Are there thoughts on a transformational sideboard to include Through the Breach and Emrakul? Skred has the mana acceleration to land Breach, it's pretty out of left field, and has more game against over the top decks like Tron and spell combo.
Emrakul is a bad topdeck and TTB target [dragon] is just wasting a card, but Skred can slow the game with Moons, Relic, Scourge and removal to get to a point where we can just win on the spot with Emmy.
The following is a report of my experience playing Skred in the SCG Cincinnati Modern Open this weekend. I took extensive notes of plays, but less on hands, specific land-drops, and SB choices. I will detail these in the way that best seems appropriate to tell the story (I have turn-by-turn notes, but no one wants to read or write that). While I obtained my opponent’s permissions to use their names, I’ve decided to omit them for privacy reasons (though I’m sure a determined person could identify all of us).
Full confession: despite playing this game for over a decade, this is actually the first sanctioned event I’ve ever participated in (getting my DCI number Friday night before). Thus, however good or bad I may ordinarily be, my performance may have been adversely affected by inexperience or discomfort with the environment.
Why did I choose Skred? I wanted a deck that seemed decently positioned against the meta, but would also generally reduce the number of decisions I needed to make in a single turn. I hoped this would reduce the amount of fatigue and mistakes I knew were inevitable in a new environment. The following was the decklist I played:
I played a rather reserved, well paced gentleman in my first round. He was perfectly respectful, and the only real moment of disagreement we had was when I asked him to accelerate his play during game 2. We didn’t banter much and just played magic. Well, sorta. You’ll see.
Game 1: I was on the play, and I made my land drops, as did he. I had the sequence of Stone, PnKN, and Dragon. His was better though with turn Map, Chalice (X=1), Reality Smasher, Reality Smasher, with a Dismember for the Dragon. In the end, a pair of hasty 5/5s was a bit too much. I had Skred and Bolt, but never found a 5th land, so they would neither have removed a Smasher or allowed me to cast Dragon and Bolt for the win. His draw was simply better.
Game 2: I keep a hand with potential but miss my 3rd land drop. Meanwhile, he plays a turn 2 Ballista (X=1), map (missing land drop). I then make my 3rd, and cast Bridge. He casts TKS, taking Skred, and I soon double-Bolt it. However, by this point, I’m holding 3 Koths, and Spyglass comes down disabling all those copies. Moon follows, and the board settles into near stasis as he gets in a few points with Matter Reshapers, but eventually even that’s closed out. I figure I just need to find one of my four sources of artifact removal, but never do. We both hit a land glut, and his ends first with a massive Ballista.
Match Result: 0-2 loss
Round 2: Soul Sisters
My opponent was an amiable woman, who was both patient and forgiving. This might have saved me in Game 2: I got overexcited approaching my first win, and accidentally flipped an extra card with Sheets. Instead of calling a judge, she let it go and permitted me to put it back. We also bantered a lot. My mood improved with the conversation, and I had opportunity to pass that kindness on a bit later. Also, watching her play the deck took me back to reminiscing about when I played Shadowclysm in the ancient times, and even my own brief stint with Soul Sisters and its cousin, Martyr-Proc.
Game 1: I mulligan to 6 on the play. She casts Soul Warden, which I killed with Bolt. This was a mistake; Soul Warden is not a threat worth removing in the match. A Pridemate, Warden, Ascendant, and Spectral Procession followed. Meanwhile, I got stuck with insufficient removal, and cycling Relic didn’t find it. You can imagine how this went.
Game 2: She started with a turn 1 Martyr. I could have killed it, but didn’t. I figured I could drag her down from whatever life total she attained, given long enough. In hindsight, I’m not sure this was right: Serra Ascendants might have been an issue. Still, I was holding Ratchet Bomb, and played it, and ticked to 1. She attacked with Martyr, sacrificed (19-36), then cast another. I cast Scourge, and she sacrificed (19-56) and played Ascendant. I played PnKN, hoping to drag things out and force her to commit more. She did: Attendant and Ascendant, which died in a 3-for-1 to the Bomb. PnKN met PtE. I started chipping away in 1-point increments with a Thopter. We joked about a 56 turn clock. She did find some Pridemates and thwart some removal with Brave the Elements, but Anger cleared them. I eventually found Koth, protected him until I had the emblem, and from there it was mostly a matter of time.
Game 3: Early turns were Warden, Pridemate, Kataki, and Ascendant, and Warden for her. Mine was Relic, Bolt to Pridemate, sac Relic. I then tried to clear the table with Fallout EoT, but she had Brave the Elements. I had Anger on my next main though. She played Honor the Pure, Pridemate, and Serra Ascendant, while I had Ratchet Bomb, and Scourge. I stalled long enough and Dragon showed up. She didn’t have an answer to that.
On a side note, I ran into both her and other members of her playgroup later. She apparently ran into another Skred player later (who I never saw), and was surprised, to say the least. I expressed my condolences. It’s a really hard match for her deck. But you know, there’s no accounting for Fortuna’s favor...
Match Result: 2-1 win
Round 3: Death’s Shadow Jund
My opponent was a fairly nice fellow, though banter was sorta limited. A little humor revolved around game state, but otherwise, it was too intense for us to really divert attention.
Game 1: He mulliganed to 6 on the play, and not much happened until turn 3 when I played Moon. This was pretty good here, though he churned through a lot of cards. He eventually plays a DS at 11-20. I played PnKN. He followed up with Swiftspear, then Mutagenic Growth (without green mana, and I saw a bunch of Become Immense in the SB). I blocked the DS (16-9), and played another PnKN. I’m also chipping away with Thopters, occasionally chumping. I eventually play the 3rd PnKN, with some remarks made about how her parents must remain as dead as they were before the retcon. This was likely the mistake that cost me the match; it also might not have mattered. It was 14-5, and I might have played Reckoner with a few mana and a Skred as backup. He looted, attacked, and found Temur Battle Rage, which meant a chump-blocker just wouldn’t be enough. I’ve griped about TBR elsewhere being OP as a sorcery, but the reality was I just hadn’t expected it since I hadn’t seen it in so long.
Game 2: I played an early relic, and he had the Guide and Swiftspear. I eventually landed Moon and focused on killing creatures (Swiftspear with Bolt, two Death’s Shadows with Skred and Spitebellows). Unfortunately for me, life totals were 3-9, and Guide and Swiftspear raced in for the last 3.
Match Result: 0-2 loss
Round 4: WB Eldrazi and Taxes
My opponent was a man who had a certain degree of professional poise and a name to complement it. We didn’t banter a lot, but he was nice enough.
Game 1: I was on the play with Relic, and he had Sculler (taking Anger). I had Reckoner, but things looked bad when he got Processor to kill it. I cast Fallout on his turn to kill his guys, but then Displacer appeared. I cracked Relic. Turn 5 PnKN, and he had Confidant, with life totals at 13-17. I got Moon on turn 6, and he rushed to blink a thopter and cast PtE on PnKN. He pressed his attack and got me to 4, but Dragon, PnKN, Dragon was just too much pressure, and Fallout finished the job.
Game 2: Thalia came down early, but didn’t last long. I played Bridge on the third turn and Moon on the fifth. At this point, the game bogged down a bit: he had TKS, Confidant, and Displacer, while I played PnKN. He looked for a breakthrough with Flickerwisp targeting Blood Moon, and then followed that by going to Displace the Wisp. I responded with PnKN sac targeting the Flickerwisp, prompting Push on PnKN. That was probably where the game ended: he still made a Gideon AoZ and got to attack a bit, but Koth’s emblem really makes Gideon paltry and closed it out.
Match Result: 2-0 win
Round 5: Burn
I played against a pretty nice guy this round, and we actually discussed a lot about the quality and utility of different cards between the games and immediately after.
Game 1: I was on the play, and passed turn 1. He had Swiftspear, which came over. The next turn, he had another and Bolt during the attack, but I killed one with Skred in response, leaving totals at 14-17. I played Moon, then took more damage. I cast Reckoner, and he suspended Rift Bolt, followed by casting Eidolon. Eidolon didn’t phase me much at first: I had the Dragon, and his retort was another Eidolon. I might have made a mistake here: I was holding Fallout and Bolt, neither of which was really castable, life totals were 6-13, and I had Dragon and Reckoner to his two cards in hand, two Eidolons and Swiftspear. Any burn spell would allow him to attack for lethal, but absent that I could kill him in two turns. I probably should have hung back and blocked, allowing another draw phase. Instead I attacked, which made the path to his victory rather obvious. Lava Spike did its thing.
Game 2: He had Guide and Firewalker in short order, while I had almost nothing. I eventually fielded Koth, -2 into Berserker, and attacked. He had Bolt for Berserker, and killed Koth with an attack. Life totals stood at 11-14 on turn 5 as I cast another Berserker, which met Lightning Helix. He kept pressure. I drew a Dragon’s Claw way too late, and died to a Boros Charm in response, attack, and a pair of Spikes.
Match Result: 0-2 loss
Round 6: Soul Sisters variant
My opponent arrived at my table dispirited. A 2-3 record meant neither of us were likely to see Day 2. We had a fair bit of banter, but the upshot is he seemed to buck up. After all, if you’re already pretty much out, you might have fun and just play some games of magic. He seemed in better spirits even before we started, pun intended.
Game 1: I played Relic, Stone, Relic, Moon, in short order. He had Windbrisk Heights, Auriok Champion, Soul’s Attendant, and Honor the Pure. I played PnKN, and he had Gideon AoZ, life totals at 18-29. I attacked Gideon with thopters, played Koth, untapped a mountain, and used it to finish with Bolt. He had Warden, Mindcensor, and attacked Koth down. I played and sacrificed Mind Stones and Relics, and killed lots of things. I thought I might stabilize, but then an EoT Secure the Wastes (X=6) dashed that. After, he confided it was his only copy.
Game 2: He played Warden, which I hit with Bolt. This was the same mistake from the earlier match, but I hadn’t done the retrospective yet. He played Pridemate, which got Bolt before an attack, and a Champion. Koth came down, but wasn’t able to throw much (I didn’t initially read the fine print: the mountains become red elementals, and that matters). Koth got attacked, and I played Dragon. Koth was then locked out by Arcane Spyglass; I had no removal since I saw no artifacts in game 1. He played a Warden and Serra Ascendant. I swung, and life totals started to even out at 18-21. He cast Gideon, then immediately sought an emblem, which I answered with Fallout. This might have been a mistake: I could have killed stuff at 2/2 later, and it might have saved me further down. I then made Stormbreath Monstrous: it was a race, and it looked to be tight: 14-10. He responded with Procession, gaining 3 life in the process. On turn 8, I played Scourge and swung back; he attacked and then dropped two more Spectral Processions, bringing life totals to 6-13 and leaving him with a swarm of spirits. My top card was not Anger or Fallout, and I conceded.
Match Result: 0-2 loss
Round 7: UR Storm
The other guy showed up at my table in great spirits. Clearly his losing record didn’t bug him, and I had accepted where I was and was simply going to try and get closer to even by the day’s end. We chatted plenty. He obliquely mentioned that some pro had said, “I spent 7 hours testing against your deck yesterday.” I guessed Storm. He played a bit coy. I commented that after turn 1 it might still be Jeskai, but turn 3 was a dead giveaway.
Game 1: He was on the play. I did not much but play land, while he did Visions, missed a land drop, then made it and cast Baral on turn 3. That got EoT Bolt, since I had him pegged. He cast Visions. I replied with PnKN. The next turn I made a Mind Stone and attacked, and he went for Ritual and Gifts; I gave him Noxious Revival and Baral. On turn 6 now, he cast Baral, then Ritual, which I responded to by Skred. He proceeded to cast a bunch of spells in response but failed to find anything to help him. Still, next turn looked scary with a massive graveyard including a Past in Flames, plus a Baral in hand. I topdecked Relic, slammed it down, wiped the graveyards, played Blood Moon (with him on triple nonbasics), attacked (9-20), and passed. Two turns later, it was over.
Game 2: Game 2 he played consecutive Sleight of Hands into Baral, which got an immediate Skred when I drew it on my turn. He then went for Visions. I then went for what I thought was a game-winning play in Berserker, but he actually recognized the card and had Bolt for it. On turn 5, he cast 3 Pyretic Rituals into Warrens. I played Reckoner. He attacked (13-20), leaving him with 6 tokens. I played Dragon’s Claw. He played Visions, and attacked, prompting me to Bolt another token, leaving life totals at 10-20 and him with 3. Koth came in, and sent a mountain towards him (10-16). He played Electromancer, attacked Koth with his tokens followed by Bolt. I had Bolt for the Electromancer EoT. I untapped, and dropped the Dragon and started swinging. I got him to 4 and played Fallout with Reckoner on the table. He tried to stop me, but then I told him about that first line and showed it to him. “Well, that’s pretty good.”
I also did a double-take during this match when I heard someone declare Koth nearby. Turns out the guy at the table next to me was basically playing Skred-less Skred. Maindeck Moons, Koths, the works. I guess that counts!
Match Result: 2-0 win
Round 8: Naya Zoo
The fellow I played against this round wasn’t so invested, but then again, who was by this point? Either way, we were both easygoing and just played a few fun, fast games of Magic. I also made a specific note of him as a scholar and a gentleman for politely correcting me several times in my own errors tracking life. That’s a charity I don’t deserve, but it was nice to get it.
Game 1: He had the turn 1 Guide to start chipping away, but it got Skred. He had a Bolt for me, to make things fair. He played a turn 3 Experiment One, which is not really the ideal time to play him. I had Blood Moon, and took another Bolt and attacked, putting me to 9. He played no spells for the rest of the game. I played PKN, Koth, Dragon, and Bolt to close it out.
Game 2: He kept a slow hand, and it was clear from the first turn tapped Ravinca-land. BTE into Nactyl (3/3) on turn 2 wasn’t awful though; merely not good enough. I replied with claw. He attacked, putting life totals to 15-20. I had Skred for Nactyl. He attacked, and I had Skred for the BTE too. I then played Reckoner. He attacked and had a Ghor-Clan Rampager, which resulted in a trade with Reckoner and life totals at 17-15. I played a Berserker and attacked. He played a Vexing Devil which I took damage from, and I played a Reckoner and attacked with Berserker again. He made a Narnam Renegade, but Fallout cleared it and did some Reckoner redirect damage, I attacked, and targeted Reckoner with Skred for the win.
Match Result: 2-0 win
Round 9: G-Tron
My opponent was a nice guy, just fun to play with all around. After a day like the one past, an opponent like that which just makes you appreciate the fun of the game is really good for the spirit.
Game 1: He had Expedition Map. Why do they always have turn 1 Map? He proceeded to crack it on turn 2. I got marginally lucky that he played conservative and I didn’t see Karn on turn 3, but he pegged me, cracked Star for Green mana, and used Sylvan Scrying to find Forest. Lucky me, following that with Blood Moon. He had Stirrings and Scrying, and I had Koth and not much else. On turn 6, with totals at 12-20, he played Wurmcoil Engine. I’m not going to detail it from here: his next turns were Wurmcoil, Ugin, and Ulamog plus Wurmcoil. I made a misplay in here due to unfamiliarity regarding Anger of the Gods and Wurmcoil, but it wouldn’t have mattered. Even Koth emblem didn’t matter. The Eldrazi rend the fabric of Magic as Lovecraft’s outer gods.
Game 2: I had turn 3 Moon, but he had a turn 3 Oblivion Stone. PnKN was matched by the might of Forest. I got a few attacks in, and then he EoT used Oblivion Stone. I sacrificed a Thopter in response, leaving totals at 20-10. Wurmcoil followed, and from there I was on the retreat. Pithing Needle shut off Scrying Sheets draw. I played Mind Stone and my second Moon. He attacked. I had Spitebellows for the Engine next turn. He then threw Worldbreaker out there, and I found yet another Moon. He soon had Ulamog, and there was nothing else to be done.
Match Result: 0-2 loss
I ended the day with a 4-5 record. I definitely had some fun playing the deck, and playing in general. A number of people said they were glad to see someone representing Skred. There were at least the two others I alluded to earlier, though I didn’t see any others. I also saw a fair amount of Sun and Moon being played, which is sort of like a distant cousin.
I think one of my wins (round 2) was just a good matchup, and the other three were a balance of good play and good luck. I don’t think there was any way to win the Round 9 match. Rounds 1 and 6, my deck just failed to deliver. I blame myself a bit for round 5, and definitely for round 3. If I were better, I might have been 6-3. That still wouldn’t have made day 2, though. I also never faced UWx Control/Tempo, Affinity, Elves, or any other of our typical prey. As I overheard someone saying: “The problem with Modern is that the format is too healthy.” I agree, and that makes a deck like ours harder to tune.
While the deck is fun and potentially powerful, it still has some problems. Among the biggest is lack of pressure. Moon is disruptive, though not as much as I might hope. Tron can wait us out: Moon, Koth, Dragon kills no faster than turn 6, which is right when Wurmcoil shows up. I’m trying to think of where to fit some MD Rabblemasters.
We also don’t have an easy time killing undercosted or accelerated big guys like TKS, RS, or Titans in the early game. This is partially but not completely mitigated by the power of Reckoner, PnKN, and Stormbreath on the battlefield. Sometimes it can be tough to catch them though: a turn 2-3 TKS can make things difficult regardless of anything that follows.
Other things of note: I never found artifact removal when I needed it, even with 4 copies. This was the critical element in me losing two games to disabled Koth. I moved down in Dragon count to avoid being defanged by Extraction, and a similar argument applies here. Chandra ToD would not likely have been better than Koth (who was spectacular), but having a different cardname and also redundancy might have been nice. I’ll eventually find two copies, and may drop down to 3 Koth (however reluctantly). Scourge was lackluster, but I never played in a match that would have showed its strengths. Berserkers seemed good when I used them. While I lost the games I played Bridge, I’d have likely lost them sooner otherwise.
Overall, I’m still quite glad I brought it to play at the tourney, even if I scrubbed out. The following day, I played a different deck in the Modern Classic (link here for details). I’m thankful to my opponents and their almost universally good sportsmanship and demeanor, and to the event staff for being patient with the newbie. And, of course, to this community for helping to develop and refine this deck.
@lord_darkview It was fun playing, sounds like it wasn't a bad first tourney for you!
- Round 5 Burn player
Likewise, it was fun. I supposed going nearly even on the day, learning a lot, meeting lots of cool people, and having fun counts as a good first tourney!
Hey dudes and dudettes, I think I ended up going 4-4 before dropping and heading home to feed my animals and take care of some stuff. Had a really good time, and my deck performed wonderfully for the most part. Glad I switched to 4x Relics and Mind Stones in the main instead of the 3x each I'd been running for awhile now. Also really enjoying the 2x Eternal Scourge I swapped out for 3x Boros Reckoner; flipping an E.S. off of Chandra's +1, opting not to cast it and dealing 2dmg followed by casting it from exile feels like having a first-class ticket to Value-Town haha.
My first loss was Round 1 to Jund(lol): the two games I lost mostly because he just ripped my opening hands apart with discard spells, but I got a win in Game 2 from him not having discard and my slamming a Blood Moon on T3.
Second loss was Round 4 I think, to Eldrazi Tron(big surprise). The games went mostly as expected: either I jammed a Blood Moon early enough and he couldn't find a basic Wastes, or he assembled Tron and proceeded to jam fatties. Additionally, Goblin Rabblemaster is awesome post-board for putting them on a fast clock, and they tend to only have Walking Ballista or All is Dust as "sweepers," and both of them take a huge mana investment which can possibly buy you a turn. I did find one significant flaw to playing Rabblemaster against them though: on Friday I played against an E. Tron player who put a Chalice of the Void on 3, shutting off 11 cards in my deck. I still miraculously won that match somehow, but everytime I drew either an Eternal Scourge, Blood Moon, Molten Rain, or Goblin Rabblemaster, I died a little inside.
My final two losses were to Naya Kiki-Jiki/Angel of Restoration combo and UR Kiki-Jiki, and were partly due to being unfamiliar with those versions of the decks(I literally said, "Craaaaaap, I thought this archetype was dead!" with the banning of Splinter Twin). Familiarity/surprise aside, I misplayed one game slightly by having bolt/skred in hand but failing to leave mana open to cast it, and mis-counting my opponent's mana. Against the UR version he was tapped out and we both had 7 lands. I had 3 cards in hand, and since he was tapped out I took the chance to jam Hazoret and discard something useless(a Mind Stone maybe, not sure) so that I could attack with it, bringing him down to two life. I gambled that he would need to draw an 8th land to cast Kiki and Pestermite, but I totally forgot that he could play Pestermite, untap one of his lands, and then cast Kiki-Jiki lol. I had Skred in hand and everything! T-T
Otherwise it was good to see Skred represented in full force out at the Open! I never saw any of you guys, but I did talk to two other Skred players that said they weren't on these forums. Additionally, I've been kind of in a rut lately and feeling down, but I just recently designed a bunch of stuff for our very own local streamers Top Deck Productions, and a bunch of people were wearing the "Bolt the Bird" T-shirts I made(myself included). It felt really good to have a ton of people commenting on it, and felt even better when I could say on T1, "Well, like the shirt says, I'm gonna Bolt yer Bird" haha. I'll let you all know when the online store is up if anyone wants one! Warning issued for inappropriate language. Swearing is prohibited. Edited it out. --CavalryWolfPack
Last time I went for 23Lands was in Mai this year when I had my best tournament results.
-> Would still never go back to 23, flooded way to much.
(Ever had 3x Scrying Sheets on, still revealing mountain after mountain? got me really mad -.-)
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"From my rotting body,
flowers shall grow
and I am in them
and that is eternity."
That's an interesting article. I hadn't realized Frank K. had written it.
23 or 24 land would definitely be the baseline, since we really want to make our first four (if not five) land drops. I'm not sure how to count the Mind Stones in there. We don't have a ton of competition for 2-drops, and so one could see the 4 Mind Stones as lands. If we're not running Mind Stone, then Magma Jets with additional lands might fit the bill.
I'm still debating Mind Stone in the deck. It's okay, but I've had very few matches where I didn't want to make a 3-drop before Koth. If that's the case, then Mind Stone's utility is diminished since I'm not really benefiting by being ahead on the curve. Either way, food for thought.
22 or 23 is correct if you're playing Mind stones and relics to help you dig in. If you're running 25 lands + mind stones, nearly half your deck is lands and that is definitely wrong. I don't even run 25 lands when im not running mana rocks. A reason why 22 might be "correct" right now might be because our manabase is less vulnerable now due to K-command not being as prevalent.
On Kevin Mackie: I wouldn't take advice about Skred from him, despite him winning a GP with it. His list is clearly adonis2k's list (There was no "standard" decklist at the time, nobody ran the same things) and is supposed to run 23 lands. Mackie ran one less for some reason and it seemed like he changed his mind afterwards. We watched his matches and he was clearly not experienced with the deck, taking sub-optimal lines and not knowing how some of his cards worked (Chandra, Scourge, etc). He didn't know how Ricochet trap worked against counterspells and sat there for 5 minutes trying to figure it out when his opponent called judge on him. His top8 matchups were extremely favorable. 5 of them being unlosable (3 Infect, Jeskai Control, and Dredge), one favored because of land destruction and blood moon (titanshift), and the grixis matchup which was also slightly favored. He also said in the interview that the deck was weak to control decks, but in reality we absolutely crushed those matchups (aside from blue tron).
I've been playing Magic seriously since the summer, solely on this deck, and I've lurked this thread for a while so I thought I might as well get involved in the conversation. I went to one of SCG's Regionals yesterday on a whim with a very untuned list for the current meta (essentially had not been updated or played since a PPTQ I went to in September), piloted it to 5-3, and feel like I got extremely lucky with my matchups. I beat G/W Company, an Abzan Assault Formation deck (hooray for the degeneracy of the 1-1 table), two Abzan decks, and Dredge. I lost to Gifts Storm, U Merfolk, and Burn. Seeing a bunch of midrange felt really good, as I do think those are the matchups I want to be playing against. U Merfolk is definitely worse for us than UG but it's close to even I would say. I feel almost the same about Burn. So all in all I think I had a good chance at making some real noise, but I'll take the 3 SCG points I guess lol.
Immediate reaction is that I want to be on 4 Stormbreath Dragon, although that might be me coming off of playing against 4 decks with heavy amounts of white. Card does it all and saved my ass plenty of times. Eats Lingering Souls and manlands, protects walkers, amazing clock.
Of the decks I lost to yesterday, Storm feels really bad. I talked with a friend about potentially Eidolon of the Great Revel out of the sideboard. In my experience playing against Burn (my main playing partner is a Burn player so it's the matchup I've played most), Eidolon tends to hurt them a lot more than it hurts us. We typically go over top of it just fine, especially on the play. In a similar vein I've been wanting to try Trinisphere. Not sure what else I can do there, I don't think my clock is fast enough to kill them. Turn 3 Koth didn't come close.
Of the decks I lost to yesterday, Storm feels really bad. I talked with a friend about potentially Eidolon of the Great Revel out of the sideboard. In my experience playing against Burn (my main playing partner is a Burn player so it's the matchup I've played most), Eidolon tends to hurt them a lot more than it hurts us. We typically go over top of it just fine, especially on the play. In a similar vein I've been wanting to try Trinisphere. Not sure what else I can do there, I don't think my clock is fast enough to kill them. Turn 3 Koth didn't come close.
Game 1, you can sometimes surprise them with an early Blood Moon that deprives them of blue (usually by game 2, they start fetching basics). MD Relic limits the power of Gifts Ungiven and Past in Flames. That, and killing Baral and Electromancer on sight should buy you a lot of time. It's not an easy race, but it can be won. While Eidolon can do good work against them, there's very few other opponents where you'd want to bring it in (Elves, perhaps). I bring in Scab-Clan Berserker. If they stick, they are a surprisingly good clock, and do all the work of Eidolon without lowering the Storm count they need to finish you off.
I didn't realize Scab-Clan Berserker was not symmetrical. I'm definitely looking forward to trying that one out. Do you bring it in against any matchups aside from Storm? I could see it replacing some of my top-end against Burn post-board.
It came in against Burn and many different forms of control, with varying degrees of effectiveness. A key competitor is Rabblemaster, who is weaker versus Storm and Burn but provides an even greater amount of pressure on an open board.
I haven't been playing much Modern recently, but with GP OKC next month I need to get back into it. I'm still happy with my maindeck, but thinking about my sideboard. Right now, I'm on:
There's a part of me that would like to squeeze in 1-2 Roast (for E Tron and Shadow), but I'm not sure there's anything I'm comfortable cutting. Dragon's Claw is one option, but I'm wary going into a big event without some extra Burn protection. Kozilek's is another, but with the recent surge in 5C Humans, extra sweepers seems smart.
I haven't been playing much Modern recently, but with GP OKC next month I need to get back into it. I'm still happy with my maindeck, but thinking about my sideboard. Right now, I'm on:
There's a part of me that would like to squeeze in 1-2 Roast (for E Tron and Shadow), but I'm not sure there's anything I'm comfortable cutting. Dragon's Claw is one option, but I'm wary going into a big event without some extra Burn protection. Kozilek's is another, but with the recent surge in 5C Humans, extra sweepers seems smart.
I don't think you need both 3x Boros Reckoner AND 3x Goblin Rabblemaster in your sideboard. I figure your intent is to bring them in based on matchup(Reckoner for when you need a wall, Rabble for when you need to go wide), but I would suggest moving one set to the main if that's your gameplan. Reckoners or Eternal Scourge maindeck, then swap out for the goblins if you need to be faster.
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Emrakul is a bad topdeck and TTB target [dragon] is just wasting a card, but Skred can slow the game with Moons, Relic, Scourge and removal to get to a point where we can just win on the spot with Emmy.
How did the tourney go for you?
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB
Full confession: despite playing this game for over a decade, this is actually the first sanctioned event I’ve ever participated in (getting my DCI number Friday night before). Thus, however good or bad I may ordinarily be, my performance may have been adversely affected by inexperience or discomfort with the environment.
Why did I choose Skred? I wanted a deck that seemed decently positioned against the meta, but would also generally reduce the number of decisions I needed to make in a single turn. I hoped this would reduce the amount of fatigue and mistakes I knew were inevitable in a new environment. The following was the decklist I played:
20 Snow-Covered Mountain
2 Scrying Sheets
Creatures (11)
3 Boros Reckoner
2 Eternal Scourge
3 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
3 Stormbreath Dragon
Planeswalkers (4)
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Skred
4 Blood Moon
2 Volcanic Fallout
1 Anger of the Gods
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Mind Stone
2 Shattering Spree
4 Scab-Clan Berserker
2 Spitebellows
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Dragon’s Claw
2 Ratchet Bomb
Life totals will be denoted as me-them.
Round 1: Eldrazi-Tron
I played a rather reserved, well paced gentleman in my first round. He was perfectly respectful, and the only real moment of disagreement we had was when I asked him to accelerate his play during game 2. We didn’t banter much and just played magic. Well, sorta. You’ll see.
Game 1: I was on the play, and I made my land drops, as did he. I had the sequence of Stone, PnKN, and Dragon. His was better though with turn Map, Chalice (X=1), Reality Smasher, Reality Smasher, with a Dismember for the Dragon. In the end, a pair of hasty 5/5s was a bit too much. I had Skred and Bolt, but never found a 5th land, so they would neither have removed a Smasher or allowed me to cast Dragon and Bolt for the win. His draw was simply better.
Game 2: I keep a hand with potential but miss my 3rd land drop. Meanwhile, he plays a turn 2 Ballista (X=1), map (missing land drop). I then make my 3rd, and cast Bridge. He casts TKS, taking Skred, and I soon double-Bolt it. However, by this point, I’m holding 3 Koths, and Spyglass comes down disabling all those copies. Moon follows, and the board settles into near stasis as he gets in a few points with Matter Reshapers, but eventually even that’s closed out. I figure I just need to find one of my four sources of artifact removal, but never do. We both hit a land glut, and his ends first with a massive Ballista.
Match Result: 0-2 loss
Round 2: Soul Sisters
My opponent was an amiable woman, who was both patient and forgiving. This might have saved me in Game 2: I got overexcited approaching my first win, and accidentally flipped an extra card with Sheets. Instead of calling a judge, she let it go and permitted me to put it back. We also bantered a lot. My mood improved with the conversation, and I had opportunity to pass that kindness on a bit later. Also, watching her play the deck took me back to reminiscing about when I played Shadowclysm in the ancient times, and even my own brief stint with Soul Sisters and its cousin, Martyr-Proc.
Game 1: I mulligan to 6 on the play. She casts Soul Warden, which I killed with Bolt. This was a mistake; Soul Warden is not a threat worth removing in the match. A Pridemate, Warden, Ascendant, and Spectral Procession followed. Meanwhile, I got stuck with insufficient removal, and cycling Relic didn’t find it. You can imagine how this went.
Game 2: She started with a turn 1 Martyr. I could have killed it, but didn’t. I figured I could drag her down from whatever life total she attained, given long enough. In hindsight, I’m not sure this was right: Serra Ascendants might have been an issue. Still, I was holding Ratchet Bomb, and played it, and ticked to 1. She attacked with Martyr, sacrificed (19-36), then cast another. I cast Scourge, and she sacrificed (19-56) and played Ascendant. I played PnKN, hoping to drag things out and force her to commit more. She did: Attendant and Ascendant, which died in a 3-for-1 to the Bomb. PnKN met PtE. I started chipping away in 1-point increments with a Thopter. We joked about a 56 turn clock. She did find some Pridemates and thwart some removal with Brave the Elements, but Anger cleared them. I eventually found Koth, protected him until I had the emblem, and from there it was mostly a matter of time.
Game 3: Early turns were Warden, Pridemate, Kataki, and Ascendant, and Warden for her. Mine was Relic, Bolt to Pridemate, sac Relic. I then tried to clear the table with Fallout EoT, but she had Brave the Elements. I had Anger on my next main though. She played Honor the Pure, Pridemate, and Serra Ascendant, while I had Ratchet Bomb, and Scourge. I stalled long enough and Dragon showed up. She didn’t have an answer to that.
On a side note, I ran into both her and other members of her playgroup later. She apparently ran into another Skred player later (who I never saw), and was surprised, to say the least. I expressed my condolences. It’s a really hard match for her deck. But you know, there’s no accounting for Fortuna’s favor...
Match Result: 2-1 win
Round 3: Death’s Shadow Jund
My opponent was a fairly nice fellow, though banter was sorta limited. A little humor revolved around game state, but otherwise, it was too intense for us to really divert attention.
Game 1: He mulliganed to 6 on the play, and not much happened until turn 3 when I played Moon. This was pretty good here, though he churned through a lot of cards. He eventually plays a DS at 11-20. I played PnKN. He followed up with Swiftspear, then Mutagenic Growth (without green mana, and I saw a bunch of Become Immense in the SB). I blocked the DS (16-9), and played another PnKN. I’m also chipping away with Thopters, occasionally chumping. I eventually play the 3rd PnKN, with some remarks made about how her parents must remain as dead as they were before the retcon. This was likely the mistake that cost me the match; it also might not have mattered. It was 14-5, and I might have played Reckoner with a few mana and a Skred as backup. He looted, attacked, and found Temur Battle Rage, which meant a chump-blocker just wouldn’t be enough. I’ve griped about TBR elsewhere being OP as a sorcery, but the reality was I just hadn’t expected it since I hadn’t seen it in so long.
Game 2: I played an early relic, and he had the Guide and Swiftspear. I eventually landed Moon and focused on killing creatures (Swiftspear with Bolt, two Death’s Shadows with Skred and Spitebellows). Unfortunately for me, life totals were 3-9, and Guide and Swiftspear raced in for the last 3.
Match Result: 0-2 loss
Round 4: WB Eldrazi and Taxes
My opponent was a man who had a certain degree of professional poise and a name to complement it. We didn’t banter a lot, but he was nice enough.
Game 1: I was on the play with Relic, and he had Sculler (taking Anger). I had Reckoner, but things looked bad when he got Processor to kill it. I cast Fallout on his turn to kill his guys, but then Displacer appeared. I cracked Relic. Turn 5 PnKN, and he had Confidant, with life totals at 13-17. I got Moon on turn 6, and he rushed to blink a thopter and cast PtE on PnKN. He pressed his attack and got me to 4, but Dragon, PnKN, Dragon was just too much pressure, and Fallout finished the job.
Game 2: Thalia came down early, but didn’t last long. I played Bridge on the third turn and Moon on the fifth. At this point, the game bogged down a bit: he had TKS, Confidant, and Displacer, while I played PnKN. He looked for a breakthrough with Flickerwisp targeting Blood Moon, and then followed that by going to Displace the Wisp. I responded with PnKN sac targeting the Flickerwisp, prompting Push on PnKN. That was probably where the game ended: he still made a Gideon AoZ and got to attack a bit, but Koth’s emblem really makes Gideon paltry and closed it out.
Match Result: 2-0 win
Round 5: Burn
I played against a pretty nice guy this round, and we actually discussed a lot about the quality and utility of different cards between the games and immediately after.
Game 1: I was on the play, and passed turn 1. He had Swiftspear, which came over. The next turn, he had another and Bolt during the attack, but I killed one with Skred in response, leaving totals at 14-17. I played Moon, then took more damage. I cast Reckoner, and he suspended Rift Bolt, followed by casting Eidolon. Eidolon didn’t phase me much at first: I had the Dragon, and his retort was another Eidolon. I might have made a mistake here: I was holding Fallout and Bolt, neither of which was really castable, life totals were 6-13, and I had Dragon and Reckoner to his two cards in hand, two Eidolons and Swiftspear. Any burn spell would allow him to attack for lethal, but absent that I could kill him in two turns. I probably should have hung back and blocked, allowing another draw phase. Instead I attacked, which made the path to his victory rather obvious. Lava Spike did its thing.
Game 2: He had Guide and Firewalker in short order, while I had almost nothing. I eventually fielded Koth, -2 into Berserker, and attacked. He had Bolt for Berserker, and killed Koth with an attack. Life totals stood at 11-14 on turn 5 as I cast another Berserker, which met Lightning Helix. He kept pressure. I drew a Dragon’s Claw way too late, and died to a Boros Charm in response, attack, and a pair of Spikes.
Match Result: 0-2 loss
Round 6: Soul Sisters variant
My opponent arrived at my table dispirited. A 2-3 record meant neither of us were likely to see Day 2. We had a fair bit of banter, but the upshot is he seemed to buck up. After all, if you’re already pretty much out, you might have fun and just play some games of magic. He seemed in better spirits even before we started, pun intended.
Game 1: I played Relic, Stone, Relic, Moon, in short order. He had Windbrisk Heights, Auriok Champion, Soul’s Attendant, and Honor the Pure. I played PnKN, and he had Gideon AoZ, life totals at 18-29. I attacked Gideon with thopters, played Koth, untapped a mountain, and used it to finish with Bolt. He had Warden, Mindcensor, and attacked Koth down. I played and sacrificed Mind Stones and Relics, and killed lots of things. I thought I might stabilize, but then an EoT Secure the Wastes (X=6) dashed that. After, he confided it was his only copy.
Game 2: He played Warden, which I hit with Bolt. This was the same mistake from the earlier match, but I hadn’t done the retrospective yet. He played Pridemate, which got Bolt before an attack, and a Champion. Koth came down, but wasn’t able to throw much (I didn’t initially read the fine print: the mountains become red elementals, and that matters). Koth got attacked, and I played Dragon. Koth was then locked out by Arcane Spyglass; I had no removal since I saw no artifacts in game 1. He played a Warden and Serra Ascendant. I swung, and life totals started to even out at 18-21. He cast Gideon, then immediately sought an emblem, which I answered with Fallout. This might have been a mistake: I could have killed stuff at 2/2 later, and it might have saved me further down. I then made Stormbreath Monstrous: it was a race, and it looked to be tight: 14-10. He responded with Procession, gaining 3 life in the process. On turn 8, I played Scourge and swung back; he attacked and then dropped two more Spectral Processions, bringing life totals to 6-13 and leaving him with a swarm of spirits. My top card was not Anger or Fallout, and I conceded.
Match Result: 0-2 loss
Round 7: UR Storm
The other guy showed up at my table in great spirits. Clearly his losing record didn’t bug him, and I had accepted where I was and was simply going to try and get closer to even by the day’s end. We chatted plenty. He obliquely mentioned that some pro had said, “I spent 7 hours testing against your deck yesterday.” I guessed Storm. He played a bit coy. I commented that after turn 1 it might still be Jeskai, but turn 3 was a dead giveaway.
Game 1: He was on the play. I did not much but play land, while he did Visions, missed a land drop, then made it and cast Baral on turn 3. That got EoT Bolt, since I had him pegged. He cast Visions. I replied with PnKN. The next turn I made a Mind Stone and attacked, and he went for Ritual and Gifts; I gave him Noxious Revival and Baral. On turn 6 now, he cast Baral, then Ritual, which I responded to by Skred. He proceeded to cast a bunch of spells in response but failed to find anything to help him. Still, next turn looked scary with a massive graveyard including a Past in Flames, plus a Baral in hand. I topdecked Relic, slammed it down, wiped the graveyards, played Blood Moon (with him on triple nonbasics), attacked (9-20), and passed. Two turns later, it was over.
Game 2: Game 2 he played consecutive Sleight of Hands into Baral, which got an immediate Skred when I drew it on my turn. He then went for Visions. I then went for what I thought was a game-winning play in Berserker, but he actually recognized the card and had Bolt for it. On turn 5, he cast 3 Pyretic Rituals into Warrens. I played Reckoner. He attacked (13-20), leaving him with 6 tokens. I played Dragon’s Claw. He played Visions, and attacked, prompting me to Bolt another token, leaving life totals at 10-20 and him with 3. Koth came in, and sent a mountain towards him (10-16). He played Electromancer, attacked Koth with his tokens followed by Bolt. I had Bolt for the Electromancer EoT. I untapped, and dropped the Dragon and started swinging. I got him to 4 and played Fallout with Reckoner on the table. He tried to stop me, but then I told him about that first line and showed it to him. “Well, that’s pretty good.”
I also did a double-take during this match when I heard someone declare Koth nearby. Turns out the guy at the table next to me was basically playing Skred-less Skred. Maindeck Moons, Koths, the works. I guess that counts!
Match Result: 2-0 win
Round 8: Naya Zoo
The fellow I played against this round wasn’t so invested, but then again, who was by this point? Either way, we were both easygoing and just played a few fun, fast games of Magic. I also made a specific note of him as a scholar and a gentleman for politely correcting me several times in my own errors tracking life. That’s a charity I don’t deserve, but it was nice to get it.
Game 1: He had the turn 1 Guide to start chipping away, but it got Skred. He had a Bolt for me, to make things fair. He played a turn 3 Experiment One, which is not really the ideal time to play him. I had Blood Moon, and took another Bolt and attacked, putting me to 9. He played no spells for the rest of the game. I played PKN, Koth, Dragon, and Bolt to close it out.
Game 2: He kept a slow hand, and it was clear from the first turn tapped Ravinca-land. BTE into Nactyl (3/3) on turn 2 wasn’t awful though; merely not good enough. I replied with claw. He attacked, putting life totals to 15-20. I had Skred for Nactyl. He attacked, and I had Skred for the BTE too. I then played Reckoner. He attacked and had a Ghor-Clan Rampager, which resulted in a trade with Reckoner and life totals at 17-15. I played a Berserker and attacked. He played a Vexing Devil which I took damage from, and I played a Reckoner and attacked with Berserker again. He made a Narnam Renegade, but Fallout cleared it and did some Reckoner redirect damage, I attacked, and targeted Reckoner with Skred for the win.
Match Result: 2-0 win
Round 9: G-Tron
My opponent was a nice guy, just fun to play with all around. After a day like the one past, an opponent like that which just makes you appreciate the fun of the game is really good for the spirit.
Game 1: He had Expedition Map. Why do they always have turn 1 Map? He proceeded to crack it on turn 2. I got marginally lucky that he played conservative and I didn’t see Karn on turn 3, but he pegged me, cracked Star for Green mana, and used Sylvan Scrying to find Forest. Lucky me, following that with Blood Moon. He had Stirrings and Scrying, and I had Koth and not much else. On turn 6, with totals at 12-20, he played Wurmcoil Engine. I’m not going to detail it from here: his next turns were Wurmcoil, Ugin, and Ulamog plus Wurmcoil. I made a misplay in here due to unfamiliarity regarding Anger of the Gods and Wurmcoil, but it wouldn’t have mattered. Even Koth emblem didn’t matter. The Eldrazi rend the fabric of Magic as Lovecraft’s outer gods.
Game 2: I had turn 3 Moon, but he had a turn 3 Oblivion Stone. PnKN was matched by the might of Forest. I got a few attacks in, and then he EoT used Oblivion Stone. I sacrificed a Thopter in response, leaving totals at 20-10. Wurmcoil followed, and from there I was on the retreat. Pithing Needle shut off Scrying Sheets draw. I played Mind Stone and my second Moon. He attacked. I had Spitebellows for the Engine next turn. He then threw Worldbreaker out there, and I found yet another Moon. He soon had Ulamog, and there was nothing else to be done.
Match Result: 0-2 loss
I ended the day with a 4-5 record. I definitely had some fun playing the deck, and playing in general. A number of people said they were glad to see someone representing Skred. There were at least the two others I alluded to earlier, though I didn’t see any others. I also saw a fair amount of Sun and Moon being played, which is sort of like a distant cousin.
I think one of my wins (round 2) was just a good matchup, and the other three were a balance of good play and good luck. I don’t think there was any way to win the Round 9 match. Rounds 1 and 6, my deck just failed to deliver. I blame myself a bit for round 5, and definitely for round 3. If I were better, I might have been 6-3. That still wouldn’t have made day 2, though. I also never faced UWx Control/Tempo, Affinity, Elves, or any other of our typical prey. As I overheard someone saying: “The problem with Modern is that the format is too healthy.” I agree, and that makes a deck like ours harder to tune.
While the deck is fun and potentially powerful, it still has some problems. Among the biggest is lack of pressure. Moon is disruptive, though not as much as I might hope. Tron can wait us out: Moon, Koth, Dragon kills no faster than turn 6, which is right when Wurmcoil shows up. I’m trying to think of where to fit some MD Rabblemasters.
We also don’t have an easy time killing undercosted or accelerated big guys like TKS, RS, or Titans in the early game. This is partially but not completely mitigated by the power of Reckoner, PnKN, and Stormbreath on the battlefield. Sometimes it can be tough to catch them though: a turn 2-3 TKS can make things difficult regardless of anything that follows.
Other things of note: I never found artifact removal when I needed it, even with 4 copies. This was the critical element in me losing two games to disabled Koth. I moved down in Dragon count to avoid being defanged by Extraction, and a similar argument applies here. Chandra ToD would not likely have been better than Koth (who was spectacular), but having a different cardname and also redundancy might have been nice. I’ll eventually find two copies, and may drop down to 3 Koth (however reluctantly). Scourge was lackluster, but I never played in a match that would have showed its strengths. Berserkers seemed good when I used them. While I lost the games I played Bridge, I’d have likely lost them sooner otherwise.
Overall, I’m still quite glad I brought it to play at the tourney, even if I scrubbed out. The following day, I played a different deck in the Modern Classic (link here for details). I’m thankful to my opponents and their almost universally good sportsmanship and demeanor, and to the event staff for being patient with the newbie. And, of course, to this community for helping to develop and refine this deck.
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB
- Round 5 Burn player
Likewise, it was fun. I supposed going nearly even on the day, learning a lot, meeting lots of cool people, and having fun counts as a good first tourney!
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB
My first loss was Round 1 to Jund(lol): the two games I lost mostly because he just ripped my opening hands apart with discard spells, but I got a win in Game 2 from him not having discard and my slamming a Blood Moon on T3.
Second loss was Round 4 I think, to Eldrazi Tron(big surprise). The games went mostly as expected: either I jammed a Blood Moon early enough and he couldn't find a basic Wastes, or he assembled Tron and proceeded to jam fatties. Additionally, Goblin Rabblemaster is awesome post-board for putting them on a fast clock, and they tend to only have Walking Ballista or All is Dust as "sweepers," and both of them take a huge mana investment which can possibly buy you a turn. I did find one significant flaw to playing Rabblemaster against them though: on Friday I played against an E. Tron player who put a Chalice of the Void on 3, shutting off 11 cards in my deck. I still miraculously won that match somehow, but everytime I drew either an Eternal Scourge, Blood Moon, Molten Rain, or Goblin Rabblemaster, I died a little inside.
My final two losses were to Naya Kiki-Jiki/Angel of Restoration combo and UR Kiki-Jiki, and were partly due to being unfamiliar with those versions of the decks(I literally said, "Craaaaaap, I thought this archetype was dead!" with the banning of Splinter Twin). Familiarity/surprise aside, I misplayed one game slightly by having bolt/skred in hand but failing to leave mana open to cast it, and mis-counting my opponent's mana. Against the UR version he was tapped out and we both had 7 lands. I had 3 cards in hand, and since he was tapped out I took the chance to jam Hazoret and discard something useless(a Mind Stone maybe, not sure) so that I could attack with it, bringing him down to two life. I gambled that he would need to draw an 8th land to cast Kiki and Pestermite, but I totally forgot that he could play Pestermite, untap one of his lands, and then cast Kiki-Jiki lol. I had Skred in hand and everything! T-T
Otherwise it was good to see Skred represented in full force out at the Open! I never saw any of you guys, but I did talk to two other Skred players that said they weren't on these forums. Additionally, I've been kind of in a rut lately and feeling down, but I just recently designed a bunch of stuff for our very own local streamers Top Deck Productions, and a bunch of people were wearing the "Bolt the Bird" T-shirts I made(myself included). It felt really good to have a ton of people commenting on it, and felt even better when I could say on T1, "Well, like the shirt says, I'm gonna Bolt yer Bird" haha. I'll let you all know when the online store is up if anyone wants one!
Warning issued for inappropriate language. Swearing is prohibited. Edited it out. --CavalryWolfPack
For some reason it took us more than a year of running x4 mind stones to figure this out
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB
-> Would still never go back to 23, flooded way to much.
(Ever had 3x Scrying Sheets on, still revealing mountain after mountain? got me really mad -.-)
flowers shall grow
and I am in them
and that is eternity."
23 or 24 land would definitely be the baseline, since we really want to make our first four (if not five) land drops. I'm not sure how to count the Mind Stones in there. We don't have a ton of competition for 2-drops, and so one could see the 4 Mind Stones as lands. If we're not running Mind Stone, then Magma Jets with additional lands might fit the bill.
I'm still debating Mind Stone in the deck. It's okay, but I've had very few matches where I didn't want to make a 3-drop before Koth. If that's the case, then Mind Stone's utility is diminished since I'm not really benefiting by being ahead on the curve. Either way, food for thought.
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB
On Kevin Mackie: I wouldn't take advice about Skred from him, despite him winning a GP with it. His list is clearly adonis2k's list (There was no "standard" decklist at the time, nobody ran the same things) and is supposed to run 23 lands. Mackie ran one less for some reason and it seemed like he changed his mind afterwards. We watched his matches and he was clearly not experienced with the deck, taking sub-optimal lines and not knowing how some of his cards worked (Chandra, Scourge, etc). He didn't know how Ricochet trap worked against counterspells and sat there for 5 minutes trying to figure it out when his opponent called judge on him. His top8 matchups were extremely favorable. 5 of them being unlosable (3 Infect, Jeskai Control, and Dredge), one favored because of land destruction and blood moon (titanshift), and the grixis matchup which was also slightly favored. He also said in the interview that the deck was weak to control decks, but in reality we absolutely crushed those matchups (aside from blue tron).
Here is the 75 I played yesterday.
20 Snow Covered Mountains
2 Scrying Sheets
Creatures
2 Eternal Scourge
3 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Hazoret the Fervent
3 Stormbreath Dragon
Planeswalkers
4 Koth of the Hammer
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
3 Blood Moon
Artifacts
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Mind Stone
Instants and Sorceries
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Skred
2 Dismember
2 Sweltering Suns
2 Pithing Needle
2 Goblin Rabblemaster
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Shattering Spree
3 Dragon's Claw
1 Blood Moon
Immediate reaction is that I want to be on 4 Stormbreath Dragon, although that might be me coming off of playing against 4 decks with heavy amounts of white. Card does it all and saved my ass plenty of times. Eats Lingering Souls and manlands, protects walkers, amazing clock.
Of the decks I lost to yesterday, Storm feels really bad. I talked with a friend about potentially Eidolon of the Great Revel out of the sideboard. In my experience playing against Burn (my main playing partner is a Burn player so it's the matchup I've played most), Eidolon tends to hurt them a lot more than it hurts us. We typically go over top of it just fine, especially on the play. In a similar vein I've been wanting to try Trinisphere. Not sure what else I can do there, I don't think my clock is fast enough to kill them. Turn 3 Koth didn't come close.
Game 1, you can sometimes surprise them with an early Blood Moon that deprives them of blue (usually by game 2, they start fetching basics). MD Relic limits the power of Gifts Ungiven and Past in Flames. That, and killing Baral and Electromancer on sight should buy you a lot of time. It's not an easy race, but it can be won. While Eidolon can do good work against them, there's very few other opponents where you'd want to bring it in (Elves, perhaps). I bring in Scab-Clan Berserker. If they stick, they are a surprisingly good clock, and do all the work of Eidolon without lowering the Storm count they need to finish you off.
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB
3 Reckoner
3 Rabblemaster
3 Molten Rain
2 Dragon's Claw
2 Kozilek's Return
2 Shattering Spree
There's a part of me that would like to squeeze in 1-2 Roast (for E Tron and Shadow), but I'm not sure there's anything I'm comfortable cutting. Dragon's Claw is one option, but I'm wary going into a big event without some extra Burn protection. Kozilek's is another, but with the recent surge in 5C Humans, extra sweepers seems smart.
I don't think you need both 3x Boros Reckoner AND 3x Goblin Rabblemaster in your sideboard. I figure your intent is to bring them in based on matchup(Reckoner for when you need a wall, Rabble for when you need to go wide), but I would suggest moving one set to the main if that's your gameplan. Reckoners or Eternal Scourge maindeck, then swap out for the goblins if you need to be faster.