How do I beat a sphere-heavy shops hand when I'm on the draw without FoW?
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@vaughnbros I actually have green in mine. I considered EE and might go that route. Goyf is an interesting addition. I tried Seeds of Innocence too...but the problem is hitting 3 mana. Claim is decent, but just a 1-for-1 and that kind of a trade rarely works - they are so redundant that hitting any one artifact is usually negligible.
I'm guessing just loading up on enough 1-for-1s is okay, but seems like a losing proposition.
Is damping sphere a possibility? Gets through golem, doesn't require color, isn't shut off by rod or karn, and turns tombs/shops into derp-lands. Has anyone tested this?
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Mangle Horn, Swords, Path to Exile, Tabernacle, Fragmentize, Nature's Claim, Fatal Push, The black swords for artifact creatures, Snuff Out, Ingot Chewer, Trygon Predator, Bolt, Shock, Shattering Spree, ESG/SSG, Engineered Explosives, Powder Keg, Steel Sabotage, Dack Fayden, Annul, Hurkylls, Tin Street Hooligan, Tarmogoyf, half the Echo spells, and many others.
MuD has only artifacts, and it's facing 5 colors that all now have hate for it's aggro archetype. You have choices a plenty besides drege and FoW.
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Depends on how fast they're killing you. If the kill itself is super-fast, the lock pieces are probably light, so something like Serenity or Spree might be enough. Conversely, if they have heavy lockage, you have time for something that gives you incremental advantage to edge out from under the lock.
Sounds like your deck is maybe only 2 colors? In which case, give Thawing Glaciers a try. Assuming you have time to Thaw twice, this can ramp your Mana consistently to beat spheres. Maybe run a complementary plan to beat fast hands (Swords/Fragmentize/Serenity).
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@serracollector tabernacle, EE, goyf, hurkylls...those all work. Any of the others you name are 1-for-1s, and that's not going to get there. I doubt tabernacle is even that hot as Kataki taxes more than just their creatures and they can easily pay through him with tombs and academy. They can also waste tabernacle even easier than they can ballista kataki, and kataki gets rolled pretty easily.
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I've been thinking about how turbodepths in legacy play ESG and crop rotation to be even more turbo. It feels like if you play ESG then seeds of innocence gets a lot better. But i guess crop rotation is to big a liability with so much misstep around.
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@josefk In my deck, I run Into the North (depths is a snow land!) and Sylvan Scrying. I also run 1 Expedition Map since I have 4x ETs for it. Crop Rotation is a huge liability with missteps and FoW in abundance. It's also tempo-negative as you spend 1 card and 1 land to get just 1 land. Into the North actually gains you a land (I sometimes grab a snow-covered plains just to ramp mana) for only 1 more mana, dodging misstep and not being devastating if FoWed. ESG is too much of a narrow lotus petal to me. I guess it has uses, but it's such a negative-value play beyond turn 1, that I rarely find it useful.
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So...I didn't want to post my deck (even though it's been on RomancingTheStones tourney post) because I don't want this to be about MY deck, so much as how to get out from under a sphere-a-turn sequence when shops is on the play against ANY deck. The 1-for-1 answers don't seem that viable. I run fragmentize, and even that is often too slow or just doesn't hit enough to get value. I think I'm looking for "free" answers (bazaar-hollow one, tabernacle, EE, etc.) that have a big impact. Goyf seems interesting, but as a vanilla beater in a matchup against a deck with no instants or sorceries, it seems he'd be a 2/3 far too often. Costing 2 mana might also just be too expensive when you are on the draw and face the sphere, revoker, golem, metamorph sequence with waste/strip thrown in just because. Serenity is probably the cheapest wide-sweeping answer, but at 2 mana, it may never be castable.
Anyway, since this keeps coming back to what MY deck can do, despite that being secondary to my main question, I'll post it here in hopes that it facilitates thought and discussion without pigeon-holing the focus. This is my latest iteration of Selesnya Depths:
61 Maindeck// 8 Artifact
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Expedition Map// 6 Creature
4 Spirit of the Labyrinth
1 Mother of Runes
1 Kataki, War's Wage// 10 Enchantment
4 Solemnity
3 Phyrexian Unlife
2 Stony Silence
1 Ghostly Prison// 8 Instant
4 Mental Misstep
4 Enlightened Tutor// 25 Land
4 Thespian's Stage
1 Strip Mine
4 Dark Depths
1 Karakas
4 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Arid Mesa
1 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flats
1 Windswept Heath
4 Savannah
2 Ancient Tomb
1 Wasteland// 4 Sorcery
2 Into the North
2 Sylvan Scrying15 SideboardSB: 3 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 1 Sorcerous Spyglass
SB: 2 Containment Priest
SB: 1 Sylvan Safekeeper
SB: 1 Mother of Runes
SB: 1 Tomik, Distinguished Advokist
SB: 1 Rest in Peace
SB: 1 Stony Silence
SB: 1 Seal of Cleansing
SB: 1 Serenity
SB: 1 Disenchant
SB: 1 FragmentizeFirst, as I said before, you can assemble the thespian/tomb/depths combo fairly quickly beneath a slew of spheres, so I like that.
Solemnity is also a bomb. Not only does it completely erase 12 of shop's creatures, but it makes 4 more (overseers) into vanilla 1/1s. If I play lotus/pearl+tomb/plains+crypt/mox+sol ring + plains into a turn 1 solemnity, Shops typically is DOA. They have golem, revoker, factory, and inspector and 13-16 dead creatures (ravager, balista, hangarback are all 0/0s). Solemnity also shrugs off tomik, negates a blightsteel, and can lead to turn 1 Marits. A common line in this deck is land into ET turn 1 for lotus or solemnity, turn 2 solemnity + depths. It's solid. Y'all can say it sucks as much as you want - it doesn't.
The combo with Unlife has also won many games and it's just a nice secondary card since I'm already on 4x solemnity for Marit and have 4x tutors to get the 2nd half. Alone, Unlife also means I can't die to tendrils and get a time walk vs a lethal attack at the worst.
So, as you can see from the list, I have:
- A combo that can activate under spheres
- 5x tutors for land
- basics, fetches, and sol-lands
- Crucible to recur killed lands
- main kataki
- 2x main stony, 4x main solemnity + 4x main tutors for them
- sideboard full of 1-for-1 artifact removal (seal is tutorable)
- A sideboard serenity as a tutorable nuclear option
...and yet it's not enough. When I'm on the draw and the opponent opens with sphere, then revoker + sphere, then wasteland + metamorph, etc., I can't win too often.
How do other decks do it? What can I add to make my list have a fighting chance? What other strategies altogether will do it?
So far the best options seem to be tabernacle or EE. Goyf is intriguing, but I doubt I can cast him through the line I described above since it costs 2 mana.
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I somehow get the feeling that you want to beat the shops nut draw. In your examples you always talk about 2+ spheres and 2+ wastelands. So either you need to land your full jewelery on turn 1, so you can actually cast something on turn 2, or you play something that gets by all the spheres, namely ee for 2, which conveniently kills most of their threats aswell.
Other than that, I really don't see how any deck can beats the shops nut draw, since you never have access to any mana at all, except dredge or force of wills on the first turn. -
@grizzly I think that's exactly what I'm looking for. I'm not saying I can't beat shops. I'm saying I find it very hard to beat shops when I'm on the draw and they get the nut hand+follow-up draws. It may be that everyone has this challenge. That's what I'd like to solve - and not just for my depths deck.
If I'm on the play, I have more than enough to disrupt them. If they play an all-aggro hand, I can play through it fast enough and win. The hands I want to beat is when I'm on the draw and they get a hand that either makes my stuff cost 1 more or removes 1 of my mana sources every turn, turn after turn. The answer may just be "outside of dredge/FoW it can't be done," and that's fine...but I'm hoping there are ways.
Tabernacle seems like a way. 0-mana EE seems like a way. Stage/tomb/depths is a way, but as fragile as tabernacle. Bazaar-> Hollow One (or 2) is a way. Abolish is a way, but that's really a bad 1-for-2 trade. Not sure what else works.
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@thewhitedragon69 said in How do I beat shops when I'm on the draw without FoW?:
@grizzly I'm saying I find it very hard to beat shops when I'm on the draw and they get the nut hand+follow-up draws.
This isn't just you. If any Vintage deck gets a nut hand you're not likely to win unless your draws are also stellar in many cases. I'm sure you could beat a nut hand from shops with your own nut hand, but you can hardly expect your average draws to get there.
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Have you tried SFM with 1 batterskull/jitte? Those 2 coming into play "free" off SFM seems it would solve a lot of your issues.
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@thewhitedragon69 since you have white try 1 or 2 abolish. It’s negative card value but it was good against old stax. Fragmatize is your friend and some type of ramp. Noble Heirarch is not good but Deathrite Shaman is good.
Pick a lane. Your deck cannot be generally good against everything. Being good against shops will make you bad against Xerox and Dredge. Look at your meta and pick.
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@serracollector I don't think this would work for the situations I described. At 2 mana, SFM wouldn't be castable. As a 1/2 with an activated ability as well, ballista or revoker would shut her down before using her ability. If I can get to a spot where I can cast a 2 mana spell, I'm not locked and can probably win anyway (ET for Serenity for example). If fragmentize is too slow/uncastable vs the shop hands I described, I don't see how SFM can cut it.
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How good do you think mindbreak trap is vs shops? They are going to drop their jewelry or inspectors before sphere. Only problem is that they are 100% dead in hand after turn 1.
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But what you asking is comparable to the Trinisphere era. You act as if every game is turn 1 Trini and you don't have FoW. But....it's not. They do not always get lock peice into revoker into waste. For every game they do, they also get workshop, 3 moxen, and 2 ravager. The scenerios your bringing up nothing can beat except dredge or FoW, well, welcome to vintage for the last 15 years. No one can come up with some magical free card that don't exist that obliterates Mana denial affects because it don't exist, so why keep beating a dead horse?
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@serracollector I'm not treating shops as if they always have trinisphere in reality. I know they don't always get the nut draw. 50% of the time I win the coin flip and I'm not even on the draw twice.
But that's not what I ever said. I can beat shops just fine. I actually consider it one of my favorable matchups.
What I am looking for is all the ways to beat a sphere/waste heavy shops opener when you are on the draw. It happens about 10% of the time, but that's what I'm looking for.
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Perhaps I should edit the title to include "sphere-heavy hand". I think it's clear through the discussion, but I can see how the title is a bit misleading.
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My point is, if you truly believe you can't cast a 1-2 Mana spell or creature on the draw versus a sphere heavy hand, then there is no answer. More lands, guides, and all the removal spells in magic have literally been named in this very thread. There are no more answers. Just realize your going to lose those 10% of games that happens. It's a random card game. 90% chance to win seems pretty damn good, why complain about the 10% you don't? Even if there was an answer, you'd still have to draw it, your simply not going to win 100% against....well...any tier 1 deck. That's kinda the point of it being a game right? Sometimes you lose and there is nothing you can do about it.
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Ima start a thread about how to beat Ad Nauseum Tendrils on the draw with no FoW when the have a first-turn kill.
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Well, I did at least get some ideas out of the discussion.
I know sometimes you are just going to get rolled. I don't mind when I get T1 POed, but dislike getting sphered out of a game and it taking 10 turns to kill me. More like a cat playing with a mouse before killing it.
I'd love to win them all, but there definitely has to be an equal chance for bonkers in several builds.
I was never actually complaining. I'd like to find ways to get out of spheres with 0 mana plays...but that doesn't mean I don't recognize that I will just lose some games. I was kinda hoping there was an obvious tactic I overlooked, but it seems not. Tabernacle was one I didn't consider, so this wasn't all for naught.
