Moar decks, okay?
Dredge feat. Bloodghast is nothing new and why would you even click that, let alone look at its sideboard? But wait -- with a transformational Painter/Grindstone plan? If I haven't seen it, it's new to me! Here and quite similarly here.
Nic Fit in a GBW shell has been around for awhile and hasn't blown my mind. Deranged Hermit doesn't crank my tractor, Grave Titan can't be fetched with Green Sun's Zenith, Wickerbough Elder is not the most exciting way to do up a Disenchant, and what's with the random Recurring Nightmare you supposedly just raw-dog into?
Fortunately, a couple of innovators who managed to T8/75 in Germany have experimented with alternative approaches to the whole Vet-Ex/Therapy approach. This guy right here consistifies the affair with Brainstorm and Ponder, and uses the ol' Natural Order/Progenitus method of ending things pretty fast. This kind of raises questions about what exactly he's gathering all that mana for through such a janky shell, and does nothing to resolve the "Fuck I just put my opponent ahead on mana and now he has resolved Jace the Mind Scultor oh shit" problem. But I do find his sideboard robust. Fuck storm, anyone?
His fellow Nic-Fit professor's approach is a bit more to my liking, doing a bunch of weird stuff I've been pondering for awhile. He's got the GSZ for Broodmate Dargon/Huntmaster of the Swell party, and I think we can charitably overlook that random Sarkhan Vol. Is it supposed to be Sarkahn the Mad, to party with the Divining Tops? If so, Oracle of Mul Daya would --NEVERMIND.
Hey Grafted Wargear on Spellstutter Sprite in a U/R Delver shell? That's up my alley. So is U/B Stiflenought just riddled with unexpected but seemingly brilliant choices (T8/131).
And lastly, picture G/W Maverick traveling down the road of evolution, listening to Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice." As the song goes, Maverick, you could go with this, or you could go with that.
/notestoself
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Thursday, May 3, 2012
"Piss People Off" -or- "Power out Back to Basics with the first Chrome Mox and pitch the second one to your turn-two Liliana"
So I'm told the next Legacy event at Outer Limits Murfreesboro is on Sunday, the 20th of May. The weekend after that is StarCity Nashville, where the Legacy Challenge is per usual Saturday evening and I should point out the main Sunday event is now a big $40 due to a growing prize pool.
Also of note: Grand Prix Atlanta at the end of June, Legacy. I've already asked for that Friday off so we can get there in time to grind.
In other news, StarCity Birmingham last month was a hoot.
I went 2-1-1 in the Challenge playing BUG kinda like this (2/57) except not at all because I had Tombstalkers and Abyssal Persecutors and four fucking Pernicious Deeds and no countermagic. I beat Loam and Maverick feat. Fauna/Retainers/Norn, lost a close 2-1 to a fucked up mono-red build that always had Koth on board, and went to time against Esper Stoneblade.
On Sunday I loaned this kid 58 of his 75 but it's really Adam Cai's build; he made a hundred dollars. I also loaned my dogg Taylor a mono-blue Dream Halls list and he made fifty dollars. Me? I lost to this guy in the first round, then fought my way back to 3-1 beating Elves, U/R Painter and U/B Stifle-Nought before losing to this other Dream Halls player. At 3-2 I decided to play one more round just for science and once again got blasted by mono-red. Four Hydroblasts in the board are simply not enough. At least I got to kill both an Emrakul and a Progenitus using Innocent Blood.
On the tech front, the Dream Halls player boarded in Leyline of Sanctity which blunted my planeswalkers, Inquisition of Kozilek, etc in games two and three, both of which he won off Army of the Damned. At one point I was so desperate to topdeck a Maelstrom Pulse or Deed I played Surgical Extraction and targeted a Polluted Delta in my own yard just to thin my pile and shuffle after a lousy Brainstorm; not good enough.
On the not-so-tech front, someone let me Inquisition him on the first turn while he was holding Misdirection; I may never know why. Someone else declined to Jace-Bounce a lethal Tombstalker I couldn't have afforded to re-buy; I was okay with that. And a guy let me Inquisition him and pluck out Intuition when he was fully untapped and clearly needed to tutor for something over CMC3 anyway. I mention this in part because it just feels good to be able to spot people misplaying and in part as a reminder that it's not like guys wait until they're on camera to start botching up at these things.
Oh, and for the record, I had trouble getting Abyssal Persecutor off the board zero times, in part because I had about 16 ways to get rid of him. The brief moment where your opponent is at negative life and you're still playing Magic is oddly succulent.
Enough about that; here's some stuff I might build:
I'm contemplating a return to Dragon Stompy. I think mainboard Sulfur Elemental could be beastly against Maverick and Lingering Souls, and nothing about this format except maybe the Veteran Explorer deck has much going against first or second-turn Blood Moon, Trinisphere or Chalice of the Void. I'm probably going to dump the old Seething Song/Arc Slogger jank and give it a whirl.
Also in that vein, I have the following Goblins list on my brain: 30 dudes, 22 land, 4 Aether Vial, 4 Thorn of Amethyst. Just saying ideas here.
Some other lists:
- This is a B/w Pox list featuring Lingering Souls, T8 out of 103. This is a B/W Deadguy list feat. Jotun Grunt and Smother, T4/68. My main complaint with both is I crave mainboard Vindicate. Lists like this are hard in that lately I find myself wanting to jank them all up with weird shit like Sorin of Innistrad, Chrome Mox and Bitterblossom. Once I've added Mirran Crusader and Death Grasp we'll just admit I'm actually pondering a bad EDH list, okay?
- Speaking of Mirran Crusader and Lingering Souls (which I'm sure are slots 57-60, not listed) there is this list (T8/78), which, well, fuck it guys I'm doing it.
- If that's an atypical take on Esper Stoneblade, consider this pile (2/53), blatantly misclassified as Maverick. It's basically Survival of the Fittest 2012 without the Survival. Note the Transmute guy can be a Fauna Shaman or can be fetched for a Stasis which is terrifying with Quirion Ranger which is somehow a combo with Merieke? Are you trollin' me, dogg?
- 4x Destructive Flow in a Jund shell gets 2/68, although I'm not convinced it has enough game against dedicated combo, particularly if it boards in Leyline of Sanctity (see my Dream Halls match above). Another way to Cascade your Bloodbraid would be into Ancestral Vision (1/68) so how about that?
- It's been awhile since I thought about Counterbalance in a Painter shell but what the hell; it's T8/68 and it's playing Thirst for Knowledge and boarding Thorn of Amethyst.
Ren Hoek and I are going to work now so try not to do anything too stupid!
<3, Dan
Also of note: Grand Prix Atlanta at the end of June, Legacy. I've already asked for that Friday off so we can get there in time to grind.
In other news, StarCity Birmingham last month was a hoot.
I went 2-1-1 in the Challenge playing BUG kinda like this (2/57) except not at all because I had Tombstalkers and Abyssal Persecutors and four fucking Pernicious Deeds and no countermagic. I beat Loam and Maverick feat. Fauna/Retainers/Norn, lost a close 2-1 to a fucked up mono-red build that always had Koth on board, and went to time against Esper Stoneblade.
On Sunday I loaned this kid 58 of his 75 but it's really Adam Cai's build; he made a hundred dollars. I also loaned my dogg Taylor a mono-blue Dream Halls list and he made fifty dollars. Me? I lost to this guy in the first round, then fought my way back to 3-1 beating Elves, U/R Painter and U/B Stifle-Nought before losing to this other Dream Halls player. At 3-2 I decided to play one more round just for science and once again got blasted by mono-red. Four Hydroblasts in the board are simply not enough. At least I got to kill both an Emrakul and a Progenitus using Innocent Blood.
On the tech front, the Dream Halls player boarded in Leyline of Sanctity which blunted my planeswalkers, Inquisition of Kozilek, etc in games two and three, both of which he won off Army of the Damned. At one point I was so desperate to topdeck a Maelstrom Pulse or Deed I played Surgical Extraction and targeted a Polluted Delta in my own yard just to thin my pile and shuffle after a lousy Brainstorm; not good enough.
On the not-so-tech front, someone let me Inquisition him on the first turn while he was holding Misdirection; I may never know why. Someone else declined to Jace-Bounce a lethal Tombstalker I couldn't have afforded to re-buy; I was okay with that. And a guy let me Inquisition him and pluck out Intuition when he was fully untapped and clearly needed to tutor for something over CMC3 anyway. I mention this in part because it just feels good to be able to spot people misplaying and in part as a reminder that it's not like guys wait until they're on camera to start botching up at these things.
Oh, and for the record, I had trouble getting Abyssal Persecutor off the board zero times, in part because I had about 16 ways to get rid of him. The brief moment where your opponent is at negative life and you're still playing Magic is oddly succulent.
Enough about that; here's some stuff I might build:
I'm contemplating a return to Dragon Stompy. I think mainboard Sulfur Elemental could be beastly against Maverick and Lingering Souls, and nothing about this format except maybe the Veteran Explorer deck has much going against first or second-turn Blood Moon, Trinisphere or Chalice of the Void. I'm probably going to dump the old Seething Song/Arc Slogger jank and give it a whirl.
Also in that vein, I have the following Goblins list on my brain: 30 dudes, 22 land, 4 Aether Vial, 4 Thorn of Amethyst. Just saying ideas here.
Some other lists:
- This is a B/w Pox list featuring Lingering Souls, T8 out of 103. This is a B/W Deadguy list feat. Jotun Grunt and Smother, T4/68. My main complaint with both is I crave mainboard Vindicate. Lists like this are hard in that lately I find myself wanting to jank them all up with weird shit like Sorin of Innistrad, Chrome Mox and Bitterblossom. Once I've added Mirran Crusader and Death Grasp we'll just admit I'm actually pondering a bad EDH list, okay?
- Speaking of Mirran Crusader and Lingering Souls (which I'm sure are slots 57-60, not listed) there is this list (T8/78), which, well, fuck it guys I'm doing it.
- If that's an atypical take on Esper Stoneblade, consider this pile (2/53), blatantly misclassified as Maverick. It's basically Survival of the Fittest 2012 without the Survival. Note the Transmute guy can be a Fauna Shaman or can be fetched for a Stasis which is terrifying with Quirion Ranger which is somehow a combo with Merieke? Are you trollin' me, dogg?
- 4x Destructive Flow in a Jund shell gets 2/68, although I'm not convinced it has enough game against dedicated combo, particularly if it boards in Leyline of Sanctity (see my Dream Halls match above). Another way to Cascade your Bloodbraid would be into Ancestral Vision (1/68) so how about that?
- It's been awhile since I thought about Counterbalance in a Painter shell but what the hell; it's T8/68 and it's playing Thirst for Knowledge and boarding Thorn of Amethyst.
Ren Hoek and I are going to work now so try not to do anything too stupid!
<3, Dan
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Scragnoth Doesn't Die to Retribution of the Meek, Which is More Than I Can Say for Thrun
With enough hate-bears you can just ruin an opponent... or a format?
Listen, the top 16 for the invitational was fucking boring. And I'm a guy who likes undercosted shitbags so much I top-4'd a 60-man playing Mother of Runes, Gaddock Teeg, Jitte and Swords during the Stifle-Nought heyday of 2008.
Now don't get me wrong: I'm guilty as anyone, having played the Mom/Pridemage/Knight curve way before it was cool. But now, in addition to hating blue, thanks to Maverick I'm currently trying to figure out how to kill my own pet deck. What beats Delver of Secrets, Lingering Souls, and the Maverick Suite? What doesn't lose to Stifle/Waste/Daze, a vicious parade of variable Snapcaster fuckery, or a deck that plays three different toolboxes with tutors for each?
My imaginary answer Friday night was Firespout in a RUG shell. Easy enough to cast, can at least kill Mom, if not every guy she's protecting, gets rid of Geist and Delver and tokens and Stoneforge... seems real good, right? Doesn't deal with Knight, but if you kill it with Beast Within or steal it with Gilded Drake then Firespout resolves the trade-off nicely. (Jace-bounce on the beast token does just fine as well - better still for the Drake).
Long story short my list needed the kind of tuning I couldn't give it in a night, so this past weekend I audibled back to Maverick.
In Franklin I donked hard by walking into Burning Wish for Perish in one round, another round forgetting I had Maze of Ith in hand while losing to an Elspeth-jumping Batterskull, and playing a hard-fought but ultimately fruitless three-game match against Adam Turk.
In Murfreesboro I got turn-two Knight to beat an updated New Horizons at its own game with Wastelock, beat out my own Reanimator list post-board, was downright Rude to Thopter-Control and packed it in to burn with maindeck Sulferic Vortex.
Final record on the weekend: 5-4. I'm not proud, but somehow at $5/entry it still proved profitable.
Anyway.
I'm not going to make it to the Murfreesboro Legacy event on 15 April due to a longstanding date out-of-town. "But DanPo," you criddlingly start -- Fie! Fie you Magic players! Know you not the sweet and succulent fifth-turn-of-time victory that is the Cuddle?! Et c.
Point being, my next Legacy event looks to be SCG B'ham (21/22 April). I've got Pernicious Deed on the brain as an alternative solution (Spagnolo) to the Maverick/Delver/Stoneblade conundrum. I also haven't written off Veteran Explorer in a Jund shell, since he solves a lot of manabase vulnerabilities, and a lot of your opponents can't avoid letting you chump with him. This also allows for Firespout alongside Pernicious Deed, Cabal Therapy, and probably partybosses like Scavenging Ooze and Liliana of the Veil, both venerable fuckings in their own right.
Stop me before I play Huntmaster of the Fells in such a list, okay?
Outside that, let's consider:
- Mono-red Goblins with 34 guys (T16/234)
- This Elves list with Vengevine (T8/85) that plays like Demigod Intuition
- This Bant list comboing Fauna Shaman with Squadron Hawk (T4/85)
- This other Elves list (T8/different 85) that probably has better luck with Sylvan Messenger than Sterling
- Adam Cai winning by deciding what Maverick needs is an Elesh Norn and some Spell Pierces (SCG open)
And not to tip my hand, but let's be honest: I've wanted to cast Lin Vala off an Ancient Tomb for almost two years.
<3,
-Dan
PS - Have heart. Whatever else isn't good enough about Legacy right now, at least Protean Hulk doesn't... oh no.
PPS - A few posts ago I wondered where the inevitable Death'n'Taxes list with Thalia was. Turns out before she could come over the deck had to break up with Mangara. He was all sizzle and no steak anyway.
PPPS - GP Atlanta (June 30/July 1) is Legacy. Help
Listen, the top 16 for the invitational was fucking boring. And I'm a guy who likes undercosted shitbags so much I top-4'd a 60-man playing Mother of Runes, Gaddock Teeg, Jitte and Swords during the Stifle-Nought heyday of 2008.
Now don't get me wrong: I'm guilty as anyone, having played the Mom/Pridemage/Knight curve way before it was cool. But now, in addition to hating blue, thanks to Maverick I'm currently trying to figure out how to kill my own pet deck. What beats Delver of Secrets, Lingering Souls, and the Maverick Suite? What doesn't lose to Stifle/Waste/Daze, a vicious parade of variable Snapcaster fuckery, or a deck that plays three different toolboxes with tutors for each?
My imaginary answer Friday night was Firespout in a RUG shell. Easy enough to cast, can at least kill Mom, if not every guy she's protecting, gets rid of Geist and Delver and tokens and Stoneforge... seems real good, right? Doesn't deal with Knight, but if you kill it with Beast Within or steal it with Gilded Drake then Firespout resolves the trade-off nicely. (Jace-bounce on the beast token does just fine as well - better still for the Drake).
Long story short my list needed the kind of tuning I couldn't give it in a night, so this past weekend I audibled back to Maverick.
In Franklin I donked hard by walking into Burning Wish for Perish in one round, another round forgetting I had Maze of Ith in hand while losing to an Elspeth-jumping Batterskull, and playing a hard-fought but ultimately fruitless three-game match against Adam Turk.
In Murfreesboro I got turn-two Knight to beat an updated New Horizons at its own game with Wastelock, beat out my own Reanimator list post-board, was downright Rude to Thopter-Control and packed it in to burn with maindeck Sulferic Vortex.
Final record on the weekend: 5-4. I'm not proud, but somehow at $5/entry it still proved profitable.
Anyway.
I'm not going to make it to the Murfreesboro Legacy event on 15 April due to a longstanding date out-of-town. "But DanPo," you criddlingly start -- Fie! Fie you Magic players! Know you not the sweet and succulent fifth-turn-of-time victory that is the Cuddle?! Et c.
Point being, my next Legacy event looks to be SCG B'ham (21/22 April). I've got Pernicious Deed on the brain as an alternative solution (Spagnolo) to the Maverick/Delver/Stoneblade conundrum. I also haven't written off Veteran Explorer in a Jund shell, since he solves a lot of manabase vulnerabilities, and a lot of your opponents can't avoid letting you chump with him. This also allows for Firespout alongside Pernicious Deed, Cabal Therapy, and probably partybosses like Scavenging Ooze and Liliana of the Veil, both venerable fuckings in their own right.
Stop me before I play Huntmaster of the Fells in such a list, okay?
Outside that, let's consider:
- Mono-red Goblins with 34 guys (T16/234)
- This Elves list with Vengevine (T8/85) that plays like Demigod Intuition
- This Bant list comboing Fauna Shaman with Squadron Hawk (T4/85)
- This other Elves list (T8/different 85) that probably has better luck with Sylvan Messenger than Sterling
- Adam Cai winning by deciding what Maverick needs is an Elesh Norn and some Spell Pierces (SCG open)
And not to tip my hand, but let's be honest: I've wanted to cast Lin Vala off an Ancient Tomb for almost two years.
<3,
-Dan
PS - Have heart. Whatever else isn't good enough about Legacy right now, at least Protean Hulk doesn't... oh no.
PPS - A few posts ago I wondered where the inevitable Death'n'Taxes list with Thalia was. Turns out before she could come over the deck had to break up with Mangara. He was all sizzle and no steak anyway.
PPPS - GP Atlanta (June 30/July 1) is Legacy. Help
Monday, March 5, 2012
And a G/W Planeswalker Oughta Disenchant. Or at least Naturalize.
First off, an update on events I'm marking:
17/18 March - GP Nashville.
24 March (Saturday) noon at Outer Limits Franklin - $5 Legacy.
21/22 April - StarCity Birmingham
May 26/27 - StarCity Nashville represent represent-sent.
Somewhere in there is talk of Legacy at the (wholly unrelated) Outer Limits in Murfreesboro.
So, what are you gonna sleeve up?
Maverick is no-longer a maverick deck, and in some extreme splash-cases is scarcely Maverick at all (1/141). Having messed about with Punishing Fire and Geist of Saint Traft I'm coming back around to the new take on old-school straight G/W, incorporating Thalia (1/105). I'll let you know how it goes.
I'd be lying if I said revisiting B/W beats (9/94) wasn't a thought, but there are other possibilities - Lingering Intuitively, (2/105).
Other stuff that caught my eye: a Show and Tell list (10/94) that powers out Chalice of the Void? Sign me up, but to be fair, even more impressively, I have never seen Emrakul powered out like this (4/61).
And finally, you thought they were dead, but Merfolk (8/61), Reanimator (7/61) and Enchantress (5/153) all live to kill another day. Or in the case of the latter, not so much kill you as just watch you die.
It'll have to do.
-DP
17/18 March - GP Nashville.
24 March (Saturday) noon at Outer Limits Franklin - $5 Legacy.
21/22 April - StarCity Birmingham
May 26/27 - StarCity Nashville represent represent-sent.
Somewhere in there is talk of Legacy at the (wholly unrelated) Outer Limits in Murfreesboro.
So, what are you gonna sleeve up?
Maverick is no-longer a maverick deck, and in some extreme splash-cases is scarcely Maverick at all (1/141). Having messed about with Punishing Fire and Geist of Saint Traft I'm coming back around to the new take on old-school straight G/W, incorporating Thalia (1/105). I'll let you know how it goes.
I'd be lying if I said revisiting B/W beats (9/94) wasn't a thought, but there are other possibilities - Lingering Intuitively, (2/105).
Other stuff that caught my eye: a Show and Tell list (10/94) that powers out Chalice of the Void? Sign me up, but to be fair, even more impressively, I have never seen Emrakul powered out like this (4/61).
And finally, you thought they were dead, but Merfolk (8/61), Reanimator (7/61) and Enchantress (5/153) all live to kill another day. Or in the case of the latter, not so much kill you as just watch you die.
It'll have to do.
-DP
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