working on a budget maze's end deck for FNM.
FNM report:2-2
Round 1: Esper Control (lose in 3)
I won the first game fairly easily, then he boarded in obzedat, jace memory adept, and a few other cards. I actually misplayed my hand which caused me to lose, because I forgot I had a negate for his jace. I also dropped a pithing needle preemptively on his jace, architect which he brought out G1, only to find out he boarded them out. Despite nuking three of his plainswalkers (elpseth, 2x jace) with crackling perimeter, i ended with a loss from obzedat. Game three was more mismanagement of cards by me. I tried to quicken + board wipe and the judge ruled that his trigger still counted causing me to take the final 2 damage.
Round 2: Pack Rat Griefer / Discard (lose in 3)
I totally misjudged this guy's deck. I didn't quite get how pack rat worked and just wasn't prepared for it. I thought he was just playing a gimmicky deck, and when he boarded in more creatures for round 2, I had a much easier time fogging him out. In game 3, out of nowhere came a lot of hurtful cards (duress which he boarded G2 but I didn't see, thoughtseize, underworld connections, desecration demon). In the first two games I opened with both merciless evictions on the draw but decided to keep it and I think that ended up really crippling me. I really underestimated this guy's deck and lost because of it.
Round 3: UW Heroic Aggro-Enchant (win in 3)
This guy was really fun to play against, but I knew his deck very well. I mismanaged my cards again (proper execution of this deck is actually way more complicated than one would think) and ran out of fogs when I had the ability to do something about it in the first game, but boarded out the brambles for a crackling perimeter and 3x far // away. I won G2 off perimeter which was actually pretty funny. Game 3 I drew something like 9 or 11 fogs in a row, which really slowed down my guildgate proliferation, but treasured find really shined here, once for another fog, once for a board wipe.
Round 4: RDW flavor (win in 3)
When he dropped the cackler on the opening turn, I was hoping it was rakdos aggro, which would have been much easier to deal with. He beat me pretty quickly and I thought I was done for sure. Game 2 I boarded in 3x saruli gatekeepers and 3x negates for 2x bramblecrush 4x urban evolution. Even though that was my only ramp card, my gatekeepers were MVP here and really took him by storm. he had 9 creatures on the board and I thought I knew he had a fanatic in the deck, but I kept waiting for it because I had enough fogs and a riot control, which counters fanatic. I gave in and just played it as my final fog, then wiped the next turn only to have him concede and reveal a fanatic. Game 3 I cast verdict on his 3x zealots + reckoner, and then merciless eviction a few turns later on his chandra's. I negated all but one lightning bolt, and cruised pretty easily to a victory.
At this point I withdrew because I didn't have a shot at top 8.
Overall comments:
This was the most fun I have had at FNM to date. Had I played my deck better I think I would have gone 4-0 against these guys. Learning to board correctly is crucial and something I underestimated in playtesting. I don't think RDW is the doom matchup people think because most people don't have a playset of burning earths in their board, and you can deal with one or two of them via bramble or eviction.
The key for me is managing just how much of a pounding you can take before you have to start burning fogs, and leaving the proper mana open. For a deck built around goldfishing, I had the most conversation with my opponents and long, satisfying matches.
I was disappointed that I wasn't the only one there with maze's end (although the other guy's deck was a different flavor and worse IMO because of it) and that others knew about it. I hadn't been to FNM in two weeks and had never seen a deck like this run. That said, I fully intend to run it again next week, with some possible slight tweaking. I really believe this is a very strong deck right now, and even this budget version is dangerous.
Possible different flavor I was toying with but decided against:Instead of limiting the wipes, add more wipes, followed by silences. One mana to silence and then have mana to ramp an extra maze's end proc after a board wipe is very handy. If I were to do that, I'd probably run a few render silents as well instead of negates. I never found that having the mana open for fog + negate was an issue, so being able to render silent after a wipe doesn't seem like it would be bad. Aetherize would also be great to combo with silence.
This deck pretty consistently wins around turn 11 in most cases, and being able to board wipe + silence potentially 2-3 of those turns is golden. Treasured find could also add additional silencing ability.
Final notes:Treasured find is in my opinion an absolute must for this deck in any flavor. You are intentionally flooding yourself with mana in order to win the game, so mana cost is not a big deal. Most turns you'll only need to spend a couple mana (fog), so having the ability to bring back a board wipe or additional fog means you can effectively play with 5 playsets of fog instead of 4, or have those extra board wipes, or even bring back a milled critical land. It is probably one of the best cards for this deck.
==============Changes for next FNM:
Here are the changes I'm looking at for next Friday:
Mainboard:
-4x Urban Evolution -1x Merciless Eviction
+2x AEtherize +2x Divination +1 Supreme Verdict
Easily the biggest move here that's counter to the standard flavors of Maze's End decks is subbing out these Urban Evolutions. Honestly, I never found a good opportunity to use them, and while the ramp is nice, by the time I found a good chance to use them, I'm only a turn or two from victory anyway. Typical situations went like this: 1) just wiped the board, 2) have 7 mana, so I can fog. 3) dead card in my hand. The third situation was MOST of the time. I'd rather run Divinations for ramp so I can use them 2-3 turns sooner, and then wait an extra turn or two when I have effectively 23 fogs. It felt like the card just didn't synergize well at all in this deck as much as I wanted it to be a great fit.
I dropped the extra merciless eviction for a third supreme verdict because I'd rather have a cheaper creature clear than possibly a dead card that I can't use until turn 7. As it stands I have four mainboard answers to deal with plainswalkers, three that can deal with any noncreature threat, and I like those odds for G1.
Sideboard:
-2x Blind Obedience, -1x Elixir of Immortality, -1x
Negate
+2x
Renounce the Guilds
, +2x Swan Song
I figured blind obedience would be a great card for FNM, but I never once even considered boarding it. Against hard aggro or burn decks,
Saruli Gatekeepers
is almost a win-con. RtG is directly for answering
Obzedat, Ghost Council
. He is easy to deal with on the short-term, but very difficult to stop long-term. Quicken+[any removal] can do it, but it's expensive and likely also requires a counterspell as well. RtG+counter is a two card counter. Other uses include Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, Ral Zarek, Detention Sphere, which are all mainboard G2 if they weren't G1.
Swan Song over negate, since I would almost exclusively use this as an anti-counterspell. If you're really budget-conscious, Dispel could easily substitute here.
I dropped the second elixir because vs Jace, Memory Adept or other mill I can just use a
Treasured Find
to bring it back in and use it.
==========
FNM Report (Week 2)t:
(2-2)
Round 1: Gruul Intro Pack (win in 2)
I played some kid's dad who was still learning the rules and the deck just blew his mind. He was a nice guy, but his deck just wasn't FNM competitive and I scooped a pretty simple 2-0 here. The third Supreme Verdict really seemed nice since he did have
Ember Swallower
to deal with.
Round 2: Rakdos Jank (lose in 3) (decklist: http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=5948&d=234498)
This guy was probably the most consistently top player at my FNM, and he always crushed me. The first time I played him in Theros block he had a really, really strong rakdos midrange deck, so I was expecting more of the same when he opened with unleashed Rakdos Cackler. But I quickly figured out it was something was up when he hit me T2 with
Madcap Skills
and I was already down to 13 before I could play anything. Luckily I had an amazing hand and was really matching him card for card. Late in the game, very back and forth, I board cleared him a couple times he then cast Lightning Bolt and I thought he had top-decked it so in response i cast Riot Control thinking that it would prevent his combat damage as well. Instead, he had said it was at the end of my turn (before untapping/etc) and I had just missed it because I was briefly talking to someone else. This one mistake ended up costing me the game.
G2 I drew Orzhov Guildgate with no lands, and then mulled to 6 with the exact same hand less one spell. I just played it and lost pretty quickly. His deck is probably the toughest matchup in general for what I'm playing because you just can't miss a single fog, and his Xathrid Necromancer made board wipes no trivial matter, but I think I would have won had I not given up to what was otherwise just a better player.
Round 3: Azorius Midrange (win in 2)
Game 1 went pretty nicely my way. His deck centered around getting out Elpseth, Sun's Champion among other things and just generating tons of tokens, and augmented it with a playset of Supreme Verdict. He was also a pretty good player and a nice guy, and I thought his deck was pretty neat. I beat him pretty solidly though in game 1 because his deck was just too slow to start up and he had no real counter-spells that I saw.
Game 2 was the stuff of FNM legend--seriously the most fun game I have ever played in 20 years of off and on magic. He boarded about 12 cards, so I knew some counters and probably mill/pithing needle was coming...
...He opens with a turn 1 Pithing Needle on Maze's End. He sets up very quickly and starts hitting every turn. I topdeck 3 riot controls, and I hit him 3x, going up to 50 life. He sacs his Elpseth, Sun's Champion to grant the +2 emblem, and so he can still swing for lethal because he has so much stuff on the board. I'm saving my boarded counters up and cast a fifth riot control (thanks to
Treasured Find
) to ostensibly go up 18 life. The stack goes like this:
Riot Control, Dissolve, Swan Song, Swan Song, and he finally taps out. Resolving my SS, he gets an extra 2, and I go up by 19 instead. I clear the board over the next three turns with Supreme Verdict, followed by Merciless Eviction on enchantments, followed by
Dreadbore
] on his elpseth. Things stagnate briefly, and about 20 turns in, I finally topdeck a maze's end, with still no sign of any of my removals for pithing needle, and I've got 9 gates out. Time is called, and we're on turn 3 of OT, when he plays Jace, Memory Adept, milling me once for 10, so I go down to 6 cards in my library. I use
Treasured Find
to
Dreadbore
his Jace, which he counters, so I'm basically done. Turn 5 he mills me 10, but has no ability to force me to draw, ending what turned out to be the best game I had ever played.
Overall comments:
I can't say I miss Urban Evolution at all. I've really sac'd some card ramp for stability, but this deck just feels like if I play it right, I can't lose except to bad luck draws, which every deck is susceptible to. There is so much synergy in this deck and I can deal with literally anything.
My time was cut short because I had to leave shortly into the 4th round, but I can't wait to play again next week. I'm not sure what tweaks I may make but I'll update when I do!
