Took it to a 4 round FNM.
2-0 vs Zombie Tribal
G1 (W) It was an aggressive build without a lot of interaction. Tidehollow Sculler took a Scapeshift from me at one point and I took note that he was using some of his creatures' abilities to gain life up to 24. I was able to stall just long enough by blocking with Rallier/BBE to cast a second Scapeshift with 8 lands out. 6 x 3 x 2 = 36 damage to the face
G2 (W) I took a mulligan looking for a faster hand after seeing 3 lands, BBE, Rallier and Titan. It paid off when I found 3 lands, Search, Rallier, Tribe-Elder. I chose to try to race his attack, blocking as much as possible since he didn't have fliers. I almost died to a surprise Death Baron when he hit me for 10 in one turn down to 1. I had the lethal Scapeshift next turn.
1-2 vs Bant Spirits w/ Collected Company
G1 (L) He started with a T3 Geist of Saint Traft on the play. I stumbled hard in this one. I had to cast a Rallier w/o Revolt just to try and stop the Geist attacks, then wiffed hitting Path to Exile on my BBE. He had Path for both of these creatures and kept attacking in. I died with only 6 lands in play (2 were gifted by Path) and 2 Scapeshift in my hand.
-Nahiri, -Prime Time, -Scapeshift
+2 Anger of the Gods, +Path
I'm thinking that he isn't discarding my cards so I really only need one payoff to resolve. I want to kill the critical spirits and kill Queller when it exiles my Scapeshift.
G2 (W) I'm on the play and start with a suspended Search and just ramp to Scapeshift. He started with a Wanderer and 2 Noble Hierarch but I had a Sweltering Suns. Maybe I should have waited one more turn, but I didn't want to let him have enough mana to cast spirits and hold up Spell Queller. He then cast spirits to keep up with my Rallier/BBE I cast the next couple of turns. I was lucky to hit ramp off of BBE to get to 7. The critical part was that he was using his mana to respond to my creatures by casting his own creatures to keep up with the board presence and I was able to Scapeshift without the threat of a Spell Queller the turn after BBE.
G3 (L) Very close game. He starts with 2 Mausoleum Wanderer. I had a Lightning Helix and Path to Exile in hand but chose to save them for the lords and Queller. The Wanderers chunked me for 4 for a few turns. I drew Anger of the Gods but it was answered by Negate from his SB. I burned my Helix and Path on two lords to stay alive. The game came down to a single turn where he had 3 mana available and I was running out of cards. I cast a Scapeshift with 8 lands in play. He had the Spell Queller and my other card in hand was a Windswept Heath. He won two turns later.
Retro: This match-up feels slightly unfavored without changes to my SB. Spirits has a clock and ways to interact with both your answers to them and your win conditions. Their fliers aren't bothered by your ground troops. We're low on removal and often need to fight through the hexproof granting lord before we can remove Queller that beats our Scapeshift. If I had been able to cast a quick Prime Time I may have been able to bolt down his team, but I didn't draw into that line. I heard that the Spirits deck is really common at my LGS so I'll need to solve this one. Solving the BBE vs Pact problem may help to get Prime Time more frequently. I already have 4 sweeper effects for these kinds of decks, although Selfless Spirit helps them a lot there. I think the key is probably Prime Time and dodging the Path. I've also been thinking about a Hour of Devestation in the SB for other match-ups, but it would dodge Spell Queller in this one too.
1-2 vs UR Wizards
G1 (W) He starts with a Delver but doesn't flip it quickly. His board presence is kind of anemic and he's really only casting cantrips. IDK what his plan was. He countered a fetch with Obstructionist at one point that set me back a turn. Then I cast Scapeshift into Remand with only 3 untapped lands available. Next turn I played I played it again and my opponent scooped.
-Nahiri, -Scapeshift
+Path, +Seal of Primordium
I'm fully expecting to have to beat Alpine Moon but know my Prime Time plan is plenty good if I can land one fast enough. I remove Nahiri for being slow and Scapeshift for losing to his counter magic so badly.
G2 (L) He starts with a Delver on the play and flipped it immediately. I start getting attacked for 3 flying turn after turn with Bolt/Wizard's Lightning thrown in. I didn't draw any removal in this game and my would-be lethal Scapeshift ate a Negate. I died with two more Scapeshift in hand.
G3 (L) He starts with a Delver but I killed it right away with Lightning Helix. On his T2 he drops two more Delvers and then flips them T3 to start attacking for 6. I do not see anymore removal nor do I draw a sweeper. I play out a couple of my own creatures, who usually slow the assault, but are ignored by sweepers.
Retro: OK. Early hard hitting fliers are a problem. It's good against us because we're using Rallier/BBE to slow down our opponent's attack. But they don't do it well against evasion. Sometimes we can race because 3 power is reasonable when there are multiple.
Thinking about this match-up, it feels slightly unfavored like Spirits. They have the early flier we're weak to, their removal lines up really well against our creatures so we can't really race (plus a single Grim Lavamancer can kill every Rallier/BBE) and they have stack interaction for our Scapeshift. The best line to victory I think is Prime Time. I also really missed the Seal of Fire that can be recurred with Rallier in this one. They're a good Alpine Moon deck too so that needs to be considered in sideboarding.
2-1 vs Season's Past Combo
I haven't seen this deck before and had no idea what was going on. After checking the internet, it looked like this: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/658844#paper
G1 (W) I drew into ramp, Ralliers and BBE. No Scapeshift or Prime Time. I was able to not make bad mistakes with the Gifts piles and attacked him down to 0 with my 3/2 beats.
G2 (L) I got to see what the deck does. He killed me the turn before I got him. I asked him what the combo was and scooped when I was convinced it was enough. Glad I did because he said the winning turn takes an extremely long time to execute.
G3 (W) I had probably the best opening 7 of the night and just ramped hard into a T4 Prime Time while my opponent cast cantrips and gifts setting up for his combo. Won on T5.
Overall Retro: Fliers are a notable problem. In both games where they were, I identified Prime Time as the best line. This makes me especially dislike taking Pact out because of BBE. I'm going to toy with replacing BBE with Solemn Simulacrum and running Pact. I'll also experiment with See the Unwritten to enable BBE, although I think I'd need 6 good hits to make that worth running.
I wiffed on BBE several times. She's such a roller-coaster. You can usually sequence so that if you hit Rallier, you can revolt it, but then sometimes you hit Tireless Tracker and wish you had the fetch still. I hit one of my 2 Path to Exile in two games without a target. One other cascade I hit Lightning Helix and it felt pretty close to doing nothing. In all of those games I wished I had hit ramp and lost a turn towards my combo because of it. BBE can sometimes dig down into a sideboard card, which is nice when it happens. I suspect there's good upside to swapping BBE with Solemn Simulacrum or something else that also advances our combo and is consistent. Simulacrum reliably gets the land, which is usually what I want and also draws a card after it chump blocks something. Again, I'd get to run pact again and gain some sideboard consistency by running tutorable creatures. Shusher seems really good against the decks with stack interaction and sometimes Prime Time is just the line I want to take.
I will for sure remove the Paths and Lightning Helixes from the MB. They feel more like SB cards for this deck. I may want some Lightning Bolt since this deck has so little to do on T1 otherwise (if someone plays a Delver I want it dead) and it still answers the really critical creatures we need to kill like Spell Queller, Meddling Mage, Kitesail Freebooter, storm's medallion bears and most combo creatures. Seal of fire being looped with Rallier also seems really good, although it misses Spell Queller, who is on my radar right now.
I also think Nahiri can be cut. Not sure for what yet.
I liked the MB Sweltering Suns in concept but I really only wanted them against fliers or decks like Elves where they vomit their hands. Against decks where my creatures actually lined up well I didn't want them at all. I think sweepers can be moved to SB since we do have more creatures than traditional GR Shift.
