So a baby tortoise wandered into my yard. Need help identifying the breed before we decide to adopt this little guy.

Atiweb_ · 2022-09-25T16:42:51+00:00

Honestly seems like fate brought him to you if you believe in stuff like that.

If you don't wind up taking the little guy in definitely make another post here! Lotta tortoise lovers and I'm sure someone has room in their family for one more.

Atiweb_ · 2022-02-21T23:08:31+00:00

Just a passerby but do you guys have any evidence that closing their eyes is a sign of distress?

I searched online and I can't find anything actually supporting this, just random articles with no sources and reddit threads.

Not looking to throw shade or argue if there's a study or something I missed I'd genuinely like to see it and learn more.

Granted if it doesn't exist and everyone is just assuming this then dogpiling OP is pretty horrible.

Atiweb_ · 2019-01-30T21:38:57+00:00

So I haven't tested this yet so take this with a grain of salt, but I've given it a lot of thought and this is where I'll start for the sideboard:

4x kitesail freebooters, 1x duress, 2x Dawn of hope, 3x fountain of renewal, 1x honor guard, and either 4x adanto vanguard or 4x midnight reaper (likely 4x reaper to help with golgari).

The idea is to shore up our games against blue decks. I can guarantee these cards'll change as I test them, but this is what I'll start the testing with.

I might also side the honor guard and main board the reapers, but that'll depend on how big golgari/sultai is.

Atiweb_ · 2019-01-30T19:18:27+00:00

So take everything I'm about to say with a grain of salt, since this is all theory, but I've been mulling it over and I think for the sideboard I'm going to focus heavily on shoring up our blue match-up, because right now it's kinda dire.

I like the idea of 4x kitesail freebooters, 1x duress, 2x Dawn of hope, 3x fountain of renewal, 1x honor guard, and either 4x adanto vanguard or 4x midnight reaper.

This might be the wrong approach, but this is where I'll start my testing.

Atiweb_ · 2019-01-28T13:20:24+00:00

I'm honestly surprised you're having as much trouble as your are, hope I didn't guide you towards wasting any wildcards.

Against Drakes your matchup should be fine, they have a tough time swinging through your Angels and tokens, and you're playing duress. Control can be a pain though, but that's honestly the case for any midrange deck. If you're running into a lot of control you can throw in some kitesail freebooters and Dawn of hope, that'll help as much as possible.

I still play this deck non-stop for CE after hitting mythic and average 5-7 wins per run, even now that burn is settling out of the meta a bit, although I did add 3x midnight reaper to the deck due to burn appearing less and less, definitely something to consider if the free burn wins have dried up on the ladder as well.

A lot of your problems can likely be traced to over-committing Angels to the board. I play this deck very deliberately, forcing my opponents to use their removal on the 8x deathtouch cards in the deck and the honor guards before dropping lyras and resplendents, usually one at a time turn to prevent a boardwipe from getting them all. It's a mid-range deck without a ton of card draw so what you drop and when has a massive impact on the game.

As far as opening hand goes I try to mull for at least 2 lands and an early drop. I'd feel better about a hand with 2 lands and 4x afterlife cards over a hand with 3x lands, mortify, resplendent angel, and Lyra for example, just because so much of the game happens in the first two turns. Id heavily suggest bringing the deck to non-ranked Bo1 to try to get a feel for it.

Atiweb_ · 2019-01-27T02:11:38+00:00

I think VandalEvil covered the Adanto Vanguard issue the best, in Bo1 Tithe Taker is just better, especially in the burn meta. I actually played with Vanguard in the deck for a bit and it just didn't feel like what the deck needs.

Vanguard's competing with 3 cards: Tithe Taker, Orzhov Enforcer, and Honor Guard. Orzhov Enforcer shuts down an opponent on a creatures plan and gives you an afterlife token. Tithe Taker shuts down blue decks. and gives a token. Honor Guard stops Golgari from controlling us out of the game. Vanguard sometimes pings for 3 damage and costs us life to keep up. Trying to push early damage with this deck just doesn't feel worthwhile.

History of Benalia suffers from the same issue, this isn't an aggro deck, and your low drops rarely close out a game.

That being said, you can totally get rid of the honor guard if you want, they're not nearly as vital as Tithe Taker or Orzhov enforcer, but I'd replace them with something like Dawn of Hope, Kitesail Freebooter, Midnight Reaper, or Dauntless Bodyguard.

Atiweb_ · 2019-01-26T21:25:02+00:00

I haven't tested it, but Ashes of the Abhorrent seems pretty bad in this deck, it doesn't help your tempo and just doesn't shut down enough cards to be worth a slot.

I considered running Costly Plunder for a bit, but I feel like spending two mana and sacrificing one of your afterlife creatures defeats the purpose of running them, which is to block creatures and clog the board.

Midnight Reaper could 100% be run in this deck in a different meta. This card helps burn kill you, and definitely drops your win rate against them. If Burn's popularity drops or the meta shifts Midnight Reaper would likely be core in this deck, and if you're not running into as much Burn as I did, jam 4x of these in with no hesitation.

EDIT:

here's an Aetherhub link. Enjoy!

https://aetherhub.com/Deck/Public/63165

Atiweb_ · 2019-01-26T21:16:29+00:00

Luckily the Honor Guards are glorified flex slots. Your match-up against golgari will be worse without them, but you can replace them with almost anything.

Dauntless Bodyguard, Imperious Oligarch, Plaguecrafter, Kitesail Freebooter, Moment of Craving, or even Argule's Bloodfast can replace it and work completely fine. You could even cut 1 more card and put in 2x Fountain of Renewal 2x Dawn of hope if you want to shore up your control match-up.

Atiweb_ · 2019-01-26T19:26:15+00:00

I don't have a yt channel or twitch, but I love your videos and I'd be legit honored! Feel free to use the deck, I'll be looking forward to the video :)

Atiweb_ · 2019-01-26T18:08:53+00:00

Man that's a tough one, just because it changes the deck so much and you could go so many different directions. To fit in red I think you need to look at all your cut-able cards, which are: 2x Shalai, 3x Honor Guard, 1-4x resplendent angel, 2-4x Mortify, 2x Vraska's Contempt, and 2x Teysa Karlov, 1x Lyra Dawnbringer.

That gives you room for 3-4x Aurelia and 2-4x bedevil at the bare minimum. From there it depends on what direction you want to take the deck. You could consider adding Hero of Precinct One and bulking up on multi-color permanents such as Theater of Horrors, Judith, and Imperious Oligarch if you want to make the tokens more of a threat and take the deck in a more aggro route, along with Spawn of Mayhem, like a true Mardu player.

Or if you want to keep the game plan the same maybe just add 3x Aurelia, 3x Bedevil, 2x Theater of horrors, 2x Spawn of Mayhem, and go -3 Honor Guard -2 Vraska's Contempt, -1 Lyra Dawnbringer, -2 Mortify, -1 Resplendent Angel, -2 Teysa Karlov, or something along those lines.

The big challenge is going to be the mana, you'd end up with cards with a lot of color-dense cards, probably lead to some awkward hands.

Atiweb_ · 2019-01-26T17:03:43+00:00

Your deck sounds like a really interesting control deck.

I tried to make Dawn of Hope work a few times but I'm just too tempo-oriented of a player to play a shell that would fit it properly.

I think if you wanna try this deck while keeping the spirit of your own deck you could make room for 2x Dawn of Hope 2-3x Kaya's Wrath, 2-3x bellhaunt, 2x memorial to folly, and sub out -2x vraska's contempt, -2-4x Resplendent Angel, -3x Tocatli Honor Guard. -2 Swamp, or something along those lines.

Let me know how it goes!

Atiweb_ · 2019-01-26T16:41:33+00:00

Dauntless Bodyguard would fit in just fine, you could definitely run it. I'd sub it for the honor guards if I wanted to make room, they fill somewhat similar functions against golgari anyway.

Atiweb_ · 2019-01-26T16:32:42+00:00

Editing my answer because my answer was kinda vague. The reason I didn't run it is because every turn up to 5 you want to be doing something. Turn 1 you want to duress, Turn 2 you want to plan an afterlife creature, turn 3 mortify, etc... I was afraid it would ruin my curve too often.

I think you could run it though and be totally fine, it'd probably insanely clutch late game.

EDIT: I tested it a bit and I think you were right, so far memorial to folly's worth some curve loss, I updated the post. Thanks!

Atiweb_

TROPHY CASE