Discussion Forum

i hate this question, but it needs to be asked: Why aren't you playing 'goyf? Also, have you considered Snapcaster Mage at all? How about some number of Dazes?

reason for no goyfs: My friend who is a very good legacy player has been playing creatureless landstill for years and has been very successful. His theory is, and it makes sense to me, either you play a lot of creatures or non at all. If you play non at all your opponent will have a lot of dead cards against you game 1, guaranteed. And that's the beauty of it, it's always card advantage. Playing creatures is sooo tempting but I'm trying it his way.

Decks like UW Stoneblade and Bant, the midrange aggro control decks are a good example of decks that struggle with creature removal because they don't have many creatures.
Team america is different because it's a tempo deck. Hymn helps protect those few creatures they have along with land disruption and daze. But if you play team america and you can't find a creature or protect it you really feel the deck crumble.

There are creatures I am tempted to run like V. Clique and Snapcaster mage, both have a come in play effect that is nice. Still the deck doesn't need to race, it kills using jace or manlands so more aggro is not the issue.

The issue is surviving against super fast decks like Goblins. My friend plays 4c Landstill and has 4 swords to plowshares in addition to 4 Innocent blood (a card that is only playable when playing creatureless).
I would like to keep it 3color and I'm really liking the intuition/Tabernacle/Ith/Loam but they are probably just pet cards. They don't help me against turn one Vial or Lackey.

I do think my mana base needs work, and probably more basic lands.

no Daze: Daze is a tempo card, control decks don't run it because it's dead mid game and when you have a slow deck like mine good players will just play around daze.

troublesome matchups: Team America, goblins, anything really fast and/or agressive discard.

The deck is still in it's first test version. I dunno where it will lead me. I already dropped the Go for the throat and replaced it with Darkblast which hits so much these days.

I also dropped a Perish from the sideboard for an additional Pernicious deed.


Tomorrow I'll be testing it against a really good goblin pilot. Maybe I'll be so depressed with my deck after that test that I abandon it altogether :) We'll see.


PS: I took UW Stoneblade to a tournament last friday packing 4 snapcaster mages. They ROCK!!! I love the the new wizard. I didn't like UW though, Vial was a real problem.
I didn't do to well: 2-1-1 (it was a small local tournament, only 4 rounds)

Update

3 Counterspell
4 Spell snare
4 Innocent Blood
1 Go for the throat
1 Darkblast
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Intuition

3 Pernicious Deed
4 Standstill
1 Life from the Loam

3 Jace, the mind sculptor

1 Maze of Ith
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
2 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Island
1 Swamp
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Wasteland
1 Bayou

Sideboard

1 Counterspell
3 Spell pierce
3 Blue elemental blast
4 Relic of Progenitus
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Perish
1 Darkblast
1 Pernicious Deed

hmm. Why not go to Leyline of the Void over Relic? You can cast it and it's really good against the graveyard decks, and Snapcaster's not a huge fan of it either. Seems like Dredge is an awful matchup unless you hit a deed on time, and even then they can beat through it. Even if it doesn't stick around, you can at least slow 'em down 'til they can't win. Same goes for Reanimator. Following up Leyline with Standstill seems sick.

fair enough. I changed my sideboard to improve the graveyard deck matchup:

2x Extirpate
4x relic of progenitus
...

Relic is actually quite good against dredge. The manaless dredge can't handle the remove one card a turn and the normal dredge will side in enchantment/artifact removal. A second relic is easier to cast then a secon leyline + lots of people pack leyline so decks expect it to be sided in.
Extirpate is still as good as it gets.

ps: about the goyfs, I've been thinking it might be good to run them afterall. the thing is that burn usually doesn't get them and the life gain from Swords to plowshares is actually good for me. On the other hand innocent blood and goyf really don't mix.

The combination of the 2 is what'll get Hybrid or Mana Dredge, dealing with both of those cards is a nightmare. another alternative is that you go for the Snapcaster Mage and Goyf, that makes your Innocent Bloods better. Then you can sideboard Surgical Extraction over Extirpate so it's easier to rebuy.

Thanks for the input mate, I'll concider it while playtesting.

So far the deck has been tested against:

Blue Zoo (with Delver of Secrets): 4-1-0 for bugstill
UW Stoneblade: 2-0-0 for bugstill
Tezzeret Affinity: 5-0 for bugstill


Tonight I'll be testing against Goblins, Dredge and Merfolk (maybe)

My Current list

3 Counterspell
4 Spell snare
4 Innocent Blood
1 Dismember
1 Darkblast
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Intuition

3 Pernicious Deed
4 Standstill
1 Life from the Loam

3 Jace, the mind sculptor

1 Maze of Ith
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
1 Island
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Wasteland
1 Bayou

Sideboard

1 Counterspell
1 Spell pierce
2 Flusterstorm
3 Blue elemental blast
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Extirpate
1 Perish
1 Pernicious Deed