Honestly, this one seems a heck of a lot more like an Elspeth to me then any previous Gideon. Sure he does his typical 'walk over and punch you in the face' routine, but he pumps out more dudes AND pumps your board state. I'm quite a fan of the indestructible/unremmovable anthem effect as well, so I definitely look forward to giving this a test. Sure he doesn't give the life link of Sorins, but pumping out 2/2 white tokens before walking over and punching them out a few times should be useful at least as a one of!
I agree. I currently run a 2/1 split of Sorin, Solemn Visitor and Ajani Goldmane. Since I'm not throwing Liliana of the Veil in the deck, I feel like the new Gideon could replace my Ajani pretty well. At the worst he ends up being a permanent 1/1 anthem for 4 mana.
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Modern GU Infect | x Affinity | RWG Naya Burn | W Death and Taxes | U Merfolk | BURG BTL Scapeshift | WUUW Titan | R Goblins | BURGW Suicide Zoo
hello, im building a BW tokens, its mostly complete, i only need the 4 bitterblossoms, but in the meanwhile im using 4 raise the alarm. i want to know which is the best pw split without BB? 2 Elspeth Knight errant + 1 sorin SV or 1 Elspeth Knight errant and 2 sorin SV?. the only creatures that i use in the main are 2 auriok champions.
other question: which is better in the sb? 3 relics of progenitus,3 RIPs or a split?
hello, im building a BW tokens, its mostly complete, i only need the 4 bitterblossoms, but in the meanwhile im using 4 raise the alarm. i want to know which is the best pw split without BB? 2 Elspeth Knight errant + 1 sorin SV or 1 Elspeth Knight errant and 2 sorin SV?. the only creatures that i use in the main are 2 auriok champions.
other question: which is better in the sb? 3 relics of progenitus,3 RIPs or a split?
While I believe I am in the minority on this, I think that Sorin LoI is better than Sorin SV when you do not have Bitterblossom. Reason being, Sorin SV does not help an empty board while Sorin LoI does and the lifegain, while still nice, isn't as mandatory. So, my split is 2 Sorin, LoI and 1 Elspeth, Knight Errant. I also run an Esper version of the deck that utilizes snapcaster mage so I always run Relic over Rest in Peace.
After losing three win and ins over the course of both the Invitational and the Standard Open, I took on some Modern for the first time in my weekend in New Jersey. I finished in 20th place in a field of over three hundred players, going 7-2.
Burn
2-0, 1-0
Keep an awkward hand of Virtue, double Timely, and Sorin with three lands. Get rewarded. He scoops when I plus Sorin. As always, Burn player got salty about maindeck Timely. Game 2, I get an early Auriok Champion, which I take two for from his Eidolon of the Great Revel. A turn four 2/2 Hangarback Walker doesn't trigger Eidolon. I miss my fifth land drop, but cast a Duress, taking two, but forces a Revelry out of his hand hitting Hangarback Walker, I gain three from the Thopter tokens. Hit my fifth land next turn and cast Elspeth Tirel gaining four on her plus and he scoops.
Grixis Twin
1-2, 1-1
Game 1, I strip his hand with discard, have removal for a Pestermite and an Exarch, but never get any pressure on the board due to being forced by how stacked his hand was. He rips an Exarch off the top and kills me when I have two Lingering Souls in hand. Game 2, I have discard into Raise into Lili. More discard forces his Exarchs into play and Lili eats them. 1/1 tokens get there as he is stuck with the only two Splinter Twins left in his deck clog up his hand for most of the game.
Game 3, I have discard and removal, but miss my third land drop. Bitterblossom is eaten by a Spell Snare that he ripped after my turn one discard. I get bottlenecked on mana and he beats me down with Tasigur and Pestermite.
Goblins
2-1, 2-1
On the draw, get wrecked by Guide into double Piledriver, and Rabble. Game 2, I have removal spells, beat down with vigilant Timely tokens, kill Loyalist and get there. Throughout this game, I kept fetching up basic lands in order to show him that Blood Moon was bad. Game 3, he casts Moon on turn 2, but I luckily have two Plains in hand. I go wide and have an Anthem. He casts a Loyalist which I dont have the colored mana to kill. He swings in with two dudes and Loyalist. Not announcing the trigger because you don't have to, he lets me block and then tries to kill my dudes with First Strike. He forgot about the tokens clause. Judge rules that me missed the trigger since he let me block. I blow him out and proceed to fly over his dudes for the win.
UW Control
2-1, 3-1
Game 1, I trade with an early Geist, but an unchecked Gideon and Elspeth Knight Errant do me in. Game 2, he mulligans to three, but I miss my third land for multiple turns. I ultimate Elspeth to destroy a Jace and get there with Lingering Souls tokens. Game 3, it's all haymakers. He is tapping out for Batterskull and Gideon. I get a Liliana and a Sorin firing. He eventually Purges the Sorin. And keeps himself in the game with a Batterskull. Eventually, I ultimate Lili and split his lands from his creatures and he extends the hand.
Boggles
2-0, 4-1
I start off with an Inquisition. I see no Boggle and have a removal spell for his Kor, I take a Rancor. He plays the Kor, I Path it. He finds a Dryad Arbor and suits it up. I Path it. I beat down. My opponent starts the game off with a Leyline, turning off the discard and Lili that I dont have in hand. Turn 1, he fetches up a Dryad Arbor. He suits it up. I Path it. He blinks in disbelief. He plays a Spellskite and puts the Reach Umbra on it. I have Spirit tokens, so I Path it leaving up mana to Disenchant either his Leyline or a Lifelink aura because I'm racing. He plays a Boggle and puts a Daybreak and an Umbra on it. I play an Engineered Explosives for 1 and crack it. Proceed to beat down.
RUG Twin
1-2, 4-2
Game 1, disrupt his game and beat down. Game 2, he has the Stubborn Denial for my turn 3 Spectral Procession. I couldn't think of what he could be holding up. At the end of my next turn, he Peeks and sees nothing. Jams Exarch and Twin. Game 3, I mulligan to six. He keeps a hand full of gas and I never do anything of note besides get wrecked.
Jund
2-0, 5-2
Weird match. I go wide with tokens and full aggro him out as he has a hand of Bolts, a Goyf, and some Raging Ravines that I never give him the chance to activate. I play a Hangarback for three and he scoops. Achievement unlocked. Game 2, he has an early Dark Confidant, but once again I'm just going wide. I make more flying tokens. He taps out for an Outpost Siege and I never wanted to waste removal on Bob so I keep pressing. The Path I saved is able to nail an Olivia. I get an Elspeth Tirel off of Windbrisk. I minus her to protect her and Path his Goyf. He flips Maelstrom Pulse off of Siege, blows five Soldiers up, and kills Elspeth with a Bob attack. I make more tokens and swing putting him to seven life. He flips a bunch of Abrupt Decays and picks off tokens plus his own Bob. I swing for more and he never finds an answer to what is left over.
Burn
2-1, 6-2
He lights me up game one. I am able to get an Auriok Champion into play and get some tokens. A Pyrite Spellbomb hits Champion, but before long a Timely gets me back in the game. His Grim Lavamancer is picking off my dudes, but I get him to six life where his own Eidolon essentially locks him out of the game. Elspeth comes in and I plus her locking him out of the game. In the third game, I have another early Champion that sticks around this time. I Duress away a Boros Charm and eventually get a 2/2 Hangarback. He clogs up the board till I can make him larger at which I point I shift gears and begin beating down while firing up Vault. With Virtue in play, he is forced to let it stick around. The game is rather tight for a while, but he begins ripping lands and I soft lock him out with life gain.
Grixis Twin
2-0, 7-2
In the first game, I disrupt a little bit but don't have the removal spell for the Exarch. He also never draws the second red source and so my tokens get there. I start off the second game, sniping his Anger of the Gods and get a turn two Auriok Champion to block his Tasigur. When I get the chance, I kill Tasigur just so he can't gain value off of it. I use my Lingering Souls sparingly with Anger in the yard. An Olivia comes into play, and gets Pathed, which he has the Dispel for and I have the second Path, but not before she shoots down a token. Virtue speeds up my clock, but eventually he Cryptic bounces it and then when I re-cast it he finds Spell Snare with Mystical Teachings. This would have let him fetch up Izzet Staticaster with Teachings, but he never found it nor a second Teachings. He gets an Exarch into play, but it doesn't matter with Champion in play.
Final thoughts: after seeing Froelich's list, I moved my Lilis to the main and didn't hate it. Two in the main might be one too many. His sideboard was way too narrow due to an expected metagame. Not taking his results to heart, the deck felt pretty great yesterday. Sure, there were games where my cards just felt anemic and didn't line up well against opponents, but that is going to happen in Modern. I definitely lucked out in my pairings and got incredibly lucky throughout the day, and I think that is difference between going 7-2 and going 5-4 with the deck.
Hangarback Walker was cute. It is basically a sorcery speed Raise the Alarm that diversifies our tokens. I like that aspect as more Soldiers go in the deck between Raise, Timely, and Elspeth. The problem becomes that we can't crack our own Hangarback besides saccing it to Lili, or the singletons Cut and Dismember. But then again a 2/2 or 3/3 to use aggressively blocking or attacking with is great.
Elspeth Tirel was great against Burn and was meant to be for the Grixis and GBx matchups where she can Wrath and make dudes. Against burn, she is a five mana sorcery but the goal against Burn is to draw out the game with Champion, Timely, and Firewalker. She helps with that. And sometimes she just eats a Boros Charm. Having more four plus mana spells (Cut, Hangarback, Spectral, and Elspeth) also helps against Eidolon. I wanted her to be a Sun's Champion, but with only 23 lands she seemed hard to cast.
I finally got to use Engineered Explosives in a relevant matchup and it was great!
Two Timely in the main was also great in terms of not seeing too many, but seeing them when I want them.
After losing three win and ins over the course of both the Invitational and the Standard Open, I took on some Modern for the first time in my weekend in New Jersey. I finished in 20th place in a field of over three hundred players, going 7-2.
Burn
2-0, 1-0
Keep an awkward hand of Virtue, double Timely, and Sorin with three lands. Get rewarded. He scoops when I plus Sorin. As always, Burn player got salty about maindeck Timely. Game 2, I get an early Auriok Champion, which I take two for from his Eidolon of the Great Revel. A turn four 2/2 Hangarback Walker doesn't trigger Eidolon. I miss my fifth land drop, but cast a Duress, taking two, but forces a Revelry out of his hand hitting Hangarback Walker, I gain three from the Thopter tokens. Hit my fifth land next turn and cast Elspeth Tirel gaining four on her plus and he scoops.
Grixis Twin
1-2, 1-1
Game 1, I strip his hand with discard, have removal for a Pestermite and an Exarch, but never get any pressure on the board due to being forced by how stacked his hand was. He rips an Exarch off the top and kills me when I have two Lingering Souls in hand. Game 2, I have discard into Raise into Lili. More discard forces his Exarchs into play and Lili eats them. 1/1 tokens get there as he is stuck with the only two Splinter Twins left in his deck clog up his hand for most of the game.
Game 3, I have discard and removal, but miss my third land drop. Bitterblossom is eaten by a Spell Snare that he ripped after my turn one discard. I get bottlenecked on mana and he beats me down with Tasigur and Pestermite.
Goblins
2-1, 2-1
On the draw, get wrecked by Guide into double Piledriver, and Rabble. Game 2, I have removal spells, beat down with vigilant Timely tokens, kill Loyalist and get there. Throughout this game, I kept fetching up basic lands in order to show him that Blood Moon was bad. Game 3, he casts Moon on turn 2, but I luckily have two Plains in hand. I go wide and have an Anthem. He casts a Loyalist which I dont have the colored mana to kill. He swings in with two dudes and Loyalist. Not announcing the trigger because you don't have to, he lets me block and then tries to kill my dudes with First Strike. He forgot about the tokens clause. Judge rules that me missed the trigger since he let me block. I blow him out and proceed to fly over his dudes for the win.
UW Control
2-1, 3-1
Game 1, I trade with an early Geist, but an unchecked Gideon and Elspeth Knight Errant do me in. Game 2, he mulligans to three, but I miss my third land for multiple turns. I ultimate Elspeth to destroy a Jace and get there with Lingering Souls tokens. Game 3, it's all haymakers. He is tapping out for Batterskull and Gideon. I get a Liliana and a Sorin firing. He eventually Purges the Sorin. And keeps himself in the game with a Batterskull. Eventually, I ultimate Lili and split his lands from his creatures and he extends the hand.
Boggles
2-0, 4-1
I start off with an Inquisition. I see no Boggle and have a removal spell for his Kor, I take a Rancor. He plays the Kor, I Path it. He finds a Dryad Arbor and suits it up. I Path it. I beat down. My opponent starts the game off with a Leyline, turning off the discard and Lili that I dont have in hand. Turn 1, he fetches up a Dryad Arbor. He suits it up. I Path it. He blinks in disbelief. He plays a Spellskite and puts the Reach Umbra on it. I have Spirit tokens, so I Path it leaving up mana to Disenchant either his Leyline or a Lifelink aura because I'm racing. He plays a Boggle and puts a Daybreak and an Umbra on it. I play an Engineered Explosives for 1 and crack it. Proceed to beat down.
RUG Twin
1-2, 4-2
Game 1, disrupt his game and beat down. Game 2, he has the Stubborn Denial for my turn 3 Spectral Procession. I couldn't think of what he could be holding up. At the end of my next turn, he Peeks and sees nothing. Jams Exarch and Twin. Game 3, I mulligan to six. He keeps a hand full of gas and I never do anything of note besides get wrecked.
Jund
2-0, 5-2
Weird match. I go wide with tokens and full aggro him out as he has a hand of Bolts, a Goyf, and some Raging Ravines that I never give him the chance to activate. I play a Hangarback for three and he scoops. Achievement unlocked. Game 2, he has an early Dark Confidant, but once again I'm just going wide. I make more flying tokens. He taps out for an Outpost Siege and I never wanted to waste removal on Bob so I keep pressing. The Path I saved is able to nail an Olivia. I get an Elspeth Tirel off of Windbrisk. I minus her to protect her and Path his Goyf. He flips Maelstrom Pulse off of Siege, blows five Soldiers up, and kills Elspeth with a Bob attack. I make more tokens and swing putting him to seven life. He flips a bunch of Abrupt Decays and picks off tokens plus his own Bob. I swing for more and he never finds an answer to what is left over.
Burn
2-1, 6-2
He lights me up game one. I am able to get an Auriok Champion into play and get some tokens. A Pyrite Spellbomb hits Champion, but before long a Timely gets me back in the game. His Grim Lavamancer is picking off my dudes, but I get him to six life where his own Eidolon essentially locks him out of the game. Elspeth comes in and I plus her locking him out of the game. In the third game, I have another early Champion that sticks around this time. I Duress away a Boros Charm and eventually get a 2/2 Hangarback. He clogs up the board till I can make him larger at which I point I shift gears and begin beating down while firing up Vault. With Virtue in play, he is forced to let it stick around. The game is rather tight for a while, but he begins ripping lands and I soft lock him out with life gain.
Grixis Twin
2-0, 7-2
In the first game, I disrupt a little bit but don't have the removal spell for the Exarch. He also never draws the second red source and so my tokens get there. I start off the second game, sniping his Anger of the Gods and get a turn two Auriok Champion to block his Tasigur. When I get the chance, I kill Tasigur just so he can't gain value off of it. I use my Lingering Souls sparingly with Anger in the yard. An Olivia comes into play, and gets Pathed, which he has the Dispel for and I have the second Path, but not before she shoots down a token. Virtue speeds up my clock, but eventually he Cryptic bounces it and then when I re-cast it he finds Spell Snare with Mystical Teachings. This would have let him fetch up Izzet Staticaster with Teachings, but he never found it nor a second Teachings. He gets an Exarch into play, but it doesn't matter with Champion in play.
Final thoughts: after seeing Froelich's list, I moved my Lilis to the main and didn't hate it. Two in the main might be one too many. His sideboard was way too narrow due to an expected metagame. Not taking his results to heart, the deck felt pretty great yesterday. Sure, there were games where my cards just felt anemic and didn't line up well against opponents, but that is going to happen in Modern. I definitely lucked out in my pairings and got incredibly lucky throughout the day, and I think that is difference between going 7-2 and going 5-4 with the deck.
Hangarback Walker was cute. It is basically a sorcery speed Raise the Alarm that diversifies our tokens. I like that aspect as more Soldiers go in the deck between Raise, Timely, and Elspeth. The problem becomes that we can't crack our own Hangarback besides saccing it to Lili, or the singletons Cut and Dismember. But then again a 2/2 or 3/3 to use aggressively blocking or attacking with is great.
Elspeth Tirel was great against Burn and was meant to be for the Grixis and GBx matchups where she can Wrath and make dudes. Against burn, she is a five mana sorcery but the goal against Burn is to draw out the game with Champion, Timely, and Firewalker. She helps with that. And sometimes she just eats a Boros Charm. Having more four plus mana spells (Cut, Hangarback, Spectral, and Elspeth) also helps against Eidolon. I wanted her to be a Sun's Champion, but with only 23 lands she seemed hard to cast.
I finally got to use Engineered Explosives in a relevant matchup and it was great!
Two Timely in the main was also great in terms of not seeing too many, but seeing them when I want them.
Very interesting post, I was thinking about Hangarback Walker and something like Altar's Reap to optimize his death, I don't have Lili to try your list but I like it.
I don't think adding more cards to make Hangarback Walker work is worth it. It seemed fine as a value card, but really just a way of playing around sweepers while keeping the pressure up. In that way, Secure the Wastes might be worth slotting back into the deck, but unsure if that is better than an additional Raise the Alarm. Maybe Hangarback Walker fills that two mana role and bigger late game effect better than either of those. I may try that Thursday before the Cincy Open this weekend. The Lilis in the main were fine, probably not necessary. They replaced a Zealous Persecution and a Timely Reinforcement that I had been running in previous lists. Sadly, for players without Lilis, I think the Duress in the board should just be the third Liliana. I'm also gonna test that. It gives a little more play to Boggles and hopefully can do work against Amulet in a way that Duress doesn't necessarily. If you've ever read my previous tournament reports, I have had some awful luck with Duress missing only to have decks rip things off the top.
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One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
Anything else you would change in the sideboard besides the Duress? Also, I've never played with Lilis, but I'm considering picking some up. Are there any matchups you think they are particularly bad in, and alternatively, which matchups would you bring in a third if you had it in the board? I assume Bogles, but anything else?
I like it a lot. Seems like it curves into T3 better with Aurkiok Champ and Bitterblossom in the 2 drop slot. But Lillies and Auriok Champions make wallets hurt. Not exactly budget here.
Anything else you would change in the sideboard besides the Duress? Also, I've never played with Lilis, but I'm considering picking some up. Are there any matchups you think they are particularly bad in, and alternatively, which matchups would you bring in a third if you had it in the board? I assume Bogles, but anything else?
I honestly like the sideboard, albeit soft against the lands decks like Amulet and Tron. I just don't think fitting Fulminators in is good enough to guarantee a win. I'd rather be casting Liliana and trying to deprive them of resources.
Liliana is great against combo decks. She crushes Storm, Scapeshift, and Ad Nauseam, but also really puts Tron and Amulet in a bind that can be backbreaking for them. Any type of control matchup like UWR, Esper, or UW, she would be great against. Boggles brings in Leyline, which can be rough but her discard is still good against them. I've been told by my friend that plays GBx that she is great against Burn, but I just don't know what I cut to keep her in against them. She also seems good against Infect to keep their dudes off the board or to cut down on the number of cards in their hands.
I like it a lot. Seems like it curves into T3 better with Aurkiok Champ and Bitterblossom in the 2 drop slot. But Lillies and Auriok Champions make wallets hurt. Not exactly budget here.
They tested together and worked together on the deck and came to what they thought would be an optimum list for what they expected others to run. They built the deck for a specific metagame and it didn't show up. I think they won a cumulative of five games out of eight. That seems pretty lackluster and their sideboard is garbage for a wide open meta that you would expect at a larger event.
Retreat to Emeria seems expensive. Would you rather run that over Sorin, Solemn Visitor, Elspeth, Knight Errant or the new Gideon? I actually would probably run that over Ajani Goldmane to be honest.
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One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
I know what I love having under a Windbrisk Heights. When under the tights of either me winning this turn or him the next and he lets my attackers go unblocked because he has me next turn... Flashing in a ZP underneath with no cards in hand. Priceless. What about everyone else?
I'm running four Inquisition and two Thoughtseize.
@Mirage King - I love having the classic Honor of the Pure/Intangible Virtue lurking underneath. Especially Virtue. "Oh you thought I was going to leave myself open? GUESS AGAIN."
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Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
I'm running four Inquisition and two Thoughtseize.
@Mirage King - I love having the classic Honor of the Pure/Intangible Virtue lurking underneath. Especially Virtue. "Oh you thought I was going to leave myself open? GUESS AGAIN."
I'm on 4 Inquisition and 3 Thoughtseize. I want access to more discard from the board as well, because it can be hard to interact with certain combo decks. I have ran 3 Duress out of the board for the Burn, Storm, Ad Nauseam, etc. matches. I did well with two Lilianas in the main and have run two in board before.
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One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
What do you feel have become our worst matches lately?
I still struggle with Tron and sometimes Burn is just too fast. CoCo *****ting itself with Company into infinite combo is also something that happens and I hate it, but at least it's not consistent.
Other than that I feel we're doing ok, specially against Affinity, I haven't lost a single match against robots in at least half a year and I meet them often.
What do you feel have become our worst matches lately?
I still struggle with Tron and sometimes Burn is just too fast. CoCo *****ting itself with Company into infinite combo is also something that happens and I hate it, but at least it's not consistent.
Other than that I feel we're doing ok, specially against Affinity, I haven't lost a single match against robots in at least half a year and I meet them often.
Tron and Amulet are bad. I haven't played against them since running Liliana, though, so hoping she provides a new angle of attack. I think both decks are on a downturn however. I'm curious how much life gain you run for the burn matchup. With a few maindeck Timely, pro red dorks out of the board, Vault, and Sorin, I feel like my matchup was solid this past weekend. I haven't really played against Company since the deck really broke out; that being said, Rest in Peace and Path were great. I lost more games to being grinded out than the combo. Merfolk is a bad matchup, hoping Engineered Explosives can do work against them. With Lilianas, I feel better about the Boggles matchup. I honestly feel like I lose to Abzan and Infect more than I should, but I might just be doing something wrong. Yeah, and Affinity is a silly matchup. I've lost twice in the six months of playing this deck. Seriously, twice and once was to Etched Champion last month in a PPTQs final and the other time was to keeping an absurd hand with one land at the Columbus SCG Invitational.
wish i could afford lilis... good to deal with creatures and discard
B/W Tokens is actually one of the cheaper Modern decks to make.
Yeah, the deck is affordable, and barring its manabase it is rather cheap. That doesn't change the fact that the most recent Worlds list ran maindeck Lilianas with one in the board. I'm really excited about the card in terms of how it is able to punish opponents. The deck is really only able to pressure opponents through the tokens. Our planeswalker package is only threatening if they are able to keep tokens in play. Liliana, however, threatens to never let them have a hand, forcing them to commit to the board while also threatening whatever they put into play. Last weekend, I had quite a few Twin players forced to jam their Exarchs because of Inquisition only to lose them to Liliana, who stuck around. I'm still not positive how great she fits in the deck, but I like her prospects.
Just meant that since Vigilance kicks in, I can attack with everything and I'll still be good to block next turn.
I just learned that it doesn't work perfectly though, unfortunately, as you can't declare an attack and then have the Vigilance kick in after attackers are declared, but it's still nice to have the surprise +1/+1 boost in the end.
Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
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UB Dralnu, Lich Lord UB
R Godo, Bandit Warlord R
Honestly, this one seems a heck of a lot more like an Elspeth to me then any previous Gideon. Sure he does his typical 'walk over and punch you in the face' routine, but he pumps out more dudes AND pumps your board state. I'm quite a fan of the indestructible/unremmovable anthem effect as well, so I definitely look forward to giving this a test. Sure he doesn't give the life link of Sorins, but pumping out 2/2 white tokens before walking over and punching them out a few times should be useful at least as a one of!
GU Infect | x Affinity | RWG Naya Burn | W Death and Taxes | U Merfolk | BURG BTL Scapeshift | WUUW Titan | R Goblins | BURGW Suicide Zoo
other question: which is better in the sb? 3 relics of progenitus,3 RIPs or a split?
While I believe I am in the minority on this, I think that Sorin LoI is better than Sorin SV when you do not have Bitterblossom. Reason being, Sorin SV does not help an empty board while Sorin LoI does and the lifegain, while still nice, isn't as mandatory. So, my split is 2 Sorin, LoI and 1 Elspeth, Knight Errant. I also run an Esper version of the deck that utilizes snapcaster mage so I always run Relic over Rest in Peace.
2 Liliana of the Veil
3 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
3 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Marsh Flats
3 Windswept Heath
4 Godless Shrine
1 Isolated Chapel
2 Fetid Heath
2 Vault of the Archangel
3 Windbrisk Heights
4 Path to Exile
2 Raise the Alarm
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
4 Spectral Procession
3 Thoughtseize
2 Timely Reinforcements
3 Bitterblossom
1 Murderous Cut
2 Auriok Champion
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Disenchant
1 Go for the Throat
1 Duress
1 Kor Firewalker
1 Dismember
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Timely Reinforcements
Burn
2-0, 1-0
Keep an awkward hand of Virtue, double Timely, and Sorin with three lands. Get rewarded. He scoops when I plus Sorin. As always, Burn player got salty about maindeck Timely. Game 2, I get an early Auriok Champion, which I take two for from his Eidolon of the Great Revel. A turn four 2/2 Hangarback Walker doesn't trigger Eidolon. I miss my fifth land drop, but cast a Duress, taking two, but forces a Revelry out of his hand hitting Hangarback Walker, I gain three from the Thopter tokens. Hit my fifth land next turn and cast Elspeth Tirel gaining four on her plus and he scoops.
Grixis Twin
1-2, 1-1
Game 1, I strip his hand with discard, have removal for a Pestermite and an Exarch, but never get any pressure on the board due to being forced by how stacked his hand was. He rips an Exarch off the top and kills me when I have two Lingering Souls in hand. Game 2, I have discard into Raise into Lili. More discard forces his Exarchs into play and Lili eats them. 1/1 tokens get there as he is stuck with the only two Splinter Twins left in his deck clog up his hand for most of the game.
Game 3, I have discard and removal, but miss my third land drop. Bitterblossom is eaten by a Spell Snare that he ripped after my turn one discard. I get bottlenecked on mana and he beats me down with Tasigur and Pestermite.
Goblins
2-1, 2-1
On the draw, get wrecked by Guide into double Piledriver, and Rabble. Game 2, I have removal spells, beat down with vigilant Timely tokens, kill Loyalist and get there. Throughout this game, I kept fetching up basic lands in order to show him that Blood Moon was bad. Game 3, he casts Moon on turn 2, but I luckily have two Plains in hand. I go wide and have an Anthem. He casts a Loyalist which I dont have the colored mana to kill. He swings in with two dudes and Loyalist. Not announcing the trigger because you don't have to, he lets me block and then tries to kill my dudes with First Strike. He forgot about the tokens clause. Judge rules that me missed the trigger since he let me block. I blow him out and proceed to fly over his dudes for the win.
UW Control
2-1, 3-1
Game 1, I trade with an early Geist, but an unchecked Gideon and Elspeth Knight Errant do me in. Game 2, he mulligans to three, but I miss my third land for multiple turns. I ultimate Elspeth to destroy a Jace and get there with Lingering Souls tokens. Game 3, it's all haymakers. He is tapping out for Batterskull and Gideon. I get a Liliana and a Sorin firing. He eventually Purges the Sorin. And keeps himself in the game with a Batterskull. Eventually, I ultimate Lili and split his lands from his creatures and he extends the hand.
Boggles
2-0, 4-1
I start off with an Inquisition. I see no Boggle and have a removal spell for his Kor, I take a Rancor. He plays the Kor, I Path it. He finds a Dryad Arbor and suits it up. I Path it. I beat down. My opponent starts the game off with a Leyline, turning off the discard and Lili that I dont have in hand. Turn 1, he fetches up a Dryad Arbor. He suits it up. I Path it. He blinks in disbelief. He plays a Spellskite and puts the Reach Umbra on it. I have Spirit tokens, so I Path it leaving up mana to Disenchant either his Leyline or a Lifelink aura because I'm racing. He plays a Boggle and puts a Daybreak and an Umbra on it. I play an Engineered Explosives for 1 and crack it. Proceed to beat down.
RUG Twin
1-2, 4-2
Game 1, disrupt his game and beat down. Game 2, he has the Stubborn Denial for my turn 3 Spectral Procession. I couldn't think of what he could be holding up. At the end of my next turn, he Peeks and sees nothing. Jams Exarch and Twin. Game 3, I mulligan to six. He keeps a hand full of gas and I never do anything of note besides get wrecked.
Jund
2-0, 5-2
Weird match. I go wide with tokens and full aggro him out as he has a hand of Bolts, a Goyf, and some Raging Ravines that I never give him the chance to activate. I play a Hangarback for three and he scoops. Achievement unlocked. Game 2, he has an early Dark Confidant, but once again I'm just going wide. I make more flying tokens. He taps out for an Outpost Siege and I never wanted to waste removal on Bob so I keep pressing. The Path I saved is able to nail an Olivia. I get an Elspeth Tirel off of Windbrisk. I minus her to protect her and Path his Goyf. He flips Maelstrom Pulse off of Siege, blows five Soldiers up, and kills Elspeth with a Bob attack. I make more tokens and swing putting him to seven life. He flips a bunch of Abrupt Decays and picks off tokens plus his own Bob. I swing for more and he never finds an answer to what is left over.
Burn
2-1, 6-2
He lights me up game one. I am able to get an Auriok Champion into play and get some tokens. A Pyrite Spellbomb hits Champion, but before long a Timely gets me back in the game. His Grim Lavamancer is picking off my dudes, but I get him to six life where his own Eidolon essentially locks him out of the game. Elspeth comes in and I plus her locking him out of the game. In the third game, I have another early Champion that sticks around this time. I Duress away a Boros Charm and eventually get a 2/2 Hangarback. He clogs up the board till I can make him larger at which I point I shift gears and begin beating down while firing up Vault. With Virtue in play, he is forced to let it stick around. The game is rather tight for a while, but he begins ripping lands and I soft lock him out with life gain.
Grixis Twin
2-0, 7-2
In the first game, I disrupt a little bit but don't have the removal spell for the Exarch. He also never draws the second red source and so my tokens get there. I start off the second game, sniping his Anger of the Gods and get a turn two Auriok Champion to block his Tasigur. When I get the chance, I kill Tasigur just so he can't gain value off of it. I use my Lingering Souls sparingly with Anger in the yard. An Olivia comes into play, and gets Pathed, which he has the Dispel for and I have the second Path, but not before she shoots down a token. Virtue speeds up my clock, but eventually he Cryptic bounces it and then when I re-cast it he finds Spell Snare with Mystical Teachings. This would have let him fetch up Izzet Staticaster with Teachings, but he never found it nor a second Teachings. He gets an Exarch into play, but it doesn't matter with Champion in play.
Final thoughts: after seeing Froelich's list, I moved my Lilis to the main and didn't hate it. Two in the main might be one too many. His sideboard was way too narrow due to an expected metagame. Not taking his results to heart, the deck felt pretty great yesterday. Sure, there were games where my cards just felt anemic and didn't line up well against opponents, but that is going to happen in Modern. I definitely lucked out in my pairings and got incredibly lucky throughout the day, and I think that is difference between going 7-2 and going 5-4 with the deck.
Hangarback Walker was cute. It is basically a sorcery speed Raise the Alarm that diversifies our tokens. I like that aspect as more Soldiers go in the deck between Raise, Timely, and Elspeth. The problem becomes that we can't crack our own Hangarback besides saccing it to Lili, or the singletons Cut and Dismember. But then again a 2/2 or 3/3 to use aggressively blocking or attacking with is great.
Elspeth Tirel was great against Burn and was meant to be for the Grixis and GBx matchups where she can Wrath and make dudes. Against burn, she is a five mana sorcery but the goal against Burn is to draw out the game with Champion, Timely, and Firewalker. She helps with that. And sometimes she just eats a Boros Charm. Having more four plus mana spells (Cut, Hangarback, Spectral, and Elspeth) also helps against Eidolon. I wanted her to be a Sun's Champion, but with only 23 lands she seemed hard to cast.
I finally got to use Engineered Explosives in a relevant matchup and it was great!
Two Timely in the main was also great in terms of not seeing too many, but seeing them when I want them.
Creatures [4]
2 Liliana of the Veil
3 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Bitterblossom
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Lingering Souls
1 Murderous Cut
4 Path to Exile
4 Spectral Procession
3 Thoughtseize
2 Fetid Heath
4 Godless Shrine
1 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
3 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Vault of the Archangel
3 Windbrisk Heights
2 Windswept Heath
2 Celestial Purge
1 Deathmark
1 Liliana of the Veil
3 Rest in Peace
2 Spellskite
2 Sundering Growth
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Zealous Persecution
I like it a lot. Seems like it curves into T3 better with Aurkiok Champ and Bitterblossom in the 2 drop slot. But Lillies and Auriok Champions make wallets hurt. Not exactly budget here.
Liliana is great against combo decks. She crushes Storm, Scapeshift, and Ad Nauseam, but also really puts Tron and Amulet in a bind that can be backbreaking for them. Any type of control matchup like UWR, Esper, or UW, she would be great against. Boggles brings in Leyline, which can be rough but her discard is still good against them. I've been told by my friend that plays GBx that she is great against Burn, but I just don't know what I cut to keep her in against them. She also seems good against Infect to keep their dudes off the board or to cut down on the number of cards in their hands.
They tested together and worked together on the deck and came to what they thought would be an optimum list for what they expected others to run. They built the deck for a specific metagame and it didn't show up. I think they won a cumulative of five games out of eight. That seems pretty lackluster and their sideboard is garbage for a wide open meta that you would expect at a larger event.
Retreat to Emeria seems expensive. Would you rather run that over Sorin, Solemn Visitor, Elspeth, Knight Errant or the new Gideon? I actually would probably run that over Ajani Goldmane to be honest.
I'm running four Inquisition and two Thoughtseize.
@Mirage King - I love having the classic Honor of the Pure/Intangible Virtue lurking underneath. Especially Virtue. "Oh you thought I was going to leave myself open? GUESS AGAIN."
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
6 - 8 seems the norm, I like 6 or 7 usually
I still struggle with Tron and sometimes Burn is just too fast. CoCo *****ting itself with Company into infinite combo is also something that happens and I hate it, but at least it's not consistent.
Other than that I feel we're doing ok, specially against Affinity, I haven't lost a single match against robots in at least half a year and I meet them often.
B/W Tokens is actually one of the cheaper Modern decks to make.
Yeah, the deck is affordable, and barring its manabase it is rather cheap. That doesn't change the fact that the most recent Worlds list ran maindeck Lilianas with one in the board. I'm really excited about the card in terms of how it is able to punish opponents. The deck is really only able to pressure opponents through the tokens. Our planeswalker package is only threatening if they are able to keep tokens in play. Liliana, however, threatens to never let them have a hand, forcing them to commit to the board while also threatening whatever they put into play. Last weekend, I had quite a few Twin players forced to jam their Exarchs because of Inquisition only to lose them to Liliana, who stuck around. I'm still not positive how great she fits in the deck, but I like her prospects.
I just learned that it doesn't work perfectly though, unfortunately, as you can't declare an attack and then have the Vigilance kick in after attackers are declared, but it's still nice to have the surprise +1/+1 boost in the end.
My bad for any confusion!
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."