I do agree that the deck needs a better sideboard plan against shops. I don't agree with the tone of your statement, Storminmagus. It sounds extremly arrogant. Nobody is waiting to to get your attention or interest. Please show a bit more respect to the great effort Joe is putting in these kind of articles.
Two weeks ago, I was playing around with the collection screen in Magic Online. I made that deck by literally swapping out some cards for others (starting with the Grixis Therapy list I'd been playing), I mostly swapped one card for one, changing colors when necessary and leaving some cards that still met the color requirements.
I played a handful of games, and I'd won most of my matches (I may have won them all, I'm not sure), so when the Daily Event came up I entered the deck on a whim. I had meant to make some further adjustments, as I was concerned that the mana base couldn't support the increased mana costs of some of the cards. Unfortunately, I forgot to do so, and I was stuck playing with that deck when the tournament started. Luckily, I didn't have to face Shops that night. I did beat BUG Fish, even through the many Wastelands, so that seemed pretty good at the time. I also beat an Oath deck, so I was feeling like the deck had something going for it, even if it wasn't completely optimal yet.
If you read the article, I mention several times that I don't think the deck was optimal. I did say that the preliminary results were promising. Specifically, I mention the mana issues and sideboard configuration as things I wanted to work on.
If you got nothing out of this, then I suppose you got your money's worth. I mean, if I had claimed that this was some perfect and groundbreaking list, then I think it would be a different story.
The morning before this was published, I was testing against a friend with a Shops deck so that I could see how it would go. It wasn't good. I went on twitter and posted about how I was shelving the deck for the time being.
A quick update, I squeezed two more Basic lands in the deck and split two matches with Espresso Stax. Even though game one still felt rough, the post-boarded games went much better.
To those of you who enjoyed this, I'm glad. Thanks for your support.
