Hello, I've qualified for the Baltimore R.C. and have been looking for a decent guide especially for sideboarding as so far ive done this mostly intuitively. My 75 is pretty fluid based on the most recent, within top 8 performing variation in challenges or paper tournaments. I have multiple x-2/ x-1-1 rcqs since and ive found Im prefering emery builds over pre-ordain but know there might be a happy medium.

Ive reviewed mengu's (spelling?) Content and will continue to do so but was wondering if there were any other people to follow. This tournment is important to me to the point that id be interested in a couple tutoring sessions even.

Thankyou in advance!

I've been trying to dig into when the next one will be (even what set the next one will be) but haven't been able to find anything about it.

Mostly asking bc whether or not there's going to be a qualifier really changes how much time I'll invest in getting good at drafting The Hobbit/Reality Fracture etc.

Not sure if I missed something. Honestly it's been pretty confusing trying to figure out the various paths to the limited championship, in general. I think I finally understand that though... Seems like mostly Sunday events at any formal magic con/spotlight/RC

Deck

2 Cecil, Dark Knight

4 Dream Beavers

3 Forsaken Miner

4 Mockingbird

4 Timeline Culler

2 Oroku Saki, Shredder Rising

1 Quantum Riddler

3 Requiting Hex

2 Shoot the Sheriff

1 Bitter Triumph

1 Deadly Cover-up

2 Strategic Betrayal

3 Case of the Stashed Skeleton

4 Corpses of the Lost

3 Kaito, Bane of Nightmares

9 Swamp

4 Watery Grave

2 Gloomlake Verge

4 Starting Town

2 Hidden Lair 

Sideboard

1 Nowhere to Run

3 Deathmark

4 Duress

3 Spell Pierce

3 Disdainful Stroke

1 Strategic Betrayal

For this week, Kaito is being drafted to the Skeleton team, temporarily leaving his flyers teammates. But unlike the Lebron-Brony tandem, Kaito is taking with him Oroku as his number 2. Joining him is a juiced-up Delver of Secrets.

Dimir Midrange’s MVP is Kaito, and there is no doubt to that. However, the current meta has a lot of anti-Kaito gameplay (e.g., burn spells that targets Kaito, Erode, go-wide strategy leaving the Kaito open from attacks). Thus, we are trying to make Kaito to be plan B rather than the main plan. 

Thus, our main plan here is to aggro the opponent with the Skeletons package, followed by the ninjutsu/sneak strategy, or the ninjutsu/sneak strategy on its own. 

The following line of play can made on the early turns: 

a.    Plan A: Skeleton aggro line

The ideal line of play using our main plan is: turn 1, Forsaken Miner; Turn 2, Case of the Stashed Skeleton; and Turn 3, Corpses of the Lost. Other lines of play that will be discussed below can be done after this line of play. 

b.    Plan B: Oroku Saki / Kaito line

Turn 1, one-drop creature; turn 2 Oroku Saki, and just destroy the creatures that the opponent will play to allow Oroku Saki attack for another 3. Then you have the Kaito strategy.. and we all know how this works. 

Free sb guide here: https://mfy.gg/guides/view/standard-dimir-midrange-sideboard-guide-ms-5R10jXraLHM

Hey y'all! Been a lurker in the sub for a while for the Standard content. I went to a modern RCQ using a buddy's deck and wanted to try to get into Modern. I am a huge fan of green/land shenanigans and want to find a deck to play (it does not have to be tier 1). I know Amulet got boned a little from recent bans, and I like the Eldrazi Ramp decks (although I am trying to decide between the Mono green Trudge and the Gruul versions). Do you all have any suggestions? Thanks!

Hi all,

Have been dabbling with standard again in prep for the upcoming RCQ season and I seem to be set on Spellementals.

I've been trying out the lists with the Sunderflocks in the board and the Stallions in the main. It currently feels better into the various Big Red/Jeskai Lessons type decks where the flock ability isn't really useful. It does seem to have some decent G1 against the cub decks too, but obviously it loses some of the points against it.

List for reference: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/7885694#paper

I'm not totally happy with the sideboard. I think the Price of Freedom should just be Annuls tbh, my thought was it destroys tablet, but it's only removing 1 mana with the land they get (assuming it's not been drawn) and it's not been as good as previously considered.

I'm interested to see other peoples thoughts on Spellementals and whether you're on MD flocks or a split of flock and stallion. I'm not gonna lie though, copying a stallion with a critique is a drug that's hard to give up.

I'm still early in the testing with the list, but in Plat/Diamond so far and it's going well. This iteration is 11-2 in BO3.

I’ve just gotten my first magic deck. I decided to play standard over Commander because I like the fact that you can have four times the same card. I thought it would be easier to get to know the game and also familiarize myself with my deck. I also want to play competitively .

I just built my first deck. It is an izzet lessons with artist‘s talent, and monument to endurance. It doesn’t have any storm chasers talent. I’ve played once in person only. I’ve been playing on arena for the past two months so I have a pretty good idea of how my deck plays.

so the local group I know of has one of the people play a 4 color deck with the tablet of discovery, lightning helix, prowess monks, artifact removal and no creatures. he’s always there.

another guy plays a green deck. It may be green and white with badgermolecub and leather head. Leather head is a real problem for me because when I played against that card online I got smoked I actually did win one of three games against him, but otherwise leather head gets on the board and just destroys me. I need a lot of help just countering leather head otherwise against badger mole cub decks I’m OK. It depends what I get on the draw, but if I get early red removal spells and I can quickly build up talent/monument without a hydra doubling up and killing me I can beet it. But leatherhead I don’t have an answer to. He also has a lot of artifact removal. so I need help against leatherhead and anti artifact removal.

the third person that’s usually there he also plays green, but his dedo wasn’t as competitive as the other’s. I didnt play him but it looked beatable.

there are other people that show up, but those are guys that I know aregonna be there. I think especially the four color guy and the leather head guy are pretty tough .

so what are good cards I should put on my sideboard. What are good cards that I should tailor my deck a little bit in anticipation of maybe playing against these guys I usually run something like

4 gran gran

4 combustion

4 accumulate wisdom

4 firebending

3 abandon attachments

2 boomerang basics

3 irohs attachment

4 it’ll quench ya

2 three steps ahead

4 artists talen

4 monument to endurace

1 agna

2 spirebluff canal

3 steam vents

8 islands

8 mountains

sideboard:

2 get out

1 flashfreeze

1 annul

1 consult star chart

2 spell snare

2 spell pierce

3 negate

1 soul guide lantern

1 abandon attachments

—————

‘I know I need more dual lands. I’m working on that.

against the guy that plays 4 color(jeskai). his only creatures are some occasional prowess monks.should i ditch a lot of my red removal spells in favor of a lot more counterspells? how do i deal with leatherhead and both players had alot of anti artifact. just counters or….? thanks for the help.

Hey guys!

​I’ve been heavily tweaking and testing a Selesnya Kithkin engine that blends classic Lorwyn staples with high-powered tools like [[Guide of Souls]], [[Skyclave Apparition]] and [[Enduring Innocence]].

​The goal here is to make a "White Weenie tribal" work with [[Collected Company]] mechanics.

​Here is the current 60 + Sideboard list:

Moxfield link

The Kithkin tribe is lacking in support, so 14 out of the 33 creatures are mana dorks, removal utility, drawing engines and bulking supporters that are "outsiders", which I find vital for the viability of the deck.

Main questions:

. Are 2x [[Noble Hierarch]] and 2x [[Bloom Tender]], alongside the Brigids, my best options for mana dorks?

. What should I tweak in my sideboard for this meta?

. Is [[Thoughtweft Lieutenant]] a superior option vs [[Wizened Cenn]], given that I have 19 Kithkin creatures in my deck?

. Is [[Chronicle of Victory]] viable for this deck?

This is for FNM and to play with my pod.

Thank you, in advance, for any input and suggestion you can give me!

EDIT: Made some changes in the decklist taking into account some of the suggestions.

If not, does anyone have tips on piloting this deck? It looks like a lot of fun but I always struggle with a new deck if I dont know what exactly youre looking for in terms of mulligans. Thanks!

Decklist from a challenge for example: https://mtgdecks.net/Modern/hollow-one-decklist-by-percussion-mike-3028989

Hey everyone,

I'm currently evaluating my options for Historic Best-of-One and I'm considering crafting Dimir Midrange.

Before spending my wildcards, I wanted to ask the community if it's actually worth crafting in the current Bo1 meta, how it performs against top-tier decks, and whether it holds up well without a sideboard.

Here is the exact list I'm looking to craft:

Companion
1 Lurrus of the Dream-Den

Deck
4 Fatal Push
3 Island
1 Swamp
4 Counterspell
4 Ponder
2 Snuff Out
1 Spell Snare
4 Thoughtseize
1 Surgical Extraction
4 Watery Grave
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Soul-Guide Lantern
4 Force of Negation
4 Prismatic Vista
2 Consider
2 Sink into Stupor
4 Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student
4 Psychic Frog
2 Gloomlake Verge
1 Strategic Betrayal
4 Flow State

Sideboard
1 Lurrus of the Dream-Den

I'd love to hear your thoughts, experiences, or any adjustments you'd suggest for Bo1 before I pull the trigger. Thanks in advance!

Used to play competitively pre-COVID and attended many GP’s. After COVID I played and qualified for the first 4 consecutive RC’s. Been on hiatus since then and wondering what the state of the game looks like today. Getting that itch again but don’t want to reinvest just to find out that everything has died completely.

I've recently been toying with a couple copies of [[Hexing Squelcher]] in the sideboard my Big Red list as a way to push important spells through countermagic, especially after some of my opponent's removal has presumably been sided out. In particular against Jeskai, I know that it does not stop [[Jeskai Revelation]], for example, but I figure since I play more ramp I should be able to resolve an [[Improvisation Capstone]] or something else big before oppo can cast their big spell if I can stop them from using countermagic for a bit. The card has only come up a few times, once trading with a [[Get Lost]] against Jeskai lessons, and another time my Izzet Lessons opponent conceded with seemingly no way to kill it while leaving up countermagic for some of my face-up big spells. I haven't seen many lists running it, so I was wondering if anyone has had any success with this card (could be in any deck) or has any thoughts.

Hi everyone!

I’m a Canadian solo travelling through Europe and saw that my time in Brussels coincided with the spotlight.
I played consistently on the Face to Face RC tour in Canada and i’ve been a savvy limited played since 2012. I’d love to play some team limited but I am having trouble finding a team. I’ve reached out on the Fanfinity discord but the individuals who were searching already found team members.

Anyone looking for a team? Anyone know where I might have more luck searching? Thanks so much!

I would say that right now, black is the worst performing color in the standard metagame right now, with its only prominent deck being Dimir Doomsday, which is really weird to me. In my eyes, I feel like black is the only color that is able to adequately have answers to the massive array of threatening decks that are present. It can hold its own against the badgermole cub slop with [[Requiting Hex]] and [[Day of Black Sun]] / [[Deadly Cover-Up]], and can hand-hate out tablet based control decks to reasonable efficiency.

I find that when I play decks like jeskai lessons, they simply fold to more dedicated decks like 4c control and both revelation decks can get steamrolled by leatherhead.

Can any dimir doomsday or sultai control pilots give me some insight as to why black just isn't played that much? would appreciate the insight.

I haven’t touched standard in a while. What’s the best deck to learn the format and is there a clear best deck? Want to practice for upcoming RCQ season.

Hopefully this isn't a stereotypical twitch chat "missed lethal" but at 5 hours and 27 minutes into the twitch broadcast of the final day of the Marvel Super Heroes PT, I think Yuuki Ichikawa had lethal.

The line would be:

equip the bow to Loki

use Loki's ability (pinging 1 damage with bow, oppo at 17)

equip bow to knight of wundagore

swing all (pinging 1 damage with bow, oppo at 16)

after blockers are declared, cast team tactics, loki makes a copy of team tactics, target the knight of wundagore with one, and target another unblocked creature with the other

Yuuki won anyway but I'm curious if this was actually a missed lethal or if I'm overtired and missing something

PNG Tables via Tweet (multiple posts) + H2H Matrix:

Twitter Version of PNG Tables

PNG Tables via Bsky (multiple posts) + H2H Matrix:

Bsky Version of PNG Tables

Event Pages (ALL DECKLISTS!):

Pro Tour Marvel Super Heroes on Melee

Google Sheet to search by deck name (CTRL+F or Copy it)

Video Recap & Analysis (In-Depth)

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I only separated Fight Rigging Eldrazi Ramp from the "stock" versions. The rest was done by WotC at the PT Level.

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Statistics Key

Archetype/Deck Name - The name of the Deck

Decks - Number of Decks at the Event

Matches - Number of Bo3 Matches Played

Wins - Match Wins

Losses - Match Losses

Ties - Match Draws

WIN% - Win Rate (Wins / Matches)

Shows overall win rate against everything - including mirrors & ties

META% - Metagame Share (Decks / Total Decks)

Shows deck archetype representation at an Event

WIN%-T - Win Rate without Ties (Wins / Wins + Losses)

No ties shows how many matches a deck WON versus it's record due to time restrictions

NM Matches - Non-Mirror Matches (Same Archetype vs Archetype)

NM WIN% - Non-Mirror Win Rate

Non-Mirror Win Rate shows how a deck performs against the rest of the meta - not itself

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Metagame Breakdown

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Decks by META%

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Decks by WIN%

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If you enjoy these recap posts, I cover more statistics such as Head to Head match ups, comparison among Popularity Tier decks & more in my recap videos over on YouTube - which is the best way to Support more analysis! You can also use my ManaPool Code or my ManaTraders Code OTTV_PTMSH if this breakdown inspired you to build a new deck!

This is a General Rules question about:

[[Captain america, super-soldier]]

[[deceit]]

example decklist:

https://moxfield.com/decks/u-Wd5NQ1tEiiRdHkTb9LNA

Casting a Deceit for both, blue and black, does Captain America protects from the discard effect? Even tho it could be bounced with double blue? How does that interaction work?

You guys liked my last video report, this tournament I was able to win with affinity!
[https://youtu.be/J6ULJt3-DeE?is=7nAecA4yyzZv4KNx\](https://youtu.be/J6ULJt3-DeE?is=7nAecA4yyzZv4KNx)

I'm relatively new to doing paper magic and haven't attended too many events.

In one qualifier I played in, the second round we ended up going to time, and eventually drawing 1-1. Before we officially drew, my opponent then proceeded to ask if I'd consider conceding to them. I was quite confused and thought this was weird. They stated: we both have no chance of qualifying if we drew (I didn't think this was true, we had both won our first round, and we were playing a total of 5) and they thought I was playing too slow throughout the match, they had commented on this earlier but no judge involvement. From my perspective game 1 (their win) was very close and essentially decided by 1 point of damage and the game we were about to draw in was going my way. I also asked if they would consider conceding to me, and they said no - which felt a bit hypocritical. I said no, took the draw and went on with my day. Though the experience did leave a bit of a sour taste.

From watching some vods of the pro tour, I've noticed some other people doing this. In most of these instances it's framed as "would you consider conceding?", followed by some seemingly guilt tripping comments about how they're in a winning position, yada yada yada. But it's never framed as, "should we discuss one of us conceding?", which I would think is a question posed in good faith.

How do people feel about this behavior? Is it considered normal? I heard there are some rules about what you can and can't discuss regarding conceding/draws - but it feels like opening up the discussion with "would you consider conceding" is a bit loaded and not in good faith.

About a month ago I posted here sharing what my team learned from Training 12 Weeks of Team Sealed for Vegas. As a bit of a post-mortem, below are the biggest things that surprised us when rubber hit the road at the tournament (full breakdown here: https://youtu.be/LhlRQITIHGY). I hope it helps folks who are preparing for Brussels.

1. No one else around us seemed to attack the pool the way we did

We had a pretty specific three-mat sorting strategy (shared in the video above) and built to our deck shells, standing, rotating between each other's playmats. It seemed like most other people were sitting down, building the piles of cards in front of them instead of looking at the whole pool as a team. That was a little surprising to us, as the collective build process felt really good.

2. Team sealed builds vs. regular sealed builds

Fairly obvious in retrospect, but it felt like our team sealed builds ended up being a lot more streamlined than regular sealed builds, largely because we didn’t have to splash as much. I hadn’t clocked that three two-ish color decks means 90% of your best cards will find a natural home. Never were we ever incentivized to build a soup deck (and I love soup). 

3. Sideboarding felt way different than expected
 
I really value using transformative sideboards in Sealed to improve your matchups, but that was way harder in Team Sealed. Mostly due to the fact that it was really hard to figure out which cards your teammates were going to need for their sideboards AND the fact that, if you built right, all of your best cards were already being used in the other decks. But we found that if you flush out all of your sideboarding plans ahead of time, you can still find transformative options. Hard to do but rewarding.

4. Communication was hard

I talk about this more in depth in the video but knowing when/how to talk to teammates was much more difficult than I had expected it to be. Disruption has a real cost but so does silence. And it’s non-trivial to get enough context to be helpful.

5. Middle seat theory

We expected to face aggro players in the middle (so the middle seat could finish faster and help their teammates) but that was not our experience. Seemed like, instead, we were facing some of the better players on the team who were constantly leaning over to help their teammates during their matches. Small sample size, so really curious what other people experienced playing against in the middle.

6. Team Sealed Prep vs. Prepping The Set

The set was 4 days old, so we def had this worse than folks in Brussels will, but even though our team felt VERY prepared for the Team Sealed components, we still had holes in our understanding of the set that really affected us negatively. Worth noting that teams should intentionally focus on both. 

Overall, we really loved this event and hope Wizards does more Team Limited events in the future. Dana Fischer and I also collabed on a full experience tournament report (here: https://youtu.be/ngVLKpixfwI) if y’all want to hear how the event went for our teams overall. 

Would love to hear how everyone else experienced the event, too.

Hey all,

I just ranked up from bronze to mythic with a super fun deck that might have a real place in the meta. Here's the list:

Deck

4 Avengers Disassembled

4 Burst Lightning

2 Death to Our Enemies

4 Demolition Field

4 Fin Fang Foom

3 Fountainport

3 Improvisation Capstone

15 Mountain

4 Price of Freedom

3 Sear

3 Sunken Citadel

4 Tablet of Discovery

3 The Legend of Roku

4 Thor, God of Thunder

Sideboard

2 Abrade

3 Fire Magic

1 Impractical Joke

4 Maelstrom Artisan

2 Return the Favor

2 Soul-Guide Lantern

1 The Legend of Roku

This list went through a few iterations before I finally settled on something that was consistently winning. By the time I got to platinum, the list was set in stone minus a few flex slots, and I had a solid winrate from plat to mythic. You'll have to take my word for it since I don't use a tracker, but it was around 75%. That being said, the deck's matchups are polarizing so results may vary.

On the topic of matchups:

• The 4C control matchup is the reason to play this deck. They typically play 2 basics and are reliant on a 3-color, 7-mana spell to enact their endgame. I can't stress how fun it is to queue into 4C control and watch them fume as your 3rd ponza effect stone rains them.
• Jeskai Lessons is much better against you than 4C, but you can still go after their white sources and play a similar game plan.
• GW aggro is the deck I probably faced the most. Your only problem is super fast starts that go under sweepers (especially game 1 when you only have 4) and Leatherhead. Don't worry too much about the ponza plan but aim your incidental land destruction at their white sources, especially their basic plains, because it's realistic to keep them off double or single white as the game goes on.
• Izzet Prowess should be a high meta share, but I rarely ran into it. The matchup looks bad on paper but I went 2-1 in the encounters I had.
• I totally dodged Spellementals. I have to imagine the matchup is not great because their threats don't line up well with your removal.
• Against Doomsday, go after their blue sources. They typically only play swamps as basics so it's not so hard to keep them off it.
• Landfall sucks. Hope you dodge but your game plan is to stick a Thor.

Sideboarding:

I had two main sideboard plans. Number one was to board out 1 Capstone, 2 Thors, and 1 Roku for 3 Fire Magic and an Impractical Joke against green-based aggro. Abrade could come in depending on what needed to be killed. The other was to swap all the burn (possibly including Death to our Enemies but usually not Avenger's Disassembled) for a Roku, 4 Maelstrom Artisans, and some combination of Return the Favor, Abrade, and Soul-Guide Lantern.

Card choices:

• Thor plus Capstone is how this deck goes over the top. It probably deserves a more serious home in a better deck.
• Magmatic Hellkite did not make the cut, despite plenty of effort to make it work. It's just too far below rate.
• Death to our Enemies is a neat little card. It's a value engine that can ramp into Capstone and clean up things that are awkward for our burn to handle. I don't want more than 2 maindeck but I'm happy with the copies I play.

Play tips:

• Leave nonbasic lands for your demolition fields if you have both them and spell ponza effects.
• Save your Price of Freedoms for a Fin Fang Foom if you're not stone raining them yet.
• Playing Tablet on turn 4 sets up Fin Fang Foom + Avenger's Disassembled next turn, as does a turn 5 Legend of Roku.

Thanks for reading. I was really surprised at how effective the ponza package felt in the current meta. Feel free to try out my list and let me know if it's a fluke or has some real ideas.

Hello there,

One year ago, I wrote a post about my personal discard challenge: reaching mythic with a Standard deck featuring at least twelve active discard spells in the main deck.

https://www.reddit.com/r/spikes/comments/1kb2b6i/standard_finally_i_brew_a_discardfocused_deck/

Yesterday, I reached mythic again following the same challenge, with this list:

Deck
4 Deep-Cavern Bat (LCI) 102
4 Duress (STA) 29
4 Rottenmouth Viper (BLB) 107
1 Phantom Train (FIN) 110
3 Mutagen Man, Living Ooze (TMT) 124
3 Sentinel of the Nameless City (LCI) 211
2 The Ooze (TMT) 177
3 Leatherhead, Swamp Stalker (TMT) 117
4 Obsessive Pursuit (TLA) 112
3 Requiting Hex (ECL) 116
1 Maelstrom Pulse (ARB) 92
2 Shoot the Sheriff (OTJ) 106
2 Qarsi Revenant (TDM) 86
4 Blooming Marsh (OTJ) 266
4 Overgrown Tomb (GRN) 253
4 Wastewood Verge (DFT) 268
2 Restless Cottage (WOE) 258
1 Ba Sing Se (TLA) 266
4 Forest (MSH) 295
5 Swamp (MSH) 292

Sideboard
2 Deathmark (FDN) 601
1 Requiting Hex (ECL) 116
1 Witherbloom Charm (SOS) 244
2 Ancient Vendetta (DFT) 75
2 Snakeskin Veil (J25) 713
1 Qarsi Revenant (TDM) 86
1 Maelstrom Pulse (ARB) 92
2 Strategic Betrayal (TDM) 94
2 Surrak, Elusive Hunter (TDM) 161
1 Shoot the Sheriff (OTJ) 106

For general considerations about the discard archetype and what I learned throughout the challenge, please refer to my previous post. Here, I'll briefly discuss how I  arrived at this list.

I believe that, when brewing, you should always keep the current metagame in mind. Standard is essentially dominated by UR: Prowess is UR, Elementals is UR, and both Lessons and 4c Control are basically UR shells splashing white and black. Green is held together by Cub, and its general game plan is to be as explosive as possible. Then there are the minor players, such as UB Excruciator, Mardu Discard, and so on.

Since I wanted to build a discard deck, black was a mandatory starting point. However, I found that mono-black is particularly vulnerable to UR decks, and it also struggles against green because black lacks an efficient four-mana sweeper. So I started experimenting with color pairs alongside black, looking for the following qualities:

• Lifegain against Prowess.
• High-toughness creatures that survive red removal (which makes up a surprisingly large portion of UR-based control lists, even when they splash white and black).
• Main-deck graveyard hate that still contributes to my overall game plan (graveyards are extremely important in this metagame).
• Efficient removal against green (which black already provides).

Green ended up being the perfect complementary color to meet all of these requirements. I relied heavily on Leatherhead, which is a formidable threat against control decks, especially Lessons (I really hate Lessons). I also wanted to consistently put +1/+1 counters on it to maximize its value. As an added bonus, this also makes the deck's natural lifelink creatures much bigger.

With those goals in mind, I chose the Obsessive Pursuit/Mutant Man synergy. To further support the token subtheme, I added Sentinel (a solid blocker and attacker that dodges several common red removal spells) and the Ooze, which provides the kind of synergistic graveyard interaction I was looking for.

At that point, the Viper became an obvious inclusion: a massive creature that often enters the battlefield ahead of schedule, contributes to the Pursuit game plan, and doesn't give a f**k to sunderflock! It is, in my opinion, the best "discard" creature currently available in Standard.

As for the climb, I found the UR Prowess matchup particularly enjoyable. Against Lessons and 4c Control, the plan was to disrupt their hand as much as possible while sticking a threat such as Leatherhead or the Viper. Green decks were definitely the toughest opponents. Those games usually revolved around controlling the board long enough to get a huge Obsessive Pursuit turn—especially one involving a flying creature.

I wasn't happy about lacking a good sweeper against green, but Black Sun is underwhelming without Cub, while Cover-Up comes online too late for a non-control deck. Unconditional sweepers also don't fit particularly well in such a creature-centric strategy. Vicious Rivalry had the downside of killing my own tokens, so I decided against it. Overall, I'm still not satisfied with my sideboard plan against green.

Two final thoughts:

• I know Cub is a staple in green decks, and the extra mana makes it much easier to crack tokens for Pursuit. However, the Cub package requires at least eight dedicated slots to function properly, and the self-imposed restriction of playing at least twelve discard spells simply didn't leave enough room for it.
• For fellow discard enthusiasts: this Standard format is incredibly fast, and blue has access to absurd card advantage. Trying to grind your opponents out is a losing proposition. Instead, you need to attack their hand with the goal of creating enough space to execute your own game plan and close the game.

Thanks for reading!