I really enjoy the fact that this guy on B/W tokens is doing so well. Also, watching that last game (Naya vs Twin g1) was pretty exciting. A bit of luck on the company players side, but he also maneuvered that really well.
I feel like both players had a lot of luck. Todd had lots of removal. Kevin had lots of Exarchs/Mites. Both players had great topdecks but both players also managed their resources and sequenced really well.
Very interesting to see the Abzan and Jund transition happen here. We saw that start at the end of December and it has been sustained into this event.
It does seem like we're seeing a surge in ramp/midrange hybrid decks right now, where IMO Path to Exile and Lingering Souls just straight-up outclass Lightning Bolt and Olivia/Huntmaster. I'm firmly on the Abzan bandwagon right now; it just feels like the entire metagame's set up to hate out Jund.
I think meta is set up to hate all fair decks, including Junk. Junk has Path to Exile which favours it against Tron compared to Jund's removal but against other decks Terminate isn't an worse, plus Olivia is quite decent against Amulet if you can slow the Amulet player enough. Other card Junk has and Jund doesn't is Lingering souls but doesn't do anything relevant against ramp decks. Despite that it seems that Junk is really doing better at the moment although neither of them is at the good spot right now and Jund is the better of the two against Amulet and Tron.
100% agree. I just meant that of the two, Junk seems to be in a better bad position. I also expect to see more Maelstrom Pulse from both decks for the foreseeable future.
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Playing UX Mana Denial until Modern gets the answers it needs.
WUBRG Humans BRW Mardu Pyromancer UW UW "Control" UR Blue Moon
Its one of its good matchups, so I'm not surprised by it. Zoo's power level is actually close to tier 1, but the decks it wins against arent tier one, so it doesnt have enough good matchups to push it outta tier 2. When delver, twin, and control where really pushing the numbers, zoo surged up. Right now, its still decent, because twin is a top dog, but the "big mana" decks like eldrazi are hurting it.
Its a weird meta causing zoo to not really know if it wants to be "Big" so it can beat twin and control, or "small" so it can beat tron and eldrazi.
Well, the fact that UR Twin has 8 day 2 is insane, it's the only way I can explain so many GBx decks being up there. Bot of those decks are literally the Ying and Yang of this format
I'm rooting for Cho, just because he's such a huge underdog
It's crazy that he skewed his mana-base for Blood Moons, just because Amulet/Tron is such a nightmare
Twin can really win out of nowhere, I think had Lucas not misplayed, he would have won with 8 something tokens on the board
Played MTGO against a Blue Tron, he got me down to 3 and had no answer to Twin combo. It's funny that the deck is the face of combo in modern
Also, what did he say about everyone running BDB's UR Twin decks? Any links for the deck lists from the UR Twin players? Is everyone running Nelson's Junk deck list?
THe one time I take lunch I miss zoo. Damn. Fill me in on what happened?
You actually missed two matches, although the second one didn't last very long.
Zoo vs Twin: G2 Twin Snared the first Voice, didn't have a counter for the second, played Snaps at sorcery speed to block the Voice, and got blown out by Dromoka's Command. Zoo plopping Spellskite and Knight sealed the game.
Zoo vs Burn: Last turn, the Zoo player had 6 life, Finks and Nacatl, attacking Burn with no board at 8 life.
I caught this one! (and even ran away from work to ensure I could see it.) When I saw the matchup, I was very sad since I thought hed have been blown out. But he played perfectly and took zoo over junk. Coco + a drawn knight is brutal no matter how glum it looks against junk. I also dont think people realize how good voice is in that matchup too.
Knight is key for zoo in any midrange matchup. It gets bigger than everything, wins out the stall by effectively filtering out lands, while pulling out tool box spell lands. Waiting to attack to get the wolfrun is a play that vets with the deck know is correct, so that way even if it gets decayed, you still turned all youre top decks into must answer threats. After seeing no removal hit knight after getting wolfrun is basically signaling the game was his.
If he didnt win that turn off the lucky quarter, he would have won the next. Game was clinched.
THe one time I take lunch I miss zoo. Damn. Fill me in on what happened?
You actually missed two matches, although the second one didn't last very long.
Zoo vs Twin: G2 Twin Snared the first Voice, didn't have a counter for the second, played Snaps at sorcery speed to block the Voice, and got blown out by Dromoka's Command. Zoo plopping Spellskite and Knight sealed the game.
Zoo vs Burn: Last turn, the Zoo player had 6 life, Finks and Nacatl, attacking Burn with no board at 8 life.
Zoo won both matches.
Nice. thanks for the update. Yeah, Good ol' naya has been doing some work. Ive been avicating the more voice heavy lists for a while, but been sceptical about being too greedy with main deck land tool box ( I generally keep mine around 2-3 lands) but with all this big mana going on, that single ghost quarter blowing up man lands and eldrazi lands must be doing some work. I'll ship it now.
Before watching that game I would have thought that Jund could have some game vs. the reanimator deck. Does anyone know what he could have had in his sideboard to make game 2 & 3 better if he didn't mull into oblivion? The single thoughtsieze didn't look like enough hate.
Before watching that game I would have thought that Jund could have some game vs. the reanimator deck. Does anyone know what he could have had in his sideboard to make game 2 & 3 better if he didn't mull into oblivion? The single thoughtsieze didn't look like enough hate.
The Jund player is bringing in a Thoughtseize, but he didn't have access to Nihil Spellbomb or anything like that. He has Scavenging Ooze to interact with the yard, but he loss both games to Through the Breach. There aren't many ways for Jund to beat that without pressure and hoping to Terminate the Griselbrand before he can attack and get the extra seven cards.
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One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
while watching him play is probably not the greatest viewing experience, i really like how patient Joshua cho has been when he's on camera. Always super collected, edging out small victories and worrying about winning, not winning big.
Before watching that game I would have thought that Jund could have some game vs. the reanimator deck. Does anyone know what he could have had in his sideboard to make game 2 & 3 better if he didn't mull into oblivion? The single thoughtsieze didn't look like enough hate.
You need disruption and a fast clock to beat a dedicated combo deck, just the first one (like Jund has) won't help you. He needs something like Turn 1 discard into Goyf to be able to beat something like Griselbanned. Combined with the rather low combo hate in his SB (he build it vs Aggro and Ramo decks) it was no wonder, that he lost (imo).
Good SB cards vs Griselbanned in the Jund colours are Leyline of the Void, Spellbomb and Surgical Extraction/Extirpate (last one is better, due to the instant nature of the deck). White offers better cards vs Combo (in general), Teeg, Thalia, Canonist, Suppression Field and Rest in Peace are some really nasty cards vs Griselbanned (especially Teeg).
Greetings,
Kathal
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What I play or have:
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
This is why I've always questioned people who think its fine for Twin to be the only police deck in modern. Twin can police some of the format, but if you want to destroy twin, you absolutely can.
BOOM! Zoo makes it to top 8 two times in a row! Hope its a blue meta game! Weirdly enough, scotts version of the deck actually does pretty well against big mana and midranger decks too. Heres to hoping!
I feel like both players had a lot of luck. Todd had lots of removal. Kevin had lots of Exarchs/Mites. Both players had great topdecks but both players also managed their resources and sequenced really well.
100% agree. I just meant that of the two, Junk seems to be in a better bad position. I also expect to see more Maelstrom Pulse from both decks for the foreseeable future.
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
Timely path's and spellskite
THe one time I take lunch I miss zoo. Damn. Fill me in on what happened?
Its one of its good matchups, so I'm not surprised by it. Zoo's power level is actually close to tier 1, but the decks it wins against arent tier one, so it doesnt have enough good matchups to push it outta tier 2. When delver, twin, and control where really pushing the numbers, zoo surged up. Right now, its still decent, because twin is a top dog, but the "big mana" decks like eldrazi are hurting it.
Its a weird meta causing zoo to not really know if it wants to be "Big" so it can beat twin and control, or "small" so it can beat tron and eldrazi.
I'm rooting for Cho, just because he's such a huge underdog
It's crazy that he skewed his mana-base for Blood Moons, just because Amulet/Tron is such a nightmare
Twin can really win out of nowhere, I think had Lucas not misplayed, he would have won with 8 something tokens on the board
Played MTGO against a Blue Tron, he got me down to 3 and had no answer to Twin combo. It's funny that the deck is the face of combo in modern
Zoo vs Twin: G2 Twin Snared the first Voice, didn't have a counter for the second, played Snaps at sorcery speed to block the Voice, and got blown out by Dromoka's Command. Zoo plopping Spellskite and Knight sealed the game.
Zoo vs Burn: Last turn, the Zoo player had 6 life, Finks and Nacatl, attacking Burn with no board at 8 life.
Zoo won both matches.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
BGW Junk / URB Grixis Shadow / RGB Lantern Control / WUBCBant Eldrazi
Current Legacy decks
BUG Shardless BUG / UWR Predict Miracles / RUG Canadian Thresh / WRBG 4c Loam
UB Reanimator
BGW Junk / URB Grixis Shadow / RGB Lantern Control / WUBCBant Eldrazi
Current Legacy decks
BUG Shardless BUG / UWR Predict Miracles / RUG Canadian Thresh / WRBG 4c Loam
UB Reanimator
I'm glad, that Bob is doing well and I'm even more happy, that he is running the Grixis version for Visions (no Schemings).
Greetings,
Kathal
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
Knight is key for zoo in any midrange matchup. It gets bigger than everything, wins out the stall by effectively filtering out lands, while pulling out tool box spell lands. Waiting to attack to get the wolfrun is a play that vets with the deck know is correct, so that way even if it gets decayed, you still turned all youre top decks into must answer threats. After seeing no removal hit knight after getting wolfrun is basically signaling the game was his.
If he didnt win that turn off the lucky quarter, he would have won the next. Game was clinched.
Nice. thanks for the update. Yeah, Good ol' naya has been doing some work. Ive been avicating the more voice heavy lists for a while, but been sceptical about being too greedy with main deck land tool box ( I generally keep mine around 2-3 lands) but with all this big mana going on, that single ghost quarter blowing up man lands and eldrazi lands must be doing some work. I'll ship it now.
Goblins
EDH
Derevi
You need disruption and a fast clock to beat a dedicated combo deck, just the first one (like Jund has) won't help you. He needs something like Turn 1 discard into Goyf to be able to beat something like Griselbanned. Combined with the rather low combo hate in his SB (he build it vs Aggro and Ramo decks) it was no wonder, that he lost (imo).
Good SB cards vs Griselbanned in the Jund colours are Leyline of the Void, Spellbomb and Surgical Extraction/Extirpate (last one is better, due to the instant nature of the deck). White offers better cards vs Combo (in general), Teeg, Thalia, Canonist, Suppression Field and Rest in Peace are some really nasty cards vs Griselbanned (especially Teeg).
Greetings,
Kathal
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
Just seems silly to me; I'll look through my library while looking through my Fetch, put it on top, and shuffle so it's closer....
No, he had both Borg's on the very bottom, grabbed one, and put it on the top, THEN started looking for the land.
This is why I've always questioned people who think its fine for Twin to be the only police deck in modern. Twin can police some of the format, but if you want to destroy twin, you absolutely can.