Decks to Beat: Next Level Blue

Next Level Blue by Tom Lapille - 1st at PTQ Pittsburg on 1/27/08
4 Chrome Mox
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Pithing Needle
4 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Tormod's Crypt
3 Vedalken Shackles
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Trinket Mage
4 Counterbalance
3 Threads Of Disloyalty
4 Counterspell
3 Spell Snare
4 Thirst For Knowledge
1 Tree Of Tales
8 Island
1 Breeding Pool
4 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Polluted Delta
1 Steam Vents
1 Academy Ruins

Sideboard:
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Sower Of Temptation
1 Threads Of Disloyalty
3 Ancient Grudge
2 Krosan Grip
2 Global Ruin

I really like this build! 4 Chrome Mox, 4 Top and Threads main seems really good.

yeah, i think tom lapille said he didn't love global ruin, but he also didn't side it in all day at the ptq. i think he might be able to take a page out of my book and use cranial extraction. it isn't incredible against tron, but that matchup seems miserable and basically unfixable.

The deck has so many creature grabbers that maybe we could take some out to fit in +2 Krosan and +3 Cranial Extraction in the SB or maybe there is not enough Tron to worry about?

Tom Lapille posted this on facebook:
"This deck is still the best I think.

I missed Force Spike. Explosives was awesome and Threads sucked. I still like 4 Thirst.

4 Spike
4 Cspell
4 Balance
4 Thirst (I don't care what Gerry thinks and we have so many artifacts to pitch now)
4 goyf
3 mage

3 shackles
3 explosives
1 needle
1 crypt
4 top
4 mox

8 island
4 delta
4 strand
1 tree
1 ruins
1 vents
1 fountain
1 pool

3 sower
3 grudge
3 crypt
4 threads
1 sunbeam spellbomb
1 globalruin

Someone please win two weekends from now with this ok"

GerryT said this list has AIDS lol but i don't think its awful. i pitched cranial to them and niv shmuely (young dude from israel) said he thought ruin was better, more of a sure win blah blah. basically i think cranial is better against ideal and tho i havent tested it, i think ruin is better vs tron. ideal really has no problem ever getting more mana as they ruin like 30+ sources in their deck counting prism, lotus, and song. i'm not sure about threads cuz i haven't played this deck enough but i'd believe tom (that it sucks).

This latest list is do-able for me. I'll proxy it up and give it a run Thursday.

i think thursday is sanctioned, so you might need to get something actually built. just a heads-up.

I don't have the Mox so I'll prolly run hybrid Elves Intruder/Opposition.

Fair enough. I wish people would play RDW and Doran like I expect at PTQs so I could crush them

I could run Farrell's RDW. I should be able to get everything.

You guys are seriously making me want to SB Sphere of Law. Assholes.

Ha Ha! You could always switch to Ideal... j/k

Yeah i momentarily thought about that too but we have like none of the cards. It's a good deck though.

The Chants are the bitch to get. I'm not spending $80 righ now no sir! Hey! I got those Deeds yesterday so you're good to go fo sho.

awesome, i'll get em from you tonight.

Hey fellows, it's Dylan. OMG FRESH OFF A TOP 8!

Anyway, I was thinking about playing this one at the OKC PTQ. Especially with the changes from the new LaPille list, it loses a lot of the cards that I thought were underperformers in the list (Spell Snare, Threads).

I wonder why LaPille dropped the Miren, though? I thought it was kind of serious tech.

Welcome, Dylan. This is Ben. I actually thought NLB and Dredge were the most-played decks in Dallas, from what I saw. I know some guy got 9th with NLB. As far as i know, this is Lapille's most recent list:
Maindeck:

Artifacts
4 Chrome Mox
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Pithing Needle
4 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Tormod's Crypt
3 Vedalken Shackles

Creatures
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Trinket Mage

Enchantments
4 Counterbalance
2 Threads Of Disloyalty

Instants
4 Counterspell
4 Force Spike
3 Thirst For Knowledge

Artifact Lands
1 Tree Of Tales

Basic Lands
7 Island

Lands
1 Breeding Pool
4 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Polluted Delta
1 Steam Vents

Legendary Lands
1 Academy Ruins
1 Miren, The Moaning Well

Sideboard:
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Sower Of Temptation
2 Sphere Of Law
2 Threads Of Disloyalty
3 Ancient Grudge
2 Global Ruin

GerryT says Sower is unnecessary, so I think I'd play a 3rd Sphere of Law and 2 Krosan Grips/Indrik Stomphowlers in that slot. Also, he says that Spell Snare is better against everything but Dredge and Goblins, and I'm inclined to agree and play it instead of Force Spike. It counters Counterbalance in the mirror, which is the most important card I'm pretty sure. The fact that it hits Goyf and other stuff is just gravy.

What's NLB's matchup with that Ideal list you posted? Because if it's unfavorable then Ideal would be the way to go.

well NLB has to counter Insidious Dreams for 2 (for Boseiju and Ideal), Enduring Ideal, including any Ideal that is Wished for, and Form of the Dragon. So there are 13 must-counter cards. Also, NLB usually doesn't want Honden, Deed, or Dovescape to resolve, so that's 4 more. The Counterbalance lock is a bit better than you'd think because of Burning Wish, Seething Song, etc, but for the most part, there are just too many big spells in Ideal for NLB to keep up. Of course, with a couple of quick Tarmogoyfs, a slow draw for Ideal with no Boseiju, and a couple of Counterspells, NLB can have a chance.

So would you say that Ideal has the edge?

Yeah for sure, Ideal is favored. Sorry, I realized the last sentence of my post made it very confusing. But yeah, it's funny, sometimes NLB will EOT Thirst and Ideal will respond with Dreams for 2 and that's basically game. Or it can just rawdog the one Boseiju. Also, like I said, there are just too many spells that have to be countered but can't be Counterbalanced. Like, NLB has no outs game 1 to a resolved Form of the Dragon.

i played an old version of NLB and went 6-1-1 and lost on breakers. i played hierarchs and such. but were really good because i could just go trun 1 tarmo, trun 3 hierarch

force spikes i think r better. countering a trun 1 kird ape. wins games

GerryT on SCG forums:
"I still think your sideboarding plan is flawed. Sowers arent better than Threads. Sower costing an extra one is huge, especially when you know your opp has Force Spike in his deck. You say its harder to kill, but what are they killing Threads with? Grip? Ill take that trade for sure. Their control magics take back the guy you stole and the 2/2 is largely irrelevant. Threads costing three is actually a huge benefit. If youre worried about them resolving a Counterbalance PLAY SPELL SNARE. Dont play almost strictly worse cards because it might get around Counterbalance. The only time I would bring in Sower is when Im siding out Shackles because Im 100% certain they have Ancient Grudge.

Why would you even want eight control magics anyways? They have four guys worth taking, and its not like they just run them out there. Most people are smarter than that. You have plenty of time to find a decent amount of Threads and such as the game progresses. If you board in eight, they are going to rot in your hand all game.

Spike is also much worse when you have four Thirsts in your deck. You have so many dead draws now, and Thirst doesnt exactly make up for it. Snare is a hard counter lategame. Its a REAL card. It actually DOES something.
...
I would rather have Snare against both RDW and Doran. Spike was a card I was going to play for two weeks, and I knew that going in. Once people figure it out, they try not to get Spiked. Literally the only matchups I think Spike is better is vs Goblins and Dredge. How you beat both those decks (if you choose to) is with your sideboard, having Spike or Snare really isnt going matter in the long run against those two."

Furthermore,
"getting a free "stone rain" isnt very good. The problem is if they play around Spike and you do actually draw them, youre basically mulliganning for each one. I dont think that anyone is really going to argue with me that Snare is awesome in this format and now people know about Spike, so why not just run Snares. They will probably play around it whether or not its in your deck, so you win either way.

Honestly, play some games against competent opponents and watch as you lose game after game to having dead cards. Or keep playing Spike which will make it easier for me to beat you.

Spike is terrible against Doran because of Mox, Birds, and their discard spells, which tell them exactly when they should or shouldnt play around Spike. Its terrible against any deck with Top because they plan their turns to keep one mana open for Top anyways. The only place where I think it is actually better is Dredge or Goblins (and only when they dont have a Prospector).

I guess I can only rehash the same argument over and over so many times. The rest takes you guys playing some games and figuring out that Im right. "