This was a 10-person pod. My first 2 picks were voyages' end even though both the guys to my left and right were in blue. Didn't see much blue after that, although the triton tactics bizarrely wheeled like pick 11. Pretty quickly fell into Black/White although green was somewhat open, and pack 3 I had to pass an Arbor Colossus.

I was planning to splash blue but I already had 4 really solid removal spells and card draw. It didn't seem worth it.


15 creatures
1 Tormented Hero
1 Baleful Eidolon
1 Wingsteed Rider
1 Fellhide Minotaur
1 Lagonna-Band Elder
1 Mogis's Marauder
2 Cavern Lampad
3 Insatiable Harpy
1 Heliod's Emissary
1 Triad of the Fates
2 Sentry of the Underworld

8 spells
1 scourgemark
1 ordeal of heliod
1 read the bones
1 Hero's Downfall
1 dauntless onslaught
1 divine verdict
1 Lash of the whip
1 Sip of hemlock

9 swamp
7 forest
1 nykthos, shrine to Nyx.

I-dunno-board:
Yoked Ox
Asphodel Wanderer
2 Leonine Snarecaster
Setassan Battle Priest
Travelling Philosopher
Ray of Dissolution
2 Returned Centaur
1 March of the Returned

Traveler's Amulet
Gainsay
Triton Tactics
2 Voyage's End

I went 2-1 but in fact my loss in match one would have been an easy draw with marginally competent play. But I was rattled, trying to play fast, and annoyed that I had no hope of winning and had to claw out a draw. That player won the pod - he had phalanx leader, favored hoplite, fleecemane lion, and the the arbor colossus I passed.

Matches 2 and 3 were pretty unremarkable against Izzet builds. In one game I had a Sentry grip tided _3_ times (I still won). I discovered the joy of having back up removal when my triad of fates got bolted after I put a counter on him, but I held a sip in reserve. Triad of fates did nothing but attract lightning strikes. Some funny moves was my opponent casting aqueous form… on MY harpy! He got like a zillion scrys off that but of course I won anyway.

Match 3 was against super annoying dude. I lost game 2 after a mull to 4. Game 3 I kept Tormented Hero+Ordeal of Heliod… and 5 lands. This worked to perfection but if I ate a turn 2 magma jet or lightning strike I could have been in a deep hole (well assuming I didn't draw anything).

Obviously, this deck lived and died on evasion and removal. The lack of creature power made the deck sllllooooooowww… Probably the hardest part was trying to pick the last 2-3 creature slots out of a big pile of meh. I think I rotated them all in except yoked ox (and the 4 drops of which I had ample supply) at one point or another. What this deck really needed was 2-3 Scholar's of Atheros, or even a returned phalanx.

I ran Nykthos for the first 4 games, but really it was totally useless. Not only did I never have more than 3-4 devotion (black) but it's not like I have much to ramp too… bestow maybe.

Also... is this an 18 land deck? What would I cut? A lampad? Seems silly to cut card draw, and ordeal or glorious combat trick.

3 Unsatiable Harpy and you didn't win the pod? Wonders never cease But seriously, a very nice deck. Just add a Gorgon and you're perfect. Good sideboard options, too.

For 18 lands, I would cut the Triad. Or Read the Bones. When all your cards are of approximately the same quality, you don't need card draw. This probably should be an 18-lander, you have a lot to do once you hit six mana, and even a great bestow for 7.

I hate cavern lampads. They're really horrible. Deathcult rogue was a mediocre card in a fast format, so why would maindecking two that cost more in a format that can be even faster be good? It's not; they're not.

I would've gone all-out aggro and not played the sip or the lash and played the snarecasters instead. I would've then boarded into the removal I needed, and I wouldn't have played the shrine.

I also would've played plains

Shrine was terrible. I don't like Lampads either... but nor do I like snarecasters. My loss/draw was to a guy with a few aggro cards but also fatties. I was more worried about the fatties. Also, everything in my deck has evasion so the only thing worth tapping with the snarecasters are reach guys.

In most of my games I used 3 removal spells, but obviously I was playing slow 4 drops.
What about just cutting the lampads for snarecasters? And then just cut the triad for traveling philosopher and run 17 lands.

Read the bones mostly helped me fix mana and draw removal.
I wonder why I typed forest instead of plains...



Kind of embarassing, yeah. I was not playing well... so it's lucky that I drafted well. I forgot that that Sip of Hemlock did 2 to the dome (but remembered in time to play it for lethal) I played Read the bones with 7 cards in hand.
I think I put a scourgemark on a fellhide instead of the hero for no good reason (it's not like I needed a 3/3 especially... I just forgot about the heroic effect of the guy named "HERO". (I may be misremembering this though).

I lost the draw because I was saving my sip of hemlock (for ??? some kind of miracle?) and forgot asp had reach, losing a blocker that would have saved me.

You play the snarecasters mainly as spells so you can go over the top or through their fatties. You really just want to land a sentry: that card is hard to beat on its own. I like the snarecasters in all of my white decks; the card actually can break parity and provide a chump blocker, and especially in this deck you're sometimes not going to attack into their reach guy/flyer, and snarecaster could let you do that.

it is very true that the 6 flyer deck has an issue with reach.

And the best green commons have reach

ironically I got around the reach when it mattered because I had a cavern lampad. Although that was the draw I misplayed into a match loss., so ...