This was a pretty weird deck, being a mix of cards stereotypical to a Vehicles deck and ALL the planeswalkers. In Game One both of us had some difficulty hitting land drops, though I was able to successfully cast three Torment of Scarabs while sitting on four lands. Turns out, three triggers of that card every turn is generally enough to win. Unfortunately for me, my opponent being stuck on lands revealed little to me about their deck beyond a few cards like Heart of Kiran and Toolcraft Exemplar. I did see a Glacial Fortress, though, and made a mental note about incoming counter magic.

For Game Two, I figured that my opponent would attempt to board out some of their smaller threats for counter magic and larger bombs like Glorybringer. As such I opted for Treasure Map  ^Flip out of the side instead of doubling down on removal like Magma Spray. I got punished severely for that line of reasoning by the classic Heart of Kiran + Toolcraft Exemplar beatdown. Though I managed to remove the problems eventually, I was already at a low enough life total that I couldn't turn the corner.

In Game Three, with Magma Spray now in the deck I felt pretty comfortable about my odds. That is, until a Gideon of the Trials hit the field and was immediately used for his emblem. While I was struggling to find a way to get rid of Gideon my opponent proceeded casually land a Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and start the timer on that time bomb. While I was able to land two Vraska's Contempts it quickly became clear that the number of Planeswalkers I was facing was way higher than the removal I had available and I was buried under them.

The main takeaway from this matchup is that the deck really struggles to put much pressure on opposing Planeswalkers. Superfriends is by no means a prevalent strategy where I play at and so I was caught a little bit by surprise. If your meta does have quite a few Planeswalkers running around I would potentially look to add a few more ways of dealing with them, whether that means adding spells like Lightning Strike or creatures.

GAME TWO

This one really wasn't close, though losing to your girlfriend isn't the worst thing in the world. Having helped build the deck I knew I was in for a rough match since Dinosaurs generally outsize most damage based removal and the decent amount of mana ramp meant my removal would be going dead at a much faster rate.

In Game One I was lucky to draw into enough Cast Downs and Fatal Pushes to keep me alive long enough to stick a Torment of Scarabs. But that small victory was quickly overshadowed by a Regisaur Alpha and Ghalta, Primal Hunger coming on the same turn. Suffice to say, hasty Ghalta hurts.

Game Two was pretty much an unmitigated disaster, as a lack of mana forced me to mulligan down to five on the play. Even then I was stuck on two lands for the entirety of the short lived match.

While you can chalk Game Two up to bad luck, Dinosaurs in general isn't the greatest matchup for this deck. Even after sideboarding it can be difficult to find appropriate removal for the variety of large threats they bring to the table. The same could be said for a deck, which is forced to lean much more heavily on counter magic. If you're wanting to try out my list but find yourself in a meta where dinosaur tribal is pervasive I would heavily recommend bringing more removal like Cast Down and Bontu's Last Reckoning into the 75. Even a card like Murder will be great at better aligning your removal to their big creatures. For those curious about the deck I faced, I have included the link to the list below:

Deadly Gruul Dino's

Standard Jdawn24

SCORE: 7 | 5 COMMENTS | 2383 VIEWS

GAME TWO

It's a shame we didn't get to finish our match, but these were some pretty wild games!

In Game One I was able to exploit the pretty large number of dead cards in my opponent's deck to land Torment of Scarabs. While those dead cards meant my opponent had plenty of fodder for discarding, it eventually began to take a toll on their ability to generate any card advantage. That Torment of Scarabs did eventually get tucked by a Commit / Memory and the battle then turned to a battle between me attempting to land Planeswalkers and my opponent attempting to make a Torrential Gearhulk stick. When the dust settled, I had gotten rid of every Gearhulk in my opponent's deck and was maneuvering to finish the game with Torment of Hailfire when I realized that I had forgotten about the Commit / Memory in my opponent's graveyard. The reset button hurt, but I wound up drawing two Torment of Scarabs and a Torment of Hailfire in my next seven. This was able to eventually win the game.

Game Two was just as hard fought, with me facing more of an uphill climb against an increased density of counter magic, and my opponent now facing more card advantage sources on my end of the table. Eventually, the Gearhulk train backed up by Negate was able to eventually take over the game and take the game win for my opponent but the round had gone to time. Facing the realization that neither of our decks were built to win in three turns, we agreed on a well played draw.

While it was unfortunate that we didn't get to finish out the round, I was very pleased with the deck's performance against a control deck. Even after sideboarding the game was still a very close affair and definitely felt winnable.

GAME TWO

Another match that unfortunately went to time. It's very much apparent that while this deck doesn't feel like it struggles against a control strategy, it certainly doesn't close games out in a hurry.

In Game One I was able to once again exploit a large number of dead removal pieces to stick an early Torment of Scarabs. While it was eventually answered by a Cast Out, that opened the door for an Angrath, the Flame-Chained to stick and start putting in some work. It was also clear that this deck does not lack in ways to take out Torrential Gearhulks, and while the card advantage they generated with Glimmer of Genius was annoying, it certainly wasn't backbreaking. Once again though, I found myself facing a Commit / Memory out of the graveyard, which extended the game way longer than it had any business being.

For Game Two I made a calculated guess that I could be facing Lyra Dawnbringer and Nezahal, Primal Tide out of the sideboard, which naturally pushed me to take out Sweltering Suns. I got punished for this again, as my opponent instead ran a Regal Caracal package. While I had plenty of removal for the first horde of cats, it taxed me enough that a later Torrential Gearhulk was unopposed long enough to bury me. By then time had once again been called, I don't think this is due to slow play (either on my part or my opponent's), control mirrors are just long when you account for Commit / Memory.

GAME TWO

While the final line was a bit disappointing (I obviously didn't make the cut to the Top Eight), I actually feel like I learned quite a bit about the deck in the process. There are some pretty obvious weaknesses to strategies with a high density of Planeswalkers (particularly Gideon of the Trials) that may need addressing, either by switching up some pieces of the removal suite or including creatures somewhere in the 75. That being said, Super Friends isn't an archtype I see quite a bit and will probably avoid devoting too many resources to changing my list until that changes. Otherwise, I feel like some more planning needs to be done in order to effectively deal with "Go-Big" strategies (particularly with them getting a bit more support in Core 19). I'd mostly look to change the sideboard if anything, maybe by swapping out narrow answers like Moment of Craving for spells with a bit more "Oomph."

The Control matchup actually wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. I feel like this list is a pretty heavy favorite in Game One, mostly due to the lower rate of dead cards we bring to the table. Both the and players I faced had problems dealing with my strategy in the first game, and if not for Commit / Memory those games would have been over much quicker. Game Two is definitely a much closer game, however, and is a real test of one's ability to sideboard appropriately. Hopefully the reprint of Banefire will help increase our odds a little bit more when Core 19 joins the mix.

Nothing to report here for now, I will continue to track the deck's progress as soon as I'm able to get to the next event.