Thoughts on new Nissa? Seems actually pretty viable. Turn 2 Nissa on X=1, Scry 2 to set up a land, Turn 3 Nissa's 0 to ramp into the land. Also a great topdeck, Nissa on X=4 into Nissa's 0 into TKS sounds pretty sweet.
Don't think it's what our deck wants. For one, you can't set her on X=1 on turn two unless you have T1 Hierarch. And if you do, I think you'd just rather play an Eldrazi. Maybe it's just me, but I don't like planeswalkers on Bant Eldrazi. That being said, I do like the card.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
UWGBant EldraziUWG Decided I don't like Todd Stevens decks.
I'm not sure it's maindeckable, and if it is, it can't be any more than a 1-of or 2-of. It's a dud against any aggressive deck. However, it's a powerful value engine that I could see replacing Elspeth Sun's Champion as the sideboard planeswalker of choice. It's much easier to cast and can almost always be cast on curve. Obviously it doesn't stabilize as well as Elspeth does, but you can literally topdeck this card and win on the spot, and you'll much less likely be mana screwed out of being able to cast it. I think it's strongly worth considering.
Most of the time you won't be casting it on turn 2 or turn 3 for x=1. You will always want to be jamming your creatures first so that you can get max value out of her. If you don't have any holes in your curve, you'll probably end up being able to save casting her until turn 4-6 for x=4 or higher, after which point you can either 0 to hopefully stabilize, or +2 to threaten the ult next turn AND make sure your next draws are gas.
The fact that her +2 sets up her 0 is just awesome. I just goldfished a few games with her and she enables some REALLY crazy draws. I got to the boardstate of Turn 3 TKS, turn 4 nissa on x=3 into +2 scrying a smasher 2nd from top, into Turn 5 cast Smasher from hand + Nissa's 0 into the second smasher. That's just insane.
Also, never underestimate planeswalkers with +2 as their plus ability. Even if you only cast her with X=2, if unchecked she threatens 10 flying damage 2 turns after she comes down. In a way, our own nahiri.
I tried tonight Nissa, Steward of Elements as a 2 in MD and she was great! Smoothing the draw with her +2 and then she easilly putted me to play for free big threats like drawner or smasher to close game faster. I honestly think she deserves her place MD just for her +2 and her 0!
New Nissa is exactly the type of card I'd like to test as a 'bomb' sb card for Eldrazi. Although my best bet is that it won't pan out - we wont know without a decent amount of testing.
I think the biggest thing is that the mana cost is scalable - often the 'go-to' bombs like Big Elspeth and World Breaker are just too expensive and come down to late (or not at all). New Nissa is good early and her ult (which can happen immediately late game) will often win you the game (sans lingering souls chumpers).
The thing is the +1 ability is def useful but maybe not strong enough - I guess asking for scry 2 and draw a card would be broken...Having said that we def can run out of gas and bottoming lands/dorks etc has merit..
Did some more testing in matches instead of goldfishing, and I'm not too impressed. For one, she's susceptible to abrupt decay, inqusition, and EE on 2, all highly relevant in the gbx matchups that we'd want a grindier card in. She also feeds goyf. Practically she's also a little hard to protect, and we need to basically never let her get damaged in order to get full value out of her. I think if her +1 was some kind of self protective ability she'd be more playable.
can anyone think of uses for Suture Priest? It's a mirror breaker that gets around worship and displacer/drowner lock and it's a wincon against merfolk (displace their master to drain them). Maybe also against elves and coco decks? It's a little too narrow though I think.
can anyone think of uses for Suture Priest? It's a mirror breaker that gets around worship and displacer/drowner lock and it's a wincon against merfolk (displace their master to drain them). Maybe also against elves and coco decks? It's a little too narrow though I think.
Don't think it's worth the slot.
Anyone here playing with 3 Caverns? I personally think that we can go down to 3 and play a utility land. Eg. Sea Gate Wreckage or Ghost Quarter.
Hey all, I'm taking Bant Eldrazi to another team unified event here in Austin this weekend. Looks like a lot of people enjoyed the GP Set up and well there's demand for it now locally. This time I don't have a make shift team (Still for what we had at the GP we did fairly well), the 3 decks we are running:
DeathShadow Jund
Titan Shift
Bant Eldrazi
It's nice to not have any overlaps this time, and I can take a fairly complete list to the tournament. I think I'll be on the wings this time, and my set up for this event is:
I have a heavy counter suite due to the high amount of combo that is prevalent in my meta. I've found that having access to 3 different counterspells useful in team events. Stroke and Negate are great against Tron, Ad Nasuem, Eldrazi Tron, Valakut ect ect, and while I'm not as high on Stubborn Denial as I used to be, it's put in more work than Blessed Alliance. Elspeth is the one card I'm meh on, I lost to this card in the mirror at the GP and would like to have at least 2 mirror breakers this time. The 3 EE is something I always wanted, it just seems great, everytime I draw it. It also randomly hoses certain decks so why not right?
Well report back Sat, any suggestions?
Lastly: At the GP I had Nature's Claim over Natural State and I never regretted it. In fact, it won me my Eldrazi Tron match up, destroyed his Batterskull while he was tapped out and path'd away the germ token, with Stony on board. It also answers things like Worship, but maybe I'm being to paranoid Natural State may be fine, but...except for that fringe case at the GP.
Hey guys, infrequent poster.
I've been playing modern for a little over a year, I've been playing our deck for the last 4 months with some good results (top 8 in this year's states!).
One thing I've been struggling with is getting over the finish line, and I've been wondering about borrowing some tech from a deck like Infect.
Distortion Strike or, probably better for us, Slip Through Space to make sure we connect and the card draw doesn't suck.
Yeah, in a good game we can Drowner lock, but I just hate getting into a board state against an opponent like Knightfall or Merfolk and suddenly they've gone tall and wide and I'm shut of of pushing the last few points.
Hey guys, infrequent poster.
I've been playing modern for a little over a year, I've been playing our deck for the last 4 months with some good results (top 8 in this year's states!).
One thing I've been struggling with is getting over the finish line, and I've been wondering about borrowing some tech from a deck like Infect.
Distortion Strike or, probably better for us, Slip Through Space to make sure we connect and the card draw doesn't suck.
Yeah, in a good game we can Drowner lock, but I just hate getting into a board state against an opponent like Knightfall or Merfolk and suddenly they've gone tall and wide and I'm shut of of pushing the last few points.
I don't think you need unblockability, but if you were going that route. Rogues passage would be the way, especially because the 24th land has been unimpressive to me.
I will be running that new indestructible land, since I'm still on the 3 EE mainboard plan being able to have a colorless sword that can't be GQ as well as the ability to cast my EE from 0 to 5 sounds great.
I will be running that new indestructible land, since I'm still on the 3 EE mainboard plan being able to have a colorless sword that can't be GQ as well as the ability to cast my EE from 0 to 5 sounds great.
I was seriously lamenting that last night. I top decked EE across from Kiki-chord, looked at the 4cmc Resto on the board and sighed.
I have been looking at Gideon's Intervention as an answer to titanshift/valakut. It pretty much wins you the game once resolved; their only answer is bringing in Reclamation sage postboard. The main problem is the WW cost.
However, as with any sideboard card I don't want it to be too narrow. What other decks would we want to bring this in against?
I think it's absolutely amazing in the mirror. If you're in a worship vs worship lock and TKS/displacer lock is the only wincon, landing this pretty much lets you win. It also cleanly answers double smashers.
Currently looking for good cards in the GBx matchups. I have NOT been impressed by RIP against abzan. It's super narrow against goyf and does nothing to answer Lili, Lingering souls, or Siege Rhino.
I want to try testing Secure the wastes. It was brought up by Ryan Normandin way back in August in the mainboard. I think it's a more flexible alternative to Elspeth that also has wider applications, and potentially is even better in the GBx matchup because it's instant speed - meaning you can cast it in response to a Lili edict. It's great in any fair or grindy matchup like grixis delver or control. It also doesn't feed goyf and is somewhat protected against disruption given that it's instant speed. It also helps us utilize extra mana when we flood, and can always be cast on curve.
The argument to running a card like this is that it fundamentally solves a couple of problems our deck has - one is running out of bodies, and two is going wide.
It's also potentially applicable in several other matchups. Against infect, it can lead to a blowout against a glistener elf. Against merfolk, it can blow out a master of waves. Against Elves, it might lead to a blowout in the first few turns.
Hey all, took the deck to a team unified event in Austin and we top 4'd as a team. Small event but there were 27 players present. We were undefeated going into the top 4 but ended our run there. There was some good competition (all the local grinders attended and some day 2 teams from GP San Antonio came back for some action).
Deck performed fine, I had some issues VS Eldrazi Tron but meh, G3 I drew 13 lands and 5 spells so...variance did it's thing.
R1 Vs Jund Deathshadow (Aaron Rubin, good guy, top 4 at SCG Dallas with the same deck) 2-1 Win
R2 Vs G/R Tron 2-0 WIn
R3 Draw
Semi's Vs Eldrazi Tron 1-2 Loss
So, VS Eldrazi Tron I feel like we are favored if we don't draw 11-13 lands lol But at the same time I'm wondering what you have all tried out in this match up. Some of the guys today said mixed things:
"Bant is Favored"
"Nope Eldrazi Tron is favored 70-30" -rolls eyes-
It does feel like we are more consistent than them , and if we have early acceleration we get on board faster. I'm sure I just need to jam more games against this deck to figure the SB optimal SB configurations.
Thoughts? Thanks!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Standard Arena: Eh? Gruul or Die
Modern: Decks I'm playing right now: G Mono Green Tron (34-10-3 paper record, only SCG/Regionals/PPTQ record) C Eldrazi Tron (9-5) UG Infect RW Burn
Hi guys, i noticed a few lists asding Relic of Prog. Anyone has experience playing it mb? Most probably players are hedging against DS Jund, Dredge or GBx i guess.
IMO (humble opinion) we don't need relic in the main. Our Deathshadow match-ups are very good (I'm 8-1 against deathshadow, the last 3-4 Pilots were no slouches). If dredge begins to show up more, then I can see relic being main deck material. In general our G/B/x match-ups seems fine, after SB Rest in Peace does a good job of stopping Delirium and graveyard shenanigans. Today was the first time I wondered if it's better to run relic over RIP. It's one of the reasons I run 3x RIP in my non-unified build. Relic allows us to use Ancient Stirrings to find it and synergizes with the deck better. Relic also cycles, but RIP straight up "stops" key cards from every being meaningful. Traverse becomes a worse Attune with Aether, Goyf's are 0/1 chump blockers and any decks that rely on their graveyard are hosed.
The reasons to run Bant Eldrazi is to hedge heavily on our W SB cards. I'm in the camp of "Use if you have access to it". That said, relic isn't bad, Brain Demars had it has 75, but ehhh unified builds aren't always built to be the best stand alone versions of the deck so...
hmm
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Standard Arena: Eh? Gruul or Die
Modern: Decks I'm playing right now: G Mono Green Tron (34-10-3 paper record, only SCG/Regionals/PPTQ record) C Eldrazi Tron (9-5) UG Infect RW Burn
On the contrary, I have been super impressed with RiP against Abzan. It does help with Lingering Souls and it shuts off Goyf, Flayer and Scooze which is worth it to me. I have a mediocre tourney report from SCG Worcester where I had a solid run over the weekend, I'll post it in a minute.
I am relatively new to this deck, only having played 50 matches or so prior to this tournament. My boarding was probably not ideal (read: it was really bad) because I was making it up as I went, but I managed to have some success with the deck anyways. The above list is what I played during the classic, during the side events the Worship was a second Disdainful Stroke.
Modern Challenge:
ROUND 1: BTL Scapeshift
Not sure how this matchup typically goes, it seems like it should be favored for Scapeshift, especially with maindeck wraths.
Game 1: I keep a sketchy hand with Temple, Cavern, TKS and Smasher, but no colored sources for my Stirrings or Path. I rip a Temple so I get off to a very good start. TKS shows some ramp spells, Remand, and a Bring to Light. I take the BTL, my opponent shocks to leave up Remand, and I Cavern into Smasher and beat face.
IN: 2 Negate, 2 Disdainful Stroke
OUT: 4 Drowner (Path and EE are pretty bad, but can be used to push damage through a Steve or Snapcaster, Drowner is dead for the most part)
Game 2: I keep an average hand with a dork and a couple three drops, I die to Scapeshift on turn 4. Not much to say.
Game 3: Opponents mulligans to 6, and a T3 TKS reveals they have a Scapeshift, a BTL, a Snapcaster, Khalni Expedition, but just the two lands they have in play. I take the Khalni Heart Expedition and hope they miss on lands. I start to get beats in with TKS, and Path a Snapcaster to push through damage since I drew a Disdainful Stroke for the first Scapeshift. He goes for BTL on 7 lands and I stroke it, but he still has the Scapeshift. I draw into Stirrings which hits Displacer, so I am able to blink my TKS on his draw step and take the Scapeshift and I kill him on my next turn.
(1-0)
ROUND 2: Eldrazi Tron.
I think Bant is definitely favored in this matchup. We have Drowner and Displacer which are very good here.
Game 1: Curve out perfectly, Displacer into TKS, Smasher, then Drowner, it’s not close.
IN: 3 Stony, 2 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Elspeth (I could see bringing in Negate, but between Stony and Stroke I can deal with everything that I would want to Negate, and you don’t want to dilute your deck too much in the midrange matchups.
OUT: 2 EE, 1 Bird, 2 TKS, 1 Smasher (EE is dead, Bird is bad against Ballista and a bad topdeck, TKS is a bad topdeck, and I shaved a Smasher since they don’t run much removal and they can reasonably block it.
Game 2: I had dork into Skyspawner then Smasher and Stony. He traded his Smasher for mine, Dismembered the second one I drew, and dropped an Ugin. I was dead on board to Ugin and some dudes, but I topdecked my last Smasher which combined with a Path and my Skyspawner was enough to kill him.
(2-0)
ROUND 3: Infect
Close matchup if we draw our relevant cards, Path, EE and Displacer are awesome, but it’s pretty easy to just get run over by a Blighted Agent.
Game 1: I blow up an Elf and a Hierarch with EE, but get run over by a Blighted Agent after he draws a Spellskite to negate my Displacer.
IN: 2 Blessed Alliance, 2 Negate (Pretty self-explanatory)
OUT: 4 Smasher (Their creatures suck, you can use whatever random dudes on board to pressure them)
Game 2: I keep a 1 lander with 2 dorks, a Path, a Blessed Alliance, an Ewit and a Negate. I path his Elf, but I’m stuck on 2 lands, 2 dorks and no Eldrazis, and I feign mana screw with the ol’ “put your hand on the table, put your head in your hands and look frustrated” bluff. Somehow he falls for it and plays 2 pump spells on his Blighted Agent right into my Blessed Alliance. I Negate his Wild Defiance, and the Inkmoth he has left over isn’t enough to race.
Game 3: I keep a sketchy hand of Dork, Temple, 2 Skyspawners and lands, but my opponent seems to be very happy about his mull to six so I assume he has me on turn 3. Luckily I draw a Blessed Alliance and leave up Dork + Scion to be able to cast it without telegraphing it. My opponent could have attacked with his Spellskite to get around Alliance, but he goes all in again with Distortion Strike, MooK, and a Mutagenic Growth. I blow him out of the water, he goes on full tilt, and from there the game is mine.
(3-0)
ROUND 4: Mirror
We prize-split but play it out for funsies.
Game 1: I curve out nicely again with T2 Skyspawner into T3 Smasher and T4 Smasher, and then finish things off with a Drowner to tap his team.
IN: 2 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Elspeth (Disdainful Stroke is risky because of Cavern, but it can nab an Eldrazi if they aren’t paying attention, and I needed an answer to a Worship)
OUT: 2 EE, 1 TKS (This boarding I am almost certain is wrong, shaving TKS is fine I think, but having EE for board stalls and Scion races is good and I want to keep at least 1)
Game 2: We go super long cause we both stick a Displacer and Drowner. Luckily have 2 more blinks per turn than him since I am majorly flooded, I am able to tap his Smashers and net a couple of Scions a turn. Neither of us draw a mirror-breaker (Elspeth, Worship) and eventually I have 22 more Scions than he has blockers, and he is at 17.
(4-0)
Modern On-Demand:
ROUND 1: Mirror
Game 1: He drops a T3 Worship that I can’t beat. Tried to mill him with TKS but couldn’t keep up with his Drowner and Displacer. Apparently he forgot to unsideboard but it helped him out there. It is worth noting that one of my outs was Birds + EE on 4, but I didn’t see that until we went to sideboarding.
IN: 2 Disdainful Stroke, 2 Negate, 1 Elspeth (I saw 2 Worships game 1 so Negates came in here as well)
OUT: 1 EE, 2 TKS, 1 Cavern of Souls, 1 Noble Hierarch (I’d been flooding a lot, so I tried cutting a land. I do advocate for shaving TKS in grindy matchups)
Game 2: He mulligans, I aggressively Negate a T2 Stirrings because he doesn’t have a dork or Temple, and it pays off as he misses land drops and I kill him.
Game 3: It’s another one of the Drowner + Displacer games. I have 2 extra blinks and eventually I am able to attack through his board for the kill.
(1-0)
ROUND 2: Abzan
This matchup should be pretty good for me, Liliana is easily their best card against us.
Game 1: the game goes super long but for once I don’t have 10+ mana. He has 12 Souls tokens, 2 massive Goyfs and a Scooze, to my Drowner, Displacer and Smashers. He finds a removal spell for my Displacer so I am left with my board of Drowner, Scions and Smashers. He must not have done combat math, because he swings with 8 spirits, leaving him with exactly enough creatures for me to tap down and kill him through.
IN: 2 Negate, 1 Celestial Purge, 2 Rest in Peace, 1 Elspeth (Pretty self-explanatory boarding, Rest in Peace is awesome in the matchup because he showed my Flayers as well)
OUT: 4 TKS, 1 Bird, 1 Cavern
Game 2: He lands turn 2 Lilly and has Souls that I can’t get through before the ultimate. There’s a damnation somewhere in there and I am on 3 lands and nothing while I die.
Game 3: T2 Skyspawner, T3 Smasher, Rest in Peace and then Drowner is plenty to get the job done. He has Goyfs which would’ve been able to wall my Smasher but RiP keeps them down.
(2-0)
ROUND 3: Abzan
It’s worth noting that in this 8-man, there were 2 Bant players, 4 Abzan players, 1 Jund player, and 1 Jund Death’s Shadow player who was in my car.
Draw
(2-0-1)
Modern Classic:
ROUND 1: Storm (?)
This should be a tough matchup but my opponent was obviously inexperienced.
Game 1: I play some Eldrazi and he panics and starts to Storm off on turn 3. I was about to scoop but Storm can fizzle when going off so early so I decide to wait. He Grapeshots me for 7 and passes. I play a TKS and beat his face in with Skyspawners till he dies.
IN: 2 Cage, 3 RIP, 2 Negate, 1 Stroke (Assuming he is on Gifts Storm because I saw Baral, I wanted to be able to counter Gifts and deal with PiF)
OUT: 4 Drowner, 2 Displacer, 2 Smasher (I feel similarly to Infect, although I would definitely leave in Smashers to race in retrospect)
Game 2: He leads on T1 Delver into T2 Swiftspear and I have no idea what the **** is going on. He gets me down to 5 with a second Swiftspear but he has to start chumping a double exalted TKS. I eventually get there, but my opponent had me dead past turn 4 because he had a PiF in his yard with 2 Bolts and some rituals.
(1-0)
ROUND 2: Mirror
Again…ughhh
Game 1: T2 TKS and curve out perfectly into Smasher and Drowner.
IN: 1 Stroke, 1 Worship, 1 Elspeth
OUT: 1 EE, 1 Bird, 1 TKS
Game 2: I keep a sketchy hand hoping to get there on the back of my Worship. I get in with Exalted Skyspawner beats and am able to finish things up with a timely Smasher.
(2-0)
ROUND 3: Elves
This is a really tough matchup for us, unless we draw EE.
Game 1: He mulligans, but gets some beat going with his dorks. I manage to stabilize by Pathing an Archdruid and Displacing his dudes, and then my own Drowner. Skyspawner beats get there.
IN: 2 Negate, 1 Stroke, 1 Worship, 2 Cage (Worship is really medium here, they have Rec Sages and Shamans but it is a great way to stabilize)
OUT: 2 TKS, 1 Smasher, 1 Drowner, 2 Displacer
Game 2: He mulligans again, I land a T2 TKS taking a CoCo. He has no gas and we trade hits. When I hit him for the third time with my exalted TKS I say “go to five?” He has himself going to six, because off the first hit he claimed I missed the exalted trigger. I’m pretty sure I didn’t and I won the judge call and the appeal. I have Worship and 2 Explosives in hand anyway so I wasn’t super worried, I got there in the next couple turns.
(3-0)
ROUND 3: Affinity
I can’t catch a break, this is another tough matchup.
Game 1: He plays a bunch of zero drops into Master of Etherium on turn 2. I fall behind and can’t catch up.
IN: 3 Stony, 1 Worship (these cards are good against Affinity)
OUT: 4 TKS (they empty their hand really fast)
Game 2: I take a bunch of hits off Skirges and Pests, I am nearly able to stabilize with a Drowner, but I miscounted the amount of Artifact
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
UWGBant EldraziUWGDecided I don't like Todd Stevens decks.UBRGrixis ControlUBR
UUUAnd anything that plays 4x Cryptic CommandUUU
Most of the time you won't be casting it on turn 2 or turn 3 for x=1. You will always want to be jamming your creatures first so that you can get max value out of her. If you don't have any holes in your curve, you'll probably end up being able to save casting her until turn 4-6 for x=4 or higher, after which point you can either 0 to hopefully stabilize, or +2 to threaten the ult next turn AND make sure your next draws are gas.
The fact that her +2 sets up her 0 is just awesome. I just goldfished a few games with her and she enables some REALLY crazy draws. I got to the boardstate of Turn 3 TKS, turn 4 nissa on x=3 into +2 scrying a smasher 2nd from top, into Turn 5 cast Smasher from hand + Nissa's 0 into the second smasher. That's just insane.
Also, never underestimate planeswalkers with +2 as their plus ability. Even if you only cast her with X=2, if unchecked she threatens 10 flying damage 2 turns after she comes down. In a way, our own nahiri.
Infect
Mardu
Jund
Tron
Dredge
I think the biggest thing is that the mana cost is scalable - often the 'go-to' bombs like Big Elspeth and World Breaker are just too expensive and come down to late (or not at all). New Nissa is good early and her ult (which can happen immediately late game) will often win you the game (sans lingering souls chumpers).
The thing is the +1 ability is def useful but maybe not strong enough - I guess asking for scry 2 and draw a card would be broken...Having said that we def can run out of gas and bottoming lands/dorks etc has merit..
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
Don't think it's worth the slot.
Anyone here playing with 3 Caverns? I personally think that we can go down to 3 and play a utility land. Eg. Sea Gate Wreckage or Ghost Quarter.
DeathShadow Jund
Titan Shift
Bant Eldrazi
It's nice to not have any overlaps this time, and I can take a fairly complete list to the tournament. I think I'll be on the wings this time, and my set up for this event is:
1x Breeding Pool
3x Brushland
3x Cavern of Souls
4x Eldrazi Temple
2x Forest
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Plains
1x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
3x Yavimaya Coast
1x Birds of Paradise
4x Drowner of Hope
4x Eldrazi Displacer
4x Eldrazi Skyspawner
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Reality Smasher
4x Thought-Knot Seer
Instant (4)
4x Path to Exile
Sorcery (4)
4x Ancient Stirrings
Artifact (3)
3x Engineered Explosives
2x Disdainful Stroke
1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2x Natural State
2x Negate
3x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
2x Stubborn Denial
1x Worship
I have a heavy counter suite due to the high amount of combo that is prevalent in my meta. I've found that having access to 3 different counterspells useful in team events. Stroke and Negate are great against Tron, Ad Nasuem, Eldrazi Tron, Valakut ect ect, and while I'm not as high on Stubborn Denial as I used to be, it's put in more work than Blessed Alliance. Elspeth is the one card I'm meh on, I lost to this card in the mirror at the GP and would like to have at least 2 mirror breakers this time. The 3 EE is something I always wanted, it just seems great, everytime I draw it. It also randomly hoses certain decks so why not right?
Well report back Sat, any suggestions?
Lastly: At the GP I had Nature's Claim over Natural State and I never regretted it. In fact, it won me my Eldrazi Tron match up, destroyed his Batterskull while he was tapped out and path'd away the germ token, with Stony on board. It also answers things like Worship, but maybe I'm being to paranoid Natural State may be fine, but...except for that fringe case at the GP.
Modern: Decks I'm playing right now:
G Mono Green Tron (34-10-3 paper record, only SCG/Regionals/PPTQ record)
C Eldrazi Tron (9-5)
UG Infect
RW Burn
I've been playing modern for a little over a year, I've been playing our deck for the last 4 months with some good results (top 8 in this year's states!).
One thing I've been struggling with is getting over the finish line, and I've been wondering about borrowing some tech from a deck like Infect.
Distortion Strike or, probably better for us, Slip Through Space to make sure we connect and the card draw doesn't suck.
Yeah, in a good game we can Drowner lock, but I just hate getting into a board state against an opponent like Knightfall or Merfolk and suddenly they've gone tall and wide and I'm shut of of pushing the last few points.
An unblockability spell isn't necessary in this deck.
I don't think you need unblockability, but if you were going that route. Rogues passage would be the way, especially because the 24th land has been unimpressive to me.
I will be running that new indestructible land, since I'm still on the 3 EE mainboard plan being able to have a colorless sword that can't be GQ as well as the ability to cast my EE from 0 to 5 sounds great.
I was seriously lamenting that last night. I top decked EE across from Kiki-chord, looked at the 4cmc Resto on the board and sighed.
FWIW, Last night:
R1 0/2 8Rack
R2 0/2 Skred
R3 1/2 Kiki
R4 Bye.
However, as with any sideboard card I don't want it to be too narrow. What other decks would we want to bring this in against?
I think it's absolutely amazing in the mirror. If you're in a worship vs worship lock and TKS/displacer lock is the only wincon, landing this pretty much lets you win. It also cleanly answers double smashers.
I want to try testing Secure the wastes. It was brought up by Ryan Normandin way back in August in the mainboard. I think it's a more flexible alternative to Elspeth that also has wider applications, and potentially is even better in the GBx matchup because it's instant speed - meaning you can cast it in response to a Lili edict. It's great in any fair or grindy matchup like grixis delver or control. It also doesn't feed goyf and is somewhat protected against disruption given that it's instant speed. It also helps us utilize extra mana when we flood, and can always be cast on curve.
The argument to running a card like this is that it fundamentally solves a couple of problems our deck has - one is running out of bodies, and two is going wide.
It's also potentially applicable in several other matchups. Against infect, it can lead to a blowout against a glistener elf. Against merfolk, it can blow out a master of waves. Against Elves, it might lead to a blowout in the first few turns.
Deck performed fine, I had some issues VS Eldrazi Tron but meh, G3 I drew 13 lands and 5 spells so...variance did it's thing.
R1 Vs Jund Deathshadow (Aaron Rubin, good guy, top 4 at SCG Dallas with the same deck) 2-1 Win
R2 Vs G/R Tron 2-0 WIn
R3 Draw
Semi's Vs Eldrazi Tron 1-2 Loss
So, VS Eldrazi Tron I feel like we are favored if we don't draw 11-13 lands lol But at the same time I'm wondering what you have all tried out in this match up. Some of the guys today said mixed things:
"Bant is Favored"
"Nope Eldrazi Tron is favored 70-30" -rolls eyes-
It does feel like we are more consistent than them , and if we have early acceleration we get on board faster. I'm sure I just need to jam more games against this deck to figure the SB optimal SB configurations.
Thoughts? Thanks!
Modern: Decks I'm playing right now:
G Mono Green Tron (34-10-3 paper record, only SCG/Regionals/PPTQ record)
C Eldrazi Tron (9-5)
UG Infect
RW Burn
The reasons to run Bant Eldrazi is to hedge heavily on our W SB cards. I'm in the camp of "Use if you have access to it". That said, relic isn't bad, Brain Demars had it has 75, but ehhh unified builds aren't always built to be the best stand alone versions of the deck so...
hmm
Modern: Decks I'm playing right now:
G Mono Green Tron (34-10-3 paper record, only SCG/Regionals/PPTQ record)
C Eldrazi Tron (9-5)
UG Infect
RW Burn
I am relatively new to this deck, only having played 50 matches or so prior to this tournament. My boarding was probably not ideal (read: it was really bad) because I was making it up as I went, but I managed to have some success with the deck anyways. The above list is what I played during the classic, during the side events the Worship was a second Disdainful Stroke.
Modern Challenge:
ROUND 1: BTL Scapeshift
Not sure how this matchup typically goes, it seems like it should be favored for Scapeshift, especially with maindeck wraths.
Game 1: I keep a sketchy hand with Temple, Cavern, TKS and Smasher, but no colored sources for my Stirrings or Path. I rip a Temple so I get off to a very good start. TKS shows some ramp spells, Remand, and a Bring to Light. I take the BTL, my opponent shocks to leave up Remand, and I Cavern into Smasher and beat face.
IN: 2 Negate, 2 Disdainful Stroke
OUT: 4 Drowner (Path and EE are pretty bad, but can be used to push damage through a Steve or Snapcaster, Drowner is dead for the most part)
Game 2: I keep an average hand with a dork and a couple three drops, I die to Scapeshift on turn 4. Not much to say.
Game 3: Opponents mulligans to 6, and a T3 TKS reveals they have a Scapeshift, a BTL, a Snapcaster, Khalni Expedition, but just the two lands they have in play. I take the Khalni Heart Expedition and hope they miss on lands. I start to get beats in with TKS, and Path a Snapcaster to push through damage since I drew a Disdainful Stroke for the first Scapeshift. He goes for BTL on 7 lands and I stroke it, but he still has the Scapeshift. I draw into Stirrings which hits Displacer, so I am able to blink my TKS on his draw step and take the Scapeshift and I kill him on my next turn.
(1-0)
ROUND 2: Eldrazi Tron.
I think Bant is definitely favored in this matchup. We have Drowner and Displacer which are very good here.
Game 1: Curve out perfectly, Displacer into TKS, Smasher, then Drowner, it’s not close.
IN: 3 Stony, 2 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Elspeth (I could see bringing in Negate, but between Stony and Stroke I can deal with everything that I would want to Negate, and you don’t want to dilute your deck too much in the midrange matchups.
OUT: 2 EE, 1 Bird, 2 TKS, 1 Smasher (EE is dead, Bird is bad against Ballista and a bad topdeck, TKS is a bad topdeck, and I shaved a Smasher since they don’t run much removal and they can reasonably block it.
Game 2: I had dork into Skyspawner then Smasher and Stony. He traded his Smasher for mine, Dismembered the second one I drew, and dropped an Ugin. I was dead on board to Ugin and some dudes, but I topdecked my last Smasher which combined with a Path and my Skyspawner was enough to kill him.
(2-0)
ROUND 3: Infect
Close matchup if we draw our relevant cards, Path, EE and Displacer are awesome, but it’s pretty easy to just get run over by a Blighted Agent.
Game 1: I blow up an Elf and a Hierarch with EE, but get run over by a Blighted Agent after he draws a Spellskite to negate my Displacer.
IN: 2 Blessed Alliance, 2 Negate (Pretty self-explanatory)
OUT: 4 Smasher (Their creatures suck, you can use whatever random dudes on board to pressure them)
Game 2: I keep a 1 lander with 2 dorks, a Path, a Blessed Alliance, an Ewit and a Negate. I path his Elf, but I’m stuck on 2 lands, 2 dorks and no Eldrazis, and I feign mana screw with the ol’ “put your hand on the table, put your head in your hands and look frustrated” bluff. Somehow he falls for it and plays 2 pump spells on his Blighted Agent right into my Blessed Alliance. I Negate his Wild Defiance, and the Inkmoth he has left over isn’t enough to race.
Game 3: I keep a sketchy hand of Dork, Temple, 2 Skyspawners and lands, but my opponent seems to be very happy about his mull to six so I assume he has me on turn 3. Luckily I draw a Blessed Alliance and leave up Dork + Scion to be able to cast it without telegraphing it. My opponent could have attacked with his Spellskite to get around Alliance, but he goes all in again with Distortion Strike, MooK, and a Mutagenic Growth. I blow him out of the water, he goes on full tilt, and from there the game is mine.
(3-0)
ROUND 4: Mirror
We prize-split but play it out for funsies.
Game 1: I curve out nicely again with T2 Skyspawner into T3 Smasher and T4 Smasher, and then finish things off with a Drowner to tap his team.
IN: 2 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Elspeth (Disdainful Stroke is risky because of Cavern, but it can nab an Eldrazi if they aren’t paying attention, and I needed an answer to a Worship)
OUT: 2 EE, 1 TKS (This boarding I am almost certain is wrong, shaving TKS is fine I think, but having EE for board stalls and Scion races is good and I want to keep at least 1)
Game 2: We go super long cause we both stick a Displacer and Drowner. Luckily have 2 more blinks per turn than him since I am majorly flooded, I am able to tap his Smashers and net a couple of Scions a turn. Neither of us draw a mirror-breaker (Elspeth, Worship) and eventually I have 22 more Scions than he has blockers, and he is at 17.
(4-0)
Modern On-Demand:
ROUND 1: Mirror
Game 1: He drops a T3 Worship that I can’t beat. Tried to mill him with TKS but couldn’t keep up with his Drowner and Displacer. Apparently he forgot to unsideboard but it helped him out there. It is worth noting that one of my outs was Birds + EE on 4, but I didn’t see that until we went to sideboarding.
IN: 2 Disdainful Stroke, 2 Negate, 1 Elspeth (I saw 2 Worships game 1 so Negates came in here as well)
OUT: 1 EE, 2 TKS, 1 Cavern of Souls, 1 Noble Hierarch (I’d been flooding a lot, so I tried cutting a land. I do advocate for shaving TKS in grindy matchups)
Game 2: He mulligans, I aggressively Negate a T2 Stirrings because he doesn’t have a dork or Temple, and it pays off as he misses land drops and I kill him.
Game 3: It’s another one of the Drowner + Displacer games. I have 2 extra blinks and eventually I am able to attack through his board for the kill.
(1-0)
ROUND 2: Abzan
This matchup should be pretty good for me, Liliana is easily their best card against us.
Game 1: the game goes super long but for once I don’t have 10+ mana. He has 12 Souls tokens, 2 massive Goyfs and a Scooze, to my Drowner, Displacer and Smashers. He finds a removal spell for my Displacer so I am left with my board of Drowner, Scions and Smashers. He must not have done combat math, because he swings with 8 spirits, leaving him with exactly enough creatures for me to tap down and kill him through.
IN: 2 Negate, 1 Celestial Purge, 2 Rest in Peace, 1 Elspeth (Pretty self-explanatory boarding, Rest in Peace is awesome in the matchup because he showed my Flayers as well)
OUT: 4 TKS, 1 Bird, 1 Cavern
Game 2: He lands turn 2 Lilly and has Souls that I can’t get through before the ultimate. There’s a damnation somewhere in there and I am on 3 lands and nothing while I die.
Game 3: T2 Skyspawner, T3 Smasher, Rest in Peace and then Drowner is plenty to get the job done. He has Goyfs which would’ve been able to wall my Smasher but RiP keeps them down.
(2-0)
ROUND 3: Abzan
It’s worth noting that in this 8-man, there were 2 Bant players, 4 Abzan players, 1 Jund player, and 1 Jund Death’s Shadow player who was in my car.
Draw
(2-0-1)
Modern Classic:
ROUND 1: Storm (?)
This should be a tough matchup but my opponent was obviously inexperienced.
Game 1: I play some Eldrazi and he panics and starts to Storm off on turn 3. I was about to scoop but Storm can fizzle when going off so early so I decide to wait. He Grapeshots me for 7 and passes. I play a TKS and beat his face in with Skyspawners till he dies.
IN: 2 Cage, 3 RIP, 2 Negate, 1 Stroke (Assuming he is on Gifts Storm because I saw Baral, I wanted to be able to counter Gifts and deal with PiF)
OUT: 4 Drowner, 2 Displacer, 2 Smasher (I feel similarly to Infect, although I would definitely leave in Smashers to race in retrospect)
Game 2: He leads on T1 Delver into T2 Swiftspear and I have no idea what the **** is going on. He gets me down to 5 with a second Swiftspear but he has to start chumping a double exalted TKS. I eventually get there, but my opponent had me dead past turn 4 because he had a PiF in his yard with 2 Bolts and some rituals.
(1-0)
ROUND 2: Mirror
Again…ughhh
Game 1: T2 TKS and curve out perfectly into Smasher and Drowner.
IN: 1 Stroke, 1 Worship, 1 Elspeth
OUT: 1 EE, 1 Bird, 1 TKS
Game 2: I keep a sketchy hand hoping to get there on the back of my Worship. I get in with Exalted Skyspawner beats and am able to finish things up with a timely Smasher.
(2-0)
ROUND 3: Elves
This is a really tough matchup for us, unless we draw EE.
Game 1: He mulligans, but gets some beat going with his dorks. I manage to stabilize by Pathing an Archdruid and Displacing his dudes, and then my own Drowner. Skyspawner beats get there.
IN: 2 Negate, 1 Stroke, 1 Worship, 2 Cage (Worship is really medium here, they have Rec Sages and Shamans but it is a great way to stabilize)
OUT: 2 TKS, 1 Smasher, 1 Drowner, 2 Displacer
Game 2: He mulligans again, I land a T2 TKS taking a CoCo. He has no gas and we trade hits. When I hit him for the third time with my exalted TKS I say “go to five?” He has himself going to six, because off the first hit he claimed I missed the exalted trigger. I’m pretty sure I didn’t and I won the judge call and the appeal. I have Worship and 2 Explosives in hand anyway so I wasn’t super worried, I got there in the next couple turns.
(3-0)
ROUND 3: Affinity
I can’t catch a break, this is another tough matchup.
Game 1: He plays a bunch of zero drops into Master of Etherium on turn 2. I fall behind and can’t catch up.
IN: 3 Stony, 1 Worship (these cards are good against Affinity)
OUT: 4 TKS (they empty their hand really fast)
Game 2: I take a bunch of hits off Skirges and Pests, I am nearly able to stabilize with a Drowner, but I miscounted the amount of Artifact