Being able to hit an early Hierarch or Bird with Twisted Image can slow them down a ton. Since Eldrazi aren't colored, it's not worth trying to do other things. You want the Dismembers to take out Spellskite or Thought-Knot Seer and just put the pedal to the metal. Dryad Arbor can be a combat trick against them with the right pump spells.
Does Become Immense have a high shot of getting banned? I know is broken but to meet banhammer this month? cmon.
I just got into this deck, i really want to play at least one more period with Infect before that happens, but some of you are already thinking of lists Immense-less...
I think Become Immense is safe because the deck can be reasonably answered. Izzet staticaster, spellskite, night soul's betrayal, blood moon, chalice of the void, all the removal under the sun. If wizards does ban something the deck will be hurt but keep walking. We technically lost Blazing Shoal years ago.
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Hi everyone! Our country's last WMCQ will be held this weekend. I haven't changed anything from my given decklist, although I've been given a couple of potential changes some thought:
2. Should I swap the 2 Twisted Image for a 3rd Dismember and a Grafdigger's Cage? I'd be losing some SB options vs. Affinity, but I'll be gaining some advantage vs. Abzan Company (which I haven't been winning for quite some time now)
No more banlist discussion in this thread. It is explicitly against the Modern forum rules; take it to the banlist thread if you want to talk bans. Everyone involved is getting warned/infracted accordingly and hopefully that's the end of these off-topic discussions.
I think Burn is a worse matchup than Jund for Infect, personally. The deck is full of "kill target creature" spells if they choose to aim them at your guys, and quite frankly they should. They have more Bolts than Infect has guys. If Jund draws the beatdown half of its deck as opposed to the interactive half, they can quite easily lose. Not to say they're not favored, because removal.dec will always be favored against Infect, but there are hands that fall flat in the face of T1 Noble Hierarch into T2 Blighted Agent into T3 double pump for lethal.
During this modern season I switched from GW auras to Infect to start playing a more consistent deck. I chose infect because I like the idea of finishing games fast, although I ended up noticing that games 2 and 3 sometimes go very long.
Some things I noticed that are very important:
1) 1 Spell Pierce, 1 Dismember, 1 Distortion Strike are awesome. Sometimes depending on the metagame, 2 Distortion Strike are acceptable.
2) I moved out Viridian Corrupter at some tournaments only to notice that I missed it. I'll never take it out from MD.
3) Jund looked like an awful matchup at the beginning. After 3 or 4 tournaments I started switching my sideboard plan until I found myself winning every Jund matchup. The main mistake was oversideboarding. I fell into the trap of using spellskite. DONT. It is just another target for Kolaghan's Command and Ancient grudge.
4) Worst matchups so far are: Burn, Zoo variants (decks that play creatures from turn 1-3 actually) and Grixis control. Kitchen Finks is awful, I started playing tarmogoyfs against burn and zoo, and I am never disappointed of it. If it lands on turn 2 with 3 types of cards it stops anything. Then it applies to much pressure to ignore it. If you have access to tarmogoyfs, switch kitchen finks for them.
5) On the Burn Issue: Tarmgoyf is good, and counterspells are necessary. You can't beat deflecting palm without one. I am playing 3 Spell Pierce 2 Dispels in my 75, and sometimes I wish I had one more dispel (for burn and grixis).
6) this is a question: I haven't figured out the game plan for Bant Eldrazi. Any help would be appreciated.
You know, your advice on Jund opened my eyes: I kind of ignored the fact that Skite really just gives Kommand more legs. I do find it interesting that you found Finks awful though.
So, coming back to Blossoming Defense, a card which people still seem overwhelmingly tepid about (to my surprise), does that make the Burn and/or Bant Eldrazi matchups better?
Against Burn it's quite clearly "counter target Bolt" or "counter target Searing Blaze". Against Bant it can prevent a Displacer activation from shutting down pumps which Blessing can't do.
I already think Defense is something that should be at least a 2 of in the deck and is a solid option against Jund. I'll report on how it plays for me.
I won a PPTQ with Owen Turtenwald's exact list this weekend; went 5-0 in the Swiss and was able to draw with a friend round 6 to place me at #1 seed for the entirety of top 8, which was magical. I went 2-0 in every match in the top 8. Love the deck, a lot more than the older Turtenwald list with Dispel. Having a full playset of Spell Pierce was excellent.
I can see putting Blossoming Defense in there over the Groundswell, but I wouldn't change too much from there. Apostle's Blessing is an important effect, Vines is an important effect. Defense can't get redirected by Spellskite so it seems great against any deck playing Spellskite since Defense + Hierarch/Pendelhaven is enough to wipe out a Spellskite with -1 counters, and Groundswell didn't show up at all for me in the tournament.
Do you guys have a link to the result on Owen's PPTQ results with the new list? Thanks
I think Burn is a worse matchup than Jund for Infect, personally. The deck is full of "kill target creature" spells if they choose to aim them at your guys, and quite frankly they should. They have more Bolts than Infect has guys. If Jund draws the beatdown half of its deck as opposed to the interactive half, they can quite easily lose. Not to say they're not favored, because removal.dec will always be favored against Infect, but there are hands that fall flat in the face of T1 Noble Hierarch into T2 Blighted Agent into T3 double pump for lethal.
Lightning bolt, rift bolt and searing blaze are the only maindeck burn spells that can be targeted towards you creature. Rift bolt is expensive unless suspended so they either spend all of turn 3 trying to kill your guy at sorcery or you can see it coming. Searing blaze is definitely a blow out if they get it off with landfall, but it's near useless without landfall and still pretty expensive for them. If you ever counter/pump/protect from it and it's their whole turn, that's probably game. Bolt is bad, but we know this. Post board they have path, revelry and maybe a helix or something. Helix is just a 2 mana bolt, shouldnt probably come in. Path is bad for us but it's not what their deck wants to be doing and is awful for them if they don't have a creature draw. Revelry sucks if you get blown out but it's kind of in the same vein as blaze. Lavamancer as a one of usually ruins your day unless you're killing them fast but it's no worse than other decks and their one ofs.
The real issue with burn is that they're pretty much as fast as us (their nut is turn 3) but they're consistently turn 4-5 almost no matter what their draw is. That doesn't give us much time to do our thing if we're at all slow and largely why a single bolt can ruin our day. I used to have an easy time with burn and then all of a sudden I had a ton of trouble. It was when the burn player realized he should really just race me instead of trying to play control. Burn isn't a health deck and it's this kind of gameplay I'm not a huge fan of. "Well interacting is risky, so lets just cross our fingers and see who goldfishes first". At least infect has a reasonable slower game with our "control" cards. Anyway, not to trash on burn but it's practically the most frustrating deck for everyone in the meta. Super consistent, can say screw it and not interact or has some tools to kill one or two things and still kill you on five. The real solution here is to stop the creatures, they're what ruin thsi match up for us. I like turn 2 finks.
As for K-command..you guys know you can redirect the 2 damage ping to skite even if it's being targeted by destroy artifact right? Often people miss that (because of how electrolyze works) and you'll get the mad blow outs when they try to kill your agent and your skite with their whole turn.
You forgot mentioning Deflecing Palm. That is Burn's best card against
I side in
+2 spell pierce
+1 dispel (im playing 2 now so i get 2 in)
+4 kitchen finks (i side in tarmogoyf that is waaaaay better)
+2 or 3 natures claim (uncontested eidolon is
game)
+1 dryad arbor
-1 dismember
-2 apostle blessing (counters are better)
-1 corrupter
-4 gprobe
-1 mutagenic growth
-2 twisted image
About kolaghan's command: I know you can redirect both to spellskite, but a good player will almost always do "destroy artifact+discard" 2 damage to a dude es pointless unless you are low in life and dont have blue to redirect without payin phyrexian.
My sideboard against Jund is
-2 twisted image
-2 mutagenic growth
-1 fetchland
+2 spell pierce
+2 dismember (bob is a *****, you HAVE to save dismember for that or for an aggro tarmogoyf)
+1 dryad arbor.
Hey everyone, I just played at my Modern FNM which had an usually high amount of people than normal (27) and figured I would write about my matchups. I eventually went x-0 and drew for 1st and 2nd.
Round 1 RG Through the Breach Titan/Valakut 1-0
Game 1
My opening hand was ok but no infect creature. I ship it and Mulligans 6 and 5 didn't have any lands. I kept a 4 hander with 2 lands, noble and a blighted agent. He draws all the bolts and I can't really do anything.
Game 2
I mulliganed to 6 and kept. It was a land heavy hand with a sylvan scrying and a remand. I scry a spell pierce and leave it on top. The matchup is fairly uninteractive while each player was getting set up. On turn 4 I sylvan scrying and pass leaving open 2 mana. He already knows I'm playing 4 main deck spell pierce so he hard casts Primeval titan and I remand it. I swing for lethal with inkmoth next turn.
Game 3
First hand where it's actually fast. 2 land (fetches) hand with noble, two blighted agents and 1 might of old krosa and a mutagenic. He tries to summoner's pact on T4 to get primeval titan and cast him but I spell pierce it. He pays the two but he is no longer able to cast it. He is now locked out for this turn and the next as he has to pay for the pact next upkeep. On my turn after he's mostly tapped out for the pact mana draw into probe and have an answer for his only bolt in hand so I have the clear to go for the kill with become immense and mutagenic and might.
Game 2 GW Hatebears 2-0
Game1
This game was unusual. Eventually we establish a board state of him having Noble, Wilt Liege, and old Thalia. He keeps pinging for 4 for a couple of turns dropping me to 10 and eventually he stops as I play two blighted agent. He stops attacking for some reason (later on he tells me he was scared of me pumping and trying to trade) and eventually he taps out for a COCO which only gets him an aven mindcensor and I dismember thalia during his end step and swing for lethal.
Game2
He was on the play and got out a T2 and T3 Leonin while vialing in Thalia on T3. I only had fetchlands in hand with no noble and 1 mana open. I couldn't do anything while he pinged me to death with them.
Game3
I had the T3 kill with mutagenic/probe/become immense and took it. I had probed his hand prior and saw no removal.
Round 3 Naya Burn - 3-0
Game 1
I can't describe how lucky I was to be on the play. I play a T1 glistner elf and he swings with goblin guide in response. On T2 I double Might of Old Krosa to get him to 9. he spends his turn bolting my elf and I play an inkmoth on T3. He tries to interact with the last point of infect on T4 but I have an apostle's blessing ready.
Game 2
I feel like I spooked him in the first game as he pretty much stopped playing creatures and kept mana open at all times. Eventually I am able to land a spellskite which he couldn't answer after I defended it from path with Apostle's Blessing. I played a blighted agent and drew a spell pierce the turn I wanted to go off. Fortunately, it worked out as he had deflecting palm but spell pierce was able to stop it.
Round 4 Merfolk - 4-0
Game 1
I was on the play and still got absolutely crushed. This was my first time playing against merfolk with infect. He was simply just a turn faster than me.
Game 2
I am able to stick a spellskite and avoid playing any islands for his creatures to get islandwalk. Fortunately for me he never drew a single spreading seas this entire match. I should have lost this game but my opponent made a mistake. As I was preparing to go off on one of my turns as I couldn't do anything to deal with his army of fish. I had cast might and it resolved. I attempted to cast become immense when he flashed in Harbinger of Tides to try and return inkmoth to hand. Fortunately, I had not declared attacks yet. I let him return harbinger to hand due to his mistake but I swung with spellskite and inkmoth together so I could redirect Harbinger's ability to Spellskite. If he had not done this mistake I probably would not have attacked with both and lost.
Game 3
Similar to Game 2, eventually I am able to swing with spellskite and blighted agent and predict his only answer was Harbinger which let me go for the kill as I redirect his trigger to spellskite.
Round 5 4-0-1
I split top 2 with I think Jund or Bant Eldrazi, I wasn't sure what he was playing as he has multiple decks.
Some notable cards:
Remand - Remand is great in some weird matchups like RG Valakut/Titan where the opponents know that you run spell pierce and intentionally do not use Through the Breach which makes it difficult to interact with. Remanding a 6CMC spell is great as they need to tap mostly out for them to win and even just setting them back a turn lets you do what you need to uninterrupted. Plus it cantrips and fuels delve. Not to mention it can hit stuff like Spellskite or Melira. If you are on the play and go T1 Noble > T2 Elf you are able to keep remand open to deal with Melira/Spellskite/Any other creature they want to play so you can go off on T3. I've remanded a T2 goyf and killed Jund this way before. Right now Remand is only a 1 of and I am tempted to add a 2nd in the SB. While it is a good card, it's also important to keep our curve low.
Spell Pierce - I've been running 4 maindeck spell pierce and drawing them consistently have been amazing. They also help the burn match up which I feel is our most difficult one (besides now maybe Merfolk).
Mutagenic Growth - MG is great as it acts like psuedo removal in the early game. At one point during my merfolk match I dismembered one lord (Lord of Atlantis) which allowed me to block the other lord (Master of Pearl Trident) which only gives other fish islandwalk. With spellskite blocking and being able to +2 him to take down the last lord felt really good and let me control their board presence long enough for me to assemble the kill.
Overall I'm still really enjoying the deck only having built it a few months ago and I will most likely be taking it to GP Dallas in November.
I managed to top 8 a PPTQ today, going 3-1-1 in swiss.
I beat Boggles (2-1 lost game 1 mulling to 5 and getting stuck on 1 land), Affinity (2-0 my action was just way faster than his) and BTL scape (2-0 no real interaction to speak of so that wasn't too tough) and losing to Burn (2-0 hard to beat guide > guide + swiftspear game 1 and i think 4 searing blaze/blood effects game 2) and ID for the top 8. I lost the quarter finals match to living end. That just felt unwinnable. Granted, I didn't see a single spell snare in either of the games, but he had turn 2/3 living ends both games. Just nothing I could do to get going. How does everyone handle that matchup? Looking back, I probably should have sat on inkmoth (although game 2 it wouldn't have mattered since he had krosan grip) until I had enough spell pierces to deal with the living end. Is that correct? What's the game plan for this matchup?
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Modern: UWR Breach, UWB Esper control
Legacy: UW RiP/Helm, UR Sneak and Show
Just posted my FNM results yesterday but I managed to top a PPTQ today. I went 3-1-1 in Swiss.
Round 1 - Dredge (won)
Round 2 - Bant Eldrazi (loss)
Round 3 - Tron (win)
Round 4 - RG Valakut/Through the Breach (win)
Round 5 - Infect (draw to lock in top 4)
Top 4 was two infect, Affinity and Bant Eldrazi.
I had to play my would be opponent from round 5 in Semifinals and won. Finals I played against Bant Eldrazi and got there. Remanding my opponents become immense was probably play of the day for me as no one was expecting it (including my opponent who left 2 mana open in case of spell pierce).
After yesterday's 3rd WMCQ, I went 5-4. My losses were all due to Game 3 mulligan to 5's due to lack of threats in hand. Frustrating to lose like that. I'm going back to Martin Juza's BUG Infect with [card]Plague Stinger[/cards] and add a couple of [card]Abrupt Decay[/cards]s in the sideboard.
Has anyone thought about Postmortem Lunge? Seems like this card would be really good against a removal-heavy meta.
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Kitchen Finks is awful, I started playing tarmogoyfs against burn and zoo, and I am never disappointed of it. If it lands on turn 2 with 3 types of cards it stops anything. Then it applies to much pressure to ignore it. If you have access to tarmogoyfs, switch kitchen finks for them.
What about Thing in The Ice? Landing it on turn 2 does not require 3 types of cards to be a X/4. Also it's quite easy to flip it with this deck, and, depending on the amount of damage the opponent caused to him/herself by fetching/shocking, you can kill him out of nowhere by pumping and flipping TiTi all at once.
I guess my only problem with TitI is that it cannot switch gears at the exact moment I want it to do it. Also, while it is not flipped nothing stops opponent to keep attacking through it.
About mulligans: if you cant deal with mulligans, go play chess. This is a card game and no matter what deck you play you'll have goldfish hands and unplayable hands. Deal with it, and enjoy your turn 2-3 kills as much as you hate your mulls to 4-5
I think you made a watered down, 4c version of a deck that functions better in 2 colors. There's just no reason to do this when you can play the more established list.
Hey everyone, I just played at my Modern FNM which had an usually high amount of people than normal (27) and figured I would write about my matchups. I eventually went x-0 and drew for 1st and 2nd.
Round 1 RG Through the Breach Titan/Valakut 1-0
Game 1
My opening hand was ok but no infect creature. I ship it and Mulligans 6 and 5 didn't have any lands. I kept a 4 hander with 2 lands, noble and a blighted agent. He draws all the bolts and I can't really do anything.
Game 2
I mulliganed to 6 and kept. It was a land heavy hand with a sylvan scrying and a remand. I scry a spell pierce and leave it on top. The matchup is fairly uninteractive while each player was getting set up. On turn 4 I sylvan scrying and pass leaving open 2 mana. He already knows I'm playing 4 main deck spell pierce so he hard casts Primeval titan and I remand it. I swing for lethal with inkmoth next turn.
Game 3
First hand where it's actually fast. 2 land (fetches) hand with noble, two blighted agents and 1 might of old krosa and a mutagenic. He tries to summoner's pact on T4 to get primeval titan and cast him but I spell pierce it. He pays the two but he is no longer able to cast it. He is now locked out for this turn and the next as he has to pay for the pact next upkeep. On my turn after he's mostly tapped out for the pact mana draw into probe and have an answer for his only bolt in hand so I have the clear to go for the kill with become immense and mutagenic and might.
Game 2 GW Hatebears 2-0
Game1
This game was unusual. Eventually we establish a board state of him having Noble, Wilt Liege, and old Thalia. He keeps pinging for 4 for a couple of turns dropping me to 10 and eventually he stops as I play two blighted agent. He stops attacking for some reason (later on he tells me he was scared of me pumping and trying to trade) and eventually he taps out for a COCO which only gets him an aven mindcensor and I dismember thalia during his end step and swing for lethal.
Game2
He was on the play and got out a T2 and T3 Leonin while vialing in Thalia on T3. I only had fetchlands in hand with no noble and 1 mana open. I couldn't do anything while he pinged me to death with them.
Game3
I had the T3 kill with mutagenic/probe/become immense and took it. I had probed his hand prior and saw no removal.
Round 3 Naya Burn - 3-0
Game 1
I can't describe how lucky I was to be on the play. I play a T1 glistner elf and he swings with goblin guide in response. On T2 I double Might of Old Krosa to get him to 9. he spends his turn bolting my elf and I play an inkmoth on T3. He tries to interact with the last point of infect on T4 but I have an apostle's blessing ready.
Game 2
I feel like I spooked him in the first game as he pretty much stopped playing creatures and kept mana open at all times. Eventually I am able to land a spellskite which he couldn't answer after I defended it from path with Apostle's Blessing. I played a blighted agent and drew a spell pierce the turn I wanted to go off. Fortunately, it worked out as he had deflecting palm but spell pierce was able to stop it.
Round 4 Merfolk - 4-0
Game 1
I was on the play and still got absolutely crushed. This was my first time playing against merfolk with infect. He was simply just a turn faster than me.
Game 2
I am able to stick a spellskite and avoid playing any islands for his creatures to get islandwalk. Fortunately for me he never drew a single spreading seas this entire match. I should have lost this game but my opponent made a mistake. As I was preparing to go off on one of my turns as I couldn't do anything to deal with his army of fish. I had cast might and it resolved. I attempted to cast become immense when he flashed in Harbinger of Tides to try and return inkmoth to hand. Fortunately, I had not declared attacks yet. I let him return harbinger to hand due to his mistake but I swung with spellskite and inkmoth together so I could redirect Harbinger's ability to Spellskite. If he had not done this mistake I probably would not have attacked with both and lost.
Game 3
Similar to Game 2, eventually I am able to swing with spellskite and blighted agent and predict his only answer was Harbinger which let me go for the kill as I redirect his trigger to spellskite.
Round 5 4-0-1
I split top 2 with I think Jund or Bant Eldrazi, I wasn't sure what he was playing as he has multiple decks.
Some notable cards:
Remand - Remand is great in some weird matchups like RG Valakut/Titan where the opponents know that you run spell pierce and intentionally do not use Through the Breach which makes it difficult to interact with. Remanding a 6CMC spell is great as they need to tap mostly out for them to win and even just setting them back a turn lets you do what you need to uninterrupted. Plus it cantrips and fuels delve. Not to mention it can hit stuff like Spellskite or Melira. If you are on the play and go T1 Noble > T2 Elf you are able to keep remand open to deal with Melira/Spellskite/Any other creature they want to play so you can go off on T3. I've remanded a T2 goyf and killed Jund this way before. Right now Remand is only a 1 of and I am tempted to add a 2nd in the SB. While it is a good card, it's also important to keep our curve low.
Spell Pierce - I've been running 4 maindeck spell pierce and drawing them consistently have been amazing. They also help the burn match up which I feel is our most difficult one (besides now maybe Merfolk).
Mutagenic Growth - MG is great as it acts like psuedo removal in the early game. At one point during my merfolk match I dismembered one lord (Lord of Atlantis) which allowed me to block the other lord (Master of Pearl Trident) which only gives other fish islandwalk. With spellskite blocking and being able to +2 him to take down the last lord felt really good and let me control their board presence long enough for me to assemble the kill.
Overall I'm still really enjoying the deck only having built it a few months ago and I will most likely be taking it to GP Dallas in November.
would you mind sharing your build?
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EDH:ShatterStax, Only The Strong Survive
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Mono-U Control
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Sen Triplets
Mizzix of the Izmagnus
Derevi Stax
VolThrun
Marchesa, The Black Rose
Olivia Voldaren, Vampire Tribal
I'd recommend reading their thread - they're afraid of us.
-1 Spell Pierce, -2 Apostle's Blessing
+1 Twisted Image, +2 Dismember
Being able to hit an early Hierarch or Bird with Twisted Image can slow them down a ton. Since Eldrazi aren't colored, it's not worth trying to do other things. You want the Dismembers to take out Spellskite or Thought-Knot Seer and just put the pedal to the metal. Dryad Arbor can be a combat trick against them with the right pump spells.
1. Can I afford to swap 2 Nature's Claim for 1 Deglamer and 1 Viridian Corrupter? I'm considering this to fight Chalice of the Void, since it's a pretty big tournament and I could run into anything.
2. Should I swap the 2 Twisted Image for a 3rd Dismember and a Grafdigger's Cage? I'd be losing some SB options vs. Affinity, but I'll be gaining some advantage vs. Abzan Company (which I haven't been winning for quite some time now)
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
You know, your advice on Jund opened my eyes: I kind of ignored the fact that Skite really just gives Kommand more legs. I do find it interesting that you found Finks awful though.
So, coming back to Blossoming Defense, a card which people still seem overwhelmingly tepid about (to my surprise), does that make the Burn and/or Bant Eldrazi matchups better?
Against Burn it's quite clearly "counter target Bolt" or "counter target Searing Blaze". Against Bant it can prevent a Displacer activation from shutting down pumps which Blessing can't do.
I already think Defense is something that should be at least a 2 of in the deck and is a solid option against Jund. I'll report on how it plays for me.
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Do you guys have a link to the result on Owen's PPTQ results with the new list? Thanks
Lightning bolt, rift bolt and searing blaze are the only maindeck burn spells that can be targeted towards you creature. Rift bolt is expensive unless suspended so they either spend all of turn 3 trying to kill your guy at sorcery or you can see it coming. Searing blaze is definitely a blow out if they get it off with landfall, but it's near useless without landfall and still pretty expensive for them. If you ever counter/pump/protect from it and it's their whole turn, that's probably game. Bolt is bad, but we know this. Post board they have path, revelry and maybe a helix or something. Helix is just a 2 mana bolt, shouldnt probably come in. Path is bad for us but it's not what their deck wants to be doing and is awful for them if they don't have a creature draw. Revelry sucks if you get blown out but it's kind of in the same vein as blaze. Lavamancer as a one of usually ruins your day unless you're killing them fast but it's no worse than other decks and their one ofs.
The real issue with burn is that they're pretty much as fast as us (their nut is turn 3) but they're consistently turn 4-5 almost no matter what their draw is. That doesn't give us much time to do our thing if we're at all slow and largely why a single bolt can ruin our day. I used to have an easy time with burn and then all of a sudden I had a ton of trouble. It was when the burn player realized he should really just race me instead of trying to play control. Burn isn't a health deck and it's this kind of gameplay I'm not a huge fan of. "Well interacting is risky, so lets just cross our fingers and see who goldfishes first". At least infect has a reasonable slower game with our "control" cards. Anyway, not to trash on burn but it's practically the most frustrating deck for everyone in the meta. Super consistent, can say screw it and not interact or has some tools to kill one or two things and still kill you on five. The real solution here is to stop the creatures, they're what ruin thsi match up for us. I like turn 2 finks.
As for K-command..you guys know you can redirect the 2 damage ping to skite even if it's being targeted by destroy artifact right? Often people miss that (because of how electrolyze works) and you'll get the mad blow outs when they try to kill your agent and your skite with their whole turn.
I side in
+2 spell pierce
+1 dispel (im playing 2 now so i get 2 in)
+4 kitchen finks (i side in tarmogoyf that is waaaaay better)
+2 or 3 natures claim (uncontested eidolon is
game)
+1 dryad arbor
-1 dismember
-2 apostle blessing (counters are better)
-1 corrupter
-4 gprobe
-1 mutagenic growth
-2 twisted image
About kolaghan's command: I know you can redirect both to spellskite, but a good player will almost always do "destroy artifact+discard" 2 damage to a dude es pointless unless you are low in life and dont have blue to redirect without payin phyrexian.
My sideboard against Jund is
-2 twisted image
-2 mutagenic growth
-1 fetchland
+2 spell pierce
+2 dismember (bob is a *****, you HAVE to save dismember for that or for an aggro tarmogoyf)
+1 dryad arbor.
Round 1 RG Through the Breach Titan/Valakut 1-0
Game 1
My opening hand was ok but no infect creature. I ship it and Mulligans 6 and 5 didn't have any lands. I kept a 4 hander with 2 lands, noble and a blighted agent. He draws all the bolts and I can't really do anything.
Game 2
I mulliganed to 6 and kept. It was a land heavy hand with a sylvan scrying and a remand. I scry a spell pierce and leave it on top. The matchup is fairly uninteractive while each player was getting set up. On turn 4 I sylvan scrying and pass leaving open 2 mana. He already knows I'm playing 4 main deck spell pierce so he hard casts Primeval titan and I remand it. I swing for lethal with inkmoth next turn.
Game 3
First hand where it's actually fast. 2 land (fetches) hand with noble, two blighted agents and 1 might of old krosa and a mutagenic. He tries to summoner's pact on T4 to get primeval titan and cast him but I spell pierce it. He pays the two but he is no longer able to cast it. He is now locked out for this turn and the next as he has to pay for the pact next upkeep. On my turn after he's mostly tapped out for the pact mana draw into probe and have an answer for his only bolt in hand so I have the clear to go for the kill with become immense and mutagenic and might.
Game 2 GW Hatebears 2-0
Game1
This game was unusual. Eventually we establish a board state of him having Noble, Wilt Liege, and old Thalia. He keeps pinging for 4 for a couple of turns dropping me to 10 and eventually he stops as I play two blighted agent. He stops attacking for some reason (later on he tells me he was scared of me pumping and trying to trade) and eventually he taps out for a COCO which only gets him an aven mindcensor and I dismember thalia during his end step and swing for lethal.
Game2
He was on the play and got out a T2 and T3 Leonin while vialing in Thalia on T3. I only had fetchlands in hand with no noble and 1 mana open. I couldn't do anything while he pinged me to death with them.
Game3
I had the T3 kill with mutagenic/probe/become immense and took it. I had probed his hand prior and saw no removal.
Round 3 Naya Burn - 3-0
Game 1
I can't describe how lucky I was to be on the play. I play a T1 glistner elf and he swings with goblin guide in response. On T2 I double Might of Old Krosa to get him to 9. he spends his turn bolting my elf and I play an inkmoth on T3. He tries to interact with the last point of infect on T4 but I have an apostle's blessing ready.
Game 2
I feel like I spooked him in the first game as he pretty much stopped playing creatures and kept mana open at all times. Eventually I am able to land a spellskite which he couldn't answer after I defended it from path with Apostle's Blessing. I played a blighted agent and drew a spell pierce the turn I wanted to go off. Fortunately, it worked out as he had deflecting palm but spell pierce was able to stop it.
Round 4 Merfolk - 4-0
Game 1
I was on the play and still got absolutely crushed. This was my first time playing against merfolk with infect. He was simply just a turn faster than me.
Game 2
I am able to stick a spellskite and avoid playing any islands for his creatures to get islandwalk. Fortunately for me he never drew a single spreading seas this entire match. I should have lost this game but my opponent made a mistake. As I was preparing to go off on one of my turns as I couldn't do anything to deal with his army of fish. I had cast might and it resolved. I attempted to cast become immense when he flashed in Harbinger of Tides to try and return inkmoth to hand. Fortunately, I had not declared attacks yet. I let him return harbinger to hand due to his mistake but I swung with spellskite and inkmoth together so I could redirect Harbinger's ability to Spellskite. If he had not done this mistake I probably would not have attacked with both and lost.
Game 3
Similar to Game 2, eventually I am able to swing with spellskite and blighted agent and predict his only answer was Harbinger which let me go for the kill as I redirect his trigger to spellskite.
Round 5 4-0-1
I split top 2 with I think Jund or Bant Eldrazi, I wasn't sure what he was playing as he has multiple decks.
Some notable cards:
Remand - Remand is great in some weird matchups like RG Valakut/Titan where the opponents know that you run spell pierce and intentionally do not use Through the Breach which makes it difficult to interact with. Remanding a 6CMC spell is great as they need to tap mostly out for them to win and even just setting them back a turn lets you do what you need to uninterrupted. Plus it cantrips and fuels delve. Not to mention it can hit stuff like Spellskite or Melira. If you are on the play and go T1 Noble > T2 Elf you are able to keep remand open to deal with Melira/Spellskite/Any other creature they want to play so you can go off on T3. I've remanded a T2 goyf and killed Jund this way before. Right now Remand is only a 1 of and I am tempted to add a 2nd in the SB. While it is a good card, it's also important to keep our curve low.
Spell Pierce - I've been running 4 maindeck spell pierce and drawing them consistently have been amazing. They also help the burn match up which I feel is our most difficult one (besides now maybe Merfolk).
Mutagenic Growth - MG is great as it acts like psuedo removal in the early game. At one point during my merfolk match I dismembered one lord (Lord of Atlantis) which allowed me to block the other lord (Master of Pearl Trident) which only gives other fish islandwalk. With spellskite blocking and being able to +2 him to take down the last lord felt really good and let me control their board presence long enough for me to assemble the kill.
Overall I'm still really enjoying the deck only having built it a few months ago and I will most likely be taking it to GP Dallas in November.
I beat Boggles (2-1 lost game 1 mulling to 5 and getting stuck on 1 land), Affinity (2-0 my action was just way faster than his) and BTL scape (2-0 no real interaction to speak of so that wasn't too tough) and losing to Burn (2-0 hard to beat guide > guide + swiftspear game 1 and i think 4 searing blaze/blood effects game 2) and ID for the top 8. I lost the quarter finals match to living end. That just felt unwinnable. Granted, I didn't see a single spell snare in either of the games, but he had turn 2/3 living ends both games. Just nothing I could do to get going. How does everyone handle that matchup? Looking back, I probably should have sat on inkmoth (although game 2 it wouldn't have mattered since he had krosan grip) until I had enough spell pierces to deal with the living end. Is that correct? What's the game plan for this matchup?
Legacy: UW RiP/Helm, UR Sneak and Show
Round 1 - Dredge (won)
Round 2 - Bant Eldrazi (loss)
Round 3 - Tron (win)
Round 4 - RG Valakut/Through the Breach (win)
Round 5 - Infect (draw to lock in top 4)
Top 4 was two infect, Affinity and Bant Eldrazi.
I had to play my would be opponent from round 5 in Semifinals and won. Finals I played against Bant Eldrazi and got there. Remanding my opponents become immense was probably play of the day for me as no one was expecting it (including my opponent who left 2 mana open in case of spell pierce).
MODERN – LANTERN (aka Fateseal or Barbershop)
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What about Thing in The Ice? Landing it on turn 2 does not require 3 types of cards to be a X/4. Also it's quite easy to flip it with this deck, and, depending on the amount of damage the opponent caused to him/herself by fetching/shocking, you can kill him out of nowhere by pumping and flipping TiTi all at once.
would you mind sharing your build?
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Mono-U Control
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Sen Triplets
Mizzix of the Izmagnus
Derevi Stax
VolThrun
Marchesa, The Black Rose
Olivia Voldaren, Vampire Tribal
Modern: Fish, JUND/Junk
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RIP Twin