RC Denver Amulet Focus Testing, Thoughts on the deck, and Decklist Update [Twinlesstwin]

This was an interesting one. Historically a good matchup, Amulet has gone through some evolutions recently that have given it new angles of attack against Murktide. Namely, defense grid and The One RIng. Both of these provide angles of attack, either by preventing counterspells from being effective, or by providing a higher density of counterspell required targets. The nice thing about these new lists is they have moved away from Cavern of Souls, largely because it does nothing against a Subtlety. In these testing matches I stress tested the question, do we actually need Subtlety to beat Amulet Titan? 

Here are my notes: 

Preboard:

knowing we are facing Amulet is a big advantage for us, we want a threat turn 1, and some counterspells to back it up. No time for dilly dallying. If you do have Subtlety in your list that card is extra premium. On the play I prioritize Ragavan, on the draw I prioritize interacting a bit more, stern scolding is secretly pretty strong taking away Dryad and slowing the amulet player down. Another note is the One Ring can be pretty scary, but pressure makes it less scary. Additionally, pierce has plenty of targets and I wouldn't be happy to see one in my hand g1 like previous versions of Amulet. 

Post board:

Overall these games actually turned out to be equally as challenging as preboard games, despite having 3 moon effects and resolving them.

Spell Pierce: I will double down on the importance of Pierce, and also state that it can be correct to hold Pierce turn 1 instead of playing a threat, on the play this can tag amulet, on the draw it gets defense grid. This is always context dependent, but try to pick up small indicators, like if the amulet opponent didn't make a play turn 1 they are more likely to have kept with defense grid. Pierce is also extremely valuable in tagging a copy of The One Ring, which buys a turn and 3 new cards minimum for the Amulet player, very dangerous for a deck than can kill you in one turn. 

Artifact destruction: 

Artifact destruction does seem premium, I tried both cast into fire and brotherhood's end. Notably Amulet players sometimes suggest sideboarding out their Urza's Sagas, but they still will often have multiple artifacts in play that you want to kill. Without amulet's in play the opponent will have a near impossible time racing your flying 6/6+ Murktide. 

Do we need Subtlety: 

The card is clearly very strong in this matchup, timewalking their Titan and sometimes even better if they need to pay for a Summoner's Pact their next turn. I have felt Subtlety on the whole is declining in value and I am rarely able to evoke it profitably making it more on dimensional and less enticing. I recognize this card is important in the Amulet matchup, but we were still able to have success in the matchup and truthfully it was generally defense grid and the one ring that beat me, Prime Time was just the finisher but Subtlety wouldn't have changed the outcome. 

EE:
The idea would be destroying Amulets, but the fact that you kill your threat as well is too big of a downside for me. 

Changes going forward:

I want another Cast into the Fire, it's important to cover The One Ring and Defense Grid and this card does it best (besides Annul, but I also want this cast into fire for the Yawgmoth matchup as an answer to Bowmaster/Cauldron). I don't expect for Murktide to be as popular coming out of the EU RC unless it posts a top 8 result. It's a difficult deck that requires a big commitment to learn and there are easier routes you can chose for the RC, namely Rhinos. 

I also have noticed 3-4 dismember in amulet's sideboard, I am considering switching back to Blood Moon which requires a forest and Boseiju to answer. I will think through this plan more and how it impacts the opponent's sideboard plans if they don't have to bring dismember against us. Perhaps a 2-1 split Blood Moon/Magus to make side boarding most awkward for the Amulet Gamer.