Went 1-3 last night with this list. I recently cut 4 Blight Herder for 4 Reality Smasher. Can't tell I like it yet and it also makes the Relic of Progenitus obsolete as there's so little processing going on. I will go back to my Blight Herders as I feel a lot more comfortable with them in the list. Reality Smasher ofcourse is a great card and a great finisher but to me it doesn't feel like it has a spot in this deck.
This is the deck I am currently testing and will bring to FNM, and possibly an SCG on sat. My big unsure slot is surgical, I think that will become a RiP.
I'm enjoying how this deck plays out as a midrange deck that can go over the top of most other midrange decks. Here's my quick report:
Round 1: Jason on Burn (2-1)
Game 1 he has a very fast start with t1 goblin guide, t2 guide + nacatl. I keep a slow hand, with t1 relic, t2 nothing, t3 strangler, but he has enough burn to seal the deal on his 4th turn.
Sideboard: +1 Spellskite, +2 Timely Reinforcements, +2 Blessed Alliance, - 3 Thoughtseize, -2 Liliana of the Veil.
Game 2 I lead with relic again, but follow up with collective brutality with all 3 modes, taking out a swiftspear and a boros charm. I followup with a Thought-Knot taking a path and get there a few turns later after adding lingering souls and a wasteland strangler to the board. Game 3 I have a great curve: t2 Matter Reshaper, t3 Thought-Knot, t4 Sorin. I gain 9 the turn sorin comes down and he uses swiftspear + lava spike to kill sorin, but can't recover from the huge life swing.
Round 2: Mike on Mardu Nahiri (2-1)
Game 1 lasts a long time while we both grind eachother out with lilianas and lingering souls until eventually he's able to ult nahiri and wreck my board with emrakul.
Sideboard: +1 Aven Mindcensor, +1 Zealous Persecution, +1 Pithing Needle, +1 Grafdigger's Cage
Game 2 I mull to 5 and keep 3 lands (1 is a temple), a matter reshaper and a reality smasher. My next 5 draws include a land, 3 lingering souls, and another smasher. He's unable to fight through all my creatures before they kill him.
Game 3 I have another great curve of t1 Inquisition, t2 Strangler, t3 Thought-Knot, t4 Reality Smasher. He gets stuck on 4 mana with a bunch of planeswalkers in hand and ends up having to use 2 nahiris as removal spells to stay alive. I eventually kill him with a 2nd smasher.
Round 3: Scott on RG Ponza (1-2)
Game 1 he draws a ton of land destruction but takes a very long time to see a theat. I'm unable to play anything more than 3 mana but have been beating down with a strangler and a displacer. He finally draws thragtusk on the last turn possible, and I double flicker the strangler to get through it and eventually kill him
Sideboard: +2 Blessed Alliance, +1 Disenchant, -1 Wasteland Strangler, -2 Reality Smasher
Game 2 he has a turn 2 blood moon on the play. Luckily I kept a hand with basic wastes, but he lands a stormbreath dragon to start killing me while I play thought-knot, see double inferno titan in his hand, and concede.
Game 3 I keep a hand with plains, caves, and temple. In the first 3 turns, he stone rains/molten rains the caves and temple, and I draw vault of the archangel, but get stuck on 2 lands until he kills me with a stormbreath.
Round 4: Justin on BW Death & Taxes (2-0)
Game 1 He keeps a 5 land hand with path and leonin arbiter. I thoughtseize him on turn 1 and take the arbiter, then follow up with a lingering souls on turn 3 while he has a blade splicer. On turn 4 I play relic, tap it, then play strangler to take out the token. The next turn I have Sorin to his bob, and he scoops a few turns later.
Sideboard: +1 Zealous Persecution, +1 Warping Wail, +1 Engineered Explosives, -3 Thoughtseize
Game 2 He leads with a Vial while I play relic. He plays Thalia on turn 2, and I'm forced to pass without temple to play a 3 drop. He untaps, hits me for 2 and plays bob. I topdeck temple and play thought-knot, he shows me sword of feast and famine, sword of Light and Shadow, and hero of bladehold. I have path in hand and decide to take the sword of war and peace. He untaps and decides to play sword of feast and famine. I topdeck zealous persecution, and cast it immediately for the 2-for-1 and swing in for 5. He untaps and plays hero, and I path it at the end of turn. I follow up with a few 3 drops and overwhelm him.
Overall the deck seemed strong and I liked playing it, though I felt like my sideboard could use work. What matchups do you guys typically struggle with? I felt like RG Ponza was really hard, as getting multiple lands blown up sets this deck back pretty far. Maybe tron would be hard, though we do have a mix of discard and ghost quarters to keep them from casting giant things for a while. Tell me what you guys think, I'm definitely planning on bringing this deck to more events in the future.
Ponza, and really decks that utilize land destructino well, feel really hard to me. It might be just that Midrange in general is a dog to ponza, so I don't feel too bad considering every deck has its bad MU's. D & T feels like it's high;y dependent on whether they stick an early vial. Them having access to GQ + Arbiter can really hurt us the same way ponza does, but without the vial it feels relatively easy. I have found all flavors of tron to be pretty easy MU's. The main deck GQ's really shine in this MU, and the hand disruption keeps them off their big spells until you can get the GQ's (Unless they topdeck them).
Went 3-0-1 at FNM tonight, tying for first out of 14 players. I was 3-0 going into the last round and drew with my opponent. He was on through the breach and we played the games out and I won 2-0, which I was surprised by as usually when I face it is faster than me in the race. Both games had both him getting a slow opener and me getting T2 and/or T3 3-drop eldrazi to start an early clock. I am really digging going from 3 Stranglers to now having 7 total 3 drops in 4 Stranglers and 3 Reshapers. I am seeing T2 plays of these drops surprisingly often. I'm also liking having 4 Stranglers and no more Herders to compete for cards to process. The cantrip angle is helping in grindy and top-deck games, and I feel like I'm getting even more consistency with my creatures now that they are almost all 4-ofs, and just general seeing the deck perform really consistently against the whole field as long as I have the lands (and am not flooding). I feel like many games I have the tools or a strategy to get a win.
I've added a Fetid Heath, I picked one up recently because if the Sculler version continues to put up results I would try that out, and wanted to have the Fetid Heath ready for that. But I put some thought into my current list, and decided that it's a card that can definitely be useful with my particular 75. I was able to add a Kalitas in with the Heath, which I think is just a strong card in the current modern meta as it helps greatly against burn and zoo and general aggro decks, and also is an all-star in the midrange grindy mirrors. And like Matter Reshaper, if it eats removal I am more than happy with that, because that means that removal is not being used on a TKS or a Smasher. The only creatures I care about staying alive/sticking on the board are TKS and Smasher, because TKS gives them a draw and I want smasher to be beating down their face and getting 2 or 3-for-1'd with blockers because it's so big to most all other creatures. If Reshaper gets pathed so I don't get the on death trigger, I am so pleased with that because that Path is no longer in their hand and I get ramped. Yes please! This happens fairly often as well.
Back to the Fetid Heath. With Kalitas, 2x Shambling Vents, Sorin, Vault of the Archangel, Anguished Unmaking, and (something that I personally didn't figure was too important as it happens to be not an issue very often) turn 5 casting a Lingering Souls and flashing it back in the same main phase. The last one actually happened tonight, where it was T5 and my play was exactly a cast+flashback Souls, and the Heath gave me my colors. That's 6 cards not including Souls that benefit from Heath. But what made me go with it for this weekend was the sideboard, which adds an additional 2x Damnations and 2x EE (for CMC = 2). That's 10 cards, so I think it might be worth a land slot. It could potentially help quite a bit in a land base that I wouldn't call shaky, but maybe stretched thin.
Round 1: Against Death's Shadow Zoo. Both games 1 and 2 were basically him paining himself down to 5-10 life, and not having Death's Shadow for the payoff. He literally played one both games combined, and I had so much removal between paths and Strangler's for his Nacatls. Game two Shambling Vent brought it home in 3 turns after he pained himself to 6 and I had removal in hand as soon as the one Death's Shadow hit the board.
Round 2: Against some form of Abzan Company, to be honest I have a really hard time telling what the hell version of this creature toolbox deck I'm up against as they are all so damn similar. This one had something I'd never seen before, which involved Using some blue enchantment, a utility land, and a creature that basically had him pump the creature up to 19/19 and make it unblockable. I had never seen this before and maybe someone else can clear up the cards/combo I'm talking about. The match went to 3 games and he won game 2 with this combo, I could have 100% prevented it the turn prior by ripping the enchantment from his land with TKS but since I had no clue about what was about to happen I chose something else. Otherwise in G1 and 3, i outgrinded and out-board presenced. Strangler is an absolute beast in the current meta, and the value of a 2 land (assuming a temple), 3/2 creature that is also -3/-3 removal is so good. When I get a value play (or two) like that off in a grindy matchup it swings the game heavily and instantly in my favor.
Round 3: Infect. I thought this guy was on Bant Eldrazi and kept an opening 7 in G1 that was fairly week as it had a temple, a couple B/W lands, and Souls and 2x removal but zero eldrazi. Turns out he was infect and that hand is really good. In both of the games I won, (g1 and 3), I removed his Blighted Agent (the creature that is our hardest problem to answer) with a Strangler in one game and a discard T1 on the other. Also in game 3 on the play I topdecked a ghost quarter to shut down what would have been a lethal attack with inkmoth + pumps on his T4, and I just generally got lucky draws and hands to have the perfect answers to hit combat tricks. Game two he had an insane hand and draws and I think got to 10 infect on turn 3 with a 12/12 inknmoth. Also in game 3 I double pithing needled, one on inkmoth and one on Pendelhaven (he had 1 of each on the board), and that really really helped. With how bad infect can be for us, and how bad tron is, I definitely like having two pithing needles rather than 1 to both ensure I get one early and because having two isn't bad in either of those matchups. Just mentioning this because I see lots of list with only 1 in the side.
Round 4: Through the Breach. Just generally lucky on my part that he was 1-2 turns from killing me when I killed him due to me getting fast hands with a decent clock. Don't have many details as we were more playing openly about our hands and choices as the games were for fun. I will say that when it's T6 and they cast/cheat in a Primeval Titan, and you have a path, cast it in response to it's ETB trigger, that way if they are getting their Valakut/5th mountain with the Titan trigger, it won't let them do damage off the land you just gave them with the path. I also only brought in Spellskite from the side, maybe adding a fulminator mage to the side could be good. What are the matchups you guys would use the following cards against, from your side? Anguished, Mindcensor, and fulminator. (side note fulminator is another reason to run Fetid Heath).
I am really digging this current list. I'm seeing faster opens and faster, more consistent board presence with the 7 3-drop eldrazi and Souls. I'm curving out much much better and getting hands with 5-cost eldrazi and only 4 mana a lot less (now that Herders are gone and 6-7 5-drops is no more).
One last thing, I think if I owned an Aven Mindcensor I'd try it out in the sideboard, there's a lot of decks that utilize searching and many of them give me issues. I might try to pick one up.
This list or something very similar has tied me for first after 3-0ing the first three rounds two of the last 3 FNM's I've played. The draws and hands felt lucky, but the deck also feels to be coming in from the right angles between the cantrips and the board presence/value from processing/seemingly just the right amount of removal.
N00b returning; can someone explain to me the Collective Brutality and Mind Stone slot picks? Mind Stone feels real durdly and I'd imagine that brutality is for a certain slew of MU's... Delver?
I'm slowly gaining momentum and picking up stuff for the build. I'm excited to see how Sculler plays out, it's been a long time since I've been able to sleeve that guy up.
I don't play Mind Stone myself, but it's in there to help you cast Thought-Knot and Reality Smasher consistently. If the game goes long long can cash it in for a card when you have enough lands. Collective Brutality is great because of its flexibility. It's probably at its best against burn, since it allows you to make up to 3 1-for-1 trades. Most of the time, it has the flexibility of being either a bad duress or a bad disfigure depending on the matchup.
I went 3-1 tonight for 4th of 17 players, beating Jund, Bushwhacker Zoo, and RG Tron and losing to UW Spirits. I played a 61 card deck, listed below. Once again I was on the draw in all matches. At some point that has to stop, right? I'll start winning rolls again right?
I am trying out Brutality as a 2-of, going down to 3 Thoughtseize (I still disfavor Inquisition). I am certain that I want 2 Pithing Needle in the 75, and 2 Unmaking, so I stuck one of the Needles in the main as the 61st card, leaving room in the side for what I consider to be a mandatory Wastes for Blood Moon hate.
All-Stars tonight: Brutality is quite good. Its versatility and the fact that it strengthens aggro matchups make it a good addition. Sea Gate Wreckage continues to play a big role in late game topdeck wars, drawing me many cards tonight against Jund. I miss the third Ghost Quarter a lot, though. 2 GQs are nowhere near as reliably found as 3 were.
can someone explain to me the Collective Brutality and Mind Stone slot picks? Mind Stone feels real durdly and I'd imagine that brutality is for a certain slew of MU's... Delver?
In my experience, Mind Stone is very strong. The ramp is extremely important, turning on two-land keeps and enabling T3 Seers even without a Temple--and T3 Smashers with one. It allows cast and flashback Lingering Souls on T4. It provides C when there are only B or W sources on the field and fixes mana under Blood Moon. It helps to keep active mana to crack Relic when needed. Mind Stone fits the curve well, in the opening seven, and it cantrips late game. I tried playing without it again recently, and was not impressed by the results. However I would probably not play it in a Sculler build.
[edit] for some reason, Sorin isn't showing up in the decklist above, but I did run him yesterday. However I have been trying Whip of Erebos in my cockatrice matches... hard to say which is better. Whip can recur Smasher or Strangler for major points, and is harder to get rid of than the walker. But Whip is vulnerable to our own Stony Silences and doesn't attract Bolts or attackers like Sorin does, so it doesn't give breathing room for a turn or two in that way. Whip is also a nonbo with Relic. I still like the lifegain but I have been wondering if it is as necessary without Unmaking and with the addition of two Brutalitys in the main. A fourth Reshaper might be better (or maybe I should just go back to 60 cards).
Nice to see that you liked Collective Brutality. I don´t feel this is a deck for 61 cards, why don´t you remove 1 Rest for the Weary to add the 2nd Pithing Needle, since now you kinda have MD life gain with CB ??
Overall the deck seemed strong and I liked playing it, though I felt like my sideboard could use work. What matchups do you guys typically struggle with? I felt like RG Ponza was really hard, as getting multiple lands blown up sets this deck back pretty far. Maybe tron would be hard, though we do have a mix of discard and ghost quarters to keep them from casting giant things for a while. Tell me what you guys think, I'm definitely planning on bringing this deck to more events in the future.
RG Ponza is a beating but thankfully very rare. If you face a lot of LD I recommend Crucible of Worlds (which is unbelievable with Ghost Quarter) or the faster and much less expensive Sacred Ground. There is no room in the 75 for these cards in an unknown meta though. For the SB I would recommend losing Fulminator, Engineered Explosives (can only get to 2 for us, and even that can be tricky, with so many colorless lands), Warping Wail, and maybe Zealous Persecution.
The hard matchups for me (not including Ponza) are: RG Tron; Bogles; all RG Valakut variants; and fast aggro in general. I have a lot of aggro hate because it is so common in many different forms, and my Tron match is decent with Stony, Needle, and Unmaking, but Bogles is near unwinnable without some luck and RG Valakut builds are almost as bad.
Nice to see that you liked Collective Brutality. I don´t feel this is a deck for 61 cards, why don´t you remove 1 Rest for the Weary to add the 2nd Pithing Needle, since now you kinda have MD life gain with CB ??
Well, I dunno. I really like one multi-purpose hate card on the main 60 as a surprise out against otherwise-difficult situations. I've liked Unmaking there in the past (except for the life loss), and I have been really liking Needle for the past week. Ratchet Bomb is another option I have had some success with.
61 cards is not great, agreed. But every card is in the build for a reason. In fact, I could really use another 2 slots for the 4th Thoughtseize and maybe an Aven Mindcensor. And I am not willing to go below 3 major lifegain cards in the side, because they are so important against Burn and many fast aggro decks. I'm not sure Brutality has made that much of a difference.
For now I will try it like this. I am always tinkering, though, and will post up as I find new angles that seem good.
From my experience on R/G tron and its variants. Hand hate targeting problematic win-cons so far has resulted in the best hate. Karn, Eldrazi, O-stones, etc are great targets. IMHO ghost quarter should also only be used to time warp yourself with something on the field to pressure them. Stony works if you can getit out fast enough, but pithing needle is a true all star in this match. Reality smasher is also a serious problem for them to deal with too.
Bogles I am curious how blessed alliance enhances our overall match-ups with them.
How does Tomb of the Spirit Dragon shape up for Lifegain; are we missing the critical mass of colourless creatures needed for it to be considered an effective option?
How does Tomb of the Spirit Dragon shape up for Lifegain; are we missing the critical mass of colourless creatures needed for it to be considered an effective option?
I think you are right by saying we lack the number of creatures on board for this to be playable. With 3 creatures on the board you are in quite a good board state for BW Eldrazi (not counting Spirit tokens as they are white), it won't happen so often that there are more creatures on your side. Playing Blight Herder may give you 3 extra colorless creatures but I don't think that's good enough for Tomb to be played.
Rest for the weary is good if you just want a sideboard card for burn. I like to cast it on their end step on turn 2.
Blessed alliance has been good to me, usually the 4 life gained is enough against burn and the card has versatility. It is good against bogles and decent in other matchups (scapeshift, infect, ...).
Also blessed alliance is good against bant eldrazi, because it would let us draw off an opposing TKS leaving the battlefield, and also remove a smasher without having to discard. It is great on T2-T4 when the bant player had a noble hierarch and a solo smasher/tks attacking.
Edit: and I feel we need all the help we can get against bant eldrazi because it has more consistent volatile openings.
G2 Trondrazi (2-1): G1 I locked him pretty handily with hand hate hitting bombs (Karn, Ugin, and pyroclasm), He started dropping bombs late and finally pulled the game out with a platinum emperion preventing me from closing the game. G2 Same set-up as the first game with me hitting Void Winnower and Ulamog with hand hate, than hitting him with a TKS. This continued until he was able to land a kozilek, which hurt, but he was at 2 life. I proceeded to hit another win-con out of his hand, and then took a annighlator hit. Drew a land afterwards which let me win of a vent. G3 was won off a T1 pithing needle locking out his 3 chromatic spheres in hand.
G3 Jund (1-1) G1 I started with an odd hand, but it was 2 souls castable. He dropped a scooze T2, and i sculled a Kolg com afterwards. The next few draws went into back and forth, with me landing a smasher but him a kalitas. I eventually was down to 4 life, and went to pay life for a caves to adctivate a vent to get his top-decked bolt. lol a very fun and interactive game though. G2 I got siezed, BOBed, and then not much. I proceeded to seize back, T3 TKS, t4 sorin, souls and then displacer. Has enough mana to use TKS to lock him on the draw which won the game
From what I have been seeing so far from the sculler build it the abuse that displacer allows. Even against tron if you can get it online, you can lock even them out. It is a very tricky path to walk playing more hand hate than normal, but it seems to be effective in how it keeps you ahead. Games are either real close or blowouts in my favor. I am not sad for dropping the herder, as smasher is just more relavent in a large amount of situations.
This is my current list after yesterdays small tournament.
I originally had 2 Tidehollow Scullers and 1 more IoK in the list and cut them for 3 Matter Reshapers as I think Sculler is only good as a 3-4 of and in combination with Displacer and 4 IoK 2 Thoughtseize + TKS are too much hand disruption.
Blight Herder felt awesome in many matchups as the tokens were awesome blockers, are great with Sorin, you keep three bodies when they remove the Blight Herder and they also produce mana.
I'm not sure about the sideboard yet, but I know I want to buy at least 2 Wraths of God / Day of Judgement. (Also going to add 1-2 Mind Stones Mainboard as I have Blood Moon decks in my meta)
Lili and Marsh Flats are out of my price league at the moment, I'm waiting for a reprint and already got the 4 BW fastlands in my preorder for Kaladesh.
My current Sideboard changes were made accordingly to my local meta and the decks (players) that show up 100% of the time:
Skred Red, Norin Soul Sisters, 2x Infect, Affinity, Dredge, U/R Delver, Grixis Control and monoU Tron.
Other decks that I play against from time to time are: Thopter/Sword Combo, 8whack, GR Zoo, Jeskai Ascendancy Gifts, Scapeshift, RW Lockdown/Landdestruction, BW Tokens, Cheerios and Goblins.
I originally wanted to play 3 Doom Blades in the Sideboard as I hit nearly every creature in my meta with it, but only had 2 in my collection so the 2 Collective Brutalities will probably be replaced by them.
I'm open for any suggestions.
I would get a couple sweepers for sure. Even flaying tendrils would kill most of the creatures in your meta.
If there is a lot of blood moon in your meta, I would shift the wastes to the main board just in case you need to path your own creature to get a colorless source.
I would consider smother or darkblast instead of doom blade. Darkblast is great against affinity, infect, and okay against soul sisters.
Huge fan of Go for the Throat as Path #5, Spellskite can't redirect it, and Affinity is a good match anyway. I would not run Doom Blade with Tasigur, Kalitas, Bob, Siege Rhino, and Angler all significant in the larger meta. Definitely agree that Wastes in the main is worth a look.
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3 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Wasteland Strangler
3 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
Spells - 19
4 Path to Exile
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Collective Brutality
2 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Land - 24
1 Plains
2 Swamp
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Caves of Koilos
1 Isolated Chapel
3 Marsh Flats
3 Godless Shrine
2 Shambling Vent
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Ghost Quarter
3 Timely Reinforcements
2 Celestial Purge
2 Blessed Alliance
2 Pithing Needle
2 Wrath of God
2 Spellskite
2 Disenchant
3 Wasteland Strangler
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
3 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Eldrazi Displacer
Spells
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Path to Exile
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Thoughtseize
4 Lingering Souls
1 Go for the Throat
1 Anguished Unmaking
2 Liliana of the Veil
Lands
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Shambling Vent
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Pithing Needle
1 Spellskite
1 Stony Silence
2 Wrath of God
1 Collective Brutality
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Surgical Extraction
This is the deck I am currently testing and will bring to FNM, and possibly an SCG on sat. My big unsure slot is surgical, I think that will become a RiP.
My H/W list
4 Wasteland Strangler
1 Eldrazi Displacer
2 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
Spells
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Path to Exile
1 Collective Brutality
4 Lingering Souls
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
3 Marsh Flats
2 Godless Shrine
4 Caves of koilos
2 Shambling Vents
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Vault of the Archnangel
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
2 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Wastes
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Spellskite
2 Wrath of God
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Zealous Persecution
2 Blessed Alliance
1 Disenchant
1 Warping Wail
1 Pithing Needle
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Engineered Explosives
I'm enjoying how this deck plays out as a midrange deck that can go over the top of most other midrange decks. Here's my quick report:
Round 1: Jason on Burn (2-1)
Game 1 he has a very fast start with t1 goblin guide, t2 guide + nacatl. I keep a slow hand, with t1 relic, t2 nothing, t3 strangler, but he has enough burn to seal the deal on his 4th turn.
Sideboard: +1 Spellskite, +2 Timely Reinforcements, +2 Blessed Alliance, - 3 Thoughtseize, -2 Liliana of the Veil.
Game 2 I lead with relic again, but follow up with collective brutality with all 3 modes, taking out a swiftspear and a boros charm. I followup with a Thought-Knot taking a path and get there a few turns later after adding lingering souls and a wasteland strangler to the board. Game 3 I have a great curve: t2 Matter Reshaper, t3 Thought-Knot, t4 Sorin. I gain 9 the turn sorin comes down and he uses swiftspear + lava spike to kill sorin, but can't recover from the huge life swing.
Round 2: Mike on Mardu Nahiri (2-1)
Game 1 lasts a long time while we both grind eachother out with lilianas and lingering souls until eventually he's able to ult nahiri and wreck my board with emrakul.
Sideboard: +1 Aven Mindcensor, +1 Zealous Persecution, +1 Pithing Needle, +1 Grafdigger's Cage
Game 2 I mull to 5 and keep 3 lands (1 is a temple), a matter reshaper and a reality smasher. My next 5 draws include a land, 3 lingering souls, and another smasher. He's unable to fight through all my creatures before they kill him.
Game 3 I have another great curve of t1 Inquisition, t2 Strangler, t3 Thought-Knot, t4 Reality Smasher. He gets stuck on 4 mana with a bunch of planeswalkers in hand and ends up having to use 2 nahiris as removal spells to stay alive. I eventually kill him with a 2nd smasher.
Round 3: Scott on RG Ponza (1-2)
Game 1 he draws a ton of land destruction but takes a very long time to see a theat. I'm unable to play anything more than 3 mana but have been beating down with a strangler and a displacer. He finally draws thragtusk on the last turn possible, and I double flicker the strangler to get through it and eventually kill him
Sideboard: +2 Blessed Alliance, +1 Disenchant, -1 Wasteland Strangler, -2 Reality Smasher
Game 2 he has a turn 2 blood moon on the play. Luckily I kept a hand with basic wastes, but he lands a stormbreath dragon to start killing me while I play thought-knot, see double inferno titan in his hand, and concede.
Game 3 I keep a hand with plains, caves, and temple. In the first 3 turns, he stone rains/molten rains the caves and temple, and I draw vault of the archangel, but get stuck on 2 lands until he kills me with a stormbreath.
Round 4: Justin on BW Death & Taxes (2-0)
Game 1 He keeps a 5 land hand with path and leonin arbiter. I thoughtseize him on turn 1 and take the arbiter, then follow up with a lingering souls on turn 3 while he has a blade splicer. On turn 4 I play relic, tap it, then play strangler to take out the token. The next turn I have Sorin to his bob, and he scoops a few turns later.
Sideboard: +1 Zealous Persecution, +1 Warping Wail, +1 Engineered Explosives, -3 Thoughtseize
Game 2 He leads with a Vial while I play relic. He plays Thalia on turn 2, and I'm forced to pass without temple to play a 3 drop. He untaps, hits me for 2 and plays bob. I topdeck temple and play thought-knot, he shows me sword of feast and famine, sword of Light and Shadow, and hero of bladehold. I have path in hand and decide to take the sword of war and peace. He untaps and decides to play sword of feast and famine. I topdeck zealous persecution, and cast it immediately for the 2-for-1 and swing in for 5. He untaps and plays hero, and I path it at the end of turn. I follow up with a few 3 drops and overwhelm him.
Overall the deck seemed strong and I liked playing it, though I felt like my sideboard could use work. What matchups do you guys typically struggle with? I felt like RG Ponza was really hard, as getting multiple lands blown up sets this deck back pretty far. Maybe tron would be hard, though we do have a mix of discard and ghost quarters to keep them from casting giant things for a while. Tell me what you guys think, I'm definitely planning on bringing this deck to more events in the future.
Modern
Value Town
Amulet Titan
Legacy
4C Loam
My Peasant Cube
http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/11667
My H/W list
I've added a Fetid Heath, I picked one up recently because if the Sculler version continues to put up results I would try that out, and wanted to have the Fetid Heath ready for that. But I put some thought into my current list, and decided that it's a card that can definitely be useful with my particular 75. I was able to add a Kalitas in with the Heath, which I think is just a strong card in the current modern meta as it helps greatly against burn and zoo and general aggro decks, and also is an all-star in the midrange grindy mirrors. And like Matter Reshaper, if it eats removal I am more than happy with that, because that means that removal is not being used on a TKS or a Smasher. The only creatures I care about staying alive/sticking on the board are TKS and Smasher, because TKS gives them a draw and I want smasher to be beating down their face and getting 2 or 3-for-1'd with blockers because it's so big to most all other creatures. If Reshaper gets pathed so I don't get the on death trigger, I am so pleased with that because that Path is no longer in their hand and I get ramped. Yes please! This happens fairly often as well.
Back to the Fetid Heath. With Kalitas, 2x Shambling Vents, Sorin, Vault of the Archangel, Anguished Unmaking, and (something that I personally didn't figure was too important as it happens to be not an issue very often) turn 5 casting a Lingering Souls and flashing it back in the same main phase. The last one actually happened tonight, where it was T5 and my play was exactly a cast+flashback Souls, and the Heath gave me my colors. That's 6 cards not including Souls that benefit from Heath. But what made me go with it for this weekend was the sideboard, which adds an additional 2x Damnations and 2x EE (for CMC = 2). That's 10 cards, so I think it might be worth a land slot. It could potentially help quite a bit in a land base that I wouldn't call shaky, but maybe stretched thin.
Round 1: Against Death's Shadow Zoo. Both games 1 and 2 were basically him paining himself down to 5-10 life, and not having Death's Shadow for the payoff. He literally played one both games combined, and I had so much removal between paths and Strangler's for his Nacatls. Game two Shambling Vent brought it home in 3 turns after he pained himself to 6 and I had removal in hand as soon as the one Death's Shadow hit the board.
Round 2: Against some form of Abzan Company, to be honest I have a really hard time telling what the hell version of this creature toolbox deck I'm up against as they are all so damn similar. This one had something I'd never seen before, which involved Using some blue enchantment, a utility land, and a creature that basically had him pump the creature up to 19/19 and make it unblockable. I had never seen this before and maybe someone else can clear up the cards/combo I'm talking about. The match went to 3 games and he won game 2 with this combo, I could have 100% prevented it the turn prior by ripping the enchantment from his land with TKS but since I had no clue about what was about to happen I chose something else. Otherwise in G1 and 3, i outgrinded and out-board presenced. Strangler is an absolute beast in the current meta, and the value of a 2 land (assuming a temple), 3/2 creature that is also -3/-3 removal is so good. When I get a value play (or two) like that off in a grindy matchup it swings the game heavily and instantly in my favor.
Round 3: Infect. I thought this guy was on Bant Eldrazi and kept an opening 7 in G1 that was fairly week as it had a temple, a couple B/W lands, and Souls and 2x removal but zero eldrazi. Turns out he was infect and that hand is really good. In both of the games I won, (g1 and 3), I removed his Blighted Agent (the creature that is our hardest problem to answer) with a Strangler in one game and a discard T1 on the other. Also in game 3 on the play I topdecked a ghost quarter to shut down what would have been a lethal attack with inkmoth + pumps on his T4, and I just generally got lucky draws and hands to have the perfect answers to hit combat tricks. Game two he had an insane hand and draws and I think got to 10 infect on turn 3 with a 12/12 inknmoth. Also in game 3 I double pithing needled, one on inkmoth and one on Pendelhaven (he had 1 of each on the board), and that really really helped. With how bad infect can be for us, and how bad tron is, I definitely like having two pithing needles rather than 1 to both ensure I get one early and because having two isn't bad in either of those matchups. Just mentioning this because I see lots of list with only 1 in the side.
Round 4: Through the Breach. Just generally lucky on my part that he was 1-2 turns from killing me when I killed him due to me getting fast hands with a decent clock. Don't have many details as we were more playing openly about our hands and choices as the games were for fun. I will say that when it's T6 and they cast/cheat in a Primeval Titan, and you have a path, cast it in response to it's ETB trigger, that way if they are getting their Valakut/5th mountain with the Titan trigger, it won't let them do damage off the land you just gave them with the path. I also only brought in Spellskite from the side, maybe adding a fulminator mage to the side could be good. What are the matchups you guys would use the following cards against, from your side? Anguished, Mindcensor, and fulminator. (side note fulminator is another reason to run Fetid Heath).
I am really digging this current list. I'm seeing faster opens and faster, more consistent board presence with the 7 3-drop eldrazi and Souls. I'm curving out much much better and getting hands with 5-cost eldrazi and only 4 mana a lot less (now that Herders are gone and 6-7 5-drops is no more).
One last thing, I think if I owned an Aven Mindcensor I'd try it out in the sideboard, there's a lot of decks that utilize searching and many of them give me issues. I might try to pick one up.
4 Wasteland Strangler
3 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
4 Reality Smasher
Spells
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Path to Exile
4 Lingering Souls
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Mind Stone
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Go for the Throat
3 Marsh Flats
2 Godless Shrine
4 Caves of Koilos
2 Shambling Vents
1 Fetid Heath
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Spellskite
2 Damnation
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Ratchet bomb
2 Blessed Alliance
2 Stony Silence
2 Pithing Needle
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Engineered Explosives
This list or something very similar has tied me for first after 3-0ing the first three rounds two of the last 3 FNM's I've played. The draws and hands felt lucky, but the deck also feels to be coming in from the right angles between the cantrips and the board presence/value from processing/seemingly just the right amount of removal.
WG G/W Tron GW
BG G/B Tron GB
GG Mono G Tron GG
RG G/R Tron GR
I'm slowly gaining momentum and picking up stuff for the build. I'm excited to see how Sculler plays out, it's been a long time since I've been able to sleeve that guy up.
Modern
Value Town
Amulet Titan
Legacy
4C Loam
My Peasant Cube
http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/11667
1x Cavern of Souls
4x Caves of Koilos
4x Eldrazi Temple
2x Ghost Quarter
2x Godless Shrine
1x Isolated Chapel
3x Marsh Flats
1x Plains
1x Sea Gate Wreckage
2x Shambling Vent
2x Swamp
1x Vault of the Archangel
3x Matter Reshaper
4x Reality Smasher
4x Thought-Knot Seer
4x Wasteland Strangler
Sorcery (9)
2x Collective Brutality
4x Lingering Souls
3x Thoughtseize
Artifact (7)
2x Mind Stone
4x Relic of Progenitus
1x Pithing Needle
Instant (5)
1x Go for the Throat
4x Path to Exile
2x Anguished Unmaking
1x Flaying Tendrils
1x Ghostly Prison
1x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Languish
1x Pithing Needle
1x Ratchet Bomb
2x Rest for the Weary
2x Stony Silence
1x Timely Reinforcements
1x Wastes
All-Stars tonight: Brutality is quite good. Its versatility and the fact that it strengthens aggro matchups make it a good addition. Sea Gate Wreckage continues to play a big role in late game topdeck wars, drawing me many cards tonight against Jund. I miss the third Ghost Quarter a lot, though. 2 GQs are nowhere near as reliably found as 3 were. In my experience, Mind Stone is very strong. The ramp is extremely important, turning on two-land keeps and enabling T3 Seers even without a Temple--and T3 Smashers with one. It allows cast and flashback Lingering Souls on T4. It provides C when there are only B or W sources on the field and fixes mana under Blood Moon. It helps to keep active mana to crack Relic when needed. Mind Stone fits the curve well, in the opening seven, and it cantrips late game. I tried playing without it again recently, and was not impressed by the results. However I would probably not play it in a Sculler build.
[edit] for some reason, Sorin isn't showing up in the decklist above, but I did run him yesterday. However I have been trying Whip of Erebos in my cockatrice matches... hard to say which is better. Whip can recur Smasher or Strangler for major points, and is harder to get rid of than the walker. But Whip is vulnerable to our own Stony Silences and doesn't attract Bolts or attackers like Sorin does, so it doesn't give breathing room for a turn or two in that way. Whip is also a nonbo with Relic. I still like the lifegain but I have been wondering if it is as necessary without Unmaking and with the addition of two Brutalitys in the main. A fourth Reshaper might be better (or maybe I should just go back to 60 cards).
GXTronGX
RWxBurnRWx
The hard matchups for me (not including Ponza) are: RG Tron; Bogles; all RG Valakut variants; and fast aggro in general. I have a lot of aggro hate because it is so common in many different forms, and my Tron match is decent with Stony, Needle, and Unmaking, but Bogles is near unwinnable without some luck and RG Valakut builds are almost as bad. Well, I dunno. I really like one multi-purpose hate card on the main 60 as a surprise out against otherwise-difficult situations. I've liked Unmaking there in the past (except for the life loss), and I have been really liking Needle for the past week. Ratchet Bomb is another option I have had some success with.
61 cards is not great, agreed. But every card is in the build for a reason. In fact, I could really use another 2 slots for the 4th Thoughtseize and maybe an Aven Mindcensor. And I am not willing to go below 3 major lifegain cards in the side, because they are so important against Burn and many fast aggro decks. I'm not sure Brutality has made that much of a difference.
For now I will try it like this. I am always tinkering, though, and will post up as I find new angles that seem good.
Bogles I am curious how blessed alliance enhances our overall match-ups with them.
I think you are right by saying we lack the number of creatures on board for this to be playable. With 3 creatures on the board you are in quite a good board state for BW Eldrazi (not counting Spirit tokens as they are white), it won't happen so often that there are more creatures on your side. Playing Blight Herder may give you 3 extra colorless creatures but I don't think that's good enough for Tomb to be played.
Timely Reinforcements/Blessed Alliance/Rest for the Weary already provide us some lifegain. Those can be interrupted easier than the Tomb activation I will give you that.
Or Lone Missionary?
Blessed alliance has been good to me, usually the 4 life gained is enough against burn and the card has versatility. It is good against bogles and decent in other matchups (scapeshift, infect, ...).
Lone missionary I have not tried this card out, but it would be good if you have flicker effects in your deck (eldrazi displacer, restoration angel)
I prefer having blessed alliance in my side because I like sideboard cards that are useful in multiple matchups.
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
Edit: and I feel we need all the help we can get against bant eldrazi because it has more consistent volatile openings.
WG G/W Tron GW
BG G/B Tron GB
GG Mono G Tron GG
RG G/R Tron GR
Here is my current list
4 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Blight Herder
2 Reality Smasher
4 Lingering Souls
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Path to Exile
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Collective Brutality
2 Thoughtseize
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Caves of Koilos
3 Marsh Flats
3 Ghost Quarter
2 Godless Shrine
2 Swamp
2 Plains
3 Lost Legacy
3 Fragmentize
2 Blessed Alliance
2 Flaying Tendrils
2 Anguished Unmaking
2 Dismember
1 Day of Judgment
by the way I really love Collective Brutality as you can see, mostly because burn frustrates me
3 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Wasteland Strangler
3 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Thought-knot Seer
3 Reality Smasher
Spells (19)
4 Lingering Souls
4 Thoughtsieze
4 Path to Exile
1 Liliana, the last hope
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Relic of Proginitous
1 Zealous Persecution
Lands (25)
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Tomb of the Archangel
1 Westvale Abby
1 Wastes
1 Swamp
1 Plains
4 Godless Shrine
4 Caves of Coilos
3 Shambling Vents
2 Pithing Needle
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Languish
2 Grafdiggers Cage
2 Anguished Umnaking
2 Spellskite
So a small tourney report.
G1 Buy
G2 Trondrazi (2-1): G1 I locked him pretty handily with hand hate hitting bombs (Karn, Ugin, and pyroclasm), He started dropping bombs late and finally pulled the game out with a platinum emperion preventing me from closing the game. G2 Same set-up as the first game with me hitting Void Winnower and Ulamog with hand hate, than hitting him with a TKS. This continued until he was able to land a kozilek, which hurt, but he was at 2 life. I proceeded to hit another win-con out of his hand, and then took a annighlator hit. Drew a land afterwards which let me win of a vent. G3 was won off a T1 pithing needle locking out his 3 chromatic spheres in hand.
In: 2 Pithing Needle, 2 Anguished Unmaking Out: 4 Lingering Souls All stars: TKS, Smasher, Pithing Needle, Sculler
G3 Jund (1-1) G1 I started with an odd hand, but it was 2 souls castable. He dropped a scooze T2, and i sculled a Kolg com afterwards. The next few draws went into back and forth, with me landing a smasher but him a kalitas. I eventually was down to 4 life, and went to pay life for a caves to adctivate a vent to get his top-decked bolt. lol a very fun and interactive game though. G2 I got siezed, BOBed, and then not much. I proceeded to seize back, T3 TKS, t4 sorin, souls and then displacer. Has enough mana to use TKS to lock him on the draw which won the game
In: 2 pithing needle, 1 blessed alliance Out: 1 ghost quarter, 1 zealous persecution, 1 something else
All stars: TKS, Displacer, GQ, Sculler, Path
From what I have been seeing so far from the sculler build it the abuse that displacer allows. Even against tron if you can get it online, you can lock even them out. It is a very tricky path to walk playing more hand hate than normal, but it seems to be effective in how it keeps you ahead. Games are either real close or blowouts in my favor. I am not sad for dropping the herder, as smasher is just more relavent in a large amount of situations.
I would get a couple sweepers for sure. Even flaying tendrils would kill most of the creatures in your meta.
If there is a lot of blood moon in your meta, I would shift the wastes to the main board just in case you need to path your own creature to get a colorless source.
I would consider smother or darkblast instead of doom blade. Darkblast is great against affinity, infect, and okay against soul sisters.
Has anybody done some real testing with liliana, the last hope? How does it compare to liliana of the veil?
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange