We all forget things, right? Some quick tidbits on points I feel I failed to address or just plain forgot…
I went back and re-checked what Jon tweeted at me. He said:
Really interested in: SB thoughts, Detailed accounts of your losses, Advice for mirror, Thoughts on medmage vrs lands /mythic.
First of all, some metagame thoughts. At the Montreal PTQ, Mythic was close to being unplayed. Other than a teammate of mine who decided to sleeve up the GP winner’s list, I did not see a single Mythic deck around, which meant that Next Level Bant was actually quite well positioned. I am sad that I could not bring home the bacon. Of course, that probably has no bearing on the metagame of your area. If it is anything like Montreal, expect a sea of Jund and many Turbo Land pilots.
Sideboarding thoughts? I definitely loved the singleton Martial Coup when I played it at the 1K. It was the key card that won me two games by itself and only by itself. At the PTQ, I loved knowing that I had two board swipes in my sideboard just in case I was against decks such as Naya Allies. As mentioned in my video, I feel like I want Kor Firewalkers, but the sideboard room is really tight. Not much space, if any.
My video details my two losses to Lotus Cobra-powered Jund decks that could Siege-Gang early. As I am writing this, it feels like Flashfreeze would be quite solid against that version of Jund. Again, lack of sideboard space… To be more specific about my Boros loss, I lost to it due to the fact that it played Kiln Fiend and Emerge Unscathed. Not sure if I mentioned this on the video, but Wall of Omens, Elspeth and a Soldier token were not enough. When I finally setup a barrier with Sea Gate Oracle and Vengevine (3 different colors!), he had the Earthquake. Firewalkers cannot be Earthquaked. Yes, somehow I want them.
I think Meddling Mage is a solid card against Turbo Lands. I think my main worry is Avenger of Zendikar, though Kibler wonders if he would name Oracle of Mul Daya first. Does it really matter if they get more lands? In round 5 of my PTQ, my opponent had Oracle of Mul Daya in play and was Time Warping until he had 15+ lands in play, but all that land amounted to nothing. Use your removal on Oracle. Use Meddling Mage on Avenger. Keep All is Dust in mind if they are Eldrazi Turbo Land. Also, key thing to remember, they can attack a Planeswalker twice if they have a Time Warp. Never forget to be aware of that.
Against Mythic, I think it is quite the solid trump card to Sovereigns of Lost Alara. With that plan as well as having Pridemages for potential hard-cast Eldrazi Conscriptions, you should be in fair shape. I am not going to say awesome shape, because even if the decks draws a ton of cards, 2-4 sideboard cards are only going to mildly improve your win %. Meddling Mages are good, but maybe 2 extra Paths are just as good while also helping out again Red-based decks?
As for whether I liked Bant Charm or not (if anyone wants to know), I thought they were definitely fine, though I did not use the artifact destruction ability at all today. People just play Jund Charm. Against Jund, one major thing to keep in mind is that you should be aware of Jund Charm and the fact that Bant Charm can counter that card. One of the losses to Lotus Jund was due to the fact that I was not able to recognize that I could play around Jund Charm with the Bant counterpart. Bant Charm is one of the many reasons this deck is hard to play optimally.
Again, Sphinx = MVP. Jon, I agree with you that if you want a better win % against other decks, then Baneslayer might be better. Metagame dependent. If at all Jund-heavy, Sphinx is my creature by ten thousand miles.
Until next time,
KYT
Kar Yung Tom (KYT) is the Digital Content Manager for Face to Face Games. He oversees the F2FTour.com and Magic F2F websites. He is also the lead host of the First Strike podcast.