Showdown Playtest #3: G/W mid vs R/W Lifegain/Aggro
Standard forum
Posted on Oct. 2, 2013, 2:26 a.m. by Spootyone
Showdown #3: Boros Lives!
Hello and welcome to my third installation of my series of Showdowns, where I pit my current standard build against other standard decks that people request. This time around I'll be playtesting against the following deck:
deck-large:thunes-goonz-deck-ii-post-therosboros-lifegain-1
The deck was sent to me by its creator, andiamo23. At first glance, this deck appears to me to be one that can deal me some serious harm. It's aggressive right from the get-go, with a possibility to be swinging in with a 5 power creature turn 2 with protection from half my deck and that cannot be blocked except by two or more creatures. I'm speaking, of course, of Soldier of the Pantheon equipped with Madcap Skills . In any case, let's get to the playtest!
As always, I will be controlling both decks. I will play as though I have no knowledge at all about the other deck apart from what I can gather from the games that I play during the test. This is to grant a better experience in the realm of competitive play.
Game 1:
Andiamo (a) wins the flip and decides to be on the play. The kept hand contains 2x plains, 2x mountain, Chained to the Rocks , Warleader's Helix and Fiendslayer Paladin . While this isn't the ideal hand for an aggro deck, I like that we have enough lands to get going and that we can play everything in the hand.
Spooty (s) keeps a hand of 2x forest, 2x Temple Garden , Voice of Resurgence , Selesnya Charm , and Spear of Heliod . Again, this isn't super exciting, but we can play everything and I don't want to risk getting mana screwed by mulliganing.
A1: plains. pass.
S1: draws Boros Reckoner . I'm happy about this, but I do hope we get another white source before too late. Temple garden tapped. pass.
A2: draws mountain. Let's hope we don't flood out here. plays mountain and passes.
S2: draws Brave the Elements . I'm not a master at prediction, but I can't think of anything the opponent could have here where it would be a bad idea to play out the voice, so let's do that. Plays forest and taps out for voice of resurgence. pass.
A3: draws mountain. Alright maybe I should've kept a different hand, maybe? Hopefully this doesn't keep happening. Well, let's get something on the field at least. plays plains and taps out for Fiendslayer Paladin . pass.
S3: draws Selesnya Guildgate . It's a third white source at least. I don't think I need to have mana up right now for the charm or elements so I'll go ahead and run the spear out. Shocks self with temple garden (s 18/20 a) and taps out for spear of heliod. Now that the voice is stronger we should attack. Swings with voice. No blocks. (s 18/17 a). Pass.
A4: draws Chained to the Rocks . Alright now we're absolutely using one of these on the opposing voice. casts chained to the rocks enchanting own mountain and exiling the voice. plays mountain. swings with paladin dealing 2 and gaining two. (s 16/19 a). pass.
S4: draws forest. ewwww. Well, I guess let's just set ourselves up for the reckoner while leaving up mana for the spear. plays selesnya guildgate tapped and passes.
A5: draws Archangel of Thune . NICE. we can even play her now. plays mountain and taps out for the archangel. Now we have to worry about the spear...I'm not sure it's best to be attacking while mana is up for that, especially without any other creatures in hand. pass.
S5: draws selesnya guildgate. poop. Well, we have the charm to deal with the angel assuming it gets big enough. We could run out the reckoner here which might be good, but I really want to keep mana up for the spear. With only one potential creature in hand, I'd like to wait til I have mana up for brave the elements before I play the reckoner, so we'll durdle a bit more. plays guildgate tapped. pass.
A6: draws plains. so much land this game haha. Well, we're in the same position as before. We can play the helix though and get us closer to victory while pumping all our guys, though. casts warleader's helix dealing 4 damage and gaining four life (s 12/23 a). All creatures get a +1/+1 counter from thune. plays mountain. pass.
S6: draws Sylvan Caryatid . Kind of awkward, honestly. Though we can play it and keep up mana for both the spear and the brave the elements. Seems nice enough. casts the caryatid, plays a forest and passes.
A7: draws Soldier of the Pantheon . Again, kind of awkward. He can't really do anything for us at the moment. and now that we cannot attack for damage with anything besides the archangel, we're even more limited. We could swing with the paladin and either force lifegain or force damage based on the opponents choice of blockers. I say we just try to deal some damage with the paladin before we let him get ahold of the board. casts Soldier of the Pantheon (so he also gets counters) and swings with the paladin. As S, I can block here and cast selesnya charm once the archangel becomes 5 power. blocks with the caryatid (s 12/26 a). All A's creatures get a counter. S casts sel. charm on the angel and exiles it. pass.
S7: draws Voice of Resurgence . Alright we need to get some board presence going now. We can run out the reckoner now with mana for the spear's activation or brave the elements, which is great. cast's boros reckoner and passes turn. One life gained by A from the soldier since S casts a multicolored spell. (s 12/27 a)
A8: draws soldier of the pantheon. Sweettt. Now we have two potential uber-blockers. Also, we can chain that reckoner to the rocks. And I think we should so we can try to get some damage in. casts chained to the rocks targeting the reckoner. in response, s casts brave the elements, naming white. plays soldier of the pantheon. Swings in with the paladin. S blocks with reckoner and taps caryatid to give him first strike. both die. A gains and then loses 4 life from reckoner's ability. pass.
S8: draws Spear of Heliod . Well, this could get nutty. And it's potential for something great here. Casts second spear. Then casts voice of resurgence. A gains 2. (s 12/29 a)
A9: draws mountain. Man, so much for aggro. This is the longest game I've playtested yet. Both decks just can't get enough fuel to do much of anything. No point in attacking here. pass.
S9: draws archangel of thune. YEAH BABYYYY!!! Just what I needed. casts thune. passes.
A10: draws Firemane Avenger . well, it's something but facing down that archangel pretty much spells death for A, here, unless he draws into removal. casts firemane avenger. pass.
S10: draws forest. declares attacks and swings with archangel. No blocks. S gains 5 and everyone gets counters. (s 17/24 a) pass.
A11: draws Temple of Triumph . let's scry! plays the temple tapped and scrys one. It's a plains. It's put on the bottom of the deck. Attacking really does no good here, even if we swing all and activate battalion. It kind of sucks that a comeback feels inevitable. pass.
S11: draws Advent of the Wurm That's some good firepower against the pro colorless guys. And trample is amazing right now. casts advent of the wurm making a 5/5 (now 7/7) trampling token and A gains 2 life. (s 17/26 a) Swings with archangel and is blocked by the firemane avenger. S gains 6 and everyone gets a counter. (s 23/26 a). pass.
A12: draws Sacred Foundry . Yeah, that's probably game now. passes turn.
S12: draws plains. Swings with thune and wurm. Wurm is chumped by the larger soldier. Everyone gets counters. (s 30/13 a) pass.
A13: draws chained to the rocks. Damn...too late deck..too late. Chains archangel to the rocks and passes turn.
S13: draws sylvan caryatid. swings with voice and wurm token. soldier blocks the voice. (s 30/4 a). pass.
A14: draws boros charm. It's simply not enough. Concedes.
Spooty wins game 1!
Alright that...that was crazy. Not only was that a super long game, but it was such a stalled game overall. We each were basically hoping we drew into Archangel of Thune before the other player and I was lucky enough to draw into her first without the opponent having any removal in hand. There were certainly bad draws on both ends from time to time, so I don't think I'll contribute too much of this to bad luck in that regard. Time for sideboarding!
Sideboard tech with Spooty: There's a few things we could easily bring in for this matchup. Let's actually just take a look at what we want to remove. As much as Trostani, Selesnya's Voice is a wall, that Soldier of the Pantheon is such a pain in the ass. Likewise, I think Fleecemane Lion can come out in lieu of some better choices from the side board. So that's 7 cards. I'm going to bring in 3x Unflinching Courage to try to out-tempo the opponent as well as 3x Fade into Antiquity to take care of those pesky CtR enchantments. And the last card will be a single Mistcutter Hydra . Maybe I draw it?
Sideboard tech with Andiamo: Removal would be nice to bring in here. We know the opponent has selesnya charm so we need to focus on getting our smaller guys through to the face by clearing a path for them, I'd say. I honestly think removal archangel of thune isn't bad, here. We know as soon as it starts doing things it'll be exiled. And as much as I love Spark Trooper , he will also be s. charmed before he makes any impact, most likely. In their place, I'm bringing in 3x boros reckoner and 3x Pacifism .
Game 2:
Andiamo decides to be on the play and keeps a hand of plains, Temple of Triumph , 2x Firemane Avenger , Soldier of the Pantheon , Fiendslayer Paladin and Madcap Skills . I hope the temple will scry us into more land. Or maybe we draw into a red source to give us that turn 2 5 power creature...eh? eh?
Spooty keeps a hand of selesnya guildgate, Temple Garden , plains, Voice of Resurgence , Sylvan Caryatid , Selesnya Charm and Archangel of Thune . This is just a solid, solid hand to keep.
A1: Plains. Soldier of the pantheon. Pass.
S1: draws Advent of the Wurm Beautiful. guildgate enters tapped. pass.
A2: draws plains. Curses. I wanted a mountain so badly to show off that massive power we could've had here. All well. Temple of triumph enters tapped and we scry Madcap Skills off the top. Very interesting. I say we keep it and get one on the soldier AND the fiendslayer paladin. Swing in with the soldier. pass. (s 18/20 a)
S2: draws Unflinching Courage . Not bad. It'll help us recover what we're losing from the quick start the opponent has had. plays plains and taps out for the caryatid. pass.
A3: draws madcap skills. alright let's make this guy ridiculous. taps out to put madcap skills on soldier of the pantheon, making it a 5/1 that cannot be blocked except for my 2 or more mono-colored creatures. (yuck). swings unblockable for 5 (s 13/20 a). Plains. Pass.
S3: draws selesnya charm. I like this. We need to stop hemorrhaging life and having an extra charm makes this very easy to deal with assuming no removal occurs. We will have to sacrifice our mana dork, but for good cause, I feel. Plays temple garden tapped and passes turn.
A4: draws firemane avenger. hmm...none too happy about that at the moment. But if we get more land we can start spewing out angels like nobody's business. Now if I'm a very intelligent player, I will see that the opposing player can bring in a selesnya charm token, double block and kill my guy. I'm okay with that here. It's essentially a 2-for-2 where I gain a life and they lose their ramp creature that I cannot target. Good deal to me. swing with soldier. In response, S casts that charm and double blocks. all creatures die. A gains one life from S casting the card. Second main A casts fiendslayer paladin and passes turn. (s 13/21 a)
S4: draws Fade into Antiquity . Damn I wish I had that beforehand...all well. We need land but for now lets get this voice out there. taps for voice and passes turn.
A5: draws Firefist Striker Not a land. Shoot. Alright time to make the fiendslayer big. If it gets s. charmed next turn, all well. it's worth the risk. taps for madcap skills, attached to paladin and swings for 5 lifelink first-strike damage. No blocks available. (s 8/26 a). pass
S5: draws advent of the wurm. Not land. This is really bad. We need land like...yesterday. We can fortunately kill the mad skills and begin chump blocking, but that cannot last forever. Plays antiquity, exiles mad skills and passes turn.
A6: draws Boros Reckoner . Nice. Though I still want land. attacks with paladin. S chumps with voice. Elemental token enters battlefiend. (s 8/28 a). casts boros reckoner and passes.
S6: draws forest HELL yes! Assuming no removal happens, we advent and then attach the unflinching courage to it for serious swings from now on. lezzdoodisss...Plays forest and passes turn.
A7: draws mountain. Looks like both sides are finally picking things up. This is going to be very interesting. Okay so again if I'm a smart player I foresee the scripted advent being flashed in, so attacks are pretty poor unless theyre from the reckoner. swings with reckoner, S blocks with elemental token takes one to the face from reckoner (s 7/28 a). Mountain. taps out for firemane avenger. passes. EoT S casts advent and gets a wurm.
S7: draws plains. Okay now we're getting somewhere. But our hopes really only rest on the opponent not drawing into any removal spells. Otherwise, we're a dead man. Cmon lady luck! Plays plains, attaches unflinching courage to wurm token and swings for 7/7 trample and lifelink. No profitable blocks (s 14/21 a). passes turn with mana for s charm up if needed.
A8: draws mountain. We absolutely need removal next turn or this will get even worse We can alpha here though and we should be okay. We swing with paladin, reckoner and avenger, activating lightning helix battalion targeted at Spooty. S plays selesnya charm to make a token and chumps it to the fiendslayer paladin (s 5/26 a). casts secod firemane, plays mountain and passes turn.
S8: draws sylvan caryatid. boring. Let's make angels instead. Taps out for archangel of thune and swings with the wurm token. no blocks. All creatures get +1/+1 counters. (s 12/19 a). We're likely going to lose our archangel...we'll see. pass.
A9: draws Boros Charm (oh shit...) That's game. A swings with everything, activating two firemane triggers both at archangel of thune, killing her then casts boros charm on one of them to give it double strike and that's lethal. Top deck of amazement!
Andiamo wins!
Wow that was rough from the get-go. I may need to figure out a better way to handle that combo of Soldier of the Pantheon into Madcap Skills . Just a touch of removal in the sideboard like Celestial Flare could prove necessary. Also, SO MANY FREAKING FIREMANE AVENGERS. That is all.
Final siding with Spooty: We're cutting the boros reckoners for the rest of our Mistcutter Hydra so we can hopefully combat this aggressive frenzy of pro multicolored creatures.
Final siding for andiamo: All is good. Things went well. Let's do it again.
Game 3:
Spooty chooses to be on the play and mulligans a no-land hand. Keeps a hand of 2x temple garden, plains, forest, voice of resurgence, and archangel of thune. Judging by last game, this might be disastrous already.
Andiamo keeps a hand of 2x sacred foundry, 2x soldier of the pantheon, madcap skills, pacifism, and chained to the rocks. Honestly, this is a god hand for this matchup. (honestly, I think I already know the winner by these two hands, alone)
S1: temple garden tapped. pass.
A1: draws fiendslayer paladin. shocks self with sacred foundry (s 20/18 a) and plays soldier of the pantheon. pass.
S2: draws plains. plays plains, casts voice of resurgence. A gains 1 life (s 20/19 a) pass.
A2: draws temple of triumph. Shocks self with foundry to cast madcap skills on soldier of the pantheon. Then the soldier gets in for 5 unblockable. (s 15/17 a) pass.
S3: draws brave the elements. Not going to help us. plays temple garden tapped and attacks for two with voice. pass (s 15/15 a)
A3: draws warleader's helix. attacks for 5 with soldier. (s 10/15 a) plays temple of triumph and scrys for madcap skills (Oh my dear lord, I (spooty) am so screwed. It stays. casts soldier of the pantheon number two. pass.
S4 draws selesnya charm. Funny how we shouldn't be able to (but do) know the fact that we're about to lose on turn four. plays plains. passes turn.
*A4: draws madcap skills, attaches it to the second soldier, swings for lethal. G. G. *
Andiamo wins the match!
Wow. Just wow. That combo is too crazy for my deck to handle in its current form. user:andiamo, I was on the fence as to whether or not I needed removal in the side board against aggro. Well, your deck has just proven to me it's ABSOLUTELY necessary. Prepare for the additon of at least 2x Celestial Flare for any time we have a match in the future, my friend haha! And well done on a great deck.
Despite my loss, I want to try to make a couple suggestions. However, given I didnt see too much of your deck that's a bit hard. And I did just lose pretty pathetically to it haha. I think the only thing worth changing right now is the sideboard once you've finished playtesting against other deck archetypes, but otherwise, I have no changes I would make. Again, well done.
Thank you to everyone who has read this and the rest of my series of playtests! Please give my competitor's deck a look and upvote it if you enjoy it. And as always the same goes for my own deck. If you would like to be the next deck I playtest, let me know!
deck-large:archangel-of-thune-tempo-breaker
deck-large:thunes-goonz-deck-ii-post-therosboros-lifegain-1
By: Spootyone
Oh damnit. Well there's my mandatory mistake. My apologies. I just need more time getting used to the new cards. I hope that didn't affect the outcome too poorly.
October 2, 2013 12:44 p.m.
Once again man thanks for taking the time to play test my deck i really appreciate it.
October 3, 2013 12:55 a.m.
No problem at all, man! I enjoy doing them and they help out both parties :)
October 3, 2013 1:01 a.m.
Perhaps using my standard deck
Simicontrol
for the next one? I've yet to playtest it against a serious Standard deck since my playgroup is really laid back. I love how this is set up, you might want to talk to someone about making this an article.
October 3, 2013 7:26 p.m.
Thanks, acbooster. I would be happy to playtest the deck. I have a deck chosen for the next playtest, but I can try to have yours following that. Or if I find the time I can just run both in that same one.
I'll admit, I have absolutely no idea how to go about making my own articles or what that would actually mean for me hahaha. But as long as it didn't require too much more than what I'm already doing I think that would be fun. I don't suppose you know anything about it, do you?
October 3, 2013 7:59 p.m.
I think you talk to KrazyCaley or squire1 about articles. I'd try Caley first.
October 3, 2013 8:13 p.m.
Nigeltastic says... #10
"in response, s casts brave the elements, naming white. plays soldier of the pantheon. Swings in with the paladin. S blocks with reckoner and taps caryatid to give him first strike. both die. A gains and then loses 4 life from reckoner's ability. pass."
This situation shouldn't happen as the reckoner has protection from white, and cannot be damaged by the fiendslayer paladin 1) making it foolish to swing with the paladin and 2) making it so the reckoner with first strike would indeed kill the paladin (or with normal strike) but the reckoner's ability would not trigger as no damage would be dealt to it. Protection from while prevents white permanents dealing damage as well.
October 18, 2013 12:50 a.m.
Yeah, as you read earlier and earlier posts, there are more mistakes. I've been playing for a little under a year so I know quite a lot, but still make many mistakes (especially since a lot of these have to be written late at night when I'm very tired).
October 18, 2013 9 a.m.
harrydemon117 says... #12
I see you like to playtest against aggro type decks, but what about a change of pace? A Grixis Control/Midrange deck that uses a combo of Master of Cruelties + Thassa, God of the Sea as a possible combo? Your deck gains life off of creatures, but a well timed Master of Cruelties trigger could tip it back in my favor in the long run :)
deck-large:thassas-grixis
October 18, 2013 11:20 a.m.
I'll likely be switching things up next installment to see how the deck fares against a control matchup, but regardless keep updated and suggesting your deck and over time I should get to it :)
October 18, 2013 11:37 a.m.
rakdosrunner says... #14
I'd love you to try a true aggro deck, I love reading these.
Here's mine, 5th at state try it out
deck-large:rakdos, lord of dance! (5th at state)
October 19, 2013 12:21 a.m.
Nigeltastic says... #15
To be clear I wasn't trying to smack talk you or anything, I just figured you may like mistakes being pointed out to you so you can improve in the future. I have a tremendous respect for the mental wherewithal it takes to writeup such a match in detail. Keep up the good work!
RussischerZar says... #2
Casts second spear.
Spear of Heliod is legendary.
October 2, 2013 9:22 a.m.