Magic: the Gathering in the UK

Eldrazi Green for Chinese Nationals

well, with nationals coming up soon, and the new bannings, I've gone from being 100% certain that I have the right deck, to very very uncertain and even slightly nervous that the metagame will be unhelpful...

for reference, this is the deck I am playing now:

// Lands
    4 [ROE] Eldrazi Temple
    2 [ARC] Khalni Garden
    3 [WWK] Tectonic Edge
    2 [M11] Mystifying Maze
    14 [P2] Forest (3)
    1 [WWK] Eye of Ugin
    2 [SOM] Forest (2)                   <-- different art to test whether I want 2 or 4 khalni garden

// Creatures
    4 [M11] Primeval Titan
    2 [SOM] Wall of Tanglecord
    4 [ROE] Overgrown Battlement
    4 [ROE] Joraga Treespeaker
    1 [ROE] Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
    1 [ROE] Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    1 [WWK] Avenger of Zendikar
    2 [NPH] Spellskite
    1 [MBS] Viridian Corrupter
    1 [M11] Fauna Shaman

// Spells
    4 [MBS] Green Sun's Zenith
    2 [ZEN] Summoning Trap
    3 [NPH] Beast Within
    2 [DDD] Garruk Wildspeaker

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [NPH] Spellskite
SB: 1 [M11] Fauna Shaman
SB: 1 [ZEN] Summoning Trap
SB: 1 [NPH] Beast Within
SB: 3 [M11] Obstinate Baloth
SB: 1 [NPH] Karn Liberated
SB: 3 [ROE] Vengevine
SB: 2 [MBS] Phyrexian Revoker
SB: 2 [NPH] Dismember

with the banning of stoneforge mystic, valakut surely must become the default best deck in t2, how would you attack such a deck, or such a metagame. I HEAVILY dislike valakut because you cannot really play zeniths as mana acceleration, however, with spellskites existing to stop act of aggression, I don't see how the deck loses easily any more, at least eldrazi green just sideboards into a midrange green deck, with some number of karn (I won 21-24 packs at the NQ... can't remember, opening 3 karns and 1 batterskull, so I'm ok cost wise).

I would prefer not to splash black for the obvious memoricides, but I won't rule it out, even if it means I must play lotus cobras md... :S

so, some advice/feedback would be useful (even if you think you have little experience with the deck... just random thoughts even if they sound terrible would be welcome... I have no idea how to start).

My metagame thoughts are as follows:

1) Dismember will become more popular (ppl are only now understanding how good this card is for some reason). This is annoying, as it kills treespeaker for 1 mana. However, the ramping is less important than it was before because you don't need to race sword.

2) Koth will see a lot more play. Red decks are cheap, supposedly have a good valakut matchup (especially with act of aggression sb) and koth is by far the best card in the red deck. This means that at least 1 vengevine to tutor as an answer to koth is necessary. ulamog actually pretty good vs rdw, as they can't kill him (her? it?), and if they act, you easily have 5 permanents to sac (4 + 1 blocker) and then wipe their board over a couple of attacks. This means that I want 1 md viridian corruptor, and definately more sb for shrine.

3) Valakut will see more play. I have no idea what my solution is for this. This matchup is probably unfavourable for you as they can kill your mana acceleration with bolt, slagstorm etc., whereas you can't easily kill theirs. I want titans and karns for this matchup, but I don't know how to make it heavily favoured. Maybe the 4th edge over 2nd maze is required md, but that will weaken the matchup vs mirran crusaders (especially if they sb in spellskites in the matchup).

4) Other assorted decks like UB control and twin will see more play. Both of these matchups are very very favoured, so not really concerned.

Cards under consideration:

1) Fauna Shaman. This card is already amazing, now, I think I want more.

2) Phyrexian metamorph. Can tutor it, makes a titan (too late) for 3 mana.

3) More dismembers/beast withins (the 2WW 3/4 flyer that shuts of activated abilities and fauna shaman will see more play).

4) More karns <-- this card is awesome :)

5) Terrastradon/avenger of zendikars/traps. Necessary vs valakut as the only cards that matter are titan + acceleration, terrastradon kills acceleration, trap gets you titans more consistantly (4 trap, 2 fauna shaman, 4 zenith, 4 titan) and avenger sometimes steals wins even if they get titan first (although your avengers are much worse than theirs)

6) All is dust....

Concerns

1) How to beat valakut?

2) How to hate on memoricide (not actually a huge concern), whether to play memoricide?

3) Whether to trade Karns (awesome!) for lotus cobra (bleh...) in pursuit of success (but not happiness)

4) What ppl will play in the new t2...

Little help? :)

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