A good way to stop/slow down American decks?
Standard forum
Posted on May 26, 2013, 3:19 p.m. by StunForDayz
I main Selesnya Aggro and I went up against an america deck yesterday for Game Day. I won the first round because He wasn't drawing anything but lost the last 2 rounds. He keep countering all my cards and using sphinx revelation. What cards can I sideboard or main to protect myself? I have militant, Judges Familiar, Rest in peace but I try not to use it much because I run rancor.
NobodyPicksBulbasaur says... #3
America HATES Voice of Resurgence . Stagtusk is pricey, though.
May 26, 2013 4:05 p.m.
Rest in Peace messes with their Snapcaster Mage ,
Plummet is always funny to hit a Thundermaw Hellkite with
Acidic Slime works wonders but it is a 5 drop
May 26, 2013 4:17 p.m.
StunForDayz says... #5
In the second round he just keep stalling till he had a bunch of soldiers by using assemble the legion. I main board erases for his enchantments after that game. He never any of those cards(Aetherling Nephalia Droawnyard) It was azorious charms and other counter cards. The only creatures I saw were snap casters and bolas. I have a set of smiters, voice of Resurgence just gets countered when I try to play him. I won the first game with voice cause he didn't counter me. I had to take out my stranglelroot to make room for voice. I don't remember if I used call of the concave in those fights. I am thinking of Sigarda but he could counter it, Cavern of Souls are too much money, I think Acidic Slime wouldn't really work in my deck. Theirs a card I want to get from M14 that cost 1 green and makes the next creature can't be counter and has flash that could solve some problems.
May 26, 2013 4:43 p.m.
thebeardedshuffler says... #6
Sounds like the only problem there is Assemble the Legion . You can sideboard more enchantment hate, for preference make them creatures like Keening Apparition . The more your deck uses only creatures, the narrower his counterspells become.
Basically an important skill against control is learning to bait out their spells. There's no step by step guide to doing this, you just have to think, how many counterspells are in the deck? How many has he likely got? What can I play that he'll want to counter that I can afford to lose, to make sure this other spell gets through?
It sounds in part like you got run over by a very good set of draws and some decks will just have bad matchups. You can only do so much to insulate yourself from that. Cavern of Souls really is your best bet, but since it'll rotate soon, wait for the M14 tech and pre-order or trade for them.
Oh yes, one last thought, how about Skylasher ? It can be burned with Searing Spear sure, but you can get it down without counterspells hitting it, and they can't Azorius Charm , Unsummon or block with augur or snappy.
May 26, 2013 5:18 p.m.
StunForDayz says... #7
I forgot all about skylasher. That would really help me
May 26, 2013 5:38 p.m.
thebeardedshuffler hit the nail on the head, control decks are something you need to just sit down and grind against... and the messy thing is you need a good six to twelve control players to play against, from ok to great with a control deck, you will start to see the bait cards in your deck and you will learn to play into it,
control decks are really teacher decks you learn to read what messages your opponents are sending or representing and you get to see control deck players little tells when they are BSing you. it makes other decks that have elements of control/removal and tempo easy to spot, because unlike pure control decks they big neon sign what they are up to, once you learn to see it.
May 26, 2013 5:41 p.m.
StunForDayz says... #9
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/selenya-aggro/ besides the sideboard this is what I ran Yesterday. I also need help on what do to for the maybe section and I have an issue of swapping sideboard with main board. Like if I add erase what should I take out ect.
May 26, 2013 6:05 p.m.
Defiantly don't side in Rest in Peace against UWR control. Yeah it sucks that they get value on their Snapcaster Mage , but you're just diluting your threats without actually answering their's. That's one less card they have to respond to and Snapcaster Mage can still do a fine Ambush Viper impression.
Dryad Militant is a much better choice for combating the same problem because at least it comes on a relevantly aggressive body.
Likewise, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is a much better Judge's Familiar . The difference between 1 and 2 power is a lot more than you might think. It's 100% increase or a 10 turn clock as opposed to a 20 turn clock. And she holds of Supreme Verdict for a turn, something Judge's Familiar can't.
As a few people have mentioned, control vs aggro is all about forcing them to have responses. There's nothing wrong with getting a creature countered as it will almost always only be 1 for 1. If a enough uncounterable threats enter into the meta than control just switches to running more removal, which is why I think that Savage Summoning spell is going to be awful. Just get 2 for 1'ed for days.
The best cards for combating control is anything they can't answer with a single spell. Control is all about trading resources until it can find something to put itself firmly into card advantage, like a sweeper or Sphinx's Revelation . Planeswalker, undying creatures, haste guys make Azorius Charm look bad, regeneration, etc are all good to bring in against control decks.
The biggest problem aggro players make in siding for control is over sideboarding and diluting. Erase for Assemble the Legion would be a good example of this or Rest in Peace for Snapcaster Mage . It sounds good at first, but you are the beatdown and pro-active deck and they are the controlling and reactive deck. If you start trying to play like their deck you're just going to loose nearly every time. While it's certainly not true 100% of the time, you want to be siding in MORE things to kill them with.
May 26, 2013 7:39 p.m.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben just makes me sad that I can't cast Think Twice or Azorius Charm on turn 2 T.T
May 28, 2013 11:02 a.m.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben needs to burn in a fire of the hottest flames and never be seen again! She hurt me gameday too... only loss on sat was against a deck using her, and again the same deck beat me on sunday.
May 28, 2013 12:06 p.m.
detentionsphere says... #13
No, Skylasher is pretty bad because it is just a 2/2 that can get Speared or blocked easily. However, GW can be control's worse nightmare, with a suite of hatebears: Dryad Militant , Voice of Resurgence , Thalia, Guardian of Thraben , and Loxodon Smiter are all very good.
It's also worth noting that 3 games is a very small sample size and there may be nothing to worry about after all.
May 30, 2013 2:02 a.m.
notamardybum says... #14
Skullcrack so when they play Sphinx's Revelation , it prevents them from gaining life
thebeardedshuffler says... #2
Cavern of Souls is a start if you have any predominant creature types. You can Nevermore naming Sphinx's Revelation , if you can get it down past the counterspells.
How did he win? You explained how he stopped you winning but I wonder what his win condition was? Against control decks you really have only one out, play through and around countermagic and removal. They'll run out eventually, especially if you have some 2 for 1 cards. Good cards versus control:
Loxodon Smiter for the uncounterability.
Sigarda, Host of Herons more or less is a complete nightmare for control. Use Cavern of Souls to make her hit the table, or just wait until they're tapped out or you think they have no counters.
Strangleroot Geist because they have to kill him twice.
Call of the Conclave because if they have creature counters in hand, they don't work. Also, if they Azorius Charm to put it on your library you won't be time walked, and you get to draw a real card next turn. Same goes for Armada Wurm .
That covers how to devalue his spells. How did you lose? Was it AEtherling or Nephalia Drownyard ? Either way, Pithing Needle doesn't get enough love these days. Most control win conditions have activated abilities, so drop the needle out of the sideboard and name their win conditions. Eventually you will grind them out.
May 26, 2013 3:41 p.m.