I haven't played Modern yet, but I really like the look of your list, johhnyscottish. I had been looking for such a deck to play and I think I'm going to use that list as a base for my own deck. I hope you don't mind too much.
Declaration in Stone hits tokens your opponents control and doesn't give them clues. ;-) it gives us a way to clear token (no matter the size or type). Compare that to EE which hits our things as well. With the potential for Thopter Tokens to be running around everywhere, it gives us a way to clear them for minimal cost.
Good point about not giving Clues for tokens, I overlooked that. Still, I think I'll stick with EE so I can hit, say: Ravager, Overseer, Skirge, and Plating all at once; take care of the Bogle or at least several of its enchantments; uncounterably destroy Glistener Elves and Hierarchs at one blow; or wipe out multiple Merfolk lords, Silvergill Adept, and Spreading Seas. I'll get opponent's tokens just as fast using EE and I play around my other board wipes regularly so I'm not too worried about hitting Spirits or Scions. Just my $.02.
Declaration in Stone hits tokens your opponents control and doesn't give them clues. ;-) it gives us a way to clear token (no matter the size or type). Compare that to EE which hits our things as well. With the potential for Thopter Tokens to be running around everywhere, it gives us a way to clear them for minimal cost.
Good point about not giving Clues for tokens, I overlooked that. Still, I think I'll stick with EE so I can hit, say: Ravager, Overseer, Skirge, and Plating all at once; take care of the Bogle or at least several of its enchantments; uncounterably destroy Glistener Elves and Hierarchs at one blow; or wipe out multiple Merfolk lords, Silvergill Adept, and Spreading Seas. I'll get opponent's tokens just as fast using EE and I play around my other board wipes regularly so I'm not too worried about hitting Spirits or Scions. Just my $.02.
I agree with you that EE still has a place but it is another option if we should need it. I was reading an article about Archangel Avacyn and it reminded me that we can actually trigger her flip pretty easily and without going out of our way. (We just need to sacrifice a Scion token to do so). I'm not 100% convinced but she could be pretty good out of the SB in some matchups.
I'm not convinced that blight herder is necessary anymore as the extra scion mana is no longer required for eye of ugin into ulamog tutors. As mentioned we're probably better off sticking to reality smashers at the top end and playing more lower drops such as matter reshaper which gains us CA or ramp into TKS/RS.
Creature suite could look something like this:
4x wasteland strangler
4x matter reshaper
4x TKS
4x Reality smasher.
? Tidehollow sculler depending on mana build but I'd rather maindeck surgical extraction to help fuel strangler.
I played some games yesterday against mardu deck with my previously posted list. While i won 75-25 pre-sideboard the deck felt somewhat klunky and I stalled on 3-4 mana most games and coulnt cast blight herder/smasher. So I think you might be on to something. Maybe blight herder and sorin could be "win more" cards and its better to focus on building up an early game. I really like matter reshaper as it could help you with setting up your mana.
The pros of blight herder thought, is that it helps with processing if ancestral visions becomes a thing. It also gives you maindeck options to ignore a blood moon and just sac a token to get a TKS or Smasher into play - which are kinda nice that you dont have to waste removal on blood moon that are otherwise an autolose in the eldrazi deck (of old - at least my G&R version had 2 basics and 2-4 sideboard cards against it but that wasnt good enough to fight though counters etc).
I also dont like tidehollow sculler as its hard on the mana.
I am not the biggest fan of tidehollow sculler either since it is horrible against aggro decks, feeds 'goyf twice, and kolaghan's command. If you do play him, I would cut all of the ghost quarters and put in marsh flats.
Taking all advice. I think the sideboard needs the most improvement.
Nice work on the 3-1! How was expedition map working for you? I don't think that it is that great in this deck since it will hog our turn 1 and turn 2 plays when we could be playing relic, iok, shambling vent, or thoughtseize.
I have noticed that recent lists are running 24 lands as opposed to the previous 25. Given what I have I am considering tweaking my mana base with the following changes:
-2 GQ
-1 marsh flats
-1 urborg
+1 reality smasher
+1 godless shrine
+1 Wastes
+1 westvale abby
I love that the BW Processor is back. Anybody have success with BW Processor with Displacer? (I can test it when I get mine in the mail) I feel like it is spicy with Wasteland Strangler or Thought-Knot Seer.
Taking all advice. I think the sideboard needs the most improvement.
Nice work on the 3-1! How was expedition map working for you? I don't think that it is that great in this deck since it will hog our turn 1 and turn 2 plays when we could be playing relic, iok, shambling vent, or thoughtseize.
Expedition map was actually handy in a couple matchups. Vs Infect and Affinity I was able to tutor up a ghost quarter and kill an Inkmoth Nexus. Also vs Affinity, they had me down to 1, but I was able to stabilize with lingering souls tokens (his signal pest wasnt unblockable anymore) and tutored up a Vault to get my life total back up. Got me out of range from a galvanic blast. And being able to tutor up Abbey is nice vs board wipes, just sac my board in response. Didnt actually get around to using it, but it was an additional threat my opponent needed to be concerned about. I imagine it would be great against matchups without path.
Taking all advice. I think the sideboard needs the most improvement.
Nice work on the 3-1! How was expedition map working for you? I don't think that it is that great in this deck since it will hog our turn 1 and turn 2 plays when we could be playing relic, iok, shambling vent, or thoughtseize.
Expedition map was actually handy in a couple matchups. Vs Infect and Affinity I was able to tutor up a ghost quarter and kill an Inkmoth Nexus. Also vs Affinity, they had me down to 1, but I was able to stabilize with lingering souls tokens (his signal pest wasnt unblockable anymore) and tutored up a Vault to get my life total back up. Got me out of range from a galvanic blast. And being able to tutor up Abbey is nice vs board wipes, just sac my board in response. Didnt actually get around to using it, but it was an additional threat my opponent needed to be concerned about. I imagine it would be great against matchups without path.
Ahh yes. If you are running a bunch of utility lands (ghost quarter, vault, westvale) I can see that it is useful.
I love that the BW Processor is back. Anybody have success with BW Processor with Displacer? (I can test it when I get mine in the mail) I feel like it is spicy with Wasteland Strangler or Thought-Knot Seer.
I've been running displacer as a 1-of, it's good w/ strangler, TKS, sculler and locking down opponent's attackers in the late game. The rest of the time it is an early body against aggro or eats a bolt. All in all I don't think it's an integral part of the deck and is probably replaceable w/ something else, but it's been good to great for me enough games that I like having 1. Basically worst case you get an early blocker, best case from turn 5 on you use it and a sculler to lock down their drawstep for the rest of the game.
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My Decks:
UG Merfolk RG 8-Whack BWG Abzan midrange GRB Living End UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin" RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!" BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
I was running sorin, solemn visitor and batterskull as 1 of's before the ban, and I must say they were quite good. Batterskull is a nasty surprise against many control decks. I still think they fit into post ban shells, unless maybe they need to be taken out to open up slots.
Hey guys I have 2 Tournament Results to post for yall. Man I am so happy to be back playing processors again. (The fact I sold out for max profit the weeks of the GPs and just bought back in for a fraction of that profit really rustles my jimmies). Anyway, here is my current decklist:
I have some thoughts on changes to the overall decklist/sideboard that I'll get to after both tournament results and reflections:
FNM Modern (51 people):
Round 1 Jeskai Control(2-0)[1-0]: Yay for folks overzealously trying to jam 4x Ancestral Visions into everything they can! Game 1 I cracked Map to get Cavern of Souls and Strangled AV killing one of my Abbey tokens. I knew he had double bolt in hand (which Strangler swiftly ate) but I'll take that 2 for 1 all day. I then made 1/1 Clerics with Westvaleblossum and slowly beat him to death (I had a nifty play where he attempted to Helix 1 of my 4 dudes, I path my own guy. He remands his helix and attempts to helix another dude. I use my 2nd path... he was at 2. GG. Game 2 I used T1 and 2 discard to rip his Path and Leak. T3 I play TKS and exile his boardwipe. T4 I drop Reality Smasher and start wrecking face. He couldn't come up with answers fast enough.
Round 2 Junk (1-2)[1-1]: These games were fairly even all things considered but my opponent topdecked a LOT better than I did by drawing multiple Rhinos in a row while I drew lands. Oh well, these things happen. Still a good matchup overall for us though. Take the licks where they come I suppose. On the plus side. His goyfs were the cutest 0/1's you'd have ever seen.
Round 3 Jund (2-0)[2-1]: Absolutely out-valued and annihilated this poor sap. He hadn't ever played against the processor Eldrazi before either. Game 2 I forced out 2 Blight Herders and then sacrificed 5 of the scion tokens for Ormendahl. Turns out that Jund has 0 answers to a 9/7 flying lifelink indestructible dude when you still have a Herder and a Scion token for Liliana protection and they are in topdeck mode (I knew this and that is why I flipped him).
Round 4 Mono-red Prowess Pumps (1-2)[2-2]: Quick fast aggro plan with Titan Strength on Swiftspears followed by Temur Battle Rages. Game 3 I couldn't find spot removal and he topdecked a well-timed Blood Moon to finish me off (had he not topdecked it, I had Sorin coming down with 3 tokens I had just gotten from Timely Reinforcements). Oh well, take your licks where they be.
Overall tournament thoughts: Lots of control and GBx running around. It felt really really good. Seeing the first guys reaction as he realized he was playing against Eldrazi despite the ban (and then essentially having 4 dead cards in his 75) felt really good. My sideboard was kind of just thrown together from what I had in my binder and such (and based on what I remember from before) so of course that could use some tweaking. Overall the MB felt pretty solid. Still not totally sure on Matter Reshaper but I barely saw him this tournament so it was hard to judge.
Sunday Modern (30ish people):
Round 1 Jund (2-1)[1-0]: This matchup is still really in our favor. I just ground out advantage, made goyfs effectively useless and slowly beat him down with excess value and dudes. I made a mistake in game 2 with threat evaluation that ended up costing me the game. (I used Anguished Unmaking on a Liliana of the Veil who was at 6 in case he topdecked an answer for my Leyline of Sanctity. I should have just used it on the Kalitas. Oh well, getting my legs back underneath me as I get used to the deck again.. it'll happen and clearly it was a hindsight mistake.)
Round 2 UW Control (0-2)[1-1]: Man both of these games were super close but I couldn't find answers either game. Game 1 was due to Collonade and 0 GQs or Maps finding their way to my hand and game 2 was Elspeth, Sun's Champion who he had in opening hand but I was unable to find either TS or Unmaking to get rid of it. I also got pretty flooded both games.
Round 3 Bant Exalted Hexproof (2-1)[2-1]: I should clarify this guys brew as he is a regular and his deck is pretty good. Essentially his goal is to T1 Heirarch, T2 Geist/Mirrian Crusader, T3 Angelic Destiny and crash in for a bazillion damage. He has cryptics, AV and such for card advantage late, not to mention all of his threats hit really hard (especially with Angelic Destiny). Game 1 I IOK his only threat but he topdecked a Mirrian Crusader. I was able to play defense for a little while but eventually ran out of Lingering Souls tokens and drew into jank. Game 2 I probably shouldn't have won. I missed several land drops after turn 3 but I kept finding Path to Exile and Anguished Unmakings. I ground him out of threats and then TKS+Reality Smasher closed the game out quickly. Game 3 had another TFB (Total F'n Blowout) play. He leads off with Hierarch into Qasali Pridemage, swing for 2. Next turn he played another Heirarch and swung for 5 with Pridemage (ow). I played out a Timely to jump back to 19 and get 3 chump blockers. I had actual answers in hand but I wanted to see if I could get him to over extend either with Angelic Destiny on the pridemage so I could path it or with one of his other 3 CMC wincons. I made a slight mistake that my opponent didn't capitalize on. When I cast Timely I was at 13 and he was at 14. I forgot he had a Horizon Canopy. He failed to realize that if he pays 1 life to float mana, I don't gain the 6 life. Luckily he missed it and I jumped way ahead. Anyway he did overextend by dropping a Mirrian Crusader. I chump and then swing in for 1 and cast Flaying Tendrils to clear the board into exile and leave him with only a couple cards in hand. I then drop a Blight Herder and he can't stop the 7 damage over 2 turns for lethal.
Round 4 Jeskai Control (2-0)[3-1]: Back in the driver's seat against control where we should be. Pretty straight forward game. Saw he had cryptics with early discard. Let him keep them and dropped threats underneath/through Cavern. Forced him to use them to tap the team and draw a card and only get 1 use out of them. Had a great play game 2. He dropped an early Stoney Silence (I used excess mana on one of my turns to play my relic anyway). We get to the stage where I have lethal on board and he plays snapcaster and targets the Cryptic. Response to the target, I use Anguished Unmaking on the Stoney Silence and blow Relic. Total blowout play. He then flashed in a Clique which I pathed, prompting him to scoop.
Tournament thoughts: Another one entrenched with UWx Control EVERYWHERE as is GBx. So far that is an amazingly good sign. Based on the pilot and variant of UWx I think we are ~50:50 overall. Planeswalkers are a bit annoying to deal with as per usual but we can play around their counter magic and spot removal. They do have board wipes so we have to be careful not to over-extend. GBx is still a good matchup even if it's not the blowout it was before (when you could curve into T5 Newlamog and feast on their tears). As we get more and more used to the meta, the SB will be more finely tuned.
Overall decklist thoughts: So while I am still not sold on Matter Reshaper. He did hit the board several times during the 2nd tournament and every single time he died he netted me a land. I like that because it is a land I wasn't drawing later and in one instance, it caught me up on a land drop I had missed. Don't know if that is worth it overall in the list and if so.. how many slots. I also am not totally sold on 2x Seagate Wreckage but it did do some work in those grindy control matchups. I will probably cut to 1 and move my Cavern of Souls up to 2x. It causes major fits for all those control decks and I'd like to see it more often. Sideboard wise, I definitely never really needed the Cages (and honestly when I put them in there, totally forgot we use Lingering Souls) so they'll likely come out for something different. Currently I am leaning towards 2 more Thoughtseizes to help with those control matchups even more. I am also considering adding more lifelink sources like Batterskull or Whip of Erebos to the list. I was running 1x each before I sold out and they were both very very good (whipping back TKS and Reality Smasher is so dirty it feels really good).
Anyway, I think the control kick will wear down a bit over the next couple of weeks as people move on from AV and Thopter Sword (which I saw around a bit but nowhere near the level of AV and GBx). Still, if the meta stays like this, I'll be very happy and this deck will do alright for itself. All but 1 of my 8 rounds was against interactive decks and while not every game was interactive (due to blowouts on occassion when you curve Discard->TKS->Reality Smasher and they have 0 answers left), there were lots of fun grindy matchups.
As always, I'm interested in yalls thoughts and opinions on the decklists as well as your own tournament results. (I still have yet to live the dream and process a Visions and kill a Jace, VP... so much value).
I went 2-1-1 tonight in a field of 43. The decklist as played is in my sig for reference.
2-1 vs. Affinity: Lost game 1 to his fast start and multiple Ravagers despite IoK'ing an Overseer T1, and Thoughtseizing a Ravager T2. In G2 I pulled Stony around T3-4 after keeping a hand with 2x Souls. In G3 I had an opener with 2x Souls AND a Stony Silence. Stony Silence + Lingering Souls = GG for Affinity.
2-1 vs. Living End: Lost game 1 on the draw to his fast mob. Twice now I have tried keeping hands of 7 on the draw vs. Living End, discarding creatures straight into my own yard by not playing any cards on my turn. Not so sure this actually works, but in the absence of at least one Relic on board, it is near-impossible to beat this deck. And at least our creatures compete with LE's for size. In G2 I kept a hand with a Surgical Extraction and a Relic, and then drew Relic #2 on T2. Easily controlled his yard for the win. In G3 on the draw I kept another Relic/Extraction opener and then drew Thoughtseize. I luckily Seized his in-hand Living End off a Godless Shrine, and then Extracted it: I went to 14 life first turn, but boy was it worth it. He had no game after that.
1-1-1 vs. a Jund-colors Blood Moon/aggro homebrew: This guy and his deck were pretty good and blew me out last week, but this week I was more prepared for what he was going to try to do to me. In G1 I kept an opener with a fetch, a Shrine, and a GQ; I fetched a Swamp for Thoughtseize and seized his Blood Moon in his opener. Then his second Moon made me fetch a Plains off my own Ghost Quarter. I was eventually able to Herder for tokens into Smasher FTW. Go-go-Gadget Scion mana! In G2 I got out-valued by his Goyfs with double Hierarch Exalted triggers; Coursers of Kruphix; and Goblin Dark Dwellers. G3 was short, and I Extracted his Blood Moons on T2 off another Thoughtseize, but then failed to draw gas. His board state was looking better than mine when we ran out of time in rounds.
0-2 vs. Kiki Chord: The only GY hate I drew into the whole of game 1 was my single maindeck Extraction: I managed to get his Restos, but I ended up needing to process them to get a Herder on the field to chump his swarm of creatures. Then he got one of the angels back with Witness (Relic, where were you?!) and combo'ed off for the win. In G2 I had to mull to 4, but managed to make a game of it before his huge card advantage sealed the deal. It behooves me to pay attention to exactly how much mana these decks are sitting on: With their lands, Walls of Roots, Birds, Hierarchs, and Convoke casting costs, it's easy to overlook how much mana they actually have available.
Thoughts: Maindeck graveyard hate and exilers are very good against Kiki Chord and Abzan CoCo, but in both cases those decks have a very strong plan A and plan B. These double-headed combo/aggro match ups are pretty challenging and make me want more sweepers alongside my graveyard hate. I am thinking about changing my board: Right now I have 2x Ratchet Bomb for Ensnaring Bridge and Blood Moon, as well as for 0-2 CMC permanents in general, but Flaying Tendrils would have served me much better tonight. It's always hard to find enough answers in 75 cards.
In lots of testing, both paper and online, I continue to find reliable success against control decks of all kinds, Infect, Affinity, and other midrange builds. The Thoughtseize --> Extraction plan is bonkers against combo decks... when I can put the pieces together. Fast aggro in general is very tough. Sometimes Path and/or Anguished Unmaking work against me when I want to Extract a key part of the opponent's game plan; all of a sudden I need three cards, because after Unmaking a card, I can't Extract it unless I first Process it. Surgical Extraction in general continues to put in a TON of work for me in this build, however, and right now I can't see going below the full playset in the 75.
I really like the Batterskull idea and right now I am considering what I might cut for it. I think it has to be a big Eldrazi, but I'm not sure whether to go with TKS, Smasher, or Herder. I think Herder is the weakest, but maybe TKS because of how often it dies on ETB having only exiled one target card, making that all the value I get from it.
Great play report, thanks! One big question, though: Can you actually make your B and W spells work reliably with that mana base? Your colored mana counts seem extremely low to me, at only 8 of either on T1, and then 10 of either on T2-plus. Seems precarious. (Seventeen colorless sources certainly guarantees your Reshapers, Seers, and Smashers will find a way to play, though!) I guess the 2-of Maps help quite a bit, but I wonder if the mana balance is as good as it could get. I have 11 T1 B, and on T2 I have 14 B and 13 each of W and C.
Since you're running the Maps anyway, have you considered maybe dropping one each of Sea Gate Wreckage and Westvale Abbey for a pair of Marsh Flats? I know you don't like the fetches but I don't know why. Curious to hear your thoughts.
Sideboard 3 Leyline of sanctity 3 Stony Silence 2 celestial purge [Im in favour of this over disenchant due to eventual zombiedeck/hitting most planeswalkers that are played (sorin, chandra, tezzeret, lilöiana), thopter foundry, blood moon, most of junds, burns creatures, some of blue moons creatures, really wreckes mardu (if sin prodder is a thing)] 1 Disenchant 1 engineered explosives 1 Wrath of god [dont own damnation, but I think white is a better sideboard colour for this deck, unless you want more creature removal from flaying tendrils or play kalitas etc] 1 spellskite 1 kataki, war's wage [affinity and lantern hate, stalls thopter deck] 1 Relic of progenitus [will be replaced with rest in peace when they arrive] 1 grafdigger's cage [will be replaced with rest in peace when they arrive]
This gives me:
W: 14½ - I really want to be able to cast my sideboard cards in time
B: 12½ - I think we can hold our black spells for a while under a blood moon without too much problem in favour of finding white easier.
C: 12
[optional] You could cut 1 Ghost quarter for a Westvale abbey (dont own one and havnt been able to do any testing)/Sea gate wreckage(Im not sold on it, too often with this deck you get stuck with cards in hand untill the game is over on turn <=6)/cavern of souls (dont own one, but should really be played)
I like the SB and will likely move to something similar to it soon.
I agree that Sea Gate is a bit useless at times but in the games where it is good (vs control when you are top decking) you can churn CA and without Eye, we need to be able to draw into multiple threats. If you'd rather have a constant source, Mikoro, Center of the Sea is fine but you have to trust that your draws will be better than theirs. Definitely going to go down to a 1x Sea Gate though. Westvale Abbey is and has been amazing so far. I highly recommend trying it out.
Personally I am not very scared of Blood Moon. From what I have seen of my meta, most folks have moved away from it because folks a.) aren't playing Tron or Eldrazi, b.) Are playing a greedy manabase themselves or c.) playing a UWx control variant and either don't want to or can't play it.
Great play report, thanks! One big question, though: Can you actually make your B and W spells work reliably with that mana base? Your colored mana counts seem extremely low to me, at only 8 of either on T1, and then 10 of either on T2-plus. Seems precarious. (Seventeen colorless sources certainly guarantees your Reshapers, Seers, and Smashers will find a way to play, though!) I guess the 2-of Maps help quite a bit, but I wonder if the mana balance is as good as it could get. I have 11 T1 B, and on T2 I have 14 B and 13 each of W and C.
Since you're running the Maps anyway, have you considered maybe dropping one each of Sea Gate Wreckage and Westvale Abbey for a pair of Marsh Flats? I know you don't like the fetches but I don't know why. Curious to hear your thoughts.
I haven't had any problems so far and this is about the landbase I used when I went to Regionals with the list a while back. Marsh Flats might not be a bad idea but what do we really have that us WW or BB? Currently it's just Damnation or Wrath out of the board if you have them (not really counting Leyline because you'd rather it be free). I don't have any Marsh Flats currently but honestly my thing with fetches is that they have never felt necessary and many times felt like a hinderance. With the introduction of <C> into the costs, Cave of Koilos does everything I want and usually it's cheaper on average in life cost. Fetch->Shock->TS is 5 life, Fetch->Swamp->TS is still 3, Fetch->Swamp->IOK is 1, Fetch->Shock->IOK is 3. Compare it to Cave->TS is 3 and Cave->IOK is 1. Not having fetches also lets me run a couple more utility lands like Bojuka Bog, Cavern, Sea-gate Wreckage and Westvale. There is a common misconception that fetching thins your deck. It does but at such a minute level it takes ~20 draws to experience the difference.
I will probably drop a Sea Gate because of my experience this weekend with it (I really think I only need 1 in the list) but Westvale was very good even if it was just another threat. Almost all of my games went long enough that I could make dudes with it if I had it or wanted it. Map was also key in several matches getting me Cavern and a Bojuka Bog once to shrink a goyf from 5/6 to 3/4 and force my opponent into a bad chump block.
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WBC Eldrazi & Taxes CBW
UR Keep on Cantripin' (UR Phoenix) RU
WU Surprise! It's not UW Control! (UW Midrange) UW
BG The Rock, Straight BG
U Mono-Blue Fish U
RBW Mardu Pyromancer BWR
RG Rabble! Rabble! (GR Blood Moon Aggro) GR
Legacy
W Death & Taxes W
I agree with you that EE still has a place but it is another option if we should need it. I was reading an article about Archangel Avacyn and it reminded me that we can actually trigger her flip pretty easily and without going out of our way. (We just need to sacrifice a Scion token to do so). I'm not 100% convinced but she could be pretty good out of the SB in some matchups.
Creature suite could look something like this:
4x wasteland strangler
4x matter reshaper
4x TKS
4x Reality smasher.
? Tidehollow sculler depending on mana build but I'd rather maindeck surgical extraction to help fuel strangler.
4 Reality Smasher
4 Thought-Knot Seer
1 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Ghost Quarter
2 Godless Shrine
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Path to Exile
4 Lingering Souls
2 Dismember
1 Wastes
3 Matter Reshaper
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Blight Herder
3 Wasteland Strangler
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
3 Marsh Flats
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
SB: 2 Stony Silence
SB: 2 Disenchant
SB: 1 Flaying Tendrils
SB: 3 Timely Reinforcements
SB: 1 Damnation
SB: 2 Warping Wail
SB: 1 All Is Dust
SB: 1 Spellskite
SB: 2 Ratchet Bomb
Thopter Foundry makes Blue Thopter Tokens. All is Dust is still probably too expensive, but it does hit Thopters from Foundry.
Try out a few main deck mind stone to help you ramp towards blight herder and counteract blood moon.
I am not the biggest fan of tidehollow sculler either since it is horrible against aggro decks, feeds 'goyf twice, and kolaghan's command. If you do play him, I would cut all of the ghost quarters and put in marsh flats.
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
Modern
Commander
Cube
<a href="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-lists/588020-unpowered-themed-enchantment-an-enchanted-evening">An Enchanted Evening Cube </a>
Taking all advice. I think the sideboard needs the most improvement.
Nice work on the 3-1! How was expedition map working for you? I don't think that it is that great in this deck since it will hog our turn 1 and turn 2 plays when we could be playing relic, iok, shambling vent, or thoughtseize.
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
-2 GQ
-1 marsh flats
-1 urborg
+1 reality smasher
+1 godless shrine
+1 Wastes
+1 westvale abby
4 caves of koilos
4 eldrazi temple
4 ghost quarter
1 godless shrine
4 marsh flats
2 plains
2 shambling vent
2 swamp
1 urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
1 vault of the archangel
4 blight herder
3 reality smasher
4 thought-knot seer
3 wasteland strangler
Spells 21
1 oblivion ring
4 relic of progenitus
3 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
4 lingering souls
1 sorin, solemn visitor
RWBMardu artifacts
Modern
GInfect
GWUCEldrazi
Commander
RPurphoros
RWBKaalia
Legacy
RBurn
Expedition map was actually handy in a couple matchups. Vs Infect and Affinity I was able to tutor up a ghost quarter and kill an Inkmoth Nexus. Also vs Affinity, they had me down to 1, but I was able to stabilize with lingering souls tokens (his signal pest wasnt unblockable anymore) and tutored up a Vault to get my life total back up. Got me out of range from a galvanic blast. And being able to tutor up Abbey is nice vs board wipes, just sac my board in response. Didnt actually get around to using it, but it was an additional threat my opponent needed to be concerned about. I imagine it would be great against matchups without path.
Ahh yes. If you are running a bunch of utility lands (ghost quarter, vault, westvale) I can see that it is useful.
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
I've been running displacer as a 1-of, it's good w/ strangler, TKS, sculler and locking down opponent's attackers in the late game. The rest of the time it is an early body against aggro or eats a bolt. All in all I don't think it's an integral part of the deck and is probably replaceable w/ something else, but it's been good to great for me enough games that I like having 1. Basically worst case you get an early blocker, best case from turn 5 on you use it and a sculler to lock down their drawstep for the rest of the game.
RG 8-Whack
BWG Abzan midrange
GRB Living End
UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin"
RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!"
BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
2x Matter Reshaper
3x Wasteland Strangler
4x Thought-knot Seer
4x Blight Herder
2x Reality Smasher
Sorceries(8):
2x Thoughtseize
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Lingering Souls
Instants(6):
4x Path to Exile
2x Anguished Unmaking
Artifacts(6):
4x Relic of Progenitus
2x Expedition Map
1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Lands(24):
4x Eldrazi Temple
4x Cave of Koilos
3x Godless Shrine
3x Ghost Quarter
2x Shambling Vent
2x Westvale Abbey
2x Seagate Wreckage
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Swamp
1x Plains
1x Waste
3x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Stony Silence
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Timely Reinforcements
2x Flaying Tendrils
1x Bearer of Silence
1x Disenchant
I have some thoughts on changes to the overall decklist/sideboard that I'll get to after both tournament results and reflections:
FNM Modern (51 people):
Round 1 Jeskai Control(2-0)[1-0]: Yay for folks overzealously trying to jam 4x Ancestral Visions into everything they can! Game 1 I cracked Map to get Cavern of Souls and Strangled AV killing one of my Abbey tokens. I knew he had double bolt in hand (which Strangler swiftly ate) but I'll take that 2 for 1 all day. I then made 1/1 Clerics with Westvaleblossum and slowly beat him to death (I had a nifty play where he attempted to Helix 1 of my 4 dudes, I path my own guy. He remands his helix and attempts to helix another dude. I use my 2nd path... he was at 2. GG. Game 2 I used T1 and 2 discard to rip his Path and Leak. T3 I play TKS and exile his boardwipe. T4 I drop Reality Smasher and start wrecking face. He couldn't come up with answers fast enough.
Round 2 Junk (1-2)[1-1]: These games were fairly even all things considered but my opponent topdecked a LOT better than I did by drawing multiple Rhinos in a row while I drew lands. Oh well, these things happen. Still a good matchup overall for us though. Take the licks where they come I suppose. On the plus side. His goyfs were the cutest 0/1's you'd have ever seen.
Round 3 Jund (2-0)[2-1]: Absolutely out-valued and annihilated this poor sap. He hadn't ever played against the processor Eldrazi before either. Game 2 I forced out 2 Blight Herders and then sacrificed 5 of the scion tokens for Ormendahl. Turns out that Jund has 0 answers to a 9/7 flying lifelink indestructible dude when you still have a Herder and a Scion token for Liliana protection and they are in topdeck mode (I knew this and that is why I flipped him).
Round 4 Mono-red Prowess Pumps (1-2)[2-2]: Quick fast aggro plan with Titan Strength on Swiftspears followed by Temur Battle Rages. Game 3 I couldn't find spot removal and he topdecked a well-timed Blood Moon to finish me off (had he not topdecked it, I had Sorin coming down with 3 tokens I had just gotten from Timely Reinforcements). Oh well, take your licks where they be.
Overall tournament thoughts: Lots of control and GBx running around. It felt really really good. Seeing the first guys reaction as he realized he was playing against Eldrazi despite the ban (and then essentially having 4 dead cards in his 75) felt really good. My sideboard was kind of just thrown together from what I had in my binder and such (and based on what I remember from before) so of course that could use some tweaking. Overall the MB felt pretty solid. Still not totally sure on Matter Reshaper but I barely saw him this tournament so it was hard to judge.
Sunday Modern (30ish people):
Round 1 Jund (2-1)[1-0]: This matchup is still really in our favor. I just ground out advantage, made goyfs effectively useless and slowly beat him down with excess value and dudes. I made a mistake in game 2 with threat evaluation that ended up costing me the game. (I used Anguished Unmaking on a Liliana of the Veil who was at 6 in case he topdecked an answer for my Leyline of Sanctity. I should have just used it on the Kalitas. Oh well, getting my legs back underneath me as I get used to the deck again.. it'll happen and clearly it was a hindsight mistake.)
Round 2 UW Control (0-2)[1-1]: Man both of these games were super close but I couldn't find answers either game. Game 1 was due to Collonade and 0 GQs or Maps finding their way to my hand and game 2 was Elspeth, Sun's Champion who he had in opening hand but I was unable to find either TS or Unmaking to get rid of it. I also got pretty flooded both games.
Round 3 Bant Exalted Hexproof (2-1)[2-1]: I should clarify this guys brew as he is a regular and his deck is pretty good. Essentially his goal is to T1 Heirarch, T2 Geist/Mirrian Crusader, T3 Angelic Destiny and crash in for a bazillion damage. He has cryptics, AV and such for card advantage late, not to mention all of his threats hit really hard (especially with Angelic Destiny). Game 1 I IOK his only threat but he topdecked a Mirrian Crusader. I was able to play defense for a little while but eventually ran out of Lingering Souls tokens and drew into jank. Game 2 I probably shouldn't have won. I missed several land drops after turn 3 but I kept finding Path to Exile and Anguished Unmakings. I ground him out of threats and then TKS+Reality Smasher closed the game out quickly. Game 3 had another TFB (Total F'n Blowout) play. He leads off with Hierarch into Qasali Pridemage, swing for 2. Next turn he played another Heirarch and swung for 5 with Pridemage (ow). I played out a Timely to jump back to 19 and get 3 chump blockers. I had actual answers in hand but I wanted to see if I could get him to over extend either with Angelic Destiny on the pridemage so I could path it or with one of his other 3 CMC wincons. I made a slight mistake that my opponent didn't capitalize on. When I cast Timely I was at 13 and he was at 14. I forgot he had a Horizon Canopy. He failed to realize that if he pays 1 life to float mana, I don't gain the 6 life. Luckily he missed it and I jumped way ahead. Anyway he did overextend by dropping a Mirrian Crusader. I chump and then swing in for 1 and cast Flaying Tendrils to clear the board into exile and leave him with only a couple cards in hand. I then drop a Blight Herder and he can't stop the 7 damage over 2 turns for lethal.
Round 4 Jeskai Control (2-0)[3-1]: Back in the driver's seat against control where we should be. Pretty straight forward game. Saw he had cryptics with early discard. Let him keep them and dropped threats underneath/through Cavern. Forced him to use them to tap the team and draw a card and only get 1 use out of them. Had a great play game 2. He dropped an early Stoney Silence (I used excess mana on one of my turns to play my relic anyway). We get to the stage where I have lethal on board and he plays snapcaster and targets the Cryptic. Response to the target, I use Anguished Unmaking on the Stoney Silence and blow Relic. Total blowout play. He then flashed in a Clique which I pathed, prompting him to scoop.
Tournament thoughts: Another one entrenched with UWx Control EVERYWHERE as is GBx. So far that is an amazingly good sign. Based on the pilot and variant of UWx I think we are ~50:50 overall. Planeswalkers are a bit annoying to deal with as per usual but we can play around their counter magic and spot removal. They do have board wipes so we have to be careful not to over-extend. GBx is still a good matchup even if it's not the blowout it was before (when you could curve into T5 Newlamog and feast on their tears). As we get more and more used to the meta, the SB will be more finely tuned.
Overall decklist thoughts: So while I am still not sold on Matter Reshaper. He did hit the board several times during the 2nd tournament and every single time he died he netted me a land. I like that because it is a land I wasn't drawing later and in one instance, it caught me up on a land drop I had missed. Don't know if that is worth it overall in the list and if so.. how many slots. I also am not totally sold on 2x Seagate Wreckage but it did do some work in those grindy control matchups. I will probably cut to 1 and move my Cavern of Souls up to 2x. It causes major fits for all those control decks and I'd like to see it more often. Sideboard wise, I definitely never really needed the Cages (and honestly when I put them in there, totally forgot we use Lingering Souls) so they'll likely come out for something different. Currently I am leaning towards 2 more Thoughtseizes to help with those control matchups even more. I am also considering adding more lifelink sources like Batterskull or Whip of Erebos to the list. I was running 1x each before I sold out and they were both very very good (whipping back TKS and Reality Smasher is so dirty it feels really good).
Anyway, I think the control kick will wear down a bit over the next couple of weeks as people move on from AV and Thopter Sword (which I saw around a bit but nowhere near the level of AV and GBx). Still, if the meta stays like this, I'll be very happy and this deck will do alright for itself. All but 1 of my 8 rounds was against interactive decks and while not every game was interactive (due to blowouts on occassion when you curve Discard->TKS->Reality Smasher and they have 0 answers left), there were lots of fun grindy matchups.
As always, I'm interested in yalls thoughts and opinions on the decklists as well as your own tournament results. (I still have yet to live the dream and process a Visions and kill a Jace, VP... so much value).
2-1 vs. Affinity: Lost game 1 to his fast start and multiple Ravagers despite IoK'ing an Overseer T1, and Thoughtseizing a Ravager T2. In G2 I pulled Stony around T3-4 after keeping a hand with 2x Souls. In G3 I had an opener with 2x Souls AND a Stony Silence. Stony Silence + Lingering Souls = GG for Affinity.
2-1 vs. Living End: Lost game 1 on the draw to his fast mob. Twice now I have tried keeping hands of 7 on the draw vs. Living End, discarding creatures straight into my own yard by not playing any cards on my turn. Not so sure this actually works, but in the absence of at least one Relic on board, it is near-impossible to beat this deck. And at least our creatures compete with LE's for size. In G2 I kept a hand with a Surgical Extraction and a Relic, and then drew Relic #2 on T2. Easily controlled his yard for the win. In G3 on the draw I kept another Relic/Extraction opener and then drew Thoughtseize. I luckily Seized his in-hand Living End off a Godless Shrine, and then Extracted it: I went to 14 life first turn, but boy was it worth it. He had no game after that.
1-1-1 vs. a Jund-colors Blood Moon/aggro homebrew: This guy and his deck were pretty good and blew me out last week, but this week I was more prepared for what he was going to try to do to me. In G1 I kept an opener with a fetch, a Shrine, and a GQ; I fetched a Swamp for Thoughtseize and seized his Blood Moon in his opener. Then his second Moon made me fetch a Plains off my own Ghost Quarter. I was eventually able to Herder for tokens into Smasher FTW. Go-go-Gadget Scion mana! In G2 I got out-valued by his Goyfs with double Hierarch Exalted triggers; Coursers of Kruphix; and Goblin Dark Dwellers. G3 was short, and I Extracted his Blood Moons on T2 off another Thoughtseize, but then failed to draw gas. His board state was looking better than mine when we ran out of time in rounds.
0-2 vs. Kiki Chord: The only GY hate I drew into the whole of game 1 was my single maindeck Extraction: I managed to get his Restos, but I ended up needing to process them to get a Herder on the field to chump his swarm of creatures. Then he got one of the angels back with Witness (Relic, where were you?!) and combo'ed off for the win. In G2 I had to mull to 4, but managed to make a game of it before his huge card advantage sealed the deal. It behooves me to pay attention to exactly how much mana these decks are sitting on: With their lands, Walls of Roots, Birds, Hierarchs, and Convoke casting costs, it's easy to overlook how much mana they actually have available.
Thoughts: Maindeck graveyard hate and exilers are very good against Kiki Chord and Abzan CoCo, but in both cases those decks have a very strong plan A and plan B. These double-headed combo/aggro match ups are pretty challenging and make me want more sweepers alongside my graveyard hate. I am thinking about changing my board: Right now I have 2x Ratchet Bomb for Ensnaring Bridge and Blood Moon, as well as for 0-2 CMC permanents in general, but Flaying Tendrils would have served me much better tonight. It's always hard to find enough answers in 75 cards.
In lots of testing, both paper and online, I continue to find reliable success against control decks of all kinds, Infect, Affinity, and other midrange builds. The Thoughtseize --> Extraction plan is bonkers against combo decks... when I can put the pieces together. Fast aggro in general is very tough. Sometimes Path and/or Anguished Unmaking work against me when I want to Extract a key part of the opponent's game plan; all of a sudden I need three cards, because after Unmaking a card, I can't Extract it unless I first Process it. Surgical Extraction in general continues to put in a TON of work for me in this build, however, and right now I can't see going below the full playset in the 75.
I really like the Batterskull idea and right now I am considering what I might cut for it. I think it has to be a big Eldrazi, but I'm not sure whether to go with TKS, Smasher, or Herder. I think Herder is the weakest, but maybe TKS because of how often it dies on ETB having only exiled one target card, making that all the value I get from it.
Since you're running the Maps anyway, have you considered maybe dropping one each of Sea Gate Wreckage and Westvale Abbey for a pair of Marsh Flats? I know you don't like the fetches but I don't know why. Curious to hear your thoughts.
I like the SB and will likely move to something similar to it soon.
I agree that Sea Gate is a bit useless at times but in the games where it is good (vs control when you are top decking) you can churn CA and without Eye, we need to be able to draw into multiple threats. If you'd rather have a constant source, Mikoro, Center of the Sea is fine but you have to trust that your draws will be better than theirs. Definitely going to go down to a 1x Sea Gate though. Westvale Abbey is and has been amazing so far. I highly recommend trying it out.
Personally I am not very scared of Blood Moon. From what I have seen of my meta, most folks have moved away from it because folks a.) aren't playing Tron or Eldrazi, b.) Are playing a greedy manabase themselves or c.) playing a UWx control variant and either don't want to or can't play it.
I haven't had any problems so far and this is about the landbase I used when I went to Regionals with the list a while back. Marsh Flats might not be a bad idea but what do we really have that us WW or BB? Currently it's just Damnation or Wrath out of the board if you have them (not really counting Leyline because you'd rather it be free). I don't have any Marsh Flats currently but honestly my thing with fetches is that they have never felt necessary and many times felt like a hinderance. With the introduction of <C> into the costs, Cave of Koilos does everything I want and usually it's cheaper on average in life cost. Fetch->Shock->TS is 5 life, Fetch->Swamp->TS is still 3, Fetch->Swamp->IOK is 1, Fetch->Shock->IOK is 3. Compare it to Cave->TS is 3 and Cave->IOK is 1. Not having fetches also lets me run a couple more utility lands like Bojuka Bog, Cavern, Sea-gate Wreckage and Westvale. There is a common misconception that fetching thins your deck. It does but at such a minute level it takes ~20 draws to experience the difference.
I will probably drop a Sea Gate because of my experience this weekend with it (I really think I only need 1 in the list) but Westvale was very good even if it was just another threat. Almost all of my games went long enough that I could make dudes with it if I had it or wanted it. Map was also key in several matches getting me Cavern and a Bojuka Bog once to shrink a goyf from 5/6 to 3/4 and force my opponent into a bad chump block.