I thought there would be way more activity on here since the banning. I'm not sure why people think it's a bad thing for Jund though? If someone can try and explain that to me? Affinity is a fine matchup if that rises again. We can tune to a heavier burn meta. Pulse of Murasa is a surprisingly playable card
And if we're expecting whir and affinity and hardened scales, Night of Souls' Betrayal looks really good, honestly. It's also good against dredge - makes the only relevant threats into 4 2/2's which is beatable. Against spirits it's nice, too. They have a lot of mopey creatures. Not great against humans, but not sure which I'm expecting more of right now between that and spirits as the disruptive aggro deck of the format
I've never been sold on Ishkanah. I'd rather play Pia and Kiran for a similar effect at a lower mana cost and a more relevant ability. People already bring in some grave hate against us
Pulse of Murasa is an "expensive" card CMC-wise for a matchup that gets done in a hurry. If we were worried about Burn, I think we should play more Collective Brutality and move on with life.
Night of Souls' Betrayal is great at stopping those decks' common mode of winning (via x/1's), but it doesn't win the game and can still be played around. I would rather play Kalitas to shut down the modular triggers instead (as well as Hangarback Walker's trigger). Even then, those decks can still outpace you fairly easily even when they're on the draw.
I think it's way easier for hardened scales affinity decks to play around a Kalitas which can be killed way easier than an enchantment for them and also essentially negates their death triggers. It's also good against dredge and "fine" against storm as a permanent out to goblin tokens. I don't love it, but it's ok.
All in all, I'd bring in both, but I haven't seen too much of the deck locally, so for bigger tournaments in my area, I'm not gonna put it on my sideboard yet. It's just another card to think about that can win games on its own.
What is our plan against Phoenix decks by the way? I was 3-1 at a local open and then lost to two Phoenix decks. I surgicalled the Phoenix, but they top deck a drake and I couldn't kill it. And some are running ascension and pyromancer and blood moon. The matchup feels pretty bad. If I can figure out what our game plan is I think I can get better at it. But I beat amulet, Dredge, and that bridge-vine deck (all poor matchups) just to lose twice to Phoenix. Felt real bad.
I thought there would be way more activity on here since the banning. I'm not sure why people think it's a bad thing for Jund though? If someone can try and explain that to me? Affinity is a fine matchup if that rises again. We can tune to a heavier burn meta. Pulse of Murasa is a surprisingly playable card
And if we're expecting whir and affinity and hardened scales, Night of Souls' Betrayal looks really good, honestly. It's also good against dredge - makes the only relevant threats into 4 2/2's which is beatable. Against spirits it's nice, too. They have a lot of mopey creatures. Not great against humans, but not sure which I'm expecting more of right now between that and spirits as the disruptive aggro deck of the format
I've never been sold on Ishkanah. I'd rather play Pia and Kiran for a similar effect at a lower mana cost and a more relevant ability. People already bring in some grave hate against us
Cutting maybe a bolt and a push bringing me down to 3 and 2, respectively
Brainstorming for GP Toronto this weekend
I think it's way easier for hardened scales affinity decks to play around a Kalitas which can be killed way easier than an enchantment for them and also essentially negates their death triggers. It's also good against dredge and "fine" against storm as a permanent out to goblin tokens. I don't love it, but it's ok.
All in all, I'd bring in both, but I haven't seen too much of the deck locally, so for bigger tournaments in my area, I'm not gonna put it on my sideboard yet. It's just another card to think about that can win games on its own.
What is our plan against Phoenix decks by the way? I was 3-1 at a local open and then lost to two Phoenix decks. I surgicalled the Phoenix, but they top deck a drake and I couldn't kill it. And some are running ascension and pyromancer and blood moon. The matchup feels pretty bad. If I can figure out what our game plan is I think I can get better at it. But I beat amulet, Dredge, and that bridge-vine deck (all poor matchups) just to lose twice to Phoenix. Felt real bad.
And if we're expecting whir and affinity and hardened scales, Night of Souls' Betrayal looks really good, honestly. It's also good against dredge - makes the only relevant threats into 4 2/2's which is beatable. Against spirits it's nice, too. They have a lot of mopey creatures. Not great against humans, but not sure which I'm expecting more of right now between that and spirits as the disruptive aggro deck of the format
I've never been sold on Ishkanah. I'd rather play Pia and Kiran for a similar effect at a lower mana cost and a more relevant ability. People already bring in some grave hate against us