So I have been lurking this thread for some time and figured I might as well post my list. I just started to play the deck in paper and am still deciding what cards I like and how to play it properly. I hope to play at 2-3 small modern events this week (20ish people per) just to get some live testing. Anyway here is my list, tell me what you guys think!
Cards that I have fallen in love with are Jötun Grunt, Sorin, Solemn Visitor and Sword of Light and Shadow. They always need to be answered or they can run away with the game. Grunt is also just awesome against delve strategies or when the game goes long.
Overall I am pretty happy with this list the only thing I can't decide is if Mirran Crusader is worth playing in the main with since there are a lot of green based decks floating around in my local meta.
How is your mana? Few utility lands will make things easier for color fixing, which is good. You have 22 lands and no basics; don't forget about Path to Exile, Ghost Quarter, Blood Moon, and the like. You also might want WW OR BB on turn 3 and I wonder about your consistency.
Other than that, looks good! Have you tested Pack Rat? It used to be thought of as part of the core but it seems to be more optional now for many players. I like it, personally. If you haven't tested with it then you might consider doing so.
So I played in a 16 man event tonight and went 3-2. Overall I am pretty happy with how the deck played.
I made a few quick changes to the deck before hand due to my friends recommendation: -2 Abyssal Persecutor +2 Restoration Angel and -1 Tidehollow Sculler +1 Kitchen Finks.
The extra life gain was relevant and I am a fan of the ability to hold removal mana up and then flash in a 3/4 flier.
Anyway onto the matches:
Round 1 - UR Storm 0-2
Game 1: I kept a hand I should have mulliganed, 2 whites sources no black sources, never drew a black source. grapeshot to death.
Game 2: Better hand with a disenchant and thoughtseize. Able to get rid of his ascensions but Bob triggers ended up killing me after eating a grapeshot for 10 and a lightning bolt.
1st time playing against the deck with BW. SB In: 4 Leyline of Sanctity, 2 Disenchant, 2 Celestial Purge, Out: all of my creature removal.
Overall I think it is a very winnable match up I just made a few errors.
Round 2 - Jund 0-2
Both games went down very similarly. In the end manlands were able to pull through after I ran out of removal spells.
I think this match comes down to who ever draws more answers. In the end our creatures aren't as efficient as a tarmogoyf though... SB In: 1 Death Mark, 2 Mirran Crusader, 1 Wrath of God. Out: 2 Zealous Persecution, 2 Tidehollow Suller.
Round 4 - RG Goblins 2-1
Game 1: Removal and 2 Kitchen Finks with a Restoration Angel are able to stabilize the board and pull me out of kill range.
Game 2: Mull to 4... Kept a hand with 2 land a Bob and a path. I honestly thought I was going to be able to comeback until Bob ate a Lightning Bolt
Game 3: Went down a lot like game 1. A combination of hand disruption, removal and a Bob got there. Funny how when the deck comes together to work properly you win =P
Not a hard match up, MVP Finks SB: In 2 Celestial Purge, 1 Wrath of God Out Dark Confidant, Thoughtseize, Dismember
Round 5 - Mono Green Stompy? 2-0
Not entirely sure what my opponent was really playing but from what I saw it had some efficient pump spells (Rancor, Vines of Vastwood, etc) and creatures like Dryad Militant, Strangleroot Geist, Kalonian Tusker and some other devotion based things.
Game 1: Killed all of his creatures so he had no targets for his pump spells. Lingering Souls for the win.
Game 2: A lot slower, IOK and TS a rancor and a kalonian tusker. He builds a board with 2 strangleroot geist and a dryad militant. On his attack step I got a persecution off to stop the attack. Undying triggered as well. Had to use a lot of removal this game. Survived his attacks with just 1 life where I cast a Liliana of the Veil with a Path to Exile ready to exile his Treetop Village. Then Lili took over the game. Won it with a kitchen finks and some spirits.
Liliana did a lot of work to prevent my opponent from gaining an advantage after he went into top deck mode. SB: In Deathmark, 2 Mirran Crusader. Out 2 Jötun Grunt, 1 Tidehollow Sculler
I would like to think I could have played my round 1 better against storm. I really want to try Kor Firewalker in the sideboard instead of Leyline of Sanctity. Especially since Leyline doesn't synergize with Bob too well. I also really like having Kitchen Finks to help offset the life loss. I think I will keep the 3 Finks and 2 Restos in for now.
As for Pack Rat, I have tried it a little bit but I find that you have to fully commit to making rats rather than interacting with your opponent. I guess the card just isn't my style and overall Jötun Grunt has been doing very well for me. I typically get 2-3 turns out of him.
Yes well, the new manland... I love manlands and we finally see one with my our colors but it didnt work very well, Mutavault is just better in almost all scenarios:
-Doesnt enter the battlefield tapped.
-Cost only 1 to active instead of 3
-Hit for the same
-Blocks and kills Etched Champion
For competitive games, those reasons are more than enought, nevermind, i plan to get 4 of those for fun games, because orzhov still my favorite colors in casual and randoms decks games
Edit: Ah, and for Drana, I still dont know, may be i'll rework all in a diferent deck more token oriented, maybe 2 in for 2 lilianas (those going to the sideboard)
So I played in a 16 man event tonight and went 3-2. Overall I am pretty happy with how the deck played.
I would like to think I could have played my round 1 better against storm. I really want to try Kor Firewalker in the sideboard instead of Leyline of Sanctity. Especially since Leyline doesn't synergize with Bob too well. I also really like having Kitchen Finks to help offset the life loss. I think I will keep the 3 Finks and 2 Restos in for now.
Cool report, thank you. Good results. Kor Firewalker is a new favorite of mine, but sadly it does not stop Storm.
So I played in a 16 man event tonight and went 3-2. Overall I am pretty happy with how the deck played.
I would like to think I could have played my round 1 better against storm. I really want to try Kor Firewalker in the sideboard instead of Leyline of Sanctity. Especially since Leyline doesn't synergize with Bob too well. I also really like having Kitchen Finks to help offset the life loss. I think I will keep the 3 Finks and 2 Restos in for now.
Cool report, thank you. Good results. Kor Firewalker is a new favorite of mine, but sadly it does not stop Storm.
Leyline of Sanctity doesn't really either, because they just have to dig for an Echoing Truth if it is in play. Kor Firewalker provides a decent clock while gaining a not inconsiderable amount of life when your opponent is trying to cast twenty spells, half of which are red. There are worst cards in the matchup.
Mutavault is obviously more efficient than Shambling Vents, but the mana fixing and the lifelink make it still worth testing. Being an additional hedge in the burn matchup can open up sideboard slots.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
Mutavault is obviously more efficient than Shambling Vents, but the mana fixing and the lifelink make it still worth testing. Being an additional hedge in the burn matchup can open up sideboard slots.
You seem pretty experienced in the format and I'm glad you're sharing your perspective, but I wonder about the Burn utility of a manland that enters tapped and then activates with a 3 butt. Seems like Bolt might make that a double tempo loss. Am I missing something?
Ah, and for Drana, I still dont know, may be i'll rework all in a diferent deck more token oriented, maybe 2 in for 2 lilianas (those going to the sideboard)
Drana seems like a trap, to be honest. As good as she is if she connects, she's a 3-drop that dies to bolt for no value and a huge tempo loss, and that alone makes it really hard to justify in Modern.
I'm 100% running Shambling Vents over Mutavault. Coming into play tapped hurts but we want WW and BB on turn 3, so tapping for our colors is critical.
Personally, I'm excited to test the new Gideon, it hasn't got a lot of discussion here, but it seems really playable. 5/5 Beatstick, Token Generator, or a permanent anthem are all relevant modes to our gameplan.
Mutavault is obviously more efficient than Shambling Vents, but the mana fixing and the lifelink make it still worth testing. Being an additional hedge in the burn matchup can open up sideboard slots.
You seem pretty experienced in the format and I'm glad you're sharing your perspective, but I wonder about the Burn utility of a manland that enters tapped and then activates with a 3 butt. Seems like Bolt might make that a double tempo loss. Am I missing something?
You just don't activate without knowing what is in their hand. Between Liliana and Inquisition, you should either know what is in their hand or they just shouldn't have a hand. What Shambling Vents allows you to do is pull yourself out of burn range once stabilized. You'll trade resources with them back and forth, but the hope is that when you're at four life you'll be able to fire up Shambling Vent and pull yourself up to six. And from there you can win. Let's say the game isn't going well for you, though, they just sent a Bolt at one of your lands and not to your dome. It just gained you three life essentially. This is different than Mutavault in that way that Mutavault can just be ignored by the burn player for the most part.
I think depending on how good Shambling Vent ends up being, and perhaps its too mana hungry or just not a big enough body when attacking, it might force the issue of whether to run Pack Rat or not. Once you start cutting Mutavaults, Pack Rat becomes real unimpressive in this format.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
I think the manlands will be worth running 1 or 2 of. They are really good in the attrition war plus I don't play Pack Rat/Mutavault so I don't need to worry about losing that.
I will definitely try a few in my 60 when they are released.
Having played temples for a while I think tapped lands are basically unplayable in the deck. Having black on turn 1 is SO important while it's true you're removing a few colorless sources from your deck you don't actually increase the number of turn 1 black sources by playing vents. also I think that for 1 more mana you are way better off playing vault of the archangel. On average it should gain more life (without opening up yourself to a 1 mana stone rain) and it makes blocking miserable.
@TrappedUnderIce what are you still casting that requires double white? I've consciously been cutting down on double white cards just to aid consistency and when I get damnations over wraths I will have only 3 copies of pulse of the fields with ww casting cost(burn is very prevalent here)
So this tournament didn't go exactly how I planned firstly only 8 people showed up so it was kind of a bummer but we played 3 rounds swiss so that was ok.
Deck List:
Round 1
Opponent: G/R Tron
I lost the die roll here
Game 1: no one got to play magic. my opponent went T1 map T2 crack T3 Karn T4 Ugin I kept a hand with double path and no turn 1 discard. I was hoping he was on wurmcoils after the turn 1 map but I was wrong.
Game 2: We both mulligan and I took his sylvan scrying on turn 1 with inquisition. He had 2 mines on turn 2 then on turn 3 his third land was an eye of ugin. I quickly finished him off while he stumbled on lands.
Game 3: My opponent mulled to 5 and kept forest grove one of his eggs pyroclasm O-stone. he Clasm'd my turn 2 bob as expected and I followed up with lingering souls then a flashbacked souls. He had his o-stone on board with only 4 lands and 1 card in hand that I knew was a wurmcoil engine. I made an awful misplay here by casting liliana to make him discard it instead of allowing the engine to come down with 2 paths in hand. Obviously he top decked a land to punish me and cracked his o-stone killing 4 spirits and a liliana leaving me with path path zealous persecution in hand. I ended up losing the game due to not finding another threat until he already had a karn in play and he followed it with a spaghetti monster. ending hand was like double persecution double path
Loss
Round 2 0-1-0
Opponent: Monowhite Prison
I won the die roll.
Game 1: Dear lord was this a game...This game lasted around 35 minutes and quite frankly I should have scooped a lot sooner than I did but I couldn't remember if liliana's ultimate was targeted or not. My opponent started the game with a leyline in play, luckily I didn't end up having any discard in my opener. I cast an early threat (I think packrat) and he cast suppression field so I got to hit him for 1... He followed up the next turn with runed halo naming pack rat and after that ghostly prison.In all honesty I should have scooped here as I had an active dark confidant and even if I could have survived the prison I would have lost to decking first. He eventually got to the point where he had 2 sigil of the empty throne out and was making more angels per turn than my persecutor + sorin emblem could abyss.
Game 2: I went super aggro here and had a disenchant in my opening hand. I got him to 6 life. he had only cast rest in peace because I took his opening hand suppression field with an inquisition. He stabalized with ghostly prison and a sphere of safety and I finally hit enough land drops to get 1 of my rats through that just happened to be a 6/6 with his next card being a second sphere of safety.
Game 3: We played the first 2 turns of the game and then it was over. He played a runed halo naming packrat then I cast a dark confidant and the game was over.
Draw
Round 3 0-1-1
Opponent: Grixis Control
I loveeeeeeeeeeeeee playing this matchup because I get to watch the absolutely disgusting plays that happen from snapcaster + Kcommand but I also have these insane card advantage engines called Lingering souls and watching them slog through all these tokens is also quite fun.
I lost the die roll here
Game 1: I believe I mulliganed to 5 this game having either double colorless or no lands in all of my mulligans. I started off with an inquisition to see his hand of bolt bolt angler snap kcommand + 1 land. I took the snap caster as I only had 1 removal spell in hand. The second turn I played a bob into his bolt and I started to make a bit of a game out of things however we were trading removal for threats and he just hand enough burn to kill me.
Game 2: I don't really remember much about this game except he mulliganed to 5 and I started with an inquisition into liliana. I drew 2 sets of lingering souls and a persecution and the clock was fast enough that I just killed him as he was bolting spirits just to stay alive.
Game 3: This game was a lot closer but I ended up drawing 3 of my 4 souls + dark blast and it was just too much for him to overcome at one point I cast inquisition and it forced him to bolt a spirit and terminate another.
I guess the moral here is when you're playing against grixis the best plan is to just draw all of your lingering souls.
Final standings: 5th place(tied with 3rd and 4th) 1-1-1
Notes about my list: Hangarback walker
This was both better and worse than I expected. In the matchups where you want stony silence he's a bit of a nonbo and you should probably board him out(I'm not positive yet though) however hangarback for x=2 is still pretty decent against most decks and will give you 3 blockers to buy time. Also sometimes you just don't draw a stony silence. The pluses this card has over tidehallow scullers are 2 obvious ones for me, Firstly you lose 0 life when revealing it to dark confidant, and secondly I was never afraid to attack with it just because there was a blocker where as sculler would often be giving them back a card that I still might not have an answer for. Against grixis/jund Kcommand is a house against the thopter generator. there was a few times where I got kcommanded killing bob and hangarback then snapcaster -> k command return a snap from the yard kill your thopter. If you can manage to get another thopter out of the deal you're not too far behind as you can still trade off for the 2/1 snapcaster. In other matches like I said it was just there to buy time and was a great top deck at turn 14 (much like packrat) and just aids in the direction the deck wants to go. One thing to keep note of was I never really got a chance to get a HUGE hangarback. It just never ever ever happened. He draws removal a lot which is good for your bobs. This card is somewhat like a combination of packrat (for inevitability and lingering souls in terms of bodies) I will continue trying this card in the next few tournaments.
Abyssal Persecutor
Wow what a magic card. I had played it in standard where I felt it was lack luster because of the ubiquity of Baneslayer Angel and I always thought his casting cost and drawback were too great to justify playing in modern but this deck is the deck for him. One of the biggest problems deadguy ale has had since I started playing it was all of our threats were so small even though we had great removal card advantage eventually we start topdecking with our opponents and lingering souls become goyf fogs. Sometime even rat is too slow to take the game over when we stabalize. This card is a stop sign. It's the king of modern. The only commonly played removal spell that can kill him is path but we already tax the paths with our 2 drops that they want to kill on turn 1 etc. But in all seriousness this guy stabalized multiple games for me and the combination of this into vault or sorin for me was an insane combination that makes racing unbelievably difficult. I don't think I'll ever play this deck without him unless the next set has a 7/7 for 4 with flying and trample with the same draw back.
Go for the Throat
This card seemed so average but I thought it was the better choice over victim as it could kill gurmag anglers and the casting cost is easier. I think it's fine but I can definitely see myself wanting to kill my hangarback in response to a path and having this in my hand and being sad plus it's a blank against affinity. I think we have a strong matchup against affinity so that doesn't REALLY matter.
Zealous Persecution I'm not totally convinced this card is the nuts but it might very well be. I didn't get to play any matchups where it was a sweeper. Usually I just used it as an anthem when attacking to shorten my clock a turn. The original idea was to make a big hangarback then get it killed then have a persecution later to finish off the game and that just never came about.
Great report Grouty! I run a pretty similar list except for the removal. I used to have darkblast and slaughter pact but victim of night has just been better for me. Plus having more options to kill abyssal persecutor is never a bad thing.
I am glad that you are testing out hangarback walker. I may have to test him out, but I think that he is just too slow and doesn't effect the board enough when he lands.
I am interested in how pulse of the fields works for you against burn. Since they basically have 8 skullcracks in their deck it just seems like you are paying 3 mana to get bolted to the face.
Other than that, looks good! Have you tested Pack Rat? It used to be thought of as part of the core but it seems to be more optional now for many players. I like it, personally. If you haven't tested with it then you might consider doing so.
Let us know how you do!
http://mythicspoiler.com/bfz/cards/dranaliberatorofmalakir.jpg
More and more optiones, this one feels like awesome with my favorite card: Lingering Souls
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
What would you replace in your list for Drana, Liberator of Malakir?
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
I made a few quick changes to the deck before hand due to my friends recommendation: -2 Abyssal Persecutor +2 Restoration Angel and -1 Tidehollow Sculler +1 Kitchen Finks.
The extra life gain was relevant and I am a fan of the ability to hold removal mana up and then flash in a 3/4 flier.
Anyway onto the matches:
Round 1 - UR Storm 0-2
Game 1: I kept a hand I should have mulliganed, 2 whites sources no black sources, never drew a black source. grapeshot to death.
Game 2: Better hand with a disenchant and thoughtseize. Able to get rid of his ascensions but Bob triggers ended up killing me after eating a grapeshot for 10 and a lightning bolt.
1st time playing against the deck with BW.
SB In: 4 Leyline of Sanctity, 2 Disenchant, 2 Celestial Purge, Out: all of my creature removal.
Overall I think it is a very winnable match up I just made a few errors.
Round 2 - Jund 0-2
Both games went down very similarly. In the end manlands were able to pull through after I ran out of removal spells.
I think this match comes down to who ever draws more answers. In the end our creatures aren't as efficient as a tarmogoyf though...
SB In: 1 Death Mark, 2 Mirran Crusader, 1 Wrath of God. Out: 2 Zealous Persecution, 2 Tidehollow Suller.
Round 3 - Affinity 2-0
Overall very favourable in my opinion
Game 1: Opponent played turn 1 Glimmervoid into Vault Skirge which I pathed. Threw off his game plan significantly and after a Zealous Persecution he scooped.
Game 2: Same turn 1 play from both of us. Hand disruption, persecution and a well timed Wrath of God easily won me the match.
WOW Zealous Persecution was by far the mvp in this match.
SB: In 2 Disenchant, 1 Wrath of God. Out Sword of Light and Shadow, Victim of Night, Hero's Downfall
Round 4 - RG Goblins 2-1
Game 1: Removal and 2 Kitchen Finks with a Restoration Angel are able to stabilize the board and pull me out of kill range.
Game 2: Mull to 4... Kept a hand with 2 land a Bob and a path. I honestly thought I was going to be able to comeback until Bob ate a Lightning Bolt
Game 3: Went down a lot like game 1. A combination of hand disruption, removal and a Bob got there. Funny how when the deck comes together to work properly you win =P
Not a hard match up, MVP Finks
SB: In 2 Celestial Purge, 1 Wrath of God Out Dark Confidant, Thoughtseize, Dismember
Round 5 - Mono Green Stompy? 2-0
Not entirely sure what my opponent was really playing but from what I saw it had some efficient pump spells (Rancor, Vines of Vastwood, etc) and creatures like Dryad Militant, Strangleroot Geist, Kalonian Tusker and some other devotion based things.
Game 1: Killed all of his creatures so he had no targets for his pump spells. Lingering Souls for the win.
Game 2: A lot slower, IOK and TS a rancor and a kalonian tusker. He builds a board with 2 strangleroot geist and a dryad militant. On his attack step I got a persecution off to stop the attack. Undying triggered as well. Had to use a lot of removal this game. Survived his attacks with just 1 life where I cast a Liliana of the Veil with a Path to Exile ready to exile his Treetop Village. Then Lili took over the game. Won it with a kitchen finks and some spirits.
Liliana did a lot of work to prevent my opponent from gaining an advantage after he went into top deck mode.
SB: In Deathmark, 2 Mirran Crusader. Out 2 Jötun Grunt, 1 Tidehollow Sculler
I would like to think I could have played my round 1 better against storm. I really want to try Kor Firewalker in the sideboard instead of Leyline of Sanctity. Especially since Leyline doesn't synergize with Bob too well. I also really like having Kitchen Finks to help offset the life loss. I think I will keep the 3 Finks and 2 Restos in for now.
As for Pack Rat, I have tried it a little bit but I find that you have to fully commit to making rats rather than interacting with your opponent. I guess the card just isn't my style and overall Jötun Grunt has been doing very well for me. I typically get 2-3 turns out of him.
PS Zealous Persecution is my new favourite card. It just does work.
Yes well, the new manland... I love manlands and we finally see one with my our colors but it didnt work very well, Mutavault is just better in almost all scenarios:
-Doesnt enter the battlefield tapped.
-Cost only 1 to active instead of 3
-Hit for the same
-Blocks and kills Etched Champion
For competitive games, those reasons are more than enought, nevermind, i plan to get 4 of those for fun games, because orzhov still my favorite colors in casual and randoms decks games
Edit: Ah, and for Drana, I still dont know, may be i'll rework all in a diferent deck more token oriented, maybe 2 in for 2 lilianas (those going to the sideboard)
Mutavault is obviously more efficient than Shambling Vents, but the mana fixing and the lifelink make it still worth testing. Being an additional hedge in the burn matchup can open up sideboard slots.
I think there you should replace Dark Confidants with Bitterblossom
I'm 100% running Shambling Vents over Mutavault. Coming into play tapped hurts but we want WW and BB on turn 3, so tapping for our colors is critical.
Personally, I'm excited to test the new Gideon, it hasn't got a lot of discussion here, but it seems really playable. 5/5 Beatstick, Token Generator, or a permanent anthem are all relevant modes to our gameplan.
I think depending on how good Shambling Vent ends up being, and perhaps its too mana hungry or just not a big enough body when attacking, it might force the issue of whether to run Pack Rat or not. Once you start cutting Mutavaults, Pack Rat becomes real unimpressive in this format.
If my opponent wants to ignore my Mutavault I'm certainly happy to oblige. I agree that Mutavault is necessary to make Pack Rat profitable.
I will definitely try a few in my 60 when they are released.
@TrappedUnderIce what are you still casting that requires double white? I've consciously been cutting down on double white cards just to aid consistency and when I get damnations over wraths I will have only 3 copies of pulse of the fields with ww casting cost(burn is very prevalent here)
Deck List:
4 Dark Confidant
4 Hangarback Walker
3 Pack Rat
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Darkblast
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
4 Path to Exile
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Thoughtseize
1 Victim of Night
2 Zealous Persecution
3 Godless Shrine
3 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
3 Mutavault
2 Plains
2 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vault of the Archangel
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Pulse of the Fields
2 Rest in Peace
1 Slaughter Pact
2 Stony Silence
2 Wrath of God
Round 1
Opponent: G/R Tron
I lost the die roll here
Game 1: no one got to play magic. my opponent went T1 map T2 crack T3 Karn T4 Ugin I kept a hand with double path and no turn 1 discard. I was hoping he was on wurmcoils after the turn 1 map but I was wrong.
Game 2: We both mulligan and I took his sylvan scrying on turn 1 with inquisition. He had 2 mines on turn 2 then on turn 3 his third land was an eye of ugin. I quickly finished him off while he stumbled on lands.
Game 3: My opponent mulled to 5 and kept forest grove one of his eggs pyroclasm O-stone. he Clasm'd my turn 2 bob as expected and I followed up with lingering souls then a flashbacked souls. He had his o-stone on board with only 4 lands and 1 card in hand that I knew was a wurmcoil engine. I made an awful misplay here by casting liliana to make him discard it instead of allowing the engine to come down with 2 paths in hand. Obviously he top decked a land to punish me and cracked his o-stone killing 4 spirits and a liliana leaving me with path path zealous persecution in hand. I ended up losing the game due to not finding another threat until he already had a karn in play and he followed it with a spaghetti monster. ending hand was like double persecution double path
Loss
Round 2 0-1-0
Opponent: Monowhite Prison
I won the die roll.
Game 1: Dear lord was this a game...This game lasted around 35 minutes and quite frankly I should have scooped a lot sooner than I did but I couldn't remember if liliana's ultimate was targeted or not. My opponent started the game with a leyline in play, luckily I didn't end up having any discard in my opener. I cast an early threat (I think packrat) and he cast suppression field so I got to hit him for 1... He followed up the next turn with runed halo naming pack rat and after that ghostly prison.In all honesty I should have scooped here as I had an active dark confidant and even if I could have survived the prison I would have lost to decking first. He eventually got to the point where he had 2 sigil of the empty throne out and was making more angels per turn than my persecutor + sorin emblem could abyss.
Game 2: I went super aggro here and had a disenchant in my opening hand. I got him to 6 life. he had only cast rest in peace because I took his opening hand suppression field with an inquisition. He stabalized with ghostly prison and a sphere of safety and I finally hit enough land drops to get 1 of my rats through that just happened to be a 6/6 with his next card being a second sphere of safety.
Game 3: We played the first 2 turns of the game and then it was over. He played a runed halo naming packrat then I cast a dark confidant and the game was over.
Draw
Round 3 0-1-1
Opponent: Grixis Control
I loveeeeeeeeeeeeee playing this matchup because I get to watch the absolutely disgusting plays that happen from snapcaster + Kcommand but I also have these insane card advantage engines called Lingering souls and watching them slog through all these tokens is also quite fun.
I lost the die roll here
Game 1: I believe I mulliganed to 5 this game having either double colorless or no lands in all of my mulligans. I started off with an inquisition to see his hand of bolt bolt angler snap kcommand + 1 land. I took the snap caster as I only had 1 removal spell in hand. The second turn I played a bob into his bolt and I started to make a bit of a game out of things however we were trading removal for threats and he just hand enough burn to kill me.
Game 2: I don't really remember much about this game except he mulliganed to 5 and I started with an inquisition into liliana. I drew 2 sets of lingering souls and a persecution and the clock was fast enough that I just killed him as he was bolting spirits just to stay alive.
Game 3: This game was a lot closer but I ended up drawing 3 of my 4 souls + dark blast and it was just too much for him to overcome at one point I cast inquisition and it forced him to bolt a spirit and terminate another.
I guess the moral here is when you're playing against grixis the best plan is to just draw all of your lingering souls.
Final standings: 5th place(tied with 3rd and 4th) 1-1-1
Notes about my list:
Hangarback walker
This was both better and worse than I expected. In the matchups where you want stony silence he's a bit of a nonbo and you should probably board him out(I'm not positive yet though) however hangarback for x=2 is still pretty decent against most decks and will give you 3 blockers to buy time. Also sometimes you just don't draw a stony silence. The pluses this card has over tidehallow scullers are 2 obvious ones for me, Firstly you lose 0 life when revealing it to dark confidant, and secondly I was never afraid to attack with it just because there was a blocker where as sculler would often be giving them back a card that I still might not have an answer for. Against grixis/jund Kcommand is a house against the thopter generator. there was a few times where I got kcommanded killing bob and hangarback then snapcaster -> k command return a snap from the yard kill your thopter. If you can manage to get another thopter out of the deal you're not too far behind as you can still trade off for the 2/1 snapcaster. In other matches like I said it was just there to buy time and was a great top deck at turn 14 (much like packrat) and just aids in the direction the deck wants to go. One thing to keep note of was I never really got a chance to get a HUGE hangarback. It just never ever ever happened. He draws removal a lot which is good for your bobs. This card is somewhat like a combination of packrat (for inevitability and lingering souls in terms of bodies) I will continue trying this card in the next few tournaments.
Abyssal Persecutor
Wow what a magic card. I had played it in standard where I felt it was lack luster because of the ubiquity of Baneslayer Angel and I always thought his casting cost and drawback were too great to justify playing in modern but this deck is the deck for him. One of the biggest problems deadguy ale has had since I started playing it was all of our threats were so small even though we had great removal card advantage eventually we start topdecking with our opponents and lingering souls become goyf fogs. Sometime even rat is too slow to take the game over when we stabalize. This card is a stop sign. It's the king of modern. The only commonly played removal spell that can kill him is path but we already tax the paths with our 2 drops that they want to kill on turn 1 etc. But in all seriousness this guy stabalized multiple games for me and the combination of this into vault or sorin for me was an insane combination that makes racing unbelievably difficult. I don't think I'll ever play this deck without him unless the next set has a 7/7 for 4 with flying and trample with the same draw back.
Go for the Throat
This card seemed so average but I thought it was the better choice over victim as it could kill gurmag anglers and the casting cost is easier. I think it's fine but I can definitely see myself wanting to kill my hangarback in response to a path and having this in my hand and being sad plus it's a blank against affinity. I think we have a strong matchup against affinity so that doesn't REALLY matter.
Zealous Persecution I'm not totally convinced this card is the nuts but it might very well be. I didn't get to play any matchups where it was a sweeper. Usually I just used it as an anthem when attacking to shorten my clock a turn. The original idea was to make a big hangarback then get it killed then have a persecution later to finish off the game and that just never came about.
I am glad that you are testing out hangarback walker. I may have to test him out, but I think that he is just too slow and doesn't effect the board enough when he lands.
Abyssal persecutor is an amazing creature right now. You should try out some grafted wargears in your deck as a replacement for zealous persecution or a hangerback walker.
I am interested in how pulse of the fields works for you against burn. Since they basically have 8 skullcracks in their deck it just seems like you are paying 3 mana to get bolted to the face.
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange