I went 3-1 at FNM with my normal list. My assassin's trophies were in the mail I just got them SO I will at least get to test them out this friday. I lost to sultai in R1 which cut me outa top 4 contention Here I wish I had trophy as I was staring down a kalitas with a cast down in hand...I beat mardu pyro, 8 rack and something else I forget. Here's my new list, I only have 3 trophy currently. I'm undecided if 4 trophy is better over a pulse. probably?
another possible version of this list with no oaths although I've been enjoying them. more consistent I guess but can and will suffer a little more to top decks. SB still up for debates. My meta has a lot of midrange in it but smatters of a bunch of other things. Elves seems to be on the uptick.
One last version with mana dorks. I'm not sure I would play this version as the discard has been pretty important but if I'm expecting more midrangy matchups I would probably want the dorks over discard.
Boreal Druid is actually probably best in the mana dork spot. Discard seems hit or miss. It's so disappointing opening a hand with none in it. I'm not sure there's enough of a payoff for just ramping into a mid-rangy threat. "Kill the Bird" is still a thing. T2 TKS is mighty tempting though.
I've been testing Vraska but in a straight BG shell. I like her. She might not be good here though. I find I mostly just cannibalize the manabase. There's a difference doing that with 2-3 CMC topdecks and 4-5 CMC topdecks. Not sure what to cut other than Oath.
Someone on Discord put it best: "I want 1.5 Pulse." I've been running 2 but that's up in the air until I figure out how many Trophies and Fatal Pushes I wnat to run.
If you are running a full 12+ eldrazi then maybe boreal but even then I have a hard time justifying it over hierarch or maybe also birds. Casting your colored spells on time is pretty huge.
My only experience with vraska is in arena and she's fine but rarely great. She does help a lot in the very late game. Her plus is brutal
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Modern: BG eldrazi midrange BWG Abzan value evolution BUG BUG Midrange
Well It's been a long time since I was last able to play some modern so it was nice to get back on the horse. I've been playing this list and I like it so far.
I went 2-1-1 on friday losing to 4 color shadow (list that won Dallas) I played realllllyy poorly so i deserved the loss. Had I played optimally I think it's more than beatable. That list is fragile if you have the removal. Otherwise it just punishes you super hard for any sort of stumbles. Hopefully I learn from making bad plays haha. I beat mono red prowess and naya zoo pretty handily and then drew to counter company. He had rhonas 2/3 games and That's one card I just have so much trouble against. Had it not been for that card in g3 I easily would have been able to beat him.
My thoughts on the list: I can't decide if I want the 2 brutalities in the main. They have always been overall pretty good for me so it's hard to want to cut them but at the same time perhaps I want the consistency of 4 push 4 trophy. I think I may try that out and move brutalities to the SB. My meta is also mega littered with GBx decks so I'm trying to think of some more tech to fight them. I think this may be a good time to bust out imp's mischief and or a Rhonas the indomitable myself. There's still plenty of other decks around that I obviously can't go overboard on random cards so I'm not sure the best but mischief seems like a good place to be in my inbred meta. I would love to have more eldrazi like an endbringer but it's just so sketchy with trophy and liliana around. Time will tell maybe it's fine as it only needs to stick around a turn or 2 for it to be worth it. Nissa, vital force may just be better.
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Modern: BG eldrazi midrange BWG Abzan value evolution BUG BUG Midrange
Went 3-1 on Friday losing to naya zoo r1 which put me in 9th place I made a large misplay g3 where I played a tapped land on the draw facing down an experiment 1. I figured how much damage could that really do. He untaps plays a vexing devil and goblin guide and attacks. OUCH. If I had just played an untapped land and kept up my push I would have been able to delay long enough to get down some blockers. I needed to rip a board wipe and never did but I didn't give myself the chance. Live and learn (hopefully).
I beat, sultai midrange, 8 rack and merfolk. Not too much to say, although sultai has gotten a LOT better with trophy. I liked his build but I don't think he played optimally and tree top/liliana last hope just wrecked him. Merfolk stumbled game 3 and I just ran him over with a clutch maelstrom pulse. That can be tough and 8 rack, well, I dunno. It feels like it should be a tough matchup but I've never actually lost to it in a very long time. I think having trophy main helps a lot for sure. In game 2 I thoughtseize him revealing 5 lands, smallpox and raven's crime. Boy did that crime go the distance haha.
Still undecided on the 2 brutalities and swapping for push/trophy. I just don't know. They are rarely ever bad and sometimes they are MUCH better than either of those 2 cards. Sometimes they are worse. Might still keep them for now. I dunno
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FNM Tournament report We had about 50 players at our black friday FNM. We had some notable attendees like Dav Shiels - GP winner, Sky mason - GP winner, Rich Shay - vintage pro and a couple pro tour competitors among others. So it wasn't a soft fnm haha.
r1: 4 color saheeli combo
Not going to go into too much detail. This felt very very easy. With so much removal and interaction I'm honestly not sure how they even with this matchup.
1-0
r2 abzan counters company.
g1 I run him over after we play back and forth for a little bit. I know what he's on ahead of time so I made sure to keep a hand that can deal with the combo. g2 I keep a 1 landser with a bunch of 2 drops and some cheap GY hate. I figure if i draw a land in 3 draws I'll be fine. I didn't and lost horribly. In hindsight I need to not ever do that again...Game 3 was a long drawn out one but I run out of gas eventually and can't compete with his Rhonas.
1-1
r3 mono blue tron
I was excited to play this match as it is favorable for me. I have 6 main deck ways to turn off tron and I don't have to deal with ulamog. I'm always excited to play Utron even though it's rare. I also knew what I was up against so I new I needed trophies and fields to show up. They did and I was able to get the removal I needed to stop huge walkers. It also helped my goyfs were always 6/7s. g2 got even worse for him as I add in more hate. I played around counters but TKS is such a beating in this match.
2-1
r4 jund vengevine
I'm not sure what he's on at first but figure out it's a vengevine list. I manage to deal with his threats and keep him off any sort of shenanigans. I thought he was much more all in combo and in g2 was stuck with a lot of GY hate and got smushed. g3 I remove surgicals and go back to a more typical set up I would do for jund. As expected g3 was long and drawn out but my top end is so much better than his and smushers took it home.
3-1
r5 GR titan shift
I was afraid of this matchup. I don't really have any good ways to interact with valakut or scapeshift. G1 I kept him off lands as best I could but i missed my 4th and 5th lands by a turn and that was huge. Had I been on the play I think I would have gotten there but I was 1 turn too late and he had the scapeshift and 7 lands and I was at 18. g2 i run him over very fast with some discard and he's unable to do anything about it. g3 we actually have a pretty long game after I thoughtseize his scapeshift seeing as second one then surgical them out. With step 1 completed I just needed to dodge prime time until I found answers which I did but he never drew any of the 3. I was able to finish him off pretty easily from here.
4-1
Bonus round while waiting for top 8: merfolk
g1 I run him over very fast despite it being a fairly close race. He shut off a temple which slightly screwed me for a bit till I was able to rip another land and play my guys. g2 he draws a bunch of vials and I was able to pulse them, haha felt good. He was light on mana and only really being able to play 1 guy a turn after that point was all I needed. My guys are far bigger and making sure I play around the lords and it's not really too bad. I do know from previous plays that things can get outa hand real quick with spreading seas and lords so thankfully that wasn't too much of an issue here. Trophy has been such a wonderful addition to this deck it's pretty dumb.
5-1
top 8 vs jeskai control
g1 I keep a hand with some discard and a bunch of goyfs. We play a lot of back and forth and I just run him out of resources, not run too badly into supreme verdict and my 3rd goyf gets the job done. g2 I get the eldrazi dream and t2 tks into t3 smusher. He of course is eventually able to deal with them but by that time he has but 1 lightning helix and a snapcaster in play and a couple lands in hand. I get down a kalitas, kill his snapcaster and from there I dodge 1 turn of removal for a quick win. This match felt pretty easy for me but from experience it has never felt easy. For me UW has ALWAYS been the harder matchup I was glad he was on jeskai where bolts and helix are pretty bad.
6-1
We split top 4. Top 4 was gTron, dredge, infect and GB eldrazi. Top 8 had KCI, 4 color shadow, jeskai control and 1 other I don't remember. I made a few changes prior to the tourney in moving brutalities to SB and adding a treetop and another scooze. I miss the utility of brutality but I think the consistency if more important. I really liked those changes and will stick with them for now. The additional manland was huge in the jund match. Smusher and trophy were MVPs. Smasher is such a hell of a card. I love it. I love having FoR too and the deck synergizes so well. I can't see myself playing anything else.
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r1 storm
g1 I miss land drops for 5 turns and die on t8 when he has a single card in hand, past in flames and I am stuck on 3 lands with lethal next turn. I missed my 3rd land for a while and never hit my 4th with a TKS in hand..brutal. g2 we have a good game and he tries to go off through some disruption. basically he double manamorphose, no cards in hand and flips into an empty the warrens, of course, and I don't see any of my wraths or pulses...We play a few extra games for fun and they actually went a lot more like I thought they would...aka, I slaughter him mercilessly. That's magic for ya, sometimes variance is on your side, sometimes not.
0-1
r2 metalwork colossus combo
this deck despite it being jank is actually very resilient. It's similar to KCI but instead of a really stupid and BS combo it just poops out artifacts and recurs colossus. g1 I would say it's like a 80-20 or better in his favor. g2 my SB cards get me there and in g3 he losses to his deck. Draws lots of lands and useless cards like nature's claims.
1-1
r3 burn
fun turn with me having 2 4/5 goyfs a liliana TLH on 2 loyalty, him at 15 and me at 2 life. I'm trying to think how on earth I can deal 15 in 1 turn. So i know that minusing lili makes them 5/6 so I start with that, flipping a reality smasher and well, i take that, cast and smush for 15 hahaha oh man totally stole that game. I LOVE smasher. g2 he just gets TOTALLY run over i don't think i dropped below 10 health. brutality into discard and fast beats. GG
2-1
r4 hardened scales
I win in 3 very hard games. I could not believe how hard this deck was to play against. he just has so much value and his guys get so huge almost everything is must answer. To be honest I think i only won because he played poorly. He missed a lot of triggers of various sorts. I need to play against this more, I think I could have made better choices too along the way. I know how the deck plays but not having reps against it I know I played suboptimally. Even with huge goyfs and scoozes I always felt behind.
3-1
Came in 9th missing out on breakers. We had 31 people which means we were 1 short of having 5 rounds. 4 rounds really sucks especially at 31 people. What can you do. Sadly no top 8 means no more modern for me but got to play cube so I guess it's fine
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Modern: BG eldrazi midrange BWG Abzan value evolution BUG BUG Midrange
Another top 8 in the books for me at our 40 person FNM. Same list I've been on, Rockdrazi, no changes
r1 sultai midrange
g1 I just completely bury him. These matches seem to be whomever gets the first tracker wins. G2 he gets tracker and then I get buried. g3 I keep a hand with 2 eldrazi temples and 3 tks and 2 stone uncastable cards. I kept because it's a neat hand that never happens but I knew it was risky, if I never draw another land I just can't cast anything. WEELLLL that's exactly what happened. literally never drew a 3rd land and he was able to come back.
0-1
r2 hardened scales
both games were pretty easy now that I have a bit more experience in how the deck plays. Flaying tendrils MVP but with the right draws this deck is really scary. It has such awesome grind to it.
1-1
r3 UR wildfire
total brew but he had a bunch of land destroy and what not like blood moons and frost titans. It was kinda like skred red in a way, semi prisony but much worse. smushers put in work as did assassin's trophy.
2-1
r4 rock
we trade a LOT of resources and much back and forth. Honestly they were very fun games but my threats usually line up much better in these GBx mirrors. I beat him in 2 with goys and scoozes and trackers. just good ol fashioned magic.
3-1
r5 counters company
g1 i Just totally bury him with removal and hard beats and smusher to finish him off. g2 I get totally buried under his tracker/knight of reliquary combo. those 2 cards play very nicely together. g3 we have a mega long game. At one point i cast flaying tendrils and like 6 for 2 him (had to lose a treetop to trade with a courser) Eventually I get out kalitas and then a scooze who got monstrous and he ran out of answers.
4-1
top 8: jund
I was happy to play this as in general my threats line up and in my experience I would say I'm favored albeit slightly. However jund did jund things and his removal lined up perfectly and BBE's only hit gas despite so many potentially bad flips, was a close game tho. g2 I keep a 2 colored lands with 2 scoozes and a push but largely medium hand. I debated mulling looking for either more early game or more lands and probably should have but who wants to mull in an attrition matchup where every card counts. I eventually get to my 3rd land but that was it and just drew all my top end. Only playing 1 card a turn for 6-7 turns obviously is not going to beat jund.
4-2
I run 24 lands and got stuck on lands in very important games. Variance is always a thing and at 24 lands I guess I'll be prone to screw more than flood. Better mull decisions would have helped for sure but they were reasonable 7's against grindy decks. I only had to mull once for real vs Rock throughout the night and I will be more wary of this in the future. Overall I played pretty well and didn't make any obvious mistakes so I can't complain.
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Went 3-1 at FNM with rockdrazi and came in 9th No deck list changes. Played vs Rich Shay so that's always exciting. Also played a couple non tier decks although one was actually pretty scary.
r1 counters company
g1 stuck on 2 lands and die. g2 had a good start but he got out 2 trackers and a knight of the reliquary and I was on damnation or bust. didn't happen. I play against this player a lot and last week gave him some tips as my meta has a LOT of GBx. That definitely came back to bite me haha.
0-1
g2 storm
This was the Rich Shay Match. We go to 3 games and have a ver nerve wracking g3 with me at 3 life through a bunch of gobos. I had to dodge bolt for a few turns and managed to do so. I made some poor decisions and should have wiped the gobos immediately and that put me in a really bad spot. now I know.
1-1
g3 seismic assault/loam
THis was actually a very cool deck that's pretty scary. The loam engine with assault is gross. we went to 3 games but I managed to get there g3 with huge beats. Goyf gets huge in this match and the explosiveness of smasher is hard to deal with. Scooze was MVP though. I underestimated countryside crusher and he WRECKED me g2.
2-1
g4 mono black devotion
g1 I jusr roll over him pretty easily. g2 he plays an early obliterator and I have no way to answer it. g3 he bring in an absurd amount of SB cards and they were pretty bad. He gets stuck on 3 mana and I was able to kill him pretty easy as 1 card a turn from his side with no way to pump his dread shades or play obliterators worked out for me.
3-1
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Forgot an update last week but I went a sad 2-3 losing to dredge, merfolk and storm. I think I made some suboptimal choices vs the combo decks and certainly misplayed vs merfolk which punished me huge. Dredge is really scary with creeping chill. That card is so dumb. This FNM went much better and had a large 42 player turn out, I blame it on me forgetting my playmat last friday haha.
r1 mono W eldrazi taxes
These games weren't close at all. We have a little back and forth but my guys outclass his by a mile even though he has eldrazi. I just have so much more removal that answers everything.
1-0 (2-0)
r2 grixis DS
g1 he makes a strange block when he throws his 5/5 DS into my smasher at 8 life. I was fine with that obviously. I'm at 14. he then plays 2 gurmags. I play tracker draw some cards, find the removal I need and swing in for lethal. G2 he floods a bit holding up totally irrelevant counterspells like disdainful stroke and stubby D and I roll over him with goyfs and scooze.
2-0 (4-0)
r3 burn
g1 I get run over by cheap guys and forget to t1 fatal push thinking I could just do it t2 and still be fine. Not doing so put me far behind and eventually even farther when he boros charms to save his eidolon and then I'm in a really bad spot with a hand FULL of 1-3 drops. g2 was similar I eventually get locked under eidolon at 2 life and a smasher on the table but I didn't see kalitas, or obstinate or another smasher and obviously he found a spell after a couple turns.
2-1 (4-2)
r4 GB
g1 I just have the right removal and strip him of all his lilianas. g2 we had a long wonderful game of magic. It was probably the best game i've played in a long while. So much back and forth and at one point we had dueling scoozes, then stare downs, then advantages swapped back and forth, but tracker won me this game hands down with smashers. Tracker drew me like 10 cards literally. I eventually overwhelm him and he can't answer smasher with a couple goyfs. Such a good game.
3-1 (6-2)
r5 grixis as foretold
g1 he floods a lot after keeping a 5 land hand. g2 I just have a ton of answers and all he's doing is thoughtseizing me over and over to very little effect honestly. He gets to a point he's at like 12 life and just a couple of big guys after some discard and he's got nothing to stop them. I thought he was just on grixis control I never saw the as foretolds.
4-1 (8-2)
top 8: GB infect
I was really excited to play this match. g1 I get super lucky ripping assassin's trophy into fatal push back to back to stop his 2 inkmoth nexi. The trophy was huge as he went to become immense it for lethal. the next one was as I was at 6 poison but having the answer let my goyf and TKS easily cruise in for the win. g2 I just have more removal and liliana last hope killed or found me the guys I needed. I had a good hand and things lined up well. The match felt easy but I know it's not, if i miss on removal i know I can just immediately lose. Glad I didn't I guess
5-1 (10-2)
summary:
I never played a g3 all night which was very strange but I'm not going to complain. The deck felt great as always and certainly performed. I'm still debating some SB changes as I'm hoping to attend SCG Worcester next Saturday but I'm not sure I will be able to. I'm think I'm going to experience less midrange than in my meta. Basically more amulet/titan/spirits. I'm not sure there's much I can do to stop those matches honestly. I don't have a lot of experience vs those 3 decks but they all feel like really bad matchups when I have played them. Going to have to figure something out. GB has been doing well in my meta overall in a few different varieties of straight GB (normal, rockdrazi and infect) this week had those 3 decks in top 8. last week had 2 straight versions in top 8. There's a guy who top 8's with it almost every week. Almost everyone has been converted off jund for one reason or another.
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Current Decks:
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange BWG Abzan value evolution BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
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2 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
3 tireless tracker
4 thought-knot seer
3 reality smasher
spells
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
3 fatal push
4 oath of nissa
3 assassin's trophy
2 collective brutality
2 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
1 maelstrom pulse
2 llanowar wastes
2 Blooming marsh
4 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
3 swamp
2 forest
1 twilight mire
1 treetop village
1 hissing quagmire
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
2 surgical extraction
2 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
1 yahenni's expertise
1 maelstrom pulse
1 thrun, the last troll
1 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
1 reclamation sage
1 fulminator mage
1 golgari charm
2 damping sphere
1 pithing needle
another possible version of this list with no oaths although I've been enjoying them. more consistent I guess but can and will suffer a little more to top decks. SB still up for debates. My meta has a lot of midrange in it but smatters of a bunch of other things. Elves seems to be on the uptick.
3 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
4 tireless tracker
4 thought-knot seer
3 reality smasher
spells
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
4 fatal push
4 assassin's trophy
2 collective brutality
2 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
1 maelstrom pulse
2 llanowar wastes
1 Blooming marsh
4 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
3 swamp
2 forest
1 twilight mire
1 treetop village
2 hissing quagmire
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
2 surgical extraction
2 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
1 yahenni's expertise
1 maelstrom pulse
1 thrun, the last troll
1 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
1 reclamation sage
1 fulminator mage
1 golgari charm
2 damping sphere
1 pithing needle
One last version with mana dorks. I'm not sure I would play this version as the discard has been pretty important but if I'm expecting more midrangy matchups I would probably want the dorks over discard.
3 noble hierarch
2 birds of paradise
3 scavenging ooze
3 tarmogoyf
4 tireless tracker
4 thought-knot seer
3 reality smasher
spells
4 fatal push
4 assassin's trophy
2 collective brutality
2 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
2 llanowar wastes
2 Blooming marsh
4 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
3 swamp
2 forest
1 twilight mire
1 treetop village
1 hissing quagmire
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
2 surgical extraction
2 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
1 yahenni's expertise
1 maelstrom pulse
1 thrun, the last troll
1 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
1 reclamation sage
1 fulminator mage
1 golgari charm
2 damping sphere
1 pithing needle
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
I've been testing Vraska but in a straight BG shell. I like her. She might not be good here though. I find I mostly just cannibalize the manabase. There's a difference doing that with 2-3 CMC topdecks and 4-5 CMC topdecks. Not sure what to cut other than Oath.
Someone on Discord put it best: "I want 1.5 Pulse." I've been running 2 but that's up in the air until I figure out how many Trophies and Fatal Pushes I wnat to run.
My only experience with vraska is in arena and she's fine but rarely great. She does help a lot in the very late game. Her plus is brutal
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
2 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
3 tireless tracker
4 thought-knot seer
3 reality smasher
spells
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
3 fatal push
4 oath of nissa
3 assassin's trophy
2 collective brutality
2 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
1 maelstrom pulse
2 llanowar wastes
2 Blooming marsh
4 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
3 swamp
2 forest
1 twilight mire
1 treetop village
1 hissing quagmire
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
2 surgical extraction
2 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
1 yahenni's expertise
1 maelstrom pulse
1 thrun, the last troll
1 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
1 reclamation sage
1 fulminator mage
1 golgari charm
2 damping sphere
1 pithing needle
I went 2-1-1 on friday losing to 4 color shadow (list that won Dallas) I played realllllyy poorly so i deserved the loss. Had I played optimally I think it's more than beatable. That list is fragile if you have the removal. Otherwise it just punishes you super hard for any sort of stumbles. Hopefully I learn from making bad plays haha. I beat mono red prowess and naya zoo pretty handily and then drew to counter company. He had rhonas 2/3 games and That's one card I just have so much trouble against. Had it not been for that card in g3 I easily would have been able to beat him.
My thoughts on the list: I can't decide if I want the 2 brutalities in the main. They have always been overall pretty good for me so it's hard to want to cut them but at the same time perhaps I want the consistency of 4 push 4 trophy. I think I may try that out and move brutalities to the SB. My meta is also mega littered with GBx decks so I'm trying to think of some more tech to fight them. I think this may be a good time to bust out imp's mischief and or a Rhonas the indomitable myself. There's still plenty of other decks around that I obviously can't go overboard on random cards so I'm not sure the best but mischief seems like a good place to be in my inbred meta. I would love to have more eldrazi like an endbringer but it's just so sketchy with trophy and liliana around. Time will tell maybe it's fine as it only needs to stick around a turn or 2 for it to be worth it. Nissa, vital force may just be better.
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
I beat, sultai midrange, 8 rack and merfolk. Not too much to say, although sultai has gotten a LOT better with trophy. I liked his build but I don't think he played optimally and tree top/liliana last hope just wrecked him. Merfolk stumbled game 3 and I just ran him over with a clutch maelstrom pulse. That can be tough and 8 rack, well, I dunno. It feels like it should be a tough matchup but I've never actually lost to it in a very long time. I think having trophy main helps a lot for sure. In game 2 I thoughtseize him revealing 5 lands, smallpox and raven's crime. Boy did that crime go the distance haha.
Still undecided on the 2 brutalities and swapping for push/trophy. I just don't know. They are rarely ever bad and sometimes they are MUCH better than either of those 2 cards. Sometimes they are worse. Might still keep them for now. I dunno
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
3 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
3 tireless tracker
4 thought-knot seer
3 reality smasher
spells
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
4 fatal push
4 oath of nissa
3 assassin's trophy
2 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
1 maelstrom pulse
2 llanowar wastes
1 Blooming marsh
4 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
3 swamp
2 forest
1 twilight mire
2 treetop village
1 hissing quagmire
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
3 surgical extraction
1 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
3 collective brutality
1 maelstrom pulse
1 Obstinate baloth
1 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
1 reclamation sage
1 fulminator mage
1 golgari charm
1 damping sphere
r1: 4 color saheeli combo
Not going to go into too much detail. This felt very very easy. With so much removal and interaction I'm honestly not sure how they even with this matchup.
1-0
r2 abzan counters company.
g1 I run him over after we play back and forth for a little bit. I know what he's on ahead of time so I made sure to keep a hand that can deal with the combo. g2 I keep a 1 landser with a bunch of 2 drops and some cheap GY hate. I figure if i draw a land in 3 draws I'll be fine. I didn't and lost horribly. In hindsight I need to not ever do that again...Game 3 was a long drawn out one but I run out of gas eventually and can't compete with his Rhonas.
1-1
r3 mono blue tron
I was excited to play this match as it is favorable for me. I have 6 main deck ways to turn off tron and I don't have to deal with ulamog. I'm always excited to play Utron even though it's rare. I also knew what I was up against so I new I needed trophies and fields to show up. They did and I was able to get the removal I needed to stop huge walkers. It also helped my goyfs were always 6/7s. g2 got even worse for him as I add in more hate. I played around counters but TKS is such a beating in this match.
2-1
r4 jund vengevine
I'm not sure what he's on at first but figure out it's a vengevine list. I manage to deal with his threats and keep him off any sort of shenanigans. I thought he was much more all in combo and in g2 was stuck with a lot of GY hate and got smushed. g3 I remove surgicals and go back to a more typical set up I would do for jund. As expected g3 was long and drawn out but my top end is so much better than his and smushers took it home.
3-1
r5 GR titan shift
I was afraid of this matchup. I don't really have any good ways to interact with valakut or scapeshift. G1 I kept him off lands as best I could but i missed my 4th and 5th lands by a turn and that was huge. Had I been on the play I think I would have gotten there but I was 1 turn too late and he had the scapeshift and 7 lands and I was at 18. g2 i run him over very fast with some discard and he's unable to do anything about it. g3 we actually have a pretty long game after I thoughtseize his scapeshift seeing as second one then surgical them out. With step 1 completed I just needed to dodge prime time until I found answers which I did but he never drew any of the 3. I was able to finish him off pretty easily from here.
4-1
Bonus round while waiting for top 8: merfolk
g1 I run him over very fast despite it being a fairly close race. He shut off a temple which slightly screwed me for a bit till I was able to rip another land and play my guys. g2 he draws a bunch of vials and I was able to pulse them, haha felt good. He was light on mana and only really being able to play 1 guy a turn after that point was all I needed. My guys are far bigger and making sure I play around the lords and it's not really too bad. I do know from previous plays that things can get outa hand real quick with spreading seas and lords so thankfully that wasn't too much of an issue here. Trophy has been such a wonderful addition to this deck it's pretty dumb.
5-1
top 8 vs jeskai control
g1 I keep a hand with some discard and a bunch of goyfs. We play a lot of back and forth and I just run him out of resources, not run too badly into supreme verdict and my 3rd goyf gets the job done. g2 I get the eldrazi dream and t2 tks into t3 smusher. He of course is eventually able to deal with them but by that time he has but 1 lightning helix and a snapcaster in play and a couple lands in hand. I get down a kalitas, kill his snapcaster and from there I dodge 1 turn of removal for a quick win. This match felt pretty easy for me but from experience it has never felt easy. For me UW has ALWAYS been the harder matchup I was glad he was on jeskai where bolts and helix are pretty bad.
6-1
We split top 4. Top 4 was gTron, dredge, infect and GB eldrazi. Top 8 had KCI, 4 color shadow, jeskai control and 1 other I don't remember. I made a few changes prior to the tourney in moving brutalities to SB and adding a treetop and another scooze. I miss the utility of brutality but I think the consistency if more important. I really liked those changes and will stick with them for now. The additional manland was huge in the jund match. Smusher and trophy were MVPs. Smasher is such a hell of a card. I love it. I love having FoR too and the deck synergizes so well. I can't see myself playing anything else.
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
r1 storm
g1 I miss land drops for 5 turns and die on t8 when he has a single card in hand, past in flames and I am stuck on 3 lands with lethal next turn. I missed my 3rd land for a while and never hit my 4th with a TKS in hand..brutal. g2 we have a good game and he tries to go off through some disruption. basically he double manamorphose, no cards in hand and flips into an empty the warrens, of course, and I don't see any of my wraths or pulses...We play a few extra games for fun and they actually went a lot more like I thought they would...aka, I slaughter him mercilessly. That's magic for ya, sometimes variance is on your side, sometimes not.
0-1
r2 metalwork colossus combo
this deck despite it being jank is actually very resilient. It's similar to KCI but instead of a really stupid and BS combo it just poops out artifacts and recurs colossus. g1 I would say it's like a 80-20 or better in his favor. g2 my SB cards get me there and in g3 he losses to his deck. Draws lots of lands and useless cards like nature's claims.
1-1
r3 burn
fun turn with me having 2 4/5 goyfs a liliana TLH on 2 loyalty, him at 15 and me at 2 life. I'm trying to think how on earth I can deal 15 in 1 turn. So i know that minusing lili makes them 5/6 so I start with that, flipping a reality smasher and well, i take that, cast and smush for 15 hahaha oh man totally stole that game. I LOVE smasher. g2 he just gets TOTALLY run over i don't think i dropped below 10 health. brutality into discard and fast beats. GG
2-1
r4 hardened scales
I win in 3 very hard games. I could not believe how hard this deck was to play against. he just has so much value and his guys get so huge almost everything is must answer. To be honest I think i only won because he played poorly. He missed a lot of triggers of various sorts. I need to play against this more, I think I could have made better choices too along the way. I know how the deck plays but not having reps against it I know I played suboptimally. Even with huge goyfs and scoozes I always felt behind.
3-1
Came in 9th missing out on breakers. We had 31 people which means we were 1 short of having 5 rounds. 4 rounds really sucks especially at 31 people. What can you do. Sadly no top 8 means no more modern for me but got to play cube so I guess it's fine
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
r1 sultai midrange
g1 I just completely bury him. These matches seem to be whomever gets the first tracker wins. G2 he gets tracker and then I get buried. g3 I keep a hand with 2 eldrazi temples and 3 tks and 2 stone uncastable cards. I kept because it's a neat hand that never happens but I knew it was risky, if I never draw another land I just can't cast anything. WEELLLL that's exactly what happened. literally never drew a 3rd land and he was able to come back.
0-1
r2 hardened scales
both games were pretty easy now that I have a bit more experience in how the deck plays. Flaying tendrils MVP but with the right draws this deck is really scary. It has such awesome grind to it.
1-1
r3 UR wildfire
total brew but he had a bunch of land destroy and what not like blood moons and frost titans. It was kinda like skred red in a way, semi prisony but much worse. smushers put in work as did assassin's trophy.
2-1
r4 rock
we trade a LOT of resources and much back and forth. Honestly they were very fun games but my threats usually line up much better in these GBx mirrors. I beat him in 2 with goys and scoozes and trackers. just good ol fashioned magic.
3-1
r5 counters company
g1 i Just totally bury him with removal and hard beats and smusher to finish him off. g2 I get totally buried under his tracker/knight of reliquary combo. those 2 cards play very nicely together. g3 we have a mega long game. At one point i cast flaying tendrils and like 6 for 2 him (had to lose a treetop to trade with a courser) Eventually I get out kalitas and then a scooze who got monstrous and he ran out of answers.
4-1
top 8: jund
I was happy to play this as in general my threats line up and in my experience I would say I'm favored albeit slightly. However jund did jund things and his removal lined up perfectly and BBE's only hit gas despite so many potentially bad flips, was a close game tho. g2 I keep a 2 colored lands with 2 scoozes and a push but largely medium hand. I debated mulling looking for either more early game or more lands and probably should have but who wants to mull in an attrition matchup where every card counts. I eventually get to my 3rd land but that was it and just drew all my top end. Only playing 1 card a turn for 6-7 turns obviously is not going to beat jund.
4-2
I run 24 lands and got stuck on lands in very important games. Variance is always a thing and at 24 lands I guess I'll be prone to screw more than flood. Better mull decisions would have helped for sure but they were reasonable 7's against grindy decks. I only had to mull once for real vs Rock throughout the night and I will be more wary of this in the future. Overall I played pretty well and didn't make any obvious mistakes so I can't complain.
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
r1 counters company
g1 stuck on 2 lands and die. g2 had a good start but he got out 2 trackers and a knight of the reliquary and I was on damnation or bust. didn't happen. I play against this player a lot and last week gave him some tips as my meta has a LOT of GBx. That definitely came back to bite me haha.
0-1
g2 storm
This was the Rich Shay Match. We go to 3 games and have a ver nerve wracking g3 with me at 3 life through a bunch of gobos. I had to dodge bolt for a few turns and managed to do so. I made some poor decisions and should have wiped the gobos immediately and that put me in a really bad spot. now I know.
1-1
g3 seismic assault/loam
THis was actually a very cool deck that's pretty scary. The loam engine with assault is gross. we went to 3 games but I managed to get there g3 with huge beats. Goyf gets huge in this match and the explosiveness of smasher is hard to deal with. Scooze was MVP though. I underestimated countryside crusher and he WRECKED me g2.
2-1
g4 mono black devotion
g1 I jusr roll over him pretty easily. g2 he plays an early obliterator and I have no way to answer it. g3 he bring in an absurd amount of SB cards and they were pretty bad. He gets stuck on 3 mana and I was able to kill him pretty easy as 1 card a turn from his side with no way to pump his dread shades or play obliterators worked out for me.
3-1
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
3 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
3 tireless tracker
4 thought-knot seer
3 reality smasher
spells
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
4 fatal push
4 oath of nissa
3 assassin's trophy
1 maelstrom pulse
2 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
2 llanowar wastes
1 Blooming marsh
4 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
3 swamp
2 forest
1 twilight mire
2 treetop village
1 hissing quagmire
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
3 surgical extraction
1 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
3 collective brutality
1 maelstrom pulse
1 Obstinate baloth
1 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
1 reclamation sage
1 fulminator mage
1 golgari charm
1 damping sphere
r1 mono W eldrazi taxes
These games weren't close at all. We have a little back and forth but my guys outclass his by a mile even though he has eldrazi. I just have so much more removal that answers everything.
1-0 (2-0)
r2 grixis DS
g1 he makes a strange block when he throws his 5/5 DS into my smasher at 8 life. I was fine with that obviously. I'm at 14. he then plays 2 gurmags. I play tracker draw some cards, find the removal I need and swing in for lethal. G2 he floods a bit holding up totally irrelevant counterspells like disdainful stroke and stubby D and I roll over him with goyfs and scooze.
2-0 (4-0)
r3 burn
g1 I get run over by cheap guys and forget to t1 fatal push thinking I could just do it t2 and still be fine. Not doing so put me far behind and eventually even farther when he boros charms to save his eidolon and then I'm in a really bad spot with a hand FULL of 1-3 drops. g2 was similar I eventually get locked under eidolon at 2 life and a smasher on the table but I didn't see kalitas, or obstinate or another smasher and obviously he found a spell after a couple turns.
2-1 (4-2)
r4 GB
g1 I just have the right removal and strip him of all his lilianas. g2 we had a long wonderful game of magic. It was probably the best game i've played in a long while. So much back and forth and at one point we had dueling scoozes, then stare downs, then advantages swapped back and forth, but tracker won me this game hands down with smashers. Tracker drew me like 10 cards literally. I eventually overwhelm him and he can't answer smasher with a couple goyfs. Such a good game.
3-1 (6-2)
r5 grixis as foretold
g1 he floods a lot after keeping a 5 land hand. g2 I just have a ton of answers and all he's doing is thoughtseizing me over and over to very little effect honestly. He gets to a point he's at like 12 life and just a couple of big guys after some discard and he's got nothing to stop them. I thought he was just on grixis control I never saw the as foretolds.
4-1 (8-2)
top 8: GB infect
I was really excited to play this match. g1 I get super lucky ripping assassin's trophy into fatal push back to back to stop his 2 inkmoth nexi. The trophy was huge as he went to become immense it for lethal. the next one was as I was at 6 poison but having the answer let my goyf and TKS easily cruise in for the win. g2 I just have more removal and liliana last hope killed or found me the guys I needed. I had a good hand and things lined up well. The match felt easy but I know it's not, if i miss on removal i know I can just immediately lose. Glad I didn't I guess
5-1 (10-2)
summary:
I never played a g3 all night which was very strange but I'm not going to complain. The deck felt great as always and certainly performed. I'm still debating some SB changes as I'm hoping to attend SCG Worcester next Saturday but I'm not sure I will be able to. I'm think I'm going to experience less midrange than in my meta. Basically more amulet/titan/spirits. I'm not sure there's much I can do to stop those matches honestly. I don't have a lot of experience vs those 3 decks but they all feel like really bad matchups when I have played them. Going to have to figure something out. GB has been doing well in my meta overall in a few different varieties of straight GB (normal, rockdrazi and infect) this week had those 3 decks in top 8. last week had 2 straight versions in top 8. There's a guy who top 8's with it almost every week. Almost everyone has been converted off jund for one reason or another.
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster