Showdown #29: Myr Match

Showdown

Spootyone

19 November 2014

2321 views

Hello all and welcome again to Showdown, where I pit my current standard deck against those submitted to me by you, the members of TappedOut. Last time we were together I tested my new Temur aggro deck against sewellius and his Abzan deck and well…I got absolutely murdered. Not very fun, if I do say so myself. I've refined t he deck even moreso since then and I think it's at a great place right now. And I think that means it's finally time to do something I've been wanting to do for a while: a mirror match.

I've had a lot of people suggesting cards that go into nearly every Temur Aggro deck you find on MTGTop8.com, etc. And honestly it's very hard not to just netdeck or copy all the strategies you find on a site like that. However, I feel like I'm doing a good job of staying true to what I wish to do with this deck as well as my own personal choices, such as not running more than 4 mana dorks and still running Temur Ascendancy -- two things I see 0 decks online doing from my research. I've had good success so far so I hope that remains true now. I present to you all SevynnthDimension and his Temur deck:

This is my GUR Face! | Temur Midrange

Standard* SevynnthDimension

SCORE: 33 | 82 COMMENTS | 7743 VIEWS | IN 10 FOLDERS

The fear I have when facing any temur deck that is "larger" than mine is that I will fail at being aggressive enough on T1-4 to secure a victory in the late game once the bombs start dropping. I notice a lack of Polukranos, World Eater in this list though (which confuses me), but I think I could still have some issues. I guess there's only one way to find out!

I've been listening to a lot of Maynard lately. So yeah. Have summadis.

Spooty wins the flip and is on the play. I keep a hand of 2x Frontier Bivouac, Temur Ascendancy, 2x Goblin Rabblemaster, Forest, and Reclamation Sage. This hand is all three drops, but I think I'll be alright since the 3-drops are potent ones.

Dimension keeps an opening hand of Forest, Mountain, Temple of Mystery, Mana Confluence, Courser of Kruphix, Crater's Claws and Stormbreath Dragon. Not perfect but alright.

S1: Frontier Bivouac tapped. Pass.

D1: Draws Temur Charm. He plays the temple tapped and scrys the other charm to the bottom. Pass.

S2: Draws Crater's Claws. I play the other Frontier Bivouac tapped and pass.

D2: Draws Negate. He plays the Mountain and passes.

S3: Draws Lightning Strike. I could be walking into burn or something here but the board is too perfect for me to play Goblin Rabblemaster. I do so, make a goblin, attack for 1 and pass. (s 20/19 D).

D3: Draws Savage Knuckleblade. He plays the Forest and then uses Crater's Claws to kill the rabblemaster while he has the chance. Pass.

S4: Draws Wooded Foothills. Seems like a great time to get the other rabblemaster out imo. I play and crack the fetch to get a Mountain and play the Goblin Rabblemaster (keeping up pseudo-Stubborn Denial mana). I attack for 2 and pass. (s 19/17 d)

D4: Draws Sylvan Caryatid. Hmm…second Goblin Rabblemaster is annoying. He plays the Courser of Kruphix and reveals a Negate from the top. He plays the confluence, gains a life and passes the turn. (s 19/18 d)

S5: Draws Savage Knuckleblade. I play my Reclamation Sage to destroy his courser and then make a goblin and attack for 8. Pass. (s 19/10 d)

D5: Draws Negate. Things are SUPER rough now. The only card that helps at all here is knuckles. He plays it and passes.

S6: Draws Shivan Reef. I play the reef. I play Crater's Claws for 4 to kill the knuckleblade and swing in for lethal. That was a pretty rough blowout for my opponent. O.o

Sideboard tech with Spooty:

That was brutal. I was on the play, had a second rabblemaster, had an answer for the courser, had an answer for the knuckleblade and then it was just over. Damn. Alright let's discuss boarding. I've rarely played the mirror match for this deck but I know what my sideboard choices are for it. Matches like this tend to be races, and my opponent had a little bit of a slower build than me. Starting off the game with some early aggression like Heir of the Wilds into Goblin Rabblemaster or Boon Satyr or Savage Knuckleblade really puts me at an advantage when I can follow that up with ways to deal with his later plays of stormbreath dragon and his assortment of walkers. On the draw I will be bringing in Hornet Nest. I will also be bringing in my copies of Hunt the Hunter and the 3rd copy of Crater's Claws. Lightning Strike isn't too potent here so those come out, and Temur Ascendancy isn't fantastic here I don't feel.

Sideboard tech with Dimension:

That was painful. I think he needs to tighten up his spell-base for the matchup and hopefully being on the play is helpful. Anger of the Gods is good here because it doesn't hit many creatures in his deck, while breaking a bit of mine. Those and a single Magma Spray can come in. Stoke the Flames also hits a lot, and Hunt the Hunter is being brought in as well. Fated Conflagration and Negate aren't too powerful here and can be replaced, and Kiora, the Crashing Wave doesn't stand up well to Goblin Rabblemaster or creatures with flash/haste. I remove one of her and the Keranos. Hopefully this goes a bit better.

I keep an opener of Mountain, Wooded Foothills, Elvish Mystic, Heir of the Wilds, 2x Boon Satyr, and Ashcloud Phoenix. I like this hand. It's dead to cheap boardwipes but I have to hope my opponent doesn't have one.

Dimension mulligans a one-lander. The 6-card hand is 5 lands and a Crater's Claws. That also seems bad. Annnnd the five card have has a Yavimaya Coast and 4 red spells. RESET. opening hand has 1 Forest again. Jeezzz. 6-card hand has one Forest…again. Come on game. I have him keep a hand of Mountain, Wooded Foothills, Sylvan Caryatid, Savage Knuckleblade, and Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker. Let's just get this one over with haha.

D1: Wooded Foothills. pass.

S1: Draws Polukranos, World Eater. I play and crack a Wooded Foothills for a Forest and play an Elvish Mystic. Pass. (s 19/20 d)

D2: Draws Temple of Abandon. He fetches for a Forest and then plays his Mountain and Sylvan Caryatid. Pass. (s 19/19 d)

S2: Draws Frontier Bivouac. I play the bivouac tapped and then play my Heir of the Wilds. Pass.

D3: Draws Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker. Ew. He plays the temple tapped and scrys a Crater's Claws to the bottom. He really needs that fifth land to get these walkers out and winning. He follows this up with a Savage Knuckleblade and a pass.

S3: Draws Savage Knuckleblade. I play my Mountain and Polukranos, World Eater. I then attack with my Heir of the Wilds and trigger ferocious. My opponent does not block. Pass. (s 19/16 d)

D4: Draws Xenagos, God of Revels. Aww cmon. Welp. He passes.

S4: Draws Shivan Reef. I play the Shivan Reef. I'm not sure what the opponent has but I think I can afford to go all in on the aggression now. I cast my Savage Knuckleblade and give it haste with the reef. I swing with everything but the elf, triggering ferocious on my heir. My opponent blocks Polukranos, World Eater with his Savage Knuckleblade and pumps it up. My hydra dies and he takes 7. I pass. (s 18/9 d)

D5: Draws Temple of Epiphany. So gross. He plays it and scrys a Mountain to the bottom. Pass.

S5: Draws Polukranos, World Eater. I attack with my Heir of the Wilds and Savage Knuckleblade. My opponent blocks my knuckles with his knuckles. Before damage, he pumps it up, and in response, I flash bestow a Boon Satyr onto my own knuckleblade. They trade, he takes 3, and the satyr falls off. Pass. (s 18/6 d)

D6: Draws Stormbreath Dragon. Hmm…How does one come back from this? He taps out for sarkhan and uses the -3 to destroy my Boon Satyr. Pass.

S6: Draws Boon Satyr. oh, alright if I must. I bestow my Boon Satyr to my Heir of the Wilds and attack, triggering his own ferocious and dealing lethal.

Overall, that matchup was much, much more one-sided than I originally thought it would be when I looked at the decks. This could be due to a combination of reasons. For one, there was an obvious issue with getting a good opening hand on the opponent's side of the field in game 2. This might be pure pad luck or it might have something to do with their mana base/curve. So let's take a look at that really quick.

My opponent is running 24 lands with a playset of Sylvan Caryatid in his deck. This on its own isn't bad, especially when there is also a playset of Courser of Kruphix in there as well to filter draws for lands a bit. Let's look at the curve. It would seem as though the problem might involve changing from Sylvan Caryatid to Elvish Mystic, OR just finding room for both. that said, there are quite a bit of tapped lands in this build, so I can understand the hesitation for doing that and throwing off the gameplan a bit. It could just be a string of bad luck that we got so many bad opening hands.

I personally feel like Fated Conflagration isn't quite as good as everyone would hope it was. I used it for quite a bit as removal and it turns out that it's just one turn too slow for how much of an impact it lacks thereof. The deck could really benefit from having a bit more threats, and I think that slot is perfect for Polukranos, World Eater.

I think there are a bit too many moving pieces in the deck as well. Having access to Keranos AND Xenagos (god) AND waiting until you are up to stormbreath mana to win the game is really awkward. In fact, the five-mana slot is supremely flooded right now to not be running 7-8 mana dorks. yes, kiora and xenagos could help you get to that mana but not in a fashion that is going to leave you alive against some decks. The curve is just too high on average to be supported by the mana base.

I feel like my deck is reaching a great spot. I like that it can be considered a competitive Temur Aggro deck but that I have my own twists to it. I still think that Temur Ascendancy is a fantastic magic card that deserves it's spot and I also feel like I really benefit from running so few mana dorks and having an overall lower curve than most other temur aggro builds. I didn't really have any complaints whatsoever, and I'm happy that the deck was showcased decently this week.

I'd like to thank SevynnthDimension for his submission and everyone else for their continued support of this series. Don't be afraid to comment about things more than just your own submissions! I enjoy interaction in the comments quite a bit and look forward to it every time I put one of these up.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @Spootyone

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