Ugin's worse than O-Stone vs. Merfolk, both Trons, Twin, and Affinity. These are all really close matchups where we need every % point we can get. Ugin's as good-better vs. Bogles, Pod, Jund(k), Zoo - the only one I'm worried about here is Bogles and maybe Zoo.
And vs Delver? Most played deck at the moment with Pod. I agree that Stone is better vs spell pierce and remand than Ugin, but landing Ugin is winning the game (no matter how many treasures they cast).
It is true that a resolved Ugin will win vs. Delver, but between tons of soft counters (Leak, Pierce, Charm, Remand) which one's better G1 is debatable. And I feel that O-Stone has to be better G2-3, because Every Delver deck runs Blood Moons in their board.
Of course, all this spec may change significantly tomorrow. But we'll see.
@ Adun_Oakenshield: Point well made. I agree with most of what you say and am testing a list with 4 Ugin MD and so far have been pleased. Only time will tell.
@ Purklefluff: I agree with your card assessment and your testing looks spot on, but Ugin or not, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to not run the full set of both Chromatic Star AND Chromatic Sphere. I want to see at least one in every opening hand. If they printed another clone of Sphere, I would immediately drop all relics to make room for a full set. They smooth your draws and allow you to function with only Tron lands. They are just fantastic consistency cards and I never-ever cut them or SB them out. The only time they are not great is when you are staring down Stony Silence and if that is the case then you are in trouble regardless.
I am also firmly in the anti-Ulamog/Sundering Titan camp, so I think you could easily cut Ulamog for your 3rd Ugin. Or Spellskite, but I think you should move it to the SB if you do that.
Has anybody been testing with Chalice of the Void? It really shores up a huge weakness of Trons by acting as early game interaction against fast decks. It has been huge against Burn, Boggles, Storm, Ascendancy, and even some random jank like Living End. Two decks you wouldn't think it is SB-able against are Scapeshift and Affinity. Against Scapeshift, it is a late-game bomb that when cast for 8 locks them out completely. They can't Scapeshift or Cryptic Command it away and need to draw artifact removal or a Repeal to get through it. It's not amazing here but it is another bullet in our gun against one of our worst matchups. Against Affinity, a turn 1 Chalice at 0 will slow them down to much to get back in the game. It shuts down 12-16 cards in their deck and those cards are enablers which allow things like Springleaf Drum and Signal Pest to function. I have SB'd it against Delver but this can also come back to haunt you if you cast it when they already have board presence or they drop a Blood Moon and you can't Claim it away.
Has anybody been testing with Chalice of the Void? It really shores up a huge weakness of Trons by acting as early game interaction against fast decks. It has been huge against Burn, Boggles, Storm, Ascendancy, and even some random jank like Living End. Two decks you wouldn't think it is SB-able against are Scapeshift and Affinity. Against Scapeshift, it is a late-game bomb that when cast for 8 locks them out completely. They can't Scapeshift or Cryptic Command it away and need to draw artifact removal or a Repeal to get through it. It's not amazing here but it is another bullet in our gun against one of our worst matchups.
The problem is that it doesn't actually bypass the problem with Scapeshift: Their ability to just counter everything big we cast and then go off. The reason Slaughter Games and Sundering Titan+Cavern of Souls is so good is because they can't counter them. Even Boil at least can be cast at Instant speed so you can sometimes catch them when they've tapped out to cast Dig Through Time or something.
Against Affinity, a turn 1 Chalice at 0 will slow them down to much to get back in the game. It shuts down 12-16 cards in their deck and those cards are enablers which allow things like Springleaf Drum and Signal Pest to function.
Problem is, it's only good if you have it turn 1 and are on the play.
Hey bud you're correct about the chromatic spheres. I simply don't own four and every time I put a card order in, they are out of stock lol. When I finally see one in someone's trade binder I'll snap their arm off for it haha
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
Instead of chalice I would rather run 4 slaughter games and some firespout in the SB. Chalice on 1 is good against us, not with us.
I have to test Ugin yet, but I still think he will perform great as a 2-of at least.
And as additional hate against burn and delver, I guess Feed the Clan is at least worth a test. Gaining 10+ life in response to Vapor Snag seems good to me
Chalice and Slaughter Games are not mutually exclusive; playing one does not preclude the other. They are intended to come in against different decks but they also can both come in against certain combo.
The points made against Chalice are valid, but regardless we need more ammo against red decks. Feed the Clan is simply not enough.
Another card in the same vein as Chalice is Dragon's Claw. Still vulnerable to Smash to Smithereens and a worse topdeck than Feed the Clan, but if it sticks and isn't answered it is a very nice buffer against Delver and Burn.
Currently, I would have no problem dedicating my entire SB to beating Burn, Delver, and Scapeshift. Almost everything else is fighting an uphill battle against Tron.
@ Adun_Oakenshield: Point well made. I agree with most of what you say and am testing a list with 4 Ugin MD and so far have been pleased. Only time will tell.
Four may be overkill in the long run because I've started noticing that Ugin can clog in the hand. Unlike Karn (who can just be minused to death and then another copy played) Ugin has a lot more resilience and tends to live longer. Which is great, but when you have two more in hand, it makes me wonder if I had something else to play.
HOWEVER, Ugin still dies or opponents do things, and being able to follow up with another Ugin is amazing. Generally, -x twice will put an opponent too far out of the game to come back.
While I still haven't run into or hunted down Affinity yet, I did play an artifact deck earlier (Codex Shredder control) and Ugin was significantly less appealing because Ghostfire to the face isn't as threatening (although still applies pressure) when Ugin can't also interact with the play field. It was still useful though, I pulled off my first ultimate with him in Modern in Game 1: Wurmcoil Engine, Karn Liberated, 2 Expedition Maps, an Oblivion Stone, Urza's Mine, and... I want to say it was a Chromatic Sphere.
Another thing I've learned is that Turn 3 Karn is amazing, but getting a turn 4 Ugin with a full playset is much more likely, and it can have the same impact on the game as a Turn 3 Karn. Especially against Birthing Pod, which I've seen A LOT of today. I feel safe saying Ugin improves our match-up with Pod because exiling helps cut off their grave interactions. It's also a powerhouse against Delver, and it frustrated another Tron Player.
I'm feeling Ugin's numbers are going to ultimately be meta called. He's not going to be an auto 4 like Karn Liberated. Having four split between the main and side seems to be the way I'm leaning at the moment, with 2-3 in the main. There are match-ups (namely Pod at the moment), where I feel I NEED to see Ugin, and I want to see more than 1 because he can bring the deck back from behind far better than Karn Liberated in enough situations to justify his existence in the deck. That's where siding in more would be handy.
All that said, I'm going to keep playing four main board at the moment (meaning probably until release date).
So scapeshift lost DTT which I think helps our matchup against them and the format will be a much fairer one now so I think that we have an increase in our respective win %'s against most decks.
So scapeshift lost DTT which I think helps our matchup against them and the format will be a much fairer one now so I think that we have an increase in our respective win %'s against most decks.
agreed. although honestly i quite liked pod being big in the format, as we could win so easily.
still, in an unknown meta we do ok, right?
i think affinity suddenly looks like a big player again though.
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
@ Adun_Oakenshield: Point well made. I agree with most of what you say and am testing a list with 4 Ugin MD and so far have been pleased. Only time will tell.
Four may be overkill in the long run because I've started noticing that Ugin can clog in the hand. Unlike Karn (who can just be minused to death and then another copy played) Ugin has a lot more resilience and tends to live longer. Which is great, but when you have two more in hand, it makes me wonder if I had something else to play.
HOWEVER, Ugin still dies or opponents do things, and being able to follow up with another Ugin is amazing. Generally, -x twice will put an opponent too far out of the game to come back.
While I still haven't run into or hunted down Affinity yet, I did play an artifact deck earlier (Codex Shredder control) and Ugin was significantly less appealing because Ghostfire to the face isn't as threatening (although still applies pressure) when Ugin can't also interact with the play field. It was still useful though, I pulled off my first ultimate with him in Modern in Game 1: Wurmcoil Engine, Karn Liberated, 2 Expedition Maps, an Oblivion Stone, Urza's Mine, and... I want to say it was a Chromatic Sphere.
Another thing I've learned is that Turn 3 Karn is amazing, but getting a turn 4 Ugin with a full playset is much more likely, and it can have the same impact on the game as a Turn 3 Karn. Especially against Birthing Pod, which I've seen A LOT of today. I feel safe saying Ugin improves our match-up with Pod because exiling helps cut off their grave interactions. It's also a powerhouse against Delver, and it frustrated another Tron Player.
I'm feeling Ugin's numbers are going to ultimately be meta called. He's not going to be an auto 4 like Karn Liberated. Having four split between the main and side seems to be the way I'm leaning at the moment, with 2-3 in the main. There are match-ups (namely Pod at the moment), where I feel I NEED to see Ugin, and I want to see more than 1 because he can bring the deck back from behind far better than Karn Liberated in enough situations to justify his existence in the deck. That's where siding in more would be handy.
All that said, I'm going to keep playing four main board at the moment (meaning probably until release date).
Birthing Pod is of course out, but the deck might survive in some form with another tutor, like Chord of Calling. Unfortunately, it's still going to lose a lot of popularity, which is annoying because it was a terrific matchup for us.
I'm not sure UR Delver actually improves that much for us. Treasure Cruise was never the card I was most afraid of; that was Monastery Swiftspear, because it dodges weepers so well while also pounding down hard. Honestly, I wonder if the Treasure Cruise ban will actually hurt UR Delver as much as they think it will, because it still has Monastery Swiftspear.
Scapeshift takes a hit, which is fine for us. It's harder for them to find their Scapeshifts now, giving us more time to get stuff ready.
Junk is likely to get more popular. While this is considered a positive matchup, I've never found it to be that great; the White splash gives them a lot more stuff against us than the Red one does. I was hoping for a Bloodbraid Elf unban, but I guess not.
In the extremely low chance that Dredgevine somehow becomes a good deck with Golgari Grave-Troll, that's actually fine because of our maindeck Relics and sweepers. I played against a Dredgevine deck recently and basically crushed it, though to be fair they were new to the deck.
But it's just such a big change it's really hard to try to figure out what's going to happen afterwards. I mean, I can point to decks that got better or worse, but what about the more indirect changes? What about the decks that aren't losing cards, but are potentially getting better thanks to the bans taking out decks better than them?
I mean, wow, I'm really not sure how this affects our deck.
I also play UR and I was like : "Welp, just gonna add snaps and remands". The Archetype is still viable, just won't the "Flavor of the Month" anymore.
The ban themselves won't change much. Rather, i believe it's the coming of Ugin (I'm very biased towards Ugin: never lost a single match (yet) with him resolving) coupled with the shake in the Meta(?) that give us a small boost.
Ugin seems very good still. I also suppose that Relic isn't nearly as necessary for builds straining to include it. Unless I see a huge amount of Twin there's probably no need to run Torpor Orb anymore (plus there's Spellskite for that scenario). Although I'm very surprised by the Pod ban, I love how resilient this deck has been.
Another thing I've learned is that Turn 3 Karn is amazing, but getting a turn 4 Ugin with a full playset is much more likely, and it can have the same impact on the game as a Turn 3 Karn. Especially against Birthing Pod, which I've seen A LOT of today. I feel safe saying Ugin improves our match-up with Pod because exiling helps cut off their grave interactions. It's also a powerhouse against Delver, and it frustrated another Tron Player.
I'm feeling Ugin's numbers are going to ultimately be meta called. He's not going to be an auto 4 like Karn Liberated. Having four split between the main and side seems to be the way I'm leaning at the moment, with 2-3 in the main. There are match-ups (namely Pod at the moment), where I feel I NEED to see Ugin, and I want to see more than 1 because he can bring the deck back from behind far better than Karn Liberated in enough situations to justify his existence in the deck. That's where siding in more would be handy.
All that said, I'm going to keep playing four main board at the moment...
I may go back to the Sundering Titan centric build I have been playing after the rush from playing Ugin passes, but this right now is more fun.
Welp, with Pod being banned that solves it. Still, I find Ugin a game ender for me, minimum 3, maybe 4 main deck.
I really like your list, btw. Maybe swap relics and O-Stones nwo that TC and DTT are banned? Gonna give this a try.
Birthing Pod's ban throws out over half of my testing yesterday because I played against two UR Delve(r), which I won 3 or 4 out of five games, Codex Shredder, which I 2-0'd, 3 Gr Tron decks, which I went total of 5-1, a strange blue control deck centered on Extraplanar Lens*, which I went 1-1, and then a S***TON of Birthing Pod. If the word s***ton could ever be used as a number instead of a word just once, I would say counting the number of Birthing Pod decks I played would be that instance.
*Has anyone encountered an Extraplanar Lens control deck before. That was a real interesting deck because it played basically our threats with a hard control shell and then Extraplanar Lens to make a LOT of mana.
If the meta game shifts away from fast aggro/burn, this is what I'm going to do:
-3 Wurmcoil Engine
-1 Llanowar Waste
-2 Relic of Progenitus
-1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon (Possibly)
+3 Sundering Titan
+1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
+1 Oblivion Stone
+1 Cavern of Souls/Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre (both if I slot Ugin 4 in the sideboard)
And adjust the sideboard accordingly. This is of course after I test my current build against the incoming meta shift.
I'm not sure UR Delver actually improves that much for us. Treasure Cruise was never the card I was most afraid of; that was Monastery Swiftspear, because it dodges weepers so well while also pounding down hard. Honestly, I wonder if the Treasure Cruise ban will actually hurt UR Delver as much as they think it will, because it still has Monastery Swiftspear.
Our match-up is improved because UR Delve(r) is now UR Delver, which improves everyones' odds against them. I played the deck in full force in Legacy to gain a better understanding of how it works, and while Treasure Cruise is not the essential lynch-pin of the deck, Delve(r) works better with it because the original concept behind the deck was to overextend with damage and disruption, recoup with Treasure Cruise, then win. Smart players know how to sequence their cards so that such a way that overextending wouldn't be a blow-out if it didn't work the first time. But either way, without Treasure Cruise to reload the shotgun, Delver players either have to play a slower, more methodical game... or get lucky.
But it's just such a big change it's really hard to try to figure out what's going to happen afterwards. I mean, I can point to decks that got better or worse, but what about the more indirect changes? What about the decks that aren't losing cards, but are potentially getting better thanks to the bans taking out decks better than them?
If Affinity catches on even more than it has, I'm bringing
I mean, wow, I'm really not sure how this affects our deck.[/quote]And on top of this, Fate Reforged is going to have effects on the metagame beyond Tron can now play Ugin. One thing that I've learned from my testing is that having a break-out Turn 4 is more likely than a snap Turn 3. While I am going to still relish in those Turn 3 Karns (or possibly Wurmcoil Engines), I think if the meta game trends to where we can make consistent Turn 4 crippling moves (which I was doing a lot with Ugin), then that's the focus I'm going to keep in the back of my mind. I'm going to aim for slower (by one turn) lines of play until I know that we absolutely have to hit hard on Turn 3 or die.
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Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
~~~~~
I don't think that cutting Wurmcoils for a bunch of Sundering Titans is ever going to be a proper response. Zoo, Affinity, and Burn are going to be more popular than ever. While getting your Wurmcoil Pathed when you're playing Zoo admittedly sucks, I've found that even if you Sundering Titan Zoo, they generally have enough material to win even after they Path the Titan (and the subsequent trigger).
I've just never been impressed with Titan in this deck. I've been impressed with it in UTron, where you can force it through countermagic, but I haven't been impressed with it here, where it just doesn't resolve unless you take tons of time to tutor up Eye AND Cavern (and the decks where it does resolve are just worse).
It can be great vs. Abzan specifically I suppose, though.
EDIT: Also, assuming we're running Ugin, we're going to quickly reach a critical mass of 8-drops, which is somewhat negative synergy with hitting T3 Tron.
I played against Junk at GP Milan side events, and the MU is worse in game 1 when they play MB Fulminator. Game 2 Stony Silence is expectable, so Claim should always be boarded in. But because of their slowness compared to Aggro, the game usually gets grindy (if turn 3 Karn doesn't seal the deal). We are best in such games, just keep the Eldrazi in the deck and play carefully. In the end, it seems to me like Jund with Path to Exile and without Deathrite Shaman (Siege Rhino makes up for Lightning Bolt). At least a 60% MU in our favor. You won't need special SB cards against it. But if you have Sundering Titan or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon in your 75, they shine in this match. Really shine.
Greetings
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It is true that a resolved Ugin will win vs. Delver, but between tons of soft counters (Leak, Pierce, Charm, Remand) which one's better G1 is debatable. And I feel that O-Stone has to be better G2-3, because Every Delver deck runs Blood Moons in their board.
Of course, all this spec may change significantly tomorrow. But we'll see.
GX Tron XG
UR Phoenix RU
GG Freyalise High Tide GG
UR Parun Counterspells RU
BB Yawgmoth Token Storm BB
WB Pestilence BW
@ Purklefluff: I agree with your card assessment and your testing looks spot on, but Ugin or not, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to not run the full set of both Chromatic Star AND Chromatic Sphere. I want to see at least one in every opening hand. If they printed another clone of Sphere, I would immediately drop all relics to make room for a full set. They smooth your draws and allow you to function with only Tron lands. They are just fantastic consistency cards and I never-ever cut them or SB them out. The only time they are not great is when you are staring down Stony Silence and if that is the case then you are in trouble regardless.
I am also firmly in the anti-Ulamog/Sundering Titan camp, so I think you could easily cut Ulamog for your 3rd Ugin. Or Spellskite, but I think you should move it to the SB if you do that.
Has anybody been testing with Chalice of the Void? It really shores up a huge weakness of Trons by acting as early game interaction against fast decks. It has been huge against Burn, Boggles, Storm, Ascendancy, and even some random jank like Living End. Two decks you wouldn't think it is SB-able against are Scapeshift and Affinity. Against Scapeshift, it is a late-game bomb that when cast for 8 locks them out completely. They can't Scapeshift or Cryptic Command it away and need to draw artifact removal or a Repeal to get through it. It's not amazing here but it is another bullet in our gun against one of our worst matchups. Against Affinity, a turn 1 Chalice at 0 will slow them down to much to get back in the game. It shuts down 12-16 cards in their deck and those cards are enablers which allow things like Springleaf Drum and Signal Pest to function. I have SB'd it against Delver but this can also come back to haunt you if you cast it when they already have board presence or they drop a Blood Moon and you can't Claim it away.
Problem is, it's only good if you have it turn 1 and are on the play.
I have to test Ugin yet, but I still think he will perform great as a 2-of at least.
And as additional hate against burn and delver, I guess Feed the Clan is at least worth a test. Gaining 10+ life in response to Vapor Snag seems good to me
The points made against Chalice are valid, but regardless we need more ammo against red decks. Feed the Clan is simply not enough.
Another card in the same vein as Chalice is Dragon's Claw. Still vulnerable to Smash to Smithereens and a worse topdeck than Feed the Clan, but if it sticks and isn't answered it is a very nice buffer against Delver and Burn.
Currently, I would have no problem dedicating my entire SB to beating Burn, Delver, and Scapeshift. Almost everything else is fighting an uphill battle against Tron.
HOWEVER, Ugin still dies or opponents do things, and being able to follow up with another Ugin is amazing. Generally, -x twice will put an opponent too far out of the game to come back.
While I still haven't run into or hunted down Affinity yet, I did play an artifact deck earlier (Codex Shredder control) and Ugin was significantly less appealing because Ghostfire to the face isn't as threatening (although still applies pressure) when Ugin can't also interact with the play field. It was still useful though, I pulled off my first ultimate with him in Modern in Game 1: Wurmcoil Engine, Karn Liberated, 2 Expedition Maps, an Oblivion Stone, Urza's Mine, and... I want to say it was a Chromatic Sphere.
Another thing I've learned is that Turn 3 Karn is amazing, but getting a turn 4 Ugin with a full playset is much more likely, and it can have the same impact on the game as a Turn 3 Karn. Especially against Birthing Pod, which I've seen A LOT of today. I feel safe saying Ugin improves our match-up with Pod because exiling helps cut off their grave interactions. It's also a powerhouse against Delver, and it frustrated another Tron Player.
I'm feeling Ugin's numbers are going to ultimately be meta called. He's not going to be an auto 4 like Karn Liberated. Having four split between the main and side seems to be the way I'm leaning at the moment, with 2-3 in the main. There are match-ups (namely Pod at the moment), where I feel I NEED to see Ugin, and I want to see more than 1 because he can bring the deck back from behind far better than Karn Liberated in enough situations to justify his existence in the deck. That's where siding in more would be handy.
All that said, I'm going to keep playing four main board at the moment (meaning probably until release date).
4 Urza's Tower
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Mine
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Forest
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Eye of Ugin
Creatures: 4
3 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Chromatic Star
4 Expedition Map
2 Oblivion Stone
2 Relic of Progenitus
Planeswalkers: 8
4 Karn Liberated
4 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Sorceries: 11
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Pyroclasm
4 Sylvan Scrying
1 Cavern of Souls
4 Nature's Claim
2 Oblivion Stone
3 Slaughter Games
2 Spellskite
1 Sundering Titan
1 Vandalblast
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
I may go back to the Sundering Titan centric build I have been playing after the rush from playing Ugin passes, but this right now is more fun.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
~~~~~
can someone please tell me why?
agreed. although honestly i quite liked pod being big in the format, as we could win so easily.
still, in an unknown meta we do ok, right?
i think affinity suddenly looks like a big player again though.
Welp, with Pod being banned that solves it. Still, I find Ugin a game ender for me, minimum 3, maybe 4 main deck.
I really like your list, btw. Maybe swap relics and O-Stones nwo that TC and DTT are banned? Gonna give this a try.
Birthing Pod is of course out, but the deck might survive in some form with another tutor, like Chord of Calling. Unfortunately, it's still going to lose a lot of popularity, which is annoying because it was a terrific matchup for us.
I'm not sure UR Delver actually improves that much for us. Treasure Cruise was never the card I was most afraid of; that was Monastery Swiftspear, because it dodges weepers so well while also pounding down hard. Honestly, I wonder if the Treasure Cruise ban will actually hurt UR Delver as much as they think it will, because it still has Monastery Swiftspear.
Scapeshift takes a hit, which is fine for us. It's harder for them to find their Scapeshifts now, giving us more time to get stuff ready.
Junk is likely to get more popular. While this is considered a positive matchup, I've never found it to be that great; the White splash gives them a lot more stuff against us than the Red one does. I was hoping for a Bloodbraid Elf unban, but I guess not.
In the extremely low chance that Dredgevine somehow becomes a good deck with Golgari Grave-Troll, that's actually fine because of our maindeck Relics and sweepers. I played against a Dredgevine deck recently and basically crushed it, though to be fair they were new to the deck.
But it's just such a big change it's really hard to try to figure out what's going to happen afterwards. I mean, I can point to decks that got better or worse, but what about the more indirect changes? What about the decks that aren't losing cards, but are potentially getting better thanks to the bans taking out decks better than them?
I mean, wow, I'm really not sure how this affects our deck.
The ban themselves won't change much. Rather, i believe it's the coming of Ugin (I'm very biased towards Ugin: never lost a single match (yet) with him resolving) coupled with the shake in the Meta(?) that give us a small boost.
BWGJunkBWG
BRGJundBRG
B1Eldrazi ShopsB1
UAzami, Lady of ScrollsU
BGMeren of Clan Nel TothBG
BUWJenara, Asura of WarBUW
GURAnimar, Soul of ElementsGUR
Birthing Pod's ban throws out over half of my testing yesterday because I played against two UR Delve(r), which I won 3 or 4 out of five games, Codex Shredder, which I 2-0'd, 3 Gr Tron decks, which I went total of 5-1, a strange blue control deck centered on Extraplanar Lens*, which I went 1-1, and then a S***TON of Birthing Pod. If the word s***ton could ever be used as a number instead of a word just once, I would say counting the number of Birthing Pod decks I played would be that instance.
*Has anyone encountered an Extraplanar Lens control deck before. That was a real interesting deck because it played basically our threats with a hard control shell and then Extraplanar Lens to make a LOT of mana.
If the meta game shifts away from fast aggro/burn, this is what I'm going to do:
-3 Wurmcoil Engine
-1 Llanowar Waste
-2 Relic of Progenitus
-1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon (Possibly)
+3 Sundering Titan
+1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
+1 Oblivion Stone
+1 Cavern of Souls/Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre (both if I slot Ugin 4 in the sideboard)
And adjust the sideboard accordingly. This is of course after I test my current build against the incoming meta shift.
Our match-up is improved because UR Delve(r) is now UR Delver, which improves everyones' odds against them. I played the deck in full force in Legacy to gain a better understanding of how it works, and while Treasure Cruise is not the essential lynch-pin of the deck, Delve(r) works better with it because the original concept behind the deck was to overextend with damage and disruption, recoup with Treasure Cruise, then win. Smart players know how to sequence their cards so that such a way that overextending wouldn't be a blow-out if it didn't work the first time. But either way, without Treasure Cruise to reload the shotgun, Delver players either have to play a slower, more methodical game... or get lucky.
Also if the bans create a slower meta game, Sundering Titan may be due back in stronger numbers.
If Affinity catches on even more than it has, I'm bringing
I mean, wow, I'm really not sure how this affects our deck.[/quote]And on top of this, Fate Reforged is going to have effects on the metagame beyond Tron can now play Ugin. One thing that I've learned from my testing is that having a break-out Turn 4 is more likely than a snap Turn 3. While I am going to still relish in those Turn 3 Karns (or possibly Wurmcoil Engines), I think if the meta game trends to where we can make consistent Turn 4 crippling moves (which I was doing a lot with Ugin), then that's the focus I'm going to keep in the back of my mind. I'm going to aim for slower (by one turn) lines of play until I know that we absolutely have to hit hard on Turn 3 or die.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
~~~~~
I've just never been impressed with Titan in this deck. I've been impressed with it in UTron, where you can force it through countermagic, but I haven't been impressed with it here, where it just doesn't resolve unless you take tons of time to tutor up Eye AND Cavern (and the decks where it does resolve are just worse).
It can be great vs. Abzan specifically I suppose, though.
EDIT: Also, assuming we're running Ugin, we're going to quickly reach a critical mass of 8-drops, which is somewhat negative synergy with hitting T3 Tron.
GX Tron XG
UR Phoenix RU
GG Freyalise High Tide GG
UR Parun Counterspells RU
BB Yawgmoth Token Storm BB
WB Pestilence BW
In sideboard, Junk has fulminator mage, stony silence, aven mindscensor....
So, which card can be used against Junk? nature's claim for stony silence and combust for Siege Rhink, but which other cards?
I believe that it's very hard to win in G2/G3.
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