Ore-Scale Guardian was something I hadn't considered but it seems great! Have you played any matches with it? I still think Faithless Looting is better than Magmatic Insight because you get to draw first and you're not required to pitch a land, in case you have excess discard spells for example.
I still think Faithless Looting is better than Magmatic Insight because you get to draw first and you're not required to pitch a land, in case you have excess discard spells for example.
You're probably right in this instance -- pitching useless discard is very powerful and the selection that looting gives you is very important.
Mainly, I am interested in a card like Insight because it maintains CA neutrality rather than "3 cards to get 2 cards first half and 2 cards to get 2 cards second half". I built in a manabase with 21 lands with Insight in mind but maybe it's just not powerful enough.
Ore-Scale Guardian has to have some amount of "build-around" otherwise it just ends up being clunky and expensive. It may take some tinkering to get the grease right.
Looting off a fetchland can get you to 3 lands in your GY on turn 1. Then a turn 2 GQ your red source to get a mountain lets you turn 2 Ore-Scale. Everything about this line looks bad and it is bad. However, how fast you can cast Ore-Scale is important as it applies a lot of pressure. Turn 3 is more typical and easier on the mana base.
In a few test matches last night, the Guardian seemed too problematic. I never had more than 3ish lands in the yard so the dragon was useless. I did like Wrenn however. Rebuying a fetch to hurt me further and simultaneously get enough lands to do stuff for the next turn. I also noticed that her ping is any target, so she can hit players or even yourself for Shadow purposes. She's a great counter to a top deck LOTV -2 (since it'll be left at 1 loyalty, you can just ping her)
I played some interesting matches against Mardu Pyro today. The new card Seasoned Pyromancer is extremely powerful. To the point where I could see including 1-2 in our 75 against grindy decks such as GDS or BGx. It's like a red Lingering Souls that can filter draws or just refill your hand if hellbent. I'm going to a local Modern Championship in a couple weeks. I will try this list but really looking forward to incorporating some new MH1 cards
Played in a ~35 person Modern championship yesterday, finishing second place losing to Scapeshift in a nail-biter finals match.
I played the above list, with only these changes:
MB -1 Tarfire
MB +1 Surgical
SB - 1 Surgical
SB +1 Anger of the Gods
Round 1 Bant Spirits (1-2)
Game one I drew all four Street Wraith and only Dismember as my removal. I had him dead on board with a massive Shadow but an end step Coco needed to create 3 power to seal the deal, and he got it. Game two he made a strange play when he attacked with a GOST putting my Shadow at 11/11 and leaving himself at 10 life. He played a blocker and passed which I removed and swung in. Game three was long and drawn out but eventually I got a Shadow online and he got Moorland Haunt. I needed one more attack + TBR (which I had in hand) but once again he end step Cocos me with just enough power for the kill.
Round 2 Esper Control (2-1)
Game one I got controlled hard. I scooped to him pulling two Logic Knots off his Narset activations, knowing he also had big Teferi in hand. Game two I ripped his hand apart with 3 discard spells in the first three turns and beat in with a Tarmogoyf. Game three I got 2 Fulminator Mage which kept him off 4 lands since I knew he was holding Jace and Verdict.
Round 3 Dredge (2-0)
Game one he mulligans to 5 and I got a pretty aggressive start with double Tarmogoyf. He just couldn't generate enough blockers. Game two he casts turn 1 looting pitching two dredge cards. My opening held Surgical + Faerie and then I turn 1 Thoughtseize to see two more Looting in his hand. I take something else then Surgical the looting and Faerie the Dredge cards. He plays out a few turns but scoops once I get some threats online.
Round 4 Bridge Vine (2-1)
This was not the new version with Hogaak and Altar. Just the classic with Viscera Seer. Game 1 he got me good binning two Bridges on turn 1 and then playing two Ballista for zero. It was too many attackers and I just couldn't recover. Game two he opened with Stitcher, Gravecrawler, Gravecrawler by turn 3. I responded with a turn 4 Anger of the gods and killed him with Shadow +TBR shortly after. Game three was a bit of back n forth as we both durdled but eventually I began top decking better than him and killed him with a TBR at 2 health (he had a Ballista on 1 with enough mana to pump once next turn)
Round 5 Jeskai O's (ID)
We played a couple matches for fun but there were a few misplays on each side so it was hard to gage. Overall I feel highly favored against the deck
Quarter Finals, 6th seed - UG infect (2-1)
This was my teammate so I know his lines of play very well. In practice I'm always heavily favored but he cheesed out a game one win with Dryad Arbor and pump spells. Game two was long and grueling but eventually I got in GCR. I don't remember much about game three but I know he didn't get a Spellskite so I killed him with double Tarmogoyf and TBR
Semifinals - Monored Phoenix (2-1)
He snuck in a game one win with a topdeck lightning bolt when I had him dead on board next turn. I felt bad winning games two and three because he got flooded and I had extremely solid opening hands with an aggressive follow through
Finals - RG Scapeshift (1-2)
Games one and three were very similar. Tarmogoyf just doesn't grow in this match because they don't dump anything but Sorcery into their bin. Attacking with 3/4 Tarmogoyf just isn't fast enough and even though game three I eventually dropped a Shadow at 7/7, he reached 7 lands and Scapeshift me. Game two I ripped his hand apart and blew him out before he couldn't get anything going. He used Mwonvuli Acid Moss on me in game three which left him at 5 lands on turn three, to my 1 land on turn 3.
We agreed to split prizes so I walked out with a box of Modern Horizons. Can't complain.. The deck treated me well almost all day. This is my first paper event without blue and while I certainly missed it in the Scapeshift match, it was not needed anywhere else. A great day for Jund Shadow!
I really wish I had put a Plague Engineer in my Sideboard. It would've saved me game three against Spirits. I may consider Collector Ouphe as well but as it stands artifacts don't really scare me right now.
And I'm really attracted to Seasoned Pyromancer.. I know intuitively it doesn't seem to fit along with what we do but it fills a hole in our plan. It can refill your hand if hellbent, it's a great way to pitch late game useless Wraiths or discard spells, and it provides blockers which allows us to swing over and over again without worrying about dying on the crack back. (I understand this last point wouldn't help against spirits or flying in general but it's still good).
One thing I noticed is that almost all my games went very long. I was arguably the only fair deck at the tournament (along with Esper control). Everyone else played infect, Griselbrand, burn / monored Phoenix, tron, storm, dredge - and in all cases I was able to thwart their plans and win via midrange. This deck is not a fast explosive deck. Playing without blue felt really good. I think 17 land is definitely the right number, as long as you play 4x Traverse. Turn two Traverse for Basic Swamp saved me several times. Faithless looting was great also, but I would never play more than 2. Sometimes it gets stuck in hand for a few turns until I know I have at least 1 card I plan on pitching. But twice looting drew me into TBR for the win. This would be difficult in a 4C list because having two red was hardly an option. But now I reached two red in most games.
One final note is that I think I will move Abrupt Decay to the main deck. I never cast Trophy when it was better than Decay. And giving them an extra land mattered at least once that I remember. I'll move the spare trophy to the board because it's still useful against Tron and Infect, but against those opponents I bring in all Trophy and Decay anyways. The only match I can think of where I actively don't want Decay but I do need Trophy is Titan Shift.
-EDIT
Surgical is the MVP of the day (well, maybe a close 2nd behind TBR). In a deck with 8 discards and a format with tons of 4-ofs, it's rather likely to get them on turn 1 and use surgical as a second free Thoughtseize. In one game against Infect he played turn one Noble off a Wooded Foothills then I Thoughtseize and take his infect, but notice his only other land is another Foothills in hand. I surgical the Foothills and Push the Noble to get him stuck on lands. In a later game against Infect I took a Might of Old Krosa, seeing he had a second one. Hold in his draw step after drawing ANOTHER Krosa, and I surgical both from his hand. Mind you these are plays against INFECT - a deck no one is bringing surgical against. But in the main deck you get this kind of sneaking interaction no one is expecting even in game one. I keep surgical in against almost everything. I think I boarded it out only against Spirits. Twice in this tournament alone I used it an instant speed way to save a creature. Tarmogoyf - put an instant in the graveyard for zero mana, or Shadow - just another way to pay life for extra damage. In the final game against Bridge Vine I cast double surgical on nothing important just to reach lethal damage
What are people consensus on Dreadhorde Arcanist Shadow Zoo builds? I know it’s more Aggro than Midrange, but this seems the only topic where it’s worth discussing it. I saw it in action and it seemed unreal. Become Immense on Arcanist, copy Become Immense on Shadow, TBR for the win on turn three quite consistently. I especially loved Kiln Fiend versions.
It may be hands down the best version of this deck for the current metagame (with its limits, obviously).
He seems very good with Mutagenic Growth coupled with Dismember or even TBR. But a two mana creature that doesn't get in for much damage on its own doesn't sound worth it to me. But I am no expert with that version of the deck
It’s obviously too early to state anything. But, either in goldfishing and in the limited amount of testing I made with the deck, swinging with it meant flashbacking on turn three (unless I needed a piece of disruption) one of the six/seven pump spells we play, which means swinging for a lot with it anyway. If the deck isn’t going to be worth it, the problem isn’t due to the lack of power in Dreadhorde Arcanist.
What do we think of the new card as a 1-of mid game evasive threat? Embodiment of Agonies
Probably quite good and easy to enable in this deck because turbo Delirium hands often already make it a 4/4 (Bauble is 0, Street Wraith is 3BB, targeted discard is B, Traverse the Ulvenwald is G), yet it's so darn vulnerable to early graveyard hate that I'm not sure I should make room for it, especially when I'm still on Wrenn and Six. A fatty with Flying would be pretty dandy in this deck, though...hmmmm....
I don't think you need to give up W6 for the sake of this new threat. W6 has easily replaced LOTV as the premier PW for this deck. Two CMC is huge and it pings rather than edicts which helps where we need it most (Humans, Spirits, Infect) but my thoughts are that Embodiment could replace Grim Flayer as the additional token creature.
Most games I feel like my deck wins through the control element of my spells, and my creatures are only for big dumb beats. Can you imagine dropping this for 6 or 7?.. This is likely to get damage through faster than Grim Flayer.
Let's look at the stats of our deck and consider the potential to drop this creature at 5/5 or higher (the frequency of which will determine its usefulness IMO). For the sake of this exercise I'll exclude Tarmogoyf, TBR and Shadow, because they rarely end up in the graveyard except against certain opponents. B 10-12 (incl 2-4 Fatal Push) G 4 BG 1-3 (Trophy, Decay, Flayer) R 1-4 (Looting, Bolt, Tarfire) 0 4 3BB 4 1PP 1-2 (Dismember) P 0-2 (Surgical) RG 0-2 (W6)
That's a pretty wide variety of mana costs, all of which are dumped into the graveyard rapidly over the first three turns. I would estimate its highly likely to drop as a 4/4 but I'm not sure that's worth it. Maybe with a faster combo-oriented meta game on the horizon, it's time we bring back Manamorphose? Which is another free & different mana cost to power out this guy faster and bigger.
Played in a 66 person even yesterday with my recent list, only changes :
-1 Dismember
+1 Wrenn and Six
-1 Anger of the gods SB
+1 Plague Engineer SB
Did not do so well this time, going 3-3 and drop. My losses were to Boros Burn, Tron, and UG infect. My wins were against Zoo, Esper Mentor, and Hog Vine. Other than some questionable choices against infect, I didn't really make any misplays so that felt nice. I think it's time to retire my Tarfire because the amount of games I've lost to infect is getting out of hand. Being able to save their creature with any random +2/+2 effect is too big of a problem. W6 felt good also, even though she only came in a couple games. Not having Stubborn Denial really hurts when paired against Burn and Tron. I will say that beating Bridge Vine felt great. It's a scary deck that I'm building mostly for testing purposes, but I steamrolled that match yesterday 2-0. Turn 1 Thoughtseize takes Alter and that hamstrings them pretty badly.
I also felt like a lot wins can only come from TBR so I'm considering going up to 3x. My gut tells me that's too much especially with GCR who I would not consider removing. I'll start with these changes
I know the Shriekmaw is an old school Traverse technique but there were several times throughout my last two comp REL events where I really needed to be able to Traverse for removal. I'm swapping it out for one of my Angers, with the concession that dredge is going away with the rise of Hog Vine, and Anger doesn't help nearly as much for that match up. Humans is still a concern but Shriekmaw is still great here as it's evoke cost doesn't get taxed by Thalia. I've decided to incorporate the blue splash again, only out of the Sideboard. Swapping all my Brutality for Stubs since Stub is good in all the matches that Brutality is good, but then I can also use Stub against Tron and Scapeshift, where I normally wouldn't be bringing in Brutality. Stub is also good against traditional Dredge, so losing my Anger doesn't hurt as much.
I do think that the third Battle Rage is strong at the moment. I had very good results with Ur Bloo and Grixis Shadow packing three of them, lately, and I don’t think I’ll ever go back in this metagame.
I could definitely get behind some Hexdrinker in traditional Jund but not in Traverse Shadow. We just hardly have mana to spare for something like that.
Also, it has protection from instants so you can't use TBR on it.
I've been really loving W6 lately... It's synergy with our deck is great. Going less all-in on the delirium theme and just trying to play more like normal jund with a combo kill. My current list
I'd like to fit a third W6 in somehow but there's just no room.
Lower Bauble and Traverse count means I needed more land so I'm up to 19 now, but I cut 4 slots total (2 each Bauble/Traverse) so I had two flex slots that I'm trying out Dreadhorde Arcanist in. I played a bunch of matches with the Mardu Shadow list over the last week and while I do love them, I'm a BGx player at heart so I'm trying to find ways to improve my current favorite deck using the lessons from Mardu.
While Tarmogoyf certainly misses the consistent 5/6 provided by the full set of Bauble, I think Gurmag is nowhere in the meta right now the 4/5 is usually good enough. I've played about 8 matches with this list so far in practice.
The other big change you may notice is that I switched from basic forest to basic mountain. This is because I'm much heavier on red now. Open to critique here. Thanks
I feel confident in my Humans and Phoenix match up. Jund and Burn are another story. And Hogaak 2.0 doesn't particularly concern me. I do miss having Surgical in my main board but the addition of W6 has been great
With the new showings of JDS here and also here maybe we can get some theory crafting going back up again in this thread? I'll note that Manamorphose is back in nearly every list and also Plague Engineer main board seems popular as well.
Draft My Cube!
You're probably right in this instance -- pitching useless discard is very powerful and the selection that looting gives you is very important.
Mainly, I am interested in a card like Insight because it maintains CA neutrality rather than "3 cards to get 2 cards first half and 2 cards to get 2 cards second half". I built in a manabase with 21 lands with Insight in mind but maybe it's just not powerful enough.
Ore-Scale Guardian has to have some amount of "build-around" otherwise it just ends up being clunky and expensive. It may take some tinkering to get the grease right.
Looting off a fetchland can get you to 3 lands in your GY on turn 1. Then a turn 2 GQ your red source to get a mountain lets you turn 2 Ore-Scale. Everything about this line looks bad and it is bad. However, how fast you can cast Ore-Scale is important as it applies a lot of pressure. Turn 3 is more typical and easier on the mana base.
Draft My Cube!
4 Death's Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Ghor-Clan Rampager
Spells
4 Thoughtseize
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
2 Faithless Looting
3 Fatal Push
2 Tarfire
2 Assassin's Trophy
2 Dismember
2 Temur battle rage
1 Surgical extraction
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Bloodstained mire
2 Wooded foothills
2 Blood crypt
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping ground
1 Swamp
1 Forest
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Collective Brutality
2 Anger of the gods
1 Yixlid Jailer
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Surgical extraction
1 Assassin's trophy
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Kolaghan's command
Draft My Cube!
I played the above list, with only these changes:
MB -1 Tarfire
MB +1 Surgical
SB - 1 Surgical
SB +1 Anger of the Gods
Round 1 Bant Spirits (1-2)
Game one I drew all four Street Wraith and only Dismember as my removal. I had him dead on board with a massive Shadow but an end step Coco needed to create 3 power to seal the deal, and he got it. Game two he made a strange play when he attacked with a GOST putting my Shadow at 11/11 and leaving himself at 10 life. He played a blocker and passed which I removed and swung in. Game three was long and drawn out but eventually I got a Shadow online and he got Moorland Haunt. I needed one more attack + TBR (which I had in hand) but once again he end step Cocos me with just enough power for the kill.
Round 2 Esper Control (2-1)
Game one I got controlled hard. I scooped to him pulling two Logic Knots off his Narset activations, knowing he also had big Teferi in hand. Game two I ripped his hand apart with 3 discard spells in the first three turns and beat in with a Tarmogoyf. Game three I got 2 Fulminator Mage which kept him off 4 lands since I knew he was holding Jace and Verdict.
Round 3 Dredge (2-0)
Game one he mulligans to 5 and I got a pretty aggressive start with double Tarmogoyf. He just couldn't generate enough blockers. Game two he casts turn 1 looting pitching two dredge cards. My opening held Surgical + Faerie and then I turn 1 Thoughtseize to see two more Looting in his hand. I take something else then Surgical the looting and Faerie the Dredge cards. He plays out a few turns but scoops once I get some threats online.
Round 4 Bridge Vine (2-1)
This was not the new version with Hogaak and Altar. Just the classic with Viscera Seer. Game 1 he got me good binning two Bridges on turn 1 and then playing two Ballista for zero. It was too many attackers and I just couldn't recover. Game two he opened with Stitcher, Gravecrawler, Gravecrawler by turn 3. I responded with a turn 4 Anger of the gods and killed him with Shadow +TBR shortly after. Game three was a bit of back n forth as we both durdled but eventually I began top decking better than him and killed him with a TBR at 2 health (he had a Ballista on 1 with enough mana to pump once next turn)
Round 5 Jeskai O's (ID)
We played a couple matches for fun but there were a few misplays on each side so it was hard to gage. Overall I feel highly favored against the deck
Quarter Finals, 6th seed - UG infect (2-1)
This was my teammate so I know his lines of play very well. In practice I'm always heavily favored but he cheesed out a game one win with Dryad Arbor and pump spells. Game two was long and grueling but eventually I got in GCR. I don't remember much about game three but I know he didn't get a Spellskite so I killed him with double Tarmogoyf and TBR
Semifinals - Monored Phoenix (2-1)
He snuck in a game one win with a topdeck lightning bolt when I had him dead on board next turn. I felt bad winning games two and three because he got flooded and I had extremely solid opening hands with an aggressive follow through
Finals - RG Scapeshift (1-2)
Games one and three were very similar. Tarmogoyf just doesn't grow in this match because they don't dump anything but Sorcery into their bin. Attacking with 3/4 Tarmogoyf just isn't fast enough and even though game three I eventually dropped a Shadow at 7/7, he reached 7 lands and Scapeshift me. Game two I ripped his hand apart and blew him out before he couldn't get anything going. He used Mwonvuli Acid Moss on me in game three which left him at 5 lands on turn three, to my 1 land on turn 3.
We agreed to split prizes so I walked out with a box of Modern Horizons. Can't complain.. The deck treated me well almost all day. This is my first paper event without blue and while I certainly missed it in the Scapeshift match, it was not needed anywhere else. A great day for Jund Shadow!
Draft My Cube!
And I'm really attracted to Seasoned Pyromancer.. I know intuitively it doesn't seem to fit along with what we do but it fills a hole in our plan. It can refill your hand if hellbent, it's a great way to pitch late game useless Wraiths or discard spells, and it provides blockers which allows us to swing over and over again without worrying about dying on the crack back. (I understand this last point wouldn't help against spirits or flying in general but it's still good).
One thing I noticed is that almost all my games went very long. I was arguably the only fair deck at the tournament (along with Esper control). Everyone else played infect, Griselbrand, burn / monored Phoenix, tron, storm, dredge - and in all cases I was able to thwart their plans and win via midrange. This deck is not a fast explosive deck. Playing without blue felt really good. I think 17 land is definitely the right number, as long as you play 4x Traverse. Turn two Traverse for Basic Swamp saved me several times. Faithless looting was great also, but I would never play more than 2. Sometimes it gets stuck in hand for a few turns until I know I have at least 1 card I plan on pitching. But twice looting drew me into TBR for the win. This would be difficult in a 4C list because having two red was hardly an option. But now I reached two red in most games.
One final note is that I think I will move Abrupt Decay to the main deck. I never cast Trophy when it was better than Decay. And giving them an extra land mattered at least once that I remember. I'll move the spare trophy to the board because it's still useful against Tron and Infect, but against those opponents I bring in all Trophy and Decay anyways. The only match I can think of where I actively don't want Decay but I do need Trophy is Titan Shift.
-EDIT
Surgical is the MVP of the day (well, maybe a close 2nd behind TBR). In a deck with 8 discards and a format with tons of 4-ofs, it's rather likely to get them on turn 1 and use surgical as a second free Thoughtseize. In one game against Infect he played turn one Noble off a Wooded Foothills then I Thoughtseize and take his infect, but notice his only other land is another Foothills in hand. I surgical the Foothills and Push the Noble to get him stuck on lands. In a later game against Infect I took a Might of Old Krosa, seeing he had a second one. Hold in his draw step after drawing ANOTHER Krosa, and I surgical both from his hand. Mind you these are plays against INFECT - a deck no one is bringing surgical against. But in the main deck you get this kind of sneaking interaction no one is expecting even in game one. I keep surgical in against almost everything. I think I boarded it out only against Spirits. Twice in this tournament alone I used it an instant speed way to save a creature. Tarmogoyf - put an instant in the graveyard for zero mana, or Shadow - just another way to pay life for extra damage. In the final game against Bridge Vine I cast double surgical on nothing important just to reach lethal damage
Draft My Cube!
It may be hands down the best version of this deck for the current metagame (with its limits, obviously).
Draft My Cube!
Draft My Cube!
Probably quite good and easy to enable in this deck because turbo Delirium hands often already make it a 4/4 (Bauble is 0, Street Wraith is 3BB, targeted discard is B, Traverse the Ulvenwald is G), yet it's so darn vulnerable to early graveyard hate that I'm not sure I should make room for it, especially when I'm still on Wrenn and Six. A fatty with Flying would be pretty dandy in this deck, though...hmmmm....
Most games I feel like my deck wins through the control element of my spells, and my creatures are only for big dumb beats. Can you imagine dropping this for 6 or 7?.. This is likely to get damage through faster than Grim Flayer.
Let's look at the stats of our deck and consider the potential to drop this creature at 5/5 or higher (the frequency of which will determine its usefulness IMO). For the sake of this exercise I'll exclude Tarmogoyf, TBR and Shadow, because they rarely end up in the graveyard except against certain opponents.
B 10-12 (incl 2-4 Fatal Push)
G 4
BG 1-3 (Trophy, Decay, Flayer)
R 1-4 (Looting, Bolt, Tarfire)
0 4
3BB 4
1PP 1-2 (Dismember)
P 0-2 (Surgical)
RG 0-2 (W6)
That's a pretty wide variety of mana costs, all of which are dumped into the graveyard rapidly over the first three turns. I would estimate its highly likely to drop as a 4/4 but I'm not sure that's worth it. Maybe with a faster combo-oriented meta game on the horizon, it's time we bring back Manamorphose? Which is another free & different mana cost to power out this guy faster and bigger.
Draft My Cube!
-1 Dismember
+1 Wrenn and Six
-1 Anger of the gods SB
+1 Plague Engineer SB
Did not do so well this time, going 3-3 and drop. My losses were to Boros Burn, Tron, and UG infect. My wins were against Zoo, Esper Mentor, and Hog Vine. Other than some questionable choices against infect, I didn't really make any misplays so that felt nice. I think it's time to retire my Tarfire because the amount of games I've lost to infect is getting out of hand. Being able to save their creature with any random +2/+2 effect is too big of a problem. W6 felt good also, even though she only came in a couple games. Not having Stubborn Denial really hurts when paired against Burn and Tron. I will say that beating Bridge Vine felt great. It's a scary deck that I'm building mostly for testing purposes, but I steamrolled that match yesterday 2-0. Turn 1 Thoughtseize takes Alter and that hamstrings them pretty badly.
I also felt like a lot wins can only come from TBR so I'm considering going up to 3x. My gut tells me that's too much especially with GCR who I would not consider removing. I'll start with these changes
4 Death's Shadow
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Street Wraith
1 Ghor-Clan Rampager
Spells (30)
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
3 Fatal Push
2 Lightning bolt
2 Assassin's Trophy
1 Dismember
1 Wrenn and Six
2 Temur battle rage
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Faithless looting
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Bloodstained mire
2 Wooded foothills
2 Blood crypt
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Breeding pool
1 Forest
1 Swamp
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Stubborn Denial
1 Wrenn and Six
1 Anger of the gods
1 Shriekmaw
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Yixlid Jailer
1 Assassin's trophy
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Kolaghan's command
I know the Shriekmaw is an old school Traverse technique but there were several times throughout my last two comp REL events where I really needed to be able to Traverse for removal. I'm swapping it out for one of my Angers, with the concession that dredge is going away with the rise of Hog Vine, and Anger doesn't help nearly as much for that match up. Humans is still a concern but Shriekmaw is still great here as it's evoke cost doesn't get taxed by Thalia. I've decided to incorporate the blue splash again, only out of the Sideboard. Swapping all my Brutality for Stubs since Stub is good in all the matches that Brutality is good, but then I can also use Stub against Tron and Scapeshift, where I normally wouldn't be bringing in Brutality. Stub is also good against traditional Dredge, so losing my Anger doesn't hurt as much.
Also thinking of trying a more Jund ish build
4 Death's Shadow
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Street Wraith
Spells (27)
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
2 Traverse the Ulvenwald
2 Faithless Looting
3 Fatal Push
3 Lightning bolt
2 Assassin's Trophy
2 Wrenn and Six
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Temur battle rage
1 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Bloodstained mire
3 Wooded foothills
2 Blood crypt
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Fulminator Mage
2 Unearth
2 Kolaghan's command
1 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Anger of the gods
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Yixlid Jailer
3 Collective Brutality
1 Harsh Mentor
Draft My Cube!
Have you seen this article and decklist?
http://www.starcitygames.com/articles/38716_Hexdrinkers-Impact-On-Modern-Could-Be-Massive.html
Also, it has protection from instants so you can't use TBR on it.
Draft My Cube!
4 Death's Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Dreadhorde Arcanist
Spells (28)
2 Faithless Looting
2 Traverse the Ulvenwald
2 Mishra's Bauble
4 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lightning bolt
2 Fatal Push
2 Assassin's Trophy
2 Wrenn and Six
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Temur battle rage
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Bloodstained mire
2 Wooded foothills
3 Nurturing Peatland
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood crypt
1 Stomping Ground
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
3 Fulminator Mage
2 Kolaghan's command
1 Plague Engineer
1 Yixlid Jailer
1 Faerie Macabre
2 Collective Brutality
1 Anger of the gods
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Assassin's trophy
2 Fatal push
I'd like to fit a third W6 in somehow but there's just no room.
Lower Bauble and Traverse count means I needed more land so I'm up to 19 now, but I cut 4 slots total (2 each Bauble/Traverse) so I had two flex slots that I'm trying out Dreadhorde Arcanist in. I played a bunch of matches with the Mardu Shadow list over the last week and while I do love them, I'm a BGx player at heart so I'm trying to find ways to improve my current favorite deck using the lessons from Mardu.
While Tarmogoyf certainly misses the consistent 5/6 provided by the full set of Bauble, I think Gurmag is nowhere in the meta right now the 4/5 is usually good enough. I've played about 8 matches with this list so far in practice.
The other big change you may notice is that I switched from basic forest to basic mountain. This is because I'm much heavier on red now. Open to critique here. Thanks
Draft My Cube!
4 Death's Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Scavenging Ooze
Spells
4 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Mishra's Bauble
2 Traverse the Ulvenwald
3 Wrenn and Six
3 Liliana of the Veil
2 Temur battle rage
2 Lightning bolt
2 Fatal Push
2 Assassin's Trophy
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Dismember
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Bloodstained mire
2 Wooded foothills
2 Nurturing Peatland
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blood crypt
1 Forest
1 Swamp
3 Fulminator Mage
1 Plague Engineer
1 Yixlid Jailer
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Fatal Push
1 Damping Sphere
1 Assassin's trophy
2 Kolaghan's command
2 Collective brutality
I feel confident in my Humans and Phoenix match up. Jund and Burn are another story. And Hogaak 2.0 doesn't particularly concern me. I do miss having Surgical in my main board but the addition of W6 has been great
Draft My Cube!
Draft My Cube!