Magic the Gathering

Talking about decks, I changed my Grixis deck into more of a Midrange instead of Control Deck now, since I play-tested it out finally yesterday, and got destroyed. Went 0-6, and lost all games real bad. Figured that even though Duskmantle Seer is a threat to everyone, he gets nuked off the bat, and there's not enough support to help keep threats up with the deck that I currently have.

Here's the current decklist now :

Instead of Duskmantle Seer, even though I really like the card, was replaced by Olivia and Falkenrath Aristocrat, added Jace in for mill, and kept only one Liliana instead of having 2 due to the fact that I removed my card advantage card, Duskmantle, but still useful in a sense that she is a threat that people would have to deal with among other threats that I have on the board.

The sideboard is still a WIP, but as of right now, it's most likely not going to be changed too much.

I don't like Mind Grind in Constructed, despite having wacky things to do with it in my casual decks. Mill effects that go for the opponent lend themselves to long grindy games that Control thrive in, and since you're no longer going that route...

I can see you kinda going Counter-Beats, now, with how your creature base is set up. Basically AggroControl in ways that Delver decks were, except with bigger creatures.
That's how my Grixis was, being the beatdown in a controlling way. I used burn that I could use for creature-kill if I needed to, but could also go to the face if I needed to shorten the game. Also, I still had Duskmantle's, since my curve was low, it helped me draw more gas, and was a pretty good beater being a 4/4 Flier.

With this in mind, frst thing I thought of was Geralf's Messenger and Searing Spears.

Anyone else noticed how Sorin, Lord of Innistrad dropped in price about five bucks after the duel decks were announced?

It's all Tibalt's fault!!! D:

FNM was fun tonight. Changed up a my Grixis Midrange Deck few hours before FNM. Added in Blood Artist for lifegain. Helped a lot against aggro.

Went away with 2 ties (1-1 both due to time outs), and 2 losses (0-2, both games). Considering that I could of won one of those 2 loses, but messed up big time, I think I did very well with a deck that I home-brewed last-minute. Just need to actually have time and sit down with the deck and have time to play with it to learn how to play better with it and I think I will do better with it.

Decklist :

I looked at the decklists for Tibalt vs. Sorin. It made me want it. Good stuffs in there.

I still don't like the Mind Grind, but it's great that the deck went well for you. Blood Artist is interesting tech. I like it, I didn't think you had enough to make it work, but if it's working, keep doing what you're doing.

Is Tragic Slip doing well for you, btw? I like the card as removal, but I dunno if it's good in the format right now.

Tragic Slip works wonders against a lot of aggro decks due to them wanting to burn something like Augur or Bolas, in which they have to use a Searing Spear or a Boros Reckoner to get rid of it, then, bye bye Boros Reckoner.

Chandra and Mind Grind did a wondrous thing yesterday too. Copied a Mind Grind to start milling 14 lands. He had 10 cards left in his library that I could of milled with Nephalia, but the opponent got lucky and drew 2 Gigantic Growths and hit me for 12 Damage to win. :(

Again, I need to just sit down with the deck and play it more to get used to how it plays. I'm either used to Control or Aggro, and Midrange is a combo of both, but it's a bit awkward for me to learn my synergy with this deck right now.

Ah, okay. I'll consider it when I make another black deck, then.

Chandra is quite underrated right now. My friend's Red-White-Blue Control Miracle Planeswalkers uses her to great use. Great seeing you use her to great effect, too.

I wouldn't call midrange a combination of both control and aggro. Naya midrange and Jund midrange are not control decks, they just want to find a way to get ahead, then stay ahead by keeping the pressure on.
Same with my Grixis midrange, since I decided not to run reactive cards like counterspells or bounce. I just had burn, killspells, and discard as my other spells, then was the beatdown with my creatures.

I would put Midrange as more aggro control, typically midrange are aggro decks that eschew the more all in aggressive qualities for more stability and reach, playing more removal, and bigger clunkier creatures that are more resilient, typically midrange decks can survive board wipes better than pure aggro as they have some form of card advantage (Planeswalkers, Thragtusk), although that isn't strictly speaking true.

Went to a small tournament on Wednesday and ran my Grixis Midrange deck. Got 2nd place against really hard competition. I went against an American Midrange (2-0), Wolfrun Bant (0-2), American Flash (2-0) and went against the American Midrange again in the Semis (2-0) and again the Wolfrun Bant in the Finals (1-2).

I was really excited to see my deck do really well against other Tier 1 Midrange decks, but Bant is very hard for me due to me not having answers to their massive life gain and massive amount of creatures that it can produce. I Know for next time that I have to side-board in Killing Wave especially when I have Blood Artists in the deck now and to control Aggro/Massive Creature Produce (Naya/Gruul).

Seems good. Wolf Run Bant is strong, though. Bant has been one of the best control decks for a while, and the addition of Kessig Wolf Run turns every single one of their creatures into a threat that needs to be dealt with.
The fact that you were able to do well against everything else is impressive. Red-White-Blue control variants are very popular, and you seemed to 2-0 them. I assume they didn't have good enough ways to deal with your threats? That's how it went with mine when I used to play Grixis.

You consider Ghost Quarter? I think it's very good right now since manabases of these tricolor decks are very greedy. Some even play zero basic lands. I've seen Wolf Run Bant lists that didn't have any basics, turning Ghost Quarter into Wasteland. Hit their Wolf Run, and they can't do much about it. It can also hit other possibly annoying lands, Nephalia Drownyard.

creator of t.e.s being awesome

The Epic Storm, huh. Certainly lives up to its name. Always love seeing a Storm deck go off. I'm curious how many lands he runs though. I remember at one point the commentators were talking about how there was a Volcanic Island in his grave, so a Scalding Tarn would only shuffle his deck, which he did indeed use just for that.

13 lands, it only needs 1-2 to go off, and he runs enough fast mana.

His actual deck is probably the most pimptastic thing ever (beta duels, all foreign foil, etc)

FNM was good last night. Went 0-2 against a Naya Midrange, 2-0 against a RDW, 2-1 against the Bant Wolfrun that beat me on Wednesday, and 1-2 against the American Midrange that I won 2-0 on Wednesday. Like I said, not bad for a deck that was home-brewed against Tier 1 decks.

Sigarda is hard for me to do anything. She kills a lot of my game-plan. RDW seems really slow now compared to the new aggro decks like Human Naya and Gruul Aggro. I got lucky against the Bant player. Made him start top-decking because of Rakdos's Return hitting him for 8. Thanks a bunch Chandra :). And the games that I played against the American Midrange were close. I just can't handle 3 Boros Reconkers all in a row :(.

A great thing about a brew is that it's more difficult to sideboard against a deck that isn't well-known. It's another reason I don't like playing mainstreamed decks: if your brew is good, you win a lot more.

Sigarda is the unfun one of the trio of angels out of AVR. It surely is tough to beat.
It depends what kind of RDW, but monored certainly doesn't have enough tools to be as impactful as the other aggro decks.
A resolved Rakdos' Return will ruin any control player's day. I recently learned the feeling...
What removal do you have? Since you play black, you should have decent damageless removal

gurall: 13, huh? And yeah, I only ever saw 2-3 land out, ever. That deck is sweet.

Mainboard :
2x Dreadbore
1x Tragic Slip
2x Liliana of The Veil
2x Vampire Nighthawk

I added in a Dreadbore and 2 Killing Waves when I sideboarded among other things, but I wasn't drawing any of my removal spells for Recokoner during the game. I drew all my late game threats like Olivia and Jace early, and Augur missing really hurts.

Ehh, I'm not too sure about calling Nighthawk removal, but it does kill most things. It feels like you oughta have some more targeted removal, but that also means cutting cards out of your deck to make room for 'em. Have you found anything that really hasn't been working out for you in your deck that may be able to be cut?

Just a quick question here,
If I cast Humble at Thragtusk or any creatures with "when leaves the battlefield", do they still get the effect when they die?

Thragtusk has no abilities anymore that turn if it was targeted by Humble. It no longer has its leaves the battlefield ability until the turn ends. So no, the controller of that Thragtusk won't get that beast if you kill it.

I also use Izzet Charm a lot for removal, and if it's to big to kill with Izzet Charm, I have Searing Spear to also remove creatures.

Added on Tribute to Hunger as a side-board card. Good against going around pesky Hexproof (besides Sigarda).

I count Vampire Nighthawk as a removal creature due to it having Deaththouch as well as being a pretty meaty creature that a lot of small creatures can't get around. A lot of Aggro players have to kill it with a Searing Spear, which also removes one burn spell out of their hand to remove the creature. It's a really good aggro stopper.

Might want to swap around just a small bit though to make it a bit more spell heavy though because it seems like Augur of Bolas, even though he's a great card for anti-aggro and card advantage, seems to miss a lot spells and put creatures or planeswalkers that would help to the bottom of my deck, which becomes more counter-productive.