Agreed, but Im not in BW to beat the mirror. Our best cards in that mirror are Lingering Souls, Blight Herder, Oblivion Sower, and Vault. Path is there for all the matchups we still need to win that aren't Eldrazi.
I would really like to find a way to get 3 disenchants in the board. Most of the eldrazi hate is in the form of artifacts and enchantments.
I also guess we need to figure if more decks are going try to our attacks or our development. As posted earlier sacred ground may be a good thought if we are expecting more land hate than board stall. Leyline may also be a consideration for 8-rack style decks and maybe for the mirror, just to shut down TKS. I would still like to find room for Memoricide for scapeshift, abzan company and to get rid of smashers.
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Ok guys i got another tournament result for you. I made a couple additions to the decklist and they all came up big in different situations. I am not changing to be more like the aggro variants. I am making changes to play against them (and the other aggro decks) while still giving myself the grindy wins against decks that are focusing on killing the Aggro variant.
Decklist notes: I was running late so I was unable to make all the changes to my list (because I forgot). First thing is I want to add another disenchant to the SB, 2nd I want to add my Damnation back in as well. MB I think I want to go back to a 3:1 split of TS:IoK because of the increased number of CMC>3 things we want to remove.
Round 1 Blue Moon (2-0) [1-0]:
I feel like this matchup is very favorable to us. Unlike the aggro lists, we are built to grind. As such, I ended up casting Newlamog game 1 on 7 lands and 3 scions.. sure I drew a ton of lands over the course of the game but between MB relic to keep him from snapping back counters and enough wide grindy damage, he just can't stabilize fast enough. There will be games where you draw all Lingering Souls and cry in the face of Jace but they can only answer so many threats and Blood Moon really doesn't harm us all that much because we are running 4x Blight Herder. Game 2 I had a great opener. Temple, Ghost Quarter, Plains, Disenchant, Surgical Extraction, Relic x2. I play a relic my first 2 turns. He taps out for Blood Moon on turn 3. I play plains, Disenchant the Moon, Surgical it out. He couldn't out grind me from there with no hope of shutting off my lands.
Round 2 Merfolk (1-1-1) [1-0-1]:
This whole round was a product of my opponent not knowing their outs. I had him dead on board if he didn't topdeck a lord Game 1.. ofcourse he did. Game 2 I got the game to grind long. I held open an early GQ so he wouldn't be able to spreading seas. I slowly picked apart all of his dudes as I chump blocked and timed out perfectly for back to back Timely Reinforcement casts. I had him down to 5 and I dropped Batterskull. He should have just scooped but he opted to keep going (and tanking for long periods). I gained enough life to put me WAY out of lethal on the next swing. I had topdecked Lingering souls so I cast it and flashed it back. He scooped. We didn't have enough time to get Game 3 started. Oh well.
Round 3 Jund (2-0) [2-0-1]:
Man did the new cards pay off. Game 1 I got a T4 Reality Smasher down and slammed in for 5 (he is at 14). He then plays Liliana forces me to sacrifice. I follow up with a 2nd Reality Smasher and kill Lili. He plays a tapped land and plays Goyf. I play Whip of Erebos and crack in for another 5 (putting him to 9 and picking me up to over 20). He is forced to sit back his next turn (no idea what he had in hand.. probably Abrupt Decays or he thought he had another turn). My turn I activate whip to bring back Reality Smasher. In response to blocks I crack relic and he scoops. Game 2 I had another decent opener with Sacred Ground in it. This turned out to be the big key because he kept a double GQ hand. He tapped out to play a turn 2 Bob and I played Sacred Ground. He reread what it did several times and cursed under his breath. I got a Reality Smasher down and cracked back to his Bob swing. From there the game essentially devolved into him almost killing himself with Lilianas (he flipped Obstinate Baloth and a Liliana in back to back turns. He did Surgical my Reality Smashers which hurt my draws but Eventually I drew into Lingering Souls which all but locked up the win. He also had no Green sources. After he was pretty low (I think like 7) he did get a fetch which he got his basic forest with (and played a second liliana so he could get closer to ult (which I had no idea why he wanted that.. I'll explain in a moment)). Most Jund players only have 1 basic forest in the deck. Since I knew this, I ghost quartered his forest and kept him off green for the rest of the game.
(Lili Ult explanation: So we have all discussed how Liliana is one of the threats Jund has that can really hurt us because they will severely hurt our mana base. I now have 5 SB cards that help avoid that. 3x Leyline (so he can't target me at all) and 2x Sacred ground. If you have Sacred Ground in play and he ults Liliana... always pick the pile with Sacred Ground. This will ensure you always get all your lands back. When you have nothing else in play (like I did) it makes Ulting Lili the dumbest thing a player can do. Just let them do it if they want.)
Round 4 Esper Gifts (1-0) Table Flip [3-0-1]:
This is a guy who frequents all the stores I go to and he is one of the sorest losers around. He generally is a smart magic player and can be a nice guy to chat with but boy does he get butt hurt and pissy when he loses. Case and point tonight. As we sit down he asks if I'd like to draw. He was going to a midnight showing of Deadpool and didn't want to be late. I opted not to and presented the following reasons. If I drew, I'd be 2-0-2. My store would give me $20 in store credit. If I lost, I'd be 2-1-1 and get $15 store credit (difference of $5 for those playing at home). If I win however, I'd be 3-0-1 and I'd get $50... Why on earth would I not play it out. Worst case I'm down "$5" from the draw, best case I more than double my winnings. Seemed like a no brainer to me. My deck seemed to agree and decided to be extra special dumb sauce. Turns 3-5 I dropped TKS with double temples in play. He had 2 Gifts and 2 paths (relevant things I remember only). I take a gifts. Next turn he Paths my TKS on the swing so I cast my second one. He paths that in response and I see he drew a Griselbrand. I opt to yank that because I didn't want to deal with it. He draw gos. I draw the 3rd TKS and play it (he begins to start the tilt). He responds by casting Gifts Ungivin. He gets a Day of Judgement, Wrath of God, Supreme Verdict and Snapcaster. I give him the Wrath and Day of Judgement and then pull the Wrath from hand. He draws and plays a snapcaster on his turn in an effort to path my TKS. I crack relic in response so he is SOL. I then play a Wasteland strangler to kill his Snap and come in for 7.. Knowing he has a wrath, I sit on 2 blight herders in my hand. He eventually board clears to get the 7 power off the board. I play my first Blight Herder (processing 2 lands) to go back up to 7 power. The game then goes to grind mode. Whenever I'd get low on power, I cast another Blight Herder. I eventually drew into an Expedition map and cracked it to get Eye of Ugin. The following turn I played Eye (he Ghost Quarters it EOT) and I search up Newlamog in response (I have more than enough mana to cast it). He doesn't draw a counter and Newlamog resolves. He durdles a bit by playing a couple blockers (lingering soul flashback) and a flip jace. I kill flip Jace with Wasteland Strangler and pass the turn. He scoops and concedes the match. If the tables weren't heavy enough to throw your back out he'd have flipped it. He then was rambling angry sentiments like "You just HAD to play it out" and things like that as he threw his stuff into his bags and stormed out of the store. We were at the top tables and the Judge was right behind us watching the match. We had a good laugh about it. This is one reason I love grindy decks. Every time your opponent thinks they might be stabilizing, you drop another threat or myriad of threats and force them to draw more answers specific answers. Amongst his ramblings he insisted that killing the Jace was overkill but it was the smart play to reduce his number of outs. If he drew a path he died to the rest of the damage onboard. If he drew a board wipe, he died to Ulamog's next swing (because he'd be milled out). I don't think I've ever tilted someone so hard though.
New Card additions and thoughts:
Sacred Ground is amazing. With Crumble to Dust being too slow, everyone is leaning on GQ and other LD effects more than they were before. This is the perfect counter-meta choice. Especially against Jund where they side out all Abrupt Decays because it hits very little. It's actually a matchup I am glad I made a little better because even though we were favored, they still seemed to have good draws against me and would find ways to win. (by the way, Jund player who triple Fulminatored me at regionals got 2nd overall, the Jeskai Tempo player I played (and play regularly at my store got 7th and the Burn kid I know from my LGS got 3rd (though they split prizes in top 4)... All in all 3 of my 9 regional opponents made top 8 and 5 made top 16 and 7 made top 32.... I feel less bad about being 5-4.. the way the day unfolded still upset me a bit but whatever).
Batterskull and Whip of Erebos: These 2 cards fit in the same role of Lifelink utility and recurring threat. I really liked having 1 of each because each shines in their own situation (as proved tonight). Against Merfolk I wanted a 4/4 body immediately where as against Jund I wanted to recur my killed Eldrazi for extra damage on the swings (Reality Smasher working 2 fold as being uber dumb. Did you 2 for 1 to kill it? Good. Now 2 for 1 yourself again or suffer the 10 point life swing). Part of having different threats is I want people to not expect all 4 lifelink sources. I'd like them to see Sorin or Vault game 1 (as an example) and think they will be fine as long as they kill off the creatures in play. Game 2 then sets up Batterskull or Whip where killing the creatures does very little good and instead lets me now abuse them again (or with batterskull, bounce it and then replay it). If I had to pick one... Whip is probably better because it gives lifelink to everything and the activation is just a bonus. The BB in it's cost does take it's toll sometimes and that is where Batterskull reigns supreme. You can cast it through Blood Moon and gives you a nice threat. Also when combined with Reality Smasher you have built your own Slippery Boggle. 9/9 Lifelink, Trample, Haste, Vigilance that you either 2 for 1 yourself if you try and kill it or if you try and remove the equipment, it can be easily bounced back to hand.
As long as they don't go overboard in the future trying to kill this deck, I think we can easily stay competitive.
I like your list a lot. What do you think about dropping 1 souls for smasher #4?
Also had any chances to play against the colorless or UR version? I still would love to have sowers for the colorless deck, and other midrange matchups but you are showing those are not needed. What are you thoughts about worship/prison vs leyline?
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Great play report. thanks. Did you ever run into Relic nonbo-ing with Whip? Have enough exile for your Herders when you wanted them?
Not really. The key difference is now you don't want to crack them whenever but I still kept Goyfs to 1/2's because I'd keep just a creature in my yard and nothing in my opponents. It all depends on the matchup really. For me it's more like Whip is just another 4 drop lifelink outlet and has the added upside of recurring my dudes lategame.
I like your list a lot. What do you think about dropping 1 souls for smasher #4?
Also had any chances to play against the colorless or UR version? I still would love to have sowers for the colorless deck, and other midrange matchups but you are showing those are not needed. What are you thoughts about worship/prison vs leyline?
Personally Lingering Souls is my favorite card in Modern and besides that, it just makes so many matchups good. I haven't been hankering for Smasher #4 though. Smasher #3 seemed vital (because there were games where the first 2 get killed and I could tutor up a 3rd to win but I didn't have it. I think if Eye goes away, I'd take out Ulamog for it.
I think Sower is completely not needed. I haven't played the matchup a ton but I found my best chance was to kill/TS Reality Smasher and then Surgical it away. From there if I get to a lifelink outlet, I typically win (which is why I increased the quantity). Essentially I am mainly worried about trample. (Batterskull does a ton of work against both variants as well. Equip it to any dude and they can't get past it. Against the UR version just put it on a Souls token and troll your way to victory.
I like Worship and it might be worth the add if you own one. Personally it's cost is too crazy for me to consider it right now. Leyline puts in a lot of work as well. Pretty much if they can't trample over, you trade and stall the game until they are in top deck mode and that is when your lifelink sources and deck will win the game out.
Time for some next level testing! Has any one play against the RG midrange version? It looks it is very well placed against the colorless and UR versions but sets of mainbaord Kozilek's Return and World Breaker seem rather tough for us. It really shuts down the whole souls plan.
I am not sure what angle of attack to use against them yet.
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Time for some next level testing! Has any one play against the RG midrange version? It looks it is very well placed against the colorless and UR versions but sets of mainbaord Kozilek's Return and World Breaker seem rather tough for us. It really shuts down the whole souls plan.
I am not sure what angle of attack to use against them yet.
Strip those cards from their hand with discard, and then Extract or Memoricide the rest out of their deck. Relic makes it difficult for them to activate World Breaker's return to hand ability, since you can just sit on the relic activation and wait for them to sac a land to try and recur it.
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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.
Time for some next level testing! Has any one play against the RG midrange version? It looks it is very well placed against the colorless and UR versions but sets of mainbaord Kozilek's Return and World Breaker seem rather tough for us. It really shuts down the whole souls plan.
I am not sure what angle of attack to use against them yet.
Strip those cards from their hand with discard, and then Extract or Memoricide the rest out of their deck. Relic makes it difficult for them to activate World Breaker's return to hand ability, since you can just sit on the relic activation and wait for them to sac a land to try and recur it.
Just went 1-4 in games against it. The deck generates a ton of pressure.
The plan above is great but it requires several cards coming together consistently out of board. One of the foundations of the BW deck is using souls to stall and finish games though the air. With world breakers, smashers and returns, that plan falls apart quickly.
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I've been playing modern for a bit less than a year now, but I've only played Mono U Tron so I don't know that much about other colored decks. Do you mind explaining your reasons behind these sideboard choices, like what decks they go in against. For example, I can only think of bringing in Leyline of Sanctity against burn, but by turn 4 your basically dead anyway. Thanks
Thanks. Honestly, I feel like Rest for the Weary is better than timely reinforcements for our needs. It's one less mana, unconditional, and gains an extra 2 life. Of course tokens are valuable, but they too are conditional and we have lingering souls running around to make a lot of chump blockers as it is.
Anyone thought of taking a page from BW tokens and using Bitterblossom? Having a token come out every turn might help against board wipes, though this is kind of out there.
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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!
Looks like we could be having another tool coming in with Eerie Interlude It works on pretty much every creature we play except reality smasher, and you can choose how many you blink in case there isn't enough to process. Instant speed too.
Sticking with BW since I feel it's the most that it's the most versatile version that doesn't rely on a magical christmas land like the others and it's still resilient if the b word happens. But I think they have the right idea in abandoning the reliance on exiling. So, I tried to mix the best of both worlds.
I feel like this is more of a "fair" deck than the other flavors while still having the explosiveness of the other variants. I've found that I don't need to mulligan aggressively to play a game of magic but that perfect hand of eyes, mimics, endless and smashers is still possible if you're lucky but you're not reliant on it. Lingering can take over games and Ulamog and a single Sower are still your back up for a really grindy game. But because all of the more expensive, exile heavy, creatures are cut you're not sitting around doing nothing and can create an army that can go wide early if you need it.
Thanks. Honestly, I feel like Rest for the Weary is better than timely reinforcements for our needs. It's one less mana, unconditional, and gains an extra 2 life. Of course tokens are valuable, but they too are conditional and we have lingering souls running around to make a lot of chump blockers as it is.
It's really a preference call. I like having the 3 1/1 bodies as well because of matchups like Zoo which are running around my meta. Gaining 8 life doesn't do you a lot of good when they have at least 8 power on board. Gaining 6 life and getting 3 bodies can be big (not to mention they play really well with a follow up Sorin or Vault of the Archangel). Also, my list doesn't run fetches which makes Rest for the Weary worse.
Ok quick tournament report from FNM (from what I can remember from the long weekend) 63 people:
Round 1 UR Eldrazi (0-2)[0-1]:
Game 1 he had magic christmas (eye, temple x2, TKS and Smasher). I had a bit of a slower hand and got murdered pretty quick. Game 2 I stripped away his TKS and unless he topdecked a Temple, I'd TKS his Reality Smasher and he'd have been out of relevant gas. He topdecked the Temple and started in with reality smasher. Next turn he over extended more gas from hand. I cleared the board with Damnation. We were now in topdeck wars... he topdecked Vile Aggregate into Drowner of Hope while I hit 2 lands.. gg.
Round 2 Maze Turbo Fog (2-0)[1-1]:
I am a firm believer in tough love. You aren't going to learn competitive magic unless you get your butt kicked. This doesn't mean I nitpick on rules and such at FNMs but that does mean I show no mercy when it comes to making plays. This is one of the few instances where my spikiness made me feel a little bad. Very little kid playing Modern for his first time. Game 1 I see he is on Turbo Fog with Maze's End as his wincon. I manage to strip enough Fog Effects out of his hand and kill him eventually. We move to game 2 and I sideboard. Here was how our game 2 went. He mulliganed down to 6. Keep, scry to the bottom. He plays a Selesnya Guild Gate tapped and passes the turn. I draw and play Ghost Quarter. I GQ the Guild Gate. He fails to find a basic. I then pay 2 life and cast Surgical Extraction on the gate.... He reads the card and responds, "But now I can't win". I'm not going to lie I felt a little bad and the rest of the table (upon hearing the events unfold) were in equal shock and awe how cold blooded I was in dismantling him. I feel like it's still the right thing to do (and polled a bunch of other folks including our Head Judge to see what he'd have done) and most said they'd probably do something similar. What about yall? Would you guys kill his wincon turn 1? Would you not have brought in Surgical Extraction and just tried to kill him normally? Would you have held the Surgical and only used it when he was about to win?
Round 3 Grixis Delver (2-0) [2-1]:
I can't remember these specific games but I was playing against a former Twin player who had just picked up Delver. I won the first game on the back of TKS and Whip of Erebos. Making him Terminate in response to trigger, yanking his best card from hand twice game 1 and then whipping them back to keep him with jank in hand (plus playing a Blight Herder) completely wrecked him. I think Game 2 wasn't much of a contest, I don't remember though. I sat with the guy and walked him through a few mistakes I remember him doing (as well as little idiosyncrasies of playing Delver that he may not have been aware of).
Round 4 Zoo (1-2) [2-2]:
Game 1 he curved out for the turn 3 kill, not much I could have done differently but with New Bushwacker.. this deck is crazy fast. Game 2 I stabilized and eventually equipped Batterskull to Blight Herder. Apparently Zoo doesn't have any answers to 8/9 vigilance lifelinkers. Game 3 He had another nutish draw and killed me Turn 3. It happens... oh well
I got to play more against the new Eldrazi decks between rounds. I still it's going to be a bad matchup going forward against any of the aggro variants. I've gotten to the point where I am going to treat it like I was treating Scapeshift and Tron. If I lose to it, whatever. If I can steal a win from it, great. I am going to focus my efforts on beating the rest of the field that is praying on the Aggrodrazi decks. Anyway, I do like Bitterblossum and might try it in place of a Lingering Souls. It performs a similar role as well.
I have still been totally sold on Batterskull and Whip of Erebos in conjunction with Sorin and Vault to increase our total lifelink mainboard. Because Sorin and Whip are subject to the Legend rule, I don't want to increase beyond 1. My favorite part of having all the 1x in the deck is you REALLY catch opponents off-guard. Against Zoo he stated he didn't bring in Artifact hate game 2 because he didn't care about Relic or Map. When he saw Batterskull he said he about shat himself as he knew he had virtually no answer for it and had to hope on chaining multiple Atarka Commands to possibly kill me. Essentially I took slots like the 1x Oblivion Sower and turned it into a 5 CMC 4/4 Lifelinker with upside threat. Whip was a trial that has felt good enough so far. It is awkward at times but when you get the engine running.. it feels amazing.
Kalitas is another good option which I do like. It is better against Burn than Whip because it gifts you a body as well. It also gives you a route around Artifact hate which seems nice. I do love the recursion off Whip though.
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I also guess we need to figure if more decks are going try to our attacks or our development. As posted earlier sacred ground may be a good thought if we are expecting more land hate than board stall. Leyline may also be a consideration for 8-rack style decks and maybe for the mirror, just to shut down TKS. I would still like to find room for Memoricide for scapeshift, abzan company and to get rid of smashers.
3x Wasteland Strangler
3x Thought-knot Seer
3x Reality Smasher
4x Blight Herder
1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Sorceries(8):
4x Lingering Souls
2x Thoughtseize
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
Instants(5):
4x Path to Exile
1x Warping Wail
Artifacts(8):
4x Relic of Progenitus
2x Expedition Map
1x Batterskull
1x Whip of Erebos
1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Lands(24):
4x Eldrazi Temple
2x Eye of Ugin
1x Urborg, Tomb of the Yawgmoth
3x Godless Shrine
4x Cave of Koilos
2x Swamp
1x Plains
1x Waste
2x Ghost Quarter
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Vault of the Archangel
1x Shambling Vent
2x Timely Reinforcements
2x Stony Silence
2x Ratchet Bomb
2x Sacred Ground
2x Surgical Extraction
1x Flaying Tendrils
1x Disenchant
3x Leyline of Sanctity
Decklist notes: I was running late so I was unable to make all the changes to my list (because I forgot). First thing is I want to add another disenchant to the SB, 2nd I want to add my Damnation back in as well. MB I think I want to go back to a 3:1 split of TS:IoK because of the increased number of CMC>3 things we want to remove.
Round 1 Blue Moon (2-0) [1-0]:
I feel like this matchup is very favorable to us. Unlike the aggro lists, we are built to grind. As such, I ended up casting Newlamog game 1 on 7 lands and 3 scions.. sure I drew a ton of lands over the course of the game but between MB relic to keep him from snapping back counters and enough wide grindy damage, he just can't stabilize fast enough. There will be games where you draw all Lingering Souls and cry in the face of Jace but they can only answer so many threats and Blood Moon really doesn't harm us all that much because we are running 4x Blight Herder. Game 2 I had a great opener. Temple, Ghost Quarter, Plains, Disenchant, Surgical Extraction, Relic x2. I play a relic my first 2 turns. He taps out for Blood Moon on turn 3. I play plains, Disenchant the Moon, Surgical it out. He couldn't out grind me from there with no hope of shutting off my lands.
Round 2 Merfolk (1-1-1) [1-0-1]:
This whole round was a product of my opponent not knowing their outs. I had him dead on board if he didn't topdeck a lord Game 1.. ofcourse he did. Game 2 I got the game to grind long. I held open an early GQ so he wouldn't be able to spreading seas. I slowly picked apart all of his dudes as I chump blocked and timed out perfectly for back to back Timely Reinforcement casts. I had him down to 5 and I dropped Batterskull. He should have just scooped but he opted to keep going (and tanking for long periods). I gained enough life to put me WAY out of lethal on the next swing. I had topdecked Lingering souls so I cast it and flashed it back. He scooped. We didn't have enough time to get Game 3 started. Oh well.
Round 3 Jund (2-0) [2-0-1]:
Man did the new cards pay off. Game 1 I got a T4 Reality Smasher down and slammed in for 5 (he is at 14). He then plays Liliana forces me to sacrifice. I follow up with a 2nd Reality Smasher and kill Lili. He plays a tapped land and plays Goyf. I play Whip of Erebos and crack in for another 5 (putting him to 9 and picking me up to over 20). He is forced to sit back his next turn (no idea what he had in hand.. probably Abrupt Decays or he thought he had another turn). My turn I activate whip to bring back Reality Smasher. In response to blocks I crack relic and he scoops. Game 2 I had another decent opener with Sacred Ground in it. This turned out to be the big key because he kept a double GQ hand. He tapped out to play a turn 2 Bob and I played Sacred Ground. He reread what it did several times and cursed under his breath. I got a Reality Smasher down and cracked back to his Bob swing. From there the game essentially devolved into him almost killing himself with Lilianas (he flipped Obstinate Baloth and a Liliana in back to back turns. He did Surgical my Reality Smashers which hurt my draws but Eventually I drew into Lingering Souls which all but locked up the win. He also had no Green sources. After he was pretty low (I think like 7) he did get a fetch which he got his basic forest with (and played a second liliana so he could get closer to ult (which I had no idea why he wanted that.. I'll explain in a moment)). Most Jund players only have 1 basic forest in the deck. Since I knew this, I ghost quartered his forest and kept him off green for the rest of the game.
(Lili Ult explanation: So we have all discussed how Liliana is one of the threats Jund has that can really hurt us because they will severely hurt our mana base. I now have 5 SB cards that help avoid that. 3x Leyline (so he can't target me at all) and 2x Sacred ground. If you have Sacred Ground in play and he ults Liliana... always pick the pile with Sacred Ground. This will ensure you always get all your lands back. When you have nothing else in play (like I did) it makes Ulting Lili the dumbest thing a player can do. Just let them do it if they want.)
Round 4 Esper Gifts (1-0) Table Flip [3-0-1]:
This is a guy who frequents all the stores I go to and he is one of the sorest losers around. He generally is a smart magic player and can be a nice guy to chat with but boy does he get butt hurt and pissy when he loses. Case and point tonight. As we sit down he asks if I'd like to draw. He was going to a midnight showing of Deadpool and didn't want to be late. I opted not to and presented the following reasons. If I drew, I'd be 2-0-2. My store would give me $20 in store credit. If I lost, I'd be 2-1-1 and get $15 store credit (difference of $5 for those playing at home). If I win however, I'd be 3-0-1 and I'd get $50... Why on earth would I not play it out. Worst case I'm down "$5" from the draw, best case I more than double my winnings. Seemed like a no brainer to me. My deck seemed to agree and decided to be extra special dumb sauce. Turns 3-5 I dropped TKS with double temples in play. He had 2 Gifts and 2 paths (relevant things I remember only). I take a gifts. Next turn he Paths my TKS on the swing so I cast my second one. He paths that in response and I see he drew a Griselbrand. I opt to yank that because I didn't want to deal with it. He draw gos. I draw the 3rd TKS and play it (he begins to start the tilt). He responds by casting Gifts Ungivin. He gets a Day of Judgement, Wrath of God, Supreme Verdict and Snapcaster. I give him the Wrath and Day of Judgement and then pull the Wrath from hand. He draws and plays a snapcaster on his turn in an effort to path my TKS. I crack relic in response so he is SOL. I then play a Wasteland strangler to kill his Snap and come in for 7.. Knowing he has a wrath, I sit on 2 blight herders in my hand. He eventually board clears to get the 7 power off the board. I play my first Blight Herder (processing 2 lands) to go back up to 7 power. The game then goes to grind mode. Whenever I'd get low on power, I cast another Blight Herder. I eventually drew into an Expedition map and cracked it to get Eye of Ugin. The following turn I played Eye (he Ghost Quarters it EOT) and I search up Newlamog in response (I have more than enough mana to cast it). He doesn't draw a counter and Newlamog resolves. He durdles a bit by playing a couple blockers (lingering soul flashback) and a flip jace. I kill flip Jace with Wasteland Strangler and pass the turn. He scoops and concedes the match. If the tables weren't heavy enough to throw your back out he'd have flipped it. He then was rambling angry sentiments like "You just HAD to play it out" and things like that as he threw his stuff into his bags and stormed out of the store. We were at the top tables and the Judge was right behind us watching the match. We had a good laugh about it. This is one reason I love grindy decks. Every time your opponent thinks they might be stabilizing, you drop another threat or myriad of threats and force them to draw more answers specific answers. Amongst his ramblings he insisted that killing the Jace was overkill but it was the smart play to reduce his number of outs. If he drew a path he died to the rest of the damage onboard. If he drew a board wipe, he died to Ulamog's next swing (because he'd be milled out). I don't think I've ever tilted someone so hard though.
New Card additions and thoughts:
Sacred Ground is amazing. With Crumble to Dust being too slow, everyone is leaning on GQ and other LD effects more than they were before. This is the perfect counter-meta choice. Especially against Jund where they side out all Abrupt Decays because it hits very little. It's actually a matchup I am glad I made a little better because even though we were favored, they still seemed to have good draws against me and would find ways to win. (by the way, Jund player who triple Fulminatored me at regionals got 2nd overall, the Jeskai Tempo player I played (and play regularly at my store got 7th and the Burn kid I know from my LGS got 3rd (though they split prizes in top 4)... All in all 3 of my 9 regional opponents made top 8 and 5 made top 16 and 7 made top 32.... I feel less bad about being 5-4.. the way the day unfolded still upset me a bit but whatever).
Batterskull and Whip of Erebos: These 2 cards fit in the same role of Lifelink utility and recurring threat. I really liked having 1 of each because each shines in their own situation (as proved tonight). Against Merfolk I wanted a 4/4 body immediately where as against Jund I wanted to recur my killed Eldrazi for extra damage on the swings (Reality Smasher working 2 fold as being uber dumb. Did you 2 for 1 to kill it? Good. Now 2 for 1 yourself again or suffer the 10 point life swing). Part of having different threats is I want people to not expect all 4 lifelink sources. I'd like them to see Sorin or Vault game 1 (as an example) and think they will be fine as long as they kill off the creatures in play. Game 2 then sets up Batterskull or Whip where killing the creatures does very little good and instead lets me now abuse them again (or with batterskull, bounce it and then replay it). If I had to pick one... Whip is probably better because it gives lifelink to everything and the activation is just a bonus. The BB in it's cost does take it's toll sometimes and that is where Batterskull reigns supreme. You can cast it through Blood Moon and gives you a nice threat. Also when combined with Reality Smasher you have built your own Slippery Boggle. 9/9 Lifelink, Trample, Haste, Vigilance that you either 2 for 1 yourself if you try and kill it or if you try and remove the equipment, it can be easily bounced back to hand.
As long as they don't go overboard in the future trying to kill this deck, I think we can easily stay competitive.
Also had any chances to play against the colorless or UR version? I still would love to have sowers for the colorless deck, and other midrange matchups but you are showing those are not needed. What are you thoughts about worship/prison vs leyline?
Not really. The key difference is now you don't want to crack them whenever but I still kept Goyfs to 1/2's because I'd keep just a creature in my yard and nothing in my opponents. It all depends on the matchup really. For me it's more like Whip is just another 4 drop lifelink outlet and has the added upside of recurring my dudes lategame.
Personally Lingering Souls is my favorite card in Modern and besides that, it just makes so many matchups good. I haven't been hankering for Smasher #4 though. Smasher #3 seemed vital (because there were games where the first 2 get killed and I could tutor up a 3rd to win but I didn't have it. I think if Eye goes away, I'd take out Ulamog for it.
I think Sower is completely not needed. I haven't played the matchup a ton but I found my best chance was to kill/TS Reality Smasher and then Surgical it away. From there if I get to a lifelink outlet, I typically win (which is why I increased the quantity). Essentially I am mainly worried about trample. (Batterskull does a ton of work against both variants as well. Equip it to any dude and they can't get past it. Against the UR version just put it on a Souls token and troll your way to victory.
I like Worship and it might be worth the add if you own one. Personally it's cost is too crazy for me to consider it right now. Leyline puts in a lot of work as well. Pretty much if they can't trample over, you trade and stall the game until they are in top deck mode and that is when your lifelink sources and deck will win the game out.
I am not sure what angle of attack to use against them yet.
For more on the 2/13 metagame update, please read the post in the metagame thread here:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/566735-modern-metagame-discussion-thread-updated-1-15?comment=1026
Just went 1-4 in games against it. The deck generates a ton of pressure.
The plan above is great but it requires several cards coming together consistently out of board. One of the foundations of the BW deck is using souls to stall and finish games though the air. With world breakers, smashers and returns, that plan falls apart quickly.
I've been playing modern for a bit less than a year now, but I've only played Mono U Tron so I don't know that much about other colored decks. Do you mind explaining your reasons behind these sideboard choices, like what decks they go in against. For example, I can only think of bringing in Leyline of Sanctity against burn, but by turn 4 your basically dead anyway. Thanks
4 Endless One
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
4 World Breaker
Spells (16)
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Mind Stone
2 Dismember
3 Kozilek's Return
1 Forest
1 Mountain
2 Stomping Ground
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Eye of Ugin
4 Karplusan Forest
1 Seal of Primordium
3 Ancient Grudge
3 Feed the Clan
1 Crumble to Dust
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Oblivion Sower
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
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!
Modern:
BR Control
Grixis Bloo
EDH:
Food Chain Prossh
Land Wipe Maelstrom Wanderer
Selvala, Hearth of the Wilds Eldrazi
4 Eldrazi Mimic
3 Endless One
4 Matter Reshaper
1 Oblivion Sower
3 Reality Smasher
4 Thought-Knot Seer
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
//Instant
1 Dismember
4 Path to Exile
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Warping Wail
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
//Sorcery (6)
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
//Land (24)
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Eye of Ugin
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Isolated Chapel
3 Plains
2 Shambling Vent
1 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vault of the Archangel
I feel like this is more of a "fair" deck than the other flavors while still having the explosiveness of the other variants. I've found that I don't need to mulligan aggressively to play a game of magic but that perfect hand of eyes, mimics, endless and smashers is still possible if you're lucky but you're not reliant on it. Lingering can take over games and Ulamog and a single Sower are still your back up for a really grindy game. But because all of the more expensive, exile heavy, creatures are cut you're not sitting around doing nothing and can create an army that can go wide early if you need it.
Sorin is better than Whip but I am a firm believer in why not both? I have been running both for the last week or so and have been pleased.
It's really a preference call. I like having the 3 1/1 bodies as well because of matchups like Zoo which are running around my meta. Gaining 8 life doesn't do you a lot of good when they have at least 8 power on board. Gaining 6 life and getting 3 bodies can be big (not to mention they play really well with a follow up Sorin or Vault of the Archangel). Also, my list doesn't run fetches which makes Rest for the Weary worse.
Ok quick tournament report from FNM (from what I can remember from the long weekend) 63 people:
Round 1 UR Eldrazi (0-2)[0-1]:
Game 1 he had magic christmas (eye, temple x2, TKS and Smasher). I had a bit of a slower hand and got murdered pretty quick. Game 2 I stripped away his TKS and unless he topdecked a Temple, I'd TKS his Reality Smasher and he'd have been out of relevant gas. He topdecked the Temple and started in with reality smasher. Next turn he over extended more gas from hand. I cleared the board with Damnation. We were now in topdeck wars... he topdecked Vile Aggregate into Drowner of Hope while I hit 2 lands.. gg.
Round 2 Maze Turbo Fog (2-0)[1-1]:
I am a firm believer in tough love. You aren't going to learn competitive magic unless you get your butt kicked. This doesn't mean I nitpick on rules and such at FNMs but that does mean I show no mercy when it comes to making plays. This is one of the few instances where my spikiness made me feel a little bad. Very little kid playing Modern for his first time. Game 1 I see he is on Turbo Fog with Maze's End as his wincon. I manage to strip enough Fog Effects out of his hand and kill him eventually. We move to game 2 and I sideboard. Here was how our game 2 went. He mulliganed down to 6. Keep, scry to the bottom. He plays a Selesnya Guild Gate tapped and passes the turn. I draw and play Ghost Quarter. I GQ the Guild Gate. He fails to find a basic. I then pay 2 life and cast Surgical Extraction on the gate.... He reads the card and responds, "But now I can't win". I'm not going to lie I felt a little bad and the rest of the table (upon hearing the events unfold) were in equal shock and awe how cold blooded I was in dismantling him. I feel like it's still the right thing to do (and polled a bunch of other folks including our Head Judge to see what he'd have done) and most said they'd probably do something similar. What about yall? Would you guys kill his wincon turn 1? Would you not have brought in Surgical Extraction and just tried to kill him normally? Would you have held the Surgical and only used it when he was about to win?
Round 3 Grixis Delver (2-0) [2-1]:
I can't remember these specific games but I was playing against a former Twin player who had just picked up Delver. I won the first game on the back of TKS and Whip of Erebos. Making him Terminate in response to trigger, yanking his best card from hand twice game 1 and then whipping them back to keep him with jank in hand (plus playing a Blight Herder) completely wrecked him. I think Game 2 wasn't much of a contest, I don't remember though. I sat with the guy and walked him through a few mistakes I remember him doing (as well as little idiosyncrasies of playing Delver that he may not have been aware of).
Round 4 Zoo (1-2) [2-2]:
Game 1 he curved out for the turn 3 kill, not much I could have done differently but with New Bushwacker.. this deck is crazy fast. Game 2 I stabilized and eventually equipped Batterskull to Blight Herder. Apparently Zoo doesn't have any answers to 8/9 vigilance lifelinkers. Game 3 He had another nutish draw and killed me Turn 3. It happens... oh well
I got to play more against the new Eldrazi decks between rounds. I still it's going to be a bad matchup going forward against any of the aggro variants. I've gotten to the point where I am going to treat it like I was treating Scapeshift and Tron. If I lose to it, whatever. If I can steal a win from it, great. I am going to focus my efforts on beating the rest of the field that is praying on the Aggrodrazi decks. Anyway, I do like Bitterblossum and might try it in place of a Lingering Souls. It performs a similar role as well.
I have still been totally sold on Batterskull and Whip of Erebos in conjunction with Sorin and Vault to increase our total lifelink mainboard. Because Sorin and Whip are subject to the Legend rule, I don't want to increase beyond 1. My favorite part of having all the 1x in the deck is you REALLY catch opponents off-guard. Against Zoo he stated he didn't bring in Artifact hate game 2 because he didn't care about Relic or Map. When he saw Batterskull he said he about shat himself as he knew he had virtually no answer for it and had to hope on chaining multiple Atarka Commands to possibly kill me. Essentially I took slots like the 1x Oblivion Sower and turned it into a 5 CMC 4/4 Lifelinker with upside threat. Whip was a trial that has felt good enough so far. It is awkward at times but when you get the engine running.. it feels amazing.
Kalitas is another good option which I do like. It is better against Burn than Whip because it gifts you a body as well. It also gives you a route around Artifact hate which seems nice. I do love the recursion off Whip though.