I am going to run my Rock/Junk deck below.
Creatures[14]
2 Qasali Pridemage
4 Dark Confidant
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Tarmogoyf
Non Creatures[22]
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Inquisition of Kozilek * Should this be Duress?
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Vindicate
2 Pernicious Deed
3 Mox Diamond
2 Sensei's Divining Top
Lands [24]
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Plains
3 Bayou
3 Scrubland
2 Windswept Heath
3 Marsh Flats
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Horizon Canopy
3 Wasteland
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith

Sideboard
3 Krosan Grip
2 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Extirpate
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Thrun, the Last Troll

According to a friend who plays every week here are the matchups I should expect:

“UW Stoneforge/Batterskull Landstill is the most popular archetype in our area right now. Bant and NO RUG are both pretty popular too. BUGstill, Junk, Merfolk, Goblins, and Bloodbraid Elf RUG are almost always there. Dredge, Zoo, Burn, TES and random rogue brews show up occasionally”

I need to be able to beat the Batterskull decks and be able to deal with Progenitus.

Here are my thoughts of how to beat those decks/and what to side in/out.
UW Stoneforge/Batterskull Landstill : artifact removal/
Bant NO –gadduk teeg/Thrun in?
NO RUG –gadduk teeg/thrun in
BUGstill-thrun/extirpate/grip
Junk-extirpate/leyline of sanct
Merfolk – Land D out, P Deeds/ Thrun in?
Goblins – p deeds?
Bloodbraid Elf RUG - don’t know anything about this…do you have any idea what this is?
Dredge- 3 extirpate..is that enough?
Zoo-board sweepers?? 3 Leyline of sanc
Burn-this should just be 3 leyline of sanc & other life gain?
TES- don’t know anything about this except that it is a combo deck. 2 E-canonists?
Specific help needed on my sideboard and if there are other cards I should consider putting in my main or board.

Also in your experience with UW Batterskull landstill and NO decks whats my best play against it?

The Duress will take swords/batterskull/jace/standstill/NO

quote:

---

Originally posted by pugowar:

I need to be able to beat the Batterskull decks and be able to deal with Progenitus.

Here are my thoughts of how to beat those decks/and what to side in/out.

[b][quote]UW Stoneforge/Batterskull Landstill : artifact removal/

---

Attack your opponent's hand and early mana development. It's best to do this with an attacking creature--any creature, even a 1/1.

quote:

---

Bant NO –gadduk teeg/Thrun in?

---

Teeg helps, but Thrun doesn't. If they didn't run NO, Thrun would be much more useful than it is. Spend as many resources as possible destroying your opponent's creature drops (EDIT: this includes mana critters like BoP or Hierarch), and follow it up with your discard. Waste green-producing lands only (unless the situation dictates otherwise, of course). The idea against all NO decks is to prevent early development.

quote:

---

NO RUG –gadduk teeg/thrun in

---

Same as above.

quote:

---

BUGstill-thrun/extirpate/grip

---

Pretty much. What's tricky here is just how much removal they have at their disposal. One card to consider for the control matchups, incidentally, would be Worm Harvest.

quote:

---

Junk-extirpate/leyline of sanct

---

Depends on the list, but you can probably beat it without sideboarding, what with Vindicate, StP, and Deed.

quote:

---

Merfolk – Land D out, P Deeds/ Thrun in?

---

I'd actually take out Hymn and Bog, since Wasteland can still hit Mutavault and case serious mana havoc.

quote:

---

Goblins – p deeds?

---

Sure.

quote:

---

Bloodbraid Elf RUG - don’t know anything about this…do you have any idea what this is?

---

Nothing special. It's basically just a sligh deck, so expect burn and watch out for Price of Progress. Confidants will probably end up being a liability.

quote:

---

Dredge- 3 extirpate..is that enough?

---

Not really. On the plus side, you have Pridemage to remove Bridges and Deed to destroy tokens, as well as a fetchable G1 Bojuka Bog, so you're actually pretty well armed against dredge. Try to use Extirpate to remove dredgers rather

quote:

---

Zoo-board sweepers?? 3 Leyline of sanc

---

Board sweepers, yeah. Leyline probably isn't very useful; it's better to have creatures on the board, removal in hand (or Deed on the board), and to attack the opponent's hand with discard. Force him or her into topdeck mode while staying at a relatively high life total (say, ten or twelve), and you should be able to win. Remember that you can StP your own creatures if need be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTwJo0HeNmUBurn-this should just be 3 leyline of sanc & other life gain?[/b][/quote]

Leyline and discard should do the trick. If you run low on life (like, if you're within your opponent's striking distance--usually ten life or less), then StP something you own. Remember that Confidant is a liability in this matchup. As with Zoo, force them into topdeck mode and you'll probably win.

quote:

---

TES- don’t know anything about this except that it is a combo deck. 2 E-canonists?

---

Storm combo. You need everything you can muster: discard, Wasteland, Canonists, and Leyline. Your removal is useless, but your opponent *may* run Empty the Warrens as an alternate wincondition, so be prepared for that. The good news is that Deed can hit the artifact mana once in a while. If you're lucky, you can fetch Bojuka Bog in response to an attempt at an Ill-Gotten Gains chain (those are fairly rare, however). Prioritize discard early in the game.

The best advice anyone can give you is to know your deck intimately, and that means piloting it a LOT. Practice with it as much as you can before the tournament. The next thing you should do is become intimately familiar with how the decks you're likely to face are played: try playing them yourself on MWS, and read up on them at www.mtgthesource.com . Read the entire thread devoted to each deck, and then check out article archives and tournament reports. You can do very well with a very bad deck, but only if you're intimately familiar with both your deck and how the decks you face are supposed to work.

Good luck!

__________________
"I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think they will sing to me." -T.S. Eliot

RIP Ari

You want to hit sfm on turn 1-2 but at the same time you want to hit batterskull after they sfm. Thoughtseize is the only card that can get both. I think that sfm/batterskull made thoughtseize the best choice for 1 black discard.

-1 vindicate, +1 Swords to plowshares. (optional I could see an argument for either) personally I would take out a dual and add 1 stp 23 land is good enough.

The Rock
Lands (23)
1x swamp
1x plain
1x forest
4x bayou
3x scrubland
1x maze of ith
4x verdant catacombs
3x marsh flats
4x wastelands
1x dryad arbor

Non Creature (20)
4x hymn to tourach
4x thoughtseize (if I can get it otherwise duress) or 2/2 split w/ IoK
3x green sun zenith
2x Pernicious Deeds
3x vindicate
4x swords to plowshares

Artifacts (3)
3x sensei's diving top

Creatures (15)
4x dark confidant
4x knight of the reliquary
3x tarmogoyf
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
2x Qasali pridemage
1x Gaddock Teeg

sideboard
1x karakas
1x thrun the last troll
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x pernicious deed
3x Krosan Grip
2x Choke
1x Bojuka Bog
3x Diabolic Edict

I am seriously anticipating 40-60% of the field to be w/u stoneforge standstill or a blue NO deck. Is it crazy for me to sell out my s/b to make sure i can win that matchup? For example I am thinking of dropping the extirpates and just hope/pray to hit bojuka bog w/kotr if i run into dredge/reanimate/gycombo.

This would allow me to run Choke/Summoning Trap/Thrunn
Anyone ever do this? It seems risky but w/ all the standstill/blue natural order decks it might make sense.
Is the summoning trap too scary when playing bob?

I would also like to get some edicts in the board if i do run into Progenitus. Are these necessary or too much?

With my "Sell-out to beat 2 decks sideboard" is there anything else i should put in there to improve my SFM landstill & Blue NO matchups?

Couple quick deck questions:
Does it make sense to drop the Mox Diamonds for the Green Sun Zeniths?

Against which decks should I keep Maze of Ith in? Against which should I keep Karakas in?

I've never played rock but the deeds in the MB seem out of place. Dismember seems better than deed MB. I would still keep 1-2 deeds in the SB for matchups like affinity.

Perhaps edicts for NO?

And err why no SFM for your own deck? If you run SFM you can SB in humility against NO. Your equipment will win the game eventually.

How good is Extirpate against non-grave yard decks? I dont like extirpate personally. It is card disadvantage a lot of time which is horrible in a format where 1 threat sticking is all it takes to win. Its not even great against dredge. Extirpate will not beat dredge by itself.

I've also decided that Stoneforge Mystic has a home in the Rock.

Here's what my built currently looks like:

Creatures - 17
3x Noble Hierarch
1x Birds of Paradise
4x Dark Confidant
2x Tarmogoyf
3x Stoneforge Mystic
1x Qasali Pridemage
2x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Trygon Predator

Other Spells - 19
4x Mental Misstep
4x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Swords to Plowshares
3x Vindicate
2x Pernicious Deed
1x Batterskull
1x Sword of Fire and Ice

Lands - 24
4x Windswept Heath
3x Verdant Catacomb
2x Marsh Flats
3x Bayou
4x Savannah
1x Tropical Island
4x Wasteland
1x Dryad Arbor
1x Swamp
1x Forest

quote:

---

Originally posted by coasterdude84:
List

---

I actually really love this list. Personally, I don't think I'd run less than 4 goyfs though... guess with green suns it doesn't matter, but man, it feels like a felony..

quote:

---

Originally posted by Shadows:
I actually really love this list. Personally, I don't think I'd run less than 4 goyfs though... guess with green suns it doesn't matter, but man, it feels like a felony..

Nice list bud.

---

I went a bit crazy and dropped the 3 SDTops right before the tournament started for 2 pulses & another Thrun.

Round 1 I was supposed to get a bye because we only had an odd number but one of the local pros who was only going to play casual edh decided to play to make it even. But he didn’t have a deck. So one of the other guys says “Hey I have Dredge”. I quickly joke that “I’ll take the bye”.

Match 1 : Dredge

Game 1 Having moved all my gy hate to s/b I quickly lose.

Game 2 He gets rolling and has 8 zombies on the table and 2/3 deck in his gy. My turn 2 Teeg has prevented Dread Returns.
I GSZ into KotR and use him to pull Bojuka Bog. Then pulse his zombies and play scavenging ooze and soon win.

Game 3 He plays a land & a discard outlet, I sword the discarder, and he discards most of his hand (including 4 dredgers) and waste his only land. I thoughtsieze and see he had kept 2 draw cards, so I extirpate his golgari grave trolls. He is able to dredge anyway with others and slowly builds up zombies. I get a few goyfs&teeg to prevent Dread Returns but cant pull a GSZ or Knight. He works around it and ends up killing me w/ returned Ichorids at 1 life.

Super close match and against a lesser dredge player I would have won.

Match 2 : Legacy Mono White Caw Blade (w/ Lifegain) (against the #1 ranked player in our area)
Game 1:

He mucks to 6. I hit him w/ Thoughtseize and see stoneforge, 2 kamigawa life gain cards, mother of runes and 2 lands. I take the stoneforge.

He plays mom and I swords it. He plays 2nd stoneforge into batterskull. I vindicate the sfm. He hard casts batterskull and I gsz a pridemage to kill it.

He plays squadron hawk and plays 2 others. I pulse them all.
After this I overwhelm the board and win a big knight of the reliquary.

Game 2
He lands a aether vial and a couple lands and I don’t have answers to his stoneforge mystic pulling and jitte equipped squad hawks.

Game 3

We had run pretty long at this point so my opponent mentioned we would need to hurry. He gets mom, sfm and 2 vials in his first 3 turns. I deeds to clear the board. He gets another sfm and squad hawks out. I pulse the hawks and my 2 goyfs force him to block with every creature he can play/vial in. and my teeg keeps him from gaining any life. We are in our final 5 turns and I he has no blockers to deal with my goyfs. With me about to win the rest of the players gathered around us and one of them says” he is going to lose 40 points if you beat him!”.

The guy had been really cool and I was just playing for fun so I said, “I am willing to concede if you admit I win” He gladly agrees and has me sign the paper to concede.

Round 3

Being officially 0-2 I get the bye (someone dropped) and at this point its 9:30. If I stay I don’t get home until 12:30 and having to work this morning I drop.

All in all pretty good tournament. Very happy with the win against the highest ranked player in our area. I absolutely love GSZenith. I dont see myself dropping it out. I didnt miss the Tops or Diamonds, but since I didnt play any control that could be part of it. The pulses ended saving my butt 2-3 times. I am going to keep the in the main.

Nothing better than GSZ into KotR into Bojuka Bog against Dredge. Also GSZ into Scavenging Ooze w/ extra mana is actually pretty powerful getting rid of ichorids/bridge from belows or dread returns.

A little bummed that I didn’t get to play against Blue since I had spent all that time building to beat it. Shows how good Junk is against non-blue though.

Here was the decklist I finally went with.

Lands (24)
1x swamp
1x plain
1x forest
3x bayou
3x scrubland
1x Savannah
1x Karakas
1x maze of ith
4x verdant catacombs
3x marsh flats
4x wastelands
1x dryad arbor

Non Creature (22)
4x hymn to tourach
4x thoughtseize
3x green sun zenith
4x Vindicate
4x Swords to Plowshares
2x Maelstrom Pulse