The plan:
- Opening hand: Dream hand is probably 3-4 lands, Growth Spiral, Wilderness Reclamation, Mystical Teachings. Reclamation + Teachings hands are probably decently above average.
- Early game: draw some cards, set up Cryptic mana, don't die. Ideally turn 2 Growth Spiral.
- 4 mana: Run out Wilderness Reclamation, then cast Cryptic/Teachings
- Mid game: end of turn float mana, Teachings for value, Teachings for Teachings, Snapcaster spells as necessary. May not yet have stabilized.
- End game: Teachings for Blue Sun's Zenith, Blue Sun's for a bunch (leaving open 7 mana if possible I think). Nexus if drawn, otherwise discard to hand size with a stacked hand. Then either 1) Blue Sun's the opponent for the win or 2) attack with Snapcaster/Tar Pit while taking infinite turns
Game 1 got run over, was trying to figure out how bad of a hand I had. It was pretty bad.
Goblin Guide revealed a couple 4 drops to go with the ones in hand.
Game 2 he keeps a greed 1 lander. Turn 4 rolls around and I drop Reclamation. I wait a few turns with Cryptics and then manage to combo out. Pretty good.
Game 3 he floods a bit, but still pressures me a lot. I try to hold Life Goes On for extra life, but end up casting it to stay out of burn range. Then I tutor for another one and manage to wrangle Devour Flesh into Life Goes On before I combo off. He kept Searing Blaze in for some reason, but Spell Snares were gas.
Round 2 vs Tim on BW Planeswalker Pox (2-1, 2-0)
Game 1 his clock is 4 Spirit tokens and a Shambling Vent. I have to bounce Sorin and hold up Cryptic Command for it, lest it run me over. I consider Mystical Teachings for a Cryptic but instead go for a Pulse of Murasa that grabs a Snapcaster Mage. I stabilize at 4 and go off.
Game 2 he gets a Liliana of the Veil rolling on turn 3 and I'm unable to answer it. I drop a Wilderness Reclamation without Cryptic and he Disenchants it.
Game 3 I was on the back foot the whole time, manage to bounce a Sorin and hold up a Cryptic if he tries to replay it. Double Surgical on Cryptic and Teachings. He Thoughtseizes into a Remand? and I'm able to draw out of the situation. BSZ (USZ?) for 16, Remand into an Echoing Decay for an army of Spirit tokens while Heart of Kiran isn't lethal (had A Trophy ready in hand). I think he put Thoughtseize into the graveyard after I Remanded it, and I'm not sure how that would have changed things? I had another Remand in hand + about 6 more mana, but his third try might have gotten through.
Round 3 vs John G on Jund (1-1-1, 2-0-1)
Game 1 I go to 1 from fast beats before I'm able to get rid of his creatures. He has two red mana so I hold up double Remand for his Bolt. I Pulse a Field of Ruin?, and he double bolts me next turn putting me back to 1. Then the deck does its thing.
Game 2 had a lot of slow topdecking but he got out of it eventually. Surgicaled my Teachings and Cryptic Commands RIP. I joke to an observer that I should hold Teachings until I have enough mana to hold up flashback cost, and I realize that's not actually impossible if I can find Wilderness Reclamation. There was a point where I fired USZ off for 2, but probably should have held it for as long as possible (as response to Liliana +1/IoK/TS).
Game 3 we ended on about turn 6 and had a draw. Game state was pretty even, could have gone either way.
(start rant)
Pretty annoyed about this match, felt that my opponent played too slowly in games 1/2.
In my opinion, the skill required to play Jund is overrated (see also: PVDDR's articles on deck difficulty). Okay, you have a lot of microdecisions that improve your odds very marginally: Inquisition/Thoughtseize choices, fetching up specific lands, activating Liliana, etc. but these things shouldn't take half a minute each. (end rant)
I understand that he's never faced my deck before, and so needs to read the cards, guess at what my intentions are, and play around that. I also never feel that unintentional draws are my fault, but I have to bear at least some of the responsibility - push my opponent to play faster, play a bit faster myself.
Round 4 vs Matt on G Tron (1-2, 2-1-1)
Game 1 he mulls to 5 and I'm able to accrue enormous advantage. OTP Abrupt Decay his Map on turn 2.
Game 2 he mulls to 6 and I try to keep him off Tron but I simply cannot
Game 3 I keep a hand with no G mana and no 4th land, again I simply could not
Traditionally control vs Tron is a bad matchup and I don't think I was ever favored. I only really won game 1 because his hand screwed him over. Teachings for Trophy + Teachings for Surgical is just way too slow, and I don't have the tools to keep him off Tron. If only there were an instant speed Stone Rain... (actually there are but they're in red)
Thoughts:
- Growth Spiral is the most powerful turn 2 play in the deck and somehow I didn't manage it once.
- I kept a hand without green mana in round 4 and that was a mistake, though not an immediately obvious one.
- I felt lacking in early plays, but there aren't any good instant speed cantrips besides Opt. Looking at 2 CMC... maybe Think Twice or Squelch??? or I could just draw openers with Growth Spiral more -_- Oh, Hieroglyphic Illumination is an option, but only as a one-of?
- I don't have some of the instant speed toolbox (specifically Shadow of Doubt) so I left a Teferi in. I guess it would come in against control but it wouldn't do anything really? To run it out with backup, you'd need Wilderness Reclamation and the control deck probably won't let you do that. I guess it would be really good in the mirror lol?
- Deck was super fun, though I wish I had gotten 3 wins. Not sure what to do about the big mana matchups.
No comments:
Post a Comment