Bolas is sweet, but that 3 mana Wrath is nice as well.
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Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Yeah, I'm not sure what to think of three mana wrath either, it's an interesting bit of design, and I can see it being good in the right meta but not being able to hold anything up for a turn is rough...
Okay hey guys, just wanted to post my results at GP Vegas on the primer for everyone to read. First off, the tournament was super fun. I was there all 5 days and played a ton of magic, and picked up a lot of cards. Full discover, I ended the day at a disappointing 2-4 drop. I'm not happy about this, but I'm not sad either. It was a great learning experience. Before I get into my round by round stuff, I had a pretty major deck change last minute.
Changes:
-1 Serum Visions
-2 Think Twice
+3 Ancestral Vision
For the last few months, I had been testing an Ancestral-less version of the deck solely because I couldn't afford them. Lately, I had been saving up and I decided to buy them last minute, and I have to say they are amazing
I can now say with confidence that Ancestral Vision should definitely be in most Cruel lists. It was routinely the best card in my deck, and gave me so many options. It crushes midrange if it is in your opening hand gives you a leg up in almost every matchup. Now, on to my matches.
Round #1: Eldrazi and Taxes (0-2)
This matchup is just horrible. They have an answer for everything you do, and it feels almost unwinnable unless you get lucky with your draws. They have Wasteland Strangler to process your Ancestral Visions, and Thought-Knot Seer is a broken, broken magic card.
Game 1 I got out tempo-ed when he ate my Ancestral Vision with his Strangler, and got Thought-Knoted out of the game. He had Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to tax my mana, and he always had the answers.
Game 2 was strange. It started out in my favor, but the tides turned when he processed my Visions (again!). I retook control of the game before he landed a Leonin Arbiter to stunt my mana production. He was able to develop his board while I tried to find an answer and deal with his threats to no avail. The match ended with a very unfavorable judge call where my opponent misunderstood my intent to look at my graveyard while Ghost Quartering me, and claimed that I was instead trying to search my library without paying for Arbiter. Somehow the judge ruled in his favor, and I was dead.
Round #2: Ponza (2-1)
Traditionally a bad matchup, I feel like a just got really lucky.
Game 1 was a slaughter, when I put him on Green Red tron (His lands were 3 Grove of the Burnwillows), and got surprise Blood Mooned. That spelled my defeat, and we moved to game 2.
Game 2 was a quick one. I countered literally EVERY SINGLE card he played, and ended him with 4 Cruel Ultimatums. The deck ran great, with me suspending a turn-1 Vision and running away with the game.
Game 3 was close, with him resolving a Thragtusk, which chipped away at my life total until I dealt with it using Anger of the Gods plus a bolt. I cast a few Cruels which got me my first match win of the day.
Round #3: Abzan (2-0)
This was just a bloodbath. I was able to show the true power of Cruel Control, with me killing stuff and drawing cards and killing more stuff and casting 4 Ultimatums. It was pretty amazing, and a blast to play (for me). Both games were fast, with me killing ever card he played. My opponent was super chill though, and gave me a ton of compliments for my deck choice. This would be my last win of the day.
Round #4: Dredge (0-2)
Not much to say here except I didn't draw my sideboard cards. He ran me over and I couldn't do a thing. I'm not going to try to give some insightful commentary for this matchup, except that I didn't prepare enough before the tournament, which was a mistake. I didn't have much of a sideboard, but I had some cards like Relic of Progenitus and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet.
Round #5: Eldrazi Tron (0-2)
Ooooooooh BOY this is a bad matchup. It has all the strengths of traditional Tron, plus Reality Smasher and Thought-Knot Seer. I sideboarded a ton, and didn't draw anything relevant.
Game 1 he landed a turn 2 Smasher using a Simian Spirit Guide, and I didn't have an answer. Quick game.
Game 2 was longer, but he found a Cavern of Souls making my entire hand of Mana Leaks and Logic Knots useless. He won off of an Endbringer and a Karn Liberated.
Round #6: Eldrazi Tron (0-2)
Nothing to say here except that this just proved to me busted Eldrazi Temple is. Turn 2 Thought-Knot into turn 3 Reality Smasher is just unbeatable. Basically a repeat of round 5.
After my 4th loss put me out of day 2 contention, I dropped. I was exhausted and just wanted to sleep. Control is hard to play, and I needed a break.
Major takeaways:
#1: Ancestral Vision is VERY GOOD. Seriously, play this card. I already went over it in depth above, but don't just take my word from it. Test it and make your own conclusions.
#2: Spend some time on your sideboard. This may be the most important thing I learned today. Right now, modern is very much a battle of the sideboards. A lot of the successful decks this weekend correctly predicted the metagame and came prepared. I did not. I had cards for tron, but not enough. I probably should have slotted in a Crumble to Dust somewhere, but I didn't think much of it until now. Just be prepared for a lot of Tron and Affinity in the future, and a downtick in Death's Shadow decks.
#3: Cruel Ultimatum is awesome, and no matter how many people say a seven mana sorcery is unplayable you can do whatever the heck you want. Hey, even though Spastik and I scrubbed out of the main event doesn't mean that it wasn't correct to play Cruel Control. I had a blast and wouldn't change a thing about how a approached the event. Sure, the deck is probably bad in its s=current state, but with a little tuning and some serious testing, Cruel Control could really be a force to be reckoned with. We just need the thread to be more on task, and start posting again. Seriously, we've got to become more active. Now, I hope you all enjoyed my recap and good luck in your future UUBBBRR adventures. Hail to lord Bolas.
@Kainan57 I'm can't link my list at the moment, but I can give you a rundown. I didn't run 4 Ultimatums, I only ran the usual 2. I ran a Chandra, Torch of Defiance mainboard, and it was fine. Not spectacular, and you never paused it after coming down and it always died. I would probably cut her after this tournament.
Spoiler season is upon us! As always I will make a post with cards I think would be good for our deck.
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Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Round 1-2 I had byes, so I woke up, ate a nice bagel sandwich and relaxed and waited for Round 3.
Round 3 - Jeskai Control 2-0
Got paired against Kevin Jones and man is that guy cool. Honestly didn't feel far behind ever. Had a more agressive hand Game 1 so was able to Bolt + Snap + Bolt my way to victory. Got stuck on 6 mana and was unable to play Cruel on a pro player. Game 2 I go turn 2 Snapcaster Mage turn 3 Fulminator Mage and attack my way to victory. I assume he wasn't expecting for me to be so agressive.
Round 4 - Grixis Shadow 0-2
Game 1 was rough, didn't draw much removal and lost to a dude on the board. Game 2 I misplayed (didn't Snapcaster Mage + Dispel a Countersquall that was targetting my Terminate) and it cost me the game. Opponent surgical'd me and was shocked that I was losing, was nice enough to point out that I have tons of hate for this matchup and I clearly wasn't drawing any.
Round 5 - Ad Nauseum 2-1
Long drawn out Game 1 where he didn't have anything and I casted Cruel Ultimatum on Turn 7, then casted my other Cruel on Turn 8 and he conceded. Game 2 he beat me down with a Dragonlord Dromoka. Game 3 I was able to Grave Titan to victory.
Round 6 - Affinity 1-2
Game 1 I absolutely punted. Could of killed a threat on his board but got greedy and misread the board state and died. Game 2 I swept it up with Night of Souls' Betrayal and Game 3 lost to Blood Moon. Was pretty tilted about giving my opponent the match. No bueno
Round 6 - Grixis Shadow 0-2
Lost this matchup to just not drawing enough removal. Misplayed in Game 2 where I should of Sorcery speed flash backed a Think Twice and my opponent ended up countering it on his turn. Was 1 card away from my Terminate.
Round 7 - Ad Nauseum 2-1
Game 1 lost on turn 3 to my opponent going off. Game 2 & 3 I won with a Thoughtseize + Surgical on the first 3 turns. Very quick round.
Round 8 - G/W Tron 2-1
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. THIS MATCHUP IS ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. Kept a greedy hand Game 1, lost very qucikly without showing my opponent what I was doing. Game 2 played a Grave Titan and was able to keep him off Tron with a Fulminator. Game 3 I drew all 3 of my Fulminator Mage and my opponent STILL got Tron online. Drew most of all my sideboard cards and still barely won. But I made it to Day 2 with a 6-3 record!
Day 2
Round 9 - Eldrazi Tron 1-2
Oh boy, this is not a fun match up. Game 1 I had full control of the game, Game 2 he gets 3 Thought Knots in a row and die to a top deck Smasher. Game 3 I mulled to 5 and had some tough draws.
Round 10 - Grixis Shadow 2-0
Back and forth fun game where I was able to cast Cruel game 1 and got me so far ahead. Game 2 was a grind fest but was able to stabilize and grab the win.
Round 11 - Eldrazi Tron 0-2
Game 1 & 2 was rough. He had a lot of threats and top decked a Smasher and Endbringer, really rough games. Friend stopped by and offered to go play side events and I obliged. Dropped from Day 2.
Was a fun learning experience. I really wish I played a lot tighter because I think I could of honestly ended Day 1 at 8-1 or 7-2, the goal was to just Day 2 so I'm glad I did. I think I'll be cutting a Swamp for a 3rd Fatal Push. I really do want to refine my sideboard to focus more on Eldrazi Tron. I don't think Fulminator is good enough. I'm also always boarding out my Leaks and Remand since they play some number of Cavern of Souls. I've been also itching to play Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, she seems good against all these single threat decks like Eldrazi and Death's Shadow. Could just be horrendous but I think it's worth some testing.
If anyone has any criticism or questions feel free to tell me! I'm also super disappointed we didn't get a Cruel Ultimatum invocation. Was hoping for some sweet bling, but WotC is dropping the ball
I will say that Remand is pretty lackluster in the meta right now with affinity and Death's Shadow decks running around.
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Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Howdy folks. I don't post very often, if ever really as I prefer lurking, but now I need some help and seeing as there's not many of us out there playing this deck, and well, I couldn't think of who better to ask than fellow pilots. Except for one strong-headed person whom people have had many disagreements with, but I blocked them ages ago so that shouldn't matter all too much. Anyways, I've come to a roadblock and perhaps I'm approaching things the wrong way. So if all you lovely folk could look at my list and help advise me in the pursuit of greater power, as our God-Pharaoh dictates us to do, I would greatly appreciate it.
Answers. Be they as correct or incorrect as they may be. I suppose that would make them reasons then.
1. I've tried As Foretold for the past month and a half and, so far as I can tell, it's made me far more consistent in terms of controlling, and well, living through the turn. It's like an Aether Vial for any spell with CMC X, or less, every turn. Even just playing it and resolving an AV the turn it lands is good enough to have warranted the slot. However, it can be grindy and slow, but then again a lot of the deck is grindy and slow. Bottom line is I really do enjoy the card as I feel it gives me an edge by being able to cast more spells and save mana for taxing effects and more spells.
2. Rise // Fall has been a favorite of mine all the way back since I first was playing this deck as a Mystical Teachings toolbox and Twin was still legal. I think that, yes it can be useful in an aggressive deck to great effect in order to try and strip stabilization cards out of their hand and continue pressing the advantage, but at the same time a deck that plays a long game can also use it early on or later to strip one assured card if they're sandbagging an answer or two and have permission, maybe even two cards if they just don't see it coming/cannot respond to it. The Rise part is also extremely useful as a sorcery speed Unsummon and a Raise Dead which comes up in more niche cases, but can be used to counter a problem creature on the way back down, rebuy a creature in the yard which is very useful to stabilizing/winning the game, or even the one time against Dredge where I stuck GGT back in his hand and he happened to have zero other dredgers in the yard and very quickly lost with no enablers. I also might be totally wrong and it's just too slow and one mana disruption like Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize are just absolutely better or something along those lines. Maybe more kill spells or permission.
3. I wasn't always as wealthy as I am now and got used to playing 3. I also remember something that stuck with me forever. You only play 4 of of the things you want to always see at a reasonable time every single game that helps you win or stabilize every single game. I kind of took it as the diversification of threats and answers. This one might be the most erroneous of all my ideas and philosophies, but it's just how I was taught.
Hi Ukitai! How are you liking not playing Lightning Bolt? I've been thinking of cutting it for the longest to just play 4 Fatal Push and 4 Terminate (currently playing 4 Bolt, 2 Push, 3 Terminate). I noticed you're running a bit more on the creature side and I assume that's because you aren't playing Bolt?
Howdy Krazeboi. It's honestly been fine. I've just found Bolt to be so bad, God that still feels weird to say, right now in the meta versus Shadow decks, Eldrazi, and frankly, random creatures that I could just as easily kick over. Playing guys like Kalitas and Tas help finish the game in the mean time since Bolt, Snap Bolt is no longer a win condition. They also have the added bonus of helping me survive to shatter my opponents with an Ultimatum or just take enough control and slowly put them down with manlands.
Basically, I find Lightning Bolt simply doesn't kill the sheer volume of creatures our deck cares about that Fatal Push does. And given the long game nature of the deck, I feel that's a liability and cut it in favor of new directions. The deck plays just as nicely as it did when Bolt was good without Bolt, so I say try it out. That's really the best way to get a feel for yourself. After all, we all differ in terms of how we play our deck and what choices we make.
Well I haven't played modern in a good six months before testing a few games against Death and Taxes yesterday. I've been reading through the forum and read where people are moving Lightning bolt completely from the deck. If someone could explain why this is happening and also the absence of sweepers from the decks you all are listing seems completely insane to me as a player. I dunno how far out of the loop I am but I still prefer a 1/1 split on anger and damnation and then another 1/1 split in the board. I even still was running a playset of remand which didn't feel horrendous vs. The vial deck so I can't imagine some number of them being wrong for game 1. If anyone can provide an insight as to why these are frowned upon now I'd appreciate it.
Personally, as a huge advocate of cutting Bolt, I've been cutting it in regards to the sheer number of creatures it does not kill that kicking someone off a skyship does. In the meta anyways. Now, if your LGS is all tiny dudes.dec, keep Bolt, and play some split of Push. Moving on, let me just say this: Bolt is not a bad card. It is simply not terribly effective at this crossroads of the meta, with Eldrazi Tron and Death's Shadow being the largest offenders, and Junk, Jund, Company, and a couple of others I'm sure I've missed. But against a lot of these decks, Bolt sometimes does something relevant. And that "sometimes" personally upsets me. I want my removal spells to always do something. After all, that's why I put them in.
In short, creature damage isn't super good right now, straight up murdilate is much better.
Next up in regards to your questions was "Where'd the sweepers go?" Funny story, and a nice slice of irony, aggro swept them out. Basically, here's the deal. Literally pulling from Salvation's Tier 1 section, versus Dredge, Death's Shadow, Burn, Eldrazi Tron, and Affinity, these are all decks which can kill you semi-consistenly turn 4. If we include Tier 2, Living End, Elves, Company, and Humans are added to the list where sweepers would be relevant and can kill quickly. Meaning we'd have to have the sweeper on curve, perfect mana, double red can be hard for our mana base so early on, and a relevant spell like Anger or Damnation. And even then, Anger is only for 2/3rds of the decks listed. And of those, Affinity, Elves, and even Humans can sometimes simply outclass the Anger in terms of toughness. Meaning only 1/3rd of the decks are always weak to anger, 1/3rd is sometimes, and 1/3rd is never. For Damnation, sure, you hit all of them easy. But, you'd be encouraged to play a higher number to consistently draw it, and lands, and find a way to not die/oppose your opponent simply having their way and going all in and killing you before the Damnation. So personally, I, and perhaps others, have found that it is simply easier to focus on killing and countering individual problem targets and then including a singleton sweeper or sometimes 2, sometimes 0, to dig us out in case things get slightly out of hand and we need to reset the boardstate that we rely on our high density of dig and draw to find.
In short, people have been blasting Initial D music and zooming through Modern and having too many sweepers clog our hands and we get run over.
Explanation of changes
Well, our God-Pharaoh returned, and my word, does he close out a game. I've opted out of Grave Titan for him and it's done perfectly fine. Has been better than the Titan where Titan was good, and has been better where Grave Titan was bad as well. Solid change. Dropped a Rise & Fall for a Chandra, and she's also incredible. The ability to just sit there and give you 2 plus mana for all the big mana cards in our deck or "drawing" a card and pushing chip damage is also just fine and top notch. I've also added a second Kalitas to push my threats up and help combat aggro decks by giving more life gain and attaching a blocker to every removal spell. Also, since I'm sure a lot of people will notice the 61 cards, that's simply something I do. I play the 61 cards until I draw both of the cards that are competing for the slot, NBGP and the second KToG, and cut the worse one in the situation. Or if one card severely out performs the other, the worse of the two gets the axe. It's probably not absolutely correct, but it's how I've played since about 2010.
On the sideboard, TiTI was simply too slow for the current meta, Academy Ruins too grindy, and I haven't seen an artifact based deck for a good minute in my area, so I 86'd Shatterstorm. Put in 3 Fulminators and a second Surgical for an edge on Tron, control/midrange decks, and combo decks.
Since we aren't really on the bolt/snap/bolt plan is the 2 damage from the countersquall worth it? I mean it could just be negate right which is a way less stressful mana requirement on curve which is one of my only questions.
Think Twice
I've never found this card to be great for me. I understand wanting the draw but at the same time I've always valued other options like remand, shadow of doubt and even Mulldrifter(plays nice with Kolaghan's command and Rise/Fall). Have you tried any of these or is just that important?
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
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Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
UUBBBRR Cruel Control
BRG BRgBurn
BR URStorm
-Commander-
B Chainer, Dementia Master - Reanimator
U Teferi, Temporal Archmage - Calimari Tribal [Retired]
GB Ishkanah, Grafwidow - Delirium/Tokens
Changes:
-1 Serum Visions
-2 Think Twice
+3 Ancestral Vision
For the last few months, I had been testing an Ancestral-less version of the deck solely because I couldn't afford them. Lately, I had been saving up and I decided to buy them last minute, and I have to say they are amazing
I can now say with confidence that Ancestral Vision should definitely be in most Cruel lists. It was routinely the best card in my deck, and gave me so many options. It crushes midrange if it is in your opening hand gives you a leg up in almost every matchup. Now, on to my matches.
Round #1: Eldrazi and Taxes (0-2)
This matchup is just horrible. They have an answer for everything you do, and it feels almost unwinnable unless you get lucky with your draws. They have Wasteland Strangler to process your Ancestral Visions, and Thought-Knot Seer is a broken, broken magic card.
Game 1 I got out tempo-ed when he ate my Ancestral Vision with his Strangler, and got Thought-Knoted out of the game. He had Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to tax my mana, and he always had the answers.
Game 2 was strange. It started out in my favor, but the tides turned when he processed my Visions (again!). I retook control of the game before he landed a Leonin Arbiter to stunt my mana production. He was able to develop his board while I tried to find an answer and deal with his threats to no avail. The match ended with a very unfavorable judge call where my opponent misunderstood my intent to look at my graveyard while Ghost Quartering me, and claimed that I was instead trying to search my library without paying for Arbiter. Somehow the judge ruled in his favor, and I was dead.
Round #2: Ponza (2-1)
Traditionally a bad matchup, I feel like a just got really lucky.
Game 1 was a slaughter, when I put him on Green Red tron (His lands were 3 Grove of the Burnwillows), and got surprise Blood Mooned. That spelled my defeat, and we moved to game 2.
Game 2 was a quick one. I countered literally EVERY SINGLE card he played, and ended him with 4 Cruel Ultimatums. The deck ran great, with me suspending a turn-1 Vision and running away with the game.
Game 3 was close, with him resolving a Thragtusk, which chipped away at my life total until I dealt with it using Anger of the Gods plus a bolt. I cast a few Cruels which got me my first match win of the day.
Round #3: Abzan (2-0)
This was just a bloodbath. I was able to show the true power of Cruel Control, with me killing stuff and drawing cards and killing more stuff and casting 4 Ultimatums. It was pretty amazing, and a blast to play (for me). Both games were fast, with me killing ever card he played. My opponent was super chill though, and gave me a ton of compliments for my deck choice. This would be my last win of the day.
Round #4: Dredge (0-2)
Not much to say here except I didn't draw my sideboard cards. He ran me over and I couldn't do a thing. I'm not going to try to give some insightful commentary for this matchup, except that I didn't prepare enough before the tournament, which was a mistake. I didn't have much of a sideboard, but I had some cards like Relic of Progenitus and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet.
Round #5: Eldrazi Tron (0-2)
Ooooooooh BOY this is a bad matchup. It has all the strengths of traditional Tron, plus Reality Smasher and Thought-Knot Seer. I sideboarded a ton, and didn't draw anything relevant.
Game 1 he landed a turn 2 Smasher using a Simian Spirit Guide, and I didn't have an answer. Quick game.
Game 2 was longer, but he found a Cavern of Souls making my entire hand of Mana Leaks and Logic Knots useless. He won off of an Endbringer and a Karn Liberated.
Round #6: Eldrazi Tron (0-2)
Nothing to say here except that this just proved to me busted Eldrazi Temple is. Turn 2 Thought-Knot into turn 3 Reality Smasher is just unbeatable. Basically a repeat of round 5.
After my 4th loss put me out of day 2 contention, I dropped. I was exhausted and just wanted to sleep. Control is hard to play, and I needed a break.
Major takeaways:
#1: Ancestral Vision is VERY GOOD. Seriously, play this card. I already went over it in depth above, but don't just take my word from it. Test it and make your own conclusions.
#2: Spend some time on your sideboard. This may be the most important thing I learned today. Right now, modern is very much a battle of the sideboards. A lot of the successful decks this weekend correctly predicted the metagame and came prepared. I did not. I had cards for tron, but not enough. I probably should have slotted in a Crumble to Dust somewhere, but I didn't think much of it until now. Just be prepared for a lot of Tron and Affinity in the future, and a downtick in Death's Shadow decks.
#3: Cruel Ultimatum is awesome, and no matter how many people say a seven mana sorcery is unplayable you can do whatever the heck you want. Hey, even though Spastik and I scrubbed out of the main event doesn't mean that it wasn't correct to play Cruel Control. I had a blast and wouldn't change a thing about how a approached the event. Sure, the deck is probably bad in its s=current state, but with a little tuning and some serious testing, Cruel Control could really be a force to be reckoned with. We just need the thread to be more on task, and start posting again. Seriously, we've got to become more active. Now, I hope you all enjoyed my recap and good luck in your future UUBBBRR adventures. Hail to lord Bolas.
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Round 1-2 I had byes, so I woke up, ate a nice bagel sandwich and relaxed and waited for Round 3.
Round 3 - Jeskai Control 2-0
Got paired against Kevin Jones and man is that guy cool. Honestly didn't feel far behind ever. Had a more agressive hand Game 1 so was able to Bolt + Snap + Bolt my way to victory. Got stuck on 6 mana and was unable to play Cruel on a pro player. Game 2 I go turn 2 Snapcaster Mage turn 3 Fulminator Mage and attack my way to victory. I assume he wasn't expecting for me to be so agressive.
Round 4 - Grixis Shadow 0-2
Game 1 was rough, didn't draw much removal and lost to a dude on the board. Game 2 I misplayed (didn't Snapcaster Mage + Dispel a Countersquall that was targetting my Terminate) and it cost me the game. Opponent surgical'd me and was shocked that I was losing, was nice enough to point out that I have tons of hate for this matchup and I clearly wasn't drawing any.
Round 5 - Ad Nauseum 2-1
Long drawn out Game 1 where he didn't have anything and I casted Cruel Ultimatum on Turn 7, then casted my other Cruel on Turn 8 and he conceded. Game 2 he beat me down with a Dragonlord Dromoka. Game 3 I was able to Grave Titan to victory.
Round 6 - Affinity 1-2
Game 1 I absolutely punted. Could of killed a threat on his board but got greedy and misread the board state and died. Game 2 I swept it up with Night of Souls' Betrayal and Game 3 lost to Blood Moon. Was pretty tilted about giving my opponent the match. No bueno
Round 6 - Grixis Shadow 0-2
Lost this matchup to just not drawing enough removal. Misplayed in Game 2 where I should of Sorcery speed flash backed a Think Twice and my opponent ended up countering it on his turn. Was 1 card away from my Terminate.
Round 7 - Ad Nauseum 2-1
Game 1 lost on turn 3 to my opponent going off. Game 2 & 3 I won with a Thoughtseize + Surgical on the first 3 turns. Very quick round.
Round 8 - G/W Tron 2-1
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. THIS MATCHUP IS ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. Kept a greedy hand Game 1, lost very qucikly without showing my opponent what I was doing. Game 2 played a Grave Titan and was able to keep him off Tron with a Fulminator. Game 3 I drew all 3 of my Fulminator Mage and my opponent STILL got Tron online. Drew most of all my sideboard cards and still barely won. But I made it to Day 2 with a 6-3 record!
Day 2
Round 9 - Eldrazi Tron 1-2
Oh boy, this is not a fun match up. Game 1 I had full control of the game, Game 2 he gets 3 Thought Knots in a row and die to a top deck Smasher. Game 3 I mulled to 5 and had some tough draws.
Round 10 - Grixis Shadow 2-0
Back and forth fun game where I was able to cast Cruel game 1 and got me so far ahead. Game 2 was a grind fest but was able to stabilize and grab the win.
Round 11 - Eldrazi Tron 0-2
Game 1 & 2 was rough. He had a lot of threats and top decked a Smasher and Endbringer, really rough games. Friend stopped by and offered to go play side events and I obliged. Dropped from Day 2.
Was a fun learning experience. I really wish I played a lot tighter because I think I could of honestly ended Day 1 at 8-1 or 7-2, the goal was to just Day 2 so I'm glad I did. I think I'll be cutting a Swamp for a 3rd Fatal Push. I really do want to refine my sideboard to focus more on Eldrazi Tron. I don't think Fulminator is good enough. I'm also always boarding out my Leaks and Remand since they play some number of Cavern of Souls. I've been also itching to play Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, she seems good against all these single threat decks like Eldrazi and Death's Shadow. Could just be horrendous but I think it's worth some testing.
If anyone has any criticism or questions feel free to tell me! I'm also super disappointed we didn't get a Cruel Ultimatum invocation. Was hoping for some sweet bling, but WotC is dropping the ball
Rememeber,
There is always a greater power.
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
UUBBBRR Cruel Control
BRG BRgBurn
BR URStorm
-Commander-
B Chainer, Dementia Master - Reanimator
U Teferi, Temporal Archmage - Calimari Tribal [Retired]
GB Ishkanah, Grafwidow - Delirium/Tokens
// 7 Creature
1 Grave Titan
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
// 3 Enchantment
3 As Foretold
// 18 Instant
2 Countersquall
2 Cryptic Command
4 Fatal Push
2 Kolaghan's Command
3 Mana Leak
3 Terminate
2 Think Twice
// 24 Land
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
3 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Dreadship Reef
3 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
3 Snow-Covered Island
3 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
2 Swamp
1 Wandering Fumarole
3 Watery Grave
3 Ancestral Vision
2 Cruel Ultimatum
1 Damnation
2 Rise // Fall
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Thing in the Ice
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Countersquall
1 Academy Ruins
2 Collective Brutality
1 Shatterstorm
1 Never
Also, apologies for the odd layout. I mostly test on Cockatrice so that's why there's an abundance of slashes and what-not.
1) How are you finding As Foretold? I always figured it was a bit slow and gimmicky
2) Rise // Fall is a cool card but I feel like it is better in a more aggressive deck that can make better use of bad Hymn to Tourach
3) Why only 3 Snapcaster Mage?
1. I've tried As Foretold for the past month and a half and, so far as I can tell, it's made me far more consistent in terms of controlling, and well, living through the turn. It's like an Aether Vial for any spell with CMC X, or less, every turn. Even just playing it and resolving an AV the turn it lands is good enough to have warranted the slot. However, it can be grindy and slow, but then again a lot of the deck is grindy and slow. Bottom line is I really do enjoy the card as I feel it gives me an edge by being able to cast more spells and save mana for taxing effects and more spells.
2. Rise // Fall has been a favorite of mine all the way back since I first was playing this deck as a Mystical Teachings toolbox and Twin was still legal. I think that, yes it can be useful in an aggressive deck to great effect in order to try and strip stabilization cards out of their hand and continue pressing the advantage, but at the same time a deck that plays a long game can also use it early on or later to strip one assured card if they're sandbagging an answer or two and have permission, maybe even two cards if they just don't see it coming/cannot respond to it. The Rise part is also extremely useful as a sorcery speed Unsummon and a Raise Dead which comes up in more niche cases, but can be used to counter a problem creature on the way back down, rebuy a creature in the yard which is very useful to stabilizing/winning the game, or even the one time against Dredge where I stuck GGT back in his hand and he happened to have zero other dredgers in the yard and very quickly lost with no enablers. I also might be totally wrong and it's just too slow and one mana disruption like Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize are just absolutely better or something along those lines. Maybe more kill spells or permission.
3. I wasn't always as wealthy as I am now and got used to playing 3. I also remember something that stuck with me forever. You only play 4 of of the things you want to always see at a reasonable time every single game that helps you win or stabilize every single game. I kind of took it as the diversification of threats and answers. This one might be the most erroneous of all my ideas and philosophies, but it's just how I was taught.
Hope this all helps.
Basically, I find Lightning Bolt simply doesn't kill the sheer volume of creatures our deck cares about that Fatal Push does. And given the long game nature of the deck, I feel that's a liability and cut it in favor of new directions. The deck plays just as nicely as it did when Bolt was good without Bolt, so I say try it out. That's really the best way to get a feel for yourself. After all, we all differ in terms of how we play our deck and what choices we make.
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
- Nicol Bolas
Personally, as a huge advocate of cutting Bolt, I've been cutting it in regards to the sheer number of creatures it does not kill that kicking someone off a skyship does. In the meta anyways. Now, if your LGS is all tiny dudes.dec, keep Bolt, and play some split of Push. Moving on, let me just say this: Bolt is not a bad card. It is simply not terribly effective at this crossroads of the meta, with Eldrazi Tron and Death's Shadow being the largest offenders, and Junk, Jund, Company, and a couple of others I'm sure I've missed. But against a lot of these decks, Bolt sometimes does something relevant. And that "sometimes" personally upsets me. I want my removal spells to always do something. After all, that's why I put them in.
In short, creature damage isn't super good right now, straight up murdilate is much better.
Next up in regards to your questions was "Where'd the sweepers go?" Funny story, and a nice slice of irony, aggro swept them out. Basically, here's the deal. Literally pulling from Salvation's Tier 1 section, versus Dredge, Death's Shadow, Burn, Eldrazi Tron, and Affinity, these are all decks which can kill you semi-consistenly turn 4. If we include Tier 2, Living End, Elves, Company, and Humans are added to the list where sweepers would be relevant and can kill quickly. Meaning we'd have to have the sweeper on curve, perfect mana, double red can be hard for our mana base so early on, and a relevant spell like Anger or Damnation. And even then, Anger is only for 2/3rds of the decks listed. And of those, Affinity, Elves, and even Humans can sometimes simply outclass the Anger in terms of toughness. Meaning only 1/3rd of the decks are always weak to anger, 1/3rd is sometimes, and 1/3rd is never. For Damnation, sure, you hit all of them easy. But, you'd be encouraged to play a higher number to consistently draw it, and lands, and find a way to not die/oppose your opponent simply having their way and going all in and killing you before the Damnation. So personally, I, and perhaps others, have found that it is simply easier to focus on killing and countering individual problem targets and then including a singleton sweeper or sometimes 2, sometimes 0, to dig us out in case things get slightly out of hand and we need to reset the boardstate that we rely on our high density of dig and draw to find.
In short, people have been blasting Initial D music and zooming through Modern and having too many sweepers clog our hands and we get run over.
// 7 Creature
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
// 3 Enchantment
3 As Foretold
// 18 Instant
2 Countersquall
2 Cryptic Command
4 Fatal Push
2 Kolaghan's Command
3 Mana Leak
3 Terminate
2 Think Twice
// 24 Land
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
3 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Dreadship Reef
3 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
3 Snow-Covered Island
3 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
2 Swamp
1 Wandering Fumarole
3 Watery Grave
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
// 8 Sorcery
3 Ancestral Vision
2 Cruel Ultimatum
1 Damnation
1 Rise // Fall
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Fulminator Mage
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Countersquall
1 Disdainful Stroke
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Collective Brutality
1 Never
Mainboard
-1 Grave Titan, -1 Rise // Fall
+1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, +1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance, +1 Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
Sideboard
-2 Thing in the Ice, -1 Academy Ruins, -1 Shatterstorm
+3 Fulminator Mage, +1 Surgical Extraction
Explanation of changes
Well, our God-Pharaoh returned, and my word, does he close out a game. I've opted out of Grave Titan for him and it's done perfectly fine. Has been better than the Titan where Titan was good, and has been better where Grave Titan was bad as well. Solid change. Dropped a Rise & Fall for a Chandra, and she's also incredible. The ability to just sit there and give you 2 plus mana for all the big mana cards in our deck or "drawing" a card and pushing chip damage is also just fine and top notch. I've also added a second Kalitas to push my threats up and help combat aggro decks by giving more life gain and attaching a blocker to every removal spell. Also, since I'm sure a lot of people will notice the 61 cards, that's simply something I do. I play the 61 cards until I draw both of the cards that are competing for the slot, NBGP and the second KToG, and cut the worse one in the situation. Or if one card severely out performs the other, the worse of the two gets the axe. It's probably not absolutely correct, but it's how I've played since about 2010.
On the sideboard, TiTI was simply too slow for the current meta, Academy Ruins too grindy, and I haven't seen an artifact based deck for a good minute in my area, so I 86'd Shatterstorm. Put in 3 Fulminators and a second Surgical for an edge on Tron, control/midrange decks, and combo decks.
Since we aren't really on the bolt/snap/bolt plan is the 2 damage from the countersquall worth it? I mean it could just be negate right which is a way less stressful mana requirement on curve which is one of my only questions.
Think Twice
I've never found this card to be great for me. I understand wanting the draw but at the same time I've always valued other options like remand, shadow of doubt and even Mulldrifter(plays nice with Kolaghan's command and Rise/Fall). Have you tried any of these or is just that important?
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
- Nicol Bolas
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas