How are you fairing against Esper? I keep trying to make this work but I get worked over by Esper pretty hard and that seems to be an ever-increasing portion of the metagame.

It seems a very good match-up now. I was running at about 50/50 before, but dropping Boros Reckoner, Alms Beast, and Aurelia's Fury for Cremate, Confessor, Spectacle, and Assemble has made it very tough for them. The deck has reached Peak Removal, and I actually decked an Esper player Game 1 last night in a daily I 4-0'd. Keening Apparition in the SB is also nice, and the 3 Connections/4 Games package is a beast. As an Esper player myself, my biggest nightmare is a deck with 4 Rakdos' Return, the land count to properly use it, and 4 Slaughter Games.

OK, I'll try your new list. What are you prioritizing with Slaughter Games? Obzedat/Sphinx/Angel, in that order?

It's a poker answer, but: it depends. Slaughter Games is a very skill intensive card. You need to know the match-up very well whenever you bring it in, because what is important changes throughout various stages of the game. Nay, it changes also based upon your hand, the board state, and especially how your opponent has played. With good hand-reading skills, you can fairly accurately guess what's in your opponent's hand, or sometimes it's just good enough to know what he doesn't have, ie, he can't possibly have an Obzedat here because he would have cast it last turn.

The biggest question to ask yourself when you cast a Games is, what am I scared of right now? What can my opponent do that is going to mess up my game plan? Very early on in the game, frequently that card is Obzedat or Jace. On Turn 4, for example, you are a few turns away from having to deal with Revelation, and maybe you already have a plan for attacking it, such as a heavy hand-disruption hand.

Syncopate or Psychic Strike are less frequently named but there are many situations when it's the call. Angel of Serenity also isn't named too often, but it does happen, especially when you're casting Games #2 or #3.

That looks cool. What are its bad matchups?

Some of the Tier 2 Golgari-based aggro decks with 4 Lotleth Troll are difficult. Jund aggro is a superb match-up and the second most commonly played aggro deck, next to Mono-Red. My old BWR used to play 4 Boros Reckoner, 4 Alms Beast, and 4 Aurelia's Fury, and my favorite match-up was Mono-Red. Tonight, however, I went 0-2 in the Premier Event against two Mono-R's. I have since tuned the deck up a little, including adding back in 2 Electrickery in the SB and the 27th land because I am results oriented. The deck has always stomped Azorius viciously and been about even vs. Esper, but I am finding Esper much easier without the useless creatures and Furies.

Here's what I am running now:

4 Obzedat, Ghost Council
4 Vizkopa Confessor

4 Cremate
4 Devour Flesh
4 Dreadbore
1 Orzhov Charm
4 Mizzium Mortars
1 Ultimate Price
3 Grisly Spectacle
1 Aurelia's Fury
3 Rakdos' Return

4 Blood Crypt
4 Rakdos Guildgate
4 Godless Shrine
4 Orzhov Guildgate
2 Sacred Foundry
3 Mountain
3 Plains
3 Swamp

SB:

2 Keening Apparition

2 Electrickery
4 Mugging
3 Underworld Connections
3 Slaughter Games
1 Rakdos' Return

So yeah, izzet pw >>> jace AOT?

Anyone have experience with multitabling? Is there any way to have them on multiple screens so you don't have to tab between them and can see all games at once?

You can only do that with the beta client.

On the BWR theme, guy won both our PTQ and WMCQ back to back this weekend with this list. Other "teammates" also did well with the same (or similar) 75:

1 Angel of Serenity
2 Thundermaw Hellkite
2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
1 Restoration Angel
2 Olivia Voldaren
4 Boros Reckoner

4 Lingering Souls
2 Rakdos's Return
2 Unburial Rites
2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Ultimate Price
2 Dreadbore
3 Mizzium Mortars
4 Faithless Looting
1 Cremate

4 Godless Shrine
4 Blood Crypt
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Dragonskull Summit
3 Clifftop Retreat
2 Mountain
1 Vault of the Archangel

Side:
4 Appetite for Brains
2 Duress
2 Rise from the Grave
2 Slaughter Games
2 Gloom Surgeon
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Purify the Grave
1 Electrickery


When is our mtgo tournament kicking off btw?

I am a pretty big fan of non-Aristocrats BWR in Standard. cjlack92 invented this Faithless Looting build, and I lost to his debut of it in the MOCS Season 2 Finals Top 8. Needless to say, I was quite confused at the time.

Just to set the record straight. He didn't invent it, NicotineJones did. The guy who created Ghost Dad back in the old Rav days.

speaksinlyrics: With the million 5-drops and X-spells, have you considered Rakdos Keyrune?


The list Cadaz posted looks sweet.

Here's a version I won a Premier with about a month ago that played 5 Keyrunes. Keyrunes are quite good with all the X spells, but too slow versus Mono-R and thus had to be axe'd.

Getting back into std and wondering what to play, should I just wait till new set hits?

It's a tough call, I would say:
-If you like control build an American Midrange deck or Esper deck (Sphinx/Resto is your big cost either way)
-If you like midrange build Jund Midrange
-If you like aggro I think Naya Blitz is by far the strongest choice

Junk Rites is the "best" deck but I think it's the hardest to tune of the tier one decks. If you want something more off beat I think RUG Flash, Gruul Midrange and Aristocrat variants are very strong right now.

If I was going to play a competitive event tomorrow I'd probably pick American Midrange because it's shown it can overcome Junk Rites (it's biggest weakness) and has game against everyone else.

I sold some paper cards and have $210 in credit at MTGOTraders. I can convert that into about 190 tickets, but don't really want to lose the value. Thoughts on speculating on some cards and flipping them or should I just take the hit? I can get 8% off singles.

I know

Na I hate control (at least what it has become in std, would take Delver over Esper anyday).

At first I considered Naya Blitz bc it was cheap and I had a lot of the deck from drafting. I have been watching a lot of streams and the deck gets wrecked by early removal or even just missing white mana/1drops (the deck has put up some results in PTQs tho)

UWR looked like it was a nice deck but has bad matchups vs Esper which seems #2 deck atm.

I am a bit restricted with budget ($200ish or less) and trying to invest in a deck that could get wrecked either with new set and/or rotation.

I was thinking Gruul might have the most upside with those 2 factors and a deck type I like playing (aggressive but more resilient than Blitz).

Disagree on Blitz, I believe it's very very good at the moment. I would say the best Emissary deck by a good margin. Definitely edges out Gruul IMO because of Medic/Mayor and I believe the better builds have 2-3 Rampager which actually make it extremely resilient against say an Thragtusk or Reckoner. Blitz has an edge on Jund for example which runs around 10 2 drop removal spells (and when they tune against Rites/Esper they have some Dreadbores/Ground Seals as well it gets even better). Blitz is very very well positioned.

I 2-0'd a Bant Midrange deck today with a slow draw (T1 Cavern/Champion -> T2 tap land, Boros Elite -> T3 into Emissary/Medic) against a turn 3 and turn 4 Thragtusk. Mayor gives the deck some surprising mid-late finishing potential when hands are empty. The more decks tune for beating Rites the better. When it flat it falls flat, but it's not that often.

UWR is actually quite fine against Esper, depends on how the decks are built. The Boros Reckoner versions with Harvest Pyre do quite well IMO. Esper has been extremely underwhelming before this weekend although I do believe the versions running Liliana + Lingering Souls/Sorin are quite strong if they can avoid the sideboard hate (which is something to consider because LS hate is good against both LS and Rites (Electrickery in Gerry's main deck UWR deck, Staticaster + Curse of Death's Hold seeing play as well).

Essentially the best deck is extremely meta dependent. These would be my choices:
-If you're willing to have a weaker Esper matchup pick Aristocrats
-If you're willing to have a weaker Blitz matchup go with 3 Liliana Jund Midrange or Esper
-If you don't know what the meta is go for Blitz or UWR

Decks I would really like to test:
-RUG Flash, seems like it would have both a good Aggro and Esper matchup. Main deck counters are well positioned against Rites. Seems like it would be a tough UWR m/u though.
-Gruul ramp deck into Thundermaw. Thundermaw just seems so well positioned but I've never found a deck that could run him well.
-BWR Midrange deck seems pretty excellent if tuned right. I've played against it several times and it seems inconsistent if not built correctly. LS + Liliana is incredible right now if you can handle Sphinx.

I'm not sure where prices are at now but anything that is mythic and an absolute standard staple has been increasing a lot after a set rotates given how popular mtg has been recently. I picked up a bunch of Sphinx's at like 20 tickets a piece before GTC rotated which was a pretty easy call. You have to have a good eye though, small Jace for example is not a staple but Rakdos Return is.

Only card that really calls to me from GTC is Obzedat (I grabbed mine for 11), but it's already gone up a lot. Reckoner is probably a good bet but harder to predict because it's not mythic.

Blitz- Do you have a list?

This list is pretty close:


Most debatable cards are Skullcrack and not having the last Lightning Mauler in favor of a 4th Searing Spear.

Care to outline the sideboarding strategies? Specifically what are the fiend hunter and gruul charms in there for?

Gruul charm is for Lingering Souls (and the no ground blocks also being quite good against Rites). Second one is close but it's very good against the Sorin/LS Esper builds.

Fiend Hunter is excellent on the draw against Aggro and when you suspect Rhox is coming out of the board and generally good against decks running Centaur Healer and Resto Angel because it both gets rid of the threat without leaving it on the table (like pacifism) and pumps Champ/Experiment to 3/3 to push through Thrag tokens and Healers.

It's a very soft sideboarding plan just based on what you see (except for Boros Charm), the core of the deck is very strong. I haven't had a chance to test out everything yet just my thoughts so far. Skullcracks have not been impressing me and I would probably add in a Tormod's Crypt and a Fiend Hunter in it's place. I also want to try out Reckoner in the board which I've seen some lists running but it seems risky with most Blitz lists running Pacifism.

As a speculator, I like the cards approach.