I really like the midrange playstyle this list offers, as well as strong SB options for several MU's.
Any thoughts and suggestions are welcome.
Greetings
Supreme Will and Cyclonic Rift are not sideboard cards. Mainboard cards should be useful in many different situations and offer flexibility, e.g., Supreme Will and Cyclonic Rift. Sideboard cards should be more narrow but therefore also more powerful. A good example is Hurkyls Recall for a card that is more narrow than Rift but a lot more powerful when you do bring it in. It does not make a lot of sense to put flexible but somewhat weak cards in your sb, those cards belong in the main.
Yes I should, but my maindeck is 100% safe. I could put different cards in my SB (like Hurkyl's or Negate) - something to test out. Though Supreme Will seems nice to have especially in combo MU's or Control/Tron. You can either counter their important spells or find a threat if you have other counters available. Hard choice to cut it! And Cyclonic Rift is a card I want to have in my 75 because of the flexibility it grants.
Side note: We met each other some time ago in Hannover! I was one of those U-Tron fans and we had a short chat about the deck. I'll post my Tournament reports here this month. Let's see how my list can perform.
Yes I should, but my maindeck is 100% safe. I could put different cards in my SB (like Hurkyl's or Negate) - something to test out. Though Supreme Will seems nice to have especially in combo MU's or Control/Tron. You can either counter their important spells or find a threat if you have other counters available. Hard choice to cut it! And Cyclonic Rift is a card I want to have in my 75 because of the flexibility it grants. [...]
Aren‘t these reasons to put the cards in the mainboard though? If your mainboard is safe already, why would you need them in the side? I don‘t play Supreme Will but, in my opinion, Cyclonic Rift definitely belongs in the mainboard.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: Death&Taxes / U Tron / G Tron / Goblins
Legacy: Death&Taxes (almost there)
EDH: Squee, Goblin Nabob / Phelddagrif
So first Tournament today, 4 rounds. My list is that posted above.
Round 1: The Rock - 2:0
My opponent had 4 Field of Ruin and 4 Assassin's Trophy in his 75, but my 5 basic Islands gave me enough safety to cast Wurmcoils from turn 6 until my victory.
SB:
-4 Remand
+2 Engineered Explosives
+1 Oblivion Stone
+1 Crucible of Worlds
Round 2: BW Eldrazi'n'Taxes - 2:0
I had early Walking Ballistas and Condescend, then I had time to establish my mana for the win.
SB:
-4 Remand
-1 Mindslaver
-1 Expedition Map
+2 Engineered Explosives
+2 Dismember
+1 Oblivion Stone
+1 Crucible of Worlds
Round 3: Bogles - 2:1
I lost the first game fast.
Game 2 I had a Chalice on 1 T2, game 3 I had natural Tron with a Talisman for a T3 Ugin. GG!
SB:
-4 Remand
-1 Mindslaver
+2 Engineered Explosives
+2 Chalice of the Void
+1 Cyclonic Rift
Round 4: UR Phoenix - 2:1
I won game 1 with Chalice on 1 and Dismember, Ugin and Karn. Lost game 2 because my blue source was Tolaria West, I was screwed and tapped out when Blood Moon resolved, and had only blue spells in hand. Then game 3 I had Dismember for an early Thing in the Ice, lots of counters and finally Ugin, Karn and Wurmcoils.
SB:
-4 Remand
-1 Expedition Map
-1 Mindslaver
-1 Thirst for Knowledge
+2 Dismember
+2 Surgical Extraction
+2 Chalice of the Void
+1 Cyclonic Rift
For now I won it all 4-0, gaining 3 UMA boosters with an additional EE inside - good trading stuff.
My sideboard will maybe change soon, but for now I am happy with my 75. Today I faced no MU's where Supreme Will, Ghost Quarter or Emrakul were good to board in.
Greetings
PS: That one-of Gemstone Caverns showed up nearly every game I was on the draw. Very helpful card.
Congrats on the 4-0! Supreme Will and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn you'll have a hard time finding matchups to side in because they aren't really side board cards. I'm playing 1 Supreme Will, and its a fine card in the main. Its a card I often find myself boarding out, I'm tempted to just drop it completely. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is a card that doesn't really belong in this deck casting a 15 mana card is a tall order. She is pretty much only in decks that can cheat her out. To also go along with most people, cyclonic rift is a main deck card.
Ghost Quarter along with the crucible of worlds would have been fine to bring in against rock since they are playing some number of creature lands.
I'm also curious as to you siding out all 4 remand in every matchup. I think it's probably right against phoenix and eldrazi taxes, but I'm not sure about it against rock and bogles.
You could try to put some number of spatial contortion in your side to help shore up creature matchups or put in some number of negate to help with control or noncreature combo.
For the creature MU's I have a playset of Dismember and 2 EE's (in addition to 4 Ballistas etc). Supreme Will should be a card to bring in vs. Combo and Control, though both MU's were absent this time (there is usually both around). And finally Emrakul is my silverbullet for UW(x) Control. I will test different cards in those slots during the following weeks.
I'll post again then, I guess.
Greetings
I'll bring this to a Modern FNM this week, and hopefully have something to report.
Notable changes:
-more GY hate: I expect some GY-intense decks to show up in form of Dredge, Living End, Grishoalbrand and more. I know Cage doesn't help against Living End, though Chalice does
-Filigree Familiar: there will be a notable amount of aggro decks, mostly Burn. And the tiny fox is really nice to have alongside Chalice
-3rd Ugin, the Spirit Dragon: I replaced Emrakul with him now that I have 3 in paper. I know Ugin is MWP in quite a lot of MU's, so a third copy was in my thoughts for a longer time. Now I can test to run more, and maybe a Playset among my 75 is correct.
Another FNM. Not much luck in the matchup lottery. Played Elves, Eldrazi and Taxes, UW Control and G Tron. The G Tron match went 1-1 and then we ran out of time and went to a draw, lost 0-2 to E&D, crushed UW Control 2-0 (the draws in that matchup were insane) and lost 1-2 to Elves.
My Surgicals still haven't arrived so I wasn't on full power vs G Tron post board, and vs the Elves I'm pretty sure I played a bad game 3.
Eldrazi and Taxes were pretty much unwinnable with the cards I saw he had in hand.
UW Control was about as lopsided as the E&T match but in the other direction. T3 tron from me and Ballista (and Ballista was the worst payoff card in my hand...), he paths it and ramps me into blue that I didn't have and a T4 Sundering Titan with Remand backup. You can guess how that went with him playing two fetches the first two turns. Game two I have Tron T4 and just start slamming down threads. I bait out a Detention Sphere with Baby Karn, so he taps out on his turn and I go for Mindslaver, decimate his hand, build the lock and gg. Poor guy went 0-4 with his all foiled out 2500$ deck...
While I'm not putting up any notable results, this was my second FNM ever and I played against a lot of more experienced players. It didn't help that I go to work in a different city so by 7PM when the FNM starts I've already been up and doing things for 12 hours. So I'm not entirely unhappy with how things turned out.
I did notice that the power level of G Tron is really off the charts because the pilot is a kitchen table Magic player that has just built the deck recently and he went off to take third or fourth place against a host of both better and more experienced players. I understand what people mean when they say they don't like modern, because some of the matchups you really lose to the decks (which practically play themselves) not the player or any sort of back and forth where you're outplaying each other.
So here my reports.
FNM: Sideboard from my last post. I went 2-1-1, loosing to UB Mill (no Eldrazi Titans in my SB) and drew with UWR Control. Wins against UR Phoenix and Naya Kiki-Evolution-Chord.
Then I changed my SB again:
Then today, a Win-a-Box Tournament, 14 players.
Round 1 vs GW Druid Vizier Combo - 1:2
I won game 1 easily, then I heavily misplayed game 2 & 3 and lost.
Round 2 vs Jund - 2:1
I lost the first game, post-board Commit // Memory was MWP to refill my Hand and shrink Goyfs.
Round 3 vs UW Control - 2:0
First game was like 40 minutes, and we grinded it out until my opponent was decked before he could win. Ballista and Ugin were my best cards. Post-board, I had natural Tron with Gemstone Caverns for Karn and Ballista beats with Remand protection.
Round 4 vs Bogles - 2:1
I lost game 1 fast, game 2 I had an early Chalice followed by Ugin, and game 3 natural Tron with Ugin T4.
I reached third place, winning an UMA Booster (whiff inside). My list feels really comfortably now, especially those Commit // Memory are worthy additions.
I'll think of this deck for larger tourneys like MKM Series this year - it feels to be in a really nice position for nowaday's Meta.
Shok just went 10-0 across 2 leagues. Great games all around, sick comebacks - you name it. Slaughtered Dredge, Shadow, Phoenix, Jund, UW, KnightFall and I don't know what else.
Old/new tech that turned out well: 2x TKS in Solem/Karn slot and 3x Leyline SB.
TKS turned out to be just the proactive play with a big body that can go offense/defense as seemingly needed in this meta either to block Amalgam Didn't seem like there was a situation in which Solemn and Baby Karn would have been better in that slot in the matches I watched. Leyline forced instant concessions from Dredge players, crippled Phoenix.
Been playing Sultai Teachings a lot recently, but let a friend borrow it for a tourney this weekend out of town, so played Utron today at the LGS. Went 3-0 (6-0 in games). Drew with the other 3-0 guy.
Match 1: Burn, 2-0 Chalice on one both games worked great for me. Game one I play turn one tron land, turn two Island (Condescend a burn spell), turn three tron land, turn four tron assembled (cast Platinum Angel), turn five cast Wurmcoil and Chalice on one. Game two I play turn one Map, turn two Chalice, hold up counters for a couple of turns, assemble Tron on turn five I think (cast Solemn Simulacrum and Filigree Familiar), and win easily from there.
-3 Remand
+3 Filigree Familiar
Played an extra game since the match was over so quick, they wanted to try their Elves deck against me. Won that, too. Again, Chalice on one, then Spatial Contortion'd his guys, got firm control of the game with Ballista and he conceded.
Match 2: Mono Green Tron, 2-0 Game one is insane. I am able to bluff counters when he assembles Tron on the play, Field of Ruin his Tower to keep him off tron for another turn, but then start to stall out as he casts Karn and starts exiling my lands and cards in hand, using Relic to cantrip through his deck and wiping my Mindslaver with O-Stone. Gets to a point where opp has Tron assembled (two Towers), Karn at 9 loyalty (Power Plant, Mine, Island, and something else under it), O-Stone in play. I have Power Plant, Mine, Academy Ruins, and three Island in play, Remand, O-Stone, Ugin in hand. Opp -3 Karn to take my Ruins, I use it to put Slaver back on top in response. I figure my only path to winning here is to Ruins the Slaver back, hope opp casts something so I can Remand and draw it, then hope to topdeck Tower to Slaver the opp and wipe his board, etc. He casts Ugin (sac's Sanctum to search for Ulamog), I Remand and draw Slaver. They pass turn. I topdeck Tower, Slaver opp. Cast his Ulamog, exile his Towers, -3 Karn to exile his Ulamog, have him pass turn. I untap, cast and blow O-Stone. Opp is now on 5 lands with Karn, Wurmcoil, Ugin in hand. I proceed to win easily from here.
Game two I turn one Map (gets Nature's Claim'd), turn two Chalice on one, turn three hold up counters for O-Stone, turn four Spreading Seas a Tron land. From here I counter every spell that Chalice doesn't hit, draw more Seas (never have to cast them), until I build up six mana and Gearhulk on his turn (flashing back Anticipate, digging for another counter), and win easily with beats and a hand full of blue spells.
Round Three: UR Phoenix 2-0 Both games I get Chalice on one. Game one, after Chalice, I Repeal his Thing in the Ice, counter every other threat, and Mindslaver lock him. Game two, get Grafdigger's Cage, Chalice on one. He resolves a Blood Moon, which cuts us both to one blue mana. He tries to go for Snapcaster beats, but I build up mana to cast Silent Arbiter and hold up counter magic. He gets two Phoenix into play and starts to beat me for three damage a turn. I eventually Repeal his Moon, cast Platinum Angel with counter backup. I start wiping his Phoenix' with Ballista, swing in with Angel, eventually kill him with Angel beats and Ballista pings.
Drew round four with my Humans opponent, my son was hungry and tired of playing by this point. Anyways, very happy with the list right now. I now have 1,223 games of data on the spreadsheet, and used the spreadsheet to build and tweak my list.
Game 1:
Opponent mulled to 4 game one. They went stomping grounds search for tomorrow. I didn't have quick tron so I cast a turn 6 Wurmcoil Engine. I shouldn't have done this. Giant punt. They drew the 7th land and played Scapeshift with me at 17 from Sakura-Tribe Elder beats.
Game 2: I kept a natural tron, island, TKS and remand hand. I played a turn 5 TKS with remand back up and the game didn't really have much after that. I followed it up with another TKS and the opponent scooped them up.
Game 3:
My opening hand had quick tron with a map, 2 tron lands and a TKS. Unfortunately it didn't have any counter magic, in retrospect I should have mulliganed more aggressively to have counter magic and a clock. Once again my opponent hit me with Steve beats for 3 turns. On turn 5 they draw step Vendilion Cliqued me and took my only counterspell. I drew thirst for knowledge off of it. They had the negate to counter it when I cast it in response to their scapeshift on 7 lands.
Round 2: Hardened Scales 2-1
This matchup, as well as regular affinity seem to be one of our best. Walking Ballista and Repeal are unfair cards in this matchup.
Game 1:
My opponent had a relative fast start with a turn 1 hardened scales. I had quick tron, island, repeal and walking ballista. they played turn 2 hangarback walker and I repealed it. I eventually dismember a Inkmoth Nexus as they try to go all in on it with a 9/9 Arcbound Ravager. I played another walking ballista and they make me kill them.
Game 3: I mulliganed to 6 keeping 2 Spatial Contortion, Island, Tronland, expedition map and repeal. I lead with Tronland map. They played an arcbound worker and I spatialed it. They then played hangarback and i repealed that. The game went on for 10 minutes of me answering everything they had. They eventually tried to go all in again on an inkmoth but on the activation I overloaded a cyclonic rift, and then dismembered the inkmoth. I played a wurmcoil on my next turn. I hit them from 24 to 0 with that wurmcoil.
Round 3: Mono Green Control? 2-1
I think this is the Corbin Hosler brew that he recently played on the tcgplayer youtube channel. plow under, mwonvuli acid-moss with dumb green finishers.
Game 1:
I played a turn 4 wurmcoil after countering a trinisphere (just to deny them a play for a turn). I hit them with it and then cast a 2nd one on turn 6.
Game 2:
They led with land arbor elf. I played land map, the played land utopia sprawl, into Mwonvuli Acid-Moss. I never got to 3 lands. I conceded when they put my second land on top and tutored acidic slime with primal command.
I should have re-sideboarded after this game but I was tilted and forgot to.
Game 3:
My opener had tons of hate for them and I played a turn 3 Thought-knot seer. They were stuck on 2 lands and I took a Lignify. They drew the third one and beast withined it. I played another tks and the game was pretty much over.
Round 4: WB Tokens 2-0
There was a repair during the round otherwise I would have been paired against RB Burn. Very happy there was a repair.
Game 1:
Kept a relative controlling hand with repeal, and 2 condescend. The only threat my opponent landed was an Auriok Champion and I let them have 2 Intangible Virtue. I played ugin on turn 4 and -2ed, killing their entire board. They asked me if there was anyway they might get out of it.. I responded "No, not with what I think could be in your deck."
Game 2: I had a quick tron again, island and counterspells. They played 3 Intangible Virtues, and 1 Auriok Champion. They played a bitterblossom and I let it deal them 1 damage. I played ugin again, they conceded.
Was a fun night despite punting really hard against Bring to Light Scapeshift. I think next week with this meta I'll try my thought-knots in the main board rather than the side. There is hardly and aggressive decks where dismember is good. There is a lot of midrange but I have plenty of things I can side in. There is tons of token based decks at my lgs too, so I figured playing the EE in the main was a fine decision.
3 Karn Liberated in the side (why would you even play them somewhere between turn 5-7?) and Academy Ruins but not a single Mindslaver in the 75 somehow irritates me.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: Death&Taxes / U Tron / G Tron / Goblins
Legacy: Death&Taxes (almost there)
EDH: Squee, Goblin Nabob / Phelddagrif
That's an all-in list: 4-of the strongest things and screw the rest I kinda like that, after all Wurmcoil Engine and Walking Ballista win most of the games. I would have kept a 1-of Mindslaver, just for the fun of it.
I don't like Karn Liberated in the side either, i don't really like any 5+ CMC in the side, Tron is more difficult to assemble in sideboard games. Also, 3-of Engineered Explosives? What matchups is it for? How many times you can actually cast it on 2?
With 3 river of tears and/or people trying to blood moon us, it happens more than you think. At least from what I've found but it is still not often enough to be considered consistent. EE is good against shadow, affinity(both versions), I'd assume Whir Prison(it was good against lantern), its fine against Humans, anything that makes tokens. Its probably okay vs Mono Red Phoenix (for the 8 1 drop prowess creatures).
The 26 lands seems like a lot but it makes sense if Kiwy wanted to be able to cast Karn Liberated naturally. I too am not a huge fan of big karn in this deck. We don't have tron on turn 3 a lot, and Karn is really only oppressive if cast that early.
I've been a huge fan of consolidating on the good cards rather than playing 1 ofs for a while now. It just feels more powerful, and my personal winrate has increased noticeably. Granted I don't play on mtgo and haven't gone to a large tournament in a while, so look at my opinion with some amount of discretion.
I do like the ravenous traps in the board. Its definitely better against dredge, and phoenix lists that are using pyromancer ascension. Its definitely weaker than surgical extraction in matchups where they are really just focusing on recurring 1 or 2 cards.
I like the chalices, If I owned any I would definitely play them. They seem particularly strong against the current aggressive, low curve meta. And with Ad Nauseum on the rise, chalice makes the matchup a breeze.
What is everyones thoughts on Commit // Memory? 4 Mana seems like a lot for that effect and I could see how the memory half it useful but I don't know how needed it actually is.
12 Tron Lands
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Academy Ruins
1 Tolaria West
2 River of Tears
5 Island
[Creatures]
4 Walking Ballista
3 Wurmcoil Engine
[Spells]
2 Chalice of the Void
4 Expedition Map
2 Talisman of Dominance
2 Dismember
2 Repeal
4 Condescend
4 Remand
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Oblivion Stone
2 Karn, Scion of Urza
1 Mindslaver
2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Chalice of the Void
1 Cyclonic Rift
2 Supreme Will
2 Dismember
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
I really like the midrange playstyle this list offers, as well as strong SB options for several MU's.
Any thoughts and suggestions are welcome.
Greetings
Youtube Channel
My stream:
www.twitch.tv/pierakor
My Disco:
https://discord.gg/gTt6xHd
Side note: We met each other some time ago in Hannover! I was one of those U-Tron fans and we had a short chat about the deck. I'll post my Tournament reports here this month. Let's see how my list can perform.
Greetings
Aren‘t these reasons to put the cards in the mainboard though? If your mainboard is safe already, why would you need them in the side? I don‘t play Supreme Will but, in my opinion, Cyclonic Rift definitely belongs in the mainboard.
Legacy: Death&Taxes (almost there)
EDH: Squee, Goblin Nabob / Phelddagrif
Round 1: The Rock - 2:0
My opponent had 4 Field of Ruin and 4 Assassin's Trophy in his 75, but my 5 basic Islands gave me enough safety to cast Wurmcoils from turn 6 until my victory.
SB:
-4 Remand
+2 Engineered Explosives
+1 Oblivion Stone
+1 Crucible of Worlds
Round 2: BW Eldrazi'n'Taxes - 2:0
I had early Walking Ballistas and Condescend, then I had time to establish my mana for the win.
SB:
-4 Remand
-1 Mindslaver
-1 Expedition Map
+2 Engineered Explosives
+2 Dismember
+1 Oblivion Stone
+1 Crucible of Worlds
Round 3: Bogles - 2:1
I lost the first game fast.
Game 2 I had a Chalice on 1 T2, game 3 I had natural Tron with a Talisman for a T3 Ugin. GG!
SB:
-4 Remand
-1 Mindslaver
+2 Engineered Explosives
+2 Chalice of the Void
+1 Cyclonic Rift
Round 4: UR Phoenix - 2:1
I won game 1 with Chalice on 1 and Dismember, Ugin and Karn. Lost game 2 because my blue source was Tolaria West, I was screwed and tapped out when Blood Moon resolved, and had only blue spells in hand. Then game 3 I had Dismember for an early Thing in the Ice, lots of counters and finally Ugin, Karn and Wurmcoils.
SB:
-4 Remand
-1 Expedition Map
-1 Mindslaver
-1 Thirst for Knowledge
+2 Dismember
+2 Surgical Extraction
+2 Chalice of the Void
+1 Cyclonic Rift
For now I won it all 4-0, gaining 3 UMA boosters with an additional EE inside - good trading stuff.
My sideboard will maybe change soon, but for now I am happy with my 75. Today I faced no MU's where Supreme Will, Ghost Quarter or Emrakul were good to board in.
Greetings
PS: That one-of Gemstone Caverns showed up nearly every game I was on the draw. Very helpful card.
Ghost Quarter along with the crucible of worlds would have been fine to bring in against rock since they are playing some number of creature lands.
I'm also curious as to you siding out all 4 remand in every matchup. I think it's probably right against phoenix and eldrazi taxes, but I'm not sure about it against rock and bogles.
You could try to put some number of spatial contortion in your side to help shore up creature matchups or put in some number of negate to help with control or noncreature combo.
I'll post again then, I guess.
Greetings
Check it out on his channel, and well done to him
I played
R1 Humans
R2 Gx Tron
R3 Gx Tron
R4 Jund
R5 Humans
R6 WB Eldrazi and Taxes
R7 Lanternless
R8 UR Phoenix
Top8 Burn
Everything will be on my youtube.
Youtube Channel
My stream:
www.twitch.tv/pierakor
My Disco:
https://discord.gg/gTt6xHd
2 Dismember
2 Filigree Familiar
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Chalice of the Void
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
I'll bring this to a Modern FNM this week, and hopefully have something to report.
Notable changes:
-more GY hate: I expect some GY-intense decks to show up in form of Dredge, Living End, Grishoalbrand and more. I know Cage doesn't help against Living End, though Chalice does
-Filigree Familiar: there will be a notable amount of aggro decks, mostly Burn. And the tiny fox is really nice to have alongside Chalice
-3rd Ugin, the Spirit Dragon: I replaced Emrakul with him now that I have 3 in paper. I know Ugin is MWP in quite a lot of MU's, so a third copy was in my thoughts for a longer time. Now I can test to run more, and maybe a Playset among my 75 is correct.
Greetings
My Surgicals still haven't arrived so I wasn't on full power vs G Tron post board, and vs the Elves I'm pretty sure I played a bad game 3.
Eldrazi and Taxes were pretty much unwinnable with the cards I saw he had in hand.
UW Control was about as lopsided as the E&T match but in the other direction. T3 tron from me and Ballista (and Ballista was the worst payoff card in my hand...), he paths it and ramps me into blue that I didn't have and a T4 Sundering Titan with Remand backup. You can guess how that went with him playing two fetches the first two turns. Game two I have Tron T4 and just start slamming down threads. I bait out a Detention Sphere with Baby Karn, so he taps out on his turn and I go for Mindslaver, decimate his hand, build the lock and gg. Poor guy went 0-4 with his all foiled out 2500$ deck...
While I'm not putting up any notable results, this was my second FNM ever and I played against a lot of more experienced players. It didn't help that I go to work in a different city so by 7PM when the FNM starts I've already been up and doing things for 12 hours. So I'm not entirely unhappy with how things turned out.
I did notice that the power level of G Tron is really off the charts because the pilot is a kitchen table Magic player that has just built the deck recently and he went off to take third or fourth place against a host of both better and more experienced players. I understand what people mean when they say they don't like modern, because some of the matchups you really lose to the decks (which practically play themselves) not the player or any sort of back and forth where you're outplaying each other.
FNM: Sideboard from my last post. I went 2-1-1, loosing to UB Mill (no Eldrazi Titans in my SB) and drew with UWR Control. Wins against UR Phoenix and Naya Kiki-Evolution-Chord.
Then I changed my SB again:
2 Dismember
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Chalice of the Void
2 Commit // Memory
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
Then today, a Win-a-Box Tournament, 14 players.
Round 1 vs GW Druid Vizier Combo - 1:2
I won game 1 easily, then I heavily misplayed game 2 & 3 and lost.
Round 2 vs Jund - 2:1
I lost the first game, post-board Commit // Memory was MWP to refill my Hand and shrink Goyfs.
Round 3 vs UW Control - 2:0
First game was like 40 minutes, and we grinded it out until my opponent was decked before he could win. Ballista and Ugin were my best cards. Post-board, I had natural Tron with Gemstone Caverns for Karn and Ballista beats with Remand protection.
Round 4 vs Bogles - 2:1
I lost game 1 fast, game 2 I had an early Chalice followed by Ugin, and game 3 natural Tron with Ugin T4.
I reached third place, winning an UMA Booster (whiff inside). My list feels really comfortably now, especially those Commit // Memory are worthy additions.
I'll think of this deck for larger tourneys like MKM Series this year - it feels to be in a really nice position for nowaday's Meta.
Greetings
Old/new tech that turned out well: 2x TKS in Solem/Karn slot and 3x Leyline SB.
TKS turned out to be just the proactive play with a big body that can go offense/defense as seemingly needed in this meta either to block Amalgam Didn't seem like there was a situation in which Solemn and Baby Karn would have been better in that slot in the matches I watched. Leyline forced instant concessions from Dredge players, crippled Phoenix.
Match 1: Burn, 2-0 Chalice on one both games worked great for me. Game one I play turn one tron land, turn two Island (Condescend a burn spell), turn three tron land, turn four tron assembled (cast Platinum Angel), turn five cast Wurmcoil and Chalice on one. Game two I play turn one Map, turn two Chalice, hold up counters for a couple of turns, assemble Tron on turn five I think (cast Solemn Simulacrum and Filigree Familiar), and win easily from there.
-3 Remand
+3 Filigree Familiar
Played an extra game since the match was over so quick, they wanted to try their Elves deck against me. Won that, too. Again, Chalice on one, then Spatial Contortion'd his guys, got firm control of the game with Ballista and he conceded.
Match 2: Mono Green Tron, 2-0 Game one is insane. I am able to bluff counters when he assembles Tron on the play, Field of Ruin his Tower to keep him off tron for another turn, but then start to stall out as he casts Karn and starts exiling my lands and cards in hand, using Relic to cantrip through his deck and wiping my Mindslaver with O-Stone. Gets to a point where opp has Tron assembled (two Towers), Karn at 9 loyalty (Power Plant, Mine, Island, and something else under it), O-Stone in play. I have Power Plant, Mine, Academy Ruins, and three Island in play, Remand, O-Stone, Ugin in hand. Opp -3 Karn to take my Ruins, I use it to put Slaver back on top in response. I figure my only path to winning here is to Ruins the Slaver back, hope opp casts something so I can Remand and draw it, then hope to topdeck Tower to Slaver the opp and wipe his board, etc. He casts Ugin (sac's Sanctum to search for Ulamog), I Remand and draw Slaver. They pass turn. I topdeck Tower, Slaver opp. Cast his Ulamog, exile his Towers, -3 Karn to exile his Ulamog, have him pass turn. I untap, cast and blow O-Stone. Opp is now on 5 lands with Karn, Wurmcoil, Ugin in hand. I proceed to win easily from here.
Game two I turn one Map (gets Nature's Claim'd), turn two Chalice on one, turn three hold up counters for O-Stone, turn four Spreading Seas a Tron land. From here I counter every spell that Chalice doesn't hit, draw more Seas (never have to cast them), until I build up six mana and Gearhulk on his turn (flashing back Anticipate, digging for another counter), and win easily with beats and a hand full of blue spells.
-2 Spatial Contortion
-1 Solemn Simulacrum
-3 Repeal
+3 Spreading Seas
+3 Negate
Round Three: UR Phoenix 2-0 Both games I get Chalice on one. Game one, after Chalice, I Repeal his Thing in the Ice, counter every other threat, and Mindslaver lock him. Game two, get Grafdigger's Cage, Chalice on one. He resolves a Blood Moon, which cuts us both to one blue mana. He tries to go for Snapcaster beats, but I build up mana to cast Silent Arbiter and hold up counter magic. He gets two Phoenix into play and starts to beat me for three damage a turn. I eventually Repeal his Moon, cast Platinum Angel with counter backup. I start wiping his Phoenix' with Ballista, swing in with Angel, eventually kill him with Angel beats and Ballista pings.
-3 Remand
-2 Spatial Contortion
+3 Silent Arbiter
+1 Grafdigger's Cage
+1 Surgical Extraction
Drew round four with my Humans opponent, my son was hungry and tired of playing by this point. Anyways, very happy with the list right now. I now have 1,223 games of data on the spreadsheet, and used the spreadsheet to build and tweak my list.
// 9 Artifact
4 Expedition Map
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Mindslaver
// 5 Creature
1 Torrential Gearhulk
1 Walking Ballista
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Platinum Angel
1 Wurmcoil Engine
// 20 Instant
4 Condescend
3 Remand
3 Supreme Will
3 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Repeal
2 Spatial Contortion
2 Anticipate
1 Commit // Memory
// 24 Land
4 Urza's Tower
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
7 Island
1 Academy Ruins
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Field of Ruin
1 Tolaria West
1 Gemstone Caverns
// 1 Planeswalker
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
1 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Filigree Familiar
3 Silent Arbiter
3 Enchantment
3 Spreading Seas
3 Negate
1 Spatial Contortion
1 Surgical Extraction
Lantern Control
(with videos)
Uc Tron
Netdecking explained
Netdecking explained, Part 2
On speculators and counterfeits
On Interaction
Every single competitive deck in existence is designed to limit the opponent's ability to interact in a meaningful way.
Record number of exclamation points on SCG homepage: 71 (6 January, 2018)
"I don't want to believe, I want to know."
-Carl Sagan
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
6 Island
1 Tolaria West
2 Field of Ruin
1 Academy Ruins
3 River Of Tears
Creatures (8)
4 Walking Ballista
1 Snapcaster Mage
3 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Spells (19)
4 Condescend
3 Repeal
3 Remand
3 Dismember
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Thirst For Knowledge
Artifacts(7)
4 Expedition Map
1 Oblivion Stone
2 Mindslaver
1 Tormod's Crypt
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Spell Snare
2 Negate
4 Spatial Contortion
3 Thought-Knot Seer
Round 1: Bring to Light Scapeshift 1-2
Game 1:
Opponent mulled to 4 game one. They went stomping grounds search for tomorrow. I didn't have quick tron so I cast a turn 6 Wurmcoil Engine. I shouldn't have done this. Giant punt. They drew the 7th land and played Scapeshift with me at 17 from Sakura-Tribe Elder beats.
SB:
IN: 3 Thought-knot Seer, 2 Negate, 3Surgical Extraction
Out: 2 Dismember, 1Wurmcoil Engine, 1 Engineered Explosives, 3 repeal, 1 Oblivion Stone, 1 Ugin, The Spirit Dragon
Game 2: I kept a natural tron, island, TKS and remand hand. I played a turn 5 TKS with remand back up and the game didn't really have much after that. I followed it up with another TKS and the opponent scooped them up.
SB: I saw that the opponent was playing Peer Through Depths and Search for Azcanta and saw zero creatures other than Steve.
IN: 2 Spell Snare
OUT: 1 Dismember, 1 Expedition Map
Game 3:
My opening hand had quick tron with a map, 2 tron lands and a TKS. Unfortunately it didn't have any counter magic, in retrospect I should have mulliganed more aggressively to have counter magic and a clock. Once again my opponent hit me with Steve beats for 3 turns. On turn 5 they draw step Vendilion Cliqued me and took my only counterspell. I drew thirst for knowledge off of it. They had the negate to counter it when I cast it in response to their scapeshift on 7 lands.
Round 2: Hardened Scales 2-1
This matchup, as well as regular affinity seem to be one of our best. Walking Ballista and Repeal are unfair cards in this matchup.
Game 1:
My opponent had a relative fast start with a turn 1 hardened scales. I had quick tron, island, repeal and walking ballista. they played turn 2 hangarback walker and I repealed it. I eventually dismember a Inkmoth Nexus as they try to go all in on it with a 9/9 Arcbound Ravager. I played another walking ballista and they make me kill them.
SB:
IN: 4 Spatial Contortion, 3 Thought-Knot Seer,
OUT: 1 Mindslaver, 1 Ugin, The Spirit Dragon, 3 Remand, 1 Expedition Map, 1 condescend
Game 2: They had again with turn 1 Hardened Scales, into hangarback walker. Then into Arcbound Ravager and 2Arcbound Worker. I couldn't come back from this drawing zero of my sideboard cards.
Game 3: I mulliganed to 6 keeping 2 Spatial Contortion, Island, Tronland, expedition map and repeal. I lead with Tronland map. They played an arcbound worker and I spatialed it. They then played hangarback and i repealed that. The game went on for 10 minutes of me answering everything they had. They eventually tried to go all in again on an inkmoth but on the activation I overloaded a cyclonic rift, and then dismembered the inkmoth. I played a wurmcoil on my next turn. I hit them from 24 to 0 with that wurmcoil.
Round 3: Mono Green Control? 2-1
I think this is the Corbin Hosler brew that he recently played on the tcgplayer youtube channel. plow under, mwonvuli acid-moss with dumb green finishers.
Game 1:
I played a turn 4 wurmcoil after countering a trinisphere (just to deny them a play for a turn). I hit them with it and then cast a 2nd one on turn 6.
SB: I thought this might have been a weird mono green stompy or ponza because all I really saw was Utopian Sprawl, Arbor Elf, Trinisphere, and 2 forests.
In: 4 Spatial Contortion, 3Thought-Knot Seer
Out: 3 Remand, 1 Mindslaver, 1Field of Ruin, 2 Condescend
Game 2:
They led with land arbor elf. I played land map, the played land utopia sprawl, into Mwonvuli Acid-Moss. I never got to 3 lands. I conceded when they put my second land on top and tutored acidic slime with primal command.
I should have re-sideboarded after this game but I was tilted and forgot to.
Game 3:
My opener had tons of hate for them and I played a turn 3 Thought-knot seer. They were stuck on 2 lands and I took a Lignify. They drew the third one and beast withined it. I played another tks and the game was pretty much over.
Round 4: WB Tokens 2-0
There was a repair during the round otherwise I would have been paired against RB Burn. Very happy there was a repair.
Game 1:
Kept a relative controlling hand with repeal, and 2 condescend. The only threat my opponent landed was an Auriok Champion and I let them have 2 Intangible Virtue. I played ugin on turn 4 and -2ed, killing their entire board. They asked me if there was anyway they might get out of it.. I responded "No, not with what I think could be in your deck."
SB:
IN: 2 Spell Snare, 2 Negate, 2Thought-Knot Seer
OUT: 3Dismember, 1Expedition Map, 1 Field of Ruin, 1 Wurmcoil Engine
Game 2: I had a quick tron again, island and counterspells. They played 3 Intangible Virtues, and 1 Auriok Champion. They played a bitterblossom and I let it deal them 1 damage. I played ugin again, they conceded.
Was a fun night despite punting really hard against Bring to Light Scapeshift. I think next week with this meta I'll try my thought-knots in the main board rather than the side. There is hardly and aggressive decks where dismember is good. There is a lot of midrange but I have plenty of things I can side in. There is tons of token based decks at my lgs too, so I figured playing the EE in the main was a fine decision.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1726769#paper
All in on the hate pieces in the SB, more answers, more of specific finishers.
3 Karn Liberated in the side (why would you even play them somewhere between turn 5-7?) and Academy Ruins but not a single Mindslaver in the 75 somehow irritates me.
Legacy: Death&Taxes (almost there)
EDH: Squee, Goblin Nabob / Phelddagrif
I don't like Karn Liberated in the side either, i don't really like any 5+ CMC in the side, Tron is more difficult to assemble in sideboard games. Also, 3-of Engineered Explosives? What matchups is it for? How many times you can actually cast it on 2?
Congrats to kiwy, btw
WB BW Control
WRB Mardu Nahiri
Modern
UC UTron
RG Karn Metal Ponza
WRB Mardu Nahiri
The 26 lands seems like a lot but it makes sense if Kiwy wanted to be able to cast Karn Liberated naturally. I too am not a huge fan of big karn in this deck. We don't have tron on turn 3 a lot, and Karn is really only oppressive if cast that early.
I've been a huge fan of consolidating on the good cards rather than playing 1 ofs for a while now. It just feels more powerful, and my personal winrate has increased noticeably. Granted I don't play on mtgo and haven't gone to a large tournament in a while, so look at my opinion with some amount of discretion.
I do like the ravenous traps in the board. Its definitely better against dredge, and phoenix lists that are using pyromancer ascension. Its definitely weaker than surgical extraction in matchups where they are really just focusing on recurring 1 or 2 cards.
I like the chalices, If I owned any I would definitely play them. They seem particularly strong against the current aggressive, low curve meta. And with Ad Nauseum on the rise, chalice makes the matchup a breeze.
What is everyones thoughts on Commit // Memory? 4 Mana seems like a lot for that effect and I could see how the memory half it useful but I don't know how needed it actually is.