davius, i'm interested in trying your list and your argument about sakura tribe scout made me think twice since i have been using journey of discovery in its place. can you post your list and sideboard? what are your worst match ups with this list and if you can share the percentage.
i have a kessig wolf run in the main deck just to have another angle of attack with a hornet queen main to combat affinity but it seems like a second forest and 1 island main deck is more useful to not only combat blood moon before it drops to find the 2 forests and have them ready in your hand or to dump excess journey to discoveries to get more value with filtering your deck and adding lands.
i took the approach that Matthias Hunt did at Pro Tour Born of the Gods and have not been using ancient stirrings with the ultimate goal of ramping and landing a turn 4 titan at the latest. just to add that the 4 Azusa's buys you some time as a chump blocker especially having multiples in your deck thus i also have kessig wolf run but the 28 land count seems inevitable with Hunt's list since I also tried 61 cards with 28 lands and the deck just feels clunkier than when it is just 60 cards with 28 lands
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
plays Ad Nauseam and Amulet Bloom in Modern
"He traded sand for skins, skins for gold, gold for life. In the end, he traded life for sand."
—Afari, Tales
i like this list davius! don't you feel it was necessary to have at least 2 hive minds for easy free wins since we ramp faster than our opponents? or 1 main hornet queen for the affinity or aggro matchup and 1 main engineered explosives to answer some mainboard threats? - to combat artifact, enchantment, planeswalker or creatures that are problematic before getting our copy of pact of negation?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
plays Ad Nauseam and Amulet Bloom in Modern
"He traded sand for skins, skins for gold, gold for life. In the end, he traded life for sand."
—Afari, Tales
The question remains, has this deck still got a legitimate shot? Could I take it to a competitive fnm and feasibly 4-0, like I can with scapeshift, tron, elves or Jund? Could I rock up to a GP and have half a hope of top-64-ing or whatever...?
I'd love to trade back into this deck and I can see that the lategame is just as strong as it used to be, but how much does the slower early game hurt? Isn't explore just a million times better than sakura-tribe scout?
Help me out here. Are we chasing a nostalgic dream or is this a real deck?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
Happened to be perusing through my subscribed threads and read through your report. Not bad!
As far as Corrosion vs Stony Silence, Corrosion is going to just end the game if it resolves, with that in mind, I would call it downright better vs Affinity specifically. Fracturing Gust is another option, but you are far more versed with the difference between 4 and 5 mana in this deck than I am. Up to you.
I will say I like the thought behind your changes. 3 SSGs seems like a bit much, 2 sounds better but experience may dictate otherwise. Meloku sounds like a great threat, I like it. I'm not sure about the MD Pyroclasm though, it seems like you're trying to hedge your bets a bit too hard against creatured-based decks. Again, you would know better than I, but I wouldn't include any MD Pyros unless you think it's the decks only G1 out to Affinity/Burn/Infect and in that case, I'd want 2-3.
For reference, here's what I've been playing with. I play the deck even less serious than you, and the deck is little more than an updated Bloom list, that said it's not too far off from where you're at. I am not running Meloku, but I have noticed a similar situation that you mentioned above, I find myself stuck with 5 mana in play and no way to generate extra mana way more than I'd like. If Meloku were Green, it would be an easy decision, but I've been having a hard time committing to her as is.
I usually just goof off with this list on Xmage etc, but I've still gotten away with a handful of T2 kills and have ruined plenty of peoples days with Titan Parades. Ultimately, I think the deck is missing something to really bring it together. Without Summer's Bloom, it feels like it just lacks consistency more than anything, and lack of consistency would never get through 8+ rounds in a serious tournament.
Also, I don't think I could ever leave the Hive Mind plan. It's probably the biggest reason I play the deck. I feel like an ******** every time it lands, and then I laugh maniacally.
Hi there
i am going to try the daviusminimus's list next friday, the only difference is that i will be using 2 azusa and 2 mina and denn , wildborn ( i am on a budget right now and i dont wanna spend more money on this deck)
my questions are
¿what do you think about pentad prism instead of explore?
¿What do you think about summoning trap? it cost the same as a titan, and if used behind a couple of stirrings it could fetch you a titan and put it in play. And against control seems pretty good.
Amulet Bloom doesn't have problems against control, it has problems against aggro, hence why most decks run 3x leylines of sanctity.
We only have 2 options to keep this deck alive. Find another hidden op combo that works well with land interaction, speed the deck back up to T2, or slow the game down without hurting combo consistency.
Amulet Bloom doesn't have problems against control, it has problems against aggro, hence why most decks run 3x leylines of sanctity.
We only have 2 options to keep this deck alive. Find another hidden op combo that works well with land interaction, speed the deck back up to T2, or slow the game down without hurting combo consistency.
ya but against naya zoo and other aggro, batterskull in the md stalls them giving you the extra few turn if not completely turning the game in your favor.
Hey Eruann,
Glad you're gviing it a go.
Summoning Trap used to be on my radar. The problem is, it'll miss a lot. My maths isn't stunning, but if you said there's 50 cards left in your deck and you've not drawn a titan yet - 4/50 chance of hitting 1, looking at 6 cards. I make that about 50/50 to hit a titan. Again, maths may well be horrible. The problem is that when it misses a titan, you really don't want ot be paying 6 for a sakura-tribe scout / azusa. There's not enough good creatures in the deck.
I did test a while back a small eternal witness package, with primal command. I can imagine Summoning Trap being relevant there, because if you "miss" and hit a witness, you can cast the trap again.
Eruann - Explore AND pentad prism are both bad. Prism is the better of the 2, but they're both bad. You have a lot of tapped lands and colourless lands, so prism with 2 counters on T2 is quite hard. Explore cannot ramp you into a T4 titan by itself, which is almost the minimum requirement (Azusa by itself does, scout does, amulet nearly does). Really, you're looking for a 2-card combination that can make T3 Titans. So all these combinations make T3 titans:
Scout on T1, + Amulet (plus bounceland)
Spirit Guide + Azusa on T2 (plus 6-mana worth of lands)
Amulet on T1 + Azusa (and either 6 mana of lands or a bounceland)
Scout on T1 (can make 5 land drops by T3) Spirit Guide on T3
That's why I've gone with what i've got. If you are trying to race the likes of affinity or infect, you really need the T3 titan. If you're on the draw with a T3 titan against affinity/infect, you might still loose. But a T4 is just not good enough even on the play.
I am happy playing against any grindy deck, and scout is in there because we need to beat faster decks. Explore/Prism don't do that job!
Hi! while you are not good at maths. you were pretty accurate my friend, i really didnt thinked on doing the math, but the probability of summooning trap in the given scneario is exactly 46.41% , so congrats! you did a very good approximation.
now i understand what's the core problem, and i will try to bring some ideas.
Really, you're looking for a 2-card combination that can make T3 Titans. So all these combinations make T3 titans:
Scout on T1, + Amulet (plus bounceland)
Spirit Guide + Azusa on T2 (plus 6-mana worth of lands)
Amulet on T1 + Azusa (and either 6 mana of lands or a bounceland)
Scout on T1 (can make 5 land drops by T3) Spirit Guide on T3
I Think this is a very important core of the deck that people are forgetting, especially with cards like Explore.
I want to point out that Explore is REALLY good at helping you find extra lands and putting them into play. Unfortunately, that's not actually what this deck wants to do.
Summer's Bloom allowed for 3 land drops to be made at the cost of 2 mana, with an Amulet in play, this would allow for a turn 2 Titan. Without an Amulet, it would allow for 5 mana to be dumped on the board, allowing for a turn 3 titan. This is/was the goal of the deck and what made Bloom such a ridiculous card. Assuming no meaningful interaction from your opponent, you could have a turn 2 or turn 3 titan a solid 80+ percent of your games. Even if it's not attacking, just having a 6/6 trampler standing there on turn 2 is devastating to everything from Affinity to Jund.
Without Summer's Bloom, turn 2 titans are much rarer, but we can still hit turn 3 fairly consistently.
Amulet is essentially a really bad combo deck when you think about it. You need:
A non-bounce land, untapped and capable of making green is best, but not required depending on what else you have in hand
A bounce land, again, making green is preferred, but not required depending on what else you have in hand
Extra land drops in the form of Scout or Azusa
A payoff card in the form of Titan, Summoner's Pact, or Hive Mind
Amulet isn't actually part of the combo, but it multiplies the effectiveness of all the other parts. It turns bounce lands into free mana and if you can team that up with an extra land drop, you can add 4+ "free" mana as early as turn 2 and just start dropping titans on fools. Titan itself goes from a slow but powerful value card to an 8/6 haste vigilance trample or better. Multiple Amulets making things absolutely absurd, like the turn 3 4 titan kill we saw at the SCG open last year. We could theoretically still do that provided we had a decent hand that involves 3 Amulets and a T3 titan.
SSG seems more necessary now than it was before since we don't have the raw power of Summer's Bloom to get us there. That said, I'm still not a fan of more than 1.
Was hitting the deck pretty hard on Xmage this weekend, pretty happy with my MD configuration, but I can't find a solid 15 SB cards I'm happy to be bringing in regularly:
I keep bouncing back and forth between GY hate like Bojuka Bog and Leyline of the Void, things to help stay alive like Thragtusk and Feed the Clans, and enchantment/hate removal like Creeping Corrosion and Fracturing gust.
Honestly, the deck still feels great when its firing on all cylinders, but the bad hands are just so much harder to get out from under than they used to be, probably a combination of a couple things caused by the Summer's Bloom ban. We have less lands overall and our pump spells aren't nearly as good. I had a game where I went T1 Amulet into T2 2x Sakura-Tribe into just die because my opponent slammed a T2 Blood Moon on me. All I could think about was "if these were Summer's Bloom, this would have been a T2 kill"
I don't have the cards in paper, would cost close to $200 to get what I'm missing at this point. I really want to play it at some weeklies though.
Has anyone considered a less all in for speed version which could play the Emrakul-Nahiri package? It would make Oath of Nissa a much better cantrip to use in the deck as well as giving another angle of attack.
Has anyone considered a less all in for speed version which could play the Emrakul-Nahiri package? It would make Oath of Nissa a much better cantrip to use in the deck as well as giving another angle of attack.
I don't think this is the right answer. The deck is based around breaking Karoo lands with Amulet of Vigor.
If you are trying to add the Nahiri/Emrakul package into a deck, might as well just go full on Nahiri/Emrakul deck as it would be more consistent.
From a lot of playtesting and trying to make this deck work. It will no longer be the way it was because the was competitive from summer bloom enabling the T2 wins. The only answer to make this deck work again is to slow the game down instead of speeding it up. Something like Root Maze that utilizes the functions of slowing the opponent down and interacts with our amulet of Vigor. Another cool card is animist's awakening that could potentially give us double triggers with amulet, one for the karoo land, and one for the spell mastery.
Just my 2 cents. I have been trying many many variations of the deck and it's not the same, however I or someone else will crack the code to make the deck T2 again.
Seems like it would give us a lot of early power using dredge, cantrips, then get back a bunch of Prized Amalgam's which work well with amulet already making them untapped. Would be crazy to see 5+ karoo lands with Stunning Regrowth, get the mana, put back into hand, then put back into graveyard at cleanup step for another time.
Let me know your thoughts! Seems like a very powerful strategy, great early game, lots of cantrips, and very explosive! Can it turn 2 win like old summerbloom decks?
does anyone find the burn matchup harder? is leylines better or a combination of obstinate baloth, thragtusk and sigarda (for jund) be better value especially if you dont get the leyline openers with a keepable hand in the face of discard decks / burn directly at your face.
how about zoo, goblin 8 whack package? i think the lifegain that baloth, thragtusk provides value for our summoner's pact since we're running simians as well to componsate for the lack of speedy hands and will allow us to cast baloth or thragtusk 1 turn early. i found dismember to be clutch in the sideboard. playtested with infect and just won 2/10 games mainboard and won 7/3 sideboard with melira. 1 was a misplay and the 2 were glistener to double pump openings and was always a turn too late to pact for melira. she drastically improves this matchup and the simians help a ton!
also wondering how we can hate out ad nauseam. i feel like the chalice of the void for 0 when we already have a swan song in hand. and 2 swan songs and 2 pact negations in the sb isn't enough to combat their speed. haven't play tested this with a friend who also uses ad nauseam as an alternate deck like me
Seems like it would give us a lot of early power using dredge, cantrips, then get back a bunch of Prized Amalgam's which work well with amulet already making them untapped. Would be crazy to see 5+ karoo lands with Stunning Regrowth, get the mana, put back into hand, then put back into graveyard at cleanup step for another time.
Let me know your thoughts! Seems like a very powerful strategy, great early game, lots of cantrips, and very explosive! Can it turn 2 win like old summerbloom decks?
Maybe run it as a sideboard card versus land hate?
Also maybe a Nephalia Academy as a 1 off? Note that I do already run a playset of Leyline of Sanctity on my sideboard but I would love to test alternatives.
Positives:
+Protects your hand against discard.
+Easy to tutor.
+Works against Liliana of the veil.
+Putting the card/cards on the top of your library is optional.
Negatives:
-Colourless mana is pretty worthless.
-Takes a slot on side or main.
-Discarding is not always that bad(But Amulet Titan is a combo deck).
But yeah I could see myself running Stunning Growth on my sideboard. Getting up to 4 mana is pretty easy with the deck and it could be a huge blowout versus land hate, especially with the amulet.
Played at a recent GPT 67 players so 7 rounds of modern. I've been playing the deck before the bannings and hate Bryan Fortanely for calling out publicly that the deck needs to get banned. not everyone has the money to throw around and rebuild another deck from scratch especially since the pieces can't be used for another deck. He should have at least thought of the other Amulet players and not just himself. What really stood out with this deck for me is that it rewards players who really practice a lot with the deck and it's sequencing which made me trade my first modern deck RG Tron to Amulet. Anyway enough of the rant.
Round 1 - Green Tron (0-2)
game 1 - I'm on the play and kept a no amulet hand but had an azusa and I can get to titan on turn 4 so I kept in just in case he gets unlucky with not going online by turn 3 and not having a karn. ramped to 5 lands via azusa on the 3rd turn. he went online on turn 3 and wasn't able to cast anything and just played some eggs. I drew simian spirit guide and here was the misplay. I played a cavern on that turn since it was my only untapped land and then played titan fetching boros garrison and ghost quarter. this was where i realized my misplay. i should have used the simian and shouldn't have played a land and should have bounced the ghost quarter so it enters untapped to wreck his mana. i had another back up titan on hand so it could have given me a few more turns. so he karn ate the titan the next turn and then he played a wurmcoil engine. When I untapped I cast another titan fetching a sunhome and vesuva'd my ghost quarter. on his draw step, I GQ'd his urza's mine and he cracked his egg and revealed he drew another urza's mine so he was able to cast ulamog exiling my titan and vesuva. I was hoping to top deck a hive mind at least but didn't and they got exiled the next turn when ulamog attacked.
game 2 - I sideboard chalice of the void and 2 nature's claim and took out my gemstone caverns. here i was pondering if my forest in the sideboard should actually be ghost quarter number 2 since i know this will be a tougher matchup without summer blooms especially if they land a turn 3 karn. I kept an amulet hand with azusa and ramp on turn 2. on his turn 2 he casts an egg and claims my amulet. On my turn 3 I play my bounce land and cast serum visions and kept a pact of negation on top of my library as back up for his big spell (karn or o-stone) also holidng a summoner's pact then pass and he is online on turn 3 again after cracking his expedition map for an urza's mine and casts an egg and ancient stirrings and found chalice of the void for 0. i drew a late dead card and just transumeted for a ghost quarter and destroyed his mine on his draw step. and he reveals to topdeck another urza's mine and eventually play an ulamog a few turns after. I held on to my hand hoping for a hive mind but didn't get it so GG and luck was on his side on both games.
Round 2 - Abzan (1-2)
game 1 - he was a very well-known player but I was confident in facing this matchup having baloth, thragtusk and sigarda in my sb instead of leylines since leylines are dead draws when you get disrupted by iok and thoughtseize with a keepable hand and felt that grinding our way thru it with hornet queen gives us some assurance of eventually overwhelming their board state by casting a creature every turn. he played first and played a tapped overgrown tomb. I played the amulet first turn since i had an azusa to ramp next turn. on his turn, he immediately casts abrupt decay on my amulet. so I eventually ramped but had to use 1 tolaria west to fetch a simic growth chamber. he casts collective brutality discarding my summoner's pact and killing azusa and I play it out by transmuting a summoner's pact and landing a titan and went for boros garrison and khalni garden and replayed khalni garden to protect myself with liliana. alas he drew a maelstorm pulse and killed my tokens. i landed another titan but he drew PTE for lethal. close match
game 2 - i kept a good hand and ramped to four lands my opponent plays liliana and i promptly discard a land. on my turn, i transmuted for a summoner's pact and passed. he then casts painful truths and then plused liliana and i respond by pacting for a baloth yey! value! and he was caught off-guard. I was able to swing with the baloth attacking liliana and putting her to 1 counter and then on his turn he played a siege rhino. i kept playing my lands and eventually got a titan and chaining them and also getting a thragtusk. i didn't bother revealing my sigarda
game 3 - he plays a land and i play an amulet and pass. he plays a ghost quarter and pass. i go ahead and play azusa on the next turn and responded with destroying my simic growth chamber so i just played a bounce lands that turn. on his turn, he plays a fulminator mage and destroys my bounce land yet again! then i just play my regular lands and kept my boros garrison to gain value the next turn to summoner's pact a titan. then he casts abrupt decay on my amulet and PTE and also casts pithing needle for tolaria west. I can't fetch for my EE and didn't board in claims for this matchup. I was stuck on 5 lands. and i should have played it safe and played my borrison garrison earlier in the turn and just kept an untapped land i think is my misplay here. he casts thoughtseize and took out my hornet queen. he just only had 2 cards in hand and i felt that he didn't have 2 things needed to disrupt me since i had 2 titans and lost the hornet queen, 1 to destroy amulet and another to kill my azusa. I only had 5 lands and drew serum visions and topdecked a summoner's pact and fetched for a thagtusk thinking i had 5 lands in play anyway and to buy me 2 turns from his 5/6 goyf. alas, i forgot i actually only had 4 mana and should have gotten a baloth at least for that turn. GG but the pithing needle really wrecked me and he had all the answers at the right time. could have easily went my way if i assured myself of 6 mana the next turn.
Round 3 - Lantern Control (1-1-1)
game 1 - I knew his deck and was able to summon a hasty for 8. he cast surgical extraction twice so he is down to 8 on my hive mind and EE. he also had a pithing needle for tolaria west. I cast hornet queen and he makes sure that he has no hand. i eventually cast my last titan and got khalni garden and sunhome since i already had boros garrison in play and just attacked twice and won
game 2 - I don't own a second EE and just took out the radiant fountain and put in bojuka bog. he played 5 cards that turn like affinity would. a lantern, a pithing for tolaria west, opal, and a welding jar. i was able to cast an amulet early and had an opening of nature's claim, hive mind, pact of negation, serum and EE. he casts another pithing for EE and a spellskite but drew a land. I didn't top deck azusa but was able to land hive mind on turn 6 and he already had 5 lands so i can't kill him with pact of negation via hive mind. i should have conceded earlier after realizing all my pacts were already in the graveyard.
game 3 - We are pressed for time so i keep a fast hand, he didn't draw a bridge so I was able to swing with a hasty titan on the last 5 turns. 1 more turn would have won me the game as he revealed no bridges in the next few turns.
Round 4 - Temur Scapeshift (2-0)
game 1 - He cracked a misty rainforest and suspended search for tomorrow and played breeding pool which gave me a hint what his deck was. I had an amulet hand and just kept playing. he commited on his turn 3 to cast a sorcery that fetches 2 forest to up his land count to 6 but i already have a ghost quarter in play. I attacked with titan and transmuted for my 2nd pact of negation since I already had 1 in hand. on his main phase he casts izzet charm and revealed that he didn't have scapeshift so he scoops knowing he will die the next turn even if he had a cryptic command with a double-striking titan.
game 2 - He kept a similar hand and casts turn 2 farseek which allowed me to ramp with azusa and I had 1 pact of negation in hand. i kept playing lands and drew chalice of the void then amulet, so I cast titan. on the next turn, I cast chalice for 4. he showed me his top deck which was cryptic command and he concedes since he can't kill the titan next turn which will be able to double strike again.
Round 5 - Dredge (2-0)
game 1 - He was on the play and i had gemstone cavern so i shipped my hornet queen knowing he was on dredge when we were seated beside each other in the earlier rounds. yey! gemstone cavern on the draw! he casts faithless looting and kept dredging i just played my lands and ramped with azusa and a titan the next turn. I gave my titan vigilance and was able to swing and counted his creatures 3 3/3s 3 bloodghasts, 2 narcomebas which wasn't lethal but he had a conflagrate in his graveyard so i fetched khalni garden and radiant fountain to not go lethal next turn. he was down to 7 and i was down to 9 so he didn't swing all his creatures and kept 2 narcomebas and 2 of the new 1bu 3/3's as blockers for my titan. i already have sunhome and slayers stronghold in play, a gemston cavern, simic, grulf turf, radiant fountain and khalni garden. i thought for a while since even if i give my titan 8 power and double strike, it won't be lethal so i eventually figured out the puzzle and played my ghost quarter. I transmuted for EE and played it for 3 using gruul turf and cracking my gemstone cavern for an island and blew up his 3/3 powered creatures and attacked with dobule strike since i had simian on hand.
game 2 - I kept a hand with tolaria west, bojuka bog, amulet azusa, 1 bounce lands , summoner's pact and hive mind. and he casts the insolent turn 1 but didn't crack him right away so on my turn i just had to play tolaria west. not exposing the bojuka bog. end of my turn he immediately dredges and reveals the 3/3 and 2 narcomebas! this deck is fast! no wonder the hype! he attacks me for 5 and plays his land and cast dredges again revealing some more creatures that can return if a bloodghast is reaveled. I then cast bojuka bog to slow his clock. i take 10 damage the next turn and he has 4 cards in hand and casts conflagrate for 0. Next turn I'm going to be dead if i allow him to flashback his conflagrate so I cast azusa and return my bojuka bog and replay it. he didn't draw a discarder and land so just swinged and i'm down to 5. the azusa survived so i easily cast hive mind and cast summoner's pact for the win. HIVE MIND WIN # 1
Round 6 - White Eldrazi (2-0)
game 1 - I played first a tolaria west and passed. he casts turn 1 eldrazi temple for endless one for 2. then on turn 3 a cavern for a matter reshaper. I kept a slow hand with azusa and titan. turn 3 he casts another matter reshaper for a fast clock. Turn 4 I cast titan and fetched for khalni garden and radiant fountian just in case he had a reality smasher which he didn't and just attacked. I then attacked with my ttian and cast summoner's pact for hornet queen. he did top decked a reality smasher but all his creatures die to my insect tokens and i am at 3. I cast another titan giving it haste and attack both of them for lethal.
game 2 - I kept a fast hand with amulet, azusa, bounce lands and summoner's pact which can make a turn 3 titan. he just plays a land and passes and i play an amulet and pass. he then plays a second turn mind stone. on turn 2, I play azusa and was also going to be able to transmute on that same turn since i had 3 bounce lands. i was going to get pact of negation to counter his TKS if he has it for next turn but i paused for a moment and said that if his next land drop is a cavern of souls, it will have no meaning so i fetched for a 2nd summoner's pact for redundancy is the better play. he didn't have TKS on his next turn and just had a matter reshaper. so i had a hasty titan which he paths so i cast my second summoner's pact fetching a baloth. i drew another titan next turn and swung for lethal in the next 2 turns. i think bant eldrazi may play something similar but I felt that this was a winnable matchup regardless with hornet queen main.
Round 7 - Naya Zoo (2-0)
game 1 - He mulled to 5 since he didn't have any lands and i kept a 2 amulet hand azusa, hive mind and summoner's pact. I was only missing a bounce land for a turn 2 kill. he casts an expirement one and passes then goblin guide. after 3 turns i eventually find the bounce land and kill him with hive mind with him just having 2 lands. HIVE MIND KILL # 2
game 2 - He kept 7 and i put in my firespouts, dismember, thragtusk and baloth and took out my hive mind and pact of negations. I kept an amulet hand, with simian and azusa and a summoner's pact. I was able to land a turn 3 baloth and then drew thragtusk the next turn. then cast titan after. he conceded eventually after I transmuted for an EE before attacking knowing that he'll just be left with a BTE and boar
I ended up 17th place out of 67 players and I felt each matchup was winnable but just needed more reps. I felt bored with my other deck Ad Nauseam (which I built before the bannings since both decks shared a lot of cards) so I picked this deck up again just for flavor and going rogue and i'm planning to play it in the next WMCQ2. Luckily no blood moons! but Chalice has also been painful when you needed to put in claims so i have a 2 claims and 1 seal split. I just feel that chalice really strengthens our deck and feel that a second EE is necessary but i really prefer to have 2 lands in the sideboard (1 bojuka bog and 1 forest (a 3rd basic to combat blood moon and gain value from paths and ghost quarters) and sometimes the gemstone caverns need to go out so it needs a land replacement aside from the usual cavern of souls that gets taken out from the main. I felt the hornet queen main was clutch and i felt comfortable that even if an opponent had a surgical extraction for my titan, i can still muscle my way through with this other win condition plus the 2 hive minds main. a lot of players approached me and said that they thought this deck was dead and i respond with it's just 1 to 2 turns slower (Which really matters a lot in modern) but the grindy-ness and inevitability is superior with other modern decks out there (except for tron). I just hate that we usually have to expose the amulet the first turn just to gain value with an azusa the next turn (especially against tron the line of play is to keep your explosive hand and wait for them to tap out then suprise them with a hasty titan) but i felt that if they have an answer to the amulet, they still lose tempo as a result and gets them out of curve. the goal of the deck now is to ramp to a titan and not like lordcommandersnow's consistent turn 2 kill build. 4 azusa's is a must. they immediately kill her after she does her part with helping you ramp and is also a great chump blocker even in multiples together with the simians. I just wish I still had space for a kessig wolf run and temple of mystery but the gemstone cavern outweighs the other lands value since it's the only one that can increase your speed. have another GPT this weekend and next weekend so I'm pumped. Hope I can practice with burn and 8-whack and affinity with 20 games a piece (10 games main 10 games with sb)
I think Bill Comminos' 2 amulet vesuva keep during the playoffs really caused the outcry for the bannings plus the game 2 of Bobby Fortanelly. Without summer bloom, I didn't want to rely too much on amulet so i dont have stirrings. My mindset was the same with Matthias Hunt's during Pro Tour Born of the Gods (not running any stirrings) which is seeing this as a ramp deck with the amulet bonus to go crazy. That's why I don't cringe when the amulet gets destroyed. The way I see it is, I already played my lands so I'm already ahead. We pretty much have the same list. except I run 3 journey to discovery (instead of the scout) which is also a good card when you expect blood moon and works well with a surviving azusa to filter your deck and make land drops plus it gives you a 3rd turn hasty titan with an amulet when combined with a pact (to fetch azusa) / titan or azusa and pact (to fetch a titan) since the 5 land drops are cumulative and it is this time, bad azusa # 5-7 but gives you something in the face of a blood moon. (same 3rd turn hasty titan when you have a simian and an amulet in play) I would have loved 3 basics in the main 2 forest and 1 island to assure yourself of gaining value from journey when you draw at least 1 of them late but this allows me to keep no amulet hands and reliably cast a ramp spell on turn 2 (with simian or gemstone cavern and an untapped land) or the natural turn 3 to land a titan. I have 3 simians and gemstone cavern (simian #4) All the pacts are intact plus the 2 hive minds with 27 lands. I tried the scout and getting a green mana on the first turn is such a pain specially when you have serum visions on your opening and then crossing your fingers that they don't kill it on your next turn. if they do, you lost tempo already. at least with journey / azusa you can sequence your lands before she dies.
Round 1 - might have been a journey instead of an azusa sorry
For BGX - I have 4 leylines in my Ad Nauseam deck and sometimes do not get it in my opening despite having a keepable hand and we can only squeeze 3 for amulet. I didn't want to risk drawing a late leyline when our opponents have 2 discard spells to slow you down at least with the trinity - baloth, thragtusk and sigarda, these are live top decks that can help you extend the game until you can chain your titans. I guess it's a matter of preference. But here in the Philippines, a lot of players run jund and abzan.
For Bant Eldrazi - seems like the hive mind kill will allow us to steal game 1. I think this is one of the most important strength of this deck. especially with oponents running a different color, you just transmute for the pact that they can't pay for - I usually go with pact of negation since we're ahead with opponent's regular land drops because of our ramp. It gives us that buffer that we can win steal wins even with a fast/ wide boardstate. I wanted firespout for this reason since it can also kill a displacer, nacatl, merfolk with a lord in play, an infect creature with a backup pendelhaven activation or mutagenic growth. I have 2 gruul turfs (since I'm heavy red already with simians and 2 selesnya (for sigarda the only white card in the 75 plus it has good synergy with assuring a double strike kill especially with the simians).
I still truly believe that this deck is playable despite what other people say. Sure they me be faster but no modern deck gives you this many lines of play. The figuring out part is what appeals to me the most and I'm having fun. And when my opponent faces it, you know you gained their respect for playing a "dead deck" and going rogue with all the weird and crazy lines of play. I'll make another tournament report for this Saturday's GPT (I project at least 6 rounds). wish me luck!
There's no more space in the 33 spell slot so 4 serum visions is my best friend for shaky hands. I think 60% is decent but hornet queen in the main can be your only out with affinity with so many creatures on the field since titan usually needs 2 swings or a double pact hive mind win. The melira in the board really helps the infect matchup with 5 chances for a melira. If they have a really god hand with a glistener elf opening, you can't really beat that but winning game 1 is a tall order.
I have 1 dismember in the sideboard just like alexander hayne (which was the slot of the 2nd EE which i have yet to acquire since I only borrow a friend's when he's not using it) i've always felt it was very relevant especially early in the game as a surprise removal spell since we can't slaughter pact a tasigur, kalitas, siege rhino, vault skirge, infect creatures (earlier than turn 3 with no black mana)
I've even thought of removing the island before for a 4th tolaria west with all the answers we can search for but felt mortuary mire did better with repeated life gains via thragtusk, blockers via hornet queen, titan but i took it out to conserve sb space which looks like
1 forest (3rd basic) - usually replaced by gemstone cavern or another land - might cut this once I have acquired EE # 2
1 bojuka bog
1 chalice of the void
2 swan song
2 nature's claim
1 seal of primordium
1 dismember
2 firespout
1 melira
1 obstinate baloth
1 thragtusk
1 sigarda, host of herons
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
plays Ad Nauseam and Amulet Bloom in Modern
"He traded sand for skins, skins for gold, gold for life. In the end, he traded life for sand."
—Afari, Tales
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
i have a kessig wolf run in the main deck just to have another angle of attack with a hornet queen main to combat affinity but it seems like a second forest and 1 island main deck is more useful to not only combat blood moon before it drops to find the 2 forests and have them ready in your hand or to dump excess journey to discoveries to get more value with filtering your deck and adding lands.
i took the approach that Matthias Hunt did at Pro Tour Born of the Gods and have not been using ancient stirrings with the ultimate goal of ramping and landing a turn 4 titan at the latest. just to add that the 4 Azusa's buys you some time as a chump blocker especially having multiples in your deck thus i also have kessig wolf run but the 28 land count seems inevitable with Hunt's list since I also tried 61 cards with 28 lands and the deck just feels clunkier than when it is just 60 cards with 28 lands
"He traded sand for skins, skins for gold, gold for life. In the end, he traded life for sand."
—Afari, Tales
"He traded sand for skins, skins for gold, gold for life. In the end, he traded life for sand."
—Afari, Tales
The question remains, has this deck still got a legitimate shot? Could I take it to a competitive fnm and feasibly 4-0, like I can with scapeshift, tron, elves or Jund? Could I rock up to a GP and have half a hope of top-64-ing or whatever...?
I'd love to trade back into this deck and I can see that the lategame is just as strong as it used to be, but how much does the slower early game hurt? Isn't explore just a million times better than sakura-tribe scout?
Help me out here. Are we chasing a nostalgic dream or is this a real deck?
As far as Corrosion vs Stony Silence, Corrosion is going to just end the game if it resolves, with that in mind, I would call it downright better vs Affinity specifically. Fracturing Gust is another option, but you are far more versed with the difference between 4 and 5 mana in this deck than I am. Up to you.
I will say I like the thought behind your changes. 3 SSGs seems like a bit much, 2 sounds better but experience may dictate otherwise. Meloku sounds like a great threat, I like it. I'm not sure about the MD Pyroclasm though, it seems like you're trying to hedge your bets a bit too hard against creatured-based decks. Again, you would know better than I, but I wouldn't include any MD Pyros unless you think it's the decks only G1 out to Affinity/Burn/Infect and in that case, I'd want 2-3.
1x Boros Garrison
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Forest
4x Gemstone Mine
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Golgari Rot Farm
2x Gruul Turf
1x Khalni Garden
1x Mana Confluence
1x Radiant Fountain
1x Selesnya Sanctuary
4x Simic Growth Chamber
1x Slayers' Stronghold
1x Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
3x Tolaria West
1x Vesuva
4x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
4x Primeval Titan
3x Sakura-Tribe Scout
1x Simian Spirit Guide
Instant (7)
2x Pact of Negation
1x Slaughter Pact
4x Summoner's Pact
Sorcery (9)
1x Ancient Stirrings
4x Serum Visions
4x Sleight of Hand
Artifact (5)
4x Amulet of Vigor
1x Engineered Explosives
Enchantment (2)
2x Hive Mind
2x Dismember
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Creeping Corrosion
1x Hornet Queen
3x Leyline of Sanctity
1x Leyline of the Void
1x Nature's Claim
2x Pyroclasm
1x Seal of Primordium
2x Swan Song
I usually just goof off with this list on Xmage etc, but I've still gotten away with a handful of T2 kills and have ruined plenty of peoples days with Titan Parades. Ultimately, I think the deck is missing something to really bring it together. Without Summer's Bloom, it feels like it just lacks consistency more than anything, and lack of consistency would never get through 8+ rounds in a serious tournament.
Also, I don't think I could ever leave the Hive Mind plan. It's probably the biggest reason I play the deck. I feel like an ******** every time it lands, and then I laugh maniacally.
i am going to try the daviusminimus's list next friday, the only difference is that i will be using 2 azusa and 2 mina and denn , wildborn ( i am on a budget right now and i dont wanna spend more money on this deck)
my questions are
¿what do you think about pentad prism instead of explore?
¿What do you think about summoning trap? it cost the same as a titan, and if used behind a couple of stirrings it could fetch you a titan and put it in play. And against control seems pretty good.
thoughts?
have a nice day
We only have 2 options to keep this deck alive. Find another hidden op combo that works well with land interaction, speed the deck back up to T2, or slow the game down without hurting combo consistency.
ya but against naya zoo and other aggro, batterskull in the md stalls them giving you the extra few turn if not completely turning the game in your favor.
Hi! while you are not good at maths. you were pretty accurate my friend, i really didnt thinked on doing the math, but the probability of summooning trap in the given scneario is exactly 46.41% , so congrats! you did a very good approximation.
now i understand what's the core problem, and i will try to bring some ideas.
ty!
I Think this is a very important core of the deck that people are forgetting, especially with cards like Explore.
I want to point out that Explore is REALLY good at helping you find extra lands and putting them into play. Unfortunately, that's not actually what this deck wants to do.
Summer's Bloom allowed for 3 land drops to be made at the cost of 2 mana, with an Amulet in play, this would allow for a turn 2 Titan. Without an Amulet, it would allow for 5 mana to be dumped on the board, allowing for a turn 3 titan. This is/was the goal of the deck and what made Bloom such a ridiculous card. Assuming no meaningful interaction from your opponent, you could have a turn 2 or turn 3 titan a solid 80+ percent of your games. Even if it's not attacking, just having a 6/6 trampler standing there on turn 2 is devastating to everything from Affinity to Jund.
Without Summer's Bloom, turn 2 titans are much rarer, but we can still hit turn 3 fairly consistently.
Amulet is essentially a really bad combo deck when you think about it. You need:
A non-bounce land, untapped and capable of making green is best, but not required depending on what else you have in hand
A bounce land, again, making green is preferred, but not required depending on what else you have in hand
Extra land drops in the form of Scout or Azusa
A payoff card in the form of Titan, Summoner's Pact, or Hive Mind
Amulet isn't actually part of the combo, but it multiplies the effectiveness of all the other parts. It turns bounce lands into free mana and if you can team that up with an extra land drop, you can add 4+ "free" mana as early as turn 2 and just start dropping titans on fools. Titan itself goes from a slow but powerful value card to an 8/6 haste vigilance trample or better. Multiple Amulets making things absolutely absurd, like the turn 3 4 titan kill we saw at the SCG open last year. We could theoretically still do that provided we had a decent hand that involves 3 Amulets and a T3 titan.
SSG seems more necessary now than it was before since we don't have the raw power of Summer's Bloom to get us there. That said, I'm still not a fan of more than 1.
1x Boros Garrison
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Forest
4x Gemstone Mine
1x Golgari Rot Farm
2x Gruul Turf
1x Island
1x Khalni Garden
1x Mana Confluence
1x Radiant Fountain
1x Selesnya Sanctuary
4x Simic Growth Chamber
1x Slayers' Stronghold
1x Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
3x Tolaria West
1x Vesuva
4x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
4x Primeval Titan
3x Sakura-Tribe Scout
1x Simian Spirit Guide
Sorcery (11)
4x Ancient Stirrings
4x Serum Visions
3x Sleight of Hand
Instant (6)
2x Pact of Negation
4x Summoner's Pact
Enchantment (2)
2x Hive Mind
Artifact (4)
4x Amulet of Vigor
2x Dismember
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Fracturing Gust
1x Hornet Queen
3x Leyline of Sanctity
1x Thragtusk
1x Nature's Claim
2x Pyroclasm
1x Seal of Primordium
2x Swan Song
I keep bouncing back and forth between GY hate like Bojuka Bog and Leyline of the Void, things to help stay alive like Thragtusk and Feed the Clans, and enchantment/hate removal like Creeping Corrosion and Fracturing gust.
Honestly, the deck still feels great when its firing on all cylinders, but the bad hands are just so much harder to get out from under than they used to be, probably a combination of a couple things caused by the Summer's Bloom ban. We have less lands overall and our pump spells aren't nearly as good. I had a game where I went T1 Amulet into T2 2x Sakura-Tribe into just die because my opponent slammed a T2 Blood Moon on me. All I could think about was "if these were Summer's Bloom, this would have been a T2 kill"
I don't have the cards in paper, would cost close to $200 to get what I'm missing at this point. I really want to play it at some weeklies though.
I don't think this is the right answer. The deck is based around breaking Karoo lands with Amulet of Vigor.
If you are trying to add the Nahiri/Emrakul package into a deck, might as well just go full on Nahiri/Emrakul deck as it would be more consistent.
From a lot of playtesting and trying to make this deck work. It will no longer be the way it was because the was competitive from summer bloom enabling the T2 wins. The only answer to make this deck work again is to slow the game down instead of speeding it up. Something like Root Maze that utilizes the functions of slowing the opponent down and interacts with our amulet of Vigor. Another cool card is animist's awakening that could potentially give us double triggers with amulet, one for the karoo land, and one for the spell mastery.
Just my 2 cents. I have been trying many many variations of the deck and it's not the same, however I or someone else will crack the code to make the deck T2 again.
Cheers!
Stunning Growth
Seems like it would give us a lot of early power using dredge, cantrips, then get back a bunch of Prized Amalgam's which work well with amulet already making them untapped. Would be crazy to see 5+ karoo lands with Stunning Regrowth, get the mana, put back into hand, then put back into graveyard at cleanup step for another time.
Let me know your thoughts! Seems like a very powerful strategy, great early game, lots of cantrips, and very explosive! Can it turn 2 win like old summerbloom decks?
how about zoo, goblin 8 whack package? i think the lifegain that baloth, thragtusk provides value for our summoner's pact since we're running simians as well to componsate for the lack of speedy hands and will allow us to cast baloth or thragtusk 1 turn early. i found dismember to be clutch in the sideboard. playtested with infect and just won 2/10 games mainboard and won 7/3 sideboard with melira. 1 was a misplay and the 2 were glistener to double pump openings and was always a turn too late to pact for melira. she drastically improves this matchup and the simians help a ton!
also wondering how we can hate out ad nauseam. i feel like the chalice of the void for 0 when we already have a swan song in hand. and 2 swan songs and 2 pact negations in the sb isn't enough to combat their speed. haven't play tested this with a friend who also uses ad nauseam as an alternate deck like me
"He traded sand for skins, skins for gold, gold for life. In the end, he traded life for sand."
—Afari, Tales
Maybe run it as a sideboard card versus land hate?
Also maybe a Nephalia Academy as a 1 off? Note that I do already run a playset of Leyline of Sanctity on my sideboard but I would love to test alternatives.
Positives:
+Protects your hand against discard.
+Easy to tutor.
+Works against Liliana of the veil.
+Putting the card/cards on the top of your library is optional.
Negatives:
-Colourless mana is pretty worthless.
-Takes a slot on side or main.
-Discarding is not always that bad(But Amulet Titan is a combo deck).
But yeah I could see myself running Stunning Growth on my sideboard. Getting up to 4 mana is pretty easy with the deck and it could be a huge blowout versus land hate, especially with the amulet.
Has anyone put up decent result since the ban?
Round 1 - Green Tron (0-2)
game 1 - I'm on the play and kept a no amulet hand but had an azusa and I can get to titan on turn 4 so I kept in just in case he gets unlucky with not going online by turn 3 and not having a karn. ramped to 5 lands via azusa on the 3rd turn. he went online on turn 3 and wasn't able to cast anything and just played some eggs. I drew simian spirit guide and here was the misplay. I played a cavern on that turn since it was my only untapped land and then played titan fetching boros garrison and ghost quarter. this was where i realized my misplay. i should have used the simian and shouldn't have played a land and should have bounced the ghost quarter so it enters untapped to wreck his mana. i had another back up titan on hand so it could have given me a few more turns. so he karn ate the titan the next turn and then he played a wurmcoil engine. When I untapped I cast another titan fetching a sunhome and vesuva'd my ghost quarter. on his draw step, I GQ'd his urza's mine and he cracked his egg and revealed he drew another urza's mine so he was able to cast ulamog exiling my titan and vesuva. I was hoping to top deck a hive mind at least but didn't and they got exiled the next turn when ulamog attacked.
game 2 - I sideboard chalice of the void and 2 nature's claim and took out my gemstone caverns. here i was pondering if my forest in the sideboard should actually be ghost quarter number 2 since i know this will be a tougher matchup without summer blooms especially if they land a turn 3 karn. I kept an amulet hand with azusa and ramp on turn 2. on his turn 2 he casts an egg and claims my amulet. On my turn 3 I play my bounce land and cast serum visions and kept a pact of negation on top of my library as back up for his big spell (karn or o-stone) also holidng a summoner's pact then pass and he is online on turn 3 again after cracking his expedition map for an urza's mine and casts an egg and ancient stirrings and found chalice of the void for 0. i drew a late dead card and just transumeted for a ghost quarter and destroyed his mine on his draw step. and he reveals to topdeck another urza's mine and eventually play an ulamog a few turns after. I held on to my hand hoping for a hive mind but didn't get it so GG and luck was on his side on both games.
Round 2 - Abzan (1-2)
game 1 - he was a very well-known player but I was confident in facing this matchup having baloth, thragtusk and sigarda in my sb instead of leylines since leylines are dead draws when you get disrupted by iok and thoughtseize with a keepable hand and felt that grinding our way thru it with hornet queen gives us some assurance of eventually overwhelming their board state by casting a creature every turn. he played first and played a tapped overgrown tomb. I played the amulet first turn since i had an azusa to ramp next turn. on his turn, he immediately casts abrupt decay on my amulet. so I eventually ramped but had to use 1 tolaria west to fetch a simic growth chamber. he casts collective brutality discarding my summoner's pact and killing azusa and I play it out by transmuting a summoner's pact and landing a titan and went for boros garrison and khalni garden and replayed khalni garden to protect myself with liliana. alas he drew a maelstorm pulse and killed my tokens. i landed another titan but he drew PTE for lethal. close match
game 2 - i kept a good hand and ramped to four lands my opponent plays liliana and i promptly discard a land. on my turn, i transmuted for a summoner's pact and passed. he then casts painful truths and then plused liliana and i respond by pacting for a baloth yey! value! and he was caught off-guard. I was able to swing with the baloth attacking liliana and putting her to 1 counter and then on his turn he played a siege rhino. i kept playing my lands and eventually got a titan and chaining them and also getting a thragtusk. i didn't bother revealing my sigarda
game 3 - he plays a land and i play an amulet and pass. he plays a ghost quarter and pass. i go ahead and play azusa on the next turn and responded with destroying my simic growth chamber so i just played a bounce lands that turn. on his turn, he plays a fulminator mage and destroys my bounce land yet again! then i just play my regular lands and kept my boros garrison to gain value the next turn to summoner's pact a titan. then he casts abrupt decay on my amulet and PTE and also casts pithing needle for tolaria west. I can't fetch for my EE and didn't board in claims for this matchup. I was stuck on 5 lands. and i should have played it safe and played my borrison garrison earlier in the turn and just kept an untapped land i think is my misplay here. he casts thoughtseize and took out my hornet queen. he just only had 2 cards in hand and i felt that he didn't have 2 things needed to disrupt me since i had 2 titans and lost the hornet queen, 1 to destroy amulet and another to kill my azusa. I only had 5 lands and drew serum visions and topdecked a summoner's pact and fetched for a thagtusk thinking i had 5 lands in play anyway and to buy me 2 turns from his 5/6 goyf. alas, i forgot i actually only had 4 mana and should have gotten a baloth at least for that turn. GG but the pithing needle really wrecked me and he had all the answers at the right time. could have easily went my way if i assured myself of 6 mana the next turn.
Round 3 - Lantern Control (1-1-1)
game 1 - I knew his deck and was able to summon a hasty for 8. he cast surgical extraction twice so he is down to 8 on my hive mind and EE. he also had a pithing needle for tolaria west. I cast hornet queen and he makes sure that he has no hand. i eventually cast my last titan and got khalni garden and sunhome since i already had boros garrison in play and just attacked twice and won
game 2 - I don't own a second EE and just took out the radiant fountain and put in bojuka bog. he played 5 cards that turn like affinity would. a lantern, a pithing for tolaria west, opal, and a welding jar. i was able to cast an amulet early and had an opening of nature's claim, hive mind, pact of negation, serum and EE. he casts another pithing for EE and a spellskite but drew a land. I didn't top deck azusa but was able to land hive mind on turn 6 and he already had 5 lands so i can't kill him with pact of negation via hive mind. i should have conceded earlier after realizing all my pacts were already in the graveyard.
game 3 - We are pressed for time so i keep a fast hand, he didn't draw a bridge so I was able to swing with a hasty titan on the last 5 turns. 1 more turn would have won me the game as he revealed no bridges in the next few turns.
Round 4 - Temur Scapeshift (2-0)
game 1 - He cracked a misty rainforest and suspended search for tomorrow and played breeding pool which gave me a hint what his deck was. I had an amulet hand and just kept playing. he commited on his turn 3 to cast a sorcery that fetches 2 forest to up his land count to 6 but i already have a ghost quarter in play. I attacked with titan and transmuted for my 2nd pact of negation since I already had 1 in hand. on his main phase he casts izzet charm and revealed that he didn't have scapeshift so he scoops knowing he will die the next turn even if he had a cryptic command with a double-striking titan.
game 2 - He kept a similar hand and casts turn 2 farseek which allowed me to ramp with azusa and I had 1 pact of negation in hand. i kept playing lands and drew chalice of the void then amulet, so I cast titan. on the next turn, I cast chalice for 4. he showed me his top deck which was cryptic command and he concedes since he can't kill the titan next turn which will be able to double strike again.
Round 5 - Dredge (2-0)
game 1 - He was on the play and i had gemstone cavern so i shipped my hornet queen knowing he was on dredge when we were seated beside each other in the earlier rounds. yey! gemstone cavern on the draw! he casts faithless looting and kept dredging i just played my lands and ramped with azusa and a titan the next turn. I gave my titan vigilance and was able to swing and counted his creatures 3 3/3s 3 bloodghasts, 2 narcomebas which wasn't lethal but he had a conflagrate in his graveyard so i fetched khalni garden and radiant fountain to not go lethal next turn. he was down to 7 and i was down to 9 so he didn't swing all his creatures and kept 2 narcomebas and 2 of the new 1bu 3/3's as blockers for my titan. i already have sunhome and slayers stronghold in play, a gemston cavern, simic, grulf turf, radiant fountain and khalni garden. i thought for a while since even if i give my titan 8 power and double strike, it won't be lethal so i eventually figured out the puzzle and played my ghost quarter. I transmuted for EE and played it for 3 using gruul turf and cracking my gemstone cavern for an island and blew up his 3/3 powered creatures and attacked with dobule strike since i had simian on hand.
game 2 - I kept a hand with tolaria west, bojuka bog, amulet azusa, 1 bounce lands , summoner's pact and hive mind. and he casts the insolent turn 1 but didn't crack him right away so on my turn i just had to play tolaria west. not exposing the bojuka bog. end of my turn he immediately dredges and reveals the 3/3 and 2 narcomebas! this deck is fast! no wonder the hype! he attacks me for 5 and plays his land and cast dredges again revealing some more creatures that can return if a bloodghast is reaveled. I then cast bojuka bog to slow his clock. i take 10 damage the next turn and he has 4 cards in hand and casts conflagrate for 0. Next turn I'm going to be dead if i allow him to flashback his conflagrate so I cast azusa and return my bojuka bog and replay it. he didn't draw a discarder and land so just swinged and i'm down to 5. the azusa survived so i easily cast hive mind and cast summoner's pact for the win. HIVE MIND WIN # 1
Round 6 - White Eldrazi (2-0)
game 1 - I played first a tolaria west and passed. he casts turn 1 eldrazi temple for endless one for 2. then on turn 3 a cavern for a matter reshaper. I kept a slow hand with azusa and titan. turn 3 he casts another matter reshaper for a fast clock. Turn 4 I cast titan and fetched for khalni garden and radiant fountian just in case he had a reality smasher which he didn't and just attacked. I then attacked with my ttian and cast summoner's pact for hornet queen. he did top decked a reality smasher but all his creatures die to my insect tokens and i am at 3. I cast another titan giving it haste and attack both of them for lethal.
game 2 - I kept a fast hand with amulet, azusa, bounce lands and summoner's pact which can make a turn 3 titan. he just plays a land and passes and i play an amulet and pass. he then plays a second turn mind stone. on turn 2, I play azusa and was also going to be able to transmute on that same turn since i had 3 bounce lands. i was going to get pact of negation to counter his TKS if he has it for next turn but i paused for a moment and said that if his next land drop is a cavern of souls, it will have no meaning so i fetched for a 2nd summoner's pact for redundancy is the better play. he didn't have TKS on his next turn and just had a matter reshaper. so i had a hasty titan which he paths so i cast my second summoner's pact fetching a baloth. i drew another titan next turn and swung for lethal in the next 2 turns. i think bant eldrazi may play something similar but I felt that this was a winnable matchup regardless with hornet queen main.
Round 7 - Naya Zoo (2-0)
game 1 - He mulled to 5 since he didn't have any lands and i kept a 2 amulet hand azusa, hive mind and summoner's pact. I was only missing a bounce land for a turn 2 kill. he casts an expirement one and passes then goblin guide. after 3 turns i eventually find the bounce land and kill him with hive mind with him just having 2 lands. HIVE MIND KILL # 2
game 2 - He kept 7 and i put in my firespouts, dismember, thragtusk and baloth and took out my hive mind and pact of negations. I kept an amulet hand, with simian and azusa and a summoner's pact. I was able to land a turn 3 baloth and then drew thragtusk the next turn. then cast titan after. he conceded eventually after I transmuted for an EE before attacking knowing that he'll just be left with a BTE and boar
I ended up 17th place out of 67 players and I felt each matchup was winnable but just needed more reps. I felt bored with my other deck Ad Nauseam (which I built before the bannings since both decks shared a lot of cards) so I picked this deck up again just for flavor and going rogue and i'm planning to play it in the next WMCQ2. Luckily no blood moons! but Chalice has also been painful when you needed to put in claims so i have a 2 claims and 1 seal split. I just feel that chalice really strengthens our deck and feel that a second EE is necessary but i really prefer to have 2 lands in the sideboard (1 bojuka bog and 1 forest (a 3rd basic to combat blood moon and gain value from paths and ghost quarters) and sometimes the gemstone caverns need to go out so it needs a land replacement aside from the usual cavern of souls that gets taken out from the main. I felt the hornet queen main was clutch and i felt comfortable that even if an opponent had a surgical extraction for my titan, i can still muscle my way through with this other win condition plus the 2 hive minds main. a lot of players approached me and said that they thought this deck was dead and i respond with it's just 1 to 2 turns slower (Which really matters a lot in modern) but the grindy-ness and inevitability is superior with other modern decks out there (except for tron). I just hate that we usually have to expose the amulet the first turn just to gain value with an azusa the next turn (especially against tron the line of play is to keep your explosive hand and wait for them to tap out then suprise them with a hasty titan) but i felt that if they have an answer to the amulet, they still lose tempo as a result and gets them out of curve. the goal of the deck now is to ramp to a titan and not like lordcommandersnow's consistent turn 2 kill build. 4 azusa's is a must. they immediately kill her after she does her part with helping you ramp and is also a great chump blocker even in multiples together with the simians. I just wish I still had space for a kessig wolf run and temple of mystery but the gemstone cavern outweighs the other lands value since it's the only one that can increase your speed. have another GPT this weekend and next weekend so I'm pumped. Hope I can practice with burn and 8-whack and affinity with 20 games a piece (10 games main 10 games with sb)
"He traded sand for skins, skins for gold, gold for life. In the end, he traded life for sand."
—Afari, Tales
I think Bill Comminos' 2 amulet vesuva keep during the playoffs really caused the outcry for the bannings plus the game 2 of Bobby Fortanelly. Without summer bloom, I didn't want to rely too much on amulet so i dont have stirrings. My mindset was the same with Matthias Hunt's during Pro Tour Born of the Gods (not running any stirrings) which is seeing this as a ramp deck with the amulet bonus to go crazy. That's why I don't cringe when the amulet gets destroyed. The way I see it is, I already played my lands so I'm already ahead. We pretty much have the same list. except I run 3 journey to discovery (instead of the scout) which is also a good card when you expect blood moon and works well with a surviving azusa to filter your deck and make land drops plus it gives you a 3rd turn hasty titan with an amulet when combined with a pact (to fetch azusa) / titan or azusa and pact (to fetch a titan) since the 5 land drops are cumulative and it is this time, bad azusa # 5-7 but gives you something in the face of a blood moon. (same 3rd turn hasty titan when you have a simian and an amulet in play) I would have loved 3 basics in the main 2 forest and 1 island to assure yourself of gaining value from journey when you draw at least 1 of them late but this allows me to keep no amulet hands and reliably cast a ramp spell on turn 2 (with simian or gemstone cavern and an untapped land) or the natural turn 3 to land a titan. I have 3 simians and gemstone cavern (simian #4) All the pacts are intact plus the 2 hive minds with 27 lands. I tried the scout and getting a green mana on the first turn is such a pain specially when you have serum visions on your opening and then crossing your fingers that they don't kill it on your next turn. if they do, you lost tempo already. at least with journey / azusa you can sequence your lands before she dies.
Round 1 - might have been a journey instead of an azusa sorry
For BGX - I have 4 leylines in my Ad Nauseam deck and sometimes do not get it in my opening despite having a keepable hand and we can only squeeze 3 for amulet. I didn't want to risk drawing a late leyline when our opponents have 2 discard spells to slow you down at least with the trinity - baloth, thragtusk and sigarda, these are live top decks that can help you extend the game until you can chain your titans. I guess it's a matter of preference. But here in the Philippines, a lot of players run jund and abzan.
For Bant Eldrazi - seems like the hive mind kill will allow us to steal game 1. I think this is one of the most important strength of this deck. especially with oponents running a different color, you just transmute for the pact that they can't pay for - I usually go with pact of negation since we're ahead with opponent's regular land drops because of our ramp. It gives us that buffer that we can win steal wins even with a fast/ wide boardstate. I wanted firespout for this reason since it can also kill a displacer, nacatl, merfolk with a lord in play, an infect creature with a backup pendelhaven activation or mutagenic growth. I have 2 gruul turfs (since I'm heavy red already with simians and 2 selesnya (for sigarda the only white card in the 75 plus it has good synergy with assuring a double strike kill especially with the simians).
I still truly believe that this deck is playable despite what other people say. Sure they me be faster but no modern deck gives you this many lines of play. The figuring out part is what appeals to me the most and I'm having fun. And when my opponent faces it, you know you gained their respect for playing a "dead deck" and going rogue with all the weird and crazy lines of play. I'll make another tournament report for this Saturday's GPT (I project at least 6 rounds). wish me luck!
"He traded sand for skins, skins for gold, gold for life. In the end, he traded life for sand."
—Afari, Tales
I have 1 dismember in the sideboard just like alexander hayne (which was the slot of the 2nd EE which i have yet to acquire since I only borrow a friend's when he's not using it) i've always felt it was very relevant especially early in the game as a surprise removal spell since we can't slaughter pact a tasigur, kalitas, siege rhino, vault skirge, infect creatures (earlier than turn 3 with no black mana)
I've even thought of removing the island before for a 4th tolaria west with all the answers we can search for but felt mortuary mire did better with repeated life gains via thragtusk, blockers via hornet queen, titan but i took it out to conserve sb space which looks like
1 forest (3rd basic) - usually replaced by gemstone cavern or another land - might cut this once I have acquired EE # 2
1 bojuka bog
1 chalice of the void
2 swan song
2 nature's claim
1 seal of primordium
1 dismember
2 firespout
1 melira
1 obstinate baloth
1 thragtusk
1 sigarda, host of herons
"He traded sand for skins, skins for gold, gold for life. In the end, he traded life for sand."
—Afari, Tales