It is an awesome card, but when trying to replace cards MB from SB cards in specific matchups I didnt have a room for it, and sometimes is better to have a specific answer than a catch all
I've been playing this deck for the past 6-8 months or so sporadically. Found some free time so I'm looking to get back into the swing of things. Rather than debate the viability of the deck going forward, I'd like to ask some questions about strategy, play sequencing, and sideboarding. As another poster pointed out recently, it really seems like the consensus on the Abzan version of the lists have something like 55 MD cards and probably 8-10 SB cards locked in.
I think the consensus is to run between 31 and 33 mana sources, with either 21 or 22 lands and 10-11 mana dorks, adding the 3rd Hierarch. The question seems to be whether to run a third Forest, a third Canopy, some amount of Razorverge Thickets, a 9th fetch land (usually Marsh Flats), and how many black sources to run.
Many decks range from 2-4 Duskwatch Recruiters. Some have advocated for the 4th Vizier, and many like a second win condition, either in the form of a second Walking Ballista, or Rhonas the Indomitable. This is typically where things are cut to make room for more silver bullets or value cards like Tireless Tracker and Voice of Resurgence
I think most people are most comfortable with 3 Eternal Witness, but some like a 2/1 split with Rallier, and others like to go all the way up to 4.
That's 51 cards in the MD. I think realistically every deck is going to have at least 31 mana sources, and one more Witness type card. That leaves us with 7 true flex slots. Common uses for those slots include additional copies of the core described above, while the following cards see heavy rotation:
Many of the lists without Tideholwer Sculler in the main deck had a large amount in the sideboard, which is the most common configuration.
So, some general questions:
What types of decks are our strongest match ups?
Which ones are our weakest?
Which ones seem to depend the most on the specific configuration of the flex slots?
Which match ups change the most after sideboard?
How does the amount of Reclaim effects impact our tactical decisionmaking? A poster who has had some strong recent finishes has advocated for the full playset of Witnesses, and to aggressively use them to buy back fetch lands to make land drops rather than just including more mana sources. Have others mimicked this play pattern? Has it been effective? This certainly would help with top decks later in the game.
What are the advantages of running a 2nd Ballista vs. Rhonas? How vulnerable are we to permanently losing the Ballista in Game and/or better off are we by having a redundant win condition?
What are people doing with their mana? Going up to 33 sources or keeping it lean? How are people rounding out the 21st and 22nd lands, and how many are running the third Hierarch?
@DH_Cell: is there a reason for reclamation sage instead of qasali pridemage?
Ive questioned myself a lot of times about this choice. In a vacuum, qsali is stronger, but sometimes u will have only green mana (mainly from vizier) and it will help to cast it on a few games. So Im not going against the odds and slightly increasing the odds is a good thing
What are people doing with their mana? Going up to 33 sources or keeping it lean? How are people rounding out the 21st and 22nd lands, and how many are running the third Hierarch?
Wow so many questions hahaha. Im not a specialist but Im gonna try to answer a few of them. After all, the best way to play the deck is the way u feel confortable. I was tired of having the main combo exiled with surgical extraction so I always play redudancy. The way I feel confortable? Running the most comboing deck first game and try to counter a little bit the strategic of my opponent game 2.
I like 22 lands and 10 dorks. Why? Sometimes u have 1 land 2 dorks, and ur dork get killed, u re screwed. I prefer to flood, because I can draw a company or a chord and get anything than have a hand full of dudes without casting.
After all it depends where u play. On my LGS it is flooded of aggros like humans and fish, so for me Skuller MB does not work very well. Witness is an awesome card, but sometimes slow. Ive got plenty clunky hands with it, with nothing to push back from the GY (my dudes got exiled).
Ballista is easier to kill, because it is straight face damage, so in general it is better than rhonas, that needs an attacker. But as I said, I prefer to skip extraction.
I played in a SCG IQ event this past weekend (about 400 players) and went 7-3, making 40th place. This wasn't quite enough to cash out at top 32, but there were non-cash prizes to 64th place. Here was the list I played:
I mentioned earlier I am a fan of the Sculler plan. They served me well this weekend, though I did have a few awkward hands in which they couldn't be cast. Generally I was losing or needed to mull those hands anyways, but I may need to adjust the mana somehow. I don't think there's really anything I can do besides maybe swapping a Razorverge Thicket for a Blooming Marsh. I don't think basic Swamp is a good idea in this deck.
I kind of wanted to play Pharika, God of Affliction, but forgot about it before the event. Not sure what I'd drop here, anyways. Maybe a tracker, but tracker impressed whenever I boarded him in. Probably Mindsensor unless there's a lot of Tron or Storm.
I was too tired to take extensive notes, but here's what I remember. I faced 10 different decks in 10 rounds, which is very impressive. I actually dodged Jund entirely, and only went up against one Jace deck. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I think at the moment, Modern is diverse enough for this deck to do alright. After talking to a GW Valuetown player I played, I think some version of this deck is going to be the best positioned Company deck against the field. Sure, it's not better than Value against Jund, but we still need to be fast against other decks. The Value player really didn't like his chances against Jace decks either, so if outvaluing them sucks then we might as well have a combo plan. A Bant version, or Knightfall hybrid, maybe be something to look into, but for now I'm ok with this.
The Jace deck I beat G1 with early combo, G2 we both stumbled on lands, he drew lots of castable interaction but nothing to close out the game until very late when he landed a Clique into a Jace at 6 life and I managed to grind through it before he could stabilize (though, he was Brainstorming instead of Unsummoning so I'm not sure what exactly his plan was).
My three losses were to Valakut (saw neither Scapeshift or Through the Breach, only G and R Titans so I suspect the latter?), R/G Ponza, and Eldrazi Tron. Valakut I could have beaten G2 but I misplayed by untapping my mana incorrectly, shutting off my double Chord play. G3 he had Graffidgger's Cage, so basically game over T1. That deck is just a race, and it feels like a bad matchup but he claimed that it was bad from his side too. I dunno. Eldrazi Tron I had infinte mana G2 and G3 and nothing to do with it thanks to Thought-Knot Seer and he drew Ballista both those games as well, which is their best card against us. Infinite mana whiffing is a major incentive to go up to 3 Recruiter. I don't really like 3, but it's not a totally embarassing card, just a mostly embarassing one. Or it's possible I should keep more cards. Ponza was mostly me being totally unfamiliar with the matchup and him just blowing up lands while I drew nothing. G3 on the draw I kept a risky hand: one land, double 1-mana dorks, and combo with kill. Hoped to blank his Moons and Stone Rains. He had Anger. Oh well. I still make that call every time.
The other seven decks I played against were:
Hollow One (turns out T3 kill is better than T1 Hollow Two)
Dredge
GW Valuetown
Esper Control
Burn
Bant Eldrazi (I should have lost this one possibly, but there were bad draws and misplays on the other side. Might have been able to grind it out last game regardless)
UW Death and Taxes
4-1 my first League in probably 6 months, so it felt good to get the rust off. Beat UR Thing in the Ice, some kind of Esper Delver / Goryos Vengeance (not too sure), a Bloodbraid Jund, and split with RG Titan Shift.
I’ll be honest, I’m not sure Bloodbraid Elf changes the match up that much. It still feels close but we are a bit behind. The TitanShift deck is a rough one.
Question: If you have access to a selfless spirit, either in play or by chord of calling, how do you time it? Do you usually fire it off in response to Titan, or do you wait for the Valakut triggers to go on the stack? As a follow up, is there any good way to play around a fetch land when it’s already in play when they cast Titan?
Do you think it'd be worth running 1x Stomping Ground and swapping 1x Gavony for 1x Kessig Wolf Run so that your Knights can tutor up a win-con mana-outlet for your infinite mana? This seems especially convenient since you only have 2x Duskwatch Recruiters and 1x Chord of Calling.
Settle the Wreckage is a really neat idea for the Bant shell since Bant holds up enough mana for all of its Flash creatures and Instants that it doesn't telegraph the spell as much as other tap-out GWx creature decks might. I'll give that a shot.
My goal is to have almost every card in the main support the combo plan game 1 somehow, either by digging for the combo or by protecting it (and for Clique's case either digging or protecting). I’m not sure that this approach will be optimal if interactive decks continue to gain stock but that’s where I’ll start. I'd like to work Jace TMS in if his price drops enough after the reprint, and I agree that he could really power up the Bant shell. Kyle Boggemes recently wrote an article with his take on Bant Company + Jace that might interest you as well.
I agree that with many decks running maindeck 1 mana spot removal spells, it is appropriate to rely less heavily on creatures for mana. However, I also think the strength of the deck is reliably threatening turn 3 and 4 kills in game 1, which is difficult to do if we are not casting CoCo or Chord until our 4th turn. Having 11 mana dorks makes it easier to shrug off the first one dying and following up with another one to cast our haymakers on t3.
That said, 21 land is very easy to get stuck on 2 lands and difficult to reliably make a 4th land drop where necessary. So I moved my Pridemage to the sideboard and shaved a Path to make room for an extra Forest. Still testing to see how the max-combo plan works in game 1. My gut is that pushing the combo in game 1 is still the best way to go, given the diversity of the format, but I could be wrong.
I don't think that the Abzan shell is powerful right now, at all. A more tempo oriented variant is the way to go since it also utilizes Jace, the Mind Sculptor well. I based the list on Kelvin Chews latest Bant Company list with Jaces.
I like the way this list is build. I just dislike the fact that a T3 kill is nearly a small percentage. Just 1 Chord of Calling makes it hard to combo off quickly.
In the current meta you might steal some wins on the T3 possibility, but the style of midrange game you can play is good.
I would not think that running a Stomping Ground and a Kessig is passable for a consistent mana base. You never want to fetch Stomping Ground proactively since Jace costs double blue and you have lots of blue cards. This means that a KoTR enabled Kessig would need two rounds of land sacrifices often and makes it also slow. You would also have to take more damage from the mana base. It might be worth it if you want to be more all-in on a "combo" or have more late game threats.
Yeah, fair point. Jace's UU cost does pull things much more towards firmly Bant.
This deck plays more like a more midrangey version of RUG Splinter Twin by playing alot of flash cards. Especially post board when you can choose to adopt even more to your opponent and you can choose to take a more combo-control role.
Which common matchups to you expect to take the control role in and board in all of your counterspells? Mostly against opposing unfair decks?
3-2 in my last league. I went with the list above, but I decided to try 2 Maelstrom Pulse instead of the 1-1 split with Abrupt Decay. Matches as follows:
Match 1, GR Bloodbraid Ponza: Won 2-0
G1: Had a t3 kill with mull to 6. He didn't have time to set up a stone rain and didn't have the bolt for my druid.
G2: Brought in Forge Tender, Path for something big like Inferno Titan, Pontiff for his Arbor Elves and BoP's, Pulse for Titan / Blood Moon. I think this was just wrong. I should have brought in Pridemage for Cage, Needle, Blood Moon if necessary, and the extra Pulse instead of the Path for the same reasons.
Match 2, Bant Company, (no combo) Lost 1-2. I played this matchup completely wrong. I think this should be a strong match up because we can combo off through a stalemate and they don't have *that* much interaction. I made the mistake of playing around Spell Queller and sideboarded wrong. I think we should be bringing in Tidehollow Sculler to clear a path for Co Co and Chord, maybe take their Jace if it's there. They're going to win the value fight with us with Knight of the Reliquary and Voice of Resurgence, but going long we should be able to gum up the ground and just combo off. Not sure if this is right but those are my thoughts.
Match 3, Mono Green Tron:
Game 1: He T3 Karns me on the play, I had a T3 kill in hand. I won't bore you with the bad beats.
Game 2: Felt good with a T4 kill in hand, he had an early Ballista and then an Ugin. This matchup is roooouuuuughh. Not even sure it's worth trying to beat.
Match 4, GR Valakut: I had the nuts both games, T3 killed him, once on a mull to 6. This matchup feels really close with being on the play mattering a lot, but there's some play to the match up too.
Match 5, Blue Moon: This was a close match.
Game 1: T3 kill on the play.
Game 2: He wins a long back and forth game with 15 cards left in his deck. Close game, my inexperience with Modern crept up and I made several misplays.
Game 3: I win by grinding him and chaining CoCo's with Eternal Witness and topdecking Maelstrom Pulse for his Gearhulk at just the right time.
This is a tough match up to board for. Izzet Staticaster is a really scary card. I think I want Phyrexian Revoker, Pulse, and Pharika in this match up. They don't have very many ways of exiling Pharika so going long she should really help. Doesn't feel like Scullers are good, but Sin Collector, Pridemage for their Blood Moons and Spreading Seas, are both strong. The tough part is what to cut. Shaving a land feels smart, especially on the draw, cutting at least 2, probably 3 Chords seems right. I think we can safely reduce our combo pieces by shaving a Duskwatch Recruiter and a Vizier? Should probably bring in Forge Tender. What to cut? A 2nd Vizier? a 4th Chord? Scavenging Ooze?
What are everyone's thoughts on sideboarding? I really liked my configuration this last time. No Voices might be wrong, and I'm probably running hot with all of the t3 kills, but I'm mulliganing aggressively looking for mana dorks + chord and/or multiple combo pieces, making them have it. It feels like slowing things down and trying to grind an open field in game 1 opens us up to losing more races and getting into top deck wars with a lot of weak top decks because of our mana dorks. If we are grinding and fighting removal heavy decks, we're nto comboing off very often, which makes top decks like Vizier and Druid awful.
First I wanted to talk about Courser in Bant's main right now. It can be a really solid role-player against almost every deck aside from combo, but I'm starting to feel the disadvantage of playing with your top card revealed more keenly. Most recently I played a game against Grixis Shadow and between his early Inquisition and my T3 Courser my opponent spent most of the game playing with perfect information about my hand. In a proactive Abzan approach this wouldn't be such a big deal but with Bant our counterspells, Quellers, and potential to CoCo/Chord into Queller or other interactive pieces all lose a decent amount of power as our opponent can seem them in hand and minimize their effectiveness or see that we don't have them and play more aggressively. Even outside of Spell Queller just broadcasting that you're about to topdeck your last combo piece seems a little loose. Is this a problem, or am I overemphasizing the drawback of revealing your draws relative to the advantages Courser provides?
I've thought about replacing Courser with a second Ooze as they provide some similar effects against Burn and midrange / aggro. Ooze requires more mana investment but is more disruptive and can have a higher impact as a late game topdeck. I've seen plenty of Knightfall lists running 2-3x Ooze, though this is partly because they don't have Chord to help tutor for singletons. Does running a second Ooze in a Druid list ever make sense? Other options for this slot could be Tracker, Finks, or Voice.
Second, against Storm I'd like to bring in 3x Path, 2x Negate, and 2x Will, which means shaving ~3 non-creature spells from the main. Most conventional guides recommend that you virtually never cut CoCo since it's the best card in the deck. However, directly Chording for combo pieces seems like the fastest route to victory in this matchup. Is this a situation where it's correct to cut some CoCos over Chord, or am I approaching this matchup incorrectly?
First I wanted to talk about Courser in Bant's main right now. It can be a really solid role-player against almost every deck aside from combo, but I'm starting to feel the disadvantage of playing with your top card revealed more keenly. Most recently I played a game against Grixis Shadow and between his early Inquisition and my T3 Courser my opponent spent most of the game playing with perfect information about my hand. In a proactive Abzan approach this wouldn't be such a big deal but with Bant our counterspells, Quellers, and potential to CoCo/Chord into Queller or other interactive pieces all lose a decent amount of power as our opponent can seem them in hand and minimize their effectiveness or see that we don't have them and play more aggressively. Even outside of Spell Queller just broadcasting that you're about to topdeck your last combo piece seems a little loose. Is this a problem, or am I overemphasizing the drawback of revealing your draws relative to the advantages Courser provides?
I've thought about replacing Courser with a second Ooze as they provide some similar effects against Burn and midrange / aggro. Ooze requires more mana investment but is more disruptive and can have a higher impact as a late game topdeck. I've seen plenty of Knightfall lists running 2-3x Ooze, though this is partly because they don't have Chord to help tutor for singletons. Does running a second Ooze in a Druid list ever make sense? Other options for this slot could be Tracker, Finks, or Voice.
Second, against Storm I'd like to bring in 3x Path, 2x Negate, and 2x Will, which means shaving ~3 non-creature spells from the main. Most conventional guides recommend that you virtually never cut CoCo since it's the best card in the deck. However, directly Chording for combo pieces seems like the fastest route to victory in this matchup. Is this a situation where it's correct to cut some CoCos over Chord, or am I approaching this matchup incorrectly?
Thanks!
Why no Selfless Spirit, Forge Tender, or Meddling Mage? I'd rather have all of them than Path against Storm.
Although I want to have a plan together for Storm, the main matchups I'm anticipating for Saturday are Jund, Gx Tron, Burn, Affinity, and Humans. Meddling Mage didn't seem as exciting for that line-up. However, Selfless Spirit would be reasonable-to-great against many of those decks, and Forge-Tender would be quite welcome against Burn while covering some removal in Jund and Affinity.
After talking to a few more people since yesterday I've also been thinking that Geist -- while awesome against Grixis Shadow and Ux control -- is perhaps poorly positioned against Jund due to Liliana and a higher threat / blocker density than most Shadow decks. Similarly, I'm still a little uncertain on Fauna Shaman. She seems like a solid role-player with some really interesting instant-speed applications but could be a poor choice if there's a lot of Jund and she either gets removed before untapping or we don't have creatures in hand to pitch.
Despite my earlier hesitations about Voice's tension with Spell Queller and my reluctance to run mainboard cards that don't help with non-interactive matchups it looks like enough Bant players have been having success with 2x Voice in the 75 that I'll give it a try.
With that in mind I'm leaning towards -1 Fauna Shaman for +1 Voice of Resurgence or the second Ooze in the main and -2 Geist, -1 Settle the Wreckage in the side for +2 Forge-Tender or 1:1 split of Forge-Tender:Spirit and +1 Voice. I'm open to suggestions on alternative swaps if anyone has feedback!
With the notable exception of Tron, it sounds like both Finks and Reflector Mage would be great in the MD for that meta. Maybe shave a Clique or two? I know you’re trying to make room for Voices.
I’m also concerned that you are pretty cold to a Grafdigger’s Cage. If you don’t naturally draw Pridemage or have Chord in hand when it’s cast, it’s going to take a lot longer to win.
@Ludafish -- in theory JVP seems like a tremendously flexible game 1 role-player. Looting is relevant both when we're looking to combo out ASAP and when we want to grind and improve raw card quality. Likewise, flashing back a CoCo or Chord could help in either assembling the combo or a more aggressive board state. I say "in theory" because I haven't had JVP come up in enough games yet to really say. Even if JVP is just catching removal that would've been aimed at a combo piece, Queller, Courser, etc I don't think that's such a bad thing. With that said he'd probably come out vs Jund and Burn. What's your experience with the card? What do you think is better in its place?
--------
@Str1fe5 -- Phyrexian Revoker would be neat against Tron and Affinity, yeah. I think these matchups may already be somewhat favored, though, and Revoker seems fragile and doesn't excite me in too many other matchups. I'll think about it more.
Regarding susceptibility to Grafdigger's Cage, is this issue unique to my build decisions, or just a common issue for Bant due to its lack of Decay and Pulse effects? What would you suggest to remedy the issue?
@Ludafish -- in theory JVP seems like a tremendously flexible game 1 role-player. Looting is relevant both when we're looking to combo out ASAP and when we want to grind and improve raw card quality. Likewise, flashing back a CoCo or Chord could help in either assembling the combo or a more aggressive board state. I say "in theory" because I haven't had JVP come up in enough games yet to really say. Even if JVP is just catching removal that would've been aimed at a combo piece, Queller, Courser, etc I don't think that's such a bad thing. With that said he'd probably come out vs Jund and Burn. What's your experience with the card? What do you think is better in its place?
--------
@Str1fe5 -- Phyrexian Revoker would be neat against Tron and Affinity, yeah. I think these matchups may already be somewhat favored, though, and Revoker seems fragile and doesn't excite me in too many other matchups. I'll think about it more.
Regarding susceptibility to Grafdigger's Cage, is this issue unique to my build decisions, or just a common issue for Bant due to its lack of Decay and Pulse effects? What would you suggest to remedy the issue?
I'll confess to mere theorizing on the Bant build as I haven't played with it. I know with my Abzan build I often sideboard prophylactically against decks that could potentially bring Cage in, but as you said, Decay and Pulse are such versatile cards and useful in other situations it's not a major constraint on my sideboard construction. I don't know what the answer is, maybe it's just going up to 2 Pridmage or something inelegant like Detention Sphere?
Regarding Revoker, I think it also has utility against Jace decks; they are almost all U/R or U/R/x, which means Izzet Statecaster is a huge issue for either Bant or Abzan builds, and Revoker is another way of dealing with that card.
Now, this is built for a MTGO field, which is still very wide open. In 20 matches I've faced 16 different decks so far. At a larger tournament, I'd have to be more concerned with Jund if I were successful enough to make Day 2 or the later rounds. After 2 weeks of testing I've adopted almost all of Stuhl's changes to the MD. I like the 4th Vizier instead of the Rallier, but I also don't have the $100 for Canopies. I hate the Marsh Flats and will probably change that out for a Canopy when I can scratch the funds together, but they've shot up like $10 in the last 7-10 days or so. Hoping they go back down to the $25-$30 range soon.
I've been very happy with this sideboard configuration. Surprisingly, I'm finding I'm performing better in post-board games than game 1's. I do think Voice is very well positioned right now with all of the removal heavy control and midrange decks out there. Selfless Spirit and Forge-Tender have been huge as well as I've seen a lot of Anger of the Gods and I stole a game against Ad Nauseum with Forge Tender. I'm encouraged by the fact that I have done as well as I have so far despite not feasting on too many tradtionally good match ups, such Burn or Affinity. The Eldrazi aggro decks seem like we are very strongly favored there however.
In the end I decided to test Fauna Shaman in the main just to get more data on her even if she seemed a little risky vs interactive decks. But I did take your suggestions to bulk up on Forge-Tender SB and Finks MB.
Sorry, I'm a little too tired to remember SB swaps but if anyone has questions about specific matchups I'll try to remember.
R1 Chelsea on Bant Company (2-1)
This matchup went to board stalls all three games. G1 I combo'd out, G2 she stuck Elspeth and ended up taking over, G3 I went to time but I combo'd out. Not too much interaction in this matchup, felt pretty favorable.
R2 Bernard on Ponza (1-2)
G1 he ramped into T3 Inferno Titan to Bolt away my board and I couldn't answer it so I died. G2 he started setting up a value engine of Tracker and Courser but ignored me so I combo'd out on ~T4. G3 I made the punt of the century and for some reason lead with Botancial Sanctum instead of Fetching up my basic T1. Naturally he followed up with Blood Moon and I'm left with just Devoted Druid and two mountains as mana. A few turns later I drew into a Forest and Chorded for Vizier, followed by a top deck Fauna Shaman. The route to the combo looked open but I'm a few turns too slow and he's been pumping up a couple Trackers which finished me off.
R3 Michael on GB Tron (2-0)
G1 I combo'd out T3. G2 he picked apart my board and hand with 2x Collective Brutality, Thoughtseize, and Warping Wail. Fortunately he kept a hand that's light on Tron lands and threats. I Negate a second Thoughtseize to keep Ballista in hand, and Eternal Witness back a CoCo that had been pitched off Brutality to rebuild. I chip in with a growing Ballista and Witness and finish him off with a couple Ballista pings.
R4 X on Humans (0-2)
G1 I had a bit of a punt here as well. He had T2 Meddling Mage naming Chord and was casting T3 Phantasmal Image, presumably to copy Mage and block CoCo. I responded by tapping Druid and casting the CoCo in my hand, selecting Recruiter + Reflector Mage bouncing his Meddling Mage. Phantasmal resolved and he copied my Reflector, bouncing my Devoted Druid back to hand and setting me back a few turns, lol. This, combined with a Freebooter taking my Chord, set me too far behind. I can't remember much of G2 but I was similarly a turn or two too slow and most of my blockers like Finks matched up poorly against his attackers due to flying (Mantis) or first strike (Thalias). My opponent was a nice dude and pointed out that I had Jace in play G2 and forgot that I could target his Images with Jace's +1 to kill it.
R5 Philip on Affinity (0-2)
G1 I lead with Hierarch on the play and passed T2 with mana open for Queller. He aimed Galvanic Blast at Hierarch, which I intercepted, but he had a second Blast to hit Queller, which freed up the first Blast to hit Hierarch. I played Recruiter and he Blasted that, too. Meanwhile he's been growing a Thopter with Steel Overseer and I can't catch up. G2 I mulled to a 5 with hierarch, clique and something else which is hit by T1 Thoughtseize. Somehow I got a little mana screwed and couldn't cast Clique until a turn after he Whipflares my board away. Clique does manage to grab Plating but he's already got two Ravegers and an Overseer going to town.
R6 Sean on GB Elves (1-2)
This was 100% goldfishing. G1 I combo out T3 on the play. G2 he chains Heritage Druid into CoCos into a couple Shaman of the Packs to kill me. G3 I assemble the infinite mana combo T3 but can only play Baby Jace. Baby Jace helps me dig a bit, but I don't find any payoff card over the next two turns and die.
Final record 2-4
Thoughts & takeaways:
Overall I went 2-4. Normally that'd be kinda sad but I was relatively pleased since it was my first IQ and I've only been on the deck a couple weeks. The deck itself was mostly solid, I just have to grow into it by tightening up my play, getting more reps in, and building my endurance for longer events.
I really liked Fauna Shaman and Baby Jace in my 2-CMC flex slots. However, this may be because the meta was a little more on the fast side than the grindy side. There were a few Jund and Jeskai control decks there but I guess I dodged them all day. Maybe my opinion on Shaman and JVP will change after playing them more.
The Scooze in the main got boarded out in pretty much all of my games, but it still seems so relevant against such a broad range of decks that I can't bring myself to cut it yet.
Vendilion Clique performed well, but perhaps not so well that I want to risk running into Legendary issues again in the future.
Reflector Mage was solid against Bant Company / Humans and helped me get some cards back from under Quellers / Meddling Mage / Freebooter. However with BBE in Jund now and a decrease in Delve threats Reflector Mage doesn't seem like the home run against Midrange it was a few months ago. It also didn't seem worth bringing in against Swarm decks. I still want 1 in my SB to tutor for but will cut the second.
Having 4x counterspells against Tron (+Queller & Clique) felt really good. Highly recommended.
Many of my losses today (and in other matches this week) were from being blown out with sweepers. This is something I need to get better about playing around, but I'd like to improve my odds a bit more with a Selfless Spirit in the side.
I'd also like to have a few more haymakers vs swarm decks. Path is a start, but decks like Elves and Affinity can shrug off a Path relatively easily. Kyle Boggemes has advocated for a second Walking Ballista in the side to ping aggro decks while keeping up your density of combo pieces. I'll also go back to trying Lejoon's suggestion of Settle the Wreckage.
I saw a list (don't remember where), which is pretty cool. It keeps the main combo, but gets rid of the life-gain combo in favor of a heavy beatdown plan. (Honestly I have never seen the Lifegain combo and it seems totally irrelevant).
I've been playing this deck for the past 6-8 months or so sporadically. Found some free time so I'm looking to get back into the swing of things. Rather than debate the viability of the deck going forward, I'd like to ask some questions about strategy, play sequencing, and sideboarding. As another poster pointed out recently, it really seems like the consensus on the Abzan version of the lists have something like 55 MD cards and probably 8-10 SB cards locked in.
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Gavony Township
2 Temple Garden
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Horizon Canopy
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Godless Shrine
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Devoted Druid
2 Noble Hierarch
I think the consensus is to run between 31 and 33 mana sources, with either 21 or 22 lands and 10-11 mana dorks, adding the 3rd Hierarch. The question seems to be whether to run a third Forest, a third Canopy, some amount of Razorverge Thickets, a 9th fetch land (usually Marsh Flats), and how many black sources to run.
Next is the combo:
3 Vizier of Remedies
2 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Walking Ballista
1 Viscera Seer
Many decks range from 2-4 Duskwatch Recruiters. Some have advocated for the 4th Vizier, and many like a second win condition, either in the form of a second Walking Ballista, or Rhonas the Indomitable. This is typically where things are cut to make room for more silver bullets or value cards like Tireless Tracker and Voice of Resurgence
Next is the card advantage engine:
4 Collected Company
2 Eternal Witness
I think most people are most comfortable with 3 Eternal Witness, but some like a 2/1 split with Rallier, and others like to go all the way up to 4.
That's 51 cards in the MD. I think realistically every deck is going to have at least 31 mana sources, and one more Witness type card. That leaves us with 7 true flex slots. Common uses for those slots include additional copies of the core described above, while the following cards see heavy rotation:
1 Qasili Pridemage
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Voice of Resurgence
1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
1 Tidehowler Sculler
Sideboarding is obviously more varied, but it has frequently included the following:
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Path to Exile
1 Sin Collector
3 Tidehowler Sculler
Many of the lists without Tideholwer Sculler in the main deck had a large amount in the sideboard, which is the most common configuration.
So, some general questions:
What types of decks are our strongest match ups?
Which ones are our weakest?
Which ones seem to depend the most on the specific configuration of the flex slots?
Which match ups change the most after sideboard?
How does the amount of Reclaim effects impact our tactical decisionmaking? A poster who has had some strong recent finishes has advocated for the full playset of Witnesses, and to aggressively use them to buy back fetch lands to make land drops rather than just including more mana sources. Have others mimicked this play pattern? Has it been effective? This certainly would help with top decks later in the game.
What are the advantages of running a 2nd Ballista vs. Rhonas? How vulnerable are we to permanently losing the Ballista in Game and/or better off are we by having a redundant win condition?
What are people doing with their mana? Going up to 33 sources or keeping it lean? How are people rounding out the 21st and 22nd lands, and how many are running the third Hierarch?
Ive questioned myself a lot of times about this choice. In a vacuum, qsali is stronger, but sometimes u will have only green mana (mainly from vizier) and it will help to cast it on a few games. So Im not going against the odds and slightly increasing the odds is a good thing
Wow so many questions hahaha. Im not a specialist but Im gonna try to answer a few of them. After all, the best way to play the deck is the way u feel confortable. I was tired of having the main combo exiled with surgical extraction so I always play redudancy. The way I feel confortable? Running the most comboing deck first game and try to counter a little bit the strategic of my opponent game 2.
I like 22 lands and 10 dorks. Why? Sometimes u have 1 land 2 dorks, and ur dork get killed, u re screwed. I prefer to flood, because I can draw a company or a chord and get anything than have a hand full of dudes without casting.
After all it depends where u play. On my LGS it is flooded of aggros like humans and fish, so for me Skuller MB does not work very well. Witness is an awesome card, but sometimes slow. Ive got plenty clunky hands with it, with nothing to push back from the GY (my dudes got exiled).
Ballista is easier to kill, because it is straight face damage, so in general it is better than rhonas, that needs an attacker. But as I said, I prefer to skip extraction.
3x Birds of Paradise
3x Noble Hierarch
1x Viscera Seer
4x Devoted Druid
2x Duskwatch Recruiter
4x Vizier of Remedies
1x Walking Ballista
3x Eternal Witness
4x Kitchen Finks
1x Selfless Spirit
3x Tidehollow Sculler
Instants: 8
4x Chord of Calling
4x Collected Company
Land: 22
2x Forest
2x Gavony Township
1x Godless Shrine
2x Horizon Canopy
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Plains
2x Razorverge Thicket
2x Temple Garden
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
I mentioned earlier I am a fan of the Sculler plan. They served me well this weekend, though I did have a few awkward hands in which they couldn't be cast. Generally I was losing or needed to mull those hands anyways, but I may need to adjust the mana somehow. I don't think there's really anything I can do besides maybe swapping a Razorverge Thicket for a Blooming Marsh. I don't think basic Swamp is a good idea in this deck.
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
1x Kataki, War's Wage
1x Orzhov Pontiff
3x Path to Exile
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Sin Collector
1x Tidehollow Sculler
2x Tireless Tracker
2x Voice of Resurgence
1x Aven Mindcensor
I kind of wanted to play Pharika, God of Affliction, but forgot about it before the event. Not sure what I'd drop here, anyways. Maybe a tracker, but tracker impressed whenever I boarded him in. Probably Mindsensor unless there's a lot of Tron or Storm.
I was too tired to take extensive notes, but here's what I remember. I faced 10 different decks in 10 rounds, which is very impressive. I actually dodged Jund entirely, and only went up against one Jace deck. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I think at the moment, Modern is diverse enough for this deck to do alright. After talking to a GW Valuetown player I played, I think some version of this deck is going to be the best positioned Company deck against the field. Sure, it's not better than Value against Jund, but we still need to be fast against other decks. The Value player really didn't like his chances against Jace decks either, so if outvaluing them sucks then we might as well have a combo plan. A Bant version, or Knightfall hybrid, maybe be something to look into, but for now I'm ok with this.
The Jace deck I beat G1 with early combo, G2 we both stumbled on lands, he drew lots of castable interaction but nothing to close out the game until very late when he landed a Clique into a Jace at 6 life and I managed to grind through it before he could stabilize (though, he was Brainstorming instead of Unsummoning so I'm not sure what exactly his plan was).
My three losses were to Valakut (saw neither Scapeshift or Through the Breach, only G and R Titans so I suspect the latter?), R/G Ponza, and Eldrazi Tron. Valakut I could have beaten G2 but I misplayed by untapping my mana incorrectly, shutting off my double Chord play. G3 he had Graffidgger's Cage, so basically game over T1. That deck is just a race, and it feels like a bad matchup but he claimed that it was bad from his side too. I dunno. Eldrazi Tron I had infinte mana G2 and G3 and nothing to do with it thanks to Thought-Knot Seer and he drew Ballista both those games as well, which is their best card against us. Infinite mana whiffing is a major incentive to go up to 3 Recruiter. I don't really like 3, but it's not a totally embarassing card, just a mostly embarassing one. Or it's possible I should keep more cards. Ponza was mostly me being totally unfamiliar with the matchup and him just blowing up lands while I drew nothing. G3 on the draw I kept a risky hand: one land, double 1-mana dorks, and combo with kill. Hoped to blank his Moons and Stone Rains. He had Anger. Oh well. I still make that call every time.
The other seven decks I played against were:
Hollow One (turns out T3 kill is better than T1 Hollow Two)
Dredge
GW Valuetown
Esper Control
Burn
Bant Eldrazi (I should have lost this one possibly, but there were bad draws and misplays on the other side. Might have been able to grind it out last game regardless)
UW Death and Taxes
I’ll be honest, I’m not sure Bloodbraid Elf changes the match up that much. It still feels close but we are a bit behind. The TitanShift deck is a rough one.
Question: If you have access to a selfless spirit, either in play or by chord of calling, how do you time it? Do you usually fire it off in response to Titan, or do you wait for the Valakut triggers to go on the stack? As a follow up, is there any good way to play around a fetch land when it’s already in play when they cast Titan?
Do you think it'd be worth running 1x Stomping Ground and swapping 1x Gavony for 1x Kessig Wolf Run so that your Knights can tutor up a win-con mana-outlet for your infinite mana? This seems especially convenient since you only have 2x Duskwatch Recruiters and 1x Chord of Calling.
Settle the Wreckage is a really neat idea for the Bant shell since Bant holds up enough mana for all of its Flash creatures and Instants that it doesn't telegraph the spell as much as other tap-out GWx creature decks might. I'll give that a shot.
Here's the list I'm currently building:
1x Walking Ballista
3x Birds of Paradise
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Devoted Druid
3x Vizier of Remedies
3x Duskwatch Recruiter
1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1x Meddling Mage
1x Scavenging Ooze
4x Spell Queller
2x Vendilion Clique
3x Eternal Witness
1x Courser of Kruphix
4x Chord of Calling
4x Collected Company
Land (21)
4x Windswept Heath
3x Wooded Foothills
1x Flooded Strand
2x Botanical Sanctum
2x Breeding Pool
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Temple Garden
1x Gavony Township
2x Horizon Canopy
3x Forest
1x Plains
3x Path to Exile
2x Negate
2x Unified Will
1x Qasali Pridemage
2x Geist of Saint Traft
2x Kitchen Finks
2x Reflector Mage
1x Settle the Wreckage
4 Devoted Druid
3 Duskwatch Recruiter
4 Eternal Witness
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Noble Hierarch
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Viscera Seer
4 Vizier of Remedies
1 Walking Ballista
4 Collected Company
3 Forest
2 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
1 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
2 Razorverge Thicket
2 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Orzhov Pontiff
2 Path to Exile
1 Pharika, God of Affliction
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Qasili Pridemage
1 Sin Collector
3 Tidehollow Sculler
I agree that with many decks running maindeck 1 mana spot removal spells, it is appropriate to rely less heavily on creatures for mana. However, I also think the strength of the deck is reliably threatening turn 3 and 4 kills in game 1, which is difficult to do if we are not casting CoCo or Chord until our 4th turn. Having 11 mana dorks makes it easier to shrug off the first one dying and following up with another one to cast our haymakers on t3.
That said, 21 land is very easy to get stuck on 2 lands and difficult to reliably make a 4th land drop where necessary. So I moved my Pridemage to the sideboard and shaved a Path to make room for an extra Forest. Still testing to see how the max-combo plan works in game 1. My gut is that pushing the combo in game 1 is still the best way to go, given the diversity of the format, but I could be wrong.
I like the way this list is build. I just dislike the fact that a T3 kill is nearly a small percentage. Just 1 Chord of Calling makes it hard to combo off quickly.
In the current meta you might steal some wins on the T3 possibility, but the style of midrange game you can play is good.
Are you playing this on MODO right now?
3 Botanical Sanctum
1 Breeding Pool
3 Chord of Calling
4 Collected Company
4 Devoted Druid
3 Duskwatch Recruiter
2 Eternal Witness
2 Forest
1 Gavony Township
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Meddling Mage
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Path to Exile
1 Plains
2 Razorverge Thicket
4 Spell Queller
1 Temple Garden
3 Vizier of Remedies
1 Walking Ballista
4 Windswept Heath
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Fracturing Gust
1 Meddling Mage
3 Path to Exile
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Unified Will
1 Voice of Resurgence
1 Walking Ballista
This deck was dumped in the Modern Deck List dump last night.
https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/noble-jace-temur-blood-moon-and-bant-company-in-modern/
Which common matchups to you expect to take the control role in and board in all of your counterspells? Mostly against opposing unfair decks?
Match 1, GR Bloodbraid Ponza: Won 2-0
G1: Had a t3 kill with mull to 6. He didn't have time to set up a stone rain and didn't have the bolt for my druid.
G2: Brought in Forge Tender, Path for something big like Inferno Titan, Pontiff for his Arbor Elves and BoP's, Pulse for Titan / Blood Moon. I think this was just wrong. I should have brought in Pridemage for Cage, Needle, Blood Moon if necessary, and the extra Pulse instead of the Path for the same reasons.
Match 2, Bant Company, (no combo) Lost 1-2. I played this matchup completely wrong. I think this should be a strong match up because we can combo off through a stalemate and they don't have *that* much interaction. I made the mistake of playing around Spell Queller and sideboarded wrong. I think we should be bringing in Tidehollow Sculler to clear a path for Co Co and Chord, maybe take their Jace if it's there. They're going to win the value fight with us with Knight of the Reliquary and Voice of Resurgence, but going long we should be able to gum up the ground and just combo off. Not sure if this is right but those are my thoughts.
Match 3, Mono Green Tron:
Game 1: He T3 Karns me on the play, I had a T3 kill in hand. I won't bore you with the bad beats.
Game 2: Felt good with a T4 kill in hand, he had an early Ballista and then an Ugin. This matchup is roooouuuuughh. Not even sure it's worth trying to beat.
Match 4, GR Valakut: I had the nuts both games, T3 killed him, once on a mull to 6. This matchup feels really close with being on the play mattering a lot, but there's some play to the match up too.
Match 5, Blue Moon: This was a close match.
Game 1: T3 kill on the play.
Game 2: He wins a long back and forth game with 15 cards left in his deck. Close game, my inexperience with Modern crept up and I made several misplays.
Game 3: I win by grinding him and chaining CoCo's with Eternal Witness and topdecking Maelstrom Pulse for his Gearhulk at just the right time.
This is a tough match up to board for. Izzet Staticaster is a really scary card. I think I want Phyrexian Revoker, Pulse, and Pharika in this match up. They don't have very many ways of exiling Pharika so going long she should really help. Doesn't feel like Scullers are good, but Sin Collector, Pridemage for their Blood Moons and Spreading Seas, are both strong. The tough part is what to cut. Shaving a land feels smart, especially on the draw, cutting at least 2, probably 3 Chords seems right. I think we can safely reduce our combo pieces by shaving a Duskwatch Recruiter and a Vizier? Should probably bring in Forge Tender. What to cut? A 2nd Vizier? a 4th Chord? Scavenging Ooze?
What are everyone's thoughts on sideboarding? I really liked my configuration this last time. No Voices might be wrong, and I'm probably running hot with all of the t3 kills, but I'm mulliganing aggressively looking for mana dorks + chord and/or multiple combo pieces, making them have it. It feels like slowing things down and trying to grind an open field in game 1 opens us up to losing more races and getting into top deck wars with a lot of weak top decks because of our mana dorks. If we are grinding and fighting removal heavy decks, we're nto comboing off very often, which makes top decks like Vizier and Druid awful.
1x Walking Ballista
3x Birds of Paradise
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Devoted Druid
3x Vizier of Remedies
3x Duskwatch Recruiter
1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1x Fauna Shaman
1x Scavenging Ooze
4x Spell Queller
2x Vendilion Clique
3x Eternal Witness
1x Courser of Kruphix
4x Chord of Calling
4x Collected Company
Land (21)
4x Windswept Heath
3x Wooded Foothills
1x Flooded Strand
2x Botanical Sanctum
2x Breeding Pool
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Temple Garden
1x Gavony Township
2x Horizon Canopy
3x Forest
1x Plains
3x Path to Exile
1x Settle the Wreckage
2x Negate
2x Unified Will
1x Qasali Pridemage
2x Geist of Saint Traft
2x Kitchen Finks
2x Reflector Mage
I've thought about replacing Courser with a second Ooze as they provide some similar effects against Burn and midrange / aggro. Ooze requires more mana investment but is more disruptive and can have a higher impact as a late game topdeck. I've seen plenty of Knightfall lists running 2-3x Ooze, though this is partly because they don't have Chord to help tutor for singletons. Does running a second Ooze in a Druid list ever make sense? Other options for this slot could be Tracker, Finks, or Voice.
Second, against Storm I'd like to bring in 3x Path, 2x Negate, and 2x Will, which means shaving ~3 non-creature spells from the main. Most conventional guides recommend that you virtually never cut CoCo since it's the best card in the deck. However, directly Chording for combo pieces seems like the fastest route to victory in this matchup. Is this a situation where it's correct to cut some CoCos over Chord, or am I approaching this matchup incorrectly?
Thanks!
Why no Selfless Spirit, Forge Tender, or Meddling Mage? I'd rather have all of them than Path against Storm.
Although I want to have a plan together for Storm, the main matchups I'm anticipating for Saturday are Jund, Gx Tron, Burn, Affinity, and Humans. Meddling Mage didn't seem as exciting for that line-up. However, Selfless Spirit would be reasonable-to-great against many of those decks, and Forge-Tender would be quite welcome against Burn while covering some removal in Jund and Affinity.
After talking to a few more people since yesterday I've also been thinking that Geist -- while awesome against Grixis Shadow and Ux control -- is perhaps poorly positioned against Jund due to Liliana and a higher threat / blocker density than most Shadow decks. Similarly, I'm still a little uncertain on Fauna Shaman. She seems like a solid role-player with some really interesting instant-speed applications but could be a poor choice if there's a lot of Jund and she either gets removed before untapping or we don't have creatures in hand to pitch.
Despite my earlier hesitations about Voice's tension with Spell Queller and my reluctance to run mainboard cards that don't help with non-interactive matchups it looks like enough Bant players have been having success with 2x Voice in the 75 that I'll give it a try.
With that in mind I'm leaning towards -1 Fauna Shaman for +1 Voice of Resurgence or the second Ooze in the main and -2 Geist, -1 Settle the Wreckage in the side for +2 Forge-Tender or 1:1 split of Forge-Tender:Spirit and +1 Voice. I'm open to suggestions on alternative swaps if anyone has feedback!
1x Walking Ballista
3x Birds of Paradise
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Devoted Druid
3x Vizier of Remedies
3x Duskwatch Recruiter
1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1x Voice of Resurgence
1x Scavenging Ooze
4x Spell Queller
2x Vendilion Clique
3x Eternal Witness
1x Courser of Kruphix
4x Chord of Calling
4x Collected Company
Land (21)
4x Windswept Heath
3x Wooded Foothills
1x Flooded Strand
2x Botanical Sanctum
2x Breeding Pool
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Temple Garden
1x Gavony Township
2x Horizon Canopy
3x Forest
1x Plains
3x Path to Exile
2x Negate
2x Unified Will
2x Burrenton Forge-Tender
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Voice of Resurgence
2x Kitchen Finks
2x Reflector Mage
For Tron, I think Phyrexian Revoker would be sweet.
I’m also concerned that you are pretty cold to a Grafdigger’s Cage. If you don’t naturally draw Pridemage or have Chord in hand when it’s cast, it’s going to take a lot longer to win.
--------
@Str1fe5 -- Phyrexian Revoker would be neat against Tron and Affinity, yeah. I think these matchups may already be somewhat favored, though, and Revoker seems fragile and doesn't excite me in too many other matchups. I'll think about it more.
Regarding susceptibility to Grafdigger's Cage, is this issue unique to my build decisions, or just a common issue for Bant due to its lack of Decay and Pulse effects? What would you suggest to remedy the issue?
I'll confess to mere theorizing on the Bant build as I haven't played with it. I know with my Abzan build I often sideboard prophylactically against decks that could potentially bring Cage in, but as you said, Decay and Pulse are such versatile cards and useful in other situations it's not a major constraint on my sideboard construction. I don't know what the answer is, maybe it's just going up to 2 Pridmage or something inelegant like Detention Sphere?
Regarding Revoker, I think it also has utility against Jace decks; they are almost all U/R or U/R/x, which means Izzet Statecaster is a huge issue for either Bant or Abzan builds, and Revoker is another way of dealing with that card.
Here is what I'm currently running:
3 Forest
2 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
1 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
2 Razorverge Thicket
2 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Devoted Druid
3 Duskwatch Recruiter
3 Eternal Witness
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Noble Hierarch
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Viscera Seer
2 Voice of Resurgence
4 Vizier of Remedies
1 Walking Ballista
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Orzhov Pontiff
2 Path to Exile
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Qasili Pridemage
1 Sin Collector
3 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Tireless Tracker
Now, this is built for a MTGO field, which is still very wide open. In 20 matches I've faced 16 different decks so far. At a larger tournament, I'd have to be more concerned with Jund if I were successful enough to make Day 2 or the later rounds. After 2 weeks of testing I've adopted almost all of Stuhl's changes to the MD. I like the 4th Vizier instead of the Rallier, but I also don't have the $100 for Canopies. I hate the Marsh Flats and will probably change that out for a Canopy when I can scratch the funds together, but they've shot up like $10 in the last 7-10 days or so. Hoping they go back down to the $25-$30 range soon.
I've been very happy with this sideboard configuration. Surprisingly, I'm finding I'm performing better in post-board games than game 1's. I do think Voice is very well positioned right now with all of the removal heavy control and midrange decks out there. Selfless Spirit and Forge-Tender have been huge as well as I've seen a lot of Anger of the Gods and I stole a game against Ad Nauseum with Forge Tender. I'm encouraged by the fact that I have done as well as I have so far despite not feasting on too many tradtionally good match ups, such Burn or Affinity. The Eldrazi aggro decks seem like we are very strongly favored there however.
1x Walking Ballista
3x Birds of Paradise
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Devoted Druid
3x Vizier of Remedies
3x Duskwatch Recruiter
1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1x Fauna Shaman
1x Scavenging Ooze
4x Spell Queller
2x Kitchen Finks
1x Vendilion Clique
3x Eternal Witness
4x Chord of Calling
4x Collected Company
Land (21)
4x Windswept Heath
3x Wooded Foothills
1x Flooded Strand
2x Botanical Sanctum
2x Breeding Pool
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Temple Garden
1x Gavony Township
2x Horizon Canopy
3x Forest
1x Plains
3x Path to Exile
2x Negate
2x Unified Will
2x Burrenton Forge-Tender
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Voice of Resurgence
1x Kitchen Finks
1x Vendilion Clique
2x Reflector Mage
R1 Chelsea on Bant Company (2-1)
This matchup went to board stalls all three games. G1 I combo'd out, G2 she stuck Elspeth and ended up taking over, G3 I went to time but I combo'd out. Not too much interaction in this matchup, felt pretty favorable.
R2 Bernard on Ponza (1-2)
G1 he ramped into T3 Inferno Titan to Bolt away my board and I couldn't answer it so I died. G2 he started setting up a value engine of Tracker and Courser but ignored me so I combo'd out on ~T4. G3 I made the punt of the century and for some reason lead with Botancial Sanctum instead of Fetching up my basic T1. Naturally he followed up with Blood Moon and I'm left with just Devoted Druid and two mountains as mana. A few turns later I drew into a Forest and Chorded for Vizier, followed by a top deck Fauna Shaman. The route to the combo looked open but I'm a few turns too slow and he's been pumping up a couple Trackers which finished me off.
R3 Michael on GB Tron (2-0)
G1 I combo'd out T3. G2 he picked apart my board and hand with 2x Collective Brutality, Thoughtseize, and Warping Wail. Fortunately he kept a hand that's light on Tron lands and threats. I Negate a second Thoughtseize to keep Ballista in hand, and Eternal Witness back a CoCo that had been pitched off Brutality to rebuild. I chip in with a growing Ballista and Witness and finish him off with a couple Ballista pings.
R4 X on Humans (0-2)
G1 I had a bit of a punt here as well. He had T2 Meddling Mage naming Chord and was casting T3 Phantasmal Image, presumably to copy Mage and block CoCo. I responded by tapping Druid and casting the CoCo in my hand, selecting Recruiter + Reflector Mage bouncing his Meddling Mage. Phantasmal resolved and he copied my Reflector, bouncing my Devoted Druid back to hand and setting me back a few turns, lol. This, combined with a Freebooter taking my Chord, set me too far behind. I can't remember much of G2 but I was similarly a turn or two too slow and most of my blockers like Finks matched up poorly against his attackers due to flying (Mantis) or first strike (Thalias). My opponent was a nice dude and pointed out that I had Jace in play G2 and forgot that I could target his Images with Jace's +1 to kill it.
R5 Philip on Affinity (0-2)
G1 I lead with Hierarch on the play and passed T2 with mana open for Queller. He aimed Galvanic Blast at Hierarch, which I intercepted, but he had a second Blast to hit Queller, which freed up the first Blast to hit Hierarch. I played Recruiter and he Blasted that, too. Meanwhile he's been growing a Thopter with Steel Overseer and I can't catch up. G2 I mulled to a 5 with hierarch, clique and something else which is hit by T1 Thoughtseize. Somehow I got a little mana screwed and couldn't cast Clique until a turn after he Whipflares my board away. Clique does manage to grab Plating but he's already got two Ravegers and an Overseer going to town.
R6 Sean on GB Elves (1-2)
This was 100% goldfishing. G1 I combo out T3 on the play. G2 he chains Heritage Druid into CoCos into a couple Shaman of the Packs to kill me. G3 I assemble the infinite mana combo T3 but can only play Baby Jace. Baby Jace helps me dig a bit, but I don't find any payoff card over the next two turns and die.
Final record 2-4
Overall I went 2-4. Normally that'd be kinda sad but I was relatively pleased since it was my first IQ and I've only been on the deck a couple weeks. The deck itself was mostly solid, I just have to grow into it by tightening up my play, getting more reps in, and building my endurance for longer events.
I really liked Fauna Shaman and Baby Jace in my 2-CMC flex slots. However, this may be because the meta was a little more on the fast side than the grindy side. There were a few Jund and Jeskai control decks there but I guess I dodged them all day. Maybe my opinion on Shaman and JVP will change after playing them more.
The Scooze in the main got boarded out in pretty much all of my games, but it still seems so relevant against such a broad range of decks that I can't bring myself to cut it yet.
Vendilion Clique performed well, but perhaps not so well that I want to risk running into Legendary issues again in the future.
Reflector Mage was solid against Bant Company / Humans and helped me get some cards back from under Quellers / Meddling Mage / Freebooter. However with BBE in Jund now and a decrease in Delve threats Reflector Mage doesn't seem like the home run against Midrange it was a few months ago. It also didn't seem worth bringing in against Swarm decks. I still want 1 in my SB to tutor for but will cut the second.
Having 4x counterspells against Tron (+Queller & Clique) felt really good. Highly recommended.
Many of my losses today (and in other matches this week) were from being blown out with sweepers. This is something I need to get better about playing around, but I'd like to improve my odds a bit more with a Selfless Spirit in the side.
I'd also like to have a few more haymakers vs swarm decks. Path is a start, but decks like Elves and Affinity can shrug off a Path relatively easily. Kyle Boggemes has advocated for a second Walking Ballista in the side to ping aggro decks while keeping up your density of combo pieces. I'll also go back to trying Lejoon's suggestion of Settle the Wreckage.
Taken together, here's my updated sideboard:
2x Path to Exile
2x Negate
2x Unified Will
1x Settle the Wreckage
1x Walking Ballista
2x Burrenton Forge-Tender
1x Selfless Spirit
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Kor Firewalker
1x Kitchen Finks
1x Reflector Mage
I saw a list (don't remember where), which is pretty cool. It keeps the main combo, but gets rid of the life-gain combo in favor of a heavy beatdown plan. (Honestly I have never seen the Lifegain combo and it seems totally irrelevant).
Here's the list:
3x Birds of Paradise
2x Courser of Kruphix
4x Devoted Druid
1x Duskwatch Recruiter Flip
4x Knight of the Reliquary
4x Noble Hierarch
1x Rhonas the Indomitable
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Selfless Spirit
4x Tireless Tracker
4x Vizier of Remedies
1x Walking Ballista
2x Field of Ruin
3x Forest
1x Gavony Township
3x Ghost Quarter
2x Horizon Canopy
1x Plains
2x Temple Garden
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
Instant (8)
4x Chord of Calling
4x Collected Company
1x Aven Mindcensor
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Burrenton Forge-Tender
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
1x Ethersworn Canonist
2x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2x Kataki, War's Wage
1x Kitchen Finks
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Scavenging Ooze
2x Stony Silence
RWG Burn
GW Abzan Company