Just wondering whether anyone has tried out Brain in a Jar. It breaks the 3 cc rule, but it seems like a very efficient way to get cards like Restore Balance out. Also, with a neat new way to cheat out RB, you could also consider tossing in accelerators like Lotus Bloom and Ancestral Vision.
*edit* sorry, just realized that this wouldn't work... Thought BiaJ read "with CC equal or less to number of counters"
*double-edit* It actually might be a possible play, because if you sac BiaJ while it's ability is on the stack to a suspended Gargadon, it would trigger with zero counters on it.
*treble-edit* I'm gonna attempt a list that runs BiaJ, lotus bloom, and some beef. Will update and let you know how she goes.
Brain in a Jar seems to be too much of a stretch in my opinion. I could maybe see it, but the non-bo with Cascade seems worse.
The total amount of mana sources in borderpost light/medium/heavy lists are roughly equal, so getting stuck on 2 mana sources is not more likely in borderpost medium lists. Borderpost light/medium lists will sometimes draw hands enough mana and no posts, leaving their artifact hate completly irrelevant. And way less likely to get hosed by Ancient Grudge, Shatterstorm or Stony Silence. You are MUCH more vulnerable with a heavy borderpost version. The upside is that you also pressure their manabase much harder.
Yes, logically, each version should have the same amount of mana sources...but I seem to be unlucky most of the time then. I've only ever played the heavy and medium versions (right now I am on a medium version but could switch back to a heavy list). I think both versions get totally hosed by Mass removal (Stony silence, Fracturing Gust, Creeping Corrosion, Shattering Spree) but it seems the medium version gets hit worse by spot removal (wear // tear, Maelstorm Pulse, Abrupt Decay, ancient grudge). I think is because in my post heavy versions I draw 1 land and 4 posts. in my medium versions I draw 2 lands and 3 posts or maybe 3 lands and 2 posts. In each case, if they blow up two posts, I am ok in the heavy version but in the medium version, I am much worse off. If I balance, I can't destroy their lands, which in my opinion is the more powerful effect of the card, which is why I focus on the medium/heavy versions.
Best sideboard card against burn is Leyline of sanctity. They will bring in destructive revelry anyway to shoot the borderposts. but this cards slows them down and makes them actually care about the boardstate enough for Restore balance to actually hurt them. I've been trying Firewalkers and found that while although they help, they are only playable against burn, and they don't do enough to make the matchup favourable. They are not worth they sideboard slots they require, except in very burn heavy metas.
You have won more with Leyline than with Firewalker? I haven't tried Leyline honestly. My concern is that if I mulligan to Leyline, then I will get down to a bad 4 card hand + Leyline. Sure, I have hexproof for a while, but are the other cards in my hand going to win the game? Plus, I only have 4 copies of Leyline to mulligan to while I will have 10-11 Cascades and Firewalkers to mulligan to. It seems more likely to keep a safe hand with a cascade spell than it is to keep a good hand with Leyline. But I suppose playtesting will lead to the right answer.
Turn 1 Restore Balance/Greater Gargadon are really good turn 1 plays. Turn 1 Borderpost into Turn 2 Simian Spirit guide + 3 drop is great. Turn 1 Borderpost, Turn 2 borderpost and mana up for Dismember/Wispmare/Ingot Chewer. Late game top decking a fetchland and getting Mistveil plains is also an advantage. Restore balance is a relatively slow deck, a small tempo boost really goes a long way...
Turn 1 Gargadon is great. Turn one Restore balance is also good, I forgot to mention that one, it isn't too common though. I don't think fast fetches help too much. I mean, I run two of them to help find Mistveil and I run 4 Evolving Wilds. And if my opening hand only has one fetchland, to me it doesn't matter which one it is. I'd prefer to have the Wilds for mana fixing honestly, to guarantee I'll hit the right mana for a cascade spell. Turn one posts and turn to Spirit guide + 3 drop has only been good for me if I am trying to rush out Blood Moon. My other three drops aren't needed on turn two (Beast Within and Cascading and Thieves Fortune). If I have a Blood Moon, then yes I will try to rush it out, but other than that, I think a slow fetch is fine.
With 45-50% of our deck bound in our manabase, 10-20% in the combo, and 5-10% on removal/answers. the last cards need to matter. We are pretty bad at top-decking. Therefore I want resilient/ hard value and/or "oops-i-win" cards as the last ones. I'd rather win 80% of the matches 10 turns after a balance than 70% 2 turns after one.
I suppose I just want a more clear answer as to what our "finishers" are. Every has 4 gargadon. What else are the best finishers? I believe Kiora is since her ultimate resists spot removal. I also like Ezuri's Brigade since he survives Dismember and will be the biggest creature on the field for just 4 mana. He dies to removal though. I guess Blood Moon is a finisher in some matches since we can durtle around if we lock them out of lands. What else do you use as a big impact finihser? Nahiri's ultimate to get gargadon? Sure attack for 9 now and then suspend it again next turn just to wait 5 more turns and allow the opponent time to rebuild? I'm not sure what else to use as "finihsers" and I guess I don't consider the Planeswalkers as finishers. So I prioritize big impact finishers over Planewalkers.
Delver is not a bad matchup, Infect and affinity are pretty open, mulligan aggressively. Burn is atrocious, Ad Naseum and Grishoalbrand are hard. Playing against a good Abzan player is though aswell.
Delver is pretty bad IMO. Turn one here is a 3/2 flyer and turn 2 they have Remand,Mana Leak, Spell Pierce open to always counter your Balance. Affinity seems bad, since if we balance, they still have Plating, Springleaf Drum, Mox opal out on the field plus now we have to discard our entire hand. If they topdeck a Memnite, Ornithopter, Vault Skurge, then they're set. It sounds bad, but I have beaten Affinity about half the times I play them, I guess it comes to how we top deck after a Balance. Infect is tough if they turn one Glistener Elf, turn two go all in with pumps. There's not much I can do if I'm playing posts on turn 1 and 2. Beast Within and Dismember help obviously. Spirit Guide as well to provide tempo. But if you don't draw those card in your opening hand, then it's tough. Burn is indeed atrocious. I have yet to play against Ad Nauseum or Grislebrand to be honest, no one in my meta plays them. Jund is very tough with discard and artifact removal (kolagahans command and ancient grudge), but abzan is more fair in my experience.
All good comments, I've been playing this deck for about a year but I always need more input. You seem much more experienced with the deck with better results than me so I welcome the critiques on my ideas and build. As of now, here is my list
I use Mono U Tezz as a Finisher mostly and Thassa as my secondary Finisher. Gargadon is relegated to the back seat. Testing with BfZ Gideon has been positive, though there have been a few times where making Allies has bit me.
I like to keep a diverse set of threats so my opponent can really only hate on the core of the gameplan.
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My Modern decks: B/R/G Living End G/R/B G/R Tron R/G U/W/G/R Gargageddon R/G/W/U R/W/G Naya Burn G/W/R
Your deck looks fine. The only card I'm kinda iffy about is Thieves' Fortune. I found that we rarely have time to dig for answers/cascaders. It was the first card I sideboarded out. Every game.
Yeah, Thieves' Fortune is the worst card, I just don't know what to take out for it...It does help find answers when we need them: Why pray to topdeck a cascade when you can filter and dig for it. I thought about switching them for Dismember, but then the Dismembers are just buying time against one threat when a Thieves' Fortune finds a Cascade spell (or the proper mana for a cascade) so that you can wipe the board of all threats. So I'm still not sure which to use...And admittedly I do side board them out most of the time...
Do y'all think 4 Simian Spirit Guide is a must for the core of the deck? It's a solid card in the opening hand but I don't see myself ever wanting to draw one during a game. I'm thinking of dropping it to a 3-of main deck and add an extra removal spell main deck...
Simian Spirit Guide is great for this deck. I thought about cutting it to 3 myself, but think about what it does. It allows us to tap out and still hold up Dismember, and Ricochet Trap (most of the time.) It also is the red mana we need for Violent Outburst sometimes and Demonic Dread. It is an extra card to discard for Balance, forcing an extra discard from our opponent. It also pays for Cursecatcher or Thalia early in the game, before we get enough posts on the field.
Jeskai control with Nahiri+emrakul as wincon won the Indianapolis scg open so I don't see why this wouldn't work in this deck. We almost use the same color plus restore balance will protect our planeswalker. Even without combo, Nahiri itself offers lot of value to this deck such as looting and removing threats (especially enchantment) off the board. With Nahiri, singleton emrakul should not hurt as much, if it did the jeskai deck wouldn't have won the scg open.
What I like with leaning towards the Nahiri, the Harbinger + Emrakul, the Aeons Torn combo is that, Nahiri is additional removal which answers most of the problems we have (Stony Silence being the most notable). Though if we are to insert the combo, we must commit 4 slots to Nahiri, which is not bad because she is so good. I can also see a sequence wherein we can +2 her, discarding Restore Balance and then ultimating, getting Goblin Dark-Dwellers casting Restore Balance and then attacking with it, and then we can do it again later once the opponent tries to recover.
I can also see a sequence wherein we can +2 her, discarding Restore Balance and then ultimating, getting Goblin Dark-Dwellers casting Restore Balance and then attacking with it, and then we can do it again later once the opponent tries to recover.
FINALLY someone gets it Also it might contradict with Goblin Dark Dweller, but if you discard Emrakul with Nahiri you get to return some Restore Balance back to library which is useful sometimes. I'm not saying everyone should run the nahiri+emrakul pack but I think Nahiri is worth a slot in restore balance deck.
You have a great point regarding the Mistveil Plains function of Nahiri+Emrakul interaction. Nice find there, since I don't use any reshuffle effects right now. Will try testing this.
Also, I find the other planeswalker spots clunky for my tastes, so having a more viable replacement for them is nice.
How many finishers/threats are y'all running? I'm running 10 and find I don't draw one or more in a few games, maybe a third of the time I just durdle with posts and lands.
I think Nahiri, the Harbinger might be what this deck has been looking for for a long time.
I've been looking at builts recently, thinking about getting back into the deck. anyone with Nahiri could play control with her, but playing her in a restore balance takes some skill and gutz
Your deck looks fine. The only card I'm kinda iffy about is Thieves' Fortune. I found that we rarely have time to dig for answers/cascaders. It was the first card I sideboarded out. Every game.
Thieves' Fortune and Perplex are always my go-to cuts. Doesn't mean they are not the best choice for the Mainboard Game 1.
Do y'all think 4 Simian Spirit Guide is a must for the core of the deck? It's a solid card in the opening hand but I don't see myself ever wanting to draw one during a game. I'm thinking of dropping it to a 3-of main deck and add an extra removal spell main deck...
You 100% want the Simian Spirit Guides. The number of games I have finished with a single Simian Spirit Guide on the battlefield is on the order of like 10%.
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My Modern decks: B/R/G Living End G/R/B G/R Tron R/G U/W/G/R Gargageddon R/G/W/U R/W/G Naya Burn G/W/R
Hey guys, I went to GP Charlotte and here are my results. I'm sure you guys also heard about the pairings mess up, and it was a long weekend that burned me out of magic, so I took a month off. That's why I am posting so late. Here was the deck I ran:
As mentioned earlier, I was only unsure of the Thieves' Fortunes. Whenever I didn't know what to sideboard out, I took those out. Seemd to work fine.
Round 1: 2-1 win over Merfolk. Game 1 I didn't draw anything. Game 2 and 3 I was able to balance multiple times and kill all of her mutavaults with dismember.
Round 2: 2-0 win over G/R tron. Main deck Blood Moons are awesome.
Round 3: 1-2 loss to RUW Nahiri. Was close. But Games 2 and 3 he got me with Stony Silence. Game 3, I drew a Wispmare, but not a white source or fetch for a white source.
Round 4: 2-0 win over Eldrazi taxes. Pretty easy actually. Turn 3 balance wiped everything.
Round 5: 1-2 loss to burn. Bad matchup. I won with Firewalkers game 2, but still tough game 3.
Round 6: 0-2 loss to Jund. Bad matchup. Messed up pairings too, he was 5-0.
Round 7: 2-0 win over Elves. Easy matchup.
Round 8: 0-2 loss to RUW Nahiri (Peter Ingrim)
Dropped because it was already like 11:00 and I was tired.
Very upset that I started off 3-1 and the scrubbed my way to 4-4. Especially with all the messed up pairings and long delays (2 hour wait between rounds). There were plays that I would like to take back against both Nahiri decks, but still not sure if that would have changed the result. Would have given me more play though.
This is a fun deck, very easily could have gone 7-2 or at least 6-3. I might be taking more of a break from Magic so I might not post much in the next couple of weeks/months.
You 100% want the Simian Spirit Guides. The number of games I have finished with a single Simian Spirit Guide on the battlefield is on the order of like 10%.
but it could be another win condition instead in that slot, and it might work better. if everything goes according to plan, and your opponent has nothing, then a 2/2 wins the game, but when things arent going according to plan, drawing a spirit guide instead of more action isnt amazing. And when everything is ok and a 2/2 wins the game, anything else would have won the game too...
I get this line of thought, but Modern is a format of turns. One turn too late and you lose. Simian Spirit Guide tips the turn scale.
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My Modern decks: B/R/G Living End G/R/B G/R Tron R/G U/W/G/R Gargageddon R/G/W/U R/W/G Naya Burn G/W/R
Does this deck have any good matchups in the current modern?
Anything creature based or land based is an obviously good match up. So things like Elves, Slivers, Company, Zoo, Kiki Chord, Living End, GR Tron, Scapeshift, Hatebears (thalia makes Cascading hard, but you win if they don't have it).
The 50-50 matchups are (in my opinion): affinity (they dump their hand + still have plating, spring leaf drum, mox opal after a balance), Merfolk (they have aether vial to play creatures without lands, plus some counter magic is annoying), Infect (sometimes they just have the nuts and kill you on turn 2 after you play 2 tapped borderposts and don't affect the board). Eldrazi is easy if they don't have Thought Not Seers to take away the Cascades before you cast them. These all get better with sideboard cards, but you have to draw them.
The control decks depend on the skill of the opponent and if they know what's up. Ricochet Trap and Spirit guide are your friends in this match up.
Abzan is ok depending on the amount of hand disruption they use, although Souls tokens become annoying.
The bad match ups are: Burn (too fast and they can even play around Firewalkers with Skullcrack and Atarka's Command), Jund (a lot of hand disruption).
Mill is now becoming a thing apparently. So in this match up, just try to fetch for Mistveil Plains ASAP before it gets milled. Then just let them mill you out and then it will turn into a Demonic tutor at every draw step. If you draw the Mistveil Naturally, don't play it since they might ghost quarter it away.
This deck is very good. Nahiri can discard an emrakul or we can discard it to restore balance to shuffle our graveyard back in. Also, adding anguished Unmaking and maelstrom pulse let's us hit problematic enchantments or even planeswalkers that the older versions couldn't hit! It's at its strongest now, and honestly the 5-0 Isn't surprising considering how powerful and unknown this variant is! It's really hard to stop this deck from winning once you resolve a nahiri because she also let's you smooth out your draws and Ajani can punish your opponent for being greedy with both their + abilities! The benefit of a POSSIBLE nahiri ult to fetch emmy or Ajani and his notorious 1 sided Armageddon is just icing on the already resilient cake!
This deck is very good. Nahiri can discard an emrakul or we can discard it to restore balance to shuffle our graveyard back in. Also, adding anguished Unmaking and maelstrom pulse let's us hit problematic enchantments or even planeswalkers that the older versions couldn't hit! It's at its strongest now, and honestly the 5-0 Isn't surprising considering how powerful and unknown this variant is! It's really hard to stop this deck from winning once you resolve a nahiri because she also let's you smooth out your draws and Ajani can punish your opponent for being greedy with both their + abilities! The benefit of a POSSIBLE nahiri ult to fetch emmy or Ajani and his notorious 1 sided Armageddon is just icing on the already resilient cake!
Shuffling in our graveyard also adds to the effect that we aren't a 4 shot pony anymore either, and when your opponent is holding a counter in their hand, sure they can counter a restore balance but, they also have to respect you can bite back with your walkers too. Your opponent's will have a very fun time with this deck, not to mention you can still end up beating face with a dumb old 9/7 haste (off of suspend) like the good old days. Not to mention foil borderposts look very pretty
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Brain in a Jar seems to be too much of a stretch in my opinion. I could maybe see it, but the non-bo with Cascade seems worse.
Just my two cents.
Yes, logically, each version should have the same amount of mana sources...but I seem to be unlucky most of the time then. I've only ever played the heavy and medium versions (right now I am on a medium version but could switch back to a heavy list). I think both versions get totally hosed by Mass removal (Stony silence, Fracturing Gust, Creeping Corrosion, Shattering Spree) but it seems the medium version gets hit worse by spot removal (wear // tear, Maelstorm Pulse, Abrupt Decay, ancient grudge). I think is because in my post heavy versions I draw 1 land and 4 posts. in my medium versions I draw 2 lands and 3 posts or maybe 3 lands and 2 posts. In each case, if they blow up two posts, I am ok in the heavy version but in the medium version, I am much worse off. If I balance, I can't destroy their lands, which in my opinion is the more powerful effect of the card, which is why I focus on the medium/heavy versions.
You have won more with Leyline than with Firewalker? I haven't tried Leyline honestly. My concern is that if I mulligan to Leyline, then I will get down to a bad 4 card hand + Leyline. Sure, I have hexproof for a while, but are the other cards in my hand going to win the game? Plus, I only have 4 copies of Leyline to mulligan to while I will have 10-11 Cascades and Firewalkers to mulligan to. It seems more likely to keep a safe hand with a cascade spell than it is to keep a good hand with Leyline. But I suppose playtesting will lead to the right answer.
Turn 1 Gargadon is great. Turn one Restore balance is also good, I forgot to mention that one, it isn't too common though. I don't think fast fetches help too much. I mean, I run two of them to help find Mistveil and I run 4 Evolving Wilds. And if my opening hand only has one fetchland, to me it doesn't matter which one it is. I'd prefer to have the Wilds for mana fixing honestly, to guarantee I'll hit the right mana for a cascade spell. Turn one posts and turn to Spirit guide + 3 drop has only been good for me if I am trying to rush out Blood Moon. My other three drops aren't needed on turn two (Beast Within and Cascading and Thieves Fortune). If I have a Blood Moon, then yes I will try to rush it out, but other than that, I think a slow fetch is fine.
I suppose I just want a more clear answer as to what our "finishers" are. Every has 4 gargadon. What else are the best finishers? I believe Kiora is since her ultimate resists spot removal. I also like Ezuri's Brigade since he survives Dismember and will be the biggest creature on the field for just 4 mana. He dies to removal though. I guess Blood Moon is a finisher in some matches since we can durtle around if we lock them out of lands. What else do you use as a big impact finihser? Nahiri's ultimate to get gargadon? Sure attack for 9 now and then suspend it again next turn just to wait 5 more turns and allow the opponent time to rebuild? I'm not sure what else to use as "finihsers" and I guess I don't consider the Planeswalkers as finishers. So I prioritize big impact finishers over Planewalkers.
Delver is pretty bad IMO. Turn one here is a 3/2 flyer and turn 2 they have Remand,Mana Leak, Spell Pierce open to always counter your Balance. Affinity seems bad, since if we balance, they still have Plating, Springleaf Drum, Mox opal out on the field plus now we have to discard our entire hand. If they topdeck a Memnite, Ornithopter, Vault Skurge, then they're set. It sounds bad, but I have beaten Affinity about half the times I play them, I guess it comes to how we top deck after a Balance. Infect is tough if they turn one Glistener Elf, turn two go all in with pumps. There's not much I can do if I'm playing posts on turn 1 and 2. Beast Within and Dismember help obviously. Spirit Guide as well to provide tempo. But if you don't draw those card in your opening hand, then it's tough. Burn is indeed atrocious. I have yet to play against Ad Nauseum or Grislebrand to be honest, no one in my meta plays them. Jund is very tough with discard and artifact removal (kolagahans command and ancient grudge), but abzan is more fair in my experience.
All good comments, I've been playing this deck for about a year but I always need more input. You seem much more experienced with the deck with better results than me so I welcome the critiques on my ideas and build. As of now, here is my list
1 Plains
2 Island
2 Mountain
1 Forest
1 Mistveil Plains
4 Evolving Wilds
1 Flooded Strand
1 Windswept Heath
Posts (13)
4 Firewild Borderpost
4 Wildfield Borderpost
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
1 Mistvein Borderpost
4 Ardent Plea
4 Violent Outburst
3 Restore Balance
Utility (12)
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Beast Within
4 Thieves' Fortune
Finihsers (11)
4 Greater Gargadon
3 Ezuri's Brigade
2 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
2 Blood Moon
2 Wispmare
3 Kor Firewalker
3 Dismember
3 Ingot Chewer
4 Ricochet Trap
Feedback is much appreciated.
I like to keep a diverse set of threats so my opponent can really only hate on the core of the gameplan.
My Modern decks:
B/R/G Living End G/R/B
G/R Tron R/G
U/W/G/R Gargageddon R/G/W/U
R/W/G Naya Burn G/W/R
Yeah, Thieves' Fortune is the worst card, I just don't know what to take out for it...It does help find answers when we need them: Why pray to topdeck a cascade when you can filter and dig for it. I thought about switching them for Dismember, but then the Dismembers are just buying time against one threat when a Thieves' Fortune finds a Cascade spell (or the proper mana for a cascade) so that you can wipe the board of all threats. So I'm still not sure which to use...And admittedly I do side board them out most of the time...
RGForest BelcherRG
WUBRGBring to BalanceWUBRG
Commander Decks:
WUBSharuum the HegemonWUB
WUBRGScion of the Ur-DragonWUBRG
UBDralnu, Lich LordUB
UBRNekusar, the MindrazerUBR
I don't think this is problem either because most retore balance decks runs 2~4 planeswalker which can be replaced with Nahiri.
FINALLY someone gets it Also it might contradict with Goblin Dark Dweller, but if you discard Emrakul with Nahiri you get to return some Restore Balance back to library which is useful sometimes. I'm not saying everyone should run the nahiri+emrakul pack but I think Nahiri is worth a slot in restore balance deck.
Also, I find the other planeswalker spots clunky for my tastes, so having a more viable replacement for them is nice.
RGForest BelcherRG
WUBRGBring to BalanceWUBRG
Commander Decks:
WUBSharuum the HegemonWUB
WUBRGScion of the Ur-DragonWUBRG
UBDralnu, Lich LordUB
UBRNekusar, the MindrazerUBR
I've been looking at builts recently, thinking about getting back into the deck. anyone with Nahiri could play control with her, but playing her in a restore balance takes some skill and gutz
Thieves' Fortune and Perplex are always my go-to cuts. Doesn't mean they are not the best choice for the Mainboard Game 1.
You 100% want the Simian Spirit Guides. The number of games I have finished with a single Simian Spirit Guide on the battlefield is on the order of like 10%.
My Modern decks:
B/R/G Living End G/R/B
G/R Tron R/G
U/W/G/R Gargageddon R/G/W/U
R/W/G Naya Burn G/W/R
1 Plains
2 Island
2 Mountain
1 Forest
1 Mistveil Plains
4 Evolving Wilds
1 Flooded Strand
1 Windswept Heath
Posts (13)
4 Firewild Borderpost
4 Wildfield Borderpost
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
1 Mistvein Borderpost
4 Ardent Plea
4 Violent Outburst
3 Restore Balance
Utility (12)
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Beast Within
4 Thieves' Fortune
Finihsers (11)
4 Greater Gargadon
3 Ezuri's Brigade
2 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
2 Blood Moon
2 Wispmare
3 Kor Firewalker
3 Dismember
3 Ingot Chewer
4 Ricochet Trap
As mentioned earlier, I was only unsure of the Thieves' Fortunes. Whenever I didn't know what to sideboard out, I took those out. Seemd to work fine.
Round 1: 2-1 win over Merfolk. Game 1 I didn't draw anything. Game 2 and 3 I was able to balance multiple times and kill all of her mutavaults with dismember.
Round 2: 2-0 win over G/R tron. Main deck Blood Moons are awesome.
Round 3: 1-2 loss to RUW Nahiri. Was close. But Games 2 and 3 he got me with Stony Silence. Game 3, I drew a Wispmare, but not a white source or fetch for a white source.
Round 4: 2-0 win over Eldrazi taxes. Pretty easy actually. Turn 3 balance wiped everything.
Round 5: 1-2 loss to burn. Bad matchup. I won with Firewalkers game 2, but still tough game 3.
Round 6: 0-2 loss to Jund. Bad matchup. Messed up pairings too, he was 5-0.
Round 7: 2-0 win over Elves. Easy matchup.
Round 8: 0-2 loss to RUW Nahiri (Peter Ingrim)
Dropped because it was already like 11:00 and I was tired.
Very upset that I started off 3-1 and the scrubbed my way to 4-4. Especially with all the messed up pairings and long delays (2 hour wait between rounds). There were plays that I would like to take back against both Nahiri decks, but still not sure if that would have changed the result. Would have given me more play though.
This is a fun deck, very easily could have gone 7-2 or at least 6-3. I might be taking more of a break from Magic so I might not post much in the next couple of weeks/months.
I get this line of thought, but Modern is a format of turns. One turn too late and you lose. Simian Spirit Guide tips the turn scale.
My Modern decks:
B/R/G Living End G/R/B
G/R Tron R/G
U/W/G/R Gargageddon R/G/W/U
R/W/G Naya Burn G/W/R
Skip it and run Riftwing Cloudskate if that is the effect you want.
My Modern decks:
B/R/G Living End G/R/B
G/R Tron R/G
U/W/G/R Gargageddon R/G/W/U
R/W/G Naya Burn G/W/R
Anything creature based or land based is an obviously good match up. So things like Elves, Slivers, Company, Zoo, Kiki Chord, Living End, GR Tron, Scapeshift, Hatebears (thalia makes Cascading hard, but you win if they don't have it).
The 50-50 matchups are (in my opinion): affinity (they dump their hand + still have plating, spring leaf drum, mox opal after a balance), Merfolk (they have aether vial to play creatures without lands, plus some counter magic is annoying), Infect (sometimes they just have the nuts and kill you on turn 2 after you play 2 tapped borderposts and don't affect the board). Eldrazi is easy if they don't have Thought Not Seers to take away the Cascades before you cast them. These all get better with sideboard cards, but you have to draw them.
The control decks depend on the skill of the opponent and if they know what's up. Ricochet Trap and Spirit guide are your friends in this match up.
Abzan is ok depending on the amount of hand disruption they use, although Souls tokens become annoying.
The bad match ups are: Burn (too fast and they can even play around Firewalkers with Skullcrack and Atarka's Command), Jund (a lot of hand disruption).
Mill is now becoming a thing apparently. So in this match up, just try to fetch for Mistveil Plains ASAP before it gets milled. Then just let them mill you out and then it will turn into a Demonic tutor at every draw step. If you draw the Mistveil Naturally, don't play it since they might ghost quarter it away.
Again, this is just in my experience.
Shuffling in our graveyard also adds to the effect that we aren't a 4 shot pony anymore either, and when your opponent is holding a counter in their hand, sure they can counter a restore balance but, they also have to respect you can bite back with your walkers too. Your opponent's will have a very fun time with this deck, not to mention you can still end up beating face with a dumb old 9/7 haste (off of suspend) like the good old days. Not to mention foil borderposts look very pretty