MTG Salvation

I don't think it's specific to your version tbh. In my experience, the way Jund usually wins is going under us if we're too slow, and assassin's trophy definitely doesn't speed up their clock.

my thoughts vs bgx with assasins trop. its really not a problem. the main problem we really have against bgx is hand disruption. they play 7-9 hand disruption.which makes us hard to interact with threats. than they kill our lands with AT. i say running spellpierce and dispell 2nd game. then opt to use more bounce spell.

Barrin are you Trellon on mtgo?

Hello again

I played a local Tournament today, 10 players, 4 rounds of Swiss and cardprizes for the best 3.
My list:

I played:
Round 1 vs Amulet Titan 1:2
I lost the first and last game, both on the draw.
Round 2 vs UB Ashiok Control 2:0
Easy games, I was delayed a lot until Karn, Wurmcoil and Ballista were too much to handle.
Round 3 vs Mono-G Tron 2:0
No Karns, a budget version. I countered any threats, then Karn tokens and Ballista made a heavy beatdown against no interaction.
Round 4 vs Naya Evolution 2:0
A midrange creature toolbox deck without any permission besides Blood Moon, and also soft to counterspells and Ballista.

And finally reaching the third place, I won a foil Ancestral Vision.

For the list above, I think about small changes main like more Dismember and a Mindslaver. The sideboard is weak and I put those 75 together last night, so that will get some changes for sure. Kozilek is not necessary, the second O-stone probably as well. I'll make up a better one soon.

Greetings

So here is my edited list:

Thoughts and suggestions?

Greetings

Yes. I still try the Slaver, but overall I didn't really miss it yet.
Thought-Knot Seer is definitely a worthy inclusion, though I can probably just free some SB slots for it.

4-0 with this list 10-8-18



Round 1: Budget Burn (2-1)
Honestly not much to say. He pulled out G1 but I played burn twice the previous week so irrationally dedicated two sideboard slots to it. Early Bottle Gnomes were a huge roadblock G2/G3 and I pulled ahead with a Wurmcoil Engine.
SB: +2 Bottle Gnomes +2 Silent Arbiter, -2 Remand -1 Mindslaver -1 Oblivion Stone;
-2 condescend, +2 negate;
-1 Dismember, +1 Spatial Contortion


Round 2: E-tron (2-1)
Super fun games. Lots of back and forth. Lost G2 when he topdecked the second dismember to kill my supposed-to-be-blocking Sundering Titan :0
This match-up always seems decided in how early they Reality Smasher and what answers I have ready. The Smashers were answered once with a large walking ballista, and once with 3 Thirsts getting me plenty of Dismembers and cards to discard to the trigger.
SB: -1 Spatial, +1 Dismember;
+2 Spreading Seas +1 Sundering Titan, -3 Something

Round 3: Real Burn (2-1)
I picked up G1 on the draw after a mulligan, so that felt great. Goblin Guide drew me some lands then ate a Spatial. Soft locked with spell burst for a few turns and resolved Wurmcoil. Bottle Gnomes came in handy when I drew into them G3. The sadness of having only one chalice is felt in this matchup as I don't think I drew into it once. Sideboarding was a little different as I thought Arbiter would be worse. Games were very interesting. He had two Eidolons out G2 and trapped himself at one life for a few turns with their damage. I died with 3 Thirsts in hand which is a humiliating way to go.
SB: +2 Bottle Gnomes +2 Negate, -2 Remand -1 Mindslaver -1 Oblivion Stone;
-1 Dismember, +1 Spatial Contortion


Round 4: Mardu Pyro (2-0)
A matchup I should win, and often lose. I think my list or playstyle is very soft to 3 thoughtseize affects in the first two turns, which didn't happen this time. Don't think it was ever close. I won at 17 and 28 life during G1 and G2 respectively. My opponent is one of the better players at the shop so it was still a hard fought G2 despite my Spreading Seas trapping him in black mana only for a few turns.
SB: +2 Spreading Seas +1 Sundering +1 Arbiter +1 Kozilek +1 Tormod's -6 something


Leaning hard on the toolbox strategy came about in stages over the last month or so. Started by experimenting with the Trinket Mage package, as I only own one chalice. Trinket Mage + Ballista is sweet and I don't think I regret dropping Fabricate for it. This path eventually led into Gifts and here we are. Spell Burst was an old favorite I brought back because of Gifts, and the dismember/spatial is a split that happened for Gifts (before: 2 Spatial MD, 2 Dismember Side). Been performing great the last few weeks.

No cards feel like they are underperforming, I just die with them in hand sometimes. I'm sure this means I need to increase my removal/repeals but its hard to find the space. I'm probably going back to 3 Spreading Seas in the side next as its my favorite card to bring in apart from Squelch. Bottle Gnomes also rotating for something else because my shop only has two burn players and I can't believe I get matched up with both 3 weeks in a row. However, was also considering keeping them as part of the general anti-aggro package (currently: 2 Arbiters, 2 removal). I think it is likely they are better as more removal if I want to bolster that role.

Anyways thanks for reading sorry for the mediocre tournament report. Been ratcheting up my note taking/preparation but not quickly enough to improve this post!

Nice finish. Your list is very similar to mine. How's the Kozilek in the SB? Does it see a lot of play? Does it perform well?

Kozilek comes in against most spell based combo decks, control, and often jund-strategy-variants where he is an amazing top deck late-game when I have 0-2 cards in hand. Its hard to tell whether he is actually good, or just a crutch, but I always like casting him.

If I draw him in a standoff situation against another control player then I can usually switch gears and play hard into the opponent's held-up mana/cards. Make them use resources because: a) if they let me resolves stuff I'm winning b) if they use cards to stop me I'll be winning once I cast Kozilek and refill my hand. At that point they usually have less answers for him because of the aforementioned pressure I was putting on.
This is the kind of situation I mean when I can't tell if that is just a crutch or not. He is just really well suited to breaking stalemated control mirrors. I used to have 0 problem with control but the Teferi/search/etc variant has a lot more game against me and Kozilek was basically added in response to that.

I find his counter ability most useful against the spell based combo. I can lose games by just giving my opponent too much time to work through my permission spells, and Kozilek lets me tap out for a turn fairly safe behind the discard-counter ability and start actually killing them.

Against combo/control the countering coming from an activated ability and not a spell has been relevant many a time.

I don't have the money to play it MTGO otherwise I would stream me playing the deck. I do play the list I posted in paper to moderate / good results. It is swissroles on twitch though. I could stream xmage playing but it is xmage, that comes with its own set of bugs.

barrin_master_wizard I just came from the Champion of Wits testing! Its funny we're testing in reverse. I played it with Elder Deep Fiend, who opened up so many good lines. Next time I try it out my plan is to go deeper on the whole plan. I played 2 Wits 2 Fiend and had no really good discard options when I was hard casting a Champion. I might consider going harder on Snapcasters next time? Getting a 4/4 Champion token was never not amazing.

Also: Kozilek is definitely super fun to resolve. I keep Sundering Titan in the side a bit just because its really fun to resolve tbh.

Anyone have advice for the bant spirits MU ? I've found it to be an absolute nightmare as everything in their arsenal is good against us

Spirits is for sure rough... A decent amount of removal is the big thing. Silent arbiter, which is really good against most aggressive decks, is only okay here because it can't block and gets queller'd a lot anyways. Maybe a second Ugin in the 75 if you don't have one already; a resolved Ugin wrecks decks like spirits, and often it's a race to tron for ugin/o-stone.

@SwissRolls, Cockatrice is a pretty good option. I use this skin when playing, makes it look much more professional as well.

I was just kind of inquiring if Maurizioutron or anyone else wouldn't mind if I used xmage, I'm fairly comfortable with it. I would stream it if people wanted me to. If not I can always just record me playing matches and post them to youtube.

Please, yes! I'm always looking for more data for the spreadsheet. I prefer Youtube, as it's easier to skim for data because my time for watching is limited. It's also easiest when each match is a different video, like I have on my Youtube channel. But yeah, that would be awesome!

I can definitely start recording my games then and post them. I appreciate the quick feedback too

I posted two videos, I don't think we are actively supposed to advertise but I'm sure you guys can find them. I had a couple good games earlier too but the video quality was super low so I couldn't upload them. I'll try to get 2-3 a week in for you.

Went 3-0 last night at my lgs, like normal it was kind of a small tournament but still fun regardless. My meta is very well suited for us. I played the list I posted above (its also in my signature under the modern button).

Round 1: Tezzerator (won 2-1)
I had lent cards to my opponent so they could actually play tonight, so I knew what they were on and what kind of hands to keep.

Game 1: Kept a pretty controlling hand that still had access to quick tron with counterspell backup. turn 7 I played and cracked mindslaver with the opponent tapped out. They conceded.

SideBoard:
In: 3 Surgical Extraction, 2 Negate, 3 Thought-Knot Seer
Out: 3 Wurmcoil Engine, 4 Dismember, 1 Expedition Map

Game 2: This Game I thought would be easy with an opening hand with 2 surgicals, 3 lands and 2 condescend. This game went very long and everytime I tried surgically he had 2 thopterfoundry which basically made it impossible. It went back and forth but I was definitely outplayed in the long game. I did not draw any real threats and my repeals had been surgicalled early on in the game. I had done a cool play with remanding my surgical 2 times (the first remand drawing a second) but stil my opponent had enough mana and artifacts so sac. I probably could have played better in that scenario as my opponent was always leaving up 1 mana when comboing to avoid the surgical.

Game 3: This game also went extremely long but was a really good back and forth game. I played early counterspells and my opponent tapped out to play a pithing needle on oblivion stone, and play a thopter foundry. I didn't have a counterspell, but this was going to my turn 4 and I played a Thought-Knot Seer taking their last card, a Whir of Invention. My opponent then topdecks the sword I gets back up in life, evening it out. I end up drawing a surgical and they play around it. I drew the oblivion stone with tron mana and got their sword. The game was pretty much over at this point as I had academy ruins and tron.



Round 2: Grixis Death's Shadow (2-0)
Being a smaller store, every person who plays consistently knows what decks people are on.

Game 1: I kept an okay 6card hand; 2 lands, a dismember, a condescend and a Thirst For Knowledge, scrying a land to the top. My opponent landed some early hand disruption leaving me nearly threatless however both of us draw runner lands. (feels bad for both of us but my opponent especially). I then land Wurmcoil Engine the turn after they play a Gurmag Angler. we both pass, I draw a second Wurmcoil Engine and play it.

SideBoard:
In: 1 Engineered Explosives
Out: 1 Field of Ruin

Game 2: My hand is kind of slow but has quick tron and a Wurmcoil Engine. My Opponent Fetch shocks and thoughtscours. I play land map. Turn 2 they thoughtseize my wurmcoil and play a gurmag angler. Turn 2 I play another tron land. they play 2 death shadows after cycling a Street Wraith. the next turn I play island in order to have thirst up. They temur battle rage and get me down to 2 from 15. I land tron and a topdeck a wurmcoil engine. They fail to draw an card that can deal me 2 damage. I drew a mindslaver with having another tower in hand. I then proceed slaver them and attack the gurmag into me, blocking with the wurmcoil. I drew bolt for them and killed their 3/3 Death's Shadow as well. Leaving them at 10, zero cards and 1 Death's Shadow. I attack in with the wurmcoil putting them at 4, but I drew a second wurmcoil and play it second mainphase.



Round 3: Mardu Pyromancer (2-1)
We agreed to split prizes because its better for both of us, but we decided to play it out for fun anyway.

Game 1: This is a super back and forth game where both of us answer eachother's threats. I didn't draw a wurmcoil making the game a little more difficult. I dismembered an early pyromancer but it didn't matter, I pretty much drew mono counterspells and lands. I had a slaver but all I did with it was kill another one of their own pyromancers with it. Then thoughtseized their Lotv. They drew Kolaghan's Command and both back a reveler they discarded earlier in the game to a faithless looting. that Reveler killed me.

SideBoard:
In: 1 Engineered Explosives
Out: 1 Field of Ruin

Both Games 2 and 3 Looked fairly similar.
I had early tron in game 2 with an EE on zero to kill tokens for early aggression. Landed mindslaver to screw them up and then drew the academy ruins with 12 mana.

Game 3:
This was a little longer than game 2 with me drawing multiple walking ballista killing off early threats and drawing out removal. I drew a wurmcoil engine and blocked an attacking Young Pyromancer, after blocks they Kolaghan's Command it and buyback a reveler. I managed to have the counter for that and it Scrys me into the mindslaver lock.

My lgs meta is fairly good for us, the decks last night being; 2 Mardu Pyromancer, 1 Grixis Death's Shadow, 1 Kiki-Evolution, 1 8-Rack, 1 Storm, 1 Tezzerator and myself.

Somethings I've noticed from starting the youtube videos and taking slightly better notes, Is I tend to play a little hastily and get punished when I do. So i'll try to slowdown and play a little more conservatively. I tend to think I've turned the corner a turn earlier than I actually have.

i went 3-0 last night with my current list. did not face any bgx or other tron though.

my comment about this deck, ballista's are plain awesome. played against agro and he's the mvp.



vs mono white hoomans 2-1
vs affinity 2-1
vs jeskai combo draw
vs uw control 2-0

top seat for misty rainforest.