I would agree with you, Combo pose a way bigger threat for R/G tron.
On a side note I will be updating the primer this week as I have some time off, what do you guys wanted added/edited?
I really think the start to all this is Sideboard Chalice of the Void and/or Rule of Law. This deck has the potential of doing T3 Chalice for 2, which basically neuters UR Storm (Kills Manamorphose, Desperate Ritual, Pyretic Ritual, Peer Through Depths, Pyromancer Ascension, Electromancer, and kills Echoing Truth out of the board.) We can also slow down infect with a Chalice set to 1 (Kills most of their pumps and their 1 drop infect creature, plus gets rid of nature's claim.) Yes we lose our stars and spheres as well, but we can play around Chalice set to 1 better than they can. Sunny Side up combo would most likely be chalice for 1 as well. And as for Exarch Twin, well that is just nasty no matter what way I look at it. I am sure we can shore up that MU with other SB slots.
I really think the start to all this is Sideboard Chalice of the Void and/or Rule of Law. This deck has the potential of doing T3 Chalice for 2, which basically neuters UR Storm (Kills Manamorphose, Desperate Ritual, Pyretic Ritual, Peer Through Depths, Pyromancer Ascension, Electromancer, and kills Echoing Truth out of the board.) We can also slow down infect with a Chalice set to 1 (Kills most of their pumps and their 1 drop infect creature, plus gets rid of nature's claim.) Yes we lose our stars and spheres as well, but we can play around Chalice set to 1 better than they can. Sunny Side up combo would most likely be chalice for 1 as well. And as for Exarch Twin, well that is just nasty no matter what way I look at it. I am sure we can shore up that MU with other SB slots.
MD Chalice? I like the idea of MDing things that can fix bad match ups game one
@Lec: +Vandalblast -? in the affinity match-up.
Karn seems kinda eh in that match up as they are fast and I think weathering the storm is more important.... get them to over commit and hit them with a vandal.... but I know I may be off. I know O-stone and 'clasm are also good.... along with Wurmcoil
Eggs should be a pretty reasonable matchup because Tron plays Relic mainboard and with a correctly timed Relic and him not having 2 Sunrise effects to let your Relic not get anything, Tron should have quite the good matchup against Eggs.
Yes, Twin is a very very nasty matchup. Pre-board you can't quite do anything except slamming an O-Stone early enough and keeping the mana open to explode it any time. Post-board, they bring Grundge and Blood Moon = really nasty.
UR Storm is not the hard matchup. Any serious Tron list should dedicate 4 SB slots to Storm. With Relic mainboard, their GY strategy off Past in Flames and Ascension are disrupted while Pyroclasm still gets the 'mancer. Post-board you bring in 4 Rule of Law or 4 Mindbreak Trap whilst boarding out Wurmcoil and you should win easily.
The really bad matchups are "unfair" decks like Poison (this is a matchup you litteraly just throw away. You can win it if you are very lucky but usually you just die hard), Twin, Kiki Pod and Scapeshift is also a bit rough.
Okay, playtested the Sunny Side Up (Cifka cantrips version) pre-board for a bit. Stick Relic and you may just stymie them long enough to win the game. Forcing them to burn two Sunrises initially can make them fizzle (they've fizzled twice in four Relic games so far, couldn't even start off a third because they didn't have 7 mana for double Sunrise, and comboed off through Relic in the fourth because Karn smacked Ghost Quarter, they popped it in response targeting my only open land, and my lone Forest was stuck in hand).
Unfortunately, if you can't find a Relic (or post-board hate) by Turn 4, they most likely are comboing off, with their Lotus Bloom opening or their 4 Reshapes.
Maybe it's because my preferred anti-combo hate is Slaughter Games (it's so generalist--it hits every single combo deck for at least some value), but I've still found UR Storm ugly post-board. They board in Empty the Warrens/Epic Experiment/Pyromancer's Swath/Ignite Memories and maybe bounce for Relic and board out Past in Flames and the worst cantrips, and I've lost plenty of times after casting one Slaughter Games. (They scoop after I cast two Slaughter Games, though--Goblin Electromancer is not a clock, and I still haven't actually met anyone who plays Ignite Memories.) I've even lost a game after I Pyroclasm'd the first EtW wave because Pyromancer's Ascension draws an absurd number of cards. If all I met was Storm, I'd probably play Rule of Law instead of Slaughter Games, but I'm too worried about other combo decks.
I've found Twin Pod is a fair match-up pre-board but probably turns for the worse post-board after they board in Fulminator Mage and Avalanche Riders (I don't really feel like being on the back end of Blink Riders).
Couldn't Rule of Law help against a few other decks as well? Twin wants to stick both pieces in one turn, else it gives us a chance at removal. Infect wants to drop multiple buffs to do anything. Affinity is usually playing a bunch of stuff in a single turn. Yeah, Infect and Affinity might be in a good place by the time we drop RoL, but might be worth a shot.
Despite me talking about RoL potentially being too slow, I like Curse of Exhaustion since it doesn't negatively affect us. Double white might be difficult in R/G tron though and 4cmc may be way too slow.
Do we have any real gameplan against Hive Mind? I know it's a combo deck that's fallen by the wayside, but I've really got no idea what our strategy to beat it is. All I can think of is to hope we have the mana to pay for the pacts.
Couldn't Rule of Law help against a few other decks as well? Twin wants to stick both pieces in one turn, else it gives us a chance at removal. Infect wants to drop multiple buffs to do anything. Affinity is usually playing a bunch of stuff in a single turn. Yeah, Infect and Affinity might be in a good place by the time we drop RoL, but might be worth a shot.
Rule only beats Storm. It comes out too late against Infect and Affinity; they could have emptied most of their hand by turn 2. Twin can EOT flash in a creature, tap your land and combo off on their turn.
How about 4x Leyline of Sanctity in the board and just aggressively mulling into it? That shuts down Storm and Eggs and even Jund to an extent (can't target discard, burn, etc). Sure, they can echoing truth it, but it buys us enough time. If we can get Karn out quickly enough with Leyline still on the board and start blowing up their lands, we should be ok.
My only worry is dedicated 4x sideboard slots to it and the risk of not mulling into it, but I feel like its a better answer than Rule of Law.
Torpor is for Pod, Graf/Slaughter are for Storm/Combo, Nature's is all around utility, Combust is for Exarch Twin, Spellskite is for Infect, and the WUrmcoil and O stone are there for aggro/affinity.
I'm considering cutting Combust to 2x and dropping the cages to fit in Leyline of Sanctity. I'd put the 4th O Stone into my MD in place of a singleton Thragtusk I've been testing.
Not as worried about affinity/infect because i run 4x Pyroclasm and 3-4x Oblivion Stone main deck hence why I don't have many SB slots dedicated to them.
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I'd advise mindbreak trap over leyline since they can still quite easily truth away your leyline and combo you before you can do anything with your karn that you played on turn 3. It's also worth pointing out that if you are aggressively mulliganing to leyline there is a fairly good chance that you aren't going to have any action until quite late in the piece.
I'd advise mindbreak trap over leyline since they can still quite easily truth away your leyline and combo you before you can do anything with your karn that you played on turn 3. It's also worth pointing out that if you are aggressively mulliganing to leyline there is a fairly good chance that you aren't going to have any action until quite late in the piece.
Mindbreak is a dead card v. every other deck. Leyline stops all storm decks (eggs included) and slows down decks like Jund and Burn. If I'm dedicating 4 SB slots, I want the card to be useful for more than a single matchup.
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Hey guys thought you should know, yesterday I was play testing my list vs. BUG Delver Legacy, I won 2 out of 3, quite fun actually, any deck the relies on Tarmogofy and seems to be weak against our deck.
Hey guys thought you should know, yesterday I was play testing my list vs. BUG Delver Legacy, I won 2 out of 3, quite fun actually, any deck the relies on Tarmogofy and seems to be weak against our deck.
RUG Delver in legacy would seem to give us trouble methinks....
Anyway, I had a question about a match-up and forgot about it, so look back at this post if I remember.
Leyline of Sanctity does not stop Eggs. Eggs will just draw their entire library until they get a bounce spell, then kill you. Or win through it with Laboratory Maniac anyway.
It's good against Jund, but the main deck is already excellent against it. Also, it doesn't stop Sowing Salt.
Hey guys thought you should know, yesterday I was play testing my list vs. BUG Delver Legacy, I won 2 out of 3, quite fun actually, any deck the relies on Tarmogofy and seems to be weak against our deck.
Most R/G Tron decks mainboard graveyard hate in Relic. That can make a difference game 1.
I got a really lucky draw here. I played a new guy who was basically running an RTR sealed deck. He was clearly new so I helped walk him through the steps and turns. I had to mull down to 5 and keep a 1-land hand in game 1 and he actually won it because my first 5 draws were not land.
Games 2 and 3 were a blowout. No siding.
1-0 (2-1 in games)
Game 2 - Kiki-Twin
I got off to a decently quick start and resolved an early Oblivion Stone. My opponent wasn't as familiar with O-Stone as she probably wanted to be. She tried to Exrach-Twin combo off with my stone on the table. I activated and cleaned out her combo. Cast Emrakul before she had a chance to resolve the combo again.
Side:
-4 Relic of Progenitus
-4 Pyroclasm
+2 Slaughter Games
+2 Torpor Orb
+2 Combust
+2 Nature's Claim
Game 2 we both stumble on draws. She resolves a Pithing Needle naming O-Stone. I simply get my gas before she does, resolve a Karn, blow up needle and start nuking her hand - it's all over from there. Sat on a Nature's claim and Combust all game just in case she draw her pieces.
2-0 (4-1 in games)
Game 3 - Mono U Merfolk
Game 1 was a slog. He got me down to 4 life before I finally stabilized. Vapor Snag did work against my Wurmcoils but he finally ran out of answers, I sweeped with an O-Stone, stuck a Wurmcoil and won.
Game 2, he stuck a turn 2, 3, 4 spreading seas on my tron pieces. I resolved an O-stone and was 1 turn away from sweeping his board and seas with Wurmcoils and Karn in hand but he swung in for lethal.
Game 3 - I had to mull to 4 and kept a 1 land hand. He got off to an explosive start and I was sub 10 life in a heart beat. I top decked like a champ and he didn't find his seas so I was able to o-stone, wurmcoil, and karn and stabilize at 2 life. Double wurmcoils with Karn on the board sent him to scoop.
(3-0) (6-2 in games)
Game 4 - Soul Sisters
Great player with a deck that was perfect for the meta. Game 1 went for 35 minutes as I was able to sweep and stabilize over and over again. Unfortunately, he had paths for all of my Wurmcoils and Mindcensors for all my tutors (Ugin). I dug and dug but didn't draw my Emrakul or more Wurmcoils so that was that. He took the first game with 50+ life.
-4 Relic of Progenitus
-1 Sylvan Scrying
+1 Wurmcoil
+2 Combust
+2 Torpor Orb (shut down life gain)
Games 2 and 3 had a much greater sense of inevitability. He resolved a Stony Silence to shut down my Oblivion Stones and cantrips but that just slowed me down. He overextended into Pyroclasm several times and couldn't find his paths for my Wurmcoils. Never dropped below 10, finished both games well over 40 life to win it.
(4-0) (8-3 in games).
MVP: Oblivion Stone. I made a last minute change to include #4 in my MD and couldn't have been happier. The fact that it hits enchantments and artifacts is just icing on the cake. The card did work in every single game and I was never sad to see it or multiples of it - must have 3-4x.
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I played R/G Tron at Grand Prix Toronto a little over 3 weeks ago. The list i played was as following
4x Chromatic Sphere
4x Chromatic Star
4x Expedition Map
4x Relic of Progenitus
4x Oblivion Stone
4x Ancient Stirrings
4x Pyroclasm
4x Sylvan Scrying
4x Karn Liberated
4x Wurmcoil Engine
1x Emrakul, the Aeon's Torn
1x Eye of Ugin
2x Forest
1x Ghost Quarter
3x Grove of the Burnwillows
4x Urza's Tower
4x Urza's Power Plant
4x Urza's Mine.
SIDEBOARD
2x Batterskull
3x Chalice of the Void
3x Spellskite
3x Nature's Claim
2x Dismember
2x Combust
My Record on Day 1 was 7-2 which qualified me for Day 2. My 2 Losses were to Gifts/Rock and Scapeshift. Scapeshift i had 0 chances to win given the fact i have actual 0 cards for that match-up Main deck and post board. The Gifts match i felt was in my favor i was just on the rough end of Variance...like when you mulligan to 5 and have 3 Karn and an Eye of Ugin in your hand. But hey that's the risk you take playing this deck, If you want to be doing something powerful it comes at a cost (Poor Mulligans). Any way you decide to take what i have to say is up to you.
I had 3 Byes to start off so Disregarding my 3 Byes and 2 Losses let's look at the 4 decks i beat on day 1.
UW Tron. We are simply much faster and effective and what both decks are trying to do. U/W Tron tries to play the controlling game while assembling the lands to cast their over the top spells. R/G Tron is heavily favored because it has all the same elements essentially and gets to them much faster. IE. Pyroclasm vs Supreme Verdict/Wrath of God. Also Casting Karn on turn 3 their only answer to it is Remand and Oblivion Ring (If they get to 3 lands). The upside of RG Tron in all tron mirrors is that the greatest trump to everything they can cast is essentially Oblivion Stone. I used it to remove his Signets, blow up his talisman and take his oblivion ring with him for good measure. It was essentially a double stone rain + disenchant while getting my planeswalker back. Post board you get to bring out the useless pyroclasm's for Nature's Claims. G - Stone rain, you'll give em 4 life every time to make the deal.
Storm, I won game 1.....still scratching my head to this day. It is no where near to as close as most people put it. I have a firm belief that "Storm" Maintains like a 85/15 against tron. Your only game 1 hope is you have relic and they fizzle and/or Don't just go overboard with Epic Experiment, you can't beat epic experiment, not in a million years. Games 2 and 3 Are what really matter and what actually mattered. Chalice of the Void only bought me so much time. I was only ever able to Chalice for 1 Game 2 because he was completely Capable at going off at any point and risking 1 more turn to shut him down was extremely greed bag and overly ambitious. He Ended up Echoing truthing the Chalice then combo'd off with approx 5 1 mana cantrips. Game 3 i just played Karn on the play stone rained him then he missed a land drop. Easy game.
Red Deck Wins. this match-up is still somewhere inbetween a proverbial "Bye" and "Impossible". a Turn 3 Wurmcoil is quite unbeatable for them....But your durdle hands will end up costing you essentially the entire game. Approach this match-up like you would a man with a Mullet. Business in the Front, Party in the back. Post board i feel like i am extremely favored, i get to board out Emrakul and Oblivion stones for Batterskulls and Natures claims. Natures claim is secretly your MVP against RDW. The particular opponent i played had Smash to Smithereen's as his artifact hate which is essentially smelt + lightning bolt. i response would continually just natures claim his target and casually gain my 4 life. This matchup is pretty easy if you get the right hand and you are a competent player, but still approach it like it is going to be a grind or else you'll underestimate it and lose.
Black/White Tokens. This match-up is a bye, literally...nothing to see here. You actually can't realistically lose this one unless you keep a 1 lander and discard 6-7 turns in a row. They simply do not apply enough pressure or have enough ways to keep your average card honest. They are a deck that actually has to commit into your wrath effects. Their Anthems and board's are easily wiped to a clean slate with Oblivion Stone. Oh, And Karn only ever has to keep +4ing. It's quite a joke how easy it is to beat them. Just be ready post board with your nature's claims so they can't randomly get you with a stony silence.
Day 2 i played against Infect. won 2-1. They kept the "all in on 1 guy" and i kept the "Turn 2 pyroclasm on the play" hand. worked out quite nicely, Nice enough to show up to the 2nd game as well. Next opponent was RDW. i won game 1 in a close game, Games 2 and 3 looked like the goofy sample hand i gave you where it was like 3 karns and a eye in your mulligan...you know...when you want to cut your wrists for playing the deck essentially. I rebounded with probably my 2nd easiest match in the entire tournament. Jund is a joke if you get a "Average" tron hand. They cannot even come close to what you are doing on curve and if they did...they kept a hand of Inquisitions/Thoughtseizes and have nothing out pressuring you...and if that is the case...you are winning anyways because the game is going to extend past turn 5. I lost the round after to a BUG Control deck that had ghost quarters and life from the loams caked all over his sideboard (I forgot to mention the grinders were overrun with RG Tron at the tournament site the night before so i expected quite much more hate then i actually seen) I couldn't overcome that kind of hand backed up with counter magic and was easily dispatched. The downward spiral continued as i lost a favorable matchup to kiblers hate bear deck which in all reality is a bye for you almost for the exact reason the token deck was. All it took for me to lose however were mull to 5's with eye of ugin and cards that cost approximately 1 million mana...pewpew. I ended round 15 on a high note dispatching a UW Flash player. That matchup i initially felt was terrible because they have Mana leaks and whatnot to keep your early game in check. Upon further testing and actual playing. That matchup is pretty close to as bad for them as you would think. You can get around mana leak quite easily, Spell snare's are often quite dead, Oblivion stone stops all of their aggression and you are at heart another Control deck. In fact in this match-up, approach them as if you are a more controlling deck and drag the game on, they typically only have 1-2 cryptic commands to actually work with and you have relics to make sure the snapcaster mages are better off being ambush vipers that actually trade with a wurmcoil engine. I went 10-5 and as you could tell a couple of my losses were "To myself".
When you take this deck and play it, you must first realize you are gambling quite a bit. You do have miserable mulligans, you don't have a good combo match-up generally and you are hoping the metagame is jund heavy. I would easily SNAP play this deck again in a heartbeat with a few minor changes.
1st Change.
Combusts have to go. The only 2 matchups they are good against, it is almost irrelevant. UW flash is quite easy to beat without it, and splintertwin you already should have Dismembers for alongside infect decks which slightly render the combust useless. Those slots would be better off dedicated to combo hate such as Slaughter Games.
2nd Change
Ghost Quarter is a bad Card. You cannot often afford to set yourself back or not have a colorless source of mana to cast your spells. It did once protect my karn from a Raging Ravine, but that is not a indicator that it should be their, Quite often i would mulligan because it was not a colored source.
3rd Change
I would add a Rule of Law type effect to my sideboard like i see most decks doing now anyways.
In Conclusion, I felt that my 75 was maybe 5-6 cards off from being where i wanted it to be against the field. But hey, if we could predict what we were expecting we'd all be on the pro tour and have a name people recognized anyways. You shouldn't entirely focus on making changes to beat decks you are already good against. Like when i see people talking about Adding Leyline of Sanctity. (Which essentially has to be in your hand because you can't cast it) A added reason was that it shuts off some of jund? Who cares, you are beating them anyways. When you discuss sideboard cards you must approach each card decision and analyze it. You must see that it is good across the matchups that are relevant and have a spot. EI. Rule of Law. Good against Storm Infect AND twin. That's the kind of card you want when approaching combo decks. Cards like Chalice of the Void (Which was a mistake and has quite a nonbo with half of your plans for it) Are not particularly useful. Like when people say CotV for 1 Against Infect? like...you shut off half of your cards, No Ancient Stirrings, Maps, Eggs, No Relics. Those cards comprise around 40% of your deck you cannot simply just shut them off to make a deck that is good against you "mediocre". If i could say 1 thing, it's that i regret adding chalice to my sideboard and its a learning mistake i made for the better.
Recently a newer form of Tron has been seeing success across all kinds of tournaments and i wanted to bring it to your attention. It has a maindeck ghost quarter which i think is 100% wrong, but thats just my opinion and everyone will have one.
The deck was named "Megatron" by the decklist writer and was posted as that on the top 8 forum. Without Further Adieu here is the link.
I Love the city of brass in the mana base allowing for a better way to cast your sideboard hosers like Slaugher Games and Rule of law. This is most excellent and where i see tron going in the not to distant future. I'll check back later to see what everyone has to say about that innovation. Good luck, my friends.
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I really think the start to all this is Sideboard Chalice of the Void and/or Rule of Law. This deck has the potential of doing T3 Chalice for 2, which basically neuters UR Storm (Kills Manamorphose, Desperate Ritual, Pyretic Ritual, Peer Through Depths, Pyromancer Ascension, Electromancer, and kills Echoing Truth out of the board.) We can also slow down infect with a Chalice set to 1 (Kills most of their pumps and their 1 drop infect creature, plus gets rid of nature's claim.) Yes we lose our stars and spheres as well, but we can play around Chalice set to 1 better than they can. Sunny Side up combo would most likely be chalice for 1 as well. And as for Exarch Twin, well that is just nasty no matter what way I look at it. I am sure we can shore up that MU with other SB slots.
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MD Chalice? I like the idea of MDing things that can fix bad match ups game one
My anti-Affinity plans would probably be the following:
+2 Vandalblast
+2 Electrickery
+1 Nature's Claim
+1 Seal of Primordium
-4 Relic of Progenitus (they don't use the graveyard, either)
-1 Prophetic Prism (I'm not boarding in Slaughter Games; ergo, I don't need this as much)
-1 Ancient Stirrings (Does not draw into my fast hate cards)
It may not be entirely optimal, though. Pulling Sylvan Scrying, Ulamog, and Karn are also options.
Probably switching Wurmcoil and Ulamog... or dropping it for a wurmcoil. As you can see, I love wurmcoil...
I dont know, I just like the look of your list.... seems like a really good base to muse ideas off of.
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething SpicyOkay, playtested the Sunny Side Up (Cifka cantrips version) pre-board for a bit. Stick Relic and you may just stymie them long enough to win the game. Forcing them to burn two Sunrises initially can make them fizzle (they've fizzled twice in four Relic games so far, couldn't even start off a third because they didn't have 7 mana for double Sunrise, and comboed off through Relic in the fourth because Karn smacked Ghost Quarter, they popped it in response targeting my only open land, and my lone Forest was stuck in hand).
Unfortunately, if you can't find a Relic (or post-board hate) by Turn 4, they most likely are comboing off, with their Lotus Bloom opening or their 4 Reshapes.
Maybe it's because my preferred anti-combo hate is Slaughter Games (it's so generalist--it hits every single combo deck for at least some value), but I've still found UR Storm ugly post-board. They board in Empty the Warrens/Epic Experiment/Pyromancer's Swath/Ignite Memories and maybe bounce for Relic and board out Past in Flames and the worst cantrips, and I've lost plenty of times after casting one Slaughter Games. (They scoop after I cast two Slaughter Games, though--Goblin Electromancer is not a clock, and I still haven't actually met anyone who plays Ignite Memories.) I've even lost a game after I Pyroclasm'd the first EtW wave because Pyromancer's Ascension draws an absurd number of cards. If all I met was Storm, I'd probably play Rule of Law instead of Slaughter Games, but I'm too worried about other combo decks.
I've found Twin Pod is a fair match-up pre-board but probably turns for the worse post-board after they board in Fulminator Mage and Avalanche Riders (I don't really feel like being on the back end of Blink Riders).
Despite me talking about RoL potentially being too slow, I like Curse of Exhaustion since it doesn't negatively affect us. Double white might be difficult in R/G tron though and 4cmc may be way too slow.
Rule only beats Storm. It comes out too late against Infect and Affinity; they could have emptied most of their hand by turn 2. Twin can EOT flash in a creature, tap your land and combo off on their turn.
Chalice of the Void is better at beating Storm because it's colorless.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
My only worry is dedicated 4x sideboard slots to it and the risk of not mulling into it, but I feel like its a better answer than Rule of Law.
Currently my board looks like this:
2x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Slaughter Games
2x Nature's Claim
3x Combust
2x Spellskite
1x Wurmcoil
1x Oblivion Stone
Torpor is for Pod, Graf/Slaughter are for Storm/Combo, Nature's is all around utility, Combust is for Exarch Twin, Spellskite is for Infect, and the WUrmcoil and O stone are there for aggro/affinity.
I'm considering cutting Combust to 2x and dropping the cages to fit in Leyline of Sanctity. I'd put the 4th O Stone into my MD in place of a singleton Thragtusk I've been testing.
Not as worried about affinity/infect because i run 4x Pyroclasm and 3-4x Oblivion Stone main deck hence why I don't have many SB slots dedicated to them.
Modern
RG RG Tron GR
RUG RUG Twin RUG
X Affinity X
Mindbreak is a dead card v. every other deck. Leyline stops all storm decks (eggs included) and slows down decks like Jund and Burn. If I'm dedicating 4 SB slots, I want the card to be useful for more than a single matchup.
Modern
RG RG Tron GR
RUG RUG Twin RUG
X Affinity X
RUG Delver in legacy would seem to give us trouble methinks....
Anyway, I had a question about a match-up and forgot about it, so look back at this post if I remember.
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething SpicyIt's good against Jund, but the main deck is already excellent against it. Also, it doesn't stop Sowing Salt.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Most R/G Tron decks mainboard graveyard hate in Relic. That can make a difference game 1.
U Memnarch
RWU Zedruu the Greathearted
Keep in Stirrings, even if it doesn't find a Tron piece, it can get Map or a threat.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
My list:
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Karn Liberated
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Chromatic Star
4 Expedition Map
4 Pyroclasm
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Sylvan Scrying
1 Eye of Ugin
1 Forest
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
4 Oblivion Stone
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Overgrown Tomb
Game 1 - Random Jank
I got a really lucky draw here. I played a new guy who was basically running an RTR sealed deck. He was clearly new so I helped walk him through the steps and turns. I had to mull down to 5 and keep a 1-land hand in game 1 and he actually won it because my first 5 draws were not land.
Games 2 and 3 were a blowout. No siding.
1-0 (2-1 in games)
Game 2 - Kiki-Twin
I got off to a decently quick start and resolved an early Oblivion Stone. My opponent wasn't as familiar with O-Stone as she probably wanted to be. She tried to Exrach-Twin combo off with my stone on the table. I activated and cleaned out her combo. Cast Emrakul before she had a chance to resolve the combo again.
Side:
-4 Relic of Progenitus
-4 Pyroclasm
+2 Slaughter Games
+2 Torpor Orb
+2 Combust
+2 Nature's Claim
Game 2 we both stumble on draws. She resolves a Pithing Needle naming O-Stone. I simply get my gas before she does, resolve a Karn, blow up needle and start nuking her hand - it's all over from there. Sat on a Nature's claim and Combust all game just in case she draw her pieces.
2-0 (4-1 in games)
Game 3 - Mono U Merfolk
Game 1 was a slog. He got me down to 4 life before I finally stabilized. Vapor Snag did work against my Wurmcoils but he finally ran out of answers, I sweeped with an O-Stone, stuck a Wurmcoil and won.
-4 Relic of Progenitus
-1 Sylvan Scrying
+2 Combust
+2 Nature's Claim (v. Spreading Seas)
+1 Wurmcoil
Game 2, he stuck a turn 2, 3, 4 spreading seas on my tron pieces. I resolved an O-stone and was 1 turn away from sweeping his board and seas with Wurmcoils and Karn in hand but he swung in for lethal.
Game 3 - I had to mull to 4 and kept a 1 land hand. He got off to an explosive start and I was sub 10 life in a heart beat. I top decked like a champ and he didn't find his seas so I was able to o-stone, wurmcoil, and karn and stabilize at 2 life. Double wurmcoils with Karn on the board sent him to scoop.
(3-0) (6-2 in games)
Game 4 - Soul Sisters
Great player with a deck that was perfect for the meta. Game 1 went for 35 minutes as I was able to sweep and stabilize over and over again. Unfortunately, he had paths for all of my Wurmcoils and Mindcensors for all my tutors (Ugin). I dug and dug but didn't draw my Emrakul or more Wurmcoils so that was that. He took the first game with 50+ life.
-4 Relic of Progenitus
-1 Sylvan Scrying
+1 Wurmcoil
+2 Combust
+2 Torpor Orb (shut down life gain)
Games 2 and 3 had a much greater sense of inevitability. He resolved a Stony Silence to shut down my Oblivion Stones and cantrips but that just slowed me down. He overextended into Pyroclasm several times and couldn't find his paths for my Wurmcoils. Never dropped below 10, finished both games well over 40 life to win it.
(4-0) (8-3 in games).
MVP: Oblivion Stone. I made a last minute change to include #4 in my MD and couldn't have been happier. The fact that it hits enchantments and artifacts is just icing on the cake. The card did work in every single game and I was never sad to see it or multiples of it - must have 3-4x.
Modern
RG RG Tron GR
RUG RUG Twin RUG
X Affinity X
4x Chromatic Sphere
4x Chromatic Star
4x Expedition Map
4x Relic of Progenitus
4x Oblivion Stone
4x Ancient Stirrings
4x Pyroclasm
4x Sylvan Scrying
4x Karn Liberated
4x Wurmcoil Engine
1x Emrakul, the Aeon's Torn
1x Eye of Ugin
2x Forest
1x Ghost Quarter
3x Grove of the Burnwillows
4x Urza's Tower
4x Urza's Power Plant
4x Urza's Mine.
SIDEBOARD
2x Batterskull
3x Chalice of the Void
3x Spellskite
3x Nature's Claim
2x Dismember
2x Combust
My Record on Day 1 was 7-2 which qualified me for Day 2. My 2 Losses were to Gifts/Rock and Scapeshift. Scapeshift i had 0 chances to win given the fact i have actual 0 cards for that match-up Main deck and post board. The Gifts match i felt was in my favor i was just on the rough end of Variance...like when you mulligan to 5 and have 3 Karn and an Eye of Ugin in your hand. But hey that's the risk you take playing this deck, If you want to be doing something powerful it comes at a cost (Poor Mulligans). Any way you decide to take what i have to say is up to you.
I had 3 Byes to start off so Disregarding my 3 Byes and 2 Losses let's look at the 4 decks i beat on day 1.
UW Tron. We are simply much faster and effective and what both decks are trying to do. U/W Tron tries to play the controlling game while assembling the lands to cast their over the top spells. R/G Tron is heavily favored because it has all the same elements essentially and gets to them much faster. IE. Pyroclasm vs Supreme Verdict/Wrath of God. Also Casting Karn on turn 3 their only answer to it is Remand and Oblivion Ring (If they get to 3 lands). The upside of RG Tron in all tron mirrors is that the greatest trump to everything they can cast is essentially Oblivion Stone. I used it to remove his Signets, blow up his talisman and take his oblivion ring with him for good measure. It was essentially a double stone rain + disenchant while getting my planeswalker back. Post board you get to bring out the useless pyroclasm's for Nature's Claims. G - Stone rain, you'll give em 4 life every time to make the deal.
Storm, I won game 1.....still scratching my head to this day. It is no where near to as close as most people put it. I have a firm belief that "Storm" Maintains like a 85/15 against tron. Your only game 1 hope is you have relic and they fizzle and/or Don't just go overboard with Epic Experiment, you can't beat epic experiment, not in a million years. Games 2 and 3 Are what really matter and what actually mattered. Chalice of the Void only bought me so much time. I was only ever able to Chalice for 1 Game 2 because he was completely Capable at going off at any point and risking 1 more turn to shut him down was extremely greed bag and overly ambitious. He Ended up Echoing truthing the Chalice then combo'd off with approx 5 1 mana cantrips. Game 3 i just played Karn on the play stone rained him then he missed a land drop. Easy game.
Red Deck Wins. this match-up is still somewhere inbetween a proverbial "Bye" and "Impossible". a Turn 3 Wurmcoil is quite unbeatable for them....But your durdle hands will end up costing you essentially the entire game. Approach this match-up like you would a man with a Mullet. Business in the Front, Party in the back. Post board i feel like i am extremely favored, i get to board out Emrakul and Oblivion stones for Batterskulls and Natures claims. Natures claim is secretly your MVP against RDW. The particular opponent i played had Smash to Smithereen's as his artifact hate which is essentially smelt + lightning bolt. i response would continually just natures claim his target and casually gain my 4 life. This matchup is pretty easy if you get the right hand and you are a competent player, but still approach it like it is going to be a grind or else you'll underestimate it and lose.
Black/White Tokens. This match-up is a bye, literally...nothing to see here. You actually can't realistically lose this one unless you keep a 1 lander and discard 6-7 turns in a row. They simply do not apply enough pressure or have enough ways to keep your average card honest. They are a deck that actually has to commit into your wrath effects. Their Anthems and board's are easily wiped to a clean slate with Oblivion Stone. Oh, And Karn only ever has to keep +4ing. It's quite a joke how easy it is to beat them. Just be ready post board with your nature's claims so they can't randomly get you with a stony silence.
Day 2 i played against Infect. won 2-1. They kept the "all in on 1 guy" and i kept the "Turn 2 pyroclasm on the play" hand. worked out quite nicely, Nice enough to show up to the 2nd game as well. Next opponent was RDW. i won game 1 in a close game, Games 2 and 3 looked like the goofy sample hand i gave you where it was like 3 karns and a eye in your mulligan...you know...when you want to cut your wrists for playing the deck essentially. I rebounded with probably my 2nd easiest match in the entire tournament. Jund is a joke if you get a "Average" tron hand. They cannot even come close to what you are doing on curve and if they did...they kept a hand of Inquisitions/Thoughtseizes and have nothing out pressuring you...and if that is the case...you are winning anyways because the game is going to extend past turn 5. I lost the round after to a BUG Control deck that had ghost quarters and life from the loams caked all over his sideboard (I forgot to mention the grinders were overrun with RG Tron at the tournament site the night before so i expected quite much more hate then i actually seen) I couldn't overcome that kind of hand backed up with counter magic and was easily dispatched. The downward spiral continued as i lost a favorable matchup to kiblers hate bear deck which in all reality is a bye for you almost for the exact reason the token deck was. All it took for me to lose however were mull to 5's with eye of ugin and cards that cost approximately 1 million mana...pewpew. I ended round 15 on a high note dispatching a UW Flash player. That matchup i initially felt was terrible because they have Mana leaks and whatnot to keep your early game in check. Upon further testing and actual playing. That matchup is pretty close to as bad for them as you would think. You can get around mana leak quite easily, Spell snare's are often quite dead, Oblivion stone stops all of their aggression and you are at heart another Control deck. In fact in this match-up, approach them as if you are a more controlling deck and drag the game on, they typically only have 1-2 cryptic commands to actually work with and you have relics to make sure the snapcaster mages are better off being ambush vipers that actually trade with a wurmcoil engine. I went 10-5 and as you could tell a couple of my losses were "To myself".
When you take this deck and play it, you must first realize you are gambling quite a bit. You do have miserable mulligans, you don't have a good combo match-up generally and you are hoping the metagame is jund heavy. I would easily SNAP play this deck again in a heartbeat with a few minor changes.
1st Change.
Combusts have to go. The only 2 matchups they are good against, it is almost irrelevant. UW flash is quite easy to beat without it, and splintertwin you already should have Dismembers for alongside infect decks which slightly render the combust useless. Those slots would be better off dedicated to combo hate such as Slaughter Games.
2nd Change
Ghost Quarter is a bad Card. You cannot often afford to set yourself back or not have a colorless source of mana to cast your spells. It did once protect my karn from a Raging Ravine, but that is not a indicator that it should be their, Quite often i would mulligan because it was not a colored source.
3rd Change
I would add a Rule of Law type effect to my sideboard like i see most decks doing now anyways.
In Conclusion, I felt that my 75 was maybe 5-6 cards off from being where i wanted it to be against the field. But hey, if we could predict what we were expecting we'd all be on the pro tour and have a name people recognized anyways. You shouldn't entirely focus on making changes to beat decks you are already good against. Like when i see people talking about Adding Leyline of Sanctity. (Which essentially has to be in your hand because you can't cast it) A added reason was that it shuts off some of jund? Who cares, you are beating them anyways. When you discuss sideboard cards you must approach each card decision and analyze it. You must see that it is good across the matchups that are relevant and have a spot. EI. Rule of Law. Good against Storm Infect AND twin. That's the kind of card you want when approaching combo decks. Cards like Chalice of the Void (Which was a mistake and has quite a nonbo with half of your plans for it) Are not particularly useful. Like when people say CotV for 1 Against Infect? like...you shut off half of your cards, No Ancient Stirrings, Maps, Eggs, No Relics. Those cards comprise around 40% of your deck you cannot simply just shut them off to make a deck that is good against you "mediocre". If i could say 1 thing, it's that i regret adding chalice to my sideboard and its a learning mistake i made for the better.
Recently a newer form of Tron has been seeing success across all kinds of tournaments and i wanted to bring it to your attention. It has a maindeck ghost quarter which i think is 100% wrong, but thats just my opinion and everyone will have one.
The deck was named "Megatron" by the decklist writer and was posted as that on the top 8 forum. Without Further Adieu here is the link.
http://www.mtgdecks.net/decks/view/42559
I Love the city of brass in the mana base allowing for a better way to cast your sideboard hosers like Slaugher Games and Rule of law. This is most excellent and where i see tron going in the not to distant future. I'll check back later to see what everyone has to say about that innovation. Good luck, my friends.