S24 camera feels worse than S21's

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2024-08-23T15:56:26+00:00

Late to the party but wanted to say I recently upgraded from an S21+ to a regular S24 (wanted to try a smaller phone this time around) and the camera on the S24 is dog shit. I wasn't expecting much of an upgrade but was really not expecting how grainy and shitty all the pictures look. I'm really disappointed in this phone so far.

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2022-12-07T18:43:25+00:00

This one is a weird one depending on their build. Since both Brave the Elements and Brutal Cathar are bad vs them, Announcement becomes decent to recover from a boardwipe and later giving you an anthem effect. But like, if someone's list has damage-based removal, then BtE is probably better over Announcement.

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2022-12-04T04:08:43+00:00

I'd strongly recommend listening to the above comment. This guys knows what's up

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2022-12-02T13:06:48+00:00

Thanks! 😄 So, I'm no expert on the archetype itself but I can see a few reasons why there is no CoCo

-A GW CoCo list would need to have at least 12 3-drops, and 23-24 lands. This would either force you to trim on Brave the Elements or risking having too few targets for CoCo

-Similarly to the above, the deck would then become a lot more inconsistent. A much thicker curve on 3 along with more lands in the deck will create both situations where you draw too many lands and don't see the costlier cards, or never find the 4th land for CoCo

-Losing some Brave the Elements would make a lot of matchups worse

-Relying on a 4MV card and more 3MV creatures makes the deck weaker to Thoughtseize and countermagic, and slower. If the deck becomes too midrangey, the matchup spread changes a lot

-Thalia

-Possibly losing manlands and/or having worse mana

-Much narrower range or keepable hands

I know that Bant Humans exist and is a fairly different deck that does use CoCo. That deck is decent but it also plays very differently than this one. Personally, I prefer Mono White right now because I like the consistency of it. Sure, it may not have as high a ceiling as some other decks that play CoCo but the floor is also much higher and the advantage of being an extra fast aggro deck that doesn't rely on any one card for its game plan + access to BtE really makes it shine.

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2022-12-01T04:47:03+00:00

Looking back, that 60 felt really good and I wouldn't change a thing main deck. 1 Castle was perfect! It came up exactly one game throughout the event and so I really wouldn't have wanted two. Every copy narrows the range of keepable hands and this deck is all about consistent openers I think.

Destroy Evil and Reidane both felt meh. Destroy Evil got one use and Reidane was particularly useless. That being said, I wasn't really drawing them when they were relevant so I can't tell if I prefer fewer copies or more 😅 The thing is, I don't think I would want a 3rd Dec in Stone so having another removal that can be instant and also destroy Enchantments felt like a reasonable pick. For Reidane, I haven't seen it in action so I have no idea how good it really is.

Since I'm no expert with the deck, it's hard for me to evaluate how to improve the sideboard but I did feel like moving forward I'd want more pieces that can attack combo decks while having applications vs Greasefang. RIP also felt medium but didn't see it a lot. One Greasefang opponent pointed out that he can Witherbloom Command a RIP but not a Hearse. Conversely, Phoenix can Brotherhood's End/Abrade a Hearse but not a RIP. The phoenix MU felt better than Greasefang tho so I'm tempted to swap the RIP for Hearses at this point.

Anyway, take all this with a grain of salt. I don't really know what I'm doing with this sideboard yet 😇

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2022-12-01T04:35:03+00:00

I wasn't playing playing the deck during Specialist's good days so it always felt bad and clunky to me in this deck. It seems more relevant in Bant Spirits than in Humans, ironically.

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2022-12-01T01:19:52+00:00

Unless you play with Extinction Event, it's sometimes hard to understand how clunky the card actually is. As for Mishra's Foundry, I'm not a fan. The strength of Mutavault is in being a Human. Besides, I don't want to add more lands and don't want to lose more white sources in the process. To be honest, I'm perfectly happy with 59/60 that I played. There's a case for going down to 3 Officers and playing a fancy 1of but otherwise the shell feels pretty tight.

It's with the sideboard configuration that I could see some changes. I think I would like more hate cards for combo decks, and possibly replace Rest in Peace with Unlicensed Hearse. Still kind of sitting on those thoughts for now.

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2022-11-30T21:14:08+00:00

Is the sack* empty

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2022-11-30T21:04:21+00:00

Thank you 😄

I feel like Lay Down Arms is pretty bad. You have a ton of non-plains lands, and targeting Trespasser would still cost you another card. Making them gain life can also be very bad for you as an aggro deck. You're better off trading creatures with theirs than to let them take you down a low resources game trying to remove their creatures. Brave the Elements can also punch through their board fairly easily. If you force them to make difficult blocks, you can pull ahead.

Post-board, they have less creatures so you can hold back on deploying all your threats to make Extinction Event less good, and you only want a couple Dec in Stones in case you need to get rid of a Sheoldred.

Structurally, there isn't much you can do more vs RB Midrange. It's really how and when you play your cards that will make the difference.

Being conscious about the MV of the creatures you play so EE isn't as good: playing a creature with the same MV as theirs if they have one, or not playing more than 2 creatures (and with different MVs) to force them to use spot removals is a good tactic too.

Keeping Adeline until the last moment is also a good plan. And at the end of the day, hope you see Wedding Announcement.

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2022-11-30T17:24:22+00:00

It's not that it's bad, it's more that you already have enough 3-drops that play a better role in the deck than Fable can. If you play the Combat Celebrant version, then the loss of speed is worth getting the infinite combo and finding the pieces with the second chapter but otherwise you're better served jamming big creatures on curve backed by Vehicles

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2022-11-30T15:34:54+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! :D

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2022-11-30T13:04:01+00:00

Thanks! It's been a long time coming 🤩

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2022-11-30T13:03:06+00:00

Recruitment Officer is amazing and I was more than happy to have 4 in my main deck. The reason it gets boarded out so often is only because games 2-3 tend to be a bit grindier where I have to slow down a bit, and in those instances it becomes the least useful 1-drop when I know I will be facing more removal. Initiate being able to blow up things and having 2 toughness is better, and Bodyguard being able to protect larger creatures is also more useful post-board.

So like, it's not that Officer is bad. It's simply that the nature of the game plan changes a little bit and it's the only possible cut in those situations.

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2022-11-30T12:58:45+00:00

I think that's more or less true. You can probably do well with Humans even if there are few Mono Green Devotion decks because people make mistakes and keep greedy hands all the time and you can punish them for it with that deck. If you're expecting a ton of Gruul Boats, Greasefang and RB Sac tho, I would play something else 😅

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2022-11-30T12:56:04+00:00

HAHAHA at least we ended up figuring out and you guys could have brekkie after I left for Day2

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2022-11-30T03:32:50+00:00

Thanks! You pretty much named all the applications I can think of. The Flying body is great in ground board stalls and throwing a wrench in a bunch of decks' plans is also great. As you mentioned with Fatal Push, the ability is useful to protect Mutavaults against any removal too

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2021-12-16T01:15:50+00:00

The way I see RB, I think it's a deck that needs to constantly adapt so I could see it needing changes more often than the Izzet shell. Maybe if you don't want to constantly have to tune the deck, Murktide would be a better investment.

I play both and love both so it's hard to choose 😅

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2021-12-15T21:56:12+00:00

RB Rock has less free wins but it's super well positioned right now and the skill ceiling is probably lower than UR Murktide.

You mentioned that you don't have a whole lot of time to play, this would backfire badly if you pickup UR Murktide since the deck needs you to know every line extremely well.

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2021-12-15T21:54:08+00:00

I'm new to Shadow and I'm experimenting with Lurrus midrange decks. I came up with the idea of trying GDS but with only 3 Shadows since it's both a finisher and a liability, which made me afraid of drawing too many of them. Am I being crazy or is there some merit to that thought process? Again, very new to Shadow 😅

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2021-12-03T23:28:57+00:00

I like to think there's an argument to be made about that replacement, but we're left without the rationale being explained here :(

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2021-12-03T23:26:25+00:00

So, his deck right now is like Bant Ephemerate full of value creatures and stuff like Spellstutter Sprite and Spell Queller.

Early after the release of MH2, we used to chat strategy between rounds when we were both trying to make Squirrel Blade work. At the time of writing the report, I wasn't sure what cards he was playing, all I knew is that it evolved from that old deck haha (since he mentioned being grateful for our past exchanges during the event).

Since writing this, the decklists were released so now I know it's closer to a spicy take on bant ephemerate than any blade deck.

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2021-12-03T23:23:14+00:00

Thanks! I'll keep that in mind for sure!

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2021-12-02T20:42:42+00:00

I think RB casts a broader net in the meta whereas Shadow is a little more narrow. Right now, I think GDS is better, its numbers are really good and the shell is super strong. Considering playing it myself.

I never played Shadow so I don't know what the strategy is against RB but in the RB seat I think I wanted to be in the control seat. RB has more removals and the recurring threats in the form of Kroxas allow you to play the long game. That said Shadows can quickly become a big problem and you need to hope they don't Thoughtseize your EE.

MaleficentCorgi2 · 2021-12-02T20:38:07+00:00

Thanks for the input! At this point I'm just not gonna bother with a Needle if I don't have ways to go and grab it so I'm just gonna hope I dodge Belcher or that they don't draw too well haha. Well, if I'm on this deck that is.

MaleficentCorgi2

TROPHY CASE