I don't think Waste Not is any good versus Jeskai Ascendancy. When they're going off they'll be giving us some zombies and mana primarily (discarding lands and excess creatures). Then when at a critical mass they can wish for Wear // Tear, Abrupt Decay, or various other enchantment/artifact hate to push aside our Bridges and/or Leylines. Plus they have two angles to go for a kill. Swing with the mana dorks (some of which fly so our zombies/rats are useless), or fire off a Flesh // Blood and kill us with direct damage. I think we have to focus on getting them to zero cards in hand and fast. When they have 1 or 0 cards in hand, the looting effect from Ascendancy becomes useless, increasing the likelihood they'll wiff mid-combo (with 1 card they cast their cantrip, then triggers for looting occur before the cantrip effect so if they do loot they discard the card they drew and have to rely on the cantrip to keep the combo rolling). This match more than most we have to rip the hand apart. Hands with little or no action destroying the hand are unkeepable. And that's just G1! G2 the builds I have seen run a full complement of Leylines, if they land one I don't see a realistic way we win the match.
Edit: I think I like smallpox in this match. On the play it's backbreaking T2. They run a very low land count and need to land a mana dork T1. If we hit both, there's a good chance they can't recover. Plus it doesn't target so it gets around Leyline, though I'm still having a hard time seeing how we win through one against them unless we can get Rats/Mutavault running quickly.
War's Toll + Ghostly Prison + Magus of the Tabernacle basically shuts down any creature strategy. Just another lock for the deck. I'd suggest others try out War's Toll, it's done work the 3 times I've had it in play and has become a priority target for my opponents even above Assemble the Legion. It's not a 4-of type of card, and 2 might even be pushing it. But when it's hit, it has always changed the way my opponent plays and won me the game. Now granted this has been in the "Just for Fun" room on MTGO but, one of those games was against a legitimate UW Control deck.
I've played the Time Warp deck. Honestly it was a pretty easy matchup. He's not going to kill you by damage, but your discard spells against him can be brutal. Once Liliana or Necrogen Mists are online with a rack effect or two he's toast. From what I can remember with my matchup I had a few turns where I would draw 2-3 extra cards from his Howling Mine effects, and then turn around and discard his entire hand and drop a rack or two. You only need a few of those turns to destroy the Time Warp player. I ran Pithing Needle at the time as well and was able to use that to turn off Baby Jace and Jace Memory Adept.
4 Raven's Crime and 4 Wrench Mind definitely then pick 2 of your favorite removal from Slaughter Pact, VoN, Doom Blade, and Dismember and you'll have a solid list.
I've been thinking of finding room for an Isochron Scepter, anybody else wanna put multicolored or monoB on a stick?
Isochron Scepter only let's you imprint instants. What are you planning to imprint in an 8-Rack shell? Funeral Charm seems the only likely target I'm aware of
Being able to draw that 1 card off Relic seems very relevant. Then again, do we really want to blow the Relic if we've got a Raven's Crime in our yard? Or dredging land etc.?
Shoot, is Raven's even relevant against Living End? With Void it sure is.
You can trigger the second Relic ability with Raven's Crime on the stack. This will result in a card draw, the opponents graveyard being empty, and you with one card (the Raven's Crime) in your graveyard.
Kind of feel like you could have brought in Pithing Needles and pulled out the Bridges to take care of the Mutavaults. Otherwise those were close games. Seeing the video I don't know that I would have played BB as early as you did. It's a good card for sure, but I feel like you want to stabilize a bit against the mirror match before dropping it. Both decks wanted to play the long game and it just "felt" wrong to drop it turn 2 each game, even with the Leyline out. I could definitely be wrong here, since I haven't had a chance to playtest extensively with BB, or the mirror for that matter, just my first instinct upon watching the match.
Quote from Willjcus »
Game 2 he was at 9 life, you have 5 faeries (1 summoning sick) I was wondering why you didn't swing for 4, then swing for 5 the following turn for the win.
Nice observation! Didn't notice this on my first watch.
Is it possible to use Sleeper Agent as an alternate wincon? It looks like a pretty sneaky way to leech off your opp's life, granted this card kinda blows without a bridge in play.
I look at this as a worse Deathrite Shaman. Both are going to be able to hit for 2 damage a turn (though I guess Sleeper Agent will do so a turn earlier). Both are going to be targets for removal from opponents, though Sleeper Agent can potentially ramp your opponent if your opponent plays Path to Exile. DRS also has the advantage of providing some graveyard hate against Snapcaster Mage and Flashback spells. Also as you stated, without Ensnaring Bridge in play, Sleeper Agent is pretty bad. As a budget replacement for DRS I can see some merit, but if budget isn't a concern go with DRS.
Any plans to add a section on the white splash? Also no mention of Night of Souls Betrayal in the sideboard section. Otherwise primer looked good to me. I like the new layout.
I found myself in your shoes not too long ago and decided to try Liliana's Caress. Now, I run a budget version, which means no Liliana, Mutavault, or Deathrite. As has been stated, Caress was just bad, particularly because when you are in top deck mode it is the last card you want to see.
Appreciate the insight. On paper it looked meh, but paper vs. real-world experience is what I was looking for. I did run a full set of DRS previously but took them out for some other cards. I may have to find some room for 2 or 3 in the list to help with the damage.
@MemoryLapse - Watched some of your videos with Blinkmoth Nexus. It looks promising, but was wondering if you had any insights to share at this time?
I like the idea of running Blinkmoth as well. I thought the same thing last night watching an Affinity matchup at the local tournament (I took first with a 3-0-1 record out of a field of 16). Pinging the opponent each turn would have been relevant in a few matches and I'm interested to try it out. I'll need to add some Urborg's to the list to help with the mana but still I'm excited at this prospect.
I put in some Phyrexian Arena's last night to test and right now my feelings are mixed. I cast two all night and they were both destroyed before I was able to draw off of them. However they did bait removal that would have been directed at my Ensnaring Bridges so there is that interaction. Also one match had me and my opponent both sitting in top deck mode with a Necrogen Mists and Ensnaring Bridge out but I hadn't yet drawn any Rack effects. I ended up losing, because he was able to top deck an answer to the EB. That does make me concerned that I'm not running enough win conditions. I'm thinking perhaps Liliana's Caress as a one or two of to supplement the damage from the Rack effects. Any experience with this card from anyone else? Finally Smallpox was an all-star. I didn't lose a game where I was able to cast it turn 2 profitably. Here's what I'm currently running:
Yes I know I'm running 61 in the main. I cut one thoughtseize and added to two Phyrexian Arena's last minute. Didn't want to think to hard on a cut so just ran with it. Any suggestions, let me know.
Have you tried Lotleth Troll? He seems like a good cheap discard effect plus his regeneration and pump abilities could give you an alternate threat (not to mention being pretty slick on the ooze)
Quick and dirty small local tourney report. I don't have my list on hand, but it's a pretty standard mono-black list, though I only have a single mutavault, 3 thoughtseize, 3 Deathrite Shaman, and no urborg's. Otherwise it's close to the "stock" list. Sideboard included 3x infest, 3x pithing needle, 2x grafdigger's cage, 2x leyline of the void, 1x surgical extraction, 2x extirpate, and two creature spot removal (I think a dismember and a victim of night, also had dismember in main).
Round 1: vs Amulet of Vigor combo
This is a newer deck I'd heard of but not seen in action. The guy running it was new to it as well and had only been able to goldfish it a few times before the tourney. Games were pretty standard 8-rack affairs and I easily won 2-0. Trick here is to keep them off of their blooms/titans/asuza/etc (basically anything that allows them to play multiple lands per turn). Also this build had little in the way of artifact hate, so once a bridge landed it was game. I didn't sideboard in either game, as I wasn't really sure what would help (maybe VoN?).
Round 2: vs Death and Taxes
My opponent was a pretty experienced player and after our match we'd remember we had met each other at a different shop a year or so earlier. Game 1 he conceded after I landed a turn 3 bridge. He had all the right cards to hate against me from his board. Game two he dropped a turn 0 Leyline of Sanctity. I pushed on but ultimately he was able to get a few Vial's online and stick some threat's I couldn't deal with so it was on to game three. I went to the sideboard and unloaded all of my thoughtseizes and duress for my spot removal and the infests. I figured if he was going to land a LoS turn 0, those were my least effective spells. Game three he mulligans to 6 and finds another turn 0 LoS. I kept a hand with an infest and a dismember as well as bridge and DRS, so I felt pretty good about my chances. This ended up being a long grindy game, but ultimately I was able to use my own discard on myself to lock his creatures out with bridge and then land enough threats he couldn't deal with through disenchant/O-Ring/etc. I think he ended up playing 3 disenchants on either Shrieking Affliction/Bridge/Rack and having 2 O-Rings out to deal with Lilly and DRS, but ultimately I got a few things to stick and ended up winning the match 2-1. A turn LoS is NOT a game loss, but it's hard and will take some luck and persistance to win. Also I was pretty happy with the mind wrench's I had main board to help empty my hand to stay out of harm's way of his threats. Also killing Thalia in this matchup as soon as you see here is critical. Finally, Infest did some real work here and I had a few 2(or better)-for-1 situations that kept me in games 2 and 3
Round 3: Izzet Tempo Delver Fairies
I'd played this gentleman before and he's a rock solid player. I don't play in many sanctioned events, but those I do play in and if this guy is there, he generally wins the whole thing, or comes damn close to it. I'm not sure what to call his deck, and neither was he, but it was interesting and damn effective against me. On the first game he was able to land a Delver turn one, flip him by turn 3 and just keep me off of my discard plan through counter magic and fairies. I couldn't find a bridge (and when I finally did couldn't make it stick) so it was off to game two. I sideboard in my creature hate. I thought about bringing in the extirpate/surgical extraction package to help get rid of his counter magic, but decided against it. Not sure if that's the right play, but oh well. Game two is more interesting and I feel I could have won, but I misplayed and didn't redirect rack damage to his Chandra, Pyromancer. This let him tick her up to ultimate and he was able to find a Lighting Bolt and knock me from 9 to zero. Before that I was able to keep up with him to a decent degree and brought him down to 6 with a bridge, rack and Lilly in play. I think If I had done a damage redirection I could have won at least one game. Oh well 0-2
Round 4: vs Isochron Sceptre (Ice Cream Tempo)
We were the match that was playing for second place, after some other attendees dropped. This seemed to be a relatively standard American Tempo list, with Isochron Sceptre thrown in. Game 1 I highly underestimated the Isochron and didn't pull it from his had when I was on the draw. That was a huge mistake and he was able to land it with a Lightning Helix imprinted, and that was basically game. I tried to tough it out for a few turns, even landing a Lilly and a Bridge, but I wasn't drawing into DRS, Shrieking or the Rack and so I ultimately lost. Game 2 I sided in my surgical extraction/extirpate and pithing needles. I ultimately ended up winning this game on the back of a bridge that stuck, a pithing needle naming IS, and a Lilly and Raven's Crime. I also finally saw some creatures from him including Geist of Saint Traft, though they were ineffective due to the bridge. This was a long game and he was disciplined in trying to maintain a hand size of at least 5 for most of it. Sandbagging against us when we have no gas can really put us behind especially without extra card draw, but ultimately I came out on top. Game three I kept a shaky hand, and I didn't sideboard in my infests, which was a HUGE oversight on my part. Ultimately he landed a turn three GoST I couldn't pull from his hand (only had duress), and I was stuck on just Mutavault and a Swamp the entire game with Bridge, Lilly, Dismember and Necrogen Mists in hand. I should have held back on casting some of my do-nothing discard to keep mana open for Mutavault, but I didn't and so he was able to hit me for 6 a few turns before I caught on. By then it was too late and he drew into a few Magma Jets and Lightning Bolts and that was game. 1-2
Not sure where I ended up placing, but overall I was pretty happy with the deck. It has it's weaknesses and I had some misplays, but I don't get to play constructed often (mostly cube) so I'll chalk it up to experience and go from there. I feel like I could use some card draw, and I'm tempted to give Blood Scrivener a try. I also really need to fill out to the full 4 mutavaults and get some urborg's as well.
I don't think Waste Not is any good versus Jeskai Ascendancy. When they're going off they'll be giving us some zombies and mana primarily (discarding lands and excess creatures). Then when at a critical mass they can wish for Wear // Tear, Abrupt Decay, or various other enchantment/artifact hate to push aside our Bridges and/or Leylines. Plus they have two angles to go for a kill. Swing with the mana dorks (some of which fly so our zombies/rats are useless), or fire off a Flesh // Blood and kill us with direct damage. I think we have to focus on getting them to zero cards in hand and fast. When they have 1 or 0 cards in hand, the looting effect from Ascendancy becomes useless, increasing the likelihood they'll wiff mid-combo (with 1 card they cast their cantrip, then triggers for looting occur before the cantrip effect so if they do loot they discard the card they drew and have to rely on the cantrip to keep the combo rolling). This match more than most we have to rip the hand apart. Hands with little or no action destroying the hand are unkeepable. And that's just G1! G2 the builds I have seen run a full complement of Leylines, if they land one I don't see a realistic way we win the match.
Edit: I think I like smallpox in this match. On the play it's backbreaking T2. They run a very low land count and need to land a mana dork T1. If we hit both, there's a good chance they can't recover. Plus it doesn't target so it gets around Leyline, though I'm still having a hard time seeing how we win through one against them unless we can get Rats/Mutavault running quickly.
Those are the CMC 4 permanent cards I could find. Nothing super exciting at this cost.
Completely misread your post. Ignore me. Nothing to see here.
Isochron Scepter only let's you imprint instants. What are you planning to imprint in an 8-Rack shell? Funeral Charm seems the only likely target I'm aware of
You can trigger the second Relic ability with Raven's Crime on the stack. This will result in a card draw, the opponents graveyard being empty, and you with one card (the Raven's Crime) in your graveyard.
Kind of feel like you could have brought in Pithing Needles and pulled out the Bridges to take care of the Mutavaults. Otherwise those were close games. Seeing the video I don't know that I would have played BB as early as you did. It's a good card for sure, but I feel like you want to stabilize a bit against the mirror match before dropping it. Both decks wanted to play the long game and it just "felt" wrong to drop it turn 2 each game, even with the Leyline out. I could definitely be wrong here, since I haven't had a chance to playtest extensively with BB, or the mirror for that matter, just my first instinct upon watching the match.
Nice observation! Didn't notice this on my first watch.
I look at this as a worse Deathrite Shaman. Both are going to be able to hit for 2 damage a turn (though I guess Sleeper Agent will do so a turn earlier). Both are going to be targets for removal from opponents, though Sleeper Agent can potentially ramp your opponent if your opponent plays Path to Exile. DRS also has the advantage of providing some graveyard hate against Snapcaster Mage and Flashback spells. Also as you stated, without Ensnaring Bridge in play, Sleeper Agent is pretty bad. As a budget replacement for DRS I can see some merit, but if budget isn't a concern go with DRS.
Appreciate the insight. On paper it looked meh, but paper vs. real-world experience is what I was looking for. I did run a full set of DRS previously but took them out for some other cards. I may have to find some room for 2 or 3 in the list to help with the damage.
@MemoryLapse - Watched some of your videos with Blinkmoth Nexus. It looks promising, but was wondering if you had any insights to share at this time?
I put in some Phyrexian Arena's last night to test and right now my feelings are mixed. I cast two all night and they were both destroyed before I was able to draw off of them. However they did bait removal that would have been directed at my Ensnaring Bridges so there is that interaction. Also one match had me and my opponent both sitting in top deck mode with a Necrogen Mists and Ensnaring Bridge out but I hadn't yet drawn any Rack effects. I ended up losing, because he was able to top deck an answer to the EB. That does make me concerned that I'm not running enough win conditions. I'm thinking perhaps Liliana's Caress as a one or two of to supplement the damage from the Rack effects. Any experience with this card from anyone else? Finally Smallpox was an all-star. I didn't lose a game where I was able to cast it turn 2 profitably. Here's what I'm currently running:
4 Raven's Crime
3 Thoughtseize
2 Funeral Charm
4 Smallpox
4 Shrieking Affliction
4 The Rack
4 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Victim of Night
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Necrogen Mists
2 Phyrexian Arena
20 Swamp
2 Extirpate
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Pithing Needle
2 Dismember
2 Infest
1 Damnation
2 Night of Souls' Betrayal
Yes I know I'm running 61 in the main. I cut one thoughtseize and added to two Phyrexian Arena's last minute. Didn't want to think to hard on a cut so just ran with it. Any suggestions, let me know.
Round 1: vs Amulet of Vigor combo
This is a newer deck I'd heard of but not seen in action. The guy running it was new to it as well and had only been able to goldfish it a few times before the tourney. Games were pretty standard 8-rack affairs and I easily won 2-0. Trick here is to keep them off of their blooms/titans/asuza/etc (basically anything that allows them to play multiple lands per turn). Also this build had little in the way of artifact hate, so once a bridge landed it was game. I didn't sideboard in either game, as I wasn't really sure what would help (maybe VoN?).
Round 2: vs Death and Taxes
My opponent was a pretty experienced player and after our match we'd remember we had met each other at a different shop a year or so earlier. Game 1 he conceded after I landed a turn 3 bridge. He had all the right cards to hate against me from his board. Game two he dropped a turn 0 Leyline of Sanctity. I pushed on but ultimately he was able to get a few Vial's online and stick some threat's I couldn't deal with so it was on to game three. I went to the sideboard and unloaded all of my thoughtseizes and duress for my spot removal and the infests. I figured if he was going to land a LoS turn 0, those were my least effective spells. Game three he mulligans to 6 and finds another turn 0 LoS. I kept a hand with an infest and a dismember as well as bridge and DRS, so I felt pretty good about my chances. This ended up being a long grindy game, but ultimately I was able to use my own discard on myself to lock his creatures out with bridge and then land enough threats he couldn't deal with through disenchant/O-Ring/etc. I think he ended up playing 3 disenchants on either Shrieking Affliction/Bridge/Rack and having 2 O-Rings out to deal with Lilly and DRS, but ultimately I got a few things to stick and ended up winning the match 2-1. A turn LoS is NOT a game loss, but it's hard and will take some luck and persistance to win. Also I was pretty happy with the mind wrench's I had main board to help empty my hand to stay out of harm's way of his threats. Also killing Thalia in this matchup as soon as you see here is critical. Finally, Infest did some real work here and I had a few 2(or better)-for-1 situations that kept me in games 2 and 3
Round 3: Izzet Tempo Delver Fairies
I'd played this gentleman before and he's a rock solid player. I don't play in many sanctioned events, but those I do play in and if this guy is there, he generally wins the whole thing, or comes damn close to it. I'm not sure what to call his deck, and neither was he, but it was interesting and damn effective against me. On the first game he was able to land a Delver turn one, flip him by turn 3 and just keep me off of my discard plan through counter magic and fairies. I couldn't find a bridge (and when I finally did couldn't make it stick) so it was off to game two. I sideboard in my creature hate. I thought about bringing in the extirpate/surgical extraction package to help get rid of his counter magic, but decided against it. Not sure if that's the right play, but oh well. Game two is more interesting and I feel I could have won, but I misplayed and didn't redirect rack damage to his Chandra, Pyromancer. This let him tick her up to ultimate and he was able to find a Lighting Bolt and knock me from 9 to zero. Before that I was able to keep up with him to a decent degree and brought him down to 6 with a bridge, rack and Lilly in play. I think If I had done a damage redirection I could have won at least one game. Oh well 0-2
Round 4: vs Isochron Sceptre (Ice Cream Tempo)
We were the match that was playing for second place, after some other attendees dropped. This seemed to be a relatively standard American Tempo list, with Isochron Sceptre thrown in. Game 1 I highly underestimated the Isochron and didn't pull it from his had when I was on the draw. That was a huge mistake and he was able to land it with a Lightning Helix imprinted, and that was basically game. I tried to tough it out for a few turns, even landing a Lilly and a Bridge, but I wasn't drawing into DRS, Shrieking or the Rack and so I ultimately lost. Game 2 I sided in my surgical extraction/extirpate and pithing needles. I ultimately ended up winning this game on the back of a bridge that stuck, a pithing needle naming IS, and a Lilly and Raven's Crime. I also finally saw some creatures from him including Geist of Saint Traft, though they were ineffective due to the bridge. This was a long game and he was disciplined in trying to maintain a hand size of at least 5 for most of it. Sandbagging against us when we have no gas can really put us behind especially without extra card draw, but ultimately I came out on top. Game three I kept a shaky hand, and I didn't sideboard in my infests, which was a HUGE oversight on my part. Ultimately he landed a turn three GoST I couldn't pull from his hand (only had duress), and I was stuck on just Mutavault and a Swamp the entire game with Bridge, Lilly, Dismember and Necrogen Mists in hand. I should have held back on casting some of my do-nothing discard to keep mana open for Mutavault, but I didn't and so he was able to hit me for 6 a few turns before I caught on. By then it was too late and he drew into a few Magma Jets and Lightning Bolts and that was game. 1-2
Not sure where I ended up placing, but overall I was pretty happy with the deck. It has it's weaknesses and I had some misplays, but I don't get to play constructed often (mostly cube) so I'll chalk it up to experience and go from there. I feel like I could use some card draw, and I'm tempted to give Blood Scrivener a try. I also really need to fill out to the full 4 mutavaults and get some urborg's as well.