Hybrid Deck

[Gary Lynch]

So I have been playing a lot of Wolf Run Bant to average success and I have also tried out Fog.deck thinking it was a good meta game choice.

Fog.deck is not a good choice when you face Esper the first two rounds :(

The other day I was looking for some cards to try out in the Wolf Run Bant deck and decided to stick a couple of Assemble the Legion in my sideboard. Wow, why had I not played this card before, its bonkers.

One of the things I noticed was that with Assemble in play it did not matter what your opponent had on the board as you could wrath easily and still be able to attack for lots next turn with haste guys and Wolf Run.

This gave me an idea. How about I mix all this together and see what I get.

This is what I currently have, will give it a spin at the weekend.

25 Land (includes 2 Wolf Run)
4 Farseek
3 Thragtusk
2 Negate
4 Sphinx's Revelation
3 Azorius Charm
2 Augur of Bolas
3 Assemble the Legion
2 Selesnya Charm
2 Snapcaster
2 Restoration Angel
3 Fog
3 Supreme Verdict
2 Terminus

Sideboard
1 Negate
2 Dissipate
2 witchbane orb
2 Tormods Crypt
1 Psychic Spiral
1 Jace
3 Dispel
1 Pithing Needle
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Terminus

Not sure if this will run as well as I expect or if it will just turn out to be a pile. I am thinking of finding 1 card to cut and going to 61 so I can fit in 2 Urban Evolution as that into Land/Fog is good.

I have not spent too long figuring out the sideboarding for each match but here is a rough idea of the 3 main decks.

Naya Blitz
+ 1 Supreme Verdict
+ 1 Terminus
+ 2 Dispel
- 2 Negate
- 2 Restoration Angel

Junk Re-Animator
+ 2 Tormods Crypt
+ 1 Terminus
- 1 Supreme Verdict
- 2 Restoration Angel

Esper
+ 1 Negate
+ 2 Dissipate
+ 2 Witchbane Orb
+ 1 Psychic Spiral
+ 1 Jace
+ 3 Dispel
+ 1 Pithing Needle
- 2 Selesnya Charm
- 3 Fog
- 2 Terminus
- 2 Supreme Verdict
- 2 Azorius Charm

Yes Esper is that hard of a match but I think this sideboard may help fix that. Dispel is not so much for countering their things as for pushing through your own threats. 

Its possible that the Negates maindeck may need to be changed for Dissipate/Syncopate. I figure Negate is probably better as you are not worried about any creatures resolving, just spells.

I am also not sure if I want to cut a counter from the side and replace it with a 3rd Snapcaster Mage.

Would appreciate some others input in this.

[Roy Raftery]

hi Gary,

personally i think this is a step in the right direction. I've found against reanimator you cant just keep wrathing or losing your cool and wrathing when they have 2 elves and 2 souls tokens from the fear of losing to a hoof. theres also times where you dont have the cards to deal with a hoof with bant, your hand is smiter, charm, wrath, none of thats good against it, really.

 

i played the fog deck too. i rage quit at 5-2 after losing to mono green after a mull to 4 (honestly, not just another rough beats story) at the last ptq. i beat all reanimator and blitz decks all day long.

i also love assemble and suggested this in a little group i have on facebook. i play it in my deck and hardly ever lose when i cast it. from your list, what i would change is 1 assemble, i think 3 is too much as you dont really want to cast 2, there're still going to die anyway and playing 2 only opens up more of a blow out to detention sphere. something like an extra azorius charm or try and find space for 2 think twice just to strem line the deck more. maybe even cut the augurs, i know you have a high I/S count but ive never been impressed with him. may i ask why you want 2 negate instead of 2 dissipate?

[Gary Lynch]

You may be right about 3 Assemble being too many, but like you said when its in play you almost always win so I want to be able to draw it. Perhaps this is the card I can cut for Urban Evolution as I really like that card and the extra card draw should make up for having 1 less Assemble.

 

I have never really been a fan of Think Twice in this sort of deck, I just don't think it provides enough value. If I am spending 5 man I want more than just 1 extra card.

 

Augur is not amazing, but he draws a card 'most' of the time and he is fine as a chump blocker and is a threat on his own with a Wolf Run out. If I was to play Think Twice this is the slot it would take but I think Augur is the better choice because the last thing you want to be doing against a fast deck is durdling around with Think Twice. Most of the time he is a gain 3 life and draw a card and that seems fine for just  2 mana.

 

The 2 Negates is the one I am most unsure about. I figure as creatures resolving is mostly unimportant as you can deal with them other ways it was better to go for the cheaper spell. Dissipate may still be the better choice although even Syncopate is a consideration as you can counter something on turn 2 if you have it.

 

I have a 4 round standard event today so I will give it a test. The event is for the next 1k tournament and I am already qualified so today would get me a first round bye, I am not too bothered about that and its the only chance I get to practice so I think playing this is fine. I will let you know how it goes.

[Roy Raftery]

How did the event go Gary?

[Gary Lynch]

Only went 2-2 but I dont think thats a bad refelction on the deck.

Round 1

I played against Human Reanimator with the mill combo. I knew that game 1 was going to be tough as once he gets the combo he wins on the spot. I managed to land an Assemble and then Terminus and he couldnt get enough combo pieces together in time before he died. Game 2 I just crushed him as I had a turn 4 Witchbane Orb shutting down his combo, this gave me time to cast Terminus and remove his gaveyard, winning was easy from there.

Round 2

I faced a guy playing a 5 colour control deck. I think he has been working on it for a while and he made the quater finals of the WMCQ the other week so I assume he must be pretty good with it. Game 1 I had all the answers. I cleared away any threats he had, had the Selesnya Charm for his Obzedat and won with Assemble. Game 2 He had a turn 4 Slaughter Games for Sphinx's Rev and then he resolved his own Assemble the Legion. I managed to stay alive for a little while with Fog and Thragtusk but Assemble is really strong. Game 3 He cast Farseek, turn 3 Slaughter Games on Sphinx's Rev and then turn 4 Slaughter Games on Assemble because he had seen that I had both in hand. I was unable to draw anything to get back into the game.

Round 3

Beat Mono Red 2-0. He got me down to just 1 life in game 2 but then I cast Thragtusk two turns in a row and it was over.

Round 4

Junk Re-Animator. Thought it was sweet to get paired against this as its such a good match, lol. Game 1 I beat him pretty easy, he went for the Hoof win and I had the fog followed up by Terminus. Game 2 I had a bit of a bad draw and lost to the Hoof on the 1 turn where it would kill me. Game 3 was a very long game and again my draws were not great, I believe I was down to just 12 cards in my deck when I lost. In that 12 cards were 2 Terminus, 1 Assemble, 1 Selesnya Charm and 1 Snapcaster. I had also only drawn the first Assemble a few turns before. I think I still could have won this one if I had played better. There was a turn when I had Jace in play and he attacked it, for some reason I cast Revelation for all my mana, no idea why. The top 2 cards were both Fog so if I had left 1 mana open I would have been able to protect the Jace. The other mistake was probably 2 turns earlier when he had a bunch in his yard and I had a Tormods Crypt. Instead of using the +1 on Jace like I had been doing I decided to mill him for 10 and then remove his graveyard. Had I used the +1 to draw a card I would have drawn my Assemble 1 turn earlier and killed him, maybe this is just being results oriented though. Anyway it was a very long game 3 and he resolved Obzedat so he was chipping away at my life total even though the Obzedat didnt get to hit me more than once in combat. I had be drawing a lot of cards but most of them were land, I think at the end of the game I only had 2 lands left in my deck. Eventually I drew my Assemble (if I had drawn it earlier I would have won), I got him down to 18 life (lol life gain, I attacked for 18/19 the turn before) but he was able to land an uncounterable Hoof and finish me off the turn before I won.

I think overall despite going 2-2 the deck worked really well. I didnt lose a single game 1 so I think the main deck is solid although Dissipate would have had more value than Negate, it wasnt a problem but I can see times where it could matter. The only change I made to the list above was - 1 Azorius Charm - 1 Restoration Angel + 1 Detention Sphere + 2 Urban Evaloution, playing 61 cards is fine. The Detention Sphere was useful dont know if more than 1 is needed. Having only 1 Restoration Angel seems a bit strange and I am not sure if it is needed but it provides some extra value. I used it a couple of times and it was good so I am happy keeping it in for now.

I realised that the 1K tournament is the week after the pre-release so the the new set will be legal. Kind of annoying but I doubt the format will change that much so this should still be a decent choice.

[Gary Lynch]

I think this is where I want to be for the tournament next week.

The Deck

25 Land
4 Farseek
2 Assemble the Legion
4 Sphinx's Revelation
3 Thragtusk
3 Urban Evolution
2 Azorius Charm
2 Selesnya Charm
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Terminus
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Renounce the Guilds
2 Augur of Bolas
1 Detention Sphere
2 Plasm Capture
3 Fog

The Sideboard

1 Supreme Verdict
1 Terminus
2 Dispel
2 Negate
1 Jace
1 Psychic Spiral
2 Witchbane Orb
2 Tormods Crypt
1 Pithing Needle
1 Renounce the Guilds
1 Snapcaster Mage

Not really a lot of changes.

Added an extra Urban Evolution, playing 2 Assemble the Legion is fine as this is an extra way to draw into them. I think the 3rd Urban Evolution is needed against decks with Slaughter Games. The always name Sphinx's Revelation first and without the card draw you just dont 1 for 1 them well enough.

Added Renounce the Guilds to the main and board. This hits a bunch of stuff in Jund and can be Snapcaster'ed back.

Added Plasm Capture to the main. I have not tested this at all but I think its good. You hardly ever have/cast Dissipate early its usually used late game once you have cleared the board. This does that and even if they have  Cavern of Souls it still gets you the mana next turn.

I changed the 3/2 split on Supreme Verdict and Terminus. Terminus is just better in this metagame against everything except Blitz and maybe U/W/R.

I added the 3rd Snapcaster to the board over one of the counterspells. Not 100% on this change but Snapcaster provides value against more decks.

[Roy Raftery]

how did the updated list go, Gary?

do you think Dragons Maze helps or hinders the deck choice?

[Gary Lynch]

Sorry for the late reply.

The tournament ended up being only 5 rounds and I sadly went 3-2.

My losses were to Jund and Aristocrats.

Jund crushed me. Cant remember how he won the first game but the second game he had a turn 2 Lilliana.  I thought it may be ok because I had the Witchbane Orb to stop him using the second and third abilities. I was ok with us discarding a card each per turn as I had card draw and he didnt, unlucky for me he drew a Putrefy and then made me lose half my lands :(

I think the way to combat Jund may be going more focused on things like o-ring and d-sphere, perhaps Nevermore would be a better choice than Witchbane Orb because it doesnt die to Putrefy and the only card you are really worried about is Slaughter Games. Rakdos Return can hurt, but by the time they can cast it for enough you should have a Negate or be able to Revelation in response.

The real issue this deck has with Jund is that it doesnt usually need more than one creature in play, so wrath effects are not as good as they are in the other matches.

The loss to Aristocrats was fine. I dont think they dominate or anything like that but its a close match. I lost game 3 because he had a guy and a Aristocrat, so Supreme Verdict would not do it on its own. I had to Verdict then Selesnya Charm to get rid of it. Then he cast another Aristocrat that I dealt with via Terminus. He then casts Lingering Souls, flashes back and makes a Blood Artist. I draw Renounce the Guilds and die :(

If I had drawn the Renounce either of the turns before I would have won as I would have had a wrath on the last turn and he was out of cards.

I have not been able to play the deck since but I think its probably still a fine choice although I have no idea how the matchup against the Bant Flash deck is. It could be that version is better but I have no idea what matches its supposed to be stronger in.

Also Plasm Capture ranged from a fine counterspell to INSANE. Against one guy I countered his Revelation, untapped cast Urban Evolution, Snapcastered it back and made an Assemble the Legion. There was another crazy one but I cant remember it.

Renounce the Guilds was pretty good too. I played against another Bant player and he boarded in his own Assembles. It was then just a matter of waiting till I drew it and wrathing the same turn. Lucky for me at the beginning of the day someone pointed out the creatures are multicoloured so I didnt make the mistake of playing it when he had guys in play.