MTG Salvation

I think Genesis Wave/Green Devotion is a lot more exciting...

Yeah, they're both exciting. I guess I'm just an aggro player at heart. I still needed a bunch more cards for the Genesis Wave deck... at least to be close to most of the lists I've seen. I still need fetches, Prime Time, Primal Commands, etc...

Thanks for the reply. I'll troll back through the thread and check out the sideboard stuff.

First off, thanks for the great thread. I had most of this deck because I was shooting for a Genesis Wave deck, but this deck looks much more exciting. I just ordered the rest of the cards so I'll be able to run Chalupa's list (with maybe a few minor tweaks, haven't decided yet). I'm planning on playing the deck at GP Boston later this month so I'll try to report back on how that goes (don't expect much since I'm a noob to Modern).

Anyway I have a couple questions -
1. Has anyone tried a build with BTE? BTE into Talara's Battalion seems pretty filthy. T1: Experiment One, T2: BTE -> Talara's, swing 3, T3: swing 9... We already play Ooze so that's another creature we can play off BTE. Or is that just too inconsistent? Or does it encourage committing too much to the board? Dies to lightning bolt?

2. Since I'm a noob to Modern, could someone give some simple sideboard plans for the most common matchups? I think I understand which cards should come in, but its not always clear to me what the cuts are.

Fundamentally the issue is with interaction. Wizards has decided (rightly so IMO) that creatures are the fundamental way of interacting with the opponent. If creatureless decks/combo are too good/fast, it forces everyone to play blue for counterspells, or you get too reliant on hate cards, or its two people playing solitaire. Lets just compare draws to see who wins. There needs to be an axis where MOST decks interact. Since almost all decks will be playing creatures or answers to creatures, I think Wizards is focusing on allowing two card combos that hinge on creatures and are shying away from combos where each piece isn't a creature. If creatureless combo is too good, entire classes of decks can't exist. Maybe its fun for you to lock someone out of a game entirely but at the end of the day, Wizards needs to decide what kind of game is going to be the most fun for the most people, and what kind of game will allow people to play a wide variety of decks. IMO the game just isn't fun if both players aren't interacting (also why they've nerfed land destruction) so they've made the ability to interact with creatures the common thread.

Quote from Semantics

The problem is that Emissary isn't really all that good on curve, and you should be able to find more powerful things to do if you ever hit 7 mana. It's not a bad card, but it's nowhere near as powerful as the Leader, even in decks that want it.

Yeah I see what you're saying. I guess the way I'm thinking about it is that Emissary is more consistently good where Leader has the better top end. Leader seems like a pretty terrible topdeck in a lot of situations (behind, not much of a board, or already used all your tricks), although I suppose decks that want Leader will lose longer games anyway.

IDK maybe I just haven't played the format enough but its not 100% clear to me that Leader is leaps and bounds better than Emissary. It is heavy commitment to white and needs a good bit of help to be amazing, while Emissary asks less of you and iis easily splashable. I'd probly take Emissary but I'll admit I'm probably not the best drafter in the world.

Yeah, and if you read the article he even listed the changes he'd make - and taking out Paladin wasn't one of them. I like the card and I'm thinking of giving it a shot instead of imposing sovereign in my list.

I really like his deck - its similar to a boros brew im working on. I knew I couldn't be the only person who likes Truefire Paladin.

Quote from Pseudofate

Well that's just wrong. RAV block removal was top notch. Off the top of my head.

• Galvanic Arc
  
• Ribbons of Night
  
• Faith's Fetters
  
• Last Gasp
  
• Seal of Fire
  
• Seal of Doom
  
• LIGHTNING HELIX
  
• Brainspoil
  
• Condemn
  
• Convolute

Yeah, I did one of these last night and I got absolutely WRECKED by a Hellbent Twinstrike. IDK how you can win if someone gets you with that. So bonkers. I didn't play original RAV block so I didn't even know what hit me...

Quote from quizzlemanizzle

They already have detention sphere in standard why in the world would they make a functional reprint of oblivion ring..

Good point, but Detention Sphere doesn't have the new wording. You can still stack the triggers to make the exile indefinite. If not this set, then I bet they will next set.

My Theros prediction: they print a (mostly) functional equivalent to Oblivion Ring that has the new Banisher Priest-esque wording.

Probly Negate - keeps us core blue. Hopefully don't main-deck it, but it'd be OK if we had to.

Quote from essenia

I'm not quite getting this. The entire point of Modern Masters is that there are tons of absurd cards floating around in every draft.

Haha, yeah that was meant to be a bit tongue-in-cheek.

These decks are crazy. Kibler's deck has a Sword, Knight of the Reliquary, Meloku, Engineered Explosives vs. Stark's Cryptic Command, Kira, Blinkmoth and a bunch of artifact synergy.

To top it off, Kibler has Goyf in the sideboard.

Do you guys think the tournament organizers stacked the packs? Makes a lot of sense if you want to ensure an entertaining event...

I think prerelease gimmicks are awesome - super creative and flavorful and I think its absolutely the right thing for Wizards to be doing. Sure some of the more hardcore players may not like it as much, but I think its a home run with newer or more casual players. IMO this is the type of thing that grows the game which is good for everyone. We have months and months to be playing normal sealed tournaments or drafts, so I welcome something with a bit of a twist.

Which do you take?

Edit: To be clear, assume you're in Naya/Jund with the respective borderpost.