After getting destroyed on Monday, I ran it back on Tuesday at a closer location - my home store. 16 people for 3 capped rounds.
Round 1 vs. GW Company. I think this is a budget build, so it doesn't have all of the combo pieces of Abzan Company or Chord. ANyway, I saw through a bunch of creatures and use Conflagrates to get them. In the first game, I used Conflagrate to get a turn 2 Scavenging Ooze with a counter (BoP). He couldn't find Ooze next game and had a CoCo for just a BoP. The only creatures I saw were BoP, Noble Hierarch, Kitchen Finks, Voice of Resurgence. 2-0.
Round 2 vs. Eldrazi Tron. Newer player. He didn't play too well and I drew very well. I drew so well that Reality Smasher on turn 3 and Thought-Knot Seer the turn after with a Matter Reshaper were no match. In the 2nd match, I did probably a dumb play. I attacked with a Narcomoeba and 3 Prized Amalgam into his Reality Smasher, Thought-Knot Seer, and Endbringer, figuring he'd block. He did and I used my whole hand to finish off those 3 creatures with Conflagrate. I think I forgot my draw trigger from TKS, but I Unearth the 3/3 next turn and bring back Amalgams for his now gas less hand and board. 2-0.
Round 3 vs. GU Tron. It seemed to be Mono Green with the exception of Trinket Mage. In the first game, I tried to fight through 2 Relic of Progenitus, Karn, Wurmcoil Engine, and Ulamog. Ulamog was too much. The next game, he missed on grave hate for a while and I tried to fight through Wurmcoil Engine, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, and O Stones. He finally got some grave hate and the rest is history. Trinket Mage chumps a 9/9 GGT after Hangarback Walker chumped it the turn before. I Conflagrated the 1/1s, but he got Aether Spellbomb and unsummoned GGT after exiling my grave. I told him I'd scoop to Ulamog, but I scooped to that instead. 0-2.
I finish 2-1, which is an improvement. I was pretty disappointed about losing the last round, but Tron on turn 3 and GAS + Tron on turn 4 and GAS is tough to beat, even for a solid hand. I mulled to 5 only once this tournament and my draws and opening hands were miles apart from yesterday's. The guy in the last round said that he sided 4 Ravenous Trap. I wish he drew all of those and Relic instead of Ugin and Gas so I could just cast creatures and stomp.
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Went 3-1 at my local card store's weekly Wednesday Modern event:
Round 1: 2-0 vs Bant Eldrazi
G1: I kept a gross hand with Simian Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, Insolent Neonate, Insolent Neonate, Faithless Looting, Golgari Grave-Troll, Bloodstained Mire and killed him on turn 3 after he played Ancient Stirrings and an Eldrazi Skyspawner.
G2: I kept a reasonable hand with T2 Cathartic + dredgers and executed the usual turn 4 or 5 kill game plan with minimal resistance.
(I didn't sideboard in this match because my opponent told me he didn't have a sideboard since it was a new deck, and I decided my deck was already favoured enough for sideboarding to not matter)
Round 2: 2-1 vs Dredge
G1: I lost the die roll and kept a strong hand with Looting, Cathartic, dredgers and 1 land, and drew into my 2nd and 3rd lands off the T1 looting. My opponent kept a slightly slower hand with no T1 play but T2 Cathartic and both of our dredges were kinda medium but I ended up with the bigger board state by the time my opponent began his turn 3. This game was down to the wire but I was able to pull out a victory after Conflagrating for 5 to kill three of his creatures, then unearthing Scourge Devil next turn for lethal.
In: 3x Leyline of the Void
Out: 1x Dakmor Salvage, 1x Simian Spirit Guide, 1x Insolent Neonate
G2: Kept a slow-ish hand with no Leyline, but it had Cathartic + dredgers and I wasn't feeling greedy enough to mulligan a perfectly playable hand. Then my opponent had the nut draw and killed me on turn 3 with Scourge Devil, haha
G3: Kept a 7 with Leyline, Looting, a land and Dakmor Salvage as my only dredger and topdecked two Stinkweed Imps with the Looting, so the game was over soon after that
Round 3: 2-0 vs RG Eldrazi Midrange
G1: Don't remember this game exactly but I think it went in a similar fashion to R1G2 where I kept a decent hand and executed Dredge's main game plan for victory. Iirc he also played an Endless One on 4 on T3 but next turn I cleaned it up with a Conflagrate and swung through
In: 2x Lightning Axe
Out: 1x Dakmor Salvage, 1x Insolent Neonate
Wasn't sure of what level of graveyard hate to expect so I relied on him either not drawing his sideboard hate or the hate being low-impact (e.g. relic, cage) such that I could play through it without diluting my game plan with reactive sideboard cards
G2: I keep a solid hand with Neonate, Reunion, SSG, dredgers and land and my opponent plays T1 Grafdigger's Cage so I have to switch game plans. I cast the turn 1 Neonate and turn 2 Reunion and dredge solidly until I can find a Loam, then dredge & cast Loam on turn 3 and power out an 11/11 Golgari Grave-Troll on turn 4 with the help of Simian Spirit Guide. My opponent kept a low-action hand because of Cage so I had ample time to set up my Loam engine with no pressure. After I drop two more Grave-Trolls the next two turns, each 15/15's, my opponent concedes the game with a Reality Smasher and an Endless One on 1 on his side of the board with him at 4 life
Round 4: 1-2 vs UWR Control
G1: I mulled down to 5 and kept an ok-ish hand with lands and dredgers, then scried a Reunion to the top. The majority of this game played out normally, with me applying pressure after dredging well and him using board wipes and Path to Exile to slow me down. Eventually I got him down to 10 and after a Ghost Quarter, my only land was a Dakmor Salvage. I'd also dredged into four Bloodghasts and he'd just cast Supreme Verdict, wiping out my Amalgams and Narcomoeba's. At this point I'm in topdeck mode looking for another land to trigger Bloodghast and attack for 8. So on my opponent's turn he draws his card, fetches and shocks down to 7, plays Crucible of Worlds and Ghost Quarters my Dakmor Salvage, then next turn I untap, dredge Dakmor Salvage, play it and kill him with Bloodghasts
In: 2x Abrupt Decay
Out: 1x Insolent Neonate, 1x Simian Spirit Guide
G2: I mulliganed to 6 and kept an ok hand, but my opponent slammed turn 2 RiP and I was too late with the Abrupt Decay to answer it. By the time I cast Decay he had mana up to Cryptic Command to bounce + draw then replay RiP next turn. The game ended with Celestial Colonnade getting there
In: 2x Nature's Claim
Out: 1x Dakmor Salvage, 1x Scourge Devil
G3: Mulliganed down to 5 again and kept a no land hand with looting, dredgers and an Abrupt Decay, and eventually managed to put a few threats onto the board before RiP cleaned up the graveyard. After that my opponent cast Elspeth, Sun's Champion + Gideon Jura to close out the game
Hi guys, Sorry to ask the question again but how come no-one seems to run inquisition/thoughtseize/duress in SB anymore?
I'm thinking of going back to that... Possibly with a mix of 2x Inquisition (against all our hate except leyline)and either 2x Thoughtseize (can grab a Scooze) or 2x Duress (incase Burn hurts us too much... But Likely to just have 2x collective brutality anyway so may just do a mix of the other two...).
What do you guys think? I'm playing FNM tomorrow so appreciate any feedback.
Duress and Thoughtseize are the best discard spells, followed closely behind Collective Brutality. Inquisition does not hit Leyline or Ravenous Trap. Duress does not hit Scavenging Ooze, but I think that card can be played around well enough anyway.
If I lose game 1 for whatever reason, I bring in Duress instead of Nature's Claim. Many people are playing a mix of spell types (such as 2 Ravenous Trap, 2 Grafdigger's Cage), and Duress is a clean way to deal with the vast majority. Any game that I am on the draw, I play Nature's Claim instead.
I still have Collective Brutality at 1-2 in the side because there is so much Burn in my meta, particularly by good players, and the card just wrecks them.
My sb
3 Duress
3 Nature's Claim
2 Collective Brutality
2 Bojuka Bog
1 Lightning Axe
1 Darkblast
1 Gnaw to the Bone
1 Vengeful Pharaoh
1 Ancient Grudge
4 Faithless Looting
4 Cathartic Reunion
3 Conflagrate
3 Life from the Loam
1 Darkblast/Collective Brutality (Darkblast on Modo, CB in paper, again, because of Burn)
Remember this isnt the place to complain about the ban (however stupid it might be.) we have a thread for that on the front page. The talk here should be on replacements or ways to go forward.
At least the deck hasn't disappeared. Golgari Thug's dredge 4 isn't as shiny as the Troll's dredge 6, but it should work well, even if it's slower.
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Yeah, Golgari thug might be a better enabler for Narcomoeba cards that end up in our hand or die off. Anyway, I've already bought my 4 and would suggest others doing the same.
1. We lose dredge 2. This is meaningful, because it means up to 6 less cards we can mill on triggers. It is replaceable with thug, but its still an under power that we dont get back.
2. We lose one of our main outs against removals, angers, and cages. This is not replaceable either. It just means we are weaker to these cards.
No, our best replacement is thug. We can make thug a little better, in the deck, by like noted, playing around with creatures on our top like narc, but really, testing well tell. We either are bad tier 1, or normal tier 2 now.
I don't know about you guys but I'll probably mainboard Darkblast now. Either 4 of, completely replacing the GGT's or 2 and 2 with Golgari Thug. Not sure what else we can do really at the moment.
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My current modern paper decks with current match records since 02/01/17:
So now that Golgari Thug is our new grave troll, should the rest of the deck be examined? Golgari Thug's interaction with Greater Garg and Bridge from Below seems to suggest that if we're running it as a 4-of, we should move back to that strategy.
Thankfully, they left all of our payoff and all of our enablers intact. The only real change is a 4x dredge 6 became a 4x dredge 4. That loss of dredge is hard, to be sure, but it's not a knockout blow. Hell, it might not even be enough to knock us out of tier 1.
I'm going to go back to testing bridge/garg lists. See if with Golgari Thug they are the better option. They do still very much allow ridiculously degenerate starts. In fact, the bridge versions were the more explosive/less consistent ones, if i remember correctly.
Momhugs is what puts us over the top,not troll,we still have imps,we still can dredge up to fifteen with the imps and twelve with thugs off of reunion,with troll not banned and mom banned it would have maxed out at twelve with double troll dredge.
Dredge will still be tier one.
I'm going to try a 3/3/3 split of thug,gargadon and bridge with a gnaw to the bone MB.
This ban also changes our strategy for fighting Grafdigger's Cage immensely as we can no longer keep dredging and start dropping massive fatties. This could possibly put a premium on more than 2x Nature's Claim in the SB but at the same time we can expect people to play less graveyard hate now, since the deck was just banned
Thoughts on this list as a post-ban starting point for testing?
To be clear (simply my thoughts here.) I beleive that going backwords on deck design isnt really the best thing. After all, bridge was bad, not because of troll existed, but because the sac outlets for it were bad.
What we lost in troll is 2 dredge and a late game beater. Replacing 4 cards with 8 is a bad option. I get we arent replacing troll with thugs, but bridges faults didnt change from this ban. Youd talk about going bridge if they banned conflag, not troll.
I beleive the deck is still good tier 2, maybe tier 1 because it will take less "dedicated sideboard hate" to beat us. so we might find out we balance out losing 4% of our usage, sidebords will slack more, and we go up 2% meaning a net loss of 2% overall.
I think our best bet is just restructuring our dredgers, and maybe consitering running more stuff like scourge devil... NOT going bridge. Bridge isnt good until we get sac flash backs or something like that. The next block has mummies in it, only one of them Tymaret, the Murder King with a better mana cost.
Realistically, Ive always talked about how it isnt time to go go rainbow, because tomb scour is bad. But it might be better to get at imps now. If we need better ways to blow up artifacts, fragmentize is the best at that game (yes yes, I know, claim, but if were already in rainbow, fragmentize is still ridiculously strong.)
Or going all in on a broken turn 1 with spirit guide might be the best answer. Id look at those 3 solutions before going back to bridge, either:
1. going more all in on the thugs and just realize the power is less.
2. going rainbow at this point and adding blue for its mill power, while nabbing white sideboard tools.
3. Spirit guide to speed the deck up now that it lost speed to salvage our old speed.
Round 1 vs. GW Company. I think this is a budget build, so it doesn't have all of the combo pieces of Abzan Company or Chord. ANyway, I saw through a bunch of creatures and use Conflagrates to get them. In the first game, I used Conflagrate to get a turn 2 Scavenging Ooze with a counter (BoP). He couldn't find Ooze next game and had a CoCo for just a BoP. The only creatures I saw were BoP, Noble Hierarch, Kitchen Finks, Voice of Resurgence. 2-0.
Round 2 vs. Eldrazi Tron. Newer player. He didn't play too well and I drew very well. I drew so well that Reality Smasher on turn 3 and Thought-Knot Seer the turn after with a Matter Reshaper were no match. In the 2nd match, I did probably a dumb play. I attacked with a Narcomoeba and 3 Prized Amalgam into his Reality Smasher, Thought-Knot Seer, and Endbringer, figuring he'd block. He did and I used my whole hand to finish off those 3 creatures with Conflagrate. I think I forgot my draw trigger from TKS, but I Unearth the 3/3 next turn and bring back Amalgams for his now gas less hand and board. 2-0.
Round 3 vs. GU Tron. It seemed to be Mono Green with the exception of Trinket Mage. In the first game, I tried to fight through 2 Relic of Progenitus, Karn, Wurmcoil Engine, and Ulamog. Ulamog was too much. The next game, he missed on grave hate for a while and I tried to fight through Wurmcoil Engine, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, and O Stones. He finally got some grave hate and the rest is history. Trinket Mage chumps a 9/9 GGT after Hangarback Walker chumped it the turn before. I Conflagrated the 1/1s, but he got Aether Spellbomb and unsummoned GGT after exiling my grave. I told him I'd scoop to Ulamog, but I scooped to that instead. 0-2.
I finish 2-1, which is an improvement. I was pretty disappointed about losing the last round, but Tron on turn 3 and GAS + Tron on turn 4 and GAS is tough to beat, even for a solid hand. I mulled to 5 only once this tournament and my draws and opening hands were miles apart from yesterday's. The guy in the last round said that he sided 4 Ravenous Trap. I wish he drew all of those and Relic instead of Ugin and Gas so I could just cast creatures and stomp.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)Round 1: 2-0 vs Bant Eldrazi
G1: I kept a gross hand with Simian Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, Insolent Neonate, Insolent Neonate, Faithless Looting, Golgari Grave-Troll, Bloodstained Mire and killed him on turn 3 after he played Ancient Stirrings and an Eldrazi Skyspawner.
G2: I kept a reasonable hand with T2 Cathartic + dredgers and executed the usual turn 4 or 5 kill game plan with minimal resistance.
(I didn't sideboard in this match because my opponent told me he didn't have a sideboard since it was a new deck, and I decided my deck was already favoured enough for sideboarding to not matter)
Round 2: 2-1 vs Dredge
G1: I lost the die roll and kept a strong hand with Looting, Cathartic, dredgers and 1 land, and drew into my 2nd and 3rd lands off the T1 looting. My opponent kept a slightly slower hand with no T1 play but T2 Cathartic and both of our dredges were kinda medium but I ended up with the bigger board state by the time my opponent began his turn 3. This game was down to the wire but I was able to pull out a victory after Conflagrating for 5 to kill three of his creatures, then unearthing Scourge Devil next turn for lethal.
In: 3x Leyline of the Void
Out: 1x Dakmor Salvage, 1x Simian Spirit Guide, 1x Insolent Neonate
G2: Kept a slow-ish hand with no Leyline, but it had Cathartic + dredgers and I wasn't feeling greedy enough to mulligan a perfectly playable hand. Then my opponent had the nut draw and killed me on turn 3 with Scourge Devil, haha
G3: Kept a 7 with Leyline, Looting, a land and Dakmor Salvage as my only dredger and topdecked two Stinkweed Imps with the Looting, so the game was over soon after that
Round 3: 2-0 vs RG Eldrazi Midrange
G1: Don't remember this game exactly but I think it went in a similar fashion to R1G2 where I kept a decent hand and executed Dredge's main game plan for victory. Iirc he also played an Endless One on 4 on T3 but next turn I cleaned it up with a Conflagrate and swung through
In: 2x Lightning Axe
Out: 1x Dakmor Salvage, 1x Insolent Neonate
Wasn't sure of what level of graveyard hate to expect so I relied on him either not drawing his sideboard hate or the hate being low-impact (e.g. relic, cage) such that I could play through it without diluting my game plan with reactive sideboard cards
G2: I keep a solid hand with Neonate, Reunion, SSG, dredgers and land and my opponent plays T1 Grafdigger's Cage so I have to switch game plans. I cast the turn 1 Neonate and turn 2 Reunion and dredge solidly until I can find a Loam, then dredge & cast Loam on turn 3 and power out an 11/11 Golgari Grave-Troll on turn 4 with the help of Simian Spirit Guide. My opponent kept a low-action hand because of Cage so I had ample time to set up my Loam engine with no pressure. After I drop two more Grave-Trolls the next two turns, each 15/15's, my opponent concedes the game with a Reality Smasher and an Endless One on 1 on his side of the board with him at 4 life
Round 4: 1-2 vs UWR Control
G1: I mulled down to 5 and kept an ok-ish hand with lands and dredgers, then scried a Reunion to the top. The majority of this game played out normally, with me applying pressure after dredging well and him using board wipes and Path to Exile to slow me down. Eventually I got him down to 10 and after a Ghost Quarter, my only land was a Dakmor Salvage. I'd also dredged into four Bloodghasts and he'd just cast Supreme Verdict, wiping out my Amalgams and Narcomoeba's. At this point I'm in topdeck mode looking for another land to trigger Bloodghast and attack for 8. So on my opponent's turn he draws his card, fetches and shocks down to 7, plays Crucible of Worlds and Ghost Quarters my Dakmor Salvage, then next turn I untap, dredge Dakmor Salvage, play it and kill him with Bloodghasts
In: 2x Abrupt Decay
Out: 1x Insolent Neonate, 1x Simian Spirit Guide
G2: I mulliganed to 6 and kept an ok hand, but my opponent slammed turn 2 RiP and I was too late with the Abrupt Decay to answer it. By the time I cast Decay he had mana up to Cryptic Command to bounce + draw then replay RiP next turn. The game ended with Celestial Colonnade getting there
In: 2x Nature's Claim
Out: 1x Dakmor Salvage, 1x Scourge Devil
G3: Mulliganed down to 5 again and kept a no land hand with looting, dredgers and an Abrupt Decay, and eventually managed to put a few threats onto the board before RiP cleaned up the graveyard. After that my opponent cast Elspeth, Sun's Champion + Gideon Jura to close out the game
4x Bloodghast
4x Golgari Grave-Troll
4x Insolent Neonate
4x Narcomoeba
4x Prized Amalgam
1x Scourge Devil
4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Stinkweed Imp
Sorcery (12)
4x Cathartic Reunion
2x Conflagrate
4x Faithless Looting
2x Life from the Loam
2x Blood Crypt
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Copperline Gorge
2x Dakmor Salvage
1x Mountain
1x Steam Vents
2x Stomping Ground
3x Wooded Foothills
2x Abrupt Decay
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Collective Brutality
1x Darkblast
1x Gnaw to the Bone
3x Leyline of the Void
2x Lightning Axe
2x Nature's Claim
Dredge (117-70 W/L in games) (Pre-GGT ban: 103-70 W/L in games)
Duress and Thoughtseize are the best discard spells, followed closely behind Collective Brutality. Inquisition does not hit Leyline or Ravenous Trap. Duress does not hit Scavenging Ooze, but I think that card can be played around well enough anyway.
If I lose game 1 for whatever reason, I bring in Duress instead of Nature's Claim. Many people are playing a mix of spell types (such as 2 Ravenous Trap, 2 Grafdigger's Cage), and Duress is a clean way to deal with the vast majority. Any game that I am on the draw, I play Nature's Claim instead.
I still have Collective Brutality at 1-2 in the side because there is so much Burn in my meta, particularly by good players, and the card just wrecks them.
My sb
3 Duress
3 Nature's Claim
2 Collective Brutality
2 Bojuka Bog
1 Lightning Axe
1 Darkblast
1 Gnaw to the Bone
1 Vengeful Pharaoh
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Copperline Gorge
2 Mana Confluence
2 Stomping Ground
2 Dakmor Salvage
2 Blood Crypt
3 Mountain
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Steam Vents
4 Bloodghast
4 Narcomoeba
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Insolent Neonate
4 GGT
4 Imp
1 Haunted Dead
4 Faithless Looting
4 Cathartic Reunion
3 Conflagrate
3 Life from the Loam
1 Darkblast/Collective Brutality (Darkblast on Modo, CB in paper, again, because of Burn)
Remember this isnt the place to complain about the ban (however stupid it might be.) we have a thread for that on the front page. The talk here should be on replacements or ways to go forward.
MODERN – LANTERN (aka Fateseal or Barbershop)
Primer – Subreddit – Facebook – Decklist – Gameplay
Thnkr's Content: Gameplay – Datasheet
Each eye sees a different possibility for tomorrow.
CWUBBCCCCCCCBGBGBGCCCCCCCGGURC
RGWNaya BurnRGW+++RGWKiki ComboRGW
UGInfectUG+++++++++.++++++++UGMerfolkUG
GGNykthos WaveGG++++++++++GGStompyGG
BRVampiresBR+++++++.+++++++BRGoblinsBR
WGBogglesWG+++++++++++++CRSkred RedCR
UBRGDredgeUBRG++++++++++BB8 RackBB
URWJeskaiURW+++.++UBRGrixis DelverUBR
URStormUR++++++++UWGBant CompanyUWG
WUBRGHumansWUBRG+CCEldrazi TronCC
RGWNaya BurnRGW+++RGWKiki ComboRGW
UGInfectUG+++++++++.++++++++UGMerfolkUG
GGNykthos WaveGG++++++++++GGStompyGG
BRVampiresBR+++++++.+++++++BRGoblinsBR
WGBogglesWG+++++++++++++CRSkred RedCR
UBRGDredgeUBRG++++++++++BB8 RackBB
URWJeskaiURW+++.++UBRGrixis DelverUBR
URStormUR++++++++UWGBant CompanyUWG
WUBRGHumansWUBRG+CCEldrazi TronCC
1. We lose dredge 2. This is meaningful, because it means up to 6 less cards we can mill on triggers. It is replaceable with thug, but its still an under power that we dont get back.
2. We lose one of our main outs against removals, angers, and cages. This is not replaceable either. It just means we are weaker to these cards.
No, our best replacement is thug. We can make thug a little better, in the deck, by like noted, playing around with creatures on our top like narc, but really, testing well tell. We either are bad tier 1, or normal tier 2 now.
Dragon Stompy - R 11-6-0
Ponza - RG 8-4-0
Tron - BG 1-2-0
Naya Burn - WRG 2-4-0
Spirits - UW2-2-0
Dragons - R
Thankfully, they left all of our payoff and all of our enablers intact. The only real change is a 4x dredge 6 became a 4x dredge 4. That loss of dredge is hard, to be sure, but it's not a knockout blow. Hell, it might not even be enough to knock us out of tier 1.
I'm going to go back to testing bridge/garg lists. See if with Golgari Thug they are the better option. They do still very much allow ridiculously degenerate starts. In fact, the bridge versions were the more explosive/less consistent ones, if i remember correctly.
BG Rock
Modern:
RW Sun & Moon
RBG Dredge
RWG Burn
Legacy:
W Death & Taxes
Dredge will still be tier one.
I'm going to try a 3/3/3 split of thug,gargadon and bridge with a gnaw to the bone MB.
Thoughts on this list as a post-ban starting point for testing?
2x Blood Crypt
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Copperline Gorge
2x Dakmor Salvage
2x Mountain
1x Steam Vents
2x Stomping Ground
3x Wooded Foothills
1x Darkblast
Creature (25)
4x Bloodghast
4x Golgari Thug
4x Insolent Neonate
4x Narcomoeba
4x Prized Amalgam
1x Scourge Devil
4x Stinkweed Imp
4x Cathartic Reunion
3x Conflagrate
4x Faithless Looting
3x Life from the Loam
Dredge (117-70 W/L in games) (Pre-GGT ban: 103-70 W/L in games)
What we lost in troll is 2 dredge and a late game beater. Replacing 4 cards with 8 is a bad option. I get we arent replacing troll with thugs, but bridges faults didnt change from this ban. Youd talk about going bridge if they banned conflag, not troll.
I beleive the deck is still good tier 2, maybe tier 1 because it will take less "dedicated sideboard hate" to beat us. so we might find out we balance out losing 4% of our usage, sidebords will slack more, and we go up 2% meaning a net loss of 2% overall.
I think our best bet is just restructuring our dredgers, and maybe consitering running more stuff like scourge devil... NOT going bridge. Bridge isnt good until we get sac flash backs or something like that. The next block has mummies in it, only one of them Tymaret, the Murder King with a better mana cost.
Realistically, Ive always talked about how it isnt time to go go rainbow, because tomb scour is bad. But it might be better to get at imps now. If we need better ways to blow up artifacts, fragmentize is the best at that game (yes yes, I know, claim, but if were already in rainbow, fragmentize is still ridiculously strong.)
Or going all in on a broken turn 1 with spirit guide might be the best answer. Id look at those 3 solutions before going back to bridge, either:
1. going more all in on the thugs and just realize the power is less.
2. going rainbow at this point and adding blue for its mill power, while nabbing white sideboard tools.
3. Spirit guide to speed the deck up now that it lost speed to salvage our old speed.