Oh wow. Yea I guess once I have all the information properly down here, I have my work cut out for me format wise haha. That kozilek, butcher of truth edh primer is like reading a book! It's absolutely beautiful haha. This will require a fair amount of playing around, but something like that would be really neat.
Yea, I was quite intimidated when I saw his myself. I can ask him for some coding and formatting tips.
You know him? Please do, I have no idea how he formatted a picture to one side and the words to the other without doing a LOT of annoying work.
Small correction, I noticed that in your primer, in the 4cc+ section, you misspelled Akroma as Akroma, Angle of Fury (instead of Angel). Now, while I'd love to play an Angle of Fury, anyone who does so is either making an acute play or else is feeling a bit obtuse.
On another note, I noticed that in the primer, the UWR matchup is somewhat unfavorable. Do you have suggestions or any particular matchup notes that you've found to be helpful in your experiences against the deck?
Yes, mark of asylum, rip, spellskites, and burrenton are god sends. Never over commit, always hope to have an early vial. Use sculler to probe for vials in hand and carefully deny their mana colors according to your needs. UWR is why I keep cavern of souls in my list. It can occasionally make for awkward hands, but landing restos in counter/removal heavy match ups is too much of a swing in my favor to not use it. Brimaz is big here as well, clogging the board alone so you can put pressure without committing. Oh lastly, use needle naming collonade or depending on their build, ajani vengeant. In any case needles always a good choice.
I wonder what happened with the banner that someone was going to design for us.
I thought someone else (with more experience) took that over?
Happy to see Auriok Champion made the cut for 2 CMC cards. It might be worth mentioning that it has perverse synergy with Brimaz, King of Oreskos. A little sad to see that Seachrome Coast and Celestial Colonnade didn't make the list for Non-Basic Lands. You get the same bonuses as Horizon Canopy (alternate plays when flooding) and Mutavault (extra bodies) while still being able to comfortably run Tectonic Edge. You don't even need to splash blue to benefit from them, though you'd need to be pretty thick to not at least board Spellskite with all that available blue mana.
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“Modern has provided us a non-rotating format that is far more accessible than Legacy or Vintage, but still retains many of the qualities that people enjoy in those formats—such as a more stable metagame, the ability to play and tweak the same deck week after week, and simply a much more powerful card pool than Standard.”
- Sam Stoddard, “Developing Modern” (June 21, 2013) (by means of Sheridan Lardner, "Fixing Modern: Defining Format Mission (March 16, 2016))
It's worth a mention as an option, I simply didn't think of it haha. It also would allow mono white decks to EE to two, which is quite important vs merfolk.
First off, great to see the new primer! I really appreciate all the work you guys have done!
I thought someone else (with more experience) took that over?
I am hideous with remembering most forum names, but no- the last I communicated with someone was to give information on sizing and stuff, and they said they would do it. I got another offer as well but wanted to give the first person a shot. As it stands this is no longer my show (thankfully), but anyone that wants to try can give it a shot.
I wonder what happened with the banner that someone was going to design for us.
I thought someone else (with more experience) took that over?
Happy to see Auriok Champion made the cut for 2 CMC cards. It might be worth mentioning that it has perverse synergy with Brimaz, King of Oreskos. A little sad to see that Seachrome Coast and Celestial Colonnade didn't make the list for Non-Basic Lands. You get the same bonuses as Horizon Canopy (alternate plays when flooding) and Mutavault (extra bodies) while still being able to comfortably run Tectonic Edge. You don't even need to splash blue to benefit from them, though you'd need to be pretty thick to not at least board Spellskite with all that available blue mana.
I gave a nod to the seachrome colonade combo under lands! Certainly good knowledge to have in there
“Modern has provided us a non-rotating format that is far more accessible than Legacy or Vintage, but still retains many of the qualities that people enjoy in those formats—such as a more stable metagame, the ability to play and tweak the same deck week after week, and simply a much more powerful card pool than Standard.”
- Sam Stoddard, “Developing Modern” (June 21, 2013) (by means of Sheridan Lardner, "Fixing Modern: Defining Format Mission (March 16, 2016))
Just a question, is anyone else excited for Quickling in here? I'm not quite sure if i've decided how good it is..
I don't really like it here. The "return to hand" effect sounds like what we wanna do, but it wasn't efficient enough on stone cloaked and I don't believe it's efficient enough here. The flash and good body do help though. Sides if I splash blue, my blue slots are probably going to ephara, clique, and maybe a two off of Kira.
C'mon wizards just gives us a 1W flash 2/1 bounce guy!!! Maybe with flying baha.
Quickling is bad. With all the targeted removal, you are begging to 2 for 1 yourself. At least whitemane lion and stonecloaker return themselves instead of being sacrificed.
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My Modern decks: Death and Taxes, Hatebears, Well Oiled Machine, Merfolk, Nyx Wave, Soul Sisters, Stompy, Matyr Proc, Naya Zoo, Robots (I refuse to call it affinity!), Bogles, Kiki Chord
The match ups are old analysis from back in the day I think. Affinity really isn't a bad match up either. Bogles can be tough, but an EE set to one and a Thalia, along with our land destruction, tends to be tough on them, not even mentioning how spellskite wrecks their game. I do have to say though, not a fan of runed halo. It's one of those cards that looks like it should be better than it is. I dunno, just never really got me there.
I think the affinity match depends almost entirely on if you run blade splicer- so often they win via the etched champion. I run 3 pm and sometimes 4, so the match is pretty good. I ran it nearly three years ago, and have never looked back. If you go back to the old thread there is a post from me basically saying why the hell are people not running splicer and halo. I am glad one has caught on.
My halo reasoning is this.
It is really, really good vs affinity and those etched champions, and can be a source of virtual card advantage. Ditto boggles. Those are the two matches it is superb against. They are its main reason for inclusion.
It can do the job of leyline vs certain decks like ad nauseam and scapeshift. We can't use leyline that well- my build especially due to canopy popping. We just have difficulty with thalia down landing a 5cc enchamntment. I dislike searching for leylines- this is not legacy. And we cannot afford to run 4 slots on the effect. Its the only non critter defense we have for scapeshift- I do not want to risk blowout to angers.
It is ok vs twin- they only have 2-3 types of men that can win, and they have access to echoing truth- so I want my hate to be diverse. Yes, you can't win with an active twin combo down, but it is normally worth considering bringing in- I have skites, pridemages, lin vala, a solitary board ghostly prison too, and wisps too, so I do not always need to use it. But I would rather have it than, say, a dismember or sunlance. If I find a twin build with an excess of skite hate it is an option.
If a rogue deck like skred red runs stormbreath dragon or pro w swords it is a another out till we can gain some control. The resetting ability of wisp means it is a potential answer to any of these.
Against a nightmare match like sistas it can deal with ascendant or ajani's - acting as path 5/6. In fact i would wager my match up vs that deck is 10% more winnable than without it.
Sure - its a general answer- and we want specifics- but it is one that flickerwisp makes better than in other decks.
I would never bring it in for jund, or to stop a discard deck. But it can be very effective in several problematic matches.
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People with belligerent signatures are trying to compensate for something....
I added a new section (You are free to consider it the editorial section of the primer) where I will discuss cards I feel are just on the edge of the 75 and are constantly on and off peoples lists. I will of course takes peoples suggestions for this, but I will warn you most of this WILL be my opinion so take it with a grain of salt. So far I picked the two easiest, Mirran Crusader and Jotun grunt, but keep an eye on it because this section is most likely to expand!
As a side note, some of you may view this as redundant to the card choice section, to which I would respond that these are cards I wish to high light since it is so easy to breeze over the card choice section, and I would like people to keep them in mind as meta calls, particularly for local scenes.
I see a lot of discussion on stony and EE/ ratchets.
Has anyone noticed the lack of synergy between these two? I have always run one or the other. With affinities ability to naturalise stony and then just win (in the same way it can shoot a kataki), I worry about running EE/ratchet.
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The match ups are old analysis from back in the day I think. Affinity really isn't a bad match up either. Bogles can be tough, but an EE set to one and a Thalia, along with our land destruction, tends to be tough on them, not even mentioning how spellskite wrecks their game. I do have to say though, not a fan of runed halo. It's one of those cards that looks like it should be better than it is. I dunno, just never really got me there.
I think the affinity match depends almost entirely on if you run blade splicer- so often they win via the etched champion. I run 3 pm and sometimes 4, so the match is pretty good. I ran it nearly three years ago, and have never looked back. If you go back to the old thread there is a post from me basically saying why the hell are people not running splicer and halo. I am glad one has caught on.
My halo reasoning is this.
It is really, really good vs affinity and those etched champions, and can be a source of virtual card advantage. Ditto boggles. Those are the two matches it is superb against. They are its main reason for inclusion.
It can do the job of leyline vs certain decks like ad nauseam and scapeshift. We can't use leyline that well- my build especially due to canopy popping. We just have difficulty with thalia down landing a 5cc enchamntment. I dislike searching for leylines- this is not legacy. And we cannot afford to run 4 slots on the effect. Its the only non critter defense we have for scapeshift- I do not want to risk blowout to angers.
It is ok vs twin- they only have 2-3 types of men that can win, and they have access to echoing truth- so I want my hate to be diverse. Yes, you can't win with an active twin combo down, but it is normally worth considering bringing in- I have skites, pridemages, lin vala, a solitary board ghostly prison too, and wisps too, so I do not always need to use it. But I would rather have it than, say, a dismember or sunlance. If I find a twin build with an excess of skite hate it is an option.
If a rogue deck like skred red runs stormbreath dragon or pro w swords it is a another out till we can gain some control. The resetting ability of wisp means it is a potential answer to any of these.
Against a nightmare match like sistas it can deal with ascendant or ajani's - acting as path 5/6. In fact i would wager my match up vs that deck is 10% more winnable than without it.
Sure - its a general answer- and we want specifics- but it is one that flickerwisp makes better than in other decks.
I would never bring it in for jund, or to stop a discard deck. But it can be very effective in several problematic matches.
that's just it though, it helps in obscure match ups like red skred, match ups we're already good against like boggles and affinity, and match ups that we really should just accept its probably going to be a loss against, like soul sisters. If I wanted a general answer to aggro/burn type decks such as these, I would often much rather run worship, but neither make the cut to me. I do believe there is a meta where runed halo exists as a solid side card, I just don't believe the tournament or mtgo meta is that. I am glad it has been working well for you though, and you are absolutely correct on splicers. I typically run 3, but have bumped up to 4 in my current list (redundant cards are important when risking tossing to pack rat) and now I would never run less than that. It's absolutely too good in too many match ups.
I see a lot of discussion on stony and EE/ ratchets.
Has anyone noticed the lack of synergy between these two? I have always run one or the other. With affinities ability to naturalise stony and then just win (in the same way it can shoot a kataki), I worry about running EE/ratchet.
Gah I am totally spamming the board, but yes run one or the other. Ratchet is not a great option (Though it is often the only option for mono white answering tokens like BW tokens or a G2 empty the warrens from storm), I much prefer EE, especially since my black deck runs horizons so i can tick to 3 in a pinch, but 2 is most common and incredibly useful, as is 0. The point here though is even if they naturalize stony, it's often at a bit of a tempo loss which is all we really need to go above them. I've found anything that drags the game out against affinity is far and away in our favor. Not to mention stonys are great to run in multiples for that very reason, I would highly recommend 2 (or even 3), list depending.
The match ups are old analysis from back in the day I think. Affinity really isn't a bad match up either. Bogles can be tough, but an EE set to one and a Thalia, along with our land destruction, tends to be tough on them, not even mentioning how spellskite wrecks their game. I do have to say though, not a fan of runed halo. It's one of those cards that looks like it should be better than it is. I dunno, just never really got me there.
I think the affinity match depends almost entirely on if you run blade splicer- so often they win via the etched champion. I run 3 pm and sometimes 4, so the match is pretty good. I ran it nearly three years ago, and have never looked back. If you go back to the old thread there is a post from me basically saying why the hell are people not running splicer and halo. I am glad one has caught on.
My halo reasoning is this.
It is really, really good vs affinity and those etched champions, and can be a source of virtual card advantage. Ditto boggles. Those are the two matches it is superb against. They are its main reason for inclusion.
It can do the job of leyline vs certain decks like ad nauseam and scapeshift. We can't use leyline that well- my build especially due to canopy popping. We just have difficulty with thalia down landing a 5cc enchamntment. I dislike searching for leylines- this is not legacy. And we cannot afford to run 4 slots on the effect. Its the only non critter defense we have for scapeshift- I do not want to risk blowout to angers.
It is ok vs twin- they only have 2-3 types of men that can win, and they have access to echoing truth- so I want my hate to be diverse. Yes, you can't win with an active twin combo down, but it is normally worth considering bringing in- I have skites, pridemages, lin vala, a solitary board ghostly prison too, and wisps too, so I do not always need to use it. But I would rather have it than, say, a dismember or sunlance. If I find a twin build with an excess of skite hate it is an option.
If a rogue deck like skred red runs stormbreath dragon or pro w swords it is a another out till we can gain some control. The resetting ability of wisp means it is a potential answer to any of these.
Against a nightmare match like sistas it can deal with ascendant or ajani's - acting as path 5/6. In fact i would wager my match up vs that deck is 10% more winnable than without it.
Sure - its a general answer- and we want specifics- but it is one that flickerwisp makes better than in other decks.
I would never bring it in for jund, or to stop a discard deck. But it can be very effective in several problematic matches.
that's just it though, it helps in obscure match ups like red skred, match ups we're already good against like boggles and affinity, and match ups that we really should just accept its probably going to be a loss against, like soul sisters. If I wanted a general answer to aggro/burn type decks such as these, I would often much rather run worship, but neither make the cut to me. I do believe there is a meta where runed halo exists as a solid side card, I just don't believe the tournament or mtgo meta is that. I am glad it has been working well for you though, and you are absolutely correct on splicers. I typically run 3, but have bumped up to 4 in my current list (redundant cards are important when risking tossing to pack rat) and now I would never run less than that. It's absolutely too good in too many match ups.
I should note that I play paper only- and sistas is way more prevalent in my local than MTGO (boggles/affinity too- am going to play an affinity deck almost certainly in it). I run one main deck swords of w and p too nowadays- ever since thalia went to 3 copies. I have gotten away with several draws vs sistas from 1-0 down, and a couple of wins. You cannot beat them 2-1 as they stall a lot and wins come after stabilising. Just one loss to date, though.
re stony- At the mo I am on kataki/stony variance from one week to the next.I can keep vials in with kataki, but drop with stony. I own nearly 50 stony silence. Superb card. D and T is the only deck with white in where I do not auto include in the board due to my own running of vials. I would not board stony in vs pod.
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The match ups are old analysis from back in the day I think. Affinity really isn't a bad match up either. Bogles can be tough, but an EE set to one and a Thalia, along with our land destruction, tends to be tough on them, not even mentioning how spellskite wrecks their game. I do have to say though, not a fan of runed halo. It's one of those cards that looks like it should be better than it is. I dunno, just never really got me there.
I think the affinity match depends almost entirely on if you run blade splicer- so often they win via the etched champion. I run 3 pm and sometimes 4, so the match is pretty good. I ran it nearly three years ago, and have never looked back. If you go back to the old thread there is a post from me basically saying why the hell are people not running splicer and halo. I am glad one has caught on.
My halo reasoning is this.
It is really, really good vs affinity and those etched champions, and can be a source of virtual card advantage. Ditto boggles. Those are the two matches it is superb against. They are its main reason for inclusion.
It can do the job of leyline vs certain decks like ad nauseam and scapeshift. We can't use leyline that well- my build especially due to canopy popping. We just have difficulty with thalia down landing a 5cc enchamntment. I dislike searching for leylines- this is not legacy. And we cannot afford to run 4 slots on the effect. Its the only non critter defense we have for scapeshift- I do not want to risk blowout to angers.
It is ok vs twin- they only have 2-3 types of men that can win, and they have access to echoing truth- so I want my hate to be diverse. Yes, you can't win with an active twin combo down, but it is normally worth considering bringing in- I have skites, pridemages, lin vala, a solitary board ghostly prison too, and wisps too, so I do not always need to use it. But I would rather have it than, say, a dismember or sunlance. If I find a twin build with an excess of skite hate it is an option.
If a rogue deck like skred red runs stormbreath dragon or pro w swords it is a another out till we can gain some control. The resetting ability of wisp means it is a potential answer to any of these.
Against a nightmare match like sistas it can deal with ascendant or ajani's - acting as path 5/6. In fact i would wager my match up vs that deck is 10% more winnable than without it.
Sure - its a general answer- and we want specifics- but it is one that flickerwisp makes better than in other decks.
I would never bring it in for jund, or to stop a discard deck. But it can be very effective in several problematic matches.
that's just it though, it helps in obscure match ups like red skred, match ups we're already good against like boggles and affinity, and match ups that we really should just accept its probably going to be a loss against, like soul sisters. If I wanted a general answer to aggro/burn type decks such as these, I would often much rather run worship, but neither make the cut to me. I do believe there is a meta where runed halo exists as a solid side card, I just don't believe the tournament or mtgo meta is that. I am glad it has been working well for you though, and you are absolutely correct on splicers. I typically run 3, but have bumped up to 4 in my current list (redundant cards are important when risking tossing to pack rat) and now I would never run less than that. It's absolutely too good in too many match ups.
I should note that I play paper only- and sistas is way more prevalent in my local than MTGO (boggles/affinity too- am going to play an affinity deck almost certainly in it). I run one main deck swords of w and p too nowadays- ever since thalia went to 3 copies. I have gotten away with several draws vs sistas from 1-0 down, and a couple of wins. You cannot beat them 2-1 as they stall a lot and wins come after stabilising. Just one loss to date, though.
re stony- At the mo I am on kataki/stony variance from one week to the next.I can keep vials in with kataki, but drop with stony. I own nearly 50 stony silence. Superb card. D and T is the only deck with white in where I do not auto include in the board due to my own running of vials. I would not board stony in vs pod.
Ah okay gotcha. I do go up and down on my katakis and stonys as well, but I've since accepted that stonys the better card imo. I hear the advice not to board stony vs pod often, why is that? Is it better to just try to out tempo them with vials and hopefully negate pod through search and land destruction? I don't think I fully understand since it's an easy matchup for my using pontiff and boarded in dismembers, on top of the search hate we already have and being able to generally push through with a shizo brimaz or thalia. We just have SO MANY tools against them, it's fairly silly to me.
I run 3 pridemages that kill a resolved pod. I also beat quickly- jotuns x3 - a solitary scooze too to stop melira insta win. It is a fast clock. That is main, plus the usual thalia/mindcensors/arbiters. Post board 2 linvala as well. So I do not fear melira/kiki pod's insta win tricks (got other stuff for the latter too), and the anti search/tax/thalia stops or slows pod to a crawl. Frequently pod comes down when they can't pay the tax, and I just pop down a pridemage, grab an exalted boost and then kill the pod. Or I flicker the pod with EOT tricks off vial and wisp- so they do not get it during their turn. Stony pre mptively stops pod till they remove it, but vial and wisp after eot effects stops them using it pretty effectively too. Losing one for the other does not really help in an already decent match for us. Don't get me wrong - stony is good vs pod- but we have so much as you say.......why lose the vial for a marginal benefit against a small part of their deck?
I run 3 pridemages that kill a resolved pod. I also beat quickly- jotuns x3 - a solitary scooze too to stop melira insta win. It is a fast clock. That is main, plus the usual thalia/mindcensors/arbiters. Post board 2 linvala as well. So I do not fear melira/kiki pod's insta win tricks (got other stuff for the latter too), and the anti search/tax/thalia stops or slows pod to a crawl. Frequently pod comes down when they can't pay the tax, and I just pop down a pridemage, grab an exalted boost and then kill the pod. Or I flicker the pod with EOT tricks off vial and wisp- so they do not get it during their turn. Stony pre emptively stops pod till they remove it, but vial and wisp after eot effects stops them using it pretty effectively too. Losing one for the other does not really help in a decent match for us. Don't get me wrong - stony is good vs pod- but we have so mcuh as you say.......why lose the vial for a marginal benefit.
Completely fair logic. GW does have a pretty absurdly good match up vs it haha. I was just wondering if it was something beyond that, thanks!
You don't board in Stony Silence vs. Pod because your search hate is enough and therefore there is a chance they actually board out Pod for this reason.
The match-up against Pod is very tight, search hate deals with Pod - but after that it's two midrange grind decks against each other. Tight play is the order of the day.
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You know him? Please do, I have no idea how he formatted a picture to one side and the words to the other without doing a LOT of annoying work.
Yes, mark of asylum, rip, spellskites, and burrenton are god sends. Never over commit, always hope to have an early vial. Use sculler to probe for vials in hand and carefully deny their mana colors according to your needs. UWR is why I keep cavern of souls in my list. It can occasionally make for awkward hands, but landing restos in counter/removal heavy match ups is too much of a swing in my favor to not use it. Brimaz is big here as well, clogging the board alone so you can put pressure without committing. Oh lastly, use needle naming collonade or depending on their build, ajani vengeant. In any case needles always a good choice.
I thought someone else (with more experience) took that over?
Happy to see Auriok Champion made the cut for 2 CMC cards. It might be worth mentioning that it has perverse synergy with Brimaz, King of Oreskos. A little sad to see that Seachrome Coast and Celestial Colonnade didn't make the list for Non-Basic Lands. You get the same bonuses as Horizon Canopy (alternate plays when flooding) and Mutavault (extra bodies) while still being able to comfortably run Tectonic Edge. You don't even need to splash blue to benefit from them, though you'd need to be pretty thick to not at least board Spellskite with all that available blue mana.
- Sam Stoddard, “Developing Modern” (June 21, 2013) (by means of Sheridan Lardner, "Fixing Modern: Defining Format Mission (March 16, 2016))
How to Use Spoiler Tags
Starting Over: The Origins of the Mulligan Rule
Practical Approach to Slow Play
THE Guide to Aggro, Part 2: SWARM and TOOLBOX
THE Guide to Aggro, Part 3
THE Guide to Aggro, Part 4
These videos are by MTG Salvation Moderator Lantern!
Introduction to Tempo
Controlling Tempo
Elements of Tempo
Roadblocks to Tempo
How Not To Build A Deck - Tempo
Learn How To Sideboard, Dammit!
Mulligan's Island
The Art of the Mulligan
The Art of the Mulligan: Eight Case Studies
Fundamentals: The Mulligan
Some Mulligan Exercises
A Mulligan Is Worth Three Cards
The Mulligan Debate
Common Sense: The Art of the Mulligan
Who's The Beatdown?
3 Caves of Koilos
3 Eldrazi Temple
2 Fetid Heath
3 Godless Shrine
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Plains
3 Shambling Vent
2 Tectonic Edge
Artifacts (4):
4 Æther Vial
4 Path to Exile
Creatures (29):
3 Aven Mindcensor
3 Eldrazi Displacer
3 Fiend Hunter
4 Flickerwisp
4 Serra Avenger
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Wasteland Strangler
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Dismember
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Flooded Strand
6 Island
3 Polluted Delta
3 Steam Vents
3 Sulfur Falls
Creatures (16):
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Stormchaser Mage
2 Gut Shot
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Mutagenic Growth
3 Spell Pierce
3 Twisted Image
3 Vapor Snag
Sorceries (8):
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Serum Visions
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Blood Moon
2 Dispel
1 Forked Bolt
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Repeal
2 Roast
1 Spell Snare
2 Spellskite
1 Vapor Snag
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Copperline Gorge
5 Mountain
3 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills
Creatures (14):
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Goblin Guide
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Atarka's Command
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
3 Searing Blaze
Sorceries (8):
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
2 Deflecting Palm
4 Destructive Revelry
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Path to Exile
2 Rending Volley
3 Skullcrack
19 Forest
3 Treetop Village
Creatures (24):
4 Avatar of the Resolute
4 Dryad Militant
2 Dungrove Elder
4 Experiment One
4 Leatherback Baloth
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Rancor
Instants (10):
3 Aspect of Hydra
4 Vines of Vastwood
3 Dismember
2 Choke
2 Gut Shot
2 Deglamer
2 Feed the Clan
2 Oxidize
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Skylasher
1 Unravel the Æther
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
I gave a nod to the seachrome colonade combo under lands! Certainly good knowledge to have in there
- Sam Stoddard, “Developing Modern” (June 21, 2013) (by means of Sheridan Lardner, "Fixing Modern: Defining Format Mission (March 16, 2016))
How to Use Spoiler Tags
Starting Over: The Origins of the Mulligan Rule
Practical Approach to Slow Play
THE Guide to Aggro, Part 2: SWARM and TOOLBOX
THE Guide to Aggro, Part 3
THE Guide to Aggro, Part 4
These videos are by MTG Salvation Moderator Lantern!
Introduction to Tempo
Controlling Tempo
Elements of Tempo
Roadblocks to Tempo
How Not To Build A Deck - Tempo
Learn How To Sideboard, Dammit!
Mulligan's Island
The Art of the Mulligan
The Art of the Mulligan: Eight Case Studies
Fundamentals: The Mulligan
Some Mulligan Exercises
A Mulligan Is Worth Three Cards
The Mulligan Debate
Common Sense: The Art of the Mulligan
Who's The Beatdown?
3 Caves of Koilos
3 Eldrazi Temple
2 Fetid Heath
3 Godless Shrine
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Plains
3 Shambling Vent
2 Tectonic Edge
Artifacts (4):
4 Æther Vial
4 Path to Exile
Creatures (29):
3 Aven Mindcensor
3 Eldrazi Displacer
3 Fiend Hunter
4 Flickerwisp
4 Serra Avenger
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Wasteland Strangler
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Dismember
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Flooded Strand
6 Island
3 Polluted Delta
3 Steam Vents
3 Sulfur Falls
Creatures (16):
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Stormchaser Mage
2 Gut Shot
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Mutagenic Growth
3 Spell Pierce
3 Twisted Image
3 Vapor Snag
Sorceries (8):
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Serum Visions
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Blood Moon
2 Dispel
1 Forked Bolt
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Repeal
2 Roast
1 Spell Snare
2 Spellskite
1 Vapor Snag
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Copperline Gorge
5 Mountain
3 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills
Creatures (14):
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Goblin Guide
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Atarka's Command
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
3 Searing Blaze
Sorceries (8):
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
2 Deflecting Palm
4 Destructive Revelry
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Path to Exile
2 Rending Volley
3 Skullcrack
19 Forest
3 Treetop Village
Creatures (24):
4 Avatar of the Resolute
4 Dryad Militant
2 Dungrove Elder
4 Experiment One
4 Leatherback Baloth
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Rancor
Instants (10):
3 Aspect of Hydra
4 Vines of Vastwood
3 Dismember
2 Choke
2 Gut Shot
2 Deglamer
2 Feed the Clan
2 Oxidize
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Skylasher
1 Unravel the Æther
I don't really like it here. The "return to hand" effect sounds like what we wanna do, but it wasn't efficient enough on stone cloaked and I don't believe it's efficient enough here. The flash and good body do help though. Sides if I splash blue, my blue slots are probably going to ephara, clique, and maybe a two off of Kira.
C'mon wizards just gives us a 1W flash 2/1 bounce guy!!! Maybe with flying baha.
I think the affinity match depends almost entirely on if you run blade splicer- so often they win via the etched champion. I run 3 pm and sometimes 4, so the match is pretty good. I ran it nearly three years ago, and have never looked back. If you go back to the old thread there is a post from me basically saying why the hell are people not running splicer and halo. I am glad one has caught on.
My halo reasoning is this.
It is really, really good vs affinity and those etched champions, and can be a source of virtual card advantage. Ditto boggles. Those are the two matches it is superb against. They are its main reason for inclusion.
It can do the job of leyline vs certain decks like ad nauseam and scapeshift. We can't use leyline that well- my build especially due to canopy popping. We just have difficulty with thalia down landing a 5cc enchamntment. I dislike searching for leylines- this is not legacy. And we cannot afford to run 4 slots on the effect. Its the only non critter defense we have for scapeshift- I do not want to risk blowout to angers.
It is ok vs twin- they only have 2-3 types of men that can win, and they have access to echoing truth- so I want my hate to be diverse. Yes, you can't win with an active twin combo down, but it is normally worth considering bringing in- I have skites, pridemages, lin vala, a solitary board ghostly prison too, and wisps too, so I do not always need to use it. But I would rather have it than, say, a dismember or sunlance. If I find a twin build with an excess of skite hate it is an option.
If a rogue deck like skred red runs stormbreath dragon or pro w swords it is a another out till we can gain some control. The resetting ability of wisp means it is a potential answer to any of these.
Against a nightmare match like sistas it can deal with ascendant or ajani's - acting as path 5/6. In fact i would wager my match up vs that deck is 10% more winnable than without it.
Sure - its a general answer- and we want specifics- but it is one that flickerwisp makes better than in other decks.
I would never bring it in for jund, or to stop a discard deck. But it can be very effective in several problematic matches.
As a side note, some of you may view this as redundant to the card choice section, to which I would respond that these are cards I wish to high light since it is so easy to breeze over the card choice section, and I would like people to keep them in mind as meta calls, particularly for local scenes.
Has anyone noticed the lack of synergy between these two? I have always run one or the other. With affinities ability to naturalise stony and then just win (in the same way it can shoot a kataki), I worry about running EE/ratchet.
that's just it though, it helps in obscure match ups like red skred, match ups we're already good against like boggles and affinity, and match ups that we really should just accept its probably going to be a loss against, like soul sisters. If I wanted a general answer to aggro/burn type decks such as these, I would often much rather run worship, but neither make the cut to me. I do believe there is a meta where runed halo exists as a solid side card, I just don't believe the tournament or mtgo meta is that. I am glad it has been working well for you though, and you are absolutely correct on splicers. I typically run 3, but have bumped up to 4 in my current list (redundant cards are important when risking tossing to pack rat) and now I would never run less than that. It's absolutely too good in too many match ups.
Gah I am totally spamming the board, but yes run one or the other. Ratchet is not a great option (Though it is often the only option for mono white answering tokens like BW tokens or a G2 empty the warrens from storm), I much prefer EE, especially since my black deck runs horizons so i can tick to 3 in a pinch, but 2 is most common and incredibly useful, as is 0. The point here though is even if they naturalize stony, it's often at a bit of a tempo loss which is all we really need to go above them. I've found anything that drags the game out against affinity is far and away in our favor. Not to mention stonys are great to run in multiples for that very reason, I would highly recommend 2 (or even 3), list depending.
I should note that I play paper only- and sistas is way more prevalent in my local than MTGO (boggles/affinity too- am going to play an affinity deck almost certainly in it). I run one main deck swords of w and p too nowadays- ever since thalia went to 3 copies. I have gotten away with several draws vs sistas from 1-0 down, and a couple of wins. You cannot beat them 2-1 as they stall a lot and wins come after stabilising. Just one loss to date, though.
re stony- At the mo I am on kataki/stony variance from one week to the next.I can keep vials in with kataki, but drop with stony. I own nearly 50 stony silence. Superb card. D and T is the only deck with white in where I do not auto include in the board due to my own running of vials. I would not board stony in vs pod.
Ah okay gotcha. I do go up and down on my katakis and stonys as well, but I've since accepted that stonys the better card imo. I hear the advice not to board stony vs pod often, why is that? Is it better to just try to out tempo them with vials and hopefully negate pod through search and land destruction? I don't think I fully understand since it's an easy matchup for my using pontiff and boarded in dismembers, on top of the search hate we already have and being able to generally push through with a shizo brimaz or thalia. We just have SO MANY tools against them, it's fairly silly to me.
Completely fair logic. GW does have a pretty absurdly good match up vs it haha. I was just wondering if it was something beyond that, thanks!
The match-up against Pod is very tight, search hate deals with Pod - but after that it's two midrange grind decks against each other. Tight play is the order of the day.