@Torpf : Ok thank's for the review, I will order the parts
And yes the deck is really cheap/budget, essentially because a lot of people sell their stocks of Eldrazi after "eldrazi winter".
That's how I got mine! I waited till the cards flooded the market then grabbed them at their lowest. They've since gone up a bit because people realized that it's still playable in Legacy and somewhat in Modern/Standard. I should have the rest of mine in the mail in a day or so, so I'll start playing some tournaments in paper with the deck and get some results on here.
I'm in the process of building this deck, thanks for all the great ideas. Has anyone tried running domri rade? Could be good removal and creature draw.
Hi Guys, I’ve played a few more leagues (5) finishing 4-1,4-1,3-2,3-2,2-3. So overall ok, definitely quite a few errors but I’m quite pleased. I made a few moderations to the maindeck as mentioned last time so this is what I ran for all 5 events. Thanks for the comments and suggestions!
+1 Oath of Nissa +1 Sylvan Scrying +1 Fungal Reaches
-1 World Breaker -1 Talisman -1 Ghost Quarter
As for the matches here’s what I played against with a few notes, I’ve hidden it so the post isn’t too long initially.
4-1
r1 0-2 mono blue etxra turns
r2 2-1 grixis delver death shadow, lost when he had shadow
r3 2-0 wb edrazi taxes - early smasher concessions
r4 2-0 naya company allies
r5 2-1 naya burn, return ftw both games
4-1
r1 1-2 4 colour dredge, in game 3 drawing 1 relic wasn't enough.
r2 2-0 naya kiki with traverse
r3 2-0 jeskai nahiri control
r4 2-1 rg valakut
r5 2-1 jeskai midrange
3-2
r1 2-1 tron eldrazi - ghost quarters and sb crumble are great
r2 0-2 affinity - I was too slow, thoughtseize is always great against us
r3 2-1 ugr scapehift control - cavern + disruption wins
r4 0-2 rg scapeshift with khalni heart expedition - they are too fast and have so many live draws aslong as they protect the valakut after sb
r5 2-0 azban midrange
3-2
r1 2-1 goblin aggro
r2 2-1 grixis control - relic really slows them and cavern is cavern.
r3 2-0 ugr turboscapeshift with peer through depths - same as above
r4 1-2 jund - close games, I feel I made mistakes so need to watch it back.
r5 0-2 jesaki pyromancer storm - I don't think this is a bad match up but I played horribly and made bad thoughtknot decisions
2-3
r1 1-2 Mono G Ramp - he was quicker. Garruk, Wildspeaker impressed. They also have a better lategame with command/witness looping.
r2 0-2 naya burn - t1 nacatyl is tough
r3 2-0 soul sisters
r4 2-0 gw hatebears
r5 1-2 jeskai nahiri control - all the games were very grindy but he had restoration angel and got so much value
I’m going to spend some time watching the game back but I have a few initial thoughts on the changes and moving forward.
Oath of Nissa was pretty good, it’s a fifth stirrings and did help smooth the draws out. If I’m bringing in the artifacts from the board I cut this though. I was considering endbringer as the world breaker replacement but I’m rarely sad to see this when I draw it, possibly worth adding more?
Fungal reaches – the extra mana never became relevant, good in corner cases but I think there’s better things for the slot (I’ll get to that)
Cavern of Souls is DEECE! With Sylvan I don’t think I need more than 2 but it singlehandedly turns round a lot of matches and allows you to get on the board quickly. Minimum 2 moving forward for me.
I kept, I feel that this is the most extreme case where one land is ok and don't know if I would have kept on the play. (If you are interested I rip t1 temple and go nuts!
That's a super risky hand to keep and I wouldn't do it. 1-landers are never a good idea, and I suppose that if you are playing 2nd then you have a scry to hopefully get to another land. You esentally have 3 draws to get a land off of the top of your deck, then you can play Land #2 > Talisman > Stirrings and get a third land from there to start casting back to back TKS's. I guess it depends on how confidant you are in your luck, and if it's game 1 or 2 and you are willing to take the risk. You also have to take into account what deck the opponent is on. Playing vs Jund? You're screwed if you keep it. Some blue tempo deck? Probably going to fall way behind too. For me it'd be:
Game 1 on the play: no
Game 1 on the draw: yes
Game 2 (1-0) on the play: maybe
Game 2 (1-0) on the draw: yes
Game 2 (0-1) on the play: no
Game 2 (0-1) on the draw: no
I'm in the process of building this deck, thanks for all the great ideas. Has anyone tried running domri rade? Could be good removal and creature draw.
I don't think he's a god fit for the deck. As of right now the 'standard' is ~18 creatures, giving you ~1/3 chance to hit a creature with his +1. More often than not you are going to flip over a land or spell and just feel bad about it. The deck isn't creature-heavy enough to play him to great effect.
I played this list at a local tournament last night and went 2-2. There are a few cards I still need for the deck (Namely Grove of the Burnwillows) as well as some more practice with it, but all in all it felt very solid to me despite the lackluster record.
Match 1: Nahiri Jeskai (2-0 Win)
The first game I won by playing four Reality Smashers to keep running over his Nahiris immediately after he played them. He put up a fair fight but eventually I had more threats than he had answers. (1-0)
The second game I brought in the Relic of Progenitus to keep him from using Snapcaster Mage to flashback his removal spells. I had two Relics in my opening hand and things went fairly smoothly from there. (2-0)
Match 2: Doran Formation (0-2 Loss)
I had never seen this deck before, so you can imagine my surprise when he played Tower Defense in response to my Kozilek's Return during combat and killed me. Ouch. (0-1)
I brought in Warping Wails in game two in hopes of picking off his 0/x creatures, but failed to draw them. Even if I had what removal I did draw got redirected to his Spellskites. Ouch again. (0-2)
Match 3: Naya Burn (2-1 Win)
Game one I was able to get creatures on the board early and Thought-Knot Seered him twice to take his best burn cards. Soon after I play Kozliek's Return to blow up his creatures and swing for lethal. (1-0)
Game two was brutal. I brought in the Feed the Clans and never drew them. Not that I had much time to do so as I was dead by turn 5. (1-1)
Game three was close. I stabilized the board with Thought-Knot Seers and Endless Ones, But I was left at a precarious life total of 4. I play Kozilek's Return to attack for lethal and he makes the mistake of targeting me with Lightning Helix in response instead of my damaged Thought-Knot Seer. But as the Thought-Knot Seer lived, the attack was still lethal. (2-1)
Match 4: Affinity (1-2 Loss)
Kozilek's Return was the MVP of game one, destroying the first wave of artifacts before Steal Overseer could buff them out of range, and then the second wave after I cast a turn 5 World Breaker. My opponent conceded after World Breaker came down. (1-0)
I brought in the Ancient Grudges for games two and three, but was run over both times regardless. Turns out Affinity is a pretty good deck! I think this matchup is actually reasonable, given that Ghost Quarter prevents them from using Inkmoth Nexus and Ancient Grudge is so strong. So it goes.
In conclusion, I think the deck is good. Maybe even great given some more practice and refinements. The cards I don't like at the moment are Talisman of Impulse (I'm thinking of cutting one or two) and Sanctum of Ugin. (I think Tomb of the Spirit Dragon might be better) Definitely will be hanging out on this forum to see what your guys' iterations of the deck look like.
I played this list at a local tournament last night and went 2-2. There are a few cards I still need for the deck (Namely Grove of the Burnwillows) as well as some more practice with it, but all in all it felt very solid to me despite the lackluster record.
Match 1: Nahiri Jeskai (2-0 Win)
The first game I won by playing four Reality Smashers to keep running over his Nahiris immediately after he played them. He put up a fair fight but eventually I had more threats than he had answers. (1-0)
The second game I brought in the Relic of Progenitus to keep him from using Snapcaster Mage to flashback his removal spells. I had two Relics in my opening hand and things went fairly smoothly from there. (2-0)
Match 2: Doran Formation (0-2 Loss)
I had never seen this deck before, so you can imagine my surprise when he played Tower Defense in response to my Kozilek's Return during combat and killed me. Ouch. (0-1)
I brought in Warping Wails in game two in hopes of picking off his 0/x creatures, but failed to draw them. Even if I had what removal I did draw got redirected to his Spellskites. Ouch again. (0-2)
Match 3: Naya Burn (2-1 Win)
Game one I was able to get creatures on the board early and Thought-Knot Seered him twice to take his best burn cards. Soon after I play Kozliek's Return to blow up his creatures and swing for lethal. (1-0)
Game two was brutal. I brought in the Feed the Clans and never drew them. Not that I had much time to do so as I was dead by turn 5. (1-1)
Game three was close. I stabilized the board with Thought-Knot Seers and Endless Ones, But I was left at a precarious life total of 4. I play Kozilek's Return to attack for lethal and he makes the mistake of targeting me with Lightning Helix in response instead of my damaged Thought-Knot Seer. But as the Thought-Knot Seer lived, the attack was still lethal. (2-1)
Match 4: Affinity (1-2 Loss)
Kozilek's Return was the MVP of game one, destroying the first wave of artifacts before Steal Overseer could buff them out of range, and then the second wave after I cast a turn 5 World Breaker. My opponent conceded after World Breaker came down. (1-0)
I brought in the Ancient Grudges for games two and three, but was run over both times regardless. Turns out Affinity is a pretty good deck! I think this matchup is actually reasonable, given that Ghost Quarter prevents them from using Inkmoth Nexus and Ancient Grudge is so strong. So it goes.
In conclusion, I think the deck is good. Maybe even great given some more practice and refinements. The cards I don't like at the moment are Talisman of Impulse (I'm thinking of cutting one or two) and Sanctum of Ugin. (I think Tomb of the Spirit Dragon might be better) Definitely will be hanging out on this forum to see what your guys' iterations of the deck look like.
Cheers!
Nice report and welcome to the forums!
As for your Affinity game, I can see losing those matches when they just have godhands but other than that we should be winning like 70-30 I'd predict. You have access to: 4 Kozilek's Return, 4 Lightning Bolt, 3 Ancient Grudge, 2 Nature's Claim, and 2 Warping Wail. That's 15 cards that completely destroy all their threats and every card they can play. Etched Champion can be blocked by our creatures, Ghost Quarter kills their manlands, and World Breaker can exile anything they play (assuming you keep it in post-board). The deck is geared to beat it, the amount of hate for this matcup is insane. Alas Affinity can sneak out wins sometime.
I played this list at a local tournament last night and went 2-2. There are a few cards I still need for the deck (Namely Grove of the Burnwillows) as well as some more practice with it, but all in all it felt very solid to me despite the lackluster record.
Match 1: Nahiri Jeskai (2-0 Win)
The first game I won by playing four Reality Smashers to keep running over his Nahiris immediately after he played them. He put up a fair fight but eventually I had more threats than he had answers. (1-0)
The second game I brought in the Relic of Progenitus to keep him from using Snapcaster Mage to flashback his removal spells. I had two Relics in my opening hand and things went fairly smoothly from there. (2-0)
Match 2: Doran Formation (0-2 Loss)
I had never seen this deck before, so you can imagine my surprise when he played Tower Defense in response to my Kozilek's Return during combat and killed me. Ouch. (0-1)
I brought in Warping Wails in game two in hopes of picking off his 0/x creatures, but failed to draw them. Even if I had what removal I did draw got redirected to his Spellskites. Ouch again. (0-2)
Match 3: Naya Burn (2-1 Win)
Game one I was able to get creatures on the board early and Thought-Knot Seered him twice to take his best burn cards. Soon after I play Kozliek's Return to blow up his creatures and swing for lethal. (1-0)
Game two was brutal. I brought in the Feed the Clans and never drew them. Not that I had much time to do so as I was dead by turn 5. (1-1)
Game three was close. I stabilized the board with Thought-Knot Seers and Endless Ones, But I was left at a precarious life total of 4. I play Kozilek's Return to attack for lethal and he makes the mistake of targeting me with Lightning Helix in response instead of my damaged Thought-Knot Seer. But as the Thought-Knot Seer lived, the attack was still lethal. (2-1)
Match 4: Affinity (1-2 Loss)
Kozilek's Return was the MVP of game one, destroying the first wave of artifacts before Steal Overseer could buff them out of range, and then the second wave after I cast a turn 5 World Breaker. My opponent conceded after World Breaker came down. (1-0)
I brought in the Ancient Grudges for games two and three, but was run over both times regardless. Turns out Affinity is a pretty good deck! I think this matchup is actually reasonable, given that Ghost Quarter prevents them from using Inkmoth Nexus and Ancient Grudge is so strong. So it goes.
In conclusion, I think the deck is good. Maybe even great given some more practice and refinements. The cards I don't like at the moment are Talisman of Impulse (I'm thinking of cutting one or two) and Sanctum of Ugin. (I think Tomb of the Spirit Dragon might be better) Definitely will be hanging out on this forum to see what your guys' iterations of the deck look like.
Cheers!
Nice report and welcome to the forums!
As for your Affinity game, I can see losing those matches when they just have godhands but other than that we should be winning like 70-30 I'd predict. You have access to: 4 Kozilek's Return, 4 Lightning Bolt, 3 Ancient Grudge, 2 Nature's Claim, and 2 Warping Wail. That's 15 cards that completely destroy all their threats and every card they can play. Etched Champion can be blocked by our creatures, Ghost Quarter kills their manlands, and World Breaker can exile anything they play (assuming you keep it in post-board). The deck is geared to beat it, the amount of hate for this matcup is insane. Alas Affinity can sneak out wins sometime.
Thinking about it more, I think you're right about the Affinity matchup. I guess I'll attribute the loss mostly to my unfamiliarity with the deck for now, but I imagine I'll run into it again soon enough and I can try and get a better feel for how the matchup plays out.
As far as the lands go, I think both Kessig Wolf Run and Raging Ravine are good upgrades to the land base, albeit as one-ofs. Still, thanks for the idea!
On the subject of lands, do you have any thoughts on Sylvan Scrying? I've noticed a lot of other lists running it (presumably to find Eldrazi Temple) but it looks very slow to me. What do you think?
As you can see, it's 90% GerryT's new list (the one in his last article), with some modifications in the manabase (Fetches to have another card to grow Goyf with), and a slightly tweaked SB.
So far I won a GPT for Prague (going undefeated) and a local FNM (undefeated also there).
The players were pretty competitive (with tier decks).
So far the toughest MU I found is Burn. Given that I played only once against it with this deck (and he crushed me), any ideas on how to win this MU? The best plan I found so far is just to ramp fast to a T3 Seer/Smasher (Land->Temple->Scrying for Temple) and play a fast Kozilek's Return, as we don't have any other way than outaggro them for winning the MU (we can't interact with their Burn spells).
Another probably bad MU is Tron, here having a strong board presence (3+ creatures) often negates Karn's -3 effect, and having access to Sylvan Scrying grabbing GQ is great. They have better lategame than us (we do have World Breaker, they have Wurmcoils and Ulamogs).
And lastly Naya Blitz seems pretty hard too, they make a big board presence in little time, and having access to only 5 single removal spells and 3 mass removals (which don't even kill Kird Ape or Nacatl) doesn't seem enough (even with Goyfs and Reshapers, which I need to draw a lot of in the first 14-20 cards of the deck).
How did you guys fare against those decks, and which are your plans against them? (and do you play many cards in SB for them?)
Another concern I had is the SB: How do you guys build it for this deck? I'm now on that kind of SB where I play like 2-4 cards for each MatchUp, as I see RG Eldrazi as an extremely linear deck, and Sideboarding the minimum cards needed for a MU is better than overboarding for a single (possibly bad) MU, because it gives us more inconsistency (and we have a bigger chance to lose to ourselves than to the opponent).
Which cards do you side out the most? Other than the classic "take out Flame Slash / Kozilek's Return against Combo/Control", which are the cards you generally take out in G2? I'm almost always taking out Talismans/Scryings depending on the MU (I keep Talisman against decks I need to play fast threats, and keep Scrying when I need to play more slowly and tutor for specific lands).
Lastly, which are the "flex slots" the deck has? I'm having a difficult time finding them out, the deck works very well as it is, but I'd like to try new things (like a second Flame Slash, as the MU against Naya Blitz Zoo is pretty hard from my side). Any help?
First off congrats on the wins! back-to-back undefeated is really good even if they weren't the most high level events.
Against Burn, you have Return to wipe their board over and over and TKS will take away their direct damage like Lava Spike or Lightning Bolt. The biggest problem is they're going to get in 2-3 attacks before you can get anything on board and then at that point they can finish you off with 3-damage spells. Game 1 is going to be rough, but post board you do have Feed the Clan and Warping Wail to mess them up. Wail allows us to do something before turn 3, and Clan can be cast after a TKS which takes their Atarka's Command so we can gain the 10 life freely.
Tron is going to be like a Tron vs Tron match where first one to play Karn and exile the others land is 99% going to win. We do have World Breaker for this to act as a Karn, but our draws of T3 Breaker are going to be much much much less likely than Trons. You want to take out the Koz Retuns and such and bring in the Natural States and Ancient Grudge. If you can pick off a turn 1 Expedition Map or something similar it can often be similar to just Stone Raining them. We also have Crumble to Dust, but they will probably be boarding in Warping Wail to counter it. Our own Warping Wail are also useful for countering their Ancient Stirrings and Sylvan Scrying. Basically because we don't have the raw speed I like to try and marginally disrupt them early so we can catch up and start chaining together hate or World Breakers. Usually that 1 turn of delaying them is enough to play a TKS and take their Karn or similar, leaving them with not much to do.
Naya is similar. You are probably going to stabilize at a low life by stalling with 1 TKS (hoping it doesn't get Pathed) and then pray that you can get a trigger on Kozilek's Return to wipe their board.
As for the sideboard I can post my list in a day or so and have some detailed choices on close to every card.
Thinking about it more, I think you're right about the Affinity matchup. I guess I'll attribute the loss mostly to my unfamiliarity with the deck for now, but I imagine I'll run into it again soon enough and I can try and get a better feel for how the matchup plays out.
As far as the lands go, I think both Kessig Wolf Run and Raging Ravine are good upgrades to the land base, albeit as one-ofs. Still, thanks for the idea!
On the subject of lands, do you have any thoughts on Sylvan Scrying? I've noticed a lot of other lists running it (presumably to find Eldrazi Temple) but it looks very slow to me. What do you think?
Sylvan Scrying is great for a way to find that 1st or 2nd Eldrazi Temple for a turn 2 or 3 Thought-Knot Seer. If you already have a Temple by turns 1 or 2 then you get a second one and can drop a Reality Smasher on turn 3 or a World Breaker on turn 4. Basically the reason the deck still exists is because of Eldrazi Temple allowing us to cheat the curve and play undercosted threats ahead of when we should be able to. You want to be finding these lands every game and Ancient Stirrings and Sylvan Scrying are the best way to do that.
Although Scrying may look like a dead card once we have those Temples, we can negate this by putting in these 1-of utility lands like Raging Ravine vs control and grindy games, Kessig Wolf Run to pus through damage when the board is stalled or when we are flooded. Sanctum of Ugin keeps the threats flowing mid-lategame when we typically exhaust all of our threats and don't have a reliable way to draw more. Cavern of Souls can be grabbed to screw over blue decks and stop their mostefficient way of handling our threats. I'd honesty like to squeeze a Sea Gate Wreckage in there for a better chance of winning in topdeck situations. What I'm getting at is that it is the gateway to a toolbox aspect of our deck and facilitates the Eldrazi Temple engine. I'd love to have Crop Rotation in Modern as a replacement but that'd most likely be busted.
Are groves really that necessary? I have all the pieces for the deck except those and I am not gonna drop 220 on them. Are wooded foothills/karplusans adequate replacements?
I continue testing Map instead of Scrying and it feels more comfortable to me. I think it makes our control match up better. T1 map is save, T2 Scrying often gets countered and it's essential to search for an early cavern. And I often ned to pick the map out of Stirrings or have to cast it for colorless mana.
The one mana more to search a Land most times not feel as an too huge downside.
What do you think?
I haven't personally played with Map instead of Scyrings, but I can try it out for sure. It is one of those things that is pretty hard to test with only a few people playing the deck right now. If it got really popular and a ton of people picked it up then this question would be answered in a week. You really have to look at the chances of taking away your turn 1 and 2 draws, or just your turn 2. Since we are playing Bolt and Stirrings then you do have something to be doing on turn 1. Making a blind guess I think that Scrying will be the better choice in the long run.
Are groves really that necessary? I have all the pieces for the deck except those and I am not gonna drop 220 on them. Are wooded foothills/karplusans adequate replacements?
They are not essential to the deck as you can tell by some good results put up a few posts back, but that aside this is also not the pace for budget talk really. If you want to play it the best it can be then play Groves. If you want to sometimes lose by drawing sub-optimal lands, then play other ones. The colourless is very important in the deck.
Yes I know I'm a filthy peasant with only 3 Groves (but to make up for it the basics are signed!). I have been playing Fire-Lit Thicket in its place and it has been very similar. The only problem that has come up is when its the only "coloured source" in your opening hand. This has come up once so far and I had to mulligan. Other than that I've been loving all of the slots. I'm going to pick up a Cavern of Souls this week and do +1 Cavern, -1 Forest. Another thing to squeeze in would be a Sea Gate Wreckage and maybe a Boseiju, Who Shelters All in the side. The sideboard is pretty broad and taken from the base one of mikey g. It covers pretty much every matchup with a few cards and doesn't really hate on anything too much. Through the digging power of Ancient Stirrings you are able to find your sideboard cards a lot of the time too which is really nice.
Yes I know I'm a filthy peasant with only 3 Groves (but to make up for it the basics are signed!). I have been playing Fire-Lit Thicket in its place and it has been very similar. The only problem that has come up is when its the only "coloured source" in your opening hand. This has come up once so far and I had to mulligan.
@Torpf
Referring to the part of the post that I put in bold. Agreed on the use of just one Fire-Lit thicket - I don't have a RG Eldrazi but I think that would work just fine. Experienced a similar problem when I tried using 3 Cascade Bluffs and only 1 Shivan Reef in my UR Eldrazi, with the reasoning that taking pings from painlands is bad. Used 3 bluffs, so my mulligans are more frequent than yours. Have since went down to just one Cascade Bluffs, and now use 4 reef. The single Cascade Bluffs has been ok.
Another thing to squeeze in would be a Sea Gate Wreckage and maybe a Boseiju, Who Shelters All in the side. The sideboard is pretty broad and taken from the base one of mikey g. It covers pretty much every matchup with a few cards and doesn't really hate on anything too much. Through the digging power of Ancient Stirrings you are able to find your sideboard cards a lot of the time too which is really nice.
Against what decks you would like to play uncounterable spells with Boseiju?
I'm theorizing more than anything, but figured having 1 can't hurt all that much against something like UWR Geist were they Remand a Kozilek's Return or counter a Sylvan Scrying and essentially Time Walk us. It'd be pretty corner case but I'm sure it has come up.
About Wreckage, I think that usually you win the game before you go hellbent (except against Jund). So same question here: against what decks you would want this card?
I think that with your deckbuild you shouldn't have that big of a problem with hellbent mode, as you have Sanctum of Ugin (which tutors for threats with a big EO or World Breaker) that gives you the late game power you need to finish off the game.
I've been finding that against things like BG/x, sometimes even Tron, UWR with PtE, that the games are often getting to a stalemate and ending around when we are both Hellbent. If they go any longer then I often find myself slipping out of control unless I have some great topdecks. Vs BG/x they can easily go 1-for-1 long enough to stretch out the game. I guess most time I am losing it is when I have the 7 mana and some Sanctums in play, but nothing to trigger them. Some extra draw power in those situation rather than relying on topdecking the 6 cards (excluding stirrings) that can trigger them seems useful.
I haven't had a problem at all. Between the 8 search cards and 2 Talismans there is always enough land flowing. Every time I can get a Temple by turn 2-3 I am winning the game it seems. Every time I have to hardcast things it is 50/50. Temple is the best card in the deck, and Sylvan Scrying just facilitates that plan so well.
Last week i played this deck at my LGS. http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/408084#paper
I went 2-2. I won against Affinity ans Mono U Tron. I lost to Jund and Scapeshift.
I rly dont like Sylvan Scrying. I think that 4 Ancient Stirrings is enough land search/dig. I play 2 Talismans and 2 Mindstones. Mindstone saved me few times, giving me an extra draw at the late game. Seagate Wreckage is awesome in long games.
In the process of building and testing this deck, i think 3 scryings is sufficient as drawing them late isnt the best and the third is always underwhelming.
What do you guys thibk about adding the two mind stones in md and an ulamog in the sb?
I like the idea of sea gate but not sure which land to cut?
I played this build last night and went 3-1. Here's a quick recap. Played against Bant Eldrazi, Grixis, Infect, and BTL Scapeshift.
0-2 Had no chance against Bant. My play wasn't tight enough and I missed land drops, but Bant was just a slight bit faster. When Displacer drops, it's pretty much GG as it locks down smashers and tears through hands with bouncing Thought-Knots. Pithing Needle helped game two, but not quite enough as multiple smashers was faster than mine. GG! My opponent is a lot more experienced, and was giving me tips as I went...thanks for helping out the noob!
2-0 Grixis was very tight! This was a Grixis Burn brew. Both games was down to the wire, but pulled through both times. Lightning bolts to the face was great from me, and grafdigger's cage was key G2 to stop the stream of snapping bolts. Digging for creatures with Ancient Stirrings was gold.
2-0 Infect was a breeze. I play infect also, so I was ready....removal!! G1, Ghost quartered inkmoths, while bolts and flame slashes cleared the creatures, and he didn't have a chance to stick anyone. G2, brought in warping wail and spellskite, but it was Ghost Quarter and Sylvan Scyring for more Ghost Quarters clearing out any possibilities of Inkmoths. I opened with removal, and eventually picked up smashers with Ancient Stirrings and went in for the kill. Our deck has too much removal for infect to handle.
2-0 Scapeshift was fairly smooth. G1, a timely TKS exiled a Bring to Light, and I smashed through before the combo could be built up. G2 I brought Warping Wail. I mulled to 5, but was able to string together lands and smashers, while keeping up mana for Warping Wail (luckily drew it). Opponent thought he had the win. tapped out for Bring to Light for Scapeshift, with Valakut out, but WW'd him for the win on the swing back.
I never managed to play a World Breaker (and so Sanctums were useless), but Smashers and TKS took each win. I think Raging Ravine would be awesome too, as I had times where I fizzled on Stirrings and couldn't seem to draw creatures with Sylvan Scrying in hand.
Overall, it was really fun! Need to play it more to figure out the ins and outs, but it definitely has a lot of resilience. I need to figure out if this can beat bant, or if bant is the way to push eldrazi.
Went 3-1 tonight at FNM after the Tursday night Modern where I went didn't fire. Deck performed as expected by going big roughly one turn ahead of the opponents curve in every game. The decklist I took was same as a few posts ago:
Round 1 vs UR Storm:
I had fairly quick starts with turn 3 Thought-Knot-Seers in each game. Game 1 she dug through about 20 cards and never found a single Pyromancer Ascension and died in two turns to the TKS + Reality Smasher beats. Game 2 she dropped a turn 3 Blood Moon which was a problem because I have no basic colourless sources in my deck, but on my turn 3 I found a SIGNET THING which allowed me to play a turn 4 TKS and then Smasher followed up by 2 Lightning Bolts. Sideboard was:
Round 2 vs Turbofog Mazes End:
I got paired down as the third 1-0. I heard him say the round before that he ran no basic lands so I knew that Ghost Quarter=Strip Mine. Game 1 I exhausted all of his fog effects with a TKS and then one attack on the next turn with Smasher. Then I searched up some Ghost Quarters and ended the game. Game 2 was much of the same except I brought in Ancient Grudge and took out his Expadition Map and Amulet of Vigor that was untapping the guildgates. He was stuck on with 2 Maze's End in play and I just overran him with Eldrazi while keeping a Crumble to Dust in hand. Sideboard was (Note: he was playing Primetime as his only creature which is wy I left in the Flame Slash):
Round 3 vs BG Infect:
Paired down for the second time. This was against a different take on infect for sure. He was relying on Glistener Elf, Plague Stinger, and Phyrexian Crusader. Double Kozilek's Return made short work of his deck game 1 but then game 2 I had to mull to 5 to find land and got bursted down. Game 3 I mulled to 6 and the game got super drawn out to the point where I had about 14 mana in play, 4 Sylvan Scrying in my graveyard, and nothing to do. He dropped 3 Phyrexian Crusaders in a row and eventually won. If I had a Eye of UginSea Gate Wreckage in my deck I really feel like I could have drawn an extra 2-3 cards and come back into the game. I just had no lands to search for other than Raging Ravine which did nothing against the Crusaders. I guess my topdeck game was just too weak. Sideboard was:
Round 3 vs BG Infect:
Paired down for the third time!! This guy was playing some kind of BW Eldrazi with Path to Exile, Anguished Unmaking, and the rest of the processor build. Game 1 I was down after he got out the first TKS and I couldn't recover from there. Game 2 I was behind again after he had a fast start off of a Map and Mind Stone. He cast a TKS when I had 6 lands in play and a 7th next turn with World Breaker coming down to stabilize. He exiled the breaker so I had no threats left, with the world breaker being the only real thing that could have got me out of that situation. I proceeded to topdeck 3 more World Breakers in a row and crush him in the match.. I guess that's where all of my topdeck luck went from the last round. Game 3 I had a faster start and he was screwed on mana because I destroyed his ramp with the Ancient Grudge boarded in. I cast a turn 3 TKS and revealed 2 Paths and some other ramp in his hand. I took the ramp so he was forced to path my 2 creatures, which brought me to 7 mana so I could start chaining WOld Breakers together while he was on 2 lands still. Sideboard was:
At the end of it I played some pretty jank decks so the results should be taken lightly. The only thing I'd add in is the Cavern of Souls once it gets here in the mail, and find a slot for a Sea Gate Wreckage. The deck can go over the top of most others, but it is still lacking the stickyness and draw power of the Bant deck I'm finding.
@torpf: what's your opinion on Endless Ones? I hate Tarmogoyf in that deck, but it's the only 2-drop that is good both in Early Game and Late Game (it blocks very well Aggro decks), and I've always seen EO as a "late-game bomb", I don't like tapping out for 4+ mana for a non-instant impact creature (like TKS discards a card, Smasher has haste, and WB exiles something).
I guess EO is far better than Goyf if you plan on using Sanctums (as they trigger it). What about these lands? Why no Wastes? I found it really useful against Moon based decks, as I often manage to fetch/find basic forest in my first turns, so even under Blood Moon I can easily cast my Scryings/Stirrings which find Wastes (and let me play my Eldrazi). Sanctum was underwhelming for me during testing (probably because I didn't have EOs to trigger it with).
What about Relic of Progenitus? Is it your out against mostly Living End decks? Do you use it against other decks also?
And lastly Spellskite: I guess it's your response to Aggro and Infect (and other miscellaneous combo decks), right? How did it perform for you?
Thank you!
I'll keep you guys updated!
First off nice result!
Endless One for me has been more of a curve filler and just lategame threat. It seems I have something to do on turns 1 & 2 every game but not so much once I drop that first Smasher/TKS. There is a one turn dead zone in between smasher and World Breaker at 6 mana that you have to fill. Now that I've been thinking about it lately it doesn't seem that great because it's not triggering Sanctums at 6 and it's always the last card I play. It is good vs smaller decks though to just hat that threat density to trade creatures with. Another thing that can go in it's slot to fill the 6 slot is Primeval Titan as just playing one is going to grab multiple sanctums an all but lock out the game. The main problem with this is Eldrazi Temple casting World Breaker on '6 mana' instead of 7 so now you have the problem of having to chose when to play WB or Primetime. There are a lot of creatures to try out in the slot for sure, and for now Tarmo is a good option. I've also looking into splashing for Drowner of Hope since it is a beast in the Bant deck.
I have played vs Moon and right now my gameplan around it is getting a Talisman for the colourless sources. I can probably slot in a Wastes somewhere for sure when I look into how to fit the Sea Gate Wreckeage that I've wanted to do.
Relic is great vs Living End, Abzan Company, Storm, Grixis/Delve decks, Dredge, etc... At worst it is a cantrip, and at best it completely shuts down their deck. The sideboard in the list above is very meta-neurtal trying to have some catch-alls for every matchup. If I had an expected metagame I'd maybe cut them if they weren't going to be great.
Again Spellskite is just another catch-all vs Infect, Bogles, Burn (sorta), catches Paths in some matchups when I have a few dead cards but nothing great to bring in, etc... It was great when I played it but I didn't need it in every matchup. (which is what I hoped the rest of the broad sideboard could cover).
R1: Fish (2:0)
G1: Kozilek's Return and Bolts cleared his board.
G2: T1 Pithing Needle locking his Aerher Vial
R2: Infect (2:1)
G1: I died in turn 3. No commens.
G2: Dismebered his 5/5 Elf. Followed by TKS for hand disruption. 2 ghost quarters killed his 2 Nexuses.
G2: Spellskite on turn2. GG
R3: Melira Company (2:1)
G1: Opponent won on turn 4. I havent drawn any remowal
G2: Ive drawn all my removal.
G3: Grafdiggers cage on turn 3. GG
R4: B/W (0:2)
G1/G2 I thoight its gonna be an easy match but I havent drawn any Kozilek's Return or ratchet bombs in both games.
Deck looks strong and fun to play againts creature based decks. Not sure how its gonna play out against pure combo decks.
Seeing as Endless Ones are being debated, I was wondering what you all thought of Noble Hierarch. Being quite strong in Bant, I was thinking of replacing 1x Matter Reshaper, 1x Flame Slash, 2x Kozilek's Return with a playset of NH. Goldfishing, It smoothed out draws with less lands, and really helped pushed thoughtknots and smashers out earlier.
What about endbrinder for the 6 cost creature, would be droppable on turn 3 or 4 with temple? Would allow card draw if it survives? Kinda a reach i guess.
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MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
Game 1 on the play: no
Game 1 on the draw: yes
Game 2 (1-0) on the play: maybe
Game 2 (1-0) on the draw: yes
Game 2 (0-1) on the play: no
Game 2 (0-1) on the draw: no
I don't think he's a god fit for the deck. As of right now the 'standard' is ~18 creatures, giving you ~1/3 chance to hit a creature with his +1. More often than not you are going to flip over a land or spell and just feel bad about it. The deck isn't creature-heavy enough to play him to great effect.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
2x Dismember
4x Eldrazi Temple
4x Endless One
5x Forest
4x Ghost Quarter
4x Karplusan Forest
4x Kozilek's Return
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Matter Reshaper
3x Mountain
4x Reality Smasher
3x Sanctum of Ugin
4x Talisman of Impulse
4x Thought-Knot Seer
1x Wastes
3x World Breaker
3x Ancient Grudge
1x Dismember
2x Feed the Clan
2x Nature's Claim
4x Relic of Progenitus
2x Warping Wail
1x World Breaker
Match 1: Nahiri Jeskai (2-0 Win)
The first game I won by playing four Reality Smashers to keep running over his Nahiris immediately after he played them. He put up a fair fight but eventually I had more threats than he had answers. (1-0)
The second game I brought in the Relic of Progenitus to keep him from using Snapcaster Mage to flashback his removal spells. I had two Relics in my opening hand and things went fairly smoothly from there. (2-0)
Match 2: Doran Formation (0-2 Loss)
I had never seen this deck before, so you can imagine my surprise when he played Tower Defense in response to my Kozilek's Return during combat and killed me. Ouch. (0-1)
I brought in Warping Wails in game two in hopes of picking off his 0/x creatures, but failed to draw them. Even if I had what removal I did draw got redirected to his Spellskites. Ouch again. (0-2)
Match 3: Naya Burn (2-1 Win)
Game one I was able to get creatures on the board early and Thought-Knot Seered him twice to take his best burn cards. Soon after I play Kozliek's Return to blow up his creatures and swing for lethal. (1-0)
Game two was brutal. I brought in the Feed the Clans and never drew them. Not that I had much time to do so as I was dead by turn 5. (1-1)
Game three was close. I stabilized the board with Thought-Knot Seers and Endless Ones, But I was left at a precarious life total of 4. I play Kozilek's Return to attack for lethal and he makes the mistake of targeting me with Lightning Helix in response instead of my damaged Thought-Knot Seer. But as the Thought-Knot Seer lived, the attack was still lethal. (2-1)
Match 4: Affinity (1-2 Loss)
Kozilek's Return was the MVP of game one, destroying the first wave of artifacts before Steal Overseer could buff them out of range, and then the second wave after I cast a turn 5 World Breaker. My opponent conceded after World Breaker came down. (1-0)
I brought in the Ancient Grudges for games two and three, but was run over both times regardless. Turns out Affinity is a pretty good deck! I think this matchup is actually reasonable, given that Ghost Quarter prevents them from using Inkmoth Nexus and Ancient Grudge is so strong. So it goes.
In conclusion, I think the deck is good. Maybe even great given some more practice and refinements. The cards I don't like at the moment are Talisman of Impulse (I'm thinking of cutting one or two) and Sanctum of Ugin. (I think Tomb of the Spirit Dragon might be better) Definitely will be hanging out on this forum to see what your guys' iterations of the deck look like.
Cheers!
As for your Affinity game, I can see losing those matches when they just have godhands but other than that we should be winning like 70-30 I'd predict. You have access to: 4 Kozilek's Return, 4 Lightning Bolt, 3 Ancient Grudge, 2 Nature's Claim, and 2 Warping Wail. That's 15 cards that completely destroy all their threats and every card they can play. Etched Champion can be blocked by our creatures, Ghost Quarter kills their manlands, and World Breaker can exile anything they play (assuming you keep it in post-board). The deck is geared to beat it, the amount of hate for this matcup is insane. Alas Affinity can sneak out wins sometime.
You said you don't have Groves, but what about other utility lands like Kessig Wolf Run or Raging Ravine?
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
Thinking about it more, I think you're right about the Affinity matchup. I guess I'll attribute the loss mostly to my unfamiliarity with the deck for now, but I imagine I'll run into it again soon enough and I can try and get a better feel for how the matchup plays out.
As far as the lands go, I think both Kessig Wolf Run and Raging Ravine are good upgrades to the land base, albeit as one-ofs. Still, thanks for the idea!
On the subject of lands, do you have any thoughts on Sylvan Scrying? I've noticed a lot of other lists running it (presumably to find Eldrazi Temple) but it looks very slow to me. What do you think?
Against Burn, you have Return to wipe their board over and over and TKS will take away their direct damage like Lava Spike or Lightning Bolt. The biggest problem is they're going to get in 2-3 attacks before you can get anything on board and then at that point they can finish you off with 3-damage spells. Game 1 is going to be rough, but post board you do have Feed the Clan and Warping Wail to mess them up. Wail allows us to do something before turn 3, and Clan can be cast after a TKS which takes their Atarka's Command so we can gain the 10 life freely.
Tron is going to be like a Tron vs Tron match where first one to play Karn and exile the others land is 99% going to win. We do have World Breaker for this to act as a Karn, but our draws of T3 Breaker are going to be much much much less likely than Trons. You want to take out the Koz Retuns and such and bring in the Natural States and Ancient Grudge. If you can pick off a turn 1 Expedition Map or something similar it can often be similar to just Stone Raining them. We also have Crumble to Dust, but they will probably be boarding in Warping Wail to counter it. Our own Warping Wail are also useful for countering their Ancient Stirrings and Sylvan Scrying. Basically because we don't have the raw speed I like to try and marginally disrupt them early so we can catch up and start chaining together hate or World Breakers. Usually that 1 turn of delaying them is enough to play a TKS and take their Karn or similar, leaving them with not much to do.
Naya is similar. You are probably going to stabilize at a low life by stalling with 1 TKS (hoping it doesn't get Pathed) and then pray that you can get a trigger on Kozilek's Return to wipe their board.
As for the sideboard I can post my list in a day or so and have some detailed choices on close to every card.
Sylvan Scrying is great for a way to find that 1st or 2nd Eldrazi Temple for a turn 2 or 3 Thought-Knot Seer. If you already have a Temple by turns 1 or 2 then you get a second one and can drop a Reality Smasher on turn 3 or a World Breaker on turn 4. Basically the reason the deck still exists is because of Eldrazi Temple allowing us to cheat the curve and play undercosted threats ahead of when we should be able to. You want to be finding these lands every game and Ancient Stirrings and Sylvan Scrying are the best way to do that.
Although Scrying may look like a dead card once we have those Temples, we can negate this by putting in these 1-of utility lands like Raging Ravine vs control and grindy games, Kessig Wolf Run to pus through damage when the board is stalled or when we are flooded. Sanctum of Ugin keeps the threats flowing mid-lategame when we typically exhaust all of our threats and don't have a reliable way to draw more. Cavern of Souls can be grabbed to screw over blue decks and stop their most efficient way of handling our threats. I'd honesty like to squeeze a Sea Gate Wreckage in there for a better chance of winning in topdeck situations. What I'm getting at is that it is the gateway to a toolbox aspect of our deck and facilitates the Eldrazi Temple engine. I'd love to have Crop Rotation in Modern as a replacement but that'd most likely be busted.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
They are not essential to the deck as you can tell by some good results put up a few posts back, but that aside this is also not the pace for budget talk really. If you want to play it the best it can be then play Groves. If you want to sometimes lose by drawing sub-optimal lands, then play other ones. The colourless is very important in the deck.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
3 Endless One
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
3 World Breaker
Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Flame Slash
4 Kozilek's Return
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Sylvan Scrying
2 Talisman of Impulse
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
4 Karplusan Forest
1 Raging Ravine
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Sanctum of Ugin
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Mountain
3 Forest
2 Spellskite
1 World Breaker
2 Warping Wail
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Feed the Clan
2 Crumble to Dust
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Relic of Progenitus
Or for a visual of it: http://i.imgur.com/KPR3Dwr.jpg
Yes I know I'm a filthy peasant with only 3 Groves (but to make up for it the basics are signed!). I have been playing Fire-Lit Thicket in its place and it has been very similar. The only problem that has come up is when its the only "coloured source" in your opening hand. This has come up once so far and I had to mulligan. Other than that I've been loving all of the slots. I'm going to pick up a Cavern of Souls this week and do +1 Cavern, -1 Forest. Another thing to squeeze in would be a Sea Gate Wreckage and maybe a Boseiju, Who Shelters All in the side. The sideboard is pretty broad and taken from the base one of mikey g. It covers pretty much every matchup with a few cards and doesn't really hate on anything too much. Through the digging power of Ancient Stirrings you are able to find your sideboard cards a lot of the time too which is really nice.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
@Torpf
Referring to the part of the post that I put in bold. Agreed on the use of just one Fire-Lit thicket - I don't have a RG Eldrazi but I think that would work just fine. Experienced a similar problem when I tried using 3 Cascade Bluffs and only 1 Shivan Reef in my UR Eldrazi, with the reasoning that taking pings from painlands is bad. Used 3 bluffs, so my mulligans are more frequent than yours. Have since went down to just one Cascade Bluffs, and now use 4 reef. The single Cascade Bluffs has been ok.
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Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
I've been finding that against things like BG/x, sometimes even Tron, UWR with PtE, that the games are often getting to a stalemate and ending around when we are both Hellbent. If they go any longer then I often find myself slipping out of control unless I have some great topdecks. Vs BG/x they can easily go 1-for-1 long enough to stretch out the game. I guess most time I am losing it is when I have the 7 mana and some Sanctums in play, but nothing to trigger them. Some extra draw power in those situation rather than relying on topdecking the 6 cards (excluding stirrings) that can trigger them seems useful.
I haven't had a problem at all. Between the 8 search cards and 2 Talismans there is always enough land flowing. Every time I can get a Temple by turn 2-3 I am winning the game it seems. Every time I have to hardcast things it is 50/50. Temple is the best card in the deck, and Sylvan Scrying just facilitates that plan so well.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/408084#paper
I went 2-2. I won against Affinity ans Mono U Tron. I lost to Jund and Scapeshift.
I rly dont like Sylvan Scrying. I think that 4 Ancient Stirrings is enough land search/dig. I play 2 Talismans and 2 Mindstones. Mindstone saved me few times, giving me an extra draw at the late game. Seagate Wreckage is awesome in long games.
What do you guys thibk about adding the two mind stones in md and an ulamog in the sb?
I like the idea of sea gate but not sure which land to cut?
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
3 World Breaker
4 Ancient Stirrings
2 Sylvan Scrying
2 Talisman of Impulse
4 Kozilek's Return
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Flame Slash
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Karplusan Forest
1 Tendo Ice Bridge
1 Kessig Wolf Run
3 Ghost Quarter
2 Sanctum of Ugin
2 Forest
2 Mountain
1 Wastes
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Natural State
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Warping Wail
2 Spellskite
2 Feed the Clan
1 All Is Dust
2 Pithing Needle
I played this build last night and went 3-1. Here's a quick recap. Played against Bant Eldrazi, Grixis, Infect, and BTL Scapeshift.
0-2 Had no chance against Bant. My play wasn't tight enough and I missed land drops, but Bant was just a slight bit faster. When Displacer drops, it's pretty much GG as it locks down smashers and tears through hands with bouncing Thought-Knots. Pithing Needle helped game two, but not quite enough as multiple smashers was faster than mine. GG! My opponent is a lot more experienced, and was giving me tips as I went...thanks for helping out the noob!
2-0 Grixis was very tight! This was a Grixis Burn brew. Both games was down to the wire, but pulled through both times. Lightning bolts to the face was great from me, and grafdigger's cage was key G2 to stop the stream of snapping bolts. Digging for creatures with Ancient Stirrings was gold.
2-0 Infect was a breeze. I play infect also, so I was ready....removal!! G1, Ghost quartered inkmoths, while bolts and flame slashes cleared the creatures, and he didn't have a chance to stick anyone. G2, brought in warping wail and spellskite, but it was Ghost Quarter and Sylvan Scyring for more Ghost Quarters clearing out any possibilities of Inkmoths. I opened with removal, and eventually picked up smashers with Ancient Stirrings and went in for the kill. Our deck has too much removal for infect to handle.
2-0 Scapeshift was fairly smooth. G1, a timely TKS exiled a Bring to Light, and I smashed through before the combo could be built up. G2 I brought Warping Wail. I mulled to 5, but was able to string together lands and smashers, while keeping up mana for Warping Wail (luckily drew it). Opponent thought he had the win. tapped out for Bring to Light for Scapeshift, with Valakut out, but WW'd him for the win on the swing back.
I never managed to play a World Breaker (and so Sanctums were useless), but Smashers and TKS took each win. I think Raging Ravine would be awesome too, as I had times where I fizzled on Stirrings and couldn't seem to draw creatures with Sylvan Scrying in hand.
Overall, it was really fun! Need to play it more to figure out the ins and outs, but it definitely has a lot of resilience. I need to figure out if this can beat bant, or if bant is the way to push eldrazi.
3 Endless One
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
3 World Breaker
Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Flame Slash
4 Kozilek's Return
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Sylvan Scrying
2 Talisman of Impulse
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
4 Karplusan Forest
1 Raging Ravine
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Sanctum of Ugin
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Mountain
3 Forest
2 Spellskite
1 World Breaker
2 Warping Wail
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Feed the Clan
2 Crumble to Dust
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Relic of Progenitus
Round 1 vs UR Storm:
I had fairly quick starts with turn 3 Thought-Knot-Seers in each game. Game 1 she dug through about 20 cards and never found a single Pyromancer Ascension and died in two turns to the TKS + Reality Smasher beats. Game 2 she dropped a turn 3 Blood Moon which was a problem because I have no basic colourless sources in my deck, but on my turn 3 I found a SIGNET THING which allowed me to play a turn 4 TKS and then Smasher followed up by 2 Lightning Bolts. Sideboard was:
2 Warping Wail
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Relic of Progenitus
4 Kozilek's Return
2 World Breaker
2-0, 1-0 overall
Round 2 vs Turbofog Mazes End:
I got paired down as the third 1-0. I heard him say the round before that he ran no basic lands so I knew that Ghost Quarter=Strip Mine. Game 1 I exhausted all of his fog effects with a TKS and then one attack on the next turn with Smasher. Then I searched up some Ghost Quarters and ended the game. Game 2 was much of the same except I brought in Ancient Grudge and took out his Expadition Map and Amulet of Vigor that was untapping the guildgates. He was stuck on with 2 Maze's End in play and I just overran him with Eldrazi while keeping a Crumble to Dust in hand. Sideboard was (Note: he was playing Primetime as his only creature which is wy I left in the Flame Slash):
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Crumble to Dust
4 Kozilek's Return
2-0, 2-0 overall
Round 3 vs BG Infect:
Paired down for the second time. This was against a different take on infect for sure. He was relying on Glistener Elf, Plague Stinger, and Phyrexian Crusader. Double Kozilek's Return made short work of his deck game 1 but then game 2 I had to mull to 5 to find land and got bursted down. Game 3 I mulled to 6 and the game got super drawn out to the point where I had about 14 mana in play, 4 Sylvan Scrying in my graveyard, and nothing to do. He dropped 3 Phyrexian Crusaders in a row and eventually won. If I had a
Eye of UginSea Gate Wreckage in my deck I really feel like I could have drawn an extra 2-3 cards and come back into the game. I just had no lands to search for other than Raging Ravine which did nothing against the Crusaders. I guess my topdeck game was just too weak. Sideboard was:2 Spellskite
2 Warping Wail
2 World Breaker
1 Flame Slash
1 Reality Smasher
1-2, 2-1 overall
Round 3 vs BG Infect:
Paired down for the third time!! This guy was playing some kind of BW Eldrazi with Path to Exile, Anguished Unmaking, and the rest of the processor build. Game 1 I was down after he got out the first TKS and I couldn't recover from there. Game 2 I was behind again after he had a fast start off of a Map and Mind Stone. He cast a TKS when I had 6 lands in play and a 7th next turn with World Breaker coming down to stabilize. He exiled the breaker so I had no threats left, with the world breaker being the only real thing that could have got me out of that situation. I proceeded to topdeck 3 more World Breakers in a row and crush him in the match.. I guess that's where all of my topdeck luck went from the last round. Game 3 I had a faster start and he was screwed on mana because I destroyed his ramp with the Ancient Grudge boarded in. I cast a turn 3 TKS and revealed 2 Paths and some other ramp in his hand. I took the ramp so he was forced to path my 2 creatures, which brought me to 7 mana so I could start chaining WOld Breakers together while he was on 2 lands still. Sideboard was:
2 Spellskite
2 Crumble to Dust
2 Ancient Grudge
1 World Breaker
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Kozilek's Return
2-1, 3-1 overall
At the end of it I played some pretty jank decks so the results should be taken lightly. The only thing I'd add in is the Cavern of Souls once it gets here in the mail, and find a slot for a Sea Gate Wreckage. The deck can go over the top of most others, but it is still lacking the stickyness and draw power of the Bant deck I'm finding.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
Endless One for me has been more of a curve filler and just lategame threat. It seems I have something to do on turns 1 & 2 every game but not so much once I drop that first Smasher/TKS. There is a one turn dead zone in between smasher and World Breaker at 6 mana that you have to fill. Now that I've been thinking about it lately it doesn't seem that great because it's not triggering Sanctums at 6 and it's always the last card I play. It is good vs smaller decks though to just hat that threat density to trade creatures with. Another thing that can go in it's slot to fill the 6 slot is Primeval Titan as just playing one is going to grab multiple sanctums an all but lock out the game. The main problem with this is Eldrazi Temple casting World Breaker on '6 mana' instead of 7 so now you have the problem of having to chose when to play WB or Primetime. There are a lot of creatures to try out in the slot for sure, and for now Tarmo is a good option. I've also looking into splashing for Drowner of Hope since it is a beast in the Bant deck.
I have played vs Moon and right now my gameplan around it is getting a Talisman for the colourless sources. I can probably slot in a Wastes somewhere for sure when I look into how to fit the Sea Gate Wreckeage that I've wanted to do.
Relic is great vs Living End, Abzan Company, Storm, Grixis/Delve decks, Dredge, etc... At worst it is a cantrip, and at best it completely shuts down their deck. The sideboard in the list above is very meta-neurtal trying to have some catch-alls for every matchup. If I had an expected metagame I'd maybe cut them if they weren't going to be great.
Again Spellskite is just another catch-all vs Infect, Bogles, Burn (sorta), catches Paths in some matchups when I have a few dead cards but nothing great to bring in, etc... It was great when I played it but I didn't need it in every matchup. (which is what I hoped the rest of the broad sideboard could cover).
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/408084#paper
R1: Fish (2:0)
G1: Kozilek's Return and Bolts cleared his board.
G2: T1 Pithing Needle locking his Aerher Vial
R2: Infect (2:1)
G1: I died in turn 3. No commens.
G2: Dismebered his 5/5 Elf. Followed by TKS for hand disruption. 2 ghost quarters killed his 2 Nexuses.
G2: Spellskite on turn2. GG
R3: Melira Company (2:1)
G1: Opponent won on turn 4. I havent drawn any remowal
G2: Ive drawn all my removal.
G3: Grafdiggers cage on turn 3. GG
R4: B/W (0:2)
G1/G2 I thoight its gonna be an easy match but I havent drawn any Kozilek's Return or ratchet bombs in both games.
Deck looks strong and fun to play againts creature based decks. Not sure how its gonna play out against pure combo decks.
Seeing as Endless Ones are being debated, I was wondering what you all thought of Noble Hierarch. Being quite strong in Bant, I was thinking of replacing 1x Matter Reshaper, 1x Flame Slash, 2x Kozilek's Return with a playset of NH. Goldfishing, It smoothed out draws with less lands, and really helped pushed thoughtknots and smashers out earlier.