Really just an addendum to my earlier post now that tonight's results are up...
This is listed as a RUG deck, but there's no Nimble Mongoose, Tarmogoyf etc -- instead you have a list that's more in the vein of Andrew Shrout's stunning UR invention from a few months ago, but less aggressive and with a broader plan: for instance packing Magus of the Moon in lieu of Goblin Guide, and the indomitable Vendilion Clique over Fireblast. I'm a fan.
Adam Prosak's Faithless Dredge list exists, but I can't help feeling like this is still a few drafts away from what it could be. Would like to see more Ichorid and Therapy, but maybe the seeming lack of consistency there just becomes irrelevant when the cards flip your way.
Ryan sounds like he's fallen for this Esper Stoneblade list here; we're already talking minor adjustments. 24 land seems like a lot, so we were thinking about cutting the fourth Sea (Black isn't a lot of slots and BB is never needed) to mainboard the Jitte. That extra sideboard slot also allows a fourth Leyline of Sanctity, because Leylines seem to demand either 4 slots or 0, hey?
Outside that I just want to know where the D&T lists packing Thalia are... in the profiles Top 8 guys suggest it's around, so what's preying upon it?
Until next time, everybody get your transmission flushed, do oral and listen to metal please.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Pretend all you want but we're due for a G/W Planeswalker
I'll probably completely revise my list of Legacy-t3ch crushes if something bonkers-ish shows up in tonight's top 16, but before things get out of hand let's just admit some facts:
- Protecting Thalia with Mom and Karakas in a deck running 8 lands that deny mana on top of Aven Mindcensor is no way to make friends. No list yet, but speaking of WW remember that time I got distracted trying to build something along these lines? 2/76
- Veteran Explorer into Cabal Therapy lets you power out silly planeswalkers, titans and Abyssal Persecutors -- oh wait this is a Standard list. But seriously (G/B/r 1/24). Seriously (G/B 1/40).
- This deck's win condition is robbing you of the will to live.
Goblins is continuing a peculiar resurgence nobody wants to talk about, and continuing to not need a splash in the process. Also kicking it old school: Jack Elgin, rocking Parallax Wave and three Jittes in a Mavericky list sans Stoneforge.
I'm on the fence about whether SCG Memphis will happen for me. There's a Legacy GP in Indy next month that could be exciting, and I'm sure there'll be plenty of side-event fun at GP Nashville the week after.
It's interesting how even since the banning of Mental Misstep, there's still this question of whether the Bant list should bother with a legit counter-package or just party on your face. You'll recall James Rynko#asdf was a happier man for splitting the difference.
- Protecting Thalia with Mom and Karakas in a deck running 8 lands that deny mana on top of Aven Mindcensor is no way to make friends. No list yet, but speaking of WW remember that time I got distracted trying to build something along these lines? 2/76
- Veteran Explorer into Cabal Therapy lets you power out silly planeswalkers, titans and Abyssal Persecutors -- oh wait this is a Standard list. But seriously (G/B/r 1/24). Seriously (G/B 1/40).
- This deck's win condition is robbing you of the will to live.
Goblins is continuing a peculiar resurgence nobody wants to talk about, and continuing to not need a splash in the process. Also kicking it old school: Jack Elgin, rocking Parallax Wave and three Jittes in a Mavericky list sans Stoneforge.
I'm on the fence about whether SCG Memphis will happen for me. There's a Legacy GP in Indy next month that could be exciting, and I'm sure there'll be plenty of side-event fun at GP Nashville the week after.
It's interesting how even since the banning of Mental Misstep, there's still this question of whether the Bant list should bother with a legit counter-package or just party on your face. You'll recall James Rynko#asdf was a happier man for splitting the difference.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
C'est la peste! Sauve qui peut!
Went to Atlanta for a magical dude-time at the StarCity this past weekend, but while drippily pacing back and forth between the bed and the sink at 4 a.m. on Sunday I decided it was better to sleep in than agonize over what to sideboard against Pox for the Open.
We all dropped a round to Pox in the Challenge the day before - me salvaging a 3-1 finish with Deadguy by beating Maverick, Death and Taxes, and Ad Nauseum Tendrils*; Sterling with Reanimator losing to my having loaned Carlisle the deck's Elesh Norn; and Quinten with Enchantress... all hating Pox by the end of it.
[* Slaughter Pact cannot target Tidehollow Sculler, even when it is holding your one copy of Tendrils, sir.]
Pox goes to top-deck mode by about turn four, and its plan is taking you there with it. Then it needs maybe ten or more awful turns to actually kill you, but in the meantime you have no grip and no land. I randomly windmill-slammed my one-of Elspeth off the top against the deck, and then spent a good 15 turns playing draw-go against an active LilianaOTV and Cursed Scroll, unable to maintain enough land to cast and keep a dude alive to just swoop in and kill his stupid third Lily, eventually unable even to afford Vindicating it.
Anyway that opponent said he dropped two rounds to Stoneblade, presumably because he can't do anything about Planeswalkers or artifacts, and I guess if blue keeps him off Smallpox or Sinkhole long enough it can resolve JaceTMS and handle top-deck mode quite nicely thank you.
A year or two ago my rationale in preparing for StarCity events was two-fold: 1) don't play blue; it's hard** and Merfolk is[/was] everywhere AND 2) actively fuck over people for making the obvious choice to play blue. Also, while in the abstract JaceTMS is the best planeswalker, ElspethKE not only trumps him but pulls her weight in a vacuum as well.
[** I know I've said before and continue to believe it is very hard to Hymn to Tourach (read: Force of Will) yourself in a profitable way, and I prefer to leave such meta-sustaining moves to keener players.]
Anyway. Adam Cai's list from the event does a lot of the things I wish I'd been doing last week while sighing over how linear G/w Maverick felt.*** But then I wasn't testing post-board, where Choke is pure Wayne Brady. I guess Cai thought so too, even though the card clearly hurt him as well.
[*** The urge to avoid the expected--Punishing Mav--was admittedly a totally off-with-the-nose-to-spite-the-face type of situmation. D'oh.]
The top lists that day packed a few surprises - when was the last time you saw Goblins vying for single-elim? Me, I left Death and Taxes for dead years ago. Now I'm wondering, could he just drop the Stoneforge Mystics for maindeck CatBoss, and instead of choosing among SwordOfs just play three Jittes? CatBoss is part of this dream I have where I Piss Some People Off.
And I like this micro-Zoo list, though his board-hate felt thin and left me wondering if he sometimes mulls to oblivion. Maybe because he can theoretically kill on three he just crushes[/ed] dreams anyway.
In other news, Past in Flames placed 2nd in a 156-man event, and didn't even run black to do so. Well, okay, yes, it did cast Burning Wish for the Tendrils, hitting the cost's BB via I guess Manamorphose or LED. It's interesting to me he went into White for Silence when black provides discard and more rituals, but thanks to his cheaper mana-base I'm planning to take this build for a spin soon, though I barely know how.
Also in that top-8, someone cowboyed up and made Back to Basics awesome in a Stoneblade shell. My one complaint is once your manas are boned the deck seems likely to then need two geologic epochs to actually dead your life to zero, but clearly that wasn't holding back others in contention that day.
Outside that, I just wanna get down with weird stuff like Elspeth Tirel, Volt Charge and Bloodgift Demon. Maybe I'm still sick...
We all dropped a round to Pox in the Challenge the day before - me salvaging a 3-1 finish with Deadguy by beating Maverick, Death and Taxes, and Ad Nauseum Tendrils*; Sterling with Reanimator losing to my having loaned Carlisle the deck's Elesh Norn; and Quinten with Enchantress... all hating Pox by the end of it.
[* Slaughter Pact cannot target Tidehollow Sculler, even when it is holding your one copy of Tendrils, sir.]
Pox goes to top-deck mode by about turn four, and its plan is taking you there with it. Then it needs maybe ten or more awful turns to actually kill you, but in the meantime you have no grip and no land. I randomly windmill-slammed my one-of Elspeth off the top against the deck, and then spent a good 15 turns playing draw-go against an active LilianaOTV and Cursed Scroll, unable to maintain enough land to cast and keep a dude alive to just swoop in and kill his stupid third Lily, eventually unable even to afford Vindicating it.
Anyway that opponent said he dropped two rounds to Stoneblade, presumably because he can't do anything about Planeswalkers or artifacts, and I guess if blue keeps him off Smallpox or Sinkhole long enough it can resolve JaceTMS and handle top-deck mode quite nicely thank you.
A year or two ago my rationale in preparing for StarCity events was two-fold: 1) don't play blue; it's hard** and Merfolk is[/was] everywhere AND 2) actively fuck over people for making the obvious choice to play blue. Also, while in the abstract JaceTMS is the best planeswalker, ElspethKE not only trumps him but pulls her weight in a vacuum as well.
[** I know I've said before and continue to believe it is very hard to Hymn to Tourach (read: Force of Will) yourself in a profitable way, and I prefer to leave such meta-sustaining moves to keener players.]
Anyway. Adam Cai's list from the event does a lot of the things I wish I'd been doing last week while sighing over how linear G/w Maverick felt.*** But then I wasn't testing post-board, where Choke is pure Wayne Brady. I guess Cai thought so too, even though the card clearly hurt him as well.
[*** The urge to avoid the expected--Punishing Mav--was admittedly a totally off-with-the-nose-to-spite-the-face type of situmation. D'oh.]
The top lists that day packed a few surprises - when was the last time you saw Goblins vying for single-elim? Me, I left Death and Taxes for dead years ago. Now I'm wondering, could he just drop the Stoneforge Mystics for maindeck CatBoss, and instead of choosing among SwordOfs just play three Jittes? CatBoss is part of this dream I have where I Piss Some People Off.
And I like this micro-Zoo list, though his board-hate felt thin and left me wondering if he sometimes mulls to oblivion. Maybe because he can theoretically kill on three he just crushes[/ed] dreams anyway.
In other news, Past in Flames placed 2nd in a 156-man event, and didn't even run black to do so. Well, okay, yes, it did cast Burning Wish for the Tendrils, hitting the cost's BB via I guess Manamorphose or LED. It's interesting to me he went into White for Silence when black provides discard and more rituals, but thanks to his cheaper mana-base I'm planning to take this build for a spin soon, though I barely know how.
Also in that top-8, someone cowboyed up and made Back to Basics awesome in a Stoneblade shell. My one complaint is once your manas are boned the deck seems likely to then need two geologic epochs to actually dead your life to zero, but clearly that wasn't holding back others in contention that day.
Outside that, I just wanna get down with weird stuff like Elspeth Tirel, Volt Charge and Bloodgift Demon. Maybe I'm still sick...
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Tread upon the meek, and they shall wound your feet, and make you crawl.
Hey remember that time I boarded that one card that demapped all the Knights of the Reliquary, Progeniti, Emrakuls, Tarmogoyfs, Inkwell Leviathans, Tombstalkers and Dreadnoughts?
This card could seriously kill all of those bastards at the same time - while leaving my Bob, Mirran Crusader, Mom and Tidehollow Sculler intact.
Oh, and it was easier to cast than Vindicate.
("What are you yammering about, Dan?")
Seriously, do you remember that shit?
The guy that got 10th at Star City St. Louis just might: he boarded two copies of the same card!
Retribution of the Meek (Visions)
2W - Sorcery - Bury all creatures with power 4 or greater.
Yeahhh!
The price has ticked up about a buck in the last two months; it's now in the $3 range. So while it hasn't exploded the way Peacekeeper did last fall, I'm clearly not the only one who's noticed it in Legacy...
This card could seriously kill all of those bastards at the same time - while leaving my Bob, Mirran Crusader, Mom and Tidehollow Sculler intact.
Oh, and it was easier to cast than Vindicate.
("What are you yammering about, Dan?")
Seriously, do you remember that shit?
The guy that got 10th at Star City St. Louis just might: he boarded two copies of the same card!
Retribution of the Meek (Visions)
2W - Sorcery - Bury all creatures with power 4 or greater.
Yeahhh!
The price has ticked up about a buck in the last two months; it's now in the $3 range. So while it hasn't exploded the way Peacekeeper did last fall, I'm clearly not the only one who's noticed it in Legacy...
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