MTG Salvation

Quote from Lectrys »

Tried the deck in the OP against Jund a bunch of times in pre-board games. Narset Pitch Blue lost most of them because Jund is quite good at shredding hands, it doesn't tend to draw additional cards for its CA (see their Dark Confidant, Bloodbraid Elf, Liliana, the Last Hope), it often has a fairly quick clock that can be hard to Engulf the Shore profitably (e.g. Goyf, Scavenging Ooze, BBE), and it dumps its hand fairly quickly and can take advantage of emergency naked Day's Undoing. What can this deck do to combat it and other BGx Midrange decks? How much does post-board removal help?

To beat Jund you have to hedge pretty hard. Take my list from above and replace a Commandeer and Arguel's Blood Fast out of the board for two Ancestral Vision. Replace Unmoored Ego for two cards like Threads of Disloyalty

What they predicate their plan on doing is using cheap discard and tough to kill threats that pan out in their favor once the dust settles. With Thougtseize and the like, both players hate to have to lose a card out of it, but Jund is fine with trading off because they put you in the hot seat right away.

Stealing a Tarmogoyf and blocking their best threats, or stealing Dark Confidant and letting them play the topdeck game while you stock up on gas, those are winning lines. It sucks to fold to their direct damage, but they would be remiss to leave in Bolt post-board as it just costs them a card with little returns. The way you beat the attrition deck is with value. Threads being a 2-for-1 and Vision being a 3-for-1 help tremendously. Relic is also a great tool against GBx: if they plan to eat your creatures with Scooze, you can wittle them out of your GY and deny it any growth to buy yourself many turns. And when Tarmogoyf presents itself as a lategame problem, you can mitigate it for a while depending on how much leverage you can afford yourself.

The matchup is probably one of the more difficult ones since they can just run you over with Ravine if they didn't already resolve one of their many card advantage engines or stalwart threats. They have a lot of critical spells so make sure to be ready to answer a lot of what they do to kill us and hope you can outlast their discard spells. Having multiple Spell Snare is a big premium in getting tempo back against them. If you can Snare their really good 2s and Commandeer their good 3s then youre in a solid position.

Assuming you take my list and cut a Commandeer for AV and Unmoored Ego for Threads, my SB plan would be:

OUT:

• 3 Spell Pierce
  
• 1 Unsubstantiate
  
• 1 Commit // Memory
  
• 2 Agony Warp
  
• 2 Commandeer

IN:

• 2 Threads of Disloyalty
  
• 3 Relic of Progenitus
  
• 1 Notion Thief
  
• 1 Arguel's Blood Fast
  
• 1 Ancestral Vision
  
• 1 Fatal Push

You want to get rid of Commandeer because you're probably never going to be able to consistently cast it in the mid-game post board assuming they have even more discard after the fact. Pierce loses value if they don't draw mono-walkers since theyre so spread around on their diversity of threats. Getting to a point where you can counter what will kill your Notion Theif and Day's Undoing as a follow up is your first goal since it is very unreliable to try to untap with Narset. You want to throttle them on cards before getting ahead on board. Blood Fast into Threads to gain a lot is pretty sweet EV :^)

Quote from motleyslayer »

picked up the colonnades I needed to finish my set on the weekend, so decided to play UW control for a bit. Can I get some advice on the amulet titan matchup?

A long-winded, unedited blurb of mine from the Competitive UWx Facebook Group:



Furthermore, I'd add that after jamming about 10 or so leagues (after getting tired of my work schedule not letting me commit to paper MTG and pushing me to switch to MTGO,) I've finally 5-0ed a Friendly league (gotta get to comps one day when my budget allows lol) and my newest version has eschewed Stony Silence for Disenchant and one Lavinia, Azorius Renegade. It makes you a little bit softer to the likes of Tireless Tracker and Walking Ballista when facing off against the Amulet decks, but I figure they try to win by siding into Hornet Queen if they aren't playing it maindeck. The upside is that Lavinia blanks so much of what they try to accomplish while modestly getting in for 2dmg per turn. She's been really good for me in other spots as well, like Whir Prison and Grishoalbrand for example

Quote from JaishivaJai »

Wow! Thank you so much. I was starting to intuit what you were saying in my gameplay after adding Vraska, Golgari Queen. Deafening Clarion and the other boardwipes have been ruining my day. Often during my games I notice I'm just drawing into a bunch of lands. It's just too punishing to play a deck full of creatures that die to all of the most common boardwipes.

I'm trying to decide if splashing blue for some negate/Chemister's Insight might make this deck worth playing (help me beat control.) Otherwise I'm leaning toward going U/B/g control. It just seems like the counterspells, boardwipes and card draw in the current meta overpower this midrange deck.

What are your opinions? Is U/B control better than this G/B midrange archetype? Or would adding blue/another color or cards make this deck more competitive?

Chemister's Insight has a very distinct push and pull conflict with a lot of GB's common lines. You don't want to net value from a draw spell at 4CMC since you are sandbagging your turn instead of playing proactively. You would rather develop tempo by adding to your board since you are supposed to be the instigator in long games, not the detractor. If somehow you can find the blue splash to be profitable, I would suggest a build that maintains synergy with Muldrotha as a one or two of. It's very low impact the turn it's played, but your chances of winning scale tremendously for every turn past the 2nd one that it's out.

UB control simply doesn't have the tools to keep churning out answers and dealing with the opponent. The Level one of this standard meta is GBx Mid and UWx Teferi Control.

I don't think adding blue to GB helps it win, since most of why it is so good is its versatility in being able to attrition and outlast aggro with its consistent manabase. Adding a bunch of shocks and checklands on top of the GB suite is pressing, and it doesn't improve your percentages quite that much. If you're asking my opinion, I would recommend my list in post #42 lol

Been seeing a lot of lists pop up, and I have to say they're reminiscent of the Jund decks that dominated standard during Alara/Zendikar rotation. You just have a really sweet spell at every single spot in the curve. Unfortunately, instead of a Putrid Leech at the 2-drop slot to stonewall other aggressive creatures in combat, or to eat a removal spell like a vitamin after blocks + pumps, you have Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, who is actually at its best against control and other midrange strategies.

I feel that by default, Whirler Virtuoso is just a necessary evil for game one scenarios. Because your early threats are rather squishy, you need some extra padding to make it through to the later turns in the game. I just finished a MTG Arena queue in which I took a game white Virtuoso + Siphoner triggers to help me tempo a Heart of Kiran. It really shouldn't get blown out by Chainwhirler enough for that to be a pressing concern... but it does shine in a lot of situations where other cards might not give you enough coverage.

My current list in testing:



(Update: -1 Negate/-1 The Eldest Reborn in SB for +2 By Force
Making hedges in concession to the Mono-U Outcome combo archetype. Need extra gas for their midgame)

The entire deckbuilding philosophy is to have every spell affect the board state in game one to avoid losses to any aggressive strategies. This is also why I have the legendary spells at a 3-3-1 split between Nicol Bolas/Scarab God/Liliana. I sprinkled in the Noxious Gearhulk to make for a quasi midrange-breaker and so far it has been putting in work. You need some kind of value to have your Scarab God activations and Liliana -3 pay off in the end

What I need more data against is G/b Midrange. They're why I stuck with Hour of Devastation in the board. Hard to really tell whether it is going to cut it against what they bring to the table, especially since they can sometimes grow their threats out of Hour range by means of pump spell

I don't get why people get riled up over sets dropping cards that could turn a deck into a pile... Shamans has play because of staying power and explosiveness. It's the ultimate turn-the-table aggro deck that treads a beat slower than the viable aggro shells. Forcing 1CC guys and pointless midgame spells into the archetype because '1-drops are good' might seem like the right idea until you realize if you want to get off to a fast start just play a deck where you can go turn 1 Memnite x2, Ornithopter, land, Mox Opal -> Steel Overseer. This is not that deck, so messing with it in a way that doesn't help its strategy is just changing for the sake of change to try to delude yourself into thinking youre next level

As such it's criminal to leave out Wolf-Skull Shaman. The card helps to get over the hump when board states get murky, and Leaf-Crowned Elder can come in as a silver bullet to play double duty in the battle for board supremacy.

Lastly, your plan is to go wide and punch in the mouth with a Rage Forger or two. In doing so, playing a Chord of Calling/CoCo is much more valuable than an Aether Vial. Trading your card in for a creature rather than an artifact helps with the extra Rage Forger triggers, and most of the deck is already predicated on tempo rather than bulk. Merfolk can Vial to a benefit because the deck can clock the opponent with just a few lords. There's no such play with Shamans, so most successful archetypes are seen to be playing Bosk Banneret/Beastcaller Savant/BTE to help get on the ground running, eliminating the need to use any other resources to go wide.

I will say, using Chord to turn your Wolf tokens and non-threatening dorks into an anthem or a game-changing bullet is a much more reliable way to shift into the midgame than just a CoCo. The average CMC of our guys being paltry doesn't help to cash in value off of it, unlike dedicated CoCo builds where you can easily grab 5-6 CMC of sheer value critters for your money's worth.

The ceiling is already pretty much decided for Shamans, and there's no proof to suggest that it hasn't been broken if there was any potential. Splashing a third color is silly in a deck that is low to the ground, unless you're on the 12+ fetch/5+ shock plan. And in that case, a card like Nacatl would come to mind, and then you'd realize that you're just playing a worse Nacatl deck than a dedicated zoo plan, because you can't cash in as much with your Rage Forgers. I digress...

Ended up losing in quarters of a PPTQ with the list tonight. My 75:



Round 1 vs GW Value Land Bears (Lawson Zandi)
Mull to 5 game one and get buried underneath triple Knight of the Reliquary/double Courser draw
Game two he ended up having to GQ his own basics just to get on board, and sputtered on low tempo
Game three he had mana issues again, and I assembled Architect + 4 other blue guys + Ballista + Collar
(1-0-0)

Round 2 vs UB Control (Bruce Brown)
Game one he just has low impact/non-action cards and I get off turn three Architect into Lodestone + Copter
Game two I get Lodestone + Thorn out by turn 4 and his plays become too awkward to keep up on board
(2-0-0)

Round 3 vs Grixis Shadow (Ivan Contreras)
Game one I get stuffed on lands or else I'd have an opening to run out turn 3 Architect into Lodestone and Copter.
He discards relevant threat and stonewalls me with double Shadow at 6 life.
Game two I get ahead on board and land Lodestone + double Wanderer, he concedes
Game three I end up racing a Gurmag Angler with 7 power, he floods a bit and topdecks discard spells.
(3-0-0)

Round 4 vs Eldrazi Tron (Tyler Lindsey)
Game one I start on the play and just flood the board turn 3. Took him down with 4 life chunks thanks to quad fliers and a Throne
Game two he mulls to five but runs out TKS on 3 & 4 to keep parity, then races me but pulls ahead with Reshaper and Smasher
Game three came down to 1 life. I'm racing with double Wanderer, manland, and Kira while Master/Engineer muck up the ground. He's getting in with double TKS and I chump a few times with low impact creatures, before I land a copter and swing to pass. He attacks with Smasher, TKS, TKS, Reshaper. I'm at 10 and go to make a copter, go to blocks, put copter in front of Reshaper and an Engineer in front of TKS. After damage with only 2 mana up he extends the hand
(4-0-0)

Round 5 vs Mono-W Taxes (Aydin Kageler)
I get paired down so opponent refuses ID
Game one we get deckchecked and he incurs a loss from incorrect registration
Game two I lead with Wanderer, turn two Engineer > Scultpor > Copter, turn three Master into Lodestone, swing with Copter. He goes to attack with a Splicer token and forgets Master pumps Lodestone, after coughing up his only advantage on board and seeing me run out another two masters turn 5 he concedes
(5-0-0)

Round 6 ID
(5-0-1)

T8 vs Counter Company (Carl Hendrix)

Game one my 7 is 5 lands, a Throne and a Wurmcoil. 6 is no lands. 5 is Island/Nexus/Wanderer/Throne/Chief. I keep. Opened the game with a turn 3 Ballista to kill two birds and slow him a bit. Eventually clock him down to 4 life after he has cast two K Finks and a CoCo for a third and an E-Wit to grab CoCo. His turn before taking lethal, he Chords for Viscera Seer but doesn't even need to break his Finks open as he draws another Chord for Anafenza

Game two my 7 is mono islands and double engineer, 6 is copter/familiar/nexus/trip Islands so I keep and push an Island to the bottom. End up drawing two Islands to start the game and eventually wheeled into low impact creatures. Opponent had the stones so by then his board is developed with the infinite mana so even my topdeck cage can't stop his combo + double Abrupt Decay in hand.

Felt like I had a decent run but still struggling to see if I should have mulled another time in that second game. Defnitely have to go to the drawing board and see how I can gear up for the next run. Until then I guess :B

I think the latter half of Commit // Memory is very underrated. Memory has usually won me games in all but one situation when I am poised to successfully resolve it and deal with the "slow turn" if I am hardcasting it from the graveyard. Otherwise, it is smooth sailing if cast by a Torrential Gearhulk during their end of turn. 4 of 5 games so far have been won when I string it into a Pull from Tomorrow and recuperate from a disadvantageous board state, and I'm like 8-10 or 9-11 overall casting it if I have the luxury of casting it instant speed.

It is just very versatile and can help to pull the game in your favor. I never really consider putting it on the stack if they aren't behind by many lands, but once I am ahead by a few it never hurts having a free Wheel of Fortune that refreshes your options from when you traded resources early game, and gives you TONS of gas heading into the late game. And if you are the only one using Pull from Tomorrows, you have the advantage of getting ahead and keeping your foot on the throttle once you untap on your next turn.

I am super giddy to see how my list stacks against any Ux Control coming out of the PT but as of now I can confirm that I prefer it over any other midrange answer to walkers.

EDIT: Make that 10 for 12, see attachment. I'm tellin yall, Memory puts in work...

Ended up sleeving the following for FNM:



Round 1 vs Rb Aggro

Opponent was running Bloodrage Brawler and Hazoret the Fervent to pitch Scrapheap Scrounger and Fiery Temper for value. I do control-ey things and choke him out of resources before committing an Archfiend of Ifnir to the board and closing it out.

Game two he mulligans and doesn't see too much early action, so it is more of the same.

2-0

Round 2 vs Wr Humans

Opponent has quite a few early game beats (albeit with creatures on low toughness) and gets me to under 5. I resolve Archfiend and nuke his board in response to the double removal he pointed at it. A second Archfiend comes down, and I play draw-go against his topdecks to finish the game.

In game two, I pick apart his board and Commit // Memory away a Gideon's Intervention which had originally named Pull from Tomorrow, then stuck an Archfiend. He draws dead and I play a second Archfiend to bait him into re-naming with Intervention, and he does. I have plenty of countermagic, cyclers, and a Westvale Abbey in tow, so it was to my benefit. I eventually stick a Pull from Tomorrow to put the game away once a few tokens and my Archfiends turned into a Ormendahl, Profane Prince.

2-0

Round 3 vs Abzan Midrange

In game one, an early Glint-Sleeve Siphoner netted the opponent a few cards while knocking me down to 12. I let a Sylvan Advocate stick before stonewalling it with a Gearhulk to re-cast my Illumination and draw two. The game then spirals into a draw go standoff and I pack my grip with choice answers for his potential lines. Eventually, I pick apart his board and whatever he does end up sticking to it is met with my two Blighted Fen. A second Gearhulk was needed to clock my opponent after the first was killed, but in the end I took it down due to chaining Pull from Tomorrows for 5+.

In game two, I had much more breathing room as the opponent didn't run out too many early threats. My opponent's lines end up letting me pick my poison, and I was able to counter planeswalkers and then letting him use Traverse the Ulvenwald when he didn't have the tempo to force me into saving my Pulls. I end up letting some 4cc+ creatures stick before casting Pull for 8, then pick apart his board eventually. While playing draw-go, I was able to get there with Westvale Abbey tokens.

2-0

Round 4 vs Mardu Vehicles

Game one the opponent was on the play and my mana was off a turn. A few Aethergeode Miner and a Heart of Kiran put me away in short order.

In game two, I was fortunate to not be faced against the nut draw, and was able to get my mana on board effectively and on curve. I chained multiple Hieroglyphic Illumination copies en route to picking my opponent's board apart, and had to let two separate win cons hit the bin as my opponent had a few kills spells waiting to see action. I eventually get there after a Scarab Feast nukes two Scrapheap Scrounger and a Censor on his Ribbons for lethal lets me stabilize in time for Archfiend to bring it home.

Game three was a nail-biter that went to time and had my opponent choked on two lands for 3 turns to start the game off. I play very A-B-C style Magic as my lines are crystal clear and never really open for discussion. Everything sort of fell in my lap, and when I cast the first Pull from Tomorrow, it was when my opponent had no action to really worry about leaving mana up. The opponent has Cut // Ribbons waiting for my Archfiend and I have to draw a counter to it before he could find a second black source, as he was choked on just the one. In that time, I managed to sift through a land pocket and find some answers to keep me alive, before he creeps back into the game with double Scrounger. A final Pull from Tomorrow with UBB open for the potential Flaying Tendrils yielded a bunch of land and an Essence Scatter. Tendrils was 2nd from the top and just out of reach to help me stabilize.

1-2

Total rounds - 3:1

In hindsight, I wasn't terribly dissatisfied with the list, but if I'm to keep at it with UB I believe I might have to toy with Gifted Aetherborn, and see if I can make it work out of the board. The lack of lifegain can hurt but so too will dumbing the deck down to include more 1-for-1 interactions. I will try to ratchet up the value and impact of the sideboard options and am satisfied with the Grasp for Darkness/Negate switcheroo. Those numbers really depend on your metagame, and mine is chock full of Ux Control so I think I'll stick with 3x Negate main for now.

To nobody's surprise, really, Westvale Abbey put in some work. Might think of bumping it up to two copies, but I like the 2-1 split with multiple Blighted Fens, since they aren't redundant in multiples.

Dispossess was a knee-jerk reaction out of fear for losing to Tower, but I feel like it might as well be another Scarab Feast as that thing at least cycles. I don't see Tower being extremely threatening in this format, and with a potential shift to Esper I won't really need to freak out to find tech for it.

As an aside, it was brought to my attention that you can cast Memory out of Commit // Memory with your Gearhulk. It seems like a really sweet choice when you run out of a grip and need to stock up, especially if you're ahead on lands and the opponent is mostly tapped out. Just making sure everyone else is as caught up as I had to be today lol

EDIT 1:

Updated list:

As someone migrating over from Dynavolt Control, I had a few innovations to help me settle into the new format. First, the list:



On Censor: Honestly, playing Draw-go means this card is never useless. You either make them respect it to the point that it helps you draw into your outs, and even when it's useless, it's just a single mana cantrip. I don't know why people are fussing, it has never served me wrong in the early goings or even late

On UB vs Esper: I think the format is too fast for three colored manabases atm and am willing to be that unless you're playing some winning combination of blue and red you aren't going to make up any ground with your splash trying to stabilize the game. As great as Cast Out and even Anguished Unmaking are against the gods, I will take my chances on neutering them due to their limitations before I will try to wrestle them with wonky tech that slows the list down

On aggro: UB is why I made the switch, having tons of cheap removal is too sweet to pass up. You even get a land to help with taking out their late game threats

On the control mirror: I'm really liking some combination of Sphinx of the Final Word and Confirm Suspicions to fight this fight. Playing a 2-1 split currently but could see myself exploring the two options or maybe sticking a Jace in the board as well

On the ubiquity of Mardu Vehicles: to heck with 'em, we have Fatal Push, Grasp of Darkness, and Flaying Tendrils

On Archfiend of Ifnir: Initially, I wanted to flirt with this card's design, and it has paid off tremendously against decks that go wide. When you catch some breathing room and can untap with it, all the late game cyclers and even the Pull from Tomorrows turn into straight gas. The intrinsic value of playing cards that you don't have to commit to but can benefit from when you are ahead is very well worth the consideration. I noticed someone earlier remarking that Gearhulk itself isn't quite enough to seal a game. I agree, and have been putting control opponents away with a four turn clock much more consistently with this guy in the mix.

I have a lot of other thoughts but all in all I am very satisfied with this list. Have only lost one match in testing where the opponent didn't want to play 2/3 after I flooded G1. After my games I went -1 Swamp +1 Blighted Fen from my original list, this might be a mistake which I will reverse if the generic mana ends up biting me.

Am willing to buckle to any comments // critiques, and hope I can contribute to the thread with tournaments results/reports in the future. Peace!

This is a simple aggressive shell predicated on going wide, and then using its efficiency to cast some number of 5/X creatures, with bounce spells in tow. There ought to be plenty of cheap creatures which can generate enough mana to dump our hand on the board by turn three, with Grand Architect being the linchpin.

The plan is to proactively use all our resources and aim to kill immediately, as Lupine Prototype loses its value when we have to sandbag any plays. As such, our 75 cannot have any cards which become dead if we cannot cast them, eg. counterspells, targeted removal, excessive CMC 4+, and so on.

We utilize a bevvy of cantrips which smooth our draws while keeping in line with our curve. The beauty is that the shell is very easy on the wallet, and can be modified with powerful choices if you're willing to dish out for them.


- Approx. $100USD for a competent starter's list sans sideboard (Timestamp: Oct 15th 2016)

- Streamlined and efficient - putting lethal on the board by turn four is an important part of succeeding in Modern. This deck aims to meet that criteria consistently.

- A brewer's dream - Customizing this deck to your liking won't hurt your chances of succeeding with the core pieces.

With that said, let's take a closer look at the shell:













Under Construction!!

Under Construction!!

Why it is not a shaman? Double Rage Forger triggers!

I hope Propaganda is in Modern Horizons. It would help us deal with creature decks that go wide and provide another blue card to pitch if it is not needed.

Quote from JuiceBOX »

Quote from D90Dennis14 »

2. Those cards (Snapback, Shoal, Commandeer) are just very situational cards and not worth building around and playing bad card to like Borderpost (and mediocre bouncespells) to fuel them imho.
Black gets tou much better options like real removal: Fatal Push, Cast Down (Go For the Throat/Murderous Cut) and Collective Brutality as hand disruption (and additional effects).
Bouncespells alone (and Shoal) aren't good enough for efficiently interacting and not playing any "real" removal or discard spells (or more countermagic) isn't a great idea imho.

I think this point is moot, considering the pitch functionality of the deck. You literally just toss the useless spells to cast free cards that are relevant and then you refill your hand. You are not wrong in saying that they are situational, but your evaluation of how impactful they are is quite skewed.

Borderpost is rather insane in this deck.

In addition to pitching bad cards, we can always loot them away; the deck doesn't care about having situational cards because if you have other uses for said cards you don't care when they are bad nearly as much.

Don't play mtgo but I bought this deck when I seen it played on twitch. Just over 50$ since I had the lands and cliques. It's in the mail and really pumped to play something other then bw Eldrazi. Page is bookmarked and I hope to contribute a bit after I actually get some games in with it.

I think one of the key factors not mentioned to the titan match-up is to simply make sure you have field of rune + activation mana open for use on their 1 copy of Slayers Stronghold. This is the card which allows the to actually put pressure on you and end the game. If you're allowed to untap and use your sorcery speed sweepers on them or PW's, then the matchup isnt as horrendous. I do think its still very favoured for them after playtesting it a A LOT however.

Quote from The Decepticon »

Its very rare that CarnyT is the only creature on the board so aside from speeding up your curve, i dont see the appeal of Elves. I never want to see them outside of an opening hand....and while i can filter them away via explore, id rather utilize those triggers to pitch targets for Find and/or Findbroker. Given how grindy and resilient this deck is, its more than up to the task with a "fair" start.

I keep wobbling back and forth on the elves. I just keep taking them out. Even in the opening hand, they are removal bait right off the bat. Even when played on turn 1 seems like they die almost half the time before they can tap for mana. Occasionally the help me get out a turn 2 Midnight Reaper which I like, but I don't think it makes up for how easily they die in the current meta. My turn 1 slots are going to Duress and Adventurous Impulse.

Been back playing this deck lately. (I play single match ladder games on mtg arena, so no sideboard. Keep that in mind as my decklist is built for that environment.) Putting in more explore creatures has helped its consistency tremendously.

My favorite new addition is Graveyard Marshal as a 1 of. This guy has won me games basically on his own. He's a very sneaky late game creature against control. He can help us recover from a ritual of soot quite well. Without mill or more plaguecrafters, more than 1 can't be justified. He's also a great aggro creature when need be. That single copy is really legit though. Marshal has been so helpful, I'm almost tempted to mess around with more plaguecrafters or Sticher's Supplier with a 4th copy of Midnight Reaper to fit another copy or two of him in.

I believe that 1 or 2 copies of Duress belong in the mainboard. There are plenty of targets out there for it, and takes care of some of the biggest boogeymen of the format. When you turn 1 duress to get rid of an opponent's ritual of soot, Settle the wreckage or teferi you immediately love this card. It has also won me games in the mirror match up. Hit their planeswalker or find/finality or crucial removal spell and the game should be yours. The other reason I believe in this card is that our deck really needs to maintain its tempo. I think we need some turn 1 plays, but don't believe llanowar elves can fulfill that role very well.

Plaguecrafter has been pretty good in most situations as a 1 of. It has definitely killed off some planeswalkers since it's addition. Our deck gets rid of creature fine, but can struggle if the opponent lands a walker or 2.

Here's my current list.


I haven't been so happy with Vraska Queen of Golgari. I feel like Karn would be better suited for this deck. As voodoo mentioned earlier, she subtracts from your tempo in some situations. I recognize a 4th copy of overgrown tomb is necessary. That's the next on my list to grab.

3-0-1 @ Standard Showdown today. 4th consecutive top 4 for this deck (15-2-2 in that span)



Id like to fit 2 Brontodon & 1 more Contempt in the 75

Quote from drakeavril »

Just curious, what cards should one sideboard against GB midrange if playing UW that is not a boardwipe? So far the only effective card I can think of is Knight of Grace.

Tocatli Honor Guard. the immortal sun and any gy hate can be effective against the right build too

Possibly a super grindy BG Rock deck.

Sure:



After playing some more and going for another 4-0, i decided i liked gift as my big splashy artifact of choice. Myr Battlesphere is good but won't win you the game on unwinnable game states like gift does, and against most sweepers.

Also a few tweaks in the sideboard, added orbs of warding because hurkyl's recall is annoying, plus bonus points vs storm: they can't gift you or empty the warrens you or grapeshot you. A meta call of course.