Greetings YellowFlash! I'm pretty sure Davius will be representing at GP Burningham as well! I'm in Australia (waving at spawnofhastur).
My deck list is below and the mana base is a little tweaked to help me run an extra flex slot for Academy Ruins. I tested Kessig Wolf Run for some time and remember it winning games vs Lantern Control (plant tokens under an ensnaring bridge) but other than that I barely remember searching for it, and most of the time I had it I wanted to do other things with my mana. To me Kessig is a utility land to break a locked board state, maybe it is felt that we have the tools to get through most of those without Kessig.
I like Academy Ruins so far in testing more than I liked Kessig. If we run Engineered Explosives and Walking Ballista main-board then it can be both pro-active and defensive grind tool. There are decks that simply can't beat an EE or a Walking Ballista every turn. Admittedly a bit anti-synergistic with Relic of Progenitus, but that's not something we can't play around pretty easily under most circumstances.
I've moved away from Botanical Sanctum for the time being, like others recently I'm experiencing a lot more land hate and UW control so having extra basics is nice. I also go down 1x Selasnya Sanctuary for 1x Crumbling Vestige, and since dropping Botanical it has been pretty great at getting Tolaria West online. It also a poor man's bounce-land with an amulet. I've run vestige instead of selasnya for a long time and have had no trouble with it, but it takes me to 7 green bounce-lands, below the magical 8.
To fit in Grove of the Burnwillows AND Academy Ruins I would consider moving to the sideboard or dropping some numbers of Cavern of Souls, Ghost Quarter, Forest, Crumbling Vestige, depending on how many Groves you want to jam and what your meta is like. I do not personally currently own Groves, which has influenced my land base decisions. If the blue requirements seem back-breaking I will go back to at least 1 Botanical Sanctum.
Yesterday I played at my LGS, and won against Eldrazi Tron 2-0, Hive Mind give me the second game, and against Grixis Death Shadow 2-1, draw against Ad-Nauseam 1-1 first game he played Phyrexian Unlife and Solemnity, and that was gg on first game.
Hive Mind although isn't a auto win con, is a viable way to steal some games.
I'd actually forgotten about Vandalblast, great catch! Would be very versatile. I do like the 4 mana spot for Creeping Corrosion. I guess it's a trade-off of versatility vs speed for the sweeper.
There is also Fracturing Gust at 5CMC... but now we're daydreaming.
Congratz Yellow! I like Hive Mind on the current meta, Eldrazitron just can't beat it.
Academy Ruins and double E.E. looks powerfull and you are able be really control-like deck.
Kessing Wolf Run fight it's place with slayers' stronghold, I don't know if running both is worth. Sometimes you can't give your titan haste, and KWR can deal more damage next turn you landed your Titan. Playing both could worth, but requires some testing.
Just had a quick squiz over your deck-list link again and noticed you are running 2x Azusa, Lost but Seeking. I would bump it to at least 3 copies as it is one of our most powerful combo pieces, and as pointed out by others on the forum, if you're facing fast combo and need to race and don't see an Azusa, you can almost always be guaranteed to be slower than them.
If you agree with that line of thought then you could consider dropping 1x Tireless Tracker or 1x Trinket Mage from your main-board, depending on how you want to focus your list.
In regards to Leyline of Sanctity - I feel it's not what we want against attrition/dsicard. First of all, most decks that play discard can mess with us in other ways apart from discard, and they may keep an opener with only 1 piece, or no pieces of discard. Secondly, discard decks also pack fatal push and other removal, so even if we keep Azusa safe in our hand, they will almost always slow our combo on the ground. Then, after all that is considered, we want to construct our deck to give us high % relevant top-decks against attition, and Leyline is possibly the worst top-deck in the deck. Then there is the fact we need to scrub 3-4 sideboard slots for it.
It's true Leyline would be useful in other match-ups, maybe Storm is valid, yes. But then they can bounce it the turn they win or just use Empty the Warrens.
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Modern Decks
------------ URW Jeskai Control GUWRB Amulet Titan GR Ponza
@daviusminimus - Thanks for your response, as always! The Reason // Believe package will be a fun project for me to take to FNM etc and I'll report any finding I have if I run it. I am concerned about the nonbo with Relic though (if you have a // Believe in the yard for example) so this may not be the meta for it, time will tell.
1x Leyline of Sanctity I can get behind as it doesn't eat up 1/4 of our sideboard and also removes the worry about horrible top-decks. Spawnofhastur also brought up Witchbane Orb as a possible out vs. TitanShift (can find off stirrings).
In regards to Blood Moon I feel we have become pampered with a lack of land hate until recently, and in reality a deck like ours should ensure to have multiple ways out of moon. I know I've been greedy with my sideboard and run all kinds of luxury test slots instead of Seal of Primordium or Nature's Claim (e.g. Nissa, Steward of Elements for a while, Creeping Corrosion, now Ramunap Excavator). Maybe that time is over.
Chalice is more popular nowadays too.
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Modern Decks
------------ URW Jeskai Control GUWRB Amulet Titan GR Ponza
After playing a half dozen matches against Eldrazi Tron last night, Seal of Primordium sounds really good right now. Chalice on 1 is a blowout sometimes.
As I do not own any Groves, and with the rise of Blood Moon, Path to Exile and Ghost Quarter, I'm currently playing 1 Forest and 1 Ghost Quarter in place of 2 Botanical Sanctum. I also exchanged 3 Serum Visions for 2 Explores and the 4th Relic of Progenitus.
I'm not playing Ruric Thar because there are only two Storm players around here (one of them is me) and one Lantern player. I'm almost surely cutting Leylines off because I don't think we need them, and every game I've put them in I never drew them --'
If I were you resmaster, I'd consider dropping the 4th Azusa for the 3rd Explore, and potentially the 4th Relic for the 1st Courser. I think that gives you a better game vs midrange anyway, and a little more utility.
First of all, thanks for the suggestions =)
Those were things I was considering... and also playing Hive Mind (I used to play one MD until a few weeks, and it won me a couple ok games vs Gr Tron and GDS). But I'm quite reluctant in dropping the relic because we have 3 regular GDS players, and this week we also had 2 Living End players. Maybe I could drop 1 Azusa for 1 Courser of Kruphix, but I'm not sure I need a grindier game with 2 Trackers + Tusk + Chameleon SB, and we have few midrange players around here.
Hey all, I won a PPTQ with a rather unconventional Amulet list at the weekend. I wrote about it here and am happy to discuss it or answer any questions!
I played a courser in my md this past weekend and in one game it backfired. I was digging for action against gds and popped a relic to find on top a Titan. Excited for the next turn I passed to my opponent who then thoughtscoured me. Without that Titan I didn't find any more action and lost.
Tested reason // believe tonight with 1x Courser, 2x Reason // Believe, 3x Serum Visions. Was not too impressed with the card but it only came up twice in 4 rounds. Mostly it just sat in the yard and i never got into a situation where I knew there was a creature on top of the library that I wanted.
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I think Vizier of the Menagerie can also do some work with thinning the deck if you're planning to use Reason to Believe. Would also be a solid hoser against an active Blood Moon pre-titan.
congrats on the PPTQ win djhova!! I wish Through the Breach wasn't so expensive!!
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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
As discussed on the discord, leaving my FNM results here, as well as my decklist and matchups, feel free to ask about a specific matchup if you'd like:
Round 1-1: Ziggurat Aggro 2-0
Round 1-2: Jeskai Nahiri 2-0
Round 1-3: "Free Win" Red 0-2
Round 1-4: Eldrazi and Taxes 0-2
Round 2-1: Eldrazi and Taxes 2-0
Round 2-2: Gifts Storm 2-0
Round 2-3: Living End 2-0
Round 2-4: Grixis Death's Shadow 2-0
Acid Moss was... solid... but unimpressive.
I kept asking myself when I played it if something else would be better in the slot
In the early turns, like, turn 2ing it, it's disgusting
In t3/4, I don't think it would be much better than a Courser or Tracker or Ballista
Against storm, I asked myself if this was worth (on the draw)(edited)
T1 fountain Amulet
T2 karoo -> bounce self -> pact for azusa -> azusa -> karoo -> bounce self -> karoo -> bounce fountain -> acid moss his land -> scout
I did it, and he didn't have grapeshot, so i got away with it.
the third forest did work against free win red
Yes, I lost, but the third forest did keep me in the game.
Here's what happened.
I had out 3 Titans
He had out Moon, 3 Bridges, Chalice on 0,1,2,3, Pithing Needle on Ballista and a Chandra Emblem
I think I had 16 lands out?
My hand was GPact x3, UPact, Ballista
Finally drew Ancient Grudge 2 turns after Chandra ult (and he drew back to back Chalices)
Game 1 I ran out of wincons when he landed an early moon into bridge and had 2 chandras to deal with my singleton ballista in the main
Hey, guys. Have any other online players been having inconsistency struggles with bounceland triggers? When comboing, it used to be get boros garrison first, then stronghold, then they would untap in the correct order. Now it seems there's no rhyme or reason to how the triggers stack, no matter which order you select the lands. Has anyone found a solution to this, or experienced the same problem?
Hello everybody, I've been playing Omelette Titan for a while now to good results at my local game stores. I was wondering what people think about cutting pact of negation or moving it to the sideboard. Given that the 1-of U pact is pretty set in stone about now, let me present my thought process around its removal.
1) I've never been happy drawing a U-pact in a game. This is certainly natural, as it's meant as a specific answer to niche situations that you tutor up, but especially in the opener I tend to wish it was any other card.
2) I feel like in the situations where I can reasonably transmute for it and pay for it the next turn, I would rather just tutor another threat as a G-pact or Ballista. While this of course isn't always true, in the last 20 or so matches I've played with the deck, I haven't found a situation where I really wanted to tutor up a U-pact.
3) The situations where you can cast it, and the situations where you want to cast it don't seem to align enough. Maybe this is just a misinterpretation based on my local metagame, but it has seemed like if I can cast a U-pact, I'm likely already winning. Whereas when I really need the answer, I can't afford 3UU for it.
I suppose in summary, U-pact has felt like almost a win-more card, save for a few specific gamestates that I'm not sure come up enough for my tastes? The opportunity cost to cast a U-pact restricts its viability as an effective answer, naturally. The card has just felt so bad to me that I'm considering replacing it (probably with a tracker). Has anybody else felt that cutting U-pact is anything but completely insane? I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts so I can grow as a player! Thanks everyone for your time!
My deck list is below and the mana base is a little tweaked to help me run an extra flex slot for Academy Ruins. I tested Kessig Wolf Run for some time and remember it winning games vs Lantern Control (plant tokens under an ensnaring bridge) but other than that I barely remember searching for it, and most of the time I had it I wanted to do other things with my mana. To me Kessig is a utility land to break a locked board state, maybe it is felt that we have the tools to get through most of those without Kessig.
I like Academy Ruins so far in testing more than I liked Kessig. If we run Engineered Explosives and Walking Ballista main-board then it can be both pro-active and defensive grind tool. There are decks that simply can't beat an EE or a Walking Ballista every turn. Admittedly a bit anti-synergistic with Relic of Progenitus, but that's not something we can't play around pretty easily under most circumstances.
I've moved away from Botanical Sanctum for the time being, like others recently I'm experiencing a lot more land hate and UW control so having extra basics is nice. I also go down 1x Selasnya Sanctuary for 1x Crumbling Vestige, and since dropping Botanical it has been pretty great at getting Tolaria West online. It also a poor man's bounce-land with an amulet. I've run vestige instead of selasnya for a long time and have had no trouble with it, but it takes me to 7 green bounce-lands, below the magical 8.
To fit in Grove of the Burnwillows AND Academy Ruins I would consider moving to the sideboard or dropping some numbers of Cavern of Souls, Ghost Quarter, Forest, Crumbling Vestige, depending on how many Groves you want to jam and what your meta is like. I do not personally currently own Groves, which has influenced my land base decisions. If the blue requirements seem back-breaking I will go back to at least 1 Botanical Sanctum.
Main Deck
3x Relic of Progenitus
4x Sakura-Tribe Scout
4x Ancient Stirrings
3x Explore
3x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1x Primal Command
4x Primeval Titan
4x Summoner's Pact
1x Pact of Negation
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Walking Ballista
1x Academy Ruins
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Khalini Garden
1x Radiant Fountain
3x Tolaria West
1x Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
1x Slayer's Stronghold
1x Vesuva
1x Boros Garrison
3x Gruul Turf
4x Simic Growth Chamber
4x Gemstone Mine
3x Forest
1x Crumbling Vestige
2x Kozilek's Return
2x Dismember
2x Swan Song
1x Ramunap Excavator
1x Tireless Tracker
1x Obstinate Baloth
1x Chameleon Colossus
1x Ruric Thar, The Unbowed
1x Hornet Queen
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Creeping Corrosion
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
Hive Mind although isn't a auto win con, is a viable way to steal some games.
I'm happy with my 75.
3 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
4 Primeval Titan
4 Sakura-Tribe Scout
1 Walking Ballista
Sorcery (8)
4 Ancient Stirrings
2 Serum Visions
2 Explore
Instants (5)
1 Pact of Negation
4 Summoner's Pact
Other Spells (8)
4 Amulet of Vigor
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Hive Mind
Land (27)
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Boros Garrison
2 Botanical Sanctum
1 Cavern of Souls
4 Gemstone Mine
3 Gruul Turf
1 Khalni Garden
1 Radiant Fountain
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
4 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Slayers' Stronghold
2 Forest
1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
3 Tolaria West
1 Vesuva
2 Swan Song
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Kozilek's Return
1 Bonefire of Damned (still missing a 2nd Kozilek's Return)
3 Dismember
2 Tireless Tracker
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Thragtusk
1 Hornet Queen
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
There is also Fracturing Gust at 5CMC... but now we're daydreaming.
Congrats on your PPTQ result by the way.
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
Academy Ruins and double E.E. looks powerfull and you are able be really control-like deck.
Kessing Wolf Run fight it's place with slayers' stronghold, I don't know if running both is worth. Sometimes you can't give your titan haste, and KWR can deal more damage next turn you landed your Titan. Playing both could worth, but requires some testing.
I do like 3 Dismembers although.
Regards!
@YellowFlash
Just had a quick squiz over your deck-list link again and noticed you are running 2x Azusa, Lost but Seeking. I would bump it to at least 3 copies as it is one of our most powerful combo pieces, and as pointed out by others on the forum, if you're facing fast combo and need to race and don't see an Azusa, you can almost always be guaranteed to be slower than them.
If you agree with that line of thought then you could consider dropping 1x Tireless Tracker or 1x Trinket Mage from your main-board, depending on how you want to focus your list.
In regards to Leyline of Sanctity - I feel it's not what we want against attrition/dsicard. First of all, most decks that play discard can mess with us in other ways apart from discard, and they may keep an opener with only 1 piece, or no pieces of discard. Secondly, discard decks also pack fatal push and other removal, so even if we keep Azusa safe in our hand, they will almost always slow our combo on the ground. Then, after all that is considered, we want to construct our deck to give us high % relevant top-decks against attition, and Leyline is possibly the worst top-deck in the deck. Then there is the fact we need to scrub 3-4 sideboard slots for it.
It's true Leyline would be useful in other match-ups, maybe Storm is valid, yes. But then they can bounce it the turn they win or just use Empty the Warrens.
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
2x Courser of Kruphix
2x Reason // Believe
3-4x Serum Visions
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
I also agree that more nature claim /primordial are required, in order to not just gg.
I remember that back in time, the deck runned 2 forest and 1 island, in order to cast hive mind and have an out against bloodmoon.
1x Leyline of Sanctity I can get behind as it doesn't eat up 1/4 of our sideboard and also removes the worry about horrible top-decks. Spawnofhastur also brought up Witchbane Orb as a possible out vs. TitanShift (can find off stirrings).
In regards to Blood Moon I feel we have become pampered with a lack of land hate until recently, and in reality a deck like ours should ensure to have multiple ways out of moon. I know I've been greedy with my sideboard and run all kinds of luxury test slots instead of Seal of Primordium or Nature's Claim (e.g. Nissa, Steward of Elements for a while, Creeping Corrosion, now Ramunap Excavator). Maybe that time is over.
Chalice is more popular nowadays too.
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
Current list, nothing too crazy:
1 Walking Ballista
4 Sakura-Tribe Scout
4 Azusa, Lost But Seeking
4 Primeval Titan
Spells:
2 Explore
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Amulet of Vigor
4 Summoner's Pact
4 Relic of Progenitus
1 Pact of Negation
1 Engineered Explosives
Lands:
1 Boros Garrison
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
3 Gruul Turf
4 Simic Growth Chamber
3 Tolaria West
1 Vesuva
1 Radiant Fountain
1 Khalni Garden
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Gemstone Mine
3 Forest
1 Cavern of Souls
2 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Tireless Tracker
2 Swan Song
3 Dismember
1 Chameleon Colossus
2 Pyroclasm
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Thragtusk
1 Hornet Queen
I'm not playing Ruric Thar because there are only two Storm players around here (one of them is me) and one Lantern player. I'm almost surely cutting Leylines off because I don't think we need them, and every game I've put them in I never drew them --'
First of all, thanks for the suggestions =)
Those were things I was considering... and also playing Hive Mind (I used to play one MD until a few weeks, and it won me a couple ok games vs Gr Tron and GDS). But I'm quite reluctant in dropping the relic because we have 3 regular GDS players, and this week we also had 2 Living End players. Maybe I could drop 1 Azusa for 1 Courser of Kruphix, but I'm not sure I need a grindier game with 2 Trackers + Tusk + Chameleon SB, and we have few midrange players around here.
4 Amulet of Vigor
3 Sakura-Tribe Scout
4 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Coalition Relic
4 Through the Breach
4 Primeval Titan
4 Summoner’s Pact
2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Worldspine Wurm
4 Ancient Stirrings
1 Dismember
1 Pact of Negation
4 Simic Growth Chamber
4 Gruul Turf
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Boros Garrison
4 Gemstone Mine
2 Crumbling Vestige
1 Forest
1 Vesuva
1 Teetering Peaks
1 Endless Sands
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Khalni Garden
1 Radiant Fountain
1 Slayer’s Stronghold
1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
2 Tolaria West
1 Hornet Queen
1 Thragtusk
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Pyroclasm
2 Dismember
1 Swan Song
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Chalice of the Void
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Bojuka Bog
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
congrats on the PPTQ win djhova!! I wish Through the Breach wasn't so expensive!!
"He traded sand for skins, skins for gold, gold for life. In the end, he traded life for sand."
—Afari, Tales
Round 1-1: Ziggurat Aggro 2-0
Round 1-2: Jeskai Nahiri 2-0
Round 1-3: "Free Win" Red 0-2
Round 1-4: Eldrazi and Taxes 0-2
Round 2-1: Eldrazi and Taxes 2-0
Round 2-2: Gifts Storm 2-0
Round 2-3: Living End 2-0
Round 2-4: Grixis Death's Shadow 2-0
4 Primeval Titan
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Summoner's Pact
4 Serum Vision
4 Amulet of Vigor
3 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
3 Azusa, Lost But Seeking
1 Walking Ballista
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Pact of Negation
4 Aether Hub
3 Gruul Turf
3 Forest
3 Tolaria West
2 Botanical Sanctum
1 Boros Garrison
1 Radiant Fountain
1 Crumbling Vestige
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
1 Vesuva
1 Khalni Garden
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Pulse of Murasa
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Dragonlord Dromoka
1 Walking Ballista
1 Hornet Queen
1 Hornet Nest
1 Tireless Tracker
Acid Moss was... solid... but unimpressive.
I kept asking myself when I played it if something else would be better in the slot
In the early turns, like, turn 2ing it, it's disgusting
In t3/4, I don't think it would be much better than a Courser or Tracker or Ballista
Against storm, I asked myself if this was worth (on the draw)(edited)
T1 fountain Amulet
T2 karoo -> bounce self -> pact for azusa -> azusa -> karoo -> bounce self -> karoo -> bounce fountain -> acid moss his land -> scout
I did it, and he didn't have grapeshot, so i got away with it.
the third forest did work against free win red
Yes, I lost, but the third forest did keep me in the game.
Here's what happened.
I had out 3 Titans
He had out Moon, 3 Bridges, Chalice on 0,1,2,3, Pithing Needle on Ballista and a Chandra Emblem
I think I had 16 lands out?
My hand was GPact x3, UPact, Ballista
Finally drew Ancient Grudge 2 turns after Chandra ult (and he drew back to back Chalices)
Game 1 I ran out of wincons when he landed an early moon into bridge and had 2 chandras to deal with my singleton ballista in the main
1) I've never been happy drawing a U-pact in a game. This is certainly natural, as it's meant as a specific answer to niche situations that you tutor up, but especially in the opener I tend to wish it was any other card.
2) I feel like in the situations where I can reasonably transmute for it and pay for it the next turn, I would rather just tutor another threat as a G-pact or Ballista. While this of course isn't always true, in the last 20 or so matches I've played with the deck, I haven't found a situation where I really wanted to tutor up a U-pact.
3) The situations where you can cast it, and the situations where you want to cast it don't seem to align enough. Maybe this is just a misinterpretation based on my local metagame, but it has seemed like if I can cast a U-pact, I'm likely already winning. Whereas when I really need the answer, I can't afford 3UU for it.
I suppose in summary, U-pact has felt like almost a win-more card, save for a few specific gamestates that I'm not sure come up enough for my tastes? The opportunity cost to cast a U-pact restricts its viability as an effective answer, naturally. The card has just felt so bad to me that I'm considering replacing it (probably with a tracker). Has anybody else felt that cutting U-pact is anything but completely insane? I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts so I can grow as a player! Thanks everyone for your time!