I agree with @d4b3ss and @massch. Devout Chaplain is just looking cute in theory. No ETB ability, and it's ability requires a lot of investment. If Mangara of Corondor doesn’t make the cut while she can Exile any permanent (land, creatures, planeswalkers, artifacts, enchantments), Devout Chaplain should also stay away from the SB.
How is Kataki game winning vs Lantern? Can't opponent just play Bridge, pay the tax each turn, and call it a day? I've never seen Kataki in action... is it because the Lantern player won't be able to empty their hand?
Out of curiosity, which card do you play first : Freebooter, Meddling Mage or Thalia? I always favor Freebooter over Meddling Mage to make a good call naming a card with the later. But between Thalia and Freebooter, I'm often confused which one to play first. Thalia is probably the right one, as her tax has more impact in the early game than later, and if she anyway attracts a removal, there's more chance Freebooter will properly resolve and/or stay on the battlefield for longer time. Opinions?
Also, what do you do if you top deck a Vial on turn 2? Say you kept a hand with a ton on two-drops... You delay your spell to cast Vial anyway? Or you just ignore it for now and you'll play it on turn 3+ along with a two-drops when you get to land #3 (or untap with Hierarch)?
Finally, do you favor an early or late Lieutenant? I mean, do you aim to make it a very big creature, or to spread counters on as many creatures as possible?
I tried an Orzhov Pontiff as one of my flex spots for a while, it ok at flipping the board state in the mirror and a few other matchups but was generally too narrow.
But between Thalia and Freebooter, I'm often confused which one to play first. Thalia is probably the right one, as her tax has more impact in the early game than later, and if she anyway attracts a removal, there's more chance Freebooter will properly resolve and/or stay on the battlefield for longer time. Opinions?
Depends on the MU really. And whether we're talking about a T2 or T3 play : sometimes you're on one land with a Vial and the 2-drop will etb on T3.
VS Ad Naus, they generate enough mana so Thalia could be useless, while FreeB played first could strip their wincon. Thalia would be better just before the turn they can go off, in order to screw their mana math, while FreeB gives intel and opens to a Med Mage against a card they may cast for the win later (sometimes it appears it's better to name Lotus Bloom rather than Ad Nauseam because they're really low on mana, for example).
VS Affinity, FreeB has the possibility to prevent Signal Pest from attacking and can take a Cranial Plating before it etb. Thalia is bad in the MU.
VS Living End, Thalia is priority because FreeB won't be able to stop multiple cascade spells.
And so on. The baseline in mdirange / control MUs is to play Thalia first, because she's legendary (a 2nd copy will be easier to play if the opp deals with the 1st one), she can screw opp's mana, she's a better beater, she's a removal magnet that protects following threats, etc...
do you favor an early or late Lieutenant? I mean, do you aim to make it a very big creature, or to spread counters on as many creatures as possible?
It has to be considered as a Champion of the Parish against midrange and control decks, for the most part. Also post-SB, against combo decks that bring removal spells in, you know the one card they're gonna target is your Med Mage for example, so it makes no sense to grow it while you won't even be able to attack through their blockers. Say you name Collected Company, you better play Lieutenant first and grow it. Your utility Humans will be removal magnets and indirectly protect your big fat Lieutenant. I saw pro players suboptimally slow roll their Lieutenant and waste counters all over the place.
It's the same decision you make when you cast Champion before Noble Hierarch. Those two plays are apparently the most difficult ones to make amongst the basics of the archetype, because I see players make the suboptimal play all the time.
Pumping a Med Mage, a Thalia, a FreeB, an Image, etc... each pump must make some sort of sense in the MU. It makes sense to slow Roll Lieutenant when you face creatures that will stall the ground, and where pumping a flyer will be important. But it may also be more important to slowly and painfully grow your Lieut to break a stalled ground at some point, because it's the only one creature that will be ever able to do it in the game.
what do you do if you top deck a Vial on turn 2? Say you kept a hand with a ton on two-drops... You delay your spell to cast Vial anyway? Or you just ignore it for now and you'll play it on turn 3+ along with a two-drops when you get to land #3 (or untap with Hierarch)?
Once again, MU dependant. Say you play VS Ponza, I believe you want your Vial high priority on T2 and ignore your 2-drops. VS Burn, don't you fear Eidolon of the Great Revel so Vial would be key not to take a million damage ?
Your questions are very interesting and there's no baseline to follow, it's always wrong to think a card has always priority over another one in this deck, it systematically depends on what you face.
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Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
Excellent advice on the the matchup relevant considerations for sequencing! I really need as much of this discussion as possible going into my first GP this weekend in Hartford with Humans. I can understand these rationales described in context a lot easier than in abstract.
How is Kataki game winning vs Lantern? Can't opponent just play Bridge, pay the tax each turn, and call it a day? I've never seen Kataki in action... is it because the Lantern player won't be able to empty their hand?
That's been my experience. T2 Kataki typically means that they're spending time paying taxes for their stuff rather than advancing their game state toward their lock. Which is usually enough time to get through enough damage to win. My experience in this MU is really small so I might be valuing that too much.
Hey, I just had a conversation about the deck with another local player that I respect who is playing it at the upcoming GP.
He is very adamant about running with 18 lands... Seems wild to me as I know how often I'm having to mulligan for lands at 19.
Anyone tried a league out with 18? Could the top decked gas percentage really worth the risk of having to mull to oblivion.
FWIW he is cutting the 2nd SCC.
Hey, I just had a conversation about the deck with another local player that I respect who is playing it at the upcoming GP.
He is very adamant about running with 18 lands... Seems wild to me as I know how often I'm having to mulligan for lands at 19.
Anyone tried a league out with 18? Could the top decked gas percentage really worth the risk of having to mull to oblivion.
FWIW he is cutting the 2nd SCC.
18 lands feel very wrong to me. I've done some really serious maths over this, including Monte Carlo simulations of what are keepable hands, and what's not. First, you have to realise that Humans doesn't take mulligans very well. IT IS NOT THE TYPE OF DECK THAT YOU MULLIGAN AGGRESSIVELY WITH. In fact, you should avoid a mulligan with Humans, unless your hand is downright unplayable. By that I mean :
No land
One land, no Vial (or a non-castable Vial, because Ziggurat) and less than 2 castable one-drops with that single land (ex. : Seachrome Coast with two Hierarch is not good).
Two+ lands, and less than 2 creatures that are castable with these lands and that can be played in the first 3 turns. Ex. #1 : 3 lands with 4 three-drops is not very good, because you'll play only one creature per turn starting turn 3 and this is too slow for Modern's metagame. Ex. #2 : Two Canopy, 2 Freebooter and/or Meddling Mage, and 3 three-drops... you just can't cast a card AT ALL with this hand ; even if a Coast replaces a Canopy, only the Meddling Mage is playable, and the rest is probably dead cards for some time. This is a hand that can make you lose a game.
With these requirements, only 75% of all 7-cards hands are keepable. This number is not very good, and Humans are prone to have bad starting hands (most of the time because of zero or one-landers). If you mulligan, only 40% of 6-cards hands are keepable (which is an insanely low number). Scry will help, and you shouldn't be picky on 6 cards, because the odds go downhill from there. Mulligan to 5 only if the 6 cards are REALLY bad. And never mulligan down to 4, even if you have no lands (or just lands) in your 5-cards hand. The odds of top decking what you need are better in that case than of having a keepable 4-cards:
With 5-cards, only lands ; creatures density is very high in the library : 90% chance of top decking a creature, because of Scry 1. And you're 75% likely to draw 2 creatures in the first two turns. Following that metric, a 6-cards hand that is 100% lands is probably better to keep and scry 1 than mulligan down to 5 (the above odds are only better, because there's one less land in what's left of the library).
With 5-cards, and no lands (and some one-drops) ; land density is very high in the library : You'll get a land on the top deck 58% of the time, thanks to Scry 1. You'll hit land #2 43% of the time in the first 3 turns (on the draw), also thanks to Scry 1. These odds are not great, but they're better than having keepable 4-cards. This is a game you're likely to lose anyway, so go with the better odds and keep.
That being said, mulligan is not only bad because odds of keepable hands are increasingly low the less cards you have. But because with less cards come less synergy, something that Humans needs. Champion and Lieutenant are worse, Meddling won't be preceded by Freebooter, Rider won't be exalted by Hierarch, etc.
Avoiding mulligan becomes primordial for Humans pilot. With odds so low of having keepable 7, and mulligan being so bad for us (because of synergy), it is suicidal, IMHO, to go below 19 lands. Keepable hands will be even more rare, and you don't want to reduce an already low number (some other decks have keepable 7-cards in the 90% range).
Of course, you still have to mulligan about 25% of the time, so you should work to recognize the unkeepable hands. In my case, I never ever assume top deck will save my starting 7 (but I'll go with that assumption if I mulligan). These cards, by themselves, have to put two Humans in play by the end of turn 3, that's my law. If they can't achieve that, that's probably a mulligan. 4 Mantis Rider, 2 Lieutenant and one land is really bad, even if it's explosive if things go well. Five lands and 2 three-drops is probably bad too. One land, a Vial, and no one-drop is unkeepable IMHO (because the best you can do is play a two-drop from Vial on turn 3, and then you're at the mercy of having the right number of counters on Vial to play the rest). If that fits the definition of mulliganing aggressively, then so be it. In my opinion, it just means that I don't want to be relying on the top deck to have functional hand.
If it can convince your friend : he'll crack Canopy far less often on 18 lands, because he won't have the extra mana to do so. So that makes Canopy a worse card, and you don't that. Finally, your friend should trust the whole Modern community who has tested the deck and universally beleive 19 lands is the right number.
I can understand these rationales described in context a lot easier than in abstract.
It has a lot to do with your knowledge of Modern right now. I think the best Humans players are those who are invested in the format. If you know the format well, you can pilot Humans pretty easily, but if you come back from a long break, you're gonna suck with it (GP level). I suggest you to take actual notes of every uncommon MU you expect. On coverage, I saw a guy have his notebook that he read in between games.
At some point, somebody will make a guide of how to sequence 2-drops for each MU, but it requires some discussion in the process.
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Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
But between Thalia and Freebooter, I'm often confused which one to play first. Thalia is probably the right one, as her tax has more impact in the early game than later, and if she anyway attracts a removal, there's more chance Freebooter will properly resolve and/or stay on the battlefield for longer time. Opinions?
Depends on the MU really. And whether we're talking about a T2 or T3 play : sometimes you're on one land with a Vial and the 2-drop will etb on T3.
VS Ad Naus, they generate enough mana so Thalia could be useless, while FreeB played first could strip their wincon. Thalia would be better just before the turn they can go off, in order to screw their mana math, while FreeB gives intel and opens to a Med Mage against a card they may cast for the win later (sometimes it appears it's better to name Lotus Bloom rather than Ad Nauseam because they're really low on mana, for example).
VS Affinity, FreeB has the possibility to prevent Signal Pest from attacking and can take a Cranial Plating before it etb. Thalia is bad in the MU.
VS Living End, Thalia is priority because FreeB won't be able to stop multiple cascade spells.
And so on. The baseline in mdirange / control MUs is to play Thalia first, because she's legendary (a 2nd copy will be easier to play if the opp deals with the 1st one), she can screw opp's mana, she's a better beater, she's a removal magnet that protects following threats, etc...
do you favor an early or late Lieutenant? I mean, do you aim to make it a very big creature, or to spread counters on as many creatures as possible?
It has to be considered as a Champion of the Parish against midrange and control decks, for the most part. Also post-SB, against combo decks that bring removal spells in, you know the one card they're gonna target is your Med Mage for example, so it makes no sense to grow it while you won't even be able to attack through their blockers. Say you name Collected Company, you better play Lieutenant first and grow it. Your utility Humans will be removal magnets and indirectly protect your big fat Lieutenant. I saw pro players suboptimally slow roll their Lieutenant and waste counters all over the place.
It's the same decision you make when you cast Champion before Noble Hierarch. Those two plays are apparently the most difficult ones to make amongst the basics of the archetype, because I see players make the suboptimal play all the time.
Pumping a Med Mage, a Thalia, a FreeB, an Image, etc... each pump must make some sort of sense in the MU. It makes sense to slow Roll Lieutenant when you face creatures that will stall the ground, and where pumping a flyer will be important. But it may also be more important to slowly and painfully grow your Lieut to break a stalled ground at some point, because it's the only one creature that will be ever able to do it in the game.
what do you do if you top deck a Vial on turn 2? Say you kept a hand with a ton on two-drops... You delay your spell to cast Vial anyway? Or you just ignore it for now and you'll play it on turn 3+ along with a two-drops when you get to land #3 (or untap with Hierarch)?
Once again, MU dependant. Say you play VS Ponza, I believe you want your Vial high priority on T2 and ignore your 2-drops. VS Burn, don't you fear Eidolon of the Great Revel so Vial would be key not to take a million damage ?
Your questions are very interesting and there's no baseline to follow, it's always wrong to think a card has always priority over another one in this deck, it systematically depends on what you face.
headminerve, this is a really well crafted response, nicely said and thank you!
I am currently testing 1 Orzhov pontiff in my mainboard. Someone responded saying that it is often too narrow, but I personally feels it depends on your meta. If you face a lot of decks where giving -1/-1 (or even -2/-2 by blocking and haunting) to your opponents team can make a big difference then I think it is worth consideration. Also being able to screw combat maths in your favour when attacking is useful application of the card. Especially as I am testing deputy of acquittal, which makes it even more interesting if you have a Vial on 3!
That said, I had it in my sideboard for a long time along with a single izzet Staticaster. The reason for having one each was sometimes I really wanted to destroy the entire opponents board (I.e. mardu pyromancer), rather than just target a specific weenie with Staticaster.
Good luck if you try it out and be sure to feed back any results.
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Cheeri0s is the breakfast of championsWRU Everyone loves an angry mobRWG Why so Bloo?RU
Hey,
how is the match up against Mardu Pyromancer?
In my experience we lose but it's close. 4 Bolt, 4 Push, 2+ Terminate/Dreadbore, 3+ K-command is a ton of removal that is hard to "grow" out of, and they run 7-8 discard spells to 1v1 our hand. Bedlam Reveler is really bad unless we're already far ahead because they just get to look for so many more answers. MB Lingering Souls is hard to swing through and can buy them a lot of time. We do have play though, our disruptive suite really shines in this matchup. Thalia is fantastic at making their turns clunky. Reflector Mage on Pyromancer feels great even if they get a token out of the exchange. The Freebooter/Meddling Mage combo can just get you there some of the time. We're still a good bit quicker and if they don't have enough removal they may never get the chance to turn the corner.
SB we get great cards like Auriok Champion, Mirran Crusader, Staticaster, Kambal, Xathrid Necromancer, and Cage so I think the matchup gets better post board. They typically bring in wrath effects like Anger or EE if they're running it but when you start to dodge or gain value of their 1 for 1 removal the matchup becomes a lot more workable. But then sometimes we just randomly get Blood Mooned out of the game so idk lol
I do think this is a Cage matchup if you're running it out of your board but I might be wrong. I hate Lingering Souls so much lol.
Lingering Souls is a pain to fight trough, in any deck for that matter. I've named it several times in the matchup.
I agree. Lingering Souls and Faithless Looting (Mardu Pyro) alone are not a reason to bring in cages though. Izzet Staticaster deals with Pyromancer and Lingering Souls tokens and is a house in the matchup. Cage is loose to bring in as the matchup is very grindy and it doesn't even stop the front half of Lingering Souls. I would never waste a card slot with that card postboard.
Just remember that with Vial on 3, if you play Reflector Mage in response to Bedlam Reveler’s ETB ability, and bounce it in opponent’s hand, they will have to discard it as the ability resolves.
Post SB, Daredevil is excellent at removing Souls from the GY. K-Command is a nice target, too. I’d also probably bring in Anafenza, just because she’s very hard to remove, as she dodges Bolt, Anger, K-Command and even un-Revolted Push. Staticaster is a must, as is Auriok Champion. Crusader, probably (but less good than Anafenza; 4/4 can attack into Reveler without Prowess). Cage is puzzling and tempting...
Round 1 vs Mono white home brew 2-0
Easy matches both games just going all out aggro.
Round 2 vs GW Azusa/KotR/Ramnup Excavator 2-0
Quite tough match ups. Really glad I had Vial turn 1 both games, because x3 ghost quarter hurts us pretty hard. Positive I would’ve lost without Vial because got completely landlocked.
Round 3 vs RB Hollow One 2-1
Exceptionally close games with the victor being on 1-2 more life than opponent. This match was with a good friend and it was his first time out with the deck. Great playing games on a knife edge - games definitely could’ve gone either way in any of the games.
Round 4 vs Sultai Eldrazi Aggro 0-2
First time playing this kind of deck, made a lot of misplays. Even without the misplays this feels a very tough match up. One positive was double phantasmal image copying reality smasher. This glee only lasted a turn as they died to the activated ability of drowner of hope - which sucked.
thoughts
really enjoyed deputy of acquittals. Added a different edge to the deck and also helped me not go into topdeck mode as I was able to recycle creatures. Also very useful when blocking. Will probably cut down to 2.
I've also ran 3 Phantasmal Image and 3 Thalia, so I have 3 flex spots. For the past two weeks (a 69 person 1.5k, GP Hartford, and the PTQ at GP Hartford), my flex spots have been a Kessig Malcontents, a Dire-fleet Daredevil, and a Whirler Rogue. I would never leave house without at least 1 Kessig Malcontents MB, it's just "free" reach that we need to steal game 1s sometimes. I have been continually underwhelmed with Daredevil, so it's definitely on the way out of my list. I swapped it with a Bob for the PTQ but I didn't really like that either, that slot is probably going to just become fourth Thalia/Image again (probably Image).
Whirler Rogue has been amazing and is my four drop of choice. In creature matchups that can devolve into board stalls untapping with it can be game winning since you can start running your biggest dude in. If it eats a removal spell, that isn't the worst thing in the world as it leaves behind two flyers. Blocking an Etched Champion with a colorless thopter is neat. Also synergizes with excess or otherwise useless Vials as you can tap them too. I think PnK was a step in the right direction but the concessions needed to make it work (and activate the ability) weren't really worth it. This card in this deck is just better.
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How is Kataki game winning vs Lantern? Can't opponent just play Bridge, pay the tax each turn, and call it a day? I've never seen Kataki in action... is it because the Lantern player won't be able to empty their hand?
Out of curiosity, which card do you play first : Freebooter, Meddling Mage or Thalia? I always favor Freebooter over Meddling Mage to make a good call naming a card with the later. But between Thalia and Freebooter, I'm often confused which one to play first. Thalia is probably the right one, as her tax has more impact in the early game than later, and if she anyway attracts a removal, there's more chance Freebooter will properly resolve and/or stay on the battlefield for longer time. Opinions?
Also, what do you do if you top deck a Vial on turn 2? Say you kept a hand with a ton on two-drops... You delay your spell to cast Vial anyway? Or you just ignore it for now and you'll play it on turn 3+ along with a two-drops when you get to land #3 (or untap with Hierarch)?
Finally, do you favor an early or late Lieutenant? I mean, do you aim to make it a very big creature, or to spread counters on as many creatures as possible?
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
Depends on the MU really. And whether we're talking about a T2 or T3 play : sometimes you're on one land with a Vial and the 2-drop will etb on T3.
VS Ad Naus, they generate enough mana so Thalia could be useless, while FreeB played first could strip their wincon. Thalia would be better just before the turn they can go off, in order to screw their mana math, while FreeB gives intel and opens to a Med Mage against a card they may cast for the win later (sometimes it appears it's better to name Lotus Bloom rather than Ad Nauseam because they're really low on mana, for example).
VS Affinity, FreeB has the possibility to prevent Signal Pest from attacking and can take a Cranial Plating before it etb. Thalia is bad in the MU.
VS Living End, Thalia is priority because FreeB won't be able to stop multiple cascade spells.
And so on. The baseline in mdirange / control MUs is to play Thalia first, because she's legendary (a 2nd copy will be easier to play if the opp deals with the 1st one), she can screw opp's mana, she's a better beater, she's a removal magnet that protects following threats, etc...
It has to be considered as a Champion of the Parish against midrange and control decks, for the most part. Also post-SB, against combo decks that bring removal spells in, you know the one card they're gonna target is your Med Mage for example, so it makes no sense to grow it while you won't even be able to attack through their blockers. Say you name Collected Company, you better play Lieutenant first and grow it. Your utility Humans will be removal magnets and indirectly protect your big fat Lieutenant. I saw pro players suboptimally slow roll their Lieutenant and waste counters all over the place.
It's the same decision you make when you cast Champion before Noble Hierarch. Those two plays are apparently the most difficult ones to make amongst the basics of the archetype, because I see players make the suboptimal play all the time.
Pumping a Med Mage, a Thalia, a FreeB, an Image, etc... each pump must make some sort of sense in the MU. It makes sense to slow Roll Lieutenant when you face creatures that will stall the ground, and where pumping a flyer will be important. But it may also be more important to slowly and painfully grow your Lieut to break a stalled ground at some point, because it's the only one creature that will be ever able to do it in the game.
Once again, MU dependant. Say you play VS Ponza, I believe you want your Vial high priority on T2 and ignore your 2-drops. VS Burn, don't you fear Eidolon of the Great Revel so Vial would be key not to take a million damage ?
Your questions are very interesting and there's no baseline to follow, it's always wrong to think a card has always priority over another one in this deck, it systematically depends on what you face.
That's been my experience. T2 Kataki typically means that they're spending time paying taxes for their stuff rather than advancing their game state toward their lock. Which is usually enough time to get through enough damage to win. My experience in this MU is really small so I might be valuing that too much.
He is very adamant about running with 18 lands... Seems wild to me as I know how often I'm having to mulligan for lands at 19.
Anyone tried a league out with 18? Could the top decked gas percentage really worth the risk of having to mull to oblivion.
FWIW he is cutting the 2nd SCC.
Avoiding mulligan becomes primordial for Humans pilot. With odds so low of having keepable 7, and mulligan being so bad for us (because of synergy), it is suicidal, IMHO, to go below 19 lands. Keepable hands will be even more rare, and you don't want to reduce an already low number (some other decks have keepable 7-cards in the 90% range).
Of course, you still have to mulligan about 25% of the time, so you should work to recognize the unkeepable hands. In my case, I never ever assume top deck will save my starting 7 (but I'll go with that assumption if I mulligan). These cards, by themselves, have to put two Humans in play by the end of turn 3, that's my law. If they can't achieve that, that's probably a mulligan. 4 Mantis Rider, 2 Lieutenant and one land is really bad, even if it's explosive if things go well. Five lands and 2 three-drops is probably bad too. One land, a Vial, and no one-drop is unkeepable IMHO (because the best you can do is play a two-drop from Vial on turn 3, and then you're at the mercy of having the right number of counters on Vial to play the rest). If that fits the definition of mulliganing aggressively, then so be it. In my opinion, it just means that I don't want to be relying on the top deck to have functional hand.
If it can convince your friend : he'll crack Canopy far less often on 18 lands, because he won't have the extra mana to do so. So that makes Canopy a worse card, and you don't that. Finally, your friend should trust the whole Modern community who has tested the deck and universally beleive 19 lands is the right number.
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
It has a lot to do with your knowledge of Modern right now. I think the best Humans players are those who are invested in the format. If you know the format well, you can pilot Humans pretty easily, but if you come back from a long break, you're gonna suck with it (GP level). I suggest you to take actual notes of every uncommon MU you expect. On coverage, I saw a guy have his notebook that he read in between games.
At some point, somebody will make a guide of how to sequence 2-drops for each MU, but it requires some discussion in the process.
That said, I had it in my sideboard for a long time along with a single izzet Staticaster. The reason for having one each was sometimes I really wanted to destroy the entire opponents board (I.e. mardu pyromancer), rather than just target a specific weenie with Staticaster.
Good luck if you try it out and be sure to feed back any results.
Everyone loves an angry mob RWG
Why so Bloo? RU
how is the match up against Mardu Pyromancer?
Legacy: UWR Miracles [https://deckstats.net/decks/44442/1092831-uwr-miracles-2]
In my experience we lose but it's close. 4 Bolt, 4 Push, 2+ Terminate/Dreadbore, 3+ K-command is a ton of removal that is hard to "grow" out of, and they run 7-8 discard spells to 1v1 our hand. Bedlam Reveler is really bad unless we're already far ahead because they just get to look for so many more answers. MB Lingering Souls is hard to swing through and can buy them a lot of time. We do have play though, our disruptive suite really shines in this matchup. Thalia is fantastic at making their turns clunky. Reflector Mage on Pyromancer feels great even if they get a token out of the exchange. The Freebooter/Meddling Mage combo can just get you there some of the time. We're still a good bit quicker and if they don't have enough removal they may never get the chance to turn the corner.
SB we get great cards like Auriok Champion, Mirran Crusader, Staticaster, Kambal, Xathrid Necromancer, and Cage so I think the matchup gets better post board. They typically bring in wrath effects like Anger or EE if they're running it but when you start to dodge or gain value of their 1 for 1 removal the matchup becomes a lot more workable. But then sometimes we just randomly get Blood Mooned out of the game so idk lol
I do think this is a Cage matchup if you're running it out of your board but I might be wrong. I hate Lingering Souls so much lol.
Modern: WUBRG Humans - GBW Traverse - GWU Knightfall - GRW Bushwhacker Zoo -
I agree. Lingering Souls and Faithless Looting (Mardu Pyro) alone are not a reason to bring in cages though. Izzet Staticaster deals with Pyromancer and Lingering Souls tokens and is a house in the matchup. Cage is loose to bring in as the matchup is very grindy and it doesn't even stop the front half of Lingering Souls. I would never waste a card slot with that card postboard.
Post SB, Daredevil is excellent at removing Souls from the GY. K-Command is a nice target, too. I’d also probably bring in Anafenza, just because she’s very hard to remove, as she dodges Bolt, Anger, K-Command and even un-Revolted Push. Staticaster is a must, as is Auriok Champion. Crusader, probably (but less good than Anafenza; 4/4 can attack into Reveler without Prowess). Cage is puzzling and tempting...
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
WGUBR 5c Humans
GWR Naya Zoo
Legacy:
GW GW Maverick
R Goblins
Pretty stock list except for:
Round 1 vs Mono white home brew 2-0
Easy matches both games just going all out aggro.
Round 2 vs GW Azusa/KotR/Ramnup Excavator 2-0
Quite tough match ups. Really glad I had Vial turn 1 both games, because x3 ghost quarter hurts us pretty hard. Positive I would’ve lost without Vial because got completely landlocked.
Round 3 vs RB Hollow One 2-1
Exceptionally close games with the victor being on 1-2 more life than opponent. This match was with a good friend and it was his first time out with the deck. Great playing games on a knife edge - games definitely could’ve gone either way in any of the games.
Round 4 vs Sultai Eldrazi Aggro 0-2
First time playing this kind of deck, made a lot of misplays. Even without the misplays this feels a very tough match up. One positive was double phantasmal image copying reality smasher. This glee only lasted a turn as they died to the activated ability of drowner of hope - which sucked.
thoughts
Everyone loves an angry mob RWG
Why so Bloo? RU
1 Windswept Heath
4 Inspiring Vantage
1 Flooded Strand
4 Arid Mesa
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Mountain
2 Cavern of Souls
3 Lightning Berserker
2 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Metallic Mimic
1 Ranger of Eos
4 Norin the Wary
3 Magus of the Moon
4 Champion of the Parish
1 Legion Loyalist
2 Genesis Chamber
2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
2 Smuggler's Copter
1 Selfless Spirit
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
2 Path to Exile
1 Magus of the Moon
2 Auriok Champion
Norin the Wary is such a broken/fun card to play. I'm thinking of splashing black for Dark Confidant this deck could use his card advantage
Modern Only
Currently Running:
BG Midrange
Whirler Rogue has been amazing and is my four drop of choice. In creature matchups that can devolve into board stalls untapping with it can be game winning since you can start running your biggest dude in. If it eats a removal spell, that isn't the worst thing in the world as it leaves behind two flyers. Blocking an Etched Champion with a colorless thopter is neat. Also synergizes with excess or otherwise useless Vials as you can tap them too. I think PnK was a step in the right direction but the concessions needed to make it work (and activate the ability) weren't really worth it. This card in this deck is just better.