Daily Dose 53 - Standard
Daily Dose of Standard
KrazyCaley
17 April 2013
1554 views
Community Deck
17 April 2013
1554 views
Community Deck
Heartpiercer, you're up next, by Saturday. RUGslug, you're after that.
deck-large:junk-control-27-11-12-1
vs
Bolas for a Better Tomorrow
Standard*
SCORE: 107 | 506 COMMENTS | 23116 VIEWS | IN 42 FOLDERS
Your proxy pilot is Elaine.
Game 1
Caley wins the toss and keeps an opener of Swamp, Watery Grave, Sulfur Falls, Nephalia Drownyard, Dragonskull Summit, Gilded Lotus, and Murder.
Very mana-heavy, but that's great in this deck. One kill spell will hopefully see me through for a while.
Elaine keeps an opener of Overgrown Tomb, Isolated Chapel, Woodland Cemetery, Farseek, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Staff of Nin, Terminus.
Good hand against this deck.
C1
C plays Watery Grave tapped and passes.
E1
E draws Plains. She plays Woodland Cemetery tapped and passes.
C2
C draws Mountain. He plays Sulfur Falls and passes.
E2
E draws Overgrown Tomb. She plays Plains and casts Farseek for Temple Garden, then passes.
C3
C draws Chromatic Lantern.
No, really, I think I'm ok on mana, deck.
C plays Dragonskull Summit and casts Chromatic Lantern, then passes.
E3
E draws Vault of the Archangel. She plays it and casts Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. Sorin makes a vampire token. E passes.
C4
C draws Dragonskull Summit. He plays it and casts Gilded Lotus, then passes.
E4
E draws Temple Garden and plays Overgrown Tomb tapped. Sorin makes another vampire. The existing one attacks, but gets Murdered. E passes.
C5
C draws Drowned Catacomb.
Well over a quarter of all the lands in the deck have been drawn by turn 5. This is improbable.
C plays Nephalia Drownyard and passes.
E5
E draws Terminus. She plays Isolated Chapel untapped. (C 20, E 18). Sorin makes another Vampire. The existing one attacks and hits. (C 19, E 18). E casts Staff of Nin and passes. End step, C mills away Oblivion Ring, Abrupt Decay, and Godless Shrine.
C6
C draws Island. He plays it and passes. End step, he gets pinged with the staff. (C 18, E 18).
E6
E draws Godless Shrine with the Staff, then draws Vault of the Archangel and plays it. Sorin uses his -2. The vampires attack and E activates a Vault. The vampires hit. (E 22, C 14). E passes, and gets milled in the end step for Restoration Angel, Thragtusk, and Overgrown Tomb.
C7
C draws Sulfur Falls.
I am not normally one to complain about unlucky draws, but this is getting somewhat silly now.
C plays Sulfur Falls and passes. He gets pinged by Staff. (E 22, C 13).
E7
E draws Temple Garden and Forest, and plays Temple Garden tapped. She attacks with the vampires with a Vault activation. (E 26, C 9). Sorin makes another vampire. E passes and gets milled for Angel of Serenity, Restoration Angel, and Farseek.
C8
C draws Chromatic Lantern and concedes.
Not even Bolas saves me now.
Sideboarding
C boards out 1x Think Twice, 1x Mystic Retrieval, and 1x Murder and boards in 3x Slaughter Games.
E boards out 4x Terminus and boards in 2x Nevermore, 1x Pithing Needle, and 1x Sigarda, Host of Herons.
Game 2
C keeps an opener of Island, Sulfur Falls, Dragonskull Summit, Chromatic Lantern, Devour Flesh, Barter in Blood, Staff of Nin.
E keeps an opener of Swamp, 2x Overgrown Tomb, Farseek, Disciple of Bolas, Thragtusk, Oblivion Ring.
C1
C plays Dragonskull Summit and passes.
E1
E draws Restoration Angel. She plays Overgrown Tomb tapped and passes.
C2
C draws Murder. He plays Island and passes.
E2
E draws Pithing Needle. She plays Swamp and casts Farseek for Temple Garden. She passes.
C3
C draws Slaughter Games. He plays Sulfur Falls and casts Chromatic Lantern, then passes.
E3
E draws Temple Garden. She plays Overgrown Tomb tapped and passes.
Trying to hold back on Pithing Needle until I know for sure if I need to. If I draw Nevermore I need to do that first.
C4
C draws Mountain and plays it. He casts Slaughter Games naming Thragtusk, exiling one from the hand and three from the library. He passes.
Slaughter Games protip- if the deck has green and isn't Gruul Aggro, it has Thragtusk in it.
E4
E draws Godless Shrine and plays it tapped. She passes.
C5
C draws Dreadbore. He does nothing and passes. End step, E flashes down Restoration Angel. After it resolves, C kills it with Murder.
Always consider the quality of your removal as it concerns the enemy deck. Here I have a golden opportunity to use Murder for full effect - she's tapped out and can't cast another Resto Angel, so I can get deploy Murder safely while thus still reserving Devour Flesh, which is good even against the Angel, for a later time.
E5
E draws Oblivion Ring. She plays Temple Garden tapped and passes.
C6
C draws Drowned Catacomb and plays it. He casts Staff of Nin and passes.
E6
E draws Woodland Cemetery and plays it. She casts Oblivion Ring on the Staff of Nin and passes. In response, she gets pinged for one with it. (C 20, E 19).
C7
C draws Drowned Catacomb and plays it, then passes.
E7
E draws Woodland Cemetery, plays it, and passes.
I really want to get the effect off of Disciple of Bolas and I have a lot of answers for his heavy hitting stuff right now, so I can wait.
C8
C draws Think Twice. He does nothing and passes.
E8
E draws Farseek and casts it for Overgrown Tomb, then passes. End step, C casts Think Twice and flashes it back, drawing Dreadbore and Liliana of the Veil.
C9
C draws Sulfur Falls. He casts Liliana of the Veil and uses her +1 ability. C discards Sulfur Falls and E discards Disciple of Bolas. C passes.
E9
E draws Overgrown Tomb. She casts Oblivion Ring on Liliana and passes.
When did this deck get Liliana? It probably still has multiple copies of Bolas in it, so I'll keep Pithing Needle for then.
C10
C draws Barter in Blood. He does nothing and passes.
E10
E draws Garruk Relentless Flip. She casts it and makes a wolf token, then she passes.
C11
C draws Dragonskull Summit and plays it. He casts Dreadbore on Garruk and passes.
E11
E draws Garruk, Primal Hunter. He makes a beast token. E attacks with the wolf and hits. She passes. (E 19, C 18).
C12
C draws Gilded Lotus. He casts it, then Dreadbore on Garruk, Primal Hunter, then Barter in Blood to kill the token creatures. He passes.
E12
E draws Restoration Angel. She does nothing and passes.
C13
C draws Counterflux. He does nothing and passes. End step, E casts Restoration Angel.
E13
E draws Obzedat, Ghost Council. She attacks with the Restoration Angel, but Devour Flesh kills it first. (E 23, C 18). E casts Obzedat, Ghost Council, but it runs into Counterflux. E passes.
C14
C draws Swamp. He does nothing and passes.
I have no idea why she's not casting Pithing Needle. She might be waiting to see if Bolas or Nephalia Drownyard needs it worse, but she is underestimating Slaughter Games.
E14
E draws Temple Garden and plays it tapped, then passes.
C15
C draws Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. He casts it and blows up the Oblivion Ring with Liliana under it. Liliana activates. C discards Swamp and E discards Overgrown Tomb.
I saved that tomb just to protect my Pithing Needle against that.
Pithing Needle will now be cast at Bolas, but that leaves the question, with her hand empty, of what can be used to stop Liliana.
E15
E draws Sunpetal Grove and plays it, then casts Pithing Needle naming Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. She passes.
C16
C draws Murder. Liliana activates and C discards Barter in Blood. C passes.
E16
E draws Restoration Angel. She does nothing and passes.
C17
C draws Staff of Nin. He casts it and passes.
I really need to keep Murder in hand, so I'll chill until Staff of Nin starts drawing cards.
E, in the end step, casts Restoration Angel. C kills it with Murder.
WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO HAVE AN ANSWER FOR EVERYTHING.
E17
E draws Farseek and casts it to get Godless Shrine. She passes.
Need Sigarda.
C18
C draws Mystic Retrieval and Think Twice. He casts Think Twice and draws Counterflux. He flashes back Think Twice and draws Mystic Retrieval. He activates Liliana (who goes to 6) and discards Mystic Retrieval. Then he flashes back Mystic Retrieval targeting Counterflux in the graveyard. Then he passes.
I really hate Mystic Retrieval you guys. That card is overpowered.
E18
E draws Angel of Serenity. She casts it but it gets a Counterflux. E passes.
Needed to get that counterspell out of the way anyway.
C19
C draws Devour Flesh and Counterflux. He activates Liliana's +1 ability and discards Mystic Retrieval. He flashes back Mystic Retrieval targeting Counterflux, then passes.
I will ruin the world with my anger.
Things that make Caley happy: having three counterspells and being able to cast them all.
E19
E draws Unburial Rites. She casts it targeting Angel of Serenity, but it gets Counterfluxed. Then she flashes it back on the same target, but it gets Counterfluxed again. She passes.
AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH
C20
C draws Desolate Lighthouse and Chromatic Lantern. He activates Liliana's -6 ability, putting her to 1 loyalty. C puts Pithing Needle in one pile and all the other permanents into another pile. E concedes.
Sideboarding
Neither side makes changes.
Game 3
E mulligans an opener of Swamp, Overgrown Tomb, Oblivion Ring, Obzedat, Ghost Council, Garruk, Primal Hunter, Staff of Nin, Restoration Angel.
Too risky. Needed a Farseek to keep that.
C keeps an opener of Watery Grave, Swamp, Dragonskull Summit, Think Twice, Counterflux, Devour Flesh, Dreadbore.
E keeps an opener of Overgrown Tomb, 2x Thragtusk, Farseek, Restoration Angel, Garruk, Primal Hunter.
This sucks even worse than the first hand, but I can't go to five with him sitting on seven cards AND drawing.
E1
E plays Overgrown Tomb tapped and passes.
C1
C draws Barter in Blood. He plays Watery Grave tapped and passes.
E2
E draws Farseek. She does nothing and passes.
I think you really have to go to five on a one-land six hand.
C2
C draws Swamp. He plays Dragonskull Summit and passes.
E3
E draws Swamp. She plays it and casts Farseek for Temple Garden, then passes. End step, C casts Think Twice drawing Watery Grave.
Ok, that wasn't so bad.
C3
C draws Gilded Lotus and plays Watery Grave untapped (E 20, C 18), then passes.
E4
E draws Nevermore. She casts Farseek for Temple Garden and passes. End step, C flashes back Think Twice and draws Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker.
C4
C draws Slaughter Games. He plays Swamp and casts Slaughter Games naming Thragtusk, exiling two from the hand and two from the library.
Exactly what I needed there.
E5
E draws Woodland Cemetery and plays it. She casts Garruk, Primal Hunter, who makes a beast token. Then she passes.
C5
C draws Dragonskull Summit. He plays it and casts Dreadbore on Garruk, then passes.
E6
E draws Obzedat, Ghost Council. She attacks with a beast token and hits. (C 20, E 15). She casts Obzedat, Ghost Council, but it runs into Counterflux. E passes.
C6
C draws Dreadbore. He plays Swamp and casts Gilded Lotus, then passes.
E7
E draws Woodland Cemetery and plays it. She casts Nevermore naming Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. She attacks with the beast token, but it gets a Devour Flesh. (E 23, C 15). E passes.
C8
C draws Mystic Retrieval. He casts it targeting Slaughter Games, then casts Slaughter Games naming Restoration Angel, exiling one from the hand and three from the library.
Slaughter Games is just killing me this match.
E9
E draws Gavony Township. She plays it and passes.
C9
C draws Think Twice. He flashes back Mystic Retrieval targeting Slaughter Games, then casts Slaughter Games naming Sigarda, Host of Herons, exiling one copy from the library.
Can't be too careful when it comes to Sigarda.
E10
E draws Sunpetal Grove, plays it, and passes. End step, C casts Think Twice, drawing Nephalia Drownyard.
This is the other sucky part about repeated Slaughter Games. You get nothing but land.
C10
C draws Mystic Retrieval. He plays Nephalia Drownyard, then casts Mystic Retrieval for Slaughter Games followed by Slaughter Games naming Oblivion Ring, exiling three copies from the library. C passes.
This is my favorite combo in the deck.
E11
E draws Abrupt Decay. She does nothing and passes.
C11
C draws Staff of Nin. He flashes back Mystic Retrieval for Slaughter Games and then casts the games naming Angel of Serenity, exiling two from the library. Then he passes.
E12
E draws Farseek and casts it for Godless Shrine, then passes. End step C flashes back Think Twice, drawing Slaughter Games.
He just showed me what he drew. I officially quit magic forever.
C12
C draws Drowned Catacomb and plays it. He casts Slaughter Games naming Obzedat, Ghost Council, exiling one copy from the library and one from the graveyard.
I could go for Unburial Rites instead, but why do that when I could just exile ALL THE CREATURES IT COULD TARGET HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
C casts Staff of Nin and passes.
E13
E draws Unburial Rites. She does nothing and passes.
I showed him this and he laughed, the f**ker.
C13
C draws Chromatic Lantern and Barter in Blood. E concedes. Caley wins the match 2-1.
Thoughts
Had a really good game 1 and 2. The deck WOULD HAVE done all right in game 3 if Caley's deck had not had god draws.
That was by far the most ridiculous chain of Slaughter Games I have ever had, and I've had some good ones.
Slaughter Games recursion seems so dirty.
The DGM spoiled cards have started to make me want to try Grixis, which would probably sway me into a build similar to your's, KrazyCaley.
I haven't seen you post any results against the current "top decks." Have you played against Junk Reanimator, Naya Blitz, or the Jund variants yet?
April 17, 2013 8:21 a.m.
KrazyCaley says... #4
@meecht - Plenty of times. It has a good record against jund and especially against reanimator. It especially destroys typical control/superfriends decks. Against Naya Blitz it does well enough, probably around 50/50. Gruul Aggro is its weakest matchup; it wins there probably between 40 and 50%.
April 17, 2013 8:33 a.m.
Alrighty, first of all- That Slaughter Games was awesome, and I'm always happy to see Bolas win. But I've been wondering about how you guys are playing your first and second turns with the shocks/check lands. I have to wonder why in the first game Elaine would play the Woodland Cemetery turn 1 with a Overgrown Tomb in hand. Admittedly it doesn't make much difference to how that game turned out, but it would seem to me that a first turn tapped Tomb would be better, since it would allow the cemetery to enter untapped.
Is there a large amount of land destruction that I'm missing that makes you want to protect your shocks more early game? Or what exactly is the reasoning behind that? I'm just curious after seeing it played that way a few times in various articles.
April 17, 2013 9:04 a.m.
shadowsoze68 says... #6
I'm wondering the rationale behind Elaine's play of Nevermore naming Mr. Bolas? Wouldn't it have made more sense to name Slaughter Games since one was just played, or am i missing something?
April 17, 2013 9:29 a.m.
shadowsoze68, KrazyCaley's deck has exactly 0 answers for Nevermore besides Slaughter Games before it gets cast. Once Nevermore hits the field it's staying UNLESS Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker blows it up (or technically Liliana of the Veil uses her ulti and they sacrifice Nevermore ). Bolas is also his main win condition, so using a Nevermore on Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker is usually the best play.
Caley got really lucky with the chain of Slaughter Games though, which makes his alternative win cons guaranteed to win (Nephalia Drownyard /Staff of Nin ).
April 17, 2013 9:57 a.m.
Nice games! Can't wait to get my chance to play! That third game was brutal! Slaughter games.for life!
April 17, 2013 10:23 a.m.
shadowsoze68 says... #9
Goody, oh yeah most definitely, I've experienced first hand the power of Nevermore against this deck, (I run a modified version of this deck sometimes), but Elaine did sideboard in two, plus a Pithing Needle . My whole train of thought on that was just name Slaughter Games with the first Nevermore , then try and hold out until you get the second, or a pithing needle to negate Mr. Bolas.
Iono, just randomly theorycrafting lol
April 17, 2013 10:32 a.m.
You Murder ed a Resto-Angel EoT before she could play another Resto Angel, but Resto Angels can't save other copies of Restoration Angel . Always gotta keep dat removal until the very last moment.
April 17, 2013 11:53 a.m.
SwiftDeath says... #11
those were some interesting matches and I think that the deck didn't play poorly. In game 1 I was confused as to why you lead off with Woodland Cemetery and not Overgrown Tomb tapped it didn't make a difference in the end result continuous bad draws kept a strong boardstate. also game 3 would've been safe if you named Slaughter Games because you do have other options with Oblivion Ring and Pithing Needle . When I added Nevermore it was to stop things like Slaughter Games , Sphinx's Revelation , Supreme Verdict , and any other problem spells. I was also unsure about keeping the Abrupt Decay in mainboard since I thought the only target would've been Chromatic Lantern but after seeing Liliana of the Veil it was a safer play. thank you for testing with my deck so I could see other ways it can be played and keep up the great continuous article as always.
ps. I played my friend's grixis deck with this at a local tourney and went 2-0 against it. We were the last match against each other and tied going into the last round. He placed 12th and I placed 9th overall, just outside top 8.
April 17, 2013 1:29 p.m.
Kaley said he had a good Junk Reanimator match-up. Them's fightin' words. =P
Speaking of which, Kaley, do you have an MTGO account?
-BuLLZ3Y3
April 17, 2013 2:26 p.m.
I was pretty curious about some of the land drops, but those have been mentioned so let me ask you one other question.
In game one, why did you keep activating the Vault of the Archangel for Sorin, Lord of Innistrad 's tokens? They already have lifelink! Not that it made too big a difference, just confused me is all.
Also, at one point, I think someone paid 2 life to activate an Isolated Chapel which doesn't work...
April 17, 2013 4:31 p.m.
SwiftDeath says... #14
Isolated Chapel would've entered untapped anyway because of the Overgrown Tomb but yes there was no loss of life for it. they proxy the cards so they probably thought it was Godless Shrine .
April 17, 2013 5:07 p.m.
KrazyCaley speaking of Dragon's Maze, are there any cards Mr. BOlas might be interested in, ahem.. Ral Zarek.. Who said that?
April 17, 2013 5:51 p.m.
KrazyCaley says... #18
@BuLLZ3Y3 - I do; I'm IdealistCynic. If you want to get on the Daily Dose list and pilot it yourself, lemme know.
@lockiew & anewsome - So far, I'm not particularly a fan of either of those for Bolas. Ral just doesn't do enough with his + ability, and Turn/Burn is just worse than cards already in there.
April 17, 2013 7:17 p.m.
I definitely see turn//burn being more situational and so maybe it's a sideboard card, but how many cards completely answer Thragtusk or Angel of Serenity without their annoying LtB effects? Seems solid to me (especially against a Junk Rites build like this one. haha)
April 17, 2013 7:22 p.m.
I feel like this deck would have trouble with the aristocrats: act 2... would it not? I have a deck that would be pretty fun to play for the pilot, lots of shenanigans.
April 17, 2013 7:26 p.m.
KrazyCaley says... #21
@zandl - I always forget that. Probably still the correct play, though in this case- casting removal while your opponent is tapped out is usually good business, and I know this deck doesn't have pumps.
April 17, 2013 8:27 p.m.
Game 3 was a hilarious read. KrazeyCaley, I stole the combo of Mystic Retrieval and Slaughter Games from you. I must admit you can't help but laugh. I always try to be a good, fun-but-serious player, but when this happens my laughter is sometimes uncontrollable. Especially when you get the reactions that you got out of Elaine.
I always look forward to reading your Daily Dose of Standard's. Always a great read. Thanks!
April 17, 2013 8:38 p.m.
KrazyCaley says... #24
@dbrannon - Haven't run into a standard discard-focused deck so far. There are decks that run Rakdos's Return and other discard cards, but no dedicated discard decks, just because there isn't anything really sufficiently powerful to serve as The Rack or Megrim around these days.
April 17, 2013 10:03 p.m.
Got a Liliana deck id like you to check out. liliana for the win all the spells save creatures are Liliana or have her in the flavor texts. Had Gravecrawler but decided he didn't fit
April 17, 2013 10:17 p.m.
TikiShades says... #26
Doesn't Shrieking Affliction do a good job of being The Rack ?
April 17, 2013 10:59 p.m.
The problem with a standard discard deck is that there's not enough power behind them. The reason those worked back in the day was due to Dark Ritual and Mind Twist , some of the more powerful cards that have been printed. That's why those decks worked. WotC is smart enough to not reprint things like that.
-BuLLZ3Y3
April 18, 2013 12:21 a.m.
I have to say I also copied you with the Mystic Retrieval Slaughter Games thing too. Few things are quite as fun as tearing a deck to pieces. Though, I do have a question for you, have you tried out Forbidden Alchemy in the place of Think Twice ? I know the mana difference is substantial, but do you think it could be done?
April 18, 2013 1:55 a.m.
JaredMatthewsArtwork says... #29
Shrieking affliction is really conditional, where megrim and liliana's caress work as long as you're making them discard.... but really people don't play discard related decks because they suck... really bad. The like one time I've ever lost to a discard deck I felt extremely bad about myself because they're one of those archetypes new players get sucked into but aren't actually any good and have no real win-cons, like life-gain. I swear it's like a right of passage to play a really crappy life-gain deck.
April 18, 2013 3:09 a.m.
SwiftDeath says... #30
@UGplayerWillie I guess im lucky in that sense I had both type of decks and neither were really bad. sure they aren't tourney worthy but they were fun and they have nice plays to them as well. you just have to watch out for playing bad versions and that is easy to do if you don't know what your doing but I agree it is almost like a right of passage. sadly my friends don't see it the same way. they think you have to have a good deck from the start and many started by building their bad decks and instead of learning just bitched about how other decks are unfair or op, and some just quit altogether after the first month.
April 18, 2013 4:04 a.m.
KrazyCaley says... #31
@nemesis101 - I am not a fan of Forbidden Alchemy for another reason besides its mana cost - a large part of my deck's effectiveness relies on its being a fairly unorthodox control deck. Forbidden Alchemy requires me to give my opponent information about my deck, which I do not care for. To me it's worth the card quality trade-off in order to keep my secrets.
April 18, 2013 4:24 a.m.
TikiShades says... #32
@UGplayerWillie: Except there are plenty of good life-gain decks that work well. Modern has an archetype for lifegain and it actually works really well by just comboing Soul Warden and friends with Ajani's Pridemate and Serra Ascendant . I'm not fully convinced that discard can't work. I don't think a standard discard deck could work, but I wouldn't go so far as to day the archetype as a whole is bad, provided you have a way to utilize it properly.
April 18, 2013 10:37 a.m.
Arachnarchist says... #34
I feel like Elaine could have sideboarded better. The Abrupt Decay s can only hit Liliana of the Veil and Chromatic Lantern in Caley's deck. Oblivion Ring can answer any permanent, Acidic Slime can't hit Liliana, but it can hit any of the artifacts and Nephalia Drownyard . The third spot is a little less clear, but I would say Selesnya Charm since it can be another creature, or can pump a creature to the point of killing a planeswalker.
Also, I think an argument could be made for sideboarding in Rest in Peace for Unburial Rites , as Caley's deck is a lot more dependent on graveyard interaction for card advantage. But, again, you could go either way with this.
April 18, 2013 8:19 p.m.
KrazyCaley says... #35
@Arachnarchist - Elaine actually knows that I frequently board out Mystic Retrieval and Think Twice , as I did slightly here, so that might have figured into her thinking. That said, I agree with most of your assessment about proper sideboarding for this matchup.
April 18, 2013 8:28 p.m.
MagnorCriol says... #36
Elaine's rage games 2 and 3 was hilarious. And exactly the sort of emotion Mr. Bolas would want this deck to evoke.
RussischerZar says... #1
May I ask how you guys play? IRL or any online platform?
April 17, 2013 5:56 a.m.