After testing Fai this weekend I’ve learned a lot, but I’m still struggling to make matchups into popular heroes like Oldhim and Iyslander feel good at all. When I can stick to my gameplan and push damage while forcing inefficient blocks from my opponent, I feel pretty good. For example, I feel like I’m playing into aggro mirrors pretty well. But when faced with disruption such that I can’t throw out 5+ chain links consistently, I have been really struggling. I’d like to try this BH Columbus winning deck list at some point to see how it compares to what I’ve been testing.

Up until this weekend, I had been playing a lot of Iyslander and feel like I understand how to play that deck into different matchups. I might still go with Iyslander in my tournament this weekend, but I would need a better answer for Oldhim and Dromai than I currently have, and I would need to re-think the Fai matchup which seems to have turned in Fai’s favor lately.

Over the next day or so, before I lock in a deck, I’m going to test out Oldhim to see how he feels. I’ve played a decent amount of Oldhim in the past, so I think I have a solid foundation. For lack of a better list, I’m testing with Michael Fang’s BH Dallas 5th Place List. I don’t have a sideboard guide, but I’ll improvise as best as I can. Notably he’s dropped Oaken Old, which I think is probably right given the Pulse of Isenloft ban. It’s pretty unlikely that you’ll be able to fuse on cycle 1 unless you add in more Earth cards, which I don’t think I want to do, and I question how often you get to cycle 2 to make a pitch stack work. The upside of a fused Oaken is quite good, but if most of the time it’s just a 3 for 7, I think you can make better use of the deck slots required to get the upside consistently.

I also want to check out this list from the Columbus BH, which also is not running Oaken. It does have Zealous Belting and Rouse, which I question. I need to think through lines where those make sense. Maybe they’re for Dromai?

Oldhim vs. Boltyn

Going 1st - Win

Here’s my sideboard:

I’m not blocking much. I’m focusing on throwing back disruptive attacks, keeping his hands small. He’s left just throwing single cheap attacks, charging soul each turn. Two card hands for 3 or 4… very inefficient.

Note: Take care when ice reacting when they have helm of the sharp eye. They can banish what they top deck and play it anyway. At least you can force the use of the Helm, then once it’s gone you can ice react like normal.

Remember! Tear Asunder only buffs Guardian attacks! I screw this up often, especially on Talishar.

Closed out by feigning a pummel on a Choke Slam when he was low on life to strip his hand, then Tear Asundered into Spinal.

Salty...

Salty rage quit… uncool man. I get it I guess, but do people really just want uninteractive games where they get to barf out their best hands at each other? That’s not fun either. But yeah, Oldhim is pretty oppressive into some matchups, and this one seems like one of those matchups.