XMage

After a week of casual testing here and there, I noticed a pretty big hole in the list prior to changes.... The deck was pretty solidly weak to combo and somewhat to control. By extension i also view this as a weakness to big mana strategies. I decided to revamp …

Testing done on XMage against 1400+ rated opponents.

===accordion ===panel:1.Rat Tribal (2-0) G1p- Game was long and grindy, a lot of touch and go moments, but eventually Oko + JTMS was too much value for him to overcome.

G2d- Turn 2 Oko followed up by removal and pressure was too …

Testing done on XMage against 1400+ rated opponents.

===accordion ===panel:1.Amulet (2-1) G1p- Kept a slow hand, but was able to buy a lot of time blowing up Field of the Dead, and Slayer's Stronghold. I was able to land two tomebound lich to fight Primeval titans, but he fetches Sunhome …

Testing done on XMage against 1400+ rated opponents.

===accordion ===panel:1.RG Jank (2-0) no notes ===endpanel

===panel:2.Mono-R Cerebral Eruption (2-0) No notes ===endpanel

===panel:3.Bant Eldrazi (2-1) G1d- Opp. curves Noble into Reshaper + Noble into TKS + Path on my Goyf into Smasher.

G2p- Suspend AV turn 1, kill his hierarch …

Updated the deck after more than a year. - So mostly removed life doublers and most lifegain. - Added tons of targeted removals (its a meta choice) - Light on token making so added more to fix that.

I still like the Blue Ruin, but I wanted to try something new. On a whim, I splashed Eldrazi into my sideboard and fussed about with making them fit in my U-Tron shell. I've tested it about a baker's dozen number of times on XMage, and results are promising. Most …

2-1 overall in a six-player online tourney. Four-way tie for first, but won out overall based on tiebreakers and game win %.

Round 1: 0-2 vs G/B a.k.a. "The Rock"

Round 2: 2-0 vs The Rock

Round 3: 2-0 vs Mardu Aristocrats

Overall, deck performed pretty decently, but I might've …

Here's the highlights:

So, a few turns in, I cast Solemnity. The next turn, my opponent casts Ixalan's Binding on it. During my next turn, I Cast Out their Ixalan's Binding to get back my Solemnity. Then on their next turn, they Cast Out my Cast Out, getting back their …

Playing versus some Jund/BandEldrazi/Affinity bots I got a little goldfishing in to see if the deck remotely functioned; I was surprised that it seemed okay and probably worth further tuning.

Discard was a 3:2 split of Inquisition of Kozilek:Thoughtseize which felt pretty good without hitting too many bad topdecks.

card:Fatal …

GB Energy 2-0

Ramunap Red 1-2

GR Ramp 2-1

Sultai midrange 2-0

GB Energy 2-1

vs. Mono White Enchantments

This was a bit different of a brew running the new Solemnity+Phyrexian Unlife Combo.

Game 1: Started off the game with a Runed Halo naming Thought-Knot Seer, which was annoying, but easily played around. Once I was able to bounce Porphyry Nodes with Flickerwisp, then process …

vs. 4 Color Saheeli Combo

Game One: Win -He Spreading Seas my first land, then Kolaghan's Commanded my Aether Vial, which put me in a rough spot from the start, but I was able to create enough of a board state and aggro him out.

Sideboard: -2 Flickerwisp, -1 Aether …

There was too many changes for me to include one by one, and thank you to the people who suggested all those cards, it helped out a lot.

So its a general lowering of the mana curve, removed hex-proof cards and switched into a more card draw related strategy.

Updated …

0 - 1 Grixis Shadow

• Feels favored but lost due to draws.

0 - 1 GB Tron

• Too much dead draws g1, topped tron g2 feels bad.

0 - 2 Eldrazi Tron

• 1st game lost to chalice at 1, second flooded and he topped …