Is Mirran Crusader worth playing in Modern right now? Also, how good is it against Junk/Jund? I am thinking that since its 3 CMC, chance are it's going to get discarded by Thoughtseize or Inquisition before you get the chance to play it. Also, even if you play it, it can still die to Liliana's edict or a Path or Bolt.
Is Mirran Crusader worth playing in Modern right now? Also, how good is it against Junk/Jund? I am thinking that since its 3 CMC, chance are it's going to get discarded by Thoughtseize or Inquisition before you get the chance to play it. Also, even if you play it, it can still die to Liliana's edict or a Path or Bolt.
Mirran Crusader is an excellent sideboard card in white midrange and tempo decks against Junk. Almost anything in those kinds of decks would have been hit by Inquisition and anything would have been hit by Thoughtseize, so you can't use that as a serious reason for it not being good. Similarly, anything would die to a Path or Liliana edict when you only have one creature. The point is that against their deck it is essentially True-Name Nemesis. It can block Goyf and Tasigur forever. It can attack through anything except for Lingering Souls. The only targeted removal in Junk that kills it is Path, which you don't want to keep in against decks like WUR Midrange and WUR Delver anyways. It is the best possible sideboard card for less than 5 mana against Junk in those decks.
Yes, I am a local area mod. WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Primary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
Loxodon Smiter is 4 power for 3 mana. Turning off Liliana > pro-black/green.
Blade Splicer is also 4 power for 3 mana, but to be honest you're not going to attack with the 1/1. No-one plays Blade Splicer unless they plan on blinking it though.
The only real reason to play Mirran Crusader is to stick an equipment/aura/Gavony Township counter on him for twice as much power. IIRC the last time that was a plan was in Hatebear decks. Nowadays you just play Siege Rhino and call it a day.
Loxodon Smiter is 4 power for 3 mana. Turning off Liliana ; pro-black/green.
Blade Splicer is also 4 power for 3 mana, but to be honest you're not going to attack with the 1/1. No-one plays Blade Splicer unless they plan on blinking it though.
The only real reason to play Mirran Crusader is to stick an equipment/aura/Gavony Township counter on him for twice as much power. IIRC the last time that was a plan was in Hatebear decks. Nowadays you just play Siege Rhino and call it a day.
Loxodon Smiter is 4 power for 3 mana. Turning off Liliana > pro-black/green.
Turning off Liliana is way worse than protection from their deck. Liliana is 3-4 cards in their deck. Mirran Crusader turns off all of their non-Path removal and attacks through all of their non-Lingering Souls creatures. It is much better than Loxodon Smiter against BGx. It is just that Smiter is a better maindeck card since it is stronger against Lightning Bolt decks and counterspell decks.
Is Mirran Crusader worth playing in Modern right now? Also, how good is it against Junk/Jund? I am thinking that since its 3 CMC, chance are it's going to get discarded by Thoughtseize or Inquisition before you get the chance to play it. Also, even if you play it, it can still die to Liliana's edict or a Path or Bolt.
It depends on your deck, imho.
Do you play some zoo/WG hatebear deck or some Uwx midrange/control?
I'm inclined to say that if your case is the former then mirran crusader could be a very viable card against junk/jund, otherwise not so much.
Mirran Crusader's primary weakness is that it dies to Shock and up. This means that Electrolyze gets to wipe out your 4 power for 3 mana (and cantrip), which is sort of icky when it can't do the same to Blade Splicer, Loxodon Smiter, and most other 4-power-for-3-mana guys.
...We're not here to discuss Mirran Crusader against the meta, though--we're just here to discuss Mirran Crusader against green and/or black aggro/midrange/tempo decks, aren't we?
It seems like every BGx Midrange deck right now has picked up more ways to deal with Mirran Crusader. BGx always has Liliana (although if Mirr Crus has friends, Liliana is going to whiff a lot) and targeted discard. Junk has Path to Exile and Lingering Souls (it takes 4 Spirit tokens to kill a Mirr Crus, though, so they're likely chump blocking it). Jund has Lightning Bolt, Grim Lavamancer, sometimes Thundermaw Hellkite, and possibly Anger of the Gods.
From my experience testing Myth Realized against UWR, you'd be surprised how often your opponent's 4 answers to one of your creatures don't come. However, once they start hitting 6+ answers, they come more often.
The disturbing part is that Mirran Crusader can't stop Siege Rhino from stomping over it for 2 damage per turn. You'd think anything with protection from green and black would keep Rhino from ruining your day...you'd think, but Rhino has Trample and a magic 5 toughness, so Mirr Crus can only absorb 2 damage and it can't kill Rhino.
Mirran Crusader generally has big trouble fitting into Collected Company Combo decks, just like it had big trouble fitting into Pod, because it often doesn't quite hose well enough and it has no ETB/LTB ability. I did leave it in one poster's Pod sideboard once upon a time, though, because...
...Mirr Crus hoses Bogles. That's right. Your opponent needs to find another creature and pump both of them up with Auras (or find Spirit Mantle/Rancor/Unflinching Courage fast, but then we can blow up the evasion-granting Aura), or their best, suited-up guy is getting blocked by Mirr Crus every turn.
Mirr Crus is probably reasonable against Collected Company Combo, just like it used to be reasonable against Pod, because it dodges all their green and black guys and makes their long-term plan of blocking everything in sight worse. I remember Blood Baron of Vizkopa wrecking me more whenever I played Pod, though.
Mirr Crus has a field day against Wilt-Leaf Siege/Little Kid/Abzan Liege/etc. until it gets booted by PtE. It still suffers from the Siege Rhino problem against them, though, and it still gets roughed about a bit by their Lingering Souls.
Mirran Crusader's primary weakness is that it dies to Shock and up. This means that Electrolyze gets to wipe out your 4 power for 3 mana (and cantrip), which is sort of icky when it can't do the same to Blade Splicer, Loxodon Smiter, and most other 4-power-for-3-mana guys.
...We're not here to discuss Mirran Crusader against the meta, though--we're just here to discuss Mirran Crusader against green and/or black aggro/midrange/tempo decks, aren't we?
It seems like every BGx Midrange deck right now has picked up more ways to deal with Mirran Crusader. BGx always has Liliana (although if Mirr Crus has friends, Liliana is going to whiff a lot) and targeted discard. Junk has Path to Exile and Lingering Souls (it takes 4 Spirit tokens to kill a Mirr Crus, though, so they're likely chump blocking it). Jund has Lightning Bolt, Grim Lavamancer, sometimes Thundermaw Hellkite, and possibly Anger of the Gods.
From my experience testing Myth Realized against UWR, you'd be surprised how often your opponent's 4 answers to one of your creatures don't come. However, once they start hitting 6+ answers, they come more often.
The disturbing part is that Mirran Crusader can't stop Siege Rhino from stomping over it for 2 damage per turn. You'd think anything with protection from green and black would keep Rhino from ruining your day...you'd think, but Rhino has Trample and a magic 5 toughness, so Mirr Crus can only absorb 2 damage and it can't kill Rhino.
Mirran Crusader generally has big trouble fitting into Collected Company Combo decks, just like it had big trouble fitting into Pod, because it often doesn't quite hose well enough and it has no ETB/LTB ability. I did leave it in one poster's Pod sideboard once upon a time, though, because...
...Mirr Crus hoses Bogles. That's right. Your opponent needs to find another creature and pump both of them up with Auras (or find Spirit Mantle/Rancor/Unflinching Courage fast, but then we can blow up the evasion-granting Aura), or their best, suited-up guy is getting blocked by Mirr Crus every turn.
Mirr Crus is probably reasonable against Collected Company Combo, just like it used to be reasonable against Pod, because it dodges all their green and black guys and makes their long-term plan of blocking everything in sight worse. I remember Blood Baron of Vizkopa wrecking me more whenever I played Pod, though.
Mirr Crus has a field day against Wilt-Leaf Siege/Little Kid/Abzan Liege/etc. until it gets booted by PtE. It still suffers from the Siege Rhino problem against them, though, and it still gets roughed about a bit by their Lingering Souls.
It trades for a full Lingering Souls and against decks like WUR Delver and some builds of WUR Midrange Junk really doesn't want to keep in Path because the opposing threats are cheap and you don't want to give the extra land, so I don't think that Souls and Path are big problems against Junk.
Mirran Crusader is for the sideboard in WUR Delver. Geist is in the maindeck.
Why aren't you playing Grixis Delver anyway?
WUR Delver having better sideboard cards and similarly good removal probably has a lot to do with it.
URx Delver decks can't support a card that costs 2 mana of the splash color.
Actually, it works pretty well. I've generally treated red as the splash color in WUR Delver since blue and white have Seachrome Coast to run as a nondamaging land while red's best one is Sulfur Falls, which is significantly worse.
Brimaz is good, but the white tempo decks in Modern are also playing blue and Geist of Saint Traft is better maindeck while Mirran Crusader is a better sideboard option.
I would like to make a comparison between Brimaz and Mirran Crusader and Geist.
Mirran Crusader: good against Infect, Bogles, Zoo, and kinda good against Jund/Junk
Brimaz: good against Burn, Zoo, what other decks are Brimaz good against?
Also, when playing against Tron or Scapeshift, either can start swinging for the win if they survive a turn. But a Geist dies to Firespout while a Brimaz can live through it. But a Geist can swing for more damage than Brimaz.
I would like to make a comparison between Brimaz and Mirran Crusader.
Mirran Crusader: good against Infect, Bogles, Zoo, and kinda good against Jund/Junk
Brimaz: good against Burn, Zoo, what other decks are Brimaz good against?
Also, when playing against Tron or Scapeshift, either can start swinging for the win if they survive a turn. But a Geist dies to Firespout while a Brimaz can live through it. But a Geist can swing for more damage than Brimaz.
The thing I must point out about Geist is that he does nothing to help you defensively. That is why Brimaz is better in a tempo shell because he can both stabilize the board against your opponents creatures while also put pressure on. Geist is too fragile to block anything but you're right, he does hit harder and makes a better choice for an aggro shell (or some sort of end game control deck bomb but that could realistically be any scary card).
[quote from="Celestial_Crusader »" url="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/602889-mirran-crusader-and-other-3-cmc-creatures?comment=19"]The thing I must point out about Geist is that he does nothing to help you defensively. That is why Brimaz is better in a tempo shell because he can both stabilize the board against your opponents creatures while also put pressure on. Geist is too fragile to block anything but you're right, he does hit harder and makes a better choice for an aggro shell (or some sort of end game control deck bomb but that could realistically be any scary card).
I would like to make a comparison between Brimaz and Mirran Crusader.
Mirran Crusader: good against Infect, Bogles, Zoo, and kinda good against Jund/Junk
Brimaz: good against Burn, Zoo, what other decks are Brimaz good against?
Also, when playing against Tron or Scapeshift, either can start swinging for the win if they survive a turn. But a Geist dies to Firespout while a Brimaz can live through it. But a Geist can swing for more damage than Brimaz.
The thing I must point out about Geist is that he does nothing to help you defensively. That is why Brimaz is better in a tempo shell because he can both stabilize the board against your opponents creatures while also put pressure on. Geist is too fragile to block anything but you're right, he does hit harder and makes a better choice for an aggro shell (or some sort of end game control deck bomb but that could realistically be any scary card).
Brimaz's problem is that you are tapping out for a 3-drop that can die to any nonred removal. Geist dodges red removal but also Path to Exile, Maelstrom Pulse, Murderous Cut, and Abrupt Decay. Also, Brimaz can technically help you defensively, but all of Twin's powerful creatures are fliers and all of Junk's powerful creatures have 4 power or flying. Brimaz is a sweet card, he just isn't great in a format where all of the best creatures can get around his vigilance.
The thing I must point out about Geist is that he does nothing to help you defensively. That is why Brimaz is better in a tempo shell because he can both stabilize the board against your opponents creatures while also put pressure on. Geist is too fragile to block anything but you're right, he does hit harder and makes a better choice for an aggro shell (or some sort of end game control deck bomb but that could realistically be any scary card).
Brimaz's problem is that you are tapping out for a 3-drop that can die to any nonred removal. Geist dodges red removal but also Path to Exile, Maelstrom Pulse, Murderous Cut, and Abrupt Decay. Also, Brimaz can technically help you defensively, but all of Twin's powerful creatures are fliers and all of Junk's powerful creatures have 4 power or flying. Brimaz is a sweet card, he just isn't great in a format where all of the best creatures can get around his vigilance.
Against Tron and Scapeshift (and maybe some others I can't remember off of the top of my head) that bring in Firespout or Anger of the Gods, tapping out for Geist means losing it, while tapping out for Brimaz means it can swing the next turn. Geist and Brimaz have their pros and cons.
The thing I must point out about Geist is that he does nothing to help you defensively. That is why Brimaz is better in a tempo shell because he can both stabilize the board against your opponents creatures while also put pressure on. Geist is too fragile to block anything but you're right, he does hit harder and makes a better choice for an aggro shell (or some sort of end game control deck bomb but that could realistically be any scary card).
Brimaz's problem is that you are tapping out for a 3-drop that can die to any nonred removal. Geist dodges red removal but also Path to Exile, Maelstrom Pulse, Murderous Cut, and Abrupt Decay. Also, Brimaz can technically help you defensively, but all of Twin's powerful creatures are fliers and all of Junk's powerful creatures have 4 power or flying. Brimaz is a sweet card, he just isn't great in a format where all of the best creatures can get around his vigilance.
Against Tron and Scapeshift (and maybe some others I can't remember off of the top of my head) that bring in Firespout or Anger of the Gods, tapping out for Geist means losing it, while tapping out for Brimaz means it can swing the next turn. Geist and Brimaz have their pros and cons.
Scapeshift and Tron aren't exactly major players in the meta right now. They also have no creatures for Brimaz to block and he can't kill a Scapeshift player before they get the chance to combo off (turn 4 attack for 4 damage, turn 5 attack for 5 damage, Scapeshift combos off on turn 6 the end, even with burn spells).
The thing I must point out about Geist is that he does nothing to help you defensively. That is why Brimaz is better in a tempo shell because he can both stabilize the board against your opponents creatures while also put pressure on. Geist is too fragile to block anything but you're right, he does hit harder and makes a better choice for an aggro shell (or some sort of end game control deck bomb but that could realistically be any scary card).
Which would be better for WUR Delver?
For WUR Delver, I would certainly say Geist of Saint Traft because the deck is very aggressive with enough creature removal to protect it from combat. I think Brimaz could be justified as sideboard material in the right meta.
The thing I must point out about Geist is that he does nothing to help you defensively. That is why Brimaz is better in a tempo shell because he can both stabilize the board against your opponents creatures while also put pressure on. Geist is too fragile to block anything but you're right, he does hit harder and makes a better choice for an aggro shell (or some sort of end game control deck bomb but that could realistically be any scary card).
Which would be better for WUR Delver?
For WUR Delver, I would certainly say Geist of Saint Traft because the deck is very aggressive with enough creature removal to protect it from combat. I think Brimaz could be justified as sideboard material in the right meta.
I'd have to agree, The double white is also really hard to play in UWR delver, which is why geist tends to see more play. If you are looking for sideboard cards strictly for the JUNK matchup you should try Hibernation or Sower of Temptation, a few decks have also been trying Valorous Stance.
Also, is Monastery Mentor a good card for Modern?
Mirran Crusader is an excellent sideboard card in white midrange and tempo decks against Junk. Almost anything in those kinds of decks would have been hit by Inquisition and anything would have been hit by Thoughtseize, so you can't use that as a serious reason for it not being good. Similarly, anything would die to a Path or Liliana edict when you only have one creature. The point is that against their deck it is essentially True-Name Nemesis. It can block Goyf and Tasigur forever. It can attack through anything except for Lingering Souls. The only targeted removal in Junk that kills it is Path, which you don't want to keep in against decks like WUR Midrange and WUR Delver anyways. It is the best possible sideboard card for less than 5 mana against Junk in those decks.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Yes, I am a local area mod.WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVEPrimary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
I am so siging this.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Blade Splicer is also 4 power for 3 mana, but to be honest you're not going to attack with the 1/1. No-one plays Blade Splicer unless they plan on blinking it though.
The only real reason to play Mirran Crusader is to stick an equipment/aura/Gavony Township counter on him for twice as much power. IIRC the last time that was a plan was in Hatebear decks. Nowadays you just play Siege Rhino and call it a day.
P.S. keep in mind, you can't put Rancor on him.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Mirran Crusader is also 4 power for 3 mana; doublestrike.
Turning off Liliana is way worse than protection from their deck. Liliana is 3-4 cards in their deck. Mirran Crusader turns off all of their non-Path removal and attacks through all of their non-Lingering Souls creatures. It is much better than Loxodon Smiter against BGx. It is just that Smiter is a better maindeck card since it is stronger against Lightning Bolt decks and counterspell decks.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
...We're not here to discuss Mirran Crusader against the meta, though--we're just here to discuss Mirran Crusader against green and/or black aggro/midrange/tempo decks, aren't we?
It seems like every BGx Midrange deck right now has picked up more ways to deal with Mirran Crusader. BGx always has Liliana (although if Mirr Crus has friends, Liliana is going to whiff a lot) and targeted discard. Junk has Path to Exile and Lingering Souls (it takes 4 Spirit tokens to kill a Mirr Crus, though, so they're likely chump blocking it). Jund has Lightning Bolt, Grim Lavamancer, sometimes Thundermaw Hellkite, and possibly Anger of the Gods.
From my experience testing Myth Realized against UWR, you'd be surprised how often your opponent's 4 answers to one of your creatures don't come. However, once they start hitting 6+ answers, they come more often.
The disturbing part is that Mirran Crusader can't stop Siege Rhino from stomping over it for 2 damage per turn. You'd think anything with protection from green and black would keep Rhino from ruining your day...you'd think, but Rhino has Trample and a magic 5 toughness, so Mirr Crus can only absorb 2 damage and it can't kill Rhino.
Mirran Crusader generally has big trouble fitting into Collected Company Combo decks, just like it had big trouble fitting into Pod, because it often doesn't quite hose well enough and it has no ETB/LTB ability. I did leave it in one poster's Pod sideboard once upon a time, though, because...
...Mirr Crus hoses Bogles. That's right. Your opponent needs to find another creature and pump both of them up with Auras (or find Spirit Mantle/Rancor/Unflinching Courage fast, but then we can blow up the evasion-granting Aura), or their best, suited-up guy is getting blocked by Mirr Crus every turn.
Mirr Crus is probably reasonable against Collected Company Combo, just like it used to be reasonable against Pod, because it dodges all their green and black guys and makes their long-term plan of blocking everything in sight worse. I remember Blood Baron of Vizkopa wrecking me more whenever I played Pod, though.
Mirr Crus has a field day against Wilt-Leaf Siege/Little Kid/Abzan Liege/etc. until it gets booted by PtE. It still suffers from the Siege Rhino problem against them, though, and it still gets roughed about a bit by their Lingering Souls.
It trades for a full Lingering Souls and against decks like WUR Delver and some builds of WUR Midrange Junk really doesn't want to keep in Path because the opposing threats are cheap and you don't want to give the extra land, so I don't think that Souls and Path are big problems against Junk.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Then play Geist. Why aren't you playing Grixis Delver anyway?
URx Delver decks can't support a card that costs 2 mana of the splash color.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Mirran Crusader is for the sideboard in WUR Delver. Geist is in the maindeck.
WUR Delver having better sideboard cards and similarly good removal probably has a lot to do with it.
Actually, it works pretty well. I've generally treated red as the splash color in WUR Delver since blue and white have Seachrome Coast to run as a nondamaging land while red's best one is Sulfur Falls, which is significantly worse.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Modern: Jund Legacy: RUG Delver EDH: Captain Sisay
Brimaz is good, but the white tempo decks in Modern are also playing blue and Geist of Saint Traft is better maindeck while Mirran Crusader is a better sideboard option.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Mirran Crusader: good against Infect, Bogles, Zoo, and kinda good against Jund/Junk
Brimaz: good against Burn, Zoo, what other decks are Brimaz good against?
Also, when playing against Tron or Scapeshift, either can start swinging for the win if they survive a turn. But a Geist dies to Firespout while a Brimaz can live through it. But a Geist can swing for more damage than Brimaz.
The thing I must point out about Geist is that he does nothing to help you defensively. That is why Brimaz is better in a tempo shell because he can both stabilize the board against your opponents creatures while also put pressure on. Geist is too fragile to block anything but you're right, he does hit harder and makes a better choice for an aggro shell (or some sort of end game control deck bomb but that could realistically be any scary card).
Brimaz's problem is that you are tapping out for a 3-drop that can die to any nonred removal. Geist dodges red removal but also Path to Exile, Maelstrom Pulse, Murderous Cut, and Abrupt Decay. Also, Brimaz can technically help you defensively, but all of Twin's powerful creatures are fliers and all of Junk's powerful creatures have 4 power or flying. Brimaz is a sweet card, he just isn't great in a format where all of the best creatures can get around his vigilance.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Scapeshift and Tron aren't exactly major players in the meta right now. They also have no creatures for Brimaz to block and he can't kill a Scapeshift player before they get the chance to combo off (turn 4 attack for 4 damage, turn 5 attack for 5 damage, Scapeshift combos off on turn 6 the end, even with burn spells).
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
I'd have to agree, The double white is also really hard to play in UWR delver, which is why geist tends to see more play. If you are looking for sideboard cards strictly for the JUNK matchup you should try Hibernation or Sower of Temptation, a few decks have also been trying Valorous Stance.
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