[Standard] Krokodil

[CardAgain Sweater]

Two more nights at LGS, 4-4 record. The majority of my meta is UB control, approach, doublestrike tyrant, reanimator in its many forms, and very little energy or Ramunap. Saw a weenies deck with vampire and servo tokens.
Overall record is 12-15-2; the worst matchup is approach - i can sometimes force a 3rd game, but I usually lose the 1st game as I have about 10 dead cards against a deck with no creatures, and my creature threats are countered. Doomfall, duress, and crook are all great, but prowling serpopod would be useful. The ribbons part of cut// ribbons would work for direct damage, but gotta play around a counter with a sorcery. Approach can also board in embalm flyers after I've boarded out targeted removal for discard.

Maybe I just gotta accept approach is a bad matchup.

[Nephi66]

Approach matchup: it sure is bad!
Maybe you should try an agressive start by using duress and lost legacy (and doomfal)l. If you include more lost legacy in your sideboard and succeed to remove approach of the second sun or other main card that they used to browse through their library, you could stand a chance. I more and more believe that (aside counterspell) Lost legacy is one of the best answers to Approach.
Switch Abrade for Appetite for the unnatural and switch Vraska's contempt for doomfall or duress could do a better job as a main starting deck. It will not weaken your deck that much but will cover a wider range of threats. What do you think ?

[CardAgain Sweater]

Approach matchup: it sure is bad!
Maybe you should try an agressive start by using duress and lost legacy (and doomfal)l. If you include more lost legacy in your sideboard and succeed to remove approach of the second sun or other main card that they used to browse through their library, you could stand a chance. I more and more believe that (aside counterspell) Lost legacy is one of the best answers to Approach.
Switch Abrade for Appetite for the unnatural and switch Vraska's contempt for doomfall or duress could do a better job as a main starting deck. It will not weaken your deck that much but will cover a wider range of threats. What do you think ?

I think those changes will be the right moves whenever my local metagame evolves past ramunap red and energy decks. I don't run across enough non-creature decks to want to change my mainboard from a removal package (push, lightning strike, abrade, vraskas contempt, harnessed lightning) to more of a counterspell / enchantment killing package. It is still heavily skewed towards creature based threats.

It is not perfect, but having a little bit of everything helps when you find yourself matched up against an renegade deck (sandwurm convergence, sunbird invocation, etc) while still being somewhat competitive with the format favorites.

When I board in for one those decks not based on creatures, I board out 3 or 4x hapatra and 4 of the least useful removal spells, usually push and abrade; in comes 3x doomfall, 2x duress, lost legacy, 2x appetite. Gotta leave some removal in as these decks usually try to sneak in a big threat (embalming flyer, torrential gearhulk, scarab god to loot from my graveyard).

Overall record at my LGS: 17-20-4. People know about it now, and are usually excited to play against it. One of the regulars calls it "The Cancer Deck",  as it is a long, drawn out fight against an enemy that won't go away, and the treatment for cure is painful. I think I'm proud of that description

[Nephi66]

Well done... still some work and you will be positive
You understand me wrong, I was not talking of mainboarding them but you could remove the 2 grind // dust from your sideboard for 2 more lost legacy. This will not weaken you deck in your good matchups but it sill strenghten him in your bad ones.
BY the way, I'm curious to know about vraska(planeswalker). Did he win you some game ?

[CardAgain Sweater]

Well done... still some work and you will be positive
You understand me wrong, I was not talking of mainboarding them but you could remove the 2 grind // dust from your sideboard for 2 more lost legacy. This will not weaken you deck in your good matchups but it sill strenghten him in your bad ones.
BY the way, I'm curious to know about vraska(planeswalker). Did he win you some game ?

Ah; now I understand what you meant. 2 more lost legacy in sideboard would be helpful against many decks. In my deck, the 3 mana slot is very crowded. Nest of scarabs is the engine and I almost always would rather put that down turn 3 rather than a lost legacy - obelisk spider turn 3 is also good for blocking thopters and getting the life gain/drain process started.

Grind // dust is a sneakily good card. The grind half takes out smaller creatures that Ramunap and pirates use, and can mark a larger creature for exile with the dust half. This can be very useful against gods and embalm/eternalize.

I see your points and they are good points in general. The decks I face at my local game store (LGS) tell me exiling creatures from battlefield is more useful than lost legacy - for the time being.

Vraska is very good in a midrange deck. I can get her out as early as turn 4. I could use more flyers or reach to protect her,  but all her abilities fit what I'm doing. Menace pirates help swarm, she is a removal spell with a mini-ramp from treasure, and her ultimate is great when you have 10 or 12 insects swinging in against opponent. I used to have Chandra in this slot, and vraska is by far the better choice for this deck, even at an additional 2 mana.

[Nephi66]

I tried a gimic version of your deck on Magic duels and I was amazed how fun it was to play. The version is far different from yours as I have the format limitation from Magic duels but the mechanism with hapatra and nest of scarab are the same.
2-drop examplar of strength instead of channeler initiate
3-drop Soulstinger instead of Obelisk spider : I find it truly great because whenever it got killed it's a threat for the opponent.
Also went for Cartouche/trial of ambition as removal
3 Crocodile and 3 decimator beetle
On the 6 slot, I went for 2 Rishkar's Expertise as I have no vraska and the card gave me the game several time.
It's truly not a no-brain deck and the way you can drain out the strength of your opponent creatures while building your swarm of insect/serpent is just so good. I understand now why you keep 4 nest of scarab, the card is insane.
Anyway, it sucks that there is no sideboard /rematch in this game but I just wanted to say that the game deck is real fun to play.

[CardAgain Sweater]

Small changes made based on local meta and experience. Fatal push to sideboard for blossoming defense. This deck has enough removal to sideboard it to get some defensive capacity. Also added a 2nd vraska. The enchantment removal plus ability to add to board or enable a swarm kill is too good to pass up.

Revision 7

Added/removed cards:
+2 Blossoming Defense
-2 (SB) Duress
-1 (SB) Hour of Glory

Changed amounts:
-2 (Main) +2 (SB) Fatal Push
+1 (SB) Vraska, Relic Seeker

[CardAgain Sweater]

I entered a tournament with this version at an LGS this past weekend - From The Vault: Transform along with usual pack-per-win prize support.

What I didn't know was the event would be put out on twitch.tv.

So, if you are interested in seeing this deck in action, there is a four hour video - I mulligan to 4 in one of the three rounds I'm on camara. In fact, I remember mulliganing quite a bit

There'sa 45 minute game 1 against abzan tokens - that round was bonkers, I forgot for a while that vraska's contempt can target planeswalkers.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/208429689

[Soren841]

Are you Jund Counters

[CardAgain Sweater]

Are you Jund Counters

Yep. They weren't sure what archtype to put in because who the hell plays jund counters? 

The announcers kept having to look up my cards. I got pretty bad draws and not great matchups, but I had a lot of fun. The RB planeswalker deck is a beast to play against. I've played against it before that, lost then as well. One of my worst days in terms of luck and win percentage, but I had a blast with the deck and people's reaction to all the triggers, even though I never hit the optimum battlefield state.

[Soren841]

I think it's correct to completely drop grind // dust for 4 appetite in the sideboard

[Soren841]

And I think drop Lightning Strike for another Abrade and Blossoming Defense

[Soren841]

Deck: Based on "Jund Counters"
Heres what I've come up with based on your deck, maybe not having Scorpion God is a mistake but I like the Beetle and a 4th Croc

[Soren841]

Ahh g3 of ur first game u forgot Obelisk triggers!

[CardAgain Sweater]

Ahh g3 of ur first game u forgot Obelisk triggers!

Correct, three triggers I believe. Would have made a big difference in that game.

It is very cool to be able to watch myself play and make mistakes; it is going to help me improve after seeing the punts on video.

 In the 1st game in the round against abzan tokens, I am pretty sure my opponent flipped treasure map before it had 3 counters. He knew I was going to use vraska to nuke the anointed procession he just played. During the game, I brought it up but he argued and I knew I had almost no time to waste if I wanted to go for a draw with a quick win in game 2. As it was, I only had 5 minutes after opponent used 3 minutes to mulligan to 6.

I would pay a store a couple extra bucks to have access to a digital video of my games. This has been a big education for me.

If you liked my Spider punts from game 3, round 1 - wait until I forget what my cards do at the end of the first game against abzan. I remembered right at my opponent's upkeep that I had a play.