I'm trying to rework my deck for FNM this week. I'm abandoning personal techs for efficiency, I want to go 4-0 this week. This is what I'd like to build around as a skeleton and I could use some help in fleshing it out. I don't have access to Liliana or Thoughtseize at all.
Another option I've just though about is Sin Prodder which seems pretty good in a deck full of expensive cards that are not meant to be hardcast (Bone Picker, Street Wraith, Tasigur/Angler).
It might also be more playable now that Lightning Bolt is on the decline (mostly played by "Grixis Shadow", "TitanShift" and Storm's SB out of the top decks).
Today I played a deck with a lot of inspiration from the list found at mtggoldfish.com, but with a few tweaks. It was a small tournament with eight players, and it didn't really go well. I actually ended up 0-3 for the first time ever on these midweek tournaments we have at my local shop. I'll write a small tournament report before talking about eventual changes I would like to have your input on.
The deck should have a Forked Bolt in main and two Extirpate in the board but they didn't arrive in time for me to play them today.
Game 1 vs. Affinity
In the first match he dumped his entire hand on the board on turn one, while I was at draw. Luckily I managed to have him discard his Cranial Plating, which bought me some time to come back into the game. He top decked an Arcbound Ravager while my hand was empty to win the match though.
Post board I had more answers to his swarm of machines. I droppen Pyromancer turn two and started pumping out tokens. Zealous Persecution wiped his side of the board and I killed him.
Match three was really even. He had board control and smashed my life down to five before I managed to wipe out all the artifacts. I nearly turned the match around but he killed me with two Glint-Nest Cranes... 1-2
Game 2 vs. Seismic Lands
To make a long story short my entire deck was dead against his. He wiped my board of tokens and threw away lands until I were dead. I boarded out all my spot removals and took the Madcap pack in. Unfortunately, he had enough lands to kill Emperion when it entered the battlefield. 0-2
Game 3 vs. Boros PW Stax
Could possibly be the worst match-up for me. Chalice of the Void on 1 each game. Blood Moon turn two with Spirit Guide. One game he even managed to have Leyline from start and play Nahiri turn two. Impossible. However, Emperion made a great job and I managed to smash him down with it game 2. 1-2
Sooo... It's not with great pride I go to bed tonight. I feel like Young Pyromancer is far to slow for modern these days. I don't want to play him on turn two, cause he always dies before even producing a single token. I need to replace him with something I guess. My thoughts right now goes in the direction of Harsh Mentor och Abbot but I don't know really. Abbot isn't a turn two card either. The Madcap combo made great success today and I'm thinking about maining it instead of leaving it in the sideboard. Bedlam Reveler was great in the games today and I really like the idea about this deck, I just need to put som effort in sharpening the edges of the deck. What do you guys think? What is the best direction for this kind of a deck to go?
The problem with this "Reveler Mardu" version imho is the lack of an actual threat that can finish the game in a timely fashion.
The deck plays a lot of removal and discard but not enough creatures and Bedlam Reveler is really slow in a deck without cheap cantrips.
The easiest thing to do would be to bring in Smuggler's Copter over Faithless Looting (a pretty bad card outside of graveyard-centric decks).
Also adding a PW like Gideon, Ally of Zendikar can be a good idea imho, but would require running more lands.
Also since the deck plays quite a bit of damage based removal and isn't very fast, a creature like Soul-Scar Mage might fit better here than Monastery Swiftspear.
I've been playing Mardu in Modern for years now. I used to blog about my journey with "Young Souls" as I called it. I put Magic on hiatus for almost 2 years due to the birth of my son, and only just came back about two months ago. I've been playing various strategies and tuning constantly. Nahiri, the Harbinger-centric Control was too reactive, too slow, and felt like it was behind from turn one. Young Pyromancer and a tokens build was too fragile, too inconsistent. I went back to the genesis of the deck for me: Jund. Years ago, Jund was king. Deathrite Shaman was ruling the format. Jund decks were so prevalent, folks started splashing white for Lingering Souls and Ajani Vengeant in order to beat other Jund decks. I got to thinking, "what would it look like if Jund dropped green and fully embraced white?" The list I've come to is still a little raw, but I've had some success with it.
Here's a link to some Twitch coverage of me playing it this past week. Here's my list:
@Plowshores: I have minor observations to do. I love Boros but we need have hitters. On turn3 Liliana of veil is much more powerful. You have a lot of spells, making Gurmag Angler something to consider.
I think that Baron is too slow and you ll never meet it's requirements.
Have you tried the Assemble the legion as a finisher?
@pedrofausto: I have played Lili, and found her completely ineffective. If you watch the video you'll actually see me completely ignore my opponent's Lili, let her ult, and still win handily. Gurmag is real bad with Dark Confidant, and we need the card advantage. Baron's inclusion is primarily due to him dodging every removal spell in the format short of double Bolt. Unfortunately, he's laughably bad against green creatures and Eldrazi. I will likely be swapping him with Brimaz, King of Oreskos or Mirran Crusader. I love Assemble the Legion, but it'd be WAY too slow. I'd rather have Bitterblossom, which I just cut for Harsh Mentors.
Aazadan's list looks interesting with the reckless bushwackers which is worth testing. However, the deck plays the same midrange game as Grixis and Jund and they arguably have far superior threat density - despite playing less threats - with cantrips and tutors. Lingering Souls is great but technically you can play them in Grixis and Jund too, and they intentionally do not play it because it's currently a sideboard card right now.
I also think Eidolon is way too risky to play in a Death Shadow build, for the same reason Dark Confidant isn't played despite the low mana curve in other Death Shadow decks (although street wraith is also another big factor). Eidolon can't really be played outside of a burn build because the card is much worse when we are likely to be at a lower life than our opponent. Burn can ensure with burn spells and cheap red 1 drops that Eidolon will benefit them way more than the opponent.
Sorry for the late reply, been busy with moving and getting settled into a new job. Haven't been able to play as much Modern as I would like. But, interestingly enough I ran into someone at the local shop who follows this thread (they were on a more midrange build) so that was a fun discussion. I don't think the person I ran into posts though.
Anyways, I want to address your points.
First, the Bushwhackers. These guys are really good, people see Bushwhackers and think of all in Zoo decks but they're actually really good as a midrange card. It's basically an anthem effect and it lets you drop some surprise threats. Don't underestimate haste. Several people in this thread are now on the Slayer's Stronghold plan, and we basically all agree more of those would be nice. Bushwhackers are a way to have more. They're tutorable, lower mana, spread over more bodies, and can represent even more power. It's not even DS where I think they're at their best. That's certainly a good interaction, but they're at their best with Lingering Souls, it's an interaction that's practically custom built for this deck, hitting all our colors, on a perfect curve, at a low deck building cost.
With that out of the way, lets talk about the big one which is threat density.
Jund plays 8 creatures and 4 tutors. That's effectively 12 creatures. They also draw about 2 cards more in a 5 turn game due to cantrips, so they see 14 cards vs 12. A 16% increase, so we can call it easily enough 14 threats in their deck.
Grixis, they also run 12 threats and 8 cantrips, so again we can call this equivalent to 14 threats.
Mardu, even if you don't count Goblin Bushwhackers as threats (seeing as they're only 1/1's), I do think it's fair to count Reckless as a 2/1 since I counted Snapcaster Mage in Grixis. Using a build similar to what I've been throwing around that's 4 DS, 4 Lingering Souls, 2 Ranger of Eos, and 3 Reckless Bushwhacker. Right there is already 13, but that's not all. Although most aren't agreeing with me on the card choice (which I'll make another case for later) the deck still has 4 Eidolons putting it at 17 threats compared to Jund/Grixis at 14.
If you say I didn't count Kolaghan's Command in those, I'll point out that we get the same effect in Orzhov Charm, and we can also run Kolaghans (and I do). On threat density Mardu definitely wins. Despite their cantrips, we're going to see more threats, more often.
Now lets talk about mana. The Jund/Grixis builds are using very low to the ground decks with barely operational land counts to pack in 8 cantrips to string things together. They waste slots on 8 cantrips to get 2 more threats and 3 more lands in their deck while maintaining spell counts (or card types). It's not all that efficient. We can simply run more mana, which lets us curve better, especially since we're not sinking mana into those cantrips like you do with Traverse/Visions/Scour. But alongside that additional mana comes options. We can do cool things with our mana that they can't. Mana Confluence for example is really good with Shadow, the card just really ties things together in a way that fetch/shocks don't do on their own. It also allows our Slayers' Strongholds which there's near universal agreement are good cards.
Finally, lets talk about Eidolon. A lot of people don't like my inclusion of it, and that's fine. But I do want to make a case for it again. The reason Eidolon works so well in Burn isn't because they're winning a race... they'll still play it when they're losing the race. The card works because it deals (or at least has the potential to) high amounts of damage for a single card. What makes Eidolon good where as Pyrostatic Pillar was and is still bad in formats it can be played though, is that being a creature gives you a lot of control over how triggers hit you. Sometimes you just want to jam a T2 Eidolon, other times you want to hold it for a couple turns. Sometimes you just want it to be a bear. When you play against Burn, they control the Eidolon. They choose when or if it comes down. They choose when or if it attacks. They choose when or if it blocks. They can get rid of it in combat if it's becoming a liability and that's all one sided control. It's vital to the card. That's why Eidolon works for us, we can choose all of those things, and use it to get in the amount of damage we want against both our opponents and ourselves.
Yes, Eidolon makes you think turns in advance and sequence well, but the payoff is there.
Oh, and for your Dark Confidant point, the reason Bob isn't played here is twofold. First, he's just a 2/1 without haste. He doesn't do enough damage fast enough. More importantly, his card flip isn't enough of an enabler. We're running low mana curves. My deck has 68 mana pips and some retooling making the deck arguably better drops it to 64. Either 64 or 68 pips is just about in the territory of 1 life per turn. If I want to (again, the power of sequencing) I can use an Eidolon to blow 6 life in a single turn, and reap the advantages of such right away. Bob needs to stay on the board the entire game to do that... and likely never attack or block, so dealing zero damage. My Eidolon will do some damage to most opponents, and adopting a Burn mentality, that damage directly converts to cards (though not at as great a ratio).
DS decks must be explosive. We do have to search for "cantrips" but if we have to use any... we must avoid slow ones. I like painful truths in a mid range strategy, which is not the case. Tap 3 Mana, draw 3 and pass the turn? It's too passive.
I've rather prefer to draw 2 on T2.
Cantrips aren't always bad, they're good if you need to maximize a certain type of card in your deck. But cantrips just for the sake of cantrips are a bad idea. You're better off just playing the cards you want instead. Rather than cantrips, I suggest tutors. Ranger of Eos reads 3W: Put a 3/2 into play, put 2 Death's Shadows into hand. Now compare that to Painful Truths. Which would you rather have? They're both three cards but one is three cards, affects the board right away, and guarantees followups to affect the board. The other is 3 random cards and life loss, with no attached board impact. Your best case scenario with Painful Truths is tapping 3 mana on turn 4, having another land drop, and having a 1 drop off those 3 cards. Ranger just does it all better.
Bone Picker is not good . boom , i said it . yes , i works well with vexing devil , but i hate so say that i am not that big on vexing devil either. i dislike punisher cards , and i am worried that this version will perform very inconsistently. but i can admit that this is my own opinion , and in no way a fact.
i am currently undecided between two version , which only have slight differences. i´d love to get some input on which you´d choose.
Agree completely with the Vexing Devil and Bone Picker assessments, but that's probably not a surprise... we seem to have fairly similar decks.
I like 2 Angler over 3. You don't want to flood on them and be unable to cast it, and ideally you want that second one to be cheap enough after Delve that you can Stronghold it.
Aazadan's list looks interesting with the reckless bushwackers which is worth testing. However, the deck plays the same midrange game as Grixis and Jund and they arguably have far superior threat density - despite playing less threats - with cantrips and tutors. Lingering Souls is great but technically you can play them in Grixis and Jund too, and they intentionally do not play it because it's currently a sideboard card right now.
I also think Eidolon is way too risky to play in a Death Shadow build, for the same reason Dark Confidant isn't played despite the low mana curve in other Death Shadow decks (although street wraith is also another big factor). Eidolon can't really be played outside of a burn build because the card is much worse when we are likely to be at a lower life than our opponent. Burn can ensure with burn spells and cheap red 1 drops that Eidolon will benefit them way more than the opponent.
Sorry for the late reply, been busy with moving and getting settled into a new job. Haven't been able to play as much Modern as I would like. But, interestingly enough I ran into someone at the local shop who follows this thread (they were on a more midrange build) so that was a fun discussion. I don't think the person I ran into posts though.
Anyways, I want to address your points.
First, the Bushwhackers. These guys are really good, people see Bushwhackers and think of all in Zoo decks but they're actually really good as a midrange card. It's basically an anthem effect and it lets you drop some surprise threats. Don't underestimate haste. Several people in this thread are now on the Slayer's Stronghold plan, and we basically all agree more of those would be nice. Bushwhackers are a way to have more. They're tutorable, lower mana, spread over more bodies, and can represent even more power. It's not even DS where I think they're at their best. That's certainly a good interaction, but they're at their best with Lingering Souls, it's an interaction that's practically custom built for this deck, hitting all our colors, on a perfect curve, at a low deck building cost.
With that out of the way, lets talk about the big one which is threat density.
Jund plays 8 creatures and 4 tutors. That's effectively 12 creatures. They also draw about 2 cards more in a 5 turn game due to cantrips, so they see 14 cards vs 12. A 16% increase, so we can call it easily enough 14 threats in their deck.
Grixis, they also run 12 threats and 8 cantrips, so again we can call this equivalent to 14 threats.
Mardu, even if you don't count Goblin Bushwhackers as threats (seeing as they're only 1/1's), I do think it's fair to count Reckless as a 2/1 since I counted Snapcaster Mage in Grixis. Using a build similar to what I've been throwing around that's 4 DS, 4 Lingering Souls, 2 Ranger of Eos, and 3 Reckless Bushwhacker. Right there is already 13, but that's not all. Although most aren't agreeing with me on the card choice (which I'll make another case for later) the deck still has 4 Eidolons putting it at 17 threats compared to Jund/Grixis at 14.
If you say I didn't count Kolaghan's Command in those, I'll point out that we get the same effect in Orzhov Charm, and we can also run Kolaghans (and I do). On threat density Mardu definitely wins. Despite their cantrips, we're going to see more threats, more often.
Now lets talk about mana. The Jund/Grixis builds are using very low to the ground decks with barely operational land counts to pack in 8 cantrips to string things together. They waste slots on 8 cantrips to get 2 more threats and 3 more lands in their deck while maintaining spell counts (or card types). It's not all that efficient. We can simply run more mana, which lets us curve better, especially since we're not sinking mana into those cantrips like you do with Traverse/Visions/Scour. But alongside that additional mana comes options. We can do cool things with our mana that they can't. Mana Confluence for example is really good with Shadow, the card just really ties things together in a way that fetch/shocks don't do on their own. It also allows our Slayers' Strongholds which there's near universal agreement are good cards.
Finally, lets talk about Eidolon. A lot of people don't like my inclusion of it, and that's fine. But I do want to make a case for it again. The reason Eidolon works so well in Burn isn't because they're winning a race... they'll still play it when they're losing the race. The card works because it deals (or at least has the potential to) high amounts of damage for a single card. What makes Eidolon good where as Pyrostatic Pillar was and is still bad in formats it can be played though, is that being a creature gives you a lot of control over how triggers hit you. Sometimes you just want to jam a T2 Eidolon, other times you want to hold it for a couple turns. Sometimes you just want it to be a bear. When you play against Burn, they control the Eidolon. They choose when or if it comes down. They choose when or if it attacks. They choose when or if it blocks. They can get rid of it in combat if it's becoming a liability and that's all one sided control. It's vital to the card. That's why Eidolon works for us, we can choose all of those things, and use it to get in the amount of damage we want against both our opponents and ourselves.
Yes, Eidolon makes you think turns in advance and sequence well, but the payoff is there.
Oh, and for your Dark Confidant point, the reason Bob isn't played here is twofold. First, he's just a 2/1 without haste. He doesn't do enough damage fast enough. More importantly, his card flip isn't enough of an enabler. We're running low mana curves. My deck has 68 mana pips and some retooling making the deck arguably better drops it to 64. Either 64 or 68 pips is just about in the territory of 1 life per turn. If I want to (again, the power of sequencing) I can use an Eidolon to blow 6 life in a single turn, and reap the advantages of such right away. Bob needs to stay on the board the entire game to do that... and likely never attack or block, so dealing zero damage. My Eidolon will do some damage to most opponents, and adopting a Burn mentality, that damage directly converts to cards (though not at as great a ratio).
DS decks must be explosive. We do have to search for "cantrips" but if we have to use any... we must avoid slow ones. I like painful truths in a mid range strategy, which is not the case. Tap 3 Mana, draw 3 and pass the turn? It's too passive.
I've rather prefer to draw 2 on T2.
Cantrips aren't always bad, they're good if you need to maximize a certain type of card in your deck. But cantrips just for the sake of cantrips are a bad idea. You're better off just playing the cards you want instead. Rather than cantrips, I suggest tutors. Ranger of Eos reads 3W: Put a 3/2 into play, put 2 Death's Shadows into hand. Now compare that to Painful Truths. Which would you rather have? They're both three cards but one is three cards, affects the board right away, and guarantees followups to affect the board. The other is 3 random cards and life loss, with no attached board impact. Your best case scenario with Painful Truths is tapping 3 mana on turn 4, having another land drop, and having a 1 drop off those 3 cards. Ranger just does it all better.
Bone Picker is not good . boom , i said it . yes , i works well with vexing devil , but i hate so say that i am not that big on vexing devil either. i dislike punisher cards , and i am worried that this version will perform very inconsistently. but i can admit that this is my own opinion , and in no way a fact.
i am currently undecided between two version , which only have slight differences. i´d love to get some input on which you´d choose.
Agree completely with the Vexing Devil and Bone Picker assessments, but that's probably not a surprise... we seem to have fairly similar decks.
I like 2 Angler over 3. You don't want to flood on them and be unable to cast it, and ideally you want that second one to be cheap enough after Delve that you can Stronghold it.
Disagree with several key points:
(1) Cantrips allow the deck to avoid playing suboptimal cards. Jund does not want to play threats aside from Goyf or Shadow, unless it's a threat that brings more creatures into the hand (e.g Ranger of Eos). Why? Because other cards get outclassed in the midrange game. Death Shadow is ultimately a midrange card that cannot be played in turn 1-2 typically. It could play Eidolon or Goblin Bushwackers but these cards get outclassed so quickly that you need your whole deck to be built on redundant creatures. You note that your deck plays more threats but the question is whether those threats are not going to get outclassed easily in the mid game, which I would argue it does. The way to address this weakness is to go faster and have more proactive turn 1 plays, which is where I'm going with my build.
I agree with you that putting mana into cantrips is not great. In fact, this is why I favor Jund over Grixis. Mardu also has this advantage by playing the same cantrips but with manamorphose which gets you 2 mana back. However, cantrips are what allows the deck to play the best creatures without putting suboptimal cards and also function to fuel good delve creatures.
(2) My dark confidant comparison with Eidolon was purely because both deals damage to you, not because it is a suitable aggro deck. Now granted your deck does play a higher curve and is not an active Death Shadow deck apart from the mana base. However, this in itself is a problem. Eidolons are hell of a lot worse unless you can dish out damage in the first few turns guaranteed and put your opponent at a lower life total than you. Burn strategy is based on the hope that Eidolon will hurt your opponent far more than it hurts you but occasionally, the way Burn loses is from their own Eidolon because they cannot beat superior creatures on the other side of the table.
When half your spells go straight to the face, Eidolon is going to be a winning card 90% of the time. But unfortunately, a non-burn deck does not have this luxury. You are basically playing a 2/2 that can deal a potential 4-6 damage but will also hurt you 4-6 damage in the process.
(3) Not sure why you're talking about when it comes to the "barely operational" mana base. I mean it works fine. They could run Mana Confluence to - it's not a card restricted to Mardu. The reason why they don't is because they are happy to take 3 shocking and fetching. The decks are designed to bring out Death Shadow far more quickly than yours.
Manamorphose seems really out of place here, it is a card that is only good for combo decks that want to chain spells together like "Storm" and "UR Prowess", I'd rather play maindeck a Nihil Spellbomb that also cantrips for 2 (that can be split over 2 turns).
Mishra's Bauble is just a slow cantrip without the need to hit delirium (like in "Jund Shadow"), seems like a waste of a card slot.
I'd rather play more lands, 17x lands is just not enough 19x (or at the very least 18x) seems much more reasonable.
Well a lot of your arguments are refuted purely based on the fact that Death Shadow Zoo was a deck that utilized Bauble and Swiftspears.
Spellbomb vs Manamorphose comparison isn't even remotely appropriate. With manamorphose, you not only get a card but also trigger prowess for Swiftspear and gets you 2 mana of any colors. A big disadvantage of Thought Scour and Serum Visions is you need to sink mana that you can't retrieve back, massively slowing down the deck.
Fatal Push is not played because the deck plays Path to Exile and Orzhov Charms already, in addition to discard spells. My experience was Lightning Bolt was almost always better outside Death Shadow match-ups. I would not say the same for other Mardu decks however.
"Why not go with Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Bone Picker as potentially undercosted threats over Goblin Guide and Monastery Swiftspear (which are bad outside of a Burn deck) ? "
Because the deck already plays 3 Gurmag Anglers which are superior to Tasigur for obvious reasons in a Mardu deck. Bone picker is a terrible card and I won't say further on the subject.
Again, Swiftspear has been played in DS Zoo with success and that's not exactly a burn deck. I've tested it and it's been great. The point of the deck is to go faster than the other midrange decks while still playing the essential Delve creatures and Death Shadow. Orzhov Charm and Manamorphose also synergizes well with the 1-drop haste creatures. Goblin guide is a hit or miss, but it has been infinitely better than cards like Vexing Devil. It's a must-answer card that draws removals away from your bigger creatures or wins you the game.
Also note that my deck can play 17 lands with the number of cantrips and lower curve. I don't even think I play a 3-drop in this deck, it's almost purely 1-drops and 2-drops.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/615074#paper
[...] I prefer the cantrips here over the Grixis version because cards like Thought Scour and Serum Visions cost mana and slows you down significantly compared to Manamorphose. Our other cantrips are like Jund, which I prefer - Street Wraith and Mishra's Bauble - all of which pump Swiftspear really well.
Just a note: I think that cycling is an activated ability and not a spell, thus it does not trigger Swiftspear.
Oh yes I didn't mean to describe Street Wraith as a pumper. Thanks for the correction, I was probably thinking about manamorphose at the time.
DS decks must be explosive. We do have to search for "cantrips" but if we have to use any... we must avoid slow ones. I like painful truths in a mid range strategy, which is not the case. Tap 3 Mana, draw 3 and pass the turn? It's too passive.
I've rather prefer to draw 2 on T2.
Yes, manamorfose feels suboptimal here. But again, fixing your Mana, draw a card and probably cast something seems much more proactive compared to draw 3 and lose your turn just doing that. It won't give immediately presence. Are we sure that a Mardu DS can recover the board advantage after a "do nothing" turn 3 in Modern?
Making the deck explosive has been my primary concern. Other decks posted here are barely death shadow decks, not able to cantrip efficiently to make DS active by turn 2-3. Manamorphose cantrips for Gurmag Angler and triggers prowess for Swiftspear, among other things. The best part is unlike Thought Scour or Serum Visions, you get the mana back so you can be explosive as possible without losing tempo in filling the graveyard and deploying threats.
@pedrofausto: I have played Lili, and found her completely ineffective. If you watch the video you'll actually see me completely ignore my opponent's Lili, let her ult, and still win handily. Gurmag is real bad with Dark Confidant, and we need the card advantage. Baron's inclusion is primarily due to him dodging every removal spell in the format short of double Bolt. Unfortunately, he's laughably bad against green creatures and Eldrazi. I will likely be swapping him with Brimaz, King of Oreskos or Mirran Crusader. I love Assemble the Legion, but it'd be WAY too slow. I'd rather have Bitterblossom, which I just cut for Harsh Mentors.
Totally forgot about Gurmag.
Dark confidant along side bitterblossom sounds good but doable. If you're trying something like this you think of butcher of the horde as your finisher. Rarely you won't have any creature to sac. Perhaps, you can even attack and recover some life with it.
DS decks must be explosive. We do have to search for "cantrips" but if we have to use any... we must avoid slow ones. I like painful truths in a mid range strategy, which is not the case. Tap 3 Mana, draw 3 and pass the turn? It's too passive.
I've rather prefer to draw 2 on T2.
Yes, manamorfose feels suboptimal here. But again, fixing your Mana, draw a card and probably cast something seems much more proactive compared to draw 3 and lose your turn just doing that. It won't give immediately presence. Are we sure that a Mardu DS can recover the board advantage after a "do nothing" turn 3 in Modern?
Making the deck explosive has been my primary concern. Other decks posted here are barely death shadow decks, not able to cantrip efficiently to make DS active by turn 2-3. Manamorphose cantrips for Gurmag Angler and triggers prowess for Swiftspear, among other things. The best part is unlike Thought Scour or Serum Visions, you get the mana back so you can be explosive as possible without losing tempo in filling the graveyard and deploying threats.
The better card to help you cast Gurmag on T3 is collective brutality if you escalte. I'am using just 1-of but almost getting the second one. Too flexible to not be abused.
DS decks must be explosive. We do have to search for "cantrips" but if we have to use any... we must avoid slow ones. I like painful truths in a mid range strategy, which is not the case. Tap 3 Mana, draw 3 and pass the turn? It's too passive.
I've rather prefer to draw 2 on T2.
Yes, manamorfose feels suboptimal here. But again, fixing your Mana, draw a card and probably cast something seems much more proactive compared to draw 3 and lose your turn just doing that. It won't give immediately presence. Are we sure that a Mardu DS can recover the board advantage after a "do nothing" turn 3 in Modern?
Making the deck explosive has been my primary concern. Other decks posted here are barely death shadow decks, not able to cantrip efficiently to make DS active by turn 2-3. Manamorphose cantrips for Gurmag Angler and triggers prowess for Swiftspear, among other things. The best part is unlike Thought Scour or Serum Visions, you get the mana back so you can be explosive as possible without losing tempo in filling the graveyard and deploying threats.
The better card to help you cast Gurmag on T3 is collective brutality if you escalte. I'am using just 1-of but almost getting the second one. Too flexible to not be abused.
There are very few matches where you would want to escalate (e.g Infect, Burn). And if you just escalate to get the life drain effect, it's just a bad card. More importantly, the card should replace itself so that late game you have better means of fueling multiple cards.
If people are trying out Manamorphose might as well jump on board and try out some other cards as well like Canyon Slough. Found some cards in my collection I used to use a lot and figure I'd try them out this FNM to see how they do. Inspired by old school Caw Blade.
It's an idea I've been kicking around in my head for a while, the card I'm least sure of right now is Batterskull because of Fatal Push and the 5 mana cost, we'll see how it performs though. If it doesn't perform I'll look to replace it with another Sword or Basilisk Collar or something.
EDIT
Deciding between Gideon and Batterskull or 4 Nether Traitor. Anybody got any thoughts on that?
yeah , we seem to have fairly similar Decks.After taking the plunge and getting a playset of vexing devil , i have concluded that...
My assessment was spot on.There card feels bad , even though a 4/3 for R seems so tempting , it won´t play out this way. and even though there is enough good versatile cards that can also go to the face in our colours , turning into a weird burn deck is not where this Deck wants to be , and sure as hell not where i want to be with this Deck.
After some twiddling and fiddling , i came full circle again and am Back to this
Any specific reason you dropped the Bushwhackers? If I remember right, you tried them out before. Just didn't like them? I've found them to be really powerful with both Shadow and Souls. They're basically extra copies of Slayers' Stronghold.
hey guys. i had a lot of nightshifts lately , didnt have much time to browse the site.
@Aazadan »
yeah , we seem to have fairly similar Decks.After taking the plunge and getting a playset of vexing devil , i have concluded that...
My assessment was spot on.There card feels bad , even though a 4/3 for R seems so tempting , it won´t play out this way. and even though there is enough good versatile cards that can also go to the face in our colours , turning into a weird burn deck is not where this Deck wants to be , and sure as hell not where i want to be with this Deck.
After some twiddling and fiddling , i came full circle again and am Back to this
Ignore the sideboard pls.
I feel like the numbers on the Instants are off , i´d like to get some suggestions on different cards i could put in , especially if i could include 4-ofs ... i dislike the mess of Ratios that i currently run.
cards i own and could possibliy add are : 4 x collective brutality 2 x Liliana of the veil , i have playsets of Boros charm , and most every good card in Black white and Red . including goblin guides , vexing devils , etc.
i really feel like the Deck can already support 3 gurmag anglers , but if you know of ways to make that better , please help me out here.
i know manamorphose is something that people on here are trying , and i am getting fonder to the Idea , because most other things i have tried haven been as successful as this basic version i have right now. the list i have now , is what i come back to , when i scattered too much from the right path.
That's pretty similar to my build. But I don't run any 3 and 4 drops in the main, instead of going for more cantrips like Mishra and Manamorphose so I can reach Death Shadows faster and fuel Gurmag Angler better.
So the list I ran had to be changed from the one I posted earlier. I cut Gideon and Manamorphose for 3 Butcher of the Horde and 4 Harsh Mentor and switched out Batterskull for Sword of Fire and Ice, and Collective Brutality for Anguished Unmaking. Harsh Mentor once again felt like a let down and not worth it every time I played him so he's going probably going to be cut for a set of Nether Traitor or Tidehollow Sculler. Squadron Hawk was the creature MVP tonight, the only time he let me down was game 3 of final round when I started with a Squadron Hawk in my hand and my first and second turn draws were both Squadron Hawk.
Overall I ended up 2-2, lost to Spike Feeder Combo in round 3 and Elves in round 4. Round 3 I got stuck on 2 lands with Sword, Souls, and Ajani in hand. Round 4 he comboed off on turn 2 and I didn't find any mass removal. I'll post a decklist and details about matches in the morning, I have to sleep for now. I can definitely say I'm digging this Caw Blade style version.
ROUND 1
Assault Formation (2-0)
Game 1 went fast thanks to turn 2 Hawk, turn 3 Sword, turn 4 Sword, turn 5 double equip and swing. Game 2 I didn't get double Sword and he was able to build a defense. Eventually he went down to Spirits and Butcher.
ROUND 2
Grixis Death's Shadow (2-0)
Game 1 turned into a race between Spirits and Hawks against his Shadow and Snapcasters. He Countersqualled my attempt to double Lightning Bolt for the win and it came down to a top decked Butcher sacrificing my last Spirit for haste and taking out his last 3 life. Game 2 Hawk put in work alongside Crackling Doom and Fatal Push for a quick win.
ROUND 3
Spike Feeder Combo (1-2)
Game 1 I kept a 1 land hand with Path, Push, and Inquisition. I didn't draw another land for 5 turns and lost. Game 1 Crackling Doom put in work and he fell to a Hawk and Spirit swarm. Game 2 I opened with 2 lands and didnt draw another for the entire game while I drew Lingering Souls, Swords, and Ajani.
ROUND 4
Elves (1-2)
Game 1 he was able to out pace my lifelink and bled me to death. Game 2 I opened Wrath of God and Anger of the Gods while he opened with 1 Forest and 1 mana dork that immediately ate a Lightning Bolt. Game 3 he comboed off on turn 2 and 3 and I didn't topdeck Anger or Wrath to save myself.
Overall I'm very satisfied with how Squadron Hawk performed and I'd say it was the MVP of the night. Harsh Mentor had the least impact of all the cards I played, Swiftspear never showed up in any of the games I played. Bad luck I guess to not see a 4 of even once. To take Harsh Mentor's spot I'm deciding whether I want a better Sword carrier in Nether Traitor or a creature that can actually block like Tidehollow Sculler.
Leonin Arbiter and Ranger are "nombo" =/
2 Arid Mesa
2 Marsh Flats
1 Blood Crypt
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Godless Shrine
3 Shambling Vent
1 Inspiring Vantage
1 Concealed Courtyard
1 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Gideon of the Trials
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
These are the cards I have available to me and quantities.
Planeswalkers: 2 Ajani Vengeant, 2 Nahiri the Harbinger, 3 Chandra Torch of Defiance
Instant/Sorcery: 4 Lightning Bolt, 4 Path to Exile, 2 Fatal Push, 2 Terminate, 4 Crackling Doom, 2 Blessed Alliance, 2 Wrath of God, 1 Collective Brutality, 1 Lightning Helix, 1 Anguished Unmaking, 1 Kolaghan's Command
Creatures: 1 Emrakul the Aeons Torn, 1 Grim Lavamancer, 3 Young Pyromancer, 4 Tidehollow Sculler
Isn't Phyrexian Arena just slower than Painful Truths ?
Another option I've just though about is Sin Prodder which seems pretty good in a deck full of expensive cards that are not meant to be hardcast (Bone Picker, Street Wraith, Tasigur/Angler).
It might also be more playable now that Lightning Bolt is on the decline (mostly played by "Grixis Shadow", "TitanShift" and Storm's SB out of the top decks).
4 Young Pyromancer
3 Bedlam Reveler
2 Monastery Swiftspear
Spells:
4 Faithless Looting
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
2 Thoughtseize
1 Collective Brutality
1 Terminate
2 Lightning Helix
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Kolaghan's Command
2 Path to Exile
2 Fatal Push
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Swamp
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Blood Crypt
2 Marsh Flats
2 Mountain
2 Sacred Foundry
1 Arid Mesa
1 Plains
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Celestial Purge
4 Madcap Experiment
1 Rakdos Charm
2 Wear // Tear
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Platinum Emperion
1 Fatal Push
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Dreadbore
1 Zealous Persecution
The deck should have a Forked Bolt in main and two Extirpate in the board but they didn't arrive in time for me to play them today.
Game 1 vs. Affinity
In the first match he dumped his entire hand on the board on turn one, while I was at draw. Luckily I managed to have him discard his Cranial Plating, which bought me some time to come back into the game. He top decked an Arcbound Ravager while my hand was empty to win the match though.
Post board I had more answers to his swarm of machines. I droppen Pyromancer turn two and started pumping out tokens. Zealous Persecution wiped his side of the board and I killed him.
Match three was really even. He had board control and smashed my life down to five before I managed to wipe out all the artifacts. I nearly turned the match around but he killed me with two Glint-Nest Cranes... 1-2
Game 2 vs. Seismic Lands
To make a long story short my entire deck was dead against his. He wiped my board of tokens and threw away lands until I were dead. I boarded out all my spot removals and took the Madcap pack in. Unfortunately, he had enough lands to kill Emperion when it entered the battlefield. 0-2
Game 3 vs. Boros PW Stax
Could possibly be the worst match-up for me. Chalice of the Void on 1 each game. Blood Moon turn two with Spirit Guide. One game he even managed to have Leyline from start and play Nahiri turn two. Impossible. However, Emperion made a great job and I managed to smash him down with it game 2. 1-2
Sooo... It's not with great pride I go to bed tonight. I feel like Young Pyromancer is far to slow for modern these days. I don't want to play him on turn two, cause he always dies before even producing a single token. I need to replace him with something I guess. My thoughts right now goes in the direction of Harsh Mentor och Abbot but I don't know really. Abbot isn't a turn two card either. The Madcap combo made great success today and I'm thinking about maining it instead of leaving it in the sideboard. Bedlam Reveler was great in the games today and I really like the idea about this deck, I just need to put som effort in sharpening the edges of the deck. What do you guys think? What is the best direction for this kind of a deck to go?
The deck plays a lot of removal and discard but not enough creatures and Bedlam Reveler is really slow in a deck without cheap cantrips.
The easiest thing to do would be to bring in Smuggler's Copter over Faithless Looting (a pretty bad card outside of graveyard-centric decks).
Also adding a PW like Gideon, Ally of Zendikar can be a good idea imho, but would require running more lands.
Another finisher option might be the new Hazoret the Fervent.
I don't think that cards like: Forked Bolt and Burst Lightning are any good right now (Dreadbore also seems rather situational).
Also since the deck plays quite a bit of damage based removal and isn't very fast, a creature like Soul-Scar Mage might fit better here than Monastery Swiftspear.
Here's a link to some Twitch coverage of me playing it this past week. Here's my list:
3x Dark Confidant
3x Harsh Mentor
3x Boros Reckoner
2x Blood Baron of Vizkopa
Walkers
1x Ajani Vengeant
2x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Spells
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
4x Path to Exile
3x Fatal Push
2x Collective Brutality
4x Lingering Souls
1x Painful Truths
2x Kolaghan's Command
4x Bloodstained Mire
3x Marsh Flats
2x Arid Mesa
2x Blackcleave Cliffs
2x Inspiring Vantage
3x Shambling Vent
3x Blood Crypt
1x Godless Shrine
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Mountain
1x Plains
1x Swamp
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
3x Blessed Alliance
3x Anguished Unmaking
1x Kolaghan's Command
2x Anger of the Gods
1x Damnation
1x Wrath of God
Link to deck @ TappedOut.net
I'd love to hear some thoughts if anyone else is playing true Midrange, as i think it's the only version of the deck that can work in this meta.
Modern
WBR Mardu Midrange
UR Storm
Commander
WBR Queen Marchesa Stax
WUB Oloro, Ageless Ascetic Pillowfort
RRR Krenko, Mob Boss Chaos
I think that Baron is too slow and you ll never meet it's requirements.
Have you tried the Assemble the legion as a finisher?
Modern
WBR Mardu Midrange
UR Storm
Commander
WBR Queen Marchesa Stax
WUB Oloro, Ageless Ascetic Pillowfort
RRR Krenko, Mob Boss Chaos
Sorry for the late reply, been busy with moving and getting settled into a new job. Haven't been able to play as much Modern as I would like. But, interestingly enough I ran into someone at the local shop who follows this thread (they were on a more midrange build) so that was a fun discussion. I don't think the person I ran into posts though.
Anyways, I want to address your points.
First, the Bushwhackers. These guys are really good, people see Bushwhackers and think of all in Zoo decks but they're actually really good as a midrange card. It's basically an anthem effect and it lets you drop some surprise threats. Don't underestimate haste. Several people in this thread are now on the Slayer's Stronghold plan, and we basically all agree more of those would be nice. Bushwhackers are a way to have more. They're tutorable, lower mana, spread over more bodies, and can represent even more power. It's not even DS where I think they're at their best. That's certainly a good interaction, but they're at their best with Lingering Souls, it's an interaction that's practically custom built for this deck, hitting all our colors, on a perfect curve, at a low deck building cost.
With that out of the way, lets talk about the big one which is threat density.
If you say I didn't count Kolaghan's Command in those, I'll point out that we get the same effect in Orzhov Charm, and we can also run Kolaghans (and I do). On threat density Mardu definitely wins. Despite their cantrips, we're going to see more threats, more often.
Now lets talk about mana. The Jund/Grixis builds are using very low to the ground decks with barely operational land counts to pack in 8 cantrips to string things together. They waste slots on 8 cantrips to get 2 more threats and 3 more lands in their deck while maintaining spell counts (or card types). It's not all that efficient. We can simply run more mana, which lets us curve better, especially since we're not sinking mana into those cantrips like you do with Traverse/Visions/Scour. But alongside that additional mana comes options. We can do cool things with our mana that they can't. Mana Confluence for example is really good with Shadow, the card just really ties things together in a way that fetch/shocks don't do on their own. It also allows our Slayers' Strongholds which there's near universal agreement are good cards.
Finally, lets talk about Eidolon. A lot of people don't like my inclusion of it, and that's fine. But I do want to make a case for it again. The reason Eidolon works so well in Burn isn't because they're winning a race... they'll still play it when they're losing the race. The card works because it deals (or at least has the potential to) high amounts of damage for a single card. What makes Eidolon good where as Pyrostatic Pillar was and is still bad in formats it can be played though, is that being a creature gives you a lot of control over how triggers hit you. Sometimes you just want to jam a T2 Eidolon, other times you want to hold it for a couple turns. Sometimes you just want it to be a bear. When you play against Burn, they control the Eidolon. They choose when or if it comes down. They choose when or if it attacks. They choose when or if it blocks. They can get rid of it in combat if it's becoming a liability and that's all one sided control. It's vital to the card. That's why Eidolon works for us, we can choose all of those things, and use it to get in the amount of damage we want against both our opponents and ourselves.
Yes, Eidolon makes you think turns in advance and sequence well, but the payoff is there.
Oh, and for your Dark Confidant point, the reason Bob isn't played here is twofold. First, he's just a 2/1 without haste. He doesn't do enough damage fast enough. More importantly, his card flip isn't enough of an enabler. We're running low mana curves. My deck has 68 mana pips and some retooling making the deck arguably better drops it to 64. Either 64 or 68 pips is just about in the territory of 1 life per turn. If I want to (again, the power of sequencing) I can use an Eidolon to blow 6 life in a single turn, and reap the advantages of such right away. Bob needs to stay on the board the entire game to do that... and likely never attack or block, so dealing zero damage. My Eidolon will do some damage to most opponents, and adopting a Burn mentality, that damage directly converts to cards (though not at as great a ratio).
Cantrips aren't always bad, they're good if you need to maximize a certain type of card in your deck. But cantrips just for the sake of cantrips are a bad idea. You're better off just playing the cards you want instead. Rather than cantrips, I suggest tutors. Ranger of Eos reads 3W: Put a 3/2 into play, put 2 Death's Shadows into hand. Now compare that to Painful Truths. Which would you rather have? They're both three cards but one is three cards, affects the board right away, and guarantees followups to affect the board. The other is 3 random cards and life loss, with no attached board impact. Your best case scenario with Painful Truths is tapping 3 mana on turn 4, having another land drop, and having a 1 drop off those 3 cards. Ranger just does it all better.
Agree completely with the Vexing Devil and Bone Picker assessments, but that's probably not a surprise... we seem to have fairly similar decks.
I like 2 Angler over 3. You don't want to flood on them and be unable to cast it, and ideally you want that second one to be cheap enough after Delve that you can Stronghold it.
Disagree with several key points:
(1) Cantrips allow the deck to avoid playing suboptimal cards. Jund does not want to play threats aside from Goyf or Shadow, unless it's a threat that brings more creatures into the hand (e.g Ranger of Eos). Why? Because other cards get outclassed in the midrange game. Death Shadow is ultimately a midrange card that cannot be played in turn 1-2 typically. It could play Eidolon or Goblin Bushwackers but these cards get outclassed so quickly that you need your whole deck to be built on redundant creatures. You note that your deck plays more threats but the question is whether those threats are not going to get outclassed easily in the mid game, which I would argue it does. The way to address this weakness is to go faster and have more proactive turn 1 plays, which is where I'm going with my build.
I agree with you that putting mana into cantrips is not great. In fact, this is why I favor Jund over Grixis. Mardu also has this advantage by playing the same cantrips but with manamorphose which gets you 2 mana back. However, cantrips are what allows the deck to play the best creatures without putting suboptimal cards and also function to fuel good delve creatures.
(2) My dark confidant comparison with Eidolon was purely because both deals damage to you, not because it is a suitable aggro deck. Now granted your deck does play a higher curve and is not an active Death Shadow deck apart from the mana base. However, this in itself is a problem. Eidolons are hell of a lot worse unless you can dish out damage in the first few turns guaranteed and put your opponent at a lower life total than you. Burn strategy is based on the hope that Eidolon will hurt your opponent far more than it hurts you but occasionally, the way Burn loses is from their own Eidolon because they cannot beat superior creatures on the other side of the table.
When half your spells go straight to the face, Eidolon is going to be a winning card 90% of the time. But unfortunately, a non-burn deck does not have this luxury. You are basically playing a 2/2 that can deal a potential 4-6 damage but will also hurt you 4-6 damage in the process.
(3) Not sure why you're talking about when it comes to the "barely operational" mana base. I mean it works fine. They could run Mana Confluence to - it's not a card restricted to Mardu. The reason why they don't is because they are happy to take 3 shocking and fetching. The decks are designed to bring out Death Shadow far more quickly than yours.
Well a lot of your arguments are refuted purely based on the fact that Death Shadow Zoo was a deck that utilized Bauble and Swiftspears.
Spellbomb vs Manamorphose comparison isn't even remotely appropriate. With manamorphose, you not only get a card but also trigger prowess for Swiftspear and gets you 2 mana of any colors. A big disadvantage of Thought Scour and Serum Visions is you need to sink mana that you can't retrieve back, massively slowing down the deck.
Fatal Push is not played because the deck plays Path to Exile and Orzhov Charms already, in addition to discard spells. My experience was Lightning Bolt was almost always better outside Death Shadow match-ups. I would not say the same for other Mardu decks however.
"Why not go with Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Bone Picker as potentially undercosted threats over Goblin Guide and Monastery Swiftspear (which are bad outside of a Burn deck) ? "
Because the deck already plays 3 Gurmag Anglers which are superior to Tasigur for obvious reasons in a Mardu deck. Bone picker is a terrible card and I won't say further on the subject.
Again, Swiftspear has been played in DS Zoo with success and that's not exactly a burn deck. I've tested it and it's been great. The point of the deck is to go faster than the other midrange decks while still playing the essential Delve creatures and Death Shadow. Orzhov Charm and Manamorphose also synergizes well with the 1-drop haste creatures. Goblin guide is a hit or miss, but it has been infinitely better than cards like Vexing Devil. It's a must-answer card that draws removals away from your bigger creatures or wins you the game.
Also note that my deck can play 17 lands with the number of cantrips and lower curve. I don't even think I play a 3-drop in this deck, it's almost purely 1-drops and 2-drops.
Oh yes I didn't mean to describe Street Wraith as a pumper. Thanks for the correction, I was probably thinking about manamorphose at the time.
Making the deck explosive has been my primary concern. Other decks posted here are barely death shadow decks, not able to cantrip efficiently to make DS active by turn 2-3. Manamorphose cantrips for Gurmag Angler and triggers prowess for Swiftspear, among other things. The best part is unlike Thought Scour or Serum Visions, you get the mana back so you can be explosive as possible without losing tempo in filling the graveyard and deploying threats.
Totally forgot about Gurmag.
Dark confidant along side bitterblossom sounds good but doable. If you're trying something like this you think of butcher of the horde as your finisher. Rarely you won't have any creature to sac. Perhaps, you can even attack and recover some life with it.
The better card to help you cast Gurmag on T3 is collective brutality if you escalte. I'am using just 1-of but almost getting the second one. Too flexible to not be abused.
There are very few matches where you would want to escalate (e.g Infect, Burn). And if you just escalate to get the life drain effect, it's just a bad card. More importantly, the card should replace itself so that late game you have better means of fueling multiple cards.
2 Arid Mesa
2 Marsh Flats
3 Shambling Vent
2 Canyon Slough
2 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Godless Shrine
1 Blood Crypt
1 Inspiring Vantage
1 Concealed Courtyard
1 Blackcleave Clifs
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Squadron Hawk
3 Gideon of the Trials
2 Ajani Vengeant
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Batterskull
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Path to Exile
2 Fatal Push
4 Manamorphose
4 Lingering Souls
1 Kolaghan's Command
It's an idea I've been kicking around in my head for a while, the card I'm least sure of right now is Batterskull because of Fatal Push and the 5 mana cost, we'll see how it performs though. If it doesn't perform I'll look to replace it with another Sword or Basilisk Collar or something.
EDIT
Deciding between Gideon and Batterskull or 4 Nether Traitor. Anybody got any thoughts on that?
Any specific reason you dropped the Bushwhackers? If I remember right, you tried them out before. Just didn't like them? I've found them to be really powerful with both Shadow and Souls. They're basically extra copies of Slayers' Stronghold.
That's pretty similar to my build. But I don't run any 3 and 4 drops in the main, instead of going for more cantrips like Mishra and Manamorphose so I can reach Death Shadows faster and fuel Gurmag Angler better.
Overall I ended up 2-2, lost to Spike Feeder Combo in round 3 and Elves in round 4. Round 3 I got stuck on 2 lands with Sword, Souls, and Ajani in hand. Round 4 he comboed off on turn 2 and I didn't find any mass removal. I'll post a decklist and details about matches in the morning, I have to sleep for now. I can definitely say I'm digging this Caw Blade style version.
EDIT
2 Arid Mesa
2 Marsh Flats
2 Canyon Slough
2 Shambling Vent
1 Godless Shrine
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Blood Crypt
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Concealed Courtyard
1 Inspiring Vantage
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Grim Lavamancer
4 Harsh Mentor
4 Squadron Hawk
3 Butcher of the Horde
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Path to Exile
2 Fatal Push
4 Lingering Souls
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Anguished Unmaking
2 Ajani Vengeant
3 Rest In Peace
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Wrath of God
ROUND 1
Assault Formation (2-0)
Game 1 went fast thanks to turn 2 Hawk, turn 3 Sword, turn 4 Sword, turn 5 double equip and swing. Game 2 I didn't get double Sword and he was able to build a defense. Eventually he went down to Spirits and Butcher.
ROUND 2
Grixis Death's Shadow (2-0)
Game 1 turned into a race between Spirits and Hawks against his Shadow and Snapcasters. He Countersqualled my attempt to double Lightning Bolt for the win and it came down to a top decked Butcher sacrificing my last Spirit for haste and taking out his last 3 life. Game 2 Hawk put in work alongside Crackling Doom and Fatal Push for a quick win.
ROUND 3
Spike Feeder Combo (1-2)
Game 1 I kept a 1 land hand with Path, Push, and Inquisition. I didn't draw another land for 5 turns and lost. Game 1 Crackling Doom put in work and he fell to a Hawk and Spirit swarm. Game 2 I opened with 2 lands and didnt draw another for the entire game while I drew Lingering Souls, Swords, and Ajani.
ROUND 4
Elves (1-2)
Game 1 he was able to out pace my lifelink and bled me to death. Game 2 I opened Wrath of God and Anger of the Gods while he opened with 1 Forest and 1 mana dork that immediately ate a Lightning Bolt. Game 3 he comboed off on turn 2 and 3 and I didn't topdeck Anger or Wrath to save myself.
Overall I'm very satisfied with how Squadron Hawk performed and I'd say it was the MVP of the night. Harsh Mentor had the least impact of all the cards I played, Swiftspear never showed up in any of the games I played. Bad luck I guess to not see a 4 of even once. To take Harsh Mentor's spot I'm deciding whether I want a better Sword carrier in Nether Traitor or a creature that can actually block like Tidehollow Sculler.