Top 8 with "Simians Mom" aka RW Death and Taxes at TDG 11/22

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

"Simians Mom"
4 Mother of Runes
2 Grim Lavamancer
2 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Sudden Shock
3 Prophetic Flamespeaker
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Containment Priest
3 Thalia Guardian of Thraben
4 Spirit of the Labyrinth
4 Leonin Relic-Warder

4 Plateau
2 Plains
1 Mountain
4 Arid Mesa
1 Flooded Strand
1 Keldon Megoliths
4 Cavern of Souls
2 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus

SIDEBOARD
4 Grafdiggers Cage
4 Ingot Chewer
1 Wasteland
2 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Red Elemental Blast
3 Path to Exile

ROUND 1 ~ 2-1 Win vs Mike Savage on Bug Tezz
Game 1 - I find out Savages list is kind of like keeper I get Wastelanded 3 times and 3 Dr Shaman put in work...

I bring in 1 reb and 2 revoker...

Game 2 - I have a controlling hand denying his mana via revokers and relic warder as well as a spirit. Game is over fairly quick
Game 3 - he has turn 1 waste Sol Ring. I have turn 1 lotus into spirit to bait a force (and it does). I then cast Relic-Warder nuking Sol Ring. I continue dropping bears including mom to protect my bears from abrupt decay...

ROUND 2 ~ 2-1 Win vs Tom Dixon on Dredge
Game 1 - we both mull to 6. My hand is literally 3 priest and swords. He plays bazaar pass. I play land go. His turn he gets a revoker and flashbacks therapy. I pray he doesn't name priest...he doesn't and I go on to cast multiple priest and he can't come back

I bring in 4 chewer, 1 waste, 4 cage, 3 path...

Game 2 - I mulligan to 5 or 6 and have a soft hand of just cage as my anti dredge hate. I get unmasked and lose.
Game 3 - I have turn 1 Priest turn 2 flamespeaker turn 3 mom and another priest...flamespeaker takes over.

ROUND 3 ~ 1-2 Loss vs Martello
Game 1 - I have a strong hand of removal and denial so this ends quickly

In comes 4 chewer, 1 waste, 3 path, 2 revoker...

Game 2 - I get him down to 3 life and have a hand full of white removal spells and need to cast 1 of them to win for a bunch of turns but my deck hates me and doesn't draw one
Game 3 - I have turn 1 Priest, Spirit, Pearl, Land, holding  swords and other stuff. He has turn 1 Golem turn 2 I forget, turn 3 Titan, turn 4 golem. I answer the titan and a golem. Thinking I may get back into the game but he then casts contagion Engine and I lose...

ROUND 4 ~ 2-1 Win vs Bug Gush combo (oath sideboard)
Game 1 - I mulligan to 4 and continue to flood while he beats me up and wins with gush bond stuff into tinker BSC.

In comes 4 cage, 2 revoker, 1 reb, 1 waste...

Game 2 - I have turn 1 revoker, lavamancer, and spirit. Holding back Relic-Warder...I draw into cage turn 2. This game is quick as he can't keep up with pressure
Game 3 - I have 2 cage, thalia, spirit, and some mana. This hand fights his storm plan and his oath hand so I'm in business...again my pressure adds up to quick and closes windows.

ROUND 5 ~ 2-0 Win vs Lee on Tera Nova
Game 1 - Revoker hits a mox, I have a Wasteland, a Lavamancer, a spirit and some other stuff and he just can't develop his board as I continue to do so.

In comes 4 chewer, 1 waste, 3 path, 2 revoker

Game 2 - I have the removal for his threats. He has a couple dismember but I continue dropping  bears. Flamespeaker gets online and closes his window fast. He lands Batterskull which dies immediately on my turn.

4-1 and onto the top 8

TOP 8 ~ 0-2 Loss vs Tocco on Oath.
This match as disappointing as I tested extensively vs oath and do in fact have good percentage vs it.

Game 1- I have mom, spirit, containment priest, revoker, lands. I keep and draw into another mom and flamespeaker...all of my threats resolve except priest which pulls a force (no cavern for me). He oaths into a Griselbrand that can't draw. I get 6 triggers from flamespeaker and don't find swords.

In comes 2 revoker, 3 path, 1 reb, 4 cage...

Game 2 - I have 2 Priest, 1 Revoker,  1 cage, and cavern and lands. Both priests get decayed, I draw a 2nd cage. First cage gets forced, 2nd cage resolves. At this point I'm holding revoker, path, and swords. My opponent has 4 Mana out and 3 cards in hand...he casts Emerald, Lotus, then Griselbrand (tells me later he top decked Lotus...of course). He passes turn. I cast revoker, he responds with a draw putting him at 11, I respond with swords, he responds with a draw putting him at 4. I respond with Path. Griselbrand gets removed and he draws 14. Revoker now resolves and I name time vault. He casts 3rd decay killing revoker and casts time vault and key. I lose...in testing the list was very good vs oath so this was a sad loss.

 I love the new list...priest and lavamancers were great on the day. I activated megoliths for value a bunch of times. The Megoliths and Sudden shocks are here to fight delver. I have had insane results testing vs delver as well! This list feels better then the previous for sure. Top 8 was good for $50. I only played this deck twice at events both resulting in top 8s!!!

[msg67183]

Once again, Congrats Josh! Did some great work today. I see why you suggested Contagion Engine now , very nice.

[Samoht]

Josh and I played in Rd3, not Rd2. That said, Josh saved me the embarrassment of saying that I didn't know Containment Priest existed. Had I named it in G1 I would have likely won the match as his hand went nowhere without them and then his 6 in G2 was weak to Unmask/Artifact Removal. I had both in the opener I kept and in my deck's overall function I am very well equipped to beat Cage. However, I was quite light on creature removal and  that was a fault of my own in not knowing that this card a) existed b) affected me c) would be played (Josh played the only 4 in the room afaik). I might have to retool the SB a little to reference it's existence and the potential re-emergence of Yixlid Jailer. Our match was interesting anyway as I was able to get onto the man plan and trigger some Bridges through Containment Priest but eventually I was slain by Prophetic Flamespeaker.

[brianpk80]

Great job Josh and congrats on finishing with a super list. 

[The Atog Lord]

Very cool deck! Thank you for taking the time to write this report.

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

Thanks everyone!

[ramrodjon]

Nice job, JPot!  Glad to see you're having continued success with a deck that does not include Force of Will!

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

Nice job, JPot!  Glad to see you're having continued success with a deck that does not include Force of Will!

Thanks Jon! No Force, Worshop, or Bazaar!!! This is rare for vintage and the deck is so enjoyable to play haha

[xouman]

Congrats Josh, the deck looks great. I have a question for you: how important is mother of runes? Apart from sudden shock (and you already explained its inclusion), mother x4 is what surprises me. Otherwise I love the deck. I'd do some changes as including flickerwisp and/or chaos warp to improve containment priest, and 1/2 grand abolisher in the side.

And one question: is magus of the moon an option here? While he hoses caverns, probably opponents get more hosed than you. Goodbye seconderay colors, goodbye fetchlands (making smaller graveyards), bye orchard, mws, bazaar, goodbye gushing? Idk if you have already tested it, and I'm not saying it's an improvement, I'm just curious.

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

Thanks! I always get questioned about mother of runes...quite honestly its easily (yes easily) one of my favorite cards in the deck. Why you might ask? Well she's castle of cavern human/cleric which is a vast majority of the deck. And once she hits the field she makes all my better bears immune to spot removal. That alone has won me games because my opponent can't ping off my most important hate bears. Furthermore she let's me attack through better creatures like true name nemesis, goyfs (not seeing much play), and such. She also protects my spirit of labyrinth from enchantment removal such as trygon and claim. So yeah she's really great. My original list had only 2 of her. And I always wanted more. I literally want her every game to protect an important bear.

Magus of the moon. Sure some consideration went towards him but, most of the blue decks in my meta have one of 2 things; a good number of fetches with basic lands and/or play red removal. My deck plays less mana denial and more uutility creatures. And I definitely value cavern more then I value a moon effect in my curent Northeast meta. And just as important to note, he fights for position with flamespeaker...and flamespeaker is very high on cards I love in this deck

[serracollector]

Have you ever considered the new Chandra? Her free draw ability and her ping ability both seem very synergistic with you other cards and I would think her cost is not too prohibitive? Also I have had this debate with other people when it comes to red pingers but have you ever tested Fireslinger over Grim Lavamancer? I personally prefer Fireslinger as his ping does not cost mana or cards in grave and he still kills most everything your trying to hit. Great job on the top eight. I for one really really like this list.

[Greg]

Nicely done, Josh! It's always good to see you.

That's definitely a very cool deck. I'm certainly glad I didn't have to run into you throughout the day!

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

Nicely done, Josh! It's always good to see you.

That's definitely a very cool deck. I'm certainly glad I didn't have to run into you throughout the day!

Thanks Greg! It's good seeing you and chatting as usual...thanks for keeping am eye on my apple haha