First, the pack I opened was pretty good. We get such low turnout for SS at my store that they just give away a prize pack for showing up. If there are enough people to play, you also pay $5 entry, and the prizes for winning are store credit.
Sulfur Falls is about $9 and Gilded Lotus goes for about $2.50. The foil price for Gaea's Blessing is under 50 cents, which is fine because this one came out of the pack a bit nicked at the top. The prices on the Ravnica Weekend foil lands are still in flux as the vendors catch up to the fact that they're available in SS packs, which makes them a lot less rare than they were before.
So the biggest changes I made to the Standard deck were:
- I added 3 copies of Kaya's Wrath and 1 copy of Cleansing Nova (1 Kaya's Wrath is in sideboard at the moment). This was a big upgrade against aggressive decks. They replaced Font of Agonies, which is cute with my life-payment combo but just didn't feel better than Murder in most games, and I'd rather have a Mortify or a Wrath than a Murder.
- I changed the sideboard from an aggressive vampire transformation to a more traditional board with specific answer cards. Now for aggressive decks I had the extra Kaya's Wrath and Cast Down, and for control decks I had 2 Sorcerous Spyglass, 4 Duress, and Zetalpa, who can be very hard for unsuspecting opponents to deal with.
How did it go? On to the gameplay!
Round 1 was against a guy I played last week, but he had an entirely different deck -- Izzet Drakes (blue-red). Game 1 was a bit of a nailbiter as I tried to stay alive long enough to get my combo down, but then I turned the Axis and swapped his 20 life for my 1, drawing 19 cards off the lifegain with Lich's Mastery, and attacked for the win. Game 2 I couldn't keep his Drakes in check, and he got the win. Game 3 went to turns, and we drew a match that was not clearly in anyone's favor. Draw, 1-1-1.
Round 2 was against another opponent from last week, playing the same Jeskai Control deck as before. I lifeswapped him down to 4 in Game 1 but didn't have any way to close it out, and he eventually had two 8-power Drakes attacking. My sideboard worked well against him in the second game, with Spyglass shutting off Teferi for most of the game. I also got Zetalpa into play, but I knew he had Settle the Wreckage in hand and couldn't attack at all, so Zetalpa just served as a wall against Lyra and Drakes for about 10 turns. The biggest problem was I couldn't resolve any important spells, as I didn't get off to a fast enough start, and once we both had 12+ lands he could just cast his card draw spells and counterspells at will. He eventually got Ixalan's Binding on my Spyglass, tucked away Zetalpa with Teferi's -3 ability, and attacked with a 19-power drake. Loss, 0-2.
Round 3 was against Red Burn. This plays like a typical aggro - control matchup: if I can survive to my 6th land drop, I will probably win. It was kind of nice playing a straightforward match after the brain-numbing decisions of the first two matches. First game he got me down to 8 through two Revitalizes and had Experimental Frenzy coming down after I cast my Axis of Mortality, but he had a rough Light Up the Stage for 2 lands and couldn't get me below 5 before I spun the Axis and then attacked for the win with Doom Whisperer. In the second game he got me to about 4 before I flashed in Angel of Grace on his attacker and followed up with Lich's Mastery, but I had enough cards to exile that I was able to fade his damage (down to -5 life) until I got the Axis half of the combo. Win, 2-0.
My 1-1-1 match record was good for 5th place out of 7 (my Round 1 opponent beat me on tiebreakers even though his only win was a bye), but I felt like I learned more about the deck again.
Some notes and thoughts:
- Match 3 opponent said "I lost to a brew!!" in anguish, but the truth is this deck has evolved more into a black-white control deck with a combo finish. And the combo cards are just plain good individually in a lot of matchups, which is important because they aren't very redundant, meaning I'm not going to assemble the combo every game.
- That said, Adanto Vanguard is pretty bad. But I think it's a necessary evil in Game 1 as a way to make sure I can lose life if the opponent isn't hitting my life total. Then I think they should be the first card I thin or cut for sideboard cards in Game 2.
- I'm just waiting for the game where Lich's Mastery gets punished by something like Cleansing Nova or Dispersal (which, ironically, are both cards I play in this deck). I haven't run into anyone who can cast the Dispersal half of Discovery // Dispersal yet, even though it gets played a lot just for Discovery. I can cast it off treasures or the 1x Glacial Fortress, although the situation rarely comes up.
- The reason I played with 2 Dusk Legion Zealots and 2 Revitalizes is that I only owned 2 Zealots. I just got my other two in the mail. It was a good experiment though, and I'm not really sure which is better in this deck. I like having a lot of cantrips to support my relatively low land count and help find the combo pieces. Both are pretty good against aggressive decks. Both are just a cantrip against control. Revitalize is good when Lich's Mastery is out, but sometimes the 1 life loss from the Zealot is actually useful too. Which is better? Should I have more of both?
- Playing against hardcore control with counterspells, like the Jeskai deck, is really hard, and I am glad to be getting practice with it. I really want to get a Twilight Prophet for that specific kind of matchup as a different way to win that also just draws extra cards and combos with Lich's Mastery. I'm also thinking I need to add my second Arguel's Blood Fast, maybe in sideboard.
- Treasure Map is just amazing and I won't stop playing it until it rotates, but it's one of my "slow spots" in gameplay. I am working on playing faster with this deck, and my speed with Treasure Map and the surveil cards is getting better. Going to turns is not great.
- I'd like more Godless Shrines, but frankly the mana has been just fine in this deck. I rarely have a draw where there is a significant difference between Forsaken Sanctuary and Godless Shrine.
Thanks for reading! What do you think, Dusk Legion Zealot or Revitalize?
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