Day #2:
Playtested against Scapeshift, Jund, Burn, and Abzan Company. The Scapeshift matchup went well. Of the 5 games that we played I went 4-1. Countering the Prismatic Omens and Explores with Spell Snare was definitely a key part of this matchup. Once the game progressed it got to a point where I only countered the spells that killed me. Eating away the hand with Liliana and K-command / Snap / K-Command put me far enough ahead that I felt comfortable. This was for sure a matchup, tho, where you need to turn the corner and turn it fast. Once it got to that point, Bolt / Snap / Bolt became a frequent option, and Creeping Tar Pits finished off the game on a consistent basis. Sideboarded games consisted of a far amount of Negates, Thoughtseize, Surgical Extraction and the extra copy of Vendilion Clique. I brought in Fulminator Mages, but to be quite honest, whenever I drew them, I wasn't all that happy to see them. I like them much more in the grindier matches, and against any midrange / control shell. Overall, I'd say the matches went well.
Second deck I played against was Jund. Once again, Spell Snare over performed. Turn 1 Ancestral Vision into holding up Spell Snare worked wonders. This is a mtchup where having my own Liliana would be a hazard to my self, so I elected not to deploy her for the most part. There was a couple situations in which she acted as a 3-mana Cruel Edict, to kill a Tarmogoyf, or large Scavenging Ooze, but that was the extent of it. Having access to the one-of Logic Knot served me much better, multiple times in the late game, then Mana Leak did. To state the obvious, finding my draw spells and cantrips, was ideal due to the copious amount of hand disruption that they play. K-Command was, by far, the unsung hero of the matchup though. If we were both essentially in the top deck war and I found myself with nothing but a K-Command in hand at their draw step, "Make you discard / return snap", was enough to put me back ahead. Out of the board, the extra copy of Damnation, Fulminator Mages and Keranos came in and helped with the grindy aspect of the matchup. There was a sequence where I got to play a Fulminator mage on 3, play a second one on 4, K-Command it back on 5, and play it again on 6. Against any deck with a greedy mana base, Fulminator Mage is amazing.
Third up was burn. This is matchup that I am never really excited to play. Considering how cheap their spell are to cast, it feels terrible to ever tap out. That being said, I'm starting to I feel like a broken singing the praises of Spell Snare. The card came to the rescue in multiple instances when they would play either Eidolon of the Great Revel, Atarka's Command, Boros Charm or Lightning Helix. So if I found the Spell Snare I felt alright... if not, the game was probably over. Sideboard games went much better. I brought in Kalitas, Negate, Dispel, and Collective Brutality. Collective Brutality is insane in this matchup. If you play the card on 2 and you are able to activate all 3 modes, you are essentially saving yourself 10 points of damage (Killing a Goblin Guide or Monastery Swiftspear, taking a boros charm, snd drain 2- gain 2 . Negate and Dispel are mainstays against Burn. Even though Dispel is cheaper, Negate has the capability of countering Lava Spike, which actually won me the game on more than one occasion. The other card I brought in was Kalitas. This card works wonder and is able to help you turn the corner relatively quickly. The 3 points of life that you gain from every swing is HUGE. The fact that you gain extra bodies for killing any of their little, hastey creatures is an upside as well. Bolting Goblin Guide with Kalitas on the field, then sacrificing the zombie to kalitas before damage is usually enough to put you out of range. If burn is a relevant portion of the meta by the time GP Vegas rolls around, I can see an argument for a mindeck copy, if not 2.
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Actually, Etched Champion itself isn't that big of a deal. Its that equipment that they use Cranial Plating along with the enchantment called Ensoul Artifact which they put square onto a Darksteel Citadel that you have to watch out for. Otherwise, its usually an easy matchup. At least for my deck.
As far as my sideboard is concerned, there is a few cars that could definitely earn spots if there is any sifts in the meta, before vegas. Collective Brutality is a card that would re-earn it's spot if Burn rose up in popularity. The card is also decent against combo decks acting as a 2-mana Duress. If Storm ends up not just being the flavor of the week and is a legitimate contender, then Counterflux and Mindbreak Trap could earn spots in the 15. Keranos, God of Storms is a card that I love, but there was no matches that I have played that I feel I couldn't have won without him. Dreadbore and Hero's Downfall are also interesting choices if Tron, Abzan or Jund pick up in popularity. All of that being said, it is very possible that any of those cards may earn spots somewhere in the 75 by the time Vegas rolls around. Hope you guys have a good day. And if you're playing FNM or any events this weekend.... GOOD LUCK!
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Dead at birth as we slowly decay - We're born only to fade away
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Our life is pain and it's hard to cope.
I don't really face Tron anywhere I play magic, but I am assuming that you are including cards like Shadow of Doubt mainboard to stop their fetches. I think this is similar to the reason that I am running Pithing Needle mainboard in my deck; in that I tend to run into decks that have manlands, planeswalkers and activated equipments (which are not typically Tron) and having a Pithing Needle on hand first game often throws a wrench into their plan. Especially when I hit the first manland or planeswalker that I see with it. I think for this reason and with the reason that you have it to disable fetches, it is a good idea that you are mainboarding Shadow of Doubt.
Now, don't get me wrong. Maybe you have practiced playing your deck a certain way and you know how to handle the decks you believe you are going to face going in and out of the sideboard, but in my experience having a Pithing Needle or two has been a more efficient option than sideboarding a couple of Fulminator Mage. There might be some sort of upside to being able to sacrifice Fulminator Mage and maybe having a Pithing Needle stay on the board means that it could be removed, but that may not be worse than the momentum that is lost by having to sacrifice a card you spent 3 mana to cast.
Take what I say above with a grain of salt, because the lands Tron uses and the specific fetches it has makes the deck run and maybe blowing up their lands outright instead of disabling is the way to go. Maybe the loss of momentum and tempo you give yourself from playing and sacrificing a Fulminator Mage is less than what you are giving your opponent, but I think the point I am making is that it better be. I don't typically play against Tron, so I do not really have much to go one from experience there.
Again, as I have said this before, I do recommend that a good counter-suite combo versus creature and planeswalker decks which use activated abilities including manlands is 2 Terminate, 2 Dreadbore, a mainboarded Pithing Needle and 2 Damnation. The point is to slow them down, wipe their board and reset the field with you slightly ahead. I can not say it works for Tron, but it works for Affinity and Abzan type decks.
My only criticism of the deck just looking at it, is that I think you should possibly main or side a Dreadbore in place of a Terminate, go down to 1 Fatal Push and add another Damnation. Other than that, it looks good to me.
With Vegas approaching, I'm looking to shift my land base around a bit. Cascade Bluffs is probably going to be dropped along with a swamp for other dualies, but I can't decide on which ones. I've thought about maybe adding in some checklands ala Sulfur Falls or Drowned Catacomb to replace the Bluffs but I can't decide on whether or not I should run two. Any thoughts?
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-Modern- UUBBBRR Cruel Control BRG BRgBurn BR URStorm
-Commander- B Chainer, Dementia Master - Reanimator U Teferi, Temporal Archmage - Calimari Tribal [Retired] GB Ishkanah, Grafwidow - Delirium/Tokens
IMHO Pithing Needle should be an auto-include in the side of Cruel Control decks anywhere and everywhere, possibly even warranting the strength of main-boarding it due to Cruel Control already being so strong against specific decks with activated costs from artifacts, planes-walker decks and the like.
If Storm ends up not just being the flavor of the week and is a legitimate contender, then Counterflux and Mindbreak Trap could earn spots in the 15.
I've actually put a Mindbreak Trap in my main over a Cryptic Command. Storm I notice is very popular online and MT has been a game winner more than once that I decided it wouldn't look too out of place in the maindeck. It also "exiles" so it can hard counter any Cavern of Souls decks and even a jank hard cast Emmy. Storm is the real deal too, very consistent and fast deck.
I think finding room for an Izzet Staticaster in the side might be a good idea. It's strong against Storm's Empty the Warrens and is quite a good utility card in a number of match ups.
With the Meta right now: Grixis Death's Shadow is 11% and Eldrazi Tron is tied with 11% with Affinity following at 6%. Rakdos is nowhere to be seen.
When you do the math, that's actually 17% of decks that use activated abilities as a core function of their decks (versus other Grixis), as opposed to Grixis shadow which may or may not be a deck with activated abilities in it. That means that you are more likely to run into decks that have activated abilities you can call Pithing Needle on, than not.
I think a suggestion to mainboard Pithing Needle has some good founding based on these statistics, but I agree that people have been in a habit of sideboarding it. I think people being use to only sideboarding Pithing Needle (versus whether or not a deck relies on an activated ability somewhere) is the only reason it is not being played in the main. But when it comes to a deck like affinity, you should know that Pithing Needleing certain equipment and lands is a given and that Tron has activated abilities for fetches and Planeswalkers. It is basically those decks win condition.
I really don't see why people claim that a person has to have Scalding Tarn to get blue mana for Cryptic Command. It makes absolutely no difference which of the 3 minus one life cost fetches you use when you build your mana base like this.
Not to mention that once you get a Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth on the field, you do not really have to spend one life to fetch unless you have a Fatal Push to cast or just want a color for some reason.
And about those new dual lands, you'd have to rush 2 early game basic lands to be able to play them untapped on turn 3. Which means that you will not be able to play Terminate turn 2 AND have 3 blue colored mana sources at turn 4 for Cryptic. It is not possible.
You should probably delete the last couple of paragraphs to help keep this thread positive and constructive. Nothing there really worth a response that belongs in this thread for other people to read.
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Dlanze, I'm trying to be as neutral to how aggressive stuff was in the past as possible when I say this, but I think the point that Grimbs is trying to make is that since September of last year, a lot of your suggestions have been picked apart and scrutinized and people have tried to explain why your evaluations and suggestions may or may not be wrong and you have a habit of retorting with "okay, but this is why I'm right" and typing out a huge text wall or just trying to ignore the criticism like you are when you're saying the last paragraph should be deleted in your last comment. Where Grimble's coming from makes sense, it's frustrating as all hell to put so much time in to trying to explain to someone why they might be wrong about something and have that person just brush them off.
You also kind of have a habit of making suggestions for people based off cards you use and your build specifically. Like you make suggestions to newer people based on how your build is and sometimes those suggestions are just uh...a little off and it's kind of detrimental because people that don't know any better will take that information as truth and it'll bite them in the ass when they go to play their deck in a tourney or FNM and find out that the information they were given was kind of ****y and they end up losing as a result.
1. At the end of the day, we are talking about cards in a card game. Talking about a card game does not involve talking about other people. Therefore, spending too much time talking about oneanother is inappropriate and is unnecessary to talking about a card game.
2. Historically and going by this link I am posting, competitive cruel control has deviated a slight degree from the what this primer has promoted and how different people think a competitive Cruel Control deck should be built and post in this thread. This link is from 2016 which is barely under a year ago: http://www.starcitygames.com/article/32979_Daily-Digest-Cruel-Control.html.
This is what is says about Shawn French's mainboard choices:
This Grixis Control deck is not interested in playing small-ball. Of course, it still plays the most efficient removal options like Lightning Bolt and Terminate while supplemented by Snapcaster Mage, but other than interacting, we aren't doing anything other than deploying haymakers. Coalition Relic is the unsung hero of this deck, letting Grixis successfully bridge the gap from removal to its powerful planeswalkers like Jace, Architect of Thought and Tamiyo the Moon Sage. Once our opponent begins to manage the game a bit, that's when we drop the real hammer: Cruel Ultimatum.
This is what is says about Shawn French's sideboard:
Shawn's sideboard is nothing crazy. Grixis Control has and continues to have issues with big-mana strategies and tough-to-handle planeswalkers and other assorted permanents. Crumble to Dust is a nod to the former, while Pithing Needle and Negate are able to cover many bases of the latter. This is all tied together with some removal and additional disruption, a simple and effective package.
This basically implies what I have been saying all along.
Hey everyone! Back here again for an awesome update for all of you! I just took down a GPT for GP Las Vegas and got 1st and a Tarmogoyf on top of it! (Was a staple event, and Goyf was one of the picks) There was 38 players and I ended up going 4-1-1 in the swiss (ID'd to Top 8). Play against Living End/Fish/Affinity in Top 8. Liliana, the Last Hope is probably the spiciest card in the whole deck and it was from a suggestion from a friend when I asked what should I throw in since I felt the deck could be a bit threat lite. She ended up winning me 2 of my 9 matches which was awesome! If any of you guys have any questions feel free to ask! I feel like the deck is doing extremely well and is in a very good spot in the current meta.
4 Remands are honestly in there because Spell Snares are not good at all right now (in my opinion, could be very wrong) and also it's a great way to just dig through your deck AND 4 of Mana Leaks are way too scary for me to play. It's also not absolutely dead against caverns (lots of Bant Eldrazi in my area). It's not the best counterspell but I think it's a good enough tempo swing to dig for extra lands/set up cryptics and in Sideboard games being able to Remand a spell and then Thoughtseize it away is always fun! Since I'm also playing 4 Remands I have thought of switching Think Twice to Serum to smooth out my draws but the card advantage aspect of Think Twice is really appealing and that it's also an instant.
Lili is honestly in here to just soak damage and be a nuisance. Her -2 is cute and sometimes has value but when I played her today I didn't minus at all, I think telegraphing to your opponent "I'm gonna plus this Planeswalker and if you don't do anything about it, I'm going to win this game." She's the Bolt/Damage Absorber and has occasional utility with an awesome win condition tacked on. I'm still not 100% on her, I originally planned for her to be a Tamiyo, but a sweet just 1 of Lili might also be fine too. I'd recommend to playtest it. I just also REALLY like planeswalkers.
Well Spell Snare is meta dependant I guess, it's wonderfull against Burn for example, catching a lot of it's bombs.
I think the card could be concidered a sideboard card in fact, never tried it there but might be an idea ^^
I'm not too fond of leak because it lose value in the lategame which is where you want to get (and also it's useless against tron), did you try Logic Knot before ? Since you have no delve creatures it might be interesting (though it makes your deck more vulnerable to things like Rest in Peace). It works well even turn 2 since we have a lot of fetches ^^
I will try Lili, the fact that she cost only 3 is the selling point, you can more easily drop her and keep mana open for protection
Also I've been thinking, you have very few life gain beside Ultimatum, do you ever feel like adding some ?
Spell Snare I think can rise in value if Tarmogoyf like decks become all the rage again. Logic Knot is a cool card, but the main reason I don't want to run any is that people are already siding in Rest in Peace against me. Leak is also not too bad against Tron (at least their first couple spells hopefully) but after a while yes it is not good.
There's not many good Life Gain cards I think I would want to play in the Sideboard. I think the best card if I would add a "life gain" card would definitely be Collective Brutality. Card is awesome against Burn and good against Control and Weenie decks.
Red should be burn, Goblins, Dragons, draw/discard, and Standard-unplayable 5CMC cards with insane, lengthy effects that take 10 minutes to figure out what they do and another 20 to actually make their effects work on the field.
He's for sure as strong as the original in my opinion. Still enters with a boatload of loyalty and I'm drooling at the thought of flipping a TKS or Prime Time off the top with this.
My real dilemma now is do I abandon the original for this should it prove to be real or run both?
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-Modern- UUBBBRR Cruel Control BRG BRgBurn BR URStorm
-Commander- B Chainer, Dementia Master - Reanimator U Teferi, Temporal Archmage - Calimari Tribal [Retired] GB Ishkanah, Grafwidow - Delirium/Tokens
He's for sure as strong as the original in my opinion. Still enters with a boatload of loyalty and I'm drooling at the thought of flipping a TKS or Prime Time off the top with this.
My real dilemma now is do I abandon the original for this should it prove to be real or run both?
I mean barring Snap, I run Clique and Kleetus, so it wouldn't be too much of an issue for me to have less creature space and Bolas 2 is another threat. Could make it work.
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-Modern- UUBBBRR Cruel Control BRG BRgBurn BR URStorm
-Commander- B Chainer, Dementia Master - Reanimator U Teferi, Temporal Archmage - Calimari Tribal [Retired] GB Ishkanah, Grafwidow - Delirium/Tokens
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Playtested against Scapeshift, Jund, Burn, and Abzan Company. The Scapeshift matchup went well. Of the 5 games that we played I went 4-1. Countering the Prismatic Omens and Explores with Spell Snare was definitely a key part of this matchup. Once the game progressed it got to a point where I only countered the spells that killed me. Eating away the hand with Liliana and K-command / Snap / K-Command put me far enough ahead that I felt comfortable. This was for sure a matchup, tho, where you need to turn the corner and turn it fast. Once it got to that point, Bolt / Snap / Bolt became a frequent option, and Creeping Tar Pits finished off the game on a consistent basis. Sideboarded games consisted of a far amount of Negates, Thoughtseize, Surgical Extraction and the extra copy of Vendilion Clique. I brought in Fulminator Mages, but to be quite honest, whenever I drew them, I wasn't all that happy to see them. I like them much more in the grindier matches, and against any midrange / control shell. Overall, I'd say the matches went well.
Second deck I played against was Jund. Once again, Spell Snare over performed. Turn 1 Ancestral Vision into holding up Spell Snare worked wonders. This is a mtchup where having my own Liliana would be a hazard to my self, so I elected not to deploy her for the most part. There was a couple situations in which she acted as a 3-mana Cruel Edict, to kill a Tarmogoyf, or large Scavenging Ooze, but that was the extent of it. Having access to the one-of Logic Knot served me much better, multiple times in the late game, then Mana Leak did. To state the obvious, finding my draw spells and cantrips, was ideal due to the copious amount of hand disruption that they play. K-Command was, by far, the unsung hero of the matchup though. If we were both essentially in the top deck war and I found myself with nothing but a K-Command in hand at their draw step, "Make you discard / return snap", was enough to put me back ahead. Out of the board, the extra copy of Damnation, Fulminator Mages and Keranos came in and helped with the grindy aspect of the matchup. There was a sequence where I got to play a Fulminator mage on 3, play a second one on 4, K-Command it back on 5, and play it again on 6. Against any deck with a greedy mana base, Fulminator Mage is amazing.
Third up was burn. This is matchup that I am never really excited to play. Considering how cheap their spell are to cast, it feels terrible to ever tap out. That being said, I'm starting to I feel like a broken singing the praises of Spell Snare. The card came to the rescue in multiple instances when they would play either Eidolon of the Great Revel, Atarka's Command, Boros Charm or Lightning Helix. So if I found the Spell Snare I felt alright... if not, the game was probably over. Sideboard games went much better. I brought in Kalitas, Negate, Dispel, and Collective Brutality. Collective Brutality is insane in this matchup. If you play the card on 2 and you are able to activate all 3 modes, you are essentially saving yourself 10 points of damage (Killing a Goblin Guide or Monastery Swiftspear, taking a boros charm, snd drain 2- gain 2 . Negate and Dispel are mainstays against Burn. Even though Dispel is cheaper, Negate has the capability of countering Lava Spike, which actually won me the game on more than one occasion. The other card I brought in was Kalitas. This card works wonder and is able to help you turn the corner relatively quickly. The 3 points of life that you gain from every swing is HUGE. The fact that you gain extra bodies for killing any of their little, hastey creatures is an upside as well. Bolting Goblin Guide with Kalitas on the field, then sacrificing the zombie to kalitas before damage is usually enough to put you out of range. If burn is a relevant portion of the meta by the time GP Vegas rolls around, I can see an argument for a mindeck copy, if not 2.
We got no future, we got no hope
Our life is pain and it's hard to cope.
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
DRAW SPELLS / CANTRIPS
3 Ancestral Vision
1 Shadow of Doubt
3 Think Twice
COUNTERMAGIC
3 Cryptic Command
1 Logic Knot
3 Mana Leak
2 Spell Snare
REMOVAL / UTILITY
1 Cruel Ultimatum
1 Damnation
2 Electrolyze
2 Fatal Push
2 Kolaghan's Command
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Terminate
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Blood Crypt
2 Steam Vents
2 Watery Grave
2 Darkslick Shores
1 Drowned Catacombs
1 Sulfur Falls
2 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Wandering Fumarole
3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Damnation
1 Devour Flesh
1 Dispel
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2 Negate
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Thoughtseize
1 Vendilion Clique
We got no future, we got no hope
Our life is pain and it's hard to cope.
We got no future, we got no hope
Our life is pain and it's hard to cope.
Now, don't get me wrong. Maybe you have practiced playing your deck a certain way and you know how to handle the decks you believe you are going to face going in and out of the sideboard, but in my experience having a Pithing Needle or two has been a more efficient option than sideboarding a couple of Fulminator Mage. There might be some sort of upside to being able to sacrifice Fulminator Mage and maybe having a Pithing Needle stay on the board means that it could be removed, but that may not be worse than the momentum that is lost by having to sacrifice a card you spent 3 mana to cast.
Take what I say above with a grain of salt, because the lands Tron uses and the specific fetches it has makes the deck run and maybe blowing up their lands outright instead of disabling is the way to go. Maybe the loss of momentum and tempo you give yourself from playing and sacrificing a Fulminator Mage is less than what you are giving your opponent, but I think the point I am making is that it better be. I don't typically play against Tron, so I do not really have much to go one from experience there.
Again, as I have said this before, I do recommend that a good counter-suite combo versus creature and planeswalker decks which use activated abilities including manlands is 2 Terminate, 2 Dreadbore, a mainboarded Pithing Needle and 2 Damnation. The point is to slow them down, wipe their board and reset the field with you slightly ahead. I can not say it works for Tron, but it works for Affinity and Abzan type decks.
My only criticism of the deck just looking at it, is that I think you should possibly main or side a Dreadbore in place of a Terminate, go down to 1 Fatal Push and add another Damnation. Other than that, it looks good to me.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/cruelty-loves-company-1/
Changes made were -2x Remand and -1 Keranos, God of Storms and went back to 2x Countersquall in the main and 2xPithing Needle and 1x Izzet Staticaster in the side.
With Vegas approaching, I'm looking to shift my land base around a bit. Cascade Bluffs is probably going to be dropped along with a swamp for other dualies, but I can't decide on which ones. I've thought about maybe adding in some checklands ala Sulfur Falls or Drowned Catacomb to replace the Bluffs but I can't decide on whether or not I should run two. Any thoughts?
UUBBBRR Cruel Control
BRG BRgBurn
BR URStorm
-Commander-
B Chainer, Dementia Master - Reanimator
U Teferi, Temporal Archmage - Calimari Tribal [Retired]
GB Ishkanah, Grafwidow - Delirium/Tokens
IMHO Pithing Needle should be an auto-include in the side of Cruel Control decks anywhere and everywhere, possibly even warranting the strength of main-boarding it due to Cruel Control already being so strong against specific decks with activated costs from artifacts, planes-walker decks and the like.
I've actually put a Mindbreak Trap in my main over a Cryptic Command. Storm I notice is very popular online and MT has been a game winner more than once that I decided it wouldn't look too out of place in the maindeck. It also "exiles" so it can hard counter any Cavern of Souls decks and even a jank hard cast Emmy. Storm is the real deal too, very consistent and fast deck.
I think finding room for an Izzet Staticaster in the side might be a good idea. It's strong against Storm's Empty the Warrens and is quite a good utility card in a number of match ups.
Nice write up notes above too btw
WMMT5dx: Car - RK Coupe Track - Hakone Outbound
Kolaghan's Command requires decks to have BR. How many toptier decks can cast red and black cards versus ones that rely on activated abilities?
That's basically just other Grixis decks and Rakdos.
Look at this link:
http://mtgtop8.com/archetype?a=183
Aggro
54 %
Death's Shadow 111 - 11%
Eldrazi Aggro 107 - 11%
Affinity 63 - 6%
Red Deck Wins 59 - 6%
Junk 44 - 5%
Bant 37 - 4%
Hatebear - 31 3%
Merfolk - 22 2%
With the Meta right now: Grixis Death's Shadow is 11% and Eldrazi Tron is tied with 11% with Affinity following at 6%. Rakdos is nowhere to be seen.
When you do the math, that's actually 17% of decks that use activated abilities as a core function of their decks (versus other Grixis), as opposed to Grixis shadow which may or may not be a deck with activated abilities in it. That means that you are more likely to run into decks that have activated abilities you can call Pithing Needle on, than not.
I think a suggestion to mainboard Pithing Needle has some good founding based on these statistics, but I agree that people have been in a habit of sideboarding it. I think people being use to only sideboarding Pithing Needle (versus whether or not a deck relies on an activated ability somewhere) is the only reason it is not being played in the main. But when it comes to a deck like affinity, you should know that Pithing Needleing certain equipment and lands is a given and that Tron has activated abilities for fetches and Planeswalkers. It is basically those decks win condition.
4 Sunken Hollow and 4 Smoldering Marsh works well with one Steam Vents, because you can have 4 Polluted Delta and 4 Bloodstained Mire to fetch all of these. You don't really have to have Scalding Tarn and adding those to a manabase isn't any different than running the other two and blue mana is accessible enough either way.
I really don't see why people claim that a person has to have Scalding Tarn to get blue mana for Cryptic Command. It makes absolutely no difference which of the 3 minus one life cost fetches you use when you build your mana base like this.
Not to mention that once you get a Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth on the field, you do not really have to spend one life to fetch unless you have a Fatal Push to cast or just want a color for some reason.
Terminate is not the only removal spell you can cast on turn 2. Chromatic Lantern is there for a reason and both Lightning Bolt and Fatal Push cost one converted mana each, respectively.
You should probably delete the last couple of paragraphs to help keep this thread positive and constructive. Nothing there really worth a response that belongs in this thread for other people to read.
You also kind of have a habit of making suggestions for people based off cards you use and your build specifically. Like you make suggestions to newer people based on how your build is and sometimes those suggestions are just uh...a little off and it's kind of detrimental because people that don't know any better will take that information as truth and it'll bite them in the ass when they go to play their deck in a tourney or FNM and find out that the information they were given was kind of ****y and they end up losing as a result.
And I know it hasn't been brought up, but it just might need to be restated: this is a COMPETITIVE thread. Most of us here are trying to play competitively in some way and a lot of the cards or strategies you've suggested don't hold up in a competitive environment and we've explained why that is in the past, be it because of the meta or because of how they hold up against certain builds or how slow or fast they are. This doesn't mean that everyone else here wants their builds to be 100% the same with no variation or differences so that we can all copy and paste each others lists and try to 12/0 a tournament and that we're all netdecking just to win, it just means that we're using the knowledge that we have about the meta and competitive environment when we make suggestions for the deck or talk about changes or try to explain why your evaluations might be off.
UUBBBRR Cruel Control
BRG BRgBurn
BR URStorm
-Commander-
B Chainer, Dementia Master - Reanimator
U Teferi, Temporal Archmage - Calimari Tribal [Retired]
GB Ishkanah, Grafwidow - Delirium/Tokens
1. At the end of the day, we are talking about cards in a card game. Talking about a card game does not involve talking about other people. Therefore, spending too much time talking about oneanother is inappropriate and is unnecessary to talking about a card game.
2. Historically and going by this link I am posting, competitive cruel control has deviated a slight degree from the what this primer has promoted and how different people think a competitive Cruel Control deck should be built and post in this thread. This link is from 2016 which is barely under a year ago: http://www.starcitygames.com/article/32979_Daily-Digest-Cruel-Control.html.
This is what is says about Shawn French's mainboard choices:
This is what is says about Shawn French's sideboard:
This basically implies what I have been saying all along.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/633475#online
Lili is honestly in here to just soak damage and be a nuisance. Her -2 is cute and sometimes has value but when I played her today I didn't minus at all, I think telegraphing to your opponent "I'm gonna plus this Planeswalker and if you don't do anything about it, I'm going to win this game." She's the Bolt/Damage Absorber and has occasional utility with an awesome win condition tacked on. I'm still not 100% on her, I originally planned for her to be a Tamiyo, but a sweet just 1 of Lili might also be fine too. I'd recommend to playtest it. I just also REALLY like planeswalkers.
Spell Snare I think can rise in value if Tarmogoyf like decks become all the rage again. Logic Knot is a cool card, but the main reason I don't want to run any is that people are already siding in Rest in Peace against me. Leak is also not too bad against Tron (at least their first couple spells hopefully) but after a while yes it is not good.
There's not many good Life Gain cards I think I would want to play in the Sideboard. I think the best card if I would add a "life gain" card would definitely be Collective Brutality. Card is awesome against Burn and good against Control and Weenie decks.
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
My real dilemma now is do I abandon the original for this should it prove to be real or run both?
UUBBBRR Cruel Control
BRG BRgBurn
BR URStorm
-Commander-
B Chainer, Dementia Master - Reanimator
U Teferi, Temporal Archmage - Calimari Tribal [Retired]
GB Ishkanah, Grafwidow - Delirium/Tokens
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
UUBBBRR Cruel Control
BRG BRgBurn
BR URStorm
-Commander-
B Chainer, Dementia Master - Reanimator
U Teferi, Temporal Archmage - Calimari Tribal [Retired]
GB Ishkanah, Grafwidow - Delirium/Tokens