Post-SCG Pittsburgh Update

Hello everyone, and thank you for the support this weekend while I had a really unbelievable run at Star City Games Pittsburgh. While I couldn't pull of the trifecta, I did manage to secure 2 trophies for myself :) 

SCG's Tweet for Reference  

SCG-winning list 

I have since added the sideboard guides for both the list I ran on Friday/Saturday as well as on Sunday to the SB charts that you can find here on multiple tabs

***Note: I've collapsed the 4C and Temur Rhinos into one column since I stopped boarding differently against them. Additionally, I have separated 4C Beans and 4C Rings. The Beans variant is for 4C decks that lack the Ring and focus entirely around Up the Beanstalk (specifically the cascade variants).

Deck Configuration Notes:

-Esper Sentinel - This card was legitimately great all weekend, and helps draw extra cards especially in the early game vs. all 4C variants.

-Nettlecyst - Cyst was fine but it is certainly something you can cut from the deck. Solid role-player in some matchups, but often a trap to grab with an SFM.

-Strict Proctor - Great vs. 4C Rings and Titan, but otherwise it's stock has waned since 4C beans doesn't need their Ring to trigger, and the downside of letting your OP keep a Fury around matters a lot more vs the versions that max out on both Solitude AND Fury.

-Mana Tithe - I've been *very* impressed by how well this card performs in the current meta. I found that if I was ever able to counter a Beans on the way down and followed up with any pressure, 4C often faltered and fell behind too much to recover. I definitely like 2, but 3 has been acceptable as well. ***Additionally, I think this card may be sneaky good vs. Scam, since it will almost always be able to tag a spell. Scam is a very low land-count deck, and often tries to operate on 1-land hands. In my last 3 matches against Scam in the tournament (The Finals, Quarterfinals, and round 2 of Sunday), I actually declined to bring in Sanctifiers and brought in Tithe instead. 

-Sanctifier - Honestly, I think this card kinda sucks, even against scam. Sanctifier is bad unless you can get a Hammer onto it, at which point every creature in your deck would be similarly good. In fact, Over the course of the event I only lost to Scam when I had played 1-2 copies of Sanctifier in games. I went something like 7-1 against Scam this weekend, and those wins simply were never due to Sanctifier. I am very comfortable just cutting this card entirely, especially with every RB Scam player ready to fight them with Bonecrusher Giants and Engineered Explosives.

No Paradise Mantle - With the advent of Tithe, and the increased rate of early interaction, I have found that having Mantle instead of the first drum to often be game-losing at the moment. I will stick with 3 drums for now, but if things slow down again I will revisit Mantle.