[Trick]

Did we explain the decks well enough? Do you agree Bitterblossom is going to be a dominant card? Did you enjoy the show and its format?

-- Trick

[imachampion]

Trick,

I have nothing poping up when I try to watch. I usually just watch it in popup...but nothing is there. So I tried to download both other versions and they both say that it doesn't exsist / website cannot be found. My computer has been a little odd lately so it may be on my end but...could you check on your end though and see if it is working ok? Thanks man.

Also this is the headline for the episode:

With the ManaNation Standard Tournament less than a day away ManaNation is bringing you an overview of some of the top tier decks in Standard in an effort to prepare you for Saturday! We look at Faeries, Doran, Reveillark, and others. Lee and Trick also discuss what card may soon dominate Standard, and why it’s such a powerful card. This is our longest episode yet!

Day should be week.

[Trick]

Fixed! Thanks for the heads up.

[imachampion]

Great show guys. I would like to put out there a few decks that you missed. I actually think that Faeries have met their match. Wait for it...Merfolk are better than faeries. These fish have been taking the Magic community by storm. I haven't posted them in the DTB thread because they haven't won a major tournament...but I can say this much about them. Merfolk have won the past 5-6 FNM at Coolstuff. Let me put it bluntly and say...you will see Merfolk on Saturday and they will beat you if you aren't prepared.

Land: 22 16 Snow-Covered Island 4 Mutavault 2 Faerie Conclave Creatures: 23 4 Lord of Atlantis 4 Merrow Reejerey 4 Mothdust Changeling 4 Silvergill Adept 4 Stonybrook Banneret 3 Sower of Temptation Spells: 15 4 Ancestral Visions 4 Rune Snag 4 Cryptic Command 3 Sage's Dousing

Merrow Reejerey becomes truely broken with a pair of Stonybrook Bannerets in play.

I just thought I would bring this news in for everyone. The most important reason to prepare for Merfolk is because it is a very common deck at Coolstuff FNM. Just the other night the FNM pulled 50+ people so understanding that meta is what will assist you in building a successful deck for this tournament.

[Trick]

You're quite right, it somehow escaped our radar. :-/

I'd say go ahead and add it to the DTB thread, and just note that it is quite prominent but hasn't won anything big.

-- Trick

[imachampion]

You're quite right, it somehow escaped our radar. :-/

I'd say go ahead and add it to the DTB thread, and just note that it is quite prominent but hasn't won anything big.

-- Trick

No you guys definetly didn't miss anything. This is an under the radar deck. There hasn't been a big tournament in quite a while for this deck to debut. I haven't even playtested against it because I thought it was just a fad type of deal. However in this meta with Island being the most commonly played card...this deck can just ruin someone.

I would post it in the DTB but this is just the list off of my head. I am 90% sure the above list is correct but I want to make sure...I will post it tonight or tomorrow in the DTB thread.

As a teaser for Saturday...I hope everyone brings their A game. I have a sneaky deck ready...waiting to prowl on a few victims.

[Trick]

Fair enough, we're looking forward to it.

-- Trick

[BigFiber]

Good show guys. You guys are looking more and more comfortable every week! (Thumbs up)

I have that exact Faeries deck and it is quite strong. The biggest problem it has is sometimes the deck has and identity crises and doesen't do either aggression or control very well.

OOOOR...I'm terrible at Constructed! Yea, that's probably it...

[gleemax]

I agree that Bitterblossom is one of the top cards right now, but looking at the "spoiled" cards from Shadowmoor it looks like r/g is getting a lot of anti-blue & anti-flying ammo.  Looks like they're trying to keep the game balanced so you really have a metagame shift week to week. So post Shadowmoor those Bitterblossom will have an answer.

However, right now the only good anti-bitterblossom suggestion I have is for red and that's to run Pyrohemia.  It's a repeatable solution to the 1/1 flying tokens that can wreak other weak creatures as well.  Honestly, this is a good anti-fae card if you can get it out.  But getting it out might be a problem.

[d.locks]

Great show today guys! I enjoyed watching it.

I also agree with Lee about the whole bitterblossom thing.  I remember the first time I saw that card come down when playing against faeries, and was a little more than flabbergasted, so be honest. Lee, all those things you said about it, being difficult to remove, cheap, easily splashable, combines well with equipment, overrun-like cards, all struck very true with me. The Doran deck actually seems like the proper place to start with it, because of what it's doing: playing abusive cards.  Maybe not the most synergistic deck, but it's gonna hit you with the best cards out there, and you better come up with some answers for it.  But we need to re-evaluate some of the cards to achieve it's greatest potential.  It won't be "Doran" anymore, but it will be "eat overrunned warhammered faeries."

No, but in all seriousness, you sold me on this card even though I was probably already sold (why is it that we hate the cards we lose to instead of deciding to play with them)?

Personally, I would love to see us (the mana-nation community) put forth a serious effort in abusing it as much as possible.  Should we start a new forum topic about it?  I'll put my magic-nose to the grindstone this week and see what I can come up with.

-The Island Tapper

[Trick]

I thought I posted a reply to this thread earlier, weird.

@BigFiber, Thanks! And as I recall you do just fine at it, the deck may just need some extra attention when it comes to shuffling.

@gleemax, you may be correct, we'll have to wait and see.

@d.locks, Go ahead and get the thread going! Begin brainstorming how best to abuse it, counter life loss, deal as much damage as possible, etc.

[BassmanARW]

Solid show guys. The only thing that would have made it better is if you explained for a bit ways to stop these decks. You mentioned vague things like, 'removal' for Doran haha and things like that, but besides that and perhaps a mention of Extirpate and the Needle there wasn't much on how to really prepare for them. For example, huge card in Elves and Doran matchup - Deathmark. Reveillark - Needle, Extirpate. Skred - Loxodon Warhammer, Spirit Loop. Faeries - Cloudthresher, etc.

[imachampion]

As promised here is the Merfolk deck that has been wreaking havoc.

Lands: 23 4 Adarkar Wastes 4 Wanderwine Hub 4 Mutavault 11 Island Creatures: 21 4 Lord of Atlantis 4 Merrow Reejeery 4 Silvergil Adept 4 Stonybrook Banneret 4 Sower of Temptation 1 Vendillion Clique Spells: 16 4 Ancestral Visions 4 Rune Snag 4 Cryptic Command 4 Sage's Dousing

I was close from memory. Anyway, this is the deck that has been wreaking havoc.

[Trick]

@BassmanARW, We tried to touch on that for every deck, sorry we didn't go in depth enough :(

@champ, thanks! Looks very interesting.

[theory]

Bitterblossom is definitely a pretty nasty card.  In a Faeries deck stacked to the brim with Flash, Bitterblossom is probably the only time you will cast anything on your turn.  Spellstutter Sprite becomes a mini Rune Snag with legs with the blossom out and adds to the swarm.  Decks that don't pressure UB Faeries early on face an uphill battle the entire time.

As for Bitterblossom's overall use...yes, a very good card all around.  I was considering it in a new version of the Phyrexian Soulgorger deck that I was working on a few months back.  Good times.