If you mean resetting a messenger with a belcher then sure, then again my list runs three of each in the MB so it might not be a great example. It's strong but not exactly a combo. Some decks that rely on beating you on the ground, like taxes or zoo, will have lots of trouble with those two on the ground however.
If you mean resetting a messenger with a belcher then sure, then again my list runs three of each in the MB so it might not be a great example. It's strong but not exactly a combo. Some decks that rely on beating you on the ground, like taxes or zoo, will have lots of trouble with those two on the ground however.
+1/+1 counters and -1/-1/ counters on the same permanent cancel. So if you belch onto a messenger that already used its undying it can again.
Yeah, but it's not an actual combo, just a fun interaction. That's what I mean by resetting your Messenger. It's not super broken, but it really gums up your board and deals some damage to the other player. In a more sac-oriented shell like the one that placed 3rd at Kansas IQ resetting your Messenger does much more than in an aggro list like ours.
This deck relies on finding a crawler, gotta be careful about that.
The card that wins games on its own against burn is Collective Brutality, much more so than circles of protection and stuff. Killing a creature and forcing them to discard a burn spell is back-breaking, specially for a deck which has stuff like crawler to discard.
I don't like contaminated ground because it's a dead card in multiple matchups, is sheer card disadvantage and there are better ways to buy time. If you really are having a LOT of problems with naya and affinity then Push in the mainboard and path on the side is a better plan.
An absolute backbreaker for those decks is Fleshbag Maraudes, you don't care about sacrifice like they do, it probably even furthers your plan, and it has a body that can easily trade with a lot of things. I believe the sideboard could use a little change. I'm not sold on Tormods vs Nihil Spellbomb. You could easily fit some Fulminators on the side to deal with Tron.
Oh no, Fleshbag isn't mainboard material ever, he goes in the side if you're really struggling against zoo and shadow. Contaminated could be interesting tech against Tron, I'd never considered it, it might deserve a spot on the side since B/W has no access to Quarter. But it's dead too often to deserve the mainboard spot. (In fact, controlled lifeloss can often get you killed against Shadow). If you want a mainboard card to shore up aggressive matchups you could consider Lili of the Veil, she kills a dude and often eats a burn spell, making burn lose a lot of time.
Last Hope plays the recursion game nicely and can be very solid. She's also a very viable option. The Kansas IQ deck had 2 of The Veil, 2 Last Hope and 2 Heretical Healer on the main.
After seeing the seth's video in mtggoldfish about black panharmonicon I realized that all the premier cards are zombies or can be replaced with zombies, while also having a good chances of winning with the aggro strategy. Because of that I begin to brew again with my old zombies deck abd rebuild a fresh new list:
Sooo, with this list we have lot of things to do. There is only one panharmonicon but one is enough to combo finish the game with merchant. We have 15 creatures that will have benefits of panharmonicon out, we have the old combo machine gun and we have lot of disruption (8 discard effects + 6 hard removal).
I'm going to test this list but I think it can do really obnoxoius things and have lot of resiliency.
I think Grafted Wargear would require two Gravecralwers to combo with since you can't just "unequip" it -- you'd have to equip it to crawler 1, move it to crawler 2 to sac crawler 1, recast crawler 1 from grave, move Wargear from crawler 2 to 1 to sac crawler 2, and so forth.
I think Grafted Wargear would require two Gravecralwers to combo with since you can't just "unequip" it -- you'd have to equip it to crawler 1, move it to crawler 2 to sac crawler 1, recast crawler 1 from grave, move Wargear from crawler 2 to 1 to sac crawler 2, and so forth.
So last week I finally had a chance to play and I busted out The Tribe and ended up 2-2, losing to Fish to start, and then two wins against Affinity, and a devastating loss to Esper Control.
Round one: He vialed in the whole lord package the first game and won. I picked off the second game by using enough removal to keep his creatures small enough that I could wipe the board with Expertise. He had no answer to the followup Bealcher and game three was very close but he out-raced me. I go first I win.
Round two: Lots of cheap removal for his early man-lands and Expertise for the Champion. I even got a fun interaction where if you expertise a messenger, it's undying will resolve before the spell attached to expertise does. This means you can expertise in a Plague Bealcher and immediately cancel the messenger's -1/-1 counter. The next game Trespasser's curse which allowed me to play aggressively just relentlessly attacking and pushing any man-lands that tried to go over the top.
Round Three: Same deck, but this time I didn't have a glut of removal, so eventually someone picked up a helmet and just smashed my face. The next game I blew him out with an Expertise into Messenger (Which also killed blood artist + 3 creatures), and the third and final game Trespasser's Curse made my removal so much better since we were at an effective stalemate and every creature he played tipped things closer into my favor.
Round Four: I lost two very close games where my opponent was (sometimes repeatedly) down to one life. The first game was him answering, and re-answering things over and over again every turn until he had six cards left in his library and one life left before he managed to get past my Wanderer/Gravecrawler Reanimation pair. (Messengers, Artists, Lords, and Bealcher's Seen: 2, combined) The second game was similar. He gets down to one and stabilizes and I can never draw a card that goes after his life-total. I don't know if this is a sign that I need a sac-outlet to go after faces or not because the deck has plenty of top-decks that would have made all the difference and got the last life but I just didn't draw any of them.
Closing thoughts: Yahenni's Expertise came up big, and I'm pretty high on the card right now. Wrathing into a threat just feels good in addition to turning games around, especially against the kind of aggressive decks I've had problems against in the past. I already talked about the sac outlet and I'm considering splitting the difference with Throne of the God-Pharaoh which seems good with a deck already equipped with geralf's messenger and dread wanderer and is willing to play Diregraf Ghoul. And those are just synergistic interactions around the drawback associated with zombies. We'll see what Hour holds with spoiler season just a weekend away!
But enough about me, what are y'alls thoughts? How have all y'all been doing?
There's a picture out of a card I think has loads of potential and urges players to go green hardcore :
Shapers Sanctuary G enchantment.
Whenever a creature you control becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, you may draw a card.
So I don't know about you guys, but I've had enough of my creatures go down to spot removal to see this as a metabreaking revelation. It will put us into green though, which is fine and opens up Lotleth Troll and Abrupt Decay, two things that were close to almost being worth a splash on their own.
For those of you insistant upon using BW there is a new card spoiled today, Solemnty that lets you go infinite. If Geralf's Messenger can't have +1/+1 counters placed onto it, then nothing is stopping it and a sac outlet from repeating until dead. Solemnty has some other psynergies and uses (last night I did play against a hardened scales deck...) so maybe worth a look.
shaper's sanctuary seems ok but honestly not that great. As a one of maybe but drawing a card is not the greatest benefit when you just lost your best creature. Yes it's better in multiples but then you have multiple do nothing enchantments sitting in play. Even a card like matter reshaper when they actively get a card in play sometimes still does nothing. I think It's SB at best. Many matchups it's straight useless.
solemnity on the other hand is just a stupid magic card and shouldn't exist. Blatent resilient combo cards shouldn't be given to decks already abusing cards like this. Sure it's also a hate card against some decks. I'm biased about cards like this though. It is certainly strong with messenger and keeps us in color so why not. All we need now is carrion feeder
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Current Decks:
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange BWG Abzan value evolution BUG BUG Midrange
Solemnity/Geralfs Messenger is an interesting combo, given a sac outlet. This however means that it might see play in more combo oriented builds like Melira, and less in a zombies shell. If only we had a decent zombie sac outlet.
I'm not sure it competes with Vizier combo, but it shuts it down in addition to being your own combo piece.
shaper's sanctuary seems ok but honestly not that great. As a one of maybe but drawing a card is not the greatest benefit when you just lost your best creature. Yes it's better in multiples but then you have multiple do nothing enchantments sitting in play. Even a card like matter reshaper when they actively get a card in play sometimes still does nothing. I think It's SB at best. Many matchups it's straight useless.
The way I see it is it's cheap, and turns every exile threat not named Anger of the Gods into card disadvantage. I like my topdecking odds when I only have 22 lands and you have to replace every creature you kill.
For those of you who thought Havengul Litch was cool and good you'll loveThe Scarab God!
5/5 for 3UB
The Scarab God Scry's X and causes an opponent to lose X life where X is your zombies. Every one of your upkeeps!
But wait, there's more!
for 2UB he will perform an Eternalize impression (exile a creature from any graveyard, and turn it into a 4/4 zombie for you)
But wait, there's more!
Whenever he dies, goes back to your hand at end of turn, so he's even sac outlet friendly!
Summary: Too slow for competitive, but a very fun card for more casual builds.
PreRound 1: Welcome to MTGO Against Black Stuff
It had been a while since I used MTGO so I went in and played a match just to get my bearings. I won two games handily but alarmingly lost one as double Vampire Nighthawk and double [c]The Rack[/card] flew over and kept putting him out of reach. It helped that I drew mostly lands, including zero removal spells.
PreRound 2: Ok, I'm ready for Tournament Practice against Hardened Scales
A Hardened scales deck that couldn't overcome getting pushed around and their hand removed. The deck made some beefy guys but they were no match for verdict. Minor threats just kept attacking back until critical mass was achieved. 2 wins.
Round 1: This time it matters against Burn
Long ago, Burn in Modern used to consist of a whole lot of bolts and bolt-like cards and somewhere along the line they decided that scooping to leyline of sanctity was sub-optimal and now they're running creatures. The thing about that is all creatures do is die. Game one I push a Swiftspear, Verdict an Eidolon, all the while he's throwing his life points away and doing a lot of the work for me. I survive to turn 4, where I can stabilize with a Lord and a Messenger but our lifetotals are too low and he casts two Seering Blaze to end the game. The next game is very similar, except now that I'm on the play I get to ourrace him by a turn and win. Game three is another nailbiter where I have to mulligan to 4 (No lands or leylines on hands 6 and 5) but I get some luck when his Goblin guide gives me a pair of lands before I push it away. Blood artist did some work, but was quickly shut off by rest in peace but in the end I get him to one and cast verdict.
OUT: 4 Thoughtseize, 1 Phyrexian Obliterator, 1 Diergraf Captain
IN: 4 Leyline of Sanctity, 2 Countersqual
Round 2: Feeling Good against Colorless Eldrazi Tron
Game one I manage some early pressure with Gravecrawlers, and can keep him off a Thought-Knot Seer via thoughtseize. Eventually he is forced to attack with 2 Reality Smashers and I have to use my Lord to block. I swing back, putting him at 3 and end the game with a Messenger and a vedict.
Game two he puts out 2 Seers, and backs them up with Reality Smashers, while I have more modest offerings and lose. Game three is also close but he takes it when I draw a pocket of lands with him at 3 and I'm sitting on a few gravecrawlers in the yard.
OUT: 4 Fatal Push, 2 Yahenni's Expertise
IN: 3 Countersqual 1 Pithing Needle 2 Trespasser's curse
Round 3: Needing to win out Against a colorful Eldrazi Brew
Game one goes a lot like the last two eldrazi games. His creatures are just too big and I'm not drawing removal or my bigger threats.
Game two I keep an opener with one land, but also a thoughtseize, two geth's verdict, and a dread wanderer. One more land and I have an answer to anything. Instead I draw zero more lands and die.
OUT 2 Yahenni's Expertise, 3 Fatal Push
IN 3 Countersqual, 3 Trespasser's Curse
Round 4: Just for fun against Enchantment Prision
This deck is designed around preventing me from attacking with a multitude of enchantments, like Sphere of safety and Ghostly prision. It starts early with the white Drop of Honey and is backed up by wraths. It probably has a Rest in Peace but I didn't see it.
Game one He has to keep wrathing the board, and is only protected by one ghostly prision. I pay, and deal a little damage, and every time he wraths he hurts himself and Relentless Dead just recurrs. Game two he gets in a much harder lock with Sphere of Safety, Ghostly prision, and Story Circle. Ouch. Thankfully, Zombies don't need to attack so I have to do the work myself killing my own creatures over and over, and recurring them. Thankfully his win condition required him to turn his enchantments into creatures so the game ends when I cast Yahenni's Expertise killing my board with a Belcher out, and getting a lot of his enchantments in the process (such as a detention sphere on my Blasting station) Not that it matters because the dead zombies and the returning messenger end the game.
Thoughts: I took everyone's advice and tried out Blasting Station. I will admit the card has far more upside than I gave it credit for, but it's cost still remains a huge problem. I'll leave it in for now, because I definitely need the reach somewhere
One measely Diergraf Captain is too few. Definately need to find space for another.
Yahenni's Expertise is a lot like Blasting Station, not as versatile as I need (Two Eldrazi pairings drove that point home) but when it is "good enough" it is a total blowout. Since switching from Tragic Slip to Fatal Push though I have severly limited my options to deal with large creatures and Damnation is looking more appealing. It's just so fun though to cast Expertise, killing a Messenger and then casting a Belcher for free. It's hard to come back from a board wipe when I got to keep a 5/4 and 2/1.
The idea was to pack a value engine by using discard effects like Liliana, Copter, Cryptbreaker and then discarding Gravecrawlers and Bloodghast as fodder, all while running serious hand and battlefield interaction. With Belcher, Geralfs and Copter providing for reach. Went 3-1 but my one loss was in the top 4 pairings so I never got to play the 5th game.
Round 1: Ad Nauseam
Game 1: The deck performed beautifully. Hand interaction kept him off his combo long enough to kill him. There was a close one when an inquisition of Kozilek showed me an Ad Naus I couldn't discard but Copter and Cryptbreaker allowed me to dig very deep into my deck for an answer before I lost.
Game 2: Same deal as before, got two copters going and digging through my deck for the discard while hurting him a lot.
Game 1: Easy win, he didn't draw into any exiling removal so my threats just kept coming back. Mutavault and Bloodghast were all-stars here.
Game 2: He cast a Surgical extraction in response to a Bloodghast trigger that was going to bring back two of them, and snapcasted it into Gravecrawler, absolute back-breaker.
Game 3: Early Arena and Liliana were too much pressure for him to handle.
Game 1: I went big, I drew into a couple belchers who kept resetting the messenger who was trading with his creatures.
Game 2: He was very unlucky, he was manascrewed the first turns and never drew into an anthem effect. Copter just kept attacking into his spirit tokens and generating CA until my board was full and his was empty.
Game 1: I had some nice discard going on, with Thoughtseize into Collective Brutality into Liliana. It was all useless, I had him at 4 and 2 cards in hand and he cast gifts at EoT and proceeded to combo me on his turn using only cards in his graveyard.
Game 2: I think my sideboard made this one even worse? I sided out my removal so his Baral just sat there for a T5 combo.
Overall I left this match with the feeling that there is nothing I could have done to win it. My clock just isn't fast enough and my disruption does almost nothing. I think outside of splashing white for super-specific storm hate this will remain a match-up with almost 0% winrate.
OUT: 3 Fatal Push, 2 Dismember
IN: 1 Duress, 1 Collective Brutality, 2 Surgical Extraction, 1 Relic of Progenitus.
Thoughts:
I like how the deck plays, I didn't get the chance to play against big creatures decks like Death Shadow or Eldrazi, so there's a lot of testing to be done. I'm pretty certain that Dredge is also a terrible matchup so I'm considering bumping the Surgical Extraction count to 4 in the sideboard to maybe have a better chance against storm and dredge. Collective Brutality does a good job of killing critters so I'm thinking of loading a bit more on Dismember and less on Fatal Push. Finally, I kept finding that the cards that terrify me are cmc4+ so I will switch my inquisitions for thoughtseizes.
Regarding removal: You're already playing white so why not go for Path to Exile? A land is very little compared to guaranteeing Death's Shadow can't recur their fatties.
I'm not sure Zealous persecution is mainboard material. Seeing how you're a sacrifice combo deck you could play Liliana, the Last Hope to slow down enemy aggro decks and recur combo pieces.
Víscera Seer is a great sac outlet because he can setup your combo. If you have Solemnity and Butcher Ghoul then you get infinite scries until you find a combo piece to end the game. Plague Belcher doubles as a beater and combo piece, leave it there. Given how you can win with only creature combos (if you have Viscera Seer, ofc) you could run a single copy of Rally the Ancestors for x=3 to win the game literally out of nowhere after a wrath.
Keep the Push, it's currently the best one-drop in all of Modern, but do drop the Zealous Persecution.
Cut a damnation, but you'll want to keep the other two because otherwise you can't really compete with decks that run bigger creatures.
I don't know if you've begin working on your sideboard yet, but you will definitely need at least four copies of Disenchant, or some other effect which can remove graveyard hate. Being a deck that wants to use the graveyard to combo off, you need it more than a more aggressive build (IE, the Choice to use Butcher Ghoul over something like Diergraf Ghoul or Dread Wanderer)
As for Garry, I don't believe you have enough black mana symbols to pull it off. You have messenger with 3, but without Relentless Dead (Which can recur combo pieces, and dies to Push, BTW), a lord, or anything else black mana intensive I don't think you'll get what you're looking for.
If you wanted to get cute Dimir Machinations tutors up every piece of your combo, but is pretty meh otherwise. (Messenger, Blasting Station, and Solemnty all cost 3)
I don't think that the combo is really worth it, it is a very slow 3-card combo (3 pieces 3-mana each) and 2 of them are mostly dead cards on their own (Solemnity, Blasting Station).
Also there are no tutors or a card like CoCo to help assemble it.
I don't think that the combo is really worth it, it is a very slow 3-card combo (3 pieces 3-mana each) and 2 of them are mostly dead cards on their own (Solemnity, Blasting Station).
Also there are no tutors or a card like CoCo to help assemble it.
Well, there is tutor in Dimir Machinations for a tutor, but you might be running the Sac Outlet anyways. You basically are a deck already running Two out of three combo pieces anyways, and the third does have some non-combo synergies so why not?
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+1/+1 counters and -1/-1/ counters on the same permanent cancel. So if you belch onto a messenger that already used its undying it can again.
The card that wins games on its own against burn is Collective Brutality, much more so than circles of protection and stuff. Killing a creature and forcing them to discard a burn spell is back-breaking, specially for a deck which has stuff like crawler to discard.
I don't like contaminated ground because it's a dead card in multiple matchups, is sheer card disadvantage and there are better ways to buy time. If you really are having a LOT of problems with naya and affinity then Push in the mainboard and path on the side is a better plan.
An absolute backbreaker for those decks is Fleshbag Maraudes, you don't care about sacrifice like they do, it probably even furthers your plan, and it has a body that can easily trade with a lot of things. I believe the sideboard could use a little change. I'm not sold on Tormods vs Nihil Spellbomb. You could easily fit some Fulminators on the side to deal with Tron.
After seeing the seth's video in mtggoldfish about black panharmonicon I realized that all the premier cards are zombies or can be replaced with zombies, while also having a good chances of winning with the aggro strategy. Because of that I begin to brew again with my old zombies deck abd rebuild a fresh new list:
4 Gravecrawler
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 fatal push
3 Relentless dead
4 wayward servant
4 Tidehollow Sculler
2 dismember
2 Diregraf Colossus
4 Geralf's messenger
2 blasting station
1 Panharmonicon
3 gray merchant of asphodel
4 Marsh Flats
1 Godless Shrine
1 Plains
7 swamp
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
2 Urborg, Tomb of yawghmoths
Sooo, with this list we have lot of things to do. There is only one panharmonicon but one is enough to combo finish the game with merchant. We have 15 creatures that will have benefits of panharmonicon out, we have the old combo machine gun and we have lot of disruption (8 discard effects + 6 hard removal).
I'm going to test this list but I think it can do really obnoxoius things and have lot of resiliency.
What do you think?
Being a a decent equipment seems better than something like Blasting Station.
Also, here some brews with different color splshes with Zombies:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2wXl_rcTHj5GgE6prVPEzcbip_W0GGxO
Finally! An actual use for Infernal Tutor!
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
4x Dread Wanderer
4x Relentless Dead
2x Blood Artist
4x Geralf's Messenger
2x Plague Belcher
2x Diergraf Captain
2x Phyrexian Obliterator
4x Fatal Push
4x Geth's Verdict
2x Yahenni's Expertise
8x Swamp
4x Polluted Delta
4x Waterey Grave
2x Cavern of Souls
4x Darkslick Shores
4x Leyline of the Void
4x Leyline of Sanctity
3x CounterSquall
2x Trespasser's Curse
2x Something Else...
Round one: He vialed in the whole lord package the first game and won. I picked off the second game by using enough removal to keep his creatures small enough that I could wipe the board with Expertise. He had no answer to the followup Bealcher and game three was very close but he out-raced me. I go first I win.
Round two: Lots of cheap removal for his early man-lands and Expertise for the Champion. I even got a fun interaction where if you expertise a messenger, it's undying will resolve before the spell attached to expertise does. This means you can expertise in a Plague Bealcher and immediately cancel the messenger's -1/-1 counter. The next game Trespasser's curse which allowed me to play aggressively just relentlessly attacking and pushing any man-lands that tried to go over the top.
Round Three: Same deck, but this time I didn't have a glut of removal, so eventually someone picked up a helmet and just smashed my face. The next game I blew him out with an Expertise into Messenger (Which also killed blood artist + 3 creatures), and the third and final game Trespasser's Curse made my removal so much better since we were at an effective stalemate and every creature he played tipped things closer into my favor.
Round Four: I lost two very close games where my opponent was (sometimes repeatedly) down to one life. The first game was him answering, and re-answering things over and over again every turn until he had six cards left in his library and one life left before he managed to get past my Wanderer/Gravecrawler Reanimation pair. (Messengers, Artists, Lords, and Bealcher's Seen: 2, combined) The second game was similar. He gets down to one and stabilizes and I can never draw a card that goes after his life-total. I don't know if this is a sign that I need a sac-outlet to go after faces or not because the deck has plenty of top-decks that would have made all the difference and got the last life but I just didn't draw any of them.
Closing thoughts: Yahenni's Expertise came up big, and I'm pretty high on the card right now. Wrathing into a threat just feels good in addition to turning games around, especially against the kind of aggressive decks I've had problems against in the past. I already talked about the sac outlet and I'm considering splitting the difference with Throne of the God-Pharaoh which seems good with a deck already equipped with geralf's messenger and dread wanderer and is willing to play Diregraf Ghoul. And those are just synergistic interactions around the drawback associated with zombies. We'll see what Hour holds with spoiler season just a weekend away!
But enough about me, what are y'alls thoughts? How have all y'all been doing?
Shapers Sanctuary G enchantment.
Whenever a creature you control becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, you may draw a card.
So I don't know about you guys, but I've had enough of my creatures go down to spot removal to see this as a metabreaking revelation. It will put us into green though, which is fine and opens up Lotleth Troll and Abrupt Decay, two things that were close to almost being worth a splash on their own.
solemnity on the other hand is just a stupid magic card and shouldn't exist. Blatent resilient combo cards shouldn't be given to decks already abusing cards like this. Sure it's also a hate card against some decks. I'm biased about cards like this though. It is certainly strong with messenger and keeps us in color so why not. All we need now is carrion feeder
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
I'm not sure it competes with Vizier combo, but it shuts it down in addition to being your own combo piece.
For those of you who thought Havengul Litch was cool and good you'll love The Scarab God!
5/5 for 3UB
The Scarab God Scry's X and causes an opponent to lose X life where X is your zombies. Every one of your upkeeps!
But wait, there's more!
for 2UB he will perform an Eternalize impression (exile a creature from any graveyard, and turn it into a 4/4 zombie for you)
But wait, there's more!
Whenever he dies, goes back to your hand at end of turn, so he's even sac outlet friendly!
4 Gravecrawler
4 Dread Wanderer
4 Relentless Dead
1 Blood Artist
4 Geralf's Messenger
2 Plague Belcher
1 Diergraf Captain
2 Phyrexian Obliterator
//16 Spells
4 Thoughtseize
4 Fatal Push
4 Geth's Verdict
2 Blasting Station
2 Yahenni's Expertise
9 Swamp
1 Island
4 Waterey Grave
4 Polluted Delta
3 Darkslick Shores
1 Cavern of Souls
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Trespasser's Curse
3 Countersqual
1 Pithing Needle
It had been a while since I used MTGO so I went in and played a match just to get my bearings. I won two games handily but alarmingly lost one as double Vampire Nighthawk and double [c]The Rack[/card] flew over and kept putting him out of reach. It helped that I drew mostly lands, including zero removal spells.
PreRound 2: Ok, I'm ready for Tournament Practice against Hardened Scales
A Hardened scales deck that couldn't overcome getting pushed around and their hand removed. The deck made some beefy guys but they were no match for verdict. Minor threats just kept attacking back until critical mass was achieved. 2 wins.
Round 1: This time it matters against Burn
Long ago, Burn in Modern used to consist of a whole lot of bolts and bolt-like cards and somewhere along the line they decided that scooping to leyline of sanctity was sub-optimal and now they're running creatures. The thing about that is all creatures do is die. Game one I push a Swiftspear, Verdict an Eidolon, all the while he's throwing his life points away and doing a lot of the work for me. I survive to turn 4, where I can stabilize with a Lord and a Messenger but our lifetotals are too low and he casts two Seering Blaze to end the game. The next game is very similar, except now that I'm on the play I get to ourrace him by a turn and win. Game three is another nailbiter where I have to mulligan to 4 (No lands or leylines on hands 6 and 5) but I get some luck when his Goblin guide gives me a pair of lands before I push it away. Blood artist did some work, but was quickly shut off by rest in peace but in the end I get him to one and cast verdict.
OUT: 4 Thoughtseize, 1 Phyrexian Obliterator, 1 Diergraf Captain
IN: 4 Leyline of Sanctity, 2 Countersqual
Round 2: Feeling Good against Colorless Eldrazi Tron
Game one I manage some early pressure with Gravecrawlers, and can keep him off a Thought-Knot Seer via thoughtseize. Eventually he is forced to attack with 2 Reality Smashers and I have to use my Lord to block. I swing back, putting him at 3 and end the game with a Messenger and a vedict.
Game two he puts out 2 Seers, and backs them up with Reality Smashers, while I have more modest offerings and lose. Game three is also close but he takes it when I draw a pocket of lands with him at 3 and I'm sitting on a few gravecrawlers in the yard.
OUT: 4 Fatal Push, 2 Yahenni's Expertise
IN: 3 Countersqual 1 Pithing Needle 2 Trespasser's curse
Round 3: Needing to win out Against a colorful Eldrazi Brew
Game one goes a lot like the last two eldrazi games. His creatures are just too big and I'm not drawing removal or my bigger threats.
Game two I keep an opener with one land, but also a thoughtseize, two geth's verdict, and a dread wanderer. One more land and I have an answer to anything. Instead I draw zero more lands and die.
OUT 2 Yahenni's Expertise, 3 Fatal Push
IN 3 Countersqual, 3 Trespasser's Curse
Round 4: Just for fun against Enchantment Prision
This deck is designed around preventing me from attacking with a multitude of enchantments, like Sphere of safety and Ghostly prision. It starts early with the white Drop of Honey and is backed up by wraths. It probably has a Rest in Peace but I didn't see it.
Game one He has to keep wrathing the board, and is only protected by one ghostly prision. I pay, and deal a little damage, and every time he wraths he hurts himself and Relentless Dead just recurrs. Game two he gets in a much harder lock with Sphere of Safety, Ghostly prision, and Story Circle. Ouch. Thankfully, Zombies don't need to attack so I have to do the work myself killing my own creatures over and over, and recurring them. Thankfully his win condition required him to turn his enchantments into creatures so the game ends when I cast Yahenni's Expertise killing my board with a Belcher out, and getting a lot of his enchantments in the process (such as a detention sphere on my Blasting station) Not that it matters because the dead zombies and the returning messenger end the game.
Thoughts: I took everyone's advice and tried out Blasting Station. I will admit the card has far more upside than I gave it credit for, but it's cost still remains a huge problem. I'll leave it in for now, because I definitely need the reach somewhere
One measely Diergraf Captain is too few. Definately need to find space for another.
Yahenni's Expertise is a lot like Blasting Station, not as versatile as I need (Two Eldrazi pairings drove that point home) but when it is "good enough" it is a total blowout. Since switching from Tragic Slip to Fatal Push though I have severly limited my options to deal with large creatures and Damnation is looking more appealing. It's just so fun though to cast Expertise, killing a Messenger and then casting a Belcher for free. It's hard to come back from a board wipe when I got to keep a 5/4 and 2/1.
3x Cryptbreaker
3x Relentless Dead
4x Smuggler's Copter
3x Geralf's Messenger
3x Plague Belcher
4x Bloodghast
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1x Thoughtsieze
3x Fatal Push
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Liliana of the Veil
2x Dismember
2x Collective Brutality
4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Marsh Flats
3x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3x Mutavault
4x Ghost Quarter
1x Duress
1x Collective Brutality
3x Gifted Aetherborn
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2x Surgical Extraction
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Phyrexian Obliterator
1x Relic of Progenitus
The idea was to pack a value engine by using discard effects like Liliana, Copter, Cryptbreaker and then discarding Gravecrawlers and Bloodghast as fodder, all while running serious hand and battlefield interaction. With Belcher, Geralfs and Copter providing for reach. Went 3-1 but my one loss was in the top 4 pairings so I never got to play the 5th game.
Round 1: Ad Nauseam
Game 1: The deck performed beautifully. Hand interaction kept him off his combo long enough to kill him. There was a close one when an inquisition of Kozilek showed me an Ad Naus I couldn't discard but Copter and Cryptbreaker allowed me to dig very deep into my deck for an answer before I lost.
Game 2: Same deal as before, got two copters going and digging through my deck for the discard while hurting him a lot.
OUT: 3 Fatal Push, 2 Dismember
IN: 1 Duress, 1 Collective Brutality, 2 Surgical Extraction, 1 Phyrexian Arena.
Round 2: Esper Control
Game 1: Easy win, he didn't draw into any exiling removal so my threats just kept coming back. Mutavault and Bloodghast were all-stars here.
Game 2: He cast a Surgical extraction in response to a Bloodghast trigger that was going to bring back two of them, and snapcasted it into Gravecrawler, absolute back-breaker.
Game 3: Early Arena and Liliana were too much pressure for him to handle.
OUT: 3 Fatal Push, 2 Dismember
IN: 1 Duress, 1 Collective Brutality, 2 Gifted Aetherborn, 1 Phyrexian Arena.
Round 3: B/W Tokens
Game 1: I went big, I drew into a couple belchers who kept resetting the messenger who was trading with his creatures.
Game 2: He was very unlucky, he was manascrewed the first turns and never drew into an anthem effect. Copter just kept attacking into his spirit tokens and generating CA until my board was full and his was empty.
OUT: 2 Liliana
IN: 1 Duress, 1 Collective Brutality.
Round 4: U/R Gifts Storm
Game 1: I had some nice discard going on, with Thoughtseize into Collective Brutality into Liliana. It was all useless, I had him at 4 and 2 cards in hand and he cast gifts at EoT and proceeded to combo me on his turn using only cards in his graveyard.
Game 2: I think my sideboard made this one even worse? I sided out my removal so his Baral just sat there for a T5 combo.
Overall I left this match with the feeling that there is nothing I could have done to win it. My clock just isn't fast enough and my disruption does almost nothing. I think outside of splashing white for super-specific storm hate this will remain a match-up with almost 0% winrate.
OUT: 3 Fatal Push, 2 Dismember
IN: 1 Duress, 1 Collective Brutality, 2 Surgical Extraction, 1 Relic of Progenitus.
Thoughts:
I like how the deck plays, I didn't get the chance to play against big creatures decks like Death Shadow or Eldrazi, so there's a lot of testing to be done. I'm pretty certain that Dredge is also a terrible matchup so I'm considering bumping the Surgical Extraction count to 4 in the sideboard to maybe have a better chance against storm and dredge. Collective Brutality does a good job of killing critters so I'm thinking of loading a bit more on Dismember and less on Fatal Push. Finally, I kept finding that the cards that terrify me are cmc4+ so I will switch my inquisitions for thoughtseizes.
Regarding removal: You're already playing white so why not go for Path to Exile? A land is very little compared to guaranteeing Death's Shadow can't recur their fatties.
I'm not sure Zealous persecution is mainboard material. Seeing how you're a sacrifice combo deck you could play Liliana, the Last Hope to slow down enemy aggro decks and recur combo pieces.
Víscera Seer is a great sac outlet because he can setup your combo. If you have Solemnity and Butcher Ghoul then you get infinite scries until you find a combo piece to end the game. Plague Belcher doubles as a beater and combo piece, leave it there. Given how you can win with only creature combos (if you have Viscera Seer, ofc) you could run a single copy of Rally the Ancestors for x=3 to win the game literally out of nowhere after a wrath.
Cut a damnation, but you'll want to keep the other two because otherwise you can't really compete with decks that run bigger creatures.
I don't know if you've begin working on your sideboard yet, but you will definitely need at least four copies of Disenchant, or some other effect which can remove graveyard hate. Being a deck that wants to use the graveyard to combo off, you need it more than a more aggressive build (IE, the Choice to use Butcher Ghoul over something like Diergraf Ghoul or Dread Wanderer)
As for Garry, I don't believe you have enough black mana symbols to pull it off. You have messenger with 3, but without Relentless Dead (Which can recur combo pieces, and dies to Push, BTW), a lord, or anything else black mana intensive I don't think you'll get what you're looking for.
If you wanted to get cute Dimir Machinations tutors up every piece of your combo, but is pretty meh otherwise. (Messenger, Blasting Station, and Solemnty all cost 3)
Also there are no tutors or a card like CoCo to help assemble it.
Well, there is tutor in Dimir Machinations for a tutor, but you might be running the Sac Outlet anyways. You basically are a deck already running Two out of three combo pieces anyways, and the third does have some non-combo synergies so why not?