GWB Beats

[StanleyAugust]

Here's the list I'm running at the moment:

3 Windswept Heath
3 Marsh Flats
2 Savannah
2 Scrubland
1 Bayou
1 Plains
1 Forest
1 Swamp
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet

4 Dark Confidant
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Spirit of the Labyrinth
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Qasali Pridemage
3 Aven Mindcensor
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Scavenging Ooze

3 Stony Silence
3 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Demonic Consultation

Spirit has been decent. Sometimes I wish it was Gaddock but other times it's definitely better.

[Guli]

I am going to load that list into cockatrice and test it out right now

What is your sideboard plan?

[Stormanimagus]

I am going to load that list into cockatrice and test it out right now

What is your sideboard plan?

I had the same question. I would think the weak match-ups might be other tempo decks/aggro decks. Perhaps SFM plan out of the board? Or other equipment?

-Storm

[Guli]

Stoneforge eats up slots. I think BUG will be a problem because they can tempo you out fast. Bant can do that too. Will Stoneforge solve this? They can Decay, Snuff, Dismember, Counter you still...

The removal, exalted, ooze and own playset of drs wil help here a lot. In any case, 6 cards should be sided out for sure, stony and cages. The creatures can at least go down and be usefull, but you don't want to draw stony or cage in game 2 and game 3 against Merfolk, Bug, Humans or some GWx mirror. To deal with equipment, I would rather have an artifact removal card than Stony, because Stony could be removed and then you have a big problem if there is a Jitte on the other side. Playing artifact removal is needed anyway, since you want to board it in against MUD or Affinity too. Note that Pridemage is main deck, but is not enough when you need artifact removal badly, so that is why I think 1 extra Pridemage would be nice in the sideboard. Can also be used against Oath of Druids and Time Vault decks. Maybe a couple of Nature's Claim too? I would top it off with additional removal

1 Qasali Pridemage
2 Nature's Claim
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Dismember

There is no need for more dredge hate, but you do really want to side out Stony, it is probably a good idea to play 3 good cards for dredge from the side, but not something like RIP or Leyline. I think this would be overkill and bad, not using some advantages we naturally get from running cages, drs and ooze, thalia, spirit, wastelands main deck... My suggestion here would be to look at the shop matchup again, how many cards do you want to board out and what about forgemaster lists? Usually I keep in Stony against that, but do we keep in Cage too? This is were it gets tricky, to find the right balance and sideboard plan is not easy.

I don't want Thalia or Spirit (even if it has 3 power) post board. Ooze can be good but depends really, on what happened before he hits. Aven is also pretty usefull if they didn't mass sphere you (flying and anti forgemaster). But then again, Aven is 3cc and not really a 'anti-shop' card. Seems like this list is not that great against Workshop in general. On paper it looks good with Drs, Pridemage and Removals, but I don't buy it... You need a lot more to reliably fight off the onslaught. When looking at the list after all this tinkering while I write things down, I think the main deck should be a bit more solid towards Workshop. The list trades blue for white, at the cost of Force of Will, Power and Trygon. In return there are Pridemages, STP's and maybe Stony. I feel like the blue package is more strong, because it can play tempo and ride a game on Dark Confidant and Trygon with counter backup.

Compare the list of Ryan Glacking and Tom Dixon for example, one list uses Stoneforges main deck and the other has more ramping with GSZ to get things going more smoothly. Those are the kinds of 'anti sphere plays' that matter and keep you going against Workshop. Note that both lists also run cheap removal spells.

This concludes me that the list Stanley posted should try to cut some cards main deck and replace them with cards that are still good in various match ups but also are good to combat the expected Workshop assault.

[Guli]

I want to report that I went 4-0 yesterday with GWB Hatebears. I had to face 4 combo decks, like storm combo, TPS with Tinker, burning oath, ...

There were some fast wins but there were also moments where I needed a lot of luck to take the game. I got turn 1 killed once, I got balanced, I got Time Walk + Tinkered, but in the end the hatebears took it.

I don't know if wizards is going to post the 4-0 in there meta game spoiler page, but here is what I ran:

4 Windswept Heath
2 Marsh Flats
1 Scrubland
1 Bayou
1 Strip Mine
1 Karakas
1 Wasteland
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Plains
1 Forest
3 Savannah
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet

3 Elvish Spirit Guide
2 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Mother of Runes
2 Deathrite Shaman
3 Dark Confidant
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Dryad Militant
3 Mayor of Avabruck
2 Banisher Priest
1 Fiend Hunter
4 Qasali Pridemage
2 Phyrexian Revoker

4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Stony Silence
3 Mental Misstep

SB: 1 Stony Silence
SB: 2 Ravenous Trap
SB: 1 Mayor of Avabruck
SB: 2 Ghost Quarter
SB: 3 Aegis of the Gods
SB: 1 Elvish Spirit Guide
SB: 1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
SB: 1 Rest in Peace
SB: 1 Nihil Spellbomb
SB: 1 Devout Witness
SB: 1 Mother of Runes


I would normally play my 5C Humans deck, but right now I do not have the cards or the tix to gather the entire deck I wish to play. Even tinkering up the list above was a challenge but thanks to some friends I managed to do so. Wasteland is really expensive, so I only got to run 1. I guess this was a good thing, since I don't need them as much against fast storm anyway, you rather want to drop hatebears and stony.

This is what happened on most games, Stony Silence shut down most broken lines of play, and the bears further squeezed and went on a beat down, the usual stuff.

I was expecting a lot of Abrupt Decay, so I added Mother of Runes. Mayor is a house combined with an active Mother against decks that play fair.

I played Randy Buehler in round 3, he was appearantly streaming:

http://www.twitch.tv/randybuehler/profile/pastBroadcasts

I took game 1 due to him mulling, lost game 2 to a turn 1 kill, and game 3 I was being bounced around by his draw 7, balance and oath plans, but he had to think things through to not make mistakes, time pressure is what got him in the end. Given more time, he would have gotten there, though he did pull a nature's claim last second to get rid of my Stony, that was a nice draw for him too. I felt like I didn't interact much, but the times I did get a turn or opening, I think I made the best plays to keep my chances open.

I also played LSV in round 4, I do not know if he was streaming, if he was, channelfireball will probably upload it on their youtube channel. I won 2-0, game 1 was convincing and fast, game 2 was in his favor, he got to Oath, I plowed the first Griselbrand. But because I didn't find a second land (had 2 Aegis in hand) I could not prevent him from oathing again. But then I topdeck Karakas as my land and bounce griselbrand. That was very fortunate. He wasn't winning yet though, even without Karakas, he had 11 cards in deck, I had some hatebears, he could not draw with Griselbrand because of a Revoker. But I would say he had the advantage with a 7/7 lifelinker.

Round 1 and Round 2 were against blue combo decks with Tinker, saw rituals too. Hard games, especially on the draw, but I got there both matches 2-1.

I might play again with this list soon, I don't really see how I can improve it by that much, other than buy Nobles and/or more Deathrites. Wastelands would be nice too, especially against Workshop with Mayor and Kataki.


It was fun, Vintage online is a thing!

[StanleyAugust]

Congratulations, nice run and nice list, though it can obviously be improved (more Wasteland etc.). I would make room for 3 Cages main. I definitely think they have more value than Mental Misstep. What are your thoughts on that?

[nedleeds]

A couple of recent finishes for junk. Both in well attended events.

http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=15540&iddeck=115614

(79 players)

http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=15389&iddeck=114316

(28 players)

I also played junk beats at Eternal Weekend in the Saturday prelim, both because I think it's a decent deck and also to disguise my Sunday intentions (Mishra). This was pre-Containment Priest of course.

One list eschews white entirely for a boatload of targeted discard. A whopping 14 discard spells. No tutors (because ... well it's just a pile of redundant discard). That being said I can't justify not running Vamp and Demonic in a deck with one ofs Sylvan, Strip Mine and Liliana. It's also a decent play versus Oath to just get a Decay in hand after Duressing. The strategy seems fine if he can land his Scooze / Goyf quick enough before a U/r player could reload with Ancest-Cruise.

The second list has a cross section of hatebears and beaters

2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Tarmogoyf
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Dark Confidant
4 Deathrite Shaman

No spirit, no priest main, no kataki in the list and running Null Rod rather than Stony to ease the mana requirements (both color and vs. LSG). He's running the full 4 priests in the board as well as the 4th decay. That package seems pretty tough for Oath to deal with. Also no Pontiff in the board, relying on the misteppable STP and decay as creature kill.

I went 3-2 in the prelim with junk beating Oath, Merfolk, U/r delver, and losing to U/r delver and U/r delver. I played Spirit maindeck, I found it to be a liability in many cases, it was difficult to get a profitable attack in, it could never block. Gaddock Teeg was better and in most cases I just wanted Goyf or a fucking Kor Firewalker. It was good vs. Oath obviously, making Griselbrand sane and producing board states where the oath player couldn't deal with Cage + Spirit + Teeg. I had appropriate sideboard cards for u/r, Pontiff, a Choke the 4th STP but in games that reached equilibrium I flooded out and couldn't find my board cards (life without blue I guess). Having 3 x spirits in tow also causes sylvan Library to leave my deck which was a poor choice overall.

I think if I had to run beats this weekend here's what I would play.

4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Dark Confidant
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Tarmogoyf
2 Gaddock Teeg
3 Qasali Pridemage
2 Knight of the Reliquary

3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Sylvan Library
1 Vampiric Tutor
3 Mental Misstep
1 Null Rod

1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Savannah
1 Forest
1 Swamp
2 Scrubland
2 Bayou
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
1 Windswept Heath

SB: 3 Containment Priest
SB: 1 Abrupt Decay
SB: 1 Absolute Law
SB: 1 Stony Silence
SB: 1 Kataki, War's Wage
SB: 3 Nature's Claim
SB: 2 Orzhov Pontiff
SB: 1 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 1 Yixlid Jailer
SB: 1 Chains of Mephistopheles

You could also talk me into targeted discard in the sideboard to maximize the chances of having a turn 1 play. The more Duress effects I run though the more Goyfs I want to play.