4x See Beyond
1x Pyroclasm (4x blue spell, means I need 1x anti-aggro for sure)
1x Koth, of the Hammer (Great with proliferate)
1x Shatter (fine as a 1-of)
1x Red Sun's Zenith (finisher, RFG vs some problematic cretaures)
Since I went with 4x blue spell, instead of the 4x red multi-kill spell (Arc Trail) I was running previously, it seemed prudent to test against some of the popular aggro matchups, to make sure things are still working okay there, with a lower threat density against those deck types. Now, it's possible (probable) that Caw-Blade, aka T3 Baneslayer Angel is going to pound those decks into the ground, but the MtGO community sure likes it's aggro, so we're likely to face it at least 25% of the time no matter how terrible it is.
First up as an opponent is RB Vampires. It's seen some play, and between Manic Vandal, Crush, and removal for the Mystic, it is at least claimed to have some game against the Caw Blade menace.
I played 20 games against the deck, and PA won 11 of the set. In 6 of those wins, Pyroclasm was drawn and cast for at least a 2:1, and in another win, Pyroclasm was drawn but not cast. In one other game, Pyroclasm was drawn, but was not quite enough on turn 6.
In the BR Vampire deck wins, they had the most success with hands like 1x land, 3x 1-drop, Bloodghast/Highborne, where they drew enough lands to play all their spells. The games that went long, they lost pretty hard. Theyu had only two of their wins that were later than turn 6. In those games, PA had See Beyond for all lands, and no dead cards + burn spells.
Red Sun Zenith exiled 5 Bloodghasts, 2 other creatures, did 20 damage, and was shuffled away once.
I think if we'd have had 4 Pyroclasms (in place of, say, See Beyond), with a couple ways to exile Bloodghasts, the Vampire lists wouldn't have had much of a shot at winning. The See Beyonds pretty much drew me a land and a spell, and I shuffled the land away. There was perhaps one instance of See Beyond where it actually drew me two cards and shuffled away a land or dead shatter in my hand. Rotating those out for Pyroclasm seems solid, since it was pretty hard to lose the games with Pyroclasm, and often it was my only out.
In the later games (PA took 7 of the first 10) I gave the Vamp list knowledge of what it was playing against, which cause it to mulligan away some otherwise good hands (Gatekeeper, Highborne, bolt, Doom blade, 3 land), into hands with multiple one-drops, and/or Bloodghasts, which were the only way the Vamp deck was winning. They did go 6-4 with that knowledge, so some amount of sideboarding here would be viable.
The matchup seems pretty good for PA, in that the Vampires deck needs a heavily skewed hand to compete, and Pyroclasm kills literally everything in the deck. Some discard spells out of the sideboard could be good for the vampires deck, but it seems like it would just slow them down, and prevent the omni-1-drop hands that were overwhelming my 1:1 removal.
Shatter was completely dead, and was seen around 6 times. Twice it was bottomed off a scry, once it was shuffled away to See Beyond, and once it was discareded off a over-draw on a lucky Treasure Hunt.
Koth was bottomed once, ultimated once (won), died to a bolt and arc trail (or it would have won, won that game anyway), twice it was shuffled away (on games I won), and once it just did 4 damage (on a game I won because of that 4 damage). So it was pretty good, as a way to follow up on an empty board, and threaten a ultimate (which is yet another way to keep Bloodghast under control)
As bad as See Beyond was, Gitaxian probe didn't seem like it would have been much better. On the casts of See Beyond where I draw land + spell, I get to draw both and get a fresh top of the deck. On the Gitaxian Probe draws, I typically pay U, and draw only one of those, which is pretty bad. It's possible that it could let me pay life to draw for no mana, and either charge up faster, or do more things with my mana on those critical turns 3-4, but it's hard to figure out a general trend for how the games would go after playing 20 games.
Viscera Seer was involved in alot of the successful swarms. Being able to scry away against removal, and make multi-target removal like Staggershock relatively bad gave the deck alot of follow-up, and sustainability. Viscera Seer turn 2, with two other one-drops was always a near-lethal opening, unless Lightning Bolts abounded. (or Pyroclasm of course)
Highborne draining for 2 on being killed was a common play, but was often put me below 10, or combined with other effects to make things untenable.
Bloodghast was pretty good against removal, and Pyroclasm.
The PA deck did keep some bad hands, that lost. Mana problems were present, keeping the 1-mountain 2-bolt, 2-blue spell hand, that never saw more blue. Or not having any removal to deal with the early swarm.
The sideboard I want for this matchup is 2-3x Pyroclasm, 1x Exile-effect. (RSZ or Surgical Extraction), for 1x Shatter, and Koth or See Beyond. Pyroclasm into Koth is pretty solid.
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I also played 20 games against the most aggro-y aggro deck around, Kuldotha Red. It has multiple threats, which makes cutting multi-target red spells problematic. The deck really doesn't give you alot of time to figure out what you're wanting to do.
The games felt absolutely horrible, but in the end, we split the games 10-10.
The deck was absolutely dead to pyroclasm. I saw the card 9 times. I bottomed it once(!). I won 7 of the games. And I nearly won a Mull to 3 (two lands and a blue spell) that drew into a Pyroclasm for a 2:1. I didn't get there on the mull to 3 two land + blue spell hand though.
For casting the Pyroclasm, I killed: 4, 2, 1, 1, 3, 4, 5, 4 creatures.
The Koth was seen 4 times. Once it did 8 damage, and I won. Once it 4, and gained me 5 life, in a game I won. And twice, I did not cast it (lost on turn 5, 3). It's possible that I bottomed it a few times in there too, but I didn't record it. The games were very short, so I didn't see as many cards as the vampires matchup.
Shatters were okay in this matchup, they mostly killed Signal Pests, but they sometimes killed ornithopters, or large-ish Chimeric Masses.
RSZ killed things, and sometimes people. I did win all but one of the games where I drew RSZ, though it wasn't exactly amazing.
The games the red deck won were over on turn 4, 5, 3, 5, 3, 3, 5, 3, 6, 4. This gives you an idea of the sort of games the KR was winning. Putting 5 (10) power on the table turn 1 was hard to come back from.
The red deck did win quite a few games it mulliganed. Summons into Bushwhacker was also a good way to get alot of power on the board.
I'd want Pyroclasms for this matchup, more than any other. The KR deck just doesn't come back from Pyroclasm. Shatter is okay, but I'd probably just swap out all the one-ofs, to fit in 4x Pyroclasm. Maybe keep Shatter or Koth, taking out See Beyond, but either way, it's pretty similar.
The KRed deck doesn't exactly have a ton of cards to bring in against me, so as long as you keep a Shatter to deal with a random Jinxed Idol, you should be in good shape.
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I do want to try out some GW quest to round out the aggro matchup, because that's another matchup where Shatter and Recursion and necessary, but that deck isn't exactly seeing alot of play right now. So I'll likely skip it for now.
Decks like GW Fauna/Stoneforge (no quest), or Bant/Naya Stoneforge, or xyz Stoneforge are way more popular (aka viable) nowadays. So I'm going to wrap up this, by saying:
Taking 4x Arc Trail (good) out for 4x See Beyond (Bad) does not kill my aggro matchup game one.
It seems about even, perhaps slightly in the PA deck's favor. Having three Pyroclasm, and perhaps a Shatter (for other matchups), or Extraction/RSZ to deal with some recursion (which is also likely there for other matchups) is all we likely need to swing these matchups in our favor.
Only having to dedicate 3 sideboard slots to multiple aggro matchups is pretty nice. Using a few other utility cards to mix in depending on the matchup. Kor Firewalker is pretty problematic, but maybe Koth, or a 1-2x Sphynx of Jwar Isle will be good enough to take over that.
I also like having a main-deck that is not skewed towards aggro, so that I can have a sideboard against aggro, and be playing a more moderate main-deck. The 1x Pyroclasm was an amazing one-of.
I worry a bit about being able to kill a Stoneforge Mystic before they use it. I was counting on Arc Trail for a lot of the turn-two Stoneforge removal, so it'll be interesting to see how those games go.
The caw-blade games are definitely next up on the docket. They are the prime offender, the #1 deck right now, and if I can't perform there, this is not a deck worth playing.
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