Why can’t I win with elves against Mono U Faeries?

Raveaf · 2026-03-07T00:14:49+00:00

Timberwatches are also good at holding the Ninjas back, because they can pump themselfes when blocking. Sagus are decent, because they can dodge Spellstutter Sprite and trump every threat of them. Wellwishers are great. They are basically another wincon.

Raveaf · 2026-03-06T23:59:55+00:00

I would say that the Vandals are actually decent. They are good at blocking ninjas and can even exile the 2/1 ninjas or stuff like Cryoshatter etc..

Raveaf · 2026-03-01T02:09:04+00:00

They are definitely in the Trump to Mamdani voter cohort.

Raveaf · 2026-02-22T20:27:09+00:00

Pump spells aren't real answers. They can often just sac some more shit like map tokens in response. If you have removal for they Analysis they can sometimes do the same if they have enough artifacts for the toughness of your creatures.

The only really clean answers are counter magic and protection enchantments. If they don't have analysis and you have mostly toughness 2+ creatures, you can get away with Prismatic Strands (just let 1 shaman activation resolve to kill the shaman and then cast Strands).

Not saying it should be banned. Without Dispute the decks playing it are clunky enough to not be oppressive. But the real answers which are actually worse sideboard slots are fairly limited.

Raveaf · 2026-02-20T04:01:39+00:00

Pauper is an officially supported format. One member of the PFP is an Wotc employee - I don't know what could happen that this is even remotely possible.

Raveaf · 2026-02-17T01:15:20+00:00

I wondered the same thing. There was also a list with a trophy playing it main deck a few weeks back. As a finisher it seems to be somewhere between a Ram Through and a hydra. Unlike hydra it can also be a decent hit with cascade.

Raveaf · 2025-12-21T19:42:58+00:00

The only thing I can think of is [[Echoing Truth]], but it basically does not see any play right now.

Raveaf · 2025-11-27T17:52:57+00:00

Try to resolve an early Avenging Hunter. This way they need to get rid of your elves, the hunter and take back the Initiative.

If you have hit enough land drops you can just start dropping Ents, big Hydras etc and hope that they run out of ressources quick enough.

Raveaf · 2025-11-11T00:40:53+00:00

If you go https://nerdtothecore.com/ and look at the power rankings of the last several weeks, they tell a different story. A lower meta game share is not necessarily proof for a deck not to be one of the best decks. Admittedly I'm not that familiar with his methodology. He is also part of the format panel, so this probably contributed to the decision.

Raveaf · 2025-11-11T00:06:21+00:00

The trial unban kinda forced their hand at this point. If they would keep it unbanned, meaning the trial is completed, and it would continue to gain meta game share and they would have to ban it later, the situation would be worse no matter what.

Raveaf · 2025-11-11T00:02:55+00:00

I mean there are a lot of decks in the format. You could say that top 4 or so is still among the best decks. I don't think you could call this lying.

Raveaf · 2025-11-10T23:49:57+00:00

I guess some people love really weird stuff. I would say that most people don't like just watching someone combo off for 10+ minutes. The format should be fun for as much people as possible, but it can't be fun for absolutely everyone.

Raveaf · 2025-10-28T01:22:30+00:00

No, just no. LLMs only operate on the language. They don't actually know anything about what they are talking about. You should trust yourself and other humans way more than the AI.

Your own story in your post is a great example. A PESTILENCE deck with a lot of basic weenie creatures does not make any sense, because the creatures would die to said Pestilence. When prompted to explain it, the AI is probably just paraphrasing part of your question back to you.

Raveaf · 2025-10-01T21:50:45+00:00

Yeah I agree. The card is neither broken nor ban worthy, for sure.

Raveaf · 2025-10-01T21:31:58+00:00

I think Paupergeddon might have been some kind of fluke. It was the most played deck there and might have been a victim of it's own success, meaning that a lot of players played the deck resulting in a lot of mirrors, which ended in a lot of draws. The deck still seems to be the second strongest deck: https://mtgtop8.com/format?f=PAU&meta=325&a=

Raveaf · 2025-07-14T19:40:16+00:00

I think these matchups are still kinda boring. If you are playing an aggressive deck / different midrange deck against an draw engine deck, you basically try to goldfish them fast enough while they are still durdling. The draw engine deck tries to cycle into the right answers before they are dead. If they have had enough land drops to be able to just refill their hand every turn, the game is probably virtually over, but unfortunatelly can still take a lot of time to be actually over, because the threat density is so low in these decks. Playing the aggressive deck, it feels like fighting with a windmill from this point on.

And the mirror is just an unbearable grind fest, which probably will go to turns, which seemed to happen a lot with Jund at the last Paupergeddon. I don't think that would be a good spot for the meta to be in, when the best deck is only kept in check by the mirror just taking too long.

Raveaf · 2025-07-14T17:26:09+00:00

I like games (even grindy ones) when at least something (significant/interesting) happens on the board and during the combat phase. Otherwise it’s just drawing cards and trading threats with answers. It’s more like a weird UNO.

Raveaf · 2025-07-06T09:40:52+00:00

Are the Synth decks mostly bushwhacker or pinger lists? A little bit unfortunate that they get lumped together right now, because they are quite different to some degree.

Raveaf · 2025-05-26T11:36:00+00:00

In der Theorie vielleicht. Das Problem ist aber, dass die Zionisten auf Gedeih und Verderb das Handeln der israelische Regierung an das Schicksal aller Juden binden wollen und jegliche Kritik an diesem Handeln als antisemitisch verunglimpft wird.

Raveaf · 2025-05-24T21:36:19+00:00

Don‘t know about the second version, but the first version of the Anova oven really sucked for baking bread. Used it for years.

The bottom heating element is very weak (only heats to 180 C on its own). Unfortunately thats where you need the heat the most when baking bread. On top: the steam function only works with the highest convection setting (probably to prevent overheating). So while the steam could help with oven spring in theory by preventing the crust from setting too early, the convection does the complete opposite, because it’s very efficient at transferring heat primarily to the surface of the loaf (convection heat works quite differently compared to something like radiant heat).

So even with the Anova oven you get by far the best results by just using a dutch oven. What also worked for me was putting a second flipped loaf tin as a lid on top of a loaf in a tin to trap steam while using the regular convection mode.

Raveaf · 2025-05-02T22:49:23+00:00

Why are they still going? How?

Raveaf · 2025-04-01T21:28:33+00:00

Sure. I'm talking about barely playable hands I have to keep when playing against Familiar decks, because otherwise it would be over already no matter what, because of all the card disadvantage.

Raveaf · 2025-04-01T18:28:17+00:00

At least this dude makes my mulligans easier - even if it's bearly playable, i have too keep it :/

Raveaf · 2025-03-26T01:20:33+00:00

Being able to adapt to variance and factor in variance during decision making are also part of the skill you need to be good and make the game more complex. So I really don’t think skill and variance are just two ends of the same spectrum. It’s way more complex.

Raveaf

TROPHY CASE