What do you guys think about a singleton wormcoil engine? Maybe in the place of a batterskull.
I'm not sure how reliable a 6 drop is with 23 lands.
It also neither tramples nor has it vigilance.
So for stabilizing it seems worse, plus recursion of Batterskull can be quite helpful, though Wurmcoil Engine's tokens do to some degree do a similar job.
Still, a kill spell hurts it and Path even more so, while Batterskull just comes down again next turn or the turn after.
And technically can be equipped, but really....it's so expensive and usually having a new Batterskull is safer than spending 5 to put it on something else that just gets killed. ^^
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Tired of losing to natural Tron or getting turn 2'd by Infect?
Standard infinite combos giving you a headache and the opponent always has Force of Will?
No matter the issue, there is one simple trick to solve all of your Magic problems!!
~~~To get in on the secret to eternal luck, skill and victory, just follow this link!!~~~
Hello everyone. The post Charlotte meta is quite interesting, I think it's the healthier I've ever seen. As Raystack stated, we're being proactive in shredding hand and placing threats on the board, we are tasking our opponent with both enacting his win condition while attempting to deny ours. Kind of hard to do both when their hand keeps shrinking. I believe this nails the whole archetype idea and why it's strong now. We have few bad matchups though (Bogles, BW Tokens, Leyline...) but we can play around them. At least I don't feel like folding against a Leyline and have even won through it by just going for the beatdown plan. Man, I still see so much potential here!
Also, it seems the Amulet Bloom mu just caught me off guard and I just needed to learn how to play against it. Though it's obvious they can steal a win by just topdecking something, I have found in Liliana my biggest ally. Literally, she has won me the last matches against Amulet via ultimate ^^. There may a be a better play than making them to decide between "your lands" and "everything else" (Amulet, Hive Mind, tokens). So far it has worked out for me, because they all let the lands go, but I'm pretty aware a topdecked pact on a hive mind would mean GG. Still, that'd be a fair win on turn 10 or so, so that's ok.
Anyway, after checking out our lists, some BG Rock ones, some Jund ones too and all B/R new teck appearing in other archetypes, I'm here with this:
I'm sticking to that core and I don't see me taking anything out, although new tech from Magic Origins and Battle for Zendikar may make think about it. Now I'm testing these cards, any thoughts would be really appreciated ^^
Discalimer: Bob it's just there because I run out of gas pretty fast. The life loss may be an issue, but Night's Whisper and Sign in Blood also have that issue. At least Bob draws me lands painlessly and also takes the removal for Obliterator. The ideal card would be Outpost Siege, but that's kinda slow.
Note that I'm decidedly not running anything beyond 4cmc. Also, I choose to run just 4ofs and 1ofs because of 2 main reasons: 1) I love consistency and 2) for the sake of testing, as it becomes pretty clear whether I need more or fewer or no copies at all. Regarding Collected Company decks, some combination of Grafdigger's Cage, Torpor Orb, Engineered Explosives, graveyard hate and sweepers help a lot post sideboard, but that needs more testing. At one point Batterskull lost its slot to Wurmcoil Engine, but it didn't work out. At the end, I just dropped them. Any thoughts on Lashwrithe? This guy piloted a mono black deck with 4 of them to a 3-1 finish last week. He also ran Obliterator ^^
While the scepter is nice, after 2 to 3 discard spells you generally don't really need more.
In the mid to late game topdecking discard spells doesn't do much, they can be nice to pitch to Liliana or to get rid of a thing an opponent kept in hand, but you won't usually wish you had more of them.
So putting one on a scepter seems not really amazing. ^^
Imprinting a Terminate could be fine, but also not suuuper amazing.
You won't generally do that on t2, as Wrench Mind is more important or perhaps even casting the Terminate is (e.g. against Twin, on the draw). Turn 3 could be Blightning / Liliana / Nyxathid, but it maybe be a spot to squeeze the scepter in, but t3 can also often be sort of a "catch up" turn to actually play the Terminate or Bolt to stabilize after not advancing the board to Wrench Mind t2.
And if you want to imprint and use it though, that's 4 mana for the turn.
Another bummer is, that it turns on their artifact hate, which otherwise finds no targets.
Imprinting Night's Whisper or Infernal Tutor sounds very appealing though, and isn't as conflicting with the earlier game steps.
Getting the right 1-of together with a 1/2-of scepter is rather illusionary though. ^^
I like Isochron Scepter, but don't think this is the best shell for it, nor does it make the best one-of in this deck type.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Tired of losing to natural Tron or getting turn 2'd by Infect?
Standard infinite combos giving you a headache and the opponent always has Force of Will?
No matter the issue, there is one simple trick to solve all of your Magic problems!!
~~~To get in on the secret to eternal luck, skill and victory, just follow this link!!~~~
Important to note: Isochron Scepter is for instants only. Typically we mainboard 7(ish) of.
Also, I am liking the Obliterator build the more I play with it. Pre-board it's not always my favorite due to the sheer amount of merfolk and affinity in my local meta, but I'm getting the sideboard tuned and liking it more and more. Deck list to follow when I'm at my computer.
I haven't been playing 8-Rack as much lately, but seeing Avaricious Dragon makes me want to keep Ensnaring Bridge. I briefly checked the thread but I didn't see any discussion of the card for this deck yet. If there was I apologize for the rehash. My deck is currently mono-black but I'm quite interested in testing the dragon in this type of Black/Red shell. I realize the dragon isn't purely a proactive card, but I figured discussion of it was better placed here than in the original 8-Rack thread. The dragon is certainly a powerful card as a 4/4 flier for 4. The card advantage is an obvious need for this deck, and I think the downside (discard your hand), while sometimes one, can actually be a benefit at times for our deck (Ensnaring Bridge out). I realize it can't swing with Bridge out, but that isn't a problem. You aren't using it to beatdown when bridge is out. It keeps bridge at 0 for your opponent while allowing Lavaclaw Reaches to swing during your main without intentionally holding back cards, and if bridge dies it's still an evasive threat that gives card advantage. What do you guys think? I'm not sold per se, but I think it warrants testing. Maybe as a 1-2 of as a curve topper for card advantage/ potentially beat downs if left unchecked. I'm kind of excited to test with it.
I have only play tested the deck a few times about 75% of which were without the inquisitions. The other 25% of the time I have a 100% win record (again only a few games) I will hopefully post more results after this weekend as I need to get ready for a modern PPTQ next Saturday.
Alright everyone, I've got some knowledge to drop on you guys. I've been doing a lot more Modern testing that I might have led you all to believe, mostly because some of my closest friends are just now getting hardcore into the format and they're trying to make sure that I don't stop playing. Basically, I have a lot of matchup information that I feel would be beneficial to all of you who are just getting into the deck or have not had a lot of testing against certain decks.
I'm not really sure where to start, so I'll just kinda dive right in. Bearing in mind, I am doing this matchup guide based off of my current list, which is as follows:
Yes, I'm back up to a Liliana's Caress, mostly due to the Kolaghan's Commands running around everywhere. Also, the Grafdigger's Cage is our best answer for Abzan Collected Company at the moment. That's actually an okay matchup for us, but I'll get to that in a moment.
This is one of the new kids on the block. However, one of my best friends is actually the original pioneer of the deck, so I've tested against Elves endlessly.
Honestly, I would want to play against this deck every single round. We simply have too much disruption and removal, and their game plan is stout through maybe one removal piece, but it gets very difficult for their deck to win if they do not draw the absolute nuts post-board. Additionally, Pyroclasm is a very difficult card for the Elves deck to fight through, especially if it is hitting more than a 2-for-1, due to the hand disruption and removal spells. I've had several sequences where my opponent even gets enough mana to slam down a Craterhoof Behemoth later in the game, but using Terminate on the beast meant that my opponent could not swing in for enough damage.
The flow of these games is usually pretty cut and dry. If we are casting Inquisition of Kozilek or Thoughtseize, we are probably taking their Collected Company or Chord of Calling. If they do not have either of those cards in their hand, we simply take their best creature and force them to draw into something stronger, which we will very likely have another opportunity to take out of their hand anyway. Many times, you can allow an Elvish Archdruid to resolve, and just hit it with a Lightning Bolt. However, beware of Chord of Calling and any open mana, because if the opponent has enough mana to go get an Ezuri, Renegade Leader, they can just regenerate the intended target. Fortunately, we also run Terminate, where that little secondary clause of "can't be regenerated" is finally coming in handy a little bit. Also, slamming one Nyxathid or Gurmag Angler (or in the Raystack case, Phyrexian Obliterator) essentially means they cannot really mathematically attack anymore in most situations. For our purposes, their deck is fairly fragile, and this is actually a very good matchup. Most decks in Modern do not run anywhere close to our level of removal, and that is why Elves has become so popular. Honestly, that means we get to feast!
This matchup can be rough, as they have several cards that we need to worry about early on and a few recurring problems for our deck to deal with. Strangely enough, our lines of play are strongly skewed based on whether or not we lose the dice roll, which is not always the case the way that our deck operates. Hitting a Birds of Paradise with a Lightning Bolt on turn one can save your game outright, preventing the opponent from being able to cast Kitchen Finks in the event that they are holding more than one. Playing against Finks is absolutely brutal, and our main goal is to get it out of their hand by any means necessary. Catching the opponent with a two-land hand and a Birds of Paradise is sometimes the way to go.
Grafdigger's Cage is very helpful in the second game, although the opponent can still very much go on the beatdown plan. Decks are now playing copies of Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit to complement their Melira, Sylvok Outcast for infintite combo potential, and sequencing removal in this matchup becomes essential as a result possibly moreso than any other matchup in Modern. Obviously, if we can get Collected Company and/or Chord of Calling out of the opponent's hand early, then we are in a much better position pretty much every single time. However, having to get rid of an early Kitchen Finks (that damage adds up fast) and still prevent the opponent from casting their other very valuable spells can be quite tricky. Forcing the opponent to discard cards takes precedence based on what is in the opponent's hand. The sideboard has some other neat tech, such as Rakdos Charm exiling their graveyard in response to a dead Kitchen Finks or Murderous Redcap, but the "cute" plays are scarcely going to get us a victory. We need to make sure to keep the opponent's hand empty and still make sure we can remove their value creatures. I feel that their ability to topdeck value in almost every situation is what gives them the edge in the matchup overall. Lastly, make sure not to forget about a Gavony Township that could be in play, as it could allow them to simply generate way too much board presence with any individual Persist creature.
I hate this matchup more than any of them, and a lot of the matchup can unfortunately be determined by the opponent's opening seven cards. Even if you hit them with an Inquisition of Kozilek, and they have a combination of two lands & five spells, then you are already in more of an 80%-20% hole because they have clearly 'out-skilled' you with their hand and deck. Burn is INCREDIBLY strong when you do not have main deck life gain, even if you have ways to remove all of their creatures and take their relevant spells, because a lot of times they can simply race you off of the top of the deck. Think of it this way: if you have a Shrieking Affliction online for the rest of the game, every spell in their deck does an equivalent (or greater) amount of damage to you. That feels bad.
It isn't until post-board when there become much better spells available to you. Dragon's Claw is insanely strong against the opponent. Taking a Destructive Revelry out of their hand is also critical. Also, Liliana of the Veil is pretty terrible in this matchup, as the only way she is usually effective in any regard is when your opponent isn't a very competent player and points burn spells and damage at her instead of you out of fear. Terminate is a fine card, but only in draws where your opponent happens to only have one creature. Generally, Pyroclasm is going to hit them much harder, as any chance we can take at hitting a 2-for-1 could be the difference between life and death. A lot of times, you simply have to draw the appropriate answers to your opponent's cards. Turn one Inquisition of Kozilek to take a Monastery Swiftspear or Boros Charm. Turn two playing a discard spell plus a Lightning Bolt on any creature that they have in play. Turn three hitting them with a Wrench Mind or simply slamming a Nyxathid on to the field. Having a Murderous Cut when your opponent plays an Eidolon of the Great Revel. There are ways to win this matchup, but this is a nasty one, and it is very draw-dependent and a lot less skill-dependent. Just make sure that you know all of your outs to each of their cards. Our one advantage is the consistency of their deck, and the fact that it is easy to know what cards we want in specific situations.
This is a fun matchup, generally speaking, because there is not a single dead draw in our entire deck. However, one thing I will say right off the bat: BEWARE OF CASTING LILIANA OF THE VEIL. She is a very good card and can lock the opponent out of the game, but try not to ever risk slamming Liliana of the Veil when the opponent could possibly be about to draw his combo pieces and/or have drawn them the previous turn. This is the main reason why I have Serum Visions on the list of cards to beware of. Always make sure that you know whether or not the opponent has used the scry to put cards on the top or the bottom. Most of the time, if your opponent casts a Serum Visions later than turn three, they are leaving a combo piece on the top of the library. That is simply how the deck will usually function.
There are a few different versions of Twin to keep in mind. Straight-up UR Twin is the most common, though the Grixis Twin lists are breaking through the woodwork and they have more options than traditional UR Twin. First of all, Kolaghan's Command is a very strong card, and it happens to be able to destroy The Rack (hence why I am slowly moving to Shrieking Affliction). It is much more powerful with the ability for Snapcaster Mage to target it, and any card that allows the opponent to have recursion is a card that we should be wary of in our archetype. Second, they now also have access to Terminate, making our big fatty creatures less powerful inherently if they have active draws to stabilize off the top without needing a two-card combo. Lastly, there are endless pieces of tech for us to worry about. I am still working on whether or not Blood Moon is a viable board-in strategy against the Twin decks, but since they generally know to fetch out basic lands, I am inclined to say no at the moment. Still though, they have a hard time executing their game plan through our disruption. Don't forget to float mana if they try to flash in a creature and tap down your lands! Sometimes, you can just Terminate their creature and it feels quite good for the opponent to essentially lose a turn with all of their instant-speed trickery.
So this matchup there really isn't a whole lot to say. We do not like cantrips on our opponents, and Spreading Seas can really give us fits, although not to the point where it breaks our game up. Surprisingly, we have enough removal for AEther Vial to not be a very important card of theirs, where it basically sits back and gets kind of wasted in their hand, so that's a huge benefit for us. There are specific removal spells that target all of their creatures, and our fatties out-muscle them. We just need to stop the opponents from cantrips and going around us with large amounts of damage. Our value is much better than theirs and they have a hard time protecting their lords. Master of Waves can be a problem, but we have plenty of ways to answer that card, especially when running four copies of Liliana of the Veil.
This is a strange matchup, as you can get caught by a Cursecatcher, but at the same time, sometimes a Wrench Mind is actually a removal spell. It's a weird one, but so far, it's in our favor. That's what I've got for this one.
The only reason that the Tron matchup is favored is because of the sheer power of their topdecks, assuming that they don't get flooded out of the building. For once, we are the more aggressive deck, but any non-land card off of the top of the deck for Tron presents a problem for us. Oblivion Stone keeps us off of all of our win conditions, their planeswalkers are hard for us to answer, and Ancient Stirrings is difficult for us to handle because of the dig potential. On the bright side, a timely couple of discard spells can keep our opponents from assembling Tron as easily.
Post-sideboard, artifact removal is the only necessary piece that we really have, because we are actually pretty afraid of Oblivion Stone, especially if we are going to be playing as the aggressors. Slamming an early Nyxathid or Gurmag Angler after a piece of disruption puts the Tron player on a solid clock, their Pyroclasm in the main deck will be a dead card against us, and sometimes we can double up damage with a copy of Lavaclaw Reaches or Shrieking Affliction. Obviously though, in this matchup, our creatures are our best shot to win the game. Additionally, it is very hard for us to force our opponents to discard their land cards. We do have Wrench Mind and Blightning, and of course Liliana of the Veil, but it is not as easy as the outs would suggest, as many times the opponent will simply hold on to the cards that we don't want them to have. This is not my favorite matchup, for sure. It is also the quintessential matchup that causes many players to tell us that we can't control our opponent's topdecks. That is, of course, a terrible argument as that is always true of any deck, but it negatively affects our archetype a great deal in this matchup.
This is a solid matchup for our incredibly high amount of disruption and removal. The majority of Affinity players are not going to slam Cranial Plating on to the field on the first turn, and even if they have the Mox Opal draw to do so, Arcbound Ravager or a board state usually hits the battlefield first. This means that our Inquisition of Kozileks and Thoughtseizes have a turn to take away the Cranial Plating and seriously slow down their board state. Obviously, Lightning Bolt is very good in this matchup, as it hits all of their targets. It's also very good against Arcbound Ravager, in the circumstance where we Terminate the Ravager and Lightning Bolt in response to the Modular trigger target. There are a few ways around this deck's gimmicks.
We get considerably stronger after sideboarding, as we have access to a great deal of artifact removal and, more importantly, access to Pyroclasm to really take away their fast start unless they see an Arcbound Ravager. Additionally, there are a few things to watch out for in this matchup. First and foremost, if their one land is Glimmervoid and they don't have any inanimate artifacts, do everything you can to force them to sacrifice their land. This can win you the game in many circumstances. Second, make sure that you don't randomly get killed by an Inkmoth Nexus, as that card can do ridiculous things. Lastly, remember that Steel Overseer is not that strong of a card, as it does not have haste and we play a very high amount of removal. Etched Champion is one of their best cards if we are on the beatdown plan, however, so keep this in mind as they can hold a Gurmag Angler, Nyxathid, or Phyrexian Obliterator at bay. Also, Blood Moon isn't a terrible answer to their animated lands, although we really do have better answers.
We are the juggernaut in this matchup, as we can prevent their deck from going off in just about every circumstance, and we can additionally slay their Primeval Titan with Terminate and force the Tolaria West out of their hand. Also, since they play a full 27 lands or greater, it increases the chances of the opponent flooding out off of the top of their deck. We can take any of their Pact cards with an Inquisition of Kozilek as well. Hand disruption is very bad for this deck. We also have access to Blood Moon in the sideboard, which this deck usually cannot beat. In games where we slam a Blood Moon and it resolves, our win percentage goes up to 95%-5%. There's not a whole lot left to say, just know how their combo works, try not to let them get to six mana with a Summer Bloom, and time your Wrench Minds and Blightnings appropriately.
This is a very fragile combo deck in all reality, and not an aggro deck. Against many decks with either hand disruption or spot removal spells, it can still punch through very easily. Fortunately, we have both hand disruption AND spot removal coming out of our ears, and having a Glistener Elf getting hit by a Lightning Bolt or having a Vines of Vastwood get taken out of hand early is very brutal for the Infect decks. The best way that Infect has to win is with the slow beatdown plan on Inkmoth Nexus, and/or catching us with having to tap out for a Liliana of the Veil as our removal spell for their other creature, then simply unloading on us in one turn. They can still win, we simply have to be cautious about our plays. We also have the ability to upgrade into Pyroclasm out of the sideboard, which is actually incredibly bad for Infect as it takes away one of their avenues to victory.
Make sure to sequence removal spells properly, and do not try to take cards out of the opponents hand if it means you are going to tap out when you could have played a Terminate or a Lightning Bolt. I know this sounds super simple and obvious, but sometimes it is easy to get hungry with an Inquisition of Kozilek only to find out that they are holding a Become Immense, killing you. Also, Spellskite can help the opponent a great deal if it is not removed or taken immediately. Essentially though, for Infect, this matchup must feel for them the way the Burn matchup feels for us. They have to hope we draw dead, have limited-to-no interaction, and that they simply draw the correct cards in the correct circumstances. Most of the time though, this matchup is cake.
For the time being, those are the matchups that I have tested recently. There are some decks on the rise at the moment, such as Jund and UWx Control, and as these decks begin to place high up at tournaments, as well as any other deck in the format, I can always go back and throw out a matchup guide section. Those two matchups I just named though are very much in our favor, so I'm not particularly worried about it at the moment.
Hopefully this is all useful to some or most of you. If you disagree with any of my assessments or think that I am missing a popular deck archetype, please let me know and I'll try to update this post for a little while, as the metagame seems to be stout at the moment.
First, big ups to Fat_Buddha for his totally boss banner. My jaw dropped upon seeing it and it felt like it was Christmas morning. Wondrous. Thank you.
Smash.....you know you can't stay away The Sirens on the rocks got nothing on Richard Garfield in an armchair in Seattle. Phenomenal write up. I'm going to cut/paste some of that into the match-up section of the primer. You've moved your deck around a little bit, huh? I agree on the drop in faithless looting, and am a bit surprised about liliana's caress. With that in (even though it's a 1-of), it makes me look twice at your lowered count of Blightning. And, what do you think about bringing in a kolaghan's command? I'd see you drop that rakdos charm in your 75 for it, and make some room for a nihil spellbomb. I was surprised that you feel that Delver Blitzkrieg is strong against Affinity. That deck is so yoinky, that it's hard to get a feel for the matchup. Sometimes they nut, and sometimes they crash. So, getting a good baseline reading is tough. I don't run into it all that much in my cockatrice testing, so I don't know how I'm matching up. Again, Epic write-up.
Yeah, avaricious dragon is a bit of reach as we don't get hellbent all that much and a lot of our spells (removal) are reactive, so that flameblaster is prob better suited for a burn style deck. Isochron is lacking on targets when it's instant only. Sloprooster, love the name, you got a midrange rakdos deck there, my man - without wrench mind, blightning, nyx, gurmag or obliterator, I just don't see that as a blitzkrieg deck. And, acc95......dark confidant. Really. Do we have to say it. You so cray-cray
Lastly, I did some adjustments to the primer. I did remove the 'bridge too far' theme, and mentions of ensnaring bridge. There wasn't a whole lot of action in that arena, and I wasn't hearing winning tournament reports. It was there in the beginning as we were figuring out which way this new archetype was going to go...it just seems like the Panzer version (at this time) is winning out.
First, big ups to Fat_Buddha for his totally boss banner. My jaw dropped upon seeing it and it felt like it was Christmas morning. Wondrous. Thank you.
Smash.....you know you can't stay away The Sirens on the rocks got nothing on Richard Garfield in an armchair in Seattle. Phenomenal write up. I'm going to cut/paste some of that into the match-up section of the primer. You've moved your deck around a little bit, huh? I agree on the drop in faithless looting, and am a bit surprised about liliana's caress. With that in (even though it's a 1-of), it makes me look twice at your lowered count of Blightning. And, what do you think about bringing in a kolaghan's command? I'd see you drop that rakdos charm in your 75 for it, and make some room for a nihil spellbomb. I was surprised that you feel that Delver Blitzkrieg is strong against Affinity. That deck is so yoinky, that it's hard to get a feel for the matchup. Sometimes they nut, and sometimes they crash. So, getting a good baseline reading is tough. I don't run into it all that much in my cockatrice testing, so I don't know how I'm matching up. Again, Epic write-up.
Yeah, avaricious dragon is a bit of reach as we don't get hellbent all that much and a lot of our spells (removal) are reactive, so that flameblaster is prob better suited for a burn style deck. Isochron is lacking on targets when it's instant only. Sloprooster, love the name, you got a midrange rakdos deck there, my man - without wrench mind, blightning, nyx, gurmag or obliterator, I just don't see that as a blitzkrieg deck. And, acc95......dark confidant. Really. Do we have to say it. You so cray-cray
Lastly, I did some adjustments to the primer. I did remove the 'bridge too far' theme, and mentions of ensnaring bridge. There wasn't a whole lot of action in that arena, and I wasn't hearing winning tournament reports. It was there in the beginning as we were figuring out which way this new archetype was going to go...it just seems like the Panzer version (at this time) is winning out.
Calling it "Delver Blitzkrieg" is a little bit misleading. I'm thinking we just go with Angler Blitzkrieg, or something like that. Also, a quick note, there's a good chance that I'm going to have to drop the fish if graveyard hate picks up and go back up to four Nyxathid.
As for Avaricious Dragon, I don't want to quell any thoughts of positive thinking, but...even with Ensnaring Bridge, it's just a 4/4 that is never attacking, because we have Ensnaring Bridge in play. It's a huge non-bo, in a way that will not actually advance your position in the game. It's actually not awful without Ensnaring Bridge, but then you can't hold up removal pieces. I think that card is very good and has a home somewhere, but I honestly don't think it's here.
As for Affinity, you're right in your assessment, but statistically speaking, they won't nut draw in a way that negatively affects our deck very frequently. A lot of that matchup comes down to getting rid of Cranial Plating.
I like that you removed the Ensnaring Bridge piece. Leave that to the Monoblack Eight Rack boys, that's always been more for them anyway.
Lastly, that banner is amazing. I'm a huge fan.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: BR Control BR Standard: Temur Energy RUG Pauper: Fireball Black B Commander: Kaervek the MercilessBR
Well now that's a pretty awesome looking banner. Really cool, I'm loving it! And that matchup description helps a lot smashpacman, although I disagree on the Burn one. I used to think it was awful back when I started playing Blitzkrieg, but now I don't consider it a bad mu at all. Once they run out of gas and are hellbent I can race them with my beaters as long as I draw them Early Wrench Mind and Blightning are the way to go. Then I just leave mana for removal and hope they draw at least 1 land so I can take a break haha. Anyway, that was an awesome writeup it really helps us all. Also, I guess we haven't seen the last from Ensnaring Bridge, but with Kolaghan's Command everywhere I believe letting it go is the way to go. And no, please no. Avaricious Dragon means "my deck packs superb instant speed removal spells, but I'll play them as sorceries only or ditch them myself". I'll pass on that... Also, Twin is 10-12% of the metagame. Period.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern:WU WU Control | WBG Abzan Company Frontier:UBR Grixis Control | BRG Jund Delirium
Well now that's a pretty awesome looking banner. Really cool, I'm loving it! And that matchup description helps a lot smashpacman, although I disagree on the Burn one. I used to think it was awful back when I started playing Blitzkrieg, but now I don't consider it a bad mu at all. Once they run out of gas and are hellbent I can race them with my beaters as long as I draw them Early Wrench Mind and Blightning are the way to go. Then I just leave mana for removal and hope they draw at least 1 land so I can take a break haha. Anyway, that was an awesome writeup it really helps us all. Also, I guess we haven't seen the last from Ensnaring Bridge, but with Kolaghan's Command everywhere I believe letting it go is the way to go. And no, please no. Avaricious Dragon means "my deck packs superb instant speed removal spells, but I'll play them as sorceries only or ditch them myself". I'll pass on that... Also, Twin is 10-12% of the metagame. Period.
Surprisingly, I'm actually on your side. If I had written that up a month ago, the matchup would have been 75%-25% in their favor, as it seemed I just couldn't catch a break. Really, it was the two main deck Nyxathid and the sideboard change to Dragon's Claw that really gave us the much more favorable outs in the matchup.
Statistically speaking, however, there are only five creatures in my main deck (10 total win conditions with Rack effects and Caress), and the creatures are the best way to win. Having only five in the deck, there are plenty of Game 1 matches where I will not see a creature in the first three turns, which is really the clock necessary to beat the Burn matchup in the first game. Like you said...as long as you draw them.
The reason that I don't put the matchup at 50-50 is because of their topdeck consistency. There are no noncreature spells in the deck that do less than three damage.
The card I am heavily considering at the moment is Sanctimony. Technically, every land in their deck is a Mountain. Mathematically, it would get dropped on the same turn as Dragon's Claw, and it would gain a minimum of one life per spell cast. It has the potential to gain even more life. I theorize that in the majority of cases, sacrificing gaining one life per our red spells is worth sacrificing if we are putting our opponent in a bind every time they cast a two-CMC spell. The catch is that a fetch land would be necessary to get the White mana.
@benbass97: the dragonlord may be too slow, yeah those 10 life points are a huge deal indeed but 6cmc is a lot too. If I manage to cast it, he obviously hits the table at least 2-3 turns after Phyrexian Obliterator so the haste for everyone clause is meh.
@smashpacman: you can also race them with your own lightning bolts and with blightnings too. Once you stick a beater they can't deal with it, save for Path to Exile, which is being played recently as a 2of over there. I believe it's 45-55 pre and 70-30 post. Pharika's Cure and Dragon's Claw help a lot but they can still win by drawing the right cards, but that's beyond me. That deck is designed to do that, so I don't mind winning 2-1 every time. Although 2-0 is quite possible ^^
Note: I do run 12 creatures MD so I've got that going for me. Also, why 2 Blightnings??
Sanctimony is just awful anytime I face it, so I imagine it'd be the same for them. Although the Destructive Revelry that deals with your Claw can also deal with it, so the color fixing actually helps them. Going Mardu, Lightning Helix 2-1s them given they tap out and can't cast Skullcrack or ACommand.
@benbass97: the dragonlord may be too slow, yeah those 10 life points are a huge deal indeed but 6cmc is a lot too. If I manage to cast it, he obviously hits the table at least 2-3 turns after Phyrexian Obliterator so the haste for everyone clause is meh.
@smashpacman: you can also race them with your own lightning bolts and with blightnings too. Once you stick a beater they can't deal with it, save for Path to Exile, which is being played recently as a 2of over there. I believe it's 45-55 pre and 70-30 post. Pharika's Cure and Dragon's Claw help a lot but they can still win by drawing the right cards, but that's beyond me. That deck is designed to do that, so I don't mind winning 2-1 every time. Although 2-0 is quite possible ^^
Note: I do run 12 creatures MD so I've got that going for me. Also, why 2 Blightnings??
Sanctimony is just awful anytime I face it, so I imagine it'd be the same for them. Although the Destructive Revelry that deals with your Claw can also deal with it, so the color fixing actually helps them. Going Mardu, Lightning Helix 2-1s them given they tap out and can't cast Skullcrack or ACommand.
I had trimmed down to two copies of Blightning during my last test phase because the card was showing up too frequently in situations where I did not have time to cast a 3-CMC spell (mainly against Burn, Twin, and Affinity). I put the Nyxathids back main deck at that time as well, so the 3-CMC slot was a bit jammed up. I'm actually at the moment, very surprisingly, considering trimming down to 3 Liliana of the Veil to get my 3rd Blightning back.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: BR Control BR Standard: Temur Energy RUG Pauper: Fireball Black B Commander: Kaervek the MercilessBR
Calling it "Delver Blitzkrieg" is a little bit misleading. I'm thinking we just go with Angler Blitzkrieg, or something like that. Also, a quick note, there's a good chance that I'm going to have to drop the fish if graveyard hate picks up and go back up to four Nyxathid.
As for Avaricious Dragon, I don't want to quell any thoughts of positive thinking, but...even with Ensnaring Bridge, it's just a 4/4 that is never attacking, because we have Ensnaring Bridge in play. It's a huge non-bo, in a way that will not actually advance your position in the game. It's actually not awful without Ensnaring Bridge, but then you can't hold up removal pieces. I think that card is very good and has a home somewhere, but I honestly don't think it's here.
As for Affinity, you're right in your assessment, but statistically speaking, they won't nut draw in a way that negatively affects our deck very frequently. A lot of that matchup comes down to getting rid of Cranial Plating.
I like that you removed the Ensnaring Bridge piece. Leave that to the Monoblack Eight Rack boys, that's always been more for them anyway.
Lastly, that banner is amazing. I'm a huge fan.
I appreciate the analysis guys, and thanks for being civil lol, not something this deck's past has really had (original thread). I am surprised people think Avaricious Dragon is so bad. I mean, Grafted Skullcap + Ensnaring Bridge used to be a thing. It makes me think skullcap on a stick can be too. And a good stick at that. I don't agree with this notion of "non-bo" as you still get an extra card per turn. If they can't kill bridge you card advantage them out hard. If they do, you have the beater. But I definitely can see the issue with not being able to hold up removal. This card reminds me of how people evaluated Ensoul Artifact. People imagined how horrifying the worst case scenario was and wrote it off. ZOMG 2 for 1 this card sucks. Wrong lol. Yea if the dragon gets killed in response to the discard trigger and you lose your hand that does suck. But that isn't the average case. I still think the dragon warrants testing. I haven't played the red-splash much so I'm not going to pretend I know the deck super well and how it operates, but I do want to put out there that the power level on this card is high. Many a people initially thought Kolaghan's Command was hot garbage. Check the original 8-Rack thread, you'll see many a misevaluation. Don't write the dragon off because it says "discard your hand." All I am asking is that we give it a fair chance before it is tossed aside completely. Anyways, I'm going to come up with a list, I'll post it at some point soon. But I certainly wouldn't run the card without the Ensnaring Bridge, and this deck seems to have gone away from bridge like smashpacman said, so maybe I shouldn't have posted this here. I posted here because I thought it more appropriate than in the mono-black thread. Regardless, I'll test and keep you guys informed, even if most of y'all run 0 bridges!
@BenBass97 - I'm not particularly a fan of Kolaghan, as I feel that six mana for a creature is almost never going to be worthwhile to draw. Also personally, I run a land or two less than the majority of players in this thread, and try to stray away from four drops as a result to keep consistency high and prevent flooding when both players get into topdeck mode.
@Berk4823 - A large part of me not wanting to test Avaricious Dragon is honestly because I do not run four drop cards anywhere in my deck. The only card that I have that requires four mana is also a mana source itself (Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace). I am also opposed to testing it with Ensnaring Bridge because I feel that a lot of players right now are looking at the card the wrong way. Having cards that require one piece of a two-card semi-combo are usually not good enough to be top tier, however, Avaricious Dragon might simply be good enough on its own for this deck. Having a 4/4 Flying creature that doubles up as a one-sided Howling Mine when both players are in topdeck mode could be very powerful for the deck, and wouldn't need Ensnaring Bridge to be this effective. It would simply need the right situation. I agree that it warrants testing, but I do not agree that it warrants testing with Ensnaring Bridge, which is a card that I hope we can move away from as an archetype now that it is easily answered by the majority of (if not all) decks.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: BR Control BR Standard: Temur Energy RUG Pauper: Fireball Black B Commander: Kaervek the MercilessBR
@Berk4823 - A large part of me not wanting to test Avaricious Dragon is honestly because I do not run four drop cards anywhere in my deck. The only card that I have that requires four mana is also a mana source itself (Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace). I am also opposed to testing it with Ensnaring Bridge because I feel that a lot of players right now are looking at the card the wrong way. Having cards that require one piece of a two-card semi-combo are usually not good enough to be top tier, however, Avaricious Dragon might simply be good enough on its own for this deck. Having a 4/4 Flying creature that doubles up as a one-sided Howling Mine when both players are in topdeck mode could be very powerful for the deck, and wouldn't need Ensnaring Bridge to be this effective. It would simply need the right situation. I agree that it warrants testing, but I do not agree that it warrants testing with Ensnaring Bridge, which is a card that I hope we can move away from as an archetype now that it is easily answered by the majority of (if not all) decks.
All fair points. I can tell you see the power in the card, and I have no qualms with you wanting to avoid 4 drops. I also have no issues with the deck moving away from Ensnaring Bridge. I just thought it was better placed raising the dragon here than in the mono-black thread. I'm not sure I wholly agree on Bridge being answered by a majority of decks, but it certainly isn't in a wonderful place either. (did you see the Lantern Control deck in GP Charlotte top 16 that ran 4x Bridge? What a whack deck lol!) A lot of sideboards are shifting away from artifact hate, but there is also more mainboard hate a la Kolaghan's Command. Regardless, I do agree with you in that I don't love Bridge in the meta nor in your most recent list for this deck. I just wanted to get discussion rolling on Avaricious Dragon, and I am glad to see cogent arguments made against it and not just "zomg respond to the discard my hand trigger blowout," and in a civil manner. I still plan to try it, and I'll update on it if people are interested!
@Berk4823 - A large part of me not wanting to test Avaricious Dragon is honestly because I do not run four drop cards anywhere in my deck. The only card that I have that requires four mana is also a mana source itself (Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace). I am also opposed to testing it with Ensnaring Bridge because I feel that a lot of players right now are looking at the card the wrong way. Having cards that require one piece of a two-card semi-combo are usually not good enough to be top tier, however, Avaricious Dragon might simply be good enough on its own for this deck. Having a 4/4 Flying creature that doubles up as a one-sided Howling Mine when both players are in topdeck mode could be very powerful for the deck, and wouldn't need Ensnaring Bridge to be this effective. It would simply need the right situation. I agree that it warrants testing, but I do not agree that it warrants testing with Ensnaring Bridge, which is a card that I hope we can move away from as an archetype now that it is easily answered by the majority of (if not all) decks.
All fair points. I can tell you see the power in the card, and I have no qualms with you wanting to avoid 4 drops. I also have no issues with the deck moving away from Ensnaring Bridge. I just thought it was better placed raising the dragon here than in the mono-black thread. I'm not sure I wholly agree on Bridge being answered by a majority of decks, but it certainly isn't in a wonderful place either. (did you see the Lantern Control deck in GP Charlotte top 16 that ran 4x Bridge? What a whack deck lol!) A lot of sideboards are shifting away from artifact hate, but there is also more mainboard hate a la Kolaghan's Command. Regardless, I do agree with you in that I don't love Bridge in the meta nor in your most recent list for this deck. I just wanted to get discussion rolling on Avaricious Dragon, and I am glad to see cogent arguments made against it and not just "zomg respond to the discard my hand trigger blowout," and in a civil manner. I still plan to try it, and I'll update on it if people are interested!
Always interested, please keep as much updating coming as you test cards. That is how we will breed success.
Real quick though, I'm going to run down answers to Ensnaring Bridge at the moment. I'm doing this assuming that we are at 1 or less cards, due to keeping opponents at bay. If we have more in hand, then it is useless anyway.
Twin - Bounce it with Cryptic Command, proceed to go off.
Affinity - Swing with any 0 power creature, attach Cranial Plating at instant speed
Amulet Bloom - Literally ignore the card with Hive Mind
Burn - Literally ignore the card with 70% of the deck's spells
Elves - Swing with a Devoted Druid under the bridge, and pump with Ezuri infinitely
Abzan Co-Co - Abrupt Decay the bridge
Abzan Midrange - Abrupt Decay the bridge
Zoo - Qasali Pridemage the bridge
Jund - Abrupt Decay or Maelstrom Pulse the bridge
Grixis Control/Midrange/Delver - Kolaghan's Command the bridge
It took a lot of us awhile to realize, but Ensnaring Bridge is borderline unplayable at the moment in any deck that cannot control the topdecks of the opponent. Lantern Control, while hilarious and innovative, is certainly an outlier and exception to the general rule.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: BR Control BR Standard: Temur Energy RUG Pauper: Fireball Black B Commander: Kaervek the MercilessBR
Instead of Vendetta you might as well use Victim of Night. Less narrow, and not having to pay 2 for a 1cmc spell that hurts you is way better.
Especially as the usual targets for the actual killspells are bigger things like opposing Anglers or Tasigur.
Or Bile Blight or something along those line, could be nice if you're often up against things like Delver or perhaps elves or B/W tokens and other similar shenanigans. ^^
If you want a 1 mana option you could just put in another bolt or Disfigure, to have the combat utility of the -x/-x spells.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Tired of losing to natural Tron or getting turn 2'd by Infect?
Standard infinite combos giving you a headache and the opponent always has Force of Will?
No matter the issue, there is one simple trick to solve all of your Magic problems!!
~~~To get in on the secret to eternal luck, skill and victory, just follow this link!!~~~
@Smashi_berlin: problem is that most of us don't run any 1-2 drop creatures as our gameplan has other means to control the board. So, while I like Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, how are we going to transform Liliana, Heretical Healer into her? If she comes in before Obliterator, she's not going to survive at all. If she comes after, I don't see a huge impact. In theory, if somehow our opponent deals with the big guy without losing to the annihilator trigger (or not triggering it in the first place) AND Lili is left unanswered for 2 turns, we could retrieve our beater. That's too conditional and we're better off playing Kolaghan's Command for the same effect, but at instant speed and letting us do another thing in the process. Maybe the new Lili could shine if this was a zombie deck, which it isn't...
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern:WU WU Control | WBG Abzan Company Frontier:UBR Grixis Control | BRG Jund Delirium
While haste is good, a deck like ours that makes them discard a lot, and said discard being integral to our wincons, the 10 damage is very relevant. I know many people who run a bunch of 4 ofs, and with kolaghan on the field, they can't play the spells we've made them discard, making many toopdecks useless,and a lot of hands they draw into become weak.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Current decks:
Modern: 8 Rack(nice hand you have there, it'd be a shame if...)
Casual: All Hail Kruphix(Simic Ramp)
Gruul Werewolves
Mono Green Spider Tribal
I totally get your point, as Kolaghan can just win the game. I'd like him being 5cmc without the haste-for-everyone effect or something like that. Still, taxing the opponent with 10 life if he wants to play something he already played or discarded is huge. I'll give it a try and bring some feedback. I believe it's too slow, but I could be wrong.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern:WU WU Control | WBG Abzan Company Frontier:UBR Grixis Control | BRG Jund Delirium
Before deciding to eliminate Ensnaring Bridge from the primer, I took a look at the Charlotte Grand Prix top 8 decks with a simple query in mind: "Would a bridge do better than a tank in this match up"? The only deck that returned a yes was the Elf Deck. However, they are loaded with artifact destruction in the sideboard. I held on to the thought that bridge was viable for a very long time, but in order to win today, you must/must/must be proactive. If you're not bringing the win at your opponent's face, then you're engaging in a prolonged struggle where you're trying to 'control' an opponent's win conditions with & Unless you're building a 'prison deck', this is very dicey. The only decks that can delay and delay and then win is U/W.....how many sphinx's revelation decks do you see in the top 8 these days? /tumbleweeds roll by. I did send out personal emails to the guys that were trying out 'a bridge too far' builds as a heads up with thanks for their contributions. That's the state of things now, but who knows what new cards might get released - we have some sound ideas at the ready if the meta shifts.
Oh, and the 8 Rack thread seeeeems to have changed its tune on being mono-black, so there is room to explore bridge variants of a rakdos identity over there. quick aside: this deck did not, as someone mentioned, grow out of the 8 rack thread. The original version was mentioned there, discussed there, and then I brought the conversation here with Pete Casella, smashpacman. But, it could have been initially discussed in any number of mid-range discard/disruption/beater forums.
Avaricious Dragon has some appeal to me since I was trying to make Outpost Siege work for a while - as well as Chandra, Pyromaster. This was all in an effort to boost the card draw. Indeed, the dragon might very well work. It has the 2-for-1 paradigm that I relentlessly seek in my Blitzkrieg builds: 4/4 flyer and personal Howling Mine. Truthfully, he may even be better than Siege and Chandra. Think hard about where your hand is when you hit your fourth mana. Are you hellbent or sitting with just one card in hand? If that card is so important, why not cast it and then put out the dragon next turn? I run 23 land, so that's enough to cast the bugger. I'm giving it a fair shake here, but the potential to lose my own hand is too precarious.
As for Dragonlord Kolaghan, it's just too pricey. I struggle to keep Batterskull in (as well as my consume the meek in the sideboard). I can't see going to 6 mana, for now. If I went for a 6 casting cost creature it needs to come in with an "immediate board state changing effect". Depending on what I'm facing, I'd even consider a Massacre Wurm.
As opposed to the draw power of avaricious, I prefer a more immediate card influx. I've added (2) Sign in Blood to my deck. I had a night's whisper and an infernal tutor, but these have swapped in. I think a one-shot 2 point necropotence is gonna work out well. Again, it follows the 2-for-1 formula. It's early, inexpensive on life, and I can use them as a shock to kill an opponent. I also decided that 2 Shrieking Affliction was a little low (i tolerated that number when I could tutor for one). So, I bumped that up and lost my main deck nyxathid.
I'm just trying to fit a powerful card with flavor in the deck, you have Olivia Voldaren, I've been considering either mogis or kolaghan as a replacement. Mogis is cheaper, and can take over when devotion is reached, and kolaghan, while expensive can outright win a game after a same turn swing for 6, and makes any discarded spell cost 10 life, kolaghan is however weaker against targeted kill spells. I'm not shooting for uber competitive, I mostly play a casual modern environment.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Current decks:
Modern: 8 Rack(nice hand you have there, it'd be a shame if...)
Casual: All Hail Kruphix(Simic Ramp)
Gruul Werewolves
Mono Green Spider Tribal
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Modern: 8 Rack(nice hand you have there, it'd be a shame if...)
Casual: All Hail Kruphix(Simic Ramp)
Gruul Werewolves
Mono Green Spider Tribal
I'm not sure how reliable a 6 drop is with 23 lands.
It also neither tramples nor has it vigilance.
So for stabilizing it seems worse, plus recursion of Batterskull can be quite helpful, though Wurmcoil Engine's tokens do to some degree do a similar job.
Still, a kill spell hurts it and Path even more so, while Batterskull just comes down again next turn or the turn after.
And technically can be equipped, but really....it's so expensive and usually having a new Batterskull is safer than spending 5 to put it on something else that just gets killed. ^^
Standard infinite combos giving you a headache and the opponent always has Force of Will?
No matter the issue, there is one simple trick to solve all of your Magic problems!!
~~~To get in on the secret to eternal luck, skill and victory, just follow this link!!~~~
Also, it seems the Amulet Bloom mu just caught me off guard and I just needed to learn how to play against it. Though it's obvious they can steal a win by just topdecking something, I have found in Liliana my biggest ally. Literally, she has won me the last matches against Amulet via ultimate ^^. There may a be a better play than making them to decide between "your lands" and "everything else" (Amulet, Hive Mind, tokens). So far it has worked out for me, because they all let the lands go, but I'm pretty aware a topdecked pact on a hive mind would mean GG. Still, that'd be a fair win on turn 10 or so, so that's ok.
Anyway, after checking out our lists, some BG Rock ones, some Jund ones too and all B/R new teck appearing in other archetypes, I'm here with this:
8 Swamp
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Blood Crypt
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Wrench Mind
4 Terminate
4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Blightning
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
Testing (Main)
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Thoughtseize
3 Faithless Looting
3 Lightning Bolt
4 Dark Confidant (lol I know)
3 Nyxathid
1 Gurmag Angler
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pharika's Cure
1 Drown in Sorrow
1 Night of Souls' Betrayal
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Kolaghan's Command
1 Olivia Voldaren
Testing (Side)
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Self-Inflicted Wound
1 Dismember
1 Consuming Vapors
1 Slaughter Games
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Shatterstorm
I'm sticking to that core and I don't see me taking anything out, although new tech from Magic Origins and Battle for Zendikar may make think about it. Now I'm testing these cards, any thoughts would be really appreciated ^^
Discalimer: Bob it's just there because I run out of gas pretty fast. The life loss may be an issue, but Night's Whisper and Sign in Blood also have that issue. At least Bob draws me lands painlessly and also takes the removal for Obliterator. The ideal card would be Outpost Siege, but that's kinda slow.
Note that I'm decidedly not running anything beyond 4cmc. Also, I choose to run just 4ofs and 1ofs because of 2 main reasons: 1) I love consistency and 2) for the sake of testing, as it becomes pretty clear whether I need more or fewer or no copies at all. Regarding Collected Company decks, some combination of Grafdigger's Cage, Torpor Orb, Engineered Explosives, graveyard hate and sweepers help a lot post sideboard, but that needs more testing. At one point Batterskull lost its slot to Wurmcoil Engine, but it didn't work out. At the end, I just dropped them. Any thoughts on Lashwrithe? This guy piloted a mono black deck with 4 of them to a 3-1 finish last week. He also ran Obliterator ^^
Frontier: UBR Grixis Control | BRG Jund Delirium
In the mid to late game topdecking discard spells doesn't do much, they can be nice to pitch to Liliana or to get rid of a thing an opponent kept in hand, but you won't usually wish you had more of them.
So putting one on a scepter seems not really amazing. ^^
Imprinting a Terminate could be fine, but also not suuuper amazing.
You won't generally do that on t2, as Wrench Mind is more important or perhaps even casting the Terminate is (e.g. against Twin, on the draw). Turn 3 could be Blightning / Liliana / Nyxathid, but it maybe be a spot to squeeze the scepter in, but t3 can also often be sort of a "catch up" turn to actually play the Terminate or Bolt to stabilize after not advancing the board to Wrench Mind t2.
And if you want to imprint and use it though, that's 4 mana for the turn.
Another bummer is, that it turns on their artifact hate, which otherwise finds no targets.
Imprinting Night's Whisper or Infernal Tutor sounds very appealing though, and isn't as conflicting with the earlier game steps.
Getting the right 1-of together with a 1/2-of scepter is rather illusionary though. ^^
I like Isochron Scepter, but don't think this is the best shell for it, nor does it make the best one-of in this deck type.
Standard infinite combos giving you a headache and the opponent always has Force of Will?
No matter the issue, there is one simple trick to solve all of your Magic problems!!
~~~To get in on the secret to eternal luck, skill and victory, just follow this link!!~~~
Also, I am liking the Obliterator build the more I play with it. Pre-board it's not always my favorite due to the sheer amount of merfolk and affinity in my local meta, but I'm getting the sideboard tuned and liking it more and more. Deck list to follow when I'm at my computer.
Modern: Bogles // 8-Whack/Goblins // UW Titan // Hollow One // Affinity // Dredge
EDH: Nissa, Vastwood Seer // Atraxa, Praetor's Voice // Meren of Clan Nel Toth
I got most of the idea from a starcity article but added some things of my own.
2 Dark confidant
4 pack rat
2 prophetic flamespeaker
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Grim lavamancer
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Chandra Pyromancer
3 Liliana of the veil
2 Kologhan’s command
4 Thought seize
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Relic of progenitus
4 Lightning bolt
2 slaughter pact
2 terminate
1 Dread bore
1 Sword of light and shadow
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
3 Blood Crypt
1 Dragonskull summit
1 Graven Cairns
2 Lavaclaw reaches
4 Bloodstained mire
2 polluted delta
2 mutavault
2 Anger of the gods
2 Blightning
2 blood moon
1 Kologhan’s command
1 Chandra Pyromancer
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 dreadbore
2 Vampire Nighthawk
1 shatterstorm
2 Combust
I have only play tested the deck a few times about 75% of which were without the inquisitions. The other 25% of the time I have a 100% win record (again only a few games) I will hopefully post more results after this weekend as I need to get ready for a modern PPTQ next Saturday.
I'm not really sure where to start, so I'll just kinda dive right in. Bearing in mind, I am doing this matchup guide based off of my current list, which is as follows:
2 Nyxathid
2 The Rack
2 Shrieking Affliction
4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Faithless Looting
1 Liliana's Caress
4 Wrench Mind
4 Terminate
2 Blightning
2 Murderous Cut
1 Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Godless Shrine
4 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Marsh Flats
4 Swamp
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Wear & Tear
2 Blood Moon
3 Pyroclasm
Yes, I'm back up to a Liliana's Caress, mostly due to the Kolaghan's Commands running around everywhere. Also, the Grafdigger's Cage is our best answer for Abzan Collected Company at the moment. That's actually an okay matchup for us, but I'll get to that in a moment.
=======================================================================================
Elves Matchup
This is one of the new kids on the block. However, one of my best friends is actually the original pioneer of the deck, so I've tested against Elves endlessly.
Most Important Cards Pre-Board - Lightning Bolt, Thoughtseize, Terminate
Most Important Cards Post-Board - Pyroclasm, Lightning Bolt, Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Ratchet Bomb
Cards To Target First - Collected Company, Ezuri, Renegade Leader, Elvish Archdruid
Cards To Beware Of - Heritage Druid, Nettle Sentinel, Chord of Calling
Matchup Percentages - We are favored, 65%-35%.
Honestly, I would want to play against this deck every single round. We simply have too much disruption and removal, and their game plan is stout through maybe one removal piece, but it gets very difficult for their deck to win if they do not draw the absolute nuts post-board. Additionally, Pyroclasm is a very difficult card for the Elves deck to fight through, especially if it is hitting more than a 2-for-1, due to the hand disruption and removal spells. I've had several sequences where my opponent even gets enough mana to slam down a Craterhoof Behemoth later in the game, but using Terminate on the beast meant that my opponent could not swing in for enough damage.
The flow of these games is usually pretty cut and dry. If we are casting Inquisition of Kozilek or Thoughtseize, we are probably taking their Collected Company or Chord of Calling. If they do not have either of those cards in their hand, we simply take their best creature and force them to draw into something stronger, which we will very likely have another opportunity to take out of their hand anyway. Many times, you can allow an Elvish Archdruid to resolve, and just hit it with a Lightning Bolt. However, beware of Chord of Calling and any open mana, because if the opponent has enough mana to go get an Ezuri, Renegade Leader, they can just regenerate the intended target. Fortunately, we also run Terminate, where that little secondary clause of "can't be regenerated" is finally coming in handy a little bit. Also, slamming one Nyxathid or Gurmag Angler (or in the Raystack case, Phyrexian Obliterator) essentially means they cannot really mathematically attack anymore in most situations. For our purposes, their deck is fairly fragile, and this is actually a very good matchup. Most decks in Modern do not run anywhere close to our level of removal, and that is why Elves has become so popular. Honestly, that means we get to feast!
Abzan Collected Company Matchup
Most Important Cards Pre-Board - Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Wrench Mind
Most Important Cards Post-Board - Grafdigger's Cage, Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize
Cards To Target First - Collected Company, Kitchen Finks, Murderous Redcap
Cards To Beware Of - Chord of Calling, Viscera Seer, Gavony Township
Matchup Percentages - They are favored, 55%-45%.
This matchup can be rough, as they have several cards that we need to worry about early on and a few recurring problems for our deck to deal with. Strangely enough, our lines of play are strongly skewed based on whether or not we lose the dice roll, which is not always the case the way that our deck operates. Hitting a Birds of Paradise with a Lightning Bolt on turn one can save your game outright, preventing the opponent from being able to cast Kitchen Finks in the event that they are holding more than one. Playing against Finks is absolutely brutal, and our main goal is to get it out of their hand by any means necessary. Catching the opponent with a two-land hand and a Birds of Paradise is sometimes the way to go.
Grafdigger's Cage is very helpful in the second game, although the opponent can still very much go on the beatdown plan. Decks are now playing copies of Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit to complement their Melira, Sylvok Outcast for infintite combo potential, and sequencing removal in this matchup becomes essential as a result possibly moreso than any other matchup in Modern. Obviously, if we can get Collected Company and/or Chord of Calling out of the opponent's hand early, then we are in a much better position pretty much every single time. However, having to get rid of an early Kitchen Finks (that damage adds up fast) and still prevent the opponent from casting their other very valuable spells can be quite tricky. Forcing the opponent to discard cards takes precedence based on what is in the opponent's hand. The sideboard has some other neat tech, such as Rakdos Charm exiling their graveyard in response to a dead Kitchen Finks or Murderous Redcap, but the "cute" plays are scarcely going to get us a victory. We need to make sure to keep the opponent's hand empty and still make sure we can remove their value creatures. I feel that their ability to topdeck value in almost every situation is what gives them the edge in the matchup overall. Lastly, make sure not to forget about a Gavony Township that could be in play, as it could allow them to simply generate way too much board presence with any individual Persist creature.
Burn Matchup
Most Important Cards Pre-Board - Wrench Mind, Inquisition of Kozilek, Nyxathid
Most Important Cards Post-Board - Dragon's Claw, Wrench Mind, Inquisition of Kozilek
Cards to Target First - Boros Charm, Monastery Swiftspear, Eidolon of the Great Revel
Cards to Beware Of - Atarka's Command, Skullcrack, Destructive Revelry
Matchup Percentages - They are favored, 60%-40%
I hate this matchup more than any of them, and a lot of the matchup can unfortunately be determined by the opponent's opening seven cards. Even if you hit them with an Inquisition of Kozilek, and they have a combination of two lands & five spells, then you are already in more of an 80%-20% hole because they have clearly 'out-skilled' you with their hand and deck. Burn is INCREDIBLY strong when you do not have main deck life gain, even if you have ways to remove all of their creatures and take their relevant spells, because a lot of times they can simply race you off of the top of the deck. Think of it this way: if you have a Shrieking Affliction online for the rest of the game, every spell in their deck does an equivalent (or greater) amount of damage to you. That feels bad.
It isn't until post-board when there become much better spells available to you. Dragon's Claw is insanely strong against the opponent. Taking a Destructive Revelry out of their hand is also critical. Also, Liliana of the Veil is pretty terrible in this matchup, as the only way she is usually effective in any regard is when your opponent isn't a very competent player and points burn spells and damage at her instead of you out of fear. Terminate is a fine card, but only in draws where your opponent happens to only have one creature. Generally, Pyroclasm is going to hit them much harder, as any chance we can take at hitting a 2-for-1 could be the difference between life and death. A lot of times, you simply have to draw the appropriate answers to your opponent's cards. Turn one Inquisition of Kozilek to take a Monastery Swiftspear or Boros Charm. Turn two playing a discard spell plus a Lightning Bolt on any creature that they have in play. Turn three hitting them with a Wrench Mind or simply slamming a Nyxathid on to the field. Having a Murderous Cut when your opponent plays an Eidolon of the Great Revel. There are ways to win this matchup, but this is a nasty one, and it is very draw-dependent and a lot less skill-dependent. Just make sure that you know all of your outs to each of their cards. Our one advantage is the consistency of their deck, and the fact that it is easy to know what cards we want in specific situations.
Splinter Twin Matchup
Most Important Cards Pre-Board - Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Wrench Mind, Terminate
Most Important Cards Post-Board - Same as Pre-Board
Cards to Target First - Deceiver Exarch, Splinter Twin, Pestermite
Cards to Beware Of - Spellskite, Cryptic Command, Serum Visions
Matchup Percentages - We are favored, 60%-40%
This is a fun matchup, generally speaking, because there is not a single dead draw in our entire deck. However, one thing I will say right off the bat: BEWARE OF CASTING LILIANA OF THE VEIL. She is a very good card and can lock the opponent out of the game, but try not to ever risk slamming Liliana of the Veil when the opponent could possibly be about to draw his combo pieces and/or have drawn them the previous turn. This is the main reason why I have Serum Visions on the list of cards to beware of. Always make sure that you know whether or not the opponent has used the scry to put cards on the top or the bottom. Most of the time, if your opponent casts a Serum Visions later than turn three, they are leaving a combo piece on the top of the library. That is simply how the deck will usually function.
There are a few different versions of Twin to keep in mind. Straight-up UR Twin is the most common, though the Grixis Twin lists are breaking through the woodwork and they have more options than traditional UR Twin. First of all, Kolaghan's Command is a very strong card, and it happens to be able to destroy The Rack (hence why I am slowly moving to Shrieking Affliction). It is much more powerful with the ability for Snapcaster Mage to target it, and any card that allows the opponent to have recursion is a card that we should be wary of in our archetype. Second, they now also have access to Terminate, making our big fatty creatures less powerful inherently if they have active draws to stabilize off the top without needing a two-card combo. Lastly, there are endless pieces of tech for us to worry about. I am still working on whether or not Blood Moon is a viable board-in strategy against the Twin decks, but since they generally know to fetch out basic lands, I am inclined to say no at the moment. Still though, they have a hard time executing their game plan through our disruption. Don't forget to float mana if they try to flash in a creature and tap down your lands! Sometimes, you can just Terminate their creature and it feels quite good for the opponent to essentially lose a turn with all of their instant-speed trickery.
Merfolk Matchup
Most Important Cards Pre-Board - Inquisition of Kozilek, Wrench Mind, Lightning Bolt
Most Important Cards Post-Board - Pyroclasm, Ratchet Bomb, Inquisition of Kozilek
Cards to Target First - Spreading Seas, Silvergill Adept, Master of Waves
Cards to Beware Of - Cursecatcher, Vapor Snag, Mutavault
Matchup Percentages - We are favored, 55%-45%
So this matchup there really isn't a whole lot to say. We do not like cantrips on our opponents, and Spreading Seas can really give us fits, although not to the point where it breaks our game up. Surprisingly, we have enough removal for AEther Vial to not be a very important card of theirs, where it basically sits back and gets kind of wasted in their hand, so that's a huge benefit for us. There are specific removal spells that target all of their creatures, and our fatties out-muscle them. We just need to stop the opponents from cantrips and going around us with large amounts of damage. Our value is much better than theirs and they have a hard time protecting their lords. Master of Waves can be a problem, but we have plenty of ways to answer that card, especially when running four copies of Liliana of the Veil.
This is a strange matchup, as you can get caught by a Cursecatcher, but at the same time, sometimes a Wrench Mind is actually a removal spell. It's a weird one, but so far, it's in our favor. That's what I've got for this one.
Tron Matchup
Most Important Cards Pre-Board - Thoughtseize, Wrench Mind, Blightning
Most Important Cards Post-Board - Thoughtseize, Wrench Mind, Rakdos Charm, Wear & Tear
Cards to Target First - Karn Liberated, Ugin, The Spirit Dragon, Oblivion Stone
Cards to Beware Of - Urza's Tower, Urza's Power Plant, Urza's Mine
Matchup Percentages - They are favored, 60%-40%
The only reason that the Tron matchup is favored is because of the sheer power of their topdecks, assuming that they don't get flooded out of the building. For once, we are the more aggressive deck, but any non-land card off of the top of the deck for Tron presents a problem for us. Oblivion Stone keeps us off of all of our win conditions, their planeswalkers are hard for us to answer, and Ancient Stirrings is difficult for us to handle because of the dig potential. On the bright side, a timely couple of discard spells can keep our opponents from assembling Tron as easily.
Post-sideboard, artifact removal is the only necessary piece that we really have, because we are actually pretty afraid of Oblivion Stone, especially if we are going to be playing as the aggressors. Slamming an early Nyxathid or Gurmag Angler after a piece of disruption puts the Tron player on a solid clock, their Pyroclasm in the main deck will be a dead card against us, and sometimes we can double up damage with a copy of Lavaclaw Reaches or Shrieking Affliction. Obviously though, in this matchup, our creatures are our best shot to win the game. Additionally, it is very hard for us to force our opponents to discard their land cards. We do have Wrench Mind and Blightning, and of course Liliana of the Veil, but it is not as easy as the outs would suggest, as many times the opponent will simply hold on to the cards that we don't want them to have. This is not my favorite matchup, for sure. It is also the quintessential matchup that causes many players to tell us that we can't control our opponent's topdecks. That is, of course, a terrible argument as that is always true of any deck, but it negatively affects our archetype a great deal in this matchup.
Affinity Matchup
Most Important Cards Pre-Board - Lightning Bolt, Terminate, Inquisition of Kozilek
Most Important Cards Post-Board - Pyroclasm, Wear & Tear, Lightning Bolt
Cards to Target First - Cranial Plating, Arcbound Ravager, Etched Champion
Cards to Beware Of - Inkmoth Nexus, Signal Pest, Steel Overseer
Matchup Percentages - We are favored, 60%-40%
This is a solid matchup for our incredibly high amount of disruption and removal. The majority of Affinity players are not going to slam Cranial Plating on to the field on the first turn, and even if they have the Mox Opal draw to do so, Arcbound Ravager or a board state usually hits the battlefield first. This means that our Inquisition of Kozileks and Thoughtseizes have a turn to take away the Cranial Plating and seriously slow down their board state. Obviously, Lightning Bolt is very good in this matchup, as it hits all of their targets. It's also very good against Arcbound Ravager, in the circumstance where we Terminate the Ravager and Lightning Bolt in response to the Modular trigger target. There are a few ways around this deck's gimmicks.
We get considerably stronger after sideboarding, as we have access to a great deal of artifact removal and, more importantly, access to Pyroclasm to really take away their fast start unless they see an Arcbound Ravager. Additionally, there are a few things to watch out for in this matchup. First and foremost, if their one land is Glimmervoid and they don't have any inanimate artifacts, do everything you can to force them to sacrifice their land. This can win you the game in many circumstances. Second, make sure that you don't randomly get killed by an Inkmoth Nexus, as that card can do ridiculous things. Lastly, remember that Steel Overseer is not that strong of a card, as it does not have haste and we play a very high amount of removal. Etched Champion is one of their best cards if we are on the beatdown plan, however, so keep this in mind as they can hold a Gurmag Angler, Nyxathid, or Phyrexian Obliterator at bay. Also, Blood Moon isn't a terrible answer to their animated lands, although we really do have better answers.
Amulet Bloom Matchup
Most Important Cards Pre-Board - Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Terminate
Most Important Cards Post-Board - Blood Moon, Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize
Cards to Target First - Summer Bloom, Amulet of Vigor, Primeval Titan
Cards to Beware Of - Hive Mind, Summoner's Pact, Tolaria West
Matchup Percentages - We are favored, 70%-30%
We are the juggernaut in this matchup, as we can prevent their deck from going off in just about every circumstance, and we can additionally slay their Primeval Titan with Terminate and force the Tolaria West out of their hand. Also, since they play a full 27 lands or greater, it increases the chances of the opponent flooding out off of the top of their deck. We can take any of their Pact cards with an Inquisition of Kozilek as well. Hand disruption is very bad for this deck. We also have access to Blood Moon in the sideboard, which this deck usually cannot beat. In games where we slam a Blood Moon and it resolves, our win percentage goes up to 95%-5%. There's not a whole lot left to say, just know how their combo works, try not to let them get to six mana with a Summer Bloom, and time your Wrench Minds and Blightnings appropriately.
Infect Matchup
Most Important Cards Pre-Board - Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Lightning Bolt
Most Important Cards Post-Board - Same as Pre-Board
Cards to Target First - Glistener Elf, Blighted Agent, Vines of Vastwood
Cards to Beware Of - Apostle's Blessing, Become Immense, Inkmoth Nexus
Matchup Percentages - We are favored, 65%-35%
This is a very fragile combo deck in all reality, and not an aggro deck. Against many decks with either hand disruption or spot removal spells, it can still punch through very easily. Fortunately, we have both hand disruption AND spot removal coming out of our ears, and having a Glistener Elf getting hit by a Lightning Bolt or having a Vines of Vastwood get taken out of hand early is very brutal for the Infect decks. The best way that Infect has to win is with the slow beatdown plan on Inkmoth Nexus, and/or catching us with having to tap out for a Liliana of the Veil as our removal spell for their other creature, then simply unloading on us in one turn. They can still win, we simply have to be cautious about our plays. We also have the ability to upgrade into Pyroclasm out of the sideboard, which is actually incredibly bad for Infect as it takes away one of their avenues to victory.
Make sure to sequence removal spells properly, and do not try to take cards out of the opponents hand if it means you are going to tap out when you could have played a Terminate or a Lightning Bolt. I know this sounds super simple and obvious, but sometimes it is easy to get hungry with an Inquisition of Kozilek only to find out that they are holding a Become Immense, killing you. Also, Spellskite can help the opponent a great deal if it is not removed or taken immediately. Essentially though, for Infect, this matchup must feel for them the way the Burn matchup feels for us. They have to hope we draw dead, have limited-to-no interaction, and that they simply draw the correct cards in the correct circumstances. Most of the time though, this matchup is cake.
=====================================================================
For the time being, those are the matchups that I have tested recently. There are some decks on the rise at the moment, such as Jund and UWx Control, and as these decks begin to place high up at tournaments, as well as any other deck in the format, I can always go back and throw out a matchup guide section. Those two matchups I just named though are very much in our favor, so I'm not particularly worried about it at the moment.
Hopefully this is all useful to some or most of you. If you disagree with any of my assessments or think that I am missing a popular deck archetype, please let me know and I'll try to update this post for a little while, as the metagame seems to be stout at the moment.
Standard: Temur Energy RUG
Pauper: Fireball Black B
Commander: Kaervek the Merciless BR
"Always Bolt the Bird."
First, big ups to Fat_Buddha for his totally boss banner. My jaw dropped upon seeing it and it felt like it was Christmas morning. Wondrous. Thank you.
Smash.....you know you can't stay away The Sirens on the rocks got nothing on Richard Garfield in an armchair in Seattle. Phenomenal write up. I'm going to cut/paste some of that into the match-up section of the primer. You've moved your deck around a little bit, huh? I agree on the drop in faithless looting, and am a bit surprised about liliana's caress. With that in (even though it's a 1-of), it makes me look twice at your lowered count of Blightning. And, what do you think about bringing in a kolaghan's command? I'd see you drop that rakdos charm in your 75 for it, and make some room for a nihil spellbomb. I was surprised that you feel that Delver Blitzkrieg is strong against Affinity. That deck is so yoinky, that it's hard to get a feel for the matchup. Sometimes they nut, and sometimes they crash. So, getting a good baseline reading is tough. I don't run into it all that much in my cockatrice testing, so I don't know how I'm matching up. Again, Epic write-up.
Yeah, avaricious dragon is a bit of reach as we don't get hellbent all that much and a lot of our spells (removal) are reactive, so that flameblaster is prob better suited for a burn style deck. Isochron is lacking on targets when it's instant only. Sloprooster, love the name, you got a midrange rakdos deck there, my man - without wrench mind, blightning, nyx, gurmag or obliterator, I just don't see that as a blitzkrieg deck. And, acc95......dark confidant. Really. Do we have to say it. You so cray-cray
Lastly, I did some adjustments to the primer. I did remove the 'bridge too far' theme, and mentions of ensnaring bridge. There wasn't a whole lot of action in that arena, and I wasn't hearing winning tournament reports. It was there in the beginning as we were figuring out which way this new archetype was going to go...it just seems like the Panzer version (at this time) is winning out.
Calling it "Delver Blitzkrieg" is a little bit misleading. I'm thinking we just go with Angler Blitzkrieg, or something like that. Also, a quick note, there's a good chance that I'm going to have to drop the fish if graveyard hate picks up and go back up to four Nyxathid.
As for Avaricious Dragon, I don't want to quell any thoughts of positive thinking, but...even with Ensnaring Bridge, it's just a 4/4 that is never attacking, because we have Ensnaring Bridge in play. It's a huge non-bo, in a way that will not actually advance your position in the game. It's actually not awful without Ensnaring Bridge, but then you can't hold up removal pieces. I think that card is very good and has a home somewhere, but I honestly don't think it's here.
As for Affinity, you're right in your assessment, but statistically speaking, they won't nut draw in a way that negatively affects our deck very frequently. A lot of that matchup comes down to getting rid of Cranial Plating.
I like that you removed the Ensnaring Bridge piece. Leave that to the Monoblack Eight Rack boys, that's always been more for them anyway.
Lastly, that banner is amazing. I'm a huge fan.
Standard: Temur Energy RUG
Pauper: Fireball Black B
Commander: Kaervek the Merciless BR
"Always Bolt the Bird."
Frontier: UBR Grixis Control | BRG Jund Delirium
Modern: 8 Rack(nice hand you have there, it'd be a shame if...)
Casual: All Hail Kruphix(Simic Ramp)
Gruul Werewolves
Mono Green Spider Tribal
Surprisingly, I'm actually on your side. If I had written that up a month ago, the matchup would have been 75%-25% in their favor, as it seemed I just couldn't catch a break. Really, it was the two main deck Nyxathid and the sideboard change to Dragon's Claw that really gave us the much more favorable outs in the matchup.
Statistically speaking, however, there are only five creatures in my main deck (10 total win conditions with Rack effects and Caress), and the creatures are the best way to win. Having only five in the deck, there are plenty of Game 1 matches where I will not see a creature in the first three turns, which is really the clock necessary to beat the Burn matchup in the first game. Like you said...as long as you draw them.
The reason that I don't put the matchup at 50-50 is because of their topdeck consistency. There are no noncreature spells in the deck that do less than three damage.
The card I am heavily considering at the moment is Sanctimony. Technically, every land in their deck is a Mountain. Mathematically, it would get dropped on the same turn as Dragon's Claw, and it would gain a minimum of one life per spell cast. It has the potential to gain even more life. I theorize that in the majority of cases, sacrificing gaining one life per our red spells is worth sacrificing if we are putting our opponent in a bind every time they cast a two-CMC spell. The catch is that a fetch land would be necessary to get the White mana.
Standard: Temur Energy RUG
Pauper: Fireball Black B
Commander: Kaervek the Merciless BR
"Always Bolt the Bird."
@smashpacman: you can also race them with your own lightning bolts and with blightnings too. Once you stick a beater they can't deal with it, save for Path to Exile, which is being played recently as a 2of over there. I believe it's 45-55 pre and 70-30 post. Pharika's Cure and Dragon's Claw help a lot but they can still win by drawing the right cards, but that's beyond me. That deck is designed to do that, so I don't mind winning 2-1 every time. Although 2-0 is quite possible ^^
Note: I do run 12 creatures MD so I've got that going for me. Also, why 2 Blightnings??
Sanctimony is just awful anytime I face it, so I imagine it'd be the same for them. Although the Destructive Revelry that deals with your Claw can also deal with it, so the color fixing actually helps them. Going Mardu, Lightning Helix 2-1s them given they tap out and can't cast Skullcrack or ACommand.
Frontier: UBR Grixis Control | BRG Jund Delirium
I had trimmed down to two copies of Blightning during my last test phase because the card was showing up too frequently in situations where I did not have time to cast a 3-CMC spell (mainly against Burn, Twin, and Affinity). I put the Nyxathids back main deck at that time as well, so the 3-CMC slot was a bit jammed up. I'm actually at the moment, very surprisingly, considering trimming down to 3 Liliana of the Veil to get my 3rd Blightning back.
Standard: Temur Energy RUG
Pauper: Fireball Black B
Commander: Kaervek the Merciless BR
"Always Bolt the Bird."
I appreciate the analysis guys, and thanks for being civil lol, not something this deck's past has really had (original thread). I am surprised people think Avaricious Dragon is so bad. I mean, Grafted Skullcap + Ensnaring Bridge used to be a thing. It makes me think skullcap on a stick can be too. And a good stick at that. I don't agree with this notion of "non-bo" as you still get an extra card per turn. If they can't kill bridge you card advantage them out hard. If they do, you have the beater. But I definitely can see the issue with not being able to hold up removal. This card reminds me of how people evaluated Ensoul Artifact. People imagined how horrifying the worst case scenario was and wrote it off. ZOMG 2 for 1 this card sucks. Wrong lol. Yea if the dragon gets killed in response to the discard trigger and you lose your hand that does suck. But that isn't the average case. I still think the dragon warrants testing. I haven't played the red-splash much so I'm not going to pretend I know the deck super well and how it operates, but I do want to put out there that the power level on this card is high. Many a people initially thought Kolaghan's Command was hot garbage. Check the original 8-Rack thread, you'll see many a misevaluation. Don't write the dragon off because it says "discard your hand." All I am asking is that we give it a fair chance before it is tossed aside completely. Anyways, I'm going to come up with a list, I'll post it at some point soon. But I certainly wouldn't run the card without the Ensnaring Bridge, and this deck seems to have gone away from bridge like smashpacman said, so maybe I shouldn't have posted this here. I posted here because I thought it more appropriate than in the mono-black thread. Regardless, I'll test and keep you guys informed, even if most of y'all run 0 bridges!
@Berk4823 - A large part of me not wanting to test Avaricious Dragon is honestly because I do not run four drop cards anywhere in my deck. The only card that I have that requires four mana is also a mana source itself (Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace). I am also opposed to testing it with Ensnaring Bridge because I feel that a lot of players right now are looking at the card the wrong way. Having cards that require one piece of a two-card semi-combo are usually not good enough to be top tier, however, Avaricious Dragon might simply be good enough on its own for this deck. Having a 4/4 Flying creature that doubles up as a one-sided Howling Mine when both players are in topdeck mode could be very powerful for the deck, and wouldn't need Ensnaring Bridge to be this effective. It would simply need the right situation. I agree that it warrants testing, but I do not agree that it warrants testing with Ensnaring Bridge, which is a card that I hope we can move away from as an archetype now that it is easily answered by the majority of (if not all) decks.
Standard: Temur Energy RUG
Pauper: Fireball Black B
Commander: Kaervek the Merciless BR
"Always Bolt the Bird."
All fair points. I can tell you see the power in the card, and I have no qualms with you wanting to avoid 4 drops. I also have no issues with the deck moving away from Ensnaring Bridge. I just thought it was better placed raising the dragon here than in the mono-black thread. I'm not sure I wholly agree on Bridge being answered by a majority of decks, but it certainly isn't in a wonderful place either. (did you see the Lantern Control deck in GP Charlotte top 16 that ran 4x Bridge? What a whack deck lol!) A lot of sideboards are shifting away from artifact hate, but there is also more mainboard hate a la Kolaghan's Command. Regardless, I do agree with you in that I don't love Bridge in the meta nor in your most recent list for this deck. I just wanted to get discussion rolling on Avaricious Dragon, and I am glad to see cogent arguments made against it and not just "zomg respond to the discard my hand trigger blowout," and in a civil manner. I still plan to try it, and I'll update on it if people are interested!
Always interested, please keep as much updating coming as you test cards. That is how we will breed success.
Real quick though, I'm going to run down answers to Ensnaring Bridge at the moment. I'm doing this assuming that we are at 1 or less cards, due to keeping opponents at bay. If we have more in hand, then it is useless anyway.
Twin - Bounce it with Cryptic Command, proceed to go off.
Affinity - Swing with any 0 power creature, attach Cranial Plating at instant speed
Amulet Bloom - Literally ignore the card with Hive Mind
Burn - Literally ignore the card with 70% of the deck's spells
Elves - Swing with a Devoted Druid under the bridge, and pump with Ezuri infinitely
Abzan Co-Co - Abrupt Decay the bridge
Abzan Midrange - Abrupt Decay the bridge
Zoo - Qasali Pridemage the bridge
Jund - Abrupt Decay or Maelstrom Pulse the bridge
Grixis Control/Midrange/Delver - Kolaghan's Command the bridge
It took a lot of us awhile to realize, but Ensnaring Bridge is borderline unplayable at the moment in any deck that cannot control the topdecks of the opponent. Lantern Control, while hilarious and innovative, is certainly an outlier and exception to the general rule.
Standard: Temur Energy RUG
Pauper: Fireball Black B
Commander: Kaervek the Merciless BR
"Always Bolt the Bird."
Especially as the usual targets for the actual killspells are bigger things like opposing Anglers or Tasigur.
Or Bile Blight or something along those line, could be nice if you're often up against things like Delver or perhaps elves or B/W tokens and other similar shenanigans. ^^
If you want a 1 mana option you could just put in another bolt or Disfigure, to have the combat utility of the -x/-x spells.
Standard infinite combos giving you a headache and the opponent always has Force of Will?
No matter the issue, there is one simple trick to solve all of your Magic problems!!
~~~To get in on the secret to eternal luck, skill and victory, just follow this link!!~~~
Frontier: UBR Grixis Control | BRG Jund Delirium
Modern: 8 Rack(nice hand you have there, it'd be a shame if...)
Casual: All Hail Kruphix(Simic Ramp)
Gruul Werewolves
Mono Green Spider Tribal
Frontier: UBR Grixis Control | BRG Jund Delirium
Oh, and the 8 Rack thread seeeeems to have changed its tune on being mono-black, so there is room to explore bridge variants of a rakdos identity over there. quick aside: this deck did not, as someone mentioned, grow out of the 8 rack thread. The original version was mentioned there, discussed there, and then I brought the conversation here with Pete Casella, smashpacman. But, it could have been initially discussed in any number of mid-range discard/disruption/beater forums.
Avaricious Dragon has some appeal to me since I was trying to make Outpost Siege work for a while - as well as Chandra, Pyromaster. This was all in an effort to boost the card draw. Indeed, the dragon might very well work. It has the 2-for-1 paradigm that I relentlessly seek in my Blitzkrieg builds: 4/4 flyer and personal Howling Mine. Truthfully, he may even be better than Siege and Chandra. Think hard about where your hand is when you hit your fourth mana. Are you hellbent or sitting with just one card in hand? If that card is so important, why not cast it and then put out the dragon next turn? I run 23 land, so that's enough to cast the bugger. I'm giving it a fair shake here, but the potential to lose my own hand is too precarious.
As for Dragonlord Kolaghan, it's just too pricey. I struggle to keep Batterskull in (as well as my consume the meek in the sideboard). I can't see going to 6 mana, for now. If I went for a 6 casting cost creature it needs to come in with an "immediate board state changing effect". Depending on what I'm facing, I'd even consider a Massacre Wurm.
As opposed to the draw power of avaricious, I prefer a more immediate card influx. I've added (2) Sign in Blood to my deck. I had a night's whisper and an infernal tutor, but these have swapped in. I think a one-shot 2 point necropotence is gonna work out well. Again, it follows the 2-for-1 formula. It's early, inexpensive on life, and I can use them as a shock to kill an opponent. I also decided that 2 Shrieking Affliction was a little low (i tolerated that number when I could tutor for one). So, I bumped that up and lost my main deck nyxathid.
Modern: 8 Rack(nice hand you have there, it'd be a shame if...)
Casual: All Hail Kruphix(Simic Ramp)
Gruul Werewolves
Mono Green Spider Tribal