If I were to cut something for surgical, I would just do a clean cut for the spell bombs, 2 for 2. That being said, I think there's some merit to running a mixture of the two. If I were to go to a competitive event tomorrow I'd want 3 pieces of graveyard interaction, something like 2 Surgical 1 Spellbomb. I'm not crazy about leyline.
Anything from my sideboard you see missing that should be there? I tried to make it rather flexible but want to make sure I'm not leaving something out vs a bad matchup. Should there be any sweepers? Kozilek's Return or the like? I figured I'd bring in Maelstrom Pulse against tokens. There doesn't really seem to be a great grindy replacement for Lingering Souls other than Kolaghan's Command since I'm not running W. What else? I don't get a lot of time for playtesting so I don't have quite the experience many of probably have.
What is the typical sideboard these days? Which cards have y'all seen be effective against certain matchups. Spooly got me thinking whether or not I need to should be running Surgical Extraction or not. I probably should with as much discard as we have.
Here's what I have right now. What should I replace if I were to use Surgical?
Steam Vents in a deck with 4x Atrophy sounds like a set up for failure. I used Steam Vents for a while in my 4c Shadow. You need a higher concentration of R/U to make it worthwhile. And even then having any spells that cost BG is a mistake. A way around this could be to run Manamorphose as help with color fixing, but I wouldn't recommend it. When I had Steam Vents my main board relied less on green, such as:
Good point. Looking at it again I've come up with the following:
I know, it's kinda crazy getting rid of all the Bloodstained Mire fetches but I can still fetch a Blood Crypt with any of my fetches. I decided to go with a Breeding Pool as it will provide me access to a swamp via Traverse. I did go down a fetch but I think that's not a terrible plan with Astro running around. Anyway, I'll have two sources of U & R this way without denying access to G or B.
So I made some significant changes to the mana base. I decided that I wanted to have two sources of R & U so I added a Steam Vents as a safety valve. Because of this I dropped a few Bloodstained Mire and a Verdant Catacombs for G fetches of each color. Doing some maths, I find that this evens out the manabase fairly well, providing access to counters and wincons equally. There are a few awkward starting hands where I won't have access to B or G but these tend to be hands starting with a basic and Steam Vents. Such rare occurrences will just have to be mulliganed. I'll also have to pay more attention to which land I get as not all of my fetches can grab B now, but through my gold fishing it seems manageable.
Anyway, any thoughts or comments on my land configuration per my full decklist below would be great. Thanks.
Here's my deck plan right now. I'm trying to decide whether to use the 2nd Blood Crypt and only 1 blue source or to have only 1 red source and use a Breeding Pool or 2nd Watery Grave instead.
What's more important to protect against Astro destroying my mana access, TBR or Stub? Right now I lean more towards protecting my wincon.
Edit: I could just go with a Steam Vents...but couldn't traverse for a swamp if that's all I had.
If you weren't aware, we have been hosting a multi-color land reference for the last few years over at our Pub Meeple website. I've just updated the look a bit after adding the new Bond lands. It should also load a bit faster now. The PDF has embedded links for each card and short summaries of each land cycle.
I find it extremely useful when building my decks.
So I guess we'll be running more Maelstrom Pulse and Dreadbore in the SB now? BBE into temur battle rage seems terrible. But the haste is a nice counter to Jace's bounce. Maybe BBE could be a SB option?
Why no graveyard hate or land destruction in the sideboard in that top8 list? I was still trying to decide if Fulminator or Ghost Quarter was better against tron.
It seems only castable if you already have 2 creatures into play, at which point you probably don't need another 12/12 trampler.
The argument I would have for the dino is that as a 1 of we would have a tutorable trampler that can't die to push. This would help when there are too many chump blockers since Goyf and Shadow don't have trample.
I'm running the Caterpillar over the second Ancient Grudge because I want a tutorable way to deal with Leyline and Worship. I settled on Caterpillar over Reclamation Sage for a few reasons:
Caterpillar is easier to loop back with Liliana, the Last Hope and K-Command because it dies as part of it's effect.
You can break up the mana investment required to destroy something (1 + 2 for Caterpillar vs 3 for Sage), which seems relevant in a deck that doesn't play many mana-producing lands.
1 CMC cost meant that I could play it, then hold up mana to either activate it or play a different removal spell. This was relevant in a few places because it made it harder for my opponent to commit to a line profitably.
It's more proactive than Sage.
Obviously Caterpillar isn't without downsides. If I wanted to Traverse and cast it to blow something up I needed access to three green mana, vs two for Sage. Sage can beat down after it blows something up, and Caterpillar doesn't really provide much of a clock.
I also like that the catepillar can blow things up on their turn but because it's not an EtB effect it can be disrupted. How often do you find it being destroyed when you don't have the green mana to sac it?
EDIT: would Qasali Pridemage be even more restrictive if you're splashing white? It would be easier to sacrifice and provide a little more threat until then. Just a thought...
Also, for Bauble drawing triggers you could always place a die or coin on top of your deck to remind you to draw an extra card.
Rec Sage isnt a tutorable answer for RIP. Also Golgari Charm is pretty clutch in some matchups
Good catch. No delirium if RIP is on the field.
I'm open to golgari charm. Seems quite good actually. Several of the best cards against this deck are enchantments (leyline, worship, blood moon, rest in peace) Isn't maelstrom pulse better? Hard to know I guess, but it has further-reaching uses.
Being instant is good I suppose. Decent against Affinity too I'm guessing.
Rec Sage is still the best option against Blood Moon. Would be very hard to get our only Swamp AND Forest for an untutorable Golgari Charm. Much easier to fetch a forest early if you know you're up against Blood Moon and then get Rec Sage. Pulse could be used later if they draw a second Moon.
So how many copies are generally run in he SB? Just one?
Here's what I have right now. What should I replace if I were to use Surgical?
2 Damping Sphere
2 Collective Brutality
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Stubborn Denial
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
Good point. Looking at it again I've come up with the following:
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Blood Crypt
1 Watery Grave
1 Breeding Pool
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Polluted Delta
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Forest
1 Swamp
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
1 Watery Grave
1 Steam Vents
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Forest
1 Swamp
Anyway, any thoughts or comments on my land configuration per my full decklist below would be great. Thanks.
4 Death's Shadow
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Street Wraith
Artifacts
4 Mishra's Bauble
3 Fatal Push
2 Stubborn Denial
2 Tarfire
4 Assassin's Trophy
2 Temur Battle Rage
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
Planeswalkers
2 Liliana of the Veil
4 Death's Shadow
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Street Wraith
Artifacts
4 Mishra's Bauble
Instants
3 Fatal Push
2 Stubborn Denial
2 Tarfire
4 Assassin's Trophy
2 Temur Battle Rage
Sorceries
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
2 Liliana of the Veil
Lands
2 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Forest
2 Overgrown Tomb
3 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Stubborn Denial
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Collective Brutality
2 Damping Sphere
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Maelstrom Pulse
Here's my deck plan right now. I'm trying to decide whether to use the 2nd Blood Crypt and only 1 blue source or to have only 1 red source and use a Breeding Pool or 2nd Watery Grave instead.
What's more important to protect against Astro destroying my mana access, TBR or Stub? Right now I lean more towards protecting my wincon.
Edit: I could just go with a Steam Vents...but couldn't traverse for a swamp if that's all I had.
I find it extremely useful when building my decks.
Anyway, just thought I'd share.
V4.2 RNA
Multi-Color Land Reference Guide
The argument I would have for the dino is that as a 1 of we would have a tutorable trampler that can't die to push. This would help when there are too many chump blockers since Goyf and Shadow don't have trample.
I also like that the catepillar can blow things up on their turn but because it's not an EtB effect it can be disrupted. How often do you find it being destroyed when you don't have the green mana to sac it?
EDIT: would Qasali Pridemage be even more restrictive if you're splashing white? It would be easier to sacrifice and provide a little more threat until then. Just a thought...
Also, for Bauble drawing triggers you could always place a die or coin on top of your deck to remind you to draw an extra card.
I thought because it was a shapeshifter you could. Guess I was wrong...oh well I tried.
Rec Sage is still the best option against Blood Moon. Would be very hard to get our only Swamp AND Forest for an untutorable Golgari Charm. Much easier to fetch a forest early if you know you're up against Blood Moon and then get Rec Sage. Pulse could be used later if they draw a second Moon.
Point taken. I'd still rather have a tutorable card for GY hate. What about Yixlid Jailer ?