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How Do You Stop Emrakul?!?

So today was my second day back on the tourney circuit and i did considerably better than my first day back (any game win would of done that but I'll take my two round wins out of five!) In any event, I keep running into a Show and Tell Combo Deck with several players, or other combo variant deck, with the win condition being Emrakul. My two part question is this:

1) What are ways people are finding effective to stop him from entering play?

2) Once he does enter play, what are the most effective ways to handle him?

Please Help as I'm sick of loosing to these types of decks!!!!
Posted 25 June 2012 at 04:57

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Oh one more criteria, DO NOT ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS WITH "COUNTER THE SPELL GETTING HIM INTO PLAY" I want to explore ways of stoping him that are NOT blue!
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Posted 25 June 2012 at 04:59

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It's a very hard to stop deck aspecially without playing blue. There are many ways you can delay them but they run a lot of counterspells themselves and so many cantrips they keep collecting their combo pieces over and over again.
The biggest problem when not playing blue is that they can just go for a turn 1 or turn 2 combo without the risk of running into force of will or spell pierce or anything like that.


ok that siad here is the non-blue hate:

discard: Thoughtseize/Hymn To Tourach/Cabal Therapy, discard is always bad for combo decks although they can fight your discard with counterspells and brainstorm so it's by no means a perfect plan. Some SnT decks also run Leyline of Sanctity which totally stops discard decks.

Extraction: Surgical Extraction and Extirpate are great in combo with a discard strategy. They also give you info on what they are holding and how much time you have (but this info is usually only good to you when you are playing blue). Anyway, extracting fetchland or wasteland on a Volcanic Island and extracting that can result in slowing them down. I also extract cantrips like brainstorm and ponder both for the info and it might slow them down if you get lucky.

Humility: This is the bomb, If you resolve Humility or they play show and tell and you stick humility of their show and tell you win.

Oblivion Ring and Porphyry Nodes: Can be played of their Show and Tell and take care of Emrakul.

Creatures like shriekmaw, Mangara of Corondor, Phyrexian Metamorph , Fleshbag Marauder (which is blue but you can play it in a non blue deck) etc...

Knight of The Reliquary + Karakas is pretty effective in slowing them down. Basically if you play a knight of the reliquary deck they can't risk playing Show and Tell because if you stick a knight and they stick Emrakul you will just fetch karakas and bounce emrakul before their next turn. They need Sneak Attack (or Hive Mind if it's the Hive Mind version of the Show and Tell combo) to win this matchup.

Hatebears like Gaddock Teeg and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben slow them down. They do run Pyroclasm and bounce in side to deal with hatebears. Gaddock Teeg prevents them from hardcasting Sneak Attack, Through the Breach, Force of Will etc...

Green Sun's Zenith makes a deck that runs knight of the reliquary/Gaddock Teeg/Qasali Pridemage a lot better and gives you a good strategy.

Red elemental Blast and Pyroblast can counter Show and Tell, Intuition and all their cantrips to slow them down.

To win this matchup you need both a very fast clock and ways to slow them down. Both me (I play Sneaky Show = Show and Tell + Sneak Attack) and my friend (who plays Hive Mind = Show and Tell + Hive Mind) have trouble against Tempo decks. For instance

Turn 1 Delver of Secrets
Turn 2 flip declver of secrets, play Goblin Guide, attack for 5 and keep 1 mana open for spell Pierce is very problematic.

These types of decks play a lot of counterspells like Red elemetal blast/Spell Pierce/Force of Will/Daze combines with a very fast clock. That in my opinion is the only effective way to stop Show and Tell based decks. I stoped playing non blue decks because of this combo. Despite all the hate it's pretty much unstoppable if you don't play blue. It's just to good. There is a chance that Show and Tell gets banned and even though I play this deck I would not be against such a ban.

PS: Emrakul is not the problem and neither is Show and Tell. Griselbrand is the card that takes Sneaky Show over the top. It's totally absurt that they printed this card because it's far to broken but wizards will never ban a card that they are still selling in boosters.
Griselbrand = Yawgmoth's Bargain (a card that was already to broken to play and banned a long time ago) on a creature, with lifelink, flying and a 7/7 body, I mean WTF!!!
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Posted 25 June 2012 at 08:11

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Yeah I have been seeing people switching out Emarkrul for Griselbrand in both Show and Tell and Reanimator Decks. But with that being said, I don't think its these creatures that need to be banned, but as you alluded to, the cards that are allowing them into play for two to three mana (ie show and tell, reanimate, anmimate dead, etc)
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Posted 25 June 2012 at 12:24

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thank you for all kinds of ideas to explore. As you said, its not the perfect strategy however they are strategies I can incorporate if I still refuse to take the plunge into blue multi color.
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Posted 25 June 2012 at 12:25

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It is the creatures that are the problem, because there are so many cards that enable you to sneak creatures into play it really doesn't matter what the creature mana cost is. An Elf deck will cast any creature by turn 3, a reanimator deck will reanimate any creature as of turn 1, a Show and Tell deck will cheat any creature in as of turn 1, a dredge deck can potentially get any creature into play for no mana by using dread return between turns 1 and 3 etc...

Survival of the Fittest was banned because of a creature (vengevine) while survival had been around for a long time and never seemed to be an issue still they banned the old card and not the new one.

It's wizards that prints these huge creatures with rediculous abilities (it all started with rise of the eldrazi and since then they printed more and more broken cards) and by giving them a high casting cost they don't impact the only format they care about which is standard.

Show and Tell is a pretty fair card, you pay it at 3 mana and both you and your opponent get to play a free permanent. Your only benefit is you get to choose when you play it. When I started playing again Show and Tell was 2$ a card. I doidn't buy any because there weren't any ways to abuse it. It was not until emrakul that the card suddenly became powerful enough to play. Then I buyed a set for 100Euro.
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Posted 25 June 2012 at 16:50

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Some black sac spells like Geth's Verdict can kill Emrakul if he is alone.
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Posted 26 June 2012 at 16:07

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When there coming in off of a reanimator or show and tell deck, yes absolutely!
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Posted 26 June 2012 at 20:09

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[QUOTE=jdudes]When there coming in off of a reanimator or show and tell deck, yes absolutely![/QUOTE]

...Emrakul can never be in a Reanimator deck. But you can stop it with Mycosynth Lattice. In fact, I think it's the most fun way to deal with it.
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Posted 28 June 2012 at 17:09

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[QUOTE=Palas]...Emrakul can never be in a Reanimator deck. But you can stop it with Mycosynth Lattice. In fact, I think it's the most fun way to deal with it.[/QUOTE]

Emrakul can be reanimated just like any creature that can enter the graveyard, it's not easy but it can be done. Goryo's Vengeance for instance can be used to reanimate Emrakul. It's Progenitus for instance that can't be reanimated because he doesn't go to the graveyard, ever.

And how does Mycosynth Lattice stop emrakul? It's 6 mana and does nothing.
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Posted 29 June 2012 at 07:33

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[QUOTE=Seth]Emrakul can be reanimated just like any creature that can enter the graveyard, it's not easy but it can be done. Goryo's Vengeance for instance can be used to reanimate Emrakul. It's Progenitus for instance that can't be reanimated because he doesn't go to the graveyard, ever.

And how does Mycosynth Lattice stop emrakul? It's 6 mana and does nothing.[/QUOTE]

It makes everything colorless, making Emrakul a huge, but normal monster. It won't take him away instantly and you've listed far better ways to do it, but I find it fun to play a "fair game" against it, destroying it like a common creature.

Or an artifact.

How rewarding would it be to destroy Emrakul with Shattering Spree, Reprisal, Smash to Smithereens, Path to Exile etc.?
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Posted 29 June 2012 at 12:31

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fair enough but how rewarding is it to play Gilded Drake for 2 and get yourself a 15/15 Annihilator in return :)

But Gilded Drake is blue so that wasn't allowed in this thread :)
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Posted 29 June 2012 at 14:01

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Royal assassin for the moment he attacks (if you dont mind sacking 6 things, otherwise mix that with the elf or angel that makes it so you dont have to sac anything) since he can only not be targeted by spells of color, creatures are great for his removal, like admonition angel too. and as other people stated, oblivion ring, or journey to nowhere is good. Avatar of Woe is another good one, just think outside of targeting him with spells, magic has wonderfully put everything you need to stop anything in magic, no one card is unstoppable, theres always multiple ways to get rid of everything. Try field destroys like judgement day, wrath of god, oblivion stone, ect... =p
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Posted 07 July 2012 at 16:32

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Idk, the removal with assassin and avatar of woe is great and all, but the problem you still run into is the annihilator which probably more than anything screws me over. I used to run four RA's and one AoW but like i said when you get annihilated for six, its good and great he's out of the game, however you will probably be starting from scratch.

On another note I ran into that nasty SoB again today in open dueling in between M13 pre release matches (BTW kid, whoever you were who brought and snuck cards into a SEALED deck tourney from yesterday, WICKED BOGUS!!!) and Geth's Verdict Worked!!! I was playing my elves, however problem i ran into was when he snapped him back from his graveyard to his hand and shot him out again, next time more geth's verdict!!!!
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Posted 09 July 2012 at 05:05

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Do Emrakul decks run more than 1 copy? A really solid way of removing it if you're into black is praetor's grasp. This way also gives you the option of casting it, if you ever find the mana, and really wrecking his day.

You can also try to despise it out...
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Posted 09 July 2012 at 16:14

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[QUOTE=jomos]Do Emrakul decks run more than 1 copy? A really solid way of removing it if you're into black is praetor's grasp. This way also gives you the option of casting it, if you ever find the mana, and really wrecking his day.

You can also try to despise it out...[/QUOTE]

They run 4 Emrakul and 4 Griselbrand as they can get these into play as of turn 1 with force of Will and Misdirection backup.
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Posted 09 July 2012 at 17:19

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[QUOTE=Seth]They run 4 Emrakul and 4 Griselbrand as they can get these into play as of turn 1 with force of Will and Misdirection backup.[/QUOTE]

Yuck. I'm glad I have no interest in that format...
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Posted 09 July 2012 at 18:36

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[QUOTE=jomos]Yuck. I'm glad I have no interest in that format...[/QUOTE]

It's a very skill based format though despite how crazy overpowered all these strategies might appear to an outsider. I went 7 rounds on sunday and 6 of the 7 the round went into time (crossed the 50 minute time limit). Legacy isn't play something broken and win, you have to fight through discard, all kinds of counterspells, hatebears, stuff like ensnaring bridge and humility and odd cards like glacial Chasm, counterbalance, trinispehere or chalice of the void. It's a very divers format where there is no best deck, there are many competitive strategies all with their strengths and vulnerabilities and reading your opponent correctly and making the correct decisions is what wins most games rather then getting lucky with a good matchup.
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Posted 10 July 2012 at 06:48

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I watched a little today in a video. Pretty intense stuff. I am just not competitive enough for that format!
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Posted 12 July 2012 at 05:27

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