I've hit the wall now; I have 62 cards in the deck because I want second Whelming Wave and I don't want to cut anything.
Ain't that a pain in the butt?
I have what I need and I am consistently presented with interesting board situations but I can't find the card that pushes the margin of victory more to my side than my opponent's.
So it's time to set Safe In Mind down for a bit.
I wonder if I researched enough; Safe In Mind seemed to click so easily that maybe I didn't really dig into it as hard as I should have? Maybe I wasn't as open-minded as I should have been, because (in a rarity) Safe In Mind really is a pretty lean deck: I knew what the concept was and I pushed that concept with every card I could. The card draw is solid, the countermagic is in theme, the removal is what I need it to be and I have good tutors.
What I've noticed is that this deck wants to have a solid opening hand: SIM is not the kind of deck where I can push through a questionable hand and make it work, unless I get very lucky. No, I have to have mana and something I can do by turn 2, period.
Nothing wrong with that; there are decks that demand the player look for a strong open to work-combo decks tend to fall in this category. However, combo decks often make up for it by having an Overwhelming Turn where if the game gets to turn 4 or 5, they outright win and there's nothing the opponent can do to stop it. SIM doesn't do that.
However, it does make for some interesting and cool games and if I keep practicing with it, I'm bound to get better. However, for the blog, it's time to move on. Final decklist:
4 Dimir Signet
4 Seizan, Perverter of Truth
3 Urborg Emissary
4 Dark Suspicions
3 Arcane Denial
4 Words of Wisdom
3 Rites of Refusal
3 Rushing River
3 Clutch of the Undercity
2 Bad River
4 Sunken Ruins
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
7 Island
9 Swamp
3 Sickening Dreams
3 Alms of the Vein
2 Whelming Wave
Showing posts with label Safe In Mind. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Safe In Mind. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Twist In The Unreal
One Whelming Wave, added.
Removed: nothing. There's no point. Statistically, the difference between 60 and 61 cards isn't enough for me to consider removing something from a deck that's been working pretty well when adding a card like Whelming Wave that could really buttress everything that Safe In Mind is doing.
So: how'd it work out?
Well....I've been running into some of the drawbacks of not being able to play as often as I would like.
In a multiplayer game against Matt and Caitlin, I lost one game, won the second and I am fairly certain that I lost that first game in part because I used Whelming Wave too soon-it was my first line of defense, actually.
It shouldn't be. Sickening Dreams exists for a reason and I should prioritize elimination of threats, rather than repetition of them.
Because the Wave is for creatures I cannot easily kill. Not exactly a "last ditch" card but one I need to use carefully.
In games against Noah, then Fuz, Whelming Wave did good stuff but again I'm having trouble sorting out the variance. I would often get so close to the board state I needed but couldn't quite get there.
My games against Lauriel were skewed and now I'm running up against the need of a sideboard. She was running a B/G deck with Stalker Hag and with that on the board, the functionality of Urborg Emissary as a bounce/blocker becomes severely limited, especially when I'm also facing down a Noxious Hatchling.
With a sideboard, I can probably handle this but without one....
Maybe a second Whelming Wave is required but now I should think about cutting a card.
Removed: nothing. There's no point. Statistically, the difference between 60 and 61 cards isn't enough for me to consider removing something from a deck that's been working pretty well when adding a card like Whelming Wave that could really buttress everything that Safe In Mind is doing.
So: how'd it work out?
In a multiplayer game against Matt and Caitlin, I lost one game, won the second and I am fairly certain that I lost that first game in part because I used Whelming Wave too soon-it was my first line of defense, actually.
It shouldn't be. Sickening Dreams exists for a reason and I should prioritize elimination of threats, rather than repetition of them.
Because the Wave is for creatures I cannot easily kill. Not exactly a "last ditch" card but one I need to use carefully.
In games against Noah, then Fuz, Whelming Wave did good stuff but again I'm having trouble sorting out the variance. I would often get so close to the board state I needed but couldn't quite get there.
My games against Lauriel were skewed and now I'm running up against the need of a sideboard. She was running a B/G deck with Stalker Hag and with that on the board, the functionality of Urborg Emissary as a bounce/blocker becomes severely limited, especially when I'm also facing down a Noxious Hatchling.
With a sideboard, I can probably handle this but without one....
Maybe a second Whelming Wave is required but now I should think about cutting a card.
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Breathing Down Your Neck
The replacements for Safe In Mind were initially easy; the familiars should become mana of some kind. Dimir Signet was an easy choice and I think a pretty good one, upping the consistency. It still allows me to play Dark Suspicions on turn 3, Seizan on turn 4, if everything lines up.
Next up was dabbling in the Sea of Madness; Alms of the Vein came in to replace Vex.
My first run of games against Fuz and Lauriel felt like I was on the right track. The extra mana from the Signets didn't put a huge dent in my ability to do things and Alms is a very good card to discard to Sickening Dreams or Rites of Refusal. It isn't much life but it's part of the chipping away strategy that Safe In Mind does while helping extend my own life total just a little bit against the ravages of opponents or Sickening Dreams.
Games against Noah didn't go quite as well. As you can see, my Urborg Emissary is facing down a gang of dudes and things are not going to end happily for me.
On the other hand, while I did not emerge victorious in most of my games against Noah, he told me that I frequently presented interesting board states for him to have to deal with. I take this as a very good sign! Getting my friends to have to contemplate a board, creating interesting situations, these things mean that I'm on the right path, I think.
I told Noah that I was having issues with really aggressive decks and was considering Aetherize as an answer to that. However, after games where I was transmuting Clutch of the Undercity, leaving me open to Noah's Cabal Therapy, I realized the issue with that: my opponents can see it coming and will just attack with one creature.
"You know what would also go well in that deck?" Noah suggested, "Whelming Wave."
Hmmmmmm....
My first run of games against Fuz and Lauriel felt like I was on the right track. The extra mana from the Signets didn't put a huge dent in my ability to do things and Alms is a very good card to discard to Sickening Dreams or Rites of Refusal. It isn't much life but it's part of the chipping away strategy that Safe In Mind does while helping extend my own life total just a little bit against the ravages of opponents or Sickening Dreams.
Games against Noah didn't go quite as well. As you can see, my Urborg Emissary is facing down a gang of dudes and things are not going to end happily for me.
On the other hand, while I did not emerge victorious in most of my games against Noah, he told me that I frequently presented interesting board states for him to have to deal with. I take this as a very good sign! Getting my friends to have to contemplate a board, creating interesting situations, these things mean that I'm on the right path, I think.
I told Noah that I was having issues with really aggressive decks and was considering Aetherize as an answer to that. However, after games where I was transmuting Clutch of the Undercity, leaving me open to Noah's Cabal Therapy, I realized the issue with that: my opponents can see it coming and will just attack with one creature.
"You know what would also go well in that deck?" Noah suggested, "Whelming Wave."
Hmmmmmm....
Thursday, May 4, 2017
Go To Turn Around
But future matchups also leaned in my favor, even games where I had to mulligan. Mulligans were occasionally a positive for me, because if I got a solid draw, I could get out Dark Suspicions and have even less of a hand than I did!
Caitlin was kind enough to look through the deck and she had a few suggestions starting with: Madness and Delve.
I have to admit, Madness wasn't something I had thought about but there are new cards to consider and Delve was a mechanic that came up as we were talking and I can't see a good reason why I shouldn't look into it. Sure the best cards are banned but there might be something worth having!
She also pointed out to me that the Familiars would ideally work best in decks of three colors, which is true.
This has lead me to look at the deck at large, wondering if and how it should be revised. Because if anything, this blog has taught me that I can't afford to half-ass my deck ideas. I'm too far off the beaten trail to do so. I really do have to min-max things in my own way, so I need to let of those old notions.
I'll get on that next.
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Safe In Mind
I've got a double dose for you today! Because reviewing an old deck for the third time is kinda cheap, here's the new stack I'm working on!
This is an odd duck, I'll give ya that.Then again, UNKLE is an odd band (with some cool songs).
Dark Suspicions is what's going on here.
The plan is to use Blue bounce spells and some countermagic with the drawback of allowing my opponent to draw cards to keep my opponent's hand full, use stack interactions between Dark Suspicions and Seizan, Perverter of Truth to cause my opponent to draw cards and lose life, then suffer from the Dark Suspicions trigger as they will likely have more cards in hand than I do.
The familiars are there to make my spells cheaper, which comes in handy on multiple levels, allowing me to not only play spells cheaper but play more of them, in order to reduce my hand size. Sickening Dreams and Rites of Refusal allow me keep my hand on the slimmer side, as discarding a hand full of land can be beneficial on multiple fronts. Clutch of the Undercity is there to help me find Dark Suspicions but gets to serve double duty once I have Suspicions out by bouncing a difficult permanent, thus possibly increasing the damage Suspicions does. And who doesn't love Mikokoro? That and Words of Wisdom are there to keep me moving through cards.
With the new themes of hellbent (or 1-0 cards in hand) rising up in Amonkhet, this might be a neat time to see if there is anything new to add to this deck. Bontu the Glorified could be a cool addition and a way to use familiars once they've lost value!
And we'll see how this stacks up!
This is an odd duck, I'll give ya that.Then again, UNKLE is an odd band (with some cool songs).
4 Seizan, Perverter of TruthWhat the heck is going on here?
2 Stormscape Familiar
3 Urborg Emissary
2 Nightscape Familiar
4 Words of Wisdom
3 Rites of Refusal
3 Rushing River
3 Vex
3 Arcane Denial
3 Clutch of the Undercity
4 Dark Suspicions
3 Sickening Dreams
4 Sunken Ruins
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
7 Island
9 Swamp
2 Bad River
Dark Suspicions is what's going on here.
The plan is to use Blue bounce spells and some countermagic with the drawback of allowing my opponent to draw cards to keep my opponent's hand full, use stack interactions between Dark Suspicions and Seizan, Perverter of Truth to cause my opponent to draw cards and lose life, then suffer from the Dark Suspicions trigger as they will likely have more cards in hand than I do.
The familiars are there to make my spells cheaper, which comes in handy on multiple levels, allowing me to not only play spells cheaper but play more of them, in order to reduce my hand size. Sickening Dreams and Rites of Refusal allow me keep my hand on the slimmer side, as discarding a hand full of land can be beneficial on multiple fronts. Clutch of the Undercity is there to help me find Dark Suspicions but gets to serve double duty once I have Suspicions out by bouncing a difficult permanent, thus possibly increasing the damage Suspicions does. And who doesn't love Mikokoro? That and Words of Wisdom are there to keep me moving through cards.
With the new themes of hellbent (or 1-0 cards in hand) rising up in Amonkhet, this might be a neat time to see if there is anything new to add to this deck. Bontu the Glorified could be a cool addition and a way to use familiars once they've lost value!
And we'll see how this stacks up!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)