like an easy matchup to me. Turn 1 IoK from me, no legal targets (Primetime, Madcap, something else, 4 lands). I cast a few mill spells T2 and T3 (Mind funeral for 6...). T4 he eventually fetched and landed Madcap, so I Archived Trap in response. See one of his Madcaps go to the yard, his second comes out. Next turn Slaughter Pact on the Madcap. He followed it up by landing a Primeval Titan that I hit with Go for the Throat and Mesmeric Orb carried me to victory.
Out: 3x Push, 2x IoK, in 1x Infinite Obliteration (he mentioned Emrakul but I figured he was joking - however it's better to have this than a Push or IOK with no targets, even IO on Primetime or Madcap is fine by me), 3x Set Adrift, 1x Spellskite (blocker in the absence of a better card to bring in).
Game 2 went similarly, took him down pretty easily, didn't even need to land a surgical on anything.
Match 3 vs Affinity:
Similarly to the day before, got pounded in with beats Game 1 after keeping a 2-lander with mill spells and an Orb.
Out: GFFT, Orb x 3, in 2x Spellskite, 2x Chalice - Should've boarded out my Archive Traps!
Game 2: I drew an opener with 2 fatal push, visions, Crypt Incursion, Glimpse, Ensnaring Bridge and an Island. I kept it cuz at this point I'd done a lot of losing. The hand was good cards and all I needed was to draw into black mana and I'd be set, so figured I'd play the gamble at this point - if it's meant to be, so be it. T1 Visions to cycle, gets me a shelldock isle. Sad face. He went T1 Vaultskirge, opal, springleaf drum, memnite, Signal Pest. T2 Master of Etherium, T3 swing for 11 or something crazy. Game over.
Not the performance I was hoping for from my deck after a promising Friday! I wish I managed to get more sleep, I definitely felt a little underperforming mentally trying to think through plays. It sucks to look back and say "oh yea, that was a misplay" in almost every game in the match. I won against Cheerios despite the misplay. Eldrazi Tron should be an easy matchup for us too in my opinion.
I also need to mulligan more aggressively, and I think I might put a third Crypt Incursion in the deck, probably main but maybe side - you really need to land that if you want to win against most decks. On the weekend, if I landed CI I generally won, and if I didn't I lost. It's clearly that important.
I echo Greg's Mind Funeral frustration. Well over half my funerals ended up dropping less than 10 cards. I mean, it paid off sometimes in a 21 or 23, but usually less than 10 and that really sucks. Is Breaking better at a guaranteed 8? It leaves us without a three-drop mill spell, so it might be T3 mill 8 instead of T3 Mind Funeral. Maybe more aggressive Surgicals targeting lands or something? I'm not sure.
My creatureless list had promise I thought, but seeing the GP Brisbane list that did well with Scribes and Ashiok, I might try something up that vein a bit more. Cut down on some of my spells, probably Snapcasters out, and throw the Crabs, Phantasms, Manic Scribes and possibly some Ashioks in and see how it goes. From creatureless to lots of creatures. Big playstyle change for me.
In the meantime I might take a short break from Mill and work on my idea for a Jund-Eldrazi list. Jund disruption suite with mana dorks and TKS/Smasher, and Scooze/Wasteland Strangler synergy to generate bonus value. We'll see! Mill has always been and probably always will be my main deck though
Hope the report was helpful!
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Decklist:
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Marsh Flats
2 Shelldock Isle
3 Ghost Quarter
1 Oboro Palace in the Clouds
2 Watery Grave
2 Darkslick Shores
2 Island
3 Swamp
3 Visions of Beyond
2 Damnation
4 Mind Funeral
4 Archive Trap
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Fatal Push
2 Crypt Incursion
1 Go for the Throat
1 Slaughter Pact
2 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Mesmeric Orb
2 Spellskite
2 Chalice of the Void
3 Set Adrift
2 Logic Knot
2 Dispel
2 Collective Brutality
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Infinite Obliteration
I should note: I couldn't find a Nihil Spellbomb in time, so I have a Relic of Progenitus in there. And I couldn't find Lost Legacy, so I stuck Infinite Obliteration in there. C'est la vie.
It's tough to recall all the plays here, but I think I made few errors except against Affinity. Here's my best recap!
Match 1: Bant Eldrazi
Game 1 on the play:
Kept a solid hand with 2 lands, Archive, Glimpse, Push, Orb and Visions I think. Led with a swamp and pass. Saw the Windswept Heath come down and made me breathe a sigh of relief that my Trap would get through - cracked it for a Hierarch, so I figured they were on Bant Eldrazi or Infect... ugh, neither are good matches. Either way, Fatal Push the Hierarch, landed my Trap, T2 glimpse, T3 Visions and basically sped my way out from there to the win via a pretty big Mind Funeral (21 cards I think it was).
SB: Out 2 x IoK, in 2 x Dispel I think (or Logic Knot)
Game 2 on the draw:
He landed a Skyspawner on T2 and a Thought Knot on T3, forget what he took. I landed a Go for the Throat on his TKS, but he landed another one. I went for Damnation on T5 with 5 lands but his TKS gave his Stubborn Denial Ferocious so I got beat in.
Game 3 on the play:
I drew and landed an Ensnaring bridge T4 that he had no answer for that held his TKS at bay. From there, Mesmeric Orb did the job and I just cruised my way out.
1-0
Round 2: Bant Eldrazi! Before this match we had typical banter "Oh ya, what did you play against last round?" He was against Burn, I told him I was against Bant Eldrazi, haha.
Game 1 on the draw:
T2 Matter Reshaper into T3 Reality Smasher was trouble, but I was milling him decently with a Crypt Incursion in hand. In my turn 3 I had options: Crypt Incursion for 9 life now, or Glimpse this turn, survive 8 more damage and get a bigger CI next turn. So I went with that, saw a TKS and extracted it to go down to 9 life (if he TKSed my CI I'm toast). Next turn he topdecks a second Reality Smasher and I'm done.
Same sideboarding
Game 2 on the play:
Matter Reshaper got Fatal Pushed and turned into a Hierarch. Ah well. He landed TKS and had Vines of Vastwood for it to put me down to 9 on T4. I got a Damnation then a bridge down and he had no response for it, me at 4 life. Whew.
Game 3:
Getting in tight towards the end of the game, I'd landed a Crypt Incursion to gain 15, but am now back down to 17 life. He has 2 TKS on board, I have a Snap, and Archive Trap in hand, push in the yard, and Orb on the table. I counted his library, 20 cards, 5 tapped lands to play his third TKS. In response I Snapcaster targeting my Push. He took my Archive Trap from hand. I blocked a TKS, took 4 from the other TKS, and pushed his TKS (his tapped one, oops!). My next turn I topdeck mind funeral for the win.
I forget which game it was in here, but I Surgicalled his Reality Smashers and saw 2 Vines of Vastwood in hand, so I Snap-Surgicalled both Vines out of his hand. Score.
Both Bant Eldrazi players didn't know what to bring in against me but I think they brought the same things; Stubborn Denial, the green artifact destruction, and Rest in Peace for 1 of them, Grafdiggers cage for the other, which I think are bad moves on their part. Advantages to running a deck people aren't used to playing against - my second opponent said it was the first time he's ever been milled out.
2-0
Round 3: Abzan Company
Game 1 on the play:
I started with IoK, Push, 2x Crypt Incursions, an Orb and 2 land so I kept - a solid control type hand with an Orb is good in my books. IoK showed me what he was up to, a mitt full of fetches in abzan colours. Landed the first CI for 15 early, he got me on the beatdown with a Voice of Resurgence token, Eternal Witness, something else, dealing me 9 damage per turn, but I knew I could outlast him with my second incursion. Landed it near the end of the game for 33 life (going from 8 to 41), game over.
Sideboard:
+2 Collective Brutality, -1 Orb, -1 Go for the Throat I think?
Game 2 on the draw:
Can't even remember what I had, another IoK and saw Collected Company. He got a Hierarch down, I Fatal Pushed his Voice to give him a 2/2 token, which got buffed up to 5/5 the following turn with a Collected Company. He tried to Eternal Witness it back, I Surgical Extraction his Cocos in response. I landed an Ensnaring Bridge, but he had the Qasali Pridemage in hand to take it out and continue the beats to go for the win. I had a snapcaster and Push in the yard to target but he barely had lethal that turn.
I think I put my Go for the Throat back in just cuz spot removal is pretty good against him. Can't recall what I took out.
Game 3 on the play:
I kept a hand with IoK, Crypt Incursion, Push, and I think Glimpse or Mind Funeral. IoK on the play, see Coco and a Tidehollow Sculler, Saffi Eriksdottir, some other stuff. Took the Sculler knowing I can Push one of the other threats. He drops Saffi and has some other creatures down, I snapcaster-block Saffi and target my Fatal Push in the yard, and he lets Saffi die instead of saccing her to save one of his other creatures that I ended up pushing. I hit a Crypt Incursion early for 12 life in response to Eternal Witness trying to bring back Melira or Voice of Resurgence. He got a Bird of Paradise, Wall of Roots, and Noble Hierarch out but not really any other threats. Anafenza, Kin tree Spirit came down and bolstered his birds, so he was beating me with a 2/1 witness and 1/2 Birds slowly. I got an Orb down and proceeded with the mill plan, we ended up going to time. He topdecked a Gavony Township, tapped 5 lands to pump all his guys and swing at me for 9 (taking me from 20 to 11), I just took it, glimpsed him, and the Orb did the final kill for me thanks to him tapping out.
3-0!!
Round 4: Affinity
The opponent mentions he is a Judge for the main event tomorrow and playing in this one today, so clearly a very experienced player.
Game 1 on the Draw:
We both Mulligan to 6 to start, I get 2 lands and keep a Glimpse on top. He leads with Vault Skirge and Opal T1. T2 he drops Blinkmoth and uses it to cast Cranial Plating - dang. I got my mill plan on with an orb and some spells, Ghost Quartered 2 Blinkmoth Nexus, hit an IoK and saw Steel Overseer and Arcbound Ravager in hand - stole the overseer and Surgicalled the Ravager. I managed to deal with all his threats, he had the Cranial Plating and like, 3 Springleaf drums but no creatures to get mana.
Sideboard:
-1 Go for the Throat -1 Mesmeric Orb, +2 Chalice
DOH I SHOULD'VE BOARDED OUT ARCHIVE TRAPS.
Game 2 on the Draw:
I started with IoK, Chalice, Glimpse, Funeral, Ghost Quarter and 2 other lands - sweet, good hand. Vault skirge T1 again for him. I went T1 IoK, got spell pierced, so I drop Chalice on 0 (he already had an Opal and Memnite out). Cranial T2 with opal and other artifacts down. Equip skirge, swing for 6. I landed a bridge with 4 cards in hand T3, promptly gets hit with Ancient Grudge and he swings in to kill.
Game 3 on the play:
I forget what I kept here but it was pretty solid. It came down to him with less than 10 cards in library, staring down my bridge on 2 cards in my hand. I had Snapcaster Glimpsed him with a mind Funeral in hand, so lethal. He had Etched Champion, Arcbound Ravager and a bunch of artifacts on the board. Champion gets through my bridge, he sacks all his artifacts to his ravager, sacks the ravager to pump his Champion up to lethal after declare blockers. Sneaky combat tricks by Affinity! If I hadn't snap-glimpsed, I could've snap-pushed during upkeep to take out his ravager, and he wouldn't have been able to pull the sneaky combat move through my bridge. Grrrr, misplay by me.
3-1 knocked me out of the tournament but I was pretty impressed with the deck performance! The Affinity player said he was legit scared of my deck, said he'd never actually played against mill, and said I would take a lot of people by surprise in the main event and any side events ("Play as many side events as you can, noone will expect you and you should do really well!").
Main event starts tomorrow, will keep you all posted with that one too
Edit to add: My performance scored me 200 GameKeeper Tix (prize tickets), which is enough to buy 20 packs of Aether Revolt if I wanted - pretty good score. I've got my eye on the 270 Tix foil Glimpse the Unthinkable though... gonna save up from tomorrow and Sunday stuff too.
Also, artists on site included rk post (Mind Funeral artist), Mark Tedin (Shelldock Isle), and Jason Felix (Archive Trap). I splurged and grabbed 3x foil Archive Trap and 4x foil Mind Funeral so I could get them signed by the artist. I got Mark Tedin to do a small alter on a Shelldock Isle; he drew a turtle head coming out of the isle itself, haha. Pretty great set of artists for me to have at the tournament!