The fact that Knight of Autumn isn't a spirits sucks... as a long time true-tribal devotee (damn, that sounds a little racist ) I was upset when people started to play Gaddock Teeg or Reclamation Sage in the Humans deck. But the meta calls for it and competative magic don't care about lore and flavor
Printing a Spirit that destroys an artifact/enchantment would be sweet but that on the otherhand would be contra flavor
It's weird all the top 8 Spirits deck don't play any artifact removal. Do they lean on the counter/Quller on the right timing? I mean you can face an Ensnaring Bridge in a burn matchup which would be the coffin nail.
The other option would be Qasali Pridemage but Knight is more flexible and I think we can support the 3-drop after sideboarding.
Despite the lack of Artifact removal I really like the deck!
How do you deal with artifacts like Ensnaring Bridge, Grafdiggers Cage and stuff like that? I had 2x Knight of Autumn in they board but the didn't convinced me. Maybe I had no matchups where they're good. Also I want to have some Damping Sphere in the board.
How is the Lantern and Tron matchup in generel?
Cutting all copies of Collected Company, lowering the creature count and generating #waluve with the Planeswalker. Is Bant the new way to go? What you guys think?
Went 3-1 at Modern Monday last night as practice for another PPTQ on Saturday. Beat Burn, Eldrazi and Taxes, and Hollow One. Got destroyed by UW Miracles. I'm confident in saying that that deck is easily our worst matchup, as the combination of RIP, Terminus, Jace, Teferi, and many more sweepers is just too much. Even something as stupid as Timely Reinforcements shuts down our ability to apply pressure.
Per the advice of various players who have done well with the deck, I'll be swapping a land for a Breeding Pool and adding three Unified Will to the sideboard to help fight against control. Just hope you dodge it.
Congrats! Hope your next PPTQ will be better!
Your second point is the point I dislike the most to this deck... I feel like the GW core is lacking something which can be balanced by splashing a third color.
Don't get me wrong I really like your idea to add Unified Will - hell of a card! - but than I think why not add more powerfull blue/black/red cards? Then I end up buildung Bant Knightfall/Naya Zoo... for me it's a struggle
@BartHenryksson
I don't see in which world retreat is a good flexible card and retreat can make you better against tron, KCI, storm and valakut but it will be bad against humans, midrange, control. Even the most unfair deck have some interactions now and i think it's a problem when you play a non-consistent combo.
My last try of bant is with 4 reflector, 3 tracker and 4 thalia MD, i am not sure it's a good deck now but i really think retreat is a bad combo when you can play ultra consistent combo like vizier or kiki toolbox or any KCI, Storm. It's why i just try the fair way.
My 2 cts on coralhelm.
Retreat can filter your topdecks which can be good in grindy matchups or tap down a big threat game one. Sure, Retreat is one of the cards which gets board out most of the games but it gives a little edge to do unfair things in a almost fair deck. Just because you have the combo in the deck doesn't mean you have to go all-in on that one plan. That's what I like to this deck!
Did you play 4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben? What's your experience? I love, love, love this card but felt she is not that good in modern
Long time away from the deck. Recently, I got beaten in a win-and-in at a Modern Staples tournament by a Bant Company list with no Retreat to Coralhelm, which spurned my interest again.
What list do you think is the most successful type of list in today's current meta? I've been playing a lot of GW Company, so I am a bit rusty on casting Collected Company into Spell Queller, but I'm willing to try again. I personally always loved 2 Retreat to Coralhelm and would possibly be willing to try 3 if needed, but what do you think? What's having success now?
I'm still pro-Coralhelm. I think it's a flexible card and also a "oops, i win"-button. Against all those uninteractive decks it's ok to play 3x copies!
For now I play GW Valuetown but thought about giving Bant a chance again. My all-time allstar is and will be Reflector Mage. Don't know how many games I won thanks to him!
For the deck I would try a more "oldschool" list but add 3-4 copies of Reflector Mage.
For now I'm not 100% sold on Shalai, Voice of Plenty. She's very good but I prefer the flash on Avacyn against Controldecks. Not sure but I would put Ooze or Pridemage in the deck to smooth out the curve.
Besides that I like your list and look forward to read a PPTQ report
@Zorakkiler
What do you do when Elves or Mardu fill the board with tokens or onedrops? In this cases I like to have access to a "massremoval" like Explosives or Ratchet Bomb (shame on me).
Thanks for the report!
I'm still not convinced Thoughtseize is worth playing in this deck though. I can get behind the idea of a light splash for Decay and Brutality because they are flexibel cards but fetching for a black schock on turn 1 into Thoughtseize and putting yourself down to 15 right away seems just so counterintuive to what this deck wants to do. Even if you can strip a key card from your opponents hand, our clock is so slow that they have plenty of time finding another copy.
I'm 100% with you! The main reason is the Abrupt Decay because I love having access to 4+ removal. Collective Brutality could be Blessed Alliance but I see Brutality a little bit favored. Thoughtseize is hard... I see your point! Maybe I'll cut them again for Eidolon of Rhetoric+Eldritch Evolution.
In fact I boarded Thoughtseize against Bogles (still not 100% sure if it's right) and versus Control to avoid sweeper - but in this case Brutality will do also the same job.
Round 1 vs. Burn
Game one I manage to resolve two Courser of Kruphix which keep my alive. I made a few misplays by not activating Knight of the Reliquary for life. Also I forgot to activate Township one turn. I had lethal but wanted to play it safe. Game two opponent burns me out and I loose to Skullcrack/that no lifegain Dino.
Game three I fire off a Brutality turn two to take out his Grim Lavamancer and drain for two. Knight enters the battlefield as a 4/4 and steals the game.
2-1 // 1-0
Round 2 vs. Jeskai Control
In the first game I wait until he taps out and I fire off a Collected Company which finds Knight of the Reliquary and Voice of Resurgence. He takes out Knight and plays Search for Azcanta. Abrupt Decay shines in blowing up the Enchantment! I try to deny his Azcantas and win the game.
Round two I play a slow game by playing only a few creatures and ping for damage. The Verdict hits the board and I can rebuild it with Company and Tracker. My opponent keeps records on his games and asks me if this deck is called GW Valuetown... I respond: Maverick GG.
2-0 // 2-0
Round 3 vs. Bogles
Opponent swings with a huge bogle and wonders why I don't concede. I block with Knight, float mana, activate Knight, search a Ghost Quarter, quarter myself, cast Abrupt Decay on his Daybreak Coronet, win the fight and kill him in the backswing.
Round two he plays Gaddock Teeg which does nothing... after he plays all the equipments I can't find my path/decy in time.
Round three I played turn one land, fetch, shock, thoughtseize - see bogle, 3x lands and auras - pick bogle and cast Surgical Extraction on the bogle (not sure if it's correct to board discard+surgical - I see this deck as a "combodeck").
Unfortunately my opponent don't want to concede and I had the slowest clock possible with birds... in addition to that my opponent is the slowest player in the LGS... It comes as it has to come we draw due timelimit #fckmylife
Shoulda coulda woulda... needed one more turn to kill him.
1-1-1 //2-0-1
Round 4 vs Affinity
Game one I start with land, bird go and opponent goes nuts with turn one Overseer... good i kept my path in hand. After some beats I manage to resolve Archangel Avacyn and win.
Game two I keep a greedy hand with Forest and Stony Silence+Removal. I manage to draw my second land and win the game.
2-0 // 3-0-1
Finished my first FNM without loosing a round! Deck was super fun to play and I'm in love with Abrupt Decay. The lifeloss Todd Stevens mentioned can be a problem but if you manage to trade life for a vital permanent it's ok.
I still made a ton of misplays like again attacking with Knight of the Reliquary instead of holding her back for #walue, forget to activate Gavony Township or played my land and then the second Courser of Kruphix.
One problem is the time. Against Jeskai we had 5 minutes left - if I had lost one game it would be a draw. I tried to play as fast as possible but took my time for the right play. I think playing this deck will make a lot of turn easier.
So here is my first experience with Maverick/GW Valuetown/GW Company/Whatever
Choo!Choo! The Valuetrain is... delayed...
Round 1:
Got crushed by traffic... didn't make it in time.
Round 2 vs. G-Tron
Game 1 I keep a pretty bad hand with 2 lands, Voice and some three drops. Opponent goes Tron piece into map, Tron piece into crack map, tron online into Steel Hellkite... which was ok for me but I didn't drew anything to stop the dragon.
Game 2 my starting hand shows me dork, ghost quarter and surgical. Snap keep and easy game after I take out a tron piece on her draw step and exile all other. Game 3 I basicly but my opponent didn't saw the winning line and I could swing for lethal in the extra turns. I had one ghost quarter to stop her from tron and then she played an O-Stone. I drew, luckily, stony silence from the top of my deck and slammed it. She played her missing tron piece and played Karn... oh boy... I was about to concede but the used the plus ability and I discarded cards. She only had to minus Karn and exile the Stony Silence but didn't realised it.
2-1 // 1-1 Overall
Round 3 vs UW Spirits
In the first game my opponent played 2-3 path on every threat I played. After he resolved 2 of the new lords he startet to swing and had me on 3. I had Worship in my starting hand and waited as he tapped out. I played it and he conceded because he didn't want to grind - the air was a little salty. I think in the long term I would win because township would go out of hand... but it would be super slow.
Game two he was on the beatdown again and ran into a path and flashed Avacyn. After he tapped out my Courser showed a Choke and he conceded.
2-0 // 2-1 Overall
Round 4 vs Esper Control
I kept a super bad hand with Hierarch and one land on the draw. Didn't saw the second land until turn 5.
Game two was a little more exciting. After a wrath I managed to build my board again. He than finds a second wrath and plays teferi. End of turn I play Avacyn and Hiararch in my turn and kill the teferi. Unfortunately I'm in topdeck mode and don't get enough meat on the board. He starts the beats with Spirit tokens and counters my Ratchet Bomb. GG.
0-2 // 2-2 Overall
Round 5 vs Gb-Tron
First game Karn into Wurmcoil into scoop.
Game two I have the hardlock with Stony Silence, active Knight, Ghost Quarter and Surgical.
Then I threw game three away. I had following starting hand: 2x Quarter, Azusa, Ramunap, Hierarch, 2x Lands. Opponent plays T1 thoughtseize and takes Hierarch. Until turn 3 I do nothing and play Azusa and play my two Quarter. In his draw step I crack one Quarter to take him off tron. Turn 4 I play Ramunap Excavator and play the ghost quarter from my graveyard to blow up a second tron piece in response he pushes my Excavator. I think I shouldn't crack the quarter and just wait until he threatens tron again... but thats not the biggest punt!
After that I manage to find a Knight and cast her. Instead of keeping the Knight active I swing for 11... and that was my biggest mistake. Opponent manages to find tron, pushes my knight, plays ballista for a billion and the end is near... damn.
1-2 // 2-3 Overall
Ended 2-3 on the paper but in fact I played 2-2 in 4 Rounds. The deck takes a lot of decisions and I felt like it punishes you instant and very hard. On the other hand it can snowball very fast.
The next step is to make minor changes in the deck and try the litte blacksplash!
Nice report!
Tonight I'll hop on the valuetrain for the first time (competative). Report should follow tomorrow.
Is the 1x Engineered Explosives on intent or lack of a second copy? And when do you board the Gearhulk? Did it perform well?
Tonight I'll play the Todd Stevens list he used in his guide. Only differenc I swapped Dromoka's Command for Worship (I don't own a Command...)
Also I have no Explosives and try Ratchet Bomb instead... wich is way worse. Due the mainboard Worhip I'll try Shalai, Voice of Plenty in the board.
@D90Dennis14
I once played against the Heartless Summoning deck with elves. Got crushed because opp always head interaction and I couldn't keep up with tireless tracker. Deck looks solid but as you said it's not optimal.
I still have plans for GWb Valuetown. For now I take the "stock" Valuetown list as a starting point. As I mentioned in a previous post the plan to copy legacy's maverick is just bad
For future testing I'll swap the 9th non-creature spell in the main (Dromokas Command or Worship) for Abrupt Decay, cut a creature for the second Decay and add 1xOvergrown Tomb and 1xGodless Shrine (I thinks Forest->Tomb and Plains->Shrine... not sure). That opens up a black Sideboard for bad matchups like combo.
I've tested my list yesterday against Vizier Combo, Burn, GW Taxes and Burn.
The two copies of Abrupt Decay felt super good! Having access to more removal can't be wrong
The Manabase was a bit tricky because the lifeloss can be real against burn and without a bird we are soft to Ghost Quarter. Imho adding a Swamp isn't necessary because it has no synergy with Knight of the Reliquary and the black splash is marginal.
The Sideboard was ok too. The Thoughtseize bought me some turns against Company and overall the sideboard felt like just some small tools to spice up the mainboard and keep up your gameplan.
Cards that have to be cut: Dryad Arbor + Scryb Ranger - a huge tempo loss and the synergy between Arbor and Ranger isn't that good to play it. Also the argument mentioned above is pretty strong. Without GSZ you can't tutor it and topdecking one of both is crap.
I think playing a legacy-like maverick deck is just a dream
another 5-0 ... maybe it's time to sleeve the deck up again.
Printing a Spirit that destroys an artifact/enchantment would be sweet but that on the otherhand would be contra flavor
It's weird all the top 8 Spirits deck don't play any artifact removal. Do they lean on the counter/Quller on the right timing? I mean you can face an Ensnaring Bridge in a burn matchup which would be the coffin nail.
The other option would be Qasali Pridemage but Knight is more flexible and I think we can support the 3-drop after sideboarding.
Despite the lack of Artifact removal I really like the deck!
At FNM I will try this SB tonight:
2x Rest in Peace
2x Knight of Autumn
2x Damping Sphere
2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1x Dromokas Command
2x Disdainful Stroke
1x Settle the Wreckage
1x Geist of Saint Traft
Picked up the deck (bant) last weekend and went to a 60+ tournament ending 3-4
1-2 vs GW Vizier Company
1-2 vs Merfolk
2-1 vs Hollow One
1-2 vs Colorless Eldrazi
2-1 vs Storm
2-0 vs Abzan Evo
1-2 vs Dredge
Made a lot of misplays and kept bad hands but it was ok for the first try. I'm not confident in the sideboard.
Mine looks something like this:
1x Kataki, War's Wage (no 3rd Stony)
2x Rest in Peace
1x Remorseful Cleric (no 3rd RiP)
2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2x Dromokas Command
2x Disdainful Stroke
1x Settle the Wreckage
1x Geist of Saint Traft
How do you deal with artifacts like Ensnaring Bridge, Grafdiggers Cage and stuff like that? I had 2x Knight of Autumn in they board but the didn't convinced me. Maybe I had no matchups where they're good. Also I want to have some Damping Sphere in the board.
How is the Lantern and Tron matchup in generel?
This man is O N F I R E !!!
Another 5-0 finish!
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Noble Hierarch
2x Voice of Resrugence
2x Scavenging Ooze
1x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1x Reflector Mage
3x Knight of the Reliquary
2x Courser of Kruphix
1x Tireless Tracker
3x Spell Queller
1x Eternal Witness
1x Vendilion Clique
Planeswalker:
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Spells:
4x Path to Exile
1x Dromoka's Command
2x Settle the Wreckage
4x Windswept Heath
3x Misty Rainforest
1x Razorverge Thicket
2x Breeding Pool
1x Hallowed Fountain
2x Temple Garden
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Celestial Colonnade
1x Field of Ruin
1x Gavony Township
1x Horizon Canopy
4x Forest
1x Island
1x Plains
1x Reflector Mage
1x Lyra Dawnbringer
1x Nissa, Steward of Elements
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Worship
2x Engineered Explosives
2x Negate
2x Unified Will
2x Stony Silence
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Noble Hierarch
2x Voice of Resrugence
2x Scavenging Ooze
1x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1x Reflector Mage
3x Knight of the Reliquary
2x Courser of Kruphix
1x Tireless Tracker
3x Spell Queller
1x Eternal Witness
1x Vendilion Clique
Planeswalker:
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Spells:
4x Path to Exile
1x Dromoka's Command
2x Settle the Wreckage
4x Windswept Heath
3x Misty Rainforest
1x Razorverge Thicket
2x Breeding Pool
1x Hallowed Fountain
2x Temple Garden
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Celestial Colonnade
1x Field of Ruin
1x Gavony Township
1x Horizon Canopy
4x Forest
1x Island
1x Plains
1x Reflector Mage
1x Lyra Dawnbringer
1x Nissa, Steward of Elements
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Worship
2x Engineered Explosives
2x Negate
2x Unified Will
2x Stony Silence
Cutting all copies of Collected Company, lowering the creature count and generating #waluve with the Planeswalker. Is Bant the new way to go? What you guys think?
Congrats! Hope your next PPTQ will be better!
Your second point is the point I dislike the most to this deck... I feel like the GW core is lacking something which can be balanced by splashing a third color.
Don't get me wrong I really like your idea to add Unified Will - hell of a card! - but than I think why not add more powerfull blue/black/red cards? Then I end up buildung Bant Knightfall/Naya Zoo... for me it's a struggle
Which card do you cut for the Unified Will?
Retreat can filter your topdecks which can be good in grindy matchups or tap down a big threat game one. Sure, Retreat is one of the cards which gets board out most of the games but it gives a little edge to do unfair things in a almost fair deck. Just because you have the combo in the deck doesn't mean you have to go all-in on that one plan. That's what I like to this deck!
Did you play 4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben? What's your experience? I love, love, love this card but felt she is not that good in modern
I'm still pro-Coralhelm. I think it's a flexible card and also a "oops, i win"-button. Against all those uninteractive decks it's ok to play 3x copies!
For now I play GW Valuetown but thought about giving Bant a chance again. My all-time allstar is and will be Reflector Mage. Don't know how many games I won thanks to him!
For the deck I would try a more "oldschool" list but add 3-4 copies of Reflector Mage.
For now I'm not 100% sold on Shalai, Voice of Plenty. She's very good but I prefer the flash on Avacyn against Controldecks. Not sure but I would put Ooze or Pridemage in the deck to smooth out the curve.
Besides that I like your list and look forward to read a PPTQ report
@Zorakkiler
What do you do when Elves or Mardu fill the board with tokens or onedrops? In this cases I like to have access to a "massremoval" like Explosives or Ratchet Bomb (shame on me).
I'm 100% with you! The main reason is the Abrupt Decay because I love having access to 4+ removal.
Collective Brutality could be Blessed Alliance but I see Brutality a little bit favored. Thoughtseize is hard... I see your point! Maybe I'll cut them again for Eidolon of Rhetoric+Eldritch Evolution.
In fact I boarded Thoughtseize against Bogles (still not 100% sure if it's right) and versus Control to avoid sweeper - but in this case Brutality will do also the same job.
Played following list with a little black splash:
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Noble Hierarch
1x Scavenging Ooze
3x Voice of Resrugence
1x Qasali Pridemage
4x Knight of the Reliquary
4x Courser of Kruphix
2x Tireless Tracker
1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
2x Ramunap Excavator
1x Archangel Avacyn
Spells:
4x Path to Exile
2x Abrupt Decay
4x Collected Company
4x Windswept Heath
3x Wooded Foothills
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Godless Shrine
2x Temple Garden
4x Ghost Quarter
1x Gavony Township
1x Horizon Canopy
4x Forest
1x Plains
2x Choke
2x Stony Silence
2x Thoughtseize
2x Ratchet Bomb
2x Surgical Extraction
1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1x Reclamation Sage
2x Collective Brutality
1x Kataki, War's Wage
Swapped 1x Plains for Godless Shrine and 1x Forest for Overgrown Tomb. Also I added 2x Abrupt Decay for the mainboard Worship/Dromoka's Command and the third Tireless Tracker. Not sure which card to cut. Sometime the Tracker is too slow and by cutting it the curve is lower. Furthermore I don't want to cut the one-off Ooze/Pridemage either because I want to have an out against random Worship.
Round 1 vs. Burn
Game one I manage to resolve two Courser of Kruphix which keep my alive. I made a few misplays by not activating Knight of the Reliquary for life. Also I forgot to activate Township one turn. I had lethal but wanted to play it safe. Game two opponent burns me out and I loose to Skullcrack/that no lifegain Dino.
Game three I fire off a Brutality turn two to take out his Grim Lavamancer and drain for two. Knight enters the battlefield as a 4/4 and steals the game.
2-1 // 1-0
Round 2 vs. Jeskai Control
In the first game I wait until he taps out and I fire off a Collected Company which finds Knight of the Reliquary and Voice of Resurgence. He takes out Knight and plays Search for Azcanta. Abrupt Decay shines in blowing up the Enchantment! I try to deny his Azcantas and win the game.
Round two I play a slow game by playing only a few creatures and ping for damage. The Verdict hits the board and I can rebuild it with Company and Tracker. My opponent keeps records on his games and asks me if this deck is called GW Valuetown... I respond: Maverick GG.
2-0 // 2-0
Round 3 vs. Bogles
Opponent swings with a huge bogle and wonders why I don't concede. I block with Knight, float mana, activate Knight, search a Ghost Quarter, quarter myself, cast Abrupt Decay on his Daybreak Coronet, win the fight and kill him in the backswing.
Round two he plays Gaddock Teeg which does nothing... after he plays all the equipments I can't find my path/decy in time.
Round three I played turn one land, fetch, shock, thoughtseize - see bogle, 3x lands and auras - pick bogle and cast Surgical Extraction on the bogle (not sure if it's correct to board discard+surgical - I see this deck as a "combodeck").
Unfortunately my opponent don't want to concede and I had the slowest clock possible with birds... in addition to that my opponent is the slowest player in the LGS... It comes as it has to come we draw due timelimit #fckmylife
Shoulda coulda woulda... needed one more turn to kill him.
1-1-1 //2-0-1
Round 4 vs Affinity
Game one I start with land, bird go and opponent goes nuts with turn one Overseer... good i kept my path in hand. After some beats I manage to resolve Archangel Avacyn and win.
Game two I keep a greedy hand with Forest and Stony Silence+Removal. I manage to draw my second land and win the game.
2-0 // 3-0-1
Finished my first FNM without loosing a round! Deck was super fun to play and I'm in love with Abrupt Decay. The lifeloss Todd Stevens mentioned can be a problem but if you manage to trade life for a vital permanent it's ok.
I still made a ton of misplays like again attacking with Knight of the Reliquary instead of holding her back for #walue, forget to activate Gavony Township or played my land and then the second Courser of Kruphix.
One problem is the time. Against Jeskai we had 5 minutes left - if I had lost one game it would be a draw. I tried to play as fast as possible but took my time for the right play. I think playing this deck will make a lot of turn easier.
Choo!Choo! The Valuetrain is... delayed...
Round 1:
Got crushed by traffic... didn't make it in time.
Round 2 vs. G-Tron
Game 1 I keep a pretty bad hand with 2 lands, Voice and some three drops. Opponent goes Tron piece into map, Tron piece into crack map, tron online into Steel Hellkite... which was ok for me but I didn't drew anything to stop the dragon.
Game 2 my starting hand shows me dork, ghost quarter and surgical. Snap keep and easy game after I take out a tron piece on her draw step and exile all other. Game 3 I basicly but my opponent didn't saw the winning line and I could swing for lethal in the extra turns. I had one ghost quarter to stop her from tron and then she played an O-Stone. I drew, luckily, stony silence from the top of my deck and slammed it. She played her missing tron piece and played Karn... oh boy... I was about to concede but the used the plus ability and I discarded cards. She only had to minus Karn and exile the Stony Silence but didn't realised it.
2-1 // 1-1 Overall
Round 3 vs UW Spirits
In the first game my opponent played 2-3 path on every threat I played. After he resolved 2 of the new lords he startet to swing and had me on 3. I had Worship in my starting hand and waited as he tapped out. I played it and he conceded because he didn't want to grind - the air was a little salty. I think in the long term I would win because township would go out of hand... but it would be super slow.
Game two he was on the beatdown again and ran into a path and flashed Avacyn. After he tapped out my Courser showed a Choke and he conceded.
2-0 // 2-1 Overall
Round 4 vs Esper Control
I kept a super bad hand with Hierarch and one land on the draw. Didn't saw the second land until turn 5.
Game two was a little more exciting. After a wrath I managed to build my board again. He than finds a second wrath and plays teferi. End of turn I play Avacyn and Hiararch in my turn and kill the teferi. Unfortunately I'm in topdeck mode and don't get enough meat on the board. He starts the beats with Spirit tokens and counters my Ratchet Bomb. GG.
0-2 // 2-2 Overall
Round 5 vs Gb-Tron
First game Karn into Wurmcoil into scoop.
Game two I have the hardlock with Stony Silence, active Knight, Ghost Quarter and Surgical.
Then I threw game three away. I had following starting hand: 2x Quarter, Azusa, Ramunap, Hierarch, 2x Lands. Opponent plays T1 thoughtseize and takes Hierarch. Until turn 3 I do nothing and play Azusa and play my two Quarter. In his draw step I crack one Quarter to take him off tron. Turn 4 I play Ramunap Excavator and play the ghost quarter from my graveyard to blow up a second tron piece in response he pushes my Excavator. I think I shouldn't crack the quarter and just wait until he threatens tron again... but thats not the biggest punt!
After that I manage to find a Knight and cast her. Instead of keeping the Knight active I swing for 11... and that was my biggest mistake. Opponent manages to find tron, pushes my knight, plays ballista for a billion and the end is near... damn.
1-2 // 2-3 Overall
Ended 2-3 on the paper but in fact I played 2-2 in 4 Rounds. The deck takes a lot of decisions and I felt like it punishes you instant and very hard. On the other hand it can snowball very fast.
The next step is to make minor changes in the deck and try the litte blacksplash!
Tonight I'll hop on the valuetrain for the first time (competative). Report should follow tomorrow.
Is the 1x Engineered Explosives on intent or lack of a second copy? And when do you board the Gearhulk? Did it perform well?
Tonight I'll play the Todd Stevens list he used in his guide. Only differenc I swapped Dromoka's Command for Worship (I don't own a Command...)
Also I have no Explosives and try Ratchet Bomb instead... wich is way worse. Due the mainboard Worhip I'll try Shalai, Voice of Plenty in the board.
@D90Dennis14
I once played against the Heartless Summoning deck with elves. Got crushed because opp always head interaction and I couldn't keep up with tireless tracker. Deck looks solid but as you said it's not optimal.
I still have plans for GWb Valuetown. For now I take the "stock" Valuetown list as a starting point. As I mentioned in a previous post the plan to copy legacy's maverick is just bad
For future testing I'll swap the 9th non-creature spell in the main (Dromokas Command or Worship) for Abrupt Decay, cut a creature for the second Decay and add 1xOvergrown Tomb and 1xGodless Shrine (I thinks Forest->Tomb and Plains->Shrine... not sure). That opens up a black Sideboard for bad matchups like combo.
I've tested my list yesterday against Vizier Combo, Burn, GW Taxes and Burn.
The two copies of Abrupt Decay felt super good! Having access to more removal can't be wrong
The Manabase was a bit tricky because the lifeloss can be real against burn and without a bird we are soft to Ghost Quarter. Imho adding a Swamp isn't necessary because it has no synergy with Knight of the Reliquary and the black splash is marginal.
The Sideboard was ok too. The Thoughtseize bought me some turns against Company and overall the sideboard felt like just some small tools to spice up the mainboard and keep up your gameplan.
Cards that have to be cut:
Dryad Arbor + Scryb Ranger - a huge tempo loss and the synergy between Arbor and Ranger isn't that good to play it. Also the argument mentioned above is pretty strong. Without GSZ you can't tutor it and topdecking one of both is crap.
I think playing a legacy-like maverick deck is just a dream
For now I'll add a 4th Noble Hierarch and the 23rd land. In this case I would have two flexslots (Thalia, Guardian of Thraben+Thalia, Heretic Cathar). Not sure if I'm hopping on the Azusa/Ramunap train.