Ok, there are some matchups you want to sideout big spells like Primeval Titan or Scapeshift.
My problem is that most of the time, I can't figure which of those 2 cards is more valuable to sideout.
There are some obvious answer to that question, for example if you face Hatebear, it will be better to side out 1 or 2 Scapeshift.
But how do you proceed vs Burn, Affinity, Hollow One, Humans, Dredge... ?
Thanks to explain your choices.
I side out Scapeshift against burn quite often but almost never the titan. If a deck is likely to be running Layline of Sanctity/similar the titan is generally better as a raw 6/6 with upside. If you expect ensnaring bridge then less so. It is very matchup dependent as to whether it works or not.
VS hatebears/taxes decks I leave all copies in and generally take out Hour of Promise for more removal. Dredge is generally an ok matchup so they should be left in. the other fast decks you mentioned I would consider taking out a couple of scapeshifts for sideboard hate but again, this depends on the amount of hate you have to bring in.
Re Jace, i think the deck is still fine. Our Jeskai matchup feels pretty even and against UW control I think we are slightly favoured. Also not sure when the rules change takes place but as soon as damage can go direct to walkers instead of via players playing a mountain to bolt Jace seems like a reasonable route to go. The elf im slightly more worried by as a fast aggressive card that dodges chalice and likely gets value on ETB regardless of if it gets damage in. Having said this it dies to bolt, anger and sweltering sun so im keen to know what others think about the changes.
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EDH BRGKresh the BloodbraidedBRG, A box of lands and ideas.
Modern: RG Titanshift. A deck made of cards too stupid for EDH.
Retired: Lots. More than I feel you should suffer through or I should type out.
I played in a staples Modern tournament with 26 players. I chose Titanshift because I chickened out from Grishoalbrand in a meta that I've known to see a lot of Shadow and Titanshift seemed best from what I had.
Round 1 vs. UW Control. I came in a car with 3 others. We had to play each other because we were 10 min late. I have too much gas in the first game. In the next game, it is similar. I have a Tireless Tracker with 9 clues still in the end, but don't need it because I drew gas. 2-0.
Round 2 vs. 4 Color Shadow. Made me discard a couple of good things. Drew lands. Inquisitioned me the 2nd and 3rd time to find only lands in hand in game 1. I Lightning Bolted in response, which didn't seem bad because there was only 1 Shadow later on. Had him at 1 life in the next one, but drew the 2 Forest from my deck (I sided out 1 only). My next card was Chameleon Colossus. 0-2.
Round 3 vs. Mardu Shadow. He kills me with double Temur Battle Rage in the first game on turn 5. In the next 2 games, he barely doesn't have enough to beat me and I slightly start to draw better than him in the midgame. 2-1.
Round 4 vs. UR Thing in the Ice. Got Mooned and Cryptic Commanded like a mother****er. 0-2.
Round 5 vs. Titanshift. Won game 1 because after Hour of Promise quickly on his turn, he played nothing else. Showed me 3 Mountain in hand while I Prime Timed twice. In the next game, I kept a hand with 3 win-cons. Big mistake. I drew only lands and got destroyed. I thought maybe Beast Within might save me, but he had much more than he needed. Got him with a super quick Scapeshift/Prismatic Omen kill. 2-1.
I got 9th, which always sucks. But 3-1-1 was the cutoff, so it mostly just sucked that this store took in $520 in cash for probably around $250 at most in Staples and didn't exceed the prize to top 12 or something like that like other stores I know. I mostly play there because the first 3 times I went, I got 1st, scooped to 1st so 2nd, and top 4. My last 3 times counting this one, I've failed to Top 8 though...
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
I'm considering a playset BBE in the main, taking up 2 flex spots and 2 Summoner's Pact. It has almost similar function like STE and Wood Elves, as a blocker and ramp or at worst, cascading into Lightning Bolt, which is not bad either.
Couple of spoilers from Dominaria that I think could be relevant
Broken Bond 1G
Sorcery
Destroy target artifact or enchantment. You may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield.
Damping Sphere 2
Artifact
If a land is tapped for two or more mana, it produces C instead of any other type and amount.
Each spell a player casts costs 1 more to cast for each other spell that player has cast this turn
Thoughts? I think the first certainly will make it into the SB and the second will be more of a meta call. Possibly two of the more significant cards the deck is likely to get with the new set.
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EDH BRGKresh the BloodbraidedBRG, A box of lands and ideas.
Modern: RG Titanshift. A deck made of cards too stupid for EDH.
Retired: Lots. More than I feel you should suffer through or I should type out.
Im interested in trying BBE as most of the time you will hit a ramp spell, what have you taken out for it? Perhaps instead of Hour of Promise which is always my first cut in sideboarding.
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EDH BRGKresh the BloodbraidedBRG, A box of lands and ideas.
Modern: RG Titanshift. A deck made of cards too stupid for EDH.
Retired: Lots. More than I feel you should suffer through or I should type out.
Yea ive had a go with BBE and ive not been that impressed by it honestly, also hitting Pact just feels so bad.
@forestlore sounds like a hard meta. For burn, Thragtusk and Baloth are great also Chalice of the Void. for Infect chalice is basically the only option because it is just faster than us. Bring enchantment hate for ponza so that you can kill their Blood Moons. Knight fall and Jace decks I wouldnt/ dont worry about all that much. We can go off faster than them and can use valakut to kill their key pieces. You dont need to worry about jace fatesealing you when hitting land drops is good for you.
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EDH BRGKresh the BloodbraidedBRG, A box of lands and ideas.
Modern: RG Titanshift. A deck made of cards too stupid for EDH.
Retired: Lots. More than I feel you should suffer through or I should type out.
I played for 4 hours last night and BBE felt good, but was MU dependent. Was good against control, or midrange decks. In the aggro match-ups it wasn't bad (I think I cascaded into a pact once, and it was mid-late game), but I'd board BBE for OB.B + Anger of the Gods. I boarded 1 Summ. Pact out in a couple games, unsure how that affects this situation. I'll note more today.
I'll give it more play time, and take notes on when it's good and when it's bad. If I had to take it out, I'd maybe run 2 CoK, 1 Reclamation Sage, 1 Tracker,
The Petersen's list just felt really tight last night, but yeah, I'll keep running it back today with an open mind.
Decided to post a tourney report for one of my LGS's monthly 1.2k prize pool modern events.
No idea how to use the deck formatting tool so Im attaching my decklist in the images section.
38 Players, I hit 2nd place
R1 - Vs Alex on Elves
G1 Saw 3 lands, 3 ramp spells and a scapeshift, instant keep.
T1 search t2 KHE t3 farseek and easy t4 kill while he was making a giant horde of elves and failing to find Ezuri for a sick alpha strike
SB -1 Rec Sage - 1 Relic + 2 Angers
G2 Mulled to 6 after a 1 land imnotkeepingthiscrap hand, 3 lands, 1 suns, 1 search 1 stevo
Alex had a pretty slow hand and the t3 suns bought me a million years to find a payoff, cant remember exactly but it was a titan which i used to slow roll clear his board into punching him into oblivion with valakuts triggering like a cacophony of SJWs in the background.
Elves just feels too slow vs us unless they nut draw it, and even then any form of sweeper just ends them.
R2 - Vs Jos on UW Miracles
G1 was long, but not for any particular bad reason, I remember just casting ramp which he let through, and just laying lands with 2 valakuts on the field, eventually forcing him to tap out to bounce a valakut with cryptic when i cracked 2 fetches with 2 valakuts on board in response to a field of ruin trigger targeting a valakut. He basically tapped himself out and I just cast one of the 2 scapeshifts id been sandbagging for the win
G2 was a bit of a ***** storm, I missed a search time counter trigger on turn 2, and topdecked a tireless tracker on the same turn, meaning I got a free clue on t4 with the search resolving, i rode the tracker to card advantage town with 2 relics on board, unlike g1 however, I was unable to find valakuts for the sick slow roll play for ages, eventually found one though, and my opponent immediately fielded it and surgicaled it, basically cucking me so hard that I scooped ins- Jk i had 2 relics on board. He forgot about those, he tapped out to hard cast entreats on his next main phase to let me scapeshift for the win.
UW matchup's always been good, didnt even need to play Thrun vs the miracles variant, I legit feel like the only way they can beat us is if they find an early threat and we draw blanks for centuries.
R3 - vs David on GB Tron
G1 was a straight snap keep 4 lands 2 ramps 1 scapeshift, he durdled around assembling tron on t3 but not getting to use it till t4 while I just comboed and won after he passed t4 with a wurmcoil.
SB -2 KHE - 1 Relic - 1 Omen +2 Nature's Claim + 2 Beast Within
G2 - 3 Lands 4 Ramp spell snap keep, he had a natural tron hand and resolved karn into Emrakul the Promised end while i was praying for a payoff card, mindslavering me, good times.
G3 - He mulled to 4, stuck on a single land for 3 turns, I nut drew.
Good MU, dont really feel like anything other than a t3 karn can beat me in this MU as long as im on the play.
R4 - Vs Ken on Jund (in all Japanese)
Oh dear sweet lord I love this matchup, there was a lantern player and an other burn players who were 3-0 and i was praying to my pagan gods that I wouldnt meet one of em.
G1 t1 search, get iniqui'd and lose an explore, t2 farseek, t3 anger his bob and combo on turn 5, while his goyf looked sad
SB -2 Khalani Heart - 2 Omen - 1 Rec Sage -1 Hour of Promise + 3 Baloth + 2 Beast Within + 1 Thrun
G2 He gets stuck on 2 lands while I get a pretty average hand, 4 lands on turn 3 staring at his 2, I suns his bob after it reveals a Grafdigger's from the top (???????) which he casts, he eventually casts a bloodbraid elf which cascades into another grafdiggers, Im thoroughly confused at this point and wondering if he met any of the weird ritesshift shenannigans. I cast scapeshift on 7 lands, and he stops me, pointing at his 2 cages. Im so ******* confused. Turns out he thought that grafdigger's prevented anything from entering the battlefield from the deck. Nope. Great guy though, we had a good laugh over a smoke after.
Good matchup, opponent was a great guy.
Im locked for top 8 at this point so I ID my next 2 matches and spend the next 2 hours watching people destroy their wallets with wizard's latest money sink, A25. Even picked up some blood moons on the cheap and got a few dece commons/uncommons as payment for helping my mates who cracked 3 cases sort their commons and uncommons.
Top 8
We met up and decided to split and pocket $150 each, store was adamant we play out the games though just so they could get sick social media pictures and writeups, I mean they were paying us $150 ea so dinner could wait, meh.
The decks in top 8 in order were
Me at top seed on RG Steve's Landscaping with friends
Daniel on Nactl Burn
David on Tron (GB)
Joshua on something I dont know
Reeve on RG Eldrazi
Yi Kai on Dredge
Ian on Boros Burn
Trevor on Ponza
Quarters - vs Trevor on Ponza
Everyone was telling me it was a really ***** matchup and that I was bound to lose, but I honestly dont feel like its that bad. I drew a hand of 5 lands 1 explore and a search for tomorrow
t1 - search
his t1 - forest birds
t2 - explore, drawing a farseek
his t2 - stone rain
for the next 3 turns i topdecked ramp while he cast 3 consecutive stone rains, i eventually just reached 8 lands and topdecked a scapeshift
At this point my friends watching were going full "Nani the f*** is this sh*t man holy f***" while i just grinned like a mongoloid
SB - 2 Primeval Titan - 1 Relic +2 Natures claim + 1 Back to Nature
I mulled to a 5 lander expecting to be cucked by land D, turns out he got stuck on 2 lands for 4 or so turns and i jsut comboed off and won, he had kept a greedy trinisphere land.
I feel Ponza really isnt a bad matchup for my deck configuration, considering I run a metric poopload of ramp in the deck over the bolt/bbe package i feel like all they do is slow us down without presenting threats. The really *****ty draws to deal with though are the bbe into stone rain ones.
Semis vs Reeve on RG Eldrazi
He had a decent start, some RG land into an eldrazi temple with the matter reshapers coming in for the sick beats, I topdecked an omen on t4 for an omen into scapeshift though and he was gone.
Sideboarding was a bit weird cause I didnt know if RG eldrazi ran moons, but i brought in a few enchantment haters for my dead cards
G2 was pretty interesting, he resolved a matter reshaper pretty early to which i responded with KHE, search being suspended on t1 plus a fetch on my turn guaranteed that i would be able to get the value off it, or so I though, i didnt fetch immediately as I had an hour in hand and was thinking I could just hour t4 and drop the lands after fetching 2 valakuts. When I went to crack the fetch for the landfall trigger on his end step he had enchantment hate. welp.
I resolved a titan shortly after though, and topdecking a scapeshift after just left him a sad panda.
At this point im dying for a smoke and hungry for some goddamn dinner as I hadnt eaten all day, so i ran off for a quick smoke while Daniel was kicking the ***** out of yi kai in the other semis.
Finals - Vs Daniel on Nactl Burn
I should have been on the play as I was top seed but Daniel just begun the match with "Im on the play ya" and I gave it to him because I just wanted to be done. I had the turn 4 kill, but so did he FeelsBadMan. Highlights included me jokingly asking if I could intentionally forget my search time counter trigger after he resolved an eidolon, and promptly killing said eidolon with the MB rec sage.
SB - We didnt bother sideboarding as we just wanted to be done and eat.
G2 I had the t4 kill, he didnt, but I just scooped, shoutout to goblin guide for saving me from a really bad 1 land keep
That was the day, I ended up $150 richer than before and had a decent day, scarfed down 20 mcnuggets afterwards cause goddamn I deserved it.
Decklist wise I feel most comfortable with this configuration, I dislike BBE just because I feel its RNG is annoying as hell, especially when im banking on it getting me a ramp spell and it insteads decides to shove a pact or suns in my face. Plus running the metric *****load of ramp helps to keep the deck nice and consistent.
I replaced the flex wood elves slot with the relic because I prefer the cantrip, incidentally hosing GYs is nice as well, and one less creature means one more dead searing blaze in burn opponents' hands. Super keen to discuss the deck if anyone has any thoughts.
Shoutout to Games Haven in Singapore for being an awesome AF LGS and holding these events.
Tbh I dropped the bolts initially because of the team unified modern competition at grey ogre, I ended up going 4-1 for my personal score that day, I was pretty surprised at how smoothly the deck ran without it so I kinda went with it.
I haven't missed them much, G1 I can just brute force the win with t4 combos for most matchups, for humans I find that they usually name bolt first with meddling mage rather than suns or anger, or name anger even before suns, also unless they nut draw, i dont think they can kill me before t4, the deck legitimately feels so much smoother with the buttload of ramp I pack. Plus theres always the option of leaving a khalani heart with 3 counters on it and just sandbagging it with valakut on board for the emergency board clear.
Robots feel like theyve dropped off quite a bit locally, im happy with the 1 rec sage MB for cranial snipes and the two suns providing outs, with the 2 claims and 2 angers sb im pretty happy with where I am.
I ran back the Petersen list along with the newest Nguyen build for about 6 hours on Sunday. Points of comparison MD land base not included: 1 Farseek + 1 Exploration vs. 2 Growth Spasm, and 2 Sweltering Suns vs 2 Slagstorm.
- Slagstorm felt good off of a BBE. In the event I'd send the damage upstairs, I felt like it shortened the clock. Often 6 from BBE + Slag could put op to ~12.Add a bolt to the dome (or not), and Valakut doesn't have much work to do.
- Exploration off a BBE without a land felt sorta meh. Although Farseek off a BBE isn't normally game breaking, getting a guaranteed land into play was satisfying.
- Growth Spasm felt like a Farseek, but with an added mana chump. I'm not sure if cutting turn 2 ramp in favor of more explosive turn 3 ramp is good.
Overall, I need to draw Spasm more. Turn 2 ramp, into turn 3 Spasm + another 2cc ramp was good during the couple times it happened. Anyone have any incite?
So, I tried Thien's new Titanshift list with 4 Bloodbraid Elf, which was bad for me tonight. Everything else went pretty well though. 16 players.
Round 1 vs. GB Elves. I think I Bolted his first Llanowar Elves, but only ramped and Scapeshifted to kill in both games. His hands were just slow enough. 2-0.
Round 2 vs. Mono Green Tron. This it the guy I drove with. I win the roll and ramp up to Scapeshift. In the next game, it is close, but I fail to find any extra ramp outside of my opening hand and he does Ulamog just in time. I had 2 land, Search, Farseek, and 3 non lands. In the last game, he gets stuck on mana and does a Thought-Knot Seer, but sees a redundant hand that can't be stopped. I miss a land drop to kill him, drawing Ancient Grudge, but then find land next turn to win in time. He found Tron, but it took lands to do so, so he only had 5 mana left. 2-1.
Round 3 vs. Humans. He calls Lightning Bolt with Meddling Mage. Damn! I top deck Slagstorm in time ad Prime Time gets it done later. He does Reflector Mage, but he doesn't have much gas and I have some Valakut triggers to get me back to recasting Prime Time. He gets me in the next game with a couple of Mages, a Kitesail Freebooter, Auriok Champion, and Thalia's Lieutentant. I get him in the next game with double Roast, then Anger of the Gods. I get there with a Prime Time, despite it getting Reflector Maged again. He adds a Mantis Rider, but Valakut triggers get them and it's easy from there because when I'm going to cast Prime Time, I draw Scapeshift to win instead. Love this deck! 2-1.
Round 4 vs. Burn. 0-0-3. We play for fun since we're the last undefeated players and he stomps me in 2. I had some pretty poor draws, was on the draw in Game 1, and he had solid hands. BBE cascaded past my 1 Thragtusk for the first card in game 1. Couldn't find life gain in the next game and I had to do 1 for 1 Sweepers until an Eidolon of the Great Revel took enough life to kill me. Maybe I should have declined playing a Search off BBE, but it put me at Titan mana for next turn.
I get 3-0-1, which isn't bad for a slump. The Grishoalbrand player was here, thank God, because I don't think this deck stands a chance vs. him.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
I feel like this deck is the perfect fit for my local metagame. Every month there's a big tourney and most of the meta are fair decks. In FMNs, most of the time im usually the only guy playing a unfair deck, usually Storm, and recently Ironwork Combo. I've been slowly building this deck since its slightly more expensive since Scapeshift is pretty expensive and I have literally 0 of the cards from my collection. The thing is, most of the players here randomly have an un reasonable amount of hate vs combo like Storm in cards like graveyard hate, eg Relic or Rip, or cards like Eidolon of Rhetoric. Burn is also very common, and its a deck that I might have only 1 win within the last 4 months or so against when on unfair decks.
So I've decided to play this deck. What do you guys think about a meta that is loaded with fair decks? Last big monthly tourney there was 1 other Storm player besides me, and I'm almost sure that was the only combo/unfair deck in the entire place. With this said, should I be going with BBE or not. It seems like its best in control MUs, but my meta is mainly midrange (Jund/Jank) Jeskai Contol (both Queller and non-Queller), Tron (BG, Mono U, and RG), Burn, 1-2 Coco decks, 1-2 Lantern decks, and a few Humans
I side out Scapeshift against burn quite often but almost never the titan. If a deck is likely to be running Layline of Sanctity/similar the titan is generally better as a raw 6/6 with upside. If you expect ensnaring bridge then less so. It is very matchup dependent as to whether it works or not.
VS hatebears/taxes decks I leave all copies in and generally take out Hour of Promise for more removal. Dredge is generally an ok matchup so they should be left in. the other fast decks you mentioned I would consider taking out a couple of scapeshifts for sideboard hate but again, this depends on the amount of hate you have to bring in.
Re Jace, i think the deck is still fine. Our Jeskai matchup feels pretty even and against UW control I think we are slightly favoured. Also not sure when the rules change takes place but as soon as damage can go direct to walkers instead of via players playing a mountain to bolt Jace seems like a reasonable route to go. The elf im slightly more worried by as a fast aggressive card that dodges chalice and likely gets value on ETB regardless of if it gets damage in. Having said this it dies to bolt, anger and sweltering sun so im keen to know what others think about the changes.
BRGKresh the BloodbraidedBRG, A box of lands and ideas.
Modern:
RG Titanshift. A deck made of cards too stupid for EDH.
Retired: Lots. More than I feel you should suffer through or I should type out.
Round 1 vs. UW Control. I came in a car with 3 others. We had to play each other because we were 10 min late. I have too much gas in the first game. In the next game, it is similar. I have a Tireless Tracker with 9 clues still in the end, but don't need it because I drew gas. 2-0.
Round 2 vs. 4 Color Shadow. Made me discard a couple of good things. Drew lands. Inquisitioned me the 2nd and 3rd time to find only lands in hand in game 1. I Lightning Bolted in response, which didn't seem bad because there was only 1 Shadow later on. Had him at 1 life in the next one, but drew the 2 Forest from my deck (I sided out 1 only). My next card was Chameleon Colossus. 0-2.
Round 3 vs. Mardu Shadow. He kills me with double Temur Battle Rage in the first game on turn 5. In the next 2 games, he barely doesn't have enough to beat me and I slightly start to draw better than him in the midgame. 2-1.
Round 4 vs. UR Thing in the Ice. Got Mooned and Cryptic Commanded like a mother****er. 0-2.
Round 5 vs. Titanshift. Won game 1 because after Hour of Promise quickly on his turn, he played nothing else. Showed me 3 Mountain in hand while I Prime Timed twice. In the next game, I kept a hand with 3 win-cons. Big mistake. I drew only lands and got destroyed. I thought maybe Beast Within might save me, but he had much more than he needed. Got him with a super quick Scapeshift/Prismatic Omen kill. 2-1.
I got 9th, which always sucks. But 3-1-1 was the cutoff, so it mostly just sucked that this store took in $520 in cash for probably around $250 at most in Staples and didn't exceed the prize to top 12 or something like that like other stores I know. I mostly play there because the first 3 times I went, I got 1st, scooped to 1st so 2nd, and top 4. My last 3 times counting this one, I've failed to Top 8 though...
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)Modern : RG Titan Shift RG | RG Revolt Zoo RG | RG Ponza RG | RGW Naya Burn RGW
Legacy : RG Belcher RG
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/561598#paper
Broken Bond 1G
Sorcery
Destroy target artifact or enchantment. You may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield.
Damping Sphere 2
Artifact
If a land is tapped for two or more mana, it produces C instead of any other type and amount.
Each spell a player casts costs 1 more to cast for each other spell that player has cast this turn
Thoughts? I think the first certainly will make it into the SB and the second will be more of a meta call. Possibly two of the more significant cards the deck is likely to get with the new set.
BRGKresh the BloodbraidedBRG, A box of lands and ideas.
Modern:
RG Titanshift. A deck made of cards too stupid for EDH.
Retired: Lots. More than I feel you should suffer through or I should type out.
I also think BBE in this deck may be a real thing.
Im interested in trying BBE as most of the time you will hit a ramp spell, what have you taken out for it? Perhaps instead of Hour of Promise which is always my first cut in sideboarding.
BRGKresh the BloodbraidedBRG, A box of lands and ideas.
Modern:
RG Titanshift. A deck made of cards too stupid for EDH.
Retired: Lots. More than I feel you should suffer through or I should type out.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gpmad18/top-4-decklists-grand-prix-madrid-2018-2018-03-11
I would tune the SB a bit, but the mainboard looks good to me. Anger or Slagstorm or Sweltering in the 2-of slots, up to your preference.
@forestlore sounds like a hard meta. For burn, Thragtusk and Baloth are great also Chalice of the Void. for Infect chalice is basically the only option because it is just faster than us. Bring enchantment hate for ponza so that you can kill their Blood Moons. Knight fall and Jace decks I wouldnt/ dont worry about all that much. We can go off faster than them and can use valakut to kill their key pieces. You dont need to worry about jace fatesealing you when hitting land drops is good for you.
BRGKresh the BloodbraidedBRG, A box of lands and ideas.
Modern:
RG Titanshift. A deck made of cards too stupid for EDH.
Retired: Lots. More than I feel you should suffer through or I should type out.
(Modern)
RG RG Titanshift RG
WUBR Affinity WUBR
x Eldrazi Tron x
UG Tropical Merfolk UG
(Pauper)
G Elves G
WURG Affinity WURG
I played for 4 hours last night and BBE felt good, but was MU dependent. Was good against control, or midrange decks. In the aggro match-ups it wasn't bad (I think I cascaded into a pact once, and it was mid-late game), but I'd board BBE for OB.B + Anger of the Gods. I boarded 1 Summ. Pact out in a couple games, unsure how that affects this situation. I'll note more today.
I'll give it more play time, and take notes on when it's good and when it's bad. If I had to take it out, I'd maybe run 2 CoK, 1 Reclamation Sage, 1 Tracker,
The Petersen's list just felt really tight last night, but yeah, I'll keep running it back today with an open mind.
Decided to post a tourney report for one of my LGS's monthly 1.2k prize pool modern events.
No idea how to use the deck formatting tool so Im attaching my decklist in the images section.
38 Players, I hit 2nd place
R1 - Vs Alex on Elves
G1 Saw 3 lands, 3 ramp spells and a scapeshift, instant keep.
T1 search t2 KHE t3 farseek and easy t4 kill while he was making a giant horde of elves and failing to find Ezuri for a sick alpha strike
SB -1 Rec Sage - 1 Relic + 2 Angers
G2 Mulled to 6 after a 1 land imnotkeepingthiscrap hand, 3 lands, 1 suns, 1 search 1 stevo
Alex had a pretty slow hand and the t3 suns bought me a million years to find a payoff, cant remember exactly but it was a titan which i used to slow roll clear his board into punching him into oblivion with valakuts triggering like a cacophony of SJWs in the background.
Elves just feels too slow vs us unless they nut draw it, and even then any form of sweeper just ends them.
R2 - Vs Jos on UW Miracles
G1 was long, but not for any particular bad reason, I remember just casting ramp which he let through, and just laying lands with 2 valakuts on the field, eventually forcing him to tap out to bounce a valakut with cryptic when i cracked 2 fetches with 2 valakuts on board in response to a field of ruin trigger targeting a valakut. He basically tapped himself out and I just cast one of the 2 scapeshifts id been sandbagging for the win
SB -3 Farseek - 2 Hour - 2 KHE +1 Thrun +2 Tireless Trackers + 2 Relic of Progenitus + 2 Beast Within
G2 was a bit of a ***** storm, I missed a search time counter trigger on turn 2, and topdecked a tireless tracker on the same turn, meaning I got a free clue on t4 with the search resolving, i rode the tracker to card advantage town with 2 relics on board, unlike g1 however, I was unable to find valakuts for the sick slow roll play for ages, eventually found one though, and my opponent immediately fielded it and surgicaled it, basically cucking me so hard that I scooped ins- Jk i had 2 relics on board. He forgot about those, he tapped out to hard cast entreats on his next main phase to let me scapeshift for the win.
UW matchup's always been good, didnt even need to play Thrun vs the miracles variant, I legit feel like the only way they can beat us is if they find an early threat and we draw blanks for centuries.
R3 - vs David on GB Tron
G1 was a straight snap keep 4 lands 2 ramps 1 scapeshift, he durdled around assembling tron on t3 but not getting to use it till t4 while I just comboed and won after he passed t4 with a wurmcoil.
SB -2 KHE - 1 Relic - 1 Omen +2 Nature's Claim + 2 Beast Within
G2 - 3 Lands 4 Ramp spell snap keep, he had a natural tron hand and resolved karn into Emrakul the Promised end while i was praying for a payoff card, mindslavering me, good times.
G3 - He mulled to 4, stuck on a single land for 3 turns, I nut drew.
Good MU, dont really feel like anything other than a t3 karn can beat me in this MU as long as im on the play.
R4 - Vs Ken on Jund (in all Japanese)
Oh dear sweet lord I love this matchup, there was a lantern player and an other burn players who were 3-0 and i was praying to my pagan gods that I wouldnt meet one of em.
G1 t1 search, get iniqui'd and lose an explore, t2 farseek, t3 anger his bob and combo on turn 5, while his goyf looked sad
SB -2 Khalani Heart - 2 Omen - 1 Rec Sage -1 Hour of Promise + 3 Baloth + 2 Beast Within + 1 Thrun
G2 He gets stuck on 2 lands while I get a pretty average hand, 4 lands on turn 3 staring at his 2, I suns his bob after it reveals a Grafdigger's from the top (???????) which he casts, he eventually casts a bloodbraid elf which cascades into another grafdiggers, Im thoroughly confused at this point and wondering if he met any of the weird ritesshift shenannigans. I cast scapeshift on 7 lands, and he stops me, pointing at his 2 cages. Im so ******* confused. Turns out he thought that grafdigger's prevented anything from entering the battlefield from the deck. Nope. Great guy though, we had a good laugh over a smoke after.
Good matchup, opponent was a great guy.
Im locked for top 8 at this point so I ID my next 2 matches and spend the next 2 hours watching people destroy their wallets with wizard's latest money sink, A25. Even picked up some blood moons on the cheap and got a few dece commons/uncommons as payment for helping my mates who cracked 3 cases sort their commons and uncommons.
Top 8
We met up and decided to split and pocket $150 each, store was adamant we play out the games though just so they could get sick social media pictures and writeups, I mean they were paying us $150 ea so dinner could wait, meh.
The decks in top 8 in order were
Me at top seed on RG Steve's Landscaping with friends
Daniel on Nactl Burn
David on Tron (GB)
Joshua on something I dont know
Reeve on RG Eldrazi
Yi Kai on Dredge
Ian on Boros Burn
Trevor on Ponza
Quarters - vs Trevor on Ponza
Everyone was telling me it was a really ***** matchup and that I was bound to lose, but I honestly dont feel like its that bad. I drew a hand of 5 lands 1 explore and a search for tomorrow
t1 - search
his t1 - forest birds
t2 - explore, drawing a farseek
his t2 - stone rain
for the next 3 turns i topdecked ramp while he cast 3 consecutive stone rains, i eventually just reached 8 lands and topdecked a scapeshift
At this point my friends watching were going full "Nani the f*** is this sh*t man holy f***" while i just grinned like a mongoloid
SB - 2 Primeval Titan - 1 Relic +2 Natures claim + 1 Back to Nature
I mulled to a 5 lander expecting to be cucked by land D, turns out he got stuck on 2 lands for 4 or so turns and i jsut comboed off and won, he had kept a greedy trinisphere land.
I feel Ponza really isnt a bad matchup for my deck configuration, considering I run a metric poopload of ramp in the deck over the bolt/bbe package i feel like all they do is slow us down without presenting threats. The really *****ty draws to deal with though are the bbe into stone rain ones.
Semis vs Reeve on RG Eldrazi
He had a decent start, some RG land into an eldrazi temple with the matter reshapers coming in for the sick beats, I topdecked an omen on t4 for an omen into scapeshift though and he was gone.
SB - 2 Sweltering suns - 1 relic + 2 Beast Within + 1 Thrun
Sideboarding was a bit weird cause I didnt know if RG eldrazi ran moons, but i brought in a few enchantment haters for my dead cards
G2 was pretty interesting, he resolved a matter reshaper pretty early to which i responded with KHE, search being suspended on t1 plus a fetch on my turn guaranteed that i would be able to get the value off it, or so I though, i didnt fetch immediately as I had an hour in hand and was thinking I could just hour t4 and drop the lands after fetching 2 valakuts. When I went to crack the fetch for the landfall trigger on his end step he had enchantment hate. welp.
I resolved a titan shortly after though, and topdecking a scapeshift after just left him a sad panda.
At this point im dying for a smoke and hungry for some goddamn dinner as I hadnt eaten all day, so i ran off for a quick smoke while Daniel was kicking the ***** out of yi kai in the other semis.
Finals - Vs Daniel on Nactl Burn
I should have been on the play as I was top seed but Daniel just begun the match with "Im on the play ya" and I gave it to him because I just wanted to be done. I had the turn 4 kill, but so did he FeelsBadMan. Highlights included me jokingly asking if I could intentionally forget my search time counter trigger after he resolved an eidolon, and promptly killing said eidolon with the MB rec sage.
SB - We didnt bother sideboarding as we just wanted to be done and eat.
G2 I had the t4 kill, he didnt, but I just scooped, shoutout to goblin guide for saving me from a really bad 1 land keep
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That was the day, I ended up $150 richer than before and had a decent day, scarfed down 20 mcnuggets afterwards cause goddamn I deserved it.
Decklist wise I feel most comfortable with this configuration, I dislike BBE just because I feel its RNG is annoying as hell, especially when im banking on it getting me a ramp spell and it insteads decides to shove a pact or suns in my face. Plus running the metric *****load of ramp helps to keep the deck nice and consistent.
I replaced the flex wood elves slot with the relic because I prefer the cantrip, incidentally hosing GYs is nice as well, and one less creature means one more dead searing blaze in burn opponents' hands. Super keen to discuss the deck if anyone has any thoughts.
Shoutout to Games Haven in Singapore for being an awesome AF LGS and holding these events.
You don't think bolts are needed at all currently? I'm still running 3 at the moment for humans and affinity.
All-in goldfish for the win game 1 is always an elegant solution though.
I haven't missed them much, G1 I can just brute force the win with t4 combos for most matchups, for humans I find that they usually name bolt first with meddling mage rather than suns or anger, or name anger even before suns, also unless they nut draw, i dont think they can kill me before t4, the deck legitimately feels so much smoother with the buttload of ramp I pack. Plus theres always the option of leaving a khalani heart with 3 counters on it and just sandbagging it with valakut on board for the emergency board clear.
Robots feel like theyve dropped off quite a bit locally, im happy with the 1 rec sage MB for cranial snipes and the two suns providing outs, with the 2 claims and 2 angers sb im pretty happy with where I am.
- Slagstorm felt good off of a BBE. In the event I'd send the damage upstairs, I felt like it shortened the clock. Often 6 from BBE + Slag could put op to ~12.Add a bolt to the dome (or not), and Valakut doesn't have much work to do.
- Exploration off a BBE without a land felt sorta meh. Although Farseek off a BBE isn't normally game breaking, getting a guaranteed land into play was satisfying.
- Growth Spasm felt like a Farseek, but with an added mana chump. I'm not sure if cutting turn 2 ramp in favor of more explosive turn 3 ramp is good.
Overall, I need to draw Spasm more. Turn 2 ramp, into turn 3 Spasm + another 2cc ramp was good during the couple times it happened. Anyone have any incite?
Round 1 vs. GB Elves. I think I Bolted his first Llanowar Elves, but only ramped and Scapeshifted to kill in both games. His hands were just slow enough. 2-0.
Round 2 vs. Mono Green Tron. This it the guy I drove with. I win the roll and ramp up to Scapeshift. In the next game, it is close, but I fail to find any extra ramp outside of my opening hand and he does Ulamog just in time. I had 2 land, Search, Farseek, and 3 non lands. In the last game, he gets stuck on mana and does a Thought-Knot Seer, but sees a redundant hand that can't be stopped. I miss a land drop to kill him, drawing Ancient Grudge, but then find land next turn to win in time. He found Tron, but it took lands to do so, so he only had 5 mana left. 2-1.
Round 3 vs. Humans. He calls Lightning Bolt with Meddling Mage. Damn! I top deck Slagstorm in time ad Prime Time gets it done later. He does Reflector Mage, but he doesn't have much gas and I have some Valakut triggers to get me back to recasting Prime Time. He gets me in the next game with a couple of Mages, a Kitesail Freebooter, Auriok Champion, and Thalia's Lieutentant. I get him in the next game with double Roast, then Anger of the Gods. I get there with a Prime Time, despite it getting Reflector Maged again. He adds a Mantis Rider, but Valakut triggers get them and it's easy from there because when I'm going to cast Prime Time, I draw Scapeshift to win instead. Love this deck! 2-1.
Round 4 vs. Burn. 0-0-3. We play for fun since we're the last undefeated players and he stomps me in 2. I had some pretty poor draws, was on the draw in Game 1, and he had solid hands. BBE cascaded past my 1 Thragtusk for the first card in game 1. Couldn't find life gain in the next game and I had to do 1 for 1 Sweepers until an Eidolon of the Great Revel took enough life to kill me. Maybe I should have declined playing a Search off BBE, but it put me at Titan mana for next turn.
I get 3-0-1, which isn't bad for a slump. The Grishoalbrand player was here, thank God, because I don't think this deck stands a chance vs. him.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)So I've decided to play this deck. What do you guys think about a meta that is loaded with fair decks? Last big monthly tourney there was 1 other Storm player besides me, and I'm almost sure that was the only combo/unfair deck in the entire place. With this said, should I be going with BBE or not. It seems like its best in control MUs, but my meta is mainly midrange (Jund/Jank) Jeskai Contol (both Queller and non-Queller), Tron (BG, Mono U, and RG), Burn, 1-2 Coco decks, 1-2 Lantern decks, and a few Humans
URStormRU
GRTitanshift[mana]RG/mana]