If by Agent of Bolas you mean Tezzeret he just rotated. If you mean Augur of Bolas all that does is speed bump small creatures and dig a few cards. Jund has access to the best removal so you should use it. Abrupt Decay, Dreadbore, Mizzium Mortars, Mutilate, Murder. Coincidentally Abrupt decay kills o-rings and dreadbore deals with planeswalkers as well.
You need to go bigger or go over top of his creatures. Nighthawks are good cheap early threats, Olivia is fantastic and Thragtusk is amazing. Huntmaster is decent if you can flip him at least once.
I really like Jund because it seems like it has an answer to everything and Golgari/Rakdos work well together mana wise. And you get access to two of the best creatures in huntmaster and thragtusk. As much as I hesitate to play a control deck without Blue in it... this is pretty solid so far. I wish pyroclasm or whipflare was going to be in standard post rotation but meh.
Round 1 vs. UB Zombies
I Got this one 2-0. Game one I naturally drew all four lingering souls and beat him to death while keeping the board clear with Liliana.
Second game he mulled to 5. I tragic slipped his t2 gravecrawler, mana leaked his plays the next two turns and resolved Elspeth and rode it to victory.
Round 2 vs. Bant Aggro (pod???)
I never saw a pod, but the deck was running Emissaries, Geist of St. Traft, Strangleroot Geists, Garruk Relentless, Gideon, DOJ, Thrun. No counterspells. Game one he tapped out for thrun and I had the wrath - he never really came back.
He got game two on the back of 3 o-rings and beast withins for my PW's.
Game 3 I won in rounds by sticking Sphinx, gideon and Sorin.
Round 3 vs. U/W Aggro
Don't really remember this one so much. I always had the liliana for his geists both games though and I took it 2-0
Round 4 vs. Tezzeret control
These were 2 really long grindy games where neither one of us did all that much. Lingering souls did ALOT of work here and I had two sorin Emblems by the end of game one.
Celestial purge came in out of the board and got cast and flashed back twice with Snapcaster game 2. Tezzerets and batterskull tokens were made to go bye-bye. Karn liberated a few problem artifacts.
Round 5 vs. W/B Weirdness. He runs Elspeth, Lingering Soulds, Sorin, Gideon and Karn. But also runs chalice of life, wurmcoils, o-rings, curse of deaths hold in the main.
Game one was pretty epic but he got me on the back of Wurmcoil + metamorphed Wurmcoil.
Game two I whitewashed him and went aggro with turn 3 Lingering souls, turn 4 flashback with mana leak for his turn. Dropped a sorin and a liliana and just demolished.
Game three was grind city. Lets just say the end board state there were 4 o-rings in play - he had two curse of death's hold on me and I killed him from 40+ life over the course of 5 or 6 turns with two consecrated sphinx and 3 Sorin Emblems. Liliana was an MVP and trashed his hand while binning lingering souls and extra lands. He topdecked a wrath the turn before I swung for lethal which got double mana-leaked and snapcaster leaked once more for the win. One of the best games I've ever played.
@ Woolywoo- Im unsure how I feel about Pacifism. I'm not surprised to see someone playing it effectively (but it is one of those underrated core-set cards people are surprised to see) how has it been playing out for you?
It's iffy - what you really want is Journey to Nowhere lol. Basically having a two mana removal spell in white is awesome. It's great for getting them to overcommit into a wrath as well.
If you look at the lists being run by Gerry T or Michael Jacobs they both run pacifism in their 5 color control decks.
I'm probably going to replace the pristine talismans. As good as they are theoretically I never ran into a deck I didn't side them out against in some qty game 2. I'm open to suggestions as to what to replace them with, as well as any additional thoughts on the deck in general.
Here's what I would run as far as creatures go in Vanilla Zombies...
4 Cemetary Reaper
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Ghoulraiser
2 Grimgrim, Corpse-born
2 Phantasmal image (An extra pair of zombie lords)
2 Grave Titan
2ish Skinrender
1-2 Geth
Zombie infestation seems like a mistake though, since you don't have alot of stuff to discard. Ghoulraiser can help with that but Call of the Grave might be better for you.
On another note, Phyrexian Crusader is a Zombie.... Hand of the Praetors is a zombie.... Skithiryx... Zombie.... Zombie Infect could be good if you wanted to go that way.
Even in just plain vanilla zombies it seems like a possibility to use the crusader Maindeck because its so good against aggro, and with Cemetary reaper giving it +1's a 3/3 First Striking Infect Creature with Pro Red/White eats most creatures.
How about some disruption? Memoricide, Surgical Extraction, Duress, ect.
Edit, Memoricide in the board. But Id like to see some discard MD.
I tried just a straight ub deck with that sort of hate (Inquisition + Extraction) in the main etc. But it seemed like there I was trying to be a combo deck rather than use readily available ways to shut down the combo with one card.
And as for Mono-Blue, I've been playing Caw-Blade which has access to the same cards MUC plays and I still feel like eeking out a win vs combo is like a 30-40% chance.
I hate splinter twin/deceiver exarch.
So I'm theory crafting a standard deck with the specific goal of hating out the combo. Here's what I'm brewing so far - I'd love suggestions for any changes, cards I haven't thought of, etc.
The hate cards are fairly obvious - Revoker, Spellskite, Go for the Throat, Counters, Torpor orb are all solid answers to their only game plan. Hex parasite turns their shrines against them. Etched Champion is just plain unanswerable for them if you have metalcraft. Even if you don't resolve and get activations out of tezzeret all these cards have utility against most other decks.
The sideboard helps shore up the aggro match with Solemns, Wurmcoils and Zeniths. Missteps hate out fast aggro and win counter wars, memoricides are good against combo/titan decks.
You need to go bigger or go over top of his creatures. Nighthawks are good cheap early threats, Olivia is fantastic and Thragtusk is amazing. Huntmaster is decent if you can flip him at least once.
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Sign in Blood
4 Mutilate
2 Liliana of the Dark Realms
4 Thragtusk
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
2 Garruk Relentless
3 Pillar of Flame
3 Dreadbore
2 Olivia Voldaren
4 Farseek
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Blood Crypt
6 Swamp
3 Woodland Cemetery
2 Kessig Wolf Run
3 Rootbound Crag
2 Mountain
2 Forest
2 Vraska the Unseen
2 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Golgari Charm
2 Rakdos Charm
2 Sever the Bloodline
2 Rakdos Return
2 Zealous Conscripts
BDM Twitter
3x Tragic Slip
2x Go For The Throat
4x Mana Leak
2x Snapcaster Mage
3x Think Twice
2x Forbidden Alchemy
3x Liliana of the Veil
4x Lingering Souls
1x Oblivion Ring
4x Day of Judgement
2x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
2x Gideon Jura
2x Elspeth Tirel
1x Karn Liberated
3x Glacial Fortress
3x Plains
2x Island
5x Swamp
4x Isolated Chapel
2x Seachrome Coast
4x Darkslick Shores
2x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Consecrated Sphinx
1x Batterskull
2x Bloodline Keeper
1x Surgical Extraction
2x Celestial Purge
1x Revoke Existence
2x Ratchet Bomb
2x Curse of Death's Hold
Round 1 vs. UB Zombies
I Got this one 2-0. Game one I naturally drew all four lingering souls and beat him to death while keeping the board clear with Liliana.
Second game he mulled to 5. I tragic slipped his t2 gravecrawler, mana leaked his plays the next two turns and resolved Elspeth and rode it to victory.
Round 2 vs. Bant Aggro (pod???)
I never saw a pod, but the deck was running Emissaries, Geist of St. Traft, Strangleroot Geists, Garruk Relentless, Gideon, DOJ, Thrun. No counterspells. Game one he tapped out for thrun and I had the wrath - he never really came back.
He got game two on the back of 3 o-rings and beast withins for my PW's.
Game 3 I won in rounds by sticking Sphinx, gideon and Sorin.
Round 3 vs. U/W Aggro
Don't really remember this one so much. I always had the liliana for his geists both games though and I took it 2-0
Round 4 vs. Tezzeret control
These were 2 really long grindy games where neither one of us did all that much. Lingering souls did ALOT of work here and I had two sorin Emblems by the end of game one.
Celestial purge came in out of the board and got cast and flashed back twice with Snapcaster game 2. Tezzerets and batterskull tokens were made to go bye-bye. Karn liberated a few problem artifacts.
Round 5 vs. W/B Weirdness. He runs Elspeth, Lingering Soulds, Sorin, Gideon and Karn. But also runs chalice of life, wurmcoils, o-rings, curse of deaths hold in the main.
Game one was pretty epic but he got me on the back of Wurmcoil + metamorphed Wurmcoil.
Game two I whitewashed him and went aggro with turn 3 Lingering souls, turn 4 flashback with mana leak for his turn. Dropped a sorin and a liliana and just demolished.
Game three was grind city. Lets just say the end board state there were 4 o-rings in play - he had two curse of death's hold on me and I killed him from 40+ life over the course of 5 or 6 turns with two consecrated sphinx and 3 Sorin Emblems. Liliana was an MVP and trashed his hand while binning lingering souls and extra lands. He topdecked a wrath the turn before I swung for lethal which got double mana-leaked and snapcaster leaked once more for the win. One of the best games I've ever played.
It's iffy - what you really want is Journey to Nowhere lol. Basically having a two mana removal spell in white is awesome. It's great for getting them to overcommit into a wrath as well.
If you look at the lists being run by Gerry T or Michael Jacobs they both run pacifism in their 5 color control decks.
4 Pristine Talisman
4 Mana Leak
4 Day of Judgment
4 Think Twice
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Dissipate
2 Karn Liberated
2 Gidon Jura
2 Ponder
2 White Sun's Zenith
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Pacifism
1 Negate
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Ghost Quarter
7 Island
7 Plains
1 Pacifism
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Negate
1 Dissipate
1 Revoke Existence
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Phantasmal Image
4 Timely Reinforcements
I'm probably going to replace the pristine talismans. As good as they are theoretically I never ran into a deck I didn't side them out against in some qty game 2. I'm open to suggestions as to what to replace them with, as well as any additional thoughts on the deck in general.
Here's what I would run as far as creatures go in Vanilla Zombies...
4 Cemetary Reaper
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Ghoulraiser
2 Grimgrim, Corpse-born
2 Phantasmal image (An extra pair of zombie lords)
2 Grave Titan
2ish Skinrender
1-2 Geth
Zombie infestation seems like a mistake though, since you don't have alot of stuff to discard. Ghoulraiser can help with that but Call of the Grave might be better for you.
On another note, Phyrexian Crusader is a Zombie.... Hand of the Praetors is a zombie.... Skithiryx... Zombie.... Zombie Infect could be good if you wanted to go that way.
Even in just plain vanilla zombies it seems like a possibility to use the crusader Maindeck because its so good against aggro, and with Cemetary reaper giving it +1's a 3/3 First Striking Infect Creature with Pro Red/White eats most creatures.
Both sides will have a change forms ability that effects garruk and flip cards you control for 0.
There will be a single + Ability on the human form.
Ultimate and a - Ability will be on the transformed garruk.
I blame Galspanic.
IT'S A TRAP!!!
I tried just a straight ub deck with that sort of hate (Inquisition + Extraction) in the main etc. But it seemed like there I was trying to be a combo deck rather than use readily available ways to shut down the combo with one card.
And as for Mono-Blue, I've been playing Caw-Blade which has access to the same cards MUC plays and I still feel like eeking out a win vs combo is like a 30-40% chance.
So I'm theory crafting a standard deck with the specific goal of hating out the combo. Here's what I'm brewing so far - I'd love suggestions for any changes, cards I haven't thought of, etc.
The hate cards are fairly obvious - Revoker, Spellskite, Go for the Throat, Counters, Torpor orb are all solid answers to their only game plan. Hex parasite turns their shrines against them. Etched Champion is just plain unanswerable for them if you have metalcraft. Even if you don't resolve and get activations out of tezzeret all these cards have utility against most other decks.
The sideboard helps shore up the aggro match with Solemns, Wurmcoils and Zeniths. Missteps hate out fast aggro and win counter wars, memoricides are good against combo/titan decks.
2 Hex Parasite
3 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Spellskite
2 Jace Beleren
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Dispel
3 Go for the Throat
3 Mana Leak
4 Preordain
3 Torpor Orb
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Inkmoth Nexus
3 Island
3 Swamp
4 Tectonic Edge
3 Black Sun's Zenith
3 Memoricide
3 Mental Misstep
4 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Wurmcoil Engine