R1: 2-0 VS Thomas Toomey on Affinity - Both games ended with him having 1-2 permanents on board.. I like playing against Affinity.
R2: 2-1 VS Brad Boice on Burning Tree Zoo - Rough G1 out the gates.. I think he had like 10-12 power on board Turn 3, Finks & Team cleaned up G2 and proceeded in the same fashion after my opponent mulled to 5 G3.
R3: 2-1 VS Dan Jessup on Jeskai Aggro (finished 12th) - I don't consider this a favorable MU nor was I very familiar with the deck going into the day.. I see 4 vapor snags and 2 Mantis Riders G1 leading me to believe the deck is similar to what Hoogland was on a few weeks prior. Now that I knew I could pump out spells without playing around Mana Leak or Remand I just race him out of G2 & G3 (he mulled to 5 G3 I believe)
R4: 2-0 VS Troy Willmer on Jund - He Junds it up G1 leaving me with a Spellskite and Village Bell Ringer on board. I top deck Kiki-Jiki for the turn but I'm on 4 lands so I ship the turn back, he inquisitions seeing Kiki-Jiki attacks with Goyf with 2 unknowns in hand and passes the turn. I top deck a Temple Garden, Shock and Kiki he picks up his cards showing me a Maelstrom Pulse and Bolt. G2 we grind it out again.. After rebuilding through a Anger & Damnation I top deck a Blood Moon and shut him off anything but Green & Red. He eventually top decks a Swamp, Scooze & Abrupt decay to deal with Blood Moon but I'm already too far ahead. 2 Finks & my own Scooze swing for lethal.
R5: 2-0 VS Andrew Elenbogen on Infect (finished 22nd) - Turn 1 Bird, Turn 2 Magus G1. G2, Turn 2 Skite, Turn 3 Magus into an eventual Staticaster killing his Blighted Agent.. He scoops 2 turns later after Fauna Shaman shows off her ability to just lock opponents out of the game.
R6: 0-2 VS Dan Musser on Bant Eldrazi (finshed 7th) - I punted both of these games.. he also had Turn 1 Hierarch into Turn 2/3 Skyspawner rendering Magus pretty useless both games.. I might leave in a Staticaster against them in the future just because of this.. Unfortunately none of my testing was against versions with Skyspawner.. stupid me.
R7: 2-1 VS Brad Nelson on Death Shadow Zoo - We grinded it out G1 but I was able to pull ahead via Ewit + Paths. G2, I mulled to 5 and got ran over. G3, I lead Canopy to bluff Path, he quickly puts himself to a lovely 11 life and plays out a Death's Shadow. I untap, shock and Blessed Alliance him back up to 15 Killing Deaths Shadow which is risky only if he has 2x Mutagenic Growths. I pass the turn back and he passes right back with nothing but an Overgrown Tomb in play. He eventually finds 2x Goyfs and a Nacatl to profitably block my army of Voices so I just combo him out.
R8: 1-2 VS Jim Davis on Jeskai Aggro (finished 17th) - I take game 1 by completely out valuing everything he does, G2 I just cannot get ahead of him.. and G3 I keep a 7 that was 3 lands, Skite, Finks, Eternal Witness & Kiki-Jiki. I'm an idiot and get totally punished by Turn 2 Twisted Image and Turn 4 Snap Twisted Image after I've bought back my Skite w/ Eternal Witness. Over the 6-7 turns we played I drew a single Kitchen Finks and a land every other turn.
R9: 0-2 VS James White on Grixis Control (finished 43rd) - I cannot beat multiple suspended Ancestral Visions backed by the best removal in the format with a G1 Mull to 5 and G2 slow start never seeing a Voice in the early turns of a game.
I didn't bring in Mindcensor a single time. Blessed Alliance was great but I'm still learning the more I play the card if it should come in for certain MU's.. specifically Bant Eldrazi. Blood Moon only ended up coming in for Jund & Bant Eldrazi.. I talked to Jim about bringing it in for the Jeskai Aggro MU but he wasn't sure if it was right either. I hate playing Stony Silence and Kataki as always.. If I had more faith in my ability to take G2 & 3 against Affinity without them they'd be the first cuts I make. I was okay with the swap from the 2nd Selfless Spirit in the board to Forge-Tender but could easily switch back and forth depending on the meta.
That's all I got.. Wish I could have converted one of those losses into a win to see day two but there's always next year. The deck performed against what I was prepped to see and I'm still convinced it has what it takes to compete with Modern as a whole.
Congrats on a good tournament. That is stil a good performance even if you did not make day 2.
The only way I can think of increasing games vs afinity is playing cards that produce flying tokens. Lingering Souls and Lanaar duo does not go in your deck, and Lanaar mother hen is a bad blade splicer.
The alternative is to change out the stony silence for something that is derscent against afinaty, like say spot removal, and have that card overlap multiple card types. You already have Staticcaster, Rec Sage to board in vs them. That should open up a slot in your sideboard. Just try with the Kataries war vage. While not an instant winn, especialy against plate or ravager + man lands, chording for katari should be good enough.
I guess the mind scensor is vs valakut? According to hoogland that matchup is so bad anyway, perhaps cale it quits and axcept an autoloss but more room in the sideboar?
On a post game analsys what do you think you could have dine differentlty next time? Siding in blessed alliance with anything with exalted triggers seems like it would work vs eldrazi. Worst case senario you block the little stuff, take it in the face, and then cast alliance post damage once the big stuff is gone.
The twisted image sounded very unfortunet, I doubt it justefies siding out spellskites, unless they play a full playsett of the card. But loosing key pieces to 1 mana cantrips in a tempo based matchup is just devestating.
I don't think there was much you could do in the grixis match up. Perfect draw is perfect draw, and it is hard to beat that, particularly when you come out of the gates slow.
Silence really only made its way back into the board for Lantern + Tron. I was on just Kataki for most of last year and it's probably correct.
Mindcensor is specifically for Valakut, Tron, Chord and Knightfall decks which I anticipated but saw none of. I really just wanted those couple extra percentage points in those MUs.
I should probably improve my game plan vs. Bant Eldrazi, It helps knowing now how to better play against the Jeskai Aggro lists. I honestly didn't expect Grixis and knew it was a below average MU for myself especially against a quality pilot..
Running it back.. I'd probably cut Silence from my board for something a bit more productive in the Grindier MUs.
Grixis is stil a real deck. It is just much more people who wants to show up with fast infect deck. We have a slow local meta, so I meet Grixis quite often. It is very draw dependant on both sides, but anger of the gods is a blow out.
If you want to imrpove on the Bant E and Jeskai decks I would ask a friend who has the cards to borrow the deck and play it against you. It is super nice to know the decks feels to play in the mirror, and what draws are sup par and what tell-tell sights to watch out for. Bant eldrazi often runs out of gass if you enter a topdeck war. It is just those first onslaughts of thought knots and smashers that can be devestating.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I have dyslexia, no I am not going to spell check for you, yes you have to live with the horrors of it.
Definitely still on board with the 2nd Canopy. I wanted a 2nd Blood Moon effect for Infect/Bogles because I'm crazy about boarding in Blood Moon there and the 4th effect for Tron, Valakut, Junk & Eldrazi... definitely a flex spot though.
I'm still on Coco, just took a break after the GP to play Gifts for a little bit. You should really try Luda's build, Fauna Shaman is a powerhouse and casting Coco is always fun. Right?
I like Hooglands current take on Chord as well and got to talk with him about it in Columbus. Collective Brutality is great, and there are some other options too I still feel are unexplored when taking the into a more "Jund'esqe" build. I need to put some more reps in with it but it's definitely something I'll be looking at for opens early next year.
Love the traverse lists. They don't have to play as many bad cards, which is great. Consider trying Garruk Relentless. He is very good in the current meta, coming off the top and killing a dude then making infinite blockers. Nahiri is often weaker and tougher to cast.
My favorite thing about this Traverse list is the return of a good curve: 12 1-drops. 10 2-drops. 6 3-drops. 4 4's. 2 5's.
All that said I wanted to call this point out.
Please, everyone remember that you cannot count path and bolt in your curve. Path and bolt are reactionary spells that do affect your average CMC (of course) but when figuring how your deck wants to curve out, it is rarely going to be T1 bolt/path.
When counting curve in modern, you count taplands and 1 mana spells you almost always want to lead off on (e.g. mana dorks, discard spells, serum visions, spell snare on the draw) when counting turn 1 plays.
Yes, this is parroting Chapin form Next Level Deckbuilding but I have found it to be uniformly true in modern. Good decks play turn 1 plays, generally 7 to 11 of them (almost always 9- to 11, but some exceptions).
Alternatives for turn 1 plays in Traverse.dec:
1) Search for Tomorrow - Ramps and makes sorceries in graveyard for traverse.
2) Serum Visions - It's a card!
3) Discard spells
4) Noble Hierarch - an independently powerful card that also ramps. Better than birds in Traverse decks.
5) Manlands. Start with a playset of raging ravine.
It's just... Traverse without Goyf? I think that's a no-go. Goyf is so good and if your main aim is to get delirium running Goyf is a logic consequence.
But well, if Spellsnare is a reactive T1 play, so why isn't Bolt?
What about just expanding the discard package? Adding some Inquisition of Kozilek in addition to 1-2 Collective Brutalities. T1 discard clears the way for a T2 Voice or Wall and having information always feels good, especially with a deck that somehow has to take a specific role within the game.
What does goyf even do for this deck? We are a midrange value deck first and foremost. We don't have an efficient beatdown plan. Saccing goyf to Evolution is awful. Goyf and Resto offer no value unless you're blanking a removal spell, but then goyf could be anything. Goyf doesn't generate CA, ramp, or give our toolbox anything it needs except for a 2 mana blocker.
You can play Traverse and Goyf together. But don't do it in this deck. And I don't really know why a 3-mana goyf sounds appealing to anyone.
1) Search for Tomorrow - Ramps and makes sorceries in graveyard for traverse.
2) Serum Visions - It's a card!
3) Discard spells
4) Noble Hierarch - an independently powerful card that also ramps. Better than birds in Traverse decks.
5) Manlands. Start with a playset of raging ravine.
First, don't play Garruk Relentless. He's a 4-mana bolt. In a deck with a lot of 4 mana spells. I tested enough with him back when pod was legal and he was never good.
Search for Tomorrow could be worth testing in the Nahiri + Traverse list, but I don't like the list, so it's up to you.
I wouldn't splash a 4th color for any amount of Serum Visions or 1-mana Discard. Trying to achieve turn 1 blue or black is far too disruptive to our mana.
I've discussed my dislike for mana dorks + Traverse before. It's too many mana sources. And the dorks are not helping the delirium plan.
Playing any more than 1 tap-land in a 22 land deck is really asking for trouble. Same goes for colorless lands (Fire-Lit Thicket). How often have I considered cutting Ravine, Fire-Lit, and even Razorverge? Lots.
In a vacuum, you might not consider Bolt and Path reliable turn 1 plays, but this is modern. A format dominated by linear aggro decks. If my opponent isn't playing something to interact with on turn 1, they're either a midrange deck that doesn't require me to curve out or a noninteractive/combo deck that I'll have an awful matchup with game 1(Scapeshift, Tron, Ad nauseum, etc) and my curve is probably irrelevant. Turn 1 removal spells are good against over half the modern meta game(perhaps well over half, but I stopped counting after I got to ~55%). Perhaps Chapin didn't mention that in his book.
My testing with the Fauna Shaman + Traverse list didn't last long. I wasn't finding success without Voices. I'm back to my original list, but now I'm on 61 cards main, and I'm trying a Teeg in the sideboard.
If anyone is interested in testing with Traverse, I'd start here. I've played well over 100 matches with very few changes. The deck feels well-tuned enough, and it's given me good results. I'm still exploring ideas without Evolution.
Do you think this build is better than Chord versions?
2-1 jund (elspesth is a god)
2-0 spirits (elesh/kozlik return ftw)
2-0 dark jeskai (revliark+witness>kill spells)
0-0 jund (we played for fun he 2-0, played wrong)
Worst MU: Jund/Abzan itss basicalally topdeck paths/elspath/magus or lose)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Standard
BUG SuperFriends
Modern RWGKiki's CastleRWG UB Turns UB GRBU HulkBreach GRBU
2-1 jund (elspesth is a god)
2-0 spirits (elesh/kozlik return ftw)
2-0 dark jeskai (revliark+witness>kill spells)
0-0 jund (we played for fun he 2-0, played wrong)
Worst MU: Jund/Abzan itss basicalally topdeck paths/elspath/magus or lose)
I'm trying to make sense of this post but it's a bit of an ordeal - for starters, what even is 'Labyrinth Chord'?
2-1 jund (elspesth is a god)
2-0 spirits (elesh/kozlik return ftw)
2-0 dark jeskai (revliark+witness>kill spells)
0-0 jund (we played for fun he 2-0, played wrong)
Worst MU: Jund/Abzan itss basicalally topdeck paths/elspath/magus or lose)
I'm trying to make sense of this post but it's a bit of an ordeal - for starters, what even is 'Labyrinth Chord'?
I posted my list, its a page or two back. It's my twist to kili chord and its been rocking my local meta. Just working on a few cards exact numbers to get it perfect
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Standard
BUG SuperFriends
Modern RWGKiki's CastleRWG UB Turns UB GRBU HulkBreach GRBU
I'm honestly liking Chord a little more than Evolution. There have been a lot of times where I've had to block with my Wall or Voice, resulting in my Evolutions to be a little clunky at times. Maybe I should move back to a split of Evos and Chords. Acting at Instant speed is just so good though.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Here's a bit more in-depth report:
R1: 2-0 VS Thomas Toomey on Affinity - Both games ended with him having 1-2 permanents on board.. I like playing against Affinity.
R2: 2-1 VS Brad Boice on Burning Tree Zoo - Rough G1 out the gates.. I think he had like 10-12 power on board Turn 3, Finks & Team cleaned up G2 and proceeded in the same fashion after my opponent mulled to 5 G3.
R3: 2-1 VS Dan Jessup on Jeskai Aggro (finished 12th) - I don't consider this a favorable MU nor was I very familiar with the deck going into the day.. I see 4 vapor snags and 2 Mantis Riders G1 leading me to believe the deck is similar to what Hoogland was on a few weeks prior. Now that I knew I could pump out spells without playing around Mana Leak or Remand I just race him out of G2 & G3 (he mulled to 5 G3 I believe)
R4: 2-0 VS Troy Willmer on Jund - He Junds it up G1 leaving me with a Spellskite and Village Bell Ringer on board. I top deck Kiki-Jiki for the turn but I'm on 4 lands so I ship the turn back, he inquisitions seeing Kiki-Jiki attacks with Goyf with 2 unknowns in hand and passes the turn. I top deck a Temple Garden, Shock and Kiki he picks up his cards showing me a Maelstrom Pulse and Bolt. G2 we grind it out again.. After rebuilding through a Anger & Damnation I top deck a Blood Moon and shut him off anything but Green & Red. He eventually top decks a Swamp, Scooze & Abrupt decay to deal with Blood Moon but I'm already too far ahead. 2 Finks & my own Scooze swing for lethal.
R5: 2-0 VS Andrew Elenbogen on Infect (finished 22nd) - Turn 1 Bird, Turn 2 Magus G1. G2, Turn 2 Skite, Turn 3 Magus into an eventual Staticaster killing his Blighted Agent.. He scoops 2 turns later after Fauna Shaman shows off her ability to just lock opponents out of the game.
R6: 0-2 VS Dan Musser on Bant Eldrazi (finshed 7th) - I punted both of these games.. he also had Turn 1 Hierarch into Turn 2/3 Skyspawner rendering Magus pretty useless both games.. I might leave in a Staticaster against them in the future just because of this.. Unfortunately none of my testing was against versions with Skyspawner.. stupid me.
R7: 2-1 VS Brad Nelson on Death Shadow Zoo - We grinded it out G1 but I was able to pull ahead via Ewit + Paths. G2, I mulled to 5 and got ran over. G3, I lead Canopy to bluff Path, he quickly puts himself to a lovely 11 life and plays out a Death's Shadow. I untap, shock and Blessed Alliance him back up to 15 Killing Deaths Shadow which is risky only if he has 2x Mutagenic Growths. I pass the turn back and he passes right back with nothing but an Overgrown Tomb in play. He eventually finds 2x Goyfs and a Nacatl to profitably block my army of Voices so I just combo him out.
R8: 1-2 VS Jim Davis on Jeskai Aggro (finished 17th) - I take game 1 by completely out valuing everything he does, G2 I just cannot get ahead of him.. and G3 I keep a 7 that was 3 lands, Skite, Finks, Eternal Witness & Kiki-Jiki. I'm an idiot and get totally punished by Turn 2 Twisted Image and Turn 4 Snap Twisted Image after I've bought back my Skite w/ Eternal Witness. Over the 6-7 turns we played I drew a single Kitchen Finks and a land every other turn.
R9: 0-2 VS James White on Grixis Control (finished 43rd) - I cannot beat multiple suspended Ancestral Visions backed by the best removal in the format with a G1 Mull to 5 and G2 slow start never seeing a Voice in the early turns of a game.
4x Birds of Paradise
3x Eternal Witness
3x Fauna Shaman
1x Izzet Staticaster
1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
3x Kitchen Finks
1x Magus of the Moon
3x Noble Hierarch
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Restoration Angel
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Selfless Spirit
1x Spellskite
1x Village Bell-Ringer
3x Voice of Resurgence
1x Breeding Pool
1x Fire-Lit Thicket
2x Forest
2x Gavony Township
2x Horizon Canopy
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Plains
1x Sacred Foundry
2x Stomping Ground
1x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
Instant (10)
3x Chord of Calling
4x Collected Company
3x Path to Exile
1x Aven Mindcensor
2x Blessed Alliance
2x Blood Moon
1x Burrenton Forge-Tender
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Izzet Staticaster
1x Kataki, War's Wage
1x Stony Silence
1x Magus of the Moon
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Spellskite
I didn't bring in Mindcensor a single time. Blessed Alliance was great but I'm still learning the more I play the card if it should come in for certain MU's.. specifically Bant Eldrazi. Blood Moon only ended up coming in for Jund & Bant Eldrazi.. I talked to Jim about bringing it in for the Jeskai Aggro MU but he wasn't sure if it was right either. I hate playing Stony Silence and Kataki as always.. If I had more faith in my ability to take G2 & 3 against Affinity without them they'd be the first cuts I make. I was okay with the swap from the 2nd Selfless Spirit in the board to Forge-Tender but could easily switch back and forth depending on the meta.
That's all I got.. Wish I could have converted one of those losses into a win to see day two but there's always next year. The deck performed against what I was prepped to see and I'm still convinced it has what it takes to compete with Modern as a whole.
The only way I can think of increasing games vs afinity is playing cards that produce flying tokens. Lingering Souls and Lanaar duo does not go in your deck, and Lanaar mother hen is a bad blade splicer.
The alternative is to change out the stony silence for something that is derscent against afinaty, like say spot removal, and have that card overlap multiple card types. You already have Staticcaster, Rec Sage to board in vs them. That should open up a slot in your sideboard. Just try with the Kataries war vage. While not an instant winn, especialy against plate or ravager + man lands, chording for katari should be good enough.
I guess the mind scensor is vs valakut? According to hoogland that matchup is so bad anyway, perhaps cale it quits and axcept an autoloss but more room in the sideboar?
On a post game analsys what do you think you could have dine differentlty next time? Siding in blessed alliance with anything with exalted triggers seems like it would work vs eldrazi. Worst case senario you block the little stuff, take it in the face, and then cast alliance post damage once the big stuff is gone.
The twisted image sounded very unfortunet, I doubt it justefies siding out spellskites, unless they play a full playsett of the card. But loosing key pieces to 1 mana cantrips in a tempo based matchup is just devestating.
I don't think there was much you could do in the grixis match up. Perfect draw is perfect draw, and it is hard to beat that, particularly when you come out of the gates slow.
Mindcensor is specifically for Valakut, Tron, Chord and Knightfall decks which I anticipated but saw none of. I really just wanted those couple extra percentage points in those MUs.
I should probably improve my game plan vs. Bant Eldrazi, It helps knowing now how to better play against the Jeskai Aggro lists. I honestly didn't expect Grixis and knew it was a below average MU for myself especially against a quality pilot..
Running it back.. I'd probably cut Silence from my board for something a bit more productive in the Grindier MUs.
If you want to imrpove on the Bant E and Jeskai decks I would ask a friend who has the cards to borrow the deck and play it against you. It is super nice to know the decks feels to play in the mirror, and what draws are sup par and what tell-tell sights to watch out for. Bant eldrazi often runs out of gass if you enter a topdeck war. It is just those first onslaughts of thought knots and smashers that can be devestating.
It would still die on his beginning phase as a state-based action without a 2nd Growth or Street Wraith. 11 - 2 = 9 + 4 = 13.
Are you still a fan of the second Canopy and the second Magus out of the board?
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
All that said I wanted to call this point out.
Please, everyone remember that you cannot count path and bolt in your curve. Path and bolt are reactionary spells that do affect your average CMC (of course) but when figuring how your deck wants to curve out, it is rarely going to be T1 bolt/path.
When counting curve in modern, you count taplands and 1 mana spells you almost always want to lead off on (e.g. mana dorks, discard spells, serum visions, spell snare on the draw) when counting turn 1 plays.
Yes, this is parroting Chapin form Next Level Deckbuilding but I have found it to be uniformly true in modern. Good decks play turn 1 plays, generally 7 to 11 of them (almost always 9- to 11, but some exceptions).
Alternatives for turn 1 plays in Traverse.dec:
1) Search for Tomorrow - Ramps and makes sorceries in graveyard for traverse.
2) Serum Visions - It's a card!
3) Discard spells
4) Noble Hierarch - an independently powerful card that also ramps. Better than birds in Traverse decks.
5) Manlands. Start with a playset of raging ravine.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Because fun is a thing.
Do you think this build is better than Chord versions?
3-0-1
2-1 jund (elspesth is a god)
2-0 spirits (elesh/kozlik return ftw)
2-0 dark jeskai (revliark+witness>kill spells)
0-0 jund (we played for fun he 2-0, played wrong)
Worst MU: Jund/Abzan itss basicalally topdeck paths/elspath/magus or lose)
Standard
BUG SuperFriends
Modern
RWGKiki's CastleRWG
UB Turns UB
GRBU HulkBreach GRBU
Legacy
GRWBNic-ShiftGRWB
I'm trying to make sense of this post but it's a bit of an ordeal - for starters, what even is 'Labyrinth Chord'?
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
I posted my list, its a page or two back. It's my twist to kili chord and its been rocking my local meta. Just working on a few cards exact numbers to get it perfect
Standard
BUG SuperFriends
Modern
RWGKiki's CastleRWG
UB Turns UB
GRBU HulkBreach GRBU
Legacy
GRWBNic-ShiftGRWB
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Wall of Roots
3 Voice of Resurgence
2 Wall of Omens
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Qasali Pridemage
3 Eternal Witness
1 Magus of the Moon
3 Restoration Angel
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Reveillark
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
4 Chord of Calling
Lands: 22
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
2 Temple Garden
2 Razorverge Thicket
2 Stomping Grounds
1 Copperline Gorge
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Sacred Foundry
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Mountain
I'm honestly liking Chord a little more than Evolution. There have been a lot of times where I've had to block with my Wall or Voice, resulting in my Evolutions to be a little clunky at times. Maybe I should move back to a split of Evos and Chords. Acting at Instant speed is just so good though.
I SAY, OLD CHAP
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki