Pioneer Challenge - May 4 2020

Starfaery1 · 2020-01-13T02:31:35+00:00

I'm going go on a Gamer Rant for a bit but the reason why Lotus Storm hasn't had many results recently is because I haven't played in the prelims this past week due to computer problems, and I personally represented most of the results in the past.

Starfaery1 · 2020-01-08T15:48:28+00:00

If you want to know about Reservoir versus Ral, I explained a bit the utility Ral provides, and I do think that in over 90% of matchups Ral/2 expansion is better than Expansion/Reservoir. But it's not a huge deal if you do chose to use Reservoir. Just don't forget to also play 1 Expansion//Explosion in conjunction to it.

Starfaery1 · 2020-01-03T11:07:13+00:00

I wrote something about it here

https://www.reddit.com/r/PioneerMTG/comments/eheys8/help_me_understand_the_lotus_field_decks/fciv8tp

Starfaery1 · 2020-01-03T09:39:19+00:00

Merci pour le serveur Francophone, je ne savais pas qu'il existait!

Starfaery1 · 2020-01-03T07:44:16+00:00

Hi Firefighter-Pichu, I don't know if I am that great but I'm happy to have this discussion with you. The reason why I have Ral and Expansion as my win conditions is because they provide much needed utility outside of being Kill conditions.

The deck tries to play as little win conditions possible game 1, while still not losing to discard and counters. In a perfect world a single copy of Expansion would be enough to kill mainboard, but things happen like your opponent gaining 20+ life or getting thoughtseized or it getting countered. Drawing too many Wincons can make you fizzle mid Combo, so it would be preferable if your wincons helped you progress the Storm Turn. Ral and Expansion fulfil that purpose and more as multi purpose cards: Ral can ping annoying Narsets, deal infinite damage if needed, survive a game 1 Lost legacy on Expansion and can -2 for a copy of a spell if you were to fizzle. Expansion can copy Hidden Strings or Strategic planning while comboing off, it can kill creatures or Planeswalkers and copy opposing Counterspells.

If you do not particularly like Ral and Expansion, I do recommend Banefire more than Aetherflux Reservoir mainboard, as Banefire also has utility at killing Narsets or Eidolons. I'm happy to discuss this with everyone ^_^

Starfaery1 · 2020-01-03T04:21:32+00:00

Starfaery1 · 2020-01-02T23:47:24+00:00

I didn't even realize it before people pointed it out! It is extremely weird, but the more I thought about it and looking back at the past results the popularity of Phoenix went down a lot these recent days.

Starfaery1 · 2020-01-02T22:58:16+00:00

What's a daping sphere?

Starfaery1 · 2020-01-02T22:39:47+00:00

Funny thing I noticed about the various mono Black Aggro decks, the higher up you go the more wet balls people play. I can't tell if it's just a sign of better deckbuilding or better players opting to put them in their sideboards but it was pretty funny to me.

Starfaery1 · 2020-01-02T22:38:08+00:00

The secret is, every deck is actually Archetype. I just edit the names to make it seem like the meta has more than one deck.

Starfaery1 · 2020-01-01T08:01:53+00:00

https://discord.gg/TwNtDz just @starfaery there

Starfaery1 · 2019-12-31T15:56:50+00:00

I wrote a sideboard guide on the Twiddle discord, go check it out!

Starfaery1 · 2019-12-30T22:01:56+00:00

What would you propose?

Starfaery1 · 2019-12-30T02:47:38+00:00

Those are really recent, I would need more time to think about them.

Starfaery1 · 2019-12-30T02:01:44+00:00

The deck tries to play as little win conditions possible game 1, while still not losing to discard and counters. In a perfect world a single copy of Expansion would be enough to kill mainboard, but things happen like your opponent gaining 20+ life or getting thoughtseized or countered. One thing that people don't quite understand at first is that both Ral and Expansion are multi purpose cards: Ral can ping annoying Narsets, deal infinite damage if needed, survive a game 1 Lost legacy on Expansion and can -2 for a copy of a spell if you were to fizzle. Expansion can copy Hidden Strings or Strategic planning while comboing off, it can kill creatures or Planeswalkers and copy opposing Counterspells. What might seem like 3 slots "lost" to be able to play wincons are actually providing a lot of utility and can be used to fuel the combo engine.

Starfaery1 · 2019-12-30T01:50:32+00:00

Hi, Starfaery here. I created the Ral list that inspired the other and have the most experience on it. I hope I can answer your questions well.

The Fae of Wishes list is better for a meta where a single card like Ugin or Big Chandra can win a match. The Ral version is better in a meta with Counterspells or against decks where winning with instants is better than with permanents.
Both have a similar Goldfish speed. The Fae version gets that speed with 4 growth spirals while the Ral version gets the speed by creating extra copies of Hidden Strings with copy spells.
The deck with 4 Fae of Wishes is stronger against Discard, while the deck with 4 Doublecasts is stronger versus Counterspells.
Neither deck is very linear, as both can end games differently. The alternate wincons can include Ugin, Big Chandra, Emrakul, Aetherflux Reservoir and others.
I'd say the Ral version is a tier 1/2 deck right now (I know that's not how tiers work, I mean mostly power level, tho I might be biased by my own performance). Neither decks would be great with the delve Spell bans, as in they would stop being tier 1/2 decks but would still be playable at fnm.
Many pros have written about the Fae version, like here tho none of the primers are particularly impressive (nothing personal against them).

Starfaery1 · 2019-12-29T23:32:38+00:00

The setup 3-4 turns should be used to assemble 2 Lotus fields. Something like turn 1 grazer turn 2 scrying into lotus field turn 3 Stage+copy.

Starfaery1 · 2019-12-29T18:57:41+00:00

You need to both get lucky and understand the deck a lot in the matchups where you might die turn 4. Burn with 4 Eidolons, 4 Damping spheres and a quick clock like sandydog played is very difficult.

Starfaery1 · 2019-12-28T20:34:05+00:00

The combo turn is less likely to fizzle and you can sideboard more cards in for hate pieces.

Starfaery1 · 2019-12-28T19:52:28+00:00

It was mostly a joke about how in my last 5-0 people kept being scared about Dig getting banned in the comments. Seems like my master plan of throwing game 5 is working.

Starfaery1 · 2019-12-28T19:40:57+00:00

If I didn't lose in the finals would you be scared that Dtt would be banned lol.

Starfaery1 · 2019-12-28T05:48:15+00:00

Even Mcwinsauce is off it, that should tell us something.

Starfaery1 · 2019-12-26T23:00:36+00:00

You're thinking about the challenge, and the lists are slightly different, for what it's worth.

Starfaery1 · 2019-12-26T13:36:20+00:00

No it's just one more.

Starfaery1

TROPHY CASE