If you have other relevant cards against the deck you don't need to side cards like Golgari Charm (since I have no idea how your deck and SB looks like I can't comment on that, but I suppose you have better cards than Golgari Charm^_^). Sideboard plan depends on the deck you run and on what cards actually you need to deal with. So saying something like 'sideboarding Golgari Charm against Show and Tell is bad' is something we could talk for ages. Even though I can agree with this there are reasons to side Golgari Charm under certain circumstances. They depend on many factors though. Be it your deck, bad sideboard, too many dead cards against the matchup etc. Usually it goes hand in hand but you get my point.
I run Golgari Charm in my SB to deal with Empty the Warrens, Elves, Death and Taxes and True-Name Nemesis. And to be honest I like the card because it gives options. The Charm is not there specifically for Show and Tell matchup obviously. But it can help since I have other cards that are worse, there is no downside to having the card in the deck after game 1.
As for the Golgari Charm, many players won't keep mana open for counterspell but rather keep mana for the activation. They will either want to kill you with the fatty they already have in their hand or search for another one (Sneak Attack, creature or actual counterspell so their Sneak Attack can stick). You'd be actually surprised how many Emrakul attacks I survived. Thanks to Golgari Charm I was able to get enough time to come back into the game and win. Needled Griselbrand and destroyed Sneak Attack is also "good position". Talking about a deck that has like 35/65 matchup against Sneak and Show.
I primarily side in Golgari Charm against Show and Tell because it deals with Blood Moon. Resolved Blood Moon usually means 'concede' for me.
Sneak and Show is very resilient to decks that are rather slow. In the era of midrange decks it can fair pretty well.
Thank you stsung for your comments, which were very helpful.
I thought it interesting that you would side in GOLGARI CHARM against Sneak & Show. I am a Golgari Depths player, and I have access to Golgari Charm in my board, but I would not generally bring in Golgari Charm against Sneak & Show because all they need is to cast Sneak Attack with one red mana spare, and then they can activate Sneak Attack to bring in Emrakul or Griselbrand, and Golgari Charm is useless against the card Show & Tell. Plus, a single activation of Sneak Attack is usually all they need to secure the game, so removing the enchantment is probably too late to make a difference to the result. Nonetheless, I respect your choice, and I'm sure that Golgari Charm will help sometimes.
I guess it reinforces my point about how the deck is so resilient to hate - even your Golgari Charm can be thwarted by the Sneak & Show player who is able to keep 1 extra red mana available for the activation.
Actually your Sneak and Show post made me think about something I could possibly write in the future. I guess it was written already by who knows how many players. It is important to recognize a deck you are playing against fast if you are on Show and Tell. (not that much experienced players will still get many free wins just by playing the deck 'somehow' since they won't fear much and will just proactively play the deck. Few mirror matches will teach them though^_^). So I guess I might write about this a bit in the future.
I can't be angry about this. Thx for the comment. It just surprised me a bit. In general I'm not a big fan of Sneak and Show. If I would have to play something 'similar' I'd rather play Reanimator or Omni-Tell. Reanimator can be hated out though way more and one needs to be way more careful when playing the deck. Omni-Tell is actually a very nice deck that can also play Sneak Attack and surprise many players but can also kill them with Release the Ants. It is more complex though but many players don't know how to play against it which is an advantage on the other hand.
1. I was trying to come up with a reasonable answer but I couldn't come up with it. The thing is that Death and Taxes is what comes to my mind. Not single cards. Ensnaring Bridge and Pithing Needle are nice but can be bounced. If you will play against a Sneak and Show player knowing his deck he will sideboard cards to help him fight your sideboard cards and since there are 2 to 3 ways how to cheat the creatures into play it might not help you since you usually sideboard against those and they are fairly different. You can have Needle in play but opponent will play Show and Tell into Emrakul. If you have some REBs your opponent will go Sneak Attack -> Griselbrand -> Emrakul. Anyway since this deck has more countermagic than any other deck practically it is difficult to win a counterwar unless you run more Flusterstorms and actually have them in hand. Flusterstorm is the card that I fear the most since it is difficult to counter. You can deal with majority of hate. Jace or Liliana that sneak in after a counterwar are pretty bad as well but those are MD cards.
Karakas is a card that you can go around with Sneak Attack and it will be a nice Mountain post-board. There is actually more Karakas cards than you might think. Many decks play the card. From Lands, Death and Taxes, Miracles, Maverick to Cloudpost. Even some decks that don't need the card just sideboard it against decks like Show and Tell. It does not help much but from time to time it wins the one game you need to win a match in a big tournament. Many decks can search for the card easily actually. Blue decks have more time to look for it so the fact that you can't tutor it isn't that big an issue.
So in general cards that I fear are actually creatures because you can't really deal with them. For example I would name Xantid Swarm as the feared card. But it is not because it stops Show and Tell but because you can easily die to Tendrils of Agony next turn. Even though this matchup is favorable for Sneak and Show it can be a problem if you don't have Pyroclasm/FoW etc. Venser and Vendilion Clique are also as annoying as they can be and can ruin the game for the Sneak and Show player in many ways.
2. I faced Emrakul when playing against Elves. But otherwise, no. People tend to play cards like Oblivion Ring, Angel of Despair/Ashen Rider, Sower of Temptation. But I personally always cut those slots for something and else and rather ignored this matchup in general. In KTK Sneak and Show meta I just played 2 Flusterstorm, 2 Golgari Charm and hoped to be lucky.
note: please, do not call me Jaroslava (people don't call me that), stsung is fine.
Paul, I am glad that your Duplicant worked! I admire anyone who can hit Sneak & Show players with good sideboard tech.
Jaroslava, I know your article was not about Sneak & Show decks but about choosing a legacy deck, so I hope you're not angry at Paul and I for focusing on Sneak & Show strategies!
I typically feel similarly about burn but mostly because many players pilot the archetype suboptimally or in a linear fashion that works great if your opponent isn't playing something unfair (like reanimate or/show n tell Griselbrand). But a really good burn pilot will probably have a plan to deal with your 7 toughness demon if only after sideboarding.
As to Karakas, there are methods by which decks can find it easily enough: KotR, Crop Rotation and Tolaria West for example. Not sure how relevant it is in the format though as aside from Emrakul and Griselbrand there aren't too many juicy targets for it.
I once stopped a S&T deck with duplicant. That was funny. Opponent rage quit once he realized what I'd done.
Show & Tell is a very potent deck. I have played it hundreds of times with proxies, and I love laughing when certain matchups come against me, in particular the many "glass cannon" decks.
For example, Show & Tell vs BURN! This matchup is a massacre (in Show & Tell's favour). As a non-Burn player, I always enjoy watching Burn players go down! Secretly to myself I say "Griselbrand has now hit the board on Turn 2. Deal with THAT please!".
Jaroslava, can I ask you two questions?
1. When playing Show & Tell, what sideboard cards of an opponent do you most fear? I ask this because I often find it challenging to hate out Sneak & Show when it comes against me. If, for example, I use Pithing Needle to stop Griselbrand or Sneak Attack, I can then find myself being smashed by Emrakul or Show & Tell.
The fact that the deck comes at you from multiple angles, and has tonnes of cheap countermagic back-up (as well as Brainstorm to thwart Thoughtseize and Duress and the like) makes it very hard to hate out in my opinion.
Another reason the deck is hard to hate out is because the very threats that you have to deal with (Griselbrand and Emrakul, and in particular Griselbrand) are resilient to removal. Swords to Plowshares and Liliana, for example, are woefully inadequate against a Griselbrand that has not been stabbed with the Needle beforehand.
Even cards like Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon are useless against Sneak & Show, because the sneak player has countermagic and because of their Lotus Petals, and also because Sneak Attack requires only red mana.
For these reasons, I consider Sneak & Show players to be the "Slippery Bogles" of Legacy. The flavor text on the card Slippery Bogle expresses perfectly what I think of Sneak & Show players. (I challenge you to try resist the temptation to NOT look up the flavor text of the card Slippery Bogle . . . . . ok by now I'm sure you failed to resist the temptation, so you now know why I think Sneak & Show players taste good).
The deck I own in Legacy is Hexmage Depths (not the typical Sultai Depths version, but my own Golgari brew), so I can't bring in ENSNARING BRIDGE from the sideboard but I can bring in KARAKAS against Sneak & Show. But do you think that Karakas is generally worthwhile in sideboards of non-Dark Depths decks, given that they will not be able to search for it when they need it?
2. My second question is: Has anyone hated you out using an Emrakul from a sideboard? I don't recommend such a sideboard strategy, because it is a card which is useless against all other matchups and because it only stops Show & Tell, not Sneak Attack.
This block's storyline is my favorite in a while. I hated Khans, and BFZ had a very badly-written cartoon villain in Ob Nixilis, but this one has been very enjoyable, and Emrakul just fits nicely in my opinion. Nothing on the level of The Thran (which remains my favorite Magic novel) and Brothers' War, but much better than the last couple of blocks.
You do realize that Phyrexians and planeswalkers were in the game from the very start, right?
I have several issues with Magic's ongoing storyline. I hate it that they're going after tired superhero tropes with the planeswalkers, for example, and I absolutely loathed the time-travelling shenanigans in Khans block. That said, I'd much rather they do their own thing than endlessly rehash Tolkien, that's for sure.
Thanks for the comment!
When I build decks (especially those that are weak) I usually put some kind of combo in the deck. It does not need to be super efficient or something but should give me a way how to win the game against decks that are in general stronger (or so I could end the game when it just goes out of hand, happens when the players at the table are incapable of figuring out what are the real threats at the table and the game just goes awry).
In this case the primary win condition is swinging with some (noncreature) artifacts. I usually manage to deal about 15 damage with them, my opponent usually helps a bit. So in the end I need to deal about 15 damage with those Thopters and that is something you can do in 2-3 turns.
It takes some crazy clicking for few minutes but nothing that couldn't be managed. For some reason it usually costs more time for my opponents than me. (it's faster than Punishing Fire and Grove of the Burnwillows though)
Often the Thopter tokens are just giving me time so I could stabilize with Staff of Nin, Sydri or get Tezzeret to ultimate ability.
So well, yes, the combo is slow, but this deck is slow as well.
MtG started out 'building on/taking from' Tolkien's world, and wotc should never have left that.
Phyrexia, Mirrans, Emrakul, Jace and whatnot is so tragically bad that Garfield would have turned in his grave if he was dead, which he isnt, which is very good.
I guess I didn't articulate that part of it here though I did on the FFTR podcast perhaps less clearly but still. Rehashing tired tropes isn't particularly good advertising for the game, imho. Perhaps this is what happens when creative gets put on rails...
I think you may be misunderstanding/misconstruing the Cthulhu connection here in that the games particularly Call of Cthulhu tend to pit the players against the elder gods (well mostly their minions) in an attempt to stop them. It isn't that they win but that they die or go mad (more often than not) trying. So this isn't so much about the purity of Lovecraft but the books influencing the games, influencing culture, influencing THIS game.
As to the flavor/story I feel similarly. Gonna put it down to us being grumpy old men. Well Grumpy anyway.
LongTimeGone, I believe you're right that they won't beat Emrakul once and for all.
I think the story is getting quite interesting, I don't think that the plot is on a level lower than what was in The Brothers War novel.
And as to the Eldridch Moon video trailer, credit to the Wizards team. Seeing Liliana's zombies rushing towards Emrakul was.....well it was stunning! I don't remember something on that level since the New Phyrexia trailer.
I don't think we are going to see the same story on Innistrad as we did on Zendikar, they won't beat Emrakul.
Emrakul also won't destroy Innistrad. One of the magic stories a while back, Kozilek showed up and they were giving us the perspective of someone who's mind was being taken over and become a thrall to Kozilek. It's mentioned that Kozilek, for all his power, is a poor creator, nothing like his eldest sibling, presumably Emrakul.
Ugin seemed to be hinting that the 3 titans had some sort of natural balance, and it's looking like Ulamog was the blind destroyer to Emrakul's blind creation.
A couple of my Vintage Brain decks:
Uncounterable version
2 Underground Sea
2 Deathrite Shaman
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
3 Exquisite Firecraft
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Timetwister
1 Gifts Ungiven
2 Brain in a Jar
1 Breaking/Entering
1 Griselbrand
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
2 Unburial Rites
1 Beck/Call
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Sphinx of the Final Word
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Flooded Strand
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Volcanic Island
1 Tundra
1 Tropical Island
3 Monastery Mentor
1 Noxious Revival
1 Plateau
1 Bayou
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Enlightened Tutor
These are tentative because still early stages of tinkering. Feel free to borrow, steal, delete, use, mangle, improve or otherwise spindle these lists at your leisure.
Thank you stsung for your thoughts on this topic. Kindly noted.
I look forward to your next article, as Legacy is my No.1 format.
Thanks,
Michelle
I did not know that phyrexians and planeswalkers were in the game from the beginning. Examples ?
Rehashing Tolkien is the only thing to do, creating NEW fantasy is completely hopeless and extremely hard.
You would have to be hollywood or marvel or smth to make some NEW fantasy work.
But thats my opinion =)
If you have other relevant cards against the deck you don't need to side cards like Golgari Charm (since I have no idea how your deck and SB looks like I can't comment on that, but I suppose you have better cards than Golgari Charm^_^). Sideboard plan depends on the deck you run and on what cards actually you need to deal with. So saying something like 'sideboarding Golgari Charm against Show and Tell is bad' is something we could talk for ages. Even though I can agree with this there are reasons to side Golgari Charm under certain circumstances. They depend on many factors though. Be it your deck, bad sideboard, too many dead cards against the matchup etc. Usually it goes hand in hand but you get my point.
I run Golgari Charm in my SB to deal with Empty the Warrens, Elves, Death and Taxes and True-Name Nemesis. And to be honest I like the card because it gives options. The Charm is not there specifically for Show and Tell matchup obviously. But it can help since I have other cards that are worse, there is no downside to having the card in the deck after game 1.
As for the Golgari Charm, many players won't keep mana open for counterspell but rather keep mana for the activation. They will either want to kill you with the fatty they already have in their hand or search for another one (Sneak Attack, creature or actual counterspell so their Sneak Attack can stick). You'd be actually surprised how many Emrakul attacks I survived. Thanks to Golgari Charm I was able to get enough time to come back into the game and win. Needled Griselbrand and destroyed Sneak Attack is also "good position". Talking about a deck that has like 35/65 matchup against Sneak and Show.
I primarily side in Golgari Charm against Show and Tell because it deals with Blood Moon. Resolved Blood Moon usually means 'concede' for me.
Sneak and Show is very resilient to decks that are rather slow. In the era of midrange decks it can fair pretty well.
Thank you stsung for your comments, which were very helpful.
I thought it interesting that you would side in GOLGARI CHARM against Sneak & Show. I am a Golgari Depths player, and I have access to Golgari Charm in my board, but I would not generally bring in Golgari Charm against Sneak & Show because all they need is to cast Sneak Attack with one red mana spare, and then they can activate Sneak Attack to bring in Emrakul or Griselbrand, and Golgari Charm is useless against the card Show & Tell. Plus, a single activation of Sneak Attack is usually all they need to secure the game, so removing the enchantment is probably too late to make a difference to the result. Nonetheless, I respect your choice, and I'm sure that Golgari Charm will help sometimes.
I guess it reinforces my point about how the deck is so resilient to hate - even your Golgari Charm can be thwarted by the Sneak & Show player who is able to keep 1 extra red mana available for the activation.
Actually your Sneak and Show post made me think about something I could possibly write in the future. I guess it was written already by who knows how many players. It is important to recognize a deck you are playing against fast if you are on Show and Tell. (not that much experienced players will still get many free wins just by playing the deck 'somehow' since they won't fear much and will just proactively play the deck. Few mirror matches will teach them though^_^). So I guess I might write about this a bit in the future.
I can't be angry about this. Thx for the comment. It just surprised me a bit. In general I'm not a big fan of Sneak and Show. If I would have to play something 'similar' I'd rather play Reanimator or Omni-Tell. Reanimator can be hated out though way more and one needs to be way more careful when playing the deck. Omni-Tell is actually a very nice deck that can also play Sneak Attack and surprise many players but can also kill them with Release the Ants. It is more complex though but many players don't know how to play against it which is an advantage on the other hand.
1. I was trying to come up with a reasonable answer but I couldn't come up with it. The thing is that Death and Taxes is what comes to my mind. Not single cards. Ensnaring Bridge and Pithing Needle are nice but can be bounced. If you will play against a Sneak and Show player knowing his deck he will sideboard cards to help him fight your sideboard cards and since there are 2 to 3 ways how to cheat the creatures into play it might not help you since you usually sideboard against those and they are fairly different. You can have Needle in play but opponent will play Show and Tell into Emrakul. If you have some REBs your opponent will go Sneak Attack -> Griselbrand -> Emrakul. Anyway since this deck has more countermagic than any other deck practically it is difficult to win a counterwar unless you run more Flusterstorms and actually have them in hand. Flusterstorm is the card that I fear the most since it is difficult to counter. You can deal with majority of hate. Jace or Liliana that sneak in after a counterwar are pretty bad as well but those are MD cards.
Karakas is a card that you can go around with Sneak Attack and it will be a nice Mountain post-board. There is actually more Karakas cards than you might think. Many decks play the card. From Lands, Death and Taxes, Miracles, Maverick to Cloudpost. Even some decks that don't need the card just sideboard it against decks like Show and Tell. It does not help much but from time to time it wins the one game you need to win a match in a big tournament. Many decks can search for the card easily actually. Blue decks have more time to look for it so the fact that you can't tutor it isn't that big an issue.
So in general cards that I fear are actually creatures because you can't really deal with them. For example I would name Xantid Swarm as the feared card. But it is not because it stops Show and Tell but because you can easily die to Tendrils of Agony next turn. Even though this matchup is favorable for Sneak and Show it can be a problem if you don't have Pyroclasm/FoW etc. Venser and Vendilion Clique are also as annoying as they can be and can ruin the game for the Sneak and Show player in many ways.
2. I faced Emrakul when playing against Elves. But otherwise, no. People tend to play cards like Oblivion Ring, Angel of Despair/Ashen Rider, Sower of Temptation. But I personally always cut those slots for something and else and rather ignored this matchup in general. In KTK Sneak and Show meta I just played 2 Flusterstorm, 2 Golgari Charm and hoped to be lucky.
note: please, do not call me Jaroslava (people don't call me that), stsung is fine.
Paul, I am glad that your Duplicant worked! I admire anyone who can hit Sneak & Show players with good sideboard tech.
Jaroslava, I know your article was not about Sneak & Show decks but about choosing a legacy deck, so I hope you're not angry at Paul and I for focusing on Sneak & Show strategies!
I typically feel similarly about burn but mostly because many players pilot the archetype suboptimally or in a linear fashion that works great if your opponent isn't playing something unfair (like reanimate or/show n tell Griselbrand). But a really good burn pilot will probably have a plan to deal with your 7 toughness demon if only after sideboarding.
As to Karakas, there are methods by which decks can find it easily enough: KotR, Crop Rotation and Tolaria West for example. Not sure how relevant it is in the format though as aside from Emrakul and Griselbrand there aren't too many juicy targets for it.
I once stopped a S&T deck with duplicant. That was funny. Opponent rage quit once he realized what I'd done.
Thanks Jaroslava for this article.
Show & Tell is a very potent deck. I have played it hundreds of times with proxies, and I love laughing when certain matchups come against me, in particular the many "glass cannon" decks.
For example, Show & Tell vs BURN! This matchup is a massacre (in Show & Tell's favour). As a non-Burn player, I always enjoy watching Burn players go down! Secretly to myself I say "Griselbrand has now hit the board on Turn 2. Deal with THAT please!".
Jaroslava, can I ask you two questions?
1. When playing Show & Tell, what sideboard cards of an opponent do you most fear? I ask this because I often find it challenging to hate out Sneak & Show when it comes against me. If, for example, I use Pithing Needle to stop Griselbrand or Sneak Attack, I can then find myself being smashed by Emrakul or Show & Tell.
The fact that the deck comes at you from multiple angles, and has tonnes of cheap countermagic back-up (as well as Brainstorm to thwart Thoughtseize and Duress and the like) makes it very hard to hate out in my opinion.
Another reason the deck is hard to hate out is because the very threats that you have to deal with (Griselbrand and Emrakul, and in particular Griselbrand) are resilient to removal. Swords to Plowshares and Liliana, for example, are woefully inadequate against a Griselbrand that has not been stabbed with the Needle beforehand.
Even cards like Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon are useless against Sneak & Show, because the sneak player has countermagic and because of their Lotus Petals, and also because Sneak Attack requires only red mana.
For these reasons, I consider Sneak & Show players to be the "Slippery Bogles" of Legacy. The flavor text on the card Slippery Bogle expresses perfectly what I think of Sneak & Show players. (I challenge you to try resist the temptation to NOT look up the flavor text of the card Slippery Bogle . . . . . ok by now I'm sure you failed to resist the temptation, so you now know why I think Sneak & Show players taste good).
The deck I own in Legacy is Hexmage Depths (not the typical Sultai Depths version, but my own Golgari brew), so I can't bring in ENSNARING BRIDGE from the sideboard but I can bring in KARAKAS against Sneak & Show. But do you think that Karakas is generally worthwhile in sideboards of non-Dark Depths decks, given that they will not be able to search for it when they need it?
2. My second question is: Has anyone hated you out using an Emrakul from a sideboard? I don't recommend such a sideboard strategy, because it is a card which is useless against all other matchups and because it only stops Show & Tell, not Sneak Attack.
Thanks,
Michelle
This block's storyline is my favorite in a while. I hated Khans, and BFZ had a very badly-written cartoon villain in Ob Nixilis, but this one has been very enjoyable, and Emrakul just fits nicely in my opinion. Nothing on the level of The Thran (which remains my favorite Magic novel) and Brothers' War, but much better than the last couple of blocks.
You do realize that Phyrexians and planeswalkers were in the game from the very start, right?
I have several issues with Magic's ongoing storyline. I hate it that they're going after tired superhero tropes with the planeswalkers, for example, and I absolutely loathed the time-travelling shenanigans in Khans block. That said, I'd much rather they do their own thing than endlessly rehash Tolkien, that's for sure.
Thanks for this article, it was very helpful.
I'm glad that the Pulse of Murasa was mentioned, I like that tech in the right deck.
Thanks for the comment!
When I build decks (especially those that are weak) I usually put some kind of combo in the deck. It does not need to be super efficient or something but should give me a way how to win the game against decks that are in general stronger (or so I could end the game when it just goes out of hand, happens when the players at the table are incapable of figuring out what are the real threats at the table and the game just goes awry).
In this case the primary win condition is swinging with some (noncreature) artifacts. I usually manage to deal about 15 damage with them, my opponent usually helps a bit. So in the end I need to deal about 15 damage with those Thopters and that is something you can do in 2-3 turns.
It takes some crazy clicking for few minutes but nothing that couldn't be managed. For some reason it usually costs more time for my opponents than me. (it's faster than Punishing Fire and Grove of the Burnwillows though)
Often the Thopter tokens are just giving me time so I could stabilize with Staff of Nin, Sydri or get Tezzeret to ultimate ability.
So well, yes, the combo is slow, but this deck is slow as well.
MtG started out 'building on/taking from' Tolkien's world, and wotc should never have left that.
Phyrexia, Mirrans, Emrakul, Jace and whatnot is so tragically bad that Garfield would have turned in his grave if he was dead, which he isnt, which is very good.
I guess I didn't articulate that part of it here though I did on the FFTR podcast perhaps less clearly but still. Rehashing tired tropes isn't particularly good advertising for the game, imho. Perhaps this is what happens when creative gets put on rails...
Double post = /
My issue with the story was different. We, yet again, have =: mystery-->Jace comes-->Jace solves mystery-->Jace + friends fight off the problem.
I don't like Jace all that much, and using him to have a story they've done repeatedly now is getting old.
I think you may be misunderstanding/misconstruing the Cthulhu connection here in that the games particularly Call of Cthulhu tend to pit the players against the elder gods (well mostly their minions) in an attempt to stop them. It isn't that they win but that they die or go mad (more often than not) trying. So this isn't so much about the purity of Lovecraft but the books influencing the games, influencing culture, influencing THIS game.
As to the flavor/story I feel similarly. Gonna put it down to us being grumpy old men. Well Grumpy anyway.
LongTimeGone, I believe you're right that they won't beat Emrakul once and for all.
I think the story is getting quite interesting, I don't think that the plot is on a level lower than what was in The Brothers War novel.
And as to the Eldridch Moon video trailer, credit to the Wizards team. Seeing Liliana's zombies rushing towards Emrakul was.....well it was stunning! I don't remember something on that level since the New Phyrexia trailer.
Fun deck. I tried running the Foundry/Sword combo (admittedly a while ago) and found it was just too slow. Interesting that it works for you tho.
I don't think we are going to see the same story on Innistrad as we did on Zendikar, they won't beat Emrakul.
Emrakul also won't destroy Innistrad. One of the magic stories a while back, Kozilek showed up and they were giving us the perspective of someone who's mind was being taken over and become a thrall to Kozilek. It's mentioned that Kozilek, for all his power, is a poor creator, nothing like his eldest sibling, presumably Emrakul.
Ugin seemed to be hinting that the 3 titans had some sort of natural balance, and it's looking like Ulamog was the blind destroyer to Emrakul's blind creation.
Thanks Pete for your helpful update.
A couple of my Vintage Brain decks:
Uncounterable version
2 Underground Sea
2 Deathrite Shaman
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
3 Exquisite Firecraft
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Timetwister
1 Gifts Ungiven
2 Brain in a Jar
1 Breaking/Entering
1 Griselbrand
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
2 Unburial Rites
1 Beck/Call
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Sphinx of the Final Word
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Flooded Strand
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Volcanic Island
1 Tundra
1 Tropical Island
3 Monastery Mentor
1 Noxious Revival
1 Plateau
1 Bayou
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Trygon Predator
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Altered Ego
2 Nature's Claim
2 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Dragonlord Dromoka
Disruptive Version:
2 Underground Sea
2 Deathrite Shaman
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
3 Exquisite Firecraft
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Gifts Ungiven
2 Brain in a Jar
1 Breaking/Entering
1 Griselbrand
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
2 Unburial Rites
1 Beck/Call
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Sphinx of the Final Word
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Flooded Strand
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Volcanic Island
1 Tundra
1 Tropical Island
3 Monastery Mentor
1 Noxious Revival
1 Plateau
1 Bayou
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Enlightened Tutor
2 Thoughtseize
2 Cabal Therapy
1 Trygon Predator
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Nature's Claim
2 Dragonlord Dromoka
2 Cabal Therapy
These are tentative because still early stages of tinkering. Feel free to borrow, steal, delete, use, mangle, improve or otherwise spindle these lists at your leisure.
Just wanted to let you guys know that this is great fun and it really rejuvenated my love of the game. Keep it up :)
Great stuff - sure wish Wizards would make more 'retrace' cards...by far my fav. mechanic ever.