I know there’s been quite a bit of content on this deck already, but I’ve gotten some requests for me to play it again. Given that I’m almost definitely going to play it again at the upcoming GPs, I figured it couldn’t hurt to show some more matches.
Very little has changed over time, but I’m currently at:
Creatures (28)
- 4 Judge's Familiar
- 4 Frostburn Weird
- 4 Cloudfin Raptor
- 4 Nightveil Specter
- 4 Tidebinder Mage
- 4 Thassa, God of the Sea
- 4 Master of Waves
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (5)
Spells (25)
Much to my surprise, my plan to ignore his late game and just try to keep him off answers long enough to kill him worked, and he wasn’t able to deal with my Master of Waves, so I got to win the first game.
The second game basically went exactly the way I want every sideboarded game to go—I distracted him by using random creatures to draw out his answers and then sealed the game with planeswalkers and counterspells.
My opponent’s build of this deck looked a little unconventional, and I don’t think it’s a deck that has a lot of room for error. That said, in game 1 I just lived to play four-mana spells he couldn’t answer, and in the second game he just didn’t draw red mana so he couldn’t do anything, meaning it’s not clear how much any of his choices mattered.
Game 1 I just spiked with a called shot Bident of Thassa that he really couldn’t beat. In the second game I learned a valuable lesson about how to sideboard, losing a game I probably would have won if I’d sideboarded the way I normally do. In the final game I just had an outstanding draw that was enough to power through Desecration Demon.
Another match against Mono-Black Devotion, but I think this is one of the more interesting matchups since it’s definitely fairly close—I think it slightly favors blue, but I get the feeling that others think it’s the other way around.
In the first game I had yet another excellent draw (I drew a little above average in these matches collectively, but the deck is pretty consistent), and he was stuck on three lands, which is one short of really doing anything I care about.
The second game might have been tough despite his mulligans if his turn 4 play had been Desecration Demon instead of Whip of Erebos, but getting a free turn of hitting with Bident in play put me just far enough ahead that I was able to ride out the advantage to victory.
Overall, I think this was a series of games against decks that are reportedly on the more challenging side for this deck, but I was still able to win all the matches, losing only one game and only because of my experimental sideboarding, so I’d definitely say I still feel very confident bringing this deck to an event even after all this time.
Sam
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