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Sneak Fit thoughts

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Jul 10th, 2019
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  1. 4 Veteran Explorer
  2. 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
  3. 1 Kitchen Finks
  4. 1 Fierce Empath
  5. 2 Tireless Tracker
  6. 2 Seasoned Pyromancer
  7. 1 Eternal Witness
  8. 1 Thragtusk
  9. 1 Woodland Bellower
  10. 1 Inferno Titan
  11. 1 Primeval Titan
  12. 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
  13.  
  14. 4 Cabal Therapy
  15. 4 Green Sun's Zenith
  16.  
  17. 3 Punishing Fire
  18. 3 Abrupt Decay
  19.  
  20. 2 Mirri's Guile
  21. 4 Sneak Attack
  22.  
  23. 2 Vraska, Golgari Queen
  24.  
  25. 3 Grove of the Burnwillows
  26. 1 Volrath's Stronghold
  27. 1 Phyrexian Tower
  28. 2 Bayou
  29. 1 Taiga
  30. 1 Badlands
  31. 3 Forest
  32. 2 Swamp
  33. 2 Mountain
  34. 4 Verdant Catacombs
  35. 2 Wooded Foothills
  36.  
  37. sb::
  38. 2 Ashiok, Dream Render
  39. 1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
  40. 2 Surgical Extraction
  41. 2 Veil of Summer
  42. 2 Thoughtseize
  43. 3 Carpet of Flowers
  44. 1 Toxic Deluge
  45. 1 Golgari Charm
  46. 1 Slaughter Games
  47.  
  48. Current list. First of all, it's possible that I split 3/2 Veil over Carpet (opposite of how I currently have it). A lot of that depends on how I feel the Delver matchup is and if I really want the 3rd Carpet for that or if I can get away with the 3rd Veil instead.
  49.  
  50. Quick rundown on card choices:
  51.  
  52. 4 Vet, obvious
  53.  
  54. 1 Sakura - I've fought this battle for a long, long time, but I highly recommend a singleton Steve to Zenith up in most builds of Nic Fit. He does a LOT of useful stuff, and while you rarely are "thrilled" to see him, he's saved my ass more times than I can count. Block+sac to fade Jitte or Skull effects, sac to get rid of Bridge from Belows, gets you out of Moon as long as you have a single Forest, ramps you safely G1 vs Miracles, you name it, he does it.
  55.  
  56. 1 Finks - primarily there as the lifegain Bellower target. I don't love the card, but I think it's the best option among some pretty bad options. I've had Ooze in this slot before, and the card just didn't really impress me ever. I hesitate to say Finks is better, and if you want to run Ooze here, more power to you.
  57.  
  58. 1 Fierce Empath - this card is part of the glue that holds the deck together, he's debatably one of the most important cards. Some people who have run the deck in the past like a 2nd copy, I've never been one of them. One Empath is almost always enough to get the job done - just make sure you sac it aggressively to whatever you can. It wants to be in the graveyard after it tutors, because then you can recycle it via Emrakul shuffle.
  59.  
  60. 2 Tireless Tracker - this guy is just straight up one of the most important creatures in the Zenithbox for any version of Nic Fit. He's one of my most Bellowed-for cards and one of my most Zenithed-for. Make sure you can play him and immediately trigger landfall if at all possible. They have to have the removal for him immediately or he'll just run away with the game. God forbid you ever get both of them out at the same time - odds are the game just ends. Tracker is also one of the best answers to Eldrazi stompy in the deck, as they quickly outgrow Eldrazi and can force the Eldrazi player to need to find an Endbringer to continue pushing.
  61.  
  62. 2 Seasoned Pyro - this card is still experimental and needs tested. I've been pretty impressed by the card, but I won't say it's a staple of the deck like Tracker is. It's an army in a can, it's very good at threatening Miracles on its own, and it filters your hand. I aggressively filter with it - usually drawing 2 cards is worth more than whatever you have in your hand, although obviously use your head about it. The nut is getting to discard two PFires off of it for a straight +2. It's also very good at digging for Sneak and disposing of extra Sneaks if you have that problem. Keep in mind that if you draw it when empty handed, it just draws 2 cards.
  63.  
  64. 1 Eternal Witness - kind of a staple, nothing much to say. Great piece in the toolbox, great to Bellow up. Some really weird lines can show up in the deck with this card being able to be instant speed via Sneak Attack, keep an eye out for those.
  65.  
  66. 1 Thragtusk - again, not much to say here.
  67.  
  68. 1 Woodland Bellower - card is amazing and probably underplayed in a lot of Nic Fit variants. Part of the core GSZ Sneak engine at the heart of the deck.
  69.  
  70. 1 Inferno Titan - so many people have tried to say that I should cut this card. They're all wrong. This card is one of the absolute best things to Sneak Attack - frequently it's even better than Emrakul. I've won games with this card that I couldn't win with Emrakul - recently! The damage potential on this guy is insane - 3 on etb, 3 more on swing, and then 6 + firebreathing on damage, and the pulses of 3 + 3 can be used to clear out any pesky blockers in the way. Not being legendary is also great because it dodges Karakas.
  71.  
  72. 1 Primeval Titan - this is the flex spot of the 6 drops. Whenever Miracles is strong, you want Primeval and Volrath's Stronghold. If Miracles is absent from the meta, you can fill this in with other options. Wurmcoil and Grave Titan are both pretty good options that I've run in the past, but the list is shorter than you think.
  73.  
  74. 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn - the definitive Sneak Attack creature and the reason Sneak Attack is a powerful card. You run this if you want to win games.
  75.  
  76. 4 Therapy and 4 Zenith - obviously.
  77.  
  78. 3 Punishing Fire - part of the Grove engine, and synergizes with Pyromancer. Along with Sneak Attack, this is one of the best ways to control a planeswalker heavy metagame, which is itself one of the reasons I think that Sneak Fit is well positioned at the moment. Obviously still good against creature decks as well.
  79.  
  80. 3 Abrupt Decay - this card is very, very well positioned right now. Merit Lage is largely absent from the metagame, while Delver and Miracles, powered up by Mentor, T3feri, and Narset, are surging. Also great at shooting down W6, as well as the usual targets like Delvers, Goyfs, Vials, and Arcanists. There are also a lot of basics in the format at the moment, which adds to Trophy's drawback.
  81.  
  82. 2 Mirri's Guile - this gets the nod over Sylvan Library because of Narset's popularity. We're strong against Chalice decks, so we can afford to weaken ourselves slightly to Chalice@1 in exchange for getting in under the blue decks and still functioning against Narset.
  83.  
  84. 4 Sneak - this goes back and forth between 4 and 3 depending on the list. At the moment, I favor 4 copies after starting on 3 and finding that I wasn't drawing it often enough.
  85.  
  86. 2 Vraska - planeswalkers are very, very strong right now, and Miracles in particular is AWFUL at pressuring opposing walkers. Vraska comes down, kills a Narset, T3feri, W6, or aggressive creature, and then sticks around afterwards to threaten to draw cards or blow up more things. She also is another way to kill Back to Basics, which is one of the only ways Miracles has to really stand up to this current list - B2B shutting down Groves and the Two Towers (Volrath + Phyrexian Tower are a combo, if you're unaware or new) is one of the few ways you can lose.
  87.  
  88. Manabase - the manabase is about as stretched as it can possibly be, I'm not going to lie. You aggressively want a green source at all times, but then you also want multiple red sources and postboard you ALSO want multiple black sources for Ashiok or Therapy + Thoughtseize / discard + removal lines. You need to fetch intelligently and think several turns ahead - which is true for most Nic Fit lists, but is really ramped up here. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO FETCH BASICS. People who are new to Nic Fit can get way too hung up on needing to not run out of targets for the 3rd Vet. You don't actually care. It's fine. Just don't lose to Wasteland and you're fine. Note that sometimes you just need to fetch a Bayou and accept that if they fire off the t1 Wasteland, they get you. That's just legacy.
  89.  
  90. 2 Ashiok, Dream Render - Ashiok is just super impressive. They're good against most every combo deck, as well as being a strong threat against control. BB is a steep ask, as mentioned above, but the card is so powerful that it's worth it.
  91.  
  92. 1 Garruk, Primal Hunter - this fills the role of the card advantage / board presence planeswalker out of the board that I tend to like to have. Usually it's Nissa Vital Force, but I think this Garruk is actually better positioned at the moment - it spits out 3/3s, which are just massive in the format at the moment (kills Arcanist and outsizes Snapcaster or most monk tokens), and it lets you draw cards on-demand as opposed to just on landfall off an emblem, which matters for Narset. Garruk lets you pressure the Narset and then when she eventually falls over from beats, he draws a bunch of cards when it's safe. Garruk also doesn't expose your lands to removal spells, which I think is a hefty advantage.
  93.  
  94. 2 Surgical Extraction - generic sideboard hate whose flexbility is completely unmatched. Can come in handy for weird situations, and offers you one of the best non-Leyline of the Void options for dealing with BR Reanimator.
  95.  
  96. 2 Veil of Summer - the new hotness. Green elemental blast is great against Hymn to Tourach and Force of Will, and has a LOT of other applications besides. I still need to figure out if this card comes in against Grixis Delver, but it's a shoe in against miracles, storm, or anything BUG.
  97.  
  98. 2 Thoughtseize - generic combo hate, bringing you to the minimum required discard postboard to hopefully not just explode.
  99.  
  100. 3 Carpet of Flowers - This is a pretty common sideboard option for Nic Fit, but it's arguably at its best in Sneak Fit. Against miracles you get to take out 3 vets for 3 carpets and it just feels amazing. It also opens up lines in longer games where you can just 1-shot people with a sneak attacked Inferno, or you can just hardcast Emrakul fairly easily. It also lets you get out from under all of Delver's soft counter tempo bullshit. For the newer players, don't forget that you can play it on main phase 1 and activate it the same turn, by passing to your main phase 2.
  101.  
  102. 1 Toxic Deluge - I don't love not having access to sweepers, so I opted for this and a G.Charm (below) in the board to give me some outs to TNN or token strategies postboard, as well as to help out the PFires and Inferno Titan vs elves.
  103.  
  104. 1 Golgari Charm - picks off enchantments and shoots down x/1s like Young Pyro or TNN or elves. Just a generic kinda goodstuffy card that can do a lot of things.
  105.  
  106. 1 Slaughter Games - this is actually the weakest card in the board, I think. It's kind of a generic good Jund Nic Fit card that's good against control and combo, but it's really, really slow and I don't feel like we need it for the control matchup.
  107.  
  108. --------------------------
  109.  
  110. General thoughts on the list and how to play it:
  111.  
  112. Like many of my builds, Sneak Fit is a ramp/control/combo deck, roughly in that order. I play with a lot of patience, and I almost always look for the long game. Play to keep playing and you'll generally win. This is a hard pill to swallow for a lot of players who are told over and over and over again to play to win, not play to not lose. With Nic Fit, it's frequently correct to play to not lose. That's particularly true for decks with a game-ending combo like in Sneak or Scape.
  113.  
  114. Let's talk about deck construction briefly.
  115.  
  116. While I won't go full on SE like Echelon and Brael have been known to do, I generally consider this the skeleton of the deck:
  117.  
  118. 6 card advantage/filtering options
  119. 12 removal/disruption spells
  120. 9 ramp spells
  121. 7 combo pieces
  122.  
  123. and then fill out the rest with utility.
  124.  
  125. This breaks down as such:
  126.  
  127. 6 advantage/filtering:
  128.  
  129. 2 Tracker
  130. 2 Pyromancer
  131. 2 Guile
  132.  
  133. Removal/disruption:
  134.  
  135. 4 Therapy
  136. 3 PFire
  137. 3 Decay
  138. 2 Vraska
  139.  
  140. Ramp:
  141.  
  142. 4 Vet
  143. 1 Steve
  144. 4 Zenith
  145.  
  146. Combo:
  147.  
  148. 4 Sneak
  149. 1 Bellower
  150. 1 Empath
  151. 1 Emrakul
  152.  
  153. Changing these cards around is fine, but you want to swap them with other things in those same roles. So if you cut Pyromancer, you need to add two more card advantage or filtering options - Faithless Lootings, Nights Whispers, Darettis, whatever. Etc.
  154.  
  155. You also want to keep this in mind when you're sideboarding - either swap out a piece of the deck that's bad for a piece of the deck that's less bad (sideboarding out Therapy vs Miracles to bring in more threat density/more effective protection), or swap out utility that's bad for a card that's good (Thragtusk out vs storm for an Ashiok, for example).
  156.  
  157. I personally ONLY board out Vets vs Miracles. I sometimes will shave one here or there, but generally speaking I want to keep my ramp number around 9+ unless I have a good reason not to. Even vs Miracles, I maintain 9: 3 Carpet, 1 Vet, 1 Steve, 4 Zenith.
  158.  
  159. Against Delver, though, we get to go up to 12 ramp sources by just bringing in the Carpets. This is important because it helps us dodge Daze and Spell Pierce on our 4 mana spells by just having a ton of mana. Delver is generally very unprepared to deal with any of our massive threats, it's just a matter of getting a threat to stick and then pushing them in with it.
  160.  
  161. Generally speaking, you want to execute the following gameplan: disrupt the opponent while ramping yourself, stabilize into the midgame by accruing value while threatening the combo, and then slip the combo through and claim the game whenever you think you have a window. Role attribution is critical - sometimes you just run a Sneak Attack out as a semi-Hymn to Tourach because you need to break your opponent's Force so that you can go on the beatdown plan by resolving a Titan the following turn against a resource-deprived opponent. Sometimes the coast is just clear and you disrupt/ramp and then just slam an unanswered Sneak Attack and then next turn Zenith for 3 as your confused opponent goes sure, and then you cook with spaghetti.
  162.  
  163. Know what you can get away with at any point and know how to flex between those plans effortlessly. If it's not either /completely safe/ to go for the win OR /you have no choice so hopefully they don't have it/, don't go for it. Trying to just forcibly jam the combo will result in lost games - unlike Sneak and Show, you need a certain amount of finesse to play this deck effectively.
  164.  
  165. I'm going to call it here, but if there's any questions or comments, just @ me and I'll get to you whenever I can.
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