I tend to sit on counter spells and play a longer game when I suspect graveyard hate is coming in against me. Relic of Progenitus can be played around pretty easily and they'll tend to pop it in response to a Loam, so baiting that is a solid line. Surgical Extraction is a bit rough if they hit Loam but playing a beat down game with every land you draw turning into 2 damage is still pretty good. Rest in Peace is a real hoser. Goyf just becomes chump material and then it becomes a game of drawing Bolts and lands. Raging Ravine is solid in this area. Boarding into Scavenging Ooze and Thrun, the Last Troll gets around smaller Goyfs and represent real threats individually.
I mentioned in my tourney report that I've been kicking around playing Young Pyromancer over Goyf. It isn't hurt by graveyard hate as much and seems stronger in the Death's Shadow match for making chump blockers. The only problem being that he's a bit easier to remove than Goyf. So he'd have to be played differently than you would with Goyf (not jamming him into play on turn 2 basically). Potentially, spells could be shoehorned in over creatures. I'd have to do some digging for that, but it is a possibility.
On the topic of removal for big creatures, what about Reality Shift? Exiling removal and the possibility of blanking a spell, or you can just discard a land to remove the downside. But if you don't have assault out, it might be questionable.
I played with Kiora, the Crashing Wave for awhile and while she was solid, the abilities never felt overwhelmingly strong. A free draw for a turn is the most relevant part and for that, you may as well run Jace Beleren. I would highly recommend trying out Nissa, Steward of Elements. She can be a 3-drop or more, +2 is huge for a 'walker, and Scrying 2 every turn smooths out your draws significantly. Also, randomly dropping creatures into play off her 0 is pretty sweet upside. What is the Narnam Renegadedoing for your deck? Is it just a early blocker?
Lately I prefer 4 dark confidant and 4 young pyromancer. Tarmogoyf could be a replacement for dark confidant. It doesn't provide any amount of value like the other 2 drops. I may personally prefer tasigur for his resilience to removal and the ability to buy back things like Seismic Assault.
I always preferred 3 Seismic Assault. At time I run 3 assault and 2 vortex if I cut creatures entirely. I have run with 4 assault and didn't like it soo much.
This is what I ran this past Friday for FNM. 4 rounds ended at 3-1. My only loss was to UWR control with Restoration Angel, Wall of Omens, Snapcastermage etc. I didn't realize a second colonnade was played and fired off a ghost quarter on my turn rather than waiting for the animation and attack. Would have won otherwise. Really happy with the list, the board is heavily aimed at burn being that it is basically my worst match up.
It is possible to be in there. Mainly the threats I would want to hit that aren't easily handled by assault are Tasigur and Angler. Terminate takes those on. Even a bolt and 2 flame jab or one seismic answers those. But then again, push could easily replace a bolt and a flame jab.
When I build decks I try to pack as much synergy as possible, and this deck is not short on it. Adept has 21 cards that trigger it. Goyf grows bigger than usual because Assault and Hollow One provide uncommon card types. Hollow One has 8 cards that bring it down to 1 mana to cast, and Street Wraith lops off that final mana.
Birds are there for speed; they enable 3 mana plays on turn 2, like Assault, or Reunion > 1-mana Hollow One, or Fulminator Mage postboard. They're an easy discard to Looting/Reunion past the first turn.
Thanks. Adept takes a bit of work to get going, but it can hit 3 power off Looting or Reunion (and more if you have Street Wraith), which is why I used it over other 1-drops. It becomes more apparent when you have double Adepts.
If you don't want to play Adept I would suggest a red 1-drop over Narnam Renegade for mana reasons. Seismic Assault is RRR, so you almost never want to fetch the basic Forest early unless you foresee a Blood Moon coming. I always crack for Stomping Ground to play T1 Birds, never the Forest, for this reason.
Speaking of Birds, it's possible that Simian Spirit Guide is better since it gives you the opportunity to play Hollow One after tapping out for Looting/Reunion. The main problem with it is that it's negative CA in a deck that has Looting (already negative CA) and Reunion (needs 2 other cards to cast). Street Wraith also lets you cast Hollow One under the same circumstances, but it replaces itself.
Brian DeMars posted a list on CFB that is essentially a brew with The Gitrog Monster and Dakmor Salvage for a "oops I win" mid-range combo deck. What is the consensus on his list?
Brian DeMars posted a list on CFB that is essentially a brew with The Gitrog Monster and Dakmor Salvage for a "oops I win" mid-range combo deck. What is the consensus on his list?
It's been discussed here before. I believe the consensus was that it was a little clunky? Here's the last I saw of the discussion but there are more in the past if you search the thread. I haven't tried Gitrog yet so I have no opinion.
Brian DeMars posted a list on CFB that is essentially a brew with The Gitrog Monster and Dakmor Salvage for a "oops I win" mid-range combo deck. What is the consensus on his list?
It's been discussed here before. I believe the consensus was that it was a little clunky? Here's the last I saw of the discussion but there are more in the past if you search the thread. I haven't tried Gitrog yet so I have no opinion.
Thank you for your response. I figured it was clunky but seeing as I've always wanted to play the Gitrog Monster in Modern it really caught my attention. I have liked Assault Loam decks in the past but hesitated from playing them due to not putting up strong results. I've got most of the deck minutes the Seismic Assaults and Goyfs.
Hello all! I'm interested in giving this shell a shot, as it seems like it would have game against combo and control, which the meta is pretty full of right now. Plus the deck just seems sweet! I have been tweaking a list, and I would like to run it past the people who have grinded every iteration for feedback:
I've only been into Modern for about 9 months, so Brian DeMar's article on CFB was the first I've heard about the Assault Loam archetype. I've played Amulet Titan exclusively since I started modern, so a combo deck that can grind and utilize a suite of interesting lands is right in my wheelhouse! Here is some of my logic, but please feel free to punch holes in it as you see fit:
Collective Brutality: Between having a bad burn match-up and the desire to discard extra copies of Seismic Assault (with 4 in the main), lands and Loam, Collective Brutality seems like a natural addition. It doesn't hurt that it's also just good without the discard synergies.
Birds of Paradise: I want to consistently stick Seismic Assault by turn 3 (thus running the full four copies), and since I am running three LotV, I should hopefully be able to launch one of the powerful three drops on turn 2. Birds also allows for extra Raven's Crime retracing on turn 2 or a two-drop and a one-drop, which can be pretty power.
Dark Confidant: Birds of Paradise is pretty bad card quality, therefore I wanted to have something to generate pure card advantage other than Loaming cycling lands in the late game. Dark Confidant also helps find the Seismic Assault/Loam and allows us to run two Traverse and one Gitrog, which is committing only three pieces that are decent card quality on their own and together can create a near infinite combo. More below on the combo.
Traverse the Ulvenwald and The Gitrog Monster: Gitrog obviously kills it in this deck, but 5 cmc spots in a deck that wants to chuck all of its lands at opponents' faces isn't a small task, so one seems like the optimal number. The near infinite combo is Gitrog/Dakmor Salvage and Assault, which allows you to ping two damage as many times as your deck allows (you need to dredge 2 each time you ping, so the amount of damage is equal to the # of cards in your deck divided by two essentially), and it's worth noting that the combo fires at instant speed, and if you have a 2nd land in hand it works through removal. With Birds and Bobs, we're almost guaranteed to have delirium with land/instant/sorcery/creature by about turn 4/5, at which point Traverse can grab either piece of the combo (Gitrog or Salvage). If we dredge the Gitrog on accident, we can always just grab Raging Ravine or a cycling land to begin the card advantage engine.
Gemstone Mine: This is definitely speculative, but my logic is that 1) we need turn 1 black/green for Thoughtseize, Raven's Crime, Birds of Paradise and Traverse the Ulvenwald, but need double black for Liliana of the Veil and triple red for Seismic Assault. Gemstone comes in untapped and helps us curve out. Our curve tops out at three though, so when Gemstone Mine dies we just play a third land and the Gemstone Mine becomes a Loam target for the rest of the game. Seems like it synergizes well with the rest of the deck, but curious if it's been tested.
The sideboard is completely speculative. Also, I would like to fit another Traverse or a Kolaghan's Command into the main to bring back a milled Gitrog and have maindeck artifact hate, but the list feels tight. Suggestions and constructive criticism welcomed, and feel free to drop me a line about anything, as I enjoy meeting new people and the collaborative brewing process. Thanks all!
Overall your logic and choices make sense. Though I do have 2 suggestions
1. Graven Cairns is all the fixing you should need. Mine goes away after two turns and you really want to be able to leverage mana since you should basically never run out.
2. Dark Confidant with additional 3 drops and 5 drops can get sketchy. I run 4 dark confidant a 1 of worm harvest and I have felt the burn of that. Just something to think about. It can cost you a game really quick when you flip an assault or two and a gitrog monster. I also went away from liliana and run with a 4 young pyromancer, 4 dark confidant build. It has been great overall. I run 4 Life goes on in the sideboard because life gain is key against burn and on occasion more aggressive starts from DnT which can tempo you out with Thalia and Leonin Arbiter.
Thank you for the quick response! I appreciate all of your advice and will take it into account! I'm currently thinking about the following changes: +1 Dark Confidant, +4 Young Pyromancer, +1 Eternal Witness, +1 Traverse the Ulvenwald, -3 Lili, -4 Birds. Birds are less necessary without Lili's. I want to try the Gemstone Mines before tossing them, especially since I would still like to have t1 green for Traverse, t1 black for Seize and t3 triple red for Assault. But I'm open to dropping if they underperform. I actually like the overall strategy with the Young Pyros - the tokens chump block, and the 3 Seize, 3 Ravens Crime and 2 Collective Brutality keep their hand free of important spells, covers both axis of creatures and spells for the most part. I'm thinking E-Wit is solid as a Traverse-able way to pull Gitrog from the yard if he gets dredged, and if I don't want Gitrog then E-Wit is another copy of Terminate or Collective Brutality. I may eventually swap it out with Kolaghan's Command though.
What are the deck's match-ups against Tiers 1 & 2 decks? Specifically: Storm, Affinity, Jeskai Tempo, Eldrazi Tron, Titanshift, G/x Tron, B/G/x variants (including Jund), Grixis Death's Shadow, Collected Company decks, Taxes decks (Mono-white, eldrazi, etc), and janky artifact strategies (including Lantern). I can use intuition on most of these, but I'm curious what you guys (the experts) have the most trouble with and what kinds of sideboard cards you would never leave home without, cards that crush us (other than the obvious like Rest in Peace). One of the benefits of my build is the ability to put 1-of silver bullet creatures into the deck that I can Traverse to, so that's something else I'm factoring into my sideboarding decisions. Also, if anyone is interested in talking more about the strategy, I can start up a Discord chat or something. Forum seems pretty quiet, so maybe it would lead to increated discussion. Thanks for any feedback!
Storm
Raven's Crime/Loam for mostly infinite discard, plus all the removal keeps them fairly contained and shut down. They basically need a really good early start and for us to stumble into turn 4. Once turn 4 hits we should like not be able to lose.
Affinity
A lot of small creatures that are vulnerable to assault, flame jab and the rest of our removal. Etched champion can be tough, but we can work around it fairly easily.
Jeskai Tempo
Crime/Loam is great to grind them down, then once we resolve assault it is elementary from there.
Tron (All)
Ghost Quarter Loam is huge here. Hitting crimes where openings occur is very important to ensure they don't have threats for when things get a little sketchy due to a relic or tormods crypt. In all fairness we can go wide and make near infinite chumps with young pyromancer
Titanshift
Ghost quarter again can be very important, try not to overextend into your graveyard for when they have a relic of progen.
B/G/x
Jund can be tough. Scavenging ooze and decays etc can make things tough. We can fairly easily out grind them, but closing the game becomes a problem
Death Shadow
They put their life total low, we make infinite chumps and then assault closes it really quick when they get too low in life.
Collected Company
"Infinite" small creatures<"infinite" removal
Taxes
Tough at times. With their tax effects, rest in peace, revoker there is a lot to navigate for hate. Generally can be a decent match up.
Lantern
We are a graveyard deck, they can mill us into our lands all they want. We will resolve assault and just kill them with their help. Post board having access to multiple ancient grudge alongside abrupt decay is very good.
Thank you for the detailed response I'll let you know how it goes through some playtesting, going to give it a few weeks to build up some results. Out of country for two weeks so no magic during that period. Thanks for input!
I mentioned in my tourney report that I've been kicking around playing Young Pyromancer over Goyf. It isn't hurt by graveyard hate as much and seems stronger in the Death's Shadow match for making chump blockers. The only problem being that he's a bit easier to remove than Goyf. So he'd have to be played differently than you would with Goyf (not jamming him into play on turn 2 basically). Potentially, spells could be shoehorned in over creatures. I'd have to do some digging for that, but it is a possibility.
WUB Puresteel Midrange WUB
I always preferred 3 Seismic Assault. At time I run 3 assault and 2 vortex if I cut creatures entirely. I have run with 4 assault and didn't like it soo much.
3 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Blood Crypt
1 Forest
3 Ghost Quarter
3 Graven Cairns
1 Overgrown Tomb
3 Raging Ravine
1 Stomping Ground
2 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Dark Confidant
4 Young Pyromancer
Spells 27
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Collective Brutality
4 Faithless Looting
2 Flame Jab
4 Life from the Loam
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Raven's Crime
3 Seismic Assault
2 Terminate
1 Worm Harvest
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Dragon's Claw
3 Fulminator Mage
2 Kolaghan's Command
4 Life Goes On
This is what I ran this past Friday for FNM. 4 rounds ended at 3-1. My only loss was to UWR control with Restoration Angel, Wall of Omens, Snapcastermage etc. I didn't realize a second colonnade was played and fired off a ghost quarter on my turn rather than waiting for the animation and attack. Would have won otherwise. Really happy with the list, the board is heavily aimed at burn being that it is basically my worst match up.
http://www.hipstersofthecoast.com/2017/08/modern-assault-loam/
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Arid Mesa
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Stomping Ground
3 Mountain
1 Forest
1 Sheltered Thicket
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Hollow One
4 Seismic Assault
4 Life from the Loam
4 Street Wraith
4 Faithless Looting
4 Cathartic Reunion
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Destructive Revelry
2 Roast
4 Fulminator Mage
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Feed the Clan
Birds are there for speed; they enable 3 mana plays on turn 2, like Assault, or Reunion > 1-mana Hollow One, or Fulminator Mage postboard. They're an easy discard to Looting/Reunion past the first turn.
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Big Johnny.
If you don't want to play Adept I would suggest a red 1-drop over Narnam Renegade for mana reasons. Seismic Assault is RRR, so you almost never want to fetch the basic Forest early unless you foresee a Blood Moon coming. I always crack for Stomping Ground to play T1 Birds, never the Forest, for this reason.
Speaking of Birds, it's possible that Simian Spirit Guide is better since it gives you the opportunity to play Hollow One after tapping out for Looting/Reunion. The main problem with it is that it's negative CA in a deck that has Looting (already negative CA) and Reunion (needs 2 other cards to cast). Street Wraith also lets you cast Hollow One under the same circumstances, but it replaces itself.
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Big Johnny.
How's this list been performing for you?
It's been discussed here before. I believe the consensus was that it was a little clunky? Here's the last I saw of the discussion but there are more in the past if you search the thread. I haven't tried Gitrog yet so I have no opinion.
UBR Grixis Shadow
URG Amulet Titan
Thank you for your response. I figured it was clunky but seeing as I've always wanted to play the Gitrog Monster in Modern it really caught my attention. I have liked Assault Loam decks in the past but hesitated from playing them due to not putting up strong results. I've got most of the deck minutes the Seismic Assaults and Goyfs.
//Artifact (7)
1 Æther Spellbomb
1 Batterskull
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Sword of the Meek
1 Thopter Foundry
//Creature (1)
1 Trinket Mage
//Instant (12)
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Darkblast
3 Fatal Push
1 Forbidden Alchemy
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Murderous Cut
//Planeswalker (2)
2 Liliana of the Veil
//Sorcery (12)
1 Collective Brutality
1 Damnation
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Life from the Loam
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Raven's Crime
1 Worm Harvest
//Land (26)
1 Academy Ruins
2 Breeding Pool
2 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Fetid Pools
1 Forest
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Hissing Quagmire
1 Island
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Swamp
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Tolaria West
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Watery Grave
SB: 1 Nihil Spellbomb
SB: 2 Golgari Charm
SB: 2 Cermenious Rejection
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 2 Surgical Extraction
SB: 1 Swan Song
SB: 1 Ravenous Trap
SB: 1 Damnation
SB: 1 Flaying Tendrils
SB: 2 Thoughtseize
SB: 1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Blood Crypt
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Canyon Slough
1 Dakmor Salvage
1 Forest
3 Gemstone Mine
1 Ghost Quarter
3 Graven Cairns
1 Mountain
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Raging Ravine
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Collective Brutality
3 Dark Confidant
4 Fatal Push
4 Life from the Loam
3 Liliana of the Veil
3 Raven's Crime
4 Seismic Assault
3 Terminate
1 The Gitrog Monster
3 Thoughtseize
2 Traverse the Ulvenwald
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Flame Jab
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Collective Brutality
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Kolaghan's Command
2 Nihil Spellbomb
I've only been into Modern for about 9 months, so Brian DeMar's article on CFB was the first I've heard about the Assault Loam archetype. I've played Amulet Titan exclusively since I started modern, so a combo deck that can grind and utilize a suite of interesting lands is right in my wheelhouse! Here is some of my logic, but please feel free to punch holes in it as you see fit:
Collective Brutality: Between having a bad burn match-up and the desire to discard extra copies of Seismic Assault (with 4 in the main), lands and Loam, Collective Brutality seems like a natural addition. It doesn't hurt that it's also just good without the discard synergies.
Birds of Paradise: I want to consistently stick Seismic Assault by turn 3 (thus running the full four copies), and since I am running three LotV, I should hopefully be able to launch one of the powerful three drops on turn 2. Birds also allows for extra Raven's Crime retracing on turn 2 or a two-drop and a one-drop, which can be pretty power.
Dark Confidant: Birds of Paradise is pretty bad card quality, therefore I wanted to have something to generate pure card advantage other than Loaming cycling lands in the late game. Dark Confidant also helps find the Seismic Assault/Loam and allows us to run two Traverse and one Gitrog, which is committing only three pieces that are decent card quality on their own and together can create a near infinite combo. More below on the combo.
Traverse the Ulvenwald and The Gitrog Monster: Gitrog obviously kills it in this deck, but 5 cmc spots in a deck that wants to chuck all of its lands at opponents' faces isn't a small task, so one seems like the optimal number. The near infinite combo is Gitrog/Dakmor Salvage and Assault, which allows you to ping two damage as many times as your deck allows (you need to dredge 2 each time you ping, so the amount of damage is equal to the # of cards in your deck divided by two essentially), and it's worth noting that the combo fires at instant speed, and if you have a 2nd land in hand it works through removal. With Birds and Bobs, we're almost guaranteed to have delirium with land/instant/sorcery/creature by about turn 4/5, at which point Traverse can grab either piece of the combo (Gitrog or Salvage). If we dredge the Gitrog on accident, we can always just grab Raging Ravine or a cycling land to begin the card advantage engine.
Gemstone Mine: This is definitely speculative, but my logic is that 1) we need turn 1 black/green for Thoughtseize, Raven's Crime, Birds of Paradise and Traverse the Ulvenwald, but need double black for Liliana of the Veil and triple red for Seismic Assault. Gemstone comes in untapped and helps us curve out. Our curve tops out at three though, so when Gemstone Mine dies we just play a third land and the Gemstone Mine becomes a Loam target for the rest of the game. Seems like it synergizes well with the rest of the deck, but curious if it's been tested.
The sideboard is completely speculative. Also, I would like to fit another Traverse or a Kolaghan's Command into the main to bring back a milled Gitrog and have maindeck artifact hate, but the list feels tight. Suggestions and constructive criticism welcomed, and feel free to drop me a line about anything, as I enjoy meeting new people and the collaborative brewing process. Thanks all!
1. Graven Cairns is all the fixing you should need. Mine goes away after two turns and you really want to be able to leverage mana since you should basically never run out.
2. Dark Confidant with additional 3 drops and 5 drops can get sketchy. I run 4 dark confidant a 1 of worm harvest and I have felt the burn of that. Just something to think about. It can cost you a game really quick when you flip an assault or two and a gitrog monster. I also went away from liliana and run with a 4 young pyromancer, 4 dark confidant build. It has been great overall. I run 4 Life goes on in the sideboard because life gain is key against burn and on occasion more aggressive starts from DnT which can tempo you out with Thalia and Leonin Arbiter.
What are the deck's match-ups against Tiers 1 & 2 decks? Specifically: Storm, Affinity, Jeskai Tempo, Eldrazi Tron, Titanshift, G/x Tron, B/G/x variants (including Jund), Grixis Death's Shadow, Collected Company decks, Taxes decks (Mono-white, eldrazi, etc), and janky artifact strategies (including Lantern). I can use intuition on most of these, but I'm curious what you guys (the experts) have the most trouble with and what kinds of sideboard cards you would never leave home without, cards that crush us (other than the obvious like Rest in Peace). One of the benefits of my build is the ability to put 1-of silver bullet creatures into the deck that I can Traverse to, so that's something else I'm factoring into my sideboarding decisions. Also, if anyone is interested in talking more about the strategy, I can start up a Discord chat or something. Forum seems pretty quiet, so maybe it would lead to increated discussion. Thanks for any feedback!
3 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Blood Crypt
1 Forest
3 Ghost Quarter
3 Graven Cairns
1 Overgrown Tomb
3 Raging Ravine
1 Stomping Ground
2 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Dark Confidant
4 Young Pyromancer
Spells 27
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Collective Brutality
4 Faithless Looting
2 Flame Jab
4 Life from the Loam
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Raven's Crime
3 Seismic Assault
2 Terminate
1 Worm Harvest
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Dragon's Claw
3 Fulminator Mage
2 Kolaghan's Command
4 Life Goes On
Storm
Raven's Crime/Loam for mostly infinite discard, plus all the removal keeps them fairly contained and shut down. They basically need a really good early start and for us to stumble into turn 4. Once turn 4 hits we should like not be able to lose.
Affinity
A lot of small creatures that are vulnerable to assault, flame jab and the rest of our removal. Etched champion can be tough, but we can work around it fairly easily.
Jeskai Tempo
Crime/Loam is great to grind them down, then once we resolve assault it is elementary from there.
Tron (All)
Ghost Quarter Loam is huge here. Hitting crimes where openings occur is very important to ensure they don't have threats for when things get a little sketchy due to a relic or tormods crypt. In all fairness we can go wide and make near infinite chumps with young pyromancer
Titanshift
Ghost quarter again can be very important, try not to overextend into your graveyard for when they have a relic of progen.
B/G/x
Jund can be tough. Scavenging ooze and decays etc can make things tough. We can fairly easily out grind them, but closing the game becomes a problem
Death Shadow
They put their life total low, we make infinite chumps and then assault closes it really quick when they get too low in life.
Collected Company
"Infinite" small creatures<"infinite" removal
Taxes
Tough at times. With their tax effects, rest in peace, revoker there is a lot to navigate for hate. Generally can be a decent match up.
Lantern
We are a graveyard deck, they can mill us into our lands all they want. We will resolve assault and just kill them with their help. Post board having access to multiple ancient grudge alongside abrupt decay is very good.