Monday, July 18, 2011

I need for you to be reasonable

So in my second matchup with $300 I got pounded. Why?

The matchup was white weenie/equipment, using Stoneforge Mystic on a Soltari Visionary. The claim is that it's a milling deck but when you win via damage it really can't be a mill deck. Milling is just extra. I am making big creatures really fast-faster than the mill deck could run me out of cards, so once again: why did I lose?

However the answer to the question is: because I could not bring enough pressure to bear against a deck that was using unblockable creatures to win--and I didn't have enough ways to interact with that unblockable creature. I needed ways to kill creatures and I didn't have them. The WW deck had tutoring to ensure a steadily increasing threat count and I did not.

Fun moment via loss: I cast Bind on a Stoneforge activation, preventing a Sword of Body and Mind from coming into play. My draw; Forest, which is a small indication of how the whole thing went. I do something cool and my reward is mundane.

So here's where I have to decide what kind of situations I want to accept losing with this deck. If I keep $300 as is, what are the good matchups? Where is it weak and what can I do to push through those weaknesses?

Looking at the decklist, the card that I'm most suspicious of now is Sigil Blessing and here's why: I already have five cards in there that give permanent bonuses to my creatures. Giving that bonus as an instant isn't what I care about; I care about making sure I can send the troops over faster/better than my opponent. With the use of Afterlife, I've already stretched the deck into a slightly longer game and I don't think that Sigil Blessing is making it shorter.

So it's coming out. Three cards may not seem like much but people agonize over every selection (and I'm no different) because what I've been taught after fifteen plus years of playing is that every card matters.

-3 Sigil Blessing
+3 ????

That's the question. Possible replacements:
Radiant's Blessing-something to take care of creatures bigger than mine, cycles if I don't need it.
Pacifism: cheap, means the best creature my opponent has can't attack or block, classic answer.
Cage of Hands: Pacifism but can be bounced to use on another creature
Prison Term: Arrest only switchable.
Shackles: A more interesting trick.

Of these, the one I'm looking at the most is Radiant's Blessing.

More interesting replacements: Last Breath (I don't know that I care if they get 4 life but limited by it's targeting requirements) and Reciprocate (have to take a hit but only one.)

I've got a soft spot for Reciprocate so it's down to this and the Blessing to see what might work best.

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