So I need a sideboard for the UW Fish list. I did end up replacing the Think Twices with Unsummons and OMG what a blowout. Where should I be going with the sideboard? Is Fortify good finishing/Pyroclasm insurance, or just dumb? Disenchants or Ronom Unicorns or Cloudchaser Kestrels? Card drawing? Counterspelling? Ghost Quarters? Wrath of Gods against better aggro? Psi Blast for some reach? I am really at a loss. Also, I need to figure out the post rotation manabase. 4X Adarkar Wastes? Nimbus Mazes? Both? 22 lands? Snow lands plus Mouth of Ronom? Help me.
Also 4X Azorius First-Wing becomes 4X Serra Avenger but what do I do about 3X Remand? This might be the perfect deck for Familiar's Ruse, no?
Showing posts with label aggro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aggro. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
SNM > FNM
Being the captain of bondage gothiness means SNM is way more popular than FNM in my house. I was able to carve out time for a Standard tourney on Saturday and brought monogreen midrange and greater goyf. The Goyf was the list that went 7-0 at nats. There it was piloted by the owner of the store I used to play at in Tucson, Dusty Ochoa. Here it was piloted by me. I loaned monogreen midrange out to a deckless dude and sat down for my first round.
Round 1
Bye
Wasn't that awesome? Greater Goyf has the pairings mojo to kick me straight into the second round with three points. I sat and watched my MGM decklist get owned my Project X. It turns out that picking a deck at random doesn't work very well, especially when the person playing has little idea of the decks strategy. No disrespect to the dude who ran my deck, but he made some pretty significant play mistakes, which made this already difficult matchup absolutely unwinnable. Exhibit A. Board is 2 forests, bird and elf, Troll Ascetic. Opponent has just played a magus of the disk. Your hand is Heartwood Storyteller, Stampeding Wildebeests, Timbermare, Harmonize. Do you (A) leave regen mana up for Trollie, (B) play Harmonize, digging for the land you are about to need, (C) play Timbermare, essentially playing a four card Lava Axe? If you guessed (C) you may follow along at home and may CBG get paired against you in the 1st round of a ptq. After board, does he set Pithing Needle on Saffi? No he does not. Ouch. 1-0
Round 2
Dan with AngelFire
I think Greater Goyf is ahead against Angelfire but I am not entirely sure. Haven't exactly tested assiduously. In the first game, I get so close, but misplay and sac a Mogg Fanatic to Gargadon instead of itself. Was he on 8 life? Yes, he was. Did I have Char and Incinerate in hand with 5 land on the table? Yes I did. Game two, I never saw any of the Cryoclasms I boarded and lost to the classic turn 3 Lightning Angel. 1-1
Round 3
Greater Goyf with Dark Confidant.
I don't think he was playing Char. I do think that was the difference. I played very tight game one and had a terrible draw game 2. Burned him out from 16 game 3. Would you keep a 3 mountain 2 Char, 2 Incinerate hand? I threw it back and got 2 mountain, 1 Gargs, 1 Char 2 Incinerate. Gargs is the trump in this matchup and so I kept. Gargs stayed suspended, what with me being busy burning my opponent's face off. So I finally have my first sanctioned constructed match win in 3 months. Yay me. 2-1
Round 4
Assault Loam.
Well, recursive threats are bad for me, but a broken draw is good. Game 1, he taps out for something insignificant while on 12, and I have a seal of fire on board and a suspended Garg. EOT sac seal, shock you, sac my board, Gargs wins. Game 2, I almost get there but he gets Assault down and Loam in the graveyard. 6 to the head per turn is bad. Also, was stuck on 2 land for entire game. Game 3. Was stuck on 2 land again and he gets the nuts anti aggro draw. Double Hierarch, double wall of roots. I threw 13 points of burn at his dudes, but was still only able to force through 12 on the ground. With him gaining 8, that was never going to be enough. Again, I never saw my sideboarded Cryoclasms. 2-2
So what did we learn? First round byes suck. There is no room for error. Also, we are rarely going to beat double elephant draws on the part of anybody. It helps to draw your sideboard cards. Learn how to sideboard. I really felt like I was way behind in the sideboarded games.
Monogreen midrange went 1-3. Hmm. I'll have to check in with TJRome and see how it's going online. Hey TJ? Comment. Did you remember to go down to 2 harmonize yet?
Round 1
Bye
Wasn't that awesome? Greater Goyf has the pairings mojo to kick me straight into the second round with three points. I sat and watched my MGM decklist get owned my Project X. It turns out that picking a deck at random doesn't work very well, especially when the person playing has little idea of the decks strategy. No disrespect to the dude who ran my deck, but he made some pretty significant play mistakes, which made this already difficult matchup absolutely unwinnable. Exhibit A. Board is 2 forests, bird and elf, Troll Ascetic. Opponent has just played a magus of the disk. Your hand is Heartwood Storyteller, Stampeding Wildebeests, Timbermare, Harmonize. Do you (A) leave regen mana up for Trollie, (B) play Harmonize, digging for the land you are about to need, (C) play Timbermare, essentially playing a four card Lava Axe? If you guessed (C) you may follow along at home and may CBG get paired against you in the 1st round of a ptq. After board, does he set Pithing Needle on Saffi? No he does not. Ouch. 1-0
Round 2
Dan with AngelFire
I think Greater Goyf is ahead against Angelfire but I am not entirely sure. Haven't exactly tested assiduously. In the first game, I get so close, but misplay and sac a Mogg Fanatic to Gargadon instead of itself. Was he on 8 life? Yes, he was. Did I have Char and Incinerate in hand with 5 land on the table? Yes I did. Game two, I never saw any of the Cryoclasms I boarded and lost to the classic turn 3 Lightning Angel. 1-1
Round 3
Greater Goyf with Dark Confidant.
I don't think he was playing Char. I do think that was the difference. I played very tight game one and had a terrible draw game 2. Burned him out from 16 game 3. Would you keep a 3 mountain 2 Char, 2 Incinerate hand? I threw it back and got 2 mountain, 1 Gargs, 1 Char 2 Incinerate. Gargs is the trump in this matchup and so I kept. Gargs stayed suspended, what with me being busy burning my opponent's face off. So I finally have my first sanctioned constructed match win in 3 months. Yay me. 2-1
Round 4
Assault Loam.
Well, recursive threats are bad for me, but a broken draw is good. Game 1, he taps out for something insignificant while on 12, and I have a seal of fire on board and a suspended Garg. EOT sac seal, shock you, sac my board, Gargs wins. Game 2, I almost get there but he gets Assault down and Loam in the graveyard. 6 to the head per turn is bad. Also, was stuck on 2 land for entire game. Game 3. Was stuck on 2 land again and he gets the nuts anti aggro draw. Double Hierarch, double wall of roots. I threw 13 points of burn at his dudes, but was still only able to force through 12 on the ground. With him gaining 8, that was never going to be enough. Again, I never saw my sideboarded Cryoclasms. 2-2
So what did we learn? First round byes suck. There is no room for error. Also, we are rarely going to beat double elephant draws on the part of anybody. It helps to draw your sideboard cards. Learn how to sideboard. I really felt like I was way behind in the sideboarded games.
Monogreen midrange went 1-3. Hmm. I'll have to check in with TJRome and see how it's going online. Hey TJ? Comment. Did you remember to go down to 2 harmonize yet?
Friday, August 31, 2007
Pit-Skulk! A MonoG deck from Japan
So of course I mention my love for Skarrgan Pit-Skulk shortly after a mono-Green list that doesn't include him. And of course, a monoG list from one of the grinders at Japanese Nats emerges with the Pit-Skulk as a 4-of (with Troll Ascetic, natch). Endo Ryota placed 2nd and ground into Nats with this list...
4 Boreal Druid
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Scryb Ranger
4 Silhana Ledgewalker
4 Skarrgan Pit-Skulk
4 Troll Ascetic
4 Giant Solifuge
1 Giant Growth
4 Might of Old Krosa
4 Moldervine Cloak
2 Stonewood Invocation
2 Pendelhaven
4 Treetop Village
15 Forest
Sideboard
3 Call of the Herd
2 Seal of Primordium
4 Spike Feeder
1 Wall of Roots
3 Pithing Needle
2 Serrated Arrows
So how does this differ? Should I stick with my version or should I net-deck like a master?
Let's start with 4 Boreal Druid over 4 Birds. Druid has a power of 1 but no evasion. Birds makes Green. I think that if I keep all the double green in my deck, Birds is better for me. Endo's deck doesn't have all the double costs, especially on turn 2, and thus can afford to run the slightly more aggressive guy.
4 Scryb Ranger. Wow, I hadn't thought of Scryb Ranger, but wow is she amazing. She fixes mana and flies and provides instant speed blocking. Unfortunately for me, she's a 2-drop, which I was trying to avoid.
4 Silhana Ledgewalker. Ledgewalker + Moldervine Cloak. Beating people down since February 2006.
4 Pit-Skulk. I really think he's amazing. Your mileage may vary. He's especially good with MoOK since you wanna cast that mainphase anyway.
4 Troll Ascetic. I feel as if we have talked about this already. He's almost unkillable. He's 3 power for 3 mana. He's amazing.
4 Giant Solifuge. Anti-Wrath tech. Thank you sir, may I have another?
7 pump spells plus 4 Moldervine Cloak. I know it seems crazy, but this is where I disagree most strongly with the Japanese list. All pump spells except Stonewood Invocation are asking to get 2 for 1-ed. Without anyway to generate card advantage, this seems really dangerous to me.
The land base is good. Notice how he still doesn't go down to 20 land, presumably because he would like to activate Monkeytown every once in a while. I like the idea of Pendelhaven. Randomly screwing with pyroclasm or seal of fire seems good right now.
The thing to keep in mind when comparing this list to mine is our different plans. This is a true aggro plan, attempting to deal 20 in the first 5 turns. The only real long game plan is Ascetic plus pump. The only anti Wrath plan is Giant Solifuge. They are good plans, but they depend heavily on having certain cards in hand at certain times. My deck is much more midrange. The 3 drops are much less aggressive, but the 4 drops are much bigger threats, I think. Frankly, Timbermare is pretty hot post Wrath as well, and the Trample on the Wildebeests makes a big difference when compared to OpponentShroud® on the Ascetic. I just feel like my build is more resilient to bad draws, while maintaining the capability of explosive draws. On the other hand, I am not in Japan's National Championships and Endo Ryota is. CBG out.
Edit-2 minutes after I first posted this. Of course, Treetop Village makes a pretty good anti Wrath plan as well. I don't mean to suggest it's a bad list. It's just not what I would play. Then again, CBG is a bad player.
4 Boreal Druid
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Scryb Ranger
4 Silhana Ledgewalker
4 Skarrgan Pit-Skulk
4 Troll Ascetic
4 Giant Solifuge
1 Giant Growth
4 Might of Old Krosa
4 Moldervine Cloak
2 Stonewood Invocation
2 Pendelhaven
4 Treetop Village
15 Forest
Sideboard
3 Call of the Herd
2 Seal of Primordium
4 Spike Feeder
1 Wall of Roots
3 Pithing Needle
2 Serrated Arrows
So how does this differ? Should I stick with my version or should I net-deck like a master?
Let's start with 4 Boreal Druid over 4 Birds. Druid has a power of 1 but no evasion. Birds makes Green. I think that if I keep all the double green in my deck, Birds is better for me. Endo's deck doesn't have all the double costs, especially on turn 2, and thus can afford to run the slightly more aggressive guy.
4 Scryb Ranger. Wow, I hadn't thought of Scryb Ranger, but wow is she amazing. She fixes mana and flies and provides instant speed blocking. Unfortunately for me, she's a 2-drop, which I was trying to avoid.
4 Silhana Ledgewalker. Ledgewalker + Moldervine Cloak. Beating people down since February 2006.
4 Pit-Skulk. I really think he's amazing. Your mileage may vary. He's especially good with MoOK since you wanna cast that mainphase anyway.
4 Troll Ascetic. I feel as if we have talked about this already. He's almost unkillable. He's 3 power for 3 mana. He's amazing.
4 Giant Solifuge. Anti-Wrath tech. Thank you sir, may I have another?
7 pump spells plus 4 Moldervine Cloak. I know it seems crazy, but this is where I disagree most strongly with the Japanese list. All pump spells except Stonewood Invocation are asking to get 2 for 1-ed. Without anyway to generate card advantage, this seems really dangerous to me.
The land base is good. Notice how he still doesn't go down to 20 land, presumably because he would like to activate Monkeytown every once in a while. I like the idea of Pendelhaven. Randomly screwing with pyroclasm or seal of fire seems good right now.
The thing to keep in mind when comparing this list to mine is our different plans. This is a true aggro plan, attempting to deal 20 in the first 5 turns. The only real long game plan is Ascetic plus pump. The only anti Wrath plan is Giant Solifuge. They are good plans, but they depend heavily on having certain cards in hand at certain times. My deck is much more midrange. The 3 drops are much less aggressive, but the 4 drops are much bigger threats, I think. Frankly, Timbermare is pretty hot post Wrath as well, and the Trample on the Wildebeests makes a big difference when compared to OpponentShroud® on the Ascetic. I just feel like my build is more resilient to bad draws, while maintaining the capability of explosive draws. On the other hand, I am not in Japan's National Championships and Endo Ryota is. CBG out.
Edit-2 minutes after I first posted this. Of course, Treetop Village makes a pretty good anti Wrath plan as well. I don't mean to suggest it's a bad list. It's just not what I would play. Then again, CBG is a bad player.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Why I don't play Troll Ascetic in monogreen aggro
Here's my new list...
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Heartwood Storyteller
4 Ohran Viper
4 Timbermare
2 Harmonize
4 Might of Old Krosa
2 Stonewood Invocation
4 Stampeding Wildebeests
4 Citanul Woodreaders
4 Llanowar Reborn
1 Hurricane
1 Overrun
18 Forest
I had 4 Harmonize but went down to 2 to shove in a couple of alternate win conditions. I have been playing MGA since I noticed the delightfully dirty interaction between Skarrgan Pit-Skulk and pump spells (Might of Oaks). Go right ahead, block my 8/8. What's that? You don't have anything with a power of 8? Sorry about that. This was in like April 2006. I discovered shortly thereafter it wasn't all that original an idea, and most of the tuned builds that did well online ignored the Pit-Skulk thing but hey, what can you do? MGA got some great new tools with Scryb and Force and was a metagame player for a while but it appears to have fallen by the wayside in favor of multicolor builds with more reach (R/g Tarmogoyf), more card drawing (Suicide Sligh or R/B aggro) or both (U/G Tarmogoyf).
I look at the current field and wonder if there isn't a build of monogreen that can hang with these players and gain the advantage of consistency. Keep in mind that the Tier 1 field is very open, and one generally isn't going to have a hugely favorable matchup against a vast swath of it. What I am looking for is fun, power and consistency. It's also nice not to have to leave Remand mana up once in a while.
So I start with the classic MGA package of 8 one mana accelerators. Then I ignore the 2 drop slot. There is a tremendous amount of pressure on the 3 drop. This is where your MGA lists win or lose the game, because it is in all likelihood, your turn 2 play. The problem with my MGA lists in the past has been a lack of reach after the initial rush. I get a good board position, do 10-15, then the board stalls or is cleared, and I lose. So I decided to go with card drawing instead of true aggro in those slots. Ohran Viper is a damn house. Ophidian is good I hear, and people played Stinkweed Imp in Standard as well. Heartwood Storyteller is amazing. At the very least, he's card advantage when they burn him out. If he picks up a graft counter, Incinerate can't touch him.
The third three mana dude is Citanul Woodreaders, and this is the obvious pull in favor of Troll Ascetic. So why go with Woody?
(1) 1/4 is good. Kills little stuff, bounces off big stuff.
(2) Doesn't tie up my mana. Troll Ascetic needs regeneration mana to be a credible threat. I do not want to leave mana open unless I am representing pump.
(3) Can be returned for huge effect in the late game. You know what seems good to me? Returning my wall to my hand when I have a 5/4 (or 6/5) trampler on the board and recasting it for 2 more cards in hand. A slow green Gush, that's what it is.
(4) Troll Ascetic does not trample. Even if I can pump him, he can just be chumped by any old thing (Goblins).
The four mana slot is where this deck shines. Timbermare is everything from a turn 3 Lava Axe to a turn 8 14/14 tap all yr dudes and swing for the win. Lovely. Stampeding Wildebeests, is also amazing. Why yes, I will pick up my one mana dude and swing for 5 (trample!) on turn 4. Some (The Fugitive and 2S) would argue the Harmonizes are slow or unnecessary. I say that your only problem is running out of threats and quick recovery from Wrath is really hard without this.
Hurricane is there because direct damage is nice and honestly, who plays around Hurricane? Plus I have an Ice Age one, so pbthht.
The pump is nice, but you don't wanna go overboard on it. I think 6+the Overrun is right. I might go back to four Stonewood Invocation. Sometimes that just sits in hand though.
It might also be tempting to go 20 forest, no Llanowar Reborn and pick up 2 more spells. I think this is a mistake. You have the card drawing to pull you out of a land glut and while you'd rather see spells, you do have good uses for the land you have. Plus, it's nice not to be completely wrecked by pyroclasm.
The sideboard is not complete so I am not going to list one. There's the possibility of going aggro-er with Gaea's Anthem+Uktabi Drake. Probably should fit Naturalize in there given the environment. Graveyard hate might be okay depending on how popular Aggro Loam is in your area. Or maybe anti discard/control with Quagnoth. I'll have to think about it some more.
It's nice that aggro still has its place a year after Jitte and this one definitely has some explosive draws combined with a bit of staying power. I like it.
-CBG
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Heartwood Storyteller
4 Ohran Viper
4 Timbermare
2 Harmonize
4 Might of Old Krosa
2 Stonewood Invocation
4 Stampeding Wildebeests
4 Citanul Woodreaders
4 Llanowar Reborn
1 Hurricane
1 Overrun
18 Forest
I had 4 Harmonize but went down to 2 to shove in a couple of alternate win conditions. I have been playing MGA since I noticed the delightfully dirty interaction between Skarrgan Pit-Skulk and pump spells (Might of Oaks). Go right ahead, block my 8/8. What's that? You don't have anything with a power of 8? Sorry about that. This was in like April 2006. I discovered shortly thereafter it wasn't all that original an idea, and most of the tuned builds that did well online ignored the Pit-Skulk thing but hey, what can you do? MGA got some great new tools with Scryb and Force and was a metagame player for a while but it appears to have fallen by the wayside in favor of multicolor builds with more reach (R/g Tarmogoyf), more card drawing (Suicide Sligh or R/B aggro) or both (U/G Tarmogoyf).
I look at the current field and wonder if there isn't a build of monogreen that can hang with these players and gain the advantage of consistency. Keep in mind that the Tier 1 field is very open, and one generally isn't going to have a hugely favorable matchup against a vast swath of it. What I am looking for is fun, power and consistency. It's also nice not to have to leave Remand mana up once in a while.
So I start with the classic MGA package of 8 one mana accelerators. Then I ignore the 2 drop slot. There is a tremendous amount of pressure on the 3 drop. This is where your MGA lists win or lose the game, because it is in all likelihood, your turn 2 play. The problem with my MGA lists in the past has been a lack of reach after the initial rush. I get a good board position, do 10-15, then the board stalls or is cleared, and I lose. So I decided to go with card drawing instead of true aggro in those slots. Ohran Viper is a damn house. Ophidian is good I hear, and people played Stinkweed Imp in Standard as well. Heartwood Storyteller is amazing. At the very least, he's card advantage when they burn him out. If he picks up a graft counter, Incinerate can't touch him.
The third three mana dude is Citanul Woodreaders, and this is the obvious pull in favor of Troll Ascetic. So why go with Woody?
(1) 1/4 is good. Kills little stuff, bounces off big stuff.
(2) Doesn't tie up my mana. Troll Ascetic needs regeneration mana to be a credible threat. I do not want to leave mana open unless I am representing pump.
(3) Can be returned for huge effect in the late game. You know what seems good to me? Returning my wall to my hand when I have a 5/4 (or 6/5) trampler on the board and recasting it for 2 more cards in hand. A slow green Gush, that's what it is.
(4) Troll Ascetic does not trample. Even if I can pump him, he can just be chumped by any old thing (Goblins).
The four mana slot is where this deck shines. Timbermare is everything from a turn 3 Lava Axe to a turn 8 14/14 tap all yr dudes and swing for the win. Lovely. Stampeding Wildebeests, is also amazing. Why yes, I will pick up my one mana dude and swing for 5 (trample!) on turn 4. Some (The Fugitive and 2S) would argue the Harmonizes are slow or unnecessary. I say that your only problem is running out of threats and quick recovery from Wrath is really hard without this.
Hurricane is there because direct damage is nice and honestly, who plays around Hurricane? Plus I have an Ice Age one, so pbthht.
The pump is nice, but you don't wanna go overboard on it. I think 6+the Overrun is right. I might go back to four Stonewood Invocation. Sometimes that just sits in hand though.
It might also be tempting to go 20 forest, no Llanowar Reborn and pick up 2 more spells. I think this is a mistake. You have the card drawing to pull you out of a land glut and while you'd rather see spells, you do have good uses for the land you have. Plus, it's nice not to be completely wrecked by pyroclasm.
The sideboard is not complete so I am not going to list one. There's the possibility of going aggro-er with Gaea's Anthem+Uktabi Drake. Probably should fit Naturalize in there given the environment. Graveyard hate might be okay depending on how popular Aggro Loam is in your area. Or maybe anti discard/control with Quagnoth. I'll have to think about it some more.
It's nice that aggro still has its place a year after Jitte and this one definitely has some explosive draws combined with a bit of staying power. I like it.
-CBG
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