Comments on: Return to the PPTQ Grind: Week 0

By: David Ernenwein

David Ernenwein — Sun, 22 Jul 2018 01:14:57 +0000

In reply to Nathan.

The main reason is that Mutavault isn’t evasive. In Merfolk the lords pump vault and give islandwalk so it doesn’t matter. In Spirits vault does still get pumped, but then it has to contend with opposing ground pounders which are usually bigger. Therefore it doesn’t actually help Spirits go wide on the attack or spread opposing resources.

The main secondary reason is that it’s not necessary. Mutavault is primarily meant for grindy matchups as a way to dodge sorcery speed removal. Spirits, played well, is pretty insulated from sorceries and dominates control. Mutavault doesn’t add anything to that. The other reason is that Ghost Quarter is far better because it’s incredible in a lot of tricky matchups.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Sat, 21 Jul 2018 15:52:05 +0000

Hello David, love the articles! Just a quick question, and sorry if you’ve been asked this before, but why don”t you run Mutavaults in your Spirit decks? Many thanks

By: Alex Bonin

Alex Bonin — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 19:07:00 +0000

In reply to David Ernenwein. Okay, I’m not crazy haha. UW will probably be a good choice for my meta then.

By: David Ernenwein

David Ernenwein — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 18:28:45 +0000

In reply to Alex Bonin. Nah, it's bad. It was ok for a while because Geist into counters was fast enough, but locally they're all on GR with all the sweepers so that doesn't work anymore. If Tron was still mono-green that would be a different story.

By: Alex Bonin

Alex Bonin — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 17:35:03 +0000

Is uwr tempo’s Tron match that good for you, David? I’d expect something for them in the 15(say, where the spell snares are). Tron’s prevalent at my LGS(all flavours), so I’m hesistant to rep tempo.

By: David Ernenwein

David Ernenwein — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 04:25:05 +0000

In reply to Dan W..

I’d treat a convention like GenCon the same as a GP and assume that it will be a fairly accurate slice of the overall metagame. Unless something drastically changes in the next few weeks, Elves is not a big enough percentage of the metagame to worry about so I’d go in hoping to dodge.

Hibernation does have value against Bogles and random green aggro and/or devotion decks, so if you have a slot that’s pretty weak it’s not a bad card. There’s just a high likelihood it will never be used.

By: David Ernenwein

David Ernenwein — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 04:20:17 +0000

In reply to Zach Stackhouse. Same to you!

By: Dan W.

Dan W. — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 20:23:14 +0000

Hey David, great write up as always. As a U/W fish player I’d like to be prepared for as broad a field as possible. I’m headed to Gencon in the beginning of August and researching the region is a bit too tough for that kind of event for me, so I’m just sorta hoping to shore up my weaker match-ups. I think the threat of sweepers in u/w/x decks is obviously a problem, so I’m running 2 selfless spirits and an eerie interlude in my board. For affinity I’m running 2 stonys and 2 ceremonious rejections. 3 Rest in Peace for gy hate and KCI. The last five would usually be 3 deprives and two spellskites.

I know that I’m a dog to elves, are they worth shaking the board up for with hibernation, or should I just hope to dodge them?

By: Zach Stackhouse

Zach Stackhouse — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 19:41:58 +0000

Options are nice, but I’m locking myself into the same deck I’ve played all year (I mean it’s burn nothing crazy). Field is looking to be heavy on mardu, Pittsburgh has a big scene and a lot of players would prefer to leverage their knowledge and skill with midrange and control. So I’m basically betting on a close matchup against the most popular decks while hoping to run into a couple of ramp decks that are preying on those.

I’ve only played one PPTQ before, so this would make the first season I really dive in. Should be exciting, good luck!