Heartbeat Metagame Slots

[Anusien]

Heartbeat has about three open, metagame slots.  In the canonical list, they are filled by Recollect, Boomerang, and Savage Twister/Train of Thought/Compulsive Research.

Discussion 1: Boomerang versus Crime//Punishment
Boomerang is much better against Ivory Mask (#1 hate card in SouthEast Regionals), but Crime//Punishment is much better against Pithing Needle, especially in multiples.

Discussion 2: The Savage Twister/Draw spell slot
I really like Savage Twister here since it gives you game against aggro, and the draw/recovery slot I feel I cover in the third.

Discussion 3: The Third slot
The canonical list has Recollect.  Recollect seems really bad since it only stops Hippie, or sort of recovers from a Castigate taking Early Harvest since you can Recollect one back.  I suggest Research//Development here.  It lets you get an advantage against control by wishing Gigadrowse into your deck, recover from Cranial Extraction, Castigate and Hide//Seek.  Plus, Development is not a bad card if you have to cast that half.

I have also seen Weird Harvest #2 in one of those slots, on the theory that it makes Muddle the Mixture a counter more often.  I have also seen Savage Twister #2 for extra anti-aggro hate.

[Roxas]

For Regionals, I ran two Savage Twisters and a Boomerang in anticipation of an aggro-heavy metagame.  I didn't think of Crime/Punishment, but I'm pretty sure that's better than a Savage Twister because it can both get rid of hate cards and act as a Powder Keg against aggro.

For what's left of the post-Regionals metagame, I'd probably run Crime//Punishment, Savage Twister, and Research//Development, as you suggested.  It seems well-rounded against the field.  I've never been very fond of either Recollect or the draw spells, and have tried various utility slots in thier stead.  Dissension split cards seem better than any of the random stuff I tried. 

I personally think the sideboard is a bigger issue than the maindeck metagame slots, though.  This deck sideboards more heavily in more matchups than most other decks; that probably deserves its own thread, though. 

[Sgt. Pepper]

While I haven't played Heartbeat in tournaments much, I have to say that I really like Train of Thought when goldfishing or playing on MWS. Train of Thought is uncounterable against control and is a great way to recover from a heavy discard draw from a B/W deck ala Ruel's Honolulu deck. I think it's a lot better then Research because you actually get to draw stuff, instead of just shuffling cards in your deck.

As for the anti aggro slot: Savage Twister looks really solid. For 6 mana you simply wipe the board, and 6 mana isn't that difficult to reach in time with this deck.

As for the Punishment vs Boomerang debate: I like Boomerang. How many decks maindeck Pithing Needle these days? Ghost Husk? I think most of them have swapped those Needle for Jittes by now (the only reason the Husk deck had needles is because other Team Constructed decks had the Jittes... I think) so you only need to worry about Needle maindeck, which means that you can always put a Punishment in your sideboard. Another upside of Boomerang is that it's blue, meaning it can pith to Force of Wi... uhhh.. I mean, it's more in your main collours.

[Anusien]

The sideboard is extremely tight, and you don't know what hate they are bringing in.  Splitting the difference and maining a Boomerang and boarding a Crime//Punishment is just being too lazy to actually make a decision and accept being right or wrong.

I've found Train of Thought to be essentially overkill.  I would want it against BW, except for that Train of Thought is pretty meh versus Mindslicer, and worse than Research//Development facing down Cranial Extraction.

[Nazdakka]

QnD report from my Nationals Qualifier yesterday:

// Lands
    13  Forest
    7  Island
    1  Mountain
    1  Swamp

// Creatures
    4  Drift of Phantasms
    4  Sakura-Tribe Elder
    1  Maga, Traitor to Mortals

// Spells
    1  Invoke the Firemind
    1  Train of Thought
    1  Pyroclasm
    4  Kodama's Reach
    4  Sensei's Divining Top
    4  Remand
    4  Muddle the Mixture
    4  Early Harvest
    1  Boomerang
    4  Heartbeat of Spring
    1  Weird Harvest

// Sideboard
SB: 4  Vinelasher Kudzu
SB: 3  Savage Twister
SB: 4  Carven Caryatid
SB: 2  Bottled Cloister
SB: 2  Gigadrowse


Round 1: U/W Weenie 0-2
Opponent's deck too annoying, my mistakes too great.

0-1

Round 2: Ghost Husk 2-1
He didn't draw his good cards, and apparently thought sideboarding was unsporting.

1-1

Round 3: Ghost Husk 2-?

The only thing I remember about this match was my opponent casting Shining Shoal early on in a combo turn in the hope that I'd forget about it. That meant I had to jump through some hoops in order to find my Swamp, but I did and Maga sealed the deal.

2-1

Round 4: Ghost Dad 1-0
Game 1: Little disruption from opponent, easy combo
Game 2: I messed up in every way possible, and threw the game away at least three times. Time was called and my opponent fell 1 point short because he didn't use his Ghost Council on turn 1 of extra turns.

3-1

Round 5: URG Tron Wildfire 0-2
Game 1: He Annexed 2 lands and then Wildfired me into oblivion. Kill was Simic Sky Swallower
Game 2: I tried a 5-land combo (3 Harvests in hand) which should have worked and made a complete and utter mess of it.

3-2

Round 6: Ghazi Glare 2-1
Game 1: Comfortable combo
Game 2: Opponent got a turbocharged draw and I couldn't find any removal
Game 3: Played overly cautious because he boarded a lot and gave him a potential out in Selesnya Guildmage. He didn't draw it, so I combo-ed spectacularly.

4-2

Round 7: W/R aggro 2-1
Game 1: Regulation combo, possibly assisted by Pyroclasm
Game 2: Overrun by a too-fast draw, no Caryatids.
Game 3: Multiple Carven Caryatids bought me the time I needed to win.

5-2

Result: 10th place, taking the last Nationals slot by the smallest of tiebreaker differences.

Lessons learned:
- I have to play better at Nats. Given the number of mistakes I made I don't think I deserved my slot, but I'll take it anyhow

- Train of Thought seems to suck. It never did anything useful. The MD Boomerang also never really did anything very exciting.

- MD Pyroclasm was a nasty surprise for my opponents on several occasions. It's very convenient to be able to transmute for a sweeper and play it on the same turn. Savage Twister wouldn't have done the business a lot of the time.

- Carven Caryatid is amazing for non-transforming versions of the deck.

- I could get behind running another Weird Harvest or two main. It's an important catalyst, and a great card to have in hand. If it gets Castigated, then comboing is quite a lot harder. We could even run a MD Dimir Infiltrator so Harvest can tutor-chain into 2cc spells.

[NCM]

Congratulations on qualifying.

I've rethought my initial position about Train of Thought and have decided to run another Weird Harvest in its stead after looking at Akira Asahara's build.

For reference:

12 Forest
9 Island
1 Swamp
//Lands - 22

4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Drift of Phantasms
1 Maga, Traitor to Mortals
//Creatures - 9

4 Heartbeat of Spring
4 Early Harvest
4 Kodama's Reach
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Remand
4 Muddle the Mixture
3 Weird Harvest
2 Rampant Growth
//Spells - 29

4 Bottled Cloister
3 Shadow of Doubt
2 Gigadrowse
1 Pyroclasm
1 Mountain
1 Invoke the Firemind
1 Crime // Punishment
1 Research // Development
1 Viridian Shaman
//Sideboard - 15

From what I understand, this really beats aggro and the card advantage can be beneficial against control too. The Rampants speed up the deck to the point where it can kill turn 4 more consistently, which I think helps match aggro's speed better than transmuting for Pyroclasm or Twister on turn 4-ish. Of course, I'm planning on moving Invoke and the Mountain into the main.

Also, can we just merge the two Heartbeat threads?

[Anusien]

I specifically created the two threads to discuss very specific points about the deck, and it keeps away general spam like "ZOMG X card is bad!"  So in otherwords, can we get a mod and move this discussion to the discussion of the maindeck instead of the sideboard?
The idea is really that the maindeck gets discussed in one thread, and the sideboard in another, and the two can't derail each other.

[M.Solymossy]

I run 4 colors main.  I see no reason not to.