I'm not going to get on the "don't play vials" thing, because I literally haven't played in a month and a half (mostly because I had to sell my deck to find a job to move).
But, the reasons to play vial aren't actually diametrically opposed to the reasons not to play it. There's arguments that make sense in the context that I've been selling people on (and having excellent times with), for the past 2 years. There's a lot of great reasons to play it, it being a bad top deck and we don't play "tricks" are not reasons to not play it. There's a bunch of posts with my name on them which describe counterarguments (namely consistency and aggressive land usage)
Ive been piloting my GW-Hatebears deck the last 2 Modern game nights at my local store. We are usually about 25-30 ppl playing
I love the deck, its awesome, there is so much fun things to do with flickerwisp/restoration angel.
The main issue here is: you're (according to MTG Salvation's classifications), Playing W/x Death and Taxes and not G/W Hatebears. They're two different decks. We're a little over 20 cards different in the mainboards.
If Zoo, Robots, and Bogles are tougher matchups, would it be legitimate to run a third Engineered Explosives?
Also, DOLZero, you wouldn't be able to post some sort of in/out sideboard strategy? I'd love to take a look at what your thoughts are on the meta-matchups.
I think I had a pretty decent "thought process" to sideboarding about 10 or 15 pages back. I can try finding it again and reposting it later when I get a bit of time.
That said. Totally fair to run 3 EE's if you feel that Zoo, Robots, and Bogles are a good chunk of your meta.
Edit Pt. 2:
I also had the worst showing that I've ever had with this deck yesterday. Very inappropriate 0-2 drop. Played Ad Nauseum, crushed 0-2. Played Amulet Control. Got hosed 0-2. I was like. What the helllllll happened here.
It could be because I was doing nothing but Sealed and Legacy for the past 3 weeks to get my mind off of getting UWR'd to death lately.
Perhaps another way to look at this is to analyse the comparative match-ups - where is D&T better than Hatebears and vice versa. Then we could start discussing the decks in relation to meta calls on the part of players. Once such an analysis is done the two versions could be discussed in the Primer (Vial and non-Vial versions of the deck) and when one should play either. (Because let's be honest - the number of times Vial is brought up and shot down and brought up again means there should be something in the Primer)
This I agree with. But even still, I think there's a big difference between your list, and my list, and both use Vials. But that's because the core of the deck is trying to do two different things.
And I went 1 of 4 against them. Granted one was a Twin deck, but, they're all "essentially" the same type of control shell.
R1: GR Tron, 2-1.
Opponent: My ride Zach.
I pretty much put together his 75 the night before as we talk about magic a lot (and play in a band together). He went on tilt pretty much before g1 started because he was pissed that I had to play him (I do think I'm like 11 of 12 vs him in tournaments... and thankfully I don't get matched up vs him in Legacy). He mulled to 5 and I kept a decent 7 with Mindcensor and Qasali Pridemage, he played one land and 4 eggs, and was like, Yeah, this sucks. G2, I mull my 7 with no action, no clock, nothing, I think it was a Qasali Pridemage and another 2 drop. My 6 was no lands, and my 5 was just... Whatever. I had 2 land, Arbiter, path, mirran crusader... He also mulled to 4. Still complaining about his last game and how much it sucked and how he's like, *bleep* tron. His 4 was Natural Tron + Firespout. And, lets just say he ripped some good cards and I was like, uh. Yeah. I can't beat natural tron, O-Stone, Wurmcoil. Just wasn't going to get there. G3, I also mulled some pretty awful hands down to 5, and he kept his 7, but my 5 was Thalia, Forest, Pridemage, Forgetender, and Hierarch. I did what the deck does vs Tron. Stop them from doing things. He just couldn't get going fast enough to play cards. He had a Firespout in hand, but couldn't play it, he couldn't draw enough land fast enough to get there. I was just a little faster than he could stabilize and ended up 1-0.
R2: UWR Twin, 0-2
Opponent: Jeremy L.
On the play, I wasn't 100% sure G1 that my opponent was on splinter twin, why? But I assumed so. Why? He played a Wall of Omens T2. To my board of Arbiter, Spellskite & Hierarch and an Aether Vial at 2, I made the call to path the wall when he tapped out for it, thinking: with Spellskite, he has to have the following combination: Exarch/Resto + Kiki-Jiki. Pestermite + Kiki-Jiki wouldn't work, Anything + Splinter Twin wouldn't work. He'd have to have Path + Combo in order to go off, and he already Bolted my Arbiter (and I Vialed in Spellskite). If he kept a path, bolt, land, land, land, combo, hand... that'd be ideal, but very low, even with 3 draw steps. No Ghost Quarters or Tec Edges. I keep trying to put the pressure, a pair of Mirran Crusader gets Remanded, Bolted and Pathed, I get him to 4 after playing Elspeth to drain him another 8 life, he plays resto, untaps and kiki-jiki's. I could have been a little bit more patient, but, G1 I saw the opening to limit his draw steps and it didn't go my way. Just the way it goes. Game 2 was significantly more savage to me. I had an early board state of Worship, Spellskite & Torpor Orb and Voice of Resurgence. Good place to be in right? Not vs the nuts. My opponent goes: Anger of the Gods, Bolt the Spellskite, next turn I follow up with a Loxodon Smiter, and I lower his life down to 9, and I'm in OK shape still as his Colonnade isn't active yet. End step he pulls a Wear//Tear vs my Worship & Torpor Orb, and I'm like. Oh. This isn't great. He rips a Path, and then I draw lands for what seems like Eternity as he pushes my life down to zero. Game 2 was just awful luck, whereas Game 1 was something considerably more in my control. Made a pair of reasonable, but ultimately incorrect reads.
R3: Mono-U tron, 2-0
Opponent: Will O.
On the draw, I had 3 Tec Edges & an Aether Vial. I slowly got a board and damage down, and when he got to about 7 life, he still wasn't on Tron, but found a Treasure Mage, and I'm like, hey, I got 2 paths, can we just go to G2? G2 was more of the same, ghost quartering even for basics was very good, I had more significant beats, and this matchup is significantly better than it's RG cousin. AEther Vial got a fair amount of work in under his countermagic, and was met with a few more timeley Repeals, but the deck just doesn't have the same kind of gas that UW Tron has.
R4: UWR Midrange 2-1
Opponent: Josh L.
Game 1 I ended up with 2 Aether Vials in play. Game 2 I had 3. Let me just be the first to say, even late enough, they're not completely dead draws. I was able to push out creatures that were bounced with Cryptic back on the field with alacrity. Game 2 I played Sword of Body and Mind and was able to get enough board presence on the table to fight past his blockers. These games just got so grindy, as we were at about 7 minutes left in the round and only about half way through Game 3, I was trying to be like: yo, Josh, can you please make a play as he was shuffling his cards in his hand and not making a play, and I get it, it was some nasty boardstates, and it's mentally draining, but, I knew I had enough of an advantage to get there, I just needed to get there. Swords are very good in the matchup, and more than wishing I had Elspeth, I wished I had Sword of War and Peace. it would have been significantly better just in this matchup (assuming I could have equipped it, which isn't ever a certainty). Elspeth is really nice in some matchups, but I can't help to think, that with as much UWR as I've seen thus far in the room, that Sword is just vital. AEther Vials are also all-stars in the matchup as well. I saw Stony Silence twice in the six rounds, and both times I didn't really care about it because I was either in an advantageous position, or I didn't have nary an artifact in sight. But I feel that loading up on artifacts that are good against them can lead to more Stony Silences, which in turn makes our artifacts and methods of winning worse. Wilt-Leaf Liege is also an option at brusing past, but most creatures still won't be able make it through an anger of the gods, and really the only option is: Thrun, Bastion of Hope.
R5: UWR Midrange 0-2
Opponent:
Feeling decent at 3-1, I was paired against my second UWR Midrange matchup in a row, and the one where I was probably just least in control. I just got assaulted, wave after wave after wave after wave after wave after wave... of removal. There was just no end to it. I definitely felt like I boarded wrong in not bringing in Rest in Peace for these matchups, but I also wasn't able to find 3 Scavenging Oozes at a time where I could just rip apart the graveyard with any sort of consistency. RiP would have been very good to have in any of these two matchups because they were just filled with Wrath of God, Anger of the Gods and more spot removal than I could shake a fist at. Game 1 was actually very close. I was able to speed his life down to 1. ONE. ONE LIFE, on the back of three Mirran Crusaders that he dealt with in succession until the last one, and then I was in business taking off chunks of life at a time first 4 and then 6 with a Noble Hierarch in play... and then he finally found a bolt. I was sitting with a Bird and a Hierarch on the table and was pinging him down from 4, to three, to two, to one, and then the parade of Lightning Helixes came through Snapcasters eating first the Hierarch and then the Bird, and then pathing my Stirring Wildwood. I couldn't come back. I had him at 1, he jumped to 7, I was at 4 after taking 12 points of damage from Restoration Angel, and I couldn't get there. I pathed his Angel, and from there on out. I couldn't draw a creature out of 6 draw steps. He eventually went back to back Colonnades and that was it. I was toast. I looked back to see where I could have eked out one more damage and I couldn't find one. I had done 17 points of damage, and that was it. Their manabases are significantly stronger than pre PT UWR... I couldn't find a good opportunity to ever use Arbiter, like in G2, where T1 I play Hierarch, which he bolts, T2 I play a Qasali Pridemage, he plays a untapped shock showing Remand T3 I play Arbiter, he plays a mountain and passes and T4 I play Voice, he remands the voice, and i go to GQ his steam vents, and his mountain was open for a bolt to Arbiter. I saw exactly zero plays all day of T1 Dork, T2 Arbiter GQ Go. It was pretty ugly. If you can't get it on T2, T3 is always going to be significantly riskier, but I felt with how aggressive my hand was I needed to try to keep him off double red, especially because he remanded the Voice with double red on the table already (which indicated that he didn't have Anger of the Gods). Never happened. He Ghost Quartered, and I began the downhill slide. I was sitting with I Worship on the table and a Mirran Crusader, and he had a Geist of St. Traft & Restoration Angel in play, and blundered thinking that "wow, I can't kill him without drawing a cryptic". I was at 4, he attacked with just the Restoration Angel, and I activated Vial with 4 cards in hand... and chose not to have anything enter, because I didn't have anything. I was just trying to throw him off (as I Vialed a few times before in the match without Vialing in anything, because I did get him to jump once with pre-emptively bolting because of a Vial activation)... but he misread Worship & wasn't playing around anything. I played a Mirran Crusader and we just stood at a standstill for a few turns, and then he pathed my Crusader and I scooped. He was like, why did you scoop? Because, uh, Worship doesn't work if I have no creatures? WHAT? IT DOES? I HAD HELIX AND PATH AND BOLT IN HAND AND JUST COULDN'T KILL YOU. I don't know if I would have even come close to winning G3, but I basically would have had a few more turns to try to push through a Geist & Restoration Angel on his blunder. I scooped to my opponents ignorance and my knowing that I was dead on board. Whoops. It happens.
R6: UWR Midrange 1-2
Opponent: Alex
Extremely Hungry and unable to actually get food because my last 2 games have essentially gone to time. I was like, screw it, power through. And it showed. I was basically at the bottom of the 9 pointers (which seems to be my trend if I'm not X-0, my OW%'s are terrible) and had little to no shot of top 8ing. I've played very well in the past vs my opponent (lifetime is 8-2), but I really just didn't have it in me, on top of feeling very outgunned by the meta (HELLO). The matchup just took forever and I didn't have enough gas in any of the games really. AEther Vial was still a beating in G1, but in G2 and G3, I figured they just board out most of their countermagic for removal anyway. It was still very good in G2 which allowed me to put the pressure on my opponent late into the game and force them to use Cryptic to bounce instead of counter... but, alas, I was put to the mercy of chained cryptics garnering ridiculous amounts of value. I would have probably undergone waterboarding for a Scaveging Ooze... But with these midrange decks, they try to get so much more value out of their graveyards and snapcasters than the UWR Control matchups do. Torpor Orb was very good in the midrange matchup as well, and Geist of St. Traft didn't really cause me that much damage, it was the Restoration Angels and Snapcasters that really caused me the most damage.
Closing thoughts
--------
Ended up 3-3, and felt that I played well the first 5 rounds, but just fell into the issue of "completely misread the meta". I played a few pre tournament games and had played very well vs storm and pod and jund in the past week. But the overwhelming amount of UWR made it really tough to get through.
My big mistake: Other than missing the 1/2rd of the room that was running green the entire way, I really overestimated the amount of Zoo that was going to be around. I was assuming probably 10-15% of the Meta would be Zoo, but it wasn't. UW/x was literally 40% of the meta, and I was expecting close to 25%. I thought I'd probably see 2 in 6... but nope. I would have probably swapped about a half dozen cards around, run Thrun, scooped Elspeth, probably moved my MB Worship to the side, ran Sword of War and Peace and maybe a 2nd...
Card I wish I saw the most: Scaveging Ooze. I kinda regret going up to 3 Qasali Pridemages and not the 4th Scaveging Ooze. Definitely an oversight on my part
Card that got the most work: AEther Vial. I hit multiples and didn't hate myself when I did. I know in theory it's not great, but in practice vs UWR it was very effective at most of the points of the game.
Card I wasn't very happy with: Honestly? Elspeth. I couldn't play her when I wanted to, and I actually didn't see a ton of opportunities where I: A) would have been able to play her through cryptic, B) Would have been able to get past their board. I'm okay with the 1 ofs, but, I don't think Elspeth did anything in the UWR matchup... It's really good in the GBx matchups, but I don't think that GBx was a terrible matchup before Elspeth, and I don't know if it made it that much better. It might be a win-more card, honestly whereas SoWaP might actually be a bit better at improving a matchup.
Worst Matchup: UWR might actually be the worst, with the Twin version being the worst. I was pretty convinced that UWR Twin was literally one of the worst matchups for us before because of their faster clock than UWR and their ample removal. They don't bother with Countermagic which isn't that great vs us, but they have a bajillion removal spells and both a good tempo clock and removal. I like our chances vs the UR Twin, but UWR Twin isn't our matchup without getting a little lucky.
The interesting thing about this deck is that Travis didn't invent it and yet would likely receive credit for it. The first place the deck appeared online, that I know of at least, was here on this forum in Deck Creation. The thread was around for a while before Travis posted his article. I'm not suggesting that he took it without giving credit (the concept of "Credit" in magic is really stupid in my opinion), but it is unfortunate that he is the first person people think of when they see a brewed deck.
Indeed. But because of conglomeration of news sources and TWoo's inability to at least really demarcate the difference between his brews and others... leads to TWoo being overnamed in a lot of decks.
The fact is: The deck is a super troll deck, but it is actually pretty good now. Suppression Field is just ridiculous these days vs most of the field, and especially vs T1 decks.
Went 5-0 (10-2 in swiss), everyone else whined to split ($150, not chump change).
1) Living End. 2-0. Best play is G2, i'm on the draw. I draw. Discard Mirran Crusader. T2, Draw, discard Auriok Champion. T3, play land, birds, T4, land arbiter, t5, land, qasali pridemage, burrington forge tender, aether vial. t6 he goes for living end, i sac burrington forge tender targeting violent outburst (because I can), sac pridemage targeting vial, gain 10 life from cards entering the battlefield. and path twice and just beat face with mirran crusader.
2) RG aggro. Mirran Crusader with sword. Both games. Didn't really have to do much.
3) Melira Pod. 2-0. Has been making a comeback in my meta over Kiki Pod because of the goodness that is abrupt decay. I added another Aven Mindcensor into my list recently, and I saw it both games, and frankly. I forgot how good the card is in the matchup. I really did. I sorta was willy-nilly about it, and thought about cutting it all together, but I had all of the good answers, and Pod didn't today. I'm 4-0 (8-1) vs this particular person, and these games were just not close. I drew well, had great hands. He was pretty upset that he missed his Voice trigger when I cast Aven in response to his fetch crack (but it wasn't super relevant because I did have double path in hand >.<), but I mostly just had good draws and Scooze got some good work. It felt constantly in control and only real unforced errors would have done me in, but the tools were there for me to win. He's not a fan of the matchup, but I think it's probably closer that he thinks.
4) GW Hatebears. (If you're reading this, Kyle, I could only guess where you got some of your card choices from >.<) He had a little closer to average list, without vials. Plays EE main & Chalices in the board. And I digressed a bit about the Chalices... he said he plays it for 1 a lot and board out his paths... But I'm thinking, you play Arbiters, why would you board out your paths ever? It's too good to get pure value out of them against a lot of creature decks, even UWR, you don't have any other removal, and as importantly, if you play Chalices, Aether Vial seems to be a really good card for not just having dead cards in your hand. Either way, Game 1 he won with better creatures on the play, and I had a very slow hand. Game 2, I got the nuts, Bird, SoWaP, Turn 3, In for a billion. Game ended like that. Game 3, he mulls to 5, he drops worship. I have a Hierarch with double SoWaP, gaining life, he has a Thrun. I play two worships. I start aggressively pathing and ghost quartering everything, and his paths and GQ's always result in me shuffling, and failing to find. Why? I wanted to ensure that I would have enough cards to, on the draw, be able to deck him if it came to it. We had around 25 minutes left in round when I was actually concerned about that. He searched, used his Horizon Canopies. I just sat, waited, and then all in a turn, dropped a bunch of creatures with him at one, found a pridemage, and ate his Worship, and that was that.
5) Scooped to a friend playing Zoo. Played it out. G1 had just an awful 7 and 6, but kept the 6 because it was borderline keepable. Like, Path, Path, 3 lands, Aven Mindcensor? Not good, but something I could at least draw out of (if I didn't draw 3 more lands). G2 and 3 were much less of games. Drew well both games, was at 7 life, he played a pridemage, I had a worship and path in hand, with a mirran crusader and loxodon smiter and was like. Oh, okay. This makes it way easier to win the game now. Pathed the pridemage, played the worship. Proceeded to scoop. Mirran Crusader beats got there in G2 as well. I kept thinking I should board it out, but if it doesn't get pathed or bolted it just dominates the board. That's a big if. But if you can run their removal out and make decent trades (double block Nacatal with Voice x2) or force them to bolt your Smiter after blocks... It can come down and force them into topdeck mode. If not. It's mostly just burn not directed at your face, cards to feed ooze with. Mirran Crusader is also the only other creature that can reliably beat the tar out of Goyf (the first being Ooze). EE for 1 was super good. Super good. Super. Good. I was moderately impressed.
Things I want to change - 4 Scooze. 4 Smiter. I think those are both spicy enough right now in the climate to warrant 4 ofs in both cases. I think Ooze is really good to maindeck right now, and is relevant in every matchup except for (bum bum bum), Tron. Smiter though has no real bad matchups. It's outclassed by Goyf and that's it. It's just a huge beater that gets around everything. UWR hates it. Zoo hates it. Fae hates it. Tron hates it. Pod is mostly meh to it. It eats 3/4's that living end is fond of.
My sideboard felt good too. I really wish I could play more affinity hate, but, I'm content with what I have. Goryo's is a little scary and maybe if it actually gets more consistent I'd feel that SB-ing more cards to hate GY decks becomes relevant, but, Stony Silence gets work done on them, and really being aggressive against their manabase also is smart. Living end isn't nearly as bad. The problem with Goryo's isn't the GY, it's the Through the Breach that's tougher to deal with. It's like playing against legacy reanimator, and you bring in your GY hate, and then they just play show and tell. Whoops.
Beat Burn G1 with an active scooze, g1, and g2 on the back of Worship, Forge-Tender & Auriok Champion.
Beat Zoo, Engineered Explosives, Worship, nothing fancy, just got bigger, and blocked, stabilized and ran them out of cards to beat me with.
Tied with UWR Delver (with Figure of Destiny). Game one was super intense, took like 35 minutes and I didn't realize it, I think we played 6 paths between us, but I got in there with exalted triggered Birds of Paradise. I can't recommend stirring wildwood enough, I gather the CITP is a PITA, but, the ability to play spells as lands is just too good to pass up in randomly beating decks with fliers. G2 I got stomped in 10 minutes, G3, I kept a really loose hand with 5 minutes to play, and it was double birds, SoWaP, 4 lands, on the play, thinking if he kept a removal light, but fast hand, I'd get there.. Both my birds got bolted, he dropped Geist of St. Traft and I just... was like, I'm glad this is turn 3!
Had to play R4, but was against UB Fae. Both games were against heavy discard, and let me sayyyyy, Loxodon Smiter is wicked awesome in these kind of situations (to a lesser extent, Wilt-Leaf Liege too on late thoughtseizes). He's on the play and T1 he IoK's me and takes Mirran Crusader (with Voice, Smiter, Hierarch, and SoWaP in hand), T3 he plays snapcaster and takes the Sword, but I have a Smiter in play that's bashing his face. Wilt Leaf Liege comes down and then the game was prety much out of reach. G2 he mulls to four, game wasn't very good, I was playing very conservative though, and played EE on 2 when Bitterblossom came down. I played around damnation the entire game, becuase I have the feeling that some of these UB fae deck want to play damnation with bitterblossom in situations where they could reduce their board presence to one card, and keep all them flash cards in hand. I think that if you're playing against bitterblossom decks, you have to be concerned with that, because it's such a real thing to happen.
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But, the reasons to play vial aren't actually diametrically opposed to the reasons not to play it. There's arguments that make sense in the context that I've been selling people on (and having excellent times with), for the past 2 years. There's a lot of great reasons to play it, it being a bad top deck and we don't play "tricks" are not reasons to not play it. There's a bunch of posts with my name on them which describe counterarguments (namely consistency and aggressive land usage)
1
The main issue here is: you're (according to MTG Salvation's classifications), Playing W/x Death and Taxes and not G/W Hatebears. They're two different decks. We're a little over 20 cards different in the mainboards.
I think I had a pretty decent "thought process" to sideboarding about 10 or 15 pages back. I can try finding it again and reposting it later when I get a bit of time.
Edit: link
That said. Totally fair to run 3 EE's if you feel that Zoo, Robots, and Bogles are a good chunk of your meta.
Edit Pt. 2:
I also had the worst showing that I've ever had with this deck yesterday. Very inappropriate 0-2 drop. Played Ad Nauseum, crushed 0-2. Played Amulet Control. Got hosed 0-2. I was like. What the helllllll happened here.
It could be because I was doing nothing but Sealed and Legacy for the past 3 weeks to get my mind off of getting UWR'd to death lately.
1
1
This I agree with. But even still, I think there's a big difference between your list, and my list, and both use Vials. But that's because the core of the deck is trying to do two different things.
1
I had a 50 person 1k this weekend, and... lo, I played 4 UWR decks. 4. UWR decks. All of them with Geist.
My list:
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Aven Mindcensor
4 Leonin Arbiter
1 Birds of Paradise
3 Mirran Crusader
3 Qasali Pridemage
1 Spellskite
3 Voice of Resurgence
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Scavenging Ooze
Spells
4 Path to Exile
3 AEther Vial
1 Worship
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Forest
2 Plains
3 Tectonic Edge
4 Razorverge Thicket
2 Horizon Canopy
3 Stirring Wildwood
4 Ghost Quarter
2 Temple Garden
2 Worship
2 Torpor Orb
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Engineered Explosives
1 Sword of Body and Mind
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Rest in Peace
1 Rule of Law
And I went 1 of 4 against them. Granted one was a Twin deck, but, they're all "essentially" the same type of control shell.
R1: GR Tron, 2-1.
I pretty much put together his 75 the night before as we talk about magic a lot (and play in a band together). He went on tilt pretty much before g1 started because he was pissed that I had to play him (I do think I'm like 11 of 12 vs him in tournaments... and thankfully I don't get matched up vs him in Legacy). He mulled to 5 and I kept a decent 7 with Mindcensor and Qasali Pridemage, he played one land and 4 eggs, and was like, Yeah, this sucks. G2, I mull my 7 with no action, no clock, nothing, I think it was a Qasali Pridemage and another 2 drop. My 6 was no lands, and my 5 was just... Whatever. I had 2 land, Arbiter, path, mirran crusader... He also mulled to 4. Still complaining about his last game and how much it sucked and how he's like, *bleep* tron. His 4 was Natural Tron + Firespout. And, lets just say he ripped some good cards and I was like, uh. Yeah. I can't beat natural tron, O-Stone, Wurmcoil. Just wasn't going to get there. G3, I also mulled some pretty awful hands down to 5, and he kept his 7, but my 5 was Thalia, Forest, Pridemage, Forgetender, and Hierarch. I did what the deck does vs Tron. Stop them from doing things. He just couldn't get going fast enough to play cards. He had a Firespout in hand, but couldn't play it, he couldn't draw enough land fast enough to get there. I was just a little faster than he could stabilize and ended up 1-0.
R2: UWR Twin, 0-2
On the play, I wasn't 100% sure G1 that my opponent was on splinter twin, why? But I assumed so. Why? He played a Wall of Omens T2. To my board of Arbiter, Spellskite & Hierarch and an Aether Vial at 2, I made the call to path the wall when he tapped out for it, thinking: with Spellskite, he has to have the following combination: Exarch/Resto + Kiki-Jiki. Pestermite + Kiki-Jiki wouldn't work, Anything + Splinter Twin wouldn't work. He'd have to have Path + Combo in order to go off, and he already Bolted my Arbiter (and I Vialed in Spellskite). If he kept a path, bolt, land, land, land, combo, hand... that'd be ideal, but very low, even with 3 draw steps. No Ghost Quarters or Tec Edges. I keep trying to put the pressure, a pair of Mirran Crusader gets Remanded, Bolted and Pathed, I get him to 4 after playing Elspeth to drain him another 8 life, he plays resto, untaps and kiki-jiki's. I could have been a little bit more patient, but, G1 I saw the opening to limit his draw steps and it didn't go my way. Just the way it goes. Game 2 was significantly more savage to me. I had an early board state of Worship, Spellskite & Torpor Orb and Voice of Resurgence. Good place to be in right? Not vs the nuts. My opponent goes: Anger of the Gods, Bolt the Spellskite, next turn I follow up with a Loxodon Smiter, and I lower his life down to 9, and I'm in OK shape still as his Colonnade isn't active yet. End step he pulls a Wear//Tear vs my Worship & Torpor Orb, and I'm like. Oh. This isn't great. He rips a Path, and then I draw lands for what seems like Eternity as he pushes my life down to zero. Game 2 was just awful luck, whereas Game 1 was something considerably more in my control. Made a pair of reasonable, but ultimately incorrect reads.
R3: Mono-U tron, 2-0
On the draw, I had 3 Tec Edges & an Aether Vial. I slowly got a board and damage down, and when he got to about 7 life, he still wasn't on Tron, but found a Treasure Mage, and I'm like, hey, I got 2 paths, can we just go to G2? G2 was more of the same, ghost quartering even for basics was very good, I had more significant beats, and this matchup is significantly better than it's RG cousin. AEther Vial got a fair amount of work in under his countermagic, and was met with a few more timeley Repeals, but the deck just doesn't have the same kind of gas that UW Tron has.
R4: UWR Midrange 2-1
Game 1 I ended up with 2 Aether Vials in play. Game 2 I had 3. Let me just be the first to say, even late enough, they're not completely dead draws. I was able to push out creatures that were bounced with Cryptic back on the field with alacrity. Game 2 I played Sword of Body and Mind and was able to get enough board presence on the table to fight past his blockers. These games just got so grindy, as we were at about 7 minutes left in the round and only about half way through Game 3, I was trying to be like: yo, Josh, can you please make a play as he was shuffling his cards in his hand and not making a play, and I get it, it was some nasty boardstates, and it's mentally draining, but, I knew I had enough of an advantage to get there, I just needed to get there. Swords are very good in the matchup, and more than wishing I had Elspeth, I wished I had Sword of War and Peace. it would have been significantly better just in this matchup (assuming I could have equipped it, which isn't ever a certainty). Elspeth is really nice in some matchups, but I can't help to think, that with as much UWR as I've seen thus far in the room, that Sword is just vital. AEther Vials are also all-stars in the matchup as well. I saw Stony Silence twice in the six rounds, and both times I didn't really care about it because I was either in an advantageous position, or I didn't have nary an artifact in sight. But I feel that loading up on artifacts that are good against them can lead to more Stony Silences, which in turn makes our artifacts and methods of winning worse. Wilt-Leaf Liege is also an option at brusing past, but most creatures still won't be able make it through an anger of the gods, and really the only option is: Thrun, Bastion of Hope.
R5: UWR Midrange 0-2
Feeling decent at 3-1, I was paired against my second UWR Midrange matchup in a row, and the one where I was probably just least in control. I just got assaulted, wave after wave after wave after wave after wave after wave... of removal. There was just no end to it. I definitely felt like I boarded wrong in not bringing in Rest in Peace for these matchups, but I also wasn't able to find 3 Scavenging Oozes at a time where I could just rip apart the graveyard with any sort of consistency. RiP would have been very good to have in any of these two matchups because they were just filled with Wrath of God, Anger of the Gods and more spot removal than I could shake a fist at. Game 1 was actually very close. I was able to speed his life down to 1. ONE. ONE LIFE, on the back of three Mirran Crusaders that he dealt with in succession until the last one, and then I was in business taking off chunks of life at a time first 4 and then 6 with a Noble Hierarch in play... and then he finally found a bolt. I was sitting with a Bird and a Hierarch on the table and was pinging him down from 4, to three, to two, to one, and then the parade of Lightning Helixes came through Snapcasters eating first the Hierarch and then the Bird, and then pathing my Stirring Wildwood. I couldn't come back. I had him at 1, he jumped to 7, I was at 4 after taking 12 points of damage from Restoration Angel, and I couldn't get there. I pathed his Angel, and from there on out. I couldn't draw a creature out of 6 draw steps. He eventually went back to back Colonnades and that was it. I was toast. I looked back to see where I could have eked out one more damage and I couldn't find one. I had done 17 points of damage, and that was it. Their manabases are significantly stronger than pre PT UWR... I couldn't find a good opportunity to ever use Arbiter, like in G2, where T1 I play Hierarch, which he bolts, T2 I play a Qasali Pridemage, he plays a untapped shock showing Remand T3 I play Arbiter, he plays a mountain and passes and T4 I play Voice, he remands the voice, and i go to GQ his steam vents, and his mountain was open for a bolt to Arbiter. I saw exactly zero plays all day of T1 Dork, T2 Arbiter GQ Go. It was pretty ugly. If you can't get it on T2, T3 is always going to be significantly riskier, but I felt with how aggressive my hand was I needed to try to keep him off double red, especially because he remanded the Voice with double red on the table already (which indicated that he didn't have Anger of the Gods). Never happened. He Ghost Quartered, and I began the downhill slide. I was sitting with I Worship on the table and a Mirran Crusader, and he had a Geist of St. Traft & Restoration Angel in play, and blundered thinking that "wow, I can't kill him without drawing a cryptic". I was at 4, he attacked with just the Restoration Angel, and I activated Vial with 4 cards in hand... and chose not to have anything enter, because I didn't have anything. I was just trying to throw him off (as I Vialed a few times before in the match without Vialing in anything, because I did get him to jump once with pre-emptively bolting because of a Vial activation)... but he misread Worship & wasn't playing around anything. I played a Mirran Crusader and we just stood at a standstill for a few turns, and then he pathed my Crusader and I scooped. He was like, why did you scoop? Because, uh, Worship doesn't work if I have no creatures? WHAT? IT DOES? I HAD HELIX AND PATH AND BOLT IN HAND AND JUST COULDN'T KILL YOU. I don't know if I would have even come close to winning G3, but I basically would have had a few more turns to try to push through a Geist & Restoration Angel on his blunder. I scooped to my opponents ignorance and my knowing that I was dead on board. Whoops. It happens.
R6: UWR Midrange 1-2
Extremely Hungry and unable to actually get food because my last 2 games have essentially gone to time. I was like, screw it, power through. And it showed. I was basically at the bottom of the 9 pointers (which seems to be my trend if I'm not X-0, my OW%'s are terrible) and had little to no shot of top 8ing. I've played very well in the past vs my opponent (lifetime is 8-2), but I really just didn't have it in me, on top of feeling very outgunned by the meta (HELLO). The matchup just took forever and I didn't have enough gas in any of the games really. AEther Vial was still a beating in G1, but in G2 and G3, I figured they just board out most of their countermagic for removal anyway. It was still very good in G2 which allowed me to put the pressure on my opponent late into the game and force them to use Cryptic to bounce instead of counter... but, alas, I was put to the mercy of chained cryptics garnering ridiculous amounts of value. I would have probably undergone waterboarding for a Scaveging Ooze... But with these midrange decks, they try to get so much more value out of their graveyards and snapcasters than the UWR Control matchups do. Torpor Orb was very good in the midrange matchup as well, and Geist of St. Traft didn't really cause me that much damage, it was the Restoration Angels and Snapcasters that really caused me the most damage.
Closing thoughts
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Ended up 3-3, and felt that I played well the first 5 rounds, but just fell into the issue of "completely misread the meta". I played a few pre tournament games and had played very well vs storm and pod and jund in the past week. But the overwhelming amount of UWR made it really tough to get through.
My big mistake: Other than missing the 1/2rd of the room that was running green the entire way, I really overestimated the amount of Zoo that was going to be around. I was assuming probably 10-15% of the Meta would be Zoo, but it wasn't. UW/x was literally 40% of the meta, and I was expecting close to 25%. I thought I'd probably see 2 in 6... but nope. I would have probably swapped about a half dozen cards around, run Thrun, scooped Elspeth, probably moved my MB Worship to the side, ran Sword of War and Peace and maybe a 2nd...
Card I wish I saw the most: Scaveging Ooze. I kinda regret going up to 3 Qasali Pridemages and not the 4th Scaveging Ooze. Definitely an oversight on my part
Card that got the most work: AEther Vial. I hit multiples and didn't hate myself when I did. I know in theory it's not great, but in practice vs UWR it was very effective at most of the points of the game.
Card I wasn't very happy with: Honestly? Elspeth. I couldn't play her when I wanted to, and I actually didn't see a ton of opportunities where I: A) would have been able to play her through cryptic, B) Would have been able to get past their board. I'm okay with the 1 ofs, but, I don't think Elspeth did anything in the UWR matchup... It's really good in the GBx matchups, but I don't think that GBx was a terrible matchup before Elspeth, and I don't know if it made it that much better. It might be a win-more card, honestly whereas SoWaP might actually be a bit better at improving a matchup.
Worst Matchup: UWR might actually be the worst, with the Twin version being the worst. I was pretty convinced that UWR Twin was literally one of the worst matchups for us before because of their faster clock than UWR and their ample removal. They don't bother with Countermagic which isn't that great vs us, but they have a bajillion removal spells and both a good tempo clock and removal. I like our chances vs the UR Twin, but UWR Twin isn't our matchup without getting a little lucky.
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Indeed. But because of conglomeration of news sources and TWoo's inability to at least really demarcate the difference between his brews and others... leads to TWoo being overnamed in a lot of decks.
The fact is: The deck is a super troll deck, but it is actually pretty good now. Suppression Field is just ridiculous these days vs most of the field, and especially vs T1 decks.
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it's at the top.
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1) Living End. 2-0. Best play is G2, i'm on the draw. I draw. Discard Mirran Crusader. T2, Draw, discard Auriok Champion. T3, play land, birds, T4, land arbiter, t5, land, qasali pridemage, burrington forge tender, aether vial. t6 he goes for living end, i sac burrington forge tender targeting violent outburst (because I can), sac pridemage targeting vial, gain 10 life from cards entering the battlefield. and path twice and just beat face with mirran crusader.
2) RG aggro. Mirran Crusader with sword. Both games. Didn't really have to do much.
3) Melira Pod. 2-0. Has been making a comeback in my meta over Kiki Pod because of the goodness that is abrupt decay. I added another Aven Mindcensor into my list recently, and I saw it both games, and frankly. I forgot how good the card is in the matchup. I really did. I sorta was willy-nilly about it, and thought about cutting it all together, but I had all of the good answers, and Pod didn't today. I'm 4-0 (8-1) vs this particular person, and these games were just not close. I drew well, had great hands. He was pretty upset that he missed his Voice trigger when I cast Aven in response to his fetch crack (but it wasn't super relevant because I did have double path in hand >.<), but I mostly just had good draws and Scooze got some good work. It felt constantly in control and only real unforced errors would have done me in, but the tools were there for me to win. He's not a fan of the matchup, but I think it's probably closer that he thinks.
4) GW Hatebears. (If you're reading this, Kyle, I could only guess where you got some of your card choices from >.<) He had a little closer to average list, without vials. Plays EE main & Chalices in the board. And I digressed a bit about the Chalices... he said he plays it for 1 a lot and board out his paths... But I'm thinking, you play Arbiters, why would you board out your paths ever? It's too good to get pure value out of them against a lot of creature decks, even UWR, you don't have any other removal, and as importantly, if you play Chalices, Aether Vial seems to be a really good card for not just having dead cards in your hand. Either way, Game 1 he won with better creatures on the play, and I had a very slow hand. Game 2, I got the nuts, Bird, SoWaP, Turn 3, In for a billion. Game ended like that. Game 3, he mulls to 5, he drops worship. I have a Hierarch with double SoWaP, gaining life, he has a Thrun. I play two worships. I start aggressively pathing and ghost quartering everything, and his paths and GQ's always result in me shuffling, and failing to find. Why? I wanted to ensure that I would have enough cards to, on the draw, be able to deck him if it came to it. We had around 25 minutes left in round when I was actually concerned about that. He searched, used his Horizon Canopies. I just sat, waited, and then all in a turn, dropped a bunch of creatures with him at one, found a pridemage, and ate his Worship, and that was that.
5) Scooped to a friend playing Zoo. Played it out. G1 had just an awful 7 and 6, but kept the 6 because it was borderline keepable. Like, Path, Path, 3 lands, Aven Mindcensor? Not good, but something I could at least draw out of (if I didn't draw 3 more lands). G2 and 3 were much less of games. Drew well both games, was at 7 life, he played a pridemage, I had a worship and path in hand, with a mirran crusader and loxodon smiter and was like. Oh, okay. This makes it way easier to win the game now. Pathed the pridemage, played the worship. Proceeded to scoop. Mirran Crusader beats got there in G2 as well. I kept thinking I should board it out, but if it doesn't get pathed or bolted it just dominates the board. That's a big if. But if you can run their removal out and make decent trades (double block Nacatal with Voice x2) or force them to bolt your Smiter after blocks... It can come down and force them into topdeck mode. If not. It's mostly just burn not directed at your face, cards to feed ooze with. Mirran Crusader is also the only other creature that can reliably beat the tar out of Goyf (the first being Ooze). EE for 1 was super good. Super good. Super. Good. I was moderately impressed.
Things I want to change - 4 Scooze. 4 Smiter. I think those are both spicy enough right now in the climate to warrant 4 ofs in both cases. I think Ooze is really good to maindeck right now, and is relevant in every matchup except for (bum bum bum), Tron. Smiter though has no real bad matchups. It's outclassed by Goyf and that's it. It's just a huge beater that gets around everything. UWR hates it. Zoo hates it. Fae hates it. Tron hates it. Pod is mostly meh to it. It eats 3/4's that living end is fond of.
My sideboard felt good too. I really wish I could play more affinity hate, but, I'm content with what I have. Goryo's is a little scary and maybe if it actually gets more consistent I'd feel that SB-ing more cards to hate GY decks becomes relevant, but, Stony Silence gets work done on them, and really being aggressive against their manabase also is smart. Living end isn't nearly as bad. The problem with Goryo's isn't the GY, it's the Through the Breach that's tougher to deal with. It's like playing against legacy reanimator, and you bring in your GY hate, and then they just play show and tell. Whoops.
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Beat Burn G1 with an active scooze, g1, and g2 on the back of Worship, Forge-Tender & Auriok Champion.
Beat Zoo, Engineered Explosives, Worship, nothing fancy, just got bigger, and blocked, stabilized and ran them out of cards to beat me with.
Tied with UWR Delver (with Figure of Destiny). Game one was super intense, took like 35 minutes and I didn't realize it, I think we played 6 paths between us, but I got in there with exalted triggered Birds of Paradise. I can't recommend stirring wildwood enough, I gather the CITP is a PITA, but, the ability to play spells as lands is just too good to pass up in randomly beating decks with fliers. G2 I got stomped in 10 minutes, G3, I kept a really loose hand with 5 minutes to play, and it was double birds, SoWaP, 4 lands, on the play, thinking if he kept a removal light, but fast hand, I'd get there.. Both my birds got bolted, he dropped Geist of St. Traft and I just... was like, I'm glad this is turn 3!
Had to play R4, but was against UB Fae. Both games were against heavy discard, and let me sayyyyy, Loxodon Smiter is wicked awesome in these kind of situations (to a lesser extent, Wilt-Leaf Liege too on late thoughtseizes). He's on the play and T1 he IoK's me and takes Mirran Crusader (with Voice, Smiter, Hierarch, and SoWaP in hand), T3 he plays snapcaster and takes the Sword, but I have a Smiter in play that's bashing his face. Wilt Leaf Liege comes down and then the game was prety much out of reach. G2 he mulls to four, game wasn't very good, I was playing very conservative though, and played EE on 2 when Bitterblossom came down. I played around damnation the entire game, becuase I have the feeling that some of these UB fae deck want to play damnation with bitterblossom in situations where they could reduce their board presence to one card, and keep all them flash cards in hand. I think that if you're playing against bitterblossom decks, you have to be concerned with that, because it's such a real thing to happen.