@wfain Hmm yeah, you're probably right. Cloning an opposing trygon, leovold or even just a hollow/VV sounds worth it for 2 mana.

@chikararyuu The mirror is usually about explosiveness or long-term resources management. They usually are on hierarch instead of DRS, and leovold is pretty good against bazaar, which are pretty good things for the mirror, and the bant version spends resources on symmetrical effects like thalia/stony, so I think here we're favored.

I think it's the sb plan is kinda the same for every version, try to disrupt their gameplan (decay, trygon, containment - usually 1, rav. trap - usually 3), while keeping yourself able to win not running out of resources (which for me means cutting fow). I use to cut blue (4fow, phantasmal, fluster), but I'm not sure about it.

I remember in the first days of playing the deck, thinking about the sideboard and having a little giggle as I thought "and for the mirror... whatever". Now survival seem to be the third deck with most results (in quantity, not quality), behind dredge and PO. Got to play 3x against the mirror in the last league (2x wfain, 1x kungfutrees), and each day I find myself amused of seeing some random people (new to the format) playing the deck.

Now back to the deck. One thing I've been thinking is about switching the 4th ravenous trap for another priest. I don't like bringin in 4 in the mirror, the only deck I use it against is dredge, and containment priest is almost as good as it against them, and is good against oath. I thought about the 3rd leovold, but xerox decks currently aren't really challenging, but if they start having a better plan against the BUG I think it's the best card for the SB to fight them, considering what we already have to hold them back (4fow 4 misstep, 1 fluster, 1 or 2 Mindbreak, 2 leovold).

I don't know how counter-bant has been, but I'm feeling quite favored against UR/URw/URg xerox decks when I'm using shaman and leovold. I'd assume the matchup become a little worse without them to fight the fair fight when they disrupt our combo, I remember it not being that good when in the red version. I just faced 4 pyromancer decks in a row in a league, and lost only in the 5th match to 2 card monte.

Besides that feeling pretty weird, made me very confortable in the matchup against pyromancer. One game I won with DRS alone, I realized my opponent was trying to go to cruise and started eating their graveyard even having other things to do, then the sad ambush viper came in, and it was a sadly easy game due to shaman. Of course sometimes it's bad for not being a 100% reliable source of mana, but usually managing the amount of lands in the graveyard and saving it a little bit we can get away with it. I don't think I'll drop it any time soon, and I think the splash for it and leovold is worth it.

PS.: deep analysis is being awesome when fighting the value fight. I don't think there's space for the second copy, but I'm pretty happy with the first.

The one thing I missed in the article and I don't know if was mentioned in the topic is the interaction between oath and cage/priest, and I've done that a lot when I used to play the deck (what I mean is... it's pretty relevant!). With cage, you can activate it to fuel delve spells AND to tutor for your creature. As cage doesn't allow it to enter the battlefield, it stays on the top of your library and will be your draw for the turn. In the inferno titan version I did that a lot. With priest, the creature is exiled, but your GY will be filled with cards that can be used (flashback and delve).

@13nova exactly, they are in jeskai.

@grumpytopdecker said in Best Lab Maniac deck?:

sadly nods his head and slides Laboratory Maniac back into his binder

There's a hermit druid deck that I played against these days, lots of counters, cantrips, and there's are not too many spells that can remove it that see play in vintage. It seemed better than doomsday at least.

Sounds worth trying. It's a condicional counterspell that's live against shops.

Are your opponents wrong if they get upset by the fact that you don't concede, yet you still get mad that they have the win and don't just win? If you get upset with that kind of thing, just concede. Or don't get upset and hope for your opponent to have a misstep and pass through their attacks.

Either way, your opponent is just playing their game, as you are. If you think you are wasting your time, just concede.

BTW: I am almost sure that the loss of focus you have when you get upset with that kind of thing lowers your % more than the chance of your opponent have a brain fart AND you still win the game after that. And not to mention quality of life(!!). Getting salty is bad only for you. Relax, take it easy.