40 List

Same as the last two leagues. We are tilted toward making the Shadow matchup decent, and don't have a solid UW plan except this one Thrun. I'm midway between "tilt the board toward having 3 Ouphes to play against Paradoxical Outcome" and "Give up on beating the Vintage deck; it isn't worth any slots."

The cards closest to being cut are Chameleon Colossus, 2nd Forest, Dryad Arbor, 3rd Evolution, 3rd Path, and all the Ouphes.

The cards that just barely didn't make the cut are Hushbringer, Knight of Autumn, 4th Horizon Canopy, and the 3rd Ouphe.

Results

4-1 (8-2). Crushed people repeatedly. Deck (and sideboard) is humming nicely. The Neoform matchup actually taught me a lot this time and now I know the deck a lot better. Still, I'll take repeated 4-1's any day.

OO Jund (T4, T11) Lifetime 8-5 vs Jund

OO Burn (T3, T5) Lifetime 11-8 vs Burn

OO Tron (T4, T4) Lifetime 11-0 vs Tron

OO Saheeli (T3, T6) Lifetime 2-0 vs Saheeli

XX Neoform Lifetime 1-2 vs Neoform

Rounds!

Round 1 on the play vs StormQrow on Jund

Jund is tricky but we can steal game 1s with Postmortem Lunge, and Veil of Summer invalidates almost their entire gameplan. The fact that this is a good matchup is a very very strong argument to play this deck.

Win Game 1

Yup. Remember I cut 2 spells and 2 lands for Once Upon a Time; this one will be a land. So for hands like this, it's like I have 23 lands.

I hit Druid off the Once Upon a Time and actually don't hit a land. So ... I take the risky line and get the Druid. I'm not sure how bad that is with 2 Nobles in hand. It's definitely not great. It's also super unlikely. Anyway I hit Land 2 and play T2 Druid which gets Bolted. T3 I try for the win with Lunge, but it gets Pushed.

Win T4.

Hahaha

+4 Veil +3 Path +1 Lightcaster (Plague Engineer) +1 Chameleon Colossus (Not great or anything)

-2 Vizier -3 Evolution -2 Lunge (Ooze) -1 Once Upon a Time (Long Game) -1 Noble (Wrenn)

Win Game 2

Ouch no

Sure!

Bottom the Vizier.

I get to Veil a Brutality and play T3 Giver. Can't hit Land 3. Then I Veil a K Command. It's going okay but I don't have much action. I take a few (too many?) hits from a 2/2 Ooze.

My Giver gets Liliana Edicted, and I Lightcaster it T5. The Lightcaster gets a Bolt. Then a Noble gets a K Command, and a Giver gets a Bolt.

T9 Shalai gets a Push.

T10 Druid lives, win T11.

The thing is those Veils of Summer and the Lightcaster put me ahead by so many cards that the Jund deck simply doesn't function. Everyone says they are the 2-for-1 deck, but they aren't. They are a 1-for-1 deck with a few K Commands, that tries to get a 1 for 0 with a leftover Goyf. But because they rely on Edicts, they have to kill all your Nobles too... it just doesn't work against us.

Round 2 on the draw vs DaddyNoTron on Burn

Breaking serve against Burn is very difficult, and stealing a Game 1 is really hard too, but postboard we are okay. They have to play Boros Control against us and we regularly can protect a Giver and a Shalai. The matchup is very close to even.

Win Game 1

Yup!

T1 Guide T2 Eidolon on the play is tough. At least I got to use the Guide Trigger to decide to cast Once Upon a Time before drawing.

On my T2 I am at 16. I am losing 6 life to Eidolon triggers and 4 to attacks, so I am at 6. That means if I delay a turn to hold up and cast Vines, I am actually at 0. So I have to jam T2 Druid and hope I somehow live. Odds are close to zero. Die rolls are strong.

Opponent waits to Bolt until after I untap with Druid, which is not a good plan.

Vines saves the druid.

Win T3.

+2 Forgetender +3 Path +1 Caterpillar (Eidolon)

-2 Vizier -2 Lunge -2 Evolution (they kill everything)

Win Game 2

This has the pieces that this game is about. Keep.

The game starts out right on T1 with a Forgetender on top. Still these games are difficult. Opponent correctly realizes they should point every burn spell at my face. But it's not enough.

Opponent puts me to 2, and I combo T5 with Forgetender Forgetender Giver backup.

Round 3 on the play vs Irate_God on Tron

This is the best possible matchup. Not much to say here. 10-0 (20-4) so far.

Win Game 1

Nooo

Ok....

Bottom Lunge and Giver. I miss the land so I can't T3, but opponent doesn't have it. Win T4.

+2 Ouphe +1 Veil -1 Lunge -1 Shalai -1 Evolution

Win Game 2

OK, 5 again:

Bottom the Lunge and the Hierarch.

Opponent kills my T3 Druid. I Lunge it. I win T4.

Round 4 on the draw vs Lioncubkurz on Saheeli

This deck is pretty clunky. I should be able to race it or Path their things if they get ahead. Matchup seems easy.

Win Game 1

Sure

Opponent ramps into T3 Felidar Guardian on the play. Win T3.

No idea what to do: +2 Path +1 Caterpillar +1 Lightcaster (Ashiok) -1 Evolution -2 Once Upon a Time ?? -1 Lunge

Win Game 2

Sure, this is a T4

They T3 Teferi; I fetch Dryad Arbor and kill it and play T3 Druid. The Druid dies.

Opponent plays an Eidolon of Rhetoric which slows the game to a crawl. On T6, I Caterpillar the Eidolon to win.

Round 5 on the draw vs SHAKELION on Neoform

This is really bad. They race us and we don't interact meaningfully with no black or blue in our deck.

Win Game 1

Keep I guess.

T1 Griselbrand is .. a thing. Dead T2.

-4 Lunge -1 Giver -2 Vines +3 Path +1 Lightcaster +3 Veil (hey it cycles sometimes)

Win Game 2

T1 Griselbrand again. I actually could win this game except I blocked with a Devoted Druid and gave it protection. That opened it up to being Slaughter Pacted (????????).

It's true that this was a bad play, but I can't say I was expecting a removal spell. On the other hand, the only spells that mattered were removal spells.

Today I learned: Neoform opponents play Pact of Negation AND Slaughter Pact, so Veil of Summer is actually A+ and Giver is not a dead card.

Future sideboard plan vs SHAKELION: -4 Lunge -2 Vines -1 Forest? +3 Path +4 Veil

Results

4-1 (8-2) again.

Learned a lot about Neoform (not joking here).

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse