Updated for BFZ

Gorgosaurusrex, 8 years ago

Tuesday Standard

littlebass09, 8 years ago

Removed Atog for Vault Skirge

erykmynn, 8 years ago

Added Land

EchoZulu69er, 8 years ago

alstlz, 8 years ago

LGS Results 1-2-1 after partial revamping

Knockadoon, 8 years ago

This was an interesting night because I had partially reworked the deck making the switch from mana-dork-based Ramp to Sorcery and Enchantment-based Ramp. I hadn't had time to reconstruct the mana-base from the more heavily and version that used to play cards like Thunderbreak Regent and sometimes Dromoka's Command. My plan, which is now listed correctly, is to switch to an almost entirely Ramp with just splashes for and for Dragonlord Atarka, Dragonlord Dromoka, and even for Omnath, Locus of Rage. So this is now a See the Unwritten deck featuring those beasties along with Whisperwood Elemental and Surrak, the Hunt Caller with a couple Nissa, Vastwood Seer  ^Flip thrown in.

More on the deck later, though. For now, onto the rounds.

Round 1: 0-2 games (0-1 rounds) vs Esper Midrange?

I'm not sure exactly what to call this deck. I guess Esper Midrange feels right. Playing against it felt like playing against an Abzan Control deck. He was using Silkwrap and Hangarback Walker in Game 1 with a Raid-satisfied Wingmate Roc on curve. I drew 3x Jaddi Offshoot but didn't draw enough ramp spells to get out my big stuff despite buying myself time by gaining life off the plants' Landfall triggers.

Game 2 he stuck a Gideon, Ally of Zendikar on curve and then used Disdainful Stroke to counter my Dragonlord Atarka that probably wouldn't have been enough to stabilize anyway. I had to take an entire turn off when I drew the 7th land I needed for Atarka but it was a Rugged Highlands and ETB Tapped.

Round 2: 1-1-1 games (0-1-1 rounds) vs Dark Jeskai

This was the first time I'd played against this successful archetype and although the round ended in a Draw I didn't feel bad about it.

Game 1 my deck did what it was supposed to, even taking out a Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip and double Mantis Rider all on the same turn with one of the 3x Radiant Flames I was running maindeck last night. But he had Crackling Doom for both the dragons I was able to stick, and I couldn't recover.

Game 2 I had another timely Radiant Flames to take down Jace and Mantis Rider, then followed up with a See the Unwritten that found Omnath, Locus of Rage. I ended up getting 3 Elemental tokens to go along with Omnath and a Whisperwood Elemental and the accompanying Manifest tokens and just overran his removal.

Game 3 ended on time with me at 32 life and a board of dragons and Whisperwood Elemental with enough mana and the card to cast Dragonlord Atarka the next turn and the opponent at 16 life but with no board presence and only one card in hand that obviously wasn't removal because he let me hit him once with Dragonlord Dromoka. So I feel like I would have won that game if I'd had more time. I've had this happen quite a few times, so I'm trying to play a little faster in the earlier games to avoid running out of time so often. I don't think I'm super slow with my in-game decision-making, but I can probably be faster when fetching lands and shuffling, etc.

Round 3: 1-2 games (0-2-1 rounds) vs Green Eldrazi

This guy likes Ramp decks like I do and was the one who inspired me to go bigger with See the Unwritten in this deck. I would normally not think to have so many high CMC cards in one deck, but I've played against this guy using that many and it works out (when it works out). By trying to fill slots at all the CMC costs I was diluting the effect of the Ramp by sometimes ramping to a lot of mana and then dropping a Thunderbreak Regent on Turn 6.

Game 1: He ramped faster than I did and cast Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger TWICE (exiling two lands each time) before I had quite enough mana to cast my big stuff, so that ended that. I never even played a significant spell.

Game 2: I ramped faster than he did and put out a Dragonlord Atarka one turn, then finished him off with a Gaea's Revenge despite losing a Whisperwood Elemental (got to keep the colorless Manifest tokens) to an Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. He even gained 7 life at one point off a Nissa's Renewal, but you can't fight the Revenge...it's my Ugin-killer.

Game 3: He ramped faster than I did with a Turn 3 Explosive Vegetation following a Turn 2 Rattleclaw Mystic and landed his own Dragonlord Atarka too early for me to put up a meaningful resistance.

This kind of Ramp mirror match seems to come down to who can land the first big threat. That Turn 3 Explosive Vegetation wasn't the nail in the coffin, but it was the lid being put into place.

Round 4: 2-0 games (1-2-1 rounds) vs G/B Aristocrats

This guy was using Evolutionary Leap, Catacomb Sifter, Smothering Abomination and Bone Splinters.

Game 1 everything in my deck worked perfectly and I resolved both Dragonlord Atarka to mostly wipe his board (he kept tapping out and not keeping up Green mana for Evo-Leap) and a Dragonlord Dromoka, and I used Become Immense on an unblocked Dromoka attack to deal 11 damage while gaining 11 life, all for a single and Delving away a pile of cards that went into the graveyard from a See the Unwritten.

Game 2 was similar, but he put up more of a fight taking out my early dragons with Bone Splinters twice, but I was still clearing his board with Dragonlord Atarka twice plus fighting from Dragons mode on Frontier Siege. I finally had a Whisperwood Elemental satisfying the Ferocious clause on See the Unwritten and hit another Whisperwood AND Omnath, Locus of Rage and ended up with a pile of Manifests and Elemental tokens along with a Hasty Surrak, the Hunt Caller cast from my hand to finish the game.

His deck just wasn't powerful enough OR fast enough to give me enough trouble. He needed a little more aggression. This deck seems to kind of like to grind out incremental advantages, but can get overpowered easily. I don't know if he was running any boardwipes or not, but could have used a Crux of Fate badly, although that's killer with the damage trigger from Omnath.

So, since last night I have had time to redo the mana-base into what is currently listed, which has let me use more Nissa's Pilgrimage than I had last night (because I didn't have enough basic Forests for it at the time), and to include 2x Nissa, Vastwood Seer  ^Flip that I traded away a Foil Windswept Heath (NOT the Expedition one, a regular Foil one from Khans of Tarkir) to get. I've also ordered more Windswept Heath to go to the full playset, and ordered full playsets each of Cinder Glade and Canopy Vista although I'm not running them as 4-ofs (I'll have 4x of each if I end up making other changes later).

So I'm now primarily Ramping and early playtesting suggests that hitting a single for Dragonlord Atarka and a single for Dragonlord Dromoka is no problem. Getting for Omnath, Locus of Rage is occasionally troublesome, but since it's just a singleton in the deck and I'm usually hoping to find it off of See the Unwritten anyway, it shouldn't come up very often, but I do have to pay attention when sequencing my fetches to try to be sure I am aiming at having eventually, if possible.

I was excited to trade the Foil Windswept Heath (I've ordered a regular one as a replacement) for the two Nissa, Vastwood Seer  ^Flip as that was a card I liked but wasn't sure I wanted to spend that much money on. Giving up the Foil version of that land card is no big deal to me; I'd rather have the cool elf Flipwalker.

So I'm going to go with this version of the deck for now and stay with it. I suspect that it will be a little too unreliable to be super competitive, but is capable of having good showings when the draws are right. The mirror match against the Ugin/Ulamog deck is trouble as I can't go over the top of it. I need to look for a sideboard card that's good for that matchup, but in my colors I'm not sure what that would be. I don't want to splash for counterspells, and even they aren't that great against Ulamog because he gets to Exile two things even when countered. I think just being sure the Ramp is happening as quickly as possible is the best thing so I can power out some big threats before I start losing my lands.

collywolly94, 8 years ago

Works Great!

rlowry93, 8 years ago

So, I've changed a few things here. The deck works very well. Of course board wipes and creature removal is my biggest enemy here. Dash Hopes as helped out well when there's a problem. Lemme know what you guys think.

+1 if worthy

mcxrod, 8 years ago

All in on Evolutionary Leap

PlagueRats, 8 years ago

added Rot Shambler's and Hooded Hydra's.

Thanks! to everyone who commented and upvoted earlier

mcxrod, 8 years ago

anooshapalooza, 8 years ago

anooshapalooza, 8 years ago

anooshapalooza, 8 years ago

Commander 2015... Sheeyit.

canterlotguardian, 8 years ago

New commander

Hedronal, 8 years ago

Skybrod, 8 years ago

10rev, 8 years ago

3 Round Tournament: 1-2

Davish, 8 years ago

Setting Sail for Storm

HTMLGhozt, 8 years ago

There aren't strong enough creatures coming in to reliably trigger Gyre Sage's ability. I've decided to exchange her with Beastcaller Savant as a hasty mana dork.

• (-) Gyre Sage

• (+) Beastcaller Savant

Continuing to attempt to be faster Caller of the Claw was too situational. Abbot of Keral Keep Has more of a stormy feel.

• (-) Caller of the Claw

• (+) Abbot of Keral Keep

When attempting to lower mana cost I looked at Seer's Sundial and then I looked at Azusa, Lost but Seeking and I remembered I like lands.

• (-) Seer's Sundial
• (+) Azusa, Lost but Seeking