I know it hurts us too but if this colorless variant becomes a big part of your local meta, you can always run Torpor Orb to shut down most of their things.
I think shutting off our own Stranglers and Seers is too much of a liability with Torpor Orb. Better to use discard + Surgical or Memoricide to get rid of their threats.
My 360 Peasant+ Cube!. Modern borders where possible, usually with the newest (or "best") art, and always the most readable card text. I also run all 10 painlands. My playgroup is super casual, as we have a fair number of newer or less experienced players. Typically we draft with 4 to 6 people, using 5 packs of 9.
I know it hurts us too but if this colorless variant becomes a big part of your local meta, you can always run Torpor Orb to shut down most of their things.
I think shutting off our own Stranglers and Seers is too much of a liability with Torpor Orb. Better to use discard + Surgical or Memoricide to get rid of their threats.
I think that is too slow but I agree with you that our best course of action is to rip TKS or Reality Smasher from their hand and then Surgical Extraction it. I am actually still looking at other sideboard options that I can use to supplement my life gain since it'll help in the long run. Whip of Erebos has looked very attractive to me since I thought about it yesterday. It lets our current creatures get lifelink and against decks where we aren't exiling our own GY with Relics, we can keep recurring things like Wasteland Strangler and TKS to abuse their EBT's (admittedly TKS will draw them a card first) and of course Reality Smasher and Blight Herder can be brought back to swing in for extra damage. Currently I am probably bringing in 2x Surgical Extraction, 3x Leyline of Sanctity, 2x Timely Reinforcements and 2x Ratchet bomb against them.
Edit: I am also going up to 3x Thoughtseize and 1 Inquisition again.
Ghostly Prison is what I'm considering the most vs colorless aggro. Timely Reinforcements doesn't match up well vs Reality Smashers trampling over them. Timely already was tough to resolve without getting skullcracked vs burn in the first place, and Leylines help stem the bleeding a lot more. It'll make our matchup vs Zoo a little worse not having Timely though. Affinity and Infect don't care about our ground guys - they'll fly or go through unblockable, so Souls is still the game there. My current sideboard is:
I might cut the Purge for something. Tendrils comes down earlier than Languish, but maybe isn't good enough still, so might cut that for another sweeper. Languish is just my budget Damnation, otherwise I think it should be Damnation there.
Ghostly Prison is what I'm considering the most vs colorless aggro. Timely Reinforcements doesn't match up well vs Reality Smashers trampling over them. Timely already was tough to resolve without getting skullcracked vs burn in the first place, and Leylines help stem the bleeding a lot more. It'll make our matchup vs Zoo a little worse not having Timely though. Affinity and Infect don't care about our ground guys - they'll fly or go through unblockable, so Souls is still the game there. My current sideboard is:
I might cut the Purge for something. Tendrils comes down earlier than Languish, but maybe isn't good enough still, so might cut that for another sweeper. Languish is just my budget Damnation, otherwise I think it should be Damnation there.
Timely Reinforcements has always been stellar for me. With Leyline, all you have to worry about is Atarka's command which can be stripped with TKS and Inquisition early. It's also versatile in a lot of non-burn matchups. It also pairs well with Sorin. I will be trimming back my Flaying Tendrils for a Damnation. Ghostly Prison is an interesting option for sure though. I am also going to try and slot in some Sacred Grounds (probably 2) in order to combat some of the Land Destruction I expect to see people jamming to combat the faster aggro variant.
Are deathtouch creatures a bad idea against colorless Eldrazi?
I did some research and as a sb idea I
Found some 1 mana black creatures and basilisk collar that seems really good to me
Deathtouch is good because it limits your totally number of 2 for 1's you have to give up to them. Typically this will valuable in conjunction with Lifelink like Vault of the Archangel. That negates a little bit of their trample damage. People are worried about the barf of mimic into smasher hands and yeah, those will probably kill us (think Burn, Infect and Affinities fast hands). If we can survive from there, we focus on ripping Smashers from hand because of Trample and just deal with being 1.5 for 1 by TKS (initial card plus removal minus random card draw once you remove it). The benifit Deathtouch can give you is if they are swinging in with Mimics copied to be TKS... you get to draw a card off each one you kill.
Are deathtouch creatures a bad idea against colorless Eldrazi?
I did some research and as a sb idea I
Found some 1 mana black creatures and basilisk collar that seems really good to me
Deathtouch is good because it limits your totally number of 2 for 1's you have to give up to them. Typically this will valuable in conjunction with Lifelink like Vault of the Archangel. That negates a little bit of their trample damage. People are worried about the barf of mimic into smasher hands and yeah, those will probably kill us (think Burn, Infect and Affinities fast hands). If we can survive from there, we focus on ripping Smashers from hand because of Trample and just deal with being 1.5 for 1 by TKS (initial card plus removal minus random card draw once you remove it). The benifit Deathtouch can give you is if they are swinging in with Mimics copied to be TKS... you get to draw a card off each one you kill.
Actually basilisk collar gives lifelink and death touch and this is why it seems perfect to me. The best death touch I found is ruthless ripper, because it's 1 mana drop and can do life damage. Maybe slaughter drone also can be considered
Basilisk collar is ok but my problem is that it requires you to have a creature AND the collar out. If you do get both, they can still be removed. I just think it's too fragile to sacrifice slots of Deathtouch. Vault gets a pass because it's a land as well. All the other utility stuff we like effects the entire board as well instead of just 1 dude (which is why I mention Whip of Erebos, we already like Sorin, Vault does it as well). Something that might also be good is something like Bitterblossum. If you can jam it on turn 2 you might be able to survive through their non-trample things (which seems to be the biggest key). Let them strip a card out of your hand. As long as you can chump block enough you should win in the end. Also Bitterblossum works great against many decks to enable wins with Sorin and Vault.
Ghostly Prison and Displacer seem to be the most cost effective way to combat the protour menace.
Could just be that we need to see what develops over the next few weeks/months.
Good thing we all have our backup modern decks right
Rebuff the Wicked, Mana tithe, and dawn charm are the three white counter cards I can think of off the top of my head. Not sure how good they are as sideboard items, but they are there.
I'm kind of curious is painter's servant would work in this variant since we actually do pretty well grinding out compared to the other variants so far. If we can't get eldrazi out as fast it doesn't bother us since we got souls and alternatives. All the other decks have is strait eldrazi.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I know it has been mentioned, but worship beats UR and colorless eldrazi. It might be great sideboard tech against them. First they can't remove it and second they run so few removal spells.
I was thinking about existing decks that beat up on the eldrazi (if any). I came to the conclusion that Ad Nausem and soul sisters should have really good matchups. I am guessing that those decks might start showing up. Leyline would be good against ad nausem but not sure what to do against sisters.
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No idea because my favorite decks keep getting banned or having the rules changed against them
Soul sisters is kind of easy to deal with. You just use tainted remedy. They may have disenchant, but when that gets up it basically makes their life very painful.
... Vesuva might work as a replacement for eye as well now that I think on it. Going to credit the modern ban thread for that one.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Just got home from a weekly modern event at a LGS. Went 3-1-0 with my list below. All in all, I feel like I played well, only losing to the colorless Eldrazi aggro deck. Anyway, here is my list and a quick tournament report.
As far as some of the card choices, I decided to cut Sower and Ulamog entirely from the list. In my testing, playing like a midrange deck, and less like a ramp deck, has led me to better success. Thought-Knot was an all-star tonight, and will probably remain as a 4-of as long as I play this list. The one-of Banishing Light was always nice to see, was never a bad draw. As far as the maindeck dismember, it could easily be a Spellskite. It was more of a meta choice, as I expected multiple Eldrazi decks, and felt the extra removal was important. I also like that this list has several flex spots (Dismember, Banishing Light, the 4th Seer).
Credit to Exatraz for the sideboard. I felt that I had relevant answers for each of the decks I played against tonight. I have x2 Sacred Ground available, but I dunno what I would remove for them, probably the Disenchant and something else.
Round 1 - Bushwhacker Zoo: 2-1 win (1-0)
Game one felt like a good match. I was on the play, opened with a caves and passed. His turn he dropped a fetch and passed. My turn two I play a GQ and pass. His turn two, he played a turn two Burning-Tree into another Burning-Tree into a Bushwhacker, and I path'ed one of the Burning-Trees. I followed up with a turn three Thought-Knot, pulling what gas he had left in his hand. TKS and a duo of Reality Smashers wrapped the game up. Side in - x2 Timely, x2 Ratchet Bomb, x1 Flaying Tendrils
Game two, he drew all four of his Burning-Trees and dumped them on turn two, and I couldn't get enough blockers out to stabilize. Game three, however, was rather close. He (again) had two Burning-Trees on board turn two with a Bushwhacker, but I had a pair of paths ready for them. He drew into more creatures while I played a pair of Thought-Knots as blockers, taking nothing from his hand as he had nothing left. I ended up top-decking a Smasher into Sorin into Flaying Tendrils and stole the game from there.
Round 2 - Resto Bant Chord: 2-0 win (2-0)
This was a homebrew that I honestly felt was super interesting, played Reflector Mage with Restoration Angel to try and control the game though tempo.
Game one, him on the play, opens with a Noble Hierarch. I Inquisition him, pulling a Clique from his hand, and follow it up with a turn Lingering Souls and flash it back on my next turn, forcing him to Verdict the board. Afterwards, I drop a Thought-Knot into a Herder into Sorin and wrap the game up. Side in - x2 Surgical, x1 Flaying Tendrils, x1 All is Dust. Since I didn't see Spike Feeder nor Archangel of Thune, I assumed he was playing the combo.
Game two, he started with a Birds of Paradise, I followed with an Inquisition, pulling a Reflector Mage and seeing two Resto Angels. On my turn two, I played a Thoughtseize and extracted a Resto Angel, at which point he explained what his deck was. From here on out, this game went much like the first. I dropped a Seer, taking a Verdict, then a Smasher. With so much hand attack, he couldn't interact with the Smasher, which sealed the win.
Round 3 - Colorless Eldrazi Aggro: 1-2 loss (2-1)
This was a match-up I wasn't looking forward to at all. This player was one of the people I spoke with extensively over the past few weeks about the Eldrazi Variants, so he was mostly familiar with what I was playing.
Game one, he drops Chalice on 1 on turn one. I drop a turn two Seer, pulling a Seer from his hand. He bricks his draw, playing a land into a Mimic and passes. I drop a Smasher on my next turn and swing in, follow it with Sorin, and wrap the game. Side in - x2 Timely Reinforcements, x2 Extraction, x1 Damnation, x2 Ratchet Bomb
Game two, he had the magic hand, dropping two Mimics and two Endless Ones on turn one. I tried to stabilize though a Path into Lingering Souls, drawing into Sorin and start grinding him out with GQ on his manlands. Unfortunately, he drew up to seven lands and tutor'ed up Ulamog. My last draw was a Relic, which I cracked right away and bricked. Game three, I mulled to five and bricked my first two draws and never caught up. After the match, he showed me that he sided in x3 Sower and x2 Ulamog, which I thought was interesting.
Round 4 - Burn: 2-0 win (3-1)
Game one, on the play, I dropped a Thought-Knot on turn two, he reacts by playing Atarka's Command, popping me for three and dropping a land to bolt my face. I pulled a Boros Charm, and he bricked his draws for the next few turns while my Seer clocked him like a real Goyf would. Side in - x2 Timely, x3 Leyline
Game two was an odd one. Turn one, he Spikes me, I play a Shrine and pass. Turn two, he Commands into another land into a suspended Rift Bolt. I play a turn two Strangler, eating the Bolt and killing my Strangler off, knowing I'd be able to play a Seer into a Smasher in the next two turns. He dropped a Swiftspear, I followed with a Seer, he responded with a Boros Charm to my face, revealing a grip of lands. I cast a Leyline a turn later, he end-stepped Revelry'd it. This game was sort of close, since he got me low enough that a good draw would be fatal. I ended the match with a cool 3 life. Had he not bricked the turn after he blew up my Leyline, he would have probably took that game.
I ended up in 2nd place, 1st going to the Eldrazi Aggro player. I still really like this list, and I feel like with a good draw, we definitely have a good chance against the aggro variants. I'd love to get more testing against it. I do feel that Ratchet Bomb is really slow against them, since by the time you can crack it, they've already done a lot of damage.
Ok so why don't we jump on the wagon and play mimic? It can be done..cut ulamog the one sower and 2 x maps. Up the eye count cut Sorin for reality smasher and 1 other card for the forth though-knot ?
Could even cut the processing and go Arrgo with hand disruption /// best removal (path) ...
My list need testing but thinking we need to be just as fast..early and flood the board mid//late and recover via life gain/death touch I'm really leaning toward matter reshaper gives us that needed draw or ramp
Ok so why don't we jump on the wagon and play mimic? It can be done..cut ulamog the one sower and 2 x maps. Up the eye count cut Sorin for reality smasher and 1 other card for the forth though-knot ?
Could even cut the processing and go Arrgo with hand disruption /// best removal (path) ...
I think that is the safest path to take in the long term. Lowering the top of the curve makes the deck more resilient to changes in the meta and makes it run faster, which might help with some match ups in the mirror. But then a little birdy in the back of my head starts singing "It's starting to look a lot like BW tokens~"... unfortunately that birdy can not magic up a way to make that flow well when spoken...
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Ok so why don't we jump on the wagon and play mimic? It can be done..cut ulamog the one sower and 2 x maps. Up the eye count cut Sorin for reality smasher and 1 other card for the forth though-knot ?
Could even cut the processing and go Arrgo with hand disruption /// best removal (path) ...
I think that is the safest path to take in the long term. Lowering the top of the curve makes the deck more resilient to changes in the meta and makes it run faster, which might help with some match ups in the mirror. But then a little birdy in the back of my head starts singing "It's starting to look a lot like BW tokens~"... unfortunately that birdy can not magic up a way to make that flow well when spoken...
My problem with Mimics is it moves the deck towards the aggro strategy and so we might as well go to colorless. I think the deck is great where it's at. We are a lot like Tokens/Junk. That isn't a bad thing as those are both good decks and we get to play some of the best aspects of both. The sideboard for the Colorless deck makes sense because in matchups where they feel they are going to go long, they add a couple big guys to their curve in order to give themselves an endgame. We need to remember what our deck does well and stick to that. If we try to go jamming mimics and moving to aggro, I don't think we will do as well.
I'm. Having a hard time understanding your point ..
1.we are Arrgo just mid and added reality smasher over sower
2.we already looked like tokens with sprits and scions Sorin and vault
3.we have both the best hand disruption and removal..
4.not for getting what the deck does best?? Chain out multipul blight herders //tokens ?? My suggested built hasn't lost that focus .
My point is if we are searching searching searching for and answer and not looking right under our nose ..if we don't adapt and speed up with the meta than maybe have this thread move to casual ...
Not trying to sound pigheaded or harsh but others have stated in this fourm we will never be more than a tier 2 mid range looks to be falling to tier 4..
I'm. Having a hard time understanding your point ..
1.we are Arrgo just mid and added reality smasher over sower
2.we already looked like tokens with sprits and scions Sorin and vault
3.we have both the best hand disruption and removal..
4.not for getting what the deck does best?? Chain out multipul blight herders //tokens ?? My suggested built hasn't lost that focus .
My point is if we are searching searching searching for and answer and not looking right under our nose ..if we don't adapt and speed up with the meta than maybe have this thread move to casual ...
Not trying to sound pigheaded or harsh but others have stated in this fourm we will never be more than a tier 2 mid range looks to be falling to tier 4..
My point is that just jamming mimics in this deck isn't the answer. We are not an aggro deck, we are a midrange deck. I was agreeing with you that we are like Tokens/Junk. we go wide but have solid midrange creatures as well. We seek the grindier game over the fast game. This variant won't be able to be fast enough to keep up with the other variants. What it can do is knock our opponents gameplan off early (via hand disruption and creature removal) and then start dropping threats. We are not trying to play the first threat but the last one. As it stands, this deck will definitely be tier 2 as we wait out the aggro strategies. If the answer folks come up with hurts them more than it hurts us, we have a chance to get back into business. If nothing slows them down, we will have to see what the future holds and this deck might fall in the tiers.
I agree to an extent was modeling this build off of the mono black prossor that top 8ed I have had great success with the white/blk mid game pre pro tour. I want the deck. To do well and aproperite everyone's input. We can make the dream come true ; )
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What about Infinite Obliteration?
I think that is too slow but I agree with you that our best course of action is to rip TKS or Reality Smasher from their hand and then Surgical Extraction it. I am actually still looking at other sideboard options that I can use to supplement my life gain since it'll help in the long run. Whip of Erebos has looked very attractive to me since I thought about it yesterday. It lets our current creatures get lifelink and against decks where we aren't exiling our own GY with Relics, we can keep recurring things like Wasteland Strangler and TKS to abuse their EBT's (admittedly TKS will draw them a card first) and of course Reality Smasher and Blight Herder can be brought back to swing in for extra damage. Currently I am probably bringing in 2x Surgical Extraction, 3x Leyline of Sanctity, 2x Timely Reinforcements and 2x Ratchet bomb against them.
Edit: I am also going up to 3x Thoughtseize and 1 Inquisition again.
1 Celestial Purge
2 Stony Silence
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Ghostly Prison
2 Disenchant
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Languish
1 Flaying Tendrils
I might cut the Purge for something. Tendrils comes down earlier than Languish, but maybe isn't good enough still, so might cut that for another sweeper. Languish is just my budget Damnation, otherwise I think it should be Damnation there.
EDH: Rakdos, Lord of Riots
Timely Reinforcements has always been stellar for me. With Leyline, all you have to worry about is Atarka's command which can be stripped with TKS and Inquisition early. It's also versatile in a lot of non-burn matchups. It also pairs well with Sorin. I will be trimming back my Flaying Tendrils for a Damnation. Ghostly Prison is an interesting option for sure though. I am also going to try and slot in some Sacred Grounds (probably 2) in order to combat some of the Land Destruction I expect to see people jamming to combat the faster aggro variant.
Deathtouch is good because it limits your totally number of 2 for 1's you have to give up to them. Typically this will valuable in conjunction with Lifelink like Vault of the Archangel. That negates a little bit of their trample damage. People are worried about the barf of mimic into smasher hands and yeah, those will probably kill us (think Burn, Infect and Affinities fast hands). If we can survive from there, we focus on ripping Smashers from hand because of Trample and just deal with being 1.5 for 1 by TKS (initial card plus removal minus random card draw once you remove it). The benifit Deathtouch can give you is if they are swinging in with Mimics copied to be TKS... you get to draw a card off each one you kill.
Basilisk collar is ok but my problem is that it requires you to have a creature AND the collar out. If you do get both, they can still be removed. I just think it's too fragile to sacrifice slots of Deathtouch. Vault gets a pass because it's a land as well. All the other utility stuff we like effects the entire board as well instead of just 1 dude (which is why I mention Whip of Erebos, we already like Sorin, Vault does it as well). Something that might also be good is something like Bitterblossum. If you can jam it on turn 2 you might be able to survive through their non-trample things (which seems to be the biggest key). Let them strip a card out of your hand. As long as you can chump block enough you should win in the end. Also Bitterblossum works great against many decks to enable wins with Sorin and Vault.
I wonder if Matter Reshaper, Mimic, Strangler, TKS, and Eldrazi Displacer might be a thing.
Could just be that we need to see what develops over the next few weeks/months.
Good thing we all have our backup modern decks right
GXTronGX
RWxBurnRWx
I'm kind of curious is painter's servant would work in this variant since we actually do pretty well grinding out compared to the other variants so far. If we can't get eldrazi out as fast it doesn't bother us since we got souls and alternatives. All the other decks have is strait eldrazi.
The other part I'm working on is what to replace the Eye of Ugin with if we can no longer use it in the future. My thought was Sea gate Wreckage, cavern of souls, or shrine of the Forsaken Gods.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I was thinking about existing decks that beat up on the eldrazi (if any). I came to the conclusion that Ad Nausem and soul sisters should have really good matchups. I am guessing that those decks might start showing up. Leyline would be good against ad nausem but not sure what to do against sisters.
... Vesuva might work as a replacement for eye as well now that I think on it. Going to credit the modern ban thread for that one.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
B/W Eldrazi Processor
Creatures - 14
x3 Wasteland Strangler
x4 Thought-Knot Seer
x3 Reality Smasher
x4 Blight Herder
Instants - 7
x4 Path to Exile
x1 Dismember
x2 Warping Wail
Sorceries - 8
x4 Lingering Souls
x2 Inquisition of Kozilek
x2 Thoughtseize
Enchantments - 1
x1 Banishing Light
Planeswalkers - 1
x1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Artifacts - 4
x4 Relic of Progenitus
Lands - 25
x1 Plains
x2 Swamp
x1 Waste
x1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
x1 Vault of the Archangel
x2 Eye of Ugin
x4 Eldrazi Temple
x4 Ghost Quarter
x2 Shambling Vent
x3 Godless Shrine
x4 Caves of Koilos
Sideboard
x1 Disenchant
x2 Timely Reinforcements
x2 Stony Silence
x3 Leyline of Sanctity
x2 Surgical Extraction
x1 Flaying Tendrils
x1 Damnation
x2 Ratchet Bomb
x1 All is Dust
As far as some of the card choices, I decided to cut Sower and Ulamog entirely from the list. In my testing, playing like a midrange deck, and less like a ramp deck, has led me to better success. Thought-Knot was an all-star tonight, and will probably remain as a 4-of as long as I play this list. The one-of Banishing Light was always nice to see, was never a bad draw. As far as the maindeck dismember, it could easily be a Spellskite. It was more of a meta choice, as I expected multiple Eldrazi decks, and felt the extra removal was important. I also like that this list has several flex spots (Dismember, Banishing Light, the 4th Seer).
Credit to Exatraz for the sideboard. I felt that I had relevant answers for each of the decks I played against tonight. I have x2 Sacred Ground available, but I dunno what I would remove for them, probably the Disenchant and something else.
Round 1 - Bushwhacker Zoo: 2-1 win (1-0)
Game one felt like a good match. I was on the play, opened with a caves and passed. His turn he dropped a fetch and passed. My turn two I play a GQ and pass. His turn two, he played a turn two Burning-Tree into another Burning-Tree into a Bushwhacker, and I path'ed one of the Burning-Trees. I followed up with a turn three Thought-Knot, pulling what gas he had left in his hand. TKS and a duo of Reality Smashers wrapped the game up.
Side in - x2 Timely, x2 Ratchet Bomb, x1 Flaying Tendrils
Game two, he drew all four of his Burning-Trees and dumped them on turn two, and I couldn't get enough blockers out to stabilize. Game three, however, was rather close. He (again) had two Burning-Trees on board turn two with a Bushwhacker, but I had a pair of paths ready for them. He drew into more creatures while I played a pair of Thought-Knots as blockers, taking nothing from his hand as he had nothing left. I ended up top-decking a Smasher into Sorin into Flaying Tendrils and stole the game from there.
Round 2 - Resto Bant Chord: 2-0 win (2-0)
This was a homebrew that I honestly felt was super interesting, played Reflector Mage with Restoration Angel to try and control the game though tempo.
Game one, him on the play, opens with a Noble Hierarch. I Inquisition him, pulling a Clique from his hand, and follow it up with a turn Lingering Souls and flash it back on my next turn, forcing him to Verdict the board. Afterwards, I drop a Thought-Knot into a Herder into Sorin and wrap the game up.
Side in - x2 Surgical, x1 Flaying Tendrils, x1 All is Dust. Since I didn't see Spike Feeder nor Archangel of Thune, I assumed he was playing the combo.
Game two, he started with a Birds of Paradise, I followed with an Inquisition, pulling a Reflector Mage and seeing two Resto Angels. On my turn two, I played a Thoughtseize and extracted a Resto Angel, at which point he explained what his deck was. From here on out, this game went much like the first. I dropped a Seer, taking a Verdict, then a Smasher. With so much hand attack, he couldn't interact with the Smasher, which sealed the win.
Round 3 - Colorless Eldrazi Aggro: 1-2 loss (2-1)
This was a match-up I wasn't looking forward to at all. This player was one of the people I spoke with extensively over the past few weeks about the Eldrazi Variants, so he was mostly familiar with what I was playing.
Game one, he drops Chalice on 1 on turn one. I drop a turn two Seer, pulling a Seer from his hand. He bricks his draw, playing a land into a Mimic and passes. I drop a Smasher on my next turn and swing in, follow it with Sorin, and wrap the game.
Side in - x2 Timely Reinforcements, x2 Extraction, x1 Damnation, x2 Ratchet Bomb
Game two, he had the magic hand, dropping two Mimics and two Endless Ones on turn one. I tried to stabilize though a Path into Lingering Souls, drawing into Sorin and start grinding him out with GQ on his manlands. Unfortunately, he drew up to seven lands and tutor'ed up Ulamog. My last draw was a Relic, which I cracked right away and bricked. Game three, I mulled to five and bricked my first two draws and never caught up. After the match, he showed me that he sided in x3 Sower and x2 Ulamog, which I thought was interesting.
Round 4 - Burn: 2-0 win (3-1)
Game one, on the play, I dropped a Thought-Knot on turn two, he reacts by playing Atarka's Command, popping me for three and dropping a land to bolt my face. I pulled a Boros Charm, and he bricked his draws for the next few turns while my Seer clocked him like a real Goyf would.
Side in - x2 Timely, x3 Leyline
Game two was an odd one. Turn one, he Spikes me, I play a Shrine and pass. Turn two, he Commands into another land into a suspended Rift Bolt. I play a turn two Strangler, eating the Bolt and killing my Strangler off, knowing I'd be able to play a Seer into a Smasher in the next two turns. He dropped a Swiftspear, I followed with a Seer, he responded with a Boros Charm to my face, revealing a grip of lands. I cast a Leyline a turn later, he end-stepped Revelry'd it. This game was sort of close, since he got me low enough that a good draw would be fatal. I ended the match with a cool 3 life. Had he not bricked the turn after he blew up my Leyline, he would have probably took that game.
I ended up in 2nd place, 1st going to the Eldrazi Aggro player. I still really like this list, and I feel like with a good draw, we definitely have a good chance against the aggro variants. I'd love to get more testing against it. I do feel that Ratchet Bomb is really slow against them, since by the time you can crack it, they've already done a lot of damage.
Could even cut the processing and go Arrgo with hand disruption /// best removal (path) ...
B/W Eldrazi Aggro-Processor
Creatures - 19
X4 Eldrazi mimic
x3 Wasteland Strangler///or matter reshaper
x4 Thought-Knot Seer
x4Reality Smasher
x4 Blight Herder
Instants - 4
x4 Path to Exile
Sorceries - 8
x4 Lingering Souls
x2 Inquisition of Kozilek
x2 Thoughtseize
Planeswalkers - 1
x1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Artifacts - 4
x4 Relic of Progenitus
Lands - 25
x2 Plains
x1Swamp
x1 Waste
x3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
x1 Vault of the Archangel
x4 Eye of Ugin
x4 Eldrazi Temple
x4 Ghost Quarter
x1 Godless Shrine
x4 Caves of Koilos
61 cards. Any thoughts ?
I think that is the safest path to take in the long term. Lowering the top of the curve makes the deck more resilient to changes in the meta and makes it run faster, which might help with some match ups in the mirror. But then a little birdy in the back of my head starts singing "It's starting to look a lot like BW tokens~"... unfortunately that birdy can not magic up a way to make that flow well when spoken...
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
My problem with Mimics is it moves the deck towards the aggro strategy and so we might as well go to colorless. I think the deck is great where it's at. We are a lot like Tokens/Junk. That isn't a bad thing as those are both good decks and we get to play some of the best aspects of both. The sideboard for the Colorless deck makes sense because in matchups where they feel they are going to go long, they add a couple big guys to their curve in order to give themselves an endgame. We need to remember what our deck does well and stick to that. If we try to go jamming mimics and moving to aggro, I don't think we will do as well.
1.we are Arrgo just mid and added reality smasher over sower
2.we already looked like tokens with sprits and scions Sorin and vault
3.we have both the best hand disruption and removal..
4.not for getting what the deck does best?? Chain out multipul blight herders //tokens ?? My suggested built hasn't lost that focus .
My point is if we are searching searching searching for and answer and not looking right under our nose ..if we don't adapt and speed up with the meta than maybe have this thread move to casual ...
Not trying to sound pigheaded or harsh but others have stated in this fourm we will never be more than a tier 2 mid range looks to be falling to tier 4..
My point is that just jamming mimics in this deck isn't the answer. We are not an aggro deck, we are a midrange deck. I was agreeing with you that we are like Tokens/Junk. we go wide but have solid midrange creatures as well. We seek the grindier game over the fast game. This variant won't be able to be fast enough to keep up with the other variants. What it can do is knock our opponents gameplan off early (via hand disruption and creature removal) and then start dropping threats. We are not trying to play the first threat but the last one. As it stands, this deck will definitely be tier 2 as we wait out the aggro strategies. If the answer folks come up with hurts them more than it hurts us, we have a chance to get back into business. If nothing slows them down, we will have to see what the future holds and this deck might fall in the tiers.