I bet a lot of us thought that Blood Moon was a crappy rare back in the day right?, well I'm sure a lot of us don't think that way anymore. That being said it is outstanding the amount of frustration this card can give to some people because it just seems unfair to not be able to play anything while your opponent bash you in the face, and although in legacy it is a very proven archetype and in Modern things like the Blue Moon deck has been trying to do this for a while now, or even having something like 80% of the decks running red having it on their sideboard... well... It just doesn't cut it for me.
This is a mere intro for an idea that i wont say its revolutionary in any way, but it aims to push that wrecking ball of an effect on a format filled with nonbasic lands.
II - The Core
The core of the deck is divided in 2 things
- Blood Moon
- Acceleration to Blood Moon
so
Are by far the best choice for this. (I must say i used to play deathrite shaman instead of noble hierarch before he was banned, but i know now that hierarch is by far the better choice even if the shaman wasn't banned anymore).
III - Protect the Core
In order to be able to land a 2nd turn Moon we have it covered with our 8 1st turn accelerators, but sometimes we have to wait in order to be able to protect our goal and seal the deal.
The justification for each of these cards is quite simple.
-Lightning Bolt is one of the best cheap removals and it helps to finish the opponent sooner when you are racing him to recover under a moon.
-Beast Within is a catch em all joker card, the amount of games this card wins alone is outstanding, either destroying the sole basic land an
opponent has in play, or playing it at the end of turn to trump a Telegraphed counterspell, to getting rid of that big creature you cannot handle
with a bolt.
-The sword of war and Peace it is also a multi purpose card, it can help you protect any creature from almost any removal played on Modern
(being Vapor Snag and Dismember the only ones that can handle a creature with this protection in the current meta), so its great but it is also
synergistic with the idea that your opponent most likely will be stuck with a lot of cards in hand not being able to play them, so any creature
even a Bird of paradise is a great clock.
IV - The Bashers
Here the options are a bit sketchy to some people and although the obvious inclusions (for some), tarmogoyf and kitchen finks were tested at some point, in the end i decided to cut them off for far superior choices according to the meta since well at its core it is what the deck is aiming to wreck the metagame.
As i said Tarmogoyf and Kitchen Finks was tested on the slots of the ooze, shaman and huntmaster and they were ok but not great so ill explain why did i make those changes.
- Scavenging Ooze is one of those cards nowadays that is just better than everything and it is not only a big booty for 2 mana (read Tarmogoyf),
so he went from a 1 of to 3 and sometimes i would just want to push one more but it is not possible since the deck is pretty tight as it is.
- Huntmaster of The Fells is one of those cards that is great when you can find him a good spot on a deck and not great, that being said he shines
on this deck since you have somehow the same synergy that you get with the sword playing him under a moon effect,
"T1. land+mana dude, T2. land+moon, T3. land+huntmaster" This gives you a pretty good chance he will flip on your next upkeep because they
will be stuck not able to playing anything, and if that perfect curve doesn't happen he can always be a good defense strategy so he fits perfectly.
-Burning-Tree Shaman, he is the most recent addition i made and here is where the Tarmogoyfs sat for almost the entirety of this deck creation.
The thing with the tarmos is that although they are a good clock and an excellent blocker, they do not help us a lot more than that and in my search
for optimization i found this forgotten gem that it seems even better than when he was rampant all over T2 back in the day.
The centaur is awesome at blocking it is immune to Bolts and although Path to exile, Abrupt Decay and Dismember get rid of him he is not a joke on
the body department, but his ability is awesome, he keeps most of the Planeswalkers in check, he gives an extra damage when a fetchland is
sacrificed, he forces the Splinter Twin, Birthing Pod matches to our favor essentially having 3 spellskites on our main deck. so for all that he
gets the spot.
-Stormbreath Dragon, well he is just what the doctor ordered why?... Well a lot of people that has seen the deck makes this same question
"Why Stormbreath Dragon over lets say Thundermaw Hellkite?" the answer is pretty simple and it has to do with the same principle as the
Sword of War and Peace. he is immune to Bolt, Path and Decay. and his monstrosity ability is also synergistic with the core of the deck so
there is no better creature for this deck than him.
V - The Mana Base
- The Mana base is quite simple and it cannot be different since every land has to be able to give us green mana and everything needs to enter the battlefield untapped, as for the Fetchlands you want to almost always go for a forest and maximize the amount of those before landing the Moon in play.
The SB as always its a meta call but since we are a meta deck by itself and we have some cards on main that could be considered SB cards ill post here my current SB and explain my choices.
-The options here are addressing not what hits us the most but instead the things that really couldnt care less about our main plan.
-Spellskite: help protect our core but also to help against the Infect and Twin matchups.
-Torpor Orb: for the Splinter Twin match as well as for the Birthing Pod decks out there and arguably helps against snapcaster decks.
-Boil: This could easily be the 4th beast within but since you want that card for the same matches that this card can be great it is a better
choice, this matches being UW control, American Control, Blue Moon, and Scapeshift. (yes scapeshift although it is one of the best
matchups for the deck they can always get basic islands pretty easily if they are prepared for it).
-Relic of progenitus: I do need some graveyard hate in here and it is also great to get Tarmogoyfs and Snapcasters in check even more now that I'm not playing Tarmos myself.
-Obstinate Baloth: this guy here is to help us against that fast Red decks and also against Jund because they cant kill him with abrupt decay nor
bolt, and he just loves to be played for free when they activate Liliana, he is also synergistic with our next card choice.
-Anger of the Gods: This card is a must against Birthing Pod decks because removing a kitchen finks or a voice of resurgence its always great, Hatebears and all things aggro, but it also helps with the deck that can wreck anything without caring about our plan if he gets the right hand... AFFINITY... hence...
-Shatterstorm: There is no better card for this plain and simple, for some time i played creeping corrosion, Ancient grudge and even Vandalblast (for its versatility). but there is no better choice than this and we do need at least 3 because having it or not having it on turn 2 ts almost the only chance we have of winning, since the first game its most likely 70%-30% in their favor.
As i said the SB is always a meta call but this so far is the best 15 i have found for the current Meta as of 25-08-2014.
VIII - Notes and Results
So far i have won several FNM, Some Modern League tournaments and Cash prices with it and recently i lost the final of PTQ Khans of Tarkir to a very, very lucky Infect Player going 6-1 in the rounds and losing only 6 games total in the whole tournament. I'm sure that the Shamans were the better choice vs the Tarmogoyfs i used to run but that could change if the format keeps morphing.
I was asked to write this Primer for almost 4 months now but i haven't been able due to work and stuff, but since now after the PTQ a lot of people have asked me for the list i figured it would be better to write it and share it with everyone. I hope people like my idea and really test it through before commenting, that being said i would love to see what everyone thinks of this.
Cheers..
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Seems like a good idea. How does it perform? It seems the deck is based around getting to 3 mana and that is not so hard. ;-)
How is stormbreath dragon? It seems out of place. What about Xenagos the planewalker? Pupping down dudes (with you are) seems good with poping out xenagos when you have 3 dudes on the table, following up by ading mana and making one more 3 cost card like a dude or a sword. (next turn make token and equip sword.)
Also, would it not be better with sword of ice and fire? Or one or two swords of ice and fire. I am also not sold on beast within. What is it there for besides stoping combo creature decks (pod/splinter twin) What about flame slash? Although this last card does not smash the birthing pod. Perhaps Kitchen finks, they seem always good.
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I have dyslexia, no I am not going to spell check for you, yes you have to live with the horrors of it.
Seems like it would be wickedly fun to play if you ask me. Especially against tron players. Not only do you have all the Moon effects but you also have the shaman there to make them take more damage off the karn/map/o-stone activations. I guess the same could be said for Twin and Pod.
I have a few questions though:
1. How does the bashing plan compete with RDW in terms of speed? RDW is based all around mountains obviously so it doesn't hinder them at all. At that point you're really looking for a faster clock. Spellskite can't really be relied upon to save the day every game.
2. Do the moon effects slow down robots/affinity enough to where you can create a bigger board presence? Seems like a single Cranial Plated Ornithopter can be pretty nasty if you can't find a Lightning Bolt.
3. No Pithing Needle in the 75 to deal with Liliana of the Veil? She seems pretty popular these days and a completed ultimate might not be a good thing for you. Seems like there has to be something other than Shaman to keep PW in check.
Overall though I could see how this could have lots of success in the meta. The only bad thing about it is if you play casual with it at all you're bound to run into a bunch of decks that don't use non-basics. Although I will say since the reprinting of the shock lands it's a lot more common to see non-basics but there are a bunch of budget decks out there playing only basics.
He is amazing as i have told before he not only is a fast and synergistic clock he is also very hard to get rid of... trust me on this one he is there to stay.
Well I have thought about him and i have also though and used some other planeswalkers like Chandra Pyromaster and Garruk Relentless, and Garruk Primal Hunter being this last one by far the better choice for this deck, but in the end i cut it just because he is not fast enough at least in the current meta i always wanted to play something with a lot more impact than him by the time i hit 5 mana. That being said i could see xenagos being a good choice if the field was all about control but it isnt.
Also, would it not be better with sword of ice and fire? Or one or two swords of ice and fire. I am also not sold on beast within. What is it there for besides stooping combo creature decks (pod/splinter twin) What about flame slash? Although this last card does not smash the birthing pod. Perhaps Kitchen finks, they seem always good.
Well as i have said before the Sword of War and Peace is just bonkers here and it serves 3 purposes, protecting a magus of the moon or your beater of choice, Giving you life against some decks that could get a better board position faster than you and to put a lot of pressure on the opponent that will not be bale to play anything under a moon effect. The sword of fire and ice has always been tempting but i don't think that it can be better in any case here, but hey.. try it and let me know.
As for the Beast within well, i have thought about cutting it a lot of times but there is not a better card for this slot, if you use flameslash you dont have any responses to a pod on the main deck and flameslash most of the times doesn't kill a tarmogoyf anyway so.. i would rather give them a 3/3 beast than losing to an active deceiver exarch/Restoration Angel or to lose against an ensnaring bridge, karn, and that big ETC... but if you know of abetter card to be ready to defend ourselves against almost anything and to be bale to trump the basic lands the opponents get in order to play under a moon let us know :).
The Kitchen Finks wel they could be great in the sb but as i explained above, the baloths serve a better purpose than just giving life and we already have the centaur in the 3cmc slot so i dont think we need them.
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Seems like it would be wickedly fun to play if you ask me. Especially against tron players. Not only do you have all the Moon effects but you also have the shaman there to make them take more damage off the karn/map/o-stone activations. I guess the same could be said for Twin and Pod.
I have a few questions though:
1. How does the bashing plan compete with RDW in terms of speed? RDW is based all around mountains obviously so it doesn't hinder them at all. At that point you're really looking for a faster clock. Spellskite can't really be relied upon to save the day every game.
2. Do the moon effects slow down robots/affinity enough to where you can create a bigger board presence? Seems like a single Cranial Plated Ornithopter can be pretty nasty if you can't find a Lightning Bolt.
3. No Pithing Needle in the 75 to deal with Liliana of the Veil? She seems pretty popular these days and a completed ultimate might not be a good thing for you. Seems like there has to be something other than Shaman to keep PW in check.
Overall though I could see how this could have lots of success in the meta. The only bad thing about it is if you play casual with it at all you're bound to run into a bunch of decks that don't use non-basics. Although I will say since the reprinting of the shock lands it's a lot more common to see non-basics but there are a bunch of budget decks out there playing only basics.
Yes man it is wicked fun but also pretty hard in some matches, lets address your questions for this.
1.- The RDW and Burn decks are ok since we do get a lot of card that get us life and but we do have 8 almost dead cards in our main deck, so i guess its like 40%-%60 in their favor for the first game it is not unwinnable but we do rely on a second turn blocker third turn huntmaster some oozes and race them to the finish, this is why the baloths ar eso important they really turn the tables along with the other guys so i mostly side 4 blood moon and 2 magus of the moon out and bring 2 spellskites 2 baloths and 2 relic of progenitus ( if there is a lavamancer in sight and because it is better than having the magus and if its a RDW variant with a lot of critters anger of the gods most likely will seal the deal, after sb i would say its somehting like %70-%30 in our favor.
2.- The robots/affinity Match has been a nightmare for me and this is not really because we have a really bad match against them it is just that they can get those nut hands and if we don't get a hold of 2 bolts and any card on our SB we will be dead, so if you know you are against robots in game one mulligan until you get at least a bolt, for the most part the match is something like " the first to tremble loses". the SB plan is very simple: 4 magus of the moon, 1 Beast within and 3 Sword of war and peace out. 3 anger of the gods, 3 Shatterstorm and 2 Obstinate Baloth in.
Pre SB it ssomething like %60 -%40 on their favor and Post SB something like %70-%30 in ours but you have to mulligan heavily to get a SB piece this is very important. Oh and in cas eyour wondering yeah i leave the blood moons in because stopping those Nexus is a must.
3.- No pithing needle on the deck because although its a great card and Liliana is really something to be reckoned with, we do have bolt and beast within ( see? beast within catches everything). and Baloths on the SB, still JUND which is the deck that uses her to her full extent its a tricky match up. but if you know how to play it and you can lock them with a moon they will not be able to do anything.. they do pack 3-4 Abrupt decay on main to deal with them but they have to be prepared and never tap out 2 lands and even if they do that you can always abuse Beast within at the end of turn.
As for the playing this deck in a casual environment.. well i would suggest not to do it since casual players are more about having fun and this deck will not let them do so if they are playing a lot of nonbasics and if they have a lot of basics you will have a mediocre deck, as Ive said this is a deck that aims to wreck the Modern metagame.
I have thought about acidic slime and believe me i think that card is bonkers, but i believe he is not needed here and that there are better and cheaper/faster ways to do what he does here,since for the most part nobody plays ghostly prision, and ensnaring bridge is easy to get rid of with DA BEAST :P. i do feel that a deck like The Rack could be hard to beat since they do not rely on nonbasics and i cannot interact with its main plan but i would still had to test against it and i guess i will worry when everybody starts playing it.
Thanks for the comments and the questions.
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The deck has a lot of activated non mana abilities for playing Burning-Tree Shaman. Scavenging Ooze, Sword of War and Peace, Stormbreath Dragon, fetches, and Spellskyte and Relic of Progenitus in the sideboard. Sure, he's immune to bolts but all the other removal gets him. Path, abrupt decay, terminate, dismember, slaughter pact, Mortify, maelstrom pulse, putrefy, hero's downfall, supreme verdict, oblivion ring, counterspells, discard, ect. Plus he loses in combat against cards like Goyf and loxodon Smiter, and he can't block flying creatures. I just don't see how he's better than the best beater in magic, Goyf.
Also, I'd highly recommend ancient grudge and combust for the sideboard. Also, maybe some kitchen finks somewhere in the 75 card set to handle burn and decks with a lot of red, as blood moon isn't as good against them.
Like you said though, what cards you play depends on your meta and I don't know your meta.
Edit: Thrun, the last troll seems better than Stormbreath dragon. Thrun is immune to everything.
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Modern
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
I must say that yeah in a lot of cases Tarmo would be better but also in a lot of others he just sits there being a 2/3 because you don't really have a way to fill your grave and your opponent is locked under a moon ( this case is mostly relevant if the deck is working like we want it to), and yes he is very killable but i would say that on this meta there are 2 decks that play abrupt decay and slaughter pact (jund & junk), and only one that plays either terminate or maelstrom pulse that being jund, as for the supreme verdict and path to exile well you will most likely take those out for a boil, relic or baloths.
On the other hand he is amazing in matches like splinter twin, birthing pod, Tron and even affinity, trust me you would always prefer to have him instead of a goyf in those matches. There are matches when he is just meh like Burn, Merfolks, UW control and even American control but he is not strictly worse than a goyf there.
And yes you are right the anti-synergy he creates with scavenging ooze, spellskite and the sword really ticks me the wrong way but even with this being said he is totally worth it in my opinion because hey pay 3 instead of 2 life to protect your moon or dragon using a spellskite most likely translates into im still winning if you cannot destroy that thing you want. The sword give syou life so it negates the drawback, and its the same for the ooze so you are not really losing there you are just not gaining life, but you have to play it smart. And as for the fetchlands well most of the time syoull play one or 2 fetchlands before he gets into play and after that you will most likely try to land a moon or you would have landed it before he even gets into play so youll keep tapping them as mountains.
I know hes an odd choice but test him out and you'll see what i mean hes that good to include him instead of that fat beater
as for the kitchen finks well im not debating them they are great and if the meta is a lot more aggressive you should include them but so far 3 ooze 3 huntmaster 2 baloth and 3 swords can net you tons of life against a burn deck, yeah the first game is almost unwinnable but the second and third you will be playing turbo beaters that give you life :P.. so its manageable.
combust is not something i recommend unless your meta is like 70% splinter twin, Kiki Twin, Tarmo Twin.. it really is too narrow and as I've said before we have already 3 cards on the main to stall and 4 on the side to hose.
Lemme know what you think.
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Well i have to say GW hatebears is a pretty good match and post board even better, faeries dies to a moon if you play it correctly and as for merfolks im guessing the match is pretty much like the hatebears match ( cause of the vial) and slightly worse cause they don't care a lot about the moons but i doubt combust would help a lot there. Still as i have said it all depends on the meta, over here nobody plays neither merfolk not faeries...
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Wow i can't believe its almost a year since i posted the deck here, well just a little update for anyone interested, i have been playing all year with it and with good results for the most part, although the metagame has changed quite a bit since last year, well a lot of the key facts are still true.
The moon effect is devastating to something like the 80% of the field.
The protections from the Stormbreath Dragon, and The sword of War and Peace is still awesome.
I have made some changes to improve the match against burn because at some point there was a lot of that over here, so i changed 3 Burning Tree Shaman for 3 Obstinate Baloth on the mainboard, becaus ethe Shaman didnt really helped a lot and the Baloth also helps against Liliana which was one of the reasons the Centaurs were here.
Also the SB is changed and looks similar to this.
2 Combust (Twin in all forms and shapes)
3 Spellskite (Twin, Auras and Infect plus a lot of heavy removal decks)
2 Boil (Scapeshift, UR Twin, American Control)
2 Relic of Progenitus (al grave strategies and some snapcaster decks, sometimes the ooze is not enough)
1 Krosan Grip (Twin, and it doesnt hurt vs affinity, this could be a 3rd combust but serves almost the same purpose in the Twin matchup)
3 anger of the Gods (Melira,and all collected decks, also Affinity, Hatebears, you name it..)
2 Shatterstorm (need i say AFFINITY is a tough match nonetheless..)
Cheers.
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Well, simiam spirit guide is a lot worse than a noble hierarch in a shell with green, also this does different things than skred, and as said above you can maximize the chances of puting a moon effect on the board by turn 2. Skred is a good deck if the meta is aggro oriented but this fights against weak manabases and can beat a lot of unwinnable or at least hard to desl matches for skred like ur delver, grixis etc...
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Im tinkering with Fracturing Gust over shatterstorm and it seems fine to get to 5 mana before dying vs affinity and the lifegain is awesome so it may be a great choice, but i still need to test further.
Also im toying with the idea of using Sword of light and shadow and or Sword of fire and ice.. but im not sure if they are worth the risk of not having the best protections around.
Another thing to try out is Outpost siege, against some grindier matchups that arent really that hurt by the Moon effects it could be pretty useful..
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I bet a lot of us thought that Blood Moon was a crappy rare back in the day right?, well I'm sure a lot of us don't think that way anymore. That being said it is outstanding the amount of frustration this card can give to some people because it just seems unfair to not be able to play anything while your opponent bash you in the face, and although in legacy it is a very proven archetype and in Modern things like the Blue Moon deck has been trying to do this for a while now, or even having something like 80% of the decks running red having it on their sideboard... well... It just doesn't cut it for me.
This is a mere intro for an idea that i wont say its revolutionary in any way, but it aims to push that wrecking ball of an effect on a format filled with nonbasic lands.
II - The Core
The core of the deck is divided in 2 things
- Blood Moon
- Acceleration to Blood Moon
so
Are by far the best choice for this. (I must say i used to play deathrite shaman instead of noble hierarch before he was banned, but i know now that hierarch is by far the better choice even if the shaman wasn't banned anymore).
III - Protect the Core
In order to be able to land a 2nd turn Moon we have it covered with our 8 1st turn accelerators, but sometimes we have to wait in order to be able to protect our goal and seal the deal.
The justification for each of these cards is quite simple.
-Lightning Bolt is one of the best cheap removals and it helps to finish the opponent sooner when you are racing him to recover under a moon.
-Beast Within is a catch em all joker card, the amount of games this card wins alone is outstanding, either destroying the sole basic land an
opponent has in play, or playing it at the end of turn to trump a Telegraphed counterspell, to getting rid of that big creature you cannot handle
with a bolt.
-The sword of war and Peace it is also a multi purpose card, it can help you protect any creature from almost any removal played on Modern
(being Vapor Snag and Dismember the only ones that can handle a creature with this protection in the current meta), so its great but it is also
synergistic with the idea that your opponent most likely will be stuck with a lot of cards in hand not being able to play them, so any creature
even a Bird of paradise is a great clock.
IV - The Bashers
Here the options are a bit sketchy to some people and although the obvious inclusions (for some), tarmogoyf and kitchen finks were tested at some point, in the end i decided to cut them off for far superior choices according to the meta since well at its core it is what the deck is aiming to wreck the metagame.
As i said Tarmogoyf and Kitchen Finks was tested on the slots of the ooze, shaman and huntmaster and they were ok but not great so ill explain why did i make those changes.
- Scavenging Ooze is one of those cards nowadays that is just better than everything and it is not only a big booty for 2 mana (read Tarmogoyf),
so he went from a 1 of to 3 and sometimes i would just want to push one more but it is not possible since the deck is pretty tight as it is.
- Huntmaster of The Fells is one of those cards that is great when you can find him a good spot on a deck and not great, that being said he shines
on this deck since you have somehow the same synergy that you get with the sword playing him under a moon effect,
"T1. land+mana dude, T2. land+moon, T3. land+huntmaster" This gives you a pretty good chance he will flip on your next upkeep because they
will be stuck not able to playing anything, and if that perfect curve doesn't happen he can always be a good defense strategy so he fits perfectly.
-Burning-Tree Shaman, he is the most recent addition i made and here is where the Tarmogoyfs sat for almost the entirety of this deck creation.
The thing with the tarmos is that although they are a good clock and an excellent blocker, they do not help us a lot more than that and in my search
for optimization i found this forgotten gem that it seems even better than when he was rampant all over T2 back in the day.
The centaur is awesome at blocking it is immune to Bolts and although Path to exile, Abrupt Decay and Dismember get rid of him he is not a joke on
the body department, but his ability is awesome, he keeps most of the Planeswalkers in check, he gives an extra damage when a fetchland is
sacrificed, he forces the Splinter Twin, Birthing Pod matches to our favor essentially having 3 spellskites on our main deck. so for all that he
gets the spot.
-Stormbreath Dragon, well he is just what the doctor ordered why?... Well a lot of people that has seen the deck makes this same question
"Why Stormbreath Dragon over lets say Thundermaw Hellkite?" the answer is pretty simple and it has to do with the same principle as the
Sword of War and Peace. he is immune to Bolt, Path and Decay. and his monstrosity ability is also synergistic with the core of the deck so
there is no better creature for this deck than him.
V - The Mana Base
- The Mana base is quite simple and it cannot be different since every land has to be able to give us green mana and everything needs to enter the battlefield untapped, as for the Fetchlands you want to almost always go for a forest and maximize the amount of those before landing the Moon in play.
VI - Decklist
6 Forest
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Stomping Ground
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Magus of the Moon
3 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Huntmaster of the Fells/Ravager of the Fells
3 Burning-Tree Shaman
3 Sword of War and Peace
Spells:
3 Beast Within
4 Lightning Bolt
Enchantments:
4 Blood Moon
VII - The Sideboard
The SB as always its a meta call but since we are a meta deck by itself and we have some cards on main that could be considered SB cards ill post here my current SB and explain my choices.
2 Spellskite
2 Torpor Orb
1 Boil
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Obstinate Baloth
3 Anger of the Gods
3 Shatterstorm
-The options here are addressing not what hits us the most but instead the things that really couldnt care less about our main plan.
-Spellskite: help protect our core but also to help against the Infect and Twin matchups.
-Torpor Orb: for the Splinter Twin match as well as for the Birthing Pod decks out there and arguably helps against snapcaster decks.
-Boil: This could easily be the 4th beast within but since you want that card for the same matches that this card can be great it is a better
choice, this matches being UW control, American Control, Blue Moon, and Scapeshift. (yes scapeshift although it is one of the best
matchups for the deck they can always get basic islands pretty easily if they are prepared for it).
-Relic of progenitus: I do need some graveyard hate in here and it is also great to get Tarmogoyfs and Snapcasters in check even more now that I'm not playing Tarmos myself.
-Obstinate Baloth: this guy here is to help us against that fast Red decks and also against Jund because they cant kill him with abrupt decay nor
bolt, and he just loves to be played for free when they activate Liliana, he is also synergistic with our next card choice.
-Anger of the Gods: This card is a must against Birthing Pod decks because removing a kitchen finks or a voice of resurgence its always great, Hatebears and all things aggro, but it also helps with the deck that can wreck anything without caring about our plan if he gets the right hand... AFFINITY... hence...
-Shatterstorm: There is no better card for this plain and simple, for some time i played creeping corrosion, Ancient grudge and even Vandalblast (for its versatility). but there is no better choice than this and we do need at least 3 because having it or not having it on turn 2 ts almost the only chance we have of winning, since the first game its most likely 70%-30% in their favor.
As i said the SB is always a meta call but this so far is the best 15 i have found for the current Meta as of 25-08-2014.
VIII - Notes and Results
So far i have won several FNM, Some Modern League tournaments and Cash prices with it and recently i lost the final of PTQ Khans of Tarkir to a very, very lucky Infect Player going 6-1 in the rounds and losing only 6 games total in the whole tournament. I'm sure that the Shamans were the better choice vs the Tarmogoyfs i used to run but that could change if the format keeps morphing.
I was asked to write this Primer for almost 4 months now but i haven't been able due to work and stuff, but since now after the PTQ a lot of people have asked me for the list i figured it would be better to write it and share it with everyone. I hope people like my idea and really test it through before commenting, that being said i would love to see what everyone thinks of this.
Cheers..
currently playing
Standard RUGRUG Ramp
Modern GRTurbo Moon,RRRSkred Red
Legacy BBBNightmare Effect,GUWEnchantress,UWBCephalid Breakfast
How is stormbreath dragon? It seems out of place. What about Xenagos the planewalker? Pupping down dudes (with you are) seems good with poping out xenagos when you have 3 dudes on the table, following up by ading mana and making one more 3 cost card like a dude or a sword. (next turn make token and equip sword.)
Also, would it not be better with sword of ice and fire? Or one or two swords of ice and fire. I am also not sold on beast within. What is it there for besides stoping combo creature decks (pod/splinter twin) What about flame slash? Although this last card does not smash the birthing pod. Perhaps Kitchen finks, they seem always good.
I have a few questions though:
1. How does the bashing plan compete with RDW in terms of speed? RDW is based all around mountains obviously so it doesn't hinder them at all. At that point you're really looking for a faster clock. Spellskite can't really be relied upon to save the day every game.
2. Do the moon effects slow down robots/affinity enough to where you can create a bigger board presence? Seems like a single Cranial Plated Ornithopter can be pretty nasty if you can't find a Lightning Bolt.
3. No Pithing Needle in the 75 to deal with Liliana of the Veil? She seems pretty popular these days and a completed ultimate might not be a good thing for you. Seems like there has to be something other than Shaman to keep PW in check.
Overall though I could see how this could have lots of success in the meta. The only bad thing about it is if you play casual with it at all you're bound to run into a bunch of decks that don't use non-basics. Although I will say since the reprinting of the shock lands it's a lot more common to see non-basics but there are a bunch of budget decks out there playing only basics.
P.S. Ever thought about Acidic Slime? I could see some artifacts/enchantments giving you a hassle, such as Ensnaring Bridge or Ghostly Prison.
He is amazing as i have told before he not only is a fast and synergistic clock he is also very hard to get rid of... trust me on this one he is there to stay.
Well I have thought about him and i have also though and used some other planeswalkers like Chandra Pyromaster and Garruk Relentless, and Garruk Primal Hunter being this last one by far the better choice for this deck, but in the end i cut it just because he is not fast enough at least in the current meta i always wanted to play something with a lot more impact than him by the time i hit 5 mana. That being said i could see xenagos being a good choice if the field was all about control but it isnt.
Well as i have said before the Sword of War and Peace is just bonkers here and it serves 3 purposes, protecting a magus of the moon or your beater of choice, Giving you life against some decks that could get a better board position faster than you and to put a lot of pressure on the opponent that will not be bale to play anything under a moon effect. The sword of fire and ice has always been tempting but i don't think that it can be better in any case here, but hey.. try it and let me know.
As for the Beast within well, i have thought about cutting it a lot of times but there is not a better card for this slot, if you use flameslash you dont have any responses to a pod on the main deck and flameslash most of the times doesn't kill a tarmogoyf anyway so.. i would rather give them a 3/3 beast than losing to an active deceiver exarch/Restoration Angel or to lose against an ensnaring bridge, karn, and that big ETC... but if you know of abetter card to be ready to defend ourselves against almost anything and to be bale to trump the basic lands the opponents get in order to play under a moon let us know :).
The Kitchen Finks wel they could be great in the sb but as i explained above, the baloths serve a better purpose than just giving life and we already have the centaur in the 3cmc slot so i dont think we need them.
currently playing
Standard RUGRUG Ramp
Modern GRTurbo Moon,RRRSkred Red
Legacy BBBNightmare Effect,GUWEnchantress,UWBCephalid Breakfast
Yes man it is wicked fun but also pretty hard in some matches, lets address your questions for this.
1.- The RDW and Burn decks are ok since we do get a lot of card that get us life and but we do have 8 almost dead cards in our main deck, so i guess its like 40%-%60 in their favor for the first game it is not unwinnable but we do rely on a second turn blocker third turn huntmaster some oozes and race them to the finish, this is why the baloths ar eso important they really turn the tables along with the other guys so i mostly side 4 blood moon and 2 magus of the moon out and bring 2 spellskites 2 baloths and 2 relic of progenitus ( if there is a lavamancer in sight and because it is better than having the magus and if its a RDW variant with a lot of critters anger of the gods most likely will seal the deal, after sb i would say its somehting like %70-%30 in our favor.
2.- The robots/affinity Match has been a nightmare for me and this is not really because we have a really bad match against them it is just that they can get those nut hands and if we don't get a hold of 2 bolts and any card on our SB we will be dead, so if you know you are against robots in game one mulligan until you get at least a bolt, for the most part the match is something like " the first to tremble loses". the SB plan is very simple: 4 magus of the moon, 1 Beast within and 3 Sword of war and peace out. 3 anger of the gods, 3 Shatterstorm and 2 Obstinate Baloth in.
Pre SB it ssomething like %60 -%40 on their favor and Post SB something like %70-%30 in ours but you have to mulligan heavily to get a SB piece this is very important. Oh and in cas eyour wondering yeah i leave the blood moons in because stopping those Nexus is a must.
3.- No pithing needle on the deck because although its a great card and Liliana is really something to be reckoned with, we do have bolt and beast within ( see? beast within catches everything). and Baloths on the SB, still JUND which is the deck that uses her to her full extent its a tricky match up. but if you know how to play it and you can lock them with a moon they will not be able to do anything.. they do pack 3-4 Abrupt decay on main to deal with them but they have to be prepared and never tap out 2 lands and even if they do that you can always abuse Beast within at the end of turn.
As for the playing this deck in a casual environment.. well i would suggest not to do it since casual players are more about having fun and this deck will not let them do so if they are playing a lot of nonbasics and if they have a lot of basics you will have a mediocre deck, as Ive said this is a deck that aims to wreck the Modern metagame.
I have thought about acidic slime and believe me i think that card is bonkers, but i believe he is not needed here and that there are better and cheaper/faster ways to do what he does here,since for the most part nobody plays ghostly prision, and ensnaring bridge is easy to get rid of with DA BEAST :P. i do feel that a deck like The Rack could be hard to beat since they do not rely on nonbasics and i cannot interact with its main plan but i would still had to test against it and i guess i will worry when everybody starts playing it.
Thanks for the comments and the questions.
currently playing
Standard RUGRUG Ramp
Modern GRTurbo Moon,RRRSkred Red
Legacy BBBNightmare Effect,GUWEnchantress,UWBCephalid Breakfast
Also, I'd highly recommend ancient grudge and combust for the sideboard. Also, maybe some kitchen finks somewhere in the 75 card set to handle burn and decks with a lot of red, as blood moon isn't as good against them.
Like you said though, what cards you play depends on your meta and I don't know your meta.
Edit: Thrun, the last troll seems better than Stormbreath dragon. Thrun is immune to everything.
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
I must say that yeah in a lot of cases Tarmo would be better but also in a lot of others he just sits there being a 2/3 because you don't really have a way to fill your grave and your opponent is locked under a moon ( this case is mostly relevant if the deck is working like we want it to), and yes he is very killable but i would say that on this meta there are 2 decks that play abrupt decay and slaughter pact (jund & junk), and only one that plays either terminate or maelstrom pulse that being jund, as for the supreme verdict and path to exile well you will most likely take those out for a boil, relic or baloths.
On the other hand he is amazing in matches like splinter twin, birthing pod, Tron and even affinity, trust me you would always prefer to have him instead of a goyf in those matches. There are matches when he is just meh like Burn, Merfolks, UW control and even American control but he is not strictly worse than a goyf there.
And yes you are right the anti-synergy he creates with scavenging ooze, spellskite and the sword really ticks me the wrong way but even with this being said he is totally worth it in my opinion because hey pay 3 instead of 2 life to protect your moon or dragon using a spellskite most likely translates into im still winning if you cannot destroy that thing you want. The sword give syou life so it negates the drawback, and its the same for the ooze so you are not really losing there you are just not gaining life, but you have to play it smart. And as for the fetchlands well most of the time syoull play one or 2 fetchlands before he gets into play and after that you will most likely try to land a moon or you would have landed it before he even gets into play so youll keep tapping them as mountains.
I know hes an odd choice but test him out and you'll see what i mean hes that good to include him instead of that fat beater
as for the kitchen finks well im not debating them they are great and if the meta is a lot more aggressive you should include them but so far 3 ooze 3 huntmaster 2 baloth and 3 swords can net you tons of life against a burn deck, yeah the first game is almost unwinnable but the second and third you will be playing turbo beaters that give you life :P.. so its manageable.
combust is not something i recommend unless your meta is like 70% splinter twin, Kiki Twin, Tarmo Twin.. it really is too narrow and as I've said before we have already 3 cards on the main to stall and 4 on the side to hose.
Lemme know what you think.
currently playing
Standard RUGRUG Ramp
Modern GRTurbo Moon,RRRSkred Red
Legacy BBBNightmare Effect,GUWEnchantress,UWBCephalid Breakfast
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
currently playing
Standard RUGRUG Ramp
Modern GRTurbo Moon,RRRSkred Red
Legacy BBBNightmare Effect,GUWEnchantress,UWBCephalid Breakfast
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
currently playing
Standard RUGRUG Ramp
Modern GRTurbo Moon,RRRSkred Red
Legacy BBBNightmare Effect,GUWEnchantress,UWBCephalid Breakfast
http://www.necrotower.com/articulos/vintage-magic-eclipse-lunar-en-el-ptq-honolulu
currently playing
Standard RUGRUG Ramp
Modern GRTurbo Moon,RRRSkred Red
Legacy BBBNightmare Effect,GUWEnchantress,UWBCephalid Breakfast
The moon effect is devastating to something like the 80% of the field.
The protections from the Stormbreath Dragon, and The sword of War and Peace is still awesome.
I have made some changes to improve the match against burn because at some point there was a lot of that over here, so i changed 3 Burning Tree Shaman for 3 Obstinate Baloth on the mainboard, becaus ethe Shaman didnt really helped a lot and the Baloth also helps against Liliana which was one of the reasons the Centaurs were here.
Also the SB is changed and looks similar to this.
2 Combust (Twin in all forms and shapes)
3 Spellskite (Twin, Auras and Infect plus a lot of heavy removal decks)
2 Boil (Scapeshift, UR Twin, American Control)
2 Relic of Progenitus (al grave strategies and some snapcaster decks, sometimes the ooze is not enough)
1 Krosan Grip (Twin, and it doesnt hurt vs affinity, this could be a 3rd combust but serves almost the same purpose in the Twin matchup)
3 anger of the Gods (Melira,and all collected decks, also Affinity, Hatebears, you name it..)
2 Shatterstorm (need i say AFFINITY is a tough match nonetheless..)
Cheers.
currently playing
Standard RUGRUG Ramp
Modern GRTurbo Moon,RRRSkred Red
Legacy BBBNightmare Effect,GUWEnchantress,UWBCephalid Breakfast
currently playing
Standard RUGRUG Ramp
Modern GRTurbo Moon,RRRSkred Red
Legacy BBBNightmare Effect,GUWEnchantress,UWBCephalid Breakfast
Also im toying with the idea of using Sword of light and shadow and or Sword of fire and ice.. but im not sure if they are worth the risk of not having the best protections around.
Another thing to try out is Outpost siege, against some grindier matchups that arent really that hurt by the Moon effects it could be pretty useful..
currently playing
Standard RUGRUG Ramp
Modern GRTurbo Moon,RRRSkred Red
Legacy BBBNightmare Effect,GUWEnchantress,UWBCephalid Breakfast