I was just thinking about the similarities of Shardless BUG and Jund recently and I had a thought: How would Shardless function without Force of Will?
FoW trades CA (which Shardless attempts to maximize and use to overwhelm the opponent) for tempo. However, it always kills me when I have to eat a Shardless Agent or a Jace, The Mind Sculptor with my FoW. Additionally, it is not as infrequent as I'd like that I end up without enough blue cards to play threats and have FoW backup.
I was considering replacing my FoW for 1 Sylvan Library, 2 Dark Confidant, and a 4th Thoughtseize in the mainboard. Has anyone tried something like this and had it pay off?
Due to real-life obligations, I am taking a long break from Magic which may include missing the local Legacy GP. Apologies for not being able to keep my threads updated.
I've seen Shardless BUG decks go without the FoW's maindeck. The deck becomes a monster against other "fair" decks, because of its ability to accumulate ridiculous amounts of card advantage between Ancestral, Hymn, Shardless, and so forth.
However, they do still run them sideboard, because against combo decks, they're still hands-down the best tool you can run.
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Moving your Forces to the board is reasonable under certain conditions, but cutting them altogether is definitely a mistake unless you have a severely inbred local metagame. Otherwise, good luck ever beating a combo deck.
I have heard vague rumors of a moustache-dispensing vending machine in a distant laundromat, across the street from a tattoo parlor. However, this information is shaky, and time is of the essence.
Oh, also, without maindeck Forces, Dark Confidant becomes a lot more powerful, and you can side him out to bring Forces in games 2 and 3 if you need to (and honestly, since you're mostly bringing them in against Combo, you probably won't even need to side him out)
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This only works for specific metagames. SCG Invitationals are extremely inbred with fair blue decks. So having FOW in your 60 is unnecessary, since you can overcome most board states without the card disadvantage.
even stoneblade decks cut the 4th FoW now because of more fair decks being around. If your meta has tons of aggro decks yeah i could totally see moving them into the sideboard, but if you have combo players running around you might as well keep them. Cutting them completely is a little bit too risky IMO.
Those combo pilots look out for just this sort of thing though, Shardless players cutting Forces due to metagame concerns. It would be better to keep them, but since the deck is a bit of a dog to combo anyway... might as well.
FoW trades CA (which Shardless attempts to maximize and use to overwhelm the opponent) for tempo. However, it always kills me when I have to eat a Shardless Agent or a Jace, The Mind Sculptor with my FoW. Additionally, it is not as infrequent as I'd like that I end up without enough blue cards to play threats and have FoW backup.
I was considering replacing my FoW for 1 Sylvan Library, 2 Dark Confidant, and a 4th Thoughtseize in the mainboard. Has anyone tried something like this and had it pay off?
http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=13836&iddeck=101692
http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=13556&iddeck=99599
Legacy
UWR Miracles UWR
GWB Maverick GWB
GB Elves GB
UBR ANT UBR
RG Combo Lands RG
Vintage
BUG BUG Fish BUG
Modern
GBW
Junk PodMagic: the BuylistingHowever, they do still run them sideboard, because against combo decks, they're still hands-down the best tool you can run.
Currently Playing:
Legacy: Something U/W Controlish
EDH Cube
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Currently Playing:
Legacy: Something U/W Controlish
EDH Cube
Hypercube! A New EDH Deck Every Week(ish)!
even stoneblade decks cut the 4th FoW now because of more fair decks being around. If your meta has tons of aggro decks yeah i could totally see moving them into the sideboard, but if you have combo players running around you might as well keep them. Cutting them completely is a little bit too risky IMO.
Overall record: 139-98-15
Total number of matches: 252
Win percentage ignoring draws: 58.649789
Win percentage including draws: 55.158730