So basically SoV singlehandedly stole the war from us last time as the only counters to it we had available lost to every single other deck they could field. you pretty much require a deck with heavy pc or good rushpotential that can somewhat deal with sundial and almost nothing else darkness can field is weak to those things.
Here is the troubledeck:
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5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rk 5rk 5us 5up 5up 5up 5up 7q5 7q5 7u2 7u2 7u2 7u2 7u2 7u2 7tb 7tb 7t8 7t8 8pt
Well since the deck requires plenty of
one solution is to go "if you cant beat them, join them", yielding a 50% wr. Not much of a deckbuilding task in that case though and I dont like those odds just yet.
The deck that we did use as response to that deck in particular was this one:
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5f6 5f6 5f6 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 5s4 5s4 5s4 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q1 7q1 7q1 7q1 7q1 7q1 8po
As stated above, it struggles to beat any other
deck.
For decks that stand a chance against both I'm heading towards
instead.
As such have this variation of a deck I suggested during vaultbuilding that we shot down, but would work here and be extraordinarily cheap with the marketprizes of that war:
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4vo 4vo 4vo 4vp 500 500 500 5rh 5rh 5rh 5rn 5rn 5rn 5s4 5se 5se 5se 5se 5se 5se 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 8pj
It may look like a joke at first, but it's actually quite good if your opponent ever lets it get going (getting killed before that is a realistic issue however). the combo that kills Sov ofc is 2sor+anubis+dejavu+butterfly effect. Don't srew up the order, play be (and sor if you want to use it that way; yes that gives 2 immediate destructions, if you played dejavu earlier you can even get 3 uses in one turn) on dejavu before you immortalize it. the full combo isn't always realistic to achieve although in case of the sov deck you really do have the time to wait for it. parts of the combo are enough to mess with it though.
The deck is also not completely helpless against other decks either. Against domins you should be in a good position once you have an immortal nymph (its also one of the few offelement cards worthy of getting sored), against ccless rushes you can skip waiting for the anubis altogether. Pandemonium also helps overcoming some of the early game weakness. A stall falls due to immortal pc on a stick denying it any way to fight back (miracle is the only real issue and you can whittle down their quanta by using be on pillars). same for the rare otks.
Golden nymph isnt terrible dmg and allows you to draw more cards from your deck; has added flexibility with sor (wrt how fast you want to do it).
The deck isnt insanely good by any means, pandemonium is its only hope vs devtal and it can easily get outrushed before it gets its pieces/quanta together, but in retrospect i would have wanted it in my vault then (and to think i was only missing be and purple nymphs to make it happen).
There are no permanents other than pends in the deck as I yet have to see a darkness deck without steal. Otherwise i would run discord over eternity, as its easier to sustain and i already have ways to deal with creatures.
I'm talking about this openly as the new market will probably change everything anyway.