MTG Salvation

Nikachus latest has some interesting choices, most of which I can get behind.
3x Harbinger & 2x Tidebinder: Definitely on board here. I've been bringing in the Tidebinders for a while now and tried a few different configurations, but the 3/2 split is very reasonable.
4x Negate over Unified Will: Again, mirrors my own experience. Too many situations where UF is being turned off.
4x Gut Shot & 4x Relics in SB: I'm already doing both, although while the Relics are a definite "yes" for me, I'm still deciding between Gut Shot & Sea's Claim. I think that while Sea's are very good, most of the matches where I bring it in are winnable anyway. I miss it most against Jund Shadow & Tron.
But Gut Shot is *very* important against Affinity, Elves and the new Company deck.
2x Smugglers Copter: This is where I start to get a lil iffy. I know Fanatic is on board and I'm not writing it off...but while I like the effect I still struggle with the space it occupies. I'll be watching these results closely.
2x Venser and 2x MoW: I get it. I've been testing out 0-2 MoW for a while because it's feeling a lot more vulnerable lately (Push, Brutality, Balista, Last Hope, etc), but I'm still not sure Venser is where I want to be. Bouncing Verdict or some other stuff is nice...but I still think I'd rather pack in that 4th Reej, Harbinger, Kira, Clique or Spell Pierce. Maybe even maindeck 1-2 Relics seems pretty reasonable atm.

All that said I don't have the success that Nikachu does so wtf do i know lol

Not really related to any of that, but I'm considering bringing back 2 copies of either GQ or TecEdge to board. Not so much because I want the land destruction, but because matches where I'm siding out Vial I miss having extra lands to bring in. Helping against BGx, control & Tron is just icing. Anybody else having similar feelings? FYI this does essentially involve me moving 2 relics to main.

I've been testing out a playset of Scroll Thief to fulfill the role Copter usually takes. Its a fish, draws a card if you have a lord out, and with 3 toughness, forces at least a bolt, meaning one less removal for a lord or MoW. It seems like it'd not be good enough but it has a few very relavant upsides.

Also as a sideboard option for Death's Shadow, might i suggest Norn's Annex. A little pricey at 3 and 4 life but it more or less nullifies their gameplan and keeps our manabase intact. My Esper homebrew runs it and has dropped one game to Shadow in 2 months.

I sadly have to concur with Unified Will getting shut off (or forcing me to play suboptimally to switch it on) too much for my liking. We're going back to Negate.

Quote from rothgar13 »

I sadly have to concur with Unified Will getting shut off (or forcing me to play suboptimally to switch it on) too much for my liking. We're going back to Negate.

If only you boarded in negate against my gut shot to the face for the win!

Just kidding, man. Thanks for the good game. I was lucky.

We are now tier3 http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/768584-modern-sub-forum-updates-last-update-5-1-17?comment=8

Yep. It's been a rough month. No matter - we'll bounce back. Grixis Shadow being the top deck instead of Affinity is great news, as is the decline of Elves (a very bad matchup) in favor of Company (a matchup that has felt reasonable for me thus far).

OK... I officially give up on the 0 Master of Waves test. My results have been absolutely putrid. I've also been playing like absolute crap and punted a rather large number of games away. Or maybe I've always been terrible and MoW just covered up a lot of my bad play lol. Either way MoW is back. Only 2 for the time being because he does still feel super vulnerable, but the ability to go wide, with some protection, is just too valuable for me to shirk off any longer. I yield!!

As far as Grixis Shadow goes... I actually like the matchup. Right now I'm going -4 Spread Seas, -2 Tidebinder, -1 Vial for +3 Dispel and +4 Relic, although it may be correct to keep the Tidebinders and pitch 2 more Vials. I actually kinda like offering up a Vial to T1 IOK or Thoughtseize because it means they aren't taking Lords, Silvergills or Harbingers and I'm not keeping 1 landers. It's still a bad top deck so 4 is a bit heavy, and KCommand doesn't feel particularly good, but I don't have much else I really wanna bring in for them anyway.

Despite being an attrition matchup they don't really generate card advantage over us and sooner or later they run out of answers. Mostly what I find is that by the time I've baited out all the discards and removal that they've put their life total low enough they are on a pretty short clock and without having to fear Temur Battlerage all the time I am comfortable absorbing a big hit (or two) and winning on the crackback.

It' worth noting that I AM still playing 2 Pongify main and it's friggin fantastic vs. Shadow, Counter Company & Storm decks. It has it's drawbacks, but neither Snag or Dismember can make that same claim. I'm not saying it's definitely the answer, but at this point I will say it merits further testing and I hope 1 or 2 of you are brave enough to give it a whirl and provide your own feedback. Good or bad.

Quote from Cowology »

It' worth noting that I AM still playing 2 Pongify main and it's friggin fantastic vs. Shadow, Counter Company & Storm decks. It has it's drawbacks, but neither Snag or Dismember can make that same claim. I'm not saying it's definitely the answer, but at this point I will say it merits further testing and I hope 1 or 2 of you are brave enough to give it a whirl and provide your own feedback. Good or bad.

Ooooooo Pongify. I like that! You don't think it's better off as side board material though? Some matchups they might actually like getting a 3/3 creature.

Quote from Indormi »

I dont know how good pongify is but one of the uses it had on standard was to "blank" removal so it does have a very similar effect to snag both offensive and defensive. On the other hand it does not 100% clear a blocker so its not great there. Nikachu is playing some tidebinders right now and that was another cool interaction.

when i began this experiment i was running 4 harbinger and 3 Tidebinders. Currently back on the 3/2 split.

As much as I have enjoyed Spell Pierce and Unified Will in the past, I fear that they are no longer well positioned. You might want to try Echoing Truth, mainboard Kiras, or Negate in those spots. You also don't seem to have much of a plan for big mana decks - I'd recommend that you try either Sea's Claim or Ceremonious Rejection as a way to address that.

I like how "side event" is 120 people:
http://tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=23563&iddeck=183449

Quote from FANAttIC »

I like how "side event" is 120 people:
http://tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=23563&iddeck=183449

The 8th place Merfolk deck sided Glen Elendra Archmage. Venser is better in every way right?

Edit: never mind, forgot she has Persist. So basically 2 counters.

My LGS has a weekly modern night every Wednesday and I took rothgar's list to it with 4 negates. I'm pleased to say I went 4-0 and I'm really happy with how the deck is. I know it not much since it not a big event but lately I wasn't comfortable with past builds and this just seemed right to me. Also ceremonious rejection is a good card.

Great job, grayson290! Happy to hear my list did well for you.

Im so much in love with Vendilion to replace it right now. Its so flexible and won me lots of games already

I got wrecked tonight by the Abzan Counters deck and was wondering what we do against them? Is it Grafdigger's Cage, Echoing Truth, Pithing Needle, and counter spells?

Don't forget Dismember. Very handy card against them in my experience.

Unfortunately most of the cards you mentioned don't stop the new company.

Cage stops Coco but they can still just cast the creatures normally, Truth just bounces them and they'll recast, and Needle is situational. They can still produce infinite mana and you can only name one card with it. Chances are they're going to hit something you didn't name before you can beat them.

I'm running the U/W build for some time now and it's been going fantastic. I know it's seen as less consistent but the amount of times I've been colour screwed has been negligible, and this is coming from the guy who's known locally as having the worst land-luck in town.


Honestly I'm looking to pull the Unified Will out of the board and go with something else. With all the removal and creature heavy decks winning things it's just not doing much work. The 4 Path to Exile are the heavy hitters in the deck, even just one hitting a Shadow or Tasigur can pull you ahead and most decks have no way of dealing with a major threat being exiled right now.

I find the 4 fetch lands and no basic plains to be working great. Works out to roughly 8 white sources which is almost 50% of my mana. I'm at 19 lands because only 2 Master's. With path and push being so common it's just not the bomb it once was and tends to eat removal before I can even lay out my tokens. With that it may seem counter intuitive to have 3 Phantasmal Image but he's actually the best card in the deck I think. With vial on 2 he's anything we need him to be at instant speed. Even if they break the Kira shield and remove her, you can vial him in and replace her. Sure they can just hit him with anything but that's 3 removal spells that didn't hit lords.

The last thing I want to mention is Psionic Blast. This thing has been winning me more games than I can mention. Shadow wants to get down low to be able to hit you with something big, 4 to the face can close the game on the spot. Plus 4 damage can be enough to kill a goyf many times. The thing that pushes it over the edge is you can kill walkers with it. Once a Lili lands against us if we don't have board presence it's game over, but being able to outright remove it from the battlefield can bring you back into the game. We otherwise have no way to permanently deal with any planeswalker that lands on the table other than trying to attack it which just extends the game in our opponent's favour.

I'm loving the Clique but I don't think 2 is where we want to be. There's not much combo, as least in my meta and decks are pretty resilient. Meanwhile Kira blanks a good amount of cards from most decks plus can usually get in for 4-6 damage per game.

Pithing Needle does stop the combo outright - Devoted Druid's untapping effect is an activated ability. Echoing Truth is less powerful in this regard, but a turn is often all you need, at least in my experience.

I'm honestly very surprised your list hasn't gotten color-screwed - 8 W sources is barely enough for a Limited deck.

That's my bad, it is an activated ability to untap so true Needle does stop it.

Though I don't see how 8 isn't enough. Statistically if I draw a land I have a 42% chance of it being a land that can produce U/W, and the only white cards in the deck are 4 Path to Exile. Being 4 out of 41 cards gives me just shy of a 10% chance to hit one when I draw a nonland card. I'm pretty happy with those odds.