I'm aware I should get more fetches and more Godless Shrines, but I'm currently limited by budget and by what I own...groceries on a college budget take precedence, unfortunately. Gotta eat.
I did start by using a Modern Event Deck 2014 and by building from there; even with a jacked up price nowadays, it's still a heap of great value.
As for my actual games, the first Delver deck was an odd combo variation that was attempting to either cripple me with Blood Moon and/or cast this massive GW Wurm whose name currently escapes me. I took the Wurm first game using Tidehollow Sculler and he wasn't able to draw into any red sources to get rid of it, strangely enough. The second game went a little more bumpily, but I eventually just overwhelmed him with tokens.
Elves was a decently challenging match, but I was eventually able to get anthems both games, and after siding in second game, I took him down using a pumped up Mirran Crusader.
Grixis Delver was probably my most challenging matchup, but even so, it went relatively well. First game, we spent the first three or four turns trading off tokens and Delvers; he oddly wasn't able to flip until turn 3, which worked in my favor. Second game, he got rid of my first Relic but I drew a second one immediately afterwards. He also had to use the majority of his K. Commands and Bolts in order to remove my spirits, which worked in my favor. Eventually it came down to topdecking Elspeth my second game for a perfect 7 damage to round out the match.
As for personal thoughts, I severely underestimated the usefulness of Zealous Persecution. That thing saved my butt numerous times against Delver. On other notes, I really like the disruption I can use with Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize; there were several times during both Delver games where both players decided to counter it, so I got my two for one either way. The Grixis Delver player especially didn't want me to see his hand it seems.
Anyways, that was my first event using this deck, and I got to say, I really enjoyed playing BW Tokens. Yes, it may not be as ridiculously unfair or combo-y as some other decks, but I like how it can still win using its own strategies.
So those are my two cents!
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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 know there were some mardu tokens deck lists posted a few months ago. I don't know if there has been any further thought on that front, but I have tried a few games with this list:
The sideboard makes use of Pithing Needle, Nevermore, Oblivion Ring, Stony Silence, Rest in Peace, Auriok Champions and other fun stuff.
I think it needs more token generators. I originally took out Raise the Alarm for the Bolts, but I think I will continue with this to make sure. Command is back breaking and I haven't had a chance to use Blood Moon yet. I might put them in the side but we will see.
I played a few games against Grixis Control yesterday which I know is a good matchup, just haven't played it yet. Game one on the play I didn't have any T1 plays but I had Bitterblossom, Auriok Champion and Intangible Virtue as possible T2 plays. He played a Scalding Tarn and passed. I put him on control or twin so I played my second land and went for Bitterblossom knowing it crushes control. It resolved, and he fetched at end of turn. I proceeded to get my Auriok Champions (2 of them) countered on my next two turns, but Bitterblossom kept getting value. I love the card, although it can be slow at times. I think with main deck Auriok the downside of the life loss really isn't much of an issue.
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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
I played a few games against Grixis Control yesterday which I know is a good matchup, just haven't played it yet. Game one on the play I didn't have any T1 plays but I had Bitterblossom, Auriok Champion and Intangible Virtue as possible T2 plays. He played a Scalding Tarn and passed. I put him on control or twin so I played my second land and went for Bitterblossom knowing it crushes control. It resolved, and he fetched at end of turn. I proceeded to get my Auriok Champions (2 of them) countered on my next two turns, but Bitterblossom kept getting value. I love the card, although it can be slow at times. I think with main deck Auriok the downside of the life loss really isn't much of an issue.
Grixis Control usually runs three or four of Cryptic Command but that's all they've got for a resolved enchantment, as far as I know. There's not much enchantment hate in those colors.
That's the best thing about BB. Comes out early and if it resolves... It stays most of the time.
Abrupt Decay is really about the only thing, besides Mana Leak and Spell Snare, that is able to deal with it game one. Maindeck Auriok Champion is just weak against the rest of the field (barring your particular metagame situation) in a way that I don't want it and would rather rely on Sorin, Vault, and Timely to make up for BB's life loss. Now, if your metagame is mostly Jund, Grixis, Twin, Burn, Combo Elves, and Soul Sisters then by all means run maindeck Champion. In most other matchups, however, I would like the four to ten damage that Raise the Alarm tokens can do over the course of a game.
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One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
No, I am not running Crackling Doom. Crackling Doom is underpowered for the meta. That is why Young Pyromancer is not in there either. I am running mainboard Blood Moon. That is actually the reason why I went with Mardu is because Blood Moon addresses Tron the best and Lightning Bolt is better removal than Murderous Cut.
I will probably have to pull the windbrisk heights in favor of Arid Mesa or the new person land (2 of). Will probably also pull 2 Shrines for Isolated Chapel.
That's the best thing about BB. Comes out early and if it resolves... It stays most of the time.
Abrupt Decay is really about the only thing, besides Mana Leak and Spell Snare, that is able to deal with it game one. Maindeck Auriok Champion is just weak against the rest of the field (barring your particular metagame situation) in a way that I don't want it and would rather rely on Sorin, Vault, and Timely to make up for BB's life loss. Now, if your metagame is mostly Jund, Grixis, Twin, Burn, Combo Elves, and Soul Sisters then by all means run maindeck Champion. In most other matchups, however, I would like the four to ten damage that Raise the Alarm tokens can do over the course of a game.
I never considered playing Foundry of the Consuls; I can't see myself playing Spawning Bed over Shambling Vent. For one less mana you could get two flying tokens as opposed to a third non-flying Spawn token. There just aren't enough spots for colorless lands in a deck that wants to cast Spectral Procession on turn 3 and run one or two Vault of the Archangel.
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One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
That's the best thing about BB. Comes out early and if it resolves... It stays most of the time.
Abrupt Decay is really about the only thing, besides Mana Leak and Spell Snare, that is able to deal with it game one. Maindeck Auriok Champion is just weak against the rest of the field (barring your particular metagame situation) in a way that I don't want it and would rather rely on Sorin, Vault, and Timely to make up for BB's life loss. Now, if your metagame is mostly Jund, Grixis, Twin, Burn, Combo Elves, and Soul Sisters then by all means run maindeck Champion. In most other matchups, however, I would like the four to ten damage that Raise the Alarm tokens can do over the course of a game.
I think Champion is solid Vs. Zoo, also.
In a world of Abbots, Angler's, Splinter Twins, Burn, and and K-Commands it just seems too good not to run. Because most of the decks you listed are most of the decks I see all the time.
That's the best thing about BB. Comes out early and if it resolves... It stays most of the time.
Abrupt Decay is really about the only thing, besides Mana Leak and Spell Snare, that is able to deal with it game one. Maindeck Auriok Champion is just weak against the rest of the field (barring your particular metagame situation) in a way that I don't want it and would rather rely on Sorin, Vault, and Timely to make up for BB's life loss. Now, if your metagame is mostly Jund, Grixis, Twin, Burn, Combo Elves, and Soul Sisters then by all means run maindeck Champion. In most other matchups, however, I would like the four to ten damage that Raise the Alarm tokens can do over the course of a game.
I think Champion is solid Vs. Zoo, also.
In a world of Abbots, Angler's, Splinter Twins, Burn, and and K-Commands it just seems too good not to run. Because most of the decks you listed are most of the decks I see all the time.
I would actually argue that Champion is bad against Zoo. She doesn't block Nacatl, Pridemage, Goyf, or Knight. That matchup is all about nullifying the effectiveness of Kessig Wolf Run to just Fireball us, and so I don't think she is any better than our other creatures in that matchup. Assuming the debate is choosing between maindeck Raise the Alarm or Auriok Champion, I would choose Raise just for the surprise factor that sometimes you can sneak them out in front of a 2/2 Nacatl, a 1/2 Hierarch, or even a 1/2 Goyf.
That's fine if you think your metagame is suited towards maindeck Auriok Champion. I've been there, done that, and defended it. But I also think all of those cards are in decks that we should already win against and so I like the early aggression that Raise the Alarm can provide that helps us steal game 1s from some of our bad matchups. I was lamenting elsewhere on the forums about how frustrating modern can be, that you have a reasonable deck choice but can have you entire tournament decided by the lottery that is matchups and pairings. In that case, I want cards that can be more proactive, which Champion isn't.
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One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
The Zoo Decks in my area seem more red heavy. Mostly I see Knight of the Reliquary and Pridemage out of Bant CoCo. But I do agree that something more proactive is in theory better on average. On the other hand when I ran fewer I lost to Twin a lot more. This may be just me, but I feel like not having some sort of T2 hate in play for Twin regardless of discard makes things way harder.
I feel like 8rack is a fine matchup. They're having you discard cards and so long as you get Bitterblossom or an early Raise the Alarm you should be able to apply enough pressure. It can be kinda awkward depending on how their draw is, because you end up not playing lands unless you got something to cast with them. Discarding Lingering Souls is also pretty good. Most recent lists have been cutting Ensnaring Bridge and so that can be kinda awful if they are still running it. Swapping in Erase seems reasonable, but you need a much less narrow option out of your sideboard. Your discard should be targeting Bridge and then Rack effects. Cutting removal and adding in more discard post-board.
UWR can be a tough matchup. It is difficult to play around counterspells only to have your board wrathed. And where Bitterblossom would usually be good here it can be a liability due to Bolt. It's a matchup you just have to practice a lot and you'll still only end up fifty fifty on it. That being said, it is a deck on the decline. Liliana of the Veil, not surprisingly, improves control matchups. Other planeswalkers out of the board can also help, but are probably not necessary.
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One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
Yeah, four Raise the Alarms is a bit much. 1 Secure should be fine in that slot.
If you saw Thoughtseize game 1, then you can't mulligan aggressively; they might just end up sniping your one card of value that way. If they have a standard 8rack list with nothing that looks at your hand then you can mulligan to early pressure. Surgical sounds like a beating.
It depends on your draw and what options they have to sideboard against you. I've crushed the deck before only to have the same guy next week sideboard in Anger and Engineered Explosives. The guy should have boarded Geist out against you in games two and three.
Mike Sigrist is on BW tokens tonight for the Modern Super League hosted on Wizards' twitch account with a comparable list to EFro's from Worlds. The sideboard has been edited to make room for Fulminators and some other stuff. It seems he cut Liliana for the 24th land and the Dismember. Sideboard changes, in which Firewalker looks like overkill to the max:
-1 Deathmark, -1 Celestial Purge, -2 Rest in Peace, -1 Spellskite, -1 Sundering Growth, -1 Zealous Persecution, -1 Liliana of the Veil, -2 Timely Reinforcements
+2 Fulminator Mage, +2 Stony Silence, +2 Kor Firewalker, +2 Hero of Bladehold, +1 Relic of Progenitus, +1 Duress
He is playing against Patrick Dickmann on Tarmo Twin with Bounding Krasis and no Pestermite. Our deck is normally super good against their beatdown plan with Pestermites, but Krasis kinda ruins that. I think it'll be a bad matchup for him. Auriok Champion prevents the combo, but doesn't block anything. Grim Lavamancer can lock down the board, while Sigrist will have to answer early Goyfs and protect himself from the Twin combo. I'm curious to see how the four Champion, four BB list operates. Hopefully double Champion can protect him from the combo while he is able to dig for removal and chump blockers. Sigrist does have four Path, Dismember, and Cut.
7 Plains
4 Swamp
4 Isolated Chapel
3 Windswept Heath
3 Windbrisk Heights
2 Godless Shrine
1 Vault of the Archangel
Creatures
2 Tidehollow Sculler
Spells
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Path to Exile
4 Lingering Souls
4 Spectral Procession
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Intangible Virtue
3 Honor of the Pure
3 Zealous Persecution
2 Thoughtseize
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Auriok Champion
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Dismember
2 Stony Silence
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Hero of Bladehold
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
I'm aware I should get more fetches and more Godless Shrines, but I'm currently limited by budget and by what I own...groceries on a college budget take precedence, unfortunately. Gotta eat.
I did start by using a Modern Event Deck 2014 and by building from there; even with a jacked up price nowadays, it's still a heap of great value.
As for my actual games, the first Delver deck was an odd combo variation that was attempting to either cripple me with Blood Moon and/or cast this massive GW Wurm whose name currently escapes me. I took the Wurm first game using Tidehollow Sculler and he wasn't able to draw into any red sources to get rid of it, strangely enough. The second game went a little more bumpily, but I eventually just overwhelmed him with tokens.
Elves was a decently challenging match, but I was eventually able to get anthems both games, and after siding in second game, I took him down using a pumped up Mirran Crusader.
Grixis Delver was probably my most challenging matchup, but even so, it went relatively well. First game, we spent the first three or four turns trading off tokens and Delvers; he oddly wasn't able to flip until turn 3, which worked in my favor. Second game, he got rid of my first Relic but I drew a second one immediately afterwards. He also had to use the majority of his K. Commands and Bolts in order to remove my spirits, which worked in my favor. Eventually it came down to topdecking Elspeth my second game for a perfect 7 damage to round out the match.
As for personal thoughts, I severely underestimated the usefulness of Zealous Persecution. That thing saved my butt numerous times against Delver. On other notes, I really like the disruption I can use with Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize; there were several times during both Delver games where both players decided to counter it, so I got my two for one either way. The Grixis Delver player especially didn't want me to see his hand it seems.
Anyways, that was my first event using this deck, and I got to say, I really enjoyed playing BW Tokens. Yes, it may not be as ridiculously unfair or combo-y as some other decks, but I like how it can still win using its own strategies.
So those are my two cents!
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."
You can test him already just by using a proxy Elspeth. In my 'testing' I'm loving him. The utility he gives is worth it moreso than Elspeth.
The sideboard makes use of Pithing Needle, Nevermore, Oblivion Ring, Stony Silence, Rest in Peace, Auriok Champions and other fun stuff.
I think it needs more token generators. I originally took out Raise the Alarm for the Bolts, but I think I will continue with this to make sure. Command is back breaking and I haven't had a chance to use Blood Moon yet. I might put them in the side but we will see.
my build of mardu tokens has I cant remember exactly but the core is
Then 22 lands
WBTokensWB
GU Infect | x Affinity | RWG Naya Burn | W Death and Taxes | U Merfolk | BURG BTL Scapeshift | WUUW Titan | R Goblins | BURGW Suicide Zoo
Grixis Control usually runs three or four of Cryptic Command but that's all they've got for a resolved enchantment, as far as I know. There's not much enchantment hate in those colors.
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
If I untap with monastery mentor I generally win the game
Thus far, my mana base is:
I will probably have to pull the windbrisk heights in favor of Arid Mesa or the new person land (2 of). Will probably also pull 2 Shrines for Isolated Chapel.
I'd much rather them kill a Bitterblossom than my Intangible Virtue or Liliana of the Veil.
Side note - What do you all think of the new land that was released called Spawning Bed??? I like it as a one-of.
I think Champion is solid Vs. Zoo, also.
In a world of Abbots, Angler's, Splinter Twins, Burn, and and K-Commands it just seems too good not to run. Because most of the decks you listed are most of the decks I see all the time.
That's fine if you think your metagame is suited towards maindeck Auriok Champion. I've been there, done that, and defended it. But I also think all of those cards are in decks that we should already win against and so I like the early aggression that Raise the Alarm can provide that helps us steal game 1s from some of our bad matchups. I was lamenting elsewhere on the forums about how frustrating modern can be, that you have a reasonable deck choice but can have you entire tournament decided by the lottery that is matchups and pairings. In that case, I want cards that can be more proactive, which Champion isn't.
UWR can be a tough matchup. It is difficult to play around counterspells only to have your board wrathed. And where Bitterblossom would usually be good here it can be a liability due to Bolt. It's a matchup you just have to practice a lot and you'll still only end up fifty fifty on it. That being said, it is a deck on the decline. Liliana of the Veil, not surprisingly, improves control matchups. Other planeswalkers out of the board can also help, but are probably not necessary.
If you saw Thoughtseize game 1, then you can't mulligan aggressively; they might just end up sniping your one card of value that way. If they have a standard 8rack list with nothing that looks at your hand then you can mulligan to early pressure. Surgical sounds like a beating.
It depends on your draw and what options they have to sideboard against you. I've crushed the deck before only to have the same guy next week sideboard in Anger and Engineered Explosives. The guy should have boarded Geist out against you in games two and three.
Mike Sigrist is on BW tokens tonight for the Modern Super League hosted on Wizards' twitch account with a comparable list to EFro's from Worlds. The sideboard has been edited to make room for Fulminators and some other stuff. It seems he cut Liliana for the 24th land and the Dismember. Sideboard changes, in which Firewalker looks like overkill to the max:
-1 Deathmark, -1 Celestial Purge, -2 Rest in Peace, -1 Spellskite, -1 Sundering Growth, -1 Zealous Persecution, -1 Liliana of the Veil, -2 Timely Reinforcements
+2 Fulminator Mage, +2 Stony Silence, +2 Kor Firewalker, +2 Hero of Bladehold, +1 Relic of Progenitus, +1 Duress
He is playing against Patrick Dickmann on Tarmo Twin with Bounding Krasis and no Pestermite. Our deck is normally super good against their beatdown plan with Pestermites, but Krasis kinda ruins that. I think it'll be a bad matchup for him. Auriok Champion prevents the combo, but doesn't block anything. Grim Lavamancer can lock down the board, while Sigrist will have to answer early Goyfs and protect himself from the Twin combo. I'm curious to see how the four Champion, four BB list operates. Hopefully double Champion can protect him from the combo while he is able to dig for removal and chump blockers. Sigrist does have four Path, Dismember, and Cut.
In looking this up, I also noticed that no one talked about Marc Konig 4-0ing a daily with a rather awkward tokens list: http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/317928#paper
Edit: BW Tokens on camera http://www.twitch.tv/magic . Drawing two land with twenty four lands in the deck.