I agree completely with what you said. The zoo deck I run is similar to yours in mana base but it definitely doesn't need four copies of each dual to run well.
If anything, like you said, the only cards you really need four copies of are the fetch lands. I rarely have mana problems even when I get blasted by a wasteland or two. It's nice to have all four copies of the duals if you can afford them but don't mistake that you are required to run that many to be able to compete.
The idea of purchasing cards on a budget is what originally brought me to start writing on the site. I wanted to take a look at successful decklists and get an idea of how my purchasing could impact being able to get the most out of my purchase by streamlining the ability to play the most decklists possible. That was one long run on sentence ftl. Anyways, I highly encourage people to look at a decklist, compare those to other ones that fit your playstyle and start making purchasing decisions based on that. You will be a much happier player knowing you can play those Tarmogoyfs in 19 out of 40 Legacy decks as opposed to buying Pernicious Deed and only using them in say 3 decks.
I know I tend to impulse buy with cards I want to play in the latest decklist. Often times I get bored of playing the same old stuff and want to try something refreshing. If I remain patient I will eventually have the opportunity to play more decks thus giving me a great variety.
Agreed that Knight should be cast first for two reasons.
1. He is always an immediate removal target from your opponent. He can take the STP while you cast Terravore next turn.
2. If he isn't removed he can position your board to control the environment either via wastelands or card advantage through canopy.
You are right that Terravore is your win condition usually as he has trample, but I still think Knight is more important. First of all if your opponent casts relic or crypt and you have no answer your Terravore DIES. Knight doesn't die, he becomes a 2/2 body that is capable of building himself back up. Your example about deathtouch makes sense except that creatures sees minimal play tbh. Plus why attack, just dig for STP and remove him. I guess if you are trying to get those last few points in than Terravore would be a better option.
You make great points, I just want everyone to not underestimate Knight in this deck.
I would totaly agree with Paul here : to fetch often fills the same role in a monocolored than in a multicolored deck, except in black deck (too life greedy).
That said, it is important to realize that the fetchlands have drawbacks. The life drawback is well known, but there is another drawback not very famous. As well mentioned, fetchs are allowing to the deck to 1) get easier its colors, 2) to optimize the "non land" draws. True. But it also decreases the global number of mana & lands available in a deck. Running 20 lands with 10 manaland + 10 fetch means that the maximum amount of mana from lands simoultaneously available is 10. Runnning 20 lands with 20 manalands means that this maximum is 20. That is a difference that must be taken in count when you're deckbuilding, especialy regarding the cmc of the cards you're running : running fetch = to have your color faster, but to get less mana on board in mid/late game. In other words, if your deck is running 5cmc cards and a lot of fetch, you will almost always have faster the colors you need, but you would probably wait longer for getting your 5 lneeded and on the board to cast it. That is why almost every competitive decks have to play both dual & fetch and are not running only fetchs...
Of these things currently and am trying to convince some of my friends that don't play much to get into it more. I can pretty much get these practices in use by them, but the big "missing" piece(which I'm sure is somewhere) is a list of staples, or must haves. I have my own version but we differ on main colors or types of cards, aggro vs combo, etc... anyone have a link or an article that contains this info? Or multiple links based on format, etc? Would be much appreciated...
I didn't read all of the article, mostly because I already have an Eye of the Storm deck that is ridunculous, but sounds like that last part is not a bug at all.
If Eye is already in play, then when Reins of Power is cast, it will get exiled, EVEN IF you attempt to counter it. You have to counter the copy, not the original. All the triggers should work.
I really disagree with "don't draft" that isn't a concept I'd go by at all... if you're going to buy packs you might as well draft with them, sure you won't get a whole bunch of fantastic cards, but you can't go into it thinking like that, rare-drafting isn't what it used to be, but you still have the opportunity to build your own packs and not keep filling up at a certain card... not to mention you have the potential to win extra packs.. if you're going to open the packs any ways why not try to win more?
I know I might get flamed for this, but you could always do as I do. I have a credit card soley for online purchases (ebay, amazon, mtgo, etc). How did I get 1x of each original dual land? I bought one of each from MTGOtraders. Cost me $150 at that time, paid off the credit card over the next month and have loved it since. If you are willing to allot X amount of money per week to MTGO, why not use that same allotment towards paying off the credit card? Saves on complaining. I've actually been debating doing that to get me up to 4x of the duals I wish I had 4 of, like Tiaga and Savanah. Oh and Paul is correct. Deck thinning is a good idea no matter what kind of deck it is.... with the exception of monoblack that is using Dark Confidant or Ad Nauseum.
I should add to this, before anyone screws themselves with credit card debt, that I do not have a weekly/monthly MTGO amount. I spend about $100 every time a new set comes out to get the cards I want from the set and then that's the last I spend, with the exception of incidentals like commons and uncommons.
I am one who thinks that the format will be ok, but I do agree they've really set it up to fail. With the times these events happen, even if I finish spending the big money on a deck to join up I won't be able to make it 90% of the time.... those 9pm start times end up being midnight or so on the east coast and then I'm going to play a couple hours in a tourny? Yea I don't think so. These times are well and good for those on the west coast, but it sucks here and I can only imagine for the European players as well, very few people can stay up all night to play
To sum my opinion up, I would say that Daze is sick when it allows you to do a 2 in 1, idealy something like stifle+daze.So its role is mostly limited to first turns. Early game, I much prefer to keep one island untapped to stifle with Daze/FoW backup than to use that untapped island to snare or pierce. The tempo loss due the bounced island is often less important than the board position increasement your counter provides on the game at this moment. The ability to get a Daze back up when you're casting you knight/terra T3 is a house, as it means a T4 attack vs a T5 attack if you want to wait for an untapped island to get a counter back up with pierce/snare. Older version of this deck ran d.mox : with that kind of mana artifact, I think pierce / snare would be really good; but without them, I think a "no mana" counter is pretty important.
But you are also correct, it is heavy depending of the meta. In a gob/merf/DnT meta I would prefer Daze without doubt. In a control and/or heavy discard meta, pierce & snare could be better. Daze & alternatives being almost similar regarding combo decks.
Yeah, that sounds about right. The 1 damage is negligible in most decks. Black decks with cards like Bitterblossom, Dark Confidant, and Phyrexian Arena being popular can lead to the justification of not running fetches.
Regarding the entire deck synergy, I agree with you that knight are better. Regarding win con, I still believe that terra is more important. The fact is that often knight was too slow in my games. I often casted him more to attract StP than to really take advantage of its ability. If you manage to activate knight once, you gain a lot of all (tempo, creature power ...), but it is rare I could use it. The heavy number of fetch + horizon the deck is running AND the lands in opponent's graveyard were usualy enough to make of terravore a pretty dangerous creature. Plus, to attack with terra provide much more damage in average than with knights due to trample (either unblocked or bloked with additional damages to the defender). The correct play is almost all the time to play knight before terra, but in my games, terra was the most important vector of win. In example, if the defender has a vampire nighthawk in play, to attack with knights, even 12/12, doesnt do anything except killing his creature and mine. But to attack with the 10/10 terra in the same situation will kill his creature + provide 7 damages (and my creature as well).
That said, I think this deck cannot be as effective as it currently is without knights : reliquary provide synergy and consistency to the deck but also a decent second chance to win if you loosed the first turns tempo race.
Agree also about stifle : to well play stifle is a key skill to perform with that deck in tourney. Stifle enters in the mana denial strategy, but also insures to the deck a reasonnable resistance to graveyard hate and massive removal (and many unexpected difficulties).
It seems to be even more important in the round 2 & 3, once the SBing done.
I've seen decklists before without fetches and always wondered why. I know some mono black lists in Legacy do not run fetches. I can only assume it is because of the one point damage when you are already feeling damage from Dark Confidant.
I don't necessarily disagree, but in a Landstill Meta (which appears where we are), I think the tempo loss with daze is to much. Our creature clock is T3 at best. If we daze we are looking at T4 which is the same casting cost as Jace. We need to be faster than them. They run enough lands that stifle on fetch isn't the correct play imo. Matter of fact you almost have to keep stifle back for deed as most lists run 2-3 main.
I do agree snare and pierce do nothing against goblins and with the diceroll nothing against merfolk. They simply become dead cards or fodder for FOW. Although snare does work against Weirding which can be crucial.
I'm still not sold on the snares or pierce and still not totally against daze. I think there are options worth exploring in those slots. I seem to always side in Meddling Mage, maybe it deserves a look in the maindeck, is also pitchable to FOW which shouldn't be underestimated. Isn't this why we love magic, we can change up things all the time and neither one of us can be right as both lists are proven to be effective.
I gotta admit, drafting is a bit addictive, but I'm gonna have to curb myself. I can't go to FNMs due to my work schedule (4pm - 1am bleh, and I work every Friday), so I'm just gonna have to hold off on drafting until I get ahead in the tix count.
I do fully intend to put these practices into... practice... :P Favorited!
in my opinion, Daze should stay in the deck. Yes, it provides nothing vs Landstill or heavy mana decks, but it remains a solid counter in the 2/3 first turn. And these turns are the most important to New Horizon, this is when the opponent late is done. Daze drawback is tempo (to early bounce an island isnt a really good thing) but with stifle & waste, it works crazy well. A T1 island untapped into stifle opponent's fetch with daze backup is one of the best start this deck could provide. Either the cost to counter is heavy to the opponent (the only solution is often FoW = -1 free counter + - 1 blue card) or the tempo gain for you is huge. I cant remember how many time I blessed daze T1 when i countered vial, lackey, dark ritual, mox or top with daze using the mana left to brainstorm or even stifle a fetch...
That said, i agree a SB replacement vs Landstill is something to think about seriously.
I agree with Paul here. Deck thinning with fetchlands means getting land to the field now. The less land in your deck and the more land on your field increases the chances of drawing spells when you need them. I'd hate to be at 5 green mana with a field full of little Elves, hoping to hit an Overrun next turn, only to pick up yet another Forest. (Of course I could hit another non-vital spell as well, but at least I can use it.)
The idea is, once you've hit the top of your curve, you just don't need extra land. Fetchlands help with that.
I agree that Terravore is very important, however I think Knight is the most important creature in the deck. The knights simply shut down opponents manabases, plus they easily can fetch the fetchlands and Canopys to make your Knights and Terravores bigger. Not to mention Tabernacle from the board or even Bojuka Bog if you are running it can be back breaking. While the deck doesn't completely play like Thresh, it does want to protect it's creatures because of the small amount they run. You are right in saying that Terravore runs over people, but still he is often times needing to attack at least a few times hence the simliarities to thresh. The difference between this and thresh is that in thresh playing a turn 1 nimble isn't a bad play. In this deck playing a turn 3 Knight or Terravore can be a bad play without the proper back up plan because the creature is easily targeted.
@ Stifle - stifle on your opps fetchlands is an important strategy but be careful and use it wisely. You don't run very many blue cards to support Force of Will. Often times an opp can recover from a stifled fetch. I think saving stifle for things like crypt and relic or Engineered Explosives might be a better play in games 2 and 3.
@ the format - I think with release events things slowed down, after the events I believe the format will start moving again.
Yea I wish I had not submitted this article before going 4-0 in the Daily Event with New Horizons.
In that event I did remove the dazes and 1 land and replaced them with 3 spell pierce and 2 spell snare. Still not sure I like this option either, but I just didn't like the tempo loss from Daze. There have been times I've missed Daze though. You just have to play a little more conservatively I suppose.
New Horizon is a deck I praticed and I am still practicing a lot currently (I did around 40/50 matches with it, mostly vs tournament competitive decks&players). I started to share my experiences with the decks on CQ.com if you are interested in. There are some points I would like to add to your article because I realized recently that it is hard for some players to understand why this build is different than other without having tested it.
Firstly my feeling : this deck is very strong. Much more than I expected at the beginning in fact. If there is no 'auto-wins' match up, there isnt any 'auto loose' matchup also as you mentionned : the deck is extremly versatile and always proves consistency. Just try it.
Secondly, the deck it self. One of the biggest strengh of this deck is to provide a HUGE tempo control. Sure, thresh family is used to generate good decks built around tempo gains as everybody knows (especialy canadian thresh versions ...), but, really, new horizons creates a new level in tempo control. The natural tempo control suite (stifle/waste) found pretty good complements : canopy provides mana (W or G), draws and creature's upgrades (knight & terra like it). With canopy you could also combinate differents effects (ex : fetch canopy with knights then draw in example) for multiple tricks (to upgrade defense + to dig your deck).
The second major tempo gain is directly bound to creature choice : if tarmo is the "auto include in all aggro/control deck and in almost all UG decks", knights & terra are the real threats of this deck. Regarding win con, Terravore is by far the most important as its trample ability must be considered here as an evasive ability. In that, I not totaly agree with you when you say " It wants to get a creature on the board, protect it, clear its path and dispose of the opponent via a slow painful death of turn after turn attacking. "
In fact, one advantage of playing new horizon over thresh is that Terravore doesnt really need to get a cleared path. A turn 5-6 terravore is often a 8/8 trample creature for GG1. It is HUGE, especialy because you also warped the opponent tempo with mana denials & counters. The decks running a decent response to that kind of creatures are rare. When your best critter is a 5/6 tarmo or a 3/3 mongoose, you often need to clear the way (if you opponent cast a topdecked tarmo in example). With terravore you dont need. That is a sick tempo gain : your creatures are simply better & faster than any opponent threats at the same game step and need less turns to win (3 turns to kill is often the maximum with a 10/10 trample). And there are also knights (often 7/7 to 10/10 creatures)... Tarmo is here the tiniest creature, usualy the blocker. With 11 huge creatures and many deck diggers (brainstorm, ponder...) new horizon is able to provide a real "aggro wave" with 1 creatures (> 7/7) per turn once the tempo race won. This is why the way to play news horizon is different than thresh in my experience : thresh should try to control opponent during all the game, tempo tools helping there. New horizon extinguishes the opponent for 3/4 turns and then some fatties before he can fill its late... whatever if you can still control him or not at this time, 10/10 creatures just win the game.
Only my opinion, good article.
About the death of the format, I am one of thoses thinking that it will never happen. Maybe because I love this format so much that I dont believe it could happen (over optimistic maybe ?). That said, I strongly agree with your point about infernal schedules (especialy true for european players as I am) : this helps nor satisfies anybody ... except the non-eternal players. The buy-in is also to discuss btw.
Regarding the possible bugs: Ink-treader Nephilim copying a countered spell, I'm not sure whether this is a bug or not. Assuming you played Mana Drain on the Chain Lightning before the Nephilim trigger resolves, then when the trigger resolves the spell is no longer on the stack and no longer targeting the Nephilim. So it would seem that "if Ink-treader Nephilim is the only target of the spell" is no longer true, and the ability would do nothing, _except_ that it might use the "last known information" of the spell, which is that it targeted Ink-treader Nephilim. I'm not quite sure.
As for the Eye trigger not working with a countered Reins of Power, that's definitely a bug. The Reins is countered so Eye can't exile it, but the trigger will keep resolving and should copy all the other spells.
I agree completely with what you said. The zoo deck I run is similar to yours in mana base but it definitely doesn't need four copies of each dual to run well.
I include:
(21 Lands)
1x Plains
1x Mountain
1x Forest
1x Karakas
2x Taiga
3x Plateau
1x Savannah
1x Horizon Canopy
2x Arid Mesa
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
If anything, like you said, the only cards you really need four copies of are the fetch lands. I rarely have mana problems even when I get blasted by a wasteland or two. It's nice to have all four copies of the duals if you can afford them but don't mistake that you are required to run that many to be able to compete.
The idea of purchasing cards on a budget is what originally brought me to start writing on the site. I wanted to take a look at successful decklists and get an idea of how my purchasing could impact being able to get the most out of my purchase by streamlining the ability to play the most decklists possible. That was one long run on sentence ftl. Anyways, I highly encourage people to look at a decklist, compare those to other ones that fit your playstyle and start making purchasing decisions based on that. You will be a much happier player knowing you can play those Tarmogoyfs in 19 out of 40 Legacy decks as opposed to buying Pernicious Deed and only using them in say 3 decks.
I know I tend to impulse buy with cards I want to play in the latest decklist. Often times I get bored of playing the same old stuff and want to try something refreshing. If I remain patient I will eventually have the opportunity to play more decks thus giving me a great variety.
You forgot the M10 "Duals" eg Sunpetal Grove....
Agreed that Knight should be cast first for two reasons.
1. He is always an immediate removal target from your opponent. He can take the STP while you cast Terravore next turn.
2. If he isn't removed he can position your board to control the environment either via wastelands or card advantage through canopy.
You are right that Terravore is your win condition usually as he has trample, but I still think Knight is more important. First of all if your opponent casts relic or crypt and you have no answer your Terravore DIES. Knight doesn't die, he becomes a 2/2 body that is capable of building himself back up. Your example about deathtouch makes sense except that creatures sees minimal play tbh. Plus why attack, just dig for STP and remove him. I guess if you are trying to get those last few points in than Terravore would be a better option.
You make great points, I just want everyone to not underestimate Knight in this deck.
I would totaly agree with Paul here : to fetch often fills the same role in a monocolored than in a multicolored deck, except in black deck (too life greedy).
That said, it is important to realize that the fetchlands have drawbacks. The life drawback is well known, but there is another drawback not very famous. As well mentioned, fetchs are allowing to the deck to 1) get easier its colors, 2) to optimize the "non land" draws. True. But it also decreases the global number of mana & lands available in a deck. Running 20 lands with 10 manaland + 10 fetch means that the maximum amount of mana from lands simoultaneously available is 10. Runnning 20 lands with 20 manalands means that this maximum is 20. That is a difference that must be taken in count when you're deckbuilding, especialy regarding the cmc of the cards you're running : running fetch = to have your color faster, but to get less mana on board in mid/late game. In other words, if your deck is running 5cmc cards and a lot of fetch, you will almost always have faster the colors you need, but you would probably wait longer for getting your 5 lneeded and on the board to cast it. That is why almost every competitive decks have to play both dual & fetch and are not running only fetchs...
Of these things currently and am trying to convince some of my friends that don't play much to get into it more. I can pretty much get these practices in use by them, but the big "missing" piece(which I'm sure is somewhere) is a list of staples, or must haves. I have my own version but we differ on main colors or types of cards, aggro vs combo, etc... anyone have a link or an article that contains this info? Or multiple links based on format, etc? Would be much appreciated...
I didn't read all of the article, mostly because I already have an Eye of the Storm deck that is ridunculous, but sounds like that last part is not a bug at all.
If Eye is already in play, then when Reins of Power is cast, it will get exiled, EVEN IF you attempt to counter it. You have to counter the copy, not the original. All the triggers should work.
Deck thinning has a marginal impact on your draws, but not zero impact.
I really disagree with "don't draft" that isn't a concept I'd go by at all... if you're going to buy packs you might as well draft with them, sure you won't get a whole bunch of fantastic cards, but you can't go into it thinking like that, rare-drafting isn't what it used to be, but you still have the opportunity to build your own packs and not keep filling up at a certain card... not to mention you have the potential to win extra packs.. if you're going to open the packs any ways why not try to win more?
I know I might get flamed for this, but you could always do as I do. I have a credit card soley for online purchases (ebay, amazon, mtgo, etc). How did I get 1x of each original dual land? I bought one of each from MTGOtraders. Cost me $150 at that time, paid off the credit card over the next month and have loved it since. If you are willing to allot X amount of money per week to MTGO, why not use that same allotment towards paying off the credit card? Saves on complaining. I've actually been debating doing that to get me up to 4x of the duals I wish I had 4 of, like Tiaga and Savanah. Oh and Paul is correct. Deck thinning is a good idea no matter what kind of deck it is.... with the exception of monoblack that is using Dark Confidant or Ad Nauseum.
I should add to this, before anyone screws themselves with credit card debt, that I do not have a weekly/monthly MTGO amount. I spend about $100 every time a new set comes out to get the cards I want from the set and then that's the last I spend, with the exception of incidentals like commons and uncommons.
I am one who thinks that the format will be ok, but I do agree they've really set it up to fail. With the times these events happen, even if I finish spending the big money on a deck to join up I won't be able to make it 90% of the time.... those 9pm start times end up being midnight or so on the east coast and then I'm going to play a couple hours in a tourny? Yea I don't think so. These times are well and good for those on the west coast, but it sucks here and I can only imagine for the European players as well, very few people can stay up all night to play
To sum my opinion up, I would say that Daze is sick when it allows you to do a 2 in 1, idealy something like stifle+daze.So its role is mostly limited to first turns. Early game, I much prefer to keep one island untapped to stifle with Daze/FoW backup than to use that untapped island to snare or pierce. The tempo loss due the bounced island is often less important than the board position increasement your counter provides on the game at this moment. The ability to get a Daze back up when you're casting you knight/terra T3 is a house, as it means a T4 attack vs a T5 attack if you want to wait for an untapped island to get a counter back up with pierce/snare. Older version of this deck ran d.mox : with that kind of mana artifact, I think pierce / snare would be really good; but without them, I think a "no mana" counter is pretty important.
But you are also correct, it is heavy depending of the meta. In a gob/merf/DnT meta I would prefer Daze without doubt. In a control and/or heavy discard meta, pierce & snare could be better. Daze & alternatives being almost similar regarding combo decks.
Yeah, that sounds about right. The 1 damage is negligible in most decks. Black decks with cards like Bitterblossom, Dark Confidant, and Phyrexian Arena being popular can lead to the justification of not running fetches.
Regarding the entire deck synergy, I agree with you that knight are better. Regarding win con, I still believe that terra is more important. The fact is that often knight was too slow in my games. I often casted him more to attract StP than to really take advantage of its ability. If you manage to activate knight once, you gain a lot of all (tempo, creature power ...), but it is rare I could use it. The heavy number of fetch + horizon the deck is running AND the lands in opponent's graveyard were usualy enough to make of terravore a pretty dangerous creature. Plus, to attack with terra provide much more damage in average than with knights due to trample (either unblocked or bloked with additional damages to the defender). The correct play is almost all the time to play knight before terra, but in my games, terra was the most important vector of win. In example, if the defender has a vampire nighthawk in play, to attack with knights, even 12/12, doesnt do anything except killing his creature and mine. But to attack with the 10/10 terra in the same situation will kill his creature + provide 7 damages (and my creature as well).
That said, I think this deck cannot be as effective as it currently is without knights : reliquary provide synergy and consistency to the deck but also a decent second chance to win if you loosed the first turns tempo race.
Agree also about stifle : to well play stifle is a key skill to perform with that deck in tourney. Stifle enters in the mana denial strategy, but also insures to the deck a reasonnable resistance to graveyard hate and massive removal (and many unexpected difficulties).
It seems to be even more important in the round 2 & 3, once the SBing done.
I've seen decklists before without fetches and always wondered why. I know some mono black lists in Legacy do not run fetches. I can only assume it is because of the one point damage when you are already feeling damage from Dark Confidant.
I don't necessarily disagree, but in a Landstill Meta (which appears where we are), I think the tempo loss with daze is to much. Our creature clock is T3 at best. If we daze we are looking at T4 which is the same casting cost as Jace. We need to be faster than them. They run enough lands that stifle on fetch isn't the correct play imo. Matter of fact you almost have to keep stifle back for deed as most lists run 2-3 main.
I do agree snare and pierce do nothing against goblins and with the diceroll nothing against merfolk. They simply become dead cards or fodder for FOW. Although snare does work against Weirding which can be crucial.
I'm still not sold on the snares or pierce and still not totally against daze. I think there are options worth exploring in those slots. I seem to always side in Meddling Mage, maybe it deserves a look in the maindeck, is also pitchable to FOW which shouldn't be underestimated. Isn't this why we love magic, we can change up things all the time and neither one of us can be right as both lists are proven to be effective.
I gotta admit, drafting is a bit addictive, but I'm gonna have to curb myself. I can't go to FNMs due to my work schedule (4pm - 1am bleh, and I work every Friday), so I'm just gonna have to hold off on drafting until I get ahead in the tix count.
I do fully intend to put these practices into... practice... :P Favorited!
in my opinion, Daze should stay in the deck. Yes, it provides nothing vs Landstill or heavy mana decks, but it remains a solid counter in the 2/3 first turn. And these turns are the most important to New Horizon, this is when the opponent late is done. Daze drawback is tempo (to early bounce an island isnt a really good thing) but with stifle & waste, it works crazy well. A T1 island untapped into stifle opponent's fetch with daze backup is one of the best start this deck could provide. Either the cost to counter is heavy to the opponent (the only solution is often FoW = -1 free counter + - 1 blue card) or the tempo gain for you is huge. I cant remember how many time I blessed daze T1 when i countered vial, lackey, dark ritual, mox or top with daze using the mana left to brainstorm or even stifle a fetch...
That said, i agree a SB replacement vs Landstill is something to think about seriously.
I agree with Paul here. Deck thinning with fetchlands means getting land to the field now. The less land in your deck and the more land on your field increases the chances of drawing spells when you need them. I'd hate to be at 5 green mana with a field full of little Elves, hoping to hit an Overrun next turn, only to pick up yet another Forest. (Of course I could hit another non-vital spell as well, but at least I can use it.)
The idea is, once you've hit the top of your curve, you just don't need extra land. Fetchlands help with that.
I agree that Terravore is very important, however I think Knight is the most important creature in the deck. The knights simply shut down opponents manabases, plus they easily can fetch the fetchlands and Canopys to make your Knights and Terravores bigger. Not to mention Tabernacle from the board or even Bojuka Bog if you are running it can be back breaking. While the deck doesn't completely play like Thresh, it does want to protect it's creatures because of the small amount they run. You are right in saying that Terravore runs over people, but still he is often times needing to attack at least a few times hence the simliarities to thresh. The difference between this and thresh is that in thresh playing a turn 1 nimble isn't a bad play. In this deck playing a turn 3 Knight or Terravore can be a bad play without the proper back up plan because the creature is easily targeted.
@ Stifle - stifle on your opps fetchlands is an important strategy but be careful and use it wisely. You don't run very many blue cards to support Force of Will. Often times an opp can recover from a stifled fetch. I think saving stifle for things like crypt and relic or Engineered Explosives might be a better play in games 2 and 3.
@ the format - I think with release events things slowed down, after the events I believe the format will start moving again.
Yea I wish I had not submitted this article before going 4-0 in the Daily Event with New Horizons.
In that event I did remove the dazes and 1 land and replaced them with 3 spell pierce and 2 spell snare. Still not sure I like this option either, but I just didn't like the tempo loss from Daze. There have been times I've missed Daze though. You just have to play a little more conservatively I suppose.
My decklist for those interested:
Lands (22)
4 Wasteland
4 Horizon Canopy
3 Flooded Strand
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
1 Karakas
Creatures (11)
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Terravore
Spells (27)
2 Spell Snare
3 Spell Pierce
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Stifle
4 STP
4 Ponder
2 Engineered Explosives
Sideboard (15)
2 Faerie Macabre
3 Hydroblast
3 Krosan Grip
3 Meddling Mage
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
Round 1 vs. - Death and Taxes W 2-1
Round 2 vs. - Merfolk W 2-0
Round 3 vs. - Rogue with Winter Orb/Propaganda/Jace Berlen W 2-1
Round 4 vs. - Astral Slide W 2-0
good stuff, too bad you missed out on including the more recent 4-0 DE
you mention not liking Daze, but are you offering another option? Or did you just decide it was the best option available?
New Horizon is a deck I praticed and I am still practicing a lot currently (I did around 40/50 matches with it, mostly vs tournament competitive decks&players). I started to share my experiences with the decks on CQ.com if you are interested in. There are some points I would like to add to your article because I realized recently that it is hard for some players to understand why this build is different than other without having tested it.
Firstly my feeling : this deck is very strong. Much more than I expected at the beginning in fact. If there is no 'auto-wins' match up, there isnt any 'auto loose' matchup also as you mentionned : the deck is extremly versatile and always proves consistency. Just try it.
Secondly, the deck it self. One of the biggest strengh of this deck is to provide a HUGE tempo control. Sure, thresh family is used to generate good decks built around tempo gains as everybody knows (especialy canadian thresh versions ...), but, really, new horizons creates a new level in tempo control. The natural tempo control suite (stifle/waste) found pretty good complements : canopy provides mana (W or G), draws and creature's upgrades (knight & terra like it). With canopy you could also combinate differents effects (ex : fetch canopy with knights then draw in example) for multiple tricks (to upgrade defense + to dig your deck).
The second major tempo gain is directly bound to creature choice : if tarmo is the "auto include in all aggro/control deck and in almost all UG decks", knights & terra are the real threats of this deck. Regarding win con, Terravore is by far the most important as its trample ability must be considered here as an evasive ability. In that, I not totaly agree with you when you say " It wants to get a creature on the board, protect it, clear its path and dispose of the opponent via a slow painful death of turn after turn attacking. "
In fact, one advantage of playing new horizon over thresh is that Terravore doesnt really need to get a cleared path. A turn 5-6 terravore is often a 8/8 trample creature for GG1. It is HUGE, especialy because you also warped the opponent tempo with mana denials & counters. The decks running a decent response to that kind of creatures are rare. When your best critter is a 5/6 tarmo or a 3/3 mongoose, you often need to clear the way (if you opponent cast a topdecked tarmo in example). With terravore you dont need. That is a sick tempo gain : your creatures are simply better & faster than any opponent threats at the same game step and need less turns to win (3 turns to kill is often the maximum with a 10/10 trample). And there are also knights (often 7/7 to 10/10 creatures)... Tarmo is here the tiniest creature, usualy the blocker. With 11 huge creatures and many deck diggers (brainstorm, ponder...) new horizon is able to provide a real "aggro wave" with 1 creatures (> 7/7) per turn once the tempo race won. This is why the way to play news horizon is different than thresh in my experience : thresh should try to control opponent during all the game, tempo tools helping there. New horizon extinguishes the opponent for 3/4 turns and then some fatties before he can fill its late... whatever if you can still control him or not at this time, 10/10 creatures just win the game.
Only my opinion, good article.
About the death of the format, I am one of thoses thinking that it will never happen. Maybe because I love this format so much that I dont believe it could happen (over optimistic maybe ?). That said, I strongly agree with your point about infernal schedules (especialy true for european players as I am) : this helps nor satisfies anybody ... except the non-eternal players. The buy-in is also to discuss btw.
Regarding the possible bugs: Ink-treader Nephilim copying a countered spell, I'm not sure whether this is a bug or not. Assuming you played Mana Drain on the Chain Lightning before the Nephilim trigger resolves, then when the trigger resolves the spell is no longer on the stack and no longer targeting the Nephilim. So it would seem that "if Ink-treader Nephilim is the only target of the spell" is no longer true, and the ability would do nothing, _except_ that it might use the "last known information" of the spell, which is that it targeted Ink-treader Nephilim. I'm not quite sure.
As for the Eye trigger not working with a countered Reins of Power, that's definitely a bug. The Reins is countered so Eye can't exile it, but the trigger will keep resolving and should copy all the other spells.
Either I hope lots of people read this, or I hope they don't so I can continue to buy their drafted cards cheaply.