So it's funny you point out the mana-base as that's something I've been working on a little lately; specifically I'd like to add a 23rd land. Too large a number of the games I lose is due to not being able to find a 3rd or 4th land. I don't have any metrics tracked of exactly how many that is (especially vs. losing to too many lands) but I feel a 23rd land might be useful especially as you really want to keep nice 1 landed hands on the draw with tons of cyclers.
I'm not sure I agree with the reasoning behind switching Ghost Quarter #1 w/ Field of Ruin #3.
1) Field of Ruin only color fixes blue as you run no other basics. This is only useful in finding the 3rd blue for Cryptic Command as there's no way you'd keep the hand otherwise without a blue source. If you're in such a bind for the 3rd blue to save you from a lethal attack w/ Cryptic Ghost Quarter may actually be better as it can do this with only 4 lands where as if you played the Field of Ruin that turn you'd be dead.
2) It can be useful to be able to Tolaria West and destroy a land the same turn. Typically this is NOT against tron for the reasons you mentioned (although it certainly can be). Most of the times you are doing this you are way behind so buying yourself another turn is typically just to allow you more time to topdeck the last piece to wipe the board. In my experience it is most useful against Jund or in some cases Jeskai or decks with very few basics (humans) where you either need to destroy a man-land or can literally use it as a stone rain (bonus points for destroying cavern of souls).
3) Ghost quarter can hit basics which in edge-cases can be useful against multi-color decks w/ few basics, to keep them off a color.
4) This is a very small price to pay for the upsides listed above. Typically if you don't need the affect it is literally the same as Field of Ruin (a land that taps for colorless).
I'm currently trying 23rd land (island) in place of a Street Wraith. It's also worth noting that I SB out the ghost quarter in some matchups, especially on the draw.
Not sure yet if it's as competitive as other splashes/mono-blue but it's been a blast to play! Wild Cantor creates some really fast lines while still letting you hold up mana for an emergency counterspell. They also serve as handy chump blockers that give you U when they die to pay for a cycling cost.
I understand the points you raised about Ghost Quarter and Field of Ruin. I'll keep this idea in mind. It's possible you are correct, but in my experience, the third Field of Ruin is better than the first Ghost Quarter.
So it's funny you point out the mana-base as that's something I've been working on a little lately; specifically I'd like to add a 23rd land. Too large a number of the games I lose is due to not being able to find a 3rd or 4th land. I don't have any metrics tracked of exactly how many that is (especially vs. losing to too many lands) but I feel a 23rd land might be useful especially as you really want to keep nice 1 landed hands on the draw with tons of cyclers.
I've been running 21 lands, four Street Wraith and no cantrips and this has worked well for me. I've been punished for kept aggressive one-land hands from time to time, but I don't think I've ever felt the need to go much higher than 21 lands.
I did some distribution math on this some time ago. I don't remember the specifics, but 21 lands in a 56 card deck (Street Wraith) is the equivalent of 22-23 lands in a 60 card deck. I think we can get away with a tight land count considering how many cards we see early due to cycling. If you're trying to play more of a control game, maybe increasing the land count would work better for you? Or maybe your experience is more of a Magic Online issue?
Does anyone have any thoughts on how to approach the Jund matchup? I'd love to hear them. I'm specifically thinking about Remand. Do you leave it in post-board?
Does anyone have any thoughts on how to approach the Jund matchup? I'd love to hear them. I'm specifically thinking about Remand. Do you leave it in post-board?
As the jund owns enough disrupt, if you are in the play, and own 1x Spell Pierce, already reassures enough.
However when he is in play, the hand to be keep has to be one that you can recover from the disrupt in time and still try to solve a Living End.
I am currently 70/30 in this fight using this strategy, but the luck factor is also very relevant in any game.
The biggest concern in this confrontation is to get rid of the disrupt initially, and prevent Scavenging Ooze from falling, in case he comes down, we will have to play around him.
Taking advantage of the post, I bring the experience I had in the last league I played, with the respective considerations:
2-1 Jeskai Control: As usual, it is always a very easy match, however, we can not hesitate and try to solve the Living End with a void backup. 2-0 Goblin Storm: Easy. 0-2 Eldrazi Tron: I lost the match because I could not find the Living End and As Foretold in time. 1-2 U/R Breach: This is a game that does not solve an As Foretold after T4, or we can solve it in T3, or we play around their combo, which is very easy to get around with the options we have. The game that I lost, was because I gave a remand in the Snapcaster Mage (happens in the best families).
In other words, I had a poor performance in this league, but although the deck is "recent" and still evolving, it is able to cope with the most popular decks of the goal. I hope that soon it will achieve a consistency to become highly competitive.
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Modern: UB Living End as Foretold R Skred Dragons CKCI
Jund can be a bit of an enigma. Discard and fast clocks are definitely not your friend. Don't even get my started on Scavenging Ooze (likely their best card against you). I think the matchup definitely got worse with the unbanning of Bloodbraid Elf. Often times the games it comes down to whether or not they hit a discard spell off the elf.
I've been sideboarding in more creature answers and hoping to survive the initial hand disruption onslaught, eventually draw into an as foretold, then typically transmuting into a living end as the likelihood they are still in your hand by that point is low. Obviously the problem is you need 6 mana to do that without worrying about Pulse or Decay.
Obviously suspend Ancestral Visions on turn 1 no matter what, typically on turn 2 as well. Try to save your creature kill for Scavenging Ooze and Bobs. Bojuka bog can be quite useful against goyf.
My sideboard plan currently looks like
+2 Dismember
+1 Fatal Push
+1 EE
+ Sometimes 1 Leyline of the Void, especially if you see Grim Flayers and Liliana the last Hope.
+ Sometimes 1 Leyline of the Sanctity, especially if they are more aggressive. You can always discard it to a Liliana if you draw it later.
-2 Spell Pierce
-1 AoW
-2/3 Street Wraiths (you're able to play a longer game where life/turns can matter more than a fast aggressive start, especially since you have to expect hard disruption on the first few turns so you're very unlikely to "combo" off)
-Sometime nimble obstructionist, especially if they've seen it game 1 and are likely to play around it.
Jund can be a bit of an enigma. Discard and fast clocks are definitely not your friend. Don't even get my started on Scavenging Ooze (likely their best card against you). I think the matchup definitely got worse with the unbanning of Bloodbraid Elf. Often times the games it comes down to whether or not they hit a discard spell off the elf.
I've been sideboarding in more creature answers and hoping to survive the initial hand disruption onslaught, eventually draw into an as foretold, then typically transmuting into a living end as the likelihood they are still in your hand by that point is low. Obviously the problem is you need 6 mana to do that without worrying about Pulse or Decay.
Obviously suspend Ancestral Visions on turn 1 no matter what, typically on turn 2 as well. Try to save your creature kill for Scavenging Ooze and Bobs. Bojuka bog can be quite useful against goyf.
My sideboard plan currently looks like
+2 Dismember
+1 Fatal Push
+1 EE
+ Sometimes 1 Leyline of the Void, especially if you see Grim Flayers and Liliana the last Hope.
+ Sometimes 1 Leyline of the Sanctity, especially if they are more aggressive. You can always discard it to a Liliana if you draw it later.
-2 Spell Pierce
-1 AoW
-2/3 Street Wraiths (you're able to play a longer game where life/turns can matter more than a fast aggressive start, especially since you have to expect hard disruption on the first few turns so you're very unlikely to "combo" off)
-Sometime nimble obstructionist, especially if they've seen it game 1 and are likely to play around it.
Only 1x Leyline of the Sanctity is enough?
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Modern: UB Living End as Foretold R Skred Dragons CKCI
Congrats on the 5-0 urza! Nice to see As Foretold represented
I've been running a maindeck Engineered Explosives myself, it's been so good! Seems worth it when playing a second colour given how much it deals with.
The 3 Collective Brutality in your sideboard are making me jealous. I can't find a way to squeeze them into Blue/Green + black splash list (I've become addicted to Wild Cantor and Bring to Light) but the mana is terrible
Would you like to upload the replay on youtube or twitch of matches with this build that you used?
Good idea. Let me see if I can figure out how to setup OBS and I'll try to setup a twitch stream tomorrow when I do a league. If there's a particular match up you want me to go through I can probably find a replay in my history I can voice-over.
Have you guys played against a fast agro low cmc cost deck? I am curious about elves matchup.
I don't have too many matches against Elves but of the 4 I've played I'm 3-1 in matches and 6-4 in games. I typically try to board in more targeted creature removal, EE, and Dispel and take out spell pierces, spell snares, any nimble obstructionists, a few cycles (a couple street wraiths and/or AoW) and maybe some remands on the draw.
Overall it feels like a good matchup where resolving a living end is likely game over. For that matter. I've found just about any deck that runs Collected Company to be generally a very good matchup. Another similar deck (at least for what As Foretold/Living End care's about) is Boggles, which in a similar vein is a possibly your most favorable matchup.
Humans, Infect, Grixis Death's Shadow, Merfolk, all may seem similar but are vastly different in that in addition to fast low cmc creatures they have anywhere between a little to an abundance of disruption and interaction. Regardless of your build the last 4 decks mentioned are likley to be among your worst matchups.
Would you like to upload the replay on youtube or twitch of matches with this build that you used?
Good idea. Let me see if I can figure out how to setup OBS and I'll try to setup a twitch stream tomorrow when I do a league. If there's a particular match up you want me to go through I can probably find a replay in my history I can voice-over.
I've got a little bit of time right now so I'm going to try to stream here around 3:30pm eastern time. If you can't catch it then they should be in the videos section there. https://www.twitch.tv/urzatheplaneswalker
Oops, I found your show to be very live, I saw that you have a spreadsheet where you put the games played and which SBs used, could you share this spreadsheet with us, so we can work on your data too?
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Modern: UB Living End as Foretold R Skred Dragons CKCI
This deck should be called "Foretold End" IMO, just saying.
I prefer Blue End. Living As Foretold is great too (the best catch phrase would be As Ancestral Vision Foretold but it is too far from the deck game plan).
The match I won was just what the Meddling Mage did not come up with, and with that it was practically solving an As Foretold and standing in front of him in the number of creatures.
However, I'm seriously considering using the splash version for white, so you ask me, why white? and not black?
I'm not sure I agree with the reasoning behind switching Ghost Quarter #1 w/ Field of Ruin #3.
1) Field of Ruin only color fixes blue as you run no other basics. This is only useful in finding the 3rd blue for Cryptic Command as there's no way you'd keep the hand otherwise without a blue source. If you're in such a bind for the 3rd blue to save you from a lethal attack w/ Cryptic Ghost Quarter may actually be better as it can do this with only 4 lands where as if you played the Field of Ruin that turn you'd be dead.
2) It can be useful to be able to Tolaria West and destroy a land the same turn. Typically this is NOT against tron for the reasons you mentioned (although it certainly can be). Most of the times you are doing this you are way behind so buying yourself another turn is typically just to allow you more time to topdeck the last piece to wipe the board. In my experience it is most useful against Jund or in some cases Jeskai or decks with very few basics (humans) where you either need to destroy a man-land or can literally use it as a stone rain (bonus points for destroying cavern of souls).
3) Ghost quarter can hit basics which in edge-cases can be useful against multi-color decks w/ few basics, to keep them off a color.
4) This is a very small price to pay for the upsides listed above. Typically if you don't need the affect it is literally the same as Field of Ruin (a land that taps for colorless).
2 Bring to Light
4 Living End
4 Ancestral Vision
Creatures (16)
4 Curator of Mysteries
4 Striped Riverwinder
4 Street Wraith
4 Wild Cantor
Counterspells (9)
4 Cryptic Command
4 Remand
1 Spell Pierce
4 Island
4 Tolaria West
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Breeding Pool
3 Botanical Sanctum
2 Field of Ruin
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Feed the Clan
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Dismember
1 Echoing Truth
1 Broken Bond
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Dispel
3 Swan Song
Not sure yet if it's as competitive as other splashes/mono-blue but it's been a blast to play! Wild Cantor creates some really fast lines while still letting you hold up mana for an emergency counterspell. They also serve as handy chump blockers that give you U when they die to pay for a cycling cost.
Sideboard is all over the place as I've been playing around with Bring to Light targets and Jace, the Mind Sculptor.
I've been running 21 lands, four Street Wraith and no cantrips and this has worked well for me. I've been punished for kept aggressive one-land hands from time to time, but I don't think I've ever felt the need to go much higher than 21 lands.
I did some distribution math on this some time ago. I don't remember the specifics, but 21 lands in a 56 card deck (Street Wraith) is the equivalent of 22-23 lands in a 60 card deck. I think we can get away with a tight land count considering how many cards we see early due to cycling. If you're trying to play more of a control game, maybe increasing the land count would work better for you? Or maybe your experience is more of a Magic Online issue?
As the jund owns enough disrupt, if you are in the play, and own 1x Spell Pierce, already reassures enough.
However when he is in play, the hand to be keep has to be one that you can recover from the disrupt in time and still try to solve a Living End.
From g2, I always swallow:
IN
3x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Dismember
1x Ratchet Bomb
1x Tormod's Crypt
Out
4x Street Wraith.
2x Spell Pierce.
1x Remand.
I am currently 70/30 in this fight using this strategy, but the luck factor is also very relevant in any game.
The biggest concern in this confrontation is to get rid of the disrupt initially, and prevent Scavenging Ooze from falling, in case he comes down, we will have to play around him.
Taking advantage of the post, I bring the experience I had in the last league I played, with the respective considerations:
2-1 Jeskai Control: As usual, it is always a very easy match, however, we can not hesitate and try to solve the Living End with a void backup.
2-0 Goblin Storm: Easy.
0-2 Eldrazi Tron: I lost the match because I could not find the Living End and As Foretold in time.
1-2 U/R Breach: This is a game that does not solve an As Foretold after T4, or we can solve it in T3, or we play around their combo, which is very easy to get around with the options we have. The game that I lost, was because I gave a remand in the Snapcaster Mage (happens in the best families).
In other words, I had a poor performance in this league, but although the deck is "recent" and still evolving, it is able to cope with the most popular decks of the goal. I hope that soon it will achieve a consistency to become highly competitive.
UB Living End as Foretold
R Skred Dragons
CKCI
I've been sideboarding in more creature answers and hoping to survive the initial hand disruption onslaught, eventually draw into an as foretold, then typically transmuting into a living end as the likelihood they are still in your hand by that point is low. Obviously the problem is you need 6 mana to do that without worrying about Pulse or Decay.
Obviously suspend Ancestral Visions on turn 1 no matter what, typically on turn 2 as well. Try to save your creature kill for Scavenging Ooze and Bobs. Bojuka bog can be quite useful against goyf.
My sideboard plan currently looks like
+2 Dismember
+1 Fatal Push
+1 EE
+ Sometimes 1 Leyline of the Void, especially if you see Grim Flayers and Liliana the last Hope.
+ Sometimes 1 Leyline of the Sanctity, especially if they are more aggressive. You can always discard it to a Liliana if you draw it later.
-2 Spell Pierce
-1 AoW
-2/3 Street Wraiths (you're able to play a longer game where life/turns can matter more than a fast aggressive start, especially since you have to expect hard disruption on the first few turns so you're very unlikely to "combo" off)
-Sometime nimble obstructionist, especially if they've seen it game 1 and are likely to play around it.
Only 1x Leyline of the Sanctity is enough?
UB Living End as Foretold
R Skred Dragons
CKCI
Latest list:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/competitive-modern-constructed-league-2018-05-25#urzatheplaneswalker_-
Congrats on the 5-0 urza! Nice to see As Foretold represented
I've been running a maindeck Engineered Explosives myself, it's been so good! Seems worth it when playing a second colour given how much it deals with.
The 3 Collective Brutality in your sideboard are making me jealous. I can't find a way to squeeze them into Blue/Green + black splash list (I've become addicted to Wild Cantor and Bring to Light) but the mana is terrible
Would you like to upload the replay on youtube or twitch of matches with this build that you used?
UB Living End as Foretold
R Skred Dragons
CKCI
Good idea. Let me see if I can figure out how to setup OBS and I'll try to setup a twitch stream tomorrow when I do a league. If there's a particular match up you want me to go through I can probably find a replay in my history I can voice-over.
I don't have too many matches against Elves but of the 4 I've played I'm 3-1 in matches and 6-4 in games. I typically try to board in more targeted creature removal, EE, and Dispel and take out spell pierces, spell snares, any nimble obstructionists, a few cycles (a couple street wraiths and/or AoW) and maybe some remands on the draw.
Overall it feels like a good matchup where resolving a living end is likely game over. For that matter. I've found just about any deck that runs Collected Company to be generally a very good matchup. Another similar deck (at least for what As Foretold/Living End care's about) is Boggles, which in a similar vein is a possibly your most favorable matchup.
Humans, Infect, Grixis Death's Shadow, Merfolk, all may seem similar but are vastly different in that in addition to fast low cmc creatures they have anywhere between a little to an abundance of disruption and interaction. Regardless of your build the last 4 decks mentioned are likley to be among your worst matchups.
Deckname, Match Win/Loss, Game Win/Loss
Elves, 3-1, 6-4
Boggles, 6-0, 12-2
Humans, 5-9, 13-20
Infect, 0-3, 0-6
GDS, 3-7, 7-17
Merfolk, 0-1, 0-2
Yes, matches against agroo decks like:
Humans
BR Hollow One
Grixis DS
Affinity
Jund ..
You can upload it on youtube, send it after I watch it.
Yesterday I took 1x Humans and I could not win.
G1: He did 1x Cavern of Souls, Meddling Mage (As Foretold), I already had enough creatures on the grave and with the combo pieces in hand, he attacked with the Meddling Mage (3/3), and I downloaded it before stage declare block 1x Vendilion Clique, however, he used Restoration Angel to blink Thalia's Lieutenant, and making Meddling Mage 4/4.
G2: I was able to solve an As Foretold before he lowered the Meddling Mage, and consequently I solved 1x Living End, then the game was controlled.
G3: Cavern of Souls came again and 2x Meddling Mage, I did not have conditions, I died in his T4.
UB Living End as Foretold
R Skred Dragons
CKCI
Oops, I found your show to be very live, I saw that you have a spreadsheet where you put the games played and which SBs used, could you share this spreadsheet with us, so we can work on your data too?
UB Living End as Foretold
R Skred Dragons
CKCI
Great job on the stream, I watched most of it and enjoyed it. Would love to see more, keep it up!
Thanks for the kind words. It was fun to dip into streaming as well. I'm out of town the next few weeks but will try some more when I get back.
N/A
Modern:
Grishoalbrand / Grixis Death's Shadow / Jeskai Control / UW Control
To a certain extent, I agree--that's the name www.tcdecks.net uses.
My personal favourite is LEAF or just Leaf
I prefer Blue End. Living As Foretold is great too (the best catch phrase would be As Ancestral Vision Foretold but it is too far from the deck game plan).
Group half stopped, let's liven things up a bit, then as usual and I keep keeping my standard version of "As Foretold End" (I like that name):
4 Striped Riverwinder
4 Curator of Mysteries
3 Street Wraith
2 Architects of Will
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Nimble Obstructionist
Spells (20)
4 Remand
4 Ancestral Vision
3 Cryptic Command
3 Living End
1 Disallow
2 Mana Leak
2 Spell Pierce
1 Supreme Will
4 As Foretold
Artifacts (1)
1 Engineered Explosives
Lands (20)
3 Field of Ruin
10 Island
4 Tolaria West
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Ratchet Bomb
2 Dispel
2 Dismember
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Nimble Obstructionist
1 Silent Gravestone
If they are repaired, I've added 1x Silent Gravestone to use against decks that have Scavenging Ooze and / or Snapcaster Mage.
With this deck I did in the last FNM the following results:
(2-1) Mardu Pyromancer.
(2-0) Abzan Agroo.
(2-0) U/R Breach.
(1-2) 5C Humans: The worst match possible, always opening like this:
T1: Cavern of Souls (Humans) + Noble Hierarch;
T2: Land + Thalia, Guardian of Thraben + Champion of the Parish;
T3: Meddling Mage (As Foretold) + (any other human)
T4: Meddling Mage (As Foretold)
The match I won was just what the Meddling Mage did not come up with, and with that it was practically solving an As Foretold and standing in front of him in the number of creatures.
However, I'm seriously considering using the splash version for white, so you ask me, why white? and not black?
Well, I find the white to decks combo / control more effective than Black, Path to Exile (which is very strong in the format), we can also take advantage of Supreme Verdict, Stony Silence, Detention Sphere and maybe Timely Reinforcements.
Because the main problem of our archetype is precisely the extremely fast / agroo decks. We did exceptionally well against combo / control decks.
What do they tell me? Has anyone ever tested this list effectively? suggestions? follows the list that I intend to use:
4 Striped Riverwinder
4 Curator of Mysteries
3 Street Wraith
2 Nimble Obstructionist
1 Vendilion Clique
Spells (20)
4 Remand
4 Ancestral Vision
3 Cryptic Command
3 Living End
4 Path to Exile
2 Mana Leak
1 Supreme Will
4 As Foretold
Artifacts (1)
1 Engineered Explosives
Lands (20)
3 Field of Ruin
4 Seachrome Coast
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Flooded Strand
3 Tolaria West
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Plains
3 Island
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Settle the Wreckage
1 Detention Sphere
2 Dispel
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Nimble Obstructionist
1 Condemn
2 Stony Silence
UB Living End as Foretold
R Skred Dragons
CKCI