Yo... I'm gonna copy and paste my disappointing play in here from the discord and be over it.
I bagged a 3-2 on Saturday, won against Bogles x 2 and one Affinity
Lost to Scapeshift and Burn
I'm facing an 0-2 again, went down to storm and made a big mistake...
My opponent had Baral down in game 2 and I had slag, boil, chalice in hand - 4 mana down... I went with Boil to wipe out his 3 islands, and put him on just a shivian and baral. He went off :-( I was so disappointed in my decision, I also lost game 1 to him going off after I T1'd a Chandra. ROUGH. But, i think Russ's point resonates, I'd probably have gone 4-1 in a Friendly and be 1-1 right now, but I'm playing against better competition so I'll learn more and I am - FeelsBadMan.
I'm brushing it off and looking forward to tighter play, this evening potentially, if not, summer hours for work started so I have a nice fat block of 3.5 hours opening up every Friday beginning at 1:30p.
I WAS TOTALLY in the Ramunap Ruins camp.... until this weekend. I'm a Koth of the Hammer fan - big Koth fan. How bad does it feel to have a turn 2 Koth with 2 Deserts down? TERRIBLE. Or how bad does it feel when you have a T2 Koth, 2 Deserts and your Jeskai opponent taps out to go SEARCHING. AND YOU HAVE BLOOD MOON!!! AND THEY HAVE 0 BASICS!! UGH!!!
I know its hyperbole, but I AM CERTAINLY rethinking that relationship. The non-bo didn't even cross my mind until I think Fluffy or Russ mentioned it casually like - hey watch out for Koth n Deserts n Shh. No one really put up a warning sign like HEY REV!! WATCH OUT!! And I'm 30, I shouldn't need warnings. But I'm in this forum daily like an Orthodox Mountainman. I don't think that conversation was ever had and I think maybe some of the folks with all-seeing-eyes knew in the back of their mind, hey this could happen, but you'll have a mountain to untap - I'm mean c'mon, we run 17 at least. I'm not trying to pass out blame to anyone but myself - but I am also making damn sure that point is considered in the conversation.
Especially when fluff said he's thinking of dialing down the Glorybringer. In my mind I think, oh shoot, I run 1 GB, I would love to sub GB for another Ko... wait... wait.... well just wait and think before you...
Yeah so I wanted to just bring that up. I was sad that I was not as astute as I should have been. Russ has mentioned the importance of shear reps and clearly 2 Friendlys a week is, well to put it technically - weak. I'm gonna up my practice regiment to try for 5 comps a week. I felt like there was a lot of rust on my competitive edge in MTGO, but I've got plenty of elbow grease to polish with. I think the bruises from the weekend will embolden my flame. Still riding a 7-3 record over last two comp leagues [7-5 including my current].
Congratulations on your Top Bludlust! You are making me a fan of Molten Rain in the side because my area has a lot of tron decks. Do you think it is time to bring ol' Magus of the Moon back or do you think the format is still resilient to moon effects? The uptick of control in the meta is a little worrying to me, but we can always adapt. It's what the deck is meant to do after all. I was able to understand your tournament report very easily! Small tip, I tend to take notes after a round to make writing tournament reports easier.
I'm debating that myself. If I bring it back, he'll be a singleton in the board.
Yo... I'm gonna copy and paste my disappointing play in here from the discord and be over it.
I bagged a 3-2 on Saturday, won against Bogles x 2 and one Affinity
Lost to Scapeshift and Burn
I'm facing an 0-2 again, went down to storm and made a big mistake...
My opponent had Baral down in game 2 and I had slag, boil, chalice in hand - 4 mana down... I went with Boil to wipe out his 3 islands, and put him on just a shivian and baral. He went off :-( I was so disappointed in my decision, I also lost game 1 to him going off after I T1'd a Chandra. ROUGH. But, i think Russ's point resonates, I'd probably have gone 4-1 in a Friendly and be 1-1 right now, but I'm playing against better competition so I'll learn more and I am - FeelsBadMan.
I'm brushing it off and looking forward to tighter play, this evening potentially, if not, summer hours for work started so I have a nice fat block of 3.5 hours opening up every Friday beginning at 1:30p.
I WAS TOTALLY in the Ramunap Ruins camp.... until this weekend. I'm a Koth of the Hammer fan - big Koth fan. How bad does it feel to have a turn 2 Koth with 2 Deserts down? TERRIBLE. Or how bad does it feel when you have a T2 Koth, 2 Deserts and your Jeskai opponent taps out to go SEARCHING. AND YOU HAVE BLOOD MOON!!! AND THEY HAVE 0 BASICS!! UGH!!!
I know its hyperbole, but I AM CERTAINLY rethinking that relationship. The non-bo didn't even cross my mind until I think Fluffy or Russ mentioned it casually like - hey watch out for Koth n Deserts n Shh. No one really put up a warning sign like HEY REV!! WATCH OUT!! And I'm 30, I shouldn't need warnings. But I'm in this forum daily like an Orthodox Mountainman. I don't think that conversation was ever had and I think maybe some of the folks with all-seeing-eyes knew in the back of their mind, hey this could happen, but you'll have a mountain to untap - I'm mean c'mon, we run 17 at least. I'm not trying to pass out blame to anyone but myself - but I am also making damn sure that point is considered in the conversation.
Especially when fluff said he's thinking of dialing down the Glorybringer. In my mind I think, oh shoot, I run 1 GB, I would love to sub GB for another Ko... wait... wait.... well just wait and think before you...
Yeah so I wanted to just bring that up. I was sad that I was not as astute as I should have been. Russ has mentioned the importance of shear reps and clearly 2 Friendlys a week is, well to put it technically - weak. I'm gonna up my practice regiment to try for 5 comps a week. I felt like there was a lot of rust on my competitive edge in MTGO, but I've got plenty of elbow grease to polish with. I think the bruises from the weekend will embolden my flame. Still riding a 7-3 record over last two comp leagues [7-5 including my current].
HollaAtChaBoi
Lots to unpack here.
1. the loss to storm knocked you out and now you know....Baral is warning lights up. should have pushed a chalice on two there. If he's got remand you lose anyway, no matter what you do. If chalice sticks, then you can follow up with a boil. either chalice on two or slagstorm. Boil was the worst choice there, but hey, no you know. Killing 75% of your opponents lands is so tempting. sometimes you have to resist the siren's call.
2. Since that play to storm knocked you out, you won't forget it anytime soon. These are the losses I'm talking about. what did you lose on that? 12 tickets? 120 play points? who cares...chump change. when you are 5-0 at a GP and your next opponent is storm, that lesson will be worth a heck of a lot more and it's a lesson you'll remember because it stung AND you wrote about it. well done.
3. Ruins finally gets a victory for losing a game. I like the ruins, but I'm still not sold on the full set. I think 2 is the right number. I've yet to win a game where I cracked two of them. Has anybody else? let me know if you need two or more ruins to win a game. Also, I'm out on scavager grounds. I know I suggested it, but I really like mutavault. It's such an important aggro piece when you need to be aggressive, like vs tron or jeskai control. we already have game vs the graveyard decks since most are all creature based.
4. still debating whether magus is good in the board. With todd stevens and counters company doing well in paper, I still think leaning toward damping matrix is the right call, but who knows. that's my flex slot and it's gonna be magus or matrix....game time decision.
Thanks Russ. I def did the math and said 75% of all your lands with one card? Sign me up!
And I just lost the match... i'm 0-2 in that league right now, but def not giving up. The lesson was sincerely well worth it, so I'll say thanks for pushing me that way and I'll take the Fluffy Oath to playing better magic, and the Russ advice to play more Competitive Leagues.
I'm in with the downgrade to 2 Ruins for the moment. I'm thinking about going down GB and up Haz MD.
I've been thinking about Stormbreath too. A friend of mine plays Ponza so we always chatter about what's the best 3RR Dragon in the meta for his and my deck. Celestial Purge sucks. I always think, oh I have Chalice on 1, my creatures are safe... at at ahhhh. I know there are plenty of != 1 CMC removal spells, but a Chalice on 1 gives me a lot of confidence in my ground beaters security - which may be unfounded. Maybe Glorybringer is not optimal currently, but if anyone is thinking of running a dragon, I think StormyB might be worth a shot. And like someone previously noted, koth -2 with a StormyB on the field could lights out.
Thanks for the bandages Russ. I was like, damn this dude is gonna kill me when I tell him how hard I effed this one up lol. But I learned... promise lol.
As far as Glorybringer is concerned, I've tried it for a week or so playing quite a few matches and while situationally good, wasn't for me. 5 CMC can be restrictive and I regularly run 22 lands. Though it does fly, it simply doesn't do anything behind a bridge. For a spot like this, I prefer Hazoret. She's difficult to answer outside of white (and Dismember) and plays the aggro game quite well and at the very least, blocks and pings for 2.
Ramunap Ruins: I've won multiple game at this point running 4 Ruins and 1 Scavenger Grounds. Most of the time, its to deal the last two damage. At the 1K event I played this weekend, during my Humans match, I landed early bridge and quickly began to flood out. During that flood, I drew 3 Ruins while Blood Moon was nowhere in sight to rack up 6 points of damage. I haven't noticed any conflicting issues with it yet and I've been running a LOT of games through xmage and paper. If anything, the more awkward draw features Mountain, Gemstone Caverns, and Scavenger Grounds on the board. The only time that I've had an issue with Koth was when I mis-sequenced my land drops going Ruins, Mountain - Rituals into Koth only to make a summoning sick Mountain but that was my fault. I think its more unlikely to happen but that's my personal experience.
Magus of the Moon: This little guy was problem for every opponent when it entered the battlefield. Sure, Magus is inherently weaker, but Moon effects are still very powerful in majority of the match ups. For me, I'm going to keep running 1 and my decision to do so was influenced by the control match up. Yes it dies to Bolt, but they run 3 typically and its not always in the opener.
Last thoughts on Boil: I've definitely gotten opponents with this card before but only when they tapped out at the end of my turn. 99% of the time, they only do this to Cryptic something I tried doing meaning I'm going to need lots of mana to warrant a Cryptic and still have mana left to Boil. My experience with control has been, if I'm not seriously disrupting them in some way before turn 4, the game is pretty much unwinnable. We have no way to filter for more threats besides a resolved Chandra and they draw cards most turns finding new answers for everything we do. Resolved Jace is also pretty much GG as they just control the top of our deck and counter anything we may draw. Long story short, I don't think a 4 mana 'gotcha' spell is where we want to be because we are already probably losing at the point of casting
I am a big advocate of Mutavault because it has so much utility. I think Koth-less versions of the deck are fine playing the full 4 Ramunap Ruins because the Mountain issue comes up less, but versions that do play Koth might want 2 tops. I'm kinda on team GB just because it gives me a way to deal with MOST planeswalkers that I face. The soft nerf to Chandra meant it was harder for me to deal with things like LoTV. I think Magus is good right now as an additional moon effect, but that's from looking at the recent Open in Louisville. I don't have the deck on MODO so I tend to just look at paper events.
To those of you who are in the Discord as well, I'm sorry for the double-post, but I feel like expressing my thoughts to those who might not yet be on there:
Boil is still yet to be cast and I'm still not sure it deserves the slot. Is this really the card we want for the UW Control matchup? Unsure as of yet, time will tell.
Scab-Clan Berserker continues to impress, The Furious 6 are sided in maybe 70% of my matchups and win me games I have no business winning.
Damping Matrix is a card that I'm still not sure about right now. I think it falls in the same category as Torbor Orb for me; rarely useful but sometimes amazing. That could be enough to earn the slot to be honest simply because our lock can be very fragile.
4-Abrade seems correct to me. It's utility is just unparalleled and having them in the main frees up some extra SB slots which I am very hungry for.
Rituals VS. Mind Stone... I've switched teams again, sorry @Revenged2 , we had a good run. @Stickballruss convinced me. There's just too many opportunities where the explosive hands just win you games to warrant the long game plan.
Also, I've yet to have Ramunap be an issue with Koth and I run two Koths. But who knows, maybe my time will come too. Ramunap won me another game today against 4-Color Death's Shadow, so I'm still riding that high, perhaps.
To those of you who are in the Discord as well, I'm sorry for the double-post, but I feel like expressing my thoughts to those who might not yet be on there:
Boil is still yet to be cast and I'm still not sure it deserves the slot. Is this really the card we want for the UW Control matchup? Unsure as of yet, time will tell.
Scab-Clan Berserker continues to impress, The Furious 6 are sided in maybe 70% of my matchups and win me games I have no business winning.
Damping Matrix is a card that I'm still not sure about right now. I think it falls in the same category as Torbor Orb for me; rarely useful but sometimes amazing. That could be enough to earn the slot to be honest simply because our lock can be very fragile.
4-Abrade seems correct to me. It's utility is just unparalleled and having them in the main frees up some extra SB slots which I am very hungry for.
Rituals VS. Mind Stone... I've switched teams again, sorry @Revenged2 , we had a good run. @Stickballruss convinced me. There's just too many opportunities where the explosive hands just win you games to warrant the long game plan.
Also, I've yet to have Ramunap be an issue with Koth and I run two Koths. But who knows, maybe my time will come too. Ramunap won me another game today against 4-Color Death's Shadow, so I'm still riding that high, perhaps.
So, your maindeck is extremely similar to mine, except I run 2 abrade and 2 chainwhirler and a P&K and you run 4 abrade and a koth. I like it. sidebaord is also similar, where I run spellskite and hazoret, you got the two berserkers. I like it. Great job on the 4-1. I didn't get to see the match, but how did the jeskai deck beat you? seems like 6 eidolon effects should have something to say post board.
also, don't get down on boil because use didn't use it. it's only a 5 game league and rememeber, I'm prepping for a larger event. over the course of 15 rounds, I'm going to see jeskai control several times, I guarantee it. boil isn't a gothca card, it's an "I Win" card. the gotcha moment occurs when you pass with three lands up and ritual/boil in response to them doing anything.
The jeskai player used EE on 2 to kill my first Eidolon, and then found a bolt to kill my second. Then Rabblemaster was a turn too slow before he found enough pieces to combo off. It definitely feels like a match we should have won, but sometimes your opponent just finds all the answers, oh well.
I've tried Boil in 3 leagues now, actually. I've definitely witnessed the power of it in the past, but perhaps it is better in paper than online. I feel like I see more control at big events than I do online. I think it stems from people wanting to feel more "in control" of their performance at a big event. But I'm just hypothesizing. I'll try it out some more and see how I feel when I actually get to cast it.
Thanks for the feedback, Russ. If there's one request I have of you, it's that you try out Scab-Clans in at least one league! I've been so impressed with them!
also, don't forget, the clock is a thing. I've timed out a lot of times playing control on mtgo and that doesn't happen on paper. the time is not shared on mtgo. so, if my turn is 5 seconds and my opponent takes 5 minutes, we both get screwed. Online, he just gets the match loss. So yes, in paper, control is much more prevalent. Plus, if you want to get a quick league in, you can't play control. an average league with burn takes 75 monutes. Pyro prison, 90 minutes to two hours. Control? you're looking at 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 hours. not good when you are trying to go infinite and get a bunch of prizes quickly.
I'll give the berserker a shot, but it's going to be alongside eidolon, not in place of. I like it, just can't find more than a few aggro slots in my board. I'll replace a damping matrix with one during my next league and let you know how I do.
Hello everyone, joined the forum a few months back saying I would slowly build this deck and finally I finished it minus chalices. I know I know Chalices are key but I’m on a budget and got sick of waiting to play the deck so I took it to a 4 round 17 person Modern event at my LGS. I've never played Modern in paper but I have played this deck quite a bit on Xmage, and I also frequent Fluffys streams (natem861 on twitch). Anyway onto the results. I ended up going 2nd place 3-1 losing in the last round. I can’t remember my exact hands but I will try and explain what I remember. First here is my decklist
As some may have realized I have 2 Bonfires and 2 ratchet bomb main board, as well as some interesting cards sideboard such as dragons claw and witchbane orb. These are all so I can sort of kind of make the loss of Chalice not hurt as much.
Round 1 Mardu Burn 2-0-1
Game 1:
I am on the play, I keep a turn 2 moon with rabblemaster and Metamorph in hand. I realize he’s on burn and play my moon turn 2, eventually I get down a Rabble, clone it, and top deck a rabble. I’m at 4 life he’s at 6. I swing with two 9/2 rabbles and 6 tokens he blocks a rabble with a goblin guide and calls the judge over. The judge confirms what he believed the last card in his hand did. He used Deflecting Palm on my other rabblemaster and since my tokens did lethal we both died and drew.
I used fluffys sideboard guide with a few modifications to fit my list.
Game 2:
Hes on the play and turn one plays the one black card he splashed for, Bloodchief ascension and I played Ratchet Bomb turn 1 and proceeded to blow up two ascensions and a swiftspear turn 3. I lock him out with bridge and moon before dealing the final blow with a Bonfire off the top for 6. Win with 17 life
Game 3:
Lock him out quickly, eidolons take the burn spells and eventually overwhelm him with Spirit Guide and Eidolon beats
Round 2 Jeskai control 2-0-0
Seems like a great matchup for us, realized he was on control early and got an early blood moon down both games I won with 16 and 20 life in the games.
Round 3 Green White Value Town 2-1-0
Game 1:
Had him on the full lock but he was constantly getting hierarchs I needed to kill. He scooped after I killed the 6th Hierarch (eternal witness’)
Game 2:
I had him locked with 2 bridges but he had double Reclamation Sage
And swung in
Game 3:
There was 2 minutes left in the round so he suggested we “mull to 0” and first one to flip 5 lands wins as to not have a tie. I flip 5 lands first and Im 3-0
Round 4 U-Turns
I had played next to this guy the whole night and we had discussed each others decks in depth. I figured I didn’t have much game on him and was praying for Russ’ Boils in the sideboard. He beat me 2-0 and I couldn’t really do much about it.
Some take aways from playing this in paper for the first time. Bonfire was outstanding, performed EXTREMELY well. Ratchet Bomb was ok. Buried Ruin was interesting but I never won or lost a game from it or Ramunap Ruins since I had Blood Moons down most games.
Please give me feedback and suggestions on card choice and help with the turns match up!
Without chalice, relics is the mainboard key. helps you going deeper into your deck and less mana needed. I try it Main at the Moment and chalice in side. So many control and gravebased in paper
Gonna give you some advice here....don't ever do that flip land thing again. Fnm....nobody cares. If that was an event, you'd both be disqualified. If he suggests it and you don't call anjedge over immediately, you'd be disqualified, even if you said no. So please be careful of that at any event other than the comfort of your lgs, and even there, be careful.
Nice job on the tournament report; chalice-less pyro. Well done and good write up!
Gonna give you some advice here....don't ever do that flip land thing again. Fnm....nobody cares. If that was an event, you'd both be disqualified. If he suggests it and you don't call anjedge over immediately, you'd be disqualified, even if you said no. So please be careful of that at any event other than the comfort of your lgs, and even there, be careful.
Nice job on the tournament report; chalice-less pyro. Well done and good write up!
I didn’t even think of that, but it’s understandable. Is there any way we don’t have a draw in that scenario that doesn’t get us disqualified?
Gonna give you some advice here....don't ever do that flip land thing again. Fnm....nobody cares. If that was an event, you'd both be disqualified. If he suggests it and you don't call anjedge over immediately, you'd be disqualified, even if you said no. So please be careful of that at any event other than the comfort of your lgs, and even there, be careful.
Nice job on the tournament report; chalice-less pyro. Well done and good write up!
I didn’t even think of that, but it’s understandable. Is there any way we don’t have a draw in that scenario that doesn’t get us disqualified?
All you can do is play the game and ask if they want to concede or offer a draw. You can only use information you have in the game....meaning you both can't look at the next few cards in your deck and then determine who would have won. One can offer to concede based on the initial few turns. this happens all the time and is perfectly legal. what's not legal is using any information that is not available in that game, including looking at the top several cards of your deck.
Now, onto more fun stuff.....Turns. Eidolon of the great revel is AMAZING vs them. Hopefully you took out bridges and brought those in. If it was mono blue turns, blood moons also need to go. Keep up the good work with the deck!
There was 2 minutes left in the round so he suggested we “mull to 0” and first one to flip 5 lands wins as to not have a tie. I flip 5 lands first and I'm 3-0
Hello, resident L1 here as @StickballRuss had said this is a highly illegal move in tournament play the proper response to anyone offering a way to win the game other than playing it out is to raise and HOLD your hand up and call the judge. Wait tell they arrive and explain the situation. If the judge determines that this situation actually happened the player will be immediately dropped and disqualified. In lower settings with a more inexperienced players like an fnm level they might be scolded and told not to do it again for lack of understanding on the players part. If it was found out that both players decided determine a match through random lots both players are up for a big fat DQ. Please just play the game disqualifying a person is s pain and a lot of paperwork and 9/10 times the perpetrator shows no remorse for their actions.
Game 3:
There was 2 minutes left in the round so he suggested we “mull to 0” and first one to flip 5 lands wins as to not have a tie. I flip 5 lands first and Im 3-0
You shoulda set him up and said, "Well since i only run 10 basics, can we count SSGs and Rituals as lands too?" snicker snicker
But in all seriousness the OGs are right. Planeswalker points are on the line man.... Very precious. Play it out.
Need a better plan than Boil to stop uw control. Boil is going to get countered pretty much 95% of the time. If they make it to 4 lands the game is practically unwinable vs a decent pilot.
If Boil is the only solution, going to have to play copy or copies of Boseiju. Then it is an easy target for Field of Ruins.
Anyone have suggestions. I hate losing to Blue deck.
Yeah this is a Russ tip. Boil is not a spell you plan to resolve. You BOIL their EOT so that you get free reign on your turn.
I think checkmate has had lackluster feelings about Boil as well, and I did too, but I realized I wasn't playing it properly. I was actually trying to land it, and you're supposed to fake that. Wait till their EOT, rip Boil with a followup on your turn, like a Rabs, or Chandra or something. I'm not saying you'll win from here, but if you're running Boil in your board, its intended play is really not to resolve, but to give you a window to resolve something backbreaking on your turn.
I also HATE BLUE... Because of this, I made room for a 1 of Defense Grid in my board to go along with the Boil. It's your world though.
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I bagged a 3-2 on Saturday, won against Bogles x 2 and one Affinity
Lost to Scapeshift and Burn
I'm facing an 0-2 again, went down to storm and made a big mistake...
My opponent had Baral down in game 2 and I had slag, boil, chalice in hand - 4 mana down... I went with Boil to wipe out his 3 islands, and put him on just a shivian and baral. He went off :-( I was so disappointed in my decision, I also lost game 1 to him going off after I T1'd a Chandra. ROUGH. But, i think Russ's point resonates, I'd probably have gone 4-1 in a Friendly and be 1-1 right now, but I'm playing against better competition so I'll learn more and I am - FeelsBadMan.
I'm brushing it off and looking forward to tighter play, this evening potentially, if not, summer hours for work started so I have a nice fat block of 3.5 hours opening up every Friday beginning at 1:30p.
I WAS TOTALLY in the Ramunap Ruins camp.... until this weekend. I'm a Koth of the Hammer fan - big Koth fan. How bad does it feel to have a turn 2 Koth with 2 Deserts down? TERRIBLE. Or how bad does it feel when you have a T2 Koth, 2 Deserts and your Jeskai opponent taps out to go SEARCHING. AND YOU HAVE BLOOD MOON!!! AND THEY HAVE 0 BASICS!! UGH!!!
I know its hyperbole, but I AM CERTAINLY rethinking that relationship. The non-bo didn't even cross my mind until I think Fluffy or Russ mentioned it casually like - hey watch out for Koth n Deserts n Shh. No one really put up a warning sign like HEY REV!! WATCH OUT!! And I'm 30, I shouldn't need warnings. But I'm in this forum daily like an Orthodox Mountainman. I don't think that conversation was ever had and I think maybe some of the folks with all-seeing-eyes knew in the back of their mind, hey this could happen, but you'll have a mountain to untap - I'm mean c'mon, we run 17 at least. I'm not trying to pass out blame to anyone but myself - but I am also making damn sure that point is considered in the conversation.
Especially when fluff said he's thinking of dialing down the Glorybringer. In my mind I think, oh shoot, I run 1 GB, I would love to sub GB for another Ko... wait... wait.... well just wait and think before you...
Yeah so I wanted to just bring that up. I was sad that I was not as astute as I should have been. Russ has mentioned the importance of shear reps and clearly 2 Friendlys a week is, well to put it technically - weak. I'm gonna up my practice regiment to try for 5 comps a week. I felt like there was a lot of rust on my competitive edge in MTGO, but I've got plenty of elbow grease to polish with. I think the bruises from the weekend will embolden my flame. Still riding a 7-3 record over last two comp leagues [7-5 including my current].
HollaAtChaBoi
I'm debating that myself. If I bring it back, he'll be a singleton in the board.
Lots to unpack here.
1. the loss to storm knocked you out and now you know....Baral is warning lights up. should have pushed a chalice on two there. If he's got remand you lose anyway, no matter what you do. If chalice sticks, then you can follow up with a boil. either chalice on two or slagstorm. Boil was the worst choice there, but hey, no you know. Killing 75% of your opponents lands is so tempting. sometimes you have to resist the siren's call.
2. Since that play to storm knocked you out, you won't forget it anytime soon. These are the losses I'm talking about. what did you lose on that? 12 tickets? 120 play points? who cares...chump change. when you are 5-0 at a GP and your next opponent is storm, that lesson will be worth a heck of a lot more and it's a lesson you'll remember because it stung AND you wrote about it. well done.
3. Ruins finally gets a victory for losing a game. I like the ruins, but I'm still not sold on the full set. I think 2 is the right number. I've yet to win a game where I cracked two of them. Has anybody else? let me know if you need two or more ruins to win a game. Also, I'm out on scavager grounds. I know I suggested it, but I really like mutavault. It's such an important aggro piece when you need to be aggressive, like vs tron or jeskai control. we already have game vs the graveyard decks since most are all creature based.
4. still debating whether magus is good in the board. With todd stevens and counters company doing well in paper, I still think leaning toward damping matrix is the right call, but who knows. that's my flex slot and it's gonna be magus or matrix....game time decision.
Keep up the good word Dev.
And I just lost the match... i'm 0-2 in that league right now, but def not giving up. The lesson was sincerely well worth it, so I'll say thanks for pushing me that way and I'll take the Fluffy Oath to playing better magic, and the Russ advice to play more Competitive Leagues.
I'm in with the downgrade to 2 Ruins for the moment. I'm thinking about going down GB and up Haz MD.
I've been thinking about Stormbreath too. A friend of mine plays Ponza so we always chatter about what's the best 3RR Dragon in the meta for his and my deck. Celestial Purge sucks. I always think, oh I have Chalice on 1, my creatures are safe... at at ahhhh. I know there are plenty of != 1 CMC removal spells, but a Chalice on 1 gives me a lot of confidence in my ground beaters security - which may be unfounded. Maybe Glorybringer is not optimal currently, but if anyone is thinking of running a dragon, I think StormyB might be worth a shot. And like someone previously noted, koth -2 with a StormyB on the field could lights out.
Thanks for the bandages Russ. I was like, damn this dude is gonna kill me when I tell him how hard I effed this one up lol. But I learned... promise lol.
Ramunap Ruins: I've won multiple game at this point running 4 Ruins and 1 Scavenger Grounds. Most of the time, its to deal the last two damage. At the 1K event I played this weekend, during my Humans match, I landed early bridge and quickly began to flood out. During that flood, I drew 3 Ruins while Blood Moon was nowhere in sight to rack up 6 points of damage. I haven't noticed any conflicting issues with it yet and I've been running a LOT of games through xmage and paper. If anything, the more awkward draw features Mountain, Gemstone Caverns, and Scavenger Grounds on the board. The only time that I've had an issue with Koth was when I mis-sequenced my land drops going Ruins, Mountain - Rituals into Koth only to make a summoning sick Mountain but that was my fault. I think its more unlikely to happen but that's my personal experience.
Magus of the Moon: This little guy was problem for every opponent when it entered the battlefield. Sure, Magus is inherently weaker, but Moon effects are still very powerful in majority of the match ups. For me, I'm going to keep running 1 and my decision to do so was influenced by the control match up. Yes it dies to Bolt, but they run 3 typically and its not always in the opener.
Last thoughts on Boil: I've definitely gotten opponents with this card before but only when they tapped out at the end of my turn. 99% of the time, they only do this to Cryptic something I tried doing meaning I'm going to need lots of mana to warrant a Cryptic and still have mana left to Boil. My experience with control has been, if I'm not seriously disrupting them in some way before turn 4, the game is pretty much unwinnable. We have no way to filter for more threats besides a resolved Chandra and they draw cards most turns finding new answers for everything we do. Resolved Jace is also pretty much GG as they just control the top of our deck and counter anything we may draw. Long story short, I don't think a 4 mana 'gotcha' spell is where we want to be because we are already probably losing at the point of casting
(2-0) UB Mill
(2-0) 4-Color Death's Shadow
(1-2) Jeskai Ascendancy Combo
(2-1) Blue Prison
(2-0) Storm
Boil is still yet to be cast and I'm still not sure it deserves the slot. Is this really the card we want for the UW Control matchup? Unsure as of yet, time will tell.
Scab-Clan Berserker continues to impress, The Furious 6 are sided in maybe 70% of my matchups and win me games I have no business winning.
Damping Matrix is a card that I'm still not sure about right now. I think it falls in the same category as Torbor Orb for me; rarely useful but sometimes amazing. That could be enough to earn the slot to be honest simply because our lock can be very fragile.
4-Abrade seems correct to me. It's utility is just unparalleled and having them in the main frees up some extra SB slots which I am very hungry for.
Rituals VS. Mind Stone... I've switched teams again, sorry @Revenged2 , we had a good run. @Stickballruss convinced me. There's just too many opportunities where the explosive hands just win you games to warrant the long game plan.
Also, I've yet to have Ramunap be an issue with Koth and I run two Koths. But who knows, maybe my time will come too. Ramunap won me another game today against 4-Color Death's Shadow, so I'm still riding that high, perhaps.
So, your maindeck is extremely similar to mine, except I run 2 abrade and 2 chainwhirler and a P&K and you run 4 abrade and a koth. I like it. sidebaord is also similar, where I run spellskite and hazoret, you got the two berserkers. I like it. Great job on the 4-1. I didn't get to see the match, but how did the jeskai deck beat you? seems like 6 eidolon effects should have something to say post board.
also, don't get down on boil because use didn't use it. it's only a 5 game league and rememeber, I'm prepping for a larger event. over the course of 15 rounds, I'm going to see jeskai control several times, I guarantee it. boil isn't a gothca card, it's an "I Win" card. the gotcha moment occurs when you pass with three lands up and ritual/boil in response to them doing anything.
I've tried Boil in 3 leagues now, actually. I've definitely witnessed the power of it in the past, but perhaps it is better in paper than online. I feel like I see more control at big events than I do online. I think it stems from people wanting to feel more "in control" of their performance at a big event. But I'm just hypothesizing. I'll try it out some more and see how I feel when I actually get to cast it.
Thanks for the feedback, Russ. If there's one request I have of you, it's that you try out Scab-Clans in at least one league! I've been so impressed with them!
I'll give the berserker a shot, but it's going to be alongside eidolon, not in place of. I like it, just can't find more than a few aggro slots in my board. I'll replace a damping matrix with one during my next league and let you know how I do.
russ
4x Goblin Rabblemaster
2x Goblin Chainwhirler
1x Walking Ballista
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
Ramp (8)
4x Desperate Ritual
4x Simian Spirit Guide
Removal (10)
4x Abrade
2x Bonfire of the Damned
2x Ratchet Bomb
1x Slagstorm
1x Sweltering Suns
4x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Lock Pieces (8)
4x Ensnaring Bridge
4x Blood Moon
Lands (21)
13x Mountains
4x Ramunap Ruins
3x Gemstone Caverns
1x Buried Ruin
4x Eidolon of the Great Revel
2x Grafdigger’s Cage
1x Koth of the Hammer
1x Hazoret the Fervent
1x Spellskite
1x Witchbane Orb
1x Damping Matrix
1x Dragon’s Claw
1x Torpor Orb
As some may have realized I have 2 Bonfires and 2 ratchet bomb main board, as well as some interesting cards sideboard such as dragons claw and witchbane orb. These are all so I can sort of kind of make the loss of Chalice not hurt as much.
Round 1 Mardu Burn 2-0-1
Game 1:
I am on the play, I keep a turn 2 moon with rabblemaster and Metamorph in hand. I realize he’s on burn and play my moon turn 2, eventually I get down a Rabble, clone it, and top deck a rabble. I’m at 4 life he’s at 6. I swing with two 9/2 rabbles and 6 tokens he blocks a rabble with a goblin guide and calls the judge over. The judge confirms what he believed the last card in his hand did. He used Deflecting Palm on my other rabblemaster and since my tokens did lethal we both died and drew.
I used fluffys sideboard guide with a few modifications to fit my list.
Game 2:
Hes on the play and turn one plays the one black card he splashed for, Bloodchief ascension and I played Ratchet Bomb turn 1 and proceeded to blow up two ascensions and a swiftspear turn 3. I lock him out with bridge and moon before dealing the final blow with a Bonfire off the top for 6. Win with 17 life
Game 3:
Lock him out quickly, eidolons take the burn spells and eventually overwhelm him with Spirit Guide and Eidolon beats
Round 2 Jeskai control 2-0-0
Seems like a great matchup for us, realized he was on control early and got an early blood moon down both games I won with 16 and 20 life in the games.
Round 3 Green White Value Town 2-1-0
Game 1:
Had him on the full lock but he was constantly getting hierarchs I needed to kill. He scooped after I killed the 6th Hierarch (eternal witness’)
Game 2:
I had him locked with 2 bridges but he had double Reclamation Sage
And swung in
Game 3:
There was 2 minutes left in the round so he suggested we “mull to 0” and first one to flip 5 lands wins as to not have a tie. I flip 5 lands first and Im 3-0
Round 4 U-Turns
I had played next to this guy the whole night and we had discussed each others decks in depth. I figured I didn’t have much game on him and was praying for Russ’ Boils in the sideboard. He beat me 2-0 and I couldn’t really do much about it.
Some take aways from playing this in paper for the first time. Bonfire was outstanding, performed EXTREMELY well. Ratchet Bomb was ok. Buried Ruin was interesting but I never won or lost a game from it or Ramunap Ruins since I had Blood Moons down most games.
Please give me feedback and suggestions on card choice and help with the turns match up!
Nice job on the tournament report; chalice-less pyro. Well done and good write up!
I didn’t even think of that, but it’s understandable. Is there any way we don’t have a draw in that scenario that doesn’t get us disqualified?
All you can do is play the game and ask if they want to concede or offer a draw. You can only use information you have in the game....meaning you both can't look at the next few cards in your deck and then determine who would have won. One can offer to concede based on the initial few turns. this happens all the time and is perfectly legal. what's not legal is using any information that is not available in that game, including looking at the top several cards of your deck.
Now, onto more fun stuff.....Turns. Eidolon of the great revel is AMAZING vs them. Hopefully you took out bridges and brought those in. If it was mono blue turns, blood moons also need to go. Keep up the good work with the deck!
Hello, resident L1 here as @StickballRuss had said this is a highly illegal move in tournament play the proper response to anyone offering a way to win the game other than playing it out is to raise and HOLD your hand up and call the judge. Wait tell they arrive and explain the situation. If the judge determines that this situation actually happened the player will be immediately dropped and disqualified. In lower settings with a more inexperienced players like an fnm level they might be scolded and told not to do it again for lack of understanding on the players part. If it was found out that both players decided determine a match through random lots both players are up for a big fat DQ. Please just play the game disqualifying a person is s pain and a lot of paperwork and 9/10 times the perpetrator shows no remorse for their actions.
You shoulda set him up and said, "Well since i only run 10 basics, can we count SSGs and Rituals as lands too?" snicker snicker
But in all seriousness the OGs are right. Planeswalker points are on the line man.... Very precious. Play it out.
If Boil is the only solution, going to have to play copy or copies of Boseiju. Then it is an easy target for Field of Ruins.
Anyone have suggestions. I hate losing to Blue deck.
I think checkmate has had lackluster feelings about Boil as well, and I did too, but I realized I wasn't playing it properly. I was actually trying to land it, and you're supposed to fake that. Wait till their EOT, rip Boil with a followup on your turn, like a Rabs, or Chandra or something. I'm not saying you'll win from here, but if you're running Boil in your board, its intended play is really not to resolve, but to give you a window to resolve something backbreaking on your turn.
I also HATE BLUE... Because of this, I made room for a 1 of Defense Grid in my board to go along with the Boil. It's your world though.