Hello all, I saw this deck win a Modern Challenge on 10-21-18 and I was STUMPED to say the least. Archgaze is the creator of the deck. Since it seemed like something I could 0-4 with at FNM, I decided to take it for a spin.
I heard that Caleb Durward also has been running it, but I cannot find any videos. It's supposed to be under "Modern Madness." If someone finds it, please link it here.
MNM
4 Color Traverse 2-1
Tron 2-0
Jund 2-1
4 Color Saheeli 2-0
Has anyone else tried it? Am I just the luckiest lucksack in the world? Please post your results.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
I'm not sure Archgaze is the creator of the archetype. It's been around for a while since April at least as a deck from Watarai Junichi. Although it's definitely been streamlined with the addition of Steeleaf Champion and impervious Greatworm.
Anyway, I've been playing the deck as well with some mixed but overall positive results. I've always loved Eldritch Evolution so any framework which can run this card makes me happy. I primarily see this as a beat down deck with a combo backup, since the combo itself can be difficult to assemble or luck based depending what you have in hand.
It's pretty sweet to be dealing 16 damage to the face though. The problems I've been having are that it's pretty mana intensive, requiring GGG for stealeaf does not mix well with colorless lands like Cavern of Souls. Triple G and double R requirements prevent us from going full Naya and adding more white cards. That being said, Cavern has definitely won me games playing against blue decks.
I feel the deck is still pretty raw, and lot's of the cards are potential flex (e.g. Tireless tracker, Nullhide ferox [I don't get this card], scooze), but then what do you replace them with? Finks? Bloodbraid? Huntmaster of the Falls? My inclination is to try to max the value from Eldritch Evolution in a way that doesn't compromise the aggro plan.
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Decks - Modern Currently active - Humans - Evolve Zoo
Yeah SL Champ seems worse than Kitchen Finks if the idea is to Evo into a red giant (or a 5 drop of some sort)
Playing 4x 2RR creatures along with 4x big fatties is already a very huge downside in the deck, I do'nt think you can afford to play Ferox, Surrak and other random creatures.
Noble Hierarch make no sense in terms of color fixing either.
The deck needs a good discard outlet, so there's no random discarding when the combo tries to happen. I doubt Shaman is the right one because she adds another card in hand, which doesn't help being hellbent, but at the same time it's the right way to get wurm in hand... Noose Constrictor maybe ?
It's true that Through the Breach is appealing but it's super expensive. As dumb as it sounds, I could see the combo in a Steam-Kin deck with 8 Rituals. I'll stop here, I'm going way too far !
A few thoughts from someone who has run this only at 2 tournaments (me).
Steel-Leaf Champion has been a beast for me! I thought that a vanilla 5/4 creature that can't be chumped blocked was pretty poor, but some decks are seriously weak to this card, especially on turn 2 (hence the 6 mana dorks). I can see the upside of this card against certain decks. People also don't want to use removal on a stupid Standard card. It seems odd for me to say this. I am a Combo player, so for me to appreciate a stupid vanilla beater says something.
It can be tough to cast certain cards, but honestly it has been infinitely easier than I thought it would be. You just have to be a bit smart with Caverns and also realize how much Magus of the Moon can affect you vs. how much it affects your opponent. Surrak, the Hunt Caller is literally there mostly for the turn 3 Eldritch Evolution on Strangleroot Geist to a 3/2 to give the Surrak haste through Formidable. Other than that, it's mostly a hasty beater that can come out of nowhere. Nullhide Ferox is mostly for discard (Liliana, Burning Inquiry, Smallpox), but also can provide a clock vs. some decks. It's pretty bad against decks that can provide infinite blockers, but it can be sided out easily.
The discard outlet is Fauna Shaman. Other than that, it's mostly just playing stuff and hoping not to get too many lands (because of the 1 land per turn rule).
I think Through the Breach doesn't work so well with this particular deck because it can be discarded to Cremator to do 0. There already is a little tension with Cragganwick Cremator and Eldritch Evolution, but it's not quite as bad.
Noble Hierarch is not for mana fixing, but for Ramp primarily and secondarily, Exalted. A 6/5 attacking on turn 3 is a real thing in Modern (or so it seems so far).
I assume the deck dies to quick Combo, but then every deck has a poor matchup and you still have a possibility to do 16 on turn 3 (discarding Impervious Greatwurm to Cremator). The deck could certainly be optimized, but I'm not sure if it will get there because the lack of attention. But that is part of the fun of it!
*I had an interesting game vs. Jund yesterday in Game 3 where I would have lost without Kessig Wolf Run. He ended up stabilizing, killing everything I had except a Noble Hierarch, but since I had infinite mana and Kessig Wolf Run, he couldn't attack with Scavenging Ooze. I eventually drew Impervious Greatwurm and he scooped. 16/16 with Trample from Kessig Wolf Run? Sign me up. He literally had 1 card in hand and 1 draw step, so 2 Liliana of the Veil would have gotten me. But...my next draw step was a 2nd Impervious Greatwurm! Lol. Probably just lucky like I said so far?
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
I've been testing Bloodbraid Elf and so far it's been pretty solid, especially against blue decks where you can use it to force your way through counterspell. I'm running 3 at the moment. I'm hesitant to run 4 because the deck is already running many mana heavy creatures.
BB Elf ->
Good hits: Bolt, Geist, Steel leaf, Knight of Autumn
Mediocre hits: Magus (depending how you've stacked your lands), Eldritch Evo (I've had a situation where I didn't have any viable targets since the cascade trigger resolves before BB Elf does)
Bad Hits: Mana dorks
I've dropped to one Cavern of Souls MB and one sideboard, since I strongly dislike drawing two colourless lands as an opener. Kessig Wolf run is an all star land, pumps for lethal and lets you power through decks running ensnaring bridge with a Noble or Birds.
I agree that the deck needs more 2-drops and Evo sac targets, but... Voice just wont cut it. The deck's mana base can't afford being forced to consistantly fetch a white land, at least not with the current land set. The deck needs to have GG or GGG every game, but also needs to be able to hold up R for the first turns in case you need to bolt something, as well as get RR by turn three or 4. You could change to 2xNoble and 4xBirds maybe if you wanted more white mana. Personally I don't like relying on mana dorks to fix colours since so may of my games end up with the dork being bolted/killed as soon as I pass the turn.
I'm thinking about running either 1 Kitchen Finks or 1 Knight of Autumn MB since my FNM meta has a lot of burn and artifact decks.
The more I play the deck, the more reliably I find myself planning around the Cragganwick Crementor discard. Lots of games you don't need to discard a worm, and can get away with some solid aggro beats and a 5/4 creature discard to finish off. Many times having a Fauna Shaman stick until your next turn let's you set up for the combo.
Sideboarding for me is easy in knowing what to bring in, but difficult in knowing what to take out, especially if your changing 4+ cards around.
So far I've tried to avoid taking out too many combo pieces when sideboarding, maybe trimming Ghalta or a worm. I'm not sure if that's sensible or not to be honest, but many decks have solutions for straight up aggro and since the joy of the deck is slamming face for 16 I like to keep those cards in.
If facing midrange decks like Mardu / Jund, I would trim the mana dorks. Against control I would reduce Evo since they can counter it and have you sac a creature for nothing.
If anyone has advice on how to sideboard against different decks I'd appreciate it.
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Decks - Modern Currently active - Humans - Evolve Zoo
This is wonderful to see this thread take off! I never thought it would. This is actually the first time I "created" a deck starter here on mtgs.
I love seeing the back and forth. Knight of Autumn is a great addition to the board over the Rec Sages, Shattering Spree, and Kitchen Finks. I may try those soon too. I just keep thinking that the next tournament is going to be the one where I get destroyed, lol. (it's only been 2 though)
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Have not tested this deck, but if there's problems to get the right mana early maybe manamorphose could be something to keep in mind.
Not only helps fixing mana as it also replaces itself, this way thinning the deck to 56 cards.
This is not a bad idea. The problem for me is that I no longer am a deck builder and haven't been for so long that I literally don't know what to take out. If I put in 4 Manamorphose, I would cut maybe 2 lands and then 2 other cards.
It was the same problem for me with Gitaxian Probe. I wanted to eventually try the card in Bogles, thus giving myself a 56 card deck that doesn't usually care that much about the minimal life loss, but I didn't know what to cut. I ran out of time to figure out a list, mostly because I've been playing so many other decks, so Bogles iddn't get my full attention.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
FNM was cancelled so no report this week, sorry guys :-(
Damn, that sucks.
I played in a small 16 person FNM.
Round 1 vs. Eldrazi Taxes. He plays creatures. I play creatures a bit later than him and his fliers finish me off. I was a removal spell short of getting there. In the next game, I keep on no 1-3 drops, just 4 lands and 3 four drops. I draw lands and 4 drops and lose to a perfect curved aggro hand. I had Caldera Hellion in hand, but his turn 4 Thought-Knot Seer got it and I couldn't find Slagstorm (or Lightning Bolt). Not a good way to start a tournament. 0-2.
Round 2 vs. UW Control. In the first game, he kept on 2 Plains and I had a perfect curve, leaning on Tireless Tracker to get 5 Clues as well. He had 1 Path to Exile. I expected another, but he didn't get it and he died 2 turns after finding Field of Ruin to get an Island. Used his Island twice and died. In the next game, he got a key Terminus and then a hard cast Terminus a while later, but Cragganwick Cremator after I put pressure with another creature discards Steel Leaf Champion, my draw step and only card left in my hand for lethal. 2-0.
Round 3 vs. Grixis Control. I get some good pressure and he stabilizes with a bunch of Cryptic Commands, but I'm just waiting for...a Steel Leaf Champion to go with the Cragganwick Cremator in hand for game. In the next game, I put 2 big creatures into a Damnation with the plan to Tireless Tracker with fetchland for some clues. He gets it with Cryptic Command, but I have too many Lightning Bolts and creatures to pressure him. Eventually I double Bolt his Tasigur because I couldn't figure out how to kill him (since he's at 11 and I have 3 Bolts, but he keeps my creatures from dealing him damage, be it removal or Cryptic Command) I get there easily in the end. 2-0.
Round 4 vs. Zoo. He mulls to 5. He has Horizon Canopy and Noble Hierarch. Not much else and I swarm him. Didn't even need Cragganwick, but did it with a freshly drawn Steel Leaf Champion for lethal. In the next game, there are a million creatures on each side and I punt. I make the mistake of end step cracking 2 clues, leaving Relic of Progenitus for my turn to swing for just 1 less than lethal (shrinking a Goyf). He lives at 1 and swings with Shalai for lethal. This was on a mull to 6 for him. He mulls to 6 again and I win with a Cragganwick Cremator for an Impervious Greatwurm. I had been waiting to empty my hand and leave those 2 for a bit. He had begun to stabilize the board with 2 Knight of the Reliquaries. He said he was waiting for me to tap my Birds of Paradise so he could play Elspeth, Knight's Errant and swing for lethal. 2-1.
I finish 3-1, so 10-2 so far with the deck. This is better than I've done with almost every Modern deck and definitely any Modern deck that hasn't had cards banned from it, lol.
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Elves 1 - 2
First game he collected company's into two Shaman of the Pack for ten, draws another at the the start of next turn. Dead.
Game two an early Evo fetches Linvala locking him out of the game early on.
Game three kept a hand with lands and few creatures because it had Anger of the Gods, used Anger to remove his first wave of stuff, but only drew dorks and lands later on. Had one 50/50 chance to win with Cragganwick, but was unlucky.
Mardu 0 - 2
Both games he used discard to keep good cards out of my hand, and mid-ranged away my beaters. Had one 50 / 50 chance to win with Cragganwick, unlucky again.
Red Prison 2 - 1
Game one he gets down ensnaring bridge but my decision to mainboard Knight of Autumn pays off, and I fetch it with Evo for the win.
Game two he rituals for early goblin lord, I remove it but he plays two more later. He also lands witchbane orb preventing me from using the combo win.
Game three he has witchbane orb and torpor orb and ensnaring bridge. Eventually draw Shattering Spree to win the game.
Conclusions
Elves can out aggro us, but I think after side boarding we have the advantage. He had some very lucky Collected company hits unfortunately.
Mardu and other midrange decks are definitely going to be a difficult match up unless we can get the combo win.
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Decks - Modern Currently active - Humans - Evolve Zoo
I finish 3-1, so 10-2 so far with the deck. This is better than I've done with almost every Modern deck and definitely any Modern deck that hasn't had cards banned from it, lol. Wink
Wow, well done FoodChainGoblins!
How was Tireless Tracker for you? Looks like it put in some good work. I've never been a fan so would appreciate your thoughts
What did you like / want to change about your list - is it the "stock" Archgaze list btw?
I think I've just been lucky so far to be honest. I've drawn very well.
Tireless Tracker is my favorite Modern creature. I found the card invaluable when I ran Knightfall and out of the Titanshift SB. It is not good against a lot of matchup and it does get sided out occasionally, but in the matchups where it stays in, it can be very good. I have found it equally good in Cragganwick Toolbox. (there's gotta be a better name, lol) The deck likes to dump it's hand to set up Cragganwick kills, but having clues to rebuild is always very important. The creature also gets incredibly big quickly and you can usually control what gets killed between it and Steel Leaf Champion if you have both. There's nothing worse for an opponent who will not kill quickly than to see a Tireless Tracker that has been around for a turn or 2. I almost ALWAYS play Tracker on a turn where I play a land immediately afterward. There's been 2 times so far with Cragganwick Toolbox where I played it AFTER a land drop and I regretted one of those instantly (probably would have won, had I saved it, but I assumed I could dodge removal for a turn).
I haven't played it enough to know what to change from Archgaze's list. I do like the 4 Knight of Autumn in the board for the 2 Rec Sage, Shattering Spree, and Kitchen Finks. When I get more Knights, I will do it! The only problem I potentially see with the list, but maybe I am just being paranoid, is double White mana for the SB Linvala, Keeper of Silence. I actually didn't side it in against Zoo because I was scared to not get double White, despite the card owning Noble Hierarch and Knight of the Reliquary, while being an evasive flier. That is no way to play a card. If I am scared that I can't cast it, I shouldn't PLAY it in the SB.
My list is the stock Archgaze list, except now I have 2 Rec Sage taken out for the 2 Knight of Autumn that I own. On another note, I tested this deck against myself at home with Burn, Amulet, and Elves. Burn seemed unwinnable, so I gave up on testing. Elves also was incredibly hard to beat. It is a pretty poor matchup as well, so I wouldn't feel to badly, Soot. Amulet, surprisingly, wasn't too bad. I had it at slightly over 50%, which amazed me since Amulet stomps a lot of decks.
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
So I've had my eye on this deck for a few weeks now, and I've been toying with making one that splashes black for Death's Shadow instead of the wurms and dinosaurs. I don't know if this deck would be too different from the lists here to discuss, but I was looking at something like:
Death's Shadow as the Cremator target has the advantage of being able to be cast from hand fairly early in matchups where I'm racing, like against burn or dredge. Varolz provides a kind of Cremator effect with its scavenge ability of death's shadow, like onto a Lotleth troll or a birds. Mausoleum Secrets grabs a shadow at instant speed with 1 creature in the yard, and can get stuff like surgical or decay out of the board, and seems like a complete upgrade to the slow fauna shaman. Bloodghasts seem like fine evolution fodder, and can be discarded by looting or lotleth troll. And finally looting seems like it could set up cremator faster by drawing into action and sculpting the hand.
I don't know if this configuration would work similarly. The pure beatdown plan is obviously a little worse here, and absent are lightning bolt and magus of the moon. How much would that hurt? On the plus side, I feel like the combo potential would be higher and more consistent. Any thoughts or is this too weird?
So, my quest to find out if this deck is for real continues. I played in a 28 person Modern Staples Comp REL tournament today. I feel like the numbers were low because of a Standard PPTQ AND a Legacy Store Credit tournament on the same day. Time to defend my Title, having won the last Modern Staples tournament here at this store with Titanshift!
Round 1 vs. Tron. I win the die roll, but natural Tron into Walking Ballistas when I had Magus of the Moon ended up getting me. Ulamog on turn 4 into Ugin sealed it. In the next game, I come quickly, but he stabilizes with Wurmcoil Engine. I draw a land for the turn and have no choice but to cast Cragganwick Cremator with a land in hand (because I already had 1 before the draw step) and an Impervious Greatwurm. I hit the Wurm and he loses. In game 3, he has natural Tron again and lands Wurmcoil Engine in time after I peel land after land. Drew 4 fetchlands to begin this game and ran out of gas, losing to a Wurmcoil Engine and an O Stone. Tough way to begin a Staples tournament! 1-2.
Round 2 vs. UR Thing. He got stuck on 2 lands and I had Noble Hierarch into Steel Leaf Champion on the play. Not much to say here. In game 2, he had Bolt for the Bird, but I had just way too much gas in this one. I do Eldritch Evolution, expecting countermagic, but it doesn't and I get Cragganwick Cremator to discard Steel Leaf Champion to end it. 2-0.
Round 3 vs. Infect. He mulled to 5 and his attacker was Inkmoth Nexus, but I had Magus of the Moon. I punt big time, attacking it into a Spellskite that blocked and got pumped with Blossoming Defense. I'm set to lose now after he casts Blighted Agent, but I find Impervious Greatwurm to play land, play Cragganwick Cremator and dome him for 16 damage. In the next game, I have Bolt for Noble Hierarch, then he's stuck on 1 land and plays Glistener Elf. I Bolt that as well and then cast some creatures to crush him. He nearly comes back, but I have too much pressure on board. Surrak, the Hunt Caller is a super aggressive card! 2-0.
Round 4 vs. Tron. Damn, I'm about to miss the top 8 because of just Tron decks. She mulls to 5. I mull to 6 and easily get there with a bunch of pressure. No need for Cragganwick this game. In the next game, I go for turn 3 Magus of the Moon, which I should have first just done Eldritch Evolution for Surrak, the Hunt Caller on my Strangleroot Geist and crunched for 8. Then I could have done Magus next turn, but I was scared that she would crack Map and then cast Oblivion Stone with the Urza's Tower. I ended up losing to O Stone on turn 5, then Wurmcoil Engine on turn 6. I figured she's have to find a 5th and 6th land to cast Wurmcoil Engine if she even had it, but I literally drew all non basics and couldn't cast stuff from my hand while a Magus and Strangleroot Geist were not enough pressure. In the final game, she stabilizes with Wurmcoil Engine and I have a 50/50 with Cragganwick Cremator with her at 14 life. She picks Impervious Greatwurm and it's over. 2-1.
Round 5 vs. Ad Nauseam. I'm 7th and he's 8th. One person from the 9th vs. 10th match will make it in, so we have to play. In the first game, he makes a mistake after I BoP into Magus of the Moon and he has to continually cast Angel's Graces off Pentad Prisms before I kill him. He had no Lotus Bloom in this one. In the next game, I do Knight of Autumn on turn 2 to destroy Leyline of Sanctity, then Eldritch Evolution the Birds for Eidolon of Rhetoric. From here it's just him trying to find the combo after getting a Plains late and an Island on his final turn. I ended up playing 3 Noble Hierarchs and swinging with a big Knight of Autumn. I drew the Impervious Greatwurm to go with the Cragganwick Cremator in hand on the final turn, but it didn't matter since it was lethal as he scooped and if he Angel's Grace, it still doesn't kill him. But I got there! 2-0.
I make the 1st seed at 4-1, so I'm on the play!
Top 8 vs. Hardened Scales. In the first game, I pressure him and nearly have him dead, but he casts 2 Arcbound Ravagers to go with his Walking Ballista and double Hardened Scales to kill me on his turn 5. The Judge pulls him aside and I guess he has some sleeves that don't look the same, along with some warped foils that show as an open sleeve when he's shuffling. I doubt it was on purpose since I know the guy. But he gets a game loss. Then I get a lot of pressure on him in the next one and discard a Ghalta, Primal Hunger to end it. (I end of turn Bolt him to set up a draw of a land to discard Ghalta, Primal Hunger. He's at 7 life after the Bolt.) He goes for Nature's Claim on a card, but his 7 life goes to 11 and he takes 12. GGs. 2-1.
Top 4 vs. Hardened Scales. His hand is slow and I have enough pressure and draw a land so that I can Cragganwick Cremator an Impervious Greatwurm with him at 12. In the next game, I have Lightning Bolt and some pressure. I find enough to Cragganwick Cremator him again, as it looked like he had lethal next turn with Arcbound Ravagers, Hangarback Walker, and Hardened Scales on a Thopter token. I made the mistake of not going for the 50/50 last turn since he could have killed me a turn before, but I drew yet another land, so I went for the 50/50 and got there! 2-0.
Finals vs. UW Control. I have a good hand, but Oust on my Noble Hierarch sets me back. Because I don't draw a land, I am forced to Cavern of Souls on "Knight" for Steel Leaf Champions that I wanted to cast on turn 2 and 3. They get Path'd and he had the Mana Leak for Cragganwick Cremator before drawing Gideon Jura to kill a Surrak and then get me with it, Celestial Colonnade, and Snapcaster Mage. I could see on the final turn, he tanked a bit before going for lethal. I had Cragganwick Cremator on top and Ghalta, Primal Hunger and Wurm in hand, so he would have lost if he didn't go for it. He was nearly empty handed at the time. Good play by him! In the next game, I am sandbagging Impervious Greatwurm X 2 and Cavern of Souls. After getting 2 key Spell Quellers (mistake on me for siding 1 Lightning Bolt out), he got Jace, the Mind Sculptor out and fatesealed a Cragganwick Cremator to the bottom. He would have been dead had it not been for that. He swings with Spell Quellers and then on the final turn, Jace bounce my Birds of Paradise, and go for lethal with double Queller and Celestial Colonnade. The end of a good run for me and no repeat of my last win here. 0-2.
I get 2nd place and 4 Marsh Flats instead of 1 foil Engineered Explosives. The prize isn't what I was there for the most. I wanted to show myself holding up 2 Cragganwick Cremators, 1 in each hand, in the victory picture. Oh well! Can't complain.
*After 6-2 today, I am now 16-4 with the deck! This is my best record with any deck after 20 games that didn't get a ban (did better with Bloom Titan and with UR Eldrazi) except my start with Grishoalbrand (24-1-1). I am really excited about this deck because it feels good to consistently win again. I think I am just getting some lucky draws too. You may read that I have been drawing Cragganwick Cremator almost always or having Evolution/Fauna Shaman to get him as well. I won a lot of die rolls today and drew a lot of SB cards as well, which doesn't usually happen for me much with other decks. Better lucky than good, but I'm going to ride this wave!
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Well I tested the list out in a MTGO friendly league and went 2-3. Lost to hardened affinity, abzan knight of the reliquary midrange, and tron, and beat bant spirits and dredge. In all the games, I only managed to discard a shadow to cremator twice, which means the combo is much less consistent than I would have liked. That being the case, having a worse aggro/beat-down plan meant the Jund list was worse, and so not worth the splash.
Faithless looting and bloodghast were clearly the weakest links, as those cards did not have enough synergy with the rest of the deck. Shadow was sweet as I got to cast it fairly often. I missed having a Surrak to be sure.
All that said, every matchup I lost was close except for tron, which just had nutty openers, powering through back to back fulminator mages in game 2. In both the hardened scales and abzan matches, we went to games 3 where I had several turns with a cremator in hand and was waiting to get lucky and topdeck a shadow for lethal.
The only thing I notice so far is that I'm pretty sure that I want 4 Knight of Autumn. I own only 2, so I only took out the 2 Reclamation Sages, but I am going to buy the other 2 before I play the deck again.
Another thing is that after sideboard, it occasionally makes it a bit tougher to get to just having Cragganwick Cremator and a fattie to discard because you can draw late game non-creatures that are hard to play (Shattering Spree against Tron when they have no targets in play). There's a little bit of friction between the non-creatures and Nullhide Ferox, which I'm not quite ready to give up on yet (but has been getting worse and hasn't been super good yet).
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
You bring up some super valid points. I have also heard others say that I should probably replace the Ghalta with a 4th Wurm. I was just waiting for that Timmy moment when I can cast Ghalta, but honestly that situation is mostly a win-more.
Nullhide Ferox has been just okay and has been sided out a lot. I figured that it could tax removal enough for it to be worth it and I love having a bit of discard protection. So far, it hasn't come up and I've only played against Jund once.
So all in all, I would trust your instinct on these cards. I could take out the Caverns because Control is not that prevalent, but also I like that I am learning how to play Caverns in a deck with many creature types. It makes for some thinking situations, whereas most decks are super easy for naming Caverns. It's probably not the best way to be configured for Comp REL though.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
I'm taking a break from Cragganwick to experiment with Mardu Phoenix and get some practice with Bant Spirits, but it's good to see the deck putting up results.
If anyone has success with tweaking the stock list I'd love to hear about it.
I'm taking a break from Cragganwick to experiment with Mardu Phoenix and get some practice with Bant Spirits, but it's good to see the deck putting up results.
If anyone success with tweaking the stock list I'd love to hear about it.
I'm interested in Phoenix as well, but got "stuck" on this Cragganwick right now, lol. Let me know how that goes. I'm about to get the last 2 Phoenix I need to play from my LGS.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
You’re probably right! The 4th Autumn is probably overkill.
Voice was kinda inserted for that reason, as geists 5 and 6. It wasn’t specifically for something though control would usually reserve the more premium removal spells for it first so that’s an okay takeaway.
And I’m stoked to see how shaman performs. It could very well end up 1-1!
If anyone has success with tweaking the stock list I'd love to hear about it.
I don't know if it counts as "success", but I played x4 Bloodbraid Elf in the MB to a 4-0 FNM haha
Going to tweak the deck further for this week's FNM. Will try to post my updated list later today, would love feedback. Then I'll do a write up of the FNM sometime this weekend
I used to play Mardu as well, and love Phoenix. Have been thinking of giving UR Phoenix Reveler Thing in the Ice a test run.
I have to mention this then as well. A friend of mine just won the Atlanta Regionals after scrubbing out of the Pro Tour. Here's his writeup on UR Phoenix/Thing/Reveler if you're interested.
If anyone is up for a short write up on U/R phoenix here ya go! Record: 10-1
The deck:
4 Arclight Phoenix
3 Chart a Course
4 Spirebluff Canal
3 Bedlam Reveler
4 Thing in the Ice
3 Izzet Charm
4 Thought Scour
4 Faithless Looting
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Manamorphose
3 Steam Vents
4 Serum Visions
4 Fiery Temper
4 Island
2 Mountain
1 Shivan Reef
1 Opt
4 Lightning Bolt
Sideboard
2 Firemind's Research
2 Alpine Moon
2 Abrade
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Izzet Charm
4 Surgical Extraction
2 Dispel
Round 1: Opponent G/W company
These games were some of the hardest games to play not because I felt unfavored but because I felt unprepared for the deck and I hadn’t looked into the deck enough. As my opponent is casting their azusas and courser of kruphixs’ I find myself to be falling behind in this matchup. Overall I think that the key to winning a matchup like this is an early thing in the ice and a couple of phoenix. Some of the most problematic cards are voice of resurgence and courser of kruphix. Voice just puts a damper in your plan and makes you have to make plays that you wouldnt normally be making. Courser just allows your opponent to manipulate their deck and grind you out while gaining incidental life along the way. In the end my regionals tournament was off to a rough start. 1-2/0-1
SB plans:+2 anger of the gods ,+2 abrade, +1 izzet charm
-4 though scour -1 opt
Round 2: Hollow Bois
I think that this matchup in one of the closest matchups which is crazy considering that playing hollow one is like flipping a coin for your tournament result. The problem is that early hollow ones can just completely obliterate you. If you can survive the early hollow ones or get an early flip on TITI then I believe you are highly favored. The key cards to you in this matchup are the thing in the ice’s backed up with removal spells. Take this match to the long game with a life total one higher than some number of bolts and take over the game from there. 2-0/1-1
SB plans: +2 anger of the gods +4 surgical extraction +2 abrade
-2 serum visions -2 thought scour -1 opt -3 reveler
Round 3: Mono Red Wizards
SOOO…….I think that the deck choice my opponent had says a lot of the story here. So I guess my opponent was on a budget but his deck was sweet. I would say this matchup is very unfavored and if my opponent had played better I would have lost. Some of the key cards in this matchup include all of your removal spells and early flipped thing in the ice to pressure them. I had one of the most aggressive draws I’ve ever had with this deck against my opponent which also helped a bunch. Turn 2 thing into turn 3 thing + thought scour. Turn 3 was manamorphose , looting discard 2 phoenix, bolt you and 20 you. GG. 2-0/2-1
SB plans: +2 anger of the gods
-2though scour
Round 4: Hardened scales affinity
I’m excited to say that this matchup feels super positive! I am under the impression that the only card that matters in this matchup is thing in the ice. Hardened scales affinity is a snowball type of deck. Just imagine the feeling of blowing up a balloon for 5 minutes wasting all that breath just to have some guy pop it with a needle. That needle is thing in the ice. POP! Some things to be aware of in this matchup is getting burned out by walking ballista and getting demolished by arcbound ravager+hangarback walker. 2-0/3-1
SB plans: + 2 abrade +2 anger of the gods
-4 fiery temper
Round 5: Infect
This matchup is so strange. I find myself getting behind early and having to flip thing in the ice to delay my opponents inkmoth nexus 2 turns. Then after the board is stabilized you can start to bring back your phoenix’s for blocking. I think the biggest card in the matchup is Arclight phoenix. It blocks so well and forces your opponent to use pump spells when then don’t want to. Also something super random that came up was that spellskite has the creature type horror which means its basically gonna stay on the board the whole game. After game 1 your opponents have so many less pump effects in their deck to bring in some cards that are super easy for you to play around. Most of the time they will bring in grafdiggers cage to counter phoenix/faithless looting but you simply don’t care about those. I find myself hard casting the phoenix to gain my advantage In the air. 2-0/4-1
SB plans: +2 alpine moon +2 abrade +2 dispel +1 izzet charm
-4 fiery temper -1 opt -2 thought scour
Round 6: Bant spirits
THIS IS NOT A GOOD MATCH UP!! I mean that seriously. If you think that the metagame of the tournament you will attend is gonna have a lot of spirits players please don’t play this deck. You will NOT have fun. That being said there are some good cards in this matchup like Thing in the ice (this card seems to be good in a lot of matchups). It allows you to shape the game to how you want the game to be played. For example you can play super hard into your opponents spell quellers/company so hard all because of thing in the ice. That being said if they go 1,2,3, you’re dead…..Very dead! 2-1/5-1
SB plans: Pray and…..+2 abrade +2 dispel +2 anger
-3 bedlam -1 opt -1 chart -1 izzet charm
Round 7: Hollow Bois pt.2
I think I left one thing out on the last one so ill add it here so this isn’t blank…lol. In the post board games against hollow one do not be afraid to surgical them super aggressively. They are a very fragile deck and sometimes one missing piece is good enough. 2-0/6-1
Round 8: 8 rack
I hate round 1 losses :/ although the tournament was large I was a little bummed I couldn’t ID into top 8 but nonetheless here I was. I came into this match so unfamiliar and really had no clue what was going on. To be fair who expects to play against 8 rack for a win and in of a 200+ person event anyways. Game one went so weird and I think the best card in this matchup is bedlam reveler. It draws so many cards and can get you out of the soft lock of the rack/shrieking affliction. These games feel like they were decided around turn 4 and if they had played out their hand or not yet. Get ahead on cards and stay ahead. That’s the game plan. 2-0/7-1
SB plans: +2 fireminds +2 abrade +1 izzet charm
-4 bolt -1 looting
Quarterfinals: dredge
Although I wish I didn’t have to say this the truth hurts. My opponent was a local and conceded to me because he wanted to go home after we prize split top 8. I do still have some good information on this matchup though because of past tournaments. I think that the key to winning this matchup the most is aggression. They are an aggro deck with one heck of a finisher in conflagrate. You have to be able to keep up the pace of play with them and be able to get them to have to play in a pinch. Unfortunately, they have creeping chill, but trust me its better after board. Make sure you mulligan aggressively to get those surgicals and do it at the first time you can. One cute interaction is if you’re at a low life total you can manamorphose to make black mana, so you don’t have to pay for surgical. Bye/8-1
SB plans: +4 surgical +2 anger
-3 bedlam -3 chart a course
Semifinals: KCI
Okay so we’ve got an interesting one here. I think this matchup is close. Your best card by far is izzet charm unless your opponent is aware of it. Counter things aggressively I promise. Once their hand has dwindled down to a few cards you gotta turn on the rocket boosters and kill ‘em quick. Post board games revolve around timely surgical extractions. Also make sure you watch out for sai in this matchup as it can be another way for them to out grind you. 2-1/9-1
SB plans: +4 surgical +2 abrade +1 izzet charm +2 alpine moon
-3 reveler -4 temper -1 opt -1 chart a course
Finals: Runaway red
The pseudo mirror and my carmate for the trip. We had talked a lot about the different versions of Arclight phoenix decks and he was unable to put together the U/R version so he played mono red. I think that the mono red version is favored in the mirror because of the burn spells and early aggression. I think that overall this match is close and it comes down to who has the better early turns. I feel that it is hard to come back from behind in this match up. The key cards on your side are Arclight phoenix and thing in the ice. ITS SO BIG! They have such a hard time dealing with the awoken horror that the game plan becomes protecting that guy once he flips. 2-1/10-1
SB plans: +2 surgical +2 anger
-1 izzet charm -1 opt -2 thought scour
Matchups I did not play but believe are important:
Humans: +2 abrade +2 anger of the gods
-3 bedlam -1 opt
U/W or jeskai: +2 fireminds research +1 izzet charm +2 dispel
-1 bedlam -4 fiery temper
Tron: +2 alpine moon +1 izzet charm
-3 bedlam
Jund: +2 dispel +2 fireminds research +1 izzet charm
-4 fiery temper -1 opt
Burn: +2 dispel +1 Izzet charm
-3 bedlam
Storm: +2 dispel +1 izzet charm +4 surgical
-4 fiery temper -1 opt -2 thought scour
Grixis DS: +2 surgical +2 dispel +2 fireminds research +1 izzet charm
-4 fiery temper -1 opt -2 thought scour
Tips and tricks:
having phoenix’s on board when u flip thing in the ice is not all that bad. Faithless looting becomes a lot better and so does chart a course
sometimes its best to not flip thing in the ice right away. Flipping it EOT is always fun.
GY hate is very beatable. There were plenty of leylines and rest in piece played against me. Its not that bad
Izzet charm has a lot of text. Read it.
Bolts ALWAYS go the the face when thing in the ice is on one. Please don’t oops.
Fireminds research is cute…but its good cute and jeskai/U/W have very little ways of handling that card
Wrap up: so lets see where we can go from here. I think the deck is good. Very good and if its not on your radar it should be. I think that we need answers to some bigger guys which could result in me playing some shaky cards. I think kalitas/sai/titi/any 4 toughness guys are very difficult to deal with so for the next tournament I play I’m going to consider playing harvest pyre or lightning axe both of which can kill some serious threats. Let me know if there are other matchups that side boarding concerns you! That’s all I’ve got for ya. Thanks for reading!
I left out his name, but you could probably find it easily at starcitygames.com.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
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Cragganwick Cremator
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-challenge-2018-10-21
Sam Pardee running it. https://www.channelfireball.com/videos/cragganwick-creamator-beatdown-modern-channel-pardee-time/
I heard that Caleb Durward also has been running it, but I cannot find any videos. It's supposed to be under "Modern Madness." If someone finds it, please link it here.
So far I'm 7-1 with the deck.
FNM
Burn 2-0
Bant Spirits 1-2
Grixis Shadow 2-0
UR Delver 2-1
MNM
4 Color Traverse 2-1
Tron 2-0
Jund 2-1
4 Color Saheeli 2-0
Has anyone else tried it? Am I just the luckiest lucksack in the world? Please post your results.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/much-abrew-cremator-evolution-modern
Anyway, I've been playing the deck as well with some mixed but overall positive results. I've always loved Eldritch Evolution so any framework which can run this card makes me happy. I primarily see this as a beat down deck with a combo backup, since the combo itself can be difficult to assemble or luck based depending what you have in hand.
It's pretty sweet to be dealing 16 damage to the face though. The problems I've been having are that it's pretty mana intensive, requiring GGG for stealeaf does not mix well with colorless lands like Cavern of Souls. Triple G and double R requirements prevent us from going full Naya and adding more white cards. That being said, Cavern has definitely won me games playing against blue decks.
I feel the deck is still pretty raw, and lot's of the cards are potential flex (e.g. Tireless tracker, Nullhide ferox [I don't get this card], scooze), but then what do you replace them with? Finks? Bloodbraid? Huntmaster of the Falls? My inclination is to try to max the value from Eldritch Evolution in a way that doesn't compromise the aggro plan.
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Playing 4x 2RR creatures along with 4x big fatties is already a very huge downside in the deck, I do'nt think you can afford to play Ferox, Surrak and other random creatures.
Noble Hierarch make no sense in terms of color fixing either.
The deck needs a good discard outlet, so there's no random discarding when the combo tries to happen. I doubt Shaman is the right one because she adds another card in hand, which doesn't help being hellbent, but at the same time it's the right way to get wurm in hand... Noose Constrictor maybe ?
It's true that Through the Breach is appealing but it's super expensive. As dumb as it sounds, I could see the combo in a Steam-Kin deck with 8 Rituals. I'll stop here, I'm going way too far !
Steel-Leaf Champion has been a beast for me! I thought that a vanilla 5/4 creature that can't be chumped blocked was pretty poor, but some decks are seriously weak to this card, especially on turn 2 (hence the 6 mana dorks). I can see the upside of this card against certain decks. People also don't want to use removal on a stupid Standard card.
It can be tough to cast certain cards, but honestly it has been infinitely easier than I thought it would be. You just have to be a bit smart with Caverns and also realize how much Magus of the Moon can affect you vs. how much it affects your opponent. Surrak, the Hunt Caller is literally there mostly for the turn 3 Eldritch Evolution on Strangleroot Geist to a 3/2 to give the Surrak haste through Formidable. Other than that, it's mostly a hasty beater that can come out of nowhere. Nullhide Ferox is mostly for discard (Liliana, Burning Inquiry, Smallpox), but also can provide a clock vs. some decks. It's pretty bad against decks that can provide infinite blockers, but it can be sided out easily.
The discard outlet is Fauna Shaman. Other than that, it's mostly just playing stuff and hoping not to get too many lands (because of the 1 land per turn rule).
I think Through the Breach doesn't work so well with this particular deck because it can be discarded to Cremator to do 0. There already is a little tension with Cragganwick Cremator and Eldritch Evolution, but it's not quite as bad.
Noble Hierarch is not for mana fixing, but for Ramp primarily and secondarily, Exalted. A 6/5 attacking on turn 3 is a real thing in Modern (or so it seems so far).
I assume the deck dies to quick Combo, but then every deck has a poor matchup and you still have a possibility to do 16 on turn 3 (discarding Impervious Greatwurm to Cremator). The deck could certainly be optimized, but I'm not sure if it will get there because the lack of attention. But that is part of the fun of it!
*I had an interesting game vs. Jund yesterday in Game 3 where I would have lost without Kessig Wolf Run. He ended up stabilizing, killing everything I had except a Noble Hierarch, but since I had infinite mana and Kessig Wolf Run, he couldn't attack with Scavenging Ooze. I eventually drew Impervious Greatwurm and he scooped. 16/16 with Trample from Kessig Wolf Run? Sign me up. He literally had 1 card in hand and 1 draw step, so 2 Liliana of the Veil would have gotten me. But...my next draw step was a 2nd Impervious Greatwurm! Lol. Probably just lucky like I said so far?
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)I've been testing Bloodbraid Elf and so far it's been pretty solid, especially against blue decks where you can use it to force your way through counterspell. I'm running 3 at the moment. I'm hesitant to run 4 because the deck is already running many mana heavy creatures.
BB Elf ->
Good hits: Bolt, Geist, Steel leaf, Knight of Autumn
Mediocre hits: Magus (depending how you've stacked your lands), Eldritch Evo (I've had a situation where I didn't have any viable targets since the cascade trigger resolves before BB Elf does)
Bad Hits: Mana dorks
I've dropped to one Cavern of Souls MB and one sideboard, since I strongly dislike drawing two colourless lands as an opener. Kessig Wolf run is an all star land, pumps for lethal and lets you power through decks running ensnaring bridge with a Noble or Birds.
I agree that the deck needs more 2-drops and Evo sac targets, but... Voice just wont cut it. The deck's mana base can't afford being forced to consistantly fetch a white land, at least not with the current land set. The deck needs to have GG or GGG every game, but also needs to be able to hold up R for the first turns in case you need to bolt something, as well as get RR by turn three or 4. You could change to 2xNoble and 4xBirds maybe if you wanted more white mana. Personally I don't like relying on mana dorks to fix colours since so may of my games end up with the dork being bolted/killed as soon as I pass the turn.
I'm thinking about running either 1 Kitchen Finks or 1 Knight of Autumn MB since my FNM meta has a lot of burn and artifact decks.
The more I play the deck, the more reliably I find myself planning around the Cragganwick Crementor discard. Lots of games you don't need to discard a worm, and can get away with some solid aggro beats and a 5/4 creature discard to finish off. Many times having a Fauna Shaman stick until your next turn let's you set up for the combo.
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So far I've tried to avoid taking out too many combo pieces when sideboarding, maybe trimming Ghalta or a worm. I'm not sure if that's sensible or not to be honest, but many decks have solutions for straight up aggro and since the joy of the deck is slamming face for 16 I like to keep those cards in.
If facing midrange decks like Mardu / Jund, I would trim the mana dorks. Against control I would reduce Evo since they can counter it and have you sac a creature for nothing.
If anyone has advice on how to sideboard against different decks I'd appreciate it.
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I love seeing the back and forth. Knight of Autumn is a great addition to the board over the Rec Sages, Shattering Spree, and Kitchen Finks. I may try those soon too. I just keep thinking that the next tournament is going to be the one where I get destroyed, lol. (it's only been 2 though)
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)Looking forward to it!
I'll most likely be doing a report as well. (Usually I do a more detailed report.)
This is not a bad idea. The problem for me is that I no longer am a deck builder and haven't been for so long that I literally don't know what to take out. If I put in 4 Manamorphose, I would cut maybe 2 lands and then 2 other cards.
It was the same problem for me with Gitaxian Probe. I wanted to eventually try the card in Bogles, thus giving myself a 56 card deck that doesn't usually care that much about the minimal life loss, but I didn't know what to cut. I ran out of time to figure out a list, mostly because I've been playing so many other decks, so Bogles iddn't get my full attention.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)Damn, that sucks.
I played in a small 16 person FNM.
Round 1 vs. Eldrazi Taxes. He plays creatures. I play creatures a bit later than him and his fliers finish me off. I was a removal spell short of getting there. In the next game, I keep on no 1-3 drops, just 4 lands and 3 four drops. I draw lands and 4 drops and lose to a perfect curved aggro hand. I had Caldera Hellion in hand, but his turn 4 Thought-Knot Seer got it and I couldn't find Slagstorm (or Lightning Bolt). Not a good way to start a tournament. 0-2.
Round 2 vs. UW Control. In the first game, he kept on 2 Plains and I had a perfect curve, leaning on Tireless Tracker to get 5 Clues as well. He had 1 Path to Exile. I expected another, but he didn't get it and he died 2 turns after finding Field of Ruin to get an Island. Used his Island twice and died. In the next game, he got a key Terminus and then a hard cast Terminus a while later, but Cragganwick Cremator after I put pressure with another creature discards Steel Leaf Champion, my draw step and only card left in my hand for lethal. 2-0.
Round 3 vs. Grixis Control. I get some good pressure and he stabilizes with a bunch of Cryptic Commands, but I'm just waiting for...a Steel Leaf Champion to go with the Cragganwick Cremator in hand for game. In the next game, I put 2 big creatures into a Damnation with the plan to Tireless Tracker with fetchland for some clues. He gets it with Cryptic Command, but I have too many Lightning Bolts and creatures to pressure him. Eventually I double Bolt his Tasigur because I couldn't figure out how to kill him (since he's at 11 and I have 3 Bolts, but he keeps my creatures from dealing him damage, be it removal or Cryptic Command) I get there easily in the end. 2-0.
Round 4 vs. Zoo. He mulls to 5. He has Horizon Canopy and Noble Hierarch. Not much else and I swarm him. Didn't even need Cragganwick, but did it with a freshly drawn Steel Leaf Champion for lethal. In the next game, there are a million creatures on each side and I punt. I make the mistake of end step cracking 2 clues, leaving Relic of Progenitus for my turn to swing for just 1 less than lethal (shrinking a Goyf). He lives at 1 and swings with Shalai for lethal.
I finish 3-1, so 10-2 so far with the deck. This is better than I've done with almost every Modern deck and definitely any Modern deck that hasn't had cards banned from it, lol.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)Elves 1 - 2
First game he collected company's into two Shaman of the Pack for ten, draws another at the the start of next turn. Dead.
Game two an early Evo fetches Linvala locking him out of the game early on.
Game three kept a hand with lands and few creatures because it had Anger of the Gods, used Anger to remove his first wave of stuff, but only drew dorks and lands later on. Had one 50/50 chance to win with Cragganwick, but was unlucky.
Mardu 0 - 2
Both games he used discard to keep good cards out of my hand, and mid-ranged away my beaters. Had one 50 / 50 chance to win with Cragganwick, unlucky again.
Red Prison 2 - 1
Game one he gets down ensnaring bridge but my decision to mainboard Knight of Autumn pays off, and I fetch it with Evo for the win.
Game two he rituals for early goblin lord, I remove it but he plays two more later. He also lands witchbane orb preventing me from using the combo win.
Game three he has witchbane orb and torpor orb and ensnaring bridge. Eventually draw Shattering Spree to win the game.
Conclusions
Elves can out aggro us, but I think after side boarding we have the advantage. He had some very lucky Collected company hits unfortunately.
Mardu and other midrange decks are definitely going to be a difficult match up unless we can get the combo win.
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Last week was two dredge players, went 2 - 2 overall beating burn and lantern control but losing to burn (different player) and dredge.
I'd run Slagstorm but there are too many decks using graveyard recursion at the moment, e.g. dredge, bridgevine, arclight phoenix decks, etc.
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I think I've just been lucky so far to be honest. I've drawn very well.
Tireless Tracker is my favorite Modern creature. I found the card invaluable when I ran Knightfall and out of the Titanshift SB. It is not good against a lot of matchup and it does get sided out occasionally, but in the matchups where it stays in, it can be very good. I have found it equally good in Cragganwick Toolbox. (there's gotta be a better name, lol) The deck likes to dump it's hand to set up Cragganwick kills, but having clues to rebuild is always very important. The creature also gets incredibly big quickly and you can usually control what gets killed between it and Steel Leaf Champion if you have both. There's nothing worse for an opponent who will not kill quickly than to see a Tireless Tracker that has been around for a turn or 2. I almost ALWAYS play Tracker on a turn where I play a land immediately afterward. There's been 2 times so far with Cragganwick Toolbox where I played it AFTER a land drop and I regretted one of those instantly (probably would have won, had I saved it, but I assumed I could dodge removal for a turn).
I haven't played it enough to know what to change from Archgaze's list. I do like the 4 Knight of Autumn in the board for the 2 Rec Sage, Shattering Spree, and Kitchen Finks. When I get more Knights, I will do it! The only problem I potentially see with the list, but maybe I am just being paranoid, is double White mana for the SB Linvala, Keeper of Silence. I actually didn't side it in against Zoo because I was scared to not get double White, despite the card owning Noble Hierarch and Knight of the Reliquary, while being an evasive flier. That is no way to play a card. If I am scared that I can't cast it, I shouldn't PLAY it in the SB.
My list is the stock Archgaze list, except now I have 2 Rec Sage taken out for the 2 Knight of Autumn that I own. On another note, I tested this deck against myself at home with Burn, Amulet, and Elves. Burn seemed unwinnable, so I gave up on testing. Elves also was incredibly hard to beat. It is a pretty poor matchup as well, so I wouldn't feel to badly, Soot. Amulet, surprisingly, wasn't too bad. I had it at slightly over 50%, which amazed me since Amulet stomps a lot of decks.
P.S. - This mat looks much better in person!
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)2 Elves of Deep Shadow
4 Death's Shadow
4 Bloodghast
3 Lotleth Troll
4 Strangleroot Geist
3 Steel Leaf Champion
1 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
4 Cragganwick Cremator
2 Mausoleum Secrets
4 Eldritch Evolution
Death's Shadow as the Cremator target has the advantage of being able to be cast from hand fairly early in matchups where I'm racing, like against burn or dredge. Varolz provides a kind of Cremator effect with its scavenge ability of death's shadow, like onto a Lotleth troll or a birds. Mausoleum Secrets grabs a shadow at instant speed with 1 creature in the yard, and can get stuff like surgical or decay out of the board, and seems like a complete upgrade to the slow fauna shaman. Bloodghasts seem like fine evolution fodder, and can be discarded by looting or lotleth troll. And finally looting seems like it could set up cremator faster by drawing into action and sculpting the hand.
I don't know if this configuration would work similarly. The pure beatdown plan is obviously a little worse here, and absent are lightning bolt and magus of the moon. How much would that hurt? On the plus side, I feel like the combo potential would be higher and more consistent. Any thoughts or is this too weird?
Round 1 vs. Tron. I win the die roll, but natural Tron into Walking Ballistas when I had Magus of the Moon ended up getting me. Ulamog on turn 4 into Ugin sealed it. In the next game, I come quickly, but he stabilizes with Wurmcoil Engine. I draw a land for the turn and have no choice but to cast Cragganwick Cremator with a land in hand (because I already had 1 before the draw step) and an Impervious Greatwurm. I hit the Wurm and he loses. In game 3, he has natural Tron again and lands Wurmcoil Engine in time after I peel land after land. Drew 4 fetchlands to begin this game and ran out of gas, losing to a Wurmcoil Engine and an O Stone. Tough way to begin a Staples tournament! 1-2.
Round 2 vs. UR Thing. He got stuck on 2 lands and I had Noble Hierarch into Steel Leaf Champion on the play. Not much to say here. In game 2, he had Bolt for the Bird, but I had just way too much gas in this one. I do Eldritch Evolution, expecting countermagic, but it doesn't and I get Cragganwick Cremator to discard Steel Leaf Champion to end it. 2-0.
Round 3 vs. Infect. He mulled to 5 and his attacker was Inkmoth Nexus, but I had Magus of the Moon. I punt big time, attacking it into a Spellskite that blocked and got pumped with Blossoming Defense. I'm set to lose now after he casts Blighted Agent, but I find Impervious Greatwurm to play land, play Cragganwick Cremator and dome him for 16 damage. In the next game, I have Bolt for Noble Hierarch, then he's stuck on 1 land and plays Glistener Elf. I Bolt that as well and then cast some creatures to crush him. He nearly comes back, but I have too much pressure on board. Surrak, the Hunt Caller is a super aggressive card! 2-0.
Round 4 vs. Tron. Damn, I'm about to miss the top 8 because of just Tron decks. She mulls to 5. I mull to 6 and easily get there with a bunch of pressure. No need for Cragganwick this game. In the next game, I go for turn 3 Magus of the Moon, which I should have first just done Eldritch Evolution for Surrak, the Hunt Caller on my Strangleroot Geist and crunched for 8. Then I could have done Magus next turn, but I was scared that she would crack Map and then cast Oblivion Stone with the Urza's Tower. I ended up losing to O Stone on turn 5, then Wurmcoil Engine on turn 6. I figured she's have to find a 5th and 6th land to cast Wurmcoil Engine if she even had it, but I literally drew all non basics and couldn't cast stuff from my hand while a Magus and Strangleroot Geist were not enough pressure. In the final game, she stabilizes with Wurmcoil Engine and I have a 50/50 with Cragganwick Cremator with her at 14 life. She picks Impervious Greatwurm and it's over. 2-1.
Round 5 vs. Ad Nauseam. I'm 7th and he's 8th. One person from the 9th vs. 10th match will make it in, so we have to play.
I make the 1st seed at 4-1, so I'm on the play!
Top 8 vs. Hardened Scales. In the first game, I pressure him and nearly have him dead, but he casts 2 Arcbound Ravagers to go with his Walking Ballista and double Hardened Scales to kill me on his turn 5. The Judge pulls him aside and I guess he has some sleeves that don't look the same, along with some warped foils that show as an open sleeve when he's shuffling. I doubt it was on purpose since I know the guy. But he gets a game loss. Then I get a lot of pressure on him in the next one and discard a Ghalta, Primal Hunger to end it. (I end of turn Bolt him to set up a draw of a land to discard Ghalta, Primal Hunger. He's at 7 life after the Bolt.) He goes for Nature's Claim on a card, but his 7 life goes to 11 and he takes 12. GGs. 2-1.
Top 4 vs. Hardened Scales. His hand is slow and I have enough pressure and draw a land so that I can Cragganwick Cremator an Impervious Greatwurm with him at 12. In the next game, I have Lightning Bolt and some pressure. I find enough to Cragganwick Cremator him again, as it looked like he had lethal next turn with Arcbound Ravagers, Hangarback Walker, and Hardened Scales on a Thopter token. I made the mistake of not going for the 50/50 last turn since he could have killed me a turn before, but I drew yet another land, so I went for the 50/50 and got there! 2-0.
Finals vs. UW Control. I have a good hand, but Oust on my Noble Hierarch sets me back. Because I don't draw a land, I am forced to Cavern of Souls on "Knight" for Steel Leaf Champions that I wanted to cast on turn 2 and 3. They get Path'd and he had the Mana Leak for Cragganwick Cremator before drawing Gideon Jura to kill a Surrak and then get me with it, Celestial Colonnade, and Snapcaster Mage. I could see on the final turn, he tanked a bit before going for lethal. I had Cragganwick Cremator on top and Ghalta, Primal Hunger and Wurm in hand, so he would have lost if he didn't go for it. He was nearly empty handed at the time. Good play by him! In the next game, I am sandbagging Impervious Greatwurm X 2 and Cavern of Souls. After getting 2 key Spell Quellers (mistake on me for siding 1 Lightning Bolt out), he got Jace, the Mind Sculptor out and fatesealed a Cragganwick Cremator to the bottom. He would have been dead had it not been for that. He swings with Spell Quellers and then on the final turn, Jace bounce my Birds of Paradise, and go for lethal with double Queller and Celestial Colonnade. The end of a good run for me and no repeat of my last win here.
I get 2nd place and 4 Marsh Flats instead of 1 foil Engineered Explosives. The prize isn't what I was there for the most. I wanted to show myself holding up 2 Cragganwick Cremators, 1 in each hand, in the victory picture. Oh well! Can't complain.
*After 6-2 today, I am now 16-4 with the deck! This is my best record with any deck after 20 games that didn't get a ban (did better with Bloom Titan and with UR Eldrazi) except my start with Grishoalbrand (24-1-1). I am really excited about this deck because it feels good to consistently win again. I think I am just getting some lucky draws too. You may read that I have been drawing Cragganwick Cremator almost always or having Evolution/Fauna Shaman to get him as well. I won a lot of die rolls today and drew a lot of SB cards as well, which doesn't usually happen for me much with other decks. Better lucky than good, but I'm going to ride this wave!
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)Faithless looting and bloodghast were clearly the weakest links, as those cards did not have enough synergy with the rest of the deck. Shadow was sweet as I got to cast it fairly often. I missed having a Surrak to be sure.
All that said, every matchup I lost was close except for tron, which just had nutty openers, powering through back to back fulminator mages in game 2. In both the hardened scales and abzan matches, we went to games 3 where I had several turns with a cremator in hand and was waiting to get lucky and topdeck a shadow for lethal.
Another thing is that after sideboard, it occasionally makes it a bit tougher to get to just having Cragganwick Cremator and a fattie to discard because you can draw late game non-creatures that are hard to play (Shattering Spree against Tron when they have no targets in play). There's a little bit of friction between the non-creatures and Nullhide Ferox, which I'm not quite ready to give up on yet (but has been getting worse and hasn't been super good yet).
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)Nullhide Ferox has been just okay and has been sided out a lot. I figured that it could tax removal enough for it to be worth it and I love having a bit of discard protection. So far, it hasn't come up and I've only played against Jund once.
So all in all, I would trust your instinct on these cards. I could take out the Caverns because Control is not that prevalent, but also I like that I am learning how to play Caverns in a deck with many creature types. It makes for some thinking situations, whereas most decks are super easy for naming Caverns. It's probably not the best way to be configured for Comp REL though.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=20510&f=MO&fbclid=IwAR3aapt1fUqki4YMnVbNUqJb4rBv3k_sMgV7lxN4ZMpd9tG-XFlpxSiM4LI
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)I'm taking a break from Cragganwick to experiment with Mardu Phoenix and get some practice with Bant Spirits, but it's good to see the deck putting up results.
If anyone has success with tweaking the stock list I'd love to hear about it.
Currently active
I'm interested in Phoenix as well, but got "stuck" on this Cragganwick right now, lol. Let me know how that goes. I'm about to get the last 2 Phoenix I need to play from my LGS.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)4 Cragganwick Cremator
4 Impervious Greatwurm
4 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Steel Leaf Champion
4 Strangleroot Geist
1 Shaman of the Great Hunt
2 Fauna Shaman
1 Magus of the Moon
3 Eldritch Evolution
4 Lightning Bolt
Lands:
1 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Fire-Lit Thicket
3 Copperline Gorge
4 Forest
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Stomping Ground
1 Mountain
2 Temple Garden
4 Knight of Autumn
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Heroic Intervention
2 Voice of Resurgence
1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
1 Scavenging Ooze
Curious to see how shaman and bbe work! It seems sweet.
Voice was kinda inserted for that reason, as geists 5 and 6. It wasn’t specifically for something though control would usually reserve the more premium removal spells for it first so that’s an okay takeaway.
And I’m stoked to see how shaman performs. It could very well end up 1-1!
Should we try Worship in our sideboard?
I have to mention this then as well. A friend of mine just won the Atlanta Regionals after scrubbing out of the Pro Tour. Here's his writeup on UR Phoenix/Thing/Reveler if you're interested.
The deck:
4 Arclight Phoenix
3 Chart a Course
4 Spirebluff Canal
3 Bedlam Reveler
4 Thing in the Ice
3 Izzet Charm
4 Thought Scour
4 Faithless Looting
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Manamorphose
3 Steam Vents
4 Serum Visions
4 Fiery Temper
4 Island
2 Mountain
1 Shivan Reef
1 Opt
4 Lightning Bolt
Sideboard
2 Firemind's Research
2 Alpine Moon
2 Abrade
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Izzet Charm
4 Surgical Extraction
2 Dispel
Round 1: Opponent G/W company
These games were some of the hardest games to play not because I felt unfavored but because I felt unprepared for the deck and I hadn’t looked into the deck enough. As my opponent is casting their azusas and courser of kruphixs’ I find myself to be falling behind in this matchup. Overall I think that the key to winning a matchup like this is an early thing in the ice and a couple of phoenix. Some of the most problematic cards are voice of resurgence and courser of kruphix. Voice just puts a damper in your plan and makes you have to make plays that you wouldnt normally be making. Courser just allows your opponent to manipulate their deck and grind you out while gaining incidental life along the way. In the end my regionals tournament was off to a rough start. 1-2/0-1
SB plans:+2 anger of the gods ,+2 abrade, +1 izzet charm
-4 though scour -1 opt
Round 2: Hollow Bois
I think that this matchup in one of the closest matchups which is crazy considering that playing hollow one is like flipping a coin for your tournament result. The problem is that early hollow ones can just completely obliterate you. If you can survive the early hollow ones or get an early flip on TITI then I believe you are highly favored. The key cards to you in this matchup are the thing in the ice’s backed up with removal spells. Take this match to the long game with a life total one higher than some number of bolts and take over the game from there. 2-0/1-1
SB plans: +2 anger of the gods +4 surgical extraction +2 abrade
-2 serum visions -2 thought scour -1 opt -3 reveler
Round 3: Mono Red Wizards
SOOO…….I think that the deck choice my opponent had says a lot of the story here. So I guess my opponent was on a budget but his deck was sweet. I would say this matchup is very unfavored and if my opponent had played better I would have lost. Some of the key cards in this matchup include all of your removal spells and early flipped thing in the ice to pressure them. I had one of the most aggressive draws I’ve ever had with this deck against my opponent which also helped a bunch. Turn 2 thing into turn 3 thing + thought scour. Turn 3 was manamorphose , looting discard 2 phoenix, bolt you and 20 you. GG. 2-0/2-1
SB plans: +2 anger of the gods
-2though scour
Round 4: Hardened scales affinity
I’m excited to say that this matchup feels super positive! I am under the impression that the only card that matters in this matchup is thing in the ice. Hardened scales affinity is a snowball type of deck. Just imagine the feeling of blowing up a balloon for 5 minutes wasting all that breath just to have some guy pop it with a needle. That needle is thing in the ice. POP! Some things to be aware of in this matchup is getting burned out by walking ballista and getting demolished by arcbound ravager+hangarback walker. 2-0/3-1
SB plans: + 2 abrade +2 anger of the gods
-4 fiery temper
Round 5: Infect
This matchup is so strange. I find myself getting behind early and having to flip thing in the ice to delay my opponents inkmoth nexus 2 turns. Then after the board is stabilized you can start to bring back your phoenix’s for blocking. I think the biggest card in the matchup is Arclight phoenix. It blocks so well and forces your opponent to use pump spells when then don’t want to. Also something super random that came up was that spellskite has the creature type horror which means its basically gonna stay on the board the whole game. After game 1 your opponents have so many less pump effects in their deck to bring in some cards that are super easy for you to play around. Most of the time they will bring in grafdiggers cage to counter phoenix/faithless looting but you simply don’t care about those. I find myself hard casting the phoenix to gain my advantage In the air. 2-0/4-1
SB plans: +2 alpine moon +2 abrade +2 dispel +1 izzet charm
-4 fiery temper -1 opt -2 thought scour
Round 6: Bant spirits
THIS IS NOT A GOOD MATCH UP!! I mean that seriously. If you think that the metagame of the tournament you will attend is gonna have a lot of spirits players please don’t play this deck. You will NOT have fun. That being said there are some good cards in this matchup like Thing in the ice (this card seems to be good in a lot of matchups). It allows you to shape the game to how you want the game to be played. For example you can play super hard into your opponents spell quellers/company so hard all because of thing in the ice. That being said if they go 1,2,3, you’re dead…..Very dead! 2-1/5-1
SB plans: Pray and…..+2 abrade +2 dispel +2 anger
-3 bedlam -1 opt -1 chart -1 izzet charm
Round 7: Hollow Bois pt.2
I think I left one thing out on the last one so ill add it here so this isn’t blank…lol. In the post board games against hollow one do not be afraid to surgical them super aggressively. They are a very fragile deck and sometimes one missing piece is good enough. 2-0/6-1
Round 8: 8 rack
I hate round 1 losses :/ although the tournament was large I was a little bummed I couldn’t ID into top 8 but nonetheless here I was. I came into this match so unfamiliar and really had no clue what was going on. To be fair who expects to play against 8 rack for a win and in of a 200+ person event anyways. Game one went so weird and I think the best card in this matchup is bedlam reveler. It draws so many cards and can get you out of the soft lock of the rack/shrieking affliction. These games feel like they were decided around turn 4 and if they had played out their hand or not yet. Get ahead on cards and stay ahead. That’s the game plan. 2-0/7-1
SB plans: +2 fireminds +2 abrade +1 izzet charm
-4 bolt -1 looting
Quarterfinals: dredge
Although I wish I didn’t have to say this the truth hurts. My opponent was a local and conceded to me because he wanted to go home after we prize split top 8. I do still have some good information on this matchup though because of past tournaments. I think that the key to winning this matchup the most is aggression. They are an aggro deck with one heck of a finisher in conflagrate. You have to be able to keep up the pace of play with them and be able to get them to have to play in a pinch. Unfortunately, they have creeping chill, but trust me its better after board. Make sure you mulligan aggressively to get those surgicals and do it at the first time you can. One cute interaction is if you’re at a low life total you can manamorphose to make black mana, so you don’t have to pay for surgical. Bye/8-1
SB plans: +4 surgical +2 anger
-3 bedlam -3 chart a course
Semifinals: KCI
Okay so we’ve got an interesting one here. I think this matchup is close. Your best card by far is izzet charm unless your opponent is aware of it. Counter things aggressively I promise. Once their hand has dwindled down to a few cards you gotta turn on the rocket boosters and kill ‘em quick. Post board games revolve around timely surgical extractions. Also make sure you watch out for sai in this matchup as it can be another way for them to out grind you. 2-1/9-1
SB plans: +4 surgical +2 abrade +1 izzet charm +2 alpine moon
-3 reveler -4 temper -1 opt -1 chart a course
Finals: Runaway red
The pseudo mirror and my carmate for the trip. We had talked a lot about the different versions of Arclight phoenix decks and he was unable to put together the U/R version so he played mono red. I think that the mono red version is favored in the mirror because of the burn spells and early aggression. I think that overall this match is close and it comes down to who has the better early turns. I feel that it is hard to come back from behind in this match up. The key cards on your side are Arclight phoenix and thing in the ice. ITS SO BIG! They have such a hard time dealing with the awoken horror that the game plan becomes protecting that guy once he flips. 2-1/10-1
SB plans: +2 surgical +2 anger
-1 izzet charm -1 opt -2 thought scour
Matchups I did not play but believe are important:
Humans: +2 abrade +2 anger of the gods
-3 bedlam -1 opt
U/W or jeskai: +2 fireminds research +1 izzet charm +2 dispel
-1 bedlam -4 fiery temper
Tron: +2 alpine moon +1 izzet charm
-3 bedlam
Jund: +2 dispel +2 fireminds research +1 izzet charm
-4 fiery temper -1 opt
Burn: +2 dispel +1 Izzet charm
-3 bedlam
Storm: +2 dispel +1 izzet charm +4 surgical
-4 fiery temper -1 opt -2 thought scour
Grixis DS: +2 surgical +2 dispel +2 fireminds research +1 izzet charm
-4 fiery temper -1 opt -2 thought scour
Tips and tricks:
having phoenix’s on board when u flip thing in the ice is not all that bad. Faithless looting becomes a lot better and so does chart a course
sometimes its best to not flip thing in the ice right away. Flipping it EOT is always fun.
GY hate is very beatable. There were plenty of leylines and rest in piece played against me. Its not that bad
Izzet charm has a lot of text. Read it.
Bolts ALWAYS go the the face when thing in the ice is on one. Please don’t oops.
Fireminds research is cute…but its good cute and jeskai/U/W have very little ways of handling that card
Wrap up: so lets see where we can go from here. I think the deck is good. Very good and if its not on your radar it should be. I think that we need answers to some bigger guys which could result in me playing some shaky cards. I think kalitas/sai/titi/any 4 toughness guys are very difficult to deal with so for the next tournament I play I’m going to consider playing harvest pyre or lightning axe both of which can kill some serious threats. Let me know if there are other matchups that side boarding concerns you! That’s all I’ve got for ya. Thanks for reading!
I left out his name, but you could probably find it easily at starcitygames.com.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)