Dies to Removal

I would imagine the miracles builds at the gp are going to be a bit harder given they are likely going to try and play rip , thus e-tutor (assuming) making it somewhat easier for them to get counterbalance top

Although I don't think there will be much miracles tbh

Don't be so sure. There will be a lot of Europeans at this GP due to its location. Dem Euros love their Miracles and Elves.

If I'm playing Swiftspear I definitely want Flame Rift in the deck. The two play well together.

I've been a huge Lavaman fan but at the end of the day you really want a fast clock and Swiftspear increases consistency dramatically. I think moving Lavaman to the board for creature matchups like D&T and Elves is fine, or you could just play Searing Blood instead.

My sideboard is my greatest concern. I am trying to decide if I am willing to just give up the Storm match up to add 3 Searing Blood to the fetchfull sideboard. I have a feeling that Dredge will be making a resurgence at the GP so I can't cut the Crypts.

Reanimator is getting a bit more popular as well.

Compared to the almost nonexistent presence it previously had.

Just run a couple of Pyrostatic Pillar in your board to complement the Eidolons and mull aggressively against Storm.

I run Mindbreak Trap alongside the Eidolons. What I am trying to decide is if it is worth cutting the Traps to add the Searing Bloods.

I am going to try to add some recordings of my DEs to this thread while I practice for the GP. Here is the first batch. Feel free to watch and critique.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... gK4T3Ph7h9

My sideboard is my greatest concern. I am trying to decide if I am willing to just give up the Storm match up to add 3 Searing Blood to the fetchfull sideboard. I have a feeling that Dredge will be making a resurgence at the GP so I can't cut the Crypts.

Storm has never really been popular in the us, sure you're in the NE, which is more likely to feature storm but given the meta has largely been unfavorable to it for the past 6 months, I would not bet on seeing a lot of it

Sometimes the dailies go well, sometimes they fail miserably. This is the latter version.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... ODhdVFkI6z

Really like the vids Blaklanner

That was me that commented on the vid.

I enjoyed watching the daily, but ma did you every have bad luck.

Dust yourself off and get back on the horse.

Oh I will most certainly be doing more of them this weekend. I need all the practice that I can get for GPNJ. The event last night died so I only had one match to upload.

We may have a problem. I have run into multiple Miracles decks, all running RIP, Energy Field, and Chill. This is most likely to fight the UR Delver and other Treasure Cruise decks. I am not sure we have a way to beat them. Two new DE replays up. Much bad luck and a game of horrible misplays.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... c32hMGWqKg

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... fkiPJH1ICq

RiP + Energy Field? That's hilarious.

It is an old(-ish since RiP isn't that old by Legacy standards) combo that they started using with Helm of Obedience when RiP was printed. It was abandoned for more efficient ways to play the game but is coming back since Miracles players are main decking RiP to fight Treasure Cruise strategies. Once you have RiP in the main, why not add Helm or Energy Field? It just sucks horribly for us as we have no way to realistically fight it. Adding Chill as well just makes our lives even more miserable. We could very easily get splash-hated out of the format if this continues.

Two more dailies. I have posted elsewhere as well looking for assistance since I have gone 4-10 in my last five dailies.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... NeM-zS0nml

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... UgL9QcaJdU

Meh, unless a large group spike the tournament with it, I would imagine the field is going to be largely delver, treasure cruise 2 gud

That still doesn't bode well for us, as the videos show. We normally win the attrition fight against them but Cruise really tips those scales.

More pointing out that I would worry more about the various delver mus than miracles

I am not sure how much more we can do against them. Searing Blood does work but it is somewhat ineffective vs Swiftspear. We may want to shift to Swiftspear itself but I need to go back to testing for that one. Pyroblast has been hit or miss. They can easily get around Ensnaring Bridge unless we are hellbent. I am at a loss in finding a way to trump their new tech.

Max out on Swiftspear, Flame Rift, and Sulfuric Vortex. I said earlier that Burn should consider moving from Lavaman to Swiftspear and it's becoming even more obvious now. Playing a grindy game is a fool's errand when everyone is playing Treasure Cruise.

Pyrokinesis is a card to consider as well if Pyroclasm isn't getting it done.

Based on my "fetchful" list, how would you suggest I do so? I can see cutting the Lavamancers easily enough but I have no idea how to fit in the 4th Vortex or any Flame Rifts.

I just picked up this deck and I've been playing with the lavamancers, I really like him in the creature matchups

I haven't played any of the grinder matchups though, i'm sure swiftspear is much better in those.

maybe load up more on searing effects in the board and/or put lavaman in the board?

[deck]
Creatures (11)
3 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Goblin Guide
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel

Spells (30)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lava Spike
4 Flame Rift
4 Price of Progress
4 Rift Bolt
2 Sulfuric Vortex
4 Fireblast

Lands (19)
19 Mountain
[/deck]

I would start here.

So you suggest cutting Searing Blaze, one of our better cards against Delver, and put Rifts in their place. Cutting Blaze means we can go back to being fetchless. You mentioned maxing out Vortex. I assume you would suggest the other two in the board?

Yep, just go fucking kill them before they can cast Treasure Cruise.

I can't help but wonder if we end up killing ourselves in the process with that plan. Certainly worth a shot though.

Well you're saving yourself some damage by not running fetches. You're also seeing these Delver lists running three basic lands tops, making PoP much better than usual.

I've been a huge advocate of Blaze, Blood, and Lavaman for a long time but now I just don't think these cards line up well against Treasure Cruise. They're grindy cards by nature and while Blaze and Blood do a good job of keeping the ground clear, I'm not sure it matters much against a deck running Young Pyromancer and spewing out tokens everywhere.

Plan B is to just play Dragon Stompy running Chalice.

The only time dragon stompy is acceptable is when you have it fully foiled

The only time dragon stompy is acceptable is when you have it fully foiled

I have not the practice time, nor the finances to switch decks at this point. Besides that, Stompy? Really? If I were to switch, it would be to either UR Delver or ANT.

Max out on Swiftspear, Flame Rift, and Sulfuric Vortex. I said earlier that Burn should consider moving from Lavaman to Swiftspear and it's becoming even more obvious now. Playing a grindy game is a fool's errand when everyone is playing Treasure Cruise.

How about we split the difference given how useful Blaze has been in keeping Mystics off the board and helps prevent Pyromancers from overwhelming us?

[deck]
Creatures
3 Goblin Guide
3 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel

Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Rift Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lava Spike
4 Price of Progress
4 Fireblast
2 Flame Rift
3 Searing Blaze
2 Sulfuric Vortex

Lands
10 Mounain
3 Arid Mesa
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Smash to Smithereens
3 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Searing Blaze
2 Flame Rift
1 Sulfuric Vortex
[/deck]

Edit - I would like to find room for a third Vortex somewhere in the 75. It helps an awful lot against Miracles, Elves, Stoneforge, etc.
Edit 2 - I think I found it. I doubt I need 3 Mindbreak Traps since they are only for Storm and Omnitell. Change reflected in the list above.

In a pleasant change, I earn a reasonable finish in tonight's daily. Recordings up as usual.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... kirIkIRaeq

[deck]
Creatures: 12
4 Goblin Guide
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Monastery Swiftwpear

Gas 30
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Rift bolt
4x Lava spike
3x flame rift
4x fireblast
4x chain lightning
3x sulfuric vortex
4x Price of Progress

lands 18
18x mountain

Sideboard 15
3x Ashen Rider
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x Grafdigger's Cage
3x Smash to Smithereens
4x Searing Blood
2x open slots
[/deck]

Here's what I'm probably taking to GPNJ, first GP (and first legacy event too). I know cutting lavaman/blaze seems like heresy but swiftspear along with flame rift gives you so many turn 3 kills it's insane. I've also won through leyline of sanctity quite a bit with this build (vs. dredge). The lack of lavaman and blaze makes some of the game 1's a little worse though, like against elves and probably maybe delver (though the entire reason I tried this is because of Valdarith's line of thinking earlier in this thread of killing the delver player before they can cruise, since you pretty much won't be able to kill them after they cruise).

Though i also wonder if cutting the rifts for blazes (and put in fetches obv) is a good compromise.

For my two open slots in the SB i'm thinking of running pithing needle since it fucks Miracles pretty hard, and there might be some other random stuff it could be good for (though it's probably not worth it in a lot of other matchups). I also could run more anti creature stuff, since the only thing I'm bringing in for that right now are the searing bloods. I'm not really sure what I'd play though.

I could also run red elemental blast/pyro blast, they seem like they could be good.

I think you guys are nuts for playing rift with eidolon. Other than that, looks good. Looks a lot like a list I wrote for an article I'm waiting to have published lol.

@ Calamity, those open slots could be ensnaring bridge, mindbreak trap or vexing shusher.

I considered (and am still considering) those options

1. i considered bridge as a replacement for the ashen riders since they're my slots for show and tell, except bridge can be brought in against other random decks. I THINK the bridge could be okay to go in vs elves. I don't know if running both is correct.

2. I'm under the impression storm isn't very popular in the US so i'm not sure if mindbreak trap is worth the slots. what else is it good against that I'm not aware of?

3. vexing shusher seems great but i don't like how vulnerable he is; i have no way to really protect him. the matchups where i want him (miracles is probably the biggest one) he'll be killed on the spot by StP and I'll basically be timewalked

Bridge is fine against Elves. It stops a combo kill but remember that they can still peck you to death with 1/1s and 2/2s. I wouldn't run more than 4 total between Bridges and Riders.

Storm may be less popular in the US but there will be a large-ish European contingent there since it is on the East Coast right near a major airport. They love Storm, Miracles, and Elves over there. I also like Mindbreak Trap against OmniTell since they cast so many spells at once you might be able to snag a key card.

Vexing Shusher really doesn't impress me. You have to pay prior to a Counterbalance trigger for it to work so I would only really use when you need to force a one mana spell through. Against Delver you can just keep that one mana up to pay for Daze any way. They do help pretty well against Chalice of the Void though.

I know I have been advocating fetchless for a while, but the meta currently suggests playing with fetch lands. This would allow you to move from Searing Blood to Searing Blaze which will make it much easier for you to kill opposing Swiftspears (one spell from their side will effectively counter your Blood unless you fire another spell at it).

I think Mindbreak Trap is the best in those slots. Smart Storm players are often blindly naming Eidolon against us when they Cabal Therapy. This gives them a second card to worry about that we also can use if they try to go off turn 2 on the play.