I know this. And most people know this. But Stony is just in a lot of peoples' sideboards. And whether or not it is effective against everything, it does have purposes besides just stopping the combo (like it shuts off my ability to produce mana from Astrolab and Amber, which hurts my ability to make red and black).Tzoulis wrote: ↑4 years agocfusionpm Yeah, the list is the one I thought it'd be. These kind of lists post board trim Thopter/Sword (and always have) because of them being less effective in G2/G3 in non aggro/combo lists, that's why Stony is ineffective against them. You just board in Tezzerets and go Sai's/Saheeli's. RiP is a better card.
I feel like this comment is similar to saying something like: "Twin players always board out pieces of the combo, because it's less effective G2/G3, that's why Spellskite is ineffective against them. You just board in Blood Moons and Keranos and beat in with Snapcasters. More discard and counterspells are just better."
Except that the comparison of Urza's backup plans (make a huge amount of token creatures, as well as massive constructs, as well as outright win with Tezz, in addition to tutoring and recurring hate pieces like Needle and Bridge) seem a lot better than "cross fingers that Blood Moon does anything" and "hope Keranos isn't discarded before you can tap out to cast a 5 drop." This deck is so much better than Twin, it's not even close.
Maybe? I've only seen it once, and won 2-1. But I've seen Unmoored Ego a few times. They keep naming either Foundry or Sword instead of Urza though. Ego has yet to cost me a game.A midrange deck that is relevant against Urza Thopter/Sword is 5-Color Niv, it has enough disruption (Unmoored Ego maindeck as well) and a relatively fast clock.
I also stand by that Leagues themselves are mostly irrelevant and pointless too. Besides the skewed and purposely misleading reporting that tells us nothing about what the format looks like, the construction of Leagues in general has no analog to paper. It is non-swiss and you could literally be paired up against five 0-X's or five X-0's. Meaning your matchups are so wildly variance-dependent that putting any weight on them competitively is silly, IMO. They're a neat bragging right, and maybe enough of them could show that a pile of cards isn't totally non-functional, but they say nothing about a deck's true competitive strength. Never mind that decks which require tedious clicking loops (like Urza) are artificially lowered due to the nature of playing them on a digital platform that doesn't automate loops and you can lose to the clock in a game or match you decisively would have won in paper (had that happen a few times too).My point about Leagues was about the kind of players you'd expect to find there. If you're doing it for fun, sure, all the more power to you, but I think you'd agree that balancing around casual play is a lost cause. I'll also agree on your point on the power lever discrepancy between T1 and T2.
Edit: I'll add that my personal stance is that Emry or Urza should have been banned outright. Opal was NOT the problem with this deck. And the only reason I bought into it was because of the price drops before people realize this deck is still one of the best things you can be doing in Modern.