Don't know much about ensnaring bridge. Chameleon Colossus looks cool, seems okay as a one-of in a sideboard.
Are the Simian spirit guides really necessary? They're terrible topdecks. I have a playset in an ad nauseam deck i can swing over if need be.
I played Zach Voss' list to a 2-2 result. Lost against an Esper Midrange-discard (not drawing nothing boths games) and mobo red (set chalice on 2, he plays 3 spells cc1...).
Won against a really bizarre UW enchantment deck and the final round to BG midrange.
I dont drew a single Chandra the entire tournament.
My sb was different, was:
2 Ancient Grudge, 3 Baltohs, 4 Chalice, 2 Tireless Tracker, 2 Sudden Shock, 1 Chameleon Colossus, 1 Reclamation Sage
sooooooooo
everyone's running 4 farseek and 4 simian spirit guide now? i wanna cut some of these and run more flex spot cards. the old builds would run just the 2 farseek. i guess i want an explanation on why the ramp is so heavy now in these lists.
As far I can remember, this deck has always run roughly 4 ramp spells like Farseek. Usually it is either Farseek or Explore. Farseek I think is the preferred choice since it guarantees a land. Either way it is only recently that Simian Spirit Guide has become popular. I think it has to do with the popularity of Death's Shadow. SSG essentially helps speed up our deck considerably. I would also make the assumption that with all the discard in decks like death's shadow running around, it is important to be able to consistently ramp on T2 and on. Having those extra ramp spell helps keep us from floundering at the start to heavy discard.
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Modern
R/G Breach RG
Scapeshift URG Legacy
Painter UBRW Commander
Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR
Queen Marchesa WBR
Muzzio, Visionary Architect U
Thanks. I like the 4th farseek, but it might take me some time to warm up to the idea of running simian spirit guides.
Another thing... shouldn't the reclamation sage be a seal of primordium? On the draw he doesn't do anything against blood moon. Unless you fetch the basic forest but this deck hates doing that.
edit: i guess summoner's pact can grab him. but i don't know if this line of play ever comes up
With regards to Generator Servant over SSG, the last thing you want is to make your opponents otherwise dead removal a good way to set back your ramp.
For my first post on this forum I thought I'd give a short report on the Charlotte Open. What I can remember of it anyways. I should have done this a few weeks ago.
Anyways, my list was untested and kind of janky. I didn't expect to do very well, so I just decided to try something different that I thought might help against Grixis Death's Shadow which I expected to be everywhere. Which it was. I lucked out and didn't face it at all until round 9. I also somehow dodged Abzan CoCo which there was also a ton of.
The sideboard may have been a little different. I don't remember exactly what I had in it.
Disclaimer: I don't have time to do much testing, so my experience mainly comes from playing in my fairly small local scene. So my perception of matchups may be off. If I say anything weird about any matchups, it's because I don't have to much experience with it and input is welcome!
Round 1: Jeskai Control
Loss 0-2
Normally I'm not to worried about control decks. I'm sure I didn't play as well as I could have. I remember one instance where I considered waiting a turn to play around Mana Leak bit didn't and got punished for it. Also, he was playing Torrential Gearhulk which changed the dynamic quite a bit from what I'm used to.
Round 2: WB Tokens
Win 2-0
Not much to say here. In my experience this is a pretty good matchup for us. Game 2 was weird because I played an EE on 0 on my first turn and he never got a single token into play. He just never drew amy token makers. He kept the hand because it had 2 Fulminator Mages, but he didn't have any pressure so I was able to win pretty easily.
Round 3: Storm
Win 2-1
I don't remember much of this match. I'm prettu sure I lucked my way through this one. My good buddies Ruri Thrac probably showed up to help. Most of my victories against Storm involve them. I do remember that the game I lost I was on the draw with a turn 3 win in hand. He also had the turn 3 that game.
Round 4: Abzan
Win 2-0
Don't remember much again. This is a pretty good matchup so I was happy to see it after lucking my way through Storm.
Round 5: Burn
Win 2-0
Saw the turn 1 Goblin Guide and thought my run was coming to an end. I lucked out and game 1 he was stuck on 1 land, then game 2 he flooded.
Round 6: Abzan
Win 2-1
I was happy to see Abzan again. This was a much closer match than round 4. I don't remember much of it, but in both post sideboard games I resolved Primal Command, so that was pretty cool.
Round 7: Eldrazi Tron
Win 2-0
I sat between Ben Friedman and Michael Majors during this round. At this point I started wondering how I got this far and what I was doing there amidst all these real magic players. I lucked out again and my opponent had no idea what he was doing. I ended up Breaching a Titan and in response to the Valakut triggers he Ghost Quartered a mountain. Game 2 he opens with a Pithing Needle naming Valakut. Needless to say I wasn't worried. I have a turn 3 Breach with Woodfall Primus in hand. He gets the turn 3 tron and plays a Karn. At that point I thought I was screwed, but he ticks it up. I exile a land I don't need then untap and Breach the Woodfall Primus taking him off tron and destroying Karn. Eventually my Primus traded with a Reality Smasher. I had Valakut online at that point and won soon after.
Round 8: Eldrazi Tron
Loss 0-2
WE IN THE BIG LEAGUES NOW! Round 8 I played in the feature match area (not on camera though) against Todd Stevens. Needless to say I didn't get as lucky as I did in round 7. Game 1 went poorly. I mulled to 5 or 6 and my hand was pretty bad. He got an early Chalice on 0 which hurt because my only action was a Pact. I had to exile an SSG and cast 2 Sweltering Suns to kill a Reality Smasher and a Thought-Knot Seer (like I said, my hand was pretty bad). I had nothing really to follow that up with, and he had another Reality Smasher. Game 2 I had a better hand, but he blew me out with an All is Dust. On the plus side, I may be the only person to have ever had a Samut on the battlefield in the feature match area. A friend who was watching the match said that Nick Miller was quite amused.
Round 9: Grixis Death Shadow
Loss 1-2
At this point I was still live for day 2. Finally, after 8 rounds, I encountered the most played deck at the tournament. This was the first time I ever played against any Death's Shadow deck (there's not many in my area and I somehow never got paired against them). The third game was very close. He had me dead on board and I had Breach + Titan in hand. It came down to whether or not he could counter my Breach, and he could.
The cutoff for day 2 ended up being x-2 so I didn't make it. Overall I finished in 77th place with a record of 6-3. I expected to 0-3 drop so I'm happy I made it as far as I did, even being live for day 2 up to the last round.
I wish I could remember more details. Like I said, I shoukd have done this a few weeks ago. My big takeaways were that Samut is sweet and should see more play, and that it's better to be lucky than good.
Thanks for the replies. And nice charlotte write up, sounds like you had a good time.
I should be playing an old stock list in a couple of 15-20 man tournaments in the upcoming weeks. I'm probably gonna leave out simian spirit guides and cut the reclamation sage from the sideboard in favor of another ancient grudge. I guess I'm using relic of progenitus to fight grixis death shadow (and chalices too). I might ask around if anyone has a chameleon colossus. Anyway, if you don't hear back from me it probably means I did poorly lol.
So why is this deck the "unfavored" version? That is to say deck creation vs the Titanshift in T1?
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EDH:ShatterStax, Only The Strong Survive
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Mono-U Control
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Sen Triplets
Mizzix of the Izmagnus
Derevi Stax
VolThrun
Marchesa, The Black Rose
Olivia Voldaren, Vampire Tribal
Why is this deck here? It got a top9 in LA and is prob better than shift at the current meta lol
Yea I don't know why it's not in Developing Competitive at the very least.
Meta-wise I agree it's decently placed. It has a problem with discard, but Grixis Death Shadow is under control. Against affinity, eldratron, burn, storm, control etc being faster than Titanshift is preferred. That said, Titanshift is ole reliable and this deck can be a bit temperamental at times.
I think with mid-range/control decks looking to incorporate Jace, decks will be looking to get under him by turn 3-4. That being said this deck definitely has the speed to do it.
I think if anything I would look first to Pithing Needle or even Beast Within to handle Jace. Problem with boil is unless your meta has multiple U/W control decks, most blue decks play lands which can produce blue and are not islands.
Blood Braid Elf I do not see being a problem for the deck. We already run some form of removal in the form of anger and bolt. Leyline for the Jund matchups with BBE seem fine, though I would rather just play Baloth and go over the top of them. They work great against Lilly of the Veil too.
This being said I am going to be trying RUG scapeshift for a little and see if playing Jace is worth it.
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Modern
R/G Breach RG
Scapeshift URG Legacy
Painter UBRW Commander
Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR
Queen Marchesa WBR
Muzzio, Visionary Architect U
Played Valakut breach Thursday and Friday night. Thursday night I tried 4 bloodbraid elf with 4 valakut and no simian spirit guide. Didn't like it; went 0-2 drop. Deck felt like a bad titanshift. I also missed courser of kruphix. Went back to the old lists we were running about a year ago and put up a 3-1 friday night. Might swap out anger for sweltering suns
Hmmmm looks like gp hartford already started. Anyway, I would have suggested getting more relics/cage in the side, and maybe moving chalice to the sideboard. That hollow one deck is tough. Pulse of murasa looks too cute but i've never tried it
4 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Drannith Magistrate
2 Seal of Primordium
1 Path to Exile
2 Boil
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Creeping Corrosion
2 Sowing Salt
Are the Simian spirit guides really necessary? They're terrible topdecks. I have a playset in an ad nauseam deck i can swing over if need be.
Won against a really bizarre UW enchantment deck and the final round to BG midrange.
I dont drew a single Chandra the entire tournament.
My sb was different, was:
2 Ancient Grudge, 3 Baltohs, 4 Chalice, 2 Tireless Tracker, 2 Sudden Shock, 1 Chameleon Colossus, 1 Reclamation Sage
everyone's running 4 farseek and 4 simian spirit guide now? i wanna cut some of these and run more flex spot cards. the old builds would run just the 2 farseek. i guess i want an explanation on why the ramp is so heavy now in these lists.
R/G Breach RG
Scapeshift URG
Legacy
Painter UBRW
Commander
Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR
Queen Marchesa WBR
Muzzio, Visionary Architect U
Another thing... shouldn't the reclamation sage be a seal of primordium? On the draw he doesn't do anything against blood moon. Unless you fetch the basic forest but this deck hates doing that.
edit: i guess summoner's pact can grab him. but i don't know if this line of play ever comes up
I'd rather run something like Generator Servant to ramp out hasty Titans (on turn 4 or even 3).
Turn 1: Search for Tomorrow into turn 2: Generator Servant can lead to a turn 3: Primeval Titan.
For my first post on this forum I thought I'd give a short report on the Charlotte Open. What I can remember of it anyways. I should have done this a few weeks ago.
Anyways, my list was untested and kind of janky. I didn't expect to do very well, so I just decided to try something different that I thought might help against Grixis Death's Shadow which I expected to be everywhere. Which it was. I lucked out and didn't face it at all until round 9. I also somehow dodged Abzan CoCo which there was also a ton of.
I ended up going 6-3 with the following:
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
4 Stomping Ground
2 Cinder Glade
6 Mountain
2 Forest
Creatures
4 Primeval Titan
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Obstinate Baloth
2 Samut, Voice of Dissent
4 Search for Tomorrow
4 Farseek
4 Summoner's Pact
3 Through the Breach
3 Sweltering Suns
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Obstinate Baloth
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Crumble to Dust
2 Destructive Revelry
1 Sudden Shock
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Primal Command
The sideboard may have been a little different. I don't remember exactly what I had in it.
Disclaimer: I don't have time to do much testing, so my experience mainly comes from playing in my fairly small local scene. So my perception of matchups may be off. If I say anything weird about any matchups, it's because I don't have to much experience with it and input is welcome!
Round 1: Jeskai Control
Loss 0-2
Normally I'm not to worried about control decks. I'm sure I didn't play as well as I could have. I remember one instance where I considered waiting a turn to play around Mana Leak bit didn't and got punished for it. Also, he was playing Torrential Gearhulk which changed the dynamic quite a bit from what I'm used to.
Round 2: WB Tokens
Win 2-0
Not much to say here. In my experience this is a pretty good matchup for us. Game 2 was weird because I played an EE on 0 on my first turn and he never got a single token into play. He just never drew amy token makers. He kept the hand because it had 2 Fulminator Mages, but he didn't have any pressure so I was able to win pretty easily.
Round 3: Storm
Win 2-1
I don't remember much of this match. I'm prettu sure I lucked my way through this one. My good buddies Ruri Thrac probably showed up to help. Most of my victories against Storm involve them. I do remember that the game I lost I was on the draw with a turn 3 win in hand. He also had the turn 3 that game.
Round 4: Abzan
Win 2-0
Don't remember much again. This is a pretty good matchup so I was happy to see it after lucking my way through Storm.
Round 5: Burn
Win 2-0
Saw the turn 1 Goblin Guide and thought my run was coming to an end. I lucked out and game 1 he was stuck on 1 land, then game 2 he flooded.
Round 6: Abzan
Win 2-1
I was happy to see Abzan again. This was a much closer match than round 4. I don't remember much of it, but in both post sideboard games I resolved Primal Command, so that was pretty cool.
Round 7: Eldrazi Tron
Win 2-0
I sat between Ben Friedman and Michael Majors during this round. At this point I started wondering how I got this far and what I was doing there amidst all these real magic players. I lucked out again and my opponent had no idea what he was doing. I ended up Breaching a Titan and in response to the Valakut triggers he Ghost Quartered a mountain. Game 2 he opens with a Pithing Needle naming Valakut. Needless to say I wasn't worried. I have a turn 3 Breach with Woodfall Primus in hand. He gets the turn 3 tron and plays a Karn. At that point I thought I was screwed, but he ticks it up. I exile a land I don't need then untap and Breach the Woodfall Primus taking him off tron and destroying Karn. Eventually my Primus traded with a Reality Smasher. I had Valakut online at that point and won soon after.
Round 8: Eldrazi Tron
Loss 0-2
WE IN THE BIG LEAGUES NOW! Round 8 I played in the feature match area (not on camera though) against Todd Stevens. Needless to say I didn't get as lucky as I did in round 7. Game 1 went poorly. I mulled to 5 or 6 and my hand was pretty bad. He got an early Chalice on 0 which hurt because my only action was a Pact. I had to exile an SSG and cast 2 Sweltering Suns to kill a Reality Smasher and a Thought-Knot Seer (like I said, my hand was pretty bad). I had nothing really to follow that up with, and he had another Reality Smasher. Game 2 I had a better hand, but he blew me out with an All is Dust. On the plus side, I may be the only person to have ever had a Samut on the battlefield in the feature match area. A friend who was watching the match said that Nick Miller was quite amused.
Round 9: Grixis Death Shadow
Loss 1-2
At this point I was still live for day 2. Finally, after 8 rounds, I encountered the most played deck at the tournament. This was the first time I ever played against any Death's Shadow deck (there's not many in my area and I somehow never got paired against them). The third game was very close. He had me dead on board and I had Breach + Titan in hand. It came down to whether or not he could counter my Breach, and he could.
The cutoff for day 2 ended up being x-2 so I didn't make it. Overall I finished in 77th place with a record of 6-3. I expected to 0-3 drop so I'm happy I made it as far as I did, even being live for day 2 up to the last round.
I wish I could remember more details. Like I said, I shoukd have done this a few weeks ago. My big takeaways were that Samut is sweet and should see more play, and that it's better to be lucky than good.
I should be playing an old stock list in a couple of 15-20 man tournaments in the upcoming weeks. I'm probably gonna leave out simian spirit guides and cut the reclamation sage from the sideboard in favor of another ancient grudge. I guess I'm using relic of progenitus to fight grixis death shadow (and chalices too). I might ask around if anyone has a chameleon colossus. Anyway, if you don't hear back from me it probably means I did poorly lol.
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Mono-U Control
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Sen Triplets
Mizzix of the Izmagnus
Derevi Stax
VolThrun
Marchesa, The Black Rose
Olivia Voldaren, Vampire Tribal
Modern: Fish, JUND/Junk
--------
RIP Twin
CETronC
WUBGRHumansWUBGR
UMerfolkU
GU
InfectGURBGx
DredgeRBGxYea I don't know why it's not in Developing Competitive at the very least.
Meta-wise I agree it's decently placed. It has a problem with discard, but Grixis Death Shadow is under control. Against affinity, eldratron, burn, storm, control etc being faster than Titanshift is preferred. That said, Titanshift is ole reliable and this deck can be a bit temperamental at times.
I think if anything I would look first to Pithing Needle or even Beast Within to handle Jace. Problem with boil is unless your meta has multiple U/W control decks, most blue decks play lands which can produce blue and are not islands.
Blood Braid Elf I do not see being a problem for the deck. We already run some form of removal in the form of anger and bolt. Leyline for the Jund matchups with BBE seem fine, though I would rather just play Baloth and go over the top of them. They work great against Lilly of the Veil too.
This being said I am going to be trying RUG scapeshift for a little and see if playing Jace is worth it.
R/G Breach RG
Scapeshift URG
Legacy
Painter UBRW
Commander
Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR
Queen Marchesa WBR
Muzzio, Visionary Architect U
-Rg valakut
-U/W control
-U/R storm
-G/W value town
Legacy :
-Storm
R/G Breach RG
Scapeshift URG
Legacy
Painter UBRW
Commander
Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR
Queen Marchesa WBR
Muzzio, Visionary Architect U
If anyone has any comments or critiques, it would be much appreciated.
3 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Stomping Ground
3 Cinder Glade
6 Mountain
2 Forest
3 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Creatures
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Obstinate Baloth
4 Primeval Titan
1 Woodfall Primus
3 Chalice of the Void
3 Farseek
1 Pulse of Murasa
4 Search for Tomorrow
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Scapeshift
4 Through the Breach
4 Summoner's Pact
1 Pithing Needle
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Ancient Grudge
3 Sudden Shock
1 Back to Nature
1 Beast Within
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Obstinate Baloth
1 Crumble to Dust
1 Hour of Devastation
R/G Breach RG
Scapeshift URG
Legacy
Painter UBRW
Commander
Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR
Queen Marchesa WBR
Muzzio, Visionary Architect U
2x Courser of Kruphix
3x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Primeval Titan
1x woodfall primus
2x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
4x Summoner's Pact
4x Farseek
4x Search for Tomorrow
4x Through the Breach
3x anger of the gods
2x Cinder Glade
2x Forest
6x Mountain
4 Stomping Ground
3 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
4 Wooded Foothills
2x Chalice of the Void
4x relic of progenitus
3x Ancient Grudge
1x Anger of the Gods
3x obstinate baloth
1x Crumble to Dust
1x reclamation sage
Hmmmm looks like gp hartford already started. Anyway, I would have suggested getting more relics/cage in the side, and maybe moving chalice to the sideboard. That hollow one deck is tough. Pulse of murasa looks too cute but i've never tried it
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Primeval Titan
3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Nest Invader
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Summoning Trap
3 Through the Breach
2 Path to Exile
2 Arid Mesa
2 Forest
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Mosswort Bridge
2 Mutavault
2 Stomping Ground
2 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windbrisk Heights
1 Plains
1 Castle Garenbrig
sb
4 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Drannith Magistrate
2 Seal of Primordium
1 Path to Exile
2 Boil
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Creeping Corrosion
2 Sowing Salt
any tips?