Has anyone had the feeling that the bw eldrazideck is kinda depressing? its white, black and grey - there is no vibrant colour and all the eldrazi or devoid are in muted colours. I kinda miss red, blue and green ;_;
That's the flavor of the deck though. It's like why wastes is our basic land type: the once flourishing land has now been ravaged by the eldrazi, now bland and devoid of any color or life. I, for one, welcome our new eldrazi overlords.
Has anyone looked at Utter End or is it just too expensive? (or just unnecessary?)
Currently building monoblack version for casual but I definitely plan to try a B/W version next.
It seems very versatile for sure. But is is the best option we have available? Probably not. I feel this would fight for the 2-of slot where we have Dismember, Go for the Throat, and Warping Wail all fighting it out. Utter End feels a bit too slow, I'd rather have removal that comes down earlier. I feel like Wail is a strong pick right now for that slot.
We could preemptively set up some contingency plan against Blood Moon. I'm thinking 1-2 copies of Wastes (makes Expedition Map even more useful) and maybe another basic or two. I feel like the tempo version someone introduced earlier in this page would benefit from this kind of lean manabase.
What do you folks think of this MB removal package:
4 PtE
2 Warping Wail
1 Go for the Throat
1 Slaughter Pact
And maybe another Pact in the SB.
What dodges all of these removal spells that we really care about? Really wish we had some kind of Forked Bolt in black...
Strangler feels inconsistent to me and I don't like it. One bad matchup for me has been monocolor fast aggro (Merfolk, Elves) where I want him to shine but getting all the pieces in the right places in time for Strangler to matter is too conditional.
RG Tron is an unwinnable nightmare, full stop.
Burn is very hard and I have pretty much ceded G1 each time I've played it; if I miss Rest for the Weary out of the board I'm also unlikely to win G2/3.
Bogles is unwinnable G1 unless I get lucky with my opening discard spell.
So here's what I am thinking I will try with the currently-available tools. I am still wrapping my head around this version of the build and will evaluate new cards based on my success here. This is what I am thinking and I would greatly appreciate feedback from the forum.
The board now has 7 slots for Tron with a GQ/Extraction plan and Stony Silence to stall them. Burn and Bogles are greatly improved G1 with maindeck Spellskite. One mainboard sweeper (though slow) and 3 in the side for fast aggro, with Skite doing blocking duty.
@Deaddrift: I actually think that looks pretty good, I'm a fan of md All is Dust. I really like Strangler and am not sure I want to drop below 3, but maybe I am just getting luckier w/ the order I get my cards in. The way I see it, worst case scenario Strangler is a 3/2 on turn 2 or 3, not amazing, but a good trading body against aggro, and against most other things he comes out anyway. I would also strongly push for 2 Celestial Purge in the SB. It is good against so much of modern and is only going to get better in the future.
Post OGW we're actually going to need lands that can produce colorless to cast our creatures. This makes Blood Moon much better against us. The reason I feel BW is the strongest variation going forward is we are the best grind/midrange of the three top versions and have the best answers to problem matches like Tron and problem cards like Moon.
The problem I definitely foresee is Blood Moon which I gimped myself against by cutting Celestial Purge. I think I can play through Moon if I can fetch early (big if).
Purge is very good, but the only things I can think of that we don't really have tools for are Moon (other than 2x Disenchant or lucky disruption, which is a marginal game plan at best) or Keranos, God of Storms, where UR and Grixis builds tend to already skew in our favor anyway. Actually I guess Night of Souls' Betrayal is pretty good against a CBW Herder/Souls build too. Dammit! 75 cards is not enough!
Moon is enough of a problem post-Oath with the C-dependent cards that Purge will be mandatory as at least a 2-of in any three color CBW build. I'm not actually sure such a build will ever be playable without C being at most a minor splash, because of the lack of fetches and pain-free duals for CX.
We could preemptively set up some contingency plan against Blood Moon. I'm thinking 1-2 copies of Wastes (makes Expedition Map even more useful) and maybe another basic or two. I feel like the tempo version someone introduced earlier in this page would benefit from this kind of lean manabase.
What do you folks think of this MB removal package:
4 PtE
2 Warping Wail
1 Go for the Throat
1 Slaughter Pact
And maybe another Pact in the SB.
What dodges all of these removal spells that we really care about? Really wish we had some kind of Forked Bolt in black...
I don't think Map is worth playing anymore, nor is Wastes. We have so many playable early game threats now, we don't need to be cracking maps and taking punches early on anymore. Mapping into wastes seems so awful, I'd never want to do that. I'd rather have something to just kill the Blood Moon. And that spell lineup seems fine, I'm thinking about 4 PtE, 2 Wail, 1 Pact. And the answer is Bogles. The matchup is a hellish nightmare. Lili helps a ton, if you play it. But they can figure out how to play around it pretty easily once they know it's there.
I brought up Map because a turn 3 Blood Moon (sometimes turn 2 against Spirit Guide decks) seems hard to contest. 4 Marsh Flats to find that single Plains is rough. Unless I'm missing something (which is totally possible). I know Moon isn't game-breaking, but it definitely puts us in a tight spot
I think Map is also necessary to fix our mana, especially if you are running a lot of the new <> cards. If you just count out the number of B, W, <> sources that people have posted, they're all in the 12-15 range if you don't include map, which is lower than ideal.
Regarding Bogles: On the play Zealous Persecution used to work well for me in response to casting an enchantment, with my other Orzhov build, but BW on T2 is not realistic for this deck. Disenchant can 2 for 1; removing an enchantment will cause Daybreak Coronet to fall off if there is only one other enchantment on the creature. Good players will not play into this though.
The best answer for us is Spellskite. It is outstanding anti-Bogle tech. A 3-of will get it in hand 50% of the time in either your opening 7 or your mull to 6.
I also include Engineered Explosives and Damnation because they can take things out if they don't have an Umbra. But normally they do have an Umbra. All is Dust works great if we can last that long.
I can't see how to get game against Tron and still be able to have a solid plan for Blood Moon in only 75 cards in this shell. I agree that Map seems necessary, but don't forget you can float white in response to their casting, if you are lucky enough to have Disenchant or Celestial Purge in hand at the time.
[EDIT]: Idea: I have two Ghost Quarter main and two SB right now. Maybe the 2 SB GQs become 2x Map to tutor the GQ for Tron and the Plains for Blood Moon. Seems like a plan, though Map is pretty slow against Tron, and either way in that match I am hoping to kill a land and then Extract it, which is also not a very strong plan.
Here is the list i have been working on and testing. Just updated it with some of the new Oath cards, this deck has been the most fun i have had playing magic in a long time, anyways here we go.
I have another tournament report for yall tonight. I'm not overly disappointed on the night, just got bad matchups and draws. The deck still felt powerful outside of the 2 bad matchups.
Round 1 Tezzerator (U/B Artifacts) (2-1) [1-0]
Game 1 he managed to get enough Thopters out before I could draw anything too relevant.. it was kind of awkward but it happens. Game 2 I did was this deck does best... grind. I ripped cards out of his hand and ground my way to victory. He had Trinket Mages into Pithing needles to call Eye of Ugin which made the game take a lot longer though. Game 3 I dominated. He got a little hosed on lands but I used turns 1 and 2 on discard, turn 3 I cast an Oblivion Sower. T4 I swung for 5 and played the 2nd sower in my hand. T5 I swung for 10 and took him to 5 (I cleared the way with a kill spell). He put 2 creatures down and I revealed 2 paths in hand and entered Scoop Phase.
Round 2 Sultai Midrange (1-2) [1-1]
This match I had terrible luck in game 3 which cost me the game pretty much.. but I'll get there in a second. Game 1 I curved T3 blight herder, T4 Oblivion Sower, T5 Tutor for Newlamog, T6 Cast him and swing for lethal with the rest of the team. Game 2 he resolved an early Ashiok and I couldn't draw any midrange eldrazi to save my life. Game 3 I got really unlucky as he inquisitioned a duress from my hand and cast ashio on queue. The next 2 ticks of ashiok hit 3/4 blight herders. The game got really grindy and long and an All is dust stabalized me. He had a Thragtusk, I was at 6 he was at like 26 and I had an oblivion sower and enough mana for Vault. We traded swings (me going first to 11) until he was down to 6. He ends up minusing Jace Architect of Thought looking for an answer and he found the Snap, Golgari Charm and a land. He takes the snapcaster (I have no relic in play and we are both topdecking). Because he no longer has Jace on + to make my tokens 0/1 (which is why he wont he previous game too for the most part. If I had been able to swing with Souls tokens and such it'd have been no problem), I swung out with 2 Spirits and Oblivion Sower knowing that I'll get 2 points of damage in but if I draw an Eye or any of the 3 remaining Oblivion Sowers, 1 remaining Lingering souls or Newlamogg (I had a million billion mana from flooding during the 4 turns I was beating him down with Oblivion Sower). I liked the chances overall of drawing into something before he could. He has to double block the Sower and take 2 from souls to put him down to 4 and me to 18. Post combat he casts the Golgari charm clearing my board. He now has his 3/3 beast. He topdecks a surgical extraction I hadn't seen in either game and hits my sower.. now my outs are essentially Eye, the 1 Lingering Souls or Newlamog.. not good but I have 5 turns with current board state. He hits me to 15. I draw a thoughseize and pass. He draws Garruk Relentless and makes a wolf. I am at 12 on swing. I draw a durress and pass. He then makes another wolf and hits for 5, im at 7. I topdeck a second duress and it's over... ug what a bad series of events. Oh well I can live with that. Variance and all. That mini- Fact or Fiction off Jace was stupid good and bought him back into it. Hindsight I could have swung with just the tokens and he probably flashes in and kills them anyway but now I have Oblivion Sower to block. It would have made his surgical not nearly as good as we probably stare at eachother until one of us draws an actual out.. that's too much hindsight though.
I'll briefly summerize rounds 3 and 4 as I was barely playing magic. Round 3 was Time Warp.dec which I think is almost impossible game 1. I almost got there game 2 with as aggressive a hand as I could but he still got there in the end. Round 3 was Scapeshift which I have almost no answer for out of sideboard. Saw my spellskites both games.. still didn't matter as they bounced it back to my hand with repeal and then won the game on curve anyway. Overall though the deck still felt good against any grindy decks and I was getting extra reps before hand against a couple zoo and burn decks before hand (folks who had heard of the deck but hadn't played against it so we were helping eachother get in reps). I still really like where we sit in the overall meta and some decks I think we just have to shrug our shoulders and let them beat us.
On the Boggles topic.. All is Dust and Spellskite mainboard should help you enough against them. Save Disenchant for Rancor and Spirit Mantle and Chump if you have to. They can gain a million billion life for all I care, we have late game Newlamog to finish them off and if they can't trample or swing through your chumps.. we should have enough turns to get there with damage. I think oddly enough Surgical Extraction comes in in this matchup as well so you can steal as many of those kinds of affects as possible. Game 1 can be a bit rough as your kill spells will be dead draws.
I might relook over the Sideboard and I think a lot of these new cards will probably change out some of the pieces. I think a key thing I might do is toggle between going wide with Blight herder and lingering souls and going large with Reality Smasher, Blight Herder and Oblivion Sower. It really depends on the sideboard cards of our opponents.
The sideboard is crucial!!! I def didn't make my sideboard right, I played tonight at a FNM and went 2-2. Didn't have problems with colored mana, but with getting to 6 mana fast enough or even to 10. I only cast Ulamog twice all night. For that reason I almost feel like this needs more maps to get those temples or another eye of UGIN in case they blow it up.
Regarding my sideboard, I thought I might end up playing against Lantern control but did not, instead got beat by an Amulet of Vigor deck. Which is frustrating cuz I never played against it before and it seems like a bad match up. In fact seems like any creature light combo build is a bad match for us. Thoughts people? Going up against Leyline of Sanctity sucks...
The other deck I lost to was a hate bear deck. 4 colors from what I could tell, lots of value creatures. I had a round bye and I only beat a combo deck. So didn't really get to see what this deck can really do. Round 1 bye, round 2 lose to hate bears, round 3 lose to amulet, round 4, beat a combo deck
Played B/W at my FNM and went 3-0-1: beating infect, esper control and mardu tokens. The draw was against grixis control. Game 1 I won but Game 2 he used a bribery to beat me down with my own Ulamog (couldnt get path before he milled me out. Game 3 i put him to 3 life with souls tokens and he stabilized with a Jace, architect of thought. All my non-token threats were killed before they could get hits in and when i finally got to Ulamog mana my opponent was ulting Jace. I tutored for Ulamog in response (not wanting to lose to another bribery effect) but he grabbed a thoughtseize (with the other half of Jaces ult) and ripped it from my hand. In the end neither of us could kill the other before time ran out.
Yeah, no marsh flats, but I didn't even notice. Caves of Koilos might even be better if the eldrazi in Oath are worth running.
No bojuka bog either, as I don't want tap lands screwing up my curve. Plus, bog has literally cost me a mox in the past (couldn't cast a spell in a legacy finals because of the stupid bog), so you won't catch me running it in any deck I play.
My board is set up for tron and the mirror, as I was expecting a lot of eldrazi decks.
Match 1: Tron
G1 - I go turn 1 inquisition and take his sylvan scrying. He rips a map off the top, assembles the Urzatron and gets a Karn down on Turn 3. Wasteland strangler stalls for two turns, but to no avail.
G2 - Another turn 1 inquisition and I take his crucible of worlds. He has a terrible hand with treble Urza Power Plant and a Pyroclasm. Turn 2 stony silence shuts off all the artifacts he draws into while Blight Herder beats down.I draw a ghost quarter to answer an Urza's mine, but it's overkill at that point.
G3 - I open turn 1 thoughtseize and take a map from his hand. I land stony silence again and we trade crucibles as I disenchant his while he nature's claim mine. I beat down with Blight Herder and tokens for a couple of turns. He eventually draws into the Urza Tron and casts Wurmcoil Engine, but I have the path for it. A turn later, Oblivion sower comes down and I take double ghost quarter from the top of his deck and nuke his only Urza's Mine and sole green source.
Record: 1-0 (2-1)
Match 2: Infect
G1 - My opening hand contains three removal spells: path, go for the throat, and wasteland stranger. I'm in complete control of the game as I path his Turn 2 Inkmoth Nexus and both his basic lands are in his opening hand. LOL. His mana dork is killed by wasteland stranger as I process his Inkmoth. I play a blight herder and oblivion sower. He's at 10 facing lethal on the board next turn when he swings his other inkmoth and pumps it for 10 exactly. I have no blockers or removal except for the go for the throat.
Anyone see the misplay? I should have go for the throat his mana dork and stolen his first Inkmoth Nexus so that I could block instead of processing it back into the graveyard.
Board In - 2 Disenchant, 1 Damnation; Board Out - 2 Expedition Map, 1 Oblivion Sower
G2 - I'm stuck on 1 caves, 2 ghost quarter, and an eye while blighted agent slowly eats me away. I path his spellskite, but it doesn't stop the beats. I pray for a second black source to cast the damnation in my hand, but he has the spell pierce for it anyway.
Record: 1-1 (2-3)
Match 3: Azaban
G1 - We trade discard and spirit tokens. He draws into two 'goyfs, but they're no match for 2 relics. Oblivion sowers and Blight Herders do him in while a topdeck Liliana can do nothing but sac an eldrazi token.
Board In - 2 Celestial Purge, 1 Damnation; Board Out - 2 Inquisition, 1 Thoughtseize
G2 - We both mull to five. We each have 3 lands and two spells, double thoughtseize for him and double damnation for me. After he reliefs me of my mass removal, I top deck relic and double souls. He tries to race him with 'goyf, but it's the most pathetic 'goyf ever as its always a 0/1 thanks to relic.
Record: 2-1 (4-3)
Match 4: Merfolk, splashing white for stony silence and path.
G1 1 I go turn 1 inquisition, turn 2 path lord, turn 3 path lord, turn 4 lingering souls. He mistakes me for BW tokens until I cast Relic and Blight Herder, processing the two lords I path earlier. Despite my awesome opening, he manages to get double master of waves down with 2 more lords. I GQ my spreading seas land and block several masters (merfolk and elemental lords respectively), but the elemental tokens still do me in.
G2 - He goes turn 2 stony silence. I shrug and cast double lingering souls. He negates one, but he can't race 6 spirit tokens while his lords get hit by spot removal.
G3 - I thoughtseize him turn one and take one of two spreading seas. I answer his master of waves with path and then follow it up with oblivion sower for land. Still, he manages to assemble an army of fish. Ulamog finally shows up, removing a master and a lord. I fetch a vault of the archangel with my sole map, going from 1 life to 13. He concedes.
Record: 3-1 (6-4)
Match 5: Jeskai Control
G1 - I punt this one so hard. Early discard shreds his land and double relic insures that Blight Herders are spawning eldrazi. I leave his snapcaster mages in hand because they're only 2/1 beaters with no graveyard. I put a supreme verdict back into his graveyard while he has 5 lands. He top decks the sixth, flashes back the verdict with a snapcaster, and suddenly all my dudes are dead. He draws a manland and proceeds to beat me with it, racing an oblivion sower. I use eye to fetch Ulamog. Instead of casting Ulamog and removing the manland though, I decide to fetch for vault and attack with oblivion sower, activating vault to gain life. Actually, my opponent paths the sower and suddenly I'm dead. I'm so great at Magic.
G2 - Honestly, I don't remember this game at all, but I won. Sorry guys.
G3 - He's stuck on two lands while I set up the GQ/Crucible lock with an eldrazi of some sort beating his face in.
Record: 4-1 (8-5)
Match 6: Bogles
G1 - He mulls to five and I discard his only creature on the play. He can't draw another creature before Oblivion Sowers 1, 2, and 3 shred him to pieces.
G2 - We both mull to six. The details are hazy right now, but I cast Ulamog and remove two auras attached to his bogle. He has me at 1 life with a bogle and some aura that gives it protection from creatures. I attack with Ulamog, then cast oblivon sower to play almost every land in his deck. I have a ton of mana and if I had a second Ulamog, this match would be over. Alas, we go to G3.
G3 - He mulls to five again and tries to rancordryad arbor on turn 2. I go for the throat on his drayd in response and he loses two cards. After that, he's trapped on one land while eldrazi finish him.
Record: 5-1 (10-6)
Match 7: U/R Twin
G1 - I race Vendilion Clique and burn after using discard to deprive him of his cantrips. Fortunately, its a race I win even though I'm at 3.
G2 - He plays one of the Jaces (I can't remember which version), but he forgets to use it and I attack Jace and send the blue headed freak to the grave. I can't remember what happened clearly, but he gives me a heart attack when I have him at 1 and he refuses to concede, pretending to have the twin combo. He remands a blight herder at one point, but apparently he didn't get the memo that they trigger on cast instead of ETB.
Record: 6-1 (12-6)
Match 8: Jeskai Control
G1: Opponent is late and receives a game loss. Judge tells us to proceed to game 2 without sideboarding.
G2: I mull to six and use discard to relieve him of a path to exile. I cast double relic, expedition map, oblivion sower, and sculpt my manabase until I'm playing eldrazi every turn. He's overwhelmed against this onslaught, especially as I have double GQ to answer his manlands.
Record: 7-1 (14-6)
My record is enough to get into Top 8 and we all split prize tickets rather than endure another potential 3 rounds. I have enough for two boxes of modern masters. Not bad for my first major modern tournament Eager to see what Oath brings to the table!
Congratulations on a strong showing Darth Bunny! After your success w/ your current list I'm curious, what kind of changes do you think you'll want to make, if any, post OGW?
Private Mod Note
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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 also played a small tourney yesterday beating zoo and d&t but losing to amulet. Both games I lost I had him on the ropes only to have him win by casting that enchantment and pacting. It was literally his only out both games and he got it both games. That sucked.
Thoughts on storage lands and/or panoramas (esper in our case)? There have been times where I am 1 mana short of doing something useful and need to keep mana up for removal, etc. There, having the option to put a counter on the storage land seems relevant. They produce colorless and can later enable whatever we need (thinking about the white one, due to urborg).
I thought about storage lands, but I am not sure how often we have the a spare mana + an untapped Calciform Pools. That said, it comes in to play untapped and taps for C.
There is also a land that comes into play tapped and adds 1 mana of any color when enters the battlefield. Seems quite good for t1 discard. Seems really good with Primeval titan and Amulet bloom too....
I kinda dig this land if your deck really wants C. I might try it. I don't have the text in front of me, but does the comes into play mana dodge Blood Moon? Can't recall how it is worded.
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"
That's the flavor of the deck though. It's like why wastes is our basic land type: the once flourishing land has now been ravaged by the eldrazi, now bland and devoid of any color or life. I, for one, welcome our new eldrazi overlords.
Currently building monoblack version for casual but I definitely plan to try a B/W version next.
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It seems very versatile for sure. But is is the best option we have available? Probably not. I feel this would fight for the 2-of slot where we have Dismember, Go for the Throat, and Warping Wail all fighting it out. Utter End feels a bit too slow, I'd rather have removal that comes down earlier. I feel like Wail is a strong pick right now for that slot.
What do you folks think of this MB removal package:
4 PtE
2 Warping Wail
1 Go for the Throat
1 Slaughter Pact
And maybe another Pact in the SB.
What dodges all of these removal spells that we really care about? Really wish we had some kind of Forked Bolt in black...
Purge is very good, but the only things I can think of that we don't really have tools for are Moon (other than 2x Disenchant or lucky disruption, which is a marginal game plan at best) or Keranos, God of Storms, where UR and Grixis builds tend to already skew in our favor anyway. Actually I guess Night of Souls' Betrayal is pretty good against a CBW Herder/Souls build too. Dammit! 75 cards is not enough!
Moon is enough of a problem post-Oath with the C-dependent cards that Purge will be mandatory as at least a 2-of in any three color CBW build. I'm not actually sure such a build will ever be playable without C being at most a minor splash, because of the lack of fetches and pain-free duals for CX.
I don't think Map is worth playing anymore, nor is Wastes. We have so many playable early game threats now, we don't need to be cracking maps and taking punches early on anymore. Mapping into wastes seems so awful, I'd never want to do that. I'd rather have something to just kill the Blood Moon. And that spell lineup seems fine, I'm thinking about 4 PtE, 2 Wail, 1 Pact. And the answer is Bogles. The matchup is a hellish nightmare. Lili helps a ton, if you play it. But they can figure out how to play around it pretty easily once they know it's there.
The best answer for us is Spellskite. It is outstanding anti-Bogle tech. A 3-of will get it in hand 50% of the time in either your opening 7 or your mull to 6.
I also include Engineered Explosives and Damnation because they can take things out if they don't have an Umbra. But normally they do have an Umbra. All is Dust works great if we can last that long.
[EDIT]: Idea: I have two Ghost Quarter main and two SB right now. Maybe the 2 SB GQs become 2x Map to tutor the GQ for Tron and the Plains for Blood Moon. Seems like a plan, though Map is pretty slow against Tron, and either way in that match I am hoping to kill a land and then Extract it, which is also not a very strong plan.
Tron is so hard for this build.
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Expedition Map
4 Path to Exile
2 Warping Wail
1 Go for the Throat
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
2 Lingering Souls
2 Wasteland Strangler
4 Blight Herder
4 Oblivion Sower
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
2 Spellskite (Has improved the Burn and Bogles matchups)
2 Reality Smasher (Great finisher omg i want more in here)
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Eye of Ugin
4 Ghost Quarter (Has mad Tron a much easier matchup, also Surgical in SB)
2 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
3 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Caves of Koilos
SB
3 Surgical Extraction
1 Duress
1 Thought-Knot Seer
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Flaying Tendrils
2 Disenchant
3 Stony Silence
1 Spellskite
1 Reality Smasher
U Tron
GW Bogles
RG Loam
UR Blue Breach
RBU Grixis Goryo
BRU Grixis Delver
GBR Jund
GBW Junk
Active Legacy Decks
BR Reanimator
Round 1 Tezzerator (U/B Artifacts) (2-1) [1-0]
Game 1 he managed to get enough Thopters out before I could draw anything too relevant.. it was kind of awkward but it happens. Game 2 I did was this deck does best... grind. I ripped cards out of his hand and ground my way to victory. He had Trinket Mages into Pithing needles to call Eye of Ugin which made the game take a lot longer though. Game 3 I dominated. He got a little hosed on lands but I used turns 1 and 2 on discard, turn 3 I cast an Oblivion Sower. T4 I swung for 5 and played the 2nd sower in my hand. T5 I swung for 10 and took him to 5 (I cleared the way with a kill spell). He put 2 creatures down and I revealed 2 paths in hand and entered Scoop Phase.
Round 2 Sultai Midrange (1-2) [1-1]
This match I had terrible luck in game 3 which cost me the game pretty much.. but I'll get there in a second. Game 1 I curved T3 blight herder, T4 Oblivion Sower, T5 Tutor for Newlamog, T6 Cast him and swing for lethal with the rest of the team. Game 2 he resolved an early Ashiok and I couldn't draw any midrange eldrazi to save my life. Game 3 I got really unlucky as he inquisitioned a duress from my hand and cast ashio on queue. The next 2 ticks of ashiok hit 3/4 blight herders. The game got really grindy and long and an All is dust stabalized me. He had a Thragtusk, I was at 6 he was at like 26 and I had an oblivion sower and enough mana for Vault. We traded swings (me going first to 11) until he was down to 6. He ends up minusing Jace Architect of Thought looking for an answer and he found the Snap, Golgari Charm and a land. He takes the snapcaster (I have no relic in play and we are both topdecking). Because he no longer has Jace on + to make my tokens 0/1 (which is why he wont he previous game too for the most part. If I had been able to swing with Souls tokens and such it'd have been no problem), I swung out with 2 Spirits and Oblivion Sower knowing that I'll get 2 points of damage in but if I draw an Eye or any of the 3 remaining Oblivion Sowers, 1 remaining Lingering souls or Newlamogg (I had a million billion mana from flooding during the 4 turns I was beating him down with Oblivion Sower). I liked the chances overall of drawing into something before he could. He has to double block the Sower and take 2 from souls to put him down to 4 and me to 18. Post combat he casts the Golgari charm clearing my board. He now has his 3/3 beast. He topdecks a surgical extraction I hadn't seen in either game and hits my sower.. now my outs are essentially Eye, the 1 Lingering Souls or Newlamog.. not good but I have 5 turns with current board state. He hits me to 15. I draw a thoughseize and pass. He draws Garruk Relentless and makes a wolf. I am at 12 on swing. I draw a durress and pass. He then makes another wolf and hits for 5, im at 7. I topdeck a second duress and it's over... ug what a bad series of events. Oh well I can live with that. Variance and all. That mini- Fact or Fiction off Jace was stupid good and bought him back into it. Hindsight I could have swung with just the tokens and he probably flashes in and kills them anyway but now I have Oblivion Sower to block. It would have made his surgical not nearly as good as we probably stare at eachother until one of us draws an actual out.. that's too much hindsight though.
I'll briefly summerize rounds 3 and 4 as I was barely playing magic. Round 3 was Time Warp.dec which I think is almost impossible game 1. I almost got there game 2 with as aggressive a hand as I could but he still got there in the end. Round 3 was Scapeshift which I have almost no answer for out of sideboard. Saw my spellskites both games.. still didn't matter as they bounced it back to my hand with repeal and then won the game on curve anyway. Overall though the deck still felt good against any grindy decks and I was getting extra reps before hand against a couple zoo and burn decks before hand (folks who had heard of the deck but hadn't played against it so we were helping eachother get in reps). I still really like where we sit in the overall meta and some decks I think we just have to shrug our shoulders and let them beat us.
On the Boggles topic.. All is Dust and Spellskite mainboard should help you enough against them. Save Disenchant for Rancor and Spirit Mantle and Chump if you have to. They can gain a million billion life for all I care, we have late game Newlamog to finish them off and if they can't trample or swing through your chumps.. we should have enough turns to get there with damage. I think oddly enough Surgical Extraction comes in in this matchup as well so you can steal as many of those kinds of affects as possible. Game 1 can be a bit rough as your kill spells will be dead draws.
I might relook over the Sideboard and I think a lot of these new cards will probably change out some of the pieces. I think a key thing I might do is toggle between going wide with Blight herder and lingering souls and going large with Reality Smasher, Blight Herder and Oblivion Sower. It really depends on the sideboard cards of our opponents.
It just felt super clunky. Maybe I was making huge misplays but it didn't feel like it. Hard to go from something as smooth as Jund/Junk to this.
Regarding my sideboard, I thought I might end up playing against Lantern control but did not, instead got beat by an Amulet of Vigor deck. Which is frustrating cuz I never played against it before and it seems like a bad match up. In fact seems like any creature light combo build is a bad match for us. Thoughts people? Going up against Leyline of Sanctity sucks...
The other deck I lost to was a hate bear deck. 4 colors from what I could tell, lots of value creatures. I had a round bye and I only beat a combo deck. So didn't really get to see what this deck can really do. Round 1 bye, round 2 lose to hate bears, round 3 lose to amulet, round 4, beat a combo deck
2 Eye of Ugin
4 Caves of Koilos
2 Bloodstained Mire
3 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Flooded Strand
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Godless Shrine
3 Ghost Quarter
4 Oblivion Sower
4 Blight Herder
4 Wasteland Strangler
4 Lingering Souls
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Path to Exile
2 Expedition Map
2 Go For the Throat
1 Damnation
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Damnation
3 Rest for the Weary
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Stony Silence
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Celestial Purge
Yeah, no marsh flats, but I didn't even notice. Caves of Koilos might even be better if the eldrazi in Oath are worth running.
No bojuka bog either, as I don't want tap lands screwing up my curve. Plus, bog has literally cost me a mox in the past (couldn't cast a spell in a legacy finals because of the stupid bog), so you won't catch me running it in any deck I play.
My board is set up for tron and the mirror, as I was expecting a lot of eldrazi decks.
Match 1: Tron
G1 - I go turn 1 inquisition and take his sylvan scrying. He rips a map off the top, assembles the Urzatron and gets a Karn down on Turn 3. Wasteland strangler stalls for two turns, but to no avail.
Board In - 2 Stony Silence, 2 Crucible of Worlds, 2 Surgical Extraction, 1 Ghost Quarter, 2 Disenchant; Board Out - 1 Wasteland Stranger, 2 Go For the Throat, 4 Lingering Souls and 2 Expedition Map
G2 - Another turn 1 inquisition and I take his crucible of worlds. He has a terrible hand with treble Urza Power Plant and a Pyroclasm. Turn 2 stony silence shuts off all the artifacts he draws into while Blight Herder beats down.I draw a ghost quarter to answer an Urza's mine, but it's overkill at that point.
G3 - I open turn 1 thoughtseize and take a map from his hand. I land stony silence again and we trade crucibles as I disenchant his while he nature's claim mine. I beat down with Blight Herder and tokens for a couple of turns. He eventually draws into the Urza Tron and casts Wurmcoil Engine, but I have the path for it. A turn later, Oblivion sower comes down and I take double ghost quarter from the top of his deck and nuke his only Urza's Mine and sole green source.
Record: 1-0 (2-1)
Match 2: Infect
G1 - My opening hand contains three removal spells: path, go for the throat, and wasteland stranger. I'm in complete control of the game as I path his Turn 2 Inkmoth Nexus and both his basic lands are in his opening hand. LOL. His mana dork is killed by wasteland stranger as I process his Inkmoth. I play a blight herder and oblivion sower. He's at 10 facing lethal on the board next turn when he swings his other inkmoth and pumps it for 10 exactly. I have no blockers or removal except for the go for the throat.
Anyone see the misplay? I should have go for the throat his mana dork and stolen his first Inkmoth Nexus so that I could block instead of processing it back into the graveyard.
Board In - 2 Disenchant, 1 Damnation; Board Out - 2 Expedition Map, 1 Oblivion Sower
G2 - I'm stuck on 1 caves, 2 ghost quarter, and an eye while blighted agent slowly eats me away. I path his spellskite, but it doesn't stop the beats. I pray for a second black source to cast the damnation in my hand, but he has the spell pierce for it anyway.
Record: 1-1 (2-3)
Match 3: Azaban
G1 - We trade discard and spirit tokens. He draws into two 'goyfs, but they're no match for 2 relics. Oblivion sowers and Blight Herders do him in while a topdeck Liliana can do nothing but sac an eldrazi token.
Board In - 2 Celestial Purge, 1 Damnation; Board Out - 2 Inquisition, 1 Thoughtseize
G2 - We both mull to five. We each have 3 lands and two spells, double thoughtseize for him and double damnation for me. After he reliefs me of my mass removal, I top deck relic and double souls. He tries to race him with 'goyf, but it's the most pathetic 'goyf ever as its always a 0/1 thanks to relic.
Record: 2-1 (4-3)
Match 4: Merfolk, splashing white for stony silence and path.
G1 1 I go turn 1 inquisition, turn 2 path lord, turn 3 path lord, turn 4 lingering souls. He mistakes me for BW tokens until I cast Relic and Blight Herder, processing the two lords I path earlier. Despite my awesome opening, he manages to get double master of waves down with 2 more lords. I GQ my spreading seas land and block several masters (merfolk and elemental lords respectively), but the elemental tokens still do me in.
Board In: 1 Damnation; Board Out: 1 Oblivion Sower
G2 - He goes turn 2 stony silence. I shrug and cast double lingering souls. He negates one, but he can't race 6 spirit tokens while his lords get hit by spot removal.
Board In: 1 Surgical Extraction; Board Out: 1 Expedition Map
G3 - I thoughtseize him turn one and take one of two spreading seas. I answer his master of waves with path and then follow it up with oblivion sower for land. Still, he manages to assemble an army of fish. Ulamog finally shows up, removing a master and a lord. I fetch a vault of the archangel with my sole map, going from 1 life to 13. He concedes.
Record: 3-1 (6-4)
Match 5: Jeskai Control
G1 - I punt this one so hard. Early discard shreds his land and double relic insures that Blight Herders are spawning eldrazi. I leave his snapcaster mages in hand because they're only 2/1 beaters with no graveyard. I put a supreme verdict back into his graveyard while he has 5 lands. He top decks the sixth, flashes back the verdict with a snapcaster, and suddenly all my dudes are dead. He draws a manland and proceeds to beat me with it, racing an oblivion sower. I use eye to fetch Ulamog. Instead of casting Ulamog and removing the manland though, I decide to fetch for vault and attack with oblivion sower, activating vault to gain life. Actually, my opponent paths the sower and suddenly I'm dead. I'm so great at Magic.
Board In: 2 Crucible, 1 Ghost Quarter; Board Out: 1 Vault, 2 Wasteland Stranger
G2 - Honestly, I don't remember this game at all, but I won. Sorry guys.
G3 - He's stuck on two lands while I set up the GQ/Crucible lock with an eldrazi of some sort beating his face in.
Record: 4-1 (8-5)
Match 6: Bogles
G1 - He mulls to five and I discard his only creature on the play. He can't draw another creature before Oblivion Sowers 1, 2, and 3 shred him to pieces.
Board In: 2 Disenchant, 1 Damnation; Board Out: 2 Map, 1 Oblivion Sower
G2 - We both mull to six. The details are hazy right now, but I cast Ulamog and remove two auras attached to his bogle. He has me at 1 life with a bogle and some aura that gives it protection from creatures. I attack with Ulamog, then cast oblivon sower to play almost every land in his deck. I have a ton of mana and if I had a second Ulamog, this match would be over. Alas, we go to G3.
G3 - He mulls to five again and tries to rancor dryad arbor on turn 2. I go for the throat on his drayd in response and he loses two cards. After that, he's trapped on one land while eldrazi finish him.
Record: 5-1 (10-6)
Match 7: U/R Twin
G1 - I race Vendilion Clique and burn after using discard to deprive him of his cantrips. Fortunately, its a race I win even though I'm at 3.
Board In: 2 Disenchant, 1 Surgical Extraction, 2 Celestial Purge; Board Out: 1 Damnation, 1 Oblivion Sower, 2 Wasteland Stranger, 1 Map
G2 - He plays one of the Jaces (I can't remember which version), but he forgets to use it and I attack Jace and send the blue headed freak to the grave. I can't remember what happened clearly, but he gives me a heart attack when I have him at 1 and he refuses to concede, pretending to have the twin combo. He remands a blight herder at one point, but apparently he didn't get the memo that they trigger on cast instead of ETB.
Record: 6-1 (12-6)
Match 8: Jeskai Control
G1: Opponent is late and receives a game loss. Judge tells us to proceed to game 2 without sideboarding.
G2: I mull to six and use discard to relieve him of a path to exile. I cast double relic, expedition map, oblivion sower, and sculpt my manabase until I'm playing eldrazi every turn. He's overwhelmed against this onslaught, especially as I have double GQ to answer his manlands.
Record: 7-1 (14-6)
My record is enough to get into Top 8 and we all split prize tickets rather than endure another potential 3 rounds. I have enough for two boxes of modern masters. Not bad for my first major modern tournament Eager to see what Oath brings to the table!
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 thought about storage lands, but I am not sure how often we have the a spare mana + an untapped Calciform Pools. That said, it comes in to play untapped and taps for C.
I kinda dig this land if your deck really wants C. I might try it. I don't have the text in front of me, but does the comes into play mana dodge Blood Moon? Can't recall how it is worded.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!