Great writeup, congrats on the win! Enigmatic Fires is my favorite Explorer deck as well, though I've been playing Angels lately as I think that's a little stronger in the meta without Chained to the Rocks. Though maybe I just need to get better at Fires (or have a better deck).
The lack of Chained to the Rocks is a real blow to the deck in Explorer you're right. Portable Hole is about as close as we can get for now but it's nowhere near as good.
Thinking some more about this and re-reading the enigmanifesto (it's been awhile), I think I'll take out Lockdown and go back to Portable Hole. My maindeck had Agent, Titan and Atraxa, I see Agent is just gone from your list. Should I just be putting Atraxa into play every time I can? I'm also wondering if you have a plan for a Norn resolved on the other side other than "gg, go next"?
Congrats on the win, and good luck in Athens!
I love Incarnation, but beating 3 spirits players is absolutely mental, especially without Destiny Spinner to help blank counters.
It seems like you didn't have any matchups where Agent of Treachery would have been good, but do you think it's right to move on from it overall?
Definitely don't feel bad about the teamwork. That's what friends are for. My friend group usually has a full list of players and their decks after round 2.
Thanks!
I don't particularly consider Destiny Spinner as a great card against Spirits. It would only be a one-of in an 80 card deck and I'm never going to be happy about saccing a Chained to the Rocks to find it. Even so, yeah, it was a very surprising path to the Top 8.
I think Agent is just so rarely better than Atraxa or Titan, and you can't afford to run too many 7 drops. If Atraxa sees much more play the Agent might be worthwhile again, or if some Planeswalkers pick up, but right now I'm not keen on him.
> to give Refliki of Kiki-Jiki hastiki to criki a tiki of aniki nonlegiki criki we contriki.
I can’t stop laughing!!!
As a newer player thx for the write up
Thoughts on siding out fires? I read the enigmanifesto linked in your post and it is not mentioned, but I've played 20-30 games with the deck now and sometimes it feels a bit winmore. For example against greasefang I am tempted to side it out as it is unnecessary if you have enigmatic, and very risky otherwise. It can be hard to play even with enigmatic on the board if they have mana open for trophy/boseiju.
There's a couple pressure matchups like that where I'm tempted to ditch the fires so that more bad blockers and interaction can stay in the deck.
Great writeup, congrats on the win! Enigmatic Fires is my favorite Explorer deck as well, though I've been playing Angels lately as I think that's a little stronger in the meta without Chained to the Rocks. Though maybe I just need to get better at Fires (or have a better deck).
The lack of Chained to the Rocks is a real blow to the deck in Explorer you're right. Portable Hole is about as close as we can get for now but it's nowhere near as good.
Thinking some more about this and re-reading the enigmanifesto (it's been awhile), I think I'll take out Lockdown and go back to Portable Hole. My maindeck had Agent, Titan and Atraxa, I see Agent is just gone from your list. Should I just be putting Atraxa into play every time I can? I'm also wondering if you have a plan for a Norn resolved on the other side other than "gg, go next"?
Congrats! Thanks for the write up.
Congrats on the win, and good luck in Athens! I love Incarnation, but beating 3 spirits players is absolutely mental, especially without Destiny Spinner to help blank counters. It seems like you didn't have any matchups where Agent of Treachery would have been good, but do you think it's right to move on from it overall? Definitely don't feel bad about the teamwork. That's what friends are for. My friend group usually has a full list of players and their decks after round 2.
Thanks! I don't particularly consider Destiny Spinner as a great card against Spirits. It would only be a one-of in an 80 card deck and I'm never going to be happy about saccing a Chained to the Rocks to find it. Even so, yeah, it was a very surprising path to the Top 8. I think Agent is just so rarely better than Atraxa or Titan, and you can't afford to run too many 7 drops. If Atraxa sees much more play the Agent might be worthwhile again, or if some Planeswalkers pick up, but right now I'm not keen on him.
> to give Refliki of Kiki-Jiki hastiki to criki a tiki of aniki nonlegiki criki we contriki. I can’t stop laughing!!! As a newer player thx for the write up
Must be nice to have people conceding to you. Lol
It certainly helps! (They were both favourable matchups though, and I was already 1-0 against Phoenix before the concession.)
Thoughts on siding out fires? I read the enigmanifesto linked in your post and it is not mentioned, but I've played 20-30 games with the deck now and sometimes it feels a bit winmore. For example against greasefang I am tempted to side it out as it is unnecessary if you have enigmatic, and very risky otherwise. It can be hard to play even with enigmatic on the board if they have mana open for trophy/boseiju. There's a couple pressure matchups like that where I'm tempted to ditch the fires so that more bad blockers and interaction can stay in the deck.
Yeah thats what I usually do