Since there's been some talk about sideboarding, I just want to share my thoughts on my tentative sideboard plan, even though it's about a month later.
My rather extensive sideboard plans that I am using for this deck are as follows: (again, this is tentative)
Mirror:
-1 Canyon Slough (on the play)
-1 Rekindling Phoenix (on the play)
-2 Scrapheap Scrounger (on the draw)
-1 Heart of Kiran
+1 Battle at the Bridge
+2 Settle the Wreckage
Grixis Energy:
-2 Heart of Kiran (-1 on the play)
-1 Abrade
-4 Walking Ballista (on the draw)
-1 Canyon Slough (on the play)
-1 Rekindling Phoenix (on the play)
+3 Duress
+1 Angrath, the Flame-Chained (on the draw)
+2 Cast Out (on the draw)
+1 Profane Procession
+1 Chandra’s Defeat
+2 Authority of the Consuls
+2 Cast Out
+2 Settle the Wreckage
+1 Battle at the Bridge
Any commentary/suggestions on my plans is welcome. These plans could very well change over the next few weeks as I play with the deck more, and I'll be happy to share my edits as I figure the deck out.
With three people saying G/W, I definitely screwed up here. I'm pretty sure that the G/W deck would NOT have gone 0-3-1, even with the zero removal. I thought the general rule for combat tricks is to make sure combat tricks and creatures follow a 4:1 ratio or less? Again, I was stupid and thought they aren't as good as black's removal spells (since I was under the impression that I would need them to address bombs like Glorybringer). Thanks for your answers.
Thanks for the corrections guys. Yeah G/W in hindsight would be better. I guess I'm not very good at building pools at Amonkhet. Is it just me, or are there fewer playables at the common and uncommon level? I am not sure if insight is splashable. With that being said, What is a good number of removal spells to shoot for when looking for color combos in general?
Prerelease day is usually a day where I go at least 2-2 at my LGS, so I consider myself a decent deckbuilder. Today, however, sucked ass. Not even regular ass. I’m talking about putrid, barfed-up, roadkill ass. I got the worst promo to have at a limited event (Dispossess), the worst pool that I have ever seen, and a 0-3-1 record, the absolute *worst* record that I have ever done in any limited event ever. This is my pool:
Is this a horrible pool to build a deck with, or am I really misguided with regards to deckbuilding in Amonkhet limited? The amount of removal was rather low (with NO removal in white or green). The amount of playable creatures is pitiful in every single color except white. And the amount of creatures with 4 power was extremely pitiful, so Rhonas was not at his best here (He would probably be insulted to be paired with such a horrible pool as this). Oh, and to add insult to injury, at least 2 people in the group of 32 got invocations. No such luck here.
My reasoning was that since white was the only color with 8+ playables, I chose white as the first color. I chose black as the second color, as that color had a couple of removal spells (and one quality one) along with an okay amount of playables. I splashed for Rhonas because I needed a good creature to make up for the lack of excellent ones.
(Do not read if you are sensitive to personal rants)
I tied the first game against a new player who was playing Glorybringer. Lost the next match to a BR aggro deck that had a much faster clock than mine. After that match, I took out Forsake the Worldly and Painful Lesson for Trial of Solidarity (since I was playing two Cartouches) and Honed Khopesh. After the change, the losses just got more and more humiliating. The third match saw me getting killed by the opponent’s opposing Rhonas while I got faced with a Trespasser’s Curse and the second game going to a tie. The fourth match again saw me lose to a humiliating As Foretold deck that raped me with Greater Sandwurms! Oh yeah, did I mention that I had to mulligan to 5 in half the games due to having 1-2 land cards all the time (I run 17 lands for chirst sakes! The gods wanted me to freaking fail!)
So the big questions are:
1. What is the bare minimum of creatures that you can play in a sealed event such as this?
2. Were my changes to the maindeck after the first two matches correct? I wanted to focus more on the aggro theme, since that was the only real way I would be winning things.
3. And of course, is there a better setup from this horrible pool?
Thanks for the tips! Yeah, Nest of Scarabs should not have been in the deck at all. And agreed on the Pursue Glory. Anyway, I just went 0-3-1 on what I feel is the worst pool ever. I'll post a new thread when I get things ready.
Yeah, that is what I was thinking. But if that is the case, then why not announce the bans today in order to give the proper context for deckbuilding preparation like they did last time? I was waiting for a surprise announcement to that effect. I really agree that the cat combo needs to go, *now*. That way Amonkhet's cards have much more interest due to the increased shakeup. Standard has been all but dead ever since March 13th ... not a single event has fired.
So today in one of my sealed games at dr4ft.com, I came across this pool, which has almost no removal, a shortage of playable creatures and quite a few multicolored cards. Our of this pool, only red and green have hard removal, with blue having some ways to bounce stuff:
Reasoning: I thought I could try to take advantage of Liliana, the pair of Merciless Javelineers, and the lone Magma spray, and use the fixers in my pool to splash Cartouche of Strength as a desperate way to put in more hard removal.
Needless to say, the deck got slaughtered, as I was not able to stay long enough for Liliana to fix things. Is there another way I should be building this deck?
For me the biggest takeaway is that they aren't planning on making any changes to the format until after the next PT, so that means we will have another 3 (three) months of DirtyKitty and Mardu Vehicles at worst, or six weeks at best if anything at all relevant comes with the new set. Is anyone else simply excited?
Standard has become a bad joke.
that's what I don't get, usually they do bannings when a new set releases, but the article states they are waiting till after PT Amonkhet. Does that mean they already decided not to ban anything during the next ban announcement as well?
In my opinion, waiting until PT Amonkhet is too long in my opinion. While I can understand and sympathize the sentiment of there being no bans this time around. Wizards should make up their minds by the time Amonkhket releases. Think about it, a large fraction of people are already looking to switch decks with the addition of a new set. So introducing bannings then would be much smoother then after PT Amonkhet, where the great majority of players will already have established and traded for their builds, which would lead to a mass leaving of the format if suddenly their decks along with hundreds of their dollars suddenly goes flying out the window. Hell, this reasoning worked in Wizards' favor in generating interest for the FIRST week of Aether Revolt. Personally, I think Cat should go when Amonkhet releases to further reinforce the idea of a newer meta to explore (common sentiments of the first weeks of Aether Revolt).
Interesting note: Every Mardu Vehicle build that went Top 8 in both GPs with the exception of Jarvis Yu's was the Ballista variant. Seems the added flexibility in combatting the mirror/Cat Combo is more important than stability. The Ballista tech is here to stay and can survive the hate, assuming Cat combo stands.
Deck of the tournament-Mardu Ballista. I'm guessing some more bans are heading our way in March. Let's see if the playerbase can withstand the upcoming new drop in confidence.
For reference, I am playing Blake Miller's build from GP Memphis:
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/standard-mardu-vehicles-44962#paper
My rather extensive sideboard plans that I am using for this deck are as follows: (again, this is tentative)
Mirror:
-1 Canyon Slough (on the play)
-1 Rekindling Phoenix (on the play)
-2 Scrapheap Scrounger (on the draw)
-1 Heart of Kiran
+1 Battle at the Bridge
+2 Settle the Wreckage
Grixis Energy:
-2 Heart of Kiran (-1 on the play)
-1 Abrade
-4 Walking Ballista (on the draw)
-1 Canyon Slough (on the play)
-1 Rekindling Phoenix (on the play)
+3 Duress
+1 Angrath, the Flame-Chained (on the draw)
+2 Cast Out (on the draw)
+1 Profane Procession
R/G Monsters:
-2 Scrapheap Scrounger
-3 Abrade
-1 Heart of Kiran
+1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
+2 Settle the Wreckage
+1 Battle at the Bridge
+1 Profane Procession
+1 Angrath, the Flame-Chained
U/B Control:
-4 Unlicensed Disintegration
-3 Abrade
-2 Cut // Ribbons
+2 Cast Out
+1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
+1 Angrath, the Flame-Chained
+3 Duress
+1 Arguel’s Blood Fast
+1 Profane Procession
W/B Vampires:
-2 Scrapheap Scrounger
-1 Heart of Kiran
-1 Canyon Slough
-1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
+2 Settle the Wreckage
+3 Duress
Mono White Aggro:
-2 Scrapheap Scrounger
-1 Heart of Kiran
-1 Canyon Slough
-1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
-1 Unlicensed Disintegration
+1 Profane Procession
+2 Cast Out
+2 Settle the Wreckage
+1 Battle at the Bridge
U/W Gift:
-4 Walking Ballista
-2 Heart of Kiran
-2 Unlicensed Disintegration
+1 Profane Procession
+2 Cast Out
+2 Settle the Wreckage
+3 Duress
W/U Cycling:
-4 Unlicensed Disintegration
-2 Abrade
-2 Cut // Ribbons
+2 Cast Out
+1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
+1 Angrath, the Flame-Chained
+3 Duress
+1 Arguel’s Blood Fast
W/U Auras:
-2 Walking Ballista
-2 Scrapheap Scrounger
-2 Heart of Kiran
-2 Unlicensed Disintegration
-1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
+3 Duress
+2 Cast Out
+2 Settle the Wreckage
+1 Battle at the Bridge
+1 Profane Procession
G/W Aggro:
-4 Scrapheap Scrounger
-1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
-2 Heart of Kiran
-2 Unlicensed Disintegration
+1 Profane Procession
+2 Cast Out
+2 Settle the Wreckage
+1 Battle at the Bridge
+3 Duress
Abzan Tokens:
-2 Unlicensed Disintegration
-1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
-1 Abrade
-1 Heart of Kiran
+2 Cast Out
+3 Duress
U/W Approach:
-3 Unlicensed Disintegration
-2 Abrade
-2 Cut // Ribbons
+1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
+1 Angrath, the Flame-Chained
+3 Duress
+1 Arguel’s Blood Fast
+1 Profane Procession
Sultai Constrictor:
-2 Heart of Kiran
-2 Walking Ballista
+2 Settle the Wreckage
+2 Cast Out
U/B Midrange:
-1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
-2 Heart of Kiran
-2 Walking Ballista
+2 Settle the Wreckage
+2 Cast Out
+1 Profane Procession
Mono-Red, B/R Aggro:
-2 Scrapheap Scrounger
-1 Heart of Kiran
-1 Canyon Slough
-1 Abrade
-1 Rekindling Phoenix
-2 Unlicensed Disintegration
+1 Chandra’s Defeat
+2 Authority of the Consuls
+2 Cast Out
+2 Settle the Wreckage
+1 Battle at the Bridge
Any commentary/suggestions on my plans is welcome. These plans could very well change over the next few weeks as I play with the deck more, and I'll be happy to share my edits as I figure the deck out.
2 In Oketra’s Name
2 Tah-Crop Elite
1 Trial of Solidarity
1 Rhet-Crop Spearmaster
1 Binding Mummy
2 Gust Walker
1 Winged Shepherd
1 Forsake the Wordly
1 Sacred Cat
1 Cartouche of Solidarity
Blue:
1 Tah-Crop Skirmisher
1 Essence Scatter
1 Open into Wonder
1 Illusory Wrappings
1 Censor
1 Cartouche of Knowledge
1 Lay Claim
1 Pull from Tomorrow
1 Vizier of Many Faces
1 Seeker of Insight
3 Slither Blade
1 Scribe of the Mindful
2 Compelling Argument
1 Winds of Rebuke
1 Ancient Crab
2 Festering Mummy
1 Shadow of the Grave
1 Dispossess (the insulting promo)
1 Trespasser’s Curse
2 Blighted Bat
1 Gravedigger
1 Dune Beetle
1 Cartouche of Ambition
1 Ruthless Sniper
1 Doomed Dissenter
1 Final Reward
1 Splendid Agony
1 Painful Lesson
Red:
2 Desert Cerodon
1 Bloodrage Brawler
1 Nef-Crop Entangler
1 Deem Worthy
1 Thresher Lizard
1 Manticore of the Gauntlet
1 Pursue Glory
1 Brute Strength
1 Bloodlust Inciter
2 Blazing Volley
1 By Force
1 Consuming Fervor
1 Violent Impact
1 Rhonas the Indomitable
1 Champion of Rhonas
2 Haze of Pollen
1 Synchronized Strike
1 Naga Vitalist
1 Bitterblade Warrior
1 Colossapede
1 Initiate’s Companion
1 Dissenter’s Deliverance
2 Spidery Grasp
1 Gift of Paradise
1 Manglehorn
Lands/Artifacts/Multicolor:
1 Ahn-Crop Champion
1 Painted Bluffs
1 Honed Khopesh
1 Oketra’s Monument
1 Bontu’s Monument
1 Edifice of Authority
1 Fetid Pools
1 Evolving Wilds (Foil)
1 Khenra Charioteer
1 Aven Wind Guide
Is this a horrible pool to build a deck with, or am I really misguided with regards to deckbuilding in Amonkhet limited? The amount of removal was rather low (with NO removal in white or green). The amount of playable creatures is pitiful in every single color except white. And the amount of creatures with 4 power was extremely pitiful, so Rhonas was not at his best here (He would probably be insulted to be paired with such a horrible pool as this). Oh, and to add insult to injury, at least 2 people in the group of 32 got invocations. No such luck here.
And this is what I built:
1 Doomed Dissenter
1 Ruthless Sniper
2 Gust Walker
1 Dune Beetle
1 Binding Mummy
1 Sacred Cat
1 Rhet-Crop Spearmaster
2 Blighted Bat
1 Rhonas the Indomitable
2 Tah-Crop Elite
1 Gravedigger
1 Winged Shepherd
1 Edifice of Authority
1 Cartouche of Ambition
1 Cartouche of Solidarity
1 Splendid Agony
1 Forsake the Worldly
1 Final Reward
1 Painful Lesson
1 Oketra’s Monument
1 Fetid Pools
1 Forest
7 Plains
6 Swamp
1 Painted Bluffs
1 Evolving Wilds (Foil)
My reasoning was that since white was the only color with 8+ playables, I chose white as the first color. I chose black as the second color, as that color had a couple of removal spells (and one quality one) along with an okay amount of playables. I splashed for Rhonas because I needed a good creature to make up for the lack of excellent ones.
(Do not read if you are sensitive to personal rants)
So the big questions are:
1. What is the bare minimum of creatures that you can play in a sealed event such as this?
2. Were my changes to the maindeck after the first two matches correct? I wanted to focus more on the aggro theme, since that was the only real way I would be winning things.
3. And of course, is there a better setup from this horrible pool?
Thanks a lot to anyone who responds.
Edit: Thread is up.
1 Djeru's Resolve
1 Sacred Cat
1 Trueheart Duelist
1 Forsake the Worldly
1 Rhet-Crop Spearmaster
2 Unwavering Initiate
1 Sparring Mummy
2 Tah-Crop Elite
1 Protection of the Hekma
1 Supply Caravan
1 Winged Shepherd
1 Approach of the Second Sun
Blue:
1 Compelling Argument
1 Tah-Crop Skirmisher
1 Winds of Rebuke
1 Cancel
1 Illusory Wrappings
1 Decision Paralysis
1 Naga Oracle
2 Angler Drake
1 River Serpent
1 Supernatural Stamina
2 Dune Beetle
1 Lay Bare the Heart
1 Miasmic Mummy
1 Trespasser's Curse
1 Cartouche of Ambition
1 Cursed Minotaur
1 Nest of Scarabs
1 Wander in Death
1 Gravedigger
1 Liliana, Death's Majesty
1 Blazing Volley
1 Bloodlust Inciter
1 Magma Spray
1 Nimble-Blade Khenra
1 Tormenting Voice
1 Ahn-Crop Crasher
1 Minotaur Sureshot
2 Thresher Lizard
1 Emberhorn Minotaur
1 Pursue Glory
1 Violent Impact
1 Manticore of the Gauntlet
1 Desert Cerodon
Green:
1 Stinging Shot
2 Dissenter's Deliverance
1 Initiate's Companion
1 Benefaction of Rhonas
1 Cartouche of Strength
1 Hooded Brawler
1 Ornery Kudu
1 Pouncing Cheetah
2 Spidery Grasp
2 Giant Spider
2 Colossapede
1 Shefet Monitor
2 Greater Sandwurm
1 Wayward Servant
1 Enigma Drake
1 Failure
1 Khenra Charioteer
2 Ahn-Crop Champion
1 Bounty of the Luxa
2 Merciless Javelineer
Land/Artifact:
1 Canyon Slough
1 Cradle of the Accursed
1 Painted Bluffs
1 Sunscorched Desert
1 Throne of the God-Pharaoh
1 Bontu's Monument
1 Rhonas's Monument
Out of this pool, I chose to run the following:
2 Dune Beetle
1 Nimble-Blade Khenra
1 Manticore of the Gauntlet
1 Cradle of the Accursed
1 Cursed Minotaur
1 Painted Bluffs
1 Ahn-Crop Crasher
6 Swamp
1 Gravedigger
1 Emberhorn Minotaur
1 Supernatural Stamina
6 Mountain
1 Nest of Scarabs
1 Tormenting Voice
1 Cartouche of Ambition
1 Minotaur Sureshot
1 Liliana, Death's Majesty
1 Magma Spray
1 Miasmic Mummy
2 Forest
1 Wander in Death
2 Merciless Javelineer
1 Cartouche of Strength
1 Canyon Slough
1 Desert Cerodon
Reasoning: I thought I could try to take advantage of Liliana, the pair of Merciless Javelineers, and the lone Magma spray, and use the fixers in my pool to splash Cartouche of Strength as a desperate way to put in more hard removal.
Needless to say, the deck got slaughtered, as I was not able to stay long enough for Liliana to fix things. Is there another way I should be building this deck?
In my opinion, waiting until PT Amonkhet is too long in my opinion. While I can understand and sympathize the sentiment of there being no bans this time around. Wizards should make up their minds by the time Amonkhket releases. Think about it, a large fraction of people are already looking to switch decks with the addition of a new set. So introducing bannings then would be much smoother then after PT Amonkhet, where the great majority of players will already have established and traded for their builds, which would lead to a mass leaving of the format if suddenly their decks along with hundreds of their dollars suddenly goes flying out the window. Hell, this reasoning worked in Wizards' favor in generating interest for the FIRST week of Aether Revolt. Personally, I think Cat should go when Amonkhet releases to further reinforce the idea of a newer meta to explore (common sentiments of the first weeks of Aether Revolt).
EDIT: And it makes it to the semifinals. Meanwhile 4C Copy Cat takes both trophies.