It has been said that Graffdiggers Cage is not as good as it seems because players are already bringing in artifact hate game 2. The same logic could be applied to Needle.
How true is it? Who's bringing the vial hate and how big of a deal is it?
I'm not running Grafdigger's Cage because it's too narrow, not because it's removable. It really only comes in against Abzan Company, Dredgevine, Elves, Grishoalbrand, and Kiki Chord (and several of those are both fringe and favorable). Pithing Needle is a catch-all, which means it can conceivably contribute in a bunch of different matchups.
As far as artifact hate... here's what's out there:
Of all these, I'd say that ones I'm most concerned about are Reclamation Sage because it's fetchable in the decks that play it and it leaves a body behind, and Oblivion Stone because it has a boardwipe baked in.
It has been said that Graffdiggers Cage is not as good as it seems because players are already bringing in artifact hate game 2. The same logic could be applied to Needle.
How true is it? Who's bringing the vial hate and how big of a deal is it?
I'm not running Grafdigger's Cage because it's too narrow, not because it's removable. It really only comes in against Abzan Company, Dredgevine, Elves, Grishoalbrand, and Kiki Chord (and several of those are both fringe and favorable). Pithing Needle is a catch-all, which means it can conceivably contribute in a bunch of different matchups.
Well, against any deck with Snapcaster Mage, Grafdigger's Cage helps a ton. Not that it is the best option but it is still one thing to consider about.
Another monthly Modern League tournament at my LGS.
Lost to Titanshift 0:2, he had everything, even his Courser always (7 out of 7) found land to abuse the ability. His Titan roam freely while my Tidebinders and Edges were hiding and his Valakut killed Master of Waves and everything else after that.
Won against Living End 2:1, Melira 2:0 (always the same sideboard strategy and always works), Zoo 2:0 (4 Harbinger + 2 Tidebinder + 3 Snag main instead of Dismember paid off since I won at 1 life) and Nahiri 2:0.
After 7 tournaments (out of 12) I think I am close to threshold for final one in December (big prizes) and I am in top4 in the standings at this moment, which will also have prizes for consistency.
Playing Merfolk is easy life.
I am giving some cards a break while others are being resleeved to a Legacy deck for GP Prague next week. Bought Infinite Trials badge for Friday and will be jamming games the moment door opens.
3-1 at LGS which was actually kinda disappointing. Very small turnout with only 12 players.
2-0 vs. Burn: A pair of early game Vexing Devils looked intimidating, but after eating a turn of damage was able to pull it out with 1 life remaining. Game 2 Tidebinder & Dispel come in, not much else to say.
2-1 vs. USA Control: Not sure what the name of this deck was, but was an Engineered Explosives/Academy Ruins deck which was really annoying. Game 1 I pretty much got locked out. After SB a few counters and saving my Sea's/TechEdge for Ruins I had a fairly easy path winning game 2 and 3 decidedly.
2-0 vs. Kiki-Chord: Not a matchup I usually look forward to but flat out rolled him both games with super aggressive hands. Snagged a Wall of Roots early on, dropped a bunch of lords and started swinging into his walls with 4/4's and 5/5's forcing him to chump.
1-2 vs R/G Tron: Struggling with this matchup recently. Think I'm over-committing to my land destruction strategy; all I seem to be doing is dragging the game out long enough that he has 7-8 lands in play and is casting win-con's without Tron being online. I've been scared off aggressive plays since O-Stone tends to wreck me, but I'm feeling like that was a mistake. Pithing Needle is starting to look better at better. I just need that extra turn or two to push lethal thru.
I really wanna know how that deck took first place against scapeshift with no negate or spell pierce. Are tec edge really that good against the deck? I have been back and forth with the scapeshift player at my store but because of Tron I have been sticking to ghost quarter. 3 Merfolk decks in the top 16 is great since that just comes to varience, just curious on people's thoughts on this going forward. It definitely seems like Tidebinder main is the way to go though.
Those who have MD countermagic usually have 2 Pierce or Remand. Not sure how that deals with combo.
There is lack of combo in my area, so 0 countermagic MD + 2-4 in the side is my configuration.
Tec Edges are really important here since Tron and Valakut decks are aplenty and I hate losing against those.
Thanks for the reports, everyone, and congratulations to the folks that took down SCG Atlanta! Not only did Merfolk win, but it had 2 players in the top 8, and 3 in the top 16. We truly are well-positioned in this meta, and the fact that we continue to post results proves it.
As for how to beat Scapeshift with mainboard countermagic... I can only speak for myself, but I've had success keeping very aggressive hands and just trying to goldfish a T4 kill while daring them to stop me. Given the critical roles that Cryptic Command and Remand play in their interaction package, any hand with Cursecatcher, Æther Vial, Mutavault, or Cavern of Souls may be coming in too hot for them to handle.
It requires keeping UU open, which doesn't play nice with our goal of being an aggro deck and beating down with creatures. Grafdigger's Cage is easy to sneak into our curve, and it's always on.
Im talking about straight G/R Scapeshift not the slower Bring to Light varient. them jamming a Prime Time or just naturally scapeshifting...sometimes both. I just don't feel comfortable with 0 countermagic anywhere. None mainboard can be fine, but I'm not brave enough to just have 1 dispel in the side
Hey, it's Kevin Rogers again. What i find funny is that nobody noticed that i made top 8 two ATL classics in a row or that the gentleman who won came in 12th at the last ATL classic. It's funny, Mattheu, Mrs. Long and myself met up before the player meeting to talk our decklists. I was pushing mattheu to play negates but he felt confident enough against combo. At the same time he grilled me on my 11 lord plan instead of playing a 3rd Reejery. After testing saturday we agreed pierce was miserable all day and i traded mine for more counters in the sb and mainboard tidebinders who overperformed all day.
I will make a report soon and Mattheu should have one up on the reddit page FishMTG.
ATL has firmly become our swimming grounds and we look forward to top 8 in the next one.
Well done, Kevin! It seems you guys have indeed dominated the ATL area, and with pretty good variety in your decklists as well. I agree with your comments on Spell Pierce, as I have also moved on from the card, and I haven't missed it very much.
Alright, let's get this show started. So as a little prologue I've been a little inactive on this forum as of late and in the magic community in general due to financial hardships and a more committed relationship. I've unfortunately not been able to play as much as I like but I can jam in a few major local events. Saturday was a breath of fresh air! I had not been to a large tournament since the previous open in February where I still had to work on Saturday. This open I was able to enjoy my entire time Saturday playing challenges!!!.... Or so I though... Get there early at 8:30 AM to purchase my challenge badge. 10:40 rolls around and they run out of room for the modern challenge and announce a cap at the event but no worries for me right???!! Wrong.. I had somehow neglected to inform the scorekeeper I would like to play the challenges I purchased!!! I can't be mad at the gentleman, he was busy and super polite both days and I probably didn't ask. So I played legacy for 3 rounds going 2-1 drop with Merfolk. In the challenge I was incredibly discouraged after a weak performance and unfortunate games against a Jund player(I was his only win but T2 bob makes it rough). I've taken losses before and recovered so it's no big deal! The second round was 8whack where I was whacked into the dirt by a wall of tokens and a piledriver all three games. I was so tilted that I signed drop only to go back to my senses later and undrop. The next two rounds I collected myself and beat burn back to back. I spent the rest of the day actually hanging out with Mattheu a lot talking about our lists and what we planned to do.
Shout out to Nikachu for his videos helping. I wasn't handed down a list from the heavens this time but the guidance helped nonetheless!
Enough about the crap nobody cares about! Let's talk about the MATCHES
Round 1 Nahiri Control. 2-0 I won the dice roll. Game one was about as good as this match can possibly go. I had multiple spreading seas and creatures with a vial. My opponent lacked the early creature interaction to properly deal with my creature dense hand and draws. I managed to cut him out of his red sources securing a quick victory with a lethal swing on turn 5. Game 2 went a little bit differently and has me seriously reconsidering some decisions I make when I sideboard against this match-up. My opponent fetched down to 19 at my EOT after I played a vial to follow it up with a turn 2 stony silence. I've been seeing this play more and more often and it has me considering to cut aether vials out. It's super powerful to play around wrath effects and blank their counterspells but I am absolutely tired of having this plan shut down every time I play this deck. I proceed to curve out my creatures by force starting with a silvergill. My opponent kills the silvergill pretty quickly with a bolt followed by serum visions holding up a fetchland as his third land. I felt pretty good about this moment staring at a kira sitting in my hand. With his shields down I untapped and jam the kira onto the field(it's important to note I played a tectonic edge this turn). My opponent then has a moment where I guess he got tilted by the kira and fetched away his serum scry only to realize his mistake when he drew his card. His 4th land was a loot-house. He passed turn with all of his mana untapped. I play my second tectonic edge and holding priority destroy both of his white lands. He loots in response but the next 3 turns are just him never being able to secure another white source dying to uncontested creatures with only paths and a single bolt in his hand.
-3 Harbinger of the Tides
-2 Merrow Reejery
-2 Tidebinder Mages
-2 Dismember
-1 Phantasmal Image
+4 Tectonic Edge
+2 Dispel
+2 Negate (Hits Nahiri and I hve seen them shift more to anger and wrath of god over supreme verdict)
+2 Relic of Progenitus
Round 2 Jund 1-2 I lost the dice roll. Talk about some salt from me on this match-up. It felt like my opponent had the perfect everything. The first game starts off with a turn 2 Bob while I'm on the draw with no removal for him. We actually had quite a game despite 6 total bob activations with 4 of them being lands. I managed to get him down to 6 life and if I had been on the play I would have won this game. I unfortunately don't have any details about this match written down due to my rain of salt. The player was a good jund player and a local so I made sure to let him know I wasn't mad at him just salty. I won game 2 with what seems to be a regular flood the field plan and him not having the proper removal. Game 3 was the worst... T1 seal of fire, T2 BOB, T3 BOB+Inqusition. I counted 7 bob activations this game with all 7 of them being lands. It just didn't feel like games to me, it felt more like divine punishment for being so cocky about my Jund match-up(this makes me 7-2 in COMP REL against Jund).
-4 Aether Vial
-3 Harbinger of the Tides
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+2 Tectonic Edge
+2 Dispel(Aiming for terminate at a key moment and kologhan's command specifically)
+1 Dismember
Round 3 Suicide Zoo 2-1 I lost the dice roll. After going out of the building and getting my hissy fit out of the way I ate a ham sammich and calmed myself down. I go in fresh with resolve to spike the rest of the tournament(Spoiler alert! That's what I go on to do!) The gentleman I played with was great and an awesome person to just talk to and joke around the entire match. I always love it when I get to play a game with the seriousness of COMP but the tone of REG. Homeboy smacks me in the face turn 1 with a swiftspear for 1. I think to myself, that it's a burn deck and I have a dismember so it's probably best to just kill the damn thing down before it deals 5+ damage to me. He curves himself out into a swiftspear and Gitaxian probes me twice paying the life and that's when it hits me... I'm playing against suicide zoo! CRAP!!! So he smacks me down for 4 followed by a Nacatl and fetches for an untapped godless shrine. I pass the turn and the only thing I can do reasonably is cast a silvergill to hope to draw a harbinger or more removal. His next turn he cats mishra's bauble and swings. I do some calculations and he only has 2 cards left in hand so at worst case scenario it could be a become immense and temur battlerage which he had the mana for both after another fetch/shock and there wasn't another scenario I could think of that would kill me and blocking with silvergill doesn't stop anything so I take it. He doesn't do anything else and brings me down to 10. I'm sitting here shaking in my boots praying to draw a harbinger to stablize but the best that came was a lord. I jam him out there sitting with a 4th land and a master of waves in hand for next turn ready to treat his creatures with a wall of elementals.... He draws his card from bauble and he plays down a 4th land(land flooded for that deck I guess) and swings in. I'm ready this time so i declare blocks.. And there it was, mutagenic growth on swiftspear and a temur battlerage killing both my creatures while he loses none and I lose both. I jam the master anyway but his next play was another siftspear and a battlerage. Game 2 was a little bit better for me. I had a pretty great hand this game with a dismember and tons of threats including harbinger. I turn 1 hold up dismember which he plays a Nacatl turn 1 to eat it.I drew a second spreading seas and decided to risk the mana denial plan. I hit his hand and his face told all. As soon as he saw the spreading sea I could tell he was in trouble. He played a second land but I don't think he did anything super relevant other than shock himself and g probe. At this point I was pretty confident he was color screwed so I hit his second land with a spreading seas. He plays a death's shadow at 11 life and only a overgrown tomb in play able to make mana. I managed to curve out into a cursecatcher and a silvergill. He swings with his death's shadow and I'm at 16 life so I think to myself "He can't possibly do that much damage!" so I told him no blocks.... He shows me Mutagenic, Mutagenic, Become Immense playing around cursecatcher. Homeboy was hitting me for 14 damage..... I just do what I can and take it. I play a harbinger of the tides to bounce it and swing for 3 to bring him to 4 life. He replays the death shadow and I noticed something different about this one. The first Death's Shadow was a nonfoil and this one was foil. He only had 2 cards in his hand so this gave me a lot of information. I actually called him out on it mid-match with our joyous tone we had been continuing. He sort of facepalms and I explain to him that's why I play all my islands with the same art. We go into my turn and I slam down a master of the pearl trident and triumphantly swing for lethal. Game 3 was a little bit different from the others and really caught me off guard. He didn't have a turn 1 creature to play but I had a turn 1 vial and was feeling really good right now. He untaps and places down Stony Silence. I'm sitting here scratching my head over why did this guy bring in silence against me. I'm staring down 2 more lands, a harbinger, dispel, dismember and some creatures. This still felt pretty great!! The creatures come raining down from my hand crushing his tempo with harbinger and killing him with lords. I'm holding up a blue mana this whole game ready for his alpha strike. He swings with a death's shadow as a 2/2 but I'm confident with my dispel it won't matter so I take it. Some sort of story as last game with mutagenic, mutagenic temur battlerage threatening me with lethal damage but dispel took care of the battlerage and I just go down to 9 life to kill him on the crackback.
-2 Kira
-1 Master
+2 Dispel
+1 Dismember
Round 4 Abzan CoCo 2-0 Won the dice roll. So this gentleman was actually a local from Savannah that I was acquainted with from when I lived/played there. Starts out a good tone and I'm feeling great after my last win and seeing a good hand. It doesn't have a vial but a great curve nonetheless. I play island holding up a dismember for anything he might have. My opponent plays a forest and then a bird of paradise. I almost go for the kill before I look at my hand and see Tidebinder Mage!!! I draw my next card and jam that tidebinder mage down hard. My opponent bricks the 4 turns with no real action other than a COCO that fails to keep him alive through my onslaught of lords and other pressure. Game 2 was a little bit more of a game but he still had a pretty slow hand. Had another great hand but I didn't really have any good removal other than harbinger. I play a silvergill out turn 2 to an empty field and my opponent replies with a kitchen finks. I think no big deal and curve into a merrow reejery(played a mutavault this turn which is important) staring down my singleton phantasmal image with 2 lords and a harbinger of the tides. My opponent takes his turn to chord of calling for 1 while I'm tapped out for a vicera seer. I waste no time copying my reej with image into lord, lord, harbinger(bounce kitchen finks) animate mutavault and swing for a lot of damage. He stares at his hand intensely and plays the kitchen finks again. I don't think it really matters what he does but hes at least still trying. I animate my mutavaults(had 2 at this point, one was the 4th land. I forgot to mention). I've already done the calculation and I know he has 0 outs and I have lethal but I let him count it out himself for a few minutes(we have like 30 minutes left in the round) and he concedes when he realizes he can't get out of it. He reveals his hand to me showing BOTH combos right there. He had infinite damage and infinite life ready to go. If I hadn't harbinger the finks on that turn he was going to combo me out of the game.
-3 Cursecatcher
-2 Kira
+2 Dispel(counters chord and co-co, usually how they beat us)
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+1 Dismember
Round 5 Mono White Death and Taxes 2-1. Lost the dice roll. So this guy is actually 15 years old I believe and plays at a local store near me. He's doing incredibly well(came in top 32)both for his age and I would argue for the deck itself. His deck wasn't a D&T eldrazi build but a mono white flicker build but it still utilized Eldrazi Displacer. Game one I was actually feeling incredibly favored. We both had a vial turn 1 and I know my creatures are going to be bigger in general... Or so I though. He starts shooting out the regular things like Thalia, leonin arbiter but when he played Blade splicer I knew I was in for a rough time. Now I have to play around flickerwisp and restoration angel at instant speed I thought to myself... My saving grace was a Kira that had landed on the field. My hand sort of just never comes together and he gets a little too much value off blade splicer and flickerwisp but the thing that seals the deal is an eldrazi displacer. He displaces my master of waves to trigger kira and then path to exiles him. The second game nothing interesting happened. We both had vials turn 1 and every card I played was a lord. When your lords are 6/6s they stop caring about 3/1s and 3/3s. I had more creatures and they were all bigger. Game 3 was a bit more interesting but he unfortunately had to mulligan down to a mediocre 6. We both have a turn 1 vial(all 3 games!). The only value I get out of mine was a cursecatcher and I'm holding up a master of the pearl trident ready to flash him in. He had already gotten a bit more value out of vial with his Thalia and he activates it on his turn 4. I think no big deal that's cool. It's a stupid Phyrexian Revoker :(... He names Aether Vial and I'm forced to curve with lands. My hand was pretty good fortunately. I had a turn 3 Reejery and another one in my hand, I just needed to draw a land. The land didn't come that turn so I just played master of the pearl trident and swung in after tapping a creature for ~4 damage. His next turn had a blade splicer to make more blockers. I manage to get my 4th land and then drop the rest of it including a spreading seas on his tapped ghost quarter. He couldn't stop the wave of unblockable fish in the next two turns so I got it.
-2 Tidebinder Mage
+1 Dismember
+1 Echoing Truth
Round 6 Abzan Coco Midrange(no combo) 2-0 Won the dice roll. This deck was actually super interesting and threw me through a loop in the first couple turns. He had a T1 BOP but a turn 2 Lingering Souls. Lingering Souls screamed some kind of midrange/value deck to me so I just figured it was Abzan that used birds(i've seen a few). While he has the shields down I play a kira. He flashbacks lingering souls and plays a goyf so that wasn't fun but it solidified my initial assessment. I continued to curve out. My creatures are protected by kira and I don't see any decays and at the same time she is holding off the spirit tokens. I just manage to get there by playing more creatures and eventually a spreading seas swinging with 1-2 fish at a time until I could just get him for lethal. Game 2 I felt really awful for the guy because he seemed like a competent player. He mulliganed down to 5 on the play after he sideboarded 10 cards into a control deck. I just wittled away at his life and dismembered his only goyf. He showed me the deck and it was really sweet, he likely would have made top 8 if I had lost. Unfortunately he had a bad tron game and made top 32 so you guys didn't get to see his deck(his friend made top 32 playing the same list).
-4 Vial
-4 Cursecatcher
+3 Tectonic Edge(I saw him pull out 10 SB cards and assumed he went more control.. Which he did so I sideboarded more appropriately after I saw this)
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+2 Dispel
+1 Dismember
Round 7 Abzan Aristocrats(Top 8 guy) 2-0 I won the dice roll. This deck was absolutely sweet and I loved every second. Game 1 was a quick game. He didn't keep quick action and I had a good curve. I throw out the lords and just roll him down. I actually thought he was a COCO combo so I sideboarded how I did with the previous one in round 4 but something felt off so I put in an echoing truth just in case. Game 2 the cat was out of the bag as soon as I saw a stupid Saytr that mills 5 cards for a land or something. I 100% knew this list as soon as that happened(I play it on cockatrice for funsies). This game I don't have details of what I did but he had a super awesome play I'd like to point out. He swung with an elemental token as a 1/1 so I said no blocks and then he rally the ancients against me to make it a 6/6. I went to 14 and he got a sac outlet with the new blood artist ally in play and his voice back. I curve out but I hold up an echoing truth waiting for him to saw his voice before everything gets exiled. He sacs everything at the end of my turn and after it's all done I bounce his tokens leaving him with an empty field. He lost to my crackback in the next 2 turns not really able to recover.
In hindsight this is how I would have SB if I knew game 1.
Round 8 RG Tron 2-1 I won the dice roll. Game 1 was pretty quick. I had a vial and spreading seas with enough pressure to kill him before he could get tron online. Game 2 I didn't get enough disruption and he lands ugin before I can get lethal in. Game 3 he mulligans down to a mediocre 6 and I have a great hand to punish it. I have a double spreading seas, negate and some fish with 3 lands. I played a vial turn 1 and a creature on turn 2. I held up negate for the rest of the game just playing off vial. The reason I didn't play spreading seas was because of his first 2 lands. He played Forest turn 1 and then Burngrove turn 2. I didn't really have any reason to not just hold up negate for the oblivion stone. On his turn 4 he plays the oblivion stone where I negate it. I bring him down to 11 life in that attack and spreading seas both of his tron pieces threatening lethal next turn. He draws his card and concedes. This is what locked me into top 8 as the 4th seed.
-2 Kira
-2 Dismember
-2 Cursecatcher
+4 Tectonic Edge
+2 Negate
So I'm celebrating with Mattheu the whole time(fish bros for life <3!!) Both of us secured a top 8!! We wait around for a good 30 minutes feeling happy and giddy(especially me since it was back to back for myself). We find out after the announcement of the top 8 over the speaker that unfortunately we play in quarter finals. Whatever, best fish wins right!? At least we'll enjoy the match. Before we head over my friend(L2 Judge) gets me and calls me over to the judge table. I knew 100% what was happening. If you get called to the judge table before top 8 you made a decklist error... SOO BACK STORY!! During the beginning of the event the lights went out as I was writing my decklist and I made a mistake during this time. I wrote out "Silvergill" and not "Silvergill Adept" and ya know, they probably would have forgiven that with judge's discretion. Unfortunately, I made a HUGE mistake!!! I wrote down Master of Waves twice instead of Master of the Pearl Trident. Soooo, i go in with a game 1 loss. Ugh, whatever I just need to win every match right? RIGHT! At least we can all take away a lesson from this, PRINT OUT YOUR DECKLISTS PEOPLE! DO NOT WRITE THEM OUT BUT TYPE THEM SO YOU CAN'T MAKE A MISTAKE, that is all.
Anyways, so the quarter finals.. Yeah...
Quarter Finals 0-2 Fishy Fishy Fish On the play.
Yeah we both mulliganed into an oblivion and he had better action. Not to put it all on luck, Mattheu played tightly and would have absolutely lost if he was a bit more greedy but he made the better plays and got the win in.
Great job, Kevin. It's a damn shame that your run ended due to a match loss on decklist and a coinflip in the mirror, but you still acquitted yourself quite well, especially against matchups we cannot take for granted in Abzan Company and Suicide Zoo.
In the interest of drumming up some discussion, what do folks think of Flashfreeze? We were looking at it a few pages back when discussing ways to combat Scapeshift and/or Titanshift. Granted, our victory at SCG Atlanta suggest that good old Tectonic Edge does this job just fine, but I'd still like to hear what people think of the card.
I'm not running Grafdigger's Cage because it's too narrow, not because it's removable. It really only comes in against Abzan Company, Dredgevine, Elves, Grishoalbrand, and Kiki Chord (and several of those are both fringe and favorable). Pithing Needle is a catch-all, which means it can conceivably contribute in a bunch of different matchups.
As far as artifact hate... here's what's out there:
Abrupt Decay (Abzan Company, Abzan Midrange, Jund Midrange)
Ancient Grudge (Affinity, CoCo Zoo, Jund Midrange, Scapeshift)
Beast Within (Living End, Titanshift)
Destructive Revelry (Burn, Gruul Zoo)
Disenchant (Ad Nauseam, Death & Taxes, WU Control)
Hurkyl's Recall (Merfolk, U-Tron)
Karn Liberated (RG Tron)
Kolaghan's Command (Grixis Control, Jund Midrange)
Maelstrom Pulse (Abzan Midrange, Jund Midrange)
Nahiri, the Harbinger (Jeskai Control, Kiki Chord)
Nature's Claim (Bogles, Infect, RG Tron)
Oblivion Stone (RG Tron)
Qasali Pridemage (Abzan Company, CoCo Zoo)
Reclamation Sage (Abzan Company, Elves, Kiki Chord, Titanshift)
Stony Silence (Abzan Company, Abzan Midrange, Jeskai Control, Kiki Chord, WU Control)
Tin Street Hooligan (Gruul Zoo)
Viridian Corrupter (Infect)
Wear // Tear (Affinity, Jeskai Control)
Of all these, I'd say that ones I'm most concerned about are Reclamation Sage because it's fetchable in the decks that play it and it leaves a body behind, and Oblivion Stone because it has a boardwipe baked in.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Well, against any deck with Snapcaster Mage, Grafdigger's Cage helps a ton. Not that it is the best option but it is still one thing to consider about.
UMerfolkU
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wxXtmjT0T1o3dcgqpJWkKNqcfkIobksJFA2rkK7Gf9o/edit?usp=sharing
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Lost to Titanshift 0:2, he had everything, even his Courser always (7 out of 7) found land to abuse the ability. His Titan roam freely while my Tidebinders and Edges were hiding and his Valakut killed Master of Waves and everything else after that.
Won against Living End 2:1, Melira 2:0 (always the same sideboard strategy and always works), Zoo 2:0 (4 Harbinger + 2 Tidebinder + 3 Snag main instead of Dismember paid off since I won at 1 life) and Nahiri 2:0.
After 7 tournaments (out of 12) I think I am close to threshold for final one in December (big prizes) and I am in top4 in the standings at this moment, which will also have prizes for consistency.
Playing Merfolk is easy life.
I am giving some cards a break while others are being resleeved to a Legacy deck for GP Prague next week. Bought Infinite Trials badge for Friday and will be jamming games the moment door opens.
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=103772
—Radha, Keldon warlord
2-0 vs. Burn: A pair of early game Vexing Devils looked intimidating, but after eating a turn of damage was able to pull it out with 1 life remaining. Game 2 Tidebinder & Dispel come in, not much else to say.
2-1 vs. USA Control: Not sure what the name of this deck was, but was an Engineered Explosives/Academy Ruins deck which was really annoying. Game 1 I pretty much got locked out. After SB a few counters and saving my Sea's/TechEdge for Ruins I had a fairly easy path winning game 2 and 3 decidedly.
2-0 vs. Kiki-Chord: Not a matchup I usually look forward to but flat out rolled him both games with super aggressive hands. Snagged a Wall of Roots early on, dropped a bunch of lords and started swinging into his walls with 4/4's and 5/5's forcing him to chump.
1-2 vs R/G Tron: Struggling with this matchup recently. Think I'm over-committing to my land destruction strategy; all I seem to be doing is dragging the game out long enough that he has 7-8 lands in play and is casting win-con's without Tron being online. I've been scared off aggressive plays since O-Stone tends to wreck me, but I'm feeling like that was a mistake. Pithing Needle is starting to look better at better. I just need that extra turn or two to push lethal thru.
UMerfolkU
Legacy
UMerfolkU
Commander
RWBAlesha, Who Smiles At DeathRWB
There is lack of combo in my area, so 0 countermagic MD + 2-4 in the side is my configuration.
Tec Edges are really important here since Tron and Valakut decks are aplenty and I hate losing against those.
As for how to beat Scapeshift with mainboard countermagic... I can only speak for myself, but I've had success keeping very aggressive hands and just trying to goldfish a T4 kill while daring them to stop me. Given the critical roles that Cryptic Command and Remand play in their interaction package, any hand with Cursecatcher, Æther Vial, Mutavault, or Cavern of Souls may be coming in too hot for them to handle.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
UMerfolkU
Legacy
UMerfolkU
Commander
RWBAlesha, Who Smiles At DeathRWB
I will make a report soon and Mattheu should have one up on the reddit page FishMTG.
ATL has firmly become our swimming grounds and we look forward to top 8 in the next one.
Modern
Legacy
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Shout out to Nikachu for his videos helping. I wasn't handed down a list from the heavens this time
Enough about the crap nobody cares about! Let's talk about the MATCHES
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=103771
This is my decklist for reference^^^^
Round 1 Nahiri Control. 2-0 I won the dice roll. Game one was about as good as this match can possibly go. I had multiple spreading seas and creatures with a vial. My opponent lacked the early creature interaction to properly deal with my creature dense hand and draws. I managed to cut him out of his red sources securing a quick victory with a lethal swing on turn 5. Game 2 went a little bit differently and has me seriously reconsidering some decisions I make when I sideboard against this match-up. My opponent fetched down to 19 at my EOT after I played a vial to follow it up with a turn 2 stony silence. I've been seeing this play more and more often and it has me considering to cut aether vials out. It's super powerful to play around wrath effects and blank their counterspells but I am absolutely tired of having this plan shut down every time I play this deck. I proceed to curve out my creatures by force starting with a silvergill. My opponent kills the silvergill pretty quickly with a bolt followed by serum visions holding up a fetchland as his third land. I felt pretty good about this moment staring at a kira sitting in my hand. With his shields down I untapped and jam the kira onto the field(it's important to note I played a tectonic edge this turn). My opponent then has a moment where I guess he got tilted by the kira and fetched away his serum scry only to realize his mistake when he drew his card. His 4th land was a loot-house. He passed turn with all of his mana untapped. I play my second tectonic edge and holding priority destroy both of his white lands. He loots in response but the next 3 turns are just him never being able to secure another white source dying to uncontested creatures with only paths and a single bolt in his hand.
-3 Harbinger of the Tides
-2 Merrow Reejery
-2 Tidebinder Mages
-2 Dismember
-1 Phantasmal Image
+4 Tectonic Edge
+2 Dispel
+2 Negate (Hits Nahiri and I hve seen them shift more to anger and wrath of god over supreme verdict)
+2 Relic of Progenitus
Round 2 Jund 1-2 I lost the dice roll. Talk about some salt from me on this match-up. It felt like my opponent had the perfect everything. The first game starts off with a turn 2 Bob while I'm on the draw with no removal for him. We actually had quite a game despite 6 total bob activations with 4 of them being lands. I managed to get him down to 6 life and if I had been on the play I would have won this game. I unfortunately don't have any details about this match written down due to my rain of salt. The player was a good jund player and a local so I made sure to let him know I wasn't mad at him just salty. I won game 2 with what seems to be a regular flood the field plan and him not having the proper removal. Game 3 was the worst... T1 seal of fire, T2 BOB, T3 BOB+Inqusition. I counted 7 bob activations this game with all 7 of them being lands. It just didn't feel like games to me, it felt more like divine punishment for being so cocky about my Jund match-up(this makes me 7-2 in COMP REL against Jund).
-4 Aether Vial
-3 Harbinger of the Tides
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+2 Tectonic Edge
+2 Dispel(Aiming for terminate at a key moment and kologhan's command specifically)
+1 Dismember
Round 3 Suicide Zoo 2-1 I lost the dice roll. After going out of the building and getting my hissy fit out of the way I ate a ham sammich and calmed myself down. I go in fresh with resolve to spike the rest of the tournament(Spoiler alert! That's what I go on to do!) The gentleman I played with was great and an awesome person to just talk to and joke around the entire match. I always love it when I get to play a game with the seriousness of COMP but the tone of REG. Homeboy smacks me in the face turn 1 with a swiftspear for 1. I think to myself, that it's a burn deck and I have a dismember so it's probably best to just kill the damn thing down before it deals 5+ damage to me. He curves himself out into a swiftspear and Gitaxian probes me twice paying the life and that's when it hits me... I'm playing against suicide zoo! CRAP!!! So he smacks me down for 4 followed by a Nacatl and fetches for an untapped godless shrine. I pass the turn and the only thing I can do reasonably is cast a silvergill to hope to draw a harbinger or more removal. His next turn he cats mishra's bauble and swings. I do some calculations and he only has 2 cards left in hand so at worst case scenario it could be a become immense and temur battlerage which he had the mana for both after another fetch/shock and there wasn't another scenario I could think of that would kill me and blocking with silvergill doesn't stop anything so I take it. He doesn't do anything else and brings me down to 10. I'm sitting here shaking in my boots praying to draw a harbinger to stablize but the best that came was a lord. I jam him out there sitting with a 4th land and a master of waves in hand for next turn ready to treat his creatures with a wall of elementals.... He draws his card from bauble and he plays down a 4th land(land flooded for that deck I guess) and swings in. I'm ready this time so i declare blocks.. And there it was, mutagenic growth on swiftspear and a temur battlerage killing both my creatures while he loses none and I lose both. I jam the master anyway but his next play was another siftspear and a battlerage. Game 2 was a little bit better for me. I had a pretty great hand this game with a dismember and tons of threats including harbinger. I turn 1 hold up dismember which he plays a Nacatl turn 1 to eat it.I drew a second spreading seas and decided to risk the mana denial plan. I hit his hand and his face told all. As soon as he saw the spreading sea I could tell he was in trouble. He played a second land but I don't think he did anything super relevant other than shock himself and g probe. At this point I was pretty confident he was color screwed so I hit his second land with a spreading seas. He plays a death's shadow at 11 life and only a overgrown tomb in play able to make mana. I managed to curve out into a cursecatcher and a silvergill. He swings with his death's shadow and I'm at 16 life so I think to myself "He can't possibly do that much damage!" so I told him no blocks.... He shows me Mutagenic, Mutagenic, Become Immense playing around cursecatcher. Homeboy was hitting me for 14 damage..... I just do what I can and take it. I play a harbinger of the tides to bounce it and swing for 3 to bring him to 4 life. He replays the death shadow and I noticed something different about this one. The first Death's Shadow was a nonfoil and this one was foil. He only had 2 cards in his hand so this gave me a lot of information. I actually called him out on it mid-match with our joyous tone we had been continuing. He sort of facepalms and I explain to him that's why I play all my islands with the same art. We go into my turn and I slam down a master of the pearl trident and triumphantly swing for lethal. Game 3 was a little bit different from the others and really caught me off guard. He didn't have a turn 1 creature to play but I had a turn 1 vial and was feeling really good right now. He untaps and places down Stony Silence. I'm sitting here scratching my head over why did this guy bring in silence against me. I'm staring down 2 more lands, a harbinger, dispel, dismember and some creatures. This still felt pretty great!! The creatures come raining down from my hand crushing his tempo with harbinger and killing him with lords. I'm holding up a blue mana this whole game ready for his alpha strike. He swings with a death's shadow as a 2/2 but I'm confident with my dispel it won't matter so I take it. Some sort of story as last game with mutagenic, mutagenic temur battlerage threatening me with lethal damage but dispel took care of the battlerage and I just go down to 9 life to kill him on the crackback.
-2 Kira
-1 Master
+2 Dispel
+1 Dismember
Round 4 Abzan CoCo 2-0 Won the dice roll. So this gentleman was actually a local from Savannah that I was acquainted with from when I lived/played there. Starts out a good tone and I'm feeling great after my last win and seeing a good hand. It doesn't have a vial but a great curve nonetheless. I play island holding up a dismember for anything he might have. My opponent plays a forest and then a bird of paradise. I almost go for the kill before I look at my hand and see Tidebinder Mage!!! I draw my next card and jam that tidebinder mage down hard. My opponent bricks the 4 turns with no real action other than a COCO that fails to keep him alive through my onslaught of lords and other pressure. Game 2 was a little bit more of a game but he still had a pretty slow hand. Had another great hand but I didn't really have any good removal other than harbinger. I play a silvergill out turn 2 to an empty field and my opponent replies with a kitchen finks. I think no big deal and curve into a merrow reejery(played a mutavault this turn which is important) staring down my singleton phantasmal image with 2 lords and a harbinger of the tides. My opponent takes his turn to chord of calling for 1 while I'm tapped out for a vicera seer. I waste no time copying my reej with image into lord, lord, harbinger(bounce kitchen finks) animate mutavault and swing for a lot of damage. He stares at his hand intensely and plays the kitchen finks again. I don't think it really matters what he does but hes at least still trying. I animate my mutavaults(had 2 at this point, one was the 4th land. I forgot to mention). I've already done the calculation and I know he has 0 outs and I have lethal but I let him count it out himself for a few minutes(we have like 30 minutes left in the round) and he concedes when he realizes he can't get out of it. He reveals his hand to me showing BOTH combos right there. He had infinite damage and infinite life ready to go. If I hadn't harbinger the finks on that turn he was going to combo me out of the game.
-3 Cursecatcher
-2 Kira
+2 Dispel(counters chord and co-co, usually how they beat us)
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+1 Dismember
Round 5 Mono White Death and Taxes 2-1. Lost the dice roll. So this guy is actually 15 years old I believe and plays at a local store near me. He's doing incredibly well(came in top 32)both for his age and I would argue for the deck itself. His deck wasn't a D&T eldrazi build but a mono white flicker build but it still utilized Eldrazi Displacer. Game one I was actually feeling incredibly favored. We both had a vial turn 1 and I know my creatures are going to be bigger in general... Or so I though. He starts shooting out the regular things like Thalia, leonin arbiter but when he played Blade splicer I knew I was in for a rough time. Now I have to play around flickerwisp and restoration angel at instant speed I thought to myself... My saving grace was a Kira that had landed on the field. My hand sort of just never comes together and he gets a little too much value off blade splicer and flickerwisp but the thing that seals the deal is an eldrazi displacer. He displaces my master of waves to trigger kira and then path to exiles him. The second game nothing interesting happened. We both had vials turn 1 and every card I played was a lord. When your lords are 6/6s they stop caring about 3/1s and 3/3s. I had more creatures and they were all bigger. Game 3 was a bit more interesting but he unfortunately had to mulligan down to a mediocre 6. We both have a turn 1 vial(all 3 games!). The only value I get out of mine was a cursecatcher and I'm holding up a master of the pearl trident ready to flash him in. He had already gotten a bit more value out of vial with his Thalia and he activates it on his turn 4. I think no big deal that's cool. It's a stupid Phyrexian Revoker :(... He names Aether Vial and I'm forced to curve with lands. My hand was pretty good fortunately. I had a turn 3 Reejery and another one in my hand, I just needed to draw a land. The land didn't come that turn so I just played master of the pearl trident and swung in after tapping a creature for ~4 damage. His next turn had a blade splicer to make more blockers. I manage to get my 4th land and then drop the rest of it including a spreading seas on his tapped ghost quarter. He couldn't stop the wave of unblockable fish in the next two turns so I got it.
-2 Tidebinder Mage
+1 Dismember
+1 Echoing Truth
Round 6 Abzan Coco Midrange(no combo) 2-0 Won the dice roll. This deck was actually super interesting and threw me through a loop in the first couple turns. He had a T1 BOP but a turn 2 Lingering Souls. Lingering Souls screamed some kind of midrange/value deck to me so I just figured it was Abzan that used birds(i've seen a few). While he has the shields down I play a kira. He flashbacks lingering souls and plays a goyf so that wasn't fun but it solidified my initial assessment. I continued to curve out. My creatures are protected by kira and I don't see any decays and at the same time she is holding off the spirit tokens. I just manage to get there by playing more creatures and eventually a spreading seas swinging with 1-2 fish at a time until I could just get him for lethal. Game 2 I felt really awful for the guy because he seemed like a competent player. He mulliganed down to 5 on the play after he sideboarded 10 cards into a control deck. I just wittled away at his life and dismembered his only goyf. He showed me the deck and it was really sweet, he likely would have made top 8 if I had lost. Unfortunately he had a bad tron game and made top 32 so you guys didn't get to see his deck(his friend made top 32 playing the same list).
-4 Vial
-4 Cursecatcher
+3 Tectonic Edge(I saw him pull out 10 SB cards and assumed he went more control.. Which he did so I sideboarded more appropriately after I saw this)
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+2 Dispel
+1 Dismember
Round 7 Abzan Aristocrats(Top 8 guy) 2-0 I won the dice roll. This deck was absolutely sweet and I loved every second. Game 1 was a quick game. He didn't keep quick action and I had a good curve. I throw out the lords and just roll him down. I actually thought he was a COCO combo so I sideboarded how I did with the previous one in round 4 but something felt off so I put in an echoing truth just in case. Game 2 the cat was out of the bag as soon as I saw a stupid Saytr that mills 5 cards for a land or something. I 100% knew this list as soon as that happened(I play it on cockatrice for funsies). This game I don't have details of what I did but he had a super awesome play I'd like to point out. He swung with an elemental token as a 1/1 so I said no blocks and then he rally the ancients against me to make it a 6/6. I went to 14 and he got a sac outlet with the new blood artist ally in play and his voice back. I curve out but I hold up an echoing truth waiting for him to saw his voice before everything gets exiled. He sacs everything at the end of my turn and after it's all done I bounce his tokens leaving him with an empty field. He lost to my crackback in the next 2 turns not really able to recover.
In hindsight this is how I would have SB if I knew game 1.
Round 8 RG Tron 2-1 I won the dice roll. Game 1 was pretty quick. I had a vial and spreading seas with enough pressure to kill him before he could get tron online. Game 2 I didn't get enough disruption and he lands ugin before I can get lethal in. Game 3 he mulligans down to a mediocre 6 and I have a great hand to punish it. I have a double spreading seas, negate and some fish with 3 lands. I played a vial turn 1 and a creature on turn 2. I held up negate for the rest of the game just playing off vial. The reason I didn't play spreading seas was because of his first 2 lands. He played Forest turn 1 and then Burngrove turn 2. I didn't really have any reason to not just hold up negate for the oblivion stone. On his turn 4 he plays the oblivion stone where I negate it. I bring him down to 11 life in that attack and spreading seas both of his tron pieces threatening lethal next turn. He draws his card and concedes. This is what locked me into top 8 as the 4th seed.
-2 Kira
-2 Dismember
-2 Cursecatcher
+4 Tectonic Edge
+2 Negate
So I'm celebrating with Mattheu the whole time(fish bros for life <3!!) Both of us secured a top 8!! We wait around for a good 30 minutes feeling happy and giddy(especially me since it was back to back for myself). We find out after the announcement of the top 8 over the speaker that unfortunately we play in quarter finals. Whatever, best fish wins right!? At least we'll enjoy the match. Before we head over my friend(L2 Judge) gets me and calls me over to the judge table. I knew 100% what was happening. If you get called to the judge table before top 8 you made a decklist error... SOO BACK STORY!! During the beginning of the event the lights went out as I was writing my decklist and I made a mistake during this time. I wrote out "Silvergill" and not "Silvergill Adept" and ya know, they probably would have forgiven that with judge's discretion. Unfortunately, I made a HUGE mistake!!! I wrote down Master of Waves twice instead of Master of the Pearl Trident. Soooo, i go in with a game 1 loss. Ugh, whatever I just need to win every match right? RIGHT! At least we can all take away a lesson from this, PRINT OUT YOUR DECKLISTS PEOPLE! DO NOT WRITE THEM OUT BUT TYPE THEM SO YOU CAN'T MAKE A MISTAKE, that is all.
Anyways, so the quarter finals.. Yeah...
Quarter Finals 0-2 Fishy Fishy Fish On the play.
Yeah we both mulliganed into an oblivion and he had better action. Not to put it all on luck, Mattheu played tightly and would have absolutely lost if he was a bit more greedy but he made the better plays and got the win in.
So yeah, if you have any questions let me know!
Modern
Legacy
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers: