MTG Salvation

I only run 1 Trinket Mage as of right now. I run the Revoker over the Needle because the Needle can't hit mana abilities and doesn't beat down. I value those two aspects in this deck a lot more over the fetchability of Needle via Mage, although I'll concede it's meta dependent.

A few things:

Tried out Sage of Epityr - the card was awful in the deck. It just doesn't help accomplish what the deck is trying to do, and I hated seeing the card every single time. Heck, during testing, I lost to Living End because of it, which wouldn't have happened had the card been a Judge's Familiar - and that matchup is supposed to be lights-out for us. I'm off it permanently.

On the other hand, the Trinket-Mage-in-SB plan has worked out really well and I've maxed out with 9 one-mana critters in the MD. The past two leagues I've gone 4-1 and even faced some bad matchups that I've won due to the number of Pests and Familiars I've been packing. A turn 1 play is so crucial to the deck, and playing 3-4 Master of Etheriums have helped out a ton against the Burn matchup (which I find to be a nailbiter every single time).

Anyway, I'm 27-18 with the deck (63-50 in games), and learning the ins and outs of what to mulligan, how to sideboard have helped me tremendously in the past 2-3 leagues. Deck's great, and I'll include a photo of the 75 from today's 4-1.

Also: S/O to Zac Elsik for putting up the results he did at GP Vegas with the deck! What a boss.

The Ballista is nuts in the mirror, for sure. I think with how much exposure the deck is getting, the mirror is going to spike in the short-term on MTGO and the Sage is going to be a great card. I'll try 'em out in the next run, I think

And GGs regarding the game, Adam!

My list has been:

I think you played me, AdamP, in that league match - my OP told me he/she had liked my deck before dropping a Etherium Sculptor of his/her own.

Anyway, just posting to say that I went 4-1 with the deck in my second league run today - aggro matches are tough. Won against Mono Red Burn, RG Scapeshift, UR Storm, and 4c Doubling Season. Lost against Esper tokens. I'm finally at a point where I'm content with my SB, I think.

You can't hold them off of Tron, that's not within the deck's capability.

I'd run Surgical Extraction before I ran something like Disrupting Shoal - that card does pretty close to nothing.

No, rejection so far has been a great tempo play against must-answer cards like Wurmcoil and O-Stone - and it's one freaking mana. I can hold up one mana if it means I won't lose the game.

Switched from the midrange version of the deck to the aggro version of the deck after about 60 or so matches - the midrange build folded hard to Storm (I see the matchup as more or less an auto-loss) and had a pretty unfavorable matchup against Dredge; I was tired of going up against those decks in MTGO leagues over and over again. The Death Shadow matchup wasn't so hot either, and what's the point in playing a deck that can't compete against DS in this meta?

With that said, I enjoy the aggro version much more, and it's got a lot more game to it than I had thought. It also does better in the Mono U Architect mirror, for what it's worth. Oh, and the Aethersphere Harvesters are A+. Bad T1/2 matchups I'd look out for when deciding to play the deck or not in your meta would be: Storm, Tron, Titanshift, Dredge, and Elves.

EDIT: Ceremonious Rejection is great.

I've been playing the list that Shadowgripper/Zac posted on Tournament Practice in MTGO, and I was wondering if anyone has tried out 2x Etched Champions in place of 1x Wurmcoil Engine and 1x V. Shackles. I've found Shackles to be a bit slow, and Champion is just a house against so many decks that playing a couple maindeck can't be too bad.. unless we don't have enough artifacts to enable Metalcraft. Any thoughts/testing on your parts?