Ulamog is already quite hard to cast most of the time.
I don't see how your math is correct. How can you cast it turn 5? even if, by turn 5, you have (which you won't) tower x3, mine and power plant that's only 13 mana.
I was slightly exaggerating, I'm aware 6/7 is the earliest at best.
I don't know why, I still want to do Emrakul, the Aeons Torn but Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger is likely the better idea. Here's my deck thus far, my meta is mostly combo decks and affinity. Any suggestions for a side board would be nice...
Agree that OG Emrakul is not playable. The only situation I could see playing it is if your meta had a lot of control decks, because those are the only matchups where the game reliably goes long enough for you to get that much mana, and it would basically be an auto-win. But even then it would be in the sideboard.
Lots of UR Storm, BG Dredge, Infect (at one store I play at, not at the other), and Living End. Control is consistent enough at both my stores, so I will put in Emrakul, the Aeons Torn for side board. Is main decking Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger bad now still or more viable now?
If you're seeing Storm, Dredge and Living End regularly I would definitely consider playing Relics mainboard. Would result in some free wins for sure. Good against Control too. Ulamog main is really a preference thing. If you like it, go for it. Also loading up on Warping Wails in the 75 sounds very good in that meta if there's a bunch of Affinity as well.
If you're seeing Storm, Dredge and Living End regularly I would definitely consider playing Relics mainboard. Would result in some free wins for sure. Good against Control too. Ulamog main is really a preference thing. If you like it, go for it. Also loading up on Warping Wails in the 75 sounds very good in that meta if there's a bunch of Affinity as well.
Personally, I'm a fan of Emrakul. But I'll main deck a Ulamog. Should I 4 of Warping Wail? I'll score more Relics too.
I'd definitely play 3. The 4th might take up a slot that could be better used to cover a different base. Really depends what your entire meta looks like.
@thesedaiv: As a Tron enthusiast, I can tell you that the Tron variant that relies less on Tron assembly is Eldrazi. Having temples and some other nice lands helps the build to not need Tron that much to win. With this I can tell you that big Emrakul will mostly be sitting on your hand in many games. With Tron online I'd rather be sinking mana in casting huge ballistas that rushing to get Big E, and by the time you have enough mana to cast it, other threats would have probably won you the game anyways. Even Gx Tron variants can't allow them to run it because it's pretty expensive and you need to be interacting with the board to avoid losing. If you want to build around Emrakul, I strongly recommend you to try U or U/W Tron. I have played U/W myself for a long time and even on a control focus, is hard to cast it. But I get you, once you cast it you can't feel you can lose, and it's pretty sweet.
Im playing a team unified GP next year and im expecting a massive showing of affinity because its strong, beats e tron and doesn't share cards with other decks.
I would be trying to anticipate a big showing of robots so i wonder whats the best cards to fight them with e tron.
Off the top of ny head im running 2x warping wail in the mb two in the sb, 2x spatial contortion in the mb, 2x dismember in the mb and two ratchet bomb in the sb.
Im considering that it might be worthwhile dropping 2x karn for this event to run 2x extra spatial contortions. Its a extra kill spell and it pumps ny team. I may just have to kill lots of their guys.
Affinity is going to be everywhere and i want to be able to shore up this match up if its going to be so common.
Other cards to consider are phyrexian revoker (dies to gal blast easy) pithing needle. Imi statue is another which might just buy me time. Its 3 mana which is a pain but it really hurts them.
What's the opinion on Bottle Gnomes in a heavily Control/Robots/Humans meta in the SB?
I've always preferred Filigree Familiar over Bottle Gnomes. At 2 power it can take out a few things and the card draw upon death is very relevant. More so than the extra 1 life with Gnomes, imho.
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
all others: ratchet bomb warping wail within first 2 turns; turn 4 or 5 later basilisk collar and/or walking ballista to ping them off until the endbringer comes online (if you're not dead by then it means their top decking and initial rush has stalled)
I sort of designed this list to be better versus Aggro Decks and Control-Tempo lists. Not sure if I should swap out the Batterskulls for Ratchet Bombs. I swapped out Dismember to the SB because of Burn being a thing and to not pressure my own life total G1 when the Colorless Removal hits enough stuff G1. I chose not to run Ulamog or All is Dust / Karn because of how they're just not good enough vs Aggro type decks, especially Affinity, which All completely misses, instead I chose to run almost a full playset of O Stones, and Ugin. Alternative routes could be to cut Kozilek entirely, and go for 2 Ugin.
Eldrazitron made 2x top 8 mentions for the past 2 weeks. We're not quite beaten down yet.
Ghost quarter coupled with field of ruin being a mention (oh, that's another way to deal with affinity's creaturelands), with sorceress spyglass against making an appearance in the SB (note: this is now a thing in legacy eldrazi as well, which has been on the uptick for 6 weeks now)
All MB + SB components are his decisions, customized in a quiet corner of the room 10 minutes before event. Surprise factor was his priority.
The oblivion sower(s) was a result of us compensating for the lack of sol lands #7 and #8 and a 3rd SSG in Eldrazi Legacy; Worked out really well as a mid game ramp. Caveat: he did admit he had some spectacularly god starts for 3 of the games (perfect curve) but either way once he could tron up, bombs were consistent as well.
Have we all been thinning our top end threats too much lately?
I would like if someone could look at my list on Page 81, please. I would like your opinions on my reasoning.
Personally, I'd cut Kozilek and put in Ulamog. Kozilek dies to about every removal out there and you have to luck out with his counter ability. Ulamog is MUCH better.
The rest of your list looks fine to me for your meta.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I would like if someone could look at my list on Page 81, please. I would like your opinions on my reasoning.
You absolutely need to swap your contortions and Dismembers. Dismembers are a necessity maindeck because often times that 4 like paid does not decide the game, meaning you paid 1 mana for a -5/-5 removal and that is a great tempo play. It catches more creatures and is dead less often than contortion, which is why you always see Dismembers maindeck and contortions in the side. Even paying 4 life on turn 1 to kill an attacking goblin guide is only two more damage taken than contorting it on turn 2. Contortion does not hit enough stuff, it's dead against eldrazi, delve threats, and hollow one to name a few.
3 Cavern of Souls is 1 too many, because we have 4x Expedition Map to give us even more copies of the card. If you are intending to swap Kozilek with Ulamog, Ceaseless Hunger, cut a cavern for a copy of Sanctum of Ugin. More utility lands to make use of Exp. Maps is more value and more ways to win as the game goes on. If you are running a titan you are much less effective at casting that titan if you don't have Sanctum of Ugin to tutor it to hand.
Your oblivion stones over All is Dusts in the main is going to cost you more games than you would be happy with. You're going to blow up your own chalices and creatures way too often All is Dust is good against 85-90% of the meta and gets sideboarded out where its dead. The fact that it's such a 1-sided blowout almost 9 games out of 10 makes it worth the few times where it is a dead card game 1 against the mirror, affinity, or lantern. All is Dust is essential to any elrazi tron build, oblivion stone will screw you out of games where you're winning on board state but the opponent has a permanent you have no other way of answering besides o-stone. You are legitimately better off keeping the Dusts in vs. aggressive decks and hoping to assemble tron mana fast enough, or even multiple temples to ramp. When you try to hold off aggro with o-stone, they just hold their threats in hand and beat down with 1 or 2 creatures, meanwhile you can't play any of your own cards into the o-stone. The only reason o-stone maindeck works for GX tron is because they aren't killing their own permanents with o-stone. When a card in your maindeck does too much splash damage to yourself it's not worth a slot. Overall I don't think you need to change maindeck cards too much to fit aggressive metas, format your sideboard to be better after game 1 and try to execute your decks game plan game 1.
Edit: Here is my most recent list that I updated today to reflect the Modern GP over the weekend. I think Eldrazi Tron is quite a flexible midrange deck; and while people are trying to go underneath GX Tron and Titan decks in the coming weeks (Mono G tron, GB tron, and Titanshift wrecked the tournament), E-tron should be able to hang with the people bullying up on the big boys. Eldrazi Tron has A LOT of early game interaction post-board and lines up quite nicely against burn, storm, infect, etc. which are all good against GX tron and titan decks. One of the reasons I've preferred to play Eldrazi Tron over any GX tron variant competitively even though I love both decks equally, is that Eldrazi Tron has legitimate game against the massive majority of the meta, and you always feel like you have a chance against any deck in modern. I think the raw power and flexibility of Eldrazi Tron will make the deck poke it's head back into consistent top 8's as the meta shifts.
I was slightly exaggerating, I'm aware 6/7 is the earliest at best.
I don't know why, I still want to do Emrakul, the Aeons Torn but Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger is likely the better idea. Here's my deck thus far, my meta is mostly combo decks and affinity. Any suggestions for a side board would be nice...
2x Endbringer
4x Matter Reshaper
4x Reality Smasher
4x Thought-Knot Seer
4x Walking Ballista
Sorcery/Instant
1x Warping Wail
2x All is Dust
2x Dismember
Artifacts
1x Basilisk Collar
1x Batterskull
2x Mind Stone
3x Chalice of the Void
4x Expedition Map
2x Karn Liberated
Lands
1x Buried Ruin
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Sea Gate Wreckage
2x Wastes
3x Ghost Quarter
4x Eldrazi Temple
4x Urza's Mine
4x Urza's Power Plant
4x Urza's Tower
1x Chalice of the Void
1x Dismember
1x Ratchet Bomb
2x Spatial Contortion
1x Warping Wail
I do want to put in Emrakul, the Aeons Torn HOWEVER I feel I'll use Ulamog for serious competition.
Vintage >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Legacy
Agree that OG Emrakul is not playable. The only situation I could see playing it is if your meta had a lot of control decks, because those are the only matchups where the game reliably goes long enough for you to get that much mana, and it would basically be an auto-win. But even then it would be in the sideboard.
What combo decks are in your meta?
Vintage >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Legacy
Personally, I'm a fan of Emrakul. But I'll main deck a Ulamog. Should I 4 of Warping Wail? I'll score more Relics too.
Vintage >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Legacy
RBridgevineB
RGR/G EldraziX
UBlue MoonR
UU/W TronW
Vintage >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Legacy
I would be trying to anticipate a big showing of robots so i wonder whats the best cards to fight them with e tron.
Off the top of ny head im running 2x warping wail in the mb two in the sb, 2x spatial contortion in the mb, 2x dismember in the mb and two ratchet bomb in the sb.
Im considering that it might be worthwhile dropping 2x karn for this event to run 2x extra spatial contortions. Its a extra kill spell and it pumps ny team. I may just have to kill lots of their guys.
Affinity is going to be everywhere and i want to be able to shore up this match up if its going to be so common.
Other cards to consider are phyrexian revoker (dies to gal blast easy) pithing needle. Imi statue is another which might just buy me time. Its 3 mana which is a pain but it really hurts them.
I've always preferred Filigree Familiar over Bottle Gnomes. At 2 power it can take out a few things and the card draw upon death is very relevant. More so than the extra 1 life with Gnomes, imho.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
on the play chalice for 0 chalice for 1
all others: ratchet bomb warping wail within first 2 turns; turn 4 or 5 later basilisk collar and/or walking ballista to ping them off until the endbringer comes online (if you're not dead by then it means their top decking and initial rush has stalled)
// 11 Artifact
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Expedition Map
3 Oblivion Stone
// 21 Creature
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
4 Matter Reshaper
2 Endbringer
4 Walking Ballista
2 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
// 3 Instant
3 Spatial Contortion
// 24 Land
4 Urza's Tower
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Wastes
3 Cavern of Souls
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
// 1 Planeswalker
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
// 15 Sideboard
// 11 Artifact
SB: 2 Pithing Needle
SB: 2 Basilisk Collar
SB: 4 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 1 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 2 Batterskull
// 4 Instant
SB: 2 Dismember
SB: 2 Surgical Extraction
I sort of designed this list to be better versus Aggro Decks and Control-Tempo lists. Not sure if I should swap out the Batterskulls for Ratchet Bombs. I swapped out Dismember to the SB because of Burn being a thing and to not pressure my own life total G1 when the Colorless Removal hits enough stuff G1. I chose not to run Ulamog or All is Dust / Karn because of how they're just not good enough vs Aggro type decks, especially Affinity, which All completely misses, instead I chose to run almost a full playset of O Stones, and Ugin. Alternative routes could be to cut Kozilek entirely, and go for 2 Ugin.
Any thoughts or ideas/suggestions are welcome!
Ghost quarter coupled with field of ruin being a mention (oh, that's another way to deal with affinity's creaturelands), with sorceress spyglass against making an appearance in the SB (note: this is now a thing in legacy eldrazi as well, which has been on the uptick for 6 weeks now)
2-0 Lantern control
2-0 Burn
2-0 Merfolk
2-0 Storm
4 matter reshaper
4 thought-knot seer
4 reality smasher
2 endbringer
1 ulamog, the ceaseless hunger
1 Ugin, the spirit dragon
2 Karn liberated
2 oblivion sower
4 chalice of the void
4 expedition map
1 crucible of worlds
2 warping wail
1 all is dust
4 urza's tower
4 urza's power plant
4 eldrazi temple
2 field of ruin
2 ghost quarter
1 sea gate wreckage
3 wastes
2 Hangerback Walker
2 Warping Wail
2 Smuggler's Copter
1 All is Dust
2 Oblivion Stone
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Dismember
2 Relic of Progenitus
All MB + SB components are his decisions, customized in a quiet corner of the room 10 minutes before event. Surprise factor was his priority.
The oblivion sower(s) was a result of us compensating for the lack of sol lands #7 and #8 and a 3rd SSG in Eldrazi Legacy; Worked out really well as a mid game ramp. Caveat: he did admit he had some spectacularly god starts for 3 of the games (perfect curve) but either way once he could tron up, bombs were consistent as well.
Have we all been thinning our top end threats too much lately?
What is eldrazi trons archetype?
Is it aggro? Mid range? What would it be considered?
RUAffinityUR
GMono Green StompyG
CEldrazi TronC
URWJeskai GeistWRU
WRBoros BurnRW
BRWMardu PyromancerWRB
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Personally, I'd cut Kozilek and put in Ulamog. Kozilek dies to about every removal out there and you have to luck out with his counter ability. Ulamog is MUCH better.
The rest of your list looks fine to me for your meta.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
You absolutely need to swap your contortions and Dismembers. Dismembers are a necessity maindeck because often times that 4 like paid does not decide the game, meaning you paid 1 mana for a -5/-5 removal and that is a great tempo play. It catches more creatures and is dead less often than contortion, which is why you always see Dismembers maindeck and contortions in the side. Even paying 4 life on turn 1 to kill an attacking goblin guide is only two more damage taken than contorting it on turn 2. Contortion does not hit enough stuff, it's dead against eldrazi, delve threats, and hollow one to name a few.
3 Cavern of Souls is 1 too many, because we have 4x Expedition Map to give us even more copies of the card. If you are intending to swap Kozilek with Ulamog, Ceaseless Hunger, cut a cavern for a copy of Sanctum of Ugin. More utility lands to make use of Exp. Maps is more value and more ways to win as the game goes on. If you are running a titan you are much less effective at casting that titan if you don't have Sanctum of Ugin to tutor it to hand.
Your oblivion stones over All is Dusts in the main is going to cost you more games than you would be happy with. You're going to blow up your own chalices and creatures way too often All is Dust is good against 85-90% of the meta and gets sideboarded out where its dead. The fact that it's such a 1-sided blowout almost 9 games out of 10 makes it worth the few times where it is a dead card game 1 against the mirror, affinity, or lantern. All is Dust is essential to any elrazi tron build, oblivion stone will screw you out of games where you're winning on board state but the opponent has a permanent you have no other way of answering besides o-stone. You are legitimately better off keeping the Dusts in vs. aggressive decks and hoping to assemble tron mana fast enough, or even multiple temples to ramp. When you try to hold off aggro with o-stone, they just hold their threats in hand and beat down with 1 or 2 creatures, meanwhile you can't play any of your own cards into the o-stone. The only reason o-stone maindeck works for GX tron is because they aren't killing their own permanents with o-stone. When a card in your maindeck does too much splash damage to yourself it's not worth a slot. Overall I don't think you need to change maindeck cards too much to fit aggressive metas, format your sideboard to be better after game 1 and try to execute your decks game plan game 1.
Edit: Here is my most recent list that I updated today to reflect the Modern GP over the weekend. I think Eldrazi Tron is quite a flexible midrange deck; and while people are trying to go underneath GX Tron and Titan decks in the coming weeks (Mono G tron, GB tron, and Titanshift wrecked the tournament), E-tron should be able to hang with the people bullying up on the big boys. Eldrazi Tron has A LOT of early game interaction post-board and lines up quite nicely against burn, storm, infect, etc. which are all good against GX tron and titan decks. One of the reasons I've preferred to play Eldrazi Tron over any GX tron variant competitively even though I love both decks equally, is that Eldrazi Tron has legitimate game against the massive majority of the meta, and you always feel like you have a chance against any deck in modern. I think the raw power and flexibility of Eldrazi Tron will make the deck poke it's head back into consistent top 8's as the meta shifts.
WG G/W Tron GW
BG G/B Tron GB
GG Mono G Tron GG
RG G/R Tron GR