Is no one trying Collected company in this deck? It's pretty nuts here. Worth dropping the 4+ cmc creatures for imo.
I tried it and found it underwhelming in this deck. More often than not I wished it was a Restoration Angel to be able to save a critical bear from removal.
I hadn't played the Hatebears in a while, but tweaked my list for a local event last night. I went 3-1, losing to the guy who took first (playing Affinity). I beat Amulet, UW Delver and Grixis Delve (could have been a Delver deck, but I didn't see Delver). I didn't have time to balance my mana base before the event, but felt pretty good about how the deck played overall.
I'm not really sure where I want to make changes. I'm pretty heavy on white mana symbols, so I kind of want to up my white mana count, but at the same time all of my 1 drops are green which makes me want to have more than the 13 green sources I am currently running (I have 14, but one is Stirring Wildwood which EtB tapped). I may cut one of each basic for a couple more duel lands. This will increase my count for each color by 1, but also reduces my resilience to Blood Moon. Brushland is the only other land I'm not playing that I can think of which allows the turn 1 mana dork, so I might up the Horizon Canopy count to 3 and add one of those to balance the mana.
The sideboard was pretty solid. Fracturing Gust is the only card I'm considering replacing, but I'm not sure what I would replace it with. The hard match ups are Affinity, Tokens, Soul Sisters, Merfolk, Bogle, Twin, Blue Moon and Storm. I feel well prepared for Storm with 3x Thalia in the main. I've also got a lot of hate for Affinity post board. Choke, EE and Sunlance match up well against Merfolk. I feel like the deck could use more answers for Soul Sisters, Tokens, Bogle and Twin. Blue Moon is probably the deck I'm least prepared for, but I also don't expect to see it. Although I wouldn't be surprised to see Blood Moon from Twin or Affinity.
I don't think its worth completely cutting out 4 cmc creatures to run Collected Company, but you definitely have to cut down how many of them you use. I'm running 3 Collected Company and 3 Wilt-Leaf Liege and haven't had any issues with them interferring with each other. It felt like I was getting too many Collected Company in my hand at a time when i was running 4, so I dropped down to 3.
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Collecting Timbermare, hit me up if you have any for trade
Hi! I'm using 2 spellskite in main deck in place of aven mindcensor and I'm liking this change. In a fast look in your meta, spellskite and aven are relevant against these decks:
2 avens: 3-4 Junk, 4-5 Twin, 2 Bloom Titan, 2 tron, 1 Scapeshift, 3 UWx Midrange/Control = 17
2 spellskite: 3-4 Junk, 4-5 Twin, 2 Bloom Titan, 1 Affinity, 4 Burn, 3 UWx Midrange/Control, 2 Death and Taxes = 21
All criticism on the deck is always looked for. I am personally thinking that I would like another voice or finks in the main somewhere but I have no idea what to give up. Possibly at the expense of the third thalia, but she does such a good job of policing fair and unfair decks alike that I am loath to lose her.
Sideboard and plans are currently as follows. If anyone has any suggestions I came up with these without a ton of forethought so any refinement/suggestion would be much appreciated.
EDIT: Also its worth noting that I posted these sideboards because they represent the MTGS tier 1 decks + WUR which I know will be represented and CoCo which I have very little experience against and would doubly appreciate wisdom on.
Looking back at that I feel like I am siding out Liege too much but in each of those instances I don't want to have its impact measured in the rest of my board state as it is likely the opponents removal is doing heavy work there or they are fast enough not to care unless I am already ahead. Thoughts?
All criticism on the deck is always looked for. I am personally thinking that I would like another voice or finks in the main somewhere but I have no idea what to give up. Possibly at the expense of the third thalia, but she does such a good job of policing fair and unfair decks alike that I am loath to lose her.
Sideboard and plans are currently as follows. If anyone has any suggestions I came up with these without a ton of forethought so any refinement/suggestion would be much appreciated.
EDIT: Also its worth noting that I posted these sideboards because they represent the MTGS tier 1 decks + WUR which I know will be represented and CoCo which I have very little experience against and would doubly appreciate wisdom on.
Looking back at that I feel like I am siding out Liege too much but in each of those instances I don't want to have its impact measured in the rest of my board state as it is likely the opponents removal is doing heavy work there or they are fast enough not to care unless I am already ahead. Thoughts?
First off - good luck tomorrow. Now that the pleasantries are done, on to my hopefully constructive criticism...
I've found Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to be somewhat underwhelming in the current game. Its essentially a midrange slugfest out there for the most part - she's a nice speedbump but isn't going to win many battles and cheap removal is everywhere. I cut down to 2 in the 75 and felt 100% ok with that. I've also found that the 4 Noble Hierarchs are all the dorks I want in this build. There's not too much need for having dorks in here for the ramp as most of the deck tops out at 3 cmc and "the hatebear dream" of having the t2 Leonin Arbiter and Ghost quarter requires 3 cards to come in to alignment. Aside from that single situation which already happens relatively infrequently, the birds of paradise are a horrible top deck past turn 0 to me. Spellskite in the main seem like wasted space. They're nice vs infect, I guess, and could theoretically do some work against twin as well - but I have always felt the deck was favored against twin anyway. I'd rather have something that can at least put pressure on instead of them and move them to the board if you feel you need them.
As for additions and other considerations, I think that the best 2 drop right now is Voice of Resurgence, so I'd be moving those to at least 3. You could add more Kitchen Finks as well if you like those. Dromoka's command is useful but after some more time with it I'm contemplating using a portion of their spots for Valorous Stance - there's a ton of targets w toughness 4+ to remove and the flip side of protection for a creature is also extremely useful. 9 times out 10 I'm using Dromoka's as a removal spell anyway - but it not only requires me to have a creature in play but also that it can actually kill whatever it is I need to kill even with the +1/+1 counter added on.
With GBx always out in large numbers across rock, abzan, jund, collected company I dont see how I wouldn't be playing at least 2 Mirran Crusader somewhere in my 75. He's a pretty tough thing for them to remove considering all of the other targets provided for Path to Exile and Lightning Bolt in the deck and doesn't have to live that long to provide a very quick clock.
Sideboard: not a fan of Fracturing Gust right now as its really a dedicated affinity card and pretty expensive to cast on top. I think I like Grafdiggers Cage over Rest in Peace as it doesn't turn off your scavenging oozes (which I'd also try to bump to three of) and cage not only takes care of the snapcaster mages, souls, etc but also stops collected company and chord of calling. Burrenton Forge Tender has always taken a back seat to Mark of Asylum for me, and now Dromoka's Command handles red sweepers and bolts while having added flexibility. Angels Grace is nice if you know there's something like Ad Nauseum but aside from that I dont have much use for it. I'm a big fan of the mostly singleton sideboard like you have here but I'd be running 2 choke over 2 engineered explosives because there's a pretty good chance the first one will be countered, even if you have to bait the counter to get something more important online. Nice to have the backup copy available.
Look forward to hearing how it all works out for you.
Regarding the removal, the bad matchups are Affinity, Infect, Merfolk, etc... Isn't the Dromoka's Command better in those situations? Also, that's why I like to play 2 Explosives too! (and 2 Chokes I once baited the wrath with Thrun just to Choke him). I agree on everyting else.
I believe WoTC's new policy is to make sure that every color can enjoy the exciting gameplay mechanic of making undercosted dudes and then turning them sideways. Clearly the future of magic.
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After a long period playing burn, i`ve been testing this deck for a while, and the matchup that really scares me is Affinity: i`ve never been able to win a single game against that deck.
I was the top seed , beat UR Twin and lost to Jund in the semifinals thanks to turning into a total idiot (judge called myself for drawing extra cards because I can't count, missing out on a Voice token when Voice died which I almost never do). Here was my list:
I was deciding between Hushwing Gryff, Mirran Crusader, or Kitchen Finks in the slot that Gryff won out on. Turned out to be the correct call as I still beat Burn twice and Jund in the swiss. It was also a nifty card against Twin (I lost to Twin in the swiss and beat the same person for Top 4). There's a lot of good creatures with ETB effects and when you have guys like Noble Hierarch and Qasali Pridemage, the evasion can put on a convincing clock.
The total stinker was the 2x Gaddock Teeg. I put him in there as a hedge against Collect Call decks which I don't think anyone even played. If I were to do it over, I would probably put in Kor Firewalker or something.
Dromoka's Command is an amazing card. It's Burrenton Forge-Tender stapled onto a removal card that also hits Blood Moon and Keranos. More often than not I found myself siding in the 3rd copy.
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Modern: GW GW Hatebears |GWB Counters Company | GWU Bant Knightfall GW Value Town
Legacy: GWB Maverick
EDH: GWR Mayael | Rhys | Sisay | Ezuri | Titania
GWIf it doesn't have a toolbox I don't want anything to do with itGW
Woo Boy, This is gonna be a long post so if your interested settle down, buckle up, and prepare for some reading.
So yesterday I woke up early and took a peek at the responses to my earlier post in regards to the Columbus open. I didn't have the time to respond then so I will split this post into two separate spoilers one responding to the feedback and one going through my experience today.
First off my end result was pretty average. Finished with a record of 6 wins and 3 losses barely missing out on day two and prize money. Overall rank with tiebreaks puts me at 158th out of 903 total participants (Supposedly the largest modern open star city has done to date). As I mentioned, thoroughly unimpressive. However, I personally believe that average and bad results are as important or even more so than good results, to report on, as they highlight what is not working and needs to be changed or rethought.
As a side note I would implore those who frequent this thread to post more of their losses/bad results at all levels of tourney as this is valuable information being lost because it seems like everyone is doing so good with the deck.
Anywho, I digress. I would like to say thank you to those who responded to my request for criticism into my current build and I will go ahead on give my thought processes on that in the following spoiler:
Now that the pleasantries are done, on to my hopefully constructive criticism...
You made a few points here so I will go through them one by one and let you know my thoughts:
--Thalia: I still firmly believe in her inclusion as she can single handedly win me games and the first strike always feels powerful on the attack and with exalted. That said, her effectiveness for me has largely been a function of the meta she is played in. As you said against abzan and jund style decks they just don't care enough for her to be truly effective. But I have found her to really shine in metas where burn, Infect, Storm, and other spell heavy decks are prolific and she basically shuts those down until she is answered. For the open I expected a little of everything with a large portion of burn and and somewhat large portions of the other tier one decks where I am also quite happy to have her excepting abzan.
--Birds of Paradise: I have actually had this thought myself...how much does that singleton bird really do for me? For a bit now I have been trying to see how many extra t2 3 mana plays it nets me and it really isnt all that much. However it can attack over a ground standoff (This has won me games) and does help activate Gavony and pay for spellskite. Me and some friends run a modern tournament on cockatrice every once in awhile so I think I might take that bird out for a 100 games or so and see if I can realize any difference + or -.
--Spellskite: I will refer you to my earlier post on that and why I feel they are warranted: Link. As an additional note their main use for me is to protect your other pieces of hate from removal which allows you to not overcommit to the board in fear or a key creature dying on your end step.
--Voice of Resurgence: I like voice alot. It forces the sorcery speed removal if they have it and blocks excellently if it has to. Overall today the pridemages performed the worst so I think I will go to a 2 | 2 split on voice and pridemage (More on that later).
--Kitchen Finks: I like finks alot and I am considering a second one but I am not sure its necessary for my local meta and feels slow in the aggregate metas at large events.
--Dromoka's Command: I would not even consider going past two in the main after today. Ill talk more when going over matchups but every single mode on it was relevant at some point. As you say, the most common modes to take are +1/+1 and Fight. However, blanking bolts, clearing blood moon, clearing splinter twin, clearing eidolon, adding counter to finks, killing Ezure, Killing delver, Killing dark confidant, killing infect dudes, Killing melira/anafenza, and more are all very relevant and I have used it for all of these more than once since putting them in the main.
--Mirran Crusader: I have two in the sideboard and they are excellent. Not sure why they didn't show up when I copy pasted over... My bad
--Fracturing gust: I have this in the sideboard as a "final" Affinity answer as once resolved they can almost never come back. I also have it as my hedge card against boggles as that is a difficult match as well. Technically it also does wonders vs mono white prison style decks but that almost never comes up.
--Grafdiggers Cage: I cant believe I didn't think of this! I always find myself switching a scooze for the rest in piece cause they're so bad drawn together. It does not nuke tarmogoyf or tasigurs activation but with dromoka's to fight tarmo I feel fine switching it with rest.
--Burrenton Forge-Tender: Using dromoka's I don't feel the need for mark as much and I prefer to have Forge tender out there and proactive vs burn than the passive and underwheling mark in that matchup.
--Angel's Grace: Is definitely the odd duck in my side. Its good vs Bloom Titan, Ad Naus, Storm, And scapeshift....and that's pretty much it. I only leave it there since I hate Ad-Naus with a passion.
--Choke: I can usually find the space to resolve it when I draw it but I actually have lost games where I did resolve it and it didn't do enough and I drew the second. Despite not being as good a hoser as blood moon I still like it, but never again in multiples.
Look forward to hearing how it all works out for you.
Unfortunately I didn't really end up having much time to change my decklist around as I didn't have a extra Voice on hand and my grafdiggers cage was locked up at home.
Here is the final decklist I ended up playing with:
As you can see I ended up moving linvala to mainboard with no regrets. Though I never saw her once the whole tournament, many times I would have liked to have her in my hand.
In the following spoiler I will go through each round and what I was matched against and how it played out. Unfortunately I did not really write down comprehensive notes but I will try to remember what happened when possible.
Overall I felt like the deck performed excellently and victory was never unattainable with the losses either coming from play mistakes on my end or the usual variance of magic. The worst deck I was matched against was CoCoElves. Never seeing Linvala might have contributed but they're scarier than merfolk imo just because they overwhelm "fair" decks so easily. The extra removal in dromoka's command really helped here for Elvish Archdruid and Ezuri, Renegade Leader but its still very a very rough match.
Without further ado:
For each match I will follow this format: "Round # | Win/Loss | Record | Opponents Deck | And if any 1 or 2 cards single-handedly enabled the win I will put them here is MVC (Most valuable card) in front".
I will also try and give some notes on what I was thinking about for the sideboard.
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Round 1 | Loss | 0-2 | CoCo Elves | N/A
G1: So for the first round I knew what he was playing on turn one and my thoughts were that it was a priority to kill any lords he came up with and try to find a flyer to get past his infinite trump blockers. I believe he won the dice roll and by my turn four I Dromoka's Command +1 and fought his ezuri and a archdruid with my Pridemage and and gotten in ~9 damage or so. He proceeded to pass back the turn leaving a clear CoCo open but I really didn't have much to do about it. I swung in for the five and on my endstep he CoCo'd in an Archdruid and the only other ezuri in his deck ~.~ I lost when he untapped.
Side: I was mainly thinking that it was most important to try and get a Linvala, EE, or Torpor Orb post sideboard as those would be the highest impact on his gameplan. Also this was the only matchup where I felt siding out both Spellskites's was necessary.
G2: This game was a bit more grindy with me ending up killing one of his ezuris' again but CoCo saved the day yet again when it found his third wincon a Mirror Entity (A One of) on my endstep and he then proceeded to make all his elves 8/8's via Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.
Wrapup: Again I felt pretty hopeless against the advantage he was getting with Eternal witnesses rebounding CoCo and just CoCo in general... If I had managed to find linvala I believe it would have been a different story and I highly recommend two in the 75 for anyone with alot of this or the combo version in their meta.
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Round 2 | Loss | 0-2 | R/U Twin | N/A
G1: This was totally on me. I had a solid clock on board with a 3/3 scooze plus Noble Hierarch and he had already played two bolts killing Thalia, Guardian of thraben and Leonin Arbiter. I passed the turn with four colored mana untapped and a Dromoka's command in hand and a Spellskite on board. He had an exarch on board and as I went to end he played a cryptic bouncing the Spellskite and drawing a card. Foolishly I decided to eat the cryptic with the scooze before he untapped and when he played twin I could only cast the Dromoka's command into a remand and stare at my one untapped mana with regret.
G2: This was perhaps the perfect sequence for him. My turn two him on one land I went for the Leonin Arbiter and it got spell snared. Then on my turn three I went for Choke and it got remanded. Then he untapped cast Blood Moon and I never saw a basic. It seems like I was a little greedy on the choke but the truth was I had kept a had with four land, Choke, Arbiter, and ghostly prison and drew only land in the first 3 turns so I needed to clear the counters for ghostly.
Wrapup: I felt pretty bad about this round as this is generally a good matchup for us and the obvious punt in the first game. I definitely attribute the loss here to myself and wish it had gone differently. At this point I was 0-2 and considered dropping but figured I had already paid the entry fee to play some good magic and with wizards allowing us free access to Origins Game Fair next door figured I would play until I lost a third time and then jump over there for some solid board games.
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Round 3 | Win | 2-0 | UWR Control | N/A
G1: Nothing much to say here I played the usual threats and managed to shut down his graveyard and when Brimaz, King of Oreskos landed he was out of paths and lost in short order.
G2: After baiting out his counter magic with a Thalia and a Wilt-Leaf Liege I landed a choke then Thrun and won shortly thereafter.
Wrapup: This played out extremely typically for the matchup and the only not I would make was me starting to search off a path with arbiter out and only one mana up which I got a warning for
G1: Oh man were on elves again... This game was actually very, very grindy. I killed his ezuri early on and with an scooze out I attacked with it each turn and he was forced to block or die each turn. He kept drawing elves though so at the end there I think it was 15/15 and he conceded due to there being ~14 minutes left in the round...
Wrapup: I'll refer to round one on this I still felt pretty bad about the matcup but obviously without them running us over out of hand it is possible to win it.
G1: This game did not go so well with him curving T1 dork into T2 Lingering Souls into T3 Wilt-Leaf Liege and I was without removal. It went on for a bit but ultimately I couldn't recover from that start.
G2:[/c] This was actually pretty much a reverse of the first game with me curing T1 Birds into T2 Loxodon Smiter into T3 Wilt-Leaf Liege and winning from there.
G3: This game was quite a bit more grindy but a later Mirran Crusader after three of his paths were used up combined with Gavony Township was quite potent.
Wrapup: I feel that this matchup while perhaps not strictly favourable is at least 50|50. After the side Mirran Crusader's are so high impact that they easily win the game on their own.
G1: He kept a loose hand with one land and an Aether Vial in it. I played Qasali Pridemage on T2 He vapor snaged it so I replayed it on T3 and blew up his vial. After this I played loxodon smiter into Wilt-Leaf Liege the next two turns which didn't allow him to recover.
G2: His plays went something like T1 vial, T2 Vial, T3 Lord and cast a lord from hand. T4 Vial in Two more lords activate Mutavault attack. T5 Win. Not much to say about that I just got run over.
Wrapup: Merfolk is generally a bad matchup for us but the Dromoka's commands did quite a bit of work at killing his lords and it does not feel nearly as bad as before. Also worth mentioning his build had maindeck Monestery Siege to protect Phantasmal Image as extra lords. I got to 2 for 1 these with Dromoka's Command
G1: I won the roll. He started out with T1 Springleaf drum indicating one or more zero drops in his hand. I played Thalia on my T2 and he was never able to recover from there as he lost a turn to galvanic blast it and I had tempo attacks plus a Path to exile and Pridemage to remove the cranial plating. Its also worth noting that Spellskite shut down his Arcbound Ravager preventing him from killing with inkmoth.
Side: Nothing special here just all the affinity hate available to me.
G2: This sadly was another punt for me as he had a Welding Jar, Etched Champion, Mox Opal, Signal Pest and manland in play. I tried to get rid of the champion by having qasali Pridemage fight the signal pest, Blowing it up to get the Opal, and then pathing the champion...I missed the open mana to activate the manland fizzling path. This was another obvious punt by me and I need to catch those things more. He won shortly after playing a Cranial plating and a second champion.
G3: Was almost a mirror of the first, he started off slowly with a Vault Skirge and I played Thalia T2 and him without removal and never got to the third land to play his wincons. Its also worth mentioning that at one point he had the vault skirge, a ravager with 4 counters, and tapped out to play a second ravager so I was able to Engineered explosives for two to clear thalia and his entire board and kill him via Wilt-Leaf Liege.
Wrapup: Affinity is definitely still a deck to fear and I won those games bbecause he got a comparatively slow start and I was able to capitalize on that. I still believe their nut hands with 7 damage T2 and such are still almost unbeatable for me. I am considering another sideboard card for this matchup.
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Round 8 | Loss | 1-2 | Scapeshift | N/A
G1: I won this one through a tec-edge and a resolved Wilt-Leaf Liege to aggro him out.
Side: The usual scapeshift sideboard nothing really interesting about it. I expected the Burrenton Forge-Tender to be one of the most important cards. (Sadly I did not see it though)
G2: This game was quite long. I was beating him down fairly well via Loxodon Smiter untill he resolved two Obstinate Baloth's of which I fought one with Dromoka and started swinging through the other. I ended up having lethal on board via Brimaz, King of Oreskos paired with Gavony Township but three Cryptic Command's as fog/cantrip later he was able to combo out.
G3: This game was quite crazy. High points were me beign able to tec-edge a played Valakut, The molten Pinnacle, Double Ghost quarter + Arbiter, and he played, again, double baloths to stall. The last turn was him tapping my lethal damage with cryptic and bouncing Spellskite then drawing the eighth land off the top playing it and casting his very last card in hand...scapeshift.
Wrapup: All three game we played were quite close and + / - an interaction could have gone either way. Its also worth mentioning that in G2 and 3 I had a rest in piece out that fizzled one snapcaster mage each forcing them to be flashed in trump blockers. Oh and in g3 at one point I had a Voice of resurgence out with a voice token but he was able to anger and exile them both...
G1: I kept a lose hand hoping it would be good and got lucky. Three dorks plus two land and a Baneslayer Angel plsu Wilt-Leaf Liege. T3 Baneslayer went to block his Monastery Swiftspear (I still thought he was burn since all I had seen was goblin guide, spear, and [card=lightning bolt[/card]]bolt) and he cast Immense Growth to kill it... I still gained the life so I was able to win with the addition of Kitchen Finks, and Liege later on.
Side: I used the same sideboard I do for burn with the inclusion of two Engineered explosives since all the threats I had seen were one drops and he had alot of pump.
Wrapup: I was interested in his list as it seemed quite potent to me. Turns out he plays 4 Wild Nacatl, 4 Goblin Guide, 4 Monastery Swiftspear, 4 Ghor-Clan Rampager and the rest was burn plus Atarka's Command and Pump. Spellskite was again an all-star here (Saw it in G1 as well) even more so that regular burn and I didn't feel too bad about our chances in general.
So about 11 hours of magic later my impression was that the deck performed extremely smoothly with the only card I would like to change up being the third Qasali Pridemage as it is not so useful vs. many common decks and exalted is nice but not enough to justify leaving all three in. I believe going forward I will switch it with a Voice of resurgence. The best performing sideboard cards were definitely the Mirran Crusader and Engineered Explosives as they both come in against a good number of decks while remaining very high impact in those matches.
If I had to pick a favourite card for the day if would have to beDromoka's Command. The flexibility inherent gave me the options to capitalize on many different situations and as extra removal we were lacking it more than did its job.
Personally I am frustrated with the punt vs. twin in Round 2 I feel that I definitely could have won that and giving it up knocked me out of day two but its definitely a lesson to be learned. All in all I felt good about the deck even if my piloting has some rough edges.
As a side note congratulations for making it to the bottom of my wall of text. Cheers
Something I forgot to mention earlier as well. With the rise of CoCo I am againt considering the inclusion of a Gaddock teeg in the side as those deck have little recourse with him out and it will give us time (Ideally) to try and push a clock.
Thanks for reading
Eps.
Ps: I started writing this the night of the tourney at like 3 in the morning so there are probably a bunch of typos and such but I wanted to get my thoughts down while they were still fresh.
So is anybody bringing their Hatebears to GP Charlotte? Looking forward to hopefully a good and successful showing. Here's what I'm bringing, please forgive the poor formatting.
As the modern meta has continued to develop, unfortunately I have started to drift away from this deck; it just seems to lack power compared to many other decks. Has anybody else been experiencing this lately? The lack of counter spells, hand disruption, and targeted removal just makes this deck inferior to other decks. Don't get me wrong, I love the dream hand of the Ghost Arbiter lock, but how often does it happen? It seems like twin combos off and kills us on turn 4 way more than we lock them out. Hatebears tries to play the game fair and force the opponent onto a level playing field, but at that point why don't I play Abzan and be able to go over the top in fair matchups? Plus, it seems unfair that they get to play legacy staples while we play some past-standard staples that barely cut it in modern as vanilla beaters. With all this being said, don't get me wrong, I still love the deck. However, it just feels inherently very weak to me. I don't know where the deck will go from here, I guess it just depends on innovation from you guys keeping the deck alive. Hopefully some new things can be printed to boost the power level of this deck, but for now, I guess I'm probably retiring it.
Against Twin, the in games 2 & 3 when they play the long game, Kolaghan's Command // Snapcaster Mage loop can be really annoying. Still haven't found the best answer to that.
Siege Rhino is also annoying in every format ever.
I don't think Kolagan's Command is all that good of a card against the deck. Discard is risky against a deck running Smiter/Liege, and having access to scooze and dromoka's command is very helpful.
I don't think Kolagan's Command is all that good of a card against the deck. Discard is risky against a deck running Smiter/Liege, and having access to scooze and dromoka's command is very helpful.
Discard is the mode of last resort I choose when casting Kolaghan's Command. Any combination of the other three is typically much more powerful.
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
I tried it and found it underwhelming in this deck. More often than not I wished it was a Restoration Angel to be able to save a critical bear from removal.
4x Noble Hierarch
1x Birds of Paradise
4x Leonin Arbiter
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3x Voice of Resurgence
2x Scavenging Ooze
4x Loxodon Smiter
3x Aven Mindcensor
2x Wilt-Leaf Liege
2x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
2x Baneslayer Angel
Other Spells: 7
4x Path to Exile
1x Sword of War and Peace
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1x Batterskull
4x Razorverge Thicket
4x Temple Garden
4x Ghost Quarter
2x Horizon Canopy
1x Stirring Wildwood
1x Gavony Township
1x Tectonic Edge
3x Forest
3x Plains
2x Torpor Orb
2x Kor Firewalker
2x Engineered Explosives
2x Stony Silence
2x Choke
2x Sunlance
1x Fracturing Gust
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
I'm not really sure where I want to make changes. I'm pretty heavy on white mana symbols, so I kind of want to up my white mana count, but at the same time all of my 1 drops are green which makes me want to have more than the 13 green sources I am currently running (I have 14, but one is Stirring Wildwood which EtB tapped). I may cut one of each basic for a couple more duel lands. This will increase my count for each color by 1, but also reduces my resilience to Blood Moon. Brushland is the only other land I'm not playing that I can think of which allows the turn 1 mana dork, so I might up the Horizon Canopy count to 3 and add one of those to balance the mana.
The sideboard was pretty solid. Fracturing Gust is the only card I'm considering replacing, but I'm not sure what I would replace it with. The hard match ups are Affinity, Tokens, Soul Sisters, Merfolk, Bogle, Twin, Blue Moon and Storm. I feel well prepared for Storm with 3x Thalia in the main. I've also got a lot of hate for Affinity post board. Choke, EE and Sunlance match up well against Merfolk. I feel like the deck could use more answers for Soul Sisters, Tokens, Bogle and Twin. Blue Moon is probably the deck I'm least prepared for, but I also don't expect to see it. Although I wouldn't be surprised to see Blood Moon from Twin or Affinity.
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
Hi! I'm using 2 spellskite in main deck in place of aven mindcensor and I'm liking this change. In a fast look in your meta, spellskite and aven are relevant against these decks:
2 avens: 3-4 Junk, 4-5 Twin, 2 Bloom Titan, 2 tron, 1 Scapeshift, 3 UWx Midrange/Control = 17
2 spellskite: 3-4 Junk, 4-5 Twin, 2 Bloom Titan, 1 Affinity, 4 Burn, 3 UWx Midrange/Control, 2 Death and Taxes = 21
Against affinity, I suggest:
Side:
-1 Stony Silence
+1 Engineered Explosives
-2 Fracturing Gust
+2 Creeping corrosion
Md:
-1 Wilt leaf-liege
+1 restoration angel, linvala or baneslayer
-1 Voice
+1 Dromoka's command
1 Gavony Township
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Brushland
4 Ghost Quarter
2 Horizon Canopy
2 Stirring Wildwood
4 Temple Garden
4 Razorverge Thicket
2 Forest
2 Plains
4 Path to Exile
2 Dromoka's Command
//Creatures
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Leonin Arbiter
3 Qasali Pridemage
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Voice of Resurgence
2 Spellskite
4 Loxodon Smiter
1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
2 Wilt-Leaf Liege
1 Baneslayer Angel
All criticism on the deck is always looked for. I am personally thinking that I would like another voice or finks in the main somewhere but I have no idea what to give up. Possibly at the expense of the third thalia, but she does such a good job of policing fair and unfair decks alike that I am loath to lose her.
Sideboard and plans are currently as follows. If anyone has any suggestions I came up with these without a ton of forethought so any refinement/suggestion would be much appreciated.
EDIT: Also its worth noting that I posted these sideboards because they represent the MTGS tier 1 decks + WUR which I know will be represented and CoCo which I have very little experience against and would doubly appreciate wisdom on.
1 Celestial Purge
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Rest in Peace
1 Dromoka's Command
1 Stony Silence
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Choke
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Fracturing Gust
99 Anger of the Gods
99 Kolaghan's Command
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Celestial Purge
1 Rest in Peace (For Goyf)
1 Dromoka's Command
3 Qasali Pridemage
1 Spellskite
99 Their Clock
99 Distortion Strike
99 Become Immense
1 Dromoka's Command (Best on play)
1 Ghostly Prison
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Rest in Peace
1 Linvala, Keeper of silence
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Baneslayer Angel
99 Etched Champion
99 Cranial Plating
99 Ensoul Artifact
--IN--
1 Dromoka's Command
1 Stony Silence
1 Ghostly Prison
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Voice of Resurgence
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Wilt-Leaf Liege
1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
99 Cryptic
99 Anger of the Gods
99 Vedalken Shackles
1 Torpor Orb
1 Celestial Purge
1 Dromoka's COmmand
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
2 Wilt-Leaf Liege
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (Not sure what else to take)
99 Their Speed
99 Eidolon of the Great Revel
1 Dromoka's Command
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Celestial Purge
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
2 Wilt-Leaf Liege
99 Siege Rhino
99 Tasigur, The golden Fang
99 Path to Exile
99 Lingering Souls
99 Wilt Leaf-Liege
1 Rest in Peace (Tarmo)
1 Celestial Purge
1 Ghostly Prison
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Qasali Pridemage
1 Spellskite
99 Combo
99 Path to Exile
99 Voice of Resurgence
1 Torpor Orb
1 Rest in Peace
1 Dromoka's Command
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Spellskite
2 Thalia Guardian of Thraben
99 Geist of Saint Traft
99 Boards Sweeps
99 Anger of the Gods
--IN--
1 Dromoka's Command
1 Torpor Orb
1 Choke
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Thrun, The last Troll
2 Wilt-Leaf Liege
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
Looking back at that I feel like I am siding out Liege too much but in each of those instances I don't want to have its impact measured in the rest of my board state as it is likely the opponents removal is doing heavy work there or they are fast enough not to care unless I am already ahead. Thoughts?
GUGEdric, Spymaster of Trest - Elfball
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic- Doomsday!
RWUEphara, God of the Polis - Blink + Control
GBGGlissa, the Traitor - Stax & Lands
URGMaelstrom Wanderer - Goodstuff RUG
RGWMayael the Anima - Timmy
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher - The One Hit Wonder
RGWMarath, Will of the Wild - Old-school Enchantress Hate
RWRAurelia, the Warleader - Equipment Aggro
GGGReki, the History of Kamigawa - Legends + Banding
UBRSedris, the Traitor King - Creatures with : Ability
BUBPhenax, God of Deception - Mill
*Sidenote, I specifically excluded infinite combos from all these decks with the exception of Marath and the squirrel nest + Earthcraft combo.
Looking for something Aggressive in modern? Try - BR Aggro
First off - good luck tomorrow. Now that the pleasantries are done, on to my hopefully constructive criticism...
I've found Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to be somewhat underwhelming in the current game. Its essentially a midrange slugfest out there for the most part - she's a nice speedbump but isn't going to win many battles and cheap removal is everywhere. I cut down to 2 in the 75 and felt 100% ok with that. I've also found that the 4 Noble Hierarchs are all the dorks I want in this build. There's not too much need for having dorks in here for the ramp as most of the deck tops out at 3 cmc and "the hatebear dream" of having the t2 Leonin Arbiter and Ghost quarter requires 3 cards to come in to alignment. Aside from that single situation which already happens relatively infrequently, the birds of paradise are a horrible top deck past turn 0 to me. Spellskite in the main seem like wasted space. They're nice vs infect, I guess, and could theoretically do some work against twin as well - but I have always felt the deck was favored against twin anyway. I'd rather have something that can at least put pressure on instead of them and move them to the board if you feel you need them.
As for additions and other considerations, I think that the best 2 drop right now is Voice of Resurgence, so I'd be moving those to at least 3. You could add more Kitchen Finks as well if you like those. Dromoka's command is useful but after some more time with it I'm contemplating using a portion of their spots for Valorous Stance - there's a ton of targets w toughness 4+ to remove and the flip side of protection for a creature is also extremely useful. 9 times out 10 I'm using Dromoka's as a removal spell anyway - but it not only requires me to have a creature in play but also that it can actually kill whatever it is I need to kill even with the +1/+1 counter added on.
With GBx always out in large numbers across rock, abzan, jund, collected company I dont see how I wouldn't be playing at least 2 Mirran Crusader somewhere in my 75. He's a pretty tough thing for them to remove considering all of the other targets provided for Path to Exile and Lightning Bolt in the deck and doesn't have to live that long to provide a very quick clock.
Sideboard: not a fan of Fracturing Gust right now as its really a dedicated affinity card and pretty expensive to cast on top. I think I like Grafdiggers Cage over Rest in Peace as it doesn't turn off your scavenging oozes (which I'd also try to bump to three of) and cage not only takes care of the snapcaster mages, souls, etc but also stops collected company and chord of calling. Burrenton Forge Tender has always taken a back seat to Mark of Asylum for me, and now Dromoka's Command handles red sweepers and bolts while having added flexibility. Angels Grace is nice if you know there's something like Ad Nauseum but aside from that I dont have much use for it. I'm a big fan of the mostly singleton sideboard like you have here but I'd be running 2 choke over 2 engineered explosives because there's a pretty good chance the first one will be countered, even if you have to bait the counter to get something more important online. Nice to have the backup copy available.
Look forward to hearing how it all works out for you.
PS: I have never played 5 dorks, just 4 Hierarch
You'll never need 3x Aven Mindcensor. 2x is the absolute max.
I would take out 1x Kitchen Finks and 1x Aven Mindcensor and add 2x Mirran Crusader to your main deck.
That way you can add 1x Stony Silence and 1x Choke to your SB. Two key cards that will win you games.
I would also remove either 1x Spellskite or 1x Kataki, War's Wage for 1x Disenchant
GU Infect | x Affinity | RWG Naya Burn | W Death and Taxes | U Merfolk | BURG BTL Scapeshift | WUUW Titan | R Goblins | BURGW Suicide Zoo
GW GW Hatebears |GWB Counters Company | GWU Bant Knightfall GW Value Town
Legacy:
GWB Maverick
EDH:
GWR Mayael | Rhys | Sisay | Ezuri | Titania
GWIf it doesn't have a toolbox I don't want anything to do with itGW
3x Brushland
2x Dromoka's Command
2x Forest
1x Gavony Township
4x Ghost Quarter
4x Kitchen Finks
4x Leonin Arbiter
4x Loxodon Smiter
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Path to Exile
3x Plains
2x Qasali Pridemage
3x Razorverge Thicket
3x Scavenging Ooze
2x Stirring Wildwood
1x Tectonic Edge
4x Temple Garden
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3x Voice of Resurgence
2x Wilt-Leaf Liege
Thoughts on the current deck? I'm considering tinkering with the amount of Aven Mindcensor, looking to push Voice of Resurgence up to 4, and looking to throw in two Restoration angel somewhere. I'm currently using Brushland as make shift Horizon Canopy. I've also tinkered with dropping Loxodon Smiter and Kitchen Finks to 3 each and adding in some combination of Mirran Crusader to the main board (I currently have two sideboard).
Thanks for all the help!
GU Infect | x Affinity | RWG Naya Burn | W Death and Taxes | U Merfolk | BURG BTL Scapeshift | WUUW Titan | R Goblins | BURGW Suicide Zoo
2x Aven Mindcensor
1x Baneslayer Angel
1x Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2x Hushwing Gryff
4x Leonin Arbiter
1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
4x Loxodon Smiter
4x Noble Hierarch
2x Qasali Pridemage
2x Scavenging Ooze
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
3x Voice of Resurgence
2x Wilt-Leaf Liege
2x Forest
1x Gavony Township
4x Ghost Quarter
2x Horizon Canopy
2x Plains
4x Razorverge Thicket
2x Stirring Wildwood
1x Tectonic Edge
4x Temple Garden
Instant (6)
2x Dromoka's Command
4x Path to Exile
2x Choke
1x Creeping Corrosion
1x Dromoka's Command
2x Gaddock Teeg
2x Mirran Crusader
1x Rest in Peace
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
2x Spellskite
2x Stony Silence
1x Sword of War and Peace
I was deciding between Hushwing Gryff, Mirran Crusader, or Kitchen Finks in the slot that Gryff won out on. Turned out to be the correct call as I still beat Burn twice and Jund in the swiss. It was also a nifty card against Twin (I lost to Twin in the swiss and beat the same person for Top 4). There's a lot of good creatures with ETB effects and when you have guys like Noble Hierarch and Qasali Pridemage, the evasion can put on a convincing clock.
The total stinker was the 2x Gaddock Teeg. I put him in there as a hedge against Collect Call decks which I don't think anyone even played. If I were to do it over, I would probably put in Kor Firewalker or something.
Dromoka's Command is an amazing card. It's Burrenton Forge-Tender stapled onto a removal card that also hits Blood Moon and Keranos. More often than not I found myself siding in the 3rd copy.
GW GW Hatebears |GWB Counters Company | GWU Bant Knightfall GW Value Town
Legacy:
GWB Maverick
EDH:
GWR Mayael | Rhys | Sisay | Ezuri | Titania
GWIf it doesn't have a toolbox I don't want anything to do with itGW
So yesterday I woke up early and took a peek at the responses to my earlier post in regards to the Columbus open. I didn't have the time to respond then so I will split this post into two separate spoilers one responding to the feedback and one going through my experience today.
First off my end result was pretty average. Finished with a record of 6 wins and 3 losses barely missing out on day two and prize money. Overall rank with tiebreaks puts me at 158th out of 903 total participants (Supposedly the largest modern open star city has done to date). As I mentioned, thoroughly unimpressive. However, I personally believe that average and bad results are as important or even more so than good results, to report on, as they highlight what is not working and needs to be changed or rethought.
As a side note I would implore those who frequent this thread to post more of their losses/bad results at all levels of tourney as this is valuable information being lost because it seems like everyone is doing so good with the deck.
Anywho, I digress. I would like to say thank you to those who responded to my request for criticism into my current build and I will go ahead on give my thought processes on that in the following spoiler:
You made a few points here so I will go through them one by one and let you know my thoughts:
--Thalia: I still firmly believe in her inclusion as she can single handedly win me games and the first strike always feels powerful on the attack and with exalted. That said, her effectiveness for me has largely been a function of the meta she is played in. As you said against abzan and jund style decks they just don't care enough for her to be truly effective. But I have found her to really shine in metas where burn, Infect, Storm, and other spell heavy decks are prolific and she basically shuts those down until she is answered. For the open I expected a little of everything with a large portion of burn and and somewhat large portions of the other tier one decks where I am also quite happy to have her excepting abzan.
--Birds of Paradise: I have actually had this thought myself...how much does that singleton bird really do for me? For a bit now I have been trying to see how many extra t2 3 mana plays it nets me and it really isnt all that much. However it can attack over a ground standoff (This has won me games) and does help activate Gavony and pay for spellskite. Me and some friends run a modern tournament on cockatrice every once in awhile so I think I might take that bird out for a 100 games or so and see if I can realize any difference + or -.
--Spellskite: I will refer you to my earlier post on that and why I feel they are warranted: Link. As an additional note their main use for me is to protect your other pieces of hate from removal which allows you to not overcommit to the board in fear or a key creature dying on your end step.
--Voice of Resurgence: I like voice alot. It forces the sorcery speed removal if they have it and blocks excellently if it has to. Overall today the pridemages performed the worst so I think I will go to a 2 | 2 split on voice and pridemage (More on that later).
--Kitchen Finks: I like finks alot and I am considering a second one but I am not sure its necessary for my local meta and feels slow in the aggregate metas at large events.
--Dromoka's Command: I would not even consider going past two in the main after today. Ill talk more when going over matchups but every single mode on it was relevant at some point. As you say, the most common modes to take are +1/+1 and Fight. However, blanking bolts, clearing blood moon, clearing splinter twin, clearing eidolon, adding counter to finks, killing Ezure, Killing delver, Killing dark confidant, killing infect dudes, Killing melira/anafenza, and more are all very relevant and I have used it for all of these more than once since putting them in the main.
--Mirran Crusader: I have two in the sideboard and they are excellent. Not sure why they didn't show up when I copy pasted over... My bad
--Fracturing gust: I have this in the sideboard as a "final" Affinity answer as once resolved they can almost never come back. I also have it as my hedge card against boggles as that is a difficult match as well. Technically it also does wonders vs mono white prison style decks but that almost never comes up.
--Grafdiggers Cage: I cant believe I didn't think of this! I always find myself switching a scooze for the rest in piece cause they're so bad drawn together. It does not nuke tarmogoyf or tasigurs activation but with dromoka's to fight tarmo I feel fine switching it with rest.
--Burrenton Forge-Tender: Using dromoka's I don't feel the need for mark as much and I prefer to have Forge tender out there and proactive vs burn than the passive and underwheling mark in that matchup.
--Angel's Grace: Is definitely the odd duck in my side. Its good vs Bloom Titan, Ad Naus, Storm, And scapeshift....and that's pretty much it. I only leave it there since I hate Ad-Naus with a passion.
--Choke: I can usually find the space to resolve it when I draw it but I actually have lost games where I did resolve it and it didn't do enough and I drew the second. Despite not being as good a hoser as blood moon I still like it, but never again in multiples.
And now on to the results.
Unfortunately I didn't really end up having much time to change my decklist around as I didn't have a extra Voice on hand and my grafdiggers cage was locked up at home.
Here is the final decklist I ended up playing with:
1 Gavony Township
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Brushland
4 Ghost Quarter
2 Horizon Canopy
2 Stirring Wildwood
4 Temple Garden
4 Razorverge Thicket
2 Forest
2 Plains
//Spells
4 Path to Exile
2 Dromoka's Command
//Creatures
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Leonin Arbiter
3 Qasali Pridemage
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Voice of Resurgence
2 Spellskite
4 Loxodon Smiter
1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
2 Wilt-Leaf Liege
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Angel's Grace
1 Celestial Purge
1 Dromoka's Command
1 Rest in Peace
1 Stony Silence
1 Torpor Orb
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Choke
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Fracturing Gust
As you can see I ended up moving linvala to mainboard with no regrets. Though I never saw her once the whole tournament, many times I would have liked to have her in my hand.
In the following spoiler I will go through each round and what I was matched against and how it played out. Unfortunately I did not really write down comprehensive notes but I will try to remember what happened when possible.
Overall I felt like the deck performed excellently and victory was never unattainable with the losses either coming from play mistakes on my end or the usual variance of magic. The worst deck I was matched against was CoCoElves. Never seeing Linvala might have contributed but they're scarier than merfolk imo just because they overwhelm "fair" decks so easily. The extra removal in dromoka's command really helped here for Elvish Archdruid and Ezuri, Renegade Leader but its still very a very rough match.
Without further ado:
For each match I will follow this format: "Round # | Win/Loss | Record | Opponents Deck | And if any 1 or 2 cards single-handedly enabled the win I will put them here is MVC (Most valuable card) in front".
I will also try and give some notes on what I was thinking about for the sideboard.
-----
Round 1 | Loss | 0-2 | CoCo Elves | N/A
G1: So for the first round I knew what he was playing on turn one and my thoughts were that it was a priority to kill any lords he came up with and try to find a flyer to get past his infinite trump blockers. I believe he won the dice roll and by my turn four I Dromoka's Command +1 and fought his ezuri and a archdruid with my Pridemage and and gotten in ~9 damage or so. He proceeded to pass back the turn leaving a clear CoCo open but I really didn't have much to do about it. I swung in for the five and on my endstep he CoCo'd in an Archdruid and the only other ezuri in his deck ~.~ I lost when he untapped.
Side: I was mainly thinking that it was most important to try and get a Linvala, EE, or Torpor Orb post sideboard as those would be the highest impact on his gameplan. Also this was the only matchup where I felt siding out both Spellskites's was necessary.
G2: This game was a bit more grindy with me ending up killing one of his ezuris' again but CoCo saved the day yet again when it found his third wincon a Mirror Entity (A One of) on my endstep and he then proceeded to make all his elves 8/8's via Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.
Wrapup: Again I felt pretty hopeless against the advantage he was getting with Eternal witnesses rebounding CoCo and just CoCo in general... If I had managed to find linvala I believe it would have been a different story and I highly recommend two in the 75 for anyone with alot of this or the combo version in their meta.
-----
Round 2 | Loss | 0-2 | R/U Twin | N/A
G1: This was totally on me. I had a solid clock on board with a 3/3 scooze plus Noble Hierarch and he had already played two bolts killing Thalia, Guardian of thraben and Leonin Arbiter. I passed the turn with four colored mana untapped and a Dromoka's command in hand and a Spellskite on board. He had an exarch on board and as I went to end he played a cryptic bouncing the Spellskite and drawing a card. Foolishly I decided to eat the cryptic with the scooze before he untapped and when he played twin I could only cast the Dromoka's command into a remand and stare at my one untapped mana with regret.
Side: Nothing to really say here my sideboard has a good amount of hate for twin with Celestial Purge, Ghostly Prison and Choke Probably being the most important.
G2: This was perhaps the perfect sequence for him. My turn two him on one land I went for the Leonin Arbiter and it got spell snared. Then on my turn three I went for Choke and it got remanded. Then he untapped cast Blood Moon and I never saw a basic. It seems like I was a little greedy on the choke but the truth was I had kept a had with four land, Choke, Arbiter, and ghostly prison and drew only land in the first 3 turns so I needed to clear the counters for ghostly.
Wrapup: I felt pretty bad about this round as this is generally a good matchup for us and the obvious punt in the first game. I definitely attribute the loss here to myself and wish it had gone differently. At this point I was 0-2 and considered dropping but figured I had already paid the entry fee to play some good magic and with wizards allowing us free access to Origins Game Fair next door figured I would play until I lost a third time and then jump over there for some solid board games.
-----
Round 3 | Win | 2-0 | UWR Control | N/A
G1: Nothing much to say here I played the usual threats and managed to shut down his graveyard and when Brimaz, King of Oreskos landed he was out of paths and lost in short order.
Side: Choke and Thrun were the obvious sides here alongside a few others like Burrenton Forge-Tender and Rest in Piece.
G2: After baiting out his counter magic with a Thalia and a Wilt-Leaf Liege I landed a choke then Thrun and won shortly thereafter.
Wrapup: This played out extremely typically for the matchup and the only not I would make was me starting to search off a path with arbiter out and only one mana up which I got a warning for
-----
Round 4 | Win | 2-0 | CoCo Elves | MVC Mirran Crusader
G1: Oh man were on elves again... This game was actually very, very grindy. I killed his ezuri early on and with an scooze out I attacked with it each turn and he was forced to block or die each turn. He kept drawing elves though so at the end there I think it was 15/15 and he conceded due to there being ~14 minutes left in the round...
Side: Most important cards were two Mirran Crusaders, two Engineered Explosives and Torpor Orb. I also grabbed the third Dromoka's Command.
G2: I had the T2 Mirran crusader off of a Noble Hierarch and with a Path to exile thrown in he lost in short order.
Wrapup: I'll refer to round one on this I still felt pretty bad about the matcup but obviously without them running us over out of hand it is possible to win it.
-----
Round 5 | Win | 2-1 | Little Kid Abzan | MVC Mirran Crusader
G1: This game did not go so well with him curving T1 dork into T2 Lingering Souls into T3 Wilt-Leaf Liege and I was without removal. It went on for a bit but ultimately I couldn't recover from that start.
Side: Along with the usual Mirran Crusader's, Celestial purge, ect... I took one Engineered Explosives to hedge against the token onslaught.
G2:[/c] This was actually pretty much a reverse of the first game with me curing T1 Birds into T2 Loxodon Smiter into T3 Wilt-Leaf Liege and winning from there.
G3: This game was quite a bit more grindy but a later Mirran Crusader after three of his paths were used up combined with Gavony Township was quite potent.
Wrapup: I feel that this matchup while perhaps not strictly favourable is at least 50|50. After the side Mirran Crusader's are so high impact that they easily win the game on their own.
-----
Round 6 | Win | 2-1 | Merfolk | MVC Wilt-Leaf Liege
G1: He kept a loose hand with one land and an Aether Vial in it. I played Qasali Pridemage on T2 He vapor snaged it so I replayed it on T3 and blew up his vial. After this I played loxodon smiter into Wilt-Leaf Liege the next two turns which didn't allow him to recover.
Side: The usual sideboard tech for merfolk with Ghostly Prison and Engineered explosives being the most important.
G2: His plays went something like T1 vial, T2 Vial, T3 Lord and cast a lord from hand. T4 Vial in Two more lords activate Mutavault attack. T5 Win. Not much to say about that I just got run over.
G3: I had T2 Qasali Pridemage to blow up his vial after swinging on my T3 then played Loxodon Smiter and Wilt-Leaf Liege to win in short order after that.
Wrapup: Merfolk is generally a bad matchup for us but the Dromoka's commands did quite a bit of work at killing his lords and it does not feel nearly as bad as before. Also worth mentioning his build had maindeck Monestery Siege to protect Phantasmal Image as extra lords. I got to 2 for 1 these with Dromoka's Command
-----
Round 7 | Win | 2-1 | Affinity | MVC Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
G1: I won the roll. He started out with T1 Springleaf drum indicating one or more zero drops in his hand. I played Thalia on my T2 and he was never able to recover from there as he lost a turn to galvanic blast it and I had tempo attacks plus a Path to exile and Pridemage to remove the cranial plating. Its also worth noting that Spellskite shut down his Arcbound Ravager preventing him from killing with inkmoth.
Side: Nothing special here just all the affinity hate available to me.
G2: This sadly was another punt for me as he had a Welding Jar, Etched Champion, Mox Opal, Signal Pest and manland in play. I tried to get rid of the champion by having qasali Pridemage fight the signal pest, Blowing it up to get the Opal, and then pathing the champion...I missed the open mana to activate the manland fizzling path. This was another obvious punt by me and I need to catch those things more. He won shortly after playing a Cranial plating and a second champion.
G3: Was almost a mirror of the first, he started off slowly with a Vault Skirge and I played Thalia T2 and him without removal and never got to the third land to play his wincons. Its also worth mentioning that at one point he had the vault skirge, a ravager with 4 counters, and tapped out to play a second ravager so I was able to Engineered explosives for two to clear thalia and his entire board and kill him via Wilt-Leaf Liege.
Wrapup: Affinity is definitely still a deck to fear and I won those games bbecause he got a comparatively slow start and I was able to capitalize on that. I still believe their nut hands with 7 damage T2 and such are still almost unbeatable for me. I am considering another sideboard card for this matchup.
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Round 8 | Loss | 1-2 | Scapeshift | N/A
G1: I won this one through a tec-edge and a resolved Wilt-Leaf Liege to aggro him out.
Side: The usual scapeshift sideboard nothing really interesting about it. I expected the Burrenton Forge-Tender to be one of the most important cards. (Sadly I did not see it though)
G2: This game was quite long. I was beating him down fairly well via Loxodon Smiter untill he resolved two Obstinate Baloth's of which I fought one with Dromoka and started swinging through the other. I ended up having lethal on board via Brimaz, King of Oreskos paired with Gavony Township but three Cryptic Command's as fog/cantrip later he was able to combo out.
G3: This game was quite crazy. High points were me beign able to tec-edge a played Valakut, The molten Pinnacle, Double Ghost quarter + Arbiter, and he played, again, double baloths to stall. The last turn was him tapping my lethal damage with cryptic and bouncing Spellskite then drawing the eighth land off the top playing it and casting his very last card in hand...scapeshift.
Wrapup: All three game we played were quite close and + / - an interaction could have gone either way. Its also worth mentioning that in G2 and 3 I had a rest in piece out that fizzled one snapcaster mage each forcing them to be flashed in trump blockers. Oh and in g3 at one point I had a Voice of resurgence out with a voice token but he was able to anger and exile them both...
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Round 9 | Win | 2-0 | Zoo-Burn | MVC Kitchen Finks
G1: I kept a lose hand hoping it would be good and got lucky. Three dorks plus two land and a Baneslayer Angel plsu Wilt-Leaf Liege. T3 Baneslayer went to block his Monastery Swiftspear (I still thought he was burn since all I had seen was goblin guide, spear, and [card=lightning bolt[/card]]bolt) and he cast Immense Growth to kill it... I still gained the life so I was able to win with the addition of Kitchen Finks, and Liege later on.
Side: I used the same sideboard I do for burn with the inclusion of two Engineered explosives since all the threats I had seen were one drops and he had alot of pump.
G2: I felt pretty bad for him after a mull to 5 and stuck on two lands with Thalia out. But Tarmogoyf and Wild Nacatl kept him block my threats while casting Mutagenic Growth. Kitchen Finks plus Spellskite eventually came around however and I was able to wrap up the game with Gavony Township online.
Wrapup: I was interested in his list as it seemed quite potent to me. Turns out he plays 4 Wild Nacatl, 4 Goblin Guide, 4 Monastery Swiftspear, 4 Ghor-Clan Rampager and the rest was burn plus Atarka's Command and Pump. Spellskite was again an all-star here (Saw it in G1 as well) even more so that regular burn and I didn't feel too bad about our chances in general.
So about 11 hours of magic later my impression was that the deck performed extremely smoothly with the only card I would like to change up being the third Qasali Pridemage as it is not so useful vs. many common decks and exalted is nice but not enough to justify leaving all three in. I believe going forward I will switch it with a Voice of resurgence. The best performing sideboard cards were definitely the Mirran Crusader and Engineered Explosives as they both come in against a good number of decks while remaining very high impact in those matches.
If I had to pick a favourite card for the day if would have to beDromoka's Command. The flexibility inherent gave me the options to capitalize on many different situations and as extra removal we were lacking it more than did its job.
Personally I am frustrated with the punt vs. twin in Round 2 I feel that I definitely could have won that and giving it up knocked me out of day two but its definitely a lesson to be learned. All in all I felt good about the deck even if my piloting has some rough edges.
As a side note congratulations for making it to the bottom of my wall of text. Cheers
Something I forgot to mention earlier as well. With the rise of CoCo I am againt considering the inclusion of a Gaddock teeg in the side as those deck have little recourse with him out and it will give us time (Ideally) to try and push a clock.
Thanks for reading
Eps.
Ps: I started writing this the night of the tourney at like 3 in the morning so there are probably a bunch of typos and such but I wanted to get my thoughts down while they were still fresh.
GUGEdric, Spymaster of Trest - Elfball
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic- Doomsday!
RWUEphara, God of the Polis - Blink + Control
GBGGlissa, the Traitor - Stax & Lands
URGMaelstrom Wanderer - Goodstuff RUG
RGWMayael the Anima - Timmy
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher - The One Hit Wonder
RGWMarath, Will of the Wild - Old-school Enchantress Hate
RWRAurelia, the Warleader - Equipment Aggro
GGGReki, the History of Kamigawa - Legends + Banding
UBRSedris, the Traitor King - Creatures with : Ability
BUBPhenax, God of Deception - Mill
*Sidenote, I specifically excluded infinite combos from all these decks with the exception of Marath and the squirrel nest + Earthcraft combo.
Looking for something Aggressive in modern? Try - BR Aggro
-1 dromoka's command
-1 qasali pridemage
+1 voice
+1 kitchen finks
And this is my side:
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Hushwing Gryff
1 Aven Mindcensor
2 Dromoka's Command
2 Creeping Corrosion
3 Engineered Explosives
1 Relic of Progenitus
With the rise of Collected Company I agree with you about Gaddock, and I'm thinking to change Relic to Grafdigers cage.
2x Forest
2x Plains
4x Temple Garden
2x Tectonic Edge
2x Stirring Wildwood
4x Ghost Quarter
4x Razorverge Thicket
2x Horizon Canopy
1x Brushland
Creatures - (30)
4x Noble Hierarch
3x Loxodon Smiter
4x Leonin Arbiter
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3x Voice of Resurgence
2x Qasali Pridemage
3x Scavenging Ooze
2x Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2x Wilt-Leaf Liege
2x Kitchen Finks
1x Baneslayer Angel
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
4x Path to Exile
3x Collected Company
1x Engineered Explosives
2x Stony Silence
2x Creeping Corrosion
1x Choke
1x Kor Firewalker
2x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Rest in Peace
2x Spellskite
2x Mirran Crusader
Against Twin, the in games 2 & 3 when they play the long game, Kolaghan's Command // Snapcaster Mage loop can be really annoying. Still haven't found the best answer to that.
Siege Rhino is also annoying in every format ever.
But there's Gaddock Teeg to deal with Collected Company.
Before Collected Company became popular, I was running 2x Crucible of Worlds and 2x Elspeth, Knight-Errant main deck. Both were great in grindy matchups. Now I run 2x Gaddock Teeg, 1x Thrun, the Last Troll, and 1x Sigarda, Host of Herons so I don't Teeg myself. I think planeswalkers are especially strong in modern as most decks have few ways to kill them. And Elspeth is one of the best. I would like to bring her back at some point.
GW GW Hatebears |GWB Counters Company | GWU Bant Knightfall GW Value Town
Legacy:
GWB Maverick
EDH:
GWR Mayael | Rhys | Sisay | Ezuri | Titania
GWIf it doesn't have a toolbox I don't want anything to do with itGW
Discard is the mode of last resort I choose when casting Kolaghan's Command. Any combination of the other three is typically much more powerful.
I still think Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Leonin Arbiter are good calls in a deck to fight against the modern metagame in general. Voice of Resurgence is as good as ever and with the rise of Jund Loxodon Smiter and Wilt-Leaf Liege increase in power.
GU Infect | x Affinity | RWG Naya Burn | W Death and Taxes | U Merfolk | BURG BTL Scapeshift | WUUW Titan | R Goblins | BURGW Suicide Zoo