I don't know the exact list right now. It does not run the weaker 1-drop and has Kraul Harpooner and the 3/3 troll as 2-drops instead of FKs Growth Chamber Guardian and Paradise Druid. No green 2-drop is really good imo.

Sure, mono R should be an easy win - and it was an easy win - until it wasn't. I was like 17 life ahead, we had roughly the same amount of creatures but all of his were 1/1s. And then Torbran happened. Couldn't attack anymore, all of his tiny spells killed one of my creatures, no way to finish him. RDW had inevitability over mono G Stompy, as ludicrous as that sounds.

Can't believe in Kraul Harpooner with so much fewer Gilded Goose around. 3/3 Troll over Growth Chamber Guardian is believable though. I don't have enough experience so far, but I trust Frank Karsten since he's after all a Hall of Famer and I'm not.

The description of your Mono R game is weird. If you're at 17 life, and have lots of creatures, why not attack? They will eventually kill you, of course - even without Torbran, if you just sit there and never attack they'll eventually draw enough burn to kill you (The Great Henge adding 2 life a turn is very helpful, though).

You don't attack when said attack deals zero damage to the opponent and causes bigger casualties on your side

What does the third column mean?

It represents how many MPL members (in red) and how many of the Challengers (in yellow) submitted decklists for that archetype for this weekends tournament.

"Soon, we'll get to see the format in action at Mythic Championship VII which pits together 32 Magic Pro League (MPL) members and 35 Challengers from around the world—all playing on MTG Arena for a total prize pool of $750,000."

I like Azorious chances in that meta... What is the wincon tho...

"This deck says no to spells with Absorb, no to permanents with Planar Cleansing, and eventually wins by attacking with Brazen Borrower and/or Gadwick, the Wizened. Of note is that Planar Cleansing was favored over Time Wipe as the main sweeper effect."

I will never understand the appeal of this. But then I also don't understand the appeal of torture, so whatever I guess

Thought about crafting a Fires deck yesterday, but turns out that while I have 12/20 Cavaliers (w/o crafting) I'd still have to craft 6 and Kenrith.. not sure if I want that for a Jeskai deck..

Egad mono G is actually quite fun. The mass trample rolled over an opponent with Lucky Clover + 2 Edgewall Innkeepers trying to loop Lovestruck Beast's 1/1 tokens to chump block. I'm sure he must've been surprised when The Great Henge kept me up in value in spite of all his own engines (he had hit me earlier with Casualties of War, too). Opponent had maindeck Duress too, which missed. Hah! A few matches later I ran into an opponent with Witch's Oven, Ayara, Midnight Reaper, and (get this) Revenge of Ravens. Too bad they all can't block Questing Beast.

Also nice to see we finally have a diverse field. Some of the decks are actually very interesting (5c Niv Mizzet Reborn, really?), I might craft some to play with at some point.

Ewwww...
At least I run Far of wishes for mass or chance for glory

So, MC VII is in the books and this is the Top8:

3x Simic Flash
2x Jund Sacrifice (winner)
1x Jeskai Fires
1x Simic Ramp
1x Golgari Adventures

What gives?

We better play 4x Shifting Ceratops to avoid losing to the most annoying deck - especially in a Bo1 context.

Mengucci has been the hero to champion Nissa/Krasis to a 4th place finish. He even brought the pigs

Will we have the discussion of whether we want to go Bant for Teferi again? Could we reasonably expect to resolve him vs all those cheap counters?

I imagine the big problem with going Bant is the mana. With checklands it was much easier; without it there's a real cost.

I do agree Simic Flash is a really annoying deck. Somehow, they always seem to have it, even though their deck's filled with cards that don't work very well in certain situations (e.g. Negate). There are some very powerful sideboard cards against Simic Flash though, not just Shifting Ceratops but also Mystical Dispute. I've also read that the deck literally cannot beat T1 Edgewall Innkeeper, and is presumably not good vs. monored as well. Just seeing their hand should have a very powerful effect as well - any deck playing Black mana can always run Duress.

Mengucci went 0-4 vs. Simic Flash lol. RIP.

Ouch, that stinks.

Yeah, the general idea is to have a t1-play that wins the game for they counter as soon as they have 2 mana. Innkeeper fits that bill for he draws you a card on cast (so not on EtB). Other 1-drops may damage but not kill them. Maybe we should just wait out t2 and t3 and force their counters only when they have 4+ mana to delay the wolf - could be a stupid idea though, no guarantees.

Or, y'know run duress and thought erasure.

Or, y'know, play sorcerous spyglass naming nissa and then there's not much simic can do anyway. Don't know why not a single player did that in MC VII.

You must have missed one of the best parts of MC VII, Mengucci swinging in for 146 points of damage against Seth Manfield playing...simic flash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGNJE5u67Rs

Oh, my bad. Mengucci beat Seth Manfield 2-0, I saw it as a 0-2 loss ~~

The ever-boring THREAD

The ever-annoying Barney