Hi there, just a BW tokens player here. I found really interesting this conversation about FL, so I thought I might pitch in as well.
For us, who are the grindiest of grindiness all around the modern format (up to the point to outjund jund itself), card advantage is the main problem we have. Unlike jund lists, we cant afford to play Dark confidants due to the CMC of some of our cards, plus the fact that we are not as aggresive as you are to go against our own clock (I might actually try a build with them, just in case).
They way we deal with this issue is using very versatile and resilient cards. These are basically Lingering souls, Start//Finish, or Collective brutality. This is virtual card advantage and they put you ahead of your opponent.
Using FL is great, but every deck using it has some GY payoff card they can pitch to it. I dont see many of these on jund (other than to grow your goyfs), so if I were to run FL in my jund list, I would probably try to increase that as well. I made the exercise of taking a jund list and including a couple FL (I dont think you want 4 of them anyway), and this was the result:
I dont think it affects the deck that much, other than running 2 BBE instead of 3, and removing the 25th land. KC is the biggest winner here, and claim // fame is just a personal favourite of mine that goes well with almost all of your creatures (KC can get back the BBE).
Or you could simply go up 1 CB in the main. It is the most similar card to LoTV you can find, and it is just great. I play 2/2 CB and LoTV main, and I am superhappy with it. Also, it opens another SB slot for your wraths
there is a series of videos on youtube by ivanmtgdpt where he tries the card. I wont tell you how the league ended, but the deck plays great (although he had very good draws most of the matches). HoB seems pretty powerful in the deck, even without the addition of any other knights. A delayed token generator is great, in the way lingering souls is. Tokens dont fly and are merged in one body, but you dont have to pay flashback cost. If you are lucky enough to have an active gideon on board, then feel free to create a Knight ally for flavor but the card is strong enough alone.
That said, BW tokens might not be the perfect shell for it, but some other BW control kind of deck. Not saying the card doesnt fit by any means, only, I feel we are pretty good already building value over time, and I would fill those slots with something more disruptive, like a Liliana, or some additional hand disruption.
I realize the Auriok synergy with bitterblossom, but post-SB vs grindy-ish creature opponents I foresee myself SB'ing in something else. My vs Death's shadow matchup was always so favored in my RtA deck. Doesnt it still seem pretty favorable w/ control? I do see anger of the gods in my meta. I'm going to think about this more.
DS is already a really good MU. But in my case, I board out both collective brutalities, since they do close to nothing. Auriok comes in for them. As I said, it was the first time I played her, but something that gets you life, while blocking huge creatures and protected from everything your opponent cant cast seems pretty strong. Also, g2, my opponent led with thoughtseize and it took him around 2 seconds to make me discard the first copy I drew, even with push, BB, and something else I dont remember in hand, so it must be a true pain in the ass for them
Is disenchant good against EE, though? Dont they just play it, and if you cant counter, it resolves, they have priority, and they use it?
Yes.
If you suspect EE, and you should most of the time, only commit enough to the board to make them pull the trigger. Then rebuild.
If they don't crack it immediately and try to 'hold it up', don't over commit, but also don't be afraid to keep pressuring and look for a chance to win a virtual value exchange if they ever tap out.
EE wouldn't be the reason to run Disenchant post board, but it might have application against cards in a deck that run it, and if the opportunity for some serious smug points occurs, instant speed Disenchant is pretty sweet.
Same for Batterskull etc. It's all about timing and opportunity, so when they don't have the mana to threaten your board or protect there own, instant speed interaction, in some really obscure situations make it such a fun and effective card.
the sphere is mainly for those 2 matchups yes (although I think storm is already a bit favoured), but can be also used against other decks like elves, eggs, living end (I saw a guy playing living end facing a sphere and he was looking rather annoyed)... but those are more of fringe scenarios I would say, I have not tested it against them.
Disenchant is a basic SB card that should never be left out of any SB. Almost every deck has targets for it. Board 1 in against control for detention sphere, and against eldrazi for any pesky EE or ratchet bomb they could bring. I take also 1 in against burn because many lists have bridge now in the SB, and it kills eidolon anyway. Running detention sphere, there is an argument to bring 1/2 against tron too. Bogles, affinity, vial decks (although I personally prefer needle there), worship, leyline... I feel the list never ends.
Auriok gains you way more life and is barely impossible to remove (if they kept their path to exile after SB, that is fine too). Blocks shadows, tasigurs, gurmag anglers, and almost all living end creatures for days. Nowadays, not many red wraths are played in the meta (because of big creatures) and people tend to prefer damnation or wrath effects.
I don’t have much experience against the competitive scene but my natural instinct would be to transfer over into a more aggressive build like I used to run, with more LL, RtA and more Gideons.
In the MKM series, the 2 most played archetypes were UWx control and Jund/Junk lists (which were actually the decks in the finals). Against those, I think I would stick to the control shell. We are grindy enough to outvalue both of them.
Round 2, I was playing next to a guy that was also running tokens, only a more standard list with RtA and so on. He was playing against some sort of esper control list (while I was facing jeskai) and he lost 2-0 that match. It may just be situational, but I think it would mostly be that way. If we go for the aggro list, I think we are just a bad aggro deck (in the modern spectrum). Competitively, control is the only way for tokens to shine and be a top tier deck, at least to my mind.
So overall I am very happy with how the tournament went. My first big tournament, I learnt a lot of tips and gathered a ton of experience for next time. I went 6-4, which doesnt make justice to how the deck worked overall. I had a couple mistakes and some unlucky topdecks, but I mostly played well. It is tough to play 10 rounds, but everyone had to, so no excuse. I will talk briefly about the matches. Will be happy to answer specific questions but wont go into detail if not needed.
Round 1: 2-0 Affinity (1-0)
I was interested in this matchup since I took my Stony Silences out of my SB, so wasnt sure about how that would work. Turns out the matchup is just sooo tilted for us that, well, it was a promenade.
Round 2: 2-0 Jeskai Control (2-0)
Well, a MU I had never faced before. It is surprising how favourable this matchup is, literally, it was simply a tramit. I didnt event SB but a Pithing Needle and a Disenchant just in the case they would come up with some pesky PW or detention spheres.
Round 3: 2-0 Abzan Shadow (3-0)
The shadow element of this deck makes it so that the matchup is not as balanced in our favour, since they get to be a bit more aggresive. Nevertheless, BB 1st match and (first time I played her) auriok champion in the second where just game over.
Round 4: 1-2 Ponza (3-1)
This was the guy that top8-ed. After the match I said "see you in top8". They guy took it seriously . Game 1 he basically cut my mana pretty absurdly and I lost grip of the match when an unanswered inferno titan took control of the situation. S//F was in my GY, but he took me off black mana. Game 2 I controlled the matchup from the beginning and won cleanly. Game 3, he had a Stormbreath Dragon in the table dashing for 4 per turn and I only had white tokens. I was at 6 and had 12 flying power on board when he was at 6. He said, you will win unless I topdeck a land. Pulled the card of and ripped one. Played inferno titan for 3 damage to my face, plus the unblockable dragon to put my to my feet. Unfortunate, but such is the game. I dont think I played anything wrong, so wasnt annoyed. I noticed how the matchup changes from on the draw to on the play. I didnt see a BB, which is usually game over here.
Round 5: 0-2 Abzan Counters (3-2)
First time against this deck so I had a couple mistakes, but dont think they were crucial to my loss. Game 1, I pushed a ballista when I had intangible virtue in play, so wasnt urgent. I just wanted to increase my clock (i had already 8 power on the table). TUrns our opponent was really good at finding the two combo pieces out of the CoCo he had in hand (only card, btw), followed by a topdeck Duskwatch Recruiter. Combo decks. Game 2, I mulled to 5. Pushed his bird on what resulted to be a 1 lander for him, but he drew into 2 more lands. After the match he told me not to push the bird turn one, and save it for some more important pieces of the combo. I think he was right, but on the mull to 5, I also needed to risk a bit, and these decks usually keep low land hands on view of dorks.
Round 6: 2-0 Abzan Counter (4-2)
Well, turns out I learnt a bit about the MU. Still unfavourable, but manageable. After the match I would learn that it is just better to board in RiP instead of surgical effects because OMG how annoying Kitchen finks + Sorin, Solemn Visitor emblem + Gavony Township are. I didnt think of this interaction when I ultimated Sorin, and it almost costed me the game.
Round 7: 2-0 Eldrazi and Taxes (5-2)
I run over this guy, that said that he had nothing to do against tokens. I looked at him and thought of Thalia, Smasher, Displacer, TKS... and then I smiled and left the table. At this point I was standing very nicely to face my last 3 matches
Round 8: 1-2 BR Reanimator (5-3)
I tilted on this match, and cut my winning progression. Game 1 he won turn 2, even after I pathed his griselbrand so... hey GGs and thanks for the interactive magic. Game 2 I was able to win after mulling to 5, and not finding and land for the first 9 turns. Deck was generous enough to offer me some hand disruption and he couldnt find the combo pieces when he needed. Finally he went down to 5 cards in library and a hardcasted demon on the table. If you cant draw 7 and combo off, G-lord is pretty weak against 1/1 flyiers, and I had some power on the table to hurt him harder than he was lifelinking. Game 3 we had 5 minutes. I had stopped his first attemp to combo off, and was standing at 4 mana. I had an active Lili in play and gideon+path in hand. He had been draw/go-ing for the last three turns and I thought ticking up Lili was the right thing to do to prevent him from getting combo pieces in hand. Ticked up and discarded path, because I wanted to 2turn-clock him. Played Gideon. He had/drew Through the breach + Worldspine Wurm in hand and I couldnt recover from that mistake. In retrospective, I should have kept the path or let lili unused that turn, but from my point of view at that moment (opponent actually thought this way) it made to go for the win. If I ever run into this kind of situations again I will try not to get stressed out by the timer and remember tokens is better taking matches to attrition, and, while clocking might work sometimes, is not the philosophy of the deck. On the other hand, no risk no reward!
Round 9: 0-2 GR Eldrazi (5-4)
It is tough to keep all those monsters under control. Game 1 was mine until he threw 2 bolts to my face when I was at 7 to die to my own BB. Unexpected. Game two he topdecks a TKS to take my wrath and wins from there. I think it is a rough MU, although very winnable. I was a bit affected for my mistake last round and I think I didnt focus as I should have in this one. 9th round, and I was tired.
Round 10: 2-1 Jeskai Tempo (6-4)
Jeskai list running Geist of Saint Traft, which appears to be much less annoying when you have approximately infinite chump-blockers. I think I used 2-3% of my brain capabilities that MU and I still won super easily. He only won one game after throwing 2 bolts in response to my IoK and topdecking the 4th (he had already played another) on his next draw step to deal 9 damage to my face. I had a BB. I was at 10...
Conclusions
About the deck list (posted some days ago), super happy with that configuration.
Mainboard special mentions
Start //Finish: I cant say loud enough how much I liked this card. It was relevant EVERY single time it needed to be. If they would have been Spectrals, I would have suffered A LOT more. STAPLE FOR TOKENS.
Legion's landing: Very nice addition to the deck. I will be using it as a 1-of for now. Earned its spot.
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad: he was a bit underwhelming and I think I am going back to 3 Solemn Visitors or even a second...
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: powerhouse, very strong card. Making 2/2s is more relevant than I thought.
Bitterblossom: I died a couple times to it, but I cant praise enough how good this card is. Banned in modern for some time for a reason, it is nuts. But well, we all know this already.
Lili was great in many matches, and I really find it difficult to justify how is she not good for our deck. We can work with her without problems, but... why would we if she happens to be in our colors?
SB:
Damping Sphere: unfortunately, I couldnt use it once, so I cant assess its performance. What I do know is that I didnt miss Stony Silence.
Auriok Champion proved to be very strong SB card. I used it considering the bigger meta is impacted by red/black cards more than my local one, and I was very happy with her (even if I only used her once). Should I have used her against ponza? Dont think so, but blocks titan...
I didnt see once a piece of GY hate when I boarded it in. Which is kind of crazy, since I have 4 cards. Kind of makes me want to go to 5, but not sure.
So again, awesome experience. Will be trying to get into the competitive scene more often. To conclude, I wanted to share something that really raised my attention. EVERY single opponent told me how cool my deck was. So be proud guys!! Ask anything you want to know and give your feedback please!
really nice list. Interesting what you way about going all in on the extraction plan, instead of pithing needle or the like. I think that is a very solid point, I like robustness in our SB plans. I will indirectly answer to many of your comments in my next post, so keep reading!
I am considering changing Vault of the archangel for the 4th Ghost Quarter. I havent activated the vault since... well I cant remember. GQ seems more relevant in the current meta. Thoughts?
I dumped them. Dont get me wrong, they are really powerful, but it is something I felt like doing for a long time. After I tried them for several weeks, I am really happy with how things turned out. All our tokens producers are resilient, but Spectral Procession is as powerful as fragile, and this deck is all about consistency, so to me it makes a lot of sense to take them out of the more control-ish versions.
3 Start // Finish is indeed a lot, but I have never felt like the card was bad in my hand/GY. Playing Lilis and CB makes it so that I dont mind discarding one of them instead of Spectrals. This is where Nihil Spellbomb turns to be actually better than RiP. But in the MU where we want RiP, the "finish" part is already slow, so we are not losing much.
The state in which my deck is right now is, at least to my mind, the optimal control list. I get more and more familiar with control playing style, and now I have clearer than ever that we want to take games to attrition. I might regret it in some particular games, but overall, I think it was correct to remove the processions of my deck. It has made my deck much better.
Hi there everyone. This saturday I will be going to the MKM series hamburg event for modern and that means it is about time to dust my tokens deck off, after some weeks trying different stuff. The list that I am going to run:
In my LGS I play 2 Nihil Spellbomb instead of Rest in Peace, because GY is not really a thing, and the additional card draw + 1-sided gy hate is great against grindy decks like control and jund-like (which are frequent in my local meta). I feel like for big-sized tournaments, RiP is better becuase Hollow One decks are a thing and RiP is a better answer to GY decks in general, i.e., I would rather go with the strongest card against a certain archetype.
I am thrilled to play my 3 Damping Spheres over Stony Silence. Having a good matchup preboard against affinity, makes our deck one of the most benefited (less damaged) from this change. I hope I face a lot of tron MU and wreck them all xD.
Thoughts or comments are appreciated, as well as tips on specific SB scenarios for some MU. Will try to post a summary after the tournament. Who knows? Maybe we can make tokens great again...
Looks pretty similar to mine, conceptually. Let us know how well Damping Sphere and Stony Silence go together. Also interesting that you dont run any disenchant (only 1 AU). Not afraid of bridge?
Well, if you dont mind me pitching in, I think runed halo is not so well positioned now. Same goes for zealous.
Additionally, running both stony and sphere is not exactly what I like. This is a very personal perspective, but I prefer to have multiples of a single card aimed at some matchups than SB composed of 1-ofs mainly. Both approaches are perfectly legit, but, if I were you, I would run stony and sphere together since it offers some redundancy. I believe sphere + pithing is a much better combination, covering a wider spectrum.
Dont know about your meta, but without changing the overall idea of your SB, I would go:
For us, who are the grindiest of grindiness all around the modern format (up to the point to outjund jund itself), card advantage is the main problem we have. Unlike jund lists, we cant afford to play Dark confidants due to the CMC of some of our cards, plus the fact that we are not as aggresive as you are to go against our own clock (I might actually try a build with them, just in case).
They way we deal with this issue is using very versatile and resilient cards. These are basically Lingering souls, Start//Finish, or Collective brutality. This is virtual card advantage and they put you ahead of your opponent.
Using FL is great, but every deck using it has some GY payoff card they can pitch to it. I dont see many of these on jund (other than to grow your goyfs), so if I were to run FL in my jund list, I would probably try to increase that as well. I made the exercise of taking a jund list and including a couple FL (I dont think you want 4 of them anyway), and this was the result:
1 Abrupt Decay
4 Liliana of the Veil
2 Thoughtseize
1 Terminate
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Lightning Bolt
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Fatal Push
THREATS
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Scavenging Ooze
4 Dark Confidant
2 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Faithless Looting
1 Claim // Fame
LANDS
1 Twilight Mire
1 Treetop Village
2 Swamp
1 Stomping Ground
3 Raging Ravine
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Forest
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Blood Crypt
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Verdant Catacombs
I dont think it affects the deck that much, other than running 2 BBE instead of 3, and removing the 25th land. KC is the biggest winner here, and claim // fame is just a personal favourite of mine that goes well with almost all of your creatures (KC can get back the BBE).
That said, BW tokens might not be the perfect shell for it, but some other BW control kind of deck. Not saying the card doesnt fit by any means, only, I feel we are pretty good already building value over time, and I would fill those slots with something more disruptive, like a Liliana, or some additional hand disruption.
DS is already a really good MU. But in my case, I board out both collective brutalities, since they do close to nothing. Auriok comes in for them. As I said, it was the first time I played her, but something that gets you life, while blocking huge creatures and protected from everything your opponent cant cast seems pretty strong. Also, g2, my opponent led with thoughtseize and it took him around 2 seconds to make me discard the first copy I drew, even with push, BB, and something else I dont remember in hand, so it must be a true pain in the ass for them
This is exactly what I mean
Disenchant is a basic SB card that should never be left out of any SB. Almost every deck has targets for it. Board 1 in against control for detention sphere, and against eldrazi for any pesky EE or ratchet bomb they could bring. I take also 1 in against burn because many lists have bridge now in the SB, and it kills eidolon anyway. Running detention sphere, there is an argument to bring 1/2 against tron too. Bogles, affinity, vial decks (although I personally prefer needle there), worship, leyline... I feel the list never ends.
Auriok gains you way more life and is barely impossible to remove (if they kept their path to exile after SB, that is fine too). Blocks shadows, tasigurs, gurmag anglers, and almost all living end creatures for days. Nowadays, not many red wraths are played in the meta (because of big creatures) and people tend to prefer damnation or wrath effects.
In the MKM series, the 2 most played archetypes were UWx control and Jund/Junk lists (which were actually the decks in the finals). Against those, I think I would stick to the control shell. We are grindy enough to outvalue both of them.
Round 2, I was playing next to a guy that was also running tokens, only a more standard list with RtA and so on. He was playing against some sort of esper control list (while I was facing jeskai) and he lost 2-0 that match. It may just be situational, but I think it would mostly be that way. If we go for the aggro list, I think we are just a bad aggro deck (in the modern spectrum). Competitively, control is the only way for tokens to shine and be a top tier deck, at least to my mind.
So overall I am very happy with how the tournament went. My first big tournament, I learnt a lot of tips and gathered a ton of experience for next time. I went 6-4, which doesnt make justice to how the deck worked overall. I had a couple mistakes and some unlucky topdecks, but I mostly played well. It is tough to play 10 rounds, but everyone had to, so no excuse. I will talk briefly about the matches. Will be happy to answer specific questions but wont go into detail if not needed.
Round 1: 2-0 Affinity (1-0)
I was interested in this matchup since I took my Stony Silences out of my SB, so wasnt sure about how that would work. Turns out the matchup is just sooo tilted for us that, well, it was a promenade.
Round 2: 2-0 Jeskai Control (2-0)
Well, a MU I had never faced before. It is surprising how favourable this matchup is, literally, it was simply a tramit. I didnt event SB but a Pithing Needle and a Disenchant just in the case they would come up with some pesky PW or detention spheres.
Round 3: 2-0 Abzan Shadow (3-0)
The shadow element of this deck makes it so that the matchup is not as balanced in our favour, since they get to be a bit more aggresive. Nevertheless, BB 1st match and (first time I played her) auriok champion in the second where just game over.
Round 4: 1-2 Ponza (3-1)
This was the guy that top8-ed. After the match I said "see you in top8". They guy took it seriously . Game 1 he basically cut my mana pretty absurdly and I lost grip of the match when an unanswered inferno titan took control of the situation. S//F was in my GY, but he took me off black mana. Game 2 I controlled the matchup from the beginning and won cleanly. Game 3, he had a Stormbreath Dragon in the table dashing for 4 per turn and I only had white tokens. I was at 6 and had 12 flying power on board when he was at 6. He said, you will win unless I topdeck a land. Pulled the card of and ripped one. Played inferno titan for 3 damage to my face, plus the unblockable dragon to put my to my feet. Unfortunate, but such is the game. I dont think I played anything wrong, so wasnt annoyed. I noticed how the matchup changes from on the draw to on the play. I didnt see a BB, which is usually game over here.
Round 5: 0-2 Abzan Counters (3-2)
First time against this deck so I had a couple mistakes, but dont think they were crucial to my loss. Game 1, I pushed a ballista when I had intangible virtue in play, so wasnt urgent. I just wanted to increase my clock (i had already 8 power on the table). TUrns our opponent was really good at finding the two combo pieces out of the CoCo he had in hand (only card, btw), followed by a topdeck Duskwatch Recruiter. Combo decks. Game 2, I mulled to 5. Pushed his bird on what resulted to be a 1 lander for him, but he drew into 2 more lands. After the match he told me not to push the bird turn one, and save it for some more important pieces of the combo. I think he was right, but on the mull to 5, I also needed to risk a bit, and these decks usually keep low land hands on view of dorks.
Round 6: 2-0 Abzan Counter (4-2)
Well, turns out I learnt a bit about the MU. Still unfavourable, but manageable. After the match I would learn that it is just better to board in RiP instead of surgical effects because OMG how annoying Kitchen finks + Sorin, Solemn Visitor emblem + Gavony Township are. I didnt think of this interaction when I ultimated Sorin, and it almost costed me the game.
Round 7: 2-0 Eldrazi and Taxes (5-2)
I run over this guy, that said that he had nothing to do against tokens. I looked at him and thought of Thalia, Smasher, Displacer, TKS... and then I smiled and left the table. At this point I was standing very nicely to face my last 3 matches
Round 8: 1-2 BR Reanimator (5-3)
I tilted on this match, and cut my winning progression. Game 1 he won turn 2, even after I pathed his griselbrand so... hey GGs and thanks for the interactive magic. Game 2 I was able to win after mulling to 5, and not finding and land for the first 9 turns. Deck was generous enough to offer me some hand disruption and he couldnt find the combo pieces when he needed. Finally he went down to 5 cards in library and a hardcasted demon on the table. If you cant draw 7 and combo off, G-lord is pretty weak against 1/1 flyiers, and I had some power on the table to hurt him harder than he was lifelinking. Game 3 we had 5 minutes. I had stopped his first attemp to combo off, and was standing at 4 mana. I had an active Lili in play and gideon+path in hand. He had been draw/go-ing for the last three turns and I thought ticking up Lili was the right thing to do to prevent him from getting combo pieces in hand. Ticked up and discarded path, because I wanted to 2turn-clock him. Played Gideon. He had/drew Through the breach + Worldspine Wurm in hand and I couldnt recover from that mistake. In retrospective, I should have kept the path or let lili unused that turn, but from my point of view at that moment (opponent actually thought this way) it made to go for the win. If I ever run into this kind of situations again I will try not to get stressed out by the timer and remember tokens is better taking matches to attrition, and, while clocking might work sometimes, is not the philosophy of the deck. On the other hand, no risk no reward!
Round 9: 0-2 GR Eldrazi (5-4)
It is tough to keep all those monsters under control. Game 1 was mine until he threw 2 bolts to my face when I was at 7 to die to my own BB. Unexpected. Game two he topdecks a TKS to take my wrath and wins from there. I think it is a rough MU, although very winnable. I was a bit affected for my mistake last round and I think I didnt focus as I should have in this one. 9th round, and I was tired.
Round 10: 2-1 Jeskai Tempo (6-4)
Jeskai list running Geist of Saint Traft, which appears to be much less annoying when you have approximately infinite chump-blockers. I think I used 2-3% of my brain capabilities that MU and I still won super easily. He only won one game after throwing 2 bolts in response to my IoK and topdecking the 4th (he had already played another) on his next draw step to deal 9 damage to my face. I had a BB. I was at 10...
Mainboard special mentions
SB:
So again, awesome experience. Will be trying to get into the competitive scene more often. To conclude, I wanted to share something that really raised my attention. EVERY single opponent told me how cool my deck was. So be proud guys!! Ask anything you want to know and give your feedback please!
I am considering changing Vault of the archangel for the 4th Ghost Quarter. I havent activated the vault since... well I cant remember. GQ seems more relevant in the current meta. Thoughts?
3 Start // Finish is indeed a lot, but I have never felt like the card was bad in my hand/GY. Playing Lilis and CB makes it so that I dont mind discarding one of them instead of Spectrals. This is where Nihil Spellbomb turns to be actually better than RiP. But in the MU where we want RiP, the "finish" part is already slow, so we are not losing much.
The state in which my deck is right now is, at least to my mind, the optimal control list. I get more and more familiar with control playing style, and now I have clearer than ever that we want to take games to attrition. I might regret it in some particular games, but overall, I think it was correct to remove the processions of my deck. It has made my deck much better.
3x Ghost Quarter
2x Godless Shrine
4x Marsh Flats
2x Plains
1x Polluted Delta
3x Shambling Vent
2x Swamp
1x Vault of the Archangel
2x Windswept Heath
1x Legion's Landing
3x Bitterblossom
4x Lingering Souls
3x Start // Finish
1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3x Thoughtseize
2x Collective Brutality
2x Liliana of the Veil
3x Fatal Push
4x Path to Exile
2x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4x Intangible Virtue
3x Damping Sphere
2x Disenchant
1x Extirpate
1x Surgical Extraction
2x Rest in Peace
2x Pithing Needle
2x Wrath of God
In my LGS I play 2 Nihil Spellbomb instead of Rest in Peace, because GY is not really a thing, and the additional card draw + 1-sided gy hate is great against grindy decks like control and jund-like (which are frequent in my local meta). I feel like for big-sized tournaments, RiP is better becuase Hollow One decks are a thing and RiP is a better answer to GY decks in general, i.e., I would rather go with the strongest card against a certain archetype.
I am thrilled to play my 3 Damping Spheres over Stony Silence. Having a good matchup preboard against affinity, makes our deck one of the most benefited (less damaged) from this change. I hope I face a lot of tron MU and wreck them all xD.
Thoughts or comments are appreciated, as well as tips on specific SB scenarios for some MU. Will try to post a summary after the tournament. Who knows? Maybe we can make tokens great again...
Additionally, running both stony and sphere is not exactly what I like. This is a very personal perspective, but I prefer to have multiples of a single card aimed at some matchups than SB composed of 1-ofs mainly. Both approaches are perfectly legit, but, if I were you, I would run stony and sphere together since it offers some redundancy. I believe sphere + pithing is a much better combination, covering a wider spectrum.
Dont know about your meta, but without changing the overall idea of your SB, I would go:
3 damping sphere
2 Pithing Needle
2 disenchant
1 gideon
2 brutality
2 wrath
2 rip
1 Surgical
I added 1 surgical effect because it feels really low on GY answers.