Hey guys! I think with the printing of Fatal Push, Sultai can finally make some in-roads in Modern. I especially like the synergy of Tasigur, Snapcaster, and Lilly, the Last Hope. Those 3 allow a grind game that Jund and Abzan can't match. I'll be following this thread closely to see how the variations progress. I like both Sultai Midrange and Sultai Control going forward.
This is the first iteration of a BUG deck in Modern. I'm looking to be more of a control deck, and as such have decided to for-go the hand disruption for more counterspells. I don't know of Yahenni's Expertise is any good, but I feel like it will be interesting to try, at the least.
I'm really looking for suggestions on the land base, and the Sideboard. I do not have the OG Zen fetches, that's why I only have the three listed.
Fatal push is what Sultai really needs. I am guessing this deck will be tier 2 in the near future. Just have to find the correct combination of spells...
Planning to do a stock list of BGx splashing blue for serum visions, stubborn denials and deprives.
I might switch 2 flayers or 2 oozes for 2 snapcaster mages. Creeping tar pit can also be considered but I think running this together with darkslick might cause color problems later on.
you 10005573734% need creeping tarpit. Even if it's just a 1-2 of the card is awesome. I fully understand you wanting to use falls over it and if you meta has a ton of fatal push maybe that's a good idea as tar pit WILL get killed. Even still though, falls is a super expensive 3/3 with no evasion. As long as you aren't stupid about activating tar pit at bad times it will serve you much better. It's great at picking off walkers and getting through those extra precious points of damage. It is also a mana less so having mana extra to do things is super relevant.
I also don't think expertise is good in your shell. Without any walkers you don't have enough beef to fuel it. I would easily cut it and a flayer for 2 snapcasters. They are the reason to be playing blue.
I think your deck will be in a good place after these changes.
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We talk a lot in this thread about the reason to be playing Blue and I think it might be helpful to define that a little bit more. As far as I can tell, a lot of us play Sultai because there's something about this color combo that is just appealing to play. Several times earlier in the thread people have suggested that it isn't worthwhile to play blue over Red/White or even straight G/B. Answers so far have included:
- Snapcaster Mage: Buying back spells makes us grindier than Jund, maybe on par with Abzan(?) Versatile.
- Counter-spells: Hit or miss, some people love them and some people think they're mediocre. I've found that it's difficult to find a shell using both counters and discard, but that might just be because I don't have access to Goyf and need to use slots enabling Flayer instead. Bringing in counters against Tron or random combo always feels nice.
- Ancestral Vision/Serum Visions/etc. Card draw and filtering. A resolved AV usually means we win the game but it's an awful topdeck. Serum Visions is nice to alleviate the problem that G/B/x sometimes have of "drawing the wrong half" of the deck.
There must be some that I missed and/or some obscure ones like having Thought Scour to power out Tasigurs or fuel Goyf/Snap.
Well tonight is the first night of my testing of my new build so wish me luck please. Also I adapted my list to reflect some of the advice I received earlier fro y'all and from a few delver players in my meta. I added a bit more tempo aspects while adjusting my removal suite for now.
I have been testing a little bit on MTGO with Sultai builds using Disfigure in place of Fatal Push for now. Mentally noting what might have been possible with Push versus Disfigure. My initial testing was more on a build that was the standard BG hand disruption followed by Tarmogoyf or Grim Flayer with Snapcaster Mage to help flashback cheap counterspells/removal etc. My testing with that list was going pretty decent, but when thinking about why I WANT to run blue I found myself coming back to counter-spells. It offers more generic "catch all" to go with the generally powerful cards BG already has. So I built this which is a little more of a controlling list.
I tailored the manabase to essentially match the strategy that Corey Burkhart has been using with his 22 land Grixis list to support 4 Cryptic Command. Cryptic is THE counterspell and offers so much flexibility I needed to try and find a way to play 4. Now obviously we don't have Lightning Bolt or Kolaghan's Command to grind opponents into oblivion like Corey does in Grixis...so we just don't try to do that. Instead we play more must answer threats. Tarmogoyf and Grim Flayer offer the same excellent must answer threats backed up with a great interaction package. Tasigur, the Golden Fang also plays into this role but obviously is also there for more of a late game role as well. These threats paired with interaction provides us time to get to the mid/late game where we can make use of the power of Cryptic Command especially when paired with Snapcaster.
One excellent thing I've already picked up from playing this list is it's easy to stick a Goyf and protect it T4 or T5 and then use running Cryptics, or Cryptic/Snap-Cryptic to just have the Goyf race your opponent by tapping your opponent down. Cryptic Command also offers another way to enable Revolt on Fatal Push by returning a permanent to your hand...ideally your own Snapcaster Mage, but it could even just be a land in a pinch. It's possible the Murderous Cut should just be another Go for the Throat type card, maybe even Doom Blade or an Engineered Explosives. I also want to find some room for Collective Brutality and I think at least one of the Feed the Clan in the sideboard could be a good spot for that.
Obviously the sideboard will need some tuning as right now it's kind of just a greatest hits package. I think the 2x Dispel, 2x Negate, 2x Surgical Extraction, and 3x Fulminator Mage seem like easy locks, but without more testing I'm uncertain what the best artifact hate will be, maybe Seal of Primordium should be Hurkyl's Recall or Creeping Corrosion. I've been using Seal to help with Delerium but I don't know that is as necessary as Grim Flayer doesn't need to immediately be turned on in this deck and you lose flexibility with Snapcaster using it. Perhaps we need some more sweepers in the vein of Flaying Tendrils, Damnation, or even Languish might be good paired with Goyf and Tasigur. So far however the fatties have been able to hold the fort making those cards unnecessary.
Either way I think it's a solid core. I do love me some Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek and it may be worth experimenting with them in place of some of the other cheap interaction as well though I do have some concern on cutting some of the Serum Visions or Thought Scour as I think you then also need to strongly consider increasing your number of mana sources.
This forum seems to be the catch all for Sultai strategies, so until one of them gets the tier rating necessary to warrant it's own forum I am in favor of updating the title to include all sub archetypes.
After the printing of Fatal Push, should we maybe update the primer (opening post) with updated deck lists, side boarding strategies, articles and so forth?
Edit: another thing that came to mind. Is the topic name still OK? Because all BUG strategies get discussed and not only BUG Control. More something like BUG Control/Midrange/Delver?
I think that's a pretty good idea. We've never really had a true primer anyway, since the thread was started by sharing Fabiano's list, and 30 pages of content is a lot to scroll through for someone new to the idea of playing BUG.
I have been testing a little bit on MTGO with Sultai builds using Disfigure in place of Fatal Push for now. Mentally noting what might have been possible with Push versus Disfigure. My initial testing was more on a build that was the standard BG hand disruption followed by Tarmogoyf or Grim Flayer with Snapcaster Mage to help flashback cheap counterspells/removal etc. My testing with that list was going pretty decent, but when thinking about why I WANT to run blue I found myself coming back to counter-spells. It offers more generic "catch all" to go with the generally powerful cards BG already has. So I built this which is a little more of a controlling list.
I tailored the manabase to essentially match the strategy that Corey Burkhart has been using with his 22 land Grixis list to support 4 Cryptic Command. Cryptic is THE counterspell and offers so much flexibility I needed to try and find a way to play 4. Now obviously we don't have Lightning Bolt or Kolaghan's Command to grind opponents into oblivion like Corey does in Grixis...so we just don't try to do that. Instead we play more must answer threats. Tarmogoyf and Grim Flayer offer the same excellent must answer threats backed up with a great interaction package. Tasigur, the Golden Fang also plays into this role but obviously is also there for more of a late game role as well. These threats paired with interaction provides us time to get to the mid/late game where we can make use of the power of Cryptic Command especially when paired with Snapcaster.
One excellent thing I've already picked up from playing this list is it's easy to stick a Goyf and protect it T4 or T5 and then use running Cryptics, or Cryptic/Snap-Cryptic to just have the Goyf race your opponent by tapping your opponent down. Cryptic Command also offers another way to enable Revolt on Fatal Push by returning a permanent to your hand...ideally your own Snapcaster Mage, but it could even just be a land in a pinch. It's possible the Murderous Cut should just be another Go for the Throat type card, maybe even Doom Blade or an Engineered Explosives. I also want to find some room for Collective Brutality and I think at least one of the Feed the Clan in the sideboard could be a good spot for that.
Obviously the sideboard will need some tuning as right now it's kind of just a greatest hits package. I think the 2x Dispel, 2x Negate, 2x Surgical Extraction, and 3x Fulminator Mage seem like easy locks, but without more testing I'm uncertain what the best artifact hate will be, maybe Seal of Primordium should be Hurkyl's Recall or Creeping Corrosion. I've been using Seal to help with Delerium but I don't know that is as necessary as Grim Flayer doesn't need to immediately be turned on in this deck and you lose flexibility with Snapcaster using it. Perhaps we need some more sweepers in the vein of Flaying Tendrils, Damnation, or even Languish might be good paired with Goyf and Tasigur. So far however the fatties have been able to hold the fort making those cards unnecessary.
Either way I think it's a solid core. I do love me some Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek and it may be worth experimenting with them in place of some of the other cheap interaction as well though I do have some concern on cutting some of the Serum Visions or Thought Scour as I think you then also need to strongly consider increasing your number of mana sources.
I go back and forth on Counterspells. I've found Cryptic to be too tough to cast and just not working well enough with cards like Goyf. I think there's two real Sultai Builds with a more Jund-like build (Tarmogoyf, Dark Confidant, Liliana)using Snapcaster Mage, and a few cheap counters like Spell Pierce or Spell Snare. And another more controlling build like you posted that uses Cryptic Commands and Countersquall. The best version is probably based on the meta and how good other control decks are.
I think in the following weeks a somewhat established build with actual steady results will be prevalent, at that point a new primer for it will be necessary and it should be focused on that playstyle in particular.
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@genini2
I agree it's largely meta based on which route you go, my other list running the more traditional BG shell runs tempo counters to go with the hand disruption as well as a couple Mishra's Baubles and LotV to enable revolt and help with Delirium as that list is 4 Grim Flayer, 3 Snapcaster.
@Velthov
I considered Vendilion Clique multiple times and there is no reason it couldn't be run. I would replace the Murderous Cut though over the Go for the Throat. I just wanted 3 pieces of removal that could take down big boys.
@naclmolecule
Nice list. I'll definitely be running an EE in paper, but I traded my two online in when they got up to 50 tix. Seemed like a good Modern Masters reprint and am hoping to get them under 10 tix again. Also traded one in paper for the same reason. I agree we don't have the cards to grind/delay quite like other Cryptic decks...but other Cryptic decks don't have Green creatures to close and pressure. Tarmogoyf and Flayer are both excellent in so many matchups. Flayer is supported by a deck designed to make way for contact when he isn't already trampling over, and the card selection from that is great. In a way my build is more focused on the Faeries style of counter/delay just long enough to close. But on top of that I have 9 solid creatures to help fight aggro since I have a slightly weaker removal suite (when compared to BR, BW, RW).
Those are my thoughts. Sadly I had surgery today from Pneumonia complications though so I probably won't get to play with this any further until early next week. On the positive side I'm feeling better after the surgery and Fatal Push should drop by then online so I don't have to get gouged
I agree we don't have the cards to grind/delay quite like other Cryptic decks...but other Cryptic decks don't have Green creatures to close and pressure.
Mostly I meant that perhaps the number of control cards isn't so large, so that BUG command decks will all share a large amount of overlap(as ours do). I do think it grinds pretty well. I mean, ok, no Esper Charm or Kommand, but Goyf certainly makes up for it.
I do recommend the fastland manabase. It's one advantage we have over grixis in that we only need U or B on turn 1. Mana has been a lot more agreeable than I thought it would before I played my first few games.
Agree the deck can grind, I just meant we don't have the Kolaghan/Snap loops that Grixis does or the nearly 100% spell based lists UW tends to run...for the reasons you're mentioning. Green almost forces us to have our control decks in BUG more of a midrange deck that slants towards the control end. But I'm not really complaining about that. It's kind of the draw for me.
I also agree the fastland mana base is completely manageable. That said I put a lot of stock into how Corey Burkhart setup his manabase to support 4 cryptic. Having read his articles on why he setup his manabase the way he did, paired with a brief Twitter exchange I had with him I'm going to play without the fastlands in this build. The big thing is Thought Scour/Tasigur, and in my case Grim Flayer all lead to cards being dumped in the GY. You need to be able to fetch the colors you need when you need them and to run fastlands means you either are cutting shocks or basics either of which really can get you in a pinch when you can't fetch the color(s) you need bc they found their way to the GY. This is the reason for the two of blue shocks. The other key thing is really wanting to ALWAYS have access to your fourth land untapped either for cryptic or snap+2cmc. This is the reason for the checkland over fast land as well. Obviously if Creeeping Tar Pit is the fourth land you peel you have no choice, but all the other lands work towards this plan.
The changes I think I may make and try are:
-1 jace
-1 lili, last hope (to sb)
-1 collective brutality (to sb)
+2 stubborn denial
+1 manky (hooting mandrills)
ATTACHMENTS
Bug_midrange
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I dunno, I can take some when I get home from work if I don't have any on my phone. The pict washed out all my foils too slowly pimping it out #feelsgoodman
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One creature for offense, one creature for grindyness. Your choise. I would say Delver is the better card, but the aetherborn is very nice with dark confidant.
Perhaps also combine gifted with 2 Kalitas (-1 sultai charm - 1 spell pierce) then you would have 6 lifelink ceratures, and collective brutalaty can also give 2 life.
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I have dyslexia, no I am not going to spell check for you, yes you have to live with the horrors of it.
Scavenging Ooze is probably better than those other choices since it's still a 2/2 for the same cost, but is far more powerful in the lategame or against GY decks in general.
Had a very strange FNM last night I made top 8 of a 40ish person event although I didn't deserve it.
r1: naya zoo
had some good games. g1 i had enough removal and he was kind of land screwed so I ran him over. g2 he ran me over super quick with burning tree and new revolt guy. g3 I made a HUGE mistake and played WAY too greedy. If I had just played slow and sacrificed my flayer to keep alive my liliana I would have been fine. Instead i attacked hoping to flip 1 card to enable delerium in hopes to turn on stubborn denial. Turns out I whiff and die...idiot
0-1
r2: UG infect.
He does literally nothing and I kill him stupidly easily both games. This was practically a bye and felt terrible they weren't real games. /sigh
1-1
r3: UG infect
these games were actual games. g1 he tries to go off but I'm holding a denial to snipe his last spell. He gets me to 7 poison (would be lethal) and then I kill his guy and kill him. g2 I early lili killing his noble and he's basically not able to ever recover as I have removal and flayer to filter my draws.
2-1
r4: UB mill
I'm on the play and play tarpit, he playes GQ on my pit then archive traps me for 13. Then he proceeds to do not a whole heck of a lot and I just slam multiple 5/6 goyfs. THanks for the help g2 I fight through a bunch of ashioks and counter his huge mill spells. This match felt very easy long as he doesn't nut draw me and mill me a billion in a few turns. He didn't
3-1
r5: tron
We agree to split top 8 prizes and he conceeds to me as I was a better seed to get into top 8. He proceeds to absolutely crush me as I didn't draw much I needed to stop him. felt bad. I added some extra tools in my SB and everything. oh well
3-2
top8: UW control
good friend and he CRUSHED the tourney with UW control. he won the whole shebang after dominating me in 2 games. I think I played poorly with my flayer triggers and should have gotten there I think. g2 he drew like a boss and couldnt stop secure the wastes, snap secure. gideon and sun's champ. He also had multiple finks with restos. brutal.
3-3
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Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
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I'm really looking for suggestions on the land base, and the Sideboard. I do not have the OG Zen fetches, that's why I only have the three listed.
1x Blooming Marsh
1x Botanical Sanctum
2x Breeding Pool
1x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Darkslick Shores
1x Forest
3x Island
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Overgrown Tomb
4x Polluted Delta
2x Swamp
2x Verdant Catacombs
2x Watery Grave
Planeswalker (2)
2x Liliana, the Last Hope
2x Abrupt Decay
2x Countersquall
2x Cryptic Command
4x Fatal Push
2x Mana Leak
3x Thought Scour
Sorcery (10)
3x Ancestral Vision
1x Damnation
1x Maelstrom Pulse
4x Serum Visions
1x Yahenni's Expertise
Creature (11)
4x Snapcaster Mage
1x Spellskite
4x Tarmogoyf
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1x Abrupt Decay
1x Collective Brutality
1x Dispel
2x Feed the Clan
2x Hurkyl's Recall
1x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Pulse of Murasa
2x Scavenging Ooze
2x Spell Snare
2x Surgical Extraction
Planning to do a stock list of BGx splashing blue for serum visions, stubborn denials and deprives.
4x Polluted Delta
4x Darkslick Shores
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Watery Grave
1x Breeding Pool
2x Lumbering Falls
2x Swamp
1x Forest
1x Island
4x Serum Visions
4x Fatal Push
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Stubborn Denial
3x Abrupt Decay
2x Deprive
1x Collective Brutality
1x Nameless Inversion
1x Maelstrom Pulse
1x Yaheeni's Expertise
4x Grim Flayer
2x Scavenging Ooze
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
I might switch 2 flayers or 2 oozes for 2 snapcaster mages. Creeping tar pit can also be considered but I think running this together with darkslick might cause color problems later on.
WBG Abzan's Junk WBG
BRG Jund BRG
BRG Living End BRG
BGU Sultai BGU
EDH
R Purphoros, God of the Forge R
Pauper
RBGU Affinity RBGU
I also don't think expertise is good in your shell. Without any walkers you don't have enough beef to fuel it. I would easily cut it and a flayer for 2 snapcasters. They are the reason to be playing blue.
I think your deck will be in a good place after these changes.
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
- Snapcaster Mage: Buying back spells makes us grindier than Jund, maybe on par with Abzan(?) Versatile.
- Counter-spells: Hit or miss, some people love them and some people think they're mediocre. I've found that it's difficult to find a shell using both counters and discard, but that might just be because I don't have access to Goyf and need to use slots enabling Flayer instead. Bringing in counters against Tron or random combo always feels nice.
- Ancestral Vision/Serum Visions/etc. Card draw and filtering. A resolved AV usually means we win the game but it's an awful topdeck. Serum Visions is nice to alleviate the problem that G/B/x sometimes have of "drawing the wrong half" of the deck.
There must be some that I missed and/or some obscure ones like having Thought Scour to power out Tasigurs or fuel Goyf/Snap.
WUB Puresteel Midrange WUB
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Grim Flayer
4 Hooting Mandrills
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Instant (19)
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Dismember
2 Fatal Push
4 Mana Leak
2 Spell Snare
3 Stubborn Denial
4 Thought Scour
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Serum Visions
3 Thoughtseize
Land (19)
2 Breeding Pool
1 Forest
4 Island
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Overgrown Tomb
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
1 Verdant Catacombs
3 Watery Grave
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
2 Beast Within
1 Damnation
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Nature's Claim
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Shadow of Doubt
2 Surgical Extraction
if you guys have any feedback i'd love to hear it
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Grim Flayer
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Spells 25
4 Fatal Push
4 Serum Visions
3 Thought Scour
2 Spell Snare
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Countersquall
1 Go for the Throat
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Cryptic Command
1 Murderous Cut
4 Polluted Delta
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Watery Grave
2 Breeding Pool
1 Overgrown Tomb
3 Island
1 Swamp
1 Forest
2 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Drowned Catacomb
2 Dispel
2 Negate
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Feed the Clan
1 Seal of Primordium
1 Spellskite
3 Fulminator Mage
1 Night of Souls' Betrayal
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
I tailored the manabase to essentially match the strategy that Corey Burkhart has been using with his 22 land Grixis list to support 4 Cryptic Command. Cryptic is THE counterspell and offers so much flexibility I needed to try and find a way to play 4. Now obviously we don't have Lightning Bolt or Kolaghan's Command to grind opponents into oblivion like Corey does in Grixis...so we just don't try to do that. Instead we play more must answer threats. Tarmogoyf and Grim Flayer offer the same excellent must answer threats backed up with a great interaction package. Tasigur, the Golden Fang also plays into this role but obviously is also there for more of a late game role as well. These threats paired with interaction provides us time to get to the mid/late game where we can make use of the power of Cryptic Command especially when paired with Snapcaster.
One excellent thing I've already picked up from playing this list is it's easy to stick a Goyf and protect it T4 or T5 and then use running Cryptics, or Cryptic/Snap-Cryptic to just have the Goyf race your opponent by tapping your opponent down. Cryptic Command also offers another way to enable Revolt on Fatal Push by returning a permanent to your hand...ideally your own Snapcaster Mage, but it could even just be a land in a pinch. It's possible the Murderous Cut should just be another Go for the Throat type card, maybe even Doom Blade or an Engineered Explosives. I also want to find some room for Collective Brutality and I think at least one of the Feed the Clan in the sideboard could be a good spot for that.
Obviously the sideboard will need some tuning as right now it's kind of just a greatest hits package. I think the 2x Dispel, 2x Negate, 2x Surgical Extraction, and 3x Fulminator Mage seem like easy locks, but without more testing I'm uncertain what the best artifact hate will be, maybe Seal of Primordium should be Hurkyl's Recall or Creeping Corrosion. I've been using Seal to help with Delerium but I don't know that is as necessary as Grim Flayer doesn't need to immediately be turned on in this deck and you lose flexibility with Snapcaster using it. Perhaps we need some more sweepers in the vein of Flaying Tendrils, Damnation, or even Languish might be good paired with Goyf and Tasigur. So far however the fatties have been able to hold the fort making those cards unnecessary.
Either way I think it's a solid core. I do love me some Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek and it may be worth experimenting with them in place of some of the other cheap interaction as well though I do have some concern on cutting some of the Serum Visions or Thought Scour as I think you then also need to strongly consider increasing your number of mana sources.
I go back and forth on Counterspells. I've found Cryptic to be too tough to cast and just not working well enough with cards like Goyf. I think there's two real Sultai Builds with a more Jund-like build (Tarmogoyf, Dark Confidant, Liliana)using Snapcaster Mage, and a few cheap counters like Spell Pierce or Spell Snare. And another more controlling build like you posted that uses Cryptic Commands and Countersquall. The best version is probably based on the meta and how good other control decks are.
I agree it's largely meta based on which route you go, my other list running the more traditional BG shell runs tempo counters to go with the hand disruption as well as a couple Mishra's Baubles and LotV to enable revolt and help with Delirium as that list is 4 Grim Flayer, 3 Snapcaster.
@Velthov
I considered Vendilion Clique multiple times and there is no reason it couldn't be run. I would replace the Murderous Cut though over the Go for the Throat. I just wanted 3 pieces of removal that could take down big boys.
@naclmolecule
Nice list. I'll definitely be running an EE in paper, but I traded my two online in when they got up to 50 tix. Seemed like a good Modern Masters reprint and am hoping to get them under 10 tix again. Also traded one in paper for the same reason. I agree we don't have the cards to grind/delay quite like other Cryptic decks...but other Cryptic decks don't have Green creatures to close and pressure. Tarmogoyf and Flayer are both excellent in so many matchups. Flayer is supported by a deck designed to make way for contact when he isn't already trampling over, and the card selection from that is great. In a way my build is more focused on the Faeries style of counter/delay just long enough to close. But on top of that I have 9 solid creatures to help fight aggro since I have a slightly weaker removal suite (when compared to BR, BW, RW).
Those are my thoughts. Sadly I had surgery today from Pneumonia complications though so I probably won't get to play with this any further until early next week. On the positive side I'm feeling better after the surgery and Fatal Push should drop by then online so I don't have to get gouged
Agree the deck can grind, I just meant we don't have the Kolaghan/Snap loops that Grixis does or the nearly 100% spell based lists UW tends to run...for the reasons you're mentioning. Green almost forces us to have our control decks in BUG more of a midrange deck that slants towards the control end. But I'm not really complaining about that. It's kind of the draw for me.
I also agree the fastland mana base is completely manageable. That said I put a lot of stock into how Corey Burkhart setup his manabase to support 4 cryptic. Having read his articles on why he setup his manabase the way he did, paired with a brief Twitter exchange I had with him I'm going to play without the fastlands in this build. The big thing is Thought Scour/Tasigur, and in my case Grim Flayer all lead to cards being dumped in the GY. You need to be able to fetch the colors you need when you need them and to run fastlands means you either are cutting shocks or basics either of which really can get you in a pinch when you can't fetch the color(s) you need bc they found their way to the GY. This is the reason for the two of blue shocks. The other key thing is really wanting to ALWAYS have access to your fourth land untapped either for cryptic or snap+2cmc. This is the reason for the checkland over fast land as well. Obviously if Creeeping Tar Pit is the fourth land you peel you have no choice, but all the other lands work towards this plan.
4 tarmogoyf
3 grim flayer
1 jace, vryn's prodigy
3 snapcaster mage
2 tasigur, the golden fang
spells
4 fatal push
3 serum visions
3 thought scour
3 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
1 collective brutality
3 abrupt decay
1 maelstrom pulse
1 murderous cut
3 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
2 blooming marsh
2 darkslick shores
2 creeping tar pit
1 breeding pool
1 watery grave
1 overgrown tomb
2 forest
2 swamp
1 island
4 verdant catacombs
3 polluted delta
1 misty rainforest
2 negate
2 spell snare
2 fulminator mage
1 batterskull
2 grafdigger's cage
1 surgical extraction
2 scavenging ooze
1 flaying tendrils
1 engineered explosives
1 pithing needle
The changes I think I may make and try are:
-1 jace
-1 lili, last hope (to sb)
-1 collective brutality (to sb)
+2 stubborn denial
+1 manky (hooting mandrills)
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
Heir of Falkenrath seems a bit out of place though. Shouled he not either be delver or gifted?
2 Gifted Aetherborn
4 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
One creature for offense, one creature for grindyness. Your choise. I would say Delver is the better card, but the aetherborn is very nice with dark confidant.
Perhaps also combine gifted with 2 Kalitas (-1 sultai charm - 1 spell pierce) then you would have 6 lifelink ceratures, and collective brutalaty can also give 2 life.
r1: naya zoo
had some good games. g1 i had enough removal and he was kind of land screwed so I ran him over. g2 he ran me over super quick with burning tree and new revolt guy. g3 I made a HUGE mistake and played WAY too greedy. If I had just played slow and sacrificed my flayer to keep alive my liliana I would have been fine. Instead i attacked hoping to flip 1 card to enable delerium in hopes to turn on stubborn denial. Turns out I whiff and die...idiot
0-1
r2: UG infect.
He does literally nothing and I kill him stupidly easily both games. This was practically a bye and felt terrible they weren't real games. /sigh
1-1
r3: UG infect
these games were actual games. g1 he tries to go off but I'm holding a denial to snipe his last spell. He gets me to 7 poison (would be lethal) and then I kill his guy and kill him. g2 I early lili killing his noble and he's basically not able to ever recover as I have removal and flayer to filter my draws.
2-1
r4: UB mill
I'm on the play and play tarpit, he playes GQ on my pit then archive traps me for 13. Then he proceeds to do not a whole heck of a lot and I just slam multiple 5/6 goyfs. THanks for the help g2 I fight through a bunch of ashioks and counter his huge mill spells. This match felt very easy long as he doesn't nut draw me and mill me a billion in a few turns. He didn't
3-1
r5: tron
We agree to split top 8 prizes and he conceeds to me as I was a better seed to get into top 8. He proceeds to absolutely crush me as I didn't draw much I needed to stop him. felt bad. I added some extra tools in my SB and everything. oh well
3-2
top8: UW control
good friend and he CRUSHED the tourney with UW control. he won the whole shebang after dominating me in 2 games. I think I played poorly with my flayer triggers and should have gotten there I think. g2 he drew like a boss and couldnt stop secure the wastes, snap secure. gideon and sun's champ. He also had multiple finks with restos. brutal.
3-3
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster