Hi everyone!
We’re back with the mailbox, here are some more Q&A’s:
Do you ever miss Silence from the list?
The mana is so much better without white in the deck that it’s tough to reminisce. I haven’t missed Silence due to the fact that people no longer only fight combo on one axis – back during the years of 2010-2013 when Stifle and Spell Snare where in almost everyone’s main deck, Silence was terrific. Nowadays even Delver decks are packing Null Rod, Meddling Mage or something of the sort. It’s a very different time and having proactive disruption is definitely better against the decks of today, especially Omnishow.
Is the 8th fetchland better than a Bayou in the main deck?
Having the extra shuffle effect was nice, but that’s not the reason I chose the eighth fetchland. I wanted to be able to side into a fourteenth land against Delver variants and Miracles, the fourth Bloodstained Mire was more appealing to me than a Badlands or Tropical Island.
Anything you missed/wanted during the open?
Kind of? I really liked my list, the only thing I wanted was a Pyroclasm and it happened twice against Grixis Delver. I never once used Massacre throughout the entire event and am curious if it should be Pyroclasm, the alternative would be a Chain of Vapor or the Void Snare.
Would you go Empty the Warrens for 10 goblins on turn 0 against a known Force of Will deck?
Almost always! There’s only roughly 40% chance that they have Force of Will and a blue card.
When in a situation where you can only float a single mana headed into Ad Nauseam (all lands are tapped), do you float Red or Black? I know there are different situations based on what’s in your graveyard but let’s assume there are no rituals in your graveyard.
Red! You need red mana for either Burning Wish into Tendrils of Agony or even just Empty the Warrens. Black mana doesn’t get you as far, it’s pretty rare that I would float black and not red – it would’ve required a long game where I’ve used a lot of Burning Wish or Rite of Flame.
How do you do to write those elaborated reports, like the last one, for example. Do you write notes in-game? I’ve asked a L2 judge and he says that writing notes about your cards, like your opening hand, can be considered as stalling.
I don’t record my opening hands too often, I do record my opponents hands when I use a Gitaxian Probe, Cabal Therapy or Duress. It’s important to know that all notes are public information, writing down your opening hand could really bite you. I do write notes in game, but I use abbreviations and write quickly typically immediately after I say, “Go.” or even in between games after I’ve sideboarded. Keep in mind that I’m typically fairly fast at these sorts of things, if you’re a person who takes their time with things I could see the stalling aspect. I also expand on my notes at the end of rounds.
Sideboard instructions against Stoneblade include bringing in three Abrupt Decay. Why? Shouldn’t you try to win before the equipments gets on the battlefield? Why not Chain of Vapor instead/Void Snare instead? The 1 mana seems huge against them, no?
The Abrupt Decays are for Meddling Mage or Ethersworn Cannonists, not Stoneforge Mystic or Equipment. They’re there to ensure that you remove these creatures, no matter what – unlike the bounce effects. These decks will often put these creatures into play and try to protect them, they can’t stop an Abrupt Decay!
If you’re interested in asking a question, use the contact form below with the subject line of “TES Mailbox” to submit your question!
