So I saw Rietzl's deck on stream, is that deck just better than Little Kid Junk? They play red for Bolt and Nacatl, we play black for Thoughtseize and Rhino.
I mean we are probably better vs Jund/Junk as we have Smiter/Liege for Liliana and Lingering Souls.
Maybe I'm jus waning on my deck choice and these decks are totally different.
So has Abzan Company just over taken this deck as "little Abzan"? I haven't seen our deck represented in any events recently. What changes do we need to make for the current meta?
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Modern GU Infect | x Affinity | RWG Naya Burn | W Death and Taxes | U Merfolk | BURG BTL Scapeshift | WUUW Titan | R Goblins | BURGW Suicide Zoo
So has Abzan Company just over taken this deck as "little Abzan"? I haven't seen our deck represented in any events recently. What changes do we need to make for the current meta?
Little Kid was made to beat the B/G/x decks with discard as Smiter and Wilt-Liefe are great against those decks. Lingering Souls is also a trump card in creature based matchups. I'm not sure which deck is better, but it probably depends on the meta.
Like if those two decks played each other I think Little Kid probably would win cause we have bigger creatures and are just more consistent.
Went undefeated in Swiss at Local Game Store 25 person Modern Event losing in the top 4 with the discard variant. I don't remember certain details of some games so forgive me if they are a little vague.
Match 1: Goryo's Vengeance Combo: 2-1
Game 1: Using discard effects I see looting spells and narset and I put him on Vengenace Combo. Because of that read Turn 4 I leave up white for path and he doesn't go for the combo even though he topdecks goryo's vengeance. I whittle him down with beats and when he tries to go for the win I path and that's the game.
Game 2: I mulligan to 6 and keep a meh hand. He combo kills me on Turn 3 with Griselbrand.
Game 3: Tidehollow + Discard + Scavenging Ooze seal the deal and he can't beat a resolved ooze.
Match 2: Affinity: 2-0
Game 1: He keeps a slowish hand relying on a etched champion that I steal with Tidehollow Sculler. I bring the beats and kill him with a Liege Boosted Rhino.
Game 2: Combat in his turn he attack with a 1/2 signal pest and lands, I block with a souls token. He plays Overseer and end of turn I golgari Charm, wiping the board leaving an inactive etched champion back to block and so he dies the following turn.
Match 3: Grixis Delver: 2-0
Play-tested against a different variant/pilot the night before a good amount. This matchup is so laughably easy I wish I could play against it all day.
Game 1: Mull to 6. Loxodon into Rhino into Liege, kills a liege, play another one game.
Game 2: Same deal as G1. The deck just can't handle the pressure. There we some cool interactions that I had but I can't remember.
Match 4: I'm undefeated and my opponent is on Jund so he shows me how to determine when to draw and matchup stuff etc. We see that we can draw this round and 5th round to guarantee top 8.
Top 8:
I'm first seed and I get paired against one of the best players that I know on Death and Taxes, He normally ran pod and I haven't seen him in a while.
Death and Taxes: 2-1
Game 1: Mull to 6. Splicers muck up the board and the fliers are tough, but me bluffing that I don't have a removal spell gets me in 3 points of damage and when he swings for game I kill his wisp with a topdecked decay and crackback for lethal.
Game 2: He out-tempos me and I can't deal with the army of splicer tokens.
Game 3: Mull to 5. I use voice tokens alongside lingering souls to have 2 8/8's and he 8 counter vials in an akroma. This Game was really long but when I swing in on the turn he plays akroma I put him to 2 and play my topdecked abrupt decay on o-ring to get back rhino for lethal.
Top 4:
This is the same Affinity player I 2-0'ed earlier in the tournament so I felt ok coming in.
Affinity: 0-2
Game 1: I'm in an ok spot with tidehollows taking Overseer and Etched Champion and am able to use Vault of the archangel to keep even in the race against cranial plating on vault skirge. I give myself 5 turns to draw my first copy of abrupt decay or path to exile. I draw 5 lands and lose.
Game 2: I keep a one lander with 2 nature's claims, Decays, and some threats. I get there on lands but he has played 3 Signal Pests. I sculler and see thoughtcast, wear and tear, and etched champion. I take the champion knowing that if I live for a turn or 2 I'm going to turn the corner. He topdecks island into thoughtcast attacks with the team plays overseer. I play golgari charm on my turn because I'm dead next turn without an overseer activation so if I wait he can just overseer in response. If he didn't lose to charm earlier I might have been more inclined to see if he would misplay. So I put him on the topdeck cranial plating or lose because his whole board is gone thanks to charm and all he has is blinkmoth. He topdecks Cranial PLating and I lose.
Overall I had a blast playing the deck, and I felt favored in a lot of my games. I saw Tidehollow Sculler a lot and he definitely gave me an edge in a lot of matchups, because it let me mess with my opponents curves and make them take sub-optimal lines to stay in the game. The sideboard plans felt very strong and resilient. Got some store credit but I really wanted to shoot for the Lilli for first place. Will be gunning for it next time!
So has Abzan Company just over taken this deck as "little Abzan"? I haven't seen our deck represented in any events recently. What changes do we need to make for the current meta?
Little Kid was made to beat the B/G/x decks with discard as Smiter and Wilt-Liefe are great against those decks. Lingering Souls is also a trump card in creature based matchups. I'm not sure which deck is better, but it probably depends on the meta.
Like if those two decks played each other I think Little Kid probably would win cause we have bigger creatures and are just more consistent.
I imagine a lot of the pros have gotten off the deck since its somewhat of a Meta deck. GBx is still a pretty big share of the meta, so I'd say it's still viable. However, with all the Amulet and Twin decks since the PT, I think a lot of people shifted away from it. I think if you wanted to stay Abzan, either traditional Junk or Company might be a better bet. One can take on the combo decks, the other can combo itself. Staying Wilt-Leaf, having multiple Pridemage in the main, along with a decent number of Fulminator and Thoughtseize side is important.
Just played Emracool's dorkless build today at a 48 man pptq and finished 4-2 in 10th place.
The two decks I lost to were grixis control and a twin deck.
I haven't had very much practice on this deck and I was satisfied with how I did today. I'm hoping to get more practice before an SCG IQ on the 27th.
This list is really good, I never felt like I had a bad match and all the games I lost were long and drawn out other than the couple games I lost to mana screw.
I wish i had taken some notes today so I could do a write-up however at the IQ I will definitely take notes and plan to do a tournament write-up.
I top 4ed a 70 man PPTQ. I lost in semis to twinning end ***** THAT DECK*. You had to go x-1 to top 8 because they had six rounds they were supposed to have 7 rounds because they started the event early and people entered late and couldn't testart.
I beat Junk Company, Jund Twice, Through the Breach, Ad Nauseam, Affinity, and lost to my team mate with his grixis control list 2-1 (he ended the game at one life was super close). Will do a tournament report tomorrow.
I hope these surge of good results proove the deck. If not, I dont know what to tell you.
I appreciate all who used my version it means a lot and congratulations! Here's to hoping for more results and players playing it!
Im willing to argue that Fuli-mage is more of a good-to-have than a must have, don't get me wrong, its amazing, but I just feel that ThoughtSeize and Pridemage are a must.
This was a 66 (started with 70, but people dropped after first round) person PPTQ. A lot of my competitive team went together in three separate cars (one of us was head judging the tournament), but it was expected to be only a 15 person tournament or so, and it wasn't that. We drove for three hours to get to this place (traffic sucks), but we were determined to win this thing, and we barely got there in time to finish our deck lists and turn it in.
This tournament was more complicated then it should have been; due to traffic, people arrived a tad late. However, in the system they had started and were about to post pairings, but added like 7 people last minute, but because the system started it couldn't be 7 rounds. This meant we could only do 6 rounds, which meant if you were not x-0 or x-1, you were screwed. They did award prizes to top 16 though.
Round 1: GB Through the Breach
I lose the die role and dont know what to expect as this isnt a meta I know at all, but I scoped around and there was a ton of diversity. This guy was playing a wierd deck that he brewed and I knew this was going to be easy, as this deck is the type of deck that crushes brews.
Game 1: He is on the play, and drops 4 lotus blooms, forest, pass. I knew I was going to lose this game, but I thoughtseized to see what would happen, and he had see the unwritten and summoning trap. I started applying as much pressure as I could but died to a summoning trap into Ulamog.
I sided in stony silence as it seemed he relied on lotus blooms, as well as Engineered Explosives to deal with the blooms and if he played mana dorks as I saw 3 in the summoning trap I could slow him down.I also sided in the Natures Claim because of blooms, and took out the voices and two finks.
Game 2: I kept a risky keep with a ton of answers and gas, a fetch, and a gavony, knowing he couldnt apply a ton of pressure with my turn one thoughtseize and played the odds that I can topdeck any colored source and win at that spot. I thoughtseized and saw 2 obliterators and lands. I took an obliterator waiting for the land to come. The only land I topdecked in 7 turns was the only other colorless source in Vault. He brings me to one with nothing but an obliterator, my only out is a path and I am REALLY salty at this point because I potentially lost to jank that I knew wouldnt make it far. I topdecked the path! I then next turn topdecked the colored source, played a smiter (Still at one life) and beat face a bunch of times while he was bricking on draws. I was killing all lotus blooms he played and he was bricking. He was at 7, he plays an urborg when he didn't need to which turns on my colorless lands and allows me to rhino for the win.
Game 3: I stony silenced him turn 2, thoughtseized his threats, and beat face quickly with double rhino and liege.
I scout a bit, discuss with my team how they were doing (for the most part well), and play round 2.
Round 2: Brandon with Junk Company (A teammate)
I thoughtseized (sculler counts) three times both games as well as pressuring him and decaying/pathing his threats and I win easily. This is a good matchup , but he didn't think so prior to the match as he beat the dork version.
Round 3: Adrian with Grixis Control
This is one of my team mates, who has top 8ed or won every PPTQ he has been to (7 of them), so I knew I had a tough match. We carpooled together, so we knew each others exact list.
Game 1: I thoughtseize a blood moon, and I ride smiter into smiter into rhino and win.
He told me prior what to side against him, so I did. In went stony silence (he relies on a lot of artifacts), natures claim, Scooze, and Engineered Explosives, taking out discard and two finks.
Game 2: He had all four of his terminates into abrupt decay and it was one removal spell too many and I lose.
Game 3: This was grindy and close, but he has a grim lavamancer that I underestimated and he won off of a Lavamancer activation last second. He was at one life.
I was glad he beat me out of everyone, but I still made it my goal to top 8 and thats what I was going to do.
Round 4: Jund
Game 1: This guy inquisitioned me turn 1 to find only smiter as the target. He lost shortly after.
Game 2: He also had all four terminates into triple decay. That was one spell to many and I lose.
Game 3: This was grindy, but liege, finks, rhino, and smiter eventually overrun him.
I took out the discard for souls, scooze, Engineered Explosives, and a Golgari Charm. He was visibly upset , but was a nice guy and I wished him a top 16.
At this point, standings were up and there were four undefeated, and TWENTY X-1's. I knew I couldnt lose another game.
Round 5: Affinity.
Game 1: I am on the play, I thoughtseize his only bomb, then decay and path his topdecked ones and win shortly after.
The guy sees me siding in 12 cards, and told me he had somewhere to be in 30 minutes, and that he knew he was going to lose, and he told me I was the type of player that deserved to top 8 and gave me the win 2-0 and dropped. What a nice guy!
Standings go up again, and there were 10 X-1s and two X-0s. I am 12th at this point and realize these last couple of games are going to be important.
Round 6: Jund
THANK JESUS ABOVE ANOTHER GBx DECK!!!
Game 1: I beat him after a grind fest because of my threat density . A topdecked rhino and liege get him.
Game 2: He has all four terminates ( I see a recurring theme here) double liliana that he minused and I lose.
Game 3: I win off of the back of Rhinos outclassing Goyf and my decays and paths being to much for him to handle.
This is the same boarding as the past Jund player.
I wound up 5th, and two other teammates top 8ed and four more top 16ed. The top 8 was Skred Red (a team mate), Ad Nauseam (a team mate), Twinning End (this deck is jank, but Kiki Jikis help it), Grixis Delver, two UR Twins, Jeskai Control, and I. The only matchup I feel badly against is Skred Red (this deck is made to beat mine basically) and Twinning End (If he has both comboes online I lose, but I beat either plan he commits to). I am feeling pretty good, but want to split the prize as 98 each in cash seems good for me. One person didnt want to split which didnt make sense because the only way you get more then that is second or first.
Quarters: John with Ad Nauseam
I didnt want to face my teammate, and our whole team stops to watch this instead of going home. This is a REALLY good player and I am nervous going into it, but am determined. The Skred player is playing Twinning End, and I want Skred to win because even if we face, I know he wanted to split, and 140 bucks sounds good to me.
Game 1: I went wildwood into sculler into smiter into liege. He double Angels Grace and I win after he bricks on another ad nauseam. ( I found out after the match the rhino I held in his hand killed him through an Angels Grace which I didnt know).
Game 2: He leylined, but I stony Silenced which slowed him down a lot and despite my triple sieze hand topdecked enough action to beat him. He had a grave titan, but made the mistake of attacking with it and I double blocked with my two voice tokens and swung past the tokens for the win. I decayed his Porphyr Nodes and it was easy from there.
I took out my paths and 3 Finks for Stony Silence, Natures Claim, and Golgari Charm.
At this point, there is a Twin, a Grixis Delver, Twinning End (He won games 1 and 3 where there was no blood moon), and me. We wanted to split, but the Twinning End guy didnt want to (even though you had to get first in order to get more money and we figured he was the one who didnt split top 8). I REALLY wanted to split and was determined to beat him.
Quarters: Twinning End
He wasnt a jerk or anything, but I just dont like it when people dont split. Also he knocked off two teammates, so I wanted to win. Though if I didnt win I wanted him to beat the other guy because it is a cool deck.
Game 1: He was on the play and I scullered him turn 3 to see him flash in pestermite and have two twins.. Well I cant do anything there.
I took out 3 Decays and Finks for Scooze Golgari Charm and Natures Claim .
Game 2: I scullered him to see Violent Outburst, Pestermite, Kiki (I had things to remove twins), and Simian Spirit Guide. If I didnt take Outburst, he gets back his combo piece and wins anyway. I lose quickly. If he had just one of the combos I was fine, but both in hand is to much. I had done testing against this deck and they dont normally run Kiki nor do they have both comboes, so he just had the nut against me. Varience is real folks!!
What I learned:
Dont underestimate jank. Jank was what beat me today and came close to beating me, and I have a new respect for those decks.
People who are younger then you can beat you. I am almost 17, and I am the youngest on my team. In the car, they all bet I was going to be the one to not top 8 in the car because I was "much to young",and of that car I was the one who top 8ed. People underestimate me because of my age and it drives me to do better, but it also hurts. Try and not discriminate against a a player for age.
Siege Rhino hits through Angels Grace.
Applebees tastes really good at midnight.
In prior competitive REL events, they had food places nearby so I never had to bring snacks or water bottles. However, I was starting to get worn down because there were no food places at all nearby, which forced me to way overpay for drinks and a snack before we all went to Applebees after the tournament. I will come prepared with at least water in future competitive REL events.
Never try and predict a meta; people will play what they want to and are comfortable with, and just because the shop typically has lots of Twin and Delver doesn't mean it should be that way at the tournament (and there was a bit of everything).
I love reading other reports and love writing them so let me know if there is anything I can do to improve on or if you have any questions! I hope this proves the deck is viable!
I ended up with a bad Day 2 because I lost in 3 games to Ben Wienberg with UR Twin and a top decked Clique to get my abrupt out of my hand and I lost to Tom Martell in 3 games after he was at 3 and drew pyroclasm off the top. I am pretty unhappy with the results, but I will admit I dodged Tron the entire weekend minus the finals of my grinder.
I ended up going with the following list:
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
1 Razorverge Thicket
2 Stirring Wildwood ( this is useful in tron matchup)
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Gavony Township
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Path to Exile
1 Dromoka's Command (I was thoroughly impressed with this and plan on adding another)
SB:
2 Stony Silence
2 Gaddock Teeg
3 Fulminator Mage
1 Blood Baron of Viskopa
1 Sigarda host of herons (amazing)
1 Golgari Charm
2 Thoughtseize
1 Choke (wish it was 2)
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
I have decided that I want a total of 7-8 dorks since I found it very underwhelming without all the dorks. I beat most of the Jund decks I played by pure good decisions. Burn is an ok matchup but I did have to path my own finks to live and win a match to get into Day 2. I then beat UB Faeries in the final round of day 1. I learned to take Eidolon more seriously and have my own decisions as errors for losing 2 matches in Day 1. One of which was sideboarding incorrectly against Grixis Control since I thought it was Grixis Twin and didn't see many signatures game one to suggest otherwise. Another was letting Eidolon stick around too long. Nevertheless I did make day 2 and lost to some amazing players due to poor luck. One of my losses to Jund was because of a bad mulligan decision in Day 2.
@Golgari: How were the Fulminator Mage's? I feel the double black is just too difficult for this deck to have on T3 or T4 and it's just not worth running. I think I'd rather run Aven Mindcensor in the SB over it.
Thoughts on 2 SB Ghost Quarter? We can SB them in and take out the Gavony's against decks like Control/Tron/Bloom where Gavony isn't that good.
So I've been on Wilt-Leaf for awhile, and I've just acquired my Hierarchs and I've been testing out the deck. I like it well enough, and previously I was running @Emracool's list which I prefered. However I decided to move onto the Hierarch List and try it out. My friend and I were discussing the list and he came up with:
What are peoples thoughts on removing Wilt-Leaf from the list? What else could we replace it with? My friend who came up with this is mostly a control/combo player (Grixis Twin, Scapeshift, Mono-U Taking Turns). Honestly I'd like to see Wilt-Leaf back in there, but I'm kind of curious to see how this pans out. Thoughts?
Without Wilt-Leaf we are just worse than Abzan Midrange with Lili and Goyf, and worse than the Abzan Company decks. The reason this deck is good is because Liege/Smiter are great vs the B/G/x decks and Liege is a trump in all creature matchups as it gives basically our whole board +2/+2.
Also I'm just not sure how important Zealous Persecution is anymore as there aren't really any Lingering Souls in the format anymore.
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I mean we are probably better vs Jund/Junk as we have Smiter/Liege for Liliana and Lingering Souls.
Maybe I'm jus waning on my deck choice and these decks are totally different.
GWB Angel PodWBR Mardu MidrangeGWB Wilted Abzan
GWB Angel PodWBR Mardu MidrangeGWB Wilted Abzan
GU Infect | x Affinity | RWG Naya Burn | W Death and Taxes | U Merfolk | BURG BTL Scapeshift | WUUW Titan | R Goblins | BURGW Suicide Zoo
Gisela,Blade of Goldnight WR
Sigarda,Heron's Grace WG
Little Kid was made to beat the B/G/x decks with discard as Smiter and Wilt-Liefe are great against those decks. Lingering Souls is also a trump card in creature based matchups. I'm not sure which deck is better, but it probably depends on the meta.
Like if those two decks played each other I think Little Kid probably would win cause we have bigger creatures and are just more consistent.
Match 1: Goryo's Vengeance Combo: 2-1
Game 1: Using discard effects I see looting spells and narset and I put him on Vengenace Combo. Because of that read Turn 4 I leave up white for path and he doesn't go for the combo even though he topdecks goryo's vengeance. I whittle him down with beats and when he tries to go for the win I path and that's the game.
Game 2: I mulligan to 6 and keep a meh hand. He combo kills me on Turn 3 with Griselbrand.
Game 3: Tidehollow + Discard + Scavenging Ooze seal the deal and he can't beat a resolved ooze.
Match 2: Affinity: 2-0
Game 1: He keeps a slowish hand relying on a etched champion that I steal with Tidehollow Sculler. I bring the beats and kill him with a Liege Boosted Rhino.
Game 2: Combat in his turn he attack with a 1/2 signal pest and lands, I block with a souls token. He plays Overseer and end of turn I golgari Charm, wiping the board leaving an inactive etched champion back to block and so he dies the following turn.
Match 3: Grixis Delver: 2-0
Play-tested against a different variant/pilot the night before a good amount. This matchup is so laughably easy I wish I could play against it all day.
Game 1: Mull to 6. Loxodon into Rhino into Liege, kills a liege, play another one game.
Game 2: Same deal as G1. The deck just can't handle the pressure. There we some cool interactions that I had but I can't remember.
Match 4: I'm undefeated and my opponent is on Jund so he shows me how to determine when to draw and matchup stuff etc. We see that we can draw this round and 5th round to guarantee top 8.
Top 8:
I'm first seed and I get paired against one of the best players that I know on Death and Taxes, He normally ran pod and I haven't seen him in a while.
Death and Taxes: 2-1
Game 1: Mull to 6. Splicers muck up the board and the fliers are tough, but me bluffing that I don't have a removal spell gets me in 3 points of damage and when he swings for game I kill his wisp with a topdecked decay and crackback for lethal.
Game 2: He out-tempos me and I can't deal with the army of splicer tokens.
Game 3: Mull to 5. I use voice tokens alongside lingering souls to have 2 8/8's and he 8 counter vials in an akroma. This Game was really long but when I swing in on the turn he plays akroma I put him to 2 and play my topdecked abrupt decay on o-ring to get back rhino for lethal.
Top 4:
This is the same Affinity player I 2-0'ed earlier in the tournament so I felt ok coming in.
Affinity: 0-2
Game 1: I'm in an ok spot with tidehollows taking Overseer and Etched Champion and am able to use Vault of the archangel to keep even in the race against cranial plating on vault skirge. I give myself 5 turns to draw my first copy of abrupt decay or path to exile. I draw 5 lands and lose.
Game 2: I keep a one lander with 2 nature's claims, Decays, and some threats. I get there on lands but he has played 3 Signal Pests. I sculler and see thoughtcast, wear and tear, and etched champion. I take the champion knowing that if I live for a turn or 2 I'm going to turn the corner. He topdecks island into thoughtcast attacks with the team plays overseer. I play golgari charm on my turn because I'm dead next turn without an overseer activation so if I wait he can just overseer in response. If he didn't lose to charm earlier I might have been more inclined to see if he would misplay. So I put him on the topdeck cranial plating or lose because his whole board is gone thanks to charm and all he has is blinkmoth. He topdecks Cranial PLating and I lose.
Overall I had a blast playing the deck, and I felt favored in a lot of my games. I saw Tidehollow Sculler a lot and he definitely gave me an edge in a lot of matchups, because it let me mess with my opponents curves and make them take sub-optimal lines to stay in the game. The sideboard plans felt very strong and resilient. Got some store credit but I really wanted to shoot for the Lilli for first place. Will be gunning for it next time!
I imagine a lot of the pros have gotten off the deck since its somewhat of a Meta deck. GBx is still a pretty big share of the meta, so I'd say it's still viable. However, with all the Amulet and Twin decks since the PT, I think a lot of people shifted away from it. I think if you wanted to stay Abzan, either traditional Junk or Company might be a better bet. One can take on the combo decks, the other can combo itself. Staying Wilt-Leaf, having multiple Pridemage in the main, along with a decent number of Fulminator and Thoughtseize side is important.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
The two decks I lost to were grixis control and a twin deck.
I haven't had very much practice on this deck and I was satisfied with how I did today. I'm hoping to get more practice before an SCG IQ on the 27th.
This list is really good, I never felt like I had a bad match and all the games I lost were long and drawn out other than the couple games I lost to mana screw.
I wish i had taken some notes today so I could do a write-up however at the IQ I will definitely take notes and plan to do a tournament write-up.
I beat Junk Company, Jund Twice, Through the Breach, Ad Nauseam, Affinity, and lost to my team mate with his grixis control list 2-1 (he ended the game at one life was super close). Will do a tournament report tomorrow.
I hope these surge of good results proove the deck. If not, I dont know what to tell you.
I appreciate all who used my version it means a lot and congratulations! Here's to hoping for more results and players playing it!
2x Choke
1x Fracturing Gust
2x Stony Silence
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1x Aven Mindcensor
1x Slaughter Pact
2x Dromoka's Command
1x Abrupt Decay
2x Thought Seize
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Loxodon Smiter
3 Noble Hierarch
2 Qasali Pridemage
4 Siege Rhino
4 Voice of Resurgence
3 Wilt-Leaf Liege
Spells
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Path to Exile
4 Lingering Souls
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
1 Marsh Flats
1 Overgrown Tomb
3 Razorverge Thicket
1 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Stony Silence
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Duress
4 Thoughtseize
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Kitchen Finks
4 Loxodon Smiter
2 Noble Hierarch
3 Qasali Pridemage
4 Siege Rhino
3 Voice of Resurgence
4 Wilt-Leaf Liege
Spells
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Path to Exile
4 Lingering Souls
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Gavony Township
2 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
3 Razorverge Thicket
1 Stirring Wildwood
4 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
2 Torpor Orb
2 Spellskite
1 Choke
2 Stony Silence
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Golgari Charm
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 Thoughtseize
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Loxodon Smiter
3 Noble Hierarch
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Siege Rhino
3 Voice of Resurgence
3 Wilt-Leaf Liege
Spells
1 Abrupt Decay
3 Path to Exile
4 Lingering Souls
2 Thoughtseize
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
1 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Razorverge Thicket
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
2 Temple Garden
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Spellskite
1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Choke
1 Outpost Siege
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Fracturing Gust
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Slaughter Games
2 Sowing Salt
1 Thoughtseize
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
This was a 66 (started with 70, but people dropped after first round) person PPTQ. A lot of my competitive team went together in three separate cars (one of us was head judging the tournament), but it was expected to be only a 15 person tournament or so, and it wasn't that. We drove for three hours to get to this place (traffic sucks), but we were determined to win this thing, and we barely got there in time to finish our deck lists and turn it in.
This tournament was more complicated then it should have been; due to traffic, people arrived a tad late. However, in the system they had started and were about to post pairings, but added like 7 people last minute, but because the system started it couldn't be 7 rounds. This meant we could only do 6 rounds, which meant if you were not x-0 or x-1, you were screwed. They did award prizes to top 16 though.
Round 1: GB Through the Breach
I lose the die role and dont know what to expect as this isnt a meta I know at all, but I scoped around and there was a ton of diversity. This guy was playing a wierd deck that he brewed and I knew this was going to be easy, as this deck is the type of deck that crushes brews.
Game 1: He is on the play, and drops 4 lotus blooms, forest, pass. I knew I was going to lose this game, but I thoughtseized to see what would happen, and he had see the unwritten and summoning trap. I started applying as much pressure as I could but died to a summoning trap into Ulamog.
I sided in stony silence as it seemed he relied on lotus blooms, as well as Engineered Explosives to deal with the blooms and if he played mana dorks as I saw 3 in the summoning trap I could slow him down.I also sided in the Natures Claim because of blooms, and took out the voices and two finks.
Game 2: I kept a risky keep with a ton of answers and gas, a fetch, and a gavony, knowing he couldnt apply a ton of pressure with my turn one thoughtseize and played the odds that I can topdeck any colored source and win at that spot. I thoughtseized and saw 2 obliterators and lands. I took an obliterator waiting for the land to come. The only land I topdecked in 7 turns was the only other colorless source in Vault. He brings me to one with nothing but an obliterator, my only out is a path and I am REALLY salty at this point because I potentially lost to jank that I knew wouldnt make it far. I topdecked the path! I then next turn topdecked the colored source, played a smiter (Still at one life) and beat face a bunch of times while he was bricking on draws. I was killing all lotus blooms he played and he was bricking. He was at 7, he plays an urborg when he didn't need to which turns on my colorless lands and allows me to rhino for the win.
Game 3: I stony silenced him turn 2, thoughtseized his threats, and beat face quickly with double rhino and liege.
I scout a bit, discuss with my team how they were doing (for the most part well), and play round 2.
Round 2: Brandon with Junk Company (A teammate)
I thoughtseized (sculler counts) three times both games as well as pressuring him and decaying/pathing his threats and I win easily. This is a good matchup , but he didn't think so prior to the match as he beat the dork version.
Round 3: Adrian with Grixis Control
This is one of my team mates, who has top 8ed or won every PPTQ he has been to (7 of them), so I knew I had a tough match. We carpooled together, so we knew each others exact list.
Game 1: I thoughtseize a blood moon, and I ride smiter into smiter into rhino and win.
He told me prior what to side against him, so I did. In went stony silence (he relies on a lot of artifacts), natures claim, Scooze, and Engineered Explosives, taking out discard and two finks.
Game 2: He had all four of his terminates into abrupt decay and it was one removal spell too many and I lose.
Game 3: This was grindy and close, but he has a grim lavamancer that I underestimated and he won off of a Lavamancer activation last second. He was at one life.
I was glad he beat me out of everyone, but I still made it my goal to top 8 and thats what I was going to do.
Round 4: Jund
Game 1: This guy inquisitioned me turn 1 to find only smiter as the target. He lost shortly after.
Game 2: He also had all four terminates into triple decay. That was one spell to many and I lose.
Game 3: This was grindy, but liege, finks, rhino, and smiter eventually overrun him.
I took out the discard for souls, scooze, Engineered Explosives, and a Golgari Charm. He was visibly upset , but was a nice guy and I wished him a top 16.
At this point, standings were up and there were four undefeated, and TWENTY X-1's. I knew I couldnt lose another game.
Round 5: Affinity.
Game 1: I am on the play, I thoughtseize his only bomb, then decay and path his topdecked ones and win shortly after.
The guy sees me siding in 12 cards, and told me he had somewhere to be in 30 minutes, and that he knew he was going to lose, and he told me I was the type of player that deserved to top 8 and gave me the win 2-0 and dropped. What a nice guy!
Standings go up again, and there were 10 X-1s and two X-0s. I am 12th at this point and realize these last couple of games are going to be important.
Round 6: Jund
THANK JESUS ABOVE ANOTHER GBx DECK!!!
Game 1: I beat him after a grind fest because of my threat density . A topdecked rhino and liege get him.
Game 2: He has all four terminates ( I see a recurring theme here) double liliana that he minused and I lose.
Game 3: I win off of the back of Rhinos outclassing Goyf and my decays and paths being to much for him to handle.
This is the same boarding as the past Jund player.
I wound up 5th, and two other teammates top 8ed and four more top 16ed. The top 8 was Skred Red (a team mate), Ad Nauseam (a team mate), Twinning End (this deck is jank, but Kiki Jikis help it), Grixis Delver, two UR Twins, Jeskai Control, and I. The only matchup I feel badly against is Skred Red (this deck is made to beat mine basically) and Twinning End (If he has both comboes online I lose, but I beat either plan he commits to). I am feeling pretty good, but want to split the prize as 98 each in cash seems good for me. One person didnt want to split which didnt make sense because the only way you get more then that is second or first.
Quarters: John with Ad Nauseam
I didnt want to face my teammate, and our whole team stops to watch this instead of going home. This is a REALLY good player and I am nervous going into it, but am determined. The Skred player is playing Twinning End, and I want Skred to win because even if we face, I know he wanted to split, and 140 bucks sounds good to me.
Game 1: I went wildwood into sculler into smiter into liege. He double Angels Grace and I win after he bricks on another ad nauseam. ( I found out after the match the rhino I held in his hand killed him through an Angels Grace which I didnt know).
Game 2: He leylined, but I stony Silenced which slowed him down a lot and despite my triple sieze hand topdecked enough action to beat him. He had a grave titan, but made the mistake of attacking with it and I double blocked with my two voice tokens and swung past the tokens for the win. I decayed his Porphyr Nodes and it was easy from there.
I took out my paths and 3 Finks for Stony Silence, Natures Claim, and Golgari Charm.
At this point, there is a Twin, a Grixis Delver, Twinning End (He won games 1 and 3 where there was no blood moon), and me. We wanted to split, but the Twinning End guy didnt want to (even though you had to get first in order to get more money and we figured he was the one who didnt split top 8). I REALLY wanted to split and was determined to beat him.
Quarters: Twinning End
He wasnt a jerk or anything, but I just dont like it when people dont split. Also he knocked off two teammates, so I wanted to win. Though if I didnt win I wanted him to beat the other guy because it is a cool deck.
Game 1: He was on the play and I scullered him turn 3 to see him flash in pestermite and have two twins.. Well I cant do anything there.
I took out 3 Decays and Finks for Scooze Golgari Charm and Natures Claim .
Game 2: I scullered him to see Violent Outburst, Pestermite, Kiki (I had things to remove twins), and Simian Spirit Guide. If I didnt take Outburst, he gets back his combo piece and wins anyway. I lose quickly. If he had just one of the combos I was fine, but both in hand is to much. I had done testing against this deck and they dont normally run Kiki nor do they have both comboes, so he just had the nut against me. Varience is real folks!!
What I learned:
Dont underestimate jank. Jank was what beat me today and came close to beating me, and I have a new respect for those decks.
People who are younger then you can beat you. I am almost 17, and I am the youngest on my team. In the car, they all bet I was going to be the one to not top 8 in the car because I was "much to young",and of that car I was the one who top 8ed. People underestimate me because of my age and it drives me to do better, but it also hurts. Try and not discriminate against a a player for age.
Siege Rhino hits through Angels Grace.
Applebees tastes really good at midnight.
In prior competitive REL events, they had food places nearby so I never had to bring snacks or water bottles. However, I was starting to get worn down because there were no food places at all nearby, which forced me to way overpay for drinks and a snack before we all went to Applebees after the tournament. I will come prepared with at least water in future competitive REL events.
Never try and predict a meta; people will play what they want to and are comfortable with, and just because the shop typically has lots of Twin and Delver doesn't mean it should be that way at the tournament (and there was a bit of everything).
I love reading other reports and love writing them so let me know if there is anything I can do to improve on or if you have any questions! I hope this proves the deck is viable!
I ended up going with the following list:
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
1 Razorverge Thicket
2 Stirring Wildwood ( this is useful in tron matchup)
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Gavony Township
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 BOP
3 Noble Hierarch
3 Voice of Resurgence
4 Loxodon Smiter
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Qasali Pridemage
3 Kitchen Finks
4 Siege Rhino
3 Wilt-Leaf Liege
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Path to Exile
1 Dromoka's Command (I was thoroughly impressed with this and plan on adding another)
SB:
2 Stony Silence
2 Gaddock Teeg
3 Fulminator Mage
1 Blood Baron of Viskopa
1 Sigarda host of herons (amazing)
1 Golgari Charm
2 Thoughtseize
1 Choke (wish it was 2)
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
I have decided that I want a total of 7-8 dorks since I found it very underwhelming without all the dorks. I beat most of the Jund decks I played by pure good decisions. Burn is an ok matchup but I did have to path my own finks to live and win a match to get into Day 2. I then beat UB Faeries in the final round of day 1. I learned to take Eidolon more seriously and have my own decisions as errors for losing 2 matches in Day 1. One of which was sideboarding incorrectly against Grixis Control since I thought it was Grixis Twin and didn't see many signatures game one to suggest otherwise. Another was letting Eidolon stick around too long. Nevertheless I did make day 2 and lost to some amazing players due to poor luck. One of my losses to Jund was because of a bad mulligan decision in Day 2.
Thoughts on 2 SB Ghost Quarter? We can SB them in and take out the Gavony's against decks like Control/Tron/Bloom where Gavony isn't that good.
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Loxodon Smiter
3x Kitchen Finks
4x Noble Hierarch
2x Qasali Pridemage
4x Siege Rhino
4x Voice of Resurgence
4x Lingering Souls
Instant (8)
4x Abrupt Decay
4x Path to Exile
Land (23)
3x Forest
3x Gavony Township
1x Godless Shrine
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Marsh Flats
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Plains
2x Stirring Wildwood
1x Swamp
1x Temple Garden
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
I've been hacking a sideboard together and am looking at the following
2x Zealous Persecution
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Thoughtseize
2x Choke
1x Engineered Explosives
What are peoples thoughts on removing Wilt-Leaf from the list? What else could we replace it with? My friend who came up with this is mostly a control/combo player (Grixis Twin, Scapeshift, Mono-U Taking Turns). Honestly I'd like to see Wilt-Leaf back in there, but I'm kind of curious to see how this pans out. Thoughts?
Also I'm just not sure how important Zealous Persecution is anymore as there aren't really any Lingering Souls in the format anymore.