Showdown 2.0 #5: 720 Degrees

Showdown

Spootyone

12 September 2014

1367 views

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Welcome back to the weekly showdown series where I, Apoptosis, step in for Spootyone and play one of my standard builds against submissions from the tapped out community. With rotation rapidly approaching, there are many great cards that will be leaving us and several builds that I’ve tinkered with but never quite gelled the right way. So, I wanted to use decks that look back on those great cards that are leaving us and take us back to those fond memories of the standard that is about to leave us. So with that said, until rotation, I’m looking for pre-Khan’s builds. Think of it as a last hoorah.

If I could link music/video, I would consider something over the top sappy, like “I Will Remember You” with the little animals in cages, but overlaid with the heads of Boros Reckoner, AEtherling, Archangel of Thune, Pack Rat, et cetera. Use your imagination, it’s better then what I could produce.

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Got your back, bro :P

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There are two decks that I will be featuring today... so before they’re gone forever, I give you two matchups.

First up is Lord007’s

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, which features white aggression coupled to Athreos, God of Passage to make you pay for killing his dudes. He will be facing off against my prototype:

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(Yes, a prototype only weeks away from rotation). My deck is a retooled Junk version of my deck Hark the Herald , which was fun but not consistent enough. The older version could win the control matchup, but suffered against aggressive decks to the point that I shelved the idea. My Junk version has a bit more lifegain and tools to help stabilize against faster decks until it can take over the match. So why this deck? It features two angels that will be leaving us (Angel of Serenity and Archangel of Thune), and let’s face it Chicks with wings and swords is always hot (I only wish their bad girl cousin Aurelia, the Warleader could make it too, but she left when I dumped red for green).

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Onto match 1, game 1!

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Apoptosis wins the toss and is on the play, drawing: Temple of Silence, Temple of Malady, Godless Shrine, Temple Garden, Voice of Resurgence, Courser of Kruphix, and Angel of Serenity.

Lord007 draws: 2x plains, Caves of Koilos, Banisher Priest, Athreos, God of Passage, Precinct Captain, and Dryad Militant. This is the ever sought after nut draw.

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A1: plays Temple of Malady, scrys Advent of the Wurm (keep)
L1: draws Keening Apparition, plays plains, casts Dryad Militant

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A2: draws Advent of the Wurm, plays Temple Garden (A18/L20), casts Voice of Resurgence
L2: draws Brimaz, King of Oreskos, plays plains, casts Precinct Captain.

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A3: draws Banishing Light, plays Godless Shrine (A16/L20), casts Courser of Kruphix, reveals Underworld Connections on the library.
L3: draws Temple of Silence, plays Caves of Koilos and casts Athreos, God of Passage (A16/L19) Attacks with dryad and captain, Apoptosis blocks both such all but the courser die and lets the militant return to hand and the captain goes to the yard (A13/L19), and Apoptosis gets an elemental token.

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A4: draws Underworld Connections and reveals Voice of Resurgence, plays Temple of Silence (A14/L19) (keep) and casts Banishing Light to exile Athreos. Attacks with courser and 2/2 elemental token (A14/L15)
L4: draws Cartel Aristocrat, plays Temple of Silence, scry’s Orzhov Charm (keep), Casts Keening Apparition and Dryad Militant.

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A5: draws Voice of Resurgence and reveals Overgrown Tomb and plays it uptapped (A13/L15), reveals Voice of Resurgence. Casts Voice of Resurgence and Underworld Connections. Attacks with both the courser and elemental, in response Lord007 sacrifices the spirit to destroy Banishing Light, returning Athreos to the battlefield. Lord007 blocks the elemental token, Apoptosis allows the dryad to return to Lord007’s hand (A13/L13).
L5: draws Orzhov Charm, casts Brimaz, King of Oreskos and Dryad Militant

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A6: draws Voice of Resurgence, reveals Archangel of Thune, Apoptosis tapped Godless Shrine to activate Underworld Connections to draw Archangel of Thune (A12/L13) and reveals Godless Shrine, which he plays untapped (A11/L13) to reveal Courser of Kruphix and casts Archangel of Thune. Attacks with Voice of Resurgence and 4/4 elemental. Militant blocks the elemental, and Brimaz blocks voice. Voice and the militant die. Lord007 gets the militant back to his hand, a cat token and Apoptosis gets an elemental.not sure about that attack, but I wanted the two elementals online for next turn
L6: draws Soldier of the Pantheon, casts Banisher Priest to exile the Archangel of Thune, and Soldier of the Pantheon.

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A7: draws Courser of Kruphix, reveals Elspeth, Sun's Champion and draws it with Underworld Connections (A10/L13). Reveals Temple Garden, casts Courser of Kruphix, plays Temple Garden (tapped) (A12/L13), reveals Abrupt Decay. Casts Voice of Resurgence. (A12/L14)
L7: draws Dryad Militant, casts Cartel Aristocrat, attacks with Athreos, God of Passage, voice explodes and Apoptosis gets an elemental.

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A8: draws Abrupt Decay, reveals Godless Shrine, Apoptosis casts Angel of Serenity to exile Athreos, God of Passage, Brimaz, King of Oreskos, and Banisher Priest, Archangel of Thune returns to the battlefield. Lord007 casts Orzhov Charm to kill Archangel of Thune and takes damage from the charm and the pain land (A12/L9) (killing Angel of Serenity would leave Lord007 at 7 life with lethal coming on the swing after the land play/double lifegain/archangel triggers). Apoptosis plays the Godless Shrine tapped (A14/L8) and reveals plains. Attacks with everything (3x 6/6 elementals and both coursers), Soldier of the Pantheon, Cartel Aristocrat, and cat token each block an elemental, Lord007 sacrifices the cat after blocks to give the cartel pro white. Both coursers hit (A14/L4).
L8: draws plains and concedes game 1.

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Thoughts on Game 1: I felt like Lord007’s deck was hanging in there, but the problem is that once blockers are out in front, as Apoptosis I didn’t care if the little guys went back to Lord007’s hand. They were more of an annoyance then a real threat.

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Sideboard tech for Lord007: definitely bring in 2x Lifebane Zombie also 2x Thoughtseize could help get rid of big threats. Part of me really wants more stable forms of removal too to get rid of those damn coursers, so +2 Doom Blade. Bile Blight could be good against elemental tokens and could be good for a combat trick to help clear out blockers. Let’s remove 2x Orzhov Charm as that’s a costly form of removal for creatures (even thought it hits Banishing Light too. Six more to cut, I want to keep creature count high so that doesn’t leave me with too many choices: Brave the Elements, Boros Elite, or Dryad Militant all come to mind as possibilities, but I want to leave the rest. I think Brave the Elements can all go, as Bile Blight would be a more efficient combat trick to remove threats (as opposed to stalling the game). Two more to cut: let’s cut two Dryads. We’ve managed to keep our creature count at 29, which means battalion is still a thing.

Sideboard tech for Apoptosis: ironically, also bring in two Lifebane Zombies. Also bring in Deicide, since that dismantles Lord007’s graveyard use. Next bring in 3x Nyx-Fleece Ram, 2x Drown in Sorrow, and 1x Blood Baron of Vizkopa (while he’s unstoppable if he sticks, he’s costly and we don’t want to jam up at 5 CMC early on). That’s a whopping 9 cards to consider bringing in, so where to cut? High CMC is not your friend when playing against an agro deck, so despite the fact that Angel of Serenity won last game I have to consider taking her out in favor of a lifegain strategy. However, -2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion is also an easy cut: Lord007’s guys are too small/fast and the wrath effect only hurts me. Since we brought in sorrow, perhaps we can afford to remove Hero's Downfall, which leaves us with 4 to cut. Now I need to think about limiting my curve, so -4 Advent of the Wurm makes sense, even though they could trample over anything in their path, we’re going to leave that up to blood barons (that hurts Trostani’s usefulness in token generation, but she’s more there for lifegain triggers and her big old butt).

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Ok, onto game 2!

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Lord007 on the play draws 2x plains, 2x Keening Apparition, Cartel Aristocrat, and Soldier of the Pantheon. Ok I like the T1 soldier a lot, and the ability to blast through enchantments, but this hand does require drawing into some good stuff. Is it great? No. But, a mulligan could leave me much worse off.
Apoptosis draws Godless Shrine, Mana Confluence, Voice of Resurgence, Deicide, Banishing Light, and 2x Courser of Kruphix two lands feel risky, but I think I’ll keep.

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L1: plays plains, casts Soldier of the Pantheon
A1: draws Mana Confluence, plays Godless Shrine tapped.

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L2: draws Precinct Captain, plays plains and casts the captain, attacks with the soldier (L20/A18) solid aggro start
A2: draws Lifebane Zombie, plays Mana Confluence, casts Voice of Resurgence (L21/A17)

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L3: draws Thoughtseize wish I had black, casts Keening Apparition I know Apoptosis isn’t showing enchantments but with two spirits in hand I want threats to hit at his life total more then holding both back. Attacks with the soldier and captain, voice blocks the captain and dies alone, Apop gets an elemental (L21/A15).
A3: draws plains and plays it, casts Lifebane Zombie (L21/A14), forces Keening Apparition into exile.

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L4: draws Godless Shrine and plays it untapped (L19/A14), casts Thoughtseize (L17/A14) all four spells are bad, but Deicide wrecks Lord007’s god, it’s a question of try to win now or win later. I think if I force out Banishing Light, then I can remove both coursers (with the spirit and priest), which allows continual pressure from my captain. Apoptosis discards Banishing Light. Attacks with the soldier and captain. Apoptosis double blocks the Precinct Captain, who dies along with the Lifebane Zombie. (L17/A12)
A4: draws Temple of Plenty, plays Mana Confluence casts Courser of Kruphix (L17/A10) to reveal Abrupt Decay, but Lord007 sacrifices the Keening Apparition to kill the Courser.

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L5: draws Dryad Militant and casts it and Cartel Aristocrat, attacks with the soldier (L17/A8).
A5: draws Abrupt Decay, plays Temple of Plenty scrys Underworld Connections (bottom), casts Abrupt Decay (L18/A7) at the Cartel Aristocrat, Lord007 sacrifices the Dryad to get pro green.

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L6: draws Banisher Priest, and casts the other one to exile the token, attacks with the soldier and aristocrat (L18/A3).
A6: draws Voice of Resurgence, casts Courser of Kruphix (L18/A2), reveals Temple Garden and plays it (tapped) (L18/A3), realizes that he’s dead on the board even if he casts voice (because of the pain land) and concedes.

Lord007 wins game 2!!!

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Better aggro, great removal for Lord007. Not so great land draws for Apoptosis, which forced a lot of pain and no lifegain to help stabilize. I’m not sure I would change anything. Who’s up for game 3? I am!!

Apoptosis on the play draws 2x Temple Garden, Abrupt Decay, Godless Shrine, Deicide, 2x Courser of Kruphix great draw
Lord007 draws 2x plains, Mutavault, Spear of Heliod, Bile Blight, Lifebane Zombie, and Athreos, God of Passage. I never like to take a mulligan with three lands in hand, but they are all off color, and not being able to cast anything but spear worries me. I mulligan. After the decision, I looked at the next 5 cards: 3 lands, one captain, and a god, good call on the mulligan.
Lord007 draws: Caves of Koilos, plains, Dryad Militant, Boros Elite, Keening Apparition, and Bile Blight much better

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A1: plays Temple Garden tapped
L1: draws Dryad Militant, plays plains and casts a militant tree hugger.

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A2: draws Banishing Light, plays Godless Shrine untapped (A18/L20)
L2: draws Keening Apparition, plays Caves of Koilos, casts Dryad Militant and Boros Elite (A18/L19), attacks with the first dryad, which runs into Abrupt Decay

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A3: draws plains, plays Temple Garden untapped (A16/L19), casts Courser of Kruphix, reveals Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
L3: draws and plays plains, casts Keening Apparition and sacrifices it to destroy the courser. Attacks with everything (A13/L19)

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A4: draws Trostani, Selesnya's Voice surprise!, plays Courser of Kruphix to reveal Godless Shrine, which is played tapped (A14/L19), reveals Temple of Malady
L4: draws Temple of Silence, plays it and scrys Cartel Aristocrat (keep), casts Keening Apparition and sacrifices to kill the 2nd courser. Attacks with everything (A11/L19)

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A5: draws Temple of Malady and plays it to scry Mana Confluence (bottom), casts Banishing Light to exile the dryad Trostani is also a legit play here, but I’m worried about kill spells and continued damage. The downside is I’m one Thoughtseize away from losing my ability to neutralize the gods, but those are the risks you have to take.
L5: draws Thoughtseize no you silly remember the scry last turn? It’s the aristocrat, which is cast. Boros Elite gets in for 1 (A10/L19)

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A6: draws Archangel of Thune, hmm archangel will trigger trostani and give life plus counters, so that’s great as long as I don’t run into Thoughtseize, plays plains, casts Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
L6: draws Thoughtseize Haha, that’s awesome and casts it (A10/L17), the archangel hits the graveyard faster then you can say “git that sheet outta here!”

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A7: draws Blind Obedience and casts it. man that would have rocked with the archangel
L7: draws Spear of Heliod and casts it.

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A8: draws Drown in Sorrow think I will hold onto it for now, with a stalled board state I’m content to draw into better drops and hope for a 2 for 1
L8: draws and plays Godless Shrine, attacks with Cartel Aristocrat, knowing there is a trick coming Apoptosis still blocks, Lord007 does indeed cast Bile Blight to kill Trostani (A10/L16).

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A9: draws and plays Temple of Silence, scrys Underworld Connections (keep), casts and extorts Drown in Sorrow (A11/L15), casts Deicide to blow up the spear, which clears Lord007’s board.
L9. both players are now in topdeck mode, but Apoptosis has two more land, Blind Obedience and a Banishing Light on the battlefield. Lord007 draws and casts Boros Elite

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A10: draws, casts and extorts Underworld Connections (A12/L14), taps land to activate Underworld Connections (A11/L14) to draw Voice of Resurgence, which is also cast.
L10: draws and plays Caves of Koilos

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A11: draws Abrupt Decay, taps land to draw Mana Confluence through UC (A10/L14), which is played. Attacks with voice (A10/L12)
L11: draws Bile Blight, attacks with Boros Elite (A9/L12)

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A12: draws Archangel of Thune and casts it. Attacks with Voice of Resurgence (A9/L10)
L12: draws Spear of Heliod and casts it, Apoptosis destroys it with Abrupt Decay and extorts (A9/L9 <-- mana confluence damage keeps Apop at 9), triggering Archangel of Thune. Lord007 casts Bile Blight to kill voice, Apoptosis gets a token elemental

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A13: draws Voice of Resurgence and casts it with extort (A10/L8), attacks with the 5/6 Archangel of Thune and the 3/3 elemental, Lord007 sends the elite into the grinder, (A15/L3), voice, elemental, and angel all get a counter.
L13: draws Banisher Priest and concedes since he’s looking at lethal (Blind Obedience brings him in tapped and precludes blocking).

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Apoptosis wins the game and match! Thoughts on Lord007’s deck: I like the build, and I’m not sure whether you would have agreed with all of my sideboard options (i.e. should we have brought in even more removal?), but what I did seemed to work game 2. I think the problem with the graveyard strategy with Athreos, God of Passage in this build is that if your opponent has managed to get some big blockers out there then they don’t really care if you bounce a weenie back to your hand. So creature heavy green decks will be a problem. Clearly, the deck can work and maybe I underestimated the need for all of your removal when facing an opponent that could stabilize through creatures with a big-old butt. The question is what could make it better, especially game 1? Maybe a few more kill spells in the mainboard? I would run them over Banisher Priest, which I think is very fragile and I’ve never really liked it. Yes, it can clear a path and you have support in Athreos and Brave, but personally I would like the unconditional kill better in this build. But that’s more personal preference.

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For the second match we have weisemanjohn’s deck:

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. This deck features ramp into scary big hydras that supposedly have been seen flying over the realms. What’s that shadow on the ground, and why is it getting closer?

They will be going up against another prototype deck of mine:

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. Ever since AEtherling came out, I’ve loved the card: continual damage in an unstoppable form. But with the release of Elspeth, Sun's Champion, he’s been pushed to the back burner. To quote a friend who is a master at U/W control: “AEtherling is great when you’re ahead or stabilized, but pretty terrible when you’re behind”. But I love the card and sometimes you brew with love, not reason, so I tried to put together a deck that ramps hard into AEtherling and then pounds away and really punishes planeswalker heavy decks. When I showed him this deck, looking for advice all he said was: ”FOUR AEtherlings?!?! You’re nuts!”. Ok, it was enough to scare me away from taking to my LGS (I can’t always make it on a weekly basis, so I pick my decks carefully), but the brew still stayed in my head. The question was what else to ramp into so as to not be too far behind or pull out a win? My solution: Scuttling Doom Engine. We’ll see whether it can work.

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weisemanjohn wins the flip and mulligans a one land hand, with no acceleration and then mulligans a questionable two land hand without ramp and big creatures, and Ugh... at 5 is worse... Ok, look, this article series is about fun, not about winning and I really don’t want to waste our time by putting him in a hole. So, rewind, reboot and: weisemanjohn draws a land heavy hand of Temple of Mystery, 3x forest, Yavimaya Coast, Elvish Mystic, and Genesis Hydra. Ok, yes it’s land heavy, but with 22 in the deck and 5 in hand, he has to draw good stuff, right? Actually, unless I know that I’m up against aggro I will usually keep a land heavy opening hand.. Keep.

Apoptosis draws 2x Temple of Plenty, Temple Garden, Hallowed Fountain, Cyclonic Rift, Sylvan Caryatid, and Detention Sphere.

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W1: plays Temple of Mystery scrys forest (bottom).
A1: draws Courser of Kruphix, plays Temple of Plenty, scrys Hallowed Fountain (bottom)

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W2: draws Soul of New Phyrexia, plays forest, casts Elvish Mystic.
A2: draws Courser of Kruphix, plays Hallowed Fountain (W20/A18), casts Sylvan Caryatid.

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W3: draws Genesis Hydra, plays forest.I feel like “Mars: Bringer of War” should be playing in the background”
A3: draws Breeding Pool, casts Courser of Kruphix, reveals Courser of Kruphix, plays Breeding Pool tapped (W20/A19)

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W4: draws Prophet of Kruphix, plays forest and casts the prophet.
A4: everyone untaps and Apop draws Courser, reveals Breeding Pool, casts Courser of Kruphix, plays the Breeding Pool (W20/A21) to reveal Mana Confluence.

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W5: draws Kalonian Hydra I love this card, it really should see more play, plays Yavimaya Coast and casts Genesis Hydra to reveal Kiora's Follower, Courser of Kruphix, Archetype of Imagination, and Kalonian Hydra. weisemanjohn chooses to put courser onto the battlefield, shuffles and reveals Kiora's Follower.
A5: everyone untaps and Apop draws Mana Confluence, reveals Kiora, the Crashing Wave. still one turn away from an overloaded Cyclonic Rift and don’t want to rush to Detention Sphere, but I am getting that itching feeling between my shoulder blades Plays Temple Garden (W20/A23). EOT weisemanjohn casts Kalonian Hydra and Apoptosis looks for Quicken into Supreme Verdict and sighs.

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W6: draws Kiora's Follower and attacks with both hydras, who each become an 8/8, you can hear the sound of my poor courser scream as it slides down the throat of the hydra without trample (W20/A15).
A6: everyone untaps and A draws Kiora, the Crashing Wave, revealing AEtherling, plays Mana Confluence (W20/A16). EOT, weisemanjohn casts Genesis Hydra for 6 to reveal Simic Charm, Prophet of Kruphix, Prime Speaker Zegana, and Temple of Mystery swing and a miss

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W7: draws and plays forest. Attacks with three very large, very scary hydras, in response Apoptosis casts an overloaded Cyclonic Rift to save his @$$. weisemanjohn casts Prophet of Kruphix and Elvish Mystic. right back at you Apoptosis!
A7: everyone untaps and A draws AEtherling, reveals Jace, Architect of Thought, casts Detention Sphere, targeting the prophet, in response weisemanjohn casts Kalonian Hydra. A casts Kiora, the Crashing Wave (W20/A14) and ticks her up to prevent the hydra from being able to deal damage, plays Temple of Plenty (W20/A15) and keeps jace on top probably a mistake.

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W8: draws Nylea, God of the Hunt, casts Genesis Hydra for 7 to reveal Polukranos, World Eater, Temple of Mystery, Arbiter of the Ideal, Thassa, God of the Sea, and Prophet of Kruphix, puts that prophet onto the battlefield. Attacks with the hydra to double the counters on the other one, even though it can’t deal damage attacking with it does cause him to trigger. Holy crap is Apoptosis screwed!
A8: everyone untaps and A draws Jace, Architect of Thought, reveals Scuttling Doom Engine. +1 Kiora (L=4) to lock down the Genesis Hydra. Reluctantly, casts Jace and -2 to reveal 2x Scuttling Doom Engine, and a Temple of Enlightenment, Apoptosis gets an engine and a land. Courser reveals Sylvan Caryatid, casts Courser of Kruphix plays Temple of Enlightenment (W20/A17) and pushes the plant to the bottom, revealing Scuttling Doom Engine. EOT weisemanjohn casts Soul of New Phyrexia.

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W9: draws island and plays it, casts Genesis Hydra for 8 mana, reveals: Genesis Hydra, 2x Archetype of Imagination, Progenitor Mimic, island, and Kruphix, God of Horizons. oh how shall I kill you Apoptosis, let me count the ways. How about death by flying hydras?. Puts Archetype of Imagination into play, and sends a 16/16 hydra, and artifact avatar, and a smirking prophet through the air FTW.

Thoughts on game 1. Wow. Just wow. I think I want to run Prophet of Kruphix. That card is awesome in this deck, and I don’t think I need to tell you why. That was awesome to behold.

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Sideboard tech for weisemanjohn: honestly, nothing. This deck punishes you for letting the board state develop and Apoptosis’s deck didn’t really impress much haha my friend is right.

Sideboard tech for Apoptosis. Ouch, just ouch. That prophet is a pain in the butt. I can’t let that go unpunished game 2 and my best answer is 4x Voice of Resurgence, but honestly if he’s dropping hydras that will turn into 8/8 on the swing, would my elemental tokens really help? Debatable, at first I was thinking absolutely but with further thought and trying to decide what to cut I’m not so sure. Cyclonic Rift isn’t a great answer either, but it’s the best answer I have for big creatures, so +2. We saw thassa, kruphix, and nylea (I think courser was out then, maybe not), as well as a few enchantment creatures so Deicide is ok to bring in. I think I want to be able to counter threats too so +2 Dissipate. Also, I didn’t see much in the way of removal so lets bring in Archangel of Thune too. Yes, I just realized that I’m looking at 7 sideboard cards (11 if voice came in). Both Jace and Kiora seemed lack luster so that’s -5 in all. My buddy may be right about too many AEtherling being a bad thing, but I think I would rather try it then drawing, so -2 Sphinx's Revelation. Yes folks, I’m going to stick to a more tempo/ramp strategy then a control strategy. And it shows that Supreme Verdict or a more reliable wrath through Elspeth, Sun's Champion might have been good to have in the sideboard at least. Dammit, I think my friend is right.

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Ok, game 2.

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Apoptosis on the play draws Dissipate, Scuttling Doom Engine, 2x Elvish Mystic, Temple of Mystery, Temple of Plenty, Temple Garden.
weisemanjohn draws 2x Temple of Mystery, forest, Sylvan Caryatid, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Elvish Mystic, and Kalonian Hydra.

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A1: plays Temple Garden (A18/W20), casts Elvish Mystic.
W1: draws Sylvan Caryatid, plays forest, casts Elvish Mystic.

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A2: draws Detention Sphere, plays Temple of Mystery to scry Temple of Enlightenment (keep), casts Elvish Mystic
W2: draws forest, plays Temple of Mystery scrys Prophet of Kruphix oh yeah, keep it baby, casts Sylvan Caryatid.

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A3: draws Temple of Enlightenment and plays it to scry Sylvan Caryatid (bottom)
W3: draws Prophet of Kruphix, plays forest, and casts Prophet of Kruphix, which with just one blue source Apoptosis can’t counter, sad face.

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A4: everyone untaps, A draws Temple of Enlightenment, casts Detention Sphere, in response weisemanjohn casts Kalonian Hydra. A plays Temple of Enlightenment and scrys Temple of Enlightenment (bottom).
W4: draws forest and plays it. Attacks with the 8/8 hydra (A10/W20). Second main casts Sylvan Caryatid

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A5: draws AEtherling what did my friend say about AEtherling not being good when you’re behind? Would Sphinx's Revelation helped more here? Dammit. How is a T5-6 AEtherling bad? When you’re looking at a 16/16 hydra with trample next turn! That’s how!!!, plays Temple of Plenty scrys Detention Sphere Yes! There is hope!, casts Scuttling Doom Engine. Oh crap, I need to tap both elves to get out the doom engine, which means I still die along with all hope of saving my butt. Apoptosis concedes the game and match!

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Congratulations to weisemanjohn! Well done. Thoughts on the deck and match: ramping into hydras demands an answer and if it’s “uhm...” then be prepared to be dead. That was a fun deck to play. Both decks were trying to do the same thing, but weisemanjohn’s deck had better synergies to get it done.

So, do I abandon my AEtherling obsession? Do you see a return in two weeks to an Izzet Staticaster Gorgon's Head combo deck? Or do I retool, regroup, and come back with a different harebrained idea? Did I ever mention how much I love Boros Reckoner? Find out in two weeks!

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If you have suggestions for any of the four decks you saw today, please provide feedback. If you want to specifically be featured in a showdown against one of my decks before rotation, please hold off on Khans until after rotation. I’m looking for curtain calls with standard builds before the end. Thanks to everyone for reading.

-Apoptosis