BGx is a horrific matchup though, and this will get more people playing GBx. And I do think it makes GBx even worse for us. They'll have no trouble killing our dudes even without Decay, so going long they now have another angle of attack --- try to cut us off a color.
BGx is a horrific matchup though, and this will get more people playing GBx. And I do think it makes GBx even worse for us. They'll have no trouble killing our dudes even without Decay, so going long they now have another angle of attack --- try to cut us off a color.
I really feel favored against Jund (my list is slower than yours); The meta will slow down (I guess) and the deck will adapt to be less explosive.
We have the tool.
50/50 or even favored against Jund? I don't really see how that's possible. BBE is just such a killer. Even trying to fight them with souls and such felt hopeless.
Eh, that's the plan, but they have all of the same discard + removal tools you have to slow you down, plus they go over the top with BBE, more planeswalkers, and the occasional unchecked Bob, plus you have to be careful to not die to random burn or a sudden go-wide attack (BBE and/or manlands) when you're trying to make that massive Death's Shadow. going about 50/50 in 15ish matches is certainly possible. But my experience has not been that good, and just on the merits of what each deck is doing, Jund looks pretty ahead. 60/40 or better.
I see now that Godrik's list is going waaay over the top, more than I've ever seen in a shadow list to be honest. I can see that list having much more game against Jund. However, it's giving up a lot to do that. Only 1 IOK! No TBRs. That drastically changes the matchup profile. And it's also the sort of build that looks terrible against the new card. The color requirements of that deck are very harsh. Lots of double blue, double black, and there isn't even a forest if they go after your green source. We will have to rebuild our manabases in light of this card to have more basics, which will make it harder to play so many cards in the 4th or even 3rd color.
Personally I feel that this new card is sideboard material, whereas 1-2 Abrupt Decay is still main board consideration. Giving them a land is a huge liability in some match-ups. It's obviously great against Tron, GDS, UW/x control, and Hollow One. But in most other match-ups Decay does the job just fine without giving them a land. I will probably try 1 Decay main, 1 Trophy sideboard - swapping them in the relevant match-ups.
My prediction is that this card will push people to play more Tarmogoyf decks (including ours) which will in turn result in more people playing Fatal Push and Spell Snare to beat Tarmogoyf decks. All and all I think this card is undoubtedly BAD for our deck in the metagame, though it does appear we could get some use out of it against UW Control. Personally I don't care if people use this card against me. At least I can counter it, whereas I cannot counter Abrupt Decay. But the way this card will change the metagame will make our deck worse I think. I will try to start including 1-2 Dispel in my sideboard.
Classic Jund suffers much more the ‘I drew too many lands!’ than Shadow, though. If they aren’t able to cast Liliana - which is likely, in my experience, given a permission suite of 7 discards and 3 Stubborns, also means they cannot profit from her the same way they would like. Other than that, the a Tempo plan is strangely effective. Shadow on the board is the biggest creature, there’s no way out for them to outclass it. We play basically 8 Shadows (I’d say 10, given Snapcaster on Traverse). Street Wraith in the long run is also incredibly good, especially in the stalemate. I don’t think Jund has a 60-40 mu against Shadow, sorry. Maybe that’s also because I actually run Snapcasters, that are really good at grinding against BBE.
Jund topdecks better than we do, end of story. That's what they do, what their deck's all about. We run more discards, plus baubles - all bad topdecks. They have BBE which is a guaranteed 2-for-1 and even if you run Snapcaster (which I do, love the card) you probably are only running 1-2 to their 4 BBE. I've only played against Jund twice but I'd say the match is almost as difficult as Jeskai for us.
And regarding Assassin's Trophy - Jund is a perfect example match-up where Abrupt decay works just fine and I would rather not give them an extra land. The cards you mention aren't problem cards for me anyway. I've never lost a single game to Tron in three competitive matches. I'm 4-0 against Hollow one. I haven't faced GDS yet but should be a slam dunk. Leylines and Planeswalkers are great applications but personally I will keep it in the sideboard for those match-ups. I could be wrong, but only time will tell. I think that Spell Snare is going to be big coming soon, Mark my words. It counters Trophy and Tarmogoyf, the latter which will definitely increase in popularity with the printing of the former.
Having played Jund a lot I think the only way you fight them at somewhat even ground is Lingering Souls and Ranger of Eos in the board. I have not played the match up a ton (have played more against Grixis DS) - but if you don't go that route I can't imagine the matchup (between two good pilots) will be good for DS. With Lingering Souls and Ranger of Eos you improve the matchup by a lot, but I doubt that it makes it favorable or even 50/50.
Hello to all,
I'm preparing a tournament and I have some questions:
1) I had some good victories against Affinity. Normally playing Lingering Souls in G2.
But how is our deck versus this new version splashing green "Hardened Modular"? Any advice?
2) What is our strategy in order to beat BantSpirits? is better to play Delay than Stubborn Denial? So, Delay must find slot in our SB?
3)I feel that the metagame in Modern is ruled by faster decks. So we need to choose the faster strategies.Isn't it? Could we play Midrange-style with this current meta?
4)Is Hex Parasite a good addition to our deck? (Good versus planeswalkers and good for faster suicide)? I'm thinking about to play with two in the SB that you can interchange by two Mishra's Bauble versus certain decks.
Hello to all,
I'm preparing a tournament and I have some questions:
1) I had some good victories against Affinity. Normally playing Lingering Souls in G2.
But how is our deck versus this new version splashing green "Hardened Modular"? Any advice?
2) What is our strategy in order to beat BantSpirits? is better to play Delay than Stubborn Denial? So, Delay must find slot in our SB?
3)I feel that the metagame in Modern is ruled by faster decks. So we need to choose the faster strategies.Isn't it? Could we play Midrange-style with this current meta?
4)Is Hex Parasite a good addition to our deck? (Good versus planeswalkers and good for faster suicide)? I'm thinking about to play with two in the SB that you can interchange by two Mishra's Bauble versus certain decks.
1) Against all kinds of affinity you just need to play control. Some combination of Abrade, Ancient Grudge, and Kolaghan's Command should be in your sideboard and that helps a lot game two/three. If you have Abrupt Decay, it can deal with their Hardened Scales but I wouldn't focus on the enchantment. Focus on getting 2-for-1s with Grudge and Kommand
2) In last weekend's PPTQ I had a long grueling match against Spirits. Delay was my MVP and won me that match (I cast it three times through games two and three). I also bring Abrade and Radiant Flames for this match-up but I haven't got a chance to use R-Flames yet. Delay is great because it pulls double-duty against Spell Queller and Settle the Wreckage. When they pop off suspend, they get NOTHING from the original value of the spell.
3) The metagame is certainly not ruled by fast decks. Burn, Affinity, Storm, Hollow One, Vengevine - these are the fastest decks and I think we have solid game against most of these. The format is ruled by UW Control (slow) and Humans (midrange). In my area Spirits are becoming more popular as well but if we sideboard for it, it's winnable. The best thing for us to go up against a bunch of fast combo like H1 and Storm; these decks are easy pickings (in my experience). Our worst match-ups are UW and Jeskai, and those are difficult to win even with sideboard tech. Maybe the new Assassin's Trophy will help.
4) Absolutely not, hex parasite is a terrible card and has no business in any Modern deck. I would suggest Maelstrom Pulse, Stubborn Denial, Negate, Delay as your best tools against Planeswalkers.
Another nice interaction you have with Assassin's trophy (just though about it)
You look at the oponent top library with bauble. If it's a land, you let him draw it; If it's a great card, you destroy
any permanent on his battlefield to make him shuffle his library. If he doesnt search and keep his top deck that way.
Fine, you have no drawback on ur card. If he shuffle, the good top deck is going back in his library. WIN/WIN situation.
And btw, the card is great in my oponion because its not situational. It wont have a terminate in hand when u need to destroy bridge/cranial.
You wont have decay in hand when you need to destroy TKS/gurmag. It's a catch all. That's why the card is so great.
Snapcasters would indeed help the matchup, especially if you're on the Lingering Souls plan too. Ok, things are making more sense now. But note, 2 Snapcasters and Lingering Souls is fairly atypical! Most people aren't playing all of those cards!
I found Snapcaster to be reeeally awkward in most other matchups though, which led me to abandon that plan (and eventually the deck). 3+ mana is just so much for the deck.
I still think you're underestimating the impact of people playing Assassin's Trophy against shadow builds of all flavors. Snapcaster and Souls may help the Jund matchup, but it's now much harder to have more than 3 colors to support all of these things, especially in the Jund matchup.
I found Snapcaster to be reeeally awkward in most other matchups though, which led me to abandon that plan (and eventually the deck). 3+ mana is just so much for the deck.
I still think you're underestimating the impact of people playing Assassin's Trophy against shadow builds of all flavors. Snapcaster and Souls may help the Jund matchup, but it's now much harder to have more than 3 colors to support all of these things, especially in the Jund matchup.
It's for these reasons that I'm thinking of going more Sultai post-GRN, with the only red main board bring TBR. Fatal Push will replace bolts (I'm currently on 1FP/3LB but I'll go 4FP as Rock decks rise again). And then counter magic will increase in relevance since Trophy will replace Decay in said Rock decks. Souls package could still be kept in the board but I don't think it's necessary. I'm thinking 5x main deck counter spells and 2-3 Snapcaster with likely only 3/3 Traverse/IOK to help make room.
Sideboard red cards would likely be only 2x Abrade and 1x K-Command. Extra counters in Sideboard for Burn seems useful as well. Do you think Bontu's Last Reckoning would suffice as a SB sweeper if I go light on red Mana?
I found Snapcaster to be reeeally awkward in most other matchups though, which led me to abandon that plan (and eventually the deck). 3+ mana is just so much for the deck.
I still think you're underestimating the impact of people playing Assassin's Trophy against shadow builds of all flavors. Snapcaster and Souls may help the Jund matchup, but it's now much harder to have more than 3 colors to support all of these things, especially in the Jund matchup.
It's for these reasons that I'm thinking of going more Sultai post-GRN, with the only red main board bring TBR. Fatal Push will replace bolts (I'm currently on 1FP/3LB but I'll go 4FP as Rock decks rise again). And then counter magic will increase in relevance since Trophy will replace Decay in said Rock decks. Souls package could still be kept in the board but I don't think it's necessary. I'm thinking 5x main deck counter spells and 2-3 Snapcaster with likely only 3/3 Traverse/IOK to help make room.
Sideboard red cards would likely be only 2x Abrade and 1x K-Command. Extra counters in Sideboard for Burn seems useful as well. Do you think Bontu's Last Reckoning would suffice as a SB sweeper if I go light on red Mana?
If you go splash red (as I do) I recommand Firespout. If you are not able to get your red source, At least you can still kill
lingering souls tokens, spirits, etc.. from the battlefield with the green source (= I would not play Bontu's.
Yeah, Sultai + red splash for MD TBR and SB cards for non - UW / BGx mathcups was my first thought as well. We'll probably get crushed by humans though. And have more trouble with most other aggro decks than we would like.
Yeah, Sultai + red splash for MD TBR and SB cards for non - UW / BGx mathcups was my first thought as well. We'll probably get crushed by humans though. And have more trouble with most other aggro decks than we would like.
I 2-0'd human at my last FNM (the one I did 5-0) so it's beatable..I guess (he finished 3rd)
Snapcasters would indeed help the matchup, especially if you're on the Lingering Souls plan too. Ok, things are making more sense now. But note, 2 Snapcasters and Lingering Souls is fairly atypical! Most people aren't playing all of those cards!
I found Snapcaster to be reeeally awkward in most other matchups though, which led me to abandon that plan (and eventually the deck). 3+ mana is just so much for the deck.
I still think you're underestimating the impact of people playing Assassin's Trophy against shadow builds of all flavors. Snapcaster and Souls may help the Jund matchup, but it's now much harder to have more than 3 colors to support all of these things, especially in the Jund matchup.
Are you suggesting that they'll use Trophy to blow up our lands and keep us off a color? Because that's the only application I see for it against Traverse Shadow that Abrupt decay can't do.
What do you think about Spell Snare in the main deck if BGx increases in popularity? Relevant targets:
Obviously some of these applications are not great but I think Jeskai, Jund, and Burn are the most relevant. I'd love to increase game 1 percentage points against these match-ups and I think Spell Snare could do just that, while not being terrible against more of the field. Storm too is savagely trumped by Spell Snare but I don't imagine we'll have a hard time with that match anyway.
I 2-0'd human at my last FNM (the one I did 5-0) so it's beatable..I guess (he finished 3rd)
I've beaten humans my fair share too. But it's a bad matchup unless you work REAL hard. MD bolts, SB sweepers (Radiant Flames is the best one), and SB Lavamancers makes it, idk, 50/50 maybe. Still not favorable. They're just really resilient, Thalia is a huge pain, and because we can't help but start at a fairly low life total, the fliers will get us. On top of that, Reflector Mage breaks up our plans of cheesing them out with TBR a lot of the time. Even when it doesn't, it can sometimes be hard for the TBR turn to present lethal through blockers because they're often still at 20. It's not a fun matchup.
Are you suggesting that they'll use Trophy to blow up our lands and keep us off a color? Because that's the only application I see for it against Traverse Shadow that Abrupt decay can't do.
Yes, I've been saying our manabase is fragile. That's precisely what I'm talking about. It probably keeps us from being 4 color in those matchups, or we risk getting e.g. Lingering Souls stuck in our hand with no way to cast it.
What do you think about Spell Snare in the main deck if BGx increases in popularity?
Snare is pretty interesting. It's still bad against Humans, because of vial and cavern, but occasionally you'll nab something with it. That's a big strike against it IMO. I focus on that matchup in particular a lot because if you solve that, without compromising the basic matchup profile of the deck, I think the deck is tier 1 despite the awful control and midrange matchups. Not that I think that's really possible, unfortunately, but it seems easier to do that than to fix the midrange/control matchups without screwing up everything else.
Snare is pretty interesting. It's still bad against Humans, because of vial and cavern, but occasionally you'll nab something with it. That's a big strike against it IMO. I focus on that matchup in particular a lot because if you solve that, without compromising the basic matchup profile of the deck, I think the deck is tier 1 despite the awful control and midrange matchups. Not that I think that's really possible, unfortunately, but it seems easier to do that than to fix the midrange/control matchups without screwing up everything else.
Oh boy, I totally forgot about Cavern of Souls! I was thinking Snare would be great against Humans, despite Vial because they don't always have it. And they usually hardcast Lieutenant so they can vial in something else to get double triggers, so at least I could get the Lieutenant. But with 4x Vial and 4x Cavern, unfortunately Snare seems awful for the match-up.
I'll still try 1-2 Spell Snare in the main deck once GRN releases. It's great against Jund and Burn and still decent against Jeskai. It certainly doesn't help against Humans or Spirits but my recent changes to my list have been handling those better it seems. I played Spirits in my last PPTQ and won 2-1 specifically because of my list changes, especially the sideboard. I played a pick-up game against humans that night and also won that match 2-0.
I decided after the tournament that I'll try switching my Breeding Pool to a Steam Vents. Several times I was stuck without red, with red answers in hand, and ended up losing the game because of it. I added Faithless Looting back also in place of Ghor-Clan and the 18th land. I got flooded 3 games during the six rounds, which is ridiculous. So far in my online testing Looting has helped me out in flooding situations.
Ghor-Clan also was a total bust all weekend. He sat in my hand game after game, never needed to Traverse for him, and only actually bloodrushed him once. It got me the win against Infect but I think I could've won that match regardless. I also dropped Liliana of the Veil back out from my 75 because she sat in hand several times without good opportunities to use her. Even as a removal spell she was weak because it gave my opponent's the option of what to sacrifice. I took her in out and replaced with a 4th Lightning Bolt. The biggest change I think is that I swapped numbers on Traverse and IOK. This weekend I had Traverse stuck in hand fairly often without Delirium (missing you Manamorphose!) and there were some opening hands where I really could've used a discard effect. For example I lost 0-2 to Burn in two matches, only seeing 1x Thoughtseize throughout all four games. So I'm going back to 4x IOK with only 3x Traverse.
Sideboard Changes - Delay and Abrade were both awesome. I'll add in Dispel and Duress to try to shore up the Burn and Jeskai matches. I'm still seeing a lot of Jeskai players at the PPTQs in my region but I've been lucky enough to dodge the match-up completely in the last 4 events. This event had 5 Death's Shadow players, not including myself. One was Traverse and the others were GDS. If that trend continues then I'll definitely include LOTV back in my sideboard, and potentially adjust numbers of the Push/Bolt split.
Secrets of the Mausoleum 1B
Instant
Undergrowth - search your library for a black card with converted mana cost equal to or less than the number of creature cards in your graveyard, reveal it and add it to your hand, then shuffle your library.
Seems like a nice tutor, can find deathshadow, fatal push, thoughtseize, liliana etc. Can be enablesby street wraith early on.
Maybe architects of will could see a resurgence in order to enable this more often?
Idk if it will replace traverse but its does seem easier to enable, and more versatile that traverse.
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I really feel favored against Jund (my list is slower than yours); The meta will slow down (I guess) and the deck will adapt to be less explosive.
We have the tool.
BGUSultai Shadow
BURGrixis Shadow
BGUSultai midrange
BRWMardu Pyromancer
BGRJund
I see now that Godrik's list is going waaay over the top, more than I've ever seen in a shadow list to be honest. I can see that list having much more game against Jund. However, it's giving up a lot to do that. Only 1 IOK! No TBRs. That drastically changes the matchup profile. And it's also the sort of build that looks terrible against the new card. The color requirements of that deck are very harsh. Lots of double blue, double black, and there isn't even a forest if they go after your green source. We will have to rebuild our manabases in light of this card to have more basics, which will make it harder to play so many cards in the 4th or even 3rd color.
My prediction is that this card will push people to play more Tarmogoyf decks (including ours) which will in turn result in more people playing Fatal Push and Spell Snare to beat Tarmogoyf decks. All and all I think this card is undoubtedly BAD for our deck in the metagame, though it does appear we could get some use out of it against UW Control. Personally I don't care if people use this card against me. At least I can counter it, whereas I cannot counter Abrupt Decay. But the way this card will change the metagame will make our deck worse I think. I will try to start including 1-2 Dispel in my sideboard.
Draft My Cube!
I don't think we're going to convince each other.
And regarding Assassin's Trophy - Jund is a perfect example match-up where Abrupt decay works just fine and I would rather not give them an extra land. The cards you mention aren't problem cards for me anyway. I've never lost a single game to Tron in three competitive matches. I'm 4-0 against Hollow one. I haven't faced GDS yet but should be a slam dunk. Leylines and Planeswalkers are great applications but personally I will keep it in the sideboard for those match-ups. I could be wrong, but only time will tell. I think that Spell Snare is going to be big coming soon, Mark my words. It counters Trophy and Tarmogoyf, the latter which will definitely increase in popularity with the printing of the former.
Draft My Cube!
I'm preparing a tournament and I have some questions:
1) I had some good victories against Affinity. Normally playing Lingering Souls in G2.
But how is our deck versus this new version splashing green "Hardened Modular"? Any advice?
2) What is our strategy in order to beat BantSpirits? is better to play Delay than Stubborn Denial? So, Delay must find slot in our SB?
3)I feel that the metagame in Modern is ruled by faster decks. So we need to choose the faster strategies.Isn't it? Could we play Midrange-style with this current meta?
4)Is Hex Parasite a good addition to our deck? (Good versus planeswalkers and good for faster suicide)? I'm thinking about to play with two in the SB that you can interchange by two Mishra's Bauble versus certain decks.
1) Against all kinds of affinity you just need to play control. Some combination of Abrade, Ancient Grudge, and Kolaghan's Command should be in your sideboard and that helps a lot game two/three. If you have Abrupt Decay, it can deal with their Hardened Scales but I wouldn't focus on the enchantment. Focus on getting 2-for-1s with Grudge and Kommand
2) In last weekend's PPTQ I had a long grueling match against Spirits. Delay was my MVP and won me that match (I cast it three times through games two and three). I also bring Abrade and Radiant Flames for this match-up but I haven't got a chance to use R-Flames yet. Delay is great because it pulls double-duty against Spell Queller and Settle the Wreckage. When they pop off suspend, they get NOTHING from the original value of the spell.
3) The metagame is certainly not ruled by fast decks. Burn, Affinity, Storm, Hollow One, Vengevine - these are the fastest decks and I think we have solid game against most of these. The format is ruled by UW Control (slow) and Humans (midrange). In my area Spirits are becoming more popular as well but if we sideboard for it, it's winnable. The best thing for us to go up against a bunch of fast combo like H1 and Storm; these decks are easy pickings (in my experience). Our worst match-ups are UW and Jeskai, and those are difficult to win even with sideboard tech. Maybe the new Assassin's Trophy will help.
4) Absolutely not, hex parasite is a terrible card and has no business in any Modern deck. I would suggest Maelstrom Pulse, Stubborn Denial, Negate, Delay as your best tools against Planeswalkers.
Draft My Cube!
You look at the oponent top library with bauble. If it's a land, you let him draw it; If it's a great card, you destroy
any permanent on his battlefield to make him shuffle his library. If he doesnt search and keep his top deck that way.
Fine, you have no drawback on ur card. If he shuffle, the good top deck is going back in his library. WIN/WIN situation.
And btw, the card is great in my oponion because its not situational. It wont have a terminate in hand when u need to destroy bridge/cranial.
You wont have decay in hand when you need to destroy TKS/gurmag. It's a catch all. That's why the card is so great.
=)
BGUSultai Shadow
BURGrixis Shadow
BGUSultai midrange
BRWMardu Pyromancer
BGRJund
I found Snapcaster to be reeeally awkward in most other matchups though, which led me to abandon that plan (and eventually the deck). 3+ mana is just so much for the deck.
I still think you're underestimating the impact of people playing Assassin's Trophy against shadow builds of all flavors. Snapcaster and Souls may help the Jund matchup, but it's now much harder to have more than 3 colors to support all of these things, especially in the Jund matchup.
It's for these reasons that I'm thinking of going more Sultai post-GRN, with the only red main board bring TBR. Fatal Push will replace bolts (I'm currently on 1FP/3LB but I'll go 4FP as Rock decks rise again). And then counter magic will increase in relevance since Trophy will replace Decay in said Rock decks. Souls package could still be kept in the board but I don't think it's necessary. I'm thinking 5x main deck counter spells and 2-3 Snapcaster with likely only 3/3 Traverse/IOK to help make room.
Sideboard red cards would likely be only 2x Abrade and 1x K-Command. Extra counters in Sideboard for Burn seems useful as well. Do you think Bontu's Last Reckoning would suffice as a SB sweeper if I go light on red Mana?
Draft My Cube!
If you go splash red (as I do) I recommand Firespout. If you are not able to get your red source, At least you can still kill
lingering souls tokens, spirits, etc.. from the battlefield with the green source (= I would not play Bontu's.
BGUSultai Shadow
BURGrixis Shadow
BGUSultai midrange
BRWMardu Pyromancer
BGRJund
I 2-0'd human at my last FNM (the one I did 5-0) so it's beatable..I guess (he finished 3rd)
BGUSultai Shadow
BURGrixis Shadow
BGUSultai midrange
BRWMardu Pyromancer
BGRJund
Are you suggesting that they'll use Trophy to blow up our lands and keep us off a color? Because that's the only application I see for it against Traverse Shadow that Abrupt decay can't do.
What do you think about Spell Snare in the main deck if BGx increases in popularity? Relevant targets:
Jund or BGx:
1-2 Terminate
1-2 Dreadbore
3-4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
2-3 Scavenging Ooze
0-3 Grim Flayer
(?) Assassin's Trophy
Burn:
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Helix
2-4 Skull Crack
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
(SB) Deflecting Palm
Humans:
3-4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
4 Kitesail Freebooter
3-4 Phantasmal Image
Jeskai or UW:
1-3 Mana Leak
1 Negate
3-4 Lightning Helix
1-2 Search for Azcanta
3-4 Snapcaster Mage
(SB) Celestial Purge
(SB) Blessed Alliance
Mardu:
4 Young Pyromancer
1-2 Terminate
1-2 Dreadbore
Storm:
4 Baral, Chief of Compliance
2-4 Goblin Electromancer
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Desperate Ritual
1-2 Remind
1-2 Unsubstantiate
Spirits:
4 Rattlechains
4 Selfless Spirit
GWx Vizier Combo:
4 Vizier of Remedies
4 Devoted Druid
1-2 Duskwatch Recruiter
Hollow One:
2 Collective Brutality
4 Goblin Lore
4 Bloodghast (rare application)
KCI:
4 Ichor Wellspring
2 My Retriever
1-3 Engineered Explosives (when X=2)
----
Obviously some of these applications are not great but I think Jeskai, Jund, and Burn are the most relevant. I'd love to increase game 1 percentage points against these match-ups and I think Spell Snare could do just that, while not being terrible against more of the field. Storm too is savagely trumped by Spell Snare but I don't imagine we'll have a hard time with that match anyway.
Draft My Cube!
I've beaten humans my fair share too. But it's a bad matchup unless you work REAL hard. MD bolts, SB sweepers (Radiant Flames is the best one), and SB Lavamancers makes it, idk, 50/50 maybe. Still not favorable. They're just really resilient, Thalia is a huge pain, and because we can't help but start at a fairly low life total, the fliers will get us. On top of that, Reflector Mage breaks up our plans of cheesing them out with TBR a lot of the time. Even when it doesn't, it can sometimes be hard for the TBR turn to present lethal through blockers because they're often still at 20. It's not a fun matchup.
Yes, I've been saying our manabase is fragile. That's precisely what I'm talking about. It probably keeps us from being 4 color in those matchups, or we risk getting e.g. Lingering Souls stuck in our hand with no way to cast it.
Snare is pretty interesting. It's still bad against Humans, because of vial and cavern, but occasionally you'll nab something with it. That's a big strike against it IMO. I focus on that matchup in particular a lot because if you solve that, without compromising the basic matchup profile of the deck, I think the deck is tier 1 despite the awful control and midrange matchups. Not that I think that's really possible, unfortunately, but it seems easier to do that than to fix the midrange/control matchups without screwing up everything else.
Oh boy, I totally forgot about Cavern of Souls! I was thinking Snare would be great against Humans, despite Vial because they don't always have it. And they usually hardcast Lieutenant so they can vial in something else to get double triggers, so at least I could get the Lieutenant. But with 4x Vial and 4x Cavern, unfortunately Snare seems awful for the match-up.
I'll still try 1-2 Spell Snare in the main deck once GRN releases. It's great against Jund and Burn and still decent against Jeskai. It certainly doesn't help against Humans or Spirits but my recent changes to my list have been handling those better it seems. I played Spirits in my last PPTQ and won 2-1 specifically because of my list changes, especially the sideboard. I played a pick-up game against humans that night and also won that match 2-0.
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Death's Shadow
4 Street Wraith
1 Snapcaster Mage
Spells:
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
4 Mishra's Bauble
3 Traverse the Ulvenwald
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Dismember
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Fatal Push
2 Temur Battle Rage
2 Faithless Looting
3 Stubborn Denial
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Steam Vents
1 Blood Crypt
1 Watery Grave
1 Stomping Ground
1 Forest
1 Swamp
2 Abrade
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Collective Brutality
2 Delay
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Kolaghan's Command
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Radiant Flames
1 Dispel
1 Golgari Charm
1 Duress
I decided after the tournament that I'll try switching my Breeding Pool to a Steam Vents. Several times I was stuck without red, with red answers in hand, and ended up losing the game because of it. I added Faithless Looting back also in place of Ghor-Clan and the 18th land. I got flooded 3 games during the six rounds, which is ridiculous. So far in my online testing Looting has helped me out in flooding situations.
Ghor-Clan also was a total bust all weekend. He sat in my hand game after game, never needed to Traverse for him, and only actually bloodrushed him once. It got me the win against Infect but I think I could've won that match regardless. I also dropped Liliana of the Veil back out from my 75 because she sat in hand several times without good opportunities to use her. Even as a removal spell she was weak because it gave my opponent's the option of what to sacrifice. I took her in out and replaced with a 4th Lightning Bolt. The biggest change I think is that I swapped numbers on Traverse and IOK. This weekend I had Traverse stuck in hand fairly often without Delirium (missing you Manamorphose!) and there were some opening hands where I really could've used a discard effect. For example I lost 0-2 to Burn in two matches, only seeing 1x Thoughtseize throughout all four games. So I'm going back to 4x IOK with only 3x Traverse.
Sideboard Changes - Delay and Abrade were both awesome. I'll add in Dispel and Duress to try to shore up the Burn and Jeskai matches. I'm still seeing a lot of Jeskai players at the PPTQs in my region but I've been lucky enough to dodge the match-up completely in the last 4 events. This event had 5 Death's Shadow players, not including myself. One was Traverse and the others were GDS. If that trend continues then I'll definitely include LOTV back in my sideboard, and potentially adjust numbers of the Push/Bolt split.
Draft My Cube!
Secrets of the Mausoleum
1B
Instant
Undergrowth - search your library for a black card with converted mana cost equal to or less than the number of creature cards in your graveyard, reveal it and add it to your hand, then shuffle your library.
Seems like a nice tutor, can find deathshadow, fatal push, thoughtseize, liliana etc. Can be enablesby street wraith early on.
Maybe architects of will could see a resurgence in order to enable this more often?
Idk if it will replace traverse but its does seem easier to enable, and more versatile that traverse.